June 20, 2025 • 42 mins
“It is what it is” is a common phrase people use when faced with a difficult situation. To a certain extent, it’s true. Yes, this is what we’ve been dealt. But have we started accepting disappointment as the norm without questioning if God is at work?
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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.
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 you perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, I'm very respectful of the presence of God, so
I want to transition right into the Word because I
believe that He desires to speak to you in a
profound way, and I want to move into Romans chapter
four and speak a message of faith and inspiration over
your life. Today we're continuing a teaching on functional faith.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And what I.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Really pray that these messages are doing is that they
are showing up after you hear them in another form,
that as opportunities present themselves to you for you to
be full of doubt that something that you've heard, You know,
the Word of God is seed, and so I'm praying
(00:59):
that it's breaking through the surface and helping you to
experience God's presence in a new way. Would you just
tell about five people around you that the presence of
the Lord is here. Just make sure that they know
if they didn't get the memo.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
The presence of the Lord is here.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And what I want to do now, I want to
plant the seed of the Word in the soil of
your heart. I believe God has given me good seed
to sew into you today, but.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I can't make you good soil.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And if you sit there distracted or or discouraged, or
you know, kind of in your own little world or
kind of like just get it over with, that seed
is gonna it's gonna fall, it's not gonna take root.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So why don't you just open your heart now?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Let me read this scripture to you from Romans chapter four,
verse eighteen. It's interesting because I have noted in my
Bible I do something with my Bible.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I just thought that would be cool to give each
of my kids a Bible that I had preached through,
so doing it on like seven year cycles. And I
gave Elijah after seven years of preaching in this church
the Bible that I preach from for those seven years,
and highlight all the passages that I preach.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
From, and then note what the sermon was.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Just a little something that I can give them, and hopefully,
you know, an investment I can make in them.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So this is Graham's. I'm on the second seven years
right now, and this is.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Going to be his, and we're like about halfway through
the second seven years of ministry at the church.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I think, did I calculate that right? Yeah? Yeah? Year two.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So I was looking at my notes and I was
in this passage about the same time of.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
The year two years ago.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So there must be something about spring that makes me
want to preach about faith and hope and life. It
must be something about the greenery on my trees and
the pollen in my that just gets me thinking that
maybe it's time for some things to bud forth and
(03:22):
spring forth in your life. And so I want to
I want to spend some time in this passage today.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Romans, chapter four, verse.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Eighteen, Apostle Paul says, against all hope, Abraham in hope
believed and so became. Do you know that that's always true,
that you always become what you believe.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
If you see.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yourself as a grasshopper in the land God has promised you,
you won't take possession of it, not because it wasn't yours,
but because you didn't see yourself as the rightful owner.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So what you.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Believe eventually is reflected.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
In what you become. Just pointing that out. Okay, that's
not my sermon.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That's the chips and the salsa before the enchilada.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Now look at this.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It says he believed and so became the father of
many nations, just as it had been said to him,
So shall your offspring or your seed be without weakening
in his faith. He faced the fact that his body
was as good as dead since he was about one
hundred years old.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, that's definitely not an overstatement.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Your reproductive days are certainly coming to a close around
age one hundred, especially if you live in a time
where there are no little pills. I'm sorry, y'all, let
me get back on this. And that Sarah's womb was
also dead. So this is an impossible situation from every angle.
(05:04):
And yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the
promise of God, but was strengthened.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
In his faith.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Come on, you came to the gym today to get
strengthened in your faith.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
This is the original CrossFit.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
All right, We're going to be strengthened in our faith,
and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God
had power to do what he had promised.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Shout over the scripture.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Now, so here's my declaration, my title.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I want you to give your neighbor my title.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Look them right in the eye and say, neighbor, it
is what it is, but it's not what it seems.
My God, I feel fire on that. It's a declaration
of faith. You understand it. To look at your other neighbor.
Tell them it is what it is, but it's not.
(06:06):
Come on, you gotta get into this. Tell them it
is not. You gotta do your finger like that, but
it's not what it seems. Come on high, five to
seven people on your way down, TC, let's get to work.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Tecond not what it seems. It's not what it seems,
but it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Essentially, we're walking into the middle of an argument. In
Romans chapter four, the Paul is presenting against the Judaizers
who would have the gentile converts to the faith be
circumcised as an outward expression.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Of their new commitment to the community of faith.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Paul sees this is a grave mistake, for understands that
it is not the circumcision with human hands that makes
you a believer. It's the circumcision of your heart. It's
not something that's cut away from your skin. Is something
that has to be removed from your heart that enables
you to connect with God in this relationship, and in
(07:15):
presenting one of the most important doctrinal beliefs that you'll
find anywhere in the cannon, Paul is elaborating on this
concept of justification by faith. It's never been presented exactly
this way until Paul puts pen to paper and God
uses him to expound upon the fact that you got
(07:39):
to come in on your knees. Relationship with God cannot
be the product of works, although works are a byproduct
of that relationship. And in the middle of this argument
about what it means to have real faith, what it
really takes to have faith, what faith really looks like,
(08:02):
and in this contrast between the scene and the unseen
elements of faith, Paul is using Abraham as an example
because he is the father of faith. Abraham Isaac Jacob.
Jacob's name was changed to Israel. The nation came from Jacob,
but Jacob came from Isaac, and Isaac came from Abraham.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So sometimes your life is a part of.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
A bigger picture that you might not even be the
one to see certain things come to pass, but you
might be the one that God uses in the life
of the one. And that takes faith to have that
kind of perspective.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
On your life.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I texted Pastor Mickey this morning and I didn't tell you,
but we were talking about him, and I just said,
God used you in my life so much. I was
just thinking about you this morning, and we pray for
me because he believed in me at a stage in
my life where my potential was hidden. Now, anybody can
believe in you once your success is evident, but if
(09:01):
you got somebody who believes in you while your potential
is still in seed form, never forget that person. So
that's why I was reaching out to him, just to
tell him, thank you. I'm preaching today, pray for me.
Just had you on my mind. And he doesn't preach
in a big church, but he does preach in a
big church because his faith lives on through me. So
(09:24):
this is the kind of framework. And last week we
talked on frame game. Have you been working on your
frame game this week? Would you do me a favor?
Would you just frame up your neighbor real quick? At
all of our locations and tell him you look better
than you did last week. I see signs of improvement.
(09:46):
Frame game, and now Abraham enters the frame of the
discussion about faith, and Paul has given us a synopsis
of the story.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Now this is different than a story.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
A synopsis requires some essence of prioritization to try to
figure out what to put out and what to leave in,
you know, and this is something that women would do
well to learn when you're trying to communicate with men.
