Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Come on, everybody, praise the Lord. Let everything that has
Speaker 1: spread that includes you too, whether you're in a soup
Speaker 1: or a bathrobe, come on, give him praise today. Oh,
Speaker 1: praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. How are you doing? I know my sermon
Speaker 1: last week was called did I ask? But I'm asking,
Speaker 1: how are you? Come on, let me know how you're
Speaker 1: doing right there in the chat. Use your favorite emoji
Speaker 1: to tell me how you're doing, your favorite church appropriate emoji.
Speaker 1: You gotta specify. Got all kind of people that tune in.
Speaker 1: You know, you never know what they'll I don't want
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit to leave the YouTube page. Give God praise.
Speaker 1: If you hold on, we're gonna bring it back. Give
Speaker 1: God praise if you're doing better than could be expected.
Speaker 1: So in other words, like hey, preacher, that's a complicated question.
Speaker 1: But when I think about where I could have been,
Speaker 1: should have been, would have been. I want to put
Speaker 1: up one of those, one of those worship hand emojis.
Speaker 1: Come on, throw a worse of hand emoji in the
Speaker 1: chat all the way from Paul Kong to parties fill
Speaker 1: South Carolina. If you got a reason of praise and
Speaker 1: praise it whoo wow. So anyway, I just I thank
Speaker 1: God for this opportunity to minister the word of God
Speaker 1: to you. And you may notice that it feels a
Speaker 1: little different. We're going to do it a little different today.
Speaker 1: We're having to do almost everything different right now. Anyway,
Speaker 1: But so what happened to me was that after I
Speaker 1: got done preaching to you last week, God kept speaking.
Speaker 1: That's a weird sensation to be done preaching. But God's
Speaker 1: not done speaking. And I wasn't seeking God for a
Speaker 1: sermon or anything. And me and Holly went for a
Speaker 1: walk and she started sharing with me something God was
Speaker 1: speaking to her. And what God was speaking to her
Speaker 1: was kind of like what God was speaking to me.
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm going to take that and preach it.
Speaker 1: She said, you can't. I'm preaching soon. I'm going to
Speaker 1: preach it. I said, oh, I'm taking that in preaching it.
Speaker 1: She said, you can't have it. I said, you're like
Speaker 1: our kids when we go and buy them. Did you
Speaker 1: ever buy your kids a whole meal? And then you
Speaker 1: wanted one fry, and you wanted one fry, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't even a hot fry, it was one cold fry
Speaker 1: in the It was one of those bottom of the
Speaker 1: bag fries. And you went to get that one fry.
Speaker 1: She told me about this one verse in the Bible.
Speaker 1: I'm going to show you. I said, I want to
Speaker 1: preach that. She said, you can't have it. I said,
Speaker 1: give me that fry. Girl. So this sermon today was
Speaker 1: stolen from the woman of God, Holly Ferdie. How appropriate.
Speaker 1: I told her, I'm taking your sermon, but you can
Speaker 1: come here me preach it. And I said, to make
Speaker 1: it up to you. I'll preach it just to you.
Speaker 1: And so I've got some of the most amazing musicians
Speaker 1: in the world here today and some of our staff
Speaker 1: that snuck in who were here working. I told him
Speaker 1: you could sit in the back, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: in addition to just those who are here helping me
Speaker 1: get this recorded. I asked him, how quick can you
Speaker 1: get over here? It helped me record this message that
Speaker 1: God kave Holly that I that I came from her,
Speaker 1: and they said, we can do it in an hour.
Speaker 1: And so here we are to bring God's word to
Speaker 1: you fresh and relevant, and I believe that God is
Speaker 1: going to give you a personal You know what you
Speaker 1: might want to say in the chat right now, say
Speaker 1: this one's for me, This one's for me, And those
Speaker 1: of you who are in the room, come on, Shay,
Speaker 1: tell Dom, this one's for me, This one for me.
Speaker 1: Little drummer boy Dom look back at Shay and say,
Speaker 1: oh no, you long haired bass playing hippie, This one's
Speaker 1: for me. This one's mine. Come on, if you know
Speaker 1: this one's for you, say it in the chat, This
Speaker 1: one's for me, This one's for me. Amen. I want
Speaker 1: to share with you a scripture today from tewod Kings,
Speaker 1: chapter four, kind of a continuation of did I ask.
Speaker 1: We were saying last week that when we stop asking
Speaker 1: God what he wants to do in our lives and
Speaker 1: what he put inside of us, and start assuming we
Speaker 1: limit the potential that is in us because we kind
Speaker 1: of confine ourselves. And I believe that there's so much
Speaker 1: more that God wants to do than what we can
Speaker 1: ask or imagine. And so I want to share this
Speaker 1: passage with you today. L Jason, it's only three of
Speaker 1: us in the room, Go ahead and keep playing for
Speaker 1: a moment. And the message that I want to minister
Speaker 1: today is actually appropriate that it's just a few in
Speaker 1: the room, because I want to talk to you today
Speaker 1: about just the two of us, just the two of us,
Speaker 1: And so as we share this time together today, I
Speaker 1: want you to hear it in a personal way. The
Speaker 1: Bible says in verse eight, one day Elisha went to
Speaker 1: shun him, and a well to do woman was there
Speaker 1: who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever
Speaker 1: he came by, he stopped there to eat. And she
Speaker 1: said to her husband, I know that this is I
Speaker 1: know that this man who often comes our way is
Speaker 1: a holy man of God. Let's make a small room
Speaker 1: on the roof and put in it a bed and
Speaker 1: a table. Bought us a chair and a lamb. Let's
Speaker 1: put a lamb to go over there to Ikia, and
Speaker 1: let's hook up this man of God. Then he can
Speaker 1: stay there whenever he comes to us. Now, one day,
Speaker 1: when Elisha came, he went up to his room and
Speaker 1: lay down there. So he said to his servant Gehese,
Speaker 1: call the Shounamite. So he called her, and she stood
Speaker 1: before him. Elishah said to him, tell her, you have
Speaker 1: gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can
Speaker 1: be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf
Speaker 1: to the king or the commander of the army. She replied,
Speaker 1: I have a home among my own people. What can
Speaker 1: be done for her? Elisha asked, wonder what I could
Speaker 1: do for? I wonder what I could do for? What
Speaker 1: if God is not inspiring about how to curse you?
Speaker 1: What if God is brainstorming how to bless you today?
Speaker 1: What if God isn't up in heaven trying to figure
Speaker 1: out when to hit you with a lightning bolt or
Speaker 1: a hernia or a flat tire to get you back
Speaker 1: for what you did in tenth grade? What if God
Speaker 1: is think? What if God and the angels today are
Speaker 1: brainstorming away to bless you in this season? So gehees
Speaker 1: I said, she had no son and her husband is old.
Speaker 1: Then Elisha said, call her. So he called her and
Speaker 1: she stood in the doorway. I love this, she stood
Speaker 1: in the doorway. About this time next year, how many
Speaker 1: of y'all are ready for next year. About this time
Speaker 1: next year, Elisha said, you will hold a son in
Speaker 1: your arms. No, no, my lord, not that she objected,
Speaker 1: gave up on that, not that, please, Man of God,
Speaker 1: don't mislead your servant. But the woman became pregnant, and
Speaker 1: the next year, about that same time, she gave birth
Speaker 1: to a son, just as Elisha had told her. Can
Speaker 1: I read a few more verses? Because the child grew
Speaker 1: and one day he went out to his father, who
Speaker 1: was with the reapers. He said to his father, my head,
Speaker 1: my head. His father told a servant carry him to
Speaker 1: his mother. After the servant had lifted him up and
Speaker 1: carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her
Speaker 1: lap until noon, and then he died, and she went
Speaker 1: up and laid him on the bed of the Man
Speaker 1: of God. Then shut the door, shut the door, and
Speaker 1: went out. She called her husband and said, please send
Speaker 1: me one of the servants and a donkey, so I
Speaker 1: can go to the Man of God quickly and return.
Speaker 1: Why go to him today, he asked, it's not the
Speaker 1: new moon or the sabbath. That's all right, she said.
Speaker 1: She sat with the donkey and said to her servant,
Speaker 1: lead on. Don't slow down for me unless I tell you.
Speaker 1: She set out and came to the Man of God
Speaker 1: at Mount Carmel, and when he saw her in the distance,
Speaker 1: the Man of God said to his servant, Ghesi, I've
Speaker 1: been saying Gahazi and Gajese. I don't know how to
Speaker 1: pronounce his name. But he was a scoundrel anyway, and
Speaker 1: so watch this. The Man of God said to Gehesi, Gahazi, look,
Speaker 1: there's the shoe of mine. Run to meet her and
Speaker 1: ask her, are you all right? Is your husband all right?
Speaker 1: Is your child all right? Everything is all right? She said.
Speaker 1: When she reached the Man of God at the mountain,
Speaker 1: she took hold of his feet. Hey as I came
Speaker 1: over to push her away, but the Man of God said,
Speaker 1: leave her alone. She is in bitter distress. But the
Speaker 1: Lord has hidden it from me and has not told
Speaker 1: me why. Just the two of us, Lord, would you
Speaker 1: fill every heart with your presence in this moment? Would
Speaker 1: you make it so that there is a direct connection
Speaker 1: from Heaven to their heart and they could hear from
Speaker 1: you the words that they need to make it in
Speaker 1: this season of their life. We thank you that anything
Speaker 1: is possible in your presence. We thank you that nothing
Speaker 1: is impossible for you. Is there anything too hard for you?
