September 1, 2024 • 48 mins
The right place has the power to help us thrive and grow. Jonathan Josephs shows us how God uses our environment to fulfill His great purpose in “The Power Of A Place.”
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Scripture References:
Acts 1, verses 4-9
Acts 2, verses 1-5
Ephesians 2, verse 10
1 Kings 17, verse 4
Luke 15, verse 17
Hebrews 11, verse 8
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God has moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We're about to jump into the message, but before we do,
I wanted to let you know that Elevation Nights is
back September twenty fourth through October third, and if you
live on the West Coast, we might be coming to
a city near you. We're going to be in Seattle, Vancouver, Sacramento,
la Anaheim, Boise, Salt Lake City, and Denver. It's going
to be an amazing night with Elevation worship and a
(00:39):
message from Pastor Stephen. So go to Elevation Nights dot
com to get your tickets. We cannot wait to see
you there. Now let's go to the message.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Come on, keep your hands going. Let's take a moment
and praise Him for every time he's made away in
our lives, for every time he's roxy group an. I'm
looking at some people with a testimony this morning, miracle
after a miracle and last week, our pastor taught us
what a miracle sometimes feels like. How many of you
(01:11):
want to give God praise for super natural rest in
your life. The enemy was throwing arrows at you, and somehow,
by his hand, he gave you a peace.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Come on, let's praise God one more time for his
hand in our loves.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Man and man and man, Oh, it's so good to
be in God's house together, Amen and men. Right about now,
a concerned spouse is nudging her husband. She said, I
told you to check and make sure Pastor Stephen was
preaching on this Labor Day weekend. And if you're that husband,
nudge your wife. Say you're in the right place. You're
(01:49):
in the right place. And I believe God has a
word in the house for us today. I'm so grateful
to be able to open up the scriptures. I know
many of you here at Valentine, but if I haven't
got a chance to meet you, my name is John,
and I get the privilege of serving here as the
campus pastor at our Balentine location. At stay stand in
(02:09):
for just a moment till we get to the scriptures.
But someone reminded me of this the other day. We
were talking and it brought back an old story to mind,
and just to share a little bit about me for
a moment. About twelve years ago, when I was in seminary,
Pastor Stephen came to the school Liberty University, where my
wife and I were, and he had just released a
book called Greater and this book impacted me so much.
(02:31):
He came to preach at the school and he was
doing a book signing after and I didn't necessarily care
about getting the book signed, but I really wanted to
meet Pastor Steve, and I had just so much respect
for the anointing on his life. And I was in
the habit of I believe God had a call on
my life, and so anytime I had the opportunity to
be even near a great man or woman of God,
I'd always ask them for prayer. And so in my mind,
(02:52):
I thought, Hey, if I can go to this book signing,
and I know there'll be a lot of people he's
got to get through, but if I can maybe stay
to the back of the line, maybe I'll get a
chance to meet Pastor Steven and ask him to pray
for me. And so I did that. After he spoke,
I was in the line, and every time someone would
get behind me, I'd say, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.
And at the end of that and I'm sure it
(03:12):
was a long day for Pastor, having preached and then
done all these book signings, but he was so gracious
to take a moment and I just shared with him
the call I felt on my life and asked him
to pray. And he was so gracious to just take
a moment and pray for me. And he wrote three
words when he signed this book to Jonathan and Anna,
three simple words that would profoundly shape my life. He wrote,
(03:35):
Greater Things Ahead. And those three words I meant the
world to us. It would be just a few months
later that my wife and I would move here to
be a part of this incredible church. And we're so
thankful for God that he called us and placed us
here at Elevation, and so this has been home for us.
This is where all my kids were born. Real quick,
(03:56):
just show him a picture of my family, real fast,
if you got it. This is my son, Zion and
Elias and Olivia. She's everyone's favorite. Zion's in the room,
but I can say that we all just say she's
our favorite. We love Olivia, and I'm so grateful that
God's planted us here. And it won't take you long
(04:17):
to realize, if you're new here, that this is not
a perfect church. There's no such thing as a perfect church.
But I'm so grateful for a healthy church where the
spirit of God is moving, where people are being reached
with the gospel. Next week, when you come back for
block party, you're gonna see what it's all about. Is
hundreds of people take the step of being baptized and
publicly declaring their faith in Jesus. Say, man, how many
(04:37):
you are grateful for God's house for what He's doing
in this church. And I'm excited to share this word
with you today. We're gonna be in Acts chapter one,
in Acts chapter two, and this is the story about
the coming of the Holy Spirit. All the Pentecostals make
some noise pick up in verse four. On one occasion,
(05:03):
while he was eating with them, he gave them this command,
do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my
father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For
John baptized with water, but in a few days you
will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then they gathered
around him and asked, LORDA, you at this time going
to restore the kingdom to Israel. He said to them,
(05:25):
it's not for you to know the times or the
dates the Father has set by his own authority. But
you will receive power. Everyone say power. You will receive
power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of
Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
After he said this, he was taken up before their
(05:48):
very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
So Jesus ascends into heaven. Fast forward Acts chapter two.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together
in one place. Everyone say place. Suddenly a sound like
the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and
filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw
what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and
(06:10):
came to rest on each of them. All of them
were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now they
were staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from every nation
under heaven. Back to Acts chapter two, verse one for
a moment when the day of Pentecost came, they were
all together in one place. I want to talk to
(06:30):
you this morning about the power of a place. The
power of a place. High five year neighbors, you take
your seat, say there's power in this place. Come on,
tell them like you believe it, there's power in this place.
Earlier this year, our pastor led us through a series
(06:51):
through the Book of Acts and talking about the role
of the Holy Spirit. How many you remember that series
just in the spring, and it was so impactful for me.
And one of my favorite messages in that series was
a sermon he preached called Places. Everyone. So consider this
message life not a part two, but maybe a spin
off series of that incredible message our pastor preach. But
(07:13):
that sermon got me thinking about the power of places
in our life and the way God uses places, the
places he puts us in to unfold his purposes and plans.
When we talk about the ways God works in our lives,
I think all of us would agree that God uses
people in our lives. Right when I say that, maybe
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maybe a mentor a leader comes to mind, who discipled
you really made a difference in your life. Maybe what
comes to mind is the person who invited you to
church or shared the Gospel with you for the first time.
Maybe you think of a praying grandmother. Everyone, we all
would agree God uses people in our lives, but more
and more, even in my own life, God is beginning
(07:53):
to reveal to me how He uses places. Everybody say
places places. I want to give you an example from
nature real quick, to kind of set up this point.
I don't know what you like to do Sundays after
you leave church. How many you like to go home
and watch football? Is that your thing? I'll tell you
how cool I am after church on Sundays. You know
what I like to do. I like to go home
(08:14):
and watch nature documentaries. That's my thing. The simultaneously informative
yet relaxing voice of David ATM Sorry, Sir David Attenborough.
And one of the things I saw recently was this.
Show them the picture of these trees real quick. These
are California redwords redwoods. These are the tallest trees on
(08:38):
the planet and some of the fastest growing trees. Look
at that. Something incredible, though, happened about one hundred years ago.
Someone took these trees from where they were native to
in California and they decided to plant them in New Zealand.
And when they planted these trees that were already massive,
(08:59):
already rapid growing, trees, already remarkable in their own right,
when they took them from their native environment of California
and planted them in a new environment of New Zealand,
something incredible happened. You ready for this, any nature lovers
in the house today. When they planted these trees in
New Zealand, in the nutrient rich volcanic soil of New Zealand,
(09:24):
these trees that were already remarkably fast growing, grew three
times faster in New Zealand than they did in their
native land of California. Ooh, the environments you place yourself
in matters. There is potential on the inside of you,
(09:44):
but how quickly you get there? And some of the
things that God will unfold in your life have less
to do with your potential and more to do with
the places that you find yourself in. You can put
yourself in a place that you are not native to
and watch God as he accelerates your lif in ways
you never could a thought or imagine. Places matter to God.
(10:06):
One thing Jesus would often do throughout the scriptures is
he would tell these parables to illustrate what the Kingdom
of God was like. And as Jesus would tell these parables,
he would use the place he was in to teach principles. Right,
so he would tell a parable about a lost sheep,
probably as he was standing next to a field filled
with sheep. He would use the place to illustrate the principle,
(10:29):
or tell a parable about a fig as he's standing
next to a fig, or a vineyard while he's near
a vineyard. And one time in Matthew thirteen, he tells
a parable about a sewer who goes out to scatter seed,
and the Bible says that as the sewer went and
scattered seed, it fell in four different places. Everybody say places.
The seed fell in four different places. Some of it
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fell in a place where it was snatched up by birds.
Some of the seed fell in a place where it
was so rocky it couldn't get roots, so when the
sun got hot they withered away. Other seeds fell in
a place where it was choked out by thorns. And
other seed fell on good soil where it produced fruit.
If you're looking at Matthew thirteen in your Bible, it'll
probably have a heading like the Parable of the Sower,
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but a better name for this parable is the parable
of the places. Because what determined the outcome of that
seed was not the potential within the seed, and it
wasn't the sower. The sower knew what he was doing.
