September 26, 2025 • 47 mins
We love comfort. But it may be getting in the way of God’s plan for our lives. See why being comfortable may not be what God wants for us.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
There is a passage of scripture that has always fascinated me,
and I knew it was the one to start this
series with because most of my sermon ideas come from
a text, usually a text in the Bible. But this
whole series came to me through a text on my
phone and somebody texted me, but I didn't have their
(00:38):
number in my contacts, but they had texted me before
and their name was in the text. So you know,
Steve Jobs is so smart, even from beyond the grave.
He made a suggestion on my iPhone and he said maybe,
and then it said it could be this person. And
when I saw it on my phone, I realized that
that would make an amazing way to spend several weeks
(01:00):
in the Word of God talking about those times where
we don't know if it's God or not, and so
we're trying to lead our families some of us, or
we're trying to get our education, or we're trying to
decide about jobs or dates, or trying to decide about
moving to a new house or new apartment, or just
trying to figure out what it is that we were
(01:21):
put here on earth for. But the series is called
Maybe God, Maybe God. We worship a God who can
be best explained as mystery, and yet we live in
a culture that worships certainty. And so I want to
talk about that for several weeks with you. And I'm
so glad you're here. Touch somebody and say he's so
happy you're here. That preacher, That preacher is happy you're here.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
That's true. I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And what I need you to do right now is
give you attention just to this text in First Samuel,
chapter three, where we will encounter a young man who's
encountering God. And I pray that we will encounter God
in the process today. First Samuel three, verse one. The
boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days,
the word of the Lord was rare. There were not
(02:12):
many visions. One night, Eli, whose eyes were becoming so
weak that he could barely see was lying down in
his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet
gone out touch somebody say, there's still time, There's still time.
I know you might have got off track in your life,
but there's still time. I know there might be some
(02:34):
things out of order in your house, but there's still time.
I know you might have wasted some years chasing your
own ways, but God brought you here because there's still time.
God left you here because there's still time. If you're
still breathing, there's still time. I got a friend named
Perry Noble. His favorite quote is, if you're not dead,
God's not done.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
And I just believe that. I believe it.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So the light had not yet gone out out, and
Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord,
where the ark of God, which symbolized the presence of
God was, And then the Lord called Samuel, and Samuel answered,
here I am. And he ran to Eli and said,
here I am. You called me, but Eli said I
(03:19):
didn't call go back to sleep, man, wake me up
in the middle of the night. I didn't call you.
Go back and lie down. So he went and lay
down again. The Lord called Samuel, and Samuel got up
and went to Eli and said, here, I am. This
(03:43):
is really strange, right like, because you expect when God
calls it'll sound so deep. So baritone Samuel apparently it sounded.
It sounded so much like what he was used to
being that he ran to the place where he normally
(04:04):
went and he was like, here, I am, you called me,
my son. Eli said, I did not call, go back.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And lie down, but you need an ambient, a weighted.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Blanket, some milk, a cookie.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed
to him. A third time, the Lord called Samuel, and
Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here,
I am, you call me. I know you're messing with me.
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.
So Eli told Samuel go and lie down. If he calls,
(04:48):
you say speak Lord, for your servant is listening. The
title of this message is something that I have heard
people say to me of all ages, of all ethnicities,
of all econom status positions. And I want you to
look at the screen for the title of my message.
It goes like this, I'm confused about my calling. I'm
(05:11):
confused about my calling. I love God and I love
my family and I want to make a difference. But
look at somebody next to you and say you look confused.
Tell them I am, I'm confused about my call. Lord
have your way, speak your word. We're listening in Jesus' name. Amen,
(05:34):
Now be seated. You are forgiven. If when I say
calling you roll your eyes a little bit. It is
one of these terms that is so popular in culture
that it almost means nothing anymore, and it can be
(05:56):
frustrating the older you get when people talk about lofty
ideals like finding your calling. You need to find your calling,
and you know, well, for most of us, that's way
outside of the realm of our everyday life where we're
trying to pay bills. It's like, you know, you need
(06:18):
to find your calling, and you're like, well, I'm doing
good to find my keys in the morning, and you
want to talk about finding your calling. And as much
as I understand that, I also understand that there's a
reason that the majority of questions that I have been
asked as a pastor in these thirteen years going on
fourteen years, the reason for it is that there is
(06:42):
something inside of you that wants to find the thing
that you were made to do, and you will never
be satisfied with anything else. And no matter how much
sex you have, money you make, friends you meet, no
matter how big the house is that you build, no
matter how many cars you park in the driveway, there
will always be something unsatisfied in you until you find
(07:05):
that thing that we call a calling.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And yet, and yet, so much damage.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Has been done in popular culture by the concept of
calling that it actually makes us discontent with our lives
because rather than understand the real nature of a calling,
we have a concept of a calling, and often we
spend our lives wishing that we were doing something that
God did not tell us to do.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
So to break this first sermon down.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Today, and there will be several in this series, I'm
praying that you come.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
To all of them.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And I'm praying if you can't come to all of them,
you'll watch them all because they're all online for free.
And I can't figure out a reason in the world
why you couldn't spend forty minutes with me on YouTube
each week, even if you have to do it while
you're walking the dog, even if you have to do
it while you're falling.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Asleep, I'll put you to sleep. I don't mind whatever
I can get.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I'll help you run on the treadmill, whatever you have
to do to get these messages. The Bible says in
verse one that in those days, while Samuel, the twelve
year old who was apprenticing in the tabernacle because his
mother Hannah, prayed that she could have a son, and
she had trouble conceiving. And when she finally had the son,
she dedicated him to the Lord, and she dropped him
(08:20):
off at age four and only saw him once a year,
and she put him under Eli, who wasn't doing a
very good job. He was letting his sons run around
in the tabernacle and have sex with women at the
entrance to the tabernacle, and he knew about it, but
he wouldn't do anything about it. And he was letting
his sons beat people up who had brought their sacrifice
to the temple, and they brought their sacrifice to God,
(08:43):
but the priests took it for themselves. Hofney and phineas
Eli's sons, would send their messenger out to the tent
and say, hey, Hoffney said, you got to give him
the fat portion, And the people who came would be like, well,
that's for the Lord. They can get the portion after
it burns off, that's the priest portion. But they had
gotten confused about what it meant to honor God, and
they had started honoring themselves and their opinions and their desires,
(09:06):
and they started treating God as common. And so the
Bible says something interesting in verse one. It says, in
those days, with all of that going on, the word
of the Lord was rare because they treated the Lord
as common.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
The word of the Lord was rare.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Because we live in a day where it is so
easy to get information but so difficult to get truth.
I figured this verse would apply to us. Would you
agree with me that we are drowning in information, drowning
in opinion, drowning in agenda, drowning in projections, but starving
(09:52):
for truth.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
You know I'm right about it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It's such a crazy time. You don't know who to
trust anymore. You don't know if it's real, know if
it's fake. You don't know if it's inflated. You don't
know if it's a statistic. And let me give you
a statistic. Eighty three percent of statistics are made up.
That's a statistic. I made it up. It's a time
where truth is hard to find. And it doesn't mean
that there wasn't access to the Bible. God knows we
(10:17):
have access to the Word of God. You could pull
out your phone right now and a British person will
read you the Bible on the Bible at That made
me think of something real funny. One time, Graham asked
me do British people find American accents soothing?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Probably not.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
But here's the thing about it. It's not access to
the Word of God. It's our attitude to the Word
of God.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
It's our attitude.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
It's why some people can come into church and look
narcoleptic in church. That's why some people can come into
church and leave during the invitation. God forbid it takes
you seven minutes to get the cracker barrel. It's why
some people can click around to different sermons and be like, Ah,
I don't know Fredi's not on today.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I'm gonna go over here to this one and that one.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And that's what See, when the Word of God becomes
common to us, we will have access to the Word
of God, but it will not have impact on our life.
And so the first thing I wanted to mention is
the culture. The culture in Eli's time was a culture
of neglect, a culture where the value of who God
(11:35):
was and what he.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Said was negotiable.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Therefore there was an absence of that special presence of God.
