June 1, 2025 • 49 mins
Are you feeling stuck in the waiting, wondering if God still sees you? The wait isn’t wasted, it’s where God does some of His best work. He’s preparing you, shaping you, and positioning you for purpose.
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Scripture References:
Isaiah 40, verse 31
Romans 12, verse 1
Exodus 30, verse 35
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Transcript
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 and I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hope it gives your.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Perspective to see God has moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message. Would you remain standing for just a
moment because I just think this is the right posture.
I want to take a moment to honor this house.
I am grateful for the faith of Elevation Church. I'm
grateful for the faith of this house that sent riple
(00:34):
riple waves around the globe and it's reached our house
in Miami. Our church is stronger because of your faith
and because of the faith of your leaders, Pastor Stephen
and Holly Ferdick. How many of you love your pastors?
Come on, can we put our hands together for them?
When I think about Pastor Stephen, I think of a
(00:54):
pastor to pastors, the way that he has led us,
that he's spoken over our lives in so many different seasons.
I'm constantly inspired. How when it comes to Pastor Stevens
walk with God. There's always more, There's more, there's more, hope,
there's more faith, there's more creativity, and it inspires me
(01:15):
to dig deep and to believe God that there's always more.
But I'm also really grateful for Pastor Holly. Come on,
do you guys love Pastor Holly. She's one of my
dearest friends in the world. And when she preaches the
Word of God, she preaches with power and authority. Shains
are broken. But it's not just what she says on
(01:36):
the Pulpit's the way that she leads her life. It's
the way that she leads her family. She's taught me
what it means to be a great friend, to stand
with people on mountaintops and in valleys. And I just
believe the best is yet to come for this house.
Come on, if you believe that today with you picks
her hands together with me, I believe it with all
Oh come on, elevation, I believe it with all my heart.
(02:01):
And before you're seated, I want to take a moment
because I'm fully aware that people walked in this room
or are watching online today and you are hanging on
by a thread. And I want to speak to your
soul today that before we even open up the Word
of God, if you feel like you are stuck in
(02:21):
the middle of a wilderness, if you feel like you
don't know what to do, where to go, or how
to even express the state of your heart today, if
you feel like, for the first time in your life,
you wonder if this whole thing is real, I want
to remind you today. I want to tell you today
that God sent me here with a message in my heart,
(02:44):
and that he brought you here because He wants to
meet you right where you are. If anybody can testify
that He did it for you, come on pict your
hands together. We serve a faithful God and he sees
you today. Hey, why don't you high five your neighbor,
grab your seat, grab your bibles. You can turn with
(03:07):
me to Isaiah chapter forty, verse thirty one. I brings
so much love from Miami and a little bit of
sunshine for you. Our church VUK church. We started it
ten years ago and God's been doing miracles. But I
believe that what God is doing in twenty twenty five
(03:28):
is unlike anything that's ever been seen in history. He's
doing a new thing. My husband rich since his love,
I've got four babies that I adore. Wyat wild Whalen
and Wolfgang seven, five, three and six months old. Oh yeah,
oh yeah, big families. We know there's a big party
(03:52):
when you're a part of a big family. You may
be wondering where are you actually from, Don Shri because
that accent does not sound like Miami. I am from Louisiana.
I am a rage in Cajun. And you also may
be wondering what kind of name is Don Sherie, Like,
(04:13):
where did that come from? Well, the story my parents
told me is that my dad wanted to name me
down my mom wanted to name me Sharie. And so
as they were sitting in the hospital room trying to
figure out who is this girl? The day I was born,
my mom put the names together, wrote a love letter
from me and tucked it under the pillow where my
(04:34):
dad was sleeping on the couch in the hospital. And
Don Scherie's been my name ever since. That same day
that they named me is the day that they gave
me a life promise. And that's the scripture that I
want to read to you today. Isaiah forty thirty one.
They that wait upon the Lord, somebody say wait, they
(04:57):
shall renew their strength, They shall melt up with wings
like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they
shall walk and not faint. I want to talk to
you for the next few minutes from this thought. While
you were waiting, Let's pray God, thank you for this moment,
(05:21):
thank you for this house. Thank you Lord, for what
you are doing in our hearts. Today. We pause, and Lord,
just like we sang, we breathe you in. Have your
way and our heart, Oh God, for you and you alone,
(05:41):
our souls wait. I pray that I would disappear, and Lord,
that our eyes would behold your promise, that our hearts
would be filled with hope. Today. We love you, Jesus,
We're here for you. Come on, And everybody said, all
one more time. Everybody said amen. Well. Earlier this year
(06:04):
in Miami, my husband had his birthday. He turned forty one,
and we had a family dinner as you do. We
came back to the house after dinner and we set
out on our back dock in that humid Miami heat,
swatting the mosquitoes, just trying to have a calm conversation.
And on his birthday, we usually have a tradition to
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start telling memories from over the years, and we started
sitting on that back deck, and we started early in
the night, and we went late into the night telling memories.
And somewhere in that conversation it dawned on me, Rich,
I think that we cele debraded your birthday together. Twenty
years ago. We were in Cambridge, Cambridge University, we were
(06:51):
studying together, and I actually think I have a journal
to prove it. And I ran inside my house and
sure enough, I went through all my bookcases and I
found it. And I came running back out on the
deck almost near midnight. I said, I found it, and
we started to open it up, and I had so
many different memories. But as I started to read this journal,
(07:13):
I was laughing at the frame of mind of my
twenty year old self. I got to the end of
the journal from Cambridge and I was coming back to
Louisiana for the summer, and I had made a list
of twenty things that I wanted to accomplish over the summer.
I mean, I brought this journal all the way from Miami.
(07:33):
Is anybody would anybody want to know what a twenty
year old college student wishes to accomplish in one summer?
You want to hear it? Okay, This is about to
blow your mind. Things I want to do this summer.
(07:54):
Number one read the entire Bible. Might job Number two
learn Spanish. Now, God was trying to prepare me for Miami.
Number three. Go to all the boys' games. Now five boys,
I mean my brothers. And that may seem like an
easy feet except for I have five brothers. That's a
(08:17):
lot of games in the summer. Number four. Become a
domestic goddess. That was a popular book. Okay, that has
just been released. Number five Read an etiquette book. Number six.
Have a good job. We don't want an ordinary job.
(08:38):
Can I get an amen? We want a good job? Right?
I do want a good job for the summer. Number seven.
Visit my best friend from college. Number eight exercise dash
arms defined. Number nine, Sing in the choir. Number ten,
Get involved with youth ministry. Hello. Number eleven. Record a
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worship album. Yeah, let's throw that one in. Yes. Number thirteen.
Surprise Mom and Dad on their twenty fifth anniversary with
a love song concert with my brothers. Number fourteen. Interview
my grandpa and my grandma about their life story. Number fifteen.
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Hang out with my great grandfather and my great grandmother.
Number sixteen, go to the hospitals with my papa to
pray for people. Number seventeen, make a scrap book of
the summer. And number eighteen Can I get a drum roll? Please?
We've got none other than orthodonist. Figure out a way
(09:49):
to straighten teeth without bracket braces. If you think that's
a pretty good list, come on, pick your hands together.
That's a pretty restive list, friends, What was I thinking?
That is a setup for disappointment. You've got eighteen things
(10:12):
that you want to accomplish in one summer. That is
not a list for a summer. That is a list
for a decade twenty years later to the year. I
am just now stepping into some of the things that
I put on that list. I'm just now stepping into them.
(10:32):
And friends, I don't know if I'll ever be a
domestic goddess. Like everyone's story, mine has involved years and
years of waiting. I know that you have your list too.
