February 7, 2025 • 39 mins
Responsibilities are a fact of life, but meeting the demands of life isn’t always easy. Learn how to stop disengaging and start living with confidence.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
When I was praying about how to start the year
and the theme we should start the year with, I
was led to Second Samuel nineteen, a scripture that originally
I was attracted to from a leadership perspective, but I
think it has implications for our church. As I set
this image before you, I invite your attention to Second Samuel,
chapter eighteen. Let's go eighteen, verse thirty three and get
(00:41):
the context and read down to chapter nineteen, verse eight
And so I know we were done with David because
we preached a whole series about him last year called
Bars and Battles. But last him when he come over
to twenty eighteen and help us start the year, and
so he said that he would. But there's going to
be a real dramatic difference between the David we saw
in First Sammuel nineteen and the David we see in
(01:01):
Second Samuel nineteen, because when we saw him in First
Samuel nineteen, he was on the come up and God
was really blessing him, and he had a lot of courage.
But now we're going to see him at a place
that is very unfamiliar to someone of his caliber, and
David's confidence is shaken. And so this would be a
(01:22):
very strange thing if you just picked up the Bible
and you heard about David from Sunday School and he
was killing Goliath and ripping off the heads of Philistines
and driving back the enemies of Israel. But now the
scripture says in Tewod Samuel eighteen thirty three, the king
was shook. I put it in a little bit of
(01:43):
a modernized translation. He was shook, and he went up
to the room over the gateway, and wept as he went.
He said, Oh, my son, Absalom, Oh my son, my son, Absalom.
If only I had died instead of you, Oh, Absalom,
(02:03):
my son, my son. Way to pick out an inspirational
scripture to start the year with Verdick, Chapter nineteen, verse one,
Joebb was told the king is weeping and mourning for
Absolom for the whole army. The victory that day was
turned into mourning, which is exactly the opposite of what
God does. God turns a day of mourning into a
(02:27):
day of victory.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Don't believe me, Just.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Ask those disciples who were gathered together in sorrow and
shame one Sunday, only to get the news that what
looked like Hell's final defeat of Heaven was actually the
starting point of salvation. God specializes in turning your day
of mourning into a day of victory. The enemy, however,
with desire to turn your day of victory, or your
position of strength into weakness and sorrow, and that's exactly
(02:54):
what has happened here. The whole army is experiencing mourning
in a time of victory. You know that you can
experience mourning in a time of victory.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
You can experience.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Depression in a place of provision. You can experience what
feels like failure in a season of success. So much
of life is determined not by the event, but by
our ability to process the event on the correct level
as to be blind to our own blessings. We have
many instances, but here David has lost so much in
(03:28):
the course of the battle that he cannot celebrate the victory.
He lost his own son, and we'll see how that
affects him. Now. The troops had heard it, said the
king is grieving for his son. And so the men
stole into the city that day as men steal in,
who are ashamed when they flee from battle. They actually
(03:52):
had defeated the enemy, but their heads were hung in shame.
There would be no parade this day for the king.
Verse four covered his face and cried aloud, Oh, my son, absalom,
oh absalom, my son, my son.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
His focus is so narrowed.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
To what he has lost that he is about to
lose what he has left. He cannot get over what's gone,
and he is about to step right over what is
and miss it because waiting for his support are all
of the troops and the resources for him to reclaim
his throne and get back where he belongs. But he's
(04:37):
not ready yet. He's weeping in isolation over the gate.
And then verse five says that Joe ab his general,
had the guts to go into the house and say
something to the king that nobody else had the guts
to say. Sometimes you need to thank God for the
people in your life. Who say stuff that you don't
(04:59):
like to hear. Those are the ones who often really
love you. Sometimes I see every parent in this room
looking at their teenager. I caught you look at somebody
and say, tell me the truth. You are not my
friend if you don't tell me the truth. God uses
Joe Ab to give David. Watch this the gift of confrontation.
(05:23):
You see how nobody said amen. If I would have
said the gift of comfort, you would have gotten it.
But sometimes the gift of confrontation is greater than the
gift of comfort. And Joe Ab challenges David, who goes
in a house the king, and says, today you have
humiliated all your men who have just saved your life,
(05:44):
and the lives of your sons and daughters, and the
lives of your.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Wives and concubines.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You love those who hate you, and hate those who
love you.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Why do you keep.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Attaching yourself the stuff that is doing you no good?
Why do you keep running back to things that hurt you?
You love those who hate you and hate those who
love you. Why do you keep chasing that which is
trying to walk away at the expense of that which
God has given you? Or as David asked Samuel about saw,
(06:23):
how long will you mourn over what God has rejected?
You made it clear today that the commanders and their
men mean nothing to you. I see that you would
be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of
us were dead.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by
the Lord.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
If you don't go out, not a man will be
loved with you by nightfall.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
This would be worse for you than all the calamities
that have come on you, from your you to mouth.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So the king got up and took his seat in
the gateway. The king gotta and took his seat in
the gateway. That's our theme as we begin the year.
So look at your neighbor and say neighbor, and force
(07:08):
them to make eye contact with you before you go
any further. Tell him get back in the gate. Get
back in the gate. If they're looking at you crazy,
it was the wrong neighbor. Turned to the other one
(07:28):
and say get back in the gate. Get back in
the gate. And so we could understand why David is shook,
because we are seeing here the inextricable connection between character
and confidence. It is impossible to sustain your confidence. With
(07:53):
a faulty character, you can hype yourself up, just bump
yourself in the mirror. You can even get abs and
feel good about those. But without the deep seated core
of character to sustain you in life, it is impossible
to maintain a sense of real confidence.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
He shook.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
He's allowed some things into his life that are now
overpowering him. He lets some things in little by little,
and now it's been years and years of dysfunction. It
wasn't so much the dysfunction that brought trouble to David.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
It was the way he dealt with the dysfunction.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
God knew he was dysfunctional when he picked him out,
and he knew that he had father issues when he
picked him out, and he knew that he was quite
lustful when he picked him out. None of those things
stopped God from choosing him, and so they couldn't stop
God from using him. It is never your dysfunction that
stops God from using you. It is how you choose
to deal with the dysfunction. When David fought Goliath, he
(09:02):
fought him from a distance, which was a strategic thing
because if he came close to him, he would die
by his sword. Goliath was skilled in hand to hand combat,
but David was a slinger. That was the way he
fought Goliath, and it was the way that he had
tried to live his life, and in certain situations it
worked for him until it came to the point when
you may remember this story. It's not told in vacation
(09:24):
Bible school because because it's rated in a it's more
like a Game of Thrones episode really than a Bible story.
