Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message.
Hello, Elevation family.
You ready for a great day today?
Or what?
Hey? Stay standing at every cabinis if you would not mind. I'm so so honored privileged to be here with each and every one of you. I know I'm not as handsome as Pastor Stephen, but I love the same God as him for sure, and excited to see what the Lord has in store for all of us today. It's another Sunday, or maybe somebody could be watching this at another point in time throughout the week. But for us, right now, it's Sunday and another day at the beginning of a week that God has given all of us.
It's an honor.
Not everybody gets this gift, not everybody has this moment right here, and this being such a life giving, amazing church week in and week out, you know, we lift up the name of Jesus. But I do recognize that our weeks can sometimes be hard, right, you can come through just some stuff. You don't have to raise your hand. I'm sure some of us have been through some things this week. We're like, I just got to get to church. I just gotta get there. Maybe my wife's there this weekend,
let me get there. Maybe maybe my husband's there. Let me just get there. But maybe my breakthrough is there.
I gotta get there.
But it's very very possible for something to be interesting but not to be moving. It's possible for something to be very very essential but it not to be personal. And something can even be informational but not transformational. We're gonna be opening up the Bible in a few moments, and there's some things that might be interesting, but we're not just wanting them to be interesting. We want them
to be moving. Do you know? For the nerds that are in the room and online right now, the Sun su and is the largest star in our galaxy.
Some of y'all knew that it's the one.
It's the this this star right here. Actually everything in our in our solar system revolves around it. It has the hottest part of the Sun is at its core. I think some scientists believe the Sun's actually gonna burn out in like five billion years or something.
I've read that somewhere.
See all that that might be interesting, it's not moving you and I can't even exist without that su and Sun. But even hearing that it's essential, But all that stuff doesn't even feel that personal. It might be informational, but it's not transformational. But today we're not gonna talk about the Sun Son. Today we're gonna talk about the Son Son. Colossians Chapter one tells us that the Sun is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation.
From him and to him and through him are all things, and in him all things.
Are held together.
The Bible tells us that even heaven and earth, everything comes from him. He is the first born from among the dead, so that in everything he.
Might have the supremacy.
We're gonna talk today about the Son of God, and I pray that it's not just informational. I pray today that God would transform us from the inside out, that we would not leave wherever we are the same way we came in. Can you, in this moment lift your heart and your faith and say, God, move me today. God changed me today. God opening my eyes today. I need you so God, in the name of Jesus, at every single location wherever we may be, I thank you that today is not just another Sunday. Today is not
just today where we're opening up some old tages. No, God, we're opening your word and it's alive and active and sharper than any double edged sword. Would you move us today? Would you change us today? Would you help us to look more like you? Carry us? Sustain us, push us forward in Jesus stain we pray, Amen and amen. At every location, can we clap our hands? Come on? Can you give God? Pray and give somebody a high five and say, hey, I'm a move today. I'm a move today.
Tell him I'm a move today and you may be seated. I'm a move today. I am fired up to.
Be here at Ella Patient Church.
Come on. I love your pastors so much, both Pastor Steven and Pastor Holly. They are two of the most authentic, life giving, generous, kind people I've ever had the opportunity to meet. We actually had the opportunity to sit with
them at a birthday party not too long ago. We had a mutual friend who was having a birthday party, and I wanted to tell you your pastor got up and shared such life giving words about this individual, and I just appreciate that someone that has as big of a world as he does is interested in making other people's worlds as big as they can possibly be. He is an individual that is like, how can I make you better? How can I lift you up? His wife as well.
I'm gonna tell you all this right now. Please be the best church you can possibly be to your pastors. If you're not praying for him, start praying for him. They need to know that you got him covered. It's easy to comment. Can you be the one to cover? Can you be the one that says I have your back? Can you be the one to say I love you so much? Even if the sermon that week you feel like, man, that wasn't for me, that was for somebody else, you walk up and say that was the best sermon I've
ever heard in my entire life. You speak words of life, words of encouragement, and don't just speak the words serve. Jump on a team, being an e group. These are the things Pastor seven and Pastor Holly are trying to build, not something for themselves, something for the Kingdom of God and something to lift and make your family all that God has called it to be. Don't waste this moment. What a gift God has given you and me and this world. And Pastor Stephen and Pastor Holly'll yeah, you
can clap your hands for sure. I'll say this last thing. I'm gonna open up the text. I gotta say this last thing. Our church is twelve years old now, and I remember before our church got started reading Sun Stands Still. I remember seeing the videos of the baptisms that were happening. Remember we were sitting in our living room. There were only twelve of us who were on the team at that point in time. The whole church was in the
living room at that point in time. And we're watching these videos and it's been humbling to see all that God has done in and through our church Shoreline City over the last twelve years. But I know if you dig deep into the soil of our church, you're going to see all this residue and all these seeds of elevation. So I want to say thank you church for being faithful and lifting up the name of Jesus Christ the way you do. Because you have impacted our lives more
than you can ever possibly imagine. I even shave my head to look like chunks. That's what I did. So thank you, Chunks for keeping your head shaved.