It's that we typically do better with a synopsis than
the full story. All of the men are leaving me
up here by myself. But you know, you did not
(10:24):
need to know all of that to find out what's
for dinner. And sometimes you just want to press the
button to skip to this synopsis. Can I get a
cliff note? And sometimes you think that in marriage, something
you do you do. I don't think that my wife
is captivating now, speaking of Holly, she's on this kick.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Lately of audible dot com.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Audible dot com audio that speaks to you wherever you are.
How do I know that because my wife, my wife
folks are up in the house she's listened to. I
don't know over the last year, ten or twelve books
on audible dot com audio.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
That speaks to you wherever you are, and she says
she read them.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
But we kind of have a debate about that because
I always thought reading meant your eyes were involved.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
So she'll say I read a book, and I'll say,
listen to one under my breath, in my head. And
one book that she.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Was looking at, she said she was looking at it,
and she I don't know if she downloaded it or not,
but she said that she wasn't going to listen to
that one because she said that it was narrated by
a child, not that the child read it on audible
dot com, not actually that a child did the voice work,
but that the point of view of the book was
(11:49):
a child telling the story.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And she said, I just don't think.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I would enjoy a whole book written from a child's
point of view.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I think that would get old.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
And that was interesting to me because when you think
of elements of a story, you think about the characters,
and you think about the plot, and you think about
the setting, and it always blows my mind. I don't
know if any of you are fiction readers, but any
fiction readers, if you have any good books that I
should take to the beach this summer, feel free to
(12:17):
send them my way. I should totally read more fiction.
It's a good escape, but I don't read enough. But
I can't figure out how somebody can have enough imagination
to make up a whole world in a fiction book.
I've written books before, but I mean, it's it's real stuff,
and I just don't imagine that I would ever have
the imagination to make up a whole world. You know,
(12:40):
names and where people went to school in cities that
don't really exist, and aliens and zombies and walkers, and
you know, I just can't imagine that I would have
that kind of imagination.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
But some people do yet. Yet.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The plot and the characters and the setting when you're
reading a book are all experienced through the medium of
whoever the author chooses to use to tell the story.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
You'll know where I'm going with this. You guys are
quick on the draw, because.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I found out that in life, you have to select
a narrator.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Stay with me on this.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You have to select a narrator because the narrator you
choose will determine the way you.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Experience the events.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Everybody in here has an internal narrator, somebody who in
every situation is trying to tell you how to think
about that situation, how to interpret the motives of people
in certain situations, how to look at an opportunity and
to size it up.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And the Lord told me to come out here and
tell you today that some of you need a new narrator.
I'm gonna say it again.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Maybe it'll hit the back, maybe it'll hit Providence, maybe
it'll hit Gaston. Some of you have a really annoying, whiny, complaining, suspicious,
negative narrator, and see it swearing you out because you
keep going into situations and your narrator keeps on telling
you what to think about this and what to think
(14:16):
about that.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But I got good news for you.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Anytime you get ready, you could get a new storyteller.
I'm trying to say, you can have a life narrated
not by feelings, but by faith. I gotta ask a question,
is your life narrated by your feelings or your faith?
(14:40):
And I think that's the plot line that we're plucked
into with Abraham, who has a decision to make. In
Romans chapter four, Paul has given us some of the story,
not all of the story. If you read all of
the story, you're gonna read about how Abraham, while he
was waiting on God to give him a son, slept
with his wife's assistance to try to produce something that
(15:01):
he couldn't be patient and wait for. That happened, and
in Genesis we hear about it, but it didn't make
the trip across the centuries to Romans chapter four. That
interesting that in the story selection process, in the synopsis,
it didn't even make the story. It didn't even make
the story. That Abraham got in trouble one time, and
(15:22):
he was scared because his wife was beautiful, and he
thought that if the king knew that it was his wife,
he'd be in danger. So he told his wife survived
to pretend like she was.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
His sister, and then the king almost slept.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
With his wife because he thought that it was Abram's sister.
And then God started messing with the king because God
didn't like it very much that the king was about
to take Abraham's wife, And so the king figured it
out real quick and said, why did you lie to me?
Yet I can't find that in Romans chapter four. And
it's not as if it didn't happen. It's just that
when you narrate your life by grace, When you narrate
(15:59):
your life by grace, this is the context of faith.
And so some of the failures that are most prominent
in your mind didn't even make the cut of the
story in the mind of God, because he sees you
from a different perspective and sees.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
You in a different dimension. I feel the.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Spirit of God on me today. I'm just gonna preach
this like I feel it in my heart. Touch somebody say,
it's not even a part of my story. It's not
even a part of my story.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
But it is. But it is, But it is in
your story. See, there's a kind of faith that is
very dangerous. And I'll show you two extremes here, and
both are warned against in Romans chapter four. Sometimes there is.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
A version of faith that really looks more like denial,
and then there is the absence of faith, which creates despair.
And what I see in Romans chapter four Front and
Sinner from the Father of Faith, is that he was
(17:07):
able to avoid both extremes, it says in verse nineteen,
without weakening in his faith.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He faced the fact.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Now that one phrase helps me understand what faith is
and what faith Isn't that the kind of faith that
I am to emulate from my father Abraham, who seed
I am, is not a sort of denial. And I'm
putting that before you because when we teach about being positive,
(17:45):
it doesn't mean that everything in your life is positive.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And I want you to know that because here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Some people don't exercise faith because they live in deny it,
and they actually begin to use their faith as a
cop out and don't confront things for what they are. Somebody,
look at the person next to you and tell them
(18:15):
it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Come on, some of you aren't participating and that makes me.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Really, really, really angry and insecure.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Look at your neighbor, tell them it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Abraham faced the fact he was old.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
He faced the fact his stuff stopped working a long
time ago. He faced the fact. He looked at himself
and he said, it is what it is. And he
looked at his wife and said it was what it was,
but hey, what it was now, it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
We're old now. We could have done this thirty forty
years ago.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Maybe we could have done it fifty sixty years ago.
But now it is what it is. I didn't go
to college.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
It is what it is. It is.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I didn't go to high school. It is what it is.
I went through my first marriage. I was too stupid to.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Make it work.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
You know what, You can't get over what you do
not own, So face it, face it. Faith doesn't mean
living in denial. Faith doesn't mean that.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
It's all cold.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I've got women in my church that were sexually abused.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's not all good. I got people in my.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Church who can't get the job because they have a
criminal record.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
It's not all good.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I got people in my church under the sound of
my voice right now who didn't grow up with the dad.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
It's not all good. And you know what faith can handle.
