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.
Speaker 2: 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 2: Today. I have a word from the Lord for somebody.
Speaker 2: I said today, I have a work.
Speaker 1: Remember a way, he said, external processing. When the Lord
Speaker 1: has a gift for you, get excited, remain standing for
Speaker 1: just a moment. I only have two verses this week.
Speaker 1: I was meditating on where to go after we talked
Speaker 1: last week about God can use this too, and this
Speaker 1: is a little bit of a sequel to that message.
Speaker 1: But you know, I love to preach Bible stories and
Speaker 1: kind of use the different elements to use different things.
Speaker 1: But sometimes I feel like it's good to just come
Speaker 1: to something that's a simple instruction in the Word of God,
Speaker 1: and hopefully this will help us to apply what God
Speaker 1: has planted in our hearts. We're going to go to
Speaker 1: Philippians chapter two, Versus twelve and thirteen for a moment.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching from my daughter's Bible today, so you will
Speaker 1: notice an extra anointing, gentleness, vivaciousness. I've given all three
Speaker 1: of my kid's bibles that from I preached five years
Speaker 1: from the Bible. Than give it to a kid, give
Speaker 1: it to another. And so we'll see if Abby's is
Speaker 1: more annointed than Elijah's and Graham's. Today I cycle through them,
Speaker 1: see which one of them has been praying for me
Speaker 1: the most. All right, listen to this verse. Just because
Speaker 1: I said it shorter, just because I said it simple,
Speaker 1: don't disengage your brain, because I really want you to
Speaker 1: pay attention to what the Lord is saying here through.
Speaker 3: The Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul in this Epistle to
Speaker 3: the Church at Philippi. Through the Apostle Paul in this
Speaker 3: Epistle to the Church at Philippi, the Word.
Speaker 1: Of the Lord says, Therefore, my dear friends, as you
Speaker 1: have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now
Speaker 1: much more in my absence, continue to work out your
Speaker 1: salvation with fear and trembling Verse thirteen. For it is
Speaker 1: God who works in you to will and to act
Speaker 1: in order to fulfill his good purpose. Now that's all
Speaker 1: the verses I want to read today. But I want
Speaker 1: to give you my sermon title. It's a common saying,
Speaker 1: so I'll say it and then you fill in the
Speaker 1: blank when I stop and point out you ready, you
Speaker 1: could play along online too the title of this message.
Speaker 1: And after I say the title, I'll read the scripture
Speaker 1: again for you, just so we can get it down deep.
Speaker 2: God will work it.
Speaker 1: Right. I set you up, though, because that is amazing.
Speaker 1: God will work it out. It's something that everybody wants
Speaker 1: to believe about the situation they're facing, whether it's a
Speaker 1: custody battle, or whether it's a medical situation, or whether
Speaker 1: it's a relational tension. But the message God gave me
Speaker 1: today is just one word different. I'm going to just
Speaker 1: change one word and I'm not changing the word God.
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to change the word will. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to say he might, he could, he can,
Speaker 1: But instead of God will work it out, I want
Speaker 1: to preach on God will work it in. God will
Speaker 1: work it in. And I'll read the verses again and
Speaker 1: you'll see where I'm coming from. This is not just wordplay.
Speaker 1: I don't just think of a clever thing that I
Speaker 1: can call a sermon that sounds good. So you could
Speaker 1: just feel good for a minute. The text says in
Speaker 1: Philippians chapter two, verse twelve. Therefore, my dear friends, as
Speaker 1: you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but
Speaker 1: now much more in my absence, continue to work out
Speaker 1: your salvation with fear and trembling.
Speaker 2: For it is God who works in you.
Speaker 1: To will and to act in order to fulfill his
Speaker 1: good purpose. So now as you take your seat prayerfully,
Speaker 1: reach around and tell seven people. God will work it in.
Speaker 1: God will work it in. Six more, tell them God
Speaker 1: will work it in. Put it in the chat. God
Speaker 1: will work it in. God will work it in. Praise
Speaker 1: the Lord for what he's working out. Praise the Lord
Speaker 1: for what he's working in. And I'll make that make
Speaker 1: sense if I do my job. I'm gonna have fun
Speaker 1: preaching this today. I already decided. I was thinking today,
Speaker 1: like when you were eating that tomato soup. Holly was
Speaker 1: eating this tomato soup she made for herself. None of
Speaker 1: us like tomato soup, but her. She just made it
Speaker 1: for her and she was having so much fun eating
Speaker 1: that tomato soup. I was like, what else is in there?
Speaker 1: She's like, no, I'm just excited. I've been growing tomatoes,
Speaker 1: and I finally used my tomatoes in the soup. That's
Speaker 1: how I feel about my sermons when I get to
Speaker 1: eat it with you. And I hope you like tomatoes too. Tomato, Tomato,
Speaker 1: Here we go. In Philippians chapter two, verse twelve and thirteen,
Speaker 1: the apostle Paul is writing an epistle to the church
Speaker 1: in PHILIPI, and both of those are miracles. Both of
Speaker 1: those are miracles. The fact that Paul is an apostle
Speaker 1: is miracle number one. Paul the Artist formerly known as
Speaker 1: Saul of Tarsus, When the Lord wanted to reach the Gentiles,
Speaker 1: he found somebody who was persecuting the church, And now
Speaker 1: the persecutor of the church is now one of the
Speaker 1: lead preachers in the church. You never know how God
Speaker 1: is working in somebody's life. Don't write people off, don't
Speaker 1: count people out, don't slap a label on them, because
Speaker 1: this is the way they always are. Well, the way
Speaker 1: God always is means more than the way they always are,
Speaker 1: least of all yourself. Don't ever underestimate how God can
Speaker 1: work in somebody's life. Thing about that He took him
Speaker 1: from the persecutor of the church to a preacher, and
Speaker 1: I guess he needed someone who understood the system from
Speaker 1: the inside in order to overturn it. That's why God
Speaker 1: will often call you into something that you struggle with,
Speaker 1: because the thing that you struggle with, the mother is
Speaker 1: the thing you're most qualified to help somebody else step through.
