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Speaker 2: Come on, everybody feels comfortable, just lift your hands. Everybody
Speaker 2: who doesn't feel comfortable, lift your hands. King of King's,
Speaker 2: Lord of lords. Jesus is your name. We bless you,
Speaker 2: honor you, respect you, admire you, and adore you.
Speaker 3: But really we want you to know that we need you.
Speaker 3: We know that.
Speaker 2: For the things that we encounter as human beings that
Speaker 2: we can not understand on the level of our existence,
Speaker 2: we need divinity. Would you direct the paths of each
Speaker 2: of the precious people that you assemble together today? See,
Speaker 2: I know that we think we decided to come to church,
Speaker 2: but really you brought us to this place something that
Speaker 2: you want to remind us of, something that you want
Speaker 2: to show us, something.
Speaker 3: That you want to reveal, and whatever it is.
Speaker 2: Clear out the debris of disappointment that has accumulated in
Speaker 2: our souls. This week a place for your glory and
Speaker 2: your presence to dwell. We are your temple, and we
Speaker 2: reverence you, and we worship you, and we praise you.
Speaker 3: In Jesus' name, and the whole church set together. Amen.
Speaker 2: Amen, come on, let's show the Lord that he's important
Speaker 2: to us. Well, look at the person next to you
Speaker 2: and tell him I love you so much. Tell him
Speaker 2: I love you. Come on, tell him I love you
Speaker 2: like Homer loves donuts on the Simpsons. Come on, tell
Speaker 2: him I love you like Kanye loves Kanye. Tell him
Speaker 2: you're my number one with the lemonade. Tell him right now.
Speaker 2: See if they're saved. How many of you are saved,
Speaker 2: delivered on your way to heaven? Glad about it? God
Speaker 2: is so faithful. We want to welcome all of our campuses.
Speaker 2: Let's do that right now, Valentine. Let's welcome all of
Speaker 2: our locations all over.
Speaker 3: The Charlotte area.
Speaker 2: Asheville, North Carolina, Greenville, South Carolina, Toronto, Canada, Melbourne, Florida.
Speaker 3: Come on, let's thank.
Speaker 2: God for Raleigh, Morrisville. A man.
Speaker 3: Should we see who's.
Speaker 2: Watching on our epam our extended family around the world.
Speaker 2: There's always many different cities in states and nations watch him.
Speaker 2: Somebody pull it up for me. Go ahead and pull
Speaker 2: it up on the Elevation Church YouTube. Make sure you
Speaker 2: go on the Elevation Church one because it'll have the
Speaker 2: most viewers. Go over to Elevation Worship. It's not as popular.
Speaker 2: So good, are you all gonna get that new song?
Speaker 2: You never lost a battle? Are you gonna get that
Speaker 2: on Friday? Make sure you get that stream that that's
Speaker 2: gonna be so good. You can just get it stuck
Speaker 2: in your head all the time. Now, how many you'll
Speaker 2: have that song stuck in your head? We didn't sing
Speaker 2: it today, but which seems like a strategic misfire that
Speaker 2: we're releasing it Friday. We didn't sing it today, but anyway,
Speaker 2: it's a good song to get stuck in your head.
Speaker 2: But I promise you your wife would rather hear Tiffany
Speaker 2: and Chris sing it than you. You can't sing, So
Speaker 2: download it, stream it.
Speaker 3: And play it. Let the professionals do it. You can
Speaker 3: sing along.
Speaker 2: Tell me where you're watching from on the comments of YouTube. Oakland, California, Wisconsin, Seattle, Nigeria, Rockwell,
Speaker 2: North Carolina.
Speaker 3: You have been to Rockwell? Have you heard of it?
Speaker 3: I had neither.
Speaker 2: Indiana, Charlotte supposed to be at church. You better have
Speaker 2: the flu, measles, the mumps, the shingles or something. Uganda, Atlanta, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Brazil, Baltimore.
Speaker 3: It's so fast, it's scrolling so fast.
Speaker 2: Guatemala, Dominican, Indonesia. Ask somebody, where did you come from?
Speaker 2: And what are you cooking for lunch? Cannot come over?
Speaker 2: Ask them that real quick. Hey man, welcome our EPHAM
Speaker 2: around the world.
Speaker 3: Let's give out.
Speaker 2: Let's give out seventeen hugs on our way down.
Speaker 3: To our seat? Can we do that? Are you ready
Speaker 3: for the Word of God? Come on list?
Speaker 2: Thank God for the worship team. The reason I said that,
Speaker 2: I don't know how else to transition them off the
Speaker 2: stage and I'll have to awkwardly you can be seen.
Speaker 2: I want to talk to you about some today that
Speaker 2: came up. In a creative team meeting. I was asked
Speaker 2: a question about songwriting and sermon writing, which one do
Speaker 2: I enjoy more, to which I responded, it depends on
Speaker 2: what part of the process you catch me during, because
Speaker 2: there are certain times where a sermon idea will come
Speaker 2: to me and I will feel enlightened and spiritual and confident,
Speaker 2: can't wait to preach it, Get me a new nine
Speaker 2: volte battery in my microphone, and gather the people.
Speaker 3: I have something to say from heaven.
Speaker 2: Then five minutes later, I look at the same idea
Speaker 2: and it just seems so ridiculous and simple and basic.
Speaker 2: And I basically tell y'all everything I know every week.
Speaker 2: I'm just waiting on you to actually do it one time,
Speaker 2: just kidding. You're great, You're growing. I know you're disciple.
Speaker 2: But it's like the process of creativity. It had certain
Speaker 2: points in it. When I was talking about it, I
Speaker 2: called it the sticking points, And as I talked about
Speaker 2: that creatively, I want to speak about it today.
