Elevation with Steven Furtick - Cover The Spread

Episode Date: July 16, 2023

When the odds are against you, face the battle anyway. In “Cover The Spread,” Pastor Steven Furtick challenges us to turn our problems into petitions — because God’s got the answer. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ Scripture References: 2 Kings 19, verses 14-19, 32-36 Philippians 4, verse 6See 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. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. I hope you're blessed today. Holly already announced everything, so I don't have to do it. I can just get straight to the word.

I preached a message last week called Challenge the Shadow. That message was about how we don't just accept the natural pattern of things. because we are people of faith. So when the enemy says you're going down, you don't go down without a fight. That's what God gave you your faith for. And that message is online. Now you can take that message and put it together with this message

because I am going back to the life of Hezekiah to bring you what we might sort of call a preaching prequel to show you something else that happened in his life. Now, I like to do this, okay? I was telling my oldest son this week. I love to, oh yeah, by the way, hey, everybody online. I love to take the Bible and make sure that we get the historical context of what was happening, but not leave the Bible in the historical context, but make it helpful for your life.

And that's something I really believe in. One of my seminary professors who trained me told us that our job isn't to apply the Bible to people's lives. just to teach them what happened in the Bible. Couldn't disagree with that more. People are going through too much hell for me to preach that way. Come on, just to give you a lesson about something that happened 3,000 years ago, and that, hey, have a good week. Hope the custody battle goes okay.

Hope you don't die. Hope you make it back the next Sunday, and I'll give you another history lesson. I can't do that. It's not in my heart to do that. That's not how God wired me. And so when I come to the scriptures, I'm always asking a couple questions, what happened here and then what's happening in the lives of those that you've called me to help, Lord. And so that's kind of how I pray. Now, this week we're coming to an issue in 2nd King's Chapter 19, in the life of King Hezekiah where, you know, last week he almost died.

And the prophet said, you're going to die. And he's like, wait, I got more to do. And the Lord's like, all right, you get 15 more years. And he flipped a shadow around to show him what he was capable of. And around the same time in his life, just before that happened, I want to show you something that happened. And then I want to talk to you about some things that are going on in your life, too. In 2nd Kings chapter 19, verse 14, the Bible says, Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it.

And then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. Lord, the God of Israel enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. See, listen to the words Senechereb has sent to ridicule the living God.

It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may be made. know that you alone, Lord, are God. And God answers him. Skip all the way down to verse 34 so you can see in action what God said. Actually, I like verse 32 too much to skip it. So go to 32. I gave them all of these scriptures. So this one is really good. Therefore, this is what the Lord says in response to Hezekiah's prayer concerning the king of Assyria, who is Hezekiah's enemy. He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp

against it. By the way that he came, he will return. He will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant. Watch this, verse 35. That night, the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian enemy camp. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies. So Senechereb, the enemy, king of Assyria, broke camp and withdrew. I bet he did after that

185,000 of your soldiers dead will make you go home So the Lord told me to give you a message from that story today and we'll talk about it But he said to tell you this God is going to cover the spread Anybody receive that just by faith? Like even not knowing who Senehoreb is yet, but you receive it by faith that God is going to cover the spread. Lord, your word never returns void. Whoever it's for God, shoot it straight into their heart. May it go down deep, deeper than disappointment, defeat, discouragement, or despair,

and give your people faith to believe that you are still in the waymaking business. In Jesus' name, amen. He's going to do it. He's going to cover the spread. This This message is called Cover the Spread. Last week was challenged the shadow. This week is Cover the Spread. I'm so glad we sang that song, Make Away. That went so good with this message, like the Holy Spirit wanted it all to just go right there together so you could get it.

There's a line in that song I really love that says, because you are God, no matter the odds, the outcome is always the same. We don't know when, but we win. God's going to cover the spread. How many of you know that term cover the spread from the sports betting world? Lord, we pray for these sinners, these hell-bound Philistines, these uncircised Philistines betting on sports. As far as I know, not by experience.

I just asked chat GPT. It said, cover the spread means I bet one time on a basketball game. The only time I ever bet on sports. Only time I ever bet on sports. And I lost $300, and I bet on the Oklahoma City Thunder because my friend Pastor Craig Rochelle lives there and I thought he had a strong enough anointing to pull me through. And I lost some money. It's how I don't do any more. But cover the spread. I mean, you heard it before, but maybe you're too holy to know what it means. When they make the odds in Vegas, then one team is favored by, say, like, seven points. And so if that team that's favored by seven points wins, but they don't win by more than seven points,

then they didn't cover the spread. And somebody who bet on the other team can win their bet, even though that team lost because the team that was favored to win by seven points didn't cover the spread. And so the game can be completely over, but somebody's sitting there praying just at the team that they bet on doesn't lose by more than 21 points or 28 points, whatever the spread is. So that's the term in the betting world. But this is Sunday morning, and this is not the betting world.

