Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast and I wanted to
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you.
Speaker 1: Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective
Speaker 1: to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: If you're joining us for the first time, Welcome to
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Welcome to twenty twenty two. This is a
Speaker 1: faith church. Gold On. I'm gonna try it again. I
Speaker 1: know it's the first Sunday. I know you've been watching
Speaker 1: ELF movies for a long time, so I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: it again. This is a faith church. Chunks. You know,
Speaker 1: the first time I ever came to Elevation, first time
Speaker 1: I ever came to Elevation was for an Orange Code
Speaker 1: Revival night and Joyce Meyer was preaching that night and
Speaker 1: we pulled up here to the campus. We pulled up
Speaker 1: at the stoplight. I could feel the faith out on
Speaker 1: the street. You could feel the expectation. What I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say to you, if you are in that amazing
Speaker 1: connect group in Virginia, if you're watching online, We're a
Speaker 1: believing church. We believe that God can do it. We
Speaker 1: believe that God is with you. We believe that God
Speaker 1: is for you. We believe that no eye has seen,
Speaker 1: and no ear has heard, and no mine can even
Speaker 1: imagine the things that God has in store for those
Speaker 1: who love Him and are called according to His name.
Speaker 1: This is a fa church. Come on, clap like you
Speaker 1: believe it today. I'm excited. I want to give honor
Speaker 1: where honor is due today. Anybody love your pastors? Come on,
Speaker 1: I figure you out to go crazier than that. Anybody
Speaker 1: love the pastors of this amazing church. Passa Stephen at
Speaker 1: Holly Ferdick. We love you, We honor you. The Bible
Speaker 1: literally teaches us to give honor where it is due,
Speaker 1: and so we honor this fan family. We honor this
Speaker 1: amazing couple. We honor Pastor Stephen for not just his gift,
Speaker 1: but to use his gift to preach the good news
Speaker 1: and to point people to Jesus. And we just thank
Speaker 1: God for them. I think we ought to pray for
Speaker 1: our pastors. Come on, right now, let's pray for Pastor
Speaker 1: Stephen to Holly. God. We cover the leaders of this
Speaker 1: amazing church. We bless them right now. We thank you God,
Speaker 1: that prophetically you're speaking to them about this year. We
Speaker 1: cover their home, we cover their children, we cover their mind.
Speaker 1: Right now, we thank you that their soul will prosper.
Speaker 1: Their soul will prosper. God, thank you for every relationship
Speaker 1: they have. God, thank you that it's in alignment right now.
Speaker 1: Thank you for great wisdom, the wisdom from above. Give
Speaker 1: them great wisdom to govern your people. We bless them
Speaker 1: today in Jesus' name. And everybody said, come on, clap
Speaker 1: like you got faith for your pastor Amen, are you
Speaker 1: fired up? Now? I left Los Angeles to come out
Speaker 1: here to Charlotte because I'm fired up, because I gotta
Speaker 1: put a little country on it. I'm fired up. I
Speaker 1: might as well. I should get Christ's I should get
Speaker 1: Chris's outfit and say it. Chris, I need you to
Speaker 1: say fired up, give me your best country, fired up
Speaker 1: for me. I'm fired up, Chad. Thank God for Chris Brown.
Speaker 1: Right here. Make some noise. Give somebody a high five,
Speaker 1: Give somebody a high five. In your house, give somebody
Speaker 1: a high five, and take a seat. If you have
Speaker 1: a Bible, go to First Kings. Go to First Kings
Speaker 1: chapter nineteen. Go to First Kings I'm gonna jump in
Speaker 1: in just a moment, but before I do, keep playing.
Speaker 1: If you're the keyboard player, don't don't leave me. Can
Speaker 1: we thank God for the amazing worship today? My God
Speaker 1: first King's nineteen. I'm gonna jump in in just a moment.
Speaker 1: I have to just bring greetings from my amazing family.
Speaker 1: I'm a married man. Are there any married people here today?
Speaker 1: I am thirteen years married? Okay, I don't know what
Speaker 1: that was, but my wife, she is so blessed. I'm
Speaker 1: just kidding. Come on, you guys, we're in church today. Okay,
Speaker 1: but can I show you a photo of my amazing
Speaker 1: family real fast? These are my four kids and my
Speaker 1: incredible wife. Look at these guys right here. This is
Speaker 1: my daughter Georgia and my son Winston Maverick. And then
Speaker 1: that's my little nugget, my last one. His name is
Speaker 1: Clive Ellington veach. But I need you to pray that
Speaker 1: boy is not saved yet. He needs some Jesus. But
Speaker 1: God has been so good to us. Has God been
Speaker 1: good to you? Come on, let's clap one time and
Speaker 1: thank God for his grace, his mercy. And I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to share with you today if it's okay with
Speaker 1: I wrote a message just for today, and I wrote
Speaker 1: a message for us coming into twenty twenty two because
Speaker 1: I was thinking about, you know, a year. The other day,
Speaker 1: we were in our I call it our swagger wagon.
Speaker 1: When you got four kids, you get a minivan. So
Speaker 1: I was up in you know, on Christmas break, I
Speaker 1: was up in our Toyota Sienna. You know you bothering
Speaker 1: when you in a Toyota Sienna, when you can hit
Speaker 1: the button and the doors open, ball out. And so
Speaker 1: we're talking with our boys about a year now. I
Speaker 1: was asking my guys, what happens in the year, in
Speaker 1: the calendar year. Tell me all the holidays that happened
Speaker 1: the year. Some of my guys right away Christmas, other
Speaker 1: guy Easter. They start going through all the holidays, Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: and fourth of July, and start going through a year.
Speaker 1: They've named almost all of them until my wife was like,
Speaker 1: you forgot one. And I was like, what did we forget?
Speaker 1: I thought we had all of them. She's like single.
Speaker 1: I was like, that's what I'm Taco Tuesday ba lao
Speaker 1: guacam only for Holy That's why that's my girl. Right there,
Speaker 1: we were talking about a year, you know a year.
