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: I was led to Second Corinthians chapter one, verse six
Speaker 2: through ten, and time permitting, we might get verse eleven,
Speaker 2: but we will have to see if we have anything
Speaker 2: left in the time budget before we decide that. And
Speaker 2: I didn't start with this text this week, but this
Speaker 2: is eventually the place where I felt like the Lord
Speaker 2: wanted to spend a little bit of time. If we
Speaker 2: verse six, Second Corinthians, Chapter one, Apostle Paul writing, are afflicted,
Speaker 2: it is for your comfort and salvation.
Speaker 1: Everything I go through serves a purpose.
Speaker 2: And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort
Speaker 2: which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings
Speaker 2: that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for
Speaker 2: we know come on, somebody, shall we know.
Speaker 1: Sound good? Shouting that you sound rested?
Speaker 2: For we know that as you share in our sufferings,
Speaker 2: you will also share in our comfort, For we do
Speaker 2: not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, of
Speaker 2: the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so
Speaker 2: utterly burdened beyond our strength that we just spared of
Speaker 2: life itself.
Speaker 1: Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of.
Speaker 2: Death, but that even when it got so hard, I
Speaker 2: felt helpless and hopeless. That was to make us rely
Speaker 2: not on ourselves but on God.
Speaker 1: I found my foundation.
Speaker 2: When I went through a shaking, so that I would
Speaker 2: trust Him who raises the dead. He delivered us from
Speaker 2: such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. Why
Speaker 2: he's still God, So on him we have set our
Speaker 2: hope that he will deliver us again.
Speaker 1: I want you to give your neighbor my.
Speaker 2: Sermon title, but I want you to have a little
Speaker 2: conversation with him to set the context for it. Tell him, neighbor,
Speaker 2: it's kind of crazy in the world these days. There's
Speaker 2: a lot going on. The stakes are high.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: I want you to answer what they just said to you.
Speaker 2: Look at them, and give him my title. Tell him
Speaker 2: I know, but I'm not nervous.
Speaker 1: Try your other neighbor out. Tell him I know. I
Speaker 1: watched the news I saw what.
Speaker 2: Your cousin Jimmy said on Facebook about a conspiracy theory.
Speaker 2: Tell him about I'm not nervous, nervous. I am not nervous.
Speaker 2: I refuse to be, not gonna be, not about to be.
Speaker 2: God is too great and he's been too good for
Speaker 2: me to be nervous. Heymen, I feel like I preached already.
Speaker 1: You may be seated.
Speaker 2: Paul would like to set the record straight. There are
Speaker 2: too many rumors circulating. There's too much noise and not
Speaker 2: enough signal. Come on, somebody. We are drowning in opinions
Speaker 2: and we don't have a drop of truth. Such was
Speaker 2: the case in court. They're talking about poor Paul. All
Speaker 2: he ever did was preach Jesus Christ and help them
Speaker 2: and minister to them.
Speaker 1: And these other preachers are.
Speaker 2: Seizing a political opportunity to run a smear campaign against
Speaker 2: poor Paul that the NRA would have been envious of.
Speaker 2: That the Democratic Party couldn't even come up with. I mean,
Speaker 2: neither one on the right or the left could do
Speaker 2: any better than these opponents of Paul were doing to
Speaker 2: discredit him. And he wants to talk to the church
Speaker 2: that he loves from his heart and set the record straight.
Speaker 2: In other words, he wants them to hear it straight
Speaker 2: from the source. It does make a difference where you
Speaker 2: get your information from.
Speaker 1: It really does.
Speaker 2: A strange thing that we live in an age where
Speaker 2: all information is deemed equal because it takes up the
Speaker 2: same amount of space on our timeline, and so we
Speaker 2: don't know whether we're listening to somebody who knows what
Speaker 2: they're talking about, or whether there is a commercialized interest
Speaker 2: that is manipulating the information. It is safe to assume
Speaker 2: that most of what we are hearing is diluted, watered down,
Speaker 2: or polluted added to and it's really kind of hard
Speaker 2: to even trust what you hear these days. Paul was
Speaker 2: frustrated about that, and in much civil turmoil under oppression,
Speaker 2: not only political oppression, but religious oppression. He writes back
Speaker 2: home to the church, and he wants to tell.
Speaker 1: Them not what.
Speaker 2: Others say about his situation, but to allow them to
Speaker 2: see the situation and to hear it straight from the source,
Speaker 2: Straight from the source, he says in verse eight, And
Speaker 2: this could be a whole sermon in and of itself.
Speaker 2: We do not want you to be ignorant. And he's
Speaker 2: setting us up here a little bit. His assumption is
Speaker 2: that there are some things that we know, that we
Speaker 2: think we know, that we don't really know, and some
Speaker 2: things that we need to know. He uses here a
Speaker 2: Greek word, and I wrote it down phonetically, So would
Speaker 2: it mispronounce it for you? Oh, it's translated in my
Speaker 2: Bible here ignorant. On the screen, it's translated in a
Speaker 2: more updated version unaware, And it's translated different ways because
Speaker 2: it's a difficult concept to pin down.
