Elevation with Steven Furtick - Concealed But Not Canceled

Episode Date: February 4, 2024

As we celebrate our 18-year anniversary, Pastor Steven Furtick teaches us in “Concealed But Not Canceled” that God can turn our greatest weakness into His greatest weapon. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr Scripture References:Isaiah 49, verses 1-4Judges 3, verses 12-21See 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. Come on, praise him for every valley. This steadfast love is better than life. Wow. What an awesome God you are. No doubt about that. everything in our life points to the fact that there was a steady hand guiding us and now Lord we clap our hands to celebrate your hand that never left our life in Jesus name amen you know what you got to do

high-five 18 people and tell them it was the hand of God praise the Lord yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah. Did you do 18 or did you round up? Lazy bones. Everybody online as well, give a high five in the chat. A little fist bump in the chat. Let us know you're here too, our eFAM around the world. Today for our anniversary, I told the Lord, hey, I've tried to tell God several months ago that

I wanted to invite a guest to speak for the anniversary. I said, this is a great Sunday for me. to just enjoy all that you have done, Lord, and the works thy hands have made. So I'm going to invite a guest speaker. I even had a little list of guests that I wanted to bring. You know, almost anybody will come preach to you because you are the most amazing church in the world. No, I'm saying that. That's not bragging.

It's a fact. You are the greatest. All right? I'm not saying the greatest on stage. I'm saying the greatest people, the greatest volunteers, the greatest prayer warriors, the most generous, amazing people in the world. are right around you. So I was getting my list ready of guest speakers.

And then I saw something that I felt in the scripture that I was supposed to preach on this day. So then I was conflicted because I wanted the day off. So I can just cry through the baptism video like you do and not have to dry my snot and put vizine in my eyes and get up here and pretend to be all composed. But so when I saw this word, though, it really felt important and it felt appropriate for the day. Now, Graham looked at me because we went a little longer in worship. We had a video and Holly baptized half the town of Charlotte here at Valentine and at all of our locations.

Let's welcome all of our locations right now. We sang and we and we prayed and we sang and we prayed. And Graham looked at me and goes, are you preaching today? Like, how long is this going to be? I got an appointment with a bowl at Chipotle. You preaching too? Well, truth of the matter is, not only should we really make time for God's presence that matters the most, but I believe that if you listen good, I can go quick.

So I want to turn to a scripture in Isaiah 49 because when I told the Lord that I would get a guest speaker, he said, okay, then you'd be the guest because it's my church," the Lord said. He said, I'm inviting you. Say yes. So here is my yes. Isaiah 49, verses 1 through 4. The word of the Lord, listen to me, you islands.

Hear this, you distant nations. Before I was born, the Lord called me. From my mother's womb, he has spoken my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword. in the shadow of his hand, he hid me. He made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me, you are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor. But I said, I have labored in vain.

I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Who hasn't felt like that? Come on, who hasn't felt like that some days? The servant of the Lord feels unappreciated and unseen. And he says, so I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Keep reading, yet. And that's the word the devil doesn't want you to get to in this text.

I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing at all yet. Everybody hollered, yet. That's an important word for this message today. So I want you to emphasize it, just three letters, but say it with everything you got. Say, yes, what is due me is in the Lord's hand. And my reward is with my God. The Word of the Lord. Do you receive it?

The Word of the Lord for our 18th anniversary is this, concealed, but not can't. concealed, but not canceled. I thank you for favor, God, as I preach this message. I thank you for penetration of these principles that have ministered to me. I thank you for each precious person that you brought into the room, and I thank you that you're going to do it like you always do in a way that you've never done, and we will give you glory in Jesus' name. We praise you in advance.

Hallelujah, it is so. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Concealed, but not cancel. Now, let me start this personally. A few years ago, I was going through one of those valley seasons of life and ministry that we all have to pass through, and I was throwing a pity party. And even though there were so many things to be grateful for in this ministry, I found myself doing a lot of avoiding what I know that God had assigned me to do. I know I'm going quick because, you know, Graham's got to get out of here. He's the greatest. But just to start this off for the sake of time from a personal place, I was avoiding things that I had asked God to give me, and I started canceling things that were a priority in my life. I was talking to a friend

about this who's very wise and more experienced than me. I told my friend, I just can't believe that if after all God has done for me, I can't find my motivation. I'm grateful and I'm thankful, and I praise him for what he's done, but I guess I'm just getting lazy. My friend laughed. My friend said, anybody who's known you for five minutes knows there's not a lazy bone in your body, one of the hardest working people I've ever met in any profession.