To love you so much. Amy.
Hey, we're gonna open up God's word today. You guys read it? You guys ready, go with me? Go with me to second Second King, Second Kings, Chapter seven, Second Kings, Chapter seven. We're gonna begin reading in verse number three. If you didn't bring your Bible, gonna put the verses on the screen so that you can follow along with us. Second Kings, Chapter seven, Verse number three. It says, now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of
the city gate. They said to each other, why stay here until we die?
If we say, we'll.
Go into the city, the famine is there and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameenes and surrender.
If they spare us, we live. If they kill us, then we die.
Amen. For those of you like to take notes, the title of today's message is I can't stay here. I can't stay here. I can't All of us. You know this, All of us are someplace. Duh, you're in a place right now. You're at one of our location. You're online, you're in your living room, you're at a coffee shop, you're in some part of the world. You're in this building, you're in a chair. Yes, you're someplace physically, but all
of us are someplace emotionally, financially, mentally, even professionally. You know, you went and got your master's degree, and then you keep on interviewing but can't get a job because everybodys saying you're overqualified. You're like, what does that mean? Just give me a job. I'm somewhere. I'm somewhere emotionally, I'm somewhere relationally. Some of us don't have a ring on our finger. We want to have a ring on our finger. We're at church this weekend to find our boas.
That's a church stoke boas.
Right there, You're some place. There's someplace even in our physical bodies, right. I mean, I don't know about y'all, but I've got this backfat that won't go away.
I keep on trying to do planks.
But it's like Earl, I ain't leaving, okay, I'm staying right here with you.
It's me and you for the rest of your life.
Brother, we're all some place, every single one of us, and some of us are in a good place. And it's nice to be in a good place. When you're in a good place, like with your finances, you did to Dave Ramsey, like, right, you did it. You got your thousand dollars, you got my emergency fun. Yeah, I'm snowballing right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let my car break down. I got the money. You know, you're feeling feeling good.
I'm in a good place.
It's nice to be in a good place where things are clicking on all cylinders, things are moving the right direction. It's like every three you take it's nothing but net You're like, yes, I'm feeling it. I'm good, I'm strong. A good place is great, for sure, But even even it's interesting, a good place can become a grave.
You know this, If you stop growing.
Even a good place can become a grave. Because you're like, my marriage is good. I'm just gonna preserve it. You just can't press. You gotta keep going on date nights. You gotta keep telling her she's beautiful. You gotta keep on patting your hubby on the booty and going you're cute.
That too much for you?
With that too much? That too much. I'm talking to spouses now, I'm talking to spouses.
All right. You gotta keep that fire alive.
A good place can become a grave if you don't keep growing. So we want to make sure we keep on growing. If your business is like at a place you never thought it would be, it's like it's in a good spot. You can get into preservation mode. It's so possible. Like I don't want anything bad to happen. But you didn't get there by not pursuing and taking risks. You got there because you trusted God, and we're believing him for more. So I just want to encourage you.
Don't get just stuck in a good place trying to protect it. No, But when I say I can't stay here, some of youall aren't thinking about a good place. You're thinking about uh bad place. Tough. I can't stay here. I can't stay in this marriage like this. I can't stay here. I didn't sign up. I didn't say I do so i'd have a roommate. I'm trying to have
my soulmate. I want I want to I want to have a connection with someone, and now we're sleeping in different bedrooms and we're not talking about divorce, but we're thinking about it. I can't stay here. I can't stay here with my dad. I can't stay here with how tired I am? Why am I so tired all the time? Why am I or why does it always feel like I'm way down? Why do I Why don't I have the joy that I used to have? Where'd my fire go? Where where'd my energy go? Why? Why am I waking up?
