Elevation with Steven Furtick - Hindsight 2020 (Pastors Steven & Holly Furtick)
Episode Date: January 4, 2021Before moving forward, it’s important to look back. Join Holly Furtick of Elevation Church as she revisits some of Pastor Steven’s most powerful messages of 2020.See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...ivacy information.
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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.
It's amazing because many of us never thought that we would finally see this day.
It is 2021.
And 2020 is officially and finally.
Finally, behind us, the past 12 months have brought a lot of challenges along with them.
And I know most of us have probably wished we could just erase this year from our memory at some point or another.
But do you really want that?
I mean, I've always heard be careful what you wish for.
And I believe that it's important to look back before we move into what this new year holds.
Every January, I like to take time to journal and reflect on the previous year.
You know, a lot of people like to make goals and think about what's coming.
But it's really important to reflect on the highs and the lows that you experienced in the year before
and to think about all the ways that I've grown.
We need to pause and reflect on the words that God has spoken to us as we walked through the fear and the frustration and the fire.
and the fighting that 2020 brought.
And we need to recognize, as our pastor has continually pointed out to us,
that this 2020 was actually the year of the Lord's favor.
When we look back, it's so evident that his presence has been with us every single step of the way.
I can't get that song, the blessing out of my head, you know, that little song that our church also released into the world this year,
that literally went around the world.
I keep thinking about the part where it says,
may His presence go before you and behind you
and beside you, all around you and within you,
he is with you and he is for you.
So looking back on 2020,
we can see that not only was God with us,
but he was doing a work within us,
within you and within me,
a work that wasn't derailed by your situation.
or your disappointment or your fear or your frustration,
but one that actually served to accelerate your growth.
Because what God wanted most from us
was transformation on the inside,
in our mindsets, in our hearts, in our faith, and in our families.
Today, I'm standing in our Valentine Auditorium
in almost the exact spot that I have been
for every sermon that my husband has preached this year.
And I felt that there was no better place to revisit and reflect on some of the most timely
sermons of the year for our church.
Today I have with me my journals that highlight the work that God was doing in our church
and in our families and in our hearts.
Now, first of all, can we just all get on the same page and agree that Pastor Stephen's
sermons from 2020 were on a whole other level?
And that is saying a lot because this man brings us a sermon week after week that is a word from God.
And he's been doing it for years.
But I feel like every week in 2020, our pastor prophetically brought the exact word that I needed to hear,
even when I didn't know that that was what I needed to hear.
Do you agree with that?
When we talk about looking for God's favor on our lives, I got to say, I can't believe
that I got a front row seat to see each of these sermons being preached and going out into the world,
even if most of the time it was just to me and practically an empty room.
Each week I got to sit in this seat and watch Pastor Stephen deliver not only the words
that we needed to hear to get us through the week, but the promises of God that reminded us of who we are,
despite the challenges and the disappointments that we face this year.
And I believe that these short excerpts from four of his sermons
will serve to remind you of some of what God spoke to you
and what God did in your life.
So can we go into 2021 with a little dose of hindsight?
That's what we're calling this message today.
Hindsight 2020.
Go ahead and put that in the chat,
Wherever you're worshiping with us from,
we are going to look back and see the favor of God
was there all along.
God's presence goes before us.
He goes before us to prepare the way when we go through trials.
And you can see the hand of God doing just that.
When we look back at the sermon my husband preached
called Make Room for the New on March 8th.
Now talk about being prophetic.
We had no idea that this,
That would be the last weekend that we would all be gathered together in church.
And just a week later, a state of emergency would shut down most of the country.
It's pretty remarkable, first of all, to just remember what it was like when this room was packed full of people.
But also to think about how none of us knew how much we would actually need this message,
not only then, but even more so when everything in our world seemed to.
change overnight. In my notes, I wrote down, time under tension is the formula for growth.
And I had no idea how much tension would arise in the coming months. And this message was preparing
us for what was to come.
See, we talk about making room for the new. You want to go have a yard sale or something like that
or put everything on. It's not about closet space. It's not a closet space. It's not a
about clearing out your closet. It's about the transformation of your mind. Do you have room
for the new in your mind? Because they didn't. Peter didn't. When God showed Peter what he was
about to do, like this is the way it always is. When God shows us something, we compare it to our
previous point of reference. And then we start consulting our resources and God wants to bring us new
relationships. But watch this. If you're not ready for new people in your life, you will bring
the same patterns to the new relationships that you brought to the old relationships.
