An Ordinary Day

our theme is game Changer. I think one of the most exciting things that God is doing in our ministry is to open the doors of our ministry beyond our walls. What I mean by that is we are amazed at the thousands and thousands and thousands of you who are letting us know that you're impacted by this ministry in another zip code, in another state, in another country, maybe eventually on another planet. But what I wanted to mention to you is that you can be a part of

this beyond just consuming. Many of you have been blessed by God to be a blessing, and I wanted to ask today would you be willing during this special time of year to make a one time donation to the ministry or maybe partner with us on a monthly basis through recurring giving. I believe God could use your gift to enable this ministry to continue to reach, to continue

to break paradigms, to continue to lift up Jesus. And I wanted to ask you personally to go to Elevationchurch dot org and you can see the ways to give there. But most importantly, know that we feel a tremendousness of responsibility to minister the Word of God, not only to you, but to challenge you to partner with us in reaching people for the Gospel. I believe your gift today could be a game changer, so don't put it off right now. Elevationchurch dot org you can find all of the details.

I hope you enjoy this message and thank you for being a part of the family. Whoo, it feels good here Elevation Balatime. I know it does. A Lake Norman over at Blaytney, see, I know it feels great up there. Hey, my name is Larry Bryan. I get the privilege of opening up God's Word with you today and all my friends call me LB at least my friends do You could call me LB too. You can say hey, LB,

oh man, thank you, I'm glad to be here. And a truism we learned early in our church is people may not always remember what you say, but they'll always remember the way you make them feel. I want to make sure that everybody who's here that's a first time guest feels very welcomed today. I'd like you to give out at least three displays of affection. You can give a hug, a high five, a handshake. I want you to welcome at least three people, at least three church

appropriate displays of affection. Mind you. After you have done that, you you may be seated. Thank you, Worship team, thank you so much. Hey. Have you enjoyed this season we're in right now, Game Changer? Oh oh my goodness, it has been absolutely incredible Week one. Let's do a quick little review right here. Secret scorecard, My reason determines my reward. How many of you are blessed by week one of

this series? My gosh. Now Week two for all the warriors in the house, Pastor Stephen burned the place down. He talked about reverse your worry worship is worry and reverse, like how many of you were blessed by that? Oh my gosh. And so week one, Week two, let's call it week three. This is Week three. I get the privilege of delivering God's word today. Here's the title I want to get for today's message. Is this? For the note takers in the house, you would write this down

an ordinary day, an ordinary day, say ordinary. And the text I'm going to be in today is going to be acts. Chapter three is where I'll be. And I remember when I came to faith. It was in my late twenties. I just finished graduate school, and I had grown up in a home where religion really and faith was not really a part of it. If Jesus Christ was used in a conversation, it was more for colorful

language than it was any kind of praise. And that was just kind of the world I grew up, and I grew up Catholic, so you know, I'd go to church a couple times a year, and I remember, like in my darkest moments where I'm like in that dark place some of you know, that dark place, like that place that you don't feel like anybody should ever see, that place, that you're like God is so disgusted with you can never lean into it. God leaned into that moment with me, and he met me in that place,

and he radically, radically saved me. And I remember getting my first Bible. I was twenty seven, so I didn't own a Bible until I was twenty steven. I remember taking the cellophane off of it and like smelling of us, like, oh, this is amazing. And then I went to a Bible study with some of you Baptists, like you know you. It's like Bibles are like h oh Badiah Stephaniah. But I heard about Matthew, Mark, Lucan, John, I can't find out, but like and I lean over my buddy's like what

page is that on? I didn't realize then all the Bibles have the same Like what are you doing Christians? That makes no sense. So I remember what it's like to get in a place that, depending upon the book you're going to go to, a man may not open up my Bible because it didn't want to look stupid, because you know what, I felt very ordinary. And if you feel ordinary today, if you feel like you're an ordinary individual, I want you to know that you are

positioned to be mightily used by an extraordinary God. He is not looking for the brightest, He's not looking for the tallest, the prettiest. He's looking for the one that makes himself available today. And anybody who says, God, I make myself available, he will use you. That is the evidence of the story of the Church, and it is how he has moved throughout eternity. So I just want to give you permission to be ordinary. Look at your neighbor right left, which one looks the most ordinary to you?

