Pressure Points

0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.120 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:04.840 Church and. 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:05.840 This is our podcast. 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.360 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.080 this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.600 gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:20.400 Enjoy the message. I want to continue to look at 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.319 something from Paul's life this week, and I want to 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.280 talk to you for a few moments about pressure points. 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:30.920 This message is only if you've been experiencing some stress, 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:37.040 or maybe a considerable amount of uncertainty about some things, 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.479 or life has seemed a little too much for you. 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:42.839 That's the only people that's going to bless today. So 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:43.400 if you need to. 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.560 Leave now because that's not applicable to you. 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:47.479 Feel free. 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:49.400 But the rest of us we're going to go over 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:53.680 to Second Corinthians chapter four. I think I want to 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.560 do verse five. Yeah, I think I gave you verse five. 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.320 I was trying to decide how much to read. You understand, 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:01.840 that's the issue you. Every week is all so good 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.800 and I want to eat it all, but I know 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.840 you can only digest so much, and so I want 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.080 to talk about pressure points. But let's kind of get 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.759 into it. Here from Tewod Corinthians four or five, where 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.160 Paul is talking to a church that he has authority 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.880 and responsibility for. He says, for what we preach is 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:26.360 not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:27.039 your servants. 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:28.240 For Jesus's sake. 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:34.080 For God, who said let the light shine out of darkness, 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.560 made his light shine in our hearts to give us 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:44.080 the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:45.080 the face of Christ. 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.319 But we have this treasure in. 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:52.480 Jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:58.840 is from God and not from us. We are hard 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:05.040 press on every side, but not crushed, perplexed but not 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:09.440 in despair, persecuted but not a band and touch. 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.520 Somebody say, I'm not alone. I'm never alone. 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:13.680 So if you want to roll up on me, you 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:15.120 need to know before you start anything. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:20.080 I got angels all around me. I've got a great 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:21.280 God down deep. 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:28.600 Get back to the scripture for Nick, where was I Yeah, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:35.000 not abandoned, not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. We 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.040 always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.560 so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:43.840 in our body good un too verse sixteen. 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.120 Therefore we do not lose heart. 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.720 Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:55.519 being renewed day by day. Four our light and momentary 0:02:55.600 --> 0:03:01.239 troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.119 them all. I can tell we're going to have church 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.079 today because you won't even let me read my scripture. 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:08.919 Look how excited you are. 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:14.399 About the glory of God being revealed in your life. 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.480 So last verse I'm going to read for now. 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:23.160 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:28.720 but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:34.200 but what is unseen is eternal. And you kind of 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:36.000 get a different picture here of Paul than you got 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:40.920 last week, because last week we were hearing Luke, who 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:45.640 wrote the Book of Acts, describe what Paul did. But 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.520 this is not someone describing what Paul did. This is 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:53.880 Paul describing how he felt. And the tour really different. 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:59.880 The tour really different because sometimes someone can make something 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.480 looks so easy that you assume that it is, make 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:09.480 it look so effortless. Holly makes parenting look so effortless, 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:11.640 and then every once in a while she leaves them 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:15.200 with me for thirty five minutes so I can remember 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:15.760 how much I. 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:17.240 Need her in my life. 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.560 But she just does make it, just makes it look easy. 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.400 Touch somebody say you make it look too easy. Sometimes 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.640 I think you don't even need faith because you just 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:27.040 got it. 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.120 And it makes me feel bad about. 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.680 Myself because I look at you and it looks easy. 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:33.640 That's why I hate working out with Buck makes it 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:34.839 look easy. 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:36.480 And I get under that same weight. 