Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Say amen, somebody, y'all are going to have to say
Speaker 1: it real loud today because you know, it's normally pretty
Speaker 1: quiet at the nine thirty at Valentine anyway, usually at
Speaker 1: nine thirty. I don't know about our Gaston campus or
Speaker 1: University City or Roanoke, but at this building usually they
Speaker 1: are not caffeinated. The Holy Spirit doesn't kick in until
Speaker 1: about ten to fifteen Eastern Standard time. But it's real
Speaker 1: quiet today, and so we're gonna need to We're gonna
Speaker 1: need to make a connection. And the team here is
Speaker 1: so smart. Le'm to smart. They are. Everybody say how
Speaker 1: smart are they? Okay, here's how smart. They put up
Speaker 1: a big screen where it's just and scrolling and scrolling,
Speaker 1: where I can see your names. But it's going so fast.
Speaker 1: Stop it for a second, just stop it can stop
Speaker 1: it scrolling so fast? Can y'all see that this is
Speaker 1: on YouTube, so I know Facebook and the Elevation app
Speaker 1: and Roku and MySpace and no not MySpace. Okay, we're
Speaker 1: using everything right now to reach people. Instagram, using all
Speaker 1: of it, Dropbox, Napster. Can we put this sermon on Napster.
Speaker 1: We're just trying to get the word out. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I can see Travis P. Jackson, I can see rob
Speaker 1: I can see Colin Lowe. I can just see your amends.
Speaker 1: Let it go again, let it scroll. This is amazing.
Speaker 1: Just go ahead and say I'm in in the chat,
Speaker 1: say I'm in. If you're watching this later on the archive,
Speaker 1: just put I'm in. I'm in, and do this for me.
Speaker 1: Tell me where your amen is coming from. I'm in
Speaker 1: from from you know, Sweden. I'm in from Cowpins, South Carolina.
Speaker 1: From Sweden to South Carolina. Say I'm in, because I
Speaker 1: notice different people say I'm indifferently. I got one dude
Speaker 1: that sits in the back at nine point thirty. You
Speaker 1: know who I'm talking about. You can't miss him when
Speaker 1: he's here. He shouts at the weirdest times, and I
Speaker 1: love him, but he shouts. He's country. He's a country Christian.
Speaker 1: Sounds like he grew up in the Baptist church or something.
Speaker 1: So when he says, somebody, do it real quick, how
Speaker 1: does he do it? Almost sounds like you got hit
Speaker 1: right there in the solar plexus hid in the spirit.
Speaker 1: But and then I remember when I first realized some
Speaker 1: people say amen, Amen. And of course in every language,
Speaker 1: every tongue, the goal is for us to come into
Speaker 1: agreement with God by faith. Faith is a language. And
Speaker 1: so what we want to do together today is realize
Speaker 1: that God is cross cultural, and God can reach from
Speaker 1: heaven to earth. He can certainly reach through a screen.
Speaker 1: And I'm so thankful for the privilege to minister to
Speaker 1: you today. Go ahead right now, and don't just say amen,
Speaker 1: but share with somebody the link to this sermon. We're
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna be here with you for the next
Speaker 1: I might preach three or four hours. I haven't decided yet.
Speaker 1: And yeah, they're bringing out my table and my stool.
Speaker 1: I guess y'all can go sit down? I asked the
Speaker 1: worship team. I was like, can y'all please stay on
Speaker 1: the stage with me because it's going to be so
Speaker 1: awkward if I'm just preaching by myself. So I said
Speaker 1: I'll have them bring you a stool and maybe y'all
Speaker 1: can just stay with me so it won't be so
Speaker 1: lonely up here preaching. And I thought today you could
Speaker 1: just populate, you could. You could come in and sit
Speaker 1: right here. We're gonna we're gonna bring you into the auditorium.
Speaker 1: We're bringing church to you, and then you're gonna come.
Speaker 1: So tell me where you're coming from. We got India,
Speaker 1: South Africa, Philippine's Lakeland, Florida. Yeah, go a little slower,
Speaker 1: it's just so much. This one's going so fast. Let
Speaker 1: me try to see it on my phone real quick.
Speaker 1: Where are y'all watching from? Because God is in the house.
Speaker 1: Somebody say God is in the house. God is in
Speaker 1: the house. He is in this place. That's what Jacob
Speaker 1: woke up and he said the Lord was in this
Speaker 1: place and I was not aware. And sometimes we're looking
Speaker 1: for God's presence and really all we need is more awareness.
Speaker 1: And so I pray that this can just be a
Speaker 1: reminder to you today. I've got the YouTube app open
Speaker 1: on my phone. I'm just trying to see who's watching,
Speaker 1: because I want to put you in the front row. Okay,
Speaker 1: Sometimes people come to church and they come late and
Speaker 1: they get in overflow. Well, today you all get to
Speaker 1: be in the front row. So this is kind of
Speaker 1: cool because normally it would be Rick Parker and Sissy
Speaker 1: right there, and then Holly and Amy and on down.
Speaker 1: Eric would be in the second row. Tom Layman would
Speaker 1: be six rows back. So today let's see who's in
Speaker 1: the house. From South Korea, China, Japan. Yeah, this is cool.
Speaker 1: So since we can't travel to be with one another
Speaker 1: right now, we can just be with one another in
Speaker 1: God's presence. There's no restrictions in his presence. I'm so
Speaker 1: thankful to be with you today. Connecticut, tell me your
Speaker 1: name too. It's kind of weird just calling you by
Speaker 1: a state, Connecticut, you know, tell me your name and
Speaker 1: where you're watching from. Okay, Danny from Jersey. There you go, Nepal, Ukraine, Jakarta, Texas,
Speaker 1: that's the whole country, from the nation of Texas. And
Speaker 1: then where you're from, johnsl from the Promise. I'm going
Speaker 1: to preach about the Promised Land in a minute. So
Speaker 1: you like this one. This is good. And somebody was
Speaker 1: saying to me, you know, this is not a time
Speaker 1: to joke around the joy of The Lord is our strength.
Speaker 1: If we lose our joy, we've lost everything. That's our
Speaker 1: immune system. That's how we that's how we fight against
Speaker 1: what intimidates us. We keep our joy. So don't lose
Speaker 1: your joy whatever you do. I know my jokes aren't
Speaker 1: very good today, but I'm just gonna try my best.
Speaker 1: I told the Lord that our church would be here
Speaker 1: to be used by him in this season, whatever that
Speaker 1: looks like. And so even this week, the team was
Speaker 1: over setting up some cameras in the basement of my house.
Speaker 1: I think they set up right in your living room,
Speaker 1: which freaked me out because your son, Joah is crazy.
Speaker 1: So they set up like an expensive camera and then
Speaker 1: Joah is just running around around that camera. So let's
Speaker 1: all pray right now, Jesus keep Joah from breaking elevation
Speaker 1: Church's camera. Amen. It's already a bad economy. We don't
Speaker 1: need to be replacing cameras right now. But the idea was,
Speaker 1: let's get in position. Somebody say, get in position. And
Speaker 1: when I say somebody say, that means somebody tight. Somebody chat,
Speaker 1: somebody comment, get in position. And the Lord reveal to
Speaker 1: me this week that we are positioned for a miracle
Speaker 1: I know the world is a mess right now, and
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to minimize that, and I certainly am
Speaker 1: not trying to minimize the misery that many people are experiencing.
Speaker 1: But one of my professors, when I first went to cemetery,
Speaker 1: I mean seminary, that's an old joke. He wrote up
Speaker 1: on the board inm and it stood for no Mess,
Speaker 1: no ministry, and he was trying to get us to
Speaker 1: see that God does his greatest miracles in our biggest mess.
