Making Peace With Missing Pieces | Pastor Steven Furtick | Elevation Church

[Music] hey y'all [Applause] well did did they did they put caffeine in your communion cups in the lobby today y'all are acting y'all are wild pray for me ephem they're wild in the room today i don't know if i can manage them i feel like a substitute teacher looking at a fourth grade class who just had juice boxes and oreos just fired up man y'all must be listening to lying on repeating your headphones fasten it in there you've been listening to these songs now i need everybody who hasn't heard the whole album yet to repent and give your life to jesus because i'm telling you we worked on this a few years ago really back in 2015 the lord began to shift me to say i don't want you to see your role as preaching only through words i want you to see yourself preaching through melodies and i don't just want you to preach words that the people can listen to when you're up there on sunday or whenever they listen to it during the week i want you to give a huge part of your life to developing songs that can go where the sermons never will and that shift and this amazing team that god gave us here uh when we release an album we pray over it and we send it as a church because we we birth these songs as a church i mean y'all are the ones who were looking at us cross-eyed when we said it might get loud and then you know y'all are slow to catch on and you're like is this a worship song i don't know [Applause] but then you kind of liked it didn't you you kind of liked it i kind of like this i kind of like this and what i love about it is as we pray for these songs to go out today um no matter what you're going through in your life there's 14 songs on this album and we wrote them over 18 months and uh it's been an amazing amazing process but there's something for everybody there really is this is so if if you like straightforward worship music there's plenty of that but but so we need songs we need songs that we can worship to and that's great and it's all worship i mean worship is not just one style you know that but sometimes you need a you need a war fair worship song so if you get in a battle look if you get it if you get in a battle with the devil and i'm not there to preach to you then we've got let the lion roar and and and yeah so you can put that on so i got you if you need something to listen to for bench pressing and you know dead lifting i got you and then their song their songs on this album you could dance to at your wedding so we got warfare worship wedding worship abby said make sure you let them know i was the first person who danced to dancing [Applause] yeah and then i asked her can i dance can i dance with you to that at your wedding in 75 years when you get married but that's good that's good it's all different styles because it's all different kinds of people it's not this is not a a black church a white church a republican church a democrat church it's not it's not baptist it's none of that god [Music] [Applause] [Music] you cannot look at somebody and say you cannot put god in a box he's too big for your box i felt god on that tell 20 people he's too big for your box i need y'all to litter the chat right now say he's too big for your box he's too big you didn't tell 20 people you didn't even tell anybody man he's too big for your box you know he's able to do exceedingly abundantly [Applause] awesome [Music] so you all got me today right our ethan from all over the world let's welcome our e-fam from all over the world healthy church now chris brandon john cell lj scott we got to take the roar on tour [Applause] elevation knights is coming your way april 26th you better get a ticket chicago grand rapids indianapolis columbus washington d.c redding pennsylvania newark new jersey and boston massachusetts we'll see you there elevationnights.com oh it's good to focus on some good news today for me it is and i owe you i owe you a part two of last week's message and i intend to deliver it with the help of the holy spirit last week we talked about move in what you're made for and we used creation yeah we used creation as a classroom we went to the school of the fish and learned that god created for the fish the environment that they needed not only to survive but to thrive in it and when i move in what i'm made for not what not what people manipulate me to be but what god made me to be you know when when i when i'm i i talked about last week a bird in a bowl right when i'm in the wrong environment i never discover the equipment that god gave me specifically as a man as a dad as a pastor all of these things that we find ourselves challenged in life we went in the school of creation a classroom of creation i like that better the classroom of creation and we use that as a model now the word of god is powerful how many believe that the word of god is powerful but the bible as we understand it as the word of god becomes more powerful as it becomes more personal to us so if i approached the bible i heard somebody say one time the bible is an instruction manual for life well if it's an instruction manual it's a really bad one right because you weren't made with the same parts that i was made with so instruction manual it has to be the same exact model of the blender or it's not going to fit that blender and i probably could have done better than blender for the analogy that i used but you know what i'm saying and so the bible is not an instruction manual it's living it's it's living and we say that it's the instruction manual because it came from the manufacturer which is true the maker but the the word of god is actually less like a manual and it's more like a model a model where i see who god is so i can discover who i am so what the lord started doing last week and you can catch the message online you can stop this one go watch that one come back to this one we'll leave it all there like a buffet for you we're open 24 7. this is an ihop kind of situation but