Wasted Rain

0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:04.640 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:07.160 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.479 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:12.560 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.759 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.400 Are you ready for the word? Well, I'm gonna bring 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:22.680 it in just a moment, but first let me make 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.480 sure everyone is aware of what we mentioned earlier that 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:28.080 we are in a season of giving and generosity and 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:34.680 reciprocation and sewing. It's our year end offering time. Yo, 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:38.559 my class just got lower. We love to guill, We 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:44.239 love to gill. And y'all know, every year I ask 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.199 God to give us a word to rally around, just 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.199 something to believe that he's doing. We've had so many 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.280 different words through the years. But this year, the Lord 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.480 told me that we would focus on his favor. So 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.960 this is going to be our favor offering for twenty twenty. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.679 You know, it's the year of the Lord's Favor. You're like, oh, 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:11.280 I didn't get that memo. Well. Luke four nineteen said 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:13.440 that when he unrolled the scroll, he said the spirit 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.279 of the Lord has anointed me, even in the midst 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:22.399 of great adversity, to declare blind eyes open, captives set free. 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:25.880 Where's my three people that came to agree with the 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:29.200 word of the Lord? He said, it's a year of 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:36.040 the Lord's favor. So you've got to choose how you 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.680 want to frame your life. Nobody can make that decision 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.280 for you. And I bet if you look back over 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:44.520 this last twenty four hours, you can frame it with 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.640 God's favor. If you look back over these last seven days, 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:49.520 you can frame it with God's favor. Can frame it 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:52.360 with frustration. Remember how the dishwasher broke and you called 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.040 your kids over and they wouldn't do it, so you 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.560 slapped them across the room and then you felt bad 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.840 about that. Or you can remember all the things that 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:04.280 it went right this week and hold on even when 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:08.120 you were wrong. Wow, but God's grace was there for you. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:10.560 And that's what I like to do when we end 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.359 the year. So our global family, we're inviting you. December 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.400 thirteenth is the date that we've set. Of course, calendars 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.440 mean nothing in twenty twenty, the year of our Lord, 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.400 but it's still the year of the Lord's favor. So 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:22.720 between now and then, get your best gifts. Some of 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.359 you never give. You just consume, consume, consume. You're never 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.359 going to get much out of it. That way, you 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:32.360 get fat, but you won't get faith. We build our faith. 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:38.360 I know I said the word was coming, but that 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:43.000 felt like a word right there. So thousands will do it. 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:45.760 Thank you to all of our tithers who have enabled 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.120 us to go through with all of the plans that 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.239 God had this year to reach the world. Gospel is 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:53.840 bear and fruit, but our favor offering. You go to 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.720 Elevationchurch dot org for that and even just this week 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:02.160 our Convoy of Hope Outreach caravan. We get fifty thousand 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:06.080 dollars this week to help with Park two Honduras for 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.960 the category for Hurricane Now. Each week we're just going 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:12.919 to show you what God did through your giving and 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.799 I know that you'll respond. Happy anniversary. By the way 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:20.560 to our Blakeney location, it's ten years, ten years of 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:29.120 amazing ministers. Zeke, did you ever come over to Blakeney. Yeah, 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:33.800 you're a newcomer, a mere babe, a mere babe in Christ. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.480 You know we're at Blakeney, but we've had some amazing ministry. There, 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.280 shout out John and Beth Hargett, Dan and Diane Horner, 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.640 John and Denise Richter, Randy and Mary Angel. What's up 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:50.760 Randy Angel? That dude gives the most violent hugs. Randy 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.000 Angel just picks you up. And he's a chiropractor when 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.600 he hugs you. He's not licensed though, just breaks your 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:58.600 back when he hugs you. I'm so glad you're over 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.040 there today so you don't have to break my spine 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.480 with your hugs. And we thank God for our campus. Pastors, 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.520 Paul and Leah's your bid? Come on, let's thank God 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:10.920 for all of our location. Hey, what campus? Are you watching? Problems? 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:13.720 Put it right there in the chat. Put your city, 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.640 your state. It may not be an official campus, but 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.560 we ordain you today into the Gospel ministry to receive 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.400 the word of the Lord. How many are ready to 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.280 receive it? Amen? You're not gonna believe what God gave 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:30.800 me for today. Look at Isaiah fifty five and I'll 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.040 let you sit down. Hey, stand up, even if you're 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.640 in your living room. Get your heart ready. Send a 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.440 signal to your central nervous system system. We are about 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.520 to do something. We're not just gonna hear something. We're 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:45.920 gonna walk this out. So stand up wherever you are 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:51.800 and prepare your heart to hear God's word. I love 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.880 this in Isaiah fifty five, verse eight. For my thoughts 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.760 are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.159 clears the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:08.560 so are my ways higher than your ways, and my 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:13.000 thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:16.280 come down from heaven, and do not return to it 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.000 without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.320 so that it yields seed for the sower and bread 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:28.440 for the eater. So is my word that goes out 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.320 from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:37.520 but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.080 for which I scent it. As the rain, verse ten. 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.800 So is my word. And I want to talk to 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:46.960 you from an interesting thought today that the Lord gave me. 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:48.280 And I know he gave it to me, and I'll 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.080 tell you why in a minute. But I'm going to 0:05:50.160 --> 0:06:00.200 call this sermon wasted rain. Wasted rain, please be seated. Oh, 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:05.400 the Lord gave me this one. He confirmed it. He 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:10.760 confirmed this message title wasted rain. I was kind of 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.240 feeling up in the air about it, and I'm recording 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.280 it on a day where I woke up and it 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.839 was really really rainy outside, and I thought, well, that 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.520 could just be a coincidence, do you know what I mean? 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:27.599 Because I decided to preach about wasted rain. Then my phone, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.000 I was looking for my scripture to look it over again, 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.320 and my phone did you just phones? Really now we're 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:37.440 recording this, maybe you're watching it much later. But it 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:42.920 came up it said emergency alert. I'm preaching on wasted rain, 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.760 and it says the National Weather Service is giving a 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.719 flash flood warning in effect for this area for the 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:55.919 next couple hours. Even the National Weather Service knew that 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:59.360 God wanted me to preach this to you today. Huh. 