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Hey, this is Steven Furtick, 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. We thank you for your presence today. God. We do not take it for granted that we can call upon that name. That name that moves mountains, that name that saves souls, that name that forgives sin, that name that rolls away shame. That name and that name alone. The name of Jesus is our banner today. I'm thankful for thousands of people who are not ashamed to praise the name of Jesus today. Who are not shy or quiet or too tired to praise the name of Jesus. I thank you for the chain breaking power of your son Jesus today. I thank you for yoke destroying anointing of your son Jesus today. I thank you for the grave robbing presence of the Almighty God the Great. I am the person in the work of Jesus today. And we expect miracles in that name, healing in that name, breakthrough in that name. But we didn't come today just to see what we could get out of that name. We came to give that name. The praise today for your name is worth Jesus. Your name is worthy. Always has been, always will be. No matter what we go through, you're worthy. No matter what we're facing, you're worthy. It never changes, never fails. Your great love. Grab the hand of the person on either side of you. We're going to make a connection right now by faith. If you're watching online and you're not at one of our physical locations, that's all right. Just squeeze the hand of the person next to you. Now say this out. God is in this moment. Father, we thank you and invite you into every single situation represented in this room. Good, bad, in between, epic or boring. You are the Lord of it all. I thank you for the wonderful time we've had today singing your praises. But worship is more than a song. So now Lord, we bring you our lives, ourselves, every single part of us. I pray for the person on my right, the person on my left. I don't just pray for myself today. Would you touch my brother, Touch my sister? Touch them enough to let them know they can make it another week. Touch them enough to know that it's already worked out in heaven and it will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Touch them enough to know that there is nothing that escapes your all seeing eye and that the wings of El Shaddai the most High God are hovering over your children. I thank you, Lord, for your promise that he who dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I thank you that no weapon formed against your children will prosper. We thank you that the church of Jesus Christ is being built and the gates of hell will not prevail. Have not prevailed, cannot prevail. For we know a name that is greater than Satan. Greater than darkness, greater than cancer, greater than depression, Greater than diabetes, Greater than sickness, Greater than guilt. Grace that is greater. The name of Jesus. Give him praise, children. All right. That's your polite praise. Give him your party praise. Give him your mated praise. Give him your some kind of way he's gonna do it praise. Hey. Well, happy 2025, everybody. I thought I would give the year a catchy slogan. This is my first year of 2025, so I thought I'd give you a range of options. If you really aren't that goal oriented, just survive in 25. Touch your neighbor and say, survive. If you had a little more faith than that, look at them and say, thrive in 25. If you have a little more faith than that. If you have faith like Lazarus. If you have faith like the women who went to the tomb with the spices when they said it was over, look at your neighbor and say, dead things come alive in 25. Oh, oh, oh. I felt that when I said it in 25. Yeah. Come on, Brandon. Come on, Chris. We're not going to sing anymore because I feel like preaching. This is my first sermon of the year. We're going to put that song on. We're going to get it out as soon as we can. I know a name. We're not going to hold it hostage for two years like we do sometimes. That song is going into your ears so it can go into people's homes, into people's hearts, so you can call on the name of Jesus. Do we have a date, boys? Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day. That thing's coming alive. That thing's coming alive on Valentine's Day. Can I get an amen? So be like, that's great. You could be singing like, I don't have a date, but I know a name. Give it up for the great Brandon Lake. The great Christopher Brown. We got. Hey, we got new music coming your way Friday. Sons of Sunday. God did get it on Napster. It's good to be back. I haven't seen you all in a few weeks. Praise the Lord, everybody. I want to thank you Also stay standing. I want to thank you for your amazing, remarkable, once in a generation generosity for our church giving and our year end offering over $10 million. Over $10 million at least. Praise him on a 10 for 10 million DOL. That's so many people we can help. That's so many schools we can build. That's so many people we can come to with water and with food and with clothes and with the gospel building and blessing and touching the world and preaching Jesus. We're going to build a campus in Greenville, South Carolina. We're going to build a campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. We're going to build a campus in uptown Charlotte. We're going to preach the gospel everywhere, all around the world. And we're doing it together. High five. Your neighborhood neighbors say, I'm alive in 25 and the church is alive. Praise the Lord. Feeling good, Gavin? Feeling good, Graham. Feeling dangerous Today I feel a revival spirit today. You know, the Lord led me to a passage of scripture that I thought was so strange that I was nervous to preach it. I find sometimes it's in the simplest pictures he gives us that the greatest and most strategic breakthroughs occur. I want you to join me for a moment today. In 2 Kings, chapter 6, verses 17, I took a poll of 10 Christians, 10 people who went to Bible school. 9.7 of the 10 said, I've never heard that story preached before. That means today this will be the best sermon on 2 Kings 6, 17 you've ever heard. So I'm stacking the odds in my favor. You can't say anything else. You say, well, that's the best sermon I've ever heard about that scripture because it's the only one I've heard about that scripture. Now I am rested, but I might be a little rusty, so I need your grace amens today while I'm preaching. I said, I need your grace Amens today. We're going to get our timing down in the first 10 minutes so we can go to church here. I don't want you to miss anything the Lord has for you. So lean in from the very beginning because I'll read you just three verses and then I'll tell you this very peculiar story in the scripture. You'll wonder, like, I wondered why that scripture. That's what I wondered, too. But then God showed me. Let's look together at 2 Kings 6, 1 and 2. Just those two verses for now. By the way, shout out to our Charleston, South Carolina pop up today. Do you know we were meeting in Charleston today? Welcome welcome. They're still shouting Valentine's. Not that excited. They don't care. What does it matter to them? You came out in the cold. You know you get an extra dose of the Holy Ghost for coming out when it's below 40 degrees in the south. I'm going to tell you, good things are going to happen. Your car is going to get extra gas mileage this week because you came in the cold. As long as it's a Tesla. Second Kings, chapter six, verse one. The company of the prophets said to Elisha, look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole and let us build a place there for us to meet. He said, go. Everybody shall go. Let me read that one more time before I give you my subject for today. 