FLEX 💪 SPACE

of my preaching time. That bass guitar in Shae Wooten's hands is dangerous. He does these little leaks that make me start singing again, and I'm not going to fall for it. The devil is a liar, all right. He's got hair like Jesus, but he's acting like Judas right now. He's trying to betray me. Oh, if you know the joy of the Lord is in this place. If the joy of the Lord is your strength, come on and

give God your favorite emoji. I don't know your favorite emoji, but if it is church appropriate, put it in the chat. I want to see you. I want to see you. You want to fight me, devil, you gotta fight my friend. I love it. My friend's name was Ish Hall. Remember Ish. He was the biggest, the biggest, baddest dude. And I was like, Hey, if you start any ish with me, you got to go through Ish to finish it. How many know that if if the Devil started it, God

is gonna finish it. Bad no way, way, way, way way, no way. Do we need to pray? Lord? I pray for Pastor Steve, and he appears to be losing his mind in quarantine. I'm kind of glad to lose my mind. My mind is always overthinking and overanalyzing and making up stories. I want to live from my spirit. I want to see what God is showing me. I want to hear

what God is speaking Lord. In these moments we have gathered together, we would much prefer to be together in a watch party in Chicago, or maybe in a building at our Concord location or our Greenville location. We barely got to start that campus and we had to close it because of quarantine. But we thank you Lord that you are still making a way for us to meet together, and we will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

That might look like buildings in one season, and it may look like streams and screens in the next season. That's not our concern. But in this moment we have decided to meet with you. I thank you for my brother and my sister on the other side of this screen. Right now. I pray that you would connect us by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the words I speak today would go straight to their heart. Do a bypass surgery, bypass all the beliefs that would keep them

from hearing what you want to say. Get into the place where they can, where they can receive your word, receive a revelation. We give you all the glory today. We thank you that Holli Ferdick looks better at forty than she did when I met her. I thank you Lord that you gave me a wife who she only goes from glory to glory, from pretty to pretty, from strength to strength. We bless her today before her fortieth birthday, that the best is yet to that her ministry has

just begun. We thank you for the words she delivered to us last week. She told us how you are the bread God. Would you continue to feed her? Speak to her nourish her as she refreshes us, may she herself be refreshed. We thank you for what she means to our church community around the world. Bless her so much that she has to ask you to stop. Give her a good measure, press down, shaking together, running over, In Jesus' name, I pray the same thing over your

life today. Put it in the chat. Which one you like the best? Good measure, pressed down, shaking together, running over? Pick one. I gave you four options. Good measure, pressed out, shaking together, running over, Good measure, pressed out, shaking together, running over. Put it in the chack. God is with you. What a mighty god we serve. Anybody who loves him, say amen at the top of your voice. I love him. I love him so much. I don't know if you

are ready to receive this word today. It's probably too encouraging for you. You probably don't want to be encouraged. You probably want to be scared watching the news or something like that, hearing them talk about all of bad things that might happen. But I thought, you know, we're all get in our fill of that anyway. I want to bring you a good report today, A good report and let me share this passage. It's a very, very

very beautiful selection of scripture. Indeed, one of the most foundational for me in understanding faith and even in church leadership. How many times have you heard me talk about Isaiah fifty four where he says to the nation of Israel that I want you to enlarge and expand your frame of reference. And I believe God is going to show you some opportunities today that you haven't been seeing. He's going to show you, by the spirit, some opportunities that

your mind has been unable to recognize. One opportunity that you have right now is to invite somebody to join in this worship experience. I'm going to give you just a moment to find Isaiah fifty four and also to invite someone to join with you. Send them a text message say come to church with me. They're going to be like I didn't think we were allowed to go to church. Let me get my mask ready, let me

get dressed. I'm not dressed to be like. You don't even have You don't need a mask, you don't need mascara, you need anything. But God has a message for you today. If you know somebody who's trying to put their life back together. Text them right now or share this on your social media. Put it on your story right now, because there is a word from the Lord. I'm giving you a minute. Text me if the people are sharing or not. I can't see whether or not they're sharing,

so give me a statistic real quick. Do you remember that show with Diddy where he was shut down the studio if they didn't do what he wanted. I'm gonna shut down the pulpit until y'all share this link. God bless Shawn Combs Isaiah fifty four, verse one, Sing baron woman, you who never bore a child, burst into song, shout for joy? Why y'all waiting? We just said, don't wait. Shout now. I read you a scripture. What are y'all waiting for? One thousand people? Two thousand people in the room,

he said, Sing barn woman and shout for joy. I know it's gonna scare your kids, but shout real quick, come on, shout a shout of joy. You've been yelling at your kids all week to clean up, But shout right now, he said, because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband. Enlarge the place of your tent. Look at somebody and say, you look bigger than the last time I saw you. You were scared to say that to your wife, weren't you, Josh.