What determined the outcome of that seed was the place
that the seed landed. Your life is like a seed,
and the places you find yourself in can either accelerate
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you grow, you expand you feed you. Or if the
good environment can accelerate and grow your life in the
same way, the wrong environment can squander you, starve you,
suffocate you from the purposes that God has for your life.
This is the power of a place. This is why
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it's so important that when someone gives their life to
Christ that we help them get can to this church,
because that they receive the seed of God's grace into
their heart, but they go back to the same people
and the same environments. It's one thing to have Jesus
in your heart, but you're going to be frustrated when
you feel like you're not transforming if you have Jesus
in your heart but keep going to the same places.
(12:17):
The same bars, the same club get. We got to
help people get out of the environment that they were
in and into a life giving environment where the purposes
of God can begin to unfold. I'm so grateful God
planted me in this house, in this soil, in this soil,
because I've seen God do incredible things. I always knew
(12:38):
God's hand was on my life. I knew I would
see God do incredible I never could have imagined some
of the things I'd get to see God do because
of where He planted me. I remember one author saying,
he said, if you want to see a move of God,
put yourself in a place where God is moving. If
you want to see God move in a big way,
and how many of you want to see God move
in a big way in your life. If you want
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to see God move in a big way in your life,
put yourself in a place where God is moving. That's
true for so many areas of our life. If you
want to see a miracle in your life, put yourself
in a place where God is still doing miracles. If
you want to see your marriage thrive and prosper, put
yourself in a place where you're surrounded by healthy miracles,
by healthy marriages. If you want to see God do something,
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get in a place where the spirit of God is moving.
When you plant yourself in a place where the spirit
of God is moving and watering, there is no limit
to what God can do in and through your life.
And like I mentioned, the same is true the opposite way,
Like if you put man, I love nature so much.
(13:41):
Here's my third nature analogy. But if you put a
fish in a small aquarium, it won't limit how much
it can grow. Many of us are limited not by
our potential, but by our places. In one passage of scripture,
Jesus comes across a man who had been paralyzed since birth,
and the scripture says that he was laying near a
(14:02):
pool called Bethesda. And the scripture specifically points out that
at this pool that there is a great number of
sick and ill people. And Jesus goes up to this
man who was laying by this pool, and he asked
him a question. He says, do you want to get well?
And of course the answer to that is obvious for
this man who's been laying by this pool, for you,
(14:23):
do you want to get well? The man says, yes,
I want to get well. Interestingly enough, Jesus doesn't say
to him, you're healed. Jesus says, pick up your mat
and go. When the man expresses that he wants to
get well, the first thing Jesus tells him to do
is change your environment, because if you want to walk,
the first thing you need to do is stop hanging
around lame people. When you want to see God do
(14:46):
something different in your life, you've got to Often, God
will force you out of environments that you're native to
places that are comfortable for you in order to bring
you into His purposes. Amen, I didn't forget about the
Book of Acts. Let's go there for a minute. Talk
about the potential of a place, this little upper room,
(15:07):
this little upper room, where God would send his spirit,
and the effects of that for the last two thousand
years have been resounding and trembling throughout the whole earth,
and on the Day of Pentecost. One thing you need
to know is that the Day of Pentecost was one
day in a festival called the Feast of Weeks, and
(15:28):
during the Feast of Weeks, this is where the Israelites
would celebrate when God gave the law the Torah to Moses,
and thus started the nation of Israel. So the feast
of Weeks where they is where they would celebrate the
beginning of the Hebrew people becoming a nation. Now, for
us as believers, when we think about the Day of Pentecost,
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it's not about God sending his law, but God sending
his spirit. And it's not about the birth of a nation,
but the birth of God's Church that since that day
when He poured out his spirit, has been resonating throughout
the whole earth, to Ukraine, to Brazil, to Toronto to Charlotte,
North Carolina. All the beautiful expressions of the Body of
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Christ that came out of that moment when God birth
this church in that little upper room. It's the potential
of a place. And sometimes I read this story and
I think it would be so cool to have been
one of the apostles in that room on that day.
It would have been so amazing to be in that
place as God sends the spirit and all of a
sudden it fills the house and it fills the people.
(16:30):
And this scripture will go on to say that right
after that, Peter and the other eleven they stand up
and they give one of the most beautiful expressions of
the gospel message of Jesus Christ, and that day three
thousand people get added to the church. What would it
have been like to been in the middle of a
move of God like that? I think, Oh, it would
be so cool to be in the upper room. But
(16:50):
think with me for a second what this must have
felt like for the apostles who are there. See, for
three years they've been following Jesus from place place. Remember
he called them out of there for Peter. He said,
leave your fishing, but leave the thing that's not only
comfortable for you but also lucrative for you, and come
and follow me. And so for three years these disciples
(17:12):
have been following Jesus from place to place, everybody say place.
And then they watch Jesus as he gets crucified in
a place called Golgatha. They even told them, Jesus, don't
do it, but it was his purpose and plan all
along to go to that place and give his life.
And so, in their pain and confusion and grief, they
watched them get crucified. And just when things couldn't get
(17:33):
more confusing, three days later they go to the tomb,
and what happens. He wasn't in that place the Angel said,
he's not here, he's risen. And then they meet the
resurrected Jesus, and from that point for another forty days,
they're with the resurrected Jesus, and in some of his
last words to them before he ascends into heaven, he says,
(17:54):
wait in Jerusalem. Wait in Jerusalem, says, my father's going
to send you the gift of the Holy Spirit, but
you need to wait in Jerusalem. How many patient people
in the House of God today self identified patient people.
This is how I know I wouldn't have been a
good disciple because I'm not very good at waiting. So
(18:16):
when we call it the Upper Room, we think, what
an amazing moment that happened in that place. But for
the disciples, this wouldn't have felt like a move of God.
This would have felt like a waiting room, a waiting room,
a waiting room. They're in that place and it would
be ten days from when Jesus ascended to when he
would send the gift of his Holy Spirit. Ten days.
(18:39):
But they don't know that. They don't know that, they
don't know if it's going to be three days, seven days,
ten days, one hundred days. In some of his last
words to them, he says, stay in Jerusalem and wait
and wait. So they go to this place and they're
simply waiting. Imagine how confusing this was for them. The
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worst thing about when you're waiting, like for me, I
always think about when you go to a restaurant and
the weight is taking a little bit longer than you expect.
In your in you're debating in your mind do I
just leave and go somewhere else? And yet there's something
deep down in your spirit telling you that the moment
I walk out of this door, they're gonna call my name. Right,
it's this lingering feeling. The moment I leave this place,
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they're gonna say, josephs, your table is ready, and I
won't be in that place. So you just wait, You wait,
you wait, when's it gonna come? When's it gonna come?
One thing I want you to know is that places
that places where you find yourself waiting are places of preparation.
Preparation is connected to a place when you find yourself
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in that tormenting space where you don't I know God's
getting ready to do something, but I don't know when
or exactly what He's gonna do. Those are spaces of preparation.
A couple of weeks ago, our pastor taught us about
this when he talked about King David. Remember, David was
anointed as king, and yet despite being anointed by the
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prophet Samuel to be the king of Israel, he did
not possess the throne right away. And our pastor taught
us how David spent years running away from the current king,
King Saul, who was trying to kill him. So he
finds himself living in the wilderness and hiding in caves.
And our pastor said something so profound to us. He said,
kings are only formed in caves. That cave was a
(20:28):
waiting room. That cave was a place of preparation for
King David. God knew everything he had in store for David.
God knew everything that David would become. But in that cave,
God was forming something in him for the purposes that
he had for him. Consider Joseph for just a moment.
Joseph is an amazing character in the Bible. In fact,
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he would have such profound and prophetic dreams about the
way that God was going to use them that when
he told his family, they got so jealous of him
that they sold him into slavery, and through a series
of unfortunate events, Joseph finds himself in a prison cell.
Something incredible happens in that prison cell. We call it
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a prison, but it was a waiting room. God was
preparing him in that place, because in that waiting room,
the Bible calls him. It calls him Joseph the Dreamer.
But in that waiting room, in that prison cell, something
significant happens in Joseph's life. It's not Joseph who's dreaming
in that prison cell, but the other prisoners. Catch this
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for a moment. When you really begin to operate in
the anointing that God has placed on your life, you
start to see the people around you. Start to stay
with me for a minute. When you really start walking
in the grace God gave you to be an encourager,
you'll see that the people around you start encouraging. When
you begin to walk in the grace God gave you
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to be generous, you'll see the people. So it's not
Joseph having dreams. It's not Joseph the Dreamer having dreams.
It's the other prisoners. And in that waiting room, in
that prison cell, these other prisoners are having dreams, and
Joseph begins to interpret their dreams. Did you catch what
happens in his life. It's in that waiting room that
Joseph goes from Joseph the dreamer to Joseph the dream interpreter.
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The prison cell was the place where Joseph learned how
to use his gifts, not to serve himself, but serve others.
