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.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm very respectful of the presence of God, so
Speaker 2: I want to transition right into the Word because I
Speaker 2: believe that He desires to speak to you in a
Speaker 2: profound way, and I want to move into Romans chapter
Speaker 2: four and speak a message of faith and inspiration over
Speaker 2: your life. Today we're continuing a teaching on functional faith.
Speaker 1: And what I.
Speaker 2: Really pray that these messages are doing is that they
Speaker 2: are showing up after you hear them in another form,
Speaker 2: that as opportunities present themselves to you for you to
Speaker 2: be full of doubt that something that you've heard, You know,
Speaker 2: the Word of God is seed, and so I'm praying
Speaker 2: that it's breaking through the surface and helping you to
Speaker 2: experience God's presence in a new way. Would you just
Speaker 2: tell about five people around you that the presence of
Speaker 2: the Lord is here. Just make sure that they know
Speaker 2: if they didn't get the memo.
Speaker 1: The presence of the Lord is here.
Speaker 2: And what I want to do now, I want to
Speaker 2: plant the seed of the Word in the soil of
Speaker 2: your heart. I believe God has given me good seed
Speaker 2: to sew into you today, but.
Speaker 1: I can't make you good soil.
Speaker 2: And if you sit there distracted or or discouraged, or
Speaker 2: you know, kind of in your own little world or
Speaker 2: kind of like just get it over with, that seed
Speaker 2: is gonna it's gonna fall, it's not gonna take root.
Speaker 1: So why don't you just open your heart now?
Speaker 2: Let me read this scripture to you from Romans chapter four,
Speaker 2: verse eighteen. It's interesting because I have noted in my
Speaker 2: Bible I do something with my Bible.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I just thought that would be cool to give each
Speaker 2: of my kids a Bible that I had preached through,
Speaker 2: so doing it on like seven year cycles. And I
Speaker 2: gave Elijah after seven years of preaching in this church
Speaker 2: the Bible that I preach from for those seven years,
Speaker 2: and highlight all the passages that I preach.
Speaker 1: From, and then note what the sermon was.
Speaker 2: Just a little something that I can give them, and hopefully,
Speaker 2: you know, an investment I can make in them.
Speaker 1: So this is Graham's. I'm on the second seven years
Speaker 1: right now, and this is.
Speaker 2: Going to be his, and we're like about halfway through
Speaker 2: the second seven years of ministry at the church.
Speaker 1: I think, did I calculate that right? Yeah? Yeah? Year two.
Speaker 2: So I was looking at my notes and I was
Speaker 2: in this passage about the same time of.
Speaker 1: The year two years ago.
Speaker 2: So there must be something about spring that makes me
Speaker 2: want to preach about faith and hope and life. It
Speaker 2: must be something about the greenery on my trees and
Speaker 2: the pollen in my that just gets me thinking that
Speaker 2: maybe it's time for some things to bud forth and
Speaker 2: spring forth in your life. And so I want to
Speaker 2: I want to spend some time in this passage today.
Speaker 1: Romans, chapter four, verse.
Speaker 2: Eighteen, Apostle Paul says, against all hope, Abraham in hope
Speaker 2: believed and so became. Do you know that that's always true,
Speaker 2: that you always become what you believe.
Speaker 1: If you see.
Speaker 2: Yourself as a grasshopper in the land God has promised you,
Speaker 2: you won't take possession of it, not because it wasn't yours,
Speaker 2: but because you didn't see yourself as the rightful owner.
Speaker 1: So what you.
Speaker 2: Believe eventually is reflected.
Speaker 1: In what you become. Just pointing that out. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: not my sermon.
Speaker 2: That's the chips and the salsa before the enchilada.
Speaker 1: Now look at this.
Speaker 2: It says he believed and so became the father of
Speaker 2: many nations, just as it had been said to him,
Speaker 2: So shall your offspring or your seed be without weakening
Speaker 2: in his faith. He faced the fact that his body
Speaker 2: was as good as dead since he was about one
Speaker 2: hundred years old.
Speaker 1: Well, that's definitely not an overstatement.
Speaker 2: Your reproductive days are certainly coming to a close around
Speaker 2: age one hundred, especially if you live in a time
Speaker 2: where there are no little pills. I'm sorry, y'all, let
Speaker 2: me get back on this. And that Sarah's womb was
Speaker 2: also dead. So this is an impossible situation from every angle.
Speaker 2: And yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the
Speaker 2: promise of God, but was strengthened.
Speaker 1: In his faith.