We all have our list of what we are waiting
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to step into, waiting not just to step into, but
what we're waiting to finish. And when we look at
the story of God, we see that God uses large
spans of time, not just a single summer to accomplish
His will in his people and in your very life. Today.
(11:13):
Come on, if you believe it today, why don't you
put your hands together. We serve a God that is
faithful every step of the way. And Isaiah prophesies they
they that wait for the Lord, They that wait for
the Lord, shall renew their strength. This is not a
birth verse. This is a life verse, because I need
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the promise that as I wait upon the Lord, he
will renew me, not just to start the journey, but
right there in the middle of the journey and until
I see him face to face. And I don't know
about you, but I'm right there in the middle. I
turned forty this year. You know, scripturally forty represents trials
(12:02):
and testing. Oh praise God, what a great word to
speak over my life this year. That's exactly what I
was going for. But you look throughout scripture and you
see forty represent trials and testing. You can look at
the life of Moses. You know, Moses spent forty years
in Egypt. Then he spent forty years in the wilderness.
(12:24):
And you may think he was at the end, but
he has a burning bush experience that then catapults him
into the most important forty years of his life as
he leads God's people. And you may be like Moses.
You may be like Moses, thinking, oh, I'm at the end,
the great things of God are behind me, when you
(12:45):
have no idea You're just about to step into the
very calling and purpose of God that He ordained for
you before your life began. You have no idea what
He's prepared for you. He prepared it for you. Or
maybe you know good and well that you're in the middle.
(13:07):
You know that you are right there in the middle
of the story, and friends, you are miserable. Can I
tell you today that I operated with this perspective for
many seasons in my life, moving to a city where
I didn't know anyone, walking through eight years of infertility,
(13:28):
starting a church. There have been many seasons of waiting
that I just wanted to fast forward through, that I
just wanted to get to the other side, though I
may not have admitted it or even been able to
articulate it until God got a hold of my heart
with a game changer. Waiting is not a season. Waiting
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is life. So the question you and I have before
us is this, will we live in the wait because
there is life, and life abundantly, not at the finish line,
not ten years from now, but right here, right now.
If you believe it today, somebody give God praise. In
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this house we can live while we wait. Waiting isn't
a curse. Waiting is an invitation. It's an invitation from
the throne room of heaven. Charles Swindle once put it
like this. We don't like waiting, but that's when God
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does some of his best work on our souls, some
of his best work. Hold up, wait, are you serious?
God does some of his best work while we wait. Well,
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if that's the truth today, then how do we actually wait?
How do we live in the wait? How do we
embrace the weight? And if waiting is truly life, then
how do we live right here, right now? Back in Louisiana,
(15:17):
I grew up with bonfires. Now I've had to explain
this to the people in Miami because bonfires are illegal
in Miami. But I have hope in you today. I
believe you know exactly what I'm talking about when I
say a bonfire. This is my favorite Friday night pastime.
We would pull the trucks up, We would pull the
(15:39):
chairs out, you get a lot of wood, you light
that thing on fire, and that bonfire is the center
of attention. Everyone is facing the fire, and as it burns,
you make memories and you don't want the night to
end because you've been looking forward to Friday night all
week long. Can I just tell you today, we are
(16:02):
conditioned in culture to live for the bonfire moments. We
are conditioned in culture to wait for the bonfire moments
that say, Oh, I'm just gonna wait until I get
to the other side of this trial. I'm just gonna
wait until I get through this wilderness. When my life
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is a bonfire, when I'm blazing with the glory of God,
light me up. I'm on fire. But friends, what if
your walk with God was purposed to look more like
smoke than a flame, because you seem I grew up
with bonfires. I love bonfires. But my husband, when I
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met and when we were seventeen, he loves to burn incense.
For the last twenty three years, we've been burning incense
in our house. People walk into my home to this
day and the first thing they say, they don't notice
the furniture, they don't notice the decor. They say, what
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is that smell. It's not what they see, it's what
they sense. It's not anything that they notice with their
physical eyes, but it's a fragrance that is intoxicating. They
can't even find out where it is or where it's burning,
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but they notice it from the moment they walk through
the door. You know, the word incense comes from the
Latin word incend there and it simply means to burn.
Do you know? The incense is found throughout the scriptures
that in the very beginning that God speaks to Moses
in the books of Exodus, and he tells Moses, he says,
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I want you to set up an incense altar in
my house, and every morning and every evening, I want
you Aaron the priest, to bring an incense offering. So
every morning there would be an altar in the Holy Place,
and in the Holy Place, Aarin the priest would bring
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the incense and he would pour the incense on the altar.
And as he poured the incense on the altar, on
the heat source, that is the altar, an amazing thing
would happen. A fragrance would begin to rise, smoke would
begin to rise, and Jewish tradition tells us that this
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smoke didn't just fill the Holy Place, but it filled
the entire surrounding area up to a quarter of a mile.
The smoke was so thick that every single person who
came to worship God, as they worship God, the fragrance
would soap into their clothes and they would go about
their daily duties carrying the fragrance of God. The molk
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represents the worship and the prayers of God ascending to
Heaven every morning and every evening. That as you laid
down your little what you think doesn't have any worth,
what you think isn't a bonfire blazing with the glory
of God. I've got news for you today. All He
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asks for you to do is release what is in
your hand, and it becomes a fragrant sacrifice that permeates
the air, touching everything in its midst. You have the
ability today in the weight to bring your little and
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you can watch it rise. The priests would set their
incense on the fire, and when they did, it would
release an aroma and the smoke would lift high towards Heaven.
Scripture us that our life is like a vapor. It's
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a vapor. It's here today, it's gone tomorrow a lot
like the smoke of incense. Here's the invitation. Bring what
you have to God in the weight and watch as
he transforms it, because the powerful thing is that incense.
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It is not the fire, but when it's placed on
the heat source, the very chemical components of what is
laid down transforms into a completely different thing. You are
looking at your little in the weight, going, this is
all I'll ever have, God is going, Will you release
it to me and watch what I can do with it?
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Because they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They will mount up with wings alike eagles and romans.
Reminds us. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and so, in
view of God's mercy, to offer your body as living sacrifice,
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holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and
proper worship. You're a living sacrifice. You want to know
how to live in the weight. You gotta lay your
life down as a sacrifice, because it's only when you
become a sacrifice that you actually live. You see, we
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want the fire, but God says, I want the surrender.
We want to receive, but God says, first, you've gotta
lay it all down. We want to see the end
of the story. But God says, will you see what
I want to do right here, right now, in and
through you come on, If anybody's got a praise in
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the house, why don't you lift up a shout of
honor to God. He's here right now, He's here in
the weight, he's here in the wait. It's a slow
burn for those that wait. I grew up celebrating the
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fourth July with a million fireworks. My brothers and I.
We jump in the car, we drive down the street.
Stop it a little set up on the side of
the road by everything that we could afford. Come back
to the house and set those babies off. Now, the
scariest thought is when you light a firework and then
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you step back and you're waiting for that thing to
pop off, and you go, is that thing lit? And
what do you do? You don't run up. You tiptoe up,
cause you know it may be a slow burn, but
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it is burning towards an expected outcome that is gonna
exchange everything. I want to speak faith to your heart today,
your life, your faith, your perseverance, your trials, your wilderness
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is not the end game. You are burning towards an
expected outcome. God has already authored the end of this story,
and you don't have to wonder if he's gonna carry
it through, because he comes through every single time. But
maybe today you're tiptoeing forward and it's not with expectation,
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it's with a heart that has become disappointed in the way.
