Elevation with Steven Furtick - It Was A Good Fight (Larry Brey)

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

Don’t let your past bury your provision. In “It Was A Good Fight,” Elevation Church’s Associate Pastor, Larry Brey, teaches us the importance of keeping our past from influencing how we see Jesus or ourselves. 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 Timothy 4, verse 7 Acts 20, verses 22-24 Acts 14, verses 8-15, 19-20 Acts 7, verses 51-59 Acts 8, verse 1 Acts 1, verse 9 1 Timothy 1, verses 15-16, 18 1 Timothy 6, verse 12 Acts 16, verse 1 1 Timothy 4, verse 12 2 Timothy 2, verses 1-6See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. You didn't just buy a ticket. You set something in motion just by being here tonight. Some of you bought somebody else a ticket tonight, and it's going to change their life to know that God loves them and has not forsaken them, and he is for you and not against you. Hey, my name's Larry Bribe, whatever calls me, LB, one of the pastors here at Elevation,

and I get the joy of opening up God's Word with you, today here at Elevation Church. So welcome all of our locations, online family. My wife and I were one of the original families that helped start this church over 16 years ago. And it's been the biggest joy of our life to see what God has done through this ministry. And I just wanted to show you just a little bit, just a visual. It's really good to look back and remember God's faithfulness. Because in a moment, you're like, well, God, what are you going to do? Just look back. What he did in your past is probably what he's going to do in your future. He's been good to you. And we have so many new people here at elevation.

And I just want to give you just a glimpse of maybe some of things that you might know about that God established in the past. So here at Ballanty, I'm going to get everybody on the floor to help me. Everybody else stays standing. All the locations stay standing. But everybody on the floor here, just take a seat. Elevation began with eight families selling their homes and quitting their jobs back in 2005. My wife and I were one of those original eight families. Just to give you a point of reference, have the front row stand up here.

Stand up. And then one, two, three, four, five, six, you six stand up. So right there. So February, tap them on the shoulder. There you go. February 2005, this is the size of Elevation Church. Do not despise the day of small beginnings. Look how good our God is.

A year later, a year later, February 2006, February 5th, we'd have our very first worship experience at Elevation Church. Center section. It's 120 people. Stand up. Just the center section right here. Now, we had 1201 that day. so JJ, I need you to stand up as well. This was our very first church service at Elevation Church.

Look what God did. 121 people. So when I tell you we had 16 people, now we've got 20 physical locations at Elevation Church. Isn't that crazy what God has done? When I show you that 121 that first Sunday, now every weekend we have 149 different countries logging in to watch one of our worship services.

Isn't that amazing? Now, take the wide shot Valentine. Everybody stand up on the floor now. Take the wide shot. So everybody, what you see on the screens, this represents the number of people that have been baptized this year at Elevation Church. 1,567 people. Come on, why don't you praise God for that?

That's amazing. Look at He's done. 16 years, baby. God's been very good to our ministry. but also we wouldn't be here today. We're not for our pastors. Pastor Stephen, Pastor Holly Ferdick. And I've been following Pastor Stephen for 20 years.

I figured it out. I've listened to about 2,500 different sermons or teachings or preachings over that 20 years from Pastor Stephen. And he is anointed. On the stage here, there's not a better preacher on the planet. He is a general in the Army of God, and he is speaking into this world. It's amazing.

But 20 years ago, when I was first getting to know him, when my brother passed away from cancer, he was the first one that called me. When I was getting ordained, he was the one that came alongside me, put his arm around and said, I see God's hand on your life. When my wife and I went through miscarriage, he was the first one that called and said, you're going to be okay. My dad passed away a couple years ago. Called me every day, just to check in on me. As good as a preacher as he is, he's an even better pastor. You're in a good house. you're in a good place. Would you help me thank Pastor Stephen

and Holly. We love you. We honor you. I'm going to give you one verse of scripture. Then I'll let you sit down. This is our verse for the day, and I pray that God we'd use it in a mighty way. 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7.

It says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And the title for today's sermon, it was a good fight. Look at your neighbor, put your dukes up, say it was a good fight. You could put some boxing gloves in the chat.

You guys can have a seat after you have threatened to hurt somebody with violence, thank you, worship team. I love a good fight. I'm a big MMA fan. You know, McGregor Diaz, I loved it one and two. I'm praying for a trilogy. I would love that.

My generation, the greatest boxing match of all time, is Holyfield, Evander Holyfield, and Mike Tyson won that two with the ear thing. That wasn't so good. The best fight my wife and I had, it was amazing. It was at our one-year anniversary. We'll celebrate 22 years this year. Yeah, my girl.

At our one-year anniversary, I made dinner. I had music on. I am trying to score up marital points for marital blessings. And at dinner, I said, baby, in a word, how would you describe our first year of marriage? She said, like flowers. It was like beautiful. and before I tell you what I said, please don't judge me. I was young. I didn't know what I was doing.

