I Woke Up Like This (Levi Lusko)

That's better. That's much better. Wanted to tell you a few things before we get into the Word of God today, and that is if you have any room left for the Word of God after Thanksgiving, you may be saying, well, Pastor Stephen, I'm very stuffed. I don't know if I can receive the bread of life today, but I do this every year after Thanksgiving. It's Thanksgiving in the US, it was Thanksgiving in the US. I speak the miracle of supernatural carb cancellation over your waist slide. I speak it.

I don't think it's gonna work, but I speak it anyway. I do it every year. I've yet to get one testimony that that worked, but I keep doing it every year. Brace the Lord. If you receive that, put your raised hands emoji in the chat. There you go, yeah, put a scale emoji in the chat. Oh, check this out before I tell you this really good news. Holly had these shirts made where it says put it in the chat.

I guess this probably looks weird if I'm just walking around town wearing a hoodie that says put it in the chat. But I thought it was cool for our purposes. So somebody right now put it in the chat. What you're grateful for, maybe a person or a thing or a maybe you feel peace in your heart and you can't even explain why, Just put it in the chat what you're thankful for today. Come on, let's fill the chat with thanksgiving. Let's fill the comments with gratitude, Praise God.

I'm so thankful for you. I'm thankful for the way that our church family has stepped up and trusted God this year. It's been amazing to see. I'll share just a little bit of that with you this year when when when the global pandemic became real to us, we started to wonder what will happen to ministry? And on one hand, you have faith, but you also have fear because you know there's there's this aspect in which we

we've never lived through this before. I'm happy to report to you as we come toward the end of twenty twenty that by the favor of God, somebody shall favor, put favor, put favor in the chat that we've given. We've given this year over nine million dollars to our outreach efforts. I think the Lord deserves a great praise foreign that's nothing but the favor of God and the faith of God's people. So I'll list a few things.

I can't say them all, but that include over six hundred thousand meals, over thirty thousand volunteers serving over fifty eight thousand hours with over three hundred organizations, over five hundred thousand dollars to disaster relief efforts, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of flood supplies, over a million dollars in support when COVID hit two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of food pop up field hospitals in Central Park,

New York. We gave five hundred thousand tablets to inmates this year through God behind Bars, so they could get the word of God where they are. And I'm pretty proud of you for that. Thank God, and just all kinds of things, over one hundred thousand dollars to church plants, over one hundred thousand dollars to our partnership with YMCAs across the country. You are an amazing church, are the

salt of the earth, the light of the world. And of course you probably know by now if you're part of our ministry, that we end every year with appreciation and anticipation, and so we're getting ready for that time. Of thousands of us around the world, not just those who are near Charlotte or one of our locations, but around the world are preparing to give to our twenty twenty favor offering for the year end for our expansion

and outreach. I want to thank those of you who are already tithing and showing God that you know that He's where your help comes from, and so many of you do that regularly. Thank you. So many will begin to do that this time of year, to trust God in a new way. Many are giving an above and beyond gift, and you can find all of that out on Elevationchurch dot org. But the good news is, whether you ever give or not, we're going to be here for you. We're going to be here so you can

be lifted up. If you never give a dime, if you never even pray for me, if you don't even like me, I'm gonna be here preaching if you ever need me, and you can't get rid of me. Zoom in real tight on my face. I'm gonna be here. Come on, clap your hands, give God, praise. Somebody's south favor. And when you think about favor, you think about Levi Lusco and Pastor Levi Luscoe. It's here to preach today.

I want to tell you, brother, there's not many people I admire more than you, Maybe only Holly, and then there's you, Jesus Holly Levi. You've been coming around here a long time. You've been blessing our church for years. You've written books to bless us. You built an amazing church. And Jinny was telling me this just this weekend, something pretty amazing about you. I'll tell you about later. It's

pretty cool. She was bragging on you because she was here for reflect and you didn't come, and it was just me and the all the women, and it was weird and I missed you. So I thought, well, you can come preach and share with us. You're You're so significant in the Body of Christ and one of the greatest friends that I've had. We love you, Jinny and Levi so much. We love the last coast. Will you welcome to elevation search? Come on, Epham, put it in

this chap. Welcome Levi. Let's go, wow, elevation Sure, come on. Thank Jesus for his goodness, thank you for his grace, thank you for his love, Thank Him for your pastor. Come on, Let's thank God for Pastor Stephen and Holly Curdick, Eli Jah A Graham and Abby Man. This moment is one that I've been looking forward to for a long time. I didn't know it was coming, to know i'd have the chance to tell you, but I knew I would

need to when I got the chance. And that is to let you know how grateful I am for how this ministry and your pastors and you have led through the pandemic. You guys have led the Body of Christ so strong, so well. Two weeks ago, your pastor stood in this pulpit and gave a brilliant message about not wasting the rain. Were you thankful for that word? And in that message he said towards the end that God

wants all of us to steward our storms. And I think that's a profound insight, and I think it is a perfect way to describe how you have helped lead the Body of Christ and the world through a most challenging and difficult time, through the sermons, through the pivots, through the kicking of stools. I mean, it all worked, it all worked, It all worked. Come on, someone put it in the chat. It all worked, it all worked,

it all worked. But out of it all, I just wanted to like encapsulate how grateful I am for the way that you guys have have stewarded this storm with the two songs that, in my opinion, out of all the songs, out of all, like all the songs, like all of them, just all the songs. The way that God used this ministry and this man and this team to give us a lullaby when we needed a hug from God the most. That's what the blessing to me represents.