Have you ever wondered if your faith was still ignited?
Have you ever wondered if you actually have what it
takes to get through the wilderness of the weight, to
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get through the slow burn when life seems to be
crawling and all you want to do is accelerate and
move forward. I've got good news for you today. You
may feel burned out, You may feel like you don't
have what it takes. You may be asking yourself today,
is my faith still lit? Good news for you today
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is you're not the fire, and you can get reignited
every single moment of the journey. All you gotta do
is get back to that altar and lay your life
down once again, and the ignition is on. The fire
starts to blaze, the faith starts to rise. Today, God says,
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I want to light the fire within you every moment
of the slow burn, Come on giving praise in this house.
He's with you. He's with you, He's with you. You
don't want to be the fire, then the pressure is
on you to sustain it. No, we're not the fire.
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He's the fire. He's the all consuming fire. We just
bring our little every morning, throughout the day, and every evening,
and we watched as he transforms it. They that wait
again and again and again and again. As you find
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yourself surrendering to him, you will renew your strength. But
what is this offering that we bring? I think it's
interesting what God tells Moses to bring. Exodus, chapter thirty,
verse thirty five speaks very specifically of what our offering
should be. The fragrant sacrifice of incense was to be
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three things, salted and pure and sacred. Friends. If God
said the offering should be salted, pure and sacred in Exodus,
I think it's pretty incredible that today that's what our
very lives should also be. That our very lives, our
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offering is sacred. Friends, There is only one blend that
was allowed in God's house. You couldn't burn it anywhere else.
If you were burning in your house, you got cut off.
But I know when it comes to my offering for God,
there's a peace in my heart that only belongs to him.
He is the central focus of my life. That sacred
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space is reserved for him and him alone, and in
the weight I keep him front and center. It's not
just sacred, it's pure. See our offering to God. It
isn't a supplement in the slow burn. It's not just
a piece of encouragement or a crutch. No, friends, this
is pure and complete surrendered to God. This is not
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Jesus pless, self help, Jesus pless, horoscopes, Jesus pless this
or Jesus pless that. It's Jesus and only Jesus that
breaks the shames, that creates the community of life, that
frees me from my bondage. It's a pure sacrifice. But
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it's not just sacred, and it's not just pure. It's salted.
Somebody says, salted salt is actually the ingredient that allows
it to keep on burning. Salt is a preserver. The
salt keeps it as a steady slow burn that lasts
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and elongates the fragrance impact. God says that we're the
salt of the earth. Maybe today in the slow burn,
you go. I don't know. I feel like I've lost
my saltiness. Do you know how long salt lasts? In fact,
let me ask you, when does salt expire? Have you
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ever googled it? I did. Never. Salt never expires. You
think you're past your prime, You're just getting started. You're
gonna be fresh at twenty, fresh at thirty, fresh at forty, freship,
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fifty freshed sixty every season of your life, your offering
is gonna bring a freshness to the world. You were
created to last because your very life is a preserver,
and as you lay it on the altar, the fragrance
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is released. Friends, I came to encourage you in the
slow burn of life. While you are waiting right here,
right now, there is a fragrance to your faith. Smell
has saying power. It has in aroma. Did you know
that your nose has the ability to decipher over one
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trillion different sense and that sent is most closely tied
out of all your senses, to your memory. So God
was doing something, wasn't he? With that incense offering. Every
time you smell that aroma, you're gonna think of the
worship of God. Every time you smell that aroma. You're
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gonna think of the prayers and the dependence upon the Father.
There is a fragrance today to your faith. This past month,
I had some interviews in Nashville. I wrote my first book.
It's called Slowburn, and I had the title over ten
years ago, but I've been waiting because it was in
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the waiting that the message was actually written. And I
was in Nashville doing some interviews for Slowburn and I've
my youngest son, five months old with me, and we
got to the airport and I had rented a car
and I went to pick up my car. It was
gonna be a nice car. As I opened up the car,
all of a sudden, this fragrance hit me. Woo. They
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had been burning something and it wasn't incence. I am like,
oh my goodness. I try to get in that car.
I'm like, my baby cannot smell this. But I had
to go straight from the airport to the interviews, so
I cranked the windows down and I'm driving down the
street and I'm just like, oh Lord help me. I'm like,
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when I get there for this interview, they're gonna smell me,
and I'm gonna get out of the car and say, hey,
I'm here for the interview on my new book. It's
called slow Burn. I'm sitting in my car. I'm like,
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I don't even know the person who is in this
car before me. I've never even seen them. They're not
even with me today, and yet their life is getting
on me. And today, all of us we can look
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at our own life and we carry the fragrance of
generational trauma, of labels that people have placed on us,
on pain and circumstances that were far beyond our control.
And that person isn't even in our life anymore, but
the fragrance, the fragrance remains. But I'm so grateful today
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that we too can say, like Paul, thanks be to
God who always leads us to triumph and through spreads
the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere, because it's
at the name of Jesus that old things pass away.
Let me say it this way. Old fragrances pass away,
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old labels pass away, old generational curses pass away. And
at the name of Jesus, you now bear a fragrance
of faith, of joy, of peace, of forgiveness, of long suffering.
In the slow Burn You've got a sweet fragrance of
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the strength of Almighty God. Oh, somebody praise him in
this house. You are marked. You are marked because Jesus
he bade the ultimate sacrifice. You see this picture of
the incense offering in Exodus. It's just a parable of
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the reality of heaven. Because Jesus two thousand years ago
came to this earth. He laid his very life down.
He didn't offer instance. He offered his own blood in
the Holy of Holies. And when he said it is finished,
we know that for every person who puts their faith
and trust in Jesus, that our life is marked by
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the very fragrance of God. And when you lay down
your little on the altar, when you surrender your life
to Him, in the slow burn, in the wilderness, in
the waiting, while you are waiting, a beautiful exchange happens.
He will give you beauty for your ashes. You feel
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burned out. He wants to give you beauty for your ashes.
He will give you the oil of joy for your mourning.
He will give you a garment of praise for your
spirit of despair. If you just say, all I have
are tears today, he says, those who sow in tears,
(34:02):
we'll reap with shouts of joy. His name is Jesus, Jesus, Jeesus, Jeeesus.
There's just something of that that name. You're my master.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Nice save you, Jeesus, like the fragrance after the rain.
Oh Jeesus, he's my Jesus.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
He's joy Jeesus. Let all heaven under earth pro clue keezay,
kingdoms shell passit that there's something that that name. You see.
(35:26):
I don't think it's gonna be what you wear that
people say there's something about her. I don't think it's
gonna be your house, or the car you drive, or
the label that goes in front of your name. I
think people are gonna look at you and say there's
something about her. There's something about him. I can't see it,
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but I sense it, and I gotta know what it is.
Because you carry the fragrance of the hope of the
risen Savior, and with that out the word, you are
drawing people to the very life that you have found. Oh,
given praise in this house. There's something about that name.
(36:16):
There's something about that name. Today you can make an exchange.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles. When you
lay it down, you rise. When you lay it down,
(36:38):
you rise. I'm reminded that he says like an eagle.
Why does God say like an eagle, the regal king
of the skies. When you study eagles, it's really interesting
that they've got one of the largest wingspans out of
all the birds, but they don't use those wings to
keep themselves up in the air for five to eight
(37:00):
hours without touching down. Yeah, the littler birds can just
beat their wings trying to stay a flight, But the
eagle catches wind, the eagle source and that you will
rarely see an egle beat its wings because it utilizes
the wind to carry it. I'm talking about the breath
(37:21):
of God, the wind of God, the ruok Numa. I'm
talking about the wind that visited the upper room two
thousand years ago and ignited the local church. That fills
you and I the day that we don't have to strive,
we don't have to work our way into the power
(37:42):
and the authority of God, but we can catch wind.
