50/50 Faith: Move On A “Maybe” | Maybe: God | Pastor Steven Furtick

how many are excited about this series that we're in the series is called Maybe: God the subject is his voice his will his ways how do I know if this opportunity comes from the Lord now the scripture for you today that I think will be a great blessing in your life it's in 1st Samuel chapter 14 verse number 6 the Bible says Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer come let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men he's talking trash about the Philistines he calls them a derogatory name he's talking about their uncircumcision wow he must be fired up about something he's a little belligerent he's getting bold now he can't afford to wait around and wait for something to happen from heaven when God has already given him a certain power on the earth so he turns to who he has available at this point and says let's go it's just me and you but touch somebody say let's go now I want you to do me a favor if you're the only one on your row who praises God today during this sermon I want you to go and look at somebody next to you and say will you go with me amen he said let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf nothing can hinder the Lord from saving whether by many or by few in this third installment of Maybe: God my subject and my lesson today is called 50/50 faith I want to teach you on this principle that has been so useful in my life as a leader and it's useful for me as a husband as a dad and just as a man 50/50 faith I believe this principle is going to set you free in some of the areas where indecision has imprisoned you and you've been waiting around and God is going to show you something today by the power and virtue of his word and spirit that only he could show you about 50/50 faith praise the Lord I celebrated my 39th birthday this week appreciate your pity you know that last one with the three in front of it I'm owning it I am so owning turning 40 I am so owning these little gray whiskers that are popping up I'm not dyeing them or anything like that uh-huh I'm gonna tell them to get a close-up on these gray things on the camera just zoom right into the grayist patch you can find in this beard I'm proud of it I don't care what my kids say about it and when they tell me that my jokes are cringy and stuff like that one of my kids told me that the other day and I just asked him a question back he said your jokes are so cringy and I just asked him a question I said how many people show up to hear you speak since I'm so cringy conversational parenting approach you might want to try it sometime but one of the things I think keeps happening to me and is really happening to me at this stage of my ministry in life because I have been doing this as a pastor over 13 years is that I feel so good saying that it just felt cool I've been doing this over 13 years that's a long time to do anything amen I've never been less certain and I've never been more confident all at the same time all at the same time and it's a strange thing how when you give up your need for certainty you can gain a true confidence that is independent of circumstance can I preach to somebody today right here in this back left section of Ballantyne the passage that I read to you is one of my favorites if they were giving out an Academy Award for best Old Testament narrative scripture I would want to nominate Jonathan as best supporting actor because he's not as famous as David but he's a pretty good example for me and has helped me a lot this passage has helped me a lot through the years every couple years I preach it and when I circle back to it I see a different dimension of faith I see a different dimension of the kind of confidence that we can have in Christ and in his promises but I also see all of the uncertainty and self-doubt that it also entails and that my faith is not a formula and it can never be the more I try to make it into a formula the less valuable it becomes to me when life challenges all of my presuppositions and all of my ideas about what kind of ways God wants to work collapse under the weight of real life under the way of real bills under the weight of real medical reports and I need the kind of faith that is not dependent on my presuppositions I need the kind of faith that can deal with some ambiguity I need a faith like Richard Rohr says that can be patient with mystery I need a kind of faith that is not dependent on my plans to prevail I need the kind of faith that can stand up against the worst thing that happens I need the kind of faith that can shine when God goes dark when I don't know when I can't say it when I can't see it when I don't feel like I can make it I need a faith that can withstand these seasons now around the verse that I read you is a little episode and if you've been tracking with the series I've used a few different Old Testament passages from Judges and Samuel to try to give us some sort of arc or to give us some kind of context for the way that transition creates opportunity for us to trust God in this particular transition a negative one for the nation of Israel King Saul has really lost his way and he's abdicated his leadership because of this the Philistines who would torment the Israelites all the way until the rule of David remember Samson began to deliver them that's last week and you need to go on and watch that message about the parenthesis and the pivot and how there's a purpose even if I have to leave it blank right now God is gonna do something in this empty space in these parentheses and I'm gonna put the parentheses there and I'm gonna let God fill them because he's too wise to make a mistake in my life and that message is online it's on YouTube and Facebook and Elevation App and MySpace and if they still had myspace we would put it up there Roku all of it when I was preaching that it talked about the beginning of deliverance or partial deliverance and the beginning of deliverance happened through the