The word of the Lord was rare because the Lord
of the Word had become common. And I just want
to say to you today that many of our cultural
concepts of calling are really just self help, individualistic, ambition
(12:04):
oriented delusions dressed up in Christian cliches. And because you
got a trophy when you were seven does not mean
you get to play Major League Baseball. And the culture
(12:26):
of our day is kind of like, instead of worshiping God,
we worship our idea of God's will, And rather than
being in relationship with God, we want God to be
a resource.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Who is more like Siri than he is like a savior.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I don't know if you come back next week the
way I'm starting to sermon, but we need to get
something straight right off the bat that until I treasure
the voice of God, tell you the voice of God,
hearken to the voice of God, make time for the
voice of God, consecrate myself, I can't get it by skimming.
(13:09):
I can't get it by just you know, running around
to this person and that person.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
It is the revealed will of God that we're after.
It is the revealed will of God.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Now, when I was in my twenties, I did all
this teaching and preaching. And now you know, now that
I'm wiser, I turned forty next year, you'll better start
working on my gift now, because it's a big one.
It's kind of cringey for me to look back on
the way I spoke about calling in my twenties that
(13:52):
probably left people feeling at the very least confused, at
worse frustrated, and maybe even full of resentment because the
way it happened in my life is different for all
of us. Here's Samuel, who is receiving a revelation of God,
And in my life, I never heard anything audible that
(14:15):
God said to me. I never, you know, the Lord
never said Fardich Steve, what God called you by your
last name for someone don't know, but he said. He
never said, you know, preach to me out loud. There
were desires, there were opportunities. I noticed some effectiveness. It's
the weirdest thing. When I first got up to pray
(14:36):
for Pastor Mickey, who asked me to pray at a
Lions Club meeting. I noticed that people seem to be
blessed as I prayed, and they connected him. And it
took Pastor Mickey to explain to me that that was
the hand of God.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
All my life I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
If he hadn't been there to guide me, I would
have maybe thought I was just a charismatic speaker. He
helped me to see that there was something supernatural involved.
And I was sixteen years old, and I had someone
who had been around long enough to see some things
to tell me it was special. Otherwise I wouldn't have
(15:15):
known him. Now here's what I did with that knowledge.
I preached in my twenties that just like God called
me to preach, God has called each Christian.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
To do something.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
You agree with that, But here's the part that I
think was incomplete. While I'd be up there saying to people,
you need to find your calling. You need to find
your calling. You need to find your calling. You need
to find your calling. You need to find your calling.
You find your calling. You need to find your calling.
You need to find your calling. You need to find
your calling. You need to find your calling. You need
to find a calling, because he gets annoying after a while. Right,
(15:48):
It's like I'm just trying to like I need a job, man,
I don't know about a calling.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I've need a raise right now.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Is that it makes it sound as if it's something
that you can just get and just know. And yet
did you notice in the passage that even Samuel, who
was the link between the period of the Judges and
the monarchy of Israel a thousand years before Jesus, that
even Samuel, who none of his words fell to the ground,
(16:20):
even Samuel didn't get it right the first time. I
don't know why, but that encourages me just reading this
little story, to know that there's someone that God used
to do something great.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
And he called him and he chose him.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
But even this great prophet didn't get it right the
first time. I want to set you free today from
the feeling that you have to find your calling. That's
a cultural concept, it's not a biblical one. You don't
have to find your calling. In fact, if the tech
(17:00):
this correct, if Samuel is an illustration, then I don't
have to find my calling, because if I will serve
the purpose of the season that I'm in in my
life right now, watch this, get ready to shout.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
My calling will find.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Me in that good news, Christian soldiers, aren't you glad
to know that?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
When Samuel heard a voice and he didn't even know
whose voice it was.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And here's the thing about it, I want to talk
about the culture, and then I want to talk about
the contact, the contact, because when he first heard the voice,
it sounded like something he had heard before. Have you
ever noticed is hard to know the difference between when
you're speaking to you and when God is speaking to you.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And watch out for the Christians.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Who are running around so sure that it's God speaking
to them. Those are the weird ones. These are the
crazy ones. I mean, I'm serious. You gotta watch out
for him. And they're here at Elevation, just like they're
at every church. And they'll find you in the bathroom
and they'll have a word from the Lord for you,
and they don't even know you. And it's weird because
it's the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Can I wash my hands?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
If God spoke to you, he'll do it in the lobby.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Now, let me finish using the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'm serious, because I'm a preacher and people always think
I want to be spiritual, and people will stop me
in the bathroom sometimes at a restaurant and give me
a word from the Lord. But if it was really
the Lord, he would have told you it's weird to
talk to people in the bathroom and wait till a
man gets outside, because there is such a thing as germs,
and God doesn't cancel out germs. I don't want your
pphetic word. Well, I'm trying to so, but because he
(18:37):
gets weird, because he gets weird, we still have to
realize that the only way that the will of God,
or the word of God or the voice of God
can be recognized. That's what the Bible said that Eli
(18:57):
who was old, who couldn't see fys. I've been on
this thing lightly that we really need people in our
life who are older than us, who have been along
the journey and to respect the price that they paid,
and to not just think that because they don't go
on SoundCloud or because they don't have a lot of
Instagram followers, that they have nothing to teach us. I'm
really seeing the value and people who they may not
(19:20):
have the physical vision that they used to have, but
they can discern spiritual things. And Eli wasn't even a
perfect priest. In fact, God was in the process of
moving him out of the way. And even in that transition,
because the whole passage is about transition. It's Samuel transitioning
from a boy to a man, from boys to men.
(19:42):
I was just thinking, you know, it's hard to say goodbye.
But when Eli is transitioning out, and when Samuel is
transitioning up and he's ultimately stepping into the thing God
created him for. God deals with Samuel, but he does
it through Eli. And whatever God is going to speak
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in your life is going to come in the context
of relationships. And I chose the word contact to describe
it because whoever you put around you the most will
start to affect the voice inside.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Of you that speaks to you. And have you ever.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Noticed that God's voice sometimes in your life sounds like
your wife. Sometimes for me, it sounds like my kids.
Sometimes in my life I've noticed that if I am
not selective about my contacts, I will start hearing I
don't mean like out loud voices. I don't want you
(20:49):
to send me off after I've preached today or anything
like that.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I mean the voice in my mind a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
When I was going through a counseling session to try
to understand myself better. The one thing that the therapist
would keep saying, is whose voice is that? You know
these things you say to yourself, You go like, uh,
you know, I'm so stupid and you never get anything right,
and well, of course you screwed it up, you screw
everything up, you know all that.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
And she keeps saying, whose voice is that? Whose voice
is that?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And I didn't know if she was just trying to
get me to say, you know, it was my dad.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
You know. Oh, like the point of all therapy. My
diapers were too tight. I dit it.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But what I realized is that most of us who
are not clinically insane don't actually hear voices. We process thoughts, right,
so we say the voice of God? How does the
voice of God come into your life?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Through thoughts? Through thoughts?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
And that's why Samuel was confused, right because he heard something,
so he went where he knew to go. And I
want to point out something about this. He did the
right thing, He did the right thing. He ran. I
noticed the Bible said that when he heard his name
called Samuel first of all. It didn't sound it didn't
(22:07):
sound strange to him. It sounded like what he was
used to. So he ran because that's what he did,
because he had the right passion.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
But he ran to the wrong person.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Some of you right now, you had the right passion,
but you're running to the wrong person or the wrong place.
Now this is not only true in the case of Samuel.
It was true of Moses. God called him to deliver
his people from the Egyptians. Moses had the right passion,
but where he messed up. Listen to this, U see
(22:43):
when he killed the Egyptian. It was the right passion,
but it was misplaced. He tried to do it his way.
He didn't get it right the first time. And some
of the things that you've gotten wrong in your life,
some of the mistakes that you've made, it was God's
stirley you up. But it was Eli that you ran to.
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You ran to the thing that God was trying to
remove out of your life because that's what you were
used to. You ran to the thing that you were
familiar with because it's all your mind could understand. And
so God gave you a gift, but you used that
gift for you for a little while.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Until you found out.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Unless I offer the gift back to the giver, it's
going to come back empty. But God brought you here
today to let you know. That was my voice calling you.
That was me that gave you that talent. That was
me that made you good at that. That was me
that opened the door for you. That was me that
gave you that responsibility. That was me that gave you health.
