January 12, 2024 • 39 mins
Pastor Steven Furtick, Holly Furtick, and a few guests as they recap the sermon, “This Is That Day,” and discuss how to practically shift from “one day when…” to “one day win.” Because it’s time to start asking “what’s important now?” so you can fully step into the purpose God has for you right here in this moment.
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Scripture References: Isaiah 27, verses 1-6
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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.
We are starting a brand news segment here today.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
You are the only person on earth that knows the
name of this word.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I know and I remember it.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
You remember it, yes.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Because you had to tell it to me so many times.
I felt that I kept asking him and so, but
I actually remember it.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
So let's set it up and then we'll do the reveal. Okay,
I've always thought after I finished preaching, ah, I didn't
get to say this that I didn't you know, I
didn't get to go deep enough. Ah, I left this out.
You know, I have all these notes that I didn't
get to and it would feel frustrating. Well, one day,
the Holy Spirit says to me, after I was, you know,
(00:57):
done coddling myself on the couch for three hours of
how I didn't say everything.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
We're coddling yourself after I was cursing yourself Yeah, after.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I was really beating myself up. I feel like I failed.
I didn't get the job done. And you said, maybe
you didn't fail, maybe you just didn't finish.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Did I actually say it like that? Like that yoda?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So that's the final draft of what you said, and
I've alliterated it and co written it. But the concept
just became real in my heart that we have all
of these amazing ways to minister to you now, and
so why not from time to time, not every week?
Just come on kind of like what you guys do
on coffee FIM. Just get in there and look at
(01:40):
the sermon, talk about the sermon, and apply it. I
love it. And so you, being the master of practical
application that you are, Holly, I want you to reveal
the title of this segment to the people.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So the title of this segment is run it back,
walk it out.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
A running back, walk it out. That's what we're going
to make. Run it back. Everybody say, run it back,
run and walk it out and walk it out. All right.
So the Word of God is like a seed, right,
seeds need soil. What else put it in the comments? Lighter, matriance, water,
(02:22):
sometimes fertilizer, It doesn't smell the best helps.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It out, but necessary helpful in the process.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I actually think that when we just listen to a
sermon or read a Bible verse so fast, it's like
us throwing a seed on concrete and wondering why it
didn't produce anything. Yep, you know, like the parable of
the sower in Matthew thirteen, where Jesus said that the
birds will come and snatch it up, the thorns will
choke it out, the sunlight will just bake the seed.
(02:50):
And so this is an effort for us to take
my sermon, my first sermon of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Which was so good, thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Very much much. And she's not biased. The theme of
the sermon was this is that day, and I'll explain
what that meant in just a moment. If you want
to stop this and watch that on Elevation Church YouTube,
please feel free to do so. I will not be
offended if you walk away and come back. I'll be
right here waiting for you whenever you're ready. But this
will work best if you heard that sermon. You can
(03:20):
still watch it. If you didn't hear that sermon, because
we're going to run it back, not necessarily show it
back or show clips here. But just Holly's got good notes.
She's a great note taker. She was a great student
in college. I used to copy off her notes. That
was one of the benefits of via her boyfriend and
we would study together. And still her notes are better
than mine. Like, look at her notes. Look at my notes.
(03:44):
What a disaster I am.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
But I don't do that drawing thing.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Well.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
When I finish my sermon and I look at your notes,
I'm like, oh, that's what I said. Good, that's good.
That's good. I said that. Yeah, yeah, I said that.
So I don't know if you're cleaning them up. But
I want you to start us off, Holly, because I
love the front row flashbacks that you post and each
week you send to our staff. And I promised the congregation,
I said, I'm putting part two on YouTube this week.
(04:12):
So the part two isn't going to be me just
teaching another sermon. I'll do that again next Sunday. I
already have a sequel in mind. This is more of
an opportunity for Holly and the great Chris Brown and
Brittany at Gonzola to say this is what I heard,
and this is how I've been walking it out, and
(04:33):
we'll talk about that together. The Bible says he who
walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of
fools suffers harm. No fools on this couch today. We're
just going to do this for as long as until
we get tired of talking about it. So thank you
for joining us, Holly. Why don't you kick it off
with a little run it back and then we'll walk
it out and I'll jump in and preach a little
(04:55):
more and you can ask me whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Okay, So I'm of all, when we were going home
from church, I well, okay, let me back it up.
First of all, I cried in this message, and I
walked back and I gave you a hug, and I said,
that was exactly what I needed to hear, and so
I want to thank you for that. And then I
(05:20):
think I said to you at some point, I just
feel like that sermon was classic Steven Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And what I mean by.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
That is you are the master of wordplay, and so
you start off and of course you're like so organic
and you write down one day when and you're talking
to us all about one day when, which is perfect
for the start of a new year, because we all
(05:49):
have our one day wins for the year, for our life,
for our future, whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And I'm just going.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Right along with you, not even planning for you to
do anything. And you switch it up, give me the
next one, and you tell us becomes a one day win.
And I'm telling you, like I think this will, this
will forever be in my head a one day win.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
And you've heard me preach seven thousand times since we
were boys, you know, out into yeah woods. And you
texted me, what did you say?
Speaker 6 (06:24):
Well, I said, the message is goat status because of
the same thing.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, it's like, come on, wow, but it's so sticky. Well,
the stickiness of it for me really ministered. And here's why,
because I could easily be this vision board guy. You
know this one day when I reached this certain status
in my anything, my preaching ability, my creative achievements, my
(06:50):
parenting patience, my net worth, anything you want to mention.
That's a surface level accomplishment. One day when I feel
good about myself. Yeah, one day, when then I will
have arrived. One day when then I'll put the time
into this or develop this new thing, or I'll get
a hobby, but just thinking like even getting to that
(07:11):
one day when that God plants in us the dream
and the vision that he gives us starts with a
one day wi in when. So for me, it wasn't
just trying to be clever that's how I have to
live my life.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
No, And that's what I that is what I love
about your preaching. And I told you this, I said,
you are so good at taking something that God gives
you and living it out. And to me, this is like,
this is your sweet spot is having a vision, Like
you don't actually have a vision board, but I think
you have a vision board in your head and you
(07:47):
have this one day when with an E and you're
able to break it down into daily winds.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And I have seen you do this like.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
You're just you're the best at it at just going Okay,
what's a win for today, or what's a win for
this week? Or what's a habit or a routine that
I'm going to put into place?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So like, can you tell.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Us a little bit more about going from when to win?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
It was because I was thinking about the people I
was preaching to and I was studying this passage that
God spoke to me three years ago in Isaiah twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I mean, you've had this verse written on your nightstand,
for it's.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Sitting on a note card on my nightstand as we
speak up under some other books that I'm supposed to
be reading. But it's not a very practical scripture. It's
a prophetic scripture about the nation of Israel, and they
were in captivity, and they were oppressed, and God was
making them a promise. And I read it so many
times over the last few years, and I shared a
(08:54):
little bit about this scripture with our students at Youtheks
this summer. But something so granular stood out to me
this time, and I'm gonna share with you now. You
can follow along Isaiah twenty seven. Verse one, in that day,
the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great
and powerful sword, Leviathan, the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent.
(09:17):
He will slay the monster of the sea. I have
a whole sermon on that I hope to share one
day soon too. But then verse two, it picks up
the motif in that day, so it says it twice.
