Come To Your Senses (Tim Somers)

and honor our pastors. How many of you have ever heard the parable of the sewer? Anyone ever heard this? Right? When the farmer throws the seed, he throws it on like four different areas. Right, You've got the rocky place, the thorny place, the shallow place. But then there's that good soil where that sea takes root and then it multiplies one hundredfold. How many you know that you've got a good soil church and a good soil pastor. Hey, you can find a leader anywhere. You can find a

leader anywhere. There's millions of leaders. But you know what's incredible about our pastors? Is they are incredible stewards. Incredible stewards, and so can we give it up for our pastors, Pastor Steven, Pastor Holly, the entire family, Grandma life Abby, we love you. I believe that this is the greatest move of God in our generation. I wholeheartedly believe that. I say that without a doubt. Okay, so look at your neighbor and say I believe that too. Even if

you don't, you're gonna say it. Even if you don't, you're gonna say it. You could take a seat. I wanted to show you my family real quick because I know a lot of you haven't been backed since COVID, so you don't even know who I am. And so that's totally fine. I want you to put my beautiful family out there real quick. Okay, let's look at this. You see the big the big man, No, not me, the other one. That's my fifteen year old son. Yeah. I know what you're thinking. Wow, he has a fifteen

year old son. He does not look that old, thank you. That's Brodie. And he is bigger than me. Like he's not as tall as me, but he's got more muscle mass than me. And so pray for me because my ego has been shot for two years. And then you see the one with the smoke face. That's Genesis, our five year old. And imagine everyone's energy combined in this room. He has more than that and he's not saved. I'm serious, like Journey, I'm for real. Thank you God for you kids, volunteers.

I'm just praying one day to get that text. And then my littlest one, Laney Dior Klein. I tell you his full name because it means small golden servant and he's the only one with blonde hair. I didn't even know it. I didn't even know that's what it meant, but that's exactly what it means, small gold And so that's my that's my little guy. And then my beautiful wife, Rebecca, and she really is so beautiful, and she she's our online campus pastor. She she works here as well, so

we carry that mantle together. But you know what's really amazing. You know, she does a lot of cool stuff. She really does. She's she's brilliant, she's bright, she's phenomenal. She does she goes above and beyond. But just put that picture up there real quick. Nice, there goes the most incredible thing is how she has brought to life those three boys right there, and she said, let's do it again. And so we're having our first girl in September. Are you seriousss? I gotta go. I don't know how, but

it worked. I was like, Oh my goodness, it's just gonna be boys. Just a bunch of deodorant and that's it. That's all we need. We got our first girl, and she's due September fifteenth. And so people keep asking me, are you done? And I keep saying, we'll pray about it. So praying about it, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. How many of you ready for the word? All right, you're ready for the word. Good, You're ready,

You're ready. I'm ready for the word. Really believe that God wants to speak to you today, Acts twelve, Acts twelve. And if you brought your bibles, make sure you open it up. If not, we were thinking about you all week. We were praying for you. We love you. We got it prepared ready for you on the screens. Acts twelve, Verse one. This is what it says. It says it was about this time the King Herod arrested some who

belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword, and when he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter. Also, they reminds you something real quick, everyone. Most times the need of approval for men proceeds bad intentions. We only two verses in homies and we learning something. Okay. This happened during

the Festival of unlevin Brannon. After arresting it, he put him in prison, handing him over to the garden by four squads of four soldiers. If you know how to do math four times four, it is And Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the passover. So Peter was kept in prison. But the church, everyone say, but the church, remember when Pastor preached on but God. I'll tell your neighbors, say, you gotta roll to play in this too. You gotta roll to play in this too.

But the church was earnestly praying to God for him. And the night before Herod was to bring in the trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and centuries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly, the Angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up, and he said, quick, get up. Look at that. A light, an alarm clock, and a swift kick to the kidneys.