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.800 Rain Chunks was texting me, said I'm sorry about the rain, 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.400 as you know might be. I said, oh, don't apologize. 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:12.000 God sent this to confirm his word to you, and 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.840 he wants to talk to us today about wasted rain. 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:17.440 As the rain falls from the heaven and waters the earth. 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.360 So is my word, God says through the prophet Isaiah, 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:26.160 who prophesied. Of course, during the reign of the King 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:28.880 in the year King Uziah died. I saw the Lord 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:34.320 he prophesied rain during the reign of King Usiah. Now 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.560 it's interesting because I used to always pray this scripture 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:39.679 before I would preach. I still pray before I preach, 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:41.840 but I don't pray the scripture anymore. I'm gona tell 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.360 you why I was praying it, like it was a 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.480 magic trick. I would always before i'd come out to preach. 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.760 I'm a little superstitious, not necessarily because I believe it's 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.160 like luck to preach, but I don't know. I take 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.960 it seriously. I figured, like, if you came into church 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.600 and your life is in shambles and you need God 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.120 to speak to you, and then he puts up some 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.320 forty year old country boy from Monk's corner, we need 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:12.720 a miracle to get this done. I'm doing the math, 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:14.640 and I'm like, oh, I need you, Lord. So I 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.880 would always pray this so I could put the responsibility 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.920 on God that Lord, what they need you have, I don't, 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.120 but if you'll do it through me, I'll give it 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.160 to me. And you can use that little trip parenting 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.640 your kids, leading your team. Anytime you need to just 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.559 tell God this is big and I'm little. Will you 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:38.120 make up the difference? Clap those blessed, rainy wet hands 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.400 if you believe that God will make up the difference. Amen, 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:44.440 Your thoughts are not my thoughts, or ways are not 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:46.320 my ways. And I would always pray that, No, say Lord, 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.000 I thank you that as the rain falls from heaven 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:49.880 and waters the earth, so she would be the procease 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:51.640 for from your mouth. They accomplished what you sent to do. 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.120 And it was in King James, how I did it well. 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.640 I stopped praying that when I realized that for many 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.760 years I had been praying it a little bit out 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.000 of context. The prophecy in Isaiah fifty five is written 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.840 to a specific people who will be taken into captivity, 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.800 and they're being prepared for what they're not even going 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:15.600 through yet. Now in the text I read is very beautiful. 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.000 It's very peaceful as the rain falls from the heaven. 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:23.599 You know, so beautiful, so peaceful. If you're like me, 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.400 rain is depressing, but Holly thinks is peaceful. We argue 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.040 about this all the time. It's just stay in bed 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:33.600 to well. Anyway. We have different we have different interpretations 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.679 of the rain. But in this passage. It says that 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.760 the rain makes things grow, and it compares God's word 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.640 to that. So it would be easy to read this 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:46.880 scripture thinking that the context of it is God's promise 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:52.080 for revival, and it is, it is, it is. He's 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:56.120 the God of revival, He's the God of resurrection, He's 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.920 the God of renewal. He's the God who sends the 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.680 rain into the par arched areas of your life and 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.800 brings about things that your mind cannot conceive by the 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.160 power of his spirit. That's all true. But I guess 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.400 I just saw a few years ago that it's less 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.240 about what I say when I'm preaching and more about 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.880 what you hear and then what you do with what 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.600 you hear. Because in verse six, let's go to verse six, 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.480 just before the passage I read, the prophet says, seek 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.320 the Lord while he may be found. Listen to this 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.400 call on him while he is near. Let the wicked 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:42.360 forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Everybody say thoughts. 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.400 Say it again, say thoughts, type it into chat thoughts, 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.680 and put a little light bulb emologie or a mind 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.840 blow emoji, just to confirm that you heard that he said, 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.000 Let the let the wicked forsake their ways and the 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.440 unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord. This 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.480 is the biblic picture of repentance, to turn around the 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:08.160 Old Testament maneuver by which we align our hearts with God. 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.760 Thank you Lord for showing me that, because I thought 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:15.559 that the context of this was revival. But the context 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:23.840 of revival is repentance. Before the rain comes the repentance, 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.040 he said, let them turn to the Lord, and he 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:30.560 will have mercy on them, and to our God, for 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.160 he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:35.800 neither my ways your ways. As the heavens are higher 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:37.720 than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.800 and my thoughts than your thoughts, says the rain and 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.640 the snow. But look at it again, he said, verse seven, 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.600 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:49.160 So here's what I want to say to you. How 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:51.320 many of you love the Word of God. How many 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.559 of you believe the word of God can change your life? 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.760 How many want the Word of God to work inside 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:01.679 of you today? Yeah? All right, Well, I want to 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:05.680 tell you this first point, God's word does not override 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:15.080 your thought process. He said that before the earth is 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.040 filled with the rain, that will bring forth the purpose 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.640 for which the word was sent. First, there has to 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:27.640 be a forsaking before there can be a filling. There 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:33.440 is a forsaking before there is a filling. And the 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.840 reason that helped me is because I realized that a 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.280 lot of times God has wanted to speak something to me, 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:45.200 but I did not have room to receive it. So 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.600 let me ask the question again, how many of you 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.280 want to receive a word from God today? I do? 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:53.720 I need his word. I don't just want it. I 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.199 don't just want. I want to quest cookie after I preach. 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.280 It would be nice, but I don't need that. I 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.960 need God God's word. I need God's word for my dysfunction. 