This is the Bible world. I would like to suggest to you that the term has a completely different relevance for your life as it did for Hezekiahs. If you are a betting man, you are betting against Israel in this particular predicament. Not only are they up against the fiercest dude who has ever occupied the throne of Assyria named Senechereb. Anybody pregnant? Looking for a baby name?

Senechrib. Not taken. You can't be the only one. You're welcome. This guy, when he would take his enemies, he would take his enemies. to send a message to everybody else. He would often not only hang them from trees, but he would flay their skin and hang their skin from the trees.

That's the kind of guy we're talking about here in Second King's 19, just to give you the picture. And not only to mention that, but he was a trash talker that made Connor McGregor look like Mr. Rogers, if you follow M.M.A. I'm using all the worldly analogies just to hook the people in today, Graham. But he is occupying the throne of the fiercest kingdom that has already taken the northern part of Israel. If you've studied the Old Testament, even a little bit, you'll remember that the kingdom was divided. Well, that's already happened. And the northern part of the kingdom, those ten tribes, have already been taken away into captivity.

So now Senecaab is coming for Hezekiah, who was a good king. I told you last week, he was a good king. He followed God. He trusted God. But now Senechereb is sending some messages to Hezekiah going, you're next. And Hezekiah is like, no, please, uncle, daddy, what do you want me to say? Don't do it to me. Just leave us alone.

We've seen what you're capable of. We know you're undefeated, undisputed, and we, don't want it with Seneca Rev. So what do you want? You want some gold? Hezekiah starts stripping the gold off the doorpost of the temple. That's how bad it was. It would have to be bad for you to take the temple where God lives and start taking stuff off of the doorposts of the house of God to get your enemy to go away. But when the enemy messes with you enough, you will start stripping very valuable things. You will start stripping very valuable things

and giving away parts of yourself that are very, very important just to get him to leave you alone. The problem with this is, Seneca rib is insatiable. It's not like you just give him a little bit of gold and he goes away. You give him an inch.

He takes a kilometer. It's a worldwide ministry. Now Sinikarab is coming back, talking about, you know what? I know you've got an alliance with Egypt. In fact, he sent these field commanders, these messengers, to Hezekiah's messengers, and they meet up at this aqueduct that's going into this field, and they're like gathering around trying to figure out, is he going to leave us alone? Is he going to take us too?

Are we next? Is he going to completely decimate us? Is he going to knock down the whole temple? Are we going to have to keep stripping stuff and shipping it away? Or are we next to go, like our neighbors to the north? What's going to happen? Because we know Senechereb is absolutely unbeatable. Now, so the field commanders start speaking about what Senechereb can do.

And they're saying stuff like, you're going to end up eating your own excrement and drinking your own urine. It's in the Bible, they say that. I can't imagine what they didn't put in the Bible that these boys said. And Hezekiah hears that. And he knows that the odds are against him being able to defend himself against Senechrept. So he terror him. Here's his clothes, which is a sign of mourning, humility, and repentance.

And he begins to seek God about it, but nothing seems to change. So after he sought God for a little while, he hooks up with the king of Egypt, and he's like, will you help me fight this guy? And the king of Egypt is like, all right, well, Senechir up here's about that. And he's like, it still doesn't matter because I'm Senechereb. Have you heard of me? Have you seen what I've done to all the other nations? And he sends a letter to Hezekiah.

And he asked him a question in the letter, will God really deliver you? That's what was in the letter. In the letter he lists all the other kings that he's defeated who tried to stand up against him. He says none of those nations were able to be saved. What makes you think you're any different? Where are the Kings of Lair and Sephar, Vium, and Hina, and Eva? I can't pronounce these names, y'all, but he puts all that in the letter.

Now, when you get to verse 14, I want you to understand this picture that God gave me, when it said that when Hezekiah got this letter, which would have been on papyrus on a scroll, you know, like letters were back in the day, when he received the first. the letter, verse 14, from Senecared. He ripped it up and said, no weapon formed against me will prosper. Put the scripture back up, because I want you to see that's not what he did at all. Because I feel like there are some people who are listening to me preach today, and you are carrying a letter of your own that was sent by an enemy into church today. I can't see it, and it's not on papyrus.

