Cover The Spread

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 --> 0:00:13.680 Subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:22.560 I hope you're blessed today. Holly already announced everything, so 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.319 I don't have to do it. I can just get 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:33.080 straight to the word. I preached a message last week 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:34.960 called Challenge the Shadow. 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.040 That message was about how we don't just accept. 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.520 The natural pattern of things because we are people of faith. 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.480 So when the enemy says you're going down, you don't 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.599 go down without a fight. That's what God gave you 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.960 your faith for. And that message is online. Now you 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.000 can take that message and put it together with this 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:01.920 message because I am going back to the life of 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.680 Hezekiah to bring you what we might sort of call 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.639 a preaching prequel, to show you something else that happened 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:10.160 in his life. 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:11.440 Now I like to do this, Okay. 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.120 I was telling my oldest son this week, I loved 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.920 Oh yeah. By the way, hey, everybody online, I love 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:22.520 to take the Bible and make sure that we get 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.959 the historical context of what was happening, but not leave 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.240 the Bible in the historical context, but make it helpful 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.280 for your life. And that's something I really believe in. 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.400 One of my seminary professors who trained me told us 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.160 that our job isn't to apply the Bible to people's lives, 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.080 it's just to teach them what happened in the Bible. 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:48.200 Couldn't disagree with that. More people are going through too 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.960 much hell for me to preach that way. Come on, 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.240 just to give you a lesson about something that happened 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.160 three thousand years ago, and that Hey, have a good week. 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.840 Hope the custody battle goes okay, hope you don't die, 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:03.800 Hope you make it back the next Sunday, and I'll 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:05.080 give you another history lesson. 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:07.400 I can't do that. It's not in my heart to 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:09.360 do that. That's not how God wired me. 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:14.040 And so when I come to the scriptures, I'm always 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.960 asking a couple questions, what happened here, and then what's 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.680 happening in the lives of those that you've called me 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:21.160 to help? 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.880 Lord? And so that's kind of how I pray. 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.600 Now this week, we're coming to an issue in tewod 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.680 King's chapter nineteen in the Life of King Hezekiah, where 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:40.000 you know he last week he almost died, and the 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.200 prophet said, you're gonna die, and he's like, wait, I 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:45.799 got more to do. And the Lord's like, all right, 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:49.720 you get fifteen more years. And he flipped a shadow 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:52.600 around to show him what he was capable of. And 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.639 around the same time in his life, just before that happened, 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.120 I want to show you something that happened, and then 0:02:58.160 --> 0:02:59.560 I want to talk to you about some things that 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.960 are going on in your life too. In Tewod Kings, 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:11.720 chapter nineteen, verse fourteen, the Bible says Hezekiah received the 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.440 letter from the messengers and read it, and then he 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.640 went up to the temple of the Lord and spread 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:22.560 it out before the Lord, and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, Lord, 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.840 the God of Israel, enthroned between the Cherubim, You alone 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.840 are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.880 have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord and hear 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:41.760 open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to the words 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:46.480 Senecareb has sent to ridicule the Living God. It is true, Lord, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.280 that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations in 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.160 their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.560 and destroyed them, for they were not God's but only 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.320 wood and stone fashioned. 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:05.560 By human hands. Now, Lord, our God, deliver. 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.760 Us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:13.560 the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God, 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.760 and God answers him. Skip all the way down to 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.640 verse thirty four, so you can see in action what 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.080 God said. Actually, I like verse thirty two too much 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.400 to skip it, so go to thirty two. I gave 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.159 him all of these scriptures, so this one is really good. Therefore, 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:32.880 this is what the Lord says in response to Hezekiah's 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.799 prayer concerning the king of Assyria, who is Hezekiah's enemy. 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:42.400 He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.520 He will not come before it with shield, or build 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.200 a siege ramp against it. 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:53.800 By the way that he came, he will return. He 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.760 will not enter this city, declares the Lord. 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:03.960 I will in this city and saved for my sake 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:06.920 and for the sake of David, my servant. 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:09.680 Watch this verse thirty five. 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:14.400 That night the angel of the Lord went out and 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:20.279 put to death one hundred and eighty five thousand in 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:24.440 the Assyrian enemy camp. When the people got up the 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:29.800 next morning, there were all the dead bodies. So Senekareb 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:35.120 the enemy King of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:36.600 I bet he did. 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.600 After that one hundred and eighty five thousand of your 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:43.919 soldiers dead will make you go home. So the Lord 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:45.719 told me to give you a message from that story 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.760 today and we'll talk about it. But he said to 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:54.120 tell you this, God is going to cover the spread. 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:04.000 Anybody received that just by faith, like even not knowing 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.640 who Snekareb is yet, but you receive it by faith 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:12.640 that God is going to cover the spread. Lord, your 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:17.760 word never returns void. Whoever it's for, God, shoot it 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:22.680 straight into their heart. May it go down deep deeper 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:27.960 than disappointment, defeat, discouragement or despair, and give your people 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:31.200 faith to believe that you are still in the way 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:37.520 making business in Jesus' name. Amen, He's going to do it. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.400 He's going to cover the spread. This message is called 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:45.040 cover the spread. Last week was challenged the shadow. This 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.760 week is cover the spread. I'm so glad we sang 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.799 that song make Away that went so good with this message, 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:55.640 like the Holy Spirit wanted it all to just go 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.279 right there together so you could get it. There's a 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:02.000 line in that song, I really love this because you 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:07.440 are God. No matter the odds, the outcome is always 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:13.760 the same. So we win. We don't know when, but 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:19.040 we win. God's gonna cover the spread. How many of 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.520 you know that term cover the spread from the sports 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:23.960 betting world. 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:28.400 Lord, we pray for these sinners, these hell bound. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:37.720 Philistines, these uncircumcised philistines betting on sports. Far as I know, 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.480 not by experience, but I just asked chat GPT. 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:44.600 It said, cover the spread means. 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:47.840 I bet one time on a basketball game, the only 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:51.520 time I ever bet on sports, only time I ever 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.800 bet on sports, and. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:54.880 I lost three hundred dollars. 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.240 And I bet on the Oklahoma City Thunder because my friend, 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.080 Pastor Craig Rochel lives there, and I thought he had 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.880 a strong enough annoying pull me through, and I lost 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:06.640 the money. Sound do anymore but cover the spread? I mean, 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:10.000 you heard it before, but maybe you're too holy to 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:14.720 know what it means. When they make the odds in Vegas, 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.320 then one team is favored by say like seven points, 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.040 and so if that team that's favored by seven points wins, 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.360 but they don't win by more than seven points, then 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.320 they didn't cover the spread. And somebody who bet on 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.200 the other team can win their bet even though that 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:33.959 team lost because the team that was favored to win 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:38.760 by seven points didn't cover the spread, and so the 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.600 game can be completely over. But somebody's sitting there praying 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:44.720 just that the team that they bet on doesn't lose 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.440 by more than twenty one points or twenty eight points, 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.720 whatever the spread is. So that's the term in the 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:54.320 betting world. But this is Sunday morning, and this is 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:58.000 not the betting world. This is the Bible world. I 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.200 would like to suggest to you that the term has 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:05.400 a completely different relevance for your life as it did 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.440 for hezekiahs. If you are a betting man, you are 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.800 betting against Israel in this particular predicament. 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:15.000 Not only are they up against. 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:19.720 The fiercest dude who has ever occupied the throne of 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:25.960 Assyria named Seneca Rib. Anybody a pregnant looking for a 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.959 baby name Seneca Rib not. 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:34.960 Taken, you, kidd, to be the only one. You're welcome. 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:43.240 This guy, when he would take his enemies right to 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:47.320 send a message to everybody else, he would often he 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.760 would often not only hang them from trees, but he 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.400 would flay their skin and hang their skin from the 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:56.080 trees that's the kind of guy we're talking about here 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.800 in tewod King's nineteen just to give you the picture, 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.760 and not only to mention that, but he was a 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:07.160 trash talker that made Connor McGregor. 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:08.600 Look like mister Rogers. 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.440 If you follow mma, I'm using all the worldly analogies 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:15.640 just to hook the hook the hook the people in 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:21.680 today Graham. But he is occupying the throne of the 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:26.160 fiercest kingdom that has already taken the northern part of Israel. 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:28.000 If you studied the Old. 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.560 Testament even a little bit, you'll remember that the kingdom 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:35.280 was divided. Well, that's already happened, and the northern part 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.559 of the kingdom, those ten tribes have already been taken 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:43.120 away into captivity. So now Senekareb is coming for Hezekiah, 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.240 who was a good king. I told you last week. 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.920 He was a good king. He followed God, he trusted God. 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:55.240 But now Senekareb is sending some messages to Hezekiah, going 0:10:55.600 --> 0:11:00.480 you're next, and Hezekia is like, no, please, uncle daddy, 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:01.280 what do you want me to say? 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:03.920 Don't do it to me, you know, just just leave 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:04.640 us alone. 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.960 We've seen what you're capable of We know you're undefeated, undisputed, 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.800 and we don't want it with Senekareb. 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:13.920 So what do you want? You want some gold? 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:18.760 Hezekiah starts stripping the gold off the doorpost of the temple. 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:20.640 That's how bad it was. 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.240 It would have to be bad for you to take 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:27.280 the temple where God lives and start taking stuff off 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.800 of the doorpost of the house of God to get 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.480 your enemy to go away. But when the enemy messes 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.760 with you enough, you will start stripping very valuable things. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:47.439 You will start stripping very valuable things and giving away 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:54.240 parts of yourself that are very very important, just to 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:55.520 get him to leave you alone. 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:00.040 The problem with this is Senecareb is in't. 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:03.880 It's not like you just give him a little bit 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.040 of gold and he goes away. You give him an inch, 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:09.920 he takes a kilometer. 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:14.200 It's worldwide ministry. 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:21.000 So now Sinekareb is coming back talking about you know what, 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.600 I know, you've got an alliance with Egypt. In fact, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:31.439 he sends these field commanders, these messengers to Hezekiah's messengers, 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:33.960 and they meet up at this aqueduct that's going into 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.640 this field, and they're they're like gathering around trying to 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.280 figure out is he gonna leave us alone? Is he 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.720 gonna take us too? Are we next? Is he gonna 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.360 completely decimate us? Is he gonna knock down the whole temple? 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:46.920 Are we gonna have to keep stripping stuff and shipping 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:49.240 it away? Or are we next to go like our 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.240 neighbors to the north. What's gonna happen? Because we know 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.480 Sannekareb is absolutely unbeatable. 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:56.679 Now, so the field. 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.240 Commander starts speaking about what saneka Reb can do, and 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:06.040 they're saying stuff like you're gonna end up eating your 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:10.880 own excrement and drinking your own urine. 