Challenge The Shadow

0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:06.280 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:09.360 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:10.000 Be sure to. 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:13.720 Subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:15.040 I hope you're blessed today. 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.920 All right, I want to do something today a little 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.319 different than I normally do. Give you my title and 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:29.720 my subject, and then I'm going to sit you down 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.159 and tell you a story from the Bible that I 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:33.760 don't think you've ever heard before. 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.120 It's what I call a deep cut. 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:39.279 Sometimes I like these Bible stories that we haven't heard 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.120 a million times, like Moses in the Red Sea and 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.639 David Nglet those are good too. Jesus getting up from 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.879 the Grave, that's the best one. But there are these 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.000 little stories. And there's one little story that I've been 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:50.680 living in for the last few weeks and I want 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:51.239 to share it with you. 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:52.199 But first let me tell you. 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.360 What we're going to talk about today is something that 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:56.319 the Lord told me to. 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:00.000 Tell you, a charge that he wants me to give you. 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.520 And today I want to teach you how to challenge 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:12.280 the shadow. Challenge the shadow, and just give your neighbor 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.880 that title. On your way to your seat, say challenge 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.920 the shadow and put it in the comments. If you're online, 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:23.040 you may be seated. Challenge the shadow, and this is 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:27.720 going to help us today. Challenge the shadow. In Second 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.040 Kings chapter twenty there is a story of a king 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:36.920 named Hezekiah. He was the greatest king since David in 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:38.880 the time where many of the kings were wicked. 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.640 It wasn't perfect. No human king is. 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.440 That's Jesus' job when he comes onto the scene in 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.040 the Book of Matthew. But Hezekiah did pretty good, and 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.360 God helped him in a great way. He accomplished a lot, 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.120 He defeated and subdued a lot of enemies. But the 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:00.320 Second King's chapter twenty verse one, just after God has 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:04.160 given Hezekiah a great victory, something kind of crazy happens, 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:05.600 and I want to tell you about it today. 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.040 The Second King's chapter twenty verse one. 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:14.200 The scripture records in those days Hezekiah became ill and 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:18.359 was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:20.680 of Amas went to him and said, this is what 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.280 the Lord says. Put your house in order, because you're 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:29.440 going to die. You will not recover. Thanks a lot, 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.480 Prophet Isaiah appreciate that. Can we get another prophet in here. 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:37.680 How about Micah Nahum, how about it zephy Andiah. But 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:43.720 this word from God comes through the prophet. You're gonna die. 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.200 You won't recover. Now look at this. In verse two, 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.520 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:51.000 the Lord. 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.000 Remember, Lord, how I. 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:59.240 Have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:02.800 have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:08.200 wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.080 word of the Lord came to him. Go back and 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.320 tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, this is what 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.960 the Lord, the God of your father David says. And 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.839 Isaiah's like, I already told him, he's gonna Die've got 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:23.320 to get his estate planning done. 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:26.280 Now go back and tell him. 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:32.200 Go back and tell Hezekiah, I have heard your prayer 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:39.160 and seen your tears. I will heal you on the 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.120 third day. From now you will go up to the 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:46.120 temple of the Lord. Now I will add fifteen years 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.280 to your life, and I will deliver you in this 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.320 city from the hand of the King of Assiri. I 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.520 will defend this city for my sake and for the 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.400 sake of my servant David. And then Isaiah said, prepara 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.280 poultic of figs, and they did so and applied it 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:08.240 to the boil, and he recovered. Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:10.760 what will be the sign that the Lord will heal 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.240 me and that I will go up to the temple 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.120 of the Lord on the third day from now? And 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:20.960 Isaiah answered, this is the Lord's sign to you, that 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:27.479 the Lord will do what he has promised. Shall the 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:32.760 shadow go forward ten steps? Or shall it go back 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:33.720 ten steps? 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:36.080 You choose, And. 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:40.640 God might be saying to somebody today you choose. You 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.760 might be praying about something, and crying about something, and 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:48.200 wondering about something, and God might be saying to you 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:53.440 today you choose. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps? 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:57.880 Or shall it go back ten steps? It is a 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.400 simple matter for the shadow to go forwar? Or were 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:08.200 ten steps, said Hazekiah, Rather have it go back ten steps. 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.800 Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:17.719 Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:22.640 had gone down on the stairway of a has Say 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:26.560 amen for a god who can do anything, Say amen 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:27.480 for a God who. 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.120 Can do anything. Yeah, he can do anything. 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:33.920 One of the things that I'm trying to learn in 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.640 my life is the difference between times where I'm supposed 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.440 to accept the way that it is and face it, 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:47.320 and the times that I'm supposed to reject the way 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:53.240 that it is and change it by faith. We have 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.479 a workout room in my house, and all over the 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.080 walls of that room I have written different quotes over 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.680 the years. Lived in this house for ten years, so 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.760 there's a lot of little things on the wall, and 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.919 I write things on the wall. Sometimes they're just inside jokes. 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.360 Sometimes they're little motivational slogans. The name of the room 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.919 is called the Pound. It's an acronym. It stands for 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:18.600 the place of Ultimate natural Development. 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:22.520 I think you made that up. I give Chunks credit 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.760 where credit is due. He's a genius and he's a 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.640 fiscal therapist. Now. 