It was and has been for so many of us in a fear filled time and a time of worry and terror and panic. God's way of giving a hug to his bride, God's way of putting his arms around his children and telling us it's going to be okay. And I have fallen asleep with my three year old sons so many times, countless time with that in the air and being able to speak blessing over him and his children's children, children's children because of that song and

it it was the song heard around the world. Every language, every tribe, every time, every language got to find out that God is for us in a time when it felt like he wasn't. So thank you and thank you and Cody and Carrie and and so you guys wrote the lullaby. But then you guys, we can't stay we can't stay sleeping forever. So y'all went ahead and wrote the wake Up Call Rattle. That was That was God saying it's time to wake up. We can't stay sleeping forever.

We got to wake up. We got a world to touch, we got people to heal, we got nine million dollars to give away, and we're just getting started. Because twenty twenty has been your time to shine. And I believe that as you continue to lead the way in the world, that many churches around the country and world are following you, or example, drafting on your slipstream so I came here to preach. I got a brand new message. I cooked it up fresh for y'all, because when something means a

lot to you, you give towards it. And so I've been working hard on this word. But more than anything, I just can't say thank you, so thank you for what you've meant to us in our lives, in our trials, in our wanderings, and in this pandemic. Come on, you can be seated. Please grab your seat. Thank you, Worship Team. Love you Chris. I haven't even given him a hug yet, but I'm gonna do it from more closer than six feet. I'm gonna get in his bubble. That's weird. Why would

you say that. I also just send greetings to every single one of you at all the thirty seven billion watch parties across the country and world, and everybody watching this instill in your delirious meat sweats from Thanksgiving finding out your genes don't fit anymore. It's all the things right. I want you to turn your Bible to three different places as we continue in the season called Favor twenty twenty, believing God's favor spilling into twenty twenty one, sending it

ahead into twenty twenty three. I want you to turn to Genesis twenty eight, Luke five, and John twenty one. It's quite a few places, but you got quite a few fingers, so you can just hold on to them. That's Genesis twenty eight, Luke five, and John twenty one. We will, by the end of this message get to two significant biblical boat stories. There's a lot of boat stories we could pick in the Bible. There's boats everywhere. There's the largest boat, Noah, there's the smallest boat, Moses,

little baby in a tiny basket. That the littlest boat. There's boats all over Jesus' ministry. So many times did Jesus get in a boat or be on the Sea of Galilee, that it's been nicknamed the fifth Gospel, the fifth Gospel because you can't just get his gospel story from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You got to get near this body of water to get his soul story. I mean, eighteen out of thirty three miracles Jesus performed take took place on this lake. We went there a

little bit last week. We're gonna we're gonna go back there in just a minute. We're gonna return to the scene of the crime Luke, chapter five, the room where it happened. But of all the boat stories uh in the Bible that we're gonna get to, I think that the one we're gonna get to by the end of this sermon is one that that's going to touch your heart. But before we do, we got a lot of work to do, so we're not going to waste a minute. The title of my message is I woke up like this.

I woke up like this. I need you to say it out loud before we go any further. Could you just say I woke up like this. We usually say that statement to sort of express like a little bit of false humility. False humility like someone's like, oh you look great, it's like, oh, it just just woke up, like didn't even try. Didn't even try. It's like, yeah, Beyonce, you got twenty five people working hard on you, so you could just wake up like this, right. It's like

a it's like a false humility thing. But but then there are times when we're embarrassed and all we can do is the reality is church online, a lot of you really did you really did just wake up like that? You really did. And what if next Sunday, what if you got showered and got dressed and got ready for God's word even though you were doing church online. What if you still were with your notes out and your Bible out, and you had already eaten, already worked out,

you came ready to receive a word from God. There's a thought. I woke up like this. I got to go to Israel one time. When I ever tell the stories of Israel, I always say the first time I went to Israel, and Jenny's always like, how many times have you been like this once? But it sounds cooler when you say the first time I went to Israel,

as though there were like twenty three repeat visits. Right, Well, the first time I went to Israel, I was so excited to the next morning go see where Japa took place, where Pete, where Peter got this vision, Where where Jonah ran away from God. I was gonna go to Jappa tomorrow. Was one of the great boat stories in the Bible, right, And we were staying at this hotel in Tel Aviv. And a little bit about me. When I was a kid, I used to sleep walk like crazy. Where am I sleepwalking? Friends?

That just crazy things done in the night. I thank god it is chilled out for me. Unfortunately, now I just like wake up at three panicked. So I don't know if it's better or worse than than sleepwalking. But but when I was a kid, my mom like would find me like all around the house, like she just like redirect me back to bed. I feel so bad for her one time she tells this story. She always tells the story, like she found me standing over the kiddy litter is leave by what are you doing? Say,

I'm going to the bathroom. She's like, not in here, You're not. She had to guide me back. One time in high school, I got up, got dressed, got showered in that order, fully dressed. I woke up, Yeah, and I didn't know why I was taking the shower right so and and and sleepwalking. I drove out of a jungle hut once on a mission trip in Belize, out of a jungle hut window into landed in the bushes in my sleep because I thought a big boulder like

Indiana Jones was rolling into the hut. Pray for me, y'all. It has been a journey, but this particular trip, what happened was I left the hotel room and I woke up after sleepwalking, and I was at the coke machine ice machine area, and I was so confused, didn't know where I was, didn't know I was jet lag, didn't know why I was in Israel, didn't know why I was looking for a coke here, didn't have any shekels on me to purchase a coke. And uh, and I

was in my underwear and and uh. I was an intern at this church, and I had come with a try. My job was to carry a tripod up and down every mountain, every hill, because the pastor was going to preach this series of messages on video from the Holy Land. My job was just to carry a tripod around. I was happy just to be an Israel. You know what I'm saying, Like, I'm give me a tripod. Put me where you got a tripod you need me to carry.

