Cutting Room

Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to see God is.

Moving in your life. Enjoy the message.

Welcome to our family all over the world, our efam, our extended family. Let's take a moment at Valentine. Clap our hands. Welcome, every location, every person watching, every family.

Hey, how you going?

Tell the kids to be quiet, Tell them you need some peace and undistracted space for God to speak. For all of you who made it out today in person, Welcome, Welcome, is.

So good to see you.

Oh big hat, A big hat to each and every one of you.

I am excited.

I would ask that you remain standing for just about ninety more seconds because I want to read my scripture and I want you alert and ready for what the Lord is going to speak from his word to you today.

How many are excited? Oh boy?

I used to when I was a rookie pastor get depressed if it was raining outside when we were coming to church, or rainy because we are kind of fair weather sometimes, and it doesn't take much to convince us not to come to church. And I used to think, oh, no, well, the people won't be there today, and then one day a switch flip for me. On the days where it's a little rainy, the people who really want to be there come and you can have some amazing, amazing experiences.

I'm talking about the holy ghosts.

When the Holy ghost gets a hold of you, there's no telling what you're liable to do. So don't be surprised today if you feel like shouting when I start preaching, or if a tear hits your eye and God speaks to you, we welcome the spirit of the Lord. I'm going to be sharing from Acts chapter four, verses twenty three through thirty one. This is a very practical message. I pray that God would surgically remove, rebuild, and insert

Three through twenty one.

And if you were here last week, you have a head start, because this is the very next thing that happens after the great miracle that we preached about last week, where I told you places everyone places everyone, And now we continue in a different place. In Acts, chapter four, verse twenty three, the Bible says, on their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said

Sovereign Lord. They said, you made.

The heavens and the earth, and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our Father David. Why do the nation's rage and the people's plot in vain the kings of the earth do rise up the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Indeed, Herod and Ponscious Pilot met together with the gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your

Decided beforehand should happen.

Now, Lord, consider their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness, stretch out your hand and heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your Holy servant Jesus. And after they prayed, Verse thirty one says the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy ghost and spoke the word of God boldly.

Let's clap our hands and thank God for his word. I want to talk to you about something today, very important.

The name of this message is this cutting room. Yeah. I want to talk to you about the place called the cutting room.

The cutting room.

Some stuff that needs to be taken out, some stuff that needs to be added back in, and it all happens in the cutting room. That's where God has had you lately. In the cutting room. You were confused about it. You thought the story was over. It's not over. You're

I claim it now in Jesus' name, and I thank you for it.

In advance. Amen, Amen, you may be seated. The cutting room. They took that term from back in the day when they were making a movie. They used to actually use razor blades and surgical instruments when they were taking the film and making it shorter, or if they were moving the order of the scenes around, and of course the director would go into the cutting room. It had to be a certain physical place. Now it's all digital. Now they've got software on the computer, like final Cut Pro.

Long, brother, you could, you could, definitely.

I never have a hard time figuring out something to say to you on Sundays. I just don't. The Bible is awesome. God is awesome, and he wants to help you, so he gives me stuff. Is what the cut that really kills me? After I preach, I don't go back usually and regret things I said. I regret things. Ah, I should have said that.

And so the.

Cutting room, it can bring clarity to a story. It can make a story move along. It can keep a character consistent. You know, you might go in the cutting room and say, you know, this is a good scene, but it really doesn't fit with the character, so we got to get it out of there the cutting room. And I think one of the most stressful things in the world would have been if you were writing a book of the Bible as a human being God's word and you had to decide what to leave in and

Today, So what do you put in? What do you leave out?

And Luke, who wrote this book is a doctor, so he's surgical, so he has to get his scissors out, you know, and make decisions about what to include, what to remove. And you could almost see him arguing with himself. And you know, I got to put that part in about when they brought Paul the handkerchiefs and people were getting healed off of Paul's handkerchiefs. That part is awesome.

The miracles are important.

I'm glad for the miracle that we read about last week. Last week we read about a man who was sitting at a gate called beautiful, and his situation was anything but He's sitting at a gate called beautiful not because he's resting, but because he's restricted, And it.

Gave us hope because he got up.

From that gate and became in himself a message that God used to teach people what.

Jesus can do.

Did you know God wants to turn your life into a message to show those who are looking at your life, how miraculous, how awesome and magnificent, how all encompassing the grace of God is. So I'm thankful that he left miracles.

