Elevation with Steven Furtick - All I Do Is Wind! (Tim Somers)

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

Follow where He leads. In “All I Do Is Wind!” Elevation Church’s Youth Pastor, Tim Somers, shares how we are making a choice every day: walk towards what we want or step into the future God has for us.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. How many of you are ready for the Word of God? Well, I am Tim Summers, and I am the youth pastor here at Elevation Church. So today, it's going to get a little crazy. It's okay. I'm the youth pastor. I can do that. Gives me a license.

It gives me a license to be a little crazy. What an honor it is to be able to be on this stage and on this platform. I consider it one of the greatest honors, because if I had to like, if you got to like, I mean, I guess you do get to pick your pastors. But in an alternate reality, it's a great honor. I got to pick any pastor in the world 100 percent, no doubt in my mind, no matter what season time, it would be the verdicts, okay? Pastor Stephen and Holly, your entire family, so grateful for you.

Our family is grateful for you. You have helped carry us through some tough seasons, some great seasons, and we're ready to do this for 25 more years. Let's go. So we love you. Thank you for all your sacrifice, the time, the energy, the effort. Assignment after assignment, you have proven yourself faithful. And we get to bask in all of that. And so thank you so much.

You know, the Word of God says that I'll be held accountable for the things that I say and the things that I don't say. And so don't take this moment lightly. And if you've never heard me preach before, if you've never come to a rhythm night, Buckle up. Everyone just like, you know, maybe just do this. There you go. Y'all remember back in the day, King of Kings, Lord of... Okay. Buck up. As for you, parents. See, I can do both. Buckle up because we're about to go crazy. And I got to let you know, I am extra. I am very, very extra. But this is really me. Every time after I get down to preach, people are like, are you really like that? I'm like, go, that's my wife.

I really am like that. Now, I like to be quiet sometimes, but you don't see that, okay? And so I'm a little ADD, okay? I'm a little ADHD, right? I like to be all over the place. I'm a little ODD. Odd. Y'all got to wake up.

Y'all got to wake up for this. Y'all got to wake up. And if you're ready to hear it, like I'm ready to preach it. be a good one. It's going to be a good one. It's going to be a really good one. We're going to be in Jonah. Keep standing. You might not sit down the whole time. Jonah chapter one, verse one. Welcome to all of our e-fam. Glad you're here. All the campuses. Shout out. Lake Norman's really going to like this one. Lake Norman's going to like this one. Jonah. chapter one have you found it you found it some of y'all are going yohan you ain't got nothing in your hands

okay jonah chapter one verses one through four this is what it says the word of the lord came to jonah son of amatai go to the great city of neneva and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me but jona everyone say but jona You know what? How about you say your name? Say, but... But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. Everyone say port. That's going to be really, really key.

After paying the fare, some of us will pay to run away from God. Jonah, what are you doing? You ain't making any sense right now. We can relate. Can we relate? after paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. And then the Lord sent a great wind. Everyone say wind. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea. Every time I hear but then the Lord, I know it gets me crazy.

Every time I hear but then the Lord, I feel like it's a walkout song that sounds a lot like this. on the scene, you know that man got a theme song. All I do is win-win. I don't know if he said DJ Collet, but he said like DJ Gabriel or something. I don't know. But, I mean, Jesus needs that theme song. And just like every character in the Bible needs a theme song, every preacher needs a title. And so my title is this.

