Faithful With A Few

these nights. Don't want to miss So if you're in Glendale, Arizona, Las Vegas, Sacramento, California, Eugene, Oregon, Seattle, Oakland, California, San Diego and LA or anywhere near those areas, we want to see you. Elevation Nights dot com. Don't miss it. Elevation Nights dot com. Get your tickets Elevation Nights dot com. See let's go to the message, y'all. I feel so excited to preach this word, but I feel settled about it.

I don't feel spastic like that. I feel just settled about so cool, so beautiful what the Lord selected for us to study today. And I'm excited about it. Since they're baptized in half of the county, I got to go a little quicker today, So y'all listen good, would you? If y'all will listen better, I can finish sooner. When I go too long, it's at least half your fall.

The Holy Spirit selected a text today. It's really like a song, and I'm drawn to it, not only because I love music, but because there's a truth in it that I want to point out to you. It's found in First Chronicles. Don't have a panic attack trying to find it in your Bible. That's not one of the

books you normally look. If I say Genesis, you're good, Revelation, I think that's towards the bat But First Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible, it was kind of considered the whole Old Testament and capitulate some of the things that you'll read in First and Second Samuel. But it goes further. It starts with Adam, and then by the time it ends, we're in the exile. In the middle of all that, we read a lot about David. We read a lot about King David. And there's one thing I want to read.

I need to read verses seven through at least twenty, maybe twenty four, just to give you the flow of it. So let's read this together in first Chronicle sixteen. There is a message in this for me. Say it out loud. There is a message in this for me, maybe not for the person next to you. Let's say for me, I want you to personalize this today. I want you to personalize this word today. The scripture says that day David first appointed Asaf and his associates to give praise

to the Lord in this manner. Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name, make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, Sing praise to him. Tell of all his wonderful acts, Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength, seek his face. Always remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, the judgments he pronounced. You his servants, the descendants of Israel, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob. He is the Lord,

our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he may, I love that I might come back and nibble on that a little later. Y'all hold on to that, the promise he made for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree to Israel, as an everlasting covenant. Now that was the neighborhood. Let's pull up to the door.

Now these verses are the door to you. I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit. Shout over what God gave you. Nah, y'all aren't grateful. Shout over what God gave me to you. I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit. When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it, they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. He allowed no one to oppress them. For their sake, he rebuked, kings, do not touch my

anointed ones. Do my prophets no harm. Sing to the Lord all the earth, proclaim his salvation day after day, to clear his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. Go back to verse nineteen. When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it. I don't know what we'll call this message when we put it online, But for now let's call it faithful with a few. Faithful with a few, you may be seated faithful with a few. We stepped into a celebration

when we opened first chronicle sixteen. Did you notice they were glorifying God. They had instruments set up in verses one six. I didn't read you that part. Symbols and harps and liars, stringed instruments, all these sounds celebrating something that must have looked really strange if you didn't know the whole story, all of this commotion, all of this glorifying, and all this praise about something that you may have heard of but may not know much about, called the

Arc of the Covenant. The Arc of the Covenant, not Noah's arc. That's a boat, not a story arc, like in a movie where a character development as arc. But the Arc of the Covenant was a piece of furniture made of acacial would only four feet long, two and a half feet wide, two and a half feet high. I wish I could do it in meters for our

international audience. But see, we're here in the United States of America, and we will not convert to the metric system until Gus comes back and makes us do it, and all this celebration over what appeared to be just the piece of furniture. Of course, we understand that it's

a symbolic representation of the presence of God. Because in that acacia wood which was overlaid with gold, with a chair of Him on the top of it, with the four holes so they could carry it by poles wherever they went, was the manna that God gave us people, the law that he gave us people, and Aaron's rod, which represented the priesthood. In that arc of the Covenant, was represented God's provision, God's protection, and God's precepts. Three things in that arc, yet it symbolized one thing, which

is this God was with us. They carried it wherever they went. In their mind it was the actual housing place of the presence of God. But really we understand that God is everywhere. We know that because of Jesus, Emmanuel God with us. And when Emmanuel God with us, left the earth, he gave us the counselor the Holy Spirit, not just to be with us, but to be in us. We don't live in the Old Covenant, but we can learn from it. We don't live in it, but we can learn from it. The presence of God is inside

of you. It's inside of me. So when the Bible says that God was with his people and he did all these things for him, how much more will he do for you? If the spirit of His son lives inside of you. This is our confidence in Christ, not in our selves. It's really not a celebration about furniture. It's a celebration about faithfulness faithfulness, not their faithfulness, because that would have been a sorry celebration indeed, But God's faithfulness.

