Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message now. Philippians,
Speaker 1: Chapter one, verse twelve through twenty six. Paul speaking says, now,
Speaker 1: I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what
Speaker 1: has happened to me has actually served to advance the Gospel.
Speaker 1: As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole
Speaker 1: palace guard and to everyone else that I am get
Speaker 1: ready for a strange phrase in chains for Christ. And
Speaker 1: because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: have become confident in the Lord, and they're all the
Speaker 1: more to proclaim the Gospel without fear. It is true
Speaker 1: that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry. Paul said,
Speaker 1: not everybody likes me. Touch somebody and say everybody's not
Speaker 1: supposed to like you. In fact, look at the person
Speaker 1: on your other side that you didn't want to look
Speaker 1: at the first time, and tell them if everybody likes you,
Speaker 1: you're not doing it right. It's true that some preach
Speaker 1: Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.
Speaker 1: The latter do so out of love, knowing that I
Speaker 1: am put here. I really like how he said that
Speaker 1: I am put here, not by accident, and not even
Speaker 1: by the decree of evil humans. So I might have
Speaker 1: been sentenced to prison by Rome, but I'm put here
Speaker 1: for the purpose of God, for the defense of the Gospel.
Speaker 1: The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely
Speaker 1: supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while
Speaker 1: I am in chain. But what does it matter. The
Speaker 1: important thing is that in every way, whether from false
Speaker 1: motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this
Speaker 1: I rejoice. Not because everything is going right in my life,
Speaker 1: not because I got a new car, not because I
Speaker 1: got a ring, not because my circumstances caused me to
Speaker 1: have a happy feeling and endorphins. But because of this
Speaker 1: I rejoice, Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for
Speaker 1: I know that, through your prayers and God's provision of
Speaker 1: the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me
Speaker 1: will turn out for my deliverance. And I eagerly expect
Speaker 1: and hope at Pocara Dokia that I will in no
Speaker 1: way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage, so that
Speaker 1: now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body,
Speaker 1: whether by life or by death. For to me, to
Speaker 1: live is Christ and to die is Gain. I win
Speaker 1: either way if the situation turns around or if it
Speaker 1: stays the same. If I am to go on living
Speaker 1: in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.
Speaker 1: Yet what shall I choose, I don't know. I'm torn
Speaker 1: between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ.
Speaker 1: I kind of want to get out of here. I'm
Speaker 1: an old man now, and I'd like to see Jesus.
Speaker 1: I got crowns waiting for me. It's better by far,
Speaker 1: But it is more necessary for you that I remain
Speaker 1: in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I
Speaker 1: will remain, and I will continue with all of you
Speaker 1: for your progress and joy in the faith, so that
Speaker 1: through my being with you again, you're boasting in Christ.
Speaker 1: Jesus will abound on account of me. That's a whole
Speaker 1: lot of versus. Let's get the bread and make the
Speaker 1: sandwich as we go. Verse thirteen. I am in chains
Speaker 1: for Christ verse twenty two. Yet what shall I choose?
Speaker 1: And the title of the message is choosing your chains?
Speaker 1: Ask the person next to you on your way to
Speaker 1: your seat, do you want to be free? You may
Speaker 1: be seated? God bless you. Now. My kids have been
Speaker 1: saying something to me lately, really just the boys. Abby
Speaker 1: doesn't say it, and they need to stop saying this
Speaker 1: to me if they ever want to play Fortnite again.
Speaker 1: But they keep saying you sound like an old man,
Speaker 1: and not just you sound like an old man. I
Speaker 1: can't even use my phone without being judged by them.
Speaker 1: They tell me you did that like an old man.
Speaker 1: You know, all of my extra movements, all of my
Speaker 1: you know, three swipes when it only takes one, and
Speaker 1: they tell me that sometimes in my sermons, they tell
Speaker 1: me the cringiest moments of my sermons, and it kind
Speaker 1: of hurts my feelings until I remember that I pay
Speaker 1: for everything, and then I gently remind them, don't let
Speaker 1: these few gray hairs in my beard fool you. I
Speaker 1: am still the coolest person that you know, and even
Speaker 1: if I'm not, I can disconnect the technology that allows
Speaker 1: you to communicate with all of your broke friends who
Speaker 1: think they're cooler than me, I told y'all jet Lag.