Come on, any of you been in that place where
you thought it was all about you and God puts
you in circumstances where you learned that what He gave you,
and what he put in you, and what he put
on your life wasn't just for you, but for others
as well. Ah, he went from a dreamer to a
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dream interpreter. And I want you to know today that
when you are in that place of waiting, I'll need
you to see it as a place of preparation. It
is possible that in that place God is preparing you
for what He's prepared for you. God is preparing you
for what He prepared for you. This is what Ephesians
two ten says. It says that we are God's handiwork,
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created to do good works which he prepared for. In
other words, that means that God is shaping you. God
is forming you. God is working on your life for
what He has already prepared in advanced for you to do.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
So.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Picture the apostles in this upper room waiting for God
to send a spirit, knowing what God promised them, but
not knowing when he was going to do it. But
in that place, God was preparing them for something so
significant they never could have When Peter left his boat,
he never could have imagined that on that day he
(23:41):
would be preaching and three thousand people would give their
lives sick. He never could. But God is preparing you
for what He's prepared for you. I don't want to
miss out when God finds when God calls my name,
when he calls me, I want to be in the
place he told me to be. So Jesus said, wait
in Jerusalem, because my father's getting ready to send you something.
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I know even as I say that, some of you
are like, I hate the place I'm in right now.
Maybe you feel stuck in a job. Maybe you're at
a school where it feels like you don't belong, and
everything within you wants to get up and leave that place.
Because it's so painful and so uncomfortable. But I want
you to know that even when you're in that place,
your Father has not forgotten you. It could just be
that he's preparing you for what He's prepared for you.
(24:32):
When Jesus tells them wait in Jerusalem, it's interesting to me.
They go to this we call it the Upper Room.
But if you remember, before Jesus went to the Cross,
he sent them into Jerusalem and he said, go prepare
a place for the Passover meal, the first communion, the
last Supper would take place. This was the same room
that they had prepared not too much earlier, for the
(24:54):
Passover supper with Jesus. So when Jesus ascends into heaven
and they're left not knowing what to do, they don't
go to a new place. They go to a prepared place.
And sometimes when you find yourself in the place where
you're not sure what God is going to do or
when God is going to do it, I want to
encourage you to stay in the place he last told
you to be, Stay in the place that he puts you,
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because your father, he hasn't forgotten about you, and he's
getting ready to do something in your life. So don't
leave Jerusalem, don't walk away just yet. God is preparing
you for what He's prepared for you. Not only is
preparation connected to a place, but what I love in
this scripture is that God's provision is connected to a
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place as well. Are you with me? One thing? There's
so much I could tell you about my wife Anna,
but two things you need to know. One is she's
a really good cook. Amen. The other thing is she's
a really good mom. In fact, my kids eat every
single day. That's how good of a mom she is.
Every single day. So when Anna cooks a meal for
(26:03):
our family, as much as I think my boys would
love to eat their dinner in the playroom or up
in their bedroom, when Anna makes the meal for our kids,
she takes what she prepared and she puts it on
the table, and she says, boys, time to come eat
and as much as they'd like to eat somewhere else.
And I'm not judging you if you're a family who
eats on the couch or eats on the floor or whatever.
(26:24):
But in our family, she takes what she prepared and
she puts it on the table and says, boys, come
and eat. In other words, they need to come to
the place where the food is that they want to eat.
I want you to know that God is a good father.
God is a good father. He knows how to feed
you as his sons and as his daughters. He's a
(26:45):
good father. But God is not uber eats. God does
not take provision to where you are. God puts his
provision to where you're supposed to be. That's what he
said to Elijah one king seventeen. He said, I'm gonna
supply food for you down at the break. I'm even
gonna do it in a miraculous way. I'm gonna send
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ravens to feed you there. But Elijah, you gotta be
in the place I told you to be so that
I can feed you. Provision is connected to a place
your father knows how to feed you. But you gotta
be in the place he told you to be. Consider
for just a moment with me, the story of the
prodigal son that Jesus tells this parable again of a
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son who asks his father early for his inheritance, and
it says he left his father's house and he went
into a distant country where he squandered everything that he
had been given and then look at this in verse seventeen,
this boy who's gone off to a distant country, squandered
everything as father has given him. He hires himself out
(27:49):
to work with the pigs. And while he's with the pigs,
he's getting envious of what the pigs are eating. Well,
he's out there starving. In verse seventeen, it says, and
when he came to his senses, he said, how many
of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and
here I am starving to death. How many of my
(28:11):
father's hired servants have food to eat, and yet I'm
out here starving as a son. In other words, the
provision of his father had nothing to do with his
position and everything to do with his location. I heard
our friend, Pastor Darius said, did you catch what I
just said? It had nothing to do with his position
(28:32):
and everything to do with his location. Our friend, Pastor
Darius Daniels, he was preaching this. He said, as long
as the son was in the father's house, he never
knew what it felt like to be hungry. And you
have to know, as a child of God, you have
access to the refrigerator of your father, But it is
in the house touch your neighbors say, it's in the
(28:54):
You gotta be in the place that God told you
to be. Out here staring as a son, when your
father has everything that you need. In the presence of
the Lord is the fullness of joy at his right hand,
pleasures evermore, My father has everything that I need, and
(29:17):
the House of God is one of the primary places
your Father will feed you. I know we live in
a day and age when people say I'm just not
into church. I'm spiritual. I connect with God everywhere, and
I get it. God is on the present. If you
like to go on a walk and He speaks to you,
that's amazing. You should have a place in your home
where you read your scriptures and pray and God speaks
to you. But I want you to know that the
(29:37):
House of God is one of the primary places that
your Father will feed you with what you need. So
people now say, oh, church is just a build, just
a building, just a building. Now, when I think about
how my father met me in the this is not
a building. This is the house of God. Let me
show you a table, real quick. Let me show you
(29:58):
a table. For the last eight years, I've had the
privilege of being the campus pastor here, And one of
the great privileges of that is that every single week
I get to sit at this table right here, this table,
this table. And some of you are like Pastor JJ,
that's not a table, that's a chair. No no, no no.
(30:22):
It might look like a chair to you, But for me,
that's a table. This is the place where my father
feeds me. This is the place where he speaks to me.
This is the place where he's where he's comforted me.
This is the place where he's corrected me. This is
the place where he's given me. This is the place
(30:43):
where my father feeds me. And so for me, I
want to be at my father's table. And whether it's
our pastor or anyone else who stands behind that pulpit,
I want to be in the house of God because
my Father knows what I need. And one of the
things I see time and time again as a pastor
(31:03):
is sometimes people will come to church and come to
God when their life is falling apart. And God is
so good that the moment you come to him, he
embraces you with open arms, and he closes you, and
he feeds you. And yet some of us get so
used to being full that we forget what it felt
like to be hungry, and so we begin to drift
(31:23):
away from the House of God, and wonder, has God
forgotten me? Has God forsaken me? Did he forget to
feed you? No, he didn't forget to feed you. He's
putting food on the table every week. But God needs
to feed you in the place he called you to be.
And one of the most amazing things about this church
(31:45):
is that you can show up week after week and
get fed and you never have to give a single
dime to this ministry because there's someone else on your
row right now who believes so much in what God
is doing in this place that they give sacrifice to
see the gospel. Will go forward to build a banquet
table for the masters, so that all can come and
(32:06):
eat of His goodness, to taste and see that the
Lord is good. But if this is the place where
God feeds you, I don't know why you wouldn't give
to help put food on the table. There's someone else
who needs to eat there. The world needs what our
father has. This is the house of God. Provision is
connected to a place to a place. This is the
(32:29):
place where my father feeds me. So he says to them,
wait in Jerusalem, because my Father's going to send you
the gift provision, the gift, the gift of what, the
gift of the Holy Spirit. Of all the ways that
God can provide for you in your life, the greatest
provision of your Father will always be the gift of
(32:50):
his presence. I love the Holy Spirit. I love to
know that no matter what I'm walking through, that God
is with me. So he says, wait in Jerusalem. My
Father is going to send you the gift. He's going
to provide for you in that place. He's going to
send you the gift of the Holy Spirit. And when
he sends you the spirit, you will receive power. And
(33:13):
he says, and when you receive power, you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, into the
ends of the yearth In other words, not only is
provision connected to a place, but purpose is connected to
a place as well. When God begins to do something
in your life, it's always for a purpose greater than you.
He says, I'm going to give you my spirit, but
(33:34):
it's not just for your comfort. Although the apostles did
need comfort. I'm going to give you my spirit, and
it's not just for guidance. Although they wouldn't need God.
He said, I'm going to give you my spirit, and
when I do, you will receive power power to be
my witnesses. There was a purpose that God was beginning
to unfold through their lives that they would need the
(33:55):
Holy Spirit for purpose is connected to a place. When
God spoke to Abraham, he said he gave him an
incredible promise for his life. He said, I'm gonna bless you, Abraham,
and through you and your seed, I'm gonna bless the
entire earth. And after he gives him this promise, he
says to him, so go to the place I will
show you. God had a specific purpose for Abraham, but
(34:19):
that purpose would unfold in a specific place, and the
scripture tells us in Hebrews that Abraham left the place
he was native to. He left his home country, and
he set out looking for the place that God had
established for him, whose builder and architect was God. Because
God had a purpose for his life, but it would
unfold in the place. So it took obedience for Abraham
(34:41):
to move and leave what was native to him and
begin to step into what God had in store for him.
Purpose is connected to a place. I love reading the
scriptures when I think about all the people that God
used in a significant way many times before God used them,
he moved them. This, this, this blessed me because I'm
(35:03):
an immigrant. My dad's an immigrant, his dad was an immigrant,
his dad was come from a long line of immigrants.