Speaker 3: That's the title of my message.
Speaker 2: It's called the sticking point because everything that you love
Speaker 2: in life is going to have a part of the
Speaker 2: process that you don't like, and a part that is
Speaker 2: going to tempt you to quit.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't mean you don't love it.
Speaker 2: I don't know when we started thinking that we have
Speaker 2: to love everything or like everything.
Speaker 3: All the time.
Speaker 2: You know, I quit my job because I wasn't feel
Speaker 2: in it? Well, were you feel in indoor plumbing? Go
Speaker 2: back to work, pay your bills, and not have to
Speaker 2: love everything all the time. You know, because everything that
Speaker 2: you love is going to have a part.
Speaker 3: I called it the sticking point.
Speaker 2: It's going to have a part or parts that you
Speaker 2: don't prefer. Okay, I can't tell if you're with me yet.
Speaker 2: Let me take this a level deeper. Every person that
Speaker 2: you love looks straight ahead, is gonna have some parts
Speaker 2: that you don't prefer.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say it that way.
Speaker 2: It's gentler than saying that you don't like or that
Speaker 2: you want to change.
Speaker 3: Not me. I love everything about him you're dating. It's
Speaker 3: been two weeks. I can tell.
Speaker 2: Because every person and there's a parable about this. Jesus
Speaker 2: said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man
Speaker 2: who found a treasure and was excited, and so he
Speaker 2: liked the treasure so much that he sold everything and
Speaker 2: bought the field that the treasure was in.
Speaker 3: So if you.
Speaker 2: Want the treasure, you've got to buy the field.
Speaker 3: This isn't going good. We want the treasure, not the
Speaker 3: dirt that comes around it.
Speaker 2: We want the treasure or the blessings or sometimes we
Speaker 2: want those those joyful moments. But even if you love
Speaker 2: your marriage, there will be sometimes where you just want
Speaker 2: to control the TV without any voting. You know, even
Speaker 2: if you love your kids, there will be times where
Speaker 2: you will secretly google adoption agencies to see I've never
Speaker 2: actually done that.
Speaker 3: For the record, I'm getting hate mail. But everything you love.
Speaker 2: Even preaching, there's times when when I'm preaching that I
Speaker 2: feel the spirit, and then there's times where I look
Speaker 2: at the wrong person in the.
Speaker 4: Room and I feel another spirit, the spirit of stress,
Speaker 4: the spirit of aland even people will walk out sometimes
Speaker 4: while you're preaching, and I called it when I was
Speaker 4: talking to them, the sticking point.
Speaker 2: It's the moment where you start to doubt what you
Speaker 2: were so secure you're in. It's the moment where your
Speaker 2: mood doesn't match your mission, but you've got to push
Speaker 2: through anyway because you've got something important to do. It's
Speaker 2: the moment where, oh, I didn't know that about you.
Speaker 2: When I said i'd do well, you did, and now
Speaker 2: you do. The sticking point. For a scriptural example, I
Speaker 2: thought of no better passage than the classic exodus, where
Speaker 2: God led his people out of Egypt through the Red Sea.
Speaker 2: Did you notice what I said? Am I set up
Speaker 2: through the Red Sea? Not over it on a boat,
Speaker 2: but through it on foot. You are going through something
Speaker 2: right now. You are at a sticking point. I don't
Speaker 2: know if it is a state of mind, because sometimes
Speaker 2: we are stuck, not in our situation, but in our
Speaker 2: state of mind. Even recently, Holly pulled up a picture
Speaker 2: from a few years ago when we were flying home
Speaker 2: from Seattle and we got stuck in Chicago overnight on
Speaker 2: a layover. We were laughing because we were in such
Speaker 2: a bad mood. We were just remembering how late it was.
Speaker 2: It was probably ten o'clock at night, but let's make
Speaker 2: it two in the morning, just for dramatic effect on
Speaker 2: the story.
Speaker 3: Creative license.
Speaker 2: But it was late, and our bags were checked and
Speaker 2: we had no clean underwear, and we checked into this
Speaker 2: horrible hotel that American Airlines had put on and we
Speaker 2: were stuck in Chicago, and we were.
Speaker 3: Laughing about that. We weren't laughing when it happened.
Speaker 2: We were laughing looking at when it happened, you know,
Speaker 2: two or three years ago. And remember that when we
Speaker 2: got stuck in Chicago, Well, why were we stuck in
Speaker 2: Chicago technically American Airlines. But if you take it apart
Speaker 2: a little bit more, the city of Chicago is a
Speaker 2: city that we like. We had visited there by choice
Speaker 2: before when I preached for Steve Munsey and Jmack. We
Speaker 2: stayed over two extra days just so we could shop
Speaker 2: and watch the Cobs.
Speaker 3: We we had a good time too. We ate deep
Speaker 3: dish pizza. This was in my.
Speaker 2: Early thirties when I could do it and just plank
Speaker 2: a little bit and it will fall right off.
Speaker 3: But we did some.
Speaker 2: We had marital enrichment in the hotel room on that trip.
Speaker 2: That was a good trip. So there's nothing wrong with Chicago.
Speaker 3: It wasn't. It wasn't Chicago. It wasn't like.
Speaker 2: It was Des Moines. I loved Yll so much. You're
Speaker 2: so triggered my hands from there. When's the last time
Speaker 2: you went to see her?
Speaker 3: Huh uh? It wasn't. It wasn't.
Speaker 2: The situation that we were stuck in. The reason we
Speaker 2: called it stop is because it wasn't on our schedule.