Janet said, well, how about you? How would you describe it in a word? I said hard. Like, she was all being married to me is hard. I'm like, yeah. No, no, no, that's not what I meant. That was a good fight. But when we read this text, I have fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. It's really important that you understand the context in which that's written. Whenever you study the word of God, always study it in context. It's one thing of a 16-year-old looks at you when you're in a really difficult season, and that 16-year-old looks at you and says, I know it's hard, but stand strong. You can do it. You're going to make it.

Okay. It's like my 16-year-old comes home and says, it was a really hard day at workday. I'm like, yeah, yeah, it was real hard. Now, when a 61-year-old looks at you, who's a military veteran who spent time in a prisoner of war camp, who's got all the scars, looks at you. And says, I know it's hard, but staying strong, you can do it. You're going to make it. It carries a little bit of weight there, doesn't it? So as we read these words out of Second Timothy, we need to understand the person who wrote it is a guy named Paul. Paul is a super apostle. He wrote 13 books of the New Testament. It's funny, in the New Testament, there's 27 books.

All the other people who wrote books in the New Testament, the names of the books are written by the person who wrote them. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, you know, first and second Peter. But Paul's, they're all identified by who'd receive them. Otherwise, we'd be reading 13th Paul today. He wrote that many books of the Bible. And when he writes this book of the Bible, you need to understand context is who wrote it, who'd they write it to? And then why did they write it? Paul writes this to Timothy as protege. He'd left in charge at Ephesus. Paul is in prison. In prison is actually an understatement. He's in a dungeon at this point. If you go to Rome, you could actually see the place that's a hole in the ground that's sunken down there. And it's a dungeon.

and it's where he's spent the last days of his life. So as he pens this letter to his protege, Timothy, he writes two books to him. First Timothy, second Timothy. Second to me is the last book he writes. And as he writes it and he writes these words, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.

I have kept the fake. He knows he's going to die. These are his last words and he writes his last letter to his favorite person. And if you and I were at the end of her life and we are coming to the last words we would speak, who would we speak them to? What would we tell them? There's something in the text

that speaks to us about the fight that you're facing today. Because Paul wasn't just admonishing Timothy. He's speaking to us in this moment today. And he's telling us it was a good fight. And Paul knew the difference between a good fight and a bad fight. As he writes the book of Philippians,

he writes that one in prison, but that's more like an Airbnb. It wasn't a dungeon. That was a really nice place to be in prison. He writes that one. People are talking trash about him. And they're saying, well, look at Paul. He's not anointed.

If he were, he wouldn't be in prison. But they're preaching the right gospel. Paul said, that's a bad fight. He said, false motives are not in the gospels preached. I rejoice. I ain't going to fight that fight. But chapter three of Philippians, there's some people that are Judaizers that are telling all the new Christians. Hey, yes, follow Jesus.

Plus also get circumcised. Paul comes unglued. He calls them those evil doers, those mutilators, those dogs. He says, that's a good fight. So we need to understand the difference we need a good fight and a bad fight. Because if you don't know how to differentiate, you fight everything.

And some of you are fighting everything and you're fighting battles that God has never told you to fight. So when he pens this letter to Timothy, he says these words in 2 Timothy 222, it's probably one of my favorite verses. Second Timothy 222, 2-2. He says, flee from the lustful desires of your youth.

some of you are fighting the battle by continuing to go to your phone and you're getting defeated every time and god is saying how about you just throw that thing away don't even fight that one stay away from that fight ain't even worth it then he says in verse 23 he says have nothing to do with foolish or stupid arguments for you know they lead to nothing but quarrels some of you that needs to be your screensaver some of you that needs to be put on your computer and the next time you want to go to facebook and you want to post that because you know you're waiting for a fight and you know you're about to get into an argument. May the word of God convict you. Bad fight. Say bad fight. Why would you keep fighting that one? So I love the way that Paul sets this up. But the fight he's talking about here isn't people.

It's the fight of faith. Because he says, I have kept the faith. And the word he uses there, fight, thought. It's in the original language. It says, agonizomai. It's not an the Italian restaurant. Agonizomi. There was a TV show in the 80s, the ABC wide world of sports. They would talk about the thrill of victory and the agony. That's where we get our word agony from. Paul is giving you a lesson from the battle he's facing that it's going to have agony

connected with it. And this wasn't just something Paul realized at the end of his life as he's sitting in a dungeon. It was something he knew what happened to him 30 years earlier when he started following Jesus. It wasn't, he got to the destination. Like, oh, I'm glad I kept the faith. He said, no, no, there's a race from the moment he came to a relationship in Jesus. And he said, this is the race. It is to testify. It is about faith in Jesus. That's the race. That's the fight. It's the fight of faith. In fact, in Acts chapter 20, Paul says this in verses 22 to 24. He says, and now compelled by the spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. The task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. You see, a good fight does not need a good result. Because what he says there is, I'm going to Jerusalem. I don't know what's going to happen to me there. It might be good. It might be bad. but he goes, I know what's going to happen. I'm going to face prison and hardships and persecution along the way. So when Paul writes to Timothy, he goes,

everybody who follows Jesus is going to suffer persecution. It's going to happen. See, a good fight is about the good news. Because he says there, the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. A good fight is always connected to the good news. It's not about a good outcome. But it begs us to ask the question, what is your faith in? Is it in the good news or is it in a good outcome?

