Elevation with Steven Furtick - Living In Denial

Episode Date: May 28, 2018

Worship Pastor Wade Joye teaches us that, when you learn to let go, God can give you something even better. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://ele.vc/TI55jRSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Enjoy the message. A lot of times when I'm up here, I'm welcoming the guest who's going to preach. But today I guess I'm welcoming myself, because I have the incredible honor of being able to preach and bring God's word to you to the guest. day. I'm so grateful that Pastor Stephen would trust me to preach, and I'm really excited about this word because God has been working it in my heart over the last several weeks. He's been preaching it to me so that I can have something to bring to y'all. And I'm going to stay in the flow of our Savage Jesus series. Haven't you love Savage Jesus? In case you're new, we've been looking at the life

of Jesus through the book of Mark. And I think one of the reasons this series is resonating so powerfully with me and with our church is really just an overflow of our pastor's heart. Because I've been here for 11 years, and I can say in every single season, he has always fought to keep our focus as a church on the main thing, which will always and forever be Jesus. And it's not just what he preaches on the platform. It's in the decisions he makes behind the scenes. It's in the way that he's kind of savage and how he loves and encourages and blesses people that you'll never hear about in a sermon. So I just want to thank God for a pastor. He keeps us centered on the heart of God. which is to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm so excited about what God's going to do today. You guys can have a seat. Now, this is a significant weekend for me, not just because I get the honor of preaching,

but anyone who knows me knows that I'm pretty excited that there's a new Star Wars movie out this weekend. If you're watching this later, Solo came out this weekend, and I am just a full-fledged, unashamed geek. I love anything that has to do with a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. And it's not just me. I've converted my kids. So you can see our favorite post-dinner, lightsaber fight.

That's kind of what we do to bond as a family. But, you know, my kids even have a Star Wars YouTube channel called the ThreePOs. I was pretty impressed with that name, Three Kids, Three Pos. My wife came up with it. But I'm also a 42-year-old man who may or may not collect Star Wars comics. but that's okay. But I'm just a casual collector. I don't hold a candle compared to some serious collectors out there. And my friend who's on staff, Ryan Monette, he is a legit Star Wars, just anything sci-fi collector. You go to his house and you feel like you're walking into a sci-fi museum. You've got

life-size real costumes and replicas. And let me show you how much better he is as a collector than me. So this is the prize of my collection. This was my R2D2 when I was five years. years old. And I still have it. Actually, one night it just randomly turned on in my room as a kid and just felt it. It freaked me out, but still kept it. But I love this thing. This is like the pinnacle of my collection. Let me show you the highlight of Ryan's collection. I want to introduce that to you really quick. In case you missed this, R2 is on the stage at Valentine. I'm living out every childhood dream. My eight-year-old self would be going nuts. right now. It took Ryan

four years to build this. First of all, I never realized Artu is this big. I feel even kind of short standing next to him. Thanks, Artie. It took four years to build this because you had to get parts from certain parts of the country and they're only available at certain

times of the year. There's this whole R2 Builders Club. And how many of you think that the best way Ryan could honor his worship pastor after preaching all week and be to let me take this home? You want to start up So Artie, is there anything you'd like to say to the people? Oh, really? What was your favorite sermon in Savage Jesus? Oh, this is significant. I like that one too. Would you like to preach today instead of me? That's how I feel too, buddy. All right, you need to go because I'll play with Art2

the whole time. I won't preach. So go that way. Give it up for R2. So that is what a true collector will build. And, you know, sometimes collections get out of hand. And maybe some of you think think four years to build that is out of hand. I don't. I fully endorse that and support that. But if you've ever seen hoarders, you know what I mean? Have you ever seen that show? There's some ridiculous, like gross stuff on that show. But what you can see sometimes is that someone starts out with an innocent collection, maybe a doll collection. That's something good that you love or a book collection. And I've seen a show where this woman was trapped in her house by the 50,000 dolls that she collected, this tiny house surrounded by dolls, couldn't even move, couldn't