And I want to just stay in the bed? I can't stay here. I can't stay in this depression. I don't want this. I'm I'm trying to muster all this smile. I can to stand at the door and to greet people as they come in, but on the inside, I'm feeling like I'm dying. I'm smiling at you, but I need you to smile back at me. I can't stay here. Can somebody please help me? Can somebody please give me some hope? Can somebody please give me some strength? I can't stay here numb, maybe even lukewarm? Is the day
like you're on fire for God? As they say, on fire, excited about God? Couldn't help, but keep your hands up. And now it's just like they're heavy, Like you're carrying two kettlebells and can't lift them way down.
How about you.
But family drama too, can be one of the hardest things navigating. Man. Oh man, I love my mother in law. I love her. Thank you Jesus for.
Family.
My family.
Family. Sorry about that, honey, but family.
Family. Who remember they were like, have kids? Remember they said that have kids? You need you, need you to have kids. I'm saying, yeah, I can't wait. Now you're like, oh my lord, can I put these kids back? Can I gotta get a refund on these kids right here?
I love them so much.
But it can it can be taxing, it can be difficult, It can be hard. It can be oh doctor's bill, Oh soccer game, Oh football game, Oh camp. Oh you need skills training here, and then you need skills training there, and then we gotta go here, we gotta get ready for college over there, and then we I mean, you got all this stuff if you're a single person trying to navigate, I've got so much on my brain. I'm sixteen, seventeen years old, and I'm supposed to have everything figured out.
And I don't have everything figured out. I don't know what college I'm going to. I don't know how I'm gonna pay for college. I don't even know what's gonna happen to my mom and my dad. Help me, somebody. I can't stay here.
So it brings us to our text.
In The Two Kings, chapter seven, verses three and four, there are four lepers and they are sitting there now leprosy back in the day.
Well, this would be a disease.
We don't know if it was like exactly leprosy. It guess to be some type of skin disorder, but it would make you unclean. I mean, at that point in time, you have certain rules where you're not allowed to be around certain people, you can't touch certain things. And hear these four lepers and they're all hanging out together. You have to read the rest of the even chapter six and chapter seven, they.
Really go together. But when you read them.
You find out that the aramines, the enemy's army has surrounded the city and they have been encamped around the city for so long, and they're basically suffocating God's kids to death. They're not letting any food or water in it got dark. I mean it got very very dark. Individuals were doing some of the most heinous crimes, even against their own family. You can read it. I don't want to say it because I might lose your attention. That's how horrific the things are that we're going on
in the text. So this is a tough place. It's a hard, difficult spot that they are in. They are in a place they do not want to be like some of us. So they're sitting there outside the city gate. They're not allowed to go into the city because they're lepers. The sitting there and they start talking to each other and we get a look seat into their conversation.
And these guys we find out are crazy.
You gotta have a couple of friends like this, just so you know, you gotta have a couple leper friends and a little it's a little bit off. You can't have everybody in your left it's just real squeaky clean. You gonna have somebody to be like I'll pull up right now. You gotta have a couple of people like that in your life and in your corner. Don't get so saved that you can't throw hands right. You want to make sure if something pops off, call your boy you.
So you're the leopers are sitting there and they say, Okay, we're gonna die here, We're gonna die. We sit here, we're gonna die. If we're going to the city, we're definitely gonna die. But if we go to the enemy's camp, they're probably gonna kill us too. But they might not kill us with the enemies camp. Maybe they'll take us like as prisoners, and we'll at least get some food. So they're sitting there in this deductive reasoning, they get to the place where they go.
I know, if I stay in this exact same spot.
And I keep thinking the exact same way, and I keep doing the exact same thing thing, then this right here is going to bring me to a place of death. And I know I do not want to die right here, so I've got to do something. I like these guys. I like these guys because they do not get hung up on what they can't do. They start thinking about what can I do. They don't get hung up on what I don't have. They start thinking about what.
Do I have.