And we literally keep people out of our lives that God wants to sin because we are holding on
to the hurts from the one who have already left. I feel the spirit of God breaking barriers as I
preach right now. Because you're like, what does this message you have to do to me? I'm not getting
on an airplane and going to preach to somebody in Cesarea like Peter did? You don't have to.
All you have to do is dare to believe that God is making room for the new in your life right now.
And even sometimes when it was painful for me and I thought I was losing things in my life,
I wasn't losing it. God was moving it. Who is this for?
I just need to know, probably about 20 people.
You didn't lose it.
God moved it.
He said you will still be eating last year's harvest when you have to move it out.
Somebody shout, move it out, God.
Anything that is in the way of me being who I need to be in this season.
Get it out of my heart, get it out of my mind, get it out of my habits.
You can have it, God.
I don't want it.
I want what you've got.
So you can't receive new miracles with old mindsets.
Make room for the new.
It looks like this.
Emptying yourself, humbling yourself, and asking God, what do you want to do in my Joppa?
Or you can run from it and resist it.
And you can keep remembering when the kids were so cute, they are 43 now.
They stopped being cute quite a while ago.
And the church was trying to figure out how do we protect what we loved while we embrace what
is new?
I don't know.
I think there are at least three lessons in this text.
Y'all got a minute?
Make room for the new.
Number one, God says this, don't limit yourself by labels.
The first thing God told Peter, he said, you've got your nice little neat categories, because
When the sheet came down, Peter saw all kinds of animals.
And y'all need to know, in this culture, they respected visions.
This was not like Peter's hallucination, or you know how some people now are so weird,
and they're like, well, the Lord showed me a vision of us walking on the beach.
It's like, bro, you need to ask her out and stop trying to embed it in this weird spirituality.
So Peter actually saw something, but remember, there's sometimes a tension between what you thought.
God showed you.
It's a tension.
And that tension is a real gift because that's where growth happens.
It's like, God, I thought I was going to be married to her the rest of my life, but I'm
not.
We're not married now.
And that's painful.
But what you do with it becomes your Joppa, which determines do you run from God's purpose
for your future or do you run toward it?
That's Joppa.
And the word God gave me was, don't limit it with a label.
The first thing he told Peter, he said, Peter said in verse 6, Acts 11, I looked into it and saw
four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds. And then after he saw the
pigs in a blanket, he said, I try to keep you all awake. Then I heard a voice telling me,
get up, Peter, kill and eat. Now, when I read that, I said, God was trying to get Peter to
go hunting? No. It wasn't about the animals. He was about to sin Cornelius, who Peter saw as an
unclean gentile. So he was using this. It wasn't about bacon. It was about barriers, mental
barriers. So when he said, get up Peter, kill and eat, it wasn't that God wanted Peter to kill a pig.
It was that he was trying to kill Peter's categories. In this season of your life,
God is trying to kill your categories. He's going to use people you did not even like to grow you up in
tour you. There was one person the other day that shared a Bible verse with one of my kids,
and they left our church years ago. They didn't even like me when they left. But when they gave
a Bible verse to my kids, I said, God, I don't care who hands them the scriptures. I'll take a
cold cup of water in the pit of hell from anybody. I don't care who hands it to them. Use who you
want to use, God. Do what you want to do. Kill my categories. As a matter of fact, when we say
all things work together for the good, what we mean when we
quote Romans 828 out of context because Romans 828 is connected and conjoined incidentally to
Romans 829 which says according to his purpose. So what it means by good is it's going to
fulfill his purpose. Not my preference. Y'all can shout right now. What it means is I can't
categorize. That's God's job. It is God's job to know what's best for me. It is God's job
to know what needs to happen. It is God's job to know what experiences I need to get.
So God said, stop limiting it by labels. Labels. Labels can apply to a group of people. He said,
look what the Lord said when he said, arise Peter, kill and eat. Peter says, surely not,
Lord, nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth. Now watch what God said in verse 9.
Those are your categories, not mine. The voice spoke from heaven a second time saying,
do not call anything impure that God has made clean.
Stop limiting God with your labels.
Prophetic, right? I mean, who knew that we needed to hear make room for the new?
And making room for the new sounds exciting until it actually comes time to let go and make space.
And many of us didn't get to choose what we were going to let go of.