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That was me that gave you strength. That was Me
that gave you that connection. It was him the whole time.
It was It was the Lord that called Samuel, but
it was Eli that Samuel ran to.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
What are you running to? If you're run if you're.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Running to something that is not your purpose, you feel it.
You feel it in several ways. But one of the
things I want to mention is I'm trying to surround
myself in this stage.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Of my life with people who bring out the God
in me. And that's just me.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I don't mean I'm going to be mean to people
who don't know the Lord, or I'm going to go
out and.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Live in a monastery or something like that.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
But you know, there are some there are some texts.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
That I don't return in this stage of my life
because I feel like I'm in a season where I'm
trying to do important things and my calling is valuable,
and so my contacts are very important because certain stuff
is contagious, and I know there are certain people. When
(24:49):
I get around them, I feel something rising me that
lets me know I can overcome. And I need them
around me. I need them to rub off on me.
I need them to speak into my life. I need
them to encourage me. I don't need people who are
laying back on the last thing God did in this
season of my life.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I need people to push me forward. Yes I do, Yes,
I do.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I gotta be careful reading the comments on my Instagram
in this season because whatever I may contact with I
catch and see.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I need the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I need vision, I need hope, I need purpose, I
need security.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And so.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
He runs to Eli, but Eli tells him is God
you need to speak to and the right contact in
your life will always point you back to the only
one who has real power.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Thank you God for this word. I feel your spirit
on this one.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
This is gonna help you because one the concept of
calling that most of us have is that you're going
to go on a forty day fast in the Holy Land,
and God's gonna speak to you when you walk where
Jesus walked and the Sea of Galilee. But the Lord
is not going to speak to you on the Sea
of Galilee from a voice on the water.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
He's gonna speak to you.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
And I know you don't want to hear it because
it's sexy to thing that someday there's going to be
a voice that speaks from heaven. It's not going to
be like that. It's gonna sound like Eli. It's gonna
sound like Eli. And it is through Eli that God
calls Samuel Eli. This isn't Billy Graham. This is the
(26:38):
dude who blew it. And this is how bad he
blew it. Watch what ultimately happens when Samuel laughter three times?
Everybody say three times? How many times do I have
to tell you? One time, Holly, she loses her temper
with our kids a lot. Y'all pray for her. It's kiddy.
It's a very patient mom. But one time she was
so mad at Elijah. He was only about four.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
She said, how many times do I have to tell you? You?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Got this real fear look in his eyes? He goes
three times. Look at the verse eight again a third time.
How many are glad that God has called, waiting that
God will call you again? Ask Jonah. Jonah wasn't even
(27:23):
a talented preacher. He didn't have funny stories, he didn't
have good charisma, he didn't even like people. But God
used him because when God calls you, he will call back.
You know how there are some people when you call them,
you have to call them, and so you're secretly hoping
you get their voicemail because you really don't want to
talk to them anyway. Some of you think God is
(27:45):
like that, like he really wants someone else and he's
really glad that he doesn't have to deal with you.
But God wants you. God wants you. God shows you.
God put the genetics in you, the DNA in you,
the passion in you, the opportunity is for you. What
God has for you, it is for you. That's why
you don't have to be jealous, insecure, bitter, resentful.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
That's why you don't have to get back.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That's why you don't have to take revenge, because what
God has for you is for you.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Y'all awake, Somebody shout here.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I am and that was really the answer, because it's
not only the culture that confuses us in our calling.
It's not only our contacts sometimes, but it's the conflict
of calling. The conflict of calling is great on an
(28:46):
internal and an external level. Now what Samuel did next,
What a beautiful little story right to show us that
God repeats things.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Way I know he's speaking.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
You ever notice this when God is trying to get
your attention. It's kind of like when you're shopping for
a certain car and you start seeing them everywhere. When
God wants to get a message across to you, he'll
he'll put you in the market for it, and you
never even looked at anybody else's beats. But now you're like, well,
what's that one? How's that one different than that one?
And this one and the other one? Because I'm in
(29:23):
the market for God. When you get in the market
for God, you start noticing that He's He's been speaking
all along, just like just like there was there was confirmation.
I didn't have time to put this word in the sermon.
It starts with the letter see, so it could be
a bonus point confirmation God. God will speak something over here,
over here, over here, and you'll start noticing it. You'll
(29:44):
start noticing little things, and then it'll you hear it
in the sermon, and then you hear it in a movie,
and then you hear it in a song, and then
you hear it you see it on somebody's the back
of their window, and then you hear it through your husband,
and then you hear it through and you just see
it and just hear it, and you start seeing it
and you start hear and then you have to discern,
which is to separate. That's what Eli did. He discerned.
The Hebrew word is being. He discerned, he separated. He
(30:07):
made a distinction. He had a discernment to know. This
is the Lord calling the boy. So he said, when
it happens again, and this is the word of the
Lord for you when it happens again. When it happens again,
if it happens again, just say speak Lord.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Your servant is listening, and I want to show you
something that the Lord.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Just show me. His greatest revelation happened in rest. Eli
didn't say, Oh, that may be God.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
You better run out and catch him before he leaves. Well,
if God spoke to you, better chase him now. No.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
If it was God's speaking, he'll come back. All you
got to do is be in position for it. That's
all you've got to do. You don't have to find it,
it'll find you, trust me. God is not playing hide
and seek in the Tabernacle. God is not running around
the tent.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Haha.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
If I hide behind this table of chowbred, Samuel will
never find me back here. God's not hiding behind the
labor you know, He's not hiding. And even though God
is always moving, he's never hiding. That's what the Tabernacle
(31:28):
was was a portable structure, and they set it up
in the wilderness because they never knew when God was
going to say stop and when God was going to
stay go. Why Because God does not want you to
depend on his will. He wants you to depend on him.
There's a difference. One is God, just show.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Me what to do. That way I won't need you.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
The other one is God, I want you wherever you
lead me, wherever you take me, whatever it means, whatever
it costs, and whatever it looks like. But here's the conflict.
Because Samuel goes in and he lays down Bible says
he didn't know the Lord yet he knew. He knew
(32:08):
how to bake the bread in the tabernacle, that was
his job. He knew how to open the doors so
people could come worship. He knew how to follow Eli
around and get me this and get me that. But
there's a big difference between the rituals of religion and
a relationship with God. And if you're going through the motions,
(32:29):
like you know, singing songs, not really thinking about the words,
just kind of singing them, or just kind of like
hearing little forgettable things that I say in my sermon,
you know, you won't even remember what it was about
fifteen minutes after I'm done. It's possible that you don't
(32:51):
know the Lord yet. I don't mean you're not a Christian,
not necessarily. I don't mean you don't believe in God.
Don't mean not necessarily. But to know him is to
know his voice. And when you know him like that,
you can hear things that are hard to hear. But
(33:12):
you can know that even when he says things that
are hard for you to hear, he says them from
a spirit of love, grace purpose. One of my friends
is a real overtext. I can't keep up with him
(33:32):
and I love him, but my thumb's hurt and I
can't do it. And I don't voice text because it's
annoying because it corrects the wrong words the wrong way,
and you can get in trouble that way and say
something you didn't mean to say, end up firing somebody
you meant to hire. But it changes. It doesn't know
because your voice anyway. One time he texted me, he said,
(33:52):
how come our conversation is all gray on iPhone when
they text you, it's gray when you text back blue.
When he said that, I wondered if sometimes my relationship
with God is all gray to where he is speaking
and he is prompting and he is provoking. But God
(34:17):
can speak, speak speak. Three times he did it. God
didn't say anything different the third time except this when
he said, speak Lord, your servant is listening, and he
laid down in his place.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I got to hit that real quick. I know we're
running out.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Of time, but it says Samuel went and laid down
in his place.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
That's first nine. Put it up.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Samuel went and lay down in his place, in his place,
in his place. You will realize God's purpose when you
get in your place, touch somebody next to you and say,
get in your place, because if God is dropping off
the mail but you're not home, you won't get it,
and you'll think he didn't send it, and you'll think
he didn't. But I learned something with my friend. It
(35:02):
was it was not just the conflict of the calling.
