Page Turner

Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Oh man, what a what an amazing day of celebration.

And everybody say and make it melodic like that, say and.

And put it in the comments. Say and.

I'm beginning a brand new series today.

You know I'm gonna spoil y'all.

I just finished a series. I'm starting a series. You are gonna get used to this, and you're gonna expect me to be organized and systematic from.

Here on out.

But the Lord really spoke to me, and I'm excited to share what he spoke. We are going to be spending the next several weeks. See how I left that open ended, the next several weeks as long as the Lord leads me to studying about the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts. Many of you know that I have a Bible club with my family for about a year and a half. In chapter A Day keeps the Devil Away.

And we have somebody's going to make me a T shirt that says that now, I'm sure of it. Probably already is one.

But we came upon the Book of Acts recently and we kind of move around.

We're not going straight through.

We have been in Jeremiah and it gets really, really dark, and so I was like, let's do the Book of Acts because that's a real page turner and it's exciting.

So that's what we got into.

And I asked the family if I could invite you into our series, and we're going to do this together now as a global church family, from the Book of Acts, not the whole book, just you know where God leads us. And I even made like an official graphic for this series. You know, it's getting serious. Normally I just figure out it's a series after the fact, but right now I'm ready for you. And we're going to talk about the subject of making sense of your story through the lens of God's Spirit.

And the title of the series is Ghostwriter. Yeah, put it up there for me.

Ghost Writer, not like the comic book ghost writer the guy. This is ghost writer making sense of your story through the lens of the Holy Spirit. This is going to be so powerful in your life, I can hardly wait to share it with you.

Today. We're going to begin with Acts, Chapter one.

I'll read you my scripture, and then I'll seet you and we'll begin to learn together how many need the Lord to make sense of some things that are going on in your.

Life right now? Oh good, good, good, good good.

Then we're talking about the right thing here, ghostwriter.

Acts Chapter one, verses one.

And two, and then we'll go to verses twelve through twenty two for the sake of time today. In my former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. So you'll see the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts mentioned fifty five times. Safe to assume he's the important character in this story of the early Church spreading.

Now Jesus has taken up from the disciples.

They go back to wait for the Holy Spirit, and we pick up in verse twelve. Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives.

Sabbath day's walk from the city.

When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Present were Peter, John James, and Andrew Philip, and Thomas Bartholomew, and Matthew James, son of Alpheus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James. This is not the same Judas as the one who betrayed Jesus, as Judas is Scariot. And this guy has a very unfortunate name for this time. I think if my name was Judas forty days after Jesus was crucified, I just go by Jay or something like that.

But they're all there Verse fourteen.

And they all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women, and marry the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Now pay attention. In those days, Peter stood.

Up among the believers, a group numbering about one hundred and twenty, and said, brothers and sisters, the scripture had to be fulfilled, in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our number and shared in our ministry. Parenthetical insert with the payment he received for his wickedness.

Judas bought a field.

There he fell head long, his body burst open, and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language a keeldema, that is field of blood.

For said Peter.

It is written in the book of Psalms. May his place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell in it, And everybody say, and may another take his place of leadership. Therefore, it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness

Clap your hands, everybody today.

The series is Ghostwriter and the sermon is called page Turner.

Yeah, page turner.

On your way to your seat, Tell your neighbor it's going to be a page turner.

It's going to be a page turner.

Amen, Big readers in the room, any big readers in the room, Big readers make some noise, not like you're in the library. You know, reading something makes make some noise. You love a good story, and I need you to know when you read an autobiography, usually it's based.

On a true story.

And one statistic that I read said, well, over seventy five percent of memoirs that we read, if it's a famous person, or someone who won a gold medal in the Olympics, or somebody who was a former president, they will have had help from a ghost writer. And I know you know the term, but just so we get on the same page, working.

In my different elmeson my service.

The ghost writer is someone that the person will bring in if they have a story but they need help telling it. And so the ghost writer might come along and spend twenty hours, forty hours, in some cases even a year with the person saying, tell me your story, tell me what.

It was like.

When you want American Idol, and you know, just because you're a good singer and you want American Idol, doesn't know and even you know how to tell the story. You have a gift to sing, but you may not have a gift to right. So you bring in some help and you have a story, but you need some help. You know, you might have done something really incredible, like you you hiked a huge mountain. But just because you're good at hiking doesn't mean you're good at grammar. So

Read to you about.

