Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. I hope you're blessed today. Hey, let's welcome our efam all around the world.
Welcome. Wherever you're joining.
Us from today, we welcome you. Put it in the comments where you're joining us from. I want to pick up and tag team write with Holly, write with what my wife shared last week.
I've been thinking about it all week.
You'all be seated now and I'm going to pick up from the scripture that she shared beautifully from last week. Didn't you think that was a beautiful word that my wife shared last week.
We've been talking about this.
When we were talking about it, I said, Holly, I think that you wrote this scripture, not David, because I really see her live this out and it was just such a joy to hear her share that message. We kind of ended up doing a trilogy on trusting in God.
We did the first week was ugly. Trust.
It doesn't always look pretty, and thank God he doesn't need you to pray a pretty prayer to give you an answer. Then I preached about delayed praise, and then she got up here and preached the house down on sudden strength.
To continue in the flow where she left off.
And the scripture that we have been talking about a lot is in First Chronicles twenty eight, and it's a really powerful promise from God and a principle. And I want to be very simple today, if that's all right, and not dumb it down, but really bring it right there into the doing of.
This word in a way that can develop your faith.
In First Chronicles twenty eight, Verse ten, this is where David tells his son Solomon. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work. Everybody say that, be strong and do the work. Look at your neighbors, say be strong and do the work. Verse eleven. Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, it's buildings, it's storerooms, its upper parts, its
inner rooms, and the place of atonement. He gave him the place of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the Temple of the Lord, and all the surrounding rooms for the treasuries of the Temple of God, and for the treasuries of the dedicated things.
Verse ten.
Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary.
Be strong and do the work.
I'd like to talk to you today from this thought and just let you know it works in reverse.
That's what the Lord told me to tell you today.
It works in reverse. Be strong and do the work. It works in.
Reverse.
Now. As wonderful as my wife is, you're like, what comes next after that? That doesn't end with you having a bad afternoon? Pastor just hear me out. Sometimes when she's telling me about a conversation she had, she uses this phrase that lets me know that she is slightly exaggerating it, not because she's a liar, but because she's telling me what she thought, but she's communicating it like she actually said it. And here's how I can know
that's happening. She'll say, And I was like, and then she'll start saying stuff put that in the chat real quick. I was like, because when she says that phrase, it usually is followed by something that I know she would never say. You know, I ran into so and so at the school, and do you know, they had the nerve to say to me, boom boom boom, and I was like, boom bom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom and she goes off. But I know her.
She's not confrontational like that. She's like whatever the opposite of that person is on the Enneagram, she's like the other extreme of that.
All right.
I still don't remember the enneagram numbers that she gave me one time to tell me who I was and who she was. But she'll she'll go into this whole thing and she'll be telling them, like telling them off, like you know.
They they said, uh.
Well where we're where? You know, they said well this and that, And I was like and when she gets finished with them, I'm I'm I'm like you said that. And one time she looks back and she's like no, But I was like that, I love that look at your neighbors say.
I was like that.
You know how in church, when we get to preaching real good, you're.
Like that, I trust in God.
Ah ah my savee You're the one. Aah like that, That's why I trust him. I'm like, I'm like David with a smooth stone taking out the lia all right there on your forehead, giant. It's like that this uncircumcised philistine will fall three thirteen pm today. You know, you might you might be like something else, all right, So you're gonna do me like that today in church? Just be a real fake, real plastic today. I think that
idea that we get a picture in our head. In Holly's instance, it's what we want to say in a moment but we can't. It's the perfect comeback that we think of three weeks later. You know, it happened in target and then you thought of what you wanted to say. Hey, you ever woke up in the middle of the night thinking of what you wish you would have said to somebody?
But it's too late.
Because now if you bring it back up, you're just gonna look petty because it's weird now you just call them randomly. And I was like, so, I think we get pictures in our head of what we want our life to look like, what we want to be like under pressure, or the way we want our kids' childhood to feel like. I wanted to feel like that, you know,
and you even see stuff on TV. I had to quit watching This Is Us for a little while when it was on because I can't say it like I really want to say it, because y'all are real, super sanctified today and I can't figure out what happened to you.
But but it.
Was for me. I told somebody one time that it was emotionally like I said it not as a bad show. It's a great I like the show and all of that. It's a great show, but sometimes it's almost like pornographic because everybody is doing exactly what you wish your best self, like they had these speeches, and the speeches are just so amazing, and you're like, yes, that's how I want to explain my feelings. Yes, that's yes. I want to be more like Jack. Not what would Jesus do? What
would Jack do? If you saw the show? You know what I'm talking about, and he gave his life too, Jack did it.
Go watch the show, but I had.
