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 you perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Wow,
Speaker 1: don't stop at the comma. And boy was preaching on
Speaker 1: a punctuation mark? How about it? I was. I had
Speaker 1: a first time thing. I was stomping the devil's head
Speaker 1: on the stage last week. It was at the nine thirty.
Speaker 1: I was icing my heel between the nine thirty and
Speaker 1: the eleven thirty. I stomped him too hard and he
Speaker 1: bit me or something. My heel is bruised all week.
Speaker 1: Somebody said, welcome to your forties. You're gonna start getting
Speaker 1: all kinds of stupid injuries. What a way to get injured, huh,
Speaker 1: stomping the devil's head for the glory of God. Come on,
Speaker 1: I've got hurt a lot stupider ways than that. It's hilarious.
Speaker 1: It's hilarious to me. It was funny to me. I
Speaker 1: used to get hurt punching walls and stuff out of anger.
Speaker 1: I'd rather get hurt annoyed anyway. The Bible said that
Speaker 1: he will bruise your heel, but you will crush his head.
Speaker 1: That's a scripture verse. Y'all aren't ready for this. I
Speaker 1: want to tell you something that happened to me last summer.
Speaker 1: I have a friend who lives in another country, kin Costa.
Speaker 1: He's originally from South Africa. He resides now in London, England.
Speaker 1: He travels the world. He comes to see me once
Speaker 1: a year. Just turned seventy. It's a good man. He
Speaker 1: has a book out called Joseph of Arimathea. Free Plug
Speaker 1: for my friend, because he gave me the scripture that
Speaker 1: I want to use to frame our message. Not necessarily
Speaker 1: to preach the scripture, but to frame the message. And
Speaker 1: I figured I owed him a book plug, So check
Speaker 1: it out on Amazon, Kin Costa, Joseph of Arimathea. Now
Speaker 1: that that's out the way, when he comes to see me,
Speaker 1: he will usually bring three or four scriptures and we'll
Speaker 1: read the scriptures together. He jot them down. This is
Speaker 1: the paper that he brought me in July when he
Speaker 1: came to see me after my break family break this summer,
Speaker 1: and he brought me these scriptures. We sat on the
Speaker 1: porch and we looked at the scriptures and the first
Speaker 1: one was Exitus fourteen fourteen, and we read it together
Speaker 1: and he said, that's the wrong one, and so we
Speaker 1: moved on. He gave me Joshua three four, Isaiah forty
Speaker 1: two sixteen, and then Leviticus twenty six ten. I probably
Speaker 1: should admit this, but I normally skip Leviticus on the
Speaker 1: Bible reading plans. It's not my go to book to
Speaker 1: fight discouragement. But we looked at it and we read
Speaker 1: it together. Put that one on the screen. Leviticus twenty
Speaker 1: The Lord says you will still be eating last year's
Speaker 1: harvest when you will have to move it out to
Speaker 1: make room for the new. And we read that together
Speaker 1: and I said, well, what does it mean? He said,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I put it in my Bible, and
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago it fell out of my Bible.
Speaker 1: On a Friday night, I started looking at it again
Speaker 1: and I texted it over to Bishop td Jakes. I said,
Speaker 1: what does it mean? He said, oh, that's a good one,
Speaker 1: and he preached about it and that was good. Well,
Speaker 1: the phrase that I want to use and put it
Speaker 1: up there again is where it says, make room for
Speaker 1: the new. And the Lord told me to tell you today,
Speaker 1: make room for the new. This is a word from
Speaker 1: the Lord for somebody who is in this room or
Speaker 1: at one of our campuses. Come on, let's thank God
Speaker 1: for all of our locations. From Lake Norman all the
Speaker 1: all the way to Matthews. We are spanning South Charlotte
Speaker 1: with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and beyond Melbourne, Florida
Speaker 1: University City. You wouldn't believe it. Raleigh, North Carolina is
Speaker 1: even joining us. I gotta admit I didn't see that coming.
Speaker 1: So y'all drove in for make room for the new.
Speaker 1: This is a word for you, make room for the new.
Speaker 1: You know I'm getting into old stuff now. I've got
Speaker 1: about eighty records upstairs in my office at my house
Speaker 1: in a turntable vinyl. Something about getting up and having
Speaker 1: to only listen to three songs at a time is
Speaker 1: preferable to having ever song in the history of the
Speaker 1: universe on my phone at my fingertips. For some reason,
Speaker 1: I would rather listen through a scratchy analog representation of
Speaker 1: the music than a digital recreation of the music that
Speaker 1: fits in my pocket. I think there's something comforting about
Speaker 1: something that you used to touch and hold old. You know,
Speaker 1: I used to like something and be attracted to it
Speaker 1: if it was new, But now I like old stuff.
Speaker 1: It's just I like I like old. I like old,
Speaker 1: I like old songs, I like smashing pumpkins. I don't
Speaker 1: need any of this new stuff. I don't need any
Speaker 1: of the I like the old stuff. The hymns that
Speaker 1: I used to yawn through in church are the ones
Speaker 1: that I now write songs around as as a grown man.
Speaker 1: And so a lot of things come full circle in
Speaker 1: your life that you don't appreciate at the time. But
Speaker 1: the the the challenge now to hold on to the
Speaker 1: old to the exclusion of receiving the new. When I
Speaker 1: shared with you last week, we were given a picture
Speaker 1: of Peter who was having to fight against the traditions
Speaker 1: and the customs of the well meaning circumcised believers. And
Speaker 1: one thing that it is difficult for us to appreciate
Speaker 1: about this community is that they were receiving from God
Speaker 1: an entirely new system by which to relate to him.
