Elevation with Steven Furtick - Come To Your Senses (Tim Somers)

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

Your doubts don’t disqualify you.  In “Come To Your Senses,” Elevation Church’s Youth Pastor, Tim Somers, reveals to us that, when we’re facing doubt in the present, we must remember how God remained faithful in the past. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfrSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. As you can tell, I am not Pastor Stephen. I'm a little taller. If we haven't had the privilege of meeting, my name is Tim Summers, and I get the honor and privilege of being the youth pastor here at elevation. I love saying that chunks because you can see like 30% of the room, timid,

like, oh, here's this guy, the youth pastor. Look at that blonde hair. Is he forcing it? No, I've had it for years, okay? But I would be remissed if I didn't honor this house and honor our pastors. How many of you've ever heard the parable of the sower? Anyone ever heard this, right? When the farmer throws the seed, he throws it on like four different areas, right?

You've got the rocky place, the thorny place, the shallow place. But then there's that good soil where that seed takes root and then it multiplies a hundredfold. know that you got a good soil church and a good soil pastor. Hey, you can find a leader anywhere. You can find a leader anywhere. There's millions of leaders, but you know what's incredible about our pastors is they are incredible stewards, incredible stewards. And so can we give it up for our pastors, Pastor Stephen, Pastor Holly, the entire family,

Graham Elijah Abby we love you I believe that this is the greatest move of God in our generation I wholeheartedly believe that 100% I say that without a doubt okay so look at your neighbor and say I believe that too even if you don't you're gonna say it even if you don't you're gonna say it you could take a seat I wanted to show you my family real quick

because I know a lot of you haven't been back since COVID so you don't even know who I am. And so that's totally fine. I want you to put my beautiful family up there real quick. Okay, let's look at this. You see the big man? No, not me, the other one. That's my 15-year-old son. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Wow. He has a 15-year-old son. He does not look that old. Thank you. That's Brody. And he is. bigger than me. Like, he's not as tall as me, but he's got more muscle mass than me. And so pray for me, because my ego's been shot for two years. And then you see the one with the smug face. That's

Genesis, our five-year-old. And imagine everyone's energy combined in this room. He has more than that. And he's not saved. I'm serious. Like, Dreeny, I'm for real. Thank you, God, for E-Kids volunteers. I'm just praying one day to get that text. And then my love, littlest one, Lainie Dior Klein. I tell you his full name because it means small golden servant and he's the only one with blonde hair. I didn't even know that's what it meant, but that's exactly what it means. Small golden servant, that's my little guy. And then my beautiful wife, Rebecca, and she really is so beautiful. And she's our online campus pastor. She works here as well. and so we carry that mantle together.

But you know what's really amazing? You know, she does a lot of cool stuff. She really does. She's brilliant. She's bright. She's phenomenal. She goes above and beyond. But just put that picture up there real quick.

Oh, nice. There you goes. The most incredible thing is how she has brought to life those three boys right there. And she's... She said, let's do it again. And so we're having our first girl in September. Are you serious? My goodness, it's just going to be boys.

Just a bunch of deodorant, and that's it. That's all we need. We got our first girl, and she's due September 15th. And so people keep asking me, are you done? And I keep saying, we'll pray about it. So we're praying about it. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.

How many of you are ready for the word, all right? You ready for the word? Good, you're ready. You're ready. I'm ready for the word. Really believe that God wants to speak to you today. Acts 12. Acts 12.

And if you brought your Bibles, make sure you open it up. If not, we were thinking about you all week. We were praying for you. We love you. We got it prepared, ready for you on the screens. Acts 12, verse 1. this is what it says. It says it was about this time

that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John put to death with the sword, and when he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.

Let me remind you something real quick, everyone. Most times the need of approval for men precedes bad intentions. We only two, verses in, homies, and we learn in something. Okay? This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bren, and after arresting him, he put him in prison,

handing him over to the garden by four squads of four soldiers. If you know how to do math, four times four is? And Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison but the church. Everyone say but the church? Oh, remember when pastor preached on. But God, tell your neighbor, I say, you got a roll to play in this too. You got a roll to play in this too.