Big difference what you praise God for. Do you praise him for the furniture or for his faithfulness? Because if you praise him for the furniture, the things that you can see, it can be taken away. If you praise him for the furniture, if he moves it to the other side of the room, you might get mad. When things change in your life, your praise goes down. But you have to learn what David did here, and I think is such a good lesson for us. He made

them praise God. He made them praise God. Reminded me. When I was in college, I was a worship leader before I was a pastor. I preached and led worship all at the beginning of the church. I did all of it, and I'm really glad that we have so many gifted people who can do it now. But in a panchroc, I could still get it done if I had to, Okay, I promise you. Okay. I don't know all the songs anymore, but I remember a few of them,

and I could. I could get this done if everybody on the worship team went and ate Mexican food and it was a bad digestive situation. It kind of gross, right, But I'm not saying it would be as good, but I would get it done. I could get it done. I could get it done because I was doing that in college. When people ask Colly, when did you first know that you wanted to marry Stephen? Sometimes she'll mention in reference. She won't say the first time she saw me.

She talked about the first time she saw me. Still I was crazy. I was wearing a a big Superman T shirt, a DOUBLEXL Superman T shirt, running around thinking I was Superman or something like that, playing in a punk rock band. But then in our college I became the worship leader for a ministry North Greenville, university, not a big school, not a big school. But I believe God put me there if for no other reason than to win her. And how I won her through my leadership.

Through my leadership. Through my leadership, I found out spiritual leadership is sexy to a spiritual woman. So, not that I was thinking it, but y'all, I made a praise team and I put her on my praise team. I didn't audition her for her vocal ability. That really wasn't why she got the job, but it was okay to me if she thought that, and she could sing pretty good. But we had a good time because when I first told her about it, the worship team was just two people.

I don't know if y'all were around in the nineties and churches, but everybody was beaten on a gym bay, big drum like this, and everybody was beating on a gym bay. Everybody was beating on Jim Bay's in the nineteen nineties, and so it was just a Jim Bay and an acoustic guitar. And I told her when I take it over next year, it's gonna be huge. I'm gonna have a choir. It's gonna be probably one hundred people in the choir by the time I'm done with it, and I'm gonna have a band, and it's gonna be

real drums, not percussion. I'm go'a have a kit, a drum kit. I'm gonna have bass guitar. I'm gonna have maybe two keyboards, maybe one with a synth and one with a piano. Sound getting wild and crazy. Believe in God for big things. Now went to him who was able to do and measurable anymore. I got big vision, you know what I'm saying. And I did that because God helped me do it, because he called me, and because he helped me, and because he was with me.

There were one hundred kids in that choir by the time it was over, and the school wasn't that big. But God did it. But God did it. I preached two weeks ago about but God. And I'm telling you when I told her that, I didn't know how, I didn't know who, I didn't know, I had no idea how I would accomplish it. But I spoke it by fail and I worked toward it, and God did it. And so I heard her telling the kids the other day.

I never doubted something that your dad told me he was going to do after that, because when he said it, I thought he was crazy. And then guess what, it came to pass. And we've seen God do that just over and over again now in our ministry, in this church. Some of you have been here for a lot of it, some of you have been here for all of it. You have seen God do that over and over and

over again. So when the baptisms were happened, why were some people sleeping through it and some people were weeping through it? Why? Why on that screen was somebody crying about somebody getting in water? How many of y'all got in water before you came to church today, or at least in the last twenty four hours, your neighbor hopes. So watching online, it doesn't really matter. But if you're in the building, please have the consideration with some water

and some soap and some shampoo. And yet none of that really made you cry? Did it? Did you cry in the shower? I mean maybe you did, but that's not the common thing. Is it singing the shower? But cry in the shower? But why are they crying? They didn't hit me. I was watching the baptisms. I thought we gotta be careful where we dumped that water. We ought to have a special you know, they have these big containers for radioactive stuff, not the dirt off the people.

I'm not am not physical. I'm talking about all the shame that Jesus washes away, all the bad choices that he steps into, all the things that you did that you couldn't get over, but his blood forgave them. There's a lot in that water. There's a lot in that water. Somebody put it in the chat. There's a lot in that water. When Jesus saved me, he saved me from a lot. And I don't even mean that I was on drugs and in prison. I mean even from the people who lived so good. You weren't so good. You

weren't so good. You were not so good. I know you weren't so good. How do I know that you're not so good? Because Jesus did not die for pretty good people or really bad people. He died for really dead people who needed to be made alive in his name. So when we celebrate, we're not celebrating I got a race, because tomorrow I might get a drop. When we celebrating God's presence, we're not celebrating because I got a lot