When David should have been a war and he wasn't,
and it wasn't where he was. It was where he
wasn't that got him in trouble. It wasn't what he did,
(09:49):
It was what he didn't do that brought him to
a place. Until he had enough freedom of capacity to
entertain thoughts.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
He wouldn't have thought if.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
He'd been doing what he should have done, wouldn't have
been tempted to do what he did.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
But since he did what he did and.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Ended up sleeping with a lady who has taken a
bath named Bathsheba, the Bible was full of these happy coincidences.
Where he messed up wasn't necessarily his sin which was wrong,
but it was the way that he compounded his sin
because he responded to his shame rather than receiving God's grace,
(10:29):
and so rather than deal with the dysfunction and the
decision of his disobedience, he piled several layers of shame
on top of his sin and ended up having her
husband killed. Well. When Nathan the Prophet came to David,
he said, because of the way you've acted, because of
the decisions that you've made, God is going to forgive you,
but you're going to.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Experience some consequences.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Please write this down if you're under the age of eighteen.
You can pick your decisions, but you can't pick your consequences.
And he received grace, but it left a residue, and
the aftermath of david Sinn would play out through the
(11:09):
course of his family line. When his son Amnen raped
his half sister Tamar, and you thought your family was dysfunctional,
you could write a parenting book compared to David. I mean,
David's son raped one of David's daughters from another wife.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Are you following this? Do you feel like you left church.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And went to Jerry Springer nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Hello and Absalom had.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
To do what David wouldn't do because David wanted to
deal with it from a distance rather than confront the dysfunction.
He kept it out here. But you can only keep
it out here so long, just like he did with Bathsheba.
He kept it out here, but only for so long.
It's just a matter of time before the dysfunction shows
up on your doorstep once you let it through the gate.
(11:59):
And so now it's working his way through his family.
And because David will not stand in his place and
make a decision on how to deal with it, even
if it's the wrong one, he makes the greatest mistake
to become passive. The greatest trouble in David's life came
when he became passive, or you might say disengaged disengaged.
(12:25):
I have an Instagram account, and every month our social
media team brings me reports for the engagement on our Facebook,
the engagement on Twitter. The engagement on social media is
how we measure effectiveness.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
How many people.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Are commenting and liking and looking and sharing Engagement. Even
our evam online what's up epam? Maybe you got here
because somebody shared the link with you is called engagement.
I don't think there's ever been a time in the
world where we've been more engaged on the surface and
more disengaged in our souls because we got all these
fake can and fake friendships and fake sexuality and fake
(13:04):
relationships and stuff that won't do you any real good
when the devil fights you in your life because you
are not engaged. Now, Absolom has taken matters into his
own hands. Years ago he killed him and on himself.
He went running, he wanted to come back. David wouldn't
see him. He kept him at a distance. And now
the battle has arrived on his doorstep because he would
(13:24):
not deal with it at the gate. He would not
deal with it when it showed up. So now it
has gained power, and Absolom has actually tried to overturn
his own father as king.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Absolom was pretty smart.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Bible says he was real good looking, had a lot
in common with Rick Parker except one thing. He had
so much hair. The Bible said his hair was so long.
When he would cut it off every spring, it would
weigh two pounds. So he would stand by the gate
with his luxurious locks, and when people would come to
(14:02):
see David, he'd say, oh, Dad's busy.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
If I were king, I'd help you out.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I would hear your matter if I were king, but
I'm not. With four years of that, and he won
their hearts. Be very careful who you let stand at
the gates. You got to be real careful who you
let represent you. And over the course of time, the
Bible says that the hearts of the people were with Absolom.
(14:27):
It ended in a bloody result in the woods of Ephraim,
where Absolom was riding through the forest with his militia
trying to overtake David's men. Now David has crossed the
Kidrin Valley, he has left the throne. He is on
the run, just to survive. Absolom's men catch up with him.
(14:49):
There's only one problem. Absalom's hair gets caught in a tree,
snatches him right off of his horse. Why because the
thing that makes you great outwardly makes vulnerable inwardly. He
gets caught up in the thing that made him so attractive.
And as he is hanging there, Joe ab decides to
(15:09):
end his life. Three knives in him, calls ten men
to slice him up. They send the nudes to David
and he is shaken. He's shaken like any father would
be who lost a son, but perhaps even more deeply
because he feels responsible for it. I kind of wish
sometimes I could talk to my dad just one more conversation.
(15:33):
And I know he's probably listening to this sermon on Heaven.
I know he's part of the Epham Eternal fam But
I wish I could sit down with him for real,
and I would only tell him one thing. This would
be the whole conversation. I thought about a lot because
now I'm raising my own kids, and there are ways
that I judged him when he was raising me that
(15:56):
I would love to go back and say to him
one thing.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
This is what I would say.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
The title of our talk would be, I get it now,
because when I became a teenager, my dad went from
coaching my teams to going out drinking, and I didn't
see him much over those years, and I really thought
he was, to be honest with you, a pretty poor
(16:22):
father during those years.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the fact that he
did not have a dad to show him how to
do it. His father committed suicide, and so on his
ninth birthday, he found his father dead. So without any
frame of reference. He stayed around to raise me. But
what I would tell him now is I get it now.
(16:46):
Because even as much as I love my wife, which
is more than you can possibly imagine, and I love
my kids and I am grateful for them, and we
enjoy some wonderful times together, but there have been times
that I have pulled into my garage, gotten out of
my Nissan Maxima, walked into my house, and fantasized about
(17:09):
getting back into my Nissan Maxima and going back to
work so I could get some rest.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I get it now.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
There are times when the challenge of responsibility will make
you walk away from something that you actually love, and
people will judge you in that moment, and they will
think you're walking away because you're lazy. But you're not
walking away because you're lazy. You're walking away because deep
down inside, I don't know if I have what it takes.
