Elevation with Steven Furtick - Then They Gathered

Episode Date: May 24, 2021

God has grace for your growth. In “Then They Gathered,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church reveals how unexpected changes can create room for God to do something new.See 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. Come in the kitchen with me and let me show you something that God is speaking to me about. Lick the bowl and taste and see that the Lord is good. I love y'all so much. Acts chapter 1, verse 4. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, see us in the Bible, come in the kitchen, lick the bowl, he was eating with them. He gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift, my father, promise, which you have heard me speak about, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to be baptized with water? And they gathered around him, and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to be baptized? restore the kingdom to Israel. He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or dates the father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria into the ends of the earth.

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going. Suddenly, two men dressed in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. Verse 12, and I'll stop. Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath's day walk from the city.

I lied. I need verse 13 too to tell you what I'm supposed to. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alpheus, and Simon de Zeleet, and Judas son of James. They all joined together, I promised this last verse, they all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women. I can't leave that out.

And marry the mother of Jesus and with his brothers. Now, y'all, I stared at this text so long. I didn't want the familiarity of this text to eclipse its significance for this moment. So the first thing that I kept seeing was the word that y'all all shouted in this section right here in Acts 1-8, power. You will receive power. And for the longest, I thought that was the message God had for us, that when we release our pride, we receive God's power.

The Lord said, that is true, and you can preach it sometime, but not this time. That's not the message. So I said, well, what else could it be? And there's all kinds of things that you see in this passage that are amazing. Like when they said, this same Jesus will return. Like he doesn't change. His nature doesn't change. His character doesn't change.

His purpose doesn't change, not controlled by some political power what Jesus looks like. He's not made in our image, we're made in his. So he doesn't change. We change as we behold him. The Lord said that's not the message for elevation leader either. And I thought, well, we're running out of stuff here, Lord. That's the best stuff in the passage. You know, what is it?

Do not leave Jerusalem? Does it do not leave? Am I supposed to tell them, don't run off and join another church, you know? Signed the divorce papers or whatever. Is that the message? Do not leave. The Lord said, no. No, it's not there.

And so what the Lord told me to focus on today is in verse six. And this is my message. Then they gather. I want to preach to you today on those three words. Then they gathered. Then they gathered. Say it one time before you. you take your seat. Then they gathered. One of our volunteers is kids play sports with our kids,

and he asked me right at the beginning when he saw me up here sweating on the stage with Chris and John Sal and Jen on Stools preaching back in February of 2020. He said, is that weird? I said what? He said learning to preach in an empty room. And I said, it's not learning to preach in an empty room. It's remembering. Huh? I found out a long time ago, a lot of spiritual growth isn't about learning anything. It's about remembering. Remember who

you are. Book of First Simba. No, it wasn't weird at all. It just took me to remember. Like how David said, this is an unusual circumstance with a nine-foot giant whose helmet

outweighs me. I really didn't come here to fight, but I do remember how to? Because I've done that before. I've never fought this before, but I have fought. And so the key in the David and Goliath passage is to realize that the God who delivered me from the Paul of the Line and Barrel delivered me from some circumcised Philistine that the enemy's changed, but the power that you're fighting in doesn't. So every time that you shift from one stage of your life to another or one mode of leadership to another, or when you shift in the role that you're playing, you know, like our campus pastors, when everything's shut down. And I'm not trying to

take us so far back, because I know we just got good news that everything is going to, and I'm really hesitant to trust it, so I'm kind of just like dipping my toe in feeling happy about that. You know? But just to go back to that time, a lot of them that were used to hugging people, praying for people, and being with people basically did the job as if they were hired at a call center. And instead of, to quote the great Lin-Manuel Miranda, the room where it happened, it was all of a sudden the Zoom where it happened. And the adaptation of this church in that time was one of the greatest proofs that I've ever seen in my life of the grace of God upon this ministry. There is a grace for adaptation. There is a great for adaptation. Just ask Moses,

who needed a sign that God was with him, and all of a sudden the shepherd's staff that he had carried in the wilderness of his decision to kill an Egyptian, became the instrument as he threw it on the ground and it turned into a snake to prove to him that God can change anything. There is a grace for adaptation. Just as the disciples who were also in a desert place trying to feed some hungry crowds. You know, crowds become mobs real quick. I'll talk about that momentarily. So on the verge of that turn, when you realize that a crowd is not a church, a crowd is not a church, would you please write that down so you can come back to it?