Speaker 1: A year has highs and lows. A year has good
Speaker 1: times and bad times. When we have dinner at our house,
Speaker 1: I don't know what dinner at your house looks like.
Speaker 1: When we sit down as a family, every day we
Speaker 1: go through an order and we talk about our highs
Speaker 1: and lows of the day. Every day we have a
Speaker 1: different theme, a different emphasis. So like my Maverick, he's Maverick,
Speaker 1: Maverick Monday, or my Winston he's Winston Wednesday. They get
Speaker 1: to choose the meal and they get to choose the
Speaker 1: order of the high and low. So on Wednesdays, my
Speaker 1: son will be like, you're going first, You're going second,
Speaker 1: and whoever he's mad has going last. But we talk
Speaker 1: about the high of the day and we talk about
Speaker 1: the low of the day. In one year, think about
Speaker 1: your next year. You're gonna have some highs and you're
Speaker 1: gonna have some lows. You're gonna have some good times,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have some bad times. Think about last year.
Speaker 1: Last year you had some mountaintop success, but you had
Speaker 1: some valley of despair. One of the things I know
Speaker 1: about three hundred and sixty five days, you never know
Speaker 1: what a year will bring to you. You never know
Speaker 1: what this next season has for you. But you've got
Speaker 1: to make the resolve and the decision today that says,
Speaker 1: no matter what high or low I'm in, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: choose to put my faith in Jesus, I'm gonna choose
Speaker 1: to worship God. Come on clap today if you believe
Speaker 1: that we're making it. Before we get there, we're already
Speaker 1: saying yes to God. So we're talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: a year, we're talking about, you know, going through you know,
Speaker 1: a calendar year and everything that's about to happen this
Speaker 1: this next year. Then and then I don't know what
Speaker 1: came over me. I started to, you know, just kind
Speaker 1: of wonder the biblical literacy of my own children. You know,
Speaker 1: do my kids know the Bible? So I started I
Speaker 1: went straight from the calendar into Bible trivia, and I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, boys, you were in my swagger wagon,
Speaker 1: We're gonna ask you some Bible questions. Immediately, all the
Speaker 1: pastor's kid eyes they just start to roll. They're just
Speaker 1: like Dad, I'm like, okay, okay, okay. Who was the
Speaker 1: guy who's brothers sodom into slavery? My boy in the back.
Speaker 1: Six year old Joseph caught him many colors. He's like,
Speaker 1: that's my guy. There you go, Okay, okay. In the Bible,
Speaker 1: who was the disciple that Jesus asked to come walk
Speaker 1: on water? Now, my three year old, no matter what
Speaker 1: question I ask, he has the same person. He's always
Speaker 1: like Jonah. I'm like, no, I love you so much.
Speaker 1: That's the whale guy. He's the whale guy. He's the
Speaker 1: whale guy. Jonah Like, no, it's not Jonah. But we
Speaker 1: start talking. We're going through all this Bible trivia and
Speaker 1: I probably exhaust them, but I want to make sure
Speaker 1: my boys know the stories. Come on, anybody believe what
Speaker 1: the Bible says, raise up a child in the way
Speaker 1: they should go. Oh, come on, clap parents, like you
Speaker 1: got faith for your children to walk with Jesus all
Speaker 1: the days of their life. I'm a pastor's kid. I
Speaker 1: made it. A lot of people in the church didn't
Speaker 1: think I'd be here, but I made it. So I'm
Speaker 1: going through all these questions and going through all these
Speaker 1: you know, Bible trivia, and finally I get to the
Speaker 1: last one. Okay, last one, last one? I said, who
Speaker 1: in the Bible was the God who goes up against
Speaker 1: all these hundreds of false prophets and he tears them down.
Speaker 1: And my boys love this part. And he talks trash
Speaker 1: and he says, where is your God? Is your God
Speaker 1: on the toilet? Dude, is your God taking a nap?
Speaker 1: And this guy demolished these false prophets and showed that
Speaker 1: our God is the only true God. I said, who
Speaker 1: was it? My little boy in the beck Jonah, he's
Speaker 1: the whale guy. It's nothing no, So that's Elijah. And
Speaker 1: it was like, as soon as I said that, I
Speaker 1: just kept thinking about the story of Elijah. I kept
Speaker 1: thinking about what happened right after some of his biggest
Speaker 1: success came some of his biggest failure. Right after the
Speaker 1: high of the high came the low of the low,
Speaker 1: and right after he killed these false prophets. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: he runs from a lady named Jezebel. He goes into hiding.
Speaker 1: God provides an angel and some cookies, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden God shows up and talks to him.
Speaker 1: Watch here, High and Low, watch Elijah one kings nineteen,
Speaker 1: it says. So he got up and he ate and
Speaker 1: drank and Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days
Speaker 1: in forth forty nights, until he reached Horror, the Mountain
Speaker 1: of God. There he went into a cave and spent
Speaker 1: the night, and the Word of the Lord came to
Speaker 1: him and said, what are you doing here? Elijah? He replied,
Speaker 1: Oh God, I've been very zealous for the Lord, God Almighty.
Speaker 1: The Israelites have rejected your covenant and torn down your
Speaker 1: altars and put your prophets to death with the sword.
Speaker 1: I am the only one left, and now they're trying
Speaker 1: to kill me too. You ever whined a god? Elijah's
Speaker 1: speaking whines right here. He's like, Oh God, his coven's
Speaker 1: been so bad, and the panthers are terrible, and everything's
Speaker 1: just it's a hard luck life and I just don't
Speaker 1: know our WiFi slow, But I love God. God shows
Speaker 1: up in the place of his low and says, my man,
Speaker 1: what are you doing here? Has God ever had to
Speaker 1: ask you that question? What are you doing here? Why
Speaker 1: in the world are you thinking this way? Why in
Speaker 1: the world are you running? No, No, you're not filled
Speaker 1: with fear, You're filled with faith. You're the same one
Speaker 1: that just cast the false prophets. We don't need you here.
