Latest / Top Churches / Elevation with Steven Furtick - A Problem For My Problem (Jonathan Rivera)

Transcript

Elevation with Steven Furtick - A Problem For My Problem (Jonathan Rivera) · Top Churches

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe so
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: we can get you these new sermons every week. I
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: hope you're blessed today.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Church, stay standing for a moment.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Been thinking a lot about this moment, and before I
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: do anything else and before I preach the word of God,
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: I want to take a moment.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: To just honor your pastors and honor your church. There's
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: some people that.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: You know from afar. You don't know them up close,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: but even though you don't know them, they have an
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: impact on you. Like I remember when Kobe died and
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: I cried like if a family member died because even
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: though I didn't know him, he had made an impact
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: on my life. Recently, I went to the movies and
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: watched Spider-Man and I cried a lot.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Because I felt like even though I don't know Spider-Man,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: he is real. But I felt like even though I
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: don't know him, I know him.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: And he's made an impact on my life from afar.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: And I can't tell you the kind of impact that
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Elevation Church and Pastor Stephen and Holly Furtick have made
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: on my life. I can't talk about my relationship with Jesus.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: I can't talk about my ministry. I can't talk about
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: my life without talking about Elevation Church and Elevation Worship.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: And Pastor Steven and Holly.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Come on, if you love your church, if you love
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: your pastors, can you make a little bit of noise today?
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Come on, all of our campuses, can you make a
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: little bit of noise today? Do me a favor, high
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: five five people and let them know I'm glad you.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Came to church today. Glad you came to church. After that,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: you can go ahead.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Take a seat. Take a seat, take a seat. Is
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: anybody happy to be in God's house today? Can we
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: say thank you to the worship team for leading us today?
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Come on. If you love my friend, Graham Furtick, you
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: make a little bit of noise today. Got a word
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: that I've been praying over and preparing, and I really
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: feel like it's going to be an encouragement.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: To somebody in this room today. But before I go
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: into the work, can I introduce you to my family
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: really quickly? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a picture of
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: my wife. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Your boy did good.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Your boy did good. He gave me a Colombian queen.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Someone say hallelujah.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Now I'm about to show you a picture of my son.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: When I show you this picture of my son, I
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: need you to absolutely.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Lose your mind.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: Are you ready?
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: This is my son, Tobias. Come on, put that picture
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: up on the screen for me.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my boy. That's my boy.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Also, the last thing that I'll do, I need to
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: give a special shout out. I am a proud Puerto
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Rican from Orlando, Florida. And so shout out to Elevation Orlando.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Shout out to Elevation Melbourne. So thankful for what God's
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: doing in our city and in our state.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Is anybody ready for the word of God today?
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: I need you to do three things for me. Number one,
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: I need you to take some notes. I heard y'all
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: take notes at Elevation Church.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Is that true? Show me your notebook. Show me your notebook.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Show me your notebook. Does anybody have a Bible in
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the room? Show me your Bible. Show me your Bible.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Show me your Bible. I like big Bibles and I
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: cannot lie. Today I need you to take some notes.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Write some stuff down because you can't remember what God
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: told you if you don't remember.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: What God told you.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: You're going to want to go back and remember what
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: God spoke to you today. Somebody say amen. That's the
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: second thing that I need you to do. I heard
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: that at Elevation Church, y'all talk back to the preacher.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Is that right? Now, I want you to.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: Know, you don't talk back to the preacher because we
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: just like to have ruckus and noise.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: When you talk back, when you say amen, it's actually.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: An expression of faith, saying, God, I received that word
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: from my life. Somebody say amen. Come on, where's my
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: amen corner today? Where's the people who.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Are saying, is it over here? Is it over here?
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Is it over here? Is it over here? Is it
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: over here? No, it's over here.
