I want to tell you a story today from the Bible, from 2 Kings, chapter 8. You might
not have heard this one before. It's really good. The Scripture records this: "Now Elisha had said
to the woman whose son he had restored to life, 'Go away with your family
and stay for a while…'" Ooh, I feel God on the first verse of the passage,
and we have five more to go. "Stay for a while." Here's the bad part: "…stay for a while wherever
you can…" Not necessarily where you want. "'…because the Lord has decreed a famine
in the land that will last seven years.' The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said.
She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years. At the end of
the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her
house and land. The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, 'Tell
me about all the great things Elisha has done.' Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha
had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal
to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, 'This is the woman, my lord the king, and
this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.' The king asked the woman
about it, and she told him. Then he assigned an official to her
case and said to him, 'Give back everything that belonged to her…'"
I need to know who's with me today, because it feels like a funeral in the room, but
it's really a great opportunity for you to shout. Say, "Give back everything." This is not a time
for lowercase. This is a time for all caps. "Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from
the day she left the country until now." So this is your sermon? You're the one I
fought the Devil to get this message for? Well, good. The Lord told me to talk to you
today about Timing Your Testimony. Do you know what I mean when I say testimony? For some of you, this will bring up a courtroom
image, depending on the path your life has taken or what you're watching or whatever you're
aware of. For others, it will put us back in a church during the scariest
time of the church service. How many know what I'm talking about when
I say a testimony service in a church? It's totally ad-libbed, and there are no
gutters in case the balls go right off… You never know if it's going to hit
any pins or if somebody is going to stand up and monopolize the time. Pastor
Mickey used to do the testimony service, and he used to have people come up and
say stuff. When I started this church, I had people share their testimonies, but I always
had a rule. This was my rule, and I think it's a pretty good rule. They could share their
testimony, but I always had to hold the mic. I trained our campus pastors. I said, "When you
bring somebody up onstage who you can't trust…" Let me tell you who to trust the least: the one who is the most excited to come up
and share when you offer the opportunity. So that's our rule: you hold the mic. I'll tell
you why. There's one story that stands out in my mind. I've seen some testimony services
go really bad, and maybe you have too. One I heard about… I didn't see this with
my own eyes, but my friend Carl had this incident where he was playing piano behind
the pastor, and during testimony service, there was a man who stood up and said (I called
him this morning to confirm this was true), "I just need to confess to the Lord that I've been having some really bad thoughts
about people. And, yes, I mean you, big boy." And he turns and points to my friend Carl's dad.
He said, "And I mean you, big boy. I'm talking about you, big boy," in testimony service. Carl's
dad stood up, comes to the front of the church… This is a little church. There's no security. He
comes to the front of the church with his chest out and says, "Well, how about we move this
to the parking lot? You're talking about me?" So, what's my number one rule for testimony
service? "You hold the mic." Because I can't trust you yet. Trust takes time. There
are certain things you need to hold on to until you've had enough relational time to
develop trust. That's not being paranoid. That's just the wisdom of experience. Another thing I would teach is kind of like a
countdown timer. "After 60 seconds, take it back." Take the mic back after about
60 seconds. That's all it takes. If they start with "My great-grandmother…" get the
mic. Start pulling it back. Pull it back slowly so it doesn't happen all at
once. Just kind of slowly. The truth of the matter is you never really get to share the true story
of what God is doing in your life as it is. You don't really have time to tell everything, and
you really don't have trust to tell everything. What I called it in a recent
sermon was a time-lapse testimony where you edit out the scenes you don't want
other people to see. I think that's wise. I don't think you should just trust anybody
talking about the things God has done in your life. What I wonder is if you have
even told yourself your true testimony. When I read this Scripture in 2 Kings, chapter 8, it kind of came alive in me to realize
that… I guess depending on how you look at it, God either has really terrible
timing or really impeccable timing. You could make the case from certain Scriptures
that God has terrible timing. I know that makes me sound like a heretic, and they could
probably clip this and put it on YouTube, or something like that, and say
all of my false teachings… But four days after Lazarus dies is
bad timing to show up and help or the fourth watch of the night just before dawn
is a terrible time to step in and stop the storm. In this Scripture, though, it brought to my
memory all of the times God was waiting for the exact right moment in my life where he could
achieve the most glory out of my situation to step in. Some sermons I preach are like a lesson. This
one to me in my spirit feels more like a lifeline that God gave me to give to somebody as you were
waiting for the restoration of something you lost. If we can look at this Scripture for a moment
today, I think we can see some things to help us, especially in verse 1. It says, "Elisha had
said to the woman whose son he had restored…" I love that word. I think we need to use it
more in church: restored. "…restored to life." He told that woman, "Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because
the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years." Here's what will get
you about the story. Verse 2: "The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said." Then when she came
back seven years later, she lost what she had. I can understand characters like Jonah
to whom God says, "Go to Nineveh," but you want to go to Tarshish, and
because you want to go to Tarshish, you end up on the seaweed Mediterranean diet.