Then I'm reading the scriptures. How God moved Abraham, God
moved Isaac, God moved Jacob, God moved Jeremiah, God moved Nehemiah, Naomi, Ruth.
All these people that God used in a significant way,
he first moved. And what's crazy to me is I love.
(35:24):
As I'm getting to know people in our church often
I ask him what brought you to Charlotte? And you
know what they tell me. God, I'm like, no, no, no,
just give me a come like, was it a job?
Did you have? Grandchildren? Moved God? And I'm beginning to
see more and more. No, that's really how he works.
As sometimes God had a purpose for someone, so he
would lift them up from the place they were native
to and begin to move them to another.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Place so that his purposes and plans could unfold. Just
last night, we were at a couple of cells for dinner.
They shared with us how all the reasons they thought
they were moving to Charlotte, and all the other purposes
that God had in store for them. Often, when God
is getting ready to use someone, he'll move them from
a place that they're native, to move them to a
(36:06):
place so His purposes can unfold in their life.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Purpose is connected to a place. This is what I've
been excited to show you in this passage, because I'm
reading how Jesus is going up to the Father and
as and before he does, he tells them wait in Jerusalem,
because my Father's going to send you the spirit there.
And all along I'm asking myself the question, why Jerusalem?
(36:34):
Why Jerusalem? It's his spirit. God could have sent his
spirit anywhere. So as Jesus as sends, why didn't he
Why didn't he let them just kind of get on
their way and when He was ready send the spirit
to where they are? Why Jerusalem? Well, I told you
earlier that the day of Pentecost was part of a
festival called the Feast of Weeks, And one of the
(36:55):
things that came along with that festival was that in
Deuteronomy sixteen sixty and God says that during this feast,
every Jewish person, no matter where they live, needed to
migrate back to Jerusalem. So Jesus speaks to the disciples
and he says, stay in Jerusalem. I'm going to send
(37:15):
you the gift of my spirit. And when I do,
you're gonna be a witness in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria.
And get this and two the ends of the earth.
So this is where Acts chapter two, verse five comes in,
because every time I read Acts chapter two, I think
about them in that house. They're praying, the apostles, the
other women, they're praying, and God sends his spirit, fills
(37:37):
the house like a mighty rushing wind and tongues of
fireland I never paid attention to Acts chapter two, verse five.
The purpose of this place. Now there were staying in Jerusalem,
God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. Do you
see it? Do you see it? God says, wait in Jerusalem,
(37:59):
because as He's preparing to send his spirit, at the
same time, he's bringing people from every nation under heaven.
So when Peter opens up that door, there are nations
at his doorstep. And Peter begins to open up his
mouth and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Every
(38:22):
person hears that gospel message in their own language. He says,
you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria,
and two the ends of the earth. The apostles wouldn't
go to the ends of the earth because God was
bringing the nations to them. This is the power of
(38:43):
a place that God might just be arranging things where
you find yourself right now, wait in the place he
told you to be. God is up to something that
you might not see by His plans and purposes are
unfolding in your life. Eighteen years ago, when Pastor Stephen
and Hall, Chunks and Amy and the core team, we're
getting ready to launch a church, deciding where do we go?
(39:04):
Where do we go? And they picked Charlotte, North Carolina.
I remember Chunk's telling me all along he's going why
Charlotte wasn't where he wanted to be. He keeps saying,
why Charlotte, Why Jerusalem, Why Charlotte? Because of the purposes
that God had in this place. I want to do
something real quick. If you're a if you moved here
(39:27):
from another country, or one of your parents moved here
from another country, would you stand up right now and
right now in the Chat, people from every nation under
heaven joining us. Put it in the Chat where you're
(39:49):
joining us from? Right now? Why Charlotte, Why Charlotte? This
church has started at Providence High School just down the road.
Who could have imagined what was in God's heart for
this ministry? Who could have imagined what God had in
(40:09):
so Who could have imagined that from this place the
Gospel of Jesus Christ would touch the nations of the earth,
that he would draw nations to this place. This is
the power of a place that God is up to,
something beyond what we could expect, beyond what we could imagine,
beyond what we could dream. Why Jerusalem, Because as God's
(40:32):
getting ready to send his spirit, He's drawing nations. And
that day three thousand people would hear the message of
Jesus and surrender their lives to him, and they would
go back to the place they came from and in
their own tongue begin to spread the message. That's how
the Gospel of Jesus began to ripple throughout the earth.
(40:55):
This is the purpose of a place. Who knows what
God has his store for you? I asked Jeanie to
sit in this worship experience, in that seat, because she
was reminding me the other day that it was seven
years ago that her dad, who immigrated here, came to
our church, sat in that seat and stood to give
his life to Christ. And it would just be a
(41:16):
few months after that that unexpectedly he passed away. I said, Genie,
you got to sit in the certa. It'll make sense
to you when you hear the power of a place.
What was in God's heart when he brought him all
the way, all the way here to be in this place,
to be in this place so that he could receive,
receive something from God, so that when he'd go to
(41:39):
a better place, he would have the gift of God's
grace in God's eternal life. Some of you who stood earlier,
I don't know all your reasons for moving to America.
Maybe you were leaving a good situation and you sacrificed
a lot. Maybe you were leaving a bed. You might
have thought you were coming here for a bet. I
(42:00):
want you to know God brought you here for a
greater purpose. There is something on your life that God
wants to do is drawing you to this place. Stand
up for you, Look at this. When the day of
(42:22):
Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly
a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came
from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
It's interesting to me that first God filled the place,
and then he filled the people. And that's how it
(42:46):
works in our lives, that God will bring us to
a place where he's got something that he's been preparing
for us, something that we never could have met, something
that went beyond what we even believed our potential could be,
and provides for us in that place, and through his
he fills the place, and then He fills the people.
And when Pastor Stephen preached that sermon places everyone, he says,
(43:07):
first God changes you, and then he changes the places
you go. When you come into the presence of God
and He touches you and he ministers to you and
he fills you, then wherever you go, you bring the
presence of God with you into your school, into your workplace,
into your home. First God filled the place, and then
(43:29):
he filled the people. This is not just a building.
Wherever you are today, down in Orlando, in Greenville, and
Concord in Toronto, wherever you're watching from joining us. This
is not just a building. This is the house of God.
This is where he feeds me. This is where his
purpose is unfold in my life. This is where he
(43:52):
fills me. And sometimes we have to have a moment
like Jacob where he looked at something as simple as
a rock and he annoyed and he said, surely this
is the house of God. And I wasn't aware. Surely
this is the house of God. How many of you
have that testimony about this place today? Say it with me,
(44:12):
says surely this is the house of God. First he
filled the place, then he filled the people. God brought
you here because there's something on your live. Don't leave
the place he told you to be. Don't run so
quickly from places that are uncomfortable, don't run so quickly
(44:33):
from places that are painful. God meant just be preparing
you there for what He has in store for you.
This is the power of a place. Did you receive
something from this message today? I had a real simple
(44:53):
prayer this morning that just at its most basic level,
that for some of you it would produce gratitud in
your heart for the church that you get to be
a part of This is a special place. Sometimes we
can take it fort we get so used to being full,
we forget what it felt like to be hungry. This
is the house of God for others of you. I
(45:16):
was praying that God would remind you of the purposes
that He had for you and some of the reasons
he brought you from the place you were and put
you in this place. Y'all blessed me the other day
when you were sharing how much God blessed you when
you left Guatemala, and how He's opening up all those
doors for you to do ministry. Now, what a blessing.
It's the power of a place, the power of a place.
(45:38):
There are things in the heart of the Father for you.
He sees you, He sees you, and he's getting ready
to do something. So don't leave Jerusalem. Don't leave the
place that he called you to be. When I think
about the power of a place, of course, I think
about what Jesus did for us. I think about how
he took the place I deserved when he went that cross.
(46:02):
I think about how he could have called angels down
to rescue him as he hung there. But he stayed,
and he bled and he died, so that we could
take his place as the righteousness of God. He stayed
in that place so that we could be forgiven. He
stayed in that place so we could have life. And
right now, if you'll give me the honor, I'd love
(46:23):
to take a moment just to lead you in a prayer,
because there's someone watching online right now, or someone watching
at one of our campuses right now. And God brought
you to this place today so just like Genie's dad,
you could receive the gift of God's salvation. You don't
know what tomorrow holds, but God knows the plans and
purposes he has for you. He brought you to this
(46:44):
place today so that you could make the greatest decision
of your life and give Jesus a place in your heart.
Would you let him take the throne. We're going to
bow our heads and close our eyes right now, and
I want to lead us in a prayer for for
those who are making it decision today to give their
life to Jesus. Would you pray with me? Say, I
(47:04):
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and
the savor of the world. I believe he died and
rose again to forgive my sin and give me life.
I receive your grace by faith. Come into my life
(47:25):
and make me new. Headstill bowed, eyes still close. If
you just prayed that prayer today to begin a relationship
with God. When I count to three, would you be
bold enough to shoot your hand up in the air.
Be my privilege to celebrate what God has done in
your heart today on three, one, two, three, shoot your
hand up, holding up high. God, Bless you, my sister.