Because when we start throwing around the word, I got faith. Really? Really? What's your faith in? I got faith that my Vikings are going to win the Super Bowl this year. I got faith my knee is going to feel better. And I got faith that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. Praise God, heaven.

And we cheapen the word faith by connecting it to inferior things. That's why I love Jesus. He says, if anyone would follow me, he says he will hate his father and mother. He's not saying you'll literally hate them. What he is saying, when you compare the love you have for me, it will make everything else look like hatred. May we make faith a top shelf issue? Would you become so legalistic in your own life that you would only let faith be connected to Jesus Christ? And the good news, not a good outcome.

Is my faith that God is with me in the middle of it, or is my faith that I'll eventually get out of it? See, a good fight is all about faith. What do you have faith in? Let me ask it to you this way. If you want to know what your faith is, look at what you're fighting for. If your faith is in your reputation, you'll always be fighting for how you look.

If your faith is in your career, you'll fight by cutting corners to get ahead. If your faith is in a political party, well, just that's not good. Don't do that one. But what I think Paul does, and I want to categorize, there's three fights,

I think that we can learn from the life of Paul that I want to give you today that are good fights. Say good fight. You're going to fight something in life. I want the Holy Spirit to give you discernment. Is this a good fight? And so the first fight is this, is how you see Jesus.

Here's the fight. How can you go through a bad situation and cling to the promise that God is a good God? How can you go through something bad and believe that he is still good? That's the fight of faith. And some of you would get the gold star in the sticker because you've been to Bible camp.

Like, oh, yay, Jesus. You know, but is he a historical? historical figure? Is he a fairy tale? Is he a fictional character? Is he a prophet? Is he a prince or is he a savior and lord? I don't know. That's for you to decide. How do you see Jesus? Here's the thing. We were created in his image. Imago Day. He made them male and female. He created us in his image, but will shape God into the image of who we think he should be. When you think about how you see God, does who God is shape the way you see the world? Or does your experience with the world shape how you see God? Because I'm talking about the lens. This is the lens of faith here.

Is Christ my lens that everything I see, I see it through that lens, or is this the world, then now I start to put it on and, well, God, I guess you're not good because this bad thing happened. That's the fate. That's the fight of faith that's happening right now in your life. It is very insidious. You don't even know what's happening because the word agonizomi wasn't. Paul talking about his bad knees. It was the agony. It was, but agonizamai also suggests an antagonist, an adversary, an accuser that wants to keep you from faith in God, because you really don't have Rocky unless you got Ivan Drago. You really don't have Rocky, the hero, unless you got somebody who's a villain. And in the opening act of humanity, the stage is set. Adam and Eve are in the

garden and the serpent steps into the scene. Question, can you tell when the serpent steps into the scene of your life? Are you aware when the advocate, the adversary, the accuser steps into the scene of your life? And this is the crazy part, because if you can't spot it, you're setting yourself up to follow his script. Why didn't Eve spot this serpent stepping into the scene? Well, because God created a bunch of snakes. And so if snake comes along, he's crafty. We often think that he's like, he's shown up with a pitchfork and horns. No, he doesn't show up like that. He doesn't come in, kicking things over. He comes in asking questions. And he's stepping into the scene of the story, and he's blending in with the background of everything else. So before we impugn the character of Eve,

we need to realize we're having conversation with snakes all the time. And he's crafty. He's blending in. Because the Bible says it, he's like a roaring lion. Roar! It's easy to spot if a lion rolls in. Sometimes the enemy, the accuser, hey, babe, hey. That's how sometimes they enter the scene of your life.

Sometimes it's just a DM that says, what you doing? Because they don't come in kicking stuff over, they come in asking questions. Because if you can't spot the devil stepping into your scene, there's a good chance you'll start operating according to his script. Because he steps in, and he asked a question, did God really say? All he's trying to do is to get a conversation going.

And what he's trying to do is to control the script. He's trying to control the narrative. Did God really say, oh, come on, Eve, you won't certainly die. It goes from asking a question to making a statement. You won't die. Then it goes down into making an indictment. All sin casts a shadow of doubt on the character of God. Because what the enemy is trying to do is to start at a subtle shade of doubt that just slowly gets you creeping into compromising your view of God. And then you eat the apple. Can you identify where the devil sneaking in and saying, did God really say? Oh, come on. She's nice.

Oh, it's not that bad. No one will ever know. Everybody else is doing it. And then when you do it, you dirty dog. You see, the script of the evil one? Can you identify where the devil has stepped into the scene? And he's tried to get you to operate according to his script. But what Eve failed to do, Jesus redeemed.