Speaker 2: Come on, you came to the gym today to get
Speaker 2: strengthened in your faith.
Speaker 1: This is the original CrossFit.
Speaker 3: All right, We're going to be strengthened in our faith,
Speaker 3: and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God
Speaker 3: had power to do what he had promised.
Speaker 1: Shout over the scripture.
Speaker 2: Now, so here's my declaration, my title.
Speaker 1: I want you to give your neighbor my title.
Speaker 2: Look them right in the eye and say, neighbor, it
Speaker 2: is what it is, but it's not what it seems.
Speaker 2: My God, I feel fire on that. It's a declaration
Speaker 2: of faith. You understand it. To look at your other neighbor.
Speaker 2: Tell them it is what it is, but it's not.
Speaker 2: Come on, you gotta get into this. Tell them it
Speaker 2: is not. You gotta do your finger like that, but
Speaker 2: it's not what it seems. Come on high, five to
Speaker 2: seven people on your way down, TC, let's get to work.
Speaker 4: Tecond not what it seems. It's not what it seems,
Speaker 4: but it is what it is.
Speaker 2: Essentially, we're walking into the middle of an argument. In
Speaker 2: Romans chapter four, the Paul is presenting against the Judaizers
Speaker 2: who would have the gentile converts to the faith be
Speaker 2: circumcised as an outward expression.
Speaker 1: Of their new commitment to the community of faith.
Speaker 2: Paul sees this is a grave mistake, for understands that
Speaker 2: it is not the circumcision with human hands that makes
Speaker 2: you a believer. It's the circumcision of your heart. It's
Speaker 2: not something that's cut away from your skin. Is something
Speaker 2: that has to be removed from your heart that enables
Speaker 2: you to connect with God in this relationship, and in
Speaker 2: presenting one of the most important doctrinal beliefs that you'll
Speaker 2: find anywhere in the cannon, Paul is elaborating on this
Speaker 2: concept of justification by faith. It's never been presented exactly
Speaker 2: this way until Paul puts pen to paper and God
Speaker 2: uses him to expound upon the fact that you got
Speaker 2: to come in on your knees. Relationship with God cannot
Speaker 2: be the product of works, although works are a byproduct
Speaker 2: of that relationship. And in the middle of this argument
Speaker 2: about what it means to have real faith, what it
Speaker 2: really takes to have faith, what faith really looks like,
Speaker 2: and in this contrast between the scene and the unseen
Speaker 2: elements of faith, Paul is using Abraham as an example
Speaker 2: because he is the father of faith. Abraham Isaac Jacob.
Speaker 2: Jacob's name was changed to Israel. The nation came from Jacob,
Speaker 2: but Jacob came from Isaac, and Isaac came from Abraham.
Speaker 1: So sometimes your life is a part of.
Speaker 2: A bigger picture that you might not even be the
Speaker 2: one to see certain things come to pass, but you
Speaker 2: might be the one that God uses in the life
Speaker 2: of the one. And that takes faith to have that
Speaker 2: kind of perspective.
Speaker 1: On your life.
Speaker 2: I texted Pastor Mickey this morning and I didn't tell you,
Speaker 2: but we were talking about him, and I just said,
Speaker 2: God used you in my life so much. I was
Speaker 2: just thinking about you this morning, and we pray for
Speaker 2: me because he believed in me at a stage in
Speaker 2: my life where my potential was hidden. Now, anybody can
Speaker 2: believe in you once your success is evident, but if
Speaker 2: you got somebody who believes in you while your potential
Speaker 2: is still in seed form, never forget that person. So
Speaker 2: that's why I was reaching out to him, just to
Speaker 2: tell him, thank you. I'm preaching today, pray for me.
Speaker 2: Just had you on my mind. And he doesn't preach
Speaker 2: in a big church, but he does preach in a
Speaker 2: big church because his faith lives on through me. So
Speaker 2: this is the kind of framework. And last week we
Speaker 2: talked on frame game. Have you been working on your
Speaker 2: frame game this week? Would you do me a favor?
Speaker 2: Would you just frame up your neighbor real quick? At
Speaker 2: all of our locations and tell him you look better
Speaker 2: than you did last week. I see signs of improvement.
Speaker 2: Frame game, and now Abraham enters the frame of the
Speaker 2: discussion about faith, and Paul has given us a synopsis
Speaker 2: of the story.
Speaker 1: Now this is different than a story.
Speaker 2: A synopsis requires some essence of prioritization to try to
Speaker 2: figure out what to put out and what to leave in,
Speaker 2: you know, and this is something that women would do
Speaker 2: well to learn when you're trying to communicate with men.
