The Power Of Pre
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Hey, this is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. I hope this inspires you. I hope it builds your faith. I hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. We're coming from a little bit of an unknown scripture. This is not like Stairway to Heaven or a Led Zeppelin song that everybody knows. This is a deep track from the book of 2 Kings.

13:14 through 20 Part A. I want to read it real quick for you. It says, "Now Elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him." And he uses this expression that was used when Elijah was taken up to heaven. He was the prophet who preceded Elisha. And he says, "My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel,

He didn't know what he would do as king if he didn't have the man of God giving guidance and strategy. And so he's weeping over an opportunity that is passing. And Elisha, instead of giving him some sort of chicken soup for the kingly soul, gives him a set of marching orders. He gives him something to do. And most of us, if we would do what we already knew,

We could see victory in our life. It's not a lack of knowledge a lot of times. It's a lack of courage or a lack of conviction. And so he understands something that he's got to get Jehoash the king to move out of apathy and to own the outcome and fight for himself. It's almost as if Elisha is saying, stop crying, man up. Look at verse 15. Get a bow and some arrows. Take the bow in your hands.

And when he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. And our theme we said was in verse 17, open the east window, and he opened it. He wanted him to view the victory before he fought the battle. It's the power of a preview. And I don't know about you, but I'm looking into my future with expectation and anticipation. Amen. I don't need any news network to define the future for me. I have a preview of heaven's agenda for my life.

I'm pointing my expectation in the direction of my destiny believing that the best is ahead Touch somebody and say your bestest before you your best is not behind you The devil is a liar. You have not seen your best days The best is yet to be open the window stop staring at the wall Stop thinking about what you lost get what you have left open the east window and shoot Take the shot and he shot

And he proclaimed the Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram. Everybody has an Aram. Everybody has a next battle to fight. Everybody has a keystone conquest that if you win this one, it'll set you up for success in all of the other ones. I don't know what your Aram is this year. It might be very, very practical. But he told him to aim at Aram. Don't run from it. Face it in faith. But don't put your eyes on Aram.

Put your eyes on the arrow flying over Aram. Kind of like Peter, if he would keep his eyes on the one who was above the wind and the waves, he could float. The bottoms of his feet were somehow water-resistant. But when he looked at the wind and the waves, when you look at Aram, you always become afraid. But if you watch the arrow, watch the arrow,

Keep your eye on the promise of God over your life. He said, "You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek." We said last week that the arrow is flying over your life. The window of opportunity is here. But what comes next is so important.

What just happened is a powerful prediction of victory, but what happens next is a practical assignment. Here I want to spend my time on week two of Work Your Window. Then he said… Sometimes that's what happens after you come to church, get inspired, worship God, move the mountains and all of that. Sometimes it's the little things. Sometimes it's not the mountains, it's the molehills. Talk to me, somebody. Amen.

He said, take the arrows. And the king took them. Elisha told him, strike the ground. And he struck it three times. He was in compliance, but he wasn't fully committed. He struck it three times. He was in compliance, but he wasn't committed. And stopped. Remember the man of God said, get a bow. He said, take the bow. He said, open the window, take the arrow, strike the ground. But he didn't say stop. He didn't say stop. There's something in your life today that God has not said stop.

Watch this. The man of God was angry with him and said, you should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. Sometimes we do just enough to survive, but not enough to really succeed. So we stay stuck. In fact, we tell ourselves the story that we're stuck. Is it that you're stuck or is it that you stopped?