Because as he is out in the desert, 40 days of fasting, the evil one comes to him, he slithers into the scene. And he comes up to Jesus who is hungry. He says, hey, if you really got, turn those rocks into bread, because I know you're hungry. And Jesus says, it is written. Man does not live by bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then he tempts him again. If you really got, step off. And he goes, no, no, it is written. Don't put the Lord your God to the test. And it refuses him each time, not by having a conversation, but by speaking truth. That's the difference.

So when Paul writes to Timothy, he says this to him earlier in 2 Timothy. He says to me, He says, Timothy, how you have known the scriptures from infancy, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. He says to him, he says, all scripture is God breathed, profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training and righteousness. All scripture is God breathed. So when God wanted to make man, he took dirt and he, he breathed into it. When he wanted to make the word, he took it, and he breathed into it. And this is different than every other book you read. Every other book you read, this is the only book that reads you.

you because it's the living word of God. And he tells Timothy, Timothy, I need your life immersed in this because when persecution comes and the devil comes along, he's going to try to get you operating according to his script or you can operate according to the scriptures. So yes, it's easy to get the gold star. Say, yeah, I know who Jesus is. It is written. This persecution is relentless. It is the seas on the shore of your life. The reliance. attack of the evil one who's always beating against your boat trying to sink you. But you can anchor yourself in the word of God. Say, no, it is written. All scripture is God breathed, profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. And that's

what God wants to do today. Did God really say? Because when persecution comes, it's your faith that will sustain you. Because whatever your faith is in, that's what you'll be fighting for. And God will use persecution to refine your faith, or the animal will use that same persecution to get you to forfeit your faith. Persecution is not optional. The great pugilist and theologian Mike Tyson said, everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Fight number two is how Jesus sees you, how Jesus sees you. The first fight is how you see Jesus. Now the second one is how Jesus sees you. And I want to rewind a little bit to Paul, and I want to show you the first time he suffers persecution as he's following Jesus, because he had this radical encounter some 30 years

earlier. And I want to rewind to that, his first missionary trip in Acts chapter 14. And in Acts chapter 14, he's going on his very first missionary trip, and you're about to read about the very first miracle that ever happens through the ministry of Paul. There's a lot of first there. And some of you know what it's like to be first, first in your family to come to faith, or first to graduate. high school. It's always hard being first, isn't it? Because you come up against resistance. And some of us quit because the resistance was more than what we thought. And what I want to see you is Paul have a perseverance to push through because if he doesn't push through, he doesn't get to the end of the race. And I'm telling you, there's the race that God has marked out for you.

And he wants you to run it. But the adversary is trying to stop you from running that race. So Paul starts in his very first of four missionary trips. In Acts chapter 14, you can read about he goes to Antioch and he gets kicked out because they're preaching Jesus. and they don't like him. Then he go to Iconium, they kick him out there because he's preaching Jesus there. So he shows up in Acts 14, verse 8, says, in Leicester there said a man who was lame, who had been that way from birth and he had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul looked directly at him and saw that he had the faith to be healed. And he called out, stand up on your feet. At this, the man jumped up and he began to walk. That's that first miracle through Paul's ministry.

when the crowd saw that Paul, what Paul had done, they shouted in their the Liconian language, the gods have come down to us in human form. Barnabas, they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker, the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and rees in the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

You see, the people in Leicester had an image of what they thought God was. So when Paul and Barnumas show up, they look at them through their lens of who they think God is and they try to form the God into what their image of them was. So we do that all the time. It's so insidious. We do that, everything. God doesn't do that. People don't, who do they think they are.

We will always use our definition of what we think is right to conform everybody else into the image of it. We were created in his image, not to conform him into our image. And that's what they're trying to do in this point. So how does Paul respond to this? It is funny. He says, but when Paul and Barnabas heard this, heard this, they tore their clothes and they rushed out to the crowd shouting, friends, why are you doing this?

We two are only humans like you. We're bringing you good news. This whole fight that Paul has been running for 30 years before we get to 2nd, Timothy, is all about the good news. Everywhere he went, it was spreading the good news. news. A good fight is always connected to the good news. That was funny. This crowd flips really quickly on Paul. If you jumped down to verse 19, then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and they won the crowd over. Remember the towns he just came out of and they kicked him out?

They showed up on the scene, and they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city thinking he was dead. And that's not the modern recreational version of stoning. This is Old Testament version of stoning. this is where they drag him outside the city. And stoning in that point, it really served two purposes. They take them outside the city because you are stirring up and you're trying to create a God that's different than our God and we don't like that. We want to conform you to the image of what we think God's supposed to be. So they drag him outside the city.

And now they start grabbing rocks and they start throwing out at it. And the rocks are meant to kill him, but then it's also meant to bury him. There's two purposes in those rocks. You want to get them outside the city because you don't want to defile the city by having a dead body in the city. so you take him outside the city. And now they start throwing rocks at him. And imagine Paul getting hit by every one of these rocks. And I wonder if he had a thought, but God, I'm serving you. God, you told me that I'm going to spread the good news. Why is this happening to me? I'm a good person. Why is this all happening? And we all know what it's like to have things thrown at us that we feel like should never have been thrown.