2 Kings 61. 2. The Bible says the company of the prophets said to Elisha, look, the place where we meet with you is too small. Now that's a problem. Let us go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole and build a place there for us to meet. He said, go. Today I want to talk to you for a few moments about where you meet with God and get you to think about that. I believe it is the key to so many other things you're worried about this year where you meet with God. Father, we thank you that you're already here. Don't have to beg you to come or entice you. I pray that now you would make your presence so manifest that not a single one of us can excuse it or explain it away when they leave, Lord, may they say, not the music was good. May they not say they kept it cold in that auditorium. May they not say it was crowded. We have to get out of here and get out of the parking lot. May they say, surely the presence of the Lord was in this place. In Jesus name, amen. On your way to your seat, touch your neighbor and say, God is here. I'm glad you're here, too. It's never been easier to pretend we're places that we're not. Tim, I had a zoom meeting with a professional. I pay the other day. I put that in because it's important. He has all kinds of trophies and awards every time we meet, because we meet regularly. I can always see all his trophies and awards. It's kind of like an ego wall so he can keep me convinced I need to pay him. I get it. I'm not judging it. The other day I was meeting with him and While I was looking, I was like, oh, man, maybe something's wrong with my eyes because some of the awards started disappearing. I was like, that's weird. I know. I'm 44 now, so I know stuff is going to start just quitting. I'm like, is it the Zoom connection? Is it just midlife? What's happening right now? Then another award kind of started moving. Then it started moving around. I was like, well, now that's not the connection. And they were pixelating and they were moving positions all over the wall. I called his name. I'm going to make up a name. I said, brother. I said, why are the trophies moving around the wall? I said, is that a zoom background? Are those not real trophies I've been looking at the whole time? He dropped his head. I knew that wasn't true because I know his credentials. He said, listen, I just didn't want to distract you. I had a flood in the regular place we meet, and I didn't want to cause a disruption, so I just recreated that background and I've been putting it up the next two weeks. I promise you those are real. Then the next time we met, I made him pick up stuff and show it to me to prove that you really did earn it. And I came away with a valuable lesson. It's never been easier to pretend like you're in a place and hope that nobody stops to ask you, are you really here? All this stuff you show online, it's never been easier to show it on a screen, even when you know you don't really have it in your life to be going through a flood in one location, but to make it look like everything is fine in another. Again, I don't say this as a judgment, but sometimes when we come to little obscure texts in the Bible, maybe we say, why of all the passages. Pastor Steven, I need a word for 2025. This is your first sermon of the year. Maybe you're watching this in 2038. Maybe I'm a hologram floating over you preaching this right now. I don't know what they'll do in the future, but you're like, why this? We have a whole Bible full of big miracles with. With big old red seas and towering Jericho walls and filthy graves and blind eyes being opened. You would choose to preach about a text as simple as the Company of the Prophets said to Elisha, look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole, and let us build a place there for us to meet. He said, go. Why would the Holy Spirit select this scripture for us on this pivotal week in our lives? I have a reason that I think the Holy Spirit wants you to hear about this today. First of all, because most of the things you struggle with in your life have small beginnings. The better you get with identifying and recognizing your struggle in the small stage, the less effort you will have to spend when that thing is full grown to sabotage you in the future. I love these men in this passage. Okay, here's the situation. They are students of a great prophet. Everybody say great prophet. Not a pretty good prophet, not a minor league prophet, a great prophet, the prophet of Israel who could call for God to intervene supernaturally and he would. Who could locate enemies supernaturally and God's people would get the victory. A great prophet, Elisha. He has gathered unto himself a great company of students. The students are kind of looking around for a little while as this movement starts to grow. Please be aware that if God really blesses your life, blessing creates just as many problems as struggle does. At some point, they begin to meet with one another and they say, this sucks, man. It's crowded. This is ridiculous. This was fine when there were 50 of us, but who knows how many there were by that time? Elisha has has fixed a complete water system in one city. He has fixed a drought for several kings and turned the tide of the war. He's supplied a food supply for a widow. He's given a barren woman a child and then raised that child from the dead. When the child died, all that's already happened. He healed a Syrian commander of leprosy by telling him to go dip in the Jordan River. So you have to imagine that it was at least double what it had been to start with, because he had a double portion of Elijah, his predecessor's spirit, on him, and he worked great miracles. So they look at each other one day like, man, somebody ought to do something about this. It's crowded. You don't shower. There's no deodorant. It hasn't been invented. We have to do something about this. I want to focus in for just a moment on verse one to show you where the Holy Spirit convicted me about my life, life. He told me that I live in verse one too often. Verse one is where they give the complaint. Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. That's the whole verse one. I wonder, did you live most of last year in verse one and never make it to verse two? What do you mean? Make it to verse two. Verse two. They say, let us go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole and let us build a place there for us to meet. He said, go. Verse one contains the problem. It's too crowded. This isn't working anymore. We don't fit here anymore. We don't like this. Y'all need to build a parking deck at Elevation Church. This is too much. Y'all go too long and the services overlap and it's crazy. Y'all need to get us out of this high school auditorium and get us in a real building. We have problems around here. The only thing about the problem is that God caused it. I bet you they prayed for people to come and be a part of their team. Now they're complaining about something they prayed for. Oh, you better wear your steel toe this year. Don't wear your Crocs to this church this year. I'm walking up and down those rows this year looking for the person who's like me. This is my default setting to pray about something, possess what I prayed for, complain about what I prayed for. But they didn't do that. They said the place is too small. Let us go. So here's a challenge for you. I hope you'll accept it, but. But maybe you won't. And that's okay too, because I can just give you the challenge. I can't make you do it. Every time you are tempted to complain, it is an invitation to create. Instead, every time you are tempted to complain, it should be a trigger or an invitation for you to create. I know the Bible says do everything without complaining, but sometimes the complaining stage is the stage you have to make it through to get to the change stage. They were not rebuked for complaining, but they were blessed for continuing. Again, they were not rebuked for complaining. This place is too small. The prophet said, be grateful for what you had. No, he was more than willing. And that's a word I want us to come back to a few times today. He was more than willing to give them permission. Some of the things we're praying about, complaining about, worrying about, and calling it prayer, God has already given us permission to fix. Have you ever worried about something and said you prayed about it? Have you ever talked to everybody about it but the one who could do something for you? May this be the year that you stop complaining to people who can't change it anyway. Maybe that's where I need to be preaching from. Back there in the back. This is my year, where the Bible says the Company of the Prophets said to Elisha, now I have to show you how cool the Bible is. A prophet speaks for God, right? A prophet represents God. A prophet. We don't have prophets like this today because we all as believers, have the Holy Spirit. Jesus is our great high priest. The Holy Spirit lives in you. You don't need me to get a word from God. If I'm off any day, God is still on. If I don't give you the word you need, go back and read the scripture I read, and God will preach it better than I did. If I fall down dead preaching this sermon today, somebody else will pick up the mic and preach it before I can get out of the door with the ems. Because God's word is eternal. It does not originate with men. It originates with God. Not only is it internal. When we say the place where you meet with God, I want you to understand that that place is never meant to be a building. When I said, I want to talk to you today about where you meet with God, you're like, great, they're starting a building campaign. No, we already did that. I told you, we already built the building already here. Even if you don't have a building, we could put it on YouTube so we don't need all that. But maybe I am starting a building campaign today where you begin to build new patterns and recruit new people if necessary, so that the presence of God permeates your life. This year, I want to talk to you about where you meet with God. Let me slow down because I get excited, because y'all start drawing it out of me and it's your fault. When we think about a prophet, we think about somebody who speaks for God. Prophets do that. In the Bible, Prophets can prophesy doom and judgment. You see this a lot in the Bible. Prophets can also prophesy rain and blessing and life and increase. But in this situation, didn't you find it interesting that in verse one, it says, the company of the prophets said to Elisha, not Elisha said to the company of the prophets. Why is that significant? Sometimes God commands you to do something. Clearly. Clearly, there are some things God has commanded you to do. Clearly, these are not opinions, suggestions, or advice. These are not influencers giving you their tips and techniques. These are the truths of God's word. They are eternal. So God commands you clearly to flee sexual immorality. You don't have to pray about the affair you're on the edge of having. You have to run. Flee sexual immorality. That's clear. I know another Clear one that people don't like forgive others, just as God in Christ forgave you. That's clear. But Lord, which city should I live in? Should I live in Charlotte or Atlanta or Roanoke or Raleigh? The Lord is going to use you in the city. You obey the clear thing he showed you in. So if you don't forgive in Charlotte when you move to Atlanta, you're going to have just the same sewage you had in Charlotte when you get to Atlanta because you didn't do what was clear. Wherever you go, there you are. A lot of the prayers we pray about, moves we should make. When we can't get ourselves to obey what God has clearly spoken. We create confusion so that we don't take responsibility for our decisions. I'm not going to be like this the whole time. I will be hopeful in a moment, but I just want to spend more time this year. In verse two, where they said, let us go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole and let us build a place there for us to meet. Honestly, if this is my prayer, I'm saying, God, this place where we meet with you is too small. Make us a bigger one. God, these people you put around me are not talented enough. Give me more talented people. God, this situation you put me in, it's not important enough, it's not exciting enough. God, move me to another place. But I want you to notice in verse two, they didn't ask the prophet for anything except permission. Let us go to the place by the Jordan, the transitional body of water where the people of God crossed over into Jericho. Let us go to the place where the vegetation is and the wood is and the tools are and the resources are, and let us go build a place there for us to meet. Put that verse on the screen, verse two, and whoever is circling back there, circle the following words say, let us circle us. Go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole and let us circle us again. Build a place there for us to meet. That's their plan. We have a plan. Somebody shout, I have a plan. This is my year. I have a plan. Thriving 25. I have a plan. I'm eating carnivore. I'm doing cardio, I'm drinking collagen. And then two weeks in, you got a cold, and where did that get you? I have a plan. We're going to go down here and build a place. It's going to be bigger, it's going to be better, it's going to be amazing. I have my plan. I Have my plan. I had the plan last year, but this is different. I had this plan the year before that, too, and the year before that, but that was Covid. That doesn't count. This year is different. So we're going. Somebody shout, let's go. I give them credit for their initiative. I think sometimes when we're waiting for God to speak, he's waiting for us to step. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes when we're waiting for God to move, he's waiting for us to multiply what we've already been given. I congratulate these men for their initiative. They didn't just complain about the thing. They were willing to change the thing, to work toward the thing, to collaborate toward the thing. Are you or are you waiting for something to happen externally? When the word of God is internal, internal and eternal, nothing can stop it and it can't be seen with human eyes. So they get fired up. One of my friends who is an athlete tells me, I don't know if this is going to encourage you, but I come to church because it helps me feel like I can do anything for about three days. I said, that's pretty good. Three days, that's pretty good. Shelf life. Three days, that's pretty good. Flowers can die quicker than three days. That's pretty good. He said, yeah, I felt like I could do anything for three days. I said, but what happens on day four? He said, well, that's where it gets tricky. I said, no, it doesn't. You can go back to God between Sundays. You can go back to God. You can go back to God between hours. You can go back to God as much as you want in any situation you're in. I think as simple as that sounds, we don't really practice that. I saw something here that was to be celebrated. Let's go. We're going to build a bigger school, and Elisha the prophet is going to teach us. We're going to build something amazing for you, God. Many of us have started this year with good motives. I'm going to build something for my family. I'm going to build something so I can take care of my kids. I'm going to build something for God. I'm going to build something to make a difference. I'm going to work on my body. I'm going to work on my mind. I'm going to work on my future. I'm going to work on my career. I'm going to work on myself. I'm going to work on my temper. I'm going to work on. Work on My yoga. I started doing yoga last year just so I can keep it moving as much as I need to up here. I'm just increasing the arsenal this year. You know what the thing about it is? Holly is better at it than I am. I can lift so much more pounds than she can. But the instructor who is working with us always is saying, beautiful, Holly. Beautiful Holly comes over to me and says, it gets better, Steven. The only word she has for me is the word of false encouragement and delusional hope that I'll one day be flexible. I found out something. When you're doing something new, it helps to have somebody who can give you personal attention so you don't get confused and quit. Maybe the reason you had a plan last year and it fell apart in three days, three weeks, three months. Maybe the reason your motivation sometimes only lasts three minutes. Maybe the reason it lasts too short sometimes is because you only get permission and a plan. But this is a year where your plan will not be enough. Because the most important things that will happen in your life this year will not be in your plan. The greatest things God will bring into your life will not be on your vision board. They will not be manifested from the contours of your human mind or imagination. You will not see them coming, so you won't have time to plan a parade. You will not see them coming, so you won't have time to get in your stance. The most important things I'm going to show you in the text what I'm talking about. The most important things that will happen in your life this year will not be a part of your plan. How many can testify that there has already been an unplanned event that has superseded your planned year this year? And we're just getting started. They're excited. We're going to go build a place. We're going to get a pole. We're going to build a place, and Elisha is going to teach us. It's not like they're going to build a strip club. They're not doing something terrible. They're not even doing something neutral. They're building something for God. Okay? We're going to build this for God, and God is going to bless us. I just need to stop right here and take a poll. How many have something you want to do for God this year in your life? Shout out what it is. On three. One, two, three. All right, cool. God heard all that? I don't need to. Some of what you said you were going to do for God this year, God was Like, that's right. Go do it. Some of it, God was like, why are you making a plan for a purpose? I didn't call you to just because you saw it in somebody else. Let me tell you something, Hall. I don't want to build anything in my life from this point on that God gave somebody else the blueprint for. Because I've spent too much time, too much energy lost too much joy forfeited, too much contentment and peace trying to build something that isn't even in my blueprint. The Prophet Elisha. I need to tell you something about Elisha. Elisha is a little moody. You can't call a man of God moody. I sure can. Because one time some boys called him baldy, and he called she bears out of the woods to devour them. That's temperamental. That qualifies. I think it would have taken a lot of nerve, don't you, to come up to the Prophet and say, this place you have us meeting. Respectfully, we need to do a relocation project. Elisha says, go. And they look at each other like, that's amazing. He said we could go. He's letting us do it, so he's going to let us use the stuff. Let's go. Let's go, let's go. And they're fired up. Let's go. We're going to build a house for God on three. House on three. House on me. One, two, three, house. Let's go. Suddenly, I hadn't read you this part of the story yet, but it's the best part of the story. All of a sudden, as they're going to build something for God with good intentions, with the permission of the Prophet, he said, we could do it. God said, I'm a conqueror. God said, I can do it. God said, this is my year. Chains break. This is the year dead things come alive. We're going, we're going. Put up verse three. Best