Elevation with Steven Furtick - 50/50 Faith

Episode Date: February 25, 2019

Have the faith to move on a "maybe." To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://ele.vc/TI55jRSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. How many are excited about this series that we're in? The series is called Maybe God. The subject is His voice, His will, his ways. How do I know if this opportunity comes from the Lord? And I have a scripture for you today that I think will be a great blessing in your life. It's in 1st Samuel chapter 14. Verse number six, the Bible says Jonathan said to his young armor bearer, come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircised men.

He's talking trash about the Philistines. He calls them a derogatory name. He's talking about their uncircumcision. Wow, he must be fired up about something. He's a little belligerent. He's getting bold now. He can't afford to wait around and wait for something to happen from heaven when God has already given him a certain power on the earth So he turns to who he has available at this point and says let's go. It's just me and you

But touch somebody say let's go Now I want you to me a favor if you're the only one on your row who praises God today during this sermon I want you to go and look at somebody next to you and say well you go with me Amen He said let's go over to the outpost of those uncirculted circumcised men, perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. In this third installment of maybe God, my subject and my lesson today is called 50-50

faith. I want to teach you on this principle that has been so useful in my life as a leader, and it's useful for me as a husband, as a dad, and just as a man. 50-50 faith. I believe this principle is going to set you free in some of the areas. where indecision has imprisoned you. And you've been waiting around, and God is going to show you something today by the power and virtue of His word and spirit

that only he could show you about 50-50 faith. Praise the Lord. I celebrated my 39th birthday this week. Appreciate your pity. You know, that last one with the three in front of it. I'm owning it. I am so owning turning 40. I am so owning these little gray whiskers that are popping up.

I'm not dyeing them or anything like that. I'm going to tell them to get a close-up on these gray things on the camera. Just zoom right into the grayest patch you can find in this beard. I'm proud of it. I don't care what my kids say about it. And when they tell me that my jokes are cringy and stuff like that, one of my kids told me that the other day. And I just asked him a question back.

He said, your jokes are so cringy. And I just asked him a question. I said, how many people show up to hear you speak? Since I'm so cringy, conversational parenting approach, you might want to try it sometime. But one of the things I think keeps happening to me and is really happening to me at this stage of my ministry in life, because I have been doing this as a pastor over 13 years, is that I feel so good saying that. It just felt cool.

I've been doing this over 13 years. That's a long time to do anything. Amen. I've never been less certain and I've never been more confident all at the same time. All at the same time. And it's a strange thing how when you give up your need for certainty, you can gain a true confidence that is independent of circumstance. Can I preach to somebody today right here in this back left section of Valentine?

The passage that I read to you is one of my favorites. If they were giving out an Academy Award for Best Old Testament Narrative Scripture, I would want to nominate Jonathan as best supporting actor because he's not as famous as David, but he's a pretty good example for me, and it's helped me a lot. This passage has helped me a lot through the years. Every couple years, I preach it, and when I circle back to it, I see a different dimension of faith. I see a different dimension of the kind of confidence that we can have in Christ and in His

promises, but I also see all of the uncertainty and self-doubt that it also entails, and that my faith is not a formula, and it can never be. The more I try to make it into a formula, the less valuable it becomes to me when life challenges all of my presuppositions and all of my ideas about what kind of ways God wants to work collapse under the weight of real life, under the weight of real bills, under the weight of real medical reports. And I need the kind of faith that is not dependent on my presuppositions. I need the kind of faith that can deal with some ambiguity. I need a faith like Richard Roar says that can be patient with mystery. I need a kind of faith that is not dependent on my plans

to prevail. I need the kind of faith that can stand up against the worst thing that happens. I need the kind of faith that can shine when God goes dark, when I don't know, when I can't say it, when I can't see it, when I don't feel like I can make it. I don't feel like I can't make it. I need a faith that can withstand these seasons. Now, around the verse that I read you is a little episode. And if you've been tracking with the series, I've used a few different Old Testament passages from Judges and Samuel to try to give us some sort of arc or to give us some kind of context for the way that transition creates opportunity for us to trust God. In this particular transition, a negative one for the nation of Israel, King Saul has really