And Paul, imagine the weight of the stones that are now starting to lay on top of him, on top of him, on top of him. on top of them. And I wonder if at any point the devil snuck onto the scene, said, hey, Paul, Paul gets a choice there. He gets his choice to say, how am I going to respond in this situation? That's the first time Paul is stoned in the scriptures. He would be beaten, he would be flawed, but that's the first time he faced major persecution. But it was not the first time he had an experience with stoning. Because it was not the first time we read of Paul in the scriptures. The first time we read Paul is in Acts chapter 7 and want to show you a glimpse of Paul's past because I think as the weight of the rocks is starting to accumulate on top of Paul, I think he has a flashback.

And he starts to make the connection between, wow, I'm being stoned, but I remember a point that I did this to somebody else. because the devil will always try to use your past to disqualify your future. And then Paul's having a flashback. So if we jump back to Acts chapter 7, you're going to get a scene of a man named Stephen. Because at this point, a couple of years earlier, Jesus had been crucified. He was killed. And the Jewish leaders thought, that's the end of this Christianity?

Yes, we win. You're dead. Let's move forward. but like a fire they tried to stomp it out and the embers started to spread other places. And now you've got little fires and little fires and little fires of faith that are burning inside the walls of Jerusalem. And you've got this man named Stephen that is filled with the spirit. And now he's going and he's performing miracles and signs and wonders. And the religious leaders are like, oh, I thought we ended this thing when we killed Jesus.

So pull Stephen in here too. Because we need to end this thing because, again, the Jewish leaders like the Likonian people, had an image of how they saw God. And if you don't fit my image, we will kill you. Because you, we will either conform you or we will break you. So Stephen gets hauled in. And in verse 8 of chapter 6 is where I want to start. I'm sorry, I apologize.

Chapter 7, verse 51, Paul was in front of the Jewish leaders, the same ones that had sentenced Jesus to death, the Sanhedron. And he's standing in front of them. filled with the spirit, and he's about to fight a fight. This is the good news. It's not going to have a good outcome because a good fight is connected to the good news, not a good outcome. And he says, you stiff-necked people, good way to start a conversation. Easy way to win him over. Just start with that one. Your hearts and your ears are still uncircumcised. You're just like your ancestors. You resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet? Your ancestors did not persecute. They even killed

the predicted, those who predicted the coming of the righteous one, that's Jesus. Now you have betrayed and murdered him. You have received the law that was given through the angels, but did not obey it. Verse 54, when the members of the Sanhedron heard this, they were furious. They gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing by the right hand of God. Look, he said, I've seen heaven open.

and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. At this, they covered their ears and started and yelled at the top of their voices, and they rushed at him, dragging him outside the city. We've seen this before, heavenly. Dragged him outside the city, and they began to stone him. Meanwhile, some of the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. So Paul that we just read about started as Saul. And now you have these people that are stoning Stephen that all take their coats.

and they take them over and they throw them at the feet of Saul. Two purposes in taking off the coat. Physically, I get a much better range of motion to throw a rock. It's a big, thick coat. It's a practical reason. I'm going to work up a lot of sweat here. I need to have better range of motion so I can throw this thing at maximum velocity.

If I don't throw it at maximum velocity, I'm not going to inflict maximum pain. So they leave their coats at the feet of Jesus and now they started to stone. Stephen, this man filled with the Holy Spirit, and picture Paul, Saul, standing there. Just watching this scene go down. And he's just watching it.

And now, fast forward to Paul underneath the weight of all the rocks. I wonder if he remembered that moment where he heard Stephen's voice, forgive them for they know not what they do. and I wonder if there's a moment between those things that Paul is like flashing back to go like when he's underneath the weight of his own sin because he was being persecuted in Acts 15. I wonder if he's over here going, I deserve it. I deserve it. I did it all. I persecuted all this people. But what's amazing in this story is Paul, the poster child for persecuting Christians would become the one, the primary voice to deliver Christianity to new people.

Paul would flip from Saul the persecutor to Paul the preacher. And he was in these moments going back and forth between these two, where he started to see something. But something stuck out to me as I was reading this. While they were stoning him, verse 59, Stephen prayed. And it says, and Saul approved of their killing of him. First chapter 8, verse 1 says, On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem.

and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. So what happened on that day is the gospel needed to go beyond the walls of Jerusalem. God had given a promise, Jesus had given a promise earlier in Acts 1-8. He says, when I leave, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will receive power. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. up until that point of Acts chapter 8 the first seven chapters of the book of Acts the Christians were content to keep the Christianity inside the walls of Jerusalem because the reality is most of us will keep it to ourselves unless something forces us to get it beyond ourselves and so God comes

along and he uses a great persecution and one famous theologian said persecution is the wind that God uses to scatter the seed so in Acts 8 1 it's a fulfillment of Acts 1 8 Acts 1 8 says you will receive power and you'll be my witnesses. For the first seven chapters, they kept inside the walls of Jerusalem. Acts 8.1, but now he takes it beyond the walls of Jerusalem. And he takes it to Dea and Samaria. And what I want to tell you, persecution always serves a purpose. Why did that thing happen to you?

