December 2, 2023 • 26 mins
This week, Pastor Joe tells us that God provides Nourishment for the body, Hope for the soul, and Clarity for the mind, empowering us to navigate life's challenges with unwavering faith.
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Welcome to the New Life ChurchPodcast where we dive deep into
the timeless truths of the Bible.
My name is Jake and I'm absolutelythrilled to be your host.
In each of these episodes we'll unpackthe richness of the Scriptures, exploring
how It's teachings can bring New Lifeand Meaning to our everyday existence.
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Get ready to be Inspired, Challengedand Uplifted as we navigate the
profound wisdom of the Bible together.
This is a place whereFaith meets daily life.
This is New Life Church.
So let me read you this passagefrom 1st Kings 19 and Ahab told
Jezebel all that Elijah had done.
Also how he had executed allthe prophets with the sword.
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Then Jezebel sent a messenger toElijah saying so let the gods do to
me and more also if I do not makeyour life as the life of one of
them by tomorrow about this time.
Jezebel has just set a timelimit on the man of God's life.
Now the enemy loves to do that.
The enemy will lie to us andwill speak with more authority
than what they, what he carries.
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Here we are, we're accepting authoritythat the enemy doesn't have, and we're
denying authority from God that he does.
That, that, that is a trap.
That is a problem.
And that's an area that we can, inour doubt, in our weakness, in our
struggle, that we are accepting truthfrom the enemy that's not true, and
we're denying truth from God that is.
It's, it's really wild what, what we canget ourselves into the frame of believing.
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And when he saw that, he aroseand ran for his life and went
to Beersheba, which belongs toJudah, and left his servant there.
But he himself went a day's journeyinto the wilderness, and came and sat
down under a broom tree, and he prayedthat he might die, saying, It is enough.
Anybody ever felt like that?
It's enough.
I've had enough.
Don't raise your hand.
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Wink at me.
Have you said, I've had enough this week?
He said, Now, Lord, take my life,for I'm no better than my father's.
And as he lay and slept under thebroom tree, suddenly an angel touched
him and said to him, Arise and eat.
And he looked, and there was by his heada cake baked on coals and a jar of water.
So he ate and drank and lay down again.
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And the angel of the Lord cameback a second time, touched him
and said, Arise and eat, becausethe journey is too great for you.
So he arose and ate and drank andwent in the strength of that food
forty days and forty nights asfar as Horeb, the mountain of God.
Amen.
Now, Elijah, for those of you whodon't really, haven't put all the
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pieces together, has just experiencedone of the greatest spiritual
victories, and honestly, one of themost poignant in the entire Bible.
It would be very, very hard.
There's like a handful on my shortlist of seeing God prove himself with
the might, the power, the clarity,and just overwhelming Presence
that he does in this situation.
I love to see God move, butman, this is a really wild one.
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I would say, um, the walls of Jerichooffhand falling down that one.
You know, that's pretty wild, right?
The parting of the Red Sea.
That's pretty incredible.
Um, these are things that are just likehighlight reels of God's faithfulness.
But as far as I'm concerned,this is a really wild narrative.
That these, the prophets of Baal andAshtoreth, there's hundreds of them,
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and they have been circumventing andpulling the hearts of the Israelites
away from God for years and generations.
And they are, they aretelling lies about God.
And they have gotten greatinfluence thanks to Jezebel
and her weak husband Ahab.
They are trying to steal thehearts of God's people away with
doubt and with sin and wickedness.
And God has had enough.
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You know, the good guysare being persecuted.
They're having to hideso they don't get killed.
And then in one of the greatestrole reversals ever, spiritually
speaking, Elijah, number one,takes him to the mountain.
Now the mountain.
It's not just any old place.
It's a place of highvisual content, right?
It's a place where we're looking andsaying, this is meant to be seen.
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God means to be seen on Mount Carmel.
God is not afraid of the tests.
God is not afraid to stand toe totoe with anything or with anyone.
We need to know that about God.
We may not always understand whatHe's doing, but He is not intimidated
by any false god, by any falseproblem, or any lie from the enemy.
Somebody said, Amen.
God is not intimidated by your problem.
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I'm going to come back to it again.
God is not intimidated by your problem.
You may be.
You may have your, your, your lensoff a little bit, not understanding.
You see that in the Biblesometimes when the spies come back.
What's their report?
They said, um, you know,there's giants in the land.
They're huge and, and we are likegrasshoppers in their eyes and in ours.
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So we have two differentsynoptic components there.
We have, uh, he said,we're, we're real little.
In their eyes and in our own eyes, youknow who they did not count on, you know,
whose eyes they didn't check, you know,whose truth they weren't walking in.
They never stopped to ask, whatdo you see these giants as?
Now, because when we start tolook at that and say, Oh God,
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what do you see in this situation?
I know what the enemy's lying about.
I know what I see in this situation.
But if we forget to add in thatthird lens of what God can do,
what he will do and what he says,allow God to inform your situation.
Stop letting your doubtsinform your situation.
Stop letting your fear, stopletting your past inform your life.
Stop walking in what otherpeople are saying, and get a hold
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of what God is saying to you.
What does God say about this situation?
What does He say about your life?
What does He see in this?
And how might He receive His glory?
I am done with the reports of the enemy.
I am done with contradictory reports fromwhat God has promised me for my life.
I don't have time for it.
I don't want to hear it.