function are this one man who had 500,000 books. And they're overwhelmed by their collection. And they can't even live their life anymore. And the crazy thing is, they're living in denial. They don't even see that they have a problem. It takes somebody else to come and show them that this collection isn't helping you anymore. It's hurting you. So collections can get out of hand. And Jesus in Mark 8 talks about a collection that can get out of hand. And maybe something more important that we should collect instead. So this is our passage that we're going to focus on today. It's in Mark chapter 8, verses 34 through 37. So let's look at this now. It says, then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up

their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul, or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? So I want to talk to you today about living in denial. Living in denial. Turn to your neighbor and ask them, are you in denial? So here we have Jesus talking. I'd be real curious to know they answer to some of that. Here we have Jesus talking about a collection, gaining the whole world and it's meaningless. You lose your soul. Instead, taking up something far more valuable, which is collecting taking up a cross. And so for me, I grew up in church. My granddad was a pastor. My dad was the

music minister. My mom played the organ. My aunt and uncle, they worked with the youth. So I was always around these nice little Christian cliches. I heard all these things in youth group and sermon, and they would sound great on a bumper sticker. Like, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. Sounds cute, right? Can we just admit that no one lives like that? No one. I. I don't know. I. I mean, maybe you do. Maybe you're way more holy than I am. But I'm trying to imagine how the disciples must have felt when they heard Jesus say, take up your cross, because for them, a cross was not something you wore on a necklace. A cross was where someone was brutally murdered and executed.

And the disciples had to be freaking out, because honestly, for them up into this point, things have been pretty good in Galilee. I mean, the crowds were growing. They were seeing miracles. Yeah, there was a little controversy here, and they were. but all of a sudden Jesus is talking about taking up a cross and dying, and not just him taking up a cross, telling them to take up a cross. And so I'm imagining them kind of murmuring to each other, like, wait a second, do we have to die too? It wasn't what they wanted to hear. And what they wouldn't realize until much later is that Mark 8, this is the point where everything changes.

Because like I said, up into that point, they'd have been in Galilee doing ministry there, doing miracles, feeding the 5,000. And this is the point where Jesus turns and faces Jerusalem, and the rest of the book of Mark is the last week of his life in Jerusalem as he goes to take up his cross. And so, like I said, when I was younger, that sounded nice. Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me. And I thought, you know, I've got this whole denying sin thing down. Like, I feel pretty good. I'm in church every time the doors are open, but I kind of have to be because my granddad's the pastor

and my parents work there. But that's cool. That should work in my favor. And yeah, I watch MTV every now and then, even though my parents tell me not to when they're out of the room. And if I'm getting really crazy, I'll watch The Simpsons. But, you know, that's okay. And maybe I think about Kelly Kapowski a little too much after watching Say by the Bell. But I've repented of all this at youth camp, so I'm good. I'm good.

But then I got older, and I started to be confronted with the depth of my sin. And I started to realize that there was a lot of jealousy in my heart when someone got something. that I thought I deserved. And I realized I was pretty selfish in my relationships. And I wasn't ever really content. I always wanted more. And I began to feel really discouraged and defeated because I was like, well, I gave my life to Christ. I said I was going to commit my life to following Jesus. But how do I deny this sin because it's always right there before me? And I feel defeated all the time like I could never live for God because I don't know how to deny my sin. And maybe you feel the same way. Maybe right now you just hear the voice of accusation all around you saying you're a liar,

you're an addict, you're an adulter, you're a cheat, you're insecure, you're hearing just the voice of your sin right in front of you and you feel like it's impossible to deny your sin and you don't know what it means to live for Christ. Would that be in the case? God showed me something in this passage this week that has helped me so much. And I've been praying all week that would help you in the same way. Because I've read this passage for years, for my whole life, I've read it wrong. I've never noticed this until this week. And I want us to look at it again. Let's read it one more time. Then he called the crowd to him, along with his disciples, and said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

