Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 1: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 1: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. Welcome today to all of our locations.
Speaker 1: Can we thank God for all of our campuses and locations? Said?
Speaker 1: Can we thank God for all of our campuses and locations? Amen?
Speaker 1: I was doing my stalker thing where I go around
Speaker 1: to all the campuses pushing buttons with cameras that are
Speaker 1: set up in the auditoriums I've been on. Do I
Speaker 1: look tired? I was on a trip. I went to
Speaker 1: Asheville and Columbia, and I even went to Toronto for a minute,
Speaker 1: all through technology, of course, before I came out to
Speaker 1: see you, some little jed life. Thank God for the
Speaker 1: great work he's doing also with our Ethan around the
Speaker 1: world and our interns Our Fall twenty eighteen in terms,
Speaker 1: come on, thank God for Thank God for them, thank
Speaker 1: God for their wardrobes, for their sense of style and fashion.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you why they're up here in a minute,
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep you in suspense. But hey, one
Speaker 1: thing that I really always feel good about is when
Speaker 1: I'm doing exactly what I know God wants me to do.
Speaker 1: When I stand up here on the stage and as
Speaker 1: we get ready for next weekend, which is going to
Speaker 1: be phenomenal where so many people around the world and
Speaker 1: here at our church locally, are going to participate in
Speaker 1: our game change or offering where we get to bring
Speaker 1: God something of significance and value to us, and we
Speaker 1: all get to make that opportunity count to invest something
Speaker 1: in what can't be taken away, as we have so
Speaker 1: many times before. As we get ready for that, I
Speaker 1: pray and I try to see how God wants me
Speaker 1: to preach that would position us, each of us for
Speaker 1: the season that He's taking us into. And that's important
Speaker 1: to me. Not to follow a formula, it's important to me.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing it
Speaker 1: the same way every time, because you know, we take
Speaker 1: up these offerings for expansion and we use so much
Speaker 1: of it for outreach each year. So I guess it
Speaker 1: would be fine if I just repeated the pattern each year.
Speaker 1: But maybe it's just my personality. I can't do that.
Speaker 1: And even more than that, I don't want to start
Speaker 1: trusting in some kind of formula. I guess that's the
Speaker 1: best way to say it. If I'm going to preach
Speaker 1: about faith, I want to demonstrate faith in the way
Speaker 1: that I preach about what I'm preaching about. So does
Speaker 1: that make sense? Why? Anyway, Whether it made sense or not,
Speaker 1: here's what I'm going to do today. Because when I
Speaker 1: was praying about what we should do as we set
Speaker 1: up what's going to happen next weekend, and I pray
Speaker 1: that you would not skip church next weekend, you know,
Speaker 1: some people will always do that like it's going to
Speaker 1: be a guilt trip. It's not. It's not like there's
Speaker 1: going to be a cover charge next week or something
Speaker 1: like that. It's for everyone, but it'll be really beautiful
Speaker 1: to be special. But this week is probably the most
Speaker 1: important because this is where we set it up. And
Speaker 1: any good comedian can tell you that the setup is
Speaker 1: often more important than the punchline. And so, but there's
Speaker 1: nothing funny about the Word of God. So let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the Word of God today. I want
Speaker 1: to share the same scripture just a few verses. If
Speaker 1: I drop a few verses down from what I shared
Speaker 1: last week, did you get to hear the message last weekend?
Speaker 1: It's mine to manage. Touch somebody say it's God's to give,
Speaker 1: but it's mine to manage. And I talked about this
Speaker 1: concept that we are stewards of the story, the story
Speaker 1: of how God has saved us and how God has
Speaker 1: sustained us. And as a pastor, I'm coming to understand
Speaker 1: my role more and more as a steward of the
Speaker 1: story that God is telling through this church. And it's
Speaker 1: God's story, but it's ours to manage. So powerful, and
Speaker 1: so let me get into this real quick, and this
Speaker 1: will be a little different today. I think you can
Speaker 1: tell that I'm a little I'm excited. I'm really excited,
Speaker 1: but I'm sitting down. I'm seated, so I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: scream as much. Those of you who don't like all that. Anyway,
Speaker 1: this is your this is your weekend, and I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna talk to you a little bit today. You'll laughed
Speaker 1: a little too much of that made me feel self conscious.
Speaker 1: I might holler once or twice, but I really just
Speaker 1: want to talk to you. And I got all this
Speaker 1: stuff in my Bible, and I'll tell you what it
Speaker 1: all is in a moment. Some notes and some money
Speaker 1: and i'll tell you about that. An envelope and some
Speaker 1: post it notes, and we'll get to all that in
Speaker 1: a moment. But first, let me read this. This is
Speaker 1: so important as a backdop for what I believe God
Speaker 1: wants to give you as a backstory today. Every blessing
Speaker 1: has a backstory. Okay, every blessing has a backstory, and
Speaker 1: so this is one. For the nation of Israel Josha
Speaker 1: before nineteen on the tenth day of the first month,
Speaker 1: the people went up from the Jordan and camped at
Speaker 1: Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho, and Joshua set up.
Speaker 1: Everybody says set up, and Joshua was set up at Gilgal.
Speaker 1: The twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan.
Speaker 1: Now they're not in the Promised Land yet, but God
Speaker 1: is setting them up. And as a part of the
Speaker 1: setup is kind of elaborate. God is like, hey, take
Speaker 1: the stones from the Jordan, which represents the miracle that
Speaker 1: I just did for you, and set it up. And
Speaker 1: then after you've set up the stones, this is the
Speaker 1: purpose of them. They're not just props. I don't want
Speaker 1: you to just collect these stones for props and put
Speaker 1: them in a trophy case somewhere. But rather than just trophies,
Speaker 1: these are triggers, these stones that you set up because
Speaker 1: I'm not done with you yet, and there's a great
Speaker 1: thing that I'm doing through you, and so I want
Speaker 1: to use the stones as a setup. And then what's
Speaker 1: verse twenty one. It gives the purpose he said to
Speaker 1: the Israelites. In the future, when you descendants ask their parents,
Speaker 1: not stop right there. He's teaching them to think generationally.