Speaker 1: And if that's true, then we're about to experience a
Speaker 1: really big miracle. And in order to illustrate this today,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to preach God's word. I have more
Speaker 1: notes than I could ever get to today because I've
Speaker 1: been trapped all week, just like you, and I've had
Speaker 1: nothing to do but think about what I could speak
Speaker 1: to help God's people, because there's only so much we
Speaker 1: can do, you know, and we're all kind of at
Speaker 1: a standstill and waiting to understand more. But while we wait,
Speaker 1: we can always worship, We can always stand on God's word,
Speaker 1: and we can always receive God's wisdom. And I wrote
Speaker 1: those three ws down this week, Worship, Word, and Wisdom,
Speaker 1: the three things that will get us through any storm,
Speaker 1: and they'll start with the letter w www how appropriate
Speaker 1: for an online streaming sermon. Www. Al Gore didn't invent it,
Speaker 1: God did, all right? Anyway, the miracle that I spent
Speaker 1: significant time because I was going through this idea, your
Speaker 1: position for a miracle, your position for a miracle. And
Speaker 1: it seems to me that a lot of times what
Speaker 1: we want is the miracle without the mess. Like that
Speaker 1: dude that needed his eyes open, he was blind, and
Speaker 1: so Jesus' response to that was to spit in the
Speaker 1: ground and make mud. I bet most of us would
Speaker 1: have been like, no, thanks, I can manage. I mean,
Speaker 1: it'd be great to see. But if you're going to
Speaker 1: have to, if you're going to have to spit in
Speaker 1: order to accomplish this, would I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Probably if I was in his same situation, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be willing to endure the spit to gain my sight.
Speaker 1: But a lot of times it's the things that we
Speaker 1: want to avoid in our lives. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: show you this from Joshua chapter three in a moment,
Speaker 1: So go ahead and get that scripture locate it, Joshua,
Speaker 1: chapter three. I'm going to be in the new International
Speaker 1: Version twenty eleven, the new version, And again, maybe you
Speaker 1: want to share this message with somebody, because I believe
Speaker 1: God has positioned us for a miracle. Your position for
Speaker 1: a miracle. I know that's hard to believe, but desperation
Speaker 1: is the setup for revle. Whenever we're familiar and we
Speaker 1: kind of know what to do and we know what's
Speaker 1: going on, faith can't grow. And so when we feel
Speaker 1: fear in our lives, like I think every single one
Speaker 1: of us does right now, it's not something to be rejected.
Speaker 1: It's something to be worked through. Okay. I know people say, well,
Speaker 1: God has not given us a spirit of fear and
Speaker 1: perfect love castel fear. I know those Bible verses too,
Speaker 1: but you have to understand that in God's gymnasium, like
Speaker 1: fear is to our spirit what weights are to our muscles.
Speaker 1: And so when we feel fear, it gives us an
Speaker 1: opportunity to exercise faith. And so God has brought us
Speaker 1: into this moment together so we can share today, and
Speaker 1: we're doing it online and all of that. But the
Speaker 1: important thing about it is that we understand that we
Speaker 1: are positioned for a miracle, and so I want to
Speaker 1: share with you kind of one of my favorite miracles
Speaker 1: that I tend to go to when things around me
Speaker 1: are not feeling stable. You need a few staple scriptures,
Speaker 1: like some go to Bible verses that you can just
Speaker 1: pull out when you don't have time to really think,
Speaker 1: just things you can pull out. I wonder, do you
Speaker 1: have any of those staple scriptures just once they get
Speaker 1: you through. Romans eight twenty eight has always been one
Speaker 1: for me because it says all things work together for
Speaker 1: the good of those who love God, and I used
Speaker 1: to read it wrong for years. I thought it meant
Speaker 1: everything was good, and so I preached a sermon when
Speaker 1: I was really young called It's all Good for Romans
Speaker 1: eight twenty eight. The Bible didn't say is all good.
Speaker 1: What we're going through right now is not good. Disease
Speaker 1: is not good. Somebody getting laid off from their job
Speaker 1: is not good. It's said that all things work together
Speaker 1: for the good when God gets involved. And so when
Speaker 1: God gets involved, when when God steps into hopeless situations,
Speaker 1: he positions us for miracles in the middle of a mess. Now,
Speaker 1: what I love about this miracle is that at the
Speaker 1: same time that the nation of Israel was coming into
Speaker 1: what we might say is their destiny, the Promised Land,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned a minute ago, John South, They're coming
Speaker 1: into their destiny, but they experience it as a disruption.
Speaker 1: And I just want you to write those two words down.
Speaker 1: And if you still got the kids running around, you
Speaker 1: need to send them out the room right now and
Speaker 1: put it on e kid's YouTube because we've got something
Speaker 1: to distract them. God knows that you do not need
Speaker 1: another distraction right now. You need just forty five focused
Speaker 1: minutes in the word of God. Can I get an
Speaker 1: amen on the YouTube chat? And even if the chat
Speaker 1: is distracting, you close it out because there is too
Speaker 1: much distraction right now in some of our minds and
Speaker 1: we can't even hear from God. So you know, the
Speaker 1: other day I was preparing the sermon and the kids
Speaker 1: were going back and forth, back and forth, and it
Speaker 1: got louder louder, louder louder, and before I knew it,
Speaker 1: I heard him screaming at each other to shut up.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a great man of God. I have
Speaker 1: my house in order, my children obey the ways of
Speaker 1: the Lord, and all that, But my kids don't walk
Speaker 1: around quote Philippians four thirteen. My kids run around telling
Speaker 1: each other to shut up. And so when it got
Speaker 1: to a certain point, there is a certain point that
Speaker 1: your kids can get to. And I'm gonna need a
Speaker 1: real amen from a real parent on this one, not
Speaker 1: some little halo polishen parent filter and stuff on Instagram
Speaker 1: cropping stuff out and pretending like your house always looks
Speaker 1: like that, but a real parent. All right, there comes
Speaker 1: a moment where you've had enough. And I heard myself
Speaker 1: scream this, even though it was very ironic. I said,
Speaker 1: stop screaming. Take a moment. Let that set in. I
Speaker 1: screamed at the top of my lungs, stop screaming. And
Speaker 1: it inspired me, honestly, because I was studying the text
Speaker 1: and God showed me what to call this sermon today.
Speaker 1: Are you ready? I have a word from the Lord
Speaker 1: for you. This message is called when God says stop,
Speaker 1: When God says stop, And that's what I want to
Speaker 1: look at today. Somebody put in the chat say stop stop,
Speaker 1: stop stop. I mean, like you've had enough, Like you've
Speaker 1: watched enough CNN, Fox News, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, every NBC
Speaker 1: and so there comes a point where God says stop.
Speaker 1: And I thought it was interesting that although we see
Speaker 1: this chapter in Scripture Joshua chapter three as the beginning
Speaker 1: of the nation of Israel's entrance into their promise, the
Speaker 1: promised land that God called them to occupy, it also
Speaker 1: represented an ending of what they knew as normal. And
Speaker 1: that's really profound if you think about it, because in
Speaker 1: order for God to bring something new, he has to
Speaker 1: disrupt something normal. When I was saying position for a miracle,
Speaker 1: I could almost feel you shouting through the screen. You're like, yes, Lord,
Speaker 1: pay it off, off, take it away, do it God.
Speaker 1: But this passage is going to show us a different
Speaker 1: way to look at it, that as we're coming into
Speaker 1: one new thing, we're leaving another. And I want to
Speaker 1: read the scripture to you. Starting in verse one, it says,
Speaker 1: early in the morning, Joshua and all the Israelites set
Speaker 1: out from Shitham. That's a long eye. Stop playing pastor
Speaker 1: appreci the worth. Let me start over. Y'all know I
Speaker 1: love you. Right early in the morning, Joshua and all
Speaker 1: the Israelites set out from Shitam. So they're going somewhere.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, I'm going somewhere. I'm going somewhere. Say it
Speaker 1: in the chat, say it in the comments. I'm going somewhere.
Speaker 1: I'm going somewhere. I'm going somewhere. I'm going somewhere. God's
Speaker 1: hand is on me. I'm going somewhere. God is taking
Speaker 1: me somewhere. God has not left me. God will not
Speaker 1: forsake me. God will not abandon me. God will not
Speaker 1: let me see the kay. He will never leave the
Speaker 1: righteous forsaken, nor see begging for bread. God will feed
Speaker 1: me and lead me and guide me and protect me.
Speaker 1: He said he would, He promised he would. That's what
Speaker 1: he does. Okay. This God is our God, forever and ever.
Speaker 1: He will be our guide, even to the end. Hollywoods
Speaker 1: preaching the other day on Facebook, she said, we want
Speaker 1: God to be our ride, but God said he would
Speaker 1: be our guide. And I was like, girl, that doctor
Speaker 1: Susanoni looks sexy on you. That is so good, because
Speaker 1: we want God to be like an uber, like hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get back here and I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk to you. I just want you to take me here.