Speaker 1: So when the Lord needed to reach the gentiles, he said,
Speaker 1: I can't call Peter for this, I better call Saul
Speaker 1: and change his name to Paul with a P. So
Speaker 1: it's a miracle that he's an apostle. His whole title apostle,
Speaker 1: the apostle Paul. He had been something completely different and
Speaker 1: God changed him. And that's one reason that we were
Speaker 1: praising him today while we were singing in church. I
Speaker 1: wish you could have heard the worship. You're watching this
Speaker 1: online later, and I wish you could have been in
Speaker 1: here with us because we were praising him because he
Speaker 1: didn't leave us like we were. And that just causes
Speaker 1: something to explode inside of you when you realize that
Speaker 1: he takes persecutors and turns them into preachers. But the
Speaker 1: second miracle I mentioned that there were two in the
Speaker 1: text is not implicit, So you got to go beneath
Speaker 1: the surface to get this one. Is that he is
Speaker 1: writing the letter the epistle, which somebody is that like
Speaker 1: an apostle's wife. No epistle just means letter, it's just
Speaker 1: addressed up. It's a letter that ended up being in
Speaker 1: the Bible. It was written to a specific audience, the
Speaker 1: church at Philippi. It was not written from where it
Speaker 1: was written to. And it's a miracle that this scripture
Speaker 1: exists because of the conditions Paul wrote it in, not
Speaker 1: a writer's cottage by the sea, not a retreat situation
Speaker 1: in the mountains, but rather he wrote this from prison.
Speaker 1: I wanted to point that out to you because sometimes
Speaker 1: you get more focused on where you are than what
Speaker 1: God has called you to do and be, and you
Speaker 1: start acting like your environment rather than changing it. This
Speaker 1: feels like this could have been a Rhythm Night sermon
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. You know, walk into school and start talking
Speaker 1: like a foolish You know you're actually a great, faithful
Speaker 1: child of God. But you know, you get in an
Speaker 1: environment and you start changing. But Paul would get in
Speaker 1: an environment and change it, and that's what made him different.
Speaker 2: And he was also a great multitasker.
Speaker 1: Y'all say that men can't multitask ah I beg to
Speaker 1: differ the apostle. Paul, while serving a prison sentence, is
Speaker 1: writing sentences that we now call scriptures. I told you
Speaker 1: this is a good tomato suit. I grew these tomatoes myself.
Speaker 2: And the beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: About this miracle is that you may not be an apostle,
Speaker 1: and you might not write an epistol. But let me
Speaker 1: break it right down to where you live. Is that
Speaker 1: any situation in your life that isn't getting better? And
Speaker 1: now I want you to think of that situation right now,
Speaker 1: any situation in your life that isn't getting better, You
Speaker 1: can do what Paul did, and you can get busy
Speaker 1: while you wait on it to get better. So while
Speaker 1: while you're waiting for it to change, change, while you're
Speaker 1: waiting for a better opportunity. Obey, y'all don't like this message.
Speaker 1: Y'all don't like tomatoes. The Bible says that Paul was
Speaker 1: a great man of faith, But yet his faith did
Speaker 1: not keep a snake from biding him last week, did it?
Speaker 1: But his faith enabled him to shake the snake off
Speaker 1: of his hand and use the incident touch somebody, say
Speaker 1: use it, use it, use it. Everything that happens in
Speaker 1: your life good or bad. Use it. You know. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I will feel like the moment that God is working
Speaker 1: with me on a specific area, that area will be attacked.
Speaker 1: And I used to think that meant that God wasn't
Speaker 1: really working there. But if you read the scripture, it's
Speaker 1: very interesting how it's worded, isn't it. Paul writes to
Speaker 1: the church and says verse twelve, my dear friends, as
Speaker 1: you have always obeyed, And then this scripture definitely is
Speaker 1: not about me always obeyed. No, no, no. But I
Speaker 1: think he's like, I think this is some kind of
Speaker 1: reverse psychology Paul is putting on him.
Speaker 2: He's like, as.
Speaker 1: Because they're fighting and they're arguing. And later in the
Speaker 1: Book of Philippians he name checks two women and tells him,
Speaker 1: y'all stop fighting. And that's that's in chapter four. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to preach that this week. But he says,
Speaker 1: if you were able to obey not only in my
Speaker 1: presence watch this, but now much more in my absence.
Speaker 1: So now think about the sadness of Paul. The apostle
Speaker 1: is in prison, he's in a shipwreck. He gets on
Speaker 1: another boat. Three months later, he goes to Rome. He's
Speaker 1: under house arrest, for two years, and he writes four
Speaker 1: epistles Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Filemen. The prison epistles. They
Speaker 1: called him that, but they were written in prison, but
Speaker 1: we quote them in church. So where you are right now,
Speaker 1: help me. Holy spirit has tremendous potential. Even your darkness
Speaker 1: has tremendous potential to be harvested to bring somebody else's light.
Speaker 1: For the Bible says that God, who caused his light
Speaker 1: to shine out of darkness, gives his Holy Spirit into
Speaker 1: our hearts, and we have this treasure in earth and vessels,
Speaker 1: that the excellency.
Speaker 2: Of the power might be of God and not of us.
Speaker 1: He's your neighbors say, it's God doing it.
Speaker 2: It's God doing it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't God throwing Paul in the cell, but it
Speaker 1: was God on the inside of Paul that caused him
Speaker 1: to pick up a pen while he was in there.
Speaker 1: And because he picked up a pin while he was
Speaker 1: in there, you and I are shouting over stuff, he
Speaker 1: said today. Somebody else needs to be shouting in five
Speaker 1: years because.
Speaker 2: You didn't give up.
Speaker 1: Somebody else needs to be praising God in ten years
Speaker 1: because you.
Speaker 2: Stayed the course.
Speaker 1: Because what you need to keep going is in you, baby,
Speaker 1: say it by faith.
Speaker 4: It is in me.
Speaker 1: He said, you have an opportunity now, and listen. The
Speaker 1: opportunity is this, Paul says, absence is an opportunity for application. Absence, Well,
Speaker 1: are You're just not gonna write down anything? That's the
Speaker 1: best thing I am gonna say all day. Absence is
Speaker 1: an opportunity for application. One of our staff members, Decks,
Speaker 1: sent me a stack of different things she had written
Speaker 1: down from the sermons that I preached, and she said,
Speaker 1: I just want you to see that we hear you.