I don't even entertain it anymore.
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I shut it down.
I unplug it.
I unplug from it.
Oh, I'm telling you what, I was,I, you don't get to a lot of places
where you have zero cell service.
But we were up in Highland County, upin the mountains in Virginia, away from,
from everything but, but God and beasts.
And so we're up there with allthese old guys, these hunters.
And I was up there and Iwas, I was feeling a little
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unplugged from civilization.
I got a little nervous, kept checking myphone, and one of those old codgers looked
at me and said, it ain't going to change.
But boy, I wish that we wouldunplug from every word and
every view and every promise.
But what God has said, get alone.
You know what did work up there?
My Bible.
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Whoo.
You know what I didn't have to plug into?
What I didn't have to find the bars.
I had, I had my Bible andI could hear from God.
Oh God, take us to a place Lord.
Take us to a mountain.
Take us to a wilderness if you have to.
To where all that we're hearingis a word from God in season.
Get all the other stuff out.
Get the doubts out.
Get the fears out.
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Get everyone else'sprognosis of my situation.
Get it out.
I need to hear from God.
Somebody say Amen.
Because God is faithful.
Yes, Elijah has seen the power of God.
God answered by fire andconsume the sacrifice, right?
And we remember this, youknow, what's the bummer though?
Didn't change anything.
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So it seemed it didn't change anything.
You ever been there prayedand bless God and this, this,
and this, and it was great.
But in the end, thesituation was still there.
You're still looking at your giant, youknow, that giant that David, it was still
breathing even after he knocked it down.
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Let me teach you this.
Sometimes the thing dies in adifferent moment than it gets toppled.
And all that really changed is David'sview of him until the head is cut off.
So we like to think, you know, butthe thing didn't die right then.
He had to finish it.
It was a different action.
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It was a different moment that he cutoff the head of the giant and slew him.
That provides a little bit of contextfor us to understand that whenever we
sometimes you come to an altar of prayer,you receive a word from God, you pray
through and then things don't immediately.
Everything just miraculously sentto existence the way you thought
that it would, but it doesn't meanthat the work hasn't been done.
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It means that you exist in a dot of timeand space, and you're trying to have a
conversation of faith with the God whodoesn't With a God who's not bound by
that, who's operating in truth beyondwhat we're able to see or understand.
But it's tough when it seemslike everything, every step
forward, every decision you makedoesn't really change anything.
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Pastor Alika Holt, um, gaveme, uh, what I felt like some
really good, interesting advice.
So, think about this.
We're going into a, a awesomebuilding project here at church.
God's doing amazing and great things,but that's not gonna, it's not that
it's not gonna be hard sometimes.
It's gonna be a very stretching season.
Anytime you try and step out, evenspiritually alone, the pushback that
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you're gonna get from the enemy andpeople who come into agreement with
the enemy is always, oh, try andbuild the wall in Jerusalem, Nehemiah.
See, see how many Tobias and Samballots you're gonna have come and
throw rocks and mock and try to causediscouragement and distraction, all that.
Oh, well, it'll happen.
It always does.
But God is building the house.
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Pastor Leakey, he's been through some ofthose and I saw a startling statistic.
An overwhelming majority of pastorsresigned their churches within
two years of a building project.
Don't worry.
I'm good.
I ain't going nowhere yet.
It's going to take the NationalGuard to get me out of here.
I love it.
And I love you people.
I love our church.
But that is the statistic,like the, just the stress or
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like the, and different things.
So I was like, what's the real problem?
Like, you know, causehe's been through that.
And the pastor he was workingwith as an associate at the time.
You know, two years later, hedid as well, after it all got
finished, and it was beautiful, andawesome, and paid for, and great.
Within a couple years,he, you know, he was gone.
And I said, what's the deal?
I was like, because we have ageneral contractor, so he's going
to handle, like, most of thestress, and we've got a good team.
What is the componentthat I'm missing here?
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Because it seems likeyou'd be super excited.
Um, he said, many pastors quitbecause they have it in their head
that growth, revival, and spiritualrenewal will happen at the end of that
stretching and time stamped season.
At the end of it, they're expectingto get through all the stress and
all the stretching and all the workand everything and then it's done and
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then like magic things are, you know,better like you've built it up to
be like, okay, right away, all thesethings are going to happen right away.
There's going to be success right away.
Um, these ministries aregoing to go for right away.
God's going to just fill up the, you know,the tank and it's going to be awesome.
We're just going to gooff like a house on fire.
It's going to be revival and allthe dreams are going to come true.
There's not gonna be anypushback, no problems.
It's going to be glorious.
Yes.
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But that's not the way spiritualwork ever is accomplished, right?
It is, it is a deep rootedfaithfulness, even intergenerationally.
There's a great, great quote, and itsaid, A society becomes great when
older men and women plant trees whoseshade they will never sit under.
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And so I, I, I speak to you, I blessyou, and I prophesy this to you.
Especially to our generation who isfaithful, who is older, who is, who
has provided what we have and enjoy.
I bless you.
And I thank God for you.
A church becomes great.
Raise that little boy up and show him.
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That is what we're trying to setup for the greatest revival ever.
It may not be me.
Hey, it may not, SisterPhillips, it may not be us.
For the client, it may not be us.
We might not actually seethe wholeness of the harvest.
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What if he does?
That's what we're trying to accomplish.
Amen.
Praise God.