This year took so much from us.
And what I think everyone under the sound of my voice today can understand is how tiring that process is and was when we didn't know how long we would be stuck in our homes or stuck without a job or stuck trying to work at home and teach our children.
And just as we were starting to feel exhausted with our situation, Pastor Stephen came in and preached a message that resonated so powerfully with what everyone was feeling.
but also a message that brought so much hope,
reminding us that the Savior we worship has been in that same spot.
He told us that trials may make you weary,
but that doesn't mean that God's not in it or that you are weak.
How do we know?
Because Jesus got tired too.
I wrote this in my notes.
We serve a God who is powerful enough
to give us strength, but was also human enough to feel tired.
I think you're going to be really encouraged as we revisit this portion of tired on the inside.
What do I tell the person who is too tired to go on?
What do I tell the one who says, I'm too tired?
God said, tell him, I got tired too.
Jesus sat down in Samaria.
That's where to talk.
to a woman, that's who. Ask him for water. That's what. But why? Because he was tired.
Because he was fully God, fully man. As much as we love to shout about His divinity, you know
how we were a minute ago when I was setting you up about the great I am just to bring you
back down so you could know that the same God who created you, who was strong enough, who
was powerful enough. Everybody thinks Jesus was weak. Raise your hand. Maybe. Maybe being
weary doesn't mean you're weak. Jesus. Why was he tired? I didn't say who was he tired of. We already know
was Peter. Come on, Peter's fighting you at every turn, cussing and stuff in front of the press,
having to bleep Peter out. I know he was tired of the Pharisees. He couldn't wash his hands
or not wash his hands. They followed him to every bathroom, every dinner. I know he was tired
of them, but it says he was tired from the journey. Thinking about Jesus' journey, you know.
They walked everywhere.
No Uber.
No Uber Jesus.
Uber Christ.
Uber Savior.
Three-day walk from where they were baptizing.
Through Samaria.
Straight through was the shortcut, by the way.
The direct route is sometimes the divine route.
Instead of hiding the fact that you're tired, you just say, God, I'm tired.
Somebody was yawning during my sermon one time, and I just got mad about it.
I said, how are you tired?
You're not doing anything.
But I found out later they worked a night shift and came straight to church.
It's kind of hard to understand someone if you only see them at one part of their journey.
And some people that we think are weak, maybe are weary.
Have you thought about that?
That just because you're weary, it doesn't make you weak.
How do you know that?
Jesus, I am the light of the world.
I am the bread of life.
I am the resurrection. I am the door. I am the shepherd. I am the true vine. I am the way at some point six hours after they left that morning at noon. He said something we wouldn't expect to hear the Savior say, I am tired. This is the incarnation. I worship a God who is powerful enough to give me strength and who is human enough to get tired.
And for some reason, this week, I felt that some of us needed to meet tired, Jesus.
I thought maybe you could relate to him, because his journey didn't really start with
just leaving that morning.
I mean, that's enough.
Six hours that day.
Six hours in one day.
I mean, I got a six-hour drive coming up with my kids, and I'm downloading every episode
of the office on all of their phones, just hoping we can make it six hours, still be saved,
be married, still be healed, delivered, blessed in one happy family.
And that's a drive.
Six hours.
Because you leave at six, it's noon, it's hot, it's the heat of the day.
Of course he's tired.
And yet I wondered, was it only physical?
Or did he go through Samaria because he was tired of the way they were treating each other?
Why was he tired?
Why did he come?
To abolish the barriers, full of grace and truth, and we beheld his glory.
His journey didn't start in Bethlehem.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh.
That's a long trip.
From the Sapphire Seal of Heaven to the dusty Straits of Samaria, of course he was tired.
Even youth will grow weary and stumble.
But those who wait on the Lord, I'm waiting on God right now.
I'm waiting. Somebody say, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, and I'm weary, and I'm not going to lie to you,
I'm weary. I mean, this is getting old. And some of y'all want to cuss right now. Don't do it
in the chat. They'll block you. But even in your mind, you're like, I'm sick of this. I am sick
of this. I mean, that's not an I am statement we read in the Bible, but that's what you're
saying right now in your heart. I am sick of this. I am sick and tired. I am tired of fighting battles.
The thing about me, some people say when they get tired, they start laughing.
Not me.
When I get tired, I get mean.
How many of you, when you get tired?
