Embracing Limitation

0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:02.800 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:05.800 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:08.320 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:11.040 this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.600 gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:20.760 Enjoy the message. This week, I have one more installment 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:22.800 on Gates of Change and. 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:23.840 It's in Second King seven. 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:28.440 And I think this story for most of you will 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:34.400 be unfamiliar, which is good. It's good because I'm praying 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:36.440 that God will use it to speak to you in 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:38.960 a personal way and kind of catch you off guard 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.800 today and create change in your life. Here's what the 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.960 Bible says, Second King, chapter seven, Verse wan Elisha said, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.279 here the word of the Lord. You've been listening to 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.080 your doubts so long. You've been listening to your dysfunctions 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:55.880 so long. You've been listening to your disappointments so long. 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.600 But here the word of the Lord. 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.680 This is what the Lord says about this time tomorrow 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:03.840 a sea of a flower will sell for a shekel, 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.200 and to see us a barley for a shekel at 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:10.920 the gate of Samaria. And the officer on whose arm 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.199 the king was leaning, said to the man of God, 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:18.039 looks even this joker, even if the Lord should open 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.200 the floodgates of heaven, could this happen? 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:26.400 You know how certain. 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.600 People always want to put limits on what God can 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:38.000 do Taylor's secret. I actually love limitations. I know that 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.200 usually in church they say, you know, take the limits off. 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:48.720 I personally love limits. In fact, I'm calling this final 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:53.240 bonus message in the Gates of Change series, Embracing limitation. 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:56.000 Embracing limitation. 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.640 I think limitation can be a good thing. I think 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.960 it's a good thing that sometimes we limit our consumption 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:05.040 on certain foods. 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.320 Say amen, I'm a. 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.560 Real strict person on my eating because I'm too wild. 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:11.600 I'm too wild. 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:13.320 I need the I need the uh, I need the 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:15.480 what do they call it? The gutters on the I 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:17.680 will I will bowl into the gutter every time if 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:18.160 I don't have. 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:19.000 Those little guards. 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:21.760 So I actually do it where I'm not allowed to 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.960 eat past a certain time or before a certain time, 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.320 but during that certain time I can. 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.480 I can do it. But I need limits. I need limits. 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:32.040 Are you like me? 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:34.680 Maybe I have no self control? I need limits. I 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.920 don't even like restaurants with big Menus Cheesecake factory gives 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:44.800 me heart palpitations. The menu looks like Encyclopedia Britannica. 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.560 I can't do it. I need prozac to. 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:51.520 Make it through my my my order and usually I'll 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:53.480 get Holly to narrow it for me. I'll be like, 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:55.600 can you tell me just three things that I might like? 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.000 And can you just narrow the options for me? Because 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:01.920 I can't do it. I like limitations. I like to know, 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.079 even in preaching, when I go somewhere to preach, they'll say, 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:07.680 take as long as you want, And I'll say, well, 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.160 how long are the people expecting me to preach? Because 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:13.079 I want to know how long I have to work 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.799 before they tune me out because they won't. I can 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:17.520 preach as long as I want, but they might not 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:18.560 listen as long as I. 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:19.160 Want to preach. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.800 Why y'all clapping about that? That was a little awkward 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.960 while I'm saying that, Because limitation can be a good thing. 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.160 It really can. It can be a good thing. And 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.960 especially one thing that I love is when somebody tries 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.600 to put a limit on me that contradicts what I 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:41.160 believe God has called me to do. 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:44.400 Maybe it's my ego. 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:51.040 Maybe I have wounds from my childhood failed wrestling career 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.560 that I'm still compensating for. But I like somebody to 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:56.960 tell me that I can't do. 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.440 Something I do. It fuels my faith. 