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.600 I know you drop down out of the second cloud 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.840 right there behind Gabriel and put your harp in the 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:14.400 closet for church today. That's all right. I need God's 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:18.920 word and I need God's to get God's word to 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.760 give me direction. I really do, because I don't want 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.600 to spend any of my time making decisions that I 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.080 will spend more time cleaning up because I didn't first 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:33.199 seek the Lord how many of you wasted some days 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:41.480 because you didn't get God's direction for your life. You 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.439 would have never had to delete their name out of 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:48.400 your phone if you would have prayed before you anyway. 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:53.640 So we understand this on one level that in order 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:57.120 to receive God's word, there are some of our own 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:02.079 thoughts that we have to forsake. God's word is free. 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:06.000 Aren't you glad you don't have to pay for this? 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.720 In fact, that's the context of Isaiah fifty five says 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:10.600 you have no money, come, but it will cost you 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:16.760 your thoughts. It will cost you your will, it will 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:21.280 cost you your opinions, it will cost you your preferences. 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.040 The word of God, somebody just put that in the check. 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.280 The word of God, the Word of God. I love 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.520 the Word of God. I don't know why. I've always 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.800 loved it since I was a little boy. I liked it. 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:36.960 It felt like, even if I couldn't understand what the 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:41.800 preacher was saying, it just felt different than everything else 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:45.120 everybody else was saying. Sometimes I slept through it, but 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:49.720 when I woke up, I still liked it. And now 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:51.440 I'm coming to the point of my life where I 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.760 value it and I realized that God's word in different 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.120 seasons of my life will come to me in different 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:05.120 ways through different people. And well, the Bible tells us 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.200 so much about the Bible. The best way to know 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:10.840 about the Bible is read what the Bible says about 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:17.080 the Bible. And yet at the same time, God's word 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:22.080 can be so plentiful and our lives can be so pitiful. 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.720 I read something. I normally don't believe anything I see 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:32.680 in newspapers, and you shouldn't either, But I read something 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:35.520 and this sounded accurate, so I'm gonna read it to you. 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.200 This was from the La Times last year in February, 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.080 and they were talking about a state that is so 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.080 prone to droughts. You know, those of you who live 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:48.400 in California, this may really hit home for you. But 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:54.360 in February of twenty nineteen, this writer Hannah Fry, She 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.360 said that California's wet winter has dumped you ready for 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:03.720 this and estimated eighteen trillion gallons of rain in February 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:11.440 alone in the state, eighteen trillion gallons in that month alone. 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.040 But listen to this. Much of it is simply going 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:19.640 down the drain. I'm about to preach the la times. 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.960 I'm just warning you. And then she goes on to 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.960 say she quotes this expert and his name is Mark Gold. 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.440 He said, when you look at the Los Angeles River 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:34.000 being between fifty and seventy percent full during a storm, 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.480 you realize that more water is running down the river 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:42.120 into the ocean than what Los Angeles would use in 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:46.640 close to a year. Did you hear that? And he 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:51.120 said that it's He said that it's a waste of 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:57.280 water supply, that so much water in a land that 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:02.280 is so concerned about drought is going down the drain. 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:09.199 And I don't know anything about environmentalism, but I've been 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.159 preaching God's word long enough to God's people to know 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:23.159 that some of you you have about eighteen trillion gallons 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:30.600 of notes in your sermon notebook. Eighteen gallon, eighteen trillion gallons. 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:33.320 Some of you, you know who you are. I know 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:34.679 some of you just turned off for the first time. 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:36.119 You weren't even trying to watch church today. It came 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:37.280 up in your feet and you didn't know what it was. 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.800 And here you are. But some of you, you've got 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:47.080 eighteen gallon trillion, eighteen gallon eight how many eighteens? I 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:51.479 can't say eighteen trillion gallons of truth? But what are 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:56.200 you doing with it? What am I doing with it? 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.879 I want a revelation. I want a revelation. God speak 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:04.960 to me today, show me today, and he has and 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.720 he will and he does. But so much of it, 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.760 this is what the article was saying, because the systems 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.720 can't handle because they don't know what to do yet 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.000 with the runoff. And they said in the article they're trying. 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:19.439 I don't know if they're doing it yet or not. 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.760 I didn't look at the update, but they said until 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.679 they can get the supply to the place where it 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:31.720 needs to be, there can be eighteen trillion gallons of 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:38.679 downpour and still a drought. There can be eighteen trillion 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:42.360 gallons of truth. Oh yeah, God's been trying to encourage 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:48.320 you all week and you're discouraged. Why Why Because it 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:54.880 went down the drain? And I wonder what God has 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:59.000 spoken over your life in this season or a previous 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:04.600 season that you've been letting it go down the drain. 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:07.160 You know, how does it just goes down the drain 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:16.200 into the Pacific pessimistic Pacific ocean, the pessic It said 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:21.000 it all that water everybody say, all that water, what 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:26.200 a waste, What a waste, All that water down into 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:32.159 the pessimistic emotion ocean Pacific ocean, pessimistic emotions. I just 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:37.399 thought some of you had been wasting the words that 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:40.679 God has spoken over your life. It's one thing if 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:42.760 you don't need to pay attention to people, people are 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.879 always talking. You can even not pay attention to me. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:51.800 But when God speaks, that's how he supplies all of 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.120 your needs. And yet so much of it goes down 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:58.720 the drain. You do know that by the time that 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:02.120 you finish hearing a sermon, the devil will have arranged 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:06.959 three clever distractions to get you from digesting what he 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:10.679 gave you and to drain you of the deposit so 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:15.080 that you stay dehydrated in a state of drought. And 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:17.680 I just needed you to know that it's not a 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:27.960 shortage of God's word. You know what's weird. When I 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:29.800 looked at that, I thought, yeah, listen, I want to 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.000 teach you a little bit. I thought, well, if God's 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.320 word comes, you know, like how we'd like to do. 