Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe
Speaker 1: so we can get you these new sermons every week.
Speaker 1: I hope you're blessed today. Hey, let's welcome our efam
Speaker 1: all around the world.
Speaker 2: Welcome. Wherever you're joining.
Speaker 1: Us from today, we welcome you. Put it in the
Speaker 1: comments where you're joining us from. I want to pick
Speaker 1: up and tag team write with Holly, write with what
Speaker 1: my wife shared last week.
Speaker 2: I've been thinking about it all week.
Speaker 1: You'all be seated now and I'm going to pick up
Speaker 1: from the scripture that she shared beautifully from last week.
Speaker 1: Didn't you think that was a beautiful word that my
Speaker 1: wife shared last week.
Speaker 2: We've been talking about this.
Speaker 1: When we were talking about it, I said, Holly, I
Speaker 1: think that you wrote this scripture, not David, because I
Speaker 1: really see her live this out and it was just
Speaker 1: such a joy to hear her share that message. We
Speaker 1: kind of ended up doing a trilogy on trusting in God.
Speaker 2: We did the first week was ugly. Trust.
Speaker 1: It doesn't always look pretty, and thank God he doesn't
Speaker 1: need you to pray a pretty prayer to give you
Speaker 1: an answer. Then I preached about delayed praise, and then
Speaker 1: she got up here and preached the house down on
Speaker 1: sudden strength.
Speaker 2: To continue in the flow where she left off.
Speaker 1: And the scripture that we have been talking about a
Speaker 1: lot is in First Chronicles twenty eight, and it's a
Speaker 1: really powerful promise from God and a principle. And I
Speaker 1: want to be very simple today, if that's all right,
Speaker 1: and not dumb it down, but really bring it right
Speaker 1: there into the doing of.
Speaker 2: This word in a way that can develop your faith.
Speaker 1: In First Chronicles twenty eight, Verse ten, this is where
Speaker 1: David tells his son Solomon. Consider now, for the Lord
Speaker 1: has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary.
Speaker 1: Be strong and do the work. Everybody say that, be
Speaker 1: strong and do the work. Look at your neighbors, say
Speaker 1: be strong and do the work. Verse eleven. Then David
Speaker 1: gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of
Speaker 1: the temple, it's buildings, it's storerooms, its upper parts, its
Speaker 1: inner rooms, and the place of atonement. He gave him
Speaker 1: the place of all that the Spirit had put in
Speaker 1: his mind for the courts of the Temple of the Lord,
Speaker 1: and all the surrounding rooms for the treasuries of the
Speaker 1: Temple of God, and for the treasuries of the dedicated things.
Speaker 2: Verse ten.
Speaker 1: Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build
Speaker 1: a house as the sanctuary.
Speaker 2: Be strong and do the work.
Speaker 1: I'd like to talk to you today from this thought
Speaker 1: and just let you know it works in reverse.
Speaker 2: That's what the Lord told me to tell you today.
Speaker 1: It works in reverse. Be strong and do the work.
Speaker 1: It works in.
Speaker 2: Reverse.
Speaker 1: Now. As wonderful as my wife is, you're like, what
Speaker 1: comes next after that? That doesn't end with you having
Speaker 1: a bad afternoon? Pastor just hear me out. Sometimes when
Speaker 1: she's telling me about a conversation she had, she uses
Speaker 1: this phrase that lets me know that she is slightly
Speaker 1: exaggerating it, not because she's a liar, but because she's
Speaker 1: telling me what she thought, but she's communicating it like
Speaker 1: she actually said it. And here's how I can know
Speaker 1: that's happening. She'll say, And I was like, and then
Speaker 1: she'll start saying stuff put that in the chat real quick.
Speaker 1: I was like, because when she says that phrase, it
Speaker 1: usually is followed by something that I know she would
Speaker 1: never say. You know, I ran into so and so
Speaker 1: at the school, and do you know, they had the
Speaker 1: nerve to say to me, boom boom boom, and I
Speaker 1: was like, boom bom boom boom boom boom boom boom
Speaker 1: boom boom boom and she goes off. But I know her.
Speaker 1: She's not confrontational like that. She's like whatever the opposite
Speaker 1: of that person is on the Enneagram, she's like the
Speaker 1: other extreme of that.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: I still don't remember the enneagram numbers that she gave
Speaker 1: me one time to tell me who I was and
Speaker 1: who she was. But she'll she'll go into this whole
Speaker 1: thing and she'll be telling them, like telling them off,
Speaker 1: like you know.
Speaker 2: They they said, uh.
Speaker 1: Well where we're where? You know, they said well this
Speaker 1: and that, And I was like and when she gets
Speaker 1: finished with them, I'm I'm I'm like you said that.
Speaker 1: And one time she looks back and she's like no,
Speaker 1: But I was like that, I love that look at
Speaker 1: your neighbors say.
Speaker 2: I was like that.
Speaker 1: You know how in church, when we get to preaching
Speaker 1: real good, you're.
Speaker 2: Like that, I trust in God.
Speaker 1: Ah ah my savee You're the one. Aah like that,
Speaker 1: That's why I trust him. I'm like, I'm like David
Speaker 1: with a smooth stone taking out the lia all right
Speaker 1: there on your forehead, giant. It's like that this uncircumcised
Speaker 1: philistine will fall three thirteen pm today. You know, you
Speaker 1: might you might be like something else, all right, So
Speaker 1: you're gonna do me like that today in church? Just
Speaker 1: be a real fake, real plastic today. I think that
Speaker 1: idea that we get a picture in our head. In
Speaker 1: Holly's instance, it's what we want to say in a
Speaker 1: moment but we can't. It's the perfect comeback that we
Speaker 1: think of three weeks later. You know, it happened in
Speaker 1: target and then you thought of what you wanted to say. Hey,
Speaker 1: you ever woke up in the middle of the night
Speaker 1: thinking of what you wish you would have said to somebody?
Speaker 2: But it's too late.
Speaker 1: Because now if you bring it back up, you're just
Speaker 1: gonna look petty because it's weird now you just call
Speaker 1: them randomly. And I was like, so, I think we
Speaker 1: get pictures in our head of what we want our
Speaker 1: life to look like, what we want to be like
Speaker 1: under pressure, or the way we want our kids' childhood
Speaker 1: to feel like. I wanted to feel like that, you know,
Speaker 1: and you even see stuff on TV. I had to
Speaker 1: quit watching This Is Us for a little while when
Speaker 1: it was on because I can't say it like I
Speaker 1: really want to say it, because y'all are real, super
Speaker 1: sanctified today and I can't figure out what happened to you.
Speaker 2: But but it.
Speaker 1: Was for me. I told somebody one time that it
Speaker 1: was emotionally like I said it not as a bad show.
Speaker 1: It's a great I like the show and all of that.
