Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church,
Speaker 1: and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it
Speaker 1: builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to see
Speaker 1: God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the praise party, I said, welcome to the praise
Speaker 1: party all over the world. We'd like to welcome you
Speaker 1: into our home. This is our family. I pray that
Speaker 1: whatever campus you're watching on the presence of God is
Speaker 1: permeating that atmosphere like it's permeating this one. There is
Speaker 1: a sense of hope, eagerness, and really a purity of
Speaker 1: faith that is in this room tonight. It's the kind
Speaker 1: of atmosphere that makes it easy for God to move
Speaker 1: because He doesn't have to try to get our attention.
Speaker 1: He already has it. And so now that we're here
Speaker 1: and we made it, let's really seize this opportunity to
Speaker 1: go into the Word of God and to see what
Speaker 1: He would speak to us on this occasion. I might
Speaker 1: as well let you know upfront, because I believe in
Speaker 1: being honest and direct that I am absolutely ready and
Speaker 1: prepared for you tonight. I heard that you were coming,
Speaker 1: and I cooked something. I feel like that I know
Speaker 1: exactly what God wants me to say, what he wants
Speaker 1: us to do, and what he has said that he
Speaker 1: will do for us if we will do what He's
Speaker 1: going to tell us to do. That he already told
Speaker 1: me that I'm going to tell you over the next
Speaker 1: few moments. To me, this is a very precious night.
Speaker 1: I started having the praise party in twenty thirteen, right
Speaker 1: around the time that Holly and I got so old
Speaker 1: that we were having trouble staying up and in the
Speaker 1: ball drop, I said, this is pitiful. What we need
Speaker 1: to do is start our year with some other people
Speaker 1: that are having trouble, stay in a wake, and maybe
Speaker 1: if we all caffeate together and come together and seek
Speaker 1: God together, we can start the year with a disposition,
Speaker 1: a belief, and an expectation of greater things. I want
Speaker 1: to say thank you to the church family that I pastor.
Speaker 1: I know there are many guests here and our evam
Speaker 1: around the world, but I wanted everybody to hear this
Speaker 1: what I'm about to say. I am really really becoming
Speaker 1: more and more aware of what a privilege it is
Speaker 1: and a sacred trust. It is that you would allow me,
Speaker 1: as a leader in Holly, as a leader in our family,
Speaker 1: to have this part in your life, to be able
Speaker 1: to minister to you in those moments of your life
Speaker 1: where you don't know if you can go on, or
Speaker 1: where you're seeking direction from above, to be able to
Speaker 1: stand in this spot week in and week out for
Speaker 1: another year and declare the word of the Lord has
Speaker 1: nothing to take for granted. And I want to thank
Speaker 1: you for allowing me to be on the journey with you.
Speaker 1: That's a real privilege wherever you are in the world.
Speaker 1: Just I know our church feels this way. It is
Speaker 1: an honor to minister God's word to you. It's really
Speaker 1: a great privilege and a joy. And so stand up,
Speaker 1: just in case, love you to just in case you're
Speaker 1: starting to nod off. Stand up, and I want to
Speaker 1: read you the scripture. And it is a familiar scripture
Speaker 1: and it is an epic scenario. It's found in Exodus
Speaker 1: chapter fourteen. You like that one. I feel so good
Speaker 1: up here right now. Anything could happen tonight. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was the thirteen cups of
Speaker 1: coffee or the Holy Ghost work in tandem. But I
Speaker 1: just feel good because normally on a weekend, I have
Speaker 1: to behave and there's a lot of constraints, and I
Speaker 1: just feel like tonight should be our night, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like usually we have to kind of
Speaker 1: just tone it down in case there's guests and visitors
Speaker 1: and all that. But I don't want to do that tonight.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that night. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't put on my best jean jacket just to
Speaker 1: come in here. But this scripture in Exodus fourteen is
Speaker 1: of course all about transition and victory, so it's appropriate
Speaker 1: for tonight. But let me read it to you. Verse
Speaker 1: twenty six Exodus fourteen. Then the Lord said to Moses,
Speaker 1: stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the
Speaker 1: waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their cherry
Speaker 1: and horsemen. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
Speaker 1: and at daybreak the sea went back to its place.
Speaker 1: The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept
Speaker 1: them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered
Speaker 1: the chariots and horsemen, the entire army of Pharaoh that
Speaker 1: had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of
Speaker 1: them survived. But the Israelites went through the sea on
Speaker 1: dry ground with a wall of water. On their right
Speaker 1: looked to your right, and on their left looked to
Speaker 1: your left. Okay, while you'll turn in two different directions,
Speaker 1: it's a universal kind of thing. But the Israelites went
Speaker 1: through the sea on try ground. But the Israelites. This
Speaker 1: is how you can tell I belong to God because
Speaker 1: I went through the sea on try ground. Do me
Speaker 1: a favor. Since this is a party, everybody participate and
Speaker 1: look at your neighbor on your right or your left.
Speaker 1: You choose. I'm gonna leave that much up to you.
Speaker 1: But now let me tell you what to tell them.
Speaker 1: You're gonna give them my title. Tell them this, say
Speaker 1: I don't know what you went through in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: but you made it. And tell them hold on, no,
Speaker 1: that's not it. That's not it. We're not done. Tell them,
Speaker 1: since you came through, you might as well come through
Speaker 1: trip it. Please be seated. How many of you twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen didn't go like you planned for it to go.
Speaker 1: Messed up your workout plan when your knees started hurting,
Speaker 1: you were paying off some stuff, and then you're transmission
Speaker 1: and plan for that, which is why, of course I
Speaker 1: don't come up here and do the predictable preaching maneuver
Speaker 1: where I challenge you to make New Year's resolutions, because
Speaker 1: resolutions are cheap, resilience is priceless. I want to lay
Speaker 1: a foundation for what I want to say from the
Speaker 1: text from a study that was done. The article was
Speaker 1: printed in The New Yorker several years ago, and I
Speaker 1: saved it because I thought it would be helpful for
Speaker 1: us to look at it at some point in the future,
Speaker 1: and that point is now. And the writer of the article,
Speaker 1: George Banano Banano, if you're watching, George I tried, was
Speaker 1: talking about how the central element of resilience is perception
Speaker 1: and that there is no such thing, strictly speaking, as
Speaker 1: a traumatic event. The reason he came to this conclusion
Speaker 1: was because he interviewed children, over six hundred of them,
Speaker 1: who had gone through the worst possible situations imaginable, and
Speaker 1: found out that many of the children who went through
Speaker 1: the worst situations came out with the greatest emotional stability
Speaker 1: and sense of connectivity. And so from that he concluded, listen,
Speaker 1: that events are not traumatic until we experience them as traumatic.