But the church was earnestly praying to God for him. And the night before Herod was to bring in the trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries, stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly, the angel of the Lord appeared in a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up, and he said, quick, get up. look at it at a light an alarm clock and a swift kick to the kidneys that's how you wake up a teenager the bible's got everything okay i saw it in the bible sweetheart this is what you're supposed to do he said quick get up and the chains fell off of peter's wrist then the angel said to him put on your clothes and sandals and peter did so wrap your cloak around you and follow me the angel told him

and peter followed him out of the prison but he had no idea that what the angel would doing was really happened. He thought he was seeing a vision. Let me stop right there, because sometimes you are free before you even know it. He was freed. He went through a prep season. He went through the journey. And some of you might be looking at the situation that you're in right now and you're thinking, ah, God's got me in a prep season. I'm here to remind you, he's also got you in a free season. You're in a free season. So they passed the first and second guards and came to the Iron Gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself. and they went through it.

And when they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, Now I know, without a doubt, that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen. Verse 12, when this had dawned on him,

he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door, and when she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed, she ran back without opening it and exclaimed. Peter is at the door. Last two verses. You're out of your mind, they told her.

When she kept insisting that it was so, they said it must be his angel. But Peter kept on knocking. And when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. I've heard so many preachers preach on that verse right there, verse 16, and I'm not going to do that today. I want to focus on verse 11. This is what it says in verse 11. Then Peter came to himself. I love the new living translation.

It says, then Peter came to his senses. He came to his senses. If I were to title this, I would title it, come. to your senses. Come to your senses. Come to your senses. I was showing you my family earlier because I really wanted to kind of set up this story here. And I wanted you to be able to see the differences to my 15-year-old and my 5-year-old.

It's kind of self-explanatory, but he is bigger than most 15-year-olds. and here's the deal. I don't know if you have boys, how many parents we have in the house today. Okay, fantastic. You're going to relate to this. If you have boys, you understand that wrestling is an event in our home, okay? It always happens, but it has to be an event. It has to be a big deal.

So we move the Ottomans out of the way. We put pillows on everything. We lay down four blankets. I mean, it's a whole ordeal. Even in fact, Genesis had the United States. learned, has learned about Alexa, and he's like, Alexa, play rock music. And literally, it's like the rock music, you know what I mean? Like, it's just like his theme song to come out to wrestle. Now, here's the deal about Genesis. Genesis thinks that he can beat Brody every single time.

No, I'm serious. Every time he thinks he can beat Brody. He's got more confidence than LeBron. I don't know. I don't know. I didn't think about that beforehand. But he's got a lot of confidence, okay? He's very arrogant, but it's cute right now. You know, like, when do you grow out of that? I don't know. But it's cute. And here's the deal. He's got a lot of confidence, and he thinks he can be Brody every single time.

And we have a rule in the house that if you hurt Genesis, you then have to wrestle dead. That's just a rule. It's just a rule, okay? Just a rule. But they wrestle all the time. Well, after every time they wrestle, tell me if I'm lying, after every time they wrestle, Brody never lets him win. Ever.

I mean, it doesn't matter. He will always take the win, okay? It's okay. It's 15, right? He's going through his, you know, hormones and egos and all that kind of stuff. He's learning about pride. It's fine. But he would never let him win.

He ain't going to let him get a win whatsoever. And one day, Genesis came up to me. He's like, Dad, Brony never lets him you win. He never lets him you win. I can never get a win, dad. And I'm like, I'm like teaching my son. I'm like, look, he's got long hair, pull it. I'm like, look, he's so proud of his leg hair.

Pull it. You do whatever you got to do. I'm not kidding you. Do I do this baby? I swear. I do. I'm like on this guy's side. I just want him to win, you know?

But I like when they wrestle because it toughens him up, okay? It toughens him up. It's fine. to me. And one day, Genesis comes down. Because, Dad, Brody hurt my elbow. And I went, well, we know we have a rule for that, don't we? He goes, mm-hmm. Yeah? What's the rule, Dad? I guess it's time for me to wrestle Brody. He's like, Brody comes down. You know, like, he's like, all right, let's do this. You know? He's like, I've been waiting for this. I'm like, yo.

Okay, 20 seconds later had him tapping out. Now, I'm not here to boast about any of that. I'm 32, he's 15, you know. It's not like he's bigger than me or anything like that. We'll move on past that. But it was funny because afterwards it kind of hit his pride a little bit. You know what I'm saying? Like, hit his pride.