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: I feel like it's over here.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's over here. Y'all, my amen corner today.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Last but not least, I want you to open up
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: your heart because I truly believe that today, someone say today,
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: God has a word that he wants to share with you.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: If you got a Bible, I want you to go
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: to Philippians chapter one, verses 12 through 14. Reading the
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: book of Philippians, which is really a letter. It's a
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: letter from the Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul is one of
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: the most important people in all the Bible.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: He's an apostle. He wrote two thirds of the New Testament.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: And in my mind, he's kind of the goal. He
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: writes this letter to a group of people that are
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: worried about him. And he wants to encourage them. because
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: right now he's in prison. And his situation doesn't look
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: very promising and doesn't look very hopeful. But he writes
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: them to encourage him and he has this peculiar passage.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: That I would like to share with you today. Philippians 1,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: 12 through 14, here's what it says.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: what has happened to.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Me has actually served to advance the gospel.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Pause.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: He's saying, me being in prison behind bars, in chains,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: has actually served to advance the gospel. And as a result,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: And because of my chains, most of the brothers and
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: sisters have become confident.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: In the Lord.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: And dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Taking notes tonight.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: Over the next few minutes, I'd like to speak to
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: you from this thought.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: A problem for my problem. A problem for my problem.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: I'll say it again. A problem.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: For my problem. Can you bow your heads and close
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: your eyes? Let's pray over the preaching of God's word.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Lord, we love you. This is your house and we
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: are your people.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: And I pray that today as we look into your word,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: you would speak to us through your spirit in the ways.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: That only you can.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: And in the end, we promise to give you all
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: the glory and all the honor and all the praise.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: In Jesus' name, can someone shout out amen? Come on,
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: if you're ready for the word of God today, can
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: you make a little bit of noise?
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Last thing, I got to give a shout out.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: I am the campus pastor at Southeastern University, and I
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: heard that Elevation College might be in the room today.
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Come on.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Shout out to Elevation College. Excited about what God's doing
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: with you guys. Real quick, make some noise if you
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: love history. You're a history buff. You like history. All right, let's.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Do this one.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: This will get some more amens. Raise your hand if
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: you like a good documentary. You like a documentary. I'm
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: worried about you. Because all y'all are watching documentaries about
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: murderers and serial killers, and that's the reason why you
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: can't sleep at night.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: But I love history. I love biographies. I love documentaries.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: I love hearing the story of how something became what
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: it became, or how someone became what they became. I
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: love documentaries, and I love stories, especially about things that
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: I'm passionate about.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: So for example, I love Apple. I've got an iPhone,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: I've got an iPad, I've got an iMac, a lot
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: of i's. I got all of them.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: And I want to hear the story of how Apple
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: started as a company. And when I started doing research,
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: I saw something I'd never seen before. See, most people
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: have heard of a guy named Steve Jobs. Raise your
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: hand if you heard of Steve Jobs.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Put your hands down. Raise your hand if you ever
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: heard of a man named Steve Wozniak. Raise your hand.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Fewer people. Put your hands down. There's one name that
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: most people have never heard of. They've heard of Steve Jobs.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: They've heard of Steve Wozniak. But many people have never
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: heard of a man named Ronald Wayne.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: The reason why is because Ronald Wayne isn't part of
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: the story the way that Steve and Steve are.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: See, here's what happened.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: 50 years ago, April 1st, 1976, there was three co-founders
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: of the Apple company, not two. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: and Ronald Wayne. Ronald Wayne did some pretty important stuff.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: He was actually part of creating the first manual for
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: the first Apple computer. Not only did he do that,
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: he was also the one who created the first ever
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: Apple logo. It wasn't an Apple, it was actually something else.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Can you put that picture on the screen? This is
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: the first ever Apple logo that was ever created. Ronald
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Wayne did that. And because of his work, he was
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: going to receive 10% of the Apple company. But something happened.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: After 12 days, he quit. Couldn't handle the stress. Couldn't
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: handle the worry. Couldn't handle the anxiety. Steve and Steve
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: were driving him crazy. Maybe they didn't like him because
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: his name wasn't Steve. Because then it would have been Steve, Steve,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: and Steve. But it was Steve, Steve, and Ronald. They
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: didn't like the sound of that. So here's what he does,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: he quits and he sells his 10% of the company.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: For $ 800.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: Now we all know Apple went on to be a
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: real small mom and pop shop in San Francisco.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: It's actually not what happened.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Apple goes on to be one of, if not the
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: biggest company in the entire world. Quick question, would you
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: like to know how much is $ 800? His 10% of
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Apple stock will be worth.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: 50 years later in 2026. $ 200 billion. That's not an
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: M with a B. Billion, billion.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: Now once you look at me I Have a question
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: that I would like to ask you today Have you
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: ever seen somebody quit too soon? Have you ever seen
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: somebody that threw in the white towel and Too soon.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: Have you ever seen someone quit on a job too soon?
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Quit on a friendship too soon? Quit on a marriage
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: too soon? Quit on a dream too soon? Have you
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: ever seen somebody quit.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: On God too soon?