Why did you end up in that other city? I don't know. But I know that God needed to get the good news to that place over there. What happened to Stephen was not good. but what God did with it was good. He works all things for the good of those who are called according to his purposes. That's what he does. He uses all things.

But when I think of Stephen being stoned, flash forward to Paul. Now, Paul is underneath the weight of the stones in Acts chapter 15. Have you ever been in a space where the weight of your shame almost collapsed you and almost killed you? Picture him underneath the weight of all these stones. Picture him lying there. and just this weight on him. And he's having these flashbacks that I cause Stephen to die. And I would cause many other Christians to die.

And I was the poster child for persecution. And I bet he's in that place of feeling like I deserve it. And I get it. And this is what I should deserve. And this is what you should have brought me, God. And I did it all. And Paul had this amazing ability to take it to the bottom of something. Have you ever been in a place where you felt like you forfeited everything because of your past?

He'd ever been in a place where the weight of something was so immense. You didn't feel like you could get back up? that's where Paul's at what gave him the ability to do this paul had this ability in first timothy and this is where he writes to timothy these two letters in first timothy paul had a realization of who he was in christ and he was able to take this thing to the bottom of it in first timothy 115 it says here is a trustworthy saying that the foot deserves full acceptance christ jesus came into the world to save sinners of which i am the worst but for this very reason i was shown mercy so that in me

me the worst of sinners Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Paul has this amazing ability to say, I'm not actually a good person. I'm the worst of them all. Because here's the power of what if. The devil will always get you to live in a place to cover something of because of what if. What if they knew about you what God knows about you? What if they were to find out that you did that? What if they were to find out that you actually said those things, did those things? And the fear of what it is paralyzing.

And I think in this story, I see Paul living underneath the weight of what if, what if? My favorite sermon from Pastor Stephen was 2012. He preached a sermon called Fear's Greatest Hits. And he said, you always have to take it to the bottom. Paul said, I'll take it to the bottom because I'm just the worst of all sinners. Now what you got, devil? Now what you got? Paul also would say this.

He would say, I will boast about my weaknesses. For in my weaknesses, he is made strong. Paul said, I'm just going to boast about it because the fear of what if is dissipated. I'm just going to bring it out here. Pastor preached a sermon, he said, take it to the bottom. It's three steps. First step is, what if? What if that happened?

What if the report came back and said it's cancer? What if you lose your job? step two that would that would be hard that would be horrible the third step this what he preached last week but god but god say but god what if that would but god but god but god when we started this ministry 16 years ago i would have such anxiety attacks backstage that i wouldn't i wouldn't want to walk out on stage and talk like this because the weight of the rocks of your past weigh you down to the point that you feel like you don't have a future. I didn't grow up around church. Sometimes you look at somebody in ministry, look at them. They got it all together. No, we don't. People say like, hey, everybody's got skeletons

in their closet. I got cemeteries in my closet. Like every. And so I didn't grow up around church. I grew up with a lot of alcohol and bad choices and all those things. And at five years old, I remember going to a wedding dance and pulling glasses off the top of the table and drinking them. And everybody thought, oh, it's really funny. Look at tipsy five-year-old. Oh, it made me connect alcohol and laughter in people's approval. Great. So it set a stage in life. And now I'm 11 having a keg party. I'd pay for college, one red solo cup at a time. I was really good at leading people a direction. But with that lifestyle comes all the choices that come with it. And there are times I'd wake up and I'd be like, I don't know where I'm at. I don't know how I got here. And I don't even know who's next to me.

And the anxiety I would have is what if? What if you knew about me what God knows about me? So the anxiety attack I would have backstage for the weight of all of the shame that was saying on top of me was what if one of those women from one of those nights is sitting on the third row. And I would stay backstage and I would have a panic attack. I was like, I can't even go out there.

Because what if? And Pastor Stephen preaches this sermon, Fear is greatest hits. What if? I guess I would go up and say, I'm sorry. Would you please forgive me? I've given my life to a man named Jesus, and I'd love to tell you about him. What if that would but God? What if that would but God? What if that would but God? What if that would but God? So at the end of the story, Acts chapter 14, verse 20, and this is the verse I want to give you, the story that's the pivot point in Paul's journey.

He's on this race to finish the faith. But now he gets persecuted for the very first And the linchpin in the story is verse 20. And this is the verse I want to speak over you. Because some of you are living buried underneath the weight of your past. Some of you are living in this place and you're like, God, I know you don't love me. I know you don't even see me. But Paul says in this moment, but for these things, God used me to show his grace. How does God see you in that moment?

He sees you. He loves you. He forgives you. And if he can use Paul, the one who's standing, giving approval for killing all of these Christians, he can use you. He could use you. Acts 14, verse 20. But after the disciples had gathered around him, remember, they left him for dead.