It's not that you're lazy, it's that you're afraid. You know how somebody can say something and all of a sudden? It's like they turn into Yoda. And you say, tell me more about that. I'm not lazy, I'm afraid. Yeah, you're afraid. You're not motivated right now because you're afraid. And you're afraid because you have accumulated a few failures and disappointments.

And so now you're not doing the thing that you're called to. do, not because you're lazy, bad, evil, wicked, hateful, or an apostate. You're not lazy, you're afraid. You're not showing up because you don't want to fall short. Turned around my entire view of it. In that one conversation, that the fear of falling short was keeping me from showing up. This passage that I read for an emotional context, hopefully registered to you on multiple levels as I read it, where the servant of the Lord prophesying about Jesus ultimately, but through

the vehicle and the human vessel named Isaiah, who prophesied around the eighth century in a very perilous time, is sharing about his confidence in God's calling on his life. Just to mention it again, because after I read this scripture and point out a few things, I'm going to share with you a story that will bring it to life. He says, before I was born, the Lord called me. Everybody say called. Call. And right now put it in the comments.

Say called. And just personalize it and say, I'm called. He said, from my mother's womb, he has spoken my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword in the shadow of his hand. He hid me. He made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. Now what drew my attention? to this text for our purpose today is that you can be called and concealed at the same time.

You can be called and concealed at the same time. You can be in the will of God, but not feel God at the same time. And this draws my attention not only to Isaiah, but to all of the people that I pastor who feels sometimes like the hand of God has left your life. You know that he put you where he put you for a purpose at a time. And then at times you go through seasons and maybe even just hours in the day, where it feels as if the hand of God has lifted. I should talk for a moment about the hand of God before we move on, because there is no other

reason that I'm here celebrating the 18th anniversary of this church today as your pastor. than the hand of God. The fact that I'm here and sane and married and not addicted to substances, other than Diet Coke, leave me alone about it. Aspartame or amphetamines. You decide I'll drink the Diet Coke and stay married. No, it's the hand of God that I'm here, not my skill. It's the hand of God that I'm here.

my status. It's the hand of God that I'm here. This church was great before it was ever famous. We live in a time where fame is conflated with greatness, and people can't tell the two apart. But everything great is not famous, and everything famous is not great. Concealed, Isaiah said. concealed. And it's amazing because if you can get in this with me, it's going to be so beautiful when it pops off for you personally. He says that my reward is in God's hand. It is the hand of God that decides when I'm promoted. It is the hand of God that decides when the people come into my life, when the people exit from my life. God is deciding and God is deciphering and God is discerning and God is developing with his hand. It was nothing but the hand of God. Say that. It was

nothing but the hand of God. Look at the person next to you and say, I know I'm pretty, I know I'm cute. I know I'm handsome. I know I'm charismatic. But none of that is what got me here. It was nothing but the hand of God. Yeah, my parents helped out, but it was his hand. on them that got me through, it's nothing but the hand of God. It was nothing but the hand of God that got us through COVID as a church. It was nothing but the hand of God that got you through that divorce and kept you with a shred of your hope for love in the future. It was nothing but the hand of God that you got in the car drunk but still didn't

die. an angel kept you alive. You know it and I know it, so let's not pretend that we were so good and so gifted. We came to praise him and lift our hands because it was his hand. High five, three people and say it was nothing but the hand of God. Nothing but the hand of God. Nothing but the hand of God. Yeah, yeah. I heard a saying one time, tell me if you agree, where God. We're guides, he provides. Is it true? Won't he do it? How many have a testimony? If you go down in the deepest valley, there will be grass in that valley because the good shepherd will never lead you somewhere he won't feed you. His hand has provided. And I heard how

the hand of God provided, and I heard how the hand of God gave. And I heard how the hand of God gave. heard how the hand of God would provide, and I've seen how the hand of God can provide. What I had to realize in the moments of my discouragement and in the places of my deepest deficiency is that the hand of God that provides is also the hand that hides. Isaiah said, I felt like it was all for nothing. The disciples who followed Jesus, watched him go down into the ground. The two on the road to Amas in Luke's gospel, I believe about the 24th chapter, said it best. We had hoped he was the one, but they buried him.