A crowd is not a church that you understand when the disciples came to Jesus and placed the meager resource, you know the feeding of the 5,000 into his hand, it became enough as he touched it as they brought it. There is a grace for adaptation. In your life right now, I want you to know there is a grace for adaptation. There is a grace for you by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in God taught words, what Paul teaches in Corinthians, for us to express in our lives realities that we have no experience of, but God gives it to us as we need it. That's the grace of adaptation. And in Acts chapter one, particularly the Holy Spirit of God,

is coming to these disciples who we listed a moment ago. Peter, James and John, the famous ones. Philip and Thomas, who make some cameo appearances. Bartholomew. Oh, shout out Bartholomew. Never preached about him before. The women marry the mother of Jesus and his brothers. They're all standing at a moment where it's very

different than it is for us because everything is changing in their world. It was different to be a disciple of Jesus back then because back then there was a lot of political unrest. It was different. Everybody say back then? You're so quick. It was different back then because back in those times there were many arguments about gender equality and back then to be a disciple of Jesus was hard. Back then, it was complicated because as the Jewish believers were becoming Christians, many within the religious community saw their conversion to Christ as traitorous to their identity nationally. It was different then. People used to divide themselves by things like skin color or custom, and so it was really different

then. The challenge becomes for me to bring you out of this irrelevant context in which the Bible was written. there is grace for adaptation. And even, I want you to think about this, the way they would experience the presence of God was changing as they stood on the Mount of Olives, which is itself a place of transition. Remember, the olives only become oil as they are crushed? And that's exactly what has happened to the disciples as their tears are barely dried from watching Jesus die. It's only been 40 days and now he's leaving them for good. You felt like God left you a few times

Last year you felt like God left you like maybe you did something wrong and he took his hand off you You didn't tell your volunteer team that? I hope you didn't. That's too heavy for your volunteer team to know about if you're a leader We carry things as leaders, don't we? I'm not just talking about as a pastor. I mean even if you're a leader in your home or if you're a leader in your business or if you're leading a volunteer team that had a Gideon opportunity over the last year. Do you know what that is? Gideon started with 36,000 and got down to 300 before God gave him the victory. How many of y'all's volunteer teams is coming out of a Gideon season? You still don't look like you're good with it. That's what I wanted to preach to you today. About then they gathered.

Then they gathered. Back then when they gathered, there was no multi-site technology. Back then when they gathered, there was no nonprofit exemption for charitable giving. Back then when they gathered, there was no guarantee that they could worship in safety. And I'm not talking about masks back then. And they gathered, which is a miracle in itself. that they're together again. If you remember at the cross, it says that all of Jesus' disciples, the one we just listed,

they all scattered when he died. So I was happy to see in Acts chapter 1. Then they gathered. That although the disappointment and disfiguration of their picture of the way the kingdom of God would look when it came in power, had been completely devastating to their faith and even caused them to fail, that God brought them back to this moment to give them a divine, supernatural empowerment for the task of taking the gospel to the world. They gathered. Everybody shout gathered. We went through a season where the way that we gathered changed so much. But I found a verse that I want to show you that all of you good Baptists,

are there any Baptist in the house? Are there any recovering Baptist in the house? I went to a Baptist school, and before that I spent a lot of time in Baptist Church before. I grew up Methodist, but they always quoted this verse in prayer meeting because nobody really came to prayer meeting. I'm telling you the truth. There would be nobody at prayer meeting because Brother Wilson would pray for 55 minutes, and I'm hungry. So nobody came to prayer meeting, not because they didn't love God, but Brother Wilson didn't know when to shut up.