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.640 And when we were getting ready to start the church, 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.920 one time I sat down with a guy and I 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.880 was sharing my vision with him, and I was telling 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:13.520 him that we were going to start a church. And 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:15.920 I didn't have any better sense than to tell this 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:20.640 guy my dreams. He was a little older and jaded 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:26.400 because he had been disappointed in his life. And it's 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.839 a dangerous thing you ready to write something down. It 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.839 is a dangerous thing to entrust your dream to someone 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:39.360 else's disappointments. And a lot of times that's what happens 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.880 is we share our dream, Joseph, and we show our 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:48.080 coat to people who are not really ready to receive 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:52.440 what we speak, and so then if we receive their doubt, 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:55.839 they will diss our appointment. 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:00.120 I put that in for Holly. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.400 Holly dared me to put that in my sermon today, 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:05.320 and I didn't get it at nine thirty. 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:07.000 So there it is. Maybe you owe me some. 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:15.640 Uh, but it's a it's a dangerous thing to speak. 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:16.920 Something So here's here's what happened. 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.040 We're sitting down having lunch, and I'm like, I'm. 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.400 Gonna start at church. It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.080 be great. We're gonna we're gonna reach the city. We're 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.240 gonna go to Charlotte. We're gonna we're gonna have church. 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:28.480 We're gonna reach people. We'll break the rules. It's not 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.320 gonna be all this tradition and religion. We're gonna do it. 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.000 It's gonna be edgy, it's gonna be for church people. 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.400 We're gonna reach people far from God. We're gonna beima. 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:38.800 And the more I was talking, the more he stuffed 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:40.560 his mouth and just smirked at me. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:41.800 Now scowled at me. 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.720 He didn't look mad, he just looked amused. He was 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.359 just smirking at me. And he's stuffing his face with 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:51.039 French fries. You know, Oh, overweight pastor just deepness. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.000 I'm just trying to color the story a little bit. 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:56.080 I don't even remember if he was overweight. 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:58.599 But what I remember is I went on and on 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:00.200 telling him it's gonna. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.320 Be We're gonna write worship songs and. 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.479 We're gonna do worship songs gonna touch the world, and 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.320 we're gonna write songs that are gonna go around in 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:07.719 the world. 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.880 Oh and it's not just gonna be a white church. 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.440 It's gonna be a lot of different kinds of people. 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.039 It's gonna be white people and black people, and old 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:23.320 people and young people and Presbyterians and Pentecostals and atheists 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.880 and agnostics and just all kind of people and single 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.280 people and marry people and divorced people. I'm going on 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.240 and on, and he's just eating looking at me, mm hmm. 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:35.120 And when I finished, he looked at me and said, 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:40.279 not gonna happen, Bud, Not in the South, Not in 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:46.559 the South, not gonna happen. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.440 To be fair, look down your role real quick and 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:50.200 check your role. 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.160 And I dare you to shout at the top of 0:06:55.200 --> 0:07:01.839 your little sanctified Sunday morning voice, somebody shouts happen. And 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.000 as a matter of fact, I kind of hope that 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.840 he watches this sermon on television, y'all excuse me for 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.480 a minute, so he can see. 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:14.240 Black people and white. 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:18.280 People and Hispanic people and Latina people come on and 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:23.040 loud people acquire people and big people and little people 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:27.120 and young people, and old people and broken people. 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:32.080 And all people altogether. Somebody's shad is happening. 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:51.560 Is something because the limitations you embrace will regulate the 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:58.080 blessing you experience. And when you allow beliefs to limit 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:02.040 your God, because you're mind set is too small to 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:07.720 accommodate the magnitude of His glory, you miss out on 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:11.000 the very miracles that have your name on them. 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.960 Please follow me for a moment. When the officer said. 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:20.360 To the prophet, look, even if the Lord should open 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:25.360 the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen? What he 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:30.040 did is he closed the gate on the gift that 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:36.760 God was giving him. So it was a desperate situation 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.199 in the nation because the famine had been going on 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:44.120 so long that within the gates of the city walls, 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.040 the people had resorted to cannibalism. 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:48.480 And I debated whether to. 