Speaker 1: Paul is speaking to.
Speaker 2: A group of people who have heard a lot, but
Speaker 2: in spite of all the information that they have received,
Speaker 2: they still know very little about the facts. In spite
Speaker 2: of all the access that they have, in spite of
Speaker 2: all the blogs that they've read, in spite of all
Speaker 2: the twenty four to seven news stations, what they're hearing
Speaker 2: isn't very true to reality because they're not getting it
Speaker 2: from the source. So he explains the situation, sourcing it
Speaker 2: with the reality, because he doesn't want them to be ignorant. However, Oh,
Speaker 2: does it necessarily mean uninformed? Rather, it means more likely
Speaker 2: given the Greek shade of meeting misinformed.
Speaker 1: Can I teach you a little bit today?
Speaker 2: I figured that you would be excited to hear the
Speaker 2: word of God, because you have to hear everybody else.
Speaker 1: Talk all the time.
Speaker 2: So let's take a little time and talk about the
Speaker 2: word of God. He said, it's not that you haven't
Speaker 2: heard things, or that you have not been exposed to
Speaker 2: statistics that concerns me. It's just that I'm afraid that
Speaker 2: what you're hearing and what you're seeing is so far
Speaker 2: removed from the source that it is not pure in
Speaker 2: its essence. And I don't want you to be ignorant.
Speaker 2: Now all ignorant, it says, not created equal. There are
Speaker 2: different levels of dumb.
Speaker 1: Am I right? Am? I right about it? There's an
Speaker 1: innocent ignorance.
Speaker 2: Some things you haven't had the opportunity to learn yet.
Speaker 2: I hate when somebody tries to correct my five year
Speaker 2: old Abby from the way she says certain phrases that
Speaker 2: I think are adorable.
Speaker 1: She's got the rest of her life to get it right.
Speaker 1: Would you shut up and.
Speaker 2: Let my daughter call it a vacuum cleaner. I prefer
Speaker 2: vacuum cleaner. She called a vacuum cleaner the rest of
Speaker 2: her life. She's only got a few years to call
Speaker 2: it a vacuum Get off my girl's speech and let
Speaker 2: her say it how she wants to say it. It's cute,
Speaker 2: it's beautiful, it's adorable to me. I like it, and
Speaker 2: that's fine. There is another type of ignorance, agne O.
Speaker 2: This would be when you have a an indifference that
Speaker 2: leads to ignorance you.
Speaker 1: Don't care enough to find.
Speaker 2: Out personally, this is the way I feel about all
Speaker 2: of the people who eat super healthy. They come to
Speaker 2: me and they want to tell me all of the
Speaker 2: chemicals that are in my food. And I know it
Speaker 2: probably shouldn't address this. There's enough controversy in the world
Speaker 2: today as it is without me adding to it. And
Speaker 2: I know somebody is gonna email me or send me
Speaker 2: a book about the seventeen foods that you're cancer and
Speaker 2: the foods that are riding my brain. But I need
Speaker 2: to let you know if the steroids will make the
Speaker 2: chicken bigger before Holly fries it. I am for the steroids.
Speaker 2: That might make me a horrible person. I might burn
Speaker 2: in hell for saying this in church, but I.
Speaker 1: Just don't care.
Speaker 2: Touch somebody say I just don't care. There are some
Speaker 2: things I just don't care about. I just want to eat.
Speaker 2: I do not care some things. I just got to
Speaker 2: be honest with you. I just don't care. I am
Speaker 2: amazed that some of you men with your fantasy football.
Speaker 2: I am amazed how much you know about another man's
Speaker 2: ankle and whether or not he's going to play, and
Speaker 2: how that is going to affect one hundred dollars that.
Speaker 1: You might win twelve hours a week's studying it.
Speaker 2: You've been at church once in the last six weeks.
Speaker 2: Crazy self, ignorant about the things of God. But you
Speaker 2: can tell me statistics on somebody in some tight pants
Speaker 2: around there.
Speaker 1: That's what Paul's talking about. He said, I want you
Speaker 1: to be ignorant.
Speaker 2: I don't want you to be those kinds of Christians
Speaker 2: that just don't care. You don't even take time to
Speaker 2: find out when they talk about climate change. You won't
Speaker 2: even look into it because Jesus coming back on a
Speaker 2: horse anyway, and he's gonna nukee this whole place.
Speaker 1: There ain't nothing we can do.
Speaker 2: You know, you sound crazy when you talk like that.