Speaker 3: You better get to the text.
Speaker 2: Verdict Exodus, chapter fourteen, verse ten. The Israelites are leaving
Speaker 2: Egypt right God heard their cry They were stuck as
Speaker 2: slaves for four centuries serving Pharaoh, who had taken away
Speaker 2: their building materials, increasing their requirements while.
Speaker 3: Reducing their resources.
Speaker 2: So they're stuck, and God hears them, and God breaks through,
Speaker 2: and God uses Moses to lead them out, because there
Speaker 2: comes a period where God sees you stuck and realizes
Speaker 2: that you cannot get.
Speaker 3: Yourself out of the situation.
Speaker 2: So he said, I've heard the cries of my people,
Speaker 2: and I have come down to visit them. And when
Speaker 2: he chose Moses to do it, he knew all about
Speaker 2: Moses's brokenness, and he knew all about Moses' reluctance, and
Speaker 2: he led.
Speaker 3: Them out out, and he compelled Pharaoh to let.
Speaker 2: Them go, not the first time, not the second time,
Speaker 2: but after ten plagues of negotiation. You know, sticking point
Speaker 2: is a negotiation term. They talk about it in business. Well,
Speaker 2: we almost had the deal done, but then the asking
Speaker 2: price was a sticking point because they wouldn't let me
Speaker 2: finance it over five years. They wanted me to pay
Speaker 2: it off in three or or they wanted me to
Speaker 2: leave the septic tank, and I wanted to dig it
Speaker 2: out and take it with me. We hit a sticking point.
Speaker 2: You know, you hit a sticking point in your faith,
Speaker 2: you hit a sticking point in a relationship, you hit
Speaker 2: a sticking point in your life. And you've come as
Speaker 2: far as you can come. And then God comes down
Speaker 2: and he sees you struggling, and he does for you
Speaker 2: what you cannot do for you. And then don't shout.
Speaker 2: You come to something that wasn't on your schedule. Exitus fourteen,
Speaker 2: verse ten, when Pharaoh drew near.
Speaker 3: Wait, what's Pharaoh doing in the picture? I thought we
Speaker 3: were done with him?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: Can I preach on half of a verse? Y'all got
Speaker 2: anything to do after this? Or should we just? Okay?
Speaker 2: Complete the sentence? If you grew up in church, complete
Speaker 2: the sentence. Where God guides, he provides. True, let me
Speaker 2: add to it. Where God doesn't guide, he still provides
Speaker 2: because He's so good. Have you ever had God bless
Speaker 2: you when you were going backwards and doing the wrong stuff?
Speaker 3: There's angels in this section over here.
Speaker 2: Have you ever Elijah in the Bible, he was running
Speaker 2: from Jezebel in the wrong direction from his assignment.
Speaker 3: He lay down and wanted to.
Speaker 2: Die, even though he had seen God do great things,
Speaker 2: and the Angel made him a cake. He was going
Speaker 2: away from his assign and God fed him with an.
Speaker 3: Angel food cake.
Speaker 2: Now, don't look at me like the reason that you
Speaker 2: always ate is because you were always good. Some of
Speaker 2: you know that you didn't deserve it. You didn't earn it,
Speaker 2: you didn't pray enough.
Speaker 3: To get it. You didn't quote.
Speaker 2: Philippians, you didn't always take the right turn or follow
Speaker 2: the north star. But God tracked you down under a
Speaker 2: broom tree and blessed you anyway. I need some people
Speaker 2: who were blessed anyway to shout, just ten seconds, just
Speaker 2: shout because he fed you even as you fled from him.
Speaker 3: So where God guides, he provides.
Speaker 2: But even where God doesn't God he'll still take care
Speaker 2: of you because you're his.
Speaker 3: And then I wanted to add one more. See if
Speaker 3: you could put this on Pinterest.
Speaker 2: Okay, because they're leaving Egypt, here comes Pharaoh, their enemy
Speaker 2: behind them. They hear clickity clack, clickety clack, clickety clack.
Speaker 3: That's Pharaoh's Lamborghinis.
Speaker 2: These are fast cheriots because they're here Pharaoh's best and
Speaker 2: they're being chased down on their way out. And so
Speaker 2: they turn around and see something that they can't go
Speaker 2: back to look forward and see something that they can't
Speaker 2: get over.
Speaker 3: Now, they got to go through it because where God.
Speaker 2: Guides now, not that one, this one where God guides
Speaker 2: Pharaoh follows wow.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: And so in negotiation terms, they've reached a sticking point
Speaker 2: because here's a little business tactic. Okay, I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: a seminar on negotiating right now. I'm not gonna charge you.
Speaker 2: It's not forty nine dollars. You could just listen. If
Speaker 2: someone is holding onto something in a negotiation, that means
Speaker 2: it's valuable. If they don't let it go easy, that
Speaker 2: means it has great worth. I don't know who I'm
Speaker 2: preaching to, but the devil hasn't been letting you go easy.
Speaker 2: You've been trying to shake this for a long time.
Speaker 2: And the reason, maybe the reason, if the devil is real,
Speaker 2: and if destiny is a fact and not just a
Speaker 2: concept or a fantasy, maybe the reason that it's been
Speaker 2: so difficult for it to let you go is because
Speaker 2: what you carry is of such great value. I believe
Speaker 2: this in my core. Some of you are at a
Speaker 2: sticking point right now, and Pharaoh will let you go
Speaker 2: easy because once you get through this.
Speaker 5: There is great glory after this. If you're ever if
Speaker 5: you're ever.