verse I've read this year so far. Then one of them said, now this is the kid in the class who raises his hand and says, excuse me, teacher, how about that homework assignment? This is that kid. Not only that, I can't prove it to you, but I think he was the smartest one in the whole group. I don't know his name, but what he did was so important. But he didn't know it was important. It seems incidental, but it's not. They're on their way. Everybody shout, let's go. Put it in the comments. Let's go. Look at your neighbor. Say, let's Go tell them this year. Let's go. A little louder. Say this year. Let's go right now. Let's go get, get free. Let's go rise up. Let's go be more. Let's go. Verse 3. One of them said. I'm going to ask him. Wait, no, no, no. He said we can go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know he said we can go, but I'm going to ask him. You can't ask him that. Yes, I can and yes, you better let go of me right now. I'm asking him because I don't just want his permission. Pray for me. I don't just want his permission. I don't just want his provision. I don't just want my plan. One of them came back and said, elisha, Elisha, I might be out of line. I don't know if you want to. I know you're busy. You have to kill little kids with bears and save kings. Won't you please come with your servants? You can't ask him that. This is the prophet. This is the man of God. He got time to swing an axe with you, chop down a tree with you, relocate to the messy Jordan Banks with you. This is Elisha. Are you crazy? You ask him if you want. I'm not getting killed by a bear. I'm leaving well enough alone. No, no, no, no, no. I'm asking him. Hey, Elisha. I appreciate the fact that you gave me the opportunity. I appreciate the fact that you're letting us go build. That's really kind of you, because you could have just told us to shut up and be content with what we have. But I'm not content with what we have if we don't have you. Remember, the prophet represents the word of God, the presence of God. What I'm trying to say to you today is I don't want you to go for your goal without your God. I don't want it to feel like you can do anything for three days, and then on the fourth day, it falls apart and you start thinking faith didn't work. It wasn't that faith didn't work. You put your faith in the faith rather than the God who gave the faith. Because this year I have a plan. I have provision. I have permission. But this year, my plan is his presence. This year, my plan is that everywhere the sole of my foot shall tread. Like Joshua, I believe God is giving me this place as holy ground. This is the year where I move the church outside of a physical location and I move it to my car, and I move it to my home. And I move it to my unchangeable situation. I move it. Touch. Somebody say, move it. They came to Elisha. Oh, it's getting good now. And they said, the place we meet with you is too small. And they were right, but not how they thought they were right. It wasn't only too small in the physical dimensions of it. It not only needed to be expanded physically, but the place where they thought they could meet with God was too small in their perception. Because God doesn't just want to come when you build it, he wants to be with you as you build. I don't know if this makes sense. It does to me. It's helping me get my confidence for this year. Because I've been in this too long to think my plan is going to go down how I planned for it this year. So guess what? Presents is my plan this year. Presents is my plan. Ask them what's your five year plan. Ask them what's your five year plan. Tell them Presents. Ask them for your ten year plan. What's your ten year plan. Presents. What do you mean by that? When I'm 10 years down the road or 10 minutes down the road, the God who is with me in this moment will not leave me, nor forsake me until everything he spoke concerning his purpose for my life has been fulfilled. So this year I have a plan. And the plan is his presence. Watch this. When I walk through the fire, I'm not alone. When I walk through the storm, I'm not alone. He's with me on the boat. He's with me in the bowels of the furnace. He's with me in this presence. That's the word of the Lord. Presence is the plan. Presence is the plan. Presence is the plan. God says you need a plan B this year. A plan B. Plan B, Plan B. That means if I'm in the wilderness, he'll be my water. If I'm in a hard place, he'll be my pillow. If I'm in a sick bed, he'll be my physician. I have a plan B. This year, the great I am is my plan B. This year, his presence, the great I am. This is a shift in mentalities for all of us control freaks who think we are going to perfectly design our life. And I'm going to chop down a tree and I'm going to build a building. But the thing that you never saw coming is going to require the God you keep forgetting to bring along. Beautiful Holly. Steven, would you like a few adjustments? I'm like, yes, I would. I'm not trying to twist my lumbar like a pretzel in here. I'm not trying to walk out of here like I'm 91 years old. I'm already walking like I'm 89. I need some help in here. Come over here and help me. Help me, God, help me. I'm using it as an analogy, you understand. I'm not getting into New Age mysticism and telling you to do yoga. I'm just saying, just like the Holy Spirit, I need you to come along this year. I need you to go with me this year. God. God, I can't walk in this house without you, God, I can't get on this zoom without you. I'm tired of putting up plaques and trophies on a fake green screen back behind me, pretending like I'm doing better than I am. Come with us, Elisha. Come with me, Word of God. Come with me on the waters. Come with me in the wave. Come with me back to school. Come with me into this divorce. Come with me into this addiction. Come with me into this crippling state. Come with me into this contention. Come with me into this argument. Come with me into this text thread. Come with me into this feed. Come with me into this step. Come with me into this heartbreak. Verse 3 Will you come with us? Won't you come with us? We don't want to go without you, God. I don't want to preach without you. I don't want to teach without you. I don't want a dad without you. I don't want a husband without you. I don't want a man without you. I don't want it without you. I don't want a plan without the great I am. I want a plan B. Because I don't even know what I need him to be until I get there. That's why he said, I am that I am. So when you run up on a red sea, you have a plan B. You don't understand what I just said. You have a plan B. You don't even know you need him to be a parter of the waters until you're looking at a sea. So the sea you didn't plan for, you have a plan B. God said, I'll be what you need me to to be. When you step your foot where you're going with an awareness