of sleep, because tomorrow we might be tired. Y'all. The dog woke Cally up at three point thirty in the morning this morning. I just had to tell you that. So when she was praising God today, she wasn't doing it on much sleep because she had to have a dog. And she's got a dog. Now, yes, she's got a dog. Now. When I preach to you, I'm not preaching these things because I always feel them. I'm preaching what I believe

by faith. If I could teach you one thing, it would be to celebrate by faith, to praise by faith, to worship by faith, to decree by faith, to rejoice by faith, to walk by faith, to talk by faith, to live by faith, to give by faith, to structure by faith, to establish back faith, to stand after you have done all, to stand back faith on the faithfulness of God. This is not about furniture. He's celebrating the

faithfulness of God. And he made them praise God because sometimes you've got to make yourself you don't believe me. David made Asaf praise God, and he wrote the song and he said, praise him like this. I want you praising him just any way. You can't talk about his glory, his name, his strength, his face. Don't start talking about how good you didn't oh oh oh, they just got the arc back to Jerusalem, and He didn't want them celebrating their strength when they did it. They did a

good job, but that's not what they glorified. Is the good job that they did. And I'm not saying don't patch yourself on the back or get yourself a cupcake or a crumble cookie or whatever you do, do it, but don't forget to praise God. Can I say it this way? For the few? For the few, every day is not going to be an amazing day. Every day is not going to be a special event. Every day is not Field Day. Every day is not Field Day.

But every day needs to be Faith day. Kind of corny, but I'm trying to help you remember it when you get out of here. Because they got the arc back. Now, the Ark of the Covenant had been in Shiloh for a long time, the Philistines, the enemies of God. They got the Ark of the Covenant, and then God started cursing everything because they weren't supposed to have it. It is always a curse to carry what God did not

call you to. Remember that the next time you start comparing yourself, I wish I had theirs, or I wish I did that, or I wish I did this. It is a curse to carry what God did not call you to. God spoke to the Jewish people. He said to Abraham, remember I will bless you, and you will be a blessing. Remember they were meant to carry the blessing, not to contain it. God said, I'm gonna bless all the earth through you, through you, So what you're carrying

is not meant for you to contain. And that's why David said, you need to praise God for what just happened. They go get the ark, they try to bring it back on a cart because that makes sense because it's heavy. And while they're busy making sense, not doing what God told them to do, which was carry it on your shoulders. And the Levites, the priests were supposed to be the only ones who could carry it, and nobody could touch it, and you couldn't just walk around looking at it because

it was too special for that. So when they tried to put on a cart what God called them to carry, something terrible happened. The oxen stumbled, and when the oxen stumbled, a man named us Are reached out trying to help God. Have you ever tried to help God? Have you ever manipulated somebody trying to help God? Have you ever held onto something you were supposed to take your hands off of because you were trying to help God? And when he went to help God, he died, and David was angry.

He was mad because I need the presence of God back, because he's just been annoyed King of the whole kingdom. Saul is dead. He's not fighting Saul anymore. The kingdom is united for now. There'd been a civil war when he was rising to the king shop, but now he's settling into Jerusalem. Yet he doesn't want to be there in the seat of his power without the ark of the Covenant, which represents God's power. I don't want it without you, God. I can't do it without you God.

It's impossible for me to do it without you God. About every time I try to prepare a message, I come to a point where I say I can't do it, and the Lord usually says, finally, would you like me to do it? Through you. God is just waiting for you to get to the point where you take your hands off of some stuff. I'm not gonna being irresponsible. This does not apply to your steering wheel unless you drive a tesla, keep your hands on that. But at the same time, we got to understand that the glory

goes to God. It has to, it's too heavy for you. Must have seemed strange to see all this celebrating David's wife. Her name was McCall. She was so appalled that David was dancing because he was happy when they finally got the arc back, because they did it God's way, because they did it God's way, not the logical way, God's way, not the way that made sense, but the way that takes faith. Two different ways, the way that makes sense and the way that takes faith. One is called self

sufficiency and it's a sin. The other one, the faith way. It is when you understand that for you to carry what God has given you to carry in this life, you will have to do it His way, even when his way seems strange, even when it makes no sense. You know what David did that must have seemed strange. Every time they got the art six steps, he stopped and sacrificed a bull every six steps. Now, want you

think about this. This is the representation of the presence of God, and we already had it start to fall one time, and now you're making us stop every six steps, which every time we stop it increases the chances that we'll have another stumble. But David said, I have faith that if we do it like this, and we take only six steps and then stop and praise God and offer to him the sacrifice of praise, he will give