Speaker 1: And in the notes that she put she would work
Speaker 1: through the word that she heard. Now, I'm just asking,
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand.
Speaker 1: Do you work through the word that you've heard? Word?
Speaker 1: Or does it go in one ear and out in
Speaker 1: the parking lot when you get stuck in traffic and
Speaker 1: you start lifting up your hands, but only one finger
Speaker 1: on the hand because that single finger praise No. But seriously,
Speaker 1: I'm using it as a joke because I don't want
Speaker 1: it to feel condemning, because that's not really my style,
Speaker 1: because I don't really have room to do that, because
Speaker 1: how many words has God given me? That I did
Speaker 1: not work through. And I don't mean that you have
Speaker 1: to take notes to be saved. God knows he's not
Speaker 1: going to check your highlight highlight or colors. When you
Speaker 1: get to heaven only pink, you're going to pink only heaven.
Speaker 1: Oh pink, green, yellow, red, Yeah, you're going to multicolor heaven.
Speaker 1: But the process by which you mix the word with
Speaker 1: faith is when you take what I say and ask God,
Speaker 1: what are you saying to me about my situation through
Speaker 1: what he said? And that's the process where you filter,
Speaker 1: and that's the process where your faith is strengthened. And
Speaker 1: so I used to go to a therapy session where
Speaker 1: I would work on an issue in my life, and
Speaker 1: after the therapy session, I would have just like a
Speaker 1: major I don't want to call it a relapse, but
Speaker 1: just in whatever area. And I don't mean drugs or
Speaker 1: alcohol in these cases, but just like whatever I just
Speaker 1: talked through would be very challenged in my life in
Speaker 1: the next twenty four hours. So I brought that to
Speaker 1: the therapist. I'm like, I might have to fire you
Speaker 1: because every time we get off the phone, my life
Speaker 1: gets worse. Therapist said, So you can get better because
Speaker 1: sometimes when it isn't getting better, you are you are.
Speaker 2: You don't get patience by praying for it. You get
Speaker 2: patience by being annoyed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no idea. There are people who are helping you
Speaker 1: get patient that you are complaining about, and you need
Speaker 1: to be paying them. They are your personal trainers for patients.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying we want it, but I'm just
Speaker 1: saying God can use that too. And while you're waiting
Speaker 1: on God to work some things out, whatever that area is.
Speaker 1: Because if you need a breakthrough in your business, I
Speaker 1: believe with you for a breakthrough in your business. If
Speaker 1: you believe for a breakthrough in your marriage, I believe
Speaker 1: for a breakthrough in your marriage. If you are believing
Speaker 1: for a husband or a wife to come into your
Speaker 1: life because you don't want to be alone, I believe
Speaker 1: with you and stand with you for that. But just
Speaker 1: know that some people are praying for a breakthrough in
Speaker 1: the marriage that they prayed for yesterday that is struggling
Speaker 1: now because they believe the lie that the situation would
Speaker 1: fix them. So when we say God will work it in,
Speaker 1: I'm not just trying to be clever. I thought about
Speaker 1: how we're wanting God to affect situation, and that's great.
Speaker 1: But Paul said, my absence in this prison is actually
Speaker 1: a gift for you in Philippi because when you're hearing
Speaker 1: the word or when you're learning something, you know you're
Speaker 1: getting it at a mental level, Okay, And that's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Instruction is wonderful. Instruction is wonderful. There's a man in
Speaker 1: the church right now who taught me a lot about tennis,
Speaker 1: a great tennis pro out here. That's wonderful. But the
Speaker 1: thing about instruction is it is limited until you have
Speaker 1: an opportunity for big word integration.
Speaker 2: And integration happens when what you.
Speaker 1: Were taught is challenged or tested and you have to
Speaker 1: remember under pressure what you learned in peace. So be
Speaker 1: careful coming to church because in this peaceful environment God
Speaker 1: is going to prove after the peaceful. For Paul, he
Speaker 1: provided a prison where he wrote four epistles for the
Speaker 1: church at Philippi.
Speaker 2: He did not leave.
Speaker 1: Paul's physical presence with them, but he gave his presence
Speaker 1: within them, so that when Paul's presence was taken away
Speaker 1: from them, his presence within them intensified. What I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say is anything in your life that goes away
Speaker 1: and you think you need it. God is going to
Speaker 1: release something greater in your life that you didn't even
Speaker 1: know you had until you got in this situation where
Speaker 1: you needed it. So eventually Paul says, give me the
Speaker 1: first verse again. He says, continue in it. Touch your
Speaker 1: neighbor and say keep going, continue to work out. Now
Speaker 1: that's not a literal workout thing, y'all. I remember the
Speaker 1: first time that somebody called me, and I guess it
Speaker 1: was like to my ego or whatever. They were like,
Speaker 1: uh so, as a lifter, what are your splits? I thought,
Speaker 1: in case you need me to interpret it. As a weightlifter,
Speaker 1: what body parts do you work out on which day?
Speaker 1: Nobody ever asked me that before, and I figured, oh,
Speaker 1: I must be giving evidence that what I've been doing
Speaker 1: is actually improving my physical frame to the point where
Speaker 1: I'm a lifter. Yah.
Speaker 2: How good that felt to be called a lifter.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: I lifted a lot, but I've never been called a lifter.
Speaker 1: I was walking around the house. I didn't tell anybody,
Speaker 1: but I was looking at the kids. They were like, Daddy,
Speaker 1: I'm like lifter. You could call me lift or mister lifter.
Speaker 2: I was so proud for three days because what I did.
Speaker 1: Was integrated in my life in such a way. If
Speaker 1: you would look at your neighbor and say, as a praiser,
Speaker 1: when do you praise God? Ask him one of your splits.
Speaker 1: Tell them, well, I praise when I feel it. I
Speaker 1: praise when I don't. I praise on the mountain, I
Speaker 1: praise in the valley. I praise when I'm sure y'all
Speaker 1: gonna catch on in twelve seconds. I praise when I'm doubting.
Speaker 1: I praise when I've got it. I praise when it's gone.
