Timing Your Testimony

little story like you said that already. I'm just stalling while I find my scripture. The scripture records this. Now Elisha had said to the woman who's son he had restored to life, go away with your family and stay for a while. Put that in the chat. Stay for a while, I feel God on the first verse of the passage, and we've got five more to go past her keenan stay for a while. But here's the bad part.

Stay for a while wherever you can, not necessarily where you want, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years. And the woman proceeded to do as the Man of God said, she and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years. At the end of the seven years, she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land. The King was talking to Geheesi, the servant of the Man of God, and had said, tell

me all about the great things Elisha has done. Just as gehes I was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life, came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Wow, gahees I said, this is the woman, my lord the King, and that's her son whom Elisha restored to life. The king asked the woman about it, and she told him, then you're

ready for this. He assigned an official to her case and said to him, give back everything that belonged to her. I need to know who's with me today because it feels like a funeral in the room. But it's really a great opportunity for you to shout say give back everything. In the chat, give back everything. This is not a time for lowercase. This is a time for all cats. Give back everything. Say it again, give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land,

from the day she left the country until now. So this is your sermon. You're the one that I the devil to get this message for well good, because the Lord told me to talk to you today about timing your testimony. Do you know what I mean when I say testimony put the word testimony in the chat. For some of you, this will bring up a courtroom image, depending on the path that your life has taken, or

what you're watching or whatever you're aware of. For others, it will put us back in a church during the scariest time of the church service. And how many know what I'm talking about when I say a testimony service in a church because it's totally ad lived and there are no gutters in case the balls go right off. You know, you never know if it's going to hit any pins or if somebody's gonna stand up and monopolize.

The time, Pastor Mickey used to do the testimony service, and he used to have people come up and say stuff. When I started this church, I had had people share their testimonies, but I always had a rule, and this was my rule, and I think it's a pretty good rule. They could share their testimony, but I always had to hold the mic. Is that true? And I trained our

campus fastors. This is this true, Campus Fastors. I said, when you bring somebody up on stage that you can't trust, and let me tell you who to trust the least, the one who is the most excited to come up and share when you offer the opportunity. So that's our rule. You hold the mic, and I'll tell you why. Just because there's one story that stands out of my mind. I've seen some testimonies services go really bad, and maybe

you have to one that I heard about. I didn't see this with my own eyes, but my friend Carl, he had this incident where he was playing piano behind the pastor and during testimony service there was a man who stood up and said, I called him this morning to confirm this was true. Do you remember the story? He was playing piano and a man stood up and said, I just need to confess to the Lord that I've

been having some really bad thoughts about people. And yes, I mean you, big boy, And he turns in points to my friend Carl's dad, And so Carl's dad, do you know the story? And Carl's dad stood up right. I barely remembered it too, but he said, and I mean you, big boy. I'm talking about you, big boy in testimony service. And Carl's dad stood up, comes to

the front of the church. This is a little church, there's no security, comes to the front of the church with his chest out and says, well, how about we move this to the parking lot. You're talking about me? So what's my number one rule for testimony service? You hold the mic because I can't trust you yet. And trust takes time, and there are certain things that you need to hold on to until you've had enough relational time to develop trust. That's not being paranoid. Yeah, that's

just the wisdom of experience. So another thing that I would teach is kind of like a countdown timer, like after sixty seconds, take it back. Take the mic back after about sixty seconds, that's all it takes. If they start with my great grandmother, get the mic, start pulling it back, pull it back slowly, so it doesn't happen all at once, It just kind of slowly. And the truth of the matter is, you never really get to share the truth story of what God is doing in

your life. As it is, you don't really have time to tell everything, and you really don't have trust to tell everything. What I called it in a recent sermon was a time lapse testimony where you edit out the scenes that you don't want other people to see. And I think that's wise. I don't think you should just trust anybody talking about the things that God has done in your life. What I wonder is, have you even

told yourself your true testimony? When I read the scripture in Two Kings, chapter eight, it kind of came alive in me to realize that, I guess, depending on how you look at it, God either has really terrible timing or really impeccable timing. You could make the case from certain scriptures that God has terrible timing. And I know that makes me sound like a heretic, and they could probably clip this and put it on YouTube or something

like that and say all my false teachings. But four days after Lazarus dies is bad timing to show up and help, Or the fourth watch of the night, just before dawn is a terrible time to step in and stop the storm. In this scripture, though it brought to my memory all the times that God was waiting for the exact right moment in my life where He could achieve the most glory out of my situation to step in.