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:40.800 We just quote scripture over the top of struggles that 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.480 we don't really deal with, and then God's word. Remember, 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.600 it's like the rain, the rain. God's word is like 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.480 the rain. Oh. By the way, it also says in 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:55.760 scripture that God's word is like honey. It'll brighten your 0:20:55.760 --> 0:21:00.439 eyes God's word. When these are all things the Bible 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.240 about the Bible, because the Bible interprets itself if you 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.359 let it. And God's word is not only like honey. 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.080 But one writer said, it's like milk. It's like milk. 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:13.399 It's like pure milk. And so the pure milk of 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:15.320 the Word of God can come in and nourish you 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:17.720 in the infant stages of your faith. But then he said, 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.760 at some point, you can't just be hanging out, you know, 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:24.359 drinking that milk forever. You need to grow up in 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:31.439 mature and get off the bottle. Lord, I thank you 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:35.639 that the mature people can receive solid food. So the 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.280 Bible is milk, the Bible is meat, the Bible is honey. 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:41.200 You know what the Bible is this the food category. Everybody, 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:42.800 Thank God. Everybody who loves to eat. Thank God that 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.040 the word of God. Jesus said, man does not live 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:48.480 on bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:50.520 mouth of God. But think about it, that does no 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:55.240 good without digestion, just like the word of God cannot 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:56.800 do what it was meant to do if you have 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:02.520 a jacked up thought process. So if you are a pessimist, 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:05.280 you will hear God's word always like it's for somebody else, 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:09.320 or you will only hear the parts of God's word 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:14.000 that reinforce your emotional biases. So if your heart is 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.080 rooted in suspicion, you will transfer that same suspicion to 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:19.920 the scriptures. And you will come to the scriptures thinking 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:23.320 that you have life, but you will not know him. 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:26.640 So we think like, oh, well, God can just put 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:27.840 a word, and I can put it up on a 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:29.600 post it note on my mirror. That's fine on a 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:31.520 post it note on your mirror, but until it gets 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:37.520 into your thought process, which the Bible calls meditation. And 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:39.159 I just wonder what you've been doing with all the 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:43.000 water God's been sending you as the rain falls from 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:48.359 the heaven, as the snow. The Bible calls itself a sword. 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:52.320 Did you know that that means you can fight with it. 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:54.359 It's not only a sword you can fight your enemy with, 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:58.400 but it's a sword that pierces you. The scripture says 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.280 it's a double edged sword. So that means you don't 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:04.119 go around attacking others with scripture versus that apply to 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:07.719 their situations, the things you happen not to struggle with. 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:11.000 But you know those Bible verses. It means that the 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:14.480 Bible is at its best when it is dividing the 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:17.120 bone and marrow and the soul and the spirit. That's 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:18.960 what the Word of God can do. And I guess 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:21.760 that's why I love it because it cuts through all 0:23:21.800 --> 0:23:25.239 the clutter, and it cuts through all the crap, and 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:28.480 it cuts through all the cynicism, and it reminds me 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:31.680 who I am apart from the layers of what life 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:34.240 has tried to label me with. And I love the 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:38.640 Word of God because it's a sword. Take up the 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:41.440 sword of the spirit. In that this church, Holly used 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:44.800 to do sword drills where yeah, and they would quote 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:47.960 scripture at each other, competing for God's love and to 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:50.600 see who could quote the most scripture like Pharisees. I'm kidding. 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:52.080 It's a good thing. Get the Word of God in 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:54.359 your heart any way you can. But it also says 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:57.920 watch this, Not only is the Bible carbohydrates like honey, 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:00.399 how many thank God that the Bible is carved that 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:04.399 don't make you fat. And then that the Bible is 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:06.359 a weapon. Not only it's a weapon, but it's a 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:08.879 surgical instrument. But then I love this because I was 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.280 reading about it and said it was a lamp. Thy 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:15.720 word is a lamp unto my feet. Can we spend 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:18.400 a little bit of time talking about why we love 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:21.760 the word of God? Well, the Word of God says 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:24.439 that the Word of God is a lamp unto my feet, 0:24:25.320 --> 0:24:29.879 not a floodlight, just enough to show me the next step. 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:33.560 I love the Word of God like that. God can't 0:24:33.600 --> 0:24:37.199 be memorized, calculated, or predicted. He certainly will not be 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:39.720 confined to the GPS coordinates of where we thought he 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:43.240 would show up at this age in our life. But 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:46.240 the Word of God is a lamp to my feet. 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:52.000 Jeremiah said it's like a fire. He also said it's 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:56.200 like a hammer. You want another one. There's so many 0:24:56.240 --> 0:24:59.920 of these I go all day. The Bible also calls itself, 0:25:00.160 --> 0:25:02.240 and some of these we love, some of them we don't. 0:25:02.480 --> 0:25:10.200 It said, it's like rain, as the rains fall from 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:13.119 the heaven. I don't know if you can hear it. It 0:25:13.000 --> 0:25:15.159 It was raining so hard before I came to appreciate today. 0:25:15.240 --> 0:25:17.159 I thought it might make a backdrop for my sermon, 0:25:17.760 --> 0:25:21.760 and I would just say, yes, Lord. Some people didn't 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:25.800 even come today because of the rain. The real ones came. Yeah, 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:31.800 that's why I like the rain in church. I thought, 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:39.640 you'll be happy. I was ragging on you. But but 0:25:39.640 --> 0:25:41.600 but I gotta be honest with you. And I told 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:48.080 you this already. I like honey, I like a sword 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:52.480 if I'm the one holding it. I like all of 0:25:52.520 --> 0:25:58.520 those things that we just mentioned. But that rain. And 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:03.440 then did you notice this? It said? And snow. We 0:26:03.520 --> 0:26:06.359 live in North Carolina. This church is all over the world, 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:11.399 but in this part of the world, if you ever 0:26:11.560 --> 0:26:17.720 come here, I'm not talking about like a blizzard. I'm 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:21.040 not talking about a blanket. I'm talking about not enough 0:26:21.119 --> 0:26:25.000 snow to make a minuture. Snowman, you can't even make 0:26:25.040 --> 0:26:27.800 a figureine. You came from Toronto, aren't you from Toronto? 0:26:28.040 --> 0:26:30.880 Do you think it's hilarious when it snow's here? See, 0:26:30.920 --> 0:26:33.639 y'all know what to do with the snow. We don't. 0:26:34.560 --> 0:26:37.080 So I thought, I like the Bible being honey, and 0:26:37.119 --> 0:26:39.440 I like the Bible being a sword. So I can 0:26:39.480 --> 0:26:43.359 her like the devil. You picked on the wrong one today, devil, 0:26:43.960 --> 0:26:46.760 not today's satan. I like all of that stuff. But 0:26:46.800 --> 0:26:53.159 the snow is inconvenient, the rain is inconvenience. So I 0:26:53.320 --> 0:26:57.480 wonder will some of the most effective things that God 0:26:57.560 --> 0:27:05.080 speaks over my life be some of the most inconvenient things? 