I know, don't tell him. But in Acts chapter three is where I'm going to be. It says this. This is one day Peter and John were going to the temple at the time of prayer three in the afternoon. No a man was lame from birth, being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as

did John. Then Peter said, look at us. So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said silver or gold I do not have, But what I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly his feet and ankles became strong. Now, this story out of Acts chapter three is really one of my favorite stories in

the New Testament. I love it. It's really been a story that's played a pivotal part in the history of our church. But I love it because it has these two words that come together one day. Oh, it's kind of like dynamite. You put these two in great together and something blows up one day, and if you were to do a Bible study on it, just do that. Google it later one day Bible Verse, and you're gonna

see story after story of something incredible. It's given me like scenes in a movie where you're like what the Southern translation, We're like, yo, check this out, Like that's it's amazing. It's a place of potential impossibility. When you see these two words, it needs to alert your senses at Oh, something significant is about to happen, Something is about to go down that's gonna change the direction of

somebody else's life. This is a game changing moment. One day is a game changer because when one day happens in your life, everything changes after it, and some of you are about to encounter one of those moments today. Today is that one day it's going to be a game changer where whatever you walked in with is going to look very different when you walk out, because God's about to do something in you. And these one day stories have less to do with God's promises being dropped

into our laps. It has way more to do with people, ordinary people like you and me, who believe that with God all things are possible, not some things, not a couple things, not a conditional faith that says, if it ever gets here, God then know all things. Because one day is a perspective. It is a perspective where you lean in expecting God to move. I don't know if it'll be today or tomorrow, or next year or in twenty years, but my God will move. His promises are

yes and amen in Jesus Christ, I believe it. That's a one day perspective that's illustrated in the text. The other perspective that's illustrated in the text is another day, say another day, and what we get to do is decide which one we want to live. One day potential impossibility. Another day, Hey, honey, how was work today? It was

just another day. Another day becomes another week, and another month, and another year and another decade, and now your kids are grown and you're looking at each other like, what did we just do with the last twenty years? And we've just wasted it just one day at a time. Another day is a perspective where you give up believing that God's promises will come to pass, and you settle into autopilot and you are just being taken down the rivers of life, feeling like you're at the whims and

the mercies of God and you're just flowing along. No, no, no no. And the reality is one day and another day are both perspectives. One is leaning in, one is leaning back, And the reality is both of these are ordinary. Both of these are ordinary because the life you live is your ordinary. You get to decide which life you

want to live. You have the ability through the person of Jesus Christ living inside of you, the one who spoke the world into existence, the one who raised Jesus from the dead, is living inside of you, and you get the ability to make a choice to say, I will either live life in a one day mentality. God, I believe you're for me and not against me, or I can live over here and just be like it's just another day. All those other people get blessed just now.

I mean those are for the extraordinary Christians, not ordinary folk. Because most of these one day stories and the scriptures are ordinary people believing in an extraordinary God. And so when we started this ministry more than twelve years ago, we're coming up on our thirteenth birthday Elevation Church. You'll look good for a preteen. I remember when we started this church, we were living in a little town called Shelby, North Carolina. And you all heard of Shelby. It's about

an hour away from Charlotte. For those of you that don't know, it's halfway between Charlotte, North Carolina and Asheville. It's not a destination location. It's like a stop for gas and then you keep going. It's Nazareth, you know. But we were living there and pastors seems like, hey, we got to get to Charlotte. We got to find a place to meet, we got to find a location. So I believe that God is for us. I believe

that God is for this ministry. And I just drove to Charlotte and my little Ford Ranger expecting God's favor to be there when I got there, I've just acted like that. You know how you hang out with somebody that's bigger and stronger than you, you feel tougher, Like yeah, what you've gotten now? Boy? My God is that big and my pastor's that strong. I believe it. I'm like, if God said it, it's gonna happen. If pastors said there's this facility waiting for us in Starngmuck, it's there.