Speaker 1: And he wasn't necessarily negating the post traumatic stress of
Speaker 1: growing up in a broken home or going to war
Speaker 1: and then coming back to a situation that is so
Speaker 1: foreign to the experience of the battle that you thought
Speaker 1: that you cannot find your own equilibrium. But what he
Speaker 1: was saying is much deeper than that. He said that
Speaker 1: to call something a traumatic event belies the fact, and
Speaker 1: so he coined a term PTE, not PTSD, which is
Speaker 1: a very real thing, no doubt, But his term was
Speaker 1: potentially traumatic event, which he argues is a more accurate
Speaker 1: way to look at the things that we go through
Speaker 1: in our lives. The theory is straightforward, every frightening event,
Speaker 1: or you might insert painful event, no matter how negative
Speaker 1: it might seem from the sideline, has the potential to
Speaker 1: be traumatic or not to the person experiencing it. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you agree with that, or if it
Speaker 1: was a little bit boring and you didn't pay much attention,
Speaker 1: but wake up now. He's making a distinction between what
Speaker 1: we went through and what we do with what we
Speaker 1: went through. I couldn't think of a more appropriate group
Speaker 1: of people to come and share this evening with us
Speaker 1: than the Israelites in this the birth of their nation
Speaker 1: as such, and their escape from Egypt, where they had
Speaker 1: been slaves for over four hundred years, as God told
Speaker 1: Abram that his people would be in Genesis chapter fifteen,
Speaker 1: many years earlier. But now as they are coming out
Speaker 1: of that season of their life, they are carrying with
Speaker 1: them much of the trauma from what they experienced in Egypt,
Speaker 1: and they're escaping this place that had become so painful
Speaker 1: for them because of the unrealistic and inhumane pressure that
Speaker 1: they were under as slaves or servants in Egypt under
Speaker 1: a taskmaster who did not know Joseph and did not
Speaker 1: remember or regard the people of God as special. The
Speaker 1: trauma of what they had been through in that four
Speaker 1: hundred years would be impossible to cover in forty minutes tonight.
Speaker 1: And I hope you'll give me a little grace as
Speaker 1: I kind of brush past some things that probably for
Speaker 1: them would be much more, much more traumatic than my
Speaker 1: summary would lead you to believe. But you understand that
Speaker 1: they were so oppressed in this period of being in Egypt.
Speaker 1: Not only were they forced to do a job that
Speaker 1: they weren't paid for, but they were forced to do
Speaker 1: it with not enough materials. By the way, have you
Speaker 1: ever felt that way like trying to raise kids and
Speaker 1: get through life and do what you need to do
Speaker 1: in the world. And I'm not comparing us to them,
Speaker 1: but many of the things that they went through, while
Speaker 1: not similar situationally, might have a similar psychological effect in
Speaker 1: that what they went through had left them traumatized in
Speaker 1: a sense. And tonight I have to believe that the
Speaker 1: reason you came here, whether you thought you came here
Speaker 1: for this reason or not, is that there are some traumas,
Speaker 1: even if they're micro traumas, that God wanted to deal with,
Speaker 1: some tears in the tissue of the muscle fiber that
Speaker 1: God wanted to deal with specifically and surgically in the
Speaker 1: way that only his spirit can. And he brought you
Speaker 1: here tonight, maybe under the pretense of just having nothing
Speaker 1: else to do, or maybe there was a girl who
Speaker 1: asked you to come, And maybe you're more excited about
Speaker 1: after church than during church. You're stuck with me for
Speaker 1: a few minutes. I'm gonna talk to you for a
Speaker 1: few minutes while I can with this microphone and talk
Speaker 1: to you about some of the things that you went through.
Speaker 1: And also I would add to that that you probably
Speaker 1: came to celebrate a little bit. I mean, it's not
Speaker 1: like everybody here tonight had the worst year of their life.
Speaker 1: I can never understand that why we're so why we're
Speaker 1: so hasty to want to leave this year. One of
Speaker 1: the ways I can tell when my life is out
Speaker 1: of alignment is when I'm in a hurry for no
Speaker 1: good reason. Like it's one thing to be in a hurry,
Speaker 1: and there's a reason that I'm in a hurry, and
Speaker 1: I can point to the next thing on my schedule
Speaker 1: that I'm trying to get to. But when I'm in
Speaker 1: too much of a hurry and there's nowhere that I'm going,
Speaker 1: it's a sign that something is wrong in my life.
Speaker 1: It's a sign that something is not working right. And
Speaker 1: so now we find the Israelites not serving Pharaoh in
Speaker 1: building the different construction projects that he has ordered to
Speaker 1: be built, but they are escaping Egypt, which is interesting
Speaker 1: in itself because originally they escaped to Egypt because there
Speaker 1: was a famine at home, But over a period of
Speaker 1: many years and a transition of leadership, what they escaped
Speaker 1: to they became enslaved by Sometimes this happens in all
Speaker 1: of our lives, is that we're so tired of being
Speaker 1: alone that we escape to a relationship that in the
Speaker 1: end produces a worse loneliness than being alone ever could.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we cry tears because we escape to something that
Speaker 1: we ultimately become enslaved by. Sometimes the thing that we
Speaker 1: run too is more dangerous than the thing that we're
Speaker 1: running from, and it wasn't their fault. Sometimes we make
Speaker 1: decisions to run to certain things. But really they had
Speaker 1: to go to Egypt, not only to fulfill the prophecy
Speaker 1: which extended into the New Testament, which we know at
Speaker 1: Christmas time that out of Egypt I've called my Son,
Speaker 1: which ultimately projects into the very life of Jesus Christ himself.