In the Bible. But I'm also grateful that.

He left some mistakes in there too, the times where they didn't get it right, because the miracles give me faith, but the mistakes helped me understand grace. So if you read the whole Book of Acts, you got Peter and Paul are fighting over circumcision.

What a great church fight.

I get criticized over a lot of things, but I never saw a YouTube comment about circumcision at elevation ministries. And I will probably get one now, and that's all right, we'll block it, but YouTube might block it automatically. I got to stay on my prompt here today.

I'm glad that they left some of that stuff in. You know, the times where I don't know. One man he lied.

To the Holy Spirit and he died from it. Because that encourages me to know, like, oh, thank God that I don't have to lie to God. I can be honest, and my honest living brings more life. I'm grateful for the mistakes being left in there, because even the main characters that I read about in the Book of Acts messed up pretty bad in their past. Also, you'll see where the writer of Acts includes the message itself that was preached. So you've got miracles, you got mistakes, you got the message.

And that's where I get the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That the gospel of Jesus Christ is not come to him and buy a lottery ticket because you'll for sure win after you've received favor with God. That the message of the Gospel isn't come to him and go to heaven one day when you die. It is that by repenting and believing in Him, we can have life in

That's not a temptation. That's called traffic.

It happens to everybody, good, bad, saved tense, Skinny Tall. All of us deal with it at various stages of our life. But what we're really talking about here is, remember they did something good.

Peter and John Wright.

They see this man, they help him up, They helped him, and then, in trying to do good, trying to be helpful, instead of being rewarded for their helpfulness, they are hit for being helpful.

Have you ever felt like you got hit for trying to be helpful? You ever felt like you stepped in.

To try to say something helpful to somebody and then they just attacked you for saying it and you just thought, well, I was just trying to help and they says something back like, well, why don't you help yourself and get your own kids straight before you start telling.

Me how to parent. Mind now, maybe you needed to hear that.

I don't know, maybe that's exactly what they should have said back.

But in this case, watch this.

They are trying their best to just be helpful and they end up in jail, and not only in jail, kept overnight, but they are.

Ragged out, publicly humiliated.

In front of everybody, told that they are not allowed to speak anymore in the name of Jesus, and the Bible says they responded by saying, we must obey God rather than men. That's a good word for somebody all by itself, and it's not even my scripture for today.

But Peter and.

John said, I've got to do what God said do. I've got to do what the one who has the power to judge said to do, not the one who thinks they're a judge telling me what they think I should do. And then the Bible says that they went back, and we pick up in verse twenty three. They went back on their release to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said.

To them. Now I wonder what they share.

Because it's a little vague right here, and so Luke doesn't take the time to say and they told him this, and they told him that, and then Peter said, and I told him we must obey God rather than men. And John was like, no, I had that line. That was my line. I said we must obey God rather than men. And Peter's like, well, I'm the one who told you to say it, and I just let you

They are shaking with fear.

They are certainly, in their own way, a little bit confused because I thought God wanted us to preach, but he let us get thrown in jail. I thought we were doing what we're supposed to do, but it went backwards instead of forwards. There are great results from what

Keeping you numb.

Because those people are no longer supposed to be your support.

System, but you keep running back to them. After one am, we're.

Going to delete some stuff today. We are going to delete some scenes so you can see the good things God has prepared for you. Join me in the cutting room and we'll use three points, and I have a bonus point, but we probably won't get to it, and you'll be frustrated because I shouldn't even have told you about it if I was just going.

To cut it. The points go like this, Number one.

The review, the review, the review, write it down, the review, put it in the chat, put it in the comments, the review, the review, the review, the review, write it down. We gave you a free pin. Don't steal it, not use it. Write it down the review, the review. Number two, the reframe. That's the one I'm excited about. So don't shout much about the review, because we need to get to the.

Reframe, the reframe, the reframe.

Zoom the camera out, Zoom the why the reframe, zoom it in the reframe, Zoom the camera out, the reframe, the reframe, the reframe, not the reframe, not like refeeding it over and over again, but the reframe.

And number three is the release. The release.

It seems strange that I put that last, because the scripture started with these words verse twenty three. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people. But that was the first release, and I'm going to explain that to you in just a moment.

First, we talk about the review. The review.

Is so amazing that we get to see these characters go through horrible things because we get to bend a from their experience and glean wisdom from it. I told my wife the other day, one of my favorite things about being only slightly young.