There's a couple over there, I'll carry one around. Like whatever I can do to help get God's word out. It's always been my spirit in perspective, and so now God has me in front of the camera. I'm I'm just as happy as I was when I was behind the camera carrying the tripod up Masada. You know what I'm saying, Like it doesn't really matter, Like however, I

can be a part of the equation. So I was just happy to be there, right and and so as as this now was like setting in, like I'm locked out, I have no way to get back in my room, I have no play here, There's nothing I can do. I realized I'm have to go down on the front desk and get a new key card. And so I just decided if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it with confidence. And it was a nice hotel man. And so I get in the elevator. I'm just like trying to like like like think I can. I think

I can. The door's open. There's like the may or d at the you know, the concierge desk. It's it's two in the morning, and they're just all like what is going on here? And I just come strolling out my draft boxers, you know, and too much information, I'm sure, And and I just walk up and I say, I seem to have been locked out of room twelve oh two. Gonna need a new key card please. They looked at each other, you know, and of course the next question is do you have any id can you prove this

is your room? I think they just decided it was not worth the fight. So the man just made a key to twelve oh two and hand up. Now, someone say in the chat one more time. I woke up like this, all right. So here's where we are gonna find ourselves. In Genesis chapter twenty eight, here's verse ten. It's a story of someone similarly embarrassed. I was embarrassed on that night in the in the in the in the city of Tel Aviv. This man was embarrassed. This man had come to the end of himself. This man,

he had no plan. Verse ten. Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Heran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place, and he put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven. And there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

And behold the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth. You shall spread abroad to the west, and the east, to the north, in the south, and in you and in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land.

For I will not leave you. How many of y'all are getting encouraged just hearing this read over you, I will not leave you now until I have done what I have spoken to you. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. He was afraid. He said, how awesome is this place. This is none other than the House of God, and this is the gate of Heaven.

Then Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone that had been at his head, and he set it up as a pillar, and he poured oil out on top of it. And he called the name of the place Bethel. The name of that city had previously been Luz. And Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I may come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have

set up as a pillar, shall be God's house. And all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you. I woke up like this. Jacob, as we come into Genesis twenty eight, has ruined his life. He has made some bad decisions that have led to him feeling like he is at rock bottom. He has nothing. He's in the middle of nowhere, still almost four hundred miles to go to get to his uncle Laban, who he hopes will take him in. He's burned every bridge, he's used up every favor. He will never see his

mom again alive. His brother, who he should be closest to in the whole world, wants nothing to do with him. You see Jacob jump to the wrong conclusion. Unlike John the Baptist right, who knew that Jesus even in the womb, he knew that Jesus was to feed us, to lead us right. I mean even even back there, John the Baptist knew John the Baptist jumped to the right conclusion. Jacob now had jumped to the conclusion, My life's over. I've got nothing, I am nothing even even surely God

must want nothing to do with me. I was handed such a great opportunity as the descendant of Abraham, and I squandered it. You see, he was a foot He was a foot catcher, a heel catcher, manipulating outcomes, manipulating, manipulating circumstances, always taking advantage of everyone, only thinking about himself when you lived there that way, Eventually no one in your life is going to want anything to do with you when you're always focused on yourself. That was Jacob.

He'll catch her, Jacob Now. His mom just said, the best I can do is just give you, give you hear some some provisions I put in a backpack. You better get out of here. Your brother. Your brother's gonna kill you because you had you played dress up to get your father's blessings. You pretended to be someone that you weren't so you could walk in what was never was always what God was going to give to you in the first place. And so here he is he's in a place that says he was in a certain place.

It wasn't even a place with a name. It had no name, because it was nowhere and there the foot catcher met the foot washer, and everything changed. His name would change, his possessed and possessions would change. He was by himself, his family would change. By the time we get to the end of Jacob's story, this is can just imagine him. He's the man on the run. He has nothing, he has no one. He does have a penny to his name. He's not even in a place

with a name. By the end of his story, Verse forty three of Genesis thirty tells us the man became exceedingly prosperous, had large flocks, female and male servants, camels and donkeys, as his father had prophesied upon him, saying, you will become one day a large company. He didn't become. That actually didn't come to pass. He became two Jacob Israel became two companies. Verse ten. He speaks, looking back on his life, how different is his spirit, how different

is his tone? I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you, your God have shown your servant, for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I've become two companies. He's referring back to this day I came over. All I had was a staff, didn't have a sleeping bag. I slept with a rock as a pillow. Is that

I have nothing I've become. He's looking over all of his flocks divided into two camps, and he's marveling at the goodness and grace of God, and he's saying, I've become two companies. I've got twelve sons, Reuben Isakarn after the Gad, Sime and Benjamin Asher, Levie, Dan Joseph, Judah Zebuluce. I'm going to be used to bring the Messiah into the world. I'm going to be used to establish a glorious kingdom that God might save people all over the world, to the north, to the east, to the south, to

the west. And even in this moment, we are today walking in the fulfillment of that prophecy. Yes, as Elevation Church broadcasts this gospel of hope and this message of love and peace, as the worship songs alter the atmosphere for people who are struggling to not take their lives in the midst of one of the most hopeless times, divided times, pain filled times in human history. Here is Jesus building his church and not even the gates of