judges but now Saul the king was unable to commit himself fully to the ways and the will of the Lord rather than to engage in a relationship with the living God he has begun to manipulate and when he begins to manipulate and treat God is some kind of mechanism to get what he wants when he wants it he loses that unique ability that we have to hear the voice of God when you lose the ability to hear the voice of God you waste energy you waste resources you waste worry on situations that God didn't even want you to give your attention to so that's why I need to hear his voice Saul having lost that ability is now surrounded by his enemies so much so that his people that he was responsible for leading are hiding in rocks in caves in thickets i just want to put the word thickets in there because i don't get to use it on an everyday basis but we're all hiding in places sometimes we find ourselves tucked away in mindsets in patterns in isolation away from people away from life away from joy away from risk away from opportunity and this was the situation in 1 Samuel 14 pick up verse 23 from 13 now a detachment of Philistines had gone out to the pass at Mikmash it's always helpful to point out that the enemy always attacks you at the passages he always attacks you at the places of transition from what you knew to what you don't know from where you were to where you're going and so when he can set up an ambush at the passage he can keep you from moving forward in those transitional pivotal moments of your life and then one day somebody shout one day one day Jonathan son of Saul said to his young armor bearer come let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side but he did not tell his father be very careful who you talk to about what God is doing inside of you be very careful who you communicate with about the impressions that God is stirring inside of you if you talk to the wrong people about the right idea your idea will die before it has the opportunity to conceive and give birth to what God is doing in your life how many know I'm right about that Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron with him were about six hundred men among whom was Ahijah who was wearing an ephod he was a son of Ichabod he was a son of a Ichabod's brother rather Ahitub son of Phineas the son of Eli the Lord's priest in Shiloh no one was aware that Jonathan had left on each side that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff one was called Bozez and the other Seneh Bozez means slippery Seneh means thorny nobody told me it would be easy God didn't promise me that his will would be convenient quit thinking that proof positive that you're in the will of God is that it feels good to you quit thinking that proof positive that you're in the will of God is that everybody understands it quit thinking that proof positive that you're in the will of God is that it just falls into place no he had to go through a thorny place a slippery place an uncomfortable place an uncertain place and just because I'm in an uncertain place doesn't mean I don't have a certain purpose I'm gonna need somebody to shout on that right there right there right there touch somebody say I'm in his will and one of the proofs that you're in his will is that you were experiencing warfare it could be in terms of an internal resistance that you feel or even if some things are going crazy in your life and on each side was a challenge on each side was a challenge one cliff stood to the north toward Mikmash the other to the south toward Geba and Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer come let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf nothing can hinder the Lord from saving whether by many or by few God I love your word I'm gonna take a moment and just talk to him about it thank you for putting that one little word in your word not the one where he said nothing can hinder the Lord not the one where he said come let's go over but that one little word where he said perhaps because that word gives me hope it gives me hope for my insecurity it gives me hope for my impossibilities and my uncertainty it gives me hope to know that sometimes even in the midst of making progress in my life even in the midst of obeying the revealed will of God there are going to be moments where one minute I have great faith and the next moment I'm overcome by great fear but watch the armour-bearer he says back to Jonathan who had a crazy idea do all that you have in mind go ahead I am with you heart and soul and Jonathan said come on then since you're talking like that come on then since you want to do it too come on then since you don't think I'm crazy for wanting to move toward the enemy even though we're outnumbered come on then since you don't have any more brain cells or common sense than I do come on then sometimes you need somebody who will help you even though your plan sounds like a bad plan to try to find God in it just so you don't stay stuck and standing still come on then I like how he talked to him he's like come on then and then the armor bearer is like go ahead then and he's like well come on then and they're pumping each other up their chest bumping each other you know and they don't have anybody else cuz watch this the people who should have had faith have been overtaken by fear now this is the part of the passage that's going to give me the contrast as we look at together two different ways that we try to figure out God's will and everyone has a way that you try to figure out what the will of God is even if you don't call it trying to figure out what the will of God is you have a way that you make decisions that you hope will be most advantageous you have a way that you try to discern wisdom and you can't always get it from a book and you can't always get it from a class and you can't always get it here's what I've figured out we're all making it up as we go this part of my sermon is meant to encourage you all the people that are writing parenting books