I, I, I'll never stop being this way.
You go call the NationalGuard because I don't care.
I will prophesy to, tothe goodness of God.
I will declare His goodness and Hisfaithfulness that I have seen in the
land of the living and I will castvision and I will fail and I will
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be embarrassed sometimes and I willhave to go back to the drawing board
sometimes and it won't always look theway that I had thought that it would
look but I will keep believing for God.
God's goodness over our church.
I will keep believing forthe lost souls to be saved.
I'll keep believing in life no matterwhat people vote for, no matter
what kind of legislation passes.
I will not stop believing infaith for the things that God
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has promised and he will do it.
I don't care.
I will always believeGod for greater things.
To whom shall we go?
What else are we going to believe andwhat else is going to tether us to any
kind of meaning or purpose in life?
Save.
The call of Christ going back to thesermon that I had thought to preach.
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We are many times most spirituallysensitive after a time of great pouring
out of ourselves before the Lord.
That's when we're weak iswhen we accomplish a lot.
And that's interestingthat that goes spiritually.
That goes emotionally,mentally, physically.
Right.
They say, Pastor, don'tresign on a Monday.
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Because whenever you pour everythingout, everything that you've got, and
you, and you wring out the bottom, right?
Then that's kind of when you'reweakest, and you're waiting
to be filled back up, right?
And it doesn't always happen just witha prayer, and so you have to protect
yourself and be spiritually mature, right?
But you have to be careful, too,whenever you, whenever you pour out,
whenever you do something reallyspecial, when you do something that,
that stretches you, that's meaningful.
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The enemy likes to come in and thenkind of, you know, flank you, and
then make you discouraged, right?
Um, in nature, what's after a femalegot created, the male and female,
somebody said, Amen, has given birth.
That's when she is most vulnerable.
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That's when predators will try to comebecause they'll come for her in a weakened
state whenever she can't run away, really.
And she's also, she's lost blood.
She's lost everything that she'sfeeding is going to the baby right then.
Right?
So she's, she's at a, a nutritionallydepleted state and they'll come after the
young and they'll come after the mother.
That's what predators do.
That's whenever in nature,we see that, right?
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We see that spiritually as well.
When do you think thecritics are going to come?
When do you, when do you think the peoplewho are going to come in and cast doubt?
I am preaching my head off right now ata very small voice and you, I would that
you would hear the Word of the Lord.
Hear me, man of God.
Hear me, woman of God.
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When do you think theenemy will come after you?
When do you think people who are, well,they're bullies, and they're critical,
and they're hateful, and they're not inagreement with God, when do you think
you'll hear from them whenever you'retrying to birth something that matters?
When you're trying to do somethingfor God that matters whenever you're
trying to take what he's given youand bring it forth into Something
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that can actually replicate itself.
It's not just a one time thing.
It's not just an emotional thing You'retrying to build something that matters
that will sustain that will changehearts and lives and eternal Destinies
whenever a church is trying to birththat and bring that forth forward and
obey God and be what we're called to be.
That is when we're most vulnerable.
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That's when you're going to see divisions,try to crop up, try to see the enemy.
So things against friend and familyand brother and sister and husband
and wife and Children and father.
That is when the enemy will work mostagainst the body of Christ when it's
trying to do what is created to do whathas been called to do what has been
commissioned to do whenever we are doing.
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I wish somebody would hear whatI'm preaching today whenever we
are who we're supposed to be.
We have to trust God, but wealso have to protect division.
We got to protect the baby.
We got to protect what's youngand what can't protect itself.
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Elijah feels like a failure.
He's at his weakest.
Not because he lacked a hugesupernatural breakthrough or
miracles, but because nothingchanged in his eyes when it happened.
He says, Why do I keep trying?
Why do I return to the altar every time,again and again when nothing changes?
Sister Evelyn is my friendand been with me for years.
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And so I have the liberty to use some ofher story, her journey to glorify God.
But how many times did yougo to that altar before the
breakthrough really happened?
Years.
And you had every reason to give upand to say, well, it's just not for
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me or it's just not ever going tohappen is I'll never receive true
healing to where what I've beenthrough and what I'm talking about.
It no longer hurts me, right?
It's not that we don't remember.
It's not that it didn't happen,but it has no longer the
ability to destroy me anymore.
There's a differencebetween a wound and a scar.
I'm talking to maybe somebodytoday with, with a wound where
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you're acting like it's a scar.
And the problem with thatwound is it never did close up.
It was still weeping.
It was still, uh, it was still bleeding.
It was still infected.
It was still dangerous to the restof the body, to the rest of his body.
It could kill.
Scars, they're different.
Scars, you know, they're there.
But wounds, no matter how long, if it'sstill a wound, it can still kill you.
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And some of you come in todaywith wounds, not just scars.
You're wounded.
I wish somebody knewwhat I was talking about.
The day my wound became a scar and Godhealed it and I let it go, and yes, it
was still there, but no longer was itable to kill me or control me anymore.
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Amen.
So, Elijah allowed God to ministerto his confused mind, his weary
body, and his disappointed soul.
I said, God ministeredto his confused mind.
to his weary body andhis disappointed soul.
And we believe that Godis a tripartite being.
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He exists in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
These three are one.
We believe in the triune Godhead.
We also believe that we're createdin His image, which means that we
exist in a shadow, in a type of Him.
And so we have our mind,we have our soul, right?