Because I have a story to tell, but I need help telling it. Say amen, somebody, if you've got a story to tell, if you got a story to tell of how.

God made a way for you.

Of how God saved you, of how God kept you, of how God blessed you, of how God raised you, I have a story to tell and I need some help. Now, imagine for a moment that you were one of these disciples. Let's say you're not even a main character. You're just Bartholomew, and you've just seen Jesus taken from you. The one that you were guiding by is gone, the one who broke it down and made sense of it for you every step along the way. Now Here's why I'm talking

His eventual coming again.

They were entrusted to to be stewards of the gospel story. My brothers and sisters, we are stewards of this same story. Do you not know that the same spirit that lived in them lives in me? Because I believe in Jesus, I have a story to tell. I wasn't there to see it firsthand. When he opened Bartimaeus's eyes, I didn't see them. Lower the man on the mat through the roof, and Jesus said, your sins are forgiven, and oh, by the way, get up and walk to Bonus. Scene deleted

I need the third person of the Godhead. I need the one that Jesus said he would send.

He actually said this, he said, I'm leaving, and you've got to go and do this.

Impossible task now.

For you, even raising an eleven year old might seem like an impossible task. I certainly felt that way at each stage of our children's development. Makes no sense that I would be a parent while I still kind of, in a way feel like a kid.

It made no sense I would.

Pastor a church that was several times the size of the town that I grew up in.

None of this makes sense. My story. I'm telling you my story. My story what God has allowed me to see and do makes no sense without the Holy Spirit.

I'm like that frog sitting on a fence post. I didn't get here by myself. That's my story.

And I'm sticking to it.

Is that it's not by Mike, it's not by power. It's by the Spirit of the Lord. Oh. I'm excited about the Spirit of God because I believe when you sit with the Holy Spirit, He's going to help you tell a better story. Like what is it like to have the Spirit of God as your ghostwriter?

Bring out my teaching screen.

I'm ready to break this down, y'all give it up for the screen as it comes. Thirty percent of y'all did that when I said it? You nonconformist. Aren't you just so strong willed you didn't clap? Okay, thank you, fellas.

Let's see if we can make sense of this line by line, verse by verse.

I think there is an amazing story being told in this scripture, how the Gospel will eventually go all the way into the Roman Empire, and yet it is starting in such a strange place.

I'd like you to write this phrase down.

The best stories are born in the messiest moments.

Isn't that true?

How'd you get here? Let's go back to your birthday. Was it messy? If it wasn't messy, you didn't make it. The only way you made it here is through a mess. And so it goes again and again. And I'll show you this in scripture because you know, I don't know if you're really listening or not. There is a pen somewhere. I believe it by faith. Well they're all on this side. Yeah, yeah, Professor Verdick in the house, I love it.

I want to show you this scripture.

In a way where you can see what it must have felt like for doctor Luke is writing this book. And notice the first thing he says, follow with me. He says, in my former book Theophilis, he's writing to a patron who is enabling him to tell the story of Jesus. Now you may recognize Luke, who wrote the Book of Acts, from such blockbuster presentations as Luke. The gospel story that he recorded Matthew Mark Luke and John Luke was his, and he didn't name it.

Luke, but we call it Luke because he wrote it.

Now he's saying, in my former book Theophlis, I wrote about all that Jesus and I love this word and I hope I can make you love it too, all that Jesus began.

To do and to teach. So what does that mean? Okay?

If Jesus came and lived a sindless life, died a criminal's death, rose from a borrowed grave, and then ascended to heaven to send the Holy Spirit. And when Luke starts writing this book, he says, I wrote a book about all that Jesus began to do. It makes me think that he's just getting started and there will be a sequel that is not only true of the Book of Luke in the Book of Acts. That is true for you, that Jesus is just getting started in your life.

I want you to understand your life is.

A story, and here's the really good news, he said. Jesus began to do it and teach it until the day he was taken up. This seemed like a loss. He was taken up. It was a complete change for all of the apostles. He was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen, and every word of those two verses would preach. But for now, maybe I could just talk about the fact that the Holy Spirit is going to help you tell this story. I see that they're not

Tell your story.

Because you've been telling yourself some really bad stories. And I know it because I do it. And if we don't have the Holy Spirit, we will try to make sense of our life through our senses, and we will keep solving the wrong problems, creating more pain.

We will keep.