It was the color. It was all gray. But the
breakthrough is in the blue. It's not just when God speaks.
It's when you get in your place and say, God,
here I am the real me, the honest me, the
open me, the ready me, the humble me, the broken
(35:24):
down me.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
The meat that is ready to do your will.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Because I've done my will and I saw how that
worked out, and I'm ready to do your will. That's
what Isaiah said. He said, I'm an unclean man with
unclean lips. But if you'll take that coal and touch
my lips, I'll speak for you. Because Holy, Holy, Holy
is the Lord God Almighty.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
So here I am. I'll go. Moses stood at a bush.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
He turned aside, took off his shoes and said, God,
I'm slow of speech, I'm not eloquent, and you saw
the things I did that put me in this predicament.
But if it's you calling here, I am somebody shout here.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
I am.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Jeremiah said, I'm too young for this, and your people
are stubborn and you know they're not gonna listen. But
if this's you calling me here, I am somebody shout here.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
I am.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And the reason I'm confused about my calling is because
I don't just have one. This is what I didn't
know in my twenties, because I felt like God called
me to preach. You felt like God called you to
do something, put you somewhere. I mean, maybe it wasn't
something big spectacular. Maybe you're not gonna do a halftime
(36:30):
show at the super Bowl with it, but God called
you to do something. I just saw your Patriots gear
made me think of the super Bowl. God bless you man.
Congratulations on that. I hope you're happy. Now.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
How many is a it gonna take for you guys to.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Shut up about it? But there's a there's a blessing
in it. There's a blessing in it, even if it's
a small thing. And you say, okay, God called me
to do this. But then what happens is, look, I
was called to preach, right, so I start preaching. I
start going on preaching. I'm preaching everywhere, preaching everywhere. They
asked me to come preaching. I'm preaching at the lock
in I appreach. So I preached some one time, so
late at the night. It was three am, and I
had this sermon illustration where I would take a mirror
(37:01):
and I'd break the mirror, and I preach Genesis one
twenty six about the image of God. And Holly can
tell you we knew where the mirrors were in every
walmart in the state of South Carolina, because every time
we get to a new little town to preach the
fifteen kids, I'd go in and get a mirror and
then I'd break it with a hammer, and I say,
this is what send us to you, you know, put
the condemnation on the young people.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Just put it on them. Are breaking mirrors.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
And one boy went to the emergency room because the
glass flew up and hit him in the eye, and
I had to call his parents and tell him not
to sue me.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I'm a man of God and I got a.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Ministry, and if you assume me, God's going to curse
you and make you. But I didn't say that, But
I was running around preaching right but then I married Holly,
and I realized I'm called to be her husband too.
Come on, it's the conflict of calling. It's complicated. You
can make it sound sump. We find your calling which one?
(37:53):
Because then I was called to be a preacher and
a husband, and sometimes they needed different techniques. What if
I walked home, I said, Holly, give him a seal
of praise. It's different callings. That's three people, just I guess,
just does. And then by the time I'm getting these callings,
(38:22):
you know, I got how many? You got at least
two callings in your life, at least two things that
you're responsible for, and they're in conflict. Sometimes Here she
comes pregnant four years into marriage.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Here she turns up pregnant. Now I'm called to be
a parent. Now I'm called to.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
You feel like you're not just putting on different hats,
but you actually have like different heads. I read that
in that Sitser book, The Will of God is a
way of life. He said, I felt like I didn't
just have different hats. I had different heads. And this
is the conflict of calling. But the answer is always availability, presence, access.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
When he said, speak Lord, your servant is listening.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
It created access not only for God's word to come
to him, but for God's work to come through him.
And what God said was difficult. He said, I'm transitioning.
Not only am I transitioning you from an apprentice to
a priest, from a priest to a prophet, but I'm
transitioning Eli and his Son's out of the earth so
(39:34):
that my purpose can be fulfilled.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
I'm transitioning.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I'm transitioning, and you're going to have to go through
a difficult transition right now. But by the time we
get to First Samuel four, verse one, the Bible says
that Samuelil's word came to all Israel. I was curious
why I didn't say God's word through Samuel. But by
(39:58):
this point in First Samuel four, because Samuel said, here
I am speak Lord, we have now gone from the
word of the Lord was rare. To the word of
Samuel came to all Israel because he had gotten to
a point where he heard God's voice on the level
(40:19):
that when he spoke, what he spoke came directly from
the throne of God. God wants to get us to
the place where we are not running around all the
time talking about what we're gonna do one day. Some
of you are using the concept of a calling as
(40:39):
a crutch to not fully embrace the season of life
that you're in, and that is not the will of
God for you. And you may be called to be
a mom one day, but if you're not a mom
right now, can you say, here I am to this season.
And you may be called to own your own business
one day, but can I just say that in the meantime,
the only thing that God has ever wanted from you
(41:02):
was all of you. The only thing that God has
ever asked of you is here I am. It's what
Jeremiah said, It's what Moses said, it's what Isaiah.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Said, It's what Samuel said.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
And when he made himself available, the word of God
became abundant. I want you to stand to your feet,
because God has been speaking your whole life. He's been
speaking through hard things. He's been speaking through painful things.
(41:36):
He's been speaking through pleasure, passion, he's been speaking through rejection,
he's been speaking through restlessness. It wasn't that God wasn't speaking,
is that the people had lost their ability to listen.
And so God said to Samuel, before you can speak
(41:56):
for me. I need you to learn to listen. This
is what God wants to find tune in our lives
over the next few weeks. This is what God wants
to do in your heart over the next few weeks,
because honestly, some of you are still running to Eli
when it's really God. Some of you are running trying
(42:18):
to find something out there when God is trying.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
To speak to you in your place.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
That's what got me this time, because I didn't preach
that last night, but when I was speaking to you,
God was speaking to me, and I try to listen,
and he said, tell him stay in your place. Samuel
didn't wake up that morning looking for a calling. And
maybe that's the problem with us, Maybe that we've made
this thing about calling and what God has for my life.
(42:47):
What if what God has called you to first and
foremost is himself.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Wouldn't that set you free?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
That the will of God is not which job, The
will of God is not which school you.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Put your kids in. My God.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
I was talking to Buck the other day. One thing
I love about Monk's Corner better than Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
There was two schools you could go to. There was
just two.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
It was the public one and the one that everybody
that smoked weed at the public one got.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Sent to the Christian school. But listen to me. We've
made the will of God a resource. It's not a resource.
It's a relationship. It's a relationship. It's a relationship.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
So I want us to go through this next several
weeks not looking for clarity, certainty, but confidence to know
that if I will make myself available to this calling
in this moment, his speak, he will speak. Question is
will you respond? What I've learned to do now is
(44:09):
not necessarily say this is God or this isn't God.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I got this new thing. It may be God. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Only way for me to find out. The only way
I can experience the breakthrough is in the blue.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
So speak, Lord. I'm listening.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Say that to your life, say that to your pain,
Say that to what you think was your mistake. You
know what your mistake may be, God, he may, I'm
gonna show you that next week. That's my sermon.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Next week.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I am gonna show you next week how your mistakes
are miracles in disguise. In disguise, the presence of the
Lord is in this place. Would you lift your hands
God is here.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Father. I thank you for the word that came forth today.
We receive it. Somebody, say see that.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Quit sitting there with your lips just puckered up, just
stressed out, open your mouth and say, I receive it.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Lord.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Everything that you're doing in my life, everything that you're
calling me to be, all the things that you're doing
that aren't really about me. Lord, I don't want to
be self centered and just self consumed. I thank you
that the wind of your spirit is blowing, so I
set my sales on this new series. God, I'm not
asking you just to speak to me. I'm asking you
(45:29):
to open my eyes, to see you in my ears,
to hear you. Open the eyes of my heart, open
my understanding, open my will to your will, and your
will be done in my life. Thank you for your presence,
Thank you for your purpose, Thank you for your provision.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
Lift your hands high as you can say, speak Lord,
say it out loud, to speak Lord.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
I'm listening. I'm gonna listen to my life this week.
I'm gonna listen to I'm gonna listen to the still
small voice this week. Too much noise, too much noise.
Word of the Lord is rare when the Lord of
the word becomes common. I'm gonna look for you this week.