I don't call myself.

Oh one of the one of my favorite things about this sweet spot of life that we are in right now in terms of our age.

That's how I choose to see.

It, is that I get the privilege now to go back and revisit experiences that I've had, not only for the sake of feeling the memories of them.

But one of my favorite things about my.

Forties so far is getting to go back to myself in my twenties my thirties and relive those experiences with a better perspective, with a better perspective. Say it better perspective, and now nudge your neighbor and you might make them mad, but say you need a better.

Perspective, because if you go go back, watch this to.

A previous experience with a better perspective, you can get a fresh lesson. That is a formula for spiritual growth, is that if you revisit a previous experience with a better perspective, you can glean from it, to use an agricultural term, a fresh lesson. And the fresh lesson that came from the better perspective through a revisited experience can

Once you begin this process of.

Going back over your life with God, you will never be the same. And that's what happened in Acts four twenty three. Watch this on their release? Am I not preaching good already? On my first point? I feel like I am on their release. Peter and John they got out of jail. But here's what matters. When you go to the cutting room of your life to evaluate why did that happen, what needs to happen next? What am I going to do about it? Did you hear what they said? How am I going to respond to this?

That's how much I like it.

In my reading, I discovered that for this two hour documentary, there were over sixteen hundred hours of footage captured over the course of two years.

So get this, they.

Had to take two years of footage and make it fit in two hours. That's when I realized the importance of a cutting room. Nobody he's gonna watch sixteen hundred hours. I don't care, I don't care how much of a binger you are. Nobody is going to sort through that. And if that same raw footage watch this were given to me or I dare say to you, we probably could not have produced an award winning film out of it. But the person who went in the cutting room and decided.

This scene here, this scene there, this has to set.

Up that that person, the director, the one who employed the people who technically edited it, was able to take sixteen hundred hours over the course of two years of footage, put it in one movie and edit it down to.

Tell a story that was compelling.

And while you are looking at me like, yeah, that sounds challenging, please realize you do this every day.

Every day you have twenty four hours.

Twenty four hours is one thousand, four hundred and forty minutes.

So says chat GPT.

In those fourteen one hundred and forty minutes, you experience some highs, don't you. You experience some good things, don't you. You experience some blessings, don't you. You have some bursts of insight, You feel kind of clear, you feel kind of smart, you feel kind of loving, you feel kind of joyful some minutes. But some of those remaining fourteen hundred and thirty nine minutes left over might be a little effy, and some of them might be downright horrible.

But yet, when it comes down to you coming home.

Especially if you're a teenager, and they ask you how was your day, you are able to take one thousand, four hundred and forty minutes of highs, lows, goods, bads, yeses, no's, and condense it into one barely audible word good bad, all right.

But it was much more than good bad or al right. It was some good, It was some bad. It was some alright.

And I found out that what kind of day you think you have depends on who you had helping you edit when you.

Reflect on it.

That's why the Psalmas said, this is the day the Lord has made.

I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Now, wait a minute, will is a decision about something that hasn't happened yet. So he is deciding in the Psalm that the story I want to tell at the end of this day is that God made it. Everybody say God made it. That means he's the director of it. And that means there will be some scenes in this day that I wish I could cut, and He'll say, no, leave that one in because that's the mistake that's going to teach you the grace. And there are some seeds in this day that you won't even.

Know to look for. But God will just give you a miracle.

You'll just be sitting at the gate begging for change, and God will send somebody to give you something you didn't even have the faith to ask for. And God will put that in your script in the day that you were waking up wondering, I don't know if it's gonna be a good day or a bad day. Well, I'm gonna tell you right now, it's not gonna be either kind of day. But you have some scissors. See, you have some scissors. Your scissors. I'm talking about editing. Now,

I'm doing a little, a little prepaid tuition here.

Yeah, they didn't do anything for me for Mother's Day, or the other way around, you know, like, well my mom wasn't this and that. And I want you to understand about editing from the Disciples, that you are.

Always editing and you need help.

One person, like one tenth clapped when I said that. That was not even like a quarter clap. It was a ten percent clap from one person. But the truth of the matter is you need help editing because every time time you make an overgeneralized statement. And imagine the statement that the Disciples could have made here. They could have said this is unfair, and they would have been right. They could have said, we have God's favor and they

The author is God.

