Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: We're coming from a little bit of an unknown scripture.
Speaker 2: This is not like Stairway to Heaven or a led
Speaker 2: Zepplin song that everybody knows. This is a deep track
Speaker 2: from the Book of Second Kings thirteen fourteen through twenty
Speaker 2: part ay.
Speaker 1: I want to read it real quick for you.
Speaker 2: It says, now Elisha had been suffering from the illness
Speaker 2: from which he died.
Speaker 1: Jaho Ash, king.
Speaker 2: Of Israel, went down to see him and wept over him.
Speaker 2: And he uses this expression that was used when Elijah
Speaker 2: was taken up to heaven. He was the prophet who
Speaker 2: preceded Elisha, and he says, my father, my father.
Speaker 1: The Cheerias and horsemen of Israel.
Speaker 2: He didn't know what he would do as king if
Speaker 2: he didn't have the man of God giving guidance and strategy.
Speaker 2: And so he's weeping over an opportunity that is passing,
Speaker 2: and Elisha, instead of giving him some sort of chicken.
Speaker 1: Soup for the kingly soul work with me, now.
Speaker 2: Gives him a set of marching orders. He gives him
Speaker 2: something to do. And most of us, if we would
Speaker 2: do what we already knew, we could see.
Speaker 1: Victory in our life. It's not a lack of knowledge.
Speaker 2: A lot of times it's a lack of courage or
Speaker 2: a lack of conviction. And so he understands something that
Speaker 2: he's got to get Jehosh the King to move out
Speaker 2: of apathy and to own the outcome and fight for himself.
Speaker 1: It's almost as.
Speaker 2: If Elisha's saying, stop crying, man up. Look at verse fifteen,
Speaker 2: get a bow and some arrows. Take the bow in
Speaker 2: your hands. And when he had taken it, Elisha put
Speaker 2: his hands on the King's hands. And our theme, we
Speaker 2: said was in verse seventeen, open the east window, and
Speaker 2: he opened it. He wanted him to view the victory
Speaker 2: before he fought the battle.
Speaker 1: It's the power of a preview.
Speaker 2: And I don't know about you, but I'm looking into
Speaker 2: my future with expectation and anticipation. Amen, I don't need
Speaker 2: any news network to define the future for me. I
Speaker 2: have a preview of Heaven's agenda for my life, and
Speaker 2: I'm pointing my expectation in the direction of my destiny,
Speaker 2: believing that the best is ahead. Touch somebody and say,
Speaker 2: your best is before you.
Speaker 1: Your best is not behind you.
Speaker 2: The devil is a liar. You have not seen your
Speaker 2: best stays. The best is yet to be. Open the window.
Speaker 2: Stop staring at the stop thinking about what you lost,
Speaker 2: Get what you have left.
Speaker 1: Open the east window and shoot. Take the shot.
Speaker 2: And he shot, and he proclaimed the Lord's arrow of victory,
Speaker 2: the arrow of victory over aarm. Everybody has an aarm.
Speaker 2: Everybody has a next battle to fight.
Speaker 1: Everybody has a keystone conquest that if you.
Speaker 2: Win this one, it'll set you up for success in
Speaker 2: all of the other ones.
Speaker 1: I don't know what your Arab is this year.
Speaker 2: It might be very, very practical. But he told him
Speaker 2: to aim.
Speaker 1: At aram, don't run from it, face it in faith.
Speaker 1: But don't put your eyes on aerm. Put your eyes
Speaker 1: on the arrow flying over aarm.
Speaker 2: Kind of like Peter, if he would keep his eyes
Speaker 2: on the one who was above the wind in the waves,
Speaker 2: he could float. The bottoms of his feet were somehow
Speaker 2: water resistant, but when he looked at the wind and
Speaker 2: the waves. When you look at aram you always become afraid.
Speaker 2: But if you watch the arrow, watch the arrow, keep
Speaker 2: your eye on the promise of God over your life.
Speaker 2: He said, you will completely destroy the Aramians at afect.
Speaker 2: And we said last week that the arrow is flying
Speaker 2: over your life.
Speaker 1: The window of opportunity is here. But what comes next
Speaker 1: is so important because what just.
Speaker 2: Happened is a powerful prediction of victory. But what happens
Speaker 2: next is a practical assignment. And here I want to
Speaker 2: spend my time on week two of work your window.
Speaker 2: Then he said, okay, sometimes that's what happens after you
Speaker 2: come to church, get inspired, worship God, move the mountains
Speaker 2: and all of that. And sometimes it's the little thing.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's not the mountains, it's the mole hills. Talk
Speaker 2: to me, somebody.
Speaker 1: He said, take.
Speaker 2: The arrows, and the king took them, and Laisha told
Speaker 2: him strike the ground, and he struck it three times.
Speaker 2: He was in compliance, but he wasn't fully committed. He
Speaker 2: struck it three times. He was in compliance, but he
Speaker 2: wasn't committed.
Speaker 1: And stopped. Remember the Man of God said, get a bow.
Speaker 1: He said, take the bowl he said, open the window,
Speaker 1: take the arrows, strike the ground. But he didn't say stop.
Speaker 1: He didn't say stop. There's something in your life today
Speaker 1: that God has not said stop about.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 1: Watch this.
Speaker 2: The Man of God was angry with him and said,
Speaker 2: you should have.
Speaker 1: Struck the ground five or six times.