Come on giving praise in the house. Are you weary?
Are you heavy laden? He says, I will give you rest.
Then I'm not giving you rest by grounding you. I'm
(38:04):
giving you rest by lifting you. I've got a wind
that is about to sweep into your spirit and lift
you up to a higher ground for a higher view.
So you're not looking up at your mountains any longer.
You don't feel like a grasshopper looking up at the big,
(38:25):
big boulders of life, but rather you're looking down going
the things. They used to be big and intimidate my life. Oh,
now they're small because I can see the land, and
the land is mine. You promised it. I'm gonna take it. Oh,
come on, if you'd say I'm taking it, why don't
you give away? In this house, he's gonna lift you.
(38:50):
He's gonna lift you. They that wait upon the Lord,
wait upon the Lord. In my waiting, eight years of infertility.
In the middle of my waiting, someone spoke a word
over me. They said this to me. They said, I
(39:11):
was in an atmosphere of faith, just like this. I
was seated in one of the rows, and a woman
i'd never met sat next to me, and in a
moment of prayer, she grabbed my hand and she whispered
in my ear. She said, you are gonna travel the
world preaching the Gospel with a baby in one hand
and a Bible in the other. I didn't go home
(39:38):
and take a pregnancy test and find out I was pregnant.
I carried that word in my heart for years. I
tucked it away. I didn't know what to do with it,
said God, I'm gonna keep trusting you. For years, I
walked through the weight, wondering, God, is this going to happen?
(40:00):
And eight years in eight years in God did a miracle.
God gave me my first son, Wyat Wesley Wilkerson. But
he didn't stop there, because then God gave me a
second son. Then God gave me a daughter, Wail and
(40:23):
Wesley the joy of my heart, lady. And this year,
at the age of forty, friends, I got the shock
of my life. Because we serve a God that redeems time.
(40:44):
We serve a God that is not confined by time.
It's a tool that he uses, He created it. It's his.
He can do anything that he wants, any moment that
he wants. And let me tell you, as you wait
upon the Lord, he's still doing me the miracles. He's
still healing, he's still restoring, he's still bringing new life.
(41:11):
I have to stay true to my testimony. I came
here to declare to you that God has not forsaken you.
He has not left you, He has not forgotten you.
His eye is always on you while you were waiting.
He's been working while you were waiting. He's been lifting
(41:31):
you to see a higher view, not just your own life,
but to see the story that He is telling throughout history.
And little boy, this is your testimony already. They that
weigh upon the Lord, it's my life, first passed down
from Isaiah, and now I pass it to you. They
(41:51):
that weigh upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They
will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run
and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Come on, if that's the promise for your life, will
you give God praise. The truth is today that some
(42:20):
of you in this room you're going don shri But
that miracle hasn't come to pass for me. Well, I
want to tell you that I didn't have the revelation
of living in the wait. Once I held my son
for the first time, that he met me right in
the eight years of waiting, and he showed me what
living looks like. He showed me that I have a
(42:42):
testimony far before I hold my baby in my arms.
But just like the maketriarchs and the patriarchs of our faith,
that they greeted their inheritance from Afar, that they died
while still believing that they did not hold in their
hands what was promised, but rather they saw through the
lens of eternity, and they greeted their inheritance from Afar.
(43:05):
I read that in the Weight, and the words leapt
off the page, and I got a picture for my weight.
Oh yeah, my arms were empty. I didn't have a baby.
But those arms that are empty, they make gray hands
of worship to wave through the lens of faith and say,
you've lifted me high enough not just to see this life,
but to see eternity that awaits, where there will be
(43:28):
no pain, there will be no tears, there will be
no sorrow, and there will be no unmet longing in
my life. Because while you were waiting, he was renewing you.
And while you were waiting, every step of the way
towards eternity, you were being lifted on the wings of eagles.
(43:49):
While you were waiting, you would run, not grow weary.
While you were waiting, you would walk and not faint. Today,
the spirit of God says to you, my grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
You bring your little to me, and you've watched me
(44:12):
transform you. Right here, right now, Somebody give God praise
in this house. He's faithful, He's able. Would you just
stand to your feet in this room and bow your heads,
(44:32):
close your eyes. There are people in this room that
would say, don Shri, I'm in the way. You're watching
online today, Don Shri. I'm in the way, and it
(44:53):
feels like I'm in exile. It feels like I'm in
a wilderness. I'm peer holding on. I don't think I
have the strength. You're right, you don't. But he does,
and He has brought you to this moment because he
(45:15):
adores you. Before your life began, he ordained you to
be filled with the wind of his spirit, to be
lifted to a higher view above your obstacles and impossibilities,
and to know that as his child, he will faithfully
(45:39):
leave you every step of the way until you are
face to face. Today, I want to pray first of
all for people in this room who would You're just
weary you're watching online and you are exhausted with life.
You've been beating your wings, You've been given it all
you got, But today you're gonna catch wind. If that's you,
(46:01):
I want to pray for you. Would you just lift
your hand, If you'd say, I need the renewal of
the spirit of God right there in your car and
your home and your workplace, Just acknowledge God's presence that
is there with you right now. If that's you, just
lift up both of your hands. Lord, Today we surrender
our lives. Lord. Thank you that every day, every moment,
(46:24):
morning and evening and throughout our days, we can come
to you, the all consuming Fire and God when we
feel like we are at our end. Lord, I thank
you God that you don't snuff us out. But Lord,
you light us once again with your faithfulness. You fill
us with the power that conquered the grave, the power
(46:45):
of your spirit, the power of God. Lord. I thank
you that right now, as people have their hands raised, Lord,
you're meeting them right where they are. Lord, You're renewing
their dreams. You're renewing their heart. God, You're giving them
a high vision of the situation and the season of life.
They are in and Lord, through the lens of faith,
we wave to our inheritance from Afar. Lord. We know
(47:09):
that we will see you face to face. But while
we've been waiting, you're shaping us. You're forming us. Lord,
You're transforming us by your grace. Also, I'd love to
give an opportunity for people that don't know Jesus. If
you're watching, you've never made Jesus your Lord and savior.
(47:33):
You're in this room and you have some other things
that have first priority in your life. But you say
today I'm making Jesus my king. On the counter three,
I'd love for you to raise your hand. One. This
is between you and Jesus too. Don't fit off a
decision for tomorrow that God he brought you to this
moment today to make three. Would you lift your hand.
(47:56):
You say, I'm choosing Jesus. I'm choosing Jesus. I see
your hands, I see your hands wherever you are. As
you acknowledge that God sees your heart, you know what
all of us are gonna come around. You're gonna we're
gonna lift our hands together and surrender. Would you pray
this prayer with me? Say dear Jesus today I choose
(48:19):
to throw my life into your hands. I'm celebrating your rescue.
I believe you died for me, that you rose again,
forgive me of my sin, wash me clean. I want
to walk with you, I want to talk with you.
(48:39):
I love you. Lord in Jesus' name, Come on, And
everybody said, Amen, Amen, come on. Can Jesus give God
a shout of praise? God bless you.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch
dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
with your friends. You can click the share button, take
(49:14):
a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our
podcast and I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hope it gives your.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Perspective to see God has moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message. Would you remain standing for just a
moment because I just think this is the right posture.
I want to take a moment to honor this house.