Speaker 1: Now Here's where I want to go. I want to
Speaker 1: I want a new job, I want I want my
Speaker 1: wife to start respecting me. I want my kids to
Speaker 1: get straight a's A plus. Why not just go for it? God,
Speaker 1: get him into Harvard, Yale, Harvard, Harvard undergrad and Yale
Speaker 1: for the doctorate God, and we want God to just
Speaker 1: get us there. But we're going to see something today
Speaker 1: about when God says, stop okay. And one thing we
Speaker 1: need to stop doing is looking at God as a
Speaker 1: means and start seeing that He is the end his presence,
Speaker 1: to know him, to be strengthened by him. And even
Speaker 1: though I'm going somewhere, it's not so important. Just about
Speaker 1: where God takes me is what he shows me along
Speaker 1: the way. And this is a pivotal moment in my
Speaker 1: life in your life, because we're not really sure about
Speaker 1: the destination or how long, you know, how long is
Speaker 1: the coronavirus going to dominate our headlines? And then even
Speaker 1: after that, how long is it going to terrorize our economy?
Speaker 1: And we don't know. And it's interesting because the Bible says,
Speaker 1: let me just read the scripture. I'm so excited. Can
Speaker 1: you tell? The Lord has really been speaking to me?
Speaker 1: And God's word never stops, it never returns void. So
Speaker 1: it's almost like the more trouble we get in, the
Speaker 1: more of God's presence and more of God's grace and
Speaker 1: more of God's work, He just makes it available to us.
Speaker 1: And so the Lord has really been overflowing in my heart.
Speaker 1: It said early in the morning, Joshua, and all the Israelites.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, all the Israelites. Put a couple extra a's
Speaker 1: in the chat. Just say, all the Israelites, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: check on y'all and make sure y'all are doing it.
Speaker 1: Say all the israel lives. Come on. It doesn't cost
Speaker 1: you nothing for an extra vowel on YouTube. Just say, oh,
Speaker 1: this is really Oh man, this is good. Because the
Speaker 1: first thing that God said stopped to me. He said,
Speaker 1: stop acting like you're the only one, like I'm the
Speaker 1: only one, like I'm the only one scared right now,
Speaker 1: like I'm the only one struggling right now, or even
Speaker 1: for America, like we've got a global fam. We call
Speaker 1: it epham. It used to stand for extended. Now it
Speaker 1: stands for everywhere, because we're all etham. Even our local
Speaker 1: congregation is having to experience God's word kind of from
Speaker 1: a distance. But one thing that people keep saying that
Speaker 1: bothers me is like, well, we're all in the same boat. No,
Speaker 1: we're not. We're not all in the same boat. This
Speaker 1: storm that we're going through, if I can use that analogy,
Speaker 1: it affects all of us in different ways. So while
Speaker 1: one man in my church right now might be kind
Speaker 1: of thinking, well, this is good for me. I get
Speaker 1: a break, you know, get a break from the stress
Speaker 1: of life, and maybe the shutdown of commerce and industry
Speaker 1: to that man represents a break or sense of relief
Speaker 1: or a welcome interruption of the rhythm. About the time
Speaker 1: he's feeling relief, somebody else in my church just laid
Speaker 1: off one hundred and fifty employees. And that happened this week.
Speaker 1: This is not theoretical hypothetical. As a pastor, I get
Speaker 1: to see how something affects all the people, okay, And
Speaker 1: I think it's really arrogant when we put ourselves at
Speaker 1: the center of a struggle. And another thing that it
Speaker 1: does is it increases our anxiety because we start thinking
Speaker 1: we are the first ones to ever go through anything.
Speaker 1: And then if you get that self centered, you get
Speaker 1: short sighted. So then you start thinking like this is
Speaker 1: the only thing that I've ever been through, Like this,
Speaker 1: I heard someone say that the other day. They said,
Speaker 1: we've never been through anything like this before. Hello, oh,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen the influenza that killed Look somebody from nineteen
Speaker 1: eighteen is watching us from heaven right now go through
Speaker 1: this and not understanding our frame of reference can be
Speaker 1: detrimental to our revelation of God's power, because when we
Speaker 1: think we're the first ones who ever went through anything before,
Speaker 1: long we start thinking that this is unlike anything else
Speaker 1: that we've ever been through. And so I want to
Speaker 1: remind you today that you are not the only one.
Speaker 1: I'm not the only one scared. I'm not the only
Speaker 1: one uncertain. I'm not the only one with questions. And
Speaker 1: we are going through this together. Now. Here's what's interesting.
Speaker 1: We are all always going through something, but right now
Speaker 1: it kind of feels like we're going through the same thing.
Speaker 1: And yet although we're going through the same storm, we're
Speaker 1: not all in the same boat. Some people are going
Speaker 1: through this current crisis in like a I don't know,
Speaker 1: like a battleship, barely feeling it. It's like, oh man,
Speaker 1: you know there. You can almost see them on Instagram
Speaker 1: all the time. They make you sick. They're like, I'm
Speaker 1: all out of Cheetos, got to move to Doritos now,
Speaker 1: quarantine problems. You know what I'm saying, Like WHOA Somebody
Speaker 1: else is in a kayak going through the storm, and
Speaker 1: they're like, I'm thinking about feeding my family on minimum
Speaker 1: wage and what this opportunity. When I said we're positioned
Speaker 1: for a miracle, I think that God is positioning us
Speaker 1: for the miracle of empathy to really be able to
Speaker 1: stop for a moment disagreeing about petty stuff, stupid stuff,
Speaker 1: stop arguing for a minute about stupid stuff. Because they
Speaker 1: all had to go through together. Now, this is the
Speaker 1: passage to the promised land, right, and we're not going
Speaker 1: into like a geographical land here. We're doing about the
Speaker 1: promises of God, everything that he's promised you, peace and protection,
Speaker 1: all this stuff we want, right, But they all had
Speaker 1: to go through together. That really touched me. Man, It
Speaker 1: touched me because I have three kids. This is two
Speaker 1: million people. I can't even get my three kids to
Speaker 1: get in the car to get across South Charlotte to
Speaker 1: get to school before seven thirty am. Together, and now
Speaker 1: Joshua has to lead. It says in the scripture, all
Speaker 1: the people, Well, this is a miracle. I can't even
Speaker 1: get my kids to agree on what show to watch,
Speaker 1: and Joshua has to get all the people across. This
Speaker 1: is a miracle. And you know, Graham asked me the
Speaker 1: other day this is funny. Actually this was several months ago.
Speaker 1: He came up to me. He was in a Bible class.
Speaker 1: He goes to this Christian school, and he was asking
Speaker 1: me a theological question. He goes, Dad, why do you
Speaker 1: think God stopped doing so many miracles like he did
Speaker 1: in Bible times? And I don't know. Why do you think?
Speaker 1: He said, maybe because he was younger back then and
Speaker 1: had more energy. I love it. This is the Old
Speaker 1: Testament right, And we're all like, oh, God, I know
Speaker 1: this story, Joshua three, God parted the waters and all
Speaker 1: the people went through. Why doesn't God still do miracles
Speaker 1: like that? And yet you are holding a phone in
Speaker 1: your hand right now, or you are watching on Roku
Speaker 1: or Apple TV or some new fangled technological device. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs for making this moment possible. But yet we
Speaker 1: will sit in a miracle and not recognize it as
Speaker 1: a miracle, because see, we have a very difficult time
Speaker 1: appreciating a miracle when we're in it. We have a
Speaker 1: very difficult time appreciating a good moment when we're in it.
Speaker 1: So then we start looking back at old times. Oh,
Speaker 1: those are the good old days, you know, flashback Friday
Speaker 1: and throw back Thursday. And it's like, we want to
Speaker 1: be anywhere but here. And then so God gives us
Speaker 1: a moment where we have to stop and be here.
Speaker 1: Because March Madness was canceled. The whole NBA just stopped.
Speaker 1: That's when I knew this was bad. When the NBA stopped,
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh God, this is real. Somebody put
Speaker 1: in the comments it just got real and put it
Speaker 1: like that too. It just got real. It just got real.
Speaker 1: And there's a moment in this scripture I was. I
Speaker 1: was reading it just word for word. It's amazing how
Speaker 1: the little things in scripture come alive when you stop
Speaker 1: and think about them, you know, just go through them.
Speaker 1: And since this message is called when God says, stop,
Speaker 1: I want to stop on something that's significant. Early in
Speaker 1: the morning, Joshua and all the Israelites there you go.
Speaker 1: All the Israelites set out from Shidam and went to
Speaker 1: the Jordan, which is the place where God always reveals identity.