That's how you wake up a teenager. The Bible's got everything. Okay, I saw it in the Bible, sweetheart, this is what you're supposed to do. He said, quick, get up, and the chains fell off of Peter's wrist. Then the angel said to him, put on your clothing sandals, and Peter did so. Wrap your cloak around you and follow me, the angel told him, and Peter followed him out of the prison. But he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was

seeing a vision. Let me stop right there, because sometimes you are free before you even know it. He was freed. He went through a prep season. He went through the journey. And some of you might be looking at the situation that you're in right now and you're thinking, ah, God's got me in a prep season. I'm here to remind you he's also got you in a free season. You're

in a free season. So they passed the first of second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city had opened for them by hisself, and they went through it. And when they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people

were hoping would happen verse twelve. When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door, and when she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, Peter is at the door last two verses. You're out of your mind, they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so,

they said it must be his angel. But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. I've heard so many preachers preach on that verse right there. Verse sixteen, and I'm not going to do that today. I want to focus on verse eleven. This is what it says in verse eleven, Then Peter came to himself. I love the New Living translation. It says, then Peter came to his senses. He came to his senses.

If I were to title this, I would title it come to your senses, Come to your senses, Come to your senses. I was showing you my family earlier because I really wanted to kind of set up this story here, and I wanted you to be able to see the difference between my fifteen year old and my five year old. It's kind of self explanatory, but he is bigger than most fifteen year olds. And here's the deal. I don't know if you have boys, how many parents we have

in the house today. Okay, fantastic, you're going to relate to this. If you have always you understand that wrestling is an event in our in our home. Okay, it always happens, but it has to be an event. It has to be a big deal. So we move the ottomans out of the way, we put pillows on everything,

we lay down four blankets. I mean, it's a whole ordeal even in fact, uh, Genesis had learned has learned about Alexa, and he's like, Alexa play rock music and literally it's like the rock music, you know what I mean, Like it's just like his theme song to come out to wrestle. Now, here's the deal about Genesis. Genesis thinks that he can be brody every single time. No, I'm serious, every time he thinks he can be brody. He's got more confidence than Lebron. I don't know, I don't know.

I don't think about that beforehand. But he he's got a lot of confidence. Okay, he's very arrogant, but it's cute right now. You know, like when does that grow? When you grow out of that? I don't know, but he's cute. And here's they He's got a lot of comments and he thinks he could be brody every single time. And we have a rule in the house that if you hurt Genesis, you then have to wrestle Dad. That's just a rule. It's just a rule. Okay, just a rule.

But they wrestle all the time. Well after every time they wrestle, tell me if I'm lying. After every time and the wrestle Brody never lets him win ever. I mean, it doesn't matter. He will always take the win. Okay, it's okay. He's fifteen, right, he's going through his you know, hormones and egos and all that kind of stuff. He's learning about pride. It's fine, but he would never let him win. He ain't gonna let him get a win whatsoever. And and and one day my Genesis came up to me.

He's like, Dad, Prunin never lets you win. He not relaxing you. And I can never get a win Dad. And I'm like, I'm like teaching my son. I'm like, look he's got long hair pull it. I'm like, look he's so proud of his leg. Hair pull it. You do whatever you gotta do to win. I'm not kidding you do I do this, baby, I swear I do. I'm like, on this guy's side, I just want him to win, you know. But I like when they wrestle because it toughens him up. Okay, it toughens him up.

It's it's fine, uh to me. And and and in one day Genesis comes down his dad Brody hurt my elbow, and I went, well, we know we have a rule for that. Don't we. He goes, yeah, what's the rule Dad that I guess it's time for me to wrestle Brody. He's like, Browdy, you gotta wrestle Dad. Brody comes down, you know, like he's like, all right, let's do this. You know, he's like, I've been waiting for this. I'm like, yo, okay. Twenty seconds later had him tapping out. Now I'm not

here to boast about any of that. I'm thirty two, he's fifteen. You know. It's not like he's bigger than me or anything like that. We'll move on past that. But it was funny because afterwards it kind of hit his pride a little bit. You know what I'm saying, like hit his pride. He like, I look tall, but I'm look scrawny. Okay, I know I'm lanky, all right. I know I'm like KD okay, And I get it. I get it, and it's and it's fine. But you see, Brody underestimates this thing. And I like to call it

the sixth sense. It's that dad's strength, you know what I'm saying, Like, when you become a dad, it's like, yeah, nothing can stop me. Like watch boy, Well, I don't care. Twenty seconds, I have your boom. How do you like that? He's like, Dad, I got it. Okay, okay, I'm tapping. I'm tapping. I said, no, you're not. You're talking. You ain't tapping. Tapping down, I tapping. And I looked at him and and something that Brody always says to Genesis.