So it would be a very few people there, and it could feel kind of discouraging. So somebody would quote at the beginning of the prayer meeting, Matthew 18, 19, again, I tell you truly that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it be done from the Father in heaven. Watch this. Verse 20, for where two or three gather in my name, there are. I am with them. I only ever heard that verse as an excuse for bad attendance.

Well, the word says, if it's only two or three, Lord, you're here with us. And we know Sister Mary has a cold, but Lord, it's me and Wilson. Show up, Lord. But I started quoting that verse with renewed fervor and a revived vigor last year. I'd be looking out to preach back in March and the cameras were on and nobody was really in the room. there underneath the camera. And, you know, Chunks loves the Lord, but his face doesn't know he loves the Lord yet when I'm preaching. And he's my guy, he's my guy. But I look over at Chunks and I'd be like, Lord, you said two or three. I look at Holly. I got Holly. I got Chunks. We can do this. Have you ever had to gather something that was, but what I love about our church that I saw last year was that we didn't stop gathering? We had to. adapt, but we gather.

And we stood on the promise of Matthew 18 that was spoken by Jesus. If it's just two or three, God, I have to count the cat right now, because I'm a part of Epham and I didn't plan to be, but hold hands with me, little kitty, because the Bible said, if two or three, I'll be two, you be three, and let's praise the Lord together. I'll be Paul. You be Silas. We've got to get out of this prison. You'll stop.

They gathered. Now watch us. Not the crowd. The crowd was long gone. When we talked about gathered, let's talk about they. They. Blind Bartimaeus didn't gather. The woman with the issue of blood, who was healed by Jesus, is not reporting as having gathered.

Where's Lazarus? Isn't it crazy? how certain seasons will thin out who is your perception of they? Before we give the disciples too much credit, they didn't stay till the end either. Just John and the women. Just go to the narrative, go to your favorite Easter story, look at the cross, you're not going to find loudmouth Peter. You're not going to find Honest Thomas. Y'all remember we renamed them. None of them are there. Just John and Jesus' Mama. Then they gather.

The reason I was excited to come preach today is I wanted to talk to they. I feel happy. Did you see Holly tear up? She teared up because it's a difference between them and they. I don't think you're perfect or anything like that. I wouldn't ever put that pressure on you. I don't think there's people in this room who haven't struggled. There's thousands of people, right? So I'm not, I would say by the law of averages that there are leaders in this room who got high in the last day or two and are still trying to press forward and still do what God called you to do. I have to be real about that because if we think that the they that God uses are the ones, who never cussed anybody out in Target trying to get some toilet paper.

I'm going to have to update that reference. Never cussed anybody out at a gas pump. Beat you over the head with this gas pump. Look, that's not an excuse for us to not grow up in the wisdom and maturity of God, but it is a permission for us to realize that there is grace for adaptation. And you are not yet all that you will be. But that doesn't stop you from being they, shout they. I think who you include in that they in your life is maybe the biggest determining factor in where your life ends up.

And some days you don't get to choose. Some of that is determined by circumstances outside of your control. But for me, this is my they. This is what God called me to give my life to. They gather. Even though Peter cut off Malkis' ear in the garden, he gathered on the Mount of Olives. Even though he couldn't stay awake while Jesus was sweating like drops of great blood as the capillaries were bursting, as he was preparing to go to the cross.

Peter, James, and John were sleeping. They gathered. I want to try to say, don't beat yourself up too much where you can't receive the grace that God gave you to change. Who needs this? Sometimes I don't feel like they. Honestly, sometimes, as I observe myself in contrast to the standard of Jesus Christ, you know, there's a lot of unworthiness that can get in.

And what the enemy would love to do is to use, you'll still believe in the devil? More than ever, Pastor Ferdek. I'll tell you right now, sleeps in the room next door. I'll introduce you to him. I'll show you a picture. But what the enemy loves to do is to use the condemnation to keep you from receiving the grace that would enable you to change, to get you to think that you are not they. But it said, then they gathered, the same ones that scattered at the cross, gathered at the ascension. And there weren't many left.

There weren't many left at the upper room. 120, to be exact. 120. Young people we had when we started our church, the first Sunday we ever gathered, 1201. I wish it was exactly 120, but I got to tell the truth that was 121. But let's pretend the one was Judas. We've got to make this illustration work. It's only what I got. I'm telling you something about this last season, y'all. Is there an acoustic guitar? Just bring me a guitar. Something about this season of church and ministry. I thought I should share

this with you today, it brought me back to realizing that God didn't just give us a crowd called Elevation Church that buys tickets at tour stops and listens to songs on Pandora and watches sermons on YouTube once every five weeks. God gave us a core of committed disciples, imperfect disciples. And we wanted to remind you, is it coming? We wanted to remind you, I'm going to do like the disciples and wait for the gift in the upper room. I'm waiting for it, I'm waiting for it. I came to remind you that you're still they. God gave us, Holly, a they.

When we were praying back in Delwood Drive, 3.30, Delwood Drive, back in Shelby, our first home that we bought. for $92,500 in Shelby, North Carolina. When we were there praying back then, back then, back then, back then, back then, when we were praying back then, these are they. Does that blow your mind? Now, they're dysfunctional, just like us. And they got bad tempers sometimes just like us. And they don't read their Bibles every morning like they should, just like us. I'm a person too.

But I'm they. Peter preached on the day of Pentecost after cussing to the girl at the campfire. All the days make some noise. When they see us like Elevation Church out in the community doing good and giving cars to single moms and giving education and supply them. I want them to say, there they go again. There they go again. like they really believe that it's more blessed to give than they receive.

But see, there's a great value for me in realizing back in the day how when it was just 120, we didn't have these cool worship songs like graves into gardens and the blessing. But we would just sing like the old songs, like Robin Mark songs. Like these are the days of Elijah declaring the word of the Lord and these are the days of your servant Moses righteousness being restored and though these are days of great trial of famine and darkness and so now hold up I was the worship leader because I could afford me I couldn't afford Carrie Job and Chris Brown and I couldn't afford all of that. So it was just me saying, Behold, he comes, riding on the clouds, shining like the sun,

at the trumpet call. Lift your horse. It's the year of Jubilee, out of science hills, salvation. There's no God like Jehoot. There's on the hell. Now, what was the blessing? For me, of the last 14 months, as our church has had to reinvent from the inside out, has been to realize that just like the disciples received the greatest gift of God's presence, in between what they had already known and what they couldn't possibly predict, that God was creating for our church a spirit. space for what we didn't even know to pray for yet. And in January, we got together with Elevation Worship in Maverick City and recorded this album called Old Church Basement. And even though the campuses are open and some people aren't going back, I mean, God love them.

They'll go everywhere else, but church, but God when it comes to church. All right, now I'm going to tell you all this story I wanted to tell you. I was at an establishment recently. And normally, the people that are so nice that say, we love your church, thank you for all that y'all do in the community. And usually they say y'all, which makes me feel good, because this church is not me. It's they. All right. So, anyway, this woman was not saying any of that.

She said, this woman said, what are y'all doing? Having church right now. I said, oh, man, well, you know, there's multiple things. We have our online ministry for people who aren't able to come. We do all that, and it's amazing. And God positioned us for that because we look really smart when this pandemic hit, like we had foreseen the strategic global pandemic, and we'd set up our online ministry so that we could have a dispersion.

of, no, no, no, no. That was just God setting us up. That was just the grace of God that he knew we needed for the transition. We'd given the glory for that. So I said, our teams are amazing, and they can watch, and we put all of that out. And I said, but the people who want to come, we open it up, is safe, our teams are doing a great job, our volunteers are doing a great job. And she goes, I don't know if I believe you. That's a lot of people. I said, it is a lot of people. And what I'm telling you is, you don't have to come. It's online, nine, nine, 30. You know, I just, forgive me, Lord, I am there. And so, I should have walked out. I should have walked out what I did.

And she kept going, I mean, just going and going. And then it hit me. Wait a minute. She's arguing with me about having church. And she's standing right here with no mask on. One of those. One of those saints of God. One of those. That has nothing to do with my point. What I was saying was, it was a gift for me. It was a gift for me in the last year.

I wasn't happy about people who lost their jobs. I wasn't happy about nurses working 18, 20 hours shifts. I wasn't happy about kids not being able to go to school. I wasn't happy about people that were sick, obviously, people whose lives were hanging in the balance, and even those who lost loved ones. But what I became thankful for through the people. the process of navigating ministry in a time of such isolation was that the space that God left us was the room for something new that he wanted to do.

And I never forget, I don't think I've told anybody this, maybe not even Holly, but we were writing this song. It was one of the last songs we finished for the album Old Church Basement. And the song was called Come Again. And Holly put it in her sermon last week. And it talks about, I'm open. And so get this at a time where we have all of these empty seats in this church, we came in.

It was a two-night recording, and everybody was tested before they came in and everything. We did everything right. But then we came in here and we turned this whole church, like right there where you're sitting, sir. Yeah, right there with the hood. Right there. Well, you too. But like right, yeah, that's what I was talking to. Right there.

And the whole room was empty. And I asked Chandler and Brandon to meet me and finish the song because it needed to be finished. And it said, it's not a building you want to fill. It's my heart. And that's all it said. I didn't know what would come next, and we had to record it that night. We had written songs for six months, and we just needed one more line. I'm building you want to fill.

It's my heart. Fill it up, God, fill it up, fill it up, fill it up, fill it up, fill it up. Just trying stuff like an hour. I sat right there. I sat right there where you are, and then Chandler is on a piano, and Brendan's on a microphone. And then a prayer came to me, and I sang it. And I'm not the best singer, but I can get the job done when I need to. And I said, it's not a building you want to fill.

It's my heart. And I looked up at all the seats in this room, this room, Valentine. I know everybody's in different rooms, but this room that I'm in right now. And I said, this empty space is what you want it all along. And I'm looking at the empty seats, and a part of me wants to cry because these seats are so expensive. This building costs so much money like Lake Norman and Riverwalk and all these empty buildings. Give me an ulcer as a leader and a CEO, but as a pastor, what if this empty space is what God wanted to where when Jesus left the disciples in bodily form, he sent the spirit to live within? And when the Spirit came, he said, greater works will you do in my name than I did in my body?

But for the Spirit to be received, the body had to be released. Before we shout about you will receive power in Acts 1-8, we have to talk about releasing our need to control or understand everything that God does. Isn't that the hardest thing in the world? After all we've been through together, y'all won't be honest with me. Isn't it the hardest thing in the world to release your death grip on your plans for God? Because you know what Jeremiah 29-11 says. God says, for I know the plans you have for me. Oh, it doesn't say that.

I know the plans I have for you. But the first step for those plans to be activated in a community or in an individual life is that you have to release the plans that were in the place where God wanted to do something that you didn't even know to pray for him to do. So the more I sang it, the more I understood it, this empty space, it's not that God isn't going to rebuild our church. Oh, our churches are going to be full against. These buildings are going to be full again.

These buildings are going to be full again. These buildings are going to be full again These buildings are going to be full again These seats are going to be full again That orange seat, that gray seat It's going to be full again Shout it's going to be full again Don't get used to having all that elbow room, baby

Because I promise it's going to be packed out again Real soon, soon and very soon Somebody's coming to take your seat We're not doing empty rows for the next three years No, we're about to fill this thing up for the glory of God. I prophesied to you. Empty row. Here comes a sinner.

Here comes a sinner. Here comes a sinner. Here comes a sinner. Here comes a sinner. Somebody shout, here they come. Here they come. They come. And the glory of the latter.

Anointing on this empty row that represents everything. That is exceedingly, abundantly above all. God, then they gather. God said, I had to make some space for they. Space for them. Huh? Make room. You remember?

Make room. Make room. Stretch your tent curtains wide. Do not hold back. Do not fear. You will not be ashamed. You will not be disgrace. That's the prophet Isaiah preaching to us.

I pour you out a blessing that you will not have room enough to receive it. Question. Is that a promise or a problem? So I wonder, is this what God wanted all along? Not the virus or any of that. Please don't misinterpret. Y'all know me better than that, right? Come on, there's no trolls in here today.

Are they trying to say, okay, okay, okay. I'm just saying, then they gathered. Then it would be one thing to say then they gathered after they had received the Holy Spirit. But the profundity of it is that they gathered while they were waiting. That's why I love y'all, because these are they that didn't wait, that didn't wait for restrictions to be lifted, that didn't wait to have more answers. You know what the best thing Jesus said in Acts 1 was for those of us? who are control freaks and have a hard time releasing the way it used to be.

It is not for you to know. Did you all skip over that part? I know you did. You wanted to get to the part. You shall receive power. But in the unknown, that's the space. I don't like not knowing. I don't like not knowing.

I don't even like not knowing. Isn't it funny? God gave me a sermon that he changed at the last minute. While I was telling you that it's okay not to know, the Lord is funny, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Got jokes, Lord. But I wonder, did God put this on the calendar because he knew the moment that we would be in as a global ministry. Then they gathered. When?

After they scattered. So this is something God gave me to. He said, tell the church, tell the ministry across every location. This is not anymore. There's the local church, and then there's the global church. It's one family now. This is they. This is they.

And the last year has forced us to be more creative. We had to figure out. Thank God for the teams that God gave us. Just to keep the gospel going out no matter what. That's amazing. And I'm talking about you. But the Lord said, you were scattered together. Let me say it again without messing up the point by mispronouncing the word.

You were scattered together. What else is scattered to gather? Let's think about it. Psalm 126. Sit down. I have a little more teaching to do. This is a Psalm of a sin. So it means they would sing this song going up to church. going up to the house of the Lord, they would sing this. This one's a little different because it was written after exile. So it was a song about what God had done for them after they had spent a long time in another place. And that's what I thought was significant about this. And we have our songs of Ascent, right?

We have our songs that we sing in church as people are coming in. And sometimes that's the ones where those people who really like don't have a lot of rhythm, They just stand there and kind of watch and they wait for the worship song. I just love the glory and the present. I don't want to walk how you walk on water. I don't want to do any of that. It's fine.

It's fine. You don't have to do it. But the Lord gave his people a song for when they were going to the house of the Lord. And listen to what he said. I want to read you the whole song. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. We couldn't even believe that it happened. We could not even get our mind.

We were like those who dreamed. It seemed so crazy. It seemed like a dream. Our mouths were filled for laughter. Now this is 586 BC. They've been in exile. The people are coming back. This is the song God gave them.

Our tongues with songs of joy. Then. Everybody shout then. Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for them. Then it was said among the nations. Then, verse three, when we came back, when we saw what God brought us through, then it was said among the nations.

This is then. If you have ears to hear today, God is saying, this is then. Then they gathered. Then the nations will say. And it is a trick for you to always think then is somewhere out there. When I get my teams back up, they ain't all coming back.

Judas is dead, okay? We've got to pick Matthias and build another thing, right? We've got to cast some lots and get another disciple. I'm not calling that sweet lady who couldn't come back and be a greeter Judas. I'm just using an analogy. It was sad. After we spent a time in a foreign place, but trusted in God to get us through it, that's what you've done. That's what you've not perfectly.

Then it will be said. Then they gathered. Then. And the Lord is saying, This is then. This now or never. The church either has a message or we don't have a message. We either are the bride of Christ or we're just playing around, just dating Jesus,

just conveniently hooking up with God when we need something. This is then, and this is they. He said, when the Lord brought us back, we could not believe. When the Lord restored the... God, would you restore the fortunes of us? Zion. Would you visit your people again with an outpouring of wisdom, with a message of reconciliation, God with peace flooding our veins so that we walk in the earth as Christ was, so that we stand in the stead of the living God, urging men, be reconciled to God. Turned at times of refreshing

may come from the Lord. I declare that these are the days of Elijah, these are the days of of Ezekiel, the dry bones becoming his flesh. This is then. You are they. We have gathered in the name of him who became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. And you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. The Lord has done great things for them.

The Lord has done." Verse three, great things. We are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, Lord. Like streams in the Negev. That's a dry place to Negev. Oh, God, it barely rains in the Negeath. But when it does,

It rips through so suddenly that if you're not ready for it, it'll wash you out. You're in a dry place so long. But this is then. When God releases his spirit, when God floods your heart, when God does what he said he would do, you have to be prepared beforehand because it happens so suddenly, if you're not ready, you won't have room to receive it. Receive it. Restore our fortunes, Lord. Restore. God is in a season of restoring the years that the canker worm and the

palmer worm and the coronavirus have eaten. But this is the verse that I thought I would leave you with, where he said, those who sowed with tears. For everybody who has been mourning a disappointment in your life. For everyone who has been crying like the disciples cried at the cross and your life has been scattered. The promise says that those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. And those, right, let me ask a question. Who are those that God is speaking to today?

If this you, lift your hands to heaven. If this you lift your hands to heaven, you don't have to be in this room. You know that by now. Those who go out, weeping, carrying seed to sow. Because even though you've been weeping, you never stopped sewing. That's the thing about it, even though you've had depression that's been in your own life, You kept doing what God called you to do. You kept your eyes on the joy set before you.

You kept sewing. So the promises that those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, these are they that sowed anyway. These are those that gave anyway. These are those that prayed anyway. These are those that quoted Matthew 18 over your two-person e-group on a Zoom call in April. These are they that sowed anyway. So you ready for this? Here comes to promise.

Get ready. It's a gully wash and promise like a stream in a dry place. Will return with songs of joy carrying sheaves with them. So for a season, they weeped. But then they gather. For a season, they are. season they had to weep but god said it's reaping time due season you shall reap if you faint not if you faith not these are they that did not faith these are they that waited lift your hands up they that wait upon the

They shall mount up on wings like eels. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk. These are they that waited. And now God, now that we have made room, not for our old paradigm of church, not for our limited confines of what ministry looks like that was limited to physical buildings. But I believe that you scattered us for a season. to gather a harvest for an eternal purpose.

I'll say that again. He scattered you for a season to gather for an eternal purpose, a harvest unto himself. These are the days of the greatest ministry that we have ever seen. But it's been scattered. It's been all over the place. God knows it has. Does that feel like your life, your mind, even your priorities? I felt scattered, really disoriented at times. Who can I trust? Who's with me? What's going on? What will it be like on the other side? Then they gather. From my heart, thank you for sewing in a season when you

were personally struggling. Even if you scattered for a little while, welcome back. There's room for you in the heart of God. There's room for you in the plan of God. There's room for you in the story that he's telling. And now we have all this room to receive from God whatever he wants to do next in our ministry. I thought I would end my portion of this time by turning our auditoriums and living rooms and

cafes where people are meeting. They got through that in, cafes. I just imagine someone's in a cafe somewhere. But maybe we can make it in upper room for a moment. Maybe we can be 120. Maybe we can offer God our lives as a foundation on which to build whatever he wants to build next. But I don't want you to miss it because I slip this in at the very end. They had scattered seed in a dry season, gather to harvest. You've got so much to look forward to. Please don't give up on God.

Please don't give up on yourself. Please don't diminish your gift. We've got so much to look forward to you. And there's grace. There's grace for adaptation. There's grace for mistakes. But we've got to gather. We've got to gather.

Then they gather. They sowed in tears, they brought home a harvest. They sowed in tears, and they reaped in joy. So, Lord, we're going up there with Bartholomew and Philip and Peter, James and John, the Sons of Thunder. They were so messed up. They asked which one of them could sit at your right hand and left hand, and you still let them come, so we're good. We're coming up here with the women, Mary Magdalene. Married the mother of Jesus and the brothers.

We're coming up like the 120, and we realize that you're reinventing us even in this moment. Because we'll look back on this day where we gathered and felt so good. Then you send us out and you scatter us that you might gather us again. Lord, I thank you for everybody in this room beyond what they do in our church. God knows they're more than an usher. God knows they're more than just. Not that these things are little, but God. They're walking in multiple roles.

I thank you that you scatter your people everywhere in the world. You put some to be dentists and some to be doctors and some to be lawyers and some to be teachers. You've got your people everywhere. That's how your kingdom advances as you scatter us so that you might gather unto yourself a renewed people. Then whatever happens next, Lord, in our local communities, whatever limitations unforeseen turns or twists it takes. We're not leaving Jerusalem. We're waiting for the gift.

So in this upper room right now, come Holy Spirit, come breathe into these slain that they may live. I want to pray for somebody who's been out of church and they miss you and you miss them. Bring them back rejoicing, Lord. We've got room for them. I want to pray for those who kept coming to church. But because we didn't really know, we just got so turned around and confused, but then they gathered. Without knowing the answers, they gathered in faith. And you moved. And now this same Jesus, who was taken up, this same power that raised him from the dead,

it lives in us, your church. Restore the fortunes of Zion, Lord, and the glory. of the latter house will be greater than the glory of the former house. This is then. This is then. Not when we're back in quadruple overflow at Valentine. No, no, no. This is.

Then they gather. Then they gather. I thank you, Lord, for our gatherings tomorrow. They'll be like some of them will be one ninth full. Then they gather. Yeah, God, yeah, God. Yeah, God. Redeemed the empty space.

Give us a new norm. We thank you that this ministry never stopped reaching. We reached more people in this last season than we ever reached. You did a greater work than our minds to come from you. So I release your people in the power of your spirit now, God. These ministry gifts that you've placed, their intelligence, their brilliance, their love, their compassion, their consistency, be multiplied into the earth, be multiplied into our cities, be multiplied into your kingdom.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Then they, in Jesus' name. We love you. Thank you. Scattered together. I hope you received that word today. I hope it was just what you.

what you need it. I'm telling you, I felt like our whole church was supposed to experience it. I don't know if you heard what I said at the beginning, but I wasn't planning on showing that message to our whole church. But God gave me something and said, I want you to release it to everybody. And I believe it's what he's saying to us right now. It's what he's saying to me right now. And I pray that this week, God would just surround you with his favor. I know I've already prayed. I know I've already declared this over your life. But I pray that God would restore the fortunes of Zion. restore your joy, your peace. I pray that he would restore your help. Anything that you've been

lacking, we agree with you in prayer that God is a restorer and a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Thank you. Thank you to the thousands of you, tens of thousands of you who are a part of this ministry. Thank you for giving financially. Maybe God would lead you to begin doing that right now. You know you're they, right? You're the one that God is going to use. And I thank you so much for sharing these messages with others. That's how we spread the gospel. You'll always pick on me because I come so close on these videos. I'd just like to get right up in your face, invade your personal space, and let you know that it is an absolute privilege to minister the word of God to you. Bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.