That's wisdom, brother, enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch your tent curtains wide, Do not hold back. Strengthen your chords, or rather, lengthen your chords. Strengthen your steaks. Lengthen your cords. Strengthen your steaks. We're going to talk about those words in a moment. For you will spread out to the right and to the left. Tell somebody I need room. I need room. Well, y'all got plenty of it out there today. For your descendants will dispossess nations and settle

in their desolate cities. Do not be afraid. You will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace. You will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth, and remember no more at the reproach of your widowhood. I want to speak to you from an unusual title today, but those of you in the construction industry, or if you've been renovating a house, or maybe you're looking at buying a house. Maybe this term will be

a little more familiar. And since we've all been at home a lot lately, more than usual, I thought I would use as a title for this sermon, flex space. Flex space. You may be seated, Go get your stools and come back. Ten nine eight seven six five. I don't think they're going to beat the buzzer on this one. I wanted to tell you a story I I don't know if you've ever heard this one for when we were trying to get the Matthews Plaza where our offices are.

Now you only know those as the offices of Elevation Church, But it used to be an Ashley Furniture warehouse, and then there was a couple other stores. Okay, now stores were these things that we used to go into to buy supply. Oh man, The story, though, Abby goes like this, and then you can ask mister Chunks later if I'm getting all the details right. But we were planning to rent about forty two thousand square feet to make it our offices and to have our Matthews campus back in

two thousand and seven. In two thousand and seven, now, some of y'all are just new to this ministry, and you've never been to one of our physical locations. Because now we have EPAM all over the world and God is redefining what church is as we speak. We're excited about that because our old preconceptions about needing to gather together in a physical space to have a spiritual connection were so limited that God did not place those limitations on his church to begin with. He told Abram, go

to the land. I'll show you, and I'm going to make you a blessing to the whole earth. He told Joshua, everywhere you put your foot, I'm going to give it to you. So God is not confined to a location. We've just been confined to a mindset for so long that God is exploding some of our limitations in this season because he wants out of the box. Nevertheless, we needed an office space. God doesn't need an office. The earth is his footstool, but we need a desk and

internet connection. So we thought it'd be great because we could get this forty two thousand square feet rent it. The church was growing and exploding, and listen, you need to know some of the history of the church, because there are tens of thousands of new family members that were welcoming to Elevation Church. Over the course of the last sixty six days, since we have not been able to meet physically, God has increased our reach like never before. It's just like him to use a shut down to

show off all ain't ready for me. So we were going to raise some money, which you have to have to rent space. Okay, God inhabits the praises of his people, but if you want to inhabit a physical space, God inhabits the rent payment and then you get to go there. That's how that works. It's transactional. And we set up a meeting to take our donors over to the space where we were going to lease forty two thousand square feet and we were going to show them the space

and ask them to pay for it. Okay, I know you probably remember certain moments in your life where you got the worst news of your life, and I want you to think about it right now. It's going to bring the mood way down. We've been having fun so far. This is going to be very much a slam on the brakes moment, but I want you to do it anyway. Think of the worst news that you ever got in your life. This is not the worst news I ever got in my life. At the time it was in

the top five. A lot of crap has happened since then. I don't even think this makes the top fifty. Now at age forty, Live a little while, and it'll demote the things. You know, God, this is a disaster. Live a little while, you'll be saying that was a mild disappointment, that was a temporary setback, or you might even say that was actually a blessing in disguise. Give it time,

That's what I'm trying to say. Give it time, and upon reflecting on some of the events of your life, you can see how the spaces where you thought God had left you were actually the setups for him to do some of the greatest things he did in your life. And So Chunks, who's our CFO. That's not his legal name, but he goes by Chunks. James is his legal name. But this day I wanted to throw him out of my office because he brought me some bad news. And he walked in my office Abby and told me the

deal is dead. Don't he said, don't get too upset, because I've done everything I can do. Don't throw anything at me. It's not my fault. But there is a tenant in the strip, mall am I saying this right, there's a tenant in the plaza that doesn't want us to meet there, and they have an option in their least to say that we can't meet there, and they've decided to exercise their right to say we can't meet. And I said, well, who can we call? He said, I can't call anybody. Can we call ghost No, it

can't call Ghostbusters, can't call anybody. There's nothing left to do. The deal is dead. I said, okay, and he said, I guess I'll go ahead and cancel the buses. And now I don't know what it came over me next, because I don't always have this much faith. I usually don't have this much faith, but something in me. Have you ever had something in you tell you that although everything seems to be against you, that God is for you.