That faith can handle that.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Starting place of authentic faith is honesty.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Lord, I'm disappointed right now.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
You know you can tell God that and he won't
hold it against you.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
When God spoke to Abraham and said, I'm going to
give you a seed that's going to be your son,
and out of your seed is going to come a
nation as numerous as the stars, Abraham laughed in God's face,
didn't bother God because.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a decision.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I'm gonna say it again to counteract all the wrong
thinking that you've ever had in your life about faith.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Faith is not a feeling.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know, you can be a pessimistic person but still
have great faith.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Even great faith has weak moments.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
So the call to faith is first a call to
come out of denial. Otherwise you'll be waiting on God
to deliver you from a situation that is going to
require discipline.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I'm gonna say it again this message and sinking in
Joel nine thirty was on fire.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I don't know what happened in the lobby before the
people got here.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Maybe it's better at the other campus.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But when you live in denial, you'll be waiting for
deliverance in a situation that requires discipline. Are you waiting
for deliverance in a situation that is going to require discipline?
In other words, are you waiting on God to cancel
your debts or are you're making a plan to pay
them off?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Faith doesn't wait on a check. Faith gets up and goes.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
To work, or at least looking for work. Faith they'll
do it, but you got to face it. You got
to face it or you live in denial, and you'll say, well,
I guess the reason that nobody wants to be my
friend is because God has just got me in a
lonely season right now. No, God doesn't have you in
a lonely season. Your bad attitude and poor relational habits
(21:54):
of not treating people correctly have got you in a
lonely season. And until you face it it, faith can't
fix it. Until you face it, faith can't fix it.
Faith can't fix what you won't face. So he faced
the fact, but he kept his faith, and you can
(22:17):
do both. Stay with me camera. He faced the fact.
I'm not living in denial, but he kept his faith.
I'm not living in despair. Faith is standing in the
middle and making a decision that it is what it is.
But watch this, it's not what it seems. I got
(22:39):
that beneath the surface faith. I got that Saturday faith
waiting on something to come up out of a tomb
and resurrect for the healing and salvation of the world.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
So so he narrated his situation with his faith, and
so he became the father of many nations, and we
are his seed.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
How cool is.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That that we are the seed of Abraham. See that
made me think about something. Will you think with me
today that when Jesus was trying to explain to the
(23:30):
people what the Kingdom of God was like, he said
in Mark four, verse thirty one, the Kingdom of Heaven
is like a skyscraper, big and bold, big and massive,
(23:55):
towering structure. No I wish he said that. I wish
my faith was as big as a skyscraper. I wish
I walked around never doubting. You know, I wish all
my stuff worked. That's what I'm trying to say. In fact,
I wish that this stuff that I preach was as
(24:17):
easy to live as it is to preach. Sometimes talk
back to me, talk back to me, talk back to me.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Don't you wish it.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Was as easy to live as it is to write
down in your notebook? Cam with Heaven is like a
mustard seed shown the mustard seed shum show. I'm the scene.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Huh what come on? Talk to me.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
It's all right, you can talk in her No it's not.
I mean, that's what it seems to be now that
it's been through the process that it went through.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
And guess what I have in my pocket. No, not
mustard seeds. I got trees in my pocket. I came
to preach to somebody.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
You got trees in your pocket, You got potential in
your life. You got trees in your pocket. You've got
healing in your mouth. You can tell your neighbor you
got trees in your pocket. That's what God was telling Abraham.
I put a seed in you, I put a promise
(25:55):
in you, I put a purpose in you.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I put potential in you.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And don't judge the tree by the size of the seed,
because when it's grown, it's gonna look like something you can't.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Even right right now.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
So so he says, can you see the tree in
the sea?
Speaker 1 (26:20):
And this is the question of faith.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Can you see the hope of the world in a
barren womb? Can you see a leadership potential in your
rebellious child?
Speaker 7 (26:38):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Good?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Can you see how it might have been a blessing
that one person walked out of your life? Can you
see They say that we missed the forest for the trees,
But sometimes I think we missed the trees for the seeds.
So Elijah sends his servant up. He's like, hey, check
(27:05):
it out. Causes about the rain, and the servant comes
back down and says, there is nothing there, And he said,
go and look again. Now, iija's doing something kind of weird.
While he's sending the servant back and forth, because he
sends him six times, Bible says that I'm not going
to attempt to demonstrate this because my flexibility is limited.
But he put his head between his knees, and I
(27:29):
think it's because if he looked at the sky.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
If he looked at the situation, if he went by sight.
You know, the Bible says that we walked by faith
and not by sight.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So he had to close his eyes to what was
there in order to see what would be. And finally,
after six times, on the seventh time, the little servant
came back and said, well, it's a cloud up there,
(28:04):
but it's only about the size of a man's hand.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
To what shall I compare the Kingdom of Heaven. It's like.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
A seed, a cloud the size of a man's hand.
It's like a mustard seed. That's the smallest seed they
knew of at the time. Yet when planted, it grows.
I love that phrase. I feel the oil of God
(28:37):
and the electric power of the Holy Ghost on that phrase.
Yet when planted it grows. That's your word for this
season of your life, is that. Yes, it's small, yet
when planted it grows. I'm gonna stay right on this
(29:01):
because I know when God is speaking, and he's speaking
to somebody, it's a cloud the size of a man's hand.
Yet when planted it grows, it's a little boy's lunch.
It's only five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, put
it in my hands, because yet when planted it grows.
(29:26):
He's just a shepherd boy in a field. He looks
like a seed, yet he's a king. And when planted
in the soil of adversity in Saul's court, David grew
to become a king to what shall I compare the
Kingdom of God. It's like a seed. You can't see
it at first. It doesn't even seem like something worth showing.
(29:50):
It doesn't even seem big enough for the cameras.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
To pick up. Yet when planted it grows.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
God said his time for you to start planting seeds
of purpose, even in the soil of doubt. If you planted,
it'll grow. If you planted, the cloud will burst. If
you planted, the rain will fall. If you get your
hands dirty, and have faith and hope against hope. Yet
(30:17):
when planted it grows. Touch seven people tell him it's
gonna grow. It's gonna grow, It's gonna grow. I feel
a sphere and of faith. I want to impart faith
to you.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
I don't know if you believe in this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
But I believe in a moment, in the presence of God,
he can plant the incorruptible seed of his word in
the soul of an expected heart.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
And are ripe, harvet.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
You better catch that. You better catch that tree. You
better catch that tree. Come online, burgers. How many thinks
I can get it all.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
The way to.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Better catch that tree? You better cutch that tree. You
better put that in your pocket. And this week, when
you're up in a situation and it looks like a
small little thing and it looks like it doesn't stand
its heads, and it looks like a little virgin girl
from Nasareth, and it looks like Joseph in a pit,
you need to understand that the pit wasn't a pit.