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:51.160 Tell you this, but it's right in chapter six, should 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.079 you choose to read it, They had started eating their 0:08:53.080 --> 0:09:03.160 own babies. It sounds extreme, However, I think we can 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:08.200 all see ways that at times we compromise the next 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:14.080 generation when our value systems get shifted, and so as 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:18.000 the value system has shifted within the nation. The favor 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:22.080 of God has not been so much withheld as it 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.320 has been held up. 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:25.160 And here's the difference. 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.720 When you read about famine in the Bible, you probably 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.400 associate famine with drought. 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.200 And usually when you see. 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.520 A famine in the Bible, it is connected to a 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:41.559 pronouncement by a prophet, like when Elijah said, there will 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:43.520 be no rain or do in the land in the 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.040 next few years except at my word to King Aha. 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:51.360 And God withheld the rain from the heavens, and God 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.440 cut off the source of supply so that the people's 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.440 hearts would turn back to him. Now, in antiquity, people 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:03.720 did not regard famine and drought only with agriculture or 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:11.680 weather conditions. In antiquity, people regarded the rain as a 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.840 sign or symbol of the presence and blessing of God, 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:19.680 because blessing was associated with life and life with blessing 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:21.760 and without rain, there can be no life. And so 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.240 where there is no blessing, there is no life. Where 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.160 there is no rain, there is no food. Where there 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.720 is no presence of God, where there is no worship, 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:34.640 there can be no life, no strength, no hope. However, 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.960 this is a different kind of famine that was not 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:39.320 created by a drought. 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.319 This famine started with a siege. 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.720 Ben Adad was an excellent military strategist, and so when 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.720 he surrounded the northern Kingdom of Israel, which was known 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:55.880 as Samaria, what he did of common military tactic was 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.480 that he cut them off from their supply. And when 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.439 he cut their line to their food supply, it wasn't 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:06.080 that he eliminated the food. It was that he prevented 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:11.000 them from accessing it. And so, since the devil cannot 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:15.720 prevent God from blessing you, his only alternative is to 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.280 put you in a state of spiritual siege, so that 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:22.440 you cannot access the blessing that God has freely given you. 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.040 Sometimes we are starving not because of something that God 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.480 did not supply, but because of something he supplied that 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:37.560 we cannot cease. When the enemy puts you in a 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:39.679 state of unbelief, it. 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.200 Blocks you from your own blessing. 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.720 And King Jehoram had the wrong people around him at 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:48.920 this time. We saw it in the text the Officer 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.679 verse two, on whose arm the king was leaning A 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.560 side note for all the students, be careful who you 0:11:55.640 --> 0:12:02.240 lean on. He was leaning on man who would not believe, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.760 who would not connect to the prophecy by faith, and 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:11.960 when you lean on people who insist on dragging you 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:17.040 into their dysfunctional way of thinking. This might be only 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:21.520 for five people, but sometimes something you lean on in 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.120 one season that props you up can paralyze you in 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:29.800 the next season. And sometimes we build in our lives 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:32.800 support systems that are unable to accommodate the weight of 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.000 what God is speaking to us. So be real careful 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.200 who you lean on. Ask somebody, can I lean on you? 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.360 Because see, I don't want to get in the middle 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:43.920 of a famine and be leaning on someone who doesn't 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.840 have faith. For the life that I'm trying to live, 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:51.000 I can't just be surrounded by people who refuse to 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.000 believe that better days are ahead and that greater things 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:58.920 are in store. So sometimes I have to restrict access, 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.800 and I can't just be around anybody, and I can't 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.679 just listen to anything, and I cannot believe everything I see, 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:11.040 and I certainly cannot believe everything I think. So sometimes 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.960 I've got to shut it down, and sometimes I got 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.040 to mute some people, and sometimes I got to spend 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.120 some time in the presence of God, because my signal 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.560 to noise ratio has caused me to miss the provision 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.439 of God, because I'm leaning on the wrong people and 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:29.560 listening to the wrong voices. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:30.959 This is the word of the Lord. 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.440 I'm not saying be mean to people, just don't lean 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:43.920 on them. Lean on the everlasting arms, lean on the 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:44.959 promises of God. 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:46.920 Build your house. 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:52.800 On a solid foundation, not the shifting sands of people's opinions. 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.240 And the man on whose arm the king lean said, 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:03.480 could this happen? Responded he said, you will see it 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:12.200 with your own eyes, but you ain't getting none of it. 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.080 That's the new new international version, new. 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:23.120 New I was just thinking how sad that was that 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.880 it was a day of deliverance and the top advisor 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:29.920 to the king starved to death. 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:31.440 As a matter of fact, he didn't. 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:32.680 Even get the chance to start, because look when the 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:35.160 people went into the enemy's camp and plundered the enemy's 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:37.920 camp in accordance with the word of the Lord. Verse 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.800 seventeen says, now the king had put the officer on 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.560 whose arm he leaned, in charge of the gate. Question, 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.600 who have you put in charge of your gates? 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:51.200 What regulates your thoughts? 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:56.560 What regulates your belief, what regulates your self image. Look, 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.160 he put the man in charge of the gate. There's 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.360 a lot of revelation in this message. I'm gonna give 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:03.840 you all of it I can, but you will need 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:08.040 to lean into this message because sometimes you have put 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:14.400 a past experience in charge of the gate to your future. Listen, 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.440 and when you let your past experience regulate access to 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.640 your future, you will always be stuck in a stage 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.440 of life that can no longer accommodate what God is 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.640 speaking in this season. 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:34.240 Not gonna happen. 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.480 But what if I had listened to him, we wouldn't 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.080 get to hang out today. What if I had listened 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.160 to him, I would have built me a little white 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.960 church with some little white people, and it'd be about 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.560 fifty of us, and we would just preach to the choir, 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.600 and we wouldn't change anything, and we wouldn't touch anything, 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.840 and we wouldn't have Epham watching all over the world. 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:59.040 The devil is a liar is happening, and it's gonna happen. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.400 Within or without you. You might as well get in 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:08.600 on it, because it's here preaching. My watch off my wrists. 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.160 So if somebody says, happening and what a horrible thing 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:15.120 for it to be happening right in front of you, 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:20.120 but you don't experience it. The man on whose arm 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:25.400 the king leaned stood in the gate, and while the 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:29.720 people were running to the victory, the Bible says, they 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:33.040 trampled him in the gateway. 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:38.600 He died in the gate of what was possible. Y'all 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:44.840 give me a minute. I don't really know what to do. 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:52.080 It's a little too minute. Touch somebody say, get out 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:56.320 of the gate till twelve people sucking he it. 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:00.240 My love, Tom, come on, twelve people, get out of 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:00.480 the gate. 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.400 Oh, nobody coming to help me either. Buck, I don't 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:12.800 need you. I don't need you. Buck, and do this myself. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:15.600 I started with week one. 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.119 I was saying, get back in the gate, but I 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:19.760 heard the Lord saying, this time, get out. 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:21.160 Of the gate. I said, what is it? He said, 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:21.760 make a move. 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:26.240 You hear all this teaching, you, hear all this excitement. Ah, 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:29.879 that's good, but you got to get started. And he 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:37.520 died in the gateway. He blocked his own breakthrough. He 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:42.200 saw it, but he did not experience it because he would. 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:44.320 Not believe it. 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:47.960 It is our unbelief that blocks our blessing, not others. 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:55.920 Some of us we block ourselves by blaming others, and 0:17:56.000 --> 0:18:00.639 so we stay locked in prisons of offence and we 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:04.880 miss blessings because we would rather blame somebody else than 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:06.040 believe God. 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:08.200 See, let me preach this. 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:12.320 You cannot believe God and blame them. At the same time, 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.280 you can't believe God and blame others. 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.120 Either you believe. 