And see in these moments where you feel that on the inside you don't even know how God is going to do it, but something in you becomes so convinced that neither life nor death, nor angels nor demons, nor the present, nor the future, nor the past, nor any other power shall be able to separate me. So something on the inside of me in that moment. I need you to get this stood up against what was going

on around me at the moment. And although I didn't understand what was going on around me, what was inside of me? And I almost like felt myself saying do you ever watch yourself saying stuff? And it's like you're having an out of body experience and you're like, who even is this talking right now? And I said to him, don't cancel anything going anyway. What are we going over there to do? I said, I don't know, yeah, but

don't cancel the buses. We had two buses booked. Apparently they were booked on a low budget because they had no air conditioning. It was a Carolina muggy summer when we loaded up our donors and said we are taking you over to a building tonight and we are going to pray. Now. We didn't march around the building seven times or anything like that because we didn't want it to fall down. We just wanted God to let us in.

But we got down and we prayed. And I will never forget the sight because some of you come on this church and you're like in a consumer mode, and you don't know this part of the faith that it took for this family to exist all around the world. When they got down on their knees in the loading dock of the Matthews Plaza and prayed, God make a way. And I need somebody to pray that right now, just as boldly as you can. God make away. Now. See the thing about praying God make away is you don't

get to define the way that He makes. So we prayed, and I think they have a picture of the plaza. I want to just show you something. This is where we were, and this is what it looked like. And now go to the next picture. This is what it is. I thought y'all would holler for y'ahweigh on that one. I thought y'all would shout to the Lord like Darlene check in nineteen ninety six, because show them the first one again, that's what it was. You can't get in

and here's what it is. Every time I drive up to our offices, I have to remember that between what it was go back and what it is was a space where I did not know what God was doing. Why are you talking to me about an office plaza? I'm not. I'm talking to you about this season of your life, and God told me to call it flex space. Flex space, the space between. Give them the pictures one more time, please the space between. Go to the second one, and that this and that. Don't worry. I'm not raising

any money. We don't even have, can't even go in our buildings right now. I don't need to buy one. This is not a message about buildings. This is a message about belief, about belief. And it was so cool when Chunks was showing me all the plans for when we finally were able to rent the space, because he called me one morning and said the tenant that didn't want us in just went out of business. I'm not saying that God put them out of business. I'm just saying that God made a way. I'm not here to

tell you the details of how he did. How many of you know. I'm not saying that I deserve it. I'm just saying I've got it. I'm not saying that it all makes sense. I'm just saying I have faith. Granma, my preaching too hard for these quarantine Christians. I'm not saying it's not scary. I'm just saying God is with me. I can't explain that, but I got it. So he was showing me how on the blueprint because I'm not very good at visualizing. This isn't my expertise. This is

Josh Blackson and chunks. They were showing me the square footage that we were going to take over. We don't own forty two thousand square feet of it. We don't rent any of it. We own one hundred and four thousand square feet of it because God blessed us so much that we're able to use all of it to get the gospel out all over the world. That's not

my point. My point is this. When he was showing me the square footage, there was one piece that when we were buying the property, we were buying the entire one hundred and forty thousand square feet. I said, what about that space because it didn't have anything in it. This was going to be the creative office, and this was going to be the auditorium, and this was going to be the meeting room, and this was going to be the conference room. I said, what about this space?

And there was a blank part right there where it was just all this square footage that I said, we We're just going to waste all that space. Now, Keshu's revelation. He said, no, it's not wasted space. That's flex space. I said, uh huh, And I know what flex space is, but just so I can hear your definition of it, What exactly do you mean when you say flex space? And he didn't know it. He thought he was talking about a building, but he wasn't. He was talking about faith.