us the strength, the wisdom, the protection, the direction. God will sustain us if we stop and celebrate every six steps, because if we wait until we get to Jerusalem to do it, we might not make it. If I wait till I get there to thank God, I may not make it because there is a long way. Now, when I get to heaven, I'm gonna follow his feet. You better follow at his feet before this Friday because the devil will be in heaven and you won't have to fight him there. But you're going to fight him now

and if you don't stop, you might stop. So let's do it. Six steps praise him. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Oh wait, that's six days. This is Sunday. Let's praise him right now. Let's praise him. If you do six steps this week, he was with you six steps. This week, he was with you on the job. This week he gave you your daily branch. Sixth week sat up from heaven, had a run and a scat pad. If praise him

every six whoa, oh the Philly. They get to art, they get to art, they get to art the presence of God, and they get six steps. And there was a stop. How far we have to go? We just took a few, there was a no. But he was faithful for those few. He was faithful in those few. He was faithful with a few. I was meeting with a pastor one time, and Chunks and Buck were with me. Y'all know, Chunks and Buck sound like a WWF tag team from nineteen ninety three. Sound like they thought the

Legion of Doom, don't they? But they didn't. They're just church staff members, that's all. And the man was going on and on about everything he had done. And he is a great man. So it was a long list. The in and out burger was getting cold, and we don't have those in North Carolina, and I wanted to eat mine anyway. The man says this, he says this line, He says, how do we do this? He's talking about world peace or something like that. He said, how do

we do this? Well, there are nineteen ways? I thought, nineteen. Here's a fly buzzing around the burger by this point, because we can't eat because he's still talking. He's already been going two hours. He said, there are nineteen ways. I won't list them all. I said, shit, he said, but let me name a few. And an hour later he was on number nineteen and he stopped and he said, I think I should stop now. It looks like I put your guys to sleep. My back was turned to them.

These two jokers were sleeping on the other end of the table with their heads on their deck, not like nodding off like I am a second grader in class playing heads up, seven up, drooling all over the table. I can't list all the ways, but let me name a few. So sometimes I'm just going to give you a little pro tip here for praising God. You have to just list a few, Just list a few, list a few. You know what, I don't know everything God is calling me to But I do know a few things.

God has called me to love and honor my wife. God has called me to be there for my kids. And sometimes that's all I know about being a dad is be there is the science of showing up that produces, in my mind, the experiment of good kids. And it is an experiment. Fatherhood is not a formula A few A few. You know, anytime you want to, you can make yourself praise God. You don't think you can. You associate praise with a feeling. I didn't see anything in

First Chronicles sixteen about feelings. I heard about God's sovereignty. I heard about God's shepherding. I heard about God's glory. I heard about his strength, heard about his face. Nothing about feelings. And that's why it's not dependent on feelings. So in any bad mood, you can pivot to praise, pivot to praise. David knew how to do this. That's what David knew how to do. That's why the Bible called him a man after God's own heart, not because

he was perfect. You think that means he was perfect? Then what's Bethsheba all about? Why did he sleep with a woman while he was supposed to be at warf he was a man after God's own heart. It is not about his perfection, It was about his praise. He gave God glory in all of those things. Because if you don't learn how to pivot to praise in situations, two things will happen. When times are good, you're running

into pride if you don't pivot to praise. And then when time are bad, if you don't pivot to praise, you'll be in a prison of your circumstance, pride or prison if you don't learn to pivot. David made them praise God. He said, Asaf, get me twelve men station and appoint them. And this is what I want them to say. I want them to start talking about the glory of God and the great things that He's done. And I want us to get our attention off of how we stumbled, and I want us to get our

attention even of how we succeeded. And I want us to start singing about and thinking about all the things that God did, all the ways that God made, even the strange ways that God made. And the praise only seems strange if you don't understand the process that they went through to get it there. The praise only seems strange if you don't understand the process that you went through to get there. It only seems strange because you

didn't see the struggle that led to the praise. It only seems strange from the outside when you have been without the ark, and when you've tried to do it without God, and when you've ended up on your own bathroom floor. I remember when my dad came to me when I was a teenager, and he gave his life to Christ, and he said, you don't know how. I was standing in the shower and cry every morning, wondering how am I going to fake it another day because I'm so low? But this poor man cry to the Lord.