Speaker 1: Imagine that at one point you had to atone for
Speaker 1: your sins with the blood of bulls and goats, and
Speaker 1: now instead of shedding the blood of an animal, you
Speaker 1: were trusting in the blood of Christ. That's a very
Speaker 1: difficult thing to apprehend when you had something tactile, something
Speaker 1: you could touch, and now you have to believe something
Speaker 1: by faith. The paradigm of justification. We call it justification
Speaker 1: by faith, but it's actually justification by grace through faith. See,
Speaker 1: it's not how much faith you have that saves you,
Speaker 1: it's how much grace God has that saves you. Because
Speaker 1: if it was about how much faith I had, I
Speaker 1: would be going to heaven one five minute period, and
Speaker 1: I would be bound for the same hell as a
Speaker 1: serial killer in the next five I don't always have
Speaker 1: that much faith, sometimes high, sometimes low. And depending on
Speaker 1: whether you catch me at nine am and I've had
Speaker 1: my coffee, or whether you catch me after one of
Speaker 1: my kids said something disrespectful, I might have a lot
Speaker 1: of faith or a little bit of faith. The point
Speaker 1: is not how much faith that I have, it's who
Speaker 1: I have my faith in. Y'all ain't gonna help me
Speaker 1: preach a bit today. This Bible says that it is
Speaker 1: by grace you have been saved through faith and this
Speaker 1: not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not
Speaker 1: of works. So that no one can boast and think
Speaker 1: about this. God's people had always related to God through
Speaker 1: a covenant that was based on works, that was based
Speaker 1: on keeping the law. And now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: in the passage I shared last week, not only are
Speaker 1: they learning to relate to God by faith, which is
Speaker 1: the hardest thing in the world, to just take it
Speaker 1: by faith. We talk a good game when it comes
Speaker 1: to faith. We say we're trusting in the Lord with
Speaker 1: all of our heart and leaning not to our own understanding.
Speaker 1: But it still creates a tension, which is how much
Speaker 1: should I trust God? And how much should I try myself?
Speaker 1: This tension is written into the very script. The nascent
Speaker 1: days of the church were filled with this kind of tension.
Speaker 1: So the community God's people, they are now learning to
Speaker 1: relate to God in a brand new way. Touch somebody say,
Speaker 1: make room for the new. And just about the time
Speaker 1: they're getting used to this paradigm of grace, here come
Speaker 1: the gentiles, who are the ones they were supposed to
Speaker 1: stay away from. And the point guard of the New
Speaker 1: Testament all star team, Peter is going in eating with
Speaker 1: these people who are contagious. I use that word for reason,
Speaker 1: because when I told you that they wouldn't associate with gentiles,
Speaker 1: you're like, well, that's wrong. You know, it's easy to
Speaker 1: recognize a truth when you're not living in the tension
Speaker 1: of it. It's easy for us to look back on
Speaker 1: certain issues of racial segregation now and say why in
Speaker 1: the world. But when you're living in the tension of it.
Speaker 1: When you're living in the tension, you can lose sight
Speaker 1: of the truth. And in the tension of the New
Speaker 1: Testament Church, there's not only grace versus works, but there's
Speaker 1: this exclusive idea that God is blessing a select group
Speaker 1: of people. And then now get this tension with me.
Speaker 1: They have to try to figure out how to protect
Speaker 1: what they've been entrusted with at the same time that
Speaker 1: they don't hold it too tightly. Every parent can relate
Speaker 1: to this. How do I protect my kids while not
Speaker 1: putting my kids in some sort of bubble where they
Speaker 1: won't be prepared for the real world. How do I
Speaker 1: I'm thinking this about Abby right now. She's probably going
Speaker 1: to be pretty. She's already pretty nine year old, probably
Speaker 1: going to be a pretty thirteen year old. Then there's
Speaker 1: probably going to be some thirteen year old boy that
Speaker 1: wants to come up and talk to her about something.
Speaker 1: And how am I supposed to let her out of
Speaker 1: her room and trust a thirteen year old boy when
Speaker 1: I've been one? How will I do that? I don't know.
Speaker 1: But what I do know is this. You ready. This
Speaker 1: is the first thing I've said that you probably will
Speaker 1: want to write down today, but hopefully not the last. Okay.
Speaker 1: Your tolerance for tension determines your potential for growth. Your
Speaker 1: tolerance for tension determines what I say, your potential for growth.
Speaker 1: And we don't like tension when it comes to Christianity.
Speaker 1: God said it. I believe it. That settles it. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you right now, brother, it doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: you believe it or not. God said it. That settles it.
Speaker 1: You can just take the middle of it right there out.
Speaker 1: God said it. That settles it. But wait a minute,
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, wait minute, wait a minute, to sit
Speaker 1: with the tension of what God actually said as opposed
Speaker 1: to the tradition of what we heard God said through
Speaker 1: the filter of personal preference and prejudice. It's the gift
Speaker 1: of tension. If you hire a trainer at what's the
Speaker 1: name of a gym, Planet fitness. If you hire a trainer,
Speaker 1: I don't even know if you can do that at
Speaker 1: Planet Fitness. But if you hire a trainer at the gym,
Speaker 1: they are going to at some point teach you about
Speaker 1: the gift of tension for the building of muscle. If
Speaker 1: you hire a trainer and they do not employ tension
Speaker 1: in the training regimen, you should fire the trainer because
Speaker 1: time under tension is the formula for growth. And yet
Speaker 1: when it comes to our movies, we love tension. When
Speaker 1: it comes to our television entertainment Netflix binging content, we
Speaker 1: love tension. I don't want to watch a show about
Speaker 1: somebody who had a good day. I want to watch
Speaker 1: a show about somebody who ended up on drugs and
Speaker 1: had to fight a whole gang single handedly and almost
Speaker 1: died in the process, and got a divorce and went bankrupt.
Speaker 1: But what makes for a good TV show is the
Speaker 1: kind of stuff we try to pray away from our lives.