But some of us have what I would like to call emotional scrolls that we carried into church with us today. It's rolled up so no one can see it. It's tucked away not a letter that was written by human hands, perhaps, but a letter that is written in your heart. The words of the enemy that he has spoken, Senechereb loves to get in your head. In your head. How many of you tend to be a lot of times in your head too much?

Now, the reason those of us who are in our heads too much are in our heads so much is because all of the people who are in their heads too little. Somebody has to think for y'all. Oh, we're never going to get these bills today. So, it's so good for me because I'm in my head all the time. She's in the moment. Take that however you want. I'm not saying that I'm smarter.

It's just like, she's so good for me, though. This used to annoy me in our marriage. You know how they say, in marriage, opposites attract, and then after marriage, opposites attack. And so it used to make me so mad. I'd be telling me something so deep, like, if he watches over every sparrow, And I think she wasn't looking, listening, and she'd be like, I'm like, what are you thinking about? She's like, ah, the grocery list. But I liked eating.

So I was glad that she was thinking about something kind of practical while I was thinking about something ethereal, abstract, and spiritual. Because I don't want to fast. And our marriage in many ways has been a merger of her style of processing and my style of processing, which I'm in my head a lot, and she's really good. to get me out of my head. I was on the brink of meltdown like four years ago with some stressful stuff that was happening with the ministry. And she goes, I know what we're going to do. We're going to go for a walk. When she said, I know what we're going to do, I thought she was going to give me the solution. There's like a complicated situation. And I'm like, walk.

She's going to go. She goes, yes, as people do. It's not that deep. We're going to walk. you're going to feel better and she was right when I'm in my head when I'm in my head the problem that I'm considering seems completely unsolvable when I'm in my head it appears to me that I have no assistance available when I'm in my head every text message that somebody sends me has a secret covert malicious intent to it why'd they say it like that Why'd they use a comma? Why is there no period? Why does that emoji have drool coming down its mouth?

Now, that is weird. I should look into that. But you know, you start reading into everything when you're in your head. Oh, man, why did they say it like that? Why did they look at me like that? They weren't looking at you. It's completely ridiculous for you to think that everybody in that video game called Your Life is an NPC and you're the main character.

But yet we do that when we get in our head. You've been stuck in your head this week? Is that why? Which one's my main camera? I can't remember the top one? Okay. Have you been stuck? Let me start over.

Have you been stuck in your head this week? Is that what's been happening in your life that God took me all the way back? thousands of years before you were even born, before you even got in this battle that you're in, before you even started feeling these symptoms in your body, before you even started feeling this stress that has you completely wound up and unable to deal with your life, is that why God had me studying about a king who thousands of years ago, Before you and I were ever even a thought, before you and I were ever even a shimmer in our mama in our daddy's eyes, before you and I were ever even a part of this planet, this king named Hezekiah gave us a pattern for what to do when the enemy tries to get in your head.

Aren't you glad for the strategy of God? Because honestly, I need a strategy. I need to know how to do battle in my brain. I need to know what to do when what I believe about God is telling me one thing and what I see in my life is saying another. I need to know how to respond to Senechereb. I've got my own Senechorebs and they send me letters. They are my personal fears. They are not yours. My fears speak differently than your fears because my devil is custom designed to defeat me according to my weaknesses and my strengths and so is yours so the challenging thing for me today can i preach can i preach is that i know what this bible says but i don't know what your letter says i know what this word says about what God is and who God is and what he can do and what faith is the substance of things

hope for and the evidence of things not seen and what his word is, the everlasting seed which produces change. I know what his word says. I don't know exactly what your letter says. And I don't know if your letter is something real that you're going through and it really is a diagnosis or if it really is just something that you're imagining that hasn't happened yet. I don't know if your letter is something that's going on in your industry, your company, something going on in that corporation called your family? You know that company where you can't fire anybody? I don't know what your letter says. But Senechereb told Hezekiah, I'm going to kill you, I'm going to wipe you out. It's going to be humiliating. Sometimes the letters that the devil sends me to get in

my head is he tells me that something in my life is going to happen to cause me great shame. And let me tell you another thing. The day we live in, you don't even have to do anything wrong to be publicly shamed. So that can feel like a real threat, can't it? When things are going good in my life, Seneca Reb tells me it won't be this way long. When things are going bad in my life, he flips the script. It's going to be like this forever. Sometimes when I preach, they'll say, it was like you were reading my mail and the Holy Spirit

will read your mail. Today we came to see what we need to do when we're holding a letter in our hearts of condemnation for our past that is behind us and forgiven by the blood of Jesus, but we don't feel forgiven, so we keep repeating it. We came to find out what to do when we're handed a letter of impending doom, even when there's no clear indication that it's going to happen, but you imagine it? And I'm going to tell you why you keep imagining it. You need to stop listening to so many serial killer podcast, chunks.