international house of preaching am i right it's y'all's fault y'all got me wound up so i i take no responsibility and we will sit in just a moment but let's go to a personal example in the bible because last week i used creation this week the lord directed me to use moses as a model the bible says that these are examples for us good and bad so that we can have our own foundation of faith and i want to look at exodus chapter 4 from the life of moses and read you this as we continue deeper into this thing god is trying to rebuild your self-image in his image okay that's what god is trying to do let us make man in our image that's god talking so that's that's what he's trying to do for you and i thought it would be good since we looked at how god created man in genesis 1. now let's look at god creating a nation now they've been a nation the the people have been a nation but they've been enslaved and now as they come into their identity as free people god speaks to one man the man the myth the legend moses y'all know moses you think you know moses you don't know moses tell somebody you don't know moses you're gonna know moses a little bit better when we finish today exodus 4 verse 10. moses said to the lord pardon your servant lord i have never been eloquent neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant i am slow of speech and tongue and the lord said to him who gave human beings their mouths who makes them deaf or mute who gives them sight or makes them blind is it not i the lord now go move in go move now go right now and get it all figured out now go i will help you speak i'll teach you what to say i wish i could tell you that it ended on a happy note but you know moses said in verse 13 pardon your servant lord please send someone else it reminds you of peter in the new testament does when jesus helped him catch all those fish and he said go away from me lord i'm a sinful man god you know i'm not cut out for this god you know i got secrets god you know i got weaknesses you know i can't speak that was moses's response he said send someone else then the lord's anger burned against moses and he said deal's off we're done that's the god some of us were taught about but it's not the true god it's not the true god the lord was angry but he didn't turn away the lord was angry did you know that some of what you call humility is really insecurity and it insults your maker when you don't like what he made he was angry he was angry with moses and he said what about your brother aaron the levite i know he can speak well and he is already on his way to meet you and he'll be glad to see you you shall speak to him and put words in his mouth that's awesome i will help both of you speak and i'll teach you what to do he will speak to the people the israelites for you and it will be as if he or your mouth and as if you were god to him but this last scripture i'm going to read i know your feet are hurting take this staff in your hand somebody say your hand take this stuff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it and the lord directed me to talk to you today about making peace with missing pieces making peace with missing pieces thank you for your word lord we say yes in advance in jesus name amen you may be seated making peace with missing pieces p-e-a-c-e and then p-i-e i before you right yeah spelling on my feet is hard oh by the way speaking of that y'all pray for me i'm struggling with self-esteem like never before because of holly she's got me playing this game called wordle y'all know it i didn't know if it was like a little cult thing that holly had gotten into she's always texting this group text on the phone on the bed i'm like what are you texting us 11 30 she's like i only got 30 minutes to get my wordle in it's um a word puzzle five letter words and um the reason i ask you to pray for me is because she keeps beating me daily because we put a family wordle group chat and on the group chat if you were to see it you would pray for all my kids because it's graham calling abby a cheater it's abby telling graham i'm not a cheater you're you know and then our family is normal so we're going back and forth and fight i know your family y'all read scripture every morning take the blood of the communion and put the cross on the door and send them off to school on the bus singing about you know proud mary keep on burning but you're talking about the virgin mary because you're a christian but when i tell you she beats me every day she she beats me every day and uh you could look up the game i'm not sponsored by the new york times or anything like that but it's uh it's pretty fun it's frustrating and what i can't get over is abby beating me that's been that's been rough that's been rough and abby beat me the other day because you have so many guesses to get it and she guessed it in two and i guessed it in four grams said she cheated and i just texted back to the group chat kind of sarcastically i'm like well we all know i'm bad with words because i was like overcompensating for the feeling of getting beat by my ten-year-old and holly says back on the group chat nope not words just puzzles and she's right i suck at puzzles i do i showed you last week some things that i'm not so good at and i used the word suck when i said that so i'm trying to say it in a way where you can understand how much i hate puzzles because of how much i lack patience holly is a better person than me i can tell you this over and over she has more patience than me to sit with pieces and try to make it look like a picture that i can already see why do i need to spend five hours taking something that is intentionally broken and putting it together just so i can see what i already saw while this thing was still at the store on the shelf that's how i feel about puzzles i'm bad at puzzles i'm bad at puzzles any puzzle people in the house make some noise such a weird thing to be pumped about i love puzzles but now i need you to understand why i'm bringing all of this