Speaker 1: He's thinking them. He's teaching them not to just settle
Speaker 1: for instant gratifications and what's in it for me. So
Speaker 1: in the future, when your kids are asking what do
Speaker 1: these stones mean? Tell them tell them very important, because
Speaker 1: the stones can't speak for themselves. Right. This is not
Speaker 1: like Siri, Hey, Siri, bring me lemonade it. This is
Speaker 1: not that kind of thing. This is not some magic trick.
Speaker 1: You've got to speak and tell them when you see
Speaker 1: the stones, when they see the stones, tell them, I
Speaker 1: love this stuff. I love these Old Testament stories so
Speaker 1: much in them. Tell them Israel cross the Jordan on
Speaker 1: dry ground, for the Lord your God dried up the
Speaker 1: Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord
Speaker 1: your God did to the Jordan what he had done
Speaker 1: to the Red Sea when he dried it up before
Speaker 1: until we had crossed over. Every generation is to experience
Speaker 1: their own move of God, not just worship something God
Speaker 1: did in the past, but to move forward into the
Speaker 1: future full of faith. And so I want to speak
Speaker 1: to you for a few moments today on the power
Speaker 1: of the prompt. The prompt if you'd like to write
Speaker 1: that down, it's just a little title that I'm given
Speaker 1: the message. If you wouldn't like to write it down,
Speaker 1: it's still the title that I'm given the message, the
Speaker 1: power of the Prompt. So about these interns. They're pretty
Speaker 1: cool Elevation Church dot org slash Internship Shameless Pluck. They're
Speaker 1: two weeks out from finishing their internship and I got
Speaker 1: to meet with them Thursday, and we had the best time. Right,
Speaker 1: We're supposed to go minutes and it went two and
Speaker 1: a half hours. And then, for the first time that
Speaker 1: has ever happened, I met them at the movies because
Speaker 1: as a part of their discipleship process, I took them
Speaker 1: to see Creed two. Amen, Come on, I'm a good,
Speaker 1: good pastor. It's who I am. Now what prompted me
Speaker 1: to do that? Well, when I was getting to know them,
Speaker 1: I like to do an icebreaker. Hey, you know, what's
Speaker 1: your favorite music? And then they'll always say Christian bands
Speaker 1: because I'm the pastor. And then I turn around, No,
Speaker 1: it's you what do you really listen to? And then
Speaker 1: they'll I'll ask us your favorite TV shows? They all
Speaker 1: said the Office. I think everybody said the Office. And
Speaker 1: I said, cool, y'all are too young for the Office,
Speaker 1: but anyway, I understand. And then they said, I said
Speaker 1: what's your favorite movie? And one of the kids screams
Speaker 1: out Rocky. He said it, you know, like you like
Speaker 1: sometimes you're in a worship service and somebody go Jesus.
Speaker 1: But he said the name of Rocky. And when he
Speaker 1: invoked the name of Rocky, he won my heart. In fact,
Speaker 1: come here, Gabe, real quick.
Speaker 3: L J.
Speaker 1: Just in honor, in honor of Gabe. Let's do this
Speaker 1: real quick. Let's go ahead, go ahead, l J. Gotta
Speaker 1: take stairs, got take Oh you want to run the stairs?
Speaker 1: I like that big who goes to us stairs over there? Yet?
Speaker 4: Thank you?
Speaker 1: Go all the way, Take take upstairs. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: want to see ya. Don't know, man, bake me cow
Speaker 1: after running out of time, So this could be you
Speaker 1: Eleviation Church dot org slash intern chef. Thanks for coming.
Speaker 1: Now let's go sit down there, listen, catch your breath.
Speaker 1: You know you hadn't done that much cardio in months.
Speaker 1: So I was like, you like Rocky? He goes yeah.
Speaker 1: I said, now this is the real test. I said,
Speaker 1: what's the best? Rocky? He said, and he didn't have
Speaker 1: to pray, he didn't have to think, and this is
Speaker 1: all my a test if he's a true man of God.
Speaker 1: He said, he wants to go in ministry one day.
Speaker 1: And there's an answer to this, and it's it's definitely
Speaker 1: not It's definitely not five. We all know that could
Speaker 1: be three. But he said the RCT answer. He said
Speaker 1: Rocky four. When he said Rocky four, I said, I
Speaker 1: perceived that thou art a prophet and the words of life.
Speaker 1: I was like, just because that's the first one my
Speaker 1: dad showed me. I remember my dad. On a Friday night,
Speaker 1: we stopped by National Home Video in Monk's Corner VHS
Speaker 1: tape and he said, you're ready for Rocky four. You're
Speaker 1: ready for you're ready to see. By the way, it's
Speaker 1: just so I can know who to pray for that
Speaker 1: needs the Lord. How many of you have not seen
Speaker 1: Rocky a single Rocky movie? Oh, come to the altar?
Speaker 1: Are you serious? Your parents haven't shown you Rocky four?
Speaker 1: They called DSS on those parents. I almost felt like
Speaker 1: with my kids it was a generational responsibility, you know,
Speaker 1: to show them how the Cold War really ended with
Speaker 1: Rocky deceiting Drago and and then so when I found
Speaker 1: out that Creed two was the sequel to Rocky four,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, man, this is the This is
Speaker 1: the equivalent of Joshua and Moses. This is like the
Speaker 1: Red Sea and the Jordan, you know, is to This
Speaker 1: is probably taking the illustration too far, but I almost
Speaker 1: had a spiritual experience. I met them at the theater
Speaker 1: on on Thursday night and we watched Rocky. I think
Speaker 1: we annoyed everybody in the theater. We were so loud
Speaker 1: at Stonecrest. But we went to the Temple of Stonecrest
Speaker 1: and we watched the Gospel according to Rocky Baboa, And
Speaker 1: there's so much gospel and Rocky But you probably don't
Speaker 1: know the backstory to it, and so you know it
Speaker 1: prompted me. Sermons come to me from all kinds of places.
