I Don't Think I'm Ready For This | Holly Furtick | Elevation Church

[Music] holly is going to share our anniversary message he's never preached on the church anniversary she always makes me work on the church birthday this year it's her turn all over the world right now people are joining us and and they're hungry to hear from god and god has sent us somebody today who lives the word of god and that's going to make it so much more powerful her authenticity only gets deeper the closer that you come matter of fact she was all this week watching old videos of the church crying and we were sitting around a table in shelby north carolina getting ready to get started even before you were here autumn and that's you've been here a long time but even before that when we were sitting around the table in shelby north carolina and she said come watch some of these it'll touch your heart i said i don't want to watch it um i don't you know like there's a there's a fine line between uh like getting back to your core and then cringing at everything that you know like my how my voice sounded and everything but i snuck in and watched one of the clips i wanted them to show it real quick with mute i'm not going to let them hear my voice or what i was saying but what i want you to notice is that uh that guy in the three sizes too big button down who didn't deserve this this woman that god gave him um notices on august 14 2005 um just about six months before we had our first public service i believe that uh in just a moment here comes somebody in the room what's he doing he's he's uh moving back for the person who's supposed to be sitting beside him and there's elijah who's 15 now um the og of the elevation core team and what i want you to see is her smile and i want you to see how she carried elijah and how you've carried what god has put in your heart for our ministry with grace and poise and dignity for 15 years you did it smiling and you did it kindly and we're thankful for the word that god gave you for us today last year bishop jakes preached my anniversary there's only one person i'd rather hear from let's thank god for holly ferdick happy birthday church [Music] i wish everybody could have pastor stephen verdick introduce them that's just the best um welcome to everyone worshiping with us happy anniversary whether you're worshiping from your campus or your living room or your work watch party all over the world i know you may have already typed in the chat where you're joining us from but let's do it again say hi to me give me a little wave um i'm just so excited to be here today and be celebrating the anniversary it's always one of my favorite weeks in our church you guys worship team thank you you're amazing and by the way maverick city you guys have led worship the last three times that i have preached so i just want to say we should you know keep going to make it a thing make it a thing and by the way that little collab that he was talking about can i say collab collaboration um i can't wait for you to hear it it is unlike anything out there it is anointed it is fresh it is incredible and i'm so excited for it when's it coming out soon soon that's all you need to know okay if you're in the room you can sit down it's been 15 years and earlier this week i got to spend some time with our staff just listening to stories and testimonies of how god has moved in each of our lives to this ministry and i'm just i'm so grateful that i get to be a part of this church and as i was personally reflecting this week i was watching old videos and looking through old pictures i just i couldn't be more grateful for the faith of our pastor because he has taught me about what faith actually looks like more than any other person more than any bible verse he has shown me that there are two sides to faith that there's the faith that has the confidence to speak up in the moment and declare something or decide something like he just said this is just the foundation i can't tell you how many things i've heard him say from the front row that i was like whoa like one time he said that we were gonna give the entire week's offering back into our community and we didn't have a lot of extra money or any extra money in the bank at that time one time he declared that we would reach 10 000 people by 2010 and i'm gonna i don't remember how many people we had at the time but it wasn't close to ten thousand people in attendance or when he decided that we needed to move all of our online worship experiences to youtube and there's all these decisions that i've watched him make over the years and that's one side of faith and it's the side of faith that's backed by an intimate relationship with god one that hears and acts but then there's this other side of faith and and you get to see the hearing act side of pastor stephen but there's this other side of faith and we all experience it but we don't know that it's normal and that side of faith is the side that actually looks and feels like fear and doubt and you don't know how many times i have heard my husband say do you think we're doing the right thing is this irresponsible is this going to work is this gonna is is this right did i why did i say that and you've taught me over the past 15 years that if there's no fear it doesn't really require very much faith [Applause] and you've taught me that faith requires work and it requires grit and perseverance even though you're throwing up behind closed doors when no one else knows you've taught me that it's okay when what you believe you heard from god doesn't necessarily line up with what you feel or see in your current circumstances and think about our matthew's campus if you're part of our matthew's campus and you don't know the story of your