Speaker 1: So I started the year praying something really weird. I said, God,
Speaker 1: increased the quality of my problems. Lord, I want higher
Speaker 1: quality problems in twenty twenty. The reason I prayed that
Speaker 1: is because I tried asking him in previous years take
Speaker 1: my problems away. That was an ineffective prayer. He did
Speaker 1: not seem too interested in answering that prayer to take
Speaker 1: my problems away. In fact, it seems as if some
Speaker 1: of the things that came into my life in one
Speaker 1: season as a problem, some of the things that came
Speaker 1: into my life as opposition, were the things that God
Speaker 1: used to create opportunities for me to know him and
Speaker 1: make him known. So what's crazy? What's crazy? Everybody say
Speaker 1: it's crazy. What's crazy about Leviticus twenty six ten is
Speaker 1: it can be interpreted as either a blessing or an inconvenience,
Speaker 1: because the scripture said that if you live in alignment
Speaker 1: with God in an agreement with his covenant. This is
Speaker 1: the old covenant, which was by works. Remember they had
Speaker 1: to conditionally receive the favor of God through certain behaviors
Speaker 1: in community. And so as Moses is giving them all
Speaker 1: of this law, they've been out of Egypt only for
Speaker 1: a very short time. They've constructed a tabernacle, which is
Speaker 1: a space where they can meet with God. And he
Speaker 1: says in verse nine, just get a running start at it.
Speaker 1: I will look on favor with you and make you
Speaker 1: fruitful and increase your numbers. And I will keep my
Speaker 1: covenant with you old covenant, the covenant that was established
Speaker 1: through obedience and works. It was still grace, but it
Speaker 1: was grace measured out through behavior. Can I teach the
Speaker 1: Bible on this particular worship service? So then when he
Speaker 1: gets to verse ten, he says, if you will keep
Speaker 1: your end of the covenant, then you will still be
Speaker 1: eating last year's harvest when we have to move it
Speaker 1: out to make room for the new. I'm so glad
Speaker 1: that I am not under that contract anymore. I really am.
Speaker 1: I don't want God to give me what I deserve.
Speaker 1: I don't want God to be fair to me. I
Speaker 1: don't want God to relate to me on the basis
Speaker 1: of how much I prayed last week. I really don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want him to I don't want him to
Speaker 1: treat me according to what my lifestyle would merit. And
Speaker 1: so we understand now. I think most of us in
Speaker 1: this church understand that this is the old Covenant, but
Speaker 1: it's the same community. They have progressed from a point
Speaker 1: where they were wandering in the wilderness until we get
Speaker 1: to acts chapter eleven, and now they are becoming a church.
Speaker 1: Now in that setup, I want to go back into
Speaker 1: Acts chapter ten, and I want to read the story
Speaker 1: to you again, or as we said last week, the
Speaker 1: whole story. You never really know the whole story. That's
Speaker 1: why you got to keep living. That's why you got
Speaker 1: to keep praying. That's why you got to keep believing.
Speaker 1: That's why you got to keep trusting. That's why you
Speaker 1: got to keep swinging. Because you don't know the whole story.
Speaker 1: That's why you can't kill your kids. It might grow
Speaker 1: up and pay for your retirement or something like that.
Speaker 1: Because you don't know the whole story. That's why you
Speaker 1: can't judge anything too soon. And you're going to see
Speaker 1: this in the scripture right here, is that in the
Speaker 1: midst of great tension, a great truth was shown make
Speaker 1: room for the new Verse one says the apostles and
Speaker 1: the believers throughout Judea heard that the gentiles had also
Speaker 1: received the Word of God. The gospel is spreading, it's spreading.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say, grace is going viral. It's
Speaker 1: just out of control, can't stop it. It's just all
Speaker 1: over the place. And they didn't like that because they
Speaker 1: are in the tension of trying to protect the old,
Speaker 1: and when you are protecting the old, what's new looks
Speaker 1: like a threat. When I asked my dad one time,
Speaker 1: are you threatening me? He said something, I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: heard this before. He said, it's not a threat, it's
Speaker 1: a prom. I was like, oh, he was six two.
Speaker 1: I was like, got it, I'm good, No further questions.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not a threat, it's a promise. He
Speaker 1: said that it's not a threat, it's a blessing. They
Speaker 1: were threatened by the blessing because they did not recognize
Speaker 1: it and it did not remind them of what they
Speaker 1: were used to in their religious routine. Are you threatened
Speaker 1: by your very own blessings? Come on, Raleigh. They get
Speaker 1: used to it. I know y'all love the Word of
Speaker 1: God and Raleigh, and so they are. They are being blessed.
Speaker 1: The church is growing. That's exactly what they want. And
Speaker 1: sometimes God can be giving you exactly what you want,
Speaker 1: but the tension that it takes to produce the growth
Speaker 1: is super uncomfortable. We don't like tension in our Christianity.
Speaker 1: Rapture me Jesus and get me out of here. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, you need to pay your taxes and change
Speaker 1: your oil and do all this stuff just in case
Speaker 1: he doesn't get you out of it. You need to
Speaker 1: learn how to bring God into it. And so as
Speaker 1: the message is going to the gentiles, they're not the
Speaker 1: Jewish people. They're the gentiles, all of us who do
Speaker 1: not have a Jewish ancestry like these people. And they
Speaker 1: didn't want to let him in the church. So next
Speaker 1: time you don't want to let somebody in church because
Speaker 1: something about them offends you, just to remember that by
Speaker 1: that standard, you wouldn't be here either. So the circumcised
Speaker 1: believers criticized him. Is a criticism that is birth out
Speaker 1: of ignorance. And they said, you went into the house
Speaker 1: of uncircumcisedment and ate with them, And starting from the beginning,
Speaker 1: Peter told them the whole story. He said, I was
Speaker 1: in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance
Speaker 1: I saw a vision. I saw something like a large
Speaker 1: sheep being let down from heaven by its four corners,
Speaker 1: and it came down to where I was. I saw
Speaker 1: something being let down from heaven and it came down
Speaker 1: to where I was. When I read that the Lord
Speaker 1: said to me, I'm going to bring it to you
Speaker 1: when you are positioning yourself according to the peace and
Speaker 1: the purpose of God, and when you are present in
Speaker 1: the situation where He has placed you. God said all
Speaker 1: the other things that people run after, I'm gonna bring
Speaker 1: it to you. If you want in on this word, shout,
Speaker 1: God's gonna bring it to me. Come on, Tell the
Speaker 1: person next to you. I don't have to chase it,
Speaker 1: stress about it, cheat to get it, violate my morality
Speaker 1: or my ethics. God's gonna bring it to me. This
Speaker 1: is the Covenant of grace. Watch this. I tried to
Speaker 1: get to God, I couldn't. So he ripped open Heaven
Speaker 1: step down to come inside of me so that the
Speaker 1: righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us. No,
Speaker 1: I cannot achieve his holiness. But God's gonna bring it
Speaker 1: to me. Heaven's gonna come to my house, Heaven's gonna
Speaker 1: come to my mind, Peace is gonna come to my marriage.