(17:42):
And this is the danger of disengagement.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
It is when you find.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yourself in a state of shame or fear, or trauma
or exhaustion and you walk away from what God gave
you because you don't know how to manage it. It
is the danger of this engagement. It is the danger
of showing up in body and not in mind. I've
(18:11):
learned that there's a big difference between coming to church
and being in church. I've learned that there is a
big difference between coming home and being home. Y'all ain't
gonna say nothing to me all year? Is that how
it's gonna be. You're gonna look at me crazy all year?
Like that? There is a big difference between having a
(18:36):
child and being a mom. And sometimes the temptation is
not to exactly run away, but to just disengage.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I'm disengaged, not.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Because I don't care, but just because I'm afraid.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I don't know if I have what it takes. David,
with shaking, the.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Death of Absalom represented.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
His own failure. If only did you hear him?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
If only I had died instead of.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You, It's my fault. I didn't give you what.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
You needed, And it's my fault you're dead. And now
it's caught up with him, and he's shaken, and he's disengaged.
He's not defeated, he's disengaged. He has the victory, but
he's not acting like it. He's the king, but he's
not where the king is supposed to be. See he's
(19:37):
lost his sense of passion because he's moved from his position.
In ancient times, the cities were well guarded by gates.
Now David is in Mahanaim, which is not Jerusalem, the
capital city, Absolom is there, and he's going to drive
him out, but not yet. The first thing he has
to do is relocate himself around the city. Are two gates,
(20:00):
everybody say, two gates. Our theme for the new year
is gates. I want you to pay great attention right now.
This is very important. In each city there would be
an outer gate that everybody saw. We all have one
of those. We all have the outer gate that people see.
It's our personality that we project into the world, so
people won't judge us, so we will appear successful. Then
(20:23):
there is the inner gate. It's the second line of defense.
We all have one of those two. It's our actions.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Two gates, two gates, two gates, two dates, two gates, and.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
The action happens. Watch this between the gates. The Bible
does not say, put my verse up again, it's my
theme verse that David took his seat. As verse eight
at the gate, it says that he got up and
took his seat what where now. Up until this point,
(21:07):
he's been near the gate, but he wasn't in it.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
He was in isolation.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Above the gate, like a lot of us live our lives,
watching events unfold, but not taking responsibility for our outcomes.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
When we live online in an.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Ecosystem of pretension and narcissism and opinions, but don't really
make a commitment to make a difference in the world,
and we show up in the places that are most
convenient to our ego, but refuse to confront the issues
that sabotage our soul.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
The action happened between the gates.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Not outside and not inside, but often between the gates,
transactions would be made. It was like a marketplace of
the day. Between the gates of the city. There would
be buying and selling, a negotiation between the gates. Profits
like Amos would prophesy to maintain justice in the gates.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
In the gates when Ruth, if you remember the Old Testament.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Story was claimed by Boass her kinsman redeemer, he did
the deal in the presence of ten witnesses in the gate.
When Abraham bought the burial ground for Sarah and the
Old Testament, he bought it in the presence of witnesses
in the gate. It's where the witnesses were, It's where
the judges would sit, It's where negotiations happened. It's where
(22:39):
the conscience of the nation was developed. It's where Absalom
would stand at the gate and before people could go through.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Turn them back.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
After he had promoted his own agenda, and everything changed
for David when he did something so simple. The Bible
says that after all he had lost, and after all
the tears he had cried, and after all the mistakes
he had made, he did something so simple and so profound,
(23:12):
the king got up, left his chamber.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
And took his seat in the gate.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
In other words, I hear David saying, like Arnold Schwarzenegger,
I'm back. My heart is broken, but i'm back. I
made some mistakes, but i'm back. I wish I could
(23:56):
go back and change some things, but I can't.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
But I'm back.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I'm devastated about what happened, but I'm back. I'm uncertain
about the future.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I don't know where it's going to go from here.
I'm a long way from home, but i'm back. Now.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
What I picture in my mind is today, thousands of
people who have gathered to hear this message online or
in person at every location. And I see you getting
up from the failure and the shame and the regret
(24:40):
that has kept you paralyzed, and taking your stand in
the gate of praise and entering His caates with thanksgiving.
I wish seventy people would sup up on your feet
right now and shout at the top of your lungs,
(25:01):
I'm back.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I'm back. Let the devil know I'm back. Let condemnation no,
I'm back. Let my past know I'm back. I'm not perfect,
but i'm back. I don't have a plan down again,
but I'm back.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring, but I'm back.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I'm fine. Everybody you can reach. Hell, I'm bad. I'm
back in it. I'm back in it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Not gonna stand over my life blaming people for the
next twenty.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Years because of the last twenty. Get they behind me, Satan,
I'm bad.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And with the enemy comes, with his accusation and his excuses.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I want you to look.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Him square in the eye before the year even gets started,
good and tell him, Tell them this seat is taken.
I set this seat is taken. No room for you
to run my life because I am seated in heavenly
(26:26):
places with Christ.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Ap back. I'm back in position, I'm back in purpose.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Get back in the gate. Get back in the gate.
You cannot change what you tolerate. Get back in the gate.
You cannot change what you won't fail. Get back in
(27:02):
the gate. You can't change it by complaining. You can't
change it by if only, but now, if you will
take your seat. God has prepared.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
A place for you in the presence of your enemies.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
He might not rid you of your problems, but he
has given you his fresness.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Get that. So I'm back. I'm back.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I'm back, and I'm broken, and I'm better because I
was broken, because I learned how to fight. The battle
(27:59):
in between is not what happens to you, is not
what they say about you. It is what happens between
the gates. That's what I want to study with you
for the next four weeks. I want you to invite
every jacked up person that you know, because we're going
(28:20):
to get our gates back. We have been too flooded
with images and points of view that to do not
promote peace in our lives, and we are practicing the
habits of worry, and we are living in the state
of anxiety. The place of power is when you take
(28:43):
your seat. Watch this. David got up, took his seat
in the gate. He wasn't healed yet, but he's here.
