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. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 3: Enjoy the message us, get up, give me us Sophia.
Speaker 4: God, So.
Speaker 5: Yes, God, our Father born in heaven. How will it
Speaker 5: be your name, your kingdom?
Speaker 4: Come, Your will be done.
Speaker 1: Mynarch, bless it is in heaven.
Speaker 6: Give us this say our daily bread.
Speaker 4: And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who
Speaker 4: sin against us. And lead us not into temptation.
Speaker 1: But deliver us.
Speaker 4: Jesus is in this place. Deliver us from evil. For
Speaker 4: Thine is the Kingdom, power and the glory, forever.
Speaker 7: And ever, not for five minutes, forever and ever, and
Speaker 7: right here.
Speaker 4: I want the whole church say Amen. A men means
Speaker 4: so be it. A man means I'm coming into agreement
Speaker 4: with God's plan for my life.
Speaker 1: Life.
Speaker 4: Amen means that no word from God returns. Boy. Amen
Speaker 4: means that my Father has the final Say amen means
Speaker 4: that I read to the back of the book and
Speaker 4: I know how this ends. Heaven wins. Amen means I'm
Speaker 4: born again. Amen means no weapon formed a guess and
Speaker 4: me will prosper. Amen means I can do all things
Speaker 4: through Christ, who strengthens me. You didn't know. Amen meant
Speaker 4: all that digit Say it again. Amen. If he says
Speaker 4: I'm blessed, I'm blessed. Say amen. If he says my
Speaker 4: family will be saved, my family will be saved. Say amen.
Speaker 4: If he said I'm more than a conqueror, I'm more
Speaker 4: than a conqueror.
Speaker 1: Say amen.
Speaker 4: Come on, everybody in the comments right now, even watching
Speaker 4: this on social media, putting Amen in the comments. Let
Speaker 4: the devil know. I agree with God. I belong to Jesus.
Speaker 4: He's the one who never let's go on every mountain.
Speaker 4: I belonged to him, in every valley. I belonged to him.
Speaker 4: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want I'm guided.
Speaker 4: I got a good shepherd. I'm guarded. He's the Kate,
Speaker 4: He's the light of the world. He is my risen
Speaker 4: resurrected king. And I'm getting knocked out of this situation.
Speaker 4: And I came to praise the Lord. I did not
Speaker 4: come to feel sorry for myself. I came to praise
Speaker 4: the Lord. I did not come to impress my neighbors
Speaker 4: with proper church behavior. I came to raise the Lord.
Speaker 4: If you knew what he brought me through, you wouldn't
Speaker 4: call me crazy.
Speaker 1: You would lift your hands.
Speaker 4: And raise him too. Say man, what do we how
Speaker 4: are we gonna get out of this?
Speaker 6: We can get out?
Speaker 4: And when the hollywool where, that's what burn? Massa, that's it.
Speaker 4: Orry to God, Bless the name of the Lord, for
Speaker 4: he is worthy to be praised. Every season of my life,
Speaker 4: he's been a friend to me, and he's worthy to
Speaker 4: be praised. I don't know what I would do without God.
Speaker 4: I don't know where i'd be without Jesus. I have
Speaker 4: a kind of idea and it doesn't look good. But
Speaker 4: look at your neighbor and say, you already look better this.
Speaker 1: Year than you did last year. Come on, tell him
Speaker 1: one more thing.
Speaker 4: Look at him and say look at him and say
Speaker 4: repeat after me. Say I can tell you've kept your resolutions.
Speaker 4: Tell them your skin is glowing, your physique is lean.
Speaker 4: Happy New Year, Elevation Church. For the first time that
Speaker 4: I've been able to say that to you.
Speaker 1: Our epham around the world. Let's celebrate our.
Speaker 8: Brand new campus, our twentieth location elevation Somerville. Happy new Year,
Speaker 8: happy new campus.
Speaker 4: So many things to tell you. We've got so much
Speaker 4: to catch up on. God has been so good. The
Speaker 4: last time that I stood in the pulpit, we were
Speaker 4: taking our year end offering, and you stepped up big
Speaker 4: this year, and I told them to wait until I
Speaker 4: got back so I could announce to you that you
Speaker 4: gave to the Lord and the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Speaker 4: for the building of his kingdom and helping the poor
Speaker 4: and reaching the loss and serving the world. Eleven million,
Speaker 4: four hundred and sixty three thousand dollars. Give a soun
Speaker 4: of praise.
Speaker 6: All right, good word?
Speaker 4: We miss that together. So every year, every year I
Speaker 4: come before you and just say, let's do another one.
Speaker 4: Y'all want to do another one. Another year of preaching
Speaker 4: God's word. Another year of releasing worship into the earth
Speaker 4: that can heal broken hearts. Another year of standing beside
Speaker 4: children who don't have fathers and mentoring them. Another year
Speaker 4: of showing up with coats and blankets for people who
Speaker 4: are cold. Year of reaching into prisons and recovery centers
Speaker 4: and telling people that their life matters and don't throw
Speaker 4: it away. And God is not done with you yet
Speaker 4: another year to invite people who have been told for
Speaker 4: years that God will never accept you, that it's not
Speaker 4: too late for him to change your life.
Speaker 1: If you're not dead.
Speaker 4: God's not done, and God is not done with this
Speaker 4: church yet. I'm getting ready for the next twenty years.
Speaker 4: God is with me with this gray hair. God is
Speaker 4: with me. And I'm just going to take a moment
Speaker 4: right now, if you'd stretch your hands toward this pulpit. Lord,
Speaker 4: let every word that goes forth from this church this
Speaker 4: year brings salvation, deliverance, miracles, correction, comfort, everything you want
Speaker 4: to do.
Speaker 1: God is all about you.
Speaker 4: I pray that even today, as I preach, that you
Speaker 4: would see fit to use me like a woodwind instrument,
Speaker 4: something that your breath could use to produce a sound
Speaker 4: that would produce a melody from Heaven that would be
Speaker 4: medicine too someone's heart.
Speaker 1: Lord. I bring before you every.
Speaker 4: Person that's in this room, the nineteen other rooms where
Speaker 4: we physically gather, every place where somebody couldn't go to
Speaker 4: church or they were just too.
Speaker 1: Lazy, speak your word. One time, a man said, I
Speaker 1: don't even need to have.
Speaker 4: You come in my house, Jesus, if you just speak
Speaker 4: your word, it's enough to heal.
Speaker 1: Today.
Speaker 4: Lord, we just ask for a word from you our
Speaker 4: daily bread, not enough so we can come to church
Speaker 4: once at the beginning of the year, check it off
Speaker 4: the list, and then spend the rest of the year
Speaker 4: asking God why I didn't show up. But enough word
Speaker 4: to nourish us for the needs of this moment. You
Speaker 4: are Jehovah Jirah, and you're.
Speaker 1: In this place, and I give you the praise in Jesus' name. Amen,
Speaker 1: clap your hands.