Had he heard me from heaven, had he reached out, had he saved me? You don't know. Stop trying to make sense to people who don't even know your story. Stop trying to conform Christians not supposed to make sense to people who don't know God. We don't even worship God. Most of us. We say Jesus is Lord, but we live like logic is Lord. Because every time we get in a situation, the first thing we consult is our circumstance. The first thing we can soul is our energy. The

first thing we consul is our feelings. The first thing we can soul is our mood. The first thing that we that we consult is something somebody told us on some god forsaken news channel. I rebuke the spirit of fear that's running your life today. Does you keep running to the wrong place? I rebuke it. I tell it to dry up. But for that to happen, you gotta do it. Like David said, y'all gotta praise God. So when I would leave the choir back in college, I

used to get real. My hero at the time was Kirk Franklin, and most of the people at the college were white. That was interesting. And I have always believed I don't mind telling you to praise God. You have to tell me to praise God. Yes I do, Yes, I do. I don't need you to scream at me. Yes you do. Sometimes not all the time, but sometimes this man came over to the praise service one night. I used to get down off the stage. All I was wild. While try to turn the Baptist school into

a Pentecostal worship service. I didn't know what to do, so I had to make them. I'd get down off the stage. I start walking over chairs and stuff. And this one guy that was there, that was he had been at the school forever. He was a ministrator, our student. And I could tell he came one night. I could tell he didn't like it. And I went to him next day and I said, I don't think you liked it. He sounded like it at all. I said, well, didn't you like Did the speaker say something said I didn't

like you. I don't like you. I said, well, was it something I said he said about everything you said and what you did? Cause I don't need At the time, I was nineteen with some old navy turtle. He said, I don't need some nineteen year old with a turtleneck coming down. He was real country too. I don't need some nineteen year old with a turtleneck coming down there off the stage and telling me to praise the Lord, telling me y'all don't want to praise him. I do

want to praise him. That's why I can't. I don't need you to make me, no, but I think you do sometimes. I think you do sometimes. In fact, I think one better than that. You need to awaken your inner David like he did in some one o three. So when we're not here to do it, because we're gonna lead you to worship God. I'm not gonna just get up here and preach like this, Oh, turn in your bible. I'm gonna take you, clap your hands. I'm gonna write and remind you to do some stuff that

you know. I'm not one of these lifeguards that smokes weed and lays there and doesn't watch. If I see you drowning in doubt, I'm gonna pull you out. Does that my job, dude? That is my job. And by the way, I don't even break for everybody. Just a few. Hey, if I can find five people in the room who don't care and are not a shame and who know it was the blood but the real secret news, can you say bless the Lord, oh my soul? Because David did that. He didn't just make them praise God, he

made him self praise God. Why are you so much better telling everybody else what to do than you are telling you what to do? I never saw a service go from so high to so low in one sentence. But look at it. Look at the scripture he said, Glory to God, Praise God. He gets Shimamurathaiah and Jayahel and Matitataya and the Lord and all these guys. Right, but it's not so many. When he went to get the ark, he took thirty thousand with him. David didn't

always have thirty thousand. David didn't always have thirty thousand. At one point, after God had annointed him to be king, he has six hundred. And the Bible describes him men who were in crippling dead. Crippling dead, that's the only reason they came to David. What they needed from him. That's who he had. Ruffians, they were, Yeah, that's who he had. God has gathered to David all these armies, and he takes them all down to get the ark thirty thousand. And they can't do it because they don't

do it God's way. Because sometimes you start thinking that you need more of something more, you get smarter than God, don't you. Hagar. That was Abraham's wife. She thought if she helped God out having a baby, it would help, because look, can we admit it was a strange way for God to start a nation, to pick a woman with a bear and wound. If you're going to need a nation, you need a son, so you find somebody with the sun and you start there. No, God's gonna do it in a strange way, so it can be

his strength. God has a strange way. The next time you seeing waymaker, make sure you understand that the way that he makes will seem strange. As he's making it, you'll look back and say, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. That's who you are. Only thing you'll be thinking while you're going through it is this is weird. This is weird. How many have been there the last couple of weeks in your life, just going this is weird, this is crazy. Yeah, this is crazy, this is heavy,

this is dark. Well, when David gets to the other side of this journey with the Arc, he does something really fantastic, really beautiful. He said, God remembers his covenant and the promise he made. Now a lot of times we are trying to hold God to our preferences, not his promises. So that's where the disappointment is. A lot of times, what we are trying to get God to do in our life, he never said he would do it. GI you an example of that take your stress away.