lost his way, and he's abdicated his leadership. Because of this, the Philistines who would torment the Israelites all the way until the rule of David, remember Samson began to deliver them. That's last week. And you need to go on and watch that message about the parentheses and the pivot and how there's a purpose. Even if I have to leave it blank right now, God is going to do something in this empty space in these parentheses. And I'm going to put the parentheses there and I'm going to let God fill them because he's too wise to make a mistake in my life. And that message is online. It's on YouTube and Facebook and Elevation App and MySpace. And if they still had MySpace, we will put it up there, Roku, all of

it. When I was preaching that, it talked about the beginning of deliverance or partial deliverance and the beginning of deliverance happened through the judges But now Saul the king was unable to commit himself fully to the ways and the will of the Lord Rather than to engage in a relationship with the living God He has begun to manipulate when he begins to manipulate and treat God as some kind of mechanism to get what he wants when he wants it He loses that unique ability that we have to hear the voice of God when you lose the ability to hear the voice of God you When you lose the ability to hear the voice of God, you waste energy, you waste resources, you waste worry on situations that God didn't even want you to give your attention to.

So that's why I need to hear his voice. Saul having lost that ability is now surrounded by his enemies, so much so that his people that he was responsible for leading are hiding in rocks, in caves, in thickets. I just wanted to put the word thickets in there because I don't get to use it on an everyday basis, but we're all hiding in places sometimes we find ourselves tucked away in mindsets, in patterns, in isolation, away from people, away from life, away from joy, away from risk, away from opportunity. And this was the situation in 1st Samuel 14. Pick up verse 23 from 13. Now a detachment of Philistines had gone out to the pass at McMash. It's always helpful to point out

that the enemy always attacks you at the passages. He always attacks you at the places of transition from what you knew to what you don't know, from where you were to where you're going. And so when he can set up an ambush at the passage, he can keep you from moving forward in those transitional, pivotal moments of your life. And then one day, somebody shout one day. One day Jonathan, son of Saul, said to, his young armor bearer. Come, let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side,

but he did not tell his father. Be very careful who you talk to about what God is doing inside of you. Be very careful who you communicate with about the impressions that God is stirring inside of you. If you talk to the wrong people about the right idea, your idea will die before has the opportunity to conceive and give birth to what God is doing in your life. How many know I'm right about that? Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibbia under a pomegranate tree and migrant. With him were about 600 men, among whom was Aja who was wearing an Ephod. He was a son of Iqabad.

He was a son of Iqabod's brother, rather, Ahita, son of Phineas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh. no one was aware that Jonathan had left. On each side that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff. One was called Bozzez and the other Senet. Bozaz means slippery. Sena means thorny. Nobody told me it would be easy. God didn't promise me that his will would be convenient.

Quit thinking that prove positive that you're in the will of God is that it feels good to you. Quit thinking that proof positive that you're in the will of God is that everybody understands it. Quit thinking that proof positive that you're in the will of God is that it just falls into place. No, he had to go through a thorny place, a slippery place, an uncomfortable place, an uncertain place. And just because I'm in an uncertain place doesn't mean I don't have a certain purpose. I'm going to need somebody to shout on that right there, right there, right there. Touch somebody say I'm in his will. And one of the proofs that you're in as will is that you are experiencing warfare.

It could be in terms of an internal resistance that you feel, or even if some things are going crazy in your life. And on each side was a challenge. On each side was a challenge. One cliff stood to the north toward McMash, the other to the south, toward Giba. And Jonathan said to his young armor bearer, come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men, perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. God, I love your word. I'm going to take a moment and just talk to him

about it. Thank you for putting that one little word in your word. Not the one where he said nothing can hinder the Lord. Not the one where he said, come, let's go over. But that one little word where he said, perhaps, because that word gives me hope. It gives me hope for my insecurity. It gives me hope for my impossibilities and my uncertainty. It gives me hope to know that sometimes, even in the midst of making progress in my life, even in the midst of obeying the revealed will of God, there are going to be moments where one minute I have great faith and the next moment I'm overcome by great fear. But watch the armor bearer.