God bless you my brother. Come on, can we thank
(47:47):
the Lord in this place? Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
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 Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God has moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We're about to jump into the message, but before we do,
I wanted to let you know that Elevation Nights is
back September twenty fourth through October third, and if you
live on the West Coast, we might be coming to
a city near you. We're going to be in Seattle, Vancouver, Sacramento,
la Anaheim, Boise, Salt Lake City, and Denver. It's going
to be an amazing night with Elevation worship and a
(00:39):
message from Pastor Stephen. So go to Elevation Nights dot
com to get your tickets. We cannot wait to see
you there. Now let's go to the message.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Come on, keep your hands going. Let's take a moment
and praise Him for every time he's made away in
our lives, for every time he's roxy group an. I'm
looking at some people with a testimony this morning, miracle
after a miracle and last week, our pastor taught us
what a miracle sometimes feels like. How many of you
(01:11):
want to give God praise for super natural rest in
your life. The enemy was throwing arrows at you, and somehow,
by his hand, he gave you a peace.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Come on, let's praise God one more time for his
hand in our loves.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Man and man and man, Oh, it's so good to
be in God's house together, Amen and men. Right about now,
a concerned spouse is nudging her husband. She said, I
told you to check and make sure Pastor Stephen was
preaching on this Labor Day weekend. And if you're that husband,
nudge your wife. Say you're in the right place. You're
(01:49):
in the right place. And I believe God has a
word in the house for us today. I'm so grateful
to be able to open up the scriptures. I know
many of you here at Valentine, but if I haven't
got a chance to meet you, my name is John,
and I get the privilege of serving here as the
campus pastor at our Balentine location. At stay stand in
(02:09):
for just a moment till we get to the scriptures.
But someone reminded me of this the other day. We
were talking and it brought back an old story to mind,
and just to share a little bit about me for
a moment. About twelve years ago, when I was in seminary,
Pastor Stephen came to the school Liberty University, where my
wife and I were, and he had just released a
book called Greater and this book impacted me so much.
(02:31):
He came to preach at the school and he was
doing a book signing after and I didn't necessarily care
about getting the book signed, but I really wanted to
meet Pastor Steve, and I had just so much respect
for the anointing on his life. And I was in
the habit of I believe God had a call on
my life, and so anytime I had the opportunity to
be even near a great man or woman of God,
I'd always ask them for prayer. And so in my mind,
(02:52):
I thought, Hey, if I can go to this book signing,
and I know there'll be a lot of people he's
got to get through, but if I can maybe stay
to the back of the line, maybe I'll get a
chance to meet Pastor Steven and ask him to pray
for me. And so I did that. After he spoke,
I was in the line, and every time someone would
get behind me, I'd say, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.
And at the end of that and I'm sure it
(03:12):
was a long day for Pastor, having preached and then
done all these book signings, but he was so gracious
to take a moment and I just shared with him
the call I felt on my life and asked him
to pray. And he was so gracious to just take
a moment and pray for me. And he wrote three
words when he signed this book to Jonathan and Anna,
three simple words that would profoundly shape my life. He wrote,
(03:35):
Greater Things Ahead. And those three words I meant the
world to us. It would be just a few months
later that my wife and I would move here to
be a part of this incredible church. And we're so
thankful for God that he called us and placed us
here at Elevation, and so this has been home for us.
This is where all my kids were born. Real quick,
(03:56):
just show him a picture of my family, real fast,
if you got it. This is my son, Zion and
Elias and Olivia. She's everyone's favorite. Zion's in the room,
but I can say that we all just say she's
our favorite. We love Olivia, and I'm so grateful that
God's planted us here. And it won't take you long
(04:17):
to realize, if you're new here, that this is not
a perfect church. There's no such thing as a perfect church.
But I'm so grateful for a healthy church where the
spirit of God is moving, where people are being reached
with the gospel. Next week, when you come back for
block party, you're gonna see what it's all about. Is
hundreds of people take the step of being baptized and
publicly declaring their faith in Jesus. Say, man, how many
(04:37):
you are grateful for God's house for what He's doing
in this church. And I'm excited to share this word
with you today. We're gonna be in Acts chapter one,
in Acts chapter two, and this is the story about
the coming of the Holy Spirit. All the Pentecostals make
some noise pick up in verse four. On one occasion,
(05:03):
while he was eating with them, he gave them this command,
do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my
father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For
John baptized with water, but in a few days you
will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then they gathered
around him and asked, LORDA, you at this time going
to restore the kingdom to Israel. He said to them,
(05:25):
it's not for you to know the times or the
dates the Father has set by his own authority. But
you will receive power. Everyone say power. You will receive
power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of
Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
After he said this, he was taken up before their
(05:48):
very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
So Jesus ascends into heaven. Fast forward Acts chapter two.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together
in one place. Everyone say place. Suddenly a sound like
the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and
filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw
what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and
(06:10):
came to rest on each of them. All of them
were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now they
were staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from every nation
under heaven. Back to Acts chapter two, verse one for
a moment when the day of Pentecost came, they were
all together in one place. I want to talk to
(06:30):
you this morning about the power of a place. The
power of a place. High five year neighbors, you take
your seat, say there's power in this place. Come on,
tell them like you believe it, there's power in this place.
Earlier this year, our pastor led us through a series
(06:51):
through the Book of Acts and talking about the role
of the Holy Spirit. How many you remember that series
just in the spring, and it was so impactful for me.
And one of my favorite messages in that series was
a sermon he preached called Places. Everyone. So consider this
message life not a part two, but maybe a spin
off series of that incredible message our pastor preach. But
(07:13):
that sermon got me thinking about the power of places
in our life and the way God uses places, the
places he puts us in to unfold his purposes and plans.
When we talk about the ways God works in our lives,
I think all of us would agree that God uses
people in our lives. Right when I say that, maybe
(07:33):
maybe a mentor a leader comes to mind, who discipled
you really made a difference in your life. Maybe what
comes to mind is the person who invited you to
church or shared the Gospel with you for the first time.
Maybe you think of a praying grandmother. Everyone, we all
would agree God uses people in our lives, but more
and more, even in my own life, God is beginning
(07:53):
to reveal to me how He uses places. Everybody say
places places. I want to give you an example from
nature real quick, to kind of set up this point.
I don't know what you like to do Sundays after
you leave church. How many you like to go home
and watch football? Is that your thing? I'll tell you
how cool I am after church on Sundays. You know
what I like to do. I like to go home
(08:14):
and watch nature documentaries. That's my thing. The simultaneously informative
yet relaxing voice of David ATM Sorry, Sir David Attenborough.
And one of the things I saw recently was this.
Show them the picture of these trees real quick. These
are California redwords redwoods. These are the tallest trees on
(08:38):
the planet and some of the fastest growing trees. Look
at that. Something incredible, though, happened about one hundred years ago.
Someone took these trees from where they were native to
in California and they decided to plant them in New Zealand.
And when they planted these trees that were already massive,
(08:59):
already rapid growing, trees, already remarkable in their own right,
when they took them from their native environment of California
and planted them in a new environment of New Zealand,
something incredible happened. You ready for this, any nature lovers
in the house today. When they planted these trees in
New Zealand, in the nutrient rich volcanic soil of New Zealand,
(09:24):
these trees that were already remarkably fast growing, grew three
times faster in New Zealand than they did in their
native land of California. Ooh, the environments you place yourself
in matters. There is potential on the inside of you,
(09:44):
but how quickly you get there? And some of the
things that God will unfold in your life have less
to do with your potential and more to do with
the places that you find yourself in. You can put
yourself in a place that you are not native to
and watch God as he accelerates your lif in ways
you never could a thought or imagine. Places matter to God.
(10:06):
One thing Jesus would often do throughout the scriptures is
he would tell these parables to illustrate what the Kingdom
of God was like. And as Jesus would tell these parables,
he would use the place he was in to teach principles. Right,
so he would tell a parable about a lost sheep,
probably as he was standing next to a field filled
with sheep. He would use the place to illustrate the principle,
(10:29):
or tell a parable about a fig as he's standing
next to a fig, or a vineyard while he's near
a vineyard. And one time in Matthew thirteen, he tells
a parable about a sewer who goes out to scatter seed,
and the Bible says that as the sewer went and
scattered seed, it fell in four different places. Everybody say places.
The seed fell in four different places. Some of it
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fell in a place where it was snatched up by birds.
Some of the seed fell in a place where it
was so rocky it couldn't get roots, so when the
sun got hot they withered away. Other seeds fell in
a place where it was choked out by thorns. And
other seed fell on good soil where it produced fruit.
If you're looking at Matthew thirteen in your Bible, it'll
probably have a heading like the Parable of the Sower,
(11:12):
but a better name for this parable is the parable
of the places. Because what determined the outcome of that
seed was not the potential within the seed, and it
wasn't the sower. The sower knew what he was doing.
What determined the outcome of that seed was the place
that the seed landed. Your life is like a seed,
and the places you find yourself in can either accelerate
(11:35):
you grow, you expand you feed you. Or if the
good environment can accelerate and grow your life in the
same way, the wrong environment can squander you, starve you,
suffocate you from the purposes that God has for your life.