campus you better ask larry bry because i don't know i have so many memories but i'm also thankful for all the people who have come alongside us over the years and have joined their faith with ours whether it's people who are on our staff and who have come alongside or people who have just given faithfully and volunteered week after week and i just know that you would agree with me that as i stand here and say thank you pastor steven for letting us ride your spiritual coattails your faith has allowed us to see what god can do through us type it in the chat if you're watching god is just getting started and i believe that the next 15 years is going to be just as extraordinary as the last i love you okay can i preach today i i i cannot wait to share with you the things that god has been teaching me i knew that i wanted to preach this when i read this story and literally everything that stephen has been preaching for the last two months just kept leaping off the page at me like something from every sermon so i'm so excited are you ready okay i've got my my preaching pants i'm gonna tighten my belt let's pray lord we thank you for this church we thank you for your church 15 years seems like a lifetime when we think about all that you have done most of all we thank you that this is the place i thank you that this is the place where you speak to me and no matter where we're watching from whether it's in our living rooms or on our computers driving in our cars god we're here we're here we're listening would you comfort us would you encourage us would you inspire us would you challenge us today we want a touch from you lord we want to hear from you speak through me now in jesus name i pray amen before i read our scriptures judges 6 you can make your way there it's in the beginning of the bible i i want to take a poll so let me know in the chat do you put stickers on your car just give me a thumbs up or thumbs down my dad never ever let us put stickers bumper stickers on his car um and i so i never put stickers on my car until until this sticker hold on oh that's your folder this one's mine tell this one by the way these are free um if you ask your campus pastor from one or you can order one online um i don't know if they're free online but they're free i guess anyway nothing against all other stickers and sorry dad but i had to put a sticker on my car and i started thinking about other stickers that people put on your car on their cars it's kind of funny what may when you see people's stickers you're like what made you want to put that on your car so some of them you can understand you know like like this i never put one of these on my car but let me know in the chat if you ever put one of these on your car most of these belong to first time parents then you move up in the world and you get one of these and um well we don't have a dog but here's the funny thing about these like these are cute you know um but then some people get really carried away with these like the fish these are really permanent you know this is your car um okay sorry i got a couple more i'm gonna go a little faster uh we have these no comment just here's one i'm never gonna put on my car if you have one of these on your car congratulations we are so proud of you that ain't happening for me and then okay here's here's one more because you know you see these statements that people put on their cards and you just wonder like here i'm going to show it to you first see if you can stand still like what happened to this guy what happened to him that he was like i'm getting a freaking sticker so recently though i joined like a club of sorts and i had to put another sticker on my car next to my elevation one and um it's this one [Applause] god as my witness [Laughter] no one could have prepared me for this stage of parenting i've heard people say that teaching your kids to drive is hard and scary and there's a lot of yelling but guys to date 15 years i've been a mom to date this is the hardest thing that i have done i'm not throwing elijah under the bus um he's doing a great job but this is like it's like getting in a roller coaster getting on a roller coaster that could actually crash and we have three kids thank god we stopped at three because i have to do this two more times and i will never forget the day that we walked out of the dmv i don't know who was more proud elijah or me it was such a great moment we had a little bit of drama because you know there's a pandemic going on and and let's just be honest the dmv was rough before covet so this was our second trip to the dmv and and i'm i just i'm not gonna go into deals about why it was a second trip but let's just say i um i did go back in the sign said do not come in because you had to wait outside i did go back and i was like i need help because it's just anyway so elijah gets his his permit and he's completed the states required 30 hours in the classroom he's done six hours behind the wheel with the instructor he's passed his test and he was ready to get behind the wheel and as we walked to the car i just confidently said all right you're driving us home and he looked at me and he said i don't think i'm ready for this so inside i was not confident at all but i really i got in my head that i wanted him to have this memory of us of him driving away from the dmv so i mustered up all my courage and i said of course you're ready this is how you learn to drive let's go so we got in the car and he adjusted his his seat and we made sure the mirrors were right and he put the car in drive and i just seriously i cannot cannot reiterate enough handing your child the keys to your own vehicle you paid money for and letting them drive you is it's like a loss of control that can only be