So they understand in this moment, we have got to get into a place where we can process. Everybody say, process your process a lot of times, and how you deal with the thing that just happened to you is more important than the thing that happened to you. You can have the best thing happened to you, but it can become a.

Backfire if you process it without God. Because if you get a promotion and it turns into.

Pride, the pride comes before a fall.

So you'll go back and say, if I had given God more glory for what he did and leaned into him more than he could have sustained what he started, but I got high and thought I got there without God, and then life had.

To pull me down because I got pride for what.

I got high. Because any process that does not start with God is doomed. Any process that does not start with God is dead in the water. And that is why that is why they came together in this place to pray, and.

That is why they reported they told us not to preach anymore. What's the enemy been telling you.

He's been telling you you're not good enough to do this.

He's been telling.

You you've run out of time and it's too late for you in your life. He's been telling you you will never be free of this thing. Maybe that thing, not this thing. It's just what you're gonna pass down to your kids. You did the best you could, but give up now.

There's no need even try. What has your enemy been telling you?

I think we need to take the enemies words over your life to the cutting room. Stop saying I'm in a bad season. You are in a season, and some days are good and some days are bad. Sixteen hundred hours a footage into two.

Hours, eleven hundred and eighty nine.

Chapters in the Bible, and we get this entire prayer that they prayed, and we're going to look at it right now because it is going to help you edit now. There will always be somebody to help you edit what happens.

To you in your life. When you start going through.

Your life and say, okay, what am I going to do in this decision?

How am I going to respond to this? You will always have help.

The devil will always be there to help you, because he has scissors too.

The devil will be there to take out.

Every kind thing, every good thing, every lovely thing, every generous thing. He might even cut away some of the good stuff that you did to make you feel like you never do anything right, you ever had a good day with your kids, And then the last thirty minutes.

The cutting room. I'm not talking about film editing right now.

I'm talking about knives and violence and cutting room and blood and shouting and cursing a whole good vacation and then thirty minutes from the house, and then you start thinking.

All the things I did for you.

Maybe this is just parental therapy right now, and maybe I should be paying somebody for this time.

But I noticed how sometimes the whole thing can go so good.

And then something happens so bad, And when I lay me down to sleep, it's like the devil.

Wants to turn my bed into a.

Cutting room and just start slicing me with all the stuff that went wrong today, and just start slicing me with all of the ways that I failed, and start slicing me. And somewhere along the line, I have to stop the slicing and tell the devil.

You are not here to help me edit.

Get under my feet, I said, get under my feet.

You're not the director, you're not the author. You are not financing this screenplay.

You didn't make me, you didn't create me, you didn't die for me, and.

You don't get to drive me crazy.

Get your scissors out my spirits, Get your scissors out this room, Get your scissors out my mind.

Oh I am so so so.

I need help. Somebody's yeah, I need help. So much is coming at me. I can't figure out what to focus on. I need help. So much is coming and going. I'm confused so much. As being said, I don't know what's important. So many priorities are pulling at me. I need help. And just like the devil wants to help you at it, so does heaven. So does Heaven. So does the Holy Spirit. You thought the Holy Spirit was just a goose bump. You thought the Holy Spirit was

He could say the hell on a bozuka and abdo hold on. That's all good too, And we get all of it, and we do all of it, and we want all of it.

But what about when the Holy Spirit brings some scissors? Yeah, is surgical with the enemy.

Now, I can't I can't cut out what happened.

But I can refuse to make it the definition of my identity.

Hear me, I must.

Say it again, because I don't think you heard it, or you would to shout it.

It is not the definition of your identity. It is not.

So so so so we talked about the review, and the fact of the matter is some of the things that we say about experience are just not true. We will say to people, oh, well, I'm sorry you're going through something right now, but don't you know.

We grow through what we go through. No, we don't, not automatically. Not automatically.

If that were true, why did you go through it fifteen nine and sixty three times last month?

Grow through what you go through?

Sometimes you go through something and then you create something else to go through to keep you distracted from what you went through that you've been going through for the left last thirty seven years.

Don't lie to me you grew through it, you'd be through with it. Here is what is true.

While we do not automatically grow through what we go through, we grow through what we go over with God. That's the process of review of review.

I sit down.

All the time, y'all, and I asked the question, God, what am I missing in this?

God? How did I focus?

Holl you remember the insult that somebody said to me the other day in a professional setting and we kept talking about it and they said one hundred thousand things nice to me in the same session and one thing that I was like. And then if you could see my cutting room, it's like I took this scene and zoomed all the way in and I framed it. Just push in on me real quick, because look, how now, why are you gonna be stuck in.