All I do is wind. All I do is win. find your way to your seat. All I do is wind. All I do is wind because it says, then the Lord sent a great wind. Everyone say wind. And here's what I want to do today is I want to go through the book of Jonah. Now, I'm not going to read every single verse because I probably can't keep your attention that long, okay? I only got a certain amount of time. So, but we're going to go through the book of Jonah. And the thing about it is that we all know, even if you're new to church, I can guarantee it, we all know about the story of Jonah and the whale. Thank you. I was really hoping

you were going to get that. Jonah and the well. But do we know about Jonah and Nineveh. Do we know about Jonah and the place that he did not want to go. The amount of opportunities that Jonah has to follow God in this book of the Bible, just four chapters, and I think there's only 12 verses per chapter. That's a short amount of time. It's astonishing the amount of opportunities given to Jonah. Class participation. How many of you like assignments, tests, homework, projects? Okay. Okay. How many of you like new opportunities? Promotions, challenges. Come on, right? Yeah, right? There's a lot more hands for opportunities than there are for assignments. Okay. Okay. I was talking to Bishop Rios over here, and he helped me with this. He said, you know where the word opportunity actually comes from? I said, no, man, educate me. It actually is a nautical term. That's like boats.

You know, water? Okay, y'all were looking at me like, what? Yeah, we're going to class today. It's a nautical term. And it comes from the phrase ob obi, portunum. Okay? Ob, portunum. And the interesting thing is this is what it means.

It means when your sail hits the perfect wind to get you where you need to go. Ob opportunum. That's where the word opportunity comes from. Interestingly enough, the first thing that God gave Jonah wasn't an opportunity. It was an assignment. Right? Verse one.

It says, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it. That was the assignment. And parents understand this concept thoroughly. I know I look young, but I do have three kids. Okay, you were supposed to laugh. Okay, I guess I'm getting old. I've got kids, and how many of you have kids? If you have just put it in there if you've got kids.

This is very interesting. Anytime I try to tell my five-year-old Genesis to go clean his room, I say, son, you need to go clean your room. This happens daily because he is. is a savage, okay? He doesn't care, all right? And I like it, and I'm okay with it, but I'm like, I need to teach you a little bit. So, please go upstairs and clean your room. It's like, okay, Dad, can't wait. All right, I'm going. Goes upstairs there for about 10 minutes. If you're a parent for long enough, you know he's not cleaning his room. It's not having it. So you know it's a 10-minute mark.

all right, Genesis? Yeah, Dad. What are you doing? Cleaning my room? Lyer. Okay. You walk up the stairs. You go into his room. Son, no progress has been made. I told you to clean your room. He's like, I got distracted. I'm playing with some toys. Look, I built a Spider-Man Lego. Right? And then I go, I proceed to say, If you don't clean your room, you ain't getting the iPad tonight. I feel a lot of judgment happening right now. You give your kid an iPad? Yes, I do. I don't need that right now.

What is that? What did I just give him? I just gave him an opportunity to be able to get out of the situation that he put himself in after I had given him a assignment. Oh, parents are the great wind in which teenagers and children go where they need to go. You've heard the phrase delayed obedience is disobedience, right? I want to say it a new way. Your maturity in the Lord is how fast you will obey God. Your maturity in the Lord is how fast you will keep his commands.

Obviously, Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh. Genesis doesn't want to clean his room. We don't want to forgive our neighbor. We don't want to have empathy for people who have experienced other things than us. I'm stepping on toes too early? It's too early, isn't it? It didn't not want to necessarily do that. It's not necessarily what I prefer.

Not necessarily anything that I like or that I want, right? This is what we find out. You know, the best place in life. is when your wants line up with God's wants. And this is what begins to happen in these four chapters with Jonah, because side note, God's wants don't change. Right? It says he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

His wants don't change. His assignments might. His opportunities might. But his wants do not change. Do you think David wanted to fight Goliath? Do you think Abraham wanted to sacrifice his son, Isaac? Probably not. Do you think Daniel wanted to be thrown in the lion's den?

I wanted to go to Rome where he would be beheaded. Do you think Jesus wanted to go to the cross? No. But these were people of obedience, and I'm just realizing that I just expressed that that was all men's stories. There are women, too, in the Bible that say that. I'm sorry, women, I'm sorry. That's my fault.