up not random not random not random not random not random this is one of the pieces that i want to use to get you to think about what i'm trying to communicate to you about how god made you in his image but you don't get to see all of god at once therefore you don't get to know all of you at once in the scripture it's called progressive revelation that doesn't mean god changes god didn't grow two inches since last sunday when i saw you but it does mean that our understanding of him changes we see through a glass dimly we don't see god as he really is we see god as we think we are so then for god to do work in my heart for god to show me something about myself i have to start with the source start with the source i want to encourage somebody to start with the source when you are trying to figure out who am i and i don't know whether i'm a bird or a fish or whether i'm good at this or whether i'm good at that i really don't know yet that's good but don't start with what you think you are and don't start with what you think god is you have got to spend time to really understand i know i'm all about self-improvement i'm all about self-help somebody's like well you know we don't need self-help we need god's help but i promise you this god is not going to do for you what you can do for you [Applause] god doesn't reveal himself by osmosis i spend time in his presence that's how i get the picture of who he is when i get the picture of who he is i can begin to put together the pieces of what he's making me to be now the big picture of this text is the hebrew children coming out of egypt because god is their deliverer remember in genesis 1 god is creating now in exodus chapter 3 he's liberating same god in a different dimension same god in a different season same god meeting a different need he formed the man from the dust in genesis chapter one and two and he formed the nation watch this from the dust of their slavery and the cries of their groaning he spoke he spoke to moses i love that how we kind of have a a war of words going on in this passage let me illustrate in verse 10 moses said to the lord in verse did you see that did they put it up okay now i want you to see this with your own eyes because it's this back and forth that's been happening in your life too moses said to the lord i can't do this i never did it before wrong dude moses said to the lord i wasn't good at what you're asking me to do when you met me and not much has changed in the last 10 minutes because you know we think the word of god is just going to change us on the spot we think that god's going to speak to us all the fear is going to go all the all the all the bitterness is going to go it's just going to go man i'm just going to drink i'm supposed to drain every disappointment out of your life in 50 minutes on a sunday it doesn't work like that but it's a starting point moses said to the lord and then verse 11 the lord said to him it's a war of words it's a war of words now i'm not going to talk on this pulpit today about the war that's in the news because there's nothing i can do about that i can pray we can give but beyond that there's not much i can do i want to take this moment to talk about the war in you you're in a lot about a world war but don't we see in the scripture that there's a word war happening as well where the lord said to moses i got something for you to do i'm going to use what you have i'm going to take you forward into something that is going to set others free it's not just about me there is a bigger picture here for 400 years get this get this for 400 years there is no record of god revealing himself to man for 400 years and then the lord's word came to moses i'm sending you to pharaoh and when you get to him tell him pharaoh pharaoh oh baby let my people go oh yeah yeah make sure you put the uh in there and most like uh uh uh-uh and he walks through it and i'm gonna walk you back through this but first can we acknowledge that there is a war of words happening in your soul too that there is a war of words happening in your home that there is a war of words happening in your heart the enemy waged war against moses before he was ever born he had to be floated in a basket on the nile to survive some of you the devil has been after you your whole life people should have spoken affirmation over you people should have spoken direction to you people should haven't given encouragement to you and they didn't so other words take root i told holly i'm bad at words she said no just puzzles you're just not patient enough you're just not patient enough you don't like puzzles because you're not patient and then i sit back i said well if you would get off wordle and get in the wordle of god maybe i didn't say that too that's so stupid but but but really now let's let's go to this is not a game here this what's on the line here is not whether or not god's people will be set free because god will always accomplish his purpose god will always accomplish his purpose god will always accomplish his purpose i promise you if saul gets crazy david is already in the sheep field god will always accomplish his purpose if you get fired while being faithful god will use the fertilizer of what you call a failure to create something in your life that you didn't even know to pray for the question isn't whether god's calling and purpose will be confirmed it's not whether god will do it it's will he do it in you and through you unless we get too excited about this war of words because you know i think the assumption is that since moses went to pharaoh and god unleashed frogs and hail and locust and all this stuff and the people got to go through the red sea that moses won but he really didn't because it was the words of the ten spies who told him the giants are bigger than us that kept him from going into the promised land it was the words of grumbling study it sometimes it was words words words words words words words it was the words of the grumbling israelites who were thirsty