You end up having to spend the night in a fish. That's understandable. This Scripture suggests
that you can do exactly what God tells you, that you can go exactly where he sends you, that you can act on God's word and
not see the results you imagined. You can do everything right. See, this is where
we get in trouble. Sometimes we become convinced that the famine is our fault. Notice in the passage the Lord decreed the
famine, and the Lord told the woman to leave, but when she left, in the process of
going where God sent her to survive, she lost something she had before she left. The famine wasn't her fault, and
there's no disobedience. I mean, this woman… You don't know much about her maybe,
but she's absolutely amazing. She had a very generous heart. We kind of know this
woman. We know a lot about this woman. To me she's familiar because I've preached a lot
about her story. But things have changed for her. One day you can stand up and share where
you're at in your life, and it's so amazing, and you're so blessed. One of the
reasons I don't teach parenting sermons is because mine still live with me. I don't
want to tempt God… Do you understand what I mean? To get up and preach "Seven Ways to Raise
an Amazing Kid," and then God sends seven demons in my kid so I can see that sometimes you
can do all of the right things as a parent… It'll keep you from getting judgmental
to realize this is the same woman… When the prophet asked her, "What do you want…?"
See, she had done a great thing for Elisha. When the prophet asked, "What do you want?" she said
something interesting. "I don't need anything. I have a home among my own people." The woman
who needed nothing in 2 Kings, chapter 4, now has nothing in 2 Kings, chapter 8. What is the point of me bringing
it up? Don't be arrogant. In seasons of blessings, don't be arrogant.
By the same token, in seasons of struggle, don't despair. The Enemy would love to convince
you it's all your fault, even the things people did to you, that there was something
wrong with you that made them do it. But the famine wasn't her fault. Now, I hesitate to preach this, because we
live in a time where people don't want to take responsibility for anything. By saying
the famine isn't their fault, I'm afraid my sermon will be misapplied. The famine wasn't
her fault, but she still had a responsibility. So, she walks back into the presence of the king to ask him to
give back what she lost when she left. What you lost when you left. I'm going to share
something with you. This is kind of personal. About two and a half years ago, I realized
there were some things in my life God wanted to give me and that indeed he had
promised me that I had given up on. I'll tell you exactly what it was.
It's not some deep, dark secret. I just never really thought to share it
with you until I read this passage. Pretty much, I had made up my mind that I was some
kind of machine God wanted to use to do ministry. I thought my greatest value to God
was what he could use me to do. I don't think I would have said it like that. I
certainly preached the opposite of that. "You're a child of God. You're the righteousness of God.