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: See, what's sad about that is the possibility of what
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: could have been and what should have been and what
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: would have been but did not happen because sometimes we
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: give up too soon and we miss out on everything
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: that god had in store for us came to encourage
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: somebody at elevation church today look at me it's too
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: soon to quit look at your neighbor say neighbor it's
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: too soon to quit look at your other neighbor your
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: second option and let your neighbor know neighbor it's too.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Soon to quit One day, you and I will stand
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: before God. You and I will stand before Jesus and
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: we will give an account for.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: The life that we lived. And he will ask us,
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: what did you do with the life that I gave you?
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: What did you do with the talents that I gave you?
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: What did you do with the family that I gave you?
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: What did you do with the resources that I gave you?
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: There's actually a scripture about this in the Bible. There's
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: something called the judgment seat of Christ. There's going to
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: be a judgment around eternity, but then there's going to
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: be a judgment for the believers, for followers of Jesus,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: where Jesus is going to talk to you about the
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: life that you live. Second Corinthians 5.10, here's what it says,
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: for we must all appear before the judgment seat of
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Christ so that each one may receive what is due
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: for what he has done in the body, whether good
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: or evil. I remember hearing preachers preach about this text
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: and talking about how one day we're going to stand
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: before Jesus and we're going to give an account for
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: the life that we lived. But the preacher preached it
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: in an interesting way. Maybe you've heard this before. Maybe
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: you and I listened to the same preacher. He would say,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: one day you're going to get to heaven and there's
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: going to be a gigantic screen. Has anyone heard this before?
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: There's going to be a screen in heaven and God's
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: going to play a movie of your life. And people
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: are going to see.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: The good things that you did, but they're also going
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: to see the bad things that you did.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Do you want people to watch a movie about all
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: the bad things that you did?
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: And the whole time that I'm watching it, I'm thinking,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: I just hope my mom isn't there to watch the movie.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: Because there's a season, there's parts of that movie that
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: are not PG-13. And I don't want my mother to see. See,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: the older that I got, I came to two conclusions.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: The first thing is this.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: The Bible doesn't say anything about a TV screen. The
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: preacher added that part. That part's not there. And then
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: the second thing is this.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Even if that is true, even if everyone that I
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: know will see all the mistakes that I made and
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: all the bad things that I did and the sins
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: that I committed, I don't have to be worried about
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: that because Jesus died on the cross for me.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: I'm covered by the blood of Christ. I've been redeemed.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: in Christ Jesus.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Play the movie. I'm not worried about it. Now, here's
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: the thing. Like I mentioned, the movie part isn't in
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: the Bible.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: But you know what will be worse than a movie
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: about all the mistakes that you made and all the
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: things that you committed? I remember my youth pastor told
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: me one time, you know what will be worse than that?
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Could you imagine God played a movie of the life
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: that you could have lived? <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL>.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL>.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Because you allow life to get in the way. Listen
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: to me, that is horrible. I hate to think about that.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: You know why?
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Because the only thing harder than obedience is regret. The
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: only thing harder than saying yes to.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: God is wishing you would have said yes to God. See,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: God has so much in store for our lives, our marriages,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: our children, our families, our businesses, our church, our callings.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: God has so much in store for us.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: But all of that, listen to me, is on the
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: other side of something called perseverance.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Somebody say perseverance. Someone shout out perseverance. Perseverance.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Let me give you Miriam Webster's definition of perseverance. Perseverance
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: is continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure,
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: or opposition. Let me put that in plain English for you.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: You need to push past the pain. You need to
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: push past. past the pain. Can you say that with me?
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: Push past the pain.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Say it one more time. Push past the pain. I
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: kinda like this. Push past the pain. Only do it
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: when I put my hands toward you.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Ready?
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Push past the pain. Watch this. Push past the.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Pain.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Give yourselves a round of applause.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: The truth is, pain is part of the human experience.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: I want y'all to know today, I confess to you,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: my back hurts.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: My knee hurts. My life hurts.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: Pain is part of the human experience and there's all
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: kinds of pain. And I came today to church to
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: let you know that God cares about your pain. God
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: doesn't cause all pain. Breaks God's heart. Some of the
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: things that you've had to go through, it breaks my
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: heart as a pastor. Some of the things that you've
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: had to walk through. I bet if I walked around
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: and passed the microphone, I'd hear so many stories of
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: things that people are even walking through right now in
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: this church. And nobody would know. They could be sitting
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: on your left, sitting on your right, behind you or
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: in front of you. They have no idea what you're
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: walking through. There's all kinds of pain. There's relational pain.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: There's emotional pain. There's physical pain. There's financial pain. But
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: what I love about the Bible is the Bible is
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: a book that doesn't run away from pain.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Actually read the Bible. If you've ever really read the Bible,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: here's what you see. A lot of pain. A lot
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: of brokenness.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: The Bible doesn't run away from pain, which brings me
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: to the book of Philippians, where we find our passage today.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Philippians is an interesting book. See, Philippians is written by
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: the Apostle Paul.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Someone say Paul.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: And the book of Philippians is written in prison. It's
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: a prison epistle. Someone say prison. Look at your neighbor
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: and say neighbor. I don't want to go back to prison.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: Your neighbor's like, you went to prison? I didn't know
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: who I was sitting next to, dang.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: The book of Philippians is written by Paul.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: It's written in prison, but there's one additional factor that
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: makes it an interesting book. Theologians, scholars, they call the
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: book of Philippians the book of joy. The epistle of joy,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: the letter of joy, which to me sounds like an oxymoron.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: Paul writes a book in prison and is the epistle
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: of joy. That feels like a contradiction because how do
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: you have joy while you're sitting in a prison cell?
