Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: In just the moment, we're going to welcome Holly to
Speaker 1: the stage. She's going to share God's word with us today.
Speaker 1: My wife come right now. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: come on, let's thank God for her as she comes.
Speaker 1: What I wanted to say, just by way of introduction
Speaker 1: to her sermon today is that as the world becomes
Speaker 1: more and more artificial, the authentic becomes more and more attractive.
Speaker 1: And what we love about you I speak on behalf
Speaker 1: of all of these people, the ones who have good
Speaker 1: sense to appreciate a woman of God who is comfortable
Speaker 1: being who she is. I remember when we first started
Speaker 1: the church, and there were so many questions that you
Speaker 1: had about what is a pastor's wife to do and be?
Speaker 1: And there's so many different templates, models and bolts. But
Speaker 1: you had the courage to play the role that God
Speaker 1: had given you. And when people come up to us
Speaker 1: in the mall, and they come up to us at
Speaker 1: Red Lobster and they come up to us and say,
Speaker 1: thank God for your ministry. Usually they just push me
Speaker 1: out of the way to get straight to you. And
Speaker 1: there's something that they know that they're very correct and assessing,
Speaker 1: is that for so many times that you could have
Speaker 1: grabbed a spotlight, you chose to be a servant and
Speaker 1: a support system for me and our three children. So
Speaker 1: I thank God for you. What they usually say is
Speaker 1: thank you for giving me permission to be real. And
Speaker 1: I want you to be assured today there are thousands
Speaker 1: of people in our physical locations all over the world
Speaker 1: with our EFAM who are excited and expected to hear
Speaker 1: the word of hope that God has given you for
Speaker 1: us today. So do your thing. I love you. Let's
Speaker 1: thank God for Pastor Holly Burn. Well, Happy Mother's Day
Speaker 1: for me, And we already welcomed all of our campuses,
Speaker 1: so you can go ahead and be seated. I do
Speaker 1: want to say, oh, there's my table like magic. I
Speaker 1: do want to say welcome to all of our campuses
Speaker 1: because I don't get to say it very often, and
Speaker 1: I just want everyone to know how much I love you,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you. And I love our church. Do
Speaker 1: you love our church? I love our church? And of course,
Speaker 1: Happy Mother's Day to my own mother. And it's a
Speaker 1: special day, like Pastor Stephen said, it's her birthday. Can
Speaker 1: we give her one more hand? Happy birthday, Mom. I'm
Speaker 1: really excited to be able to bring the word of
Speaker 1: God to you today. But first, I have a secret.
Speaker 1: And I kind of didn't want my husband to know this,
Speaker 1: but now he knows because he's heard me preach this
Speaker 1: sermon twice already. But here's my secret. Unfortunate that he
Speaker 1: knows this. But I don't mind doing the dishes. I
Speaker 1: actually kind of love loading the dishwasher because to me,
Speaker 1: tell me, if you agree to me, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like playing Tetris, and Tetris Tetris is the only video
Speaker 1: game I have ever been even remotely good at. My
Speaker 1: kids are like, mom, Tetris. I don't know. I just
Speaker 1: I love puzzles, and so to me, loading the dishwasher
Speaker 1: is like a challenge, how many dishes can I get
Speaker 1: in this dishwasher. My husband doesn't like loading the dishwasher.
Speaker 1: In fact, he usually chooses to just hand wash everything.