He says, back to Jonathan, who had a crazy idea. do all that you have in mind, go ahead. I am with you, heart and soul. And Jonathan said, come on then. Since you're talking like that, come on then. Since you want to do it too, come on then. Since you don't think I'm crazy for wanting to move toward the enemy, even though we're outnumbered, come on then. Since you don't have any more brain cells or common sense than I do, come on then. Sometimes you need somebody who will help you even though plan sounds like a bad plan to try to find God in it just so you don't stay stuck and standing still. Come on then.

I like how he talked to him. He's like, come on then. And then the armor bear is like, go ahead then. And he's like, well, come on then. And they're pumping each other up. They're chest bumping each other. And they don't have anybody else. Because watch this.

The people who should have had faith have been overtaken by fear. Now, this is the part of the passage that's going to give me the contrast as well. look at together two different ways that we try to figure out God's will. And everyone has a way that you try to figure out what the will of God is, even if you don't call it trying to figure out what the will of God is. You have a way that you make decisions that you hope will be most advantageous. You have a way that you try to discern wisdom, and you can't always get it from a book, and you can't always get it from a class.

You can't always get it. Here's what I've figured out. We're all making it up as we go. This part of my sermon is meant to encourage you. All the people that are writing parenting books, about 15 steps to raise a perfect kid, they left out some footnotes. And the bottom line is they just had good luck in the gene pool because God can give you a kid that can make you question all of your kids.

theories. I love my children. I'm just saying all of us as parents are making it up as we go. All of us. All of us are trying to figure out with each child, and they're all different. I know Holly was faithful to me, but sometimes I'm like, how could they all be so different if it was just the common factor of me and you? But I trust her, but sometimes they're so different. And I'm like, well, you respond like this and you respond like that. And watch Jonathan's plan. This is the dumbest idea that you can find in the Bible. The only one I can think of as dumber is Moses stretching out his stick over the Red Sea. That's pretty dumb.

Or maybe David throwing a rock at a giant who has a sword. That's pretty dumb. Or maybe Jesus commanding the lunch from a little boy in the crowd and trying to feed 15,000 people with it. That's pretty dumb. Or maybe Mary going to Joseph and saying, I'm pregnant, but it wasn't another man. It was the Holy Spirit. That's pretty dumb. Or maybe it was a widow.

going around borrowing jars from her neighbors when she didn't have any oil and thinking someone. That's pretty. Now that I come to think of it, a lot of the stuff that God did in his word looked like a dumb decision to the people while they were doing it. Listen how dumbness is. Listen, listen how stupid this strategy is. Somebody say bad idea. All right. Come on then. We will cross over toward them and let them see us. I thought you were supposed to sneak up on somebody if you wanted to kill him, but whatever. If they say to us, now watch us, he's making this up. Because I want you to know, it's one thing about this passage.

God gives Jonathan the victory, but God doesn't say a single word. The only people who speak in this passage are Jonathan, his assistant, and his enemies. God doesn't say a word. But Jonathan, he makes up this. strategy. He's an innovator. He's like, all right, my dad's under the tree by the threshing floor and the priest isn't doing anything. And so let's go over and show ourselves and expose ourselves to our enemies. And if they say, wait there until we come up to you, we will stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say come up to us, we will climb up, because that will be our

sign that the Lord has given them into our hands. And just when it can't get any dumber, verse 11, both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. Look, said the Philistines. There's two of them and dozens of us. The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in. The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor bearer, come up to us, and we'll teach you a lesson. So Jonathan said to his armor bearer, climb up after me. The Lord has given them into the hand of Israel. How are you going to speak in past tense about a battle you hadn't even fought yet? Because I know something that is greater than what I know with my mind.

I know with my faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. So way to get dumber. Jonathan climbed up using his hands and feet. You know how vulnerable you are? climbing up something dorny or slippery, using your hands and fee. Quick thing just for you. I love y'all.