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:13.520 Is in the Bible? 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.239 They say that they recorded. 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:18.920 I can't imagine what they didn't put in the Bible 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:20.520 that these boys said. 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:23.280 And Hezekayah hears. 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:30.360 That, and he knows that the odds are against him 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:32.120 being able to defend. 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.239 Himself against Senekariv. 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.439 So he tears his clothes. 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:42.240 Which is a sign of mourning, humility, and repentance, and 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.760 he begins to seek God about it, but nothing seems 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:49.720 to change. So after he saw God for a little while, 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.360 he hooks up with the King of Egypt and he's like, 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:54.480 will you help me fight this guy. 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:57.000 And the king of Egypt is like, all right, well, 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:58.080 Senecareub hears. 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:02.000 About that, and he's like, it's still doesn't matter because 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:02.920 I'm Senekarev. 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:08.040 Have you heard of me? Have you seen what I've 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.560 done to all the other nations? 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:15.160 And he sends a letter to Hezekiah and he asked. 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:15.560 Him a question. 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:26.200 In the letter, will God really deliver you? That's what 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.720 was in the letter. In the letter, he lists all 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.960 the other kings that he's defeated who tried to stand 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.640 up against him. He says, none of those nations were 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:38.840 able to be saved. What makes you think you're any different? 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:43.720 Where are the kings of Leir and Cephar, Vm and 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.120 Hennah and Eva. I can't pronounce these names, y'all, but 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:51.440 he puts all that in the letter. Now, when you 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.600 get to verse fourteen, I want you to understand this 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:58.040 picture that God gave me when it said that. When 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.080 Hezekiah got this letter, which would have been on papyrus 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.000 on a scroll, you know, like letters were back in 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:07.600 the day. When he received the letter verse fourteen from Senecorid, 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:14.680 he ripped it up and said, no weapon formed against 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:15.760 mebel prosper. 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:19.160 But the scripture back up, because I want you to 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.120 see that's not what he did at all. 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:26.320 All right, because I feel like there are some people 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:30.600 who are listening to me preach today, and you are 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.600 carrying a letter of your own that was sent by 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:40.800 an enemy into church today. I can't see it, and 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:46.560 it's not on papyrus. But some of us have what 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:51.800 I would like to call emotional scrolls that we carried 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.920 into church with us today. It's rolled up so no 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.040 one can see it. 0:15:59.040 --> 0:15:59.880 It's tucked away. 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:03.040 Not a letter that was written by human hands, perhaps, 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:07.000 but a letter that is written in your heart. The 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:12.840 words of the enemy that he has spoken. Senekareb loves 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:18.360 to get in your head. In your head? How many 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:22.480 of you tend to be a lot of times in 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:23.400 your head too much? 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:26.680 Now. 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:28.280 The reason those of us who are in our heads 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:30.600 too much are in our heads so much is because 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.240 all of the people who are in their heads too little. 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.120 Somebody has to think, for y'all, oh, we're never going 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:40.200 to get these bills paid. 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.000 Holly's so good for me because I'm in my head 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:50.440 all the time. She's in the moment. Take that however 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.720 you want. I'm not saying that I'm smarter. It's just 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.760 like she's so good for me, though, Like this used 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:58.920 to annoy me in our marriage. You know how they 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:07.960 say in marriage, opposites attract and then after marriage opposites attack, and. 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:09.160 So it used to make me so mad. 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.600 I'll be telling her something so deep, like if he 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:17.920 watches over every spau and I think she wasn't looking listening, 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:19.560 and she'd be like, I'm like, what are you think about? 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:21.240 She's like the grocery list. 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.199 But I liked eating, so I was glad that she 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.600 was thinking about something kind of practical while I was 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.520 thinking about something ethereal, abstract and spiritual because. 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:34.080 I don't want to fast. 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.159 And our marriage in many ways has been a merger 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.920 of her style of processing and my style of processing, 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.120 which I'm in my head a lot, and she's really 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.240 good to get me out of my head. 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:46.760 I was on the. 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:50.680 Brink of meltdown like four years ago with some stressful 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.640 stuff that was happening with the ministry, and she goes, I. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.040 Know what we're gonna do. We're gonna go for a walk. 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:57.720 When she said I know what we're gonna do, I 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:02.680 thought she was gonna give me the solution. There's like 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:07.000 a complicated situation, and I'm like walk, She's gonna go, 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.080 she says, She goes, Yes, as people do. 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:14.560 It's not that deep. We're going to walk. You're gonna 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.520 feel better. She was right. When I'm in my head. 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.440 When I'm in my head, the problem that I'm considering 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:24.560 seems completely unsolvable. 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.040 When I'm in my head, it. 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.960 Appears to me that I have no assistance available. When 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.840 I'm in my head. Every text message that somebody sends 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:41.080 me has a secret, covert, malicious intent to it. 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.240 Why'd they say it like that? Why'd they use a comma? 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.240 Why is there no period? Why does that EMOCHI have 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.119 drool coming down his mouth? Now that is weird. I 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:56.520 should look into that. But you know, you start. 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.560 Reading into everything when you're in your head. Oh man, 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.359 why do they say it like that? Why do they 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.760 look at me like that? They weren't looking at you. 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:06.640 It's completely ridiculous for. 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:11.560 You to think that everybody in that video game called 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.119 Your Life is a NPC and you're the main character. 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.480 But yet we do that when we get in our head. 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.399 Have you been stuck in your head this week? 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:24.600 Is that? 