Just messing with him. That's my dude. And sometimes we feed ourselves the raw material, and then the enemy makes our letter out of what we feed him. And then sometimes it's more passive than that. Sometimes it is things we didn't consciously choose. But whatever the situation is, it stopped me in my tracks when I saw what Hezekiah did about the letter that he received.

And it helped me so much that I wanted to pass it along to you today. You want it? Verse 14, he received the letter from the messengers, and he didn't rip it up and pretend that it didn't exist, because that's one way to handle it, right? Some of us, we don't deal with anything that we feel. We don't deal with anything that we think. We don't deal with anything that we need to work on. We don't deal with anything that's stressing us out.

We just rebuke the devil of stress, but if you rebuke the devil of stress without fixing the source where some of your stressful situations are coming from. I was trying to rebuke the devil one time, and it was like the Holy Spirit said to me, you're trying to rebuke the devil when you need to rebuke your decisions and reverse them and make better ones. Am I reading your mail? Is that what that feels like? Yeah, so he didn't rip up the letter, because I think that's a lot of times how we're

taught to do this faith thing, right? Like just to, oh, no, I believe God's going to make it better. And it doesn't matter what the enemy says. Well, the truth is, there are some things that we have to deal with. This is not a king who's receiving a threat that he can just ignore. He actually does have to respond to this threat. Because as we read at the end of the chapter, there's 185,000 Assyrian soldiers waiting to take him out. So if he gets the letter saying, hey, we're coming in and just goes, I don't focus on the negative.

I'm an optimist. You're going to be a dead optimist. It's going to be an optimist with a crown on is what you're going to be, Hezekiah. Optimist with a crown, but there's going to be no head on your shoulders. It's going to be rolling on the floor. You're going to be a headless optimist, a dead optimist. And a lot of people are like that when it comes to their faith. I rebuke this bill.

The power company doesn't cut it back on because you said let there be light. You can quote Genesis 1 over the power bill all you want in the dark. So watch this response. He doesn't rip up the letter saying, well, that's not true. You're not powerful. You can't do that. Yes, yes, it is true. It is real.

That's the reality of the situation. The second thing that I noticed that he didn't do, and I'm telling you what he didn't do so that when I show you what he did do, you will have something to compare it to. He received the letter. Remember, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you just like I killed everybody. I'm going to kill your family. I'm going to take your kids out.

Your kids are going to end up on drugs. Your kids are going to end up divorced. Your kids are going to end up worthless because you yelled at them this morning. That's how it goes for me. It spirals real quick. I would just be a little too harsh with the kids and the devil be like, that's why you're going to be bailing them out of jail right there. They're going to have a needle in their arm right there.

and it all started with you. It can spiral real quick. Now, so this is the second thing that Hezekiah didn't do when he got the letter from Senecherev. They're like, hey, King, we don't know what to do. We can see you've already ripped your clothes. It is a bad situation, but he sent another letter. So he received the letter, verse 14, again, and he read it. Watch this.

And he read it again. and read it again and read it again and read it again and read it over and over and over and over until he had memorized it. And then he gathered the whole nation and recited the letter for them that their enemy had written. And then he had it translated into 30 different languages so that everybody could hear in their own language the threat of the enemy. And then he began to study it and he broke it down into different syllables and he made songs around it and he began to sing the songs of Senecaab. That's not in the verse, is it? I can't prove this, but I think when it says, please put the verse back up, that he received the letter and he read it, that he only read it

once. And after he read it once, look what he did next. He read it and then he went up to the temple of the Lord. You don't even know how anointed that is what I just showed you. That's what stopped me in my tracks. When I read that verse, I stopped and I said, oh, that's my problem. When I get a letter from the enemy, I read it over. and over and over when he puts a thought in my head to draw me away from my hope I play it over and over and over when I have an experience where I make a mistake I play it over and over and over but when I get a word from God I listen to it once and I go to lunch problem is watch this I'm giving more attention to Senekerib's letter than the spirit's message in my life.