Speaker 1: There's nothing too hard for you. Is there anything too
Speaker 1: small for you? Nothing is too small for you. You You
Speaker 1: can do anything. We believe it, and we receive it
Speaker 1: in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, you may be seated, Holly
Speaker 1: and others, just the two of us. This is kind
Speaker 1: of girl. You get a personal life sermon. Never before. Well,
Speaker 1: this is been close because people were asking me, what
Speaker 1: was it like preaching in an empty room? That's one
Speaker 1: of the questions. I was preaching about questions last week,
Speaker 1: and people will say, was it like preaching in an
Speaker 1: empty room? I said, kind of. It kind of takes
Speaker 1: me back. I said, I kind of like it. And
Speaker 1: then I could see they were offended. They were like,
Speaker 1: you don't like having us there. You don't want us there,
Speaker 1: you don't want us in the room. I was like,
Speaker 1: it's not that. But sometimes it's good to go back.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's good to go back. And there were times
Speaker 1: when we first started, like our ministry didn't start when
Speaker 1: people saw it, and what you see now is not
Speaker 1: how we started. How many would say that about your life.
Speaker 1: You should have seen me you should have seen the
Speaker 1: beta version of me. Oh you think I'm messed up? Now,
Speaker 1: God's really been working on me. And the crazy thing
Speaker 1: about this season of Quarantine was I kind of knew
Speaker 1: when they were saying, you know, we can't have mass
Speaker 1: gatherings of church and all that, I knew that if
Speaker 1: it came down to it, that Holly would hold the camera.
Speaker 1: In fact, the first thing I did when they started
Speaker 1: shutting everything down, I called many of these same people
Speaker 1: who are in here running the cameras today in this building.
Speaker 1: I called him in I said, get over to my house.
Speaker 1: I want a camera in the basement. I want a
Speaker 1: laminated instruction thing printed out so I can see how
Speaker 1: to run it. Because if it comes to it, I
Speaker 1: know that I can put Holly behind that camera. And
Speaker 1: if I can have that camera, and if it can
Speaker 1: go out, we can find a way to get the
Speaker 1: word out. It might not be pretty professional, well lit
Speaker 1: in a big room, but God will find a way
Speaker 1: to get his word out. God will find a way
Speaker 1: to get his word out. So we didn't have to
Speaker 1: do it, but we could have. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: what a lot of people don't know is even before
Speaker 1: competent professional musicians like LJ. Were, We're here to play
Speaker 1: me and Holly. So when you're first starting out, I
Speaker 1: just want to take y'all back for a minute. When
Speaker 1: you're first starting out in ministry, you might not have
Speaker 1: all of the all of the desired instruments, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And when we would travel around I
Speaker 1: told you last week how Holly was on my my
Speaker 1: summer impact team. I was the leader, and we would
Speaker 1: go into these little churches. A lot of times we'd
Speaker 1: be with we'd be with little kids at a backyard
Speaker 1: Bible club in the morning, and then we would be
Speaker 1: with some senior adults in the afternoon. So we had
Speaker 1: to diversify. And so I would go out there with
Speaker 1: the kids in the morning and Holly was like on
Speaker 1: my praise. Sometimes we would go just the two of us.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, just the two of us, come and put
Speaker 1: it in the chat, just the two of us. And
Speaker 1: this is what I always remember, Like if the whole
Speaker 1: worship team quit, I could grab this Martin guitar. I
Speaker 1: could and I could tune it myself by ear because
Speaker 1: I've had experience. Sometimes it's good to go back. And
Speaker 1: one reason I said Holly, I want to go over
Speaker 1: and preach it just with you. And I want to
Speaker 1: remember how we used to walk into those churches and
Speaker 1: I would strum a d bar cord and say, cast
Speaker 1: your burdens unto Jesus, he cares for you. Cast your
Speaker 1: burdens unto Jesus, he cares for you. And you know
Speaker 1: you'd be going into these places where nobody really wanted
Speaker 1: to worship, and it would be like you'd have to
Speaker 1: start it from zero. I mean, it was worse than this,
Speaker 1: this empty room. At least the camera operators want to
Speaker 1: be here. But in those rooms you'd have somebody who
Speaker 1: got dropped all. They didn't want to be there, So
Speaker 1: you make them do hand motions, right, Holly, show show
Speaker 1: what we used to do. I did not ask her
Speaker 1: if she would do this. I just figured if I
Speaker 1: turned on the cameras and told her to, she would
Speaker 1: do it. Stand up, do it real quick, Show how
Speaker 1: we do it? Higher higher, higher, higher, higher higher, Show
Speaker 1: them how to lift them higher Jesus, Holly, show him
Speaker 1: how to lift Jesus higher higher, higher, higher, higher, higher
Speaker 1: higher higher, higher, lift Jesus higher. Y'all are ready lower
Speaker 1: lower lower lower, Lou lower, Lou stop SATs and lower
Speaker 1: lower lower lower lower, lou Lord, stop SATs and lower
Speaker 1: super super Man. Oh, it's good to go back, because
Speaker 1: I just I figure, if they if they didn't let
Speaker 1: anybody come out and run a camera, or we couldn't
Speaker 1: get in the church, we could go in the basement.
Speaker 1: And if I had Holly, if I had the Holly
Speaker 1: Ghost and the Holy Ghost, we can preach this word.
Speaker 1: Come on, if it's just the two of us, we
Speaker 1: can stomp him. We can. We can lift Jesus and
Speaker 1: stop Satan, just the two of us. That's how we started.
Speaker 1: And then you know we couldn't we couldn't do that
Speaker 1: at night because the people were ministering to at night
Speaker 1: were over eighty be a Baptist church revival. Everybody in
Speaker 1: there was, you know, doing their best to walk in.
Speaker 1: They weren't trying to lift him or stomp him or
Speaker 1: nothing like that. They were just trying to So you
Speaker 1: slow it down, you know, you do something like when
Speaker 1: I think about the Lord, how he saved me, how
Speaker 1: he raised me, how he filled me with the Holy Ghost,
Speaker 1: how he healed me to the uttermost, then Hollywood hit
Speaker 1: the harmony for me. When I think about the Lord,
Speaker 1: how he picked me up and turned me around, how
Speaker 1: he plays my feet on solid ground. It makes me
Speaker 1: on a shower, Hollia. Thank you Jesus, all your worthy
Speaker 1: of all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise.
Speaker 1: It's good to think back, you know, and I think
Speaker 1: about the Lord man you remember that. Just it's just
Speaker 1: me and you, Me and you singing stuff like what
Speaker 1: a friend we have in Jesus, Oh our sense in
Speaker 1: greets to bed, what a privilege to care everything to
Speaker 1: God in prayer? Hit him a little d run Chris Brown.
Speaker 1: And then after you get done with that, him a
Speaker 1: little James Taylor. You just call have my name, little
Speaker 1: Carol Key, and you know wherever I am, I'll calm
Speaker 1: running see you again. No, you're not alone, even if
Speaker 1: it's just the two of us. When to spring, summer, fall,
Speaker 1: All you gotta do is call and I'll be there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, make it Christian, Thank you Jesus, you got
Speaker 1: a friend. And then I like those hymns that nobody
Speaker 1: knows to com Yes, come soul land, where ye land lnguish,
Speaker 1: come to the b CC furvant the he bring it
Speaker 1: he f your language art has no sign vas kally
Speaker 1: my geeesus, I love, I know thou art mine for
Speaker 1: the all the five huson. I resign my graveacious reader,
Speaker 1: my safe if you're art by if aver I love.
Speaker 1: It all comes back, man, nazeezsus this now, it's good
Speaker 1: to go back. This is good to go back. Come on,
Speaker 1: giveing praise. It's good to go back. Oh man. So
Speaker 1: I like the worship team that we have now, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to go back to doing it all myself.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to take anybody off the payroll, but
Speaker 1: it's just good sometimes to go back. Put it in
Speaker 1: the chat. It's good to go back. And I know
Speaker 1: you're thinking like I thought we were supposed to go forward,
Speaker 1: you know, and all that. Well, sometimes you got to
Speaker 1: look back to go forward. Say amen, because sometimes if
Speaker 1: I look too far forward, I'll freak out. Just look
Speaker 1: back real quick, lion bear cool. God is strong, and
Speaker 1: I believe that God's resume gives me reason to believe
Speaker 1: in resurrection, gives me reason to rejoice. I just need
Speaker 1: to know how many of you, even though you felt
Speaker 1: lonely in this season and you don't really know what
Speaker 1: God's gonna do. But you have some kind of faith
Speaker 1: in some kind of way. The same God that did
Speaker 1: the things for you, did the stuff back then, He's
Speaker 1: gonna do the stuff tomorrow that I need him to do. Wow,
Speaker 1: even if it's just me and Jesus, some of us
Speaker 1: are watching this by ourselves. We'd rather be with other people,
Speaker 1: but we're watching it on a screen. But even through
Speaker 1: this screen, the spirit of God is speaking to me.
Speaker 1: God's got a word for me today. Or I just
Speaker 1: felt something. Paul and Silas were in Philippi all by themselves.
Speaker 1: I feel like Precian in a semi empty room. I
Speaker 1: feel like Christian Holly. I'll be Paul, you'd be Silas.
Speaker 1: We're not where we wanted to be. The situation looks bleak,
Speaker 1: gotta chain on our wrists, been in quarantine, on lockdown,
Speaker 1: been persecuted, felt abandoned. But you be Paul, I'll be Silas.
Speaker 1: The church isn't fall. But if we start praising at midnight,
Speaker 1: change break doors open, things happened, miracles come. Just the
Speaker 1: two of us, we can get this sun. We can
Speaker 1: get this sun. It doesn't take many if you got much,
Speaker 1: just the two of us. So something about that just
Speaker 1: comforted me just walking around the block with Holly, and
Speaker 1: God was using her to speak to me, and I
Speaker 1: was like wow, thinking about how how God, God is
Speaker 1: enough in my life in every season. In the passage
Speaker 1: that we read, we talked about Elisha the prophet. You know,
Speaker 1: Elisha's ministry is interesting because it was very lonely. The
Speaker 1: ministry of a prophet was a was a lonely life.