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:26.760 Why? Which one's my main camera. I can't remember the 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:29.919 top one. Okay, okay, have you been stuck? Let me 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:30.320 start over. 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.800 Have you been stuck in your head this week? 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:40.760 Is that what's been happening in your life? That God 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:46.639 took me all the way back thousands of years before 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.720 you were even born, before you even got in this 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.359 battle that you're in, before you even started feeling these 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:59.520 symptoms in your body, before you even started feeling this 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.560 that has you completely wound up and unable to. 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.600 Deal with your life? Is that why God had. 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:12.000 Me studying about a king who thousands. 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:15.440 Of years ago, before you and I were ever even 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.720 a thought, before you and I wherever even a shimmer 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.840 in our mama, in our daddy's eyes, before you and 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:22.840 I were ever. 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:24.640 Even a part of this planet. 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:29.879 This king, named Hessekiah, gave us a pattern for what 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.240 to do when the enemy tries to get in your head? 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:37.240 Aren't you glad for. 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:43.080 The strategy of God? Because honestly, I need a strategy. 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:48.199 I need to know how to do battle in my brain. 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.480 I need to do I need to know what to 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:56.119 do when what I believe about God is telling me 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.840 one thing, and what I see in my life is 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.880 saying another, I need to know. 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.240 How to respond to senecarev. 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:09.360 I've got my own senecarebs, and they send me letters. 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.959 They are my personal fears, they are not yours. My 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:20.160 fears speak differently than your fears, because my devil is 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:26.280 custom designed to defeat me according to my weaknesses and 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:28.680 my strengths, and so is yours. 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:32.080 So the challenging thing for me today can I preach? 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:32.640 Can I preach? 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.679 Is that I know what this Bible says, but I 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:40.840 don't know what your letter says. I know what this 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:44.280 word says about what God is and who God is 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.159 and what he can do, and what faith is, the 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.080 substance of things hope for and the evidence of things 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:54.240 not seen, and what his word is, the everlasting seed 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:58.800 which produces change. I know what his word says. I 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:04.160 don't know exactly what your letter says. And I don't 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:06.840 know if your letter is something real that you're going 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:10.280 through and it really is a diagnosis, or if it 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:14.040 really is just something that you're imagining that hasn't happened yet. 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:16.880 I don't know if your letter is something that's going 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.600 on in your industry, your company, something going on in 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:22.560 that corporation, called your family. 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:25.840 You know that company where. 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:35.359 You can't fire anybody. I don't know what your letter says, 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:38.720 but Seneka rebtold Hezekai, I'm gonna kill you. 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:41.640 I'm gonna wipe you out. It's gonna be humiliating. 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:47.160 Sometimes the letters that the devil sends me to get 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:51.800 in my head is he tells me that something in 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:54.440 my life is going to happen to cause me great shame. 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:58.440 And let me tell you another thing. 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:02.280 The day we live, then you don't even have to 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:08.520 do anything wrong to be publicly shamed. So that can 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:14.240 feel like a real threat, can't it. When things are 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:22.080 going good in my life, Seneca rev tells me it 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:26.720 won't be this way long. When things are going bad 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:31.440 in my life. He've lives the script, it's going to 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:37.840 be like this forever. Sometimes when I preach, they'll say, 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:41.800 it was like you were reading my mail, and the 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:44.680 Holy Spirit will read your mail. 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:53.040 Today. We came to see what we need to do. 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:59.679 When we're holding a letter in our hearts of condemnation 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:03.159 for our past that is behind us and forgiven by 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:05.159 the blood of Jesus, But we don't feel forgiven, so 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:08.919 we keep repeating it. We came to find out what 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:11.760 to do when we're handed a letter of impending doom, 0:24:12.200 --> 0:24:16.040 even when there's no clear indication that it's going to happen, 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:19.360 but you imagine it. And I'm gonna tell you why 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:21.800 to keep imagining it. You need to stop listening to 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:24.399 so many serial killer podcast chunks. 0:24:27.000 --> 0:24:29.440 Just messing with him, that's my dude. 0:24:30.280 --> 0:24:33.320 And sometimes we feed ourselves the raw material, and then 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:35.960 the enemy makes our letter out of what we feed him. 0:24:37.200 --> 0:24:39.960 And then sometimes it's more passive than that. Sometimes it 0:24:40.040 --> 0:24:44.040 is things we didn't consciously choose. But whatever the situation is, 0:24:45.040 --> 0:24:47.840 it stopped me in my tracks when I saw what 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:52.240 Hazekiah did about the letter that he received, and it 0:24:52.320 --> 0:24:54.280 helped me so much that I wanted. 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:58.000 To pass it along to you today. You want it 0:24:59.480 --> 0:24:59.920 Verse four. 0:25:00.600 --> 0:25:06.159 He received the letter from the messengers, and he didn't 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:10.720 rip it up and pretend that it didn't exist, because 0:25:10.720 --> 0:25:12.960 that's one way to handle it, right. 0:25:14.520 --> 0:25:16.960 Some of us we don't deal with anything that we feel. 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:19.200 We don't deal with anything that we think, We don't 0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:21.159 deal with anything that we need to work on. We 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:23.919 don't deal with anything that's stressing us out. We just 0:25:24.040 --> 0:25:26.520 rebuke the devil of stress. But if you rebuke the 0:25:26.560 --> 0:25:29.080 devil of stress without fixing the source where some of 0:25:29.080 --> 0:25:35.879 your stressful situations are coming from. I was trying to 0:25:35.920 --> 0:25:37.600 rebuke the devil one time, and it was like the 0:25:37.600 --> 0:25:39.879 Holy Spirit said to me, you're trying to rebuke the 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:42.560 devil when you need to rebuke your decisions and reverse them. 0:25:42.480 --> 0:25:49.480 And make better ones. Am I reading your mail? Is 0:25:49.520 --> 0:25:53.240 that what that feels like? Yeah? 0:25:52.760 --> 0:25:56.440 So he didn't rip up the letter because I think 0:25:56.440 --> 0:25:58.000 that's a lot of times how we're taught to do 0:25:58.080 --> 0:26:02.560 this fate thing right like just to now, No, I 0:26:03.640 --> 0:26:06.000 believe God's gonna make it better, and it doesn't matter 0:26:06.000 --> 0:26:06.760 what the enemy says. 0:26:06.760 --> 0:26:08.320 Well, the truth is there are some things that we 0:26:08.440 --> 0:26:09.120 have to deal with. 0:26:09.320 --> 0:26:11.520 This is not a king who's receiving a threat that 0:26:11.560 --> 0:26:14.720 he can just ignore. He actually does have to respond 0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:18.160 to this threat because, as we read at the end 0:26:18.160 --> 0:26:21.360 of the chapter, there's one hundred and eighty five thousand 0:26:21.800 --> 0:26:25.359 Assyrian soldiers waiting to take him out. So if he 0:26:25.400 --> 0:26:28.480 gets the letter saying hey, we're coming in and just goes. 0:26:28.400 --> 0:26:34.600 I don't focus on the negative. I'm an optimist. You're 0:26:34.600 --> 0:26:37.960 gonna be a dead optimist. It's gonna be an optimist 0:26:37.960 --> 0:26:40.720 with a crown on is what You're gonna be, Hezekiah 0:26:40.880 --> 0:26:42.119 optimist with a crown. 