experienced but i put on a smile and i was like you got this but i didn't really think it all the way through because i don't that's i don't always think things all the way through and we had to get on i-85 to go home so and like it's okay it's okay everything's okay and so our entrance came up and i prayed and i stayed calm and i talked him through it because that's what you have to do when you're teaching a kid how to drive you have no idea how much stuff you do without thinking while you're driving so i'm like speed up not that fast slow down but don't break look to see if anyone's coming and we merged and so we picked up speed and we're going and just when i was at a level of threshold of fear and anxiety that that i could possibly stand it started to rain i promise you and i said pull over i'm not ready for this that's the title of my message today i don't think i'm ready for this have you ever felt like you had to do something that you were not ready for but like you're already in it we encounter situations like this every day sometimes it's a season of life that you weren't ready for but here you are um sometimes it's a pandemic and you find yourself doing a job that you weren't really hired to do sometimes it's things beyond your control that happen maybe you're now caring for an elderly parent or fighting an illness that you didn't expect how many of you would agree that if you waited until you feel ready or qualified to do something never gonna do it is life so today we're gonna look at the life of gideon a young man who was minding his own business he was trying to survive just like everyone around him but god came to him and he called him out to lead his nation even though he didn't think he was ready let's look at this judges chapter 6 verse 1. the israelites did evil in the lord's sight so the lord handed them over to the midianites for seven years the midianites were so cruel that the israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains caves and strongholds whenever the israelites planted crops marauders from midian amalek and the people of the east would attack israel camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as gaza they left the israelites with nothing to eat taking all of the sheep goats cattle and donkeys these enemy hordes coming with their livestock and tents were as thick as locusts they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count and they stayed until the land was stripped bare so israel was reduced to starvation by the midianites then the israelites cried out to the lord for help stripped bare reduced to starvation they cried out sad thing about this is that it's only a few generations after israel fled slavery in egypt and here we find them hungry and hiding in their own land have you ever been hungry and hiding when you were supposed to be flourishing and free [Applause] maybe something happened to you and you feel stripped bare it's funny how unexpected circumstances can just come and knock us off our feet they just come from nowhere and and and it can be a job it could be an illness it could be the end of a relationship or some of us have experienced a sudden onset of anxiety and it could it could even be a change that you thought was gonna be awesome like maybe you went away to college but now you're just struggling to find your place like you thought this was gonna be amazing and now you're like lonely and maybe maybe this isn't where i was supposed to be and could be even like israel a series of your own poor decisions that led you to this place of confusion in pain and i think when things like this happen our natural instinct is to withdraw i don't want to admit to others that i need help i don't even want to cry out to god because i feel like i should be doing better than this we feel like it's our own fault that we're suffering and the thing about hiding is that it feels right at the time but then it only makes you feel more isolated and alone and for whatever reason that we find ourselves in this place we start to convince ourselves that no one understands no one cares and so we just pull away even more and we become starved for meaningful interaction with others and hungry for acceptance and it makes you kick into scavenger mode you ever been in scavenger mode and you're mad at everyone you're mad at the world and you're just you're trying to satisfy your soul and all the places that never really fulfill you and that's where we find israel at the moment i just wonder if you can relate if you've ever experienced this feeling they know they shouldn't be in this place they know they don't have to continue to live this way and the bible tells us that they got to the point where they were so impoverished that they cried out to the lord for help and i think it's so interesting that sometimes we have to get so low before we finally cry out to god don't worry this sermon is not depressing because god hears our cries that's what you have to know today and in my experience god hears my cries but usually relief comes in the form of action on my part something i'm gonna have to do and that's where i want to spend the bulk of our time today an angel comes to gideon and he's gonna call him to action gideon is going to be the one to lead the nation of israel in a fight against their oppressors and their oppressors are big and we're going to watch gideon question and doubt but then we're ultimately going to see him put his faith into action in an incredible way spoiler alert because i'm not going to get to the end of the story i'm just going to tell you about it now gideon and only 300 men defeat the the midianite army of over 150 000 men and gideon lives to be an old man today i want to talk through the events that led up to this