Speaker 2: It's that we typically do better with a synopsis than
Speaker 2: the full story. All of the men are leaving me
Speaker 2: up here by myself. But you know, you did not
Speaker 2: need to know all of that to find out what's
Speaker 2: for dinner. And sometimes you just want to press the
Speaker 2: button to skip to this synopsis. Can I get a
Speaker 2: cliff note? And sometimes you think that in marriage, something
Speaker 2: you do you do. I don't think that my wife
Speaker 2: is captivating now, speaking of Holly, she's on this kick.
Speaker 1: Lately of audible dot com.
Speaker 2: Audible dot com audio that speaks to you wherever you are.
Speaker 2: How do I know that because my wife, my wife
Speaker 2: folks are up in the house she's listened to. I
Speaker 2: don't know over the last year, ten or twelve books
Speaker 2: on audible dot com audio.
Speaker 1: That speaks to you wherever you are, and she says
Speaker 1: she read them.
Speaker 2: But we kind of have a debate about that because
Speaker 2: I always thought reading meant your eyes were involved.
Speaker 1: So she'll say I read a book, and I'll say,
Speaker 1: listen to one under my breath, in my head. And
Speaker 1: one book that she.
Speaker 2: Was looking at, she said she was looking at it,
Speaker 2: and she I don't know if she downloaded it or not,
Speaker 2: but she said that she wasn't going to listen to
Speaker 2: that one because she said that it was narrated by
Speaker 2: a child, not that the child read it on audible
Speaker 2: dot com, not actually that a child did the voice work,
Speaker 2: but that the point of view of the book was
Speaker 2: a child telling the story.
Speaker 1: And she said, I just don't think.
Speaker 2: I would enjoy a whole book written from a child's
Speaker 2: point of view.
Speaker 1: I think that would get old.
Speaker 2: And that was interesting to me because when you think
Speaker 2: of elements of a story, you think about the characters,
Speaker 2: and you think about the plot, and you think about
Speaker 2: the setting, and it always blows my mind. I don't
Speaker 2: know if any of you are fiction readers, but any
Speaker 2: fiction readers, if you have any good books that I
Speaker 2: should take to the beach this summer, feel free to
Speaker 2: send them my way. I should totally read more fiction.
Speaker 2: It's a good escape, but I don't read enough. But
Speaker 2: I can't figure out how somebody can have enough imagination
Speaker 2: to make up a whole world in a fiction book.
Speaker 2: I've written books before, but I mean, it's it's real stuff,
Speaker 2: and I just don't imagine that I would ever have
Speaker 2: the imagination to make up a whole world. You know,
Speaker 2: names and where people went to school in cities that
Speaker 2: don't really exist, and aliens and zombies and walkers, and
Speaker 2: you know, I just can't imagine that I would have
Speaker 2: that kind of imagination.
Speaker 1: But some people do yet. Yet.
Speaker 2: The plot and the characters and the setting when you're
Speaker 2: reading a book are all experienced through the medium of
Speaker 2: whoever the author chooses to use to tell the story.
Speaker 1: You'll know where I'm going with this. You guys are
Speaker 1: quick on the draw, because.
Speaker 2: I found out that in life, you have to select
Speaker 2: a narrator.
Speaker 1: Stay with me on this.
Speaker 2: You have to select a narrator because the narrator you
Speaker 2: choose will determine the way you.
Speaker 1: Experience the events.
Speaker 2: Everybody in here has an internal narrator, somebody who in
Speaker 2: every situation is trying to tell you how to think
Speaker 2: about that situation, how to interpret the motives of people
Speaker 2: in certain situations, how to look at an opportunity and
Speaker 2: to size it up.
Speaker 1: And the Lord told me to come out here and
Speaker 1: tell you today that some of you need a new narrator.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it again.
Speaker 2: Maybe it'll hit the back, maybe it'll hit Providence, maybe
Speaker 2: it'll hit Gaston. Some of you have a really annoying, whiny, complaining, suspicious,
Speaker 2: negative narrator, and see it swearing you out because you
Speaker 2: keep going into situations and your narrator keeps on telling
Speaker 2: you what to think about this and what to think
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 1: But I got good news for you.
Speaker 2: Anytime you get ready, you could get a new storyteller.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to say, you can have a life narrated
Speaker 2: not by feelings, but by faith. I gotta ask a question,
Speaker 2: is your life narrated by your feelings or your faith?