I'm gonna find you. I'm gonna seek you, seeking you fine.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
There is a passage of scripture that has always fascinated me,
and I knew it was the one to start this
series with because most of my sermon ideas come from
a text, usually a text in the Bible. But this
whole series came to me through a text on my
phone and somebody texted me, but I didn't have their
(00:38):
number in my contacts, but they had texted me before
and their name was in the text. So you know,
Steve Jobs is so smart, even from beyond the grave.
He made a suggestion on my iPhone and he said maybe,
and then it said it could be this person. And
when I saw it on my phone, I realized that
that would make an amazing way to spend several weeks
(01:00):
in the Word of God talking about those times where
we don't know if it's God or not, and so
we're trying to lead our families some of us, or
we're trying to get our education, or we're trying to
decide about jobs or dates, or trying to decide about
moving to a new house or new apartment, or just
trying to figure out what it is that we were
(01:21):
put here on earth for. But the series is called
Maybe God, Maybe God. We worship a God who can
be best explained as mystery, and yet we live in
a culture that worships certainty. And so I want to
talk about that for several weeks with you. And I'm
so glad you're here. Touch somebody and say he's so
happy you're here. That preacher, That preacher is happy you're here.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
That's true. I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And what I need you to do right now is
give you attention just to this text in First Samuel,
chapter three, where we will encounter a young man who's
encountering God. And I pray that we will encounter God
in the process today. First Samuel three, verse one. The
boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days,
the word of the Lord was rare. There were not
(02:12):
many visions. One night, Eli, whose eyes were becoming so
weak that he could barely see was lying down in
his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet
gone out touch somebody say, there's still time, There's still time.
I know you might have got off track in your life,
but there's still time. I know there might be some
(02:34):
things out of order in your house, but there's still time.
I know you might have wasted some years chasing your
own ways, but God brought you here because there's still time.
God left you here because there's still time. If you're
still breathing, there's still time. I got a friend named
Perry Noble. His favorite quote is, if you're not dead,
God's not done.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
And I just believe that. I believe it.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So the light had not yet gone out out, and
Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord,
where the ark of God, which symbolized the presence of
God was, And then the Lord called Samuel, and Samuel answered,
here I am. And he ran to Eli and said,
here I am. You called me, but Eli said I
(03:19):
didn't call go back to sleep, man, wake me up
in the middle of the night. I didn't call you.
Go back and lie down. So he went and lay
down again. The Lord called Samuel, and Samuel got up
and went to Eli and said, here, I am. This
(03:43):
is really strange, right like, because you expect when God
calls it'll sound so deep. So baritone Samuel apparently it sounded.
It sounded so much like what he was used to
being that he ran to the place where he normally
(04:04):
went and he was like, here, I am, you called me,
my son. Eli said, I did not call, go back.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And lie down, but you need an ambient, a weighted.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Blanket, some milk, a cookie.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed
to him. A third time, the Lord called Samuel, and
Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here,
I am, you call me. I know you're messing with me.
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.
So Eli told Samuel go and lie down. If he calls,
(04:48):
you say speak Lord, for your servant is listening. The
title of this message is something that I have heard
people say to me of all ages, of all ethnicities,
of all econom status positions. And I want you to
look at the screen for the title of my message.
It goes like this, I'm confused about my calling. I'm
(05:11):
confused about my calling. I love God and I love
my family and I want to make a difference. But
look at somebody next to you and say you look confused.
Tell them I am, I'm confused about my call. Lord
have your way, speak your word. We're listening in Jesus' name. Amen,
(05:34):
Now be seated. You are forgiven. If when I say
calling you roll your eyes a little bit. It is
one of these terms that is so popular in culture
that it almost means nothing anymore, and it can be
(05:56):
frustrating the older you get when people talk about lofty
ideals like finding your calling. You need to find your calling,
and you know, well, for most of us, that's way
outside of the realm of our everyday life where we're
trying to pay bills. It's like, you know, you need
(06:18):
to find your calling, and you're like, well, I'm doing
good to find my keys in the morning, and you
want to talk about finding your calling. And as much
as I understand that, I also understand that there's a
reason that the majority of questions that I have been
asked as a pastor in these thirteen years going on
fourteen years, the reason for it is that there is
(06:42):
something inside of you that wants to find the thing
that you were made to do, and you will never
be satisfied with anything else. And no matter how much
sex you have, money you make, friends you meet, no
matter how big the house is that you build, no
matter how many cars you park in the driveway, there
will always be something unsatisfied in you until you find
(07:05):
that thing that we call a calling.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And yet, and yet, so much damage.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Has been done in popular culture by the concept of
calling that it actually makes us discontent with our lives
because rather than understand the real nature of a calling,
we have a concept of a calling, and often we
spend our lives wishing that we were doing something that
God did not tell us to do.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
So to break this first sermon down.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Today, and there will be several in this series, I'm
praying that you come.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
To all of them.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And I'm praying if you can't come to all of them,
you'll watch them all because they're all online for free.
And I can't figure out a reason in the world
why you couldn't spend forty minutes with me on YouTube
each week, even if you have to do it while
you're walking the dog, even if you have to do
it while you're falling.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Asleep, I'll put you to sleep. I don't mind whatever
I can get.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I'll help you run on the treadmill, whatever you have
to do to get these messages. The Bible says in
verse one that in those days, while Samuel, the twelve
year old who was apprenticing in the tabernacle because his
mother Hannah, prayed that she could have a son, and
she had trouble conceiving. And when she finally had the son,
she dedicated him to the Lord, and she dropped him
(08:20):
off at age four and only saw him once a year,
and she put him under Eli, who wasn't doing a
very good job. He was letting his sons run around
in the tabernacle and have sex with women at the
entrance to the tabernacle, and he knew about it, but
he wouldn't do anything about it. And he was letting
his sons beat people up who had brought their sacrifice
to the temple, and they brought their sacrifice to God,
(08:43):
but the priests took it for themselves. Hofney and phineas
Eli's sons, would send their messenger out to the tent
and say, hey, Hoffney said, you got to give him
the fat portion, And the people who came would be like, well,
that's for the Lord. They can get the portion after
it burns off, that's the priest portion. But they had
gotten confused about what it meant to honor God, and
they had started honoring themselves and their opinions and their desires,
(09:06):
and they started treating God as common. And so the
Bible says something interesting in verse one. It says, in
those days, with all of that going on, the word
of the Lord was rare because they treated the Lord
as common.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
The word of the Lord was rare.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Because we live in a day where it is so
easy to get information but so difficult to get truth.
I figured this verse would apply to us. Would you
agree with me that we are drowning in information, drowning
in opinion, drowning in agenda, drowning in projections, but starving
(09:52):
for truth.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
You know I'm right about it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It's such a crazy time. You don't know who to
trust anymore. You don't know if it's real, know if
it's fake. You don't know if it's inflated. You don't
know if it's a statistic. And let me give you
a statistic. Eighty three percent of statistics are made up.
That's a statistic. I made it up. It's a time
where truth is hard to find. And it doesn't mean
that there wasn't access to the Bible. God knows we
(10:17):
have access to the Word of God. You could pull
out your phone right now and a British person will
read you the Bible on the Bible at That made
me think of something real funny. One time, Graham asked
me do British people find American accents soothing?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Probably not.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
But here's the thing about it. It's not access to
the Word of God. It's our attitude to the Word
of God.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
It's our attitude.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
It's why some people can come into church and look
narcoleptic in church. That's why some people can come into
church and leave during the invitation. God forbid it takes
you seven minutes to get the cracker barrel. It's why
some people can click around to different sermons and be like, Ah,
I don't know Fredi's not on today.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I'm gonna go over here to this one and that one.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And that's what See, when the Word of God becomes
common to us, we will have access to the Word
of God, but it will not have impact on our life.
And so the first thing I wanted to mention is
the culture. The culture in Eli's time was a culture
of neglect, a culture where the value of who God
(11:35):
was and what he.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Said was negotiable.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Therefore there was an absence of that special presence of God.