You're not a human doing; you're a human being." But you can say all kinds of stuff with your mouth
and not believe it in your heart. I promise you. You can all day long have the right answers
and then deep down in your heart have some really dark questions. For me, I was starting
to wonder, "Do I matter apart from what I do?" Now, that's a tender thing to say to you, because
some of it I'm still undoing. Let me tell you a little bit of my testimony. I started preaching
when I was 16. For me, that was really early for me to become acquainted with the fact that when
you stand up and talk you're representing God. I'm thankful God called me at that stage in
my life. I really wouldn't change any of it, but what it did in me is started to kind of
conflate my identity with my contribution. Or I could say it another way: it started
to confuse my identity with my gift. That happens to a lot of pastors. About two
and a half years ago, I found myself in the position of this woman. Here's how I relate
to her. Not that I'm a widow. She's a woman; I'm a man. This woman, as a matter of fact,
has seen a physical resurrection of her child. But I can relate to her in that God wanted to give
her something she didn't even know to ask for, and then in the process of surviving
a famine, she had lost something. I think in the process of building this church,
which I believe God called me to do, as a leader, as a preacher, there are some things that
while I was doing what it required to do that, I kind of left myself out of it. Y'all are like,
"What drug was he on?" It wasn't like all that, because it doesn't always
have to be like all of that. All I know is I would find myself many times
wondering, "If I couldn't do what I did, would I have any right to be here?" Basically,
I thought the only way for me to belong was to bring something external to
myself for others. There came a point… Sometimes you have to go low enough. I
experienced several moments that God gave me. I really see it now as a gift. I didn't see it as
a gift at the time. God let me get low enough that I had to make a decision (and I did) that "If
this is what it costs to succeed in ministry, I would rather fail in people's eyes but have joy inside myself than achieve everything
the world offers and feel empty." The reason I'm telling you this is because I
think this happens to all of us from time to time, that we have to do certain things in certain
seasons. Like, being a mom… If you've ever been a mom or you're considering being
a mom, you should know or testify to the fact… If you've experienced it, you can say
"Amen" to this. If you haven't experienced it, you can consider it in the contract of becoming
a mom that you become a hostage to another human. And it's not just for moms. Sometimes,
as a man, to build your career, you find in the process of making a living you lose
a sense of yourself and what's important. So, the prophet said, "You've got to get out
of here," and she did what the prophet said. She wasn't running from God. She wasn't disobeying
God. She was doing what she had to do to survive. Can you own the fact that some of
the things you did in your life, you were doing what you had to do? The Devil
just beats you up with it at night, like, "How could you do that?" "That was
the best I could do in that season. I was doing the best I could. I was balancing so
much. It was all I could do to stand up straight." Then the Enemy will come along and subtract all of those factors of survival. She
didn't run from God. The prophet told her to go away, and she lost what was hers
in the process of being obedient to God. I kind of felt like a hypocrite
when I was struggling emotionally. Here's how it would be. I'd come out to preach. The worship team was going into something
very powerful and anthemic, and sometimes it was a song I wrote, and I wouldn't
feel the lyrics to the song I wrote. But I have a job to do, and I want to be
responsible. I mean, good God. If I'm a plumber, I don't get to feel putting a wrench on a pipe. You
have to just fix something. I have a job to do. So, I'd come up here and inspire faith (not every
time, but a lot of times) and I would feel guilty. What it took out of me to build the
ministry put me in a place where I could not receive ministry myself. It scared
me. It scared me that I could become a shell. I had to have a moment, and I had a moment, that reminds me of this woman boldly going
to the king and saying, "I want it back." I want it back. I don't want to just build
something or survive something. I want it back. "I want it back." You're scared to say that,
because we are taught that if God wants us to have it, he'll just give it. And he will. The other
day, we were driving in this rainstorm. We were coming home from the mountains, and it was raining
so hard. There was a flash flood warning on all of our phones, and I was just driving. I could barely
see out of the windshield. I was just driving. Graham is the kid in our family who will
say the most with the least words. He said, "Is no one else scared about this other than me?
Am I the only one who's concerned about this?" I was just playing around, but I said,
"Son, God's hand is on our vehicle, and God will see us through this storm." The
boy says, "There's only so much God can do. Maybe we should pull over." How does he get this at 13 and we don't at 30? At the risk of running you out of this church,
let me say something theologically deep. There is only so much God can do. No, no, no.
God can do anything. He can make the stars, he can make the sun, he can move the
mountains, but you have to speak the word. It starts with me being honest about the fact that in the process of surviving a famine I
didn't cause… Some of you were doing the best you could. You didn't have an example for it. You
were doing the best you could. You didn't have a frame of reference for it. You were doing the best
you could. You had never been this way before. The Lord sent her to the land of the
Philistines. What do you know about the Philistines in the Bible? Good guys or bad
guys? Good place to be or bad place to be? She had to go into an enemy-occupied place to
survive a famine, and so have some of us. For some of us, that's where our addictions came from. In order to keep ourselves on the planet,
we had to do something to numb the pain. I love this sermon, because it takes the shame
out of where I've been. It helps me to understand there comes a time where you have to
appreciate where God fed you during the famine but be willing to leave and go back
to the place where you really belong. You know how I said this was like a lifeline?