Hell can prevail against it. This is that And Jacob got to be a link in the chain of what God was connecting. So you you, you could interview Jacob too, captain of two companies, father of twelve sons, lots of wives, also different sermon, not recommended. But but you might say, Jacob, what do you do that you might become who you were? Not who you were, but who you are? Jacob? What did you? What did you do? Did you? Did you? Did you? Did you buy a product on the internet

that you took you through a twelve week course? Surely there was there was something that involved supplements. I bet you essential oils were involved. Like what did you do, Jacob? How did how did you do? How do you change? And he would just look at you with a smile and twinkle in his eye and go, I woke up like this. I didn't do anything. It wasn't what I did. It was who I met. It was an encounter I had. I woke up like this. I'm not responsible for the

change in my situation or search. I woke up like this. By all I know is I was blo Now I see I was dead. Now I'm alive. I was hopeless, Now I hope. I was a narcissist. Now I was a foot catch her trying to pull other people back, to pull myself ahead. But I met the foot washer. I had a revelation. I met Jesus. The heavens opened up. I didn't ask for it. I wasn't seeking him. It wasn't my decision. He pursued me, He sought me, He washed me, he changed me, he touched me, he blessed me,

he healed me. I woke up like this. How'd you wake up? I made a little list. He woke up amazed. Amazed is how Jacob woke up, profoundly amazed. He said. He used the word awesome. Awesome because he woke up and he got to see a vision of a ladder. Write that down, put it in the chat. Amazed. I woke up amazed. He he was terrified. Now he's amazed. I was horrified. Now I'm astonished, he said, because I thought I was alone with Then I found out I wasn't in the same place that didn't even get a name,

A certain place, a scary place, a terrible place. Guess what, It's the House of God now, because the House of God is wherever you are. Wherever Jesus is is where you are, and it's the House of God. You're the House of God. Well, we don't get to go to church. Oh well, psych, we are the church. Lol. Wherever we are is where the church is. We gather together in the mighty matchless name of Jesus. This is church. This is how the world gets changed. We are linked up

in this moment. And so he's amazed. He's amazed because God essentially let him see how heaven works. He's The key is in the phrase this is the gate of Heaven, which you will recognize, you students of the Bible from Genesis chapter eleven, when mankind mankind tried to build a tower to heaven and the phrase babel is used, and Babel or Babylon comes up again and again and again beginning of the Bible to the very end. And what does it always mean. Well, in the ancient language of

the day, it meant gate of Heaven. So what they were trying to do with that stairway. What they were trying to do with that ladder, if you will, was connect earth to Heaven. That's been what man's always been trying to do. That's why people turn to heroin, That's why people turn to money, That's why people look to their career. What are we're trying to get back to heaven. We're trying to fill what's empty. We're trying to restore

what's lost. So Babel was trying to get to God, to get to wholeness, to get to transcendence, to get to healing. We were trying to get our way up. And that's how it was traditionally thought, and that's how people still mistakenly think it works today, that if you're going to get to heaven, you got to build a tower up high enough, and then eventually, if you can get enough Benjamin stacked upon Benjamin's if you can get

enough Instagram followers stacked upon Instagram. So if you could sleep with this person or that person, eventually you can get a tower. That's the gate of heaven. That's how Jacob would have thought. But then his dream, he's lying there and all of a sudden he sees a tower that descends from heaven to earth. And this this ladder, this, this is like when you in those houses where you pull the rope and the attic ladder comes tumbling down.

That's what he saw in his dream. He saw God initiate a ladder, not from Earth up, but from Heaven down. He saw a ladder coming down from heaven and the angels of God us sending and descending. And his exclamation, this is the gate of Heaven was him saying, oh, that's how heaven works. It's what what In John one we realized when Nathaniel when Jesus saw him under the fig tree and he said, Nathaniel, I saw you onder

the fig tree. And Nathaniel was like horrified. Oh no, no, we don't know what Nathaniel was doing under the vic tree. The Bible never tells us. He said to our imagination. That caused him to go, you are a rabbi, Holy crap, How does he know what I did under the fig tree. We don't know who he was with on the fig tree. But you said, Nathaniel, And then Jesuid, you think it's amazing I saw you under the fig tree. Guess what you're gonna see? Angels us sending and descending upon the

son of Man. Jesus is the ladder sent down from heaven to or Jesus is what is meant to restore your connection to God. You can't earn your way to heaven. It comes not based on you, placed on you. Because Jesus descended, the bridge came down, the latter came down. He said, I woke up like this all of a sudden, aware I don't got to earn my standing before God.

It was given to me based on the mercy and love of his son, Jesus Christ, who came into this world the safe sinners of whom Jacob said, I am cheap. I'm amazed, and I woke up like this because this is what heaven is all about. It's about God saving people, not by their good works. I'm excited. I could preach a lot more about that, but I got to move on. I got four points today. You got to collect them all to win a prize. The second point is included.

Jacob was not just told here's what I'm gonna do, like God was filling out his grand rescue mission. There was participation built in. There was participation baked in. That's how you don't waste the rain. You apply the word. The moment God sows the word, you instantly take action. Said here's how heaven works. Here's my master plan, he said, And bro I got plans for you. I want to use you. You got gifts, you got something to contribute.

You get to play a part church. We get to be a part of God's plan to change the world. That's why he gave you skills. That's why he gave you talents. That's why God has given you something to contribute to this grand master plan. The third thing is that he instantly wanted to become invested because he was amazed and he found out he got to be included. The immediate thing was for him to say, well, I want to get invested. I'm immediately wanting to get invested.

I want to get skin in this game. Now here's the problem. He was broke, he was a joke. He only had a staff, he didn't even he didn't even have anything to contribute. But that didn't stop him from contributing what he could because he looks around and he's like, well, this is where I slept right here last night, and what did I used for a pillow? A rock, and he's like, hmm, God's gonna use me to build a church.

