January 19, 2025 • 57 mins
If you’re feeling stuck in a cycle of defeat, remember that God’s promises are guaranteed but not automatic. Keep consistently showing up and praising Him for the victories He’s given you, because more are on the way.
If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr
Scripture References:
Deuteronomy 20, verses 1, 19-20
Ephesians 6, verse 13
Exodus 16, verse 35
John 15, verse 4
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Transcript
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.
Come on, clap those hands all over the house. God
(00:22):
bless you. Is so good to see you today. Welcome, welcome, Yeah, hey, hey,
hello to you online. Our etham is joining us all
over the world. Can y'all get me just a second.
As our EPAM tells us where they're watching from right
there in the chat and the comments, I want to
(00:44):
appreciate our worship team and the reason the reason I
want to do it. You know, it can be easy,
if you're a good singer, good musician, to just come
for a performance and to lock into that. But when
(01:06):
you sense that your team is not just here for
performance but for presents. And I sense that today while
each and every one of you were ministering, So thank
you for showing up, for showing up, and while our
e fam is joining in and telling us where they're
(01:29):
watching from right there in the comments, look at your
neighbor and say, you did good to show up today
driving through all that fog. Was it still foggy when
you came. See? I shouldn't say stuff like this because
it localizes the message, but I was praying for you today. Lord,
(01:50):
help them to direct their paths. Lord, it is foggy.
One thing about fog I just want to point out.
Remember year over my house the other day, Chunks, and
I said, it's so foggy outside, and you said, no,
it's not. You said, that's just on the windows. So
sometimes it's not foggy you are. And what I noticed
(02:13):
about the Lord. A lot of times when we come
together and worship like this, it's like I'll go all
week long and just feel like I'm just stumbling around
in the fog. You know, can't think straight. And I
don't know about you, but I get foggy. And it's
amazing how worshiping wipes the windows. And I realized, like,
oh wow, God really is still in charge. Oh wow,
(02:37):
somebody say, wow wow, it stands for wipe our windows.
I'm just freestylic I'm happy to be here. This year,
I started praying a different prayer before I preached. I
still prayed that the Lord would help you. But I
start praying every time that he would let me have fun.
(02:58):
Not that I wasn't having fun before, but I just
don't ever want these moments to pass by without appreciating them.
I have a word for you today that I believe
will will hit you right in your heart and help
you with some of your habits. I started last week
and by the way, the chat is going crazy was
telling us where they're watching from. Everybody put a wow
(03:19):
in the chat. Somebody say wow, wow, wow, wow wow.
And what was I saying? How last week I told
you that in this year of your life, some of
the greatest things that will happen in some of the
hardest things that will happen, will not be in your
(03:41):
strategic plan. So my challenge to you was this, to
make presence your plan this year. Somebody say presence is
the plan. I don't know what all I'm walking into
this year, but I'm showing up for it. And to
do that, you'll have to show up from time to time.
(04:01):
You have to show up hurting from time to time,
and you have to show up sometimes when you wish
you could pull up the covers and hide. But in
this passage in Deuteronomy chapter twenty I want to read
you verse one, and I want to pair it very
briefly with the scripture from Ephesians chapter six, verse thirteen.
(04:22):
And in Deuteronomy chapter twenty, verse one, Moses is giving
a speech to the people of Israel to prepare them
for what God has positioned them for. So I think
this might be relevant to us as well. Deuteronomy chapter
twenty verse one. When you go to war against your
(04:42):
enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater
than yours, do not be afraid of them, because this
is where you got to be very careful if what
you put after because is something that you can do.
(05:04):
Your courage will melt when you face opposition. But Moses said,
when you face something and you know it's greater than you,
do not be afraid of it. Do not be afraid
of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you
up out of Egypt, will be with you. He will
(05:26):
be with you. So touch your neighbor and say, He'll
be with me. Whatever it looks like, whatever it feels like,
wherever it goes either way, He'll be with me. And
now for Ephesians, chapter six, verse thirteen. Put it on
the screen. Please, you might have heard this one before. Therefore,
(05:54):
put on the full armor of God, so that when
the day of evil comes, you may be able to
stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand,
after you have done everything to stand, Sometimes standing is
(06:15):
the victory. Sometimes being here is the victory. So last
week I talked to you about where you meet with God,
and this week my thought is a little bit different.
And uh, well hold on, let me read it to
you how I wrote it down. Yeah, I want to
talk to you about something that you might be feeling
(06:36):
in your heart when you just can't win, when you
just can't win. And we'll talk about that for a moment. Father,
I thank you that I since, even as I look
into the eyes of the people who are in this room,
that this message will not just live and die in
this room. It's going forth, not only into our week,
(06:58):
but it's going forth into the rest of our year.
We lean in now listening to you speak, Lord in Jesus' name. Amen,
you may be seated well for the next few weeks.
You'll probably hear me use illustrations from the sport of wrestling.
(07:21):
It's not because I'm going through anything. Man Pastor's talking
about wrestling a lot lately, he must really be going
through a battle. No, it's just because every Saturday I'm
in a gym watching Graham and while I'm thinking about you,
I'm watching him wrestle. And so this is usually January.
I usually use a lot of wrestling illustrations. Yesterday I
got a really good one. See, when people come to
(07:44):
watch wrestling, it's really weird to them because it's, for
most people, a sport that they're not very familiar with.
And it's not like they're showing up to a basketball
game or a football game. So often they have very
little context for what they're watching. And I guess, because
I've seen the sport of wrestling since i was a teenager,
(08:04):
there are certain things about it that I think everybody
knows or understands. But it really takes somebody from the
outside coming in to remind you how weird this is.
And yesterday we had a couple people with us who
had never seen wrestling, so they were just full of questions. Now,
Holly is nicer than me, so she'll answer the questions
as they ask. I'll just kind of get frustrated, like,
(08:27):
just watch, just watch and you'll figure it out. Sit
here and watch and you'll figure it out. You some context,
because people come in and they ask the dumbest stuff
like or is there going to be a DDT? Or
are they going to jump off the top ropes? Can
you put them in a choke hold? And so I'm
a little bit done with answering all the questions. But
Holly's so patient. And yesterday somebody was asking her what's
(08:49):
her favorite thing about wrestling, and she said something that
I thought was so deep. She said, what I love
about wrestling, and I leaned in to listen. She said
that even if the person is down by a wide
margin of points, and even if there's not enough time
left on the clock for them to come back, it's
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never really over because they can always get a pin.
In other sports, it becomes mathematically impossible to come back.
If you are down by forty in the fourth quarter
of a basketball game with a minute left, you will
not score forty points in a minute, no matter how
nbagm on fire you get. There is no amount of
(09:35):
on fire that can close the gap in that scenario.
And the same is true with so many sports. But
in this sport, there is always the chance that, even
if you have been beat the entire six minutes, in
the last six seconds, it is possible, oh though not probable,
that if you can put your opponent on his back
(09:57):
for just long enough for both shoulder black to touch,
every point you were down by becomes irrelevant because of
something that happened. When it looked like it was over.
Everybody else may stop watching. But there's always a chance
that even when it looks like you have been completely
(10:18):
dismembered and dismantled, even when it looks like you have
been completely outmatched and overwhelmed in that last minute, there
is always a chance that something could happen. She said,
I love wrestling because a pin is always possible. And
when she said a pin is always possible, I thought,
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that is not just a wrestling lesson, that is a
praise lesson, because I imagine the people who have never
been to a church like ours before it must look
really weird to see us doing what we do. I mean,
here we are, we've got our own hang ups and issues,
and yet our hands are lifted. And here we are
with our own struggles, yet we're singing about the goodness
(11:02):
of God. And here we are still dealing with things
that we've been dealing with for decades, and yet we
are proclaiming Jesus is our freedom. And I imagine if
you just walked in, you might have a lot of questions.
You might wonder, how are they praising God? I know them,
but you would be mistaken to think that they are
praising God because they are always ahead. You would be
(11:25):
mistaken to think they're praising God because they always get
it right. You would be mistaken to think they're praising
God because the outcome is scripted. I'm praising him because
anything is possible in his presence. Y'all slow down a little.
We got a long way to go. But touch your
neighbors say. You can still win. I don't care what
(11:49):
the enemy says about it. You can still win. In
the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses says in verse one, chapter twenty,
call it back to the screen for me. Boys, when
you go to war. Not if when you go to war,
it's guaranteed. When you go to war, it is assumed.
(12:09):
So if spiritual battles are assumed by the Bible, why
are they surprising to you when you go to war,
and really you only have two options in the Christian life.
One is to stay in the wilderness and the other
is to go to war. Moses is speaking to a
(12:31):
generation that has spent years in the wilderness. Now God
is bringing them out of that wilderness place and he
is preparing them for a war. They've never seen war before.