0:26:42.960 --> 0:26:45.280 But there's gonna be no head on your shoulders. It's 0:26:45.280 --> 0:26:46.879 gonna be rolling on the floor. You're gonna be an 0:26:46.880 --> 0:26:51.320 opt a headless optimist, a dead optimist, and a lot 0:26:51.320 --> 0:26:52.920 of people are like that when it comes. 0:26:52.680 --> 0:26:55.560 To their faith. I rebuke this bill. 0:27:02.320 --> 0:27:05.520 The power company doesn't cut it back on because you said, 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:06.400 let there be light. 0:27:07.400 --> 0:27:10.160 You can put Genesis one over the power bill all 0:27:10.240 --> 0:27:11.920 you want in the dark. 0:27:14.440 --> 0:27:17.800 So so watch his response. 0:27:18.280 --> 0:27:22.280 He doesn't rip up the letter saying, well, that's not true. 0:27:22.320 --> 0:27:25.080 You're not powerful, you can't do that. Yes, yes, it 0:27:25.200 --> 0:27:26.400 is true. It is real. 0:27:27.080 --> 0:27:28.640 That's the reality of the situation. 0:27:29.800 --> 0:27:31.879 The second thing that I noticed that he didn't do, 0:27:32.280 --> 0:27:35.399 and I'm telling you what he didn't do, so that 0:27:35.440 --> 0:27:37.360 when I show you what he did do you will 0:27:37.359 --> 0:27:41.320 have something to compare it to. He received the letter. Remember, 0:27:41.480 --> 0:27:43.840 I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you just like 0:27:43.920 --> 0:27:47.160 I killed everybody. I'm gonna kill your family. I'm gonna 0:27:47.160 --> 0:27:49.679 take your kids out. Your kids are gonna end up 0:27:49.720 --> 0:27:52.800 on drugs. Your kids are gonna end up divorced. Your 0:27:52.840 --> 0:27:57.120 kids are gonna end up workless because you yelled at. 0:27:56.960 --> 0:28:01.600 Them this morning. That's it goes for me, is spiral's 0:28:01.600 --> 0:28:02.119 real quick. 0:28:03.240 --> 0:28:05.160 I would just be a little too harsh with the kids, 0:28:05.200 --> 0:28:07.400 and the devil will be like, that's why you're gonna 0:28:07.400 --> 0:28:10.160 be bailing them out of jail right there. They're gonna 0:28:10.160 --> 0:28:12.080 have a needle in their arm right there. And it 0:28:12.200 --> 0:28:16.800 all started with you. It can spiral real quick. 0:28:17.800 --> 0:28:18.080 Now. 0:28:18.640 --> 0:28:21.879 So this is the second thing that Hezekiah didn't do. 0:28:21.960 --> 0:28:24.720 When he got the letter from Seneka rev. They're like, hey, King, 0:28:24.920 --> 0:28:26.600 we don't know what to do. We can see you've 0:28:26.600 --> 0:28:29.280 already ripped your clothes. It is a bad situation. But 0:28:29.359 --> 0:28:32.080 he sent another letter. So he received the letter verse 0:28:32.080 --> 0:28:38.960 fourteen again, and he read it, watched this, and he 0:28:39.040 --> 0:28:44.240 read it again, and read it again, and read it again, 0:28:45.320 --> 0:28:47.320 and read it again, and read it over and over 0:28:47.360 --> 0:28:51.720 and over until he had memorized it. And then he 0:28:51.760 --> 0:28:56.040 gathered the whole nation and recited the letter for them 0:28:56.280 --> 0:28:58.800 that their enemy had written. And then he had it 0:28:58.880 --> 0:29:04.000 translated into thirty different languages so that everybody could. 0:29:03.840 --> 0:29:06.760 Hear in their own language the threat of the enemy. 0:29:07.320 --> 0:29:08.960 And then he began to study it, and he broke 0:29:09.000 --> 0:29:11.640 it down into different syllables, and he made songs around it, 0:29:12.000 --> 0:29:14.840 and he began to sing the songs of Senekareb. 0:29:17.160 --> 0:29:21.360 That's not in the verses it. I can't prove this, 0:29:22.520 --> 0:29:23.400 but I think when. 0:29:23.200 --> 0:29:26.400 It says, please put the verse back up, that he 0:29:26.520 --> 0:29:32.520 received the letter and he read it, that he only 0:29:32.560 --> 0:29:38.640 read it once. And after he read it once, look 0:29:38.680 --> 0:29:43.440 what he did next. He read it and then he 0:29:43.520 --> 0:29:49.360 went up to the temple of the Lord. You don't 0:29:49.480 --> 0:29:52.560 even know how annointed. That is what I just showed you. 0:29:54.440 --> 0:29:57.320 That's what stopped me in my tracks. When I read 0:29:57.400 --> 0:30:04.080 that verse. I stopped and I said, oh, that's my problem. 0:30:04.360 --> 0:30:08.080 When I get a letter from the enemy, I read 0:30:08.120 --> 0:30:13.560 it over and over and over. When he puts a 0:30:13.640 --> 0:30:17.400 thought in my head to draw me away from my hope, 0:30:17.720 --> 0:30:20.920 I play it over and over and over. When I 0:30:20.960 --> 0:30:24.040 have an experience where I make a mistake, I play 0:30:24.080 --> 0:30:28.680 it over and over and over. But when I get 0:30:28.720 --> 0:30:32.040 a word from God, I listen to it once and 0:30:32.120 --> 0:30:38.800 I go to lunch. So my problem is, watch this. 0:30:40.280 --> 0:30:45.600 I'm giving more attention to Seneca Rip's letter than the 0:30:45.760 --> 0:30:53.160 spirit's message in my life. 0:30:54.400 --> 0:30:58.880 So he read it. Somebody shout. He read it, he 0:30:59.040 --> 0:30:59.520 dealt with it. 0:30:59.600 --> 0:31:02.120 He faid did he accepted it, He acknowledged it. 0:31:02.360 --> 0:31:06.160 I'm in debt. I'm I'm overweight, I'm I'm stressed out, 0:31:06.200 --> 0:31:06.720 I'm busy. 0:31:06.800 --> 0:31:10.320 I'm I'm torn apart right now. I'm not in the 0:31:10.360 --> 0:31:12.760 position I need to be in to make the difference 0:31:12.800 --> 0:31:13.880 in the life of my kids. 0:31:14.080 --> 0:31:15.560 I'm not the example I want to be. 0:31:15.960 --> 0:31:21.160 Okay, I read it, But after he read it, he 0:31:21.240 --> 0:31:26.120 didn't stay down in it. Because if I stay down 0:31:26.280 --> 0:31:29.720 in it and memorize it, then I'm gonna get more 0:31:29.840 --> 0:31:36.160 of it. But come on, y'all, twenty twenty three, let's 0:31:36.280 --> 0:31:38.240 follow Hezekiah. 0:31:37.880 --> 0:31:40.840 And do what hes Akaya did. What did he do? 0:31:41.160 --> 0:31:45.760 He read it, and he went up, and I came 0:31:45.800 --> 0:31:47.760 to call you out today. 0:31:49.280 --> 0:31:51.520 And tell you it's time to go up to the 0:31:51.600 --> 0:31:56.280 temple and see what the Lord says about this situation. 0:31:58.120 --> 0:32:02.720 Because if you stay in your head, you're dad. If 0:32:02.760 --> 0:32:05.840 you stay in your head about this, you are gonna go. 0:32:05.880 --> 0:32:09.680 Through hell over this, and the enemy won't even have 0:32:09.720 --> 0:32:12.120 to shoot a single arrow because he will defeat you 0:32:12.160 --> 0:32:14.480 by getting in your head and causing you to forfeit, 0:32:14.560 --> 0:32:17.320 the very thing that you couldn't lose if you would stand. 0:32:17.080 --> 0:32:24.760 Firm and see what God has said. He went up, 0:32:26.320 --> 0:32:29.040 he went up, say it. He went up, He went 0:32:29.160 --> 0:32:29.680 up to the. 0:32:29.640 --> 0:32:32.640 Temple, and he took the letter with him, just like 0:32:32.720 --> 0:32:35.720 you came to elevation today and you brought your letter 0:32:35.760 --> 0:32:38.080 with you. Oh yeah, you don't get to leave it 0:32:38.120 --> 0:32:41.280 at home. You take it with you everywhere you go. 0:32:41.880 --> 0:32:44.920 It is tattooed on your heart, the thing you really 0:32:44.960 --> 0:32:47.640 deal with, the thing you really worry about, the thing 0:32:47.720 --> 0:32:50.320 you struggle with, the insecurity. 0:32:49.640 --> 0:32:51.040 That talks nasty to you. 0:32:51.440 --> 0:32:53.680 I put in that detail about the excrement and the 0:32:53.840 --> 0:32:57.400 urine because as although you were grossed out about it, one, 0:32:57.560 --> 0:32:59.560 I wanted to take your appetite down so you could 0:32:59.560 --> 0:33:01.760 sit through the sermon longer and not be hungry for lunch. 0:33:02.040 --> 0:33:04.600 And number two, I wanted us to think about the 0:33:04.960 --> 0:33:05.680 crap that the. 0:33:05.600 --> 0:33:15.600 Devil really says to us. Senecrab literally talked crap to Hezekiah. Literally, 0:33:16.240 --> 0:33:16.720 and I'm not. 0:33:16.720 --> 0:33:18.360 Using that word like people do when they use it 0:33:18.400 --> 0:33:21.680 to mean the exact opposite of literally. I literally died. 0:33:23.000 --> 0:33:26.480 Figuratively opposite were. 0:33:30.640 --> 0:33:39.880 It's a little pet pee. 0:33:36.240 --> 0:33:42.160 He tells you stuff that you are trash, that you 0:33:42.280 --> 0:33:45.120 are done. Holy Spirit won't do that to you. 0:33:46.600 --> 0:33:49.720 The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus. Jesus is righteous, Jesus 0:33:49.760 --> 0:33:50.080 is in you. 0:33:52.640 --> 0:33:54.880 The Holy Spirit will catch you the next morning and 0:33:54.880 --> 0:33:56.800 start talking to you about last night and how you 0:33:56.840 --> 0:34:02.200 want to do that different in the future. But he 0:34:02.240 --> 0:34:03.719 won't talk to your. Spirit won't talk to you like 0:34:03.720 --> 0:34:08.200 Saekaeb will. So that's not the spirit. That's not the spirit. 0:34:10.520 --> 0:34:15.200 This gave me a picture of what we so often do. 0:34:15.400 --> 0:34:17.680 If we don't just rip up the letter. Now I'm 0:34:17.719 --> 0:34:20.319 using it as a metaphor to say, if we don't 0:34:20.360 --> 0:34:23.680 just deny it, or if we don't just go over 0:34:23.719 --> 0:34:28.520 it and over it again in our minds, then often 0:34:28.560 --> 0:34:35.400 what we do is just we stuff it, almost to 0:34:35.440 --> 0:34:40.560 the point where we don't even realize that the enemy 0:34:40.640 --> 0:34:44.759 is talking to us, but he's using our voice to 0:34:44.840 --> 0:34:50.600 do it, and so we just stuff it, right, We 0:34:50.719 --> 0:34:53.719 just stuff it, and we keep it rolled up and 0:34:53.800 --> 0:35:00.440 scrunched up. And so if we take the things that 0:35:00.480 --> 0:35:04.920 the enemy speaks over our lives and we stuffed them, 0:35:06.360 --> 0:35:07.400 then guess what happens? 0:35:08.760 --> 0:35:12.160 They spread inside of us. 0:35:13.840 --> 0:35:17.719 To the point where now it's not only oh, I 0:35:17.800 --> 0:35:21.920 did that wrong, it's there's something wrong with me, and 0:35:21.920 --> 0:35:26.480 there always has been and there always will be. They 0:35:26.480 --> 0:35:31.000 say that the three habits of negative thinking are you 0:35:31.080 --> 0:35:33.560 make it personal, you make it permanent, and you make 0:35:33.600 --> 0:35:38.160 it pervasive. When you make it personal, it's not I 0:35:38.320 --> 0:35:40.800 was wrong when I did that. It's I am wrong, 0:35:40.920 --> 0:35:43.200 and I always do that, which is permanent. 