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:31.840 One of the things that it says on the wall 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:37.479 in the Pound, it says, no challenge, no change. You 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:39.760 know when I wrote that up there, when Elijah started 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.120 working out with me. My oldest son turns eighteen in 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.080 just a few weeks. He's in Orlando. Shout out to 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:52.240 Elijah b Verdict, my workout partner. He's been lifting with 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.120 me down there in the pound for three years. And 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:56.160 you know, he used to get in there and do 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.440 ten reps when he could do fifteen. He'd do fifteen 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.400 when he could do twenty. And I had to teach 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:05.800 him the principle of growth for our muscles is that 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.600 if it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. So 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:11.560 I just wrote that up on the thing. I know 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:13.120 it's not that deep, but I just wrote it up. 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:16.280 There no challenge, no change. Now. The funny thing is 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:21.280 Elijah is actually his personality is a challenger. They have 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.000 all these personality tests and one of them, Holly says, 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:25.880 she studies all the personality tests. 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.600 I don't read them. I really don't put a lot 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.239 of stock in that kind of stuff. 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.440 And so I guess I'm a challenger if I'm challenging 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:36.320 the validity of a personality test. But she says that 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.360 my son is also a challenger, and he is. I'll 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.440 tell you how much a challenger he is. When we 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.920 first started bench pressing in the pound, he said this 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.720 actual sentence. He said, I don't think I don't think 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:50.200 bench really works your chest. 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:54.240 Let me explain something to you, ladies. 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:59.600 There is no more time honored principle among men than 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.120 that a bit press will grow your chest and become 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.080 the ultimate expression of your value as a human being. 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:09.800 That that number is so significant. 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.120 I was so excited for him the other day he 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:13.920 hit two twenty five on bench. 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:17.960 Y'all want to see the video. I pulled it right 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:18.760 before I came out. 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:20.400 He was he was actually in Florida this a few 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.480 weeks ago and they were out there for a trip. 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.240 Shown the video there's my boy. 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:58.120 Off count down my way, that way, that way. 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.880 So he's he actually made the beat that went behind 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:54.120 that video too. 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.880 So he's really really a. 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:00.800 Manifold accomplishment, and I'm so proud of him, Like, hey, yeah, 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:01.880 you got into college. 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:06.560 Put your bitch to twenty five. Ask my boy. 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:10.280 You love Jesus, but you bitch two twenty five is 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:11.880 to plates is kind of a big deal. It's kind 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.040 of ride a passage for all men. 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.520 No challenge, No Change. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.480 The most significant part of that repetition was the part 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.240 where he wasn't gonna get it and then he got it, 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.600 and all of that testosterone in the room and the 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.920 video camera going I'm sure helped him to push through. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:39.680 No challenge, No Change, the boy who didn't believe that 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.280 bench press worked your chest is now benching two twenty 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:47.320 five plate by plate. And sometimes, you know, using just 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:53.280 a stupid example from the weight room, our lives can 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:59.160 encounter situations where we are making decisions we don't even 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:04.680 realize we're making the decisions. Whether the situation as it 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:07.800 is presented to us is all that it can ever be, 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.280 or whether there is the potential for us to push 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:16.640 through in that moment and see something come to pass 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.040 that would have seemed impossible from a human perspective. 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:24.199 Challenge the Shadow. 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:26.360 I thought that was a unique title that God gave 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.440 me because in our passage of scripture today, the king 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:35.360 Hezekiah is experiencing the announcement of the end of his life. 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:38.360 And I don't mean to make light of that or 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.800 to put it on the level of trying to exercise 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.920 your body. The fact is there are some listening to 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.760 me today who have heard a bad report in an 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:51.560 area of your life. It may not be the end 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.920 of your life, but just like the prophet's word came 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.120 to signal to Hezekiah, this is the end. 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.480 There is a parallel in this scripture. I don't know 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:02.319 if you noticed it. 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.520 But when God wanted to give Hezekiah a sign that 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.440 he was going to heal him, even though at first 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:10.960 the prophet said it couldn't happen. 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.360 But Hezekiah challenged. 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.200 What the prophet said, God gave him the sign of 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:22.560 a shadow. And I promise you this is significant because 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.280 in this day they didn't have fitbits and roll exes, 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.840 so in order to tell what time it was, they 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.960 would have kind of a sun dial system, And as 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.720 the sun would come up over the temple, then the 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.600 shadow would go down. The lower that the sun got, 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.960 the later that it got in the day, the shadow 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:44.160 would go down the steps of the temple as the 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.360 sun is going up, and then back down. The longer 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.679 the shadow goes down the steps, the later it is, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:53.880 the longer the shadow gets going down the steps. 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:55.280 Can you picture it. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.800 It signifies that the day is drawing to a close, 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.120 just as the shadow in the passage LinkedIn's on the 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:07.040 steps to announce that you're running out of time. The 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:11.080 prophet comes to announce to Isaiah, you're running out of time, 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.000 or to Hezekiah the prophet Isaiah. 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:14.040 They had a partnership. 