Speaker 2: Then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we do just enough to survive, but not enough
Speaker 2: to really succeed, so we stay stuck. In fact, we
Speaker 2: tell ourselves the story that we're stuck. Is it that
Speaker 2: you're stuck or is it that you stopped?
Speaker 1: You would have completely destroyed it, but now you will.
Speaker 2: Defeat it only three times and watch the window close.
Speaker 2: In verse twenty, Elisha died and was buried.
Speaker 1: Is over. Now you should have done it, you didn't
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 2: And I want to pick up right where I left
Speaker 2: off last week on the power of precision, I talked
Speaker 2: about determined the decision before the battle begins. This message
Speaker 2: is called the power of pre just pre you know,
Speaker 2: just pre pre light, pre marital counseling. Me and Holly
Speaker 2: had some pre marital counseling before we got married, straightened
Speaker 2: her out, got our dysfunctions, not completely eliminated, but manageable.
Speaker 2: And then I got her some pre natal vitamins after
Speaker 2: we got married, because I got her pregnant the power
Speaker 2: of pre and we did not have to sign a
Speaker 2: pre nup. We didn't have no pre nothing to sign
Speaker 2: it over the power of That's what I want to
Speaker 2: preach about. Sent my kids to pre school, trying to
Speaker 2: get them prepared. And I believe in the value of preparation.
Speaker 1: I really do. I think they said like this.
Speaker 2: Not only do I think that the outcome of the
Speaker 2: battle is often decided before it begins, pre decided precision,
Speaker 2: but I also think.
Speaker 1: See if I can say this just right, because the
Speaker 1: way the Lord spoke it to me, it made sense
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 2: I think that most of us are not currently performing
Speaker 2: at the level of our potential. We're performing at the
Speaker 2: level of our preparation.
Speaker 1: It's just a simple way of saying what Elisha said
Speaker 1: to jeho Ash.
Speaker 2: There was more that God had in store, but you
Speaker 2: stop sure, and I wonder are you living beneath the
Speaker 2: level of your potential. I'll admit the world doesn't really
Speaker 2: celebrate preparation these days. We live in a post oriented world. Okay,
Speaker 2: speaking of marriage, history between me and Holly.
Speaker 1: I'tey somethingal quick. I've told you this before. I told
Speaker 1: you this several times.
Speaker 2: But she's a great cook, and she got me voluptuous
Speaker 2: in our first eighteen months of marriage. And recently she
Speaker 2: found a picture of me with my shirt off, looking
Speaker 2: kind of filled out, and real quick.
Speaker 1: This isn't a nutrition class.
Speaker 2: I understand you didn't come for all that, and I
Speaker 2: don't claim to be a model of health any of that, Okay.
Speaker 1: I just found what works for me, and I work it,
Speaker 1: and what works for me is just a plan.
Speaker 2: The reason I got fat when we got married is
Speaker 2: because we didn't plan our meals that much. So it
Speaker 2: was Mexican at the last minute, nine thirty at night.
Speaker 2: Remember this was pre children, right, This was back when
Speaker 2: you could just pick up and do that and you
Speaker 2: didn't have to prepare anything. So we were just we
Speaker 2: were just enjoying everything, and I figured I got my woman,
Speaker 2: so I don't need to look good.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2: But she found a picture of how I look back.
Speaker 1: Then, and it looked you've seen.
Speaker 2: The infomercials late at night like that before picture.
Speaker 1: I had my eyes closed.
Speaker 2: I didn't even remember the picture, and I was just
Speaker 2: having some fun and I went and found a picture.
Speaker 1: Of me now and I put them side by side,
Speaker 1: just for me. Send it to Holly and said, how
Speaker 1: many men get better looking as the years go by?
Speaker 1: And she started praising the Lord.
Speaker 2: She sent me some praise hands Emodish and.
Speaker 1: I was showing Elijah my old listen. He said you
Speaker 1: should post that, Daddy, and I said I'm not.
Speaker 2: I said, boy, let me teach you something. Everything is
Speaker 2: not meant to be posted.
Speaker 1: My point number one.
Speaker 2: I got four points of this message. Point number one
Speaker 2: is the post. Because we live in a world where
Speaker 2: everybody wants to post everything, and we got people who
Speaker 2: are more interested in posting than they are in progress.
Speaker 2: One man was talking about the game Guitar Hero, the
Speaker 2: game where you can press the buttons and pretend pretend
Speaker 2: to play the guitar. You don't have to prepair, you
Speaker 2: just pretend. And he said, everybody wants to be a
Speaker 2: rock star, but nobody wants to learn the chords.
Speaker 1: Preparation is underrated.
Speaker 2: Preparation is not very celebrated in our culture, is uh
Speaker 2: Because we want to post and we need instant validation.
Speaker 2: We live in the age of outrage, instant outrage and
Speaker 2: instant validation.
Speaker 1: We learned to tweet before we learn to think.
Speaker 2: Just post everything that you think, like everybody needs to
Speaker 2: hear what you know. I'm thinking about doing a lesson
Speaker 2: because it's disturbing me and show you the difference between
Speaker 2: a journal and a Facebook page. Everything you think does
Speaker 2: not deserve an audience. Preach past statement age, break to
Speaker 2: the people.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are shouting because you're hoping that your
Speaker 1: aunt Susie in Oklahoma. Here's this message. She's embarrassing you
Speaker 1: and the whole family the post.