Like, I look tall, but I look scrawny, okay? I know I'm lanky, all right? I know I'm like KD, okay? And I get it. I get it. And it's fine. But you see, Brody underestimates this thing, and I like to call it the sixth sense. It's that dad's strength. You know what I'm saying? Like when you become a dad, it's like, yeah, nothing can stop me. Like, watch, boy. I don't care. 20 seconds. I have you, boom. How do you like that? He's like, dad, I got it. Okay, okay, I'm tapping. I said, no, you're not. You're talking. You ain't taffing. I'm tapping.

me down, I'm tapping. And I looked at them, and something that Brody always says to Genesis, it's like, hey, bud, you can't win them all. So, man, I was ready. You thought that getting him to tap out was a big deal for me? I was like, no, hey, Brody, he's like, what, dad? He wasn't crying, but he's like, yeah? What's up?

I said, hey, you can't win them all, big dog. And I thought that was a great moment, and then Genesis comes up. He's like, hey, Brody, guess you just got to roll with the punches. I was like, what? Roll with the punches? But I thought to myself, man, that's so true. You never know what life's going to hand you. And sometimes you just got to learn how to roll with the punches.

Have you ever heard this phrase before? Your parents ever tell you this? But like, yeah, I didn't make the team. Like, yeah, man, I know. Just got to roll with the punches, right? You just got to roll with the punches. Have you ever been in a season? Well, you feel like all you're doing is rolling with the punches?

I'm like, I'm done getting punched. I'm not Floyd Mayweather. I ain't built for this. You know what I'm saying? Or maybe you feel like you're in a season that you just can never get a win at all. You feel like Genesis? I just can't get a win. Can I just get a win today?

I feel for my guy Peter in this passage. In fact, in every passage when I read about Peter, Peter is, I mean, he is learning something every single time. Like literally, the passages are littered with teaching moments, right? You've got him learning how to walk on water from the place of drowning. Right? He denies Christ, not once, not twice, but three times, right? And now in this passage, you see him seized, you see him arrested, you see his friend James die, you see him be put into prison, you see him guarded by 16 soldiers, and now you see him about to be put on trial. This is a big deal, and you're saying, how does this relate to me? Well, I don't know, maybe you're going through your second divorce. Maybe for you, you're dealing with this addiction for the last 10 years that you thought you would never still be dealing with. Maybe you're walking in every Friday and you live in paycheck to paycheck to paycheck to paycheck.

And you thought, man, I thought this was going to be over. When are we going to get to the other side? When is it going to get better? Have you ever been there before? Have you ever asked questions like this? Like, God, what's happening? I feel like I can't win at all. and I'm just rolling with the punches.

And I'm looking at Peter. And I'm like, man, there's some things that we can learn from Peter. Because Peter had a lot of teaching moments. He went through a lot of stuff. You know how good this man was at rolling with the punches? This is a big deal because Peter's got doubts. He's got questions. He's got confusion.

Have you ever had doubts? Have you ever had questions? Have you ever been confused? But Peter's so good at rolling with the punches. So how do I begin to roll with the punches? Do I have what it takes? Can I go through this again? Is what I need actually inside me? Here's what I believe that verse five, everyone will say five? Verse five is a great starting point. And it would be considered My first point. Okay? If you want to be able to roll with the punches, you have to remember the church. Remember the church. Verse 5. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

This is important because he's intensely seeking after God. When is the last time that you intensely sought after God? Was it two minutes ago? Or did you miss it? What was the last? time that you intensely sought after God. This is why I got into youth ministry, and this is why I love youth ministry, because we are teaching teenagers how to earnestly seek after God at a young age. Right? So that when life throws them punches, they can go back to the positive influences, the positive experiences that have happened in their life and go, you know what? I'm prepared for this. I'm ready for this. So we're creating those moments.

And shameless plug right here, for real. Like, if your kid is not going to YouthX, what are you doing? Right? Like, YouthX, this is our summer camp. If you don't know anything about it, July 13th through the 15th, it's $200, but we got financial aid available. And literally, this entire room, we will have 2,000 teenagers earnestly seeking after God. So go to YouthX, 20,000.

to our common register. But here's the deal. For real, I will have parents come up to me and they're like, well, I'm going to let my kid decide if they want to go. And I'm like, okay, would you let your kid walk in a highway with a blindfold on? No. So why do we keep our kids till 18, but we stop parenting them at 15? Why do we do this?

