Elevation with Steven Furtick - Say Yes To Simple (Holly Furtick)

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

Sometimes, the answer is closer than we think. In “Say Yes To Simple,” Holly Furtick of Elevation Church reveals simple, practical ways to face our toughest situations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to everyone who's worshiping with us here today. As you take your seat, just say hello to the person sitting next to you. Maybe you came in late. You didn't get to speak to anyone. Let us know in the chat where you're joining us from. I'm so happy that you are here.

Here I am again. It feels like I was just on this stage. I know you love. me. But let's be honest, Stephen Ferdick sermons in January, there's something special. I don't know. There's something about January that just lights a fire in him. And I feel like God just has this direct connection from his mouth to my heart and even gets up here and reads a Charles Spurgeon sermon. And we're all, I'm like, I don't even, why am I getting up there? That was great. We can all go home. Just think of me preaching.

today like, we interrupt this program to bring you a special announcement. Because I do have a special announcement. I also have a word from God that I believe he's given me to speak to you today. So thank you for letting me interrupt. And I'm going to try, as always, to stay in the flow of what our pastor has been teaching us in the past few weeks. So first, though, the announcement. You might have seen it. We talked about it a little bit in the welcome, but today I am releasing a brand new study that I did just for our church. It's called Essentials.

It's for everybody. Did you know that we have over 1,500 different groups in our church community groups? We call them e-groups. And what God is doing in these communities is incredible. They gather together, even when we're not all coming together to do a study, to talk about the sermons and what God is teaching them. And I got to meet with all of our e-group leaders this past Thursday night, and we prayed over this study, and we prayed for you, and we are ready for you.

Because over the next several weeks, we are going to sync up as a church, and we're going to go back to the basics. I think a lot of times when people think of a Bible study, maybe they get a little bit of bit intimidated. They think about maybe learning something new, like studying the book of revelation to learn about the end times, or maybe studying the Gospels or a specific character in the Bible like Elijah. Now, this is not that kind of study. Those are really great things to study, but that's not what this is. This is a study that's going to call us back to the simple things. the basic practices of a believer in Christ.

Stephen preached a sermon about 10 years ago. I don't know how many, some of you probably weren't here. You can't even go find it online, but he preached this sermon about 10 years ago, and he said a line that impacted me. I never forgot it, and this is what he said. He said, deep is doing. And that line changed the way I thought about my relationship with Christ. The Bible is a book that calls us to action. And if we want to drop that trash and hold on to the truth like we've been learning, we have to do what the Bible says. Knowing about the Bible doesn't get you anywhere if you don't put it into practice. So this January, we are going to go back to the basics of our faith. We're going to look at what the Bible says about prayer and worship. and how to hear God's voice, and we're going to put what we learn into practice.

And we're going to be able to come together and talk about what God is teaching us in our groups, and it's going to be really great. I mean, how much better would our lives be if we actually just did the things that we already know that we're supposed to do? Right? We already know that eating vegetables and drinking water results in a healthy body. We know that limiting our time on screens, AIDS in our mental health. We know that being kind to others results in better relationships.

But we don't always do the things that we know, knowing and doing are two different things. And I just thought in a month where everyone is focusing on body goals and personal goals, I just wonder what are your spiritual goals. And so this is your invitation to join an e-group. And together we are going to put the Word of God into practice in our everyday lives, whether you've been a believer, your whole life or you're new to this whole Christianity thing. It's going to be amazing. So I'm not going to preach about the importance of community today.

I might mention it because I think I mentioned it in every sermon that I preach, because I believe in it. I think it's important. But I just want to give you this personal invitation. This is the last thing I'm going to say about the study. I want to invite you to join us over the next couple weeks. It's only six weeks long. And we have groups for everyone. Even if you don't live in the Charlotte area, you have no excuse because by now we're all experts at Zoom. And we have as many Zoom groups as we do in-person groups. All right? So that's my special announcement. You'll be hearing more about how to actually get into one of these groups at the close of our message.

Of my message, are you ready to get into the word? All right. Will you pray with me? Lord, we have all come to this place today. We've joined across all of our campuses and in our homes. And we invite you into this place. We invite you into our homes. And most of all, God, we invite you into our hearts today.