Speaker 1: I don't know. He's not good at puzzles, so maybe
Speaker 1: that's one reason. But also he grew up in one
Speaker 1: of those houses where they had a dishwasher, but they
Speaker 1: didn't use it anybody, something about his dad not wanting
Speaker 1: to wear it out, or they didn't think it cleaned
Speaker 1: as good, or I don't know anybody else. You grew
Speaker 1: up in a house where you okay, okay, Well, there's
Speaker 1: this thing that happens to me. I don't know when
Speaker 1: I'm going to learn my lesson, but I will load
Speaker 1: the dishwasher after dinner, and I will know in my
Speaker 1: heart this dishwasher is full enough, and you need to
Speaker 1: go ahead, put this oapen and run the cycle. But
Speaker 1: inevitably I will decide, no, I'm gonna wait till bedtime,
Speaker 1: because there are a couple of boys that live in
Speaker 1: my house, and they always come in after dinner and
Speaker 1: they have a bowl of cereal or they have a
Speaker 1: bowl of Ramen noodles, And I just want all the
Speaker 1: dishes to be in the dishwasher and all of them
Speaker 1: to get clean, right. But I always forget, and the
Speaker 1: next morning I will open up the dishwasher, and always
Speaker 1: on that night when we had salmon, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'll open up the dish and it will smell so
Speaker 1: bad and I'll be so mad at myself. When am
Speaker 1: I going to learn to just run the cycle? I
Speaker 1: know this is silly, and you're probably going like, where's
Speaker 1: she going with this? Pastor Steven is way funnier. And
Speaker 1: if your first time guest just come back next week,
Speaker 1: he'll be here and it'll be amazing. Okay, But I
Speaker 1: do have a point. I do. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about a different kind of cycle today. And so the
Speaker 1: title of my message is the hope cycle. So if
Speaker 1: you have a Bible, would you turn with me to
Speaker 1: Romans chapter five, and I want to read a passage
Speaker 1: of scripture Romans chapter five. Starting in verse one, it says, Therefore,
Speaker 1: since we have been justified through faith, we have peace
Speaker 1: with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we
Speaker 1: have gained access by faith into this grace in which
Speaker 1: we now stand. And we boast in the hope of
Speaker 1: the glory of God. Not only so, but we also
Speaker 1: glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance,
Speaker 1: character and character hope, and hope does not put us
Speaker 1: to shame, because God's love has been poured out into
Speaker 1: our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given
Speaker 1: to us. Will you pray with me? Lord? We thank
Speaker 1: you for your word. We thank you that you speak
Speaker 1: to us, and so today I ask that we would
Speaker 1: open up our hearts to hear what you have to say.
Speaker 1: Would you speak through me in this moment in Jesus name, Amen.
Speaker 1: I thought I would teach a little bit today. Some
Speaker 1: of you may not know that I have a degree
Speaker 1: in elementary ed and so I thought it would be
Speaker 1: fun if I brought out a blackboard. Now, this is
Speaker 1: not the blackboard that I used fifteen years ago in
Speaker 1: public school. It's actually kind of a fancy one. But
Speaker 1: I want to draw out for you this hope cycle
Speaker 1: that just leapt off the page for me when I
Speaker 1: was reading Romans five. So Paul gives us this hope cycle.
Speaker 1: I have some little girly ass and give me some
Speaker 1: gurly colors up here. So Paul tells us that we
Speaker 1: hope in the glory of God. And then he says,
Speaker 1: not only this, but you also glory in your sufferings. Sorry,
Speaker 1: if my handwriting is a little bad, you would be
Speaker 1: nervous if you were doing this in front of all
Speaker 1: these people too. And our sufferings produce perseverance. I've spelled
Speaker 1: it right every time. Perseverance, character, and character. Hope. This
Speaker 1: is the hope cycle. All of us, as believers, we
Speaker 1: have this hope, Romans five tells us. And this is
Speaker 1: not just a generic hope. Generic hope is good. Generic
Speaker 1: hope is that, like I hope my situation will get better,
Speaker 1: or I hope that my spouse will change, or I
Speaker 1: hope that my help will improve. I hope that my
Speaker 1: children write me a card for Mother's Day. You can
Speaker 1: always hope for these sort of things, But that's not
Speaker 1: the hope that Romans five is talking about. Romans five
Speaker 1: is talking about a special hope. Paul tells us that
Speaker 1: our hope is in the glory of God. This is
Speaker 1: that Romans eight twenty eight hope. Do you know that verse?
Speaker 1: It says God works all things to the good of
Speaker 1: those who love him. This is the belief that God
Speaker 1: takes everything that happens to me, every suffering, every disappointment,
Speaker 1: every mistake, and he works it for his good. Now
Speaker 1: it may not be my good, but he works it
Speaker 1: for his good. It may not turn out the way
Speaker 1: I thought it would turn out. I may not even
Speaker 1: ever get to see the good, but I can hope
Speaker 1: that He is working all of these things in my
Speaker 1: life for his glory. We all believe that deep down somewhere,
Speaker 1: but then we kind of forget because we head into
Speaker 1: a season of suffering. Now, unfortunately, one thing that is
Speaker 1: guaranteed in life is suffering. Being a follower of Christ
Speaker 1: does not exempt me from suffering. Being a good person,
Speaker 1: or a nice person, or following all of the rules
Speaker 1: does not exempt you from suffering. Suffering is a part
Speaker 1: of life. But remember, as followers of Christ, we have
Speaker 1: this hope. So we operate out of the assumption that
Speaker 1: God is working all of these things for our good.