Speaker 2: And I think that's the plot line that we're plucked
Speaker 2: into with Abraham, who has a decision to make. In
Speaker 2: Romans chapter four, Paul has given us some of the story,
Speaker 2: not all of the story. If you read all of
Speaker 2: the story, you're gonna read about how Abraham, while he
Speaker 2: was waiting on God to give him a son, slept
Speaker 2: with his wife's assistance to try to produce something that
Speaker 2: he couldn't be patient and wait for. That happened, and
Speaker 2: in Genesis we hear about it, but it didn't make
Speaker 2: the trip across the centuries to Romans chapter four. That
Speaker 2: interesting that in the story selection process, in the synopsis,
Speaker 2: it didn't even make the story. It didn't even make
Speaker 2: the story. That Abraham got in trouble one time, and
Speaker 2: he was scared because his wife was beautiful, and he
Speaker 2: thought that if the king knew that it was his wife,
Speaker 2: he'd be in danger. So he told his wife survived
Speaker 2: to pretend like she was.
Speaker 1: His sister, and then the king almost slept.
Speaker 2: With his wife because he thought that it was Abram's sister.
Speaker 2: And then God started messing with the king because God
Speaker 2: didn't like it very much that the king was about
Speaker 2: to take Abraham's wife, And so the king figured it
Speaker 2: out real quick and said, why did you lie to me?
Speaker 2: Yet I can't find that in Romans chapter four. And
Speaker 2: it's not as if it didn't happen. It's just that
Speaker 2: when you narrate your life by grace, When you narrate
Speaker 2: your life by grace, this is the context of faith.
Speaker 2: And so some of the failures that are most prominent
Speaker 2: in your mind didn't even make the cut of the
Speaker 2: story in the mind of God, because he sees you
Speaker 2: from a different perspective and sees.
Speaker 1: You in a different dimension. I feel the.
Speaker 2: Spirit of God on me today. I'm just gonna preach
Speaker 2: this like I feel it in my heart. Touch somebody say,
Speaker 2: it's not even a part of my story. It's not
Speaker 2: even a part of my story.
Speaker 1: But it is. But it is, But it is in
Speaker 1: your story. See, there's a kind of faith that is
Speaker 1: very dangerous. And I'll show you two extremes here, and
Speaker 1: both are warned against in Romans chapter four. Sometimes there is.
Speaker 2: A version of faith that really looks more like denial,
Speaker 2: and then there is the absence of faith, which creates despair.
Speaker 2: And what I see in Romans chapter four Front and
Speaker 2: Sinner from the Father of Faith, is that he was
Speaker 2: able to avoid both extremes, it says in verse nineteen,
Speaker 2: without weakening in his faith.
Speaker 1: He faced the fact.
Speaker 2: Now that one phrase helps me understand what faith is
Speaker 2: and what faith Isn't that the kind of faith that
Speaker 2: I am to emulate from my father Abraham, who seed
Speaker 2: I am, is not a sort of denial. And I'm
Speaker 2: putting that before you because when we teach about being positive,
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean that everything in your life is positive.
Speaker 1: And I want you to know that because here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Some people don't exercise faith because they live in deny it,
Speaker 2: and they actually begin to use their faith as a
Speaker 2: cop out and don't confront things for what they are. Somebody,
Speaker 2: look at the person next to you and tell them
Speaker 2: it is what it is.
Speaker 1: Come on, some of you aren't participating and that makes me.
Speaker 2: Really, really, really angry and insecure.
Speaker 1: Look at your neighbor, tell them it is what it is.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Abraham faced the fact he was old.
Speaker 2: He faced the fact his stuff stopped working a long
Speaker 2: time ago. He faced the fact. He looked at himself
Speaker 2: and he said, it is what it is. And he
Speaker 2: looked at his wife and said it was what it was,
Speaker 2: but hey, what it was now, it is what it is.
Speaker 1: We're old now. We could have done this thirty forty
Speaker 1: years ago.
Speaker 2: Maybe we could have done it fifty sixty years ago.
Speaker 2: But now it is what it is. I didn't go
Speaker 2: to college.
Speaker 1: It is what it is. It is.
Speaker 2: I didn't go to high school. It is what it is.
Speaker 2: I went through my first marriage. I was too stupid to.
Speaker 1: Make it work.
Speaker 2: You know what, You can't get over what you do
Speaker 2: not own, So face it, face it. Faith doesn't mean
Speaker 2: living in denial. Faith doesn't mean that.
Speaker 1: It's all cold.
Speaker 2: I've got women in my church that were sexually abused.
Speaker 1: It's not all good. I got people in my.