(31:23):
It was the soil he was planted in so he
could come forth in each of them and bring the
plant nice. Yet, tell somebody I'm growing I'm growing.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
I'm growing. I'm growing. I'm growing. I'm growing. I'm growing.
I'm growing. My faith is growing, my heart is growing,
my capacity to love is growing. But the thing about
the growth of the seed is y'all hate when I
holler like that. I know some of y'all wish I
(31:59):
didn't do it. But I watched some basketball games, THEIRING
Final Four and the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I watch all kinds of fans get up with their
shirts off and their chest painted, and they're jumping around
about some men in some shorts, running up and down
a hardwood floor. I just think they're not faith.
Speaker 8 (32:16):
O gonna be enough.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I'm going to get up.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
So it's growing, But the process stop.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I want to teach. I want to teach.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Jesus said, I gotta go to the Cross, I gotta
be crucified, and they're gonna bury me in the ground.
That's one narration of what happened when they put Jesus
in a borrowed tomb.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
He was buried.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
But guess what Jesus said when they put me in
the ground. I'm not being buried. I'm being planted to
produce a harvest. Do somebody say I'm planted. I'm planted.
I'm planted, and it does not appear yet what.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
I shall be. But when you see me, I'm gonna
look more like him. I got news for you. It
is what it is, but it's not what it.
Speaker 8 (33:32):
Was, and your eyes have not seen.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
What it's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Shouted humanly.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Planting you. He's planting you.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I want to talk to somebody at the rock Hill
campus right now, because at the rock Hill campus I
got somebody listening to this sermon who's in a state
of despair. You figure that, well, if it hadn't happened
by now, it's not gonna happen. And you know what,
it may not happen just the way that you wanted
it to happen, because sometimes you have to put the
(34:09):
seed of your dream in the soil of your faith
so that God's dream for your life can but for.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yet, when planted, it grows.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And I prayed for you, Peter, that after you failed,
that your faith would not fail, and that after you
had returned, you would strengthen your brethren. You're coming up
out of the dirt. You're coming up out of this failure.
This is not your final resting place. Don't just stare
and don't look at what you see, cause we don't.
Speaker 8 (34:46):
Fix our eyes on what is seen. What is seen
is temporary. I'm only in this ground for a minute.
But I'm coming up bigger than before. I'm coming up
stronger than before. I'm coming up full of faith, full
of wisdom, full of lessons, full of purpose, full of
love our planet.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Yet the only way for the seed to grow was
for it to disappear into the soil. And the only
way for Abraham's faith to be proven was for his
hope to be blanted in the soil of disappointment. Yet
(35:34):
he didn't waver in his faith. What do you mean, Paul,
he slept.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
With his wife's assistant. Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Faith isn't defined by what you do in your weak moments.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
That's not how the narrator the narrator. You know what
you have in your life. You have a third person narrator.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I'm gonna break it down even more for the English teachers,
it's a third person omniscient narrator.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Because you've got different kinds of narrators. It's the first person.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
And when you narrate your life in the first person,
you look at yourself and you say it is what
it is. But what a narrator can do in telling
the story, and this is what faith.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Can do in your life.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Faith can show you that although it is what it is,
it's not what it seems. And in between denial and
despair is destiny.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
To stand and know.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
That God has planted me and I will produce my purpose.
You got a disappointment in your life, It is what
it is. No needn't deny it. You fell short. It
(37:17):
is what it is. Boy, Even just that first half
alone would be a good start, wouldn't it, just to
say it.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Is what it is.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
That I can't come in church and pretend to be
something that I'm not and expect to be blessed in
my state of pretension.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
I was reading something because I'm reading.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Through Mark a little bit, preparing these sermons for you,
and I started the series in Mark, and I was
over there about the woman with the issue of blood,
just for a Bible lesson for you. She had been
going around to a bunch of different doctors and they
kept saying, you know, this is what it is, and
this is what it is. And she came to Jesus
and he was able to fix it for what it
really was, because anyway you can try to fix all
(38:06):
kinds of things in your life because he diagnosed according
to the symptoms, but never really get down to the
systemic parts that cause the symptoms. And you run around
to a bunch of different doctors, a lot of different men,
a lot of different women, a lot of different churches,
a lot of different relationships, a lot of different places,
trying to get it fixed. But until you get to
the guy who really knows what it is, it can't
be healed. What I never noticed before is it said
(38:31):
that the woman when she came to Jesus, because I
always saw the story like faith, just big faith. She
came through the crowd, and she pressed through the crowd,
and she said, if I can touch the him of
his garment, I'll be made whole. And I always was
so focused on that that I miss the part where
it said that the woman, knowing what had happened to her,
came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear,
told him.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
The whole truth.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
It was her faith that healed her, but it was
her honesty that made her faith authentic. So the Lord
told me to give you two things to come out
of denial.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
It is what it is, and you can say it.
You can say I feel lonely in this season.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Now be careful who you say it too, because you
can say it in Delilah's barbershop and wake up with
a buzz cut that you weren't expecting. So don't just
say it to anybody. But God can handle it. God
can handle it. I talked to God real as if
I'm talking to a friend, because the Bible said Abraham
(39:46):
was a friend of God, and if I'm his seed,
i'm his friend too. And friends can talk to friends.
And he's my father, but he's my friend, and I
can come to him and say, you know, I don't
get you right now, sir, your majesty, because I don't
want to lighten.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Or anything like that. So I it is what it is.
It is what it is. You know. I feel like
nobody appreciates me right now.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
God, just make sure that when you tell God how
you feel, that you let him narrate what you should
do by faith, not feelings.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
It's okay to say it.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
It's okay, it's ok it's okay to Abraham.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Face the fact.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Look at all these debts I have, Look at what
the doctors are saying, face it, face it in faith,
Face it in faith, Face it in faith. Come out
of the spirit and realize that whatever it is that
you're looking at, it's not the end. It's a portal
(40:57):
to your potential. It's not buried, it's planted, it's not over.
It's just in transition.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
It is what it is, But.
Speaker 8 (41:15):
My faith told me to tell.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
You it's not what it seems.
Speaker 8 (41:23):
If you receive this word, get.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Up on your feet and.
Speaker 7 (41:28):
Give your job, a great ray, a heart right, a
fake rain.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
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 (41:57):
You can share it with your friends. You can click
the share button, take a screenshot.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
And share it on your social stories and tag us
at Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
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.