All they know is wilderness. And if you've never seen
war before, it might feel kind of weird. Some of
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you who are growing closer to God, the proof that
you are growing closer to God right now is that
the temptation is intensifying in your life. I kind of
have a problem with preachers who lie to you about
what their life is like. And I hear their podcast,
(13:15):
but I know them personally. And if there is one
promise I will make to you, it is not that
I will always be perfect. If there is one promise
I will make to you, it is not that I
will always be polished. If there is one promise that
I will make to you, it is not that I
will always be making progress, but I'll be present. I'll
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be present. A fella came to me the other day
and said, I'm really sorry I've been out of church
for the last three years, and I apologize, I said,
you don't know me an apology. You know where to
find me when you need me. If you're drunken out
of the church, I'll be here. If all you can
watch is an Instagram clip, be here. If I'm not here,
(14:01):
I'll have a pretty good guest we'll be here. Somebody's
gonna be here preaching for you. And watch this. The
promise of presence is so much greater than the promise
of performance. You cannot guarantee your performance. You do not
know what your response or ability will be in certain situations.
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And that's why I want us to start this year
with a plan. B. What did the Lord say in
Deuteronomy twenty When you go to war against your enemies
and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours,
do not be afraid of them, even if you did
not anticipate them. Stay there for an Yes, Lord, do
(14:48):
not be afraid of them, even if you did not
anticipate them. Don't be afraid of the ambush, because before
the enemy got there, God did, Before the medical diagnosis
was spoken, God's word was before the sea rage. The
(15:10):
peace speaker was already on the boat. And this is
our plan for the times in our lives this year
when it looks like time is running out. When you
go to war and the enemy that surrounds you is
greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because
the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt,
will be with you. So what is your plan? What
(15:37):
is your strategy? It's a plan, be you see it.
He said he will be with me, and he promised
to show up if I would. He promised to show
up if I would. Now, a lot of what keeps
us from showing up is the feeling that we are
not enough to show up. But if you show up enough,
(16:01):
it will be. If you show up enough, it will
be if you show up enough in the word of
God this year, the word of God will be enough
to empower you through your struggle. Tell them show up enough,
your neighbor, just tell them real quick, show up enough.
That's something that the Lord gave me personally. I was
going into an intimidating situation recently, and he said, you
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keep thinking that you have to go into situations and
prove yourself. But you don't have to bring proof, just
bring presence. So when you show up to that situation,
look them right in the eyes, and show up, knowing
if you weren't enough, God wouldn't have brought you into
the situation. Is this helping anybody? Come on online, put
(16:43):
it in a chat, say show up enough. And the
beautiful thing about bad odds are that is God's resting
place for the Christian. When you go to war against
your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army
greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because
the Lord, your God, who brought you up out of Egypt,
(17:03):
will be with you. As the Lord is bringing his
people into the Promised Land, there are battles that they
are going to have to fight, which confuses some of
us because we think that if God promised something, it
will be automatic. God's promises are guaranteed, but that doesn't
(17:24):
make them automatic. There are some things that God gave
you that you didn't go for that are not in
your possession now because you thought just the fact that
it was promised made it automatic. And for everybody who's
in a war today, and the chariots and horses are
greater than yours, for everybody who's dealing with mental disorders,
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and that thing seems stronger in your mind than your
will and resolve. For everybody who's dealing today with the
challenge that has been going on so long, you have
convinced yourself it is insurmountable. I want to give you
a word, and I want you to listen. Good. If
the battle is really the lord's, if the battle is
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really the lords, now, we need to stop right there.
Is it his battle or is it yours? Because when
we are fighting to protect our pride and we are
deflecting to keep our ego intact, then the battle is ours.
(18:30):
But see Moses is speaking to people who are taking
land that God has promised to give to them under
the leadership of Joshua. And so he says, as you
take this new ground, and some of you are in
a season where God is giving you new ground, and
you've never seen it before. So it feels weird to
be at war. It feels weird to be fighting these
battles that you're fighting at this stage of your life.
(18:50):
But the Lord said, when you fight these battles that
you've never fought before, if the battle is truly the Lord's,
watch this, the math won't matter. The math won't matter.
And this is good for everybody who's more of an
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English kind of person, that the math won't matter. I
discovered in my life that when it's God's battle, the
math doesn't matter. I discovered in studying God's word that
if it's his battle, the math doesn't matter. You can
be five foot six like David, and he can be
nine foot two like Goliath. If it's God's battle, the
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math won't matter. You can be a little boy with
five loaves and two fish, and the crowd can be
five thousand strong, just in the men department. But if
it's God's battle and he wants to feed the crowd
through you, the math won't matter. You can have been
stuck in something thirty eight years at the pool of
bethesa John chapter five, verses one through seven, and everybody
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around you might be quicker than you, and you might
feel like I just can't win. I just can't get
there when the water is stirred, I have no one
to help me. But when Jesus shows up, if he
wants to heal what's hurting in you, it doesn't matter
how many people are in front of you that are
faster than you. If it's God's battle. Hot five. Your
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neighbors say, the math don't matter, bad grammar, good preach,
and the math don't matter. Don't care how long it
was like that, One moment in his presence, one moment
of his favor, one moment of his holy fire, can
burn away all the dross. Because I'm coming out of
this becaus the mad. Do you hear what I'm saying
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to you? The prophet said, do not be afraid of them,
for those with us or more than those with them.
Stop looking at what's surrounding you, and stop looking at
let's pace ourselves. Touch your neighbors say, I'm bad at math.
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I'm bad at math, but I'm good at faith. Oh,
I'm bad at math, but I'm good at faith. I'm
bad at math, but I'm good at faith. What do
you mean I'm bad at math. I'm too old, but
I got faith. I'm too young, but I got faith.
Don't have money, but I got faith. If it's God's battle,
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I don't know who needs to hear this. Your kid
is developmentally disslayd, but they are gonna bloom in a
season that is just right for them. Let me tell
you another one. Oh, I love this. Some of you
think you aren't good at anything. That's not true. You
are good at something. You just think it's a small thing.
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But one small thing you're good at. In the hands
of God, who gave it to you, can make everything
you're bad at irrelevant. Ask David what one stone can do.
You can't fight a giant, Yeah, but I can kill
a bear, and one one stone save the whole nation. Yeah.
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Because when it's God's battle, the math won't matter. You're
gonna get there when you're supposed to get there. The
math won't matter. God will make up for all the
days that you called wasted, and the math won't matter.
What you thought was a failure is gonna contain the
seeds of your growth, and the math won't matter. The
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conflict was kind of developing your character so that when
you get to a place, you'll have the fruit of
the spirit called patience, and the math won't even matter.
So when you go to war and you face an
enemy that's bigger than you, remember your plan. B I
want to give you three things today because sometimes I
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think when I preach, I get so excited I don't
give you anything to write down. I feel bad about
that that you would come all the way to church
and not get a single note. So I'm gonna give
you three notes words today for when you feel like
you just can't win. Now, that phrase you just can't
win can be taken two ways. Right In Deuteronomy twenty
verse one, it says, when you face an enemy that
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you can't be I'll be with you. So you literally
cannot win this, but God still will be with you
and give you the ability and the way to connect
to that is number one. Remember, just remember, just as
simple as that, he said, when you face an enemy
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that is bigger than you, more chariots, more horses, when
you face something that's absolutely beyond your comprehension or your
ability to deal with, and you know exactly what that
is in your life right now, and do not lie
to the Holy Spirit. I'm not even making you say
out loud what it is. Just acknowledge it in your heart.
When you face that, remember that the Lord who brought
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you out of Egypt will be with you. And they
keep taking my scripture down, but I need it one
more time. I think they think, because it's just one verse,
I read it and I'm done with it. But I
can preach a verse for twelve weeks. When is this good?
Because he said, I'm the Lord, your God who brought
you out of Egypt, and I will be with you.
(24:28):
One of those is what he did, and one of
those is what he is. He's with you. So he said, okay,
I'm done with it now, thank you. He said, just
remember that thing that I did for you. Then, So
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why is that so simple? And I suck at it
so bad? Why do I constantly get into states of
mind that pretend like this. This is the first time
I've ever had a problem like this, And I'm so
grateful for perspective. You know, one thing I love about
singing songs about God is it just gives me perspective.
And I need that so much in my life because
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for me, songs of worship are like streams that flow
to my heart when it's dry. And one of the
things that it helps me access in that process when
I begin to remember it, is like oh yeah, and
I just have oh yeah moments in the presence of God,
Like you can have an Aha moment where you realize
something you never realized before, and then you can have
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a oh yeah moment where you remember something that you
temporarily forgotten. Think about all the things that God has
already done for his people by the time Deuteronomy chapter twenty,
verse one is spoken through the mouth of Moses. Think
about how many odds they've overcome to be in this moment.
Think about how many enemies God drown in the Red
Sea just to bring this generation to the wilderness. About
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how He rebuilt their self image to see themselves no
longer as slaves but as settlers. And now as they
stand on the precipice of a new season, they need
to remember what God did. Say God did, I wrote
a song that I released on Friday, so you can
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walk around your house and remember, so that when you
face a war, you worship because you realize that you
can have your back up against the wall and God
can take one stick and split a whole sea and
bring a whole nation through. You have seen God do
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that in your life. You have seen Him do things
that were once unbelievable. You have seen him align opportunities
and appointments and assignments. You have seen God, time after
time do things for you that the devil is hoping
you will forget as you go through this. You have
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seen God time and time again, provide with one jar
of oil and feed your whole family. You have seen
God time and time again. Just when you needed the
strength to come, it came all of a sudden, shout,
all of a sudden. And the temptation is is that
we are expecting God sometimes to come like a flood,
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and when it comes like a trickle, we are tempted
to displace our trust because our trust was in when
it would happen, not who was going to do it.