in the desert that made him take his staff that could split seas and strike a rock out of frustration to bring forth water and because he listened to their words grumbling complaining murmuring comments twitter i mean uh grumbling complaining no i'm in the wrong decade y'all but some things never change it's still a war of words it's a war of words five letter words y'all know about four letter words oh y'all never say four letter words in your head okay okay okay okay in wordle they have five letter words and i just saw two five letter words here and i think it's very simple faith and doubt faith and doubt and i want to break this down so you can understand the war of words that's happening not out of your mouth but out of your mind in this moment that you're standing at this moment maybe you're not leading a nation out of sleep i i think sometimes we dumb the bible down to kind of make it about whatever we want it to be about so god is calling moses to be a deliverer right and we're like well that's kind of like me i'm trying to go on a diet and and you know and boy i really need god because it's hard okay well the principle does apply because i think that moses is a model for us for our life but you know this guy this would be the equivalent of god tells you to stop putin that's what it's like for moses to go before pharaoh that's that's that's what that's what he's up against so we're judging moses well moses you have the word of the lord go forth mighty warrior in the word of the lord you know we're judging this dude like i can't even find my car keys without saying four letter words you know i'm trying to judge moses about him fighting with god over speaking to the most powerful man in the world who has terrorized his people for centuries but i like it because i dare you to show me something bigger that god is trying to bring you into than this and that's why it's a good model because it shows me this is this is ridiculous what god is giving him to do this is not improbable this is impossible this is not like uh lord i need you to show me whether to move to atlanta or cincinnati and the lord's like i really don't care about that i just want you to find a good church when you get there get good friends and make a difference either place he is deciding whether or not to embrace his destiny or to be limited by his history and that's where you are a few months ago i preached when never meets now three of y'all heard it when never meets now and i had this scripture ready but i didn't get to use it where he said i have verse 10 never now remember we are different than everything else god created because he made us by hand down in the dust and he made us ruach the breath of life in you let everything that has breath praise the lord let everything that has breath praise the lord [Applause] but one other way we're different that i realized when i was preaching last week it says over and over again god spoke and god saw god spoke he said let there be light and the light said yes sir and it shone then he spoke which is crazy because he hadn't even made the sun yet but the light still decided to shine even though there was no sun that's how powerful god's word is it doesn't have to make sense if he speaks it y'all aren't ready for that hey tampa i thought y'all have my back today god god god will speak something you have no context for he'll tell noah build an ark and there's no such thing as rain yet and can you do that can you believe what god says when you don't see it at all that is the five-letter word faith okay and it goes on and on you know on the first day god says light be light says yes sir light was day two god says clouds and sky b c b and the c said yes sir and the cloud said i'll take the high road you take the low road and the sea went deep and the clouds went high and it was good god spoke god saw on the third day god told the land land produce living things make plants and the land said yes sir and the plants started to grow on the fourth day kind of different but god said uh hey son you take the day shift the sun said yes sir the moon said uh oh i'm not a night person no the moon didn't say that the moon said i'll go where you need me to go i'll do what you need me to do i'll be what you need me to be i'll hang where you need me to hang i'll pull the ocean that you made on the second day i'll pull it i'll control the tithes everybody's doing its job everything is working in perfect order according to the spoken word of god in the creation account in the fifth day he told the birds i made a place for you called scott they're like this is amazing i believe i can fly i'ma flap till i get there and they start flying around and then nemo and dory and all of that on the fifth day and no body argued on the sixth day he made the living creatures and the cows and the horses and the oxen and the donkeys everything in his place till you came along [Applause] now of everything god spoke only one talked back lord i don't know how to do what you're telling me to do i'm making fun of moses but i already told you he has much greater faith than me to even be in this place the first thing moses did when god spoke he took off his shoes so now let's step into his shoes so we can step in because he took him off when he saw that burning bush and let's imagine this is me let's imagine this is you and the lord is talking about world peace and you are carrying a shepherd's staff and the lord is speaking to you about generational blessing and you are still wrestling with a generational curse it's a war of words what god has spoken over your life that is one thing about the spirit of god who lives within us through the holy spirit now moses didn't know about the holy spirit inside of you he didn't even know who he was talking to yet but the spirit of god in genesis was doing what the spirit of god is doing today it says the spirit of god hovered above everything that god had made when the word of god speaks he speaks from above that's why he