Speaker 1: I want to preach a message this first Sunday of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Right down the title, it's called highs
Speaker 1: and Lows. We live in a culture that says, don't
Speaker 1: let your highs get too high and don't let your
Speaker 1: lows get too low. But that's not what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in Romans twelve, we rejoice with those
Speaker 1: that rejoice, and we weep with those that weep. Come
Speaker 1: on clap today. If you're excited, this year is gonna
Speaker 1: be filled with rejoicing. And even if it's filled with weeping,
Speaker 1: we're gonna choose Jesus, it's gonna have highs and lows.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have highs and lows. You're gonna have highs
Speaker 1: and lows. But no matter what you face, and no
Speaker 1: matter what you go through, you're gonna make the decision
Speaker 1: on the mountain top of success. I will lift my
Speaker 1: voice as loud as in the valley of despair whether
Speaker 1: I walk. That's why I love Pho Psalm twenty three. Yay,
Speaker 1: though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
Speaker 1: I will fear no evil. Why you are with me.
Speaker 1: Rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a
Speaker 1: table before me, and the presence of my enemies. You
Speaker 1: anoint my head with oil. Surely goodness and mercy will
Speaker 1: follow me all the days of my life, and I
Speaker 1: will dwell in the house of the Lord, saying, even
Speaker 1: if I'm in the hospital, even if I get a
Speaker 1: bad report, even if we face death or sorrow, or
Speaker 1: sickness or tragedy, even in the valley of despair, You're
Speaker 1: gonna see my hands raised, Even in the high of
Speaker 1: the High, I'm still gonna choose God. Amen to that.
Speaker 1: I wanna give you a few things to write down
Speaker 1: that you're gonna need this year in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: I try to think of what do you need to
Speaker 1: go through a year that's filled with highs and lows?
Speaker 1: What do you need this year? Right down? Number one,
Speaker 1: here's the first thing that you need is you need
Speaker 1: vision from God. Oh I love that thought right there.
Speaker 1: You need vision this year coming into this next year.
Speaker 1: You need vision from God. By the way, vision does
Speaker 1: not come from church. Vision comes from the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: The Bible literally says in the Book of Joel, in
Speaker 1: these last days, he will pour out his spirit in
Speaker 1: such a way that our old men will dream dreams
Speaker 1: and our young people will prophesied translation. It doesn't matter
Speaker 1: how old you are today. God has something for every person.
Speaker 1: God has a vision for your life. God has a dream. Oh,
Speaker 1: we already talked about it Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven.
Speaker 1: He knows the plans that He has for you. So
Speaker 1: you don't have to come up with the vision. You
Speaker 1: don't have to sit down with your resolutions and your
Speaker 1: goals and go this is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: You need to go to God and say, God, what
Speaker 1: do you want for my life? What's the plan that
Speaker 1: you have for my family? What do you want to
Speaker 1: do with my finance? What relationships do you want me
Speaker 1: to invest in? Doo? Come on? Anybody want vision from
Speaker 1: God this next year? What's what the Bible says in Proverbs.
Speaker 1: Oh I love this scripture. It says where there is
Speaker 1: no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint. When you
Speaker 1: don't have prophetic vision. Say you don't need vision from
Speaker 1: movies or commercials or YouTube, you need vision from heaven.
Speaker 1: We call this getting a word from God. I pray
Speaker 1: over your twenty twenty two that you have some mantra,
Speaker 1: some scripture, some thought, something from heaven that God's like,
Speaker 1: stand on this word. The Bible literally says, what I
Speaker 1: whisper into your ear, proclaim upon housetops, that utterance, I
Speaker 1: give you, that unction, I give you. I don't know
Speaker 1: what you feel like for ye for your year. But
Speaker 1: I've been feeling this for the last month, and I
Speaker 1: keep telling my wife, this is gonna be a big year.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be a big year. I'm walking around
Speaker 1: my house telling my wife, this is gonna be a
Speaker 1: big year. This is gonna be a big year. Finally
Speaker 1: she walked up to me. She says, Babe, I'm with it.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a big year. But can we just
Speaker 1: say big year? Small frame? And I was like, what
Speaker 1: do you mean. She's like, I just don't want to grow.
Speaker 1: I just want to I want to stay small. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, ball out, you do you do you boo.
Speaker 1: But can you get some vision for your life? Can
Speaker 1: you get some prophetic vision and start writing down here's
Speaker 1: what God is saying to me this year. Oh I
Speaker 1: love to have backkick. Watch this in chapter two, watch
Speaker 1: what the Bible teaches us about vision. Then the Lord replied,
Speaker 1: Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets,
Speaker 1: so that a herald may run with it. For the
Speaker 1: revelation awaits for an appointed time. It speaks of the end,
Speaker 1: and it will not prove false. Though it linger wait
Speaker 1: for it. It will certainly come, and it will not delay.
Speaker 1: Write down that vision. This is what God is saying
Speaker 1: over my children. This is what God is saying over
Speaker 1: my church. This is what God is saying over my future.
Speaker 1: This is what God is saying over my business. I'm
Speaker 1: getting vision from God. And let me just say this
Speaker 1: to you. If you can see it, you can achieve it.
Speaker 1: If you can see it, you can have it. The
Speaker 1: first thing God does is open your eyes. He opens
Speaker 1: your eyes, not just to see in the natural, but
Speaker 1: even into the supernatural. He opens your eyes so you
Speaker 1: can see the God. Thing everybody else sees ruins. You
Speaker 1: see redemption. Everybody else sees garbage. You see gold. Come
Speaker 1: on clap today. If you're excited to get vision for
Speaker 1: your fear, I'm telling you you get vision. It'll get
Speaker 1: you up in the morning. You get vision, and it'll
Speaker 1: keep you disciplined. Why in the world would you live
Speaker 1: a life of restraint without vision, the only thing that's
Speaker 1: going to keep you on the straight and the narrow
Speaker 1: is getting a word from God. I'm not here for
Speaker 1: my own gain. I'm not here for my own fame.