Speaker 1: But I'm sitting there, Graham and Elijah went with me,
Speaker 1: and we're watching Creed two, and I won't tell you
Speaker 1: how it ends, because your homework this week is to
Speaker 1: prepare your offering, read your Bible, and go see Creed
Speaker 1: two and past there and then and then I was thinking,
Speaker 1: Graham was sitting with me, Elijah was sitting with me,
Speaker 1: the interns were there, and I was thinking, like, remember
Speaker 1: my dad's in heaven now, and so I always remember
Speaker 1: when he showed me. It was just a moment where
Speaker 1: I was like, every generation gets their own Rocky. It's cool.
Speaker 1: And then I thought, I wonder how many of them
Speaker 1: know the backstory of how Rocky Balboa was created. I
Speaker 1: wonder how many of I wonder how many of them
Speaker 1: know what these stones mean? You know, they know that
Speaker 1: Michael B. Jordan wasn't the first Creed. I wonder if
Speaker 1: they know. And I don't know how much of this
Speaker 1: you knew gave. But when Sylvester Stallone created Rocky, he
Speaker 1: was inspired because he was broke right. He had been
Speaker 1: in one movie and he had moderate success, but he
Speaker 1: moved to la because he wanted to start really trying
Speaker 1: to write, and he would walk around writing stuff, and
Speaker 1: that he went to see Muhammad Ali fight Chuck Webner.
Speaker 1: How many of you didn't know any of this, Just
Speaker 1: raise your hand real quick. Okay, this is important. This
Speaker 1: is almost biblical. Rocky is canonical, and I promise you
Speaker 1: would be in Joshua in just a moment. But let
Speaker 1: me get the backstory this. And when he was watching
Speaker 1: Chuck Webner fight Muhammad Ali and go the distance even
Speaker 1: though he didn't win and put the champ down, he
Speaker 1: was inspired by the story of an underdog. He thought,
Speaker 1: that's what I need to write. And he spent the
Speaker 1: next three days writing the rough draft of Rocky. Three
Speaker 1: days three days, so for those of you who don't
Speaker 1: believe that Rocky is biblical. Three days. And then when
Speaker 1: he finished writing it, he remember he was prompted just
Speaker 1: by something that he saw. Talk about the power of
Speaker 1: a prompt He was prompted watching it. I need to
Speaker 1: write that. He wrote it, and then somebody asked him
Speaker 1: what he was working on when he went for an
Speaker 1: audition one time, and he almost didn't want to tell
Speaker 1: him because he didn't know if he was any good,
Speaker 1: but he show him him working on this thing. He's prompted.
Speaker 1: And then they offered him twenty five thousand dollars for
Speaker 1: the script, fifty one hundred. No, because they weren't going
Speaker 1: to let him be Rocky, and he wanted to play
Speaker 1: Rocky and something in told him, you know, you need
Speaker 1: to play this character. This is what's a lifetime thing.
Speaker 1: And then they offered him two hundred fifty thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand dollars, three hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: He had one hundred and six dollars in his bank account,
Speaker 1: and they offered him three hundred and sixty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: from the script. He said no, he had already sold
Speaker 1: his dog, Buckus, Buckus, He sold his dog Buckus, and
Speaker 1: he turned it down. And finally they gave him a
Speaker 1: million dollars to make the movie, which wasn't much, and
Speaker 1: he made it. And as of twenty seventeen, according to
Speaker 1: what Light Google, the Rocky franchise has earned in the
Speaker 1: box office alone over one point four billion dollars. So
Speaker 1: let's thank god for Rocky. And then and then we'll
Speaker 1: move on into something I want to pay you about.
Speaker 1: I just told you I can see some of you like,
Speaker 1: come on, man, I ain't come for all this. Let's
Speaker 1: shut up. I'm trying to get to something here, all right.
Speaker 1: I got a reason for telling you this, because everything
Speaker 1: great that I've ever seen I would attribute to the
Speaker 1: hand of God in my life started with a prompting,
Speaker 1: a prompting. And the thing about game changers and game
Speaker 1: changing decisions is that they don't feel like game changers
Speaker 1: in the moment. It doesn't. A promise from God usually
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like a promise. Here's how it operates in
Speaker 1: the pattern of scripture. Okay, that God will give you
Speaker 1: a promise, and then he will give you a prompting
Speaker 1: to act on the promise that he gave. And learning
Speaker 1: to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit is
Speaker 1: the most crucial skill that you could ever acquire in
Speaker 1: your life. It takes courage, it takes discernments, it takes
Speaker 1: sometimes being still shutting the other voices off. But the
Speaker 1: promptings of the Holy Spirit. I mean, how many times
Speaker 1: have I missed the blessing of God in an area
Speaker 1: of my life because I did not respond to a prompting.
Speaker 1: How many times have we come to church and heard
Speaker 1: a sermon and then we experienced a prompting, But because
Speaker 1: we didn't respond to the prompt we did not receive
Speaker 1: the promise. It could be the smallest things. One time
Speaker 1: God prompted me to send somebody a voice memo. They
Speaker 1: said they saved it for four years on their phone.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that they were going to save it
Speaker 1: for four years. I just knew they were going through something,
Speaker 1: and I sent it to them prompting, prompting, And it
Speaker 1: must have seemed weird to the Israelites. Right set up
Speaker 1: the stones, But the stones are not there to serve
Speaker 1: the purpose that they seem to be serving on the surface.
Speaker 1: They are to prompt the story. Now I'm preaching to
Speaker 1: you today because there are some things that God has
Speaker 1: placed in your life and some things that he's doing
Speaker 1: that if you will pay attention, God is trying to
Speaker 1: use that thing to prompt you in an area of
Speaker 1: your life where He intends to bless you. The stones
Speaker 1: prompt the story, and then the story is meant to
Speaker 1: prompt the faith of the people so that they can
Speaker 1: continue on. And this is how God works. So I
Speaker 1: want to practice this today. I want to do this
Speaker 1: in front of you. It's one thing to preach it,
Speaker 1: it's another thing to practice it. And I realized that
Speaker 1: the Israelites didn't go back to that place in Gilgal
Speaker 1: and tell their children the story. That's why in Judges
Speaker 1: two ten it says that the next generation didn't know.