about 15 steps to raise a perfect kid they left out some footnotes and the bottom line is they just had good luck in the gene pool because God can give you a kid that can make you question all of your theories I love my children I'm just saying all of us as parents are making it up as we go all of us all of us are trying to figure out with each child and they're all different I know Holly was faithful to me but sometimes I'm like how could they all be so different if it was just the common factor of me and you but I trust her but sometimes they're so different and I'm like well you respond like this and you respond like that and watch Jonathan's plan this is the dumbest idea that you can find in the Bible only one I can think of as dumber is Moses stretching out his stick over the Red Sea that's pretty dumb or maybe David throwing a rock at a giant who has a sword that's pretty dumb or maybe Jesus commanding the lunch from a little boy in the crowd and trying to feed 15,000 people with it that's pretty dumb or maybe Mary going to Joseph and saying I'm pregnant but it wasn't another man it was the Holy Spirit that's pretty dumb or maybe it was a widow going around borrowing jars from her neighbors when she didn't have any oil and thinking someone that's pretty now that I come to think of it a lot of the stuff that God did in his word looked like a dumb decision to the people while they were doing it listen how dumb this is listen how stupid this strategy is somebody say bad idea all right come on then we will cross over toward them and let them see us thought you were supposed to sneak up on somebody if you wanted to kill him but whatever if they say to us now watch this he's making this up because I want you to know this one thing about this passage God gives Jonathan the victory but God doesn't say a single word the only people who speak in this passage are Jonathan his assistant and his enemies God doesn't say a word but Jonathan he makes up this strategy he's an innovator he's like alright my dad's under the tree by the threshing-floor and the priest isn't doing anything and so let's go over and show ourselves and expose ourselves to our enemies and if they say wait there until we come up to you we will stay where we are and not go up to them but if they say come up to us we will climb up because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands and just when it can't get any dumber verse 11 both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost look said the Philistines there's two of them and dozens of us the Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in the men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer come up to us and we'll teach you a lesson so Jonathan said to his armor-bearer climb up after me the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel how are you gonna speak in past tense about a battle you hadn't even fought yet because I know something that is greater than what I know with my mind I know it with my faith faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen so wait it gets dumber Jonathan climbed up using his hands and feet you know how vulnerable you are climbing up something thorny or slippery using your hands and feet quick thing just for you I love y'all victory requires vulnerability victory requires vulnerability in anything you have to make yourself vulnerable to experience a great relationship you have to make yourself vulnerable to step into a new dimension in your business you have to make yourself vulnerable to connect on any meaningful level with the life that God has given you and so in this position of vulnerability Jonathan prophesy's a great victory I feel the Holy Spirit and it says that his armor-bearer was right behind him and the Philistines fell before Jonathan and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him in that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer kill some 20 men in an area of about half an acre all because Jonathan turned to his armor-bearer and said I've got an idea you know he said it like that but I'm at the place now where I don't really think that the value is in the idea the value is in the courage to act on the impulse when I put it like that you got to realize how many people say things like this everyday you know I remember talking to somebody about uber and they said well I could have I could have thought of that you know really you think thinking of something is the key to succeeding at something anybody can think of something I mean today I was walking out the door and Abbey turned me into a dog because of my fuzzy sweater and she was she said you want your belly rubbed do you want your belly rubbed and I licked her face and I left and came to church to preach that's what dogs do but she can think of stuff I mean thinking of it Holly was telling me now they've got like uber for photography I really should find out the name of this and see if I could get a sponsorship this message goes to a lot of people but they said that you can go on and get a photographer anywhere in the world that you are just like you can get a car from uber and you can get a photographer anywhere you are if you're off with your family and you want to get a family picture like that so that you don't have to ask some random stranger who apparently has never used a smartphone in their life and doesn't know to tap the screen to make it lighter you can get a professional to come out and capture the memories you know and when she said that I was like why didn't I think of that well there's a lot more to it than thinking of it huh people tell me all the time and they'll be like I heard this thing there's a sermon in that somewhere and so to that I'm like where where like just cuz they could think of it you know I read this headline you should preach about that you should write a song about that I'm like you should shut up until you can write one of your own I know you mean well but the hard part isn't thinking of it the hard