It was all for nothing to leave our boats and our nets and follow him. It was all for nothing to step out on faith. It was all for nothing to love that person who used my love as leverage to hurt me. It was all for nothing. It made me feel like less of a little whiny baby brat that Isaiah said, I know God made me, I know He's got me. And I know I'm in his hand, but look at verse 2. So beautiful.

I fought back to tears while I was preparing this message because I want to to save the emotion for our moment together so we could feel it together. He said that God took me in his hand and he hid me. Isn't that the part that they never tell you about God's hand? Is that sometimes the greatest gift that he gives you is hiddenness. And so while we are here today on our 18th anniversary, thanking God for all the many ways, great is I faithfulness. Oh, God, my father, there is no shatheas. of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassion, they fail not, as thou hast been, thou forever will be. All I have needed, thy hand hath provided, thy hand hath provided.

And then that same hand that provides, sometimes hides. I want to speak to everybody today, who is in a season of your life, where you sense that God is hidden, that you are hidden, and the reason you're going through what you're going through has not been revealed. Turn with me to the words of Isaiah, who said that God spoke of me before I was born and made my mouth like a sharpened sword in the shadow of his hand. He hid me. He made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. Do you remember the first time you ever heard the phrase they got canceled?

I remember very well someone saying that a major celebrity was canceled. And I said, what, their shows off the air? They said, no, it doesn't mean that. That's what it meant in the 80s, back when there used to be sitcoms. This is not full house. It means they were canceled. It means they did something wrong, and they got canceled. I said, they died?

No, they got canceled. I said they got fired? No, they got canceled. I said, explain to me what it means. And what they showed me was comments that people were making about this person, that were disagreeing with what the person did, and they called that canceled. Now, these comments were not coming from the chief executive officer of the company. were coming from people who didn't even know the person.

They said they got canceled. A little phrase went through me, and I want to see if I can get it to go through you too today. Man can't cancel what God created. Put that in the comments section. Let's do something good with the comments section. Repeat after me. Man can't cancel what God created.

if you prefer the language of Isaiah, man can't cancel what God is called. Now shout, I'm called. I was called before I got here. I was called before I blew it. I was called before I went through this sickness. I was called before I passed through these waters. I was called before I came to this challenge. So if I'm called by God, how can I be canceled by man?

I understand we can lose a reputation and we need to have character. I understand we can make mistakes and have to suffer the consequences. I understand there's accountability for those who are in the public eye, but I'm not talking about those in the public eye. I'm talking about those who feel hidden in this season of your life. And you feel like nobody even cares that you're here because you're here, but you're you're hidden. Let me illustrate. Right now, there are frequencies going through the air, making my voice go to your heart, hopefully your heart. First, it has to pass through your ears, and in order for the

noise that is coming from my mouth, and I'm shouting way too loud, so let me modulate down in order for the sound to reach you where I am. There must be vibrations, but the vibrations are not visible, and yet we all believe the vibrations, because we know that the word, that I'm speaking are going through the air and maybe into your heart or maybe in one ear and out the other, but something that is vibrating is creating something that is not visible and it is proof for the fact that if God speaks a word over your life, you might not see it, but that doesn't mean it isn't here right now. I came to have an anniversary party for every word that God spoke over your life.

From the womb, he spoke it. Before you were you, you spoke it. Before you got your Social Security digits, he spoke it. Before you messed up the last relationship, he spoke it. And if he spoke it, and if he created it, and if he made it, you can't mess it up. But so much. All right, all right, all right. Y'all sit down.

Let me teach you a Sunday school story now. They left this one out of your Sunday school story board flanograph textbooks. And it is quite possibly the most inappropriate story that I can share with you on such a glorious, beautiful occasion as an anniversary of a church on the 18th year. It involves a dagger. It involves a stabbing. It involves a king named Eglon and a warrior named Ehaud. I'm going to go quick, but I got to show you this.

God has secret weapons. God has secret weapons. He has more than one way to win in your life. He has more than one way to make a difference in the world. So the Israelites were doing what they always did, turning away from God. They were turning away from the one who rescued them, turning away from the one who redeemed them. Now, let's pick up the text in Judges Chapter 3. The most inappropriate anniversary Bible text.