They were given an assignment, and then they obeyed. Everyone say obey. Oh, John, on the other hand. Well, his journey was a little different, and that's how I think maybe we might be able to relate to him today. His journey was a little bit different. He decided to take a different path than maybe what was intended. And so let me get you through this first chapter. I'll give you a little summary because, again, I only have a certain amount of time.

Jonah was trying to run away from the Lord. Notice I said trying. I gave some of it away. He gets on a boat. A storm begins to rise. Everyone's panicking on the boat. They're freaking out. Jonah's below deck.

They're in complete fright mode. And Jonah is straight chilling. He ain't worried about it at all. You can read this. It's in Jonah chapter one. He ain't worried. He is not worried at all. This doesn't make any sense to me. How does this begin to fold out? Let me tell you something. You know the name Jonah? Do you know what it means?

It doesn't mean sea or boats or waters. Jonah means dove. Dovee, like the bird, not the soap. It means dove, right? Now, birds have an ability to see a storm coming. Right? They see harm, and then they escape. But you know what's interesting is that the dove is also the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Scripture says that the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power. to conquer anything. Jonah saw himself like a bird, but God's asking him to see himself like the Holy Spirit. How do you perceive yourself? How do you talk about yourself? You know you get to choose your name. You get to choose what your name means,

and you get to choose what it's going to be like. So, they're on the boat, chilling, but freaking out. Jonah's chilling. everyone else is freaking out, and they realize, oh, Jonah is disobeying the Lord. He's running away from God. Storm wakes up Jonah, because how many know that sometimes it takes certain storms to wake you up? Like, why am I going through this? Well, maybe you've been sleeping through your life. There's a storm rising. They're all freaking out. Jonah officially wakes up, and it's one vicious cycle, after another because we've already gone through storm after storm after storm after storm. And how many

you know that storms aren't fun to be woken up by? Right? Have you ever been working up by a storm? It's kind of scary, especially as a kid. I'm experiencing that with Genesis right now. You know, I mean, rain starts eating. He's like, we're melting! Like, oh, good Lord, son. It's going to be fine. It's could it be fine. You know what else is it fun to wake up to? Long division. Do you know what long division is, Che? You do? Because I didn't. My 14-year-old, Brody, came with me. Dad, can you help me with this problem? I'm like, yeah, I'm a master at math boy. What's up? What's you got? Big dog. He's in math still. He's not in algebra. Once it gets to algebra, I'm done, okay? It comes up, it's like, I need to know how to solve this problem.

Looked at it. It's 12. It's like, Dad, I don't care that it's 12. I'm like, what? But it's 12. He's like, no, Dad, it's long division. Like, we're supposed to show our work. I'm like, why you got to show your work?

I want him to make sure he knows the why, okay? Well, you've got to show your work, son. He said, well, the teacher wants to know that I know how to get to the answer. I said, she that abacón. I said, I might have to preach on that, boy. I said, you know what? Interestingly enough, we didn't even get to the problem. I started preaching to them.

I said, Christians think they got the answers all the time. They're like, Jesus is the answer. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. But you know what? Sometimes we don't know the whole equation. You see, you might be the square root of your problem. And Jesus is the answer.

But you got to admit that I might be the problem. They're like, why do I keep going storm after storm after storm after storm after storm. Well, there's a common denominator. Let me tell you something. It won't always be what you like. When God asks you to do something, he gives you an assignment, it won't always be. And most of the time, it won't always be what you want. Think about it.

It's like, God's like, all right, look, Ryan, you need to stop gossiping. You're like, okay, yeah, you know what? You're right. Next day, your friend comes to you with the juiciest news. You're like abiding your cuticles. Yeah, that's cool, man. That's cool. You're like, God's telling you, hey, you should probably pay off your debt.