We need a fresh word from you. God, I know that there are our minds. many who are here today who are sick. There are many who are under the sound of my voice, who are grieving, many who need encouragement. And God, we have set aside this time to hear from you. Would you block out every distraction? And would you speak to us now? Holy Spirit, come. We want to hear from you. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. When I think about how Stephen has this special fire in January. It makes me think how there are basically two kinds of people in this world. Those who love January and those who hate it. And I'm not a fan. I don't like change. Abbie was

asking me, if you could take a month out of the year, which one would you take out? I think I would take out January. Because I don't like to get rid of stuff. I don't. I don't. I don't I don't like to think about how bad I've let my house get over the holidays. I don't like to think about how tight my pants have gotten over the past few weeks. And to me, that last week of December is kind of glorious, you know? It's like this time warp of eating and traveling and just being with people you love, being lazy. Those are just all things that I really enjoy.

And then January 1st rolls around, and everything that I've been ignoring for the past few weeks seems to just be calling my name, and it totally stresses me out. Everything just feels so complicated, and I feel overwhelmed, and I don't know where to start. Should I set a personal goal? Should I set fitness goals? Should I set goals for my kids? Should I clean out closets? Should I organize the house?

Should I make a photo book of the holiday? Should I plan healthier meals for the week? Should I journal and reflect over the past few years? And then the stubborn side of me says, well, I mean, everybody's going to start eating healthy now, so I'm not going to do that now. I don't want to be like, come on, you're a stubborn person out there? You're like, I'm not going to diet in January. And then I just feel paralyzed.

Is anyone else out there in January can overwhelm you? Let me know in the chat. And my husband, he's not raising his hand. It's because I'm married to a person who loves change, and he loves January. It's kind of frustrating. But one of the things that I have learned from him over the years is that sometimes, I actually remember this one January where he actually sat down and he helped me, and he was like, you know, don't make resolutions.

Like, let's do one thing you want to change for the next week. two weeks, three weeks. And what he's taught me is that sometimes the most complicated problems actually have a simple solution. Not necessarily easy, but simple. And instead of getting overwhelmed by all of the things that I need to work on, I need to start simple and go from there. Like, we all know that if we want to get out of debt, this very complicated problem, but every debt expert will tell you, Elijah, Dave Ramsey, will tell you, pay off the smallest debt first and go from there. Or if you want to clean out your garage, you start by making three piles, right? You have your keep pile, your giveaway pile, and your trash pile. So

I'm learning, rather than to be overwhelmed with all of the things, I'm learning to start simple. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. The title of my message is, say yes to simple. And I want to look at a little short story found in the book of Second Kings chapter five. It's a story about a man who had a very complicated problem. You can turn there with me or you can just follow along on the screens. Got mine pulled up. I'm going to read to you from the New Living Translation today. This is what 2nd King's chapter 5, verse 1 says, the king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman,

the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Na'am was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy. Here we have a mighty warrior on the outside, but underneath his armor, he was suffering. And in this story, we're going to watch Naaman walk through a progression of healing. Spoiler alert, he gets healed at the end.

But between verse 1 and verse 19, Naiman is going to learn that the greatest obstacle that he has to face is not his disease, It's not his bank account. It's not the people in his life. The greatest obstacle standing between Naiman and his healing was Naiman. Naman's disease was complicated, though. He had a skin condition that starts off small, but gradually, sometimes over the course of many years, it gets worse and worse. And leprosy in the Bible was often used as a generic term for skin disease, that in Israel, if you had a skin disease, you were.

considered unclean. Now, Naiman is not an Israelite, but his condition was serious. The Bible tells us that he was suffering. He could die from it. And it's also leprosy was contagious, or they thought most of the time that it was contagious. And so you had to keep it covered. Because if you exposed it, you'd have to go back and trace everyone that you were around and tell them that they had been exposed. which we all know is rather humiliating and complicated. Complications is also, it's a hospital term. It means that it's not just the disease that you're fighting.

It's infection from the disease or organ fatigue or mental stamina or the side effects from the treatments. And we can assume that Namit had tried all kinds of treatments and that he had come up empty and that he's suffering underneath his mighty armor. And I just wonder if there's a healing that you need, or maybe a problem that you have, or maybe a change that you would like to make in your life, but it just feels too complicated to fix. And you've tried. You've tried. You've tried to work on the relationship. But then you go to counseling, you start dredging up the past, and things seem to be getting worse, not better, no matter how hard you try. You've prayed about it, you've thought about it, you've journaled about it, you've even sought professional help.