Speaker 2: Church who can't get the job because they have a
Speaker 2: criminal record.
Speaker 1: It's not all good.
Speaker 2: I got people in my church under the sound of
Speaker 2: my voice right now who didn't grow up with the dad.
Speaker 1: It's not all good. And you know what faith can handle.
Speaker 1: That faith can handle that.
Speaker 2: Starting place of authentic faith is honesty.
Speaker 1: It is what it is.
Speaker 2: Lord, I'm disappointed right now.
Speaker 1: You know you can tell God that and he won't
Speaker 1: hold it against you.
Speaker 2: When God spoke to Abraham and said, I'm going to
Speaker 2: give you a seed that's going to be your son,
Speaker 2: and out of your seed is going to come a
Speaker 2: nation as numerous as the stars, Abraham laughed in God's face,
Speaker 2: didn't bother God because.
Speaker 1: Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a decision.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say it again to counteract all the wrong
Speaker 2: thinking that you've ever had in your life about faith.
Speaker 1: Faith is not a feeling.
Speaker 2: You know, you can be a pessimistic person but still
Speaker 2: have great faith.
Speaker 1: Even great faith has weak moments.
Speaker 2: So the call to faith is first a call to
Speaker 2: come out of denial. Otherwise you'll be waiting on God
Speaker 2: to deliver you from a situation that is going to
Speaker 2: require discipline.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it again this message and sinking in
Speaker 1: Joel nine thirty was on fire.
Speaker 2: I don't know what happened in the lobby before the
Speaker 2: people got here.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's better at the other campus.
Speaker 2: But when you live in denial, you'll be waiting for
Speaker 2: deliverance in a situation that requires discipline. Are you waiting
Speaker 2: for deliverance in a situation that is going to require discipline?
Speaker 2: In other words, are you waiting on God to cancel
Speaker 2: your debts or are you're making a plan to pay
Speaker 2: them off?
Speaker 1: Faith doesn't wait on a check. Faith gets up and goes.
Speaker 2: To work, or at least looking for work. Faith they'll
Speaker 2: do it, but you got to face it. You got
Speaker 2: to face it or you live in denial, and you'll say, well,
Speaker 2: I guess the reason that nobody wants to be my
Speaker 2: friend is because God has just got me in a
Speaker 2: lonely season right now. No, God doesn't have you in
Speaker 2: a lonely season. Your bad attitude and poor relational habits
Speaker 2: of not treating people correctly have got you in a
Speaker 2: lonely season. And until you face it it, faith can't
Speaker 2: fix it. Until you face it, faith can't fix it.
Speaker 2: Faith can't fix what you won't face. So he faced
Speaker 2: the fact, but he kept his faith, and you can
Speaker 2: do both. Stay with me camera. He faced the fact.
Speaker 2: I'm not living in denial, but he kept his faith.
Speaker 2: I'm not living in despair. Faith is standing in the
Speaker 2: middle and making a decision that it is what it is.
Speaker 2: But watch this, it's not what it seems. I got
Speaker 2: that beneath the surface faith. I got that Saturday faith
Speaker 2: waiting on something to come up out of a tomb
Speaker 2: and resurrect for the healing and salvation of the world.
Speaker 6: So so he narrated his situation with his faith, and
Speaker 6: so he became the father of many nations, and we
Speaker 6: are his seed.
Speaker 1: How cool is.
Speaker 2: That that we are the seed of Abraham. See that
Speaker 2: made me think about something. Will you think with me
Speaker 2: today that when Jesus was trying to explain to the
Speaker 2: people what the Kingdom of God was like, he said
Speaker 2: in Mark four, verse thirty one, the Kingdom of Heaven
Speaker 2: is like a skyscraper, big and bold, big and massive,
Speaker 2: towering structure. No I wish he said that. I wish
Speaker 2: my faith was as big as a skyscraper. I wish
Speaker 2: I walked around never doubting. You know, I wish all
Speaker 2: my stuff worked. That's what I'm trying to say. In fact,
Speaker 2: I wish that this stuff that I preach was as
Speaker 2: easy to live as it is to preach. Sometimes talk
Speaker 2: back to me, talk back to me, talk back to me.
Speaker 1: Don't you wish it.
Speaker 2: Was as easy to live as it is to write
Speaker 2: down in your notebook? Cam with Heaven is like a
Speaker 2: mustard seed shown the mustard seed shum show. I'm the scene.
Speaker 1: Huh what come on? Talk to me.
Speaker 2: It's all right, you can talk in her No it's not.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what it seems to be now that
Speaker 2: it's been through the process that it went through.