If you're following along, you'll see it in that day
sing about a fruitful vineyard. So verse one is in
that day, the Lord will punish Leviathan. I think this
(09:38):
has to do with God dealing with the things in
our life that drag us down. For many of you,
right now, you're fighting against a spirit of depression. You're
fighting against mental patterns of anxiety and everything you see
online that tells you take an ice bath and meditate
and break seven eggs over your head every morning at
seven am and say mantras that you got posted notes
(10:01):
up all around saying I am complete, and God's got
this and it doesn't break through. And the promise of
verse one is that God is fighting against everything that
brings his people down. And verse two gives us a
strategy that as God fights the battles that we can't
fight in our own strength, we are to watch this
(10:24):
verse two sing about a fruitful vineyard. And what first
opened my mind to the revelation of a day, Because
that's what I want you to get right now, is
the revelation of a day in that day. It's a
prophetic scripture. It's a term that's used to talk about
everything going from the second coming of Christ to the
(10:47):
judgment of God's people in certain context to the judgment
of God's enemies. But I started seeing a little differently.
I said, wait a minute. It says in that day
God's going to fight against Leviathan the things that us down,
and in that day we're supposed to be singing. So
when I saw that there's a song and a sword
(11:07):
in the same day, it sets my expectation. So I
called the message this is that day. All right, this
is going to be one of those days. You just
better wake up knowing it. There's going to be blessings.
I didn't expect today. A little smile I catch, or
I'm able to give here there a little word of encouragement,
a little word of discouragement. So we accept it, all right. Well,
(11:28):
then I start having fun with it. I started reading
verse six, where it said in days to come, Jacob
will take root, Israel will butt and blossom and fill
all the world with fruit. So now I'm thinking, okay,
we got two actions happening in verse six. One is
going downward taking root, one is going upward bearing fruit. Yes,
(11:50):
and it showed me that each day we'll have its
ups and downs, and both are a part of our destiny.
Both are a part of God's purpose. So my first
step was getting you to see that not only do
you have a new year in front of you, twenty
(12:10):
twenty four, but that every day God's mercies are new,
you get a new twenty four. Now that's a basketball term.
I'm not a basketball fan, but I was watching a
basketball game a few years ago and the guy missed
a shot and he got an offensive rebound. And I
know that the rules have changed in the NBA because
(12:32):
I researched it before. I appreciate it. But back then,
when you would get an offensive rebound off the glass
in the NBA, the shot clock would go back to
a full twenty four seconds. So you get a whole
new twenty four every day, no matter what shot you
missed last year, no matter what shot you missed today,
no matter what YouTube video you were watching before this
(12:54):
one mine that you feel guilty about. Well, you're here now.
The revelation of the day for me was so powerful
because I can get paralyzed by five years from now,
and I need everybody to be honest for a minute.
Are you like me where you have so many one
(13:15):
day wins? Give me my card back with it.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I was gonna I was going to keep them.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, you can have them when I'm done. But I
just need to be clear because its kind of tricky.
One day when all the all the things you're going
to accomplish for God, when you have more time to
do it, all the all the nice things you're going
to say to people, when the perfect opportunity comes up.
I told somebody the other day, one day, when I
get a chance, I'm going to tell you how much
(13:40):
you meant to me at this stage of my life.
And the Lord spoke to me.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Tell now, do it now?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, get a one day win, like get
get get the things said the best you can today
and revise it tomorrow. So it's very practical for me,
but it also has a heaviness. That's why I didn't
want it to just be okay when when I get it,
you change the letters like I'm van a white on
(14:07):
wheel of fortune, change in letters or something. No, it
was more powerful to me. It was getting to realize
that the way that you're going to get to the
one day when you are a patient person, the one
day when you have financial security, the one day when
you're able to let the peace of Christ rest rule
and abide in your heart. The way you're going to
(14:28):
get to the one day when is through the power
of a one day when. So where does God want
me to win today? And just to take it one
silly step further and so you can see how demented
my brain is with wordplay. I even use wi in
as an acronym. What's important now?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Wow, I got to write that down.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah, what's important now? So good? And I want you
to start thinking that way this year because God has
given you this year, but he's given you this day.
So it was in my heart to help people, you know,
because I don't want to be up there talking about
a fruitful vineyard and Jacob taking rude and Israel and
you're going, that's great for the Bible. But and I'm
(15:17):
just trying today to like have one family meal with
my family this week, or I'm just trying this week
to have one day where I wake up and exercise right.
And there's real power in the one day win and
it's changed my life and I just want to share
it with our entire church family and all those we
minister to.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Do you feel like your winds change from day to day?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I do you have some that are like I have
to do this every day, and then there are some
where you're like, you know, today this is my win.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That's a great question because it reminds me of a
conversation I had with a really wise man. I said,
I feel like if I'm winning in one area, I'm
losing in another area. I feel like with my life,
I can really be winning with what I'm producing creatively
or for the ministry, and then in an area at
(16:09):
home it needs my attention. And he said something so
powerful back to me. He said, You're not gonna win
everywhere every day. Just don't lose in the same area every.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Day, right right, Okay?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
And it is it is a balance. Well, that's where
you get with the Holy Spirit, and that's where you
pay attention to what he's speaking to you. I mean,
what do you think about it? Because you listen to
the message, and this is called run it back, walk
it out. So for somebody who's not so much of
a win lost person, I don't know if this is
a male female thing or just a competitive thing. I
(16:43):
know that the term win isn't really your turn. I mean,
you don't wake up in the morning late. I need
to be a winner. I need to crush it. I
need to smash it. You know that's not your vibe. Yeah,
but how did you hear it about winning everyone?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I think that it sets me free to say a
one day win, because sometimes I get overwhelmed when I
think about people like you who have who are very
disciplined and so you have certain things that you do
every day. But for me, it really set me free
to realize, like, okay, wait, so for instance, today we're
(17:19):
here and we're having this conversation. We're also working on
shooting some videos for your new book release.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
There's a plug do the new you pre order it.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And so this is not a winning mom day for me.
This is a winning work day for me. And so
when I lay my head on my pillow at night
and somebody is frustrated because they couldn't find their their
you know, their wrestling single isn't clean, or there's no
(17:51):
Chewy bars in the house, I'm not going to bed
feeling defeated because that wasn't the win for today for me?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Does that?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
But I want to expand your definition of what a
win is.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Help.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Did you not set an example for your kids today
of what it means to come in and work hard
at meaningful ministry? Do they not need to see that
mom got up today and the biggest thing wasn't me
cleaning that wrestling single that maybe the biggest thing was
them learning how to do their own laundry. Because the
(18:28):
world is bigger than just us. I think a lot
of times you don't give yourself credit for the win
because of how you defined it. So what's your definition
of a win?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Do you think that a win is being able to
enable everybody else's laziness? Because sometimes it is through setting
an example of balancing a complicated life that you actually
give that kid a template that they can follow one
day if they find themselves as a mom or as
a dad. So I would challenge each of you to
(19:01):
expand your definition of what you call a win. I
like that movie Moneyball, and you can go back and
watch just the very last part of it. And this
guy hits a home run and it goes way over
I think, over centerfield wall, and he trips when he
gets to first base, and he's so discouraged because he
(19:24):
tripped on first base. But when they tap him and
they show him, wait a minute, that ball is over
the centerfield wall doesn't matter. You hit a home run
and you didn't even know it. Yeah, it's a great
picture of how the enemy discourages us because we trip
over this. Oh, I sounded so stupid when I said
that they weren't listening to you. They weren't even paying attention.