Remember, they said, you're dead, you're dead, you're dead. Verse 20, but after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and he went back. And that's the verse I want to speak over you today. Because there is a situation in your past that has left you buried. And what God is saying is to get up and go back. I need you to go back and get your blessing. I need you to go back and see how God sees you. you in that moment. Because Paul, I did it. How do you see me, God, in this moment? It's one thing

if somebody does something to me for me to say, yep, God still loves me. It's totally different for me when I do it myself and I know I did it. Now, God, how do you see me now? The first fight, how you see Jesus. The second fight, how Jesus sees you. And here's the challenge I want to give you, is to go back to that place where it's buried. Because the devil's script is, hey, just forget about it. It's over and done with. And every time that memory comes back, it haunts you. And the fear of what if, what if, what if?

And some of you are destroying your present because of the uncertainty of the past. And what I want to challenge you to do is to go back to this place and say, God, here's the fight. How did you see me? How did you, Paul, in the moment that you were giving approval, how did Jesus sees you? He says, I'm going to use that. What made me really good at leading keg parties makes me great as a pastor. Get up and go back.

Get up and go back. Get up and go back. It happened 30 years ago. Get up and go back. You got to go back and fight. This is the fight to say, I'm going to go back. It's just not fairy tales and unicorns saying, Jesus. Jesus loves me. Go back to the moment that you hope nobody sees and say, God, how did you see me in this

moment? Paul ends his first missionary trip. And he starts his second one in Acts chapter 16. What does he do? He goes back. Acts 16, when Paul came to Derby and then Leicester, where he met a disciple, where a disciple named Timothy lived. What's amazing about this, the place of Paul's greatest persecution would be the place of his greatest provision. His greatest resource would become the place, come out of the place of his greatest pain. I am telling you, there are blessings waiting for you. They're not all in the future. It is, you've got to go to your past, you've got to get up, and you've got to go back and get it.

Paul had to go back to Derby. He had to go back to Leicester. And when he rolls into the cities, the same people that had tried to stone him were all there. and how did he walk through? I don't know if he was hiding his head or he's like, what's up? Not what you got. But he got up and he went back and he found Timothy.

His greatest resource. The one he would write his last letter to, that guy. And so when he writes these letters to Timothy, he had left Timothy in charge of the church in Ephesus. Paul is going to go on and continue the missionary journey. And if you're Timothy, you've been following Paul for 15 years. You, at the time we see Paul take Timothy underneath his wing, he's about 16 years old. He's a teenager.

And he's been following Paul his whole life. And in First Timothy, he's, it's a letter that's all about fighting. And he writes First Timothy, he says, Timothy, my son, I'm giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you so that by recalling them, he may fight the battle well. So he starts First Timothy like, it's a fight. You've got to remember where you've been. You've got to remember what you come from. It's a fight.

then in 1 Timothy chapter 6 he writes this he says fight the good fight of faith chapter 6 is a fighting letter it is all about fighting what is the thing that timothy needs to fight it's the third fight it's how you see you that's the third fight how you see you without being sacrilegious it doesn't matter what god says unless you believe it unless you believe it the powers in the application what was timothy's struggle i think timothy's struggle was how he saw himself. One of the famous verses out of 1 Timothy is 1 Timothy 412. It says, every youth group, every youth ministry in the world has this as their mantra. He says, do not let anyone look down in you because you're young, but set an example in believers in speech. Don't let anyone look down on you

because you're young. Timothy is a grown man 32 years old with a beard. The problem was not his chronological age. It was his identity age. It was how he saw. He saw. He was a beard. Timothy age. It was how he saw. himself. How you see yourself determines what you become. What you believe is what you become. And some of you have such an inferior view of who God says you are. So when Paul writes Second Timothy, the last letter he's going to write, his most important words, his last words, and he's going to admonish his protege. His man he found 15 years earlier that he would follow and he'd leave in charge of the city in Ephesus. And he says, if I want to reach the city of Ephesus, I've got to reach how Timothy sees himself. If I want to reach the home, I need to reach the dad, because how the dad sees

himself, determine what's the home becomes. If I want to reach a people group, I need to reach the leader. And I'm speaking to every one of you. Because when you believe bad about yourself, you punish the people that are following you. Stop it. Stop it, Timothy. Quit thinking small of yourself. This is the battle how you see you. It's one thing, how you see Jesus. It's another thing how Jesus sees you, but how you see you matters. And Paul gives these final words in 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 1, chapter 2, verse 1. He says, you then my son, be strong that is the grace is in you in Christ Jesus. Seven times in 1st and 2nd Timothy, Paul would call him son, my true son, my spiritual son. He is validating the relationship before he ever gives him any instruction.

There's something for some of you. God has given you too much experience that you're wasting, and you're not being a Paul to another Timothy. I'm calling on those of you that got some experience out there to quit sitting on the sidelines and to start getting into the game and use the experiences of your life to bless a Timothy. Every one of you need a Timothy in your life. Now every one of you need a Paul in your life.