Speaker 1: And guess what I have in my pocket. No, not
Speaker 1: mustard seeds. I got trees in my pocket. I came
Speaker 1: to preach to somebody.
Speaker 2: You got trees in your pocket, You got potential in
Speaker 2: your life. You got trees in your pocket. You've got
Speaker 2: healing in your mouth. You can tell your neighbor you
Speaker 2: got trees in your pocket. That's what God was telling Abraham.
Speaker 2: I put a seed in you, I put a promise
Speaker 2: in you, I put a purpose in you.
Speaker 1: I put potential in you.
Speaker 2: And don't judge the tree by the size of the seed,
Speaker 2: because when it's grown, it's gonna look like something you can't.
Speaker 1: Even right right now.
Speaker 2: So so he says, can you see the tree in
Speaker 2: the sea?
Speaker 1: And this is the question of faith.
Speaker 2: Can you see the hope of the world in a
Speaker 2: barren womb? Can you see a leadership potential in your
Speaker 2: rebellious child?
Speaker 7: Wow?
Speaker 1: Good?
Speaker 2: Can you see how it might have been a blessing
Speaker 2: that one person walked out of your life? Can you
Speaker 2: see They say that we missed the forest for the trees,
Speaker 2: But sometimes I think we missed the trees for the seeds.
Speaker 2: So Elijah sends his servant up. He's like, hey, check
Speaker 2: it out. Causes about the rain, and the servant comes
Speaker 2: back down and says, there is nothing there, And he said,
Speaker 2: go and look again. Now, iija's doing something kind of weird.
Speaker 2: While he's sending the servant back and forth, because he
Speaker 2: sends him six times, Bible says that I'm not going
Speaker 2: to attempt to demonstrate this because my flexibility is limited.
Speaker 2: But he put his head between his knees, and I
Speaker 2: think it's because if he looked at the sky.
Speaker 1: If he looked at the situation, if he went by sight.
Speaker 1: You know, the Bible says that we walked by faith
Speaker 1: and not by sight.
Speaker 2: So he had to close his eyes to what was
Speaker 2: there in order to see what would be. And finally,
Speaker 2: after six times, on the seventh time, the little servant
Speaker 2: came back and said, well, it's a cloud up there,
Speaker 2: but it's only about the size of a man's hand.
Speaker 1: To what shall I compare the Kingdom of Heaven. It's like.
Speaker 2: A seed, a cloud the size of a man's hand.
Speaker 2: It's like a mustard seed. That's the smallest seed they
Speaker 2: knew of at the time. Yet when planted, it grows.
Speaker 2: I love that phrase. I feel the oil of God
Speaker 2: and the electric power of the Holy Ghost on that phrase.
Speaker 2: Yet when planted it grows. That's your word for this
Speaker 2: season of your life, is that. Yes, it's small, yet
Speaker 2: when planted it grows. I'm gonna stay right on this
Speaker 2: because I know when God is speaking, and he's speaking
Speaker 2: to somebody, it's a cloud the size of a man's hand.
Speaker 2: Yet when planted it grows, it's a little boy's lunch.
Speaker 2: It's only five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, put
Speaker 2: it in my hands, because yet when planted it grows.
Speaker 2: He's just a shepherd boy in a field. He looks
Speaker 2: like a seed, yet he's a king. And when planted
Speaker 2: in the soil of adversity in Saul's court, David grew
Speaker 2: to become a king to what shall I compare the
Speaker 2: Kingdom of God. It's like a seed. You can't see
Speaker 2: it at first. It doesn't even seem like something worth showing.
Speaker 2: It doesn't even seem big enough for the cameras.
Speaker 1: To pick up. Yet when planted it grows.
Speaker 2: God said his time for you to start planting seeds
Speaker 2: of purpose, even in the soil of doubt. If you planted,
Speaker 2: it'll grow. If you planted, the cloud will burst. If
Speaker 2: you planted, the rain will fall. If you get your
Speaker 2: hands dirty, and have faith and hope against hope. Yet
Speaker 2: when planted it grows. Touch seven people tell him it's
Speaker 2: gonna grow. It's gonna grow, It's gonna grow. I feel
Speaker 2: a sphere and of faith. I want to impart faith
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you believe in this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: But I believe in a moment, in the presence of God,
Speaker 2: he can plant the incorruptible seed of his word in
Speaker 2: the soul of an expected heart.
Speaker 1: And are ripe, harvet.
Speaker 2: You better catch that. You better catch that tree. You
Speaker 2: better catch that tree. Come online, burgers. How many thinks
Speaker 2: I can get it all.