I am grateful for the faith of Elevation Church. I'm
grateful for the faith of this house that sent riple
(00:34):
riple waves around the globe and it's reached our house
in Miami. Our church is stronger because of your faith
and because of the faith of your leaders, Pastor Stephen
and Holly Ferdick. How many of you love your pastors?
Come on, can we put our hands together for them?
When I think about Pastor Stephen, I think of a
(00:54):
pastor to pastors, the way that he has led us,
that he's spoken over our lives in so many different seasons.
I'm constantly inspired. How when it comes to Pastor Stevens
walk with God. There's always more, There's more, there's more, hope,
there's more faith, there's more creativity, and it inspires me
(01:15):
to dig deep and to believe God that there's always more.
But I'm also really grateful for Pastor Holly. Come on,
do you guys love Pastor Holly. She's one of my
dearest friends in the world. And when she preaches the
Word of God, she preaches with power and authority. Shains
are broken. But it's not just what she says on
(01:36):
the Pulpit's the way that she leads her life. It's
the way that she leads her family. She's taught me
what it means to be a great friend, to stand
with people on mountaintops and in valleys. And I just
believe the best is yet to come for this house.
Come on, if you believe that today with you picks
her hands together with me, I believe it with all
Oh come on, elevation, I believe it with all my heart.
(02:01):
And before you're seated, I want to take a moment
because I'm fully aware that people walked in this room
or are watching online today and you are hanging on
by a thread. And I want to speak to your
soul today that before we even open up the Word
of God, if you feel like you are stuck in
(02:21):
the middle of a wilderness, if you feel like you
don't know what to do, where to go, or how
to even express the state of your heart today, if
you feel like, for the first time in your life,
you wonder if this whole thing is real, I want
to remind you today. I want to tell you today
that God sent me here with a message in my heart,
(02:44):
and that he brought you here because He wants to
meet you right where you are. If anybody can testify
that He did it for you, come on pict your
hands together. We serve a faithful God and he sees
you today. Hey, why don't you high five your neighbor,
grab your seat, grab your bibles. You can turn with
(03:07):
me to Isaiah chapter forty, verse thirty one. I brings
so much love from Miami and a little bit of
sunshine for you. Our church VUK church. We started it
ten years ago and God's been doing miracles. But I
believe that what God is doing in twenty twenty five
(03:28):
is unlike anything that's ever been seen in history. He's
doing a new thing. My husband rich since his love,
I've got four babies that I adore. Wyat wild Whalen
and Wolfgang seven, five, three and six months old. Oh yeah,
oh yeah, big families. We know there's a big party
(03:52):
when you're a part of a big family. You may
be wondering where are you actually from, Don Shri because
that accent does not sound like Miami. I am from Louisiana.
I am a rage in Cajun. And you also may
be wondering what kind of name is Don Sherie, Like,
(04:13):
where did that come from? Well, the story my parents
told me is that my dad wanted to name me
down my mom wanted to name me Sharie. And so
as they were sitting in the hospital room trying to
figure out who is this girl? The day I was born,
my mom put the names together, wrote a love letter
from me and tucked it under the pillow where my
(04:34):
dad was sleeping on the couch in the hospital. And
Don Scherie's been my name ever since. That same day
that they named me is the day that they gave
me a life promise. And that's the scripture that I
want to read to you today. Isaiah forty thirty one.
They that wait upon the Lord, somebody say wait, they
(04:57):
shall renew their strength, They shall melt up with wings
like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they
shall walk and not faint. I want to talk to
you for the next few minutes from this thought. While
you were waiting, Let's pray God, thank you for this moment,
(05:21):
thank you for this house. Thank you Lord, for what
you are doing in our hearts. Today. We pause, and Lord,
just like we sang, we breathe you in. Have your
way and our heart, Oh God, for you and you alone,
(05:41):
our souls wait. I pray that I would disappear, and Lord,
that our eyes would behold your promise, that our hearts
would be filled with hope. Today. We love you, Jesus,
We're here for you. Come on, And everybody said, all
one more time. Everybody said amen. Well. Earlier this year
(06:04):
in Miami, my husband had his birthday. He turned forty one,
and we had a family dinner as you do. We
came back to the house after dinner and we set
out on our back dock in that humid Miami heat,
swatting the mosquitoes, just trying to have a calm conversation.
And on his birthday, we usually have a tradition to
(06:26):
start telling memories from over the years, and we started
sitting on that back deck, and we started early in
the night, and we went late into the night telling memories.
And somewhere in that conversation it dawned on me, Rich,
I think that we cele debraded your birthday together. Twenty
years ago. We were in Cambridge, Cambridge University, we were
(06:51):
studying together, and I actually think I have a journal
to prove it. And I ran inside my house and
sure enough, I went through all my bookcases and I
found it. And I came running back out on the
deck almost near midnight. I said, I found it, and
we started to open it up, and I had so
many different memories. But as I started to read this journal,
(07:13):
I was laughing at the frame of mind of my
twenty year old self. I got to the end of
the journal from Cambridge and I was coming back to
Louisiana for the summer, and I had made a list
of twenty things that I wanted to accomplish over the summer.
I mean, I brought this journal all the way from Miami.
(07:33):
Is anybody would anybody want to know what a twenty
year old college student wishes to accomplish in one summer?
You want to hear it? Okay, This is about to
blow your mind. Things I want to do this summer.
(07:54):
Number one read the entire Bible. Might job Number two
learn Spanish. Now, God was trying to prepare me for Miami.
Number three. Go to all the boys' games. Now five boys,
I mean my brothers. And that may seem like an
easy feet except for I have five brothers. That's a
(08:17):
lot of games in the summer. Number four. Become a
domestic goddess. That was a popular book. Okay, that has
just been released. Number five Read an etiquette book. Number six.
Have a good job. We don't want an ordinary job.
(08:38):
Can I get an amen? We want a good job? Right?
I do want a good job for the summer. Number seven.
Visit my best friend from college. Number eight exercise dash
arms defined. Number nine, Sing in the choir. Number ten,
Get involved with youth ministry. Hello. Number eleven. Record a
(09:04):
worship album. Yeah, let's throw that one in. Yes. Number thirteen.
Surprise Mom and Dad on their twenty fifth anniversary with
a love song concert with my brothers. Number fourteen. Interview
my grandpa and my grandma about their life story. Number fifteen.
(09:24):
Hang out with my great grandfather and my great grandmother.
Number sixteen, go to the hospitals with my papa to
pray for people. Number seventeen, make a scrap book of
the summer. And number eighteen Can I get a drum roll? Please?
We've got none other than orthodonist. Figure out a way
(09:49):
to straighten teeth without bracket braces. If you think that's
a pretty good list, come on, pick your hands together.
That's a pretty restive list, friends, What was I thinking?
That is a setup for disappointment. You've got eighteen things
(10:12):
that you want to accomplish in one summer. That is
not a list for a summer. That is a list
for a decade twenty years later to the year. I
am just now stepping into some of the things that
I put on that list. I'm just now stepping into them.
(10:32):
And friends, I don't know if I'll ever be a
domestic goddess. Like everyone's story, mine has involved years and
years of waiting. I know that you have your list too.
We all have our list of what we are waiting
(10:53):
to step into, waiting not just to step into, but
what we're waiting to finish. And when we look at
the story of God, we see that God uses large
spans of time, not just a single summer to accomplish
His will in his people and in your very life. Today.