So for you and I I am praying that while you are you and I are in those spots of frustration. We're in those places of like, Okay, how do I get my company to that next level? How do I get my marriage out of this spot? How do I get my single life here? How do I get my thought life there? How to get my physical body here? How to get my finances there? I don't want to stay here. I don't want to stay here. I don't
want to stay here. You and I get stuck so many times because like I can't do this, I can't do that, I can't do this, I can't do that. But I'm trying to get you to see it from
another perspective. I wonder if this period of God today could help you and I learn from some lepers, and some lepers would be sitting there outside the city gate and then decided to say, I know some things I don't have, but I do have some things that I can do, at least as an enemy's camp that I can head to, at least as a place I can go. I wonder where you can go. I wonder what e group is there for you. I wonder what prayer group
is there for you. I wonder what campus pastor wants to lay hands on you to help you get out of the spot that you're in. I wonder what friend is there. I wonder who is around you right now that you can't see them because you keep thinking.
About what you don't have.
In God's like, I have put you in a community of faith that will stand with you and stand beside you and help you become all that I've.
Called you to be.
What do you have? What do you have? What can you do? Because it's something, there's something you can do, it's something you do have. Because I can't stay.
Here.
I can't. If you're on a team and everybody on the team keeps telling you you're a complainer, but you say, I'm not a complainer. I'm not a complainer. But you're like, oh, well, they keep saying you're complaining. Then you I'm not a complain I'm coming out a complainer. Then maybe maybe you're
a complainer. And it's a frustrating place to be, but you go, I can't stay here, And instead of just ejecting yourself out of the place where God has you, maybe he's trying to change something on the inside of you because he knows what he has for your future, so he's trying to tell you hey, friend, friend, I love you. But you can't stay here with how you think everybody's against you. You can't stay here with how you see the world. You can't stay here with how
you process information. You can't stay here with how you just skip past the word of God. You can't stay here with how you don't ever pray, and how you don't ever give, and how you don't ever serve. You can't stay here. If you stay there, you will die. So these guys go, look with me. In verse number five, come on, keep on going with me. We'll walk through the Bible here. You guys, ready, you're with me, You with me?
Versu five.
Look at dusk, Chapter seven, Verse number five. At dust they got up and went to the camp of the Aramians. Everybody say, at duska, that's important. At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Aramians. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there. For the Lord had caused the airmens to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, look, the King of Israel has hired the hit Tight and Egyptian kings to
attack us. So they got up and fled in the oh in the dusk, there it is again, and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. At dusk, at dust, the four lepers decide, okay, let's go, and they get up and they throw on their jays, then have jays and they start walking. They start walking. They start walking at dusk. That's what verse five tells us, and a verse number seven it tells us at dusk
is when the enemy started running. So when the when the lepers got up over here, God calls the sound over there. They got up here, but something happened over there. Let me say it again. Let me say it again. They got up and took a step here, and then God did a miracle over there.
Honey, you can trust with my phone.
Trust my phone. It doesn't any any phone. It's no throw it to me. Come on, I can catch it. Come on, That's what I'm talking about. Thank you. I got hands. I got hands Okay, so on my phone right here is iPhone twelve. Sorry about that. I still have an upgraded cricket cricket wireless.
Uh kid, If you got cricket, God bless you.
Uh do calls go through with that being said? Uh uh? On my phone, I have the next app, okay, next that so I can get I can right now go to that app on my phone. And if I changed the temperature on my phone here, all the way back home in Dallas, the temperature changes at home. I did something here, but something happens all the way over there. This is a picture of what happens in Second King chapter seven.
It's also a picture of prayer.
Mom, when you get on your knees and your kid is out at the party and you are praying here. If God begins to do something over there, it's like the alcohol does not taste the same over there. They go to but they want to put it down because Mom or God is praying over here. There is something about taking a step here that God does something over there, And I need you and I to be a people that says God, even if I don't see it, I will take a step when it doesn't even make sense here there here there.
This is how God works.
See you and I want to see it, but you don't get to see it unless you take the step. We say, God, show me. Then I'll take the step. God was like, no, no, no, no, We're not doing it like that. We're doing it my way, and my way is the way of faith. My way is the way of trust. My way is the way that when the water is going crazy and the waves are crashing and it doesn't make any sense, that's what I want
you to give. When it looks like the economy is going upside down, that's when I want you trusting me. When it doesn't look like things are moving the right direction, that's when I want you to say, God, it doesn't make sense in my brain, but I can't stay here. So I'm gonna take the step you're calling me to take, so I can do what you're calling me to do, and I can see a miracle that I would never see had I not taken the step. Let me let me share it. Picture my family their way. All of
them are prettier than me, all of them. All of them are prettier than me. Okay, got my picture of my family. Look at this. Okay, here here's the crew. Here's the crew. There's an older picture right here, our nine year old now house corn rows, which I cannot do because I'm involved my wife's my best friend. Okay, so she's my sexy piece of dark chocolate. I love her so much. She and I twenty seven years have been married. Now it's gone by so fast. Still my
best friend. I love her so much. So I got my beautiful wife. Okay, we met in college and she liked me first and was trying to you know, it's a long story, y'all will talk about it at another time, but but I'm so so blessed. And then we've got our nineteen year old son, Parker, who was absolutely amazing. He's about to be a sophomore in college. Man stolen our heart. Then we've got Grayson. He's our nerd, I mean nerd nerd and plays the cello and football and
does the viola and knows stuff about the sun. I mean he's just a little bit. He's our nerd. We'll all be working for him one day, Okay, So we love him so much. And then we've got my favorite child, who's my daughter. Because she's my daughter, girl, Dads, can I get an amen? Come on?