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: That doesn't feel like the appropriate response to chains. So Paul,
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: he's trying to encourage the church in Philippi. The people
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: are worried about him and he's trying to encourage them
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: and he's saying all these encouraging things and he's speaking
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: about joy.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: But as I'm listening to this, I gotta be honest.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking to myself, Paul, are you faking it? Just
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: tell me the truth. Are you struggling?
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: Are you not okay? Just tell me what's really going on.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: Are you faking it?
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Are you lying?
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: Is the situation actually worse than you wanna be honest about?
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: Because Paul, this doesn't feel genuine. You're in prison, but
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: you're talking about Joy, I used to ask the same
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: question about my mama.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Mom, if you're listening, I'm sorry.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: Because my mom would fight with me on Friday, and
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: my mama would spank me on Saturday. My mother didn't
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: believe in gentle parenting. My mother, she's Pentecostal and Puerto Rican.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: She believed in the laying on of hands, if you
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: know what I'm talking about.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, you in therapy too, anyways. So my mama would
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: argue with me on Friday. She would spank me on Sunday,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: on Saturday, but she would sing on Sunday. We had
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: a bad week. But my mama would show up to church.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Maybe you know this song.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: I've got a joy like a river. Joy like a river.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Sing with me.
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: Joy like a river in my soul. I got a joy, joy.
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: Joy like a river. Joy like a river in my soul.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: But she wasn't singing on Saturday. She was spanking. Singing
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: and spanking. She's doing both. I think about my mom
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: and I think about Paul and I've got a question.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Which one is it? Is it joy or is it chains?
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Is it praise or is it pain? Which one is it?
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Because it doesn't feel like both of those can go together,
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: but the answer is it's actually both.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: It's praising in my pain.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: And not allowing my pain to stop my praise. Someone
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: say perseverance today. We see this in first in Acts
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: chapter 16. This is not Paul's first time in prison.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: He is a repeat offender. Says Acts chapter 16, Paul
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: and Silas are in prison. Pastor Jonathan preached about this
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago. Paul and Silas, they're in prison.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: And the Bible says they're praying and singing hymns. And
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: the other prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: prison were shaken. And at once all the prison doors
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: flew open and everyone's chains came loose. That's a powerful sermon.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: I could preach that sermon. That's a powerful story. I
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: believe that God can set people free. I believe that
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: God does miracles. I believe that God does the impossible.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: I believe that God sets chains loose and brings freedom.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: But what do you do when you're singing about joy,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: but you're still in chains? Coming to church on Sunday,
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: you're serving, you're worshiping, you're giving, you're listening, but your
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: kid's still acting up. And you still can't sleep. And
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: your spouse still isn't coming to church. And that addiction
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: keeps knocking at your door and you still can't.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Find a job. The apostle Paul can relate.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: See, at the very top, we read Philippians chapter one,
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: verses 12 through 14. In this moment where Paul is
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: writing this, he's still in prison. He's still in chains,
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: but he says something interesting about his experience. He says
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: in verse 12, now I want you to know, brothers
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: served to advance.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Someone say advance. The gospel.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: When he says what has happened to me, he's talking
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: about his chains. These chains are advancing the gospel. What
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: has happened to me, me being in prison, me being
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: in chains, unfairly, unjustly, and I'm here for preaching the gospel.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Have you ever done everything right and still things go wrong?
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: You come in a church, you're trying to get right.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: You're trying to lead your family the right way. You're
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: trying to honor God at your workplace. You're trying to
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: honor God in your relationships. You're trying to.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Do the right thing and the wrong thing happens.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: Paul says, what has happened to me, being in prison,
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: has actually served to advance the gospel. He's talking about
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: it like it's a good thing. He even talks about
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: it in a way where it almost implies, listen to me,
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: that he's grateful for it. How can you be grateful
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: for the pain that you're going through? How can you
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: celebrate the struggle that you're living in?