Speaker 1: It's a great show, but sometimes it's almost like pornographic
Speaker 1: because everybody is doing exactly what you wish your best self,
Speaker 1: like they had these speeches, and the speeches are just
Speaker 1: so amazing, and you're like, yes, that's how I want
Speaker 1: to explain my feelings. Yes, that's yes. I want to
Speaker 1: be more like Jack. Not what would Jesus do? What
Speaker 1: would Jack do? If you saw the show? You know
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, and he gave his life too,
Speaker 1: Jack did it.
Speaker 2: Go watch the show, but I had.
Speaker 1: To pause it for a little while because it made
Speaker 1: me feel bad because I'd be like, oh, I want
Speaker 1: to I want to be there for my kids like that.
Speaker 2: I want to make beautiful moments like that.
Speaker 1: But mostly I'm just annoyed and grumpy, and that's probably
Speaker 1: what they're gonna remember is me just being.
Speaker 2: Like hey, and then you watch them and it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: I want to like that.
Speaker 1: When Holly was preaching last to be strong and do
Speaker 1: the work, we kept talking about it all week and
Speaker 1: we realize that when you hear sermons from God's word
Speaker 1: be strong and do the work, you really do.
Speaker 2: Want to be.
Speaker 1: Like that where you, yeah, where you don't stress out
Speaker 1: over stupid stuff, but you pray about things. You really
Speaker 1: do want to be like that. At least that's my
Speaker 1: core belief. I believe that everybody who has the spirit
Speaker 1: of God, has the desire of God and really wants.
Speaker 2: To do these things in your life.
Speaker 1: And yet sometimes you're like Holly, where you're like, I
Speaker 1: didn't do that, but I was like that, Like That's
Speaker 1: what I'm going to be like one day. And so
Speaker 1: there is this sense, oh, I feel the Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: that you can get from time to time that this
Speaker 1: is isn't working. You know, I'm committing to this path
Speaker 1: of progress, I'm trying this new way of relating to people.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to smile at people more. They don't smile back.
Speaker 1: This isn't working. I'm just gonna go back to I'm
Speaker 1: going to go back to my You know.
Speaker 2: How I say it.
Speaker 1: RBF is resting blessed face in my vernacular, and there's
Speaker 1: a sense in which you can get discouraged. The Lord said,
Speaker 1: for me to tell you today that it's working, but
Speaker 1: to let you in on this little secret. It works
Speaker 1: in reverse. When David was giving Solomon the plans for
Speaker 1: the temple, you have to understand that this was not
Speaker 1: his preference. He would have wanted to, and actually prayed to,
Speaker 1: and thought for a little while that he would get
Speaker 1: to build the temple himself for God, possibly to atone
Speaker 1: for the mistake that he made.
Speaker 2: We call it a mistake.
Speaker 1: It was really a grievous sin what he did with Bathsheba,
Speaker 1: and he.
Speaker 2: Had her husband murdered on the front lines of battle.
Speaker 1: He spent his later years writing psalms and planning this
Speaker 1: very elaborate place for God to dwell.
Speaker 2: He did that.
Speaker 1: But as he's nearing the end of his life, like
Speaker 1: we read just now in First Chronicles twenty eight, he
Speaker 1: calls Solomon and says, the Lord showed me how this
Speaker 1: temple is to be built. I'm not going to get
Speaker 1: to do it because God chose you to do it,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to give you the plans for it.
Speaker 2: Make sure you build it like that.
Speaker 1: God showed me specifically what this temple was to look like.
Speaker 1: Don't cut corners, don't take shortcuts, don't be lazy about it,
Speaker 1: don't deviate from the blueprint. God showed me what to build,
Speaker 1: and he put.
Speaker 2: It in my mind.
Speaker 1: But it's gonna be from David's mind to Solomon's hand.
Speaker 1: He's gonna show him what to build exactly to the dimensions.
Speaker 1: And I mean, man, he gets specific, and I often
Speaker 1: wish God would give me more specifics. Don't you just
Speaker 1: write it out for me? Dear Lord, show me the way,
Speaker 1: guide me on the path and tell me where to turn,
Speaker 1: and I'll do it.
Speaker 2: But you know the truth is I wouldn't do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, he did tell me a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: to do that I'm already not doing. There's no reason
Speaker 1: for me to think if he told me exactly what
Speaker 1: to do in every other.
Speaker 2: Area, I'd just start doing it.
Speaker 1: He already told me do everything without complaining. I'm doing
Speaker 1: pretty bad at that, So I'm like, no, God, something else,
Speaker 1: show me specifically what else to do? Where to invest?
Speaker 1: My money, show me that what real estate to buy,
Speaker 1: Show me that I want you to show me and
Speaker 1: guide me like that. Well, if you hear this first
Speaker 1: part of the sermon and then you have to leave,
Speaker 1: you would have gotten a lot because the thing that
Speaker 1: the Lord says to Solomon through David, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard for us to believe that God feels
Speaker 1: this way about us. But I want to put it
Speaker 1: right there in your I want to put it right
Speaker 1: there in your heart today.
Speaker 2: Verse ten.
Speaker 1: Consider now for the Lord has chosen you. There's a
Speaker 1: lot I don't know Church, I don't know when Jesus
Speaker 1: is coming back. I don't know who the Antichrist is.
Speaker 1: There's a lot I don't know about the future, my future,
Speaker 1: your future. There's a lot I don't know in this Bible.
Speaker 1: But I know I'm chosen.
Speaker 2: I know that.
Speaker 1: I know that God chose me to speak this word
Speaker 1: to you today. I know that I know that. And
Speaker 1: I don't believe that you can fully know what you
Speaker 1: were chosen for as you're going through it, but you
Speaker 1: can start from the belief.
Speaker 2: If you choose to.
Speaker 3: That God has chosen you. You will need to understand that
Speaker 3: God does not choose like people choose.
Speaker 1: God does not judge. Remember how he chose David. He
Speaker 1: said that man looks at the outward appearance, but God
Speaker 1: looks at the heart. So when God chose David, he
Speaker 1: wasn't looking for how tall he was. When God chose David,
Speaker 1: he wasn't looking for how much ability he had, even
Speaker 1: though he had great ability that he into. Yet when
Speaker 1: it comes to heaven, he never starts with our ability.
Speaker 1: But one preacher said, our availability, and that means.
Speaker 2: Waking y'all up.
Speaker 1: That means that he doesn't call the qualified, Rather he
Speaker 1: qualifies the call. For those he has called, he will
Speaker 1: resource for everything that he has chosen them to do.
Speaker 1: Somebody's shout, I'm chosen, I'm chosen, And that ought to
Speaker 1: make you feel good in your bones, just to know
Speaker 1: that God chose you not only this, but the God
Speaker 1: who is eternal, who lives outside of time and space.
Speaker 1: When he was looking for somewhere to live, guess where
Speaker 1: he said he wanted to dwell, Not in a temple
Speaker 1: built by human hands, but he said, I want to
Speaker 1: and live inside of you.
Speaker 2: I'm chosen.