This is the power of a place. This is why
(11:56):
it's so important that when someone gives their life to
Christ that we help them get can to this church,
because that they receive the seed of God's grace into
their heart, but they go back to the same people
and the same environments. It's one thing to have Jesus
in your heart, but you're going to be frustrated when
you feel like you're not transforming if you have Jesus
in your heart but keep going to the same places.
(12:17):
The same bars, the same club get. We got to
help people get out of the environment that they were
in and into a life giving environment where the purposes
of God can begin to unfold. I'm so grateful God
planted me in this house, in this soil, in this soil,
because I've seen God do incredible things. I always knew
(12:38):
God's hand was on my life. I knew I would
see God do incredible I never could have imagined some
of the things I'd get to see God do because
of where He planted me. I remember one author saying,
he said, if you want to see a move of God,
put yourself in a place where God is moving. If
you want to see God move in a big way,
and how many of you want to see God move
in a big way in your life. If you want
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to see God move in a big way in your life,
put yourself in a place where God is moving. That's
true for so many areas of our life. If you
want to see a miracle in your life, put yourself
in a place where God is still doing miracles. If
you want to see your marriage thrive and prosper, put
yourself in a place where you're surrounded by healthy miracles,
by healthy marriages. If you want to see God do something,
(13:21):
get in a place where the spirit of God is moving.
When you plant yourself in a place where the spirit
of God is moving and watering, there is no limit
to what God can do in and through your life.
And like I mentioned, the same is true the opposite way,
Like if you put man, I love nature so much.
(13:41):
Here's my third nature analogy. But if you put a
fish in a small aquarium, it won't limit how much
it can grow. Many of us are limited not by
our potential, but by our places. In one passage of scripture,
Jesus comes across a man who had been paralyzed since birth,
and the scripture says that he was laying near a
(14:02):
pool called Bethesda. And the scripture specifically points out that
at this pool that there is a great number of
sick and ill people. And Jesus goes up to this
man who was laying by this pool, and he asked
him a question. He says, do you want to get well?
And of course the answer to that is obvious for
this man who's been laying by this pool, for you,
(14:23):
do you want to get well? The man says, yes,
I want to get well. Interestingly enough, Jesus doesn't say
to him, you're healed. Jesus says, pick up your mat
and go. When the man expresses that he wants to
get well, the first thing Jesus tells him to do
is change your environment, because if you want to walk,
the first thing you need to do is stop hanging
around lame people. When you want to see God do
(14:46):
something different in your life, you've got to Often, God
will force you out of environments that you're native to
places that are comfortable for you in order to bring
you into His purposes. Amen, I didn't forget about the
Book of Acts. Let's go there for a minute. Talk
about the potential of a place, this little upper room,
(15:07):
this little upper room, where God would send his spirit,
and the effects of that for the last two thousand
years have been resounding and trembling throughout the whole earth,
and on the Day of Pentecost. One thing you need
to know is that the Day of Pentecost was one
day in a festival called the Feast of Weeks, and
(15:28):
during the Feast of Weeks, this is where the Israelites
would celebrate when God gave the law the Torah to Moses,
and thus started the nation of Israel. So the feast
of Weeks where they is where they would celebrate the
beginning of the Hebrew people becoming a nation. Now, for
us as believers, when we think about the Day of Pentecost,
(15:48):
it's not about God sending his law, but God sending
his spirit. And it's not about the birth of a nation,
but the birth of God's Church that since that day
when He poured out his spirit, has been resonating throughout
the whole earth, to Ukraine, to Brazil, to Toronto to Charlotte,
North Carolina. All the beautiful expressions of the Body of
(16:09):
Christ that came out of that moment when God birth
this church in that little upper room. It's the potential
of a place. And sometimes I read this story and
I think it would be so cool to have been
one of the apostles in that room on that day.
It would have been so amazing to be in that
place as God sends the spirit and all of a
sudden it fills the house and it fills the people.
(16:30):
And this scripture will go on to say that right
after that, Peter and the other eleven they stand up
and they give one of the most beautiful expressions of
the gospel message of Jesus Christ, and that day three
thousand people get added to the church. What would it
have been like to been in the middle of a
move of God like that? I think, Oh, it would
be so cool to be in the upper room. But
(16:50):
think with me for a second what this must have
felt like for the apostles who are there. See, for
three years they've been following Jesus from place place. Remember
he called them out of there for Peter. He said,
leave your fishing, but leave the thing that's not only
comfortable for you but also lucrative for you, and come
and follow me. And so for three years these disciples
(17:12):
have been following Jesus from place to place, everybody say place.
And then they watch Jesus as he gets crucified in
a place called Golgatha. They even told them, Jesus, don't
do it, but it was his purpose and plan all
along to go to that place and give his life.
And so, in their pain and confusion and grief, they
watched them get crucified. And just when things couldn't get
(17:33):
more confusing, three days later they go to the tomb,
and what happens. He wasn't in that place the Angel said,
he's not here, he's risen. And then they meet the
resurrected Jesus, and from that point for another forty days,
they're with the resurrected Jesus, and in some of his
last words to them before he ascends into heaven, he says,
(17:54):
wait in Jerusalem. Wait in Jerusalem, says, my father's going
to send you the gift of the Holy Spirit, but
you need to wait in Jerusalem. How many patient people
in the House of God today self identified patient people.
This is how I know I wouldn't have been a
good disciple because I'm not very good at waiting. So
(18:16):
when we call it the Upper Room, we think, what
an amazing moment that happened in that place. But for
the disciples, this wouldn't have felt like a move of God.
This would have felt like a waiting room, a waiting room,
a waiting room. They're in that place and it would
be ten days from when Jesus ascended to when he
would send the gift of his Holy Spirit. Ten days.
(18:39):
But they don't know that. They don't know that, they
don't know if it's going to be three days, seven days,
ten days, one hundred days. In some of his last
words to them, he says, stay in Jerusalem and wait
and wait. So they go to this place and they're
simply waiting. Imagine how confusing this was for them. The
(19:00):
worst thing about when you're waiting, like for me, I
always think about when you go to a restaurant and
the weight is taking a little bit longer than you expect.
In your in you're debating in your mind do I
just leave and go somewhere else? And yet there's something
deep down in your spirit telling you that the moment
I walk out of this door, they're gonna call my name. Right,
it's this lingering feeling. The moment I leave this place,
(19:22):
they're gonna say, josephs, your table is ready, and I
won't be in that place. So you just wait, You wait,
you wait, when's it gonna come? When's it gonna come?
One thing I want you to know is that places
that places where you find yourself waiting are places of preparation.
Preparation is connected to a place when you find yourself
(19:44):
in that tormenting space where you don't I know God's
getting ready to do something, but I don't know when
or exactly what He's gonna do. Those are spaces of preparation.
A couple of weeks ago, our pastor taught us about
this when he talked about King David. Remember, David was
anointed as king, and yet despite being anointed by the
(20:04):
prophet Samuel to be the king of Israel, he did
not possess the throne right away. And our pastor taught
us how David spent years running away from the current king,
King Saul, who was trying to kill him. So he
finds himself living in the wilderness and hiding in caves.
And our pastor said something so profound to us. He said,
kings are only formed in caves. That cave was a
(20:28):
waiting room. That cave was a place of preparation for
King David. God knew everything he had in store for David.
God knew everything that David would become. But in that cave,
God was forming something in him for the purposes that
he had for him. Consider Joseph for just a moment.
Joseph is an amazing character in the Bible. In fact,
(20:49):
he would have such profound and prophetic dreams about the
way that God was going to use them that when
he told his family, they got so jealous of him
that they sold him into slavery, and through a series
of unfortunate events, Joseph finds himself in a prison cell.
Something incredible happens in that prison cell. We call it
(21:10):
a prison, but it was a waiting room. God was
preparing him in that place, because in that waiting room,
the Bible calls him. It calls him Joseph the Dreamer.
But in that waiting room, in that prison cell, something
significant happens in Joseph's life. It's not Joseph who's dreaming
in that prison cell, but the other prisoners. Catch this
(21:30):
for a moment. When you really begin to operate in
the anointing that God has placed on your life, you
start to see the people around you. Start to stay
with me for a minute. When you really start walking
in the grace God gave you to be an encourager,
you'll see that the people around you start encouraging. When
you begin to walk in the grace God gave you
(21:51):
to be generous, you'll see the people. So it's not
Joseph having dreams. It's not Joseph the Dreamer having dreams.
It's the other prisoners. And in that waiting room, in
that prison cell, these other prisoners are having dreams, and
Joseph begins to interpret their dreams. Did you catch what
happens in his life. It's in that waiting room that
Joseph goes from Joseph the dreamer to Joseph the dream interpreter.
(22:18):
The prison cell was the place where Joseph learned how
to use his gifts, not to serve himself, but serve others.