This is probably a good time to be mature in the Lord. Let's pay off your debt. And then all of a sudden, you're walking through Sears, and the manager comes by and says, I'll finance this fridge for 72 months for you. And you're like, oh, my gosh, are you serious? Okay, I'll do it. It's like when you ask God for patience, then the next morning you get in traffic

and you're saying things that I can't say on this stage. Right? This is what happens. This is what happens. It's even little things like that. And if you don't know where you're going, there will be people who will gladly take you where they're headed. So you got the people on the boat.

Freaking out. Jonah wakes up. Jonah's like, just throw me over the boat. It's my fault. So, they do. Throw them over the boat. I'm like, do I want to be in the storm in the boat or do I want to be in the storm out of the boat? I've seen deadliest catch I'm choosing in the boat, okay? I'm not doing this. So all of a sudden, a fish. That's the theologically correct term. Fish. More than likely it's probably a whale of some sort, so you can't fit in a trout. But the fish swallows up Jonah. And this man is in the belly of the fish for three years.

days, right? And you can realize this is the point where Jonah starts to figure out it's not all about him. Now we are in Jonah too. All of Jonah too, all of this entire chapter is a prayer to God. That's good. It's just a, it's just that's it. It's a prayer to God. I'm going to give you the first two verses. It says, from inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said, in my distress, I called to the Lord. And he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help, and you listened to my cry. Have you ever cried out to God?

You know what that means? That means you're starting to get a little bit desperate for God. And this is where Joan is. He's getting desperate. He's running away from the assignment. He gets in the boat. Now the storm's going crazy. He gets thrown out of it.

the boat. Now he's swallowed up by a fish, but he's still alive. He's getting a little bit desperate for God, and he begins to cry out. How many of you know that desperation can lead to determination? And this is what happens to Jonah right here in chapter two, because when you get grateful, you get faithful, and when you get faithful, you get fruitful. This is where Jonah is at. He's getting grateful. Lord, Lord, Lord, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm desperate. I need you. Why did I do this? Then he's He begins to get faithful, and then he begins to get fruitful. It starts out with this gratitude to God. Could it be today that what you are facing, whatever campus that you're at,

Epham all over the world, could it be today that whatever you are facing is a setup for you to step up? because in this moment, Jonah realized it's time for me to step up. It's time for me to get out of the way. It's time for me to begin the assignment that God has asked me chapters ago. You see, the fish represents discipline here. Now, when I say discipline, don't be freaking out. I'm like, I don't thank my kids. I don't need the negative connotation of discipline.

Okay. Everyone should have some form of discipline, but this isn't a parent conference or anything like that. So if the fish represents discipline, here's what we have to understand. If God delivers us but never disciplines us, how will we ever learn? If you have kids, you really, really, really, really, really understand this, right? If God saves you but never disciples you, how will you ever begin? to discover your purpose. Okay? So deliverance comes with discipline, and salvation comes with discipleship. What we've got to understand is that the greater the anointing, the greater the attack. The greater the anointing that Jonah had on his life, the greater the breaking he had to go through. The greater the anointing that Jonah had on his life, the greater the crushing that he had to go through. And Jonah is feeling all of this in the belly of the fish.

And at this moment, Jonah is completely helpless, but not completely hopeless. Let me tell you something. You might feel like you're completely helpless. You do not have the answers. You don't know where to go. You don't know who to turn to. You are at a loss of words. You've got doubt over-filling your mind and your soul and your spirit.

I'm telling you, you might be helpless, but I guarantee you're not hopeless. I guarantee it. I guarantee it. It is not over yet. It is not done yet. He is not through with you yet. No matter where you are, no matter what you're facing. So, then we get into Jonah three. And after he does the prayer, It says, then the Lord vomited him on to dry land. Obviously, it was the fish, but the Lord made him do it. So Jonah three. It says, then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.

Does this look familiar? It's the same exact scripture in Jonah one. So if we continue within this chapter, he obeys this time around. Everyone give it up for Jonah. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. He goes to Nineveh, right? He lets him know that within 40 days the city would be overthrown.