Speaker 1: It's an arc of a narrative that God was creating
Speaker 1: for deliverance for his people before they were ever born.
Speaker 1: But now they're in transition, and transition is dramatic, even
Speaker 1: the good kind. Even when God blesses you in the
Speaker 1: way that you asked him to, a lot of times
Speaker 1: you find out that what you ask God for way
Speaker 1: more than you were prepared to carry. Ever had your
Speaker 1: prayer request turn into your praise report and then turned
Speaker 1: back into your prayer request. And so transition is traumatic,
Speaker 1: whether I'm devolving into a dire circumstance or whether God
Speaker 1: is elevating me and developing me into something greater. Transition
Speaker 1: is always traumatic. And so perhaps tonight you're not bringing
Speaker 1: your traumas to church. Maybe you're bringing some trophies to church. Hey,
Speaker 1: I had a pretty good year. You know. Some things
Speaker 1: happened for me this year that I never thought could happen.
Speaker 1: And some things happened for me this year that I
Speaker 1: really had looked forward to for a long time. But
Speaker 1: I had some things happened for me this year, Like
Speaker 1: I had a breakthrough in an area that I'd been
Speaker 1: running up against the same thing over and over again.
Speaker 1: I had a breakthrough somebody that I was praying for.
Speaker 1: They got better this year. Something that I've been struggling
Speaker 1: with for a long time. I don't struggle with it
Speaker 1: as much anymore. I mean, still there, but it's not
Speaker 1: overwhelming me. It's not overcoming me. It hadn't been as
Speaker 1: dark this year. I've experienced some of the goodness of
Speaker 1: the Lord that at once I only forecasted this year
Speaker 1: came into my life, and it reigned over my life.
Speaker 1: And I'm here tonight not only to bring before the
Speaker 1: Lord my traumas, but my trophies, because I want to acknowledge,
Speaker 1: before my blessings turn into pride, that I want to
Speaker 1: turn back to praise God for every victory that he
Speaker 1: gave me this year. And make no mistake about it,
Speaker 1: every mountain that I stood on this year, I did
Speaker 1: not get there alone, not at all. I'm not smart enough,
Speaker 1: I'm not sharp enough, I'm not connected enough. And so
Speaker 1: whatever state of transition we find ourselves in any given
Speaker 1: moment of our life, it can be traumatic. Yet the
Speaker 1: men said that the experience is not inherent in the event. Rather,
Speaker 1: it is your perception of the event and how much
Speaker 1: resilience you have. The children of Israel were nothing if
Speaker 1: not resilient. They were resilient even when they didn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of resources. They were resilient, even when they
Speaker 1: were complaining. They were resilient, even when they had a
Speaker 1: bad attitude. They were resilient. In fact, the Bible says
Speaker 1: something kind of weird, says that the more that Pharaoh
Speaker 1: oppressed them, the more they multiplied. And I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm looking at anybody tonight that just turned stuff
Speaker 1: into this year, that transformed and converted stuff this year
Speaker 1: that happened in your life that might have caused other
Speaker 1: people to quit. But look at you in church after
Speaker 1: all that. Come on, nudge somebody next year say after
Speaker 1: all that, look at me, after all that, I'm still cute,
Speaker 1: after all that, I'm not petty or bitter after all that.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, I have a reason to be
Speaker 1: and I could be in a in a sour state
Speaker 1: of mind tonight, but I decided to do it differently.
Speaker 1: This year. I decided to bring all my trauma and
Speaker 1: all my trophies into the presence of God. Come on,
Speaker 1: here's somebody say, I came through Now. One difference between
Speaker 1: us and the Israelites is that they came through something
Speaker 1: physical that you could see. Did you see it in
Speaker 1: the text? It's really beautiful how the text paints the picture.
Speaker 1: And it's not only the event that it describes, but
Speaker 1: it's the entire trajectory of deliverance that is depicted in
Speaker 1: the whole Book of Exodus, which is one of the
Speaker 1: major themes of the Bible from beginning to end. For
Speaker 1: many years, I thought salvation was just what we were
Speaker 1: saved from. But the big picture of God's purpose for
Speaker 1: your life and my life is what we're saved too.
Speaker 1: And so on this journey to freedom, not just from sin,
Speaker 1: but freedom too, they're going, this is the crazy thing
Speaker 1: about God. When he brings you out of something, he
Speaker 1: does not let you choose your escape route. Because I
Speaker 1: should probably talk about this, because there is a Bible
Speaker 1: verse that says God will not allow you to be
Speaker 1: tempted beyond what you are able. That with the temptation,
Speaker 1: he will provide the way of a us escape. But
Speaker 1: it promises he will provide the way of escape. It
Speaker 1: does not promise that he will let you pick the
Speaker 1: way of escape. It is not a multiple choice. It
Speaker 1: is not a choose your own adventure escape route. So
Speaker 1: God's way of escape is not up for debate. When
Speaker 1: God calls you out, he leads you sometimes strange ways,
Speaker 1: Which is why they must have been so disappointed when
Speaker 1: Moses took them on those backcountry roads to camp out
Speaker 1: right in front of the Red Sea, because it would
Speaker 1: have been shorter. Even the Bible says it would have
Speaker 1: been shorter. It wasn't just their opinion. The Bible says
Speaker 1: It would have been shorter if they would have gone
Speaker 1: through Philistine country, but they weren't ready for war yet.
Speaker 1: A lot of times, when God brings you from point
Speaker 1: A to point B, he takes you on a zigzag
Speaker 1: because he knows, and I don't mean to hurt your
Speaker 1: feelings how fragile your faith is, even if you don't,
Speaker 1: so he brings them out on a way of escape.
Speaker 1: That to them must have seemed long, but they could
Speaker 1: deal with it. They didn't complain about that. What must
Speaker 1: have seemed really weird to them was when they heard
Speaker 1: the wheels of the chariots, the horsepower of the engines
Speaker 1: of Pharaoh's six hundred chosen chariots, coming up behind them,
Speaker 1: when they thought they had left Egypt and they were
Speaker 1: done with that. Now we're at the text in verse
Speaker 1: twenty six where the Lord said to Moses, stretch out
Speaker 1: your hand. I'm so excited to share this with you.