Speaker 4: Everybody. I'm going to have you seated before I read
Speaker 4: my scripture, which I don't normally do, but before I do,
Speaker 4: give out about twenty six hugs divided by two. Give
Speaker 4: five hugs and tell somebody I'm glad you're here today. Hey,
Speaker 4: we're sending you a big hug online to our epam
Speaker 4: all around the world. Just remember, God is speaking this
Speaker 4: message exactly where you need it to be. He's not
Speaker 4: limited by time, or by space or by location. May
Speaker 4: this message speak to your heart today. I have prayed
Speaker 4: about what to share with you. For my first sermon
Speaker 4: of the year, and the Lord led and directed me.
Speaker 1: In a powerful way.
Speaker 4: Let's thank our band, our worship team for leading us
Speaker 4: so well in the presence of God today.
Speaker 1: Make sure you get the new music from Elevation Rhythm.
Speaker 4: Thank God, I'm free play it everywhere that the devil
Speaker 4: has been trying to keep you bound and let him
Speaker 4: know it won't work this year.
Speaker 1: I'm coming out of these chains.
Speaker 4: Also, make sure that you get the opportunity to be
Speaker 4: a part of Elevation Nights.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: I know that for most of you who are here locally,
Speaker 4: you probably won't be getting on a plane, but we're
Speaker 4: going to be visiting eight cities, and these nights are powerful,
Speaker 4: and these nights are miraculous and these nights are unforgettable.
Speaker 4: We're going to be in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Brooklyn, New York, Indianapolis, Milwaukee,
Speaker 4: Grand Rapids, Michigan, Knoxville, Tennessee, Columbus, Ohio, and Rosemont, Illinois.
Speaker 4: If you have any friends or family, especially the ones
Speaker 4: who really need Jesus and smell like cigarettes and other
Speaker 4: stuff like that, send them over.
Speaker 1: We'll see what we can do for them.
Speaker 4: Elevation Nights dot Com, where you can get your tickets
Speaker 4: February twenty fourth through March the fifth. I thank you
Speaker 4: for the privilege of being able to minister God's word
Speaker 4: to you another year.
Speaker 1: What an honor.
Speaker 4: I'll be sharing today from the Parable of the Seed
Speaker 4: in Matthew chapter teen, Verses twenty four through thirty.
Speaker 1: Matthew Chapter fourteen, Versus twenty four through thirty.
Speaker 4: Now this is not the parable that's normally called the
Speaker 4: parable of the seeds. The parable of the seeds that
Speaker 4: we hear more about is actually the parable of the soils.
Speaker 1: Okay, Because Jesus taught these parables.
Speaker 4: He would go out and he would give a teaching,
Speaker 4: and on one level it would sound simple, but you
Speaker 4: reflect on it and you pray about it, and it
Speaker 4: really helps you to see what the Kingdom of God
Speaker 4: is like, and it helps you to see.
Speaker 1: What you're like.
Speaker 4: And one of those parables that has helped me so
Speaker 4: much through the year, he talks about a seed that
Speaker 4: was sown in four different places. One was sown on
Speaker 4: rocky soil, so because the soil was too rocky, the
Speaker 4: bird came and snatched it up. So that seed got snatched,
Speaker 4: so it didn't do what it was supposed to do.
Speaker 4: And then there was one seed that was sown in
Speaker 4: a place where it was scorched by the sun, which
Speaker 4: represents the trials of life. So since it didn't have
Speaker 4: a root or a foundation, the sun was too strong
Speaker 4: for it, and it got cooked up before it could
Speaker 4: come forth. I said, it got cooked up before it
Speaker 4: could come forth. Some promises that God speaks to you,
Speaker 4: the sun, the affliction, the.
Speaker 1: Heat of trial.
Speaker 4: It tests that seed before it has had the chance
Speaker 4: to develop, and you don't pass the test. The third
Speaker 4: type of seed that he talks about is one that
Speaker 4: gets choked out, or we could say, strangled by the
Speaker 4: cares of this life just getting busy. And in each
Speaker 4: of these instances, the seed represents the word of God,
Speaker 4: and the sower is God, and the seed is good
Speaker 4: in each of those instances, but it is not successful
Speaker 4: because of the soil that it lands in. One of
Speaker 4: the soils that Jesus mentions in that parable is the
Speaker 4: good soil which produces a harvest thirty sixty and one hundredfold.
Speaker 4: And this always encouraged me as a preacher, because one
Speaker 4: time I realized most of the people that I preach
Speaker 4: to won't remember the sermon. Twenty four hours after I
Speaker 4: preach it, and most of the people that I preach
Speaker 4: to about a specific topic aren't going to really do
Speaker 4: what I challenge them to do, even if I give
Speaker 4: them scripture behind it, because the seed often gets snatched, scorched,
Speaker 4: or strangled. But the one seed that produced the harvest,
Speaker 4: watch what it did. It produced thirty, sixty or one
Speaker 4: hundred fold. So the one seed that was successful made
Speaker 4: up for all the ones that weren't. God can bless
Speaker 4: you with one blessing in your life that will make
Speaker 4: every failure irrelevant. And I came to preach that even
Speaker 4: though most people won't receive this word, if one does,
Speaker 4: it will have been worth it. That's what I believe
Speaker 4: these days. That most won't fine, but if one does,
Speaker 4: it could branch out and touch the world. If one does.
Speaker 4: What is one's soul worth? What is one life worth?
Speaker 4: What is one grandmother's prayers getting answered worth? If one does?
Speaker 4: And I just want to kind of encourage you on
Speaker 4: the way to my main text today. I'm not preaching
Speaker 4: about that one believe it or not.
Speaker 1: I studied it, but I'm not.
Speaker 4: Going to preach it because you may be encouraging your
Speaker 4: kids right now or instructing your kids right now, or
Speaker 4: working on something in your life. And most of the
Speaker 4: things that you try, and most of the things that
Speaker 4: you say, won't get through to them. But if one does,
Speaker 4: somebody say, if one does. If one does, it can
Speaker 4: change a life. If one does, it can change the generation.
Speaker 4: If one does, it can change a bloodline. Most won't.
Speaker 4: Don't be discouraged by the ones that don't work. Don't
Speaker 4: be discouraged by the ones who don't call you back.
Speaker 4: Don't be discouraged by the ones who don't say yes.
Speaker 4: Don't be discouraged by the ones who don't get you.
Speaker 4: Because if one does. Look, I asked a lot of
Speaker 4: girls to be my girlfriend before Holly. Most didn't, but
Speaker 4: one did. Look at me. Now, look at what the
Speaker 4: Lord has done.
Speaker 1: If one does well.
Speaker 4: This is a scripture that I want to give you
Speaker 4: today from Matthew chapter thirteen, about a parable of two
Speaker 4: different types of seed, not different types of soil, which
Speaker 4: represents the condition of our heart, but two different types
Speaker 4: of seed. I'm gonna read it to you and then
Speaker 4: we'll talk about it for just a few moments. Jesus
Speaker 4: is teaching many parables, and they're collected here for us
Speaker 4: to read. And it says Jesus told them another parable.
Speaker 4: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sewed
Speaker 4: good seed in his field. If you are the underlining
Speaker 4: your Bible type, just underline.
Speaker 1: The word good. It was good seed.