(19:48):
Then you go back and apologize to somebody you'd ever
done this. I'm so sorry when I did this, it
sounded so stupid, And they go, what are you talking about?
So you are penalizing yourself for losses that actually didn't
even occur in reality. Yeah, and when we sync up
with God, he shows us what's really important to him.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
So helpful.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
What do y'all think? And y'all are real quiet? I
want I want to hear what Brent thinks. I want
to hear what Chris thinks. I want to hear I
want to hear from the whole group.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
Well, I was I was thinking, you've showed up a
lot of times for songwriting session and you leave and
maybe it wasn't the greatest song or the most productive day,
and we might text about it later that night or
the next day, and you're like, I showed up. I
see it as a win, and you know, I don't
(20:35):
know what'll come of that song, but I showed up,
and I've got to see me showing up as the
wind for yesterday. Yeah yeah, And so however that applies to,
you know, any facet of life, Like I may have
not felt like I had the deepest conversation with Joe
and my son at bedtime tonight, but I was by
(20:56):
his bed.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
You were there, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
I spent five minutes with him saying you day good,
talk about a movie that's nothing deep.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
But I was there, and he probably didn't want more
than five minutes, ready to get back on anyway, exactly.
And here's what I'm trying to say, Chris, like, I'm
so glad you brought it up, because it actually came
to my mind when I was studying. I even found
a way to label those days where we go in
to write music and it doesn't feel great. I call
it a creative leg day. Anybody who lives weights knows
(21:30):
like skipping leg day is the number one temptation, and
at least it is for me. And yet it's the
day that you go in and you don't expect it
to feel the best. You don't expect it to be
the most fun, but you do it. And there are
days like that in parenting, there are days like that
in friendship, there are days like that, certainly in ministry.
(21:51):
And there are days like that for you where you
don't judge the worth of that day. We're talking about days, right,
You don't judge the value you of that day, the
success of that day. You don't even label that day
according to how good it felt in the moment. Back
to the workout illustration. I remember talking to this guy
who did CrossFit a few years ago, and he came
(22:14):
to see me, but he was like, you look kind
of rough. Honestly, he said, I'm sorry for the shape,
my man. I just had a really great workout. He
looked terrible. Yeah, he said, I threw up three times.
Oh no, it was a great workout. So I realized
that his definition of a great workout was based on
(22:34):
the result that it produced, yeah, not the feeling that
it provided.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
A lot of times we're sitting there thinking it was
a horrible day. It might have been a tough day,
that doesn't make it a horrible day. And I think
we've got to stop labeling things because some of those
days where we went away from songwriting and I came
home and told Holly that was a wasted day. Became
the seed of some of our biggest songs. Yeah, or
they became the a sermon. So you never know what
(23:02):
you're sowing for in that day. Many times you'll think
you said something and it fell on deaf ears, or
many times you think you do something and nobody even noticed.
And golly, g willakers. Three years later they go back
to that day and say, you remember when you and
(23:22):
you go, I kind of remember when I did that. Yeah, man,
that changed everything for me. See, people aren't processing in
real time either, and so we can't be so quick,
I think, to judge the effects of the seed that
we sow in any given day. And that's what's in
the text that's really interesting, right, He says verse three,
I'm back in Isaiah twenty seven. Now follow along, keep
(23:42):
up this good stuff. Isaiah twenty seven, Verse three, I
the Lord watch over it. I water it continually. I
guard it day and night so that no one may
harm it. So this is the Lord's promise to his people,
he says, I water it continually. That means there are
going to be days that you plant something and God's
(24:05):
going to come along and water it, and then there
will be harvests that you will receive later from something
that you forgot you even did, or you thought it
was so simple, so insignificant. But we have to live
our lives in a frame of faith that says, Okay,
God is watering what I do, not what I'm going
(24:26):
to get around to one day when God is watering
what I put in the ground today, the scripture I
put in my heart today, God will water that. The
relationship that I reach out, make an effort today. It
may not heal today, but God will come along and
water that. And that gives me a lot of confidence
for the days where I feel like I'm a complete loser.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I loved how you called it down days.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Because at first, I mean, it really didn't.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I wrote it down. I went back and looked at it.
I was like, I don't like calling it a down day,
but noe.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
But like it's reframing that a day that I thought
maybe wasn't full of winds actually was my roots going
down that day. It was it was training, It was
it was progress, even though you didn't see it, or
even though it wasn't perfect, and I.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Really loved it.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Might the down days or the dirty, dirty days. Dirty
the dirty days the root days that give us the
stability to appreciate the good days. Your roots determine your reach.
So if God is going to do something amazing in.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Your life, do you know that, like scientifically the tree
when you look at how wide a tree's branches are,
that their roots literally line up with their widest branch.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
This is why I'll bring you to run it back,
walk it out session because I didn't know that at all.
I didn't know that at all. So the indication of
the things that God is going to do in your
life through generations or even through let's say a business
that God has put in your heart, or or something
that God has called you to communicate to the world,
(26:14):
you feel like, okay, well this day I didn't even
I don't even have anybody in front of me. I'm
very alone, I'm very isolated. Start seeing those days as
root days and value them the same as the fruit days.
You have some days where you'll go, oh, I'm seeing
that payoff of that. Oh okay, it's getting through. Oh
it's working. Okay, great. Let those encourage you for the
(26:35):
next down day. I don't mean down in a negative sense. Yeah,
I mean down in a sense that it feels negative,
but it is absolutely imperative and essential and necessary. Yeah,
it's not negative. It's necessary. Somebody put into comments it's necessary, beautiful,
(26:55):
it's necessary. And when we define days in such a
polar way, don't you think, britt when we say how
is your day and we start evaluating good or bad? Yeah, exactly,
that's too binary.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah, I love this so much because I'm even just
going back through the catalog of my day to day
thinking about how many wins have I forfeited ooh, because
I'm categorizing them wrong or incorrectly. And I was thinking
about everybody that might be joining us. And I love
how you pointed out the two scriptures, like Scripture one
(27:29):
where it's like the sword, right, there's a fight in it,
and then verse two.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I'm singing and we talked.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
You called it a strategy, and I was like, what
happens when we're not good at both of those strategies?
Like for me, I'm naturally a fighter, Like I don't
know why passed. I got it in me and I
know what sent me. I'm not always as quick to
celebrate or to sing, or to recognize the good. So
I know I got wins that I'm not recognizing. But
(28:00):
the concept that you're talking about, I think works the opposite, right, Like,
if I can get like a one day win, like,
it's going to put me on a trajectory, and the
same way, if I can't do that, it puts me
on another trajectory. So I don't know, like what you
would say to some of us that are forfeiting certain
wins in our life because we can't grasp both of
(28:22):
these concepts or both of these strategies. We don't know
how to accept the good, you know, the person that
can't receive the compliment or can't see the win and
the fact that you're working hard today, Holly, like showing
your kids a great example. But then also like there's
some of us that aren't the fighter, and I don't
know how to like stand strong in the midst of ncy.
Oh no, I'm still winning, and this is how I
(28:42):
identify my win today.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
I love that. I love that. I love that. I
love that question. Now, I don't know if you're gonna
love my answer, but I love the question because I'm
a fighter too, and what convicted me. We'll look at
it together. Go to Isaiah twenty seven to one. Okay,
follow along with me in that day, I will punish
(29:08):
with my sword. No, the Lord will punish with his sword.