of my presence. The thing is, he's already in you. It's an issue not of ability, it's willingness that really blessed me. How the prophet said, I don't Even think I can do this like I want to? Not in this setting. I'd have to be talking to a small group of people who felt like you've been in situations where you felt unwanted. You notice. The prophet said in verse two, he said, go. But what touched me was he wanted to come. He was waiting to be asked. You keep assuming, well, if God wanted to do it, he'd do it. What if he's waiting to be asked? What if he wants you to involve him? Elisha didn't say to the school of the prophets, build a bigger place. They said to him, can we do it? Elisha didn't say, mind if I tag along? They said, will you come? It took me back to something. This is why it touched me from when Elijah was very little. My Elijah, not the prophet. I don't know about when that prophet was little. But my Elijah, he's so convincing, he's so persuasive, and he always has been. Then he started watching Ben Shapiro and now he just wants to argue all the time. But when he even wants to be sweet. I remember he wanted me to see the Avengers movies. I don't like superhero movies. I think they're stupid. I'm like, man, we're not going to the Avengers. I'm telling you, he wasn't above 7 years old or something like that. He's way too young to be out this late because it was showing at 10 o'clock at night. He's like, can we go see the 10 o'clock? I'm like, I'm not taking you to Avengers at 10:00. I don't like superhero movies. I don't like 10:00. I don't like you after 10:00. We're not doing this. That boy didn't say a word. He went away. I'm like, okay, good, we got that done. He comes back, doesn't say a word, and brings me my shoes and puts them down at my feet. He didn't say anything until he was almost all the way out the door. He said, I'll be in the car if you change your mind. How do you not take that kid to Stonecrest and buy him popcorn and Coke and caffeinate him and sugar him up and he's up until 7am but I have a sermon illustration out of it. Bring God his shoes. Bring God. God. I know you haven't done it yet, and if you don't want to. I trust you, but I'm going to be in the car if you change my Mind. I'm going to be in my seated elevation. If you change your mind, I'm going to be in therapy. If you change your mind, I'm going to be working on this. Will you come? Ask your neighbor. Will you come? You'd be surprised what God would say yes to if you'd get in the vehicle. You'd be surprised what God would say yes to if you'd bring him his shoes. Yeah, you'd be surprised where God would meet with you if you bring him along. Why wait until you've built the place to learn from the prophet? Why wait until you get the degree to celebrate the progress? Why wait until the chains are all the way broken to show somebody how to smash the first link like you did? Why wait for the present presence of God when He is a very present help in the time of trouble? I'm trying to tell you he wants to come. Stop trying to rebuke anxiety in the name of Jesus. You don't get through anxiety by rebuking anxiety in the name of Jesus. You receive the grace of Jesus for your anxiety. The grace of Jesus in your anxiety becomes the place where you meet with God. Put your feet on the ground and sit there and do your breathing exercises. Do a downward dog and a hallelujah and make it the place where you meet with God, because you're going to need Him. Let's talk along the way. Elisha, you have so much to share. God, would you show me along the way things I think I'm going to learn when I get there? I think that's so important because I'm a perfectionist and I'm a complainer. I guess I'm supposed to be helping you, but this is helping me. I just saw. Not only do I get stuck in verse one where I say it's too small, it's not working. I don't like this. It's terrible. I'm confined and I complain, but sometimes I get stuck in verse two. Let us go down and let us do it. Let us try. Here's my plan. I never get to verse three, his presence. When they got down there, look how Elisha responded. He didn't call a bear to kill this boy. He didn't tell him. You're ridiculous for wasting my time. You know how sometimes you think God is too small? You think what you're dealing with is something God can't handle. We all think we watch the news and see crazy things that are happening in the world. It's not that we think God is too small, but it doesn't seem like he's doing anything about it. Sometimes I don't think we realize how small God is willing to be to show how big he is. That's why I chose this passage for my first sermon of this year. I thought if we talked about Goliath going down, you would wait for a big giant to trust God. It's not the giants all the time that cause you to lose your momentum. Man, I know how it is. I can do anything for three days. But that fourth day, I really love Jesus until about 9:45am and then 9:46, the devil meets with me. I know that feeling. But I believe that not every day presents a red sea, a Goliath, a burning bush. I mean, all of these things are wonderful and you know I love to preach about them. I started my year with a sermon called. I don't know what your Bible heading says there, Autumn, but mine says an axe head recovered. That's all it said on the subject, an axe head recovered. Really? You have a whole Bible full of nine foot giants and raging seas and you want to preach about an axe head? Yeah, because I think the little moments with God he wants you to have are the ones that are slipping away. I think that's why the other stuff gets so big and takes you down. The prophet said, I'll go with you. Verse 4 records. What happened next? He went with them. Wonder what they talked about. Wonder if they talked at all. I wonder if they were able to ask him more specifically, how do you think we should build it? You know, you can ask God stuff more specific. God, is there another way to say that? Now I have an advantage over you in this because every week I have to try to talk for God to you and I'm dumb. I get a lot of practice of just. Is there another way to say that? I don't know. Have I ever said that before? Are they going to hear it? Are they going to get it? Does that make any sense? But that's the skill you need for your life too. Not just to preach. That's the skill you need for your life. The skill you need is the presence of God just right there in the middle of your zoom meeting. With your fake trophies and your shorts, your underwear going on under the desk and your tie up top. You don't have to say it out loud. You don't have to go off the screen, just right there. God, I need you before I speak. Just those little moments. I really believe that because watch. Why did God include this boring story in The Bible. You think Elisha didn't do more fantastic miracles? He did. But the Lord