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.680 That what people meant for evil God means for good, 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.920 or you don't. If you believe God, it means there's 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.080 nothing life can do to you. There's nothing people can 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.800 throw at you. There's nothing they can say about you, 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.040 think about you, or lock you out of that will 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.760 keep you from receiving what God is a signed to 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:46.720 your life. So here's the announcement, Elisha. You can have 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.679 your breakthrough or you can have your blame, but you 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:57.440 can't have both. When the king came to Elisha, he said, 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:02.800 this is God's fault that we're in this famine. 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.280 It wasn't the lord's fault. It was the fault of 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:05.720 the leader. 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.840 And sometimes we will not lead our own lives and 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:17.879 take initiative for our own repentance, so we block our blessings. Boys, 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:23.960 do you hear me. We block our own blessings, not 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:31.280 the devil, our disbelief. God's going to do it. The 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.679 other day, a great man of God was encouraging me. 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:37.359 Great man of God. If you made a list of 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.720 the top five people in the world, he would be, 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:51.399 in my opinion, somewhere in the top ten. But I 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.680 respect him so much. Now why I respect him? He 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:59.520 has longevity and ministry. And he was introducing me to speak, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.800 invited me to speak, and he got up to introduce me, 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:07.600 and the things he was saying about me, they were 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:09.600 so nice and encouraging, I thought he. 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:11.600 Was talking about someone else. 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:16.840 It was a kind of introduction where he wasn't just 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.320 speaking like he wrote a book or he pastor to church. 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.679 He was saying things that he saw in me and 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.800 how God had called me and our ministry and a 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:30.920 voice to the generation, a bridge to reconciliation, just things 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:35.240 that while he was saying them, at the same time 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.879 that he was affirming me, watch this, there was another 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:43.160 There was another voice, not on the stage, but inside 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:48.439 my soul. You ever had this happen, Like somebody is 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:54.119 trying to affirm you, trying to love you, trying to 0:20:54.240 --> 0:21:00.760 validate you, but you cannot receive that because your gates 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:07.000 are blocked. There is something in the way called you 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.800 that will not allow you to receive the love that 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:18.800 God is trying to give you through someone else. And 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.600 while he was saying these things about me, it's almost 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.080 like the more he said good about me, the worse 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:29.280 I felt, because what I thought is he doesn't know me. 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:33.280 The problem with you is you've got too much dirt 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:39.000 on yourself. And the problem with you is you think 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:44.600 you know yourself better than God does. The moment the 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.560 revelation hits your life that the only one who knows 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.600 you completely is the same one who loves you unconditionally, 0:21:51.160 --> 0:22:00.119 you will be unstoppable in the Kingdom of God. And 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.720 while he was sitting there affirming me and saying things 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.480 about me, the devil that will, slithering serpent that came 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:09.240 crawling up the eve talking about did God really say 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:14.639 he was placing limitations? It was my own limitation. It 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:17.400 is hard for you to take on giants when you. 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:22.040 See yourself as a grasshopper. It's hard for. 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:23.760 You to come out of a famine when you are 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:25.800 living in the depths of your own frustration. 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:27.639 And even when I preach. 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.600 Sometimes some of you play me off and hold me 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:33.439 off and cross your arms and close your heart and 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.280 you lean back, and it is your way of shutting 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:36.800 the gates. 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:39.359 But you are missing the miracle. 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:52.840 Because you feel unworthy. But God never predicated his blessing 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:54.359 on your worthiness. 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:01.160 Perfection is not the price of admission to. 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:03.639 The Kingdom of God, nor to the great works and 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:05.359 mighty things that He has called you to do in 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:05.800 the earth. 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:08.399 I feel annoyed to tell. 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:12.679 You today, imperfection has never stopped God from blessing anybody. 0:23:13.280 --> 0:23:17.600 The only thing that blocks your blessing is unbelieved. But 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:20.240 I dare you to shout right now, loud enough where 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:21.399 that devil can hear you. 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:27.680 I believe I am the righteousness of God. I need 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:30.640 you all this shout. My voice is tired. Shout. I believe. 