Now look, look, look. Hey, I'm fairly new at that. parenting thing. So I want you to understand, like, I'm learning even right now on how to help them make their decisions, right? But here's what I'm going to let you know. I'm going to make it easy for you. Just say it's my fault. Just say it's my fault. Well, youth pastor Tim told me to sign you up for camp. He's your youth pastor. He's my youth pastor, so I got to do it. Just do it. We're on the same team. Let's rock it. Take them over. Tag team. We know how to do this.

We make it so hard, right? I think it's amazing. A couple thousand teenagers will earnestly seek God, and we'll be able to watch it right there in July. And you know what's wild? Why do we do it? Because it's important. Why do we do it?

Because it's vital. Why do we do it? Because the church is the bride of Christ. And if you say you love Jesus, you can't hate the church. The church is the community. Everyone say we are the church. Ultimately, my shameless plug is reminding you that you have to remember the church. The truth of the matter is we will forget the importance of the church and try to use it like jewelry and not like oxygen.

Only just to enhance our life when the reality is that the church was meant to be life. It was meant to be life. And can I be honest? with you? For some of you, church used to be a lifestyle. And then the punch of COVID came. And you've inched your way out of serving. You've walked your way out of groups. And you roll yourself out of bed maybe one time a month instead of four times in a month. Let me tell you something. If we forget the power of the church, you think we're in trouble now. Oh, we're going to be a big trouble then.

And this is important because we've got to be careful. That's the opposite of earnestly seeking after God. And you can't get upset with me because this is what I believe. You know what I mean? Like, look. Like, like, if you're not vocal about it

and it ain't visible, then it ain't a value. Then it ain't a value. You're saying, oh, kids, yeah, church is a value. Well, Mom, why we only go once every six weeks? I'm just saying, right? And here's the deal. I get it. I understand. Like it makes a joke, you know, you are on staff. I'm like, yeah, but there's sometimes where eFAM just feels like, yes,

this is what I want to be today. Right? And I live 10 minutes away. I'm like, well, maybe. Right? I'm not here to shame you. I'm here to let you know that, look, I'm very new at this trying to make decisions for you. Trying to help your teenagers make decisions for them. But what you've got to understand is you cannot forget the power of the church. That's why it says, remember the church. Because when you look at verse 12, after Peter gets out of prison, where's the first place that he goes? He goes to Mary's house. It is said that the church was meeting at Mary's house. And it was midnight. That means it was like e-group time. Or summer camp, you know? I don't know if any, he grew up at midnight. That'd be weird.

Right? Like, he knew the church was praying for him, and the first thing that he does goes to the church. He had remembered the church, which leads me to my second point. If you want to roll with the punches, you've got to remember the church. And number two, you've got to remember your humanity. So if we all need the first point, the church, we all have the second point, our humanity. Right? our humanity.

It says in verse seven, suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell and he struck Peter on the side and woke him up, quick get up, and the chains fell off of his wrist. What would you be thinking in that moment? That's wild, right? Then the angel said to him, put on your clothes and sandals and Peter did so, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And Peter followed him out of the prison.

That's crazy, right? I'd have some questions. But he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. he's confused. Then it goes on to say he thought he was seeing a vision. No, wasn't a vision. He's confused. He's got some doubt.

They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city, opened for them by itself. By itself? He's confused. He's wondering, how is this all happening? When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Right?

Do you have some questions at this point, if you are Peter in this story? Right? Like the amount of questions, the amount of anxiety, the amount of doubt, the amount of worry, and maybe even the amount of pause, had to make Peter feel that he was out of control. And I look at this passage and I'm like, why can't I get a step-by-step playbook on life? You know what I'm saying? I'm like, what the heck? It's like Pastor Holly talked about last week about the whole, you know, heaven out. You know what I mean?

Why can't I get a step-by-step playbook on what this looks like? I can't get out of a parking violation, but this homie's getting a first-class ride out of prison. You know, like this is wild to me, right? But he's got questions. He's got questions. You know what's interesting is that angels will do things for people that people can't do for themselves.