Speaker 4: But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed
Speaker 4: weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat
Speaker 4: sprouted and formed heads, then.
Speaker 1: The weeds also appeared.
Speaker 4: The owner's servants came to him and said, sir, didn't
Speaker 4: you sow good seed in your field? Where then, did
Speaker 4: these weeds come from?
Speaker 1: An enemy? Did this? He replied.
Speaker 4: The servants asked him, do you want us to go
Speaker 4: and pull them up? No, he answered, because while you
Speaker 4: are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.
Speaker 4: Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time,
Speaker 4: I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds and
Speaker 4: tie them in bundles to be burned. Then gather the
Speaker 4: wheat and bring it into my barn. I have a
Speaker 4: simple message from the Lord for your heart today. And
Speaker 4: the Lord told me to tell you don't let the
Speaker 4: attack distract you.
Speaker 1: That's what it is. It's a distraction.
Speaker 4: And he told me to tell you, don't let the
Speaker 4: attack distract you. Write it down in your notebook, type
Speaker 4: it in the comments. Don't let the attack distract you.
Speaker 4: And I love preaching the second Sunday of a new
Speaker 4: year because by now your new year's resolutions have become
Speaker 4: good intentions which you have modified to become more realistic.
Speaker 4: The new year's energy has been sufficiently tapered and sufficiently
Speaker 4: adjusted to match the realities of daily life for most people.
Speaker 4: And now we can really preach about the way life
Speaker 4: is new year's resolution. First Sunday of the year, I'm
Speaker 4: not cussing anymore. Second week of the year, I'm cutting
Speaker 4: back on cussing. I'm only going to say these four
Speaker 4: words this year. But I got to have these four Lord,
Speaker 4: and you know I do. I'm fast in this fast
Speaker 4: the first twenty one days, I'm fast the first well,
Speaker 4: I'm a fast from vegetables the first twenty one days.
Speaker 1: The Lord will receive it.
Speaker 4: As an offering, you know, because we modify it in
Speaker 4: real life. You know, one thing that I noticed about
Speaker 4: this parable that Jesus gave in the passage, and I
Speaker 4: believe you noticed it too, is that wherever there is
Speaker 4: wheat there will always be weeds. You know, Jesus isn't
Speaker 4: just giving us a little discourse about how problems creep
Speaker 4: up in our life.
Speaker 1: Here, he's making a bigger point.
Speaker 4: Specifically, he's letting us know that it is not your
Speaker 4: job to judge others. It's not your job. It's not
Speaker 4: your job because you're not God. And if I can
Speaker 4: say a little more directly, you suck at judging.
Speaker 1: That's how you bought that timeshare.
Speaker 4: That's how you bought that vacuum cleaner, because you suck
Speaker 4: at judging. Honestly, even when it comes to the work
Speaker 4: that I create, I've taught myself it's.
Speaker 1: Not my job to judge it. It's just my job
Speaker 1: to make it. Especially when you write a song. You
Speaker 1: don't know Chris Brown, you'll know Chris Brown, formerly an
Speaker 1: R and B.
Speaker 4: Singer, but now the main worship leader at Elevation Worship.
Speaker 4: Look at what the Lord has done. I always call
Speaker 4: him the real Chris Brown. He's my favorite worship leader
Speaker 4: in the world, always has been, always will be since
Speaker 4: first time I heard him. But I'm gonna take something else.
Speaker 4: He sucks at judging whether a new song is good
Speaker 4: or not. He called me. One Sunday. We had a
Speaker 4: new song that we wanted to introduce, and I wasn't
Speaker 4: going to be there to preach, and he was leading
Speaker 4: it and he called me after it.
Speaker 1: I said, how to go?
Speaker 4: He said, not too good. I don't think the song
Speaker 4: is very good. The song was Graves into Gardens.
Speaker 1: You remember that? Remember that, CV you suck at judging.
Speaker 4: You're great worship leader, you're handsome, you're a great man
Speaker 4: of God.
Speaker 1: You're wonderful of being a dad and a husband, but
Speaker 1: you suck at judging.
Speaker 4: And I chose to say it that way because some
Speaker 4: of y'all are so tripping and stumbling over the fact
Speaker 4: that I said the word suck.
Speaker 1: Judging me for that, that.
Speaker 4: You just prove my point, because if you think if
Speaker 4: the most important thing is whether I say the word
Speaker 4: suck or whether I say it more fancy, it's not
Speaker 4: your job to judge. If you're tripping over what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: you're making the very mistake that I'm warning you about.
Speaker 4: Thereby validating the wisdom of my point and the way
Speaker 4: I phraised it. Now, every once in a while, Jesus
Speaker 4: would explain his parables to his disciples after everybody else
Speaker 4: was gone, almost like y'all can get it at a
Speaker 4: deep level the disciples, but the crowds couldn't consume it.
Speaker 4: And that's why he taught in parables, so that he
Speaker 4: could have the privilege of pulling aside his disciple and
Speaker 4: giving them the deeper meaning. We're gonna look at the
Speaker 4: deeper meaning of this parable that Jesus shared a little
Speaker 4: bit further in Matthew chapter thirteen. Put it on the screen, please,
Speaker 4: he let the crowd went into the house. His disciples
Speaker 4: came to him and said, explained to us the parable
Speaker 4: of the weeds in the field. He answered, well, the
Speaker 4: one who sowed the good seed is the son of Man.
Speaker 4: That's Jesus. The field is the world. The good seed
Speaker 4: stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are
Speaker 4: the people of the evil one, and the enemy who
Speaker 4: sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end
Speaker 4: of the age, and the harvesters are the angels. As
Speaker 4: the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire,
Speaker 4: so it will be at the end of the age
Speaker 4: the Son of men will send out his angels, and
Speaker 4: they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin,
Speaker 4: and all who do evil, they will throw them into
Speaker 4: the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing
Speaker 4: of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun
Speaker 4: and the kingdom of their father.
Speaker 1: Whoever has ears let them hear.
Speaker 4: And we read this, and we are so quick to say,
Speaker 4: that's right. Those evil people, those sinners, those terrible democrats, Republicans, independence,
Speaker 4: whatever category that you wanted to put right there, it
Speaker 4: exposed something about your heart, whatever you wanted to see.
Speaker 1: The weeds as.
Speaker 4: Tells me something about what you see in the mirror.
Speaker 4: And let me explain that for a moment. Go back
Speaker 4: to verse forty two. It says that the evil ones
Speaker 4: will be thrown into the furnace.
Speaker 1: But watch this verse forty three.
Speaker 4: That comes right after it says the kingdom of their father.
Speaker 4: So the furnace of judgment belongs to the fo not
Speaker 4: the children.
Speaker 1: The furnace of judgment is.
Speaker 4: Not yours to put people in the.
Speaker 1: Furnace of judgment.
Speaker 4: Is not your place to have a Facebook conversation about
Speaker 4: what everybody else thinks and why they're so stupid to
Speaker 4: think it.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be preaching like this. My first Sunday back
Speaker 1: in the year, I might run, y'all a law from
Speaker 1: the church.
Speaker 4: But notice in the parable it says that it was
Speaker 4: his field. And I'm learning more and more in my
Speaker 4: life that if it's his field, that means it's his furnace.