Speaker 1: God's gonna bring it to me. I wanna shut the
Speaker 1: whole sermon down for a minute and give God praise
Speaker 1: by faith that He's gonna bring it to me. What's
Speaker 1: your need? He's got it. God's gonna bring it to me.
Speaker 1: God's gonna bring it to me. When I praise him,
Speaker 1: blessings come down. God's gonna bring it to me. I
Speaker 1: don't have to begging. God's gonna bring it. Peter wasn't
Speaker 1: looking for a vision for his life. God brought it
Speaker 1: to him. All he did was go to Joppa. Can
Speaker 1: we talk about Joppa for a minute. Joppa, everybody say Joppa.
Speaker 1: I thought about calling this message the Opportunity of a Lifetime,
Speaker 1: but that was corny. Yeah, I'll scratched that one out
Speaker 1: real quick. You can have it. That's not a good
Speaker 1: title for a message. But it got me that he
Speaker 1: was in Joppa because I was like, Joppa, Joppa, Jappa, Jappa, Jappa, Choppa, Joppa,
Speaker 1: support city. I know that they put the timber there.
Speaker 1: They take the timber, and the timber came there when
Speaker 1: they built Solomon's temple. I think I think they brought
Speaker 1: the timber from Lebanon to Jappa because it's on the
Speaker 1: Mediterranean coast. They brought a timber there and then they
Speaker 1: sent it to build the temple. Oh, maybe Japa is
Speaker 1: something where God takes the raw materials. Joppa. No that's
Speaker 1: not it. Chop A Jappa, Joppa, Joppa. Why does it
Speaker 1: say over and over again he was in Joppa. Go
Speaker 1: to acts ten, verse one. It says it a couple
Speaker 1: of times, because remember Peter got in trouble. He didn't
Speaker 1: have to go looking for trouble. Trouble came looking for him. Well,
Speaker 1: y'all were shouting a minute ago, we just we just
Speaker 1: killed the vibe. I think we killed the vibe. Peter
Speaker 1: wasn't looking for controversy, wasn't looking for conflict, wasn't looking
Speaker 1: for problems. He was in Joppa because there was a
Speaker 1: woman in the church at Joppa who was very important
Speaker 1: to the believers there. And he was in Lida raising
Speaker 1: people from the dead, you know, just the stuff you do.
Speaker 1: And when he was in the middle of this crazy
Speaker 1: revival in Lida, which wasn't too far from Joppa, this
Speaker 1: amazing e kids volunteer died. Her name was Dorcas, her
Speaker 1: Greek name was Dorcas. Her name was also Tabitha. And
Speaker 1: they asked Peter if he would come to comfort them.
Speaker 1: And he got there and he saw how important she
Speaker 1: was to all of them in Joppa, and he started
Speaker 1: looking at all the clothes that she sewed for widows,
Speaker 1: and she had a ministry to the poor. She cared
Speaker 1: about people she served on the parking team, she cared
Speaker 1: about people she worked on production at Raleigh Durham. She
Speaker 1: was They hated to lose Dorcas. And Peter got kind
Speaker 1: of bored. You know, he was a man of action.
Speaker 1: So he's like, this is cool, like taking a tour
Speaker 1: of everything she did. But y'all leave the room. Check
Speaker 1: out this scripture real quick. I know I said Axe ten,
Speaker 1: but I want to go back to Ax nine real quick.
Speaker 1: I want to give you the whole story because we
Speaker 1: know what happened when he got to Joppa. How did
Speaker 1: he get there? It's important. He went to jop A
Speaker 1: to visit Dorcas. Give me nine forty. Peter sent them
Speaker 1: all out of the room. She's been washed and placed
Speaker 1: for burial in the upper room, and as they're memorializing her,
Speaker 1: he got down on his knees and prayed, and turning
Speaker 1: toward the dead woman, he said, Tabitha, get up. Peter's like,
Speaker 1: we can have a funeral or we could have a resurrection.
Speaker 1: Peter was Peter was bold. He tried it like Jesus
Speaker 1: one time Jesus did the same exact thing, but it
Speaker 1: was with the little girl. This little girl was dead.
Speaker 1: And Jesus sent everybody out of the room because he
Speaker 1: knew that if they stayed in the room that their
Speaker 1: doubt might make it impossible for faith to really do
Speaker 1: what faith can do when it is unencumbered by doubt.
Speaker 1: What's the title of this message, make room for the
Speaker 1: new And when Jesus sent them all out, he said
Speaker 1: something in Aramaic, Talitha kom It means little girl, get up,
Speaker 1: Little girl, get up? Now watch Peter, imitating his master.