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:42.640 Elijah said you'll see it, but you won't experience it. 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:46.600 He doesn't say how he ever, knows how. God doesn't 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:49.960 give you a lot of the details. Sometimes I wish 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:54.040 he did it be super nice, but he doesn't. All 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:58.679 he says is this time tomorrow the famine is going 0:23:58.720 --> 0:23:59.160 to be over. 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:03.000 How's he gonna do it? What are we gonna get 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:08.560 some manna from heaven. A little flashback Friday famine flashback, 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:11.439 because remember we're there in willerness the job. 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:13.119 Drop down a man out of heaven and say, a 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:15.600 man out of having what's it gonna look like? 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:17.840 How's he gonna do it? This time? 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:25.159 You might be surprised how God bless us and delivers 0:24:25.400 --> 0:24:28.520 the nation. Because the Bible says, oh, I love this 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:32.320 part right here? Can you tell that I love what 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:37.159 I do to preach to you? Because I really feel 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:41.639 like I've been cooking this all week and we're about 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:43.199 to eat something right now. 0:24:44.080 --> 0:24:48.840 I mean I smell it. Who smells good? Verse three. 0:24:48.960 --> 0:24:50.400 Now there were four men. 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:53.600 Everybody say four four four number of creation in the north, south, 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:55.720 the east, and the west. You know, winter, spring, summer, fall, 0:24:55.760 --> 0:24:59.679 four represents creation. So there's a creative miracle on the 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:06.200 horiz And now there were four men with leprosy at 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:10.760 the entrance of the city gate. Now contrast emerges. I 0:25:10.800 --> 0:25:15.120 got somebody in the gate who doesn't believe, and then 0:25:15.119 --> 0:25:16.040 we've got a group of men. 0:25:16.080 --> 0:25:18.000 They are outside the gate. 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:25.159 Not because they're coming back from whole foods. This is 0:25:25.200 --> 0:25:30.480 a gated community in the sense that these men. When 0:25:30.480 --> 0:25:33.080 the white, flaky spots started showing up on their skin, 0:25:33.640 --> 0:25:37.880 they had to go to the priest. Leprosy was used 0:25:37.960 --> 0:25:41.040 to refer to a wide variety of skin diseases in 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:45.040 this day, from the most moderate being a change in 0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:50.480 coloration to bloody sores. And since leprosy is a progressive disease, 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:54.080 eventually maybe your fingers start falling off. 0:25:54.200 --> 0:25:56.360 But it's also a contagious disease. 0:25:57.320 --> 0:26:00.560 So when you start to see the sun and you 0:26:00.600 --> 0:26:06.439 are pronounced ceremonially unclean, they move you and quarantine you 0:26:07.359 --> 0:26:11.640 and position you outside the gate. And now your only 0:26:11.680 --> 0:26:14.000 hope of survival is to beg because you can't even 0:26:14.040 --> 0:26:17.119 carry on a normal conversation. If you approach somebody, you 0:26:17.200 --> 0:26:22.040 have to announce your condition before you engage, And so 0:26:22.880 --> 0:26:25.960 to even get into the gate, you would have to 0:26:25.960 --> 0:26:29.640 start hollering within about ten or twenty feet. 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:32.000 Unclean, unclean. 0:26:33.600 --> 0:26:36.880 Can you imagine if you had to announce your condition 0:26:37.440 --> 0:26:40.760 to people out loud before you. 0:26:40.720 --> 0:26:45.640 Met them, you would have no friends. I'm serious. 0:26:45.880 --> 0:26:48.560 If you had to externalize things that people don't know 0:26:49.200 --> 0:26:51.520 what's wrong with you, some of y'all would have to announce, 0:26:52.359 --> 0:27:00.240 you know, I don't know, Amazon addict, Huh what if 0:27:00.280 --> 0:27:02.639 you had to announce everything that was wrong with you 0:27:02.640 --> 0:27:04.560 you had done a loss perversion? 0:27:04.680 --> 0:27:09.159 What would that be like? What would it be like? 0:27:09.359 --> 0:27:11.840 I talk bad about you the other day, but Hi, 0:27:11.920 --> 0:27:19.919 how you doing? I can't stand you announce their condition? 0:27:21.920 --> 0:27:27.760 And they're outside the gate and they're isolated, and they're desperate, 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:34.719 and they're not welcome, and they're starving, and the doggie 0:27:34.760 --> 0:27:37.880 bags have stopped coming because the people inside the gate 0:27:37.920 --> 0:27:40.200 are going to take care of themselves first and foremost. 0:27:41.400 --> 0:27:45.800 And they're outside the gate and there's four of them, 0:27:45.840 --> 0:27:49.119 like those four men. You remember the New Testament, don't you, 0:27:49.800 --> 0:27:53.199 because Jesus was preaching. Maybe we'll preach about it in 0:27:53.240 --> 0:27:56.480 my next series. And so many people were in the house, 0:27:57.280 --> 0:28:00.480 nobody could get in, but there were four crazy men 0:28:01.440 --> 0:28:03.879 who were a friend to this man, and so they 0:28:03.920 --> 0:28:07.080 got creative and they don't you try this if you 0:28:07.119 --> 0:28:08.159 come to Elevation. 0:28:07.920 --> 0:28:08.680 Church and it's full. 0:28:08.920 --> 0:28:12.000 They ripped the roof off of the house and lowered 0:28:12.119 --> 0:28:13.840 I promise security will wrap you up. 0:28:13.880 --> 0:28:16.840 But this was Bible Times. They ripped the roof. I'm 0:28:16.880 --> 0:28:18.639 sitting an overflow, Yes you are. 0:28:19.080 --> 0:28:21.919 They ripped the roof lowered the man down, and the 0:28:21.920 --> 0:28:25.360 man got healed because of the faith of four crazy men. 0:28:25.400 --> 0:28:28.200 Now watch the crazy faith so much, say crazy faith. 0:28:29.160 --> 0:28:30.320 I'm just gonna say this right now. 0:28:30.359 --> 0:28:31.720 I don't mean to offend you, but some of you 0:28:31.760 --> 0:28:33.679 have way too many limits on what you will and 0:28:33.720 --> 0:28:37.840 won't do to obey God. You have too many limits, 0:28:37.920 --> 0:28:40.400 You have too many conditions. You don't want to look weird, 0:28:40.440 --> 0:28:42.080 you don't want to be different, you don't want to 0:28:42.120 --> 0:28:44.200 stand out, you don't want people to talk about you. 0:28:44.120 --> 0:28:47.160 And so you're starving inside. 0:28:48.120 --> 0:28:50.760 But these men, they didn't have the option to stay inside, 0:28:51.800 --> 0:28:53.280 and they couldn't stay. 0:28:53.040 --> 0:28:53.720 Where they were. 0:28:55.040 --> 0:28:58.000 The Bible says that they eventually, after many days of this, 0:28:58.120 --> 0:29:01.480 said to each other, why stay. 0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:05.720 Here until we die? What a question? 