Victory requires vulnerability. Victory requires vulnerability in anything. You have to make yourself vulnerable to experience a great relationship. You have to make yourself vulnerable to step into a new dimension in your business. You have to make yourself vulnerable to connect on any meaningful level with the life that God has given you. In this position of vulnerability, Jonathan prophesies a great victory. I feel the Holy Spirit. And it says that his armor bearer was right behind him, and the Philistines fell before Jonathan,

and his armor bearer followed and killed behind him. In that first attack, Jonathan and his armor bearer killed some 20 men in an area. of about half an acre. All because Jonathan turned to his armor bear and said, I've got an idea. You know, he said like that. But I'm at the place now where I don't really think that the value is in the idea. The value is in the courage to act on the impulse.

When I put it like that, you've got to realize how many people say things like this every day. I remember talking to somebody about Uber, and they said, well, I could have thought of that. Really, you think thinking of something is the key to succeeding at something? Anybody can think of something. I mean, today I was walking out the door, and Abby turned me into a dog because of my fuzzy sweater. And she said, you want your belly rubbed? Do you want your belly, Rob? I licked her face, and I left and came to church to preach.

That's what dogs do. But she can think of stuff. I mean, thinking of it, Holly was telling me, now they got, like, Uber for photography. I really should find out the name of this and see if I could get a sponsorship. This message goes to a lot of people. But they said that you can go on and get a photographer anywhere in the world that you are, just like you can get a car from Uber, and you can get a photographer anywhere you are. If you're off with your family and you want to get a family picture like that so that you don't have to ask some random stranger who apparently has never used a smartphone in their life and doesn't know to tap the screen to make it lighter, you can get a professional to come out and capture the memories.

And when she said, I was like, why didn't I think of that? Well, there's a lot more to it than thinking of it. Huh? People call me all the time, and they'll be like, I heard this thing. There's a sermon in that somewhere. And so to that I'm like, where? Like, just because they could think of it. You know, I read this headline.

You should preach about that. You should write a song about that. And I'm like, you should shut up until you can write one of your own. I know you mean well, but the hard part isn't thinking of it. The hard part isn't thinking of it. And this is why when they give you advice sometimes in marriage, like, be the first to say your soul. Sorry, is not the thought that counts. Can I upset conventional wisdom for a moment?

One thing that was really striking to me in the text was not what Jonathan did, but what the people who should have been leading were doing at the time when Jonathan had to act on something that was partial and imperfect. When the Bible says that Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibbia under a pomegranate tree with 600 men, I always skipped this verse because the names were hard to pronounce. I was preaching this passage when I was 17 years old, and I didn't know how to pronounce these names, and I still don't, but then I figured out you don't know how to pronounce them either, so if I just say it with enough confidence, we'll move on.

But in skipping it, I missed something that became very important to me about the It says that the Lord's priest was wearing the ephod under the pomegranate tree. Now the ephod was more than just an article of clothing. It was an instrument for seeking the will of God. On the ephod, the high priest would wear a breastplate. On the breastplate would be 12 stones with the names of the tribes of Israel representing their special presence in the presence of God, when he would wear the breastplate into the most holy place to make atonement for the sins of the people so that they could be forgiven

once a year. The instruction was given to the priest about what to make sure he kept close to his heart. It started with Aaron in Exodus chapter 28, if you could give me this text, that he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastplate of decision. In the literal translation, it's the breastplate of judgment. It was what he wore when the judgment of God was conferred on the sacrificial animal that took the sins of the people away from the camp. It was the breastplate of judgment. but here it is translated the breastplate of decision as a continual memorial for the Lord.

And here's why. Next verse, please. Also put Ureem and Thameen, which are two special stones that would go not on the breastplate, but behind the breastplate when the priest wore the ephid, which was like a kitchen apron, where he would keep the vestments that were appropriate for his duty. And on that ephid was the breastplate, and behind the breastplate, plate was Yereem and Thameen. Whether these were stones or some other sort of special object, we are dependent on the incomplete records of archaeologists to make known to us. But one thing we know,