Speaker 1: So I kind of wanted to say that to Paul
Speaker 1: reading Philippians One. I love the text. I've preached from
Speaker 1: it a few times. But what struck me the most
Speaker 1: about Philippians One on this particular voyage was how Paul
Speaker 1: sounds sounds like an old man. He sounds like he
Speaker 1: He has the kind of wisdom theologians call it the
Speaker 1: weather or construct. He uses it throughout the letter. The letter, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, he wrote from a prison cell. Four
Speaker 1: letters that Paul wrote while in captivity, the Captivity Epistles, Colossians, Ephesians, Filemen,
Speaker 1: and Philippians. And it's a paradox to begin with that
Speaker 1: he could write the happiest book in the Bible in
Speaker 1: a prison cell, and that he is writing about the
Speaker 1: progress of the Gospel while he himself is on lockdown.
Speaker 1: Won't that preach? Sometimes it's when you're in the worst
Speaker 1: situation of your life that God is doing the most
Speaker 1: through you. It's a true story. Sometimes when you feel
Speaker 1: completely limited, you know, when you feel like you've completely
Speaker 1: lost control, that's when God really has you in a
Speaker 1: place of surrender. And that's where he can do the
Speaker 1: deep work and get beyond the superficial cliche Christianity where
Speaker 1: we know all the right answers and we think that
Speaker 1: God is all about our parking spaces and trivial things.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we go through a trial and we get
Speaker 1: in a situation. Have you ever had God just take
Speaker 1: the steering wheel from you? And it wasn't Carrie Underwood,
Speaker 1: it was God, And all of a sudden you found
Speaker 1: yourself completely out of control. How many control freaks do
Speaker 1: I have in the room. I need to see where
Speaker 1: the control freaks are. There are two things I don't
Speaker 1: really like in life, and I'm comfortable admitting it now.
Speaker 1: I don't like babies and I don't like airplanes. And
Speaker 1: I don't like either because both are things that I
Speaker 1: can't control. I don't like. I really don't like babies
Speaker 1: on airplanes. That is my personal hell rapture. And we
Speaker 1: were on seventy five hours of flights over the last
Speaker 1: two weeks and Elijah was like, do you have any
Speaker 1: tips for getting through the airport? Dad? And I said, oh,
Speaker 1: you want that old man wisdom now? And I told
Speaker 1: him what one of my friends told me. He said,
Speaker 1: just keep saying to yourself over and over again as
Speaker 1: you walk through the security line. I am not a human.
Speaker 1: I have no rights. I am not a human. I
Speaker 1: have no rights. And you'll be set up for success.
Speaker 1: And so we're interested to see Paul. He's older now,
Speaker 1: it's been decades since Jesus knocked him off his horse,
Speaker 1: made him go blind so he could really see, took
Speaker 1: away his physical sight so he could show him something spiritual,
Speaker 1: knocked him down so he could raise him up. And
Speaker 1: Paul has passed the point now of needing people to
Speaker 1: like him. In fact, if I was preaching at youth X,
Speaker 1: I would say Paul has zero left to give what
Speaker 1: people think about him or say about him. Only one
Speaker 1: thing matters to him now, and it's called purpose. Not popularity,
Speaker 1: purpose not promotion, purpose not prosperity in this physical razzle
Speaker 1: dazzle bling sense, but purpose. Paul has passed the point
Speaker 1: of needing people to validate him. And so he says
Speaker 1: something really cool, And I'm actually going to get a
Speaker 1: bracelet made off of Verse eighteen. You can look for it.
Speaker 1: It'll be available at campus resources. You know how we
Speaker 1: used to have WWJD bracelets. This one's going to be
Speaker 1: called wd im and it comes from Philippians one eighteen.
Speaker 1: This is paul slogan. He says, what does it matter?