0:35:43.320 --> 0:35:46.279 I always That's how I've always done it. That's how 0:35:46.280 --> 0:35:47.399 I did it five years ago. 0:35:47.640 --> 0:35:49.680 And you've edited out all the times you got it 0:35:49.760 --> 0:35:52.319 right because you just say I always do it like that. 0:35:53.800 --> 0:35:56.239 And then pervasive, of course, is just a fancy word 0:35:56.280 --> 0:35:58.320 to say, like you make it everything. 0:35:59.440 --> 0:36:02.480 It's all like this, and I'm always like that. 0:36:04.360 --> 0:36:07.000 When you take it and you put it inside like that, 0:36:08.239 --> 0:36:12.600 and you don't find a way to process these these 0:36:12.640 --> 0:36:15.719 patterns of thinking and these problems and the sin. 0:36:17.160 --> 0:36:18.520 That we all still have to deal with. 0:36:22.080 --> 0:36:26.080 It starts to spread not only inside of your heart, 0:36:26.120 --> 0:36:28.920 but it starts to sabotage the decisions in your life, 0:36:30.760 --> 0:36:33.960 and you find yourself losing good people who are trying 0:36:34.040 --> 0:36:39.520 to love you because of an insecurity that was in 0:36:39.560 --> 0:36:41.640 the form of the letter that the enemy sent you 0:36:43.040 --> 0:36:46.719 that you didn't know what to do with, so you 0:36:46.880 --> 0:36:51.879 stuffed it and it spread, And if nothing is there 0:36:51.920 --> 0:36:54.680 to stop the spread of that, you will continue to 0:36:54.760 --> 0:36:59.600 change external things in your life. But everything that you 0:36:59.760 --> 0:37:06.160 touch while you are walking in that insecurity, the insecurity will. 0:37:05.600 --> 0:37:09.640 Spread to the next opportunity. 0:37:10.520 --> 0:37:13.160 So you'll spend ten months happy at a job until 0:37:13.200 --> 0:37:15.440 the old system of how you show up for the 0:37:15.560 --> 0:37:20.319 job catches up with you at the new one, and 0:37:20.360 --> 0:37:25.960 it spreads until your children see that mom and Dad 0:37:26.320 --> 0:37:29.359 can't have a healthy conflict and work through it, and 0:37:29.400 --> 0:37:32.319 they carry a template with them into their marriage one day, 0:37:32.680 --> 0:37:35.640 and you spend years and years of your life saying, 0:37:35.719 --> 0:37:39.960 I wish that I had known how to deal with this, 0:37:40.840 --> 0:37:43.040 because the last thing I wanted to do. 0:37:43.680 --> 0:37:47.600 Was to pass this on to them. 0:37:47.680 --> 0:37:51.279 And we stuff it and we hallelujah over top of it, 0:37:54.239 --> 0:37:57.920 and we get little scripture versus that we quote, thinking 0:37:57.920 --> 0:38:00.799 that they will counteract. I don't know of our own 0:38:01.040 --> 0:38:05.319 meditation in our heart, but it doesn't because if we 0:38:05.440 --> 0:38:11.839 stuff it, it's spreads. But who do I tell? Who 0:38:11.840 --> 0:38:16.160 do I tell what I really feel inside? And this 0:38:16.239 --> 0:38:18.160 is an important thing for me to stop and say 0:38:18.200 --> 0:38:23.799 right now, because You can't just take that stuff and 0:38:23.880 --> 0:38:30.319 spread it anywhere. You can't just use other people like 0:38:30.440 --> 0:38:31.040 they are. 0:38:32.520 --> 0:38:35.600 I don't know how to put this, Like they are. 0:38:35.480 --> 0:38:43.040 Your dumping ground, like they've got a hazmat suit on 0:38:43.080 --> 0:38:45.959 and they can just handle whatever you want to say. 0:38:46.160 --> 0:38:49.839 And what encouraged me about Hezekiah was he couldn't tell 0:38:49.920 --> 0:38:51.319 anybody because he's the king. 0:38:53.040 --> 0:38:56.879 Are there any dads in here that you just wish 0:38:57.400 --> 0:38:58.240 for once? 0:38:59.320 --> 0:39:01.160 For one and I'm gonna get to the moms in 0:39:01.200 --> 0:39:02.560 a minute. 0:39:02.200 --> 0:39:05.799 For once your kids would be like, it must be 0:39:05.960 --> 0:39:11.799 so hard to be you. It is amazing what you 0:39:11.920 --> 0:39:16.239 carry for our family. It is amazing you bring home 0:39:16.320 --> 0:39:19.800 the bacon, and you taught me to throw a baseball. 0:39:20.000 --> 0:39:23.160 You're my hero dad? How do you do it all? 0:39:24.640 --> 0:39:28.160 But who do you tell when you're trying to seem 0:39:28.320 --> 0:39:31.319 strong that this strength that. 0:39:31.360 --> 0:39:34.640 You see is costing me. 0:39:35.640 --> 0:39:40.239 My own strength And I've got my own issues and 0:39:40.440 --> 0:39:43.799 I still feel like a thirteen year old sometimes. 0:39:45.239 --> 0:39:46.600 I yelled at Elijah one time. 0:39:46.640 --> 0:39:48.760 He's my oldest, so I have him a separate therapy 0:39:48.800 --> 0:39:50.440 fund for all the mistakes I make on him that 0:39:50.480 --> 0:39:52.560 I learned and then don't do with other kids. So 0:39:52.600 --> 0:39:55.080 I save that with the college fund therapy fun college fund. 0:39:55.080 --> 0:39:56.319 I'm doing both at the same time. 0:39:57.280 --> 0:40:00.239 And I just yelled at him, this is my first. 0:40:02.200 --> 0:40:03.320 What was I talking about? 0:40:04.040 --> 0:40:07.040 It's your first time being a teenager, it's my first 0:40:07.040 --> 0:40:12.080 time raising one, and now I'm confronting all of the 0:40:12.160 --> 0:40:15.160 teenage me that I didn't deal with before. That's staring 0:40:15.200 --> 0:40:17.440 at me and you, So please be patient with one 0:40:17.440 --> 0:40:24.560 another and bear with one another, and tell your therapist 0:40:24.640 --> 0:40:28.040 I'm sorry. 0:40:28.920 --> 0:40:31.320 So what's hard about this. 0:40:32.800 --> 0:40:37.440 Is that I know what my letter says, but I 0:40:37.440 --> 0:40:39.480 don't know where to share it. 0:40:41.840 --> 0:40:45.120 Do I share it with my E group or would 0:40:45.120 --> 0:40:49.000 they kick me out or would they look at me different? 0:40:50.719 --> 0:40:52.279 Do I share it with my wife or will she 0:40:52.320 --> 0:40:55.719 think I'm weak? 0:40:56.400 --> 0:41:06.120 Do I just to the Lord in prayer because honestly, 0:41:06.840 --> 0:41:09.439 right now, I don't know if he's really up there. 0:41:12.719 --> 0:41:15.919 I love the moment where y'all act like y'all don't 0:41:15.920 --> 0:41:17.960 know what I'm talking about when I say stuff in church. 0:41:18.920 --> 0:41:22.560 No, he's always there, Steve, always for me. He's there. 0:41:32.520 --> 0:41:34.560 Sometimes for me. I don't know what that means. To 0:41:34.600 --> 0:41:38.680 take it to the Lord in prayer, I don't know 0:41:38.719 --> 0:41:43.960 what that means. Well, Hezekiah gives us a way to 0:41:44.000 --> 0:41:48.680 go to God that I really think is going to 0:41:48.719 --> 0:41:51.000 help you with the letter that you carried in here today, 0:41:51.000 --> 0:41:57.640 whether it's condemnation, temptation, whether it's an insecurity, or whether 0:41:57.680 --> 0:42:00.120 it's an actual attack from the enemy that's happening in 0:42:00.160 --> 0:42:03.960 your life right now that only you know about. This 0:42:04.000 --> 0:42:06.440 would apply to any addiction you're dealing with, any problem 0:42:06.480 --> 0:42:07.320 that you have today. 0:42:08.160 --> 0:42:09.319 Watch what Hezekiah did. 0:42:10.000 --> 0:42:13.960 He received the letter from the messengers and read it, 0:42:14.760 --> 0:42:18.560 and then he went up to the temple of the 0:42:18.640 --> 0:42:26.160 Lord and he spread it out before the Lord. 0:42:26.840 --> 0:42:27.640 He spread it. 0:42:27.600 --> 0:42:32.359 Out before the Lord. Physically he did that. He took 0:42:32.400 --> 0:42:37.320 the scroll I liked it out, this would be the scroll, 0:42:38.719 --> 0:42:45.640 and he spread it out before the Lord. 0:42:46.800 --> 0:42:48.920 Because if he carries it inside of himself, if he 0:42:48.960 --> 0:42:52.080 stays in his head, he doesn't know what to do. 0:42:53.680 --> 0:42:56.920 But he really doesn't know what to say either, So 0:42:57.040 --> 0:43:01.960 he spreads it out. Somebody say, spread it out before 0:43:02.000 --> 0:43:06.960 the Lord. Both of those are so important. One tells 0:43:07.000 --> 0:43:09.840 me what he did and one tells me where he 0:43:09.880 --> 0:43:12.280 did it, and both are important. 0:43:13.239 --> 0:43:15.799 The first thing he did was he spread it out. 0:43:16.800 --> 0:43:19.520 He's like, God, I'm not going to read this over 0:43:19.520 --> 0:43:21.480 and over and over again and imagine all the horrible 0:43:21.520 --> 0:43:23.120 things that can happen here. 0:43:24.480 --> 0:43:24.719 Here. 0:43:26.680 --> 0:43:28.840 And you need a space in your life for this 0:43:28.960 --> 0:43:31.320 season that you're in, for these challenges that you're facing 0:43:31.320 --> 0:43:34.640 that you've never faced before, for these Seneca ReBs that 0:43:34.680 --> 0:43:37.239 are going on inside of your psychological state. 0:43:37.280 --> 0:43:39.080 Because I think this is a mental battle more than 0:43:39.120 --> 0:43:39.680 it's anything. 0:43:40.800 --> 0:43:43.719 You need a space to be able to spread it 0:43:43.760 --> 0:43:48.880 out before the Lord, and often we don't because when 0:43:48.960 --> 0:43:52.920 anxiety comes on us, it has a way of pushing 0:43:53.040 --> 0:43:57.280 us back down, so we can't even sit with anything 0:43:57.440 --> 0:44:00.480 very long without sinking in to it. 0:44:01.760 --> 0:44:02.880 To spread out. 0:44:02.680 --> 0:44:05.759 Something before the Lord means that you can sit with 0:44:05.880 --> 0:44:10.719 him in an uncomfortable feeling, that you can sit with 0:44:10.880 --> 0:44:14.200 him even as the temptation is coming like a wave, 0:44:14.960 --> 0:44:17.120 that you can sit with him. And some of us 0:44:17.120 --> 0:44:20.399 have been convinced by the enemy that you can't sit 0:44:20.520 --> 0:44:24.959 with what you feel, So anytime you feel something uncomfortable, 0:44:25.239 --> 0:44:28.399 you just run from that. You just strip some more 0:44:28.440 --> 0:44:32.880 gold off the temple and say, here's Sanekareb. I don't 0:44:32.960 --> 0:44:36.040 like this feeling of being attacked, so I'll just do 0:44:36.160 --> 0:44:39.440 it the enemy's way. That's what a lot of addiction is. 0:44:39.960 --> 0:44:44.759 Whether that addiction is to thinking, pills, food, you name it. 0:44:45.080 --> 0:44:48.560 Any of our addictions are often traced to something that 0:44:48.640 --> 0:44:51.799 we will not sit in because I don't like how 0:44:51.840 --> 0:44:52.640 this feels. 0:44:53.080 --> 0:44:55.920 So I'll just give the devil my gold. I'll just 0:44:56.040 --> 0:44:58.759 give the devil my peace. I'll even give him. 0:44:58.680 --> 0:45:01.880 My whole family if you will just stop making me 0:45:02.160 --> 0:45:06.680 feel this way. We do not resist him, because somewhere 0:45:06.680 --> 0:45:08.520 along the line. 0:45:07.960 --> 0:45:10.080 You have bought the lie. 0:45:09.760 --> 0:45:12.840 That this is bigger than you. Well, it might be, 0:45:13.239 --> 0:45:15.040 but guess what I know about it. 0:45:15.120 --> 0:45:22.800 Whatever it is, you know where I'm going, How big 0:45:22.880 --> 0:45:23.120 is it? 0:45:24.800 --> 0:45:28.040 How big is this problem? How big is this in 0:45:28.120 --> 0:45:30.040 to me? How big? 0:45:30.880 --> 0:45:34.200 You're like, it's really big, preacher, like, really really big. 0:45:34.600 --> 0:45:35.440 How big is it? 0:45:35.840 --> 0:45:41.120 Well, that depends what it's up against? 