But I'm just a guest speaker today, so what do I know? The Lord took me to Judges chapter 3, verse 12. Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil, the Lord gave Eglon, king of Moab, power over Israel. Now, I want you to understand, the enemy has no power over you other than what you give him by your disobedience to God. Always remember that. You're in God's hand.

Say I'm in God's hand. He sharpened me in the shadow. He polished me in the secret place, getting me ready for such a time as this. Now, the Bible says in verse 13 that God wanted to act on behalf of his people. So this king, Eglon, he took a little too far. He got the Ammonites and the Malekites to join him. Eglon came and attacked Israel,

and they took possession of the city of Palm, So they're under attack. You may be too. You may be under attack in your life right now. I think the biggest factor that determines whether you're under attack from the enemy is whether you're alive. So the answer to that is yes, you're under attack in some way, shape, or form. And it may be a long-range attack or it may be something that's happened immediately.

But watch what happened in verse 14. The Israelites were subject to Eglon, King of Moab, for 18 years. Now you see why I picked this passage. That got my attention. 18 years. And I'm like, yeah, but Lord, we hadn't been subject to Eglon for 18 years because they were having to pay tribute and they were having to bring all this extra taxation to the king and they were oppressed by him.

And it was causing them great hardship. Now, we're here today celebrating, of course, 18 years of blessing. But let's see, before we finish this celebration if there's a parallel for this 18 years of oppression that Israel suffered and the victory God gave them and the 18 years of victory he's given us. Watch this, verse 15. Again, the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer. Ehood, a left-handed man, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite. And now we have a completely confusing situation.

where God gives his people a gift that makes no sense. The tribe of Benjamin, Larry Bride will tell you, is literally known as the right-handed tribe. Because, Evan, the name Benjamin literally means son of my right hand. That's what it means. So when God wanted to deliver his people, he sent them. a left-handed warrior from a right-handed tribe. This makes no sense. Repeat after me, this makes no sense.

How many have been feeling like that about a situation in your life right now? Now, this makes no sense. Why would God sharpen an arrow, polish an arrow, and then conceal it in a quiver. Did you notice that Isaiah chapter 49, verse 2 said that God hid me in the quiver? Did you know that God has a quiver? The quiver is the pouch where the archer keeps his arrows so that he can carry them to the place so that when the time is right, the arrow can be launched. But until the arrow is ready to be launched, the arrow is kept.

in the quiver. And if you judge your potential by the quiver, you'll think, I'm never going anywhere. If you judge, watch this, the potential of your child by what they're struggling through in adolescence, you'll be preparing to give them money for a homeless ministry, named after them. But what if it is not a destination where they are right now? What if you have been cursing something in your life and what you call a curse? God calls a quiver. So I came with a challenge, church. Let me smile at you while I say it.

Don't curse your quiver. That's where God keeps his most valuable weapons, his secret weapons, his special weapons, his sharp weapons, his ready weapons, his capable weapons. His weapons that no one will see coming. Now the Bible seems kind of brilliant, because I understand that it is the shameful things that God uses to shame the strong. That it is the foolishness of the cross that God used to save the world. When he got ready to redeem us from our sin, he found a virgin womb. Why?

This makes no sense. When he got ready to take down a Philistine giant, he chose a shepherd boy who was hidden in a field because this makes no sense. When he got ready to use somebody to liberate the Israelites from Egypt, he chose a murderer who was a fugitive. Why? Because this makes no sense. And when this makes no sense, that's where God can get the greatest glory. So he said, I've got to get a left-handed warrior. Jesus!

Are you feeling this like I'm feeling this? Because somebody in here has felt left-handed all your life. In a right-handed tribe, and you've never really fit in. And you've never really been what you thought you were supposed to be. And you've never really had what you felt like you were supposed to have and what other people do easily you struggle for. You're a left-handed warrior from a right-handed tribe. And God looks across 50,000 Benjaminite soldiers.

They had about 47,000 swordsmen and only 700 lefties. And God said, I need a lefty for this. God is looking for lefties. And you're about to find out why. If you want to hear the rest of this message, make some Holy Ghost noise in this 18-year-old church. 18-year-old church. And you know what happens when you turn 18. You can go to war when you turn 18.

I believe God's about to raise up a warrior as I've reached this word today. As a matter of fact, what's that in your... Isaiah said he had me in the shadows. But he wasn't punishing me. He was polishing me. I'm not being punished. I'm being polished. That's his hand working on me.

