It Works In Reverse

0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.520 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.600 Church and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:13.720 so we can get you these new sermons every week. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:21.440 I hope you're blessed today. Hey, let's welcome our efam 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:22.239 all around the world. 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:23.520 Welcome. Wherever you're joining. 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:28.440 Us from today, we welcome you. Put it in the 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.800 comments where you're joining us from. I want to pick 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.279 up and tag team write with Holly, write with what 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:36.760 my wife shared last week. 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:38.720 I've been thinking about it all week. 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.080 You'all be seated now and I'm going to pick up 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:45.640 from the scripture that she shared beautifully from last week. 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:47.800 Didn't you think that was a beautiful word that my 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:48.960 wife shared last week. 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:53.920 We've been talking about this. 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:57.600 When we were talking about it, I said, Holly, I 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.960 think that you wrote this scripture, not David, because I 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:06.280 really see her live this out and it was just 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:08.800 such a joy to hear her share that message. We 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:14.119 kind of ended up doing a trilogy on trusting in God. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:20.400 We did the first week was ugly. Trust. 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.959 It doesn't always look pretty, and thank God he doesn't 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.200 need you to pray a pretty prayer to give you 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:35.080 an answer. Then I preached about delayed praise, and then 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.600 she got up here and preached the house down on 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:39.399 sudden strength. 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.199 To continue in the flow where she left off. 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.360 And the scripture that we have been talking about a 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.920 lot is in First Chronicles twenty eight, and it's a 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:58.240 really powerful promise from God and a principle. And I 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.520 want to be very simple today, if that's all right, 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.360 and not dumb it down, but really bring it right 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.880 there into the doing of. 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:14.239 This word in a way that can develop your faith. 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:19.079 In First Chronicles twenty eight, Verse ten, this is where 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:24.880 David tells his son Solomon. Consider now, for the Lord 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:29.000 has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:36.440 Be strong and do the work. Everybody say that, be 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:42.600 strong and do the work. Look at your neighbors, say 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:48.959 be strong and do the work. Verse eleven. Then David 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.120 gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:56.040 the temple, it's buildings, it's storerooms, its upper parts, its 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.720 inner rooms, and the place of atonement. He gave him 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.240 the place of all that the Spirit had put in 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.760 his mind for the courts of the Temple of the Lord, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.200 and all the surrounding rooms for the treasuries of the 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:15.799 Temple of God, and for the treasuries of the dedicated things. 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:17.119 Verse ten. 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:21.400 Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:22.960 a house as the sanctuary. 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.440 Be strong and do the work. 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.160 I'd like to talk to you today from this thought 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.920 and just let you know it works in reverse. 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:39.720 That's what the Lord told me to tell you today. 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:47.360 It works in reverse. Be strong and do the work. 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.240 It works in. 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:52.320 Reverse. 0:03:53.560 --> 0:04:00.360 Now. As wonderful as my wife is, you're like, what 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:04.000 comes next after that? That doesn't end with you having 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:10.000 a bad afternoon? Pastor just hear me out. Sometimes when 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:15.720 she's telling me about a conversation she had, she uses 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.760 this phrase that lets me know that she is slightly 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.560 exaggerating it, not because she's a liar, but because she's 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:27.840 telling me what she thought, but she's communicating it like 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.120 she actually said it. And here's how I can know 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:37.120 that's happening. She'll say, And I was like, and then 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.440 she'll start saying stuff put that in the chat real quick. 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:45.200 I was like, because when she says that phrase, it 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.239 usually is followed by something that I know she would 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.160 never say. You know, I ran into so and so 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.400 at the school, and do you know, they had the 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.719 nerve to say to me, boom boom boom, and I 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.159 was like, boom bom boom boom boom boom boom boom 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.800 boom boom boom and she goes off. But I know her. 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.760 She's not confrontational like that. She's like whatever the opposite 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.359 of that person is on the Enneagram, she's like the 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:14.240 other extreme of that. 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:14.640 All right. 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.120 I still don't remember the enneagram numbers that she gave 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:18.599 me one time to tell me who I was and 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.560 who she was. But she'll she'll go into this whole 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.760 thing and she'll be telling them, like telling them off, 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:25.960 like you know. 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:27.680 They they said, uh. 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.400 Well where we're where? You know, they said well this 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:32.760 and that, And I was like and when she gets 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:37.120 finished with them, I'm I'm I'm like you said that. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.160 And one time she looks back and she's like no, 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:48.919 But I was like that, I love that look at 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:49.640 your neighbors say. 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:50.320 I was like that. 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:54.760 You know how in church, when we get to preaching 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:56.880 real good, you're. 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.000 Like that, I trust in God. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:10.040 Ah ah my savee You're the one. Aah like that, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.200 That's why I trust him. I'm like, I'm like David 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:16.960 with a smooth stone taking out the lia all right 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:22.160 there on your forehead, giant. It's like that this uncircumcised 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:30.919 philistine will fall three thirteen pm today. You know, you 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:36.680 might you might be like something else, all right, So 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:38.599 you're gonna do me like that today in church? Just 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:46.480 be a real fake, real plastic today. I think that 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.279 idea that we get a picture in our head. In 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.480 Holly's instance, it's what we want to say in a 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:58.280 moment but we can't. It's the perfect comeback that we 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:04.520 think of three weeks later. You know, it happened in 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.120 target and then you thought of what you wanted to say. Hey, 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:08.240 you ever woke up in the middle of the night 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.679 thinking of what you wish you would have said to somebody? 