Speaker 1: You remember, that's where Jesus went to be baptized the Jordan.
Speaker 1: This is my son. That's where God always shows you
Speaker 1: who you really are by what he brings you through.
Speaker 1: That spoke to me. When we're going through something, the
Speaker 1: goal isn't just to get through it. The goal is
Speaker 1: for God to show us something in it that will
Speaker 1: make us better on the other side. I'm going to
Speaker 1: be better on the other side. I'm going to be
Speaker 1: better on the other side. It may look different. It's
Speaker 1: not going to be normal. It's not we're not going
Speaker 1: back to normal, but but I'm going to be better
Speaker 1: on the other side of this. You got to go
Speaker 1: in with that assurance or else you're gonna stand like
Speaker 1: like the Israelites stayed for forty years on the wrong
Speaker 1: side of the Jordan. And I'm gonna tell you something else.
Speaker 1: God didn't stop from going into the Promised Land. God
Speaker 1: didn't stop them. I used to preach that they got
Speaker 1: stuck in the wilderness, and how some of us get
Speaker 1: stuck in temptation, or we get stuck in unbelief, or
Speaker 1: we get stuck in fear. And one day I was
Speaker 1: preaching that, and the Lord slowed me down and said,
Speaker 1: they didn't get stuck. They stopped. There was nothing keeping
Speaker 1: them in. There's nothing keeping us right now from being grateful. Well, well,
Speaker 1: you hadn't seen my bank acount. I'm talk about you
Speaker 1: bank account. I talk about your belief system. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about you believe that God is good at the bottom,
Speaker 1: and you have this hope as an anchor for your soul.
Speaker 1: That's a rock, that's a foundation. They can't be shaken
Speaker 1: by a storm. The winds can come, the streams can rise,
Speaker 1: beat against the house, and it didn't fall. It only
Speaker 1: showed the foundation for what it was. And so when
Speaker 1: they crossed the Jordan, they were doing what the previous
Speaker 1: generation could have done. But they stopped. They stopped. They stop.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we tell ourselves that we're stuck, when the fact
Speaker 1: is we just stopped. Oh man, I've just been depressed lately,
Speaker 1: like just like everywhere I look as bad news, stop
Speaker 1: watching it. I feel an annointing on one word, because
Speaker 1: I preached so many sermons on go go. You know,
Speaker 1: God told Abraham go to the land. I will show you.
Speaker 1: He said, go and make disciples. That was the great commission,
Speaker 1: go go, go. But what about when God says, stop stop.
Speaker 1: I believe God is issuing. Like I yelled at the
Speaker 1: top of my lungs the other day, stop stop scrolling.
Speaker 1: Oh I wonder why I don't have any peace. God
Speaker 1: give me peace. But you got a leaky bucket that
Speaker 1: you're asking God to put peace in because you won't
Speaker 1: turn off your phone. It needs to charge, it's getting hot,
Speaker 1: it's burning your hand. So you're gonna feed yourself fear
Speaker 1: and then pray for more faith. God says stop stop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: will it need to be informed? Hey, nobody knows right now.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows. I mean you know everything. Everybody knows right now.
Speaker 1: You know enough, you know enough, You know enough, and
Speaker 1: I'm wanna tell you something else. You know enough about
Speaker 1: God to get you through this valley we talk about
Speaker 1: going through. I know I'm gonna get through this. And
Speaker 1: I don't say that in a callous way or a
Speaker 1: cliche way or a hashtag kind of faith. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: the Lord is my shepherd. I know that he's my guy.
Speaker 1: I know that I shall not want. Hang on a second,
Speaker 1: there's a weird part of this passage. The Lord's my
Speaker 1: not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastors.
Speaker 1: It's like you're saying, God will guide you, guide you,
Speaker 1: and sometimes in order to get you to green pastors,
Speaker 1: he has to give you a red light. He makes
Speaker 1: me lie down, he makes me lie down, And it's
Speaker 1: right there in Joshua three. It's right there. How God
Speaker 1: is leading his people. He's led them forty years in
Speaker 1: a wilderness. They've been through things before, but now they're
Speaker 1: standing at something new, just like we are. Some of you.
Speaker 1: God has seen you through divorce. He's seen you through
Speaker 1: a miscarriage. He's seen you through a suicidal impulse that
Speaker 1: you almost took your own life and then you didn't.
Speaker 1: He saw you through the worst decision of your life.
Speaker 1: He saw you through financial mistakes. He saw you through
Speaker 1: all of that. And now you are standing at this
Speaker 1: and you're like, I've never been here before. And it's like,
Speaker 1: but in that moment, what you know has to take
Speaker 1: over what you feel. And that's what I want to
Speaker 1: illustrate in the text. When God says stop living by
Speaker 1: feelings and start living by faith, stop living by sight,
Speaker 1: I feel the Holy Spirit when God says stop is
Speaker 1: so important that we listen to the Holy Spirit. When
Speaker 1: he says stop, stop, stop playing out all the worst
Speaker 1: what if scenarios in your brain. You've gone way past planning.
Speaker 1: I'm just getting a plan. Is that what you call
Speaker 1: it a plan? When you're projecting every possible scenario trying
Speaker 1: to predict, you think you're miss Cleo or something like that.
Speaker 1: You ain't a prophet and give yourself an ulcir I
Speaker 1: prophecy peptobismal in your future every night before you go
Speaker 1: to bed if you don't stop it. And I love
Speaker 1: what God gave him and how the presence of God
Speaker 1: sometimes will tell you to stop. Give me verse one again,
Speaker 1: all this in verse one, and don't y'all get scared.
Speaker 1: But I got like seventeen verses. Okay, but I will
Speaker 1: stop at some point so the next service can run.
Speaker 1: But it says early in the morning, Josh, when all
Speaker 1: the Israelites set out from Shitham and went to the Jordan,
Speaker 1: the place of identity, and the instruction was camp before
Speaker 1: crossing over. Isn't that cool? How God was bringing them
Speaker 1: into something new, and before he could bring them into
Speaker 1: this new space, he told him to stop and camp.
Speaker 1: And what he tells them to do next, I want
Speaker 1: to give you as a prophetic word for what God
Speaker 1: might be saying to you for this season of your life.
Speaker 1: We're all going through this at the same time, but
Speaker 1: we're not all going through the same thing. Some people
Speaker 1: are making real decisions right now, Like our church. All week,
Speaker 1: it was just decision after decision after decision. And the
Speaker 1: problem is, you know we're all trying to Okay, go ahead,
Speaker 1: give you the next point. You're ready. Stop wasting today's
Speaker 1: strength fighting tomorrow's battles. Stop stop stop trying to stop
Speaker 1: trying to defend yourself against doomsday that may or may
Speaker 1: not happen. Make decisions, Make decisions. God will give you
Speaker 1: the wisdom for the decisions you need to make right now.
Speaker 1: I believe that he will. I'm believing that for every
Speaker 1: healthcare worker. I'm believing that for our leaders. I'm believing
Speaker 1: that God is gonna bring our country together in a
Speaker 1: way right now that we're gonna figure out some stuff
Speaker 1: that we needed to fix for a long time, and
Speaker 1: your nation and God's gonna bring us together. We're positioned
Speaker 1: for a miracle, but we got to go through together.
Speaker 1: We got to get through this together. If the church
Speaker 1: stops giving right now and we start acting like we
Speaker 1: need a building to be blessed. We're gonna miss it.
Speaker 1: We got to come together like never before. That's why
Speaker 1: we were given out over two hundred thousand meals this
Speaker 1: week as a church, because this is a time for
Speaker 1: us to stop, pause before we go into what's next.
Speaker 1: Look what the scripture says in verse two, I love
Speaker 1: my big Bible up here on the screen. After three days.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good number when it's in the Bible.
Speaker 1: After three days. Now we're living through something right now
Speaker 1: that's going to take longer than three days. The economic
Speaker 1: impact of the coronavirus, this global pandemic is going to
Speaker 1: take longer than three days. But notice this that they
Speaker 1: camped before crossing over, and yet God didn't call it quarantine.
Speaker 1: He called it something else. Okay, so watch this. After
Speaker 1: three days, the officers went throughout the camp. These are
Speaker 1: the leaders, first three giving orders to the people. So
Speaker 1: God has teaching us how to follow instructions. God is
Speaker 1: teaching us how to come together. God is teaching us
Speaker 1: how to put our preferences in our pride to side.