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Now listen to me, I don't think Paul likes pain.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: He's not a masochist. I don't think anybody likes pain.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: It's like when I talk to people who go on
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: a diet. Nobody likes a diet.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: If someone tells you they like a diet, they're either
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: lying to you or trying to.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Sell you something.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: Nobody likes a diet, but here's what they do like.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: They like the results that it produces. I've been living
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: long enough and following Jesus long enough, and I've read
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: the Bible long enough to notice I don't understand why,
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: but pain produces. Produces, produces something on the inside of you.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: James would say in chapter one of his book, he
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: would say, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: when you go through trials of all many kinds, because
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: it is producing.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Someone say produce.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: I don't know why pain does it the way it does,
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: but pain produces. See, I'm not thankful that you went
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: through the divorce. I'm not thankful that you lost the job.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: I'm not thankful for the betrayal. I'm not thankful that
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: I lost those people. I'm not thankful that I went
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: through that season. I'm not thankful that they lied about me.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: It hurt me. It broke me.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: It did something to me. But listen to me on
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: the other side of it. Pain produced something that success
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: couldn't produce. Pain produced something that money couldn't produce. Pain
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: produced something that promotion couldn't produce. Pain produced something that
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: that relationship couldn't produce. Pain produced something that fame couldn't produce.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Pain produced something that an answered prayer couldn't produce. Pain.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: Produces, and I don't thank him for the pain, but
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: I do thank him for how he used the pain
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: to produce something in me that I could not produce
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: in myself.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Listen to me, if you've ever been on the other.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: Side of pain and looked back and said, thank you, Jesus,
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: can you make a little bit of noise today? If
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: he got you through, if he did something in you,
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: he made you stronger, he made you wiser, he made
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: you better, he made.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: You more loving, he made you more compassionate.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: I don't understand why it works that way, All I
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: know is that pain produces. What has happened to me
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: has actually served to advance the gospel.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: That's the other thing. The gospel is advancing.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: I want someone to know today, there's nothing that could
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: stop the gospel. There's nothing that could stop the kingdom
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: of God. There's nothing that could stop the word of God.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: There's nothing that could stand in the way of my Jesus.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: It doesn't matter what TikTok says. It doesn't matter what
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: Instagram says. It doesn't matter what the news says. It
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: doesn't matter what you hear on the street. The gospel
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: is on the move. Your God and my God, listen
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: to me, he's always working. Look at your neighbor, say labor.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: I said labor, neighbor. Let them cook. Tell your other neighbor, neighbor,
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: let them cook. What I love about God is how
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: he moves the gospel forward in ways that we could
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: never imagine. Like God is always looking for Forrest Gump.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: He's always looking to do things in a way that
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: you and I wouldn't have done it. He always does
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: things in.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: A way where you and I couldn't see the potential
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: of it.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: But God did. Someone say God did. Paul's situation isn't
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: looking good. He is in chains. He's in prison. This
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: feels like a loss. The show is over, bro. Throw
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: up the white flag. Hang up the jersey. But Paul
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: doesn't do that.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: See.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Paul's a preacher, but how do you preach behind bars?
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: Paul is a church planter. How do you plant churches
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: in chains? Paul goes on to say, as a result,
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Context matters.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: Someone say context. If you're not careful, you'll skip over
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: a pretty significant detail. In this passage. That's why you
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: need context. Someone say context. Paul says, it has become
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: clear throughout.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: The whole palace. Everybody knows. The security guard knows. The
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: secretary knows.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: The housekeeping team knows.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Everybody knows. I'm in chains.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: But then he says this other phrase, the whole palace guard.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: If you read that, you're like, well, what does that mean?
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: How many people is that? In Roman culture, the palace
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: guard was also known as the praetorian guard. The praetorian
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: guard was a small army of a thousand soldiers.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: And they all know about Paul. You know why?
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Because in Roman prisons, what they would do is they
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: would get the prisoner, they would put him in chains,
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: but he wasn't just left in the prison cell by himself.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: What they would do is they would put a soldier
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: on his right and they would put a soldier on
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: his left. If you could use your imagination for a second,
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: I just got a feeling Paul was an evangelist. He
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: was going to talk to everybody, even if they didn't
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: want to listen. I can imagine someone sitting next to him, amen,
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: What's your name?
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Julio? Nice to meet you, Julio. Julio, you Puerto Rican?