Speaker 1: And Paul tells us that part of that good is
Speaker 1: that our suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance is when you keep
Speaker 1: going even when you don't think that you can. Have
Speaker 1: you ever been in a situation where you just had
Speaker 1: to keep putting one foot in front of the other
Speaker 1: and you have no idea how you were doing it,
Speaker 1: but you were able to keep going. I feel like, moms,
Speaker 1: we know a lot about perseverance, right, I mean, we
Speaker 1: can operate under very little sleep, and when we're sick,
Speaker 1: we have to keep going. Not everybody has to do that,
Speaker 1: but moms, we have to keep going. And and you know,
Speaker 1: for me, this week, I went through a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I was preparing this sermon and the sort of a
Speaker 1: time was suffering for me, and it's something abnormal that
Speaker 1: I don't normally do. And then on top of that,
Speaker 1: it just felt like things were not going so well
Speaker 1: in my family with my kids. I had a meeting
Speaker 1: at school for one of my children, and then another
Speaker 1: one of my children just randomly threw up all over
Speaker 1: the bathroom floor. I was I was downstairs exercising and
Speaker 1: Abby came to me and she said, Mom, Graham just
Speaker 1: threw up all over the bathroom floor and it's gross.
Speaker 1: It's like awesome. And I get up there and it
Speaker 1: was gross, like our air vents are on the floor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was gross. And then another one of my kids
Speaker 1: like it was just really good. Can I get a
Speaker 1: break here? Another one of my kids are having breathing issues.
Speaker 1: So I'm doing breathing treatments and I'm working on my message.
Speaker 1: And you, as moms, we had to push through a lot.
Speaker 1: But It's not only moms who have to push through.
Speaker 1: We all have to keep going to work every day
Speaker 1: when we're sick, when we're struggling, because how many of
Speaker 1: you know your bills don't just pay themselves. This is perseverance.
Speaker 1: Life does not just stop because you're going through a
Speaker 1: difficult season. But the beauty of perseverance is that you
Speaker 1: get to find out how strong you really are. You
Speaker 1: tap into that strength that you didn't know you had,
Speaker 1: and then perseverance leads us to character. So just as
Speaker 1: you get on the other side of this trial, you
Speaker 1: start to realize that you're stronger now than you ever
Speaker 1: were before, because before that's suffering, and you're wiser now,
Speaker 1: and you're kinder now, and you're more compassionate because God
Speaker 1: has sustained you through something He got you through, and
Speaker 1: now you have more hope. This is the hope cycle.
Speaker 1: Several years ago, I endured one of these major cycles
Speaker 1: when the local news started running a series of stories
Speaker 1: on my husband and our church here in Charlotte, and
Speaker 1: I was so hurt because the things that they were
Speaker 1: reporting about us were exaggerated and a lot of it
Speaker 1: was just simply not true. And these stories would run
Speaker 1: on and off for months, and I remember waking up
Speaker 1: in the morning and just opening my eyes and realizing
Speaker 1: that this nightmare was still going on, that it wasn't
Speaker 1: a bad dream, that this was a reality. Do you
Speaker 1: know that feeling when you open your eyes in the
Speaker 1: morning and immediately the anxiety just sets in because you
Speaker 1: remember the situation that you're going through. And just when
Speaker 1: I would think they cannot have any more news or
Speaker 1: your stories to make up about us, they would run
Speaker 1: another story and the paper would pick it up, and
Speaker 1: then the comments would start and the comments, the freaking comments,
Speaker 1: they were so terrible. Don't recomments, don't comment. Just my
Speaker 1: mom always said, if you can't say something nice, don't
Speaker 1: say something at all. Right, Sorry, it's very raw. It's
Speaker 1: coming back for me. So I remember right around my
Speaker 1: husband's birthday, we were watching the opening ceremony for the Olympics,
Speaker 1: and the local news kept running this commercial, this teaser
Speaker 1: to get you to stay on and watch the eleven
Speaker 1: o'clock news, and I will never forget it. And they
Speaker 1: did it like twelve times, and it just was seered
Speaker 1: into my brain. And here's what they kept saying. Steven Ferdick,
Speaker 1: pastor of local mega church and New York Times best
Speaker 1: selling author or is he? The story was suggesting that
Speaker 1: he had cheated his way onto the Times list, and
Speaker 1: I was so hurt. I was hurt for our church
Speaker 1: members who were hearing these things and having to sort
Speaker 1: out what the truth was. I was hurt for my husband,
Speaker 1: who not only did he not cheat to get onto
Speaker 1: this list, but he actually gave up sales so that
Speaker 1: his book could be sold to our church members at
Speaker 1: our church for a discounted rate. It was absolutely crushing
Speaker 1: for me, as his wife, to watch my husband's integrity
Speaker 1: come into question. And he never defended himself. He just
Speaker 1: kept ministering to people week after week, this is your
Speaker 1: pastor so. At different points during this season, I remember
Speaker 1: driving to church and just wondering if people were even
Speaker 1: going to come. And I remember not wanting to walk
Speaker 1: my children into school because they didn't know what people
Speaker 1: had heard or read or commented or what they thought
Speaker 1: about me. And I remember not wanting to go play
Speaker 1: tennis with my tennis team. I was suffering, But you
Speaker 1: know what I did. I walked my kids into school
Speaker 1: with my head held high. I don't know how I
Speaker 1: I did, but I did. And I kept playing tennis,
Speaker 1: although not very well, but that had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with the situation. And I kept coming to church and
Speaker 1: you did too, right. I just kept going, and I
Speaker 1: remember feeling God's presence almost as if it was tangible.