Speaker 1: Do you know how much better you would sleep at
Speaker 1: night if you had that on your wrist? Do you
Speaker 1: know how much stress would just disappear if you could
Speaker 1: get Now, you don't really get this in your thirty
Speaker 1: or maybe even in your forties. Paul is older now.
Speaker 1: They've beat him. He's been shipwrecked. They called him a fake,
Speaker 1: they called him a fraud. He kept preaching. They threw
Speaker 1: him in prison. God busted him out. In fact, the
Speaker 1: first time he went to Philippi, when he was getting
Speaker 1: the mission started, they threw him in prison. And Paul
Speaker 1: did what you always do when you're in prison, with
Speaker 1: your feet in stocks and your back beaten raw, He
Speaker 1: started singing praises to God at midnight. Because Paul knew something.
Speaker 1: You can either let your chains break your praise, or
Speaker 1: you can let your praise break your chains. Why y'all
Speaker 1: get quiet while I was gone, y'all used to shout
Speaker 1: at Elevation Church. And when he praised God at midnight,
Speaker 1: all of the chains of all of the prisoners came loose.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God will use your situation to set somebody else free.
Speaker 1: Can I stay on that for forty five seconds? You
Speaker 1: have been questioning what you have been going through, and
Speaker 1: it's not even about you. God is using some of
Speaker 1: you to break generational curses off of your children. There
Speaker 1: are things that you struggled with that your children will
Speaker 1: not have to struggle with like you struggled with them
Speaker 1: because you were willing watch this to embrace the chains.
Speaker 1: Some wisdom God can only give you after you've lived
Speaker 1: a little while. Some wisdom God can only give you
Speaker 1: when you've got that old man apostle Paul Swag where
Speaker 1: he said it doesn't even matter. Hey, Paul, did you
Speaker 1: hear they've got a fake Facebook account name on it?
Speaker 1: And Paul said, right now, I hate to do this,
Speaker 1: but can can we interrupt the sermon? I need you
Speaker 1: to pray for me at every location, and I need
Speaker 1: you to pray for me because I'm not that good
Speaker 1: at this. I let stuff that doesn't matter weigh me
Speaker 1: down to the point that I get so distracted. And
Speaker 1: please pray for me right now. Would you stretch your
Speaker 1: hands toward this stage and say, Father, I pray for
Speaker 1: Pastor Stephen that he would stop being so stupid to
Speaker 1: let stupid stuff sidetrack him from what really matters. Now,
Speaker 1: put your hand on the person that's next to you
Speaker 1: on your right and on your left, and say, God,
Speaker 1: I pray for this person that they would stop being
Speaker 1: so petty and letting little things ruin their day, contaminate
Speaker 1: their joy, poison their spirit, and distract them from their destiny,
Speaker 1: so that they can get focused on what really matters
Speaker 1: and realize that half the stuff they're worrying about, you're
Speaker 1: already working out, so they don't need to have an ulcer.
Speaker 1: They can throw up their hands right in the middle
Speaker 1: of the storm and thank you for being Lord of
Speaker 1: all in Jesus' name. Amen, what does it matter? What
Speaker 1: does it matter? That's why you gotta go to your
Speaker 1: twenty year high school reunion. I just went, and all
Speaker 1: the people I was so obsessed with impressing I don't
Speaker 1: even remember their names. Who are you again? That's why
Speaker 1: I was preaching to the teenagers at you facts, because
Speaker 1: if they can get on missing with what really matters,
Speaker 1: if they can get a sense of what matters, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what they say, It doesn't matter what they think.
Speaker 1: They don't have a heaven or a hell to put
Speaker 1: you in. They don't have a crown to crown you with.
Speaker 1: People can't complete you, only Jesus can. Why would I
Speaker 1: live for the approval of people who can't complete me?
Speaker 1: Sorry Terry Maguire, sorry Renee Sellwegger. Only Jesus can't complete me.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter because what matters more. Now here's the key.