We have our body.
And these three different parts, right?
Because the body's not the soul.
And the soul's not the mind.
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Now these things are interwovenand it's complex, but I see
God in this ministering.
God gives him nourishment for his body.
Don't discount the fact that youneed to take care of your body.
So some of you all in the prayercloset pray and weeping, screaming,
you know, yelling for God to move.
And while that's good, a nice walkin the sunshine would help you too.
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Right?
Amen.
Taking care of your body.
Now Jordan Peterson has areally interesting point in his
book, Twelve Rules for Life.
And he said, Statistically, people aremore likely to fill the prescription
and then be faithful in givingit to their dog or cat than they
are to take care of themselves.
Isn't that interesting?
I know a lot of people like that.
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You know, they're sick andthey need to take their stuff.
But there's, there's this diminishedvalue, I guess, that they have on
themselves or this lack of, and sothey're more likely to give the medicine
needed to keep their animal alive thanthey are to take care of their own self.
And so, one of his rules is,Treat yourself like someone you're
responsible for helping God does thatGod cares about the physical aspect.
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Like he's not just only a Godwho cares about the spiritual
and like the rhetorical.
He cares about the physicalneeds of his people.
Amen.
So God gives him nourishment for his body.
He brings food, bakes the bread.
And brings me to make sure that he haswater to drink and nourishes his body.
Secondly, God gives him hope for his soul.
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We need hope of all things.
I'm telling you, people need hope.
You can be strong.
You can have money.
You can, you, you can be wellable to keep going physically.
But I've seen people whohave no hope anymore.
And the whole thing just cavedin on itself like a dying star.
Whenever people lose hope that itcan be better, everything else wilts.
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When people lose hope in a marriage,there's no amount of money that can, or
lack thereof, that can kill a marriage.
There's no amount of distance.
There's no amount of, of problems.
There's no amount of, of, of hardship.
But whenever hope begins to die, and oneor both parties begin to be convinced
that it can never be okay, then the willfor that thing to live begins to wilt.
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And God restores hope whenever we do notsee how God's going to work and we have
no longer the ability to have faith,then we're cut off from the supernatural.
So what God gives him is hope.
He begins to have a dialogue withhim and says, I know it feels like
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and it looks like, and it seemslike you're all by yourself in this.
I've got a lot of guys who havenot bowed their knee to bail.
You're not alone.
God gives him purpose and reason to hope.
He said, no, no, this,you're in your head too much.
You're in your heart too much, right?
So he says, let me, let me teach you.
There's other people.
And he said, really, there's others?
I thought it was just me.
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I thought it was over.
I thought, I thought I was the last one.
I thought that if I died,the whole system collapsed.
He said, no, no, you're fine.
Like, I appreciate, you know,you're, you're being faithful.
That's good.
But there are lots other thanyou that are going through, and
they haven't cracked either.
So you can make it.
And he said, you know what?
You're right.
I thought it was just me.
But in that moment, now that I realizedthat it's bigger than me and that it's
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gonna, it is going to be, Oh, you'reright, God, it is going to be okay.
And it begins to feel, it beginsto believe and hope is restored.
Lastly, he gives him clarity for his mind.
And so I'm going to close with thisand ask you which one is most vital.
Like I said, he gives nourishment forthe body, hope for the soul and clarity
for the mind, which is most vital today.
Second Corinthians 12,eight through 10, Paul.
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Answers this question.
Concerning this thing, I pleadedwith the Lord three times
that it might depart from me.
And we don't know exactly what it was.
Um, it's a thorn in the flesh.
It's a problem.
I don't know what it was, butthree times, will you do this?
Will you please?
And three is very typicalwhenever it comes to, uh, you
know, to the Bible, right?
Three times, you know, it's, it's a numberof completion, of totality, of fullness.
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So he's, he's saying that in a way thatHebrews will understand and say, I, I
ask again and again and again and again.
I've completely exhausted myability to even believe on this,
and he didn't seem to fix it.
Three times that it might depart from me.
And he said to me, what did he say?
My grace is sufficient for you, and mystrength is made perfect in weakness.
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That's what he said to me.
Now, Paul says this.
Therefore, because I've heard whatI've heard, and I see what I see,
and I know what I know, most gladlyI will rather infirmities that the
power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmitiesand reproaches and needs and persecutions
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and distresses for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
So Paul gives clarity to my earlierquestion of the faithfulness
of God, which is most vital.
I said, God gives nourishmentfor the body, hope for the
soul and clarity for the mind.
But which is most vital?
Well, according to secondCorinthians 12, Paul realized that.
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He could endure what he felt physicallyweakness, infirmities, persecutions and
needs and what he suffered emotionally.
He could overcome reproaches,distresses, insults, shame.
He could overcome all these thingsbecause of what he knew in his mind.
That's the most important thing.
That's where I want to end today.
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I want to challenge you.
How you're going to overcome whatyou feel physically, emotionally,
or what you're walking throughin the actual physical body.
How do you overcome that?
By what you know.
Now, what do you know?
What do you know about God?
What do you know about his faithfulness?
What do you believe about God?
Welcome to the New Life ChurchPodcast where we dive deep into
the timeless truths of the Bible.
My name is Jake and I'm absolutelythrilled to be your host.
In each of these episodes we'll unpackthe richness of the Scriptures, exploring
how It's teachings can bring New Lifeand Meaning to our everyday existence.