Speaker 1: I mean, even in this moment, I can remember the
Speaker 1: promises that God spoke to me. There was a source
Speaker 1: of strength there that I experienced that I had never
Speaker 1: before known in my life. Did God cause that reporter
Speaker 1: to do those stories on us? No? But did God
Speaker 1: use it to build endurance in me? Absolutely? He was
Speaker 1: building my character. The situation forced me to place my
Speaker 1: church and our ministry and our reputation in his hands.
Speaker 1: And I'm stronger for it today, and I'm wiser for
Speaker 1: it today. And I never read newspaper comments. So there's
Speaker 1: this thing that each time I go through this cycle,
Speaker 1: my hope gets stronger. Where's my pen? It's like this,
Speaker 1: Every time that I cycle, my hope it gets bigger,
Speaker 1: it gets stronger because I've experienced it and I felt it,
Speaker 1: and I know that God was with me, and I
Speaker 1: know He's gonna be with me. There's a newer translation
Speaker 1: of the Bible, the Passion translation, and it actually says,
Speaker 1: and proven character leads us back to hope. So here's
Speaker 1: the thing. When the cycle begins again, because it will,
Speaker 1: I go into it stronger, I go into it more hopeful. Now,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be nice if we only had to deal
Speaker 1: with one cycle at a time, But the reality is
Speaker 1: that we have many cycles going on simultaneous, and they
Speaker 1: can be all different sizes. So this large one might
Speaker 1: be an ongoing issue for you. Maybe you have a
Speaker 1: health issue, or maybe you have something going on in
Speaker 1: your marriage or whatever. It's an ongoing it's a big one.
Speaker 1: But then we also have these smaller ones. So maybe
Speaker 1: over here you have a bill that you don't know
Speaker 1: how you're going to pay. And then maybe one of
Speaker 1: your children is just struggling in school this year. They're
Speaker 1: having a hard time clicking with their teacher. Their grades
Speaker 1: aren't good, So maybe that's an issue that you're going through.
Speaker 1: And then maybe you have just a little one, like
Speaker 1: a one that happens all in one day and your
Speaker 1: child throws up in the air conditioning vent. That's gonna
Speaker 1: right yuck. Just a little one. And then maybe you
Speaker 1: have one that's you know, a little bit bigger, that
Speaker 1: is a relationship issue, maybe something that you have going
Speaker 1: on with a friend in your life. And then maybe
Speaker 1: you're a student and you have a class that you're
Speaker 1: taking and you have no idea how you are going
Speaker 1: to pass this class. I have no idea how I
Speaker 1: passed physical science in college, as it was a miracle
Speaker 1: of God. So remember, each trial, each problem, each suffering
Speaker 1: is running the cycle. And each cycle is not only
Speaker 1: building up your perseverance and your character, but they are
Speaker 1: feeding into one another, and they're feeding into this big
Speaker 1: situation that's going on in your life. So maybe from
Speaker 1: this situation you learned from this bill, you learned self control.
Speaker 1: Like you just you have to budget. There was no
Speaker 1: way you could pay that bill if you didn't cut
Speaker 1: some things out. So you learned self control in that fit.
Speaker 1: And maybe in this situation you learn to pray, and
Speaker 1: maybe you learn when to speak up and when to
Speaker 1: keep your mouth shut. So that's building into that situation.
Speaker 1: And maybe from this one just learn, you know what,
Speaker 1: I can do gross things without complaining. It wasn't that bad.