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 you perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, I'm very respectful of the presence of God, so
I want to transition right into the Word because I
believe that He desires to speak to you in a
profound way, and I want to move into Romans chapter
four and speak a message of faith and inspiration over
your life. Today we're continuing a teaching on functional faith.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And what I.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Really pray that these messages are doing is that they
are showing up after you hear them in another form,
that as opportunities present themselves to you for you to
be full of doubt that something that you've heard, You know,
the Word of God is seed, and so I'm praying
(00:59):
that it's breaking through the surface and helping you to
experience God's presence in a new way. Would you just
tell about five people around you that the presence of
the Lord is here. Just make sure that they know
if they didn't get the memo.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
The presence of the Lord is here.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And what I want to do now, I want to
plant the seed of the Word in the soil of
your heart. I believe God has given me good seed
to sew into you today, but.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I can't make you good soil.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And if you sit there distracted or or discouraged, or
you know, kind of in your own little world or
kind of like just get it over with, that seed
is gonna it's gonna fall, it's not gonna take root.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So why don't you just open your heart now?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Let me read this scripture to you from Romans chapter four,
verse eighteen. It's interesting because I have noted in my
Bible I do something with my Bible.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I just thought that would be cool to give each
of my kids a Bible that I had preached through,
so doing it on like seven year cycles. And I
gave Elijah after seven years of preaching in this church
the Bible that I preach from for those seven years,
and highlight all the passages that I preach.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
From, and then note what the sermon was.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Just a little something that I can give them, and hopefully,
you know, an investment I can make in them.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
So this is Graham's. I'm on the second seven years
right now, and this is.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Going to be his, and we're like about halfway through
the second seven years of ministry at the church.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I think, did I calculate that right? Yeah? Yeah? Year two.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So I was looking at my notes and I was
in this passage about the same time of.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
The year two years ago.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So there must be something about spring that makes me
want to preach about faith and hope and life. It
must be something about the greenery on my trees and
the pollen in my that just gets me thinking that
maybe it's time for some things to bud forth and
(03:22):
spring forth in your life. And so I want to
I want to spend some time in this passage today.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Romans, chapter four, verse.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Eighteen, Apostle Paul says, against all hope, Abraham in hope
believed and so became. Do you know that that's always true,
that you always become what you believe.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
If you see.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yourself as a grasshopper in the land God has promised you,
you won't take possession of it, not because it wasn't yours,
but because you didn't see yourself as the rightful owner.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So what you.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Believe eventually is reflected.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
In what you become. Just pointing that out. Okay, that's
not my sermon.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That's the chips and the salsa before the enchilada.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Now look at this.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It says he believed and so became the father of
many nations, just as it had been said to him,
So shall your offspring or your seed be without weakening
in his faith. He faced the fact that his body
was as good as dead since he was about one
hundred years old.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, that's definitely not an overstatement.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Your reproductive days are certainly coming to a close around
age one hundred, especially if you live in a time
where there are no little pills. I'm sorry, y'all, let
me get back on this. And that Sarah's womb was
also dead. So this is an impossible situation from every angle.
(05:04):
And yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the
promise of God, but was strengthened.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
In his faith.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Come on, you came to the gym today to get
strengthened in your faith.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
This is the original CrossFit.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
All right, We're going to be strengthened in our faith,
and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God
had power to do what he had promised.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Shout over the scripture.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Now, so here's my declaration, my title.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I want you to give your neighbor my title.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Look them right in the eye and say, neighbor, it
is what it is, but it's not what it seems.
My God, I feel fire on that. It's a declaration
of faith. You understand it. To look at your other neighbor.
Tell them it is what it is, but it's not.
(06:06):
Come on, you gotta get into this. Tell them it
is not. You gotta do your finger like that, but
it's not what it seems. Come on high, five to
seven people on your way down, TC, let's get to work.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Tecond not what it seems. It's not what it seems,
but it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Essentially, we're walking into the middle of an argument. In
Romans chapter four, the Paul is presenting against the Judaizers
who would have the gentile converts to the faith be
circumcised as an outward expression.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Of their new commitment to the community of faith.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Paul sees this is a grave mistake, for understands that
it is not the circumcision with human hands that makes
you a believer. It's the circumcision of your heart. It's
not something that's cut away from your skin. Is something
that has to be removed from your heart that enables
you to connect with God in this relationship, and in
(07:15):
presenting one of the most important doctrinal beliefs that you'll
find anywhere in the cannon, Paul is elaborating on this
concept of justification by faith. It's never been presented exactly
this way until Paul puts pen to paper and God
uses him to expound upon the fact that you got
(07:39):
to come in on your knees. Relationship with God cannot
be the product of works, although works are a byproduct
of that relationship. And in the middle of this argument
about what it means to have real faith, what it
really takes to have faith, what faith really looks like,
(08:02):
and in this contrast between the scene and the unseen
elements of faith, Paul is using Abraham as an example
because he is the father of faith. Abraham Isaac Jacob.
Jacob's name was changed to Israel. The nation came from Jacob,
but Jacob came from Isaac, and Isaac came from Abraham.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So sometimes your life is a part of.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
A bigger picture that you might not even be the
one to see certain things come to pass, but you
might be the one that God uses in the life
of the one. And that takes faith to have that
kind of perspective.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
On your life.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I texted Pastor Mickey this morning and I didn't tell you,
but we were talking about him, and I just said,
God used you in my life so much. I was
just thinking about you this morning, and we pray for
me because he believed in me at a stage in
my life where my potential was hidden. Now, anybody can
believe in you once your success is evident, but if
(09:01):
you got somebody who believes in you while your potential
is still in seed form, never forget that person. So
that's why I was reaching out to him, just to
tell him, thank you. I'm preaching today, pray for me.
Just had you on my mind. And he doesn't preach
in a big church, but he does preach in a
big church because his faith lives on through me. So
(09:24):
this is the kind of framework. And last week we
talked on frame game. Have you been working on your
frame game this week? Would you do me a favor?
Would you just frame up your neighbor real quick? At
all of our locations and tell him you look better
than you did last week. I see signs of improvement.
(09:46):
Frame game, and now Abraham enters the frame of the
discussion about faith, and Paul has given us a synopsis
of the story.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Now this is different than a story.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
A synopsis requires some essence of prioritization to try to
figure out what to put out and what to leave in,
you know, and this is something that women would do
well to learn when you're trying to communicate with men.