To pause it for a little while because it made me feel bad because I'd be like, oh, I want to I want to be there for my kids like that.
I want to make beautiful moments like that.
But mostly I'm just annoyed and grumpy, and that's probably what they're gonna remember is me just being.
Like hey, and then you watch them and it's like, oh, I want to like that.
When Holly was preaching last to be strong and do the work, we kept talking about it all week and we realize that when you hear sermons from God's word be strong and do the work, you really do.
Want to be.
Like that where you, yeah, where you don't stress out over stupid stuff, but you pray about things. You really do want to be like that. At least that's my core belief. I believe that everybody who has the spirit of God, has the desire of God and really wants.
To do these things in your life.
And yet sometimes you're like Holly, where you're like, I didn't do that, but I was like that, Like That's what I'm going to be like one day. And so there is this sense, oh, I feel the Holy Spirit that you can get from time to time that this is isn't working. You know, I'm committing to this path of progress, I'm trying this new way of relating to people. I'm trying to smile at people more. They don't smile back. This isn't working. I'm just gonna go back to I'm going to go back to my You know.
How I say it.
RBF is resting blessed face in my vernacular, and there's a sense in which you can get discouraged. The Lord said, for me to tell you today that it's working, but to let you in on this little secret. It works in reverse. When David was giving Solomon the plans for the temple, you have to understand that this was not
his preference. He would have wanted to, and actually prayed to, and thought for a little while that he would get to build the temple himself for God, possibly to atone for the mistake that he made.
We call it a mistake.
It was really a grievous sin what he did with Bathsheba, and he.
Had her husband murdered on the front lines of battle.
He spent his later years writing psalms and planning this very elaborate place for God to dwell.
He did that.
But as he's nearing the end of his life, like we read just now in First Chronicles twenty eight, he calls Solomon and says, the Lord showed me how this temple is to be built. I'm not going to get to do it because God chose you to do it, but I'm going to give you the plans for it.
Make sure you build it like that.
God showed me specifically what this temple was to look like. Don't cut corners, don't take shortcuts, don't be lazy about it, don't deviate from the blueprint. God showed me what to build, and he put.
It in my mind.
But it's gonna be from David's mind to Solomon's hand. He's gonna show him what to build exactly to the dimensions. And I mean, man, he gets specific, and I often wish God would give me more specifics. Don't you just write it out for me? Dear Lord, show me the way, guide me on the path and tell me where to turn, and I'll do it.
But you know the truth is I wouldn't do it.
I mean, he did tell me a lot of stuff to do that I'm already not doing. There's no reason for me to think if he told me exactly what to do in every other.
Area, I'd just start doing it.
He already told me do everything without complaining. I'm doing pretty bad at that, So I'm like, no, God, something else, show me specifically what else to do? Where to invest? My money, show me that what real estate to buy, Show me that I want you to show me and
guide me like that. Well, if you hear this first part of the sermon and then you have to leave, you would have gotten a lot because the thing that the Lord says to Solomon through David, and you know, it's it's hard for us to believe that God feels this way about us. But I want to put it right there in your I want to put it right there in your heart today.
Verse ten.
Consider now for the Lord has chosen you. There's a lot I don't know Church, I don't know when Jesus is coming back. I don't know who the Antichrist is. There's a lot I don't know about the future, my future, your future. There's a lot I don't know in this Bible. But I know I'm chosen.
I know that.
I know that God chose me to speak this word to you today. I know that I know that. And I don't believe that you can fully know what you were chosen for as you're going through it, but you can start from the belief.
If you choose to.
That God has chosen you. You will need to understand that God does not choose like people choose.
God does not judge. Remember how he chose David. He said that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. So when God chose David, he wasn't looking for how tall he was. When God chose David, he wasn't looking for how much ability he had, even though he had great ability that he into. Yet when it comes to heaven, he never starts with our ability. But one preacher said, our availability, and that means.
Waking y'all up.
That means that he doesn't call the qualified, Rather he qualifies the call. For those he has called, he will resource for everything that he has chosen them to do. Somebody's shout, I'm chosen, I'm chosen, And that ought to make you feel good in your bones, just to know that God chose you not only this, but the God who is eternal, who lives outside of time and space.
When he was looking for somewhere to live, guess where he said he wanted to dwell, Not in a temple built by human hands, but he said, I want to and live inside of you.
I'm chosen.