Speaker 2: I know you're wondering how m I get back to
Speaker 2: second Things thirteen. I know exactly how to get back there.
Speaker 2: See because I prepared.
Speaker 1: To preach.
Speaker 2: What would you do if I came up here to
Speaker 2: preach and instead of telling you to turn your Bible ass?
Speaker 1: So I got anything you want.
Speaker 2: To talk about this week?
Speaker 1: Anybody, Let's think whole Testament, New Testament. Look at some scriptures?
Speaker 1: Do see who looking for?
Speaker 2: And I wonder, why do you expect me to prepare
Speaker 2: to preach. I'm not gonna be mean about it, but
Speaker 2: just the question are you prepared to receive?
Speaker 1: Because the last time I checked. It's often the quality
Speaker 1: of the soil that determines the harvest more than the
Speaker 1: quality of the sea.
Speaker 2: Sometimes when chumps will tell me that was your best
Speaker 2: sermon you ever preached, I said, no, you finally just listen.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching good every week. You're just awake this week
Speaker 1: when the king went down to see Elisha. Remember he
Speaker 1: had recently been appointed to his post as king, and
Speaker 1: Elisha has not been mentioned in the scriptures.
Speaker 2: For something like forty five years, but he's still on
Speaker 2: his post. There's something about staying on post.
Speaker 1: It is the lost art of being planted.
Speaker 2: And you are never going to fulfill purpose until you
Speaker 2: commit to your post. Thinking about posting a couple of
Speaker 2: different ways, I'm thinking about how God has posted some
Speaker 2: of you in places that seem insignificant, And isn't that
Speaker 2: really the message of Second King's.
Speaker 1: Thirteen fourteen through twenty.
Speaker 2: We were talking the other day in a little group
Speaker 2: about this passage, and one person said, I.
Speaker 1: Feel sorry for the king. If Elisha would have wanted
Speaker 1: him to strike the ground five or six times, he
Speaker 1: should have told him to strike it five or six times.
Speaker 2: And I think the message here is that God leaves
Speaker 2: a lot of it up to you.
Speaker 1: How far do you want to go?
Speaker 2: I don't think God makes all the decisions for your life.
Speaker 2: I think he lets you decide, within certain parameters, how
Speaker 2: much purpose orotential you want to fulfill. I don't think
Speaker 2: that God precides everything about our life. Do I believe
Speaker 2: that we each have a purpose?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Do I believe that He's God whether or not you
Speaker 2: marry Jimmy?
Speaker 1: Yes? Do I believe that you quitting your job will
Speaker 1: cause the cosmos to collapse, or that any presidential office
Speaker 1: could thwart her overpower?
Speaker 2: The presence and the pre eminence of God. No, I
Speaker 2: believe he's sovereign. But I also believe that within his sovereignty,
Speaker 2: he has left space.
Speaker 1: For you and I to take responsibility the post How
Speaker 1: do you preach about the value of preparation in a
Speaker 1: post oriented world. How do you preach to a It's not.
Speaker 2: Really an age thing, it's not really a social media thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've put stuff on line too, just like
Speaker 2: the rest of you. But I wonder sometimes do we
Speaker 2: want recognition before we've taken responsibility?
Speaker 1: Do we need the.
Speaker 2: Pat on the back the battle is won or lost
Speaker 2: in preparation. This is true of athletes. I can tell
Speaker 2: any athletes in the house. Are there any professional athletes
Speaker 2: in the house. Any NASCAR drivers.
Speaker 1: In the house. Y'all know NASCAR is not that simple.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is a very sophisticated sport. I only
Speaker 1: know because of Joey Brittany. If he isn't racing, I
Speaker 1: don't watch. I'm not a NASCAR fan. I cheer for
Speaker 1: twenty two comes to my church and he told me
Speaker 1: to come out to a race to see him race.
Speaker 1: I really want to go to the NASCAR race. And
Speaker 1: after I went, I was fascinated. I got to hear
Speaker 1: his teamwork and everything.
Speaker 2: And Chunks, who I mentioned earlier, who only half listens
Speaker 2: to my sermons sometimes.
Speaker 1: I'm kidding about Chunks.
Speaker 2: But he turned to me and said something because when
Speaker 2: I went to the race, Joey wan, I'm not saying
Speaker 2: it was the favor of God because your pastor was
Speaker 2: at the race track.
Speaker 1: I would never say something like that. I would only
Speaker 1: employ it.
Speaker 2: But he won, and Chunks looked at me on the
Speaker 2: way home, he said, you know what's interesting about that race?
Speaker 2: He said that race wasn't one on the track. It
Speaker 2: was won in the garage because he had been talking
Speaker 2: to one of your team members during the race, explaining
Speaker 2: how all week the team is three hundred and fifty people.
Speaker 2: He told me, working on that car, you see one driver,
Speaker 2: and he's a good driver, and if he can't drive,
Speaker 2: they don't win.
Speaker 1: But no matter how well he can drive, it's not
Speaker 1: what happens on Sunday. I feel like preaching a little bit.
Speaker 2: Because I think this has something in common with spirituality.
Speaker 2: It's what happens Monday when they're trying to make the
Speaker 2: car a tenth of a pound lighter. Just a tenth
Speaker 2: of a pound lighter can make all the difference. I mean,
Speaker 2: just a little bit, just a little tweak on the motor,
Speaker 2: just a little race note on this track and this turn.