And so I show up in Charlotte. The first place to stop is at a community college. I walk in, go up to the vice president's office. Meanwhile, we had just picked the name for the church like a month before, and I walk into the president vice president's office. I'm like, listen, my name's Larry Bryan. I'm a part of a church called Elevation Church. We haven't even started yet, but we're gonna change the world. And you want us meeting at

your location. And she's like, well, the biggest room we got really only holds about one hundred and forty people. I said, that's way too small. God's going to do something so much bigger than that. And she's said, it's funny you showed up here today because this is actually my last day working at this location. She said, I start a new job on Monday at a place called the Levine Senior Center. She said, we're actually going to be building a building. And we were meeting with the

trustees the other day. We haven't even broken ground on it, but we were talking about maybe it would be good for a church to rent our facility. I said, yes today, Amen, God wants us sen in that location. That's how we found our first location. We can collap for that. That's but the one day perspective says, whether it's at the first stop, the twelve stop, or the hundred stuff, my God is going to say yes. At some point, it's

going to happen. See one day as a persistence towards the promises of God, you get shut down in the first response, and now you give up on the promises of God? Why are you so easy to push over? Do you know here, daddy is? Do you know what's living inside of you? To know what you're capable of? About a week after we found this location, I met with a church planting expert who is an expert on

planting churches and Charlie. He's like, Larry, you know, it's virtually impossible for anyone to find a location to meet at within Charlotte because every outhouse and doghouse and middle school and high school has got a church meeting in it, that says expert voice. I looked at him, said, I'm sorry. We already found a location. My God already provided before you even set it in out. And some of you were listening to experts tell you what God cannot do

in your life. We were just ordinary people that believed in an extraordinary God, and it began with eight families selling their homes and quitting their jobs. This is my wife, Janet here. We were one of those original eight families. We just celebrated eighteen years of marriage. Isn't she love me? Isn't I can't sing, but my reason determines my reward. I'm not singing for you. I'm trying to score points with my girl. But we got the distinct privilege of

being one of those original eight families. So if I take you back to two thousand and five, this is thirteen years ago. We're all living in Shelby, eight families, and we had met Pastor Stephen first time I ever saw him preach. He was the only white guy in an all gospel, Black gospel choir. He was at North

Greenville College. He was a senior at North Greenville College, and that choir he was leading with about sixty people, and he knew how to clap on the two and four, but nobody at the church I was at knew how to really do that right. And he brings the all black gospel choir down and he's leading the choir at the church we're at in Shelby there in north in North Greenville College in South Carolina, and I saw him preach, first time I ever saw him preach. He preaches serma

called God is Great, God is Good. I still have the VHS tape. Bald head go tea baggy clothes and he burned the place down. And I said, this joker is going to change the world. And I said, that's the church I want to be a part of. So when I heard that him and Hollyood getting ready to start this thing called Elevation Church, I pulled him in my office and I'm coming with I know it's really

bad grammar. You don't end with a preposition, but it's because it was a blank line that says, wherever you go, I'm coming. And he said, what it means if you want to be a part of this, you need to sell your house, quit your job, move to an unnamed city in an unnamed part of the country to be part of an unnamed church. Are you in? I'm like, who wouldn't sign up for that? No, I'm not kidding. Who wouldn't sign up for that? It's the greatest thing

on the face of the earth. Everybody right now says I wish I would have done that, and you might not have had a chance to be a part of the original Eight. But you can get on the original eight spirit today because the spirit that launched our ministry is the same spirit that's moving here today. And there's so many new people coming to Elevation Church that you don't know the history, and it's hard to understand the

story when you haven't read the previous chapters. I just want to show you some of those previous chapters about us, and all eight families are signed up. But we were a part of a church there called Christ Covenant Church February of two thousand and five. Through the end of the year, we stayed underneath the umbrella of that ministry. All of us were tithing to that church. That's ten percent,

the first ten percent we give to God. When we signed up to this thing called Elevation Church, Pastor said, Hey, here's what we're going to do. We're going to sow seeds of sacrificial generosity that will produce fruit in the future. See the blessing you see began to sacrifices that you'll never see. Because all eight families gave ten percent to the church. Were at because we believed in being faithful

to church. But this end, this new thing called Elevation Church, we're going to go five percent and ten percent above and beyond it. So those eight families sowed seeds of generosity. It was not a couple of fat cats stroking big checks. It was built upon people like Tyler and Amy Ford, John and Heather Bishop, ordinary people like Chunks and Amy Corbett. None of us were experts in church work, but all

of us loved God. We were ordinary people that worshiped an extraordinary God, and we wanted our lives to count because you know, there's a difference between success and significance. Success is what you build for yourself. Significance is what you give away for God. And you can be extremely successful in life and yet have no six significance. But