part isn't thinking of it and this is why when they give you advice sometimes in marriage like be the first to say you're sorry it's not the thought that counts can I upset conventional wisdom for a moment one thing that was really really striking to me in the text was not what Jonathan did but what the people who should have been leading were doing at the time when Jonathan had to act on something that was partial and imperfect when the Bible says that Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree with 600 men I always skipped this verse because the names were hard to pronounce I was preaching this passage when I was 17 years old and I didn't know how to pronounce these names and I still don't but then I figured out you don't know how to pronounce them either so if I just say it with enough confidence we'll move on but in skipping it I missed something that became very important to me about the ephod it says that the Lord's priest was wearing the ephod under the pomegranate tree now the ephod was more than just an article of clothing it was an instrument for seeking the will of God on the ephod the high priest would wear a breastplate on the breastplate would be twelve stones with the names of the tribes of Israel representing their special presence in the presence of God when he would wear the breastplate into the most holy place to make atonement for the sins of the people so that they could be forgiven once a year the instruction was given to the priest about what to make sure he kept close to his heart it started with Aaron in Exodus chapter 28 if you could give me this text that he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastplate of decision in the literal translation it's the breastplate of judgment it was what he wore when the judgment of God was conferred on the sacrificial animal that took the sins of the people away from the camp it was the breastplate of judgment but here it is translated the breastplate of decision as a continual memorial for the Lord and here's why next verse please also put Urim and Thummim which are two special stones that would go not on the breastplate but behind the breastplate when the priest wore the ephod which was like a kitchen apron where he would keep the vestments that were appropriate for his duty and on that ephod was the breastplate and behind the breastplate was Urim and Thummim whether these were stones or some other sort of special object we are dependent on the incomplete records of archaeologists to make known to us but one thing we know it was one of the ways that God spoke about his will to his people he spoke through the prophets he spoke through dreams and he spoke through these stones imma call them stones because that's the closest thing we can know to what they were one represented yes and one represented no that was Thummim Urim was a little different it was said to be a stone that would light up and watch this you are to put it behind the breast piece or in the breast piece so that they may be over Aaron's heart whenever he enters the presence of the Lord thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions I love that little phrase the means of making decisions in the presence of the Lord everybody has a means of making decisions everyone has a way that they try to figure out where is this going can I trust this person and I like this method a lot because all the priests had to do was take out the stones the Thummim it stands for perfection or decision and then he would take Urim which represents light which always represents revelation which always represents knowledge and when God would speak through these stones you would inquire of him and if the answer was affirmative Urim would light up and you would know God wants us to do it like when David was facing a battle at Ziklag and he had to go back and recover his family and the families of his men and he asked the priest bring me an ephod because I need to seek the Lord because if I go into this battle and God doesn't want me to go in this battle if I do this venture if I go after this thing and God doesn't want me to do this thing I'll be defeated but if he says yes no power in hell can stand against me nothing can hinder the Lord from saving whether by many or by few so David said bring me the ephod because if God gives me light on this situation I can fight this battle if God gives me light on this situation I can stand the trial I can stand the test I can pass it I can do it if God says yes but sometimes God would say no and then sometimes the stone would do nothing and what that meant was God doesn't want to answer this right now in other words if I can take you back to middle school I love you do you love me check yes or no and sometimes I would put a third box called maybe and sometimes they would ask God you know should we go should we stay should we do it should we not and the stone would do nothing what do you do with a maybe because a lot of times in our life don't you wish you had a Urim and a Thummim in your closet come on right next to your belts I'd rather have a Urim and a Thummim than a Rolex I mean iced I'd rather have I would love if I could what a a blessing it would be you know how many staff members I never would have hired to begin with come on this is a big church can I be real with you do you know how many staff members I'd just if I could have just had that special stone pull it out wouldn't that be cool can you imagine how many things would you have done differently and how helpful would it be when you're making decisions if you could just have a stone just to light up and tell you yes this is God you know how your kids start hanging out with friends and you're wondering like I don't know about these parents they seem kind of like I don't know I smelled something on their clothes smelled like it might have been weed or maybe it was something else but I'm not sure Lord should I let my kids hang out with these kids and God says yes and you could get some sleep or you