Speaker 2: And I'm making stuff up because I don't know a
Speaker 2: lot about NASCAR. But what I'm trying to say is
Speaker 2: maybe God is more interested in the garage than he
Speaker 2: is the track. God is a god of preparation. He
Speaker 2: would not feed the multitudes until they sat down in
Speaker 2: the grass. Why provision awaits preparation.
Speaker 1: You've been asking.
Speaker 2: God to send it, and he's been asking you to
Speaker 2: form it.
Speaker 1: Does he can't fail what you don't form post. It
Speaker 1: was decided.
Speaker 2: The battle had not been fought yet, but Elisha predicted
Speaker 2: the outcome based on the King's persistence and preparation.
Speaker 1: Here's what he said.
Speaker 2: If you won't do the groundwork, when it doesn't seem
Speaker 2: to make sense, if all you want.
Speaker 1: Is this great marriage, happy family, eight pack, whatever, prayer, life, whatever,
Speaker 1: I don't care what it is. I'm telling you it's
Speaker 1: about the garage. He is the god of the garage.
Speaker 2: Tweaking stuff and fixing stuff. Stuff you can't see. Because
Speaker 2: my second point is the point. I don't think I've
Speaker 2: ever had a sermon point.
Speaker 1: About the point, but I've tried to put myself. I tried.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing about perspective.
Speaker 2: And if you're watching, uh the news sometimes and you're
Speaker 2: seeing somebody that you disagree with, and your first instinct
Speaker 2: is to argue with them. Before you argue with them,
Speaker 2: try to get their perspective. Try try to get an
Speaker 2: inverted perspective.
Speaker 1: That's called empathy.
Speaker 2: And so one way, Jonathan, you were texting me yesterday
Speaker 2: about reading the Bible and preaching and all of this,
Speaker 2: and and I was trying to show him some things.
Speaker 2: And when you when you take jeho Ash as a villain,
Speaker 2: and and and and jeho Ash is a lazy man,
Speaker 2: and and you don't you don't stop to think about
Speaker 2: what's happening here in that How many times have you
Speaker 2: stopped because it didn't make sense? The reason I believe
Speaker 2: he stopped is because arrows are supposed to go like this.
Speaker 2: What sense does it make to put an arrow in
Speaker 2: the ground? And I want to point this out to you.
Speaker 2: I'm having fun, man. I love what I do. I
Speaker 2: do what I love, and.
Speaker 1: To do this with something that's supposed to do this,
Speaker 1: It's hard to be persistent when you can't see the purpose.
Speaker 1: That's all I'm trying to say. And I guess what
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you, Daniel's son is that mister
Speaker 1: Miagi isn't always going to explain to you why you're
Speaker 1: painting his fence. That he's not always going to tell
Speaker 1: you why you're waxing his car. And I know that
Speaker 1: you would paint the fence if you knew the purpose
Speaker 1: of painting the fence.
Speaker 2: And I know that you would wax the car if
Speaker 2: you knew the purpose of waxing the car. And I
Speaker 2: know that you would stay a virgin. If God would
Speaker 2: give you your wedding date.
Speaker 1: See Jehosh had a calling and elish enroll them in
Speaker 1: a class.
Speaker 2: Write this down. Don't expect the class to look like
Speaker 2: the calling. Don't expect your training, don't expect your don't
Speaker 2: expect your preparation to look like your promise. Because the
Speaker 2: place God prepares.
Speaker 1: You the most is the place that seems the most
Speaker 1: pointless to you.
Speaker 2: I laugh when people talk about elevation Church being a
Speaker 2: marketing phenomenon. I laugh because in a sense they're correct.
Speaker 2: Who lights the lamp and puts it under a bowl
Speaker 2: and put it on the stand, give light to everybody
Speaker 2: in the house.
Speaker 1: I didn't get the gospel to keep it to myself.
Speaker 1: I didn't start a.
Speaker 2: Church so I could get one hundred and twenty people.
Speaker 2: Send everybody else to hell. Both the doors and everybody
Speaker 2: sing Kumbai Yah while the ships come sailing by.
Speaker 1: You're right, we.
Speaker 2: Want to get the word out, but it takes me
Speaker 2: back to my preparation.
Speaker 1: Now. To understand why Elisha was angry, you would have
Speaker 1: to understand something about his process. You really can't understand
Speaker 1: someone's priorities without knowing their process. So I didn't start
Speaker 1: marketing the church with the budget.
Speaker 2: I started marketing in ministry, if you want to call
Speaker 2: it marketing, printing out flyers because Jamie Williams gave me
Speaker 2: his code to the copying machine at First Baptist Church
Speaker 2: and let me run off three hundred. He said, no
Speaker 2: more than three hundred, but I gave him out every
Speaker 2: Monday to FCA at Berkeley High School, I was marketing
Speaker 2: with a copier code. I was marketing on the Summer
Speaker 2: Impact team. When I say work your window, when I say,
Speaker 2: even if there's a peephole right now, if you'll work
Speaker 2: your copier code, maybe one day God will.
Speaker 1: Give you a billboard.
Speaker 2: Come on, somebody, I know what I'm talking about from.
Speaker 1: My personal experience.
Speaker 2: It's not a theory or a principle or philosophy. It
Speaker 2: is my personal experience that if you are faithful in little,
Speaker 2: he'll make you faithful and much. Why would he waste
Speaker 2: more if you're not working what you have now.