You would have completely destroyed it, but now you will defeat it only three times. Watch the window close in verse 20. Elisha died and was buried. It's over now. You should have done it. You didn't do it. I want to pick up right where I left off last week on the power of precision. I talked about determining the decision before the battle begins. This message is called the power of pre. Just pre. Just pre. Pre like pre-precision.

premarital counseling. Me and Holly had some premarital counseling before we got married. Straightened her out, got her dysfunctions not completely eliminated but manageable. Then I got her some prenatal vitamins after we got married because I got her pregnant. The power of pre. We did not have to sign a prenup. We didn't have no pre-nothing to sign it over. That's what I want to preach about. I sent my kids to preschool

Trying to get them prepared. And I believe in the value of preparation. I really do. I think, um, let's say it like this. Not only do I think that the outcome of the battle is often decided before it begins. Pre-decided. Precision. But I also think, let me see if I can say this just right. Because the way the Lord spoke it to me, it made sense to me. I think that most of us are not currently performing at the level of our potential. We're performing at the level of our preparation.

It's just a simple way of saying what Elisha said to Jehoash. There was more that God had in store, but you stopped short. I wonder, are you living beneath the level of your potential? I'll admit the world doesn't really celebrate preparation these days. We live in a post-oriented world. Speaking of marriage history between me and Holly, I'll tell you something real quick. I've told you this before. I've told you this several times, but

She's a great cook and she got me voluptuous in our first 18 months of marriage. And recently she found a picture of me with my shirt off looking kind of filled out.

Real quick, this isn't a nutrition class. I understand you didn't come for all that and I don't claim to be a model of health or any of that, okay? I just found what works for me and I work it. And what works for me is just a plan. The reason I got fat when we got married is because we didn't plan our meals that much so it was Mexican at the last minute, 9:30 at night. Remember, this was pre-children, right?

This was back when you could just pick up and do that, and you didn't have to prepare anything, so we were just enjoying everything, and I figured I got my woman, so I don't need to look good. I'm just kidding. But she found a picture of how I looked back then, and it looked...

You've seen the infomercials late at night like that before picture. I had my eyes closed I didn't even remember the picture and I was just having some fun and I went and found a picture of me now and I put them side by side just for me sent it to Holly and Said how many men get better looking as the years go by? And she started praising the Lord. She sent me some praise hands and modis and

And I was showing Elijah, my oldest son, he said, "You should post that, Daddy." And I said, "I'm not, I'm not." I said, "Boy, let me teach you something. Everything is not meant to be posted." My point number one, I got four points to this message. Point number one is the post. Because we live in a world where everybody wants to post everything. And we got people who are more interested in posting than they are in progress.

One man was talking about the game Guitar Hero, the game where you can press the buttons and pretend, pre-tend to play the guitar. You don't have to prepare. You just pretend. And he said, everybody wants to be a rock star, but nobody wants to learn the chords.

Preparation is underrated. Preparation is not very celebrated in our culture. Because we want to post and we need instant validation. We live in the age of outrage, instant outrage, and instant validation. We learn to tweet before we learn to think.

Just post everything that you think. Like everybody needs to hear what you know. I'm thinking about doing a lesson because it's disturbing me and show you the difference between a journal and a Facebook page. Everything you think does not deserve an audience. Preach, Pastor Steve! Preach! Preach to the people! Some of y'all are shouting because you're hoping that your Aunt Susie in Oklahoma hears this message. She's embarrassing you and the whole family.

The Post. I know you're wondering how I'm going to get back to 2 Kings 13. I know exactly how to get back there. See, because I prepared to preach. What would you do if I came up here to preach and instead of telling you to turn in your Bible, I asked, "So, anybody got anything you want to talk about this week? Anybody? What do you think? Old Testament? New Testament? Look at some scriptures? See what I can find?" I wonder why you expect me to prepare to preach

I'm not going to be mean about it, but just a question. Are you prepared to receive? Because the last time I checked, it's often the quality of the soil that determines the harvest more than the quality of the seed. Sometimes when chunks will tell me, that was your best sermon you ever preached, I said, no, you finally just listened. I'm preaching good every week. You're just awake this week. When the king went down to see Elisha,

Remember, he had recently been appointed to his post as king. And Elisha has not been mentioned in the Scriptures for something like 45 years, but he's still on his post. There's something about staying on your post. It is the lost art of being planted. And you are never going to fulfill purpose until you commit to your post.