Come on, any of you been in that place where
you thought it was all about you and God puts
you in circumstances where you learned that what He gave you,
and what he put in you, and what he put
on your life wasn't just for you, but for others
as well. Ah, he went from a dreamer to a
(22:43):
dream interpreter. And I want you to know today that
when you are in that place of waiting, I'll need
you to see it as a place of preparation. It
is possible that in that place God is preparing you
for what He's prepared for you. God is preparing you
for what He prepared for you. This is what Ephesians
two ten says. It says that we are God's handiwork,
(23:06):
created to do good works which he prepared for. In
other words, that means that God is shaping you. God
is forming you. God is working on your life for
what He has already prepared in advanced for you to do.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
So.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Picture the apostles in this upper room waiting for God
to send a spirit, knowing what God promised them, but
not knowing when he was going to do it. But
in that place, God was preparing them for something so
significant they never could have When Peter left his boat,
he never could have imagined that on that day he
(23:41):
would be preaching and three thousand people would give their
lives sick. He never could. But God is preparing you
for what He's prepared for you. I don't want to
miss out when God finds when God calls my name,
when he calls me, I want to be in the
place he told me to be. So Jesus said, wait
in Jerusalem, because my father's getting ready to send you something.
(24:05):
I know even as I say that, some of you
are like, I hate the place I'm in right now.
Maybe you feel stuck in a job. Maybe you're at
a school where it feels like you don't belong, and
everything within you wants to get up and leave that place.
Because it's so painful and so uncomfortable. But I want
you to know that even when you're in that place,
your Father has not forgotten you. It could just be
that he's preparing you for what He's prepared for you.
(24:32):
When Jesus tells them wait in Jerusalem, it's interesting to me.
They go to this we call it the Upper Room.
But if you remember, before Jesus went to the Cross,
he sent them into Jerusalem and he said, go prepare
a place for the Passover meal, the first communion, the
last Supper would take place. This was the same room
that they had prepared not too much earlier, for the
(24:54):
Passover supper with Jesus. So when Jesus ascends into heaven
and they're left not knowing what to do, they don't
go to a new place. They go to a prepared place.
And sometimes when you find yourself in the place where
you're not sure what God is going to do or
when God is going to do it, I want to
encourage you to stay in the place he last told
you to be, Stay in the place that he puts you,
(25:16):
because your father, he hasn't forgotten about you, and he's
getting ready to do something in your life. So don't
leave Jerusalem, don't walk away just yet. God is preparing
you for what He's prepared for you. Not only is
preparation connected to a place, but what I love in
this scripture is that God's provision is connected to a
(25:39):
place as well. Are you with me? One thing? There's
so much I could tell you about my wife Anna,
but two things you need to know. One is she's
a really good cook. Amen. The other thing is she's
a really good mom. In fact, my kids eat every
single day. That's how good of a mom she is.
Every single day. So when Anna cooks a meal for
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our family, as much as I think my boys would
love to eat their dinner in the playroom or up
in their bedroom, when Anna makes the meal for our kids,
she takes what she prepared and she puts it on
the table, and she says, boys, time to come eat
and as much as they'd like to eat somewhere else.
And I'm not judging you if you're a family who
eats on the couch or eats on the floor or whatever.
(26:24):
But in our family, she takes what she prepared and
she puts it on the table and says, boys, come
and eat. In other words, they need to come to
the place where the food is that they want to eat.
I want you to know that God is a good father.
God is a good father. He knows how to feed
you as his sons and as his daughters. He's a
(26:45):
good father. But God is not uber eats. God does
not take provision to where you are. God puts his
provision to where you're supposed to be. That's what he
said to Elijah one king seventeen. He said, I'm gonna
supply food for you down at the break. I'm even
gonna do it in a miraculous way. I'm gonna send
(27:05):
ravens to feed you there. But Elijah, you gotta be
in the place I told you to be so that
I can feed you. Provision is connected to a place
your father knows how to feed you. But you gotta
be in the place he told you to be. Consider
for just a moment with me, the story of the
prodigal son that Jesus tells this parable again of a
(27:28):
son who asks his father early for his inheritance, and
it says he left his father's house and he went
into a distant country where he squandered everything that he
had been given and then look at this in verse seventeen,
this boy who's gone off to a distant country, squandered
everything as father has given him. He hires himself out
(27:49):
to work with the pigs. And while he's with the pigs,
he's getting envious of what the pigs are eating. Well,
he's out there starving. In verse seventeen, it says, and
when he came to his senses, he said, how many
of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and
here I am starving to death. How many of my
(28:11):
father's hired servants have food to eat, and yet I'm
out here starving as a son. In other words, the
provision of his father had nothing to do with his
position and everything to do with his location. I heard
our friend, Pastor Darius said, did you catch what I
just said? It had nothing to do with his position
(28:32):
and everything to do with his location. Our friend, Pastor
Darius Daniels, he was preaching this. He said, as long
as the son was in the father's house, he never
knew what it felt like to be hungry. And you
have to know, as a child of God, you have
access to the refrigerator of your father, But it is
in the house touch your neighbors say, it's in the
(28:54):
You gotta be in the place that God told you
to be. Out here staring as a son, when your
father has everything that you need. In the presence of
the Lord is the fullness of joy at his right hand,
pleasures evermore, My father has everything that I need, and
(29:17):
the House of God is one of the primary places
your Father will feed you. I know we live in
a day and age when people say I'm just not
into church. I'm spiritual. I connect with God everywhere, and
I get it. God is on the present. If you
like to go on a walk and He speaks to you,
that's amazing. You should have a place in your home
where you read your scriptures and pray and God speaks
to you. But I want you to know that the
(29:37):
House of God is one of the primary places that
your Father will feed you with what you need. So
people now say, oh, church is just a build, just
a building, just a building. Now, when I think about
how my father met me in the this is not
a building. This is the house of God. Let me
show you a table, real quick. Let me show you
(29:58):
a table. For the last eight years, I've had the
privilege of being the campus pastor here, And one of
the great privileges of that is that every single week
I get to sit at this table right here, this table,
this table. And some of you are like Pastor JJ,
that's not a table, that's a chair. No no, no no.
(30:22):
It might look like a chair to you, But for me,
that's a table. This is the place where my father
feeds me. This is the place where he speaks to me.
This is the place where he's where he's comforted me.
This is the place where he's corrected me. This is
the place where he's given me. This is the place
(30:43):
where my father feeds me. And so for me, I
want to be at my father's table. And whether it's
our pastor or anyone else who stands behind that pulpit,
I want to be in the house of God because
my Father knows what I need. And one of the
things I see time and time again as a pastor
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is sometimes people will come to church and come to
God when their life is falling apart. And God is
so good that the moment you come to him, he
embraces you with open arms, and he closes you, and
he feeds you. And yet some of us get so
used to being full that we forget what it felt
like to be hungry, and so we begin to drift
(31:23):
away from the House of God, and wonder, has God
forgotten me? Has God forsaken me? Did he forget to
feed you? No, he didn't forget to feed you. He's
putting food on the table every week. But God needs
to feed you in the place he called you to be.
And one of the most amazing things about this church
(31:45):
is that you can show up week after week and
get fed and you never have to give a single
dime to this ministry because there's someone else on your
row right now who believes so much in what God
is doing in this place that they give sacrifice to
see the gospel. Will go forward to build a banquet
table for the masters, so that all can come and
(32:06):
eat of His goodness, to taste and see that the
Lord is good. But if this is the place where
God feeds you, I don't know why you wouldn't give
to help put food on the table. There's someone else
who needs to eat there. The world needs what our
father has. This is the house of God. Provision is
connected to a place to a place. This is the
(32:29):
place where my father feeds me. So he says to them,
wait in Jerusalem, because my Father's going to send you
the gift provision, the gift, the gift of what, the
gift of the Holy Spirit. Of all the ways that
God can provide for you in your life, the greatest
provision of your Father will always be the gift of
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his presence. I love the Holy Spirit. I love to
know that no matter what I'm walking through, that God
is with me. So he says, wait in Jerusalem. My
Father is going to send you the gift. He's going
to provide for you in that place. He's going to
send you the gift of the Holy Spirit. And when
he sends you the spirit, you will receive power. And
(33:13):
he says, and when you receive power, you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, into the
ends of the yearth In other words, not only is
provision connected to a place, but purpose is connected to
a place as well. When God begins to do something
in your life, it's always for a purpose greater than you.
He says, I'm going to give you my spirit, but
(33:34):
it's not just for your comfort. Although the apostles did
need comfort. I'm going to give you my spirit, and
it's not just for guidance. Although they wouldn't need God.
He said, I'm going to give you my spirit, and
when I do, you will receive power power to be
my witnesses. There was a purpose that God was beginning
to unfold through their lives that they would need the
(33:55):
Holy Spirit for purpose is connected to a place. When
God spoke to Abraham, he said he gave him an
incredible promise for his life. He said, I'm gonna bless you, Abraham,
and through you and your seed, I'm gonna bless the
entire earth. And after he gives him this promise, he
says to him, so go to the place I will
show you. God had a specific purpose for Abraham, but
(34:19):
that purpose would unfold in a specific place, and the
scripture tells us in Hebrews that Abraham left the place
he was native to. He left his home country, and
he set out looking for the place that God had
established for him, whose builder and architect was God. Because
God had a purpose for his life, but it would
unfold in the place. So it took obedience for Abraham
(34:41):
to move and leave what was native to him and
begin to step into what God had in store for him.
Purpose is connected to a place. I love reading the
scriptures when I think about all the people that God
used in a significant way many times before God used them,
he moved them. This, this, this blessed me because I'm
(35:03):
an immigrant. My dad's an immigrant, his dad was an immigrant,
his dad was come from a long line of immigrants.