it was one of the ways that God spoke about his will to his people. He spoke through the prophets, he spoke through dreams, and he spoke through these stones. I'm going to call them stones, because that's the closest thing we can know to what they were. One represented yes, and one represented no. was the meme. Ureem was a little different. It was said to be a stone that would light up. And watch this. You are to put it behind the breastpiece or in the breastpiece so that they may be over Aaron's heart whenever he enters the presence of the Lord. Thus, Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions. I love that little phrase. The means of making decisions in the presence of the Lord. Everybody has a means of making decisions. Everyone has a way that they

try to figure out where is this going. Can I trust this person? And I like this method a lot, because all the priests had to do was take out the stones, the thameem. It stands for perfection or decision. And then he would take Yurim, which represents light, which always represents revelation, which always represents knowledge. And when God would speak through these stones, you would inquire of him. And if the answer was affirmative, Ureem would light up and you would know God wants us to do it. Like when David was facing a battle at Zichlag and he had to go back and recover his family and the families of his men. And he asked the priest, bring me an Ephod because I need to seek the Lord. Because if I go into this battle and God doesn't want me to go in this battle, if I do this venture,

if I go after this thing and God doesn't want me to do this thing, I'll be defeated. But if he says, yes, no power in hell can stand against me. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. So David said bring me the Ephod because if God gives me light on this situation, I can fight this battle. If God gives me light on this situation, I can stand the trial, I can stand the test, I can pass it, I can do it. If God says yes. But sometimes God would say no. And then sometimes the stone would do nothing.

And what that meant was, God doesn't want to answer this right now. In other words, if I can take you back to middle school, I love you, do you love me? Check. Yes or no. And sometimes I would put a third box called maybe. And sometimes they would ask God, should we go, should we stay, should we do it, should we not? And the son would do nothing.

What do you do with them? Maybe. a lot of times in our life, don't you wish you had a Yereem and a thememe in your closet? Come on, right next to your belts. I'd rather have a Yereem and a themine than a Rolex. I mean iced. I'd rather have. I would love if I could. What a, what a blessing it would be. You know how many staff members I never would have hired to begin with?

Come on, this is a big church. Can I be real with you? Do you know how many staff members I'd just be, if I could have just had that special stone Pull it out. Wouldn't that be cool? Can you imagine how many things would you have done differently and how helpful would it be? When you're making decisions, if you could just have a stone just to light up and tell you, yes, this is God. You know how your kids start hanging out with friends and you're wondering like, I don't know about these parents. They seemed kind of like, I don't know, I smelled something on their clothes. Smelled like it might have been weed or maybe it was something else, but I'm not sure. Lord, should I let my kids hang out with these kids?

And God says, yes, and you could get some sleep. Or, you know, God, should I take this job? It's got more pay, but it's going to mean more hours. I just think it would be so cool if it would light up and tell me. And yet, God knows something about me that I don't know about me is that even if he gave me the light to know what to do, a lot of times, I wouldn't have the faith to do it. You're going to make me preach by myself and sit there looking at me like I'm in

entertainer. You know the truth is that even sometimes when you know what to do, even sometimes when you know this as God, and they had these stones, they had these stones, it was behind the breastplate, and the breastplate was under the pomegranate tree, and the priest was doing nothing with it. They had the means of making decisions to know the will of God, but their fear had put them in a place, and their complacency had put them in a place. Because when you have the instruments but you don't use them, how can God speak to you when you can't find this between Sundays? How can God give you his wisdom? And the important thing about it was Jonathan said, we don't have the Ephod. A hydra has the Ephod. We don't have a complete clarity on this situation.

But what he had that was so important, he had the right person. to turn to and talk about it. I need you to understand the value not only of what God says to you in your life, but about who you say it to after God says it to you. The right people will give you the go ahead. The right people will say, you know what, I'm going to help you as you do this. I know the addiction has got you about three different cycles now, and it looks like this one won't be any different, but whether or not you make it, I'm going to be here with you on it. So let's go ahead and do this dumb thing, this impossible thing, this crazy thing. And then sometimes they've got to turn and tell you that ain't God at all.

But it's who you say it to. It's who you say it. It's a 50-50 thing. It's not just my relationship with God. It's my relationship with others. And a lot of us are suffering in silence in our relationship with God because we're living in bitterness with our relationship with others. You can't hear God just like this.