Speaker 1: God showed me something this week that was so cool,
Speaker 1: because the first time Moses stretched out his hand, which
Speaker 1: had a staff in it, the sea parted so that
Speaker 1: the Israelites could go through, so that they could walk
Speaker 1: through what they shouldn't have been able to walk through. Now,
Speaker 1: there are some things that God did in your life
Speaker 1: this year with a strong east wind that if He
Speaker 1: didn't do those things, you wouldn't have been able to
Speaker 1: go through. Within yourself, come on a minute, within your
Speaker 1: own strength, with your DNA and with your dad and
Speaker 1: your mom and their genes still kicking around in a
Speaker 1: cage fight inside of you, you would not have gone
Speaker 1: through it. You would have stopped in the middle of it,
Speaker 1: and you would have drowned. But one thing about God
Speaker 1: is he is only known by the evidence of what
Speaker 1: he does. He has not experienced directly. The Bible says
Speaker 1: that the reason they went through is because a wind
Speaker 1: blew from the east and made the waters stand at
Speaker 1: a so that the people could go through. Now, you
Speaker 1: can't see wind, You can only see the effects of
Speaker 1: the wind. You ask me how I know God is real.
Speaker 1: I can't point to his nose or his ears. I've
Speaker 1: never heard his audible voice. But there are just some
Speaker 1: things in my life that don't make sense unless there
Speaker 1: was a wind blowing. There are just some things, how
Speaker 1: about you. There are just some things that I went
Speaker 1: through that I know me and I would not have
Speaker 1: had the grace to go through it if there hadn't
Speaker 1: been something working with me. Now let's get into the text.
Speaker 1: There's a good part. Does somebody say, come through? So
Speaker 1: Moses is stretching out his staff so the people can
Speaker 1: trying to get you tonight. I'm trying to get you
Speaker 1: tonight to come through. I think it would be a
Speaker 1: shame for you to be stuck in an inferior version
Speaker 1: of yourself, clutching onto a beta blessing when there is
Speaker 1: an update available in this house tonight by the spirit
Speaker 1: of God. So I'm trying to get you to come through.
Speaker 1: But by the time verse twenty six hits, they've already
Speaker 1: done that. They're already on the other side. I mean
Speaker 1: you already, you already made it through twenty eighteen. You
Speaker 1: don't have to come to church for that. The odds
Speaker 1: are good. You wouldn't have died over these three hours
Speaker 1: that you're going to be in church. You were good.
Speaker 1: That's not why you came. That is not why you came.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we get so focused on whatever we went through,
Speaker 1: and it makes sense because it's traumatic. I get it, well,
Speaker 1: I really don't. I shouldn't say that. That's not fair
Speaker 1: for me to say because I don't know what you
Speaker 1: went through, So how dare me stand up here and
Speaker 1: say I know what I don't know? I know what
Speaker 1: I went through this year, and it wasn't all stuff
Speaker 1: that you could see, like this water that was on
Speaker 1: either side of the Israelites. To me, it'd be easier
Speaker 1: if everybody could watch you go through what you went through,
Speaker 1: so they could have some pity on you and be
Speaker 1: extra nice to you, give you extra sprinkles on your cupcakes,
Speaker 1: because after all, if I went through what you went through,
Speaker 1: I'd be in a bad mood too. Wouldn't be cool
Speaker 1: if everybody could see what you went through and they
Speaker 1: could experience, you know, be nice. But every storm that
Speaker 1: we survived this year wasn't something that other people could see.
Speaker 1: It's one thing when you walk through something physical, like
Speaker 1: certain things you go through, people see you going through it.
Speaker 1: It's like, man, I heard your husband has cancer. We
Speaker 1: got you and pray for you. We're gonna get through
Speaker 1: this together. You're gonna come through this. We're gonna do it.
Speaker 1: When when you lose your job, you know, people hear
Speaker 1: about that. Maybe you don't even want them to, but
Speaker 1: they hear about it. And then it's kind of embarrassing
Speaker 1: on one hand, because everybody's coming up to you and
Speaker 1: we're praying for you. If you need anything, let us know.
Speaker 1: I know you're going through right now. And although that's
Speaker 1: a little humiliating on one hand, is helpful on the
Speaker 1: other because then you get to be the beneficiary of
Speaker 1: other people's empathy and maybe even their materials support. What's
Speaker 1: a little different is when the thing that you went
Speaker 1: through isn't something that you can point to and directly name.
Speaker 1: Times I find myself going through things that that aren't
Speaker 1: like the Red Sea. It's not something I can exactly
Speaker 1: describe to you. Did you ever go through something and
Speaker 1: while you were going through it, you didn't even know
Speaker 1: what it was? Just a phone, just a thing, just
Speaker 1: some stuff I'm going through. I even tell some people
Speaker 1: that from time to time that pray for me. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm just going through I can't say what. I don't
Speaker 1: even know. It's like it's like a It's like the
Speaker 1: Bible describes the arrow by day or the terror at night,
Speaker 1: And sometimes the thing about what you go through in
Speaker 1: the night is you can't exactly see it, to name
Speaker 1: it or to know what it is. And in the
Speaker 1: passage that I'm preaching from tonight. They were going through.
Speaker 1: What they went through was able to be seen visibly.
Speaker 1: But maybe what you through this year wasn't. Maybe it
Speaker 1: was a divorce, maybe it was just a loveless home.
Speaker 1: But you're so good at faking other people out that
Speaker 1: they're all praying they could have a marriage like yours. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: yours is falling apart. Some of the things that you
Speaker 1: go through. What happened to the praise party. Some of
Speaker 1: the things you go through aren't so simple now, although
Speaker 1: this is dramatic, one advantage that they had is they
Speaker 1: went through it together. By this time, the Israelites are
Speaker 1: millions strong, and to go through something with others who
Speaker 1: were going through the same thing that you're going through
Speaker 1: is one thing. When the stock market sucks, it sucks
Speaker 1: for all of us. We get to go through that together.