Speaker 1: He sent them all out of the room and turned
Speaker 1: towards the woman and said, Tabitha, get up. It's almost
Speaker 1: like Talita is just one letter different. And he thought something,
Speaker 1: if he did it, if Jesus did it, and if
Speaker 1: his spirit lives in me, I came with a message
Speaker 1: for somebody, Make room for resurrection, make room for things
Speaker 1: in your life that you were just about ready to
Speaker 1: bury to Breathe again, Tabitha, get up, and she did.
Speaker 1: She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess, so she sat up. And he stayed in
Speaker 1: Japa a little while, and they liked him. He was
Speaker 1: very popular in Joppa. Peter could have run for mayor
Speaker 1: of Joppa because he demonstrated great power in Joppa. Joppa Jappa.
Speaker 1: It's a place where where it's a place where you
Speaker 1: don't expect anything great to happen, but something does. Jopa
Speaker 1: Joppa is like your job Jaba Joppa. He was just
Speaker 1: doing his job, just going to see it in a
Speaker 1: miracle happened. He was just going to see it in
Speaker 1: a miracle happened. He was just going to see it
Speaker 1: and going to comfort them and going to do what
Speaker 1: he did in a miracle happened. Joppa, Joppa place where
Speaker 1: God puts stuff together Joppa. While he was in Joppa Joppa,
Speaker 1: it's kind of familiar. Who else went to Joppa in
Speaker 1: the Bible? I was trying to remember. I was talking
Speaker 1: to the interns this week, and I put him on
Speaker 1: the spot. We had such a good time then with
Speaker 1: I said, who else went to Japa? They went through
Speaker 1: every character in the Bible, guessing zach Kiyas, Bartimaeus, Luke, Matthew,
Speaker 1: And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: it's somebody in the Bible. I'm gonna give you a hand.
Speaker 1: It involves a fish rhymes with corona. Jonah went to Joppa.
Speaker 1: But watch what he did in Japa. You ready? Jonah won?
Speaker 1: Three says Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed
Speaker 1: to Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found
Speaker 1: a ship bound for that port. God called him to Ninevah,
Speaker 1: but he resisted it. He resisted going to Ninevah because
Speaker 1: those were not the people he expected God to bless.
Speaker 1: He resisted what he did not understand. He resisted what
Speaker 1: he could not conceptualize. He resisted what he had no
Speaker 1: frame of reference. Four, He went down to Joppa and
Speaker 1: boarded a ship heading away from the Lord. So now
Speaker 1: I've got a contrast, and I want to ask, what
Speaker 1: will you do in Joppa? Will you be like Peter
Speaker 1: who when he got to Joppa and God send him
Speaker 1: an opportunity to say, Peter, I want you to make
Speaker 1: room for something new. I want you to believe that
Speaker 1: I can break a barrier in your life. I want
Speaker 1: you to believe that I'm about to do something that
Speaker 1: your mind has not conceived. Will you be like Peter
Speaker 1: who went with it? Or are you going to be
Speaker 1: like Jonah who ran from it? Peter went to Joppa.
Speaker 1: While he was in Japa praying, he saw something amazing
Speaker 1: that he didn't expect. And he looked and he saw
Speaker 1: a sheep from the four corners four corners representing the
Speaker 1: four corners of the earth. God's like, I'm about to
Speaker 1: break off all of your barriers. I'm about to break
Speaker 1: through your unbelief. See, we talk about making room for
Speaker 1: the new. You want to go have a yard sale
Speaker 1: or something like that, or put everything on It's not
Speaker 1: about closet space. It's not about it's not about clearing
Speaker 1: out your closet. It's about the transformation of your mind.
Speaker 1: Do you have room for the new in your mind?
Speaker 1: Because they didn't. Peter didn't when God showed Peter what
Speaker 1: he was about to do, Like, this is the way
Speaker 1: it always is. When God shows us something, we compare
Speaker 1: it to our previous point of reference and then we
Speaker 1: start consulting our resources. And God wants to bring us
Speaker 1: new relationships. But watch this, if you're not ready for
Speaker 1: new people in your life, you will bring the same
Speaker 1: patterns to the new relationships that you brought to the
Speaker 1: old relationships. And we literally keep people out of our
Speaker 1: lives that God wants to send because we are holding
Speaker 1: on to the hurts from the one who have already left.
Speaker 1: I feel the spirit of God breaking barriers as I
Speaker 1: preach right now, because you're like, what is this message
Speaker 1: you have to do to me? I'm not getting on
Speaker 1: an airplane and going to preach to somebody in cessareea
Speaker 1: like Peter did. You don't have to. All you have
Speaker 1: to do is dare to believe that God is making
Speaker 1: room for the new in your life right now. And
Speaker 1: even sometimes when it was painful for me and I
Speaker 1: thought I was losing things in my life, I wasn't
Speaker 1: losing it. God was moving it. Who is this for?
Speaker 1: I just need to know, probably about twenty people, you
Speaker 1: didn't lose it God, he said, you will still be
Speaker 1: eating last year's harvest. When you have to move it out,
Speaker 1: somebody shall move it out. God. Anything that is in
Speaker 1: the way of me being who I need to be
Speaker 1: in this season, get it out of my heart, get
Speaker 1: it out of my mind, get it out of my habits.
Speaker 1: You can have it, God, I don't want it. I
Speaker 1: want what you've got. So you can't receive new miracles
Speaker 1: with old mindsets. Make room for the new. It looks
Speaker 1: like this, emptying yourself, humbling yourself and asking God, what
Speaker 1: do you want to do in my job? Or you
Speaker 1: can run from it and resist it, and you can
Speaker 1: keep remembering when the kids were so cute. They are
Speaker 1: forty three now they stop being cute. Quite a while
Speaker 1: ago and the church was trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: do we protect what we loved while we embrace what
Speaker 1: is new. And I don't know, I think there are
Speaker 1: at least three lessons in this text. Y'all got a minute,
Speaker 1: make room for the new number one. God says this,
Speaker 1: don't limit yourself by labels. The first thing God told Peter,
Speaker 1: he said, you've got your nice little neat categories. Because
Speaker 1: when the sheet came down, Peter saw all kinds of animals,
Speaker 1: and y'all need to know. In this culture, they respected visions.