know God should I take this job it's got more pay but it's gonna mean more hours I just think it would be so cool if it would light up and tell me and and yet God knows something about me that I don't know about me is that even if he gave me the light to know what to do a lot of times I wouldn't have the faith to do it you're gonna make me preach by myself and sit there looking at me like I'm an entertainer you know the truth is that even sometimes when you know what to do even sometimes when you know this is God and they had these stones they had these stones it was behind the breastplate and the breastplate was under the pomegranate tree and the priest was doing nothing with it they had the means of making decisions to know the will of God but their fear had put them in a place and their complacency had put them in a place because when you have the instruments but you don't use them how can God speak to you when you can't find this between Sunday's how can God give you his wisdom and the important thing about it was Jonathan said we don't have the ephod Ahijah has the ephod we don't have a complete clarity on this situation but what he had that was so important he had the right person to turn to and talk about it I need you to understand the value not only of what God says to you in your life but about who you say it to after God says it to you the right people will give you the go-ahead the right people will say you know what i'ma help you as you do this I know the addiction has got you about three different cycles now and it looks like this one won't be any different but whether or not you make it I'm gonna be here with you on it so let's go ahead and do this dumb thing this impossible thing this crazy thing and then sometimes they got to turn and tell you that ain't God at all but it's who you say it to it's a 50/50 thing it's not just my relationship with God it's my relationship with others and a lot of us are suffering in silence in our relationship with God because we're living in bitterness with our relationship with others you can't hear God just like this I guarantee you if Jonathan would have had an armor bearer who told him you know what man let me know how that turns out I'm praying for you sign of the cross I guarantee the battle wouldn't have moved on beyond Beth Aven that day like it did mm-hmm and even for me I can say this when people say how did you know God wanted you to start a church I read a book I felt inspired I got up and preached it seemed to help people read a book I got a wife we were doing our thing one day she looked at me in the mountains of Tennessee we were at some youth camp Carl Cartee was leading worship we came back to the room people say how did you know how did God speak to you it was time for you to start the church because I wanted to start it when I was 40 the church wouldn't even be here right now if Holly didn't turn to me not God she was my Urim God used her like that she said it's time for you go start this church I said when I'm 40 she said no now look JJ if you hear me saying on this message you know God's calling you to go you know how many people I've seen go start coffee shops because they like coffee and they hear a message like this and abuse it and they think that the whole point of the message is just go do the dumbest thing you can think of that you have a half way interest in and then blame the devil when it doesn't work out because it was spiritual warfare and attack and nobody believed in my dream and I'm nothing but Jesus on the cross from garden Gethsemane squeeze like the olives and the oils coming out all of that is dumb because I'm not even talking about that I'm talking about who you talk to about what God is saying to you and now I get to return the favor I mean the other day she turned to me and was like hey I'm about to tell you something that I think God is speaking to me cuz it's always a 50/50 thing always always so I'm confident I'm but I'm not certain you know and she was like um don't laugh at me I'm like why would I laugh at you tell me and what she told me I said not only have you got to do that but you got to do this this and this and this and this cuz that's awesome then I think she was sorry that she told me cuz she didn't want to do this this this and this and this she just wanted to do that but we started talking you see how important it is not only what God says to you it's not only this beam of the cross but it's this one too so I don't have Urim and Thummim but I've got Eugene it was a a stretch at best and Irene and I got people now this is so this is so key it's a 50/50 faith it's a 50/50 that means it is a divine partnership where Jonathan says you know there is something that God can do and then there is something that God will not do that only we can do faith is 50/50 James proves it clearly not only does Jonathan exemplify it James explains it when he says faith without works is dead it takes two this is a 50/50 proposition why would God do for you what he gave you the strength to do for you it is a 50/50 faith it is not my faith that saves me and I'm grateful for that how many are grateful that your faith in Christ for salvation is not 50/50 come on cuz if it was I would be in hell before Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time but because he is my great high priest y'all I'm about to get happy on this sermon and because he took the breastplate of his own righteousness into the most holy place and shed his blood on the mercy seat I don't ever have to doubt if he wants to see me or hear me or love me or throw his arms around me he is my righteousness and I am his child and he is my great High Priest come on shout about it like you got the good sense to know this thing doesn't depend on me foundational faith even that faith is the gift of God so that no one can boast but watch this Jonathan said perhaps perhaps the Lord will it's 50/50 I know we can I think you will 50/50 I know God is with me and I think this is where he's