That's why when you had to pull me out of the elevator in Australia, and I was about to fight that guy after I preached, I mean, I had just finished giving the invitation, too.
If you're here today, the Lord says, come.
And that dude said something sideways to me, and my uncle taught me to hit him with your elbow, if you can get close enough.
And I was cocking the elbow, and Chunks pulled me back.
He said, you've been, I was jet-lagged.
I had preached 23 times in four days.
They were preaching me to death at Hillsong, Church.
I'm preaching, preaching, I'm preaching, preaching, tired.
And Chunks put me, I said, come on, you're too tired now.
Because when you get too tired, you start fighting battles that don't matter to distract you from the ones that do.
That's just me.
I start fighting everybody.
I start fighting people that are trying to help me when I'm tired.
So Jesus said y'all go get lunch.
I'm sitting here for a minute.
Because the ones y'all have been fighting against are the ones I came to save.
He had to go through Samaria.
He had to sit down.
There was a woman coming who needed him.
She didn't even know it.
She had no idea who he was.
He sat down because he was tired.
I mean, you don't have to do anything right now. Just sit down and receive this word, that the Son of God got tired.
The Son of God got tired. I know you're Superman, and you're mad at yourself because you can't always get it perfect.
Perfection got tired. Faith doesn't prevent fatigue. Just gives me a place to sit.
One of the things that I've realized when I'm tired and my emotions are just getting the best of me
is that I'll tend to start thinking that I am stuck and things are always going to be this way,
that everything that I had planned or the schedule that I had for my life,
well, now everything is just permanently derailed.
And while everyone's schedule did get thrown out the window in 2020,
that doesn't mean that God ever got off of his schedule.
In this next message that I want to share with you, unscheduleable blessings, my husband reminded us that you can't schedule the presence of God.
If God wants to reset your schedule, will you let him?
If God wants to move, he's like, hey, I know all your other friends are over here doing this, that, and the other, but I got something different for you.
God said, can we reschedule?
I know you had all this stuff that you were going to do this year.
Can we reschedule?
I almost hear the Lord saying, let me make it up to you.
I almost hear the Lord saying, I'm going to do exceeding abundantly above what you had on your schedule.
I almost hear the Lord saying, let me get you ready for what I have scheduled.
See, to really trust God, we can sing about that and quote about that, but to trust in the Lord with all your heart,
means that you have to move with him. You have to move with him. And life has come along this year
and interrupted your rhythm. I know it. It sucks. I'm not saying you have to like it. But what are you
going to do with it? He didn't promise you a schedule. He promised you a spirit. See, that's better.
That's better. That's better. Because his spirit will give me the ability to step out if I need to step out or to
stay put if I need to stay put. So this is for you if you feel behind schedule. I should have
more money in the bank by now. I should know more of the Bible by now. It does not matter what your
schedule was. It matters what God spoke about you before you were born. Do you get it now?
You can be 75. And 11 years into waiting, Abraham tried to have a baby with Hagar.
Because he got tired of waiting for the schedule.
I'm glad that the disciples waited for the Spirit.
And whatever you're waiting for today, I just needed to make it clear as clear as I can.
I can't make it as clear as I saw it.
I never be able to do that.
But I just saw God say, stop trying to schedule me.
build your schedule, but realize that some of the best things that I'm going to do in your life
are not going to be on your schedule. Can anybody testify that one of the greatest blessings
God gave you? The greatest blessings are unschedulable. And if you are so stuck on what you
thought this stage of life or what you thought this day would be like, I'm telling you, you are
going to miss the gift. Wait for the gift. I'm waiting for the gift. If that's your
word, you can put it in the chat or you can just put it on a post. I'm waiting for the gift.
I'm waiting for the gift. And I'm looking for the gift and I'm looking for the call. And I can't
schedule God's presence. I can't schedule God's presence and say, you should have done this then
and you should have done that there and you need to give me details then. I'm sorry, you're not going
to get all the details. God will tell you what to build, but he will not tell you when to move it.
He wants you to depend on him. This is the most anointed
word I've preached all year, because God is resetting our schedules. And what we are calling
interruptions are really invitations. Praise him for it. Praise him for him. Jesus said to Jairus,
don't be afraid. Just believe. When he got to the house, the little girl was dead to the other
people. She was sleeping to Jesus because he has his own schedule. Heaven has a schedule. Heaven has a purpose.