Speaker 4: That means God has to be the one to decide
Speaker 4: who's right and who's wrong. God has to be the
Speaker 4: one to decide who is on his side and who
Speaker 4: is not. I remember, very early in my ministry there
Speaker 4: was a pastor that I greatly admired, and he was
Speaker 4: mentoring me in many ways, and he was bringing up
Speaker 4: examples of the right kind of ministry and the wrong
Speaker 4: kind of ministry. And he brought up one minister and
Speaker 4: he said, now, this guy, he's air. This guy, he
Speaker 4: is not doctrinally sound. This guy, he is not theologically correct.
Speaker 4: In fact, you can watch him preach and you can
Speaker 4: see his pride. He's arrogant, and he's self focused, and
Speaker 4: he's fleshly. And then he brought up another gentleman, and
Speaker 4: he said, now, this man is humble. This man has
Speaker 4: the Greek New Testament practically memorized.
Speaker 1: He's a serious student.
Speaker 4: This man you can tell by watching him he is meek,
Speaker 4: he is mild, he is christ Like. That's who you
Speaker 4: want to be like. Not this guy over here, that
Speaker 4: guy right there. Five years later, the guy who knew Greek,
Speaker 4: the guy who was so humble, was discovered to have
Speaker 4: been having an affair on foreign mission trips that he
Speaker 4: was taking pretending to be spreading the Gospel for twelve years.
Speaker 1: With one woman in Russia while he looked humble.
Speaker 4: The man who was so prideful and cocky and arrogant
Speaker 4: is still doing the ministry today that he was doing
Speaker 4: twenty years ago. What am I trying to say? You
Speaker 4: suck at judging, and so do I. We don't know
Speaker 4: who God is going to be used in ten years
Speaker 4: from now. We don't know who God is going to
Speaker 4: raise up. So why y'all are looking at me like
Speaker 4: you're confused about this? Let me break it down a
Speaker 4: little bit finer. Some of the people that you dated
Speaker 4: are proof of the fact that you are not very
Speaker 4: good at getting past the packaging. Let me break it
Speaker 4: down a little bit further. Some of the people that
Speaker 4: you put in your phone that you knew you needed
Speaker 4: to block, but you ignored that little instinct that told
Speaker 4: you there is something about them. You cannot trust your
Speaker 4: own judgment this year, you cannot trust your fleshly, earthly judgment.
Speaker 4: When Israel trusted her judgment, she got Saul as king.
Speaker 4: David was a man after God's own heart. But even
Speaker 4: David had weeds. Ask Bathchieba, the man after God's own
Speaker 4: heart didn't.
Speaker 1: Always do it God's way.
Speaker 4: And what I'm trying to say, and I'm kind of
Speaker 4: going all around the barn to say it, so let
Speaker 4: me just land the plane.
Speaker 6: We all got weeds. We all got We's say it
Speaker 6: out loud. I got We's put.
Speaker 4: The asse at the end of that, just making sure.
Speaker 4: Tell him about the biblical kind of weeds. It's called darnell. Darnell.
Speaker 1: It is this type of weeds seed.
Speaker 4: The Bible says, Can I preach about this for a moment.
Speaker 4: The Bible says that the man planted.
Speaker 1: A good seed in his field. Everybody say his field.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna point this out to the over and over
Speaker 4: again as.
Speaker 1: I preached today. It was his field.
Speaker 4: It belonged to the farmer, It belonged to the man.
Speaker 4: He planted the seed in his field. It was his property,
Speaker 4: it was his territory. To do with it as he wished.
Speaker 4: He planted a good seed in the field. The seed
Speaker 4: was doing what it was supposed to do. It was growing.
Speaker 4: And since the seed was doing what it was supposed
Speaker 4: to do and growing, an enemy noticed the growth of
Speaker 4: the seed and said, if I don't do something about
Speaker 4: this seed, my enemy will triumph over me. So the
Speaker 4: Bible says that overnight, while men slept, and enemy came
Speaker 4: and planted weeds.
Speaker 1: Among the wheat. Say it weeds among the wheat. Notice
Speaker 1: what he couldn't do.
Speaker 4: He could not pluck up what God had planted. He
Speaker 4: could not change what had already been done. He could
Speaker 4: not cost the seed that was in the ground to
Speaker 4: stop being what it was meant to be.
Speaker 1: He could not destroy the seed.
Speaker 4: The only strategy he had was to distract the harvesters.
Speaker 1: So here's the progression of growth in our life.
Speaker 4: We advance a little bit like the seed was doing,
Speaker 4: and then we get attacked. How many of y'all almost
Speaker 4: have to laugh at how quickly the devil attacked the very.
Speaker 1: Thing you were advancing in this year already just wave
Speaker 1: at me.
Speaker 4: It's almost comical, right, It's almost like two on the nose,
Speaker 4: Like really devil, like really really like.
Speaker 1: That, you're going to be that obvious. You're you're just
Speaker 1: gonna do it right in my face like that.
Speaker 4: At least in the parable the man snuck in and
Speaker 4: did it at night. Some of us, the devil's just
Speaker 4: doing it in broad daylight, just attacking things that are advancing.
Speaker 4: So now you're advancing. The seed is growing, and you're attacked.
Speaker 4: And when the enemy attacks you and what God is
Speaker 4: doing in you, you get distracted.
Speaker 1: He can't destroy the seed.
Speaker 4: It's not his. He can't destroy the seed. It's already planted.
Speaker 4: He can't destroy the seed. What God put in the
Speaker 4: seed is still in the sea. He doesn't have permission
Speaker 4: to do that. But what he can do is distract
Speaker 4: you so that you will destroy yourself and some of
Speaker 4: the things that are attacking you in your life right now.
Speaker 4: The attack doesn't matter unless it distracts you from what
Speaker 4: God has called you. I'll break it down for you
Speaker 4: with a few pastoral examples.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It feels good to be wanted, feels.
Speaker 4: Good to be loved, feels good to be supported. But
Speaker 4: you know, you have to preach through all kinds of seasons,
Speaker 4: And there have been seasons in this ministry where I
Speaker 4: have had to preach what God gave me to preach
Speaker 4: even though I felt attacked. And in my earlier years
Speaker 4: of preaching, I would become hyper focused on any attack
Speaker 4: that was coming my way. I don't just mean critics,
Speaker 4: I mean any attack. Like if a staff member resigned,
Speaker 4: I would call it an attack. Well, no, maybe they
Speaker 4: just need to move to Florida to take care of
Speaker 4: their parents.
Speaker 1: No, it's an attack. I rebuke the devil. Why do
Speaker 1: you rebuke it. It's not an attack. It's an adjustment.
Speaker 4: You got to adapt. Life just happens. But there have
Speaker 4: been seasons, and I remembered one very specifically. Well, I've
Speaker 4: been looking forward to sharing this with you because it
Speaker 4: was so fresh and so vivid. What was happening in
Speaker 4: our church was explosive, and much like the seed in
Speaker 4: the Passage, it was growing, growing, growing. God planted this
Speaker 4: church in Charlotte in two thousand and six. I didn't
Speaker 4: plant it.