Thinking about posting a couple of different ways. I'm thinking about how God has posted some of you in places that seem insignificant. And isn't that really the message of 2 Kings 13, 14 through 20? We were talking the other day in a little group about this passage, and one person said, I feel sorry for the king. If Elisha would have wanted him to strike the ground five or six times, he should have told him to strike it five or six times. And I think the message here is that God leaves a lot of it up to you. How far do you want to go?

I don't think God makes all the decisions for your life. I think he lets you decide within certain parameters how much purpose or potential you want to fulfill. I don't think that God presides everything about our life. Do I believe that we each have a purpose? Yes. Do I believe that he's God whether or not you marry Jimmy? Yes. Do I believe that you quitting your job will cause the cosmos to collapse?

or that any presidential office could thwart or overpower the presence and the preeminence of God. No, I believe he's sovereign, but I also believe that within his sovereignty, he has left space for you and I to take responsibility. The post. How do you preach about the value of preparation in a post-oriented world? How do you preach to a... It's not really an age thing. It's not really a social media thing. I mean, I put stuff on line two just like the rest of you, but...

I wonder sometimes, do we want recognition before we've taken responsibility? Do we need the pat on the back? The battle is won or lost in preparation. This is true of athletes. I can tell you, any athletes in the house? Are there any professional athletes in the house? Any NASCAR drivers in the house? No, no, NASCAR is not that simple.

I mean, it is a very sophisticated sport. I only know because of Joey Brittany. If he isn't racing, I don't watch. I'm not a NASCAR fan. I cheer for 22. He comes to my church, and he told me to come out to a race, to see him race. I didn't really want to go to the NASCAR race. After I went, I was fascinated. I got to hear his teamwork and everything. Chunks, who I mentioned earlier, who only half listens to my sermons sometimes… I'm kidding about Chunks. But he turned to me and said something

Because when I went to the race, Joey won. I'm not saying it was the favor of God because your pastor was at the racetrack. I would never say something like that. I would only imply it. But he won. And Chunks looked at me on the way home. He said, you know what's interesting about that race? He said, that race wasn't won on the track. It was won in the garage. Because he had been talking to one of your team members during the race, explaining how all week the team is 350 people, he told me.

working on that car, you see one driver. And he's a good driver, and if he can't drive, they don't win. But no matter how well he can drive, it's not what happens on Sunday. I feel like preaching a little bit, because I think this has something in common with spirituality.

It's what happens Monday when they're trying to make the car a tenth of a pound lighter. Just a tenth of a pound lighter can make all the difference. I mean, just a little bit, just a little tweak on the motor, just a little race note on this track and this turn, and I'm making stuff up because I don't know a lot about NASCAR. But what I'm trying to say is maybe God is more interested in the garage than he is the track.

God is a God of preparation. He would not feed the multitudes until they sat down in the grass. Why? Provision awaits preparation. You've been asking God to send it, and he's been asking you to form it, because he can't fill what you don't form. Post, it was decided the battle had not been fought yet, but Elisha predicted the outcome.

based on the king's persistence and preparation. Here's what he said. If you won't do the groundwork when it doesn't seem to make sense, if all you want is this, great marriage, happy family, eight pack, whatever, prayer life, whatever, I don't care what it is. I'm telling you, it's about the garage. He is the God of the garage, tweaking stuff and fixing stuff, stuff you can't see. Because my second...

Point is the point. I don't think I've ever had a sermon point about the point, but I tried to put myself... Here's the thing about perspective, and if you're watching the news sometimes and you're seeing somebody that you disagree with and your first instinct is to argue with them, before you argue with them, try to get their perspective. Try to get an inverted perspective. That's called empathy.

And so one way, Jonathan, you were texting me yesterday about reading the Bible and preaching and all of this, and I was trying to show him some things. And when you take Jehoash as a villain, and Jehoash is a lazy man, and you don't stop to think about what's happening here, in that how many times have you stopped because it didn't make sense? The reason I believe he stopped is because arrows are supposed to go like this.