I also know the opposite exists. Some of you feel like you were not successful in life, but you are one of the most significant people on the all walking on the face of the earth, because your significance is tied to your sacrifice. Now your size, now, your status, now your number of followers, simply your sacrifice, and what God wants is a sacrifice. And those eight families brought sacrifices. If I were to illustrate the church, let me give you an illustration this first row, Can you stand up

right here? And then one, two, three, four, five, six, you six? Could you stand up right there? That's good. So thirteen years ago, this is what we were, eight families, sixteen people. You know what we are today? Thirteen years later, we actually have seventeen campuses. We've got more campuses today than we did people thirteen years ago. Look what God won't do? Look what God won't do? You maybe see

you mean? And I remember there was a game changer for us when we found the vision statement of our ch it's this, It's on the screens. This is why we started our church. So that people far from God will be raised to life in Christ. That's it, say, people far from God will be raised to life in Christ. Say people far from God will be raised to life in Christ. And we were praying for people before we

ever saw their faces and knew their names. And without being melodramatic, we were praying for you before we ever met you. I have no idea what you were doing thirteen years ago, Melbourne. I have no idea what you were doing thirteen years ago someone watching online from Topeka, Kansas. But God knew you. God knew the steps he would order in your life to bring you to the moment you're sitting in today. And we believe so strongly that

the Gospel is real. We wanted to bring a real sacrifice because faith is not just believing for it, it is sacrificing toward it. There is a language and a lifestyle to faith. There is a language that says I believe that with God all things are possible. That's the language of it. But that is just one part of it. The other part of is I am going to live a lifestyle that will be persistent to see that happen. There is a language and a lifestyle, and the lifestyle

that God brought us eight families to a sacrifice. My wife and I we sold our house, we quit our jobs. We cast in our stocks or bonds, our savings, put it all in the center of table. Said God, either you get all the glory or we look really stupid. I am glad option a worked out. But why were we doing it? Because we loved God that much and we wanted to see His glory on this earth. We believe so strongly in the church. We weren't just going to make it a weekend activity. We were going to

make it an everyday lifestyle. And I remember another game changing moment when we're at the ministry we were at we were moving into a new sanctuary space, so before all the families moved in, we had a chance to get on our knees on the cement and write names on the cement of people we wanted to come to faith. This was a game changer for me because I got on the cement in the middle of the sanctuary and my wife and I we wrote down these names. We

wrote down the name Luanne, it's my sister. These are people we hope who come to faith in Jesus. I wrote down Dad, that's my dad. Wrote down Lance, that's my younger brother. He said, diabetes since he was four years old and he's struggling right now to feel his feet. My brother Lonnie, my brother Butch his real name is Leslie. Yep, you would too, My mom, my niece, Caylin. I started

to write these names down. This was a game changer for me because I started to identify the people in faith that I wanted to see come to faith in Jesus. And from this began what we call our one day teaching, which is based upon Act chapter three, And in Act chapter three it says one day Peter and John at the time of prayer went to the temple gate and so one day, and here's the way that we teach

the one day principle around here at Elevation Church. Because her vision statement is people far from God raised to life in Christ. That's the vision, people far from God raise to life in Christ. But if it's about a bunch of people and it's not about a person, it

is not personal. Personal is powerful. So the way that I teach the One Day principle is this, who is close to you but far from God, who is inside your relational networks but outside the love of Jesus Christ, who if they died today, we spend eternity separated from Him. Get this thing so personal. So whenever I would teach this, I would get people to write down in their notes, And I want you to do this in your notes right now or on your phone, is a blank line

and put a name in it. For me. Every time I taught this, and I've taught it over two hundred and fifty times, I use my sister's name, Luanne, and I write it in the thing. My sister, my oldest sister, she's six years older than me. She used to look out for me on the nights when dad is doing what his father did. See. My sister grew up in a world that she looked at her heavenly father and said, you must be just like my earthly father, because my

earthly father rejects me, It treats me like this. Why on earth would my heavenly father want anything to do with me. So once she got to the age she was old enough to decide I'm out of this, she said, peace out, I am done. But you know that when you're running from something, you start recreating it in your future. Because God's vision is never to run from something, it

is to something. And my sister runs into life recreating all of the havoc that she had in her pass And I would teach this one day principle like this. If this were the one day, Luan or your person were to come to church, what would you want him to experience? Who would you want them to meet? And now it became really really personal to me. You want to know the vision of our church so that people far from God would be really used to life in Christ.