Speaker 1: What matters more. This is your priority. And for Paul,
Speaker 1: the priority was never a popularity. So some say this,
Speaker 1: and some say that, and then eh and then man
Speaker 1: and b ba bah. Paul's like, I'm old. Now I
Speaker 1: know something, and this is what the old minister told
Speaker 1: me when I was first getting started. He said, there
Speaker 1: certain things in your ministry you will go through that
Speaker 1: you will question. And I said, well, what would you
Speaker 1: change if you could change anything? He said, why aren't
Speaker 1: you getting your elevation pen ready to write down what
Speaker 1: the old man said? He said, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff that I wouldn't choose, but there's nothing I would
Speaker 1: change because now I've been through enough to know that.
Speaker 1: It took some of the breaking to get to some
Speaker 1: of the blessing, and it took some of the betrayals
Speaker 1: to get to the blessing, and it took some of
Speaker 1: the conflict to get to the calling, and it took
Speaker 1: some of the weakness to get to the string. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't change it. I wouldn't choose it. I thought this
Speaker 1: was relevant because a lot of us in situations today
Speaker 1: that we would not choose. Nobody chooses sickness. Nobody choose
Speaker 1: as a kid who is off doing the opposite of
Speaker 1: everything you raised them to do. And you find out
Speaker 1: what Paul found out, you were never really in control.
Speaker 1: The more you think you're in control, the younger your
Speaker 1: kids are. I tell you, if it was my teenager,
Speaker 1: if it was your teenager, you would be locked in
Speaker 1: a room with prescription pills. Shut up, jet lag, jet lag,
Speaker 1: jet la. I'll be nicer next week. We got a
Speaker 1: lot of guests for it. Rained in Paul's just like
Speaker 1: what everybody say, what you're going to keep me in
Speaker 1: this prison? I got these chains, and I know it
Speaker 1: looks like I'm chained to these Romans guards, but actually
Speaker 1: these guards are chained to me. Now, I wouldn't choose
Speaker 1: these chains. But actually, if it takes my chains to
Speaker 1: set somebody else free, if it takes my pain. If
Speaker 1: it takes going through a season of loneliness to really
Speaker 1: discover joy, I would choose the change. I'd rather have
Speaker 1: change on my feet and be free in my mind,
Speaker 1: and free in my spirit, and free in my conscience.
Speaker 1: Because Paul said to me, the important thing is, the
Speaker 1: important thing is now. It's very important what you put next.
Speaker 1: This is verse eighteen. Guys in the production room. The
Speaker 1: important thing is whatever you put next will determine what
Speaker 1: your joy is chained to. Whatever you put after, the
Speaker 1: important thing is your joy will move up and down
Speaker 1: with that thing. So whatever you choose to change your
Speaker 1: joy to whatever priority if for you. No matter what
Speaker 1: you would say, because we would all say that Jesus
Speaker 1: is the head of our lives. You don't get up
Speaker 1: and come out here to a place like this if
Speaker 1: you're not going to say the right answer. But I'm
Speaker 1: talking about reflected in your choices. If the important thing
Speaker 1: is that people like you, then when people like you,
Speaker 1: you will like you. If the important thing is that
Speaker 1: God loves you, then when people don't like you, you you
Speaker 1: still like you, because I'm accepted in the beloved. If
Speaker 1: the important thing is comfort, than when everything is just right,
Speaker 1: and when the climate is seventy two point four fahrenheit.
Speaker 1: You will be happy about the climate or the environment.
Speaker 1: But if the important thing to you is not comfort
Speaker 1: but calling, you can be in a miserable situation and
Speaker 1: turn it into a ministry. I'm looking for somebody today
Speaker 1: who is no longer concerned about popular opinion or personal preference.
Speaker 1: But you've come to the place in your life where
Speaker 1: you say, I want to know him. I want to
Speaker 1: make him know. I want real joy, joy that the
Speaker 1: world didn't give and the world can't snatch it back.