Speaker 1: So we traveled to this small little town in South Carolina.
Speaker 1: I don't remember if it was Camden. I think it
Speaker 1: was Camden. We were supposed to hold a youth rally.
Speaker 2: Holly can tell you we were on a summer impact team,
Speaker 2: a ministry team that Chris crossed the state of South Carolina,
Speaker 2: hosting back.
Speaker 1: To our Bible clubs and revivals. And we were so excited.
Speaker 2: About our theme that we had developed called Run to Win.
Speaker 1: And I had a.
Speaker 2: Theme, and I had a team, and I put Holly
Speaker 2: on my team because I liked her, and I figured,
Speaker 2: if I can get her in this van with me
Speaker 2: for eleven weeks, she will get attracted to my anointing.
Speaker 2: And I worked my window all the way to my
Speaker 2: wedding day.
Speaker 1: I'm just preaching what I practice. Now. Look at me, y'all.
Speaker 1: We went to our first stop so excited. Run to Win.
Speaker 1: The Youth is our first stop going all summer. It's
Speaker 1: eleven week ministry extravaganza across the state of South Carolina.
Speaker 1: And the youth pastor said, well, I got some good
Speaker 1: news when we got there. I said, cool man, He said,
Speaker 1: no kids signed up. I said, how is that good news?
Speaker 1: He said, oh, you can chilled by the pool this week.
Speaker 1: Take a little break. I said, bro, it's my first week.
Speaker 2: I don't need a ten I need some kids and.
Speaker 1: My lion, Holly. That we hit the streets so hard.
Speaker 1: Was it Kimden? Am I getting the town wrong? I
Speaker 1: don't remember. But we canvas that town.
Speaker 2: Let's call it Camden. We canvas Camden. I mean flyers
Speaker 2: on every door. By the last night of the crusade,
Speaker 2: we had it at forty. Kids, you ain't clapping because
Speaker 2: you don't think that's big. Forty's big when you thought
Speaker 2: you were gonna be by the pool at the Motel
Speaker 2: six all week in Camden. And I know what you're thinking,
Speaker 2: what's the point? That's exactly what I was thinking. It's
Speaker 2: called ground game, It's called preparation. Why would God have
Speaker 2: led me past her thousands if I wasn't willing to
Speaker 2: hit the streets for forty.
Speaker 1: And I wish I knew I could preach so much.
Speaker 2: Better if I knew what God's got you doing right now?
Speaker 1: That seems kind of pointless. I would have stopped too.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I would have put to
Speaker 1: three three arrows in the ground.
Speaker 2: It doesn't make sense to strike the ground.
Speaker 1: With something that's supposed to fly in the air.
Speaker 2: It doesn't make sense to declare victory with an instrument
Speaker 2: of death call a cross. It doesn't make sense to
Speaker 2: kill a giant with a slingshot, with the most inexperienced
Speaker 2: one on the battlefield doing the slinging. It doesn't make
Speaker 2: sense to deliver a nation with a stick in your hand.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense. God prepares you to trust the
Speaker 1: teacher by putting you in a class that does not
Speaker 1: look like the calling. Lions and bears don't look like Goliath,
Speaker 1: but they are the perfect preparation.
Speaker 2: Now I'll come to the point in my life where
Speaker 2: I'm learning to trust my teacher to know that even
Speaker 2: if this doesn't look like it, everything is preparation, and
Speaker 2: I mean everything.
Speaker 1: Every fence I paint, every car I wax, every offense
Speaker 1: is preparation.
Speaker 2: Maybe this won't take your pain away, but if you
Speaker 2: would start seeing your pain as preparation.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying God's the one who hurt you.
Speaker 2: I'm saying in his hands whatever hurt you will become
Speaker 2: healing for where He's taking you. I'm prophesying to somebody.
Speaker 2: I don't know who you are, but God is preparing you.
Speaker 2: He's getting you ready. You're in the field, your tending sheep.
Speaker 2: God is preparing you for what He has prepared for you.
Speaker 2: It's not failure it's preparation doesn't feel like preparation, it
Speaker 2: feels like failure. But the failure was preparation so that
Speaker 2: I would have the infrastructure and the fortitude for the success.
Speaker 2: God's got me in the garage right now. Garage doesn't
Speaker 2: look like the racetrack.
Speaker 1: But God's not done. He hadn't hit posts yet.
Speaker 2: All things work together for the good of those who
Speaker 2: love God and are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 1: He's preparing me. Yeah. Point the point is for you
Speaker 1: to trust a teacher. That's the point. Take the arrow
Speaker 1: strike the ground.
Speaker 2: And I spent all week trying to figure out something
Speaker 2: I was preparing This week. I wanted to come to
Speaker 2: the pulpit prepared, and I knew that there would be
Speaker 2: at least one person paying attention.
Speaker 1: Who would want to know.
Speaker 2: How would Elisha get so angry over something so simple? Well,
Speaker 2: first of all, he was about one hundred and ten
Speaker 2: years old. I don't imagine there's much to be happy
Speaker 2: about at that age.
Speaker 1: You'd be crotchety too, So that's number one.
Speaker 2: But for my second clue, I wanted to give you
Speaker 2: point number three, the plow, because I figured there would
Speaker 2: probably be something about Elisha's process that would help me
Speaker 2: understand his insistence on perseverance.