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.560 Now I want to talk about this partnership between the 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.719 prophet and the king, because it's one thing when your 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:25.960 enemy tells you that it's over. It's a different thing 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:31.880 when your buddy. These guys were tight. They had to 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.760 be because when an opposing king would come to fight 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.520 against Israel, the prophet would come and tell the king 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.440 what to do to be victorious. So the king and 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:44.640 the prophet, when they were both looking to God, and 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.080 when the king was listening to the prophet and the 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:49.079 prophet was listening to God, things went well. 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:50.319 And that didn't always happen. 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.160 In the nation of Israel, and so they would get 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:54.400 invaded and they would get defeated because. 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.040 The king wouldn't heed the word of the prophet. 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.480 The prophet would say, put your idols away, and the 0:12:58.559 --> 0:12:59.960 king would keep worshiping idol. 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.000 Or the prophet might say. 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:03.600 You really need to turn to the Lord and not 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.040 fight this battle, but let God fight it. Can go 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.880 into battle anyway, trying to fight his battles and his 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.720 own strength, and he'd ended up dying. But when it 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:16.360 was right, the relationship between the prophet and the king 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.760 was a special thing. And Isaiah and Hezekiah have this 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:26.319 kind of relationship. So while Isaiah is over prophesying. Hezekiah 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.440 is dying of a sickness that we learn results in 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:32.440 boils all over his body. 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.040 This is a humiliating disease. 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:40.480 A painful disease, a progressive disease, and in his urgency 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:45.280 and desperation, he finally says, go get Isaiah, he's my dude. 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:50.880 In chapter nineteen, Isaiah prophesied the defeat of Senecareb, who 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:53.959 was an enemy of Israel. And Senekareb didn't even get 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.280 into camp because Isaiah said, he's not coming in here. 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.040 This is God's battle. You are God's king, This is 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.520 God's nation. And when God says the enemy can't get 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:08.000 any farther, he doesn't just put up an electric fence, 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.520 but he puts up a word that becomes a wall, 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:17.439 and the enemy cannot touch what God has spoken. This 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:21.920 time Isaya comes and Hezekiah says, tell me what to do, 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:25.760 and Isaiah says, you're gonna die. 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:32.840 And it's like that until verse three until verse three. 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:35.440 Actually some in verse two where it begins. 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.760 Where it says, Hezekiah did something that I want to know, 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:44.000 would you be willing to do today? Verse two, Hezekiah 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:52.480 turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.520 Now I don't know who this is for, but I 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.040 really didn't come up here to talk about Hezekiah today. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.000 I mean I did, but that's a history lesson. 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.320 I didn't come up here to talk about a bench 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:10.120 press record today. Although I'm glad to be able to 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.160 brag about my boy. You know, I could be putting 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.240 up pictures of him. He's in prison, y'all, pray for 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.320 Elijah to get out. I'm pretty proud that he's bench 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.960 pressing and he's at uthex instead. But I didn't come 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.680 up here today to talk about those things at all. 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:27.520 I came up here to use it as a lesson 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:32.000 today that whether it's the worst news of your life, 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.360 or whether it's the setback that you're facing and you're 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:41.480 trying to decide is this just how it is? Or 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.440 is there something that God would say that would change it. 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.280 There is an opportunity for you by faith in this. 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:53.720 Moment, should you choose to receive it, and should you 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.320 choose to enter into it, to take. 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.480 The situation as it has. 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.480 Been present to you, and bring it before the Lord 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.960 for further consideration. A lot of us are stuck in 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:15.040 what we call acceptance, but it has become apathy because 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.000 sometimes you just have to accept the way it is. 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.640 But sometimes you will feel something in. 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:26.000 Your heart that will say, wait a minute. The prophet 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.800 said I have to die. But even the prophet has 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.320 a boss. And I don't know if you've ever been 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.600 on a customer service call and you realize you were 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:41.920 talking to somebody who was an employee but not the owner, 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.880 and maybe in that frustration you said something like this, 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:48.240 I'd like to speak. 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.000 To your supervisor. 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:56.400 So imagine this your hazekaya and you are dying, and 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:00.000 you're a husband, and you're hurting, and you've turned to people, 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.160 and you've turned to a therapist, and you've turned to 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:06.160 a bottle, and you've come to a doctor, and you've 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:06.680 run to. 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:08.919 A well and that well ran dry. 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.680 But I feel somebody turning their face to the wall 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:17.720 today is saying, God, it's me, the one you chose, 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.040 the one you called, the one you raise, and I 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:26.320 need you right now. Can I speak to a supervisor? 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:38.040 And he prayed, he prayed about it, and he cried 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.720 about it. Now here's where we have to get into 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:45.160 the imagery of the techtile. This is so good. Okay, okay, okay. 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:50.560 So the prophet comes to announce it's over. The best 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:52.119 thing you can do is just go ahead and accept 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:56.600 the fact that it's over. That is sometimes exactly right. 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.280 I remember when a certain thing was happening in my 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.679 life and a friend of mine advised me, you have 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:07.439 to have a funeral for your expectations, because I was 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.359 trying to get somebody else to change, and I can't 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:20.399 change anybody else. Certain things we have to accept. I 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:22.919 have to accept, and it's a very hard thing for me. 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:36.440 My height, all potential of my NBA career has faded 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:41.080 into the shadows of the Sundial of As, along with 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:45.040 Hezekiah's health. Now you got to understand about this passage, man, 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.280 This passage doesn't give us a picture of somebody who 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.840 turns his face to the wall in perfect faith. For 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.840 the Bible says that he began to ask God, remember 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:02.120 all that he has done, not all that God has done. 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.720 Haskaia said, remember Lord, how I have walked. 