I guarantee you if Jonathan would have had an armor bearer who told him, you know what, man, let me know how that turns out. I'm praying for you. Sign of the cross. I guarantee you the battle wouldn't have moved on beyond Beth Avon that day like it did. And even for me, I can say this when people say, how did you know God wanted you to start a church? I read a book. I felt inspired. I got up and preached. It seemed to help people. Read a book. I got a wife. We were doing our thing.

One day she looked at me in the mountains of Tennessee. We were at some youth camp. Carl Carty was leading worship. We came back to the room. People said, when, how did you know, how did God speak to you? It was time for you to start the church. because I wanted to start it when I was 40. The church wouldn't even be here right now. If Holly didn't turn to me, not God. She was my Ureem. God used her like that. She said, it's time for you go start this church.

I said, when I'm 40, she said, no. Now, look, JJ, if you hear me saying on this message, you know, God's calling you to go. You know how many people I've seen go start coffee shops because they like coffee? And they hear a message like this, and abuse it, and they think that the whole point of the message is just go do the dumbest thing you can think of that you have a halfway interest in and then blame the devil

when it doesn't work out because it was spiritual warfare and attack, and nobody believed in my dream, and I'm nothing but Jesus on the cross of Garden of Gassimony, squeeze like the olives and the oils coming out. All of that is dumb, because I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about who you talk to about what God is saying to you. And now I get to return the favor. I mean the other day she turned to me and was like, hey, I'm about to tell you something think God is speaking to me because it's always a 50-50 thing. Always. So I'm confident,

but I'm not certain, you know? And she was like, don't laugh at me. I'm like, why would I laugh at you? Tell me. And what she told me, I said, not only have you got to do that, but you got to do this, this, this, and this, and this, because that's awesome. Then I think she was sorry that she told me because she didn't want to do this, this, this, and this, and this. She just wanted to do that. But we started talking. You see how important it is? Not only what God says to you,

it's not only this beam of the cross, but it's this one too. So I don't have Yereem and the meme, but I got Eugene. I needed a rhyme. It was a stretch at best. And Irene. And I got people.

Now, this is so key. It's a 50-50 faith. It's a 50-50. That means it is a divine partnership where Jonathan says, you know, there is something that God can do. And then there is something that God will not do that only we can do. Faith is 50-50. James proves it clearly. Not only does Jonathan exemplify it, James explains it when he says faith without works is it.

It takes two. This is a 50-50 proposition. Why would God do for you what He gave you the strength to do for you? It is a 50-50 faith. It is not my faith that saves me. And I'm grateful for that. How many are grateful that your faith in Christ for salvation is not 50-50? Come on, because if it was, I would be in hell before Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

But because he is my great high priest, y'all, I'm about to get happy on this sermon. And because he took the breastplate of his own righteousness into the most holy place and shed his blood on the mercy seat, I don't ever have to doubt if he wants to see me or hear me or love me or throw his arms around me. He is my righteousness and I am his child and he is my great high priest. Come on, shout about it like you got the good sense to know. This thing doesn't depend on me Foundational faith even that faith is the gift of God so that no one can boast But watch this Jonathan said perhaps

Perhaps the Lord will It's 50-50 I know we can I think you will 50-50 I know God is with me and I think this is where he's leading me. It's 50-50 I'm a 50-50 leader I pull 70 staff in this Monday and say This is what I think God's doing and I can't put a bow on it, but we're going to find out together. Why? Because God won't reveal truth if I don't move toward it, ever.

And the issue is this. Experience is the friend of wisdom, but it can be the enemy of faith. You need me to run that back? Experience is the friend of wisdom. But if you get like Saul and a hijah and keep the ephot under the pomegranate tree, Jonathan said, we're going to have to be our own ephod. We're going to put ourselves out there and see if God will. And when Eugene Peterson, he had this idea, right? He was trying to preach the Bible. He's in heaven now, but he was trying to preach the Bible to his church.

He realized that they weren't really getting it. So he sat down to write a translation of the Bible in a way they could understand. You know that little version on your Bible on your phone? I hope you got the Bible on your phone. I hope you got the Bible up. above Facebook on your phone. Because you need that one to start your day. You really do.