leading me it's 50/50 I'm a 50/50 leader I pulled 70 staff in this Monday and said this is what I think God is doing and I can't put a bow on it but we're gonna find out together why because God won't reveal truth if I don't move toward it ever and the issue is this experience is the friend of wisdom but it can be the enemy of faith you need me to run that back experience is the friend of wisdom but if you get like Saul and Ahijah and keep the ephod under the pomegranate tree Jonathan said we're gonna have to be our own ephod we're gonna have to put ourselves out there and see if God will and when Eugene Peterson he had this idea right he was trying to preach the Bible he's in heaven now but he was trying to preach the Bible to his church he realized that they weren't really getting it so he sat down to write a translation of the Bible in a way they could understand you know that little version on your Bible on your phone I hope you got the Bible on your phone I hope you got the Bible up above Facebook on your phone because you need that one to start your day you really do you really do you don't need to know what's going on in Russia every second but you need to know what's happening what God intends for your life and if you click on it there will be one version that says MSG and it has nothing to do with a Chinese restaurant it's the message translation and it was written by a man who was just he had an idea what if I write the Bible in the language that's common to the people and he ended up translating the whole Bible that way the message translation all because maybe God would use this you know if you act on it if you act it's 50/50 it's 50/50 I'm not sure I don't know look what he said when he translated 1 Samuel 14:6 my favorite verse about faith in the old testament look what he said that Jonathan said to his armor-bearer come on now come on now let's do it now not when the priest gets his act together not when the government gets this act together not when but now we got to do this now now come on now let's go across to these uncircumcised pagans and then he said the title of my series maybe God will work for us maybe maybe faith is being able to move on a maybe and you know what that means it's 50/50 it might not work but God is always working I'm confident in the second even when I'm not certain in the first and it takes the kind of faith church to say maybe maybe if I do this maybe and maybe it won't and maybe God will use this thing that I think I'm supposed to do to lead to something that I was really supposed to do so that even if the first thing fails at least I'm not sitting still in fear but it takes faith to move on a maybe when Urim has gone dark and Saul is under a tree and you don't know what to do but to move toward it God says move toward it it may work and even if it doesn't I will it it's the power to move on a maybe to know that God is mystery but he has revealed his character is trustworthy I can move on a maybe father I don't want to do this but nevertheless not my will but yours be done so I'm gonna go see about this and maybe somebody shout maybe maybe I've got a maybe faith enough faith to do it and not know the conclusion but trust God in the process it's a maybe faith I'm confident I'm not certain but I'm confident and you will find yourself many times in your life in a maybe moment some of you are there right now it's a maybe moment for you maybe you are giving yourself to a marriage that you don't know if it can live like Ezekiel in the valley of bones you don't even know if anything's gonna happen but you're prophesying and speaking for and believing God to send the winds and you're living in the maybe moment maybe if we start a church maybe maybe I know who God is and I know nothing can stop him but it's 50/50 man you want to do it anyway maybe the miracle is in the maybe I wish I could preach this to every discouraged heart today God lives in a place called maybe faith lives in a place called maybe so if you are in a maybe moment today that's where God lives stand up when you're in that maybe moment and if you are you know it and if you're not you will need this message within the next six weeks because life is full of maybe moments you will feel in that moment the coexistence of uncertainty and confidence and you'll feel like you're making it up as you go I like that image cuz Jonathan said climb up after me climb up after me I was thinking about how they made it up as they went but I had to go I had to I had to do it I had to I had to trust God in a maybe moment maybe moments are like the moment where you could look stupid maybe moments are the moments where you could be rejected most of us aren't facing Philistines and thorny slippery cliffs and geographical obstacles most of us are facing things that are on the inside of us that seem insurmountable and God is in the maybe moment of your life when you move forward anyway when I stopped by my dad's house and gave him the letter on Father's Day after we had not spoken in months because I moved him to Charlotte when his health got bad with my mom because he asked me to and I told him I said dad I want to do this for you you're my dad I want to take care of you and we didn't know that he had ALS yet we just knew that he was very sick and because he was a self-employed barber I didn't know you know if he was just honestly my dad at that point in his life was so illogical and irrational I didn't know if it was a good idea or not but I knew my dad was asking me for help and I knew that something was wrong and when he asked me to do it I knew something inside of me knew like this could turn out really bad you know like I told my dad I said you lived 3 and a half hours away from me right now and that works pretty good for us if you come up and we're all up in each other space you know it might not be good and he said I need you to do this for me and I said um I'll never forget telling him you know I don't even think this is a good idea but i'ma