Speaker 1: God walked around the whole neighborhood, and he said I
Speaker 1: want that house. God looked all around. He was very
Speaker 1: very choosy, see, because he had to be, because there
Speaker 1: is a very specific assignment that God has for your life,
Speaker 1: and he chose you to do it. Now, if you
Speaker 1: don't get what I just said, you will struggle with
Speaker 1: the rest of what I say, because most of us
Speaker 1: would think that while Solomon was chosen, there is nothing
Speaker 1: significant about us. While the temple of the Lord is
Speaker 1: filled with splendor, majesty and onyx and stones and precious
Speaker 1: rubies and things like that, we look at our lives
Speaker 1: and we see that we are made of clay. We
Speaker 1: are vessels that are scooped up out of the dirt
Speaker 1: into which He breathed the breath of life. But God said,
Speaker 1: stop apologizing for the simplicity of the temple of your
Speaker 1: life and let him fell what he built with what
Speaker 1: he wants to fill it with. You are chosen. Touch
Speaker 1: your neighbor and say you're chosen. Tell him a little
Speaker 1: more convincingly, because honestly, you sounded a little bit uncertain
Speaker 1: about that. But God's not unsure about it. God is
Speaker 1: not confused about it. You might be confused about it.
Speaker 1: You might look at your life and see it as insignificant.
Speaker 1: God doesn't. In fact, I would just put in here
Speaker 1: whatever you need to put in here. Consider now, for
Speaker 1: the Lord has chosen you to build a house as
Speaker 1: the sanctuary.
Speaker 2: But I can do better.
Speaker 1: God has chosen you to be a house as the sanctuary.
Speaker 1: Why is this so good to me? I just love
Speaker 1: the word. Maybe I need to be reminded of it today.
Speaker 1: Maybe I just need to walk through my house saying
Speaker 1: I'm chosen. Maybe it's more than a TV show title. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe it's more than twelve disciples chosen. Maybe it is
Speaker 1: a new operating system and a framework from which I
Speaker 1: need to come at every challenge in my life knowing
Speaker 1: that if He gave me the challenge, he chose me
Speaker 1: before he gave me the challenge. That's why I can
Speaker 1: fight Goliath. Before this challenge showed up, I was chosen
Speaker 1: to go for it. I was chosen to fight through it.
Speaker 1: I was chosen to do it. And the Lord showed
Speaker 1: me in my prayer time that you don't feel that.
Speaker 2: Way a lot of times.
Speaker 1: And that's okay, because God shows you what you are
Speaker 1: chosen for as you go forward, it works in reverse.
Speaker 1: Be strong and do the work, Be strong and do.
Speaker 2: The work. How do you hear that? Do you hear be.
Speaker 1: Strong as a condition? Like you know, I need to
Speaker 1: be strong, and do you hear do the work as
Speaker 1: a command? I need to do the work. And the
Speaker 1: problem if you hear it that way, If you do
Speaker 1: hear it that way, maybe you don't, but that's probably
Speaker 1: how I would hear it, because that's how I said it,
Speaker 1: be strong and do the work. Is that Sometimes I
Speaker 1: don't feel like I meet the condition be strong to
Speaker 1: follow that command do the work. In other words, I
Speaker 1: feel overwhelmed by it. I feel like the work that
Speaker 1: is in front of me is greater than the power
Speaker 1: that is within me. So I said, I wanted to
Speaker 1: keep this simple, and I don't know how to keep
Speaker 1: it any more simple than to put it on a poster.
Speaker 1: Holly said she was gonna put it on a coffee
Speaker 1: mug and a sweatshirt. I didn't have time to do
Speaker 1: either of those, so I just had to make some
Speaker 1: posters last night. Y'all bring me my posters real quick,
Speaker 1: because I was thinking, everybody shout, be strong, everybody shout
Speaker 1: do the work. Now I'm gonna need your enthusiasm. Thank you,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. That dude's been faithful in this house.
Speaker 1: I appreciate him. Y'all give it up.
Speaker 4: Shout be strong, shout it safe, be strong.
Speaker 1: Shout it like you need to get another rep say
Speaker 1: be strong, you got this. You can lift this, you
Speaker 1: can make this, you can do it if I take
Speaker 1: it here go, Chunks, take this one. Be strong. Find
Speaker 1: somebody in the church. Just walk around to you find
Speaker 1: them that looks strong. I mean a big old guy,
Speaker 1: not like there's us prayer warrior. I'm talking like physically strong,
Speaker 1: big and strong. Just walk around for a minute, Chunks,
Speaker 1: look at me. Somebody that you wouldn't mind looking like.
Speaker 1: All right, I'll just qualify it like that. He's gonna
Speaker 1: find somebody. While I'm talking, everybody shall do the word.
Speaker 1: Who's somebody in the house. I'm gonna let you choose
Speaker 1: yourself that you want to work out more getting ready
Speaker 1: for the summer. You remember saying, okay, you want to
Speaker 1: do it? Do you want to do it?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: See here's the way this works. When God chooses people,
Speaker 1: he knows who he's choosing. I don't know you, so
Speaker 1: should I choose him? For this illustration I'm gonna come
Speaker 1: over here. I don't know him. All right, over here, anybody.
Speaker 4: You know what?
Speaker 1: Because you got a tied die shirt on, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: use you. I just think you look handsome. Hurry up,
Speaker 1: hurry up. We gotta get this done. Come on, come on,
Speaker 1: come on, come on, come on, come on. Did you
Speaker 1: find somebody chunks? Is he big and strong? He's big
Speaker 1: and strong? All right, you come up? Yeah, Oh, you
Speaker 1: don't know what I'm gonna make you do. So I
Speaker 1: saw you doing some calisthenics. Come on up, coming up.
Speaker 1: All right now, I'm not saying that one of you
Speaker 1: looks better than the other. Y'all identified yourself says you
Speaker 1: said you wanted to work out more. So let's do
Speaker 1: this real quick. Come here, uh come here, stand here.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, that's the verse, right, be strong, do the work.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry you volunteered.
Speaker 1: Remember I was on the whole other side of the
Speaker 1: church and you were calling me, choose me, pastor. Okay,
Speaker 1: you got what you wanted, ted I, but you already
Speaker 1: look you already look good. I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 1: To me, you look good. I want to show you
Speaker 1: something that the Lord showed me He showed me that
Speaker 1: be strong is what everybody wants to look like. Would
Speaker 1: you all war short sleeves if you'd known this illustration
Speaker 1: was coming today?
Speaker 5: You had no idea, he said, I would have worn
Speaker 5: a tank Tom. You would have got a pump to
Speaker 5: wouldn't you? You didn't need one. You look great. Okay,
Speaker 5: So be strong. Everybody said be strong, everybody say do
Speaker 5: the work. Now, be honest real quick and say, but
Speaker 5: I'm not strong. And how many of you felt that
Speaker 5: way in an area of your life this week? But
Speaker 5: it could just be a simple feeling. You may not
Speaker 5: have said that, but it may be the way that
Speaker 5: you felt.
Speaker 1: So what the Lord was showing me as I was
Speaker 1: studying this Holly, is that we think that this is
Speaker 1: the condition.
Speaker 2: To follow this command.