God walked around the whole neighborhood, and he said I want that house. God looked all around. He was very very choosy, see, because he had to be, because there is a very specific assignment that God has for your life, and he chose you to do it. Now, if you don't get what I just said, you will struggle with the rest of what I say, because most of us would think that while Solomon was chosen, there is nothing
significant about us. While the temple of the Lord is filled with splendor, majesty and onyx and stones and precious rubies and things like that, we look at our lives and we see that we are made of clay. We are vessels that are scooped up out of the dirt into which He breathed the breath of life. But God said, stop apologizing for the simplicity of the temple of your life and let him fell what he built with what he wants to fill it with. You are chosen. Touch
your neighbor and say you're chosen. Tell him a little more convincingly, because honestly, you sounded a little bit uncertain about that. But God's not unsure about it. God is not confused about it. You might be confused about it. You might look at your life and see it as insignificant. God doesn't. In fact, I would just put in here whatever you need to put in here. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary.
But I can do better.
God has chosen you to be a house as the sanctuary. Why is this so good to me? I just love the word. Maybe I need to be reminded of it today. Maybe I just need to walk through my house saying I'm chosen. Maybe it's more than a TV show title. Well, maybe it's more than twelve disciples chosen. Maybe it is a new operating system and a framework from which I need to come at every challenge in my life knowing that if He gave me the challenge, he chose me
before he gave me the challenge. That's why I can fight Goliath. Before this challenge showed up, I was chosen to go for it. I was chosen to fight through it. I was chosen to do it. And the Lord showed me in my prayer time that you don't feel that.
Way a lot of times.
And that's okay, because God shows you what you are chosen for as you go forward, it works in reverse. Be strong and do the work, Be strong and do.
The work. How do you hear that? Do you hear be.
Strong as a condition? Like you know, I need to be strong, and do you hear do the work as a command? I need to do the work. And the problem if you hear it that way, If you do hear it that way, maybe you don't, but that's probably how I would hear it, because that's how I said it, be strong and do the work. Is that Sometimes I don't feel like I meet the condition be strong to follow that command do the work. In other words, I
feel overwhelmed by it. I feel like the work that is in front of me is greater than the power that is within me. So I said, I wanted to keep this simple, and I don't know how to keep it any more simple than to put it on a poster. Holly said she was gonna put it on a coffee mug and a sweatshirt. I didn't have time to do either of those, so I just had to make some posters last night. Y'all bring me my posters real quick, because I was thinking, everybody shout, be strong, everybody shout
do the work. Now I'm gonna need your enthusiasm. Thank you, I appreciate you. That dude's been faithful in this house. I appreciate him. Y'all give it up.
Shout be strong, shout it safe, be strong.
Shout it like you need to get another rep say be strong, you got this. You can lift this, you can make this, you can do it if I take it here go, Chunks, take this one. Be strong. Find somebody in the church. Just walk around to you find them that looks strong. I mean a big old guy, not like there's us prayer warrior. I'm talking like physically strong, big and strong. Just walk around for a minute, Chunks, look at me. Somebody that you wouldn't mind looking like.
All right, I'll just qualify it like that. He's gonna find somebody. While I'm talking, everybody shall do the word. Who's somebody in the house. I'm gonna let you choose yourself that you want to work out more getting ready for the summer. You remember saying, okay, you want to do it? Do you want to do it?
I don't know.
See here's the way this works. When God chooses people, he knows who he's choosing. I don't know you, so should I choose him? For this illustration I'm gonna come over here. I don't know him. All right, over here, anybody.
You know what?
Because you got a tied die shirt on, I'm gonna use you. I just think you look handsome. Hurry up, hurry up. We gotta get this done. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Did you find somebody chunks? Is he big and strong? He's big and strong? All right, you come up? Yeah, Oh, you don't know what I'm gonna make you do. So I saw you doing some calisthenics. Come on up, coming up. All right now, I'm not saying that one of you
looks better than the other. Y'all identified yourself says you said you wanted to work out more. So let's do this real quick. Come here, uh come here, stand here. Uh yeah, that's the verse, right, be strong, do the work.
I'm sorry you volunteered.
Remember I was on the whole other side of the church and you were calling me, choose me, pastor. Okay, you got what you wanted, ted I, but you already look you already look good. I'm gonna be honest with you. To me, you look good. I want to show you something that the Lord showed me He showed me that be strong is what everybody wants to look like. Would you all war short sleeves if you'd known this illustration was coming today?
You had no idea, he said, I would have worn a tank Tom. You would have got a pump to wouldn't you? You didn't need one. You look great. Okay, So be strong. Everybody said be strong, everybody say do the work. Now, be honest real quick and say, but I'm not strong. And how many of you felt that way in an area of your life this week? But it could just be a simple feeling. You may not have said that, but it may be the way that you felt.
So what the Lord was showing me as I was studying this Holly, is that we think that this is the condition.
To follow this command.