He thought he was showing me a floor plan, but really he was showing me faith. He thought he was pointing to a blueprint, but really he was teaching me something about belief. He said, we want to leave this space empty on purpose, so we can grow into it. You remember saying all this, You said something like this. This is the edited version, he said, because he didn't probably say it this eloquently, but this is how I heard it. Okay. He said, this space can be anything

we want. So at the time, look how it look. This was the Ashley Furniture showroom. Look at that. I said, we're gonna waste all that space. We're not putting anything in it. He said, it's not wasted, it's flex space. It's designed to be flexible. We don't want to put permanent fixtures in this place yet because we don't know what it needs to be based on how God is going to bless our ministry, so we don't know what ministry is exactly going to look like. But we're gonna leave.

We're gonna go ahead and take the space over, but we're not going to assign a purpose for it. He said, it's flex space. Now. In the last few years, let me show you what I've seen. Next picture, I've seen this space become an opportunity for us to stage and set up campuses. You went too far, go back. This is the equipment that is going out to one of our campuses that we started in the last few years

flex space. Do you see all of those cases. That's our teams getting ready to send out equipment to our location so we can have church. Now, we didn't even know we were starting the location yet when we were dayed the space as flex space. But God knew the space that we would need for the opportunity. We didn't

even know we would have. Next picture, this is our Love Week team where we served our city over one hundred thousand hours with Jamie Waldron's air pods Beta air Pods with the cord in our ears, smiling because we're feeding the hungry, and we're touching the people who know nobody else is touching, and we're moving from this space. This is not a warehouse, it's a headquarters. It's a staging room. The stage is being set for compassion to

be released. Next picture. I saw our staff worship in this space as we were growing and expanding, and what looked like it was wasted was a stage that God was setting. How many No, he takes what the enemy means for evils. So he told me that Abby, He said, that's called flex space. Flex space. Isaiah's preaching about flex space to the nation of Israel. See, because this is a very encouraging scripture on the surface, let's read it again.

Sing O baron, sing for you're about to have more children than the woman who had children by natural means. But I need you to sing before you see. I got to tell you this because it's just been going through my mind all week. Whatever you do, whatever the enemy takes away from you in this season, For some of you, he's limited your mobility. Your business is three quarters of what it was, or one quarter of what

it was, or for some of you. You know, in this season, it's almost like you lost all the progress that you made on the last level. Did you ever have somebody cut off your video game and you lost your progress? That is kind of what the devil did and come along and unplugged it while we were in

the middle. And Graham's looking at his mom right now, because sometimes she'll call him to come take out the trash and he'll say, Mom, I'm losing and I'm gonna lose all my progress, and she just shout back, I don't care about your progress. I care about this trash, and I am calling you to a higher level of responsibility. I'm more concerned about this kitchen being a mess than I am about your progress with your Fortnite and your Donkey Kong multi generational sermon. But listen to me. Are

you listening to me? If you're listening, say man, in this season of feeling like you've lost some progress, oh man, I was just getting here. And I even heard somebody say to me the other day, I was just getting in shape and they closed the gym. You can't do pushups. Somebody else was telling me the other day. They said, they said communication has gotten harder during this time, because you can't see anybody face to face. I said, what is this nineteen seventy two. When's the last time you

saw anybody face to face? Anyway? But see how excuses come in to keep us from expanding. Excuses come in to keep us from expanding. And instead of saying, what's another way I could do this? Instead of saying, you know, how could God? How could God actually take what the enemy means for evil and turn it for good? We wed ourselves to what it was, thereby prohibiting the potential

for it to be transformed. And the thing that I wanted to say to somebody is, whatever you lose in this season, whatever the devil takes, whatever the quarantine takes, whatever the virus takes, whatever it takes, don't you ever let the devil have your song? Your song? And I know, I know you don't sing very good, but you still need to sing. I asked one of my friends one time, why don't you sing along in church? He goes, I love the church and I love the music so much.

I said, that's weird because I always watch you and you never sing. He said, well, I'm not a good singer. And he said sometimes I don't want to sing it. If I don't mean it, I said, tell me more about that second part. And I know you're not a good singer. I've known that for a long time. But the second one, what do you mean? He said, Well, when we're singing something like you can have it all here, I am you can have it all. That's a newer song that we've been singing called Available Here. I am

you can have it all, he said. If I don't mean that, I don't want to sing it. I don't know if the Lord gave me this or if it was just my idea. I said, well, then sing it till you mean it, Sing it till you do mean it, Sing it till you do mean it. When you start singing, it might be like a car that's kind of slow to start up on a Michigan January fourteenth morning, and it might go and your praise might be like that. You know, it might take a little while to start up.