Speaker 2: You sound so ignorant. Paul says, I don't want you
Speaker 2: to have that kind of hope. I don't want you
Speaker 2: to have this cotton candy Christianity where you are ignorant
Speaker 2: of the afflictions. No, I want you to know some things.
Speaker 2: But the most dangerous kind of ignorance is not innocent
Speaker 2: ignorance or indifferent ignorance. Who I'm really scared of are
Speaker 2: the people who have that confident ignorance, not uninformed, misinformed,
Speaker 2: and they think they know everything about something.
Speaker 1: That they know nothing about.
Speaker 2: And perhaps half of maturity is coming to the place
Speaker 2: where you know that you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm I appreciate, all right, I love my children.
Speaker 2: But when Elijah said to me yesterday, and I've heard
Speaker 2: a lot about the teenage yeers and Elijah's eleven, and
Speaker 2: a lot of people have tried to create a sense
Speaker 2: of fear and dread in me regarding the teenageers, because
Speaker 2: you know, I'll say I really enjoy being a dad,
Speaker 2: and they go, oh good, back to me on that
Speaker 2: when they're fourteen, and we'll see how much you love
Speaker 2: in big boy, And.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 2: And I'm not planning on preaching my parenting series till
Speaker 2: I'm about seventy five.
Speaker 1: But Elijah, I got a taste of.
Speaker 2: What this rebellion may look like when we were pulling
Speaker 2: into the garage the other day, and this boy looks
Speaker 2: at me confidently and says, Daddy, I need you to know.
Speaker 2: As one of the greatest albums from the nineteen nineties
Speaker 2: plays on my car stereo, Counting Crows, August and Everything After,
Speaker 2: with the soothing, soulful lyrics of Adam Durretz blaring on
Speaker 2: the speakers, and he has the nerve to look at
Speaker 2: me and say, Daddy, I hate to break it to you,
Speaker 2: but the music from your day really isn't very good.
Speaker 2: Said it with swagger too, like he worked for Rolling
Speaker 2: Stone magazine. It's really not that good. I hit the brakes.
Speaker 2: We weren't even in the garage yet I hit the brakes.
Speaker 1: I said, what.
Speaker 2: Because you can question me as a preacher, you can
Speaker 2: tell me I'm getting too old to wear my jeans
Speaker 2: kind of tight. You can say a lot of things
Speaker 2: to me, boy, But when you talk about my music,
Speaker 2: I said what He said, Yeah, the music in your
Speaker 2: day didn't have loops.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, let's take a little lesson. Do
Speaker 1: you remember, and I gave him some history. Do you
Speaker 1: remember when I took you.
Speaker 2: To see Weird Al Yankovic at Oven's auditorium, and he
Speaker 2: was singing Amish Paradise, that song.
Speaker 1: That you thought was so clever. And then I had
Speaker 1: to let.
Speaker 2: Him know that before there could be an Amish Paradise,
Speaker 2: there had to be a coolio. There had to be
Speaker 2: a coolio, and so I played him.
Speaker 1: I took him to the source material. But before there
Speaker 1: could be a coolio.
Speaker 2: And this is where some of you are ignorant, there
Speaker 2: had to be a Stevie, because those strings on Gangster's
Speaker 2: Paradise would not have been there without Stevie. Wonder See,
Speaker 2: there's always something before what you enjoy that enabled what
Speaker 2: you're a part of. That's why I can't stand people
Speaker 2: who complain about this country who don't even know the
Speaker 2: first thing about the price that was paid for you
Speaker 2: to have the.
Speaker 1: Right to express your opinion that you don't like it.
Speaker 1: Come on, touch three.
Speaker 2: People say, get in the know, get in the know,
Speaker 2: Get in the know. Come on, Blakeney, get in the know,
Speaker 2: Come on, Guston, get in the know.
Speaker 1: I know, Paul said, I don't want you to.
Speaker 2: I don't want I want you to be misinformed.
Speaker 1: About the price that was paid.
Speaker 2: I don't want you to be misinformed about the situation.
Speaker 2: I don't want you to think that the hope that
Speaker 2: you enjoy came cheap. It didn't. It came hard. For
Speaker 2: an ignorant hope is no hope at all. Nothing stable
Speaker 2: about a hope that has its head buried in the sand.
Speaker 1: I hear you, Pastor Rob Parsley.
Speaker 2: Anyone can sing a tune on a clear day at noon,
Speaker 2: God give me a song at midnight.
Speaker 1: That's what Pastor Rob Parsley used to say. I like
Speaker 1: that Paul said, my hope came.
Speaker 2: The hard way, because if you just read verse ten
Speaker 2: of this, it sounds a lot like some kind of
Speaker 2: campaign slogan, do you know the slogan and sound by
Speaker 2: kind of mentality.
Speaker 1: That people get over time.