I'm hurting, but I'm here. It's going to be hard,
but I'm here. You know what's cool. You already got
(29:05):
perfect attendance for the year in church. Celebrate yourself and
to get everything he needed. All he had to do
is what Kendrick said. All he had to do.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Was sit down. When he sat down, all of his
men came to him.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Your weapons are waiting for you to take your place.
Your weapons. You're waiting for your weapons to come. Your
weapons will not come until you take your place. This
is the place of responsibility. This is the place of
owning your story. This is the place of dealing with
(29:54):
your dysfunctions, not from a distance.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
This is the place of power.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
We fight the enemy in the wrong place, and we
wait for things to appear that are waiting for us
in our assignment. And I feel the spirit of God
on me this year to teach this message on the
gates of change.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Each of us is standing at a gate of change.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
And there are four gates that I want to teach
you about over the next four weeks.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Here's the key.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
This gate only opens from the inside. It only opens
from the inside. This battle has to be fought at
the gate. Keep that camera shot on me real quick.
I want to show them. Just keep that tight shot. Ryah,
the tight shot right there. Do not move that camera,
no matter what I do, or no matter what you
are trained to do. I am overriding your training right now.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Do not move that camera.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Not.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
The only way.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
For us to get the back of his head off
the bottom of that screen is for me to get back.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Where I belong. Watch this.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
The camera is not broke. I'm just out of place.
Oh no, let's get a new camera. No, you need
to get a new attitude. You don't need a new wife.
You need a new mindset. You need to get back
in the gate. You got a good wife, that's why
(31:28):
you married her. If you would get in the game, maybe.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
I don't want to run them off. Week one. They
just got back. Somebody sat up back.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And when he got back in the gate, everything he
needed came to him.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
You don't have to chase it. Goodness and mercy will follow.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Get back, get back, get back, get back.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
You don't have to be perfect, just be present.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
And Isaiah said, I want us to think about this,
and I'll start here next week. You're coming next week.
Tell somebody get back, get back, get back, get back,
do what you gotta do to get back. You should
cancel some stuff just to let the devil know this
year that God is your priority.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
And be in church. Set six alarms if you have to,
and be here because the word you need might be here.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Hold the camera shot tight, hold the camera shot tight,
and if you're over here, you will miss the word
that was waiting for you. So I got to be
here because Isaiah says, stand I'm closing. I'm closing. I'm closing.
Isaiah said that God will be Oh, I got so
(33:03):
much to teach you. I can't wait. This is just
a syllabus. Now, this isn't even the class. Tell somebody,
I'm coming back. I'm coming back. I'm coming back. He
will be Listen to what the Lord Almighty is Isaiah,
who prophesied so eloquently of Jesus Christ. He will be
a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment.
(33:27):
He gives justice when you are in the seat of judgment,
and he will be a source of strength to those
who turn back the battle at the gate. A lot
(33:48):
of the defeats that you have been suffering have been
because you've been fighting them on the wrong level. You've
been fighting them in the wrong place. But this is
our year to stop it. At the source. He will
be a source of strength. Starts with God, not with me.
(34:10):
This is not self help. This is the overflowing, abundant
spirit of God that empowers believers, the spirit of justice,
the holy spirit of God. He will be a source
of strength to him who sits in judgment and turns
(34:32):
back the battle at the gate. If David had dealt
with Absalom at the gate, Absolom wouldn't have had to
die in the forest. And sometimes we let the devil
come all the way in, and then we pray to
(34:52):
God to get him off of our backs.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
But the time to turn the devil back is at
the gate.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
The time to turn depression back.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Is at the gate.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
And there is a word from God that will push
back the.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Darkness, but it has to happen at the gate.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
We're gonna learn about these gates for the next four weeks,
But it begins with the decision for you to take
your place in the gate, and we're gonna start getting
intentional about our thoughts so that we win the battle between.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
The gates.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
We're gonna put Christ back on the throne, and then
we're gonna sit right there by him and guard our gates.
I am seeded in heavenly places. If you're hearing this
word right now, rejoice where you are.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Rejoice in your kitchen.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Come on, when you enter his gates with pray, you
drive back the devil before he ever gets a chance
to sit down at your kitchen table.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
We're gonna turn back the devil, and we're.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Gonna make some decisions early this year. We're gonna set
up some areas of our life where we're not gonna
negotiate anymore. We're getting back in the gate. And the
promise of God is this, that the gates of hell
will not prevail against it. There is so much revelation
(36:34):
that God wants to release, But this gate of change
opens from the inside. So I want you to lift
your hands now. If you feel comfortable, stand to your feet.
Some people think that lifting your hands is some sort
of denominational thing for exuberant emotional people, but really is
just for people who know they need God.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
I get it now, Dad.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Sometimes it's easier to run than to take responsibility. And
sometimes you don't run because you don't care.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
You run because you're scared.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You run because you're a shamed You run because you've
tried to change before. And so you live your life
in a chamber of isolation. But God is calling you
back in the gate. And I know you've been embarrassed
about some things, and I know you don't really believe
in yourself anymore, and you haven't kept some promises to yourself,
so you don't feel like making anymore. And I know
some people around you have kind of boxed you in.
(37:31):
They think they know how you are and you're not
going to be any different. But Jesus said, I am
the gate, not what people did, not even what you
think of yourself. I am the gate. Well, we come
before you this year, some of us with heavy hearts,
(37:54):
but all of us with expectation.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You didn't leave us here for nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
You didn't bring us into twenty eighteen just to drop
us at the gate.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
So we're going in.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
We're going in, We're going to enter in your gates
with thanksgiving and your courts with praise God. We're also
bringing some baggage. We're bringing some pain, and we're bringing
some questions. We're bringing some anxieties. We're bringing some ith onlies.
(38:31):
We're dropping them off at the gate, and we are
entering into your joy. Thank you, Lord for the revelation
that you've given us today. It has been so sweet
and meaningful.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
The change have fallen now because of the sound of
your word echoing forth from the portals of heaven and
doing what only you can do in the hearts of people.
I believe this is just the beginning, and so I
pray that this series would be unlike any that we've
ever known. The gates of change open from the inside.
(39:02):
You're a mighty God, and as we praise you today,
we expect the best of Heaven to empower us in
broken places. Have your way, God, 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.