It's that we typically do better with a synopsis than
the full story. All of the men are leaving me
up here by myself. But you know, you did not
(10:24):
need to know all of that to find out what's
for dinner. And sometimes you just want to press the
button to skip to this synopsis. Can I get a
cliff note? And sometimes you think that in marriage, something
you do you do. I don't think that my wife
is captivating now, speaking of Holly, she's on this kick.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Lately of audible dot com.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Audible dot com audio that speaks to you wherever you are.
How do I know that because my wife, my wife
folks are up in the house she's listened to. I
don't know over the last year, ten or twelve books
on audible dot com audio.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
That speaks to you wherever you are, and she says
she read them.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
But we kind of have a debate about that because
I always thought reading meant your eyes were involved.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
So she'll say I read a book, and I'll say,
listen to one under my breath, in my head. And
one book that she.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Was looking at, she said she was looking at it,
and she I don't know if she downloaded it or not,
but she said that she wasn't going to listen to
that one because she said that it was narrated by
a child, not that the child read it on audible
dot com, not actually that a child did the voice work,
but that the point of view of the book was
(11:49):
a child telling the story.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And she said, I just don't think.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I would enjoy a whole book written from a child's
point of view.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I think that would get old.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
And that was interesting to me because when you think
of elements of a story, you think about the characters,
and you think about the plot, and you think about
the setting, and it always blows my mind. I don't
know if any of you are fiction readers, but any
fiction readers, if you have any good books that I
should take to the beach this summer, feel free to
(12:17):
send them my way. I should totally read more fiction.
It's a good escape, but I don't read enough. But
I can't figure out how somebody can have enough imagination
to make up a whole world in a fiction book.
I've written books before, but I mean, it's it's real stuff,
and I just don't imagine that I would ever have
the imagination to make up a whole world. You know,
(12:40):
names and where people went to school in cities that
don't really exist, and aliens and zombies and walkers, and
you know, I just can't imagine that I would have
that kind of imagination.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
But some people do yet. Yet.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The plot and the characters and the setting when you're
reading a book are all experienced through the medium of
whoever the author chooses to use to tell the story.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
You'll know where I'm going with this. You guys are
quick on the draw, because.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I found out that in life, you have to select
a narrator.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Stay with me on this.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You have to select a narrator because the narrator you
choose will determine the way you.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Experience the events.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Everybody in here has an internal narrator, somebody who in
every situation is trying to tell you how to think
about that situation, how to interpret the motives of people
in certain situations, how to look at an opportunity and
to size it up.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And the Lord told me to come out here and
tell you today that some of you need a new narrator.
I'm gonna say it again.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Maybe it'll hit the back, maybe it'll hit Providence, maybe
it'll hit Gaston. Some of you have a really annoying, whiny, complaining, suspicious,
negative narrator, and see it swearing you out because you
keep going into situations and your narrator keeps on telling
you what to think about this and what to think
(14:16):
about that.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But I got good news for you.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Anytime you get ready, you could get a new storyteller.
I'm trying to say, you can have a life narrated
not by feelings, but by faith. I gotta ask a question,
is your life narrated by your feelings or your faith?
(14:40):
And I think that's the plot line that we're plucked
into with Abraham, who has a decision to make. In
Romans chapter four, Paul has given us some of the story,
not all of the story. If you read all of
the story, you're gonna read about how Abraham, while he
was waiting on God to give him a son, slept
with his wife's assistance to try to produce something that
(15:01):
he couldn't be patient and wait for. That happened, and
in Genesis we hear about it, but it didn't make
the trip across the centuries to Romans chapter four. That
interesting that in the story selection process, in the synopsis,
it didn't even make the story. It didn't even make
the story. That Abraham got in trouble one time, and
(15:22):
he was scared because his wife was beautiful, and he
thought that if the king knew that it was his wife,
he'd be in danger. So he told his wife survived
to pretend like she was.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
His sister, and then the king almost slept.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
With his wife because he thought that it was Abram's sister.
And then God started messing with the king because God
didn't like it very much that the king was about
to take Abraham's wife, And so the king figured it
out real quick and said, why did you lie to me?
Yet I can't find that in Romans chapter four. And
it's not as if it didn't happen. It's just that
when you narrate your life by grace, When you narrate
(15:59):
your life by grace, this is the context of faith.
And so some of the failures that are most prominent
in your mind didn't even make the cut of the
story in the mind of God, because he sees you
from a different perspective and sees.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
You in a different dimension. I feel the.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Spirit of God on me today. I'm just gonna preach
this like I feel it in my heart. Touch somebody say,
it's not even a part of my story. It's not
even a part of my story.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
But it is. But it is, But it is in
your story. See, there's a kind of faith that is
very dangerous. And I'll show you two extremes here, and
both are warned against in Romans chapter four. Sometimes there is.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
A version of faith that really looks more like denial,
and then there is the absence of faith, which creates despair.
And what I see in Romans chapter four Front and
Sinner from the Father of Faith, is that he was
(17:07):
able to avoid both extremes, it says in verse nineteen,
without weakening in his faith.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He faced the fact.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Now that one phrase helps me understand what faith is
and what faith Isn't that the kind of faith that
I am to emulate from my father Abraham, who seed
I am, is not a sort of denial. And I'm
putting that before you because when we teach about being positive,
(17:45):
it doesn't mean that everything in your life is positive.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And I want you to know that because here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Some people don't exercise faith because they live in deny it,
and they actually begin to use their faith as a
cop out and don't confront things for what they are. Somebody,
look at the person next to you and tell them
(18:15):
it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Come on, some of you aren't participating and that makes me.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Really, really, really angry and insecure.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Look at your neighbor, tell them it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Abraham faced the fact he was old.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
He faced the fact his stuff stopped working a long
time ago. He faced the fact. He looked at himself
and he said, it is what it is. And he
looked at his wife and said it was what it was,
but hey, what it was now, it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
We're old now. We could have done this thirty forty
years ago.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Maybe we could have done it fifty sixty years ago.
But now it is what it is. I didn't go
to college.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
It is what it is. It is.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I didn't go to high school. It is what it is.
I went through my first marriage. I was too stupid to.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Make it work.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
You know what, You can't get over what you do
not own, So face it, face it. Faith doesn't mean
living in denial. Faith doesn't mean that.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
It's all cold.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I've got women in my church that were sexually abused.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's not all good. I got people in my.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Church who can't get the job because they have a
criminal record.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
It's not all good.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I got people in my church under the sound of
my voice right now who didn't grow up with the dad.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
It's not all good. And you know what faith can handle.