The word of the Lord was rare because the Lord
of the Word had become common. And I just want
to say to you today that many of our cultural
concepts of calling are really just self help, individualistic, ambition
(12:04):
oriented delusions dressed up in Christian cliches. And because you
got a trophy when you were seven does not mean
you get to play Major League Baseball. And the culture
(12:26):
of our day is kind of like, instead of worshiping God,
we worship our idea of God's will, And rather than
being in relationship with God, we want God to be
a resource.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Who is more like Siri than he is like a savior.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I don't know if you come back next week the
way I'm starting to sermon, but we need to get
something straight right off the bat that until I treasure
the voice of God, tell you the voice of God,
hearken to the voice of God, make time for the
voice of God, consecrate myself, I can't get it by skimming.
(13:09):
I can't get it by just you know, running around
to this person and that person.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
It is the revealed will of God that we're after.
It is the revealed will of God.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Now, when I was in my twenties, I did all
this teaching and preaching. And now you know, now that
I'm wiser, I turned forty next year, you'll better start
working on my gift now, because it's a big one.
It's kind of cringey for me to look back on
the way I spoke about calling in my twenties that
(13:52):
probably left people feeling at the very least confused, at
worse frustrated, and maybe even full of resentment because the
way it happened in my life is different for all
of us. Here's Samuel, who is receiving a revelation of God,
And in my life, I never heard anything audible that
(14:15):
God said to me. I never, you know, the Lord
never said Fardich Steve, what God called you by your
last name for someone don't know, but he said. He
never said, you know, preach to me out loud. There
were desires, there were opportunities. I noticed some effectiveness. It's
the weirdest thing. When I first got up to pray
(14:36):
for Pastor Mickey, who asked me to pray at a
Lions Club meeting. I noticed that people seem to be
blessed as I prayed, and they connected him. And it
took Pastor Mickey to explain to me that that was
the hand of God.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
All my life I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
If he hadn't been there to guide me, I would
have maybe thought I was just a charismatic speaker. He
helped me to see that there was something supernatural involved.
And I was sixteen years old, and I had someone
who had been around long enough to see some things
to tell me it was special. Otherwise I wouldn't have
(15:15):
known him. Now here's what I did with that knowledge.
I preached in my twenties that just like God called
me to preach, God has called each Christian.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
To do something.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
You agree with that, But here's the part that I
think was incomplete. While I'd be up there saying to people,
you need to find your calling. You need to find
your calling. You need to find your calling. You need
to find your calling. You need to find your calling.
You find your calling. You need to find your calling.
You need to find your calling. You need to find
your calling. You need to find your calling. You need
to find a calling, because he gets annoying after a while. Right,
(15:48):
It's like I'm just trying to like I need a job, man,
I don't know about a calling.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I've need a raise right now.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Is that it makes it sound as if it's something
that you can just get and just know. And yet
did you notice in the passage that even Samuel, who
was the link between the period of the Judges and
the monarchy of Israel a thousand years before Jesus, that
even Samuel, who none of his words fell to the ground,
(16:20):
even Samuel didn't get it right the first time. I
don't know why, but that encourages me just reading this
little story, to know that there's someone that God used
to do something great.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
And he called him and he chose him.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
But even this great prophet didn't get it right the
first time. I want to set you free today from
the feeling that you have to find your calling. That's
a cultural concept, it's not a biblical one. You don't
have to find your calling. In fact, if the tech
(17:00):
this correct, if Samuel is an illustration, then I don't
have to find my calling, because if I will serve
the purpose of the season that I'm in in my
life right now, watch this, get ready to shout.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
My calling will find.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Me in that good news, Christian soldiers, aren't you glad
to know that?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
When Samuel heard a voice and he didn't even know
whose voice it was.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And here's the thing about it, I want to talk
about the culture, and then I want to talk about
the contact, the contact, because when he first heard the voice,
it sounded like something he had heard before. Have you
ever noticed is hard to know the difference between when
you're speaking to you and when God is speaking to you.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And watch out for the Christians.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Who are running around so sure that it's God speaking
to them. Those are the weird ones. These are the
crazy ones. I mean, I'm serious. You gotta watch out
for him. And they're here at Elevation, just like they're
at every church. And they'll find you in the bathroom
and they'll have a word from the Lord for you,
and they don't even know you. And it's weird because
it's the bathroom.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Can I wash my hands?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
If God spoke to you, he'll do it in the lobby.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Now, let me finish using the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'm serious, because I'm a preacher and people always think
I want to be spiritual, and people will stop me
in the bathroom sometimes at a restaurant and give me
a word from the Lord. But if it was really
the Lord, he would have told you it's weird to
talk to people in the bathroom and wait till a
man gets outside, because there is such a thing as germs,
and God doesn't cancel out germs. I don't want your
pphetic word. Well, I'm trying to so, but because he
(18:37):
gets weird, because he gets weird, we still have to
realize that the only way that the will of God,
or the word of God or the voice of God
can be recognized. That's what the Bible said that Eli
(18:57):
who was old, who couldn't see fys. I've been on
this thing lightly that we really need people in our
life who are older than us, who have been along
the journey and to respect the price that they paid,
and to not just think that because they don't go
on SoundCloud or because they don't have a lot of
Instagram followers, that they have nothing to teach us. I'm
really seeing the value and people who they may not
(19:20):
have the physical vision that they used to have, but
they can discern spiritual things. And Eli wasn't even a
perfect priest. In fact, God was in the process of
moving him out of the way. And even in that transition,
because the whole passage is about transition. It's Samuel transitioning
from a boy to a man, from boys to men.
(19:42):
I was just thinking, you know, it's hard to say goodbye.
But when Eli is transitioning out, and when Samuel is
transitioning up and he's ultimately stepping into the thing God
created him for. God deals with Samuel, but he does
it through Eli. And whatever God is going to speak
(20:06):
in your life is going to come in the context
of relationships. And I chose the word contact to describe
it because whoever you put around you the most will
start to affect the voice inside.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Of you that speaks to you. And have you ever.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Noticed that God's voice sometimes in your life sounds like
your wife. Sometimes for me, it sounds like my kids.
Sometimes in my life I've noticed that if I am
not selective about my contacts, I will start hearing I
don't mean like out loud voices. I don't want you
(20:49):
to send me off after I've preached today or anything
like that.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I mean the voice in my mind a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
When I was going through a counseling session to try
to understand myself better. The one thing that the therapist
would keep saying, is whose voice is that? You know
these things you say to yourself, You go like, uh,
you know, I'm so stupid and you never get anything right,
and well, of course you screwed it up, you screw
everything up, you know all that.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
And she keeps saying, whose voice is that? Whose voice
is that?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And I didn't know if she was just trying to
get me to say, you know, it was my dad.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
You know. Oh, like the point of all therapy. My
diapers were too tight. I dit it.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But what I realized is that most of us who
are not clinically insane don't actually hear voices. We process thoughts, right,
so we say the voice of God? How does the
voice of God come into your life?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Through thoughts? Through thoughts?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
And that's why Samuel was confused, right because he heard something,
so he went where he knew to go. And I
want to point out something about this. He did the
right thing, He did the right thing. He ran. I
noticed the Bible said that when he heard his name
called Samuel first of all. It didn't sound it didn't
(22:07):
sound strange to him. It sounded like what he was
used to. So he ran because that's what he did,
because he had the right passion.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
But he ran to the wrong person.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Some of you right now, you had the right passion,
but you're running to the wrong person or the wrong place.
Now this is not only true in the case of Samuel.
It was true of Moses. God called him to deliver
his people from the Egyptians. Moses had the right passion,
but where he messed up. Listen to this, U see
(22:43):
when he killed the Egyptian. It was the right passion,
but it was misplaced. He tried to do it his way.
He didn't get it right the first time. And some
of the things that you've gotten wrong in your life,
some of the mistakes that you've made, it was God's
stirley you up. But it was Eli that you ran to.
(23:03):
You ran to the thing that God was trying to
remove out of your life because that's what you were
used to. You ran to the thing that you were
familiar with because it's all your mind could understand. And
so God gave you a gift, but you used that
gift for you for a little while.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Until you found out.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Unless I offer the gift back to the giver, it's
going to come back empty. But God brought you here
today to let you know. That was my voice calling you.
That was me that gave you that talent. That was
me that made you good at that. That was me
that opened the door for you. That was me that
gave you that responsibility. That was me that gave you health.