That's his hand sending me down. That's his hand too, hiding me for the right time. And when the right time comes, I'm going to be the right one for the right time because he hid me in his quiver. It's not a curse. It's a quiver. Loneliness sometimes is because you feel left-handed. One of my best friends said that three words, or they're not words, they're phrases, but he said three words, but he should have said three phrases. Describe how he's felt his whole life.

Left out, looked over, and less than. Now, understand this church for the historical context, that if you were left-handed in a right-handed tribe, they didn't let you serve in the military, except in a special position. And it wasn't the best position. So imagine all the times that Ehud got looked over, left out, and felt less than. And the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them, verse 15, please. He gave them a deliverer from a place they weren't looking. He gave them what they had looked over. He gave them someone who had been left out.

He gave them what they considered less than. And we regard Christ according to the flesh. We miss his glory because God will all. always wrap his favor in flesh. When we look for God to do something only from the right hand of what we consider a blessing, we miss what's on the left every time. I'm trying to say, God's trying to give you stuff, but you're watching the wrong hand. You're waiting for everything to go right, but sometimes God wants to bless you from the left.

Now do you see why I invited myself to preach this message? It's been 18 years they've been struggling. And 18 years they've been suffering. And for 18 years, God has been blessing this ministry. And for 18 years, it was nothing but his hand that kept us going. For 18 years, and then they cried out, and God sent them a blessing from the left. So watch what happens when he goes. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon King of Moab.

And I want you to picture this in your hand because this loner called a loser looked over and left out. This loner called a loser looked over and left out. That's not always just the way people talk about you. Sometimes that's the way you talk to yourself. This left-handed warrior, this left-handed judge. He takes the tribute to the enemy king. But verse 16 says something kind of interesting. Now, IUD, the left-handed deliverer, had made a double-edged sword about a cubit long,

which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. So we call this conceal and carry, all right? Not making a political statement. You know, they would have canceled the Bible. Isaiah would have got canceled. Paul would have got canceled. Jeremiah definitely would have got canceled. Some of the prophets were walking around naked.

Cancel, cancel, cancel, cancel. Some of us have cancel culture in our heart. And anything that doesn't look like, oh yeah, I'm coming for them this morning, Mama. I'm coming for them on my 18th birthday. I didn't come here just to blow a kazoo. I came here to break a chain because every once in a while, you have canceled out something that God came to give you, and you keep canceling. He carried a weapon in to deliver his people, and it was, first of all, it was concealed.

Everybody say concealed. He put it under his clothing. Watch what he did. Verse 17. He presented the tribute to Eglin King of Moab, who was a very fat man. I didn't call him that. The Bible did. Don't cancel me.

Cancel judges. He was a fat man. You couldn't even read the Bible. it was written today. He was a fat man. So Eod presented the tribute. Here's your stuff. We hate you. 18 years of slavery. Keep going. And he sent the rest of them on their way, because sometimes you've got to do what God gave you to do, and nobody's going to get it, but you've still got to do it. So he sent him away, and they carried it out. But on reaching the stone images near Gilgall, he himself went back to Eglon and said, Your Majesty, I have a secret message

for you. And the king said to his attendance, leave us. And they all love. left and I had then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace and said, I have a message from God for you. And the king gets up from his seat, stop knowing nothing. Because if they came in from the tribe of Benjamin, they were probably searched for weapons. But the warriors always carried their weapon on the opposite leg that they intended to draw it from. So if you come in here from a right-handed tribe, we're going to check your

left thigh. But God told him to strap it to the right one. That was the unchecked leg. That was the one nobody thought to look for. That was the thing that they didn't even see as a threat. That was the thing that snuck in unexpected. There are some of you who are in here today, and you are checking the wrong leg. You are checking the wrong source. You are checking the circumstance. But God, when he gets ready to deliver his people from 18 years of captivity, he uses somebody who can conceal. Everybody say conceal the weapon on his right leg. Why his right leg, verse 21 tells us, because when the moment came, I had reached with his rejected hand, with his weak hand, with his left out hand, with his looked overhand, with his less than hand.