epic victory because you know we love to sing i'm going to see a victory for the battle you know we like we the battle does belong to the lord but that doesn't mean that you get to sit up in the stands and watch like a spectator so what do you do when you know you're entering into a new season a new battle a new calling a new role how do you shift from how you're currently surviving to actually living out that faith that's inside of you god never wants us to live in hiding he never intended us to live with fear lurking around every corner he doesn't want us scavenging for scraps of encouragement on social media when you cry out to him he hears you and he helps you but he doesn't do it for you because it's in that place of crying out and questioning and acting even when we aren't sure even when we don't feel ready that's where god does some of his greatest work within us and as we talk through this story today i'm going to give you four things to remind yourself about god when you're facing a new situation and you don't feel ready not for things to remember about yourself yes you can do all things to christ who strengthens you but when it comes time to put your faith into action we have to remember who is really on our side that's what i want to talk about today so let's get down verse 11 then the angel of the lord came and sat beneath the great tree at ophra which belonged to joash of the clan of ebiazar gideon son of joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a wine press to hide the grain from the midianites the angel of the lord appeared to him and said mighty hero the lord is with you first thing that you must remember is that when god calls you he calls according to your potential i don't know much about wheat i like to eat it or wine presses but i'm pretty sure that you're not supposed to thresh wheat in a wine press gideon was hiding from the enemy and he was just trying to get enough food enough wheat to feed his family he was just trying to get by one more day just an ordinary day for him in hiding and an angel comes to him and some translations say that the angel calls him mighty warrior there's nothing mighty or warrior about gideon in this moment he's hiding he's starving aren't you grateful that god calls us according to the potential he sees in us not our past decisions not our present circumstances don't you wish you could actually see yourself the way god sees you i think back to starting this church i remember stephen and i dreaming and planting planting dreaming and planning about one day planting a church and we would say things like you know one day when we're older maybe when we're 40 maybe when we're wiser when people would actually want to follow us but very clearly god just spoke to us and he it was it was just we just knew it was time for us to start this church we were 25 years old let me put that into perspective for some of you we'd only been out of the college dorm room for three years we were not pastors we were not church planning experts we were children god doesn't see you as unemployed he sees you as a provider [Applause] god doesn't see you as a stressed out mom he sees you as a nurturer he doesn't see you as insecure he sees you as confident in your own personality in your own skin you might be hiding but that's not who you really are and god is not looking for perfection because if he was he wouldn't have picked us he wouldn't pick me and he wouldn't have picked you he's looking for potential he is perfectly okay with the space between who you are right now in this moment and who you're going to become because he sees the fighter in you deep inside he sees a person who will fight for progress he sees a person who will fight for their family he sees a person who will fight to keep their integrity and their honesty even when it gets hard in their job a person who will fight to do the right thing even when it feels like everyone else is doing the wrong thing that's who you are [Applause] the thing is in gideon's current state he's so bitter about his situation i don't even think he heard the mighty warrior part because he got caught up on the part where the lord the lord says hold on well let me get it let me get back to it he got caught up on the part look what the angel says is verse 13. sir gideon replied if the lord is with us why has all this happened to us and where are the miracles our ancestors told us about didn't they say the lord brought us up out of egypt but now the lord has abandoned us and handed us over to midian getting got caught up on the lord is with you part he's like what kind of promised land is this that's what he wants to know isn't the bible amazing because don't tell me that you've never spoken to god like that don't tell me you've never prayed where are you and why is this happening to me [Applause] have you ever thought have you ever prayed have you ever thought everyone else is getting a breakthrough but me and my family can i be honest with you i have prayed some prayers to god that i really hope he wasn't listening i've said things like seriously god you're gonna bless them god where have you been this was supposed to be my dream job this was supposed to be ministry and it feels like everything's falling apart god where are you this is not how i thought it would go and you say you're with me but i can't feel it right now and god is so good because he's like that parent that completely ignores his kid's tantrum and he just moves right on with his instruction what he says to gideon the lord turned to him and said go in the strength that you have and save israel out of midian's hand am i not sending you god says to gideon let's go get up i'm gonna use you yes you put it in the chat yes you but i'm not good enough yes