But you, like Neiman, find yourself fighting this issue that seems to be getting worse. And I have to tell you that the enemy wants nothing more than for us to focus on the complications of our problems. He wants to keep us focused on whose fault it is, or what caused it, or if we deserved it, or what people will think, or how people will react, or why is this happening? But something amazing happens in this story, and God gives Naman something, because God gives name and something simple to do in the face of a very complicated situation. So today I'm going to call you back to Simple. And I want to walk you through this story and I want to show you three

simple things that Naiman had to do to experience healing in his life. And here's the thing, though, you can't confuse easy with simple. Easy and simple are not the same thing. In fact, Every time that Namon is going to take one of these simple steps, there is something easy that he could have done. But if he had gone with the easy way, he would have never received the healing that he needed. Let's look back at the story. I want to read verse one again so we can get in the flow. The king of Aram had great admiration for Naiman, the commander of his army, because through whom the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naiman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.

This guy had it all. He was the commander of the army. And even though he was not an Israelite, the Bible tells us that the Lord had given him great victories. Even the king admired him. He was the man. Do you have anyone in your life that from your person, perspective, it looks like they have the perfect life. Maybe someone you follow on Instagram, maybe a family member, neighbor, celebrity, they have a great body, a great marriage. They have

success in their job. They drive a nice car. And from the pictures that they post and the house that they live in and the clothes that they wear, they look like they have the ideal life. Can you think of a person in your mind that looks like that? Okay. The truth is, that no one is exempt from suffering. No one. You can't be good enough to avoid it. You can't be rich enough to buy your way out of it. You can't be smart enough to evade it. At some point, everyone suffers no matter how amazing they make their life look to you. Obviously, suffering comes in all shapes and sizes, right? It comes in short bursts and long hauls. It comes in the form of loneliness, addiction, illness, and hardship. It can be something beyond our control or something someone else

caused or something we caused ourselves by a series of bad decisions. But as I thought about this story and I thought about Neiman and how we all have some kind of hardship in our lives, it came to the conclusion that although we do all suffer, the people who I think suffer the most are the people who suffer alone. The people who pretend like everything is fine. Naiman suffered from leprosy. And the thing about leprosy is you can cover it up at least for a little while, especially if your job requires you to wear armor. When I read between the lines of this story, I wonder how long Neiman tried to pretend like he was the mighty warrior that everyone thought that he was.

And I think about how the world we're living in right now is scary, because it has never been easier to pretend like everything is okay. We don't just have Photoshop. We have live filters to cover up our wrinkles and our acne to give us better physique, to make our faces look flawless. We can post a picture of our clean house and our beautiful relationships and make our lives look amazing to everyone who's on the outside looking in. And this story is about Naiman's healing. But before he even gets to the prophet to get the instructions for his healing, he has to take a few simple steps. And the first thing that Naiman has to do is accept his situation. When we pretend we delay our healing and

prolong our suffering. We cannot move forward towards healing, towards the change that we need until we have accepted our situation. Except that's the first point, and it's complicated. But when we resist acceptance and we continue to pretend to everyone else and ourselves, we don't have to take any steps toward change. Even if you're supposed, suffering, even if you're suffering, is a situation that won't change. Your attitude towards it can. Acceptance means that I stop blaming others for my situation. Acceptance means that I stop shaming myself for the decisions that I've made. Acceptance means I stop asking whose fault this is, or why this is happening to me, acceptance is the starting place for true change, but you can't

stop there. Because if you stop with acceptance, you're going to become pretty depressed. Two weeks ago, Stephen stood on this stage with trash bags in his hands, with actual trash in the trash bags. And he painted for us an unforgettable picture of how we hold on to trash, and it makes us unable to embrace the truth. And I think sometimes acceptance means identifying what's in those trash bags. I'm bitter because of what happened to me. I'm addicted to scrolling because it makes me not have to think about my own pain. It numbs me. I work late because I don't want to face my failing marriage. And you know what's funny about pretending? You may be able to fool those on the outside looking into your life. You may even be able to fool yourself, but you cannot