What sense does it make to put an arrow in the ground? And I want to point this out to you. I'm having fun, man. I love what I do. I do what I love. And to do this with something that's supposed to do this, it's hard to be persistent when you can't see the purpose. That's all I'm trying to say. And I guess what I wanted to tell you, Daniel-san, is that Mr. Miyagi isn't always going to explain to you why you're painting his fence. That he's not always going to tell you why you're waxing his car.

And I know that you would paint the fence if you knew the purpose of painting the fence. And I know that you would wax the car if you knew the purpose of waxing the car. And I know that you would stay a virgin if God would give you your wedding date. See, Jehoash had a calling, and Elisha enrolled him in a class. Write this down. Don't expect the class to look like the calling. Don't expect your training, don't expect your preparation to look like your promise.

Because the place God prepares you the most is the place that seems the most pointless to you. I laugh when people talk about Elevation Church being a marketing phenomenon. I laugh because in a sense they're correct. Who lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl? Put it on the stand, give light to everybody in the house. I didn't get the gospel to keep it to myself.

I didn't start a church so I could get 120 people, send everybody else to hell, bolt the doors, and everybody sing "Kumbaya" while the ships come sailing by. So in a sense, you're right. We want to get the word out. But it takes me back to my preparation. Now, to understand why Elisha was angry, you would have to understand something about his process. You really can't understand someone's priorities without knowing their process. So I didn't start marketing the church with a budget.

I started marketing in ministry, if you want to call it marketing, printing out flyers, because Jamie Williams gave me his code, to the copying machine at First Baptist Church and let me run off 300. He said, "No more than 300," but I gave them out every Monday to FCA at Berkeley High School. I was marketing with a copier code. I was marketing on the summer impact team. When I say "work your window," when I say even if it's a peephole right now,

If you work your copier code, maybe one day God will give you a billboard. Come on, somebody. I know what I'm talking about from my personal experience. It's not a theory or a principle or a philosophy. It is my personal experience that if you are faithful in little, he'll make you faithful in much. Why would he waste more if you're not working what you have now? So it's...

We traveled to this small little town in South Carolina. I don't remember if it was Camden. I think it was Camden. We were supposed to hold a youth rally. Holly can tell you we were on a summer impact team, a ministry team that crisscrossed the state of South Carolina hosting backyard Bible clubs and revivals. We were so excited about our theme that we had developed called Run to Win.

I had a theme and I had a team and I put Holly on my team because I liked her and I figured if I can get her in this van with me for 11 weeks She will get attracted to my anointing and I worked my window all the way to my wedding day I'm just preaching what I practice now. Look at me y'all. We went to our first stop so excited run to win and

The youth is our first stop. We're going all summer. It's 11-week ministry extravaganza across the state of South Carolina. And the youth pastor said, "Well, I got some good news when we got there." I said, "Cool, man." He said, "No kids signed up." I said, "How is that good news?" He said, "Oh, you can chill by the pool this week. Take a little break." I said, "Bro, it's my first week. I don't need a tan. I need some kids."

Am I lying, Holly, that we hit the streets so hard? Was it Camden? Am I getting the town wrong? I don't remember, but we canvassed that town. Let's call it Camden. We canvassed Camden. I mean, flyers on every door. By the last night of the crusade, we had it at 40 kids. You ain't clapping because you don't think that's big. Forty's big when you thought you were going to be by the pool at the Motel 6 in Camden.

I know what you're thinking. What's the point? That's exactly what I was thinking. It's called ground game. It's called preparation. Why would God have let me pastor thousands if I wasn't willing to hit the streets for 40? I wish I knew.

I could preach so much better if I knew what God's got you doing right now that seems kind of pointless. I would have stopped too. I don't even know if I would have put two or three arrows in the ground. It doesn't make sense to strike the ground with something that's supposed to fly in the air. It doesn't make sense to declare victory with an instrument of death called a cross.