Speaker 2: Negotiating with someone and they're like, oh, yeah, I'll throw
Speaker 2: it in. It's nothing. Hey, you can have that too,
Speaker 2: It's nothing. But if they ever pull it back. You know,
Speaker 2: every time you try to get out of depression and
Speaker 2: addiction and you try to stop with the pills, and
Speaker 2: you try to stop with the porn, and you try
Speaker 2: to stop with the complaint, this is a sticking point
Speaker 2: for some of you. You've been flushing it, but then
Speaker 2: you buy it again, and then you've been deleting it,
Speaker 2: but then you put it back, and then you've been
Speaker 2: walking away from it, but then you feel drunk to it.
Speaker 2: And I wanted to tell you that when you get stuck,
Speaker 2: that means you're on the verge of something significant. God
Speaker 2: has his hand on your line.
Speaker 3: That's the first half of the first verse.
Speaker 2: And Pharaoh drew near where God, God's Pharaoh follows. The
Speaker 2: proof of God's activity in your life will often be
Speaker 2: the increase of resistance. Wow, and behold, the Egyptians were
Speaker 2: marching after them, and they fear greatly. Yeah, I bet
Speaker 2: they did. This is not stuck in Chicago This is not.
Speaker 2: This is not we're going to have to catch the
Speaker 2: six thirty five am flight out Central Standard Time. This
Speaker 2: is pulse's pounding panic triggered by the trauma of a
Speaker 2: lifetime of bondage. And so they're standing there, and this
Speaker 2: is one thing that happens. They start arguing with Moses.
Speaker 2: Look at says verse eleven. They said to Moses, because
Speaker 2: they're no graves in Egypt, that you've taken us to
Speaker 2: die in the wilderness.
Speaker 3: What have you done to us in bringing us out
Speaker 3: of Egypt?
Speaker 2: So now they're fighting the one who's helping them.
Speaker 3: Parents. Don't worry about it. They'll thank you one.
Speaker 6: Day, maybe if you don't kill them.
Speaker 2: Hm, is this not what we said to you in Egypt?
Speaker 2: Verse twelve. Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians.
Speaker 2: I never heard them say that. All they were doing
Speaker 2: before they got out was praying to get out. Well,
Speaker 2: let's all admit, Okay, when you get stuck, you get stupid.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying you are stupid, But for me, some
Speaker 2: of the dumbest decisions I made was because I got
Speaker 2: sick of being stuck.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna just do something. Ah, sick of this.
Speaker 3: You know when you hit send.
Speaker 2: Oh no unsen nonsend unsaying undersen.
Speaker 3: I might invent the unsend button. But when you get stuck.
Speaker 2: Elijah came in our room the other night, this was
Speaker 2: Friday night, and we were both to sleep.
Speaker 3: We were we were off duty on parenting.
Speaker 2: For the night and our office hours are you know,
Speaker 2: seven am to five pm, and it's off duty. And
Speaker 2: he comes in the room laughing and we were both asleep,
Speaker 2: and he's like, you're not gonna believe this.
Speaker 3: He's laughing, and he had Jim Shorts.
Speaker 2: Mesh Elevation Youth Champion Jim Shorts, hanging from his braces.
Speaker 2: He said, get it off, get it off. And I
Speaker 2: was going to write, but I said, first, let me
Speaker 2: get a video.
Speaker 3: Real quick. Let me show us listen stuck on teep.
Speaker 3: Just put my whole burst out, Jez look.
Speaker 4: Broh.
Speaker 2: Because I wish you would look at your neighbor and
Speaker 2: tell them when you get stuck, you get stupid. Maybe
Speaker 2: don't date anybody for six months until you heal from
Speaker 2: the last heartbreak, because when you get I'm in Exodus fourteen.
Speaker 2: When you get stuck, you reach for stuff. You reach
Speaker 2: for the stuff that you flushed. When you get stuck,
Speaker 2: when you get lonely, when you get hungry, when you
Speaker 2: get tired, when you get stuck, Ah now I got
Speaker 2: the whole thing hanging out my mouth. Ah Now I
Speaker 2: got a rainbow vacuum cleaner. Ah Now I got a timeshare.
Speaker 2: When you get stuck. I didn't do it because I
Speaker 2: didn't love God. I did it because I was stuck.
Speaker 2: And when you hit the sticking point, everybody's like, come on, rejoice.
Speaker 3: I can't. I'm stuck. I'm stuck in a memory.
Speaker 2: You're miss stuck in a memory. I'm stuck in a pattern.
Speaker 2: I'm stuck in a generational thing that started before I
Speaker 2: ever came to the planet.
Speaker 3: I'm stuck.
Speaker 2: I get stuck preparing these sermons. It's horrible. I'm not
Speaker 2: playing now. I know I've been showing you, you know,
Speaker 2: like illegal footage of my children and everything in church.
Speaker 2: Orthodontist is gonna kill me Monday. He's a great orthodonist too,
Speaker 2: doctor doctor hull yoshall look him up. He's great. He's
Speaker 2: got to fix that. Tomorrow. I'm gonna have We're gonna
Speaker 2: have some business for him. But when I get to
Speaker 2: prepare these sermons, I get stuck, and it's horrible because
Speaker 2: the sticking point it makes me want to just like
Speaker 2: give up on everything I've worked on.
Speaker 3: Please don't think that I'm preaching to you about preaching.
Speaker 3: That's too meta.
Speaker 2: I'm preaching to you about preaching because that's where I
Speaker 2: get stuck, and I figured you might get stuck sometimes too.
Speaker 3: Good.
Speaker 2: I mean, when I go to prepare, it'll just be
Speaker 2: moments where none of it makes sense for everybody that's
Speaker 2: like forty and older.