Okay, you don't. believe me based off of that clap. The angel made Peter's chains fall off, but he told Peter to put his clothes and sandals on all by himself. The angel led Peter through the locked doors past the vigil and guards and through an iron gate, but he still expected Peter to walk on his own two feet. The angel took Peter down one street only and then left him alone to use his own wit. Don't expect angels to do for you what you can do for yourself, right? Jesus raised Lazarus, for only he could do that. And then he said, all you other people, you've got to lose him and let him go.

Jesus gave life to Jairus's daughter, and then he said, now, give her something to eat. Right? This is very, very important for us to understand this passage. And I want you to see yourself in Peter. He had all the same questions, all the same doubts, all the same worries, all the same confusion. And Peter got it wrong. He got it wrong. He got it wrong.

If the Bible was written now, it might be saying that Peter failed. He got it wrong. This is interesting to me because in the Christian life, a lot of times we think we can't fail. We can't get it wrong. Well, when I read about Peter, homie, got it wrong. He thought he was seeing a vision. Nope, it's a miracle. Right?

It's a miracle. And then verse 11 comes around and says, then Peter came to himself and said, now I know without a doubt. Everyone will say without a doubt. Can you think of a time when you experienced without a doubt? Think about it. Without a doubt.

Right? That's a different kind of statement. And this is what you have to remember. Reflection discovers more of heaven and of God in the great moments of our lives than what was visible to us while we were actually living through them. I'm going to say it again. Reflection discovers more of heaven and of God in the great moments of our lives than what was visible to us while we were actually living through them.

You know what without a doubt can mean with faith? With faith or with full assurance of faith. If you don't believe me, Hebrews 111. Faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance of things unseen, aka without a doubt. Right? Because doubt deals with you. That's why the letter you is in the middle of it.

Faith deals with the great I am. Right? This is interesting because the question isn't, can you live without a doubt? No, we already know that because Peter said so. He said, now I know without a doubt. So you can live like that. Now I know without a doubt. The question is, do you know how to identify without a doubt?

How do you identify it? Without a doubt? Okay, let's try this. If everyone in the room, everyone watching online, if it can, and if it's safe, and if you're capable and you're comfortable, can you just stand up? It's crazy how long it takes y'all to do that. Like, it's fine. I'm not, I'm just getting crazy. Like, wow, okay.

Okay, you ready? Are you ready? Yeah. Okay, take a seat. Did you feel it? Did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, Did you see it? Not for one second did you think that that chair wasn't going to hold you up.

Not for one second did you think, I don't know if I should sit here. I don't know if it's going to hold me up here. No, you're like, take a seat. What is this youth pastor doing? And you took a seat. Not for one second. Did you worry about it? If that chair is going to hold you.

And you believe that without a doubt and without a doubt and without. full assurance of faith. Yep, this chair's going to hold me. Well, then why don't we look at the creator of the universe in the middle of our dark times, in the middle of our valley, and we start questioning him. Like, God, why am I here? Why did you choose me? Why did I have to go through this? What? How's this going to happen? Look, it's not about strong faith or weak faith. it's not about which one's better than the other you all have faith you just might be putting it in the wrong things because the reality chunks is that look at me without a doubt only happens in hindsight oh that's good that's from the lord not me without a doubt only happens in hindsight look at the passage look at the

passage right this is interesting because it says in verse 12 he goes to the house of mary And this only happens because he came to himself. Because he came to his senses. Right? Because he had looked back at all the things that had happened. Right? He looked at the moment that had already passed. All the doubt and the confusion and all that.

Because he then, him looking back, he knew now without a doubt. After all the confusion, right? Like hindsight's 2020. I'm sorry. I scared y'all. It's 22. Don't worry. It's okay.