Speaker 1: I live for something bigger than myself. This world is
Speaker 1: not my home. I'm not a citizen of this planet.
Speaker 1: So while I'm here for me, to live is Christ
Speaker 1: and to die is I'm getting vision. I'm getting vision.
Speaker 1: I'm getting vision. See See, If you don't have vision,
Speaker 1: you have no restraint. Why would you restrain your tongue
Speaker 1: and not gossip and not have all kinds of filthy language?
Speaker 1: Why would you restrain your finances if you don't have vision?
Speaker 1: Why would you restrain and live a life of discipline,
Speaker 1: devotion and dedication to God? If you don't have vision,
Speaker 1: unique vision? Oh, I'll never forget Separate September tenth, nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety nine. September tenth, nineteen ninety nine. The first time
Speaker 1: I moved to LA. I'm from Seattle. The first time
Speaker 1: I moved to LA was straight out of high school.
Speaker 1: I went to Bible College in Los Angeles, so I
Speaker 1: had I had long hair back then. I had long
Speaker 1: wavy hair cause I can't I couldn't get a girl,
Speaker 1: but they said surfers could. So I can't surf, but
Speaker 1: I grew up my hair like a surfer. It's a
Speaker 1: little Samson vibe going on. So I'm down in La.
Speaker 1: I got long hair. I'm in Bible College. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be in Bible College. I want to I
Speaker 1: have my own idea for my life. But I knew that,
Speaker 1: I knew I was supposed to be there, so I'm
Speaker 1: still kind of living my own life. September tenth, nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety nine. I'm in a car with a buddy and
Speaker 1: he puts in a cassette tape. Come on, the old
Speaker 1: people said amen. Like as soon as I said, I
Speaker 1: felt the room shift like lo he preaching. Now, oh
Speaker 1: he preaching, He preaching, preaching. What he say, cassette tete
Speaker 1: he real, they do. Real. My buddy puts in the
Speaker 1: tape of a preacher named Kreflow Dollar. Kreflow Dollar starts
Speaker 1: preaching out the Galatians six seven and eight. He starts teaching,
Speaker 1: do not be deceived, for God cannot be mocked. For
Speaker 1: whatsoever a man sows that he shall reap, for the
Speaker 1: man that sews to his flesh will of the flesh
Speaker 1: reap corruption. But the man that sews to the spirit
Speaker 1: will from the spirit reap everlasting life. I'm in the car,
Speaker 1: long hair, don't care, and the Holy Spirit grabs a
Speaker 1: hold of my life. And the Holy Spirit says to me,
Speaker 1: You've been a young man that has been ruled and
Speaker 1: led by your flesh your whole life, and I'm about
Speaker 1: to wrest you by my spirit. God gave me a vision.
Speaker 1: I downloaded my future. I'm telling you. I went back home,
Speaker 1: I cut my hair, I got a spirit felled by
Speaker 1: I started reading the Bible. I started studying the Bible.
Speaker 1: I started being dedicated. Why I got a vision from God?
Speaker 1: Clap if you're excited to get a word from the Lord,
Speaker 1: come on. God's got marching orders for you. Clapling expectation.
Speaker 1: Just open your ear and open your eye and what
Speaker 1: God has for you. So the first thing that you
Speaker 1: need is you need vision. You need you need a
Speaker 1: word from God. Here's the second thing you need. You
Speaker 1: need faith for the future. You need vision to see
Speaker 1: what God has for you, and you need faith to
Speaker 1: believe it. Now, faith by definition, right down the definition.
Speaker 1: It is trust, confidence and belief. It is trust, confidence,
Speaker 1: and belief. So what I what I say when I
Speaker 1: have faith, it means I have trust in God, I
Speaker 1: have belief in God, and I have confidence in God.
Speaker 1: You need to have trust in God this year. You
Speaker 1: need to have all your confidence in God this year.
Speaker 1: And you need to have all your belief in God.
Speaker 1: I'm not asking you to tap into yourself. You are
Speaker 1: not the solution to your sadness. We don't believe in
Speaker 1: self help. We believe in God help. I don't lift
Speaker 1: my eyes to myself. I lift my eyes to the mountains.
Speaker 1: Where does my help come from. My help comes from You,
Speaker 1: the maker of heaven and earth. Give them a praise today.
Speaker 1: If you've got faith for your future, you gotta have faith. Now.
Speaker 1: You might be here going like, I don't got that
Speaker 1: much faith. I don't. I'm not big on faith. First
Speaker 1: of all, you know, the biggest faith that you need
Speaker 1: is mustard seed size faith. So you know. And by
Speaker 1: the way, the reason why elevation is so powerful is
Speaker 1: if you bring your mustard seed faith, and I bring
Speaker 1: my mustard see faith, and they bring their mustard see faith,
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a whole lot of faith for God
Speaker 1: to heal the sick for God to do miracles, for
Speaker 1: God to bring prodigals home. Come on, just throw your mustard.
Speaker 1: See faith in the middle. But even if you don't
Speaker 1: have faith, you can learn faith. You can receive faith.
Speaker 1: All love the story about this one parent. He's got
Speaker 1: a child that's got a major issue in his life,
Speaker 1: and he comes to Jesus and asks for help. And
Speaker 1: he's like, my son has got a bad problem happening
Speaker 1: in his life? Can you help us? Watch what Jesus
Speaker 1: says to this parent in Mark Watch this Mark nine.
Speaker 1: Jesus asked the boy's father how long has he been
Speaker 1: like this? How from childhood? He answered? It has often
Speaker 1: thrown him into the fire in the water and tried
Speaker 1: to kill him. But if you can do anything, take
Speaker 1: pity on us and help us. If you can, said Jesus,
Speaker 1: everything is possible for the one who believes. Immediately, the
Speaker 1: boy's father answered back, I do believe, But can you
Speaker 1: help me overcome my unbelief? Can you help me? God?