Speaker 1: Why didn't they know because their parents didn't revisit the place.
Speaker 1: They got so far from where they started that they
Speaker 1: lost their sense of who brought them. Now, I don't
Speaker 1: want that to happen to us as a church, and
Speaker 1: so I thought what might be appropriate today to help
Speaker 1: prompt your faith is to share stones, not twelve. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to do twelve. Like the twelve stones. We
Speaker 1: don't have that long. If I just want to take five,
Speaker 1: I just want to take five prompts. And this is
Speaker 1: where the post it notes come in, because I wrote
Speaker 1: down five prompts, you know, like a writing prompt that
Speaker 1: you get writing prompt And I'm going to hand these
Speaker 1: one at a time to these interns and I'm going
Speaker 1: to ask them to tell me the story. And you
Speaker 1: can ask me anything you want, as long as it's
Speaker 1: exactly what's written on this post it note, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna answer it to prompt everybody, say prompt. Prompt, that's
Speaker 1: the word God gave me. Prompt to learn how to
Speaker 1: respond to the prompting of God. That's what this offering
Speaker 1: is about. That's what life is about. That's what forgiveness
Speaker 1: is about. God is going to prompt you, and will
Speaker 1: you respond to the prompt That determines how you experienced
Speaker 1: the promise. So I've got five of these and they
Speaker 1: will prompt the story like those stones prompted the stories,
Speaker 1: and I pray that God is it. You want to
Speaker 1: read the first one? He didn't get to go last night? Okay,
Speaker 1: it's the same ones as last night, though. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't change him because it went good last night. So
Speaker 1: read me last. Tell me about the time you thought
Speaker 1: your college roommate was going crazy? What was actually setting
Speaker 1: an example you would follow for the next twenty years.
Speaker 1: What a great question. Thank you for asking me that.
Speaker 1: So my college roommate my junior and senior year, was
Speaker 1: named Alex Early, which is funny because he would get
Speaker 1: up super early and he would pray I would get
Speaker 1: up last minute seven fifty seven for an eight am class.
Speaker 1: We went to North Greenville University. It's where I got
Speaker 1: my degree. It's where I got my wife. If you
Speaker 1: were to ask me which of those two has served
Speaker 1: a greater purpose in my life, it would no doubt
Speaker 1: be that one. So I hadn't shown anybody my degree
Speaker 1: in a while, but I show her off all the time. Anyway.
Speaker 1: My roommate was Alex Early. He was very spiritual, but
Speaker 1: he's also one of these people who wasn't so spiritual
Speaker 1: that he wasn't funny. He was like able to He
Speaker 1: could quote John Calvin to you, but he could also
Speaker 1: make the funniest prank phone calls. And he would call
Speaker 1: he had this this this redneck persona called dew Wyane
Speaker 1: McGraw d u w I a n E with a
Speaker 1: thing over the e because it's French, dew Wane McGraw
Speaker 1: and he called He modeled after roy D Mercer and
Speaker 1: had the best time in college. But what I learned
Speaker 1: from him that I never forget that I'm so glad
Speaker 1: you asked me about and thank you for asking me.
Speaker 1: That is. One day he came running back to the
Speaker 1: room between classes and he looked like he looked like
Speaker 1: he was in a state of absolute emergency. Was in
Speaker 1: a panic mode. And he starts grabbing out of the
Speaker 1: drawers all the money he can find in the room.
Speaker 1: Not my money, his money. He starts grabbing all the
Speaker 1: money out of the room. And I was like, what
Speaker 1: are you doing. He's like, I'll have time to talk
Speaker 1: about it. I'll tell you when I get back. Like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, what is Alex? What is Alex into?
Speaker 1: Just like some Walter White crap going on? And so
Speaker 1: he uh, he came back. He wouldn't talk, tell me
Speaker 1: what he was doing. And he came back. He said
Speaker 1: he looked so relieved. I was like, what was that?
Speaker 1: And he and he said he was real serious. He goes,
Speaker 1: God convicted me, Bro, I've been hold on. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you what he said. Next, said Max. He said,
Speaker 1: since I've been here at college, I haven't been tied in.
Speaker 1: He belonged to a church that I really admire in
Speaker 1: his hometown in Woodstock, Georgia, first Baptist Woodstock pastor Johnny Hunt.
Speaker 1: And he said, I am I'm sending my tithe. I
Speaker 1: calculated God spoke to me that his money was in
Speaker 1: my bank account. And I've been telling myself the whole
Speaker 1: time I was here at college. That since I was away,
Speaker 1: and since I didn't have much anyway, he said, but
Speaker 1: God convicted me not to keep his money in my account.
Speaker 1: And that boy mailed the cash and he had coins
Speaker 1: and everything he could find and send it in the mail,
Speaker 1: and God used him. One of the ways God will
Speaker 1: prompt you sometimes is through the example of somebody else.
Speaker 1: That's why I always do the giving on the weekend
Speaker 1: where people come in and give, because I think that
Speaker 1: sometimes an example is better than a sermon. Amen. And
Speaker 1: when he did that, God spoke to me, you know,
Speaker 1: because my mom had taught me the same principle of tithing.
Speaker 1: And yet I found so many excuses. And you know
Speaker 1: what I did. Next. Thing I did well, I had
Speaker 1: a checking account. I didn't think it had to be
Speaker 1: as ghetto as he made it out to be, like
Speaker 1: he's throwing cash in the mail. But I did the
Speaker 1: same thing. I decided, you know what, he's right, He's right.
Speaker 1: If I can't trust God with that ten percent, how
Speaker 1: can I say everything I have comes from him? And
Speaker 1: I said it, yeah, Amen, see I'm not I need
Speaker 1: you to know this in case you're new or a
Speaker 1: guest or something. I am not one bit timid about
Speaker 1: preaching this stuff. This is my testimony. I don't apologize
Speaker 1: for it. I believe in what we do. I believe
Speaker 1: in what God's work teaches. I've seen it in my life.