0:45:46.239 --> 0:45:46.719 Here we go. 0:45:48.160 --> 0:45:50.800 You're like, nah, I'm going through some real stuff. 0:45:51.000 --> 0:45:53.640 You don't even know. You're just up here preaching. I'm 0:45:53.680 --> 0:45:56.840 going up against something that's real. Somebody shout is real. 0:45:57.680 --> 0:46:00.680 Okay, it's real, But it's also a relative. 0:46:04.040 --> 0:46:05.440 Everything is relative. 0:46:06.440 --> 0:46:09.439 I found this out watching my dog, our dog. 0:46:09.600 --> 0:46:11.680 I say, my dog, I don't do anything for him. 0:46:11.719 --> 0:46:12.400 It's their dog. 0:46:13.040 --> 0:46:16.480 Their dog is a Boston Terrier named bo Do. Y'all 0:46:16.520 --> 0:46:18.640 remember when I told the whole church, I'm getting the 0:46:18.640 --> 0:46:19.360 family a dog. 0:46:19.920 --> 0:46:20.279 I did. 0:46:21.560 --> 0:46:26.600 He not too big, But when he was meeting his uh, 0:46:27.040 --> 0:46:31.319 his cousin, I guess Holly's parents dog. 0:46:31.440 --> 0:46:35.319 What would that make them a relation? Anyway? What kind 0:46:35.320 --> 0:46:36.120 of dog is? Yo Yo? 0:46:38.600 --> 0:46:43.080 Chihuahuah was a yo Yo and Coco. I'm gonna work 0:46:43.080 --> 0:46:48.640 this out, y'all in a million a morky? What's a morky? 0:46:49.680 --> 0:46:55.640 All right? Coco is really little? Bo is big when 0:46:55.640 --> 0:46:58.280 he's with Coco. Bo met Coco. 0:46:59.160 --> 0:47:03.520 Bo was a bully because he was big. 0:47:04.880 --> 0:47:10.080 Then Bo met Toby. Their dog. Toby is a Golden doodle, 0:47:10.760 --> 0:47:15.200 bigger than a Boston Terrier. Y'all got the picture. Bo 0:47:16.480 --> 0:47:18.280 Coco Toby. 0:47:19.280 --> 0:47:24.720 Bo was a bully with Coco because Bo was big 0:47:25.120 --> 0:47:31.399 with Coco. Bo with Toby was not a bully. Bo 0:47:32.360 --> 0:47:41.120 was a sweetheart. I don't want to get canceled. I'm 0:47:41.160 --> 0:47:46.560 only forty thirty. Bo was really nice. Bo was on 0:47:46.640 --> 0:47:52.120 his best behavior with Toby. Because watch this, how big 0:47:52.200 --> 0:47:54.960 it is, it's. 0:47:54.880 --> 0:47:58.400 Relative to what it's up against. 0:48:00.239 --> 0:48:04.400 So when the devil is ticking on you, that's a 0:48:04.520 --> 0:48:09.200 sign you haven't reminded him lately what he's really up 0:48:09.239 --> 0:48:16.000 against me. When he starts telling you there's no way 0:48:16.080 --> 0:48:19.799 out of this one, that's because you didn't take him 0:48:19.800 --> 0:48:23.400 to the God of Moses lately, who opened up in 0:48:23.480 --> 0:48:26.160 ocean to get his people through. 0:48:27.400 --> 0:48:29.440 When he's telling you you're going down. 0:48:30.600 --> 0:48:32.040 You didn't show him the God. 0:48:31.920 --> 0:48:35.719 Of David lately, who can take a rush. 0:48:36.000 --> 0:48:40.000 Tend of renegade, tent a rag and knocked down a 0:48:40.080 --> 0:48:44.600 whole army, and he's telling you. 0:48:43.719 --> 0:48:48.000 You're not gonna make it. You haven't reminded him lately. 0:48:48.920 --> 0:48:54.320 Because he is God, so thad the odds, Yeah, God 0:48:54.840 --> 0:48:57.560 is we wear head. 0:49:06.920 --> 0:49:12.480 The way Baker is in the house, Hume, the Oddsmaker 0:49:12.600 --> 0:49:13.400 is in the house. 0:49:14.760 --> 0:49:18.200 You might be down by one hundred and eighty five. 0:49:18.040 --> 0:49:22.960 Thousand soldiers, but God said, I'll cover. 0:49:28.440 --> 0:49:30.200 Who what. 0:49:31.680 --> 0:49:31.719 What? 0:49:33.640 --> 0:49:35.440 Watch out if you want to be home. 0:49:35.239 --> 0:49:38.600 In time for dinner, because I won't preach this thing 0:49:39.120 --> 0:49:40.760 to that Boston Terrier. 0:49:41.239 --> 0:49:44.600 That's beniffit. It's your belief. Benip it at. 0:49:44.480 --> 0:49:49.399 Your future, benipping at your sanity, benipping. 0:49:48.880 --> 0:49:50.000 At your sobriety. 0:49:50.440 --> 0:49:55.360 Pblic ride back every settle with the Mexico. 0:49:58.200 --> 0:49:59.719 Say, hung in a high. 0:50:01.000 --> 0:50:05.279 They stretched them lies, he saw my sin. 0:50:06.520 --> 0:50:07.920 He stat is good. 0:50:09.120 --> 0:50:12.879 They could it end up your house? Somebody set off? 0:50:13.480 --> 0:50:21.200 Cover just spread, come run, come, just stats you up. 0:50:22.040 --> 0:50:25.360 I know you're not enough. I'll cover it. I know 0:50:25.560 --> 0:50:28.879 you're not enough. I'll cover it. I know you don't 0:50:29.000 --> 0:50:30.440 happen by Do. 0:50:40.560 --> 0:50:46.960 You have no idea who you're up against? Stephanel and 0:50:47.120 --> 0:50:51.239 it's not me. I'm a multi pood. 0:50:51.280 --> 0:50:59.400 What'd you say? It was a mortie? Oh I'm a morkid. 0:51:00.840 --> 0:51:02.040 But have you met my master? 0:51:03.400 --> 0:51:04.640 Ha ha ha ha? 0:51:06.120 --> 0:51:09.320 Where you're life? Come on, let's get ready. 0:51:10.080 --> 0:51:14.880 Let's get ready to tell sinnemarea that the Agel is coming. 0:51:15.520 --> 0:51:17.840 The Agel of God is coming, the. 0:51:18.000 --> 0:51:21.080 Agel of God over your family, the Angel of God 0:51:21.160 --> 0:51:26.240 over your finances, the Agel of God over your physical diagnosis. 0:51:25.920 --> 0:51:26.680 The ael. 0:51:32.680 --> 0:51:35.680 So much I want to say to you so much. 0:51:35.719 --> 0:51:36.560 I want to say to you. 0:51:39.600 --> 0:51:45.520 You've been giving God your problem and that's good. But 0:51:45.640 --> 0:52:06.120 let's change a little bit. Well, you say, I ain't 0:52:06.160 --> 0:52:07.000 a mooki over there? 0:52:07.040 --> 0:52:14.960 What'd you call it? Moi? Moulah Morki? That's a that's 0:52:15.000 --> 0:52:18.400 a man of God right there now, Help me. Appreciate this. 0:52:19.400 --> 0:52:21.479 I'm gonna give you this for the rest of your life. 0:52:22.360 --> 0:52:24.160 You listen to me good, and you listen to me young, 0:52:24.200 --> 0:52:25.640 and you listen to me now, and you'll play him 0:52:25.800 --> 0:52:27.520 back this when he's a little older. 0:52:28.080 --> 0:52:28.560 Listen to this. 0:52:29.480 --> 0:52:32.759 You can give God your problem, but make sure you 0:52:32.920 --> 0:52:42.719 also give your problem God, because. 0:52:42.480 --> 0:52:43.480 I think that's what it is. 0:52:43.719 --> 0:52:43.879 Right. 0:52:46.000 --> 0:52:51.080 You've been spreading it out before everything and everybody but God. 0:52:54.480 --> 0:52:56.440 And watch what has a guy did. He spread it 0:52:56.480 --> 0:52:58.600 out before the Lord. And now remember it's not just 0:52:58.719 --> 0:53:00.960 what he did. He spread it out because this is 0:53:01.000 --> 0:53:02.480 going to be some of y'all. Right, you're going to 0:53:02.520 --> 0:53:04.640 take this message. You are going to pull out that 0:53:04.920 --> 0:53:07.520 overdrawn bank account balance on your app. 0:53:07.440 --> 0:53:11.719 And say, here, God, I did what he said. 0:53:14.440 --> 0:53:18.960 Here's my scroll, God, I am scrolling to this balance 0:53:19.040 --> 0:53:21.640 on my bank account and I'm bringing it to you 0:53:22.440 --> 0:53:25.640 here God, and the Angel won't come. But here's what 0:53:25.760 --> 0:53:29.160 he did that I thought was so significant when he 0:53:29.239 --> 0:53:30.720 spread it out before the Lord. 0:53:32.160 --> 0:53:39.040 Verse fifteen. Please he prayed, He prayed, Lord, the God 0:53:39.080 --> 0:53:41.800 of Israel, enthrone between the Cherubim. What's that about. 0:53:42.719 --> 0:53:45.719 Well, if you remember, in the temple was something called 0:53:45.719 --> 0:53:47.840 the ark of the Covenant, which was overlaid the kasha 0:53:47.880 --> 0:53:51.200 wood and gold on the top. On the top where 0:53:51.239 --> 0:53:52.920 the gold was two and a half cubits, there were 0:53:53.600 --> 0:53:56.799 two angels, one on one side and one on the other. 0:53:58.360 --> 0:54:02.520 Those angels had wings that were spread up, and those 0:54:02.560 --> 0:54:04.080 wings touched in the middle. 0:54:04.120 --> 0:54:07.000 Exodus chapter thirty seven gives the details. 0:54:08.200 --> 0:54:15.239 When Hezekiah was spreading out his problem before God, he 0:54:15.480 --> 0:54:19.120 was looking at the ark of the Covenant, where those 0:54:19.239 --> 0:54:28.600 angels had spread their wings over him. Where those angels 0:54:28.680 --> 0:54:32.280 wings on the cover, the golden cover of the wooden 0:54:32.360 --> 0:54:36.960 box that house the symbolic presence of Almighty God. Those 0:54:37.040 --> 0:54:44.640 wings were touching to remind Hezekiah that while you're giving 0:54:44.719 --> 0:54:49.040 me your problem and reminding me of what you need, 0:54:50.440 --> 0:54:52.680 make sure you remind your problem. 0:54:53.960 --> 0:55:01.120 Of who I am, so. 0:55:05.680 --> 0:55:10.040 Which spread am I preaching about today? The problem that 0:55:11.520 --> 0:55:17.960 you could spread out before God, or the promise that 0:55:18.120 --> 0:55:24.640 He has spread over you? And which one will you 0:55:24.760 --> 0:55:32.440 focus on in this moment of your life. When Hezekiah 0:55:33.000 --> 0:55:37.040 read the letter, he read it. Once he confronted the issue, 0:55:37.680 --> 0:55:41.759 he spread it. He read it, and he spread it, 0:55:42.880 --> 0:55:46.680 and as he did, look at me church, God was 0:55:46.760 --> 0:55:53.640 already spread over him. But you don't see that when 0:55:53.680 --> 0:55:58.200 you're just right here. You know, they tell us all 0:55:58.280 --> 0:56:01.080 of this horrible stuff about what's gonna happen to our 0:56:01.160 --> 0:56:03.840 kids these days, and how there's no more hope for 0:56:03.960 --> 0:56:05.120 this generation in the world. 0:56:05.200 --> 0:56:13.279 To hell with that. I don't want to see that. 0:56:16.400 --> 0:56:18.560 I'm gonna say my kids are gonna have bumps and bruises. 0:56:18.600 --> 0:56:20.440 Yours will too, and none of us can foresee any 0:56:20.440 --> 0:56:31.319 of that. But when I see, yeah, the odds are 0:56:31.360 --> 0:56:34.200 against us. But God said, if you'll seek me, I'll 0:56:36.719 --> 0:56:41.360 cover the spread. I see you keep spreading out all 0:56:41.440 --> 0:56:43.920 your problems and all your reasons, but if you be 0:56:44.080 --> 0:56:49.520 grateful to me, I'll cover the spread. I see the 0:56:49.640 --> 0:56:52.800 distance between who you are and who you want to be. 0:56:53.760 --> 0:56:55.480 But if you'll let my grace in, I sent my 0:56:55.600 --> 0:57:07.000 son for you, and I'll cover this friend. And it 0:57:07.040 --> 0:57:11.000 is just like God to give us a term from 0:57:11.120 --> 0:57:17.160 Vegas and use it as a heavenly vision. I know 0:57:17.320 --> 0:57:19.160 the odds are against you right now, and I know 0:57:19.280 --> 0:57:21.520 that it feels like it's very impossible for you to 0:57:21.600 --> 0:57:25.200 make progress in this area. I get it, But to 0:57:26.640 --> 0:57:29.120 spread it before the Lord and to say Lord, you're seated, 0:57:30.520 --> 0:57:32.640 You're seated above all of this. 0:57:34.280 --> 0:57:37.400 This is not abstract, y'all. You can do this as 0:57:37.440 --> 0:57:38.960 a daily practice. And I want you to. 0:57:39.040 --> 0:57:42.840 I want you to take that problem, that persistent one 0:57:42.920 --> 0:57:46.120 that has become personal, pervasive, and you think. 