(11:13):
Come on, if you believe it today, why don't you
put your hands together. We serve a God that is
faithful every step of the way. And Isaiah prophesies they
they that wait for the Lord, They that wait for
the Lord, shall renew their strength. This is not a
birth verse. This is a life verse, because I need
(11:38):
the promise that as I wait upon the Lord, he
will renew me, not just to start the journey, but
right there in the middle of the journey and until
I see him face to face. And I don't know
about you, but I'm right there in the middle. I
turned forty this year. You know, scripturally forty represents trials
(12:02):
and testing. Oh praise God, what a great word to
speak over my life this year. That's exactly what I
was going for. But you look throughout scripture and you
see forty represent trials and testing. You can look at
the life of Moses. You know, Moses spent forty years
in Egypt. Then he spent forty years in the wilderness.
(12:24):
And you may think he was at the end, but
he has a burning bush experience that then catapults him
into the most important forty years of his life as
he leads God's people. And you may be like Moses.
You may be like Moses, thinking, oh, I'm at the end,
the great things of God are behind me, when you
(12:45):
have no idea You're just about to step into the
very calling and purpose of God that He ordained for
you before your life began. You have no idea what
He's prepared for you. He prepared it for you. Or
maybe you know good and well that you're in the middle.
(13:07):
You know that you are right there in the middle
of the story, and friends, you are miserable. Can I
tell you today that I operated with this perspective for
many seasons in my life, moving to a city where
I didn't know anyone, walking through eight years of infertility,
(13:28):
starting a church. There have been many seasons of waiting
that I just wanted to fast forward through, that I
just wanted to get to the other side, though I
may not have admitted it or even been able to
articulate it until God got a hold of my heart
with a game changer. Waiting is not a season. Waiting
(13:52):
is life. So the question you and I have before
us is this, will we live in the wait because
there is life, and life abundantly, not at the finish line,
not ten years from now, but right here, right now.
If you believe it today, somebody give God praise. In
(14:14):
this house we can live while we wait. Waiting isn't
a curse. Waiting is an invitation. It's an invitation from
the throne room of heaven. Charles Swindle once put it
like this. We don't like waiting, but that's when God
(14:36):
does some of his best work on our souls, some
of his best work. Hold up, wait, are you serious?
God does some of his best work while we wait. Well,
(14:56):
if that's the truth today, then how do we actually wait?
How do we live in the wait? How do we
embrace the weight? And if waiting is truly life, then
how do we live right here, right now? Back in Louisiana,
(15:17):
I grew up with bonfires. Now I've had to explain
this to the people in Miami because bonfires are illegal
in Miami. But I have hope in you today. I
believe you know exactly what I'm talking about when I
say a bonfire. This is my favorite Friday night pastime.
We would pull the trucks up, We would pull the
(15:39):
chairs out, you get a lot of wood, you light
that thing on fire, and that bonfire is the center
of attention. Everyone is facing the fire, and as it burns,
you make memories and you don't want the night to
end because you've been looking forward to Friday night all
week long. Can I just tell you today, we are
(16:02):
conditioned in culture to live for the bonfire moments. We
are conditioned in culture to wait for the bonfire moments
that say, Oh, I'm just gonna wait until I get
to the other side of this trial. I'm just gonna
wait until I get through this wilderness. When my life
(16:23):
is a bonfire, when I'm blazing with the glory of God,
light me up. I'm on fire. But friends, what if
your walk with God was purposed to look more like
smoke than a flame, because you seem I grew up
with bonfires. I love bonfires. But my husband, when I
(16:45):
met and when we were seventeen, he loves to burn incense.
For the last twenty three years, we've been burning incense
in our house. People walk into my home to this
day and the first thing they say, they don't notice
the furniture, they don't notice the decor. They say, what
(17:09):
is that smell. It's not what they see, it's what
they sense. It's not anything that they notice with their
physical eyes, but it's a fragrance that is intoxicating. They
can't even find out where it is or where it's burning,
(17:30):
but they notice it from the moment they walk through
the door. You know, the word incense comes from the
Latin word incend there and it simply means to burn.
Do you know? The incense is found throughout the scriptures
that in the very beginning that God speaks to Moses
in the books of Exodus, and he tells Moses, he says,
(17:52):
I want you to set up an incense altar in
my house, and every morning and every evening, I want
you Aaron the priest, to bring an incense offering. So
every morning there would be an altar in the Holy Place,
and in the Holy Place, Aarin the priest would bring
(18:14):
the incense and he would pour the incense on the altar.
And as he poured the incense on the altar, on
the heat source, that is the altar, an amazing thing
would happen. A fragrance would begin to rise, smoke would
begin to rise, and Jewish tradition tells us that this
(18:36):
smoke didn't just fill the Holy Place, but it filled
the entire surrounding area up to a quarter of a mile.
The smoke was so thick that every single person who
came to worship God, as they worship God, the fragrance
would soap into their clothes and they would go about
their daily duties carrying the fragrance of God. The molk
(19:00):
represents the worship and the prayers of God ascending to
Heaven every morning and every evening. That as you laid
down your little what you think doesn't have any worth,
what you think isn't a bonfire blazing with the glory
of God. I've got news for you today. All He
(19:22):
asks for you to do is release what is in
your hand, and it becomes a fragrant sacrifice that permeates
the air, touching everything in its midst. You have the
ability today in the weight to bring your little and
(19:43):
you can watch it rise. The priests would set their
incense on the fire, and when they did, it would
release an aroma and the smoke would lift high towards Heaven.
Scripture us that our life is like a vapor. It's
(20:04):
a vapor. It's here today, it's gone tomorrow a lot
like the smoke of incense. Here's the invitation. Bring what
you have to God in the weight and watch as
he transforms it, because the powerful thing is that incense.
(20:25):
It is not the fire, but when it's placed on
the heat source, the very chemical components of what is
laid down transforms into a completely different thing. You are
looking at your little in the weight, going, this is
all I'll ever have, God is going, Will you release
it to me and watch what I can do with it?
(20:47):
Because they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They will mount up with wings alike eagles and romans.
Reminds us. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and so, in
view of God's mercy, to offer your body as living sacrifice,
(21:07):
holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and
proper worship. You're a living sacrifice. You want to know
how to live in the weight. You gotta lay your
life down as a sacrifice, because it's only when you
become a sacrifice that you actually live. You see, we
(21:28):
want the fire, but God says, I want the surrender.
We want to receive, but God says, first, you've gotta
lay it all down. We want to see the end
of the story. But God says, will you see what
I want to do right here, right now, in and
through you come on, If anybody's got a praise in
(21:50):
the house, why don't you lift up a shout of
honor to God. He's here right now, He's here in
the weight, he's here in the wait. It's a slow
burn for those that wait. I grew up celebrating the
(22:13):
fourth July with a million fireworks. My brothers and I.
We jump in the car, we drive down the street.
Stop it a little set up on the side of
the road by everything that we could afford. Come back
to the house and set those babies off. Now, the
scariest thought is when you light a firework and then
(22:34):
you step back and you're waiting for that thing to
pop off, and you go, is that thing lit? And
what do you do? You don't run up. You tiptoe up,
cause you know it may be a slow burn, but
(22:56):
it is burning towards an expected outcome that is gonna
exchange everything. I want to speak faith to your heart today,
your life, your faith, your perseverance, your trials, your wilderness
(23:16):
is not the end game. You are burning towards an
expected outcome. God has already authored the end of this story,
and you don't have to wonder if he's gonna carry
it through, because he comes through every single time. But
maybe today you're tiptoeing forward and it's not with expectation,
(23:41):
it's with a heart that has become disappointed in the way.
Have you ever wondered if your faith was still ignited?