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: I went to Puerto Rico one time. It was a
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: good time, man. I like Mofongo, you know. Julio, you
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: see these chains? I'm in chains, but I'm free.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: And I want you to know, you might be free,
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: but you still in chains.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: But I believe God's going to set you free, Julio.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: He's going to do something in your life. What's your name? James?
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: What's up, James? You doing good? Yeah, I'm all right. James,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: y'all on rotation, right? What's your shift? What time you
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: got out of here?
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: Four? Four?
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Y'all on rotation?
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Four?
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: That's cool. Listen to me. While you're here, we're going
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: to talk, James. Have you heard about Jesus? You haven't
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: heard about Jesus? I want you to know Jesus heard
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: about you. He's going back. And guess what?
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL>.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: <HAL> <HAL> <HAL>.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> his chains he
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: turned his prison guards into his congregation Philippians is a
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: prison epistle. Ephesians is also a prison epistle. That means
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: that he wrote Ephesians in prison and he wrote Philippians
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: in prison. And there's this interesting thing at the end
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter six, it says that he starts
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: talking about the full armor of God, the helmet of salvation,
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the sword
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: of a spirit. What does that sound like to you?
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: It sounds like a Roman soldier. What does that mean?
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: That he did not allow his circumstance to stop his
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: message from going forward. He said, listen to me, I'm
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: going to write what's going on. I'm going to make
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: a message out of this mess. And I'm going to
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: believe that in spite of my chains and in spite
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: of the bars and inside this prison cell, the message
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: of the gospel is still.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: Going to move forward.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: What has happened to me has actually served to advance
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: the gospel.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: I'm going to finish with this. I'm going to start
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: landing this plane.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: Paul is preaching the gospel in the midst of his pain.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: And the soldiers are coming to Christ in the midst
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: of his pain.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: But watch this. And the church is being encouraged by
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: his pain. How are you encouraged by somebody else's pain?
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: But that's what's happening. Look at what the next verse says.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Verse 14.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: And because of my chains, most of the brothers and
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: sisters have become confident in the Lord and.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: That's interesting. You know why?
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: See, Paul's preaching. And then he goes to prison. And
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: then people see the correlation.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: He preached. He went to prison.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: And they see him in prison and they say, now
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: I want to preach. But preaching is what landed him
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: in prison. Why would you want to go to prison?
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Why would you want that pain? Why would you have
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: that experience? Not only do they have more confidence, they
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: have less fear. They're not afraid of the prison. They're
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: not afraid of the soldiers. They're not afraid of the bars.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: So why would Paul's chains encourage them to preach if
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: they know the end result? And what is it that
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: is making them less afraid? If you've heard nothing else
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: that I've said today, I want you to hear this.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: Could it be that Paul's chains removed the mystery behind
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: what was on the other side I wanna.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Say that one more time.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: Could it be that Paul's chains removed the mystery behind
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: what was on the other side of pain, on the
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: other side of the prison, on the other side of
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: the chains, on the other side of the soldiers?
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: What do I mean by that? In plain language, they.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: Don't have to guess what's going to happen when they
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: go through their worst moment. I remember when I got
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: my first tattoo, I had a younger brother who passed
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: away and me and a group of friends and his parents,
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: we went and got a tattoo in his honor. And
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: I remember we're getting the tattoos, but I looked at
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: my friend, I said, you go first.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: I'd never gotten a tattoo before. I said, you go first.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: He said, why? Why won't you go? I said, because
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: I want to see what the pain looks like.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: I want to see it first. And if I could
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: see it, I feel like I can endure it. See,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: you know what I wanted to do in that moment?
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: I wanted to remove the mystery of pain.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: I wanted to remove the mystery of what was on
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: the other side of that experience. See, they saw Paul
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: preach and they saw Paul get arrested and they saw
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: Paul go through his worst moment, but on.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: The other side of it, look at me, he was
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: all right. He was still in prison. I'm not trying
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: to minimize his pain. He was in prison. He was
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: in chains.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: He was surrounded by soldiers, but he was all right.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: Which means if you're taking those, I want you to
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: write this down.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Which means I don't have to be afraid anymore. See,
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: y'all remember the movie Home Alone? By the way, part
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: two is the better one. But there's a scene in
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: Home Alone where Kevin comes out and he says, I'm
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: not afraid anymore. I'm not afraid anymore.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: I think we need to walk out of church today
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: and look at the enemy and let him know, hey,
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: I want you to know, devil, I'm not afraid anymore.
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: I'm not worried about what's going to come my way.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: I know who my God is. I know who's with me.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: I've seen other people's stories and.