Speaker 1: I praise when I feel it. I praise when I
Speaker 1: faith it. I'm not faking it. I'm faith in it
Speaker 1: because if I faith it.
Speaker 2: It will form me. So let's break it down.
Speaker 1: The absence is an opportunity for application. Like when I
Speaker 1: used to work out, I needed somebody to be there
Speaker 1: to make me work out, and I found out that
Speaker 1: they were really good partners when I heard their voice
Speaker 1: even when they weren't there. What I love about God
Speaker 1: and a good good instructor is not satisfied simply with
Speaker 1: your assimilation of information. But a good instructor will sometimes
Speaker 1: create absence and life will you're in the season right now,
Speaker 1: and the Lord was speaking to me about it. I
Speaker 1: don't know who is for. I don't even know who
Speaker 1: is for. You know if it's for you. You're in
Speaker 1: a season right now where it is very important that
Speaker 1: you integrate what God has given you. And it is
Speaker 1: feeling intense right now because of the absence of something
Speaker 1: that you think you need to have. Paul said, in
Speaker 1: my absence, much more than my presence, you got to
Speaker 1: remember what you know about God in the absence of joy.
Speaker 1: You've got to remember how to rejoice in the absence
Speaker 1: of harmony. You have to remember to be a peacemaker
Speaker 1: in the absence of money. You got to stay creative.
Speaker 1: So God will some times take resources away from you
Speaker 1: to remind you of something that you're not using. One
Speaker 1: of the worst things God can give some people is
Speaker 1: too much money, because they will start stuffing themselves with
Speaker 1: stuff and forget the substance of who they were that
Speaker 1: led them to the point that they had the wealth
Speaker 1: to begin with. That's why the Word says, when you
Speaker 1: have become great, do not forget the Lord your God,
Speaker 1: for it is he that gives you the power to
Speaker 1: get wealth. And I think that as much as God's
Speaker 1: presence provides comfort, absence creates opportunity. I want to really
Speaker 1: get this home to you. Okay, so just bear with
Speaker 1: me for a minute, then put another tomato in this soup.
Speaker 1: We had a great conversation, me and Elijah, my oldest,
Speaker 1: and I'm working all my kids into the illustration today. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: So I'm just working my kids in because they're expensive.
Speaker 1: Get the most out of this relationship. When he left
Speaker 1: for college, enough for a couple of years after Buck
Speaker 1: and Chunks stopped coming over to help me work out.
Speaker 1: He was my workout partner. When he left for college,
Speaker 1: he went three hours away. I was so depressed. I
Speaker 1: would still go lift weights, but I wouldn't even put
Speaker 1: my shoes on or turn the lights on. And I
Speaker 1: wouldn't even turn Metallica on. I mean Maverick City, Kurt
Speaker 1: Franklin on forgot where I was for a minute. I
Speaker 1: sit out there in the silence, just cranking out the reps.
Speaker 1: And I would sometimes just send him just to make
Speaker 1: him feel bad about leaving me, send him a picture
Speaker 1: of me sitting there in the dark. That's hard without
Speaker 1: your partner. Then I felt better because about a month
Speaker 1: or two after he'd been gone. We were having this
Speaker 1: deep conversation one night and he opened up to me.
Speaker 1: He's like, college is great, but it's hard. I'm grateful
Speaker 1: to be here, but it's hard, he said. And it's
Speaker 1: hard because I have to be both of us here.
Speaker 1: I have to be both of us. I'm so used
Speaker 1: to having you say you know, son, and sometimes you
Speaker 1: got on my nerves. But I needed that. I needed
Speaker 1: you to get on my nurse. Y'all. I've had a
Speaker 1: grammy of New York Times, all that stuff. I felt
Speaker 1: like I got the greatest reward of my life when
Speaker 1: he said this. He said, now I have to be
Speaker 1: both of us because it let me know we've gone
Speaker 1: from instruction to integration. And then let me know my
Speaker 1: voice is still speaking, and let me know that I'm
Speaker 1: still talking three hours away. I'm still talking to you
Speaker 1: three hours away. And Paul wanted the church at Philip
Speaker 1: Fi to know I'm still talking to you even though
Speaker 1: I'm in this prison cell. God wants you to know
Speaker 1: I'm still talking to you even though you lost your
Speaker 1: mother last year. And God wants you to know I'm
Speaker 1: still talking to you even though you don't know how
Speaker 1: you're going to make payroll next month. And God wants
Speaker 1: you to know I'm still talking to you. Even though
Speaker 1: you haven't felt goosebumps in a while, and while everybody
Speaker 1: else seems to be rejoicing, you feel kind of empty.
Speaker 1: God says, this is not absence, it's integration, because.
Speaker 2: My sheep know my voice.
Speaker 1: And the most powerful moment of your life to work
Speaker 1: a word from God is not just when you're putting
Speaker 1: it in a journal to write it down, but when
Speaker 1: you are putting it into practice, to live it out.
Speaker 1: This is a practice season for you, this absence that
Speaker 1: you feel, this thing that has changed. And I wish
Speaker 1: I could sit down and get to know your conversation,
Speaker 1: your exact situation, so we could have an exact conversation.
Speaker 1: But Paul wrote one letter to the whole church, and
Speaker 1: he said, it's good that I'm gone. That's what Jesus
Speaker 1: said to the disciples. If I leave you, I'll send
Speaker 1: you the Holy Spirit. I can send you something greater
Speaker 1: than just my words. I can give you my spirit,
Speaker 1: greater integration. God is doing something greater in your life.
Speaker 1: So something goes away, something greater come. This is the
Speaker 1: rhythm of God. Give him praise. Come on, giveing praise,
Speaker 1: not PGA praise, give him a God praise, big God,
Speaker 1: big praise. Okay, Okay, God.
Speaker 2: Will work it in. So I want to study. I
Speaker 2: want to study this a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And I'm relatively about halfway through my message right now,
Speaker 1: and we will see if I get to continue it
Speaker 1: all the way. I got some other parts that I
Speaker 1: want to put but I don't know if they But anyway,
Speaker 1: therefore my difference, as you have always obeyed, not only
Speaker 1: in my presence, but now much more in my I
Speaker 1: can't get off of this. God said, the absence of
Speaker 1: what you think you need in this season is an
Speaker 1: opportunity for.