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.839 And he got twelve of them and I'm on number two, 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:42.880 crushing my sternum. But since you asked me for some 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:47.720 parenting advice, let me get some parenting advice. Actually it's 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.400 kind of life advice. I don't think I ever told you, Holly, 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.560 what Eric Ferrell told me. Eric Ferrell is pastor in Virginia, 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.120 and so I have a lot of ministry advice filed 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.239 away in my mind because I've been preparing for ministry 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:03.640 since I was young, because I thought. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:04.720 This is what I was supposed to do. 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.080 So I took a lot of opportunities at a young 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:09.920 age to ask people, Hey, tell me one piece of advice. 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:11.560 You know, if there's only one thing you could tell me, 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.559 and so I was kind of trying to get ready 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.880 for it and prepare for the pressure of ministry. And 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.040 nothing can really prepare you for it, but you know, 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.080 maybe somebody can tell you something that you can. 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:22.719 Hold on to. Well. 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:26.120 Eric Ferrell was kind enough he invited me into his church. 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.960 And this was right around the time that Elevation Church 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:32.160 was starting. Elijah was a baby, and I asked him, 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:33.880 what do I need to know to make it. 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:35.640 He's been in the same church for thirty years. 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:37.159 I thought he could probably give me a little bit 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.760 of insight on how to make it for the long term, which. 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:39.960 Is the goal. 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.479 He goes, and he's a real fast talker, real fast 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:44.000 talker guy. 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:45.680 He goes, pressure. 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:51.040 Management is all pressure management. You gotta manage the pressure, 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:54.560 you know, manage the pressure. You go off and you 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.920 know ruin your life and manage pressure. You managed pressure, 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.159 And I said, how do you manage He said pressure? 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.560 He goes play and I thought I heard him wrong. 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.240 Because I heard play, But I thought, sure, he probably said, pray. 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.120 That's what we tell you to do, you know, just 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.760 pray about everything makes everything better when you pray. And 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.000 we're gonna tell you sometimes your mind is so scrambled 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:22.479 that you can't even figure out. 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.640 What to pray. We don't talk about that. Just pray. 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.479 But he didn't say pray. He said play. He said play. 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.600 You gotta play, he said, especially with your kids. He said, 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.120 when your kids get a little older. When you get home, 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:36.560 he said, this is what saved my life. That's what 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:37.800 kept me from having an affair of this is what 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:39.240 kept me from running off shooting one. 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:40.320 Of the deacons. He said. 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.039 He said, every day when I got home, no matter 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:45.880 how bad the day had been, I just got down 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.760 on that floor and played with my kids. He said, 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:51.159 So do that. He said, when you don't feel like 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:52.720 I do it. In five minutes into it, you feel 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:56.359 like it. And I took his advice. I have I 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.640 play with my kids. I think that's really my only 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.479 hobby in life is torture. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:08.360 I mean playing with say that I love the most 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:11.200 recent game that I made up. I'm gonna do this 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.119 with with you, JT. So I'm gonna just just sit there. 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:19.720 I play games with them that involve pressure and and 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.120 and Holly. Holly has to leave the room because these 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:27.880 games can get aggressive and for different parts of their body. 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.320 It all started with the calf muscle. And this is 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:33.720 now I'm gonna tell you the names of these things. 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:35.360 And I won't spend long because I know they came 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.480 to hear a Bible study. But just so you can 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.360 respect my creative parenting, it started off with this move 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.920 right there where I squeezed that calf. Now, now Abby's 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:51.040 calf muscle didn't quite like yours, but I squeeze that 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.200 things so tight. That's called and I don't know why 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:54.680 we call it this. I don't even remember how it started, 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:56.480 but it's called the Alabama Creamshaw. 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.720 I don't know how. I don't know Alabama Creamshaw. 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:05.040 Then me and the boys were going to Liberty University, 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.040 so that's in Lynchburg, Virginia. So we've been at the 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:13.200 Lynchburg like squeeze. By the way, if you ever think 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.480 about sitting in the front row at Valentine, you need 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.080 to know this is like the splash zone. 