0:29:06.960 --> 0:29:12.560 In other words, it is complacency that kills us. It 0:29:12.680 --> 0:29:16.880 is our willingness to stay in places where we are 0:29:16.960 --> 0:29:22.920 starving because we fear the repercussions of our obedience, and 0:29:23.000 --> 0:29:26.120 so we don't join an E group because we're scared 0:29:26.160 --> 0:29:28.800 of being seen, so we stay in isolation. 0:29:28.960 --> 0:29:29.840 I'm gonna push these E. 0:29:29.880 --> 0:29:34.640 Groups today, and we die outside because we won't let 0:29:34.680 --> 0:29:39.400 anybody in. But they didn't have that option anymore. They 0:29:39.440 --> 0:29:42.040 did not have the luxury to sit back and wait 0:29:42.160 --> 0:29:44.680 and see what God would do. They no longer had 0:29:44.680 --> 0:29:47.080 the luxury of patience. So they said to one another, 0:29:47.480 --> 0:29:51.720 we can't stay here, and if we say verse four. 0:29:51.760 --> 0:29:53.000 We'll go into the city. 0:29:53.240 --> 0:29:56.480 The famine is there, so we can't go there, and 0:29:56.520 --> 0:29:59.960 we can't stay here. So we only have one thing 0:30:00.240 --> 0:30:00.680 left to do. 0:30:01.400 --> 0:30:02.560 Let's go. 0:30:03.080 --> 0:30:06.760 Somebody shout, let's go. You didn't shout at shout, let's go. 0:30:07.720 --> 0:30:11.160 So let's go over to the enemy's camp. 0:30:12.600 --> 0:30:19.760 And surrender. If they spare us, we live. If they 0:30:19.880 --> 0:30:26.760 kill us, at least we die quick. Because I'm hungry. 0:30:27.840 --> 0:30:33.960 Let's go. Let's go, let's go. We can't stay here. 0:30:34.800 --> 0:30:38.360 And we can't go there because we're outside the gate. 0:30:39.360 --> 0:30:42.080 Here's what I love. If you've ever felt like an outsider, 0:30:42.160 --> 0:30:43.920 raise your hand right now. If you've ever felt, yeah, 0:30:44.000 --> 0:30:46.000 like an outsider, that surprises you, right, because where are 0:30:46.040 --> 0:30:48.920 the insiders? If we all feel like outsiders? That was 0:30:49.000 --> 0:30:51.200 kind of weird. How more of us feel like outsiders? 0:30:51.400 --> 0:30:54.480 Here's good news for the outsiders. These men were on 0:30:54.520 --> 0:30:57.040 the outside of the city gate because of their condition. 0:30:57.760 --> 0:31:00.960 But what I love is God was using their condition 0:31:01.840 --> 0:31:06.720 to position them in the place so that they would 0:31:06.800 --> 0:31:09.240 not be comfortable enough to stay. 0:31:10.040 --> 0:31:12.800 And their condition here's what I love. I love a 0:31:12.880 --> 0:31:15.400 preaching to you. I'm appreciate this whole point just to you. 0:31:16.160 --> 0:31:20.920 Their condition position them to be God's secret weapon to 0:31:21.080 --> 0:31:24.680 save the whole nation. I am trying to say that 0:31:24.880 --> 0:31:26.480 sometimes the thing that. 0:31:26.400 --> 0:31:29.520 You hate is the thing that God will use. 0:31:30.120 --> 0:31:33.560 Sometimes the thing that makes people not like you and 0:31:33.680 --> 0:31:36.800 reject you is the very thing I'm about to fall 0:31:36.840 --> 0:31:40.040 off the stage that will cause God to select you 0:31:40.320 --> 0:31:43.400 and choose you and use you for a breakthrough. 0:31:43.680 --> 0:31:45.360 Does anybody believe. 0:31:46.840 --> 0:31:51.240 Then? To show the pillers rejectives? Way, y'all leave and 0:31:51.320 --> 0:31:54.680 I'm preaching good. Somebody shouted, you know, God's. 0:31:54.400 --> 0:31:55.800 Use an unlikely people. 0:32:07.840 --> 0:32:10.760 If they had been inside the camp, they would have died. 0:32:11.880 --> 0:32:14.440 It was the fact that they were not allowed in 0:32:14.520 --> 0:32:16.600 the camp that led to them. 0:32:17.040 --> 0:32:19.000 Look what they did. This is so stupid what they did. 0:32:19.280 --> 0:32:23.640 It makes no sense. It makes no sense. 0:32:24.120 --> 0:32:27.480 Sometimes, in order to see what God has spoken come 0:32:27.680 --> 0:32:31.880 to pass, you can't be so focused on making sense. 0:32:32.200 --> 0:32:35.400 Your senses are killing you. Living by what you see 0:32:35.600 --> 0:32:38.600 is killing you. Living by what you feel is killing you. 0:32:38.960 --> 0:32:43.960 Living by what you hear is killing you, and they 0:32:43.960 --> 0:32:46.960 had no choice. These are not the people who come 0:32:47.000 --> 0:32:48.680 to church to check it off a list because it's 0:32:48.680 --> 0:32:50.280 a nice thing to do, and their grandma would be 0:32:50.320 --> 0:32:51.800 proud if she was still alive today. 0:32:52.120 --> 0:32:53.280 These are the people who. 0:32:53.160 --> 0:33:00.680 Come to church because I need God to survive. These 0:33:00.720 --> 0:33:02.640 are not people who come to church so they can 0:33:02.680 --> 0:33:06.040 get a good parking space, perhaps on Tuesday morning. These 0:33:06.040 --> 0:33:08.360 are the people that come to church because I. 0:33:08.320 --> 0:33:09.160 Can't make it. 0:33:10.040 --> 0:33:13.160 I live and I breathe, and I move, and I 0:33:13.280 --> 0:33:17.280 have my being in Him. And that dusk, before the 0:33:17.360 --> 0:33:19.600 light came, they got up and went to the camp 0:33:19.640 --> 0:33:22.600 of the Aramias. And when they reached the edge of 0:33:22.680 --> 0:33:31.880 the camp, watch this nobody was there. God had already 0:33:32.720 --> 0:33:35.440 displaced their enemies. 0:33:37.440 --> 0:33:40.360 All they had to do was show up. 0:33:43.200 --> 0:33:47.080 See, they went to surrender to the enemy, but the 0:33:47.360 --> 0:33:54.800 enemy had already surrendered to them. When will we realize 0:33:55.200 --> 0:33:58.560 that when we run from the devil, we are running 0:33:58.600 --> 0:34:02.920 from a defeated f Oh. See, the Bible says that 0:34:03.000 --> 0:34:06.960 he is already under my feet. So all I have 0:34:07.080 --> 0:34:10.080 to do to have the victory in my life is 0:34:10.160 --> 0:34:13.320 to take another step. Now, I want to apologize to 0:34:13.440 --> 0:34:16.560 John Gray because he preached so good last week. But 0:34:16.680 --> 0:34:18.880 he said something that I want to take a step further. 0:34:19.200 --> 0:34:22.840 He said, these gates are voice activated. 0:34:23.120 --> 0:34:24.359 I'm not correcting him. 0:34:24.560 --> 0:34:28.680 I'm simply adding in addendum they are not only voice activated, 0:34:29.000 --> 0:34:33.760 they are motion activated. See God moves when you move, 0:34:34.120 --> 0:34:37.239 the title runs. When you take your stand, when you 0:34:37.400 --> 0:34:40.600 put on your sealed of faith, the fiery darts of 0:34:40.719 --> 0:34:45.080 the wicked one will be quinched. So when when they 0:34:45.160 --> 0:34:47.320 got to the edge, care somebody say. 0:34:47.200 --> 0:34:48.520 I'm moving, I'm moving. I'm moving. 0:34:48.640 --> 0:34:51.359 I'm not dying here. I'm not dying like this. I'm 0:34:51.360 --> 0:34:53.920 not living in this mess. I'm not passing this on 0:34:54.000 --> 0:34:54.680 to my kids. 0:34:55.000 --> 0:34:56.319 I'm not going out like this. 0:34:56.719 --> 0:34:59.360 I'm not startling with my God owns the cattle on 0:34:59.480 --> 0:35:04.879 a thousand, who's not like this? For the Lord had 0:35:05.000 --> 0:35:10.160 caused the Aramians to hear the sound of chariots and horses. 0:35:10.600 --> 0:35:14.399 God casts the enemy to hear an army that wasn't 0:35:14.440 --> 0:35:15.000 even there. 0:35:15.440 --> 0:35:17.840 When he lies to release the word of God. 0:35:18.200 --> 0:35:21.760 When you make a declaration of faith, it goes before 0:35:21.800 --> 0:35:23.040 you into your future. 0:35:23.480 --> 0:35:25.359 Matter of fact, why not shall right now? 0:35:31.880 --> 0:35:34.960 Because when we praise God, the devil gets a. 0:35:35.040 --> 0:35:38.400 Panic attash and he has to turn loose. I saw it. 0:35:38.840 --> 0:35:40.040 I feel like the price. 0:35:48.560 --> 0:35:52.120 I'm real sorry if you don't like it loud like this, 0:35:54.120 --> 0:35:58.800 but somebody is starving in this church today. And it 0:35:58.840 --> 0:36:01.160 wouldn't be so bad if you were starving and there 0:36:01.239 --> 0:36:05.600 was no food. But when Christ died to give you life, 0:36:06.480 --> 0:36:09.400 and the thief came to us, kill, steal, and destroy. 