Some sermons that I preach are like a lesson. This one, to me in my spirit, feels more like a lifeline that God gave me to give to somebody as you were waiting for the restoration of something that you lost. And if we can look at this scripture for a moment today, I think we can see some things to help us. Especially in verse one, it says that Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored.

Everybody say the word restored. I love that word. I think we need to use it more in church, restored, restored to life. And he told that woman go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has to create a famine in the land that will last seven years. Now here's what will get you about the story. In verse two, the woman proceeded to do as the Man of God said, and then when she came back seven years later, she lost

what she had. So I can understand characters like Jonah, who God says, go to Nineveh but you want to go to Tarsish, and because you want to go to Tarsish, you end up on the seaweed Mediterranean diet. You end up having to spend the night the fish. That's understandable. This scripture suggests that you can do exactly what God tells you, that you can go exactly where He sends you, that you can act on God's word and not see the results that you imagine. You can do everything right.

And see, this is where we get in trouble because sometimes we become convinced that the famine is our fault. Notice in the passage, the Lord decreed the famine, and the Lord told the woman to leave. But when she left, in the process of going where God sent her to survive, she lost something that she had before she left. And

the famine wasn't her fault. And there's no disobedience. I mean, this woman, you don't know much about her, maybe, but she's absolutely a man because she had a very generous heart. And we kind of know this woman. We know a lot about this woman, and to me, she's familiar because I've preached a lot about her story. But see things have changed for her. You know, one day you can stand up and share where you're at in your life

and is so amazing and you're so blessed. One of the reasons that I don't teach parenting sermons is because mine's still live with me, and I don't want to tempt God. Do you understand what I mean? To get up and preach seven ways to raise an amazing kid? And then God sends seven demons in my kid so that I can see that sometimes you can do all the right things as a parent. It'll keep you from getting judgmental. To realize that this is the same woman

when the prophet asked her what do you want? Because see she had done a great thing for Elisha, And when the prophet said what do you want? She said something interesting. I don't need anything. I've got a home among my own people. And the woman who needed nothing in Second King's chapter four now has nothing in Second King's Chapter eight. What is the point of that for me to bring it up? Don't be arrogant in seasons of blessings, don't be arrogant, And by the same token,

in seasons of struggle, don't despair. And you would love to convince you that it's all your fault, even the things that people did to you, that there was something wrong with you that made them do it. But the famine wasn't her fault. The famine wasn't her fault. Now I hesitate to preach this because we live in a time where people kind of don't want to take responsibility for anything. So by saying this, the famine isn't their fault,

I'm afraid that my sermon will be misapplied. Okay, the famine wasn't her fault, but she still had a responsibility, right right, So she walks back into the presence of the king to ask him to give back what she lost when she left, what you lost when you left, what you lost when you left. Okay, I'm gonna share

something with you. This is kind of personal, But about two and a half years ago, I realized there were some things in my life that God wanted to give me, and that indeed he had promised me that I had given up on. And I'll tell you exactly what it was. It's not some deep, dark secret. I just, you know, never really thought to share it with you till I

read this passage. Pretty much I had made up my mind that I was some kind of machine that God wanted to use to do ministry, and I thought that my greatest value to God was what he could use me to do. I don't think I would have said it like that. I certainly preached the opposite of that. You're a child of God, you're the righteousness of God. You're not a human doing, You're a human being. But you can say all kinds of stuff with your mouth,

and I believe it in your heart. I promise you you can all day long have the right answers and then deep down in your heart have some really dark questions. And for me, I was starting to wonder, like, do I matter apart from what I do? Now that's a tender thing to say to you, because some of it I'm still undoing. Let me tell you a little bit of my testimony. I started preaching when I was sixteen, So for me, that was really early for me to become acquainted with the fact that when you stand up

and talk, you're representing God. Right. I'm thankful that God called me at that stage of my life. I really wouldn't change any of it, you know, but what it did in me it started to kind of conflate my identity with my contribution, or I could say it another way. It kind of started to confuse my identity with my gift. That happens to a lot of pastors. And about two and a half years ago I found myself in the position of this woman. Now here's how I relate to her.