you but i'm not old enough yes you but i'm too old yes you i'm not strong enough yes you [Applause] you wherever you're watching from god wants to use you sit down my second point is this [Applause] god prepares you along the way i'm just going to tell you right now yes you but you're never going to feel ready and you're never going to feel full of faith all the time feeling full only last momentarily and then the fear sets in and then the doubt and then the hard stuff like the people come along the baby actually comes you actually have a roommate in college stop waiting to feel ready stop making excuses for why you can't do the things you're called to do and let me be a little bit more clear most of the time in my experience god doesn't call me to do something new he calls me to do something that i'm already doing with a better attitude and a bigger purpose and the temptation is to walk away from what you're doing and start something new [Applause] i think i need a new marriage a new church a new job i can't do this anymore i don't have the strength to keep going in this relationship any longer but god told gideon let's go the strength that you have is enough for this moment when god gives you an assignment he makes it big enough for you to question it and small enough for you to take the first step [Applause] you have the strength that you need for the task that you've been given today if your child is three you have what you need to raise a three-year-old and when they're 13 you still won't feel ready but you'll be stronger and you'll be wiser than you were 10 years before god's not gonna lay your future out in front of you if he did you would never come out of hiding and it's not because there's this big bad terrible situation that's gonna happen to you it's because it's more than you could ask or imagine we're celebrating our church's 15th anniversary today and i've been thinking back on all the amazing things that god's done i can't stop thinking about how we only had to have enough faith to start not to finish starting faith type that in the chat starting faith that's all you need the courage to start this weekend um this week my husband he already told you this but i i when i am preparing for a sermon i get in these rabbit holes and sometimes it's i mean it can be anything i think at one point i was looking at camping gear this week i i don't like camping i was looking at can't be here um and so but one of the rabbit holes that i went in was watching old videos of our core team meetings i think i have a picture for you okay um chunks and navy this is your living room this is a picture that i don't think we've ever shown anyone before um remember that chair with the fish on it so here's steven preaching he's preaching his heart out to about 15 people and he's telling them how we're going to start a church and how the worship is going to draw people in and the sermons are are going to to be relevant and people are going to want to invite their friends and then with all the passion that you can imagine pastor steven verdick at age 25 he says and i believe he has this country accent back then it's really funny and i believe with all my heart that we are going to impact the city of charlotte and i watched that this week and i thought when he was like we are going to impact i'm like thinking the world and he's just charlotte are you telling me god gave this man a vision to impact a medium-sized city in the southwestern southwestern southeastern united states the vision wasn't that we would be the fastest growing church plant the vision wasn't that we would write songs that other churches would sing the vision wasn't that we would have a global online ministry that would impact people all over the world he didn't proclaim passionately that we would have multiple locations it's easy for me to look back now and just charlotte but at the time charlotte was massive to us [Applause] but today let's just do a little experiment let me know in the chat where are you watching from even if you're watching later in the archive type it in the chat let me know if your life has been touched by this ministry let me know where you are watching from phoenix nigeria singapore atlanta jamaica new york cape town not to mention all the people in charlotte i hope you're clapping your hands wherever you are because god wants to do more than you can ask or imagine but for today he gives you the strength that you need right now that's it because the thing about strength is is developed along the way you get a little bit stronger that's how faith grows the point of faith is for you to look back and see how far you've come but to look forward and feel a little bit afraid i love that sermon this past weekend from pastor stephen so much he said same devils new levels but he told us you might be fighting the same battles but it's a stronger you that's fighting each time [Applause] and you're not fighting this battle alone over and over god keeps telling gideon i will be with you verse 15 but lord gideon replied how can i rescue israel my clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of manasseh and i'm the least in my family gideon is still not on board with this plan he's still telling god that he's not the right person for this that he's not good enough that he doesn't come from a strong family background and again god does not answer these questions he simply says i will be with you and you will destroy the midianites as if you were fighting against one man see he doesn't tell him it's he's only gonna have 300 people helping him he doesn't need to know that part gideon replied if you're truly going to help me show me a sign to prove that it is really the lord speaking to me don't go away until i come back