Speaker 1: And he said, when you see the arc of the
Speaker 1: covenant of the Lord, your God and the levitical priests
Speaker 1: carrying it. You are to move out from your positions
Speaker 1: and follow it. When you see the art, follow it
Speaker 1: verse four. Then you will know which way to go
Speaker 1: since you have never been this way before. Is that
Speaker 1: not a word for twenty twenty? Was the Bible written yesterday?
Speaker 1: I feel like this just got an update, and it
Speaker 1: just spoke right to our situation. We've never been this
Speaker 1: way before, and that gives us an amazing opportunity to
Speaker 1: rely on God like never before. We are positioned for
Speaker 1: a miracle. We are a candidate for the presence of
Speaker 1: God to show up and do something awesome in our crisis.
Speaker 1: But yet it requires us in this moment to stop
Speaker 1: and to pause, and the Bible says something very interesting.
Speaker 1: Then you will know it way to go since you
Speaker 1: have never been this way before. It doesn't mean it's
Speaker 1: never been this way before. It doesn't mean bad things
Speaker 1: have never happened before. Someone said to me, this could
Speaker 1: be the end of the church as we know it.
Speaker 1: I was like, huh, the churches you know it. The
Speaker 1: churches they knew it in the Bible. I hate to
Speaker 1: break this to y'all. They didn't have YouTube live, they
Speaker 1: didn't have campuses, they did not have and I know
Speaker 1: this is gonna break some of your hearts. They did
Speaker 1: not have a vest of you. They did not have
Speaker 1: points set us, they did not have a pipe board. Again,
Speaker 1: so this is nothing new for God. It's nothing new.
Speaker 1: It's new to you. It's not new to God. God
Speaker 1: saw it coming. God is already in your tomorrow. God
Speaker 1: put it in the chat. God is already in my tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I know you'd shouted if you could, if you were here.
Speaker 1: But somebody's saying the chat. God is already in my tomorrow.
Speaker 1: God is already in my tomorrow. And God says, give
Speaker 1: me my job back. God's job is tomorrow. Your job
Speaker 1: is today. Give us this day our daily bread. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do today. I'm gonna keep from killing my kids.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm gonna do today. All right, good, that's
Speaker 1: your job. I'm gonna pray today. Give me that camera.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do today. I'm gonna sit set aside some
Speaker 1: time and listen to the word of God this day.
Speaker 1: And we get so confused because we get well, we
Speaker 1: get to the point where we think we can help
Speaker 1: God with this job a little bit. So in a
Speaker 1: moment like this, We're like, well, maybe if I'll just
Speaker 1: freak out and call it prayer, then God will do something, okay,
Speaker 1: because some of y'all know, the only thing you're doing
Speaker 1: when you're praying is you are applying a spiritual dialect
Speaker 1: to a fearful position. And by the time we get
Speaker 1: done with all of that, we're worse off than if
Speaker 1: we had, you know, just gone for a walk. So
Speaker 1: here's all I show you today. It said they before crossing,
Speaker 1: And this was weird to me too, because I'm used
Speaker 1: to God saying go and he told them to stop,
Speaker 1: So that was weird. And the second thing was I'm
Speaker 1: used to God coming close, and the relevance of the text.
Speaker 1: It's almost scary, it's almost spooky. It's a little freaky
Speaker 1: to me. How God said, since you've never been this
Speaker 1: way before, since you're not God, how many are glad
Speaker 1: you're not God? Right now? I was watching the President
Speaker 1: and the Vice President and the task Force the other
Speaker 1: day press conference. I was like, I'm so glad I'm
Speaker 1: not the President. I'm so glad I'm not God. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad that I don't have to I don't have
Speaker 1: to figure it all out. I'm so glad I've got
Speaker 1: a God who has gone before me. I'm so glad
Speaker 1: I have a father. If I did not have to
Speaker 1: run around like the pagans. What am I gonna eat?
Speaker 1: What am I gonna drink? What am I gonna wear?
Speaker 1: Jesus says, stop worrying about what God is already working on.
Speaker 1: So he says, I'm going to lead you. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to take my presence from you. It's going to
Speaker 1: be different this time. It's not going to feel familiar.
Speaker 1: Your faith grows in unfamiliar places when you don't know
Speaker 1: where to go. That's when you get to know who
Speaker 1: God really is. I feel that for somebody right now.
Speaker 1: What about my business? What about my boat? How's my
Speaker 1: boat going to be in this storm? Let me tell
Speaker 1: you something. When God says stop, the storm has to listen. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One time Jesus was in a storm and the disciples
Speaker 1: felt like some of us feel right now, you don't care.
Speaker 1: This is weird. I thought you were like the son
Speaker 1: of God and stuff. You know what Jesus was doing.
Speaker 1: I know you know, Anna, he was doing the most
Speaker 1: inappropriate thing you can do in a storm. He was
Speaker 1: a he was sleeping That's why I gave y'all these
Speaker 1: hard stools to sit on, because I didn't want you
Speaker 1: to fall asleep during my servant I was like, give
Speaker 1: him an uncomfortable stool. I don't want them to sleep
Speaker 1: through my sermon. But Jesus was sleeping through a storm.
Speaker 1: Here's what I want you to know. After the disciples
Speaker 1: had stressed out and scrambled. So you got the disciples scrambling,
Speaker 1: and Jesus is sleeping because he knows something that they
Speaker 1: don't know. And I want you to do me a favor.
Speaker 1: Ask that storm. What happened when Jesus told it to stop.
Speaker 1: When God says stop, the elements have no choice but
Speaker 1: to obey him. When God says stop, the red sea
Speaker 1: has no choice but to stop standing in my way.
Speaker 1: When God says stop, any weapon that is formed against
Speaker 1: me has to bow its name to the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: So I want you to insert God's name over and
Speaker 1: against whatever need you have. His name is I am,
Speaker 1: not I was, and not I will be. God is
Speaker 1: with you in this moment, not just when I get
Speaker 1: to the other side, but when God says stop, every
Speaker 1: storm has to stop raging. I wish I had an organ.
Speaker 1: I wish I had a beat. Three. We can still
Speaker 1: have church. When God says stop, Ask Lazarus what happens.
Speaker 1: When God says stop, the worms had already started eating
Speaker 1: his body. The process of decomposition was already in progress.
Speaker 1: But when God says stop, When God says stop, the
Speaker 1: consequences have to be reversed. When God says stop. When
Speaker 1: God says stop, God speaks peace to every anxious heart.
Speaker 1: When God says stop, I want you to tell the
Speaker 1: terror right now, God says stop. Put your hand out
Speaker 1: like this, put your hands up like this on an
Speaker 1: emoji and fight the devil with an emoji God. God
Speaker 1: says stop. Fear stops here. You can have my finances,
Speaker 1: but you can't have my faith. It stops here. Here's
Speaker 1: a lot. God says, stop. Don't give him space, don't
Speaker 1: give him your gon down ferdig it's an empty room.
Speaker 1: Stop stop stop, stop, stop stop stop. Get some sleep
Speaker 1: in the stern of the ship. Because if Jesus is
Speaker 1: in the boat, we're all in the same storm. But
Speaker 1: we're not all in the same boat. And here's what
Speaker 1: I found out. Faith doesn't keep me from having to
Speaker 1: go through a storm. It doesn't exempt me from the challenges.
Speaker 1: We're all in this together. I got somebody in the
Speaker 1: stern and when he says stop, God says stop. I
Speaker 1: wonder what God is saying stop right now, patterns of pessimism.
Speaker 1: God said to tell some of y'all stop talking. I
Speaker 1: know they didn't tell you to take a bow of silence.
Speaker 1: They just told you not to come out the house.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, shut up now. You don't have to put
Speaker 1: this in the comments. But do you remember we're talking
Speaker 1: about Joshua right. Do you remember what Joshua told them
Speaker 1: to do when they marched around the walls of Jericho.
Speaker 1: Because they did get through it. And we will get
Speaker 1: through this. We will get through this. We will put
Speaker 1: it in the chat, put it in the comments. We
Speaker 1: will get through this, and tag somebody and say you
Speaker 1: will get through this. Yeah. The question is that will
Speaker 1: we get through? The question is will we go through
Speaker 1: in a way that makes us better when we do.