wanted us to have seven verses to know what happens to us sometimes. This is what I see for so many of the people I pastor, who I meet when I meet you, when I meet you, when I meet with you. You meet with God in your own time. But when I meet you, sometimes I hear about the things the enemy is tormenting you with. It goes something like this. He went with them, went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. It's going good. I'm making progress. I apologized. I said, I'm sorry. I actually sent the text. I actually looked up the help. I actually joined the gym. Now I'm not going to go until about January 21st when it clears out. That's just strategic. But I'm making my steps. I'm clearing out that room. I'm going to do it this time. I've got some food in the pantry I have to clear out. I can't waste it. I'm going to eat the peanut butter, but after that jar is gone, it's no more peanut butter. I'm going to eat kale the rest of the year. Kale, collagen, cardio, carnivore. I'm going to do it all this year. I'm going to be a vegan carnivore this year. And I'm going to cut down this tree. They began to cut down tree. Now watch this as one of them is cutting down a tree. The iron axe head fell into the water. All of a sudden we go from let's go to oh, no. Have you ever be honest or I'll prophesy. Have you ever been doing pretty good it. Let's go. I got this. In the middle of doing what you believe God gave you permission to do. Oh, no. Oh, no. You're like, it's not a big deal. It's an axe head. When it's a big deal to you, it's a big deal. Stop telling people God doesn't care about this and God doesn't care about that. He numbers every hair on your head. He cares about everything that pertains to his child. Even Elisha, the rough and rugged prophet who had no time for any nonsense as this young man. One of them. Somebody looked this up for me on ChatGPT later and sent me a text about it. I wonder, was it the same one who asked him to come or was it a different one altogether? Because the one who's cutting down the tree, they don't have many tools, you understand. This is not a very sophisticated operation. As he's cutting down the tree, boom. The head goes off the stick and it flies into the Jordan. Iron isn't supposed to be in water. Iron is supposed to be on wood. When iron meets wood, it makes progress. But when iron meets water, you need presence. Because the first thing he did when the axe head flew, he said, oh, no, my Lord. Who is he talking to? Elisha? Who do you talk to when it falls off? Who do you talk to when you fall? Who do you talk to when your momentum slips? This is so important. Oh, no, my Lord, he cried out, it was borrowed. Oh, this is bad. I can't pay this back. Some of us are in situations this year that we can't afford to waste another day, that we can't afford to waste another year, that we can't afford to just get through a month just barely hanging on. He said, I need help. And thank God, help was there. Remember? If one of them hadn't gone back and asked him to come, there would have been no one to help when their plan stopped working. This is what I'm saying about where you meet with God, the prophet, the great prophet Elisha, who had the power to turn the tides of wars, had the time to help a boy get it back. God said, he wants to help you get it back this year. God wants to help you get it back this year. If it's joy, he wants to help you get it back this year. If it's integrity, he wants to help you get it back this year. If it's the character to keep your commitments, he wants to help you get it back this year. If it's a vision for your family, he wants to help you get it back this year. If it's a perspective on what really matters, he wants to help you get it back this year. I want you to notice very carefully what the prophet did in verse 6. This is what I see the Lord doing for us. The man of God asked the boy, where did it fall? Isn't that amazing? He could have said anything. The boy says, oh, no, it was borrowed. Well, that was stupid. Why did you borrow it? You shouldn't be borrowing stuff anyway. Hadn't you heard Dave Ramsey on the radio? You're not supposed to be in debt anyway, you need to go drive an Uber Eats and get it paid for. Don't worry about that. That's a good thing. Because if that's popping, that means the devil does not want you to hear the next part of this message. So I'm very encouraged by that, and I want y'all to fix it at the same time. The man of God said, where did it fall? Now, this is the message. This is the message. I was tricking you. I told you. The other part was the message. This is the message. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick, threw it there, and made the iron flow. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm rocking on. I'm moving through. I'm walking on in Jesus name. I want both of my hands to preach this part. The Bible says, I don't care about what your fear says. I don't care about what your generation before you says. I don't care about what a political party says. I don't care about what your wired mind says. The Bible says, he didn't condemn him. He just guided him to the place and helped it to surface what he needed. He took a stick, he threw it there and made the iron float. Aren't you grateful for the stuff God is bringing to the surface this year in your life? Now, hang on. Y'all have six minutes and I'll finish this. If y'all don't have six minutes, I'll preach it to Abby today and she can sit there and give me an offering afterwards. Y'all have six minutes. I want to finish this. I really want to finish this. I really don't want to go home holding this. Because when he showed him the place, when he showed him the place where it fell, that is where the miracle happened. I want you to see what happened. He was building and it broke. That is some of us in the room while we were building what we felt like we were supposed to build. It broke. Our focus broke. Our momentum broke. Our streak broke. Our days of sobriety broke. It broke. The relationship broke. The heart broke. The passion broke. It broke because he was building. Now, when it broke, it flew into the water. So now it has been a functional axe head, and now it has fallen into the water. It does not belong in the water. Thank God for verse 3 where he says, come with us, because that means God is with me, not only when it's functional, but when it's falling. Now, I understand. The key of this message and the key of this year and the key to restoration in your life is that God does not only want to be with you when you build it, he wants to be with you when it breaks. I want you to invite God into the places where it breaks. This year. I want you not to pretend like you have the trophies. Pretend like there hasn't been a flood. Pretend like you're in a great place. I want you to make the place you struggle the most the place