fool those closest to you, because you smell like trash. You're holding it. The people that we think we're hiding our problems from, a lot of times, not always, but a lot of times the people who really care about us, they're already praying for us about it. You might think you're hiding your addiction from your spouse, but she knows something is not right with you. And she is already praying for you. And Naman's servant girl knew about Naman's problem. Look at what she said. Verse two. At this time, the Aramian raiders, I don't know why I just got stumbled up on that, had invaded the land of Israel. And among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naiman's wife as a maid. One day the girl said to her mistress, I wish my master would go see the

prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy. Naman was the winner of many hard battles, but the hardest battle that he would have to fight was the one within himself. When he accepted that he had an issue, then he was able to listen to the people in his life and decide to go for help. So the first step is acceptance. The next simple step that he had to take, he had to ask for help. Verse four. So Naman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said. Go and visit the prophet. it, the king told, the king of Aram told him, ask. The easy thing to do would be to isolate. Naman could have just stayed in his house and suffered alone. We know he was a wealthy man, so he'd most likely exhausted every avenue of local healing that he could find. And now he has to

ask for help. Now, before we go any further, I feel like I need to clarify that, that I said, ask for help. I did not say announce that you need help. Announcing is easy because it's vague and it gains us temporary attention and pity from others, but it does not bring us any closer to change. I also did not say hint that you need help. Hinting is easy because it puts the work on someone else. Asking is also not the same thing as complaining.

Asking is specific. Neiman didn't put it on Facebook. He went to his boss, the king. The person who respected him, I imagine it was a pretty hard conversation. And he said, I need to go see this prophet and see if I can get healed. You can either ask and receive help, or you can isolate and suffer alone.

And I can tell you right now that the enemy wants you to isolate. He wants you to withdraw from the people that you love and who want to help you. And if Naiman had isolated, he would have died alone. There's a verse in James 5 that says, confess your sins one to another and pray for each other that you may be healed. This verse doesn't mean that confessing your sins to a friend heals you of your sins. What it means is that you find healing when you verbalize what is going on in your life with someone that you can trust, not post, verbalize with an actual person. I just want to make sure that we're all clear on that. I feel like the pandemic has complicated what we call church. A lot of people now feel more comfortable watching church online.

than they do attending church in person. And there's many reasons for that. I mean, the obvious one is people are afraid of getting sick or if unintentionally spreading the virus, and that's valid. I get it. The problem I have with that is that some of those same people, it's confusing to me because it's complicated. Because for them using this as an excuse for not coming to church

or for not even, like, bothering to sit down and watch it, like, actually watch it, not just, like, have it on in the background. And then what's really confusing to me is that I see them at my kids' sports games and at the mall and at restaurants, and they come up to me and my husband. And like, okay, Pastor Stephen. It's really confusing for me. I'm not going to stay there for too long. I don't think that COVID is the only thing that has complicated church.

I ran into a church member a while back. And after having some small talk, I asked him, I said, how's your wife doing? And he looked down at the ground and he said, well, actually, we are divorced. And I hadn't seen him in like 18 months. And so I said, oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. And he went on to tell me how the past year had been the loneliest period of his life. And he said that Stephen's sermons were one of the only things that were keeping him going, that we're bringing life to him.

And I said, oh, I'm so glad that you've come back to church. And he said, oh, no, no, I just watch online in my apartment. And I said, oh, you've got to come back to church and be around people. And then he said one of the saddest things anybody has ever said to me. He said, the thing is, I'm just too ashamed. He said, I can't face people. He said, for years, we just pretended like everything was okay. We came to church together, and he said, we did everything we could.

We talked to our campus pastor. We went to counseling, but in the end, we just couldn't make it work. And in that moment, I didn't know what to say. And I tried my best to tell him he had to come back to church. I probably wasn't very convincing because I don't think very well on my feet. But now I've had several months to think about it. That's how I am. Anybody else, you walk away and you're like, I should have said this.