Speaker 1: He could not believe what he saw.
Speaker 2: He could not believe that someone would have an arrow
Speaker 2: of victory in their hand, but refused to do what
Speaker 2: needed to be done to secure the victory. And so
Speaker 2: I went back through his life and just remembered the
Speaker 2: few things.
Speaker 1: This is one of my.
Speaker 2: Favorite Bible characters. He was the subject of my book
Speaker 2: that I wrote called Greater. So me and him spent
Speaker 2: a lot of time together, and I saw on one
Speaker 2: time these kings needed rain. They needed provision from heaven,
Speaker 2: and Elisha told them, okay, you want rain, dig some ditches.
Speaker 2: But see now it wasn't raining yet, so they didn't
Speaker 2: need an irrigation system. But Elisha knew that the key
Speaker 2: to receiving provision is to make preparation before you can
Speaker 2: perceive it. So he told him to dig some ditches.
Speaker 2: The first thing that he did when he took the
Speaker 2: mantle from Elijah.
Speaker 1: The one who left him in transition.
Speaker 2: The first thing that he did was to heal some
Speaker 2: water in a town called Jericho, some water that had
Speaker 2: become toxic, and to revive the economy, he needed to
Speaker 2: heal the water.
Speaker 1: Supply, and so he asked for some salt.
Speaker 2: Salt comes out of the ground, of course we know this.
Speaker 2: It comes either from the ocean or it comes from.
Speaker 1: The mines, but either way it's manufacture by pressure. I
Speaker 1: could preach about the power of pressure too, I guess.
Speaker 2: If I wanted to see, because it looks like pressure,
Speaker 2: but it's really preparation. Think of Jesus in the garden
Speaker 2: of got Semonet s many means olive press. It was
Speaker 2: the pressure of the garden so great that it was
Speaker 2: like drops of blood. When he sweat, it was like
Speaker 2: drops of blood. I don't know if he burst the
Speaker 2: capillary or if it was like that metaphorically or literally.
Speaker 2: Either way, he was under pressure. His pressure was his preparation.
Speaker 2: Quit asking God to take the stress away, Start asking
Speaker 2: him to show you how to handle it. Nevertheless, not
Speaker 2: my will, but your will be done. He made a precision.
Speaker 2: It's the power of pre It's the power of preparation.
Speaker 2: Is the power of taking salt and throwing it.
Speaker 1: In the water. And the water was purified. And I
Speaker 1: was noticing how.
Speaker 2: Elisha wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, which took
Speaker 2: me all the way back to the first time I
Speaker 2: saw him in scripture, because Elijah had kind of had
Speaker 2: a little melt down and he threw a little hissy fit.
Speaker 2: God doesn't need you to be perfect me. God doesn't
Speaker 2: need you to make perfect be perfect. He just needs
Speaker 2: you to keep making progress. And when Elijah went back,
Speaker 2: God said, all right, now, I have made preparations for
Speaker 2: your successor. Elijah was so tired he didn't know what
Speaker 2: to do next. Jesseph I wanted to kill him, and
Speaker 2: he didn't have a backup plan.
Speaker 1: But God did. And God said, if you'll get back
Speaker 1: going the way you came, I've got your succession plan
Speaker 1: already in place, and I'll show it to you when
Speaker 1: you get back in position. Elijah is walking.
Speaker 2: I had him pull this one scripture for you because
Speaker 2: it was so profound when it hit me, and I
Speaker 2: understood it once. Why Elisha was angry when the king
Speaker 2: would not strike the ground. It's in One Kings, nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 2: I want you to look at this. It says that.
Speaker 1: Elijah went from there, the place where he was making excuses,
Speaker 1: feeling sorry for himself. He went from there the place
Speaker 1: of pressure, the threat of Jessebel, the anxiety of the future.
Speaker 2: He went from there on the word of the Lord
Speaker 2: and found Elisha. Please read with me, because what I'm
Speaker 2: gonna show you next is gonna explain to you why
Speaker 2: the season that you're in doesn't feel significant, but it
Speaker 2: is so important that you do it with all your heart,
Speaker 2: with all your mind, with all your.
Speaker 1: Soul, with all your strength. He found Elisha, son of Sheafat,
Speaker 1: and Elisha was preaching. Now, remember his calling was to
Speaker 1: be a prophet, but.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the classroom doesn't look like the calling.
Speaker 1: He wasn't prophesying. He was plowing.
Speaker 2: He was digging up hard ground. He was not Not
Speaker 2: only was he plowing, but he was plowing twelve yoke
Speaker 2: about Oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair.
Speaker 2: What do you think the views like when you're less
Speaker 2: than line? And at first I couldn't figure out via.
Speaker 2: Elija didn't go to the prophet school. What if God,
Speaker 2: if God was preparing somebody to take up the mantle
Speaker 2: of Elijah.
Speaker 1: What did he get him from the prophet school? But
Speaker 1: he didn't want somebody who knew how to preach. He
Speaker 1: wanted somebody who knew how to plow. Because if you're
Speaker 1: willing to plow, I can teach you to preach, but
Speaker 1: I need somebody who's not scared, not backing up, not
Speaker 1: gonna get tired and turn back. He puts his hand
Speaker 1: to the plow and looks back. It's not fit for
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God. I need somebody who knows how
Speaker 1: to plow.