Speaker 1: So like, if you need me to get up here
Speaker 1: and say, eh, it don't be okay, I order God.
Speaker 1: That's not me. That's not how I feel about God.
Speaker 1: That's not how I feel about his word. That's not
Speaker 1: how I feel about his principles, that's not how I
Speaker 1: feel about his promises. I believe this stuff, man. So
Speaker 1: it prompted me and I never kept God's money in
Speaker 1: my bank account after that, no matter how much I
Speaker 1: had didn't have, and he got harder when you have more.
Speaker 1: You know, ten percent of fifty dollars, isn't that hard
Speaker 1: to sin? Sin God? Some coupons in the mall or
Speaker 1: something like that. But then when God starts blessing you,
Speaker 1: you have to decide do you want to trust him
Speaker 1: on the next level. Amen. So I believe God's going
Speaker 1: to prompt some people this year in that you've been
Speaker 1: holding on to what is God's I should move on
Speaker 1: from this point. Feel super uncomfortable, but these are just
Speaker 1: my stones, These are my stories. This is what God
Speaker 1: has done for me. So here's another one. I really
Speaker 1: like this one, This is probably my favorite one. Who
Speaker 1: wants to do this one? You want the prompt? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: let's get her a mic Ben Landier. By the way, Ben,
Speaker 1: who's your favorite intern on the stage right now? Don't
Speaker 1: answer that. I'll just give it to Mike. Just give it.
Speaker 1: Like to tell me about the big decision you made
Speaker 1: at the kitchen table that made you feel like you
Speaker 1: were going to throw up in your mouth. And I
Speaker 1: wrote it in an acceptable way. I think I actually
Speaker 1: did throw up in my mouth and swallow it back down.
Speaker 1: So here's the story. It's too vivid, I understand. You know,
Speaker 1: when Holly and I got married, she taught school and
Speaker 1: I traveled, and we saved up and put a down
Speaker 1: payment on a house, and we did what Dave Ramsey
Speaker 1: taught in his financial piece, stuff like no debt and
Speaker 1: all that. We try to do that, but other than
Speaker 1: our house. But then another thing we did was he said,
Speaker 1: put an emergency fund. And Dave Ramsey said it, he
Speaker 1: said it. It scared me to not do it the
Speaker 1: way he said it. And he said that it should
Speaker 1: be a certain amount of your expenses in case something happens,
Speaker 1: and he said, do it as quick as you can. Well,
Speaker 1: we were just married, and we didn't start with a
Speaker 1: lot of money or anything like that. We started with
Speaker 1: no money. But over time I was able to build
Speaker 1: up and I'll never forget. Like we're in our house
Speaker 1: at three thirty dell Wood Drive, Shelby, North Carolina. Could
Speaker 1: go by there and knock on the door and ask
Speaker 1: the person and say hey, hello, and then go into
Speaker 1: the kitchen and then sit down and you'll see the
Speaker 1: spot where this happened. Okay, all right, So we had
Speaker 1: just put that amount of money. We just hit the
Speaker 1: amount in the savings account. And I was going in
Speaker 1: to tell Holly, Hey, good news. We got our emergency fund.
Speaker 1: We hit the number because we set the number, hit
Speaker 1: the number, and when I went in to tell her,
Speaker 1: prompt something prompted me, And at first I thought it
Speaker 1: was the devil. I really did, because it was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: what if you gave that money instead. We didn't have
Speaker 1: kids yet, we didn't have that pressure of providing for children.
Speaker 1: Yet we were young. We could afford number one combo
Speaker 1: at the Mexican restaurant, and so it was like, what
Speaker 1: if you gave it away? Would you do that? So
Speaker 1: when I sat down at the table, I told Holly, hey,
Speaker 1: I got good news and bad news. The good news
Speaker 1: is we've got our emergency fund, like the less deposit
Speaker 1: we made it to the she said, let's say bad news.
Speaker 1: I think God, God might be I don't know if
Speaker 1: I use the word prompting, but I feel like an
Speaker 1: impression that we should give it away. And see, I'm
Speaker 1: counting on her to say that's not God, Like I'm
Speaker 1: counting on her to have no faith, right because then
Speaker 1: I can say, well, Lord, the woman that you gave me,
Speaker 1: you know, And she goes, oh cool, I trust you.
Speaker 1: God spoke to you this book. You know it's good.
Speaker 1: It's good. Dang it woman. And so I remember sitting
Speaker 1: down writing fives. I remember who we wrote them to.
Speaker 1: It's not important. We didn't have Elevation Church at the
Speaker 1: church we were part of at the time, another ministry,
Speaker 1: and we gave it away. But the funniest thing was
Speaker 1: while I was doing it, I was like my hands
Speaker 1: were shaking, and right when I've written the last one,
Speaker 1: I felt like a piece. And the way that I
Speaker 1: interpreted what the piece that I felt was like God
Speaker 1: was saying to me, keep your hands open to me,
Speaker 1: no matter how much I bless you with, no matter
Speaker 1: how hard things get at certain times in your life,
Speaker 1: or how tired it seems. And I've experienced both of those.
Speaker 1: Keep your hands open, and if you keep your hands
Speaker 1: open to me, You'll always have everything you need to
Speaker 1: do everything I've called you to do. Now, let me
Speaker 1: tell you the sequel to that. Because every Rocky four
Speaker 1: has a creed to every red sea has a Jordan.
Speaker 1: Just as past Monday, I got to sit down with
Speaker 1: our kids at the kitchen table, and it was some
Speaker 1: holy sacred moment. In fact, they were running around. They
Speaker 1: were I think, annoyed that they had to sit and
Speaker 1: listen to these stories again. I think Graham said, Dad,
Speaker 1: we know this already. But what I did I told
Speaker 1: them our testimony, and I asked them to bring all
Speaker 1: their money to the table, which is really technically my money.