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:12.160 But it's too late. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:13.320 Because now if you bring it back up, you're just 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.960 gonna look petty because it's weird now you just call 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:24.760 them randomly. And I was like, so, I think we 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.920 get pictures in our head of what we want our 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.440 life to look like, what we want to be like 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:37.680 under pressure, or the way we want our kids' childhood 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:42.160 to feel like. I wanted to feel like that, you know, 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:44.000 and you even see stuff on TV. I had to 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:46.240 quit watching This Is Us for a little while when 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.320 it was on because I can't say it like I 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.920 really want to say it, because y'all are real, super 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.160 sanctified today and I can't figure out what happened to you. 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:58.679 But but it. 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.280 Was for me. I told somebody one time that it 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.360 was emotionally like I said it not as a bad show. 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.600 It's a great I like the show and all of that. 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.240 It's a great show, but sometimes it's almost like pornographic 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:15.160 because everybody is doing exactly what you wish your best self, 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.000 like they had these speeches, and the speeches are just 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.760 so amazing, and you're like, yes, that's how I want 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:25.360 to explain my feelings. Yes, that's yes. I want to 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.280 be more like Jack. Not what would Jesus do? What 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.440 would Jack do? If you saw the show? You know 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.680 what I'm talking about, and he gave his life too, 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:34.080 Jack did it. 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:37.680 Go watch the show, but I had. 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:38.920 To pause it for a little while because it made 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.400 me feel bad because I'd be like, oh, I want 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.160 to I want to be there for my kids like that. 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:46.959 I want to make beautiful moments like that. 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:49.640 But mostly I'm just annoyed and grumpy, and that's probably 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:51.760 what they're gonna remember is me just being. 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.640 Like hey, and then you watch them and it's like, oh, 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:55.560 I want to like that. 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.120 When Holly was preaching last to be strong and do 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.440 the work, we kept talking about it all week and 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:09.439 we realize that when you hear sermons from God's word 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.559 be strong and do the work, you really do. 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:15.840 Want to be. 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:22.160 Like that where you, yeah, where you don't stress out 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:26.480 over stupid stuff, but you pray about things. You really 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.080 do want to be like that. At least that's my 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.160 core belief. I believe that everybody who has the spirit 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:36.439 of God, has the desire of God and really wants. 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.680 To do these things in your life. 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.760 And yet sometimes you're like Holly, where you're like, I 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:47.760 didn't do that, but I was like that, Like That's 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:52.280 what I'm going to be like one day. And so 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.040 there is this sense, oh, I feel the Holy Spirit 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.960 that you can get from time to time that this 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:05.640 is isn't working. You know, I'm committing to this path 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:10.040 of progress, I'm trying this new way of relating to people. 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:14.920 I'm trying to smile at people more. They don't smile back. 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.079 This isn't working. I'm just gonna go back to I'm 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:19.839 going to go back to my You know. 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:20.400 How I say it. 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:26.840 RBF is resting blessed face in my vernacular, and there's 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:31.920 a sense in which you can get discouraged. The Lord said, 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:38.360 for me to tell you today that it's working, but 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.559 to let you in on this little secret. It works 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:49.600 in reverse. When David was giving Solomon the plans for 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:51.680 the temple, you have to understand that this was not 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:57.680 his preference. He would have wanted to, and actually prayed to, 0:10:57.840 --> 0:10:59.600 and thought for a little while that he would get 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:04.400 to build the temple himself for God, possibly to atone 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.720 for the mistake that he made. 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:07.880 We call it a mistake. 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.520 It was really a grievous sin what he did with Bathsheba, 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:11.920 and he. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.200 Had her husband murdered on the front lines of battle. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.720 He spent his later years writing psalms and planning this 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:24.240 very elaborate place for God to dwell. 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:25.120 He did that. 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:28.920 But as he's nearing the end of his life, like 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.520 we read just now in First Chronicles twenty eight, he 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:37.679 calls Solomon and says, the Lord showed me how this 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:39.959 temple is to be built. I'm not going to get 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.160 to do it because God chose you to do it, 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.360 but I'm going to give you the plans for it. 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.720 Make sure you build it like that. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.200 God showed me specifically what this temple was to look like. 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:02.959 Don't cut corners, don't take shortcuts, don't be lazy about it, 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.800 don't deviate from the blueprint. God showed me what to build, 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:08.480 and he put. 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:09.200 It in my mind. 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:14.640 But it's gonna be from David's mind to Solomon's hand. 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:20.000 He's gonna show him what to build exactly to the dimensions. 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.200 And I mean, man, he gets specific, and I often 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:27.440 wish God would give me more specifics. Don't you just 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:31.080 write it out for me? Dear Lord, show me the way, 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:34.280 guide me on the path and tell me where to turn, 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:35.520 and I'll do it. 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:37.240 But you know the truth is I wouldn't do it. 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.280 I mean, he did tell me a lot of stuff 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.480 to do that I'm already not doing. There's no reason 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:44.360 for me to think if he told me exactly what 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:45.400 to do in every other. 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:46.600 Area, I'd just start doing it. 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.840 He already told me do everything without complaining. I'm doing 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.000 pretty bad at that, So I'm like, no, God, something else, 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.960 show me specifically what else to do? Where to invest? 