(39:23):
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
can share it with your friends. You can click the
share button, take a screenshot and share it on your
social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again
for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
When I was praying about how to start the year
and the theme we should start the year with, I
was led to Second Samuel nineteen, a scripture that originally
I was attracted to from a leadership perspective, but I
think it has implications for our church. As I set
this image before you, I invite your attention to Second Samuel,
chapter eighteen. Let's go eighteen, verse thirty three and get
(00:41):
the context and read down to chapter nineteen, verse eight
And so I know we were done with David because
we preached a whole series about him last year called
Bars and Battles. But last him when he come over
to twenty eighteen and help us start the year, and
so he said that he would. But there's going to
be a real dramatic difference between the David we saw
in First Sammuel nineteen and the David we see in
(01:01):
Second Samuel nineteen, because when we saw him in First
Samuel nineteen, he was on the come up and God
was really blessing him, and he had a lot of courage.
But now we're going to see him at a place
that is very unfamiliar to someone of his caliber, and
David's confidence is shaken. And so this would be a
(01:22):
very strange thing if you just picked up the Bible
and you heard about David from Sunday School and he
was killing Goliath and ripping off the heads of Philistines
and driving back the enemies of Israel. But now the
scripture says in Tewod Samuel eighteen thirty three, the king
was shook. I put it in a little bit of
(01:43):
a modernized translation. He was shook, and he went up
to the room over the gateway, and wept as he went.
He said, Oh, my son, Absalom, Oh my son, my son, Absalom.
If only I had died instead of you, Oh, Absalom,
(02:03):
my son, my son. Way to pick out an inspirational
scripture to start the year with Verdick, Chapter nineteen, verse one,
Joebb was told the king is weeping and mourning for
Absolom for the whole army. The victory that day was
turned into mourning, which is exactly the opposite of what
God does. God turns a day of mourning into a
(02:27):
day of victory.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Don't believe me, Just.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Ask those disciples who were gathered together in sorrow and
shame one Sunday, only to get the news that what
looked like Hell's final defeat of Heaven was actually the
starting point of salvation. God specializes in turning your day
of mourning into a day of victory. The enemy, however,
with desire to turn your day of victory, or your
position of strength into weakness and sorrow, and that's exactly
(02:54):
what has happened here. The whole army is experiencing mourning
in a time of victory. You know that you can
experience mourning in a time of victory.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
You can experience.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Depression in a place of provision. You can experience what
feels like failure in a season of success. So much
of life is determined not by the event, but by
our ability to process the event on the correct level
as to be blind to our own blessings. We have
many instances, but here David has lost so much in
(03:28):
the course of the battle that he cannot celebrate the victory.
He lost his own son, and we'll see how that
affects him. Now. The troops had heard it, said the
king is grieving for his son. And so the men
stole into the city that day as men steal in,
who are ashamed when they flee from battle. They actually
(03:52):
had defeated the enemy, but their heads were hung in shame.
There would be no parade this day for the king.
Verse four covered his face and cried aloud, Oh, my son, absalom,
oh absalom, my son, my son.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
His focus is so narrowed.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
To what he has lost that he is about to
lose what he has left. He cannot get over what's gone,
and he is about to step right over what is
and miss it because waiting for his support are all
of the troops and the resources for him to reclaim
his throne and get back where he belongs. But he's
(04:37):
not ready yet. He's weeping in isolation over the gate.
And then verse five says that Joe ab his general,
had the guts to go into the house and say
something to the king that nobody else had the guts
to say. Sometimes you need to thank God for the
people in your life. Who say stuff that you don't
(04:59):
like to hear. Those are the ones who often really
love you. Sometimes I see every parent in this room
looking at their teenager. I caught you look at somebody
and say, tell me the truth. You are not my
friend if you don't tell me the truth. God uses
Joe Ab to give David. Watch this the gift of confrontation.
(05:23):
You see how nobody said amen. If I would have
said the gift of comfort, you would have gotten it.
But sometimes the gift of confrontation is greater than the
gift of comfort. And Joe Ab challenges David, who goes
in a house the king, and says, today you have
humiliated all your men who have just saved your life,
(05:44):
and the lives of your sons and daughters, and the
lives of your.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Wives and concubines.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You love those who hate you, and hate those who
love you.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Why do you keep.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Attaching yourself the stuff that is doing you no good?
Why do you keep running back to things that hurt you?
You love those who hate you and hate those who
love you. Why do you keep chasing that which is
trying to walk away at the expense of that which
God has given you? Or as David asked Samuel about saw,
(06:23):
how long will you mourn over what God has rejected?
You made it clear today that the commanders and their
men mean nothing to you. I see that you would
be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of
us were dead.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by
the Lord.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
If you don't go out, not a man will be
loved with you by nightfall.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
This would be worse for you than all the calamities
that have come on you, from your you to mouth.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So the king got up and took his seat in
the gateway. The king gotta and took his seat in
the gateway. That's our theme as we begin the year.
So look at your neighbor and say neighbor, and force
(07:08):
them to make eye contact with you before you go
any further. Tell him get back in the gate. Get
back in the gate. If they're looking at you crazy,
it was the wrong neighbor. Turned to the other one
(07:28):
and say get back in the gate. Get back in
the gate. And so we could understand why David is shook,
because we are seeing here the inextricable connection between character
and confidence. It is impossible to sustain your confidence. With
(07:53):
a faulty character, you can hype yourself up, just bump
yourself in the mirror. You can even get abs and
feel good about those. But without the deep seated core
of character to sustain you in life, it is impossible
to maintain a sense of real confidence.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
He shook.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
He's allowed some things into his life that are now
overpowering him. He lets some things in little by little,
and now it's been years and years of dysfunction. It
wasn't so much the dysfunction that brought trouble to David.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
It was the way he dealt with the dysfunction.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
God knew he was dysfunctional when he picked him out,
and he knew that he had father issues when he
picked him out, and he knew that he was quite
lustful when he picked him out. None of those things
stopped God from choosing him, and so they couldn't stop
God from using him. It is never your dysfunction that
stops God from using you. It is how you choose
to deal with the dysfunction. When David fought Goliath, he
(09:02):
fought him from a distance, which was a strategic thing
because if he came close to him, he would die
by his sword. Goliath was skilled in hand to hand combat,
but David was a slinger. That was the way he
fought Goliath, and it was the way that he had
tried to live his life, and in certain situations it
worked for him until it came to the point when
you may remember this story. It's not told in vacation
(09:24):
Bible school because because it's rated in a it's more
like a Game of Thrones episode really than a Bible story.