Speaker 1: Not only were you standing up the kings in ways
Speaker 1: that made you popular. Oh, prophets would have got canceled
Speaker 1: so quick in twenty twenty. Every prophet would have been
Speaker 1: out of business. You had some of them walking around naked.
Speaker 1: Some of them were lighting up animal excrements for their
Speaker 1: sermon illustration. Tim, do not get any ideas for rhythm night.
Speaker 1: I could see your wheels turning right now. You're like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I get it, dune nudity. No, I'm telling you right now,
Speaker 1: you're not going to do any of this stuff that
Speaker 1: the prophets did because the prophets man, they just really
Speaker 1: had to rely on God. And yet the thing about saying,
Speaker 1: you know, all I need is Jesus, just me and Jesus.
Speaker 1: What a friend I have in Jesus? He can't hug you. Yes,
Speaker 1: he does. He embraces me in my shut up. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about like a human hug. A human hug. He
Speaker 1: can't hug your like. And so as simple as this sounds,
Speaker 1: I want you to write it down. God uses people.
Speaker 1: God uses people. God uses people, and sometimes when we
Speaker 1: ask God to use us, we have no idea what
Speaker 1: we're asking. Have you ever asked a question you wished
Speaker 1: immediately you didn't ask? I asked somebody one time, how
Speaker 1: was my sermon? And they started telling me everything theologically
Speaker 1: incorrect that I said in the sermon, and I mispronounced
Speaker 1: heyes I, and I called him the wrong thing. I said, Man,
Speaker 1: I'll never ask you again. I will never ask you again.
Speaker 1: I've learned, don't ask your kids unless you really want
Speaker 1: to know. Other people have this layer of professional politeness
Speaker 1: that comes with maturity in adulthood. But if you ask
Speaker 1: your kids, they'll tell you. They'll tell you. Graham told
Speaker 1: me in Singapore preaching over there in Singapore, he said, Dad,
Speaker 1: watching you try to say that Moses at the burning
Speaker 1: Bush was lit was the cringiest moment of my childhood.
Speaker 1: You can never use that again, Dad, It was so bad,
Speaker 1: I said, I got it, Graham, I got it. But
Speaker 1: did I say anything good? He said, I couldn't hear
Speaker 1: anything you said after you said, but Moses at the
Speaker 1: burning bush was lit. Please, Dad, don't try to be cool,
Speaker 1: don't try to be relevant. So don't ask your kids.
Speaker 1: I feel pretty cool compared to you know. If I
Speaker 1: ask Larry Bry, I feel pretty cool. Don't ask your kids.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's best not to ask, right. And what I
Speaker 1: love about the passage is that God provided for Elisha.
Speaker 1: And now get this if this is for you, because
Speaker 1: I promise you God has a word for you today.
Speaker 1: And if you'll stay with me, you'll see exactly what
Speaker 1: it is. God met the prophet's needs through someone who
Speaker 1: he didn't even ask to do it. Remember last week
Speaker 1: the crowds got fed and they didn't even ask for
Speaker 1: a meal. Remember those times in your life where God
Speaker 1: had people walk away from you and you didn't even
Speaker 1: ask him to remove them. But He was so good
Speaker 1: that he knew they would screw up the rest of
Speaker 1: your life. So he took him right out, even though
Speaker 1: you cried and begged for him back. And God took
Speaker 1: him out even though you were begging him to leave
Speaker 1: him in God is so good like that, he is
Speaker 1: good enough to give you what you ask for. And
Speaker 1: so while we're quoting Ephesians three twenty, he's able to
Speaker 1: do immeasurably more than we ask. Have you ever noticed
Speaker 1: how why we're saying that he can do more than
Speaker 1: I ask? At the time we're saying God, I thank you,
Speaker 1: you can do more than I ask, we secretly want
Speaker 1: him to do exactly what we planned. How's he gonna
Speaker 1: do more than you ask? If he does exactly what
Speaker 1: you plan? And none of us asked for the situation
Speaker 1: that we're in right now. And so what drew me
Speaker 1: to this passage was that Elisha did not even ask
Speaker 1: the woman for a host home. When we used to
Speaker 1: go out, Ye, no nothing about host homes. We didn't
Speaker 1: stay at hotels when we would minister in Bamberg, South Carolina. No, sir,
Speaker 1: you got the host home, and if you were lucky,
Speaker 1: you had the bedroom to yourself, or you might be
Speaker 1: staying with their eight year old. You never knew until
Speaker 1: you got to the host home. If you were lucky,
Speaker 1: they could cook. If you were lucky, they didn't keep
Speaker 1: you up until two am. But they don't know anything
Speaker 1: about a host home. You didn't have a contract or
Speaker 1: a writer, And so the prophet is staying at Carmel,
Speaker 1: and it's lonely to be a prophet. But God uses
Speaker 1: a woman. The Bible calls her a well to do woman,
Speaker 1: but the Hebrew word is great. She was a great woman.
Speaker 1: She was a great woman. She was great materially. She
Speaker 1: was also great in the ways that you can't see.
Speaker 1: She was great. She was so great as a woman
Speaker 1: that she had the means to do something for God
Speaker 1: and the humility to do it. That makes you great.
Speaker 1: And what got my attention was that Elishah didn't even
Speaker 1: have to ask Does God have to ask you to
Speaker 1: do everything? You remember when Graham asked just a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago? Actually I think it was a few few
Speaker 1: months ago. Maybe it was a few years ago. I
Speaker 1: can't remember when. When did he ask you? Mom Am,
Speaker 1: I supposed to brush my teeth every day, mom Am,
Speaker 1: I supposed to change my underwear every day. These are
Speaker 1: things kids ask, And it's like, do you really need
Speaker 1: to ask that? Do you really need to ask God
Speaker 1: certain stuff? There's some stuff that God shouldn't have to
Speaker 1: put a sign in the sky to get you to do.
Speaker 1: There's some stuff you shouldn't have to ask God. You
Speaker 1: mean you mean you want me to praise you today.
Speaker 1: God shouldn't have to ask you for praise. If He
Speaker 1: gave you breath, you I don't want to give it back.
Speaker 1: It belongs to him. There are some things I love
Speaker 1: when I'm dealing with somebody and you don't have to
Speaker 1: ask them to do every single little thing. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: just me as a pastor, but I love when you
Speaker 1: don't have to ask for every every little thing. You know,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have to ask everything. That's what I love
Speaker 1: about our staff at the church. You don't have to
Speaker 1: ask everything. I don't have to ask every single thing.
Speaker 1: All I said is get me a guitar so in
Speaker 1: case I want to play it when I preach just
Speaker 1: the two of us in the empty room. I didn't
Speaker 1: have to ask him to tune it. He just did that.
Speaker 1: He just did that. I texted Chris this morning. I said,
Speaker 1: I'm going over to preach. I'm doing it on just
Speaker 1: the two of us. I'm gonna put just Holly out
Speaker 1: there and the cameras and the musicians, but I want
Speaker 1: you to come over to He said, I'm already on
Speaker 1: my way. I didn't even have to ask. He wanted
Speaker 1: the word. He's like, oh, you think I need to
Speaker 1: be on a stage to support you. I want this word.
Speaker 1: You don't have to ask me. I want to do it.
Speaker 1: I want to serve God. I want to preach. I
Speaker 1: don't have to. I get to. I get to. I
Speaker 1: used to walk around thinking, our volunteers. We would have
Speaker 1: these nights when, back when I used to be able
Speaker 1: to shake people's hands legally, back before it was again
Speaker 1: us the law in human customs and social etiquette to
Speaker 1: shake a neighbor's hand, I would shake their hand. We
Speaker 1: would have these nights where I would thank all the
Speaker 1: volunteers and I would preach, and I would shake their house,
Speaker 1: say thank you for serving, thank you forgiving. And almost
Speaker 1: every time they say no thank you, I say no
Speaker 1: thank you. They say no thank you. I'd be like
Speaker 1: quick canceling out my thank you. I'm giving you gratitude.
Speaker 1: You receive it, like we're both standing there trying to
Speaker 1: thank each other. I get to do this, I get
Speaker 1: to do this. I get to do this. Elijah said
Speaker 1: to me the other day, not the prophet Elijah, my
Speaker 1: son Elijah. He said, thank you for working out with me.
Speaker 1: I said, I wanted to fun to work out with you.
Speaker 1: I love working out with you. I can do more
Speaker 1: weight than you, so it's good for my ego and
Speaker 1: I love talking to you. I didn't have to beg
Speaker 1: her to come preach this sermon today. She said, what time?
Speaker 1: I said, I don't know yet. She said, all clear
Speaker 1: of the schedule. You know what it's like to know
Speaker 1: that in such an uncertain moment of ministry, you got
Speaker 1: somebody you can count on it that I don't have
Speaker 1: to ask you. Are you still with me that I
Speaker 1: don't have to ask you? We used to say, like
Speaker 1: Jonathan's armor bearer said, do whatever you have in mind,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I'm with you. Do you have that
Speaker 1: kind of spirit? God, I'm with you. If the wheels
Speaker 1: fall off, I'm with you. If they shut it down,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. If it's good, I'm with you. If
Speaker 1: we're in the limo, I'm with you. If we have
Speaker 1: to hitch hip, I'm with you. If we have to
Speaker 1: get on a scooter, if we have to walk, I'm
Speaker 1: with you. I love it. I love it. And God
Speaker 1: will send you somebody in every season. God will send you.
Speaker 1: It might not be who you expected, It might not
Speaker 1: be who you ask, But God will find a way
Speaker 1: to get it to you, and he will use someone.