Speaker 1: There's a part of me that's like, is this virus
Speaker 1: ever gonna go away? Is this stuff ever gonna change?
Speaker 1: Is our country gonna be okay? Are things gonna get
Speaker 1: any better? At home? God, I believe, but can you
Speaker 1: help the part of my heart that has some unbelief.
Speaker 1: Jesus is not repulsed by this, He's not put off
Speaker 1: by this. No, he comes to give you faith today.
Speaker 1: He comes to give you the gift of confidence, the
Speaker 1: gift of trust, and the gift of belief. Anybody want
Speaker 1: to receive the gift of faith this next year? Anybody
Speaker 1: want to have crazy faith this next year? Lift your
Speaker 1: hand right there in your house, lift your hand. Let
Speaker 1: me pray God. I pray for the gift of faith
Speaker 1: right now. I prayed over business owners. I prayed over parents,
Speaker 1: I prayed over leaders, I prayed over the staff. I
Speaker 1: prayed over pastors, Stephen the Hawley. Let us have more
Speaker 1: faith this next year. Let us trust in you, believe
Speaker 1: in you, and have greater confidence in you. In Jesus' name,
Speaker 1: And everybody said, together, come on, clap one more time.
Speaker 1: If you come on, believe that God will give you faith.
Speaker 1: You learn how to believe God, You learn how to
Speaker 1: trust God. I grew up. I told you, I'm a
Speaker 1: preacher's kid on a pastor's kid, and we grew up.
Speaker 1: I grew up in a small little town, and we didn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't have a lot of money, Like my mom
Speaker 1: used to make our clothes. You know, nothing like rocking
Speaker 1: up to the pool in summer with homemade speedo's. You
Speaker 1: never been through it. You don't know my struggle. Okay,
Speaker 1: you don't know the pain in my platform. Okay, so
Speaker 1: don't judge me. But but but growing up, we didn't
Speaker 1: have money, so I don't forget. One time I was
Speaker 1: walking through the farmer's market with my mom and they
Speaker 1: were raffling off of VCR a little kid, but we
Speaker 1: couldn't afford a VCR, and so my mom. I looked
Speaker 1: at my mom, I said, Mom, listen, look at this
Speaker 1: beautiful VCR. She said, well, son, let's buy a raffle
Speaker 1: and let's believe God that we'll win that VCR. So
Speaker 1: we paid for the little raffle and we took it
Speaker 1: home to our kitchen, and every morning when I got up,
Speaker 1: my mom would take the raffle with me and we'd pray.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you, you never seen a kid pray
Speaker 1: before until you're believing for a VCR. I shout that
Speaker 1: thing down, I said, Jesus name, we just declared that
Speaker 1: we're gonna watch Salty's praise book on this VCR, we
Speaker 1: thank you for McGee and me to be up in
Speaker 1: our home in Jesus name. And I'm telling you we
Speaker 1: would pray, we would pray, we would lay hands on them.
Speaker 1: And my mom was teaching me faith. She was showing
Speaker 1: me what it meant to believe in God. She was
Speaker 1: showing me how to speak things that don't exist as
Speaker 1: though they do. She was saying that faith is having confidence,
Speaker 1: having trust, and believe. I'll never forget when one night
Speaker 1: the phone rang and that person on the other line said,
Speaker 1: congratulations your raffle one the VCR. I'm telling you we
Speaker 1: did a praise party like it was New Year's even
Speaker 1: elevation Church. Come on clap if you're believing that this
Speaker 1: year you'll have greater faith. I wrote a book years
Speaker 1: ago called Faith Forward Future, because you have to have
Speaker 1: faith to move forward into your future. The enemy wants
Speaker 1: you to get stuck. What are you doing here? The
Speaker 1: enemy is like, I'll tell you what they're doing here.
Speaker 1: They've got setbacks, they've got disappointment, they've got destructive thinking.
Speaker 1: But praise be to God that is the lifter of
Speaker 1: my head. Praise be to God. That says no, fix
Speaker 1: your eyes on Jesus, the Author and the finisher of
Speaker 1: your faith. Come on, I'm believing that this year you
Speaker 1: go to new levels of belief, new levels of trust,
Speaker 1: and new levels of confidence in our God. Oh, let
Speaker 1: me just show you one more scripture. Look at you.
Speaker 1: This is my prayer for you, Jeremiah. Look at Jeremiah
Speaker 1: thirty two seventeen. Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the
Speaker 1: heavens and the earth by your great power and your
Speaker 1: outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you, ah Lord God.
Speaker 1: Nothing is too hard for you. Ah. You gotta just
Speaker 1: come into this year going. Ah Lord God, put some
Speaker 1: awe on it. Ah Lord God, nothing is too hard
Speaker 1: for you. Nothing. He shuts the mouth of life, He
Speaker 1: feeds the five thousand plus the women and the children.
Speaker 1: He allows us to walk on dry ground while the
Speaker 1: sea is split in two. He provides a pillar of
Speaker 1: cloud and a fire by night. He gives us fresh
Speaker 1: manna in the day. Anybody believe that our goa Oh
Speaker 1: Lord God, nothing is too difficult for you. Now. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, whatever you're coming up against and it ain't
Speaker 1: bigger than God. And so listen, we're not gonna let
Speaker 1: our circumstance determine our faith. We're gonna let our faith
Speaker 1: determine our circumstance. Come on, clap like you believe it
Speaker 1: for your year. I feel faith in this place today.
Speaker 1: Oh right down number three today. I love this. You
Speaker 1: need a renewed mind, You need a mind. I'm telling
Speaker 1: you what God is fighting for is the same thing
Speaker 1: the enemy is fighting for. And they are both fighting
Speaker 1: for your mind. Or speaking of Joyce Myers, she wrote
Speaker 1: a brilliant book years ago. The mind is a battlefield.