When David should have been a war and he wasn't,
and it wasn't where he was. It was where he
wasn't that got him in trouble. It wasn't what he did,
(09:49):
It was what he didn't do that brought him to
a place. Until he had enough freedom of capacity to
entertain thoughts.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
He wouldn't have thought if.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
He'd been doing what he should have done, wouldn't have
been tempted to do what he did.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
But since he did what he did and.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Ended up sleeping with a lady who has taken a
bath named Bathsheba, the Bible was full of these happy coincidences.
Where he messed up wasn't necessarily his sin which was wrong,
but it was the way that he compounded his sin
because he responded to his shame rather than receiving God's grace,
(10:29):
and so rather than deal with the dysfunction and the
decision of his disobedience, he piled several layers of shame
on top of his sin and ended up having her
husband killed. Well. When Nathan the Prophet came to David,
he said, because of the way you've acted, because of
the decisions that you've made, God is going to forgive you,
but you're going to.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Experience some consequences.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Please write this down if you're under the age of eighteen.
You can pick your decisions, but you can't pick your consequences.
And he received grace, but it left a residue, and
the aftermath of david Sinn would play out through the
(11:09):
course of his family line. When his son Amnen raped
his half sister Tamar, and you thought your family was dysfunctional,
you could write a parenting book compared to David. I mean,
David's son raped one of David's daughters from another wife.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Are you following this? Do you feel like you left church.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And went to Jerry Springer nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Hello and Absalom had.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
To do what David wouldn't do because David wanted to
deal with it from a distance rather than confront the dysfunction.
He kept it out here. But you can only keep
it out here so long, just like he did with Bathsheba.
He kept it out here, but only for so long.
It's just a matter of time before the dysfunction shows
up on your doorstep once you let it through the gate.
(11:59):
And so now it's working his way through his family.
And because David will not stand in his place and
make a decision on how to deal with it, even
if it's the wrong one, he makes the greatest mistake
to become passive. The greatest trouble in David's life came
when he became passive, or you might say disengaged disengaged.
(12:25):
I have an Instagram account, and every month our social
media team brings me reports for the engagement on our Facebook,
the engagement on Twitter. The engagement on social media is
how we measure effectiveness.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
How many people.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Are commenting and liking and looking and sharing Engagement. Even
our evam online what's up epam? Maybe you got here
because somebody shared the link with you is called engagement.
I don't think there's ever been a time in the
world where we've been more engaged on the surface and
more disengaged in our souls because we got all these
fake can and fake friendships and fake sexuality and fake
(13:04):
relationships and stuff that won't do you any real good
when the devil fights you in your life because you
are not engaged. Now, Absolom has taken matters into his
own hands. Years ago he killed him and on himself.
He went running, he wanted to come back. David wouldn't
see him. He kept him at a distance. And now
the battle has arrived on his doorstep because he would
(13:24):
not deal with it at the gate. He would not
deal with it when it showed up. So now it
has gained power, and Absolom has actually tried to overturn
his own father as king.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Absolom was pretty smart.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Bible says he was real good looking, had a lot
in common with Rick Parker except one thing. He had
so much hair. The Bible said his hair was so long.
When he would cut it off every spring, it would
weigh two pounds. So he would stand by the gate
with his luxurious locks, and when people would come to
(14:02):
see David, he'd say, oh, Dad's busy.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
If I were king, I'd help you out.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I would hear your matter if I were king, but
I'm not. With four years of that, and he won
their hearts. Be very careful who you let stand at
the gates. You got to be real careful who you
let represent you. And over the course of time, the
Bible says that the hearts of the people were with Absolom.
(14:27):
It ended in a bloody result in the woods of Ephraim,
where Absolom was riding through the forest with his militia
trying to overtake David's men. Now David has crossed the
Kidrin Valley, he has left the throne. He is on
the run, just to survive. Absolom's men catch up with him.
(14:49):
There's only one problem. Absalom's hair gets caught in a tree,
snatches him right off of his horse. Why because the
thing that makes you great outwardly makes vulnerable inwardly. He
gets caught up in the thing that made him so attractive.
And as he is hanging there, Joe ab decides to
(15:09):
end his life. Three knives in him, calls ten men
to slice him up. They send the nudes to David
and he is shaken. He's shaken like any father would
be who lost a son, but perhaps even more deeply
because he feels responsible for it. I kind of wish
sometimes I could talk to my dad just one more conversation.
(15:33):
And I know he's probably listening to this sermon on Heaven.
I know he's part of the Epham Eternal fam But
I wish I could sit down with him for real,
and I would only tell him one thing. This would
be the whole conversation. I thought about a lot because
now I'm raising my own kids, and there are ways
that I judged him when he was raising me that
(15:56):
I would love to go back and say to him
one thing.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
This is what I would say.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
The title of our talk would be, I get it now,
because when I became a teenager, my dad went from
coaching my teams to going out drinking, and I didn't
see him much over those years, and I really thought
he was, to be honest with you, a pretty poor
(16:22):
father during those years.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the fact that he
did not have a dad to show him how to
do it. His father committed suicide, and so on his
ninth birthday, he found his father dead. So without any
frame of reference. He stayed around to raise me. But
what I would tell him now is I get it now.
(16:46):
Because even as much as I love my wife, which
is more than you can possibly imagine, and I love
my kids and I am grateful for them, and we
enjoy some wonderful times together, but there have been times
that I have pulled into my garage, gotten out of
my Nissan Maxima, walked into my house, and fantasized about
(17:09):
getting back into my Nissan Maxima and going back to
work so I could get some rest.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I get it now.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
There are times when the challenge of responsibility will make
you walk away from something that you actually love, and
people will judge you in that moment, and they will
think you're walking away because you're lazy. But you're not
walking away because you're lazy. You're walking away because deep
down inside, I don't know if I have what it takes.