Speaker 1: I got it done, So that's building into that. Maybe
Speaker 1: with your friend, you learn the power of an apology
Speaker 1: and how that major relationship better. Maybe in this class
Speaker 1: you're learning discipline, You're learning that you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: work and study and ask for help. So here I
Speaker 1: am in this big one, but my hope is being
Speaker 1: built up and I don't know how I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: it through this one, but I know that I made
Speaker 1: it through before, and this time my hope is stronger.
Speaker 1: I almost called this sermon thank you next. You know,
Speaker 1: my husband always has multiple titles. I thought that might
Speaker 1: have been a good one. What I want you to
Speaker 1: know today is that you have got to run the cycle.
Speaker 1: Don't get stuck in the suffering stage. The more that
Speaker 1: you lean into this process, the more that you will
Speaker 1: be able to gain from it. There are a few
Speaker 1: things that will get you stuck in this in this
Speaker 1: suffering stage that will like break up your cycle. And
Speaker 1: I don't want to spend a lot of time talking
Speaker 1: about it because I don't like negative things, but we should,
Speaker 1: you know, actually talk about them. Sometimes one of those
Speaker 1: things is comparison. Nobody understands, nobody's ever felt this way before, Nobody,
Speaker 1: nobody can has felt the pain that I feel. Or
Speaker 1: maybe we complain and we think, why is this happening
Speaker 1: to me? I mean me, why again, God, you know
Speaker 1: I can't do this. Or maybe we blame because there's
Speaker 1: something in our minds that wants to have a reason
Speaker 1: for our pain and a reason for our suffering. So
Speaker 1: the easiest thing to do is just say, well, if
Speaker 1: my husband hadn't have done what he did, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be in this position. Or if my parents had fed
Speaker 1: me healthier food, then I wouldn't be overweight, or whatever
Speaker 1: your situation is. It's so easy to blame. And then
Speaker 1: sometimes we just get angry. If you've ever been angry
Speaker 1: with God, just like, God, why did you let this
Speaker 1: happen to me? These things are all valid ways to feel,
Speaker 1: and some days you have to feel all of these things.
Speaker 1: Some days you can't get out of the bed, and
Speaker 1: you're hurt and you're angry, and you're blaming because your
Speaker 1: pain is real, and you will want to numb. But
Speaker 1: I'm telling you be very careful, don't stay here too long,
Speaker 1: because these thoughts and these attitudes will get you stuck,
Speaker 1: and then you'll become a resentful person, and then you'll
Speaker 1: become a bitter person, and then you're gonna smell like
Speaker 1: that dishwasher because you got stuck. Don't prolong the process
Speaker 1: of what God wants to do in your life. Yes,
Speaker 1: it hurts, but did you know that complaining? I know
Speaker 1: you know this complaining costs Israel forty years in the desert.
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be a two week journey and
Speaker 1: they ended up being there forty years because of complaining.
Speaker 1: I know it hurts. I know what it feels like
Speaker 1: to not want to get out of bed and continue
Speaker 1: fighting this situation that seems like it's never going to end.
Speaker 1: I know what it feels like to have a wave
Speaker 1: of anxiety hit you so hard that you have to
Speaker 1: sneak into the bathroom just to make it through the moment.
Speaker 1: I know, I know what it feels like to not
Speaker 1: want to come to church because I don't want to
Speaker 1: look anyone in the eyes. I don't want them to
Speaker 1: see my pain. And I know that Pastor Stephen is
Speaker 1: going to make me look at my neighbor and say
Speaker 1: something to them. But I know from experience that stopping
Speaker 1: only delays the process and keeps me from what God
Speaker 1: has for me. So just like there are some things
Speaker 1: that will slow your cycle down, there are also some
Speaker 1: things that will give you momentum. One of those things
Speaker 1: for me is church. You're here, This is the best
Speaker 1: place that you can be when you're suffering. Maybe I
Speaker 1: shouldn't have told you it's so true. Maybe I shouldn't
Speaker 1: have told you that as a pastor's wife that I
Speaker 1: have days where I don't want to come to church.
Speaker 1: But I hope that that encourages you to know that
Speaker 1: it is totally normal that when you're hurting, you are
Speaker 1: and you're struggling, that you're not gonna want to come
Speaker 1: to church. The pool is always going to be for
Speaker 1: you to stay home, don't get dressed, you can't see people.
Speaker 1: This is your only day to rest, But it is here.