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.439 With you faithfully in wholehearted devotion and have done what 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.040 is good in your eyes. But then the next part 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.719 is important because it says that he wept bitterly now 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:21.639 mark this down. You can weep bitterly and still pray faithfully. 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:30.080 You can weep bitterly and still wait expectantly. You can 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:35.520 accept what it is but still believe that. 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:37.840 It can be something greater. 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:43.439 I'm looking at some people today who have accepted some 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:48.679 things in your life as all that they can ever be. 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:58.000 And when you accept the announcement of the shadow, you neglect. 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:07.240 The presence the source. Let's talk about the Biblical image 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:07.720 of a shadow. 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:09.879 It is mentioned in the Bible, both literally, like the 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.879 shelter or the shadow that Jonah sat under. It is 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:18.639 mentioned metaphorically many times in a positive sense. One of 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:24.359 my favorite scriptures says he that dwelleth in the secret 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.600 place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:30.600 of the Almighty. You know that verse. Love that verse. 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:35.560 It lets me know God has me covered. It means protection. 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.480 It means that His presence is my protection. Write that 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:40.119 down and go back to it this week when you 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.560 get in trouble. His presence is my protection. Anywhere I go, 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:46.240 God is with me. Anywhere I walk, God went there 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:48.480 before me. And if He got there before me, then 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.000 I am protected and sheltered in the shadow of the 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.119 most high, and I will abide under his shadow. And 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.400 I will not fear the arrow that flies by day, 0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:59.400 nor the pestilence that flies by night. 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:00.840 The shadow. 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:04.879 Perhaps one of the most famous Biblical images of the 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:09.600 shadow comes through David, who said, yay, though I walk 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.880 through the valley, now, this is a different kind of shadow. 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.640 He said, I walk sometimes through the valley of the 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:27.359 shadow of death, I will fear no evil. That's an 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:31.719 amazing verse to me because it lets me know that 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:36.080 what David was going through in that moment felt like death, 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:38.800 but it wasn't death. 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:44.200 It was the valley of the shadow of death. 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:49.520 Sometimes what you're going through it feels like the end. 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:53.439 It is a valley. But one thing you got to 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:55.040 remember about a valley. 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.359 The only way there can be a valley is that 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:05.159 there is a on either side of it. That is 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.480 the very essence of a valley. So the thing that 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.040 you're going through right now in your life, while the 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:14.000 enemy would love to use it as evidence that God 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:16.680 has left you, it is actually the evidence that God 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:22.879 has something ahead of you. In the meantime, we must 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:27.920 believe God in the shadows to be who he told 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:32.480 us he was in the light. This image of the 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.320 shadows shows up in psychology as well. If you remember 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:39.120 from your freshman's psych class, you remember that they talked 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:42.919 about the shadow self, the parts of your character that 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:48.600 you would just assume, disown, not deal with, not acknowledge, 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:53.639 And depending on which psychological theory you adhere to, some 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.359 people would say that, no, you've really got to bring 0:22:57.400 --> 0:22:59.560 out that shadow self and deal with it in many 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.480 different way ways, because you know, if you kind of 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:05.440 take the embarrassing, shameful parts of you and don't deal 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:09.399 with them, they will eventually get stronger and overpower you 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:11.760 and show up in ways you don't want them to. 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:17.439 That's why I'm really glad for the cross of Jesus Christ, 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:22.200 because he showed me on his cross what to do 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:26.440 with my shadow that there is nothing I ever have 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:30.520 to be ashamed of in his presence. He already knows it, 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:33.960 he already paid for it, and he nailed it to 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:36.880 his cross, so. 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:38.280 I'll never have to be ashamed. 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:41.359 I would never have to like stay away from God 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:45.359 because oh he might see who I really am. I 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:48.160 would never have to go well, I could pray about it, 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:50.520 and I would pray about it, but I can't pray 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:52.840 about it because I have these things in my life. 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:54.959 The things in your life are the things you need 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:57.800 to pray about, So you drag it out of the 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:02.200 shadows and into His presence. Quick tip next time you're 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:05.080 in church and we're singing and you're like, man, I 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:07.840 can't sing that I trust in God because I'm doubting. 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:13.440 Sing I trust in God even louder, because what singing 0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:15.760 that will do. It will tell you what I do, 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:18.600 if it will drag it out of the shadows, and 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:19.760 it'll take that doubt. 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:20.440 Out of the shadows. 0:24:20.440 --> 0:24:23.480 And the Devil's like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, 0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:25.400 please don't bring it in the light. 0:24:25.840 --> 0:24:29.360 If you bring your doubt in the light, your doubt will. 0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:32.480 Disappear in the presence of a God whose. 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:34.560 Name is greater than anything. 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:39.119 You can name, any disease you can name, any disorder, 0:24:39.400 --> 0:24:42.919 you can name anything a doctor can diagnose you with 0:24:43.520 --> 0:24:48.840 ha no, a PhD ha no, perfectly holy dny no, 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:50.800 A great God who can. 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:57.040 Raise you up. Kezekiah said, I don't want to. 0:24:57.160 --> 0:24:58.399 I don't want to. I don't want to have a 0:24:58.440 --> 0:25:02.600 conversation with you about I've got to pray about this 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:04.399 one I've got to turn. 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:06.680 My attention to a higher authority. 0:25:07.280 --> 0:25:10.400 I've got to get my focus off of what was spoken, 0:25:12.480 --> 0:25:19.000 even though the prophet wasn't wrong. Y'all is hard enough 0:25:19.280 --> 0:25:22.040 not to believe the enemy when he tells you you're 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:28.840 gonna die. What would you do if it was Isaiah? 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:31.640 It is not the lies that the enemy. 