Speaker 3: Like when you had antennas.
Speaker 2: On the be and you you could see the station,
Speaker 2: but not fully because you were watching your neighbors HBO
Speaker 2: before you guys saved before BC. It's under the blood now,
Speaker 2: but it'll scramble and I won't even know where to start.
Speaker 2: I'll be like, oh, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 2: I'm preaching about Moses coming through the Red Sea, and
Speaker 2: I already preached about that before, and I'm just reaching
Speaker 2: you know, they already know they got through the Red Sea,
Speaker 2: so this Swiler alert won't be interesting. So maybe I
Speaker 2: should started with Abraham. Because of Abraham, Isaac Jacob and
Speaker 2: then Joseph went to Egypt, and you never meant to
Speaker 2: get trapped in Egypt. You went there to get food,
Speaker 2: but sometimes you get trapped where you went to get food.
Speaker 2: And sometimes place where you go to Survior's place where
Speaker 2: you get stuck. Maybe just start there. But I already
Speaker 2: preached that a couple weeks ago, and to remember that
Speaker 2: they come every week, they don't ever miss. That's about
Speaker 2: burning bush because he went to burning bush and he
Speaker 2: was butcher was burn it up, but it wasn't burn up,
Speaker 2: It just burn it burned up. And maybe that's like
Speaker 2: cus inside because when your presence comes and our passion
Speaker 2: stays alive even though we go through stuff and we burn,
Speaker 2: but we don't burn up. In the proof of your
Speaker 2: presence is the fact that we're on fire, but we
Speaker 2: stay on fire even though.
Speaker 3: We go through all kinds of hell us to do that.
Speaker 2: I'll come about the bricks and the straw, because you know, he's.
Speaker 3: Any good to be talking about Holly years.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you have all the mud, but you don't have
Speaker 2: the straw, and so you got to go get your
Speaker 2: own straw.
Speaker 3: And you didn't have a dad.
Speaker 2: So you try to be a dad and you don't
Speaker 2: have what you need to be what you're trying to
Speaker 2: be and the devil use that as condemnation, try to
Speaker 2: keep you stuck in a slave as you are.
Speaker 3: And then after that, man, I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: I need a nap.
Speaker 2: And I would just feel like I don't know where
Speaker 2: to preach this sermon on Sunday and I'm stuck, and
Speaker 2: I get so stuck. I don't want to say anything.
Speaker 2: How y'all doing praise the Lord? And I figure you
Speaker 2: get stuck too, even if you don't preach sermons. I
Speaker 2: figure you go, you're not. I gotta have this meeting
Speaker 2: at the kids school, and I want to go down
Speaker 2: there and talk to Principle because I don't think principal
Speaker 2: is being fair of my kid. But I don't teach
Speaker 2: my kids sometimes that people in fair life sometimes you
Speaker 2: let them go through things.
Speaker 3: Maybe they need to learn of that. I figure you
Speaker 3: get stuck sometimes.
Speaker 2: I figure you get stuck too, sometimes just a stecond point.
Speaker 2: And this is not the first time that you've been stuck.
Speaker 2: And this is not the first time Moses was stuck,
Speaker 2: and that's the good thing about it if he did
Speaker 2: it before. I just want to keep you breathing today
Speaker 2: because I know you've been stuck if he did it before. See,
Speaker 2: we get stuck, not always at the external circumstance.
Speaker 3: Sometimes we get stuck in.
Speaker 2: Ourselves, sometimes stuck as a state of mind. Chicago is
Speaker 2: a nice city, but you weren't supposed to be in Chicago.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we get stuck not in where we are, but
Speaker 2: where we were supposed to be, in our plan for
Speaker 2: our life. And so I'm stuck, not necessarily in what
Speaker 2: it is, but in what I thought it was going
Speaker 2: to be. I get stuck in supposed to. You have
Speaker 2: been stuck in supposed to. My kids were supposed to
Speaker 2: be Valedictorians. I was supposed to be married still I
Speaker 2: was supposed to. It can be very painful. I was
Speaker 2: supposed to by now. My retirement went out in oh wait.
Speaker 2: I was supposed to be ready to quit working by now.
Speaker 2: I was supposed to be married. My roommate got married,
Speaker 2: and she's crazy. And I'm good person, and I'm a
Speaker 2: Christian girl and I sing in the choir at Elevation Valentine,
Speaker 2: and I'm supposed.
Speaker 3: To be married. Some of us are stuck in what
Speaker 3: we think we were.
Speaker 2: Supposed to be and get stuck. Didn't get stuck in
Speaker 2: a season. Every time in fall, I start to feel
Speaker 2: a little drained from the ministry of the year, and
Speaker 2: then depression can come in because it's the same same, same, same,
Speaker 2: same same, And then everybody else in the church is
Speaker 2: feeling the same way. And then I got to preach
Speaker 2: to y'all. So, like, you know, I grew up in
Speaker 2: the Low Country or South Carolina. You don't know where
Speaker 2: I'm going with this yet.
Speaker 3: Hang on.
Speaker 2: They used to take their trucks out on Friday night
Speaker 2: and get stuck on purpose, called it mudding.
Speaker 3: But I found out something now.
Speaker 2: You don't get stuck in anything shallow.
Speaker 3: If you feel stuck, that means you're in the deep stuff.
Speaker 2: Maybe God is doing something deep in your life when
Speaker 2: you feel stuck. Maybe when you feel stuck, you're building strength.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the only way you really build strength, right,
Speaker 2: is to get to that sticking point, to get to
Speaker 2: that point where you can't push through.
