Hey, this is Steven Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Elevation Church, wow, wow, wow. So, first of all, what we're not going to do is act like you don't have the greatest pastor in the world. Come on, can we get real noisy in this building and all around the globe for the Pastor Steven Furtick, Holly, Eliza Graham, Abs, love you. I'm excited to be here. I'm black, and that's just how we're going to start. We're going to start there. My are roots Pentecostal. Pentecostal is like a fraternity or something. They'd be like, that's my dog. It's not a frat, but I was going to use a headset today so I could dribble with my left hand, but I woke up feeling preachy, so I told them, give me a handheld, because we about to go up Elevation. I love Pastor Steven. He is a songwriter. He is an architect, and he is the greatest communicator in the world. To be on his platform is beyond a blessing, but something funny happened to me. I told myself that I would be validated as a good preacher when he invited me. Let me tell you how gracious God is. He refused to allow me to be invited as long as I believed that, because when heaven wants to affirm you, it doesn't use opportunity, it uses opposition. I know you're anointed not by the stages, but by the scars that you got. I need you to high -five your neighbor like you in Ballantyne and tell them, I know I'm anointed. The struggles that you overcome reveal your anointing. We know that the oil on David worked not from the throne he sat on, but by the giant that fell at his feet, and if open doors can make you, then closed doors can break you. Quit waiting on man to validate you. I'm afraid that in our churches, heaven believes in us, and I'm going to tell you something you never heard before, hell believes in you. This is why the devil and all his imps and wimps have been coming against you, because he know how much you carry. He doesn't bother you if you're not a threat, but if the devil has been trying to come against you and your family and your neighborhood, I need you to give God ten seconds of praise like you know no weapon formed against you. Shall prosper. Come on, praise him like you're an overcomer. Praise him like the battle's already over. I'm not praising him for a victory. I'm praising him from a place of victory. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. And so I have a very prophetic word for elevation. It's really for the Columbia campus. Because they up the street from me. But if the shoe fit, you can wear it in here or Orlando or Greenville or wherever you're watching from. I told them to send me a list. It was too long. What y 'all do have is some campuses. My God. We're going to be in Mark, and it's my custom to share the title after I read the scripture, but today I'm going to share it before. I believe God is about to bring your name up. I don't know how it happened for me. I was minding my business, and chumps texted me and said, are you available? And I'm wondering, how did my name get brought up? God's about to bring your name up. Because this is the season, hear me, that God ain't looking for gifts. I got degrees, but I'm going to talk how I want to talk. God ain't looking for gifts. He's after hearts. There's so many people that can sing, man. We don't need another song. We need hearts like Chris and hearts like Jen and hearts like John. Man, we need hearts. God's about to bring your name up. Here's the title for today. How did I get here? How did I get here? Let me preach because my wife told me I take too long to transition. I'm not going to show a family picture. They're all on the ground, but my wife is a dying piece on the front row. I love you. Mark 10, 46. Then they came to Jericho. I teach at Ford City that you can't just read the Bible. Oh, snap, you've got to read the Bible. It's the second read. Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with the large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus, was sitting on the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Many rebuked him. Don't you hate when you're sitting next to the loud one? You're like, okay, I get it. You grateful. I am too, but my God. They told him, be quiet, fam. Jesus. You ever brought your mama to church? I said, mama, I'm preaching at Elevation. Do not come. My mom be tearing the whole row up in the back. I said, be quiet, man. But he shouted all the more. I love that. Son of David, have mercy on me. I really want to preach this next verse, but I got something else to preach. But the next verse says, Jesus, stop. Whoo. There is a DB, if you're into audio. There is a frequency. There is a shout that is packed with enough desperation to get a busy Jesus, a focused Jesus to stop. Oh my God. Are there any praises in the room that know how to get him to stop by? Come on, the only reason I'm in church today is because he stopped by. The only reason I'm in my right mind is because he stopped. The only reason I didn't cut somebody this week is because he stopped by. He stopped by, he stopped by, he stopped by. When he stops, anything is possible. Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Whatever's impossible for you is easy for him when he stops by. All right, let's keep reading. You ready to sit down. He stopped by and said, call him. I like that. So they called the blind man. Cheer up! On your feet, he's calling you. Now the way my imagination works, I wonder if these are the same people who just told him to hush. That's why you can't listen to people. One second they saying hush, next second they saying cheer up! Cuz, what do you want from me, dog? I mean, throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet, came to Jesus. Here's Jesus. Jesus is really funny. He said, hey, what do you want me to do for you? Blind man's like, ah, let me see. He said, Rabbi, I wanna see, man. I like this. Go, Jesus said. has Your faith healed you. Your shout has healed you. Your resilience has healed you. Somebody, it took your last 20 to get to church today. That's the thing that healed you. The fact that you believed in spite of what you were facing. And the Bible says, I like this word, immediately. I feel it coming, all of a sudden. Immediately. This ain't for everybody. This is just for 50 people and a two year old that can give them a praise and say, that thing about to happen quicker than you can even imagine, immediately. Immediately. He received his sight, followed Jesus along the road. How did I get here? Lord Jesus, I'm gonna pray a prayer. You ready? How did we get here? Amen. You can take your seats. All right, how did I get here? How did I get here? How did I get here? This past week, I went to North Myrtle Beach. That's where my dad is buried, where my mom is from. And we went there to visit my grandma. My grandma is 92 years old. Yeah, yeah. Her classmate was Harriet Tubman. My grandma is so old. She's seen many presidents. And I walk in and my grandma, she's like Isaac. Her sight is fell on her because she's up in age. And she's sitting there with her snuff. You're not from the country if you don't know what snuff is. No teeth, but snuff. I say, my grandma had 14 kids, y 'all. After 10, you don't even feel them no more. There's another child. They just, she got 14 over 40 grandkids. And I walk in and I'm like, grandma. And she's like, whoa, who's that? Get over here. And I go over to her and I say, grandma, it's me. And I can't talk, y 'all. I got speech impediment if you laugh. You laughed and that was not a joke. She's like, ah, I thought it was just me. And my speech marks me. So my grandma, she knew it. And she was like, try this. That's you. I spent some time with her. Something about when your sight is felling, your senses are heightened. And what's interesting about this text, I learned this from Pastor Furtick. You preach every line in the text. So the first thing I want to acknowledge in this text is that the blind man is in Jericho. The word Jericho means fragrance or to smell. Isn't it interesting that he's blind, but he can still smell the roses? So I want to tell you, don't allow your low place that calls you to miss the beauty of the season you're in. He's in Jericho. This is not a mountaintop message. Because most of the people who are asking, how did I get here, aren't on top. You feel like you're at the bottom. You're asking, how did this happen to me? How did I get here? My last great memory was a wedding photo and now I'm a widow. That was my mom at the age of 29 when my dad died on a Sunday morning. I was five years old. How did I get here? How did I get in the back of this police car? How did I get in divorce court? Come on, y 'all, don't look at me in that tone of voice. How did I get here? My life was heading in one direction and then one decision, one thing caused me to get into an uncertain, unfamiliar, and unexpected place. How did I get here? How did I get here? How did I get addicted? How did this happen to my child? How did I get here? And you may think, you may be sitting here thinking like, man, my situation's rough. Listen to me, your situation cannot compare to being blind in the first century.