Solving problems at the level at which they appear and never understand the level from which they originate. But the Holy Spirit, when he comes, he will help you tell the story so that you stop telling yourself Satan's story about why you failed so that you stopped telling yourself Satan's story about why you blew it. You keep telling yourself the story I failed because I'm a failure.

You edited out ninety nine times.

You didn't fail that God gave you a victory. You took the one that you failed at. You magnified that you got stuck in a scene and called it a story. But I have help, because the Holy Spirit will help me zoom out and see that failure is always an event.

It is never an identity.

Telling yourself stories, You've been telling yourself stories about where you ought to be by now in your life. I should be farther along by now. How do you know that? You don't even know how long you have left? How do you know you're not as far along as all your friends?

Has?

Somebody asked me the other day, all of my friends are doing great things and I'm not. Do you have anything to say to me? And all I want to say back is you don't know what your friends are going through. You just see your friends through their filter. You just see them through the filter. You don't know what they're dealing with. You don't know what they are farther along. They might portrayed places with you in a skinny minute, in a New York minute.

It's a New York minute. I don't know.

But the fact of the matter is, even the way we measure time is kind.

Of crazy, you know, has a lot of a She said, in a few days, you're going to receive the Holy Spirit.

Why didn't one of the fellas, Bartholomew, go excuse me, Jesus. One clarifying question when you say a few days, what is a few to you? Because it's like basketball, right, like, hang on, honey, I'll be there. There's only five minutes left in the game. That could be three hours in basketball. Time depends if they start fouling.

Right.

We tell you about our life sometimes, and many of you know that, against my will, I was basically manipulated into buying my family a dog, a Boston Terrier, and we've enjoyed his presence in our home for the last two years. I'm gonna tell you more about this in a coming week, so just come back and I'll tell you the rest. But we realize the other day that bo first of all, he is very anxiety ridden dog. Something happened on the fourth of July with some fireworks.

But makes sense.

Because he doesn't know we've been gone for like two weeks before going out on elevation nights and you know, and he doesn't know.

It's not like he's smart.

He's not looking at the size of the suitcase. Oh, it's just an overnight trip. They'll be back in no time. And he try to make sense of it, like are you gone for a day? Are you gone? Is this? It? Is this?

Goodbye?

Now?

God, imagine watch this that.

Since we know the story, we know that Jesus was resurrected three days after he died. He was taken from them forty days after he was resurrected. Then there were ten days, ten days while they were waiting for the spirit that.

He spoke about, and.

Not only are they going through a storm of uncertainty, but they don't know what this suitcase means. Jesus, you're leaving and you're sending the spirit to live in us, and we trust you. But it's kind of hard in this ten day period to know what to do next. And these are the moments, my friend, when you need the Holy Spirit, because you can do something so stupid while you are waiting ten days that it'll spend you ten years trying to undo it.

You will tell yourself a story.

Have you ever have you ever texted somebody that didn't text you back quick enough? And the bubbles came, and the bubbles went, and the bubbles came, and the bubbles went, and every time the bubbles came in went, you told yourself a story about why.

They weren't texting you back.

Oh God, they were texting while driving, and they drove off the road and the bubbles went away.

Oh God. And really it was nothing more than.

The fact that they got distracted and you weren't that important to them to text you back right away, But you had them dead.

In your mind because you told yourself a story.

Now do you see why we need help not only telling the gospel story, not only that our lives would be a testimony to the Savior who shed his blood.

For us, but so that we tell ourselves the.

Right story in the spaces of ten days. I wonder, is somebody in a ten days space.

Between what you.

Know God promised you and the help that you believe that he'll send you, and you need the Holy Spirit to make sense of him. So they go back to Jerusalem. They start praying, which I think is very important. They start praying with their prayer partners, which I think is even more important. And then something very cool happens. Luke gives us a cast of characters. Since we're going to be in the Book of Acts, let's see the opening credits for the Church. Now, remember the church is being born,

No?

He said, a few days is a few, twenty is a few, twelve is a few a year. I mean, Jesus to the Lord, to day is a thousand years. Thousand years is a day. Holly said something very profound the other day. She said, I could go through trials easier if God would give me a time clock on them, if I only knew it's just ten days. And so the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called Mount of Olives, Sabbath days walk from the city. When they arrived,

Peter.