Speaker 1: The way to.
Speaker 2: Better catch that tree? You better cutch that tree. You
Speaker 2: better put that in your pocket. And this week, when
Speaker 2: you're up in a situation and it looks like a
Speaker 2: small little thing and it looks like it doesn't stand
Speaker 2: its heads, and it looks like a little virgin girl
Speaker 2: from Nasareth, and it looks like Joseph in a pit,
Speaker 2: you need to understand that the pit wasn't a pit.
Speaker 2: It was the soil he was planted in so he
Speaker 2: could come forth in each of them and bring the
Speaker 2: plant nice. Yet, tell somebody I'm growing I'm growing.
Speaker 7: I'm growing. I'm growing. I'm growing. I'm growing. I'm growing.
Speaker 7: I'm growing. My faith is growing, my heart is growing,
Speaker 7: my capacity to love is growing. But the thing about
Speaker 7: the growth of the seed is y'all hate when I
Speaker 7: holler like that. I know some of y'all wish I
Speaker 7: didn't do it. But I watched some basketball games, THEIRING
Speaker 7: Final Four and the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 2: I watch all kinds of fans get up with their
Speaker 2: shirts off and their chest painted, and they're jumping around
Speaker 2: about some men in some shorts, running up and down
Speaker 2: a hardwood floor. I just think they're not faith.
Speaker 8: O gonna be enough.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get up.
Speaker 5: So it's growing, But the process stop.
Speaker 1: I want to teach. I want to teach.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, I gotta go to the Cross, I gotta
Speaker 2: be crucified, and they're gonna bury me in the ground.
Speaker 2: That's one narration of what happened when they put Jesus
Speaker 2: in a borrowed tomb.
Speaker 1: He was buried.
Speaker 2: But guess what Jesus said when they put me in
Speaker 2: the ground. I'm not being buried. I'm being planted to
Speaker 2: produce a harvest. Do somebody say I'm planted. I'm planted.
Speaker 2: I'm planted, and it does not appear yet what.
Speaker 1: I shall be. But when you see me, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: look more like him. I got news for you. It
Speaker 1: is what it is, but it's not what it.
Speaker 8: Was, and your eyes have not seen.
Speaker 1: What it's gonna be.
Speaker 2: Shouted humanly.
Speaker 1: Planting you. He's planting you.
Speaker 2: I want to talk to somebody at the rock Hill
Speaker 2: campus right now, because at the rock Hill campus I
Speaker 2: got somebody listening to this sermon who's in a state
Speaker 2: of despair. You figure that, well, if it hadn't happened
Speaker 2: by now, it's not gonna happen. And you know what,
Speaker 2: it may not happen just the way that you wanted
Speaker 2: it to happen, because sometimes you have to put the
Speaker 2: seed of your dream in the soil of your faith
Speaker 2: so that God's dream for your life can but for.
Speaker 1: Yet, when planted, it grows.
Speaker 2: And I prayed for you, Peter, that after you failed,
Speaker 2: that your faith would not fail, and that after you
Speaker 2: had returned, you would strengthen your brethren. You're coming up
Speaker 2: out of the dirt. You're coming up out of this failure.
Speaker 2: This is not your final resting place. Don't just stare
Speaker 2: and don't look at what you see, cause we don't.
Speaker 8: Fix our eyes on what is seen. What is seen
Speaker 8: is temporary. I'm only in this ground for a minute.
Speaker 8: But I'm coming up bigger than before. I'm coming up
Speaker 8: stronger than before. I'm coming up full of faith, full
Speaker 8: of wisdom, full of lessons, full of purpose, full of
Speaker 8: love our planet.
Speaker 2: Yet the only way for the seed to grow was
Speaker 2: for it to disappear into the soil. And the only
Speaker 2: way for Abraham's faith to be proven was for his
Speaker 2: hope to be blanted in the soil of disappointment. Yet
Speaker 2: he didn't waver in his faith. What do you mean, Paul,
Speaker 2: he slept.
Speaker 1: With his wife's assistant. Yeah, but.
Speaker 2: Faith isn't defined by what you do in your weak moments.
Speaker 1: That's not how the narrator the narrator. You know what
Speaker 1: you have in your life. You have a third person narrator.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna break it down even more for the English teachers,
Speaker 2: it's a third person omniscient narrator.
Speaker 1: Because you've got different kinds of narrators. It's the first person.
Speaker 2: And when you narrate your life in the first person,
Speaker 2: you look at yourself and you say it is what
Speaker 2: it is. But what a narrator can do in telling
Speaker 2: the story, and this is what faith.