Speaker 1: When the government is out of control, we all go
Speaker 1: through that together. But there's something about the things that
Speaker 1: you go through that nobody is going through with you
Speaker 1: that makes it difficult for you to know. Is there
Speaker 1: something wrong with me? Am I the only one who
Speaker 1: feels this way? Am I the only one who wants
Speaker 1: to quit? Am I the only one who wonders God,
Speaker 1: or are you really even there? Or is this thing
Speaker 1: I've been believing my whole life just a fairy tale
Speaker 1: that my parents told me. Like Santa Claus, some of
Speaker 1: the things that we went through this year were invisible.
Speaker 1: Some of the things we went through this year were
Speaker 1: emotional states, and there wasn't even always something to cause it.
Speaker 1: It would be nice if there was. It would be
Speaker 1: better if I did lose my job, I'd have a
Speaker 1: reason to be pissed off. Come back next week, and
Speaker 1: I won't say pissed off. It's just late and I'm
Speaker 1: unfiltered and unhinged and unplugged. But watch me. The miracle
Speaker 1: is in what they went through. The proof that you
Speaker 1: belonged to God is not that you did go through,
Speaker 1: but that what you went through didn't kill you. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna need you to shout right here on this point,
Speaker 1: whether you feel it or not, on every location, come on,
Speaker 1: tell somebody I went through. I went through. I figured,
Speaker 1: if I stand here in front of this red sea,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna die at the hands of the same Egyptians
Speaker 1: that have been terrorizing me. But I'm not gonna stand
Speaker 1: here and die if I'm gonna die, I want to drown.
Speaker 1: I'm going through. I'm going through. If I'm gonna die,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna die on my feet. I'm going through now
Speaker 1: Now Now, I love the word of God. I love
Speaker 1: the fact that they went through. But the point of tonight,
Speaker 1: right is not what you went through. It's not what
Speaker 1: you went through as much as what you went through
Speaker 1: as important and as much as what you went through
Speaker 1: as is indicative of some of the things that you
Speaker 1: might need to deal with. I'm not saying that it's
Speaker 1: not important what you went through. I'm saying that that's
Speaker 1: not what God told me to talk to you about tonight.
Speaker 1: On this auspicious occasion at Elevation Church Praise Party twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen slash twenty nineteen, as we are thirty one minutes
Speaker 1: away from a New Year Eastern Center Time, United States
Speaker 1: of America, God said, don't you spend this whole sermon
Speaker 1: talking about what they went through. He said, right in
Speaker 1: the middle of the sermon, I want you to shift
Speaker 1: it from what they went through to why they went through.
Speaker 1: And now we need to go back to the text
Speaker 1: because remember, there's water on their right side, water on
Speaker 1: their left side. For their enemies, it was a trap,
Speaker 1: but for them it was a path. And now they're
Speaker 1: on the other side. And so it seems strange that
Speaker 1: God would tell them to do anything other than run.
Speaker 1: But he tells Moses to do something that God wants
Speaker 1: you to do tonight, and he says, I want you
Speaker 1: to take the instrument in your hand that is a
Speaker 1: symbol of your past, that is a symbol of the
Speaker 1: mistakes that you made when you killed the Egyptian Moses
Speaker 1: and ran and hid him in the sand and then
Speaker 1: hid yourself. The staff that is the symbol of your potential,
Speaker 1: the same one that you used to turn the Nile
Speaker 1: River to blood in those ten plagues of Egypt. I
Speaker 1: want you to take the that same instrument, and before
Speaker 1: you leave Egypt, stretch it back over what you just
Speaker 1: went through. And when you do, you will understand the
Speaker 1: purpose of what you went through. God brought you here tonight.
Speaker 1: If I can be so bold as to say that,
Speaker 1: I believe this applies to everyone in the room who
Speaker 1: will have the faith to receive it, because He wants
Speaker 1: to use what you went through. That's the good news,
Speaker 1: God tell you. The whole thing. God wants to use
Speaker 1: what you went through, and so does the devil. And
Speaker 1: the question in this moment is will you allow God
Speaker 1: to use what you went through? This? And when he
Speaker 1: had finished leading an entire nation all night long in
Speaker 1: the dark with water that could collapse on them at
Speaker 1: any moment, don't you think they moved fast through this
Speaker 1: tunnel of supernatural, miraculous potential death that at any moment
Speaker 1: could sweep them away. And they make it to the
Speaker 1: other side, and God says, stop, before you take another step,
Speaker 1: I need you to stretch your hand back over what
Speaker 1: you just went through. The water that you just went
Speaker 1: through was not sent to destroy you. Can I tell
Speaker 1: you something. Everything that made you afraid this year was
Speaker 1: not the devil. Everything that made you cry this year
Speaker 1: was not the devil. Everything that broke your heart this
Speaker 1: year was not the devil. Everything that you lost this
Speaker 1: year was not the devil. Everything that didn't go according
Speaker 1: to plan this year was not the devil. Some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that was sent against you was not sent
Speaker 1: to destroy you. At the time it felt like it would.
Speaker 1: At the time you felt like you would never be
Speaker 1: happy again. At the time you felt like you would
Speaker 1: just drive away and never come back. At the time,
Speaker 1: you felt like you would never find that love, that passion,
Speaker 1: that feeling again. At the time it felt like it
Speaker 1: would kill you. But the thing that you went through
Speaker 1: was not meant to destroy you. And when you stretch
Speaker 1: your hand over what you went through, what you went
Speaker 1: through is going to deliver you from what you just
Speaker 1: came out of. Let me see if I got this right,
Speaker 1: what I went through could have killed me, but it
Speaker 1: didn't hit Somebody say, but it didn't. It didn't. I
Speaker 1: could have laid down and died in what I went through.
Speaker 1: Doesn't them say, but I didn't tell him. I could
Speaker 1: have lost my mind, but I I don't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: you did. But here's the point of the message. Here's
Speaker 1: the point of the message. Whatever you went through that
Speaker 1: did not destroy you, God is now going to use
Speaker 1: to deliver you from the decide to see. If you
Speaker 1: believe the word of God, it's in the bi bl e.