Let's be honest, some of y'all are just starting to listen to the sermon. You have been running around. And one of the things that I love about this this time where we can't meet together, is it is teaching you to multipurpose your home as a house for God's presence to dwell. Now, one thing that I pray does

not happen. Whenever we can come back together physically. I hope you don't shut the church down in your home, because the same way the Church is coming into your home right now, your car, right now, your kitchen, right now. That's what God wants to do. Psalm twenty two to three says he inhabits the praises of his people. Say it, He inhabits the praises of his people. God lives where

praise does. God lives, Where praise does God lives, where gratitude is Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and enter his courts with praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name. He inhabits the praises of his people. So what I do when I praise God, even if I don't feel it. When I praise Him, I set the stage for the feeling to come when I praise Him by faith. And He inhabits the praises of his people. I need everybody to do me a favor. We do me a favor.

I'm preaching as hard as I can preach. I'm giving you everything I have. I've been up here for the last sixty six days of quarantine, giving you the Word of God, doing everything I know how to do for you. But now I need you to do something for me. I want you to take your phone, or if you're watching this on a phone, take somebody else's phone, or if you could just turn it off for one second and do what I'm about to tell you to do,

then in turn it back on. I want you to take a picture of where you are watching this sermon and where you are worshiping God, and where you are praising God. And I want you to take a selfie of it real quick. And I want you to tag me on Instagram stories or on Facebook, or just tell me in the comments of YouTube. But I want you to tell me because I want see where God went this morning. I want to see where God went this evening. I want to see a picture of a place where

the presence of God was. Where you realize, like Jacob, surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. And when you put your picture up and when you tag me, say God was here. God was here. God was here. God was here. I didn't go to church to meet with God. God came to me. I didn't work my way to God. Grace came down, breaking out of heaven and save my soul. Now, don't let the devil take your song. He's taking it off. Give him a soud of praise right now, right now, right now.

Come on, that's not just the living room. That's flex space. That's flex face. You didn't know when you were building your house or signing the leaks on your apartment it was gonna be a church. But God did his flex face. Watch this, oh zeke, I appreciate you being a multi purpose worshiper. He said, I can sing where I can serve. I'm flexible. Somebody say I'm flexible. Look how he'd been down and picked that up. I didn't even know he was that fast. I didn't know your hamstrings for that loose.

He just bent down. Come on, let's do a flex test. How flexible are you? How flexible is your faith? Can you touch your toes? Get up and let me see you stretched. Come on, you've been closed up. The nation has been closed down, your faith has been closed up. But if you'll get moving, God will start working. Seesus on the inside, working on the outside. Come on, I'm singing, I'm stretching. What can we do? Come on, get them up,

Get them up. My faith is flexible. I am not bound to what I thought God was going to do. My plans changed, but Gods don't my plans. See was his plan a good? What's wrong with y'all? Y'all are supposed to be on lockdown. They didn't tell you it was lockdown. You are not give me your attention real quick, class. This behavior is inappropriate. You are supposed to be afraid. You are supposed to be captive in Babylon. Don't you know? Did I say A fifty four was not written on

the beach? It was not written when the dow Jones was at thirty thousand. Don't you know that Isaiah was a prophet, and the job of the prophet is to give people a vision that is not dependent on a situation. Don't you know that The only reason Isaiah was able to say, you can sing when you're barn, and you can sing when you're scared, and you can sing and you can praise, and you can get a thought and let it flood your mind. The only reason he was able to see that in Isaiah fifty four is because

he saw it. In Isaiah six. He said, I see the Lord seated on a throne high and lifted up in the king in the year King. Issaiah died, I feel like preaching now. I don't know what happened to me today, but I've been I've been in the house long enough. I've been I've been listening to the wrong voices long enough. I've been trying to worry and figure it out long enough. And God said, this is a space. I am creating space. Look, Isaiah said, the captivity is

an opportunity. Okay, so the nation of Israel, please let me teach. This is getting completely out of hand. The nation was in captivity for seventy years. It hasn't even been seventy days since we stopped having physical church. And some people not you. I mean, you're watching, right, you're here, You're good. Send this over to the person who isn't watching, because they had to keep hope for seventy years that what Isaiah spoke would come to pass. That sounds so sexy.