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:20.920 At Sea World, and you gotta be willing to participate. 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.840 If you come over here. You fell. That pressure feels good, 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:24.320 doesn't it. 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:35.400 We got the h the Pennsylvania poke, the Pittsburgh pinch. WHOA, 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.400 there's some other ones. I'm not going to do I'm 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:50.360 not going to do the Boston, but Chicago shoulder right there, 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:54.120 right there feels kind of good. So here's what Grandma 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.920 always will dude, before I get started, He'll go, He'll go, 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.440 wait a minute, what level are you going to do 0:08:59.480 --> 0:08:59.760 this on? 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.880 What level? What level of pressure? 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:12.360 Because I need to know before I submit myself. Have 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:20.360 you ever wanted to ask God before I do this? 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.120 Before I trust you on this. 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:26.719 What. 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:32.880 Level of pressure is it going to involve? 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:35.560 And the truth be told, if some of you would 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.480 have known the level of pressure that came along with parenting, 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:46.080 you would have stay celibate, because, hey, you prayed for 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:48.720 the baby, but along with the baby came the pressure. 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:50.520 Write this down. 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:57.200 With privilege comes pressure, And sometimes I see people who 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:03.800 want certain privileges but don't welcome the pressure that comes 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:09.280 with the privilege. When we see Paul and Second Corinthians, 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:14.160 we are getting a picture of a minister and a 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:15.640 man who is. 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:17.080 At that point. 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.840 Have you ever been at that point of pressure where 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:24.480 it feels like something is unraveling on the inside of you. 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:28.120 I don't necessarily mean it's a clinical breakdown, but Paul 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:30.839 is under pressure, he says, from every side let's read 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.120 it again in verse eight, because I think it describes 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:37.240 something that maybe you've experienced, maybe not on Paul's level, 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.439 because there's levels to it. But one thing that I 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.560 have learned is that pressure is relative. So when a 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:48.200 sixteen year old gets their heart broken, they don't have 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:52.120 the wisdom of experience to know that there will be others, 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:56.000 and so it really does feel like they want to die. 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:01.120 And a lot of times you minimize other people's misery 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:05.880 because you have graduated beyond that season. But if you 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:09.000 could find the compassion to remember there was a time 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.400 when you too listen to Milli Vanilli blame it on 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:18.720 the rain seventeen times, Oh just me, when Melissa Hydrick 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:22.280 broke up with you, Oh just me. There was a 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:26.040 time when the pressure. 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:26.440 Felt so great. 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:32.240 Paul said, we are hard pressed on every side, and 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:38.360 that means it was all of the areas at once, 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:41.280 all at once. 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:44.000 And I believe that. 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:47.920 The times in our life when we are able to 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:54.040 pick our battles and focus our concentration, generally most of 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.760 us are able to stand up under pressure if it 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:00.120 is coming from one directions. 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:04.880 When I can't find any relief. 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:12.440 On any side, Sometimes when I preach, I'll be preaching 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:18.400 to one side and and and then I'll turn to 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:22.960 another side, and then I'll turn to another side to 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.560 see is this helping anybody? And if I can't find 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:31.640 any love in the middle, on the right, on the left, 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.080 sometimes I just turn around and look at LJ because. 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.439 I pay him to look happy. 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:44.280 But Paul says it was coming at us from every side. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.160 Now I understand what this means for Paul, because last 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:49.360 week we were talking about Paul on an island called 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.920 Malta a little later in his ministry, and he's there 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.400 is a prisoner and he makes it through a shipwreck, 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:57.800 and Luke gives us a picture of Paul that is 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.480 kind of a heroic portrait be because Luke respected Paul 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.120 so much, and he talks about how Paul got up 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.880 and gave a motivational speech to the other prisoners about 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.560 courage and faith in God no matter the circumstance, and 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:14.040 how Paul prayed and had a vision and then relay 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.920 that vision to the people to inspire their faith, because 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:21.120 sometimes somebody is waiting on you to encourage them to 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:23.839 put courage in them that they don't have right now. 