Speaker 1: He said, what you just went through. If you will
Speaker 1: stop at this moment, at this juncture, in this time,
Speaker 1: in this season and stretch your hand over what you
Speaker 1: went through, it's not meant to kill you. It's meant
Speaker 1: to kill your enemies. It was never gonna kill you.
Speaker 1: The weapon thought against you South. Now I know why
Speaker 1: I went through. There were some things that God had
Speaker 1: to kill so they would kill me. That's why I
Speaker 1: went through. That's why God had to deal with some
Speaker 1: things in me, in me, inemy. God had to drown
Speaker 1: some of my enemy. That's why I went through. So
Speaker 1: when I look back over at what I thought I
Speaker 1: wouldn't get through, and I see, look at verse thirty,
Speaker 1: I didn't give you that, dude, I forgot to give
Speaker 1: you Verse thirty. I'm so sorry. And so when they
Speaker 1: look back that the Lord saved Israel from the hands
Speaker 1: of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead
Speaker 1: on the shore. Now, what do you want to look
Speaker 1: at this year? What you went through or what God
Speaker 1: did in you through what you went through. God deliver me.
Speaker 1: You know He's not going to do that in acute, comfortable,
Speaker 1: convenient place. Some stuff that you went through this year. Now,
Speaker 1: if you don't process it correctly, if you just am
Speaker 1: in a hurry to get out of twenty eighteen, don't
Speaker 1: be surprised when you hear the chariot wheels in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back here in three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: five days shouting over nothing all over again. And the
Speaker 1: Lord gave me this word. It's more like an image
Speaker 1: from the text. It said that Moses. The way I
Speaker 1: saw it in my mind was that the water had
Speaker 1: done something supernatural all night long so the Israelites could
Speaker 1: get through. God kept stuff away from you this year
Speaker 1: so you could get through. But when the time came
Speaker 1: for them to leave, God said, stop, you got twenty
Speaker 1: two minutes. Let the knee year. And before you're in
Speaker 1: such a hurry to get out, turn around and stretch
Speaker 1: what's the verse verse twenty eight. Stretch your staff, and
Speaker 1: the water flowed back and covered the cherries. Water flowed back.
Speaker 1: So it had been like this, and then it went
Speaker 1: like that, and then the enemies went like that, and
Speaker 1: the people of God went like that. So God said
Speaker 1: to tell you, it's time for you to flip the flow.
Speaker 1: Touch the person on either side of you and see
Speaker 1: if they can get us. Say, flip the flow. It's
Speaker 1: been going this way. It's been going this way all
Speaker 1: year long. It's been going this way. But tonight we
Speaker 1: came to flip the flow. And everything that was against
Speaker 1: me this year now Romans eight twenty eight says, oh
Speaker 1: I got a new Testament Verse two. Then all things
Speaker 1: work together for the good of them that love the
Speaker 1: Lord is that you. Do you still love him? If
Speaker 1: he's still your friend? Do you still trust him after
Speaker 1: what you went through? If that's you, then all thing
Speaker 1: work together High five eighteen. People say, flip the flow.
Speaker 1: Flip the flow. Flip the flow, instead of concentrating on
Speaker 1: all the moments that it didn't go your way this year,
Speaker 1: Flip the flow. What way right? What did work out?
Speaker 1: Who did stay? Who did give you a hug? How
Speaker 1: did he meets your knees? How did he come through?
Speaker 1: Did he come through for you? Flip the flow. Stop
Speaker 1: focusing so much on what your dinner didn't get. Maybe
Speaker 1: it isn't about what God wanted to do for you
Speaker 1: this year as much as it is about what He
Speaker 1: wants to do through you in the future. Because I
Speaker 1: sense a little bit of confusion, I'm gonna be honest
Speaker 1: with you. It's like, all right, all right, all right, pastor,
Speaker 1: Pastor Steve, this is inspirational. Don't get me wrong. My
Speaker 1: your enthusiasm, But you said come through dripping and the
Speaker 1: text said verse twenty nine and the text said, I'm
Speaker 1: saying his voice. The text said, they came through on
Speaker 1: dry ground, seeing it's right there in the And that's
Speaker 1: all the people who don't know the definition of drip.
Speaker 1: It's something in the technical sense. And I didn't either.
Speaker 1: I didn't either. No, I was clueless that I didn't
Speaker 1: know either until Graham came in my closet one day
Speaker 1: this summer. He was going through my drawers where I
Speaker 1: keep my watches, got a couple of watches in there,
Speaker 1: got a few chains in there, and that boy had
Speaker 1: gone in my drawer, my jewelry drawers, and put every
Speaker 1: chain in my jewelry drawer, eleven years old, every chain
Speaker 1: around his neck, all at the same time. And when
Speaker 1: I said, you know, what are you doing my drawers?
Speaker 1: He said, Dad, what if I what if I went
Speaker 1: to school the first day of school this year dripping?
Speaker 1: And I'm so coolless. Now I'm really not as cool
Speaker 1: as some of y'all want to give me credit for.
Speaker 1: You just project your own coolness under me. I am
Speaker 1: not cool. I'm a little Bible preacher from Monks Corner,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, to which I said, is it going to
Speaker 1: be raining? Probably better dry off you probably not better
Speaker 1: go to school. Dripping, he said, no, Dad, dripping like drip, drip,
Speaker 1: like CARDI b like offset, like flexing, like dripping. I said, oh,
Speaker 1: you mean dripping drip drip? He played me in the
Speaker 1: song ice real quick. That's nice. Can I have it?
Speaker 1: Can I have it? Yeah? Thank you? Appreciate it? Thank you?
Speaker 1: That's nice. Can I have it? Appreciate it? That's nice?
Speaker 1: Can I have it? Appreciate it, appreciate it. I'll buy
Speaker 1: you another one, and God's going onto your faith. Can
Speaker 1: I have it? Everything you got? Can I have it?
Speaker 1: Can I have it? Not the wedding one that sketchy
Speaker 1: on every level? Can you have it? Because I still
Speaker 1: didn't tell you what dripping has to do with the
Speaker 1: children of Israel. And I understand that it's a little
Speaker 1: confusing because typically when this passages preached, all that we
Speaker 1: ever really talk about is what they went through for
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty years of oppression and after that, the
Speaker 1: plagues that they endured, and the time at midnight when
Speaker 1: the Angel came through and struck down the firstborn of Egypt.