Speaker 3: You lift weights all the time, pe wegg, how about
Speaker 3: you bench press? Huh? Five thirty five? All right, five
Speaker 3: thirty five. I'm making this up. I didn't hear what
Speaker 3: he really said, but he's big, and you know he's
Speaker 3: in there. I used to have this spotter.
Speaker 2: In high school, I didn't bench press five thirty five,
Speaker 2: but he would stand over me, and the moment I
Speaker 2: started to struggle, he would just lift the whole weight
Speaker 2: off of me. I thought, well, man, that's not a
Speaker 2: good spotter. That's not a good God to never let
Speaker 2: you have any weight. That's not a good God to
Speaker 2: never let you have any challenge. How would he grow
Speaker 2: your faith? No, see a good spotter. You're on Rep.
Speaker 2: Eleven right, five thirty five Rep eleven Ah, And I'm
Speaker 2: just a little stuck.
Speaker 3: And God is standing over your life.
Speaker 2: I need you to know this, And he's where you're stuck,
Speaker 2: that sticking point, and he says, I'm not gonna take
Speaker 2: it off of you. I'm gonna give you a lift.
Speaker 2: Have you ever had God be your stutter? I declare,
Speaker 2: the God of angel armies is standing over your life,
Speaker 2: and if you feel stuck, he will do what you
Speaker 2: cannot do.
Speaker 3: He is your string.
Speaker 2: He knows how to get me past the point where
Speaker 2: I'm stuck.
Speaker 3: But now watch this. You may not like this.
Speaker 2: The first sticking point that Moses encountered was not Pharaoh.
Speaker 2: The first sticking point that Moses encountered and maybe the
Speaker 2: greatest one is that he tried to negotiate with God.
Speaker 3: And he got stuck.
Speaker 2: He got stuck at the burning bush before he got
Speaker 2: stuck at the Red Sea.
Speaker 3: God's like, I chose you.
Speaker 2: Now he's already stuck tending sheep for his father in law, Jethro.
Speaker 2: He's been doing that forty years because he got mad
Speaker 2: at somebody and killed him.
Speaker 3: Because when you get stuck, you get stupid. And so
Speaker 3: now he's.
Speaker 2: Doing something's doing something that's the consequence of his decision.
Speaker 3: And then the Lord speaks to him.
Speaker 2: He's like, I chose you go to Pharaoh and tell
Speaker 2: him let my people go with the hand motions, you
Speaker 2: go to Bible school Pharaoh.
Speaker 3: Pharaoh, okay. And so.
Speaker 2: Moses is stuck. He's like, give me chapter four, verse
Speaker 2: one Exodus four, verse one. And he showed this because
Speaker 2: you might be stuck in yourself. He said, But behold,
Speaker 2: they will not believe me. But you hadn't even talked
Speaker 2: to them yet, or listen to my voice, for they
Speaker 2: will say they will say the Lord.
Speaker 3: Did not appear to you.
Speaker 6: Know.
Speaker 2: There's two things about this that are wrong. One is
Speaker 2: on other people, and too it's about a future event
Speaker 2: you can't control either. So he's stuck. And he's stuck
Speaker 2: for good reason. It's because he knows himself. He knows Moses,
Speaker 2: you know you, and to negotiate with God is usually
Speaker 2: like nah, I better not try that. So I'm stuck
Speaker 2: in myself. And he's already in this crazy He's telling
Speaker 2: himself a story of what's gonna happen. You've been stuck
Speaker 2: in a story of what's going to happen. Wake up
Speaker 2: in the middle of the night sometimes just like Aha, I'm.
Speaker 3: In a king's eze bed.
Speaker 2: Everything's good, got the beautiful woman in the world sleeping
Speaker 2: next to me. I'm screaming, I'm stuck in a story
Speaker 2: of what might happen tomorrow or what has happened before.
Speaker 2: You ever been stuck in a story? Have you ever
Speaker 2: been stuck in yourself? Have you ever been stuck in
Speaker 2: a story about yourself? I mean, rejection is painful, but
Speaker 2: Moses takes it to a new level.
Speaker 3: This is not rejection.
Speaker 2: He rejects himself before anybody else has the chance to.
Speaker 2: This is like advanced level. This is prejection.
Speaker 3: Huh. I'm not even gonna try.
Speaker 2: It's a story of my life.
Speaker 3: Everything always goes wrong.
Speaker 2: I mean, I see this. I don't want to do
Speaker 2: a dating seminary. We already did a negotiation seminar. When
Speaker 2: you ask her out on a date, like, I know
Speaker 2: you've got on mine to you gotta have some confidence
Speaker 2: to it. Man, walk up to her like, hey, I
Speaker 2: didn't know if you wanted to go Tuesday or Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Come on, I'm helping you. Name your kid Larry, that's
Speaker 2: my legal first name. But Moses is like, I can't
Speaker 2: do this. I know me, I don't have it. I
Speaker 2: can't do it. He's stuck in a story about himself. Now,
Speaker 2: the bigger story does not revolve around you. Remember that
Speaker 2: when we get stuck in ourselves, we miss the whole
Speaker 2: point that God is doing something that.
Speaker 3: Is bigger than you. It's bigger than what's wrong with you.
Speaker 3: It's bigger than what you didn't do. It's bigger than.
Speaker 2: The time you waste it, and is certainly bigger than
Speaker 2: the opinions of others. So God makes this kind of
Speaker 2: like pep talk. He's like, what is that in your hand?