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:25.480 And so Paul did that. 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:27.720 And then when Paul got to the shore, he gets 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:28.600 bit by a snake. 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:30.719 Remember did anybody listen to the message? 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:34.600 And watch how cool and calm and collected Paul was 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.560 on the shore of Malta. The snake didn't even seem 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.439 to bother him. He didn't rebuke the snake. He didn't 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:42.600 cry out to God, he didn't in the name of 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.120 Jesus plead the blood of Christ the lamb. He just 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.760 shook it all so cool. Don't you admire people who 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:49.800 are like that? By the way, don't you hate people 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:51.960 who are like that? By the way, Just people who 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.880 never get rattled, Just people who nothing bothers them, Just 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.679 people who shake stuff off. And Lucas telling us, man, 0:13:57.720 --> 0:13:58.440 it was amazing. 0:13:58.480 --> 0:13:59.079 I was there. 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:01.160 Paul just shook the snake off and in the fire, 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:02.840 it was amazing. And they thought he was gonna die, 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:04.040 and he didn't die, and he just stood there and 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:05.560 they thought he was gonna swell up, but didn't even 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:07.400 say anything. And he just stood there. And then he 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:09.880 went to Publias's house and he started healing everybody, and 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:11.800 it was amazing. And then Paul went to Rome and 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:13.719 he lived in a rented house for two years, and 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:19.560 and and and Paul says, way, man, women, it wasn't 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:30.040 that easy on the inside. 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.800 Because what you saw. 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.440 Was what I did, But you did not see the 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:38.160 doubts that I had. 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:39.280 While I was doing it. 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:47.000 You make it look so easy sometimes that nobody even 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.560 knows that you need to be encouraged because you just. 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.440 You just do that. You just do it. 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.800 You just pay the bills, you just smile at people, 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.160 you just dress well. You just walk strong and walk 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.920 tall and walk proud. But on the inside, Paul said, 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.520 I was so pressured. I couldn't find relief on the right, 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.280 on the left, in the middle, I looked top, I 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.360 looked down, I looked all around. I couldn't find a companion. 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:19.400 I couldn't find a helper. But I didn't die at 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:31.720 the pressure. Fore pressure but not crushed. So they have 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.320 sayings that they put out, sayings that they put out 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:40.960 to encourage you under pressure. And we say that pressure 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:43.640 makes diamonds. You ever heard that pressure makes diamonds. Raise 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.000 your hand if you've heard pressure makes diamonds. Pressure does 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:52.200 make diamonds, but it also makes dumb decisions. Hello, for real, 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:59.080 pressure does make diamonds, but it also makes divorces. Pressure 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.760 does make diamonds, but it also can leave you the 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:05.120 proud owner of a timeshare. 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:10.440 Some of the things you do under pressure. 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:20.520 Pressure, I don't think. I don't think God wants to 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:26.560 prevent pressure in our lives. Though, I think, let's read 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:31.240 it again. I think there's a point to the pressure, 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.280 and maybe today you have come to that point. Paul 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.720 describes it. He said, in verse ten, we carry around 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:42.480 in our body the death of Jesus. 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:49.160 It means that I feel like I'm dying inside. That's 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:50.680 the kind of pressure. 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:57.640 That Paul snake shaker, Paul shipwreck survivor Paul, he says earlier. 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:00.800 In his ministry, he says, there was so much pressure, 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:04.160 I thought I was dying. 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:12.440 And he says that I was hard pressed on every side, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.560 but not crushed. Now, I always heard people shout about 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:20.080 that verse, but realize that it's not automatic. 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:22.159 You know. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:22.760 When I read that. 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.680 Verse, some people are like, yeah, hard pressed but not crushed. 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:30.879 But that verse suggests that pressure can crush you. 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.000 Oh yeah, I've met so many. 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:39.800 People that let the pressure I'm thinking of, Like I 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.520 had a friend whose family had a recycling plant and 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.919 you'd see the cans just crushed into these cubes. I 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:52.919 have seen people crushed into cubes and melded into a 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:56.879 little bit of nothing and sent away, and their dreams 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:58.440 deferred and their. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.560 Hope crushed because pressure. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:05.040 So before you shout I'm pressed, but not crushed, realize 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.200 that if you don't know what to do with the pressure, 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.800 it will crush you. If you don't know what to 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:19.840 do with the snake, poison will kill you. I'm pressed, 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:26.840 Paul said, but I'm not crushed. I'm perplexed. That's mental pressure, 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:33.800 but not in despair. I'm persecuted. That's pressure from other people, 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.720 but not abandoned. I'm struck down, but not destroyed. 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:39.840 Not see a contrast. 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:45.560 It is the contrast between what is pushing on Paul 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:49.080 and what is pushing in Paul. Can I preach a 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:53.880 little bit. I'm gonna help you today because your pressure 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:59.000 is trying to point to something, and so many times 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.720 in my life, listen, I'll help you. So many times 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:05.640 in my life. The reason that I was under pressure 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:13.520 is because I was full of pride. He said, we 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:20.040 have this power, this treasure in earthen vessels or vessels 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:25.719 of clay, an ordinary vessel, and it's an extraordinary power. 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:31.720 And so I'm an ordinary person with an extraordinary promise 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:36.880 of the presence of God. But sometimes I get confused 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:39.400 and I forget that. 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.360 I'm just the pot I'm not the power. 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:49.600 And sometimes I get so burdened because I put the 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:55.879 weight of the world on my shoulders and carry across 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:59.680 that I'm not strong enough to carry that has already 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:01.360 been married for me. 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:04.200 So I'm under pressure. 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:08.280 Sometimes because I'm full of pride. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.200 And sometimes not all the time. 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:14.919 Pressure comes into your life not because of what you're handling, 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:16.240 but because of how. 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:17.200 You're handling it. 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:21.920 You forgot your. 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:27.480 Source and you lose your strength. Pressure. 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:34.080 Pressure sometimes points to pride in your life. 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.800 Thank you so much, God gave it to me. 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:40.159 I can't preach anything God doesn't give to me. And 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:41.760 God gave this to me. And you know, and I 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:43.359 think that way is so much easier to preach. 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:48.920 I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:50.000 help you today. If I don't help. 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:52.440 If I help three people, email me email me three 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:54.000 people at Elevation Church dot org. 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:55.240 Three people that I help today. 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:56.840 If you're one of the three it's gonna be email 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.000 dress three people at Elevation Church dot org. I'm gonna 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.399 help three people today who are under pressure, because when 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:07.879 pressure comes, some of us begin to perform to a 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.240 standard that we have projected. 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:19.159 That isn't even true to our purpose. I saw it 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:19.399 like this. 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:20.800 I can't say it again, Mom, I don't even know 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:21.240 what I said. 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.400 I hope you wrote it down. My mom says, say 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:24.120 it again. I can. 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:25.760 I don't know what I said. It just came out, 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.679 but maybe I could illustrate. You know, I've been preaching 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.840 a lot in the last year about the gap. I've 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:36.280 been preaching this message really all over the all over 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.480 the country, all over the world. I guess about the gap, 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.000 and it's the gap between where I am and where 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.440 I want to be, where I am and where I. 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:47.919 Used to be. And I've kind of been defining it. 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.000 I think I'm going to keep preaching it because it 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.560 continues to speak to me that there are two gaps 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.560 in my life. One is for my gratitude and one 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:56.359 is for my growth. 0:21:57.280 --> 0:21:57.680 Got it. 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:01.400 One is how far I've come. Look back makes me grateful. 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:04.359 Can't stay there too long, though, because I got to grower. 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:07.800 I die. But this week I was seeing a different 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:12.280 gap in my mind, and it's the pressure gap. It's 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:13.080 the pressure gap. 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:15.000 Again. 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:18.159 I'm not saying that all pressure is bad, but there 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:22.080 is a type of pressure that is rooted in pride 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:23.760 and manifest in performance. 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:29.440 And this is it. This is the gap. 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:34.080 Between who I think I need to be and who 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:40.679 I believe I really am. Stay right there with me, 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:46.920 because when you think you need to be something that 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:52.280 you secretly believe you are not, the pressure is crushing. 