And this is where we really need to deconstruct the context in order to underst than the premise. When Isaiah says seeing barren woman. He's not talking about a physical pregnancy. He's talking about a nation. You will remember that the nation of Israel was started in the womb of a barren woman. God was trying to show us something from the jump. He's trying to show us from the jump that he fills the space as we call empty. We're gonna waste all that space. No, we're going to use it.

We're gonna use what you thought was wasted. We're going to use what you thought was wasted. I wonder is that what God is saying to you today, that what you thought was wasted. God is going to use watch this to show himself strong flex space. He gave them a weird command, and he gave them this command. This what was interesting. Two hundred years before it would come to pass. Isaiah did not even live to see what he spoke of. He spoke of, Jesus, build a virgin,

will conceive embarrasson whose name will be a man? You want the Grovern movie up on his shoulders. Isaiah said that, but he never saw it. He said stuff that he never saw. He said stuff that he never saw. And isn't that The challenge of faith is to keep speaking and believing what God showed you. God, give me a vision. I need a vision or I'll get distracted. I need a vision or I'll get discouraged. I need a vision or I'll die. Where there is no vision, the people perish.

A lot of us are dying right now because we lost sight of what God spoke seventy years of exile. By the time that they were taken captive into Babylonia, everything they knew as a way of life was destroyed. To the time that the first exiles came back was seventy years. You know, Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven, did you ever have it on a cross stitch or a quilt or a Bible memory scripture page. I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and

not to harm you. After seventy years, the plan became a parent. That means it took an entire lifetime for them to see what God spoke. And here's what I'm trying to say. It may take our whole lives before we make sense of certain things, but it is not wasted. I'm preaching this to somebody. I got somebody on my

mind right now. Your life was not wasted. Before you were four in the womb, God knew you, and God knew what would happen to you, and God knew what would not come to pass that you planned on, and he knows the plans that He has for you. And what you've been calling wasted God sees as a stage. Can I take it a little bit deeper? One prophet said to the king that the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro all over the earth, searching to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts

are fully committed to him. Let's work backwards. Your heart is fully committed to God. That's the space that you've given him. How much space have you given God to work in your life? Or do you keep secret corners for yourself. God, I'm gonna trust you with this much, but not that much. God. I'm gonna give you this part, but not that part. God. I'm gonna let you in here, but I'm gonna fake it over here. God, I'm gonna go this far, but if this happens, I'm gonna start

pulling back. Isaiah said, don't hold back, because the part of your heart that you don't give God becomes enemy. Held territory. And that's where doubt takes over, and that's where fear takes over. And that's why you can't seem to get short. Mine's straight because you gave God's territory to your enemy. But today we came to take it back. Here's my heart, Lord, he wants to show himself strong. Somebody say strong, strong. For those whose hearts are committed strong,

go ahead, make a muscle, say strong strong. God wants to give you a strong heart. God said, the space in your life where you don't know what I'm gonna do next, that's the flex space. That's the flex your muscle real quick. If you got one, come on, flex it. If you don't have one, give me an emoji if you don't like the one you got, but you want to use the one that's on the screen. Somebody say flex I find out God loves to show off. God likes to take a nine foot giant down through a

five foot three little boy. Why the differential between the size of my giant and the size of me is God's flex space. God said, I'm coming into your situation. I'm breaking through like I'm strong and mighty. The Lord is my name. I know We're not supposed to flex in church, but let's flex on the devil real quick in the name of the Lord. Come on, I'm not backing down from any giant. I'm not backing down from uncertainty. I'm not walking away from my promises. Flex space, flex space, God,

I love it. Graham, stand up in flex flex space. Son. There are gonna be times in your life where you feel weak. But guess what Paul said. When I am weak, he is, so guess what your weakness is. Huh, what is it? What kind of space? Flex You mean my weakness is in wasted No, it's not wasted space. It's flex space. Come on, instruments, do I have to tell you what to do. God inhabits the praises of his people. Let's take twenty seconds and praise him that twenty twenty

is not wasted. It's a setup flex space. You gotta stop acting like you're so perfect so God can have some flex space. He can't operate, He can't be strong while you're pretending to be. You need to come before God and say I need you like I needed that breath. I need you, God, I need you. This is not the time to hold back Isaiah said, he said, strengthen your steaks linked in your course. Strengthen and stretch. Strengthen and stretch, strengthen and stretch. It's no good to have