Speaker 2: It's when we don't understand the source of our hope
Speaker 2: that we've again to sound kind of silly. And this
Speaker 2: is when people say, well, you Christians, you're just waiting
Speaker 2: on the apocalypse. You Christians. You don't even vote, you
Speaker 2: just pray. It's an ignorant imitation of hope. It's not confidence,
Speaker 2: it's complacency that you don't know. And Paul wants them
Speaker 2: to know. He wants them to know what he went through.
Speaker 2: He wants them to know what he's been through and
Speaker 2: when he comes out on the other side.
Speaker 1: You might have known this. When I read the text,
Speaker 1: it shouted real good, and you were getting fired up
Speaker 1: here a Valentine.
Speaker 2: I can't speak for the other campuses, but we almost
Speaker 2: took off when I read verse ten. He delivered us
Speaker 2: from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.
Speaker 2: It got us excited to think about that on him.
Speaker 2: We have set our hope. Does anybody have a hope?
Speaker 2: By the way, anybody have a hope? Anybody have a hope.
Speaker 2: Anybody have a hope, regardless of the polls, regardless of
Speaker 2: the platforms, regardless of the pondus.
Speaker 1: Anybody have a hope. Anybody have a hope.
Speaker 2: Anybody have a hope, a hope, a living hope. I
Speaker 2: have a hope that'sat my hope on the fact that
Speaker 2: he will deliver me again.
Speaker 1: He'd been with me the last forty years. Kelly, you back,
Speaker 1: why not forty one? Why not?
Speaker 2: But you can only say that if you know where
Speaker 2: this hope comes from. It only means something if you know,
Speaker 2: if you know not, if you heard not, if you
Speaker 2: thought not, if you.
Speaker 1: Wish I have Oh, he will.
Speaker 2: Deliver us again, you know, so let's make the campaign hats.
Speaker 2: You know, he will deliver us again. If we're representing
Speaker 2: the Kingdom of God and if Jesus Christ is our candidate,
Speaker 2: he will deliver us again.
Speaker 1: And the world looks at that and they say, really
Speaker 1: you believe that? Really? Yeah, I believe that. Totally believe that.
Speaker 1: How do you know? How do you know? Why aren't
Speaker 1: you nervous?
Speaker 4: You know this?
Speaker 2: Everybody is so nervous right now, just incredibly nervous.
Speaker 1: They're either ignorant or nervous.
Speaker 2: They're either in Canada or they're nervous.
Speaker 1: Just nervous. What if she and what if he?
Speaker 2: You know, I'm gonna go press that button, but I
Speaker 2: might press it with a blindfold on, just to press it.
Speaker 1: I don't even know.
Speaker 2: Nervous, nervous, they might take my guns. Nervous, they might
Speaker 2: not take my guns. Nervous, you know, Nervous, he might
Speaker 2: really build that thing. Nervous, she might, she might take
Speaker 2: away our civil liberties, possa.
Speaker 5: Hey, hey, hey, I have a hope. But it's a
Speaker 5: hard boiled hope. It's not an unaware hope. I see
Speaker 5: what's going on.
Speaker 1: Out there. I know somebody saying, I know, I'm.
Speaker 2: Not uneducated, I'm not backwoods. I'm not waiting for the
Speaker 2: clouds to split so I can go to glory Land.
Speaker 1: And shout my troubles over. I got troubles right here,
Speaker 1: and I'm in them.
Speaker 2: And it concerns me about our communities, and it concerns
Speaker 2: me about our schools, and it concerns me about our
Speaker 2: police officers and the way that they're treated. And it
Speaker 2: concerns me about certain communities in the way that they're treated.
Speaker 2: And it concerns me that people are marginalized. And I'm
Speaker 2: concerned about abortion, and I'm concerned about many things. And
Speaker 2: some people get frustrated because.
Speaker 1: You won't get nervous. What we're gonna do? What are
Speaker 1: gonna do? Sound like a life as servant. We're surrounded.
Speaker 1: Look out there, man, what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2: You better call down something, You better curse somebody, You
Speaker 2: better pray something, you better shoot something. You gotta ball,
Speaker 2: you got an arrow. What we're gonna do, what we're
Speaker 2: gonna do. We can just stand by what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2: Where we're gonna We're gonna nerve nervous nervous and poststeps
Speaker 2: into all this and say.
Speaker 1: I was beat thirty nine times by the Jews.
Speaker 2: Don't talk to me like you know something when you
Speaker 2: don't know anything.
Speaker 1: Don't talk to me about twenty.
Speaker 2: One pilots when you don't appreciate Nirvana. Don't talk to
Speaker 2: me when you haven't seen the source of my hope.
Speaker 2: This is a hope that has been through hell, and
Speaker 2: it comes from heaven, and the world didn't give it,
Speaker 2: and the world can't take it away, and it doesn't
Speaker 2: come from the right, and it doesn't come from the left.
Speaker 2: I have set my hope on one who is above
Speaker 2: it all.