Heaven has a blueprint. Heaven has a process. Have you submitted your schedule to the Lord?
Just to say, Lord, I want to reschedule. I thought you were going to do this, but let's reschedule, Lord.
I thought you were going to heal Lazarus, but, hey, if you want to raise him from the dead, let's go to the tomb. Let's reschedule.
I'll roll the stone. Yeah, I've been disappointed. I've been depressed. I've been stressed out.
but less reschedule. I've been confused, but I've been trying to control the timing.
You've been calling me to trust you. So I received power. Lift your hands. I receive power.
I receive power. I receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on me. And I'm going to be a witness.
Wherever I go. Father, I thank you in this moment for the unschedulable, unscheduleable. God help me say it.
when you make up a word, you mess up your prayer. The unschedulable blessings that are coming to your people.
All over the world, the unschedulable blessings, the testimonies that are coming, because you are an
unscheduleable God. You give a hundred-year-old man a baby. You can bless us behind schedule.
At the same time, you can be interrupted by a woman with the issue of blood. You can bless us ahead of schedule.
You can do anything because you're God.
You can prepare a table in the presence of our enemies.
You don't even have to get rid of the problem to bless us.
You're unschedulable.
It's not for us to know the time.
We can't control anything.
We can't even control our kids' little league schedule.
We certainly can't control how things unfold in our life, so we're just going to be just going to
wait, not because we're lazy, just because we know you love us. Some of the best stuff that God
will do in your life will not be on your schedule. I wrote that exact line down. Some of the best
things God will do in your life will not be on your schedule. You cannot schedule God's
presence. It's so comforting when we realize that God is committed to bringing about his purpose
in our lives on his schedule. When we think we're falling behind, God is often ready to do his
greatest work. I so needed to be reminded of this because not only does he not move
according to our timetable, but ultimately, I think the main lesson that we have learned is in order
to make room for the new in our lives. We have to expect that God is going to actually do
something new in your life. And when he does, we have to remember that that doesn't always look
the way it's always looked. It never looks the way that you expected or comes when you thought
it would come, but it might mean that there is a deposit or a gift in you that you never knew
you had. Pastor Steven spent a lot of time in the fall exploring the theme of asking better questions
and how this year hopefully, finally got us to the place of no longer telling God our plans,
but perhaps asking him what his purposes are for.
for us and what did he put inside of us to do? What deposit has he made in us to use for his kingdom?
And it's my prayer that this kind of faith will be how we start this year, 2021, asking the right
questions based on faith, not fear, based on who lives inside of us, not what we think we have
or don't have. Here's something that I wrote down from the sermon, did I ask.
coming back. When they came to him, they received. When you ask, you activate. How does Pastor Stephen
manage to encourage me and chastise me in the same sermon? I love this clip. And it also happens to feature
another one of my favorite people making a special appearance. So check this out.
If you knew what was in you, you wouldn't kill yourself. If you knew what was in you, if you knew what was in you,
You wouldn't let pornography strangle the creative life out of you.
If you knew what was in you, you wouldn't hide yourself behind false personas.
If you knew everywhere the enemy has planted condemnation in your life, I want you to replace
it with a question.
That's the devil's language condemnation.
That's the devil.
That's not how God talks.
God, the wisdom that comes from above whispers within.
Like he said to Elijah in the cave, ask questions up close.
He knows you like that.
If you knew, you would ask.
Wait a minute, I thought if you don't know you asked.
If you knew who was in you, you stop listening to everything around you so much.
Who told you that you were naked?
Who told you that you were nothing?
Who told you it wasn't enough?
If you knew who you were talking to when you talked to yourself, thank you for the ministry
of the Holy Spirit.
I don't think I've ever felt you more than I feel you right now and I thank you because
I need you.
I need you.
Somebody needs you on the other and through their tears they see now that the answer is not
standing outside of them.
The living water is within and the bread is right here.
So Jesus is in Moses.
Jesus is in Moses.
God's not going to do it like he used to do it.
But if you ask, he'll show you what he's doing right now.
in this moment.
Speaking of Moses, remember when God came to him and said, I want to use you?
He had to set a whole nation free.
We don't have that responsibility, but God's speaking to us too.
He's calling us too.
Moses asked a question, who shall I say, sent me?
God said, I am.
You are what?
That's the question.
You get to spend the rest of your life finding out the answer.
I am.