God's gonna use me to build the House of God so other people could connect to the north, to the east of this house of the West. I got nothing but this rock. Well, guess what this rock is where the temple starts. Bang right there. He has this God moment where he says, that's the first stone of many that's gonna come. I'm not gonna let what I can't do stop me from doing what I can do. I lay the first rock right here and right now. And then he's like, oh, I got a little bit of

olive oil. All right, I'm pouring one out for the home. He's right here. I did it. He's smashing a bottle of champagne against the church, not even build. But he sees what's to come. He saw the work of God spreading out across the whole world. He was told, your seed Jesus is gonna lead to descendants from the whole world being blessed. It's being fulfilled today right now as we preached these words. Started it with that one rock. And then he said, and from here on out, God,

I don't have any money. I don't have anything to offer you. But if you ever trust so much as a dollar to this man, I'm gonna give the first and the best tenth to you every single time. And that made Jacob safe to bless. How did he get to lead two companies? How did he get to lead stock How did he get so influential in the stock market? It's a live stock market. He had made a vow that made him safe to bless. You. See, here's the thing you need to know about money. It gets tricky

with the money stuff. When we talk about money. Generosity is the only thing that can release the stranglehold that money will always hold on your soul. The love of money, the desire to be rich, It has crept in and will pierce your soul through with many sorrows. Not one of us is immune to the temptation, to the seduction, to the hypnotizing power of the deceitfulness of riches, which will choke and strangle away your desire to live a

life for God. The only thing that can unshackle the power of wealth to drain you of your spiritual power is constantly putting a steak through the idol's heart with something called giving it again and again and again. You get paid bang immediately, first in the best, back to God, first in the best, back to God. What are you doing? You're stabbing the idolatry of greed in the heart with

a steak. You are pounding again and again and again the thing that can sneak in and cause the love of many to grow cold, The thing that can sneak in and cause many people to live for this world and to live for their kingdom. See, money will sneak in and get you building the tower of Babble all over again. Money will sneak in and get you building your own kingdom once again. And the thing that every single time you get paid, you take a test, and the test is who do you honor the most? That's

what we find Jacob doing. I'm vowing that all you give me first and the tenth the best goes back to you. I was reminded of George Washington Carver this week. What an incredible man. George Washington Carver, a man and a man of God. He was. Come on, let's hear for George Washington Carver. I think we got a photo of him here, This incredible man. You know they say that he saved the economy of the South. And that's because he knew that with all the cotton fields that

were all over the place. What an incredible life he lived, born a slave, kidnapped, father, died, all these things, but became a scientist, and he realized he realized that the problem with all the cotton fields wasn't what they were growing,

it's what the fields were missing. And he realized that the things were depleting the soil, and so by introducing peanuts into the fields, peanuts have a unique ability to replenish nitrogen supplies, which is the only thing that over time keeps the cotton from killing the ground and making it unproductive. And so it wasn't a problem about what was growing, it was a problem about what was missing. For some of you, the problem in your life isn't

what you're doing your work. It's the problem is what's missing. You've got to plant some generosity in the field. It could replenish the nitrogen and keep what you're doing, what you're growing producing. So then then then they have this new problem. We all these peanuts. What do we do all these peanuts? And he's like, I got an idea. He found three hundred and twenty five different uses for the peanut. Three hundred and twenty five different things you

could do with a peanut. That should be the mascot of Elevation Creative Team, the peanut. You should have to sit around and look at a peanut and go, what could you do with a peanut? Right right? There's always more that you could do with what you have in front of you, right, and so and so he comes up with all these different ways to use the peanuts. So now they have all this crop, and the thing that saved their crop from going bad was now also

becoming a new crop three hundred twenty times over. I'm telling you, when you put generosity into your life in the mix, it not only keeps what you have from ruining you, it'll also give you more things to do that you didn't know how to do before. I'm telling you ninety percent of your resources with God's breath on your life is better than one hundred percent, and you're

all on your own every time. Every day of the week, you'll think got three hundred and twenty five new things to do with the spirit of God moving on your life so powerfully. What I'm really trying to say is that there's a protection in purpose, because every time you're sewing into God's work, it's keeping you on a mission. It's keeping you focused on what God's called you to do, and that purpose protects you. Or, as we learned last week, what I'm trying to say is, let God use your boat.

Let God use your boat. Now you've got to make your way back to Luke chapter five, because we got unfinished business in this text. In Luke chapter five, what we find is that basically, if we jump into verse one, so it was the multitude press all about them to hear the word of God that he Jesus stood by the lake of Genessa Ittzia Galley. He saw two boats, someone say, two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them, and they were washing their nets.

He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered him, Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net

was breaking. So they signaled to their partners, who do you have to call? By the way, when you got a problem in your life? Do you got any partners to signal too? He thought he was gonna drown, and he had someone who he could summon for help. That's why you need to be in an E group. You need to have people in your life that you can signal, that you can call, that you can text. You can't just consume this message like it's the Crown on Netflix.

You gotta watch this message and then participate and get involved and get planted and get into these reflect events and groups and these all these things that are going to keep you keep keep people in your life. But you can signal when there's a problem. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees, saying to part from me, pushing him away, for I'm a sinful man, o Lord, For he and all who

are with him? What were what you can say? Amazed? What's the difference before you. You caught no fish before your fishing, no catching, no fish. You're and now on the other side of it a different person. He said, I woke up like this. I woke up like this. I fished all night, caught nothing on my own. But now it's morning, Now the day has broken. Now Jesus is in my boat. Now what I was trying to do alone I couldn't do. I can do all things

through Christ, who gives me strength. I woke up like this at to catch a fish which they had taken. I believe that God wants you to use your boat to wake other people up. In Ephesian chapter five, we're giving a little important detail that sleep in the New Testament is a picture of death, and it can mean a lot of different kinds of death. That can mean

physical death, but also can mean spiritual death. And Paul says in Ephesians five therefore, he says, awake ye who sleep, rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. I believe that God wants you to see that your part to play in this a significant call of God on your life is to grow your business, is to

produce wealth. Is to scale your company, is to start that business and to do so protected by the purpose of Whatever God does through this boat business, whatever God does through this corporation, whatever God does on the Nasdaq, it's for a purpose. It's to bankroll this pulpit is to get wealth into the hands of those who need it through the elevation outreach initiatives. I'm going to scale my company. I believe the call of God on many of you is to produce more well. Is the need