(00:20):
Get ready to be Inspired, Challengedand Uplifted as we navigate the
profound wisdom of the Bible together.
This is a place whereFaith meets daily life.
This is New Life Church.
So let me read you this passagefrom 1st Kings 19 and Ahab told
Jezebel all that Elijah had done.
Also how he had executed allthe prophets with the sword.
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Then Jezebel sent a messenger toElijah saying so let the gods do to
me and more also if I do not makeyour life as the life of one of
them by tomorrow about this time.
Jezebel has just set a timelimit on the man of God's life.
Now the enemy loves to do that.
The enemy will lie to us andwill speak with more authority
than what they, what he carries.
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Here we are, we're accepting authoritythat the enemy doesn't have, and we're
denying authority from God that he does.
That, that, that is a trap.
That is a problem.
And that's an area that we can, inour doubt, in our weakness, in our
struggle, that we are accepting truthfrom the enemy that's not true, and
we're denying truth from God that is.
It's, it's really wild what, what we canget ourselves into the frame of believing.
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And when he saw that, he aroseand ran for his life and went
to Beersheba, which belongs toJudah, and left his servant there.
But he himself went a day's journeyinto the wilderness, and came and sat
down under a broom tree, and he prayedthat he might die, saying, It is enough.
Anybody ever felt like that?
It's enough.
I've had enough.
Don't raise your hand.
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Wink at me.
Have you said, I've had enough this week?
He said, Now, Lord, take my life,for I'm no better than my father's.
And as he lay and slept under thebroom tree, suddenly an angel touched
him and said to him, Arise and eat.
And he looked, and there was by his heada cake baked on coals and a jar of water.
So he ate and drank and lay down again.
(02:13):
And the angel of the Lord cameback a second time, touched him
and said, Arise and eat, becausethe journey is too great for you.
So he arose and ate and drank andwent in the strength of that food
forty days and forty nights asfar as Horeb, the mountain of God.
Amen.
Now, Elijah, for those of you whodon't really, haven't put all the
(02:34):
pieces together, has just experiencedone of the greatest spiritual
victories, and honestly, one of themost poignant in the entire Bible.
It would be very, very hard.
There's like a handful on my shortlist of seeing God prove himself with
the might, the power, the clarity,and just overwhelming Presence
that he does in this situation.
I love to see God move, butman, this is a really wild one.
(02:56):
I would say, um, the walls of Jerichooffhand falling down that one.
You know, that's pretty wild, right?
The parting of the Red Sea.
That's pretty incredible.
Um, these are things that are just likehighlight reels of God's faithfulness.
But as far as I'm concerned,this is a really wild narrative.
That these, the prophets of Baal andAshtoreth, there's hundreds of them,
(03:19):
and they have been circumventing andpulling the hearts of the Israelites
away from God for years and generations.
And they are, they aretelling lies about God.
And they have gotten greatinfluence thanks to Jezebel
and her weak husband Ahab.
They are trying to steal thehearts of God's people away with
doubt and with sin and wickedness.
And God has had enough.
(03:40):
You know, the good guysare being persecuted.
They're having to hideso they don't get killed.
And then in one of the greatestrole reversals ever, spiritually
speaking, Elijah, number one,takes him to the mountain.
Now the mountain.
It's not just any old place.
It's a place of highvisual content, right?
It's a place where we're looking andsaying, this is meant to be seen.
(04:01):
God means to be seen on Mount Carmel.
God is not afraid of the tests.
God is not afraid to stand toe totoe with anything or with anyone.
We need to know that about God.
We may not always understand whatHe's doing, but He is not intimidated
by any false god, by any falseproblem, or any lie from the enemy.
Somebody said, Amen.
God is not intimidated by your problem.
(04:22):
I'm going to come back to it again.
God is not intimidated by your problem.
You may be.
You may have your, your, your lensoff a little bit, not understanding.
You see that in the Biblesometimes when the spies come back.
What's their report?
They said, um, you know,there's giants in the land.
They're huge and, and we are likegrasshoppers in their eyes and in ours.
(04:42):
So we have two differentsynoptic components there.
We have, uh, he said,we're, we're real little.
In their eyes and in our own eyes, youknow who they did not count on, you know,
whose eyes they didn't check, you know,whose truth they weren't walking in.
They never stopped to ask, whatdo you see these giants as?
Now, because when we start tolook at that and say, Oh God,
(05:02):
what do you see in this situation?
I know what the enemy's lying about.
I know what I see in this situation.
But if we forget to add in thatthird lens of what God can do,
what he will do and what he says,allow God to inform your situation.
Stop letting your doubtsinform your situation.
Stop letting your fear, stopletting your past inform your life.
Stop walking in what otherpeople are saying, and get a hold
(05:23):
of what God is saying to you.
What does God say about this situation?
What does He say about your life?
What does He see in this?
And how might He receive His glory?
I am done with the reports of the enemy.
I am done with contradictory reports fromwhat God has promised me for my life.
I don't have time for it.
I don't want to hear it.
I don't even entertain it anymore.
(05:44):
I shut it down.
I unplug it.
I unplug from it.
Oh, I'm telling you what, I was,I, you don't get to a lot of places
where you have zero cell service.
But we were up in Highland County, upin the mountains in Virginia, away from,
from everything but, but God and beasts.
And so we're up there with allthese old guys, these hunters.