Something like that? How was I doing it?

All? Right?

Back to normal shock.

Because after the review comes what they're reframing, and this is what they prayed because they made a great decision, right. Peter and John are like, we don't know what to do next. How many feel like I don't know what to do next in the area of my life? Raise your hand, Okay, you need to go to the cutting room. How many of you feel like it wasn't fair what.

Happened to you? Raise your hand? Yeah, do you need to go to the cutting room.

How many of you feel like there's something in your life that you can't decide if it needs to be there any longer. But it served you in a season, but it feel like it's getting in the way now and you don't know what to do about it coming. How many of you need to prune some things that you said yes to yesterday that are making you pop pills today because you said yes to them yesterday. You need to go to the cutting room now. When you go to the cutting room, listen to me. Listen to

And we start with the problem. And when we start with the problem.

We never really get to God because by the time we've been through the problem, we're so exhausted, we don't even see God. We are so confused, we are so blinded, we are so taken, we are so sins driven, we don't even see God anymore. And we start saying, well, I don't see any way this can work. I guess you don't. Now you wasted all your vision looking at it. On their release, Peter and John went back to the room and they reported all that the chief priests and elders.

Had said to them. Now, how long did that take?

They told us not to speak anymore in the name of Jesus, and we told them we have to obey God rather than the men, and they let us go. They could have spent three hours talking about how much it saw, they could have spent They could have spent days talking about how it didn't seem right.

And if you take your complaining into the cutting.

Room, what kind of movie you think this is gonna be. I think it's going to be a horror movie.

I think it's going to be a slasher film.

I think it's going to scare you to death and keep you up at night if you start with that.

But watch now, I need every person who's ever.

Been pentecostal or wanted to be Pentecostal for fifteen seconds to get ready to shout when I show you this. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priest and elders.

Had said to them. Do you think anybody in this room knows what they should? Do? You think anybody else in this room has had training for this?

Do you think anybody in this room has the political power to stand down the.

Entire Sanhedron, the religious ruling body of the day.

No, but watch this in verse twenty four. When they heard this the attack. When they heard this the threat, when they heard this the message of the enemy. When they heard this verse twenty four, they raised their voices together. Don't leave the three hundred Pentecostal people alone.

They raise their voice is together.

I'm not done yet in prayer to God. That's the part to God, because right now, if you just attacked me for helping somebody, I want to attack you back.

But I can't talk to you right now because I need to.

Go above your pay grade to talk to the one who made you.

I can't solve this on the level as started on. I gotta go higher. I want to give you. I gotta teach you. I want to give you.

Two things that you need to do when you find yourself under attack, when you can't breathe because of it, when you can't see straight because of it, when you're so angry you want to do some stuff that you hadn't thought about doing in a long time, but.

You feel it kind of coming back. When you're so sad.

That you can't figure out how to get out of the bed.

I want to teach you the reframe. Two things. One go wide, Go wide, Go wide. Did you see how they started their prayer.

They didn't start praying about God that.

One Sadducee, he was so mean to me.

I pray he'll have hemorrhoids tonight so you can show him your judgment. None of that and not starting with hemorrhoids or the problem or any of that.

He said, He said, sovereign.

Sovereign doesn't mean a lot to us because we.

Think we run stuff.

Sovereign doesn't mean too much to us because you thought it was your story. But it's his story, and he's sovereign, and he made you, and he gave gifts.

To men, and he stirred.

Them, and he seated them, and he watered them, and he runs them, and he cuts back, and he cuts.

Offt and he raises up and he brings south. He is the sovereign God.

Oh here, yes, here, that's it.

So start with sovereign. How find somebody say, start with sovereign. Needs some new words in your vocabulary. Needs some big words in your vocabulary, some king words in your vocabulary. Need some Goddess in charge. You're not words in your vocabulary. Leeds some big God words in your vocabulary. So for everybody who needs to, go why, give me a wide shot on the screen. Go why, and realize, I'm going to give you the statement that really helped me this week.

Give me a white shot. This is bigger than me.

See what all we saw that we didn't see before they did what they did. That's what prayer' is supposed to be. You have too narrow of a definition of prayer. You think prayer is God is great, God is good.

Let us thinking for our food.