So who's doing the fighting? The lord? Okay? Keep going
his fears great and powerful sword? Whose sword his sword?
Leviathan the gliding servant. I know I asked about mythological
creatures like Leviathan. You're like, can you describe Leviath? Then
(29:31):
a little bit more to me, No, you can describe
him just fine. For yourself. You live with Leviathan. You
know your Leviath, then I know my Leviathan. For someone,
it's going to be an addiction that you're hoping God
will break in twenty twenty four. And the problem is,
and I'm going to address this a little bit on Sunday, okay,
is that you thought it might be twenty three, you
(29:53):
thought it might be twenty two, you thought it might
be twenty one. And with every year that it didn't
with every year that he didn't deliver you, your hope
diminished a little bit. Yeah, and I really want to
make sure that this teaching comes across with a strong
emphasis of who's doing the fighting. God is fighting for you.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Put it in the comments right now. God is fighting
for me. He will fight for me, and he's fighting Leviathan.
And let's just finish verse one, brit because we're both
fighters and we need it. We need this reminder who's
doing the slaying. In verse one he will slay, Yes,
(30:39):
he will slay. And then verse two says in that
day you will sing, So you do the singing and
he will do the slaying. What in the world does
that mean? Pastor stevens sonfes to walk around my house singing, Okay,
I'll sing about a proof of vineyard cucumber melon and
(31:01):
come quts and like this isn't it? You know he's
loving James. You get sing all day long, it won't
pay your bills and it won't raise your children, and
it won't get you to work on time. So we're
not going back here on the idea that Look, we've
got to devote ourselves to what God has put in
our hand. That's one of my core teachings is that
(31:24):
God will do for you what you cannot do for you.
He will not do for you what you can do
for you. Yeah. What I mean about it is that
victory belongs to the Lord, okay, and we are instruments
in his hand. And I'm trying to get you to
(31:44):
come from a place of victory rather than trying to
work to a place of victory, because I think that
will give you that momentum that you want to say.
If I feel like I'm losing everywhere, eventually, I don't
want to play this game anymore. Especially if you make
a man feel like the game is unwinnable.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
He's done.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
We will walk away. And so when we make walking
with God an unwinnable game for people, you know, now
I got a fast two hours. Now I gotta give
up cigarettes. Now, well, you might need to fast from cigarettes.
I remember a guy who told me one time he
was fast and from a chocolate porn pre marital sex.
(32:25):
And I was like, well, you probably should keep that
fast going a little bit past lent. Those are things
just good to eliminate, not to abstain from for a
little while. But it was really really interesting to me
how he almost saught like, I'm white knuckling this thing
to live for God as long as I can, and
that's why I'm breaking it. Down into a day because
if you think, well, this year, I'm not gonna fight,
I'm not gonna nag, I'm not gonna get mad, I'm
(32:46):
not gonna get upset. I'm not going to do any
of those bad things. This year twenty four is my year. No, no, no,
twenty four, one day at a time. Do you remember
even when I broke it up and said that the
average number of breadths a person takes his seven teen
to thirty thousand. Yeah, yeah, this is just from Google.
Do not fact check me. I don't know if it's true.
(33:07):
That part was crazy though, but I averaged it out
as I said, that's about on average seventeen to thirty
that's about twenty four thousand breadths. So even if you
just can take it to breathing in when I get
when I get really spun up, breathing is advanced. Yeah,
when I get really out of control. And so what
I'm trying to get the fighter in me to seat
(33:29):
and brit This is the strategy of it is that
this outcome is in God's hands and the process of
singing about a fruitful vineyard. I don't think it's about
musical notes. I don't think it has anything to do
with music. I think it has to do with mindset.
(33:50):
I don't think it has to do with the fact
that we're denying our problems. I think it's that we're
focusing on our blessings. Because if I'm singing about a
fruitful vineyard, Wow, what do I not have time to
focus on?
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
You're right, all the thorns and the weeds, and yes,
we deal with those things, but we do it from
a place of focusing on what God has given us.
So maybe that's the challenge today. Maybe maybe when you
hear one day that one. Maybe when you hear one
day when what you need to hear is not hey,
get up and get make sure you run your three
(34:24):
miles today, get in your rower. Do you two thousand meters?
Maybe you need to list one from yesterday, because I'm
gonna tell you what you won somewhere yesterday? Yes, so good?
You won somewhere yesterday, yes, and even getting that momentum
in your mind. And if you're not a win lost
kind of person, you're like, I'm not competitive. I like
to bask. I'm more of a basker. Okay, just let's
(34:48):
call it. Let's call it relishing. Let's call it savoring.
Are you a foodie, Let's call it savoring. How about that?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
How about a one day savor. See it doesn't have
the same feel to it. That's why I say one day.
But I don't want this to turn into a competition
for you where you start saying, all right, well, I
gotta wind to day, I gotta wind today. I got
a wind today. It's just about getting you to see
that the out there somewhere that you hope to experience,
whatever that looks like, the internal state, the fruit of
(35:16):
the spirit, the love, joy, piece of patience, kind is goodness,
faith on this, gentlemen, and self control that we all
want to produce in our lives is in this process
of God watering his vineyard continually. And that's where I
want to leave you on this inaugural episode of running
back walk it out. I want to leave you thinking
(35:36):
about whose garden you are. You are God's garden. He
will take responsibility for weeding out and for watering. That
means you don't have to figure this out by yourself.
And that's where my teaching deviates a little bit just
(35:58):
from pure motivational teaching. I like motivational teaching or inspirational
personal development. I love that stuff. Where I'm called to
focus a little bit differently, though, is to get you
to realize is that this victory isn't in your hands.
It's in His hands, and He's given you victory all
around you, and I just want you to see a
(36:18):
little bit of it so that you go into this year,
whatever vision you have of one day, when whatever vision
you have of one day, when I want you to
recognize your victories of the one day, when this is
the day the Lord has made and you got something
(36:40):
to rejoice about today. So I want you just to
light up my comments right now, Okay, I want you
to put what is the victory that God gave you today?
And if you got to go all the way down
to I'm on breath twelve, six hundred and ninety three,
ninety four, yeah, ninety five, I just want you to
breathe that in and let it permeate your perspective today
(37:06):
and let the Lord fight the battles that are too
big for you. Let him deal with Leviathan. You just
get that leverage of the daily win, and I believe
this revelation will continue to unfold in your heart, and
I'm going to be looking through the comments, and Holly's
going to be looking, and Chris is going to be looking,
and BRIT's going to be looking, and we're going to
be praying. In fact, I'm going to pray right now
(37:27):
that God will enable you to walk this out, to
walk into your one day win, just step by step Father,
in the name of Jesus, I come into agreement with
your desires for each person who was led by you
to join with this experience. It was divinely timed that
(37:48):
they came across this video. It was orchestrated by you
because they were discouraged, defeated, or spread thin. And now
you've given us a focus and we even feel the
fruitfulness of your word going forth. Now, Lord, would you
water it. We've shared some thoughts today, some applications, some randomness,
(38:09):
some usings, but I believe there's been some revelation too,
And would you allow it to unfold as we each
day have a new twenty four And may this year,
as it unfolds, be made up of the days that
are committed to you in your hands in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen,
all right, you let me know if you liked our
new program, We'll do another one, all right. We ran
(38:33):
it back. Now walk it out and see you here soon.