Speaker 1: I missed you. Let me preach like I want to preach,
Speaker 1: so you won't be tossed to and fro and yanked
Speaker 1: back and forth by the affairs of life. Paul says,
Speaker 1: my my feet are locked and my hands are chained,
Speaker 1: but my mind is free. I'm here, but the mission
Speaker 1: is moving forward, and the important thing is The important
Speaker 1: thing is you get to choose what comes next, what
Speaker 1: is your priority. And you can't have God's peace without
Speaker 1: God's priorities. You can pray for it. But if you
Speaker 1: tie your joy to how your husband treats you or
Speaker 1: how the crazy girl in the cubicle next to you,
Speaker 1: you knew she was crazy. Her eyes were crazy. You're
Speaker 1: gonna put your joy on crazy girl. I can't hook
Speaker 1: my joy to that. I can't. I can't hook my
Speaker 1: joy to what the boss decides or what his boss decides.
Speaker 1: My joy is not connected to my job. So I
Speaker 1: gotta find something else. And for Paul, it was purpose,
Speaker 1: not preference, not popularity. Someone say this, Some say that
Speaker 1: wd im wwjd WWI don't care www dot, who cares?
Speaker 1: Dot com? Www dot? Jesus Christ is my boss? Dot com?
Speaker 1: Www is If he says I'm blessed, I'm blessed and
Speaker 1: there's not a thing you can do to curse me
Speaker 1: dot com. Www dot, I'm blessed with a car without
Speaker 1: a car. Www dot. I don't need a watch to
Speaker 1: be blessed. Www dot. If you break up with me,
Speaker 1: it's your loss because God has something special in me.
Speaker 1: What does it matter? And this is your choice. One
Speaker 1: scholar said Paul must be going senile. He maybe took
Speaker 1: one too many to the head because he's in chains
Speaker 1: talking about a choice. I don't know if I want
Speaker 1: to live or die, Paul. They didn't ask you. I
Speaker 1: love it when people say I didn't like that song
Speaker 1: Ya saying, Sunday, we didn't ask you when he put
Speaker 1: it as a choice, He's saying, I can't. I can't
Speaker 1: choose how long these chains stay on me. I'm still waiting,
Speaker 1: But I get to make a choice, not about what happens,
Speaker 1: but about my response. And I choose since God hasn't
Speaker 1: removed these chains, since God hasn't fixed the situation, since
Speaker 1: God hasn't fixed the relationship, since God hasn't given me
Speaker 1: the breakthrough yet, since I'm still dealing with the addiction,
Speaker 1: since it won't just go away like they told me
Speaker 1: it would. And I prayed that one time, and I
Speaker 1: still went home addicted. And they told me that if
Speaker 1: I prayed this that the change would fall off. But
Speaker 1: the chains are still there. And since and since God
Speaker 1: won't remove the chains, I'm gonna ask him to use
Speaker 1: the chains. That's my choice. What shall I choose? You
Speaker 1: have a choice. To me, you always do the greatest
Speaker 1: gift God can give you as a choice, He said,
Speaker 1: I'm in chains for Christ. Christ didn't put these chains
Speaker 1: on me, But now that these chains are on me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let him use them. He didn't bring the disease,
Speaker 1: He didn't bring the divorce. I wouldn't choose it. But
Speaker 1: if I can't change it, God, will you use these
Speaker 1: chains to change me, change others, make me an example
Speaker 1: of your grace. That's your choice, and God's not the
Speaker 1: only one who gives you a choice. This is what
Speaker 1: I was trying to explain to the youth, and I
Speaker 1: really think I was talking to my sixteen year old self.
Speaker 1: That's where I made the choice to follow Christ. Well,
Speaker 1: actually he made the choice. He chose me. I didn't
Speaker 1: choose him theologically speaking, but it was the moment that
Speaker 1: I became aware of his prevenient grace in my life
Speaker 1: and surrendered to what he was already doing. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how's better. And I was trying to get them to
Speaker 1: see how you know, over five hundred of them gave
Speaker 1: their lives to Christ during your fects most important choice
Speaker 1: they'll ever make. But the moment they come to that choice,
Speaker 1: the devil comes with little choices because the enemy sees
Speaker 1: their potential, and sometimes the enemy believes in your potential
Speaker 1: more than you do. And so you get around some
Speaker 1: friends and you're young, thirteen, fourteen, and they're looking at porn.