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:36.359 Tells us that keep us in defeat. It is the 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:41.280 things that get whispered to us that we secretly believe 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:48.840 are true. Oh God, but sometimes God will call you 0:25:49.480 --> 0:25:50.320 to accept it. 0:25:51.800 --> 0:25:53.399 My dad died. 0:25:53.280 --> 0:25:56.879 Of als and no amount of prayer reversed it. 0:25:58.960 --> 0:26:04.639 Some Oh, As a matter of fact, every time we die, 0:26:04.760 --> 0:26:06.000 it's just a matter of when. 0:26:08.560 --> 0:26:12.240 It's not like Hezekiah lived to be three thousand and 0:26:12.760 --> 0:26:21.160 ninety three. He died, but he didn't die here because 0:26:21.240 --> 0:26:22.080 God had. 0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:24.920 More for him to do. 0:26:28.320 --> 0:26:33.760 Sometimes you let things die too soon in your life. 0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:38.240 Sometimes you let dreams die too soon in your life. 0:26:38.280 --> 0:26:42.400 Sometimes you let relationships die too soon in your life 0:26:42.560 --> 0:26:45.400 because of what you won't work through, because of what 0:26:45.440 --> 0:26:48.480 you won't pray through, because of what you won't face. 0:26:49.080 --> 0:26:53.159 And God sent me today to give you this message 0:26:53.200 --> 0:26:54.720 that some of the stuff. 0:26:54.400 --> 0:26:56.680 That you have been allowing in your life. 0:26:56.760 --> 0:26:58.879 I'm not saying that if you have sickness it's a 0:26:58.960 --> 0:26:59.520 lack of faith. 0:26:59.680 --> 0:27:01.280 That's not my belief system. 0:27:01.600 --> 0:27:03.840 I don't believe you can support that from the Bible 0:27:04.000 --> 0:27:07.880 or from life. I am saying this that sometimes what 0:27:07.960 --> 0:27:12.800 you accept as the consequence of a hardship is actually 0:27:12.880 --> 0:27:15.840 the opposite of what God intends to give you through 0:27:15.880 --> 0:27:20.480 the hardship, so that sometimes you go through the breaking, 0:27:20.880 --> 0:27:24.760 but you don't get the benefit. Sometimes you go through 0:27:24.800 --> 0:27:28.240 the problem, but you don't access in that problem the 0:27:28.320 --> 0:27:31.119 power that you could have if you learned what I 0:27:31.119 --> 0:27:32.200 want to teach you today. 0:27:32.840 --> 0:27:34.880 Because what I want to teach you today. 0:27:34.600 --> 0:27:38.400 Is no matter what has been spoken over you or 0:27:38.480 --> 0:27:43.600 inside of you, if it does not align with the assignment. 0:27:43.160 --> 0:27:45.960 That God has placed on your life. 0:27:46.280 --> 0:27:51.480 The moment you decide to focus your faith and drag. 0:27:51.200 --> 0:27:55.280 It out of the shadows and into the light. Things change. 0:27:56.920 --> 0:28:01.560 Things change, say it out loud, things change. Things change. 0:28:01.760 --> 0:28:02.520 They really do. 0:28:03.680 --> 0:28:06.120 Things change. They really do. 0:28:07.359 --> 0:28:10.720 People still do get married in their forties, They really do. 0:28:13.520 --> 0:28:17.240 People still do live after experiencing the worst tragedy. 0:28:17.560 --> 0:28:19.760 Things change. 0:28:19.800 --> 0:28:23.240 People who formerly were so depressed that they couldn't even 0:28:23.280 --> 0:28:25.959 get out of bed, go on to found companies. 0:28:26.600 --> 0:28:27.359 They really do. 0:28:29.160 --> 0:28:33.960 People who get fired from jobs for being incompetent later 0:28:34.040 --> 0:28:38.160 get celebrated for being innovative once they find their fit. 0:28:38.720 --> 0:28:44.040 Things change. Say it out loud. Things change, They really do. 0:28:45.400 --> 0:28:48.880 Things change. People who once struggled with sin. 0:28:48.720 --> 0:28:52.760 To the point that they identified themselves as a recovering 0:28:52.800 --> 0:28:57.360 alcoholic become mentors for other recovering alcoholics. 0:28:58.120 --> 0:29:00.720 Things change, they really do. 0:29:01.880 --> 0:29:06.280 Families where nobody ever went to college, families where nobody 0:29:06.360 --> 0:29:09.200 ever really got out of high school go on to 0:29:09.280 --> 0:29:12.160 produce some of the greatest leaders that you've ever seen. 0:29:12.880 --> 0:29:15.360 Things change, They really do. 0:29:15.640 --> 0:29:17.360 I don't know who this is for because it's not 0:29:17.400 --> 0:29:19.160 in my nose, but the Holy Ghost got a hold 0:29:19.160 --> 0:29:21.720 of me to tell you things change. 0:29:22.480 --> 0:29:26.320 They really do. I'm not preaching fairy tale. I'm not 0:29:26.440 --> 0:29:30.680 preaching sweethearts. I'm not preaching Papa promise, get a blessing. 0:29:31.120 --> 0:29:32.160 I'm preaching that when. 0:29:32.040 --> 0:29:35.800 You turn your face to the wall and turn your 0:29:35.880 --> 0:29:40.520 attention to the heavens and walk away kind of the 0:29:40.760 --> 0:29:51.720 shews of what has been there is a lie. God said, 0:29:51.880 --> 0:29:55.240 let there be light, and there was well. 0:29:55.280 --> 0:29:57.640 I reckon whatever he speaks still worse. 0:29:58.240 --> 0:30:01.640 So if he says, let there be joy, get ready 0:30:01.680 --> 0:30:02.400 to get happy. 0:30:02.800 --> 0:30:06.680 If he says let there be be, get ready to see. 0:30:06.480 --> 0:30:13.960 The storm start to be still? Five three people say 0:30:14.000 --> 0:30:19.320 things change? They really do. You're standing next to a 0:30:19.360 --> 0:30:24.080 living witness that things change. You're standing next to an 0:30:24.080 --> 0:30:26.400 exhibit a that things change. 0:30:26.840 --> 0:30:30.720 You're standing next to somebody who one time thought I 0:30:31.000 --> 0:30:32.000 wasn't gonna make it. 0:30:32.560 --> 0:30:41.920 But hey, Hanzakiah, I say, get back, puse. God says 0:30:42.440 --> 0:30:45.720 you're over rule the set up, can't have. 0:30:46.000 --> 0:30:56.560 You yet, Hey, I say out, get back here. God 0:30:56.880 --> 0:30:58.760 said I can. 0:30:59.360 --> 0:31:02.479 Look. 0:31:05.960 --> 0:31:09.720 Hey, I say, I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not 0:31:09.880 --> 0:31:13.800 saying God change his mind. I'm just saying I'm said, 0:31:13.960 --> 0:31:25.120 by faith, there's a wisdom to die. I should warn you, 0:31:25.480 --> 0:31:28.680 as I preached this, that i'm preaching to you what 0:31:28.880 --> 0:31:29.880 I have walked through. 0:31:32.440 --> 0:31:35.120 You say, Pastor, we didn't hear that you had boils 0:31:35.160 --> 0:31:38.360 on your body? No, No, not talking about boils on 0:31:38.440 --> 0:31:43.520 my body. I'm talking about beliefs that I carried. Oh God, 0:31:43.640 --> 0:31:47.880 oh God. I mean these beliefs. They were painful, they 0:31:47.920 --> 0:31:51.960 were progressive. There were times that I believed things about 0:31:52.040 --> 0:31:57.040 myself that I was beyond love. There were times I 0:31:57.120 --> 0:32:01.560 believe things about myself that I was beyond help. There 0:32:01.560 --> 0:32:04.800 were times I believed things about my thought patterns that 0:32:04.840 --> 0:32:08.920 they were just genetic and they couldn't be changed. There 0:32:08.920 --> 0:32:12.959 were times I believe things about my potential that I 0:32:13.120 --> 0:32:15.680 wasn't the one for the job even though God had 0:32:15.720 --> 0:32:16.320 called me to. 0:32:16.520 --> 0:32:19.120 And there were times I believe things now. The thing about. 0:32:18.960 --> 0:32:20.600 Believing the thing that isn't true is that you don't 0:32:20.640 --> 0:32:22.520 know what it wasn't true, because once you know it 0:32:22.560 --> 0:32:24.240 wasn't true, you don't believe in it anymore. So you don't 0:32:24.280 --> 0:32:28.320 know that it isn't true while you're believing it. The 0:32:28.400 --> 0:32:31.600 moment you know it's not true, you stop believing it. 0:32:33.680 --> 0:32:37.040 That's why I love this passage. Because the devil didn't 0:32:37.080 --> 0:32:38.400 tell Hezekiah you're going to die. 0:32:39.480 --> 0:32:40.200 The prophet did. 0:32:42.720 --> 0:32:44.640 And this is where we have to get more sensitive 0:32:44.640 --> 0:32:47.320 to the Holy Spirit than we are to our senses. 0:32:50.560 --> 0:32:53.680 Even if the sickness doesn't go away in your life, 0:32:54.120 --> 0:32:58.840 through your suffering, God is going to be glorified. 0:33:00.240 --> 0:33:01.520 More than you could ask her imagine. 0:33:01.560 --> 0:33:03.800 And I know that that doesn't really like get the 0:33:03.800 --> 0:33:07.040 same kind of relief that it does. When Isaiah tells 0:33:07.080 --> 0:33:09.360 them to get some figs and rub that what they 0:33:09.440 --> 0:33:12.080 call it the poultice. Did you see that word from 0:33:12.160 --> 0:33:15.040 verse seven? I thought that was a crazy word. And 0:33:15.040 --> 0:33:18.920 then Isaiah said, prepare a poultice a figs. I had 0:33:18.960 --> 0:33:23.959 to look that one up. It's an ointment. That poultice 0:33:24.040 --> 0:33:27.720 is annointment. But that I thought was powerful too, because 0:33:27.720 --> 0:33:29.360 for the healing that we need in our lives, it's 0:33:29.400 --> 0:33:35.680 not just the prayers, it's the poultice. It wasn't just 0:33:35.760 --> 0:33:37.800 he said you're going to live and he waved a 0:33:37.840 --> 0:33:41.720 wand there was a process involved in that. So I wonder, 0:33:41.760 --> 0:33:45.440 sometimes are we taught that it's all about what we do, 0:33:46.760 --> 0:33:48.520 and then other times we're taught it's not about what 0:33:48.560 --> 0:33:51.880 we do. And somewhere in this message today, God wants 0:33:52.040 --> 0:33:58.000 you to hear that you have to choose to challenge 0:33:58.480 --> 0:34:03.440 the shadow or the shadow will swallow you. 0:34:05.840 --> 0:34:07.720 Think about it. Go with me. 0:34:08.080 --> 0:34:11.000 Can you go with me back in history just a 0:34:11.000 --> 0:34:14.960 few hundred years, go back and see that shadow stretching 0:34:15.400 --> 0:34:19.040 down the steps and see the prophet's word coming to 0:34:19.120 --> 0:34:22.359 announce it's over for you, Azekiah. 0:34:22.440 --> 0:34:24.040 And I wonder have you felt. 0:34:23.880 --> 0:34:27.880 That shadow stretching over an area of your life lately, 0:34:28.960 --> 0:34:34.600 And has God brought me to your life today. 0:34:35.200 --> 0:34:40.440 To give you a prophetic word for that situation. 0:34:41.320 --> 0:34:44.320 That you think can't change. 0:34:44.600 --> 0:34:47.440 Even if the situation doesn't change, the way. 0:34:47.239 --> 0:34:48.440 You see it must. 0:34:50.320 --> 0:34:54.000 That is the first step, not that the situation would change, 0:34:54.239 --> 0:34:58.160 but that the way you see it would change everything. 0:34:58.239 --> 0:34:59.960 God gave me this one time too. 0:35:00.160 --> 0:35:03.960 He said, everything you're praying about today as a burden, 0:35:04.400 --> 0:35:07.520 you were thanking me for as a blessing before it 0:35:07.560 --> 0:35:14.760 got heavy, Everything in my life that I was praying 0:35:14.800 --> 0:35:18.760 about as a burden. Oh God, this is so hard, 0:35:19.080 --> 0:35:21.600 This is so heavy. What's something God gave me that 0:35:21.640 --> 0:35:26.799 I asked him for? It was just growing bigger. Everything 0:35:27.520 --> 0:35:30.520 has to start with how you see it. That's what 0:35:30.600 --> 0:35:31.480 a prophet does. 0:35:31.760 --> 0:35:35.360 He's a seer. Is say, I had the ability. 