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 Elevation
Church dot org slash podcast for more information and if
you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share
(38:56):
it with your friends. You can click the share button,
take a screenshot and share on your social stories and
tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
bless you
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.
We are starting a brand news segment here today.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
You are the only person on earth that knows the
name of this word.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I know and I remember it.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
You remember it, yes.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Because you had to tell it to me so many times.
I felt that I kept asking him and so, but
I actually remember it.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
So let's set it up and then we'll do the reveal. Okay,
I've always thought after I finished preaching, ah, I didn't
get to say this that I didn't you know, I
didn't get to go deep enough. Ah, I left this out.
You know, I have all these notes that I didn't
get to and it would feel frustrating. Well, one day,
the Holy Spirit says to me, after I was, you know,
(00:57):
done coddling myself on the couch for three hours of
how I didn't say everything.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
We're coddling yourself after I was cursing yourself Yeah, after.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I was really beating myself up. I feel like I failed.
I didn't get the job done. And you said, maybe
you didn't fail, maybe you just didn't finish.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Did I actually say it like that? Like that yoda?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So that's the final draft of what you said, and
I've alliterated it and co written it. But the concept
just became real in my heart that we have all
of these amazing ways to minister to you now, and
so why not from time to time, not every week?
Just come on kind of like what you guys do
on coffee FIM. Just get in there and look at
(01:40):
the sermon, talk about the sermon, and apply it. I
love it. And so you, being the master of practical
application that you are, Holly, I want you to reveal
the title of this segment to the people.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So the title of this segment is run it back,
walk it out.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
A running back, walk it out. That's what we're going
to make. Run it back. Everybody say, run it back,
run and walk it out and walk it out. All right.
So the Word of God is like a seed, right,
seeds need soil. What else put it in the comments? Lighter, matriance, water,
(02:22):
sometimes fertilizer, It doesn't smell the best helps.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It out, but necessary helpful in the process.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I actually think that when we just listen to a
sermon or read a Bible verse so fast, it's like
us throwing a seed on concrete and wondering why it
didn't produce anything. Yep, you know, like the parable of
the sower in Matthew thirteen, where Jesus said that the
birds will come and snatch it up, the thorns will
choke it out, the sunlight will just bake the seed.
(02:50):
And so this is an effort for us to take
my sermon, my first sermon of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Which was so good, thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Very much much. And she's not biased. The theme of
the sermon was this is that day, and I'll explain
what that meant in just a moment. If you want
to stop this and watch that on Elevation Church YouTube,
please feel free to do so. I will not be
offended if you walk away and come back. I'll be
right here waiting for you whenever you're ready. But this
will work best if you heard that sermon. You can
(03:20):
still watch it. If you didn't hear that sermon, because
we're going to run it back, not necessarily show it
back or show clips here. But just Holly's got good notes.
She's a great note taker. She was a great student
in college. I used to copy off her notes. That
was one of the benefits of via her boyfriend and
we would study together. And still her notes are better
than mine. Like, look at her notes. Look at my notes.
(03:44):
What a disaster I am.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
But I don't do that drawing thing.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Well.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
When I finish my sermon and I look at your notes,
I'm like, oh, that's what I said. Good, that's good.
That's good. I said that. Yeah, yeah, I said that.
So I don't know if you're cleaning them up. But
I want you to start us off, Holly, because I
love the front row flashbacks that you post and each
week you send to our staff. And I promised the congregation,
I said, I'm putting part two on YouTube this week.
(04:12):
So the part two isn't going to be me just
teaching another sermon. I'll do that again next Sunday. I
already have a sequel in mind. This is more of
an opportunity for Holly and the great Chris Brown and
Brittany at Gonzola to say this is what I heard,
and this is how I've been walking it out, and
(04:33):
we'll talk about that together. The Bible says he who
walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of
fools suffers harm. No fools on this couch today. We're
just going to do this for as long as until
we get tired of talking about it. So thank you
for joining us, Holly. Why don't you kick it off
with a little run it back and then we'll walk
it out and I'll jump in and preach a little
(04:55):
more and you can ask me whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Okay, So I'm of all, when we were going home
from church, I well, okay, let me back it up.
First of all, I cried in this message, and I
walked back and I gave you a hug, and I said,
that was exactly what I needed to hear, and so
I want to thank you for that. And then I
(05:20):
think I said to you at some point, I just
feel like that sermon was classic Steven Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And what I mean by.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
That is you are the master of wordplay, and so
you start off and of course you're like so organic
and you write down one day when and you're talking
to us all about one day when, which is perfect
for the start of a new year, because we all
(05:49):
have our one day wins for the year, for our life,
for our future, whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And I'm just going.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Right along with you, not even planning for you to
do anything. And you switch it up, give me the
next one, and you tell us becomes a one day win.
And I'm telling you, like I think this will, this
will forever be in my head a one day win.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
And you've heard me preach seven thousand times since we
were boys, you know, out into yeah woods. And you
texted me, what did you say?
Speaker 6 (06:24):
Well, I said, the message is goat status because of
the same thing.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, it's like, come on, wow, but it's so sticky. Well,
the stickiness of it for me really ministered. And here's why,
because I could easily be this vision board guy. You
know this one day when I reached this certain status
in my anything, my preaching ability, my creative achievements, my
(06:50):
parenting patience, my net worth, anything you want to mention.
That's a surface level accomplishment. One day when I feel
good about myself. Yeah, one day, when then I will
have arrived. One day when then I'll put the time
into this or develop this new thing, or I'll get
a hobby, but just thinking like even getting to that
(07:11):
one day when that God plants in us the dream
and the vision that he gives us starts with a
one day wi in when. So for me, it wasn't
just trying to be clever that's how I have to
live my life.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
No, And that's what I that is what I love
about your preaching. And I told you this, I said,
you are so good at taking something that God gives
you and living it out. And to me, this is like,
this is your sweet spot is having a vision, Like
you don't actually have a vision board, but I think
you have a vision board in your head and you
(07:47):
have this one day when with an E and you're
able to break it down into daily winds.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And I have seen you do this like.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
You're just you're the best at it at just going Okay,
what's a win for today, or what's a win for
this week? Or what's a habit or a routine that
I'm going to put into place?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So like, can you tell.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Us a little bit more about going from when to win?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
It was because I was thinking about the people I
was preaching to and I was studying this passage that
God spoke to me three years ago in Isaiah twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I mean, you've had this verse written on your nightstand,
for it's.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Sitting on a note card on my nightstand as we
speak up under some other books that I'm supposed to
be reading. But it's not a very practical scripture. It's
a prophetic scripture about the nation of Israel, and they
were in captivity, and they were oppressed, and God was
making them a promise. And I read it so many
times over the last few years, and I shared a
(08:54):
little bit about this scripture with our students at Youtheks
this summer. But something so granular stood out to me
this time, and I'm gonna share with you now. You
can follow along Isaiah twenty seven. Verse one, in that day,
the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great
and powerful sword, Leviathan, the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent.
(09:17):
He will slay the monster of the sea. I have
a whole sermon on that I hope to share one
day soon too. But then verse two, it picks up
the motif in that day, so it says it twice.