You've convinced yourself you can never have it. You've convinced yourself you can never
be happy, and you quote Bible verses. "God wants you to be holy, not happy."
That's in the first version of you. That's not a Bible verse. That's the book of your
dumb cousin's opinion. Have you ever read that? Now, in case this seems like a
stretch to compare us to this woman, let me tell you a little bit more about her story. She wasn't really looking to get something from
God; she was looking to give something to God. You can go watch the sermon online. I preached
it to Holly. It was called Just the Two of Us. I preached it in the whole empty room. It was just
her on the front row and a few people who snuck in the back. It was just the two of us. I used it to
talk about this woman and her husband. It was the most awkward sermon I ever preached, because
it was just two of us in the room. It's a very big room. This woman was determined to use what
she had for God, expecting nothing in return. When I say "Timing your testimony" and I use
these examples about taking the mic away, and all of this, what I really mean is trusting
God to obey him before he has shown you exactly why he's calling you to do it. It's really easy
to say after the fact that God connected this and that and the other, but the trick of it is
she made a room for the prophet to come and stay before she knew what God was going
to do through her act of obedience. Isn't that the hardest thing? Like the author
said, to believe in advance what will only make sense in reverse. That's the hardest thing in
the world. To let down the nets for the catch before you have any clue that this carpenter knows
where they are. That's the hard part. After she did that, the prophet said, "You've gone to all
this trouble for us. Now what can we do for you?" She had something in her heart she wanted
God to do, like you have something in your heart you want God to do…a freedom you want to
experience, a gift you want to see God develop, a greater state of meaning than just survival.
She had it in her heart, but she had learned how to hide it. When the prophet asked,
"What can I do for you?" the woman said, "I have a home among my own people." Because
she did then. What she didn't have was a son. The Bible tells us her husband was old.
I told you. God has terrible timing. He waits until this man is shriveled
up. Can I say it like that? He brought her what she had stopped asking for. It was so painful for her to consider the
potential that it could be any different she said, "Stop messing with me. Do not mislead
your servant, man of God," and she pushed away the promise of God. She pushed away the possibility of
something different. That's what you've been doing to everything God has been sending into
your life to mature you and restore you. She is pushing away the very thing that came
from the mouth of the one she made a room for. She is pushing away the promise God has sent
her, but God did it anyway. The prophet looked at her and said, "About this time next year
you will hold a son in your arms," and she did. There is no record that she believed it.
There is no record that she had faith for it. There is no record that she all of a sudden
came into a Scripture quotation phase, did a Beth Moore Bible study on pillars of faith.
There is no record of that, but she held a son. One day, unexpected to her, that son
died unexpectedly. So let's recap. "I didn't ask you for a son. You gave him
to me anyway, and then you let him die." She brings the boy and puts him on the bed of the
prophet. She went to IKEA and picked this bed out herself, put it together herself. She said,
"I'm going to put this back on the place you were lying when you told me God would give it
to me." And Elisha restored the boy to life. That boy is the boy who's standing in the
king's court at least seven years later in 2 Kings 8, the boy she
didn't ask God to give her, the boy who died even after God gave
the boy to her and came back to life. What got me about this text was realizing
the thing that died in one season of her life was the thing that stood beside her
in the moment of her greatest need. You have to imagine it. Gehazi
is the servant of Elisha. The king calls Gehazi and says, "Tell me
some stories about Elisha." Gehazi has many. "Well, there was one time… One time he took
his cloak and struck the Jordan with it, and the waters parted. The people were
waiting to see 'Is he really a man of God?' and the waters parted. Then one
time there was this spring in the town, and the water was poisonous, but Elisha
put some salt in the water and purified it, and he said, 'Your water will never be cursed
again, and you can drink from it.' Well, one time there were these boys who called
him 'Baldy,' and he called some bears out of the woods to maul them, but let's skip that
one." You know, you tell selective stories. "One time there was this confederation
of kings, and they were in the middle of a drought. Elisha came out to them and said,
'I don't even want to talk to you because you follow the wicked gods of your ancestors.