Speaker 1: It was someone he didn't even ask, someone he didn't
Speaker 1: even ask. She just had an idea. She didn't go
Speaker 1: into a trance. Lord, I want to be used by you. God, Speak,
Speaker 1: Will you speak to me? Speak? You know how we do? Lord?
Speaker 1: Show me your will? What is your will? Lord? For
Speaker 1: thine is the kingdom. Bust off the king James English,
Speaker 1: asking God to do stuff like, if you get real deep,
Speaker 1: God will show you something real deep. She did something simple,
Speaker 1: She did something simple. Notice the connection, The deepest desire
Speaker 1: of her life was met when she did something simple.
Speaker 1: And it's even more powerful when you consider her disappointment.
Speaker 1: Because this great woman with a great, big house and
Speaker 1: an old husband. The Bible says he was so old
Speaker 1: that when the boy got sick, he couldn't even carry
Speaker 1: him upstairs, had to send him to his mom. That's
Speaker 1: who she was living with. And she said to the prophet,
Speaker 1: come over in eat some spaghetti. Come over, and you
Speaker 1: know what the Bible says. The Bible says, she urged him. Yeah, see,
Speaker 1: I didn't even have asked. You have to ask him
Speaker 1: to put the scripture back up. They just did it.
Speaker 1: I didn't even have to ask, They just put it
Speaker 1: up there. You see how this works. I didn't even
Speaker 1: have to ask. They just did it. That's how God's
Speaker 1: That's called a prompter. That's called a prompter. This is crazy.
Speaker 1: They are so in tune the people who are who
Speaker 1: are running this today. They are so in tune with
Speaker 1: my spirit and my flow that the moment I said
Speaker 1: urged them, they put the prompter on. Now. I want
Speaker 1: to ask, how sensitive are you to the prompting of
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit? Or does God have to push you?
Speaker 1: Or does God have to proud you? Or can he
Speaker 1: just prompt you? How hard is it for God to
Speaker 1: get you to say I'm sorry when you're wrong? How
Speaker 1: hard is it for God to get you to do
Speaker 1: something encouraging when He laid on your heart? How hard
Speaker 1: is it for God to get you to do something
Speaker 1: that you ought to just naturally do as a child
Speaker 1: of God. It's not hard. It was harder for her
Speaker 1: to convince him to come eat than it was for
Speaker 1: God to get her to feed him. She had to
Speaker 1: urge him, please come eat. She had to ask him
Speaker 1: more than once. Now I'm gonna sit down because this
Speaker 1: is too rich to rush through. Y'all ready for this?
Speaker 1: Come on, I know where you're watching this from. It's
Speaker 1: just the two of us right now. I want to
Speaker 1: show you something. I wanted to share this message with
Speaker 1: just the two of us. I wanted to show you
Speaker 1: how God will send people into your life even in
Speaker 1: the loneliest seasons, Even in the seasons Elisha the prophet
Speaker 1: he had a servant who was a scoundrel. He had
Speaker 1: a servant, Gahesi, who had no character. And see, Elisha
Speaker 1: knew what it was like to stand by somebody in
Speaker 1: the season of loneliness. You remember, can I go back
Speaker 1: to win Elijah with a jay? The prophet was hiding
Speaker 1: in a cave because he had lived through a three
Speaker 1: year drought, and he stood up on the top of
Speaker 1: Mount Carmel. But even on top of Mount Carmel with
Speaker 1: so much power, there's often a difference between what you
Speaker 1: show publicly and what you wrestle with privately. Did you
Speaker 1: hear me? You can have great power publicly and great
Speaker 1: pain privately. And when he was up on the mountain,
Speaker 1: he said, I'm the only one of the Lord's prophets
Speaker 1: left and he called down fire. You remember this, You
Speaker 1: remember this, Holly. He said, I'm the only one left.
Speaker 1: Then when Jezebel threatened him, he ran for his life.
Speaker 1: Forty days he had to run, and he left his servant,
Speaker 1: and he went in a cave. And God sent him
Speaker 1: the fire, and God sent him the wind. But he
Speaker 1: spoke in the whisper, because God speaks in the whisper,
Speaker 1: because God doesn't have to shout, because he's not far way.
Speaker 1: God doesn't have to shout. That's what the devil does
Speaker 1: to scare you away. But he whispered, and he said,
Speaker 1: what are you doing here? He asked him a question,
Speaker 1: and Elijah said, I'm the only one left, the only
Speaker 1: one you ever felt like that. I'm the only one
Speaker 1: who cares. I'm the only one in this marriage who cares.
Speaker 1: I'm the only one carrying this responsibility. I know you
Speaker 1: felt this way as a leader before. Chet I'm the
Speaker 1: only one who sees what needs to be done. And
Speaker 1: God told him, go back the way you came, because
Speaker 1: I've already got somebody to support you. His name is Elisha.
Speaker 1: It sounds a lot like yours because y'all are meant
Speaker 1: to go together. And when you get to him, I
Speaker 1: want you to take your cloak and throw it on him.
Speaker 1: And I know you feel alone, but I've got somebody
Speaker 1: plow in the field right now. I don't mean to
Speaker 1: turn this into a dating seminar, but sometimes we get
Speaker 1: so oh lonely, and in our seasons of loneliness, we isolate.
Speaker 1: But God said, I have put somebody in your pack.
Speaker 1: I have put somebody even if you are not married
Speaker 1: right now, even if you don't have the support system
Speaker 1: you want to right now. I know what that feels like.
Speaker 1: I've been lonely and I am married. I've been lonely
Speaker 1: and I have kids. I've been lonely in this room
Speaker 1: filled with two thousand people and they were shouting, and
Speaker 1: on the inside I was crying, and on the outside
Speaker 1: I was smiling, but on the inside I was crying.
Speaker 1: And nobody knew what I was carrying, and nobody knew
Speaker 1: what had just happened thirty minutes to go backstage, and
Speaker 1: nobody knew the hate that I was dealing with from critics.
Speaker 1: But I had to smile and show love. And seeing
Speaker 1: these moments of isolation, you might feel like the only one.
Speaker 1: But God has somebody for you. God, even if it's
Speaker 1: just this moment, what if God sit this message today.
Speaker 1: You've been on the brink of suicide. You've been on
Speaker 1: the brink of giving up. And God prompted my heart
Speaker 1: to come in this room and put Holly and Todd
Speaker 1: and Doug and all them and they're back there. But
Speaker 1: it's just the two of us right now. And God
Speaker 1: is trying to bring you back to a place of
Speaker 1: understanding that before you even asked, he answered, he hears
Speaker 1: before I call. And Elishah followed Elijah for many years.
Speaker 1: The two of them had a special connection. You don't
Speaker 1: read many of the details, but they must have been
Speaker 1: so close because when it came time for the Lord
Speaker 1: to take Elijah from Elishah. On the day that Elijah
Speaker 1: was taken up in chariots the fire by the way
Speaker 1: bonus point, Elijah was scared that Jezebel was going to
Speaker 1: kill him. But he's one of the few characters in
Speaker 1: scripture that never experienced physical death. The thing that you're
Speaker 1: worrying about may never even happen. The thing that you're
Speaker 1: running from. Who's this for? Who's this for? Is it
Speaker 1: for you. Come on, I'm asking, I'm asking, is it
Speaker 1: for you? Say it in the chat? This is my word.
Speaker 1: I don't have to I don't have to run from him.
Speaker 1: And I love Elisha because when Elijah said, stay here,
Speaker 1: the Lord has called me away. Look what Elishah said
Speaker 1: in verse two second Kings two, stay here the Lord
Speaker 1: sent me about. But Elisha said, as surely as the
Speaker 1: Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.
Speaker 1: I will not leave you. That sounds like Jesus. I
Speaker 1: will never leave you nor forsake you. So somebody else did,
Speaker 1: and it's just the two of us. The Lord sent
Speaker 1: me to tell you you're not alone. God will give
Speaker 1: you someone that you need in every season of your life.
Speaker 1: And I've been praying a new prayer lately. Every morning
Speaker 1: I've been praying this just in my heart. I don't
Speaker 1: it doesn't take me long. I just say, Lord, puts
Speaker 1: somebody on my mind today. Put somebody on my mind today.
Speaker 1: Somebody I can call, somebody I can bless. Put somebody
Speaker 1: on my mind today. And then I gotta be honest.
Speaker 1: I'm selfish. God put me on somebody's mind today. Put
Speaker 1: me on somebody's mind today because God uses people. See see, yes,
Speaker 1: just me and Jesus. But but but God uses people.
Speaker 1: So the way that he meets needs is through people.
Speaker 1: And so so the prophet Elisha, he's used to a
Speaker 1: lonely life. He's he's he's been with a mentor who
Speaker 1: hid in caves. He's been with a mentor who was
Speaker 1: unpopular at times. So he knows how to be lonely.
Speaker 1: So when the woman invites him, right, this woman, this
Speaker 1: Shuna Mike woman who is a great woman, who has
Speaker 1: an old husband, and she looks at her husband one
Speaker 1: day and says, you know, it's just the two of us,
Speaker 1: it's just the two of us. I get tired of
Speaker 1: just cooking for the two of us. Let's have the
Speaker 1: profit over Look. She didn't even pray about it. You
Speaker 1: don't have to pray about everything, Just do something for God.
Speaker 1: She didn't go on a forty day fast to see
Speaker 1: if she could have the profit over Well, Lord, I
Speaker 1: just don't know if you want me to give to
Speaker 1: the church. Give me a sign. What other sign does
Speaker 1: he need to give you than his son that died
Speaker 1: for you? Really, let me a sign. She didn't have
Speaker 1: a sign. She had an idea I want to keep going.