Can I get an amen?
Girl?
Dad's I tell my sons this all the time. I like your sister more than you. That's why I say yes to her all the time. Okay, you're lucky. I'm feeding you tonight, Elle, What would you like so love all of our kids so much? Our oldest Parker, he's our biological son. Our last two are adopted, something we always wanted to do since we were in college. And after we had a Parker, we had Parker, and then we were like, we were both fifty to fifty on
biological but we're both one hundred percent on adoptions. She were like, Hey, let's go ahead and adopt and then we'll just have some more kids later. So the adoption process ended up taking like two and a half years, so we ended up not having any.
More biological kids.
But when we first started the process, we drove about three hours up the road to our adoption center and this was like the first meeting where they were going to tell all these prospective parents what the process was like. So they're sitting there and they're telling us all what the process is like, and they bring in lawyers, and they even bring in birth moms who are making this courageous decision to you know, find a forever home for their child. I mean, just something that it's a heart
of sacrifice. And love that I almost can't even comprehend. I mean courageous, courageous birth moms and birth dads. We got to meet some of their adoptive parents and then they sit you down. They're like, okay, what type of kid are you looking for? And you fill out this questionnaire and then at the bottom of it, they're like, how are you going to pay for it? Now, for those who don't know, adoption is not free. Should be, but it's not. I'm talking like twenty thirty thousand dollars. Now,
if you got it like that, congratulations to you. You're like, oh, twenty thousand dollars, that's nothing I can do with the right that.
Okay, God bless you. Okay, most of us.
We saw that on the line. My wife and I looked at each other. We're like, okay, how are you gonna pay for this? We both I wrote give me that pen, honey by faith. I wrote that right there and turning my application with confidence. So we're driving back home, three hour drive back home, and we're driving home, I'm like, honey, how are we gonna pay for this?
I know we put by faith in, how are we going to pay for it?
The next morning, at at our church to go to a men's meeting. I'm at this men's meeting and we're setting up and this guy comes up to me and he said, to be hate earl. My wife and I heard that you're going to be adopting. I'm like, oh, man, how don't you even hear that we just started the process that yet, Yeah, we're going to be adopting as well. My wife and I we've never been able to have kids ourselves, but we just sold this piece of land and we want to be a part of your adoption story.
Here's a check for five thousand dollars. We took a step here, then God was working there. I didn't know that when we took the step here that God was working over there. But this is how God always seems to do it. So I'm asking you, what step is God asking you to take that you're not taking because you think the step is dumb. You think the step doesn't make any sense. You don't have the resources for the step, you don't have the connections for the step.
You don't even think you have the favor for the step, you don't have the education for the step. And God's like, since when did I ask you if you have all their credentials to do the thing that it's gonna be done by My power, my glory. Anyway, take the step. I can't stay here. Well, counseling's not gonna do anything for us. How do you know if counseling is going to.
Do anything for you? Maybe you take that step there and.
God starts working on your husband and or wife in that other bedroom. How do you know if you're gonna get accepted to the school unless you send in the application. Go ahead and take the step here and see what God will do over there. How do you know if God can get you out of debt or not? If you keep holding on to all your money, of course you're not gonna see a miracle. But what if you started giving and saying, God, I'll live a life of generosity. I wonder what God will do.
There?
Push that little nest button, pray.