for bigger barnes, is the need for more employees. And it is to do so with the vision, with the explicit intention of whatever you and trust to me, I'm going to return back to you God. I'm going to use it to build your house. I'm going to use it to get you on the boat in front of the people. The people were pressing, wanting to hear. They were hungry and stirred, I'm anxious, troubled with many things. They needed to hear the word of God preached from

the specific and it was so cool. It's like YouTube. The way he got on the boat and pushed out it created acoustics as they were on the hillside. This is old school amplification techniques. Jesus was using the most cutting edge delivery vehicle of media he could find, and it amplified the reach to those who couldn't have heard him otherwise. He's doing it today, he's doing it right now. He's doing it through multi site, he's doing it through

church online, he's doing it through Facebook. He's getting the word to more people. So what I need you to do is not only feel okay about going to work. I want you to feel like you are on a mission as you go to work, because God has called you to thrive. God has called you to excel, and as He blesses your life, you're doing so protected from the idolatry of greed, with a purpose of I'm planted in the house. I'm here to make the reach get louder. I need this boat to get bigger, I need the

nets to get wider. Why so that more people can come to know the saving goodness of the God who reaches down with a ladder from heaven and says, come on up, Come on up, Come on up. And I think that we find a stirring example in these two fishermen. And yet I'm more impressed by the other fishermen on the Sea of Galley that day. You see because we know that two of them walked away. Two of them walked away and left the fish and left the business.

They left the enterprise, and they went to follow Jesus and become professional pastors and profess estional preachers. But joseph Is the historian tells us that there were two hundred and thirty commercial fishing enterprises on the Sea of Galilee operating at that time, and surely many of them got impacted, and many of them got saved. And many of them said, I'm ready to leave my net. I'm ready to follow you to the ends of the earth. Where's my sword?

Let's go. I'm in the Lord's army right now. Let's do this thing. And Jesus said to them what he said to the demoniac of Gadera, when he said, can I follow you? He said, oh, go back to your home. I can use you, but I want to use you at home. I can use you, but I want to use you in your city. You listen, are gonna to do the thing that requires even more faith than going, and that is staying. I want you to go back to work tomorrow, protected with purpose, creating wealth for the kingdom,

receiving blessing that you might be a blessing. God is going to use you, many of you like the two hundred and twenty eight fishing vessels that didn't go into full time ministry, in full time ministry at your bank, at your plates, study at your job, selling insurance at your job. And I want you every day to hold your head high knowing I'm a servant of the King. I got a mission, I got a cause. The church

need these resources. I need to bankroll this pulpit and make sure this ministry is never lacking in funds to send out more millions of dollars. Y'all gave away more resource this year than most churches will have in their budgets in a decade. But God has raised you up for such a time as this. Now that shouldn't make you want to do less. It should make you eager to see God do more. Because is there not a cause? Is there not a need? Are there not hungry people?

Are there not people who need to have hope? Very good? I love World War two, And all the time I've prepared this message and read about the boat and was listening to Pastor last week, I couldn't get this boat out of my mind. And I kept thinking about this boat, and I'll show you a photo of it. This is

the boat I kept thinking of. Here. It's called a Higgins boat, and it's a boat that many of you have seen, because it's if you've ever watched Saving Private Ryan or any of the World War two movies, you've seen this boat. Now, now, if you take that boat away for a moment, there are names. We'll come back to that in a second. When you think about World War Two, there are names that come to mind, and

you think about, you know, Normandy in D Day. It was the event that turned the tide of World War Two. And the reason we live in a country that is not under the command of Imperial Japan or have a Nazi flag flying high is in large part because of what happened at D Day June sixth, nineteen forty four, seventy six years ago. This incredible, amphibious assault of the

five beaches of Normandy in France. One hundred and fifty thousand soldiers alone and came aboard, came up up on the shore at these beaches in central France, not to speak of all the paratroopers and all the things that happened. It was a reversal of Dunkirk, because Dunkirk was a massive evacuation of France. But you don't win wars by evacuation. You don't win wars by retreating. You gotta take some ground, you can't leave the ground. So they were finally back.

All these soldiers that left France were now back on French soil. And so here's this amazing day. And you think about who is responsible. And when you think about World War two and the European theater specifically, and you think about who was it that was responsible for this victory, you think, of course about Roosevelt, and you think about Churchhill, and you think about Patten, and you think about even Montgomery,

this British general. But Dwight de Eisenhower, the Supreme commander of the Allied Forces, was interviewed by Stephen Ambrose in Gettysburg. So any conversation that happens in Gettysburg, it's already like, okay, you had me, I'm already there. And he was asked, who do you attribute most the victory to? And I want to put on screen the exact quote that he had to say that day. He said that he Peter Higgins is the man who won the war for us.

Talking about Peter Higgins, because he knew that Ambrose was from New Orleans. He said, do you have you ever met Higgins? He goes, no, he died before he died a while back. I never met him. He said, well, I want you know, look at that quote more time. This is from the mouth of President right the eyes at hour. He is the man who won the war for us. And you're like, well, who is Higgins? Because he's the photo of Andrew Jackson Higgins. This is what

he looked like. This is his tie flapping on the side. What a legend this guy is, right, He is a person you've never heard about. But he was the one who invented the boat that I showed you a moment ago. He was a boat builder, He was a businessman. He had just one hundred employees. But he had this incredible invention, a flat bottom boat with a protected propeller that could be beached easily and go in just a shallow of water as one foot and it was an amazing boat.