If you're following along, you'll see it in that day
sing about a fruitful vineyard. So verse one is in
that day, the Lord will punish Leviathan. I think this
(09:38):
has to do with God dealing with the things in
our life that drag us down. For many of you,
right now, you're fighting against a spirit of depression. You're
fighting against mental patterns of anxiety and everything you see
online that tells you take an ice bath and meditate
and break seven eggs over your head every morning at
seven am and say mantras that you got posted notes
(10:01):
up all around saying I am complete, and God's got
this and it doesn't break through. And the promise of
verse one is that God is fighting against everything that
brings his people down. And verse two gives us a
strategy that as God fights the battles that we can't
fight in our own strength, we are to watch this
(10:24):
verse two sing about a fruitful vineyard. And what first
opened my mind to the revelation of a day, Because
that's what I want you to get right now, is
the revelation of a day in that day. It's a
prophetic scripture. It's a term that's used to talk about
everything going from the second coming of Christ to the
(10:47):
judgment of God's people in certain context to the judgment
of God's enemies. But I started seeing a little differently.
I said, wait a minute. It says in that day
God's going to fight against Leviathan the things that us down,
and in that day we're supposed to be singing. So
when I saw that there's a song and a sword
(11:07):
in the same day, it sets my expectation. So I
called the message this is that day. All right, this
is going to be one of those days. You just
better wake up knowing it. There's going to be blessings.
I didn't expect today. A little smile I catch, or
I'm able to give here there a little word of encouragement,
a little word of discouragement. So we accept it, all right. Well,
(11:28):
then I start having fun with it. I started reading
verse six, where it said in days to come, Jacob
will take root, Israel will butt and blossom and fill
all the world with fruit. So now I'm thinking, okay,
we got two actions happening in verse six. One is
going downward taking root, one is going upward bearing fruit. Yes,
(11:50):
and it showed me that each day we'll have its
ups and downs, and both are a part of our destiny.
Both are a part of God's purpose. So my first
step was getting you to see that not only do
you have a new year in front of you, twenty
(12:10):
twenty four, but that every day God's mercies are new,
you get a new twenty four. Now that's a basketball term.
I'm not a basketball fan, but I was watching a
basketball game a few years ago and the guy missed
a shot and he got an offensive rebound. And I
know that the rules have changed in the NBA because
(12:32):
I researched it before. I appreciate it. But back then,
when you would get an offensive rebound off the glass
in the NBA, the shot clock would go back to
a full twenty four seconds. So you get a whole
new twenty four every day, no matter what shot you
missed last year, no matter what shot you missed today,
no matter what YouTube video you were watching before this
(12:54):
one mine that you feel guilty about. Well, you're here now.
The revelation of the day for me was so powerful
because I can get paralyzed by five years from now,
and I need everybody to be honest for a minute.
Are you like me where you have so many one
(13:15):
day wins? Give me my card back with it.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I was gonna I was going to keep them.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, you can have them when I'm done. But I
just need to be clear because its kind of tricky.
One day when all the all the things you're going
to accomplish for God, when you have more time to
do it, all the all the nice things you're going
to say to people, when the perfect opportunity comes up.
I told somebody the other day, one day, when I
get a chance, I'm going to tell you how much
(13:40):
you meant to me at this stage of my life.
And the Lord spoke to me.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Tell now, do it now?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, get a one day win, like get
get get the things said the best you can today
and revise it tomorrow. So it's very practical for me,
but it also has a heaviness. That's why I didn't
want it to just be okay when when I get it,
you change the letters like I'm van a white on
(14:07):
wheel of fortune, change in letters or something. No, it
was more powerful to me. It was getting to realize
that the way that you're going to get to the
one day when you are a patient person, the one
day when you have financial security, the one day when
you're able to let the peace of Christ rest rule
and abide in your heart. The way you're going to
(14:28):
get to the one day when is through the power
of a one day when. So where does God want
me to win today? And just to take it one
silly step further and so you can see how demented
my brain is with wordplay. I even use wi in
as an acronym. What's important now?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Wow, I got to write that down.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah, what's important now? So good? And I want you
to start thinking that way this year because God has
given you this year, but he's given you this day.
So it was in my heart to help people, you know,
because I don't want to be up there talking about
a fruitful vineyard and Jacob taking rude and Israel and
you're going, that's great for the Bible. But and I'm
(15:17):
just trying today to like have one family meal with
my family this week, or I'm just trying this week
to have one day where I wake up and exercise right.
And there's real power in the one day win and
it's changed my life and I just want to share
it with our entire church family and all those we
minister to.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Do you feel like your winds change from day to day?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I do you have some that are like I have
to do this every day, and then there are some
where you're like, you know, today this is my win.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That's a great question because it reminds me of a
conversation I had with a really wise man. I said,
I feel like if I'm winning in one area, I'm
losing in another area. I feel like with my life,
I can really be winning with what I'm producing creatively
or for the ministry, and then in an area at
(16:09):
home it needs my attention. And he said something so
powerful back to me. He said, You're not gonna win
everywhere every day. Just don't lose in the same area every.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Day, right right, Okay?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
And it is it is a balance. Well, that's where
you get with the Holy Spirit, and that's where you
pay attention to what he's speaking to you. I mean,
what do you think about it? Because you listen to
the message, and this is called run it back, walk
it out. So for somebody who's not so much of
a win lost person, I don't know if this is
a male female thing or just a competitive thing. I
(16:43):
know that the term win isn't really your turn. I mean,
you don't wake up in the morning late. I need
to be a winner. I need to crush it. I
need to smash it. You know that's not your vibe. Yeah,
but how did you hear it about winning everyone?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I think that it sets me free to say a
one day win, because sometimes I get overwhelmed when I
think about people like you who have who are very
disciplined and so you have certain things that you do
every day. But for me, it really set me free
to realize, like, okay, wait, so for instance, today we're
(17:19):
here and we're having this conversation. We're also working on
shooting some videos for your new book release.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
There's a plug do the new you pre order it.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And so this is not a winning mom day for me.
This is a winning work day for me. And so
when I lay my head on my pillow at night
and somebody is frustrated because they couldn't find their their
you know, their wrestling single isn't clean, or there's no
(17:51):
Chewy bars in the house, I'm not going to bed
feeling defeated because that wasn't the win for today for me?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Does that?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
But I want to expand your definition of what a
win is.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Help.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Did you not set an example for your kids today
of what it means to come in and work hard
at meaningful ministry? Do they not need to see that
mom got up today and the biggest thing wasn't me
cleaning that wrestling single that maybe the biggest thing was
them learning how to do their own laundry. Because the
(18:28):
world is bigger than just us. I think a lot
of times you don't give yourself credit for the win
because of how you defined it. So what's your definition
of a win?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Do you think that a win is being able to
enable everybody else's laziness? Because sometimes it is through setting
an example of balancing a complicated life that you actually
give that kid a template that they can follow one
day if they find themselves as a mom or as
a dad. So I would challenge each of you to
(19:01):
expand your definition of what you call a win. I
like that movie Moneyball, and you can go back and
watch just the very last part of it. And this
guy hits a home run and it goes way over
I think, over centerfield wall, and he trips when he
gets to first base, and he's so discouraged because he
(19:24):
tripped on first base. But when they tap him and
they show him, wait a minute, that ball is over
the centerfield wall doesn't matter. You hit a home run
and you didn't even know it. Yeah, it's a great
picture of how the enemy discourages us because we trip
over this. Oh, I sounded so stupid when I said
that they weren't listening to you. They weren't even paying attention.
(19:48):
Then you go back and apologize to somebody you'd ever
done this. I'm so sorry when I did this, it
sounded so stupid, And they go, what are you talking about?