Speaker 1: He did.
Speaker 4: And what God plants, God protects. And God was doing
Speaker 4: all kinds of miracles for us. If we needed a building,
Speaker 4: he opened a building. If we needed a volunteer, scent
Speaker 4: a volunteer, if we needed funds. He would send people
Speaker 4: with money. God was just providing and protecting. But in
Speaker 4: one season of our ministry, and it was over ten
Speaker 4: years ago, this vicious attack began. And if anybody was
Speaker 4: here at the time, you will remember several phases of
Speaker 4: the attack.
Speaker 1: The last phase of the attack was the hardest for.
Speaker 4: Me to stomach, because they begin to imply, on news
Speaker 4: stories that were on the eleven o'clock news that at
Speaker 4: Elevation Church we fake baptisms. In other words, they were
Speaker 4: saying that we have people pretending to be baptized.
Speaker 1: I guess, just so we could put it on camera.
Speaker 4: Not only was that not true, but it was a
Speaker 4: direct assault against the most meaningful expression of faith that
Speaker 4: a person can make, to be baptized.
Speaker 1: And I felt so attacked not only.
Speaker 4: On my own behalf, but on behalf of everyone who
Speaker 4: was going to work who had been baptized at this church,
Speaker 4: hearing the lie that had been perpetuated, the attack that
Speaker 4: had been age saying your baptism was it fake? And
Speaker 4: I was praying about this one day, and I was
Speaker 4: asking God very specifically something that you may have been
Speaker 4: praying about a situation or an attack in your life
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 1: I prayed, God, make it stop, Make it stop.
Speaker 4: By this point, there had been several attacks against our church,
Speaker 4: and this one just felt like too much.
Speaker 1: And I said, God, make it stop.
Speaker 4: And I will never forget what the Lord said to
Speaker 4: me in my spirit, not in audible words or not
Speaker 4: in a physical impression, but in a way that he
Speaker 4: gave me a thought that I have carried with me
Speaker 4: to this moment, and I share it with you today.
Speaker 4: The Lord said, I can stop the attack, but if
Speaker 4: I stopped the attack, I have to stop the impact
Speaker 4: that created it. So now you have to decide do
Speaker 4: you want the attack to stop bad enough to give
Speaker 4: up the impact that brought it? Because if you weren't
Speaker 4: baptizing anybody, they wouldn't be making.
Speaker 1: Up stories about your baptisms.
Speaker 4: But maybe what God was doing in this church was
Speaker 4: so unbelievable that the enemy saw it and said, if
Speaker 4: they keep baptizing people like this, there's gonna be a
Speaker 4: water shortage in Charlotte and a people shortage in Hell.
Speaker 4: And so I got a plant, a little lie to
Speaker 4: try to get them to stop doing what God's started.
Speaker 4: But God said, if you want the impact, you got
Speaker 4: a man up and button your pants, and tighten your belt,
Speaker 4: and lace your boots, and open your bible, and open
Speaker 4: your mouth, and take your next breath, and lift your voice,
Speaker 4: and lift your head, and swing your sword in the
Speaker 4: name of the Lord, and realize that he who began
Speaker 4: a good work in you will be faithful to bring
Speaker 4: it full circle till the day when the angels gather,
Speaker 4: the tears shall be burned in the fire. I wanted
Speaker 4: to tell you about that. I wanted to tell you that.
Speaker 4: Now that I'm through it, I'm glad they attacked me.
Speaker 4: I am is set me free of some ego. I'm
Speaker 4: glad that happened. I want it to happen again. I'm
Speaker 4: not asking for another one. I'm not saying if I
Speaker 4: went back in time, I would have walked that path.
Speaker 4: But there is a young man on our staff who
Speaker 4: runs my scriptures every week.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, put a scripture up.
Speaker 4: There, just in anyone, I don't care which, and just
Speaker 4: put it up there, and just put the week appeared,
Speaker 4: We circle the word appeared. Look at that. Why did
Speaker 4: I tell him to do that? Because he started coming
Speaker 4: to the church because he heard about the baptisms on
Speaker 4: the news.
Speaker 1: From the attack. Y'all don't want to mess with me.
Speaker 4: And now he's the one helping me preach the word.
Speaker 4: So God used their words as a weapon.
Speaker 1: Oh God, And.
Speaker 4: Now let's talk about you.
Speaker 5: No weapon forved against you shall prosper.
Speaker 4: And that brings the sun rise.
Speaker 5: This against you, you shall convin this is the heretance
Speaker 5: ut the service of the Lord, and their righteousness is
Speaker 5: from me.
Speaker 4: So one thing the enemy didn't realize when he was
Speaker 4: planting those weeds is that you can plant all the
Speaker 4: weeds you want to devil.
Speaker 1: And let me just remind you this year, this year,
Speaker 1: there will be weeds.
Speaker 4: There will be no weed free week in your year
Speaker 4: this year.
Speaker 1: Sit back down.
Speaker 4: You know how we do these little New Year's slogans
Speaker 4: come alive in twenty five, you know it's gonna well,
Speaker 4: could be said it's gonna get fixed in twenty six. No,
Speaker 4: it's not either. It's gonna be mixed in twenty six.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be some wheat. It's gonna be some weeds.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be some joy. It's gonna be some morning.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be some weeping. It's gonna be some reeping.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be some friends. It's gonna be some enemies.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be some frenemy. You can't tell the difference
Speaker 4: till us over. But don't judge it before God's done
Speaker 4: with it, because God might use some of this stuff
Speaker 4: in your life that you were asking him to remove
Speaker 4: to reveal who He is in your life. And the
Speaker 4: only problem is if you start trying to pluck out
Speaker 4: the weeds, you might mess around and remove the wheat.
Speaker 4: Y'all got enough or keep going? One thing I noticed
Speaker 4: in the text that was really powerful is that the
Speaker 4: Master didn't panic about the attack. He was so cool
Speaker 4: about it.
Speaker 1: Read it again, sir, Now the servants are freaking out
Speaker 1: like we do. Sir, didn't you so good? See it
Speaker 1: in your field? Where's come from? Who did this? What's
Speaker 1: going on? This is the devil? Whose fault is this?
Speaker 1: Only as so many, so many did this?
Speaker 4: And the the Master because he represents God in the parable.
Speaker 4: Look at this, He's like an enemy did this because
Speaker 4: that's what an enemy does. That's what an enemy does,
Speaker 4: That's what a devil does. I read about a book
Speaker 4: that Mel Robbins wrote called the Let Them Theory. I
Speaker 4: didn't read the book, but I like the title. It's
Speaker 4: like people want to talk about you. Let them. Your
Speaker 4: kids want to leave without a coat and it's cold outside.
Speaker 9: Let them. They're not going to die of hypothermia. They
Speaker 9: will figure it out. Kids are resilient.
Speaker 1: They need a little frost bite. Let them.
Speaker 4: And I wonder if we could write one together today
Speaker 4: this year in your life called let him. Don't let
Speaker 4: the attack distract you. You give so much focus on
Speaker 4: how the devil is discouraging you, and now discouragement is
Speaker 4: all you see everywhere.