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.400 My money, show me that what real estate to buy, 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.920 Show me that I want you to show me and 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:11.679 guide me like that. Well, if you hear this first 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:13.480 part of the sermon and then you have to leave, 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.360 you would have gotten a lot because the thing that 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.120 the Lord says to Solomon through David, and you know, 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:22.559 it's it's hard for us to believe that God feels 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.880 this way about us. But I want to put it 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.880 right there in your I want to put it right 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.120 there in your heart today. 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:31.080 Verse ten. 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:37.960 Consider now for the Lord has chosen you. There's a 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.240 lot I don't know Church, I don't know when Jesus 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:43.680 is coming back. I don't know who the Antichrist is. 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:49.079 There's a lot I don't know about the future, my future, 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.439 your future. There's a lot I don't know in this Bible. 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:55.040 But I know I'm chosen. 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:01.040 I know that. 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.000 I know that God chose me to speak this word 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:14.200 to you today. I know that I know that. And 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.080 I don't believe that you can fully know what you 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:21.920 were chosen for as you're going through it, but you 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.760 can start from the belief. 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:25.720 If you choose to. 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:35.200 That God has chosen you. You will need to understand that 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.480 God does not choose like people choose. 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.360 God does not judge. Remember how he chose David. He 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.800 said that man looks at the outward appearance, but God 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:51.240 looks at the heart. So when God chose David, he 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.040 wasn't looking for how tall he was. When God chose David, 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.960 he wasn't looking for how much ability he had, even 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:02.280 though he had great ability that he into. Yet when 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:06.720 it comes to heaven, he never starts with our ability. 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:12.239 But one preacher said, our availability, and that means. 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.040 Waking y'all up. 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:20.520 That means that he doesn't call the qualified, Rather he 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:27.280 qualifies the call. For those he has called, he will 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.760 resource for everything that he has chosen them to do. 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:35.360 Somebody's shout, I'm chosen, I'm chosen, And that ought to 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.480 make you feel good in your bones, just to know 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:45.640 that God chose you not only this, but the God 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:49.000 who is eternal, who lives outside of time and space. 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:53.080 When he was looking for somewhere to live, guess where 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.640 he said he wanted to dwell, Not in a temple 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.800 built by human hands, but he said, I want to 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.760 and live inside of you. 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:05.560 I'm chosen. 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.120 God walked around the whole neighborhood, and he said I 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:16.000 want that house. God looked all around. He was very 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.400 very choosy, see, because he had to be, because there 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:24.000 is a very specific assignment that God has for your life, 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.640 and he chose you to do it. Now, if you 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.120 don't get what I just said, you will struggle with 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.080 the rest of what I say, because most of us 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.680 would think that while Solomon was chosen, there is nothing 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.400 significant about us. While the temple of the Lord is 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:44.840 filled with splendor, majesty and onyx and stones and precious 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.600 rubies and things like that, we look at our lives 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.120 and we see that we are made of clay. We 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.400 are vessels that are scooped up out of the dirt 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.680 into which He breathed the breath of life. But God said, 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:03.400 stop apologizing for the simplicity of the temple of your 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.359 life and let him fell what he built with what 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.680 he wants to fill it with. You are chosen. Touch 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.800 your neighbor and say you're chosen. Tell him a little 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.680 more convincingly, because honestly, you sounded a little bit uncertain 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:22.080 about that. But God's not unsure about it. God is 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:25.359 not confused about it. You might be confused about it. 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.359 You might look at your life and see it as insignificant. 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.960 God doesn't. In fact, I would just put in here 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.760 whatever you need to put in here. Consider now, for 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.400 the Lord has chosen you to build a house as 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:39.119 the sanctuary. 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:39.880 But I can do better. 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:46.280 God has chosen you to be a house as the sanctuary. 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:51.200 Why is this so good to me? I just love 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:54.160 the word. Maybe I need to be reminded of it today. 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.560 Maybe I just need to walk through my house saying 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.119 I'm chosen. Maybe it's more than a TV show title. Well, 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.720 maybe it's more than twelve disciples chosen. Maybe it is 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.199 a new operating system and a framework from which I 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.200 need to come at every challenge in my life knowing 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.199 that if He gave me the challenge, he chose me 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:16.640 before he gave me the challenge. That's why I can 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:21.600 fight Goliath. Before this challenge showed up, I was chosen 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.240 to go for it. I was chosen to fight through it. 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:32.880 I was chosen to do it. And the Lord showed 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.200 me in my prayer time that you don't feel that. 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:36.360 Way a lot of times. 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:43.360 And that's okay, because God shows you what you are 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:52.360 chosen for as you go forward, it works in reverse. 0:18:52.440 --> 0:19:00.880 Be strong and do the work, Be strong and do. 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:07.680 The work. How do you hear that? Do you hear be. 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:14.800 Strong as a condition? Like you know, I need to 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.400 be strong, and do you hear do the work as 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.480 a command? I need to do the work. And the 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:24.320 problem if you hear it that way, If you do 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:26.280 hear it that way, maybe you don't, but that's probably 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:27.760 how I would hear it, because that's how I said it, 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:32.359 be strong and do the work. Is that Sometimes I 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:39.399 don't feel like I meet the condition be strong to 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:43.520 follow that command do the work. In other words, I 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:47.119 feel overwhelmed by it. I feel like the work that 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.160 is in front of me is greater than the power 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.240 that is within me. So I said, I wanted to 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.479 keep this simple, and I don't know how to keep 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.520 it any more simple than to put it on a poster. 