So you are penalizing yourself for losses that actually didn't
even occur in reality. Yeah, and when we sync up
with God, he shows us what's really important to him.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
So helpful.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
What do y'all think? And y'all are real quiet? I
want I want to hear what Brent thinks. I want
to hear what Chris thinks. I want to hear I
want to hear from the whole group.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
Well, I was I was thinking, you've showed up a
lot of times for songwriting session and you leave and
maybe it wasn't the greatest song or the most productive day,
and we might text about it later that night or
the next day, and you're like, I showed up. I
see it as a win, and you know, I don't
(20:35):
know what'll come of that song, but I showed up,
and I've got to see me showing up as the
wind for yesterday. Yeah yeah, And so however that applies to,
you know, any facet of life, Like I may have
not felt like I had the deepest conversation with Joe
and my son at bedtime tonight, but I was by
(20:56):
his bed.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
You were there, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
I spent five minutes with him saying you day good,
talk about a movie that's nothing deep.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
But I was there, and he probably didn't want more
than five minutes, ready to get back on anyway, exactly.
And here's what I'm trying to say, Chris, like, I'm
so glad you brought it up, because it actually came
to my mind when I was studying. I even found
a way to label those days where we go in
to write music and it doesn't feel great. I call
it a creative leg day. Anybody who lives weights knows
(21:30):
like skipping leg day is the number one temptation, and
at least it is for me. And yet it's the
day that you go in and you don't expect it
to feel the best. You don't expect it to be
the most fun, but you do it. And there are
days like that in parenting, there are days like that
in friendship, there are days like that, certainly in ministry.
(21:51):
And there are days like that for you where you
don't judge the worth of that day. We're talking about days, right,
You don't judge the value you of that day, the
success of that day. You don't even label that day
according to how good it felt in the moment. Back
to the workout illustration. I remember talking to this guy
who did CrossFit a few years ago, and he came
(22:14):
to see me, but he was like, you look kind
of rough. Honestly, he said, I'm sorry for the shape,
my man. I just had a really great workout. He
looked terrible. Yeah, he said, I threw up three times.
Oh no, it was a great workout. So I realized
that his definition of a great workout was based on
(22:34):
the result that it produced, yeah, not the feeling that
it provided.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
A lot of times we're sitting there thinking it was
a horrible day. It might have been a tough day,
that doesn't make it a horrible day. And I think
we've got to stop labeling things because some of those
days where we went away from songwriting and I came
home and told Holly that was a wasted day. Became
the seed of some of our biggest songs. Yeah, or
they became the a sermon. So you never know what
(23:02):
you're sowing for in that day. Many times you'll think
you said something and it fell on deaf ears, or
many times you think you do something and nobody even noticed.
And golly, g willakers. Three years later they go back
to that day and say, you remember when you and
(23:22):
you go, I kind of remember when I did that. Yeah, man,
that changed everything for me. See, people aren't processing in
real time either, and so we can't be so quick,
I think, to judge the effects of the seed that
we sow in any given day. And that's what's in
the text that's really interesting, right, He says verse three,
I'm back in Isaiah twenty seven. Now follow along, keep
(23:42):
up this good stuff. Isaiah twenty seven, Verse three, I
the Lord watch over it. I water it continually. I
guard it day and night so that no one may
harm it. So this is the Lord's promise to his people,
he says, I water it continually. That means there are
going to be days that you plant something and God's
(24:05):
going to come along and water it, and then there
will be harvests that you will receive later from something
that you forgot you even did, or you thought it
was so simple, so insignificant. But we have to live
our lives in a frame of faith that says, Okay,
God is watering what I do, not what I'm going
(24:26):
to get around to one day when God is watering
what I put in the ground today, the scripture I
put in my heart today, God will water that. The
relationship that I reach out, make an effort today. It
may not heal today, but God will come along and
water that. And that gives me a lot of confidence
for the days where I feel like I'm a complete loser.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I loved how you called it down days.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Because at first, I mean, it really didn't.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I wrote it down. I went back and looked at it.
I was like, I don't like calling it a down day,
but noe.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
But like it's reframing that a day that I thought
maybe wasn't full of winds actually was my roots going
down that day. It was it was training, It was
it was progress, even though you didn't see it, or
even though it wasn't perfect, and I.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Really loved it.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Might the down days or the dirty, dirty days. Dirty
the dirty days the root days that give us the
stability to appreciate the good days. Your roots determine your reach.
So if God is going to do something amazing in.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Your life, do you know that, like scientifically the tree
when you look at how wide a tree's branches are,
that their roots literally line up with their widest branch.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
This is why I'll bring you to run it back,
walk it out session because I didn't know that at all.
I didn't know that at all. So the indication of
the things that God is going to do in your
life through generations or even through let's say a business
that God has put in your heart, or or something
that God has called you to communicate to the world,
(26:14):
you feel like, okay, well this day I didn't even
I don't even have anybody in front of me. I'm
very alone, I'm very isolated. Start seeing those days as
root days and value them the same as the fruit days.
You have some days where you'll go, oh, I'm seeing
that payoff of that. Oh okay, it's getting through. Oh
it's working. Okay, great. Let those encourage you for the
(26:35):
next down day. I don't mean down in a negative sense. Yeah,
I mean down in a sense that it feels negative,
but it is absolutely imperative and essential and necessary. Yeah,
it's not negative. It's necessary. Somebody put into comments it's necessary, beautiful,
(26:55):
it's necessary. And when we define days in such a
polar way, don't you think, britt when we say how
is your day and we start evaluating good or bad? Yeah, exactly,
that's too binary.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah, I love this so much because I'm even just
going back through the catalog of my day to day
thinking about how many wins have I forfeited ooh, because
I'm categorizing them wrong or incorrectly. And I was thinking
about everybody that might be joining us. And I love
how you pointed out the two scriptures, like Scripture one
(27:29):
where it's like the sword, right, there's a fight in it,
and then verse two.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I'm singing and we talked.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
You called it a strategy, and I was like, what
happens when we're not good at both of those strategies?
Like for me, I'm naturally a fighter, Like I don't
know why passed. I got it in me and I
know what sent me. I'm not always as quick to
celebrate or to sing, or to recognize the good. So
I know I got wins that I'm not recognizing. But
(28:00):
the concept that you're talking about, I think works the opposite, right, Like,
if I can get like a one day win, like,
it's going to put me on a trajectory, and the
same way, if I can't do that, it puts me
on another trajectory. So I don't know, like what you
would say to some of us that are forfeiting certain
wins in our life because we can't grasp both of
(28:22):
these concepts or both of these strategies. We don't know
how to accept the good, you know, the person that
can't receive the compliment or can't see the win and
the fact that you're working hard today, Holly, like showing
your kids a great example. But then also like there's
some of us that aren't the fighter, and I don't
know how to like stand strong in the midst of ncy.
Oh no, I'm still winning, and this is how I
(28:42):
identify my win today.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
I love that. I love that. I love that. I
love that question. Now, I don't know if you're gonna
love my answer, but I love the question because I'm
a fighter too, and what convicted me. We'll look at
it together. Go to Isaiah twenty seven to one. Okay,
follow along with me in that day, I will punish
(29:08):
with my sword. No, the Lord will punish with his sword.
So who's doing the fighting? The lord? Okay? Keep going
his fears great and powerful sword? Whose sword his sword?