Speaker 2: What is that in your hand? This wouldn't make me
Speaker 2: feel any better if I've got to lead a whole
Speaker 2: nation until the most powerful man in the world let
Speaker 2: my people go uh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. It's like,
Speaker 2: what is that in your hand? And Moses says, give
Speaker 2: me the verse a staff. The ESV calls it a staff,
Speaker 2: but technically it's.
Speaker 3: A stick.
Speaker 2: For every sticking point in your life. God has given
Speaker 2: you a stick, and you've got one right now. In
Speaker 2: order for Moses to see what that instrument could be,
Speaker 2: he had to release it and throw it down on
Speaker 2: the ground. When he released it on the ground, it
Speaker 2: became a snake. Until you surrender it, you will never
Speaker 2: see what it could be. I'm gonna bridge this thing.
Speaker 2: I'm going home in a minute. But let me tell
Speaker 2: you something right now. If you will release it, if
Speaker 2: you will put it before God, if you will say,
Speaker 2: here's my intellect, here's my will, here's my understanding, here's
Speaker 2: my ability, you will watch it transform.
Speaker 3: It will transform.
Speaker 2: It became a snake to become a sign because Moses
Speaker 2: needed to know this is really God because he was
Speaker 2: stuck in himself. And when you need to get out
Speaker 2: of yourself, you have to release what God has given
Speaker 2: you so he can show you what it can become.
Speaker 2: But then he had to do something crazy. He had
Speaker 2: to do something that I would never do. He had
Speaker 2: to do something that you only do if you really
Speaker 2: love nature.
Speaker 3: He had to pick up the snake.
Speaker 2: Because when he first released it and it became a snake,
Speaker 2: he ran from it because he was smart, because he
Speaker 2: didn't have faith, but because he had intelligence.
Speaker 3: But then God called him to reach for what he
Speaker 3: had been running from.
Speaker 2: I promise you, I feel the Holy Spirit so strong
Speaker 2: right now. And when he did it, it turned back
Speaker 2: into a stick. A stick is something small, but it
Speaker 2: would be that same stick. I need you to know
Speaker 2: this because you've never been through this challenge before. You've
Speaker 2: never been twenty four before. You've never been sixty one before.
Speaker 2: You never been a wife before, you never been a
Speaker 2: mom before. I never been a dad before. This is
Speaker 2: my first rodeo. You never been through this before. This
Speaker 2: wasn't on my schedule. And I don't feel like I'm
Speaker 2: what I'm supposed to be for what I'm up against.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you what God told Moses by the
Speaker 2: power of the Holy Spirit, that when you stand in
Speaker 2: front of those red seas in your life, God took
Speaker 2: him back and showed him the same stick, the same
Speaker 2: stick that God had changed into a snake and back
Speaker 2: into a stick, that same stick, and he told him
Speaker 2: an Exodus fourteen, verse sixteen, I want you to take
Speaker 2: your stick and point it at what you're going through.
Speaker 2: I want you to take your stick, and I want
Speaker 2: you to point it at what you can't get over.
Speaker 3: I want you to take your stick.
Speaker 2: Keep the verse up, because this is right from the Bible,
Speaker 2: and raise your staff.
Speaker 3: I know as small, it always feels small.
Speaker 2: I know that some of you are visited by the
Speaker 2: perpetuable spirit of the never enough. But it becomes enough
Speaker 2: when you stretch it. It becomes enough. When you use it,
Speaker 2: it becomes a enough. This is the miracle of faith.
Speaker 2: Why because God changes things?
Speaker 3: Say it.
Speaker 2: God changes things. That's what he does. God changes things.
Speaker 2: He turns mourning to dancing. He changes things. He gives
Speaker 2: beauty for ashes. He changes things. He turns shame into glory.
Speaker 2: He turns crosses into empty tombs, he turns graves into gardens,
Speaker 2: he turns bones into armies, he turns sees into highways.
Speaker 2: And if you will stretch what He gave.
Speaker 3: You over what's your going through, You're.
Speaker 2: Gonna get through this. I declare it. I decree it.
Speaker 7: God said it.
Speaker 2: That sells it.
Speaker 3: Back up, Pharaoh.
Speaker 2: I've come it through, so I know it feels small,
Speaker 2: and I know for many of your energy has been
Speaker 2: diminished by what you've gone through. And I know some
Speaker 2: of you feel too young, and some feel too old,
Speaker 2: and some feel too in between, and some feel too.
Speaker 3: Shut up and trust your stuff.
Speaker 2: Don't do something stupid like give up and quit just
Speaker 2: because you feel tired. I felt tired from the nine
Speaker 2: thirty and I came out and preached this one, and
Speaker 2: I had to get in a freezing cold shower to
Speaker 2: wake up.
Speaker 3: Because you need this word. So I grabbed my stick
Speaker 3: and preached it.
Speaker 2: Because I can't stop doing what I'm called to do
Speaker 2: just because I'm tired. But you will have to trust
Speaker 2: that it is enough. Not that God is enough, but
Speaker 2: that what He gave you is enough for where he
Speaker 2: put you. This is a sticking point, and if you
Speaker 2: sit there and try to negotiate with God, you will
Speaker 2: miss it. Saddest thing in the world is that Moses
Speaker 2: never even went into the Promised Land.
Speaker 3: He got stuck.
Speaker 2: He hit a rock with his staff, the same staff
Speaker 2: that he raised over the sea, and the waters parted
Speaker 2: and they got through. He took that staff because he
Speaker 2: was tired of the people, and he struck the rock twice,
Speaker 2: and God said, now you can't go in because.
Speaker 3: You don't trust me enough.