Speaker 2: You to get a tuned to what you really have.
Speaker 1: The best thing that happened to me to be able
Speaker 1: to effectively minister to you was when we couldn't have
Speaker 1: people in church in twenty twenty. Because it taught me
Speaker 1: not to need your energy to be effective to minister
Speaker 1: God's word. And when I couldn't ride on the waves
Speaker 1: your energy, I had to let God make a wave
Speaker 1: inside of me with this word. So I came out
Speaker 1: of it never more alive and in love with the
Speaker 1: word of God. Because of something that was taken away.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not using this to talk about me or
Speaker 1: tomato soup or weight lifting, although I am proud to
Speaker 1: be a lifter. But but I want you to see
Speaker 1: that the absence creates an opportunity for application. And this
Speaker 1: was weird. I don't know if you thought it was
Speaker 1: weird when I read it. He said, work out verse
Speaker 1: twelve again, please on the screen, work out your salvation
Speaker 1: with fear and trembling. So I thought that might mean
Speaker 1: when we give the invitation every week for you to
Speaker 1: get saved, raise your hand just in case, you know,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know. I thought I did this when
Speaker 1: I was eight, but I'm scared and i'm trembling that
Speaker 1: maybe what I did last week canceled it out. So
Speaker 1: just in case, Lord, I'll put my hand up right there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you give me another one of those Bibles. I hadn't
Speaker 1: read any of them. I got seven of them stacked
Speaker 1: up at home, but yeah, give me another one. And
Speaker 1: then I realized what he didn't say. Now watch this.
Speaker 1: He didn't say work for your salvation. Put it back up.
Speaker 1: He said work out your salvation. He's not saying earn it.
Speaker 1: That's contrary to everything else that God gave Paul to
Speaker 1: teach us. That's contrary to the very essence of the
Speaker 1: Cross of Christ. How are you going to earn a
Speaker 1: grace that was given from across You didn't die on
Speaker 1: So what he's saying is not only to integrate what
Speaker 1: you've been taught, what you've been instructed, and apply it.
Speaker 1: Like Van Saevner said, never forget in the darkness what
Speaker 1: God showed you in the light. He's saying, the reason
Speaker 1: that you're so worried now, fear and trembling is a
Speaker 1: saying that they had, Like I don't know, we might
Speaker 1: say lock stock and barrel means everything you know. They
Speaker 1: would say fear and trembling like a saying. It was
Speaker 1: a colloquialism. He says, work out your salvation with fear
Speaker 1: and trembling. He does not mean be afraid that God
Speaker 1: didn't give you what he promised to give you. He said,
Speaker 1: you're forgiven. You're forgiven. He said, there's no condemnation. There's
Speaker 1: no condemnation. It is being afraid to live your life
Speaker 1: without the awareness of that. Because you know that if
Speaker 1: you ever lose awareness of who God is to you
Speaker 1: and in you, you will make the stupidest mistakes. So
Speaker 1: I want you to work out. You're about to see
Speaker 1: it what God has already worked in. And God is
Speaker 1: working on you, and you are a work in progress.
Speaker 1: But your salvation is not. It's finished, so there's nothing
Speaker 1: more to be done. That's why Jesus said it is finished.
Speaker 1: God already worked that out.
Speaker 2: If you placed your faith in him, you are all right.
Speaker 1: He's saved. Now you are taking what God gave you
Speaker 1: and working it out. And that's what I told Elijah.
Speaker 1: I said, this is your season to grow. Every conversation
Speaker 1: we've had down here lifting weights together, every time I've
Speaker 1: ever corrected you that you wanted to kill me, but
Speaker 1: you knew I would kill you if you tried to
Speaker 1: kill me, every single one of those things. Now that
Speaker 1: we're not together, now that it's not like it was,
Speaker 1: it gets to go deeper inside of you. God is
Speaker 1: taking you deeper in this season. He did not depart
Speaker 1: from you. He's taking you deeper. But the reason you
Speaker 1: keep worrying about stuff that God has already worked out.
Speaker 1: I got to say that better. You are worried about
Speaker 1: something God has already worked out.
Speaker 2: Now, why do you do that.
Speaker 1: Because you stop at verse twelve and never reverse thirteen.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean people would take verse twelve and
Speaker 1: stop right there again. Please, therefore, since you were obeying
Speaker 1: when I was there, you know, keep that same energy,
Speaker 1: Paul is saying. When I was preaching, y'all were saying, Amen,
Speaker 1: Now keep that same touch. Your neighbors say, keep that
Speaker 1: same energy a couple tuesdays from now, no matter who
Speaker 1: wins the election, no matter who's acting crazy, keep that
Speaker 1: same energy because we had Republicans, Democrats, black, white, Hispanic, male, female,
Speaker 1: all in the same church, and we were all unified.
Speaker 1: And we will not let a culture that divides us
Speaker 1: speak greater than a.
Speaker 2: King that defines us.
Speaker 1: Y'all, keep that same energy out there in the world,
Speaker 1: all right over the next two weeks. Don't you get
Speaker 1: Facebook crazy and be church saying. I don't know where
Speaker 1: that came from. They just came to me. I decided
Speaker 1: to work it in, work it in, work it in.
Speaker 1: Work I don't know where that came from. I just
Speaker 1: decided to work it in. I don't know where this
Speaker 1: snake came from. I just decided to shake it off
Speaker 1: and work it in.
Speaker 2: I don't know where that feeling came from. I just
Speaker 2: decided to work it in. I don't know where that
Speaker 2: temptation came from. I just decided to pray extra this.
Speaker 1: Week because if I'm gonna get extra temptation, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: need extra grace. So I'm gonna pray extra prayers.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna work this in. I like it.
Speaker 1: I like it so so the reason you're worrying about
Speaker 1: stuff God has already worked out. The reason you keep
Speaker 1: worrying is because of the way you keep thinking verse twelve.
Speaker 1: It is God that works in you. Uh No, not
Speaker 1: only my presence, now, I was from I just continue
Speaker 1: to work out your salvage my fear and tremble. And
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, okay, no, go back, go back to
Speaker 1: verse twelve. You stopped there. Church. That's a comma.
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm a multitasking preacher.