Speaker 1: I set my hope on him.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't put my hope on a party's platform right now.
Speaker 2: I don't think it can hold the weight of your hope.
Speaker 2: But if you're looking for a rock, Paul says, I
Speaker 2: have a hope.
Speaker 1: But don't.
Speaker 2: Don't be confused. I'm concerned. I'm concerned, but I'm not nervous.
Speaker 2: I have this piece that passes understanding. I called Tina
Speaker 2: last week. Her son might die. She said, I'm broken.
Speaker 2: I'm devastated. He's twenty three. I'm uncertain, she said, But
Speaker 2: somehow I have peace. That's what Paul's talking about. We're
Speaker 2: taking him to every doctor that we can. We will
Speaker 2: spare no expense to try to get him well. I
Speaker 2: can't imagine what life would be like without him.
Speaker 1: I'm a mom.
Speaker 2: There's nothing I want to protect more than the life
Speaker 2: of my son. But there's a certain element of this
Speaker 2: where I just have to turn it over. It doesn't
Speaker 2: mean I'm disengaged. I'm engaged. I will cast my vote.
Speaker 2: I Am not going to be apathetic and abstain because
Speaker 2: I don't like the options that the culture I'm a
Speaker 2: part of creating.
Speaker 1: Have presented to me. Hello, but I'm not nervous. I'm hurting.
Speaker 1: I'm hurting. There are some things that broke my heart.
Speaker 1: I was utterly burdened.
Speaker 2: Paul says his words, I'm burden, but I set my
Speaker 2: hope and my hope isn't shaken.
Speaker 1: Although my heart is hurting. He sounds kind of crazy.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm utterly burden. Watch how bad not I lost
Speaker 2: the night of sleep. I was beyond my strength. You've
Speaker 2: ever been there before. I don't know what to do.
Speaker 2: I don't know which way it's gonna go. I have
Speaker 2: no idea how to rebuild this one. I don't think
Speaker 2: I can get this one back. It's been too much time.
Speaker 2: This one's beyond my control. I didn't see this one coming.
Speaker 2: I was so far out there, beyond what I knew
Speaker 2: to do, that I despaired of life as self.
Speaker 1: I didn't even think I was gonna make.
Speaker 2: It to see another day. I wondered what I ever
Speaker 2: preach again? I wondered, can we bounce back from this one.
Speaker 1: I'm burdened, but I'm not nervous.
Speaker 2: I'm concerned, I'm involved, I'm praying, doing my part, but
Speaker 2: I'm not nervous.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it so much that I
Speaker 1: went all up and down the Bible.
Speaker 2: I wanted to interview some other people who might be
Speaker 2: able to corroborate Paul's theory of hope. That you can
Speaker 2: be burdened and not nervous, That you can be broke
Speaker 2: and not nervous, That you can lose your job and
Speaker 2: not be nervous, that you can find drugs in your
Speaker 2: kids room and be concerned and be involved and beat
Speaker 2: them half to death, but not be nervous. Come on,
Speaker 2: so I asked, David, Really, you gotta fight Goliath.
Speaker 1: David, nobody wants to fight Goliath. He is the Philistine
Speaker 1: champion from God. His botty armor weighs more than you. Boy.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, you have no fighting experience
Speaker 2: nor a military title.
Speaker 1: If you were smart, you'd go back home.
Speaker 2: Goliath has been defying these people for forty days. There's
Speaker 2: a good reason they hadn't fought him yet. He's bigger
Speaker 2: than you. You know what David said. He said, I know.
Speaker 1: I see him. I know he's big.
Speaker 2: I know everybody else is standing back, weirding on God
Speaker 2: to do something. But I didn't come looking for help
Speaker 2: from somewhere up there. I come in the name of
Speaker 2: the Lord God, and I'm not nervous. I know he's big,
Speaker 2: I know he's strong.
Speaker 1: I know I'm a shepherd.
Speaker 2: I know I have nothing but a sling in five rocks,
Speaker 2: but I might only need one.
Speaker 1: If I can steady my hand and stand my ground.
Speaker 1: I'm not nervous, shad Rat.
Speaker 2: They're about to throw you and your buddies in the fire.
Speaker 1: Now you understand, you have a little bit of.
Speaker 2: Time left if you will bow before this statue that
Speaker 2: never Kannezzar neb Kanzar has has erected. I mean we
Speaker 2: talk about crazy leaders. They ain't got nothing on Nebi.
Speaker 2: Nebbi was so arrogant. Nebbi lost his mind.
Speaker 1: They said you better bow the king, Nebby.
Speaker 2: They heat it up the furnace, They turned it up
Speaker 2: seven times hotter.
Speaker 1: Don't you feel the flame?
Speaker 2: Can't you see that that there's that there's a situation
Speaker 2: in front of you that's too hot for you to handle.