Here's what I should have said to him. Here's what I wish I had said. Pastor Stephen and I started this church so that people could have a place to find help and healing. Everyone comes with their own story, their own baggage, their own mistakes, their own secrets, and we hope that when you come into this place, you feel nothing but love and acceptance and support for whatever you're going through. We're all going through something. But we cannot give you that if you stay away. You do not have to suffer alone. You don't. Even if you're unable to attend one of our locations, we have chat hosts. We have people standing by ready

to pray with you. We have groups for you to be able to connect with actual human beings. But we cannot do that if you watch alone and you never let us know that you're here. That's why we say, put it in the chat, put it in the chat, let me know that you're here. Go ahead, put it in the chat. Tell us that you're here. Sometimes asking for help means talking to a trusted friend. Sometimes it means asking your campus pastor to help you find a professional counselor. Sometimes it means join a group and asking for prayer.

Sometimes it means coming back to church and looking people in the eyes. and none of those things are easy. Hiding and pretending is easy. Asking is simple. So Naiman takes his letter from the king, and he gathers up all these gifts, gold and silver and beautiful clothes, and he gets his entourage together,

and they travel down to the land of Israel. And look with me at verse 9. So Naiman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha's house. But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with his message. Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy. A simple direction, right?

But Neiman, our mighty warrior, you know, he's probably a very passionate person. You have to be if you're a mighty warrior. he was not happy with this direction. Look what happens. Verse 11. But Naiman became angry, and he stalked away. I thought he would certainly come out to meet me, he said. I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord His God and heal me. Aren't the rivers of Damascus and Abana and the Farpar better than any of the rivers in Israel? Israel, why should I wash in them and be healed? Why did it come all this way? So, Naiman turned and went away in a rage. Naiman is so angry because this is not how he thought his healing would come. They've been angry because it didn't turn out the way you thought?

Naman wanted attention. Naman wanted drama. And what he got was a simple instruction. Something, in fact, we're supposed to do every day. Wash. For some reason, it's a hard thing for certain people. It's a simple thing. Wash and be healed.

Naiman said, I thought. You know how many times those two words have gotten me into trouble? You see, I am a best-case scenario kind of person. And Stephen and I, we love to hike. Nothing big. We live in Charlotte, so there aren't exactly like peaks to climb in our backyard, but we like to go for little hikes. And so one year, for Christmas, I thought it would be awesome to include the kids in our little hikes.

It could be like a family thing. So I got them all hiking boots, and I got them those backpacks with the straw, the little water bladder in the back. It wasn't anyone's favorite gift that they received for Christmas, but I was okay with that because I knew the gift was going to be in the experience that we were going to have together. Right? So finally, February came around and we went to this mountain house. And the night before our hike, I studied the map, and I figured out which trail we were going to take, and I got everyone's bladder filled and their bags. That sounds funny. and their bags packed with snacks, and then the day I made sure everyone had the right socks on,

because I just, I didn't want anything to get in the way of our fun. This was going to be fun. So, five minutes in, the question started. And now, these are not preschoolers, okay? My kids are teenagers and almost teenagers. So the questions start. How long is this? And they're like, wait, we're just walking?

You and dad do this for fun? How far is this walk? When are we going to eat? My hands are cold. Can I take my jacket off? Then they started fighting. Like literally every conversation somehow turned into a fight or a competition. And finally, several hours later, we returned to the house and everybody like dispersed and went their separate ways.

And I went and found Stephen and I said, that wasn't how I thought it would go. And you know, I think that the biggest mistake I make as a mom is planning how I think my kids' lives will go. They're going to play this sport, and they're going to play this instrument, because I wish that I could do those things, and they're going to get good grades, and they're going to take AP classes, and they're going to go to college, and they're going to get married, and they aren't going to make any mistakes because I, they're wise, loving mother. I am going to guide them through all the twists and turns of life.

And then when things don't go according to my plan, because they're human beings, I pray. And I tell God how he can get them back on track. I'm like, good ideas. I have good ideas. God, give them a teacher this year that will make them love learning again. God, send a good church-going family, a family perhaps who goes to our church, to move into the house next door. And, God, if they could have kids, our kids ages.

And I think God is sitting up in heaven going, Holly, telling me what to do is not prayer. And then I get angry. Have you ever gotten angry because things didn't turn out the way. you thought. I thought college would be fun. I thought marriage would make me happy. I thought a new job would make me fulfilled. I thought we could save our marriage. I thought if I ate healthy, I would never get sick. I thought if I went to rehab, I wouldn't struggle anymore. This was not how Naman thought he would get his healing. You know what Neiman was thinking? Magic. He said, I thought the prophet would come out and meet me and wave his hands over me, and I would be healed.