He read it. Somebody shout, he read it. He dealt with it. He faced it. He accepted it. He acknowledged it. I'm in debt. I'm overweight.

I'm stressed out. I'm busy. I'm torn apart right now. I'm not in the position I need to be in to make the difference in the life of my kids. I'm not the example I want to be. Okay. I read it. But after he read it, he didn't stay down in it.

Because if I stay down in it and memorize it, then I'm going to get more of it. But come on, y'all, 2023. Let's follow Hezekiah and do what Hezekiah did. What did he do? He read it and he went up. And I came to call you out today and tell you it's time to go. Go up to the temple and see what the Lord says about this situation. Because if you stay in your head, you're dead.

If you stay in your head about this, you are going to go through hell over this. And the enemy won't even have to shoot a single arrow because he will defeat you by getting in your head and causing you to forfeit the very thing that you couldn't lose if you would stand firm and see what God. He went up. He went up. Say it, he went up to the temple. And he took the letter with him, just like you came to elevation today, and you brought

your letter with you. Oh yeah, you don't get to leave it at home. You take it with you everywhere you go. It is tattooed on your heart. The thing you really deal with, the thing you really worry about, the thing you struggle with, the insecurity that talks nasty, you. I put in that detail about the excrement and the urine, because although you were grossed out about it, one, I wanted to take your appetite down so you could sit through this sermon longer

and not be hungry for lunch. And number two, I wanted us to think about the crap that the devil really says to us. Seneca literally talked crap to Hezekiah. Literally. And I'm not using that word like people do when they use it to mean the exact opposite of literally. I literally died. He tells you stuff that you are trash, that you are done. Holy Spirit won't do that to you. The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus. Jesus is righteous. Jesus is in you. The Holy Spirit will catch you the next morning and start talking to you about last night and how you want to do that different in the future. But he won't talk to you. Spirit will talk to you like Senehoreb will. So that's not the spirit. That's not the spirit.

This gave me a picture of what we so often do. If we don't just rip up the letter, I'm using it as a metaphor to say, if we don't just deny it, or if we don't just go over it and over it again in our minds, then often what we do is just we stuff it, almost to the point where we don't even realize that the enemy is talking to us, but he's using our voice to do it. And so we just stuff it, right? We just stuff it. And we keep it rolled up and scrunched up. And so if we take the things that the enemy speaks over our lives and we stuff them, then guess what happens?

They spread inside of us. To the point where now it's not only, oh, I did that wrong, it's there's something wrong with me. And there always has been and there always will be. They say that the three habits of negative thinking are you make it personal, you make it permanent and you make it pervasive. When you make it personal, it's not I will. was wrong when I did that. It's I am wrong and I always do that, which is permanent. I always.

That's how I've always done it. That's how I did it five years ago. And you've edited out all the times you got it right because you just say, I always do it like that. And then pervasive, of course, is just a fancy word to say like, you make it everything. It's always like this. And I'm always like that. When you take it and you put it inside like that, And you don't find a way to process these patterns of thinking and these problems and the sin that we all still have to deal with. It starts to spread not only inside of your heart, but it starts to sabotage the decisions in your life. And you find yourself losing good people who are trying to love you because of an insecurity that was in the form of the letter that the enemy sent you. that you didn't know what to do with.

So you stuffed it and it spread. If nothing is there to stop the spread of that, you will continue to change external things in your life. But everything that you touch while you are walking in that insecurity, the insecurity will spread to the next opportunity. So you'll spend 10 months happy at a job until the old system of how you show up for the job catches up with you at the new one, and it spreads. Until your children see that mom and dad can't have a healthy conflict and work through

it, and they carry a template with them into their marriage one day, and you spend years and years of your life saying, I wish that I had known how to deal with this. That's the last thing I wanted to do was to pass this on to them. We stuff it, and we hallelujah over top of it, and we get little scripture verses that we quote, thinking that they will counteract the pattern of our own meditation in our heart, but it doesn't, because if we stuff it, it spreads. But who do I tell? Who do I tell what I really feel inside?