0:27:07.200 --> 0:27:13.520 And I wonder do we associate God's word only with 0:27:13.600 --> 0:27:19.679 comfort and not realize that most of the words that 0:27:19.760 --> 0:27:23.000 He speaks that will really bring forth in our life. 0:27:23.000 --> 0:27:25.199 That's why they say they're going to bring forth if 0:27:25.240 --> 0:27:29.120 you forsake your thoughts. They're really good words from God. 0:27:29.200 --> 0:27:33.359 They're really good sermons. You have a hard time saying amen, 0:27:34.720 --> 0:27:37.440 you'd be saying that other Hebrew were that oh crap 0:27:37.680 --> 0:27:39.960 Hebrew word You ever read that in Hebrew? That's when 0:27:40.000 --> 0:27:44.280 God says something that you know. Now, I gotta change now. 0:27:44.280 --> 0:27:47.320 I can't feel sorry for myself. Now. I can't just 0:27:47.440 --> 0:27:50.840 be bitter. Now, I can't just hold on to this offense. Now, 0:27:50.840 --> 0:27:52.639 I just can't hold on to this grudge. Now, I 0:27:52.640 --> 0:27:56.000 can't just make this excuse. Now, I just can't blame 0:27:56.359 --> 0:28:02.320 these other people thinking about how God's word is so powerful, 0:28:03.359 --> 0:28:05.960 and yet I often feel so powerless, and I don't 0:28:05.960 --> 0:28:08.840 want to bring it to condemn you. But remember, just 0:28:08.960 --> 0:28:12.720 like the eighteen trillion gallons of rain that fell for 0:28:12.800 --> 0:28:15.600 a land that needed a God is always speaking to 0:28:15.640 --> 0:28:20.159 your life, not just right now. God is speaking to 0:28:20.200 --> 0:28:22.680 you through the insurmountable challenges that cause you to rely 0:28:22.720 --> 0:28:25.879 on His grace, much like Paul's thorn that caused him 0:28:25.920 --> 0:28:29.159 to call out to God. God is speaking to you 0:28:29.280 --> 0:28:33.960 through the people that stayed with you in your life. 0:28:34.280 --> 0:28:36.119 He's showing you that He's always had you, He's always 0:28:36.119 --> 0:28:42.720 got you. He's speaking to you. Are you wasting the rain? 0:28:46.320 --> 0:28:50.720 Because if your thought process is programmed by the world, 0:28:51.960 --> 0:28:53.920 you can't receive the word. So that's why I stopped 0:28:53.920 --> 0:28:56.400 praying Isaiah fifty five. I stopped praying about the words 0:28:56.400 --> 0:28:59.040 I was going to speak so much, and I just 0:28:59.040 --> 0:29:02.840 start praying God open our hearts to hear it so 0:29:02.920 --> 0:29:10.000 we don't waste the rain. It's so powerful. You know 0:29:10.960 --> 0:29:14.560 that every time God speaks, it comes with a purpose. 0:29:16.920 --> 0:29:20.560 That's what Isaiah said. He said, not only is your 0:29:20.640 --> 0:29:24.440 thought process the way that you receive God's word, but 0:29:24.640 --> 0:29:27.200 it is the purpose of God that is wrapped in 0:29:27.240 --> 0:29:30.240 the word. So when God speaks to you, it's not 0:29:30.360 --> 0:29:32.440 just so you can. I don't know how we do 0:29:32.480 --> 0:29:36.760 it sometimes like it's a sedative, but it's meant to 0:29:36.760 --> 0:29:42.040 be surgical, right. And when God speaks to you, this 0:29:42.080 --> 0:29:44.360 is what he said, As the rain and the snow 0:29:44.440 --> 0:29:47.120 come down from heaven, and do not return to it 0:29:47.160 --> 0:29:51.400 without watering the earth. And I heard one time somebody 0:29:51.400 --> 0:29:53.320 said what are your thoughts? And they were asking me 0:29:53.360 --> 0:29:55.320 what are your thoughts? And I heard him say what 0:29:55.400 --> 0:29:57.480 are your thoughts? I was like, ooh, that's deep, you know, 0:29:57.640 --> 0:30:00.440 because the thoughts that you water grow. I heard it, 0:30:00.520 --> 0:30:02.480 water your thoughts, like they were telling me. You know, 0:30:02.480 --> 0:30:04.120 I had a picture in my mind, like, oh, yeah, 0:30:04.680 --> 0:30:07.040 I'm going to water my thoughts. When you water the 0:30:07.080 --> 0:30:12.280 wrong thoughts and the wrong suggestions, they take over everything 0:30:12.320 --> 0:30:14.480 in your life. And this is why God sent me 0:30:14.520 --> 0:30:17.120 to preach it to you today. He said, you waste 0:30:17.480 --> 0:30:22.160 the rain when your emotions are overrun with fear and 0:30:22.240 --> 0:30:26.120 doubt and anxiety. And he said, when God sends his 0:30:26.200 --> 0:30:28.400 word verse eleven, because I like the sword, I like 0:30:28.480 --> 0:30:31.960 the honey, I like all of those things, and I 0:30:32.040 --> 0:30:35.920 prefer them. But he said, like the rain and the 0:30:35.960 --> 0:30:40.480 snow that you sometimes don't plan for. In the Old Testament, 0:30:41.040 --> 0:30:46.360 they connected the weather to God's favor, and they did that. 0:30:47.680 --> 0:30:49.600 So when the Lord is speaking about this, he's not 0:30:49.680 --> 0:30:51.520 just talking about it ruined your day at the beach. 0:30:51.920 --> 0:30:55.200 He has in mind the farmer who needs the early 0:30:55.360 --> 0:30:58.160 rain in October and November and then the latter rain 0:30:58.200 --> 0:31:01.160 in the spring, one to Germany and one to make 0:31:01.160 --> 0:31:05.040 the harvest possible to be reaped. Both are necessary. So 0:31:05.480 --> 0:31:08.320 the Lord is saying through Isaiah, as the rain falls 0:31:08.360 --> 0:31:10.360 from the heaven and does what it was meant to do, 0:31:10.800 --> 0:31:14.840 So is my word that goes forth out of my mouth, 0:31:15.800 --> 0:31:18.320 It will not return to me empty, or one translation 0:31:18.400 --> 0:31:22.040 says void. Okay, So God's voice, when it speaks into 0:31:22.040 --> 0:31:26.600 your life, it doesn't return to him void. It accomplishes 0:31:26.720 --> 0:31:30.880 what he desires and achieves the purpose for which he 0:31:31.040 --> 0:31:34.640 sent it. And I read that to you because a 0:31:34.680 --> 0:31:37.280 lot of times the reason we will think we're receiving 0:31:38.120 --> 0:31:41.760 the word of God is not the real reason, but 0:31:41.800 --> 0:31:45.479 we don't know that until later. So whatever God has 0:31:45.520 --> 0:31:47.680 spoken over your life, and I don't mean like some 0:31:47.680 --> 0:31:49.880 people say when I say that, they just have in 0:31:49.920 --> 0:31:53.080 mind this very like this very Pentecostal version of God 0:31:53.160 --> 0:31:55.200 speaking over your life and all of that. No, I 0:31:55.320 --> 0:31:57.680 just mean the things that God has said about you 0:31:57.720 --> 0:32:00.000 that are true, who you are, your identity, and him 0:32:00.200 --> 0:32:02.440 as his child. The purpose is that He has for you. 0:32:02.720 --> 0:32:06.000 I want you to know that when God sends a word, 0:32:06.440 --> 0:32:09.520 he sends it for a purpose. I was talking to 0:32:09.520 --> 0:32:11.240 somebody the other day, and I know you know this 0:32:11.320 --> 0:32:12.880 about me, so please don't laugh when I say it 0:32:12.960 --> 0:32:17.320 or hurt my feelings. But I have a tendency to ramble. Well, 0:32:18.560 --> 0:32:20.560 I was rambling to this person the other day and 0:32:20.560 --> 0:32:24.280 they looked so bored and I could feel it. And 0:32:25.080 --> 0:32:27.040 do you ever just keep talking and you won't shut up, 0:32:27.080 --> 0:32:28.760 and you know you should shut up, but you can't 0:32:28.760 --> 0:32:30.760 shut up, and it's like where's my shut up button? 0:32:30.760 --> 0:32:33.280 And then you can't find it. And I was telling 0:32:33.320 --> 0:32:35.560 them all this stuff and it was really tm I too. 0:32:35.560 --> 0:32:37.640 I was telling him all about my past and when 0:32:37.640 --> 0:32:39.160 I was eight and all this stuff, and I didn't 0:32:39.200 --> 0:32:40.600 even know him that well. I was just going on 0:32:40.640 --> 0:32:42.520 and on and I said, I don't know why I'm 0:32:42.560 --> 0:32:46.160 even telling you all this, and they looked back at me, 0:32:46.200 --> 0:32:50.040 like I don't either, But you know what. God never 0:32:50.080 --> 0:32:56.320 says that. God never speaks to you and says it. 0:32:57.160 --> 0:33:01.080 I don't know why I'm telling you this. He's too 0:33:01.080 --> 0:33:08.920 intentional to do that. He doesn't waste his word. As 0:33:08.960 --> 0:33:12.680 the rain falls from the heaven and waters the earth, 0:33:12.760 --> 0:33:17.560 God said, every word I speak now, get this, every vowel, 0:33:18.640 --> 0:33:26.400 every consonant, every single jot, and every tittle. Look it up. 0:33:26.680 --> 0:33:30.239 That's the biblical language. God said, I will give you 0:33:30.360 --> 0:33:34.560 eighteen trillion jockson tittles, and every one of them has 0:33:34.600 --> 0:33:41.680 a reason. Every one of them has an assignment. Now 0:33:41.720 --> 0:33:47.960 I feel like preaching, even when God rambles its revelation, 0:33:50.240 --> 0:33:53.680 even when God says them, and this happens, sometimes you're 0:33:53.760 --> 0:33:56.280 just like, oh, I don't know. Listen. When my phone 0:33:56.320 --> 0:33:59.320 went off with an emergency warning today, I took it 0:33:59.360 --> 0:34:02.160 like God might not have been God, but God used 0:34:02.240 --> 0:34:09.759 even that. All things, all things, every word, all the rain, 0:34:10.160 --> 0:34:13.520 every drop, every drop. Listen to this, Listen to this, 0:34:13.719 --> 0:34:17.040 Lord David, to me like this. Every drop has a destiny. 0:34:18.080 --> 0:34:22.080 Every drop has a destiny. God did not send everything 0:34:22.120 --> 0:34:27.400 he sent into your life to leave you. Now have 0:34:27.520 --> 0:34:31.759 you been wasting the rain? Have you been wasting the rain? 0:34:33.480 --> 0:34:38.080 Have you been taking for granted what God has put 0:34:38.120 --> 0:34:40.719 in your life. I do it all the time because 0:34:40.719 --> 0:34:43.960 I think it's too accessible, and I think that makes 0:34:43.960 --> 0:34:49.719 me less grateful. I think it's sometimes bad for me 0:34:50.880 --> 0:34:53.960 that there's so many different things I can listen to, 0:34:52.960 --> 0:34:56.840 too many different words to choose from. I got I 0:34:56.880 --> 0:35:03.640 got faith fatigue from too many options. And yet when 0:35:03.680 --> 0:35:05.759 God was showing it to me that his word comes 0:35:05.760 --> 0:35:08.640 with the purpose, I was like, well, yeah, of course 0:35:08.680 --> 0:35:13.120 it does. The destiny of the seed is depending on 0:35:13.160 --> 0:35:17.560 the rain, and within that is everything we need to 0:35:17.560 --> 0:35:21.279 know about life, that there is a part of it 0:35:21.320 --> 0:35:22.840 that we can't control and a part of it that 0:35:22.880 --> 0:35:27.279 we can control. And in that marriage, listen everything that 0:35:27.320 --> 0:35:33.400 I told you. The Word of God is honey, milk, meat, bread, 0:35:33.760 --> 0:35:37.000 all of it. Sword One writer said that the word 0:35:37.040 --> 0:35:40.440 of God is like a mirror. Everything I just listed 0:35:41.200 --> 0:35:46.839 does no good without a response. Everything I just listened 0:35:46.840 --> 0:35:50.360 to go through them. Honey doesn't feed you if you 0:35:50.400 --> 0:35:54.120 don't eat it. Milk doesn't feed you if you don't 0:35:54.160 --> 0:35:57.359 drink it. A mirror doesn't help you if you don't 0:35:57.400 --> 0:35:59.960 go back and change clothes for God's sake, brush your teeth, 0:36:00.040 --> 0:36:01.759 and redo the thing that you need to do. That's 0:36:01.800 --> 0:36:04.200 what James said. He said, the perfect law that gets 0:36:04.200 --> 0:36:05.560 freedom is like a mirror and you look at it 0:36:05.560 --> 0:36:07.239 and just walk away and do nothing with it. The 0:36:07.600 --> 0:36:12.040 Word of God, it's it is, it is, It is relational, 0:36:12.520 --> 0:36:16.040 and it is dependent on your response how powerful it 0:36:16.080 --> 0:36:21.719 becomes in your life. This explains why some people will 0:36:21.719 --> 0:36:26.480 sit through a sermon and look at their watch because 0:36:26.480 --> 0:36:31.000 to them the word isn't worth very much. And other 0:36:31.040 --> 0:36:35.360 people they'll cry through the whole freaking thing. Somebody was 0:36:35.360 --> 0:36:37.239 on YouTube this week making fun of some of y'all. 0:36:37.360 --> 0:36:40.640 They said, the crowd so excited and there it sounds fake, 0:36:40.760 --> 0:36:42.759 sounds like sitcom. I don't know, it's not real, because 0:36:42.800 --> 0:36:44.600 you know there's a few people in there helping me preach. 