whoever loses their life from me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone gain in exchange for their soul? Did you notice what's missing in that passage? The word sin. The word sin is nowhere in that passage because Jesus wasn't talking about sin. This whole time I thought it was about denying my sin. Jesus never said deny your sin. He said deny yourself. But what about my? my sin. I mean, that's still a pretty big deal. Yeah, it is a big deal. And that's the whole reason Jesus, when he said this, was about to head to Jerusalem to deal with your sin once and for all on his cross. On his cross, he was going to deal with your sin. On his cross, he was going to deal with

your shame. On his cross, he was going to deal with your condemnation once and for all. We receive his grace because of his cross. But the thing that has just been blowing my mind all week is that Jesus never told us to take up his cross. He said take up yours. You can't take up his cross. It's too big of a weight to bear. And the good news is you don't have to. He took up his cross, dealt with your sin once and for all. It is finished. You do not have to atone for your sin. You do not have to make yourself righteous. He made you righteous on his cross. And you can't deal with your sin on your cross. Your cross has nothing to do with sin. We deal with self on our cross. And if our cross has nothing to do with sin, maybe it means that there are some things that we've

never thought of as sin, maybe even some good things that we're holding onto that God wants us to let go of, that God wants us to deny in order to follow him. Because this, I believe, is the word of the Lord for our church this weekend. If you're a follower of Christ, your sin has been made right because of the cross of Jesus Christ. But your refusal to deny yourself will cause you to miss out on the power of God in your life. We cannot experience the fullness of life in Jesus Christ if we do not deny ourselves. And his cross was done once and for all. But we take up our cross daily every single day. we have to learn what it means to take up our cross and deny ourselves.

In fact, in the book of Luke, when Luke is talking about this same passage, he says you have to take up your cross daily. This is a daily dying to self. When I've been asking myself all week and God has been showing me that there are some good things that I need to let go of, and maybe there are some good things that you need to let go of as well in order to embrace the power of God in your life. I know some of you are thinking, well, okay, so I have to feel bad about my sense. and now I have to feel bad about the good things too. That's not the point at all, but Jesus is saying

that when you take up your cross, you're taking up his way of life. And his way of life, he promises peace, he promises joy, he promises fulfillment, but it does require letting go. So a couple weeks ago, I have my little Saturday routine with my kids before I get ready for church. And Ferris, my wife, she took Sydney, our youngest daughter, It's a dance class. And so I was upstairs. I have twin girls that are nine. And I was upstairs and I was playing video games with them,

which is what any good dad would do when left alone with the kids. And so I'm playing video games. And I feel guilty after a while. I'm like, well, we need to go downstairs and go outside. It's a nice day and do something productive. And so I'm about to go down the stairs. And here's one thing you need to know about me. I am addicted to soda.

Pepsi, Coke, whatever it is, I love it. A little bit too much. So like nine, ten sodas a day. I know, it's bad. Don't judge me. But this is my healthy option. This is Zivia. And so this is what makes me feel a little bit better about drinking all that.

And so I always have one of these in my hand. And so we had this long flight of wooden stairs at our house. Zivia is in my hand. And I get three stairs from the top. My feet slip out from under me. It's like time stands still in this moment. And the first thought, I kid you not. The first thing I think of is, oh no, I don't want to spill my zevia.

First thought. Second thought is, wow, that stare hurts my head, really, really bad. My head slams against the stairs, my back slams, and then I hit every single stair on the way down. I mean, think of the worst scene in a movie you've ever seen of someone falling down the stairs. I can't even get words out. It hurts so much. It's just like, uh, is the sound I made. In my mind, I'm thinking, this is how I end.