We won't read every name again, I already read them once. But notice who's not there Jesus. The last time they were in this room, maybe Jesus was with them, he's not. Now what they have guided by is gone. And you're like, well, Jesus is always with me. I can see somebody clipping this right now and saying, Stephen Verdick said that Jesus was not with the disciples. I don't see his name on the list. He doesn't have a physical body at this moment on the earth. They can't hear his audible voice.

There there, it's about one hundred and twenty of them. And we have two elements that are in every great story, okay.

One is that everything is messy that makes a great story. The second is something is missing, something is missing, and whenever you see a great story. One of my favorite shows that ever came on Netflix or I don't remember the original network, but the opening scene of the series, you see a pair of khaki pants fly through the air, and then the next scene you see a guy in his whitey tidies behind the wheel of an RV with

Is it possible.

That the messiness in your life right now, and the missing thing in your life right now is the birthplace of a story that is just about ready to unfold for God's glory in your life. I think so, because the Bible says, in those days Peter. In those days, Peter stood up among the believers. Now, let's take just a moment to appreciate the beauty of the moment that Peter is standing among the believers. And maybe you wouldn't appreciate the beauty of this moment if you didn't read

And condemned and hung and mocked and whipped.

And as Peter is watching Jesus go to the cross, I want to show you this in Luke's other book, A Gospel of Luke, Chapter twenty two, verse number Way down here, there's a long chapter Luke. There's a long chapter Luke where he lets us know that when some there, as Jesus is going into the court of Caiaphas to be tried, when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together,

The sequel, the same Peter, I love it too.

This gives me hope because there's been times in my life where I sat down by the fire. There's been times in my life where I.

Compromised my convictions.

There's been times in my life where I denied Christ with my actions, even though my lips said that I loved him. But in Endy, good to see Peter, who in Luke twenty two point fifty five was sitting by the fire. And the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says, I don't care what your past says.

The Bible says.

I don't care what Bartholomew thinks about it.

The Bible says.

I don't care what the accuser of the brethren says. The Bible says, in those days, Peter stood up among the believers.

So watch this.

Now we've got the one who was sitting by the fire, and now he's standing with the fire on the inside, declaring.

The word of the Lord. I'll speak a.

New sequel over your life. I'll speak a new season over your life. I speak character development.

Over your life.

I'll see someone who was sitting down last night, sitting.

Down in front of a computer watching porn. But God brought you to stand, you up on your feet, to.

Brace God today.

That's a story.

Whyah my story. My story doesn't end with me sitting by this fire. My story doesn't end with me sitting in this failure. My story doesn't end with me crying over who left. My story doesn't end with my weak moment causing me to relapse. My story doesn't end with the fear telling me to stay out.

My story has a sequel. Tell if you got a sequel. Bro, Oh, this is the sequel. I fought your neighbors.

Say it's a sequel, Baby, this is a sequel.

I was sitting in the last scene. But wait till you see my sequel. Wait till you see this sequel. Because the best stories are born in the messiest moments. Give him a messy Hallelujah.

Give him a hard thought, Hallelujah. Give him a heart felt Hallelujah.

Give him a been through.

Helen came out on fire, Hallelujah.

I am.

I feel the Holy ghost because my mind said it was over. But I got a ghostwriter. My mind said it was over. But I got a ghostwrider, and when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you will be my witness.

Stand up. If you're a witness, stand out, Peter, sit down, signing, stand up, Peter, stand up, stand up.

If you got a story, stand up. If you've been through.

The waters, stand up, and me watched you clean stand up?

How did he stand up out of that failure? He had help. Somebody holler, I got help. Put it in the comments.

I got help. Let me tell you about the helper called the Holy Ghost. He's a ghost writer, and the Bible says he's a comforter. So if you are without comfort, you are not without comfort. Five seconds from now here comes to comfort.

Or somebody say, I.

Have Helphi give me clarity, because the Bible says that he is my God.

I got a guide. Somebody shot, I got a guide.

Even though the physical presence of Jesus wasn't there with him, and he is not here with us today, we have something on the inside that's letting us know he's more real than what I can see.

Yeah, he's a baptizer.

Anybody been baptized by the Holy Spirit, anybody been immersed in his mercy?

To let you know it's not over.