And this is an important thing for me to stop and say right now, because you can't just take that stuff and spread it anywhere. You can't just use other people like they are, I don't know how to put this, like they are your dumping ground, like they've got a hazmat suit on and they can just handle whatever you want to say. What encouraged me about Hezekiah was he couldn't tell anybody because he's the king. Are there any dads in here that you just wish for once, for once, and I'm going to get to the moms in a minute, for once, your kids would be like, it must be so hard to be

you. It is amazing what you carry for our family. It is amazing. You bring home the bacon and you taught me to throw up. baseball. You're my hero, Dad. How do you do it all? But who do you tell when you're trying to seem strong that this strength that you see is costing me my own strength, and I've got my own issues, and I still feel like a 13-year-old sometimes. I yelled at Elijah one time. He's my oldest, I have him a separate therapy fund for all the mistakes I make on him that I learn and then

don't do it with other kids. So I save that with the college fund. Therapy fun, college fun. I'm doing both at the same time. And I just yelled at him, this is my first time too! What was I talking about? It's your first time being a teenager. It's my first time raising one.

And now I'm confronting all of the teenage me that I didn't deal with before that staring at me and you. Please be patient with one another and bear with one another. And tell your therapist, I'm sorry. So what's hard about this is that I know what my letter says, but I don't know where to share it. Do I share it with my e-group? Or would they kick me out? Or would they look at me different?

Do I share it with my wife or will she think I'm weak? Do I just take it to the Lord in prayer? Because honestly, right now, I don't know if he's really up there. I love the moment where y'all act like, y'all don't know what I'm talking about when I say stuff in church. No, he's always there, Steve. Always for me, he's there. Sometimes for me, I don't know what that means to take it to the Lord in prayer.

I don't know what that means. Well, Hezekiah gives us a way to go to God that I really think is going to help you with the letter that you carried in here today, whether it's condemnation, temptation, whether it's an insecurity, or whether it's an actual attack from the enemy that's happening in your life right now that only you know about. This would apply to any addiction you're dealing with, any problem that you have today. Watch what Hezekiah did. He received the letter from the messenger. and read it and then he went up to the temple of the Lord and he spread it out before the Lord. He spread it out before the Lord. Physically he did that. He took the scroll. I liked it out. I liked it out. This would be the scroll and he spread it out before the Lord. Because if he carries it inside of himself, if he stays in his head, he doesn't know what to do.

But he really doesn't know what to say either. So he spreads it out. Somebody say spread it out. Before the Lord. Both of those are so important. One tells me what he did and one tells me where he did it. And both are important. The first thing he did was he spread it out.

He's like, God, I'm not going to read this over and over and over again and imagine all the horrible things that can happen here. Here. And you need a space in your life for this season that you're in, for these challenges that you're facing that you've never faced before, for these Senecherebs that are going on inside of your psychological state, because I think this is a mental battle more than it's anything. You need a space to be able to spread it out before the Lord. And often we don't because when anxiety comes on us, it has a way of pushing us back down.

So we can't even sit with anything very long without sinking into it. To spread out something before the Lord means that you can sit with him in an uncomfortable feeling. That you can sit with him even as the temptation is coming like a wave. that you can sit with him, and some of us have been convinced by the enemy, that you can't sit with what you feel. So anytime you feel something uncomfortable, you just run from that. You just strip some more gold off the temple and say, here's Senechereb, I don't like this feeling of being attacked, so I'll just do it the enemy's way. That's what a lot of addiction is, whether that addiction is to thinking, pills, food, you need.

name it. Any of our addictions are often traced to something that we will not sit in because I don't like how this feels. So I'll just give the devil my gold. I'll just give the devil my peace. I'll even give him my whole family if you will just stop making me feel this way. We do not resist him because somewhere along the line you have bought the lie that this is bigger than you. Well, it might be, but guess what I know about it, whatever it is? You know where I'm going? Big is it? How big is this problem?

How big is this enemy? How big? You're like, it's really big, preacher, like really, really big. How big is it? Well, that depends what it's up against. Here we go. You're like, now I'm going through some real stuff. You don't even know you're just up here preaching.

I'm going up against something that's real. Somebody shout, it's real. Okay, it's real, but it's also relative. Everything is relative. I found this out watching my dog. Our dog, I say my dog. I don't do anything for him. It's their dog.

Their dog is a Boston Terrier named Bo. Do you all remember when I told the whole church I'm getting the family a dog? I did. He's not too big. But when he was meeting his cousin, I guess, Holly's parents' dog, what would that make them the relation? Anyway, what kind of dog is yo-yo? Chihuahua was a yo-yo and Coco.

I'm going to work this out, y'all in a minute. A morkey. What's a morkey? All right. Coco is really little. Bo is big. when he's with Coco. Bo met Coco. Bo was a bully, because he was big. Then Bo met Toby, their dog. Toby is a golden doodle, bigger than a Boston Terrier. Y'all got the picture?