Speaker 1: How is it how you like your personal life? Sermon, girl,
Speaker 1: aren't you glad I took your French fry? All right? Now?
Speaker 1: Listen when she said to the husband, you know how
Speaker 1: it's hard to calculate how many when you're cooking for people.
Speaker 1: Holly was cooking for me and the boys when we
Speaker 1: were when a couple of years ago, when the boys
Speaker 1: were smaller and Abby does and eat much. But the
Speaker 1: boys now we got a fifteen year old and a
Speaker 1: twelve year old, and so their needs change. And the
Speaker 1: other day we realize we're always running out of food
Speaker 1: because she has not upgraded the quantities of the food.
Speaker 1: It's still just as good, but there's not enough because
Speaker 1: seasons change, and a season's change needs change. And who
Speaker 1: God uses in one season of your life, who am
Speaker 1: I preaching to might not be who he uses in
Speaker 1: the next. And he'll give you what you need for
Speaker 1: the season that you're in. I'm annointed right now to
Speaker 1: preach to somebody. Come on, it's just the two of us.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm talking to you. And she turns to
Speaker 1: her husband and she says, let's have him over, and
Speaker 1: she urged him she begged the prophet, please let me
Speaker 1: cook for you. Please, please God, let me do it. Ah,
Speaker 1: just let me do it. One of my friends said
Speaker 1: the other day, I'll beat up one of your staff
Speaker 1: members to come to church right now. I will beat
Speaker 1: them black and blue with a tire iron. I said,
Speaker 1: calm down, this is disturbing, they said, I'll beat them
Speaker 1: unconscious to get in the room. I want to be
Speaker 1: there so bad, and some people in the room probably
Speaker 1: just feel like, you know, I got to get over there.
Speaker 1: When did you start having to do what God gave
Speaker 1: you as a privilege to do. It's a privilege to
Speaker 1: serve God. It's a privilege to preach to you. It's
Speaker 1: a privilege. It's a privilege to do ministry. She said,
Speaker 1: will you please come eat? And she urged him. He
Speaker 1: probably pushed her away the first time. You know how
Speaker 1: you get used to pushing people away when you're not
Speaker 1: used to people being good to you, when you're used
Speaker 1: to being unpopular. Elisha finally accepted and he got there
Speaker 1: and he found out she can cook. She can cook,
Speaker 1: she can cook, so he came back. He said he
Speaker 1: would come there often. He stopped buy it and he
Speaker 1: would eat and one day she said to her husband,
Speaker 1: I think we ought to take the extra room we
Speaker 1: have in this house, the room that we had in
Speaker 1: case God ever gave us a child. But he didn't.
Speaker 1: You know, this woman, this woman had probably prayed for years,
Speaker 1: God give me a child. She probably asked God many times,
Speaker 1: God give me a child, and he didn't, and she
Speaker 1: would ask again, and she would ask harder and he didn't.
Speaker 1: And so eventually at some point she stopped asking. I
Speaker 1: don't know when if it was the first year, the
Speaker 1: fifth year, or the tenth year. Remember her husband is old,
Speaker 1: so they've been praying about this a long time, and
Speaker 1: now it's too late, and she stopped. Eventually she stopped asking,
Speaker 1: and instead of asking God to give her something, she
Speaker 1: decided to offer God what she had. There comes a
Speaker 1: point where instead of being bitter about what you didn't get,
Speaker 1: it's better to offer God what you have. She said,
Speaker 1: We've got this extra room here, and this man who
Speaker 1: keeps coming by, I keep feeding him, but I feel
Speaker 1: bad every time he has to leave, because I don't
Speaker 1: know where he stays on his way back to Karma
Speaker 1: when he passes through Shunam. So since it's just the
Speaker 1: two of us. Since we didn't get the child that
Speaker 1: we wanted from God, since I didn't get the opportunity
Speaker 1: that I want, Since we can't have church full on Sunday,
Speaker 1: why don't you meet me over at the church early,
Speaker 1: And why don't we just take advantage of the opportunity
Speaker 1: we do have. See, I was complaining the first few
Speaker 1: months of quarantine. I was complaining, I can't preach with
Speaker 1: no crowd in the room. And God said, I thought
Speaker 1: you didn't preach for them. I thought you preached for me.
Speaker 1: So then I stopped asking God, why can't the people
Speaker 1: come back? And I started asking God, what are the
Speaker 1: opportunities that we have? Here's a great question, God, what
Speaker 1: are the opportunities that I have right now that are
Speaker 1: in my life because of my disappointments? She offered God
Speaker 1: the place of her disappointment. She said, we have that
Speaker 1: room on the roof that we never got to finish.
Speaker 1: We never got to buy a bed for our son
Speaker 1: because God didn't give us one. We never got to
Speaker 1: put a desk in his room for his homework because
Speaker 1: God didn't give us one. We didn't get to give
Speaker 1: him a lamp for a night light. We never got
Speaker 1: to buy him any pajamas. But there's a man of
Speaker 1: God who passes through here, and I refuse to stay
Speaker 1: stuck in the bitterness of what I didn't get. You
Speaker 1: be Paul, I'll be Silas, and we will turn this
Speaker 1: prison into a place of praise. We will turn this
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, if two of you will cut agreed
Speaker 1: concerning anything in his name, he will do it. So
Speaker 1: you might be saying I'm all alone right now, No
Speaker 1: you're not. There's no stipulation on geography. In Matthew eighteen twenty,
Speaker 1: he said, if two of you will touch and agreed,
Speaker 1: So even if you're watching this by yourself, and even
Speaker 1: if you just signed divorce papers last week, or even
Speaker 1: if your kid just told you they hate your guts,
Speaker 1: or even if the third person just told you no,
Speaker 1: we do not have the position available, or even if
Speaker 1: you're dealing with the addiction that makes you feel like
Speaker 1: a fraud when you smile at people. But there's change
Speaker 1: on the inside. God came to tell you are not alone.
Speaker 1: I'll be Paul, You'll be Silas, and let's make a
Speaker 1: space for God to fill. I feel praise rising up
Speaker 1: in this place right now. Whoa, I'm glad I came
Speaker 1: over today. Come on this, what's the two of us? Les?
Speaker 1: Let's we got more. We got more house than we
Speaker 1: have family. Come on, I got more time than I
Speaker 1: ever had before. God, I didn't plan on having all
Speaker 1: this extra time. God said, I gave you the extra
Speaker 1: to see would you trust me? What would you do
Speaker 1: with it? What would you do with it? What would
Speaker 1: you do with the extra? In this place? What place?
Speaker 1: The place of her disappointment? Don't you realize? This is
Speaker 1: what Holly told me on the walk before I ripped
Speaker 1: off her sermon and I started appreciating it back to her.
Speaker 1: I said, this is too good to keep just between
Speaker 1: the two of us. I gotta go preach it. I
Speaker 1: gotta preach it for the weekend. I gotta pach it
Speaker 1: for the Evam. I gott appreach it to all of
Speaker 1: the different countries and all the different people. But it
Speaker 1: started with just the two of us. She turned to
Speaker 1: her husband and said, since it's just the two of us,
Speaker 1: let's meet the needs of this profit. You know that
Speaker 1: that room that we were gonna Yeah, we when we
Speaker 1: when we built this house, we built it with extra
Speaker 1: room for the kid. God was going to give us.
Speaker 1: But why don't we just uh, you know, I thought
Speaker 1: by now in my life I was going to be here.
Speaker 1: I didn't ask for this situation. But let me offer
Speaker 1: this situation. I didn't ask for this disappointment. I didn't
Speaker 1: asked for the storm. What would it be like to
Speaker 1: offer God your disappointment, the deep one, the one you
Speaker 1: smile over. Elisha is laying down one night, he's getting comfortable. Now.
Speaker 1: At first she had to urge him for a meal.
Speaker 1: Now she can't get rid of him. I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: if you make God a place, if you make God
Speaker 1: a place, he doesn't want to visit. He wants to stay.
Speaker 1: He wants to stay. He doesn't just want to speak
Speaker 1: to you. You're like, oh, man, I just you know,
Speaker 1: I just wish I was. I wish I could listen
Speaker 1: until you preach all day. You don't have to listen
Speaker 1: to me me preach all day. God will speak to you
Speaker 1: long after I shut up, just making my place. So
Speaker 1: Elisha's laying down right, and he asked, Ga Hazi, what
Speaker 1: can we do for this woman? That's what drew me
Speaker 1: to preaching it because last week I preached on the
Speaker 1: question how far will they go. I talked about how
Speaker 1: Jesus asked three hundred and eight questions and only directly
Speaker 1: answered eight of them, and how God is a god
Speaker 1: of questions even though we want so many answers. Put
Speaker 1: a question mark in the chat. That's God's favorite punctuation.
Speaker 1: I think his second favorite is a comma, because the
Speaker 1: comma means it might have stopped, but it's not over. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll give you ten seconds. I gotta give you ten
Speaker 1: seconds for the comma. He's the god of the comma,
Speaker 1: but he's the god of the question, and the question
Speaker 1: is what will you do with this disappointment? She turned
Speaker 1: it into a place that God could use. Are you
Speaker 1: doing that right now? Are you bitter? Are you in resentment, regret, shame?
Speaker 1: All those places that we stay. You know what's crazy, Holly,
Speaker 1: And since it's just the two of us, I can
Speaker 1: show you this. The question that led me to this
Speaker 1: text wasn't the question that told me I needed to
Speaker 1: preach it. When he asked her that the first time,
Speaker 1: she pushed him off. She said in verse thirteen, Part B,
Speaker 1: I have a home among my own people. But Elisha
Speaker 1: asked again what can be done for her now? This
Speaker 1: is amazing. Can I drop this on you? Okay, he's
Speaker 1: up there asking God for something that she stopped asking
Speaker 1: him for a long time ago. You know how you
Speaker 1: can learn to live with certain things. I'll give you
Speaker 1: a version of this. I'll never be free from that.