He's a he's a baptizer. Oh, I got so much to say about the Holy Spirit. He's an advocate. Yeah, he's an interpreter. Help you make sense out of your life. Help you sit down with stuff and say, God, show me my childhood from your perspective, Show me why I went through it from your perspective. I know what people would say about it. What do you say about it? I got a ghostwriter. It's not your story. It's not your story. Tell your neighbor. I'm sorry, but it's not

Down in the highest All right, y'all sit down.

Peter stood up. What did he say? What did he say? Peter stood up in front of the whole group. I gotta show you this. Oh, this is gonna help you because I see somebody today it's like God is doing this because he's getting ready to do this. If you don't think it's too gross.

Just do it real quick.

That put that finger lick emoji thing on the chat on YouTube.

I got one of those, and just just prophetically what God is about to do.

Now watch this, watch this.

If we did to Peter what the enemy does to us, we'd be doing this. But you ain't gonna find God back there because he is not here.

He has risen. You get it, You get it?

Shall I belabor the point? Don't look at me in Luke twenty two. I'm not in Luke twenty two anymore. This is the sequel. And I love the Lord because he has been preparing Peter for this moment. I mean, even Peter's failure was an opportunity for him to receive grace so that he could strengthen his brothers. And I'm about to show you something that was so powerful. When I saw it, I argued with God, Should I preach it? Now?

Hmm. Let me see, I don't know about that. Man. You're telling me, You're telling me that I can be free from this. You tell me, I got to think of about that.

You're telling me that I have the same Holy Spirit that the apostles I got. It I got because I sure don't feel like much of an apostle.

And then you got.

Peter stood up, said, brothers and sisters, now this is going to make you mad. He said, the scripture had to be fulfilled. That doesn't make you mad. This will which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas. It's bad enough that we don't have Jesus with us, and we got to talk about Judas. And Peter's like, yeah, let's talk about Judas. We've got to do something about the void that Judas left in this ministry. So Peter points back to a scripture and he begins to explain

We don't like to claim him because he betrayed our Lord.

At this point, there is a period and Luke inserts a parenthesis to let us know an important detail. With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field.

There he fell headlong.

His body burst open, and all his intestines spilled out.

Everyone in Jerusalem heard about it.

They called that field in their language a caldom of that is field of blood. Why did he put this part in Because all the best stories are born in the messiest moments. And as the Church, the body of Christ, is being born, we see the body of Judas that burst open. Nowt out to you, because don't you think if you had one book to tell the whole story of the spread of Christianity all through the Roman Empire, you only put in what's important and something he wanted

Apparently he's like, oh yeah, just one, a little thing. His intestines burst open and spelled out.

Because I want you to know that as something is being born in your life, something else will be bursting out and it will be messy.

But watch this. This is the word. It's a necessary mess. It's a necessary mess.

Two types of messes in our house, the one Holly makes while she's cooking and the one the kids make after we go to bed, and we find in the morning and find them ten dollars. We have a system for this because her mess is feeding us, and their mess is completely unnecess Come on, and there's a difference between the one who is cooking something and makes a mess and the one who doesn't know how to clean anything.

That it's a mess right now. But it is not because God forgot where to put things.

It is not because God has left you. It's messy right now. Something's missing right now. It doesn't make sense right now, but it is a necessary mess for the Holy Spirit to come.

Judas had to go. I will prove it to you.

Peter says that it was written in Psalms when David wrote about Judas, and he mentions how Judas see the language served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus. Now in our story, the fact that Judas led Jesus to be arrested makes him.

Let's write it.

Judas is the the villain. Right, you sell Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. They take him to the cross, just when he's at the height of his ministry. Judas is the villain. And by the way, I thank God for the Holy Spirit because I was practicing this sermon this morning and I was spelling villain wrong, and the Holy Ghost told me go get your dictionary app and I realized that the a comes before the eye and I didn't have to learn it on YouTube. Let's thank

I don't know about that.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, keep me from making a fool out of myself. And so he's the villain. But Peter said, Peter said something very interesting. He said he served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus. Because it's been forty five days now as the story is unfolding, Judas is the villain. He is the one betraying Jesus. But it's been forty five days and Jesus has given instructions now and they have spent time with the ghostwriter. Now Peter sees it a little differently. He says, it had

To kill you.

Oh no, God said, I sit down as a vessel to deliver my grain.

In your life. There is something in your life. Are you ready for this?