Bo, Coco, Toby. Bo was a bully with Coco, because Bo was big with Coco. Bo with Toby was not a bully Bo was a sweetheart I don't want to get canceled I'm only 43 Bo was really nice Bo was on his best behavior with Toby because watch this how big it is

is relative to what it's up against So, when the devil is picking on you, that's a sign you haven't reminded him lately what he's really up again. When he starts telling you, there's no way out of this one, that's because you didn't take him to the God of Moses lately, who opened up an ocean to get his people through. when he's telling you you're going down you didn't show him

the god of Dave and knocked out you're not going to make it you hadn't because he is God the male of the odds the out the way maker is in the house

y'all the house you might be down by 185,000 soldiers but God said I'll cover I'm for dinner. Because I will preach this thing

till that Boston Terrier that's been nipping at your belief, been nipping at your future, benipid at your sanity, benipid at your surprise. With the mention of blood. He stretched him live. He saw my sin.

He set his blood. Nick put him in the ground. He said I'll come on. Come on. Cover it. You have no idea who you're up against, Steffel. And it's not me. I'm a Maltipu.

What'd you say it was? A morkey. Oh. I'm a morkey. But have you met my master? It's coming. The angel of God is coming. The angel of God over your family.

The angel of God over your finances. angel of God over your physical diagnosis. The angel. So much I want to say to you. So much I want to say to you. You've been giving God your problem, and that's good. But let's change it a little bit. What you say?

Ah. I ain't no mookie over there. What do you call it? Muli. Mula. Moriki. That's a... That's a man of God right there.

Now help me preach this. I'm going to give you this for the rest of your life. You listen to me good and you listen to me young and you listen to me now and y'all play him back this when he's a little older. Listen to this. You can give God your problem, but make sure you also give your problem God. Because I think that's what it is, right? You've been spreading it out before everything and everybody but.

God and watch what Hezekiah did. He spread it out before the Lord. Now remember, it's not just what he did, he spread it out, because this is going to be some of y'all, right? You're going to take this message. You are going to pull out that overdrawn bank account balance on your app and say, here, God. I did what he said. Here's my scroll, God. I am scrolling to this balance on my bank account and I'm ringing it to you. Here, God, and the angel won't come. But here's what he did. that I thought was so significant. When he spread it out before the Lord, verse 15, please. He prayed. He prayed. Lord the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim. What's that about? If you remember, in the temple was something called the Ark of the Covenant, which was overlaid the cation wood and gold on the top. On the top where the gold was two and a half cubits, there were two angels, one on one side and one on the other. Those angels had wings that were spread up, and those wings touched in the middle. Exodus chapter 37 gives the details.

When Hezekiah was spreading out his problem before God, he was looking at the Ark of the Covenant where those angels had spread their wings. over him where those angels wings on the cover, the golden cover of the wooden box that housed the symbolic presence of Almighty God, those wings were touching to remind Hezekiah that while you're giving me your problem and reminding me of what you need, make sure you remind your problem of who I am. So, which spread am I preaching about today? The problem that you could spread out before God, or the promise that he has spread over you?

And which one will you focus on in this moment of your life? When Hezekiah read the letter, he read it once, he confronted the issue, he said, spread it. He read it and he spread it. And as he did, look at me, church, God was already spread over him. But you don't see that when you're just right here. You know, they tell us all of this horrible stuff about what's going to happen to our kids these days and how there's no more hope for this generation in the world to hell with that. I want to see that. I'm going to say my kids are going to have bumps and bruises, yours will too, and none of us can foresee any of that. But when I see, yeah, the odds are against us, but God said, if you'll seek me, I'll

cover the spread. I see you keep spreading out all your problems and all your reasons, but if you be grateful to me, I'll cover the spread. I see the distance between who you are and who you want to be. But if you'll let my grace in, I sent my son for you and I'll cover this friend. And it just like God to give us a term from Vegas and use it as a heavenly vision? I know the odds are against you right now, and I know that it feels like it's very impossible for you to make progress in this area.

I get it. But to spread it before the Lord and to say, Lord, you're seated above all of this. This is not abstract, y'all. You can do this as a daily practice. Listen, I want you to take that problem, that persistent one that has become personal, pervasive, and you think it's permanent. And I want you to get a vision now. I'm speaking to you by the Spirit of God.