So it goes like this. If I was gonna get it,
I would have it by now. If I was gonna
be it, I would be it by now. This is
why people stop coming to church. This is why people
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stop going to their counselor this is why people stop
trying to eat better. Because I tried to eat better
for three days and it tasted bad, and I was mad,
and I wanted to kill everybody on road rage, and
so I decided it was better for me to be
fat than to kill somebody on road rage. And if
that's not enough, watch this. Everybody in here is tempted
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to forget where you're winning because of where you currently
feel weak. Yesterday, Holly came out and spoke for just
about fifteen minutes to many of the leaders in our church.
I think some of y'all stayed over I knew I
thought something special over here. Are y'all serious? Wow? I
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should have come over here a long time ago. I
wasted thirty minutes over there on the side of the room.
When we got home, I said, that was so beautiful.
I said, how did you even find the time to
do that? Because I know the week that she's had,
it's been insane. She was filming a study for our
youth that's coming out. She filmed five sessions for that.
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She attended a wrestling match I already told you that,
and a volleyball game. She made meals for our family. Now,
I'm not up here just to get points. I'm up
here to make one. But if you can do both
at the same time, why not. And we just had
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a moment, and I want to teach you this in
case you don't know how to do it. Where we
listed her wins, the Lord said, to tell you list
your wins. List your wins. List your wins. Ain't that bragging.
It depends on who's behind it. Because when we went
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through all the things that she did that week. It
was no doubt in my mind. Only God could have
strengthened her to do all that. And then a little
bit later that night, she said something kind of weird
because we were talking, thinking about goals and my sermon.
I was sharing a little bit of what I was
thinking about preaching with her, but I didn't tell her.
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I was just working it out with her, but she
didn't know it. And she said, you know one place
I didn't win this week my workouts. Now here's where
she's different than me. She has the ability to laugh
at that and to rebalance it, and she realizes that
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that's probably not going to be the most significant defining
event of her year, that she didn't get her number
of workouts this week. Me, on the other hand, no,
I'm gonna come to this side of the room if
I miss the workout. If I miss a workout three
days in a row, I don't feel saved. What does
lifting weights have to do with lifting them up? I
(30:50):
don't know. But it just spills over into every area
of my life. I mean, it just gets it's so
quick because I realize somewhere in my mind and in
my soul, an expectation was planted that I'm supposed to
be winning everywhere all the time. And when you live
(31:14):
in that kind of captivity, everything feels overwhelming. You have
no strength for the enemy in front of you because
you gave God no praise for the victory behind you.
But when you begin to integrate these things that God
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has brought you through and you draw from them not
as pride but as strength, when you draw from them
as a sense of knowing that God promised to be
present with me. And the proof of that is that
he was. The proof that he will is the fact
that he was. The proof that he will is the
fact that he was. The proof that he will is
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the fact that he was. When you begin to do
these things in your week and in your day, I'm
telling you, it's gonna make a big difference. The truth
of the matter is you are winning somewhere right now.
But where you are not winning is causing you to
feel weak. And where you feel weak, you become susceptible.
Now I'm right where I want to bring you. Number
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one is remember, and number two is resist. Resist. Moses says,
when you go to war, and you will go to
war to take new spiritual ground, even Paul said, you
gotta put on the armor. Well, I'm not putting on
the armor to take a nap. The only reason we're
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suiting up with the armor of God, you know, the
breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of peace, and the
sword of the Spirit and the belt of truth. The
only reason that I'm getting dressed in this armor is
something is going to attack me. So the provision of
the armor is the prediction of the attack. So God
gets you a really good when you're gonna go through
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a really big war. And when you get in that situation,
Moses says, there are certain stipulations for how you are
to fight God's battles, and I wish I could give
you all of Deuteronomy twenty, but he talks about send
the priests out before the people and send everybody home
who doesn't really want to fight, because not everybody can
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go with you into everything. I'm gonna say it again,
somebody in the back just needed to have a delete
party on your phone. Not everybody, come on, delete them
right now. You know exactly who they are. They're right
there on the recess. Do it right now, Do not
pass go delete their number right now, because not everybody
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can go with you into this. You don't have to
hate them, you don't have to flash their tires, you
don't have to cuss them out, you don't have to
fire them as your friend. But he says, send the
people home that can't go home. And when you come
up on a city, now, this is really powerful here.
And I don't want you to get tired of him,
because we've already said a lot. But I want you
to get this thing about resist. He says, when you
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get to the cities that God is calling you to
take over the Hittites, to Parasites, the Canaanites, the Jebucides,
all of these people who are in the places that
God has promised you. Just because an enemy is there
doesn't mean God isn't bringing you into it. Just because
it's hard doesn't mean God isn't in it. Doesn't mean
he didn't speak, doesn't mean he won't do it, doesn't
mean he isn't doing it, doesn't mean he's not working.
(34:29):
Doesn't mean you should turn back and go home. No, no, no.
When you see the enemies there, offer them a condition
of peace. But if they won't make peace with you,
you will have to put everything to death that would
teach you to follow anything other than God. And then
we get to verse nineteen. Verse nineteen says something very
strange to the people. He says, when you lay siege
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to a city for a long time, for a long time,
when you lay siege to a city. Now, laying siege
to a city meets, you can't beat them immediately. They
don't just give up quick. So God gave you this land.
So you come up on the land, because he tells Joshua,
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every place you set the soul of your foot, I'll
give you. But when you get there, you'll still have
to fight for it. But sometimes when you're fighting for it,
you will have to lay siege to it. And you
know what a siege is. I'm not insulting your intelligence,
but this is when you have captured the enemy, but
you haven't conquered the enemy. When you lay siege to
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a city and you fight them for a long time. Now,
wait a minute, God, I thought you were going to
give us the victory. God says, some of my gifts
are gradual, and just because it's gradual doesn't mean he's
not giving it. Sometimes it happens so slow you think
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it's not when you lay siege to a city and
it takes you a long time, a little longer than
you thought it was, and you just can't win. But
you got them captured, but you don't have them conquered.
Am I describing some of your sins today, some of
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your cities, some of your insecurities. I got them captured.
I know what they are now, but I don't have
them conquered yet. I got them identify I'm in the
right place. And that's when you remember, I'm not in
Egypt anymore. I'm not in Egypt yet, but I'm not
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fully settled in here yet either. And this is where
you need a plan B he says, when you get
in the city and you got it in a siege.
It was so clear to me while I was studying
that there are so many people who are no longer
enslaved to sin. They're set free by Jesus, but they
are no more free in Christ because they're in a
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siege season. A siege season is when you can see it,
but you don't quite have it. You experience it momentarily peace,
You experience it momentarily joy, You experience it momentarily selflessness.
You experience it momentarily goodness, patience, self control, the fruit
(37:28):
of the spirit. But you're not living in it yet.
That's a siege season. You're not a slave anymore. You're
out of Egypt, but you're not exactly free yet either,
are you. It's a siege season. Now we have to
be really careful. This is where my pastoral instinct kicks in,
and I want to be protective of you in a
(37:50):
siege season, because Moses says, when you are in a
siege season, remember it's not them that are under siege,
it's the enemy. You're right there. It's really happening for you.
You really are breaking these chains. But you're in a
siege season. And when you are, the man of God says,
fighting against it for a long time to capture it.
(38:14):
Do not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them,
because you can eat their fruit. Don't cut them down.
Are the trees people that you should be sieged them?
Verse twenty. However, you may cut down trees that you
(38:38):
know are not fruit trees and use them to build
siege works until the city at war with you falls.
Deuteronomy chapter twenty is over. Everybody, God bless Moses out,
good night, don't chop down trees. Why'd you read that
weird scripture? Because you're doing it. You're doing it when
(39:00):
you go to war and you are in a siege
season and you are frustrated because it's taking what a
long time? What is your tendency when something is taking
a long time, when you've been fighting something for a
long time, what do you start doing? Deuteronomy twenty verse
nineteen says you might start chopping down things that God
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wants you to leave for your future. When you are
in a siege season. You might start bringing an acts
to things that God is raising up to bless you
at a later date. When you are in a siege season,
you are frustrated and you are asking God for answers,
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and you are lashing out at the messengers that He
sends to give you those answers, because it would be
easy for you, if you're going through a siege season,
to just start chopping down everything you see, because you
need these trees in order to build ramps and towers
and battering rams. So sometimes you get in a season
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in your life and well, just anything will work to
make you feel better, Anything will work to knock down
a door, anything will work to survive. I don't even
care if it's right or wrong. I don't even care
if it's good or bad. I don't even care if
it benefits my future. I just want to feel good
right now. But I want to tell you relief is
not the same as freedom. God doesn't intend for you
(40:35):
to stay in this siege season forever. Oh yeah, I
said it. It's not always gonna be like this. It's
not always gonna be like this, you know how I know.
Verse twenty tells me everything I need to know. He said,
you can cut down the trees that don't bear fruit
and use them to build siege works until the city
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at war with you falls, until means it will. I'm
gonna try that again until means it will. It will.
It will fall, just not when you want it to.
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So the test for you now is this, what do
you do until and God says it's important for you
not to start cutting down stuff that I am bringing
forth in your life to feed you for who I
created you to be. And this is kind of difficult
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to describe if you've been in the wilderness since you've
been born, because there's no fruit trees in the wilderness.