The king finds out, the king of Nineveh finds out, orders the fast. He's like, all right, no more eating, no more drinking. We're having a prayer night. We need to get with the Lord. We need to turn from our evil ways, and God might show compassion. passion towards us. This is what's happening in Jonah 3. I'm just kind of running through it. Now, what you've got to understand is that Nineveh was ruthless. Okay? Nineveh was barbaric.

Nineveh was what the kids call savages. Okay? This was not a city that you wanted to live in. Nothing like Charlotte, okay? It was not a city you wanted to live in. And what you've got to understand is that if God never presented Jonah with all of these opportunities, we would know nothing about Jonah. Literally, all of these opportunities in the book of Jonah, if he never did that, we would only have one verse in the entire Bible about Jonah in Second Kings. That's it. If God never presented those opportunities, we would not know much about Jonah. Jesus would have never mentioned him in the New Testament. So the whale was an opportunity, the boat, the storm was an opportunity.

What you've got to understand is opportunities are directions back to the assignment. Opportunities are directions back to the assignment that God has first given you. And so at this moment, Jonah begins to fulfill his assignment. And we get into Jonah 3, verse 10, and this is what it says. when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong. Have you ever thought God was wrong? And he became angry. He prayed to the Lord. Isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? This is what I tried to forestall by fleeting to Tartius. I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abound the

in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to laugh. ADD, just angry, dramatic diva, right? Just, I mean, obviously none of us are anything like that. We don't get angry. We don't get dramatic. We're definitely not divas when it comes to what we want or our preferences. Am I right? Amen? Okay, got quiet. Here's a deal. Had we been writing this chapter, we probably would have shown Jonah in the city of Nineveh, carefully teaching the people all of the spiritual decisions. Interestingly enough, God did not write it this way. In fact, instead of meeting a rejoicing preacher, we meet a rebellious preacher. We see him angry at people and angry at God. We see an adult acting like a child here. We see a

believer acting like a unbeliever. We see Jonah sitting outside the city waiting for the judgment of God to fall on this city. And here's an amazing thing. And just a little side note that God sent a great awakening. In fact, one of the largest revivals in history under the preaching of a man who did not even love the souls of the people he preached to. Now, what that does for anyone who puts God in a box is that breaks the box. Can God do that? I mean, I don't really know, you know. Yeah, he's a God who restores, but we sound a lot like Jonah, but Jonah ran away from the Lord. So Jonah literally, leads one of the biggest revivals in history, but now he is mad about it. He's angry, right? Not only that, the sun is boiling him to death. This is when we get into chapter four. How many of you know

that there is nothing worse than being hot and angry? Okay, that's the devil's version of angry. Like, being hungry and angry, that's one thing. Being hot. Hot and angry? Oh, my goodness. Some of y'all be turning into some demons. Hot and angry is a little different. How many of you ever done hot yoga before? Some of you're like, I've never shared this with my wife before, but I have done hot yoga one time.

We weren't married then. I wanted to keep it in the past, but the Lord told me to bring it forth. y'all go one time, and that'll probably be the last time. But how many you know that when the temperature rises, your true colors start to show? It starts getting a little weird, right? Right? Like, the temperature impacts your tolerance. And Jonah was not tolerating anything at all. So, then the Lord provides a plant for shade. Okay? Now, if you've read chapter 4, you know where I'm going with this, okay? He provides a plant for shade.

And Jonah's like, okay, yeah, I was angry. I was mad. Now I'm not. Thank you for the shade. I'm a little more comfortable. I appreciate it. The next night, the Lord provides a worm to eat the plant. Jesus just be having fun out there.

He just be like, let's see what he's going to do. And all of a sudden, Jonah is angry again, right? In a vicious cycle, one after the other, right? Like, it's kind of like what we experienced. We experience a promotion, but then we realize we got to work twice as much. Right? I got the shade, yay, Monday. What?