can tell you things in your spirit that you can't see with your eyes and that people can't confirm with their words because he speaks from above it can i show you this on a deeper level you ready there are there are at least at least you could probably find more four missing pieces that moses had to wrestle with to move forward in the mission god gave him i think they will apply to everybody in this room how can how can that be there's 12 year olds in this room there's 80 year olds in this room there's people who are on unemployment in this room there's multi-millionaires in this room but when god speaks his spirit can personalize the word directly to the way he made you to be and god likes puzzles now he's not going to give you the picture that's the that's the worst part about trying to be who god's made you to be he dumps the pieces out on the table and doesn't show you a picture well he shows you one piece at a time that's how god works one piece at a time step by step day by day give us this day 70 years worth of bread so we never have to go to the store again no no no our daily bread you get overwhelmed by this you have no peace you're overwhelmed you're thinking about 13 hypothetical scenarios you can't fight the devil on a hypothetical and that's how moses started i'm gonna just pull them up real quick you ready i'm gonna go i'm gonna give you all four of them so quick so pay attention the first thing that moses said the missing piece because god is saying i got something for you to do now how many of you feel like god has something for you to do it's not leading a people out of slavery or something like that big like that but god's given you something to do raise your hand or die okay [Laughter] all right so this is for everybody that's still here ah the first thing moses said give me that exodus 3 scripture he said uh no no exodus 3 exodus 3. who am i that i should go to pharaoh and bring the israelites out of egypt and god said i'll be with you so then that follows this next question you got who am i and then look at verse 13. moses said to god suppose i go to the israelites and say to them the god of your father sent me to you and they ask what is his name then what shall i tell them in other words my first question is who am i but who are you i hadn't heard from this in 400 years it's been 400 years since a personal epiphany like this god spoke to abraham isaac jacob joseph but you've got to understand there has been a long gap when's the last time you had an encounter with god when's the last time that you were like that was god that did that for me that was god that held me in his arms that was god that reassured me that was god that kept me from ending it all that was god that kept me from going to prison because if i would have done what i thought about doing i would not be here today that was god [Applause] so he's kind of getting honest he's like who am i to do this but then who are you give me a second to gather my thoughts if you're new to church new to god new to religion i need to warn you about us we're the worst we are the worst about pretending like we have faith figured out and so we say words words words words words words but we're really good at hiding our war not many people quit coming to church because they assume oh they all have something that i don't have they have like this deep relationship with god they know them you know they say words propitiation i don't know what that means that's not a five letter word i'm telling you the truth about christians and and we mean well but a lot of us were taught that that we had to have the whole thing figured out or it wasn't faith so we mastered the art of sounding certain we mastered the art of magnifying your missing pieces so i don't have to deal with mine okay it's dying out lord am i still on the right track it was a lot more clapping earlier now now that's good news only if you are willing to get honest that is good news about about about how god works in our life unless we think that the only way for us to have peace is to have no missing pieces and this is where a lot of us who are perfectionist i'm talking enneagram one we think everything has to be just so for us to be happy for us to be grateful and so we get in this thing all the time a lot of us do not all of us but we get in this thing a lot a lot of the time that we say win this then i'll win this then i'll now the worst thing you can believe please hear me the worst thing that you can believe is that when you get here then god will love you that is from the pit of hell that is a lie that is not in the bible it is by grace you are saved and if you've got grace you got a lot you got the greatest gift his name is jesus [Applause] [Music] we all need jesus we all need jesus look if somebody say you need jesus more than me no don't say that don't say that i need him just as much as you i need him just as much as you i need him just as much as you i was yelling at the ump at a baseball game and somebody said i thought you were supposed to be a preacher i said my name is steven today no pastor on the front i'm stephen graham's dad okay but i'm in the process he's about peace it's called sanctification and it happens in stages and i just wish that moses would have asked the second question first i just wish that he would have started with the source not himself because if you ask who am i before you ask god who are you you will misunderstand what you're made of you're not made of dirt you're not made of flesh you are not made of bone you are not made of i ran out of physical things to say i'm winging this you are made of spirit isn't that cool then everything else doesn't define you so i like to tell graham i'm 5'9 in the natural but in the spirit david is bigger than goliath you don't understand you don't understand when i watch holly putting a puzzle together i do two things one i marvel that she can stick with this and second i notice that she puts the frame first i've never done a puzzle don't intend