Speaker 2: And Shadrack look back at me, Shaq, Me Shaq looked
Speaker 2: at a bed and the gold.
Speaker 1: They all look back at.
Speaker 2: The church in Elevation Church and said, we know, but
Speaker 2: we're not nervous.
Speaker 1: See the God we serve is.
Speaker 2: Abl I said he's abl to deliver us from the fire.
Speaker 3: And we believe he will, and we know he can't.
Speaker 3: But even if he doesn't, I'm not nervous. Come on,
Speaker 3: somebody said, I'm not nervous.
Speaker 1: Tell your name of real, Paul, look them in the arse,
Speaker 1: say I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous. I went down
Speaker 1: in the Lions dinner with Daniel.
Speaker 2: Daniel was looking at a lion, y'all, he was looking
Speaker 2: at something that could have snapped him in half in
Speaker 2: a split second. Daniel, don't you see that lion. Don't
Speaker 2: you know your life is on the line. Don't you
Speaker 2: know you have a wicked king. Daniel said, I know,
Speaker 2: but somehow, some way, the God I sir, will deliver me.
Speaker 1: I'm not nervous, be not afraid.
Speaker 2: Hey, Jesus, these people are hungry. It's getting late. You've
Speaker 2: been preaching a long time. Jesus said, I know. And
Speaker 2: we don't have any bread. Jesus said, I know, and
Speaker 2: the people are on edge.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, I know, but I'm not.
Speaker 2: Because I got hands, and if you put what you
Speaker 2: have in my hands, I don't care how little it is,
Speaker 2: everybody's gonna be fit.
Speaker 1: I'm not nervous.
Speaker 6: I'm nervous, nervous, nervous, intimidated, No, concerned, Yes, disturb a
Speaker 6: little bit confused perhaps, but I'm not nervous.
Speaker 2: Jesus, wake up. There's a storm raising on the sea.
Speaker 2: How can you sleep in the stern with a storm
Speaker 2: on the sea, They asked them, don't you care if
Speaker 2: we perish? Jesus said, yeah, I care if you perish.
Speaker 2: And I know there's a storm, But I'm not nervous
Speaker 2: because with one.
Speaker 1: Word, the one who spoke the storm.
Speaker 2: Into existence by virtue of the elements that created it
Speaker 2: can tell it to shut up.
Speaker 1: God, Jesus, this is in They're gonna kill you now.
Speaker 2: They got you on trial pilot, might send you to
Speaker 2: the cross. Don't you want to say something now? I
Speaker 2: don't need to say anything. I am the word I
Speaker 2: was staring in the buginning. I am alphans O makea.
Speaker 1: I'm not nervous. This is the reason I came. So
Speaker 1: they can bury me low, so I to reign forever.
Speaker 2: Come on, find five people and say, don't be nervous,
Speaker 2: don't be nervous.
Speaker 1: Don't be nervous.
Speaker 2: That's what sets us apart as the people of God,
Speaker 2: is that we can.
Speaker 1: Know how bad it is and not be nervous. Because
Speaker 1: if we get nervous, what hope is there?
Speaker 2: If we start operating in the same spirit of the
Speaker 2: world that caused the fear, that created the division and
Speaker 2: the dysfunction that we're a part of.
Speaker 1: If the salt loses.
Speaker 2: Its saltiness, how will it be made salty? If you
Speaker 2: get nervous, if you lose your cool, what's the distinctive.
Speaker 1: Of your Christian faith?
Speaker 2: What kind of hope did you even have? If one
Speaker 2: election cycle can threaten it. I set my hope, Paul set.
Speaker 2: I tried to put my hope on how I felt,
Speaker 2: and I felt like I was going to die. I
Speaker 2: tried to put my hope on what other people would
Speaker 2: do for me, and they God other people. That's like
Speaker 2: me asking you to hold this pulpit while I appreciate
Speaker 2: that thing is too heavy for you and some of
Speaker 2: the stuff that you've been putting on people platforms, even
Speaker 2: the economy, it's too heavy.
Speaker 1: So Paul Man, I feel annoyed to it today? Do
Speaker 1: I look annoyed at I just want to get this
Speaker 1: message out to you.
Speaker 2: I know I see you in Babylonian captivity, but I
Speaker 2: know Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven. I know somebody say,
Speaker 2: I know, now this is God speaking. So the inference
Speaker 2: is you don't know, but I know the plans I
Speaker 2: have for you, and we know that in all things.
Speaker 2: This is Roman's eight twenty eight. God works together the
Speaker 2: good and the bad for the good of those who
Speaker 2: love Him and are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 1: I'm not nervous. I got purpose.
Speaker 2: I'm not nervous. He's got a plan. I'm not nervous.
Speaker 2: I've got a purpose. I'm not nervous. He has a plan.