Speaker 1: You got so many things going right in your life,
Speaker 1: so much wheat, but all you see is weeds. You
Speaker 1: a little.
Speaker 4: Perfectionist, your little type a personality, your little enneagram number
Speaker 4: one just always could be better. Just oh man, I
Speaker 4: gotta get these weeds out this year.
Speaker 1: No you don't. I'll tell you why.
Speaker 4: If Jesus's field wasn't weed free, what makes you think
Speaker 4: yours is gonna be? Jesus couldn't have a weed free field,
Speaker 4: but you can. No, it's gonna be mixed in twenty six.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be mixed in twenty six. It's gonna be
Speaker 4: at eight am in the morning. This is the day
Speaker 4: that the Lord has made. It's gonna be by three
Speaker 4: pm in the afternoon. My God, My God, why hast
Speaker 4: thou forsaken me? It's gonna be wea, It's gonna be weeds.
Speaker 4: And stop judging stuff before God is done with it.
Speaker 4: Stop judging stuff before the appointed time. Stop telling me
Speaker 4: graves into gardens in a good song. Stop telling me
Speaker 4: I tried it, it didn't work. And I'll just use
Speaker 4: a physical example because we can all relate to it.
Speaker 4: When you work out and you haven't worked out in
Speaker 4: a while, not that you would know. The first thing
Speaker 4: that is going to indicate that you successfully completed the
Speaker 4: workout is a feeling of soreness. That will feel like
Speaker 4: Satan himself brought seven spirits to your body and invaded everything.
Speaker 4: But that just means you're growing. So now you're surprised
Speaker 4: that you're sore, but you wanted to grow. If there
Speaker 4: had been no wheat, there would have been no weeds.
Speaker 4: You're praying for God to use you, but you're surprised
Speaker 4: that you feel like you're empty on the inside. That's
Speaker 4: so He can fill you up again. And the promise
Speaker 4: of this year is not that it will be weed free.
Speaker 4: I am not trying to keep a weed.
Speaker 1: Free in one sense, I am, but I am not.
Speaker 4: Trying to keep a problem a weed free. I'm trying
Speaker 4: to be spirit filled this year so that whatever is
Speaker 4: planted around me. And you got to know that the
Speaker 4: Master is very, very methodical in what he plants, and
Speaker 4: he knew from the moment he planted this seed that
Speaker 4: the enemy would attack it. Now, the Master wasn't surprised.
Speaker 4: The servants were, so they said, what do you want
Speaker 4: us to do about it? Do you want us to
Speaker 4: pluck it up? Do you want us to remove it?
Speaker 4: Do you want us to do something about that? I
Speaker 4: was reading a passage in First Kings or maybe Second
Speaker 4: Samuel last week with Graham.
Speaker 1: Which scripture did I give you?
Speaker 4: Justin tewoond Samuel or First Kings, we're reading about David. Yeah,
Speaker 4: one time David was running through his city that he
Speaker 4: used to rule over from his son, Absolom, and his
Speaker 4: son was trying to take his crown from him. And
Speaker 4: the son's name was Absolom, and David actually had to
Speaker 4: go flee from his own son. And as he was
Speaker 4: leaving the city, he approached Bahiram. You couldn't pronounce it either,
Speaker 4: a man from the same clan, a Sau. His family
Speaker 4: came out from there, and so this is one of
Speaker 4: his enemies, right, And his name was Shimmy I, son
Speaker 4: of Gera. And he cursed as he came out, cursing
Speaker 4: at the king. Well, he pelted David in the king's
Speaker 4: officials with stones.
Speaker 1: Now remember David's pretty good with a stone, So this
Speaker 1: is a bad idea.
Speaker 4: Though all the troops in the Special Guard were on
Speaker 4: David's right and left.
Speaker 1: In other words, he could have done something about it.
Speaker 4: And as he cursed, Shimie said, get out, Get out.
Speaker 1: You murderer, you scoundrel.
Speaker 4: The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you
Speaker 4: shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you
Speaker 4: have reigned.
Speaker 1: God's getting you back.
Speaker 4: The Lord has given the kingdom into the hands of
Speaker 4: your son Absalom.
Speaker 1: You have come to ruin because.
Speaker 4: You are a Murderer's planting all these seeds of doubt
Speaker 4: in David's mind. Then Abishai, which one of David's guys,
Speaker 4: said to the King.
Speaker 1: Why should this dead dog curse my lord?
Speaker 4: The King?
Speaker 1: Let me go over and cut off his head.
Speaker 4: But the king, David said, what does this have to
Speaker 4: do with you, sons of zahu Ayah. If he's cursing
Speaker 4: because the Lord said to him, curse.
Speaker 1: David, who can ask why do you do this?
Speaker 4: David then said to Abishai and all his officials, my son,
Speaker 4: my own flesh and blood, is trying to kill me.
Speaker 4: In other words, I got bigger problems. I got bigger
Speaker 4: things to deal with than this dude. And I came
Speaker 4: to remind you. You've got bigger priorities. You've got too
Speaker 4: much to do to be offended by them. You've got
Speaker 4: bigger fish to fry than this guy, whose name I
Speaker 4: can't even pronounce. You're David, how much more than this Benjamin?
Speaker 4: Leave him alone, let him curse. You want us to
Speaker 4: do something about it, now, let him. Let him curse,
Speaker 4: for the Lord has told him to. It may be, oh,
Speaker 4: this is an anointed verse. If you've been under attack
Speaker 4: and the enemy is pelting you with frocks and stones,
Speaker 4: and it may even be coming at the expense of
Speaker 4: your own dignity, and you are asking yourself, what do I.
Speaker 1: Do about this attack? David said, it may be that
Speaker 1: the Lord will look upon my.
Speaker 4: Misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of
Speaker 4: his curse today. In other words, what David is saying
Speaker 4: is that he cannot curse what God has already blessed,
Speaker 4: so let him. He cannot destroy what has God's dna.
Speaker 4: He cannot steal what God has spoke. He cannot negate
Speaker 4: what God has established. He cannot cancel out what God
Speaker 4: has called. How many different ways do you need me
Speaker 4: to say it to get you to see it won't work?
Speaker 4: Let him come, let the flood rage. God will lift
Speaker 4: up a standard. It won't work. Don't let the attack
Speaker 4: distract you. Don't let it get you out of your character.
Speaker 4: Don't let it get you out of your joy. Don't
Speaker 4: let it get you out of your peace. Sit there
Speaker 4: and whistle a worship song. If you can't sing one,
Speaker 4: lift your toe. If you can't lift your hands, do
Speaker 4: a body weight squad. If you can't do a real one,
Speaker 4: do something. But whatever you do, remember that if it's
Speaker 4: started with God, it is sustained by God, and there
Speaker 4: is nothing the enemy can plant. Sheremiah said, before I
Speaker 4: was born, he called being set me apart. So that
Speaker 4: means I know the enemy has been busy in your life.