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:01.560 Holly said she was gonna put it on a coffee 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:05.399 mug and a sweatshirt. I didn't have time to do 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:06.800 either of those, so I just had to make some 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.800 posters last night. Y'all bring me my posters real quick, 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:14.240 because I was thinking, everybody shout, be strong, everybody shout 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:18.199 do the work. Now I'm gonna need your enthusiasm. Thank you, 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:22.560 I appreciate you. That dude's been faithful in this house. 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:23.960 I appreciate him. Y'all give it up. 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:29.879 Shout be strong, shout it safe, be strong. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.040 Shout it like you need to get another rep say 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:37.199 be strong, you got this. You can lift this, you 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.040 can make this, you can do it if I take 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.960 it here go, Chunks, take this one. Be strong. Find 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:46.360 somebody in the church. Just walk around to you find 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.920 them that looks strong. I mean a big old guy, 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.880 not like there's us prayer warrior. I'm talking like physically strong, 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.080 big and strong. Just walk around for a minute, Chunks, 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.800 look at me. Somebody that you wouldn't mind looking like. 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:07.680 All right, I'll just qualify it like that. He's gonna 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.040 find somebody. While I'm talking, everybody shall do the word. 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:14.320 Who's somebody in the house. I'm gonna let you choose 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:18.200 yourself that you want to work out more getting ready 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.879 for the summer. You remember saying, okay, you want to 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:23.960 do it? Do you want to do it? 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:26.760 I don't know. 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:32.080 See here's the way this works. When God chooses people, 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.000 he knows who he's choosing. I don't know you, so 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.679 should I choose him? For this illustration I'm gonna come 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:46.159 over here. I don't know him. All right, over here, anybody. 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:44.800 You know what? 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:47.800 Because you got a tied die shirt on, I'm gonna 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.879 use you. I just think you look handsome. Hurry up, 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:52.399 hurry up. We gotta get this done. Come on, come on, 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.040 come on, come on, come on, come on. Did you 0:21:55.080 --> 0:22:00.600 find somebody chunks? Is he big and strong? He's big 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:07.560 and strong? All right, you come up? Yeah, Oh, you 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:12.000 don't know what I'm gonna make you do. So I 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:14.440 saw you doing some calisthenics. Come on up, coming up. 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:17.399 All right now, I'm not saying that one of you 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:20.520 looks better than the other. Y'all identified yourself says you 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:22.600 said you wanted to work out more. So let's do 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:28.560 this real quick. Come here, uh come here, stand here. 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:37.800 Uh yeah, that's the verse, right, be strong, do the work. 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:40.280 I'm sorry you volunteered. 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:42.720 Remember I was on the whole other side of the 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.439 church and you were calling me, choose me, pastor. Okay, 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:51.639 you got what you wanted, ted I, but you already 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:53.760 look you already look good. I'm gonna be honest with you. 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.840 To me, you look good. I want to show you 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:02.320 something that the Lord showed me He showed me that 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:07.560 be strong is what everybody wants to look like. Would 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:09.680 you all war short sleeves if you'd known this illustration 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:10.439 was coming today? 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:13.560 You had no idea, he said, I would have worn 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:18.359 a tank Tom. You would have got a pump to 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.280 wouldn't you? You didn't need one. You look great. Okay, 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:27.159 So be strong. Everybody said be strong, everybody say do 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:32.040 the work. Now, be honest real quick and say, but 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:35.840 I'm not strong. And how many of you felt that 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:38.560 way in an area of your life this week? But 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:40.679 it could just be a simple feeling. You may not 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:42.000 have said that, but it may be the way that 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:42.520 you felt. 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:44.679 So what the Lord was showing me as I was 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:49.399 studying this Holly, is that we think that this is 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:50.560 the condition. 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:53.720 To follow this command. 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:59.159 So in moments where we feel strong, we do strong stuff. 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:05.360 In moments where we feel solid, we show up consistently 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:13.199 and committedly is committedly a word it is today, And 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:19.000 then the command do the work becomes dependent on the 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:24.640 feeling of our strength. And see, that's fine for people 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:31.720 who live by their feelings, but you're not one of them. 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:34.840 That's fine for people who aren't chosen, but you're not 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:38.760 one of them. That's fine for people who have nothing 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:41.840 important to do with their lives. But you're not one 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:42.720 of them. 0:24:43.080 --> 0:24:44.600 For you're a child of the King. 0:24:45.160 --> 0:24:47.800 For he's given you a temple to build, For he's 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:51.160 given you an assignment to complete, For he has given 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:54.159 you a testimony. You're feeling this, I'm feeling this standing 0:24:54.240 --> 0:24:54.960 between the two. 0:24:54.880 --> 0:24:57.600 Of you all right now. I'm feeling strong as a preach. 0:24:57.880 --> 0:24:59.479 But I don't always feel strong. 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:02.280 Some times I have to do stuff that strong people 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:05.520 do when I don't feel stuff that strong people feel. 0:25:07.600 --> 0:25:09.560 So the Lord was showing me you got this thing 0:25:09.680 --> 0:25:14.399 backwards vertic. You still don't understand faith. You think that 0:25:14.520 --> 0:25:17.280 faith is when you feel a certain way, you can 0:25:17.320 --> 0:25:20.640 do a certain thing. You think that faith is when 0:25:20.720 --> 0:25:24.520 you get details then you can follow God in obedience. 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:28.439 But the Lord said, it doesn't work like that. It 0:25:28.480 --> 0:25:34.040 doesn't work like that. In fact, it works in reverse. 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:38.879 So you keep saying, when I get stronger, when I 0:25:38.920 --> 0:25:42.280 get clearer, when I get older, when I get better, 0:25:42.560 --> 0:25:45.520 when I get richer, when I get through this, when 0:25:45.560 --> 0:25:48.520 I get done with this, when I get finished. But 0:25:48.680 --> 0:25:51.800 God said, I'm not telling you to do the work 0:25:52.600 --> 0:25:57.879 when you feel strong I'm telling you switch places. It 0:25:58.000 --> 0:26:05.040 works in reverse. Help me, Holy ghost, God said, I 0:26:05.240 --> 0:26:09.440 see you feeling weak, but you'll keep waiting on strength. 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:13.240 But it doesn't work that way in the kingdom, because 0:26:13.240 --> 0:26:17.200 in the Kingdom, if you want to be strong, you've 0:26:17.200 --> 0:26:20.520 got to do the work. So how do I get 0:26:20.600 --> 0:26:24.119 up out of this pitiful situation? How do I look 0:26:24.560 --> 0:26:27.720 like that? I want to look like that. I want 0:26:27.720 --> 0:26:31.960 to function like that. I want to pick back like that. Well, 0:26:32.040 --> 0:26:35.440 God says, if you want to be strong, you gotta 0:26:35.480 --> 0:26:38.240 do the work. And if you do the work, you'll 0:26:38.240 --> 0:26:41.439 be strong. And if you'll be strong, you can do 0:26:41.520 --> 0:26:44.639 the work. And that's why I brought you to church today, 0:26:45.040 --> 0:26:45.880 because I got you. 0:26:45.880 --> 0:26:46.680 In the gym. 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:49.360 Today, because I want to fill you with the spirit 0:26:49.440 --> 0:26:52.959 of Jesus today and resurrection. 0:26:52.560 --> 0:26:56.160 Power of God flowing through your body. 0:26:56.680 --> 0:26:58.080 So you get bigg as. 0:26:58.240 --> 0:27:05.680 Strong and build your temple. 