Then I'm reading the scriptures. How God moved Abraham, God
moved Isaac, God moved Jacob, God moved Jeremiah, God moved Nehemiah, Naomi, Ruth.
All these people that God used in a significant way,
he first moved. And what's crazy to me is I love.
(35:24):
As I'm getting to know people in our church often
I ask him what brought you to Charlotte? And you
know what they tell me. God, I'm like, no, no, no,
just give me a come like, was it a job?
Did you have? Grandchildren? Moved God? And I'm beginning to
see more and more. No, that's really how he works.
As sometimes God had a purpose for someone, so he
would lift them up from the place they were native
to and begin to move them to another.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Place so that his purposes and plans could unfold. Just
last night, we were at a couple of cells for dinner.
They shared with us how all the reasons they thought
they were moving to Charlotte, and all the other purposes
that God had in store for them. Often, when God
is getting ready to use someone, he'll move them from
a place that they're native, to move them to a
(36:06):
place so His purposes can unfold in their life.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Purpose is connected to a place. This is what I've
been excited to show you in this passage, because I'm
reading how Jesus is going up to the Father and
as and before he does, he tells them wait in Jerusalem,
because my Father's going to send you the spirit there.
And all along I'm asking myself the question, why Jerusalem?
(36:34):
Why Jerusalem? It's his spirit. God could have sent his
spirit anywhere. So as Jesus as sends, why didn't he
Why didn't he let them just kind of get on
their way and when He was ready send the spirit
to where they are? Why Jerusalem? Well, I told you
earlier that the day of Pentecost was part of a
festival called the Feast of Weeks, And one of the
(36:55):
things that came along with that festival was that in
Deuteronomy sixteen sixty and God says that during this feast,
every Jewish person, no matter where they live, needed to
migrate back to Jerusalem. So Jesus speaks to the disciples
and he says, stay in Jerusalem. I'm going to send
(37:15):
you the gift of my spirit. And when I do,
you're gonna be a witness in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria.
And get this and two the ends of the earth.
So this is where Acts chapter two, verse five comes in,
because every time I read Acts chapter two, I think
about them in that house. They're praying, the apostles, the
other women, they're praying, and God sends his spirit, fills
(37:37):
the house like a mighty rushing wind and tongues of
fireland I never paid attention to Acts chapter two, verse five.
The purpose of this place. Now there were staying in Jerusalem,
God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. Do you
see it? Do you see it? God says, wait in Jerusalem,
(37:59):
because as He's preparing to send his spirit, at the
same time, he's bringing people from every nation under heaven.
So when Peter opens up that door, there are nations
at his doorstep. And Peter begins to open up his
mouth and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Every
(38:22):
person hears that gospel message in their own language. He says,
you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria,
and two the ends of the earth. The apostles wouldn't
go to the ends of the earth because God was
bringing the nations to them. This is the power of
(38:43):
a place that God might just be arranging things where
you find yourself right now, wait in the place he
told you to be. God is up to something that
you might not see by His plans and purposes are
unfolding in your life. Eighteen years ago, when Pastor Stephen
and Hall, Chunks and Amy and the core team, we're
getting ready to launch a church, deciding where do we go?
(39:04):
Where do we go? And they picked Charlotte, North Carolina.
I remember Chunk's telling me all along he's going why
Charlotte wasn't where he wanted to be. He keeps saying,
why Charlotte, Why Jerusalem, Why Charlotte? Because of the purposes
that God had in this place. I want to do
something real quick. If you're a if you moved here
(39:27):
from another country, or one of your parents moved here
from another country, would you stand up right now and
right now in the Chat, people from every nation under
heaven joining us. Put it in the Chat where you're
(39:49):
joining us from? Right now? Why Charlotte, Why Charlotte? This
church has started at Providence High School just down the road.
Who could have imagined what was in God's heart for
this ministry? Who could have imagined what God had in
(40:09):
so Who could have imagined that from this place the
Gospel of Jesus Christ would touch the nations of the earth,
that he would draw nations to this place. This is
the power of a place that God is up to,
something beyond what we could expect, beyond what we could imagine,
beyond what we could dream. Why Jerusalem, Because as God's
(40:32):
getting ready to send his spirit, He's drawing nations. And
that day three thousand people would hear the message of
Jesus and surrender their lives to him, and they would
go back to the place they came from and in
their own tongue begin to spread the message. That's how
the Gospel of Jesus began to ripple throughout the earth.
(40:55):
This is the purpose of a place. Who knows what
God has his store for you? I asked Jeanie to
sit in this worship experience, in that seat, because she
was reminding me the other day that it was seven
years ago that her dad, who immigrated here, came to
our church, sat in that seat and stood to give
his life to Christ. And it would just be a
(41:16):
few months after that that unexpectedly he passed away. I said, Genie,
you got to sit in the certa. It'll make sense
to you when you hear the power of a place.
What was in God's heart when he brought him all
the way, all the way here to be in this place,
to be in this place so that he could receive,
receive something from God, so that when he'd go to
(41:39):
a better place, he would have the gift of God's
grace in God's eternal life. Some of you who stood earlier,
I don't know all your reasons for moving to America.
Maybe you were leaving a good situation and you sacrificed
a lot. Maybe you were leaving a bed. You might
have thought you were coming here for a bet. I
(42:00):
want you to know God brought you here for a
greater purpose. There is something on your life that God
wants to do is drawing you to this place. Stand
up for you, Look at this. When the day of
(42:22):
Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly
a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came
from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
It's interesting to me that first God filled the place,
and then he filled the people. And that's how it
(42:46):
works in our lives, that God will bring us to
a place where he's got something that he's been preparing
for us, something that we never could have met, something
that went beyond what we even believed our potential could be,
and provides for us in that place, and through his
he fills the place, and then He fills the people.
And when Pastor Stephen preached that sermon places everyone, he says,
(43:07):
first God changes you, and then he changes the places
you go. When you come into the presence of God
and He touches you and he ministers to you and
he fills you, then wherever you go, you bring the
presence of God with you into your school, into your workplace,
into your home. First God filled the place, and then
(43:29):
he filled the people. This is not just a building.
Wherever you are today, down in Orlando, in Greenville, and
Concord in Toronto, wherever you're watching from joining us. This
is not just a building. This is the house of God.
This is where he feeds me. This is where his
purpose is unfold in my life. This is where he
(43:52):
fills me. And sometimes we have to have a moment
like Jacob where he looked at something as simple as
a rock and he annoyed and he said, surely this
is the house of God. And I wasn't aware. Surely
this is the house of God. How many of you
have that testimony about this place today? Say it with me,
(44:12):
says surely this is the house of God. First he
filled the place, then he filled the people. God brought
you here because there's something on your live. Don't leave
the place he told you to be. Don't run so
quickly from places that are uncomfortable, don't run so quickly
(44:33):
from places that are painful. God meant just be preparing
you there for what He has in store for you.
This is the power of a place. Did you receive
something from this message today? I had a real simple
(44:53):
prayer this morning that just at its most basic level,
that for some of you it would produce gratitud in
your heart for the church that you get to be
a part of This is a special place. Sometimes we
can take it fort we get so used to being full,
we forget what it felt like to be hungry. This
is the house of God for others of you. I
(45:16):
was praying that God would remind you of the purposes
that He had for you and some of the reasons
he brought you from the place you were and put
you in this place. Y'all blessed me the other day
when you were sharing how much God blessed you when
you left Guatemala, and how He's opening up all those
doors for you to do ministry. Now, what a blessing.
It's the power of a place, the power of a place.
(45:38):
There are things in the heart of the Father for you.
He sees you, He sees you, and he's getting ready
to do something. So don't leave Jerusalem. Don't leave the
place that he called you to be. When I think
about the power of a place, of course, I think
about what Jesus did for us. I think about how
he took the place I deserved when he went that cross.
(46:02):
I think about how he could have called angels down
to rescue him as he hung there. But he stayed,
and he bled and he died, so that we could
take his place as the righteousness of God. He stayed
in that place so that we could be forgiven. He
stayed in that place so we could have life. And
right now, if you'll give me the honor, I'd love
(46:23):
to take a moment just to lead you in a prayer,
because there's someone watching online right now, or someone watching
at one of our campuses right now. And God brought
you to this place today so just like Genie's dad,
you could receive the gift of God's salvation. You don't
know what tomorrow holds, but God knows the plans and
purposes he has for you. He brought you to this
(46:44):
place today so that you could make the greatest decision
of your life and give Jesus a place in your heart.
Would you let him take the throne. We're going to
bow our heads and close our eyes right now, and
I want to lead us in a prayer for for
those who are making it decision today to give their
life to Jesus. Would you pray with me? Say, I
(47:04):
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and
the savor of the world. I believe he died and
rose again to forgive my sin and give me life.
I receive your grace by faith. Come into my life
(47:25):
and make me new. Headstill bowed, eyes still close. If
you just prayed that prayer today to begin a relationship
with God. When I count to three, would you be
bold enough to shoot your hand up in the air.
Be my privilege to celebrate what God has done in
your heart today on three, one, two, three, shoot your
hand up, holding up high. God, Bless you, my sister.
God bless you my brother. Come on, can we thank
(47:47):
the Lord in this place? Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
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 Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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