Not that I'm a widow. There's a lot I don't. She's a woman, I'm a man. This woman, as a matter of fact, has seen a physical resurrection of her child. What I can relate to her in this way is that God wanted to give her something that she didn't even know to ask for, and that in the process

of surviving a famine, she had lost something. I think in the process in chunks I never talked to you about this, but in the process of building this church, which I believe God called me to do as a leader, as a preacher, I think there are some things that while I was doing what it required to do, that I kind of left myself out of it. Y'all are like God was he? What drug was he on? It wasn't like all that, because it doesn't always have to

be like all of that. All I know is I would find myself many times wondering if I couldn't do what I did, would I have any right to be here? And basically I thought that the only way for me to belong was to bring something external to myself for others. And there came a point because sometimes you have to go low enough, and I experienced several moments that God gave me. I really see it now as a gift. I and see it as a gift at the time.

But God let me get low enough that I had to make a decision and I did that if this is what it cost to succeed in ministry, I would rather fail in people's eyes but have joy inside myself then achieve everything that the world offers and feel empty. And the reason that I'm telling you this is because I think this happens to all of us from time to time, that we have to do certain things in certain seasons, right like being a mom. If you've ever been a mom, or you're considering being a mom, you

should know or testify to the fact. If you've experienced it, you can say amen to this. If you haven't experienced it, you can consider it in the contract of becoming a mom that you become a hostage to another human in the process, and it's not just for moms. Like sometimes as a man, to build your career, sometimes you find yourself in the process of making a living, you lose a sense of yourself and what's important. So the prophet said, you've got to get out of here, and she did

what the prophet said. She wasn't running from God, she wasn't disobeying God. She was doing what she had to do to survive. Can you own the fact that some of the things that you did in your life, you were doing what you had to do, and the devils beats you up with it at night, like, how could you do that? That was the best I could do in that season. I was doing the best I could. I was balancing on Oh, I was balancing so much. It was all I could do to stand up stream.

And then the enemy will come along and subtract all of those all of those factors of survival. She didn't run from God. The prophet told her to go away, and she lost what was hers in the process of being obedient to God. Because I kind of felt like a hypocrite when I was struggling emotionally. And here's how it wou be. You come out to preach. The worship team is going into, you know, something very powerful and anthemic.

And sometimes it was a song I wrote and I wouldn't feel the lyrics to the song I wrote, and I'd be coming out here. But I have a job to do and I want to be responsible. I mean, good God, if I'm a plumber, I don't get to feel, you know, putting a wrench on a pipe. You got to just fix something. So I've got a job to do. So I'll come up here and inspire faith. Not every time, but a lot of times. And I would feel guilty.

What it took out of me to build the ministry put me in a place where I could not receive ministry myself, and it scared me. It scared me that I could become a shell. And I had to have a moment. And I had a moment that reminds me of this woman boldly going to the King and saying, I want it back. I want it. I don't want to just build something or survive something. I want it back. I want it. That you're scared to say that because we are taught that if God wants us to have it,

he'll just give it. And he will. But the other day, we were driving in this rainstorm and we were coming home from the mountains and it was raining so hard there was a flash flood warning on all of our phones. And I was just driving. I could barely see out of the windshield. I was just driving. And Graham is the kid in our family who will say the most with the least words. And he said, is no one else scared about this other than me? Am I the only one that's concerned about this? And I said, I

was just playing around. But I said, son, God's hand is on our vehicle, and God will see us through this storm. And the boy says, there's only so much God can do. Maybe we should pull over. How does he get this at thirteen and we don't at thirty. At the risk of running you out of this church, let me say something theologically deep. There is only so much God can do. No, no, no, God can do anything. He can make the stars, he can make the sun, he can move the mountains. But you got to speak

the word. So so it starts with me being honest about the fact that, in the process of surviving of famine that I didn't cause like some of you were doing the best you could. You didn't have an example for it. You were doing the best you could. You didn't have a frame of reference for it. You were doing the best you could. You had never been this way before. And the Lord sent her to the land of the Philistines. What do you know about the Philistines?