Speaker 1: This is the thing the enemy's trying to fight for.
Speaker 1: The way that God changes you is he changes your mind.
Speaker 1: The way that He changes you is he changes your thinking. See,
Speaker 1: because if you get stinking thinking, you're gonna get stuck
Speaker 1: in places you shouldn't be. But if you get your
Speaker 1: your mind right, if you get your mind right, you
Speaker 1: get your life right. You listen, you'll never live past
Speaker 1: your thought life. You'll never live better than your thought life.
Speaker 1: Your thought life is the limit. It's the lid of
Speaker 1: your life. So watch how God changes your mind. Look
Speaker 1: at Romans chapter twelve, verse two. I love this scripture
Speaker 1: right here. Romans chapter twelve, Do not conform to the
Speaker 1: pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing
Speaker 1: of your mind. Then you will be able to test
Speaker 1: and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and
Speaker 1: perfect will. So let's just stop there. God's will for
Speaker 1: your life is three things. It's good, it's pleasing, and
Speaker 1: it's perfect. The will of God for your life is good, pleasing,
Speaker 1: and perfect. How in the world will you ever know
Speaker 1: the will of God for you if you don't let
Speaker 1: God renew your mind. It says, do not conform to
Speaker 1: the patterns of this world, but be transformed. Like again,
Speaker 1: I'm exposing my age. But when I grew up, Transformers
Speaker 1: was the thing. I mean, I could sing the whole
Speaker 1: song Transformers more than meets the eye. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: a whole thing. We would be in the house playing
Speaker 1: with these little Transformers. It'd be like a police car
Speaker 1: and we just do the little thing and it's like bam,
Speaker 1: just this huge transformer like Bob Bob. How does God
Speaker 1: take you from your insecurity? How does God take you
Speaker 1: from all your jealousy, all your inadequacy, all your stinking things?
Speaker 1: How does God pull you out of the pit he
Speaker 1: changes your mind? You gotta understand this about your mind.
Speaker 1: Your mind keeps no record of success. It only keeps
Speaker 1: record of failure. You realize that you think, on average,
Speaker 1: you think forty thousand negative thoughts a day. You realize
Speaker 1: eighty five percent of your thoughts are reoccurring thoughts. And
Speaker 1: so you know a lot of us we wait till
Speaker 1: we're in a bad place. We rehab. But can I
Speaker 1: encourage you in twenty twenty two? You need a prehab.
Speaker 1: You need to get your mind right before you get
Speaker 1: in the gutter. You need to get your mind elevated.
Speaker 1: You need to get your mind of the things above.
Speaker 1: Oh I love this. In two Timothy, watch what God
Speaker 1: says through the Paul of the Apostle. He says, for
Speaker 1: the spirit of God, he has not given us timidity,
Speaker 1: but gives us power and love and self discipline. Now,
Speaker 1: the other translations say power, love, and a sound mind.
Speaker 1: If you study the Greek word for sound mind is
Speaker 1: literally translated discipline. Thinking translation, God gave you the ability
Speaker 1: that when your mind gets low, you can bring it
Speaker 1: back high. Or, as the Bible teaches us, we capture
Speaker 1: every thought and we make it obedient to God. I'm
Speaker 1: not thinking that way about that person. I'm not thinking
Speaker 1: that way about this situation. I'm not thinking that way
Speaker 1: about last year. I'm not thinking that way about the
Speaker 1: answers we're gonna be blessed. I'm not thinking that way
Speaker 1: about so and so. Come on, and I appreciate anybody.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get my mind right. You get your mind right,
Speaker 1: you get your life right, you get your mind. That's
Speaker 1: why the Bible says we put on the first thing
Speaker 1: is the helmet of salvation. I put on God's thoughts
Speaker 1: over my thoughts. When you think about yourself, listen. Your
Speaker 1: mind was not meant to thrive, it was only built
Speaker 1: to survive. So if I want to thrive, I gotta
Speaker 1: get scripture, I gotta get God's thoughts. I gotta have.
Speaker 1: You know you need in twenty twenty two, you need
Speaker 1: a confidence ritual. You need to build your confidence back
Speaker 1: this next year. You need to start walking around your
Speaker 1: home and start declaring over your life. Don't listen to
Speaker 1: the serpent, don't listen to the liar, don't listen to
Speaker 1: the accuser of the brethren. Don't don't listen to the
Speaker 1: one that only shows you all the bad stuff that
Speaker 1: happened to you. No you gotta get all God's thoughts.
Speaker 1: You gotta say no, no, I'm more than a conquer
Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus. No, I'm the head and I'm not
Speaker 1: the tale. No, I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: No, no no, no. If God is for me, who can
Speaker 1: be against me? Come on, anybody down to build a
Speaker 1: confidence ritual in twenty twenty two. Then you're gonna start
Speaker 1: leaving your home in the morning feeling like I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be okay. Sometimes your mind gets into a bad place
Speaker 1: and you get you ever feel negative. When I get negative,
Speaker 1: I get scared of myself. I'm like, I need to
Speaker 1: eat right now. I feel like a walking Snicker's commercial.
Speaker 1: And I'm like when I get low, when I get
Speaker 1: Because listen, don't kid yourself. We all go through highs
Speaker 1: and lows. We all have good times and bad times.
Speaker 1: Don't listen. Don't believe the live Instagram You're comparing your
Speaker 1: lows to somebody else's highlight reel. Everybody has lows, Everybody
Speaker 1: has bad days, everybody cries, everybody has pain. There's only
Speaker 1: one hero in this story, and it ain't you or me.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the only perfect so when you get low,
Speaker 1: how are you gonna build yourself back up? Watch what
Speaker 1: Paul says. Philippians for I love the Scripture. Philippins for
Speaker 1: are finally brethren. Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,
Speaker 1: whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things
Speaker 1: are lovely, whatever things are of good report, If there
Speaker 1: is any virtue, if there's any praiseworthy meditate on these things.