This is the worst way to go, most embarrassing way to go. I slam on the bottom of the floor in the fetal position, and I hear Adeline Leona just come to the top of the stairs and the rail, and they just look down and I kind of like compare up at him. Like, Daddy, are you okay? Once again, I can't, like, vocalize words. I'm just like, ah. You would think my beloved daughters who love me,

who are compassionate, who are kind, would come and run to the aid of their loving father. That is not what happened. They were so scared and thought that I was dying that instead of coming to help me, they ran to their room, screamed and slammed the door and just left me there all by myself. For like five minutes, I'm there all by myself. And then once I can finally move, and then I start getting mad at them for running away, forgetting that I'm the dad that they're not supposed to take care of me, they come down the stairs to check on me, and I'm just like, well, just clean up the zivia. And so they clean up the zivia,

and then we have a nice chat about what to do if mommy or daddy actually was hurt. But here's what I realized after the fact, if I just let go of the zivia and grabbed the handrail, I could have just saved myself a lot of pain, a lot of embarrassment right now. And I was driving later that day, and I was wondering,

are there any things in my life that I'm holding on to that are going to hurt me if I don't let go. And in your life, are there any things that you're holding on to? Any zivia is that you're just refusing to let go of. And God is saying, if you just let go of this, not only will it save you from getting hurt, but I actually have something better. And so today, I want to talk about three things

that don't fall in the category of sin, and maybe some are even good things, that God may be calling us to let go of. can't preach everything about what it means to deny yourself in 20 minutes. But I think these are things that we can make decisions on every single day. And I think God will bless us if we learn how to have a posture of letting go. And the first thing is this, let go approving yourself right. Let go approving yourself right. Now, I do marriage counseling sometimes. And one of the things I try to tell the husbands right away. This is Marriage 101, Fundamentals of Marriage. There are four words,

four words that you have to avoid at all costs. No matter how right you think you are, no matter how vindicated you would feel in saying them, no matter how justified you think your case is, don't say these four words. I have never said these four words because I'm not that foolish and my wife would never do anything wrong. But fellas, tell me if you feel me on this. I told you so. It's not worth it. Don't do not do it. Not even if you're putting the rowing machine on Craigslist that your wife begged for for Christmas. And you said, honey, you don't need a rowing machine. You're perfect. And she said, no, I'm going to use it every single day. I want to get in shape. And I'm going to use it every day. And you're like, well, okay, I'll go ahead and buy it for you. And then she uses it twice. And we use it as a coat rack in the closet after that. And you're putting it on Craigslist, which is exactly what you said would happen. I would never say I told you so. If that had that never happened in the Joy household. That's just a hypothetical, hypothetical situation. But we love to be proven right. And sometimes it's silly like that. Sometimes it's more serious. I listen to a podcast sometimes on potential wrongful convictions. And I can't imagine how infuriating it would be

to be on trial for something that you did not do and to be convicted for that. But that's exactly what Jesus was walking into in Mark chapter 8. He was going to Jerusalem where within days he would go from celebrated Messiah to accuse blasphemer, where the son of God was going to be treated like a common criminal, and he didn't fight back. He could have said one word and a host, a legion of angels, could have come down and proven his credentials. But instead, he was mostly silent at his trial. He didn't fight back. Jesus didn't try to prove he was right with his words. He simply did the right thing. And it's got me thinking about all the times I've sabotaged my relationships, not by what I did wrong, but by trying to prove that I was right. Refusing to humble myself. And I believe taking up

our cross in relationships means laying down our needs and taking up the needs. And taking up the needs of others, because that is the heart of Jesus. And we see that in Philippians too. Let's look at this. It says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, had the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. So have you been wronged? So is Jesus. Have you been betrayed? Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest friends. Have you been misunderstood? That is part of following Christ. Jesus was misunderstood the whole time he was in Jerusalem. And this isn't permission to be walked all over, but this is a call to value the relationship over the argument. I think the most powerful cross you can take up in any relationship is the cross of forgiveness. That means that instead of reminding your wife with the 57 other time she did this wrong thing,

it means loving her and serving her, not reminding her of her past failures, but reminding her of her potential. It means maybe instead of focusing on how she needs to change, focusing on how you need to change, this is the part where all the women are supposed to give me an amen. But no matter how much you feel like your hurt is justified, God is calling us to take up this cross of forgiveness. And it's not always when we're wronged, but it's when we're misunderstood as well. And I wish I'd learned this in high school that following Jesus means you're going to be misunderstood. You're going to be criticized.