And I was up there and Iwas, I was feeling a little
(06:04):
unplugged from civilization.
I got a little nervous, kept checking myphone, and one of those old codgers looked
at me and said, it ain't going to change.
But boy, I wish that we wouldunplug from every word and
every view and every promise.
But what God has said, get alone.
You know what did work up there?
My Bible.
(06:25):
Whoo.
You know what I didn't have to plug into?
What I didn't have to find the bars.
I had, I had my Bible andI could hear from God.
Oh God, take us to a place Lord.
Take us to a mountain.
Take us to a wilderness if you have to.
To where all that we're hearingis a word from God in season.
Get all the other stuff out.
Get the doubts out.
Get the fears out.
(06:45):
Get everyone else'sprognosis of my situation.
Get it out.
I need to hear from God.
Somebody say Amen.
Because God is faithful.
Yes, Elijah has seen the power of God.
God answered by fire andconsume the sacrifice, right?
And we remember this, youknow, what's the bummer though?
Didn't change anything.
(07:06):
So it seemed it didn't change anything.
You ever been there prayedand bless God and this, this,
and this, and it was great.
But in the end, thesituation was still there.
You're still looking at your giant, youknow, that giant that David, it was still
breathing even after he knocked it down.
(07:27):
Let me teach you this.
Sometimes the thing dies in adifferent moment than it gets toppled.
And all that really changed is David'sview of him until the head is cut off.
So we like to think, you know, butthe thing didn't die right then.
He had to finish it.
It was a different action.
(07:48):
It was a different moment that he cutoff the head of the giant and slew him.
That provides a little bit of contextfor us to understand that whenever we
sometimes you come to an altar of prayer,you receive a word from God, you pray
through and then things don't immediately.
Everything just miraculously sentto existence the way you thought
that it would, but it doesn't meanthat the work hasn't been done.
(08:12):
It means that you exist in a dot of timeand space, and you're trying to have a
conversation of faith with the God whodoesn't With a God who's not bound by
that, who's operating in truth beyondwhat we're able to see or understand.
But it's tough when it seemslike everything, every step
forward, every decision you makedoesn't really change anything.
(08:33):
Pastor Alika Holt, um, gaveme, uh, what I felt like some
really good, interesting advice.
So, think about this.
We're going into a, a awesomebuilding project here at church.
God's doing amazing and great things,but that's not gonna, it's not that
it's not gonna be hard sometimes.
It's gonna be a very stretching season.
Anytime you try and step out, evenspiritually alone, the pushback that
(08:53):
you're gonna get from the enemy andpeople who come into agreement with
the enemy is always, oh, try andbuild the wall in Jerusalem, Nehemiah.
See, see how many Tobias and Samballots you're gonna have come and
throw rocks and mock and try to causediscouragement and distraction, all that.
Oh, well, it'll happen.
It always does.
But God is building the house.
(09:14):
Pastor Leakey, he's been through some ofthose and I saw a startling statistic.
An overwhelming majority of pastorsresigned their churches within
two years of a building project.
Don't worry.
I'm good.
I ain't going nowhere yet.
It's going to take the NationalGuard to get me out of here.
I love it.
And I love you people.
I love our church.
But that is the statistic,like the, just the stress or
(09:36):
like the, and different things.
So I was like, what's the real problem?
Like, you know, causehe's been through that.
And the pastor he was workingwith as an associate at the time.
You know, two years later, hedid as well, after it all got
finished, and it was beautiful, andawesome, and paid for, and great.
Within a couple years,he, you know, he was gone.
And I said, what's the deal?
I was like, because we have ageneral contractor, so he's going
to handle, like, most of thestress, and we've got a good team.
What is the componentthat I'm missing here?
(09:57):
Because it seems likeyou'd be super excited.
Um, he said, many pastors quitbecause they have it in their head
that growth, revival, and spiritualrenewal will happen at the end of that
stretching and time stamped season.
At the end of it, they're expectingto get through all the stress and
all the stretching and all the workand everything and then it's done and
(10:18):
then like magic things are, you know,better like you've built it up to
be like, okay, right away, all thesethings are going to happen right away.
There's going to be success right away.
Um, these ministries aregoing to go for right away.
God's going to just fill up the, you know,the tank and it's going to be awesome.
We're just going to gooff like a house on fire.
It's going to be revival and allthe dreams are going to come true.
There's not gonna be anypushback, no problems.
It's going to be glorious.
Yes.
(10:40):
But that's not the way spiritualwork ever is accomplished, right?
It is, it is a deep rootedfaithfulness, even intergenerationally.
There's a great, great quote, and itsaid, A society becomes great when
older men and women plant trees whoseshade they will never sit under.
(11:06):
And so I, I, I speak to you, I blessyou, and I prophesy this to you.
Especially to our generation who isfaithful, who is older, who is, who
has provided what we have and enjoy.
I bless you.
And I thank God for you.
A church becomes great.
Raise that little boy up and show him.
(11:28):
That is what we're trying to setup for the greatest revival ever.
It may not be me.
Hey, it may not, SisterPhillips, it may not be us.
For the client, it may not be us.
We might not actually seethe wholeness of the harvest.
(11:48):
What if he does?
That's what we're trying to accomplish.
Amen.
Praise God.
I, I, I'll never stop being this way.
You go call the NationalGuard because I don't care.
I will prophesy to, tothe goodness of God.