0:27:06.240 --> 0:27:09.679 That's what Holly taught y'all last week. Get somebody at 0:27:09.760 --> 0:27:14.120 high five and say, do the word, do the work, 0:27:14.160 --> 0:27:18.520 and you'll get strong. I don't feel like worship him. 0:27:18.520 --> 0:27:20.560 Worship him and you'll feel him. 0:27:20.600 --> 0:27:24.640 Call it till he comes, call it Tilly comes, Call 0:27:24.760 --> 0:27:33.320 it till he comes Jesus solitay that have mercy. That's 0:27:33.359 --> 0:27:40.920 what Phraises phrase, frege tower, do the word, do the work, 0:27:44.520 --> 0:27:45.000 all right? 0:27:45.080 --> 0:27:48.199 So so you want to look like that? You know, 0:27:49.440 --> 0:27:51.720 I found the devil. I found the devil. I found 0:27:51.720 --> 0:27:54.680 out where the devil lives. God lives inside of us. 0:27:54.720 --> 0:27:56.359 How many believe that greater is he that is in 0:27:56.440 --> 0:27:58.000 me than he that is in the world. Greater is 0:27:58.000 --> 0:27:59.360 he that is in me than he does in the world. 0:27:59.680 --> 0:28:02.200 God lives inside of I know where the devil lives. 0:28:02.359 --> 0:28:08.359 The devil lives in YouTube shorts. I found him. I 0:28:08.400 --> 0:28:12.199 thought I deleted every bad app on my phone, but 0:28:12.320 --> 0:28:18.280 the YouTube shorts gets me because somehow my algorithm it's 0:28:18.440 --> 0:28:23.480 only showing me right now, preaching clips, guitar solos from 0:28:23.480 --> 0:28:29.160 the nineteen eighties and workout videos, and all the workout 0:28:29.240 --> 0:28:36.439 videos are clickbait. It'll say the only shoulder exercise you 0:28:36.600 --> 0:28:41.800 ever need to look like this, And I clicked on 0:28:41.880 --> 0:28:44.959 it and I saw how the man looked, and I 0:28:45.000 --> 0:28:46.760 was like, oh, I want to look like that. 0:28:48.000 --> 0:28:49.840 That's how I want my shoulders to look. Yeah, like that, 0:28:50.800 --> 0:28:52.440 like that, look like that. 0:28:54.400 --> 0:28:59.040 So God gave me a question. He said, you want 0:28:59.040 --> 0:29:02.760 to look like that. Do you want to lift like that? 0:29:05.520 --> 0:29:09.840 Because that guy when I watch what he was doing, Yes, 0:29:09.920 --> 0:29:12.480 the only shoulder exercise that you'll ever need, but he 0:29:12.640 --> 0:29:14.920 was doing it with five times my body weight. 0:29:16.600 --> 0:29:19.800 He looked like he was about to die. So I 0:29:19.800 --> 0:29:21.480 clicked off. I'm like, oh, yeah, I want to look 0:29:21.520 --> 0:29:21.760 like that. 0:29:23.440 --> 0:29:28.320 I don't want to lift like that. They don't want 0:29:28.360 --> 0:29:31.600 me to preach this part because all we want to 0:29:31.600 --> 0:29:33.800 hear is the Lord has chosen you. 0:29:33.920 --> 0:29:34.680 Be strong. 0:29:36.200 --> 0:29:40.160 Or we want to hear. Okay, be strong in the 0:29:40.200 --> 0:29:43.160 Lord and in his mighty power. But a lot of 0:29:43.200 --> 0:29:46.080 times what we resist the most. Have you noticed this 0:29:47.440 --> 0:29:52.920 is the work and this is the principle. 0:29:53.280 --> 0:29:59.120 Okay. The strength that you want. 0:30:01.080 --> 0:30:05.479 Is on the other side of the weakness that you 0:30:05.520 --> 0:30:06.760 are willing to work through. 0:30:08.440 --> 0:30:10.040 Thank you. I appreciate y'all. 0:30:10.040 --> 0:30:13.560 Can keep those I might call you back up next week. 0:30:17.040 --> 0:30:19.959 I might call you up next week. Now, let's sit 0:30:20.000 --> 0:30:21.400 down and talk about this for a moment. Are you 0:30:21.440 --> 0:30:25.520 getting some out of this? When we preach the word 0:30:25.560 --> 0:30:31.560 of God to you, it works, It works. The Word 0:30:31.760 --> 0:30:35.600 of God will work in your life. Don't tell me 0:30:35.640 --> 0:30:39.560 it won't. You're arguing with the wrong dude, I know 0:30:39.640 --> 0:30:42.840 too much about it. I've experienced it. You may as 0:30:42.880 --> 0:30:44.600 well try to tell me Holly can't cook. 0:30:45.840 --> 0:30:47.120 I've had too much of her food. 0:30:48.000 --> 0:30:51.680 You can't convince me that God's word doesn't work. I 0:30:51.800 --> 0:30:56.040 have tasted it and seen that the Lord is good. 0:30:59.080 --> 0:31:00.840 Do you know how much out I had about what 0:31:00.920 --> 0:31:01.560 I stood up to. 0:31:01.480 --> 0:31:05.360 Preach to you today? Zero? Because it's working for me. 0:31:07.120 --> 0:31:09.440 I would feel sorry for a preacher who got up 0:31:09.440 --> 0:31:12.360 and was just trying stuff out. Well, hope this is 0:31:12.400 --> 0:31:14.360 a good sermon. I don't hope this is a good sermon. 0:31:15.320 --> 0:31:18.920 This sermon has been inside of me, working in me. 0:31:20.560 --> 0:31:22.040 I mean when I tell you, me and Holly are 0:31:22.080 --> 0:31:24.080 tag team, and we talked all week about this. What 0:31:24.160 --> 0:31:26.080 kind of work has God called you to do? And 0:31:26.120 --> 0:31:29.400 where is the line between us trying to work to 0:31:29.440 --> 0:31:32.480 earn our own salvation versus accepting the grace of God 0:31:32.680 --> 0:31:34.960 because people will try to make them opposites, and they're 0:31:35.000 --> 0:31:39.520 not opposites. The more grace you get from God for 0:31:39.600 --> 0:31:42.760 your situation, the more stable you're going to be to 0:31:42.800 --> 0:31:44.960 show up for it and fight the good fight of faith. 0:31:46.360 --> 0:31:50.200 So these are not opposites. The grace of God comes 0:31:50.200 --> 0:31:52.600 in order to grow me into the person that God 0:31:52.600 --> 0:31:56.240 has called me to be. And that is why God 0:31:56.320 --> 0:32:00.600 does not start with who you are right now. He 0:32:00.680 --> 0:32:05.080 starts with what He chose you to do, what He 0:32:05.160 --> 0:32:08.160 called you to do. God does not start with your 0:32:08.240 --> 0:32:16.640 experience level. God works in reverse. So God knows what 0:32:17.120 --> 0:32:20.640 you need to build, whether that's a business, whether that's 0:32:20.680 --> 0:32:23.920 a family, whether that's a discipline, whether that's. 0:32:23.720 --> 0:32:24.680 A habit pattern. 0:32:25.040 --> 0:32:29.600 God knows what you need to build, and nobody else 0:32:29.600 --> 0:32:31.720 can build it because He shows you to build it. 0:32:31.880 --> 0:32:34.160 And if you don't do it, it won't get done. 0:32:34.840 --> 0:32:37.200 Oh you say, well, God will do it through somebody else. 0:32:37.440 --> 0:32:40.320 He will do it through someone else, but there will 0:32:40.360 --> 0:32:44.320 be a great loss in the process of you not 0:32:44.560 --> 0:32:49.000 choosing to do what God called you to do. That's 0:32:49.040 --> 0:32:52.440 why holler, That's why I scream, Because do you really 0:32:52.480 --> 0:32:55.440 think that there aren't people listening to me today who 0:32:55.480 --> 0:33:00.400 feel so abandoned and so small and so unchosen and 0:33:00.600 --> 0:33:05.200 so picked over and so unwanted and so rejected and 0:33:05.320 --> 0:33:09.040 so betrayed that even just to hear God shows you, 0:33:09.400 --> 0:33:16.960 God wants you. God sees you. God shows you, God 0:33:17.040 --> 0:33:24.480 wants you. God sees you. God chooses the weak things 0:33:25.000 --> 0:33:30.640 of the world to shame the strong. You know why 0:33:30.680 --> 0:33:32.360 you like that so much when I said it, because 0:33:32.360 --> 0:33:36.400 it's a Bible Verse one Corinthians one twenty seven. But 0:33:36.720 --> 0:33:42.520 God chose the weak things of the world to shame 0:33:43.120 --> 0:33:43.760 the strong. 0:33:44.320 --> 0:33:47.000 Say it again, God chose. 0:33:47.720 --> 0:33:51.080 That's what we started out saying, right, is that God 0:33:51.160 --> 0:33:56.520 chose Solomon? Who was Solomon? He was the son that 0:33:56.600 --> 0:34:00.800 David would have never chosen to build the temple. David 0:34:00.800 --> 0:34:09.880 would have chosen his son Absalom. God chose Solomon. Anybody 0:34:09.880 --> 0:34:12.080 want to take a guess when David made the biggest 0:34:12.080 --> 0:34:14.759 mistake of his life and slept with Bathsheba and the 0:34:14.840 --> 0:34:16.239 child born was died, and he went back and had 0:34:16.280 --> 0:34:18.360 another child, anybody want to guess. 0:34:20.400 --> 0:34:22.000 What the name of the child was that he had 0:34:22.040 --> 0:34:23.200 after his greatest mistake. 0:34:25.040 --> 0:34:28.640 Yeah, I thank you for having the boldness to say that, 0:34:28.680 --> 0:34:30.600 because I think everybody else in the church was like, 0:34:30.760 --> 0:34:32.279 it must be a setup, because he can't. 0:34:32.320 --> 0:34:33.600 It can't be Solemon. 0:34:34.000 --> 0:34:37.160 God, There's because there's no way, right, who said it 0:34:37.160 --> 0:34:37.560 out loud? 0:34:37.800 --> 0:34:39.120 How could it be Solomon? 0:34:39.880 --> 0:34:45.200 He's inexperienced, he was the product of a bad decision 0:34:45.200 --> 0:34:48.919 that David made How could God use the weak thing 0:34:51.680 --> 0:34:55.320 to build the glorious thing? And you might be wondering 0:34:55.320 --> 0:34:58.640 that about your life today, and maybe that's why God 0:34:58.680 --> 0:35:02.000 gave me this word for you, so you could know 0:35:03.360 --> 0:35:09.040 that people build on your successes. People choose according to 0:35:09.400 --> 0:35:15.239 your wisdom. But with God it works in. 0:35:16.920 --> 0:35:19.880 Reverse. I want you to get that in your spirit, 0:35:20.200 --> 0:35:21.840 that it works in reverse. 0:35:22.000 --> 0:35:24.919 That God does not choose the moments when you feel 0:35:24.920 --> 0:35:28.560 the strongest to show up the most in your life. 0:35:28.680 --> 0:35:33.799 I'm a living witness. It is the moments when you 0:35:33.840 --> 0:35:36.279 are working through the weakness, whatever it may be. Some 0:35:36.320 --> 0:35:37.880 of you got a temper, some of you got an 0:35:37.880 --> 0:35:40.799 addiction to something that is chemical in nature. It could 0:35:40.840 --> 0:35:43.440 even just be food. It could be an addiction to bitterness. 0:35:43.440 --> 0:35:45.200 I mean, there's all kinds of addictions. Do I really 0:35:45.200 --> 0:35:46.840 need to list every single one of them? Because I 0:35:46.840 --> 0:35:49.560 promise I will. I will go in alphabetical order till 0:35:49.560 --> 0:35:51.239 I hit everybody on every row. Oh no, I'm not 0:35:51.239 --> 0:35:53.279 addicted to anything. Just let me get to see you 0:35:53.320 --> 0:35:59.440 control freak, and if I get to the peace, I'll 0:35:59.440 --> 0:36:02.000 talk about yours. For saying you don't have any addictions, 0:36:02.000 --> 0:36:09.200 we will rattle them off. And the good news of 0:36:09.239 --> 0:36:14.960 the gospel to me is that God chose the weak things. 0:36:19.040 --> 0:36:22.680 When you put it on the coffee mug, Holly, put 0:36:22.680 --> 0:36:24.799 it where it can go both ways, where you turn 0:36:24.840 --> 0:36:28.319 it around. So when I'm drinking my coffee in the 0:36:28.320 --> 0:36:32.160 morning after next Mother's Day, I could picture up right now, 0:36:32.880 --> 0:36:34.880 because I promise you one thing. I am not strong 0:36:34.920 --> 0:36:38.640 without coffee. So I know I need caffeine. I need Christ. 