And it means trusting God that he will prove that his way is right in his time. And he is the one who will make things right. And I love how my friend Nico here at Ballantan, how he lives this out. He's one of our production volunteers, 18 years old. He's been serving since he was 15. There he is right there, action pose. But he just centers his life around serving. So he's serving every weekend, every Christmas, every Easter, inside elevation,

the live recording served at Stacks. He's going to serve at YouthX. And now as an 18-year-old, he's actually training volunteers as a youth. But he used to do these camping trips with his friends. And they were pretty regular. but when he got more involved in church and felt God calling him to serve the needs of others through his gift, he started saying he couldn't do some of those trips

and his friends didn't get it. And then sometimes on Saturday nights he'd say, hey, I have to leave from this because I get up early for church in the morning. I said, well, just skip church. He's like, no, I can't skip church. I love church. This is what God is calling me to do. And he was constantly misunderstood.

And when I asked Nico about it, this is what he said. I said, when I tell them why church is so important, sometimes they don't understand. It doesn't really matter. I know what God has called me to do. That's an 18-year-old who has his priorities straight and realize that because he is taking up the needs of others, the youth that he wants to reach, it might mean letting go of the opinions of other people.

And it might mean letting go of some of the things that he wanted to do. And I believe when we learn to let go of other people's opinions, when we learn to let go of offense, and we learn to let go of being misunderstood, that's when we're the most like Jesus. And that's when God wants to use it. So that's the first thing. Let go of proving yourself right. Now let go of living in the past. Let go of living in the past. So this one hits close to home for me. So Jesus says follow, which implies moving forward, looking forward. But you've probably also noticed a lot in scripture talks about looking back and remembering. I mean, Psalm 9-1 says, I'll give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. So looking back,

can build your faith. I mean, I preached about a year ago about how God healed my daughters and healed my family, so I look back on that a lot to build my faith. But sometimes Paul messes me up when I look at Philippians 3, and it says, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. So what is it? Am I supposed to forget them? I'm supposed to remember, and I get confused, but I think Mark 8 helps put some of it in perspective, because Jesus was calling the disciples to look ahead towards Jerusalem. But there's a cross waiting in Jerusalem. That doesn't look very appealing. Looking back at Galilee looks pretty nice. That's where the miracles are. That's where the crowds are. I could imagine them wanting to look that way instead of looking forward to Jerusalem.

Now, looking back at this can inspire your faith to move forward, but that's not the direction you need to continue to look. And I realize in my life, sometimes I'm so focused on looking back at the good all days that I miss what God wants to do right. here and right now. I imagine there's some parents out here that you're constantly looking back at the days when your kids would run up to you and greet you at the door. Your five-year-old would come and be like, mommy, daddy, you're home. And there's nothing like that. And now you have teenagers. And the greeting is not the same way anymore. And you wish things were like they used to be. But you're missing out in the last two years you have with your teenager when they

actually need you the most. And you're missing the work that God wants you to do now because you're constantly looking back. And here is what I'm learning, that a momentary glance can be motivating, but a constant gaze can be paralyzing. A momentary glance can be motivating, but a constant gaze can be paralyzing. So here is how I've learned this in my life. About two years ago, I felt the Lord call me to let go of something that I love. loved. I had done it for over two decades, and I felt a sense of calling when I did it. I felt so much joy. I was passionate about it, and I defined myself by this for so long, and that was leading worship. For over 20 years, I was a worship leader. And the fact that I got to be a worship leader

at Elevation Church, the greatest church in the world, was just amazing for me, and God used me, and it was great. But over the years, I began to sense the stirring in my heart that one day God was going to call me to let go of that. Because he was bringing. just anointed people to the team and talented people to the team and people that were honestly better than me. And he was showing me that my best use of my gift was going to be able to empower them and to push them forward so that they can reach more people. And I wish I could tell you that I was like, that's awesome. Not so much. I was like, okay, that's great, but I could still lead worship, right? And I kind of thought that. And then about two years ago, I felt God saying, no,