The only thing this generation has ever seen God feed
them with was manna. Look at Exitus sixteen. This is
an annoying the scripture. The Lord gave it to me
while Zeke was singing, thank you Zee. The Israelites ate
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Mana forty years until they came to a land that
was settled. They ate Mana until they reached the border
of Canaan. They ate something until the moment where God
fed them something else. And I am concerned that God
(42:27):
is trying to feed you something better, and you keep
cutting it down. And I came to tell you, stop
fighting what God is using to feed you. Stop fighting
the processes that God is using to mature you. Stop
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fighting those corrective moments that God wants to sit with
you in and say, see this, do it different next time,
because he will. He He will bring about everything he
accomplishes in your life. He will bring about everything that
He assigned for your life. He will bring about everything
that He imagines and plans for your life. It's his plans.
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He will be with you as you face the things
that are too strong for you. But notice what Moses said,
don't take an axe to the tree that's got your
future fruit on it. And the thing about them was
they didn't know much about trees. So they don't know
that this tree is gonna bring me fruit because all
I ever had was nana. When you never had good love,
(43:37):
it's easy for you to settle for lust when you
never had good friendship. It's easy for you to settle
for codependency when you never had real fruit. It's tempting
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for you to become frustrated and you say it is
taken too long. I'm gonna handle this. I'm gonna handle
this another way. Yeah, I'm gonna lay hands on them.
Isn't that in the Bible. I'm gonna handle this the
way I used to handle this. I got a Bible
verse for it. Be careful. You might be chopping down
something God wanted you to chew on. Later. You might
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be taking down a tree that is capable of bearing
much fruit. But watch this, it just isn't the season yet.
It just isn't the season yet. Nobody's gonna chop down
a tree that has fruit visible on it and use
it for a battering ram. But what if the tree
(44:42):
was bare, not because it didn't have the ability to
bear fruit, but because it wasn't the season. For fruit.
And what if you've got something in you, come on,
use your holy imagination for a moment. And what if
there is something working in your life that Jeremiah twenty
(45:02):
nine to eleven really is true, that He knows the
plans he has for you, plans to prosper you, not
to harm you, plans to give you a hope and
a future. What is this really in me? But it's
just not my season yet? Blessed this a man who
walks not in the path of the wicked, nor sits
(45:24):
in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is
in the law of the Lord, and on his law
he meditates day and night. They will bear fruit in season,
You will bear fruit in season. You will bear fruit
in season. Do not eliminate in a season of frustration
(45:46):
what God intends to use to bless you in the
season of your favor. So then we have a question
to ask, what am I attacking that God has actually
to embrace. That's why I looked at you the other day.
I said it happened for a reason, because I don't
(46:08):
know why yet. But I'm not cutting down that tree.
I'm gonna let God do what God wants to do.
When I saw the picture, Holly, I was like, well,
it makes sense if I tell them stop chopping down
trees that are gonna bear your fruit for the future.
And I was like, you know what, they'll know exactly
what that tree is for them, because the whole Bible
started when somebody didn't know what to do with a
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tree and Moses said, we gotta get this tree thing right.
Eve Adam, y'all were buck naked all along. You're just
now knowing that because you don't know what to do
(46:49):
with the tree. We don't know how to do with
a tree. Tell Jesus who took a tree and turned
the instrument of death called the cross made from wood
(47:09):
into the emblem of victory for the church that would
bear his aim. You ever heard that part where Jesus said,
I could call it do on legions of angels and
back all of y'all up wouldn't be anything either. And
at the moment where they thought he said it is
finished because he lost, he was winning. What if you're winning.
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What if you're winning where it really matters. What if
you're winning where it really counts. What if you gained
twenty pounds but it's not because you're undisciplined. What if
you've been running your kids around and that's going to
last a lifetime and you can lose twenty pounds in
three months. What if you're winning where it really matters.
(47:59):
Resist the temptation to cut down something that God is
growing because you don't have the patience to wait for
it to become what it can be. I think I
got to come on Coffee fam this week and break
that down further. Chad, make space for me. I'm going
to try, because the last thing I want to leave
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you with is remain, remain. Let that tree grow, Remain, remain.
I just can't win. Man. If I'm making my family happy,
I'm making my boss mad, I just can't win. If
I'm making my boss happy, I'm making my wife mad.
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I just can't win. I haven't made my wife happy
in twelve years. I just can't win. I've heard it all,
I've thought it all, except that last thing. I make
all it pretty happy all the time. But I came
to you with the beginning of last year, and I
taught you the power of what the one day when,
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and I taught you that faith is not something simply
for the future. Faith is the recognition of what God
is already doing right now. It's the one day, not
wh e N, but the wi N of this day.
And the Man of God said, when you go to war,
and you will, you know you only got two choices, brother,
(49:28):
the wilderness of wandering around in the same thing, or
the war of trusting God to be with you as
you go forward. And when you face that war, he said,
I'll be with you. I will be with you. Now,
that statement, as simple as it sounds, is really all
you need to believe for what's next in your life.
(49:51):
And there are trees growing right now in your life
that if you don't cut them down, they will be
your future food. They will be future food. Moses would
not go into the Promised Land himself, but he sent
a generation because some of the things that are happening
in your life right now that feel like failure, they
(50:14):
are actually just for your future. And the most beautiful
thing about God's word in my life is that every time,
every time I feel surrounded by the enemy, I have
an opportunity to become even more connected to the vine.
(50:37):
I read a scripture that helped me through one of
the hardest seasons of my life in John fifteen, verse four,
where Jesus said, remain in me as I also remain
in you, because no branch can bear fruit by itself.
Stop cutting yourself off from Christ when you struggle. Come
(51:00):
to him quicker when you sin. Come to him quicker
when you doubt. Come to Him before you start drowning,
and say help. Ask Peter it works. Come to him
quicker in this season, And no matter how long it takes,
he says, remain in me as I also remain in you.
(51:21):
As the worship team begins to play, I want to
remind you that you can't bear fruit by yourself. You
must remain in the vine, and neither can you bear
fruit unless you remain in Jesus. There are some things
in your life that are taken a little longer than
you want them to take. I know. There are some
victories in your life that, although promised, are not automatic.
(51:41):
I know. And if you've never been to a wrestling
match before, it looks kind of weird. If you've never
worshiped through a storm before, it might feel kind of
weird because you're so used to taking matters into your
own hands. But I want to remind you what Holly
told Khalia. She said, a pin can happen anytime. A
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pin is still possible. God can turn your entire life around,
and every regret can become a blessing if you remain
in Him. So let's stand all over the auditorium. Please,
(52:23):
no one trying to get to the doors. Let's respect
the Holy Spirit enough to give a moment in his presence.
Presence is to plan this year. Presence is the plan
this year. I'm showing up for stuff this year. I'm
staying in the vine. I'm letting the things that God
has planted in my life grow this year. And you
(52:44):
know what, every bit of fruit that's not supposed to
be on my tree anyway, somebody else can grow it.
I'm done being busy just to be impressive. I'm done
trying to post stuff to prove that I did stuff.
Not this year. This year is going to be a
root system year for me and Father. I thank you
(53:04):
for the word. Oh it's so good to me. Lord.
I could stay in it so much longer. But I
thank you that long after I have stopped speaking, you
will still continue to speak. Now, God, I want to
partner with you in this process because what I said
is what I said, But what you say is what
(53:26):
only you could say to each person in this room today.
This message will mean something very different. There's an area
in their life where they feel like they just can't win.
I get the victory for a little bit, it slips away.
I do better. For a little bit, it goes away. God,
(53:48):
may we realize that some of the greatest growth in
our life happens underground. Some of the greatest cultivation will
be of our character, and some of the fruit for
our future. I pray that you would give them the
armor of God today and that they would stand therefore,
(54:08):
after they've done everything that they know to do, that
they would stand like a tree planted, that they would
not quit, not cut it off, and not stop, but
that they would stand and a bye in the vibe,
bearing much fruit. Father. I even pray for those right
now who are going through a pruning season where your
(54:30):
gardenershears have been cutting back in their lives, and they've
been perceiving it as a loss. But it's not a loss.
It is preparation for the next stage of their fruitfulness
in you. They will bear more fruit, they will teach
more truth, they will have more wisdom, They will share more. Peace. Father,
(54:52):
we are just branches. We only can grow if we
are in you. I thank you that they're in your hands. God. Amen. Amen,
(55:14):
will you do the simplest thing in the world. I
know it looks weird if you never did it, but
just lift your hands in worship. And before one of
the singers sings, I want you to open your mouth. Yeah,
all over the room. Open your mouth and don't stop.
Respond to the Lord. Tell him, Lord, I'm staying. I'm staying.
(55:35):
I'm staying in faith in this seats. And God, I
trust you in this seats, and just tell him what
you need to tell him. I don't want to just
leave you with my words. I want you to have
his spirit. Lord, I trust you in this Seatson. I
thank you that you're greater. Lord. I thank you that
you're greater, greater than what I faith, greater than what
(55:56):
I fear. I thank you Lord that the is mine.
I thank you that the victory is already won. I
thank you has already worked out as it is in heaven,
shall it be on earth. In the name of Jesus. Now,
let's begin to praise him, because we know anything could
happen when we do anything is possible when we praise him.