(23:42):
That was me that gave you strength. That was Me
that gave you that connection. It was him the whole time.
It was It was the Lord that called Samuel, but
it was Eli that Samuel ran to.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
What are you running to? If you're run if you're.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Running to something that is not your purpose, you feel it.
You feel it in several ways. But one of the
things I want to mention is I'm trying to surround
myself in this stage.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Of my life with people who bring out the God
in me. And that's just me.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I don't mean I'm going to be mean to people
who don't know the Lord, or I'm going to go
out and.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Live in a monastery or something like that.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
But you know, there are some there are some texts.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
That I don't return in this stage of my life
because I feel like I'm in a season where I'm
trying to do important things and my calling is valuable,
and so my contacts are very important because certain stuff
is contagious, and I know there are certain people. When
(24:49):
I get around them, I feel something rising me that
lets me know I can overcome. And I need them
around me. I need them to rub off on me.
I need them to speak into my life. I need
them to encourage me. I don't need people who are
laying back on the last thing God did in this
season of my life.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I need people to push me forward. Yes I do, Yes,
I do.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I gotta be careful reading the comments on my Instagram
in this season because whatever I may contact with I
catch and see.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I need the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I need vision, I need hope, I need purpose, I
need security.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And so.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
He runs to Eli, but Eli tells him is God
you need to speak to and the right contact in
your life will always point you back to the only
one who has real power.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Thank you God for this word. I feel your spirit
on this one.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
This is gonna help you because one the concept of
calling that most of us have is that you're going
to go on a forty day fast in the Holy Land,
and God's gonna speak to you when you walk where
Jesus walked and the Sea of Galilee. But the Lord
is not going to speak to you on the Sea
of Galilee from a voice on the water.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
He's gonna speak to you.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
And I know you don't want to hear it because
it's sexy to thing that someday there's going to be
a voice that speaks from heaven. It's not going to
be like that. It's gonna sound like Eli. It's gonna
sound like Eli. And it is through Eli that God
calls Samuel Eli. This isn't Billy Graham. This is the
(26:38):
dude who blew it. And this is how bad he
blew it. Watch what ultimately happens when Samuel laughter three times?
Everybody say three times? How many times do I have
to tell you? One time, Holly, she loses her temper
with our kids a lot. Y'all pray for her. It's kiddy.
It's a very patient mom. But one time she was
so mad at Elijah. He was only about four.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
She said, how many times do I have to tell you? You?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Got this real fear look in his eyes? He goes
three times. Look at the verse eight again a third time.
How many are glad that God has called, waiting that
God will call you again? Ask Jonah. Jonah wasn't even
(27:23):
a talented preacher. He didn't have funny stories, he didn't
have good charisma, he didn't even like people. But God
used him because when God calls you, he will call back.
You know how there are some people when you call them,
you have to call them, and so you're secretly hoping
you get their voicemail because you really don't want to
talk to them anyway. Some of you think God is
(27:45):
like that, like he really wants someone else and he's
really glad that he doesn't have to deal with you.
But God wants you. God wants you. God shows you.
God put the genetics in you, the DNA in you,
the passion in you, the opportunity is for you. What
God has for you, it is for you. That's why
you don't have to be jealous, insecure, bitter, resentful.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
That's why you don't have to get back.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That's why you don't have to take revenge, because what
God has for you is for you.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Y'all awake, Somebody shout here.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I am and that was really the answer, because it's
not only the culture that confuses us in our calling.
It's not only our contacts sometimes, but it's the conflict
of calling. The conflict of calling is great on an
(28:46):
internal and an external level. Now what Samuel did next,
What a beautiful little story right to show us that
God repeats things.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Way I know he's speaking.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
You ever notice this when God is trying to get
your attention. It's kind of like when you're shopping for
a certain car and you start seeing them everywhere. When
God wants to get a message across to you, he'll
he'll put you in the market for it, and you
never even looked at anybody else's beats. But now you're like, well,
what's that one? How's that one different than that one?
And this one and the other one? Because I'm in
(29:23):
the market for God. When you get in the market
for God, you start noticing that He's He's been speaking
all along, just like just like there was there was confirmation.
I didn't have time to put this word in the sermon.
It starts with the letter see, so it could be
a bonus point confirmation God. God will speak something over here,
over here, over here, and you'll start noticing it. You'll
(29:44):
start noticing little things, and then it'll you hear it
in the sermon, and then you hear it in a movie,
and then you hear it in a song, and then
you hear it you see it on somebody's the back
of their window, and then you hear it through your husband,
and then you hear it through and you just see
it and just hear it, and you start seeing it
and you start hear and then you have to discern,
which is to separate. That's what Eli did. He discerned.
The Hebrew word is being. He discerned, he separated. He
(30:07):
made a distinction. He had a discernment to know. This
is the Lord calling the boy. So he said, when
it happens again, and this is the word of the
Lord for you when it happens again. When it happens again,
if it happens again, just say speak Lord.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Your servant is listening, and I want to show you
something that the Lord.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Just show me. His greatest revelation happened in rest. Eli
didn't say, Oh, that may be God.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
You better run out and catch him before he leaves. Well,
if God spoke to you, better chase him now. No.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
If it was God's speaking, he'll come back. All you
got to do is be in position for it. That's
all you've got to do. You don't have to find it,
it'll find you, trust me. God is not playing hide
and seek in the Tabernacle. God is not running around
the tent.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Haha.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
If I hide behind this table of chowbred, Samuel will
never find me back here. God's not hiding behind the
labor you know, He's not hiding. And even though God
is always moving, he's never hiding. That's what the Tabernacle
(31:28):
was was a portable structure, and they set it up
in the wilderness because they never knew when God was
going to say stop and when God was going to
stay go. Why Because God does not want you to
depend on his will. He wants you to depend on him.
There's a difference. One is God, just show.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Me what to do. That way I won't need you.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
The other one is God, I want you wherever you
lead me, wherever you take me, whatever it means, whatever
it costs, and whatever it looks like. But here's the conflict.
Because Samuel goes in and he lays down Bible says
he didn't know the Lord yet he knew. He knew
(32:08):
how to bake the bread in the tabernacle, that was
his job. He knew how to open the doors so
people could come worship. He knew how to follow Eli
around and get me this and get me that. But
there's a big difference between the rituals of religion and
a relationship with God. And if you're going through the motions,
(32:29):
like you know, singing songs, not really thinking about the words,
just kind of singing them, or just kind of like
hearing little forgettable things that I say in my sermon,
you know, you won't even remember what it was about
fifteen minutes after I'm done. It's possible that you don't
(32:51):
know the Lord yet. I don't mean you're not a Christian,
not necessarily. I don't mean you don't believe in God.
Don't mean not necessarily. But to know him is to
know his voice. And when you know him like that,
you can hear things that are hard to hear. But
(33:12):
you can know that even when he says things that
are hard for you to hear, he says them from
a spirit of love, grace purpose. One of my friends
is a real overtext. I can't keep up with him
(33:32):
and I love him, but my thumb's hurt and I
can't do it. And I don't voice text because it's
annoying because it corrects the wrong words the wrong way,
and you can get in trouble that way and say
something you didn't mean to say, end up firing somebody
you meant to hire. But it changes. It doesn't know
because your voice anyway. One time he texted me, he said,
(33:52):
how come our conversation is all gray on iPhone when
they text you, it's gray when you text back blue.
When he said that, I wondered if sometimes my relationship
with God is all gray to where he is speaking
and he is prompting and he is provoking. But God
(34:17):
can speak, speak speak. Three times he did it. God
didn't say anything different the third time except this when
he said, speak Lord, your servant is listening, and he
laid down in his place.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I got to hit that real quick. I know we're
running out.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Of time, but it says Samuel went and laid down
in his place.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
That's first nine. Put it up.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Samuel went and lay down in his place, in his place,
in his place. You will realize God's purpose when you
get in your place, touch somebody next to you and say,
get in your place, because if God is dropping off
the mail but you're not home, you won't get it,
and you'll think he didn't send it, and you'll think
he didn't. But I learned something with my friend. It
(35:02):
was it was not just the conflict of the calling.
It was the color. It was all gray. But the
breakthrough is in the blue. It's not just when God speaks.