And when you got a Paul on this side and a Timothy on this side, you got somebody to help you get up and go back. It's hard for you to get up and go back by yourself. I need a Paul and I need a Timothy to help me get up and go back. You then may my son be strong. The grace that is in you in Christ Jesus.

And what Paul is going to give me in his next few verses is ways Timothy needs to see himself. Verse three, he says, join me with suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commending officer. Think of a soldier. So, Timothy, when you're going to lead the church in Ephesus and you're tempted to run from the battle lines, no, no, no. How you see yourself matters here, Timothy.

and if you see yourself as a kid, as a teenager, you'll always retreat. But if you see yourself as a soldier, you'll go towards the battle lines. That's what I need you to do, Timothy. You can't see yourself as small. You're not a kid anymore. See yourself as a soldier. How do you see yourself? Draw a picture and start labeling with the real words.

How you see yourself. No one's serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs. Verse five, he says, similarly, anyone serving or who competes as an athlete does not receive the very Victor's crown except by competing according to the rules. And what Paul is telling, Timothy, this is not a recreational league where everybody gets a participation trophy.

This is an athlete. I need to see yourself as elite, hardworking athlete. And the third analogy says, the hardworking farmer should be the first one to receive his share of the crops. He says, I need you to see yourself as a farmer. How do you see yourself? It's just a kid.

As a teenager, you're a grown man. You're leading your family. how you see you matters. I remember a couple years ago and I preached. I preached Saturday night. This was BC before COVID. And I get done preaching on the Saturday night. I go back to my green room.

And I'm getting messages from around the country saying that was a good sermon, but there's only one message I wanted from Pastor Stephen. It never came. I preach the Sunday morning, the 9.30. Can I be honest? I need to tell the full story. I go home Saturday night. I don't sleep the whole night because I stay up the whole night reworking my sermon. So he didn't text me, so it means he hated it. So I preached 930,

crickets, nothing. Preach 1130, nothing. By the time I got to the office Monday morning, I expect my key fob not to work because I've been fired. I'm like, I've been fired. And it was, it was so bad. In my head, I'm like, I'm such a failure. I am such an idiot. I am such a Dork. I'm never going to get this opportunity again. Finally, Pastor Stephen texts me on Wednesday. He says, thank you for giving me a gift no one else could have given me. A weekend off in more than a decade where I didn't have to preach or take care of a guest. And I just watch your sermon. You crush it. I'm proud of you. I'm like, oh, God. Okay. I am blank. It's called fill in the blank. I failed the silence test. I am blank. in that space I inserted my insecurity, my doubt, all of my past, and I put it into that space.

This is I am blank. What you put in that blank determines who you become. When I didn't get the message from pastor, I'm like, I am an idiot. I am horrible. No, no, no. I didn't know how to interpret the silence as approval. I didn't know how to interpret the silence as his greatest compliment to me. Who are you? I am blank. And the only reason I can say, I am forgiven is because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. The only way that that I can say I am whole is because of what Jesus did on the cross. And when Jesus was on the earth, he said, I am, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the bread of life.

I am the gate. I am the good shepherd. And so Jesus, as he comes to the earth, he establishes the greatest fight of all time. There was a gap between us and God. And the gap was so great, we could have never filled it in her own action and her own behavior. Once you stand your feet of all of our locations. And the fight was this. We were separated from God because of sin. And Jesus came to the earth. And he said, I will fight. I will fight for you. I will fight for your forgiveness. I will fight to make you whole.

And the three fights we identified today, how you see Jesus, who is he to you? Who is he? Is he just a historical figure? Is he your savior? And for some of you have never trusted him as your Lord and Savior. You've never been forgiven of your sins. You've never been made new. The race that's marked out before you that Paul talked about begins with Jesus Christ. It's about the good news. It's about following him as you go through life. People are always going to throw stones at you, trying to pile them on you to get you to die underneath that shame. Some of you need to get up and he need to go back.

Go back to that moment. Say, God, who did you say that I was? but right now in the stillness of this moment without anybody moving they need you to buy your heads and close your eyes and if you have never placed your faith in Jesus this is the moment that God has set aside for you. He didn't bring you here by mistake

or by accident. It's by a divine appointment because there's something that he needs you to hear in this moment. It's that you're forgiven, that you're his son, that you're his daughter, that he loves you. Even though you did that,

he's got a plan. for you. I need everybody saying this prayer out loud with me for the benefit of somebody who's about to begin this relationship with Jesus. I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God who died on the cross and rose from the grave to forgive me of my sin. I give you my life. I give you my sin. I give you my shame. Forgive me and I'll spend my life following you. With your head still bowed and your eyes still closed, if you just place your faith in Jesus or you're coming back to him, I'm going to count to three. When I get there, without hesitation, I want you to boldly shoot your hand into the air. One, two, three.

Shoot your hand up. Come on, all across our locations. Come on. There we go. Come on, shoot that hand up. 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 I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.