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:56.560 When you secretly believe. 0:22:57.080 --> 0:23:01.399 That you need to have an ability, that you need 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:07.600 to have a strength, when you secretly think this is 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.040 what I do all the time? Okay, therapy session bill me. 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:14.280 Holly says, I do it. She says that I got 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:16.199 it from my dad. He's not here anymore, so he 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:18.200 can't defend himself. So we talk about this genetic stuff 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:18.600 all the time. 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:20.119 But my mom is perfect. She's right over there in 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:24.399 the front row, she says. 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:28.240 Holly says, you gotta quit drawing thought bubbles on other people. 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:38.640 She says, you project expectations on people that they don't 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:46.239 even have of you, and you disappoint imaginary expectations that 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:47.600 don't even really exist. 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:50.720 Can you believe my wife would talk to me like this. 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:52.880 She didn't read. 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:56.320 That verse about submit woman, that Bible verse. 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:01.560 But she's right, it's just right. I do it all 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:02.080 the time. 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:05.000 And then guess what I do because of the pressure. 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:09.400 I'll start blowing up and exploding at people with frustration 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:13.840 because of projection of expectations. 0:24:12.880 --> 0:24:13.959 That they didn't even have. 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:23.600 So now I'm mat on the inside and I'm walking around. 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:26.840 With all this combustible pressure. What do you want from me? 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:27.760 And people are like nothing. 0:24:27.840 --> 0:24:39.920 Man, One time I was getting up to preach and 0:24:40.280 --> 0:24:42.960 when actually it was when the podium comes up. We 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:46.040 have some traditions here at elevation chirts that people come. 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:48.600 My little pulpit comes out, like write at a certain 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:51.560 moment during a certain song. It's just little things we 0:24:51.600 --> 0:24:53.320 do because it has to get out here at some time. 0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:55.120 So we just put it out there right then. 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:58.680 And they were carrying the pulpit out and I felt 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:04.800 this weird pressure to perform. And God spoke to me, 0:25:07.680 --> 0:25:09.480 when you were sixteen, did I call you to be 0:25:09.520 --> 0:25:20.719 a performer? And the moment I realized that I was 0:25:20.800 --> 0:25:26.399 projecting an expectation that was not from the heart of God, 0:25:27.960 --> 0:25:33.359 the pressure left the building and I was free to preach. 0:25:38.520 --> 0:25:40.480 But it was right when that pulpit was coming out 0:25:41.359 --> 0:25:44.679 and they were doing the last song and Chris was 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:48.399 hitting the high note, and it was a pressure point. 0:25:48.640 --> 0:25:52.040 I wonder what it is for you, the Alabama creamshaw, 0:25:54.680 --> 0:25:55.760 the Buffalo bicep. 0:25:55.800 --> 0:26:02.200 I didn't show you that one. Pressure points, those points, 0:26:02.280 --> 0:26:04.439 those those things. 0:26:04.440 --> 0:26:09.560 And I'm asking the question today, Could it be that 0:26:09.680 --> 0:26:14.479 your pressure is trying to point you to a higher power. 0:26:18.640 --> 0:26:21.200 The enemy will always point to what you don't have, 0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:28.720 what you can't be, what you can't do. But when 0:26:28.760 --> 0:26:37.760 he does point back, when pressure points, point back, I 0:26:37.760 --> 0:26:39.399 want you to point at your neighbor's face, put your 0:26:39.400 --> 0:26:40.880 finger right in front of their nose, and tell them 0:26:40.880 --> 0:26:46.040 you need this message. Tell them point back, point back. 0:26:48.359 --> 0:26:53.040 I see Paulin's Second Corinthians defending himself against the Judaizers 0:26:53.119 --> 0:26:58.920 because they are questioning his credentials for ministry, and they're pointing. 0:26:58.600 --> 0:27:01.600 Their finger in his face. Who do you think you are. 0:27:01.760 --> 0:27:05.320 Preaching that circumcision is of no avail and it is 0:27:05.320 --> 0:27:08.480 a new creation in Christ's accounts. I see a church 0:27:08.560 --> 0:27:10.840 pointing their finger in the face of Paul But what's 0:27:10.880 --> 0:27:12.960 what point Paul does when they're. 0:27:12.760 --> 0:27:13.639 Pointing their finger. 0:27:14.080 --> 0:27:16.679 You know those you know those things, those those points, 0:27:16.720 --> 0:27:17.560 you know, those. 0:27:17.440 --> 0:27:19.080 Those things the devil uses to. 0:27:19.040 --> 0:27:22.000 Make you feel smaller than and less than and not 0:27:22.240 --> 0:27:23.320 enough for and. 0:27:23.200 --> 0:27:26.240 Never enough for and never gonna be. And you never were, 0:27:26.440 --> 0:27:26.840 and your. 0:27:26.760 --> 0:27:29.760 Mama wasn't and your daddy wasn't and you can't be either. 0:27:29.960 --> 0:27:33.840 When he points point back, I have this treasure in 0:27:33.920 --> 0:27:37.200 earthen vessels that the excellency. 0:27:36.880 --> 0:27:40.359 Of the power might be proven to me from God 0:27:40.680 --> 0:27:49.240 and not from me. That's how you turn. 0:27:49.160 --> 0:27:57.760 Pressure into power, pressure into power. Pressure whanted somebody say 0:27:57.840 --> 0:28:04.720 pressure into power, pressure into power. So Paul says, we 0:28:04.720 --> 0:28:09.240 were pressed but not crushed. Maybe he has in mind 0:28:09.280 --> 0:28:12.360 here the garden of Getsemone, you know, the place where 0:28:12.400 --> 0:28:17.120 the Savior knelt down, all alone but not abandoned, struck 0:28:17.200 --> 0:28:21.359 down but not destroyed, headed to the cross, but the 0:28:21.560 --> 0:28:25.199 joy set before him enabled him to endure it. The 0:28:25.280 --> 0:28:28.600 Bible says he knelt down and prayed. He prayed so 0:28:28.840 --> 0:28:32.719 hard that he started sweating drops that were like blood. 0:28:33.119 --> 0:28:36.359 He prayed so long that his cathillaries might have burst. 0:28:36.800 --> 0:28:41.200 He prayed so long with nobody around to relieve the pressure. 0:28:41.520 --> 0:28:44.960 But as he sweat, came forth from the mouth of 0:28:45.040 --> 0:28:49.720 the living eternal word of God. Nevertheless, not my will, 0:28:50.040 --> 0:28:55.160 but yours be done. What happened He turned pressure into power, 0:28:55.520 --> 0:28:56.240 and he did it. 0:28:56.600 --> 0:29:01.280 In a place called cat semony. Get semony means olive press. 0:29:01.600 --> 0:29:04.080 And the world's greatest power. 