Speaker 1: So in moments where we feel strong, we do strong stuff.
Speaker 1: In moments where we feel solid, we show up consistently
Speaker 1: and committedly is committedly a word it is today, And
Speaker 1: then the command do the work becomes dependent on the
Speaker 1: feeling of our strength. And see, that's fine for people
Speaker 1: who live by their feelings, but you're not one of them.
Speaker 1: That's fine for people who aren't chosen, but you're not
Speaker 1: one of them. That's fine for people who have nothing
Speaker 1: important to do with their lives. But you're not one
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 2: For you're a child of the King.
Speaker 1: For he's given you a temple to build, For he's
Speaker 1: given you an assignment to complete, For he has given
Speaker 1: you a testimony. You're feeling this, I'm feeling this standing
Speaker 1: between the two.
Speaker 2: Of you all right now. I'm feeling strong as a preach.
Speaker 2: But I don't always feel strong.
Speaker 1: Some times I have to do stuff that strong people
Speaker 1: do when I don't feel stuff that strong people feel.
Speaker 1: So the Lord was showing me you got this thing
Speaker 1: backwards vertic. You still don't understand faith. You think that
Speaker 1: faith is when you feel a certain way, you can
Speaker 1: do a certain thing. You think that faith is when
Speaker 1: you get details then you can follow God in obedience.
Speaker 1: But the Lord said, it doesn't work like that. It
Speaker 1: doesn't work like that. In fact, it works in reverse.
Speaker 1: So you keep saying, when I get stronger, when I
Speaker 1: get clearer, when I get older, when I get better,
Speaker 1: when I get richer, when I get through this, when
Speaker 1: I get done with this, when I get finished. But
Speaker 1: God said, I'm not telling you to do the work
Speaker 1: when you feel strong I'm telling you switch places. It
Speaker 1: works in reverse. Help me, Holy ghost, God said, I
Speaker 1: see you feeling weak, but you'll keep waiting on strength.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't work that way in the kingdom, because
Speaker 1: in the Kingdom, if you want to be strong, you've
Speaker 1: got to do the work. So how do I get
Speaker 1: up out of this pitiful situation? How do I look
Speaker 1: like that? I want to look like that. I want
Speaker 1: to function like that. I want to pick back like that. Well,
Speaker 1: God says, if you want to be strong, you gotta
Speaker 1: do the work. And if you do the work, you'll
Speaker 1: be strong. And if you'll be strong, you can do
Speaker 1: the work. And that's why I brought you to church today,
Speaker 1: because I got you.
Speaker 4: In the gym.
Speaker 1: Today, because I want to fill you with the spirit
Speaker 1: of Jesus today and resurrection.
Speaker 4: Power of God flowing through your body.
Speaker 1: So you get bigg as.
Speaker 4: Strong and build your temple.
Speaker 1: That's what Holly taught y'all last week. Get somebody at
Speaker 1: high five and say, do the word, do the work,
Speaker 1: and you'll get strong. I don't feel like worship him.
Speaker 1: Worship him and you'll feel him.
Speaker 4: Call it till he comes, call it Tilly comes, Call
Speaker 4: it till he comes Jesus solitay that have mercy. That's
Speaker 4: what Phraises phrase, frege tower, do the word, do the work,
Speaker 4: all right?
Speaker 1: So so you want to look like that? You know,
Speaker 1: I found the devil. I found the devil. I found
Speaker 1: out where the devil lives. God lives inside of us.
Speaker 1: How many believe that greater is he that is in
Speaker 1: me than he that is in the world. Greater is
Speaker 1: he that is in me than he does in the world.
Speaker 1: God lives inside of I know where the devil lives.
Speaker 1: The devil lives in YouTube shorts. I found him. I
Speaker 1: thought I deleted every bad app on my phone, but
Speaker 1: the YouTube shorts gets me because somehow my algorithm it's
Speaker 1: only showing me right now, preaching clips, guitar solos from
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties and workout videos, and all the workout
Speaker 1: videos are clickbait. It'll say the only shoulder exercise you
Speaker 1: ever need to look like this, And I clicked on
Speaker 1: it and I saw how the man looked, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, I want to look like that.
Speaker 2: That's how I want my shoulders to look. Yeah, like that,
Speaker 2: like that, look like that.
Speaker 1: So God gave me a question. He said, you want
Speaker 1: to look like that. Do you want to lift like that?
Speaker 1: Because that guy when I watch what he was doing, Yes,
Speaker 1: the only shoulder exercise that you'll ever need, but he
Speaker 1: was doing it with five times my body weight.
Speaker 2: He looked like he was about to die. So I
Speaker 2: clicked off. I'm like, oh, yeah, I want to look
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: I don't want to lift like that. They don't want
Speaker 1: me to preach this part because all we want to
Speaker 1: hear is the Lord has chosen you.
Speaker 2: Be strong.
Speaker 1: Or we want to hear. Okay, be strong in the
Speaker 1: Lord and in his mighty power. But a lot of
Speaker 1: times what we resist the most. Have you noticed this
Speaker 1: is the work and this is the principle.
Speaker 2: Okay. The strength that you want.
Speaker 1: Is on the other side of the weakness that you
Speaker 1: are willing to work through.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1: Can keep those I might call you back up next week.
Speaker 1: I might call you up next week. Now, let's sit
Speaker 1: down and talk about this for a moment. Are you
Speaker 1: getting some out of this? When we preach the word
Speaker 1: of God to you, it works, It works. The Word
Speaker 1: of God will work in your life. Don't tell me
Speaker 1: it won't. You're arguing with the wrong dude, I know
Speaker 1: too much about it. I've experienced it. You may as
Speaker 1: well try to tell me Holly can't cook.
Speaker 2: I've had too much of her food.
Speaker 1: You can't convince me that God's word doesn't work. I
Speaker 1: have tasted it and seen that the Lord is good.
Speaker 1: Do you know how much out I had about what
Speaker 1: I stood up to.
Speaker 2: Preach to you today? Zero? Because it's working for me.
Speaker 1: I would feel sorry for a preacher who got up
Speaker 1: and was just trying stuff out. Well, hope this is
Speaker 1: a good sermon. I don't hope this is a good sermon.
Speaker 1: This sermon has been inside of me, working in me.
Speaker 1: I mean when I tell you, me and Holly are
Speaker 1: tag team, and we talked all week about this. What
Speaker 1: kind of work has God called you to do? And
Speaker 1: where is the line between us trying to work to
Speaker 1: earn our own salvation versus accepting the grace of God
Speaker 1: because people will try to make them opposites, and they're
Speaker 1: not opposites. The more grace you get from God for
Speaker 1: your situation, the more stable you're going to be to
Speaker 1: show up for it and fight the good fight of faith.
Speaker 1: So these are not opposites. The grace of God comes
Speaker 1: in order to grow me into the person that God
Speaker 1: has called me to be. And that is why God
Speaker 1: does not start with who you are right now. He
Speaker 1: starts with what He chose you to do, what He
Speaker 1: called you to do. God does not start with your
Speaker 1: experience level. God works in reverse. So God knows what
Speaker 1: you need to build, whether that's a business, whether that's
Speaker 1: a family, whether that's a discipline, whether that's.