0:36:10.200 --> 0:36:14.360 I'm sorry, but I can't stand by silent while the 0:36:14.480 --> 0:36:16.279 devil white silad generation. 0:36:17.360 --> 0:36:19.520 I can't stand by silent. 0:36:19.440 --> 0:36:23.040 While teen suicide is in an all time I I. 0:36:23.040 --> 0:36:29.919 Can't stay silent. The gates of hell won't. 0:36:32.120 --> 0:36:33.040 I believe. 0:36:38.880 --> 0:36:43.680 If we stay silent, we die. If we hide our leprosy, 0:36:43.760 --> 0:36:44.480 it kills us. 0:36:46.920 --> 0:36:49.520 God nuse somebody who wasn't even allowed in the city 0:36:49.600 --> 0:36:54.879 to save it. God's gonna use all of you who 0:36:54.880 --> 0:36:59.359 feel unworthy, and all of you who feel not good enough, 0:37:01.760 --> 0:37:06.000 and all of you who have been ostracized, and all 0:37:06.040 --> 0:37:07.400 of you who feel limited. 0:37:09.520 --> 0:37:13.640 That's how God works. It's through your limitation. 0:37:17.280 --> 0:37:22.320 These men were so diseased that no one was allowed 0:37:22.320 --> 0:37:23.040 to even touch them. 0:37:23.080 --> 0:37:28.359 Come here. He couldn't even touch them. And that's who 0:37:28.400 --> 0:37:33.239 God chose. So they went in the camp. Let me 0:37:33.239 --> 0:37:33.640 show this. 0:37:34.520 --> 0:37:37.480 They went in the camp, and they saw that the 0:37:37.600 --> 0:37:39.480 enemy was already gone, because a lot of times what 0:37:39.520 --> 0:37:42.120 you're scared from got what you're running scared from, God 0:37:42.120 --> 0:37:42.880 has already dealt with. 0:37:46.440 --> 0:37:50.279 But the enemy has you under siege, and. 0:37:50.200 --> 0:37:53.480 He puts a spirit of fear on you, because if 0:37:53.480 --> 0:37:55.200 the spirit of fear ever lives, you will find out 0:37:55.200 --> 0:38:00.640 who you really are in Christ. But when they got 0:37:59.880 --> 0:38:04.200 they saw that it was theirs for the taking. 0:38:05.920 --> 0:38:07.839 So now the first thing they did wasn't to pray 0:38:07.880 --> 0:38:12.439 and give God their glory. First thing they did was eat, 0:38:14.120 --> 0:38:15.960 and they went in. They went in this tent. 0:38:17.200 --> 0:38:18.560 And when they reached the edge of the camp, they 0:38:18.680 --> 0:38:21.720 entered one of the tents and they ate and drank. 0:38:22.920 --> 0:38:24.879 No no, no, no, no, no no no, no no no. 0:38:26.320 --> 0:38:46.080 And then they started carrying away the spoils, the silver, gold, clothes, vibranium. 0:38:46.120 --> 0:38:48.080 This is good, this is good, this is good. But 0:38:48.120 --> 0:38:49.200 then they went off and hit. 0:38:49.160 --> 0:38:53.000 Them, went off and hit them, because that's what you 0:38:53.120 --> 0:38:53.920 do when you're a leper. 0:38:55.600 --> 0:38:57.840 You high. 0:38:57.920 --> 0:39:01.400 That's that's what you do when you're ashamed, you high. 0:39:01.600 --> 0:39:03.520 That's when you do when you feel like an outsider. 0:39:04.840 --> 0:39:08.840 Remember the man in the parable that said, I was afraid, 0:39:08.960 --> 0:39:11.839 so I took what you gave me, and I hid it. 0:39:14.400 --> 0:39:15.479 The enemy wants to keep. 0:39:15.400 --> 0:39:18.239 You in hiding, and if he can, he give you 0:39:18.280 --> 0:39:23.120 a condition that will cause you to hide your gift. 0:39:24.360 --> 0:39:25.960 You hear this word I'm trying to preach to you. 0:39:27.520 --> 0:39:30.839 I wish I could sit down one on one with 0:39:30.880 --> 0:39:35.000 everybody in the church and say, what are you hiding? 0:39:36.640 --> 0:39:39.880 Because here they are. God has given them the victory 0:39:40.080 --> 0:39:44.880 and they're hiding it. And sometimes we hide because we 0:39:44.960 --> 0:39:47.319 are convinced that we are not worthy. And sometimes we 0:39:47.400 --> 0:39:50.920 hide because we are afraid of what might happen if 0:39:50.920 --> 0:39:54.960 we let our lights shine. But they had a revelation 0:39:55.160 --> 0:39:58.200 in verse ten. I believe it is nose first nine, 0:39:59.200 --> 0:40:00.600 and they said to each you know. 0:40:03.800 --> 0:40:10.160 This is not right. Here we are. We don't deserve 0:40:10.239 --> 0:40:11.120 to be here. 0:40:12.960 --> 0:40:19.200 This is a day of good news, and we're keeping 0:40:19.239 --> 0:40:20.640 it to ourselves. 0:40:22.239 --> 0:40:22.399 Now. 0:40:22.400 --> 0:40:25.759 If we wait till daylight, if we hold this in, 0:40:27.400 --> 0:40:31.640 if we keep this to ourselves, punishment will overtake us. 0:40:34.760 --> 0:40:41.120 What you hold inside. When you don't show your issues, 0:40:41.200 --> 0:40:45.040 you die. When you don't share your gift, you die. 0:40:46.480 --> 0:40:50.480 You are dying because of what you are hiding. If 0:40:50.520 --> 0:40:55.480 we wait, if we sit on this, we die. If 0:40:55.480 --> 0:40:58.839 we expose our sin, we can be healed. If we 0:40:58.920 --> 0:41:01.960 hide it, we will die. And here's the thing. 0:41:02.280 --> 0:41:04.680 A lot of us are dying on the inside because 0:41:04.680 --> 0:41:05.560 our issues are. 0:41:05.480 --> 0:41:12.279 Beneath our skin. So we stay outside the camp, don't 0:41:12.280 --> 0:41:19.280 tell anybody. Fine, I'm good, good, good. 0:41:20.320 --> 0:41:24.200 We post and we pretend to our thing. But they 0:41:24.239 --> 0:41:24.960 had a revelation. 0:41:25.120 --> 0:41:28.680 God is blessing us now and we have to share 0:41:28.719 --> 0:41:32.239 what the Lord has done, even though we're lepers, even 0:41:32.280 --> 0:41:39.120 though I'm imperfect. You know how preposterous it is for 0:41:39.160 --> 0:41:44.560 me to preach to you when I struggle, Like I struggle, 0:41:46.760 --> 0:41:49.440 I stand on this stage before you each week by faith. 0:41:52.239 --> 0:41:53.560 See what the thing about it is? 0:41:56.920 --> 0:41:59.520 What if the reason God chose the lepers to discover 0:41:59.600 --> 0:42:13.840 the treasure was because they knew how to make an announcement. See, 0:42:14.680 --> 0:42:19.040 once they found the goodness of God, they said, let's 0:42:19.120 --> 0:42:23.480 go at once and report this in the royal palace 0:42:23.600 --> 0:42:28.319 and then look at verse ten. So they went and 0:42:28.400 --> 0:42:34.000 called out because that's what leopards do. Only this time 0:42:34.080 --> 0:42:38.520 they were not shouting unclean, unclean. 0:42:40.200 --> 0:42:48.239 This time they were shouting let's go, let's go. The 0:42:48.280 --> 0:42:49.120 only one. 0:42:48.920 --> 0:42:52.400 Who can really shout the victory is the one that 0:42:52.600 --> 0:42:54.600 God has raised from the. 0:42:54.600 --> 0:42:56.280 Ashes up defee. 0:42:56.800 --> 0:42:59.920 So I want to give you an opportunity. If he healed, 0:43:00.680 --> 0:43:03.520 if he saved you, if he raised. 0:43:03.120 --> 0:43:06.000 You, if he's been good to you, if you have 0:43:06.080 --> 0:43:07.720 a testimony. 0:43:07.400 --> 0:43:10.360 If you are not a say I'm a gospel of 0:43:10.560 --> 0:43:11.480 Jesus Christ. 0:43:12.120 --> 0:43:21.319 All the grateful people south right, thank you for joining us. 0:43:21.640 --> 0:43:24.080 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to 0:43:24.160 --> 0:43:27.640 this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. 0:43:28.120 --> 0:43:30.600 You can click the link in the description to give now, 0:43:31.200 --> 0:43:35.040 or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information 0:43:35.600 --> 0:43:38.360 and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. 0:43:38.640 --> 0:43:39.960 You can share it with your friends. 0:43:40.239 --> 0:43:42.520 You can click the share button, take a screenshot and 0:43:42.600 --> 0:43:44.680 share it on your social stories and tag us at 0:43:44.719 --> 0:43:45.560 Elevation Church. 0:43:45.640 --> 0:43:47.279 Thanks again for listening. God bless you