Speaker 1: I'll just learn to finesse it. That could be anything
Speaker 1: in your life. Somebody thought of drugs, somebody thought of sex,
Speaker 1: somebody thought of negative thought patterns. It doesn't matter. So
Speaker 1: you say I'll never be free from it. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna stop asking. Especially if you raised your hand in
Speaker 1: church and went down and prayed and okay, this is
Speaker 1: the time. This is the breakthrough, this is the one
Speaker 1: you know, this is it. And so now it's kind
Speaker 1: of a way where you click on church and watch church,
Speaker 1: but you only let God's word in so far so
Speaker 1: you get God's word to cope with stuff, but you've
Speaker 1: lost hope that it can change. This is the woman.
Speaker 1: She's a great woman. She's a great woman, and God
Speaker 1: is using her. But there is still something that she
Speaker 1: stopped asking God for. What is that for you? Because
Speaker 1: because after you've done everything you can do, this is
Speaker 1: a proactive woman. Didn't you see her pushing the prophet around.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna boss Elisha around, you've got to be
Speaker 1: a proactive woman. She's proactive. You see how she's talking
Speaker 1: to her husband. Get a table, get a lamp, go
Speaker 1: down there. I know you're old. I know your niece hurt,
Speaker 1: but we got to take care of the man of God.
Speaker 1: Let's get this room set up. She's not some passive woman,
Speaker 1: but in this area and everybody has one. Well, I
Speaker 1: guess I'll never be happy. I'll be happy when I
Speaker 1: get to heaven. I'll be happy when I get to heaven.
Speaker 1: Down here on earth, just I'm gonna just make it through. Oh,
Speaker 1: this is the value of the shadow of death, God said,
Speaker 1: I didn't want you to make the value of the
Speaker 1: shadow of death your permanent mailing address. I guess I'll
Speaker 1: just stay in the cave. I guess I'll just be anxious.
Speaker 1: I guess I'll just live in this state. I guess
Speaker 1: this is just what it is. This is not all
Speaker 1: it is. What can be done for her. Elisha wanted
Speaker 1: to know. I know she said nothing. I know she
Speaker 1: said she's all right. I know she said she he's good.
Speaker 1: I know she's stable. I know she's great. I know
Speaker 1: I'm staying in her house. But everybody has a need
Speaker 1: in their heart, everybody, even if nobody else knows it.
Speaker 1: And Gehesi the scoundrel said she doesn't have a son.
Speaker 1: And then like just said, get her back. I heard
Speaker 1: God saying come back, come back, come back, come back,
Speaker 1: come back, come back. You remember how he told Elijah,
Speaker 1: go back the way you came. You don't belong in
Speaker 1: a cave. You don't belong in this low state. You
Speaker 1: don't belong in this pattern, you don't belong in this place.
Speaker 1: This is not you. You're a child of God. Bring
Speaker 1: her back, bring her back. I gotta do it. I
Speaker 1: want to bless her. I've been brainstorming ways to bless you.
Speaker 1: Nothing can cancel it, nothing can stop it. I came
Speaker 1: all this way. I'm not gonna stop now. I brought
Speaker 1: you this far. Come back. And then he he made
Speaker 1: her the promise that she had stopped praying about about
Speaker 1: this time next year. It's one thing to tell her
Speaker 1: she's gonna have a baby, but he said, you're going
Speaker 1: to hold it in your arms. That's emotional. He's giving
Speaker 1: her a picture of something that has cost her so
Speaker 1: much pain, and she stopped praying. I went through a depression.
Speaker 1: And the thing about me and Holly when we were
Speaker 1: talking about this the other day, and I didn't know
Speaker 1: if I could share this with you, but she was
Speaker 1: saying how there were times where she would see me
Speaker 1: hurting and she can only help so much, and she
Speaker 1: would feel so helpless, and she would see me hurting,
Speaker 1: but she would see me continuing to do what I
Speaker 1: had to do, and it would come and it would go,
Speaker 1: and it would come and it would go. And during
Speaker 1: that time, I think I started to convince myself that
Speaker 1: I didn't deserve to feel good, so I would cover
Speaker 1: it up by saying, well, I'm just going to serve God.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how I feel. But to bury your
Speaker 1: disappointment is not a sustainable strategy. And Elijah said about
Speaker 1: this time next year, the thing that you've stopped as
Speaker 1: the thing, don't you love the passage? He didn't ask
Speaker 1: for a bed and she didn't ask for a baby,
Speaker 1: and God is giving them both what they didn't ask for.
Speaker 1: Is God giving you right now what you didn't even
Speaker 1: ask for in a way that you could have never anticipated.
Speaker 1: Come on, it's just the two of us right now.
Speaker 1: You don't have to put it in the chat. But
Speaker 1: between me and you, is there something that you've buried,
Speaker 1: something that God promised? He said, He said, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be out of a guest room soon because about this
Speaker 1: time next year, there's gonna be blue all over these walls.
Speaker 1: About this time next year. Oh man, I could just
Speaker 1: see us right now on December thirty first, twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: like bringing in the new year, you know, like, oh,
Speaker 1: next year is gonna be better. But she did not
Speaker 1: respond with praise. Her instinct was to push him away.
Speaker 1: You know, when God really speaks something significant to you,
Speaker 1: you push it away. I can't hear that. No, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no, that doesn't even when something good happens,
Speaker 1: you get threatened by it. Because the last time that
Speaker 1: I got my hopes of this is what the woman said,
Speaker 1: don't mislead me. I've been down this path before. I've
Speaker 1: hoped before, and it hurts the hope. It hurts the hope.
Speaker 1: I'd rather just show everybody publicly how good it is.
Speaker 1: I'd rather just pretend like everything's okay. But just like
Speaker 1: the prophet said, just like God said, just like he said,
Speaker 1: Verse seventeen. The woman became pregnant, and the next year,
Speaker 1: about that same time, she gave birth to a son,
Speaker 1: just as Elisha had told her. And before we stop
Speaker 1: and shout over that the Bible only gives one verse
Speaker 1: to this little boy's life. The whole chapter has been
Speaker 1: about her frustration, one verse about his life. Here's the verse,
Speaker 1: verse seventeen of verse eighteen, verse eighteen, the child grew.
Speaker 1: One day he went out to his father, who was
Speaker 1: with the reapers. Verse nineteen. He said to his father,
Speaker 1: my head, my head. His father told a servant carry
Speaker 1: him to his mother verse twenty. After the servant had
Speaker 1: lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the
Speaker 1: boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.
Speaker 1: The only thing the boy ever said in the text
Speaker 1: is my head. That's the only words he got to say.
Speaker 1: And then he died. And this is what brought me
Speaker 1: to the sermon, because after the servant had lifted him
Speaker 1: up and carried him to his mother, he sat on
Speaker 1: her lap and died. In verse twenty one, Oh this
Speaker 1: is so amazing, Holly. I gotta show you this. I
Speaker 1: gotta show you this. God showed me this. It was
Speaker 1: so good. When we were walking around talking about it.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know this was in it. She went
Speaker 1: up and laid him on the bed of the Man
Speaker 1: of God. Then shut the door. Somebody say shut the door.
Speaker 1: That's important. Shut the door. Shut the door. She shut
Speaker 1: the door and went out. She called her husband and said,
Speaker 1: please send me one of the servants and a donkey
Speaker 1: so I can go to the Man of God quickly.
Speaker 1: In return. Notice what she didn't ask her husband to do,
Speaker 1: what he didn't have the power to do. She said,
Speaker 1: you can give me a donkey, but you can't give
Speaker 1: me a miracle. Stop expecting out of people what only
Speaker 1: God can give. This is why we get depressed. We
Speaker 1: keep waiting on people to complete us. Renee Selwigger was
Speaker 1: lying to you. If you wait on somebody to complete you,
Speaker 1: you are going to be in a constant state of suspension. Ljay,
Speaker 1: They can help you. God can use people to bless you.
Speaker 1: But there are some things that are just between you
Speaker 1: and God, only God, just the two of us. I
Speaker 1: hear God saying, quit putting demands on people that are unreasonable.
Speaker 1: Let me build those spaces, let me have that room,
Speaker 1: let me have that question. She said, give me a donkey.
Speaker 1: You can give me a donkey. But that's all you
Speaker 1: can do because I gotta I gotta go back to
Speaker 1: the one who gave me the promise. I've got to
Speaker 1: go back to the one. And I want to ask
Speaker 1: you a question they used to ask us in middle
Speaker 1: school when we got in a fight. Who started it?
Speaker 1: Who started? Who started? That's what my dad wanted to know.
Speaker 1: I come home. I didn't get in many fights, but
Speaker 1: he want to know two things, who started it and
Speaker 1: who won? And if the answer was him and me,
Speaker 1: he was happy he started it and I won. He
Speaker 1: was like, all right, let's go to Ryan's, let's go
Speaker 1: to Quincy's, let's eat a yeastroll. So so she says,
Speaker 1: I gotta go to the one who started, because watch this,
Speaker 1: it's good to go back. It's good to go back.
