Give It All You Got

When Stephen and I got married, there was this evangelist who offered Stephen a job. Well, it wasn't a paying job anybody ever had offered a non paying job. It was an opportunity. It was a come and be a part of my ministry and I'll recommend for you to speak at any of the events that I can't take that kind of job. And so we proudly accepted the job and we moved to the most random place, Shelby, North Carolina. And I had just gotten my teaching certificate, so I got a job teaching fifth grade. And when we got there, Stephen also secured a paying job leading worship at a local church. Now, we knew before we moved to Shelby that we were called to start a church one day. We knew that when we got married, but we didn't know when. And we figured that, that we might as well do ministry while we were waiting for God to give us our next direction. And the church that had offered Stephen the job, they understood that we were going to plant a church. It was all clear. And they said, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Just come and minister here while you can. Now Shelby was not necessarily the town that I had been dreaming of moving to, but when we got there, we found some of the most wonderful people in that town. And Steven Furtick went to work the only way that he knows how. He gave that little church everything he had. He built a worship ministry. He found and recruited band members. He went to colleges, he went to high school choirs. He was having lunch with everybody because he had to build a praise team and a choir and he needed a drummer. And we got all of us together and he wrote songs for that church. We recorded two albums. In the three years that you were there with. No, in the three years that we were there. You've probably never heard of those albums. They were called Everlasting and Everyone Everywhere. I'm not sure it's on itunes. It would be. Their songs are great, but they might be a little dated. I think I have some footage of our first recording. Oh, look, there we are. There's me. Let's go. We were boldly wearing yellow and orange and black. And the other day, Steven and I were on a little road trip. And while he was voice texting back and forth about the songs that we were gonna record here at Elevation in the upcoming week, we started somehow talking about Christ's covenant and those songs. And we started listening to some of the songs. And I'm telling you, I could feel the presence of the, of the Holy Spirit in those songs. Just like I can from the ones that are coming from our church today. Just because we weren't going to be in Shelby forever didn't mean that there wasn't time to plant and harvest some fruit. It was in Shelby, North Carolina that we met Chunks and Amy and we began to dream out loud for the first time about the church that we felt like God was calling us to plant and what it would look like and what we would call it. And one of the names that, that we were throwing around was church Alive because it's worth the drive. Aren't you glad we've landed on Elevation? But you know, I am 100% that the fruit of Elevation Church was planted in the soil of Shelby, North Carolina. And I want to tell you there are seeds that God wants to plant in your situation today. I know it's not permanent. I know this isn't your forever job or your forever home or whatever, but you don't know how long it's going to be. You don't know. So build the house, plant the garden. Jeremiah goes on to give Israel one of the most encouraging verses in the entire Bible. Just a couple verses later, we find Jeremiah 29:11. He says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. He's saying this over Israel and he's saying this over you. I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. And there are things in your life right now that you didn't plan for. But God is the one who holds the master plans of your life. He has a hope and a future for you. You're just the packer and the planter. He is the planner. So while you wait for the next move God is saying you to do today, plant a garden. Give it everything you've got. Hey, thanks for watching. I hope that encouraged you today. Make sure that you like subscribe and hit that bell to turn on notifications so that you don't miss out on other videos just like this one. And I'll see you back here next time.