But it's not just a language, it's a lifestyle. Because we would teach it like this. If that were to happen, I would be up all night praying. See my family lives in Minnesota, and if they were to come here, oh my gosh, it is miracle, and I would be up all night praying, and I'd be saying God, please move, Please move in their life because life is so chaotic. She doesn't know you and she needs you God. And I get to this building early and then pray over

every single seat in the auditorium. I'd annoint it with oral I'd be speaking in tongues because I don't know which seat she's gonna sit in. I don't know which seat's gonna be the place of a miracle. I don't know what seat the shame is gonna be washed away at. So I'm just gonna pray over every single one of them, and then I'm gonna go to go to the parking team. Say, parking team, do you get it? My sister's coming. She's

just like me. She has no patience, and if more than three cars get backed up, she's gonna turn around and go home. And if she gets in an accident on the way home and die, she's going to hell. And if that happens, I'm gonna kill you. Then I'm gonna go to the greeters. I'm say, greeters, do you get it? Because if you're talking to my sister, you're making her feel like everybody else thinks about her what

she feels about herself. Because she works in a job where she's had a trucking company and she's the safety enforced her. So she gets to talk to truckers all day long and tell them to stop driving. And if you're a trucker and you're not driving, you're expressing your

displeasure in colorful ways. She gets cussed out all day long in the job and then comes home to a house where her and her husband look at each other and go to opposite ends of the house because the reality is, you know how long it's been since she's seen somebody say to her, I'm glad to see you, Because in her honest moments, she would have tapped out long before had it not just been for her little daughter,

my niece, Caylen. But the greeterers get it, and they make her smile, and they make you feel like you matter and you're here today and I love you, and they bring her in and they take my niece to our ekids ministry, And my sister's world is spinning out of control and the only thing she has is her daughter, and she's gonna trust her to your hands. Man, you better speak in full sentences, You better have all your teeth. You better get down on a knee and look that

little girl in the eye, say God loves you. You are so beautiful. Because if you don't do that, my sister, whose life is spinning out of control. She's gonna feel like, how can I trust her to you? And if she brings her into the auditorium, her focus is on her daughter, not on the gospel. And we're not gonna let that happen. But we're not just baby seating and he kids. No, we're hiding the word of God, which will produce a

harvest one day. And I leave that little girl sitting in the back seat, preaching the sermon, singing the arms. Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. So she leaves her daughter and he kids, and then she meets one of her ushers that gets the privilege to walk my sister to a seat where her life is going to be changed. And the worship begins, and she starts to tear up because I don't even know what is going on inside of me, but something's happening.

Because you are created in the image of God. There is an indelible mark that He has left on your heart that is always pulling you back to the Father. She cannot describe it, but she cannot stop it, and it's expressing itself through tears, and she's like, oh, could it be that there's something better. And then the gospel's preached, and Pastor Stephen gets up here and he stands here and he declaes declares, where's Jesus Christ, crucified, died, buried

and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins? And my sister at the says, could it be? That's what I've been looking for my whole life. And if my sister's coming to church, that's what I want her one day experience to be. Like my sister Luanne, who is it for you in that line? Make it personal? Some of you this church, you're treating it too casually because you have not made it personal for you. It's a game changer today because this is the day you make it personal

and you make it be about a person. If the extent of my faith is only about me and what I get, I have got a shallow faith, and shallow values will lead to empty victories. Today is to day that we can dig for something deeper and mountain. Make it be about us. But who is it who's in your line? Because for some woman here, it's her husband who's at home today. For some dabt it's their daughter that you've got in a fight four years ago, and

unforgiveness fractured the relationship. Who is it for you? What would it look like if you were to dive develop a persistence its God. I don't know when it's going to happen, but I believe it will happen. That's one day. That's why we started this ministry for that. And as we started going through this ministry, my wife and I realized we cannot expect new blessings off of old sacrifices. I can't just live off of a house that was sold twelve years ago. I've got to bring a present

day sacrifice today. So my wife and I come to twenty thirteen end of your Giving series. That year was called Banner Years, and my wife and I said, we are going to give specifically to my sister Luanne and her family. And at the end of year, we wrote down the word restoration and we gave the biggest gift we have given. See, sacrifice is never about size. It's always about significance. Because if I were to tell you the size, some of you be like, that's a lot.