Speaker 1: It's good to go back. That's why I wanted. I
Speaker 1: wanted them to show on the camera. It was like this,
Speaker 1: you've always been on my front row. You've always been
Speaker 1: on my front row. A lot has changed, but it
Speaker 1: was us then and it's us now. But somebody's saying,
Speaker 1: I don't have Holly. I don't I don't have the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. You got the Holy One? You got the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, You've got the you've got the spirit of
Speaker 1: God on the inside of you. So she said, give
Speaker 1: me a donkey and saddle him up. And she's calling
Speaker 1: the shots too. Man. Remember this woman is not waiting
Speaker 1: on God. Oh God, show me what to do. No,
Speaker 1: the boy is dead. She carries him upstairs. She put
Speaker 1: him in the bed that never would have been there
Speaker 1: if she hadn't been proactive, if she would have been
Speaker 1: bitter about the child she didn't have, she wouldn't have
Speaker 1: had a bed to put the child in. When he died,
Speaker 1: she laid him on the bed that was a result
Speaker 1: of the prompting of the Holy Spirit. She didn't know
Speaker 1: what it would lead to, but God did. And she said,
Speaker 1: saddle up the donkey. The king. James says it different,
Speaker 1: but saddle off the donkey. Put a saddle on the donkey.
Speaker 1: I know where to go to. I know who the
Speaker 1: bread is, I know who's fuck it. I know where
Speaker 1: this started. I know who called me. Do you know
Speaker 1: who started it? He began a good work in you?
Speaker 1: Who started it? She said, lead on, don't slow down
Speaker 1: for me unless I tell you too. I love this woman.
Speaker 1: She's like, leave me and do what I say, I
Speaker 1: love her. What I love about it is she's so
Speaker 1: proactive to build a room. She's so she's so full
Speaker 1: of faith and boldness to say, saddle the donkey. But
Speaker 1: watch how humble she is. This is what makes her great.
Speaker 1: This is what's gonna make you great. This is what's
Speaker 1: gonna make this year not the worst year of your life,
Speaker 1: but the greatest. This is it. Right here she came
Speaker 1: to the man of God, Karmel. I know what comes next.
Speaker 1: So I'm happy because you're like her son is dead.
Speaker 1: What's wrong with you? I know? I know, I know
Speaker 1: what's about to happen. I know what's about to happen
Speaker 1: in the story. You can you can praise God in
Speaker 1: places that make no sense when you know what happens
Speaker 1: next in the story, not the details of it, but
Speaker 1: I know who started it. So I know that he
Speaker 1: who began a good work in me. I didn't learn
Speaker 1: much Greek. But Alpha is the first letter, Omega is
Speaker 1: the last one, and he's both. He's both of those.
Speaker 1: He finishes what he starts. And so when she came
Speaker 1: to the prophet it Mount Carmel. See first of all,
Speaker 1: she's she's coming up and I want you to know
Speaker 1: a couple of things from this passage. He saw her
Speaker 1: in the distance. He saw her in the distance. He
Speaker 1: saw her in the distance. That that blesses me, even
Speaker 1: if I'm far off from where I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 1: He sees me in the distance. Does that remind you
Speaker 1: of the prodigal son? Or is it just me? Saw
Speaker 1: him coming? He saw her coming, He told gahes I.
Speaker 1: He said, look the shoe of my twenty six, He
Speaker 1: told gajes I. Run the meter and ask her. This
Speaker 1: is a loaded question, Okay, are you all right? What
Speaker 1: if I asked you that just two of us? Are
Speaker 1: you all right? It's one of those questions that we
Speaker 1: ask that we really don't want to know the answer to.
Speaker 1: You know, how you doing? You all right? Yeah? Man,
Speaker 1: I'm all right. Got this thing on my back. I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is. It's changing colors. I'm all right.
Speaker 1: It's a complicated question. Are you all right? That depends
Speaker 1: because this woman would say I've got a lot of money,
Speaker 1: but I just lost my son. You all right? Well,
Speaker 1: that depends. You know. I'm I'm kind of disappointed about
Speaker 1: what's going on with my company, But you know what,
Speaker 1: God's been doing a miracle in my family. What a question?
Speaker 1: Are you all right? Ask her? Are you all right?
Speaker 1: You know the difference between God and people. He really
Speaker 1: wants to know the other people who ask you that
Speaker 1: they do not expect a detailed answer with some points.
Speaker 1: And I love the woman because Ghesi comes to ask
Speaker 1: her are you all right? He's not the one who
Speaker 1: prophesied the baby to begin with. So what what she does?
Speaker 1: Watch what she does in verse twenty six, Watch what
Speaker 1: she does in verse twenty six. I know we said
Speaker 1: she's a great woman, but he said, are you all right?
Speaker 1: Is your husband all right? Is your child all right? Neither?
Speaker 1: None of these are all right. She's not alright. The
Speaker 1: husband is so old he can't carry Bobby up the stairs.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give the boy a name. And the son
Speaker 1: that he's asking about is dead. And she does something.
Speaker 1: Even though she's a great woman, she lies everything is
Speaker 1: all right. She's lying like you, everything's all right, It's alright. No,
Speaker 1: then this is here. I'm good. She's lying like your
Speaker 1: Instagram feed. I said, she's lying like your Instagram feed.
Speaker 1: She is lying like that picture you posted from the
Speaker 1: family vacation on Facebook. She is lying. Why did she lie?
Speaker 1: Maybe she wasn't lying, Maybe she just knew something. Maybe
Speaker 1: she knew I don't need to talk about my problems
Speaker 1: to somebody who doesn't have the power to solve them.
Speaker 1: This is a word for somebody. I don't need to
Speaker 1: I don't need the assess this in a place that
Speaker 1: is powerless to help me. And I want to stop
Speaker 1: asking everybody else about stuff that only God can fix.
Speaker 1: I want to stop trying to fix things publicly that
Speaker 1: can only be dealt with privately. I want to quit
Speaker 1: seeking affirmation in public places and let God speak to
Speaker 1: the place. Come on, is this for you? I'm asking?
Speaker 1: Tell me right now in the comments? Is this for you?
Speaker 1: She said, I'm all right, but I'm not really And
Speaker 1: look what she did next. She pushed right past the
Speaker 1: person who had no power to solve it. Quit talking
Speaker 1: to everybody about everything, Quit complaining to everybody about everything,
Speaker 1: Quit letting everybody know all your business, Quit trying to
Speaker 1: cover up stuff for people, and go back to the
Speaker 1: one who spoke it to start with. And when she
Speaker 1: got verse twenty seven, to the man of God at
Speaker 1: the mountain, she took hold of his feet. She's great
Speaker 1: enough to saddle up the donkey, and she's humble enough
Speaker 1: to follow his feet, and you've got to be both.
Speaker 1: She came down and haze I came to push her away.
Speaker 1: I bet you got something right now as I preach
Speaker 1: this word trying to push you away. Don't listen to that.
Speaker 1: Don't listen to him. Don't under says this isn't for
Speaker 1: you to someone else. You're not good enough for that.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You know, I mean right
Speaker 1: to expect that. But the Man of God said, leave
Speaker 1: her alone, Leave her alone. This is between the two
Speaker 1: of us. See, I spoke this to her. I spoke
Speaker 1: this to her. She's in bitter distress. But the Lord
Speaker 1: has hidden it from me, and I don't know why. Yeah, Holly,
Speaker 1: the next verse is what brought me over, because after
Speaker 1: I've preached last week sermon, I saw this verse. Did
Speaker 1: I ask? I stopped? I said, yeah, of course, of course,
Speaker 1: you want me to preach this Lord for everybody who's
Speaker 1: dealing with something they didn't ask for. I was just
Speaker 1: trying to take care of you. I wasn't trying to
Speaker 1: invite this in my life. I didn't even want all
Speaker 1: this God, you shouldn't have called me to do this
Speaker 1: if you were gonna let it be so hard that
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it. Did I ask? She sai at
Speaker 1: his feet. Now she's off for donkey. Now did I ask?
Speaker 1: I didn't. I asked you to come eat, I asked
Speaker 1: you to come stay. I didn't ask you to ruin
Speaker 1: my life. I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask
Speaker 1: for this. You did this. You started this. I told
Speaker 1: you it. We didn't like this. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: get my hopes up. It hurts the hope. The more
Speaker 1: I hope, the more open I am to disappointment. I
Speaker 1: told you this was gonna happen. Every time I try,
Speaker 1: I fail, every time I start, I stumble. I told
Speaker 1: you it would be like this. I knew it would
Speaker 1: end like this. I knew I shouldn't feel good. I
Speaker 1: knew I shouldn't try it. I knew they would betray me.
Speaker 1: I knew they would let it. Did I ask? She
Speaker 1: had the good sense to know how to get back
Speaker 1: to the one who started it. I know you didn't
Speaker 1: ask for a special needs child. I know you didn't
Speaker 1: ask for I know you didn't ask for the economy
Speaker 1: to do what it's doing right now. I know you
Speaker 1: didn't ask for it, but just because you didn't ask
Speaker 1: for it doesn't mean you can't handle it. You just
Speaker 1: gotta know what to do with it. Put it back
Speaker 1: on the bed, put it back in the place she
Speaker 1: stood in the doorway where the prophet may the promise.
Speaker 1: She put the boy that God gave her on the bed.
Speaker 1: She went to the prophet. She fell at his feet
Speaker 1: and looked like she said, are you ready for this? Oh?
Speaker 1: This is so annoying because in verse thirty after GEHEYESEI
Speaker 1: went back to do what he could do, the child's
Speaker 1: mother said, as surely as the Lord lives, and as
Speaker 1: you live, I will not leave you. Where have we
Speaker 1: heard that before. That's the same thing Elisha said to Elijah.
Speaker 1: That's the same thing Elisha said to Elijah. That's the
Speaker 1: same persistence that started his ministry. I will not leave you.
Speaker 1: I will not forsake you. And God is saying, if
Speaker 1: I did, then I will now if I spoke it,
Speaker 1: I will perform it in an empty room, in a
Speaker 1: full room with many, with little a bounding or a baste.
Speaker 1: I will not leave you. She said, you spoke this,
Speaker 1: you started this. Now you got to do something about it.