0:36:47.640 --> 0:36:50.000 But I wish, I wish you could tell them what 0:36:50.080 --> 0:36:53.279 the Word of God means to you and how much 0:36:53.280 --> 0:37:01.439 you need it. It is my necessary breath. So when 0:37:01.440 --> 0:37:05.120 they say amen, when they shout, they're not shouting me. 0:37:06.400 --> 0:37:10.280 They're not shouting about a man. They're not shouting about 0:37:10.280 --> 0:37:14.120 an opinion. They're not shouting about a rhyme or a 0:37:14.200 --> 0:37:19.280 hickory vickery dark. They're shouting because when that rain hits 0:37:19.320 --> 0:37:23.040 your heart. It's been real dry this week, and I've 0:37:23.040 --> 0:37:26.400 been down, and I've been discouraged, and I've been in 0:37:26.440 --> 0:37:30.440 the dark. So excuse me while I praise Him, just 0:37:30.520 --> 0:37:34.680 for ten seconds, I gotta say amen, I gotta lift 0:37:34.719 --> 0:37:38.680 my hands. I gotta clock my hands like the trees 0:37:38.760 --> 0:37:42.160 of the field. When I receive the rain of the 0:37:42.239 --> 0:37:48.400 revelation of God. Can't sit there with my arms crossed. 0:37:48.719 --> 0:37:51.720 Sometimes God will speak to you and you feel something 0:37:52.000 --> 0:37:56.200 inside of you, something rising up from the inside, like 0:37:56.239 --> 0:37:59.040 the belly of the earth produces the seed and the 0:37:59.040 --> 0:38:01.759 form of a flower. Here comes the word producing in 0:38:01.800 --> 0:38:05.920 your Life's powerful because as personal, it's powerful because as personal, 0:38:06.160 --> 0:38:11.680 God has spoken some things to you. So I'm sorry 0:38:11.760 --> 0:38:15.239 for praising him. But the next time somebody criticizes you 0:38:15.280 --> 0:38:17.560 for it, look back at him in your best Millie 0:38:17.640 --> 0:38:22.600 Vanillion say, don't blame me. Blame it on the Blame 0:38:22.640 --> 0:38:25.440 it on the rain, Blame it on the word of God, 0:38:25.880 --> 0:38:28.400 Blame it on the presence of God. I can't help 0:38:28.680 --> 0:38:30.600 but get happy. Let me take this watch off so 0:38:30.640 --> 0:38:33.680 I can clap right. I can't help but thank God 0:38:33.960 --> 0:38:42.399 for everything that he saw me through this week. And 0:38:42.440 --> 0:38:47.279 when God sends a word, it serves a purpose. It 0:38:47.360 --> 0:38:51.360 serves a purpose because you serve a purpose. Because you 0:38:51.400 --> 0:38:56.040 are assigned by God and anointed by God, and I'm 0:38:56.080 --> 0:39:02.000 prophesying over your life, it will not reached. Boy, God 0:39:02.040 --> 0:39:10.280 doesn't waste words. God doesn't waste rain. He's got something 0:39:10.320 --> 0:39:13.200 in the earth that he desires to bring forth, and 0:39:13.200 --> 0:39:16.279 that's why he sent this word into your life. That's 0:39:16.320 --> 0:39:20.359 why you're watching. That's why you're watching so you can 0:39:20.400 --> 0:39:26.160 be watered, so what's inside of you can be reviewed. 0:39:27.560 --> 0:39:33.279 So I found out rain brings revelation, the reign of 0:39:33.320 --> 0:39:38.040 God's word. It doesn't make something new appear, It shows 0:39:38.080 --> 0:39:44.640 what was already there. That's why God's word comes alive 0:39:44.680 --> 0:39:46.320 in me. That's why I need to spend a little 0:39:46.320 --> 0:39:48.680 time with God every day. So what's inside of me, 0:39:48.840 --> 0:39:51.279 not what's around me, can control me and guide me 0:39:51.480 --> 0:39:57.439 and live in me, so I can forsake my thought 0:39:57.480 --> 0:39:59.400 and receive his Now, God has been speaking to you, 0:39:59.440 --> 0:40:01.560 but some of us can't receive it because we are 0:40:01.640 --> 0:40:07.080 so full of insecurity. One of my good friends was 0:40:07.200 --> 0:40:09.960 encouraging me the other day and I noticed on the phone. 0:40:10.040 --> 0:40:12.160 All I did the whole time was interruptive and try 0:40:12.200 --> 0:40:18.120 to change the subject. And this is somebody who's insight 0:40:18.239 --> 0:40:21.480 I greatly value. And they were telling me how far 0:40:21.560 --> 0:40:23.799 I've come, how much He's going on and on and 0:40:23.840 --> 0:40:26.879 on and on, and I'm like, yeah, what about those patriots. 0:40:27.360 --> 0:40:29.920 I don't even like the patriots anything to talk about. 0:40:30.040 --> 0:40:33.080 How's Cam doing over there? Said, I'm anything I can. 0:40:34.040 --> 0:40:37.520 I can't even take a compliment. I can't even receive 0:40:37.640 --> 0:40:42.520 encouragement because see, I'm too full of what I think 0:40:42.560 --> 0:40:47.359 I know about me and my limitation. So then watch this. 0:40:47.360 --> 0:40:49.680 This is what some of us have been doing. We 0:40:49.760 --> 0:40:53.760 start limiting our opportunities to the level of our insecurities. 0:40:57.160 --> 0:41:00.480 And all week, I promise you, God has been speaking 0:41:00.520 --> 0:41:02.360 to me and to you, and he's been doing it 0:41:02.400 --> 0:41:06.280 through some people, but you've cut it off. You wasted 0:41:06.320 --> 0:41:13.200 the rain. You wasted the rain. The only way that 0:41:13.239 --> 0:41:15.640 the rain doesn't work is that there's nothing in the 0:41:15.640 --> 0:41:23.600 ground to come forward, because the rain reveals what was 0:41:23.640 --> 0:41:30.480 already there. God, have you been wasting the rain? God 0:41:30.560 --> 0:41:34.480 has been trying to water his thoughts in your life. 0:41:35.400 --> 0:41:37.399 I mean, that's why this year has been so weird, right, 0:41:38.000 --> 0:41:42.479 because it's been rainy, rainy, real rainy, not like rainy 0:41:42.560 --> 0:41:45.720 like Isaiah fifty five, rainy, rainy like Matthew chapter seven, rainy. 0:41:46.320 --> 0:41:48.920 Do you know the difference? All right, y'all need to 0:41:48.920 --> 0:41:56.160 see this. Be seated, Be seated. Have you been wasting 0:41:56.160 --> 0:41:59.359 the rain? Because look at this in Matthew seven. I 0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:01.919 was connecting it in my heart because the Lord told 0:42:01.920 --> 0:42:05.200 me to talk to you about wasted rain. And then 0:42:05.239 --> 0:42:08.280 I saw the context in which Jesus said it. Isaiah 0:42:08.360 --> 0:42:11.080 said that the rain came down like the word from 0:42:11.120 --> 0:42:15.040 God's mouth. What he speaks, his revelation, the truth of 0:42:15.080 --> 0:42:17.399 who he is, revealed fully in Jesus Christ, the word 0:42:17.400 --> 0:42:20.200 in Karn, the word mad flesh. When that comes, it's 0:42:20.200 --> 0:42:22.120 like rain that brings forth what was already there. And 0:42:22.160 --> 0:42:23.600 that's how it works in our life. And it doesn't 0:42:23.640 --> 0:42:25.920 return void, no matter what the enemy tries to do, 0:42:26.120 --> 0:42:28.040 no matter what happens in our life. But then I 0:42:28.080 --> 0:42:31.400 read where Jesus said kind of something like Isaiah, but 0:42:31.440 --> 0:42:33.200 it was a little different. I'm going to show you this. 0:42:34.239 --> 0:42:37.480 In Matthew seven, Jesus is closing a sermon we call 0:42:37.560 --> 0:42:40.080 the Sermon on the Mountain, and he's talking about the 0:42:40.120 --> 0:42:43.960 way God's kingdom works versus the way that the empires 0:42:43.960 --> 0:42:47.040 of men work. And he's contrasting that. And he closes 0:42:47.120 --> 0:42:48.640 with a picture. And I want to give you this 0:42:48.760 --> 0:42:50.920 picture and I want you to meditate on it today. 0:42:51.040 --> 0:42:53.160 This word is for you. If you're receiving it right now, 0:42:53.239 --> 0:42:55.080 say this for me, This for me, This is for me, 0:42:55.280 --> 0:42:57.880 because listen, I know God's word is powerful. That's not 0:42:57.920 --> 0:43:02.520 the question. Is it personal. Now Here's what it comes 0:43:02.560 --> 0:43:07.200 down to, and it's right here in the text. Jesus said, Therefore, 0:43:07.200 --> 0:43:14.960 everyone who hears these words of mine, now you don't 0:43:14.960 --> 0:43:18.799 have any room for the words of Jesus if you 0:43:18.840 --> 0:43:24.040 are so full of the words of the world. That 0:43:24.160 --> 0:43:26.319 was a real fancy way of saying, turn off your 0:43:26.360 --> 0:43:30.160 phone every once in a while and hear the voice 0:43:30.160 --> 0:43:33.120 that speaks from within, so you don't waste the rain. 0:43:33.920 --> 0:43:36.400 So you don't waste the rain, he said, everyone who 0:43:36.440 --> 0:43:41.560 hears these words of mine and puts them in to practice. 0:43:41.600 --> 0:43:43.719 The honey's no good if you don't need it. The 0:43:43.800 --> 0:43:45.360 lamp does no good if you don't walk by the 0:43:45.440 --> 0:43:48.040 light that it gives. The mirror does nothing but show 0:43:48.080 --> 0:43:50.760 you a reflection of what's there. It doesn't do the changing. 0:43:50.800 --> 0:43:54.320 It just gives you the opportunity for the change. Right, 0:43:54.440 --> 0:43:57.319 So the revelation requires a response. But that's what he said. 0:43:57.320 --> 0:43:59.200 He said that everyone who hears these words of mine 0:43:59.200 --> 0:44:01.960 and puts them in to practice is like a wise 0:44:02.040 --> 0:44:06.040 man who built his house on the rock. Underline rock 0:44:06.160 --> 0:44:09.040 in your Bible, put rock in the chat. Say rock 0:44:09.160 --> 0:44:17.160 to your neighbor. Rock. The rain came down. That's exactly 0:44:17.200 --> 0:44:21.600 what happened in Isaiah fifty five. Right, the rain came down, 0:44:23.880 --> 0:44:28.959 God said, like the rain comes down from heaven. Jesus said, 0:44:29.200 --> 0:44:33.040 the rain came down. The same thing happened, but the 0:44:33.080 --> 0:44:36.800 context is a little different. See in Isaiah fifty five, 0:44:37.040 --> 0:44:40.000 he's talking about that prophet is talking about the rain 0:44:40.080 --> 0:44:43.440 that comes from God's mouth as his word or the truth. 0:44:44.320 --> 0:44:47.359 But Jesus is using a picture. He said the rain 0:44:47.480 --> 0:44:52.160 came down. He's talking about not the truth but the trials, 0:44:53.040 --> 0:44:58.799 and both are represented by rain. This is like honey 0:44:58.840 --> 0:45:01.399 from the honeycomb. I'm telling you this is more worth 0:45:01.440 --> 0:45:04.040 than gold if you could get this. So the rain came. 0:45:04.080 --> 0:45:06.759 Everybody say the rain came, And how many can say 0:45:06.760 --> 0:45:09.920 the rain came to your life? This year. Yeah, how 0:45:09.920 --> 0:45:17.040 many can say the rain came inconvenience uncertainty? Now listen, listen. 0:45:17.080 --> 0:45:18.880 I know it's weird. Why are you clapping about that? 0:45:20.000 --> 0:45:26.319 Because the same rain, the same rain that Jesus is 0:45:26.400 --> 0:45:29.920 talking about. Here, Isaiah says, the word the truth is 0:45:30.120 --> 0:45:33.760 like rain. But then Jesus says that the rain comes, 0:45:33.800 --> 0:45:37.080 You're gonna love this. And the streams rose, and the 0:45:37.120 --> 0:45:41.080 winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did 0:45:41.160 --> 0:45:45.920 not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. Now, 0:45:45.960 --> 0:45:50.080 now listen to this. This rain represents the trials of 0:45:50.120 --> 0:45:53.480 your life. You can plug in a divorce, you can 0:45:53.480 --> 0:45:56.200 plug in an eating disorder, you can plug in a 0:45:56.239 --> 0:45:59.440 wayward daughter who's not even returning your calls. You can 0:45:59.480 --> 0:46:03.040 plug in a emotional state that you yourself cannot untangle 0:46:03.280 --> 0:46:06.240 and you've been to three therapists and nobody can straighten 0:46:06.280 --> 0:46:10.080 you out. That's the rain. But God said the same 0:46:10.160 --> 0:46:14.360 way that the rain that comes from his mouth reveals 0:46:14.480 --> 0:46:17.920 what was in the dirt to begin with. The rain 0:46:18.040 --> 0:46:23.120 that comes through the trials of your life reveals what 0:46:23.160 --> 0:46:29.040 was beneath the surface the whole time. So what I'm 0:46:29.120 --> 0:46:35.600 really trying to say is rain brings revelation. Don't waste it. 0:46:36.719 --> 0:46:41.200 Don't waste it. Don't waste it. See the same rain 0:46:41.280 --> 0:46:44.719 that we will shout about, Oh God, the rain of 0:46:44.760 --> 0:46:47.719 your word. And she said, uh huh, there's another rain 0:46:47.760 --> 0:46:52.759 that comes, and it is the rain that comes to 0:46:52.880 --> 0:46:57.000 test whether what you heard is really in your heart. 