It's like, hey, Bud, you can't win them all. So man, I was ready. You thought that getting him the top out was a big deal for me. I was like, no, hey, Brody. He's like what Dad. He wasn't crying, but he's like, yeah, was up. I said, hey, you can't win them all, big dog. I thought that was a great moment. And then Genesis comes up. He's like, hey, Brody, I guess you just gotta roll with the punches. I was like, what row with the Like? I thought to myself, man,

that's so true. You never know what life's gonna hand you, right, and sometimes you just got to learn how to roll with the punches. Have you ever heard this phrase before? Your parents? Ever tell you this? But like, yeah, I didn't make the team, Like, yeah, man, I know, just gotta roll with the punches, right, You just gotta roll with the punches. Have you ever been in a season, Well, you feel like all you're doing is rolling with the punches.

I'm like, I'm done getting punched. I'm not floyme Weather, i ain't illt for this, you know what I'm saying? Right, Or maybe you feel like you're in the season that you just can never get a win at all. You feel like Genesis, I just can't get a win? Can I just get a win today? I feel for my guy Peter in this passage, in fact, in every passage when I read about Peter, Peter is I mean he is learning something every single time. Like literally the passages

are littered with teaching moments. Right, You've got him learning how to walk on water from the place of drowning. Right, he denies Christ not once, not twice, but three times. Right, and now in this passage you see him seized, you see him arrested, You see his friend James die, you see him put it be put into prison, you see him guarded by sixteen soldiers, and now you see him about to be put on trial. This is a big

This is a this is a big deal. And you're saying, how does this relate to me, Well, I don't know. Maybe you're going through your second divorce. Maybe for you, you're dealing with this addiction for the last ten years that you thought you would never still be dealing with. Maybe you're walking in every Friday and you'll have been paycheck to paycheck to paycheck to paycheck, and you thought, man, I thought this was gonna be over. When when are we When are we gonna get to the other side?

When is it gonna get better? Have you ever been there before? Have you ever asked questions like this, like, God, what's happening? I feel like I can't win at all? And I'm just rolling with the punches and I'm looking at Peter and I'm like, man, there's some things that we can learn from Peter. Because Peter had a lot of teaching moments. He went through a lot of stuff. But you know what, you know how good this man was at rolling with the punches. This is a this

is a this is a big deal. Because Peter's got doubts, he's got questions, he's got confusion. Have you ever had doubts? Have you ever had questions? Have you ever been confused? But Peter's so good at rolling with the punches. So how do I begin to roll with the punches? Do I have what it takes? Can I go through this? Again? Is what I need? Actually inside me? Here's what I believe that Verse five. Everyone'll say five. Verse five is a great starting point and it would be considered my

first point. Okay, if you want to be able to roll with the punches, you have to remember the church. Remember the church. Verse five. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. This is important because he's he's intensely seeking after God's the last time that you intensely sought after God? Was it two minutes ago? Or did you miss it? When's

the last time that you intensely sought after God? This is why I got into youth ministry, and this is why I love youth ministry because we are teaching teenagers how to earnestly seek after God at a young age, right, so that when life goes and punches, they can go back to the positive influences, the positive experiences that have happened in their life and go, you know what, I'm

prepared for this. I'm ready for this. So we're creating those moments and shameless plug right here for real, Like, if your kid is not going to youth X, what are you doing? Right? Like youth X this is our summer camp. If you don't know anything about a July thirteenth through the fifteenth, it's two hundred dollars. But we got financial aid available and literally this entire room we will have two thousand teenagers earnestly seeking after God. So

go to youth X twenty two our common register. But here's the deal. For real, I will I will have parents come up to me and they're like, well, I'm gonna let my kid decide if they want to go. And I'm like, okay, would you let your kid walk in the highway with the blindfold on? No? So why do we keep our kids till eighteen but we stop