You're going to find out all the question.
that he is through the things you go through. But Moses said something to the Lord in Exodus 410.
And I show you this before I close because the Lord gave it to me like an image, like an image, like an image.
He said, if you knew what was in you, if you knew what was in you, you would ask for strict, you would ask.
I'm in you. I'm in you. You got to get it in you. You got to get it in you.
Moses said, after a whole series of excuses, you know, God asked him a question.
He said, what's that in your hand?
Is that in your hand?
Moses simply had a staff, but that wasn't all it was.
It was an instrument to part waters, to turn rivers to blood.
It was an instrument.
It was an instrument.
What's in your hand?
It's coming from the five.
It's coming from the five.
It's coming from the five.
What's in your hand?
Did you ask?
Did you ask?
Or do you just assume it's not enough?
Did you ask?
We get in trouble when we answer,
when we answer instead of asking so.
God said, I chose you, Moses.
And in Exodus 410, this is the picture the Lord gave me.
And the Lord must really want somebody to get this message,
because it's so heavy on me, I can barely move.
I can barely move. But Moses said, pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, not enough.
Neither in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant. I'm slow speech and tongue now.
Everybody has something like that. They could say why you can't make it and why there's not enough and why eight months' wages wouldn't be enough.
Everybody has an inner philip, and the inner philip will jump to conclusions based on the evidence that you can see with your eyes.
But watch what the Lord said in verse 11. The Lord said, did I ask?
Who gave human beings their mouth?
Did I ask?
Who makes them deaf from you?
Did I ask?
You keep telling me what you're not, but I didn't ask you that.
You keep telling me what you can.
But I didn't ask you that.
So don't say I'm just single.
Don't say I'm just young.
Don't say I'm too old.
Did I ask?
I am.
Is it not?
Come here, boy.
Come here, come here, come here, come here, come here, come here, come here.
I need $260.
I need $260.
I need $260.
I need $260.
Aha, aha.
You didn't think you had it.
But right up before I came to preach, I handed him my wallet, and I didn't tell him why.
I said, just hold this for me until I'm done.
And I'm about to be done.
Because when I get to the end of my message, I'm going to put something in my boy.
And when I ask you for it, the fact that I ask is the proof that you have it.
You have it in you.
What's in that wallet?
What's in that wallet?
I need 260.
But I will never ask you to forget with.
And if you run out of that, it's too.
So good to look back and to remember the messages that God has spoken over us this year.
I actually remember being on the front row and seeing my husband give Elijah his wallet and wondering,
why is he giving Elijah his wallet?
And then I totally forgot about it.
And I was just as surprised as you were at the end.
I just, I love moments like that.
And as I close, I just want to remind you that every day.
you need to accomplish what God is calling you to do in 2021. It's already inside of you.
Everything you need for everything you're called to do and nothing more. The fact that he asks is the
proof that you have it. What a beautiful reminder. I want to encourage you to spend a few moments
reflecting on the presence of God in your life over the past year. I find that when I take the time
to look back. I can see the hand of God in every triumph, in every disappointment, in every
setback, and in every unexpected blessing. When I take the time to see, I can trace the favor of God
on my life every step of the way. And I know you would agree with that. In the morning, in the evening,
in your coming, in your going, He is with you, before you, behind you, beside you, beside you,
all around you, he was with you in 2020, and he goes before you in 2021.
Thank you, everyone, for joining me as we took a look back at the amazing messages that God
has spoken to our hungry souls. Remember, all of these messages and more are available in their
full format on the Elevation Church YouTube and the Elevation Church podcast for you to listen to
over and over again, and for you to share with a friend that you,
you think might need to hear these messages too. And so I just want to close in prayer. Thank you for
joining us today. God, we thank you that your presence has been with us all along. We thank you
for giving our pastor the exact words that we needed to hear each week in 2020. They were truly
bred for our souls. And Lord, we look forward to 2021, not because it will be perfect or free
from pain or disappointment, but because a new year means new opportunities for growth.
And God, we want to grow in our knowledge of you and in our relationship with you,
and we want to know you more each day. Thank you, God, that you are with us each and every step
of the way, that we don't have to be afraid because you are with us, and we are never, ever alone.
God, we thank you for the ministry of Elevation Church and what it means to each and every one of us.
We love you, Lord.
It's in Jesus' name we pray.
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.
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Thanks again for listening.
God bless you.
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