I will declare His goodness and Hisfaithfulness that I have seen in the
land of the living and I will castvision and I will fail and I will
(12:12):
be embarrassed sometimes and I willhave to go back to the drawing board
sometimes and it won't always look theway that I had thought that it would
look but I will keep believing for God.
God's goodness over our church.
I will keep believing forthe lost souls to be saved.
I'll keep believing in life no matterwhat people vote for, no matter
what kind of legislation passes.
I will not stop believing infaith for the things that God
(12:34):
has promised and he will do it.
I don't care.
I will always believeGod for greater things.
To whom shall we go?
What else are we going to believe andwhat else is going to tether us to any
kind of meaning or purpose in life?
Save.
The call of Christ going back to thesermon that I had thought to preach.
(12:59):
We are many times most spirituallysensitive after a time of great pouring
out of ourselves before the Lord.
That's when we're weak iswhen we accomplish a lot.
And that's interestingthat that goes spiritually.
That goes emotionally,mentally, physically.
Right.
They say, Pastor, don'tresign on a Monday.
(13:20):
Because whenever you pour everythingout, everything that you've got, and
you, and you wring out the bottom, right?
Then that's kind of when you'reweakest, and you're waiting
to be filled back up, right?
And it doesn't always happen just witha prayer, and so you have to protect
yourself and be spiritually mature, right?
But you have to be careful, too,whenever you, whenever you pour out,
whenever you do something reallyspecial, when you do something that,
that stretches you, that's meaningful.
(13:41):
The enemy likes to come in and thenkind of, you know, flank you, and
then make you discouraged, right?
Um, in nature, what's after a femalegot created, the male and female,
somebody said, Amen, has given birth.
That's when she is most vulnerable.
(14:02):
That's when predators will try to comebecause they'll come for her in a weakened
state whenever she can't run away, really.
And she's also, she's lost blood.
She's lost everything that she'sfeeding is going to the baby right then.
Right?
So she's, she's at a, a nutritionallydepleted state and they'll come after the
young and they'll come after the mother.
That's what predators do.
That's whenever in nature,we see that, right?
(14:26):
We see that spiritually as well.
When do you think thecritics are going to come?
When do you, when do you think the peoplewho are going to come in and cast doubt?
I am preaching my head off right now ata very small voice and you, I would that
you would hear the Word of the Lord.
Hear me, man of God.
Hear me, woman of God.
(14:46):
When do you think theenemy will come after you?
When do you think people who are, well,they're bullies, and they're critical,
and they're hateful, and they're not inagreement with God, when do you think
you'll hear from them whenever you'retrying to birth something that matters?
When you're trying to do somethingfor God that matters whenever you're
trying to take what he's given youand bring it forth into Something
(15:10):
that can actually replicate itself.
It's not just a one time thing.
It's not just an emotional thing You'retrying to build something that matters
that will sustain that will changehearts and lives and eternal Destinies
whenever a church is trying to birththat and bring that forth forward and
obey God and be what we're called to be.
That is when we're most vulnerable.
(15:30):
That's when you're going to see divisions,try to crop up, try to see the enemy.
So things against friend and familyand brother and sister and husband
and wife and Children and father.
That is when the enemy will work mostagainst the body of Christ when it's
trying to do what is created to do whathas been called to do what has been
commissioned to do whenever we are doing.
(15:51):
I wish somebody would hear whatI'm preaching today whenever we
are who we're supposed to be.
We have to trust God, but wealso have to protect division.
We got to protect the baby.
We got to protect what's youngand what can't protect itself.
(16:14):
Elijah feels like a failure.
He's at his weakest.
Not because he lacked a hugesupernatural breakthrough or
miracles, but because nothingchanged in his eyes when it happened.
He says, Why do I keep trying?
Why do I return to the altar every time,again and again when nothing changes?
Sister Evelyn is my friendand been with me for years.
(16:34):
And so I have the liberty to use some ofher story, her journey to glorify God.
But how many times did yougo to that altar before the
breakthrough really happened?
Years.
And you had every reason to give upand to say, well, it's just not for
(16:56):
me or it's just not ever going tohappen is I'll never receive true
healing to where what I've beenthrough and what I'm talking about.
It no longer hurts me, right?
It's not that we don't remember.
It's not that it didn't happen,but it has no longer the
ability to destroy me anymore.
There's a differencebetween a wound and a scar.
I'm talking to maybe somebodytoday with, with a wound where
(17:16):
you're acting like it's a scar.
And the problem with thatwound is it never did close up.
It was still weeping.
It was still, uh, it was still bleeding.
It was still infected.
It was still dangerous to the restof the body, to the rest of his body.
It could kill.
Scars, they're different.
Scars, you know, they're there.
But wounds, no matter how long, if it'sstill a wound, it can still kill you.
(17:39):
And some of you come in todaywith wounds, not just scars.
You're wounded.
I wish somebody knewwhat I was talking about.
The day my wound became a scar and Godhealed it and I let it go, and yes, it
was still there, but no longer was itable to kill me or control me anymore.
(18:05):
Amen.
So, Elijah allowed God to ministerto his confused mind, his weary
body, and his disappointed soul.
I said, God ministeredto his confused mind.
to his weary body andhis disappointed soul.
And we believe that Godis a tripartite being.
(18:25):
He exists in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
These three are one.
We believe in the triune Godhead.