0:29:04.200 --> 0:29:07.120 Came from the Savior's greatest pressure. 0:29:07.480 --> 0:29:11.440 And whatever you're going through today, I came with an announcement. 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:25.160 Paul said, we have this treasure, but. 0:29:25.160 --> 0:29:29.120 You don't even know what you have until you're under pressure. 0:29:32.640 --> 0:29:40.080 Pressure points. Pressure points. Pressure comes to call you out 0:29:41.360 --> 0:29:45.880 and to know do you really trust God? The devil 0:29:45.880 --> 0:29:48.080 got up in God's station and said, let me put 0:29:48.080 --> 0:29:52.320 some pressure on job and let's see what's really in him. 0:29:52.480 --> 0:29:54.440 Because you claim to be an orange, but you might 0:29:54.480 --> 0:29:57.760 be a lemon, and I won't know to I squeeze you. 0:29:57.760 --> 0:30:00.760 You might just be painted a certain color. Let me 0:30:00.800 --> 0:30:04.400 find out what's inside by pressure. 0:30:08.200 --> 0:30:12.240 Pressure proves whether you really believe the promise. 0:30:15.800 --> 0:30:19.240 So I want to read the scripture again pressure points. 0:30:20.440 --> 0:30:23.600 Paul has reached that point. Have you ever been at 0:30:23.640 --> 0:30:27.320 that point? Is Paul the only one? Are you more 0:30:27.400 --> 0:30:31.320 spiritual than Paul? Where nothing ever pressured you to the 0:30:31.360 --> 0:30:33.280 point where you wondered would you make it? 0:30:36.440 --> 0:30:45.080 So Paul says, the pressure came verse seven to show. 0:30:46.280 --> 0:30:48.960 That's what it came for. You put verse seven on 0:30:49.000 --> 0:30:55.920 the screen, please. The pressure came to show, to reveal, 0:30:57.280 --> 0:31:04.200 to point out that this power, this all surpassing power, 0:31:05.280 --> 0:31:09.280 this great power that raised Christ from the grave, can 0:31:09.400 --> 0:31:11.480 only be proven. 0:31:12.240 --> 0:31:18.960 After the pressure is applied. So the pressure shows me 0:31:20.760 --> 0:31:21.680 that it's not about me. 0:31:24.800 --> 0:31:26.440 You know how they say God will never put more 0:31:26.440 --> 0:31:29.880 on you than you can bear. That's not true. That 0:31:29.960 --> 0:31:31.640 is a Bible verse, but it's out of context. It's 0:31:31.640 --> 0:31:33.640 talking about temptation as talking about God is not the 0:31:33.640 --> 0:31:36.600 author of evil. But they can't fit all that on 0:31:36.600 --> 0:31:38.280 a bumper sticker, so they just put God won't put 0:31:38.280 --> 0:31:39.600 on any more on you than you can bear. It 0:31:39.680 --> 0:31:42.440 sounds thatter on pinterest, but that's not what the verse means. 0:31:42.640 --> 0:31:47.080 God will most certainly put more on you than you 0:31:47.120 --> 0:31:51.480 can bear, so you will realize that you were not 0:31:51.600 --> 0:31:58.880 meant to bear it, so you can access the supply. 0:32:00.400 --> 0:32:04.160 That was yours all along. You've been under pressure. 0:32:04.440 --> 0:32:09.360 Good, The pressure came to show you where your power 0:32:09.400 --> 0:32:10.040 came from. 0:32:10.560 --> 0:32:15.880 No pressure, no pressure, no pressure. 0:32:17.080 --> 0:32:19.440 If you're not under pressure, you're only going to have 0:32:19.760 --> 0:32:21.040 the power that you have. 0:32:21.760 --> 0:32:25.000 But the pressure came to show you power. 0:32:25.360 --> 0:32:29.600 And provision that you could not have accessed any other way. 0:32:29.760 --> 0:32:32.920 How many get some out of this? Make some noise now, 0:32:38.360 --> 0:32:40.160 he says, therefore. 0:32:41.240 --> 0:32:50.320 Verse sixteen, because we know that pressure produces power. Because 0:32:50.360 --> 0:32:53.200 we know that what is coming at me is not 0:32:53.440 --> 0:32:55.560 greater than what lives within me. 0:32:57.840 --> 0:33:00.320 Because we know that. Somebody say, I already know. 0:33:02.160 --> 0:33:12.600 All pressure, all press, press pressure, pre sure, because I 0:33:12.680 --> 0:33:18.280 am pre sure. God said you gotta fight pressure with 0:33:18.760 --> 0:33:22.280 pre sure you got You've got to know some things 0:33:22.800 --> 0:33:25.120 so deeply in your Therefore. 0:33:24.960 --> 0:33:26.640 We do not lose heart. 0:33:27.040 --> 0:33:30.640 Though outwardly it doesn't look very good we are wasting away. 0:33:30.680 --> 0:33:31.600 I'm not crushed. 0:33:31.920 --> 0:33:36.440 Yet inwardly I got something on the inside greater than 0:33:36.480 --> 0:33:44.200 whatever surrounds me on the outside. We are being renewed 0:33:44.320 --> 0:34:00.479 day by day four our light and momentary pressure troubles, trials, teenagers, bills, aches, pains. 0:34:00.040 --> 0:34:05.200 Yes, I'm not gonna lie. Some people here are under 0:34:05.800 --> 0:34:09.360 horrendous pressure. I'm not minimizing it. 0:34:11.120 --> 0:34:16.120 I'm just saying that a certainty of what I'm about 0:34:16.160 --> 0:34:18.759 to share with you next that Paul. This is what 0:34:19.120 --> 0:34:24.879 Paul knew that he could only learn under pressure. He said, 0:34:24.920 --> 0:34:28.399 I've learned because of what I've been through, and I've 0:34:28.480 --> 0:34:31.719 learned because of what God has done for me. I 0:34:31.760 --> 0:34:36.719 have learned that my light and momentary troubles are achieving 0:34:37.080 --> 0:34:41.839 for me an eternal glory. 0:34:43.360 --> 0:34:47.359 So the pressure that I'm under right now. 0:34:48.080 --> 0:34:52.239 Is pointing to a glory that is going to be 0:34:52.600 --> 0:34:53.640 so much greater. 0:34:54.719 --> 0:34:58.759 How many believe the glory that is on the. 0:34:58.680 --> 0:35:03.080 Other side, It's gonna be so much greater. 0:35:06.640 --> 0:35:07.600 What God is. 0:35:07.600 --> 0:35:11.879 Doing through my life in this season of pressure. I'm 0:35:11.920 --> 0:35:16.600 gonna be stronger. I'm gonna be stable. I'm gonna be steady. 0:35:16.960 --> 0:35:19.959 Next time. I know how to sake it off. Next time, 0:35:20.000 --> 0:35:22.560 I know how to walk right through it. Next time, 0:35:22.600 --> 0:35:23.839 I know how to spend. 0:35:23.520 --> 0:35:26.000 The night in the fiery furnace and come out. 0:35:25.840 --> 0:35:27.880 Without the smell of smoke on my clothes. 0:35:28.280 --> 0:35:29.120 Who is this for? 0:35:29.640 --> 0:35:32.759 You've been under pressure. The pressure has been pointing to 0:35:32.880 --> 0:35:36.480 your end. But God says, I'm putting. 0:35:36.120 --> 0:35:41.920 A glory for the joy set before him in tore the. 0:35:41.960 --> 0:35:44.800 Crow despising his share. 0:35:48.400 --> 0:35:54.440 The glory of the Lord is released and the power 0:35:55.120 --> 0:35:58.600 of God is released through the pressure. 0:35:59.040 --> 0:36:01.360 I'm telling you right now, I know what it feels 0:36:01.440 --> 0:36:03.360 like to feel like there's no way out. I know 0:36:03.400 --> 0:36:05.279 what it feels like to feel like there's no way 0:36:05.280 --> 0:36:08.000 of escape. But when you can't find a way out, 0:36:08.320 --> 0:36:09.960 that's when God makes a way in. 0:36:10.440 --> 0:36:12.959 He's coming in to spend the night with you. He's 0:36:13.040 --> 0:36:26.320 right there with you. In the pressure. I'm pushing to somebody. 0:36:24.239 --> 0:36:30.799 And I'm pointing toward glory. I'm pointing toward glory. The 0:36:30.960 --> 0:36:35.759 enemy will point toward your shame, your failure, your weakness, 0:36:37.520 --> 0:36:39.040 Paul said, I'm pointing. 0:36:40.520 --> 0:36:48.560 To glory. I'm pointing to glory. Come on, let's practice 0:36:49.160 --> 0:36:51.359 when you get under pressure this week. What you're gonna do, 0:36:52.840 --> 0:36:53.640 What you're gonna do. 0:36:55.239 --> 0:37:01.040 We have this treasure in earthen vessels, seeing that what 0:37:01.160 --> 0:37:03.239 the promise of God and the presence of God does 0:37:03.280 --> 0:37:05.680 in my life, it does what they learned how to 0:37:05.719 --> 0:37:08.600 do to the airplane, because if they didn't learn how 0:37:08.640 --> 0:37:12.279 to pressurize the cabin of the airplane, we couldn't. 0:37:11.960 --> 0:37:13.560 Make it to thirty thousand feet. 0:37:15.600 --> 0:37:18.200 Because our bodies were designed to breathe at sea level. 