Have you ever wondered if you actually have what it
takes to get through the wilderness of the weight, to
(24:01):
get through the slow burn when life seems to be
crawling and all you want to do is accelerate and
move forward. I've got good news for you today. You
may feel burned out, You may feel like you don't
have what it takes. You may be asking yourself today,
is my faith still lit? Good news for you today
(24:23):
is you're not the fire, and you can get reignited
every single moment of the journey. All you gotta do
is get back to that altar and lay your life
down once again, and the ignition is on. The fire
starts to blaze, the faith starts to rise. Today, God says,
(24:48):
I want to light the fire within you every moment
of the slow burn, Come on giving praise in this house.
He's with you. He's with you, He's with you. You
don't want to be the fire, then the pressure is
on you to sustain it. No, we're not the fire.
(25:11):
He's the fire. He's the all consuming fire. We just
bring our little every morning, throughout the day, and every evening,
and we watched as he transforms it. They that wait
again and again and again and again. As you find
(25:31):
yourself surrendering to him, you will renew your strength. But
what is this offering that we bring? I think it's
interesting what God tells Moses to bring. Exodus, chapter thirty,
verse thirty five speaks very specifically of what our offering
should be. The fragrant sacrifice of incense was to be
(25:55):
three things, salted and pure and sacred. Friends. If God
said the offering should be salted, pure and sacred in Exodus,
I think it's pretty incredible that today that's what our
very lives should also be. That our very lives, our
(26:16):
offering is sacred. Friends, There is only one blend that
was allowed in God's house. You couldn't burn it anywhere else.
If you were burning in your house, you got cut off.
But I know when it comes to my offering for God,
there's a peace in my heart that only belongs to him.
He is the central focus of my life. That sacred
(26:36):
space is reserved for him and him alone, and in
the weight I keep him front and center. It's not
just sacred, it's pure. See our offering to God. It
isn't a supplement in the slow burn. It's not just
a piece of encouragement or a crutch. No, friends, this
is pure and complete surrendered to God. This is not
(27:00):
Jesus pless, self help, Jesus pless, horoscopes, Jesus pless this
or Jesus pless that. It's Jesus and only Jesus that
breaks the shames, that creates the community of life, that
frees me from my bondage. It's a pure sacrifice. But
(27:24):
it's not just sacred, and it's not just pure. It's salted.
Somebody says, salted salt is actually the ingredient that allows
it to keep on burning. Salt is a preserver. The
salt keeps it as a steady slow burn that lasts
(27:45):
and elongates the fragrance impact. God says that we're the
salt of the earth. Maybe today in the slow burn,
you go. I don't know. I feel like I've lost
my saltiness. Do you know how long salt lasts? In fact,
let me ask you, when does salt expire? Have you
(28:06):
ever googled it? I did. Never. Salt never expires. You
think you're past your prime, You're just getting started. You're
gonna be fresh at twenty, fresh at thirty, fresh at forty, freship,
(28:28):
fifty freshed sixty every season of your life, your offering
is gonna bring a freshness to the world. You were
created to last because your very life is a preserver,
and as you lay it on the altar, the fragrance
(28:49):
is released. Friends, I came to encourage you in the
slow burn of life. While you are waiting right here,
right now, there is a fragrance to your faith. Smell
has saying power. It has in aroma. Did you know
that your nose has the ability to decipher over one
(29:11):
trillion different sense and that sent is most closely tied
out of all your senses, to your memory. So God
was doing something, wasn't he? With that incense offering. Every
time you smell that aroma, you're gonna think of the
worship of God. Every time you smell that aroma. You're
(29:32):
gonna think of the prayers and the dependence upon the Father.
There is a fragrance today to your faith. This past month,
I had some interviews in Nashville. I wrote my first book.
It's called Slowburn, and I had the title over ten
years ago, but I've been waiting because it was in
(29:52):
the waiting that the message was actually written. And I
was in Nashville doing some interviews for Slowburn and I've
my youngest son, five months old with me, and we
got to the airport and I had rented a car
and I went to pick up my car. It was
gonna be a nice car. As I opened up the car,
all of a sudden, this fragrance hit me. Woo. They
(30:16):
had been burning something and it wasn't incence. I am like,
oh my goodness. I try to get in that car.
I'm like, my baby cannot smell this. But I had
to go straight from the airport to the interviews, so
I cranked the windows down and I'm driving down the
street and I'm just like, oh Lord help me. I'm like,
(30:38):
when I get there for this interview, they're gonna smell me,
and I'm gonna get out of the car and say, hey,
I'm here for the interview on my new book. It's
called slow Burn. I'm sitting in my car. I'm like,
(31:01):
I don't even know the person who is in this
car before me. I've never even seen them. They're not
even with me today, and yet their life is getting
on me. And today, all of us we can look
(31:25):
at our own life and we carry the fragrance of
generational trauma, of labels that people have placed on us,
on pain and circumstances that were far beyond our control.
And that person isn't even in our life anymore, but
the fragrance, the fragrance remains. But I'm so grateful today
(31:51):
that we too can say, like Paul, thanks be to
God who always leads us to triumph and through spreads
the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere, because it's
at the name of Jesus that old things pass away.
Let me say it this way. Old fragrances pass away,
(32:14):
old labels pass away, old generational curses pass away. And
at the name of Jesus, you now bear a fragrance
of faith, of joy, of peace, of forgiveness, of long suffering.
In the slow Burn You've got a sweet fragrance of
(32:36):
the strength of Almighty God. Oh, somebody praise him in
this house. You are marked. You are marked because Jesus
he bade the ultimate sacrifice. You see this picture of
the incense offering in Exodus. It's just a parable of
(32:58):
the reality of heaven. Because Jesus two thousand years ago
came to this earth. He laid his very life down.
He didn't offer instance. He offered his own blood in
the Holy of Holies. And when he said it is finished,
we know that for every person who puts their faith
and trust in Jesus, that our life is marked by
(33:20):
the very fragrance of God. And when you lay down
your little on the altar, when you surrender your life
to Him, in the slow burn, in the wilderness, in
the waiting, while you are waiting, a beautiful exchange happens.
He will give you beauty for your ashes. You feel
(33:41):
burned out. He wants to give you beauty for your ashes.
He will give you the oil of joy for your mourning.
He will give you a garment of praise for your
spirit of despair. If you just say, all I have
are tears today, he says, those who sow in tears,
(34:02):
we'll reap with shouts of joy. His name is Jesus, Jesus, Jeesus, Jeeesus.
There's just something of that that name. You're my master.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Nice save you, Jeesus, like the fragrance after the rain.
Oh Jeesus, he's my Jesus.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
He's joy Jeesus. Let all heaven under earth pro clue keezay,
kingdoms shell passit that there's something that that name. You see.
(35:26):
I don't think it's gonna be what you wear that
people say there's something about her. I don't think it's
gonna be your house, or the car you drive, or
the label that goes in front of your name. I
think people are gonna look at you and say there's
something about her. There's something about him. I can't see it,
(35:48):
but I sense it, and I gotta know what it is.
Because you carry the fragrance of the hope of the
risen Savior, and with that out the word, you are
drawing people to the very life that you have found. Oh,
given praise in this house. There's something about that name.
(36:16):
There's something about that name. Today you can make an exchange.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles. When you
lay it down, you rise. When you lay it down,
(36:38):
you rise. I'm reminded that he says like an eagle.