Speaker 1: This was not like Peter's hallucination or you know how
Speaker 1: some people now are so weird and they're like, well,
Speaker 1: the Lord showed me a vision of us walking on
Speaker 1: the beach. It's like, bro, you need to ask her
Speaker 1: out and stop trying to embed it in this weird spirituality.
Speaker 1: So Peter actually saw something. But remember there's sometimes a
Speaker 1: tension between what you thought. God showed you it's at tension,
Speaker 1: and that tension is a real gift because that's where
Speaker 1: growth happens, where it's like God, I thought. I thought
Speaker 1: I was going to be married to her the rest
Speaker 1: of my life, but I'm not. I'm not married now,
Speaker 1: and that's painful. But what you do with it becomes
Speaker 1: your japa, which determines do you run from God's purpose
Speaker 1: for your future or do you run toward it. That's jappa.
Speaker 1: And the word God gave me was don't limit it
Speaker 1: with the label. Because the first thing he told Peter,
Speaker 1: he said. Peter said, in verse six, acts eleven, I
Speaker 1: looked into it and saw four footed animals of the earth,
Speaker 1: wild beasts, reptiles, and birds. And then after he saw
Speaker 1: the pigs in a blanket, he said, I try to
Speaker 1: keep y'all awake. Then I heard of voice telling me
Speaker 1: get up, Peter, kill and eat. Now when I read that,
Speaker 1: I said, God was trying to get Peter to go hunting. No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't about the animals. He was about to sind Cornelius,
Speaker 1: whom Peter saw as an unclean gentile, so he was
Speaker 1: using this. It wasn't about bacon. It was about barriers,
Speaker 1: mental barriers. So when he said get up, Peter, kill
Speaker 1: and eat, it wasn't that God wanted Peter to kill
Speaker 1: a pig. It was that he was trying to kill
Speaker 1: Peter's categories. In this season of your life, God is
Speaker 1: trying to kill your categories. He's going to use people
Speaker 1: you did not even like to grow you up and
Speaker 1: mature you. There was one person the other day that
Speaker 1: shared a Bible Verse with one of my kids, and
Speaker 1: they left our church years ago. They didn't even like
Speaker 1: me when they left. But when they gave a Bible
Speaker 1: Verse to my kids, I said, God, I don't care
Speaker 1: who hands them the script. I'll take a cold cup
Speaker 1: of water in the pit of hell from anybody. I
Speaker 1: don't care who hands it to him. Use who you
Speaker 1: want to use. God, do what you want to do,
Speaker 1: kill my categories. As a matter of fact, when we
Speaker 1: say all things work together for the good, what we
Speaker 1: mean when we quote Romans eight twenty eight out of
Speaker 1: context because Romans eight twenty eight is connected and conjoined
Speaker 1: incidentally to Romans eight twenty nine, which says according to
Speaker 1: his purpose, So what it means by good is this
Speaker 1: going to fulfill his purpose, not my preference. Y'all can
Speaker 1: shout right now. What it means is, I can't categorize.
Speaker 1: That's God's job. It is God's job to know what's
Speaker 1: best for me. It is God's job to know what
Speaker 1: needs to happen. It is God's job to know what
Speaker 1: experiences I need to get. So God says, stop limiting
Speaker 1: it by labels. Labels. Labels can apply to a group
Speaker 1: of people. He said, look what the Lord said when
Speaker 1: he said, arise, Peter killing it. Peter says, surely not, Lord,
Speaker 1: Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth. Now
Speaker 1: watch what God said in verse nine. Those are your categories,
Speaker 1: not mine. The voice spoke from heaven a second time, saying,
Speaker 1: do not call anything impure that God has made clean.
Speaker 1: Stop limiting God with your labels. Most people that live
Speaker 1: in Charlotte weren't born in Charlotte. So you come here
Speaker 1: and it's like, I don't really like Southerners. Well, you
Speaker 1: stuck with us for this season, So do not overgeneralize
Speaker 1: the people that you have to live with. Now, the
Speaker 1: same thing can be said of any group of people,
Speaker 1: a northern or southern, or anything. We want to mention,
Speaker 1: this is the problem. We are all so prejudiced. We
Speaker 1: stopped realizing it a long time ago. You're like, I'm
Speaker 1: not prejudiced. I'm not prejudiced. Prejudge. You do it all
Speaker 1: the time. I do it all the time. We think
Speaker 1: we know what is and what isn't going to be
Speaker 1: good all the time. We even think we know who
Speaker 1: is holy and who is not holy by what they wear.
Speaker 1: You know, even with people, we think we know who
Speaker 1: is important and who is not. You have no idea.
Speaker 1: You have no idea. And then we size up opportunities
Speaker 1: by how public they are to see how significant they are.
Speaker 1: But Peter was in Joppa doing something that was off
Speaker 1: the radar when God led him to Cornelius's house to
Speaker 1: take the Gospel to the gentiles, and I just wanted
Speaker 1: to say, don't limit your life by labels. Don't limit
Speaker 1: what God can do through you through labels. Somebody say
Speaker 1: you single, Say, well, first of all, i'm saved, sanctified,
Speaker 1: and then i'm single, But don't put that as my
Speaker 1: first label. There's a whole lot more to me than
Speaker 1: what's going on on one finger on my left hand,
Speaker 1: So please do not limit me. Preach Pastor Stephen Ferdeck,
Speaker 1: I am one guy said to me. He was like,
Speaker 1: you're preaching has gotten more Pentecostal these days. All he
Speaker 1: meant was I yell more. And the only reason I
Speaker 1: yell more now than I used to is because when
Speaker 1: the church was small, I needed people and I was
Speaker 1: didn't want to scare them off. Now we got enough.