That faith can handle that.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Starting place of authentic faith is honesty.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Lord, I'm disappointed right now.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
You know you can tell God that and he won't
hold it against you.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
When God spoke to Abraham and said, I'm going to
give you a seed that's going to be your son,
and out of your seed is going to come a
nation as numerous as the stars, Abraham laughed in God's face,
didn't bother God because.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a decision.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I'm gonna say it again to counteract all the wrong
thinking that you've ever had in your life about faith.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Faith is not a feeling.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know, you can be a pessimistic person but still
have great faith.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Even great faith has weak moments.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
So the call to faith is first a call to
come out of denial. Otherwise you'll be waiting on God
to deliver you from a situation that is going to
require discipline.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I'm gonna say it again this message and sinking in
Joel nine thirty was on fire.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I don't know what happened in the lobby before the
people got here.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Maybe it's better at the other campus.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But when you live in denial, you'll be waiting for
deliverance in a situation that requires discipline. Are you waiting
for deliverance in a situation that is going to require discipline?
In other words, are you waiting on God to cancel
your debts or are you're making a plan to pay
them off?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Faith doesn't wait on a check. Faith gets up and goes.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
To work, or at least looking for work. Faith they'll
do it, but you got to face it. You got
to face it or you live in denial, and you'll say, well,
I guess the reason that nobody wants to be my
friend is because God has just got me in a
lonely season right now. No, God doesn't have you in
a lonely season. Your bad attitude and poor relational habits
(21:54):
of not treating people correctly have got you in a
lonely season. And until you face it it, faith can't
fix it. Until you face it, faith can't fix it.
Faith can't fix what you won't face. So he faced
the fact, but he kept his faith, and you can
(22:17):
do both. Stay with me camera. He faced the fact.
I'm not living in denial, but he kept his faith.
I'm not living in despair. Faith is standing in the
middle and making a decision that it is what it is.
But watch this, it's not what it seems. I got
(22:39):
that beneath the surface faith. I got that Saturday faith
waiting on something to come up out of a tomb
and resurrect for the healing and salvation of the world.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
So so he narrated his situation with his faith, and
so he became the father of many nations, and we
are his seed.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
How cool is.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That that we are the seed of Abraham. See that
made me think about something. Will you think with me
today that when Jesus was trying to explain to the
(23:30):
people what the Kingdom of God was like, he said
in Mark four, verse thirty one, the Kingdom of Heaven
is like a skyscraper, big and bold, big and massive,
(23:55):
towering structure. No I wish he said that. I wish
my faith was as big as a skyscraper. I wish
I walked around never doubting. You know, I wish all
my stuff worked. That's what I'm trying to say. In fact,
I wish that this stuff that I preach was as
(24:17):
easy to live as it is to preach. Sometimes talk
back to me, talk back to me, talk back to me.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Don't you wish it.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Was as easy to live as it is to write
down in your notebook? Cam with Heaven is like a
mustard seed shown the mustard seed shum show. I'm the scene.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Huh what come on? Talk to me.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
It's all right, you can talk in her No it's not.
I mean, that's what it seems to be now that
it's been through the process that it went through.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
And guess what I have in my pocket. No, not
mustard seeds. I got trees in my pocket. I came
to preach to somebody.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
You got trees in your pocket, You got potential in
your life. You got trees in your pocket. You've got
healing in your mouth. You can tell your neighbor you
got trees in your pocket. That's what God was telling Abraham.
I put a seed in you, I put a promise
(25:55):
in you, I put a purpose in you.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I put potential in you.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And don't judge the tree by the size of the seed,
because when it's grown, it's gonna look like something you can't.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Even right right now.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
So so he says, can you see the tree in
the sea?
Speaker 1 (26:20):
And this is the question of faith.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Can you see the hope of the world in a
barren womb? Can you see a leadership potential in your
rebellious child?
Speaker 7 (26:38):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Good?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Can you see how it might have been a blessing
that one person walked out of your life? Can you
see They say that we missed the forest for the trees,
But sometimes I think we missed the trees for the seeds.
So Elijah sends his servant up. He's like, hey, check
(27:05):
it out. Causes about the rain, and the servant comes
back down and says, there is nothing there, And he said,
go and look again. Now, iija's doing something kind of weird.
While he's sending the servant back and forth, because he
sends him six times, Bible says that I'm not going
to attempt to demonstrate this because my flexibility is limited.
But he put his head between his knees, and I
(27:29):
think it's because if he looked at the sky.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
If he looked at the situation, if he went by sight.
You know, the Bible says that we walked by faith
and not by sight.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So he had to close his eyes to what was
there in order to see what would be. And finally,
after six times, on the seventh time, the little servant
came back and said, well, it's a cloud up there,
(28:04):
but it's only about the size of a man's hand.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
To what shall I compare the Kingdom of Heaven. It's like.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
A seed, a cloud the size of a man's hand.
It's like a mustard seed. That's the smallest seed they
knew of at the time. Yet when planted, it grows.
I love that phrase. I feel the oil of God
(28:37):
and the electric power of the Holy Ghost on that phrase.
Yet when planted it grows. That's your word for this
season of your life, is that. Yes, it's small, yet
when planted it grows. I'm gonna stay right on this
(29:01):
because I know when God is speaking, and he's speaking
to somebody, it's a cloud the size of a man's hand.
Yet when planted it grows, it's a little boy's lunch.
It's only five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, put
it in my hands, because yet when planted it grows.
(29:26):
He's just a shepherd boy in a field. He looks
like a seed, yet he's a king. And when planted
in the soil of adversity in Saul's court, David grew
to become a king to what shall I compare the
Kingdom of God. It's like a seed. You can't see
it at first. It doesn't even seem like something worth showing.
(29:50):
It doesn't even seem big enough for the cameras.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
To pick up. Yet when planted it grows.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
God said his time for you to start planting seeds
of purpose, even in the soil of doubt. If you planted,
it'll grow. If you planted, the cloud will burst. If
you planted, the rain will fall. If you get your
hands dirty, and have faith and hope against hope. Yet
(30:17):
when planted it grows. Touch seven people tell him it's
gonna grow. It's gonna grow, It's gonna grow. I feel
a sphere and of faith. I want to impart faith
to you.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
I don't know if you believe in this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
But I believe in a moment, in the presence of God,
he can plant the incorruptible seed of his word in
the soul of an expected heart.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
And are ripe, harvet.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
You better catch that. You better catch that tree. You
better catch that tree. Come online, burgers. How many thinks
I can get it all.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
The way to.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Better catch that tree? You better cutch that tree. You
better put that in your pocket. And this week, when
you're up in a situation and it looks like a
small little thing and it looks like it doesn't stand
its heads, and it looks like a little virgin girl
from Nasareth, and it looks like Joseph in a pit,
you need to understand that the pit wasn't a pit.