He built it for Louisiana Oil, you know, workers and trappers, and he sold a ton of them to boot to run runners and bootleggers, and then he sold them to the people that chased the run runners and the bootleggers, and he's just kind of say, hey, you need this to get away from and you need this to catch him. He was just that way an amazing leader. He in his factories in New Orleans. He was the first person to hire black people and white people and men and

women and pay him all the same. He was the first person. He was the first person that broke through those walls and integrated his operations. And don't I preach him into heaven and make him seem like I'm saying he drank a whole bottle of whiskey every single day and cursed worse than an Irish sailor. This is the thing about Higgins. But Eisenhower said, Higgins is the man who won the war for us. You want to know why, because check this out. Here's a step back view of Normandy,

a step back picture of Normandy. When we had to get one hundred and fifty thousand troops all the way to the shore, one hundred and fifty thousand men. The average age was twenty by the way, and they're on let's hear for our military let's hear this. Thank God for everyone who serves everyone. They had to get all these men from aircraft carriers and big old boats. How you gonna get the largest amphibious assault crew in human history from these massive ships in six foot waves? Six

feet waves are going. But you see, you can't land the big boats on the beach. How you gonna get them? How you gonna get them from ship to shore? You need a ladder, You need a connection, you need a bridge. The only way to get them from where they were to where they needed to be was someone had to roll down a ladder. And the Navy didn't have anything. They didn't have any ideas. But Higgins did show me that first photo again. He built a boat that could go easily from the big boats and go right up

on the shore. And then I look at this photo of the ramp. The ramp would down, and then all these men, thirty six men could go rushing off to battle, rushing to take the hills, rushing many of them, four thousand of them, to die on the bloody beaches of Omaha and Utah and sore, these men who laid their

lives down. But the ramp would drop, and then they could run off one of these boat he invented he could hold thirty six men a whole platoon, or twelve men in a jeep and would just rush up and then the ramp would drop, and then they run off, and then they would be able to do this thing. And he scaled his operations from one hundred employees to over twenty five thousand employees, from one little factory to eight factories. Then he had to shut a whole street down.

Look at this photograph of one of his factories. Absolutely amazing. The sign of the back says, the guy who relaxes is helping the axis. Is amazing. He also had photos of Hitler in every single bathroom that said take it easy above Hitler's head, So as people were sitting down, Hitler saying, take it easy, I don't need you to build more boats. So he wanted the men to have a sense of urgency. He wanted them to be a little bit riled up. Some people wonder, oh, why his

pastor's so excited. Why are the people standing? Oh, I don't know. Go ahead and sit back down. The devil says, go ahead and sit back down. The devil says, take it easy. The devil says, you got all the time in the world to get around to that. The devil says, Oh, don't be so excited, just take it easy. The one who relaxes is helping the axes. I'm telling you, we got work to do. Night is coming when no man can work. We got a gospel to preach, we got a God to s sir, we got things to do,

We got buildings to build. When all was said and done, there were six thousand boats involved in d Day, six thousand, most but fifteen hundred of them were built by Andrew Jackson Higgins. So don't tell me a businessman can't change the world. Don't you tell me an entrepreneur can't change the world. I'm telling you, what you build, what you do, how you leave, can't change the course of the supernatural war for the souls of men and women, boys and earls that we are in. Well that's my sermon. I

hope you liked it. I have more to say about that. I really wanted to talk to this for a minute about something I found in Luke five in my Bible, because I read out of the New King James, and I know generally you guys speak out of the NIV up in here, and I just got raised in the n king JV. I don't think it's better or anything, but when I was reading in my translation, I could. I just got to show you real quick. It's in

verse four. It's Jesus' command. Look at it on the screen, launch out into the deep and let down your say it for a catch. Many Greek manuscript not all, but many. There's differences in translation. Many manuscripts indicate that the command was plural. But I want to show you something you won't have seen if you only read av Look at the next verse. So Simon answered, Master, we've toiled at

night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the The command was plural, the obedience was singular, meaning Peter was going through the motions. Now, whether the venue scripts to say plural plural or singular plural are correct, the emphasis of the teaching is that Peter didn't really think this was something to do, because he and his experience official night and cut nothing. So you told me to let down the nets. But all right, you said,

so we'll let down a singular net? Is that not what's all over the scripture from beginning to end stract the arrows in the ground. Tap tap tap, gather some vessels to get some oil. Do not gather just a few? Make this valley full of the point is it was incredible when he let down a single net. He caught so many fish his boat began to sink. So we got a lot of fish. But the question is, on December thirteenth, what do you want to see God flooding

into this ministry and into your life? Do you want to just bring on net or do you want to let down all the nets? Do you want to gather all the vessels. Do you want to see this valley full of ditches? Do you want to see mercy and grace all over this world? The point is that the problem when God works in our world is never about his ability. It's always about our capacity. And he can't feel what you don't offer. And the net that sat

unused was the net that became that remained unfilled. All right, So that's the sermon, Like I said, And if you're keeping track, we only got three of our four points. We got amazed, We got included Peter and Jacob, they got invested. But the greatest thing and the most powerful thing came because they both walked in the power of the fact that they were forgiven. That's the fourth point forgiven. The boat that won the war, the boat that won the war for Peter was not the first boat. It

was the last boat. And that's why I had you turned to John twenty one. You see, because Peter's life was bookended with boats. The first day he really hung out with Jesus on a boat, and the final time before Jesus ascended, he also hung out with him on a boat. The boat that won the war that mattered the most for Peter was the boat that he was on. In verse seven of John twenty one, when Jesus had just showed up again, Peter denied him. After Peter said

I I don't know you. I don't know you. I don't know you to a servant girl, and then wept bitterly because I was Jesus's guy. But he was standing in the strength of his resolve, of his commitment of he was standing in the strength of his decision, and Jesus pursued him, and Jesus sought him, and Jesus showed up and said, one morning, have you caught any fish? Peter said nah man, thanks for bringing it up, he said, maybe throw your net on the starboard side. Okay, you

know what, I caught nothing, I am nothing. I have no one who would ever want me. He threw his nets down, and so many fish, one hundred and fifty three he counted him later, because every one of those miracles meant something to him. And when John said this is verse seven, it's the Lord, Simon heard it was the Lord. He put on his outer garment, for he had removed it, and then he plunged into the sea.