Speaker 1: Just like Jesus interrupted the storm cycle from the boat,
Speaker 1: there are some cycles that he wants to interrupt in
Speaker 1: our lives right now. And he wants to do a
Speaker 1: miracle in your home. I see marriages coming together while
Speaker 1: y'all are stuck in the house together. Y'all are going
Speaker 1: to stop living two separate lives and come together and
Speaker 1: figure out how do we all get through this. I
Speaker 1: believe God's position in us from miracle. I see our
Speaker 1: church getting stronger. I see people watching this sermon right now.
Speaker 1: And you know you normally would not be watching a
Speaker 1: sermon on Sunday morning, but you didn't have a club
Speaker 1: to go to last night, so you woke up and
Speaker 1: you were bored. And here I am. God stopped you
Speaker 1: right in your tracks to speak his word to you.
Speaker 1: When God says stop, and they can't before crossing, and
Speaker 1: it says that they saw the arc. Look at verse
Speaker 1: four again. Put it off on the big led bible
Speaker 1: back behind me, zoom out and get the shot. Are
Speaker 1: all the worship leaders smiling behind me? Big smiles here?
Speaker 1: When God says stop? Now, you see this phrase where
Speaker 1: it says in verse four, then you want know which
Speaker 1: way to go since you've never been this way before.
Speaker 1: But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits that's
Speaker 1: three thousand feet one thousand yards ten football fields nine
Speaker 1: hundred meters. It's a worldwide audience. I got to get
Speaker 1: everybody in here, and it said that God, who normally
Speaker 1: comes closer, told them that the arc needed to be
Speaker 1: kept at a distance. And that's a big distance, that's
Speaker 1: way more than six feet. I heard of social distancing,
Speaker 1: I never heard of spiritual distancing until I read this text.
Speaker 1: And I was wondering, why would God, when he's leading
Speaker 1: his people tell them that the arc put it back
Speaker 1: up the ark of the testimony. It's also called the
Speaker 1: arc of Yahweh. I am God's name. God has a
Speaker 1: name for every need in your life. God says, I am.
Speaker 1: He's a present help. So it's the ark of the testimony.
Speaker 1: How many have a testimony? So why do we keep
Speaker 1: thinking we're going to get a testimony without having a
Speaker 1: test God said He's using the season to show us
Speaker 1: stop expecting to have a testimony with no test That's
Speaker 1: how we want it now. We want the pecks without
Speaker 1: the push ups. I'm just trying to modernize it. I
Speaker 1: got nobody else to preach to, I might as well
Speaker 1: preach to myself. We want to try SEPs without the try?
Speaker 1: Can I get a witness from the drum riser hit
Speaker 1: the symbol dom fill lonely in here? Testimony starts with
Speaker 1: test I know it's corny, but it's true. And it
Speaker 1: said that the arc. We haven't seen the art in
Speaker 1: a long time. And God said, you're going to bring
Speaker 1: some things out of storage, like Joshua three. This is
Speaker 1: the first time we've seen it. Remember, it's not very big.
Speaker 1: It's like twenty seven inches high, twenty seven inches wide,
Speaker 1: and then it's like fifty inches long approximately. And yet
Speaker 1: God was going to guide them by something that was small,
Speaker 1: a cacial wood overlaid with gold. The wood represents humanity,
Speaker 1: the gold represents s divinity. God's got you cover. God's
Speaker 1: got you covered. God's got you covered. God's got you covered.
Speaker 1: God's got you cover. God's got you cover. God's got
Speaker 1: you cover. Tax somebody and let them know God's got
Speaker 1: you cover. God's got you cover. And you're coming out
Speaker 1: as gold. You're coming out of this fire. You're going
Speaker 1: to get through this, and God is going to purify
Speaker 1: us in He said, I want you to follow the
Speaker 1: arc now, but don't follow it too close. And I
Speaker 1: was so confused. In God's supposed to come close in
Speaker 1: a crisis. This is a traumatic moment. They've been in
Speaker 1: the wilderness for forty years most of the people that
Speaker 1: they've relied on are dead. Now they have to go through,
Speaker 1: and I have to go through together. Not three kids,
Speaker 1: two million people and twelve of them couldn't even agree
Speaker 1: on the church vote forty years ago, and that's why
Speaker 1: they didn't go in. Now they have to get through together.
Speaker 1: God said, I'm going to give you something to guide you.
Speaker 1: But in the season of your life, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you the gift of distance. And I pondered that for
Speaker 1: a long time because I was like, that's that's not
Speaker 1: what I want when I'm going through something. Come on,
Speaker 1: I got to go through the Jordan River and trust
Speaker 1: you to bring me through it. But you're gonna be distant. No.
Speaker 1: God is teaching us that when he feels distant, he
Speaker 1: isn't okay. So if God feels distant to you right now,
Speaker 1: you're not alone. All of us, even in our strongest moments,
Speaker 1: have this place in us where it's like, God, I
Speaker 1: wish I had a sign right now. I just feel uneasy,
Speaker 1: I don't feel at rest. I just feel that's all
Speaker 1: completely human and completely normal. Sometimes God uses distance in
Speaker 1: our feelings to call us deeper in our faith. And
Speaker 1: I thought it was important to say that right now,
Speaker 1: because while we're having to keep physical distance, I believe
Speaker 1: that God is calling us to spiritual death. See. I
Speaker 1: don't want to just get through it. I'm tired of
Speaker 1: just getting through it. What's the point. Let's just all
Speaker 1: go to heaven right now. If all we're going to
Speaker 1: do is get through it, they gotta harp with my
Speaker 1: name on it up there. Come on, I sing like
Speaker 1: zeke in heaven. Just let me get to heaven and
Speaker 1: get my glorified vocal chords. Let me get my eternal
Speaker 1: larynx in heaven, and just go ahead and glorify the
Speaker 1: Lord with the No, no, no, God, don't just get
Speaker 1: me through it. Teach me. There's something about distance. Graham said,
Speaker 1: why did God do all the miracles back then? But
Speaker 1: he doesn't now. It's not that God does less miracles.
Speaker 1: It's just we see him better in the distance, see
Speaker 1: it better in the distance. It's like, God, why won't
Speaker 1: you do a miracle while you're watching me preach on
Speaker 1: your phone? This is a miracle, you see, Like right now,
Speaker 1: in this moment, take a breath is a miracle. Think
Speaker 1: about all the sin that he canceled. We're talking about
Speaker 1: everything that was canceled. I'll tell you what was canceled.
Speaker 1: The record of wrong that stood against me, that he
Speaker 1: nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
Speaker 1: So it is well with my soul. I looked at
Speaker 1: my portfolio for finances, it wasn't well. But then I
Speaker 1: looked at my soul and I found out He's still
Speaker 1: with me, and he's in me. And there's some kind
Speaker 1: of hope that comes rising up to the surface. When
Speaker 1: God feels distant, He isn't. He's positioning you for a miracle.
Speaker 1: You know what's really cool about the ark. It was
Speaker 1: called the Ark of the Testimony, the Ark of Yahweh,
Speaker 1: and the Ark of the Covenant. And that's really cool
Speaker 1: because in a time when they were going through something
Speaker 1: they'd never been through before. You hear me, you're going
Speaker 1: through something you've never been through before. We all are.
Speaker 1: We're all going through it. Be nice. We're all going
Speaker 1: through it. Think about it before you post. We're all
Speaker 1: going through it. We are all going through it in
Speaker 1: different ways. And maybe God is going to make you
Speaker 1: a miracle for somebody else. You thought about that, See,
Speaker 1: because in moments where we're going through places we've never
Speaker 1: been through before. It feels like God is distant. He isn't.
Speaker 1: He's showing us what can't be canceled, shutting down everything
Speaker 1: right now. They are shutting down everything right now. I'm
Speaker 1: waiting on Holly to close the kitchen. I hope she
Speaker 1: doesn't cancel the kitchen, but I don't know. Everything is
Speaker 1: shut every time I turn around. I'm waiting to turn
Speaker 1: on my phone and its canceled. Instagram told me to
Speaker 1: stay home. Everything is being canceled. So it is so
Speaker 1: cool that as God is bringing them across the Jordan,
Speaker 1: the ark of the Covenant, that's what it's called the Covenant.
Speaker 1: That's not your agreement with God, that's God's agreement with you.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest. If it was dependent on the first one,
Speaker 1: if it was dependent on you, you wouldn't make it through.
Speaker 1: If it was dependent on me to have perfect faith,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't make it through. But I'm so grateful that
Speaker 1: when I'm going through what I can't understand, what I've
Speaker 1: never been through before, God gives me something to look
Speaker 1: at that represents what cannot be taken away, His oath,
Speaker 1: his covenant, his blood, watch this support me in the
Speaker 1: whelming flood. That's the old hymn from the Methodist Church.