where you meet with God. What is that place? Notice there is a part God does and there is a part God does not do. The word of the Lord brought the iron to the surface, but it did not bring it to the shore. Lift it out, he said. I'm showing it to you. I'm revealing it to you. There are things the spirit of God will supernaturally reveal to you. But they must be practically recovered. Lift it out. You can't make iron float. God can, but sometimes something is floating, but it's not fixed yet. This is where you meet God. Grace is where God meets you. Faith is where you meet God. Lift it out. Then the man reached out his hand and took it. It's broken, but it's back. It's broken, but it's back. It's broken, but it's back. My life is not exactly what I want it to be at this age and stage. It's broken, but it's back. I'm not on the right path I set out to be on. It's broken, but it's back. I hear a calling from the Holy Spirit this year to somebody's life who thinks you can only meet with God when you are in a perfectly manicured environment full of meditative promises and meticulously kept character. No, no, no. The place you meet with God is in the place you need him the most. If the axe head had not fallen off, there would have been no miracle. I am telling you to stop waiting for a future place to meet God and experience his presence and take him to the place where the blade flung off your stick and watch him bring something up. Here's the thing I learned. You have to reach for it. The axe head did not swim to the boy. He reached for it. I believe God has given you something today to show you something today that he's calling you to reach for. He's not going to make you dive down to the bottom and find it. You can't do that. That's what grace does. But what does faith do? Reach out and lift it up. Grace reveals what faith retrieves. May this be a year of recovery for you. May this be a year of clarity for you. For God to bring things up out of the muddy Jordan River. May this be a year you don't stand swinging your stick knowing this isn't working anymore. May this be a year you don't just keep pretending like everything is fine when you know your effectiveness is at the bottom of the water. May this be the year that you meet with God in weird places. May this be the year you sneak into the bathroom and instead of pills you take a prayer. May this be the year where you meet with God. I had a friend tell me one time, I said, I'm having my quiet time in the car these days. My devotion time with God. Christians, we call quiet time. It's a little Christianese for you. I'm going to do a whole series one year called do you speak Christianese? I'm going to take every little thing we say. We don't even stop to define for people and say, this is what that kind of means. I told him I was meeting with God in my car a lot lately, and God was coming in my car and I was playing all my worship CDs. John P. Key Strength and Hezekiah Walker and the Love Fellowship Tabernacle. I said, I have the best times with God in my car. Paul Balache and Tommy Walker and all the Integrity boys too. I said. I said, I had the greatest meetings with God in my car. He said, those don't count. I said, it doesn't count. He said, no, it's not. Set aside time for God. You have to set aside time for God. God wants to know you're serious. You have to set aside time for God. I believe that the place you meet with God is too small. If you believe that, put up verse one again. The place where we meet with you is too small. If you want to meet with God in your breakfast nook, by all means play a Brandon Lakes CD and do it if you can find a CD player. But when you leave that place, you better meet with God in the next place too. Because the place you meet with God is too small. If the only place you meet with God is when you get a Holy Ghost goosebump, the place you meet with God is too small. Everybody stand up on your feet. I want you by faith, just to stretch your hands up like you're reaching for something that was lost that the enemy tried to steal. Just say this out, God, will you come with me now? Wait, shh, wait, wait. Don't say anything. The answer is yes. He already promised his presence. It lives inside of you. May this be the year where the place where you meet with God becomes the mountaintop of your victory and the valley of your midnight. The place you meet with God has been too small. If church is the only place you meet with God, the place you meet with God is too small. Expand your expectations of God's presence. I declare over your life a year of expansion. Not just that you would get more stuff, but that you would get more him. If you get more him, you have everything. If you have not him, you have nothing. May this be the year of his presence in your life. God, come with me to work this year. God, come with me as I. As I struggle to sleep at night. God, come with me into the challenge this year. God, come with me into the uncertainty. Will you come? And he says yes. He says, when it falls, I'll show you where to reach to get it back. Put your hands down right now. There's somebody. Heads bowed, eyes closed. This is your moment to meet Jesus and be saved. Listen to me, me. God is not waiting for you to come to him. He came to you. That is the message of the gospel. Anytime you spend thinking I'm going to work my way to God, that's not how this works. That's religion. That is not the gospel. The gospel is God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. What am I trying to say to you? I'm saying God has already done it. Now, right now, if this is your moment, you say, I don't want to go into this year doing it by myself. I don't want to go into this year pretending like I've got it together. I want the grace of God. I want to receive Jesus. I'm going to pray a prayer. If you repeat this prayer after me and mean it in your heart. The Bible says God will hear you from heaven. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. Everybody who is coming back to God today, your life is broken. But you can have it back in Jesus name. Repeat after me. Heavenly Father, today is my day of salvation. I am a sinner in need of a savior. I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the Savior of the world. Today I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life. This is my new beginning. On the count of three, shoot your hand up if you prayed that. One, two, three. All over the room, on every location. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Reach out and take it. It's the gift of God. Reach out and take it. It's the gift of God. Let's celebrate them church. Bring those Bibles around. Pass them down. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to Give now or visit elevationchurch.orgpodcast 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 LevationChurch. Thanks again for listening. God Bless.