parenting them at fifteen? Why do we do this? Now? Look? Look, look, I'm fairly new at the parenting thing, so so I want you to understand, like I'm learning even right now on how to help them make their decisions right. But here's what I'm gonna let you know. I'm gonna make it easy for you. Just say it's my fault, Just say it's my fault. Well, youth pastor Tim told me to sign you up for camp. He's your youth pastor, he's my youth pastor, So I gotta do it. Just

do it. We're on the same team. Let's rocket take them over, tag team. We know how to do this. We make it so hard, right, I think it's I think it's a maz A couple thousand teenagers will earnestly seek God and we'll be able to watch it right there in July, and and and and and you know what's wild? Why do we do it because it's important? Why Why do we do it because it's vital? Why do we do it? Because the church is the bride of Christ. And if you say you love Jesus, you

can't hate the church. The church is the community. Everyone say we are the church. Ultimately, my shameless pup plug is reminding you that you have to remember the church. The truth of the matter is we will forget the importance of the church and try to use it like jewelry and not like oxygen, only just to enhance our life, when the reality is that the Church was meant to be life. It was meant to be life. Man can

I be honest with you. For some of you, church used to be a lifestyle and then the punch of COVID can and you've ventured your way out of serving, You've walked your way out of groups, and you roll yourself out of bed maybe one time a month instead of four times in a month. Let me tell you something. If we forget the power of the church, woo. You think we in trouble now, oh we're gonna be a big trouble. Then this is this is important because we

gotta be careful. That's the opposite of earnestly seeking after God. And you can't get upset with me because this is what I believe. You know what I mean, like like look like like like if you're not vocal about it and it ain't visible, then it ain't a value. Then it ain't a value. You're saying our kids, Yeah, church is a value. Well, mam, why we only go once every six weeks? I'm just saying, right, And here's the deal. I get it. I understand. Like if I said, Joe,

you know you are on staff, I'm like, yeah. But there's sometimes where Epham just feels like, yes, this is what I want to be today, right, And I lived ten minutes away, and I'm like, well, maybe right. I'm not here to shame you. I'm here to let you know that. Look, I'm very new at this trying to make decisions where he's trying to make help your teenagers make decisions for them. But what you've got to understand is you cannot forget the power of the church. That's

why it says remember the church. Because when you look at verse twelve, after Peter gets out of prison, but where's the first place that he goes? He goes to Mary's house. It is said that the church was meeting at Mary's house and it was midnight. That means it was like eagre time or summer camp. You know, I don't know if any he grews meet at midnight, I'd be weird. Right, Like he remembered, he knew the church was praying for me. And the first thing that he

does goes to the church. He had remembered the church, which leads me to my second point. If you want to roll with the punches, you got to remember the church.

And number two, you got to remember your humanity. So if we all need the first point the church, we all have the second point, our humanity, right, our humanity, It says in verse seven, Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared in a light shone in the cell, and he struck Peter on the side and woke him up, quick, get up, and the chains fell off of his wrist. What would you be thinking in that moment? That's wild? Right?

Then the angel said to him, put on your clothing sandals, and Peter did so, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And Peter followed him out of the prison. That's crazy, right, I'd have some questions. But he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. See, he's confused. Then it goes on to say he thought he was seeing a vision. Nope, wasn't a vision. He's confused, he's got some doubt. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the

city open for them by itself myself. He's confused, he's wondering, how is this all happening? And when they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Right, do you have some questions at this point if you are Peter in this story, right, like the amount of questions, the amount of anxiety, the amount of doubt, the amount of worry, and maybe even the amount of pause had to feel make Peter feel that he was out of control.

And I look at this passage and I'm like, why can't I get a step by step playbook on life? You know what I'm saying. I'm like, what the heck? It's like Pastor Holly talked about last week, but the whole you know, heaven out, you know what I mean? Why can't I get a step by step playbook on what? This looks like? I can't get out of a parking violation, but this homie's getting a first class ride out of prison. You know, like, this is wild to me, right, But

he's got questions, He's got questions. You know what's interesting is that angels will do things for people that people can't do for themselves. Okay, you don't believe me based off of that clap, all right? The angel made Peter's chains fall off, but he told Peter to put his clothes and sandals on all by himself. The angel led Peter through the locked doors, past the vigil and guards, and through an iron gate, but he still expected Peter

to walk on his own two feet. The angel took Peter down one street only and then let them alone to use his own wits. Don't expect angels to do for you what you can do for yourself. You can't, right, Jesus raised Lazarus for only he could do that, and then he said, all you other people, you got loose him and let him go. Jesus gave life to Gyrus's daughter, and then he said, now give her something to eat. Right, this is very very important for us to understand this passage.