In the Bible? Good guys are bad guys. Good place to be, a bad place to be. She had to go into an enemy occupied place to survive a famine, and so have some of us. Some of us that's where our addictions came from. In order to keep ourselves on the planet, we had to do something to numb the pain. I love this sermon because it takes the

shame out of where I've been. It helps me to understand there comes a time where you have to appreciate where God fed you during the famine, but be willing to leave and go back to the place where you really belong. You know, I said this was like a lifeline. You've convinced yourself that you can never have it. You've convinced yourself that you can never be happy, and you quote Bible verses. God wants you to be holy, not happy. That's in the first version of you. That's not a

Bible verse. That's the book of your dumb cousin's opinion. You ever read that? Now, in cases, seems like a stretch to compare us to this woman. Let me tell you a little bit more about our story. She wasn't really looking to get something from God. She was looking to give something to God. She had a Well, you can go watch the sermon online. I preached it to Holly called just the two of us. I preached it in the whole empty room. That was just her on the front row and a few people that stuck in

the back. But it was just the two of us, and I used it to talk about this woman and her husband. Did y'all hear this sermon? Yeah, is most awkward sermon I ever preached because it was just two of us in the room. It's very big room. And this woman was just determined to use what she had

for God, really expecting nothing in return. Now, when I say timing your testimony, and I use these examples about taking the mic away and all of this, what I really mean by timing your testimony is about trusting God to obey him before he has shown you exactly why he's calling you to do it, okay, Like it's really easy to say after the fact that God connected this

and that and the other. But the trick of it is that she made a room for the prophet to come and stay before she knew what God was going to do through her act of obedience. And isn't that the hardest thing, Like the author said, to believe in advance what will only make sense in reverse. That's the hardest thing in the world. To let down the nets for the catch before you have any clue that this

carpenter knows where they are. That's the hard part. And after she did that, the prophet said, you've gone to all this trouble for us, Now what can we do for you? She had something in her heart that she wanted God to do, like you have something in your heart that you want God to do, a freedom that you want to experience, a gift that you want to see God develop, a state of meaning than just survival. She had it in her heart, but she had learned how to hide it. And when the prophet said what

can I do for you? The woman said, I have a home among my own people. Because she did then what she didn't have was a son, And the Bible tells us her husband was old. I told you, God has terrible dyming. He waits till this man is shriveled up. Can I say it like that? And he brought her what she had stopped asking for. It was so painful for her to consider the potential that it could be any different that she said, stop messing with me. Do not mislead your servant, man of God. And she pushed

away the promise of God. She pushed away the promise of God. She pushed away the possibility of something different. She pushed away. That's what you've been doing to everything that God has been sending into your life to mature you and restore you. She is pushing away the very thing that came from the mouth of the one that she made a room for. She is pushing away the promise that God has sent her. But God did it anyway.

The prophet looked at her and said, about this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms. And she did, and she did. There is no record that she believed it. There is no record that she had faith for it. There is no record that she all of a sudden came into a scripture quotation. Phase of her study did a Bible more Bible study on pillars of faith. There is no record of that. But she held a son and one day, unexpected to her as son died unexpectedly. So let's recap. I didn't ask

you for a son. You gave it to me anyway, and then you let it die. She takes the boy. Can I tell you the story? This is such a great story, brings the boy, puts it on the bed of the prophet. She went to Ikea and picked this bed out her self, put it together herself, and she said, I'm going to put this back on the place that you were laying when you told me God would give it to me. And Elisha restored the boy to life.

That boy is the boy that standing in the King's court at least seven years later in Second King's eight Boy. That she didn't ask God to give her the boy that died, even after God gave the boy to her and came back to life. And what got me about this text was realizing that the thing that died in one season of her life was the thing that stood beside her in the moment of her greatest need. So you got to imagine it. Gehesi is the servant of Elisha, and the king calls Gehesi and says, tell me some

stories about Elisha, and Geheesi has many. Well, there was one time, one time he took his cloak and he struck the Jordan with it, and the water's parted, and the people were waiting to see is he really a man of God? And the water's parted. And then one time there was a spring in the town and the water was poisonous, but Elisha put some salt in the water and he purified it. And he said, your water will never be cursed again, and you can drink from it.