(17:42):
And this is the danger of disengagement.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
It is when you find.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yourself in a state of shame or fear, or trauma
or exhaustion and you walk away from what God gave
you because you don't know how to manage it. It
is the danger of this engagement. It is the danger
of showing up in body and not in mind. I've
(18:11):
learned that there's a big difference between coming to church
and being in church. I've learned that there is a
big difference between coming home and being home. Y'all ain't
gonna say nothing to me all year? Is that how
it's gonna be. You're gonna look at me crazy all year?
Like that? There is a big difference between having a
(18:36):
child and being a mom. And sometimes the temptation is
not to exactly run away, but to just disengage.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I'm disengaged, not.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Because I don't care, but just because I'm afraid.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I don't know if I have what it takes. David,
with shaking, the.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Death of Absalom represented.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
His own failure. If only did you hear him?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
If only I had died instead of.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You, It's my fault. I didn't give you what.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
You needed, And it's my fault you're dead. And now
it's caught up with him, and he's shaken, and he's disengaged.
He's not defeated, he's disengaged. He has the victory, but
he's not acting like it. He's the king, but he's
not where the king is supposed to be. See he's
(19:37):
lost his sense of passion because he's moved from his position.
In ancient times, the cities were well guarded by gates.
Now David is in Mahanaim, which is not Jerusalem, the
capital city, Absolom is there, and he's going to drive
him out, but not yet. The first thing he has
to do is relocate himself around the city. Are two gates,
(20:00):
everybody say, two gates. Our theme for the new year
is gates. I want you to pay great attention right now.
This is very important. In each city there would be
an outer gate that everybody saw. We all have one
of those. We all have the outer gate that people see.
It's our personality that we project into the world, so
people won't judge us, so we will appear successful. Then
(20:23):
there is the inner gate. It's the second line of defense.
We all have one of those two. It's our actions.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Two gates, two gates, two gates, two dates, two gates, and.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
The action happens. Watch this between the gates. The Bible
does not say, put my verse up again, it's my
theme verse that David took his seat. As verse eight
at the gate, it says that he got up and
took his seat what where now. Up until this point,
(21:07):
he's been near the gate, but he wasn't in it.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
He was in isolation.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Above the gate, like a lot of us live our lives,
watching events unfold, but not taking responsibility for our outcomes.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
When we live online in an.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Ecosystem of pretension and narcissism and opinions, but don't really
make a commitment to make a difference in the world,
and we show up in the places that are most
convenient to our ego, but refuse to confront the issues
that sabotage our soul.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
The action happened between the gates.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Not outside and not inside, but often between the gates,
transactions would be made. It was like a marketplace of
the day. Between the gates of the city. There would
be buying and selling, a negotiation between the gates. Profits
like Amos would prophesy to maintain justice in the gates.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
In the gates when Ruth, if you remember the Old Testament.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Story was claimed by Boass her kinsman redeemer, he did
the deal in the presence of ten witnesses in the gate.
When Abraham bought the burial ground for Sarah and the
Old Testament, he bought it in the presence of witnesses
in the gate. It's where the witnesses were, It's where
the judges would sit, It's where negotiations happened. It's where
(22:39):
the conscience of the nation was developed. It's where Absalom
would stand at the gate and before people could go through.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Turn them back.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
After he had promoted his own agenda, and everything changed
for David when he did something so simple. The Bible
says that after all he had lost, and after all
the tears he had cried, and after all the mistakes
he had made, he did something so simple and so profound,
(23:12):
the king got up, left his chamber.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
And took his seat in the gate.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
In other words, I hear David saying, like Arnold Schwarzenegger,
I'm back. My heart is broken, but i'm back. I
made some mistakes, but i'm back. I wish I could
(23:56):
go back and change some things, but I can't.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
But I'm back.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I'm devastated about what happened, but I'm back. I'm uncertain
about the future.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I don't know where it's going to go from here.
I'm a long way from home, but i'm back. Now.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
What I picture in my mind is today, thousands of
people who have gathered to hear this message online or
in person at every location. And I see you getting
up from the failure and the shame and the regret
(24:40):
that has kept you paralyzed, and taking your stand in
the gate of praise and entering His caates with thanksgiving.
I wish seventy people would sup up on your feet
right now and shout at the top of your lungs,
(25:01):
I'm back.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I'm back. Let the devil know I'm back. Let condemnation no,
I'm back. Let my past know I'm back. I'm not perfect,
but i'm back. I don't have a plan down again,
but I'm back.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring, but I'm back.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I'm fine. Everybody you can reach. Hell, I'm bad. I'm
back in it. I'm back in it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Not gonna stand over my life blaming people for the
next twenty.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Years because of the last twenty. Get they behind me, Satan,
I'm bad.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And with the enemy comes, with his accusation and his excuses.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I want you to look.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Him square in the eye before the year even gets started,
good and tell him, Tell them this seat is taken.
I set this seat is taken. No room for you
to run my life because I am seated in heavenly
(26:26):
places with Christ.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Ap back. I'm back in position, I'm back in purpose.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Get back in the gate. Get back in the gate.
You cannot change what you tolerate. Get back in the gate.
You cannot change what you won't fail. Get back in
(27:02):
the gate. You can't change it by complaining. You can't
change it by if only, but now, if you will
take your seat. God has prepared.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
A place for you in the presence of your enemies.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
He might not rid you of your problems, but he
has given you his fresness.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Get that. So I'm back. I'm back.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I'm back, and I'm broken, and I'm better because I
was broken, because I learned how to fight. The battle
(27:59):
in between is not what happens to you, is not
what they say about you. It is what happens between
the gates. That's what I want to study with you
for the next four weeks. I want you to invite
every jacked up person that you know, because we're going
(28:20):
to get our gates back. We have been too flooded
with images and points of view that to do not
promote peace in our lives, and we are practicing the
habits of worry, and we are living in the state
of anxiety. The place of power is when you take
(28:43):
your seat. Watch this. David got up, took his seat
in the gate. He wasn't healed yet, but he's here.
I'm hurting, but I'm here. It's going to be hard,
but I'm here. You know what's cool. You already got
(29:05):
perfect attendance for the year in church. Celebrate yourself and
to get everything he needed. All he had to do
is what Kendrick said. All he had to do.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Was sit down. When he sat down, all of his
men came to him.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Your weapons are waiting for you to take your place.