Speaker 1: Can anybody anybody agree with me that here is where
Speaker 1: God meets with me, and God will speak to you
Speaker 1: if you can just get here. I know that sometimes
Speaker 1: the best you got is to open up your computer
Speaker 1: and just watch online. I get it, and I know
Speaker 1: that some of you that watch online every week you
Speaker 1: don't have an elevation location that you can come to.
Speaker 1: But I got to tell you there is something special
Speaker 1: about coming together with a body of believers and getting
Speaker 1: in this faith environment and being able to pull from
Speaker 1: her faith and from his faith and God will just
Speaker 1: give you a word that will get you through the
Speaker 1: next moment, that next step. You know, another thing that
Speaker 1: will give you momentum is having the right voices in
Speaker 1: your life. Sometimes the last thing you want to do
Speaker 1: when you're suffering is to tell someone else what you're
Speaker 1: going through. I know how that feels. Maybe sometimes you
Speaker 1: just you feel shame over what's happening, where you just
Speaker 1: feel to her you can't even talk about it, or
Speaker 1: maybe you feel like nobody could possibly understand. But I
Speaker 1: have been through some situations where the words and the
Speaker 1: prayers and the encouragement of some of my friends were
Speaker 1: just life to me. And I know that it's counterintuitive
Speaker 1: that when you're here the instinct is to withdraw. But
Speaker 1: when you are here and you open yourself up and
Speaker 1: you're vulnerable with a person that you trust and you
Speaker 1: say i'm hurting, I need help, you experience an intimacy
Speaker 1: in this place with that friendship that you cannot experience
Speaker 1: when everything is awesome. It's a special place when you
Speaker 1: have the right people. Another thing that's small, but it's
Speaker 1: huge for me, and I don't know if it is
Speaker 1: for you too, But have any of you ever had
Speaker 1: a song that just got you through a worship song.
Speaker 1: We're so blessed to be able to have a church
Speaker 1: that the songs that come out of this church, they're
Speaker 1: just life giving for me. Unstoppable God was an anthem
Speaker 1: for me during that time where the news media was
Speaker 1: running all of those stories that I still to this day.
Speaker 1: How many times have we sang Unstoppable God at Elevation Church?
Speaker 1: And still every time they sing it, even if they
Speaker 1: just do a little tag, I tear up because when
Speaker 1: I sing that song, I remember the promises that God
Speaker 1: spoke to me during that time. I can almost. It's
Speaker 1: funny because songs they're kind of like smells. Have you
Speaker 1: ever And all of a sudden, when they started playing
Speaker 1: that song, you put yourself back in that moment and
Speaker 1: you feel the pain, but then you feel the joy
Speaker 1: and you feel the presence of God all at that time.
Speaker 1: Get you a song, Get you a song that will
Speaker 1: get you through this time. Do it again. I mean
Speaker 1: that one works every time for every situation. A couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, we sang the song this is how
Speaker 1: I Fight My Battles. I don't know if that's the
Speaker 1: title of it. It was exactly what I needed in
Speaker 1: that moment. There are some things that you can do
Speaker 1: that will give you momentum so that you can run
Speaker 1: the cycle. Now, there's this story in John chapter nine
Speaker 1: that I loved, the story of Jesus healing the man
Speaker 1: who was born blind. I don't know if you've ever
Speaker 1: read it before. I love John because John gives so
Speaker 1: many details. The story is so long, and even when
Speaker 1: I was preparing for this message, my husband was like,
Speaker 1: you've be careful because that's a really long story. I
Speaker 1: love long stories. I love details. John gives us details
Speaker 1: that a lot of the other Gospels don't give. In fact,
Speaker 1: my dream, I just have this dream that my husband
Speaker 1: will look me in the eyes and he'll say, Holly,
Speaker 1: please do not leave one detail out of this story.
Speaker 1: Tell me everything still waiting Enneagram experts say it's called
Speaker 1: epic talk style. That's what I have, epic talk style.
Speaker 1: So I don't worry. I'm not going to read the
Speaker 1: whole story. John also has a little bit of epic
Speaker 1: talk story, but talk what did I say, talk style?
Speaker 1: I'm just going to start out and read a couple
Speaker 1: verses for you. In John nine, verse one, it says,
Speaker 1: as he went along this talking about Jesus, he saw
Speaker 1: a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi,
Speaker 1: who's sin this man or his parents that he was
Speaker 1: born blind? You see, we are just like the disciples.
Speaker 1: We immediately ask the wrong question because we want an answer.