Some of you would say that's a little. It's never about the amount, It's about the sacrifice. That it represents. God is not calling us to equal amounts, but He is calling us to equal sacrifices. And I want to challenge you this year to sacrifice in such a way that you show your faith. Now just talk about it. I'm talking you live your faith that kind of faith. And we saw God move in my sister's family and God had restored that marriage and He is restoring that family.

Look at what God is doing, not just thirteen years ago, but today. Then the next year comes along the year after that, and our surround was the series we were in that year, and then we wrote down the word salvation. This is actually the word. This is my handwriting. Because we were able to convince Lewann and John and Caln to come to North Carolina for Carolina Christmas. And the person I've been teaching about for a decade that I didn't think would ever come to Elevation Church game whoa.

And in that moment I got a chance to see my niece Caaylen give her life to Christ, my brother in law John give his lafe to Christ, and my sister Luanne give her a lafe to Christ. Won't God do it? And as I was reading Acts chapter three, getting ready for today, said God, sid you don't understand the whole story because you didn't read the previous chapters. And God took me back to Acts chapter two and

Acts chapter two. It said, everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together, they had had everything in common. They sold their property and possessions and gave to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God

and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. This is an ordinary day the first century Church, in the Book of Acts, an ordinary day is when they're gathering together, they're worshiping their sacrificing and their gift, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. It was an ordinary day for them to

see people come to faith in Jesus. And did you know that at Melbourne, one of our seventeen locations, on an ordinary weekend, at one of our ordinary campuses last week Melbourne. You had twenty eight people make decisions for Christ last week at an ordinary weekend at an ordinary campus. Look what God can do when ordinary people make a one day their lifestyle. So I got it, oh, Act

chapter three. This Beggar being Healed began in Acts chapter two cause for Peter and John, this is what we do, this is who we are, this is our ordinary faith. As they walk into Act chapter three, their ordinary one day, God's at move I'm living my life for His glory. Their ordinary encountered, this beggar's ordinary. The one day encountered is just another day which I'm asking which one are you?

Are you Peter and John? Are you the beggar? And when this ordinary collided with that ordinary, an extraordinary God showed up on the scene. Because the lesser must submit to the greater, and the greater glory that is in those people caused that to submit, and that man's life was changed. It's been the story of our church since we started, not just with those original eight families, but countless individuals who have jumped in and been a part

of this, like John and Rodney Mullens right here. They showed up in two thousand and sixties to get their adult daughter at church. They said this is weird, but they said, this is ordinary, and they've been here ever since, serving in sacrificing people like Adam and Anita Bright build up at a Roanoke location. They started coming to the Ronot campus in twenty fourteen. During the Surround series. He

lost his job and they were pregnant. He received a severance which they planned to live on for the next few months and prepared for the baby to come. But they felt God called them to give the whole severance at the year end offering, and they weren't. Wrote down the word trust. It didn't make sense, but they obeyed. Let me read that again. It didn't make sense, but they obeyed. That's ordinary faith God. I don't have to understand it to obey it. I'm just gonna do it.

Within two weeks, Adam got a phone call and has offered a better job, more pay, sustainable job, less travel, so we can be ten with his family. Lew and Kiera Torres at a Raleigh location. The Torres family joined the Raleigh campus twenty fifteen. For the past four years, they've been trying to have a baby, unable to conceive last year during Waymaker, they gave sacrificially and wrote the word baby on their card with the belief that God

was going to bring a baby their way. A little over two months ago, baby boy David was born to this wonderful family. Won't God do it? Ordinary people having an ordinary faith? Bobby and Carla Sweeney at our Winston Salem Campus. Bobby and Carla were part of launching the Winston Salem Campus in twenty seventeen. Their adult daughter, Stephanie

has spina bifida. Been a long hard journey caring for her through the mounting medical struggles through another adult daughter, Tree, struggle with crippling postpartum depression over the past couple of years. They gave sacrificially during Waymaker, and they claimed the word trust after trusting God through so many hard times with their families. Saw the fruit of their faith when their daughter Tree was baptized this past August. Won't God do it?