Speaker 1: You know how You know you're growing in your relationship
Speaker 1: with God when you can tell him the real stuff
Speaker 1: at his feet and trust him like that. Everybody else
Speaker 1: sees what you do. Oh, she's got a big house.
Speaker 1: She keeps the preacher over there. They didn't know the
Speaker 1: depth of disappointment of her barren womb. Only God knew
Speaker 1: that some things only God knows. First Corinthians, who says,
Speaker 1: the spirit of a man surches the man, only God
Speaker 1: in you knows. There are some things that I can't
Speaker 1: say through this camera today. It's just between you and God.
Speaker 1: So maybe God puts you in this moment so he
Speaker 1: could tell you a few things, just the two of us.
Speaker 1: God said, I need you right now. I need you
Speaker 1: at my feet right now. I'm trying to bring some
Speaker 1: things to life, but I need this to just be
Speaker 1: the two of us. I'm going to use people. But
Speaker 1: when Elisha followed the woman back to the house, look
Speaker 1: at it. The boy was there on his couch and
Speaker 1: the mom, the woman, the great woman, the proactive woman.
Speaker 1: She did something that we all have to do sometimes
Speaker 1: in our life. That after you've done all you can do.
Speaker 1: The Bible says verse thirty three, Elisha went in shut
Speaker 1: the door on the two of them, and now the
Speaker 1: woman who birthed this boy has to stand outside the
Speaker 1: door and trust God's prophet to do what only he
Speaker 1: can do. Are you standing on the other side of
Speaker 1: a closed door today wondering how God is going to
Speaker 1: get your kid out of this one? I imagine that
Speaker 1: this woman, who was proactive enough to tell her husband
Speaker 1: saddle up the donkey and buy a lamb, rushed into
Speaker 1: the room. And maybe she thought she was going to
Speaker 1: stand there and give orders. You know, she's that kind
Speaker 1: of woman. But the prophet knew something about when God
Speaker 1: wants to do something really amazing in your life. He
Speaker 1: turned to the woman and said, I know that you
Speaker 1: gave birth to this boy, and I know you're great
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you. But right now, it's just the
Speaker 1: two of us. He sent her out the room. He
Speaker 1: sent her out the room where she couldn't see. He
Speaker 1: sent her out the room. Verse thirty four says he
Speaker 1: got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth
Speaker 1: to mouthed, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. Somebody say
Speaker 1: out loud, it's personal, it's personal. He didn't just lay
Speaker 1: a staff on him. Be haz. I tried that and
Speaker 1: it didn't work. It's gonna be personal what God does
Speaker 1: in your life. This is a personal word. God says,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna, I'm gonna, actually, I'm gonna actually connect with
Speaker 1: you your eyes, you see, so you could touch and feel.
Speaker 1: It's personal. He laid down on the boy and stretched
Speaker 1: himself out on him, and the boy's body grew warm,
Speaker 1: but he still wasn't alive. So Elisha turned away and
Speaker 1: walked back and forth in the room, walked back and
Speaker 1: forth in the room. Everybody say, it's a process. Come on,
Speaker 1: say it out loud, it's a process. I want you
Speaker 1: to say that, shay about everything in your life that
Speaker 1: you don't understand. He's pacing around the room. He's pacing
Speaker 1: in the room, and the woman has no idea what's
Speaker 1: going on on the other side of that door. And
Speaker 1: you have no idea what God is doing behind the
Speaker 1: scenes in your life. And the prophet is pacing. I
Speaker 1: think he's sent her out of the room, not just
Speaker 1: because it was personal, and not just because it was
Speaker 1: a process, not because it was private. I hear the
Speaker 1: spirit of God saying, right now, I need some alone
Speaker 1: time with your problem. I don't need you standing over
Speaker 1: me so much telling me what to do. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna close this door. I must spend some time with
Speaker 1: that thing you've been worrying about, and I need you
Speaker 1: to just go right now, and you can walk around
Speaker 1: downstairs and I'll walk around upstairs. But the Bible says
Speaker 1: that she had to stand on the other side of
Speaker 1: the door. You know how much faith it takes to
Speaker 1: stand there with the thing that you gave birth to.
Speaker 1: Some of you, God is saying, give me my promise back.
Speaker 1: I'm the one who gave it. I can't have you
Speaker 1: standing over me telling me how I'm supposed to do it,
Speaker 1: and when I'm supposed to do it. Leave this thing
Speaker 1: with me for a little while. You've been stressing so much,
Speaker 1: and every time you stress about it, it interrupts what
Speaker 1: God is doing. So shut the door. Like the woman
Speaker 1: with the oil earlier in Second King's fourth she shut
Speaker 1: the door in the oil flowed, and he shut the door,
Speaker 1: and he got with the boy. And the Bible says,
Speaker 1: how many believed the Bible, how many believe in miracles,
Speaker 1: That on the other side of that door the word
Speaker 1: of God did for that woman what she could not
Speaker 1: do for herself. I feel the word of the Lord
Speaker 1: coming forth into your situation today. And when he got
Speaker 1: back on the boys, the boy slee seven times. That's
Speaker 1: the number of completion. God said, let me finish this.
Speaker 1: I started it. Let me finish this. Got your promise,
Speaker 1: I've got short dreams, I've got your destiny, I've got
Speaker 1: your hope, I've got your petitions, I've got your prayers.
Speaker 1: And God says, give it back to me, just the
Speaker 1: two of us. God's working while you're waiting. He's working
Speaker 1: while you're waiting. We thank God for open doors. We
Speaker 1: thank him for closed doors because what he's doing in
Speaker 1: this moment is greater than you know. What he's doing
Speaker 1: in that room in your life is greater than you know.
Speaker 1: You thought you built it for one thing, you really
Speaker 1: built it for another. Give him that space. This is
Speaker 1: a holy spirit moment. What do you do when the
Speaker 1: thing that you didn't ask for happens in your life?
Speaker 1: The thing that you were holding in your arms one
Speaker 1: moment dies in the shifting seasons, I hear God saying,
Speaker 1: take it back, put it in that place, because today
Speaker 1: is a day of miracles. Elisha verse thirty six, summoned
Speaker 1: Gaze and said, call the shunami, and he did. When
Speaker 1: she came, he said, take your son. She had no
Speaker 1: idea that he had been pacing the floor in there.
Speaker 1: How many of you you don't know what God's doing
Speaker 1: right now, but you trust that whatever he is doing,
Speaker 1: lift your hands right where you are. Come on, God said,
Speaker 1: do you really need to be in a crowd to
Speaker 1: worship me? Or can you worship me when it's just
Speaker 1: the two of us. She came in verse thirty seven,
Speaker 1: fell at his feet, bowed to the ground, and then
Speaker 1: she took her son and went out. Lord, I thank
Speaker 1: you that today your people are receiving back joy, peace, hope,
Speaker 1: and a right spirit. We trust you today. Lord. As
Speaker 1: much as we thank you for open doors, we trust
Speaker 1: you with closed doors. I thank you that, just like
Speaker 1: your prophet, Elisha was working a miracle in a room
Speaker 1: that a woman built by faith, you are working a
Speaker 1: miracle in every place where we will, by faith trust
Speaker 1: you today. You know who's on the other side of
Speaker 1: this message. You know what's happening in their house. You
Speaker 1: know what's happening in their heart. Lord, if they feel
Speaker 1: alone right now, I touch and agree with them in Jesus'
Speaker 1: name that you are the God who sees beyond the surface.
Speaker 1: You are the God of the question in the comma,
Speaker 1: I thank you that you're doing a great thing in
Speaker 1: our lives, just the two of us. If this message
Speaker 1: was for you today and you know it, I want
Speaker 1: you to tell me in the comments. I want you
Speaker 1: to tell me in the chat say that was for me,
Speaker 1: and then we'll know together. God spoke this word to
Speaker 1: me so I can share it with you. Just the
Speaker 1: two of us, we're praying for you. We're believing God
Speaker 1: for great things in your life. And God wants you
Speaker 1: to know today that anytime something in your life dies,
Speaker 1: and anytime you feel like it's over, go back to
Speaker 1: where you started, stand with the one who will never
Speaker 1: leave you nor forsake you. She said to the prophet.
Speaker 1: As the Lord lives and as you live, I won't
Speaker 1: leave you. God is saying that to somebody today. I
Speaker 1: didn't leave you. Just give me some time. Close the door,
Speaker 1: worship on the other side. Don't wait until you hold
Speaker 1: it again. Come on, lift your hands right now. That
Speaker 1: God who will never leave you nor forsake you, is
Speaker 1: with you in this moment, and no matter what people do,
Speaker 1: and no matter how the world ebbs and flows, God
Speaker 1: wants you to know that His presence is your promise
Speaker 1: now and forevermore. What a friend we have in Jesus,
Speaker 1: Oh our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege
Speaker 1: to carry everything to God in prayer. Go back to
Speaker 1: the one that started with He's always been for you. Oh,
Speaker 1: what peace we often for fect and all what needless
Speaker 1: pain we bear. This is a different season, but it's
Speaker 1: the same God. Oh, because we do not care everything
Speaker 1: to God in prayer? Have we trials and temptations? Is
Speaker 1: there trouble anywhere? What is it? We should never be discouraged?
Speaker 1: Take into the Lord in prayer, just me and you, Now, God,
Speaker 1: just me and you. You know what's going on in
Speaker 1: my life. You know what I You know what I
Speaker 1: wonder about. You know what I deal with? Do thy
Speaker 1: friends despise for sake? Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Speaker 1: And here's what I want you to know. In his
Speaker 1: arms he'll take and she'll be noow. We'll find a
Speaker 1: solace there, just the two of us. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give
Speaker 1: generously to this ministry is because of you that this
Speaker 1: ministry is possible. You can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash
Speaker 1: podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.