If I didn't have respect for Jehoshaphat, I wouldn't even speak to you, but now bring me
a minstrel.' And the minstrel started playing, and Elisha started prophesying in the dry valley. He told them, 'Dig your own ditches and prepare
for the rain you can't see.' And the rain came from a direction that it wasn't expected." It
didn't come from the sky like normal rain does. It came from somewhere else. It's just the
way Elisha was. You can picture Gehazi. He's getting fired up telling
these stories. He's remembering. He's rehearsing the things
God did in a previous season. "One time we went to this widow's house, and she
had a little bit of oil. She thought she had no oil, but Elisha told her, 'Go back and check
the thing you called nothing again, because what you call nothing is exactly what God needs
to do something.'" So, he's telling the stories. There's one he skipped with Naaman. Naaman was
a leper who came to be healed, and when Elisha pronounced healing over him by dipping seven times
in the Jordan, which is a ridiculous thing to do, because the Jordan is a little dirty body
of water and Naaman was a great commander… He could have bathed in the waters of Abana
and Pharpar, but he had to come all the way to the prophet and dip in the Jordan seven times
for his flesh to be restored like a young boy. He was so excited about his miracle
he tried to give some gifts to Elisha, and Elisha said, "I don't want your
gifts. I didn't do it for that." Gehazi chased down Naaman and said,
"Hey, my master changed his mind, so whatever you have, I'll take it back
to him," and he kept it for himself. Elisha, the man of God, knew about it, and
he called him out, and Gehazi had leprosy. So what's he doing in the court of the king?
A leper can't be in the court of the king. It looks like the little boy
isn't the only one God restored. I have to put this in, because if I don't,
you'll think only if you're like the woman and you do what God told you to do you
can ask God to restore what you lost. Gehazi is standing in the presence of the
king to let you know that even if you did it, even if it was your fault, even
if it was your selfishness, even if you were the one who let go, even if
it was your irresponsibility, you can stand in the presence of God under the blood of Jesus
and say, "I want it back! In the name of Jesus, I want back everything Satan stripped from
me and stole from me and took from me!" So, he's telling the king the stories,
and he gets to the one about the woman. "She built us a room and put a bed in it.
She didn't have a son, and Elisha said, 'You're going to have a son.' She was like, 'I
don't even want a son. I've given up on it.' And Elisha prophesied the son, and she shows up
pregnant. Then the kid dies. He's in the field, and he starts screaming about his head. Then they
put him on the bed. I was going to go try to heal him with my staff, but Elisha said, 'No, this
is a job for me.' And he came in, and I don't know what he did in that room, because it was just
him and the boy in there, but they both came out." As he is talking, the woman walks into the room.
Do you understand the statistical improbability that at the exact moment…? There are so many
stories to be told about Elisha. I didn't even give you half of them. God knew the exact
moment Gehazi would be talking about that woman. I don't know if she hit traffic on the way so she
was late or whether she caught every green light so she got there right on time, but I
have learned something about God. You can trust his timing. You can give him the mic.
You can let him speak what he wants to speak over your life, and in the appointed
time, it will come to pass. I've seen it in my own life. God
knows exactly what, who, where, when. Oh, this is the best Scripture. Do y'all
want the best Scripture in the Bible? Here's the best Scripture in the Bible: Psalm
119. This is the best Scripture today. I'll have a different one tomorrow, but this is the best
Scripture I've ever read in my life right now. God will give you a certain word at a certain
time. Here's what he gave me. Psalm 119:125: "I am thy servant; give me understanding,
that I may know thy testimonies." Here's the part that hit me.