Speaker 1: It's just a little porn it's just one time porn,
Speaker 1: and they're calling you gay and weird if you don't
Speaker 1: look at it. So you look at it. It's just
Speaker 1: a choice. And they're drinking, they're smoking, they're vaping. So choice,
Speaker 1: it's not going to send you to hell. God's grace
Speaker 1: has got you covered. But it's just a choice. What
Speaker 1: you don't know until you know is that choices don't
Speaker 1: stay choices. They become habits. It's just one choice, just
Speaker 1: a little you turn up one time and then it's like,
Speaker 1: well maybe I'll do it again. And I lied to
Speaker 1: my parents one time. So you know, y'all think this
Speaker 1: is a youth sermon. If somebody would have preached this
Speaker 1: to a lot of us earlier, we could have seen
Speaker 1: the choice for what it was. But we didn't know
Speaker 1: what mattered. Then. We couldn't know what mattered then, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's just a little thing. But then it becomes
Speaker 1: a habit, and now you kind of you keep doing
Speaker 1: it and it doesn't quite hit It doesn't quite get
Speaker 1: you as high as it did the last time. You
Speaker 1: can do more of it. Now it takes a little more.
Speaker 1: It takes a little more. It takes you can handle
Speaker 1: us good. Then it becomes a habit, and now you
Speaker 1: know it's not just a glass of wine to relax.
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, I always get scared when
Speaker 1: I do this part because it's not just sex and
Speaker 1: drinking that I'm talking about. Some of us gossip so bad.
Speaker 1: It would be better off if we were alcoholics. I mean,
Speaker 1: the damage we do with our mouths is way worse
Speaker 1: than what a bottle can do. Okay, So I'm not
Speaker 1: just talking about whatever specific sin you don't happen to
Speaker 1: struggle with. Some of us are so angry, just mad ah,
Speaker 1: And we used to get mad with good reason. It
Speaker 1: was a choice, but then it became a habit, and
Speaker 1: now it's automatic. You don't even choose anymore. Now it's
Speaker 1: the default setting. Now it's just what you do to
Speaker 1: get your way, and you hate yourself after you do it,
Speaker 1: but it got you what you wanted, so you do
Speaker 1: it again. And it's kind of like one time Paul
Speaker 1: was saying, I don't do what I want to do,
Speaker 1: I do what I want don't want to do. Who
Speaker 1: will deliver me from this body of death? And he
Speaker 1: wasn't saying this before he met Christ. He was saying
Speaker 1: this as a christ follower, I made some choices. The
Speaker 1: choice became a habit. I didn't know it was a
Speaker 1: big deal. At the time, it didn't seem like a
Speaker 1: big deal. I didn't forgive one person, and I let
Speaker 1: the bitterness get a hold of me. And then the
Speaker 1: bitterness was no longer just one person. I started getting
Speaker 1: mad at everybody, and I started blaming everybody. And now
Speaker 1: it's my habit. And now when something doesn't go my way,
Speaker 1: my first response is to blame all the people who
Speaker 1: weren't there for me, or if they would have, or
Speaker 1: if she would have. I started complaining. I made the
Speaker 1: choice to complain. And I used to just complain when
Speaker 1: things were really bad. But now now it's instead of
Speaker 1: Instead of his praise will continually be on my mouth.
Speaker 1: Now it's complaint is continually on myself. It's a habit.
Speaker 1: It's automatic. It's my first instinct. I can't even see
Speaker 1: what's right. I walk in the room and all I
Speaker 1: see is what's wrong. It's automatic, and before long it's
Speaker 1: not just what I do. It becomes my identity. Now
Speaker 1: it's who I am. I'm a slave to fear, I'm
Speaker 1: a child of God. But I feel like a slave
Speaker 1: to sin. I made a choice, became a habit became automatic.