strong faith if it's not flexible faith. Because he has strong faith. But your confidences and circumstances. What are you gonna do when they threw Paul in prison? Say the word from two weeks ago, apple kara doquilla. Don't even try on dictionary dot com. It's a Greek word and it's not even a real Greek word. Paul made it up. He was saying, look at the scripture from Philippians one twenty. This is the fourth week of a series. Y'all thought the series was over, but it's not. This is the

flex space, This is the extra bonus sermon. I don't even know if I'll stop this week, because I feel God is doing every time we expose our old normal to God's king order, our hearts grow, our faith grows. Don't you feel it? God is growing your heart. God is growing your capacity to trust him. But he needed an uncertain place, like Paul needed a prison. So Paul's in prison, and you know the church is praying get him out, Get him out, Get him out, Get him out,

get him out, get him out. Take it away, Take it away, Take it away, Take it away, Take it away, take it away. Everybody's always praying about that, circumstantial prayers. You know, is that my sweat on the ground. Look at that, Chris. That's amazing. Yeah. I found it interesting that Paul decided to multipurpose his prison cell and turn it into a pulpit. He said in Philippians one twenty. He said, I know that no matter what happens to me, circumstantially,

that what is within me can withstand. I know this from my experience, and I know this from my revelations. So I eagerly expect. Have you got the verse on the lower third? I eager Is it up on the on the screen? I look at it? Is it up there? That's the feed right there? Is it on the screen? Yeah? Put it up Philippians one twenty. I need it up there. I need it up there. Somebody say, flex face, flex face, He says, I eagerly expect. Y'all got Philippians one twenty

for me? Is up? Is up? Are you ready? I gotta get you to see this? Eagerly expect apple kara dokia. Apple means to turn away, ignoring other interests. That's the prefix kara means head. We could use this to understand Paul's not talking about a physical situation, is he? Because when he says apple kara dokia, dokia means to stretch forward. And I know Paul never met Isaiah, but it's almost

like they collaborated on these two scriptures. Because Paul is doing for the gospel in p what Isaiah was prophesying to the nation in Babylon. He's stretching, stretching. You know why all of the planners are having heart palpitations right now. It's like this season that we've been in, it is punishing the planners. The procrastinators are loving quarantine. It's like, yeah, let's go, let's go. I'm suffering for the Lord. You're not suffering for the Lord. You're eating ice cream and

loving it. You haven't been out of your pajamas in four days. Even watching this church you are loving it. But see Paul. We talk a lot about Paul's faith, right Oh man, he went through a shipwreck. He wasn't trying to get in a shipwreck, but he was flexible enough to know that even if the boat breaks, I won't drown. We admire people with strong faith, people who set a goal and reach it, who have a vision

and make it happen. But I found out that the people whose faith is the strongest is strong because they stretched it. They stretched it. He said. It's flex space. It's flex space. The seventy years is flex space. Your life is a breadth. It's flex space. God is trying to take your life and show the world what he can do through a heart that is committed to him. He wants to show himself strong. He said. Strengthen your

stakes and stretch your chords. And as you stretch your chords, you're strengthening your stakes because your faith can never be in a circumstance. It must be in the character of Christ revealed in you. This is flex space, is not wasted. Paul said, I eagerly expect apple kara Dokia is the Greek word, and I hope that I will in no way be a shit. You know what happens in our life. This is what Isaiah was saying. He was saying, you need to keep expanding your expectation. Expand your expectation to

include what you did not plan for. Because God is going to work in everything. By the time this is over, after seventy years are completed, God is going to work it all in. And this is what it means to say that all things work together. It is to say God, here is the space I don't understand. So now let me get real personal. What is that space for you today? What is that space for you today? You've already turned

your living room into a church. You're halfway there. Some of you already turned your hospital room into a sanctuary. You're halfway there. It's flex space. You get the picture. You didn't know this would be church, but it is. You didn't know God was gonna show up in your living room, but he did. And you didn't know God was going to use this trial in your life to make your faith strong. But he is his flex space, his flex space in my weakness. He is strong in

my uncertainty. My faith grows. It's flex space. Don't you feel it getting stronger. Blessed are the flexible, for their faith cannot be broken. That's a beatitude that I just made off. Blessed are the flexible God. I didn't think it would look this way. God, I thought I'd be married by now. God I thought my marriage would be different. God, I thought I was going on a honeymoon to Europe. God, I didn't know about backyard was gonna be my vacation.