and bring my offering to you and he answered i will stay here until you return you got to remember that god is patient that's my third thing and i want to make sure you get it if you only hear me say one thing today i want you to hear this god is patient with you in church we love to talk about waiting on god and and we should we should definitely wait on god the bible tells us wait on the lord be of good courage and he will strengthen your heart and isaiah 40 31 they will they that wait on the lord will renew their strength they will mount upon wings like eagles they will run and not be weary they will walk and not be a fate but gideon wasn't soaring on eagle's wings he was weary he was hungry he was fainting he was out of patience for god for seven years israel was oppressed by midian seven years is a long time and gideon had given up on god but aren't you glad that we serve a god who never gives up on us he's so patient everyone loves to quote isaiah 40 31 you know what verse 28 says i got to show it to you it says do you not know have you not heard the lord is the everlasting god creator of the ends of the earth he will not grow tired or weary in his understanding no man can fathom the angel told gideon i'll wait here for you to return and i believe that god is waiting for you right where you left off he's waiting for you to return to him he's patient with your questions he's patient with your fear he's patient with your poor decisions he's waiting for you to come back to him yeah i struggled so much with this message because i kept asking god and gideon's gonna he's gonna go and he's gonna make this sacrifice and and god's calling him to do something and i kept asking god what does calling mean to us right now today in 2021 because calling is such a religious word you know i grew up in a good old southern baptist church and we love to talk about calling like when when you were about to get a new pastor they would come and preach to the congregation and it was called in view of a call i never really knew what that meant but i do not but then that pastor who's preaching in view of a call would give an invitation for you to accept god's call and usually this meant things like a call to join our church or a call to the mission field or a call to full-time ministry where it could mean a call to simply surrender your life to jesus god can call you to do a lot of things but the most important call is the one where you decide to surrender your life to him and that's what i really think god was calling gideon to do he was calling him to a specific task but he was also calling him out of survival mode and into a relationship with him he keeps telling him over and over again i will be with you yes you i have a lot that i want to do through you and the bible tells us that gideon hurried home and he started to gather up a sacrifice for the lord and he cooked a goat and he made some bread without yeast gideon had that flat bread faith just like his ancestors a few generations back gideon didn't have time for the bread to rise god was waiting on him and more than that you know unleavened bread it had a significance it represented freedom from oppression that's the gift that he's going to bring to god so he gets back to the angel and he brings his his sacrifice i got to tell you i thought about this i was like god why did why did gideon bring a sacrifice what does this mean does does god require some sort of sacrifice from us when we come to him does he call us to sacrifice our gifts our money our time and then i remembered what paul said in romans 12. i urge you brothers and sisters in view of god's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god this is your true and proper worship what god wants for me is me all of me he wants my whole life a living sacrifice one that understands that the purpose of my life is not what i accomplish it's who i accomplish it with that's why god kept telling gideon over and over again i will be with you yes he was calling him to accomplish something but i think the point was that gideon understood that god wanted him and that god was going to wait patiently for gideon to accept this calling so gideon brings this sacrifice it was costly though it's it's costly to give god your life he brought him a goat and bread remember they were starving and to me i think gideon's sacrifice was saying god here's everything i have because i know that you're the one who truly fills me i gotta tell you again god is waiting for you right now not future you not skinny you not married you certainly not famous you god doesn't need you to be famous to use you he's waiting for you to come to him with everything that you don't like about yourself everything that you don't understand about him and just surrender yourself in faith anyway softly and tenderly jesus is calling the god of the universe is waiting for you he's waiting for you gideon offers up his sacrifice i mean that's when he finally realizes that it was in fact an angel of the lord all along and the bible tells us that the lord says to him do not be afraid you will not die and gideon built an altar to the lord and there he named it yahweh shalom which means the lord is peace the altar remains in ophra in the land of the clan of ebeazar to this day when you say yes to god he gives you peace markers i didn't say peacemakers it's peace markers god is calling gideon to fight but he wants him to mark the peace that he has in that moment yahweh shalom the lord is peace this peace was not a call to the end of conflict the fight hadn't even started yet this is shalom this is a sense of completeness it's wholeness and it points to the presence of something you can't put your finger on and when gideon experienced it god spoke loud