0:35:34.920 --> 0:35:38.319 To see hundreds of years into the future where he 0:35:38.440 --> 0:35:39.840 prophesied the birth. 0:35:39.560 --> 0:35:41.080 Of Jesus Christ. 0:35:42.080 --> 0:35:48.120 So how just Hezekiah and his tears and his prayers 0:35:49.680 --> 0:35:53.720 stop a prophet as powerful as Isaiah? In his tracks, 0:35:54.320 --> 0:35:56.759 Isaiah is walking back, He's all the way to the 0:35:56.800 --> 0:35:59.680 middle court. He's like, well, God, I really didn't want 0:35:59.680 --> 0:36:06.120 to tell him that, but and he can't take another step, 0:36:08.040 --> 0:36:09.160 got something arrest him. 0:36:10.320 --> 0:36:13.160 Now he doesn't know what it is yet. 0:36:14.120 --> 0:36:17.359 All he knows is I told Hezekiah he was gonna die. 0:36:18.360 --> 0:36:21.359 I turned my back, I went back to go home, 0:36:22.400 --> 0:36:27.480 and something stopped me. What he didn't know was at 0:36:27.560 --> 0:36:31.680 the moment. I believe at the moment that Hezekiah's tears 0:36:33.560 --> 0:36:41.120 were hitting the pillow, his feet got heavy, and he 0:36:41.120 --> 0:36:42.719 couldn't take another step. 0:36:43.520 --> 0:36:45.200 Now, what are you saying, pastor Stephen? 0:36:45.480 --> 0:36:48.440 Are you saying that if I cry enough, God will 0:36:48.520 --> 0:36:49.600 change my situation? 0:36:50.080 --> 0:36:51.360 Or that if I just pray. 0:36:51.160 --> 0:36:53.960 This prayer, Can we pray that prayer from Hezekiah and 0:36:54.360 --> 0:36:56.480 get it back and get it restored? 0:36:56.520 --> 0:36:59.200 And can I pray this prayer from Hezekiah and get 0:36:59.200 --> 0:37:01.600 everything that was in my life that was missing put 0:37:01.680 --> 0:37:05.040 back together again. I do not believe that. 0:37:05.080 --> 0:37:10.960 It was the formula of his prayer that brought healing. 0:37:11.560 --> 0:37:16.359 I believe it was the change of his focus. 0:37:16.440 --> 0:37:20.799 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I believe that when 0:37:20.840 --> 0:37:28.920 he wept bitterly and he prayed fervently, when he chose 0:37:29.320 --> 0:37:33.800 to rehearse truth through tears. 0:37:35.640 --> 0:37:40.240 Everybody say truth through tears. 0:37:41.400 --> 0:37:46.879 That is a valuable valuable, valuable confession. It is one 0:37:46.920 --> 0:37:52.760 thing to quote truth when you have evidence that absolutely 0:37:52.840 --> 0:37:59.600 supports that truth, but truth through tears is a completely 0:37:59.600 --> 0:38:05.359 different level of trust in God, and that kind of 0:38:05.440 --> 0:38:10.000 trust in God. Will say to the shadow, hey, you 0:38:10.160 --> 0:38:15.239 say it's over. God says, it's a new beginning. And 0:38:15.280 --> 0:38:18.160 I believe that's what happens in our life when we 0:38:18.280 --> 0:38:22.120 really make the shift into faith, is that God shows 0:38:22.239 --> 0:38:24.640 us that what we've called an ending. 0:38:25.320 --> 0:38:29.399 Is a beginning. Do you believe that? Because if you don't, 0:38:29.440 --> 0:38:30.280 you're not a Christian. 0:38:32.000 --> 0:38:37.279 Because that's all the Resurrection was was a redefinition of 0:38:37.320 --> 0:38:42.960 what men call endings. I know that you've been worried 0:38:43.000 --> 0:38:45.920 about it. I know that you've been burdened by it, 0:38:46.000 --> 0:38:48.960 bothered by it, broken by it. That is not the question. 0:38:49.320 --> 0:38:52.640 The question isn't will you cry? It's what will you 0:38:52.680 --> 0:38:58.160 confess as you do? Because I think there are times 0:38:58.200 --> 0:39:01.080 in all of our life when the shadow comes to 0:39:01.160 --> 0:39:04.080 announce it's over, but. 0:39:04.120 --> 0:39:15.640 The shadow is not the source. Will you challenge the shadow? 0:39:16.560 --> 0:39:17.120 Imagine this. 0:39:17.200 --> 0:39:21.600 They rubbed this ointment all over Hezekiah's body, and he says, okay, 0:39:22.280 --> 0:39:26.080 I need a sign that this is gonna work, and Isaiah, 0:39:26.160 --> 0:39:27.839 you gotta get in this. 0:39:27.600 --> 0:39:29.880 Get in this image. It's so cool. 0:39:30.200 --> 0:39:34.279 Isaiah goes, all right, you want to sign, I'll give 0:39:34.320 --> 0:39:37.879 you a sign because you don't really believe it yet. 0:39:38.520 --> 0:39:41.719 So the shadow is gonna move so God can show 0:39:41.760 --> 0:39:44.760 you that you've got more time. Shall I go forward 0:39:44.840 --> 0:39:48.520 ten steps or shall it go back ten steps? Now, 0:39:49.360 --> 0:39:52.080 let's work work this out real quick. The sun comes 0:39:52.160 --> 0:39:55.520 up over the temple, The shadow goes down the steps. 0:39:56.160 --> 0:39:59.800 That is the natural pattern of things. 0:40:00.120 --> 0:40:00.479 I said. 0:40:01.440 --> 0:40:06.600 If the shadow keeps going down the steps, that's what's 0:40:06.800 --> 0:40:07.800 supposed to happen. 0:40:09.160 --> 0:40:10.080 How will I know. 0:40:10.160 --> 0:40:13.480 That God can do it if it goes exactly how 0:40:13.520 --> 0:40:14.319 it's supposed to. 0:40:16.840 --> 0:40:19.320 Maybe this is why certain things in our life. 0:40:19.080 --> 0:40:24.560 Don't go exactly how they're supposed to, because how would 0:40:24.600 --> 0:40:28.239 you know that it was God if it just went 0:40:28.760 --> 0:40:33.319 how was supposed to. If people just recognized you like 0:40:33.400 --> 0:40:36.080 they were supposed to, how would you know that it 0:40:36.120 --> 0:40:36.880 is God. 0:40:36.640 --> 0:40:42.080 That promotes you? If everybody supported you and endorsed you, 0:40:42.160 --> 0:40:45.560 that was supposed to support and endorse you, How would 0:40:45.600 --> 0:40:48.600 I know it was God? If the shadow just did 0:40:48.680 --> 0:40:49.520 what shadows do. 0:40:50.960 --> 0:40:53.680 I got another one for you. If it happened when 0:40:53.719 --> 0:40:56.880 you wanted it to, you would have thought it was you. 0:40:59.080 --> 0:41:00.959 So God said, I got to do something real quick. 0:41:02.840 --> 0:41:06.920 I gotta make the shadows stretch out so that you 0:41:07.040 --> 0:41:09.600 get in a position where you won't say, oh, I 0:41:09.719 --> 0:41:12.040 was really smart, Oh I was really clever. 0:41:12.320 --> 0:41:13.960 Oh I was really faithful. 0:41:14.280 --> 0:41:20.400 Notice while Hezekiah was talking about his faithfulness, Isaiah kept walking. 0:41:21.280 --> 0:41:24.399 But when he cried a tear and said, God, if 0:41:24.440 --> 0:41:25.120 you don't. 0:41:24.920 --> 0:41:27.000 Do it, it will not get done. 0:41:27.200 --> 0:41:31.960 Isaiah said, WHOA, that's faith, roll, that's trust. WHOA, that's 0:41:31.960 --> 0:41:37.959 somebody who has come to the end of himself. That's 0:41:37.960 --> 0:41:42.239 somebody who has seen the shadow but will still come 0:41:42.280 --> 0:41:48.279 back to the source. What y'all looking at? He loves 0:41:48.320 --> 0:41:51.359 good preaching. You see people stand up in a football game. 0:41:51.360 --> 0:41:52.880 This is better than a football game. This is a 0:41:52.960 --> 0:42:00.839 church of the Living God. Thank you Jesus. They think 0:42:00.880 --> 0:42:03.399 it's crazy when we get excited about the Word of God. 0:42:03.680 --> 0:42:06.399 I see people get excited about somebody in some mesh 0:42:06.480 --> 0:42:10.040 shorts running up and down some hardwood floors bouncing. 0:42:09.680 --> 0:42:10.880 A ball into a hoop. 0:42:11.200 --> 0:42:13.239 I think I can get excited when the Word of 0:42:13.239 --> 0:42:16.080 the Lord comes to me and starts telling me this 0:42:16.320 --> 0:42:24.239 shadow is not going to consume you. Yes, Lord, Why 0:42:24.239 --> 0:42:27.880 are you scared to praise God? Why are you scared 0:42:27.920 --> 0:42:31.120 to give him glory? Why are you quiet when you 0:42:31.200 --> 0:42:36.120 come in here? You better get rydical about this thing. 0:42:37.520 --> 0:42:38.560 Tom's running out. 0:42:38.560 --> 0:42:42.120 Baby. You can't afford to sit there and wait for 0:42:42.280 --> 0:42:42.920 a feeling. 0:42:43.960 --> 0:42:47.840 This is a Lord and a feeling. This is the 0:42:48.040 --> 0:42:56.359 worst of Almighty God. If you don't cry out the rocks. 0:42:56.040 --> 0:43:00.560 Well, if you don't cry it out, am I saying? 0:43:00.760 --> 0:43:05.560 Somebody released the sound of words of the will, the pumping. 0:43:05.280 --> 0:43:09.359 In his fast and say get back here, I'm on. 0:43:09.800 --> 0:43:19.600 Whooo all right, go all right, I thought. 0:43:19.440 --> 0:43:24.480 Somebody say I'm back, I'm fast. Now Watch the shadow, 0:43:24.760 --> 0:43:28.720 Watch the shadow, Watch the shadow. Verse eleven. Isaiah said, Okay, 0:43:28.920 --> 0:43:32.040 you need a sign. The shadow is going to stop 0:43:32.120 --> 0:43:35.800 going forward, and it's gonna do something that will always 0:43:35.920 --> 0:43:38.719 prove the presence of God. You're ready to shout over this. 0:43:39.000 --> 0:43:41.879 You're gonna love this. Verse eleven. He said, he made 0:43:41.880 --> 0:43:50.719 the shadow go back up the steps again. For everybody 0:43:50.719 --> 0:43:53.360 who's looking at something right now that looks like it 0:43:53.440 --> 0:43:56.520 is over Watch what God did for Hezekiah when Hezekiah 0:43:56.560 --> 0:44:02.320 called on him. He made the shadow go back up 0:44:03.360 --> 0:44:07.720 the steps, And I thought, God, this doesn't make sense. 0:44:08.360 --> 0:44:21.800 Shadows don't climb stairs exactly, not until you challenge them. See, 0:44:21.960 --> 0:44:24.279 as long as we just let it be whatever way 0:44:24.320 --> 0:44:26.120 it is and go, okay, well. 0:44:25.960 --> 0:44:28.600 That's just how it is, or that's just how I am. 0:44:28.880 --> 0:44:32.520 And we never challenged the shadow by coming back to 0:44:32.600 --> 0:44:38.759 the source, It's just gonna keep going down, down. 0:44:40.520 --> 0:44:40.800 Down. 0:44:42.200 --> 0:44:47.480 Have you been depressed, have you been discouraged? Have you 0:44:47.480 --> 0:44:49.560 given up on your dream that God put inside of you? 0:44:51.080 --> 0:44:54.440 Is the shadow going down the steps in your life? 0:44:56.440 --> 0:45:00.440 Challenge it. 0:45:03.000 --> 0:45:05.839 Whatever that looks like for you, God will reveal it 0:45:05.880 --> 0:45:06.720 by his spirit. 0:45:07.840 --> 0:45:13.160 I hear God saying challenge that. I wish I had a. 0:45:13.120 --> 0:45:15.480 Flag like they have on football, so I could throw 0:45:15.520 --> 0:45:18.360 the challenge flag on some situations in your life. 0:45:19.440 --> 0:45:22.280 So stuff you're complaining about, hey. 0:45:22.680 --> 0:45:32.880 Stop complaining about stuff you can change. Stop complaining about 0:45:32.920 --> 0:45:34.800 stuff you can change. 