Speaker 4: He's been speaking to you. He's been sabotaging you. He's
Speaker 4: been distracting you, trying to get you off your course,
Speaker 4: trying to get you out of your flow, trying to
Speaker 4: get you out of your calling, trying to get you
Speaker 4: out of your nature, trying to get you out of
Speaker 4: your kindness, trying to bring you back to bitterness, trying
Speaker 4: to plant.
Speaker 1: Weeds where there's wheat.
Speaker 4: But there's one thing that the enemy should have realized
Speaker 4: that he didn't realize, and he would have saved his
Speaker 4: energy and realized that the weeds weren't worth planting. Because
Speaker 4: you've got to remember, no matter.
Speaker 10: What the enemy plants in your life, God got there first,
Speaker 10: and he prepares a.
Speaker 1: Table for you in the presence of your enemies.
Speaker 4: So let the devil try, because it must be that
Speaker 4: if God isn't removing those weeds, how many can picture some.
Speaker 1: Weeds that are in your life?
Speaker 4: As I speak this word, Every weed free person, run
Speaker 4: to this altar right now, because you have the weed
Speaker 4: of delusion?
Speaker 1: Am I right man?
Speaker 4: And the one thing about it, Graham, check this out. Gee,
Speaker 4: the type of weeds that were growing, you couldn't tell
Speaker 4: that they weren't wheat until they had grown a little bit.
Speaker 4: They looked exactly the same until the head came up
Speaker 4: and then they're like, oh no, this is not wheat,
Speaker 4: this is a weed.
Speaker 1: And sometimes you don't know. Sometimes you don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: never going back to the way I was. Look at
Speaker 1: what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to
Speaker 1: the way.
Speaker 4: A little the video and you know, the kids just
Speaker 4: screaming at the camera, But what if they were singing it,
Speaker 4: like like just for real though, like, look at what
Speaker 4: the Lord has done.
Speaker 11: I'm never going back, but I'm still gonna cuts. You
Speaker 11: know what I'm saying, Look here what the Lord has done.
Speaker 11: I'm never going back, But I still get drunk because
Speaker 11: what we're saying is, look here what the Lord has done.
Speaker 11: I'm never going back, but I'm still gonna lusk.
Speaker 1: You know, just whatever y'all struggle with. The fact is.
Speaker 4: What's really going on in our hearts sometimes doesn't match
Speaker 4: what's coming out of our mouths. And we really do
Speaker 4: want to grow, and we really do want to be free,
Speaker 4: and we really do want to be more loving.
Speaker 10: But the enemy isn't going to stand by and watch
Speaker 10: you grow without attempting to.
Speaker 4: Plant something alongside your destiny that will disrupt it.
Speaker 1: I just want to remind you that the attack is
Speaker 1: a distraction.
Speaker 4: And God knew when he planted you that what he
Speaker 4: gave you was stronger than what would come against you. Right,
Speaker 4: look at what the Lord has done in your life.
Speaker 4: Look how far he has already brought you. How many
Speaker 4: can say I have a testimony. God has done so
Speaker 4: much in my life.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. You would say that, but it came with weeds,
Speaker 1: didn't it.
Speaker 4: And you have been believing the lie lately that you
Speaker 4: have got to get rid of all the weeds before
Speaker 4: you can enjoy the weak.
Speaker 1: It's a lie. I come against it.
Speaker 4: I break the spirit of depression off of your soul
Speaker 4: that has been telling you that you cannot worship while
Speaker 4: you still have weeds.
Speaker 1: We all have weeds.
Speaker 4: Surprise you what the person next to you is struggling with.
Speaker 4: And just because you can't see the weeds doesn't mean
Speaker 4: they're not real. But have you come to a point
Speaker 4: in your life where all you are seeing in this
Speaker 4: season is the weeds? Have you got one kid that
Speaker 4: is in trouble and you have failed to appreciate the
Speaker 4: two that are doing good.
Speaker 1: That means you have become two weed focused.
Speaker 4: Have you got nine things in your body that are
Speaker 4: working well, but the one thing that is not working
Speaker 4: right just causes you to obsess and you are googling
Speaker 4: every possible thing that might be wrong with you and
Speaker 4: taking out every life insurance policy because you got a
Speaker 4: headache one Thursday. Are you letting one headache really make
Speaker 4: you stop believing that God is my healer and that
Speaker 4: God is my sustainer and that God is my source.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you whatever the enemy plants in your life
Speaker 4: is not more powerful than what God planted, because the
Speaker 4: Bible said he planted good seed.
Speaker 1: Somebody say I'm good seed. I'm good seed.
Speaker 4: And all things work together for the good of those
Speaker 4: who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 4: So this week I want you to think a little
Speaker 4: bit less about the weeds and a little.
Speaker 1: Bit more about the wheat.
Speaker 4: Because when the passage starts, we've got wheat and we've
Speaker 4: got weeds. But at the end of the passage, one
Speaker 4: is going to be burned and one is going to
Speaker 4: be in the barn. And I came to declare today
Speaker 4: the fire will not burn you. You're going to the barn, baby,
Speaker 4: you belong to God. You are God's child, You are
Speaker 4: God's planting, You are God's Oh, you are God's master Peace.
Speaker 4: I belong to God. Try your best, devil, it won't work.
Speaker 4: As a matter of fact, my God might use the
Speaker 4: thing that you are using to curse me and bless
Speaker 4: me even better. God might do something out of this.
Speaker 4: So go ahead, hit me with your best shot. But
Speaker 4: everything you do hats to go through the cross of
Speaker 4: Jesus Christ, and he began a good word, will be
Speaker 4: faithful to complete it.
Speaker 1: Stop judging stuff.
Speaker 4: Before God is done. I asked one parent the other day.
Speaker 4: They said, the kid that gave me the most trouble
Speaker 4: ended up bringing me the most blessings. You can't judge
Speaker 4: this thing while it's still growing. You can't label.
Speaker 1: This thing while it's still in process.
Speaker 4: You cannot categorize your life based on the way you
Speaker 4: feel right now. And you cannot quit eleven days into
Speaker 4: January just because it's mixed.
Speaker 1: In twenty six.
Speaker 4: Naw, baby, the Lord is at my right hand. The
Speaker 4: Lord stood by my side. Many deserted me. God never did.
Speaker 1: I got battles, I God blessed.
Speaker 4: I got weeds. I got weeds, I got goodness. I've
Speaker 4: got mercy, and they follow me all the days of
Speaker 4: my life. So all I wanted to tell you today
Speaker 4: is don't let the attack distract you. That's what it is.
Speaker 4: It's a distraction. You have been growing. You've got what
Speaker 4: it takes to grow. You've got what it takes to
Speaker 4: make this decision. You have got what it takes to
Speaker 4: do the job. You've got what it takes to learn
Speaker 4: the skills. You've got what it takes to do the
Speaker 4: inner work and get some healing.
Speaker 1: You've got what it takes because you've got God.
Speaker 4: You're in the field He wanted you to be in,
Speaker 4: and God knew there was going to be a fight
Speaker 4: when he puts you in that field.
Speaker 1: Don't tell me he didn't. He's God. I'm built for it.
Speaker 1: High five three. People say you're built for it, too,
Speaker 1: built for it, Yeah, man, built for it.