And I want you to see yourself in Peter. He had all the same questions, all the same doubts, all the same worries, all the same confusion. And Peter got it wrong. He got it wrong, he got it wrong. If the Bible was written now, it might be saying that Peter failed, he got it wrong. This is interesting to me because in the Christian life, a lot of times we think we can't fail, we can't get it wrong. Well, when I read about Peter, homie got it wrong. He

thought he was seeing a vision. No, it's a miracle, right, it's a miracle. And then verse eleven comes around and says, then Peter came to himself and said, now I know without a doubt. And we'll say without a doubt. Can you think of a time when you experience without a doubt? Think about it without a doubt? Right, that's a different kind of statement. And this is what you have to remember. Reflection discovers more of Heaven and of God and the great moments of our lives than what was visible to

us while we were actually living through them. I'm gonna say it again. Reflection discovers more of Heaven and of God and the great moments of our lives than what was visible to us while we were actually living through them. You know what without a doubt can mean with faith, with faith, or with full assurance of faith if you don't believe me Hebrews eleven one. Faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance of things unseen,

aka without a doubt, Because doubt deals with you. That's why the letter used in the middle of it. Faith deals with the great I am right. This is interesting because the question isn't can you live without a doubt? No, we already know that because Peter said so. He said, now I know without a doubt. So you can live like that now, I know without a doubt. The question is do you know how to identify without a doubt? Huh? Do you not identify it without a doubt? Okay, let's

try this. If everyone in the room, everyone watching online, if you can and if it's safe, and if you're capable and you're comfortable, can can you just stand up? It's crazy how long it takes y'all to do that. Like, it's fine. I'm not just getting crazy, Like wow, okay, okay, you ready? Are you ready? Okay? Take a seat? Did you feel it? Did you? Did you? Did you feel it? Did you? Did you? Did you see it? Not for one second? Did you think that that chair wasn't going

to hold you up? Not for one second? Did you think I don't know if I should sit here? Uh? I don't know if it's gonna hold me up here? Now you're like, take a seat. What is this youth pastor doing? And you took a seat. Not for one second did you worry about it? If that chair is gonna hold you and you believe that without a doubt and with full assurance of faith, yep, this chair gonna

howe me? Well, then why don't we look at the creator of the universe in the middle of our dark times, in the middle of our valley, and we start questioning him, like God, why am I here? Why did you choose me? Why did I have to go through this? What the how is this gonna happen? Look, it's not about strong faith or weak faith. It's not about which one's better than the other. You all have faith, you just might

be putting it in the wrong things. Because the reality chunks is that look at me without a doubt only happens in hindsight. No, that's good, that's from the Lord, not me without a doubt only happens in hindsight. Look at the passage. Look at the passage. Right. This is interesting because it says in verse twelve, he goes to the house of Mary. And this only happens because he came to himself, because he came to his senses, right, because he had looked back at all the things that

had happened. Right, he looked at the moment that had already passed, all the doubt in the confusion, and all that because he then him looking back, he knew now without a doubt, after all the confusion, right, Like Hindsight's twenty twenty. I'm sorry, I scared all its twenty twenty two. Don't worry, It's okay. Woh, whiplast just happened. He's like, twenty tony, what do you say? What? I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back. God,

why can I get away? Right? But when you look back at COVID, there's so many things that you can look back and go. Man, if God can get me out of that, he gonna take care of me no matter what happens. Now, Hindsight is twenty twenty. I title this message come to your senses, and I want you to put that title real quick, and I want you to. I want to let you know that I didn't they got they got it. They misspelled it. Do you see the misspelling? Do you see it? Do you see what

I see? No? No, okay, it's supposed to be come to your senses. There it is. Since the angel came to prison, Peter knew, since the chains fell off my wrists, Peter Peter knew, since everyone say, since since he brought me out of prison. Now God can do. Since God healed my sickness, Since God resurrected my marriage. Since God protected me during COVID, since God healed me, since God graced me for this, I know that no matter what comes my way, God pass me under his hand. Wooh,

you gotta come to your senses. You gotta look back. Woo, you gotta come to your senses. I want to remind you your doubts are not a disqualification of your faith. They're not. Verse sixteen. It says, but Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. I'll end with this and the band can start to come out. This leads me to my final point. If you want to learn how to roll with the punches like Peter did, you got to remember the church.