And then well, one time there were these boys who called him Baldy, and he called some bears out of the woods tomorrow. But let's skip that one, you know, you say selective stories. One time there was this there was this confederation of kings and they were in the middle of a drought, and Elisha came out to him. He said, I don't even want to talk to you, because you follow the wicked gods of your ancestors. And if I didn't have respect for johash Fat, I wouldn't

even speak to you. But now bring me a minstrel, and the minstrel started playing, and Elisha started prophesying in the dry valley, and he told him dig your own ditches and prepare for the rain that you can't see. And the rain came from a direction that it wasn't expected. It didn't come from the sky like normal rain does. It came from somewhere else. It's just the way Elisha was. And you can picture Geheza. He's getting fired off telling

these stories. You know, he's remembering, he's rehearsing the things that God did in a previous season. He's rehearsing the

things that God did in a previous season. Because one time we went to this widow's house and she had a little bit of oil, and she thought she had no oil, but Elisha told her go back and check the thing that you called nothing again, because what you call nothing is exactly what God needs to do something that you So so he's telling the stories, right, And there's there's one that he skipped with Naman because Nayman was a leper who came to be healed, and when

Elishah pronounced healing over him by dipping seven times in the Jordan, which is a ridiculous thing to do, because the Jordan is a little dirty body of water, and Nayman was a great commander, and he could have bathed in the waters of Obna and far Far, but he had to come all the way to the prophet and dip in the Jordan seven times for his flesh to

be restored like a young boy. And he was so excited about his miracle that he tried to give some gifts to Elishah, and Electra said, I don't want your gifts. I didn't do it for that, and gahes I chased down Nayman and said, hey, my master changed his mind, so whatever you have, I'll take it back to him. And he kept it for himself. And Elishah, the man of God, knew about it, and he called him out. And gaheze I had leprosy, So what was he doing in the court of the king. A leper can't be

in the court of the king. It looks like the little boy isn't the only one that God restored. I have to put this in because if I don't, you'll think that only if you're like the woman and you do what God told you to do, that you can ask God to restore what you lost. But Gahesi is

standing in the presence of the King. Watch this to let you know that even if you did it, even if it was your fault, even if it was your selfishness, even if you were the one who let go, even if it was your irresponsibility, you can stand in the presence of God under the blood of Jesus and say, I want it back in the name of Jesus. I want back everything that SAME's stripped from and stole from me and took from me. So he's telling her the stories.

He's telling the king the stories, and he gets to the one about the woman and she built us a room and she put a bed in it, and she didn't have a son, and Elisha said, you're gonna have a son, and she's like, I don't even want a son.

I've given up on it. And Elijah prophesied the sun and she shows up pregnant, and then the kid dies and he's in the field and he starts screaming about his head, and then they put him on the bed and I was gonna go try to heal him with my staff, but Elijah said, no, this is a job for me, and he came in, and I don't know what he did in that room because it was just him and the boy in there, but they both came out ass he is talking the woman walks in the room.

Do you understand the statistical improbability that at the exact moment there are so many stories to be told about Elisha. I didn't even give you half of them. But God knew the exact moment that Gahesi would be talking about that woman. I don't know if she hit traffic on the way so that she was late, or whether she caught every green light so that she got there right on time. But I have learned something about God. You

can trust his timing. You can give him the mic, you can let him speak what he wants to speak over your life, and in the appointed time, it will come to pass. I've seen it in my own life. I've seen it in my own life that God knows exactly what, who, where, when, what? Oh, this is the best scripture. Do y'all want the best scripture in the Bible. Here's the best scripture in the Bible, Psalm one thirty nine. Now this is the best scripture today. I'll have a

different one tomorrow. But this is the best scripture I've ever read in my life. Right now, Okay, Because God, I'll give you a certain word at a certain time. And here's what he gave me. Here's what he gave me. Boy, you ready, Psalm one thirty nine one five. I know that one twenty five doesn't sound like a verse number, but it is. There's a there's one hundred and twenty five in this verse, and I'm glad I took time to find it because it said something really powerful to me.