Speaker 4: You know what I almost called the message, bro, I
Speaker 4: almost called it, don't burn your bread. Don't burn your bread.
Speaker 4: The wheat has the potential in it to be bread
Speaker 4: if you don't pluck it up and throw it into
Speaker 4: the fire, if you don't give up on what it
Speaker 4: can be. Because of what it is right now and
Speaker 4: what's against it. Don't burn your bread. I didn't call
Speaker 4: it that. I almost called the message this is my
Speaker 4: other almost called the message. Look at your neighbors, say
Speaker 4: don't pluck it up.
Speaker 1: But I decided that I would just tell you stand
Speaker 1: to your feet. Don't let the attack.
Speaker 4: Distract you, because if you don't let it distract you,
Speaker 4: it can't destroy you.
Speaker 1: The word of God is incorruptible. See you've been born
Speaker 1: again by imperishable sea.
Speaker 4: Don't let it distract you. You make an advance, you
Speaker 4: get attacked, You get attacked, you get distracted, You get distracted,
Speaker 4: you get destroyed. But if you can focus on where
Speaker 4: God is growing you put your hand over your heart.
Speaker 4: Say this is good soil. Say this is God's soil.
Speaker 4: There's something that God spoke to you that you haven't
Speaker 4: really been able to get in touch with lately because
Speaker 4: you've been so distracted.
Speaker 1: You have been so distracted.
Speaker 4: It has been a long long time since you've been
Speaker 4: able to have clarity about what God spoke to you.
Speaker 4: And you found your broken focus leading to a lack
Speaker 4: of peace now, as it always happens. But if we
Speaker 4: can get back to the God who put it in
Speaker 4: you to begin with, you are going to survive whatever
Speaker 4: attack the enemy sins against it. It can't be stronger
Speaker 4: than God. It can't be stronger than his word. It
Speaker 4: can't be better than him. It can't be bigger than him.
Speaker 1: It's not possible. But you've been distracted. So now, Lord,
Speaker 1: our hearts are turn to you. Yes, Lord, our hearts
Speaker 1: are yours.
Speaker 4: Our lives are yours, our dreams are yours, our plans
Speaker 4: are yours.
Speaker 1: Our future is yours. I thank you for where you
Speaker 1: planted me as a seed. God. I thank you for
Speaker 1: where you planted each and every one of these people.
Speaker 4: I think for the gifts you gave them, the abilities
Speaker 4: you gave them, the talent you gave them, the person
Speaker 4: that you gave them, the unique struggles and challenges that
Speaker 4: have formed them and forged them in the fire of
Speaker 4: trials to make them strong.
Speaker 1: And ready for what they're going through.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: They will not burn. They'll be light those Hebrew boys
Speaker 1: who went.
Speaker 4: Into the fire and said, even if God doesn't get
Speaker 4: us out, he'll join us right up in it.
Speaker 1: Because I'm good seed. I'm good seed. Lord.
Speaker 4: I want to pray today for the person who has
Speaker 4: never placed their faith in you. Would you just join
Speaker 4: me in this prayer as a church, I'm going to
Speaker 4: pray for someone who needs to give their life to
Speaker 4: Jesus Christ. And right now it is very possible that
Speaker 4: the reason God brought you here today, or the reason
Speaker 4: that you joined us online, is for this moment. If
Speaker 4: you see, it's not by might nor by power that
Speaker 4: we become strong in the Lord.
Speaker 1: No, the seed was good because of who planted it.
Speaker 4: And it's time for you to stop playing around with
Speaker 4: your life and waiting on one day when it's more
Speaker 4: convenient to live for God.
Speaker 12: No, now is your moment of salvation. Today is your
Speaker 12: moment of change. And I don't want you to face
Speaker 12: the fire of judgment. I don't want you to live
Speaker 12: your life apart from God, and neither does God.
Speaker 4: And that's why He sent Jesus, the perfect seed, the
Speaker 4: one who gave his life on the cross and rose
Speaker 4: again that you could have life.
Speaker 1: And now, in this moment, I want to pray with you.
Speaker 4: You know, the Bible says that if you confess with
Speaker 4: your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your
Speaker 4: heart that God raised him from the dead.
Speaker 1: You will be saved. It's not by works it's by grace.
Speaker 1: You are saved through faith. And right now, if you'll
Speaker 1: pray this prayer and mean it with your heart, God
Speaker 1: will hear you.
Speaker 4: God will save you, and you will be born again,
Speaker 4: and this can be your new beginning. We're going to
Speaker 4: pray out loud, repeating after me as a church for
Speaker 4: the benefit of those who are coming to Christ in
Speaker 4: this moment. Repeat after me, Heavenly Father, today is my
Speaker 4: day of salvation. I am a sinner in need of
Speaker 4: a savior. And I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Speaker 4: Son of God and the savior of the world. And
Speaker 4: today I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I
Speaker 4: believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose
Speaker 4: again to give me life.
Speaker 1: I receive this new life. This is my new beginning.
Speaker 1: I am a child of God.
Speaker 4: On the count of three, shoot your hand up. If
Speaker 4: you prayed that one, two, three, I want to celebrate
Speaker 4: with you.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. That's beautiful, Praise the Lord.
Speaker 4: Online.
Speaker 1: You could just put.
Speaker 4: It in the comments I received. Jesus.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's clap our hands all over the room.
Speaker 4: Everybody, everybody, everybody, come on, Let's thank God.
Speaker 8: For all the decisions that were made today.
Speaker 1: God is so good.
Speaker 4: Well, campus, pastors, you can have it. Grab hands with
Speaker 4: the person next to you here, Valentine, look at him
Speaker 4: and tell them don't pluck it up, because God is
Speaker 4: not through with you yet another day to be in
Speaker 4: the presence of God. Come on, Holly, I ain't got
Speaker 4: no hand to hold. It's gonna be an amazing year
Speaker 4: in your life. Ben Yeah, God's gonna give you wisdom, strength, encouragement, stamina.
Speaker 1: God's gonna do that for each and every one of
Speaker 1: these people that we pastor.
Speaker 4: To look at your neighbor, Look at your neighbor and say,
Speaker 4: God's gonna do that for you too. Tell him he's
Speaker 4: gonna meet you, he's gonna fill you, he's gonna carry you,
Speaker 4: he's going to keep you. Tell him you're gonna grow.
Speaker 4: Come on, Tell him like a trainer, you're gonna grow.
Speaker 4: Tell them like they need to do two more reps.
Speaker 4: Tell them you're gonna grow. Look at them and shall say,
Speaker 4: don't pluck it. Oh, don't let the attack distract you.
Speaker 1: It's a sign you're on course. It's a sign you're significant.
Speaker 4: It's a sign God's got you. And now unto him,
Speaker 4: lift your hands, who is able to do immeasurably more
Speaker 4: than you ask, think or imagine, according to his power,
Speaker 4: Whose power, his power that works mightily in us. To
Speaker 4: him be gloried through Christ Jesus in the Church. Now
Speaker 4: and forever, Say amen, same man again, goodbye, see you
Speaker 4: next week. Don't fuck it up.
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
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 2: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 4: God bless you.