Speaker 1: Can do in your life.
Speaker 2: Faith can show you that although it is what it is,
Speaker 2: it's not what it seems. And in between denial and
Speaker 2: despair is destiny.
Speaker 1: To stand and know.
Speaker 2: That God has planted me and I will produce my purpose.
Speaker 2: You got a disappointment in your life, It is what
Speaker 2: it is. No needn't deny it. You fell short. It
Speaker 2: is what it is. Boy, Even just that first half
Speaker 2: alone would be a good start, wouldn't it, just to
Speaker 2: say it.
Speaker 1: Is what it is.
Speaker 2: That I can't come in church and pretend to be
Speaker 2: something that I'm not and expect to be blessed in
Speaker 2: my state of pretension.
Speaker 1: I was reading something because I'm reading.
Speaker 2: Through Mark a little bit, preparing these sermons for you,
Speaker 2: and I started the series in Mark, and I was
Speaker 2: over there about the woman with the issue of blood,
Speaker 2: just for a Bible lesson for you. She had been
Speaker 2: going around to a bunch of different doctors and they
Speaker 2: kept saying, you know, this is what it is, and
Speaker 2: this is what it is. And she came to Jesus
Speaker 2: and he was able to fix it for what it
Speaker 2: really was, because anyway you can try to fix all
Speaker 2: kinds of things in your life because he diagnosed according
Speaker 2: to the symptoms, but never really get down to the
Speaker 2: systemic parts that cause the symptoms. And you run around
Speaker 2: to a bunch of different doctors, a lot of different men,
Speaker 2: a lot of different women, a lot of different churches,
Speaker 2: a lot of different relationships, a lot of different places,
Speaker 2: trying to get it fixed. But until you get to
Speaker 2: the guy who really knows what it is, it can't
Speaker 2: be healed. What I never noticed before is it said
Speaker 2: that the woman when she came to Jesus, because I
Speaker 2: always saw the story like faith, just big faith. She
Speaker 2: came through the crowd, and she pressed through the crowd,
Speaker 2: and she said, if I can touch the him of
Speaker 2: his garment, I'll be made whole. And I always was
Speaker 2: so focused on that that I miss the part where
Speaker 2: it said that the woman, knowing what had happened to her,
Speaker 2: came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear,
Speaker 2: told him.
Speaker 1: The whole truth.
Speaker 2: It was her faith that healed her, but it was
Speaker 2: her honesty that made her faith authentic. So the Lord
Speaker 2: told me to give you two things to come out
Speaker 2: of denial.
Speaker 1: It is what it is, and you can say it.
Speaker 1: You can say I feel lonely in this season.
Speaker 2: Now be careful who you say it too, because you
Speaker 2: can say it in Delilah's barbershop and wake up with
Speaker 2: a buzz cut that you weren't expecting. So don't just
Speaker 2: say it to anybody. But God can handle it. God
Speaker 2: can handle it. I talked to God real as if
Speaker 2: I'm talking to a friend, because the Bible said Abraham
Speaker 2: was a friend of God, and if I'm his seed,
Speaker 2: i'm his friend too. And friends can talk to friends.
Speaker 2: And he's my father, but he's my friend, and I
Speaker 2: can come to him and say, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: get you right now, sir, your majesty, because I don't
Speaker 2: want to lighten.
Speaker 1: Or anything like that. So I it is what it is.
Speaker 1: It is what it is. You know. I feel like
Speaker 1: nobody appreciates me right now.
Speaker 2: God, just make sure that when you tell God how
Speaker 2: you feel, that you let him narrate what you should
Speaker 2: do by faith, not feelings.
Speaker 1: It's okay to say it.
Speaker 2: It's okay, it's ok it's okay to Abraham.
Speaker 1: Face the fact.
Speaker 2: Look at all these debts I have, Look at what
Speaker 2: the doctors are saying, face it, face it in faith,
Speaker 2: Face it in faith, Face it in faith. Come out
Speaker 2: of the spirit and realize that whatever it is that
Speaker 2: you're looking at, it's not the end. It's a portal
Speaker 2: to your potential. It's not buried, it's planted, it's not over.
Speaker 2: It's just in transition.
Speaker 1: It is what it is, But.
Speaker 8: My faith told me to tell.
Speaker 1: You it's not what it seems.
Speaker 8: If you receive this word, get.
Speaker 1: Up on your feet and.
Speaker 7: Give your job, a great ray, a heart right, a
Speaker 7: fake rain.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you