God is not inextricably linked to your digestive process of turning French fries into protein plus us through to our bodies. That's too narrow for prayer. It's too narrow for prayer to pray before you have a big match. Oh God, help me win this. What if the other kid prayed that more, and what if he's better than you?

You can pray that. But prayer is much more than that.

Prayer is an awareness to say it, this is bigger than me. That's why they say, Sovereign Lord, and watch what they prayed next. Tell me this doesn't feel out of focus. Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens. WHOA, We're going all the way back, yeap, going all the way back to remember who the director is. We're going all the way back so we can rem remember the source material in the beginning was the and the word was with God.

In the word was God.

So I'm going back to the one who spoke the word, so I can fight the word that the enemy spoke with the word that was here before my enemy was a thought. So go why tell somebody? Go why this is bigger than me? Sometimes that means I'm just selfish. Just because I don't like it, doesn't mean it's.

Not the Lord. I told you.

It's a cutting room. Some of what we have to cut is some of the stuff that we.

Cling to.

That God wants us to grow out of to help somebody else. Waking up praying, God, just give me a blessing today. God, make me a blessing today. I've been blessed so much. You mean, all this he gave you, the devil will cut all that out, make you think you have nothing to give. Yes, you do, Yes, you do well. No, you do, Pastor Stephen, you preach these words. Yeah, but you live the Gospel, and you can cook good corn bread. And sometimes corn bread is better than a

To keep you stuck in selfishness. Go why go Why?

Holy Spirit, give me a wide shot, A wide shot, A wide shot, so I don't get all zoomed in, zoomed in, zoom in, zoom in, zoom in, zoom and zoom and zoom in.

Em No, no wide shot. Give me a wide shot. That's the reframe, you see it.

And even if you find yourself in a situation right now where you feel like you are Peter and John up against the whole Sanhedrin, where you feel like you were up against an entire system, a boss that definitely is not going to watch this message online, a medical diagnosis that they don't even have, experimental stuff for things that go on inside of you that you can't label, much less learn from.

Yet, even if that's.

You today and you say this is bigger than me, say this is bigger than me, Remember how your prayer started.

Sovereign Lauren, don't just go wide, go hi, Go high. Go high.

To the most high, whose name is holy, forever and ever, go high until you are one with Jesus and joined with him who died for you, go high until you are so far above the situation with him that it starts to look small the next time you stand in front of it. This is bigger than me. I'm small compared to this. I'm too weak for this. I don't have what it takes for this. These bills are bigger

Say this is.

Bigger than me, but God is bigger than this.

That's the Holy ghost to let you know.

This is bigger than me, but God is bigger than this. You want a demonstration, I'll give you a demonstration. Abby, stand up, Abby, stand up next to mom. Abby standing next to mom. Now, Abby, say this is bigger than me. Say it again, this is bigger than me.

Truth to power, this is bigger than me. This is bigger than me. But now let's say we do this.

Now there's something bigger than bigger like, Oh, she's gonna tell you when they get home.

She's not because I'm only talking about height. She's a way better person than me, and and more convincing.

But if I give you a physical demonstration, maybe you can see something with your spirit that you do not understand with your mental facilities.

Because to reframe.

My situation is to acknowledge this is bigger than me.

But God is bigger.

Than this, than this, than this, I don't care what the this is.

God is bigger than this.

We need to re edit this movie and remember for a moment who the real.

Director is, who really backed your life, who really started your life, who really gave you those experiences, who really gave you those skills. So I see you staring at a mountain, and I know the mountain looks immovable, But when you praise Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth, you realize that while you've been staring at the mountain, you could have been talking to the one who made it.

Because this is bigger than me. I'm not gonna pretend like I know what to do.

This is bigger than me.

But God on a rainy Sunday morning, But God in a hopeless situation.

But God in the middle of my loneliness. But God in.

The middle of the process, is bigger than this. Somebody say he's bigger man this serve notice he's bigger.

He's bigger than this.

That's how I know I'm coming out because God.

Is bigger than this, and I'm coming out with a testimony.

Gous die.

What high? Five six people tell him.

God's bigger than this, He's bigger than this.

You don't know what my this is. I don't have to.

God's bigger than this. God's bigger than what they said. God's bigger than what they didn't do. God's bigger than God's bigger than bipolar. God's bigger than depression. God's bigger than this. God's bigger than twitter. God's bigger than this. God's bigger than Ai. Not gonna wipe us out unless God wants us wiped out, And then if he wanted us wiped out, he just sent.