Speaker 1: I wonder what twenty twenty two would look like if
Speaker 1: you stop watching the news and started looking at God's word.
Speaker 1: Clap like you believe what I'm saying today. Whatever's true,
Speaker 1: whatever's a good report, whatever's praise. Meditate on these things.
Speaker 1: I live in LA you know, I'm in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: so people can't figure it out. People are always like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I love your vibes. Your vibes are crazy, dude,
Speaker 1: you got crazy energy, bro crazy, And I don't like thanks, eh, Jonah,
Speaker 1: How can you get the spirit of God running through
Speaker 1: your life this year? It's because I don't spend time
Speaker 1: crying over spilled milk. I don't spend time thinking about
Speaker 1: all the bad things that I've done. Why do you
Speaker 1: keep thinking about your past when God doesn't he says,
Speaker 1: as far as the east is from the west, I
Speaker 1: have removed your transgressions from you. Somebody clapped today, and
Speaker 1: thank God, I'm getting my mind right. I'm getting Come on,
Speaker 1: God's changing your premise, He's changing your perspective. He's changing
Speaker 1: your thinking. You can't do what God's called you to
Speaker 1: do with thinking thinking. You gotta get the mind of God.
Speaker 1: Oh worship team, come join me. There's the last one
Speaker 1: I want to teach you today, right down the last one.
Speaker 1: You need a life full of thanksgiving. All think about
Speaker 1: what you would look like this year. If you've got vision,
Speaker 1: and you've got faith, and you've got your mind right,
Speaker 1: and you've got gratitude. Whoah, you know you need. You
Speaker 1: need the attitude of gratitude you need. You need to
Speaker 1: wake up tomorrow and say, this is the day the
Speaker 1: Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.
Speaker 1: You need to start getting Come on, there's nothing like
Speaker 1: a grateful people. You know, God is always looking for
Speaker 1: a grateful person, is a humble person. And God says
Speaker 1: in the Bible he opposes the proud, He put a
Speaker 1: heisman trophy on that thing, but he gives grace to
Speaker 1: the humble. See, humble people are grateful people. God. I
Speaker 1: just praise you. I listen. I may not be where
Speaker 1: I want to be, but thank God, I'm not where
Speaker 1: I used to be. Thank God, I'm out of that
Speaker 1: old miss clap today in your house. If you're grateful
Speaker 1: that you're not where you were six months ago, one
Speaker 1: year ago, come on? Has God been faithful? Has God
Speaker 1: been good? Has God brought you? Oh? I love that
Speaker 1: song today. He pulled me out of my repent. He
Speaker 1: set my feet upon a rock. He put a new
Speaker 1: song in my mouth. Many will hear of it, many
Speaker 1: will see of it. Dive him a praise right now.
Speaker 1: If you're grateful, I'm not there yet, but I'm not
Speaker 1: where I was. Thank you Jesus. Think about what God
Speaker 1: has brought you out of. Think about what God has
Speaker 1: delivered you from this. Just pause and thank God for
Speaker 1: some of the fashion. When I think about the goodness
Speaker 1: of God, when I think about the faithfulness, you're not amazing.
Speaker 1: He is. My Bible says, when you were faithless, he
Speaker 1: remained faithful. My Bible says, when you left, he left
Speaker 1: the ninety nine church folk, and he hunted you down,
Speaker 1: and he said, what are you you're doing here? Why
Speaker 1: are you living in this apartment? How come you're messing around?
Speaker 1: You know this ain't a man of God. He don't
Speaker 1: even go to jailb get out this place. We gonna
Speaker 1: get you back on christianmingo dot com. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: you an MG. He ties he's in church and he
Speaker 1: has hygiene. One of my favorite stories about Jesus. One
Speaker 1: of my favorite stories about Jesus is the story of
Speaker 1: the Ten Lepers. The Bible says Jesus is walking through
Speaker 1: Samerian golie translation between some people that never should have
Speaker 1: been in church and some church folk, and these ten
Speaker 1: lepers cry out with a loud voice, Jesus have mercy
Speaker 1: on me. Let me just say this. Never be too
Speaker 1: proud to beg for God's help. If you give yourself
Speaker 1: in the valley this year, can you just cry out?
Speaker 1: Come on? If you go through some lows, can you
Speaker 1: just make the decision. If I kind of cry myself
Speaker 1: to slap, if my children don't want to believe in Jesus,
Speaker 1: if I lose it all, I'm still gonna cry out.
Speaker 1: Jesus have mercy on me. Jesus says to these ten lepers,
Speaker 1: he said, go and show yourself to the priest. See
Speaker 1: because this is why you need vision. To one, he said,
Speaker 1: stretch out your hand. To another, he said, I already
Speaker 1: healed your kid. God has something specific just for you.
Speaker 1: To one young man, he said, go sell everything you got,
Speaker 1: then come follow. For these lepers, he said, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what we're gonna do for y'all. Go show yourself
Speaker 1: to the priest. And it says as they went they
Speaker 1: were cleansed. Let me just tell you something coming to
Speaker 1: your next year. The blessing of God is on the
Speaker 1: other side of obedience. It's on the other side. You're
Speaker 1: not blessed because you get a word. That's because you
Speaker 1: obey the word Jonah. Just because you get the word
Speaker 1: done mean you're blessed. The blessing of God it's on
Speaker 1: the other side of them. And as they went they
Speaker 1: were cleansed. It says one of them, one of them
Speaker 1: came back ten percent. Can you make a decision that
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, I'm going to be the one.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be the one one of them came back.
Speaker 1: Theologians believed that the one that came back he was
Speaker 1: he was the one that knew he should have never
Speaker 1: He's the Samaritan, the one that knew he should have
Speaker 1: never gotten grace, he should have never received God's forgiveness.