I am thy servant. Give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies. Here's the part to hit me. Hold on before I read it. Who is this for? It is time for the Lord to work, not for me, for thee. And I want you to come into the presence of the King, not the King of Israel. I want you to come into the presence of the King. The Lord told me to tell you it's time for him to work. It's time. You've done everything you can do about it. You have manipulated it so much that

you've messed it up. Even worse. There comes a time where Holly tells us get out of the kitchen. You are not helping and I heard the Lord saying, to somebody, get out of the kitchen and let me work. It is time for thee O Lord to work. For they have made void thy law. It is time for thee to do something about what they did. This woman left a homeowner, and while she was gone surviving the famine, somebody else took her home. The king said, go back

to second King's chapter eight. This is so annointed I can barely I can barely get it out of my mouth. There's so much jumping up in my spirit while I preach to you. Because the Lord said, this is a lifeline for somebody. It is time for thee O Lord to work. She comes into the presence of the King to ask back for what she lost when she left. At the exact moment that she walks in Ghyes, I was telling the king her story. Does God not have

the craziest timing? And geheze I said, that's that woman, the one who put the table in the lamp, in the bed in the room, the one who gave us a place to stay. That's her. The one whose son Elisha restored to life. And there's the boy. Now you have got to drag what God did in your past into the room and show the thing that you are facing today what God did for you yesterday. That's what you gotta do. It is time for you to work Lord. So just like you gave me this back, I need

that back. Just like you restored this that I thought was gone forever, and God did that for me. There are some things that I know that I know that I don't have to prove it to you. You don't have to agree with it. God did that for me. Nobody else. It wasn't a human. God might have used somebody, but only God could bring the dead back to life. So the God who did this, I need him to

do that. And verse six SSS something very interesting. This is the last verse I want to give you because the king asked a woman about it, and she told him and then read it again. She told him what God had done for her, and then he assigned an official to her case. So she only got back what she needed. When she told the story of what God had done. You follow the sequence she could have told herself. Any story. Life isn't fair, This isn't right. I tried

to obey God, and now look at me. But she told the story of what God had done, And so God wants to know why have you stopped telling the story, not to others, to yourself, why have you stopped telling the story of what I did for you and replaced it with a story of fear of what might happen next.

So while you are telling yourself these hypothetical stories of what might happen, or these shameful stories of what did happen, you are standing next to a story, a living, breathing, walking, talking miracle, a product of nothing but the grace of God. That's why April Carter told me. She said, God did this for me. And I said, well, why didn't he do that? And she said, in all fairness, it's not

your story. Never stopped telling herself the story. You stop telling yourself the story of God's faithfulness, and you start telling yourself the story of fear. She told him what God had done. And then everybody say, then in the chat, I'm telling you right now that one word, or let me give you another word. Yet ye Yet I don't have it yet. I haven't found a way to get set free from this yet. I don't see how it's

going to work out yet. See timing your testimony, don't tell it too early because you don't know what God is going to do. In chapter eighth, see, it's like the timing of God is so amazing. And every time you tell yourself a story about the things that God did then and you bring it into the presence of what you need him to do now, he said, give her back what belongs to her. Say it out loud. Peace belongs to me. I am a child of God. Joy belongs to me. I am a child of God.

Freedom is my inheritance. I am a child of God. I belong because I believe I am a child of God. Tell yourself that story. Preach the gospel to yourself. If GAHESI can rehearse the great things that God has done? Who was a leper and a scoundrel? Can't you? And can you trust God's timing enough to give him the

mic and believe what he speaks? That though the visionary wait for it, for it has an appointed time is taking me a while to understand that God's timing is created to increase my trust in Him, whether that's the fourth watch of the night or whether that's the fourth day after I have lost something that I love. And God gives you these little gifts? What are yours? Have you told anybody that part of your story? Or are you so consumed with your present struggle that you have

stopped rehearsing your past victories? Thank you. I know I've told you this before, but can I tell you one thing that happened to me? Stand up, it'll pressure me to close. I can't tell you all of these things, but do you remember me telling you in twenty sixteen how I was on vacation with the family near Charleston went over to the farmer's market there at Yeah, you know this story? All right, Well, I'm gonna tell it for somebody else. It's too good not to tell you.

I'm at the farmer's market. You want the whole story. I'm at the farmer's market with Holly because she dragged me there. I don't go to farmers markets of my own volition. I OneD a farmer's market, but I went, not knowing why. But I got there, and you were there. Whole family was there. This girl comes walking over to us from she had a what do you call it? Confection cupcakes and stuff bakery, a bakery stand at the farmer's market. She was so nice, her name was Addie May.