0:45:35.640 --> 0:45:37.719 All right, all right, let's do it. Let's do it. 0:45:37.880 --> 0:45:43.640 Let's get practical. Let's get practical. Holly loves it when 0:45:43.680 --> 0:45:48.640 I get practical. She's very literal. I'm very figurative. I 0:45:48.680 --> 0:45:51.640 am a songwriter. She is a teacher. She taught school 0:45:51.840 --> 0:45:53.960 while I was learning to write songs. So I'm like, 0:45:54.360 --> 0:46:01.200 challenge the shadow, and she's like, hallelujah, howe, how many 0:46:01.239 --> 0:46:04.560 I need some help with hallelujah? How Like I feel 0:46:04.640 --> 0:46:07.360 y'all believe you? Okay, okay, okay, what are you saying? 0:46:07.480 --> 0:46:09.319 The shadow came back, like, what does that mean? Does 0:46:09.360 --> 0:46:10.560 that mean you want me to go out to the 0:46:10.640 --> 0:46:13.160 graveyard And I've had a family member that's been dead 0:46:13.160 --> 0:46:14.440 and pray for the person to get up from the 0:46:14.440 --> 0:46:15.200 dead and stuff like that. 0:46:15.239 --> 0:46:16.440 No, I've never done that in my life. That's not 0:46:16.480 --> 0:46:17.920 the kind of faith that I have. But I do 0:46:17.960 --> 0:46:19.920 have this kind of faith, and this is a practical faith. 0:46:20.160 --> 0:46:23.440 It is the ability for me to see that sometimes 0:46:23.480 --> 0:46:26.840 in my life when I am complaining that I don't 0:46:26.880 --> 0:46:29.560 have something, it is a product of the way that 0:46:29.640 --> 0:46:33.080 I see something. So challenging the shadow could be as 0:46:33.120 --> 0:46:37.160 simple as this, in the last week, raise your hand 0:46:37.239 --> 0:46:39.920 if in the last week, and I would have you 0:46:39.960 --> 0:46:42.200 close your eyes and just like for privacy sake, but 0:46:42.200 --> 0:46:44.360 we're gonna do it. Looking all around, you have said 0:46:44.840 --> 0:46:49.360 I do not have enough time. Say it, raise your hand. 0:46:52.440 --> 0:46:58.640 I don't have enough time. But Warren Buffett did I'll 0:46:58.640 --> 0:46:59.520 have enough time. 0:47:00.440 --> 0:47:03.120 But Jesus only lived to be thirty three and saved 0:47:03.120 --> 0:47:09.080 the world. Yeah, but that's different. It was Jesus. Yes, different. 0:47:09.160 --> 0:47:12.960 Jesus didn't even have a car and he still did it. 0:47:13.920 --> 0:47:16.000 Jesus couldn't even get an airplane and he did it. 0:47:16.760 --> 0:47:19.439 You don't have time now. We just compressed so much 0:47:19.440 --> 0:47:21.480 stress into a shorter time spend that we have no 0:47:21.520 --> 0:47:27.759 ability to prioritize. So sometimes challenging the shadow is this 0:47:27.920 --> 0:47:30.359 mentality that you have when you wake up any given 0:47:30.440 --> 0:47:32.520 day and you go, I'm not going to be able 0:47:32.520 --> 0:47:35.600 to get it all done. No, not with everything that 0:47:35.680 --> 0:47:42.360 you do that nobody told you to do. You do 0:47:42.440 --> 0:47:47.920 not have enough time to do your job and Bob's 0:47:47.960 --> 0:47:52.880 job and God's job. As long as you keep running 0:47:52.920 --> 0:47:54.719 around with the s on your chest that you think 0:47:54.719 --> 0:47:58.600 stands for savior, but it really stands for stressed, the 0:47:58.680 --> 0:48:03.200 shadow grows down the steps and so you end each 0:48:03.280 --> 0:48:06.360 day going, I don't have enough time. I need to 0:48:06.440 --> 0:48:11.920 check your Netflix que to see if God really accidentally 0:48:11.960 --> 0:48:17.040 skipped some time he was supposed to give you. Challenge 0:48:17.040 --> 0:48:19.000 the shadow Do you see what I mean? It sounds 0:48:19.040 --> 0:48:21.719 so big, like Wow, we're reading this passage about this 0:48:21.880 --> 0:48:24.560 king who was about to die, and God said, I'm 0:48:24.600 --> 0:48:27.480 gonna give him fifteen more years. Sometimes it's not about 0:48:27.480 --> 0:48:29.400 fifteen years, it's about fifteen minutes. 0:48:31.480 --> 0:48:33.759 I learned. If I take fifteen minutes. 0:48:33.440 --> 0:48:35.919 And seek God first in my day, the whole day 0:48:35.920 --> 0:48:36.640 gets longer. 0:48:41.000 --> 0:48:44.080 It's almost like the shadow. 0:48:43.719 --> 0:48:47.360 Goes up the steps if I seek him first. But 0:48:47.440 --> 0:48:49.879 if I'm not focused, then I'm gonna end the day 0:48:49.960 --> 0:48:52.879 not enough time. I'm gonna start the day, not enough sleep. 0:48:53.640 --> 0:49:01.879 And the shadow will swallow me. How about this one? Wow, 0:49:01.920 --> 0:49:05.279 we're at it. I feel like I need to put 0:49:05.320 --> 0:49:07.439 on some rubber gloves, so I go this deep. All right, 0:49:07.480 --> 0:49:09.680 this is this crazy stuff right here. Boo. 0:49:13.800 --> 0:49:15.359 This is a big one for a lot of us. 0:49:16.000 --> 0:49:20.279 It's the idea that it's too late for me. Now, 0:49:22.120 --> 0:49:26.719 how about that one? Anybody? Anybody? He said, that's real? No, 0:49:28.239 --> 0:49:33.759 it's a shadow feels real. It feels real, especially in 0:49:33.800 --> 0:49:35.480 this day in time, man, because they are trying to 0:49:35.520 --> 0:49:38.439 wheel us to the nursing home when we're forty five? 0:49:41.000 --> 0:49:44.359 Am I right? Have you said? The other day? 0:49:44.760 --> 0:49:47.160 Mom? If you die, can you write right down to 0:49:47.200 --> 0:49:48.759 the boys and let them know I'll take care of 0:49:48.840 --> 0:49:49.360 your closet. 0:49:52.760 --> 0:49:59.760 She is killing my wife in the prime of her life. 0:50:00.320 --> 0:50:03.520 I mean, I'm still buying holly clothes and jewelry, and 0:50:03.560 --> 0:50:08.040 Abby's already claiming it because she'd ride on the doorstep 0:50:08.080 --> 0:50:13.640 of death and tell you what. And that's funny until 0:50:13.680 --> 0:50:17.120 it's not. I remember a guy told me one time 0:50:17.719 --> 0:50:19.160 songwriting is a young man's game. 0:50:19.320 --> 0:50:22.280 He was forty, and in a sense. 0:50:22.040 --> 0:50:24.120 He's right, because most people who write pop songs and 0:50:24.400 --> 0:50:26.600 all different kinds of music, they write it when they're 0:50:26.600 --> 0:50:29.360 in their twenties or even younger than that. And he 0:50:29.400 --> 0:50:30.880 had kind of resigned himself to the fact that he 0:50:31.000 --> 0:50:33.279 wasn't gonna write any more good songs. 0:50:33.840 --> 0:50:35.400 He went on to write a few good ones. 0:50:36.320 --> 0:50:38.560 But I bet you're somewhere in him dealing with that 0:50:38.640 --> 0:50:40.200 because he was saying that out of his own fear 0:50:40.239 --> 0:50:41.000 he was over forty. 0:50:41.680 --> 0:50:43.640 I bet somewhere in his fear of that. 0:50:44.400 --> 0:50:47.399 He had to turn his face to the wall and ask, 0:50:47.440 --> 0:50:51.600 got is that really true? Because normally, yeah, people do 0:50:51.680 --> 0:50:57.040 their best work early, but this is not the NBA. 0:50:58.480 --> 0:51:03.240 Why have we let our culture turn into this. Once 0:51:03.280 --> 0:51:12.080 you're over thirty, you're worthless. The devil is a liar, y'all. 0:51:12.680 --> 0:51:13.840 Here's how much I don't believe that. 0:51:14.360 --> 0:51:16.440 I won't even I won't even let them put my 0:51:16.480 --> 0:51:19.920 sermons online that I preached when I was thirty because 0:51:19.920 --> 0:51:22.600 I did not know anything when I was thirty. 0:51:22.800 --> 0:51:24.240 And I'll probably take this one down. 0:51:24.120 --> 0:51:28.160 When I'm sixty because I intend to keep living, and 0:51:28.200 --> 0:51:31.520 I intend to keep learning, and I intend to keep 0:51:31.520 --> 0:51:35.880 contradicting myself as long as it takes to grow. So 0:51:35.920 --> 0:51:39.839 if God shows me something different, the shadow can roll back. 0:51:40.960 --> 0:51:43.080 I can admit my ignorance and go, I didn't know that. 0:51:43.120 --> 0:51:44.720 Then I'm growing. 0:51:44.760 --> 0:51:47.640 Now. Why have we given ourselves no grace to grow? 0:51:49.800 --> 0:51:52.319 Why do we define what can come next by what 0:51:52.520 --> 0:51:53.439 has already been? 0:51:54.000 --> 0:51:55.680 Is that not a step? 0:51:57.400 --> 0:51:59.799 Was it? Every mistake that you made up to this 0:52:00.200 --> 0:52:04.200 in your life a step toward wisdom? 0:52:05.400 --> 0:52:07.160 So watch this if you can receive it. 0:52:07.719 --> 0:52:13.320 Everything you thought was a step down from God's vantage point, 0:52:13.760 --> 0:52:19.359 it was a step up. That's what it means when 0:52:19.400 --> 0:52:23.840 God makes the shadow go backward. But you've got to 0:52:23.920 --> 0:52:24.440 challenge it. 0:52:25.280 --> 0:52:27.800 You've got to get in the face of your failure 0:52:27.920 --> 0:52:32.359 and say, oh, guess what you are failure? You are 0:52:32.400 --> 0:52:33.120 a foundation. 0:52:36.160 --> 0:52:39.200 I saw something online the other day and said, you're 0:52:39.239 --> 0:52:43.480 not starting over, You're starting from experience. 0:52:46.120 --> 0:52:46.840 How about that? 0:52:47.160 --> 0:52:51.840 Young people, all my forty three year old senior citizens 0:52:51.880 --> 0:52:52.920 make some noise with me. 0:52:57.880 --> 0:52:59.640 I'm a pert pid mom. 0:53:01.200 --> 0:53:06.480 It's so crazy, how quick we give up on what 0:53:06.719 --> 0:53:11.400 might have been the greatest season of your life. I declare, 0:53:11.480 --> 0:53:14.719 your grandkids need you to grow into it. If for 0:53:14.880 --> 0:53:17.480 nobody else, do it for what's coming after you. 0:53:21.840 --> 0:53:23.880 A girl that worked for me turn thirty. 0:53:24.080 --> 0:53:27.360 I said, congratulations, She said, oh no, please, don't speak 0:53:27.400 --> 0:53:27.560 of it. 0:53:30.239 --> 0:53:32.440 I said, speak of what she said. I can't stand 0:53:32.480 --> 0:53:38.040 to think about it. Turning thirty. Imagine that. 0:53:38.760 --> 0:53:43.600 Imagine that the enemy is so good at getting us 0:53:43.640 --> 0:53:48.680 to die that we just stay stupid. We won't learn, 0:53:48.760 --> 0:53:51.759 We won't challenge anything. We won't challenge a prejudice. We 0:53:51.800 --> 0:53:55.040 won't challenge a preconceived notion of ourselves. 0:53:56.040 --> 0:53:58.960 We won't challenge an insecurity. We won't challenge a hobby, 0:53:58.960 --> 0:54:02.640 we won't challenge an interest. We just live in it. 0:54:03.920 --> 0:54:07.760 Because Hezekiah called the prophet back with his tears, I reckon, 0:54:07.800 --> 0:54:10.000 you can rebuke the enemy off of your life with yours. 0:54:18.200 --> 0:54:20.239 It changed my life when I realized that the God 0:54:20.320 --> 0:54:25.600 said let there be light. Verse also points to the 0:54:25.600 --> 0:54:27.640 fact that the God who said let there be light 0:54:29.280 --> 0:54:39.279 also controls the shadows. The author of truth is the 0:54:39.280 --> 0:54:44.640 controller of time. I just speak this message today from 0:54:44.640 --> 0:54:50.800 my heart to yours, that sometimes you need to stand 0:54:51.000 --> 0:54:59.960 in the shadows and speak to the source. Isaiah sa. 0:55:00.800 --> 0:55:03.120 I can make it. I can make it keep going down, 0:55:03.800 --> 0:55:08.479 which is what it naturally does. Or if you really 0:55:08.520 --> 0:55:11.839 want to see what God spoke come to pass, here's 0:55:11.880 --> 0:55:12.680 what's gonna happen. 