Speaker 2: And we have a generation that knows how to post
Speaker 2: but doesn't know how to plow. We got more windows
Speaker 2: than we've got work. I mean, you came here today, right,
Speaker 2: and you came to be in the presence of God?
Speaker 1: Am I right? Am I right? Did you come to
Speaker 1: be in the presence of God? Come on every location
Speaker 1: watching online? Did you come to be in the presence
Speaker 1: of God? Okay, presence starts with pre You think this
Speaker 1: just popped up? You think that You think it just you? Oh,
Speaker 1: you think it came down. No, it was Elisha understood
Speaker 1: the principle of preparation. Provision awaits preparations. So I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the music today. You should have. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know where I'm preaching right now.
Speaker 2: It's probably not raining in a lot of locations where
Speaker 2: you're watching this, or you're watching this on TV, But
Speaker 2: it was raining the day at church and somebody had
Speaker 2: an umbrella. I mean there were parking team people who
Speaker 2: were preparing for you in the park. Here's what I realized.
Speaker 2: I can preach as far as I can preach, but
Speaker 2: preach starts with pre If somebody don't park you, I
Speaker 2: can't preach to you. And Elisha understood it's not Sometimes
Speaker 2: it gives the victory.
Speaker 1: It's the groundwork.
Speaker 2: It's the preparationist, the underground stuff. It's those chairs that
Speaker 2: you're sitting in at Valentine. Many of you are sitting
Speaker 2: in a chair. I mean you're sitting in a chair.
Speaker 2: You know why you're sitting.
Speaker 1: In that chair because Steve spaced him. Yeah, came out.
Speaker 1: He measured them to make sure that the seats were
Speaker 1: at the prime proximity to create maximum capacity, so that
Speaker 1: you could He plowed so you could PLoP. That's the
Speaker 1: way I'm trying to say. And if he didn't plow,
Speaker 1: you couldn't PLoP. I'm just pointing it out.
Speaker 2: How many of you are going to use the bathroom
Speaker 2: at one of our campuses.
Speaker 1: Before the day is over. You already did it. Hey man,
Speaker 1: it's a little TMI. I'm not gonna lie to you,
Speaker 1: but I'm trying to make a point. You might grab
Speaker 1: a little breath mint.
Speaker 2: In the bathroom, And the reason that there's a breath
Speaker 2: mint in the bathroom is because Ashley comes every week.
Speaker 1: She's doing a little pre praise.
Speaker 2: Service to God to make sure that your neighbor when
Speaker 2: you open your mouth and give God praise, that your
Speaker 2: neighbor isn't distracted.
Speaker 1: That's her pre praise service to God.
Speaker 2: Before you got here, she'd making sure that it was
Speaker 2: clean that elevation pen that you will steal, because we
Speaker 2: want you to steal it. Want you to steal it
Speaker 2: and tip big with it, and then invite that serve
Speaker 2: her to church. If she can't come on Sunday morning,
Speaker 2: bring her on Saturday night, take her to midweek whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't care, but steal the pen.
Speaker 2: But the greeter team, they didn't just smile at you
Speaker 2: when they came in.
Speaker 1: They were pre See. I'm trying to get a point across.
Speaker 2: You experienced the presence of God because somebody made preparation.
Speaker 2: Somebody prepared for you to be here.
Speaker 1: It's the power of pre.
Speaker 2: Recently, I told my son Elijah, I want him to
Speaker 2: start seeing behind the scenes because I didn't want my
Speaker 2: kid growing up thinking that a church was a green
Speaker 2: room in a stage, and so I was like, I
Speaker 2: want you to go see the kids ministry, which is amazing,
Speaker 2: I said, which is amazing. He also wanted to see
Speaker 2: the video how the video works, because technologically what we
Speaker 2: do here is I think it's pretty excellent. And all
Speaker 2: the campuses, it's amazing what our teams do. Really over
Speaker 2: seven thousand volunteers.
Speaker 1: By the way, this isn't a.
Speaker 2: Volunteer push, but I feel like the campus pastors might
Speaker 2: send me a gift card or something if I tell
Speaker 2: some of you, when are you going to stop plopping
Speaker 2: and start plowing? My God from Zion.
Speaker 1: And stopped by that tent? Is it black or orange?
Speaker 1: These days? Ain't no ten.
Speaker 2: There's a table at Valentine and tents elsewhere, and if
Speaker 2: you go, there'd be somebody to show you how. Somebody
Speaker 2: say start plowing. So Elijah went back and he said, Daddy,
Speaker 2: you have got to see it in v control, the
Speaker 2: room where they do all the video stuff, with all
Speaker 2: the cameras and everything.
Speaker 1: He says, amazing what happens behind the scenes. I said,
Speaker 1: you like it?
Speaker 2: He said, no, I'm not telling you I'm telling you,
Speaker 2: it's amazing. He said, you got to see Chelsea. She's
Speaker 2: the one calling the shops. And I watched her, and
Speaker 2: I knew what he was saying. I snuck in today
Speaker 2: right before I preached, they were preparing.
Speaker 1: Because before we got here, and before I preached him,
Speaker 1: before you praised him, before we experienced the presence of God,
Speaker 1: they were plowing. And they weren't paid to plow, either
Speaker 1: of these people that I'm about to show you. They
Speaker 1: were plowing because of the purpose of God. Now I
Speaker 1: want to show you. It's just a quick, quick window.