This is a man who's out of control, astonished, amazed, stupefied, because not only is he included, and not only is he invested, and not only had he already been astonished, but now Jesus showing up doing this miracle again shows him that even after his darkest day, he was still forgiven. He was loved, he was wanted, he was cared for. The boat that won the war was the boat to help Peter win the war with himself. For now the footholder had met the foot washer, and Peter was learning

what Jacob learned. What you need to know, and that is you don't need to be dressed up in your Sunday. Best to be loved by your father. He loves you even though you just woke up like this. You just woke up a failure. Peter went to bed a failure. He went to bed with the smoke in his nose of defeat. And one morning Gejesus woke up to cook

him breakfast. Jesus woke up to make him a meal so that he would always remember the smell of smoke with forgiveness and not with the feet Coles were kindled in John twenty one, and Jesus served him breakfast that he had helped him catch a moment ago. He said good night to failure. But God says, good morning, grace. And that is what God speaks over your life today. And why God wants you to win the war over the darkest version of who you've become. He already knows

those things, but he loves you anyway. He doesn't want you to wear Esau's clothes, to think you have to earn his blessing by being someone you're not. He loves you just as you are, and he has a plan to use every weird thing, every warped thing, every dark thing. He wants to change you heal you, fix you, mend you, not make you someone that you're not, but use you exactly as you are. Just a healed version, just a chosen version, just a restored version. I had this blue

paint on my boot. I don't know if you can see it. I was writing this sermon so fast as God was giving it to me that I was shaking the mark or trying to write something on the glass when it hit me, this is kind of weird that, and it's not normally how I preach. God gave me a sermon about sleeping and a sermon about a boat. And I sat back to think, have I ever been in a situation where I was sleeping on a boat? I can need it like something? Is there something about this?

And I sit there at the glass and I was shaking the pen so hard trying to write down the question. And it's the question I wrote down, write on this card. Why are you having me preach about a story involving sleep in a boat? And as the paint dripped on my boot, you got all the floor too, So I was rushing to find something to clean the paint up on the floor. And then and then all of a sudden, I felt like God spoke to me as I was

cleaning the paint off the floor. He said, LEVI, this is not a story about you involving sleep in a boat. The reason I have you preaching this sermon to this church on this day is because of a story that I was in involving sleep in a boat. And the only only way to end this message is for us to remember, in one of the greatest storms our world has ever faced, surely in our lifetime mark four thirty eight, we're told that in a storm on a boat on a sea, Jesus look at it was asleep on a pillow,

and they woke them up, freaking out. They woke them up frantic, and he would minister to them so that by the end of the story they were calm and peaceful. But they're like, how are you not freaking out like us? How are you not stressed out like us? How are you not worried about racial divide and worried about COVID and worry about our country and worrying about the churches? If I lose their five o' one c three status.

Now the Democrats are in control, and the Democrats are we'll builver the Republicans don't, and how are you not working out? And he would work out their peace, but their question is how are you not freaking out? And he says to them what he says to you, little child, I woke up like this, in control, in command, and I always will be. And if he could sleep in a storm, so can you. If he could rest in a storm, so can you. And here's my final question, what peace and rest will be yours? As you walk

into twenty one with God's favor on your life? What will that feel like? How great will that be? Here's all I know. We're gonna see a victory. We're gonna see a victory. We're gonna see a victory because our praise and our gifts, our generosity, and our sacrifice are going ahead of us into this new year. Raise your hands up, jump up to your feet. Let me pray for you. Father. The image of your son sleeping on a pillow is meant to comfort us. Jacob's pillow is

a rock. Your pillow was probably much softer, for you're better at packing. And the contrast is so staggering looking at Jacob's franticness, looking at Peter, then to see Jesus to see you. That's what we need. We need to see you resting. But now I pray for your people to do what Jacob did, to take the thing that symbolized his rest and comfort and to turn it into

an altar. He turned a pillow into a pillar. May we your people take every blessing you've given to us and turn it back into a sacrifice, to an offering. Thankful for what you're doing and proving it by giving it out for you to do more. Bless your people, give them rest. May your favor be upon this house in the coming days. You've blessed us through this church. Now I speak a blessing over this church. May you bless them and keep them. May you bless the verdicts

and keep them. May you bless elevation worship and keep them. May you bless every person in the e kids, every person who's a volunteer, every person running a camera, every person god answering questions in the chat, every person facilitating what. May you bless and keep this ministry and continue to cause your face to shine upon them, and give them your perfect peace in Jesus' name. In Jesus name, say amen, if you receive it. Thank you for joining us on

the Elevation Church podcast. We trust that God has spoken to you through the message. The pastor Levi LESCo has just spoken, thank you to all of you who support financially the work that God is doing through Elevation Church this year. As the year end season approaches, we take some time and look back and all that God has done, but also forward in anticipation of all that He is going to do. The year end season for us at Elevation is special, and this year our pastor has labeled

it the Favor Season. We're believing God's favor on our lives as we look forward to what He's going to do. Between now and December thirteenth, we have the opportunity to bring an offering to go above and beyond, to give toward how God is moving here at Elevation Church. If you already give, thank you. If you'd like to join us and give, we'd invite you to go to Elevation

Church dot or. There you'll see the Favor offering. If you don't tithe, maybe you begin there by bringing the first ten percent of what God has entrusted to you. If you do tithe, we'd invite you to go above and beyond the tithe and see what God can do when you open your hands and allow Him to move through you. Thank you for being a part of Elevation Church. We trust that God will continue to move in your life.

If you haven't subscribed to this podcast yet, we'd encourage you to do just that to stay up to date on all the new messages here at Elevation Church. Thank you again and we believe God's blessing on your life.