Speaker 1: I talk about fitness, English grammar, theology, parenting recipes, tomatoes,
Speaker 1: work it all in, work out your salvation with fear
Speaker 1: and trembling. Now, if you read that, you will be
Speaker 1: worried because you are trying to work out something without God. Okay.
Speaker 1: What gets me tripped up every time that I get overwhelmed.
Speaker 2: And I'm not.
Speaker 1: Talking about just having butterflies or getting nervous. I think
Speaker 1: all that is good, but when I get overwhelmed to
Speaker 1: the point where it really shuts me down. You know how,
Speaker 1: there's that line between when you're working on something and
Speaker 1: it's wearing you out, and you realize, huh, this feels
Speaker 1: kind of cyclical because it's making me sick. If that's
Speaker 1: where you are in the field, and read what comes
Speaker 1: after the comma work out yourself with fear and trembling,
Speaker 1: For it is God who works in you. So that's
Speaker 1: a very interesting thought, isn't it. It is God who
Speaker 1: works in you. Don't forget that while you work it out.
Speaker 1: Don't forget that. So don't get so good at trying
Speaker 1: to figure stuff out on paper that you forget to
Speaker 1: work stuff out according to purpose, because the Bible said
Speaker 1: it is God that works in you, too, willing to
Speaker 1: do according to his good purpose. So God starts with
Speaker 1: the purpose, not the person, and then he finds the
Speaker 1: person that will accomplish that purpose, and he shapes the
Speaker 1: person that will accomplish that purpose. And that's why you
Speaker 1: can know God is working on you right now and
Speaker 1: working in you, and so when you sit down, I
Speaker 1: will never forget sitting down to work on something one time,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you exactly what it was, because I
Speaker 1: think it's a great illustration. I had the opportunity several
Speaker 1: years ago to interview Bishop ts right here on this
Speaker 1: stage at Elevation Church, and I was so honored to
Speaker 1: do it. He is my preaching hero, and he's my
Speaker 1: friend now too. But you know, if someone is your hero,
Speaker 1: even if they're your friend, you still get really nervous,
Speaker 1: even if it's not their fault. I was so nervous
Speaker 1: to interview that man because I wanted to do a
Speaker 1: good job for it. I wanted to do a good job.
Speaker 1: He was promoting a book called Sore Soar, not like
Speaker 1: lift or sore like sore like an eagle anyway, And
Speaker 1: I sat down for weeks beforehand and I would work,
Speaker 1: but mostly I would worry. It wasn't like I was
Speaker 1: getting anything done by the time I got done, just
Speaker 1: being a complete stress ball for several weeks. I think
Speaker 1: I counted seventy five note cards of questions to ask
Speaker 1: the man.
Speaker 2: About the book, And everybody.
Speaker 1: Would say, aren't you excited to interview Bishop Jake's and
Speaker 1: I'd be like, yeah, excitement and anxiety can kind of
Speaker 1: feel the same sometimes, and what you call it depends
Speaker 1: on what you're focused about. And when I look back
Speaker 1: on it, I regret all of the stress that I
Speaker 1: felt from the pressure that wasn't even real. The fact
Speaker 1: of the matter is he could have had anybody interview
Speaker 1: him for the book. He wanted me to do it.
Speaker 2: He could have gone anywhere he wanted.
Speaker 1: He didn't go to Oprah, he came to Ferdick, he
Speaker 1: didn't come to doctor Phil. He came to doctor Ferdi.
Speaker 1: But I couldn't feel that way about it, because.
Speaker 2: I'd be like, what do you am? I gonna ask him?
Speaker 2: He's so smart.
Speaker 1: The very reason I was stressed was the very reason
Speaker 1: I should have relaxed.
Speaker 2: Not five minutes after.
Speaker 1: We got on this stage, and he sat in his
Speaker 1: chair and I sat in mind, and I had my
Speaker 1: whole stack right, and I said my first question to him.
Speaker 1: Twenty minutes later, I still had seventy four questions left
Speaker 1: and the interview is only ninety minutes. And I remember,
Speaker 1: in that moment, Oh, it's bishop. He's good at talking. Oh,
Speaker 1: all this time I've been thinking about this like I
Speaker 1: gotta carry it? And what am I gonna do if
Speaker 1: my questions are stupid? And what if the people look
Speaker 1: at me funny? And what if I mispronounced the word?
Speaker 1: And what if he doesn't sell any books? And what
Speaker 1: if he never wants to talk to me again? And
Speaker 1: what if I accidentally say something that wasn't intended to
Speaker 1: be offended? But I was just trying to be casual
Speaker 1: when it came across a disrespectful.
Speaker 2: And all of this.
Speaker 1: To interview one of the greatest talkers in the world.
Speaker 1: The only thing I had to do to be successful
Speaker 1: in the interview was this, you know, just a reverse
Speaker 1: nod for variety and effect, but between those two nods.
Speaker 2: And he had it covered. I see it stressing.
Speaker 1: About something in your life today. Don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: don't need to God knows. I see you playing out
Speaker 1: the situation over and over again.
Speaker 2: You call it preparation, but it's not preparation because it
Speaker 2: is eating through your peace. And here you are.
Speaker 1: Thinking, well, and I get to that in three weeks.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be terrible. Oh when my kids become teenagers.
Speaker 2: They are yet toddlers. You got twelve years.
Speaker 1: To read books about this crap you're gonna be dealing with,
Speaker 1: and by then all the books will be saying different
Speaker 1: stuff than they say today. I see you looking at
Speaker 1: a situation in the future of your life, and you
Speaker 1: are afraid. And I'll tell you why you are afraid.
Speaker 1: You forgot God is going to be there when you
Speaker 1: get there. I remember, Oh, Bishop's gonna be there.
Speaker 2: He's a good talker. I wish you would remember.
Speaker 1: With all the scenarios you're playing out in your mind,
Speaker 1: and all the ways it could go wrong, and all
Speaker 1: of the stuff that you're scrolling through starting to talk
Speaker 1: about is it another world war?
Speaker 2: Well, what you're gonna do about it? If it is,
Speaker 2: you're gonna go fight it. In whatever happens, you're.
Speaker 4: Gonna have God. You're gonna have God.