It doesn't make sense to kill a giant with a slingshot with the most inexperienced one on the battlefield doing the slinging. It doesn't make sense to deliver a nation with a stick in your hand. It doesn't make sense. God prepares you to trust the teacher by putting you in a class that does not look like the calling. Lions and bears don't look like Goliath, but they are the perfect preparation.

Now I've come to the point in my life where I'm learning to trust my teacher to know that even if this doesn't look like it, everything is preparation. And I mean everything. Every fence. Every car I wax. Every offense is preparation. Maybe this won't take your pain away, but if you would start seeing your pain as preparation, I'm not saying God's the one who hurt you. I'm saying in his hands,

Whatever hurt you will become healing for where he's taking you. I'm prophesying to somebody. I don't know who you are, but God is preparing you. He's getting you ready. You're in the field. You're tending sheep. God is preparing you for what he has prepared for you. It's not failure. It's preparation. It doesn't feel like preparation. It feels like failure.

But the failure was preparation so that I would have the infrastructure and the fortitude for the success. God's got me in the garage right now. Garage doesn't look like the racetrack, but God's not done. He hadn't hit post yet. All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. He's preparing me. Point. The point is for you to trust a teacher. That's the point. Take the arrow, strike the ground.

and I spent all week trying to figure out something. I was preparing this week. I wanted to come to the pulpit prepared, and I knew there would be at least one person paying attention who would want to know, "Why would Elisha get so angry over something so simple?" Well, first of all, he was about 110 years old. I don't imagine there's much to be happy about at that age. You'd be crotchety too. So that's number one. But for my second clue, I wanted to give you point number three: the plow.

Because I figured there would probably be something about Elisha's process that would help me understand his insistence on perseverance. He could not believe what he saw. He could not believe that someone would have an arrow of victory in their hand but refuse to do what needed to be done to secure the victory. And so I went back through his life and just remembered a few things. This is one of my favorite Bible characters. He was the subject of my book.

that I wrote called Greater. So me and him spent a lot of time together. And I saw him one time. These kings needed rain. They needed provision from heaven. And Elisha told him, okay, you want rain? Dig some ditches. But see, now it wasn't raining yet, so they didn't need an irrigation system. But Elisha knew that the key to receiving provision is to make preparation before you can perceive it. So he told him to dig some ditches. The first thing that he did when

He took the mantle from Elijah, the one who left him in transition. The first thing he did was to heal some water in a town called Jericho, some water that had become toxic. To revive the economy, he needed to heal the water supply, so he asked for some salt. Salt comes out of the ground. Of course, we know this. It comes either from the ocean or it comes from the mines, but either way it's manufactured by pressure. I could preach about the power of pressure too, I guess, if I wanted to.

See, because it looks like pressure, but it's really preparation. Think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane means olive press. It was the pressure of the garden. So great that it was like drops of blood. When he sweat, it was like drops of blood. I don't know if he burst the capillary or if it was like that metaphorically or literally. Either way, he was under pressure. His pressure was his preparation. Quit asking God to take the stress away. Start asking him to show you how to handle it.

Nevertheless, not my will but your will be done. He made a pre-cision. It's the power of pre. It's the power of preparation. It's the power of taking salt and throwing it in the water and the water was purified. And I was noticing how Elisha wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Which took me all the way back to the first time I saw him in Scripture. Because Elijah had kind of had a little meltdown and he threw a little hissy fit. God doesn't need you to be perfect.

God doesn't need you to be perfect, he just needs you to keep making progress. And when Elisha went back, God said, "Alright, now, I have made preparations for your successor." Elijah was so tired, he didn't know what to do next. Jezebel wanted to kill him. And he didn't have a backup plan. But God did. And God said, "If you get back going the way you came, I've got your succession plan already in place. And I'll show it to you when you get back in position."