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: I saw how.
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: They made it through, which means I'm going to.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Make it through too. I'm going to be all right.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Sit down for just a moment. Sit down for a moment.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: I'm almost done.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: The good news is that you and I have examples
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: of this all over the Bible.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: All over the Bible.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: Moses is standing in front of an ocean with millions
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: of people behind him and Pharaoh's.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Shoulders at his neck. But in the end, he was alright.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: David is sent to go take some Lunchables to his brothers.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: He's a cheese boy. Comes with a little picnic basket
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: and some sandwiches. See, he's a giant. And he said,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: I'll take care of that giant.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: And David, listen to me, because if you're not careful,
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: you've heard the story so many times that you don't.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: Realize the impact of it. David thought a giant. But
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: in the end, David was all right. Daniel is in
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: the lion's den with a lion looking him face to face.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: And in the end, Daniel was all right.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego get thrown into a fire because
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: they will not bow down to the king, and at
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: the end of the story, they come out of the
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: fire untouched, and the king even said, I feel like
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: I see a.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: Fourth man in the fire, and it looks like the
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: son of man. They went through the fire, but in
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: the end, they were all right.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: And the angel comes down to Mary and says, Mary,
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: I know you're young and I know that you haven't.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Been married yet.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: But Mary, you will give birth to a son, Emmanuel,
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: God with us.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: And Mary said, let it be as you have said.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: And in the end, Mary was all right.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: Paul is in prison Soldiers, prison bars, chains. And somehow
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: in the end, Paul was all right.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: He said, I'm all right.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: He said, even if they take my life, to be
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Even if I'm not right here, I'm going to be
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: all right up there. You ain't got to worry about me.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be just fine. Paul was all right.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: This last one. Jesus is on a cross. A sign
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: over his head. The king of the Jews. People mocking him.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: If you're really the son of God, come down from
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: that cross and show us who you are. Nails in
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: his hands. Nails in his feet. A spear in his side.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: Wine in his mouth. People mocking him. And guess what?
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Jesus dies. But Jesus, he died.
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: They took him down and they put him in a grave,
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: but he didn't stay in the grave.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: He was there for one day. He was there for
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: two days.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: But on the third day, the Bible says he is resurrected.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: He comes out of the grave.
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: You might have seen him on a cross, but I
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: want you to know Jesus is doing just fine.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: He's resurrected.
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: He's got a glorious body.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: He's sitting at.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: The right hand of the Father.
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: Interceding for you and interceding for me. He has to
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: go to the cross. He has to go to the jail.
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: He has to go through the hurt.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: But in the end, I want you to know, Jesus
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: is all right. Which means that if he died, He resurrected.
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: And if he came out of the grave, it means
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: that you and I will too. stand on your feet
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: this morning church I'm.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: Almost done if God could take.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: Jonathan Rivera broken Puerto Rican kid on the city bus
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: single handicapped mom going from one painful event to another
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: painful event fighting every day to try to move forward
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: called to preach but he's got a stuttering.
• 40:09
  Speaker 7: Problem if God could do it with David And he
• 40:17
  Speaker 7: could do it with Moses. And he could do it
• 40:20
  Speaker 7: with Daniel. And he could do it with Mary. And
• 40:23
  Speaker 7: he could do it with Jesus. And he could do
• 40:25
  Speaker 7: it with me. It also means he could do it
• 40:28
  Speaker 7: with you.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: This is why testimonies are so important. The Bible says
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: the word of our testimony. I remember I grew up
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: in a church where once in a while we would
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: have a testimony night and the elderly lady would come
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: to the front and the pastor would give her the mic,
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: but he held the mic because he didn't know what
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: she was going to say. And so the elderly lady
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: would come to the front and she would say, pastor
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: and church, I want you to know that six months
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: ago I went to the doctor and the doctor gave
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: me a report and I looked at the doctor and
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: I told the doctor, listen, doctor, I don't believe you.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: I believe my God. And I know he's going to
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: heal me and he's going to restore me.