(56:21):
Might look weird if you never saw it before, but
I'm praising him because it could turn around. I'm praising
him because he's growing me by his grace. 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
(56:42):
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.
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.
Come on, clap those hands all over the house. God
(00:22):
bless you. Is so good to see you today. Welcome, welcome, Yeah, hey, hey,
hello to you online. Our etham is joining us all
over the world. Can y'all get me just a second.
As our EPAM tells us where they're watching from right
there in the chat and the comments, I want to
(00:44):
appreciate our worship team and the reason the reason I
want to do it. You know, it can be easy,
if you're a good singer, good musician, to just come
for a performance and to lock into that. But when
(01:06):
you sense that your team is not just here for
performance but for presents. And I sense that today while
each and every one of you were ministering, So thank
you for showing up, for showing up, and while our
e fam is joining in and telling us where they're
(01:29):
watching from right there in the comments, look at your
neighbor and say, you did good to show up today
driving through all that fog. Was it still foggy when
you came. See? I shouldn't say stuff like this because
it localizes the message, but I was praying for you today. Lord,
(01:50):
help them to direct their paths. Lord, it is foggy.
One thing about fog I just want to point out.
Remember year over my house the other day, Chunks, and
I said, it's so foggy outside, and you said, no,
it's not. You said, that's just on the windows. So
sometimes it's not foggy you are. And what I noticed
(02:13):
about the Lord. A lot of times when we come
together and worship like this, it's like I'll go all
week long and just feel like I'm just stumbling around
in the fog. You know, can't think straight. And I
don't know about you, but I get foggy. And it's
amazing how worshiping wipes the windows. And I realized, like,
oh wow, God really is still in charge. Oh wow,
(02:37):
somebody say, wow wow, it stands for wipe our windows.
I'm just freestylic I'm happy to be here. This year,
I started praying a different prayer before I preached. I
still prayed that the Lord would help you. But I
start praying every time that he would let me have fun.
(02:58):
Not that I wasn't having fun before, but I just
don't ever want these moments to pass by without appreciating them.
I have a word for you today that I believe
will will hit you right in your heart and help
you with some of your habits. I started last week
and by the way, the chat is going crazy was
telling us where they're watching from. Everybody put a wow
(03:19):
in the chat. Somebody say wow, wow, wow, wow wow.
And what was I saying? How last week I told
you that in this year of your life, some of
the greatest things that will happen in some of the
hardest things that will happen, will not be in your
(03:41):
strategic plan. So my challenge to you was this, to
make presence your plan this year. Somebody say presence is
the plan. I don't know what all I'm walking into
this year, but I'm showing up for it. And to
do that, you'll have to show up from time to time.
(04:01):
You have to show up hurting from time to time,
and you have to show up sometimes when you wish
you could pull up the covers and hide. But in
this passage in Deuteronomy chapter twenty I want to read
you verse one, and I want to pair it very
briefly with the scripture from Ephesians chapter six, verse thirteen.
(04:22):
And in Deuteronomy chapter twenty, verse one, Moses is giving
a speech to the people of Israel to prepare them
for what God has positioned them for. So I think
this might be relevant to us as well. Deuteronomy chapter
twenty verse one. When you go to war against your
(04:42):
enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater
than yours, do not be afraid of them, because this
is where you got to be very careful if what
you put after because is something that you can do.
(05:04):
Your courage will melt when you face opposition. But Moses said,
when you face something and you know it's greater than you,
do not be afraid of it. Do not be afraid
of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you
up out of Egypt, will be with you. He will
(05:26):
be with you. So touch your neighbor and say, He'll
be with me. Whatever it looks like, whatever it feels like,
wherever it goes either way, He'll be with me. And
now for Ephesians, chapter six, verse thirteen. Put it on
the screen. Please, you might have heard this one before. Therefore,
(05:54):
put on the full armor of God, so that when
the day of evil comes, you may be able to
stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand,
after you have done everything to stand, Sometimes standing is
(06:15):
the victory. Sometimes being here is the victory. So last
week I talked to you about where you meet with God,
and this week my thought is a little bit different.
And uh, well hold on, let me read it to
you how I wrote it down. Yeah, I want to
talk to you about something that you might be feeling
(06:36):
in your heart when you just can't win, when you
just can't win. And we'll talk about that for a moment. Father,
I thank you that I since, even as I look
into the eyes of the people who are in this room,
that this message will not just live and die in
this room. It's going forth, not only into our week,
(06:58):
but it's going forth into the rest of our year.
We lean in now listening to you speak, Lord in Jesus' name. Amen,
you may be seated well for the next few weeks.
You'll probably hear me use illustrations from the sport of wrestling.
(07:21):
It's not because I'm going through anything. Man Pastor's talking
about wrestling a lot lately, he must really be going
through a battle. No, it's just because every Saturday I'm
in a gym watching Graham and while I'm thinking about you,
I'm watching him wrestle. And so this is usually January.
I usually use a lot of wrestling illustrations. Yesterday I
got a really good one. See, when people come to
(07:44):
watch wrestling, it's really weird to them because it's, for
most people, a sport that they're not very familiar with.
And it's not like they're showing up to a basketball
game or a football game. So often they have very
little context for what they're watching. And I guess, because
I've seen the sport of wrestling since i was a teenager,
(08:04):
there are certain things about it that I think everybody
knows or understands. But it really takes somebody from the
outside coming in to remind you how weird this is.
And yesterday we had a couple people with us who
had never seen wrestling, so they were just full of questions. Now,
Holly is nicer than me, so she'll answer the questions
as they ask. I'll just kind of get frustrated, like,
(08:27):
just watch, just watch and you'll figure it out. Sit
here and watch and you'll figure it out. You some context,
because people come in and they ask the dumbest stuff
like or is there going to be a DDT? Or
are they going to jump off the top ropes? Can
you put them in a choke hold? And so I'm
a little bit done with answering all the questions. But
Holly's so patient. And yesterday somebody was asking her what's
(08:49):
her favorite thing about wrestling, and she said something that
I thought was so deep. She said, what I love
about wrestling, and I leaned in to listen. She said
that even if the person is down by a wide
margin of points, and even if there's not enough time
left on the clock for them to come back, it's
(09:11):
never really over because they can always get a pin.
In other sports, it becomes mathematically impossible to come back.
If you are down by forty in the fourth quarter
of a basketball game with a minute left, you will
not score forty points in a minute, no matter how
nbagm on fire you get. There is no amount of
(09:35):
on fire that can close the gap in that scenario.
And the same is true with so many sports. But
in this sport, there is always the chance that, even
if you have been beat the entire six minutes, in
the last six seconds, it is possible, oh though not probable,
that if you can put your opponent on his back
(09:57):
for just long enough for both shoulder black to touch,
every point you were down by becomes irrelevant because of
something that happened. When it looked like it was over.
Everybody else may stop watching. But there's always a chance
that even when it looks like you have been completely
(10:18):
dismembered and dismantled, even when it looks like you have
been completely outmatched and overwhelmed in that last minute, there
is always a chance that something could happen. She said,
I love wrestling because a pin is always possible. And
when she said a pin is always possible, I thought,
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that is not just a wrestling lesson, that is a
praise lesson, because I imagine the people who have never
been to a church like ours before it must look
really weird to see us doing what we do. I mean,
here we are, we've got our own hang ups and issues,
and yet our hands are lifted. And here we are
with our own struggles, yet we're singing about the goodness
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of God. And here we are still dealing with things
that we've been dealing with for decades, and yet we
are proclaiming Jesus is our freedom. And I imagine if
you just walked in, you might have a lot of questions.
You might wonder, how are they praising God? I know them,
but you would be mistaken to think that they are
praising God because they are always ahead. You would be
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mistaken to think they're praising God because they always get
it right. You would be mistaken to think they're praising
God because the outcome is scripted. I'm praising him because
anything is possible in his presence. Y'all slow down a little.
We got a long way to go. But touch your
neighbors say. You can still win. I don't care what
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the enemy says about it. You can still win. In
the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses says in verse one, chapter twenty,
call it back to the screen for me. Boys, when
you go to war. Not if when you go to war,
it's guaranteed. When you go to war, it is assumed.
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So if spiritual battles are assumed by the Bible, why
are they surprising to you when you go to war,
and really you only have two options in the Christian life.
One is to stay in the wilderness and the other
is to go to war. Moses is speaking to a
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generation that has spent years in the wilderness. Now God
is bringing them out of that wilderness place and he
is preparing them for a war. They've never seen war before.
All they know is wilderness. And if you've never seen
war before, it might feel kind of weird. Some of
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you who are growing closer to God, the proof that
you are growing closer to God right now is that
the temptation is intensifying in your life. I kind of
have a problem with preachers who lie to you about
what their life is like. And I hear their podcast,
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but I know them personally. And if there is one
promise I will make to you, it is not that
I will always be perfect. If there is one promise
I will make to you, it is not that I
will always be polished. If there is one promise that
I will make to you, it is not that I
will always be making progress, but I'll be present. I'll
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be present. A fella came to me the other day
and said, I'm really sorry I've been out of church
for the last three years, and I apologize, I said,
you don't know me an apology. You know where to
find me when you need me. If you're drunken out
of the church, I'll be here. If all you can
watch is an Instagram clip, be here. If I'm not here,
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I'll have a pretty good guest we'll be here. Somebody's
gonna be here preaching for you. And watch this. The
promise of presence is so much greater than the promise
of performance. You cannot guarantee your performance. You do not
know what your response or ability will be in certain situations.