do it you asked me to and I love you but please when you come up here please when you come live in Charlotte I knew my mom would be fine she's great I was like you please don't do any of this crazy stuff and honest to God no sooner then I sent the moving company to give him an estimate he chased the moving company out of the yard with his walking cane I mean this guy he was a good dad for a lot of my life but by this point his medications as well as his physical condition he was starting to really lose his mind but I knew I needed to move him anyway and it didn't make sense at that point in fact when he got here when he finally moved after running off the moving company after he finally found a moving company that was fit to move him and I went to go see him and check on him and the house that we had found for them first thing he did when I walked in the door was complain about the house when I tell you that I said some Hebrew words and some Greek words some Monks Corner words some compound cuss words and it was like over the next few months every bad thing that I thought was gonna happen if I tried to do the right thing started happening and what was the weird contrast was my ministry was going so great and the church was growing and my dad and the way he treated my mom and eventually he left he went to go live by himself it like culminated in this horrible like the worst Thanksgiving ever where we went to see him the only place he would live was in this nursing home and they had him calling bingo in the nursing home and yes it's okay you can laugh about it because it was like how did we come to this like how can they not even live together how do we spend all this money and all this time and he raised me all this time and coached my teams and all this then it's gonna end like this when we would try to talk on the phone he would end up yelling I would end up yelling and then I'd end up preaching and then I'd go back and talk to my dad and I'd end up yelling and he would end up yelling but when I went by his house on Father's Day I thought well maybe maybe if I write down I took a notebook and I told Holly can you drive for me for a minute we were coming back from a family trip and I said I need to do something real quick can you drive for me and can we stop by my dad's house he was living all alone at that time by his own choice and I sat there while Holly drove and I wrote down a memory for every year that I had been alive of him being my dad because I knew we couldn't talk but I thought well maybe if we could just communicate in writing and when we showed up at the house and he opened the door I kind of like through the list at him you know like Happy Father's Day I made a list for you because maybe maybe this is a dumb idea but maybe it could open a door for us to have a relationship it's the maybe moments you know if I'm gonna tell you about my maybe moments that result in starting a church that reaches the world I think I owe it to you to tell you about my maybe moments that were messy too it's not always so clear it's not always so perfect it's not always so brilliant it's not always so strategic life is lived in those maybe moments and so I got to sit beside him as he breathed his last breath after three days that hospice had been in much later after a progression where my mom graciously let him back in the house and cared for him until he died and I got to be there reading to him from Charles Spurgeon's sermon the peaceful sleep of the beloved after I sang to him the old rugged cross and I thought he was gonna pass quickly but he stayed around like three days and I ran out of hymns and started having to sing James Taylor and Hootie and the Blowfish I mean I was there for all of it in that moment because of moving forward with a maybe I believe God sent me with this message today and I'm over time I'm so over time it's gonna be awful in the parking lot in the rain and God forgive me and please smile at people on the way out and tell them it's gonna be worth it but please listen to me listen to me you're in a maybe moment you're in a maybe moment it's slippery on one side thorny on the other don't have everybody with you you thought you'd have with you just got a armor-bearer father I pray today for the faith for your people to move forward on a maybe in this moment you're the God of all wisdom you are the God who sees all knows all and can do anything I thank you Lord that there are miracles emerging even now as I speak in bodies in relationships in careers in families God I thank you that ministry is birthed out of maybe we thank you God for giving us the Holy Spirit inside of us we thank you for giving us the finished work of your son to let us know that you are good and you do good and all things work together for the good of them that love you I speak over every maybe situation give your people now by your grace the kind of faith that it takes to move forth in a maybe for we believe that nothing can hinder you from saving whether by many or by few thank you for watching the Elevation Church YouTube channel don't stop here join the eFam our online extended family and join us live every Sunday subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a single video or live stream and share this with a friend you can also support the ministry by clicking the give now button to help us continue to reach people around the world for Jesus Christ thank you again for watching God bless you

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 976,338

Rating: 4.8716679 out of 5

Keywords: elevation church, pastor steven furtick, furtick steven, stephen furtick, elevation church maybe:God, steven furtick maybe:god, 50/50 faith maybe god steven furtick, 50/50 faith elevation church, maybe god sermon series, elevation church 2019 sermons, steven furtick 2019 sermons, 50/50 faith, maybe god, how to make decisions, church online

Id: GGnWqBGJKAg

Length: 50min 26sec (3026 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 25 2019