Have you ever gotten angry because Magic Jesus didn't show up? I hope that's not a sacrilegious thing to say, I don't mean to offend anyone, and I'm not saying that there are times when God heals immediately. But in my experience, God is more concerned about my soul. than he is about my physical problems. And Neiman had some soul work that he needed to do. And also in my experience, and this is just how it happens with me, God requires me to participate in my own healing. That's why he does not do abracadabra over my situation.

Because if he did, I would just end up right where I started because I never had to do any work to make the change. And Naiman went off in a rage. He was this close. He was on the verge of relief from his suffering. And he was going to walk away. Have you ever noticed how anger is actually comforting? Think about this for a second.

When I'm angry, someone or something caused me to become angry, right? It takes the blame off myself. We all know that anger is a secondary emotion, and it enables me to take the focus off of me and place it on someone or something else. Namon was offended. He was an important man, a mighty warrior. He had a letter from the king, and he had gold and silver and gifts, and the prophet didn't even bother to come out of his house. This really resonated with me because I think that we have become the most offendable generation ever.

Just take a stroll on the comments of Facebook or YouTube or Instagram or online newspaper. You cannot say anything without someone getting offended. And I get offended. and I find in my life, as long as I stay offended, as long as I stay angry, I'm just deferring all growth in my personal life. But anger's comforting because I don't have to face myself. And I think that the reason that Naiman didn't want to dip in the water was because he didn't want to expose himself. For so long, he's been covering up his leprosy under his armor. And now,

in order to be healed, he has to take it off and dip in the river. And maybe everyone would see just how bad his situation really was. We're getting to our key verse. This is truly the best part of the story. Verse 13. But his officers tried to reason with him. Aren't you glad he didn't go alone? And they said to him, Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, you would have done it.

Now, it's implied here that Neiman said yes to this question, to which I am going to call BS. Not belief system or blanket statement. Like Pastor Stephen has been done. I thought this is like the real BS. Something difficult? He's just difficult. Just because something is not physically difficult doesn't mean that it's easy to do.

But here's the thing. His friends, the officers, well, I like to think they were his friends. They were his officers. Let's assume they're his friends. They use it against him. And so they say, well, I lost my place here. All right. They say, oh, well, if you would do a hard thing, look at verse 13.

So you should certainly obey him when he says, simply, go wash and be cured. Anger is easy. Obedience is simple. Last week, Stephen talked about whenever meet now. Were you here? and he said, you keep asking God to explain, and he just wants you to obey. You can be angry that this is not how you thought, but if you can get past your anger, stop trying to find an explanation and just move, that's where you find your healing.

The final simple thing that he had to do, he had to. and I feel like God sent me here to ask you today, will you say yes to simple? Here's how the story ends. So Neiman went down to the Jordan River. He did it. And he dipped himself seven times as the man of God had instructed him.

And his skin became as healthy. as the skin of a young child, and he was healed. He got healed. Seven times he had to dip, which is interesting. It's interesting that the prophet didn't just say, go wash one time. And the Bible doesn't say, we just read the whole verse, that his healing was gradual. Like, you know, each time he dipped, it got a little bit better. I don't know. I know sometimes in my life I see progress, and sometimes I don't. The point is that you simply keep obeying. Last week, Abby and I went to Target, and we were walking in, and as we were walking in,

this lady was walking out at the same time, and she said, oh, my gosh, Holly Ferdick. And I turned to see who had called my name, and I realized it was somebody that. I didn't know, and I said hi, and she told me that she attends our Valentine location. And then she said, actually, we moved here to be a part of the church a little over a year ago. I said, wow. And then I said, well, how did you find the church? She said, I was going through a really dark time, dark period with one of my kids. And she said, I was really struggling. And so one day I just Googled spiritual quotes. And guess whose quote came up?