0:47:01.719 --> 0:47:03.880 I really don't want to stop preaching. Can y'all take 0:47:03.920 --> 0:47:06.080 a little bit more, just a little bit more, Just 0:47:06.120 --> 0:47:08.399 a little bit more honey, just a little bit more bread, 0:47:08.640 --> 0:47:10.279 Just a little bit more, just a little bit more. 0:47:10.400 --> 0:47:13.920 Somebody's saying the chat just a little bit more. I 0:47:14.000 --> 0:47:17.640 promise you the way God showed this to me, he said, 0:47:17.960 --> 0:47:20.200 not only did I give you my words so that 0:47:20.280 --> 0:47:22.480 you could be a survivor of every storm that comes 0:47:22.520 --> 0:47:27.440 in your life listen to this, but so that you 0:47:27.480 --> 0:47:36.560 could be a steward, a steward of every storm, so 0:47:36.600 --> 0:47:42.520 that you don't waste the rain. Everyone who hears what 0:47:42.640 --> 0:47:45.800 God spoke and holds to it and builds by it 0:47:45.920 --> 0:47:48.879 and won't let it go, I mean, just won't let 0:47:48.920 --> 0:47:52.120 it drain into the Pacific emotion, the pessimistic emotion, the 0:47:52.160 --> 0:47:56.240 emotion of oceans that waste, the drain pipe, that drain 0:47:56.320 --> 0:47:59.919 of discouragement, that drain of depression, that drain of the spirit. 0:48:00.120 --> 0:48:02.160 It's all been draining out. You can't even hold a 0:48:02.160 --> 0:48:08.480 word from God for five minutes, draining eighteen trillion gallons 0:48:08.520 --> 0:48:12.239 of truth. God sin in Jesus Christ, his son, the 0:48:12.239 --> 0:48:17.839 word made flesh going down to drain. But the rain 0:48:17.920 --> 0:48:22.719 came to reveal what your house was really built on. 0:48:26.560 --> 0:48:33.120 When you hit a storm, become a student, because the 0:48:33.160 --> 0:48:38.080 rain will always bring your revelation. Isn't that crazy? Some 0:48:38.160 --> 0:48:42.880 things we only learn in storms, we really do. Some 0:48:42.960 --> 0:48:46.520 things we only learn by sitting with that negative thing 0:48:46.600 --> 0:48:49.600 and not running from it. In their temptation to always 0:48:49.680 --> 0:48:54.120 run from the rain, lenmpop this pill and I won't 0:48:54.160 --> 0:48:55.359 have to feel that. Then I won't have to deal 0:48:55.400 --> 0:48:58.960 with what caused it. Let me just go over here 0:48:59.000 --> 0:49:02.319 to this Yeah yeah, ok, ok oh, there went. I'm 0:49:02.440 --> 0:49:06.359 running from the emotion that God is trying to use 0:49:06.600 --> 0:49:10.120 to reveal what my life is really built on. Lord, 0:49:10.160 --> 0:49:13.360 help me say it as the rain falls from the heaven, 0:49:13.520 --> 0:49:16.960 as the rank. The rain came to show you what 0:49:17.040 --> 0:49:20.640 your house was built on. And it's been a rainy year. 0:49:21.680 --> 0:49:23.200 I don't mean because you've heard a lot of sermons. 0:49:23.200 --> 0:49:26.080 I mean, because you've been through a lot of storms. 0:49:27.800 --> 0:49:31.960 Are you gonna waste the rain? You gonna waste it? 0:49:33.160 --> 0:49:34.759 Look what happened to the other men, Just to show 0:49:34.800 --> 0:49:37.560 you how God's word is so powerful it can hold 0:49:37.600 --> 0:49:40.160 your life together. And there's no really reason why your 0:49:40.200 --> 0:49:42.719 life should be together. How many of you have a 0:49:42.719 --> 0:49:46.720 piece you can't explain right now in your life. Yeah, Well, 0:49:48.920 --> 0:49:50.799 when people ask you how are you so strong? Just 0:49:50.800 --> 0:49:53.680 blame it on the rain. I might retitle this sermon. 0:49:54.080 --> 0:49:56.759 I might put Robin fab up there and put them 0:49:56.760 --> 0:50:00.719 on the thing, and God said, are you real? Look 0:50:00.760 --> 0:50:04.080 at this? Are you really gonna let this storm? That 0:50:04.160 --> 0:50:08.359 only serve the purpose to show you that from the 0:50:08.360 --> 0:50:12.799 foundation of the earth, from the foundation of the earth, 0:50:12.840 --> 0:50:15.319 I was there holding your life, and I am what 0:50:15.400 --> 0:50:20.000 your life is built on. Because the same rain that 0:50:20.080 --> 0:50:23.080 showed the first man how strong this foundation was. Look 0:50:23.080 --> 0:50:25.279 what happened to the other man? Give me verse twenty six. 0:50:25.920 --> 0:50:29.600 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does 0:50:29.640 --> 0:50:33.880 not put them into practice, everybody who sees the honey 0:50:33.960 --> 0:50:38.120 but is not strengthened by it. Everybody who smells the 0:50:38.160 --> 0:50:42.000 bread but does not digest it. Everybody who fills sermon 0:50:42.080 --> 0:50:45.960 notebooks with cute sounding cliches, but never takes a moment 0:50:46.080 --> 0:50:50.759 just to walk it out in faith. Everyone who comes 0:50:50.800 --> 0:50:57.720 to church twenty years and still cherishes racism in their heart. 0:50:58.680 --> 0:51:01.040 Everyone who hears these words of mine men does not 0:51:01.120 --> 0:51:06.560 put them into practice. Well, that's like a foolish man. 0:51:08.840 --> 0:51:11.600 That's like a foolish man who has all this information 0:51:11.719 --> 0:51:17.319 no revelation. He built this house on the sand, and 0:51:17.360 --> 0:51:20.319 look what happened in verse twenty seven. The rain came, 0:51:22.200 --> 0:51:24.120 The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds will 0:51:24.160 --> 0:51:26.560 and beat against that house, and it fell with a 0:51:26.560 --> 0:51:33.520 great crash. The rain came to show you that you 0:51:33.560 --> 0:51:38.200 were building on the wrong foundation. Now, let me ask 0:51:38.200 --> 0:51:40.400 you that if something in your life is falling apart 0:51:40.719 --> 0:51:46.480 this year, week, this month, and God allowed a storm 0:51:46.480 --> 0:51:47.840 in your life, he may not have sentate, but he 0:51:47.880 --> 0:51:53.359 allowed it and everything fell apart, are you really going 0:51:53.440 --> 0:51:56.680 to go back now and build on the same faulty 0:51:56.760 --> 0:52:02.040 foundation that caused it to crash the first time? Are 0:52:02.040 --> 0:52:05.440 you gonna waste the rain? Are you gonna get wisdom 0:52:05.440 --> 0:52:08.719 from it? He said? The wise man went by. I said, 0:52:08.719 --> 0:52:14.800 I'm building you. Remember how the big, bad devil huffed 0:52:14.800 --> 0:52:20.160 and puffed. You remember the story are you Gonna Waste 0:52:20.160 --> 0:52:26.440 the Rain? One of my favorite Bible characters that illustrates 0:52:26.480 --> 0:52:32.799 this is called Elijah the tish Bike from Tishbe, because 0:52:32.840 --> 0:52:40.840 that's where tish bikes come from. My man spoke a 0:52:40.880 --> 0:52:43.839 word that resulted in a three year drought. It had 0:52:43.840 --> 0:52:45.920 already been dry six months. He said to Ahab, it's 0:52:45.960 --> 0:52:50.080 not going to rain. Ahab was the king who reigned R. 0:52:50.200 --> 0:52:54.040 E I g N reigned, who has so much potential. 0:52:55.239 --> 0:52:59.560 He was powerful. His military prowess was like Omri. His 0:52:59.640 --> 0:53:02.040 dad learned all of that from him, so he could 0:53:02.080 --> 0:53:04.719 do what he needed to do. The Assyrians didn't. By 0:53:04.719 --> 0:53:08.040 the time the Assyrians were done with this king, this 0:53:08.120 --> 0:53:12.000 King Ahab, they were putting his name on their monuments 0:53:12.040 --> 0:53:15.399 instead of attacking him. That's how powerful he was. That's 0:53:15.440 --> 0:53:18.640 how powerful he was. He was so powerful his government 0:53:18.719 --> 0:53:23.600 was always stable. But yet the Bible says that he 0:53:24.680 --> 0:53:28.040 took a wife who worshiped a different god. And this 0:53:28.080 --> 0:53:30.239 is not a sermon about marriage. Don't worry about that, 0:53:31.440 --> 0:53:33.919 Just worry about the times where you've allowed your heart 0:53:35.120 --> 0:53:40.239 to worship the wrong thing. That's what he did and 0:53:40.320 --> 0:53:43.600 the whole nation started getting comfortable with Bail. Worshiped Bail 0:53:43.719 --> 0:53:47.399 was the rain God. Bail was the Canaanite rain God. 0:53:47.400 --> 0:53:49.680 They thought he controlled the weather. He didn't. They found 0:53:49.680 --> 0:53:53.439 out real quick because when Elijah spoke the word of God. 0:53:53.480 --> 0:53:55.759 Somebody say the word of God, the word of God. 0:53:55.920 --> 0:53:58.560 When he spoke the word of God, the water stopped coming. 0:54:00.120 --> 0:54:02.759 God will allow in certain seasons of your life for 0:54:02.840 --> 0:54:06.160 things to be taken away so that you build back 0:54:06.280 --> 0:54:10.680 on the rock. Listen, listen. See if this hiss you, 0:54:11.360 --> 0:54:14.239 If this hits you, write it down. The rain revealed 0:54:14.280 --> 0:54:18.360 the rock. The rain came to reveal the rock. To 0:54:18.480 --> 0:54:21.680 know that my life needs to be built on something solid, 0:54:21.880 --> 0:54:25.000 on something stable. God sent the rain so that I 0:54:25.000 --> 0:54:29.880 wouldn't live in an unstable place. Yeah, that's why he 0:54:30.080 --> 0:54:32.320 allowed the rain to come, and that's why he allowed 0:54:32.360 --> 0:54:35.120 the rain to stop. Because he is God like that. 0:54:35.480 --> 0:54:40.279 He is yahweh. That's what Elijah means. Eliyahu, My God 0:54:40.360 --> 0:54:45.560 is yahweh Oh. Elijah had faith because God knew how 0:54:45.600 --> 0:54:49.120 to take care of him during the drought. Elijah never 0:54:49.200 --> 0:54:52.800 starved during the famine. Elijah never went hungry. He always 0:54:52.920 --> 0:54:56.200 had something. God sent him to an exact coordinate where 0:54:56.239 --> 0:54:58.360 he could be fed through the whole three years. And 0:54:58.440 --> 0:55:00.799 one day God said to a life, it's time now 0:55:01.080 --> 0:55:03.880 you go back to Ahab and tell him to stop 0:55:03.920 --> 0:55:10.799 wasting his rain. Ri Ei g An, stop putting the 0:55:10.800 --> 0:55:17.080 wrong person on the throne. You tell you tell my 0:55:17.200 --> 0:55:20.760 child stop letting worry. Sit on the throne in your heart. 