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And that's why I want us to start this year
with a plan. B. What did the Lord say in
Deuteronomy twenty When you go to war against your enemies
and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours,
do not be afraid of them, even if you did
not anticipate them. Stay there for an Yes, Lord, do
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not be afraid of them, even if you did not
anticipate them. Don't be afraid of the ambush, because before
the enemy got there, God did, Before the medical diagnosis
was spoken, God's word was before the sea rage. The
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peace speaker was already on the boat. And this is
our plan for the times in our lives this year
when it looks like time is running out. When you
go to war and the enemy that surrounds you is
greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because
the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt,
will be with you. So what is your plan? What
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is your strategy? It's a plan, be you see it.
He said he will be with me, and he promised
to show up if I would. He promised to show
up if I would. Now, a lot of what keeps
us from showing up is the feeling that we are
not enough to show up. But if you show up enough,
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it will be. If you show up enough, it will
be if you show up enough in the word of
God this year, the word of God will be enough
to empower you through your struggle. Tell them show up enough,
your neighbor, just tell them real quick, show up enough.
That's something that the Lord gave me personally. I was
going into an intimidating situation recently, and he said, you
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keep thinking that you have to go into situations and
prove yourself. But you don't have to bring proof, just
bring presence. So when you show up to that situation,
look them right in the eyes, and show up, knowing
if you weren't enough, God wouldn't have brought you into
the situation. Is this helping anybody? Come on online, put
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it in a chat, say show up enough. And the
beautiful thing about bad odds are that is God's resting
place for the Christian. When you go to war against
your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army
greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because
the Lord, your God, who brought you up out of Egypt,
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will be with you. As the Lord is bringing his
people into the Promised Land, there are battles that they
are going to have to fight, which confuses some of
us because we think that if God promised something, it
will be automatic. God's promises are guaranteed, but that doesn't
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make them automatic. There are some things that God gave
you that you didn't go for that are not in
your possession now because you thought just the fact that
it was promised made it automatic. And for everybody who's
in a war today, and the chariots and horses are
greater than yours, for everybody who's dealing with mental disorders,
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and that thing seems stronger in your mind than your
will and resolve. For everybody who's dealing today with the
challenge that has been going on so long, you have
convinced yourself it is insurmountable. I want to give you
a word, and I want you to listen. Good. If
the battle is really the lord's, if the battle is
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really the lords, now, we need to stop right there.
Is it his battle or is it yours? Because when
we are fighting to protect our pride and we are
deflecting to keep our ego intact, then the battle is ours.
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But see Moses is speaking to people who are taking
land that God has promised to give to them under
the leadership of Joshua. And so he says, as you
take this new ground, and some of you are in
a season where God is giving you new ground, and
you've never seen it before. So it feels weird to
be at war. It feels weird to be fighting these
battles that you're fighting at this stage of your life.
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But the Lord said, when you fight these battles that
you've never fought before, if the battle is truly the Lord's,
watch this, the math won't matter. The math won't matter.
And this is good for everybody who's more of an
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English kind of person, that the math won't matter. I
discovered in my life that when it's God's battle, the
math doesn't matter. I discovered in studying God's word that
if it's his battle, the math doesn't matter. You can
be five foot six like David, and he can be
nine foot two like Goliath. If it's God's battle, the
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math won't matter. You can be a little boy with
five loaves and two fish, and the crowd can be
five thousand strong, just in the men department. But if
it's God's battle and he wants to feed the crowd
through you, the math won't matter. You can have been
stuck in something thirty eight years at the pool of
bethesa John chapter five, verses one through seven, and everybody
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around you might be quicker than you, and you might
feel like I just can't win. I just can't get
there when the water is stirred, I have no one
to help me. But when Jesus shows up, if he
wants to heal what's hurting in you, it doesn't matter
how many people are in front of you that are
faster than you. If it's God's battle. Hot five. Your
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neighbors say, the math don't matter, bad grammar, good preach,
and the math don't matter. Don't care how long it
was like that, One moment in his presence, one moment
of his favor, one moment of his holy fire, can
burn away all the dross. Because I'm coming out of
this becaus the mad. Do you hear what I'm saying
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to you? The prophet said, do not be afraid of them,
for those with us or more than those with them.
Stop looking at what's surrounding you, and stop looking at
let's pace ourselves. Touch your neighbors say, I'm bad at math.
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I'm bad at math, but I'm good at faith. Oh,
I'm bad at math, but I'm good at faith. I'm
bad at math, but I'm good at faith. What do
you mean I'm bad at math. I'm too old, but
I got faith. I'm too young, but I got faith.
Don't have money, but I got faith. If it's God's battle,
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I don't know who needs to hear this. Your kid
is developmentally disslayd, but they are gonna bloom in a
season that is just right for them. Let me tell
you another one. Oh, I love this. Some of you
think you aren't good at anything. That's not true. You
are good at something. You just think it's a small thing.
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But one small thing you're good at. In the hands
of God, who gave it to you, can make everything
you're bad at irrelevant. Ask David what one stone can do.
You can't fight a giant, Yeah, but I can kill
a bear, and one one stone save the whole nation. Yeah.
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Because when it's God's battle, the math won't matter. You're
gonna get there when you're supposed to get there. The
math won't matter. God will make up for all the
days that you called wasted, and the math won't matter.
What you thought was a failure is gonna contain the
seeds of your growth, and the math won't matter. The
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conflict was kind of developing your character so that when
you get to a place, you'll have the fruit of
the spirit called patience, and the math won't even matter.
So when you go to war and you face an
enemy that's bigger than you, remember your plan. B I
want to give you three things today because sometimes I
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think when I preach, I get so excited I don't
give you anything to write down. I feel bad about
that that you would come all the way to church
and not get a single note. So I'm gonna give
you three notes words today for when you feel like
you just can't win. Now, that phrase you just can't
win can be taken two ways. Right In Deuteronomy twenty
verse one, it says, when you face an enemy that
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you can't be I'll be with you. So you literally
cannot win this, but God still will be with you
and give you the ability and the way to connect
to that is number one. Remember, just remember, just as
simple as that, he said, when you face an enemy
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that is bigger than you, more chariots, more horses, when
you face something that's absolutely beyond your comprehension or your
ability to deal with, and you know exactly what that
is in your life right now, and do not lie
to the Holy Spirit. I'm not even making you say
out loud what it is. Just acknowledge it in your heart.
When you face that, remember that the Lord who brought
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you out of Egypt will be with you. And they
keep taking my scripture down, but I need it one
more time. I think they think, because it's just one verse,
I read it and I'm done with it. But I
can preach a verse for twelve weeks. When is this good?
Because he said, I'm the Lord, your God who brought
you out of Egypt, and I will be with you.
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One of those is what he did, and one of
those is what he is. He's with you. So he said, okay,
I'm done with it now, thank you. He said, just
remember that thing that I did for you. Then, So
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why is that so simple? And I suck at it
so bad? Why do I constantly get into states of
mind that pretend like this. This is the first time
I've ever had a problem like this, And I'm so
grateful for perspective. You know, one thing I love about
singing songs about God is it just gives me perspective.
And I need that so much in my life because
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for me, songs of worship are like streams that flow
to my heart when it's dry. And one of the
things that it helps me access in that process when
I begin to remember it, is like oh yeah, and
I just have oh yeah moments in the presence of God,
Like you can have an Aha moment where you realize
something you never realized before, and then you can have
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a oh yeah moment where you remember something that you
temporarily forgotten. Think about all the things that God has
already done for his people by the time Deuteronomy chapter twenty,
verse one is spoken through the mouth of Moses. Think
about how many odds they've overcome to be in this moment.
Think about how many enemies God drown in the Red
Sea just to bring this generation to the wilderness. About
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how He rebuilt their self image to see themselves no
longer as slaves but as settlers. And now as they
stand on the precipice of a new season, they need
to remember what God did. Say God did, I wrote
a song that I released on Friday, so you can
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walk around your house and remember, so that when you
face a war, you worship because you realize that you
can have your back up against the wall and God
can take one stick and split a whole sea and
bring a whole nation through. You have seen God do
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that in your life. You have seen Him do things
that were once unbelievable. You have seen him align opportunities
and appointments and assignments. You have seen God, time after
time do things for you that the devil is hoping
you will forget as you go through this. You have
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seen God time and time again, provide with one jar
of oil and feed your whole family. You have seen
God time and time again. Just when you needed the
strength to come, it came all of a sudden, shout,
all of a sudden. And the temptation is is that
we are expecting God sometimes to come like a flood,
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and when it comes like a trickle, we are tempted
to displace our trust because our trust was in when
it would happen, not who was going to do it.