Give sir? What is he asking you to do? I don't know. I know the Holy Spirit he has a way of talking to all of us exactly how we need to be talked to. You know the thing that he's like, You're like, dang, dang, dang. I wish that guy didn't come today, Dang, I just wanted to be encouraged today. I didn't want anybody saying anything that I had to do anything. I just wanted them to say something to me that could feel good about myself and
now here. So I'm not gonna do this. I'm not gonna do this, but I pray that the Holy Spirit torments you in the best way possible, that he makes you so incredibly uncomfortable, because there's more that God wants to do in you and through you. Dad, you think God has done with you yet?
Mom?
Do you think God is done with you yet? Retiree? Do you think God is done with you already? Just because you're thirty seven and you only play pickleball? Do you think God is done with you? Now? I'm telling you he has so much more and sore for you. But you've got to take a step. I can't stay here.
I can't stay here.
No. Now, Look, keep on watching, look, keep reading the text with me, keep on going, keep on going, keep on going. Okay, Okay, so they left, they left, They left. Go to verse number eight. It's a brak Okay, Okay. The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp. The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp. Watch this, entered one of the tents and ate and drank watch this. Then they took silver gold fu boo just getting close. I don't even know what foo boo is,
and went off and hid them. They returned and then to another tent and took some things from it and hit them.
Also. Okay, first eight, they get to the camp.
Nobody's there because God did something with the sound of the feet. God did something with something small, and he turned into something great. God did something with something small, but he turned into something great. Then they get there, there's nobody there, and they start going, yeah, yo, look at this tent right here. Ha yo, this is crazy. Yay, I'm drinking. Camera follow me, camera, follow me, okay, camera from hah ah. Pull up, boy, pull up. It's crazy
over here. There's nobody here. We can drink everything we want. They left their clothes, they left their silver. They start taking the stuff and hiding it. Okay, these guys, I guess maybe we would do that too. I don't know. I don't know how I would act. I remember, they haven't been able to be around anyone. This' been with each other. They've been outcasts. Everyone looked past them, disrespected them, and now I was like, they got this whole big
thing coming their direction. It's like, oh, my goodness, I've never had it like this before. So now now now, now look at this verse number nine versnumber nine, goodness, look at this. Then they said to each other, what we are doing is not right. This is a day of good news, and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let us go at once and report this to the royal Palace. So in the middle and then grab it all the
stuff and hiding it. Somebody realizes, wait wait wait, wait, wait wait wait wait, we had nothing and now we have all this, and I'm keeping it to myself. This ain't right, and I like that. The Texas this is a day of good news. It's really a beautiful picture of the gospel that you and I, You and I were lepers, outcasts, sinners, separated from God, and then we end up being drawn to a spot that we maybe thought would kill us. Like no, there's no way, there's
no way. I can't I can't ever approached, I can't ever approached Jesus because of my sin and all my shortcomings and all my weaknesses and all my difficulties. But we get there and it's like, Oh my goodness, I got an abundance of blessings. I got more coming my way than I ever thought possible. I used to be lonely, but now I've got more friends that I've ever had in my entire life. I've had so many other pastors in my life that didn't have my back, but now
I have a pastor. I've got campus pastors. I've got leaders that are praying for me, that are believing for God's best in my life. I've got them. I've got pastors with integrity and character, pastors that I can trust.
Oh my goodness, I've got this.
I've got. I've got a taste. I've got a taste of heaven on earth. I've got a taste that I used to be lost, but now I'm found. I got a taste that i used to be dead, but now I'm alive. I got a taste that I used to be broken, but now I've been put back together. I've got a taste that I used to be all up in my head, but now I found myself walking in freedom and joy and in life. I used to be a person that was just wandering around and I didn't
know which way to go. But then God and his grace and his mercy, he captured me and he pulled me up out of a glorious spit. How in the world can I keep this to my self? I heard it said that bad things, when they are kept secret, the usually tend to grow. But good things, when you keep them secret, sometimes they actually tend to lose their power. Because there's something about you and I tasting the goodness of Almighty God. And once I have tasted it, I
cannot keep this to my self. I have to share it. I have to. So these guys go, okay, okay, I got good news. I got good news. We're gonna go back. We're gonna tell everybody. And they go back and they start telling everybody, and they start with the gatekeepers because they can't even go into the city. So they talk to the gatekeepers. Gatekeepers, look at your boys, look at our clothes, Like, what you get all that jewelry? I'm telling y'all, just up the road. Nobody's in the camp.