He didn't say I'll take your stress. He said I'll give you strength. In order for God to take your stress away, he's got to take your breath away. Nice way of saying he's got to kill you. How many y'all want God to take their stress away? Don't raise it. I don't want you to die like USA right here in front of me. God is good. God is good, But the ways that he shows his goodness seems strange. It seems strange what you're going through right now, doesn't

That certainly seems strange to me. The Lord told me ready for this. The Lord told me in twenty thirteen. Was that when I did surround twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, run about there, he said, you're going to reach one hundred thousand people every week when you preach. That didn't happen until COVID hit and the buildings closed. I am not saying God sent COVID so I could hit a number that I made up in my mind. Don't hear

it like that. Don't hear it like that. But the first day we ever reached that number of people live in service, not through podcasts and later stuff. The first day we reached that number of people in service, there were five people in the room, and I thought, this is strange. This is strange because when you're standing there in it, it just looked like we went backwards. And to your senses is strange, and to your feelings is strange, and to your rational mind is strange. And to those

watching you carry the arc is strange. Why don't you put it on a cart? Why don't you do it the easy way? Why don't you just sell out to this? Why don't you just give up on that. Some people in your life think you're strange for coming to this church. I know you don't want to hurt my feelings, so you just kind of what we're talking about clearly normal. Holly says something funny the other day. I'm planned to share this, so we'll take it out later if it

doesn't come out right. One time they did a parody article of us. They said we put a water slide on our stage for baptisms. Why I didn't see it. I just had people texting me, what's up with the water slide? Now, that's a weird text to get if you don't know the contact Some good the water slider you in my backyard. What's going on? I don't have a slide. You mean in the church. You think I have a water slide in the church. And people were saying that she said something the other day because we

were reflecting on God's faithfulness to our ministry. She said, now that I look back on it, I kind of like that this church is crazy enough that when they said we would put a water slide in the church for people to get baptized, it was believable. Don't y'all love Holly Fernick. Because I'm sitting there one to sue somebody,

you can't say that about me. She took the insult as a compliment that they thought we were just that crazy that if God said put a water slide, or if God said feet a crowd with five loaves and two fish. No, I'm not announcing the water slide. Don't get the illustration twisted. It's just an illustration. I'm just saying that it's a weird way to make an to pick a barren womb. It's a weird way to deliver a nation with a staff over a sea. It's a weird way to feed a crowd with a little boy's lunch.

It's a weird way to attend a funeral four days late and then tell the man to get up. It's a weird way to stop a storm, to sleep through it and wait till the last watch of the night. But sometimes weird works. Sometimes when I start praising God for the few I have, he hadsn to me. I love it. I love him, I love him, I love it. I was so weird when I was in college. I

was so weird. I was so weird. I used to go to the bathroom between classes sometimes so I could get my Bible reading in because I wasn't disciplined enough to wake up early. I'll say, if I get five minutes in the bathroom, nobody will bother me in this bathroom. Nobody will bother me in this bathroom. And if I'd had a phone, I would have probably wouldn't have done it. I would have scrolled something, but I would take just a few. I think the enemy wants you to think

that you don't have enough of stuff. David not only said that it was God who gave you Canaan. That's the promised land. We're not talking about land, We're talking about the lives God has given us the lives. You are living in what God has given you. That's the difference between me and the person who says I'm a self made man. I don't claim that everything I have

got is the result of something. God gave me everything everything, So I don't want to apologize for it, but I don't want to be proud about it because God gave it to me. You are living in something that was given And if you don't believe that, you will be prideful. And if you believe that, if you don't believe that long enough, you'll be powerless because you'll lean on your own understanding, because you will say Jesus is Lord, but you will live like logic is Lord, and you'll always

be counting. We only have five, we only have two. This won't go so far. It's too few. It's too few. I've been studying the Bible for over half my life seriously to teach it, not just to learn it. And I've been studying the Bible over half my life not just to preach it, but to live it. One thing I found out in the Bible is that generally speaking, you can find some exceptions, but as a general principle, listen to this. God never looks at your life and says I can't do it because you have too few

of anything. God never looks at people. He never I can't find in the Bible very many times. There are a few a few, But this is one of those cases where the exception proofs the rule that mostly the Bible is about a seventy five year old man named Abraham who became a great nation. When you're seventy five, you only have a few years left when you're I could go on and on with this, y'all. When you're making a plan to save the world and you start at thirty and you're going to the cross. Why didn't