So in moments where we feel strong, we do strong stuff. In moments where we feel solid, we show up consistently and committedly is committedly a word it is today, And then the command do the work becomes dependent on the feeling of our strength. And see, that's fine for people who live by their feelings, but you're not one of them. That's fine for people who aren't chosen, but you're not one of them. That's fine for people who have nothing
important to do with their lives. But you're not one of them.
For you're a child of the King.
For he's given you a temple to build, For he's given you an assignment to complete, For he has given you a testimony. You're feeling this, I'm feeling this standing between the two.
Of you all right now. I'm feeling strong as a preach. But I don't always feel strong.
Some times I have to do stuff that strong people do when I don't feel stuff that strong people feel. So the Lord was showing me you got this thing backwards vertic. You still don't understand faith. You think that faith is when you feel a certain way, you can do a certain thing. You think that faith is when you get details then you can follow God in obedience. But the Lord said, it doesn't work like that. It doesn't work like that. In fact, it works in reverse.
So you keep saying, when I get stronger, when I get clearer, when I get older, when I get better, when I get richer, when I get through this, when I get done with this, when I get finished. But God said, I'm not telling you to do the work when you feel strong I'm telling you switch places. It works in reverse. Help me, Holy ghost, God said, I see you feeling weak, but you'll keep waiting on strength.
But it doesn't work that way in the kingdom, because in the Kingdom, if you want to be strong, you've got to do the work. So how do I get up out of this pitiful situation? How do I look like that? I want to look like that. I want to function like that. I want to pick back like that. Well, God says, if you want to be strong, you gotta do the work. And if you do the work, you'll be strong. And if you'll be strong, you can do
the work. And that's why I brought you to church today, because I got you.
In the gym.
Today, because I want to fill you with the spirit of Jesus today and resurrection.
Power of God flowing through your body.
So you get bigg as.
Strong and build your temple.
That's what Holly taught y'all last week. Get somebody at high five and say, do the word, do the work, and you'll get strong. I don't feel like worship him. Worship him and you'll feel him.
Call it till he comes, call it Tilly comes, Call it till he comes Jesus solitay that have mercy. That's what Phraises phrase, frege tower, do the word, do the work, all right?
So so you want to look like that? You know, I found the devil. I found the devil. I found out where the devil lives. God lives inside of us. How many believe that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Greater is he that is in me than he does in the world. God lives inside of I know where the devil lives.
The devil lives in YouTube shorts. I found him. I thought I deleted every bad app on my phone, but the YouTube shorts gets me because somehow my algorithm it's only showing me right now, preaching clips, guitar solos from the nineteen eighties and workout videos, and all the workout videos are clickbait. It'll say the only shoulder exercise you ever need to look like this, And I clicked on it and I saw how the man looked, and I was like, oh, I want to look like that.
That's how I want my shoulders to look. Yeah, like that, like that, look like that.
So God gave me a question. He said, you want to look like that. Do you want to lift like that? Because that guy when I watch what he was doing, Yes, the only shoulder exercise that you'll ever need, but he was doing it with five times my body weight.
He looked like he was about to die. So I clicked off. I'm like, oh, yeah, I want to look like that.
I don't want to lift like that. They don't want me to preach this part because all we want to hear is the Lord has chosen you.
Be strong.
Or we want to hear. Okay, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. But a lot of times what we resist the most. Have you noticed this is the work and this is the principle.
Okay. The strength that you want.
Is on the other side of the weakness that you are willing to work through.
Thank you. I appreciate y'all.
Can keep those I might call you back up next week. I might call you up next week. Now, let's sit down and talk about this for a moment. Are you getting some out of this? When we preach the word of God to you, it works, It works. The Word of God will work in your life. Don't tell me it won't. You're arguing with the wrong dude, I know too much about it. I've experienced it. You may as well try to tell me Holly can't cook.
I've had too much of her food.
You can't convince me that God's word doesn't work. I have tasted it and seen that the Lord is good. Do you know how much out I had about what I stood up to.
Preach to you today? Zero? Because it's working for me.
I would feel sorry for a preacher who got up and was just trying stuff out. Well, hope this is a good sermon. I don't hope this is a good sermon. This sermon has been inside of me, working in me. I mean when I tell you, me and Holly are tag team, and we talked all week about this. What kind of work has God called you to do? And where is the line between us trying to work to earn our own salvation versus accepting the grace of God because people will try to make them opposites, and they're
not opposites. The more grace you get from God for your situation, the more stable you're going to be to show up for it and fight the good fight of faith. So these are not opposites. The grace of God comes in order to grow me into the person that God has called me to be. And that is why God does not start with who you are right now. He starts with what He chose you to do, what He called you to do. God does not start with your
experience level. God works in reverse. So God knows what you need to build, whether that's a business, whether that's a family, whether that's a discipline, whether that's.