You keep thinking, God is going to use your special strength. He's going to use your secret weakness as a secret weapon. And old fat egg lawn never saw it coming. Oh, egg lawn, he didn't check that right leg, did he? And verse 21 says he took that. sword that he made himself from his right thigh, boom, plunged it into the king's big old king hippo belly, walked out, blew a trumpet, got 10,000 moabites dead, and the land had rest for 80 years. Why? Why did God give them the victory? How? How did God give them the victory?

It was from something concealed. Not only was it concealed, it was crossed. It came from the other side, which was the right side. You don't get it. You're the right one for this. And what you think is wrong with you is what makes you right for this. Hey, work on yourself. Get yourself better.

Do what you can do to increase your strengths. But know in the meantime that you serve a God who gave a victory to a nation over an 18-year problem, and he used a left-handed warrior that nobody saw coming. So turn to your neighbor and say, look to the left. Because it's going to come from in this season and unexpected place. It's going to come from in this season an unexpected blessing. It's going to come from in this season and unexpected blessing. expected experience, it's coming from the left.

It's a concealed weapon. Everybody say concealed. And he crossed it. Everybody say crossed. But I got to show you one more thing. Not only was it concealed, and not only was it crossed where it came from the other side. The Bible says that this dagger, this sword, in verse 16, was about a cubit, and I had to look up.

I'm just being honest. I don't remember. They taught to me probably in seminary, but I forgot. I had to look up. How big is a cubit? Actually, what I googled was, how big is a cubit in American? I don't want no meters. But I look like international anointing, no. Big was the instrument that ended 18 years of a person. depression. And Google told me something. And God told me something. And Google told me that a qubit is 18 inches. I said, what now? We're celebrating 18 years. 18 years and on his 18, No, that's another Bible verse. 18 years of captivity ended with 18 inches of faith.

So you mean to tell me that for every year they were oppressed, Eihad made a weapon an inch bigger. An inch for every year. an itch for every year. Do you know how long 18 years is? That's as long as my oldest son has been alive. Do you know how long 18 years is? 18 years is 72 summer, spring, winter, and falls. That's 18 years. 18 years is a long time. It's 6,574 days. That's 18 years. That's 157,78 hours.

That's 18 years. That's 9,463,280 minutes. And all of a sudden, 10 million minutes of oppression ended. 18 years of oppression. ended because of 18 inches in the left hand, not the right hand. So God said on this 18th year anniversary of Elevation Church, what do you have in your hand? It's enough. 18 years is long.

18 inches is short. But isn't this what God always does to use the small thing, to take down the big thing? Isn't this what he always does? Taking the mystery of the gospel to mystify the scholar and the wisdom of this age, to confound it to be brought to not. So I came to remind this church that God called me to pastor this year. This is a church that believes in 18-inch miracles. Hallelujah, Jesus!

18 inches is all it took for 18 years to come to an end. 18 inches. They say, they say, that the greatest journey and the longest trip in human experience is 18 inches. From the head to the heart. These numbers are approximate, but the truth is very relevant. Because some of you are 18 inches away from faith. Isaiah said, I know he called me in my head. I know he chose me before I was born.

But sometimes my heart gets discouraged. And I say to myself, I spent my strength in vain. It was all for nothing. Have you ever felt that way? I feel that way sometimes talking to you, but I have to remember now, and you have to remember, 18 inches takes time. And some of the things that you believe in your head haven't made it to your heart yet. And when they do, when you really believe that I'm not less than, I'm left-handed. They say, I'm weird.

God says, I'm wired. By him, the master workman. And if I can find a way to preach to you over the next few weeks as I launch my book, Do the New You, I'm going to try to get you to see that God has brought you to this moment of your life because you are a weapon in his hand to do good for his kingdom. So the next time you feel like Isaiah, And you feel concealed and you say, God, I can't see how it's going to work out and I don't see how it's going to happen and I'll see why I have to go through this. Remember, it's concealed, but it's not canceled.

It is still active in your life and this weapon of the double-edged sword of the Word of God is in your hand today for Isaiah said and I echo yet what is due me is in the Lord's hand stop looking at how small it is in your hand and start realizing how powerful his hand is. He's got you in his hand. Church, he's got us in his hand. I've seen it in the baptism tank. I've seen it in the boardroom. I've seen it at the bottom.

I've seen it in the breakthrough. I'm still in his hand. And if you know you're in his hand, lift your hands. and give him praise. Fierce. 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. And 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.