Whoa, whiplash just happened. It's like, 20 and 20, what are you saying? What? I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back, God. Why can I get a win? Right, but when you look back at COVID, there's so many things that you can look back and go,

man, if God can get me out of that, he's going to take care of me no matter what happens now. hindsight is 2020 I title this message Come to Your Senses and I want you to put that title up real quick and I want you to let you know that

they got it they misspelled it do you see the misspelling? Do you see it? Do you see what I see? No, no okay it's supposed to be come to your senses. There it is. Since the angel came to prison, Peter knew. Since the chains fell off my wrist,

Peter knew. Since, everyone say since, since he brought me out of prison, now God can do. Since God healed my sickness, since God resurrected my marriage, since God protected me during COVID, Since God healed me, since God graced me for this, comes my way, be under his hand. You got to look. You got to come to your senses. I want to remind you your doubts are not a disqualification of your faith. They're not. Verse 16, it says, but Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

I'll end with this, and the band can start to come out. This leads me to my final point. If you want to learn how to roll with the punches like Peter did, you've got to remember the church, you got to remember your humanity, and the final one, you have to remember to keep going. It says, but Peter kept on knocking. Right? Peter kept on knocking on the door, even after Rhoda had answered and then left him. Low-key dipped on this dude. Right? He kept on knocking when she was getting told she was out of the door. of our mind. He kept on knocking when they insisted he was dead and that it had to have been

an angel, right? This was easy compared to everything else that Peter had been going through. What was a little more knocking at midnight and praying and hoping that there was church people in that one house he just so happened to go to? Side note, everything starts aligning with the Holy Spirit when you operate in full assurance and without a doubt. It starts to make a lot more. sense. I didn't think it was going to happen this way exactly. That's called without a doubt. That's called with full assurance of faith. Let me give you a disclaimer here. Several times the Bible states that belief is an essential step in receiving a positive answer to prayer. It says in Matthew 21, 22, Jesus told the disciples, and whatever you ask in prayer you will

receive if you have faith. Now, this doesn't mean that we can receive anything we want if we were only to have enough faith. Because 1 John 514 also says, we also must pray according to God's will. So in this case, in this passage, Peter's release is in God's plan. That new Tesla might not be in your new plan. Private school might not be the new plan.

It might not be in God's plan for your life. That promotion might not be. It might not be for you. but I think it's interesting because even the church who was in Mary's house had doubts until they kept going to the gate. Remember to keep going. Just like Peter kept knocking, the church had to keep going while they were praying in Mary's house to the gate. This wasn't like the front door. It says the outer entrance. So they walking outside in camel stuff. That's doo-do. Camel do-dood. Okay. It's nasty. Right? They had to keep. Keep going. Look at your neighbor and say, keep going. Keep going. Because your doubts ensure

that God gets the credit and glory in the end. Isn't it crazy that the church thought it was Peter's angel that was knocking on the door? They thought he had died and thought it was Peter's angel that was knocking on the door. If we're not careful, we'll believe something even crazier just to not give God the glory. This is what I find a lot of people do. I do it. I'm like, oh my goodness. This has happened. My wife's like, no, that's not right. That's not it.

I'm so grateful for my wife because six years ago, we were living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and we had just been married for four months, and we love the church that we were at. We love the pastors there, love the city, love the people. We thought we'd be there for a whole decade. No joke. Seriously. And then Elevation Church opened up their doors for their very first time and the thing called Inside Elevation. And this is the first time that as, like, ministry, you could, like, go there and, like, learn about all the amazingness of Elevation Church, right?

And I remember I'm getting eight tickets. Little did I know that eight means new beginnings. But I got eight tickets. I don't even know why. We didn't have a team. It's like, I have eight tickets. I'm getting them. And we get the eight tickets.

We drive up. The moment we stepped foot on the Lake Norman campus, I knew. Oh gosh, this is where we're supposed to plan our family. This is where we're supposed to be. And I might never do full-time ministry again. If I work at Lowe's, I'll be a manager, not like lower level. I'll be a manager. I'll be a manager.

And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. I don't know what my wife thinks. You know, like, oh my goodness, we drive home. I get, we get home. And it's a 26-hour drive, by the way, for a 24-hour event. And I'm not saying it was smart.

saying you seen airline prices oh my god i remember getting i remember getting home and i said baby i got to tell you something but i but don't say anything until i'm done for the next 90 minutes began to download everything that god had downloaded to me after the 90 minutes was done it's dark in our room you know we're just laying in the bed and she goes it's a woman i'm sorry let me start that over babe why are you giggling Why are you giggling? I just shared my whole heart. She goes, it's exactly what God told me.