Not mine. Stephen Ferdick. And she began watching the sermons online. And she said that something in her just stirred, something she just couldn't ignore. And she knew that they needed to move their family to Charlotte. So she did it. She and her husband, they made it happen. And I was like, wow, that's so awesome. And I said, how's your son doing? And she said, he's still struggling, but I know this is where we're supposed to be. You know, I don't think the simple step that they took was the move. We all know there's nothing simple about a move. I think the simple step was the day she gooom. Googleed spiritual quotes.

Then you know what another simple step was that she took? She said she came here and she signed up to volunteer in E-KIS. She didn't come and sign her son up for an E-group. She signed herself up. Blaming and hiding and anger only bring temporary relief. But change is possible when you take a simple step. She said, this is what she said about her son. She said, he's come to church once, but I know this is where we are supposed to be.

She's still dipping. I don't know how many times she has to dip. I don't know if it's seven or 77 times. And I don't know if all you needed to hear me say today is keep doing what you're doing. Don't give up. And if that's you, keep doing it. Keep showing up. Keep dipping.

You can do it. And also, I know I told you that this was not a sermon about joining in an e-group, but there is a simple opportunity for you. A simple step that you can take to join a part of a community of people who are on a faith journey just like you. And I told you we're going to spend the next six weeks studying the essentials. Simple. Not easy. Simple. practices that are the foundation of our faith. Now is the time to move. Stephen told us last week

one immediate action is worth a thousand good intentions. The message today is not easy. It is just the question. What simple step do you need to say yes to? When you feel prompt, to do something simple. That's God. The enemy wants to keep you in complication and confusing. God loves simple. And I believe that he is prompting hearts under the sound of my voice right now with a simple step that you need to take. Let me show you one more verse. This one's in Luke chapter four. And Jesus opens up the scrolls in his own hometown, and he begins to teach. But what he taught was the opposite of what the people were expecting. It wasn't what they thought he was going to say. And he ends his teaching by saying something. I just want to point out to you,

Luke 4, 27, Jesus said, and many in Israel had leprosy in the time of Elisha, the prophet. But the only one healed was Naaman, Assyrian. See, Jesus is preparing the people for God's grace. And he's telling them that God heals Jews and Gentiles. It makes them angry. It wasn't what they thought. They got angry. But when I was reading this verse, and I was thinking about Naiman and how he got his healing, he went after it. He acted. He made a journey into a foreign land, and he pushed through the temptation to blame and hide. He pushed past his anger,

and he received the healing that he needed, the relief from his sufferings. And the Bible tells us, Jesus says that there were many leopards, lepers at that time who lived in Israel. Maybe there were leopards too, I don't know, but there were many lepers who lived in Israel. Perhaps some of them lived within walking distance of Elisha's home. But Neiman was the one who went after his healing. There were some people that may have been right in his backyard, suffering. And it got me thinking how sad it is that many of you who are watching this message right now will leave and go out of these doors or shut off your computer and you will walk away from your

healing. But that does not have to be you. Maybe your simple yes is to say yes to Jesus for the first time. He died on the first time. the cross for our ultimate healing. He died to forgive us of our sins, and then he rose from the grave so that we could be free. And if that's you, anyone under the sound of my voice, I want to give you the opportunity to give your life to Christ. Would you all stand with me? At elevation, we like to pray this prayer out loud together so that nobody feels weird or left out. But for some of you,

this prayer is going to be special. As bow our heads and close our eyes. Heavenly Father, would you repeat after me? Heavenly Father, I believe that you are the Savior of the world and that you died and rose again so that I could have eternal life. Forgive me of my sin.

Make me new. Right now, I place my faith in you and make you Lord. of my life. In Jesus' name. Amen. If you just prayed that prayer for the first time, or maybe you prayed it to signify that you're coming back to God, would you just raise your hand? We want to celebrate you. We have a Bible that we want to give you. Raise your hand. If you're in the chat, put it in the chat. I see you back there. We have a Bible that we want to bring to you. It's amazing. And now as our campus pastors come, I just want us to all pray one more.

prayer out loud together. All right, are you ready? Would you say this with me? God, show me simple. I will obey. Thank you, Lord. God, we're looking to you this week. We're listening and we're watching for your simple promptings everywhere. Thank you for your grace that saves us. Thank you for your grace that heals us. Thank you for your patience with us. God, this week, today we're going to act. Thank you for this church. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love for you to do.

Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at elevationchurch.org slash give. And thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Thank you.