Speaker 1: If it's a prison, he'll be your cell mate.
Speaker 4: You're gonna have God.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I forgot. Tell your neighbor, I forgot. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna have God in it with me. That's why I'm.
Speaker 1: Not stressed about retirement, because I've never.
Speaker 2: Seen the righteous forsaken. I was young and now I'm old.
Speaker 2: I'd never seen the righteous forsaken.
Speaker 1: Nor is see begging for bread God is gonna be
Speaker 1: in this with me. God is going to be in
Speaker 1: the challenge with me. God is going to be in
Speaker 1: the uncertainty. God's gonna walk in that doctor's office with me.
Speaker 1: God's gonna be on the other side of this pain
Speaker 1: will break up with me. God's gonna be with me
Speaker 1: when I make my first appointment with the counselor. God's
Speaker 1: gonna be with me when I show up back first
Speaker 1: day to school and I'm twenty seven. God's gonna be
Speaker 1: with me when I open up my finances and begin
Speaker 1: to get it in order and humble myself.
Speaker 2: I forgot about God. That's why I was shaken. That's
Speaker 2: why I was trembling. But I'm not trembling anymore because I'm.
Speaker 4: Trusting that when I get there. Oh yeah, thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll get a bay a bracelet fell off. But
Speaker 1: let me work it in real quick. Let me work
Speaker 1: it in real quick. There's some stuff that needs to
Speaker 1: come off of you in this season. It happens, so
Speaker 1: I might as well work it in. It happens, so
Speaker 1: I might as well work it in. There are some
Speaker 1: things in.
Speaker 2: Your life that you need to stop stressing about.
Speaker 1: At a level that assumes that you're going to have
Speaker 1: to do it alone. I never get stressed about a
Speaker 1: sermon if I remember, oh, yeah, God's going to be there,
Speaker 1: and just like bishops is pretty good at talking, God's
Speaker 1: pretty good at godding.
Speaker 2: How about that. I'm so tired to hear people say
Speaker 2: in life be life and God be godding.
Speaker 1: Don't quote me on that. That's so corny. But I
Speaker 1: think sometimes we take the journey in our mind as
Speaker 1: if God's not going to be there. That was so
Speaker 1: profound for me when I realized it. It's like, have
Speaker 1: you ever been going in a situation and you are
Speaker 1: so stressed and then you remembered, oh yeah, they're going
Speaker 1: to be there and the person that you thought of. Now,
Speaker 1: there are some times where you're going into a situation
Speaker 1: and you remember they are going to be there, and boy,
Speaker 1: then you really are reaching for the prescription pills because well,
Speaker 1: but uh, there's other people like I know, for Holly,
Speaker 1: when Amy is going to be there when you're preaching
Speaker 1: or recording, there's certain things you don't have to worry about.
Speaker 1: And she's going over to get ready and I can
Speaker 1: see she's stressed. She's like I'm good Amy's gonna be there,
Speaker 1: and she just realizes there's things that I don't even
Speaker 1: have to think about because she's good at we've been
Speaker 1: together so long. She's gonna take care of some stuff
Speaker 1: so I can just focus on what I need to do.
Speaker 1: I hear the Lord saying, I'm going to be there
Speaker 1: even if Paul can't, even if nobody else does, even
Speaker 1: if you've never been there before. I only needed three
Speaker 1: note cards and two nods, and that, just like the devil.
Speaker 1: Joyce Smeier said, worry is down payment on the problem
Speaker 1: you may never even have. And I'd just like the
Speaker 1: devil charging you for stuff that you don't even need,
Speaker 1: that you didn't even order. So he said, work this
Speaker 1: thing out, but you gonna need seventy five note cards.
Speaker 1: Just make sure the mic is on nod your head.
Speaker 1: I think, as simple as this sounds, sometimes to just
Speaker 1: assume that God is going to be there, we should
Speaker 1: just sit in it for a minute. What would it
Speaker 1: change about the situation that you're afraid of facing if
Speaker 1: you knew God was going to be there. One time,
Speaker 1: when they got so big on cancel culture, I thought, well,
Speaker 1: what did they just cancel me? And then God said, how
Speaker 1: many people were you preaching to when I called you?
Speaker 1: And the answer was five. And the Lord said, well,
Speaker 1: surely you can find at least five that'll come listen
Speaker 1: to if they can swer the whole earth. You can
Speaker 1: find five. You can find five. And the fact is
Speaker 1: that whatever happens in your life, before it even happens
Speaker 1: to you, God already has a way to work it in. Now.
Speaker 1: I didn't make this bracelet fall off, It just happened.
Speaker 1: I worked it in. I worked it in. Remember when
Speaker 1: we were at Elevation Nights in Oakland. Now the reason
Speaker 1: they're laughing when I said Oakland, they're not like West
Speaker 1: Coast present prejudice or anything like that. I don't want
Speaker 1: you to think when we got to Oakland for Elevation Knights.
Speaker 1: This is twenty twenty two. I will never forget this night. Now,
Speaker 1: when you preach at Elevation Knights, we're going into these
Speaker 1: big arenas like basketball arenas and stuff, right, and they're
Speaker 1: always telling me this is the NBA team that plays here.
Speaker 1: I don't care about basketball. I don't care about any
Speaker 1: of that. I just care about serving him.
Speaker 2: No, Actually, i'm looking what bands came here?
Speaker 1: Oh, the Rolling Stones were here. That's cool to me.
Speaker 1: I don't care if played basketball here. But when we
Speaker 1: were in Oakland, I don't know what made me wear
Speaker 1: that big heavy jacket that night. I remember wearing this
Speaker 1: big heavy jacket. I'm up preaching and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of distractions because it's not like a church service where
Speaker 1: y'all are so attentive even watching online right now. You
Speaker 1: just at Elevation nights, it's like a concert and then
Speaker 1: a sermon. And some of the people that got there,
Speaker 1: they got totally like bait and switched. They had no
Speaker 1: idea they were gonna have to sit through a sermon.