0:55:14.440 --> 0:55:24.560 What was supposed to stay down, He's gonna go back up. Now. 0:55:24.760 --> 0:55:29.720 I don't know what brought you down in your life, 0:55:30.160 --> 0:55:33.200 and I can't know what's bringing you down in your soul. 0:55:34.920 --> 0:55:37.200 The promise of God is not just limited to some 0:55:37.239 --> 0:55:41.840 obscure old Testament king. As a matter of fact, this 0:55:41.880 --> 0:55:49.560 whole story isn't really a story. It's a shadow. The 0:55:49.560 --> 0:55:56.600 prophet said, in three days you will arise. I read 0:55:56.600 --> 0:56:00.440 my Bible some I seem to remember another thing about 0:56:01.480 --> 0:56:06.680 three days. 0:56:08.280 --> 0:56:08.920 And rising. 0:56:10.960 --> 0:56:15.360 You remember anything in that Bible about three days in rising? 0:56:16.440 --> 0:56:19.200 You remember in John chapter two where Jesus came through 0:56:19.200 --> 0:56:21.959 the temple and he was like, this is all out 0:56:21.960 --> 0:56:24.160 of order, and I feel God going. 0:56:24.000 --> 0:56:27.320 Through somebody's temple today and clearing. 0:56:26.920 --> 0:56:30.920 Out everything that doesn't belong and wiping out every shadow 0:56:30.960 --> 0:56:31.920 that has tried. 0:56:31.680 --> 0:56:34.240 To eliminate your purpose and your peace. 0:56:35.760 --> 0:56:39.759 And those gathered that day said, what will be Look 0:56:39.760 --> 0:56:42.040 at this in John chapter two, verse E. You're going 0:56:42.080 --> 0:56:46.840 to love this verse He said, what sign can you 0:56:46.960 --> 0:56:51.800 show us to prove your authority to do this? Nineteen 0:56:51.920 --> 0:56:55.320 is all the answer I need. Jesus answered them, Destroy 0:56:55.400 --> 0:57:03.239 this temple and I will raise it. You already there's 0:57:03.280 --> 0:57:05.000 about to be a resurrection. 0:57:06.640 --> 0:57:07.960 Destroy this temple. 0:57:10.120 --> 0:57:14.759 Take away my good name, Jesus said, Hang me up 0:57:14.800 --> 0:57:18.200 on a cross, call me the king of the Jews. 0:57:18.240 --> 0:57:21.880 As you mock me with the crown of thorns, plunge 0:57:21.880 --> 0:57:24.160 a Roman sphere into my side. 0:57:24.320 --> 0:57:26.960 You can destroy it, but if you do, you. 0:57:26.920 --> 0:57:33.080 Should know I will raise it again in three days. 0:57:34.720 --> 0:57:39.160 That's why he died to challenge the shadow. 0:57:40.560 --> 0:57:44.520 That's why he rose to challenge the shadow. 0:57:45.920 --> 0:57:49.840 That's why he ascended to the right hand of God. 0:57:50.960 --> 0:57:58.200 To let you know that even the grave and even 0:57:58.280 --> 0:57:59.320 the keys. 0:58:00.240 --> 0:58:03.440 Of dead in hell or in his. 0:58:03.640 --> 0:58:10.720 Half, Why would I die in the shadows. 0:58:11.440 --> 0:58:15.720 When I know the source? Here's the source of my strength. 0:58:16.160 --> 0:58:19.919 He is the strength of my life. Hey, has Akiyat, 0:58:20.320 --> 0:58:23.000 you shall not die. 0:58:23.160 --> 0:58:33.520 You show live, live, live, he live out of the shadows, 0:58:33.880 --> 0:58:37.920 into the light, out of the past, into the promise. 0:58:38.440 --> 0:58:40.960 You shall live. 0:58:47.280 --> 0:58:49.760 Because the one who controls the sun and spoken into 0:58:49.800 --> 0:58:54.480 its place can certainly bring the shadows back. The one 0:58:54.480 --> 0:58:57.120 who sees you and that pit can certainly pull you out. 0:58:58.760 --> 0:58:59.680 The one who gave. 0:58:59.520 --> 0:59:02.880 You your unique composition as a child of God can 0:59:02.920 --> 0:59:05.200 certainly bring you into your purpose. No matter how much 0:59:05.240 --> 0:59:06.160 time has passed. 0:59:07.280 --> 0:59:08.440 Even Isaiah had. 0:59:08.320 --> 0:59:11.480 To turn around when Hezekiah cried, Even the prophet had 0:59:11.520 --> 0:59:13.520 to turn around and say, there is a better word. 0:59:13.840 --> 0:59:27.200 Even God waits for your faith, no challenge, no change. 0:59:28.040 --> 0:59:30.440 If the shadow just went down the steps and it 0:59:30.520 --> 0:59:35.760 was easy, you wouldn't know he was God. You were 0:59:35.800 --> 0:59:37.480 in this moment, in this season of your life. Not 0:59:37.520 --> 0:59:41.919 only because life is hard, that's one reason. Not only 0:59:41.960 --> 0:59:46.200 because bad things happen, that's another reason, but because God 0:59:46.320 --> 0:59:51.960 is using this as a sign. I pictured all week 0:59:52.000 --> 0:59:53.960 that shadow coming back up the steps. 0:59:54.720 --> 0:59:58.680 I thought, what would that be like to watch something 0:59:58.720 --> 1:00:00.120 that looked like it was over. 1:00:01.200 --> 1:00:06.200 And all of a sudden, step by step come on 1:00:06.240 --> 1:00:07.440 get your feet moving. 1:00:08.240 --> 1:00:11.360 Onward, Christian soldiers, step by step. 1:00:12.400 --> 1:00:15.240 Wait a minute, Shadows don't walk up steps. They do 1:00:15.360 --> 1:00:20.960 when God speaks, stone stone, roll from full graves they 1:00:21.000 --> 1:00:25.080 do when Jesus speaks. Sins can't be forgiven, the past 1:00:25.200 --> 1:00:26.320 can't be undone. 1:00:26.440 --> 1:00:29.240 The record can't be a raise, it can't win. The 1:00:29.280 --> 1:00:30.200 blood speaks. 1:00:30.840 --> 1:00:34.280 I need everybody who's believing for a better word, to 1:00:34.440 --> 1:00:36.800 stop the prophet in his tracks right now. 1:00:37.240 --> 1:00:38.680 And begin to praise God. 1:00:39.840 --> 1:00:43.120 When you praise him, the shadow falls back. 1:00:43.720 --> 1:00:47.480 When you brace him, the shames fall off. When you 1:00:47.680 --> 1:00:50.160 praise him, the darkness. 1:00:49.640 --> 1:00:53.400 Starts to scatter and disciminate and disappear. 1:00:53.840 --> 1:00:57.120 I declare, it's coming back. It's coming back. 1:00:57.800 --> 1:01:01.280 It's coming back to you now to wait on the Lord, 1:01:01.840 --> 1:01:03.480 so remove their strength. 1:01:03.800 --> 1:01:07.600 It's coming back right now. It's coming back with every step. 1:01:07.920 --> 1:01:11.080 It's coming back with every brace, It's coming back with 1:01:11.200 --> 1:01:14.920 every breath. It's coming back with every tear. Come back, 1:01:15.360 --> 1:01:19.080 come back, shit back here. I say, yeah, speak the 1:01:19.160 --> 1:01:24.360 word that day. Say listen, this. 1:01:27.080 --> 1:01:28.480 Should not come with. 1:01:31.600 --> 1:01:36.920 You're not done with me, You're not. 1:01:37.080 --> 1:01:37.800 Done with me. 1:01:39.040 --> 1:01:43.120 I don't know what you're suffering from, but I say, room, 1:01:44.000 --> 1:01:45.400 listen I. 1:01:45.360 --> 1:01:46.960 Don't know what's your valley. 1:01:46.800 --> 1:01:49.760 Shot, but I know the luth of the other shine 1:01:49.840 --> 1:01:52.680 calls out bread you hear up time with me. 1:01:54.160 --> 1:01:56.240 It's not done with you. 1:01:56.240 --> 1:02:02.120 You're not done with me. You got fit see years pay. 1:02:02.040 --> 1:02:02.720 So much. 1:02:04.240 --> 1:02:05.280 His life? 1:02:05.720 --> 1:02:09.080 Who hear it in that setting? With walking? 1:02:10.280 --> 1:02:12.680 Yok it? Walk in it? 1:02:13.560 --> 1:02:18.560 F Kennedy. Walking t't a robbing you're rather. 1:02:18.600 --> 1:02:22.200 Foot step can't to lift this your side that it's 1:02:22.320 --> 1:02:23.120 your signal. 1:02:23.560 --> 1:02:26.360 This is your step, this is your word. 1:02:26.480 --> 1:02:31.560 Step away you make the true he's coming. Yes, he's gone. 1:02:33.680 --> 1:02:37.440 Can you look back? We talk about the step and 1:02:37.600 --> 1:02:39.480 the room? What the lord to? 1:02:40.640 --> 1:02:41.400 What the hood? 1:02:41.560 --> 1:02:41.960 Can't you? 1:02:42.800 --> 1:02:47.960 He's gonna down, So set away, make it through. 1:02:48.280 --> 1:02:51.320 He's gonna lett be like he's coming. 1:02:52.360 --> 1:02:54.200 Who let them be? Let to me? 1:02:54.480 --> 1:03:00.880 It's passigle. You got pors on. Anything is PASSI this 1:03:01.160 --> 1:03:02.520 is the table lord. 1:03:02.400 --> 1:03:02.960 That's man. 1:03:03.360 --> 1:03:07.840 Anything is possible, I will retorted, hide s. 1:03:08.040 --> 1:03:10.840 Did die with the normal. I'm coming out to. 1:03:13.240 --> 1:03:20.000 Anything is possible, anyth Anything is possible. 1:03:20.280 --> 1:03:26.920 What's that design? Anything? Anything? It's possible? Who went by? 1:03:27.520 --> 1:03:35.440 She did die with thee? Anything is my stiffer he 1:03:35.640 --> 1:03:36.040 gets you? 1:03:36.640 --> 1:03:37.240 Anything? 1:03:42.880 --> 1:03:47.960 Anything is possible? Who went by to did die. 1:03:48.480 --> 1:03:48.840 What the. 1:04:11.440 --> 1:04:15.240 It's turning around? He's turning around. I say, it's turning around. 1:04:15.360 --> 1:04:19.280 He's turning around. Somebody says, turning around, it's turning around. 1:04:20.680 --> 1:04:23.520 Us three people tell him it's turning around. It's turning around. 1:04:24.320 --> 1:04:25.200 It's turning around. 1:04:25.320 --> 1:04:30.320 It's turning around. It's turning around. Come on, move a 1:04:30.360 --> 1:04:34.760 little bit. It's turning around. It's turning around. God said 1:04:34.840 --> 1:04:35.600 his turnaround. 1:04:35.720 --> 1:04:35.959 Time. 1:04:37.000 --> 1:04:39.400 What you're gonna do with the base you have left? 1:04:40.080 --> 1:04:42.080 What you're gonna do with the wisdom you've got? 1:04:42.320 --> 1:04:42.520 Now? 1:04:43.200 --> 1:04:45.840 What are you gonna do with the breakthrough he made? 1:04:46.360 --> 1:04:47.200 What are you gonna do. 1:04:47.360 --> 1:04:48.400 With your open door? 1:04:49.040 --> 1:04:49.640 It's time. 1:04:50.120 --> 1:04:50.720 It's time. 1:04:51.200 --> 1:04:54.680 It's time to find out why you're still alive. It's 1:04:54.800 --> 1:04:55.480 time to pray. 1:04:55.520 --> 1:04:58.560 Say while you're still got breath, I mean for the 1:04:58.800 --> 1:04:59.840 sun goes down. 1:05:13.160 --> 1:05:15.640 Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did, 1:05:16.280 --> 1:05:18.840 make sure to share it and subscribe so we can 1:05:18.920 --> 1:05:21.480 get you all of these new messages as soon as 1:05:21.520 --> 1:05:24.240 they're available. I also want to take a moment and 1:05:24.400 --> 1:05:26.160 thank all of you who are a part of Elevation, 1:05:26.720 --> 1:05:30.000 whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or 1:05:30.440 --> 1:05:33.120 just share these messages. It's because of you that we're 1:05:33.160 --> 1:05:36.080 able to reach people all around the world. And if 1:05:36.120 --> 1:05:38.600 you want more information on how to be a part 1:05:38.640 --> 1:05:42.560 of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again 1:05:42.600 --> 1:05:45.000 for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the 1:05:45.120 --> 1:05:46.400 message and subscribe. 1:05:46.720 --> 1:05:47.320 God bless you.