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: And the doctor said, that's fine, ma'am. But I want
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: you to come back in six months so we could
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: check on you. Which, by the way, go check with
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: your doctor. Go to the doctor, all right? Take your vitamins, kids.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: Take your vitamins. She says, I came back to the
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: doctor six months later and he shows the report and
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: he says, ma'am, I can't explain this.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know what happened.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: I can't scientifically prove what took place, but I saw
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: cancer and there's not cancer anymore. I saw a sickness
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: and there's no sickness anymore. I saw a disease and
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: there's no disease anymore.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: She's got a testimony. Someone shout out testimony.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: Then somebody else will come to the mic and they
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: will say, a year ago, me and my wife were
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: going through a really rough patch. We're going through a
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: tough situation. And the truth is we had divorce papers
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: on the table. And we didn't move it off the table,
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: but we didn't sign it either. We knew stuff was rough,
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: but we didn't know what was going to happen. And
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: then we came to church on a Sunday. And there
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: was a word that the pastor gave. And on the
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: way home, we just started crying. Because we felt like
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: God was doing something in our heart. And we felt
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: like God wanted us to fight for our marriage. And
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: we came to let you know today, church, that we
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: ripped up the divorce papers. And God's working on our marriage.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: And we're still coming to church. And we're trying to
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: be faithful. And we're restoring our family. And God's working
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: on us. And it's one day at a time. But
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: I want you to know, we're going to be all right. Today.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Today.
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: My encouragement to you is all over the Bible, there
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: is proof that you don't have to be afraid of
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: what's on the other side. Someone say the other side.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: Do me a favor real quick. If you're in this
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: room today and you've got a testimony of God's faithfulness.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: In your life, in your marriage, in your kids, in
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: your business, in your body, in your mind, right where
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: you are, lift up your hand. Listen to me. I
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: just get, no, keep it up, keep it up, keep
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: it up.
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: I just gave you a bunch of reasons to believe
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: that you're going to make it, that God's going to
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: get you through, that you and I are going to
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: be all right.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: I don't got to be afraid anymore. And listen to me.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: That is a problem for my problem. I don't know
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: what problem you walked in with today. I don't know
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: what situation you.
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: Might be walking through with your marriage, with your kids,
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: with your business, at your job, in your health, in
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: your mind. I don't know what you're walking through today,
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: but I want you to know that.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: Your problem has a problem.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: His name is Jesus. And I know that right now
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: you might be afraid of your problem, but your problem
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: is afraid.
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: Of your God, which means that today, it doesn't matter
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: what you're going through, It doesn't matter what prison you
• 44:31
  Speaker 5: find yourself in.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter what change you might have in your life.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: Guess what you could do? You could still lift up
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: your hands. You could still lift up your voice. You
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: could still say hallelujah.
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: You could still say thank you, Jesus, because I might
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: be here right now, but I don't got to be
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: afraid because I know what's on the other side of this,
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: and the truth is that I know I'm going to.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: Be all right. I'm going to walk out of this
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: with a testimony.
• 44:57
  Speaker 5: I'm going to walk out of this with a story
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: of God's goodness. I'm going to walk out of this
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: with a story of God's faithfulness.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 45:06
  Speaker 8: I'm giving all that I am. You gave me chance
• 45:13
  Speaker 8: after chance. After chance.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: After chance.
• 45:21
  Speaker 8: I'm lifting.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: I'm lifting both of my hands.
• 45:26
  Speaker 8: Cause you gave me chance after chance, after chance. And I,
• 45:35
  Speaker 8: I'm giving all that I am. Cause you gave me
• 45:40
  Speaker 8: chance after chance, after chance. Who am I that you
• 45:48
  Speaker 8: keep me on?
• 45:49
  Speaker 6: God, I'm just grateful for you.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: God, I'm just grateful for.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: You.
• 46:00
  Speaker 8: And all my life, you've been.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: Right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for you.
• 46:09
  Speaker 8: I'm really, really grateful. Think, who am I? Who am I?
• 46:14
  Speaker 8: That you keep me on your mind. God, I'm just.
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: I'm.
• 46:18
  Speaker 8: Just grateful for you.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: God, I'm just grateful for you.
• 46:22
  Speaker 8: All my life, all my life, you've been right here
• 46:28
  Speaker 8: by my side.
• 46:29
  Speaker 6: God, I'm just grateful for you.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: I'm really, really grateful.
• 46:35
  Speaker 8: I survived. I survived. And I'm here to testify.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: You better testify, testify.
• 46:43
  Speaker 6: I'm just grateful. You gotta testify, testify Sing I'm alright,
• 46:57
  Speaker 6: I'm alright God I'm just grateful for you God I'm
• 47:03
  Speaker 6: just grateful for.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: You Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast. And if
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: we can get you all of these new messages as
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: soon as they're available. I also want to take a
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: moment and thank all of you who are a part
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: of Elevation. Whether you support us financially or serve with
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: us or just share these messages, it's because of you
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: that we're able to reach people. all around the world.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: And if you want more information on how to be
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: a part of Elevation, click the link in the description.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: share the message and subscribe. God bless you.