Speaker 1: Whose fault is this Jesus? And Jesus looks back at
Speaker 1: them and he says, neither this man nor his parents sinned,
Speaker 1: said Jesus. But this happened so that the works of
Speaker 1: God might be displayed in him. Jesus is saying, stop
Speaker 1: trying to explain it. God will not be constrained by
Speaker 1: our formulas. God is so much bigger than cause and effect.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus is telling them this is not a
Speaker 1: cause and effect situation. Take your eyes off of the
Speaker 1: suffering of this man. And because I am doing something
Speaker 1: so much bigger, he said, this happens so that my
Speaker 1: glory might be displayed through this man. And Voss can't
Speaker 1: put it like this, She said, my darkness becomes a
Speaker 1: canvas for his light. So Jesus bends down and he
Speaker 1: spits in the dirt and he makes some mud. So
Speaker 1: much in this story. One tradition says that when people
Speaker 1: would walk by this man, they would spit on the
Speaker 1: ground because they believed that to be born with a
Speaker 1: deformity meant that you were cursed, you had some kind
Speaker 1: of curse. So by spitting, they were rejecting that curse
Speaker 1: from them. And so here comes Jesus and he makes
Speaker 1: that familiar sound. He hears that familiar spitting, but Jesus
Speaker 1: is not rejecting him. Jesus is accepting him. And Jesus
Speaker 1: is about to heal him. And he takes the spit
Speaker 1: and he makes the mud and he puts it on
Speaker 1: the man's eyes, and he says, go and wash, and
Speaker 1: so the man does. And the Bible says that he
Speaker 1: went home seeing cycle ended man healed. Everyone parties, God's glorified, right,
Speaker 1: not exactly. So the man comes home seeing. Just remember
Speaker 1: this man has been born blind, and the Bible tells
Speaker 1: us he's a man, so he's at least, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty years old. He comes home seeing and his neighbors
Speaker 1: aren't questioning him, and they say, who opened your eyes?
Speaker 1: And then they say, is this really the man that
Speaker 1: was born blind? And the man says to them, he says,
Speaker 1: the man they called Jesus healed me, and they say
Speaker 1: where is he? And the man says, I never saw him.
Speaker 1: I was blind. Remember the Bible's funny, there's some great
Speaker 1: details in the Bible. But the people were upset because
Speaker 1: Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath. So never mind
Speaker 1: that the poor guy he was born blind and now
Speaker 1: he can see. It's not good enough because he was
Speaker 1: healed on the wrong day. So they take him to
Speaker 1: the Pharisees because really the people were afraid because the
Speaker 1: Pharisees had been throwing people out of the synagogue who
Speaker 1: believed in Jesus, and so they didn't want to be
Speaker 1: associated with this healing because if you got thrown out
Speaker 1: of the synagogue, that meant you were thrown out of
Speaker 1: the community. And they didn't want to be cast out
Speaker 1: of the community. And so they just take him to
Speaker 1: the Pharisees. And then the Pharisees evenquestion the man's parents,
Speaker 1: and the man's parents don't even stand up for him.
Speaker 1: They say, ask him, we don't know he's a grown man.
Speaker 1: Have you ever felt like you came out of one
Speaker 1: victory and then you just like you went right back
Speaker 1: in to another trial. I mean, the man was blind
Speaker 1: and he deserved a party, but they're not partying. They're
Speaker 1: giving him an inquisition. And so the man I'm telling
Speaker 1: you got to read the story. It's really cool. He
Speaker 1: starts to get an attitude with the Pharisees, like they're
Speaker 1: asking him all of these questions, and he says at
Speaker 1: one point, he says, look, I don't know if he
Speaker 1: was a sinner or not. All I know is I
Speaker 1: was blind, and now I see. And so the Pharisees
Speaker 1: casts him out from the community again. They throw him out,
Speaker 1: but guess who finds out Jesus and he comes to
Speaker 1: him and he asks him this question because sometimes we
Speaker 1: have to stop asking so many quess questions and we
Speaker 1: have to let Jesus do the asking. Jesus asked some
Speaker 1: really cool questions in the Bible, and so look what happens.
Speaker 1: In verse thirty five, it says Jesus heard that they
Speaker 1: had thrown him out, and when he found him. Isn't
Speaker 1: it great that we serve a god who finds us,
Speaker 1: who comes to us right where we are. He doesn't
Speaker 1: leave us wandering around blind physically spiritually, but he comes
Speaker 1: to us and he asks us a personal question. And
Speaker 1: Jesus says to him, do you believe in the Son
Speaker 1: of Man? Now? I was reading a commentary this week
Speaker 1: about this verse. I have this computer program that you
Speaker 1: click on the verse and it gives you some extra information,
Speaker 1: and so what I read just blew me away, and
Speaker 1: it said this. It said, Jesus wasn't asking the man
Speaker 1: the question do you believe that I am the Messiah?