Your weapons. You're waiting for your weapons to come. Your
weapons will not come until you take your place. This
is the place of responsibility. This is the place of
owning your story. This is the place of dealing with
(29:54):
your dysfunctions, not from a distance.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
This is the place of power.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
We fight the enemy in the wrong place, and we
wait for things to appear that are waiting for us
in our assignment. And I feel the spirit of God
on me this year to teach this message on the
gates of change.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Each of us is standing at a gate of change.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
And there are four gates that I want to teach
you about over the next four weeks.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Here's the key.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
This gate only opens from the inside. It only opens
from the inside. This battle has to be fought at
the gate. Keep that camera shot on me real quick.
I want to show them. Just keep that tight shot. Ryah,
the tight shot right there. Do not move that camera,
no matter what I do, or no matter what you
are trained to do. I am overriding your training right now.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Do not move that camera.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Not.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
The only way.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
For us to get the back of his head off
the bottom of that screen is for me to get back.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Where I belong. Watch this.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
The camera is not broke. I'm just out of place.
Oh no, let's get a new camera. No, you need
to get a new attitude. You don't need a new wife.
You need a new mindset. You need to get back
in the gate. You got a good wife, that's why
(31:28):
you married her. If you would get in the game, maybe.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
I don't want to run them off. Week one. They
just got back. Somebody sat up back.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And when he got back in the gate, everything he
needed came to him.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
You don't have to chase it. Goodness and mercy will follow.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Get back, get back, get back, get back.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
You don't have to be perfect, just be present.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
And Isaiah said, I want us to think about this,
and I'll start here next week. You're coming next week.
Tell somebody get back, get back, get back, get back,
do what you gotta do to get back. You should
cancel some stuff just to let the devil know this
year that God is your priority.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
And be in church. Set six alarms if you have to,
and be here because the word you need might be here.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Hold the camera shot tight, hold the camera shot tight,
and if you're over here, you will miss the word
that was waiting for you. So I got to be
here because Isaiah says, stand I'm closing. I'm closing. I'm closing.
Isaiah said that God will be Oh, I got so
(33:03):
much to teach you. I can't wait. This is just
a syllabus. Now, this isn't even the class. Tell somebody,
I'm coming back. I'm coming back. I'm coming back. He
will be Listen to what the Lord Almighty is Isaiah,
who prophesied so eloquently of Jesus Christ. He will be
a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment.
(33:27):
He gives justice when you are in the seat of judgment,
and he will be a source of strength to those
who turn back the battle at the gate. A lot
(33:48):
of the defeats that you have been suffering have been
because you've been fighting them on the wrong level. You've
been fighting them in the wrong place. But this is
our year to stop it. At the source. He will
be a source of strength. Starts with God, not with me.
(34:10):
This is not self help. This is the overflowing, abundant
spirit of God that empowers believers, the spirit of justice,
the holy spirit of God. He will be a source
of strength to him who sits in judgment and turns
(34:32):
back the battle at the gate. If David had dealt
with Absalom at the gate, Absolom wouldn't have had to
die in the forest. And sometimes we let the devil
come all the way in, and then we pray to
(34:52):
God to get him off of our backs.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
But the time to turn the devil back is at
the gate.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
The time to turn depression back.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Is at the gate.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
And there is a word from God that will push
back the.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Darkness, but it has to happen at the gate.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
We're gonna learn about these gates for the next four weeks,
But it begins with the decision for you to take
your place in the gate, and we're gonna start getting
intentional about our thoughts so that we win the battle between.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
The gates.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
We're gonna put Christ back on the throne, and then
we're gonna sit right there by him and guard our gates.
I am seeded in heavenly places. If you're hearing this
word right now, rejoice where you are.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Rejoice in your kitchen.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Come on, when you enter his gates with pray, you
drive back the devil before he ever gets a chance
to sit down at your kitchen table.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
We're gonna turn back the devil, and we're.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Gonna make some decisions early this year. We're gonna set
up some areas of our life where we're not gonna
negotiate anymore. We're getting back in the gate. And the
promise of God is this, that the gates of hell
will not prevail against it. There is so much revelation
(36:34):
that God wants to release, But this gate of change
opens from the inside. So I want you to lift
your hands now. If you feel comfortable, stand to your feet.
Some people think that lifting your hands is some sort
of denominational thing for exuberant emotional people, but really is
just for people who know they need God.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
I get it now, Dad.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Sometimes it's easier to run than to take responsibility. And
sometimes you don't run because you don't care.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
You run because you're scared.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You run because you're a shamed You run because you've
tried to change before. And so you live your life
in a chamber of isolation. But God is calling you
back in the gate. And I know you've been embarrassed
about some things, and I know you don't really believe
in yourself anymore, and you haven't kept some promises to yourself,
so you don't feel like making anymore. And I know
some people around you have kind of boxed you in.
(37:31):
They think they know how you are and you're not
going to be any different. But Jesus said, I am
the gate, not what people did, not even what you
think of yourself. I am the gate. Well, we come
before you this year, some of us with heavy hearts,
(37:54):
but all of us with expectation.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You didn't leave us here for nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
You didn't bring us into twenty eighteen just to drop
us at the gate.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
So we're going in.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
We're going in, We're going to enter in your gates
with thanksgiving and your courts with praise God. We're also
bringing some baggage. We're bringing some pain, and we're bringing
some questions. We're bringing some anxieties. We're bringing some ith onlies.
(38:31):
We're dropping them off at the gate, and we are
entering into your joy. Thank you, Lord for the revelation
that you've given us today. It has been so sweet
and meaningful.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
The change have fallen now because of the sound of
your word echoing forth from the portals of heaven and
doing what only you can do in the hearts of people.
I believe this is just the beginning, and so I
pray that this series would be unlike any that we've
ever known. The gates of change open from the inside.
(39:02):
You're a mighty God, and as we praise you today,
we expect the best of Heaven to empower us in
broken places. Have your way, God, 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.
(39:23):
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
can share it with your friends. You can click the
share button, take a screenshot and share it on your
social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again
for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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