0:55:20.920 --> 0:55:24.600 You tell my child stop letting what this cynical, sick 0:55:24.640 --> 0:55:27.080 world did. Y'all hear me last week? You stop letting 0:55:27.120 --> 0:55:31.040 those words have the throne in your heart. And he 0:55:31.160 --> 0:55:34.120 went up there on Mount Carmel, Elijah did and he 0:55:34.239 --> 0:55:38.080 called down fire from heaven and he killed all the 0:55:38.320 --> 0:55:41.320 false prophets. And I'm really rushing through this part. And 0:55:41.360 --> 0:55:43.239 it's real good, and you can read it on your own. 0:55:43.880 --> 0:55:45.560 You don't have to have the milk. You can chew 0:55:45.600 --> 0:55:47.560 this for yourself during the week. It might be a 0:55:47.560 --> 0:55:54.480 good little Bible study. Bible summarizes it in James chapter five. 0:55:54.560 --> 0:55:58.120 This is kind of a headline on it, where in 0:55:58.200 --> 0:56:01.680 verse seventeen he says that Elijah was a human being 0:56:02.960 --> 0:56:08.000 even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would 0:56:08.000 --> 0:56:12.640 not rain, and it did not rain on the land 0:56:12.640 --> 0:56:18.680 for three and a half years. James's being nice to 0:56:18.719 --> 0:56:22.680 Elijah here, because next he tells us again, he prayed, 0:56:23.640 --> 0:56:30.279 and the heavens rain. The heavens gave what heaven's gave rain, 0:56:31.120 --> 0:56:36.000 and the earth produced its crops. And then he stops 0:56:36.000 --> 0:56:39.839 talking about Elijah. He said, he prayed and it didn't rain. 0:56:40.640 --> 0:56:45.200 He prayed again, it did rain. But what he neglects 0:56:45.239 --> 0:56:47.520 to tell you, for whatever reason, that he only records 0:56:47.560 --> 0:56:52.279 this particular instance, is that Elijah prayed for rain and 0:56:52.320 --> 0:56:55.640 the rain came, just like he prayed for the rain 0:56:55.719 --> 0:56:59.359 to stop and the rain stopped, But then he ran 0:57:01.760 --> 0:57:06.480 when the rain came. It's the strangest thing After God 0:57:06.520 --> 0:57:11.080 showed who he really was to the nation, and Ahab's 0:57:11.120 --> 0:57:14.960 wife Jezebel found out about it, she sent a word 0:57:15.000 --> 0:57:18.400 to Elijah. Now I'm asking you a question. If you 0:57:18.520 --> 0:57:22.760 know the word that's powerful enough to control the weather, 0:57:24.360 --> 0:57:28.200 why would you run from the words that came from 0:57:28.200 --> 0:57:32.560 one human being? Isn't that amazing? What can make you 0:57:32.760 --> 0:57:35.800 back down? And that amazing? What can get you off? 0:57:36.160 --> 0:57:38.560 Isn't that amazing? What one little thought can keep you 0:57:38.600 --> 0:57:41.080 from trusting the God? Isn't it amazing? How we waste 0:57:41.080 --> 0:57:47.000 the rain. Ahab wasted his rain r e I g 0:57:47.400 --> 0:57:53.640 n because of the words that Jezebel spoke. Elijah almost 0:57:53.680 --> 0:57:56.800 wasted his rain our I A I in you'll pray 0:57:56.880 --> 0:57:59.760 for me? I could spell it because of the words 0:57:59.760 --> 0:58:06.360 that can from the same woman's mouth. What words have 0:58:06.440 --> 0:58:11.240 been sent into your soul to get you running from 0:58:11.280 --> 0:58:16.840 the very thing that you prayed for? And the Lord 0:58:16.840 --> 0:58:20.480 sent me here for you. Do you know how personal 0:58:20.520 --> 0:58:25.800 his word is? He sent me here for you to 0:58:25.880 --> 0:58:29.880 tell you to stop running from what you prayed for. 0:58:33.680 --> 0:58:37.560 He fled forty days away from the place where God 0:58:37.560 --> 0:58:40.200 had sent the rain. Remember, this rain is what they 0:58:40.200 --> 0:58:44.240 had waited for. This rain represented revival. He was needed 0:58:44.440 --> 0:58:46.880 in this space. He was needed to proclaim the word 0:58:46.920 --> 0:58:48.800 of the Lord to bring the nation back to God. 0:58:48.960 --> 0:58:51.800 And the moment that the sky grew black with clouds, 0:58:52.120 --> 0:58:54.280 he ran because of the words that were in the 0:58:54.320 --> 0:58:58.240 mouth of his enemy. I wish he had remembered he 0:58:58.320 --> 0:59:02.840 had a bigger sword. I wish we had remembered that 0:59:03.040 --> 0:59:06.000 no weapon that has formed against you has the power 0:59:06.040 --> 0:59:08.840 to withstand you. If the word of the Lord is 0:59:08.880 --> 0:59:13.600 with you. Let every man, let every insecurity, Let every 0:59:13.680 --> 0:59:18.680 disappointment be a liar. I'm not running from what I 0:59:18.760 --> 0:59:24.000 prayed for. I got so scared when churches started closing. 0:59:24.240 --> 0:59:26.880 I didn't know what to do, but I decided, I'm 0:59:26.920 --> 0:59:29.960 not running from the place where God put me for 0:59:30.040 --> 0:59:36.200 such a time as this. I'm not gonna waste what 0:59:36.360 --> 0:59:43.440 God gave me. You pray too hard for this. You 0:59:43.600 --> 0:59:47.920 survived too much to not steward this storm. And by 0:59:47.960 --> 0:59:49.840 the way, for every one of you who's been through 0:59:49.880 --> 0:59:53.280 a real storm lately, and the devil's been throwing rain 0:59:53.360 --> 0:59:56.280 at you left and right, and bad reports left and right, 0:59:56.400 --> 0:59:59.240 and discouragement left and right, tell him he wasted his 0:59:59.400 --> 1:00:03.800 rain because the storm all the storm did. He wasted 1:00:03.880 --> 1:00:07.840 his weapons, because all he did he showed me my rock. 1:00:08.160 --> 1:00:18.640 And I'm still standing. So stand up, Stand up? Are 1:00:18.680 --> 1:00:24.520 you wasting your rain? Are you wasting Some of you 1:00:24.560 --> 1:00:26.480 will take this word and do something with it. Some 1:00:26.520 --> 1:00:28.120 of you will take it and do nothing with it. 1:00:28.200 --> 1:00:30.200 And what you do with it is everything about what 1:00:30.280 --> 1:00:39.000 you get from it. The rain came one more time. 1:00:39.040 --> 1:00:40.560 We did it earlier, but I want you to just 1:00:40.600 --> 1:00:44.160 lift your palms again. Because there was a notice on 1:00:44.200 --> 1:00:46.200 my phone that said there was a flash flood warning 1:00:46.920 --> 1:00:50.040 in this area. And I believe that's coming to your 1:00:50.040 --> 1:00:55.360 house right now in the best way. We wrote a 1:00:55.360 --> 1:00:59.520 song a few years ago, said, hear the word roaring 1:00:59.640 --> 1:01:06.080 is stuff under with the new future to tell for 1:01:06.280 --> 1:01:12.320 the dry season is over. There is a cloud beginning 1:01:12.440 --> 1:01:17.960 to swell to the skies, heavy with blessings. Come on, 1:01:18.000 --> 1:01:23.480 lift your hands, lift your eyes, offer your heart. Jesus Christ, 1:01:24.240 --> 1:01:26.800 open the heavens. How many no, he rains, he rains, 1:01:26.800 --> 1:01:29.840 he rains, he rains, he rains, he rains, he rains, 1:01:29.840 --> 1:01:34.000 he rains, he rains, he rains. Ahef doesn't rain. Jesus rains. 1:01:34.480 --> 1:01:39.440 Jesus Christ, open the heavens. And now we receive the 1:01:39.560 --> 1:01:42.160 spirit of God. Stay right there a minute. God said, 1:01:42.160 --> 1:01:46.000 I'm trying to release it. You won't receive it. I'm 1:01:46.000 --> 1:01:47.680 trying to love you. I'm trying to affirm you. I'm 1:01:47.680 --> 1:01:49.240 trying to direct you. I'm trying to speak to you. 1:01:49.280 --> 1:01:56.440 I'm trying to call you deeper. Every seed buried in sorrow, 1:01:57.840 --> 1:02:01.439 you will call forth. And it's that's what the rain 1:02:01.600 --> 1:02:04.400 is for, to show you what was there the whole time. 1:02:06.240 --> 1:02:11.080 It's still there. The seed's buried, but it's still there, 1:02:13.000 --> 1:02:17.400 just needs water, just needs worship, just needs time. They 1:02:17.480 --> 1:02:20.440 they waited upon the Lord shall renew their strength is 1:02:20.520 --> 1:02:26.440 still there. It's not gone. It's growing. It's growing. It's growing, 1:02:26.520 --> 1:02:31.760 it's growing. Ah. Here the sound, the abundance of rain, 1:02:32.120 --> 1:02:39.440 the abundance of rain. You are lord, Lord of the heartbreak, 1:02:42.240 --> 1:02:50.160 lord of the hardship, Lord of the storm. You tell 1:02:50.200 --> 1:02:55.960 it when to stop. You are lord, Lord of the seed, 1:02:57.320 --> 1:03:03.600 Lord of the harvest, calling our home now to rights. 1:03:05.400 --> 1:03:07.360 I want you to get ready, because it's raining right now. 1:03:07.400 --> 1:03:10.240 It's raining. It's raining. It's raining. It's raining, it's raining, 1:03:10.400 --> 1:03:12.280 it's raining. It's rain, and it's rain, and it's raining. 1:03:12.400 --> 1:03:15.040 It's raining. It's rain and it's raining. It's raining. Those 1:03:15.080 --> 1:03:17.680 aren't tears you've been crying. That's rain. That's rain. That's rain. 1:03:17.920 --> 1:03:20.680 That's rain. That's rain. That's rain, that's rain. It's it's 1:03:20.680 --> 1:03:22.920 all right. It's all right to hurt, go stop, it's 1:03:22.920 --> 1:03:25.200 all right to hurt, go run, it's all right to question. 1:03:25.680 --> 1:03:28.960 Just you commit to it. I'm staying right here, and 1:03:29.160 --> 1:03:38.200 with great anticipation we await the promise to come. Come on. 1:03:38.280 --> 1:03:45.400 I need a band every day thay Jesus is a 1:03:45.480 --> 1:03:58.560 body say come on the world on forecast, savor nor 1:03:58.840 --> 1:04:09.280 family paper in your process daper dora si that we received, 1:04:15.760 --> 1:04:26.560 no wasting, no waisting. You see we received something. Visire 1:04:27.600 --> 1:04:42.560 discuss eph rec know like that we received? Did you 1:04:42.720 --> 1:04:46.360 get the an out said it's a class flne. It's 1:04:46.440 --> 1:04:56.840 a class flne. It's on the paper. FI we recee 1:05:01.240 --> 1:05:26.560 I squeary see why the squeerie see explain I said 1:05:26.640 --> 1:05:38.880 it down. We say where you rec You just say 1:05:40.240 --> 1:06:11.160 we're receiving and received less said we received, were saved, 1:06:11.400 --> 1:06:21.120 we received, we received, we said we are saved him, 1:06:23.080 --> 1:07:09.080 were stay him? So do you receive it today? I mean, 1:07:09.160 --> 1:07:12.800 like really receive it personally for you that God's word 1:07:12.880 --> 1:07:14.920 is not going to return void, that He sent that 1:07:15.000 --> 1:07:18.040 word into your life for a purpose. You might just 1:07:18.080 --> 1:07:20.640 want to sit with that for a little while. Sometimes 1:07:20.760 --> 1:07:22.560 we hear a word from God and then we just 1:07:22.680 --> 1:07:25.440 move on to the next thing. Maybe just take a 1:07:25.520 --> 1:07:29.440 moment and let the reign of God's presence saturate your 1:07:29.480 --> 1:07:32.520 mind and your emotions and your will. And what step 1:07:32.640 --> 1:07:35.320 is God calling you to take? Maybe today is today 1:07:35.360 --> 1:07:37.640 you give your life to Jesus Christ. No more running. 1:07:38.480 --> 1:07:41.720 Maybe today is today that you commit that what is 1:07:41.800 --> 1:07:43.920 within you is going to come forth. Stop being so 1:07:44.080 --> 1:07:46.920 controlled and consumed by what's going on around you. But 1:07:47.040 --> 1:07:49.400 whatever that is that God is calling you to do next, 1:07:50.280 --> 1:07:51.920 I pray that He'll give you the faith. You know, 1:07:52.080 --> 1:07:55.480 when God's word is mixed with faith, that's when growth happens. 1:07:56.240 --> 1:07:59.120 And God is growing us in this season, he really is. 1:08:00.000 --> 1:08:03.040 I want to thank you because not only are we growing, 1:08:03.120 --> 1:08:05.520 but the Kingdom of God is growing. This ministry is 1:08:05.600 --> 1:08:09.160 growing every day. We're reaching thousands of people around the world. 1:08:09.240 --> 1:08:12.600 That's because of you who give. Don't forget that we're 1:08:12.600 --> 1:08:14.960 in the middle of our year end offering season. Rather, 1:08:15.000 --> 1:08:17.120 we're just getting started with it and you can give 1:08:17.160 --> 1:08:19.960 it Elevation Church dot Org. Some of you do that 1:08:20.080 --> 1:08:22.320 every week and that's why we're able to reach Some 1:08:22.479 --> 1:08:24.200 of you may want to begin to do that right now. 1:08:24.280 --> 1:08:26.960 Become a tither or a giver. We're giving around the 1:08:27.000 --> 1:08:29.920 word favor here for year in and if you haven't 1:08:29.920 --> 1:08:32.840 subscribed or ever shared a sermon, all those things do 1:08:33.000 --> 1:08:34.960 that because that's one of the ways that not only 1:08:35.040 --> 1:08:37.080 do we take the word in, but we get it out. 1:08:37.200 --> 1:08:40.040 So thank you for your partnership in the gospel, Holly, 1:08:40.080 --> 1:08:42.200 and I love you. What a privilege it is to 1:08:42.320 --> 1:08:45.560 minister God's word. And I declare over your life it 1:08:45.640 --> 1:08:46.840 won't return for it