Speaker 1: But if they had the blood on the door post
Speaker 1: at midnight when the angel came by if they had
Speaker 1: the blood on the door posts when the angel came
Speaker 1: by at midnight, if they distinguished themselves at midnight the
Speaker 1: angel passed by them, and when Pharaoh finally let the
Speaker 1: people go. There is one thing that I've seldom heard
Speaker 1: mentioned in messages that I always found I and to
Speaker 1: really understand how the people of God not only went
Speaker 1: through the Red Sea, but how they came out of Egypt,
Speaker 1: you need to see something in Exodus chapter three, when
Speaker 1: God first spoke to Moses that I think is so
Speaker 1: important for us to understand tonight before we leave twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: before we leave the pain of it, the trauma of it,
Speaker 1: the successes of it, the victories of it. There's one
Speaker 1: thing that I think we need to do tonight before
Speaker 1: we leave. Whatever Egypt, whatever suffering, psychological or physical, whatever bondage,
Speaker 1: whatever has forced itself on us in this year, in
Speaker 1: whatever way, before we leave it, Let's not be too
Speaker 1: quick to leave and just expect that because the calendar changes,
Speaker 1: our lives will. And it's really interesting what God said
Speaker 1: to Moses. He said, go to Pharaoh and tell him
Speaker 1: let my people go, And tell him that you're taking
Speaker 1: all the livestock to sacrifice to me in the wilderness
Speaker 1: and tell him, tell him that you're going for a
Speaker 1: three day journey to sacrifice to the Lord, your God,
Speaker 1: and he's not going to let you do it. But
Speaker 1: you've got to be resilient. He's not going to let
Speaker 1: you go easily because you're valuable. Freedom isn't going to
Speaker 1: come with a good feeling. Freedom is going to come
Speaker 1: by force and focus and frequency, by force and focus
Speaker 1: and frequency. By force and focus and frequency, deliverance isn't
Speaker 1: going to be a magic trick in your life or
Speaker 1: my life, no more than it was for the nation
Speaker 1: of Israel. There will be a discipline of sustainable deliverance
Speaker 1: in each of our lives, because God will give us
Speaker 1: the way of escape, but he will not let us
Speaker 1: choose the way of escape down the road of ease
Speaker 1: that we might select in our most comfortable moments. And
Speaker 1: yet God said, I want to show you the reason
Speaker 1: for what you went through. Not only did the water
Speaker 1: come to cover the enemies of the Israelites, not only
Speaker 1: I love God for what he does. He uses what
Speaker 1: I went through to set me free from where I
Speaker 1: came from. He knows if he doesn't kill certain things
Speaker 1: in my life, I will operate by the same template
Speaker 1: from my childhood. I'll operate in the same patterns. I'll
Speaker 1: stay locked in the same prisons if he doesn't kill it.
Speaker 1: So he brings me through deep waters to drown my enemies.
Speaker 1: But watch this, he said, before you go, I will
Speaker 1: make the Egyptians favorably disposed towards this people, so that
Speaker 1: when you leave. I wonder, is this true in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: So that when you leave, so that before we count
Speaker 1: down to midnight all over the world, so that when
Speaker 1: you leave, and you put this one in the books,
Speaker 1: so that when you leave, I prophesied this over you,
Speaker 1: you will not leave empty hand. So watch what I
Speaker 1: want you to do, every woman, God told Moses. Every
Speaker 1: woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living
Speaker 1: in her house for articles of silver and gold, and
Speaker 1: for clothing which you will put on your sons and daughters,
Speaker 1: so that when you cross out of Egypt on dry ground,
Speaker 1: you come through dripping. I feel God on this sermon,
Speaker 1: I said, I feel God on this sermon. I don't
Speaker 1: just want you to come out, I want you to
Speaker 1: come through driven, And so you will plunder the Egyptians
Speaker 1: by the way, y'all. We call this a praise party,
Speaker 1: but it's not. It's a praise plunder. We got to
Speaker 1: make sure before we leave twenty eighteen we did everything
Speaker 1: that God has for us in the form of a blessing,
Speaker 1: in the form of a lesson, and so you will
Speaker 1: plunder the Egyptians. So when you come through, you make
Speaker 1: sure you don't come through like you went in. God.
Speaker 1: That's why I wanted us here tonight, because why would
Speaker 1: we want to come through all of this and come
Speaker 1: out empty hand. I didn't go through twenty eighteen just
Speaker 1: to wave goodbye to it. I didn't work this hard
Speaker 1: in Egypt and suffer this much in Egypt and push
Speaker 1: through the things I pushed through, not to receive the
Speaker 1: benefit of it. No. I came here on this night,
Speaker 1: on midnight of the last night, on the last stop,
Speaker 1: because I want to come through saturated the presence of God,
Speaker 1: saturated with the glory of God, overflowing with the glory
Speaker 1: of God. Come on, I don't want to leave this
Speaker 1: year empty. I don't want to come into this priest party. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've been through some things. Yeah, there were some things
Speaker 1: that tried to take me out, and there are some
Speaker 1: things that I still got to deal with. But I
Speaker 1: didn't come to church to come through dragon. I come
Speaker 1: it through dripping. And watch this, It doesn't mean I
Speaker 1: wasn't disappointed. It doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed. You can
Speaker 1: be disappointed and still come through dripping. You can be
Speaker 1: like Samuel, the prophet who prayed for Saul and coached
Speaker 1: Sau and mentords Saul. And there came a time where
Speaker 1: God rejected Saul, which the people had chosen, and Samuel
Speaker 1: was so hurt about it that he wasn't even sure
Speaker 1: if he wanted to go on when he saw how
Speaker 1: little his investment had yielded. But God told Samuel something
Speaker 1: that it was in my heart to say to you
Speaker 1: before we had midnight. He said, I need you to
Speaker 1: stop mourning over what I have rejected. That I have
Speaker 1: already made a plan to replace in your life. And
Speaker 1: so here's your instruction. Here's your instruction. Fill your horn
Speaker 1: with oil and be on your way. And when you
Speaker 1: get to Jesse's house, he's gonna line up all of
Speaker 1: his sons that he thinks should be the next in
Speaker 1: line to be a possible king. But don't look at
Speaker 1: it like people look at it. Don't look to see
Speaker 1: who's the tallest or who's the strongest. I need you
Speaker 1: to stop judging your life by what you can see,
Speaker 1: and take that oil, and take that joy, and take
Speaker 1: that strength that you've got left, and take those lessons
Speaker 1: that you learned this year. And when I tell you
Speaker 1: it's the one, I want you to empty that crew
Speaker 1: of oil on his head. Now, David wasn't even in
Speaker 1: the room when they started lining up suns. He was overlooked.