I said, really? She's like, yeah. So we start, just continue to pray. We start telling people about it, just like our close friends and family. And I remember, I think this is very interesting. I remember that without a doubt, we knew this is where we were supposed to be. Without a doubt. And I had to tell them some family members and some friends.

I had one other person in my life that said, this was a good idea. Everyone else told me I was stupid. Everyone else told me I was crazy. Every single person, except one, outside of my wife, looked at me and said, you're obliterating the ministry you're building. Now, I remember looking at my wife and said, well, I'm glad I'm not trying to build my own ministry. I want to do what God wants to do in my life. I tell you this, because the day we're about to resign, I wake up that morning, I'm already a little nervous about to resign. It's two weeks after that moment. I reacted immediately, okay? Some of y'all wait in two years, two weeks, boom. Some of y'all do with two days, y'all need to pray a little longer. I don't know if you should

do that yet. The day we were resigning, my wife comes to me right before we leave and she goes, babe, I need to tell you something. We're pregnant. And I did, What the worst thing that you could ever do with your life when your wife tells you that you're pregnant? I lean back on the, on the, tell me, I'm lying, I lean back on the wall, I fell to the ground, hands on my face. And I said this, so does that mean we're not going to North Carolina? That's why I keep having so many babies so I can make up for that. I remember telling our pastors, two weeks later, we picked up, we moved. No job, no place to stay, no nothing.

No friends, no family. We had $43 in the account. I remember getting a tweet from LB. He said, hey, I heard you're moving to Charlotte. Love to takeout for lunch. I said, free lunch, okay. I'm in. Lowe hasn't accepted.

Don't know why, but Lowe hasn't accepted. He started to tell me everything about the church. He's like, I think you might be interested in doing this thing. and any ways, it gets to the place where I can interview and be a part of Elevation Church. And now the rest of history, I've been a part of this staff for six years. And I plan to be here for the rest of my life. I tell you that story to let you know that even though without a doubt, we knew we were supposed to be there, everything afterwards, I was like, did God really say?

Because Walmart says I can't live off of $43. Did God really say? She just kept bringing me back to that 90 minutes, where I just downloaded everything, and she said, hey, since he told you this, we know he's going to take care of this. And since he did this, we know he's going to take care of this. With everybody standing for these last few moments, I want you to know that some of you might be in a situation

that seems bleak. It seems like you're never going to be able to get out of it. You feel like it's one hit after another. Others of you need to be like the church and go to the gate and look. Because something's been knocking. And they're just waiting for you to open the door so you can be astonished. So that you can be amazed. So that you can know without a doubt that God is with you.

My favorite statement of all time that pastors ever said while I've been here for the last six years and being under his leadership is the only way to truly fail is to quit. That's the story of Peter. He never failed. He never quit. Every single one of you in this room, congratulations. You're still here. In the midst of the doubt, in the midst of the confusion, the questions, the worry, the pause, you are still here. What does that mean?

that since God took care of everything before, even while in the middle of it, it didn't feel like it. He's going to continue to hold you up now. With every head bow and every eye close, I want to give people the opportunity to come into a right relationship with Jesus Christ. You are saying in this moment that without a doubt, now I know God is with me. And I want to make him the center of my life, not just a priority, but the center of my life. We're going to ask you to pray this prayer because I believe that there. There are people all over the world watching online right now and in this room that are saying, you know what?

I've questioned, I've worried, I've doubted, but today I remember the church. Today I remember my humanity. I am not God. I am just human. And today I'm going to remember to keep going. I want you to pray this prayer along with me. Say, dear Jesus, I thank you for who you are. Come into my life.

Make me a new creation. and I will follow you all the days of my life I believe that you died on the cross you rose from the grave defeating all sin feeding all shame

and defeating all doubt in Jesus' name if you just prayed that prayer for the very first time or now you're saying you know what nope I'm coming back to the gate I'm remembering right now why I gave my life

life to Christ years ago. And you're saying, I'm rededicating my life. On the count of three, we want you to raise your hand and we're going to celebrate with you. We believe it's the best decision that you could ever make with your life. One, two, three. Hands going up all over the place. Come on, can you shout? Can you get excited? Come on, keep your hand up. If you just gave your life to Christ, you're saying I'm making it in the center of everything. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe. rate and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevationchurch.org slash give. And thanks again for joining us on the Elevation

podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.