Before I read it, who is this for? "It is time for thee, Lord,
to work…" Not for me…for thee. I want you to come into the presence of the King. Not the king of Israel. I want you to
come into the presence of the King. The Lord told me to tell you it's time for him to
work. You've done everything you can do about it. You have manipulated it so much
you've messed it up even worse. There comes a time where Holly tells us, "Get
out of the kitchen. You are not helping." I heard the Lord saying to
somebody, "Get out of the kitchen and let me work." "It is time for thee, Lord,
to work: for they have made void thy law." "It is time for thee to do
something about what they did." This woman left a homeowner, and while
she was gone surviving the famine, somebody else took her home. Go back to 2
Kings, chapter 8. This is so anointed I can barely get it out of my mouth. There's so much
jumping up in my spirit while I preach to you, because the Lord said this is a lifeline for
somebody. "It is time for thee, O Lord, to work." She comes into the presence of the king to ask
back what she lost when she left. At the exact moment she walks in, Gehazi was telling the king
her story. Does God not have the craziest timing? Gehazi said, "That's that woman, the one who put
the table and the lamp and the bed in the room, the one who gave us a place to stay. That's
her, the one whose son Elisha restored to life, and there's the boy." You have to drag
what God did in your past into the room and show the thing you are facing today what God
did for you yesterday. That's what you have to do. "It is time for you to work, Lord.
Just like you gave me this back, I need that back. Just like you restored this that
I thought was gone forever…" God did that for me. There are some things that I know that I don't
have to prove it to you. You don't have to agree with it. God did that for me. Nobody else. It
wasn't a human. God might have used somebody, but only God could bring the dead back to life. The God who did this, I need him to do that.
Verse 6 says something very interesting. This is the last verse I want to give you. "The
king asked the woman about it, and she told him. Then…" Read it again. She told him what God
had done for her, and then he assigned an official to her case. So, she only got back what she needed
when she told the story of what God had done. Do you follow the sequence? She could have told
herself any story. "Life isn't fair. This isn't right. I tried to obey God, and now look at me."
But she told the story of what God had done. So, God wants to know, "Why have
you stopped telling the story? Not to others…to yourself. Why have you
stopped telling the story of what I did for you and replaced it with a story of
fear of what might happen next?" While you are telling yourself these
hypothetical stories of what might happen or these shameful stories of what did
happen, you are standing next to a story, a living, breathing, walking, talking
miracle, a product of nothing but the grace of God. That's why April Carter told
me… She said, "God did this for me." I said, "Well, why didn't he do that?" She said,
"In all fairness, it's not your story." See, she never stopped telling herself
the story. You stop telling yourself the story of God's faithfulness, and you
start telling yourself the story of fear. She told him what God had done, and then… I'm telling you, that one word…
Let me give you another word: yet. "I don't have it yet. I haven't found a way to get set free from this
yet. I don't see how it's going to work out yet." Timing your testimony. Don't tell
it too early, because you don't know what God is going to do in chapter
8. The timing of God is so amazing. Every time you tell yourself a
story about the things God did then and bring it into the presence
of what you need him to do now… He said, "Give her back what belongs to
her." Say it out loud. "Peace belongs to me. I am a child of God. Joy belongs to me. I am
a child of God. Freedom is my inheritance. I am a child of God. I belong because
I believe. I am a child of God." Tell yourself that story.
Preach the gospel to yourself. If Gehazi can rehearse the great things God has
done, who was a leper and a scoundrel, can't you? Can you trust God's timing
enough to give him the mic and believe what he speaks? Though the vision
tarry, wait for it, for it has an appointed time. It's taking me awhile to understand God's
timing is created to increase my trust in him, whether that's the fourth watch of the
night or whether that's the fourth day after I have lost something I love.
God gives you these little gifts. What are yours? Have you told anybody
that part of your story or are you so consumed with your present struggle you
have stopped rehearsing your past victories? I know I've told you this before, but can
I tell you one thing that happened to me? Do y'all remember me telling you in 2016
how I was on vacation with the family near Charleston and went over to the
farmers' market? Yeah, you know this story. All right. Well, I'm going to tell it for
somebody else. It's too good not to tell you. I'm at the farmers' market with Holly because
she dragged me there. I don't go to farmers' markets of my own volition. But I went, not
knowing why. The whole family was there. This girl comes walking over to us from… She
had a bakery stand at the farmers' market. She was so nice. Her name was Addie Mae. She came
up and said, "I want to give your family some sugar." To get the kids hyper.