You got to remember your humanity, and the final one you have to remember to keep going. It says, but Peter kept on knocking, Right, Peter kept on knocking on the door even after Rhoda had answered and then left him. Loki dipped on this dude, Right, He kept on knocking when she was getting told she was out of her mind. He kept on knocking when they insisted he was dead and had it had to have been an angel, right, This was easy compared to everything else that Peter had

been going through. What was a little more knocking at midnight and praying and hoping that there was church people in that one house you just so happened to go to side. Note everything starts aligning with the Holy Spirit when you operate in full assurance and without a doubt, it starts to make a lo more sense. I didn't think it was going to happen this way exactly. Let's call without a doubt. That's called with full assurance of faith.

Let me give you a disclaimer here. Several times the Bible says that belief is an essential step in receiving a positive answer to prayer. It says in Matthew twenty one to twenty two Jesus told the disciples, and whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. Now, this doesn't mean that we can receive anything we want if we were only to have enough faith, because first John five point fourteen also says we also must pray according to God's will. So in this case, in this passage,

Peter's release is in God's plan. That new Tesla might not be in your new plan. Private school might not be the new plan. It might not be in God's plan for your life. That promotion might not be. It might not be for you. But I think it's interesting because even the church who was in Mary's house had doubts until they kept going to the gate. Remember to keep going, just like Peter kept knocking. The church had to keep going while they were praying in Mary's house

to the gate. This wasn't like the front door, it says the outer entrance. So they walking outside in Camel's stuff. That's do do Cam? Well? Do? Okay, it's nasty, right. They had to keep going. Look at your neighbor and say, keep going, keep going, because your doubts ensure that God gets the credit and glory in the end. Isn't it crazy that the church thought it was Peter's angel that was knocking on the door. They thought he had died and thought it was Peter's angel that was knocking on

the door. If we're not careful, we'll believe stuffdn't even crazier just to not give God the glory? Do what I find A lot of people do. I do it. I'm like, oh my goodness, this has happened. My wife's like, no, that's that's not right, that's not it. I'm so grateful for my wife because six years ago we were living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and we had just been married for four months, and we loved the church that we were at. We loved the pastors there, loved the city,

loved the people. We thought we'd be there for a whole decade, no joke, seriously. And then Elevation Church opened up their doors for their very first time, and the thing called inside Elevation and this is the first time that as like ministry, you could like go there and like learn about all the amazingness of Elevation Church, right, And I remember, I'm getting eight tickets. Little did I know that eight means new beginnings. But I got eight tickets.

I don't even know why. We didn't have a team like eight tickets, don't get them. And we get the eight tickets. We drive up. The moment we stepped foot on the Lake Norman campus, I knew, oh gosh, this is where we're supposed to plan our family. This is where we're supposed to be. And I might never do full time ministry again. If I work at Lows, I'll be a manager, not like lower level. I'll be a manager. I'll be I'll be a manager. And I'm okay with that.

I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. I don't know what mo wife thinks, you know, like, oh my goodness. We drive home. I get We get home, and it's a twenty six hour drive by the way for a twenty four hour event. And I'm not saying it was smart. I'm just saying senior airline prices. Oh my god. I remember getting I remember getting home and I said, Babe, I got to tell you something, but don't say anything until I'm done. For the next ninety minutes. I began

to download everything that God had downloaded to me. After the ninety minutes was done, it's dark in our room, you know, We're just laying in the bed, and she goes, I said, woman, I'm sorry, let me start over. Babe. Why are you giggling? Why are you giggling? I just shared my whole heart. She goes, That's exactly what God told me, is it really? She's like, yeah, So we started just continue to pray. We start telling people about it, just like our close friends and family, and I remember,