and clear to him do not be afraid you're not gonna die he made sure he didn't want to forget that so he built an altar right there that he could look back to can you think of any peace markers along your faith journey i spent some time writing a few of mine out this week moments that i look back to when i begin to wonder if god is really with me peace markers can be an answer to prayer they can be a timely call or a text from a friend that just felt like they must have god must have told them it can be a sermon you know those sermons when you feel like your pastor god hijacked your pastor's mouth and just spoke directly to you and you were about to give up i love all the stories of our church when people say i was done and then i heard god say when you get one you got to make sure you don't forget it you gotta write it down you gotta tell someone a piece marker can be a song um not too long ago i came to church feeling really heavy with doubt over a decision that we had made for about one of our kids and at the time when we made the decision it felt right in the moment it felt like yes we're gonna do this but then a series of events had me doubting and i was on the front row she was trying to hold back tears so this is why you got to come to church [Music] because they sang a song [Applause] they sing that song this is how you walk on water and i know god doesn't speak out loud but he was speaking loud and clear to me in that moment he was telling me one foot in front of the other one day at a time little by little i'm gonna lead you i'm gonna give you the strength that you need right now in this moment to get you through and you know that decision turned out to be exactly right for that child but i didn't know it but god spoke to me in that moment and i could go back to it peace markers can be an event i remember when we um emptied the bank account we when we say we emptied the bank account there wasn't that much in it did it a couple of times but it wasn't you know whatever but we emptied the bank account it was all that we had to drop eggs out of a helicopter and we found out the day before the event that the mailer wasn't going to make it to people's mailboxes in time this is how we were going to invite people to come back then that's what you did you put junk mail in people's boxes it was going to be our first easter at elevation and we were going to use this event to get people to to hear about our church and to and to maybe come because more people come to church on easter you know and and it's a story that we have told a thousand times in the history of this church but it never gets old because i was there and i visibly remember thinking no one's going to show up how are they going to know about this event we wasted all of our money so we had a pity party in our house i don't need to tell you what petty party's like it's pretty quiet and after a while stephen came downstairs and he said me and chunks are going to kinko's we're going to print out some flyers because he wasn't going gonna just sit around while there was still time to do something so we printed off flyers and we went to walmart and we put flyers on people's cars that night before the event sorry it was all we had it was all we could do with all we could think of and the next day more people came than we could handle i have no idea where all those people came from i mean i don't know maybe i had thousands hundreds i don't know it was a lot at the time because we had like 16 people at the time but the event was a huge success and that night we sat in our living room and we watched the story on the local news about our church our little church and we were blown away we didn't know where all those people had come from we certainly didn't put out that many flyers how did all those people hear about our little event we couldn't stop talking about it and there was this peace god was with us in this you know how many times over the past 15 years we've wondered if people were going to come every time we opened a new campus my husband would ask me do you think people are going to come if my husband asked me one time he asked me a thousand times you think people are gonna come every time we started something new and when our fear felt like more than we could handle we focused on those peace markers so the fear never goes away you just get a little bit stronger along the way and there were so many times that we stepped out in faith to do something that we thought god was calling us to do we had to look back and remember the egg drop and remember all the other things along the way you know on march 14 2020 when shelter in place was declared the fear was back in full force the pity party was back in our house and you can bet that stephen verdict was pacing the halls of our house because the doors of our church were gonna close and the people were still gonna need the message of jesus christ more than ever and he was afraid about preaching in an empty room with the message still translate [Applause] but our people still showed up you showed up in the chat you kept giving and you know over the past year our campus pastors and our staff we've had to fight to reinvent the way that we do church we've had to learn how to lead egress from zoom we've had to pastor people over facebook groups we've had to figure out how to open up our buildings again safely and it's scary [Applause] but if you're not a little bit scared you don't need any faith 15 years god has been with us every step of the way because the strength that we have is enough for today it's like manna god gave us all the strength that we needed at the time if he gave us all the strength at once we'd never need him you can go and read the rest of gideon's story he went on to