She said, "I love your podcast. Can I get a picture?" I was more than happy to do
that, but at the same time I looked like a bum, so I was kind of worried I wouldn't
look too good in the selfie. She said something I thought was kind of weird.
She said, "My pastor is going to be so jealous." I said, "That we met?" She said, "Yeah. He
loves you." I said, "Tell your pastor I said hi. What's his name?" She said his name. I said,
"That's great. Tell him I said hi." She said, "I'm going to go tell him right now. I'm
going to go call him." And she called him. She came back over with the cupcakes
because we were about to leave. She said, "My pastor said we actually invited you to
preach at our church this week about a year ago and your office declined because they
said you were on family vacation." I was like, "Well, they weren't lying.
I'm right here on family vacation." She said, "All the same, you should come
over to our holy convocation this week." I said, "No, I said vacation, not convocation. This is a holy vacation. Let me tell you, it's a
whole different rhythm." But just to be polite, or whatever, I took the dates. She wrote it out
on a card, the church name, all this stuff. I'm telling you this story for a reason. I promise
I am. The Lord told me to tell you this story. Sometimes I have to do this just to remember, because I have moments where I wonder, "Is God
really ordering my steps or is this random?" I have to tell myself these
stories of times where God made at the right moment… Can you remember one
where God brought at the right moment…? Raise your hand if you can remember one. Just
even one. That's a testimony, and we overcome the Enemy by the blood of the Lamb (that's what
Jesus has done) and the word of our testimony. Remember what Graham said: "There is only so
much God can do." Yes, he can do anything, but he will not tell your testimony for you. That
is your story. That is your testimony. That is your choice to believe. So, she writes down the
name of the church, and she says, "On this night so-and-so is speaking, on that night so-and-so is
speaking, and this night so-and-so is speaking." The last one she put on my card, I
think on the Friday night… She said, "This guy is speaking," and I had always wanted to
hear him preach. All of a sudden, I'm like, "Well, maybe I will go over there," and I'm kind of glad
I met her. I had somebody in my office call over to the church and see if that pastor was coming
on that night, and he was. The pastor said he wanted us to meet and hang out. Whatever.
That's not the point. Let me get to the point. The day I'm going to go over to the church comes,
and I get a text from my assistant that says, "The pastor who was going to come
can't come. He had a back injury." I'm telling you, the voice of
God is much louder than a shout. With a shout you can put some AirPods in and
noise cancel, but when God speaks to you, you can't do anything with it.
Either obey it or be miserable. In that moment, I knew, "You need to call
that pastor that Addie Mae gave you the card and offer to go over there and preach tonight."
So, I'm going through my mind… It has been two or three weeks since I've been in my own
pulpit. I'm like, "I don't know that I remember any Bible verses," because I don't always
read the Bible every day on vacation. I'm like, "Well, I'll call, and it'll be like…
I'll just put out a fleece like Gideon, Lord." In fact, first I said, "I'll get my assistant to
call," and the Lord was like, "No, you do it." So I'm like, "Oh, I don't know the number
of the church. I just know the name." The Lord said, "Google." I call the church.
The pastor doesn't answer. Nobody answers. I leave some message, and I'm like, "Okay, Lord. I offered Isaac on the altar and you didn't
want him. I'm going back to the beach." I leave this weird message on the phone. I
say, "Hey, this is Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church. I'm out here on vacation.
I met a girl named Addie Mae, and I heard your speaker canceled tonight. I was just calling
to see if you needed a preacher, or whatever, but I'm sure you don't, so, uh, have a nice day,
and God bless. Ephesians 3:20." So I hang up. About the time I can get my beach attire back on… I'm headed out to the beach. The
phone rings, and it's the pastor. He said, "This is Steven Furtick?" I said,
"Yes, sir." He said his name, and he said, "You really will come preach for us tonight?"