0:37:18.760 --> 0:37:22.279 But our minds conceived something that could fly in an 0:37:22.320 --> 0:37:27.640 atmosphere that we could not retain consciousness in. And that's 0:37:27.640 --> 0:37:32.319 why the cabin had to be pressurized. Why I come 0:37:32.400 --> 0:37:37.000 to the word of God is to pressurize my spirit 0:37:38.080 --> 0:37:43.080 with the promises of God, because I have this treasure 0:37:43.120 --> 0:37:46.399 in earth and vessels, and the pressure is too great 0:37:46.440 --> 0:37:49.600 for me, and my humanity cannot bear the weight of 0:37:49.640 --> 0:37:52.120 the glory of God, because I'm. 0:37:51.960 --> 0:37:55.360 Made of dust, and to the dust I will return. 0:37:55.480 --> 0:37:58.319 And I am weak, and I am poor, and I 0:37:58.360 --> 0:38:02.200 am broken, and without him I can do nothing. But 0:38:02.280 --> 0:38:04.960 when I get my spirit pressurized, touch somebody say, I'm 0:38:04.960 --> 0:38:08.640 pressurized when I get into the presence of God, and 0:38:08.719 --> 0:38:14.080 I am reminded that these light and momentary afflictions are 0:38:14.120 --> 0:38:18.839 not worthy to be compared with the cool I can 0:38:18.960 --> 0:38:27.319 go higher. And Paul said, I made it through it 0:38:28.239 --> 0:38:31.640 because I got above it. 0:38:33.360 --> 0:38:38.360 Lift your hands in the presence of the Lawyer on 0:38:38.440 --> 0:38:41.560 your feet now for everybody who's under pressure. 0:38:41.600 --> 0:38:45.000 This message came to you just at this time to 0:38:45.080 --> 0:38:48.200 reveal to you what the pressure is for, to show 0:38:49.040 --> 0:38:55.759 that this all surpassing power, power, the raised Christ from 0:38:55.800 --> 0:39:00.520 the dead, power, this book the world's into existence, power 0:39:00.520 --> 0:39:01.560 that makes winds. 0:39:01.239 --> 0:39:06.360 And waves still with one word. This all surpassing power 0:39:07.360 --> 0:39:08.680 is from God and not from us. 0:39:11.480 --> 0:39:16.000 Are you at the point where you realize. 0:39:17.360 --> 0:39:19.320 That you can't carry the weight of your calling. 0:39:21.440 --> 0:39:24.640 Are you at the point where you realize that you 0:39:24.680 --> 0:39:26.640 don't have the wisdom you need to guide your life 0:39:26.640 --> 0:39:30.440 by your own intuition and decisions? Have you come to 0:39:30.480 --> 0:39:34.160 that point. We're on the right and on the left, 0:39:35.120 --> 0:39:38.480 to the north and to the south. All you see 0:39:38.520 --> 0:39:43.200 is pressure all around you. The word of the Lord 0:39:43.239 --> 0:39:47.800 this day is that what is within you is greater 0:39:47.880 --> 0:39:48.719 than what's around you. 0:39:51.600 --> 0:39:54.800 And God brought you into his presence this. 0:39:54.760 --> 0:40:03.520 Day to pressure eyes your resolve with the promises of God. 0:40:03.840 --> 0:40:06.920 Lift your hands to heaven. See that that's how we 0:40:06.960 --> 0:40:12.319 point back. When the enemy is pointing at everything that 0:40:12.360 --> 0:40:14.520 I'm not, I lift my hands to point to all 0:40:14.560 --> 0:40:18.040 that God is. Come on in this place, begin to 0:40:18.040 --> 0:40:22.960 clap your hands and praise God. Praise points back. Praise 0:40:23.120 --> 0:40:26.840 points back. Praise points back. When you give him the praise, 0:40:26.880 --> 0:40:27.520 he gives. 0:40:27.320 --> 0:40:31.400 You his peace. Praise points back. Come on, give him 0:40:31.440 --> 0:40:35.880 the praise. If you know the power, the power of 0:40:35.920 --> 0:40:47.120 God is operative in your situation. Pressure points. 0:40:50.520 --> 0:40:54.400 Father, Today, I want to pray very specifically for someone 0:40:55.040 --> 0:40:58.839 who has never surrendered their life to you, someone who 0:40:58.880 --> 0:41:02.160 has never made the decision to give you complete control, 0:41:04.200 --> 0:41:06.920 someone who has been carrying the weight and the shame 0:41:07.920 --> 0:41:10.959 of their sin and never received your grace. Heads bowed, 0:41:10.960 --> 0:41:13.040 eyes close. Spirit of the Lord is in this place, 0:41:13.080 --> 0:41:15.960 and I want to pray a prayer right now for 0:41:17.320 --> 0:41:20.680 those who are far away from God in your heart today. 0:41:20.719 --> 0:41:22.879 The truth of the matter is, he's never far from you. 0:41:24.200 --> 0:41:29.560 He's never far from you, and his presence is in 0:41:29.600 --> 0:41:33.400 this place, and he longs to live inside of you, 0:41:34.920 --> 0:41:36.680 and he longs to roll away the burden that you've 0:41:36.719 --> 0:41:41.320 been carrying. All that is required for you to access 0:41:41.360 --> 0:41:45.360 this grace and forgiveness and new beginning is faith. 0:41:46.280 --> 0:41:46.759 That's it. 0:41:47.600 --> 0:41:50.640 Scripture says that if you confess with your mouth that 0:41:50.760 --> 0:41:52.600 Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God 0:41:52.640 --> 0:41:53.880 raised him from the dead. 0:41:53.840 --> 0:41:54.720 You will be safe. 0:41:55.880 --> 0:41:57.760 So I want to give you that opportunity right now. 0:41:58.719 --> 0:42:00.760 So I've been living my life on my own terms. 0:42:01.800 --> 0:42:04.160 I've been carrying the weight of my life on my 0:42:04.200 --> 0:42:07.120 own and right now I want to invite God to 0:42:07.160 --> 0:42:10.080 be the center of my life and receive the mercy 0:42:10.120 --> 0:42:10.919 of Jesus Christ. 0:42:11.000 --> 0:42:11.879 I want to pray with you. 0:42:12.440 --> 0:42:14.440 We're gonna pray as a church family out loud for 0:42:14.480 --> 0:42:16.520 the benefit of those who are coming to God at 0:42:16.560 --> 0:42:19.319 all of our campuses. Let's pray out loud, Heavenly Father, 0:42:20.640 --> 0:42:24.840 I come to you a sinner in need of a savior, 0:42:25.840 --> 0:42:32.000 and today I confess that Jesus Christ is my savior. 0:42:33.040 --> 0:42:37.080 And Lord, I believe he died to forgive my sin 0:42:37.920 --> 0:42:43.279 and rose again to give me life. I receive this 0:42:43.400 --> 0:42:48.560 new life. Come into my heart, make me new. This 0:42:48.719 --> 0:42:53.040 is my new beginning. Had still vowed, eyes still closed. 0:42:53.080 --> 0:42:54.759 If you just pray that on the count of three, 0:42:54.840 --> 0:42:56.080 shoot your hand up in the air. 0:42:56.160 --> 0:42:59.200 One, two, three. I want to celebrate with you. I 0:42:59.320 --> 0:43:02.440 see you, man, We'll see you guys on every location. 0:43:02.719 --> 0:43:07.120 God bless you, God bless you. Come on, let's celebrate church. 0:43:07.200 --> 0:43:08.280 Put those hands together. 0:43:09.200 --> 0:43:11.960 Give God some grace for what he's doing in this place, 0:43:13.040 --> 0:43:18.920 for his great grace, for his awesome love, for his 0:43:19.120 --> 0:43:22.200 great grace, for his awesome love. 0:43:22.960 --> 0:43:24.279 Come on, thank something seeing. 0:43:24.360 --> 0:43:29.560 Let's celebrate the precessome don see. 0:43:28.160 --> 0:43:33.000 Yes see. Thank you for joining us. 0:43:33.280 --> 0:43:35.759 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to 0:43:35.800 --> 0:43:39.280 this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. 0:43:39.760 --> 0:43:41.960 You can click the link in the description to give 0:43:42.040 --> 0:43:45.960 now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for 0:43:46.040 --> 0:43:50.000 more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. 0:43:50.280 --> 0:43:51.600 You can share it with your friends. 0:43:51.880 --> 0:43:54.160 You can click the share button, take a screenshot and 0:43:54.239 --> 0:43:56.359 share it on your social stories and tag us at 0:43:56.360 --> 0:43:57.240 Elevation Church. 0:43:57.280 --> 0:43:58.920 Thanks again for listening. God bless you.