A habit pattern.
God knows what you need to build, and nobody else can build it because He shows you to build it. And if you don't do it, it won't get done. Oh you say, well, God will do it through somebody else. He will do it through someone else, but there will be a great loss in the process of you not
choosing to do what God called you to do. That's why holler, That's why I scream, Because do you really think that there aren't people listening to me today who feel so abandoned and so small and so unchosen and so picked over and so unwanted and so rejected and so betrayed that even just to hear God shows you, God wants you. God sees you. God shows you, God wants you. God sees you. God chooses the weak things
of the world to shame the strong. You know why you like that so much when I said it, because it's a Bible Verse one Corinthians one twenty seven. But God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
Say it again, God chose.
That's what we started out saying, right, is that God chose Solomon? Who was Solomon? He was the son that David would have never chosen to build the temple. David would have chosen his son Absalom. God chose Solomon. Anybody want to take a guess when David made the biggest mistake of his life and slept with Bathsheba and the child born was died, and he went back and had another child, anybody want to guess.
What the name of the child was that he had after his greatest mistake.
Yeah, I thank you for having the boldness to say that, because I think everybody else in the church was like, it must be a setup, because he can't.
It can't be Solemon.
God, There's because there's no way, right, who said it out loud?
How could it be Solomon?
He's inexperienced, he was the product of a bad decision that David made How could God use the weak thing to build the glorious thing? And you might be wondering that about your life today, and maybe that's why God gave me this word for you, so you could know that people build on your successes. People choose according to your wisdom. But with God it works in.
Reverse. I want you to get that in your spirit, that it works in reverse.
That God does not choose the moments when you feel the strongest to show up the most in your life. I'm a living witness. It is the moments when you are working through the weakness, whatever it may be. Some of you got a temper, some of you got an addiction to something that is chemical in nature. It could even just be food. It could be an addiction to bitterness. I mean, there's all kinds of addictions. Do I really need to list every single one of them? Because I
promise I will. I will go in alphabetical order till I hit everybody on every row. Oh no, I'm not addicted to anything. Just let me get to see you control freak, and if I get to the peace, I'll talk about yours. For saying you don't have any addictions, we will rattle them off. And the good news of the gospel to me is that God chose the weak things. When you put it on the coffee mug, Holly, put it where it can go both ways, where you turn
it around. So when I'm drinking my coffee in the morning after next Mother's Day, I could picture up right now, because I promise you one thing. I am not strong without coffee. So I know I need caffeine. I need Christ. I need caffeine, but I usually need them in the opposite order. It's usually the caffeine then the Christ, because I can't find Christ without the caffeine.
I am confessing in front of thousands.
Make sure when you turn the mug around, it says be strong, do the work. But make sure it's on two sides so we can remember this message where we can say, oh, I don't feel strong.
Am I going to be strong? Is this too simple?
Do y'all want me to give you a detailed explanation of the dimensions of the temple that Solomon built and the type of bronze that was imported for him to do it from the King of Hero and the dimensions of the inner courtyard and the oupter courtyard, and the lamp stands in the incense.
Is that what you want?
I think the deepest thing we can do with a word from God is to do it. I'm preaching a lot from the Old Testament this year because I'm having a very special time with my own family reading through the Old Testament chapter by chapter, with the lives of my oldest son.
He was going through the Bible.
And I've told you this, but I want to tell you again because the Holy Spirit brought it to my attention where he had the great idea to go through the Bible slow, and he's like, I don't want to just rush through it, I want to go slow. So him and Kelsey were reading, and then I jumped in and kind of like invited myself to the group and started giving him a key verse every day.
Now. The reason I chose the key.
Verse principle is because sometimes you can just read a scripture or hear a sermon.
And go, oh, that's good.
It's like that that YouTube short the only Bible verse you ever need to have big shoulders for the Lord to have a strong spirit, to be worry free and anxiety free. And I love all these YouTube shorts. I of course put content on them. That's not my point. My point is I never got stronger because of something I clicked on. I've gotten a lot stronger in my adult life because I work hard at that physically, but never because I clicked on something. It was always something
that I did. I might click on it to learn something, but until I did it. Now, this sermon could be something that you click on today. It could be something that you click on and go, oh, that's really good and true and be strong and do the work. Yeah, yes, that's awesome. But go over to James chapter one, because this is why I do the key verse principle with my family, and I think it'd be a wonderful thing
for us to go over as a church together. In the Book of James, he's making the case that faith without works is dead. He is not saying that the grace of God and the blood of Jesus is not enough to cover your sin. But he's saying, if you come to the place where you hear the word. In fact, he gives an analogy. He says, what verse did I start telling on twenty one? Give me that James one twenty one? Yeah, he says, therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent. I
love that phrase in The King James. It talks about superfluous naughtiness. Look it up.