Speaker 1: Most believe that the nine that went out, you know,
Speaker 1: the nine that got healed. They ran off to Applebee's
Speaker 1: and Chevys and Westfield Malls. The nine that went out,
Speaker 1: They were like, we deserve this. You know how many
Speaker 1: Sundays I've been in church. You know how many New
Speaker 1: Years Eve praise parties I've been to. You know, I
Speaker 1: was at the first Orange Code Revival entitlement. But the
Speaker 1: one that said I I can't even believe that he
Speaker 1: knows me, loves me, helps me. I know what a
Speaker 1: sinner I am? Says. He comes back in the language
Speaker 1: in the Texas with a loud voice, the same volume
Speaker 1: that he had in the low It's the same volume
Speaker 1: he had in the hot said, what God's trying to
Speaker 1: say to you today is just gonna be Low's and
Speaker 1: there's gonna be highs, and you gotta decide today, no
Speaker 1: matter what comes my way, you'll see my hands raised.
Speaker 1: No matter what I face this year, you're gonna see
Speaker 1: my mouth fell with praise. I don't praise God. On
Speaker 1: the bad days, I praise him on the good days.
Speaker 1: I praise Him in the springtime, in the winter time,
Speaker 1: in the summertime, in the fall time. Clap today. If
Speaker 1: you got faith, no matter what comes my way, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna praise Jesus. He said, he said, he said, he said,
Speaker 1: hold on, hold on, he's praising God. Jesus goes, hold on,
Speaker 1: stop stop talking them. Ah, He's like, hey, Mark, John,
Speaker 1: come on here, it's crazy. Hold on, hold on, hey man,
Speaker 1: cool Hey, so was we're busy these days? Hey? So,
Speaker 1: wasn't there ten of y'all? Hey John, look at this,
Speaker 1: and the one that came back was a foreigner. He says, So,
Speaker 1: come on, get up. Your faith has made you will today.
Speaker 1: Come on, anybody thankful today. I'm gonna be the one
Speaker 1: this year. I don't care what high comes my way
Speaker 1: or low comes my way. You're gonna find me with
Speaker 1: my mouth filled with praise. Oh this is Stand to
Speaker 1: your feet, wherever you're at, whatever location, Just worship team,
Speaker 1: come back. Psalm seven seventeen. I will give thanks to
Speaker 1: the Lord because of his righteousness. I will sing the
Speaker 1: praises of the name of the Lord Most High. What
Speaker 1: about Psalm nine one and two. I will give thanks
Speaker 1: to you Lord with all my heart. I will tell
Speaker 1: of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad, and I
Speaker 1: will rejoice in you. I will sing the praises of
Speaker 1: your name almost high Psalm ninety five. Oh come, let
Speaker 1: us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout
Speaker 1: aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come
Speaker 1: before him with thanksgiving and extole him with music and song.
Speaker 1: For the Lord is the great God, the great King
Speaker 1: above all the gods. Psalm one O three. Bless the Lord,
Speaker 1: oh my soul, and all that is within me. Bless
Speaker 1: his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, who
Speaker 1: forgives all my iniquities, who heals from all diseases, who
Speaker 1: crowns my life with tender mercies. Come on, licks your
Speaker 1: hands right where you're at. Father, We come into this
Speaker 1: year more dealed with thanksgiving. We asked today. Give us vision,
Speaker 1: give us faith, give us the mind of God, give
Speaker 1: us gratitude. Come on, this sifted up, Come on rever
Speaker 1: forever we knows you morning a phrase. It ain't Jesus,
Speaker 1: who did you ask? Seek cool? Imagine? Accordity too is
Speaker 1: found holleylujah, eating you're more than enough. It's morning, hollelujah.
Speaker 1: Who did you ask seek cool? Imagine accordy too is fine? Worrying?
Speaker 1: Come on singing again more? Did you ask me for
Speaker 1: a mansion? Honeylujo? Did you ask he cool? Man? Jim
Speaker 1: according too is hard worthy? It's morning in mony things
Speaker 1: imagine according too is bad worrying, it's waming shine pin chin.
Speaker 1: You are in the we gave you phrase gim job.
Speaker 1: You are in the to how we'll be why will
Speaker 1: be content? In every circumceentt job you are. Come on
Speaker 1: the ceil it with a clap today, Come on the
Speaker 1: ceil it. You know it's it's almost like before the touchdown,
Speaker 1: before the ball goes through the net. We're already thanking God.
Speaker 1: The greatest force in the history of the world is
Speaker 1: the love of Jesus. Cannot be stopped. He's in love
Speaker 1: with you. If you're in a pit today, he's not
Speaker 1: mad at you. He's not asking you what are you
Speaker 1: doing here? He's saying, what are you doing here? I've
Speaker 1: got a plan, I've got a future. Jesus. We say
Speaker 1: yes to you, We surrender, we say praise be to God.
Speaker 1: That leads us in all triumph and in all victory
Speaker 1: and God, we vow today on the first Sunday of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, that in the highs and the lows,
Speaker 1: in the peaks and the pits, you find us turning
Speaker 1: to you. Jesus, you are the author, you are the finisher.
Speaker 1: Help our unbelief today. Give us mustard seed sized faith,
Speaker 1: a pray, vision, faith, the mind of God, and a
Speaker 1: heart filled with gratitude. Don't let us run, don't let
Speaker 1: us hide this year. Don't let us be filled with
Speaker 1: imposter syndrome, afraid of what people think. I pray that
Speaker 1: you deliver people from faux poe, fear of other people's opinions.
Speaker 1: We live for an audience of one, and we say
Speaker 1: today it doesn't matter what the others are doing. That
Speaker 1: if we're the only one that comes back, if we're
Speaker 1: the only one that's loud and praise and worship, we
Speaker 1: say we'll be that one today. Thank you Jesus, Praise
Speaker 1: you Jesus. Come on, let's clap and thank God one
Speaker 1: more time. Amen, thank you for joining us. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 1: can click the link in the description to give now
Speaker 1: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 1: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends. You can click
Speaker 1: the share button, take a screenshot and share it on
Speaker 1: your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listen. God bless you.