I said, "Yeah, I guess, but I have to tell you, I have no convocation clothes. I'm
out here on vacation with my family. I look like Tom Hanks on day 81 with Wilson
out here, so it's just going to have to be." I said, "The dressiest thing I have is Yeezys." He
said, "I'll wear my Yeezys too if you'll come." I said, "I'll come. I don't know what I'll preach,
but I'll come." When I got there that night and showed up to preach, I got to see Addie
Mae, and then I got to see the pastor. When I saw him, he had tears in his eyes. He said, "After so many years in
the ministry, several decades, I never had the Lord answer a prayer
as directly as he did today." He said, "You were our first choice to come preach
tonight, and I've done three funerals this week. When you called, the reason nobody answered the
phone was because we were in a prayer meeting asking for God to send us a preacher." And I preached. I don't know if it was any
good. It didn't matter. The point was obedience. Oh, not my obedience…Addie Mae's. Think about God. At just the time the Furticks
are getting to the farmers' market… In 30 more minutes, she would have packed
up those cupcakes. At just that moment… The pastor said, "You were my ram in the bush,"
talking about Genesis with Abraham and Isaac. I like to tell that story to
remind myself that God is going to bring things together in the right
time, and I can trust him in that. I want to tell you something I never told my church
before. About two years ago, I sent Chris Brown out to do some music with this amazing
worship team called Maverick City Music. I said, "You've got to go out there." When he came
back, I wanted to know everything, because there's such a great anointing on this ministry. I said,
"What is God doing? It feels punk rock to me. Is it punk rock?" He said, "It's so punk rock for the
Lord." He said, "But do you know about Chandler?" I said, "Yeah. That's the guy. He's amazing. What
about him?" He said, "That was his dad's church. His dad was the pastor you went and
preached for in 2016 when Addie Mae invited you." God gives you these moments, something
that seems so small to you in one season. Then I find myself last year sitting in
a room with Chandler, Naomi, and Chris writing a song called "Jireh," a song we weren't even trying to write. He was sitting at the piano, and he just sang, "Jireh…" I said, "Did you just say 'Jireh'?" I
said, "Have you ever said that in a song before?" He said, "No." I said, "We're
going to say it in this one." Jireh means "will see to it." Jehovah-Jireh.
That's what Abraham called the place where the Lord gave him a ram so he
wouldn't have to sacrifice his son. Sometimes I need to remember
and tell these stories to myself for when I'm wondering if God
is going to come through for me. If you've been feeling that lately, just
lift your hands. Sometimes I need to remember that the same God who brought me to
the farmers' market to meet Addie Mae so I could preach in my Yeezys at a holy
convocation for a pastor I didn't know whose son was a songwriter who
I would later collaborate with to release a song that God would send
into the hearts of millions of people… That God can be trusted, and at the right time, if
you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, in due time he will lift you up. Addie Mae is not here anymore on
the earth. She was Chandler's nanny, and he lost her, but she brought us together, so she's right here. Some of the things you've lost in
your life… I feel God's presence. Give me one moment. Some of the things you've lost in your life, God is not going
to bring them back in the exact same way. He is going to restore them
to you in a greater way than you have ever seen them before. Your only
job in this is to look for the ram in the bush. Father, we've come into your presence
today not entitled…no, not at all…not thinking we've been so good or so worthy
or so perfect we just deserve the blessings you've given us, but we come to you
on the merit of your grace toward us and our position in your heart as your children. I
thank you, Lord, that our times are in your hands. Now it's time for thee to work.
It is time for thee to work. We were in the land of the
Philistines for seven years, but we are coming back into your presence,
the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, to receive back that which
you have spoken over our lives with interest. Lord, I thank you that even in this moment you are
restoring the hopes and the dreams and the sanity and the peace and the right mind of your children,
restoring the years the locusts have eaten, restoring the years we wasted. We thank
you, Lord, that you are bringing it all back and that little by little, day by day, we
will see the goodness of the Lord in the land… It's time for thee to work, O Lord! We've
done all we can. We've done all we know. It is time for thee… We want it back! We
want your glory back. We want your joy back. We want our purpose back. We want our focus
back, our passion back. We want it back in the presence of a God who will freely give us
all things. In the name of Jesus, we receive it! Though it tarry, wait for it. Though it has been seven years, bring every expectation into his presence. Now unto him who is able to do
immeasurably more than you ask or imagine, according to his power that works mightily
in you, to him be glory through Christ Jesus in the church, now and forever. Come on,
give God a great shout of praise. Thank you, Lord.
Steven why you gotta be so amazing bro