like, this is what I want you to do. And so I just kind of eased into it and I stopped scheduling myself. at campuses. Like I said, I wish I could say that all this peace just flooded my soul. But instead, I began to see a lot of junk in my heart that I didn't realize was there. All this pride, all this ego, the fact that I wanted people to know who I was, I'm just being real. And I remember the first time that I was at a campus. And I wasn't known as Wade, the worship leader. Somebody said, hey, are you here for the first time? I was like, oh, that stinks. little bit. And what I began to realize was that God wanted me to let go of that wasn't just about ushering me into a new season of ministry. It was about wanting to give me a new heart and a new perspective,

because for too long I defined myself by what I did. And God wanted me to realize that he didn't love me based on what I did. He loved me based on the fact that I was his child and based on the cross of Jesus Christ. And so over the course of several months, God began to work that out in me. And now I can say not just because it sounds great in a sermon, but I'm more fulfilled in ministry than I've ever been before. And it's because I let go of something I thought I could never live without. God, when he calls us to let go, he wants to move us in to a new perspective, a new season, and sometimes a new understanding of ourselves. Sometimes you're not bound by past success, though. You're bound by past pain. And you're afraid to trust because of how someone's hurt you. You're afraid to get involved in church,

of a bad church experience in your past. And God's word for you today is that your destiny is not locked up in your past. Your destiny is ahead of you. It's in your future. So keep trusting, keep moving, keep walking forward. God will honor that. And finally, he wants us to let go of living, let go of the need for certainty. Let go of the need for certainty.

So one of the things that I try to do with my daughters, I don't do this all the time or regularly, but I try to do daddy dates. and I'll take them on a date to, like, get donuts or ice cream because I'm trying to teach them to eat clean. And I was taking one of my daughters Adley on this date, and she's like our type A, Enneagram 3 daughter, always wants to make a plan. One time she ran into our room at like 6 in the morning. We were going on a trip, and she was like, Mommy, Daddy, who's going to take care of the dogs? And I didn't have the heart to tell her that that was the first time Mommy or Daddy had thought about the dogs. So, Adi sometimes keeps things together in our house.

But I do this thing sometimes called Ask Me Anything Time, because I want them to get comfortable talking to me about anything. And usually it's who's your favorite Avenger. But this time she said, Daddy, in our devotional the other night, it said that we shouldn't like trust in our plans, but I'm a planner. So does that make me bad? And I was like, oh gosh, this is like a real life parenting moment right here. Please don't let me screw this up. And I said, Adley, being a planner is great. Like, look through the Bible and it talks about how we're supposed to.

supposed to make plans. And that's a beautiful part of how God made you. He's going to use it. I make plans a lot with my job planning for the weekend, and we do that at church. And so God's going to use your plans, but we just can't hold too tightly to our plans, because sometimes God has a better plan. And I'm thinking about the disciples. Hearing Jesus say, we're going to Jerusalem, and they're like, well, I thought if we were going to Jerusalem, it's because you were going to be king and you were going to deliver us, but you're going to Jerusalem. But you're going to Jerusalem because of a cross, that wasn't part of their plan, but it was always part of God's. And they were so comfortable in Galilee that I imagine they didn't want to risk all of that

for a cross. And are we so comfortable where we're at sometimes that we don't want to make the everyday risks that God is calling us to make? And that's where God truly moves in our life. It's not the big risk all the time, sometimes at those daily risks to get a uncomfortable. So you may know you need to volunteer at church. And you love technology and you've thought about production, but what if I'm not good enough and you never go to the tent? You talk yourself out of it. Or maybe you have this idea for your company and it's going to increase revenue and it's going to make things more efficient, but you think your boss is going to laugh at you so you never actually make the presentation or the pitching. We just settle for status quo because status quo

is safe and we're afraid of the uncertainty on the other side of a what if. But let me tell you, God always moves on the other side of a what if. He always moves on the other side of obedience. He always moves on the other side of faith. And anytime we take the step of faith and uncertainty to let something go, God always gives us something greater. Every time, anytime we surrender something good, God always gives us something better. I've seen it in my life and we see it in the life of Jesus here. Jesus, if he had stayed in Galilee, could have done more good things. He could have healed more lepers. He could have fed more people. He could have cast out more demons. He could have rioted injustice. He could have continued collecting those miracles in Galilee. But he let that go so he could