Leviathan the gliding servant. I know I asked about mythological
creatures like Leviathan. You're like, can you describe Leviath? Then
(29:31):
a little bit more to me, No, you can describe
him just fine. For yourself. You live with Leviathan. You
know your Leviath, then I know my Leviathan. For someone,
it's going to be an addiction that you're hoping God
will break in twenty twenty four. And the problem is,
and I'm going to address this a little bit on Sunday, okay,
is that you thought it might be twenty three, you
(29:53):
thought it might be twenty two, you thought it might
be twenty one. And with every year that it didn't
with every year that he didn't deliver you, your hope
diminished a little bit. Yeah, and I really want to
make sure that this teaching comes across with a strong
emphasis of who's doing the fighting. God is fighting for you.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Put it in the comments right now. God is fighting
for me. He will fight for me, and he's fighting Leviathan.
And let's just finish verse one, brit because we're both
fighters and we need it. We need this reminder who's
doing the slaying. In verse one he will slay, Yes,
(30:39):
he will slay. And then verse two says in that
day you will sing, So you do the singing and
he will do the slaying. What in the world does
that mean? Pastor stevens sonfes to walk around my house singing, Okay,
I'll sing about a proof of vineyard cucumber melon and
(31:01):
come quts and like this isn't it? You know he's
loving James. You get sing all day long, it won't
pay your bills and it won't raise your children, and
it won't get you to work on time. So we're
not going back here on the idea that Look, we've
got to devote ourselves to what God has put in
our hand. That's one of my core teachings is that
(31:24):
God will do for you what you cannot do for you.
He will not do for you what you can do
for you. Yeah. What I mean about it is that
victory belongs to the Lord, okay, and we are instruments
in his hand. And I'm trying to get you to
(31:44):
come from a place of victory rather than trying to
work to a place of victory, because I think that
will give you that momentum that you want to say.
If I feel like I'm losing everywhere, eventually, I don't
want to play this game anymore. Especially if you make
a man feel like the game is unwinnable.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
He's done.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
We will walk away. And so when we make walking
with God an unwinnable game for people, you know, now
I got a fast two hours. Now I gotta give
up cigarettes. Now, well, you might need to fast from cigarettes.
I remember a guy who told me one time he
was fast and from a chocolate porn pre marital sex.
(32:25):
And I was like, well, you probably should keep that
fast going a little bit past lent. Those are things
just good to eliminate, not to abstain from for a
little while. But it was really really interesting to me
how he almost saught like, I'm white knuckling this thing
to live for God as long as I can, and
that's why I'm breaking it. Down into a day because
if you think, well, this year, I'm not gonna fight,
I'm not gonna nag, I'm not gonna get mad, I'm
(32:46):
not gonna get upset. I'm not going to do any
of those bad things. This year twenty four is my year. No, no, no,
twenty four, one day at a time. Do you remember
even when I broke it up and said that the
average number of breadths a person takes his seven teen
to thirty thousand. Yeah, yeah, this is just from Google.
Do not fact check me. I don't know if it's true.
(33:07):
That part was crazy though, but I averaged it out
as I said, that's about on average seventeen to thirty
that's about twenty four thousand breadths. So even if you
just can take it to breathing in when I get
when I get really spun up, breathing is advanced. Yeah,
when I get really out of control. And so what
I'm trying to get the fighter in me to seat
(33:29):
and brit This is the strategy of it is that
this outcome is in God's hands and the process of
singing about a fruitful vineyard. I don't think it's about
musical notes. I don't think it has anything to do
with music. I think it has to do with mindset.
(33:50):
I don't think it has to do with the fact
that we're denying our problems. I think it's that we're
focusing on our blessings. Because if I'm singing about a
fruitful vineyard, Wow, what do I not have time to
focus on?
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
You're right, all the thorns and the weeds, and yes,
we deal with those things, but we do it from
a place of focusing on what God has given us.
So maybe that's the challenge today. Maybe maybe when you
hear one day that one. Maybe when you hear one
day when what you need to hear is not hey,
get up and get make sure you run your three
(34:24):
miles today, get in your rower. Do you two thousand meters?
Maybe you need to list one from yesterday, because I'm
gonna tell you what you won somewhere yesterday? Yes, so good?
You won somewhere yesterday, yes, and even getting that momentum
in your mind. And if you're not a win lost
kind of person, you're like, I'm not competitive. I like
to bask. I'm more of a basker. Okay, just let's
(34:48):
call it. Let's call it relishing. Let's call it savoring.
Are you a foodie, Let's call it savoring. How about that?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
How about a one day savor. See it doesn't have
the same feel to it. That's why I say one day.
But I don't want this to turn into a competition
for you where you start saying, all right, well, I
gotta wind to day, I gotta wind today. I got
a wind today. It's just about getting you to see
that the out there somewhere that you hope to experience,
whatever that looks like, the internal state, the fruit of
(35:16):
the spirit, the love, joy, piece of patience, kind is goodness,
faith on this, gentlemen, and self control that we all
want to produce in our lives is in this process
of God watering his vineyard continually. And that's where I
want to leave you on this inaugural episode of running
back walk it out. I want to leave you thinking
(35:36):
about whose garden you are. You are God's garden. He
will take responsibility for weeding out and for watering. That
means you don't have to figure this out by yourself.
And that's where my teaching deviates a little bit just
(35:58):
from pure motivational teaching. I like motivational teaching or inspirational
personal development. I love that stuff. Where I'm called to
focus a little bit differently, though, is to get you
to realize is that this victory isn't in your hands.
It's in His hands, and He's given you victory all
around you, and I just want you to see a
(36:18):
little bit of it so that you go into this year,
whatever vision you have of one day, when whatever vision
you have of one day, when I want you to
recognize your victories of the one day, when this is
the day the Lord has made and you got something
(36:40):
to rejoice about today. So I want you just to
light up my comments right now, Okay, I want you
to put what is the victory that God gave you today?
And if you got to go all the way down
to I'm on breath twelve, six hundred and ninety three,
ninety four, yeah, ninety five, I just want you to
breathe that in and let it permeate your perspective today
(37:06):
and let the Lord fight the battles that are too
big for you. Let him deal with Leviathan. You just
get that leverage of the daily win, and I believe
this revelation will continue to unfold in your heart, and
I'm going to be looking through the comments, and Holly's
going to be looking, and Chris is going to be looking,
and BRIT's going to be looking, and we're going to
be praying. In fact, I'm going to pray right now
(37:27):
that God will enable you to walk this out, to
walk into your one day win, just step by step Father,
in the name of Jesus, I come into agreement with
your desires for each person who was led by you
to join with this experience. It was divinely timed that
(37:48):
they came across this video. It was orchestrated by you
because they were discouraged, defeated, or spread thin. And now
you've given us a focus and we even feel the
fruitfulness of your word going forth. Now, Lord, would you
water it. We've shared some thoughts today, some applications, some randomness,
(38:09):
some usings, but I believe there's been some revelation too,
And would you allow it to unfold as we each
day have a new twenty four And may this year,
as it unfolds, be made up of the days that
are committed to you in your hands in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen,
all right, you let me know if you liked our
new program, We'll do another one, all right. We ran
(38:33):
it back. Now walk it out and see you here soon.
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 Elevation
Church dot org slash podcast for more information and if
you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share
(38:56):
it with your friends. You can click the share button,
take a screenshot and share on your social stories and
tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
bless you
Host
Steven Furtick
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