Speaker 1: That's what the Bible says when it says, don't walk
Speaker 1: in the flesh the habits of the old life, the
Speaker 1: patterns of your perspective pre Christ, and just keep doing it.
Speaker 1: It's pulling on you. This pulls you back into it.
Speaker 1: You don't tell your e group about that stuff. You
Speaker 1: can't these these these these chains aren't the kind of
Speaker 1: change that you wear around your neck. These changes, the
Speaker 1: choices that become habits. Now it's automatic. You didn't even
Speaker 1: want to do it anymore, but you think it's who
Speaker 1: you are because your nature. You see that. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to show you. And I hope that you'll discuss this
Speaker 1: with your kids after church, and I hope that you'll
Speaker 1: discuss this with some people in your life that you
Speaker 1: can trust about the choices that became habits, that became automatic.
Speaker 1: I'm just offended all the time. Now. I made the
Speaker 1: choice to be offended. The person hurt me, and I
Speaker 1: chose to let that hurt on the inside, and I
Speaker 1: didn't let it heal. And now I'm pushing good people
Speaker 1: away because of who hurt me back then and I
Speaker 1: want you to see how today's choices come, tomorrow's chains
Speaker 1: come here Nick, Jake. It's crazy, it's crazy, how young
Speaker 1: this happens. Because Jake has a calling. Jake has a purpose,
Speaker 1: I said, Nick, because that's his dad. His dad is mcguiver.
Speaker 1: He fixes everything. Jake is a worshiper. The enemy knows that,
Speaker 1: so he wants to come to Jake early in life
Speaker 1: with a choice, certain friends, certain things, certain outlooks, and
Speaker 1: what he wants you to do. He wants to get
Speaker 1: you locked up, good and tight while you're young, because
Speaker 1: he knows what God put inside of you. H he
Speaker 1: knows that this young man could be a chain breaker
Speaker 1: in his generation. The enemy knows his purpose. So what
Speaker 1: he wants to do while you're young. Now, he's clever.
Speaker 1: The enemy is crafty, So he's not gonna He's not
Speaker 1: gonna come at Jake with the chain because if he
Speaker 1: comes it Jake with a chain, Jake's gonna run right.
Speaker 1: So he comes I'm helping somebody today. I feel it
Speaker 1: in my bones. With a choice. He wants to lock
Speaker 1: you in to thinking, believing, and insecurities early. So now
Speaker 1: later in your life, when you decide to pursue a mission.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, try to pursue a mission A Nope, Because
Speaker 1: I got you. And later in life, let's say he
Speaker 1: plants a sexual addiction in your mind at an early age,
Speaker 1: and then you get a wife, and now you want
Speaker 1: to love your wife and be a good man and
Speaker 1: be intimate with your wife in the way that God intended.
Speaker 1: But see you move toward intimacy. But I got you
Speaker 1: with a choice that became a habit, that became automatic.
Speaker 1: And now you can't treat a woman like a woman.
Speaker 1: You treat her like an object because I got you
Speaker 1: in chains. Jake, you're being real dramatic. You don't have
Speaker 1: to jerk that hard, just say yeah, they stand right there.
Speaker 1: He's got in these chains. So you want to make
Speaker 1: a change in your life later. But he got you
Speaker 1: in chains so early. And some of us spend decades
Speaker 1: being dragged around by the devil, being dragged around by
Speaker 1: decisions that we made in our past. That I got
Speaker 1: news for you are already covered by the blood of
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And I read in my Bible whom the
Speaker 1: sun sets free is free. Indeed, it means I don't
Speaker 1: have to spend the rest of my life being dragged
Speaker 1: around by the decisions of my past. I don't have
Speaker 1: to stay in these chains. I know a name that
Speaker 1: will break everything. I think we need to shout on
Speaker 1: this word, because some of us are chain to mindsets,
Speaker 1: and shame to scarcity, and same to pa and same
Speaker 1: to our imaginations, and shame to memories. But I read
Speaker 1: in John that whom the sun sets free is free indeed,
Speaker 1: And if you believe that, sound like you're free. Paul said,
Speaker 1: I've found another chain. This chain is called Grace. So
Speaker 1: let the devil know. I'm not chained to these Roman guards.