go to Jerusalem, knowing he'd be persecuted, knowing he'd be misunderstood, knowing he'd be falsely accused, and knowing that he would ultimately die because his father had sent him to collect something greater, something even better. And we find that in John, John, chapter 14 says truly i tell you whoever believes in me will do the works i have been doing and they will do even greater things than these because i am going to the father so jesus laid down the works he could have continued to do on this earth to do an even greater work through you and that is what see what god can do through you is all about it's about taking up the heart taking up the purpose of God and knowing that God wants to do a greater work, a greater miracle through you. So when we live in

denial, you're not losing. You're gaining. When you're living in denial, this is actually how we truly live because God has something better, something more fulfilling. He actually wants to place in your hand. So when we were talking about Nico earlier, Nico said, yeah, I had to give up some time with my friends. Yeah, I had to give up some camping trips. But when I saw all these guys in my e-group, actually give their life to Christ and know that they were at Stack when I was serving at Stack and they were there on the weekend when I was serving there and they were there on Easter when I was serving.

And I know I had some part to play in them giving their life to Christ, that is far greater than any camping trip. He was not losing, he was gaining. Then you've got my man Chris down here. And Chris right here, this will be the third year, the outreach coordinator here at Ballantyne. This will be the third week. You've taken a week of vacation

to help serve for Lovelig. Is that right? Yes, sir. And so Chris was telling me that he did that. He knew he could be spending time with his family, but he wanted to set an example to his family that this is what it means to follow God, and that is to serve people. So Chris, you're losing a week of vacation,

but you're gaining a legacy for your family. You're gaining a legacy for your son. So once again, when we open our hearts and our hands to God, he gives us something better. Elena at Lake Norman, she's part of our welcome team there, and at the end of the year for the waymaker, end of the year offering season, she felt called to embrace a life of generosity,

to open her hands to God and get herself uncomfortable and to begin to give. And she also began to pray for her sister Debbie, who didn't know the Lord. So as she began to prioritize her faith, she began to pray for her sister Debbie. Debbie ended up coming to church, gave her life to Christ. And last month, Debbie was baptized at Lake Norman.

anytime anytime we open our hands to God he fills it with something far greater than anything we ever let go of and I believe that is God's heart to you today to go from this position because God won't bless this position to this position

and this position is a position in a posture that the Lord will always bless. So I just want to invite you to stand at every location and I want you to hold your hands out like this. Let's close our eyes together. I believe there's something that I've been sharing God's word today

that God has put on your heart that he is calling you to let go of. That he's calling me to let go of. Hebrews 12 says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run the race marked out for us towards Jesus. So maybe there is some things.

sin that you need to confess and you need to repent of and you need to lay at the feet of Jesus. But maybe there are some good things that are no longer right for you in this season. Maybe there's some attitudes, some mindsets that are slowing you down and holding you back from the fullness of life that God has for you. And today, as a church family, we want to let that go. So in a moment after I pray, we're going to sing to come to the altar. And at every location, we're going to have ministry teams and prayer volunteers at the front. If you want to come down and just ask somebody to pray for you to have the strength to let go,

whatever it is that you need to let go of, we have some people that would love to pray with you. But I believe all of us in our hearts can ask God to show us what that is, because taking up your cross is an active thing. There's something that God is actually calling us to release and then to take up. So God, right now, we come to you with open hands and open hearts, thanking you for the fact that your plans for us are perfect and they're far greater than anything we could plan ourselves. So we surrender to your ways, we surrender to your will, and we trust your heart in this place.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I hope you enjoyed the podcast today. If you did, there are just a couple things I'd love for you to do. Number one, subscribe to our show. That way, the most recent episode will always be in your feed waiting for you ready when you are. And secondly, if this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue to reach others, you can click the link in the description, and you can give now. And I'll see you next time on the Elevation Podcast.

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