I think this is very interesting. I remember that, without a doubt, we knew this is where we were supposed to be. Without a doubt. And after telling some family members and some friends, I had one other person in my life that said this was a good idea. Everyone else told me I was stupid. Everyone else told me I was crazy. Every single person except one outside of my wife, looked at me and said, you're obliterating the

ministry you're building. Now. I remember looking at my wife and said, well, I'm glad I'm not trying to build my own ministry. I want to do what God wants to do in my life. I tell you this because the day we're about to resign, I wake up that morning, I'm alay a little nervous about to resign. It's two weeks after that moment. I reacted immediately. Okay, some of y'all, wait in two years, two weeks boom, something of y'all do with two days. Y'all need to pray a little longer.

I don't know if you should do that. Yeah, the day we were resigning, my wife comes to me right before we leave, and she goes, Babe, I need to tell you something. We're pregnant. And I did, what the worst thing that you could ever do with your life When your wife tells you that you're pregnant. I lean back on the on the tell me online, I lean back on the wall. I fell to the ground, hands on my face, and I said this, So does that

mean we're not going to North Carolina. That's why I keep having so many babies so I can make up for that. I remember telling our pastors. Two weeks later, we picked up. We moved. No job, no place to stay, no nothing, no friends, no family. We had forty three dollars in the account. I remember getting a tweet from LB. He said, hey, I heard your moving to Charlotte. Loved to take out for lunch. I said, free lunch, Okay, I'm in Loew's hasn't accepted. Don't know why, but Low's

hasn't accepted. He started to tell me everything about the church. She's like, I think you might be interested in doing this thing. And anyways, it gets to the place where I can interview and be a part of Elevation Church. And now the rest is history. I've been a part of this staff for six years and I plan to

be here for the rest of my life. I tell you that story to let you know that even though without a doubt, we knew we were supposed to be there everything afterwards, I was like, did God really say, because Walmart says I can't live off of forty three dollars? Did God really say? She just kept me back to that ninety minutes where I just downloaded everything, and she says, hey, since he told you this, we know he's going to take care of this. And since he did this, we

know he's going to take care of this. With everybody standing for these last few moments, I want you to know that some of you might be in a situation that seems bleak. It seems like you're never going to be able to get out of it. You feel like it's one hit after another. Others of you need to be like the church and go to the gate and look because something's been knocking and they're just waiting for you to open the door, so you can be astonished, so that you can be amazed, so that you can

know without a doubt that God is with you. My favorite statement of all time the pastors ever said, while I've been here for the last six years and being under his leadership, is the only way to truly fail is to quit. That's the story of Peter. He never failed. He never quit. Every single one of you in this room, congratulations. You're still here, in the midst of a doubt, in the midst of a confusion, the questions, the worry, the pause,

you are still here. What does that mean that? Since God took care of everything before, even while in the middle of it it didn't feel like it, He's going to continue to hold you up now with every head bow and every eye clothes. I want to give people the opportunity to come into a right relationship with you Christ. You are saying in this moment that without a doubt, now I know God is with me, and I want to make him the center of my life, not just

a priority, but the center of my life. We're going to ask you to pray this prayer because I believe that there are people all over the world watching online right now and in this room that are saying, you know what, I've questioned, I've worried, I've doubted, But today I remember the Church. Today I remember my humanity. I am not God, I am just human, and today I'm going to remember to keep going. I want you to pray this prayer along with me. Say, dear Jesus, I

thank you for who you are. Come into my life, make me a new creation, and I will follow you all the days of my life. I believe that you died on the cross, you rose from the grave, defeating all sin, feeding all shame, and defeating all doubt in Jesus' name. If you just pray that prayer for the very first time, or now you're saying, you know what, Nope, I'm coming back to the gate. I'm remembering right now why I gave my life to Christ years ago, and you're saying,

I'm rededicating my life. On the count of three. We want you to raise your hand and we're gonna celebrate with you. We believe it's the best decision that you could ever make with your life. One, two, three, hands going up all over the place. Come on, can you shout? Can you get excited? Come on, keep your hand up. If you just gave your life to Christ, you're saying, I make it in the sense of everything that I do. Hey, man, come on, church, let's earnestly begin to praise God who

he is. Well. If you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast so to help us reach others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast