Elevation with Steven Furtick - While You Were Waiting (DawnCheré Wilkerson)

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

Are you feeling stuck in the waiting, wondering if God still sees you? The wait isn’t wasted, it’s where God does some of His best work. He’s preparing you, shaping you, and positioning you for purpose. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world, click here: www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ Scripture References:Isaiah 40, verse 31Romans 12, verse 1Exodus 30, verse 35See 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 faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Would you remain standing for just a moment? Because I just think this is the right posture. I want to take a moment to honor this house. I am grateful for the faith of Elevation Church. I'm grateful for the faith of this house that sent ripple, ripple waves around the globe. And it's reached our house in Miami. Our church is stronger because of your faith and because of the faith of your leaders.

Pastor Stephen and Holly Ferdick. How many of you love your pastors? Come on, can we put our hands together for them? When I think about Pastor Stephen, I think of a pastor to pastors. The way that he has led us, the faith that he's spoken over our lives. in so many different seasons. I'm constantly inspired how when it comes to Pastor Stevens walk with God, there's always more.

There's more. There's more hope. There's more faith. There's more creativity. And it inspires me to dig deep and to believe God that there's always more. But I'm also really grateful for Pastor Holly. Come on. Do you guys love Pastor Holly?

She's one of my dearest friends in the world. And when she preaches the Word of God, she preaches with power and authority. chains are broken, but it's not just what she says on the pulpit. It's the way that she leads her life. It's the way that she leads her family. She's taught me what it means to be a great friend to stand with people on mountaintops and in valleys. And I just believe the best is yet to come for this house. Come on, if you believe that today, which you pick your hands together with me, I believe it with all. Oh, come on, Ella. And before you're seated, I want to take a moment. Because I'm fully aware that

people walked in this room or are watching online today, and you are hanging on by a thread. And I want to speak to your soul today, that before we even open up the Word of God, if you feel like you are stuck in the middle of a wilderness, if you feel like you don't know what to do, where to go, or how to even express the state of your heart today, if you feel like for the first time in your life, you wonder if this whole thing is real. I want to remind you today. I want to tell you today that God sent me here with a message in my heart and that he brought you here because he wants to meet you right where you are. If anybody can testify that he did it for you, come on, put your hands together. We serve a faithful God. And he sees you today.

Hey, why don't you high five your neighbor? Grab your seat. Grab your Bibles. You can turn with me to Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31. I bring so much love from Miami and a little bit of sunshine for you. Our church, Vuk Church, we started it 10 years ago. And God's been doing miracles. But I believe that what God is doing in 2025 is unlike anything that's ever been seen in history. He's doing a new thing. My husband, Rick, since his love, I've got four very big.

that I adore, Wyatt Wild, Wayland, and Wolfgang, 7, 5, 3, and 6 months old. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Big families. We know, there's a big party when you're a part of a big family. You may be wondering, where are you actually from, Don Sheree, because that accent does not sound like Miami. I am from Louisiana. I am a Ragean Cajun. And you also may be wondering, what kind of name is Don Cherie? Like, where did that come from? Well, the story my parents tell me is that my dad wanted to name me Don. My mom wanted to name me Sheree. And so as they were sitting in the hospital room trying to figure out, who is this girl the day I was born? My mom put the names together, wrote a love letter from me and tucked it under the pillow where my dad was sleeping on the couch in the hospital.

And Don Sherey's been my name ever since. That same day that they named me is the day that they gave me a life promise. And that's the scripture that I want to read to you today. Isaiah 40, 31. They that wait upon the Lord. Somebody say, wait, they shall renew their strength. they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. I want to talk to you for the next few minutes from this thought while you were waiting. Let's pray. God, thank you for this moment. Thank you for this house. Thank you, Lord, for what you are doing in our hearts today. We pause. And Lord, just like we sang, we breathe you in. Have your way in our heart, oh God.

For you and you alone, our souls wait. I pray that I would disappear. And Lord, that our eyes would behold your promise, that our hearts would be filled with hope today. We love you, Jesus. We're here for you. Come on. And everybody said, one more time, everybody said?

Amen. Amen. Well, earlier this year, in Miami, my husband had his birthday. He turned 41. And we had a family dinner, as you do. We came back to the house after dinner, and we set out on our back dock in that humid Miami heat, swatting the mosquitoes, just trying to have a calm conversation. And on his birthday, we usually have a tradition to start telling memories from over the years. And we started sitting on that back deck, and we started sitting on that back deck. And we, We started early in the night and we went late into the night telling memories. And somewhere in that conversation, it dawned on me. Rich, I think that we celebrated your birthday together 20 years ago. We were in Cambridge, Cambridge University. We were studying together.

And I actually think I have a journal to prove it. And I ran inside my house. And sure enough, I went through all my bookcases and I found. it and I came running back out on the deck almost near midnight. I said I found it and we started to open it up and I had so many different memories. But as I started to read this journal, I was laughing at the frame of mind of my 20 year old self. I got to the end of the journal from Cambridge and I was coming back to Louisiana for the summer and I had made a list of 20 things that I wanted to accomplish over the summer. I mean, I brought this journal all the way from

Miami. Would anybody want to know what a 20-year-old college student wishes to accomplish in one summer? You want to hear it? Okay, this is about to blow your mind. Things I want to do this summer. Number one, read the entire Bible. Mic drop. Number two, learn Spanish. Now, God was trying to prepare me for Miami. Number three, go to all the boys' games. Now, by boys, I mean my brothers, and that may seem like an easy feat, except for I have five brothers. That's a lot of games in the summer. Number four, become a domestic goddess. Popular book, okay, that it's just been released. Number five, read an etiquette book. Number six, Have a good job. We don't want an ordinary job. Can I get an amen? We want a good job, right? I want a good job for the summer. Number seven, visit my best friend from college. Number eight, exercise dash, arms defined.

Number nine, singing the choir. Number 10, get involved with youth ministry. Hello. Number 11, record a worship album. Yeah, let's throw that one in. Yes. Number 13, surprise mom and dad on their 25th anniversary with a love song concert with my brothers. Number 14. Interview my grandpa and my grandma about their life story. Number 15. Hang out with my great-grandfather and my great-grandmother.

Number 16, go to the hospitals with my papa to pray for people. Number 17, make a scrapbook of the summer. And number 18, can I get a drum roll, please? We've got none other than orthodontist. Figure out a way to straighten teeth without bracket braces. If you think that's a pretty good list, come on, pick your hands together. That's a pretty impressive list. Friends, what was I thinking?

That is a setup for disappointment. You've got 18 things that you want to accomplish in one summer. That is not a list for a summer. That is a list for a decade. 20 years later, to the year, I am just now stepping into some of the things that I put on that list. I'm just now stepping into. into them. And friends, I don't know if I'll ever be a domestic goddess. Like everyone's story,

mine has involved years and years of waiting. I know that you have your list too. We all have our list of what we are waiting to step into, waiting not just to step into, but what we're waiting to finish. And when we look at the story of God, we see that God uses large spans of time. not just a single summer to accomplish his will in his people and in your very life today. Come on, if you believe it today, why don't you put your hands together? We serve a God that is faithful every step of the way. And Isaiah prophesies, they that wait for the Lord. They that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.

This is not a birth verse. This is a life verse because I need the promise that as I wait upon the Lord he will renew me not just to start the journey but right there in the middle of the journey and until I see him

face to face. And I don't know about you but I'm right there in the middle. I turn 40 this year. You know, scripturally 40 represents trials and testing. Oh, praise God.

What a great word. to speak over my life this year. That's exactly what I was going for. But you look throughout Scripture and you see 40 represent trials and testing. You can look at the life of Moses. You know, Moses spent 40 years in Egypt. Then he spent 40 years in the wilderness.

And you may think he was at the end, but he has a burning bush experience that then catapults him into the most important 40 years of his life as he leads God's people. You may be like Moses. You may be like Moses thinking, oh, I'm at the end. The great things of God are behind me.

When you have no idea, you're just about to step into the very calling and purpose of God that He ordained for you before your life began. You have no idea what He's prepared for you. He prepared it for you. Or maybe you know good and well. that you're in the middle. You know that you are right there in the middle of the story. And friends, you are miserable. Can I tell you today that I operated with this perspective for many seasons in my life, moving to a city where I didn't know anyone, walking through eight years of infertility,

starting a church, there have been many seasons of waiting that I just wanted to fast forward through. that I just wanted to get to the other side, though I may not have admitted it or even been able to articulate it until God got a hold of my heart with a game changer. Waiting is not a season. Waiting is life. So the question you and I have before us is this. Will we live in the wait? Because there is life and life abundantly. at the finish line, not 10 years from now, but right here, right now. If you believe it today, somebody give God praise in this house. We can live while we wait. Waiting isn't a curse. Waiting is an invitation. It's an invitation from the throne room of heaven. Charles Swindle once put it like this. We don't like waiting. But that's when God does some of his best work on our souls.

Some of his best work? Hold up. Wait. Are you serious? God does some of his best work while we wait? Well, if that's the truth today, then how do we actually wait? How do we live in the wait? How do we embrace the weight? And if waiting is truly life, then how do we live right here,

right now? Back in Louisiana, I grew up with bonfires. Now, I've had to explain this to the people in Miami because bonfires are illegal in Miami, but I have hope in you today. I believe you know exactly what I'm talking about when I say a bonfire. This is my favorite Friday night pastime. We would pull the trucks up, we would pull the chairs out, you get a lot of wood, you light that thing on fire, and that bonfire is the center of attention. Everyone is facing the fire. And as it burns, you make memories and you don't want the night to end because you've been looking forward to Friday night all week long. Can I just tell you today? We are conditioned in culture to live for the bonfire. moments. We are conditioned in culture to wait for the bonfire moments that say, oh, I'm just going to wait until I get to the other side of this trial. I'm just going to wait until I get through this wilderness. When my life is a bonfire, when I'm blazing with the glory of God, light me up. I'm on fire. But friends, what if your walk with God was purpose to look more like smoke?

than a flame. Because you see, I grew up with bonfires. I love bonfires, but my husband, when I met him when we were 17, he loves to burn incense. For the last 23 years, we've been burning incense in our house. People walk into my home to this day, and the first thing they say, they don't notice the furniture, they don't notice the decor, they say, what is that smell? It's not what they see. It's what they sense. It's not anything that they notice with their physical eyes, but it's a fragrance that is intoxicating. They can't even find out where it is is or where it's burning, but they notice it from the moment they walk through the door. You know, the word incense comes from the Latin word incendiar, and it simply means to

burn. Do you know the incense is found throughout the scriptures? That in the very beginning, that God speaks to Moses in the books of Exodus, and he tells Moses, he says, I want you to set up an incense altar in my house. And every morning and every evening, I want you Aaron, the priest, to bring an incense offering. So every morning, there would be an altar in the holy place. and in the holy place, Aaron the priest would bring the incense. And he would pour the incense on the altar. And as he poured the incense on the altar, on the heat source that is the altar, an amazing thing would happen.

A fragrance would begin to rise. Smoke would begin to rise. And Jewish tradition tells us that this smoke didn't just fill the holy place, but it filled the entire surrounding area up to a quarter of a mile. The smoke was so thick that every single person who came to worship God. As they worship God, the fragrance would soak into their clothes, and they would go about their daily duties carrying the fragrance of God. The smoke represents the worship and the prayers of God.

Ascending to heaven, every morning, And every evening that as you laid down your little, what you think doesn't have any worth, what you think isn't a bonfire blazing with the glory of God. I've got news for you today. All he asks for you to do is release what is in your hand. And it becomes a fragrant sacrifice that permeates the air, touching everything in its midst. You have the ability today in the weight. to bring your little, and you can watch it rise.

The priest would set their incense on the fire, and when they did, it would release an aroma, and the smoke would lift high towards heaven. Scripture tells us that our life is like a vapor. It's a vapor. It's here today. It's gone tomorrow. A lot like the smoke of incense. Here's the invitation.

bring what you have to God in the weight. And watch as he transforms it. Because the powerful thing is, that incense, it is not the fire. But when it's placed on the heat source, the very chemical components of what is laid down transforms into completely different thing. You are looking at your little in the weight going, this is all I'll ever have. God is going, will you release it to me and watch what I can do with it? Because they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They will mount up with wings like eagles. And Romans reminds us, therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your body as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. You're a living sacrifice. You want to know how to live in the weight? You've got to lay your life down as a sacrifice because it's only when you become a sacrifice

that you actually live. You see, we want the fire, but God says I want the surrender. We want to receive, but God says first you've got to lay it all down. We want to see the end of the story. But God says, will you see what I want to do right here, right now,

in and through you. Come on. Braids in the house. Why do you lift up a shout of honor to God? He's here right now. He's here in the wait. He's here in the weight. It's a slow burn for those that wait. I grew up celebrating the 4th of July with a million fireworks. My brothers and I, we'd jump in the car, we'd drive, down the street, stop it a little set up on the side of the road by everything that we could afford. Come back to the house and set those babies off. Now, the scariest thought is when you light a firework, and then you step back and you're waiting for that thing to pop off, and you go, is that thing lit? And what do you do? You don't run up, you tiptoe up. Because you know, It may be a slow burn, but it is burning towards an expected outcome that is going to change everything.

I want to speak faith through your heart today. Your life, your faith, your perseverance, your trials, your wilderness is not the end game. You are burning towards an expected outcome. God has already authored the end of this story. And you don't have to wonder if he's going to carry it through because he comes through every single time. But maybe today you're tiptoeing forward. And it's not with expectation.

It's with a heart that has become disappointed in the way. Have you ever wondered if your faith? was still ignited. Have you ever wondered if you actually have what it takes to get through the wilderness of the weight, to get through the slow burn when life seems to be crawling and all you want to do is accelerate and move forward. I've got good news for you today. You may feel burned out. You may feel like you don't have what it takes. You may be asking yourself today. Is my faith still lit? Good news for you today is you're not the fire. And you can get reignited every single moment of the journey. All you got to do is get back to that altar and lay your life

down once again. And the ignition is on. The fire starts to blaze. The faith starts to rise. Today, God says, I want to light the fire within you every moment of the slow burn. Come on, give him praise in this house. He's with you. He's with you. He's with you. You don't want to be the fire. Then the pressure is on you to sustain it. No, we're not the fire. He's the fire. He's the all-consuming fire. We're We just bring our little every morning throughout the day and every evening, and we watch as he transforms it. They that wait again and again and again and again as you find yourself surrendering to him, you will renew your strength. But what is this offering that we bring? I think it's interesting what God tells Moses to bring.

Exodus chapter 30, verse 35, speaks very specifically of what our offering should be. The fragrant sacrifice of incense was to be three things, salted and pure and sacred. Friends, if God said the offering should be salted, pure, and sacred in Exodus, I think it's pretty incredible that today that's what our very lives should also be. that our very lives, our offering is sacred, friends. There was only one blend that was allowed in God's house. You couldn't burn it anywhere else. If you were burning in your house, you got cut off. But I know when it comes to my offering for God, there's a piece of my heart that only belongs to him. He is the central focus of my life. That sacred space is reserved for him and him alone.

And in the weight, I keep him front and center. It's not a very important. just sacred, it's pure. See, our offering to God, it isn't a supplement in the slow burn. It's not just a piece of encouragement or a crutch. No, friends, this is pure and complete surrender to God. This is not Jesus plus self-help. Jesus plus horoscopes. Jesus plus this or Jesus plus that. It's Jesus, and only Jesus that breaks the chains. that creates the community of life that frees me from my bondage. It's a pure sacrifice. But it's not just sacred and it's not just pure.

It's salted. Somebody say salted. Salt is actually the ingredient that allows it to keep on burning. Salt is a preserver. The salt keeps it as a steady, slowburn that lasts and elongates the fragrance impact. God says that we're the salt of the earth. Maybe today in the slow burn you go, I don't know, I feel like I've lost my saltiness. Do you know how long salt lasts? In fact, let me ask you, when does salt expire? Have you ever Googled it? I did. Never. Salt never expires.

think you're past your prime, you're just getting started. You're going to be fresh at 20, fresh at 30, fresh at 40, fresh at 50, fresh at 60, every season of your life, your offering is going to bring a freshness to the world. You were created to last because your very life is a preserver. And as you lay it on the altar, the fragrance is released. Friends, I came to encourage you in the slow burn of life while you are waiting right here, right now. There is a fragrance to your faith. Smell has staining power. It has an aroma. Did you know that your nose has the ability to decipher over one trillion different scents? And that scent is most closely tied out of all your senses to your memory.

So God was doing something, wasn't he, with that incense offering? Every time you smell that aroma, you're going to think of the worship of God. Every time you smell that aroma, you're going to think of the prayers and the dependence upon the Father. There is a fragrance today to your faith. This past month I had some interviews in Nashville. I wrote my first book. It's called Slow Burn, and I had the title over 10 years ago, but I've been waiting because it was in the waiting that the message was actually written.

And I was in Nashville doing some interviews for Slow Burn, and I brought my youngest son, five months old with me, and we got to the airport, and I had rented a car, and I went to pick up my car. It was going to be a nice car. as I opened up the car, all of a sudden this fragrance hit me. They had been burning something and it wasn't incense. I'm like, oh my goodness, I try to get in that car. I'm like, my baby cannot smell this.

But I had to go straight from the airport to the interviews, so I cranked the windows down and I'm driving down the street and I'm just like, oh, Lord, help me. I'm like, when I get there for this interview, they're going to smell me. and I'm going to get out of the car and say, hey, I'm here for the interview on my new book. It's called Slow Burn. I'm sitting in my car.

I'm like, I don't even know the person who is in this car before me. I've never even seen them. They're not even with me today. And yet, their life is getting on me. And today, all of us. We can look at our own life and we carry the fragrance of generational trauma, of labels that people have placed on us, on pain and circumstances that were far beyond our control. And that person isn't even in our life anymore, but the fragrance, the fragrance remains. But I'm so grateful today that we too can say like Paul, thanks be to God.

God, who always leads us to triumph and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere, because it's at the name of Jesus that old things pass away. Let me say it this way. Old fragrances pass away. Old labels pass away. Old generational curses pass away. And at the name of Jesus, you now. bear a fragrance of faith of joy, of peace, of forgiveness, of long suffering in the slow burn.

You've got a sweet fragrance of the strength of Almighty God. Oh, somebody praise them in this house. You are marked. You are marked. Because Jesus, he paid the ultimate sacrifice. You see, this picture of the incense offering, In Exodus, it's just a parable of the reality of heaven. Because Jesus, 2,000 years ago, came to this earth.

He laid his very life down. He didn't offer incense. He offered his own blood in the Holy of Holies. And when he said, it is finished. We know that for every person who puts their faith and trust in Jesus, that our life is marked by the very fragrance of God. And when you lay down your little on the altar, when you surrender your life to him in the slowburn, in the wilderness, in the waiting, while you are waiting, a beautiful exchange happens.

He will give you beauty for your ashes. You feel burned out? He wants to give you beauty for your ashes. He will give you the oil of joy for your mourning. He will give you a garment of praise for your spirit of distress. spare. If you just say all I have are tears today. He says those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. His name is Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. There's just something about that You're my master, my savior,

Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain. Oh, Jesus, he's my Jesus, he's your Jesus. heaven and earth proclaimingdoms shall all pass away but there's something about that name. I think it's going to be what you wear that people say there's something about her. I don't think it's going to be your house or the you drive or the label that goes in front of your name, I think people are going to look at you and say, there's something about her. There's something about him. I can't see it, but I sense it.

Because you carry the fragrance of the hope of the risen Savior. And without a word, you are drawing people to the very life that you are. have found. Oh, give him praise in this house. Something about that name. There's something about that name. Today, you can make an exchange. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. When you lay it down, you rise. When you lay it down, you rise. I'm that he says like an eagle. Why does God say like an eagle? The regal king of the skies. When you study eagles, it's really interesting that they've got one of the largest wingspans out of all the birds, but they don't use those wings to keep themselves up in the air for five to eight hours without

touching down. Yeah, the littler birds can just beat their wings trying to stay a flight, but the eagle catches wind. eagle soars and you will rarely see an eagle beat its wings because it utilizes the wind to carry it. I'm talking about the breath of God, the wind of God, the Ruach, the Numa. I'm talking about the wind that visited the upper room 2,000 years ago and ignited the local church that fills you and I today that we don't have to strive. We don't have to work our way into the power and the authority of God, but we can catch wind. Come on give him praise in this house. Are you heavy laden? He says, I will give you rest, but I'm not giving you rest by grounding you. I'm giving you rest by lifting you. I've got a wind that is about to sweep into your spirit

and lift you up to a higher ground for a higher view. So you're not looking up at your mountains any longer. You don't feel like a grasshopper looking up at the big, big boulders of life. But rather you're looking down going the things that used to be big and intimidate my life. Oh, now they're small because I can see the land and the land is mine. You promised it, I'm going to take it. Oh, come on, if you'd say I'm taking it. Why don't you give a wave in this house?

He's going to lift you. He's going to lift you. They don't wait upon the Lord. Wait upon the Lord. In my waiting, eight years of infertility. In the middle of my waiting, someone spoke a word over me. They said this to me. They said, I was in, I was a,

an atmosphere of faith just like this. I was seated in one of the rows and a woman I'd never met sat next to me and in a moment of prayer she grabbed my hand and she whispered in my ears. She said, you are going to travel the world preaching the gospel with a baby in one hand and a Bible in the other. I didn't go home and take a pregnancy test and find out I was pregnant. I carried that word in my heart for years. I tucked it away. I tucked it away. I took it away. I was pregnant. I was pregnant. I carried that word in my heart for years. I tucked it away. I didn't know what to do with it. Said, God, I'm going to keep trusting you. For years, I walked through the weight, wondering, God, is this going to happen? And eight years in, eight years in, God did a miracle. God gave me my first son,

Wyatt Wesley Wilkerson. But he didn't stop there because then God gave me a second son. Then God gave me a daughter, Whalen Wesley, the joy of my heart. Ready? And this year, at the age of 40, friends, I got the shock of my life.

Because we serve a God that redeems time. We serve a God that is not confined by time. It's a tool that he uses. He created it. It's his. He can do anything that he wants, any moment that he wants. And let me tell you, as you wait upon the Lord, he's still doing miracles. He's still healing. He's still restoring. He's still bringing new life. I have to stay true to my testimony. I came here to declare to you that God has not forsaken you. He has not left you. He has not forgotten you. His eye is always on you. While you were waiting, he's been working. While you were waiting, he's been lifting you to see a higher view,

not just your own life, but to see the story that he is telling throughout history. And little boy, this is your testimony already. They that wait upon the Lord. It's my life first. Passed down from Isaiah and now I pass it to you. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

Come on, if that's the promise for your life, will you give God praise? The truth is today that some of you in this room, you're going, Don Shree, but that miracle hasn't come to pass for me. Well, I want to tell you that I didn't have the revelation of living in the wait once I held my son for the first time.

But he met me right in the eight years of waiting. And he showed me what living looks like. He showed me that I have a testimony far before I hold my baby in my arms. But just like the matriarchs and the patriarchs of our faith, that they greeted their inheritance from afar, that they died while still believing, that they did not hold in their hands what was wrong. promised, but rather they saw through the lens of eternity and they greeted their inheritance from afar.

I read that in the way and the words leapt off the page and I got a picture for my weight. Oh yeah, my arms were empty. I didn't have a baby. But those arms that are empty, they make great hands of worship to wave through the lens of faith and say, you've lifted me high enough, not just to see this life, but to see eternity that awaits where there was. We're there will be no pain, there will be no tears, there will be no sorrow, because while you were waiting, he was renewing you. And while you were waiting every step of the way towards eternity, you were being lifted on the wings of eagles. While you were waiting, you would run and not grow weary. While you were waiting, you would walk and not faint. Today the spirit of God says to you,

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. You bring your little to me, and you've watched me transform you right here, right now. Somebody give God praise in this house. He's faithful. He's able. Would you just stand to your feet in this room and bow your heads? Close your eyes. There are people in this room that would say,

Donchery, I'm in the wait. You're watching online today. Donchery, I'm in the wait. And it feels like I'm in exile. It feels like I'm in a wilderness. I'm barely holding on. I don't think I have the strength. You're right, you don't.

But he does. And he has brought you to this moment because he adores you before your life began. He ordained you, filled with the wind of his spirit, to be lifted to a higher view above your obstacles and impossibilities, and to know that as his child, he will faithfully lead you every step of the way until you are face to face. Today, I want to pray first of all for people in this room who it's you're just weary you're watching online and you are exhausted with life you've been beating your wings you've been giving it all you got but today you're going to catch wind if that's you i want to pray for you but you just lift your hand if you'd say i need the renewal of the spirit of god

right there in your car in your home and your workplace just acknowledge god's presence that is there with you right now if that's you just lift up both of your hands Lord, today we surrender our lives. Lord, thank you that every day, every moment, morning and evening and throughout our days, we can come to you, the all-consuming fire. And God, when we feel like we are at our end, Lord, I thank you, God, that you don't snuff us out, but Lord, you light us once again with your faithfulness. You fill us with the power that conquered the grave, the power of your spirit, the power

of God. Lord, I thank you that right now as people have their hands raised, Lord, you're meeting them right where they are. Lord, you're renewing their dreams. You're renewing their heart. God, you're giving them a higher vision of the situation and the season of life they are in. And Lord, through the lens of faith, we wave to our inheritance from afar. Lord, we know that we will see you face to face. But while we've been waiting, you're shaping us. You're forming us. Lord, you're transforming us by your grace. Also, I'd love to give an opportunity for people that don't know Jesus. If you're watching, you've never made Jesus your Lord and Savior.

You're in this room and you have some other things that have first priority in your life, but you say today I'm making Jesus my king. On the count of three, I'd love for you to raise your hand. One, this is between you and Jesus. too. Don't put off a decision for tomorrow that God, he brought you to this moment today to make. Would you lift your hand? You say, I'm choosing Jesus. I'm choosing Jesus. I see your hands. I see your hands. Wherever you are as you acknowledge that. God sees your heart. You know what? All of us are going to come around you. We're going to lift our hands together and surrender. Would you pray this

prayer with me? Say, dear Jesus, today I choose to throw my life. into your hands. I'm celebrating your rescue. I believe you died for me that you rose again. Forgive me of my sin. Wash me clean. I want to walk with you. I want to talk with you. I love you, Lord. In Jesus' name, come on, and everybody said, amen, amen, come on, can we just give God a shout of praise? God bless you. joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe,

you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.