Speaker 1: You know what I found myself doing the other day.
Speaker 1: I found myself breaking out the arc the old stuff,
Speaker 1: the old hymns. I started quoting hymns around my house
Speaker 1: the other day. Some of us we're going through a
Speaker 1: new thing, so we need to break out the old stuff.
Speaker 1: You have not prayed in three months. You might want
Speaker 1: to pray a little bit right now. You have not
Speaker 1: been very grateful lately. Now would be a good time
Speaker 1: to bless the Lord. Now be a good time for
Speaker 1: Martin Luther to come to Elevation Church. A mighty fortress
Speaker 1: is our God. A bullwark? What a bullwark? You hadn't
Speaker 1: talked about bullwarks in a long time. Well, I need
Speaker 1: a bullwark right now I'm finding a big devil. I
Speaker 1: need a mighty fortress. I need a safe place. I
Speaker 1: need a shelter. God is with me. Joshua told the
Speaker 1: people verse five, consecrate yourselves. Watch this first. This is
Speaker 1: the whole thing. All right, y'all thought I was preaching.
Speaker 1: I wasn't preaching yet. This is the sermon. Consecrate yourselves.
Speaker 1: That's your part. Not isolation, consecration. It's just all in
Speaker 1: how you look at it. I wonder what God is
Speaker 1: preparing us for right now. I wonder what He is mending.
Speaker 1: He mended Peter's nets after he stopped fishing in those
Speaker 1: moments God is mending. I wonder what He's mending in
Speaker 1: our hearts in this moment when we just stopped for
Speaker 1: a minute to be still and know he is God,
Speaker 1: and he'll be exalted above the heavens. The horse and
Speaker 1: his rider, he's thrown into the sea. All the old
Speaker 1: stuff comes back, and see here it comes. It is
Speaker 1: the convergence of what God has done, what he will do.
Speaker 1: But it's all found in his presence. Presence, presence, presence.
Speaker 1: Consecrate yourselves. Give me the verse for tomorrow the Lord
Speaker 1: will do amazing things among you. You see how clear
Speaker 1: that is In that verse. God's got a job and
Speaker 1: you've got a job. You see that word tomorrow that's
Speaker 1: on God's job description. You see it in the scripture,
Speaker 1: put it in the chat. I need you to say this,
Speaker 1: I need you to say it. Tomorrow is God's job.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow is God's job. So here's what we have to do.
Speaker 1: We have to trust God with tomorrow's problems and embrace
Speaker 1: today's process. Consecrate yourself. That's today's process. That's cleansing, that's
Speaker 1: setting apart. That's knowing He is God. That's devotion. That's this.
Speaker 1: That's like, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna stop coming
Speaker 1: to church just because I can't physically get there. In fact,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use this time. I'm gonna start sharing the
Speaker 1: gospel war with people. I'm gonna make the devil so mad,
Speaker 1: he's gonna he's gonna have to let me out the house.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start forwarding every cliff, every sermon, every song.
Speaker 1: We put this song out the other day called the Blessing,
Speaker 1: And the reason we put it out is because you know,
Speaker 1: God gave us this song. And I don't know how
Speaker 1: to stop the virus, but I know how to spread
Speaker 1: the blessing. And so I have a job. God has
Speaker 1: a job. What is God's job? God's job is tomorrow.
Speaker 1: That's like when I went to Australia the first time.
Speaker 1: Is anybody watching from Australia right now? Yeah, I see
Speaker 1: you lighten up the comments. I see Cheryl Eric Brandon,
Speaker 1: I see from the Ukraine, tomorrow is God's job. But
Speaker 1: here's what's awesome. Somebody watching in Australia and it's already tomorrow.
Speaker 1: It's already tomorrow. The first time I went to Australia
Speaker 1: to preach, I got off the plane because I was
Speaker 1: stupid and went straight to the stage to preach. But
Speaker 1: before I went to the stage, I landed at like
Speaker 1: ten am, and then I was preaching at twelve pm,
Speaker 1: so I just had time to take a shower. And
Speaker 1: just before I started to head over to the arena
Speaker 1: where I was preaching in Sydney, I facetimed the kids.
Speaker 1: This was years ago, so the kids were real little,
Speaker 1: and I facetimed them because my room had this beautiful view.
Speaker 1: Pastor Phil Pringle put me up in this beautiful room
Speaker 1: and I could see the I could see the Sydney Harbor,
Speaker 1: and I wanted the kids to see it. And so
Speaker 1: the sun was shining so pretty over over the harbor,
Speaker 1: and I took a FaceTime and I say, hey, kids,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say hey to you from tomorrow.
Speaker 1: And I was telling them how we're across the international
Speaker 1: date line. I was telling them how we we uh, well,
Speaker 1: it's tomorrow. In Australia. But it's nighttime there. And remember
Speaker 1: they were real little, and so Holly was tucking them
Speaker 1: into bed and they're all gathered around the FaceTime and
Speaker 1: everything like that. I think Abby was already asleep, she
Speaker 1: was real little. And then Graham and Elijah and we
Speaker 1: talked for a minute. Said I gotta go preach now,
Speaker 1: and Elijah interrupted me, says, hey, Dad, before you go,
Speaker 1: will you tell us what happens tomorrow. It was like
Speaker 1: he had this moment, You're already there. You're my father. See.
Speaker 1: I gotta let I let, I gotta let God be
Speaker 1: in my tomorrow and consecrate myself today. That's all I
Speaker 1: can do. I cannot predict the path. All I can
Speaker 1: do is walk in it. And yet the beauty of
Speaker 1: the passage is this, If you will consecrate yourself today,
Speaker 1: God is already in your tomorrow. So all this, how
Speaker 1: long is it going to last? That's God's job. And
Speaker 1: you know what I think. God, for everybody who is
Speaker 1: helping in a practical way around the clock to bring
Speaker 1: remedies and solutions to our nation for this virus. We
Speaker 1: are praying for you, We celebrate you, we love you.
Speaker 1: One of the good things that's going to come out
Speaker 1: of this is we are going to appreciate people that
Speaker 1: we used to think we're unimportant. Who are going to
Speaker 1: be the very people that God uses to stop the
Speaker 1: virus are the people. It's not going to be just
Speaker 1: celebrities who we've always been used to celebrating. It's going
Speaker 1: to be people who are standing on the front lines
Speaker 1: like those priests did. God told the priest, you go
Speaker 1: stand in the middle of the Jordan. That must have
Speaker 1: been scary. They had to go stand. God was bringing
Speaker 1: them through. God's going to bring us through. We see.
Speaker 1: It's so important that we don't just get so focused
Speaker 1: on getting through it. We don't get what God wants
Speaker 1: us to get out of it. When God says stop,
Speaker 1: he makes me lie down. God is my God. He
Speaker 1: he told him to camp before crossing over. And then
Speaker 1: if you can go all the way to verse fifteen,
Speaker 1: I want to show you one more thing I'm closing.
Speaker 1: Is this worth helping you? If this is helping you,
Speaker 1: just put something on the screen right now. Put a heart,
Speaker 1: put a purple heart, put an orange heart, put a
Speaker 1: red heart, put three pink hearts. I'll take anything right now. Holly,
Speaker 1: is this good? This is the message God gave me.
Speaker 1: And I was gonna approach it the other way. I
Speaker 1: was gonna approach it the other way. I was going
Speaker 1: to say, we're positioned for a miracle. But I thought,
Speaker 1: you know what if I call it that, people are
Speaker 1: gonna think it has to be something big. You know,
Speaker 1: they're gonna think, oh, when this virus is gone, that's
Speaker 1: a miracle. What about the miracle in the middle of it?
Speaker 1: And that's what my attention was drawn to him. And
Speaker 1: before I go, I want to show you Joshua with
Speaker 1: three fifteen. When God says stop because the Bible says
Speaker 1: that the Jordan is at flood stage, all deering harvest,
Speaker 1: Well that's a sermon right there. God didn't bring him
Speaker 1: through some shallow water, some little problem. The size of
Speaker 1: the problem creates the opportunity. So when I say we're
Speaker 1: positioned for a miracle, it doesn't mean the problem gets smaller.