Speaker 1: If we scare a few off, a few more will
Speaker 1: come and I can holler like I want to, I
Speaker 1: can break It's like I feel it, not theological stylistic.
Speaker 1: So don't be limited by labels. I'm white, but I'm
Speaker 1: not only white. I'm black, but I'm not only black.
Speaker 1: Please do not prejudge me based on something I had
Speaker 1: no control over. I want you to get to know
Speaker 1: my character. I want you to get to see the
Speaker 1: God in me rather than labeling me. So don't judge
Speaker 1: me by mine. Ask little nas X ask him about labels.
Speaker 1: Is it country? Is it wrap? I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: it is. It's a billion streams, it's a Grammy, and
Speaker 1: it's multimillion dollars. You could take me, write out this
Speaker 1: box and drive me to the bank. And God wants
Speaker 1: to do something bigger, but you will limit yourself with
Speaker 1: the label, and you limit others the label. Who you
Speaker 1: can and can't receive from, who God can and can't
Speaker 1: use in your life, What God can and can't use
Speaker 1: in your life. Oh well, they're insulting me, are they?
Speaker 1: Or is God using them to instruct you? I don't
Speaker 1: like it, doesn't feel good, So don't limit yourself with labels.
Speaker 1: And number two, don't be loyal to a lie. I
Speaker 1: don't have time to show you. But the passage and
Speaker 1: acts ends with Peter and the counsel there the deacon
Speaker 1: board that called him in as a Baptist flashback I
Speaker 1: was having right there when they called him in. By
Speaker 1: the end of it, I said this on Sunday. I
Speaker 1: didn't say it on Saturday last week. It said that
Speaker 1: it started with protest and ended in praise. When they
Speaker 1: brought him in, they were protesting like we always do
Speaker 1: when God is doing something new in our lives. God,
Speaker 1: I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't
Speaker 1: like it. Now everybody that hears new will hear something
Speaker 1: different when I preach. People will quit their jobs over
Speaker 1: this marriage. People are over this message. People will put
Speaker 1: their marriage over this message. Some will quit their job
Speaker 1: and their marriage over this message, and they're missing the point,
Speaker 1: because what I mean is make room for the new
Speaker 1: in you, so you don't have to find out after
Speaker 1: you move to five different cities running from yourself, that
Speaker 1: sometimes the environment is not the issue. And what we
Speaker 1: will do a lot of times is we will hold
Speaker 1: on so tightly to a lie because it's familiar, that
Speaker 1: we will miss what God is bringing to us by
Speaker 1: faith because we don't like how it feels. Don't be
Speaker 1: loyal to a lie. And my third one is don't
Speaker 1: be late. Don't be late. One thing the Spirit told
Speaker 1: Peter that I wanted to say to you through the
Speaker 1: power of the Holy Spirit today. Yeah, you got it.
Speaker 1: They're so good in the back they anticipated my verse
Speaker 1: I love them Acts eleven twelve says that the Spirit
Speaker 1: told me to have no hesitation about going with them.
Speaker 1: Don't be late, because if you hold on to what's old,
Speaker 1: the way you thought and what you wanted and how
Speaker 1: it was, you might miss today's miracle trying to hold
Speaker 1: onto yesterday's blessing. What am I holding that's old? It's
Speaker 1: keeping me from receiving what's new, what's now, what's your
Speaker 1: I don't mean that we don't value tradition and experience
Speaker 1: and continuity. That's not my message, but the scripture said
Speaker 1: in Leviticus twenty six ' ten you will still be
Speaker 1: eating last year's harvest, that's the old, when you will
Speaker 1: have to move it out to make room for the new.
Speaker 1: It's not that the old was bad, It's just that
Speaker 1: the new is here, a new covenant, a new day,
Speaker 1: a new season. Some of you are really destabilized right now.
Speaker 1: In life, we all go through these seasons of instability
Speaker 1: that really test our faith. And God gives us this
Speaker 1: tension in these moments to see what will we do
Speaker 1: in Joppa? Run from God or run toward God? And
Speaker 1: if that's where you are today in Joppa, I mean
Speaker 1: in a psychological sense, obviously, not a geographical sense or
Speaker 1: a spiritual sense, an emotional sense, trying to figure out, God,
Speaker 1: what are you doing in my life. I've never seen
Speaker 1: this before, I've never felt this before. I've never been
Speaker 1: in my forties before. I wonder what you will do
Speaker 1: in Joppa. The thing about God's blessing is it rarely
Speaker 1: checks your schedule to see if this would be a
Speaker 1: convenient time. In fact, Leviticus said as they were giving
Speaker 1: all the instructions for worship and the covenant to set
Speaker 1: up the community, and how to deal with diseases and poverty,
Speaker 1: and how to deal with indebtedness and how to be
Speaker 1: a people, And as they were adjusting and acclimating to
Speaker 1: be out of Egyptian slavery and coming into a new place,
Speaker 1: before God made them the promise, he said, you need
Speaker 1: to know that you're still going to be eating last
Speaker 1: year's harvest when you have to move it out to
Speaker 1: make room for the new. This is how it works.
Speaker 1: You're not even used to it yet, and here comes
Speaker 1: something new, and you have to learn to multitask your miracles.
Speaker 1: You have to learn to multitask your miracles. You have
Speaker 1: to learn to move between things and to trust God
Speaker 1: and keep giving, keep going, keep trusting, and keep believing
Speaker 1: by faith, or else you're going to find yourself missing
Speaker 1: today's opportunity because you are too attached to yesterday's blessing.
Speaker 1: I wonder what new mindset God is creating in me
Speaker 1: in this season. I want to know. I wonder what
Speaker 1: barriers He's going to break through your life. I want
Speaker 1: to know. He said, you will still be eating last
Speaker 1: year's harvest when you will have to move it out
Speaker 1: to make room for the new. That's what repentance is.