Speaker 1: You have no money, you understand that, But bring my
Speaker 1: money that I let you pretend like is your money
Speaker 1: and keeping your little stupid wallet, bring it to the table.
Speaker 1: Abby has more money than the boys. I don't know
Speaker 1: what she's running on the side of school selling some
Speaker 1: jolly ranchers or something. Abby is so loaded. She's like
Speaker 1: says to her brothers all the time, you need to
Speaker 1: visit the bank of Abby seven. I sound and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's time. It's your end offering. You know, we did
Speaker 1: this with Waymaker, we did this with Surround, we did this.
Speaker 1: We've been doing this since they were conscious. Like here's
Speaker 1: mommy and Daddy and remember Da da Dad Bo Bob.
Speaker 1: Because different times we've done that over and over again,
Speaker 1: not the tithe but above and beyond. And then we
Speaker 1: pray about it. And sometimes God will give me, like
Speaker 1: a specific number that's meaningful. Sometimes I'll think I have
Speaker 1: the number, and then it's not the right one because
Speaker 1: it doesn't take faith. And God will stretch me because
Speaker 1: one will be what I can do, and then one
Speaker 1: will be something that really says how I need him.
Speaker 1: But when I was walking him through that and I'm like,
Speaker 1: sit down and listen to this. You know you need
Speaker 1: to hear this story. I realized something that just this
Speaker 1: year we hit a milestone where now Holly and I,
Speaker 1: by the grace of God, have been able to give
Speaker 1: to this church Elevation Church. Not what we originally gave
Speaker 1: at the kitchen table and shelby the emergency fund, and
Speaker 1: not two times that. But over the course of this church,
Speaker 1: we've been able to give not ten times and I
Speaker 1: couldn't really believe this number, not one hundred times, but
Speaker 1: a thousand times what we gave at that hitching table
Speaker 1: through this ministry. And I'm not going to tell you
Speaker 1: the amount because it's not about the size of the gift.
Speaker 1: It's about the sacrifice. That's what it's always about. Like
Speaker 1: some people sit through this teaching and God prompts them
Speaker 1: to give a million dollars, and they're able to do that.
Speaker 1: We've seen that. But some people God prompts, and God
Speaker 1: prompts them to do something that would seem small, but
Speaker 1: to him it's bigger because it represents something that comes
Speaker 1: from your heart. That's all God is. I went I
Speaker 1: went to Elevution who just talked about money. Now talking
Speaker 1: about money and talking about your heart where your treasure is,
Speaker 1: your heart will be also and we talk about every
Speaker 1: element of your heart. But until this happens, until your
Speaker 1: hands are open to God, That's that's what the offering
Speaker 1: is about. It's about getting your hands open. Not because
Speaker 1: God needs what you have, You need what He has.
Speaker 4: I'm preaching on this stool. I don't even need a
Speaker 4: pulpit for this sermon. I am preaching on this school DRUGO.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful, you know, like when we first gave to Outreach,
Speaker 1: I had no idea that it was a set up
Speaker 1: to see it as a stepping stone. It was a
Speaker 1: stepping stone. God was setting the table because when this
Speaker 1: church didn't have much money, Hurricane Katrina hit and I
Speaker 1: felt a prompting reach out to somebody in New Orleans
Speaker 1: or in the area, and I found a pastor in
Speaker 1: slide El, Louisiana, and we sent him sixteen hundred bucks
Speaker 1: that we did not have. We needed that money for
Speaker 1: our church. But I was operating out of the same principle,
Speaker 1: you keep your hands open to me and see what
Speaker 1: I will do through you. And now the fact that
Speaker 1: we've given and will have given by the end of
Speaker 1: this year, over forty million dollars away to those in need,
Speaker 1: come on, sin you right now, the praise God for
Speaker 1: what we've been able to do around the world. You
Speaker 1: kind of go back and you wonder, you wonder, you
Speaker 1: wonder what if what if we had said no back then?
Speaker 1: What if I said now, I'm gonna keep my little
Speaker 1: sixteen dollars for our outreach. I'm gonna keep my And
Speaker 1: God is prompting some of you to open your hands
Speaker 1: to him, and I pray that you'll know that. Joy,
Speaker 1: it's a real privilege. It's a real privilege. Let's just
Speaker 1: do another prompt. I think we got time for one
Speaker 1: or two more. You win you this one? You sure
Speaker 1: this is a big one. Don't screw it up. Take
Speaker 1: the post it now, a shiny cross around your neck.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the silver bullet of the church planting,
Speaker 1: the silver bullet of church planting. You want to know
Speaker 1: about that? You sure? I don't know if you can
Speaker 1: handle the silver bullet of church planting. I certainly wasn't
Speaker 1: ready for the silver bullet of church planting. So imagine
Speaker 1: this church has not started yet. I'm meeting with the
Speaker 1: seven families that moved here to start the church. Come on,
Speaker 1: let's go back to the Jordan for a minute. You
Speaker 1: got to go back to where you started and revisit
Speaker 1: these miracles. So at that time I didn't know anything
Speaker 1: to teach these people. So all we did was read
Speaker 1: books from people who knew how to start church because
Speaker 1: we never started one. I was twenty five years old.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I mean, I'm scared to death,
Speaker 1: but I feel like God is prompting us to start
Speaker 1: this church. And we had just decided to come to
Speaker 1: Charlotte to start it. We put up a map and anyway,
Speaker 1: you don't need to know all that point is. I
Speaker 1: brought in a guy who I thought was like an
Speaker 1: expert in church planting, and I asked him talk to
Speaker 1: my team, tell him anything you want, and I'll give
Speaker 1: you a fifty dollars Chili's gift card. At the time
Speaker 1: that seemed generous. We got it from credit card rebate points. Okay,
Speaker 1: And so he's like, you don't have to give me anything,
Speaker 1: just stop coming. Nice guy, and he shared with us
Speaker 1: a little bit about evangelism, a little bit about marketing,
Speaker 1: a little bit about team building, unity groups, all the
Speaker 1: typical stuff. But then when it was over, we'd been
Speaker 1: recording the whole session so we could listen to it
Speaker 1: and learn from it and taking notes, and all the
Speaker 1: families are sitting around the table and he's like at
Speaker 1: the end, he goes, okay, can you turn that off
Speaker 1: a minute. Can you stop recording? You turn off? And
Speaker 1: he goes, can you shut the door? What's about to
Speaker 1: happen here? And we shut the door and he's like,
Speaker 1: now I'm gonna give you the silver bullet of church planting.