Jesus die at age seventy five? Why did he do everything that he was sent to do in three years? Even better? Why didn't he run a big campaign so he could get a big number of disciples so he could have a lot of followers if he's leaving. Why did he spend so much time with twelve men and one of them was Judas? Why did he do it in three years with twelve men and change the world. Maybe he wanted to set the model so you could

see what he can do through a few because he knew. Listen, listen, he knew that you would be in this situation in life, and you'd be saying, I don't have enough. I don't know enough, I don't have enough, I don't have enough time, I don't have enough talent. I don't have a big enough team. I'm not I don't that song. I got a really big team. I didn't make that song. I have a really small team. In fact, some of you are here today being like I have nobody, and that's

not true. But the enemy always seeks to diminish what you've been given. That's his strategy, over and over, and how many times will he do it? As many times as you'll believe it. He'll take what you have given and diminish it and shrink it, and diminish it and shrink it until you can't focus on it, until all you see in your life is what others carry, until all you see in your life is the things you don't have, until you forget the few that you do. I want to preach to you today about the few

that you do have. If that's finances, I'm talking about the few dollars you have, If that's years that you have with your kids left in the house. I want to speak about the few that you do have. If that's friends that you have who really love you, really believe in you. I want to talk about the few that you do have. If that's the things that you're good at versus the things that you're not. I want to talk about the few that you do have. That's why God used David. He knew what to do with

the few. Do you are you always waiting for something else, more and more and more, God give me more wisdom. And sometimes, God says, the problem is not that you have have too few, You got too much. You got too much. God give me more wisdom, more wisdom, more wisdom. God said. The problem isn't the absence of wisdom. The problem is that you have too many opinions. Sometimes you

have too much information. God just need to know more than I can do it now, you don't need to know more some way, leave at church on time, says I knew. I knew all that today before I came some of y'all here, like I knew all about the Ark of the Covenant. You didn't even get to the good part about tabernacle looking made for it that was awesome. Youn't talk about obid eedom we go obed, seem blessed me brought back down. You talk about that I was good. I knew all that. You knew it already. But do

you do it already? It's what you do with the few. I learned this over and over and over and over again, that sometimes I had more faith with a few than I have with more. What's that about? As few went too many, eighth went from big to little? What's that about? Because I start depending on the cart I think I need more. So I'm just challenging you this week to take what David said to your own heart when he said that God gave it to them. Look at verse

nineteen again, I gave them so many scriptures today. Yo, my fear in preaching is running out of stuff. So you should see all the scriptures we don't get to. It would give you heart palpitations to know what all they're looking through back there, because the last thing I want to get up here is fifteen minutes in and go and uh, well, I guess sir. So I'm always thinking that I don't have enough to say. Sometimes my biggest mistake in preaching is I try to say too much.

I do too much? Is the ark of covenant is to book a revelation in this temple of Daggon. And you're like, well, I just had my first cup of coffee. See, it could be just as bad to do too much. Here's David, from a shepherd to a king. And what does he go? Back to verse nineteen? He said, God spoke it when they were but what's the word few?

But few? And then he emphasizes it, watch this few. Indeed, just in case you think he's overstating it, He's like, nah, it was nothing but Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the patriarchs, and God did all this out of that. Don't get it twisted to think that I'm so great as a king. David said, no, no no, no, He did it when they were but few, so he could prove that he was faithful. And he couldn't prove that he

was faithful if he didn't do it through. If he did it through a lot, you would consult a lot of your logic and the lot of your resources. So God has you in a season right now where he is striping away some things and subtracting some things, and some people are leaving, and some things are disappearing, and some certainties are evaporating, and some things you depended on all your life are no longer able to hold you up. So God can show you what he can do a few.

It is almost like Gideon in the Old Testament, where he had thirty two thousand warriors, and the Lord said, I can't use you yet to deliver my people. Look at Judge seventy two. Why because you're not strong enough, Why because you're not smart enough. Why because you're not experienced enough? No, no no, no, He said, you have too many. So why are you praying about too few when God is talking about too many? God said, take them down

to the water. I'll find them out. I'll send home who needs to be sent home, and you'll deliver the people with three hundred men. I'm not good at math, but that's backwards. I went from thirty two thousand to three hundred. And it feels bad to go backwards. And you've been going backwards, and you've been feeling bad about it. But praise the Lord, because praise paves a way for the provision of God to be revealed in your life through the few, through the few, say it through the few,

through the few. I don't have that much. You don't need that much. You don't need what you think you need. I promise you, I promise you. You don't need what you think you need to do what God has called you to do. Because if you needed what you think you need to do what God had called you to do, and he's the one who called you to do it, he would have given you what you think you need to do what He's called you to do, because he's the one who called you to do it. He doesn't

promise stuff that he doesn't provide for. Oh, if I was more even tempered, No, no, no, you need a little bit of that oom. All right, we're gonna subdue it and submit it and we're going to train it to the Holy Spirit. But you need some of that. You're gonna get some self control, but you need some of that. Oh, if I could do this, if I could do that, if I could be more like this. I went to when I first went to Shelby, I went to a music director. This guy was a legend.