Speaker 2: Everything you love will have a part of the process
Speaker 2: that you will not like, including following Jesus. Did Jesus
Speaker 2: love the Father? Then why did he ask in the
Speaker 2: garden of gotthsemone if there's any other way, I don't
Speaker 2: want to do it, because everything that you love will
Speaker 2: have a part that you don't like. I'm so sick
Speaker 2: of my generation thinking that we always have.
Speaker 3: To feel happy to move forward.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we can do it because we love God enough,
Speaker 2: and we love people enough, and we're called and because
Speaker 2: we have a style. I gotta stick I gotta stick
Speaker 2: it out, I gotta persevere. I have a purpose, I
Speaker 2: have a reason, I have a calling. And no, you
Speaker 2: can't have me back, Pharaoh. No, come too far to
Speaker 2: get stuck here. Some of you came from broken homes
Speaker 2: and broken families and busted situations, and God would not
Speaker 2: bring you out here to drown you.
Speaker 3: He's dealing with your enemies.
Speaker 2: Stretch your stick and trust your stuff and.
Speaker 3: Go forward and stand there.
Speaker 2: It's a small thing, and if you trust him enough
Speaker 2: to stretch the small thing over the bigger thing.
Speaker 3: I don't know what that is for you.
Speaker 2: I'm going slow because I need you to imagine and
Speaker 2: I need you to see yourself on the other side
Speaker 2: of this. What's going to be like when you're helping
Speaker 2: somebody else and all the hell that you went through
Speaker 2: isn't wasted, but it's invested. It's the dumbest thing. But
Speaker 2: I just saw a picture like Popeye or something of
Speaker 2: you just getting strong in your spirit because you're.
Speaker 3: Pushing past the sticking point. Now you got a spotter
Speaker 3: and God is not gonna let it fall on you.
Speaker 3: But you got to imagine. Okay, Okay, I will rejoice again.
Speaker 3: I will sing again. Okay, Okay, my children are gonna
Speaker 3: be free because I fought for this.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, I would do it, But but you will
Speaker 2: have to commit.
Speaker 3: You will have to You will have to walk through.
Speaker 2: It, and that means you'll have to walk through something
Speaker 2: that feels like it could collapse on you at any time.
Speaker 3: The story goes that he stretched.
Speaker 2: The staff, he trusted God, and God I made a
Speaker 2: Don't you love this? An interstate highway through the sea
Speaker 2: who else can do that? Who else can turn a
Speaker 2: sea into a highway, a stick into a sake a
Speaker 2: great Only God can do it. So the ability to
Speaker 2: walk through something that God is holding up for you.
Speaker 2: You can't stick your right foot in and your right
Speaker 2: foot out. You can't hokey pokey through the red sea.
Speaker 2: It's going to mean saying that God, I'm going to
Speaker 2: see this through. Must stay in this uncomfortable place. I
Speaker 2: would rather stay stuck and have you deal with what
Speaker 2: you need to deal with. I would rather stay stuck
Speaker 2: and see your purpose for my life fulfilled. Because when
Speaker 2: you're standing in front of something you've never seen before,
Speaker 2: hold on to what you know.
Speaker 3: You got to stick. You got a stick.
Speaker 2: And when it happens this week, when you hit the
Speaker 2: sticking point, if it's a mood, or if it's a
Speaker 2: I don't want to say this, but if it's a
Speaker 2: mother in law, or or if it's something real, deep
Speaker 2: and dark that we can't talk about out loud, when
Speaker 2: you hit it, use your stick. Small, Trust, imagine, commit
Speaker 2: and know that spells stick small. Trust God. It doesn't
Speaker 2: feel like much, but it's enough. Trust, Imagine, commit and know, Father,
Speaker 2: as your word has gone forth today. I have experienced
Speaker 2: such a joy of seeing these people receive this personal word.
Speaker 2: The other side of the camera, watching through a screen
Speaker 2: somewhere is someone who needed this message, And sitting in
Speaker 2: this room is someone who is at a sticking point,
Speaker 2: and what they do next will determine so much about
Speaker 2: whether they stay stuck or move forward. Everyone's standing at
Speaker 2: all of our locations, no one leaving. Thank you, Lord,
Speaker 2: Glory to your name, Thank you Jesus, Blessed be your name.
Speaker 3: Holy is your name? Worthy is your name? Worthy is
Speaker 3: your name? Worthy is your name?
Speaker 2: When they got through to the other side, y'all, they
Speaker 2: started singing.
Speaker 3: But sometimes you got to sing on the wrong side.
Speaker 3: Worthy is your name.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you've got to sing when you feel pain, and
Speaker 2: you've got to.
Speaker 3: Offer God the sacrifice of praise. And I wish there were.
Speaker 2: About one thousand people at Elevation Valentine, and a few
Speaker 2: hundred at Blakeney, and a few hundred of Gaston that
Speaker 2: would just lift your hands and begin to worship gods,
Speaker 2: begin to thank him that he turns seas into highways,
Speaker 2: hu tfoos, begin to thank him that he turns mourning
Speaker 2: to dancing. Cutterr sasy to think him that he steals,
Speaker 2: wins and ways.
Speaker 3: And the things that only he can do.
Speaker 2: Shuutter morty's a day's and the glory and only he
Speaker 2: deserved few give beauty.
Speaker 3: His name is great, his one is true. Shame easy,
Speaker 3: and it will come to that.
Speaker 2: New kid.
Speaker 7: Shoot curcrazy.
Speaker 3: Tirps it shoot merces com any believe that I'm all
Speaker 3: say it like your b even you every location.
Speaker 7: You turcusey God, shoot tr balls It's merces.
Speaker 2: Udy.
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 2: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 3: Thanks again for listening. God bless you