Speaker 1: But by the time God spoke, he went back to
Speaker 1: the sheep field dripping. Why it's not what people do
Speaker 1: to you, it's not what people see in you, it's
Speaker 1: not what people have said about you. If the oil
Speaker 1: of God is on your life, I'm dripping. I'm dripping.
Speaker 1: I'm dripping. My feet are dry, but I'm dripping on
Speaker 1: the inside. God brought me through. But I've got a
Speaker 1: power that is not of this world. So tonight we
Speaker 1: flip the flow. We flip the floe. Stand up to
Speaker 1: your feet. We're gonna flip this. We're gonna flip this.
Speaker 1: We're not going into twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen or
Speaker 1: whatever comes next. It all runs together. We're not going
Speaker 1: in dry. We could have done that at home. We
Speaker 1: didn't need a praise party for that, a praise plunder
Speaker 1: for that. We came to get everything that God wanted
Speaker 1: us to have and leave everything that he did, so
Speaker 1: we do not go away empty handle. This is not
Speaker 1: a gimmick. I don't preach for gimmicks. The Lord showed
Speaker 1: me that Moses was not the only one who stretched
Speaker 1: over something that had threatened to kill the people. And
Speaker 1: he took me to John chapter nineteen, where the Bible
Speaker 1: records that when Jesus stretched his arms and they drove
Speaker 1: nails into his wrists and into his feet, and the
Speaker 1: soldier took a six foot spear with an iron tip
Speaker 1: and plunged it into his side as he hung on
Speaker 1: the cross. The Bible says that from his side began
Speaker 1: to flow the blood and the water. When blood flows
Speaker 1: from someone, usually it is a sign of the loss
Speaker 1: of life. But Jesus flipped the flow and win his blood.
Speaker 1: I feel the spirit of God so strong on me
Speaker 1: right now. Please receive this wherever you are, whatever you've
Speaker 1: been through, God said, I'm about to flip everything that
Speaker 1: you have been through, and it is going to now
Speaker 1: be to your advantage. Come on, every rejection was setting
Speaker 1: you free from the need for people. I wanted you
Speaker 1: to depend on me. Every failure was setting you free
Speaker 1: from the need to keep up an image. I want
Speaker 1: you to depend on me. Come on, let's slip it.
Speaker 1: Let's slip it. Let's slip it from what we went
Speaker 1: through to why we went through. I need a new
Speaker 1: definition of drip. For too long I thought that it
Speaker 1: was what I wore, or it was what I earned,
Speaker 1: or it was what I had. But I found out
Speaker 1: that's not what it means. I'm talking about a different
Speaker 1: kind of drip. I'm talking about when the spirit of
Speaker 1: God is an abundant supply in your life to anoint
Speaker 1: you for every assignment that God has prepared for you
Speaker 1: to do in advance this year. You're not coming in dry,
Speaker 1: You're coming in driven. God what it takes. I am
Speaker 1: exactly who I need to be. High five. Somebody say
Speaker 1: I'm dripping. I'm dripping. The press of God is so
Speaker 1: strong on me. The purpose of God has prevailed for me.
Speaker 1: God has anointed me for this season, for this city,
Speaker 1: for these children, for this time, for this moment, for
Speaker 1: my generation, for my battles, for my challenges. I'm not
Speaker 1: just coming out. I'm coming through with the South on
Speaker 1: my lens, the mountains. I believe I'll see you do aka.
Speaker 1: This is how we come into twenty nineteen. This is
Speaker 1: how we plunder the enemy. This is how we plunder
Speaker 1: the enemy. He thought he drained you. He didn't drain you. No,
Speaker 1: he didn't drain you. I see you. All he did
Speaker 1: was put you in a position where he could drown
Speaker 1: behind you. I'm telling you you're not going in dry.
Speaker 1: I see it too. Come on, let's declare the faithful
Speaker 1: less of God over a new year. Just moved the
Speaker 1: mountains and I I see it too, and I've seen
Speaker 1: him John moved the mountains and toppingly come on through.
Speaker 1: I see it too, and made it a lie, made
Speaker 1: you made it alive with the corse still intact and
Speaker 1: I and nothing is missing. I see it too. And
Speaker 1: his shock up the plant and you well see it.
Speaker 1: To move to mountain and you will anxiety and you
Speaker 1: will serious. He is sounding night you went there. It
Speaker 1: was Stoway. Come on, let's run this house. See I
Speaker 1: see Sue can see it your most mountains, and I
Speaker 1: believe I'll see it. Took oh we got one man.
Speaker 1: We got one man down. Les go come onna snatch
Speaker 1: yourself and snatch the ball. Snatch the wisdom, Snatch the heiling,
Speaker 1: snash the wistom, stash it. You love the mountains through
Speaker 1: Green I your man has me to you f with
Speaker 1: Hanstollway and I get those handsome let's getting We're going,
Speaker 1: We're going in let's go again scene, Let's go together.
Speaker 1: I see, I'll see you, No, Jill, save until it's fine.
Speaker 1: Jo see what way I see it? I see well.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed the podcast today. If you did,
Speaker 1: there are just a couple of things I'd love for
Speaker 1: you to do. Number one, subscribe to our show. That way,
Speaker 1: the most recent episode will always be in your feed,
Speaker 1: waiting for you ready when you are. And Secondly, if
Speaker 1: the this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to
Speaker 1: help us continue to reach others, you can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description and you can give now and
Speaker 1: I'll see you next time on the Elevation Podcast