She came up and said, I want I want to give your family some sugar kids hyper but she said, I love your podcasts. Can I get a picture? I was more than happy to do that, but you know, at the same time, I looked like a bomb. I was just so I was kind of worried that I wouldn't look too good in the selfie. She said something that I thought was kind of where she said, my pastor is going to be so jealous, and I said for me that we met. She said, yeah, he loves you.

I said, tell your pastor. I said, Hi, what's his name? She said his name? I said, that's great, tell him, I said hi. She said, I'm going to go tell him right now. I'm going to go call him, and she called him. She came back over with the cupcakes because we're about to leave. She said, my pastor said that we actually invited you to preach at our church this week about a year ago, and your office declined because they said that you were on family vacation. And

so I was like, well, they weren't lying. I'm right here on family vacation. And she said, but all the same, you should come over to uh, you should come over to our holy convocation this week. I said no, I said vacation, not com vocation. It's a whole. This is the Holy vacation. It's a whole different, this a whole while. Let me tell you it's a whole different rhythm. And but just to be polite or whatever, I took the dates. She wrote it out on in the car to church,

saying all this stuff. And I'm telling you a story for a reason, I promise I am. The Lord told me to tell you this story. And sometimes I have to do this just to remember, because I have moments where I wonder, is God really ordering my steps or is this random? So I have to tell myself these stories of times where God made like at the right moment. Can you remember one where God brought at the right moment? Raise your hand if you can remember one, just even one, right,

that's a testimony. And we overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb. That's what Jesus has done and the word of our testimony. Now, now remember what Graham said, There is only so much God can do. Yes, he can do anything, but he will not tell your testimony for you. That is your story. That is your test, Simoni, that is your choice, cavolific. So, so she writes down the name of the church, and she says, on this night so and so speaking, on that night so and

so speaking, and this night so and so speaking. The last one that she put on my card. I think on the Friday night she said, this guy's speaking, and I had always wanted to hear him preach. So all of a sudden, I'm like, well, maybe I will go over there. And I'm kind of glad I met her. And I had somebody in my office call over to the church and see if that pastor was coming on that night, and he was. And the pastor said he wanted to wanted us to meet and hang out. Whatever.

That's not the point, okay, So let me get to the point. So the day of the I'm going to go over to the church comes and I get a text from my assistant says, the pastor who was going to come, he can't come. He had a back injury. I'm telling you, the voice of God is much louder than a shout, because a shout you can put some AirPods in and noise cancel. But when God speaks to you, you can't. You can't do anything with it, either obey

it or be miserable. So so in that moment, I knew you need to call that pastor that Addie may gave you the card and offer to go over there and preach tonight. And so I'm going through my mind like it's been two or three weeks that since I've been in my own pulpit. I'm like, I don't know that I remember any Bible versus be cause I always

read the Bible every day on vacation. And and so I'm like, well, I'll call, and you know it'll be like uh uh, Like I'll just put out a fleece like Gideon, Lord, and and and in fact, the first thing I was I said, I'll get my assistant to call, and the Lord is like, no, you do it. So I'm like, oh, I don't. I don't know the number of the church. I just know the name. And the Lord Lord said google, I call the church. The pastor

doesn't answer, nobody answers. I leave some message, and I'm like, okay, Lord, So I offered Isaac on the altar, and you didn't want to going back to the beach. I leave this weird message on the phone. I say, hey, this is Stephen Verdick, the pastor of Elevation Church. I'm out here on vacation. I met a girl named Addie May, and I heard your speaker cancel tonight, and I was just calling to see if you needed a preacher or whatever. But I'm sure you don't, so have a nice day

and God bless him Ephesians three twenty. So I hang up about the time I can get my beach attire back on. I'm headed out to the phone rings and it's the pastor. He said, this is Stephen Verdick. I said, yes, sir. He said his name, and he said, you really will come preach for us tonight. I said, yeah, I guess, I said, but I would tell you I have no convocation clothes. I'm out here on vacation with my family.