Speaker 2: I'm not nervous. I have a purpose. I'm here to
Speaker 2: glorify God. I'll glorify him in a lion's den and
Speaker 2: a fire, on on a ship with a storm, or
Speaker 2: even in a borrowed grave.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, I'm not nervous.
Speaker 2: I came for this. I'm God of the storm. I'm
Speaker 2: God of the grave, and beside me there is no other.
Speaker 2: So I set my hope when it got real bad,
Speaker 2: when it seemed like it was going to be the bottom,
Speaker 2: I set my hope on.
Speaker 1: The one who is higher. I'm not nervous.
Speaker 2: I tried nervous. I didn't like it. I tried nervous.
Speaker 2: It made me irritable. I tried nervous. It made me
Speaker 2: eat more. I gained thirty five pounds being nervous. I
Speaker 2: tried nervous. It didn't make me a part of the solution.
Speaker 2: I tried nervous. It made me a critic rather than
Speaker 2: a contributor. I tried nervous, didn't change anything.
Speaker 1: I tried nervous. I'm mina Show'll be at my job,
Speaker 1: do what I can, cast my vote, be the dad
Speaker 1: God's called me to be.
Speaker 2: I'm be the preacher God's called me to be, and
Speaker 2: be the mom God's called me to be.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my part. I'm not nervous. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do my part. But I will not panic.
Speaker 2: Because I lift my eyes and I set my hope.
Speaker 2: I lift my eyes. We used to listen to that
Speaker 2: song all the time. It was a Brooklyn Tabernacles choir.
Speaker 2: I memorized all of PSOne just listening to that song.
Speaker 2: And the King James that lady who sang it, she'd
Speaker 2: I can't sing it like she sang it, but she
Speaker 2: would say, I will lift up mine eyes to the hills.
Speaker 2: From whence cometh my hell. My help cometh from the Lord,
Speaker 2: the Lord.
Speaker 1: Which made heaven under.
Speaker 7: He said, he than not suffer that foot, thy foot
Speaker 7: to be moved. The Lord which keep thee, he will
Speaker 7: not slumber nor sleep.
Speaker 1: Oh, the Lord.
Speaker 7: Is thy keeper. The Lord is the shade upon that
Speaker 7: right hand, upon that right hand.
Speaker 2: Oh, the.
Speaker 1: Sun shall not smipe be.
Speaker 4: By take, nor the moon by night. He shall preserve
Speaker 4: thy soul even forever more.
Speaker 1: Because my have.
Speaker 8: My my, oh not my help calm in for rom
Speaker 8: the Lord my my my head.
Speaker 9: Yeah, ooh, the my help calming for rom the You're
Speaker 9: the source of my strength, you are the strength of mind.
Speaker 7: I lift my hand, sin two, pray.
Speaker 3: Two.
Speaker 1: Everyone's standing, everyone's standing. I have a hope. I lift
Speaker 1: my eyes someone is called a song of a scent.
Speaker 2: There were fifteen of them recorded in our cannon of
Speaker 2: Scripture for us to read. But they were originally intended
Speaker 2: for the pilgrims who would make their way.
Speaker 1: To Jerusalem, so they would have a song to sing
Speaker 1: on the way. How many know you need a song
Speaker 1: to sing on.
Speaker 2: The way to where you're going, Because Jerusalem, City of
Speaker 2: Peace was set in the hills, and the hills represent hope,
Speaker 2: but the hills also represent hidden enemies. And when the
Speaker 2: Psalmist to say, watch this, I lift my eyes to
Speaker 2: the hills, he might have felt like a tenth grader
Speaker 2: in a new school, or he might have felt like
Speaker 2: a nervous father on election day in America, or he
Speaker 2: might have felt like a refugee in another part of
Speaker 2: the world that would love to be a part of
Speaker 2: our democratic process. But he's on his way somewhere. He's
Speaker 2: on a journey, and as he progresses, he lifts his
Speaker 2: eyes to the hills, the place where his destination is,
Speaker 2: the place where.
Speaker 1: His piece is, place where his hope is. He's going
Speaker 1: to Jerusalem, and on.
Speaker 2: His way he lifts his eyes to the hills, and
Speaker 2: he asked a question, from where does my help come?
Speaker 1: Where's it coming from?
Speaker 2: Not looking over here, over there, I'm not looking to
Speaker 2: the hills or the Donald.
Speaker 1: You get it by Tuesday. I'm looking above all of that.
Speaker 2: And I always read the verse like this, the spirit
Speaker 2: of the Lord is in this place, thank you there.
Speaker 1: I always looked at it.
Speaker 2: Like he was saying, my help comes from the hills,
Speaker 2: you know, because God is above and he's a great king.
Speaker 2: And when Isaiah saw the Lord and the king, your king,
Speaker 2: Usiah died, he was seated on a throne high.
Speaker 1: And lifted up. And if funny, he was seated.