So it goes like this. If I was gonna get it,
I would have it by now. If I was gonna
be it, I would be it by now. This is
why people stop coming to church. This is why people
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stop going to their counselor this is why people stop
trying to eat better. Because I tried to eat better
for three days and it tasted bad, and I was mad,
and I wanted to kill everybody on road rage, and
so I decided it was better for me to be
fat than to kill somebody on road rage. And if
that's not enough, watch this. Everybody in here is tempted
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to forget where you're winning because of where you currently
feel weak. Yesterday, Holly came out and spoke for just
about fifteen minutes to many of the leaders in our church.
I think some of y'all stayed over I knew I
thought something special over here. Are y'all serious? Wow? I
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should have come over here a long time ago. I
wasted thirty minutes over there on the side of the room.
When we got home, I said, that was so beautiful.
I said, how did you even find the time to
do that? Because I know the week that she's had,
it's been insane. She was filming a study for our
youth that's coming out. She filmed five sessions for that.
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She attended a wrestling match I already told you that,
and a volleyball game. She made meals for our family. Now,
I'm not up here just to get points. I'm up
here to make one. But if you can do both
at the same time, why not. And we just had
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a moment, and I want to teach you this in
case you don't know how to do it. Where we
listed her wins, the Lord said, to tell you list
your wins. List your wins. List your wins. Ain't that bragging.
It depends on who's behind it. Because when we went
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through all the things that she did that week. It
was no doubt in my mind. Only God could have
strengthened her to do all that. And then a little
bit later that night, she said something kind of weird
because we were talking, thinking about goals and my sermon.
I was sharing a little bit of what I was
thinking about preaching with her, but I didn't tell her.
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I was just working it out with her, but she
didn't know it. And she said, you know one place
I didn't win this week my workouts. Now here's where
she's different than me. She has the ability to laugh
at that and to rebalance it, and she realizes that
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that's probably not going to be the most significant defining
event of her year, that she didn't get her number
of workouts this week. Me, on the other hand, no,
I'm gonna come to this side of the room if
I miss the workout. If I miss a workout three
days in a row, I don't feel saved. What does
lifting weights have to do with lifting them up? I
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don't know. But it just spills over into every area
of my life. I mean, it just gets it's so
quick because I realize somewhere in my mind and in
my soul, an expectation was planted that I'm supposed to
be winning everywhere all the time. And when you live
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in that kind of captivity, everything feels overwhelming. You have
no strength for the enemy in front of you because
you gave God no praise for the victory behind you.
But when you begin to integrate these things that God
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has brought you through and you draw from them not
as pride but as strength, when you draw from them
as a sense of knowing that God promised to be
present with me. And the proof of that is that
he was. The proof that he will is the fact
that he was. The proof that he will is the
fact that he was. The proof that he will is
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the fact that he was. When you begin to do
these things in your week and in your day, I'm
telling you, it's gonna make a big difference. The truth
of the matter is you are winning somewhere right now.
But where you are not winning is causing you to
feel weak. And where you feel weak, you become susceptible.
Now I'm right where I want to bring you. Number
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one is remember, and number two is resist. Resist. Moses says,
when you go to war, and you will go to
war to take new spiritual ground, even Paul said, you
gotta put on the armor. Well, I'm not putting on
the armor to take a nap. The only reason we're
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suiting up with the armor of God, you know, the
breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of peace, and the
sword of the Spirit and the belt of truth. The
only reason that I'm getting dressed in this armor is
something is going to attack me. So the provision of
the armor is the prediction of the attack. So God
gets you a really good when you're gonna go through
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a really big war. And when you get in that situation,
Moses says, there are certain stipulations for how you are
to fight God's battles, and I wish I could give
you all of Deuteronomy twenty, but he talks about send
the priests out before the people and send everybody home
who doesn't really want to fight, because not everybody can
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go with you into everything. I'm gonna say it again,
somebody in the back just needed to have a delete
party on your phone. Not everybody, come on, delete them
right now. You know exactly who they are. They're right
there on the recess. Do it right now, Do not
pass go delete their number right now, because not everybody
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can go with you into this. You don't have to
hate them, you don't have to flash their tires, you
don't have to cuss them out, you don't have to
fire them as your friend. But he says, send the
people home that can't go home. And when you come
up on a city, now, this is really powerful here.
And I don't want you to get tired of him,
because we've already said a lot. But I want you
to get this thing about resist. He says, when you
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get to the cities that God is calling you to
take over the Hittites, to Parasites, the Canaanites, the Jebucides,
all of these people who are in the places that
God has promised you. Just because an enemy is there
doesn't mean God isn't bringing you into it. Just because
it's hard doesn't mean God isn't in it. Doesn't mean
he didn't speak, doesn't mean he won't do it, doesn't
mean he isn't doing it, doesn't mean he's not working.
(34:29):
Doesn't mean you should turn back and go home. No, no, no.
When you see the enemies there, offer them a condition
of peace. But if they won't make peace with you,
you will have to put everything to death that would
teach you to follow anything other than God. And then
we get to verse nineteen. Verse nineteen says something very
strange to the people. He says, when you lay siege
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to a city for a long time, for a long time,
when you lay siege to a city. Now, laying siege
to a city meets, you can't beat them immediately. They
don't just give up quick. So God gave you this land.
So you come up on the land, because he tells Joshua,
(35:14):
every place you set the soul of your foot, I'll
give you. But when you get there, you'll still have
to fight for it. But sometimes when you're fighting for it,
you will have to lay siege to it. And you
know what a siege is. I'm not insulting your intelligence,
but this is when you have captured the enemy, but
you haven't conquered the enemy. When you lay siege to
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a city and you fight them for a long time. Now,
wait a minute, God, I thought you were going to
give us the victory. God says, some of my gifts
are gradual, and just because it's gradual doesn't mean he's
not giving it. Sometimes it happens so slow you think
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it's not when you lay siege to a city and
it takes you a long time, a little longer than
you thought it was, and you just can't win. But
you got them captured, but you don't have them conquered.
Am I describing some of your sins today, some of
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your cities, some of your insecurities. I got them captured.
I know what they are now, but I don't have
them conquered yet. I got them identify I'm in the
right place. And that's when you remember, I'm not in
Egypt anymore. I'm not in Egypt yet, but I'm not
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fully settled in here yet either. And this is where
you need a plan B he says, when you get
in the city and you got it in a siege.
It was so clear to me while I was studying
that there are so many people who are no longer
enslaved to sin. They're set free by Jesus, but they
are no more free in Christ because they're in a
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siege season. A siege season is when you can see it,
but you don't quite have it. You experience it momentarily peace,
You experience it momentarily joy, You experience it momentarily selflessness.
You experience it momentarily goodness, patience, self control, the fruit
(37:28):
of the spirit. But you're not living in it yet.
That's a siege season. You're not a slave anymore. You're
out of Egypt, but you're not exactly free yet either,
are you. It's a siege season. Now we have to
be really careful. This is where my pastoral instinct kicks in,
and I want to be protective of you in a
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siege season, because Moses says, when you are in a
siege season, remember it's not them that are under siege,
it's the enemy. You're right there. It's really happening for you.
You really are breaking these chains. But you're in a
siege season. And when you are, the man of God says,
fighting against it for a long time to capture it.
(38:14):
Do not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them,
because you can eat their fruit. Don't cut them down.
Are the trees people that you should be sieged them?
Verse twenty. However, you may cut down trees that you
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know are not fruit trees and use them to build
siege works until the city at war with you falls.
Deuteronomy chapter twenty is over. Everybody, God bless Moses out,
good night, don't chop down trees. Why'd you read that
weird scripture? Because you're doing it. You're doing it when
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you go to war and you are in a siege
season and you are frustrated because it's taking what a
long time? What is your tendency when something is taking
a long time, when you've been fighting something for a
long time, what do you start doing? Deuteronomy twenty verse
nineteen says you might start chopping down things that God
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wants you to leave for your future. When you are
in a siege season. You might start bringing an acts
to things that God is raising up to bless you
at a later date. When you are in a siege season,
you are frustrated and you are asking God for answers,
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and you are lashing out at the messengers that He
sends to give you those answers, because it would be
easy for you, if you're going through a siege season,
to just start chopping down everything you see, because you
need these trees in order to build ramps and towers
and battering rams. So sometimes you get in a season
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in your life and well, just anything will work to
make you feel better, Anything will work to knock down
a door, anything will work to survive. I don't even
care if it's right or wrong. I don't even care
if it's good or bad. I don't even care if
it benefits my future. I just want to feel good
right now. But I want to tell you relief is
not the same as freedom. God doesn't intend for you
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to stay in this siege season forever. Oh yeah, I
said it. It's not always gonna be like this. It's
not always gonna be like this, you know how I know.
Verse twenty tells me everything I need to know. He said,
you can cut down the trees that don't bear fruit
and use them to build siege works until the city
(40:58):
at war with you falls, until means it will. I'm
gonna try that again until means it will. It will.
It will fall, just not when you want it to.
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So the test for you now is this, what do
you do until and God says it's important for you
not to start cutting down stuff that I am bringing
forth in your life to feed you for who I
created you to be. And this is kind of difficult
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to describe if you've been in the wilderness since you've
been born, because there's no fruit trees in the wilderness.