Speaker 1: And when I say we're positioned for a miracle, it
Speaker 1: doesn't always mean that God is going to do something
Speaker 1: we see as really big. Sometimes we have to see
Speaker 1: it from a distance. Can you imagine happened to follow
Speaker 1: that little arc the arc of the Covenant, The Covenant,
Speaker 1: the Covenant. God keeps his covenant, and I have to
Speaker 1: remember that right now. If he said it is sure,
Speaker 1: if he promised it, it's rock solid. God promised me
Speaker 1: the grace for today and the hope for tomorrow. So
Speaker 1: I gotta let him do his job. And what that
Speaker 1: means is I can't wait for something to be over
Speaker 1: in my life. I need to know what are they
Speaker 1: going to do. I need to know what we I
Speaker 1: want to know. But we've never been here before. How
Speaker 1: many weeks still we're coming back together? Pastor I don't know,
Speaker 1: But if God give me the strength, I'm gonna keep
Speaker 1: preaching to you through it, and we're gonna get better together.
Speaker 1: I promise you we are. In fact, when I finished preaching,
Speaker 1: in a minute, y'all are all going over to a
Speaker 1: Facebook group and instead of going out to try to
Speaker 1: eat Mexican and get a speedy Gonzales for lunch after
Speaker 1: the preacher's sermon and not even think about what I said,
Speaker 1: or turn on some game, all the games are off.
Speaker 1: Now you got to talk about God for fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: after I get done preaching, and you know you're too
Speaker 1: scared to go shopping on Amazon. So just talk about
Speaker 1: the sermon because God is with me, not just to
Speaker 1: get me through it. He's my guy. He's with me
Speaker 1: in it. That's the message. That's why it's called the
Speaker 1: Arc of His Presence. Consecrate yourself today, be present. God's
Speaker 1: calling us the greater presence, not less. Be careful that
Speaker 1: you don't sit there and go like, oh, I'm so connected,
Speaker 1: I'm so connected. I'm so connected. Connection is about depth,
Speaker 1: not about bread, And in this moment, I believe God
Speaker 1: wants to connect with us in a deep way, deep
Speaker 1: way and do a deep work in our lives. People
Speaker 1: do amazing things among you, things you don't even know
Speaker 1: to ask for. Ephesians three twenty. God give them a miracle.
Speaker 1: There's a mom right now that needs a miracle. There's
Speaker 1: someone who can't get to their mom or dad. They're
Speaker 1: not able to be with them physically. They need a
Speaker 1: miracle from you. Give it to them. But not when
Speaker 1: it's over. While I'm in it. There's a miracle in it.
Speaker 1: Because the Bible says that the Jordan is at flood
Speaker 1: stage all during harvest. There was no way that they
Speaker 1: could have crossed it on their own go ahead and
Speaker 1: begin to minister lj. As soon as the priests who
Speaker 1: carried the art reached the Jordan and their feet touched
Speaker 1: the water's edge, the water upstream stopped flowing. When God
Speaker 1: said stop, the water was cut off when God said stop.
Speaker 1: You see it. When God says stop, the Jordan river
Speaker 1: had to obey him. When Jesus said stop, the storm
Speaker 1: had to cease. But before he stopped what was happening
Speaker 1: outside the boat, he had to stop what was happening
Speaker 1: inside their heart. I believe God is saying stop today
Speaker 1: to the terrorist of anxiety that had been ruining your
Speaker 1: imagination and interrupting your rest. It said. As soon as
Speaker 1: their feet touched, the water from upstream stopped flowing. And
Speaker 1: when God said stop, the water that was in front
Speaker 1: of them, the thing that was keeping them separated, stopped
Speaker 1: flowing and piled up in a keep a great distance away.
Speaker 1: I love the word of God. It's in the distance.
Speaker 1: See God's going to keep it at a distance. God
Speaker 1: is going to get you through this, and He is
Speaker 1: using distance right now as a gift to call us
Speaker 1: closer to himself. Do you see it. It's the revelation
Speaker 1: right there in the text, and it stopped flowing opposite Jericho,
Speaker 1: verse seventeen, thank you for your word, Lord, and the
Speaker 1: priest who carried the ark of the Covenant of the Lord.
Speaker 1: What did they do? Stopped in the middle of the
Speaker 1: Jordan and stood on dry ground. Get sick, because we're
Speaker 1: going to worship in a minute. We don't worship when
Speaker 1: we get through hard things. We worship while we're in them.
Speaker 1: And stood on dry ground while all Israel passed by
Speaker 1: until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we're going to get through this. We're going
Speaker 1: to get through this. That's not the question. The question
Speaker 1: is why did the pri stop in the middle. See,
Speaker 1: God had told Joshua was something very important that he's
Speaker 1: been speaking to me. It's not just that you get
Speaker 1: through it, it's that you take something from it. When
Speaker 1: the priest stopped, God said, stop right in the middle,
Speaker 1: stop right now, and say, this is the day the
Speaker 1: Lord has made. We can't take things for granted anymore, y'all.
Speaker 1: This morning is a miracle, His mercies are a miracle.
Speaker 1: We can't take it for granted anymore. More. So God says,
Speaker 1: stop in the middle of it and stop projecting, and
Speaker 1: stop living in what it was and worrying about what
Speaker 1: it will be. Stop right here in the middle. And
Speaker 1: they each took out a stone and they carried it
Speaker 1: to the other side. So I declare over your life today. Now.
Speaker 1: I want you to receive this right now. I don't
Speaker 1: care if you're watching this with five other people and
Speaker 1: three of them are eating pancakes. One of them's on
Speaker 1: their phone. This word is for you. For you, God
Speaker 1: is saying, stop. There has been a spirit of fear
Speaker 1: that has been washing over you, has been keeping you
Speaker 1: from your piece, has been robbing you of your joy.
Speaker 1: You've been living in a fictional tomorrow. And right now
Speaker 1: God says, stop and make the decision. I'm going to
Speaker 1: trust God in it, and I'm not going to miss
Speaker 1: the miracle of today because I'm living in tomorrow. God.
Speaker 1: We thank you for miracles in your presence. We thank
Speaker 1: you that even right now, connections are being repaired, homes
Speaker 1: are being rebuilt. I thank you that in the months
Speaker 1: to come, you're going to give strategies, innovation, ideas, creativity, wisdom,
Speaker 1: unity to your people. Do it, God, do it. God.
Speaker 1: We are positioned for a miracle. Your presence is with us.
Speaker 1: You are not far away, you are within us. You
Speaker 1: made a covenant. You keep your word. You never break
Speaker 1: your promise, and we believe you right now, not when
Speaker 1: it's over, right now, not when we get through it.
Speaker 1: Right now, somebody saying in the chat, right now, a
Speaker 1: miracle can happen right now. Grace is available right now,
Speaker 1: just like your next breath is here. God's presence is here.
Speaker 1: Not only is he gonna get me through this, but
Speaker 1: I declare in the name of the Lord, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have better priorities. I'm gonna have more peace. I'm going
Speaker 1: deeper in my walk with God. I'm gonna get through this.
Speaker 1: I'm not waiting till I'm on the other side to sing.
Speaker 1: I know my Redeemer lives. He is with me, He
Speaker 1: is for me. He is more than enough. And we
Speaker 1: declare Miracles over your house, miracles over your children, miracles
Speaker 1: in your body, miracles in your minds, miracles, provision, peace, joy, love, perspective.
Speaker 1: He do it, God, U do it. God. We see
Speaker 1: the arc of your cousins, the speering in the name
Speaker 1: of blood. Come on, lift your hair right in that room. Here,
Speaker 1: His cousins is here. He has enough. He is enough
Speaker 1: for the se He is enough. Here is enough by
Speaker 1: Gods toe Hopedzion, the habit Shamah. The Lord is pressive.
Speaker 1: It is here the s Lift your hairs. There's an
Speaker 1: annoyed things. There's an annoyed thing that breaks say anxiety.
Speaker 1: This an annoyed thing that breaks the fact of saying,
Speaker 1: had declaring his presence for the seer. Come on, words
Speaker 1: of them, not Homie, words of them London, see worse
Speaker 1: of them, words of them, words of l God, lift
Speaker 1: your hands, sleep up there come what there It comes
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the dr write, in the
Speaker 1: middle of the crisis, right in the middle of the start.
Speaker 1: Pace to your mind. They see your heart. Pease see
Speaker 1: your mind, pea, stee your heart for right now no
Speaker 1: ci ask for you, and they cannot sease at be
Speaker 1: a pencil. Yeah, God, a great praise in the place.
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: 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.