Speaker 1: I'm about I'm about to hear this. And then he goes,
Speaker 1: there's friends that you have that belong to other churches,
Speaker 1: and those churches are big, and they tithed to their church,
Speaker 1: but their church wouldn't miss it if they stopped. Get
Speaker 1: them to transfer their tithe from that big church to
Speaker 1: your little church for twenty four months. And when he
Speaker 1: said it, it felt like a bullet, not a silver bullet,
Speaker 1: but it felt like if we did that, if we
Speaker 1: started this church on that kind of manipulation, then we
Speaker 1: would always have to manipulate. And I thanked him. I
Speaker 1: didn't correct him until he left the room. I said,
Speaker 1: thank you for coming, appreciate it. God bless you. He prayed,
Speaker 1: he left. I shut the door again. When he left,
Speaker 1: I said to the team, I said, we will not
Speaker 1: build this church on those types of principles. If we're
Speaker 1: going to do God's work and God's will, we'll have
Speaker 1: to do it God's way, and it was a temptation
Speaker 1: in the moment, you know, because it was strategic. And
Speaker 1: sometimes sometimes you'll be prompted to take a shortcut and
Speaker 1: to do it your way, and you can justify it,
Speaker 1: you know. But in that moment, here's what God prompted
Speaker 1: me to ask of that team. And these are just
Speaker 1: normal people, some of them with small children, all of
Speaker 1: them moving with no job. We didn't have some big funding.
Speaker 1: It was nothing like that. It's nothing like that. I
Speaker 1: just said, what if we gave ten percent the tithe
Speaker 1: to the church that we're currently a part of until
Speaker 1: we leave that is sending us, and another ten percent
Speaker 1: to the new one we're starting. But if we all
Speaker 1: committed to lead the way and to do that so
Speaker 1: that when we stand up and ask people to be
Speaker 1: a part of this, we will have set an example
Speaker 1: that they can follow. Do you want to know why
Speaker 1: God is using this ministry today? And now, like I
Speaker 1: look in the camera and it's like in Singapore and
Speaker 1: Cape Town and Gastonia and all kinds of places all
Speaker 1: around the world. It's not because of it's not because
Speaker 1: of great preaching. It's because of personal sacrifice that people
Speaker 1: were willing to make and hear me.
Speaker 4: I appreciate the front row, but I want to say
Speaker 4: something to everybody watching this sermon.
Speaker 1: If we become now just consumers Christian consumers where it's
Speaker 1: like I didn't really like the word today. I didn't
Speaker 1: do my song today. I was a guest today. I
Speaker 1: was of this. If it becomes about that, God will
Speaker 1: shut it all down, because that is not what this
Speaker 1: church was founded on. You see how they're looking at
Speaker 1: me out there. It's like this, you are sitting right
Speaker 1: now in somebody else's sacrifice. I always thought that was
Speaker 1: so crazy. People come and go. I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: like when the church talks about giving. How do you
Speaker 1: think there was a church for you to come to?
Speaker 1: If somebody didn't get me too? JJ. I love to
Speaker 1: tell the story of how that original core team they're
Speaker 1: all still here at the church. By the way, all
Speaker 1: of those families. Do you know how rare that is
Speaker 1: that God kept those families together these twelve and a
Speaker 1: half years. And now God is calling on another generation.
Speaker 1: And I really don't have time for the last two stones.
Speaker 1: I'd like to give them to you, but I'm only
Speaker 1: going to be able to give you one of them,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna let you vote on this one. Which
Speaker 1: one you want. Do you want to hear about the
Speaker 1: time that John the Baptists came into my office? Or
Speaker 1: option A? Or do you hear about the time that
Speaker 1: we took a bus ride from Hell? These are your options.
Speaker 1: Pray about it. See if God prompts you. Who wants
Speaker 1: to hear John the Baptists make some noise at every location.
Speaker 1: Who wants to hear about the bus ride from Hell?
Speaker 1: Makes them all right? So John the Baptist, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you this one real quick. That's the time that
Speaker 1: John Butler, who was a Baptist who yeah, he was
Speaker 1: a Baptist preacher, and he came in my office. Listen
Speaker 1: to this. You heard this last night, but listen again.
Speaker 1: You need to hear these stories over and over again.
Speaker 1: He came in and he had three hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: He had a denominational job. He'd been coming to the church.
Speaker 1: The church was full. He sits on my couch in
Speaker 1: my office. He asked for meeting with me, and he said, well, preacher,
Speaker 1: you were full this Sunday. I noticed you were full.
Speaker 1: I noticed there wasn't an empty seat in the house.
Speaker 1: And I'm so proud of that. I was like, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: praise the Lord, you know, spiritualize it, but really I
Speaker 1: was proud of it. Yes, sir, praise the Lord. We
Speaker 1: prayed for it. Praise God. He goes, Preacher, that's a problem.
Speaker 1: I said, no, it's not a problem. It's a goal.
Speaker 1: I want a full house. He said, yeah, but you're
Speaker 1: telling these people to bring their friends. Friend's gonna sit.
Speaker 1: You need to start another campus. And I have three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars that a little old lady who died
Speaker 1: left to the Baptist Convention for church planting, and I'll
Speaker 1: give it to you if you'll start another campus. And
Speaker 1: here's what I said. And I'm ashamed to tell you
Speaker 1: this to this day because for all of you that
Speaker 1: think this is just a brag session to tell you
Speaker 1: about my great faith, it's not. It's about God's faithfulness
Speaker 1: in spite of it. Because I looked at that man
Speaker 1: and says, I don't have the gifts to do that.