Elisha's walking I had him pull this one scripture for you because it was so profound when it hit me and I understood it once why Elisha was angry when the king would not strike the ground. It's in first Kings 19:19 I want you to look at this it says that Elijah went from there the place where he was making excuses feeling sorry for himself He went from there the place of pressure the threat of Jezebel the anxiety of the future he went from there on the word of the Lord and

and found Elisha. Please read with me, because what I'm going to show you next is going to explain to you why the season that you're in doesn't feel significant, but it is so important that you do it with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength. He found Elisha, son of Shaphat, and Elisha was preaching. Now, remember, his calling was to be a prophet, but sometimes the classroom doesn't look like the calling.

He wasn't prophesying. He was digging up hard ground. Not only was he plowing, but he was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the 12th pair. What do you think the view is like when you're last in line? At first, I couldn't figure out why Elijah didn't go to the prophet school.

What if God if God was preparing somebody to take up the mantle of Elijah? What did he get him from the prophet school, but he didn't want somebody who knew how to preach He wanted somebody who knew how to plow because if you're willing to plow I can teach you to preach But I need somebody who's not with not scared not backing off Turn back

He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. I need somebody who knows how to plow. And we have a generation that knows how to post but doesn't know how to plow. We've got more windows than we've got work. I mean, you came here today, right? And you came to be in the presence of God, am I right? Am I right? Did you come to be in the presence of God? Come on, every location. Watching online, did you come to be in the presence of God? Okay. Presence starts with pre-.

You think this just popped up? You think it just... Oh, you think it came down? No. It was... Elisha understood the principle of preparation. Provision awaits preparation. So, I hope you enjoyed the music today. You should have. I mean, I know where I'm preaching right now, it's probably not raining in a lot of locations where you're watching this or you're watching this on TV, but it was raining today at church, and somebody had an umbrella on.

I mean, there were parking team people who were preparing for you in the park. Here's what I realized. I can preach as hard as I can preach, but preach starts with pre. If somebody doesn't park you, I can't preach to you. And Elisha understood it's not sometimes that gives the victory. It's the groundwork. It's the preparation. It's the underground stuff. It's those chairs that you're sitting in at Valentine. How many of you are sitting in a chair? How many of you are sitting in a chair?

You know why you're sitting in that chair? Because Steve spaced them. Yeah. Came out, he measured them to make sure that the seats were at the prime proximity to create maximum capacity so that you could. He plowed so you could plop. That's the way I'm trying to say it. And if he didn't plow, you couldn't plop. I'm just pointing it out. How many of you are going to use the bathroom at one of our campuses before the day is over? You already did it. Amen. It's a little TMI. I'm not going to lie to you, but I'm trying to make a point.

You might grab a little breath mint in the bathroom. And the reason that there's a breath mint in the bathroom is because Ashley comes every week. She's doing a little pre-praise service to God to make sure that your neighbor, when you open your mouth and give God praise, that your neighbor isn't distracted. That's her pre-praise service to God. Before you got here, she was making sure that it was clean. That elevation pin that you will steal, because we want you to steal it.

I want you to steal it and tip big with it and then invite that server to church. If she can't come on Sunday morning, bring her on Saturday night. Take her to midweek. Whatever. I don't care, but steal the pen. But the greeter team, they didn't just smile at you when they came in. They were pre… See, I'm trying to get a point across. You experienced the presence of God because somebody made preparation. Somebody prepared for you to be here. It's the power of pre-.

Recently I told my son Elijah I want him to start seeing behind the scenes because I don't want my kid growing up thinking that a church was a green room and a stage. And so I was like, "I want you to go see the kids' ministry," which is amazing. I said, "Which is amazing." He also wanted to see the video, how the video works, because technologically what we do here is, I think it's pretty excellent. And all the campuses, it's amazing what our teams do, really.