Speaker 1: It's a change of mind. It makes room for the new,
Speaker 1: new way of thinking. You're doing it the old way.
Speaker 1: You keep manipulating, keep forcing, and keep getting angry. That's
Speaker 1: the old way. That's not how you do it anymore.
Speaker 1: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Speaker 1: The old has gone, the new has come. There's a
Speaker 1: new way to do this, a new way to live,
Speaker 1: a new way to love, a new way to serve,
Speaker 1: a way that seems upside down but is actually right
Speaker 1: side up. And God said, if you'll make room for
Speaker 1: the new, you will still be eating last year's harvest
Speaker 1: when you will have to move it out. Father, I
Speaker 1: thank you for your word today, the power of it,
Speaker 1: the precision of it. You are so on time. I
Speaker 1: trust you. I trust you that it will not return void.
Speaker 1: What you spoke in this place today is not just
Speaker 1: about Peter. This is not a history lesson or an
Speaker 1: agricultural lesson. This is a word from Heaven for someone's life.
Speaker 1: Make room for the new. I pray for your people, Lord,
Speaker 1: whatever they're holding on to that is old, that needs
Speaker 1: to be moved out to make room for the new.
Speaker 1: Maybe all their life they thought they had to earn acceptance,
Speaker 1: so they're stuck in performance and they think you are
Speaker 1: like that too. I pray that today that grace would
Speaker 1: clear the way to make boom for the new. I
Speaker 1: thank you today that strongholds in our minds are being
Speaker 1: broken by the power of the Spirit of God. We
Speaker 1: thought we had to We thought we had to run
Speaker 1: to something else to get our needs met. That's the
Speaker 1: old way of thinking, that's the old way of living,
Speaker 1: that's the old way of coping. But we came into
Speaker 1: your presence today to make room for the new. We
Speaker 1: thank you that you're doing something in our life right now.
Speaker 1: We never truly know the power of this moment until
Speaker 1: it's over. We never fully understand the reason for this
Speaker 1: season until we're in the next one. But I asked
Speaker 1: that you would grant unto us the gift of faith,
Speaker 1: so we can trust you for what's next. Everyone's standing,
Speaker 1: no one moving. If God brought you here today and
Speaker 1: you've been holding on to something old, maybe it's an
Speaker 1: a fe or regret, could be a pattern of habits,
Speaker 1: or just a way that you get your own way.
Speaker 1: God knows I have plenty, and you want to release that.
Speaker 1: Right now, in the presence of the Lord, I invite
Speaker 1: you to just lift your hands to Heaven like you're
Speaker 1: letting something go, and just keep your hands up, Just
Speaker 1: keep them up, because I don't want to miss it. God,
Speaker 1: I don't want to miss what you have for me.
Speaker 1: We don't want to miss what you have for us
Speaker 1: because we were afraid, because we thought we were smarter
Speaker 1: than you. You are the potter, we are the clay.
Speaker 1: We ask you to mold us and fill us and
Speaker 1: make us. Oh Lord, touch each heart, each mind, lift
Speaker 1: the burden, break the barrier. Whatever they think you can't do,
Speaker 1: do it. Show them what kind of God you are.
Speaker 1: Show them how you can raise the dead. Show them
Speaker 1: how you kill categories and make ways, and do stuff
Speaker 1: that human minds cannot innovate or imagine. Do it in
Speaker 1: our lives. God, do it through our children. Do it
Speaker 1: in our generation, do it in our world, Do it
Speaker 1: in our church. Do it in this movement. Create in
Speaker 1: us a clean heart, make room for the new. We're
Speaker 1: letting go of what it was. We're letting go of
Speaker 1: what we thought. We are embracing your ways, for your
Speaker 1: ways are higher than our ways, and your thoughts are
Speaker 1: higher than our thoughts. And we came in this place
Speaker 1: today as your tabernacle to make room in our hearts
Speaker 1: for you. Lord. If there's someone here today who needs
Speaker 1: a new beginning, who needs to be saved, who needs
Speaker 1: to be brought into the family of God, right now,
Speaker 1: in this moment, would you touch their heart and bring
Speaker 1: them to faith in Jesus Christ so that they can
Speaker 1: be saved and forgiven and set free. Right now, at
Speaker 1: all of our locations, I'm going to give an invitation
Speaker 1: for someone who wants to receive the grace of Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ for your life, who wants to say, God, I'm
Speaker 1: giving up my life to you and I'm embracing your
Speaker 1: life and your plan for me. The Bible says that
Speaker 1: it is by grace you are saved, not of works.
Speaker 1: No one can boast about it. It is the gift
Speaker 1: of God. So for everyone who wants to receive this gift.
Speaker 1: The scripture says that we were dead in our sins,
Speaker 1: and Christ died for us. He didn't just die for
Speaker 1: us to be good people. He died to give us life.
Speaker 1: He died to give us a new beginning. He died
Speaker 1: to make us brand new. So right now, if this
Speaker 1: is your day, and you have felt God speaking to
Speaker 1: you while I've been preaching, and you have felt God
Speaker 1: calling you home, and you are ready to make room
Speaker 1: for the new in your life, I want you to
Speaker 1: repeat this prayer after me. We pray together as a
Speaker 1: church family. Repeat after me, Heavenly Father, today is my day.
Speaker 1: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
Speaker 1: and the Savior of the world. And today I make
Speaker 1: Jesus the lord of my life. I believe he died
Speaker 1: that I would be forgiven and rose again to give
Speaker 1: me life. I receive this new life. This is my
Speaker 1: new beginning. I am a child of God. On the
Speaker 1: count of three, shoots your hand up. If you prayed
Speaker 1: that one, two, three, shoot him up, Shoot him up. God,
Speaker 1: Bless you, God, bless you. Come on. Let's celebrate new life.
Speaker 1: Let's celebrate new beginnings. Let's celebrate new stories. Come on, Church.
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.