Sometimes the Bible is awesome. You can click around.
All the translations, but click into a different translation won't save.
You, will it.
Clicking around or highlighting stuff like that is wonderful. It is wonderful that you are hearing this word. The Word of God is wonderful. But this is a process that James says. He says there is a getting rid of moral filth. This is a very specific thing he's talking about here. He's talking about everything that surrounds you, everything that is that is covering the true potential of the Christ in you. All of that has to go, put it back up and humbly accept the word planted in you,
which can save you. Now that's interesting because it doesn't say it will save you, says it can. This word can help you today. This word can set you free.
Today.
God's presence can touch you today. God can get into your situation and show you stuff that you don't know. He can put in your mind what only his spirit knows.
He can.
But this is not in the category of the salvation that you get when you come to Christ. This is salvation from yourself. So he says, the only way to be saved from your self deception is to humbly accept the word that is planted where where. So you've got all this moral filth where around you, and you've got this word from God planted in you. Somebody helped me. I need three Pentecostals, just three, just three. I don't
need a lot, I need three. So now I understand that I've had it backwards because I've been too controlled by my environment, because I've been true controlled by my surroundings, because I've been too controlled by cultural programming, because I've been true, too controlled by thoughts that didn't even come from God. Because I've been too controlled by what I see, what I feel, what I think, what I knew up
to this point. That's what's around me. But with what is around me contradicts the word that is planted in me. God says, we've got to get this thing switched up, because the word that is in you has potential to save you. But with God it works in reverse. See, most people live this way. Whatever happens on the outside, they react to it. Whatever happens on the outside, they move to it. Whatever happens on the outside, they dance with it. Whatever happens on the outside, they surrender to it.
Whatever happens on the outside, that's what they consult for their next step in life.
Not you.
You're chosen, so you do it different because in the Kingdom of God, it works in reverse. Say it, it works in reverse. So I don't start with my situation to see how it's going to turn out, because it
works in reverse. I can be in a filthy situation, a naughty situation, a nasty situation, a grimy situation, a dark situation, a confusing situation, and if I walked according to the world, I'd be down about it, and I'd be weak about it, and I think that there was no hope in going forward and no cost to continue in it. But I don't walk according to what I see. I don't walk according to what I feel, and I don't walk according to who I've been to this pint
because I found out I'm chosen. Hop found out God is building a temple.
I've found out I have.
The temple of the Holy Spirit.
And it works in reverse.
So in this season of my life, I'm getting rid of some things that are in the way of my relationships with God because it works in reverse. This is what I think it means to seek first the kingdom. I think it means you've turned the whole thing around that you would say, I would rather have peace and be right with God God than be popular with everybody else in the world. I'd rather have peace with all money God than have all the money in the world. Y'all feeling this yet, But see, I don't wait for
you to feel it before I preach it. I'm gonna preach it till you feel it, because it works in reverse. That's how the word works. The word will feel weird when you hear it. It will call you a conqueror when you feel like a coward. It will call you a winner when you feel like a loser. It'll call you seated in heavenly places when you feel like you're at the bottom. But He shows the weak things to shame the strong. That's how it works, y'all. That's how
it works. Touch three people say, that's how it works. That's how it works. Of course, you don't feel strong, you're not working through your weakness. You're gonna feel stronger when you sit there. Anyway, I talked to somebody the other day. They were like, I had a disappointment.
It was awkward.
I walked out. I said, then you're gonna be You are going to be stumped at the level of your discomfort.
Because you can't sit.
In anything that makes you feel uncomfortable long enough to be developed.
And I told him that to his face, and he received there. He said, you're right, you're right, You're right, You're right. I said, I don't need to preach to you. He said, no, preach to me.
Man, I need it.
I need it. I need it. I needed That's why he said, he said, I need it. I need it. I'm sick of being stuck.
I'm sick of needing to feel a certain way to do a certain thing. I'm sick of coming to church and going like, oh yeah, I want to live like that.
I'm sick of.
Clicking around YouTube videos and going, oh yeah, I want to I want to live.
Like that.
So when James comes along, he says something very simple in James one two, do not merely.
Listen to the word. So I stopped there.
When I was studying this week, I'm like, Lord, that would be good if people would even just listen to it. I mean, they're doing pretty good just to listen to a sermon when there's so much other options.