Speaker 2: It's a quick window into the work that they do
Speaker 2: that's back there.
Speaker 1: Just roll it real quick. And watching Chelsea.
Speaker 3: See the location synced up all on the same.
Speaker 1: How cool is that?
Speaker 2: And every time she's saying that it's switching a camera.
Speaker 2: I know, I sound kind of like a redneck saying this, like,
Speaker 2: can y'all believe they have these cameras back there?
Speaker 1: But I was blown away.
Speaker 2: She's just I mean, don't even see that because this
Speaker 2: underground stuff.
Speaker 1: Two taking two, taken three, take it. I was watching
Speaker 1: her one time. I was like, how does she know
Speaker 1: how to do that?
Speaker 2: You gotta have like musicality to do it, and I
Speaker 2: found out how.
Speaker 1: She said that her mom taught dance. In fact, her
Speaker 1: mom teaches abby dance. My daughter. I didn't know this.
Speaker 1: She's been doing that for me for five years. She said.
Speaker 1: She danced to high school.
Speaker 2: She said, at high school that's the time where you
Speaker 2: either go professional or find something.
Speaker 1: Else to do.
Speaker 2: And she said, I wasn't good enough to go on
Speaker 2: and do something else. I danced all the way through
Speaker 2: high school and loved it, and then I came here
Speaker 2: to do this, she said.
Speaker 1: I never would have imagined.
Speaker 2: Though that my mom, she said me dance would one
Speaker 2: day enable me to be on my post every week.
Speaker 2: And I might not be a professional dancer, but.
Speaker 1: I know how to plow. And now look at her
Speaker 1: calling the shots. I'll say, East, wind off, go ahead, Chelsea. Three,
Speaker 1: take it three, four, taking four, one, taking six, taking five,
Speaker 1: taking seven.
Speaker 2: And taking eight.
Speaker 1: Two taking two. Don't you understand that God has been
Speaker 1: preparing you your whole life. You are in preparation right now.
Speaker 1: And my fourth p is promotion. Stand up, I'm done.
Speaker 2: God said, if you will keep plowing, this is what
Speaker 2: I want to get into you. Over the next several
Speaker 2: weeks of the series. Really, we're just getting started with
Speaker 2: this series. I really feel like God is doing something
Speaker 2: in this series. I might just preach this series till
Speaker 2: the year twenty thirty.
Speaker 1: I might preach it till Jesus comes back, because.
Speaker 2: I really believe that if you will plow, he will
Speaker 2: promote and you can trust him.
Speaker 1: Is it possible that the pre is more important than
Speaker 1: the post? Is it possible that what happens in the garage,
Speaker 1: what happens in the heart, is more important than what
Speaker 1: happens in my life. He's preparing me for what He
Speaker 1: has prepared for me. And the preparation doesn't always look
Speaker 1: like the promise. Doesn't have to.
Speaker 2: When the time came for Elisha to be promoted, God
Speaker 2: knew exactly where he was. He was on his post.
Speaker 2: When it came time for Elisha to be promoted. He
Speaker 2: didn't have to point to himself. God pointed him.
Speaker 1: Out to Elijah.
Speaker 2: The post, the point, the plow. He was just simply
Speaker 2: doing what he had to do in this season.
Speaker 1: And if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of
Speaker 1: God and just keep striking the ground. See this isn't
Speaker 1: the sexy part of spiritual development.
Speaker 2: This is the part where you don't see the point,
Speaker 2: but you continue in the process.
Speaker 1: Persistence is the key.
Speaker 2: To the promise of God.
Speaker 1: Somebody shouts, you know, God is getting you ready and
Speaker 1: he will lift you up. See.
Speaker 2: God had an assignment for Elisha, and God has an
Speaker 2: assignment for you. He said, you've learned how to plow
Speaker 2: hard ground. Now you've got to learn how to plow
Speaker 2: hard hearts.
Speaker 1: Nothing that you've been through will be wasted. Nothing that
Speaker 1: you've been through us for nothing. Nothing that you've been
Speaker 1: through us for no purpose. I've always been working, I've
Speaker 1: always had a purpose in mass. God is working in
Speaker 1: my life. It is the power of pre Prepare to prevail,
Speaker 1: Prepare to prevail. I'm closing, But the arrow of Erb
Speaker 1: is flying over the life of everyone who will do
Speaker 1: the groundwork.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm I'm a living witness that if you
Speaker 2: will stay with it, touch somebody say.
Speaker 1: Stay with it, stay with it, stay with it, stay
Speaker 1: with it. If you will stay with it, I know
Speaker 1: God is giving you a great a great window to
Speaker 1: see the opportunities that He's placed before your life. But
Speaker 1: how can he trust you with more until you are
Speaker 1: faithful where you are so God is cultivating.
Speaker 2: Your calling right now, and he might send you to
Speaker 2: Camden to do it.
Speaker 1: He might have you in the garage, he might take
Speaker 1: you apart.
Speaker 2: So when you get to the track, you are built
Speaker 2: to make it to that.
Speaker 1: Somebody shout, I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready.
Speaker 1: I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready. You might want to
Speaker 1: shove your neighbor, put him on notice. I've cat ready.
Speaker 1: God seize me, God preparing me. God. I'm so purpose
Speaker 1: all my life, and it will come to pass.
Speaker 3: I know it.
Speaker 1: I see it from there. I'm ready now, I'm ready now.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you