Speaker 2: And the year the king died, in the year where
Speaker 2: the nation was wondering what to do, God wasn't pacing
Speaker 2: the marble floors of heaven wondering what.
Speaker 1: He was going to do next. He was still seated.
Speaker 1: I came with an announcement today he's still seated. He's
Speaker 1: still seated. Had a vision.
Speaker 2: The throne wasn't vacant and the one who sat on
Speaker 2: it was seated, so I always thought he was looking up.
Speaker 2: And that's true. You know, our hope is God reigns above.
Speaker 2: Did you know that the same God who reigns above
Speaker 2: sustains beneath. And that's why I'm not nervous, he said.
Speaker 2: I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my
Speaker 2: help come from? I have hope in the hills, hardship
Speaker 2: in the hills, Paul said, I despaired of life, but
Speaker 2: I sat my hope.
Speaker 1: Both were happening at the same time. My hope came
Speaker 1: from my hardship. Watched.
Speaker 2: This is so powerful. This is so powerful. My hope
Speaker 2: comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. He
Speaker 2: will not let your foot be moved. Who are you
Speaker 2: talking to? He's talking to himself. He's having a conversation
Speaker 2: with himself, telling himself. Don't be nervous. I know you
Speaker 2: see what's in those hills, and you imagine what might
Speaker 2: be in those hills, and there's boogeymen in those hills,
Speaker 2: and there might be real.
Speaker 1: Danger in those hills. But the Lord is your keeper.
Speaker 1: And watch this.
Speaker 2: He's not sleeping, He's not asleep. He knows he sees.
Speaker 2: He knows. Not one hair of your head falls to
Speaker 2: the ground that he doesn't count at, not one sparrow
Speaker 2: falls from the sky, that he doesn't have a funeral.
Speaker 1: He knows.
Speaker 2: Next verse, Behold, it's all about what you focus on.
Speaker 2: He who keeps the people of God will neither slumber
Speaker 2: nor sleep.
Speaker 1: For the Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade.
Speaker 1: For there to be shade, there must be heat.
Speaker 2: For there to be hope, there must be hardship, or
Speaker 2: else it won't really be hope. How can you know
Speaker 2: he will deliver you if you don't know that he can,
Speaker 2: And how can you know that he can if there isn't.
Speaker 1: An enemy in the hills for you to run to
Speaker 1: him seeking refuge from.
Speaker 2: I know, I know you're worried about your teenager. I
Speaker 2: know you're worried about the state of things. I know
Speaker 2: you're worried. I know you're worried.
Speaker 1: I know I know.
Speaker 2: But the Lord is on your right hand. And this
Speaker 2: is what spoke to me. I lift my eyes to
Speaker 2: the hills. That means he's above it, and God is
Speaker 2: keeping me in, sustaining me. That means he's beneath it,
Speaker 2: and he's on my right hand. That means he's beside
Speaker 2: me no matter which way it goes.
Speaker 1: So I'm not nervous. He's great and he's good. He's big,
Speaker 1: and he's near. He's omnipotent and he's imminent. He is God,
Speaker 1: and I'm not nervous.
Speaker 2: His name will be exalted. He is God, and I'm
Speaker 2: not nervous.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The writer of Hebrews said, we have this hope.
Speaker 1: What kind of hope?
Speaker 2: This hope, the same hope that went down into a grave,
Speaker 2: that hit rock bottom and still stayed strong.
Speaker 1: We have no let me personalize it. You have this hope,
Speaker 1: and it's not.
Speaker 2: Out there, and it's not over here, and it's not
Speaker 2: over here.
Speaker 1: Watch this.
Speaker 2: It's an anchor for my soul. It's in me Christ,
Speaker 2: in you, the hope of Lord. You are the.
Speaker 1: Hope of the world.
Speaker 2: We are the Church, an aner for the soul. Well,
Speaker 2: what does an anchor do? It flows around at the
Speaker 2: surface and looks pretty, Oh, sir, goes down all the
Speaker 2: way to the bottom, and make sure that whatever it's
Speaker 2: holding on to come on. I gotta close this sermon,
Speaker 2: But I have this hope. Touch somebody say I have
Speaker 2: this hope. I have this hope, this hope that kept
Speaker 2: him on the cross, this hope that s fucked the
Speaker 2: world's into exist us. I feel the.
Speaker 1: Spirit of hope coming over the Church of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: I lift my eyes to the hills. I have this
Speaker 1: hope in my soul. My hope went.
Speaker 2: Down till the bottom and three days later rose.
Speaker 1: To rain forever. I'm not nervous.
Speaker 8: I'm not nervous.
Speaker 1: I'm not who I have.
Speaker 10: Believe it, and I'm persuaded that he is able to
Speaker 10: keep that which at hem.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us special thanks to those of
Speaker 2: you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 1: 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 Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.