We also believe that we're createdin His image, which means that we
exist in a shadow, in a type of Him.
And so we have our mind,we have our soul, right?
We have our body.
And these three different parts, right?
Because the body's not the soul.
And the soul's not the mind.
(18:48):
Now these things are interwovenand it's complex, but I see
God in this ministering.
God gives him nourishment for his body.
Don't discount the fact that youneed to take care of your body.
So some of you all in the prayercloset pray and weeping, screaming,
you know, yelling for God to move.
And while that's good, a nice walkin the sunshine would help you too.
(19:13):
Right?
Amen.
Taking care of your body.
Now Jordan Peterson has areally interesting point in his
book, Twelve Rules for Life.
And he said, Statistically, people aremore likely to fill the prescription
and then be faithful in givingit to their dog or cat than they
are to take care of themselves.
Isn't that interesting?
I know a lot of people like that.
(19:34):
You know, they're sick andthey need to take their stuff.
But there's, there's this diminishedvalue, I guess, that they have on
themselves or this lack of, and sothey're more likely to give the medicine
needed to keep their animal alive thanthey are to take care of their own self.
And so, one of his rules is,Treat yourself like someone you're
responsible for helping God does thatGod cares about the physical aspect.
(19:58):
Like he's not just only a Godwho cares about the spiritual
and like the rhetorical.
He cares about the physicalneeds of his people.
Amen.
So God gives him nourishment for his body.
He brings food, bakes the bread.
And brings me to make sure that he haswater to drink and nourishes his body.
Secondly, God gives him hope for his soul.
(20:22):
We need hope of all things.
I'm telling you, people need hope.
You can be strong.
You can have money.
You can, you, you can be wellable to keep going physically.
But I've seen people whohave no hope anymore.
And the whole thing just cavedin on itself like a dying star.
Whenever people lose hope that itcan be better, everything else wilts.
(20:45):
When people lose hope in a marriage,there's no amount of money that can, or
lack thereof, that can kill a marriage.
There's no amount of distance.
There's no amount of, of problems.
There's no amount of, of, of hardship.
But whenever hope begins to die, and oneor both parties begin to be convinced
that it can never be okay, then the willfor that thing to live begins to wilt.
(21:09):
And God restores hope whenever we do notsee how God's going to work and we have
no longer the ability to have faith,then we're cut off from the supernatural.
So what God gives him is hope.
He begins to have a dialogue withhim and says, I know it feels like
(21:31):
and it looks like, and it seemslike you're all by yourself in this.
I've got a lot of guys who havenot bowed their knee to bail.
You're not alone.
God gives him purpose and reason to hope.
He said, no, no, this,you're in your head too much.
You're in your heart too much, right?
So he says, let me, let me teach you.
There's other people.
And he said, really, there's others?
I thought it was just me.
(21:52):
I thought it was over.
I thought, I thought I was the last one.
I thought that if I died,the whole system collapsed.
He said, no, no, you're fine.
Like, I appreciate, you know,you're, you're being faithful.
That's good.
But there are lots other thanyou that are going through, and
they haven't cracked either.
So you can make it.
And he said, you know what?
You're right.
I thought it was just me.
But in that moment, now that I realizedthat it's bigger than me and that it's
(22:13):
gonna, it is going to be, Oh, you'reright, God, it is going to be okay.
And it begins to feel, it beginsto believe and hope is restored.
Lastly, he gives him clarity for his mind.
And so I'm going to close with thisand ask you which one is most vital.
Like I said, he gives nourishment forthe body, hope for the soul and clarity
for the mind, which is most vital today.
Second Corinthians 12,eight through 10, Paul.
(22:36):
Answers this question.
Concerning this thing, I pleadedwith the Lord three times
that it might depart from me.
And we don't know exactly what it was.
Um, it's a thorn in the flesh.
It's a problem.
I don't know what it was, butthree times, will you do this?
Will you please?
And three is very typicalwhenever it comes to, uh, you
know, to the Bible, right?
Three times, you know, it's, it's a numberof completion, of totality, of fullness.
(22:58):
So he's, he's saying that in a way thatHebrews will understand and say, I, I
ask again and again and again and again.
I've completely exhausted myability to even believe on this,
and he didn't seem to fix it.
Three times that it might depart from me.
And he said to me, what did he say?
My grace is sufficient for you, and mystrength is made perfect in weakness.
(23:21):
That's what he said to me.
Now, Paul says this.
Therefore, because I've heard whatI've heard, and I see what I see,
and I know what I know, most gladlyI will rather infirmities that the
power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmitiesand reproaches and needs and persecutions
(23:42):
and distresses for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
So Paul gives clarity to my earlierquestion of the faithfulness
of God, which is most vital.
I said, God gives nourishmentfor the body, hope for the
soul and clarity for the mind.
But which is most vital?
Well, according to secondCorinthians 12, Paul realized that.
(24:04):
He could endure what he felt physicallyweakness, infirmities, persecutions and
needs and what he suffered emotionally.
He could overcome reproaches,distresses, insults, shame.
He could overcome all these thingsbecause of what he knew in his mind.
That's the most important thing.
That's where I want to end today.
(24:26):
I want to challenge you.
How you're going to overcome whatyou feel physically, emotionally,
or what you're walking throughin the actual physical body.
How do you overcome that?
By what you know.
Now, what do you know?
What do you know about God?
What do you know about his faithfulness?
What do you believe about God?
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