Speaker 2: A habit pattern.
Speaker 1: God knows what you need to build, and nobody else
Speaker 1: can build it because He shows you to build it.
Speaker 1: And if you don't do it, it won't get done.
Speaker 1: Oh you say, well, God will do it through somebody else.
Speaker 1: He will do it through someone else, but there will
Speaker 1: be a great loss in the process of you not
Speaker 1: choosing to do what God called you to do. That's
Speaker 1: why holler, That's why I scream, Because do you really
Speaker 1: think that there aren't people listening to me today who
Speaker 1: feel so abandoned and so small and so unchosen and
Speaker 1: so picked over and so unwanted and so rejected and
Speaker 1: so betrayed that even just to hear God shows you,
Speaker 1: God wants you. God sees you. God shows you, God
Speaker 1: wants you. God sees you. God chooses the weak things
Speaker 1: of the world to shame the strong. You know why
Speaker 1: you like that so much when I said it, because
Speaker 1: it's a Bible Verse one Corinthians one twenty seven. But
Speaker 1: God chose the weak things of the world to shame
Speaker 1: the strong.
Speaker 2: Say it again, God chose.
Speaker 1: That's what we started out saying, right, is that God
Speaker 1: chose Solomon? Who was Solomon? He was the son that
Speaker 1: David would have never chosen to build the temple. David
Speaker 1: would have chosen his son Absalom. God chose Solomon. Anybody
Speaker 1: want to take a guess when David made the biggest
Speaker 1: mistake of his life and slept with Bathsheba and the
Speaker 1: child born was died, and he went back and had
Speaker 1: another child, anybody want to guess.
Speaker 2: What the name of the child was that he had
Speaker 2: after his greatest mistake.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thank you for having the boldness to say that,
Speaker 1: because I think everybody else in the church was like,
Speaker 1: it must be a setup, because he can't.
Speaker 2: It can't be Solemon.
Speaker 1: God, There's because there's no way, right, who said it
Speaker 1: out loud?
Speaker 2: How could it be Solomon?
Speaker 1: He's inexperienced, he was the product of a bad decision
Speaker 1: that David made How could God use the weak thing
Speaker 1: to build the glorious thing? And you might be wondering
Speaker 1: that about your life today, and maybe that's why God
Speaker 1: gave me this word for you, so you could know
Speaker 1: that people build on your successes. People choose according to
Speaker 1: your wisdom. But with God it works in.
Speaker 2: Reverse. I want you to get that in your spirit,
Speaker 2: that it works in reverse.
Speaker 1: That God does not choose the moments when you feel
Speaker 1: the strongest to show up the most in your life.
Speaker 1: I'm a living witness. It is the moments when you
Speaker 1: are working through the weakness, whatever it may be. Some
Speaker 1: of you got a temper, some of you got an
Speaker 1: addiction to something that is chemical in nature. It could
Speaker 1: even just be food. It could be an addiction to bitterness.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's all kinds of addictions. Do I really
Speaker 1: need to list every single one of them? Because I
Speaker 1: promise I will. I will go in alphabetical order till
Speaker 1: I hit everybody on every row. Oh no, I'm not
Speaker 1: addicted to anything. Just let me get to see you
Speaker 1: control freak, and if I get to the peace, I'll
Speaker 1: talk about yours. For saying you don't have any addictions,
Speaker 1: we will rattle them off. And the good news of
Speaker 1: the gospel to me is that God chose the weak things.
Speaker 1: When you put it on the coffee mug, Holly, put
Speaker 1: it where it can go both ways, where you turn
Speaker 1: it around. So when I'm drinking my coffee in the
Speaker 1: morning after next Mother's Day, I could picture up right now,
Speaker 1: because I promise you one thing. I am not strong
Speaker 1: without coffee. So I know I need caffeine. I need Christ.
Speaker 1: I need caffeine, but I usually need them in the
Speaker 1: opposite order. It's usually the caffeine then the Christ, because
Speaker 1: I can't find Christ without the caffeine.
Speaker 2: I am confessing in front of thousands.
Speaker 1: Make sure when you turn the mug around, it says
Speaker 1: be strong, do the work. But make sure it's on
Speaker 1: two sides so we can remember this message where we
Speaker 1: can say, oh, I don't feel strong.
Speaker 2: Am I going to be strong? Is this too simple?
Speaker 1: Do y'all want me to give you a detailed explanation
Speaker 1: of the dimensions of the temple that Solomon built and
Speaker 1: the type of bronze that was imported for him to
Speaker 1: do it from the King of Hero and the dimensions
Speaker 1: of the inner courtyard and the oupter courtyard, and the
Speaker 1: lamp stands in the incense.
Speaker 2: Is that what you want?
Speaker 1: I think the deepest thing we can do with a
Speaker 1: word from God is to do it. I'm preaching a
Speaker 1: lot from the Old Testament this year because I'm having
Speaker 1: a very special time with my own family reading through
Speaker 1: the Old Testament chapter by chapter, with the lives of
Speaker 1: my oldest son.
Speaker 2: He was going through the Bible.
Speaker 1: And I've told you this, but I want to tell
Speaker 1: you again because the Holy Spirit brought it to my
Speaker 1: attention where he had the great idea to go through
Speaker 1: the Bible slow, and he's like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: just rush through it, I want to go slow. So
Speaker 1: him and Kelsey were reading, and then I jumped in
Speaker 1: and kind of like invited myself to the group and
Speaker 1: started giving him a key verse every day.
Speaker 2: Now. The reason I chose the key.
Speaker 1: Verse principle is because sometimes you can just read a
Speaker 1: scripture or hear a sermon.
Speaker 2: And go, oh, that's good.
Speaker 1: It's like that that YouTube short the only Bible verse
Speaker 1: you ever need to have big shoulders for the Lord
Speaker 1: to have a strong spirit, to be worry free and
Speaker 1: anxiety free. And I love all these YouTube shorts. I
Speaker 1: of course put content on them. That's not my point.
Speaker 1: My point is I never got stronger because of something
Speaker 1: I clicked on. I've gotten a lot stronger in my
Speaker 1: adult life because I work hard at that physically, but
Speaker 1: never because I clicked on something. It was always something
Speaker 1: that I did. I might click on it to learn something,
Speaker 1: but until I did it. Now, this sermon could be
Speaker 1: something that you click on today. It could be something
Speaker 1: that you click on and go, oh, that's really good
Speaker 1: and true and be strong and do the work. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. But go over to James chapter one, because
Speaker 1: this is why I do the key verse principle with
Speaker 1: my family, and I think it'd be a wonderful thing
Speaker 1: for us to go over as a church together. In
Speaker 1: the Book of James, he's making the case that faith
Speaker 1: without works is dead. He is not saying that the
Speaker 1: grace of God and the blood of Jesus is not
Speaker 1: enough to cover your sin. But he's saying, if you
Speaker 1: come to the place where you hear the word. In fact,
Speaker 1: he gives an analogy. He says, what verse did I
Speaker 1: start telling on twenty one? Give me that James one
Speaker 1: twenty one? Yeah, he says, therefore, get rid of all
Speaker 1: moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent. I
Speaker 1: love that phrase in The King James. It talks about
Speaker 1: superfluous naughtiness. Look it up.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the Bible is awesome. You can click around.