to but if i ever do she taught me that you start with the frame five five-letter word f-r-a-m-e you start with the frame do you know the author of hebrews said that the worlds were framed by the word of god that everything we see i'm in it now i'm in it now that everything we see visibly is made by something that god spoke invisibly that the the worlds were framed by the word of god that he told the sun shine sun said yes sir he told the moon now it's your turn and the moon said i'll do it when you need me to do it he told the fish to flap around he told the birds to elevate everything in created order understands when god speaks stop speaking against what god has spoken over your life because it's a war of words and you have become your own worst enemy you know there's only two characters in exodus four there's god in moses and the bush i reckon the bush deserves a shout out he's burning up and not burning down i mean that's pretty good special effects and i guess there's report there's the staff there's the stick which becomes significant later in his life but he doesn't know that yet see you don't know yet you don't know yet when the lord said what is that in your hand remember he said who are you lord who am i an amazing turn of events in exodus chapter four moses next objection was when i go to my people and tell them that i met with you and they weren't here to see it what if they say to me you are on drugs you saw a bush this is psychedelics this is not scripture you saw bush burning up and the lord said i am and there's so much to study here would y'all be cool if we did a whole series one day on the god of moses i want to do it i did god of jacob years ago and then i put that that verse in the song i'm calling on the god of moses the one who opened up the ocean now if you hear it like that it sounds like moses opened the ocean sounds like moses opened the ocean he was so mighty and strong he had such great faith we talking about the same guy the guy who said i can't even talk straight it was god that opened the ocean it's god that's going to do it for you you hear me it is god that works in you to will and to do according to his good pleasure it is god it is his word that does the work [Applause] so he said who am i you've been wondering that hadn't you you really wonder when you have to transition an identity i'm a shepherd now i'm supposed to be a spokesman before that moses we don't have time to do it but we'll do it in the series moses was known as a murderer because before he learned how to manage what god had called him to before he knew what to do with it a lot of the mistakes you make early in your life you have the wrong resp the wrong response but it's for the right reason he saw one of his fellow hebrews getting beat by an egyptian and he killed the man and hid him in the sand now he's been in hiding for 40 years and the lord comes he hasn't come to anybody in 400 years and the word comes are you open to a better word or are you so addicted to your excuses three categories right who am i let's look at this that speaks of his preparation who am i i'm not ready for this who am i and then he wants to know who are you that's information i don't know who you are god i don't know enough to do this nobody gave me a class for pastoring a church through a global pandemic nobody if they did that class i skipped that day and nobody gave you a class for some of the stuff you're going through either nobody tells you how to survive the loss of somebody who was your life i'm not missing pieces missing pieces who am i i'm not ready preparation who are you information lord i don't even know the book of ruth from a baby ruth lord i'm just new to the that's fine that's fine that's fine because god wants to show you how you cannot know and still go this word is so real for somebody and i don't know who is four i don't have to know who it's for i just got to preach it and then the holy spirit of god will apply it to that area of your life where you're insecure because look but moses is like i can't talk that's a very specific thing but really what he's dealing with is what if they don't believe me that's validation are you missing one of those in your life today let's go through them slowly and you can write these down and ask the lord to speak to you about them throughout this week preparation lord who am i to do this i would i wouldn't this is not my my story but you may be saying this i wasn't even raised right how do i raise kids myself i don't have any experience owning a business and here i am god in i didn't see this comment preparation information who are you god what do i not know you know the ones who are in the worst trouble who are hearing this word today the ones who have made their own picture of what they think their situation is supposed to look like and they built that picture based on somebody else's puzzle and you are going to spend the rest of your life thinking that you're missing pieces because you are trying to build somebody else's picture and so now who and so now now god has you here and and god wants to teach you the art of going forward when you don't know where abraham when you don't know how moses and god's answer is pathetic if you think about it what's that in your hand do you mean my stick that i'm only holding because i fled to egypt and had to work for jethro because i made the mistake of murdering someone because i didn't know how to do it and i read that over and over again this week thinking about your stick thinking about your mistake and the lord said clearly to me to tell you he's going to turn the mistake into a miracle no no no no no i'm not saying god's gonna work around it i'm saying he's actually gonna use it you're like okay well i'll praise god anyway i hate life i hate myself but god is good that's attractive that will win a world to jesus yeah that's exactly what he bled on the cross for he's already been through all of them look you might have to move forward in this season of your