Why does God say like an eagle, the regal king
of the skies. When you study eagles, it's really interesting
that they've got one of the largest wingspans out of
all the birds, but they don't use those wings to
keep themselves up in the air for five to eight
(37:00):
hours without touching down. Yeah, the littler birds can just
beat their wings trying to stay a flight, But the
eagle catches wind, the eagle source and that you will
rarely see an egle beat its wings because it utilizes
the wind to carry it. I'm talking about the breath
(37:21):
of God, the wind of God, the ruok Numa. I'm
talking about the wind that visited the upper room two
thousand years ago and ignited the local church. That fills
you and I the day that we don't have to strive,
we don't have to work our way into the power
(37:42):
and the authority of God, but we can catch wind.
Come on giving praise in the house. Are you weary?
Are you heavy laden? He says, I will give you rest.
Then I'm not giving you rest by grounding you. I'm
(38:04):
giving you rest by lifting you. I've got a wind
that is about to sweep into your spirit and lift
you up to a higher ground for a higher view.
So you're not looking up at your mountains any longer.
You don't feel like a grasshopper looking up at the big,
(38:25):
big boulders of life, but rather you're looking down going
the things. They used to be big and intimidate my life. Oh,
now they're small because I can see the land, and
the land is mine. You promised it. I'm gonna take it. Oh,
come on, if you'd say I'm taking it, why don't
you give away? In this house, he's gonna lift you.
(38:50):
He's gonna lift you. They that wait upon the Lord,
wait upon the Lord. In my waiting, eight years of infertility.
In the middle of my waiting, someone spoke a word
over me. They said this to me. They said, I
(39:11):
was in an atmosphere of faith, just like this. I
was seated in one of the rows, and a woman
i'd never met sat next to me, and in a
moment of prayer, she grabbed my hand and she whispered
in my ear. She said, you are gonna travel the
world preaching the Gospel with a baby in one hand
and a Bible in the other. I didn't go home
(39:38):
and take a pregnancy test and find out I was pregnant.
I carried that word in my heart for years. I
tucked it away. I didn't know what to do with it,
said God, I'm gonna keep trusting you. For years, I
walked through the weight, wondering, God, is this going to happen?
(40:00):
And eight years in eight years in God did a miracle.
God gave me my first son, Wyat Wesley Wilkerson. But
he didn't stop there, because then God gave me a
second son. Then God gave me a daughter, Wail and
(40:23):
Wesley the joy of my heart, lady. And this year,
at the age of forty, friends, I got the shock
of my life. Because we serve a God that redeems time.
(40:44):
We serve a God that is not confined by time.
It's a tool that he uses, He created it. It's his.
He can do anything that he wants, any moment that
he wants. And let me tell you, as you wait
upon the Lord, he's still doing me the miracles. He's
still healing, he's still restoring, he's still bringing new life.
(41:11):
I have to stay true to my testimony. I came
here to declare to you that God has not forsaken you.
He has not left you, He has not forgotten you.
His eye is always on you while you were waiting.
He's been working while you were waiting. He's been lifting
(41:31):
you to see a higher view, not just your own life,
but to see the story that He is telling throughout history.
And little boy, this is your testimony already. They that
weigh upon the Lord, it's my life, first passed down
from Isaiah, and now I pass it to you. They
(41:51):
that weigh upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They
will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run
and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Come on, if that's the promise for your life, will
you give God praise. The truth is today that some
(42:20):
of you in this room you're going don shri But
that miracle hasn't come to pass for me. Well, I
want to tell you that I didn't have the revelation
of living in the wait. Once I held my son
for the first time, that he met me right in
the eight years of waiting, and he showed me what
living looks like. He showed me that I have a
(42:42):
testimony far before I hold my baby in my arms.
But just like the maketriarchs and the patriarchs of our faith,
that they greeted their inheritance from Afar, that they died
while still believing that they did not hold in their
hands what was promised, but rather they saw through the
lens of eternity, and they greeted their inheritance from Afar.
(43:05):
I read that in the Weight, and the words leapt
off the page, and I got a picture for my weight.
Oh yeah, my arms were empty. I didn't have a baby.
But those arms that are empty, they make gray hands
of worship to wave through the lens of faith and say,
you've lifted me high enough not just to see this life,
but to see eternity that awaits, where there will be
(43:28):
no pain, there will be no tears, there will be
no sorrow, and there will be no unmet longing in
my life. Because while you were waiting, he was renewing you.
And while you were waiting, every step of the way
towards eternity, you were being lifted on the wings of eagles.
(43:49):
While you were waiting, you would run, not grow weary.
While you were waiting, you would walk and not faint. Today,
the spirit of God says to you, my grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
You bring your little to me, and you've watched me
(44:12):
transform you. Right here, right now, Somebody give God praise
in this house. He's faithful, He's able. Would you just
stand to your feet in this room and bow your heads,
(44:32):
close your eyes. There are people in this room that
would say, don Shri, I'm in the way. You're watching
online today, Don Shri. I'm in the way, and it
(44:53):
feels like I'm in exile. It feels like I'm in
a wilderness. I'm peer holding on. I don't think I
have the strength. You're right, you don't. But he does,
and He has brought you to this moment because he
(45:15):
adores you. Before your life began, he ordained you to
be filled with the wind of his spirit, to be
lifted to a higher view above your obstacles and impossibilities,
and to know that as his child, he will faithfully
(45:39):
leave you every step of the way until you are
face to face. Today, I want to pray first of
all for people in this room who would You're just
weary you're watching online and you are exhausted with life.
You've been beating your wings, You've been given it all
you got, But today you're gonna catch wind. If that's you,
(46:01):
I want to pray for you. Would you just lift
your hand, If you'd say, I need the renewal of
the spirit of God right there in your car and
your home and your workplace, Just acknowledge God's presence that
is there with you right now. If that's you, just
lift up both of your hands. Lord, Today we surrender
our lives. Lord. Thank you that every day, every moment,
(46:24):
morning and evening and throughout our days, we can come
to you, the all consuming Fire and God when we
feel like we are at our end. Lord, I thank
you God that you don't snuff us out. But Lord,
you light us once again with your faithfulness. You fill
us with the power that conquered the grave, the power
(46:45):
of your spirit, the power of God. Lord. I thank
you that right now, as people have their hands raised, Lord,
you're meeting them right where they are. Lord, You're renewing
their dreams. You're renewing their heart. God, You're giving them
a high vision of the situation and the season of life.
They are in and Lord, through the lens of faith,
we wave to our inheritance from Afar. Lord. We know
(47:09):
that we will see you face to face. But while
we've been waiting, you're shaping us. You're forming us. Lord,
You're transforming us by your grace. Also, I'd love to
give an opportunity for people that don't know Jesus. If
you're watching, you've never made Jesus your Lord and savior.
(47:33):
You're in this room and you have some other things
that have first priority in your life. But you say
today I'm making Jesus my king. On the counter three,
I'd love for you to raise your hand. One. This
is between you and Jesus too. Don't fit off a
decision for tomorrow that God he brought you to this
moment today to make three. Would you lift your hand.
(47:56):
You say, I'm choosing Jesus. I'm choosing Jesus. I see
your hands, I see your hands wherever you are. As
you acknowledge that God sees your heart, you know what
all of us are gonna come around. You're gonna we're
gonna lift our hands together and surrender. Would you pray
this prayer with me? Say dear Jesus today I choose
(48:19):
to throw my life into your hands. I'm celebrating your rescue.
I believe you died for me, that you rose again,
forgive me of my sin, wash me clean. I want
to walk with you, I want to talk with you.
(48:39):
I love you. Lord in Jesus' name, Come on, And
everybody said, Amen, Amen, come on. Can Jesus give God
a shout of praise? God bless you.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch
dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
with your friends. You can click the share button, take
(49:14):
a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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