Won't God do it? I don't give to get. God's not a celestial vending machine that I popped in a couple quarters of push a blessing. Heck, no, I give because every time I give, it creates more space for Him to occupy. God wants to be so consumed in your life. He wants to have all of you, the good parts, the bad parts, the parts you want and the parts you don't. That's why we give, because He is worth it and the Gospel commands it. We just don't want to have a faith. I believe for it,

we want to live for it. And so when I wrote those names down, my brother Lay he's not yet come to faith. My dad, he's not yet come to faith. He's in a retirement home and he's got severe dimension. I saw him a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm like, God, how do I share the faith with him? And he doesn't even know who I am. I still believe God is sovereign. I don't know how, But I also believe God is sovereign, and I have a responsibility.

My responsibility is to keep sacrificing. God's responsibility is to keep saving, and I'm going to trust that He's going to do it even when it can make sense. So one day isn't just for the stories that have happened. One day is for the things that are waiting to be written. That's why I give, don't give up. Somebody needs you. And what I didn't realize is when I wrote that blank line down, I didn't know what would encompass all of you. I didn't know what encompass all

of the people in Raley or Morrisville, Gaston. I also didn't know what encompassed my family. This last Easter, I got a text from one of her e Kids directors saying, your daughter, Dalen, she wants to give her life to Jesus. So I sprinted across the building. I huffed and puffed the whole way there, but I got there, and my wife and I got a chance to lead our ten year old daughter and a prayer to give her life to Jesus this past Easter. I didn't know that when

I signed up, I didn't know that. And so this past Easter, when I called my sister Luan and I said, hey, Dalen, just give her life to Jesus. We're celebrating. She said, Hey, Larry, when I come out there in August, I've been thinking about this for a while now. This is the name I wrote down more than thirteen years ago. She said, do you think you could baptize me? And then my daughter piles on and my daughter says, hey, do you

think I could get baptist with Auntie Lou? And so this about these baptisms happened a couple of weeks ago. Take a look, is this thank you? And it is my premis to baptize you in the name of the Fathers, so that people far from God will be raised to life in Christ, people like my sister, your dad, you, your mother, your friends, your co workers, ordinary people. But you stand your feet at all of our locations. And Peter and John stepped out of Acts chapter three an

ordinary day. In the Acts chapter four, the next chapter that's waiting to be written, they've been arrested at this point, put on trial for their faith, and they're taking before the religious leaders in the Acts four thirteen and says this. It says, when they saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men. They were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus ordinary an ordinary day, ordinary people living an ordinary

life in the hands of an extraordinary God. Because the word ordinary there if in the original language, it's actually pronounced idiotas yep. If you feel ordinary, you are perfectly positioned to be used by God. He's not looking for the religious elite. He's not looking for those that prove their worth by how much biblical acumen they have. He's looking for ordinary people to step into ordinary situations and

declare an extraordinary God. And it says they could tell that these men had been with Jesus, not just because of the testimony of their mouth, but the evidence of their life. Faith is a language towards it, but it's also a lifestyle that believes towards it. That's what God wants us to do, is to walk out of here into the next chapter, but to have a one day mentality, says God. With you, all things are possible. And we serve a savior, a great God who was in heaven glorious.

But he said, I'm gonna come down as an ordinary man, take on ordinary flesh, live in an ordinary city, do ordinary things. As he walked through his life in ordinary flesh, an ordinary day with Jesus, blind people, seeing the deaf, hearing an ordinary day with Jesus is miraculous. And then he crawled upon to an ordinary cross, a cross that was killed, used to kill ordinary convicts. And he was numbered with us. And if I measure my sacrifice against

what Jesus did on the cross. It looks insignificant, but God is looking at you, say, whatever you bring me, that's significant because the significance of my life is always tied to my sacrifice. When you walk into your job tomorrow, well they know that you've been with Jesus. You go back into that classroom, put up with those little blessed souls, and you go to work with all those just wonderful people. Are they going to know that you've been with Jesus.

Faith doesn't mean you don't doubt. It just means that there's a game changer you go back to. Well, I hope you enjoyed the podcast today, and if you did, there are just a couple things I'd love for you to do. Number One, subscribe to our show. That way, the most recent episode will always be in your feed,

waiting for you ready when you are. And Secondly, if this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue to reach others, you can click the link in the description and you can give now and I'll see you next time on the Elevation Podcast.