This is not coming from my head right now. This is from God's heart through my mouth for you. He said, I want you to spread it before me. Maybe if the Apostle Paul could join in, he'd say, do not be anxious. about anything. But in every situation, Philippians 4, verse 6, let's teach this. By prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And that's what Hezekiah did. He spread it before God so that he wouldn't spread it to the rest of the nation, so that fear wouldn't spread and get the best of his heart. That's what he did. That's what we do.

You turn your problem into a petition, and you ask God, what do I do about this? And when he shows you, even if he only shows you a little bit, you do that, and you leave the rest to the angels. Because they've got you. I don't know about you, but I'm covered. I'm not going to cower in fear over these things that are happening in the world. I'm covered. I will not give my mind to an algorithm or a new cycle because I'm covered. I'm covered.

Just this week I was having one of these attacks. You know, you just get these thoughts from the enemy, right? And it was really my ego. But at the time, I felt like, man, what just happened that was very offensive and I was very self-righteous about it. And Holly asked me about it because we didn't get to talk because it happened. It wasn't a big thing. If I told you what it was, it would just waste time. That's why I'm not telling you.

Because it wasn't that big, but it felt big in the moment. You know what I mean? And so some little thing happened to me, and it became this whole thing in my heart. It triggered this old insecurity, and I even know what's happening. Dang, why am I so mad about that? And when we got done, she goes, how did you feel about that what happened? And I started to talk about it. But I realized if I said what I felt in that moment, I would spread it.

I wasn't ready to talk about it yet. The next morning I woke up, I was still thinking about it. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Woke up thinking about it. Wow, what I said about? And I took my little notebook. I don't have a temple to go to, all right? I don't have an Ark of the Covenant.

I got my notebook. And I wrote, Holy Spirit, show me how I need to see this. And I sat there. And I won't even sit there. I'm like, man, I'd rather be doing burpees right now that I sit here. sucks. Woo. Sometimes you've got to let the anxiety pass through, because on the other side of that anxiety,

on the other side of that anxiety is an awareness that you can't get if you just run every time it shows up. And what the Lord showed me next was so powerful to me. It was one of the craziest things that he ever located for me. He showed me exactly why I felt that way about it. He gave me a better story to tell myself about it. We went and had the best breakfast, and we ended up talking about our future in a very deep way.

But if I would have spread it to her before I spread it before him, I wouldn't have even known what to talk about. Now, I know it's not always that simple, but do you have something in your life today that you need to spread before the Lord that you've been holding on the inside and fighting in your head. Stand up. Yeah. This is a place where you can spread it before the Lord. And I hear God saying this, spread it before it spreads, before it just eats up all of your resources and all of your energy. Get it before him. He can show you things, church. He really can. He's really alive. He's really loving. He's really person.

He's really active. He's really willing. He's really wise. He's really kind. He's really good. And so now we see the angel of God that as we spread it before him, our problem, he spreads his protection over us. Say, I'm covered. Lord, we come to you today, knowing that everybody is holding their own letter written in its own tongue, speaking specifically to The troubles and trials of each individual child. Holy Spirit, I ask you now come. Manifest yourself through these human minds so that we can recall what it is that we need to bring to you. But as we bring it to you, we declare that you're bigger than it.

Yes, Lord. I hear you saying we're looking at the wrong spread. We have forgotten the God who fights for us to focus on the fighting that we're doing. So, Lord, now you called us into your presence. You brought our epham from around the world. You brought your sons and daughters to our 20 church campuses, to all of the men and women and boys and girls who will hear this message. I thank you that you are spreading your feathers, spreading your faithfulness, spreading your favor. I want you just lift your hands as wide as you can lift them. And just say, here it is, God. Yeah, here it is. Here's the questions

that I have. Here's the regrets that I have. Here's the anxiety that I keep fighting, but I'm spreading it before you. And there's nothing that is in that letter from the enemy that is greater than what is written in your word. Say, greater is he? that is in me than he that is in the world again now greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world

say it again greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world if we start rehearsing the right things we'll start believing the right things if we start believing the right things we'll start becoming the right thing greater is he

that is in me than he that is in the world Somebody high-fired. Somebody next to you. Say, he's greater, he's greater, he's greater, he's greater, he's greater. Angels of God inhabiting this space right now, setting over a canopy over his beloved right now. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Declare it seven times a day, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

Tustinekoref, greater is he that is in me, than he that is in the world. Come on, let's worship him together. Let's work the pimp. Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast. And if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available. I also want to take a moment and thank all of you who are a part of elevation, whether you support us financially or serve with us or just share these messages.

is because of you that we're able to reach people all around the world. And if you want more information on how to be a part of elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message, and subscribe. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.