Another flood knock. Tell us to put the giraffes on the boat. God is bigger than this. Stuff. Stressing about stuff, stupid stuff. Save your strength for stuff that God called you to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Reframe it. I'm going wide.

I'm going high because this is bigger than me.

But my God is bigger than this.

Hallelujah.

I gotta get in the cutting room because Jesus said, every branch in me that bears fruit my father prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Oh, it is unpleasant at times to be in the cutting room, but if you stay there long enough and really give it to God, watch what happens.

They lifted their voices together in prayer to God, Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens, you made the earth.

Thank you Jesus, and the sea and everything in them.

Stuff I can't see. God can stuff I can't fix. God can stuff I can't fish out. God can stuff that I would drown in. God can save me from.

That's what I mean when I say the reframe. Stop praying so much about the problem that you never get to the God of the problem.

Go to the cutting room. God is the main character of this story. Not you, not me, not.

Your ex, not the person who walked out, not even the people who stayed. God will support you. God will sustain you. God's hand is on you. God has anointed you, God has called you. God is with you. God is bigger than this. Even when you get a blessing, don't worship a blessing because God is bigger than this blessing. Ask the children of Israel who were fed with manna. They thought this is what God has given us. But when this disappeared, God had something else. Because God is

This is a productive cut.

The instrument of scissors is surgical in the hands of the Savior. It's masterful what he's doing in your life right now. And if you stay there long enough, and if you pray there high enough, and if you pray there wide enough, and say, God, I'm in this right now, but I know You're bigger than this, and this is bigger than me. When they heard this, they raised their voices and said, Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and

As a matter of fact, Church.

What blessed me the most about the text was that after they quoted Psalm Too from David, Why do the nation's rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers spend together against the Lord and his anointed one. They revisit, See the power of it. Please see the power of it. I know I preached too long, and I know I should cut some stuff, but I just want to give it to you so you have something when you go back into your mind tonight.

Indeed, verse twenty seven. Verse twenty seven, Herod.

And Pontius Pilot met together with the gentiles.

The gentiles didn't even know God. They met together with people who didn't even know.

God, and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed. They did the enemy, they did the opponent. They did the ruler what your power and will had decided.

They did what God decided.

The devil can't do anything to you without going through God first.

And this is the release.

When you let go of control, when you let go of what you've been trying to keep in the story and focus on and this one scene you get stuck in, and this one thing you can't get over, and this one thing you won't let God remove.

When you let go, Watch what happens when you release?

God releases, when we release, he releases, what does he release?

Watch this?

They did what you had decided beforehand should happen. Verse twenty nine. Please, now Lord, everybody say now Lord, say it with some gusto, say.

Now Lord, that's what happened back then.

Now Lord, take me into the cutting room and consider their threats. And God, don't let this overwhelm me to the point that I become paralyzed by it. And don't let me keep repeating this same mistake for ten more years. Now, Lord, don't let me back down just because it's scary.

Don't let me give up what I worked so hard.

To get just because there's pressure with it. Don't let me faint along the way and be disqualified. Somebody shout, now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders. They're not playing defense, they're playing offense.

It's a release. Now they're giving up what they thought should have happened.

They're giving up what should have been done for them. They're giving up on the way they might have wanted it to go. Now, Lord, heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your.

Holy servant Jesus.

And verse thirty one says after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all.

Filled filled, filled.

With the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God boldly. Wait, I thought they were already filled with the Holy Spirit.

In chapter two they were. But you need a fresh refill for a fresh battle. And God set out give you a refill when you release it.

And the place come on, where they were meeting, was what shaken.

It was what shake him.

The place started shaking, The place started shaking. When they went into the place, they were shaken. They had just been threatened, They had just been scared. They had just been intimidated. But after that they prayed, and after that they remembered who their God was. And after that they got their eyes on the.

Sovereign Most High. And after they remembered what he did for Daithan.

And after they called the name of Jesus, they weren't shaken.

The place was shaken.

And I think we ought to go into the cutting room and give God at least twenty four second.

A place, second place today, Shake the place, Shake the place, Shake the place.

This is your cutting room.

This is your cutting.

Room, and God is holding the scissors. This is your cutting room, and God is directing the film. When a director is really good, they give the director a privilege called final cut that means they can shoot whatever they want to.

But by the time this film is released, the one.