0:36:38.680 --> 0:36:40.319 I need caffeine, but I usually need them in the 0:36:40.360 --> 0:36:43.879 opposite order. It's usually the caffeine then the Christ, because 0:36:43.920 --> 0:36:45.600 I can't find Christ without the caffeine. 0:36:45.680 --> 0:36:47.680 I am confessing in front of thousands. 0:36:49.520 --> 0:36:51.320 Make sure when you turn the mug around, it says 0:36:51.760 --> 0:36:54.040 be strong, do the work. But make sure it's on 0:36:54.239 --> 0:36:57.719 two sides so we can remember this message where we 0:36:57.760 --> 0:36:59.600 can say, oh, I don't feel strong. 0:37:00.080 --> 0:37:08.360 Am I going to be strong? Is this too simple? 0:37:09.920 --> 0:37:12.600 Do y'all want me to give you a detailed explanation 0:37:12.840 --> 0:37:15.600 of the dimensions of the temple that Solomon built and 0:37:15.760 --> 0:37:17.960 the type of bronze that was imported for him to 0:37:18.000 --> 0:37:19.960 do it from the King of Hero and the dimensions 0:37:20.000 --> 0:37:21.840 of the inner courtyard and the oupter courtyard, and the 0:37:21.920 --> 0:37:23.120 lamp stands in the incense. 0:37:23.480 --> 0:37:24.160 Is that what you want? 0:37:24.480 --> 0:37:29.560 I think the deepest thing we can do with a 0:37:29.600 --> 0:37:37.560 word from God is to do it. I'm preaching a 0:37:37.600 --> 0:37:40.239 lot from the Old Testament this year because I'm having 0:37:40.280 --> 0:37:42.959 a very special time with my own family reading through 0:37:43.560 --> 0:37:45.960 the Old Testament chapter by chapter, with the lives of 0:37:46.000 --> 0:37:46.680 my oldest son. 0:37:47.280 --> 0:37:49.080 He was going through the Bible. 0:37:48.760 --> 0:37:50.120 And I've told you this, but I want to tell 0:37:50.160 --> 0:37:52.239 you again because the Holy Spirit brought it to my 0:37:52.280 --> 0:37:56.640 attention where he had the great idea to go through 0:37:56.680 --> 0:37:59.520 the Bible slow, and he's like, I don't want to 0:37:59.560 --> 0:38:01.399 just rush through it, I want to go slow. So 0:38:01.800 --> 0:38:03.759 him and Kelsey were reading, and then I jumped in 0:38:03.840 --> 0:38:06.480 and kind of like invited myself to the group and 0:38:07.400 --> 0:38:09.640 started giving him a key verse every day. 0:38:10.160 --> 0:38:11.720 Now. The reason I chose the key. 0:38:11.640 --> 0:38:14.880 Verse principle is because sometimes you can just read a 0:38:14.920 --> 0:38:17.799 scripture or hear a sermon. 0:38:18.080 --> 0:38:19.680 And go, oh, that's good. 0:38:21.800 --> 0:38:24.839 It's like that that YouTube short the only Bible verse 0:38:24.880 --> 0:38:27.760 you ever need to have big shoulders for the Lord 0:38:29.040 --> 0:38:31.400 to have a strong spirit, to be worry free and 0:38:31.480 --> 0:38:34.080 anxiety free. And I love all these YouTube shorts. I 0:38:34.120 --> 0:38:36.520 of course put content on them. That's not my point. 0:38:36.560 --> 0:38:40.000 My point is I never got stronger because of something 0:38:40.040 --> 0:38:46.680 I clicked on. I've gotten a lot stronger in my 0:38:46.760 --> 0:38:49.839 adult life because I work hard at that physically, but 0:38:49.920 --> 0:38:54.120 never because I clicked on something. It was always something 0:38:54.560 --> 0:38:58.760 that I did. I might click on it to learn something, 0:39:00.239 --> 0:39:09.080 but until I did it. Now, this sermon could be 0:39:09.160 --> 0:39:12.640 something that you click on today. It could be something 0:39:12.680 --> 0:39:15.560 that you click on and go, oh, that's really good 0:39:15.640 --> 0:39:22.120 and true and be strong and do the work. Yeah, yes, 0:39:24.520 --> 0:39:28.320 that's awesome. But go over to James chapter one, because 0:39:28.360 --> 0:39:30.400 this is why I do the key verse principle with 0:39:30.440 --> 0:39:33.120 my family, and I think it'd be a wonderful thing 0:39:33.520 --> 0:39:36.719 for us to go over as a church together. In 0:39:36.760 --> 0:39:39.800 the Book of James, he's making the case that faith 0:39:40.440 --> 0:39:46.279 without works is dead. He is not saying that the 0:39:46.320 --> 0:39:48.440 grace of God and the blood of Jesus is not 0:39:48.600 --> 0:39:51.960 enough to cover your sin. But he's saying, if you 0:39:52.000 --> 0:39:55.439 come to the place where you hear the word. In fact, 0:39:55.440 --> 0:39:58.799 he gives an analogy. He says, what verse did I 0:39:58.800 --> 0:40:01.319 start telling on twenty one? Give me that James one 0:40:01.400 --> 0:40:06.000 twenty one? Yeah, he says, therefore, get rid of all 0:40:06.400 --> 0:40:13.000 moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent. I 0:40:13.040 --> 0:40:15.880 love that phrase in The King James. It talks about 0:40:16.280 --> 0:40:21.160 superfluous naughtiness. Look it up. 0:40:21.200 --> 0:40:23.640 Sometimes the Bible is awesome. You can click around. 0:40:23.400 --> 0:40:28.080 All the translations, but click into a different translation won't save. 0:40:28.000 --> 0:40:28.360 You, will it. 0:40:30.360 --> 0:40:35.600 Clicking around or highlighting stuff like that is wonderful. It 0:40:35.719 --> 0:40:38.600 is wonderful that you are hearing this word. The Word 0:40:38.680 --> 0:40:42.319 of God is wonderful. But this is a process that 0:40:42.440 --> 0:40:45.680 James says. He says there is a getting rid of 0:40:46.040 --> 0:40:50.840 moral filth. This is a very specific thing he's talking 0:40:50.840 --> 0:40:56.160 about here. He's talking about everything that surrounds you, everything 0:40:56.200 --> 0:40:59.880 that is that is covering the true potential of the 0:41:00.120 --> 0:41:06.200 Christ in you. All of that has to go, put 0:41:06.239 --> 0:41:15.200 it back up and humbly accept the word planted in you, 0:41:16.360 --> 0:41:19.279 which can save you. Now that's interesting because it doesn't 0:41:19.320 --> 0:41:25.319 say it will save you, says it can. This word 0:41:25.360 --> 0:41:28.160 can help you today. This word can set you free. 0:41:28.200 --> 0:41:28.520 Today. 0:41:29.160 --> 0:41:32.640 God's presence can touch you today. God can get into 0:41:32.680 --> 0:41:35.040 your situation and show you stuff that you don't know. 0:41:35.120 --> 0:41:38.440 He can put in your mind what only his spirit knows. 0:41:38.719 --> 0:41:39.200 He can. 0:41:40.800 --> 0:41:44.760 But this is not in the category of the salvation 0:41:44.880 --> 0:41:46.920 that you get when you come to Christ. This is 0:41:47.000 --> 0:41:52.200 salvation from yourself. So he says, the only way to 0:41:52.239 --> 0:41:57.799 be saved from your self deception is to humbly accept 0:41:58.120 --> 0:42:03.759 the word that is planted where where. So you've got 0:42:03.800 --> 0:42:08.560 all this moral filth where around you, and you've got 0:42:08.560 --> 0:42:13.560 this word from God planted in you. Somebody helped me. 0:42:13.560 --> 0:42:15.839 I need three Pentecostals, just three, just three. I don't 0:42:15.840 --> 0:42:19.480 need a lot, I need three. So now I understand 0:42:19.600 --> 0:42:23.040 that I've had it backwards because I've been too controlled 0:42:23.040 --> 0:42:27.480 by my environment, because I've been true controlled by my surroundings, 0:42:28.040 --> 0:42:31.560 because I've been too controlled by cultural programming, because I've 0:42:31.560 --> 0:42:34.080 been true, too controlled by thoughts that didn't even come 0:42:34.120 --> 0:42:37.040 from God. Because I've been too controlled by what I see, 0:42:37.080 --> 0:42:39.239 what I feel, what I think, what I knew up 0:42:39.280 --> 0:42:42.880 to this point. That's what's around me. But with what 0:42:43.080 --> 0:42:47.960 is around me contradicts the word that is planted in me. 0:42:48.200 --> 0:42:51.080 God says, we've got to get this thing switched up, 0:42:52.960 --> 0:42:55.840 because the word that is in you has potential to 0:42:56.040 --> 0:43:01.399 save you. But with God it works in reverse. See, 0:43:01.400 --> 0:43:04.600 most people live this way. Whatever happens on the outside, 0:43:04.680 --> 0:43:08.120 they react to it. Whatever happens on the outside, they 0:43:08.160 --> 0:43:11.280 move to it. Whatever happens on the outside, they dance 0:43:11.360 --> 0:43:14.759 with it. Whatever happens on the outside, they surrender to it. 0:43:14.920 --> 0:43:18.080 Whatever happens on the outside, that's what they consult for 0:43:18.160 --> 0:43:19.760 their next step in life. 0:43:19.960 --> 0:43:20.719 Not you. 0:43:20.719 --> 0:43:23.880 You're chosen, so you do it different because in the 0:43:24.000 --> 0:43:29.319 Kingdom of God, it works in reverse. Say it, it 0:43:29.480 --> 0:43:34.680 works in reverse. So I don't start with my situation 0:43:34.920 --> 0:43:37.920 to see how it's going to turn out, because it 0:43:38.120 --> 0:43:43.719 works in reverse. I can be in a filthy situation, 0:43:44.239 --> 0:43:50.400 a naughty situation, a nasty situation, a grimy situation, a 0:43:50.640 --> 0:43:55.680 dark situation, a confusing situation, and if I walked according 0:43:55.719 --> 0:43:58.319 to the world, I'd be down about it, and I'd 0:43:58.320 --> 0:44:00.279 be weak about it, and I think that there was 0:44:00.320 --> 0:44:03.000 no hope in going forward and no cost to continue 0:44:03.000 --> 0:44:06.440 in it. But I don't walk according to what I see. 0:44:06.800 --> 0:44:09.840 I don't walk according to what I feel, and I 0:44:09.880 --> 0:44:13.120 don't walk according to who I've been to this pint 0:44:13.480 --> 0:44:18.120 because I found out I'm chosen. Hop found out God 0:44:18.239 --> 0:44:19.560 is building a temple. 0:44:20.040 --> 0:44:21.759 I've found out I have. 0:44:22.040 --> 0:44:24.440 The temple of the Holy Spirit. 0:44:24.960 --> 0:44:29.440 And it works in reverse. 0:44:34.480 --> 0:44:38.520 So in this season of my life, I'm getting rid 0:44:39.040 --> 0:44:42.200 of some things that are in the way of my 0:44:42.360 --> 0:44:49.080 relationships with God because it works in reverse. This is 0:44:49.120 --> 0:44:51.560 what I think it means to seek first the kingdom. 0:44:51.960 --> 0:44:54.400 I think it means you've turned the whole thing around 0:44:55.040 --> 0:44:58.520 that you would say, I would rather have peace and 0:44:58.640 --> 0:45:02.759 be right with God God than be popular with everybody 0:45:02.760 --> 0:45:06.759 else in the world. I'd rather have peace with all 0:45:06.880 --> 0:45:10.640 money God than have all the money in the world. 0:45:13.719 --> 0:45:17.759 Y'all feeling this yet, But see, I don't wait for 0:45:17.840 --> 0:45:20.520 you to feel it before I preach it. I'm gonna 0:45:20.600 --> 0:45:26.120 preach it till you feel it, because it works in reverse. 0:45:26.840 --> 0:45:30.240 That's how the word works. The word will feel weird 0:45:30.320 --> 0:45:32.880 when you hear it. It will call you a conqueror 0:45:32.920 --> 0:45:35.600 when you feel like a coward. It will call you 0:45:35.680 --> 0:45:38.759 a winner when you feel like a loser. It'll call 0:45:38.800 --> 0:45:42.160 you seated in heavenly places when you feel like you're 0:45:42.239 --> 0:45:45.719 at the bottom. But He shows the weak things to 0:45:45.920 --> 0:45:56.279 shame the strong. That's how it works, y'all. That's how 0:45:56.280 --> 0:45:59.720 it works. Touch three people say, that's how it works. 