He was the best musician that at that point in my life I had ever met. He played in studios, he played on people's albums. And here I was asking him to come be my keyboard player at a church of just a few hundred people, just a few hundred. Everybody around me told him he won't do it. He doesn't need to be on some church band. He won't play on a church stage. I said, well, let me just go talk to him, and I said, I know

that you probably won't do it. You know, by the way, you'll never get a date if you come up with this kind of confidence. I was like, I know you probably don't want to do it. But before I finished, she said, yeah, I'll do it. I said, I can only pay you this much, and it was just a few I was gonna pay him for a week what he could get in an hour. He saw, I do it. I've been praying about that. Okay, just start doing Every week. I go over to his house. And it was such

a trip, y'all because I would teach him the songs. Now, let me explain to you, I don't have much musical training. Just the chords I learned on my guitar when I was a boy, and that's it. Now. I know those four chords really well. But I learned to play guitar off Green Day, Huh not Boch Hootie and the Blowfish. That's how I learned to play guitar. But I know what I know. So I'd go over to his house. He had a little studio in his house, and I would sit down with him. His name was Richard, still

is Richard. But I sit down with Richard and I take the little chord charts over. I say, let's go over these songs for the week. Not because he needed to learn him just we were getting it all charted out and he would chart it for me and everything. I would always apologize to him. I always felt bad because he's such a great musician. I mean, he knows jazz, he knows rock, he knows country. He can play anything by ear or by sight. And here I am with a G and a C and D and A and

that's the whole song. And I say, I'm so sorry, Richard. I know this is so simple, this is so stupid me sitting here a great musician like you. I don't even know all the chords that you know. And one day he stopped me. He says, Stephen, stop thinking. Everybody I am personate has a country accent, right, Stephen. He said, you don't need to know more chords, the right four. And then he started. He gave me a tutorial. He started playing songs with the four chords that I used

over and over again. And he showed me at least twenty songs that use those four chords only, and every time he would do it would drive the message home a little bit more. You only need four, You only need four. Then he played again. It was just a one, five, six, four. That's the notation the Nashville number system, right, It's the one, the five, the six, and the four. And he showed me with those four chords, you can write a number one hit. It's not how many chords you know, it's

how you use the ones you know. Hey, hey, I'm not preaching to everybody today. Few, just a few that had been going around saying, God, I don't know enough, i don't have enough. I have been trained enough. I'm not good enough. I'm not sleeping enough. That must be a parent of a newborn or a dog. God, I'll have enough. And Richards showed me you only need four chords. You only need four. I'll prove it. When God got ready to turn on the lights of the solar system.

He said, four words, let there be light. Four words, and the lights came on. Four words, and the world was illuminated four words, and the darkness had to back up. You only need four. You only need four. You only need for play a DLJ. You only need four. You could do more with four. You could be faithful with you, He taught me. Four chords can do so much. So follow me. I'm gonna do it on the spot, and then I'm gonna close. But I'm gonna show you before

I close, what you can do with four. If everybody on the worship team went out and got Salmonila, just keep making up horrible stuff to happen to the worship team, all right, And I knew four chords, What could I do? I could say, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, four course, just to rest upon his promise, Just to know th saith the Lord. Four course Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him,

how I've proved him? Or and or Jesus, Jesus prayscious Jesus, this is what we need more of, Oh for grace, to trust him more. You don't need more stuff. You need more faith, h fourpos purpose, one name, my Jesus. I love THEE. I know Thou art mine for THEE all the fires of sin. I resign my gray suss redeemer, my Savior are if I love my Gesus? Just now see four course and we could go. What a friend we haven't changed keys four courts. You don't need more courts.

You need more faith, you'll need more time, you need more focus. You might not even need more money. You might just even need better priorities. What a friend we have in Geesus, all our sense and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry h e fathing to God in prayer. Here's the problem listen. Oh, oh yeah, I know where the courts go. Oh what peace we often for fit? And oh what needless pain? Me ben, And here's why we've been stressed out, Oh, because we do

not give everything to God in prayer. I know a few. I know a few courts, I know a few truths. I know a few things. I know what to do with a few. I know what to do with the few. He was faithful with the few. God will give you what you need. Here. I am to worship here, I am too bout here I am to say that you're myga. You're all together, loving, all together, worthy, all together wonderful to me. I need a few of you to stand and see it. Here. I am to worship here, I

am here. You say you're host ah, A few of you really been carrying a lot. Lift your hands up and give it to God. Here rides here. Here say your send chords new songs, say and exhaustthy ah. Come on, let's livet Jesus high in this place today. Come on, He's worthy of praise. 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.

You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevation Church dot org, slash give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast