Elevation with Steven Furtick - Come Out Of The Cave (Daniel Floyd)

Episode Date: September 3, 2023

In “Come Out Of The Cave,” Pastor Daniel Floyd reminds us that when we fully put our trust in God, we remove the limits of our own imagination and start walking in the victory He has already given us. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ Scripture References: Judges 6, verses 1-16See 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. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. I hope you're blessed today. So good to be in church today. My wife is with me.

Two of the four are with me. We have four kids, 16, 14, 6 and 4. And, yeah, same wife. Some people think it's too, no, same. And we just took a break and took a long break in between there. And the two little ones, they don't sit still long enough to get traveling rights. So they're at home, but we're just honored to be here. If you're ever in the Fredericksburg, Richmond area, Virginia,

come say hello to us sometime. We would love to host you and love to have you visit sometime. Honored to be here, I would be remiss if I didn't say at the onset. that this house and the leaders of this house have made such a difference in our lives as I think all of us could testify to. Moments setting over there hearing a message called Take Your Seat at the Gate that marked me at an inside elevation a moment before service praying together at Providence High School. some of you all remember Providence that marked me just moments throughout where something Pastor Stephen said in a phone call, something in a message, I think we'd all have the testimony, some lyric that carried us through a moment of a song. And I just want to say how much

we love your pastors, Pastor Stephen, Pastor Holly. What a gift they are to you, but what a gift they are to the body of Christ. Come on, can we put our hands together and thank God for our leaders today? What an incredible gift. Well, are you ready for the word today? Come on. I know this is a house that loves the Word of God. And so if you have a Bible with you, Judges, Chapter 6, we're going to get to it and get to work. And I'm believing that God wants to say something to you today.

Judges chapter 6, start in verse 1. Read to about verse 6. It says, again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. It's a great verse to start with, right? Hey, welcome to elevation. Israel did evil. Not smart, guest speaker guy. Says it for seven years, he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

Everybody shout Midianites. And because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain, clefts, caves, and strongholds. And whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other Eastern peoples invaded the country. And they camped on the land, and they ruined the crops all the way to Gaza. They did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.

And they came up with their livestock and their tents like swarm of locust. It was impossible to count the men and their camels. They invaded the land, and they ravaged it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites. One translation says they reduced them to starvation, that they cried out to the Lord for help. I want to bring a message today. If you're a note taking type, write this down.

If you're not, go ahead and write it down. Called Come Out of the Cave. Come out of the cave. Let's pray together. Father, our hearts and minds are open. We've come to hear from heaven today. come to do some religious ritual. But we believe the word of God is powerful and alive and can change our lives today. So do that. Do what only you can do in our hearts and our minds. We pray

this in Jesus' name. Everybody said a big amen. Amen. So not too long ago, my oldest Owen who's with us, he's 16, starts driving next month. Everybody pay for my insurance bill. Please say a prayer. Add that to your prayer list. He comes up to me out of the blue and he says, hey, dad, did you ever pull an all-nighter? And I was like, yeah, there were several times in college that I pulled all-nighters. Anybody else in the house? Come on, every campus, e-fam. You pulled an on-nighter, okay. I don't know if it's, you know, justification for my procrastination. But I just kind of like to say that I enjoyed all-nighters. I had all-nighters back in the day where you went to the computer lab. Come on somebody. You didn't have no laptop in your room. What's you talking about?

spoiled. Went to a computer lab with my disc. Can I get an amen in the house of God today? My disc put that in the slot. Had to wait for a spot for all the other procrastinators that were in the computer lab. And then I'd work on that thing until about seven in the morning, run and get some breakfast, head to class, acting like I had that thing done for two weeks. So I was, he was like, I said, yeah, I pulled several all-nighters. And at the same time in my mind, I'm trying to calculate, wait. I think he's trying to get approval for waiting until the last minute. Come on, have you know your sins will catch up to you at some point in your life

and your parenting usually. Trying to get justification so at some point he can put things off till the last moment. But I kind of like the pressure. I kind of enjoyed the pressure, actually. I fed off of it. I thrived off the pressure, honestly, a little bit. I kind of think that I'm a little more creative when I'm under pressure. I think I write a little better when I'm under pressure.

I think I perform a little better. Anybody else with me? Like, you kind of like the pressure. The rest of you, like, I've just triggered something on the inside of you. Like, you're going to go in therapy this week. We all need some therapy. You're going to be talking about how, like, it brought up things of you. You know, some of you dreamed that you showed up to class without a paper, and it was nightmares.

But I kind of like the pressure. And, you know, pressure is really interesting in life because we all face it. do we not. We all go through some pressure. Some of you are under emits pressure right now in this moment. The pressure to perform. We all face pressure. We face the pressure to act like we've got it all together when we're falling apart on the inside. Face the pressure of how will my kids turn out. We all face pressures, financial

pressures, relational pressures. But we all face pressure in life. And whether you're tuning in today and you believe in Jesus and God and the Bible and all those things or you don't, the commonality of the human experience is that we all face pressure. Somebody shout pressure. And I found that pressure usually comes from a couple of different places in our life. How many of you know life just happens? That sometimes it's the choices of other people that cause pressure in your life. That sometimes it's just life circumstances just out of the blue. You didn't wake up in plan it. You didn't wake up that day hoping for it, but just out of nowhere, pressure came on you. And how many of you know that if we're real honest, sometimes the pressures in our life come because

of the choices that we made? That we did something, we said something, we sowed something so many years ago, and we're reaping that thing now. And sometimes pressure is just, let's be real. God didn't do it. Your mama didn't do it. I did it. Are y'all tracking it with me? Comes from a couple of different places, but when we read in this story right now, the Israelites under immense pressure, and they're under immense pressure from this group called the Midianites, this group of people that have put the full force and the full weight of themselves on Israel, and pressure can be debilitating, it can be overwhelming, it can back you into a

corner and make you feel like I have no other option. and I have no other way out. This is what pressure will do to you. And I have found in life that pressure will do one of two things to you. It'll either refine you or it will confine you. Are you all following me so far? We're going somewhere. We're just building.

It'll either refine you or it will confine you. You know, pressure can be powerful to refine something I was reading this week, not that I'm a scientist, whatsoever. Those all-night papers were not scientific papers. But I found that whenever carbon atoms are put under 725,000 pounds of pressure per square inch and the right temperature, they produce a diamond. 725,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. That's a whole lot of pressure. So that pressure is refining a little carbon atom. Now that little carbon atom isn't going, this is awesome. I don't know how carbonate is think.

I just see in my mind, you know. This is wonderful. I just love this. I love that I'm under pressure and that I'm hidden and that nobody can see me and that I'm down in this dirt and all this pressure is on top of me. I'm just loving this right now. Thank you, Jesus, for your faithfulness. But I'm under the pressure right now.

But that pressure is refining to produce something. How many of you know that I found that whenever I'm under pressure, it feels like I'm hidden? Because whatever is weighing down on me is hiding me. It feels like whenever you're under pressure, you can feel like no one sees you, that no one knows you. You wonder if God is even in the building with you in the moment. Does God even know what I'm going through? But I would propose to you that there are some things in your life that can only be developed under pressure. Saying that God sends the Midianites into your life, but I'm just saying that he has a way of working all things together

and that if you will allow him, the pressure can refine. That there are some character traits, that there are some faith that needs to be built, that you don't see the diamond in you, but God sees the diamond in you. And on the other side of the pressure, I wonder if I got anybody that's been through some pressure in your life. And you can testify today that on the other side of the pressure, there's some greater faith. That on the other side of the pressure, you learn to worship him like you've been. never worshipped him before. That on the other side, because pressure will either refine you or will confine you. Pressure has a way of molding something on the inside of you. Pressure has a way

of working out some of the things in you that need to get out of you. Pressure can refine you. Somebody shout pressure. But pressure can also confine you. And this is what we are. We're what's happening to Israel in the text that we just read. The Bible says that again, Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Somebody shout again. If you want to store, if you want to overview the Old Testament, can we go to Sunday school real quick? Let me give you Old Testament survey. God chooses Israel. Israel's happy and worshiping. God blesses Israel. Israel's living in the blessing of God. like, we bless, I don't know, we need God anymore.

And Israel walks away from God and starts doing life on their own, and they face all the consequences of it. Not because God is beating them up, but because when you choose your own, God's like, go ahead, I'll leave the light on for you. I'll be right here waiting when you get back. When you figure out this don't work your way, when you figure out doing life your way,

when you figure out having your bad attitudes, living negative, unforgiveness. When you figure out it don't work that way, I'll leave the light on, I'm right here waiting on you. They cry out to God. What does God do? Because he's a good God. He rescues Israel.

Then he blesses Israel. And then Israel's like, I don't know that we need God anymore. I'll start doing it my own way. And then they get the consequences of it. Repeat. Repeat. Are y'all tracking with me? And this is where we are in the story right now.

It says that Israel again, again Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And so they're in one of these cycles. Man, this kind of sounds like us sometimes. You all remember the old hymn, This is my story This is my song praising my Savior I'm not your pastor out

I can't write lyrics Ain't nobody like him He says praising my Savior all the day long I'm like no that's not my story Some days is praising him all day long Some days it's I think I can do it on my own Oh we got the saints

in the house today. Well, just for me, for anybody that ain't wearing the St. Halo today, for me, it's like, no, this sounds like my story sometimes Israel, that sometimes I'm going all in for God, and sometimes I got days where it's like, I think God I can do it on my own. And this is the cycle that Israel's in. And so when Israel decides to do it on their own, God's like, okay, do it your way. And as a result, Midian comes in, these Midianites, they come in. and they begin to attack Israel, and they begin to confine Israel, because pressure will either

refine you or it will confine you. You know what I found this week that I've never seen before? Is that Midian was a thorn in the flesh to another follower of God by the name of Joseph. I don't know if you know this. Genesis chapter 37. It won't be on the screen for you. I'm just going to tell you, you have to trust me that I'm giving you the correct Bible verse. But the Bible says that Joseph's brothers, if you remember this, the coat of many colors, they didn't like him, they threw them into the pit. You all track him with me? They put them into the pit. And then whenever there were some Ishmaelites came along. But they were Ishmaelites that were Midianite traitors. So same group of people, same pressure.

Joseph determines that no matter the circumstance or the situation, whether I'm in the pit or I'm in Potiphar's house or I'm in the prison, the Bible says the hand of the Lord was with him and that he rose to the top in the middle of every situation, because pressure will either refine you or it will confine you. Now we get over here to Judges chapter 6 and we see the Midianites as a thorn in their flesh again. and what happens is that Israel begins to retreat. Because when pressure confines you, it will shrink you. And when the pressure of life comes on, you will either say, okay, God can work all this together for my good, or you will begin to shrink back.

And the Bible tells us that physically, geographically, the Israelites begin to shrink back. They begin to shrink back. It says they made shelters in caves. and in the clefts and in strongholds. They physically shrunk back. I think it's a metaphor for what you and I do whenever pressure comes on our life. They begin to shrink back.

They begin to make themselves small. They begin to limit their thinking. They begin to limit the possibilities in their life. They begin to settle in for what they thought could happen. They begin to settle in for what they thought was the right solution in the middle of this difficulty and pressure. They begin to shrink. themselves. And whenever pressure comes on us, we will begin to shrink our dreams. We'll begin to

shrink our faith down. We'll begin to shrink the possibilities down in our life. We'll begin to settle in for less than our inheritance as children of the living God. We'll begin to believe the lie of the enemy that it's always going to be this way. We'll never get out of this situation. We'll never be moved beyond this circumstance. We begin to shrink our. I wonder not out loud, but if you wouldn't answer inside, what part of your life have you shrunk down? Because here's the deal. The enemy doesn't have to steal your confidence. He just has to put enough pressure on you and you'll give it up yourself. The enemy doesn't have to rob you of joy. He just has to put enough pressure, enough financial pressure, enough relational pressure,

enough parenting pressure on you. He doesn't have to get, the enemy can't come and take it. anything from you, we give it up ourselves because of the pressure. And it shouldn't be this way. Israel forgot who they were. Shouldn't be this way. The Bible says that they made shelters for themselves in caves. It didn't say Midian built shelters for them in the caves. When the pressure comes on, we will build our own shelters in caves. Israel should have been living in wide open spaces. They're the children of promise. They're the nation God's chosen people. They're y'all following me. They are God's people. They shouldn't have been withdrawing, living below their level, getting up, putting themselves in caves. It shouldn't have been that way. But we will make caves for ourselves. We will make our own prisons.

When the pressure comes on in our life, this is what Israel is doing. And it shouldn't have been this way. They're the children of the Most High God. I mean, how much previous in their story? They're a narrative. They're a storytelling culture. This is how they're passing down things from generation to generation. So this group of people you know heard about the Red Sea.

crossing. This group of people, you know, had to hear about the cloud by day and the fire by night. They had to hear about the plagues that allowed Pharaoh, cost him to go, no, no, no, you guys go ahead and go, I want you to leave. Like, they had heard the stories of how God was working among them, but yet they're making shelters for themselves in caves, and it shouldn't have been that way. They limited the God that they served because when you see yourself as small, you see God as small. And they saw themselves as only able to live in caves and to back up and to shrink themselves down. And when you look at God through the lens of you, you will always limit God. Let me say that again.

When you look at God through the lens of you, you will limit God. I think about Naiman. Naman, the Bible says, that he went, you know the story, and he was going to dip seven times, but when he went to the prophet, this verse always gets me, he got angry when the prophet said, go to the Jordan and dip in it seven times. He got angry. And then the text says this. It says, I thought he would come out, wave his hand over me, and speak over me, and then I would be healed. The first two words in that sentence are his problem. I thought. I thought. And then he said how God would do it and what God would do.

When we limit God by what we think can happen, we bring God down to our level. In other words, we limit God to the level of our imagination. We limit God to the level of can I think it up? Can I dream it up? Can I design it up? Can I scheme it up? And then go, God, can you do this? But I think the Apostle Paul is the one who wrote, but my God is able to do immeasurably more than I can ask think or, or what, or what? Or imagine that we serve the God that is outside of our imagination. And if he's the

God that can part the Red Sea, and if he is the cloud by day and fire by night, if he's the God of the 10 plagues. If he's the God that met Moses on top of Mount Sinai, if he's the God that God that took down Goliath through the rock of David, if he is that God, then why would we limit him by the level of what we can think, what we can imagine. Israel was limiting God because they had forgotten who their God was. And any time we distance ourselves from God, we forget who God is. Anytime we put distance, this is why it's so important to be in the house of God

every Sunday. This is why it's so important to connect EFAM every single Sunday. Why? Because you don't want distance between you and God. This is why time and the word is so important every day. This is why being on a team, being in an E-group. Why? Because it's so important

to be around the family of God and the people of God that are going to help you see God Whenever it's clouded in your perspective, you need some people in your life that go, no, no, no, no, no. He is the God that brought you out before. That he's the God that did the miracle before. No, let me remind you, you've got a little bit of annesia right now. Because you'll turn caves into prisons.

And the Midianites did and locked them up. They locked themselves up. They made for themselves. shelters shelters in the caves. Midian doesn't need to do it when we'll do it for ourselves. We give the devil too much credit. The devil didn't do it. Just the pressure was great enough that sometimes we do it.

Caves into prisons. And if we stay in a cave long enough, not only does it turn into a prison, it turns into a tomb. The text said that in the King James, that's what I grew up, I'm a church kid, I grew up on the King Jimmy, somebody. The yeas and the thou for it and there shall too. If we really get preaching, you quote the King James, you feel a lot more spiritual. It ain't true, but you feel it. Come on.

It says it reduced them to starvation. reduce them to starvation. I don't think it does any disservice to this text to say that there's a good chance that people died in the caves. If you're starving and everything is getting plundered, it doesn't stretch too much, I don't think, to say that some people probably died in the caves. And I'll be honest with you, I kind of understand.

I kind of understand because the Bible says that they would go out and they would sow crops and then the Midianites would come and wipe the crops out, and then they'd back in the caves. And then they go out and try to sew again over this seven-year period. And then the Midianites would come, and the Amalekites and all the other Eastern peoples, and everybody would come in and pray all the caves,

and so then they'd just back up again. Why try? Why do it again? It's just more comfortable than the cave? I wonder if you've ever felt that way? You're like, I'm going to try to re-engage that relationship, and then you're met with rejection. You feel like you get slapped again and why try?

I just get back in. I just get back to the cave. The cave is comfortable. It's not where I meant to be. It's not the purpose of God for my life. It's not the calling of God on my life. But it's much easier to isolate than it is to try again and get disappointed again. So you begin to be generous again.

And then you're met with some unexpected spints out of the blue and you're like, why am I even trying to be? Have you ever noticed that that the moment you start to really lean into faith and lean into God? It's like, where in the world is all this battle coming from around me? It's because there are some Midianites in your life that want you to go back to the cave, that the moment you begin to step out, the enemy's like, no, no, let me see if I can put enough pressure, if I can just push them back to the cave. I'm not saying that he can, this isn't a salvation issue.

Are y'all tracking? You're saved by grace through faith. It's a gift of God. but man so we can boast. We don't get the credit for you. I'm talking about living life to the fullness. That Jesus said, I've come to give you life and life to the full. And the enemy will put enough pressure on you so that you back up into a cave and you don't live out the calling of God on your life and the purpose of God on your life. And you don't experience the blessing of God in your life if he can get you to stay in the cave. And some of us, we got out and we're sowed a little

seed. We begin to restare that. We try to step into purpose. We begin to move out into gifts and colleagues and exploring what God has in our life and then we feel like pressure comes back on us. So we go back to the cave. So I get it. I get why they would live in the cave. The moment they try, it gets ruined. The moment they step forward, they get pushed back again. And so these caves that became prisons can become tombs.

And it's easier to stay in the cave when you're surrounded. surrounded by everybody else in the cave. All of Israel was in the caves. It's easy to stay in the cave when you surround yourself with cave creatures. That's what I call them. Cave creatures. If you're sitting by one, look this way. Don't say amen right now.

Just keep it forward. You get surrounded by cave creatures. Cave creatures are always looking back, never looking forward. cave creatures are always talking about what used to be never what could be come on cave creatures that is of people in your life that the moment you begin to take some kind of step they want to pull you right back

come on the moment that you begin to go oh you think you're too good now oh y'all know some of them oh you think you're too big for your britches now oh you're better than everybody else now oh you're done going to that church now Oh, you just, oh, you're holier than thou now. You're a holy roller.

They want to keep you. Cave creatures are the ten spies that came back and sped a bad report all throughout the land. Twelve went in. Joshua and Caleb came back and said, 10 said, they're too big. Joshua and Caleb basically said they're too big to miss. And the other ten, the Bible says, spread a bad report throughout the entire land. millions of the people affected by the negativity of 10 people.

Be careful the voices you led in your life. Ten people spread a reward. Ten people exaggerated the circumstance. Ten people made it look like. The Bible says, if you go back and read the story, the Bible says that they come back and they said, the people are too big and the walls are built to the sky. Ain't nobody built a wall to the sky.

Because cave creatures exaggerate the circumstance. You can never get out of that situation. You'll never amount to that. Why even believe for that? God would never do that in that way in your life. You'll never break through this thing. You'll never come out of this generational dysfunction. You'll never break this addiction.

You'll never cave creatures just want to keep you in the cave. And they want to turn your cave into a tomb where dreams die in there and visions die in there and hopes die in there. And aspirations die in the cave. They just made me fine if you stayed in the cave. because the moment you step out, they get uncomfortable because your faith shines a light on their lack of faith. Your hope shines a light on their lack of hope.

Your passion shines a light on their lack of passion. Your forward progress shines a light on their inaction. And they want you to stay back not for you but for them. Because you are making them uncomfortable because of the steps that you are taking. And I believe the Spirit of God sent me here today to look at somebody and say, let me shout over the voice

of every cave creature in your life and say, get out of that cave. It ain't looking the way you thought it should, but come out of the cave. I know it feels like a season, but it's not a life sentence. Come out of the cave. I know you wanted it to turn out different,

But come out of the cave. The Midianites are big, but come out of the cave. Every seed you sow, they seem to wipe it out, but come out of the cave. You feel like you've been there for years, but come out of the cave. You set up house in the cave. You've painted the walls. You've decorated it. You hung pictures of the children on it.

But it's time to move out. Get your U-Haul ready. Crank up the engine. The Spirit of God is saying, get out of the cave. The Spirit of God is saying it's time to get out. It's time to dream again. It's time to believe again. It's time to hope again.

It's time to build faith again. It's time to say I may have been stuck in the cave, but this isn't my story. It's not my life's set of the cave. I wish you'd shout if you're coming out of the cave. A few weeks ago, I think it was in the message, cover the spread, which every seminary to play it was a masterpiece on preaching whew but pastor said uh he said hallelujah but how i know if you remember that he said pastor holly's like hallelujah but how do i do that and so i want to give you the hallelujah but how moment how do i do this how many of you left church i know i've left

church you never left it here but i've left church at time going, man, I'm fired up and I have no idea what to do. I'm ready to charge hell. I just don't know where hell is. Like, I don't know what to do, but man, I'm inspired. I want to give you the how. Is that all right? The how. Hallelujah. But how? I love that. I'm stealing that. After I say it three times, I came up with it.

That's the way preachers work. Pastor Stephen said, I once heard somebody say, as I always say. Just so y'all know, that's how it works. It's a code among preachers. It's okay. Verse seven, it says this, when the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet. Oh, when you need God, he'll send you a word. Let me just park here for one second.

This is free. You pray and want a solution, but when you pray, God sends a word. And when you obey that word, it'll produce the solution. There you go. He says, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. God's like, let me remind you how we got here. I brought you up out of the land of Savory. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all the oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. I said to you, I am the Lord your God. Do not worship the God of the Amarites in whose land you live. But you've not listened to me. God's like, let's just get this straight. Now he's like, let's move on to solutions. says the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak of Orphra that belonged to Joach,

the Abbas, Abeswright, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat and a wine press to keep it from the Midian ice. So Midian's, Gideon is hiding. And when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. He's hiding. I mean, just the, are you all with me? The analogy of this picture. He's hiding, and God's like, he's with you, mighty warrior. That's because how you see you isn't always how God sees you.

But Sir, Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why is all this happened to us? We're all the wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt, but now the Lord's abandoned us and has put us into the hand of Midian. And the angel of the Lord doesn't answer this, but the obvious answer is because you chose to do what you wanted to do. And the Lord turned to him and said, go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. am I not sending you? But the Lord getting asked, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest. So we're the runt of all the clans in Manasseh, and I am the least in the family.

So I'm the run of the runt. I have no gains. I don't drink creatine. I've never worked out a day of my life. Like, I'm the runt. And then the Lord answered, I will be with you. And you'll strike down all the Midianites together. All right, let me give you three thoughts real quick.

I ask the worship team to come join me, because these will sound much more spiritual with a keyboard. How many of you know the keyboard advice the Holy Ghost? It does. He spoke to him and said, I'm called a Mighty Warrior. So, number one, listen to the voice of God. These aren't rocket science.

Everybody can do these. Listen to the voice of God. The Lord's with you, Mighty Warrior. But let me say this to you. To hear God's voice, you're going to have to turn down a lot of other voices. And I don't know what that looks like for you, and I don't know how that plays out in your life. But there are seasons in my life. I'm in one of those right now.

If it's not worship or preaching or college football, I ain't going to lie to you up here. It's not coming in through this gate or this gate. I'm not saying that's for you. I'm just saying you got to find ways to turn down. If the voice of Facebook is louder than the voice of God. Okay, just saying, you may have to turn some voices down. God's with you, mighty warrior. Number two, you have to start with what you got.

He says, go in the strength that you have. He didn't say wait to get more strength. He didn't say wait until you got it all together. He didn't say wait to all the stars align and, you feel like you got the and you got the money set up and you got the thing and all that's in place and you've met the people you need to play and you got the strap now he said just go in the strength you have sometimes you've got to start where you are you just got to take the step where you are I don't know what that step is today but but whatever that is you just got to take the step

towards towards freedom you got to take the step towards out of the cave you got to take the step towards just go with what you got God was like just go into strength me and he goes I'm the weakest of the weakest, like, I'm the run of the run of the run. Like, I have no strength. And he goes, that's okay. Go in the strength that you have. I think God wants you to go in the strength that you have so you know it wasn't you that did it, but it was God that did it through you.

And then finally, trust that God is with you. He goes, I will be with you. I will be with you. And so at the end of the day, it's trusting that God is going with us and walking with us, no matter how fearful we are and no matter how trepidations it may feel and no matter how scary and no matter how much out of the comfort zone it may feel it's trusting that God will be with us. Our trust is where our faith and God's faithfulness converge. And it's at that point that we feel the strength of God to help us walk out of the cave that we have

shrunk ourselves back into and not because we are great but because God is great. And so I'm not saying trust in yourself. I'm saying trust in the faithfulness of a faithful God who has brought you thus far and will not leave you at this moment. He goes, I'm going to be with you. Can I speak to you right now and say God will be with you? Can I speak to some of you that your heart is pounding and you're like, I got some steps to take, but I'm scared. I'm saying go scared anyways. But I don't know about the outcome.

I'm saying go anyways. I don't know how this is going to turn out. I'm saying trust God anyways because the God can we revisit something that brings us. brought children of Israel out of Egypt, the God that was the cloud by day and the fire by night, and the God that was the God of the Mount Sinai experience, and the God that took down Galite is the same God that is with you in this moment. And can I tell you that our God, even if your cave is turned into a tomb, he specializes in turning tombs into testimonies, if you'll let him. I don't know if you remember, but Lazarus had been dead for four days. And Jesus, Jesus,

walked up on the scene and said move that stone and he says to you today what he said to Lazarus on that day Lazarus that cave the same God is speaking to you and the same God will sustain you if you've got faith in your heart why don't you lift up a shout of praise somebody shout I'm coming out of the cave out of the cave let every devil and I'm coming out of the cave. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not when you figure it all out. Today. Today's the moment. This is a divine moment for you. God puts you here. Somebody shared this worship experience with you because it's your day to get out of the cave. Will you lift your hands to heaven all over this place in the presence of God.

Father, I pray for every person at our campuses today. Pray for over our eFAM today. They know in their heart that they have shrunk themselves back and limited their thinking in their life into a place you never meant for them to be. And so today, by the Spirit of God, we say, come out of the cave. May they take the steps in this moment they need to take.

may your voice rise above the voice of doubt and fear of any other voice in their life may they go in the strength they have not waiting for some other day some other time some other moment but even in their weakness may they step out and may they trust that the faithfulness of god will prove faithful once again we love you we honor you We pray this in Jesus' name. Come on, everybody said a big amen. Amen, amen. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. And if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available.

I also want to take a moment and thank all of you who are a part of elevation. Whether you support us financially or serve with us or just share these messages, it's because of you that we're able to reach people all around the world. And if you want more information on how to be a part of elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again for listening.

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