life without preparation and you might have to figure it out as you go you might have to read books at night you might have to read you might have to you might have to read books period all right you might have to ask people you might have to get honest and say to somebody like hey man i gotta be honest with you i don't know anything about managing money i'm driving this because i'm so stupid that i signed up for 75 000 interest by the way i'm gonna bring dave ramsey in a couple weeks to help you all with all that all right all right so that'll be good but you might have to get honest and say you know what i'm not prepared for this i don't have this right now but don't think that just because you don't know it right now doesn't mean you can't grow in it you can you can't you can't you can't the devil is a liar and and and don't think you need to know everything when god said when god when moses said uh tell me who you are you know what god told him i am i love the lord can you be more specific nope nope because every situation i put you in that is too big for you you are gonna see another dimension of who i am i am god i'm too big for your box i am healer i am resurrection i am water i am the great i am and the great i am is bigger than all your little i'm not and that's why i came in his presence today and that's why when some people are standing there looking at the song i'm letting it wash over me because i need those words from god i need it spoken it's sung over me i need it in my heart because y'all honestly i'm bad at words not the ones i say i'm good at those most of the time i'm bad at the ones that i say to myself i'm stepping in moses shoes today i'm asking you to do the same angle what are you not and what does what you're not have to do with who god is i got to meet somebody so inspirational the other day who was blind shortly after birth and has been blind all their life and they were saying how how their mom meaning well went around to all these different churches to get him healed and he said up until about age nine he went along with it and they would put oil on his eyes and he said it would just burn i wouldn't it didn't get any better and i'm not saying god can't heal and i'm not saying any this is bad but this was his story i was listening to it and i thought this is crazy because he finally said to his mom and i think he was about abby's age nine or ten if i remember correctly he said mom one night his mom was crying and praying god please heal my boy heal my boy heal my boy heal my boy and that's a good thing for mom to pray who wouldn't pray that and you know i'm not saying that god causes this or god causes that but the lord said you always identify me by what i give you and sometimes i want you to know me in what i didn't give you is it not i and he said i heard my mom crying and i finally went in and said mom you are giving me a headache you're crying so much did you ever think maybe god made me this way for a reason and he has something for me to do and then a few minutes later he was telling me about songs he wrote like loves in need of love today and i just called to say i love you and superstition it was stevie wonder y'all it was stevie wonder stevie said that stevie wonder said that he said mom you ever think maybe god has something for me to do just like i am and i'm thinking stevie was right huh i'm thinking he was right and i think how horrible it would be if those songs didn't exist because he didn't have his sight you probably won't ever write a song as good as stevie in fact i can say this you will never write a song as good as stevie and neither will i but something in you will go unsung if what is in your hand goes unstretched because when moses said i have never i've never been good at this that was the four that was the fourth one it was a limitation and god got angry god got angry you think i don't know that about you you think i put you in a sky without wings i gave you what i wanted you to have and since you're so insistent on being insecure since you don't believe me about all this now moses has already seen a lot he turned his staff into a snake he still isn't convinced he put his hand in his cloak it came out leprous ah put it back in it came out here that's crazy but he still doesn't want to go and it comes out in this moment send someone else not me god not me not me it's a war of words see the lord keeps speaking over you not only that you're going to make it he keeps telling you you're doing better than you think you are and you won't believe him amen he keeps telling you put it in my hands i'll deal with it and you won't believe him it's a war of words it's a war of words and which one will win which one will win so so we're standing in this in the scene with moses and his shoes and the lord told me to ask you are you ready to make peace with the way things are believing that god can use it somehow for his glory or are you gonna let one missing peace define the rest of your life one thing we learn about from a puzzle is that something can be in pieces on purpose if god is only giving you one thing at a time do one thing at a time we just released an album on friday another shameless plug i love the album we wrote it one song at a time one verse at a time one word one syllable one note at a time that's how it works you are not supposed to know where god is gonna have you in 20 years [Applause] it's a five-letter word it's called faith and if you will go god said i'ma send aaron to help you i'm gonna send somebody to help you i love it because i read moses saying send somebody else and god's like okay i'll send your brother i will send a partner into your life for the pieces that you don't have i will send people into your life who have the pieces that you don't have but you've got to receive this word god make me more like the moon let me hang where you told me to hang god make me more like the birds who soar where i'm supposed to soar make me more god make a visit too much that