Not everybody can handle this level of preaching because we need Judas to be the villain. We think everything that hurts comes from hell, but some of the stuff that hurt me didn't come from hell. David said, it was good for me that I was afflicted. Some of the stuff that hurt me humbled me. It humbled me because God said, if you'll be humble in my sight, at due time, I will lift you. So now let me preach. It's not a movie. It's an episode. It's an episode.

It's real. In my life, I've.

Watched people die and praise God with their last breath, and the story still wasn't over. I'll tell you about an encounter I had in a bookstore with a lady named Bianca. She wandered into the bookstore and had prayed that morning, I need a sign God, I need a sign God. She was leaving her house for the first time in weeks. She saw me and I was over there in the Christian living section, checking did they have

She walks over and says Pastor.

I said yes. She said, I don't mean to bother you. I said, it's not a bother. She said, I'm Bianca. I said, Hi, Bianca. She said, I just kind of can't believe what I'm seeing right now because I've had I've had a really hard time the last few years, and I have all but quit on God.

And the worst part.

Is I moved to Charlotte to go to Elevation Church and I haven't been since quarantine.

But today I said, I'm going to get out of the house and I'm going to make.

An appointment to have a facial and I'm going to go to the bookstore and I'm going to do one thing physical, one thing spiritual. And I said, God, if I go out today and I don't get a sign that you're still with me, I don't know if I can make it.

Two miscarriages in three years.

I don't know if I can make it marriage, barely hanging on because of how low I am at the bottom of these feelings.

Don't know if I can make it.

But if God, you will give me a sign today, I said, Bianca, what about the sign that you moved to Charlotte.

To come to Elevation.

And God brought somebody else who moved to Charlotte to go to Elevation to this bookstore. I don't want to give them by name because they're not sponsoring me, and they didn't have my book to this bookstore. And she said, well, I came over here to buy a book. Can you recommend a good one for me? I said absolutely, I'll buy you two. If the first one doesn't work, surely the second one will.

And if neither of them are.

Good, I paid for him, so you can't complain, Bianca, this is your sign, This is your side. This is your side, This is your side. I thought it was real funny because I bought her a Joyce Meyer.

Book and signed at Stephen Verdick.

And then she turned to me before we left and said, one more thing. You've done so much, and I don't mean to ask for more, but do you have anything to say to me that might help me to believe that God has not done with me? And I had no idea what to say to her, because what do you say? You don't say a cookie cutter Christianese raised that rhymes and sounds like hickory dickory dot.

It takes all you got. What do you say?

I'm thankful that I had help in that moment. You know, the Holy Spirit will help you know what to say, to say to your kid, to say to your wife, to say to yourself, the say to your accuser, to say to your shame.

To say to your mountain. I'll tell you what to say to your mountain.

Move. I don't feel like climbing the day and I don't I'm hiking shoes.

Get it out of my way. Move somebody shall move. God's not through with you.

I reached and grabbed one more book off the shelf, and the Holy Spirit gave me something to share.

I shared it last year, but y'all forgot it.

I reached and got a book and I just held it, and where I held it was about right in the middle. And I looked at her and said, Bianca, I'm so sorry what you suffered. I'm so sorry how it's hurt you. I have no words to say that can make the miscarriages go away. I have no words to say that can guarantee the next result. I have no prophetic word from the Lord. But I feel like the Lord.

Wants you to know that your life is a story he's telling, and you're.

Only this far in, your only, this far in your only tell your neighbor this far in y'all, I preached all this and it's just acts chapter one, Your only. The devil wants you to think that this scene is this, and it's not this. God is just getting started. In my former book, Theofholos, come on tap your neighbors say, can I call you Theophilis. In my last book, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do.

But he's just getting started. He's just getting started.

Because when the Holy Ghost comes upon you you will have power. When the Holy Ghost comes. He will guide you into all truth. When the Holy Ghost comes, you will stand up straight where you used to sit in shame. When the Holy Ghost comes upon you, He's a baptizer. The Holy Ghost is a corrector. The Holy Ghost is a comforter, and the Holy Ghost is.

A page turner. And if your life.

Is a story God is telling, like Peter's life is a story that God was telling, like the Gospel is the story that God is always telling, that dead things rise, that sins can be forgiven, that new beginnings are possible. You look at your life from your point of view. You called Judas the villain, heartbreak the villain. You are tempted in this moment to close the book and go back.

But the Holy Ghost, the Spirit.

Of God, is a page turner who does not leave me in Luke twenty two, but brings me to Acts chapter one.