0:46:00.640 --> 0:46:03.640 That's how it works. Of course, you don't feel strong, 0:46:03.680 --> 0:46:06.880 you're not working through your weakness. You're gonna feel stronger 0:46:06.880 --> 0:46:09.080 when you sit there. Anyway, I talked to somebody the 0:46:09.120 --> 0:46:10.560 other day. They were like, I had a disappointment. 0:46:10.560 --> 0:46:11.080 It was awkward. 0:46:11.120 --> 0:46:13.040 I walked out. I said, then you're gonna be You 0:46:13.080 --> 0:46:18.200 are going to be stumped at the level of your discomfort. 0:46:19.120 --> 0:46:20.760 Because you can't sit. 0:46:20.719 --> 0:46:23.920 In anything that makes you feel uncomfortable long enough to 0:46:23.920 --> 0:46:24.440 be developed. 0:46:24.480 --> 0:46:28.560 And I told him that to his face, and he 0:46:28.640 --> 0:46:31.239 received there. He said, you're right, you're right, You're right, 0:46:31.280 --> 0:46:33.400 You're right. I said, I don't need to preach to you. 0:46:33.480 --> 0:46:34.279 He said, no, preach to me. 0:46:34.320 --> 0:46:34.759 Man, I need it. 0:46:34.800 --> 0:46:36.440 I need it. I need it. I needed That's why 0:46:36.440 --> 0:46:37.759 he said, he said, I need it. I need it. 0:46:38.120 --> 0:46:39.360 I'm sick of being stuck. 0:46:42.440 --> 0:46:44.319 I'm sick of needing to feel a certain way to 0:46:44.360 --> 0:46:47.719 do a certain thing. I'm sick of coming to church 0:46:47.760 --> 0:46:52.040 and going like, oh yeah, I want to live like that. 0:46:53.360 --> 0:46:53.920 I'm sick of. 0:46:53.840 --> 0:46:56.200 Clicking around YouTube videos and going, oh yeah, I want 0:46:56.200 --> 0:46:57.520 to I want to live. 0:46:58.880 --> 0:46:59.160 Like that. 0:47:01.560 --> 0:47:04.280 So when James comes along, he says something very simple 0:47:05.200 --> 0:47:10.439 in James one two, do not merely. 0:47:12.040 --> 0:47:17.160 Listen to the word. So I stopped there. 0:47:17.160 --> 0:47:18.920 When I was studying this week, I'm like, Lord, that 0:47:19.000 --> 0:47:21.160 would be good if people would even just listen to it. 0:47:22.160 --> 0:47:24.400 I mean, they're doing pretty good just to listen to 0:47:24.440 --> 0:47:26.400 a sermon when there's so much other options. 0:47:27.200 --> 0:47:30.680 Why being so hard on them? They're listening to the word. 0:47:32.520 --> 0:47:33.399 But he showed me that. 0:47:34.920 --> 0:47:40.120 When you listen and don't implement, it limits you that 0:47:40.280 --> 0:47:44.799 much more the next time you hear it, and it 0:47:44.840 --> 0:47:46.520 puts a lid on the potential. 0:47:46.120 --> 0:47:47.200 That he's put inside of you. 0:47:49.120 --> 0:47:54.160 So the next thing becomes very, very integral to your 0:47:54.200 --> 0:47:59.640 spiritual development. Do not merely listen to the word and 0:47:59.680 --> 0:48:10.480 so receive yourself. Do what it says, Elijah, where you at? 0:48:10.480 --> 0:48:10.680 Son? 0:48:12.480 --> 0:48:14.600 Yeah, thank you for that Bible Club, and thank you 0:48:14.680 --> 0:48:17.839 for this every time he sends his key verse, because 0:48:17.840 --> 0:48:19.080 we pick a verse and we say this is how 0:48:19.080 --> 0:48:22.040 i'mna try to do this today. Right, every time he 0:48:22.080 --> 0:48:26.600 sends his key verse, it's so practical and he's so smart. 0:48:27.360 --> 0:48:30.880 He's so analytical, always has been. He's When he was 0:48:30.960 --> 0:48:36.480 like four years old, he was asking me questions that 0:48:36.560 --> 0:48:39.319 made me feel like I needed to go back to 0:48:39.920 --> 0:48:43.239 Bible College again. He's asked me stuff about God that 0:48:43.280 --> 0:48:49.880 God hasn't even asked about God. And yet every time 0:48:49.880 --> 0:48:51.680 he does it, he puts it so simple, but at 0:48:51.680 --> 0:48:55.960 the end of his key verses he'll always say, I 0:48:56.000 --> 0:49:00.400 hope this isn't too simple. Don't ever say sorry for 0:49:00.480 --> 0:49:06.520 keeping it simple, because like what you put the other 0:49:06.600 --> 0:49:09.160 day about David, where you said, Okay, I know this 0:49:09.200 --> 0:49:11.320 isn't probably the deepest application of the text. No, the 0:49:11.360 --> 0:49:12.919 deepest thing you could have found is what you found, 0:49:13.040 --> 0:49:14.880 because you found the thing that God was actually calling 0:49:14.880 --> 0:49:20.000 you to do. And I thought that was so powerful 0:49:20.160 --> 0:49:22.880 because I'm like, that is what a disciple and not 0:49:22.960 --> 0:49:25.239 that you're not that you're perfect or I'm perfect, or 0:49:25.280 --> 0:49:26.920 not that oh we're reading our Bible every day so 0:49:26.960 --> 0:49:30.600 we're so great. But I love how I see you 0:49:30.760 --> 0:49:39.880 working the Word because here's what I know about God's Word. 0:49:40.840 --> 0:49:43.760 It works in reverse. 0:49:44.280 --> 0:49:48.880 God is giving him wisdom today for experiences he doesn't 0:49:48.880 --> 0:49:50.080 even know he's going to have. 0:49:50.200 --> 0:49:56.080 Yet he's digging a well today. 0:49:56.239 --> 0:49:58.040 Every time he goes to the Word and puts it 0:49:58.080 --> 0:50:05.080 into practice. Everybody say practice principles without practice are powerless. 0:50:08.920 --> 0:50:11.600 And every time he puts it into practice. Let me 0:50:11.640 --> 0:50:15.920 show you what he is defying. I close with this image. 0:50:16.719 --> 0:50:19.600 Don't play the piano. LJ close him, but I don't 0:50:19.640 --> 0:50:27.360 want it soft. Do not merely listen to the word 0:50:28.680 --> 0:50:31.959 and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says, and listen, 0:50:32.160 --> 0:50:37.080 listen to this picture. Remember when it comes to God's word. 0:50:38.320 --> 0:50:42.120 He gives us a picture of who he is, and 0:50:42.160 --> 0:50:44.040 we can't see it fully, but we see in part. 0:50:45.320 --> 0:50:47.839 And he gives us a picture of who we can 0:50:47.880 --> 0:50:49.880 be in him. 0:50:50.760 --> 0:50:52.400 And he shows us the strength that we can have 0:50:52.520 --> 0:50:54.560 in him, and the future that we can have in him, 0:50:54.760 --> 0:50:56.640 and the way of life that we can know in him, 0:50:56.640 --> 0:50:58.200 and the peace that we can have, and the joy 0:50:58.200 --> 0:51:00.279 that we can have. He gives us a picture. But 0:51:00.320 --> 0:51:02.560 watch what James says. As a warning, he says, verse 0:51:02.560 --> 0:51:06.040 twenty three. Anyone who listens to the word but does 0:51:06.080 --> 0:51:11.880 not do what it says is like someone who looks 0:51:11.920 --> 0:51:15.040 at his face in a mirror. 0:51:17.360 --> 0:51:18.960 Man an interesting image, he says. 0:51:19.239 --> 0:51:21.360 He's looks at his face in a mirror, and after 0:51:21.480 --> 0:51:28.040 looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he 0:51:28.080 --> 0:51:33.280 looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law 0:51:34.400 --> 0:51:38.799 that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what 0:51:38.880 --> 0:51:45.960 they have heard, but doing it, they will be in 0:51:46.040 --> 0:51:50.520 what they be strong. 0:51:52.200 --> 0:51:52.800 Do the work. 0:51:53.920 --> 0:51:57.440 What happens when you do the work, you be strong, 0:51:58.400 --> 0:52:06.400 not perfect, but strong, not there but closer, not monastic 0:52:07.239 --> 0:52:12.560 but maybe not going off on everybody, not perfect. 0:52:12.960 --> 0:52:18.080 But blessed. And he said, it's like a mirror. 0:52:19.280 --> 0:52:23.200 The word God gives you is like a mirror, and 0:52:23.280 --> 0:52:28.880 it shows you who God is, and it shows you who. 0:52:28.719 --> 0:52:29.440 You really are. 0:52:31.160 --> 0:52:34.640 And that's why something comes alive in you when you 0:52:34.719 --> 0:52:38.040 hear God's word and it hits you in your spirit 0:52:38.960 --> 0:52:42.960 because it's going in you and every label that has 0:52:43.000 --> 0:52:48.120 been slapped on you, even by your own words, when 0:52:48.120 --> 0:52:52.800 you get in the mirror of God's word, it begins 0:52:52.920 --> 0:53:02.840 to reverse every curse that has been spoken over your life. 0:53:03.600 --> 0:53:06.640 So when Hollywood's getting dressed the other day, she put 0:53:06.680 --> 0:53:10.400 on this hoodie for can you Imagine? And she was 0:53:10.440 --> 0:53:13.799 looking at it in the mirror. And when she was 0:53:13.800 --> 0:53:18.920 looking at it, she said, is it backwards? And I 0:53:18.960 --> 0:53:23.360 said yeah, and she said, but I'm confused. Oh yeah, 0:53:23.400 --> 0:53:27.840 I'm looking at it in the mirror because on this hoodie, 0:53:27.880 --> 0:53:28.440 can you see it? 0:53:28.400 --> 0:53:29.400 It's backwards. 0:53:30.800 --> 0:53:37.160 But when you get in front of a mirror, what 0:53:37.640 --> 0:53:44.520 does a mirror do? It reflects back Whatever stands in 0:53:44.640 --> 0:53:51.200 front of it, but the light makes it reflect back backwards. 0:53:52.400 --> 0:53:56.960 So God says, when you come in my presence, when 0:53:57.000 --> 0:54:01.600 you receive a word from Me, when you stand before Heaven, 0:54:02.040 --> 0:54:05.799 you're not just looking at yourself. You are looking at 0:54:05.880 --> 0:54:10.360 your father, who is perfect, your father who spoke a 0:54:10.480 --> 0:54:15.120 word over your life before you were knit together. He 0:54:15.320 --> 0:54:18.000 knew you, and I'm gonna show you. 0:54:18.200 --> 0:54:21.240 Who you are. He reverse. 0:54:22.840 --> 0:54:28.880 And everything in your life that does not match God's purpose. 0:54:29.239 --> 0:54:32.920 He's gonna turn it around for his glory in this season. 0:54:33.400 --> 0:54:38.200 Shout if you believe it. Shut if you believe it, 0:54:39.520 --> 0:54:46.480 shout on lie. He's turning it around. See. That's why 0:54:46.520 --> 0:54:49.880 I gotta kit with him, because I'm surrounded by filth. 0:54:50.120 --> 0:54:52.719 But I don't want to become like what I'm surrounded by. 0:54:53.120 --> 0:54:55.439 I don't want to think like what I'm surrounded by. 0:54:55.719 --> 0:54:58.239 I don't want to speak like what I'm surrounded by. 0:54:59.440 --> 0:55:01.800 I want God to put his word on my life 0:55:03.280 --> 0:55:08.560 and show me in the mirror of his image what 0:55:08.680 --> 0:55:11.160 I'm really worth in his hands. 0:55:13.000 --> 0:55:15.279 And I'm working through some weaknesses like you are. 0:55:18.200 --> 0:55:19.920 But the strength that you want for your life and 0:55:19.920 --> 0:55:22.000 the strength you want to pass on to your generations, 0:55:22.000 --> 0:55:23.719 and the strength you want your kids to see you 0:55:23.760 --> 0:55:27.640 walk in is through the stumbles that you recover from 0:55:27.960 --> 0:55:30.440 and keep moving forward believing that. 0:55:30.400 --> 0:55:33.239 God is not against you. 0:55:35.760 --> 0:55:39.640 I reverse every religious spirit that has tried to tell 0:55:39.719 --> 0:55:42.880 you that God is ashamed of you. If he's ashamed 0:55:42.920 --> 0:55:45.000 of what he made, that means he made a mistake. 