Speaker 1: They thought it was just music. So I am like
Speaker 1: a total buzzkill for the whole room. But in Oakland
Speaker 1: it was going pretty good. And you know, you have
Speaker 1: to work around the distractions. This guy's over here eating
Speaker 1: popcorn and chicken fingers? Did she get did she have
Speaker 1: a beer? Hovering? And trust in God, you know, uses
Speaker 1: all kinds of things going through your mind, just all
Speaker 1: the distraction stuff, and you have to learn just to
Speaker 1: kind of like work around it, right, But a couple
Speaker 1: times on these nights, something happens that you can't work
Speaker 1: around and in Oakland, something happened. I was in the
Speaker 1: middle of my sermon. I was preaching on Acts, Chapter three,
Speaker 1: verses one through ten. The message was called Surprise, and
Speaker 1: I was talking about Peter and John at the gate
Speaker 1: called beautiful, and the man showed up and he wasn't
Speaker 1: expecting to get healed, and they weren't expecting to be healers,
Speaker 1: but surprise. Right when I'm reving up, you know, I've
Speaker 1: gotten my background cover. All the lights in the whole
Speaker 1: arena go out, not gradually, not dimmed out, and so
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, oh, that's weird. They'll come back on in
Speaker 1: a minute.
Speaker 2: Six minutes and forty five seconds.
Speaker 1: No, I'm not exaggerating six It felt like six years.
Speaker 1: It felt like six years because all the lights go out.
Speaker 1: And the first thing I think the whole audience thought was, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a part of his sermon. And so I
Speaker 1: tell them real quickly. I'm like, this is not a
Speaker 1: part of my sermon. And I'm standing up there. You know,
Speaker 1: ten seconds goes by, twenty seconds goes by. I'm a
Speaker 1: professional man. I've been doing this since I was sixty.
Speaker 1: I've been doing this since I was in Monks corner,
Speaker 1: South Carolina. I can do this. I can hold this
Speaker 1: crowd for a minute. I can preach through this. But
Speaker 1: then it's thirty seconds, it's a minute, and you kind
Speaker 1: of run out of steam to stall, you know how
Speaker 1: about those lights? And then it hit me, you don't
Speaker 1: know how long it's going to take for them to
Speaker 1: work this out, so work it in.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, I'm telling you the truth.
Speaker 1: With the lights off, I started preaching about when you're
Speaker 1: in a dark season. I started preaching about how Peter
Speaker 1: and John weren't always at the gate called beautiful, but
Speaker 1: they had once been in a garden called Getsemone, where
Speaker 1: the savior of the world was facing the darkness of
Speaker 1: our sin. And what do you do when you're in
Speaker 1: the darkness of the garden of Gethsemone and the lights
Speaker 1: are out all around you and you are uncertainty because
Speaker 1: I don't know how long it's going to take them
Speaker 1: to put the lights back on.
Speaker 2: So while I'm waiting for them.
Speaker 5: To work it out, I'm trying.
Speaker 1: To close this message, I really am. But there is
Speaker 1: somebody listening to me who's waiting for God to work
Speaker 1: it out, and God is saying back while you're waiting
Speaker 1: in this dark season for me to work it out,
Speaker 1: for me to show you the next step, for me
Speaker 1: to give you the next crumb, for me to give
Speaker 1: you the next notice, for me to give you the
Speaker 1: next relationship, for me to turn this thing around, for
Speaker 1: the report to be positive.
Speaker 2: While you're waiting for me to work it out. Work
Speaker 2: it in, work it in, work it in.
Speaker 1: I hear God saying, work it in, for it is
Speaker 1: God that works in you. It is God that works
Speaker 1: in you. And show them the video. About five minutes
Speaker 1: in the people did something. The people had their phones.
Speaker 2: Out, which you could put me down in the pit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you could take me out.
Speaker 4: I didn't tell him to me.
Speaker 2: He thought they just did it. He thought he could
Speaker 2: pete me here with six thousand six.
Speaker 4: Uh huh sup surprise surprise, Yeah, breaks verdict.
Speaker 6: No course, get your likes out. Give him a seal
Speaker 6: of praise, I said, give him a shout of praise.
Speaker 4: Are you a praiser?
Speaker 2: Are you a lift?
Speaker 6: I think it's great because maybe that's the message God
Speaker 6: want me.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the message God wanted me to breach you.
Speaker 6: Look at all those lights, look at all that evidence,
Speaker 6: Look all that phrase, hollylo out.
Speaker 5: Look at all of that strength, Look at all of
Speaker 5: that glory.
Speaker 4: From something we didn't sick coming surprise. It's not the
Speaker 4: lie ordered, but it's what gone ordered. Done is suffering.
Speaker 4: God ordered my steps.
Speaker 2: God is in this with me.
Speaker 4: Get your light out, get your light out, Get your
Speaker 4: light out.
Speaker 1: You had that light in your pocket the whole time,
Speaker 1: but you didn't need to work that light out until
Speaker 1: the light was absent. The absence became the opportunity for
Speaker 1: the illustration.
Speaker 2: Because while I'm.
Speaker 1: Waiting for God to work this out, might as well
Speaker 1: work it in. God, what do you want to teach
Speaker 1: me through this? God? How do you want to prepare
Speaker 1: me for this? I was complaining about something that wasn't
Speaker 1: succeeding in this season of my life lately, and God said, exactly,
Speaker 1: because you got cocky about what you could do, and
Speaker 1: I needed to teach you to pay attention. So I
Speaker 1: took your success away for a minute so you would
Speaker 1: pay attention to the source of your strength. Jesus, I
Speaker 1: didn't even plan for us to do this altogether. We
Speaker 1: didn't work any of that out, but we worked it in.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you twenty four seconds come on, turn
Speaker 1: the lights back on.
Speaker 2: It feels kind of dangerous. I'm gonna give you twenty four.
Speaker 1: Seconds to give God the greatest praise.
Speaker 4: You gave him, because he gave me one more day.
Speaker 5: Nineteen seconds, Hey, key seconds, except you're running out of time.
Speaker 5: You're running out of time and that and midnight pull
Speaker 5: in silas, don't.
Speaker 4: Know what to do?
Speaker 1: Do it?
Speaker 4: Didn Hey seven six fut.
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 Elevation
Speaker 1: Church dot org slash podcast for more information and if
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share
Speaker 1: it with your friends. You can click the share button,
Speaker 1: take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
Speaker 1: and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you.