They got grills, they got necklaces rings. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, there is more up there than you can even possibly imagine. It's better than you could ever even think than the gatekeeper. Tell somebody else, tell somebody else, and it makes its way all the way to the palace, and then the king hears it. The King's like, oh, man, I think they're trying to trick us. Those are Oromians. They're trying to trick us. But they weren't being tricked.
In actuality, God had worked a miracle because four lepers decided to not stay here. I was wondering. I was wondering who might eat because you won't stay there. I was wondering five years from now, ten years from now, fifteen years from now.
I wonder what the ripple effect of your step might be.
I wonder. I wonder because we we think, we think it's not gonna matter.
That's what they thought.
It's not gonna matter. I'll probably die, it's probably gonna end in nothing. It's probably gonna fall flat on its face. Yes, it's a possibility that it could fail, but it's also a possibility that God could do something with your step that would absolutely change an entire generation.
Dare I say elevation was a step.
That Pastor Stephen and Pastor Hall he took, and you and I are on the other side of that. I am so thankful that there have been men and women of God years ago that said I'm not going to stay comfortable. I'm so glad they continue to take a step. And then God took that step, and he turned and he magnified that sound, and before they knew it, things were changing in a spot. Maybe they didn't even get
a chance to see you. So maybe the wrestle you have in you, you think it's just about you, But there could be a teenager on the other side of your yes. There's a business on the other side of your yes. There's a grandchild on the other side of your yes. I'm just praying that God would give you a picture on raying, God would give you a picture. You're like, I'm not gonna try out for the team. You don't know what God can do with just to
try it. I'm just telling you. I'm just telling you don't know what God will do with a step when you begin to get uncomfortable. I can't stay here, I can't stay here, I can't stay here. I can't stay here. I can't stay here. I can't stay here. I can't stay here in my mind I can't stay here in my finances, I can't stay here in my spiritual life. I can't stay here in my mindset. I can not stay here. You will be shocked and what God will do with a step. The beautiful thing about this as
we all can take a step. I was when I was preparing this message. It just dropped into my heart. I have not preached this. This is what I honest I pray. I was like, God, what do I need to share with my beautiful elevation family? And this is the passage God has dropped in my heart. I was like, Lord, I got some better sermons. I feel like in this This one dropped into my heart and I was like I was trying to turn into steps. I was like, okay, God, tell me what steps can give me give some steps
to give to people. And I didn't get any steps and get any steps. I thought, the Lord tell me, impress them my heart, don't give steps, invite them into an experience.
Ezekiel, chapter two, verses two. As he spoke, the.
Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet next to Ezekiel. I think it's Chapter three, verse twenty four. Look at this. Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet. Then Acts chapter one, verse number eight. Maybe you've read it, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth. Then one of my favorite passages in Acts chapter number two, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house. Oh where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each
of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them, shipping all the way down to verse number fourteen. Then Peter stood up, looking again the Spirit standing someone up. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk as you suppose. It's only nine
in the morning. Know this is what was spoken by the puffet Toul in the last days. God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and tartars will prough a sigh. Your young men will see visions, your old men will train dreams.
I felt, I felt that all of a sudden, all of a sudden, all of a sudden, all of a sudden, all of a sudden, the spirit of the Living God would sell us up and raise us to our feet.
And is gonna come up sudd it's good, would come up seven.
I'm all on the sun.
It's gonn come on of the sand.
It still come on the sandst come.
Standing see me coming mother the sad. It's gonna come on the side.
Come home.
It's gonna come on the sun. Come on. His spirit is breaking.
Let's gonna come.
Up on the sand.
It's gonna come up the sun. Pass well, let you see, but you're out. Let me say time side, I pay to come out.
Let's say he will come me go peace.
The straight side. Come on.
Let me see walty Jim.
Every game with chi side.
Come Holy Spirit. I pray over every location. I pray over every man. I pray over every woman. I pray pray over every teenager. I pray over every college student. I pray over every married person. I pray over every single person. I pray over every retiree. I pray over every single one of us that are online, that are at any location. And in the name of Jesus, right now, I ask that the Holy Spirit would fill us up from the top of our head to the soles of our feet. I thank you, o God, that what we
need to do cannot be done in flesh. It cannot be done by our strength. It's not Pie, Mike, it's not by power, but it is Pie your spirit. So Spirit of the Living God, what you raise us to our feet? Would you get us out of our heads? Would just surround us with the right people, and may we live our lives for your glory.
In the name of Cheese, thank you for joining us.
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now, or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church.
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.