Speaker 1: All the translations, but click into a different translation won't save.
Speaker 2: You, will it.
Speaker 1: Clicking around or highlighting stuff like that is wonderful. It
Speaker 1: is wonderful that you are hearing this word. The Word
Speaker 1: of God is wonderful. But this is a process that
Speaker 1: James says. He says there is a getting rid of
Speaker 1: moral filth. This is a very specific thing he's talking
Speaker 1: about here. He's talking about everything that surrounds you, everything
Speaker 1: that is that is covering the true potential of the
Speaker 1: Christ in you. All of that has to go, put
Speaker 1: it back up and humbly accept the word planted in you,
Speaker 1: which can save you. Now that's interesting because it doesn't
Speaker 1: say it will save you, says it can. This word
Speaker 1: can help you today. This word can set you free.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: God's presence can touch you today. God can get into
Speaker 1: your situation and show you stuff that you don't know.
Speaker 1: He can put in your mind what only his spirit knows.
Speaker 2: He can.
Speaker 1: But this is not in the category of the salvation
Speaker 1: that you get when you come to Christ. This is
Speaker 1: salvation from yourself. So he says, the only way to
Speaker 1: be saved from your self deception is to humbly accept
Speaker 1: the word that is planted where where. So you've got
Speaker 1: all this moral filth where around you, and you've got
Speaker 1: this word from God planted in you. Somebody helped me.
Speaker 1: I need three Pentecostals, just three, just three. I don't
Speaker 1: need a lot, I need three. So now I understand
Speaker 1: that I've had it backwards because I've been too controlled
Speaker 1: by my environment, because I've been true controlled by my surroundings,
Speaker 1: because I've been too controlled by cultural programming, because I've
Speaker 1: been true, too controlled by thoughts that didn't even come
Speaker 1: from God. Because I've been too controlled by what I see,
Speaker 1: what I feel, what I think, what I knew up
Speaker 1: to this point. That's what's around me. But with what
Speaker 1: is around me contradicts the word that is planted in me.
Speaker 1: God says, we've got to get this thing switched up,
Speaker 1: because the word that is in you has potential to
Speaker 1: save you. But with God it works in reverse. See,
Speaker 1: most people live this way. Whatever happens on the outside,
Speaker 1: they react to it. Whatever happens on the outside, they
Speaker 1: move to it. Whatever happens on the outside, they dance
Speaker 1: with it. Whatever happens on the outside, they surrender to it.
Speaker 1: Whatever happens on the outside, that's what they consult for
Speaker 1: their next step in life.
Speaker 2: Not you.
Speaker 1: You're chosen, so you do it different because in the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God, it works in reverse. Say it, it
Speaker 1: works in reverse. So I don't start with my situation
Speaker 1: to see how it's going to turn out, because it
Speaker 1: works in reverse. I can be in a filthy situation,
Speaker 1: a naughty situation, a nasty situation, a grimy situation, a
Speaker 1: dark situation, a confusing situation, and if I walked according
Speaker 1: to the world, I'd be down about it, and I'd
Speaker 1: be weak about it, and I think that there was
Speaker 1: no hope in going forward and no cost to continue
Speaker 1: in it. But I don't walk according to what I see.
Speaker 1: I don't walk according to what I feel, and I
Speaker 1: don't walk according to who I've been to this pint
Speaker 1: because I found out I'm chosen. Hop found out God
Speaker 1: is building a temple.
Speaker 4: I've found out I have.
Speaker 1: The temple of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 4: And it works in reverse.
Speaker 1: So in this season of my life, I'm getting rid
Speaker 1: of some things that are in the way of my
Speaker 1: relationships with God because it works in reverse. This is
Speaker 1: what I think it means to seek first the kingdom.
Speaker 1: I think it means you've turned the whole thing around
Speaker 1: that you would say, I would rather have peace and
Speaker 1: be right with God God than be popular with everybody
Speaker 1: else in the world. I'd rather have peace with all
Speaker 1: money God than have all the money in the world.
Speaker 1: Y'all feeling this yet, But see, I don't wait for
Speaker 1: you to feel it before I preach it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: preach it till you feel it, because it works in reverse.
Speaker 1: That's how the word works. The word will feel weird
Speaker 1: when you hear it. It will call you a conqueror
Speaker 1: when you feel like a coward. It will call you
Speaker 1: a winner when you feel like a loser. It'll call
Speaker 1: you seated in heavenly places when you feel like you're
Speaker 1: at the bottom. But He shows the weak things to
Speaker 1: shame the strong. That's how it works, y'all. That's how
Speaker 1: it works. Touch three people say, that's how it works.
Speaker 1: That's how it works. Of course, you don't feel strong,
Speaker 1: you're not working through your weakness. You're gonna feel stronger
Speaker 1: when you sit there. Anyway, I talked to somebody the
Speaker 1: other day. They were like, I had a disappointment.
Speaker 2: It was awkward.
Speaker 1: I walked out. I said, then you're gonna be You
Speaker 1: are going to be stumped at the level of your discomfort.
Speaker 2: Because you can't sit.
Speaker 1: In anything that makes you feel uncomfortable long enough to
Speaker 1: be developed.
Speaker 2: And I told him that to his face, and he
Speaker 2: received there. He said, you're right, you're right, You're right,
Speaker 2: You're right. I said, I don't need to preach to you.
Speaker 2: He said, no, preach to me.
Speaker 1: Man, I need it.
Speaker 2: I need it. I need it. I needed That's why
Speaker 2: he said, he said, I need it. I need it.
Speaker 2: I'm sick of being stuck.
Speaker 1: I'm sick of needing to feel a certain way to
Speaker 1: do a certain thing. I'm sick of coming to church
Speaker 1: and going like, oh yeah, I want to live like that.
Speaker 2: I'm sick of.
Speaker 1: Clicking around YouTube videos and going, oh yeah, I want
Speaker 1: to I want to live.
Speaker 2: Like that.
Speaker 1: So when James comes along, he says something very simple
Speaker 1: in James one two, do not merely.
Speaker 2: Listen to the word. So I stopped there.
Speaker 1: When I was studying this week, I'm like, Lord, that
Speaker 1: would be good if people would even just listen to it.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're doing pretty good just to listen to
Speaker 1: a sermon when there's so much other options.
Speaker 2: Why being so hard on them? They're listening to the word.
Speaker 2: But he showed me that.
Speaker 1: When you listen and don't implement, it limits you that
Speaker 1: much more the next time you hear it, and it
Speaker 1: puts a lid on the potential.