0:55:45.239 --> 0:55:49.440 God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't qualify. God doesn't call 0:55:49.520 --> 0:55:53.319 the qualified. He qualifies to call, and he shows you. 0:55:56.200 --> 0:56:00.840 Now be strong and do the work. And if you 0:56:00.920 --> 0:56:07.600 do the work, remember you're working with him. 0:56:07.760 --> 0:56:08.160 Yohaul. 0:56:08.360 --> 0:56:13.239 I almost want to call this message dirty work, to 0:56:13.320 --> 0:56:16.840 keep with our theme of two word titles dirty work. 0:56:19.600 --> 0:56:23.840 You want to look like that who doesn't, Man, this 0:56:23.960 --> 0:56:26.080 is so bad for your ego. I'm a little worried 0:56:26.120 --> 0:56:29.400 about you. You are an example of the righteousness of 0:56:29.480 --> 0:56:34.359 Christ today, Inner Ralph Lauren Shirt, I mean, that's just phenomenal. 0:56:37.760 --> 0:56:38.839 Thank you for helping me out. 0:56:40.080 --> 0:56:45.080 But I just wanted to know today, is there a 0:56:45.120 --> 0:56:52.279 weakness that you're working through right now? And so you think, oh, okay, well, 0:56:52.560 --> 0:56:54.360 I'm just you know, this isn't working. 0:56:55.360 --> 0:56:55.759 I quit. 0:56:57.640 --> 0:57:04.600 The reminder of the scripture is that as you behold 0:57:05.320 --> 0:57:12.720 your God, he reflects to you backwards. What you can become, 0:57:13.280 --> 0:57:15.279 and what you can become starts with who he is. 0:57:18.040 --> 0:57:21.959 Everything that God has in your life is in seed 0:57:22.000 --> 0:57:28.120 form right now. It is surrounded by dirt, superfluous naughtiness. 0:57:29.800 --> 0:57:34.920 But that's okay because God does dirty work. 0:57:37.520 --> 0:57:40.600 Please believe me when I say that You've got to 0:57:40.680 --> 0:57:45.120 do it dirty too, on the days you don't feel 0:57:45.160 --> 0:57:47.280 like it, on the days where everything in you is 0:57:47.320 --> 0:57:50.120 telling you not to the strength What did you say 0:57:50.200 --> 0:57:52.520 last week? The strength you need for tomorrow is in 0:57:52.560 --> 0:57:53.280 the work. 0:57:53.040 --> 0:57:55.360 You do today. 0:57:56.440 --> 0:57:58.760 God is working in weakness. That's how he works. He 0:57:58.800 --> 0:58:05.040 works in reverse. He works in reverse, and sometimes he 0:58:05.080 --> 0:58:09.480 sees you struggling and he wants to help you, but 0:58:09.520 --> 0:58:12.800 you won't let him. 0:58:12.920 --> 0:58:16.120 What was your first job, Jay? 0:58:18.640 --> 0:58:21.439 You remember you work in security when you're like twelve 0:58:21.520 --> 0:58:25.680 years old, eating spinach, taking steroids working security. I don't 0:58:25.680 --> 0:58:30.680 want to look like you, Jay, that was your first job. Listen, 0:58:31.320 --> 0:58:33.800 I don't think anybody in the room had a crazier 0:58:33.840 --> 0:58:37.360 first job than me. When I was fourteen, I worked 0:58:37.880 --> 0:58:40.880 for pet Rest Cemetery and Cremation Service. 0:58:43.520 --> 0:58:44.479 That was my first job. 0:58:45.160 --> 0:58:48.360 And it was a cool job too, because not only 0:58:48.400 --> 0:58:54.840 did I get to send pets into the afterlife with dignity. 0:58:55.520 --> 0:58:57.120 The Lord was preparing me to preach. 0:58:57.160 --> 0:59:04.080 I just had to start with lesser animals into the kingdom. 0:59:04.120 --> 0:59:04.320 Well. 0:59:04.320 --> 0:59:08.479 Then, the coolest thing about the job was it came 0:59:08.520 --> 0:59:18.280 with get ready, it came with a pager. It came 0:59:18.320 --> 0:59:22.240 with a pager, and so on the nights where I 0:59:22.280 --> 0:59:26.400 would need to go cremate the dogs. Why are you 0:59:26.440 --> 0:59:29.200 looking at me like I killed them? This was a 0:59:29.280 --> 0:59:31.560 service people hired us to do. It was good work. 0:59:31.600 --> 0:59:33.760 I loved the job. I appreciated the job, and I 0:59:33.840 --> 0:59:35.840 liked the pager too, because it looks so cool, weird 0:59:35.840 --> 0:59:37.400 on the outside of my pocket. 0:59:39.000 --> 0:59:40.280 And feeling like, what do you do for money? 0:59:40.440 --> 0:59:43.120 Don't worry about it. 0:59:43.120 --> 0:59:44.680 It involves freezers. 0:59:47.840 --> 0:59:54.320 But the uh, the worst part about that job was 0:59:55.280 --> 0:59:56.760 in the middle of the summer when a lot of 0:59:56.800 --> 0:59:59.240 dogs would die from heat exhaustion. Obviously it's sad, but 1:00:00.040 --> 1:00:01.800 even worse than that, it was so hot in the 1:00:01.800 --> 1:00:04.560 low country of South Carolina, and I would never wake 1:00:04.640 --> 1:00:06.560 up early to go dig the graves because I had 1:00:06.600 --> 1:00:08.360 to dig the graves too. 1:00:08.280 --> 1:00:09.840 And I had to do it by hand. 1:00:10.880 --> 1:00:13.640 And this dirt in the low country, it is not 1:00:13.760 --> 1:00:16.959 like friendly dirt that's just waiting to be dug. 1:00:17.040 --> 1:00:19.439 This is like clay. So I would go out there 1:00:19.440 --> 1:00:21.520 in the middle of the day and. 1:00:23.160 --> 1:00:26.439 True story, pick axe and a shovel and a little 1:00:26.480 --> 1:00:29.800 riding lawnmower, little trailer, and I'll break up the dirt 1:00:30.080 --> 1:00:33.000 and dig the graves. One day I was out there. 1:00:33.040 --> 1:00:38.320 It must have been one hundred and fifteen degrees in 1:00:38.400 --> 1:00:41.600 the low Country that day. I was dying, but I 1:00:41.640 --> 1:00:43.520 had to get it done. By four o'clock. I'm out 1:00:43.560 --> 1:00:47.400 there just killing myself. All of a sudden, I need 1:00:47.400 --> 1:00:50.160 to set this up for you. The pet Cemetery was 1:00:50.240 --> 1:00:54.280 right next to People Cemetery, just right there. 1:00:54.320 --> 1:00:54.840 You could see it. 1:00:56.160 --> 1:01:00.480 At the People Cemetery, they had better equipment than at 1:01:00.480 --> 1:01:01.320 the Pet Cemetery. 1:01:02.360 --> 1:01:04.600 And I would always watch this guy named Charles. 1:01:05.520 --> 1:01:07.880 He would dig the graves over there with a big 1:01:07.920 --> 1:01:11.960 heavy machinery like a bacco, and I would always lust 1:01:12.600 --> 1:01:19.160 after that while I was out there. But one glad day, 1:01:20.280 --> 1:01:23.200 while I was I'm literally out there going like, man, 1:01:23.200 --> 1:01:24.920 I should have made Eric come with me today. This 1:01:24.960 --> 1:01:27.320 is horrible, this sucks. I hate my life. I think 1:01:27.320 --> 1:01:29.480 about throwing my pager in that grave and jumping in 1:01:29.480 --> 1:01:30.280 there with the dog. 1:01:31.960 --> 1:01:32.720 And I'm out there. 1:01:35.360 --> 1:01:40.240 But here comes here comes Charles on the backo and 1:01:40.280 --> 1:01:45.200 he's coming over and I'm like, no way, no way. 1:01:46.360 --> 1:01:53.240 This is what I've always imagine. He pulls up. 1:01:53.800 --> 1:01:55.840 He doesn't even say anything. 1:01:56.720 --> 1:01:59.040 I just step aside. 1:02:00.000 --> 1:02:04.640 I didn't even say anything. He just starts moving stuff. 1:02:05.400 --> 1:02:09.760 He just starts moving stuff. He just starts moving stuff. 1:02:10.200 --> 1:02:14.800 He just starts moving stuff. Yeah, he just starts moving stuff. 1:02:16.480 --> 1:02:21.240 Twenty minutes later, we had a hole. What did I do? 1:02:21.480 --> 1:02:26.560 I stood there and pretended to be helping. I just 1:02:26.560 --> 1:02:31.360 stood there just and just prayed that he wouldn't leave. 1:02:31.920 --> 1:02:35.680 Just stay, Charles, Just stay Charles. Oh thank you, Charles. 1:02:35.880 --> 1:02:38.960 Hallelula Charles. I love Charles. Charles a big guy to 1:02:39.440 --> 1:02:41.480 He was short, but he was stout. Charles's on it. 1:02:41.560 --> 1:02:44.720 But he didn't need those muscles because he had something. 1:02:44.560 --> 1:02:47.680 That I didn't have before. He showed up and he. 1:02:47.800 --> 1:02:51.160 Just started digging. And I'm telling you, twenty minutes later 1:02:51.400 --> 1:02:53.919 we were done. I'm like, this is awesome. I'm about 1:02:53.960 --> 1:02:56.520 to go get lunch. I'm about to go get taco bell. 1:02:56.760 --> 1:02:58.919 I'm gonna get something for me, some for Charles. We're 1:02:58.920 --> 1:03:01.440 gonna have a picnic. I'm name my kid Charles. This 1:03:01.480 --> 1:03:04.640 is amazing. Thank you, Charles. This is the greatest gift 1:03:04.840 --> 1:03:07.200 that I've ever been given. What do I owe you? 1:03:07.240 --> 1:03:09.600 I thought he want to cut, you know, fifteen percent 1:03:09.680 --> 1:03:12.720 on the first grave, after each additional grave twenty percent. 1:03:12.960 --> 1:03:14.200 I thought he was running. 1:03:13.880 --> 1:03:16.280 A side hustle. Charles said, no, I don't want anything. 1:03:16.480 --> 1:03:25.560 I just saw you struggling. I saw you sweating. 1:03:27.920 --> 1:03:32.560 I saw you out here doing everything that you could 1:03:32.560 --> 1:03:37.360 do with what you had, and I thought to myself, 1:03:37.960 --> 1:03:40.880 he could dig all day and not get this done. 1:03:41.440 --> 1:03:47.320 So I decided, if you'll let me, I'm gonna help him, 1:03:47.640 --> 1:03:51.360 I said, Charles, I will be the best letter that 1:03:51.440 --> 1:03:55.120 you've ever met in your life. I'm gonna let you 1:03:55.280 --> 1:03:58.720 help me. Anytime you see me with this thick axe, 1:03:59.040 --> 1:04:03.600 pull up us. I need you, Holy Spirit. I need 1:04:03.680 --> 1:04:08.360 you Jesus, because you've forgot what I don't have, and 1:04:08.480 --> 1:04:11.080 you can do what I can't do. 1:04:11.400 --> 1:04:13.959 And you can do what I can't her. 1:04:14.520 --> 1:04:19.080 And I hear God saying to somebody today, prob make. 1:04:19.000 --> 1:04:22.920 You strong, forgive you hope, pop. 1:04:22.640 --> 1:04:24.320 Breathe into your sales. 1:04:24.720 --> 1:04:26.000 I'll make it happen. 1:04:26.440 --> 1:04:28.600 I'll flow the door off the hinges. 1:04:29.120 --> 1:04:30.920 I'll come in and. 1:04:30.800 --> 1:04:34.760 Make away through your sea. Get it, praise it? Do 1:04:34.800 --> 1:04:35.440 you believe it? 1:04:39.640 --> 1:04:39.760 Hey? 1:04:39.840 --> 1:04:42.160 I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did, 1:04:42.720 --> 1:04:45.320 make sure to share it and subscribe so we can 1:04:45.360 --> 1:04:47.960 get you all of these new messages as soon as 1:04:47.960 --> 1:04:50.760 they're available. I also want to take a moment and 1:04:50.840 --> 1:04:52.640 thank all of you who are a part of Elevation. 1:04:53.160 --> 1:04:56.440 Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or 1:04:56.880 --> 1:04:59.560 just share these messages, it's because of you that we're 1:04:59.600 --> 1:05:02.560 able to each people all around the world. And if 1:05:02.560 --> 1:05:05.080 you want more information on how to be a part 1:05:05.080 --> 1:05:09.000 of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again 1:05:09.040 --> 1:05:12.000 for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message, 1:05:12.040 --> 1:05:12.880 and subscribe. 1:05:13.160 --> 1:05:13.800 God bless you.