You really do. You don't need to know what's going on in Russia every second, but you need to know what's happening, what God intends for your life. And if you click on it, there will be one version that says MSG, and it has nothing to do with a Chinese restaurant. It's the message translation, and it was written by a man who was just he had an idea. What if I write the Bible in the language? that's common to the people.

And he ended up translating the whole Bible that way, the message translation, all because maybe God will use this, you know? If you act on it, it's 50-50. It's 50-50. I'm not sure. I don't know. Look what he said when he translated 1st Samuel 14, 6, my favorite verse about faith in the Old Testament.

Look what he said, that Jonathan said to his armor bear, come on now. Come on now. Let's do it now. Not when the priest gets his act together. Not when the government gets this act together. But now we got to do this now, now, come on now. Let's go across to these uncircumcised pagans.

And then he said the title of my series, maybe God will work for us. us. Maybe. Maybe. Faith is being able to move on a maybe. And you know what that means is 50-50. It might not work, but God is always working. I'm confident in the second, even when I'm not certain in the first. And it takes the kind of faith, church, to say, maybe. Maybe. Maybe. if I do this. Maybe, and maybe it won't. And maybe God will use this thing that I think I'm supposed to do, to lead to something that I was really supposed to do, so that even if the first

thing fails, at least I'm not sitting still in fear, but it takes faith to move on a maybe. When Yereem has gone dark and Saul is under a tree and you don't know what to do but to move toward it God says move toward it. It may work and even if it doesn't, I will. It is the power to move on a maybe to know that God is mystery, but he has revealed. His character is trustworthy. I can move on a maybe. Father, I don't want to do this, but nevertheless not my will but yours be done.

I'm going to go see about this. And maybe. Somebody shout, maybe. Maybe. I've got a maybe faith. Enough faith to do it and not know the conclusion, but trust God in the process. It's a maybe faith. I'm confident.

I'm not certain, but I'm confident. And you will find yourself many times in your life in a maybe moment. Some of you are there right now. It's a maybe moment for you. Maybe you are giving yourself to a marriage that you don't know if it can live like Ezekiel in the Valley of Bones. You don't even know if anything's going to happen, but you're prophesying and speaking forth and believing God to send the winds. And you're living in the maybe moment. Maybe if we start a church.

Maybe. Maybe. I know who God is. And I know nothing can stop him, but it's 50-50, man. You want to do it anyway? way, maybe the miracle is in the maybe. I wish I could preach this to every discouraged heart today. God lives in a place called maybe. Faith lives in a place called maybe. So if you are in a maybe moment today, that's where God lives. Stand up. When you're in that maybe moment,

And if you are, you know it. And if you're not, you will need this message within the next six weeks. Because life is full of maybe moments. You will feel in that moment the coexistence of uncertainty and confidence. And you feel like you're making it up as you go. I like that image because Jonathan said, climb up after me. Climb up after me. I was thinking about how they made it up as they went.

But I had to go. I had to do it. I had to trust God in a maybe moment. Maybe moments are like the moment where you could look stupid. Maybe moments are the moments where you could be rejected. Most of us aren't facing Philistines and thorny slippery cliffs and geographical obstacles. Most of us are facing things that are on the inside of us that seem insurmountable. And God is in the maybe moment of your life when you move forward anyway.

When I stopped by my dad's house and gave him the letter on Father's Day after we had not spoken in months because I moved him to Charlotte when his health got bad with my mom because he asked me to. And I told him, I said, Dad, I want to do this for you. You're my dad. I want to take care of you. And we didn't know that he had ALS yet. We just knew that he was very sick and because he was a self-employed barber. I didn't know if he was just honestly, my dad at that point in his life was so illogical and irrational.

I didn't know if it was a good idea or not, but I knew my dad was asking me for help. And I knew that something was wrong. And when he asked me to do it, I knew something inside of me knew, like this could turn out really bad. Like I told my dad, I said, you live three and a half hours away from me right now. And that works pretty good for us. If you come up and we're all up in each other's face, you know, it might not be good. And he said, I need you to do this for me. And I said, I'll never forget telling him, you know, I don't even think this is a good idea.