(31:23):
It was the soil he was planted in so he
could come forth in each of them and bring the
plant nice. Yet, tell somebody I'm growing I'm growing.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
I'm growing. I'm growing. I'm growing. I'm growing. I'm growing.
I'm growing. My faith is growing, my heart is growing,
my capacity to love is growing. But the thing about
the growth of the seed is y'all hate when I
holler like that. I know some of y'all wish I
(31:59):
didn't do it. But I watched some basketball games, THEIRING
Final Four and the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I watch all kinds of fans get up with their
shirts off and their chest painted, and they're jumping around
about some men in some shorts, running up and down
a hardwood floor. I just think they're not faith.
Speaker 8 (32:16):
O gonna be enough.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I'm going to get up.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
So it's growing, But the process stop.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I want to teach. I want to teach.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Jesus said, I gotta go to the Cross, I gotta
be crucified, and they're gonna bury me in the ground.
That's one narration of what happened when they put Jesus
in a borrowed tomb.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
He was buried.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
But guess what Jesus said when they put me in
the ground. I'm not being buried. I'm being planted to
produce a harvest. Do somebody say I'm planted. I'm planted.
I'm planted, and it does not appear yet what.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
I shall be. But when you see me, I'm gonna
look more like him. I got news for you. It
is what it is, but it's not what it.
Speaker 8 (33:32):
Was, and your eyes have not seen.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
What it's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Shouted humanly.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Planting you. He's planting you.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I want to talk to somebody at the rock Hill
campus right now, because at the rock Hill campus I
got somebody listening to this sermon who's in a state
of despair. You figure that, well, if it hadn't happened
by now, it's not gonna happen. And you know what,
it may not happen just the way that you wanted
it to happen, because sometimes you have to put the
(34:09):
seed of your dream in the soil of your faith
so that God's dream for your life can but for.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yet, when planted, it grows.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And I prayed for you, Peter, that after you failed,
that your faith would not fail, and that after you
had returned, you would strengthen your brethren. You're coming up
out of the dirt. You're coming up out of this failure.
This is not your final resting place. Don't just stare
and don't look at what you see, cause we don't.
Speaker 8 (34:46):
Fix our eyes on what is seen. What is seen
is temporary. I'm only in this ground for a minute.
But I'm coming up bigger than before. I'm coming up
stronger than before. I'm coming up full of faith, full
of wisdom, full of lessons, full of purpose, full of
love our planet.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Yet the only way for the seed to grow was
for it to disappear into the soil. And the only
way for Abraham's faith to be proven was for his
hope to be blanted in the soil of disappointment. Yet
(35:34):
he didn't waver in his faith. What do you mean, Paul,
he slept.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
With his wife's assistant. Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Faith isn't defined by what you do in your weak moments.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
That's not how the narrator the narrator. You know what
you have in your life. You have a third person narrator.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I'm gonna break it down even more for the English teachers,
it's a third person omniscient narrator.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Because you've got different kinds of narrators. It's the first person.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
And when you narrate your life in the first person,
you look at yourself and you say it is what
it is. But what a narrator can do in telling
the story, and this is what faith.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Can do in your life.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Faith can show you that although it is what it is,
it's not what it seems. And in between denial and
despair is destiny.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
To stand and know.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
That God has planted me and I will produce my purpose.
You got a disappointment in your life, It is what
it is. No needn't deny it. You fell short. It
(37:17):
is what it is. Boy, Even just that first half
alone would be a good start, wouldn't it, just to
say it.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Is what it is.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
That I can't come in church and pretend to be
something that I'm not and expect to be blessed in
my state of pretension.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
I was reading something because I'm reading.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Through Mark a little bit, preparing these sermons for you,
and I started the series in Mark, and I was
over there about the woman with the issue of blood,
just for a Bible lesson for you. She had been
going around to a bunch of different doctors and they
kept saying, you know, this is what it is, and
this is what it is. And she came to Jesus
and he was able to fix it for what it
really was, because anyway you can try to fix all
(38:06):
kinds of things in your life because he diagnosed according
to the symptoms, but never really get down to the
systemic parts that cause the symptoms. And you run around
to a bunch of different doctors, a lot of different men,
a lot of different women, a lot of different churches,
a lot of different relationships, a lot of different places,
trying to get it fixed. But until you get to
the guy who really knows what it is, it can't
be healed. What I never noticed before is it said
(38:31):
that the woman when she came to Jesus, because I
always saw the story like faith, just big faith. She
came through the crowd, and she pressed through the crowd,
and she said, if I can touch the him of
his garment, I'll be made whole. And I always was
so focused on that that I miss the part where
it said that the woman, knowing what had happened to her,
came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear,
told him.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
The whole truth.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
It was her faith that healed her, but it was
her honesty that made her faith authentic. So the Lord
told me to give you two things to come out
of denial.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
It is what it is, and you can say it.
You can say I feel lonely in this season.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Now be careful who you say it too, because you
can say it in Delilah's barbershop and wake up with
a buzz cut that you weren't expecting. So don't just
say it to anybody. But God can handle it. God
can handle it. I talked to God real as if
I'm talking to a friend, because the Bible said Abraham
(39:46):
was a friend of God, and if I'm his seed,
i'm his friend too. And friends can talk to friends.
And he's my father, but he's my friend, and I
can come to him and say, you know, I don't
get you right now, sir, your majesty, because I don't
want to lighten.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Or anything like that. So I it is what it is.
It is what it is. You know. I feel like
nobody appreciates me right now.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
God, just make sure that when you tell God how
you feel, that you let him narrate what you should
do by faith, not feelings.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
It's okay to say it.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
It's okay, it's ok it's okay to Abraham.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Face the fact.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Look at all these debts I have, Look at what
the doctors are saying, face it, face it in faith,
Face it in faith, Face it in faith. Come out
of the spirit and realize that whatever it is that
you're looking at, it's not the end. It's a portal
(40:57):
to your potential. It's not buried, it's planted, it's not over.
It's just in transition.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
It is what it is, But.
Speaker 8 (41:15):
My faith told me to tell.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
You it's not what it seems.
Speaker 8 (41:23):
If you receive this word, get.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Up on your feet and.
Speaker 7 (41:28):
Give your job, a great ray, a heart right, a
fake rain.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
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 (41:57):
You can share it with your friends. You can click
the share button, take a screenshot.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
And share it on your social stories and tag us
at Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you
Host
Steven Furtick
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