Speaker 2: That he's put inside of you.
Speaker 1: So the next thing becomes very, very integral to your
Speaker 1: spiritual development. Do not merely listen to the word and
Speaker 1: so receive yourself. Do what it says, Elijah, where you at?
Speaker 2: Son?
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for that Bible Club, and thank you
Speaker 1: for this every time he sends his key verse, because
Speaker 1: we pick a verse and we say this is how
Speaker 1: i'mna try to do this today. Right, every time he
Speaker 1: sends his key verse, it's so practical and he's so smart.
Speaker 1: He's so analytical, always has been. He's When he was
Speaker 1: like four years old, he was asking me questions that
Speaker 1: made me feel like I needed to go back to
Speaker 1: Bible College again. He's asked me stuff about God that
Speaker 1: God hasn't even asked about God. And yet every time
Speaker 1: he does it, he puts it so simple, but at
Speaker 1: the end of his key verses he'll always say, I
Speaker 1: hope this isn't too simple. Don't ever say sorry for
Speaker 1: keeping it simple, because like what you put the other
Speaker 1: day about David, where you said, Okay, I know this
Speaker 1: isn't probably the deepest application of the text. No, the
Speaker 1: deepest thing you could have found is what you found,
Speaker 1: because you found the thing that God was actually calling
Speaker 1: you to do. And I thought that was so powerful
Speaker 1: because I'm like, that is what a disciple and not
Speaker 1: that you're not that you're perfect or I'm perfect, or
Speaker 1: not that oh we're reading our Bible every day so
Speaker 1: we're so great. But I love how I see you
Speaker 1: working the Word because here's what I know about God's Word.
Speaker 2: It works in reverse.
Speaker 1: God is giving him wisdom today for experiences he doesn't
Speaker 1: even know he's going to have.
Speaker 2: Yet he's digging a well today.
Speaker 1: Every time he goes to the Word and puts it
Speaker 1: into practice. Everybody say practice principles without practice are powerless.
Speaker 1: And every time he puts it into practice. Let me
Speaker 1: show you what he is defying. I close with this image.
Speaker 1: Don't play the piano. LJ close him, but I don't
Speaker 1: want it soft. Do not merely listen to the word
Speaker 1: and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says, and listen,
Speaker 1: listen to this picture. Remember when it comes to God's word.
Speaker 1: He gives us a picture of who he is, and
Speaker 1: we can't see it fully, but we see in part.
Speaker 2: And he gives us a picture of who we can
Speaker 2: be in him.
Speaker 1: And he shows us the strength that we can have
Speaker 1: in him, and the future that we can have in him,
Speaker 1: and the way of life that we can know in him,
Speaker 1: and the peace that we can have, and the joy
Speaker 1: that we can have. He gives us a picture. But
Speaker 1: watch what James says. As a warning, he says, verse
Speaker 1: twenty three. Anyone who listens to the word but does
Speaker 1: not do what it says is like someone who looks
Speaker 1: at his face in a mirror.
Speaker 2: Man an interesting image, he says.
Speaker 1: He's looks at his face in a mirror, and after
Speaker 1: looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he
Speaker 1: looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law
Speaker 1: that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what
Speaker 1: they have heard, but doing it, they will be in
Speaker 1: what they be strong.
Speaker 2: Do the work.
Speaker 1: What happens when you do the work, you be strong,
Speaker 1: not perfect, but strong, not there but closer, not monastic
Speaker 1: but maybe not going off on everybody, not perfect.
Speaker 2: But blessed. And he said, it's like a mirror.
Speaker 1: The word God gives you is like a mirror, and
Speaker 1: it shows you who God is, and it shows you who.
Speaker 2: You really are.
Speaker 1: And that's why something comes alive in you when you
Speaker 1: hear God's word and it hits you in your spirit
Speaker 1: because it's going in you and every label that has
Speaker 1: been slapped on you, even by your own words, when
Speaker 1: you get in the mirror of God's word, it begins
Speaker 1: to reverse every curse that has been spoken over your life.
Speaker 1: So when Hollywood's getting dressed the other day, she put
Speaker 1: on this hoodie for can you Imagine? And she was
Speaker 1: looking at it in the mirror. And when she was
Speaker 1: looking at it, she said, is it backwards? And I
Speaker 1: said yeah, and she said, but I'm confused. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it in the mirror because on this hoodie,
Speaker 1: can you see it?
Speaker 2: It's backwards.
Speaker 1: But when you get in front of a mirror, what
Speaker 1: does a mirror do? It reflects back Whatever stands in
Speaker 1: front of it, but the light makes it reflect back backwards.
Speaker 1: So God says, when you come in my presence, when
Speaker 1: you receive a word from Me, when you stand before Heaven,
Speaker 1: you're not just looking at yourself. You are looking at
Speaker 1: your father, who is perfect, your father who spoke a
Speaker 1: word over your life before you were knit together. He
Speaker 1: knew you, and I'm gonna show you.
Speaker 4: Who you are. He reverse.
Speaker 1: And everything in your life that does not match God's purpose.
Speaker 1: He's gonna turn it around for his glory in this season.
Speaker 1: Shout if you believe it. Shut if you believe it,
Speaker 1: shout on lie. He's turning it around. See. That's why
Speaker 1: I gotta kit with him, because I'm surrounded by filth.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to become like what I'm surrounded by.
Speaker 1: I don't want to think like what I'm surrounded by.
Speaker 1: I don't want to speak like what I'm surrounded by.
Speaker 1: I want God to put his word on my life
Speaker 1: and show me in the mirror of his image what
Speaker 1: I'm really worth in his hands.
Speaker 2: And I'm working through some weaknesses like you are.
Speaker 1: But the strength that you want for your life and
Speaker 1: the strength you want to pass on to your generations,
Speaker 1: and the strength you want your kids to see you
Speaker 1: walk in is through the stumbles that you recover from
Speaker 1: and keep moving forward believing that.
Speaker 2: God is not against you.
Speaker 1: I reverse every religious spirit that has tried to tell
Speaker 1: you that God is ashamed of you. If he's ashamed
Speaker 1: of what he made, that means he made a mistake.
Speaker 1: God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't qualify. God doesn't call
Speaker 1: the qualified. He qualifies to call, and he shows you.
Speaker 1: Now be strong and do the work. And if you
Speaker 1: do the work, remember you're working with him.
Speaker 2: Yohaul.
Speaker 1: I almost want to call this message dirty work, to
Speaker 1: keep with our theme of two word titles dirty work.
Speaker 1: You want to look like that who doesn't, Man, this
Speaker 1: is so bad for your ego. I'm a little worried
Speaker 1: about you. You are an example of the righteousness of
Speaker 1: Christ today, Inner Ralph Lauren Shirt, I mean, that's just phenomenal.
Speaker 2: Thank you for helping me out.
Speaker 1: But I just wanted to know today, is there a
Speaker 1: weakness that you're working through right now? And so you think, oh, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, this isn't working.
Speaker 2: I quit.