Speaker 1: What he was really asking was do you trust me?
Speaker 1: And I believe that that's the question that God wants
Speaker 1: to ask you today. He wants you to stop asking
Speaker 1: all of your questions and he wants you to answer
Speaker 1: his Do you trust me? My husband says it this way.
Speaker 1: He says, do you trust that even when God doesn't
Speaker 1: fix it, that He's going to fix something in you,
Speaker 1: and He's going to do something through you. Remember, as
Speaker 1: believers of Christ, we're not exempt from suffering, but we
Speaker 1: have a hope. Hebrews six's eighteen says, to take hold
Speaker 1: of this hope because it is an anchor for your soul.
Speaker 1: Paul says in Colossians one twenty seven, he saysys to them,
Speaker 1: God has chosen to make known among the gentiles the
Speaker 1: glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you,
Speaker 1: the hope of glory. See. I may not be able
Speaker 1: to hope that people will change, and I may not
Speaker 1: be able to hope that I will get a new job,
Speaker 1: or that my suffering or my situation is going to
Speaker 1: get any better. It's not a question of can God
Speaker 1: change the situation? That's just the wrong question. The question
Speaker 1: is do I trust him? He's never failed me yet.
Speaker 1: As I was thinking and praying about this message, I
Speaker 1: was thinking about a friend of mine who is walking
Speaker 1: through the big one. I mean, she is just in pain.
Speaker 1: Her pain is raw right now, and I was wondering
Speaker 1: would this message be encouraging for her, because you know,
Speaker 1: when someone is suffering, they don't want to hear Oh,
Speaker 1: you just need to trust God. When you are in
Speaker 1: intense pain, you don't want to be told you just
Speaker 1: need to persevere. Don't You want God to build your character?
Speaker 1: And I get it. I know what it feels like
Speaker 1: when you just can't see how anything good could possibly
Speaker 1: come from this situation. And if you're in that place,
Speaker 1: it's okay. Sometimes it does hurt so bad that you
Speaker 1: cannot imagine how you're going to get through. And if
Speaker 1: you're in this place, and I could look you in
Speaker 1: the eyes like I would my friend. I would say
Speaker 1: to you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you're hurting. I
Speaker 1: can't even imagine the pain that you're in and I
Speaker 1: would not wish this situation on anyone. But I do
Speaker 1: know that God is going to get you through. God
Speaker 1: is going to be with you every step of this process.
Speaker 1: He will never leave you. Never, no, never remember on Easter,
Speaker 1: never no, never. When you don't feel him, and when
Speaker 1: you do feel him, he comes to you right there
Speaker 1: in your pain. He is the hope that you can
Speaker 1: cling too when you have nothing else to hold on to.
Speaker 1: You just don't let go of that He's here with
Speaker 1: you in this moment. Will you stand so I can
Speaker 1: pray for you. I know that there are so many
Speaker 1: people that are hurting today. I know that Mother's Day
Speaker 1: is a really painful day for some people. Maybe you've
Speaker 1: lost your mother or maybe you can't be a mother.
Speaker 1: And I know that it's a painful that so many
Speaker 1: people in this size, in a church this size, there
Speaker 1: is so much pain. And I just want to pray
Speaker 1: for you. If you just lift your hands to the
Speaker 1: Lord today, God, we thank you that You are our hope,
Speaker 1: and that our hope builds, and that you are with us,
Speaker 1: and that you are here in this moment comforting us.
Speaker 1: You are the great comforter. And I just pray right now,
Speaker 1: in this moment, that you would just whisper words of
Speaker 1: encouragement to your people, that you would tell us that
Speaker 1: your grace is sufficient for this season. And Lord, I
Speaker 1: pray for those that are hurting today, God, would you
Speaker 1: just comfort them. I pray for those that are weary,
Speaker 1: that just those feel like I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1: I pray that you would just give them a breath
Speaker 1: of fresh air, a second wind today. Thank you God,
Speaker 1: that you are our hope, you are our anchor. You're
Speaker 1: the one that we can cling to. We love you, Lord,
Speaker 1: you are so amazing. Thank you. It'send Jesus Name. I pray, Amen,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
Speaker 1: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 1: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch
Speaker 1: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
Speaker 1: enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
Speaker 1: with your friends, you can click the share button, take
Speaker 1: a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
Speaker 1: tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
Speaker 1: bless you.