Speaker 1: I'm saying to Grace. That means I've found the love
Speaker 1: that will not let me go. Even if I try
Speaker 1: to get away. Go ahead, try to get away, Try
Speaker 1: to get away. He won't let me go. Even if
Speaker 1: I try to run, Try to run, he won't let
Speaker 1: me go. Pull as hard as you want to pull,
Speaker 1: take you pooh. I might be all, but I lived,
Speaker 1: and as long as I got to in my grip,
Speaker 1: you're not going anywhere. Full in the sun sets free
Speaker 1: is prase. Indeed, God is folling me closer. I'm changed
Speaker 1: to Grace. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I'm
Speaker 1: a China God, and I choose everything I've been through,
Speaker 1: even my shame, God's gonna use it to tell a
Speaker 1: greater story of grace. God's gonna use my chains to
Speaker 1: break somebody else's. My son won't have to go through
Speaker 1: what I went through. God's gonna use my chains to
Speaker 1: set somebody free. And He's got you. You get to
Speaker 1: make a choice today. Everybody in here is serving something.
Speaker 1: What do you want to serve? Who do you want
Speaker 1: to serve? Paul identified himself as a servant of Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: What he meant was Grace is a bigger chain than
Speaker 1: said And no matter what my decisions might say about
Speaker 1: me or indicate otherwise, I am a child of God.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wander sometimes, go I wander off, wander off,
Speaker 1: wonder off. Come on, try hard. I got you. I
Speaker 1: got you. Grace is stronger the don't assume me. If
Speaker 1: I break his wrist, it's for a good cause. I
Speaker 1: got you. I see in the spirit. God pull it
Speaker 1: on you today. You didn't even want to come to
Speaker 1: church today. Look at you right here in church. You
Speaker 1: made so many dumb decisions, and today you're standing in
Speaker 1: the presence of a chain breaking God. So so is
Speaker 1: your choice, worshiper, what will you choose? Paul made his choice.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm gonna let God use these chains to
Speaker 1: declare his grace. And for everybody who's stuck in a
Speaker 1: situation that you can't change right now, and sometimes that
Speaker 1: situation is yourself, I want you to make a decision,
Speaker 1: a choice, because choices, choices become habits. Yeah, you choose
Speaker 1: to trust God in this season of your life. And
Speaker 1: you know what, if you trust God a few times,
Speaker 1: guess what, it becomes automatic. And now you find yourself
Speaker 1: leaning not on your own understanding, but in all your ways,
Speaker 1: acknowledging Him. When you realize the devil has been lying
Speaker 1: to me this whole time. I'm not a slave to
Speaker 1: what they said. I'm not a slave to what they did.
Speaker 1: I am a child of God. If anyone is in Christ,
Speaker 1: he is a new creation. The old and the new
Speaker 1: has come. If you believe God is a chain breaker,
Speaker 1: I want you to stand on your feet right now
Speaker 1: and give him a midnight praise, a praise that breaks
Speaker 1: shames and chases anxiety away. Come on, you have to
Speaker 1: do better than that. If you are a serpent of
Speaker 1: the Most High God. And you know all power is
Speaker 1: in his hand and he got to prevent grave with
Speaker 1: all authority. Release the praise right now, all the free.
Speaker 1: He will lift your hands. You don't have to feel
Speaker 1: free to be free. It's the same breaking power. And
Speaker 1: then ah, my God is in this place power. She
Speaker 1: loves well. I hope you enjoyed the podcast today. If
Speaker 1: you did, there are just a couple things I'd love
Speaker 1: for you to do. Number One, subscribe to our show.
Speaker 1: That way, the most recent episode will always be in
Speaker 1: your feed, waiting for you ready when you are. And Secondly,
Speaker 1: if this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to
Speaker 1: help us continue to reach others, you can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description and you can give now and
Speaker 1: I'll see you next time on the Elevation Podcast