Who directed it gets to decide what goes in it. Your God. I know y'all are tired, but I came for three people. You've been cut off, you've been cut down. But God said, I'm gonna make you fruitful because your father has final cut. Heads baled, eyes close, Grab the hand of the person next to you.

They're in the cutting room right now.

It's not convenient in the cutting room. It's confusing in the cutting room. But God is with you in the cutting room. The reason I wanted to preach this series, the reason I wanted to preach this sermon, is you need some help with your edit? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you are leaving out some things that God put in.

This week, He's going to fill you with his spirit and flood you with the realization.

Of how beautiful He made you, how wonderfully crafted you are.

Is masterful. He's got final cut.

He's going to show you that the people who left your life were not meant for the next season of your life.

And he's going to show you where David is on the way. For every saw that has been rejected, this says your cutting.

Room for everything you don't like about yourself that you thought was a bug. What if it's a feature. What if God wants to show you to put something back in something you haven't done in years that used to bring God glorious.

Time is time.

This is the cutting room. This is the cutting room. You came in shaking. I know I come to this pulpit shaken every week. But I asked God, God, would you take my nerves, would you take my fear? Would you take my uncertainty? And shake this place? And in the place where you're shaken, May God shake the place.

And use you and use you. He's using He's using he's using you. He's using.

Gotta cut some stuff back now so he can use you. Gotta cut some stuff out now so he can use you. Got to get some new disciplines in there so he can use you. But it's his scissors, it's his garden, it's his hand. You are his planting for his renown. He is the sovereign God. He made the earth and the sea and everything in it, and he made everything in you. Now I call it forth in Jesus' name. I call forth miracles from your spirit. In Jesus' name, I.

Call forth freedom from your spirit.

In Jesus' name, I call forth abundance of compassion, abundance of joy, wisdom from avolved, first, feasible, then pure. I call wisdom by the Holy Spirit of God. I release it in your life right now. I release it in your life right now, a fresh feeling of the spirit of God. I release it in your life right now, in the name of Jesus. And everybody who's been set free. Clap your hands and give God praise.

Ah.

Thank you Lord for final fight. You got the final you got the final.

Say in my life. Head's about eyes closed, They crucified Jesus. They hung him on the cross and stretched him wide and hung him high. From that place of his death came the possibility of new life for you.

There is someone here today.

And lately in your life you've been realizing I need God. I cannot do this by myself. I need Jesus. I believe God brought you to this stream today. God brought you to this sanctuary today, this building.

Today so that you could be saved. Right now.

I'm going to lead you in a prayer right now, if you're ready to give your heart to God, ready to receive the forgiveness of your sin and repent of your sin, and trust.

Jesus, I believe that He will hear you from heaven.

And heal you, give you a brand new nature. Praying this together as a church family for the benefit of those who are coming to God or back to God. Repeat after me, Heavenly Father, today is my day of salvation.

I am a sinner in need of a savior.

And I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior of the world.

And today I make Jesus the Lord of my life.

I believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life.

I receive this new life. This is my new beginning. I am a child of God. On the count of three, raise your hand if you prayed that one, two, three, shoot them up all over the room.

I see you, God sees you. God bless it.

Congratulations, amazing you too, amazing online.

Just say it in the chat.

I receive Jesus, I receive Jesus.

Come on, let's shake this place with praise for the salvation. Oh my God, hall elud. Did you receive anything from the Lord today? Clap your hands.

Well, join hands with your neighbor one more time. If you haven't caught something from him by this point, you won't. Now praise the Lord. Tell your neighbor I'm contagious. Tell them you hang around me, you might catch faith. You hang around me, you might catch praise. My father said, I'm blessed, and I am, and now I bless you in Jesus' name.

Amen, I'm gonna.

Bless everybody who stays till I'm done. You want this blessing, this one's worth waiting for it, because I'm gonna tell you how blessed you're gonna be this week.

You're gonna be so.

Blessed this week that every weapon that the devil forms against you, it might fly by, but it won't work.

It'll only make your faith stronger.

Somebody say, how blessed am I gonna be?

This week? So blessed? At any time you want to talk to God, you can talk to him wherever you are. How blessed am I gonna be this week? I'm gonna be the head and not the tale above and.

Not beneath running over a Linda.

And Ola bar or a child of the Most hi God, the righteousness of God.

I am who God says I am.

You love this this, I.

Love you so much.

Thank you for joining us.

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