lead israel to freedom in fact the bible says that the israelites never fought midian again and i believe that the message today it's not about gideon's battle with with midian it's about his battle to restore his faith in god it's about his fight to become that mighty warrior that god saw in him all along and i believe that god stands before us today patiently waiting for you to come back to him he wants you to experience his presence in our day-to-day lives he wants you to see that he's with you even when your circumstances suggest otherwise he waits for the great feast for you you don't have to be hungry anymore and all he wants from you is your life he wants all of it your pain your fear your questions your faults your secrets he wants your gifts and talents too but sometimes i think it takes more faith for me to give god the ugly places because who god what would you what do you possibly want with those he delights in you you're his child all of you right now he's going to give you the strength that you need for every situation that lies ahead [Music] but most of all he's going to be with you every step of the way [Music] every single step let's pray lord what can we say but thank you and also god we're coming back to right now in this moment some of us are coming back for the first time some of us are coming back for the 1000th time we're offering we're offering our all to you right now god i don't know why you want me but if you want me you've got me this is all you want i can give you that god would you minister to us in this moment drop us to maybe just feel your presence you remind us of those peace markers that you've given us all along the journey thank you for your patience thank you for your strength just take a minute think about it think about the times that he's come through for you think about the moments when [Music] you felt so alone [Music] but now that you look back he was with you the whole time these moments when he spoke to you [Music] do not be afraid you will not die [Music] got you here's my life thank you that you're gonna give me the strength to do everything that you're calling me to do thank you i jesus my god [Music] jesus [Applause] thank you jesus [Applause] jesus yes you yes you not me couldn't be me he couldn't choose me he couldn't use me i'm not so smart like other people i didn't come from a good home yes you [Music] what man rejects god selects [Music] yes you [Applause] you might be the littlest you might be the loneliest you might be in the lowest place of your life but like ali said jesus is calling [Music] right now would you bow your head close your eyes put the distractions aside and listen to that voice it's a whisper you won't hear it with your ears you'll hear it with your spirit it'll be the voice that's been with you your whole life before the other voices took over the voice of the father welcoming you back home right now i want to make a call all over the world on our church's anniversary for everyone who has never made the decision to place your faith in jesus christ or you made that decision but you've been in hiding i want to issue a homecoming invitation and tell you that the table is already spread and the debt is already settled and christ already died it's already covered it's already done the only thing left for you to do is receive it so right now pray with me out loud wherever you are everyone in the room praying out loud for the benefit of those who are coming to god or coming back to god pray with me right now heavenly father today is my day of salvation i believe that jesus christ is the son of god and the savior of the world i believe jesus died for my sin and rose again to give me life i receive this new life make me a new creation i am a child of god on the count of three if you just prayed that with me say it in the chat i received jesus one two three i received jesus if you're in the room shoot your hand up right now shoot your hand up right now i'm coming just as i am without one plea but that the blood of jesus was shed for me and he is enough and you are enough yes you yes now yes here today is the day you're a new creation you're a child of god you are loved you are accepted you are chosen come on celebrate it with your hands lifted to heaven let's celebrate that homecoming thank you is come on let's thank god for his amazing love his amazing grace that saved a wretch like me a wretch like you yes you i know you're not perfect but there's grace there's room for you in the family of god we want you to be a part of our church you're like who me yes you somebody say yes you but i don't live in charlotte you don't have to look at this miracle we're all over the world we welcome you we call it epham doesn't stand for extended it stands for everyone whosoever will let him come i said whosoever will let him call thank you jesus we love you make sure you leave us a comment this week make sure you stay there um i received jesus if you gave your life to christ make sure you say that was for me holly if she preached the word that you needed to hear but you're going to be wrong because it wasn't for you it was for me she preached that to me but i'm glad you got to hear it praise the lord

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 605,594

Rating: 4.9399886 out of 5

Keywords: elevation church, holly furtick, i don't think i'm ready for this, elevation church sermons, steven furtick, pastor steven furtick, holly furtick sermons, 2021 sermons, preaching, preacher, 15th anniversary, potential, preparation, patience, peace, yes you, actions, strength

Id: 1df8UJs1MGU

Length: 64min 5sec (3845 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/PandaJuanPlays]

Yeah i wonder too

[u/Ubizwa]

What do you mean with this?