So welcome.

To the next chapter, Bianca, Welcome to the sequel, Theophilus.

Welcome Peter, y'all. Peter.

What touched me so much reading this was to realize Peter could have been dead right there alongside Judas. They both failed Jesus. The difference between Peter and Judas. Wasn't what they did or didn't do. They both messed up. It's that Peter was a page turner. Okay God, okay God.

That happened. That happened. That happened.

Now, Holy Spirit, I ask you, I I adjure you, I commission you, by the grace of God that has given to me, sit with the Holy Spirit this week. How do I do that? Pastor, I've never done that before. It is as simple as you sitting down with the page of the scripture. Sit down with the same scripture I read today. Take your Bible, open it to acts and say, Lord, Holy Spirit, speak to me, show me, show me your lens on my life, because I'm looking

I'm looking through my lens and I don't have.

Enough to do this, and yet you gave me the opportunity.

And why did you call God, God, give me your lens, the lens of your spirit.

Peter, who was sitting by a fire, stood up among the disciples.

In those days.

In between the space of Jesus the Savior rising from the grave and the Spirit of God.

Come in, not knowing how long they would wait. He acknowledged the mess and the uncertainty, and he says some very powerful words. For it is written that is what is going to tell you what to do next.

It is written in the book of Psalm, may his place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell in it.

That is a direct quote.

From Psalm sixty nine, verse twenty five. And everybody say, and may another take his place of leadership? Wow, So he said it was written in Psalm sixty nine to twenty five that Judas was going to leave. That's what God was talking about all those years ago, and is happening in our situation. And see if you stop there, May his place be deserted. Let there be no one to dwell in it. Hopeless, we don't have what we need. We can't move forward. Jesus is gone.

We don't know. It is the power of this.

And because Peter said in Psalm sixty nine twenty five that says, may his place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell in it. But in Psalm one oh nine, verse eight, it says, may another take his.

Place of leadership.

I prophesy another over your life today, another chapter, another victory, another testimony, another one, another, one another, one another one. And you don't get this kind of wisdom.

Unless you're a page turner.

You got to get in here and start to see what God says about you about your life and ask him, Holy Spirit, speak to me. That's what I write at the top of my notes every time I read the Bible.

Holy Spirit, speak to me from this scripture.

Because if I don't, I think Judas was the villain when really he's the vessel. I'll think that the rejection was a curse, when really it was a blessing to make more space in my life for what God has next. I'll think that the problem is permanent and the faith is temporary, and I will not know that the faith was meant to remain and the problem came to pass. I'm telling you that God can speak over your situation,

Somebody say I'm a page turner.

I'm not saying I never sat by the fire. I'm not saying I never made a mess. I'm not saying I never messed it up. I'm just saying the devil starts lying you this week.

Just go.

You could do it suddenly. You could do it in the conference room. Nobody will even know.

Just go, because this story is just getting started.

You're only this far in. Next week, I'm gonna pick it up right here. Will you be back. We're only this far in.

But before we close, I want you to stand in your sanctified feet, and I want you to plant your heels right there on the ground wherever you are and put it in the comment say I'm a page turner. Wait, I thought God was the page turner.

Yeah.

God is the one who makes it possible. But you are the one that makes it happen. By the decision to move forward in His presence, with His power in your life, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

We will see the gospelill go out in this book.

But it starts with your decision to know. I'm only this far in, and we never would see Peter preach on the day of Pentecost if he didn't turn the page. And we never would see the man at the gate called beautiful jump up on his feet with his ankle strong if we didn't turn the page. Your children's children

I stood up like Peter. I had a story to tell, and I had help lift your hands.

I've come a long way.

I've seen how you work.

There's so much goodness and grace, much more than I.

See, sir, because I know who I am.

But I can't stay where I'm at. You've come this far by say.

And I just can't turn back because he's not done with you.

Yeah, he's not done with you.

To lud, Yeah, there's a mass.

Sorry, he's not done with She wouldn't I'm say, he's not going with me, is not dumb with me, He's not done, he's not duming me. Yeah, there's a master to this story. Come, he's so may stop.

You're not talking, gets as asshole.

He's have t.

Start up, tear the hands off.

You're not Henry.

Haven't lifted, Henry head lifted, not talk it be chapter.

You're not sick, You're having sat Here gives the next steppisode.

There's as this sure dot to thank you for joining us.

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