0:57:46.000 --> 0:57:48.760 It's permanent, and I want you to get a vision. Now. 0:57:49.040 --> 0:57:50.840 I'm speaking to you by the spirit of God. This 0:57:50.960 --> 0:57:53.360 is not coming from my head right now. This is 0:57:53.480 --> 0:57:55.480 from God's heart through my. 0:57:55.640 --> 0:57:58.520 Mouth for you. He said, I want you to spread 0:57:58.560 --> 0:58:00.560 it before me. 0:58:02.320 --> 0:58:05.120 Maybe if the apostle Paul could join in, he'd say, 0:58:05.480 --> 0:58:12.080 do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation 0:58:12.240 --> 0:58:17.560 Philippians four, verse six, let's teach this by prayer and petition, 0:58:18.960 --> 0:58:25.640 with thanksgiving. Ah present your requests to God. And that's 0:58:25.680 --> 0:58:30.480 what Hezekiah did. He spread it before God so that 0:58:30.560 --> 0:58:32.680 he wouldn't spread it to the rest of the nation, 0:58:33.280 --> 0:58:35.920 so that fear wouldn't spread, and get the best. 0:58:35.760 --> 0:58:38.880 Of his heart. That's what he did. That's what we do. 0:58:41.480 --> 0:58:46.919 You turn your problem into a petition and you ask 0:58:47.160 --> 0:58:51.040 God what I do about this, and when he shows you, 0:58:51.520 --> 0:58:53.600 even if he only shows you a little bit, you 0:58:53.760 --> 0:58:55.760 do that and you leave the rest. 0:58:55.600 --> 0:59:03.040 To the angels. Because they've got you. I don't know 0:59:03.080 --> 0:59:04.160 about you, but I'm covered. 0:59:07.040 --> 0:59:09.760 I'm not going to cower in fear over these things 0:59:09.800 --> 0:59:11.000 that are happening in the world. 0:59:11.280 --> 0:59:11.920 I'm covered. 0:59:13.320 --> 0:59:16.200 I will not give my mind to an algorithm or 0:59:16.240 --> 0:59:18.720 a news cycle because I'm covered. 0:59:22.520 --> 0:59:23.160 I'm covered. 0:59:25.680 --> 0:59:27.760 Just this week, I was having one of these attacks. 0:59:27.800 --> 0:59:29.800 You know, you just get these thoughts from the enemy, right, 0:59:30.160 --> 0:59:32.720 And it was really my ego, But at the time, 0:59:32.800 --> 0:59:34.880 I felt like, man, what just happened? That was very 0:59:34.920 --> 0:59:39.240 offensive and I was very self righteous about it. And 0:59:39.560 --> 0:59:41.320 Holly asked me about it because we didn't get to 0:59:41.360 --> 0:59:43.440 talk because it happened. It wasn't a big thing. If 0:59:43.440 --> 0:59:45.160 I told you what it was, it would just waste time. 0:59:45.200 --> 0:59:47.360 That's why I'm not telling you, because it wasn't that big. 0:59:47.440 --> 0:59:48.840 But it felt big in the moment, you know what 0:59:48.880 --> 0:59:51.440 I mean. And so some little thing happened to me 0:59:52.160 --> 0:59:54.240 and it became this whole thing in my heart, like 0:59:54.360 --> 0:59:58.240 it triggered this old insecurity and I even know what's happening. Dang, 0:59:58.280 --> 1:00:00.600 Why am I so mad about that? And when we 1:00:00.720 --> 1:00:03.160 got done, she goes, how'd you feel about that? 1:00:03.240 --> 1:00:06.880 What happened? And I started to talk about it. But 1:00:07.040 --> 1:00:10.440 I realized if I said what I felt in that moment, 1:00:11.760 --> 1:00:12.560 I would spread it. 1:00:14.800 --> 1:00:19.240 I wasn't ready to talk about it yet. The next 1:00:19.320 --> 1:00:21.240 morning I woke up, I was still thinking about it. 1:00:21.600 --> 1:00:24.680 I couldn't stop thinking about it. Woke up thinking about it. Wow, 1:00:24.720 --> 1:00:29.840 I was that about And I took my little notebook. 1:00:30.840 --> 1:00:32.520 I don't have a temple to go to, all right, 1:00:32.560 --> 1:00:35.360 I don't have an arc of the Covenant. I got 1:00:35.400 --> 1:00:36.720 my notebook and. 1:00:36.760 --> 1:00:38.880 I wrote, Holy Spirit, show me how I need to 1:00:38.920 --> 1:00:43.800 see this. And I sat there and I don't won't 1:00:43.800 --> 1:00:45.400 to even sit there. I'm like, man, I'd rather be 1:00:45.480 --> 1:00:49.480 doing burpies right now that they're sitting here. This sucks. WHOA. 1:00:51.600 --> 1:00:55.600 Sometimes you got to let the anxiety pass through because 1:00:55.640 --> 1:00:59.080 on the other side of that anxiety, on the other 1:00:59.200 --> 1:01:03.240 side of that anxiety is an awareness that you can't 1:01:03.320 --> 1:01:05.360 get if you just run every time it shows up. 1:01:07.920 --> 1:01:10.840 And what the Lord showed me next was so powerful 1:01:10.880 --> 1:01:13.560 to me. It was one of the craziest things that 1:01:13.640 --> 1:01:16.160 he ever located for me. He showed me exactly why 1:01:16.240 --> 1:01:18.440 I felt that way about it. He gave me a 1:01:18.520 --> 1:01:22.400 better story to tell myself about it, and we went 1:01:22.480 --> 1:01:25.600 and had the best breakfast, and we ended up talking 1:01:25.600 --> 1:01:29.840 about our future in a very deep way. But if 1:01:29.880 --> 1:01:36.200 I would have spread it to her before I spread 1:01:36.240 --> 1:01:42.600 it before him, I wouldn't have even known what to 1:01:42.720 --> 1:01:43.240 talk about. 1:01:44.400 --> 1:01:48.040 Now. I know it's not always that simple, But. 1:01:48.160 --> 1:01:49.880 Do you have something in your life today that you 1:01:50.000 --> 1:01:51.960 need to spread before the Lord that you've been holding 1:01:52.040 --> 1:01:53.840 on the inside and fighting in your head? 1:01:53.880 --> 1:01:54.320 Stand up? 1:01:56.520 --> 1:02:01.240 Yeah, this is a place where you can spread it 1:02:02.240 --> 1:02:07.000 before the Lord. And I hear God saying this, Spread 1:02:07.040 --> 1:02:13.680 it before its spreads, before it just eats up all 1:02:13.800 --> 1:02:15.880 of your resources and all of your energy. 1:02:16.440 --> 1:02:19.360 Get it before him. He can show you things, Church, 1:02:19.440 --> 1:02:20.040 He really can. 1:02:20.200 --> 1:02:24.760 He's really alive, he's really loving, he's really personal, he's 1:02:24.840 --> 1:02:28.760 really active, he's really willing, he's really wise, he's really kind, 1:02:28.800 --> 1:02:29.440 he's really good. 1:02:31.560 --> 1:02:35.560 And so now we see the Angel of God. 1:02:37.640 --> 1:02:42.400 That as we spread it before him our problem, he 1:02:42.520 --> 1:02:45.200 spreads his protection over us. 1:02:47.880 --> 1:02:54.080 Say I'm covered wire. We come to you today knowing 1:02:54.160 --> 1:02:56.240 that everybody is holding their own letter written in. 1:02:56.600 --> 1:03:02.080 Its own tongue, speaking specifically to the troubles and trials 1:03:02.160 --> 1:03:04.600 of each individual child. Holy Spirit, I ask you now 1:03:04.680 --> 1:03:09.760 come manifest yourself through these human minds. So that we 1:03:09.800 --> 1:03:11.480 can recall what it is that we need to bring 1:03:11.560 --> 1:03:15.480 to you. But as we bring it to you, we 1:03:15.640 --> 1:03:20.760 declare that You're bigger than it. Yes, Lord, I hear 1:03:20.840 --> 1:03:25.480 you saying, we're looking at the wrong spread. We have 1:03:25.600 --> 1:03:29.640 forgotten the God who fights for us, to focused on 1:03:29.720 --> 1:03:30.760 the fighting that we're doing. 1:03:30.880 --> 1:03:33.680 So Lord, now you called us into your presence. You 1:03:33.720 --> 1:03:35.320 brought our etham from around the world. 1:03:36.280 --> 1:03:39.040 You brought your sons and daughters to our twenty church campuses, 1:03:39.920 --> 1:03:42.400 to all of the men and women and boys and 1:03:42.440 --> 1:03:47.000 girls who will hear this message. I thank you that 1:03:47.080 --> 1:03:59.280 you are spreading your feathers, spreading your faithfulness, spreading your favor. 1:04:00.400 --> 1:04:02.760 I want you just lift your hands as why as 1:04:02.800 --> 1:04:08.919 you can lift them, and just say, here it is God, Yeah, 1:04:09.040 --> 1:04:12.439 here it is. Here's the questions that I have, Here's 1:04:12.520 --> 1:04:15.920 the regrets that I have. Here's the anxiety that I 1:04:16.040 --> 1:04:22.880 keep fighting. But I'm spreading it before you. And there's 1:04:23.120 --> 1:04:27.080 nothing that is in that letter from the enemy that 1:04:27.280 --> 1:04:29.959 is greater than what is written in your word. 1:04:33.040 --> 1:04:37.320 Say, greater is he that is in me than he 1:04:37.480 --> 1:04:40.720 that is in the world. Again, Now, greater is he 1:04:42.000 --> 1:04:44.920 that is in me, Then he that is in the world. 1:04:46.120 --> 1:04:49.200 Say it again. Greater is he that is in me 1:04:50.360 --> 1:04:52.800 than he that is in the world. If we start 1:04:52.880 --> 1:04:55.160 rehearsing the right things, we'll start believing the right things. 1:04:55.200 --> 1:04:57.320 If we start believing the right things, we'll start becoming 1:04:57.360 --> 1:05:01.640 the right things. Greater is he that is in me, 1:05:02.800 --> 1:05:06.400 then he that is in the world. Somebody hot fives, 1:05:06.480 --> 1:05:09.720 somebody next to you say, he's greater, He's greater, He's greater, 1:05:09.920 --> 1:05:10.680 He's greater. 1:05:11.360 --> 1:05:11.880 He's greater. 1:05:13.480 --> 1:05:18.400 Angels of God inhabiting this space right now, setting over 1:05:18.520 --> 1:05:20.640 a canopy over his beloved right now. 1:05:21.120 --> 1:05:25.120 Greater is he that is in me, then he that 1:05:25.320 --> 1:05:28.840 is in the world. The clear it seven times a day. 1:05:28.960 --> 1:05:32.800 Greater is he that is in me, then he that 1:05:33.000 --> 1:05:36.360 is in the world. Tell senek av Greater is he 1:05:37.640 --> 1:05:40.760 that is in me, then he that is in the world. 1:05:41.680 --> 1:05:43.320 Come on, let's works of him together. 1:05:43.440 --> 1:05:44.360 Let's work of him. 1:05:45.680 --> 1:05:48.160 Hey. I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did, 1:05:48.800 --> 1:05:51.360 make sure to share it and subscribe so we can 1:05:51.440 --> 1:05:54.000 get you all of these new messages as soon as 1:05:54.040 --> 1:05:56.760 they're available. I also want to take a moment and 1:05:56.920 --> 1:05:58.680 thank all of you who are a part of Elevation. 1:05:59.200 --> 1:06:02.480 Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or 1:06:02.960 --> 1:06:05.640 just share these messages. It's because of you that we're 1:06:05.680 --> 1:06:08.600 able to reach people all around the world. And if 1:06:08.640 --> 1:06:11.120 you want more information on how to be a part 1:06:11.160 --> 1:06:15.040 of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again 1:06:15.120 --> 1:06:18.000 for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message, 1:06:18.120 --> 1:06:18.880 and subscribe. 1:06:19.200 --> 1:06:19.840 God bless you.