Why being so hard on them? They're listening to the word. But he showed me that.
When you listen and don't implement, it limits you that much more the next time you hear it, and it puts a lid on the potential.
That he's put inside of you.
So the next thing becomes very, very integral to your spiritual development. Do not merely listen to the word and so receive yourself. Do what it says, Elijah, where you at?
Son?
Yeah, thank you for that Bible Club, and thank you for this every time he sends his key verse, because we pick a verse and we say this is how i'mna try to do this today. Right, every time he sends his key verse, it's so practical and he's so smart. He's so analytical, always has been. He's When he was like four years old, he was asking me questions that made me feel like I needed to go back to Bible College again. He's asked me stuff about God that
God hasn't even asked about God. And yet every time he does it, he puts it so simple, but at the end of his key verses he'll always say, I hope this isn't too simple. Don't ever say sorry for keeping it simple, because like what you put the other day about David, where you said, Okay, I know this isn't probably the deepest application of the text. No, the deepest thing you could have found is what you found, because you found the thing that God was actually calling
you to do. And I thought that was so powerful because I'm like, that is what a disciple and not that you're not that you're perfect or I'm perfect, or not that oh we're reading our Bible every day so we're so great. But I love how I see you working the Word because here's what I know about God's Word.
It works in reverse.
God is giving him wisdom today for experiences he doesn't even know he's going to have.
Yet he's digging a well today.
Every time he goes to the Word and puts it into practice. Everybody say practice principles without practice are powerless. And every time he puts it into practice. Let me show you what he is defying. I close with this image. Don't play the piano. LJ close him, but I don't want it soft. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says, and listen, listen to this picture. Remember when it comes to God's word.
He gives us a picture of who he is, and we can't see it fully, but we see in part.
And he gives us a picture of who we can be in him.
And he shows us the strength that we can have in him, and the future that we can have in him, and the way of life that we can know in him, and the peace that we can have, and the joy that we can have. He gives us a picture. But watch what James says. As a warning, he says, verse twenty three. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror.
Man an interesting image, he says.
He's looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it, they will be in what they be strong.
Do the work.
What happens when you do the work, you be strong, not perfect, but strong, not there but closer, not monastic but maybe not going off on everybody, not perfect.
But blessed. And he said, it's like a mirror.
The word God gives you is like a mirror, and it shows you who God is, and it shows you who.
You really are.
And that's why something comes alive in you when you hear God's word and it hits you in your spirit because it's going in you and every label that has been slapped on you, even by your own words, when you get in the mirror of God's word, it begins to reverse every curse that has been spoken over your life. So when Hollywood's getting dressed the other day, she put on this hoodie for can you Imagine? And she was looking at it in the mirror. And when she was
looking at it, she said, is it backwards? And I said yeah, and she said, but I'm confused. Oh yeah, I'm looking at it in the mirror because on this hoodie, can you see it?
It's backwards.
But when you get in front of a mirror, what does a mirror do? It reflects back Whatever stands in front of it, but the light makes it reflect back backwards. So God says, when you come in my presence, when you receive a word from Me, when you stand before Heaven, you're not just looking at yourself. You are looking at your father, who is perfect, your father who spoke a word over your life before you were knit together. He knew you, and I'm gonna show you.
Who you are. He reverse.
And everything in your life that does not match God's purpose. He's gonna turn it around for his glory in this season. Shout if you believe it. Shut if you believe it, shout on lie. He's turning it around. See. That's why I gotta kit with him, because I'm surrounded by filth. But I don't want to become like what I'm surrounded by. I don't want to think like what I'm surrounded by. I don't want to speak like what I'm surrounded by.
I want God to put his word on my life and show me in the mirror of his image what I'm really worth in his hands.
And I'm working through some weaknesses like you are.
But the strength that you want for your life and the strength you want to pass on to your generations, and the strength you want your kids to see you walk in is through the stumbles that you recover from and keep moving forward believing that.
God is not against you.
I reverse every religious spirit that has tried to tell you that God is ashamed of you. If he's ashamed of what he made, that means he made a mistake. God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't qualify. God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies to call, and he shows you. Now be strong and do the work. And if you do the work, remember you're working with him.
Yohaul.
I almost want to call this message dirty work, to keep with our theme of two word titles dirty work. You want to look like that who doesn't, Man, this is so bad for your ego. I'm a little worried about you. You are an example of the righteousness of Christ today, Inner Ralph Lauren Shirt, I mean, that's just phenomenal.
Thank you for helping me out.
But I just wanted to know today, is there a weakness that you're working through right now? And so you think, oh, okay, well, I'm just you know, this isn't working.
I quit.