This summer is flex space. God's about the so off watch us. I learned this from last rece. When he doesn't show up when you want him, it's because he's gonna show off when he comes. Hit a lick l J is flex space. Four days dead, rolled the stone away up in the grate, coming out. I needs some flex space. He inhabits the praises of his people. He flat, he flat, He inhabits the praises of his people. Would you give him praise right where you are? Thank you Jesus.

That Paul turned a prison into a puppet. It's a flex space. That Babylon became a testing ground for faith is flex space. And in this season, I'm not shrinking up because of shame. I'm stretching forth by faith. The strength is in the stretch. Don't tell me how strong your faith is because you imagine something and it happened just like you imagined. Tell me how strong your faith is when it happened exactly the opposite of the way you saw it going. But you didn't let the devil

take over your imagination. You still stretched forward your faith Apple kru Dokia to a greater day, a brighter horizon, a higher hope. How many have hope today? How many have an eager expectation of faith? So God said, I'm about to show off in the situation, in the space that you make for me. Have you made space for him? God can only feel what we bring him. Whereas your mind still so crowded with the expectations that you had that God can't bless you with the blessing that he

wants to bring. I feel God filling somebody's heart right now. Your heart is his flex space. They don't let the devil have have God's territory. Are you crazy? Isaiah said, you will dispossess nations. That means you've got to kick him out. That means you've got to eliminate the enemy to reclaim your imagination. Eliminate the enemy to reclaim your imagination. Get out of here. This is God's face, this is flex space. You can't have it. You can't have it, devil.

You can't have my song. You can't have my hope. I'm turning away from other interests Apple, and I'm stretching my head Karl Dokiah in the direction faith so to a community that would be completely shut down by exile. Stand up on your feet right where you are. I don't care if you're watching this on the archive. If you want to pull your car over and you're listening on a podcast on Spotify or Apple, do it. This word is coming to your Car's coming to your situation.

It's coming to your hopelessness. It's coming to your disappointment. It's coming to your tomb. It's coming to your tears. It's coming to your trauma. It's coming to your setback. It's coming to a recession. It's coming to your sickness. It's coming. Make room for it is a flex space. God, do what you want to do. And you know what. I keep turning because I want to say it and I can't remember how God gave it to me. God always changes my message right before I come out a

little bit. I think it's because he wants flex space. I think we need to leave God a little room of how we want our kids to turn out while we're raising them, and give him some flex space. Maybe God doesn't want my kids to be a preacher, so maybe I shouldn't tell them one day that they have to be preachers. Maybe they can do something else for God and it'll be even greater flex space. Have you given God any room to show off in your life? Or have you got him in a little tiny box?

And if he doesn't do it just like you wanted him to do it, can God encourage you through anyone? Or do you only let him encourage you through people that you have pre selected as those that you receive validation from, or can he use someone else? It's not wasted, it's flex space. Waiting isn't wasted. That's flex face. That's where faith grows. That's where hope is illuminated. You hear the word of the Lord, Barb. It's flex space. No, we don't understand. It's been two years that you've been

living with this. Two years then to find out what you found out this week. But I'm telling you God is about to God is about to show his power through you to you. I'm telling you, Barbara, He's about to use you in an amazing way. There will be glory after this. There will be glory after this, so you keep stretching and don't Hey, the devil, the devil took your brother, but don't let him take your song. You can't have my song. No, no, no, no, you can't have my joy. God's about to show off in

my life. God's and I'm gonna keep singing. I still got a song. Come on, somebody, I still got a song. I still got a song. How many of you still have hands? Lift them? How many of you still got hands? Clap them? How many of you still have a mouth? Magnify the Lord with me? He's great. Hey, family, this is a family. Number one wanted to say, wanted the same number one. I think I just screamed my voice

into every country that's watching this on YouTube. Make sure you let me know in the comments where you watched from if you made it to the end of the message, and give me one of these GiMA flex, Graham coome On flex on the Devilish holly Don Flex. You're driving remember Holly terms forty this week. Maybe you're watching this long after, but I just wanted to thank you. Thanks for subscribing, thank you for following, thank you for giving. You're amazing and this time it's so important that we

continue to create opportunities of O, there's the camera. I was looking at the wrong place. Look at the camera. That we continue to create opportunities for God to move and for God to use this. So thank you for sharing. Thank you for just being the most amazing church family. I never knew that our church family would expand to all parts of the world, but God did. He's amazing, and you're amazing, and we love you very much. Don't forget to subscribe, share comments, rel