I look like Tom Hanks Ond eighty one with Wilson out here, so so so it's just gonna have to be. I said, I only have all I had. The dressiest thing I have is yeasies. He said, I'll wear my easies too, if you'll come. I said, I'll come. I don't I don't know what I'll preach but I'll come. And when I got there that night and showed up the preacher, I got to see Addie May and then I got to see the pastor. And when I saw him,

he was he had tears his eyes. He said. After so many years in the ministry, several decades, he said, I never had the Lord answer a prayer as directly as he did today. He said, you were our first choice to come preach tonight, and I've done three funerals this week when you called. The reason nobody answered the phone was because we were in a prayer meeting asking for God to send us a preacher to you. And I preached, and I don't know if it was any good.

It didn't matter. The point was obedience. Point was obedience, Oh not my obedience at amys think about God at just the time the verdicts are getting to the farmer's market thirty more minu. She would have packed up those cupcakes at just that moment, he said. The pastor said, you were my ram in the bush talking about Genesis with Abraham and Isaac. I like to tell that story to remind myself that God is going to bring things together in the right time, and I can trust them

in that. I can trust them in that. But I want to tell you something that I never told my church before. About two years ago, I sent Chris Brown out to do some music with this amazing worship team called Maverick City Music. I said, you got to go out there, and when he came back, I wanted to know everything because there's such a great annoying on this ministry. I said, what is God doing? I said, it feels punk rock to me? Is it punk rock? He said, it's so punk rock for the Lord? And he said,

but do you know about Chandler. It's Chandler back there? He said, do you know about Chandler? I said, yeah, that's the guy. He's amazing. What about him? He said? He said that was his dad's church. His dad was the pastor that you went and preached for in twenty sixteen when Adam may In dided and God gives you these moments. God gives you these moments or something that

seems so small to you in one season. And I find myself last year sitting in a room with Chandler and Naomi and Chris and writing a song called Jirah, a song that we weren't even trying to write. He was sitting at the piano and he just sang sirah. I said, did you just say girah? He goes and I said, if you ever said that in a song before? He said, I said, we're gonna say it in this one. Shirah means we'll see to it. Jehovah jirah. That's what Abraham called the place where the Lord gave him a

ram so he wouldn't have to sacrifice his son. And sometimes I need to remember and tell these stories to myself for when I'm wondering if God's going to come

through for me. If you've been feeling that lately, just lift your hands, because sometimes I need to remember that the same God who brought me to the farmer's market Jesu to meet Dady May so I could preach in my ye'sies at a holy convocation for a pastor I didn't know, whose son was a songwriter that I would later collaborate with to release a song that God would

send into the hearts of millions of people. That God can be trusted and at the right time, if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, in due time, he will lift you up, and he may is not here anymore on the earth. She was Chandler's nanny and he lost her, but she brought us together, so she's right here. Some of the things that you've lost in your life, I feel God's presence. Give me one moment.

The things that you've lost in your life. God is not going to bring them back in the exact same way. He is going to restore them to you in a greater way than you have ever seen them before. And your only job in this is to look for the ram in the bush. Father. We've come into your presence today not entitled, no, not at all, not thinking that we've been so good, or so worthy or so perfect that we just deserve the blessings that you've given us.

But we come to you on the merit of your grace toward us and our position in your heart as your children. Thank you, Lord. Our times are in your hands, and now it's time for THEE to work. It is time for THEE to work. It is taught for THEE to work. We were in the land of the Philistines for seven years, but we are coming back into your presence, the presence of the King of Kings. And the Lord of lords, to receive back that which you have spoken

over our lives with interest. Lord, I thank you that even in this moment, you are restoring the hopes and the dreams, and the sanity and the peace and the right mind of your children, restoring the years that the locusts have eaten, restoring the years that we wasted. We thank you, Lord that you are bringing it all back, and that little by little, day by day, we will see the goodness of the Lord in the Let's time for THEE to work. O Lord, We've done all we can,

We've done all we know. It is time for THEE. We want it back. We want your glory back, we want your joy back. We want our purpose back, we want our focus back, our passing back. We want it back. In the presence of a God who will freely give us all things in the name of Jesus, we receive it. We receive it. We receive it. Though atarry wait for it, thoitarry, wait for it. Though it's been seven years. Bring every

expectation into his presence. And now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more than you ask or imagine, according to his power, that works mightily in you. To Him be glory through Christ Jesus in the Church. Now and forever. Come on, give God a great shout of prase, my God. Long thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry.

Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.