The reminder of the scripture is that as you behold your God, he reflects to you backwards. What you can become, and what you can become starts with who he is. Everything that God has in your life is in seed form right now. It is surrounded by dirt, superfluous naughtiness.
But that's okay because God does dirty work.
Please believe me when I say that You've got to do it dirty too, on the days you don't feel like it, on the days where everything in you is telling you not to the strength What did you say last week? The strength you need for tomorrow is in the work.
You do today.
God is working in weakness. That's how he works. He works in reverse. He works in reverse, and sometimes he sees you struggling and he wants to help you, but you won't let him.
What was your first job, Jay?
You remember you work in security when you're like twelve years old, eating spinach, taking steroids working security. I don't want to look like you, Jay, that was your first job. Listen, I don't think anybody in the room had a crazier first job than me. When I was fourteen, I worked for pet Rest Cemetery and Cremation Service.
That was my first job.
And it was a cool job too, because not only did I get to send pets into the afterlife with dignity.
The Lord was preparing me to preach.
I just had to start with lesser animals into the kingdom.
Well.
Then, the coolest thing about the job was it came with get ready, it came with a pager. It came with a pager, and so on the nights where I would need to go cremate the dogs. Why are you looking at me like I killed them? This was a service people hired us to do. It was good work. I loved the job. I appreciated the job, and I liked the pager too, because it looks so cool, weird on the outside of my pocket.
And feeling like, what do you do for money?
Don't worry about it.
It involves freezers.
But the uh, the worst part about that job was in the middle of the summer when a lot of dogs would die from heat exhaustion. Obviously it's sad, but even worse than that, it was so hot in the low country of South Carolina, and I would never wake up early to go dig the graves because I had to dig the graves too.
And I had to do it by hand.
And this dirt in the low country, it is not like friendly dirt that's just waiting to be dug.
This is like clay. So I would go out there in the middle of the day and.
True story, pick axe and a shovel and a little riding lawnmower, little trailer, and I'll break up the dirt and dig the graves. One day I was out there. It must have been one hundred and fifteen degrees in the low Country that day. I was dying, but I had to get it done. By four o'clock. I'm out there just killing myself. All of a sudden, I need to set this up for you. The pet Cemetery was right next to People Cemetery, just right there.
You could see it.
At the People Cemetery, they had better equipment than at the Pet Cemetery.
And I would always watch this guy named Charles.
He would dig the graves over there with a big heavy machinery like a bacco, and I would always lust after that while I was out there. But one glad day, while I was I'm literally out there going like, man, I should have made Eric come with me today. This is horrible, this sucks. I hate my life. I think about throwing my pager in that grave and jumping in there with the dog.
And I'm out there.
But here comes here comes Charles on the backo and he's coming over and I'm like, no way, no way.
This is what I've always imagine. He pulls up.
He doesn't even say anything.
I just step aside.
I didn't even say anything. He just starts moving stuff. He just starts moving stuff. He just starts moving stuff. He just starts moving stuff. Yeah, he just starts moving stuff. Twenty minutes later, we had a hole. What did I do? I stood there and pretended to be helping. I just stood there just and just prayed that he wouldn't leave. Just stay, Charles, Just stay Charles. Oh thank you, Charles. Hallelula Charles. I love Charles. Charles a big guy to
He was short, but he was stout. Charles's on it. But he didn't need those muscles because he had something.
That I didn't have before. He showed up and he.
Just started digging. And I'm telling you, twenty minutes later we were done. I'm like, this is awesome. I'm about to go get lunch. I'm about to go get taco bell. I'm gonna get something for me, some for Charles. We're gonna have a picnic. I'm name my kid Charles. This is amazing. Thank you, Charles. This is the greatest gift that I've ever been given. What do I owe you? I thought he want to cut, you know, fifteen percent on the first grave, after each additional grave twenty percent.
I thought he was running.
A side hustle. Charles said, no, I don't want anything. I just saw you struggling. I saw you sweating.
I saw you out here doing everything that you could do with what you had, and I thought to myself, he could dig all day and not get this done. So I decided, if you'll let me, I'm gonna help him, I said, Charles, I will be the best letter that you've ever met in your life. I'm gonna let you help me. Anytime you see me with this thick axe, pull up us. I need you, Holy Spirit. I need you Jesus, because you've forgot what I don't have, and you can do what I can't do.
And you can do what I can't her.
And I hear God saying to somebody today, prob make.
You strong, forgive you hope, pop.
Breathe into your sales.
I'll make it happen.
I'll flow the door off the hinges.
I'll come in and.
Make away through your sea. Get it, praise it? Do you believe it?
Hey?
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God bless you.