make me like a bean sprout who knows how to come forth when you call it god make me more like jesus who is the image of god who knew that even in his life even in his human existence when he laid aside his privilege as god and took on flesh the word incarnate to be with you to fulfill the great i am good god said whatever you're not i am whatever you're you don't i do you keep saying i don't god says i do this is a weird wedding ceremony i don't i do i don't i do i don't i do i don't think i can make it i do think you can make it i don't know what to do i do know what to do i don't know how it's gonna happen i don't know how it's gonna happen all i'm trying to say is who made your mouth why you keep saying stuff that goes against what the one who made you spoke over you why would you line up against yourself it's a war of words and i'm on the winning side because the final word over my life was spoken before my first breath was breathed i said the final word over my life god's got the big picture and the final word over my life is spoken and all of his promises are yes and amen now just stand up and lift your hands right where you are this is a god moment this is a god word this is a god word this is a god thing this is a god intersection this is a burning bush this is holy ground this is time for you decide to decide are you gonna are you gonna make peace with the missing pieces who didn't love you i'm sorry they didn't love you but that doesn't get to stop you i'm sorry they left you but god didn't i'm sorry that it hurts but he's a healer i'm sorry you're broken but there is a bomb in gilead when all we see is broken pieces god sees the big picture and what is that in your hand oh see i got this stick i got this situation i made this mistake i got these doubts and the lord says if you want to see what my hand can do i want you to stop speaking against what i put in your hand we're gonna work on this we're gonna work this word deeper and deeper into our hearts we're gonna work on this because it's a war you have no peace in your heart you keep saying ah when this happens that happens if this didn't happen if they come when they acknowledge when they see when i get this but the lord says i want you to be at peace right now and i know there's some things you don't know and i know there's some questions you have you know how we get there and say oh when i get to god i'm gonna ask him a bunch of stuff you're not gonna ask god anything except why did i let the devil beat me up so bad when you're this big who are you who are you now lift your hands again i know you didn't keep them up that whole time show me who you are god show me who i am i'm not waiting on something else cause that'd be that'd be crazy for me to wait to have peace until there's peace in the middle east peace in other parts of the world know god let it begin in my heart and i thank you for how you made me would you say that out loud thank you for how you made me missing pieces and all you ever thought those missing pieces were a space for god to fill maybe it is [Applause] if you have heard this word today and you have never taken the moment to put your faith in jesus christ i want to give you the opportunity right now to give him your life he is what you've been missing jesus is what you have been missing and no matter what you achieve what you chase what you earn what you do you are never going to have peace in your heart until you receive jesus as your lord and savior never i believe god brought us together for this moment so i could lead you in this prayer now the bible doesn't say if you do seven things you'll be right with god the bible doesn't say that if you'll change your life that you'll be right with god the bible says that it is by grace we are saved through faith it is the gift of god not of works so that no one can boast we all need jesus and today if you're ready to place your faith in him and turn from your sin and trust him with your life the bible says that if you confess with your mouth jesus is lord and believe in your heart god raised him from the dead you will be saved heads foul eyes closed all around the world this is an encounter this is a burning bush moment this is you and god he brought you here you've been missing peace this is the missing piece this is what you've been looking for this is what you've been searching for and while you were looking for god god was looking for you and here he is in this moment to meet with you and call you so if that's your heart i'm speaking to i want you to pray after me i'm going to pray and i want you to repeat after me we're praying out loud as a church family for those who are coming to god or coming back to god repeat after me heavenly father i am a sinner in need of a savior and i believe that jesus christ is the son of god and today i make jesus the lord of my life i believe you died that i could be forgiven and rose again to give me life this is my new beginning on three shoot your hand up if you prayed that with me one two three shoot em up shoot em up in the room shoot em up in the chat let's give god praise that's awesome that's amazing come on let's give him a better praise than that let's give him a benefit give him your best praise all day thank you jesus thank you for watching the elevation church youtube channel don't stop here join the e-fam 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: 32,129

Keywords: elevation church, steven furtick, steven furtick sermons, making peace with missing pieces, elevation church sermons, 2022 sermons, pastor steven furtick, preaching, preacher, peace, warfare, purpose, faith, doubt, God’s will, identity, preparation, information, validation, limitation, growth, I am, I’m not, puzzle, in pieces on purpose, one at a time, take it slowly, in your hand, peace in your heart, encountering God, sermons about peace, sermons about identity, sermons about purpose

Id: ksgtu_nJWt4

Length: 66min 28sec (3988 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022