You want me to 60, 70 hours this week? Are you kidding me? Right? Like, he provides an answer for you, but then that just gets you more questions that you have for them. And so you're like, oh, wait, I would have been. happy about that, but now I'm upset because now I have more questions than I had beforehand. Right? He provides a significant other for you.

Come on somebody. All the single people say, hey, that's me tonight. He provides a significant other, but now you have to change. Right? Now your accountability is, well, maybe I should change because this is not going to work. This is something I had to do. I remember when I got married with my wife, and I was like, oh, my goodness, I just struck the jack pot, okay? This is amazing. Oh, my goodness. Two months in, oh, I am completely jacked up. I am messed up.

Oh, so you're not just going to fit into my schedule? We have to create a new one. Oh, okay. I can't just think about me. I got to think about us. Oh, okay. This is. This is. This is. This is. I'm a lot. I got to think about us. Oh, okay. This is. is starting to make a lot of sense. And then we get into the last two verses of Jonah four. And it says, but the Lord said that you have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh in which there are more than a hundred and twenty 20,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left. A lot of times we tend to be concerned with the things that weren't meant for our concern.

In this book of Jonah, in these four chapters, God was using everything in his power to get Jonah back to the assignment that he had given him from the very beginning. God was pushing Jonah back into his will one opportunity at a time. And the reality is that God was trying to make disobedience to the assignment as uncomfortable as possible. And then we wonder why I got this. Why is this happening to me? Y'all think I'm exaggerating, but this is what we do. No one loves me.

No one texted me on my birthday. that happened to me once. I'm not here to tell you that opportunities are bad. That's not the sermon here. I'm not here to say that opportunities are bad, but disobedience is. Disobedience is, and we tend to overlook the assignment and overpay for an opportunity. Do we not? I found myself doing this.

Wait, God told me to do that when I was 15, and at 19, I now start walking in it. What? What? Why do we tend to do this? So you know about Jonah and the whale. We know about him running away. We've heard about Jonah and the worm. But when I read through this book, I realized Jonah led one of the biggest revivals in history. Mind you, it was the Nunavites. And 120,000 people were saved. and delivered because of this assignment. This was the assignment from God. This was the plan all along for Jonah. The reality is that we glorify opportunities and flee from assignments. We have got to be a generation that when God says to do something, yes, sir, how can I make it easier? What can I do now? We have got to take the assignment and begin to take a step forward. But it's nice to preach. It's really hard to live out.

Because we begin to then, like, we begin to wrap opportunity in thinking that that is the assignment. Like, well, you know, I don't know. I don't know. Like, JJ gets up. Hey, guys, we should probably, you know, churches coming back in person. person, it's time to serve. Ask me about it. I mean, it's as simple as that. Fleeing from something that could be the very thing that leads you to the ultimate cause. What's interesting is that, again, I'm not saying opportunities are bad, but I am saying this, is that we do serve a God,

that even when we do flee from the assignment, God gives us opportunity, after opportunity, at their opportunity to lead us back to the very thing that God asks us to do at the beginning. You know, this is why we do what we do here at Elevation Church for 15 years now. This is why we serve. This is why we are opening up campus. This is why in the middle of the pandemic we were able to continue to push things forward online with EFAM. This is why we do kids ministry. This is why we do e-groups ministry.

And to be honest, this is why we do youth ministry. This is it. It's not to fill a seat. You come only once a month anyways. It's not that. Sorry, I'm getting loose. I'm sorry. It is to help you and to provide you an opportunity.

so that you can experience the fullness of the assignment God's giving you. And we're passionate about it. This is why I love youth ministry. This is my 12th year being a youth pastor. And it's absolutely amazing. Why? Because I love potential. Now, the thing that frustrates me the most is when kids walk away from their potential.