But I'm going to do it. You asked me to, and I love you. But please, when you come up here, please, when you come live in Charlotte, I knew my mom would be fine. She's great. But I was like, you, please don't do any of this crazy stuff. And honest to God, know. sooner than I sent the moving company to give him an estimate. He chased the moving company out of the yard with his walking cane.

I mean, this guy, he was a good dad for a lot of my life, but by this point his medications as well as his physical condition, he was starting to really lose his mind, but I knew I needed to move him anyway. And it didn't make sense at that point. In fact, when he got here, when he finally moved after running off the moving, he was company after he finally found a moving company that was fit to move him. I went to go see him and check on him in the house that we had found for them. First thing he did what I walked in the door was complain about the house.

When I tell you that I said some Hebrew words and some Greek words, some monks corner words, some compound cuss words, and it was like over the next few months every bad thing that I thought was going to happen if I tried to do the right thing start happening. And the weird contrast was, my ministry was going so great and the church was growing. And my dad and the way he treated my mom and eventually he left. He went to go live by himself. It was like culminated in this horrible, like the worst Thanksgiving ever where we went to see him.

The only place he would live was in this nursing home. And they had him calling bingo in the nursing home. And yeah, it's okay, you can laugh about it because it was like, How did we come to this? How can they not even live together? How do we spend all this money and all this time? And he raised me all this time and coach my teams and all this. Then it's going to end like this. When we would try to talk on the phone, he would end up yelling, I would end up yelling, and then I'd end up preaching. And then I go back and talk to my dad, and I'd end up yelling, and he would end up yelling. But when I went by his house on Father's Day, I thought, well, maybe if I write down, I took a notebook and I told Holly, can you drive for me?

me for a minute. We were coming back from a family trip and I said, I need to do something real quick. Can you drive for me? And can we stop by my dad's house? He was living all alone at that time by his own choice. And I sat there while Holly drove and I wrote down a memory for every year that I had been alive of him being my dad. Because I knew we couldn't talk, but I thought, well, maybe if we could just communicate in writing. And when we showed up at the house and he open the door, I kind of like threw the list at him. You know, like, happy fun this day. I made a list for you. Because maybe this is a dumb idea, but maybe it could open a door for us to have a relationship. It's the maybe moments. If I'm going to tell you about my maybe moments

that result in starting a church that reaches the world, I think I owe it to you to tell you about my maybe moments that were messy to. It's not always so clear. It's not always so perfect. It's not always so brilliant, it's not always so strategic. Life has lived in those maybe moments. And so I got to sit beside him as he breathed his last breath after three days that hospice had been in much later, after a progression where my mom graciously led him back in the house and cared for him until he died. And I got to be there reading to him from Charles Spurgeon's sermon, the peaceful sleep of the beloved, after I sang to him the old rugged cross, and I thought he was going to pass quickly, but he stayed around like three days. And I ran it.

out of hymns and started having to sing James Taylor and Hootie in the Blowfish. I mean, I was there for all of it in that moment because of moving forward with a maybe. I believe God sent me with this message today, and I'm over time. I'm so over time. It's going to be awful in the parking lot in the rain. God forgive me, and please smile at people on the way out and tell me it's going to be worth it. But please listen to me. Listen to me.

You're in a maybe moment. You're in a maybe moment. slippery on one side, thorny on the other. Don't have everybody with you thought you'd have with you. Just got to armor bear. Father, I pray today for the faith for your people to move forward on a maybe. In this moment, you are the God of all wisdom. You are the God who sees all, knows all and can do anything. I thank you, Lord, that there are miracles emerging, even now as I speak, in bodies, in relationships, in careers, in families. God, I thank you that ministry is birthed out of maybe.

We thank you, God, for giving us the Holy Spirit inside of us. We thank you for giving us the finished work of your son to let us know that you are good and you do good, and all things work together for the good of them that love you. I speak over every maybe situation. Give your people now, by your grace, the kind of faith that it takes to me. forth in a maybe.

For we believe that nothing can hinder you from saving, whether by many or by few. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church.

Thanks again for listening. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.