It's when you get in your place and say, God,
here I am the real me, the honest me, the
open me, the ready me, the humble me, the broken
(35:24):
down me.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
The meat that is ready to do your will.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Because I've done my will and I saw how that
worked out, and I'm ready to do your will. That's
what Isaiah said. He said, I'm an unclean man with
unclean lips. But if you'll take that coal and touch
my lips, I'll speak for you. Because Holy, Holy, Holy
is the Lord God Almighty.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
So here I am. I'll go. Moses stood at a bush.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
He turned aside, took off his shoes and said, God,
I'm slow of speech, I'm not eloquent, and you saw
the things I did that put me in this predicament.
But if it's you calling here, I am somebody shout here.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
I am.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Jeremiah said, I'm too young for this, and your people
are stubborn and you know they're not gonna listen. But
if this's you calling me here, I am somebody shout here.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
I am.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And the reason I'm confused about my calling is because
I don't just have one. This is what I didn't
know in my twenties, because I felt like God called
me to preach. You felt like God called you to
do something, put you somewhere. I mean, maybe it wasn't
something big spectacular. Maybe you're not gonna do a halftime
(36:30):
show at the super Bowl with it, but God called
you to do something. I just saw your Patriots gear
made me think of the super Bowl. God bless you man.
Congratulations on that. I hope you're happy. Now.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
How many is a it gonna take for you guys to.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Shut up about it? But there's a there's a blessing
in it. There's a blessing in it, even if it's
a small thing. And you say, okay, God called me
to do this. But then what happens is, look, I
was called to preach, right, so I start preaching. I
start going on preaching. I'm preaching everywhere, preaching everywhere. They
asked me to come preaching. I'm preaching at the lock
in I appreach. So I preached some one time, so
late at the night. It was three am, and I
had this sermon illustration where I would take a mirror
(37:01):
and I'd break the mirror, and I preach Genesis one
twenty six about the image of God. And Holly can
tell you we knew where the mirrors were in every
walmart in the state of South Carolina, because every time
we get to a new little town to preach the
fifteen kids, I'd go in and get a mirror and
then I'd break it with a hammer, and I say,
this is what send us to you, you know, put
the condemnation on the young people.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Just put it on them. Are breaking mirrors.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
And one boy went to the emergency room because the
glass flew up and hit him in the eye, and
I had to call his parents and tell him not
to sue me.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I'm a man of God and I got a.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Ministry, and if you assume me, God's going to curse
you and make you. But I didn't say that, But
I was running around preaching right but then I married Holly,
and I realized I'm called to be her husband too.
Come on, it's the conflict of calling. It's complicated. You
can make it sound sump. We find your calling which one?
(37:53):
Because then I was called to be a preacher and
a husband, and sometimes they needed different techniques. What if
I walked home, I said, Holly, give him a seal
of praise. It's different callings. That's three people, just I guess,
just does. And then by the time I'm getting these callings,
(38:22):
you know, I got how many? You got at least
two callings in your life, at least two things that
you're responsible for, and they're in conflict. Sometimes Here she
comes pregnant four years into marriage.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Here she turns up pregnant. Now I'm called to be
a parent. Now I'm called to.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
You feel like you're not just putting on different hats,
but you actually have like different heads. I read that
in that Sitser book, The Will of God is a
way of life. He said, I felt like I didn't
just have different hats. I had different heads. And this
is the conflict of calling. But the answer is always availability, presence, access.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
When he said, speak Lord, your servant is listening.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
It created access not only for God's word to come
to him, but for God's work to come through him.
And what God said was difficult. He said, I'm transitioning.
Not only am I transitioning you from an apprentice to
a priest, from a priest to a prophet, but I'm
transitioning Eli and his Son's out of the earth so
(39:34):
that my purpose can be fulfilled.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
I'm transitioning.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I'm transitioning, and you're going to have to go through
a difficult transition right now. But by the time we
get to First Samuel four, verse one, the Bible says
that Samuelil's word came to all Israel. I was curious
why I didn't say God's word through Samuel. But by
(39:58):
this point in First Samuel four, because Samuel said, here
I am speak Lord, we have now gone from the
word of the Lord was rare. To the word of
Samuel came to all Israel because he had gotten to
a point where he heard God's voice on the level
(40:19):
that when he spoke, what he spoke came directly from
the throne of God. God wants to get us to
the place where we are not running around all the
time talking about what we're gonna do one day. Some
of you are using the concept of a calling as
(40:39):
a crutch to not fully embrace the season of life
that you're in, and that is not the will of
God for you. And you may be called to be
a mom one day, but if you're not a mom
right now, can you say, here I am to this season.
And you may be called to own your own business
one day, but can I just say that in the meantime,
the only thing that God has ever wanted from you
(41:02):
was all of you. The only thing that God has
ever asked of you is here I am. It's what
Jeremiah said, It's what Moses said, it's what Isaiah.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Said, It's what Samuel said.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
And when he made himself available, the word of God
became abundant. I want you to stand to your feet,
because God has been speaking your whole life. He's been
speaking through hard things. He's been speaking through painful things.
(41:36):
He's been speaking through pleasure, passion, he's been speaking through rejection,
he's been speaking through restlessness. It wasn't that God wasn't speaking,
is that the people had lost their ability to listen.
And so God said to Samuel, before you can speak
(41:56):
for me. I need you to learn to listen. This
is what God wants to find tune in our lives
over the next few weeks. This is what God wants
to do in your heart over the next few weeks,
because honestly, some of you are still running to Eli
when it's really God. Some of you are running trying
(42:18):
to find something out there when God is trying.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
To speak to you in your place.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
That's what got me this time, because I didn't preach
that last night, but when I was speaking to you,
God was speaking to me, and I try to listen,
and he said, tell him stay in your place. Samuel
didn't wake up that morning looking for a calling. And
maybe that's the problem with us, Maybe that we've made
this thing about calling and what God has for my life.
(42:47):
What if what God has called you to first and
foremost is himself.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Wouldn't that set you free?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
That the will of God is not which job, The
will of God is not which school you.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Put your kids in. My God.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
I was talking to Buck the other day. One thing
I love about Monk's Corner better than Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
There was two schools you could go to. There was
just two.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
It was the public one and the one that everybody
that smoked weed at the public one got.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Sent to the Christian school. But listen to me. We've
made the will of God a resource. It's not a resource.
It's a relationship. It's a relationship. It's a relationship.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
So I want us to go through this next several
weeks not looking for clarity, certainty, but confidence to know
that if I will make myself available to this calling
in this moment, his speak, he will speak. Question is
will you respond? What I've learned to do now is
(44:09):
not necessarily say this is God or this isn't God.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I got this new thing. It may be God. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Only way for me to find out. The only way
I can experience the breakthrough is in the blue.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
So speak, Lord. I'm listening.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Say that to your life, say that to your pain,
Say that to what you think was your mistake. You
know what your mistake may be, God, he may, I'm
gonna show you that next week. That's my sermon.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Next week.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I am gonna show you next week how your mistakes
are miracles in disguise. In disguise, the presence of the
Lord is in this place. Would you lift your hands
God is here.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Father. I thank you for the word that came forth today.
We receive it. Somebody, say see that.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Quit sitting there with your lips just puckered up, just
stressed out, open your mouth and say, I receive it.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Lord.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Everything that you're doing in my life, everything that you're
calling me to be, all the things that you're doing
that aren't really about me. Lord, I don't want to
be self centered and just self consumed. I thank you
that the wind of your spirit is blowing, so I
set my sales on this new series. God, I'm not
asking you just to speak to me. I'm asking you
(45:29):
to open my eyes, to see you in my ears,
to hear you. Open the eyes of my heart, open
my understanding, open my will to your will, and your
will be done in my life. Thank you for your presence,
Thank you for your purpose, Thank you for your provision.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
Lift your hands high as you can say, speak Lord,
say it out loud, to speak Lord.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
I'm listening. I'm gonna listen to my life this week.
I'm gonna listen to I'm gonna listen to the still
small voice this week. Too much noise, too much noise.
Word of the Lord is rare when the Lord of
the word becomes common. I'm gonna look for you this week.
I'm gonna find you. I'm gonna seek you, seeking you fine.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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