But when they realize, oh, yeah, I can do that. I don't have to be this tall. I don't have to be this smart. I can do that. And they're walking in opportunity after opportunity. They're realizing they're living out their assignment. You know, a week from now, on July 11, we're doing what we call Youth X. And YouthX, if you've been fleeing from Tarshish or living under Iraq,

Youth X is our annual summer camp. And it's going to look different this year. but we're doing a 168-hour live stream continuous for middle schoolers and high schoolers for the youth of elevation church and i'm telling you as a parent this is easy my life was changed this summer camp most of your lives are changed this summer camp you realize something it doesn't fix everything but you realize some things and i'm like there are there are really good ways that you can be involved tell your kid about it. Make them go. My mom's going to be here. It's okay. That happens every time for me. I don't care. I'm here for you, the parent. This is the best thing that you could. And you know what's cool? It's like, yeah, we're opening up Valentine for all the services. We're doing like 21

services within seven days. It's going to be astronomical. But if you're like, well, I don't know. I just don't know. That's too much, Tam. Guess what? Is it? Is it? going to be live on our YouTube channel, Elevation Youth YouTube, for the entire seven days. So create a moment in your home with them to go, all right, let's get the Word of God in our lives, all right. Let's get the understanding of Scripture in our lives. It's just a huge opportunity. It's a big one, and I don't want you to miss it because when you look at it, you look at it. Jonah and I end with this. God could control the wind and the waves in chapter one. He controlled the whale in chapter two and he controlled the worm in the wind in chapter four. But he could not

control Jonah without the king's surrender. He couldn't do it. Everything in nature obeys the word of God except human beings. Yet human beings have the greatest reason to obey the Holy Spirit. We have the greatest reason. You don't have to do another thing for me. You're taking care of my family. You're protecting me. And even when I flee from something, you're going to send some boats my way. You're going to help me.

You're going to send people my way. You're going to send a church my way. Continue standing. If you're not standing at campuses, you know, do that. Here's what I want to do. What I believe is the most important part of what we do every single weekend. I want to give you the opportunity to come into a right relationship with Jesus Christ. When you do that, you are coming back to the assignment that God has given every single

one of us. And it says the scripture that you are to go into all the world and preach the gospel with your life, with your actions, with how your kindness, with your love. And I think there are many people, maybe in this room, maybe at other campuses, maybe watching online, that you're saying, you know what, I have been fleeing. I've been taking a boat in the other direction when God has told me, this is where I need to be, this is what I need to do, this is the next step.

Today is an opportunity from the Lord, a divine appointment, for you to get back on assignment. And so here's what we're going to do. I'm going to have everyone close their eyes and bow their heads. If you're saying, you know what, I want to take this opportunity. I want Jesus to come into my life. I'm going to ask you to pray this prayer. For the benefit of those who are praying it for the very first time or people who are returning back,

I want our church family to say it out loud. Say, dear Jesus, I thank you for who you are. I thank you for who the Bible says that you are. I believe that you died on the cross. You rose from the grave. Defeating all sin. Defeating all shame. Come into my life.

Make me a new creation. I'm ready for the assignment. In Jesus' name, amen. Come on, can we give it up for everyone? Put it in the chat. If you just came into a relationship, if you took the opportunity to come into assignment, you weren't here by mistake today. On this July 4th weekend, it's not a mistake.

It's an opportunity. It's an opportunity. And I think I love moments like the moment we just had because I know we're like, yay, people. It never gets old to angels. It never gets old. They throw in a part. They probably.

They probably play, all I do is win, win, when, when them hands are going up. When the sails hit a perfect wind to get you where you need to go. Come on, raise your hands. I want to pray for you, and we'll go into worship. God, thank you for the assignment of this moment right here. I pray that you would continue to pour out your spirit and pour out your love and pour out your encouragement through every parent, every teenager, every employee, every son, every daughter, helped him to understand that we are building the church, one assignment after another.

We are grateful for you. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Everyone said, amen. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information.

And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.