The only thing this generation has ever seen God feed
them with was manna. Look at Exitus sixteen. This is
an annoying the scripture. The Lord gave it to me
while Zeke was singing, thank you Zee. The Israelites ate
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Mana forty years until they came to a land that
was settled. They ate Mana until they reached the border
of Canaan. They ate something until the moment where God
fed them something else. And I am concerned that God
(42:27):
is trying to feed you something better, and you keep
cutting it down. And I came to tell you, stop
fighting what God is using to feed you. Stop fighting
the processes that God is using to mature you. Stop
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fighting those corrective moments that God wants to sit with
you in and say, see this, do it different next time,
because he will. He He will bring about everything he
accomplishes in your life. He will bring about everything that
He assigned for your life. He will bring about everything
that He imagines and plans for your life. It's his plans.
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He will be with you as you face the things
that are too strong for you. But notice what Moses said,
don't take an axe to the tree that's got your
future fruit on it. And the thing about them was
they didn't know much about trees. So they don't know
that this tree is gonna bring me fruit because all
I ever had was nana. When you never had good love,
(43:37):
it's easy for you to settle for lust when you
never had good friendship. It's easy for you to settle
for codependency when you never had real fruit. It's tempting
(43:57):
for you to become frustrated and you say it is
taken too long. I'm gonna handle this. I'm gonna handle
this another way. Yeah, I'm gonna lay hands on them.
Isn't that in the Bible. I'm gonna handle this the
way I used to handle this. I got a Bible
verse for it. Be careful. You might be chopping down
something God wanted you to chew on. Later. You might
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be taking down a tree that is capable of bearing
much fruit. But watch this, it just isn't the season yet.
It just isn't the season yet. Nobody's gonna chop down
a tree that has fruit visible on it and use
it for a battering ram. But what if the tree
(44:42):
was bare, not because it didn't have the ability to
bear fruit, but because it wasn't the season. For fruit.
And what if you've got something in you, come on,
use your holy imagination for a moment. And what if
there is something working in your life that Jeremiah twenty
(45:02):
nine to eleven really is true, that He knows the
plans he has for you, plans to prosper you, not
to harm you, plans to give you a hope and
a future. What is this really in me? But it's
just not my season yet? Blessed this a man who
walks not in the path of the wicked, nor sits
(45:24):
in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is
in the law of the Lord, and on his law
he meditates day and night. They will bear fruit in season,
You will bear fruit in season. You will bear fruit
in season. Do not eliminate in a season of frustration
(45:46):
what God intends to use to bless you in the
season of your favor. So then we have a question
to ask, what am I attacking that God has actually
to embrace. That's why I looked at you the other day.
I said it happened for a reason, because I don't
(46:08):
know why yet. But I'm not cutting down that tree.
I'm gonna let God do what God wants to do.
When I saw the picture, Holly, I was like, well,
it makes sense if I tell them stop chopping down
trees that are gonna bear your fruit for the future.
And I was like, you know what, they'll know exactly
what that tree is for them, because the whole Bible
started when somebody didn't know what to do with a
(46:28):
tree and Moses said, we gotta get this tree thing right.
Eve Adam, y'all were buck naked all along. You're just
now knowing that because you don't know what to do
(46:49):
with the tree. We don't know how to do with
a tree. Tell Jesus who took a tree and turned
the instrument of death called the cross made from wood
(47:09):
into the emblem of victory for the church that would
bear his aim. You ever heard that part where Jesus said,
I could call it do on legions of angels and
back all of y'all up wouldn't be anything either. And
at the moment where they thought he said it is
finished because he lost, he was winning. What if you're winning.
(47:37):
What if you're winning where it really matters. What if
you're winning where it really counts. What if you gained
twenty pounds but it's not because you're undisciplined. What if
you've been running your kids around and that's going to
last a lifetime and you can lose twenty pounds in
three months. What if you're winning where it really matters.
(47:59):
Resist the temptation to cut down something that God is
growing because you don't have the patience to wait for
it to become what it can be. I think I
got to come on Coffee fam this week and break
that down further. Chad, make space for me. I'm going
to try, because the last thing I want to leave
(48:20):
you with is remain, remain. Let that tree grow, Remain, remain.
I just can't win. Man. If I'm making my family happy,
I'm making my boss mad, I just can't win. If
I'm making my boss happy, I'm making my wife mad.
(48:42):
I just can't win. I haven't made my wife happy
in twelve years. I just can't win. I've heard it all,
I've thought it all, except that last thing. I make
all it pretty happy all the time. But I came
to you with the beginning of last year, and I
taught you the power of what the one day when,
(49:07):
and I taught you that faith is not something simply
for the future. Faith is the recognition of what God
is already doing right now. It's the one day, not
wh e N, but the wi N of this day.
And the Man of God said, when you go to war,
and you will, you know you only got two choices, brother,
(49:28):
the wilderness of wandering around in the same thing, or
the war of trusting God to be with you as
you go forward. And when you face that war, he said,
I'll be with you. I will be with you. Now,
that statement, as simple as it sounds, is really all
you need to believe for what's next in your life.
(49:51):
And there are trees growing right now in your life
that if you don't cut them down, they will be
your future food. They will be future food. Moses would
not go into the Promised Land himself, but he sent
a generation because some of the things that are happening
in your life right now that feel like failure, they
(50:14):
are actually just for your future. And the most beautiful
thing about God's word in my life is that every time,
every time I feel surrounded by the enemy, I have
an opportunity to become even more connected to the vine.
(50:37):
I read a scripture that helped me through one of
the hardest seasons of my life in John fifteen, verse four,
where Jesus said, remain in me as I also remain
in you, because no branch can bear fruit by itself.
Stop cutting yourself off from Christ when you struggle. Come
(51:00):
to him quicker when you sin. Come to him quicker
when you doubt. Come to Him before you start drowning,
and say help. Ask Peter it works. Come to him
quicker in this season, And no matter how long it takes,
he says, remain in me as I also remain in you.
(51:21):
As the worship team begins to play, I want to
remind you that you can't bear fruit by yourself. You
must remain in the vine, and neither can you bear
fruit unless you remain in Jesus. There are some things
in your life that are taken a little longer than
you want them to take. I know. There are some
victories in your life that, although promised, are not automatic.
(51:41):
I know. And if you've never been to a wrestling
match before, it looks kind of weird. If you've never
worshiped through a storm before, it might feel kind of
weird because you're so used to taking matters into your
own hands. But I want to remind you what Holly
told Khalia. She said, a pin can happen anytime. A
(52:01):
pin is still possible. God can turn your entire life around,
and every regret can become a blessing if you remain
in Him. So let's stand all over the auditorium. Please,
(52:23):
no one trying to get to the doors. Let's respect
the Holy Spirit enough to give a moment in his presence.
Presence is to plan this year. Presence is the plan
this year. I'm showing up for stuff this year. I'm
staying in the vine. I'm letting the things that God
has planted in my life grow this year. And you
(52:44):
know what, every bit of fruit that's not supposed to
be on my tree anyway, somebody else can grow it.
I'm done being busy just to be impressive. I'm done
trying to post stuff to prove that I did stuff.
Not this year. This year is going to be a
root system year for me and Father. I thank you
(53:04):
for the word. Oh it's so good to me. Lord.
I could stay in it so much longer. But I
thank you that long after I have stopped speaking, you
will still continue to speak. Now, God, I want to
partner with you in this process because what I said
is what I said, But what you say is what
(53:26):
only you could say to each person in this room today.
This message will mean something very different. There's an area
in their life where they feel like they just can't win.
I get the victory for a little bit, it slips away.
I do better. For a little bit, it goes away. God,
(53:48):
may we realize that some of the greatest growth in
our life happens underground. Some of the greatest cultivation will
be of our character, and some of the fruit for
our future. I pray that you would give them the
armor of God today and that they would stand therefore,
(54:08):
after they've done everything that they know to do, that
they would stand like a tree planted, that they would
not quit, not cut it off, and not stop, but
that they would stand and a bye in the vibe,
bearing much fruit. Father. I even pray for those right
now who are going through a pruning season where your
(54:30):
gardenershears have been cutting back in their lives, and they've
been perceiving it as a loss. But it's not a loss.
It is preparation for the next stage of their fruitfulness
in you. They will bear more fruit, they will teach
more truth, they will have more wisdom, They will share more. Peace. Father,
(54:52):
we are just branches. We only can grow if we
are in you. I thank you that they're in your hands. God. Amen. Amen,
(55:14):
will you do the simplest thing in the world. I
know it looks weird if you never did it, but
just lift your hands in worship. And before one of
the singers sings, I want you to open your mouth. Yeah,
all over the room. Open your mouth and don't stop.
Respond to the Lord. Tell him, Lord, I'm staying. I'm staying.
(55:35):
I'm staying in faith in this seats. And God, I
trust you in this seats, and just tell him what
you need to tell him. I don't want to just
leave you with my words. I want you to have
his spirit. Lord, I trust you in this Seatson. I
thank you that you're greater. Lord. I thank you that
you're greater, greater than what I faith, greater than what
(55:56):
I fear. I thank you Lord that the is mine.
I thank you that the victory is already won. I
thank you has already worked out as it is in heaven,
shall it be on earth. In the name of Jesus. Now,
let's begin to praise him, because we know anything could
happen when we do anything is possible when we praise him.
(56:21):
Might look weird if you never saw it before, but
I'm praising him because it could turn around. I'm praising
him because he's growing me by his grace. 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
(56:42):
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.
Host
Steven Furtick
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