Speaker 1: People will not watch me preach on a screen. So
Speaker 1: I thank God for what he said. Next so powerful.
Speaker 1: He said, here's how it works, preacher, And he's talking
Speaker 1: to me like a like, like a young punk like
Speaker 1: I was. But he said it would love to He said,
Speaker 1: if you get ahead of God trying to obey him,
Speaker 1: he'll just shut the door. If you get behind God
Speaker 1: and won't obey him, he'll just get somebody else to
Speaker 1: do it. You take a few days and pray about it, preacher,
Speaker 1: and let me know what you want to do. And
Speaker 1: he got up to walk out. I say, you gotta
Speaker 1: come back. We'll do it. We'll do We'll do that.
Speaker 1: Don't want God to make somebody else. Come on.
Speaker 3: I want in on this. I want to be in
Speaker 3: the middle of what God is doing. And now today
Speaker 3: watch this over over.
Speaker 4: I want to say it's seventeen locations. It's more than that,
Speaker 4: because somebody's watching this in a hospital room on a screen,
Speaker 4: somebody's watching this on television, somebody's watching this in a prison.
Speaker 1: And it it starts when you respond to a prompting. So,
Speaker 1: for just a moment, would you just see that right
Speaker 1: there where you are, for a moment, would you make
Speaker 1: a space right now in your heart for the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit to prompt you in an area of your life
Speaker 1: where He is speaking to you. But you have not
Speaker 1: yet responded, Joshua said, set up these stones so that
Speaker 1: when the children of Israel ask you what these stones mean,
Speaker 1: you can tell them what God did. I did my
Speaker 1: best today in the little bit of time that we
Speaker 1: had to tell you some of the things that God
Speaker 1: has done for us in the twelve and a half
Speaker 1: years that we've been a church, some of it before
Speaker 1: you got here. Some of you have been here for
Speaker 1: many of these miracles. And I did it in hopes
Speaker 1: that it would prompt you to know that when faith
Speaker 1: skips a generation, and when we start to stand in
Speaker 1: the middle of something that God did that was extraordinary
Speaker 1: and treated as common, miracles start to dry up and
Speaker 1: all I'm asking you to do as we prepare for
Speaker 1: next weekend online around the world. You know, we've already
Speaker 1: had the conversation with our family. Here's here's Abby's money.
Speaker 1: That's the biggest money, is the kid's money. That's what
Speaker 1: God prompted them to do. Holly and I have have
Speaker 1: been praying, and I didn't tell you this yet, but
Speaker 1: in my heart while I was preaching last night, my
Speaker 1: number went up. So we need to talk again. Because
Speaker 1: one number was comfortable and then the other number represented
Speaker 1: a commitment to not rest on what God has already done,
Speaker 1: but to make way for what He wants to do.
Speaker 1: And the ask is very simple. Ask God, ask him
Speaker 1: to prompt you. Some of you have never been through
Speaker 1: this process, so you've never taken it seriously, and I
Speaker 1: understand it. It's uncomfortable. But this card is a prompt.
Speaker 1: It's a prompt for you. You know what a great
Speaker 1: word prompt, prompt, prompt. It also means a media prompt, prompt. Yes,
Speaker 1: God is yours. Of course God. Of course I would
Speaker 1: advance your work. Of course I would give to you.
Speaker 1: Of course I would be generous. Of course I would
Speaker 1: want to make away for someone else like you made
Speaker 1: away for me. Of course, Lord, it's yours. When you
Speaker 1: get that kind of spirit in your heart, you begin
Speaker 1: to experience promises of God that you could never imagine.
Speaker 1: This is not some name it claimant, blabbit grab it
Speaker 1: weird theology where I'm telling you that you can get
Speaker 1: a Mercedes if you give God ten dollars. I'm believe
Speaker 1: in that. I'm appreach that never have, never will. What
Speaker 1: I'm telling you is a testimony that God has made
Speaker 1: a way for me time after time, and I want
Speaker 1: to see him do the same in your life. If
Speaker 1: that means that right now you're in a season where
Speaker 1: you can't give, then let this be the season that
Speaker 1: someone else carries the load. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: But you pray, you pray that those who are able
Speaker 1: to give will give, not on the level that's comfortable,
Speaker 1: but on the level that represents a true commitment to
Speaker 1: the cause of Christ. Maybe never become like this when
Speaker 1: we started like this. So want you to buy your
Speaker 1: head and close your eyes, no one moving. This is
Speaker 1: a pretty important moment right now is a setup for
Speaker 1: something that God wants to do in the future. And
Speaker 1: I'd like to just give you one minute, just sixty
Speaker 1: seconds after I stopped talking, and if you would ask
Speaker 1: God silently. You don't have to pray out loud or
Speaker 1: anything like that. Maybe you want to just open your hands,
Speaker 1: just physically, like right in front of you. That's what
Speaker 1: I'd do sometimes when I'm praying about a message or
Speaker 1: when I'm asking God for direction in my life, maybe
Speaker 1: just with your hands open and just say, God, would
Speaker 1: you prompt me, prompt me to respond to the gospel
Speaker 1: that You've freely given me? As I get the opportunity
Speaker 1: to share it with others. You speak to me specifically, God,
Speaker 1: show me how I can be used as I prepare
Speaker 1: my offering side give it online this week or bring
Speaker 1: it back next weekend. Show me what you've given me
Speaker 1: that came from you, that I can now give back
Speaker 1: as an offering. And in just a moment, I'm going
Speaker 1: to allow you to sit. You know, God often doesn't shout,
Speaker 1: He doesn't like draw stuff in the sky. He doesn't
Speaker 1: always respond with a big sign that comes from Heaven
Speaker 1: out loud. He speaks in a whisper, still, small voice.
Speaker 1: He prompts you, and it is your response to that
Speaker 1: prompting that determines how much of His promises you experience. So, Father,
Speaker 1: now speak to your people in this minute of silence
Speaker 1: and throughout the next week, and prompt them as to
Speaker 1: what you would have them to do in obedience. Thank
Speaker 1: 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 now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information,
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 2: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.