Speaker 1: The reminder of the scripture is that as you behold
Speaker 1: your God, he reflects to you backwards. What you can become,
Speaker 1: and what you can become starts with who he is.
Speaker 1: Everything that God has in your life is in seed
Speaker 1: form right now. It is surrounded by dirt, superfluous naughtiness.
Speaker 2: But that's okay because God does dirty work.
Speaker 1: Please believe me when I say that You've got to
Speaker 1: do it dirty too, on the days you don't feel
Speaker 1: like it, on the days where everything in you is
Speaker 1: telling you not to the strength What did you say
Speaker 1: last week? The strength you need for tomorrow is in
Speaker 1: the work.
Speaker 2: You do today.
Speaker 1: God is working in weakness. That's how he works. He
Speaker 1: works in reverse. He works in reverse, and sometimes he
Speaker 1: sees you struggling and he wants to help you, but
Speaker 1: you won't let him.
Speaker 2: What was your first job, Jay?
Speaker 1: You remember you work in security when you're like twelve
Speaker 1: years old, eating spinach, taking steroids working security. I don't
Speaker 1: want to look like you, Jay, that was your first job. Listen,
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody in the room had a crazier
Speaker 1: first job than me. When I was fourteen, I worked
Speaker 1: for pet Rest Cemetery and Cremation Service.
Speaker 2: That was my first job.
Speaker 1: And it was a cool job too, because not only
Speaker 1: did I get to send pets into the afterlife with dignity.
Speaker 2: The Lord was preparing me to preach.
Speaker 1: I just had to start with lesser animals into the kingdom.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Then, the coolest thing about the job was it came
Speaker 1: with get ready, it came with a pager. It came
Speaker 1: with a pager, and so on the nights where I
Speaker 1: would need to go cremate the dogs. Why are you
Speaker 1: looking at me like I killed them? This was a
Speaker 1: service people hired us to do. It was good work.
Speaker 1: I loved the job. I appreciated the job, and I
Speaker 1: liked the pager too, because it looks so cool, weird
Speaker 1: on the outside of my pocket.
Speaker 2: And feeling like, what do you do for money?
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: It involves freezers.
Speaker 1: But the uh, the worst part about that job was
Speaker 1: in the middle of the summer when a lot of
Speaker 1: dogs would die from heat exhaustion. Obviously it's sad, but
Speaker 1: even worse than that, it was so hot in the
Speaker 1: low country of South Carolina, and I would never wake
Speaker 1: up early to go dig the graves because I had
Speaker 1: to dig the graves too.
Speaker 2: And I had to do it by hand.
Speaker 1: And this dirt in the low country, it is not
Speaker 1: like friendly dirt that's just waiting to be dug.
Speaker 2: This is like clay. So I would go out there
Speaker 2: in the middle of the day and.
Speaker 1: True story, pick axe and a shovel and a little
Speaker 1: riding lawnmower, little trailer, and I'll break up the dirt
Speaker 1: and dig the graves. One day I was out there.
Speaker 1: It must have been one hundred and fifteen degrees in
Speaker 1: the low Country that day. I was dying, but I
Speaker 1: had to get it done. By four o'clock. I'm out
Speaker 1: there just killing myself. All of a sudden, I need
Speaker 1: to set this up for you. The pet Cemetery was
Speaker 1: right next to People Cemetery, just right there.
Speaker 2: You could see it.
Speaker 1: At the People Cemetery, they had better equipment than at
Speaker 1: the Pet Cemetery.
Speaker 2: And I would always watch this guy named Charles.
Speaker 1: He would dig the graves over there with a big
Speaker 1: heavy machinery like a bacco, and I would always lust
Speaker 1: after that while I was out there. But one glad day,
Speaker 1: while I was I'm literally out there going like, man,
Speaker 1: I should have made Eric come with me today. This
Speaker 1: is horrible, this sucks. I hate my life. I think
Speaker 1: about throwing my pager in that grave and jumping in
Speaker 1: there with the dog.
Speaker 2: And I'm out there.
Speaker 1: But here comes here comes Charles on the backo and
Speaker 1: he's coming over and I'm like, no way, no way.
Speaker 2: This is what I've always imagine. He pulls up.
Speaker 1: He doesn't even say anything.
Speaker 2: I just step aside.
Speaker 1: I didn't even say anything. He just starts moving stuff.
Speaker 1: He just starts moving stuff. He just starts moving stuff.
Speaker 1: He just starts moving stuff. Yeah, he just starts moving stuff.
Speaker 1: Twenty minutes later, we had a hole. What did I do?
Speaker 1: I stood there and pretended to be helping. I just
Speaker 1: stood there just and just prayed that he wouldn't leave.
Speaker 1: Just stay, Charles, Just stay Charles. Oh thank you, Charles.
Speaker 1: Hallelula Charles. I love Charles. Charles a big guy to
Speaker 1: He was short, but he was stout. Charles's on it.
Speaker 1: But he didn't need those muscles because he had something.
Speaker 2: That I didn't have before. He showed up and he.
Speaker 1: Just started digging. And I'm telling you, twenty minutes later
Speaker 1: we were done. I'm like, this is awesome. I'm about
Speaker 1: to go get lunch. I'm about to go get taco bell.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get something for me, some for Charles. We're
Speaker 1: gonna have a picnic. I'm name my kid Charles. This
Speaker 1: is amazing. Thank you, Charles. This is the greatest gift
Speaker 1: that I've ever been given. What do I owe you?
Speaker 1: I thought he want to cut, you know, fifteen percent
Speaker 1: on the first grave, after each additional grave twenty percent.
Speaker 2: I thought he was running.
Speaker 6: A side hustle. Charles said, no, I don't want anything.
Speaker 6: I just saw you struggling. I saw you sweating.
Speaker 1: I saw you out here doing everything that you could
Speaker 1: do with what you had, and I thought to myself,
Speaker 1: he could dig all day and not get this done.
Speaker 1: So I decided, if you'll let me, I'm gonna help him,
Speaker 1: I said, Charles, I will be the best letter that
Speaker 1: you've ever met in your life. I'm gonna let you
Speaker 1: help me. Anytime you see me with this thick axe,
Speaker 1: pull up us. I need you, Holy Spirit. I need
Speaker 1: you Jesus, because you've forgot what I don't have, and
Speaker 1: you can do what I can't do.
Speaker 4: And you can do what I can't her.
Speaker 1: And I hear God saying to somebody today, prob make.
Speaker 4: You strong, forgive you hope, pop.
Speaker 1: Breathe into your sales.
Speaker 4: I'll make it happen.
Speaker 1: I'll flow the door off the hinges.
Speaker 4: I'll come in and.
Speaker 1: Make away through your sea. Get it, praise it? Do
Speaker 1: you believe it?
Speaker 4: Hey?
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
Speaker 1: make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
Speaker 1: get you all of these new messages as soon as
Speaker 1: they're available. I also want to take a moment and
Speaker 1: thank all of you who are a part of Elevation.
Speaker 1: Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
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Speaker 2: God bless you.