Over 7,000 volunteers. By the way, this isn't a volunteer push, but I feel like the campus pastors might send me a gift card or something if I tell some of you. When are you going to stop plopping and start plowing? My God from Zion. Stop by that tent. Is it black or orange these days? There's a table at Ballantyne and tents elsewhere. If you go, there will be somebody to show you how. Somebody say, start plowing.

So Elijah went back and he said, Daddy, you have got to see it in V-Control, the room where they do all the video stuff with all the cameras and everything. He says, amazing what happens behind the scenes. I said, you like it? He said, no. I'm not telling you I like it. I'm telling you it's amazing. He said, you've got to see Chelsea. She's the one calling the shots. I watched her and I knew...

What he was saying I snuck in today right before I preached they were preparing Because before we got here and before I preached and before you praised and before we experienced the presence of God They were plowing and they weren't paid to plow either these people that I'm about to show you They were plowing because of the purpose of God now. I want to show you it's just a quick quick window It's a quick window into the work that they do that's back there. Just just roll it real quick and watch Chelsea

See the location synced up all on the same How cool is that and every time she's saying that it's switching a camp I know I sound kind of like a redneck

Saying this like can y'all believe they have these cameras back there, but I was blown away She's just I mean don't even see that because it's underground stuff. I

I was watching her one time. I was like, how does she know how to do that? You gotta have musicality to do it. And I found out how. She said that her mom taught dance. In fact, her mom teaches Abby dance. My daughter. I didn't know this. She's been doing that for me for five years. She said she danced to high school. She said at high school, that's the time where you either go professional or find something else to do.

And she said, "I wasn't good enough to go on and do something else. I danced all the way through high school and loved it, and then I came here to do this." She said, "I never would have imagined, though, that my mom teaching me dance would one day enable me to be on my post every week. And I might not be a professional dancer, but I know how to plow." And now look at her calling the shots out the east window. Go ahead, Chelsea.

Don't you understand that God has been preparing you your whole life? You are in preparation right now. My fourth P is promotion. Stand up. I'm done. God said,

If you will keep plowing, this is what I want to get into you over the next several weeks of this series. Really, we're just getting started with this series. I really feel like God is doing something in this series. I might just preach this series till the year 2030. I might preach it till Jesus comes back because I really believe that if you will plow, he will promote and you can trust him. Is it possible that the pre-

Is more important than the post is it possible that what happens in the garage? What happens in the heart is more important than what happens in my life? He's preparing me for what he has prepared for me and the preparation doesn't always look like the promise Doesn't have to when the time came for Elisha to be promoted God knew exactly where he was he was on his post and

When it came time for Elisha to be promoted, he didn't have to point to himself. God pointed him out to Elijah. The post, the point, the plow. He was just simply doing what he had to do in this season. And if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and just keep striking the ground, see, this isn't the sexy part of spiritual development.

This is the part where you don't see the point, but you continue in the process. Persistence is the key to the promise of God. Somebody shout if you know God is getting you ready. He will lift you up. See, God had an assignment for Elisha, and God has an assignment for you.

He said, you've learned how to plow hard ground. Now you've got to learn how to plow hard hearts. Nothing that you've been through will be wasted. Nothing that you've been through was for nothing. Nothing that you've been through was for no purpose. I've always been working. I've always had a purpose in mind. God is working in my life. It is the power of pre. Prepare to prevail. Prepare to

to prevail. I'm closing, but the arrow of Aram is flying over the life of everyone who will do the groundwork. I'm a living witness that if you will stay with it… Touch somebody and say, "Stay with it." If you will stay with it… I know God is giving you

a great window to see the opportunities that he's placed before your life. But how can he trust you with more until you are faithful where you are? So God is cultivating your calling right now, and he might send you to Camden to do it. He might have you in the garage. He might take you apart. So when you get to the track, you are built to make it to the end.

Somebody shout, I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready. You might want to shove your neighbor and put him on notice. I'm getting ready. God sees me. God's preparing me. There's a purpose for my life, and it will come to pass. I know it. I see it.

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