Elevation with Steven Furtick - I See It Now (Dharius Daniels)

Episode Date: November 2, 2020

How do we begin to make sense of our hurts, heartbreaks, and setbacks? In “I See It Now,” Pastor Dharius Daniels of Change Church shows us that, even when we don’t understand why we’re going through something, God is still at work.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to the Elevation Church podcast. Today, we have the privilege of welcoming Pastor Darius Daniels from Change Church. And we're excited for you to hear what he shared with our church. We hope you enjoy this message. Well, listen, I love God's Word. I'm excited to share it today.

And, you know, I'm thinking around this whole idea of questions and questions from the Bible, questions that people in the Bible had about. God. This is what I've learned. It's one thing for us to question God. We see some of that in the Bible. It's another for God to have questions for us. And when God asks us a question is not to gather information, it's to give it. When he asks us the question, he doesn't need to see something. He's trying to show us something. And it's around that thought that I want to read a few verses in the book of Job, Job chapter 42, verse number one, we see Job responding to a question God asked him. It says, then Job replied to the Lord, I know you can do all things. No purpose of yours can be

thwarted. You ask, Job is saying, God, you ask, who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge. Then Job says, surely I spoke of things. I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me to know. You said, listen now, and I will speak. I will question you and you will answer me. Listen to what Job says in verse five. He said, my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Last time I was here, I talked from the subject, I didn't see that coming. I want to talk from this subject in our time together today. I see it now. Clap your hands in the house and in your house if you're ready for God's word.

You could be seated. A Danish philosopher and theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, is credited with this quote. He says life is lived forward, but only understood backwards. He seems to be suggesting that there are some things that are going on or that will go on in your present that will only make sense in your future. In other words, just because something doesn't make sense now doesn't mean it doesn't make sense. It may mean you have not gotten to the place, space, or season in your life where God makes sense out of it. And I'm wondering if any of us can pause for the cause and do some reflecting in our own life. And if we reflect objectively, I believe we have to honestly admit that there were some things in our past

that we did not understand then, that we did not value then, that did not make sense to us then, that felt damaging then. But now when we look back in retrospect, we gain respect for that season. because the thing I thought that was destroying me was the thing God was using to develop me. Come here, Joseph, and my pit and my prism became the pathway to my palace. Life lived forward, but understood backwards. Kierkegaard is articulating the essence of this principle. I call the principle of perspective. What does that mean?

Where you sit determines what you see, and what you see determines what you do. Where you sit determines what you see, and what you see determines what you do. There are some things you can see that I can't see, not because they don't exist, but because we aren't sitting in the same place. because where you sit determines what you see and what you see determines what you do and this is why some individuals become confused dumbfounded flabbergasted when they look at your life in the midst of this uncertain season you're still living with a degree of conviction and certainty that they're looking at you when everything seems to be crumbling all around us, but somehow you're still being held together.

They're looking at you when everyone else seems to be having pity parties. You're having praise parties in the closet, in the car, in the living room, on the iPad, with the desktop. Come on, talk to me. We're having praise parties, and people feel like, well, maybe they're just engaged in some religious fanaticism. Maybe they're just denying the reality of what's going on. Maybe they're operating with some sense of intellectual inferiority. No, no, no, no, no. You don't understand what I'm doing because you don't see what I'm seeing. And you don't see what I'm seeing because you're not sitting where I'm sitting. When I got saved, I was raised to life in Christ, seated in heavenly

places. And so now I see things from a different perspective. And I see what the enemy means for evil. God's going to work for good. So I don't have to wait until the battle is over, but I can praise God right now. Because where you sit, determines what you see. And what you see determines what you do. and this is important, essential, when we find ourselves, listen to me please, in Job-like seasons. Pastor Daris, what is that? What do you mean by that? A Job-like season. I'm referring to a gentleman in the Old Testament named Job. There's a part of his story situated in a section of the Bible called Wisdom Literature. meaning that this part of the Bible contains books that God wants us to gain wisdom from. And Job's story is put in the pages of Scripture because God wants us to gain wisdom from Job

on how to handle Job-like seasons. There is what is a Job-like season. A job-like season is a season of ambiguity. It's a season where you have to, watch this, where you have to keep advancing without some answers. It's a season where you want answers, God refuses to give you. It represents seasons where you have to move on without closure.

It's the season where God separates and differentiates between what you think you need and what you actually need. It's God's way of saying, you think you need an answer to advance. And because I'm committed to supply all of your needs, if you really needed an answer right now, I'd give you one. But because I haven't given you one, it's an indication that you got the ability. to advance without it. And I need to pause today. And I need to speak to somebody who feels like you're waiting on some answers.

And you're trying to make sense out of some things that don't make sense. If God hasn't given your answer now, it's because you don't need an answer now. And maybe God's encouragement to you is to move on anyway. It's to advance anyway. It's to thrive anyway. Maybe you don't need what you think you need to do what God is calling you to do. Maybe God's trying to wean you off of something that you become codependent on that he gave to you.

But you used the gift as a crutch and you became more confident in the crutch than you did in your Christ. And he says in this season, let me take that crutch. To reveal to you that sometimes you don't know I'm all you need until I put you in a situation where I'm all you got. Job like seasons. See, this principle of perspective is incredibly important because it helps me manage wisely. Job like seasons. It helps me manage those seasons. with wisdom so that our anxiety about ambiguity does not cause us to act impulsively.

You understand what I'm saying that, right? So the damage that anxiety about ambiguity can cause is not just what we feel, it's what we do as a result of those feelings. Right? It's like an Old Testament character named Abraham, who was very old in age and is wife was old also and God says to them, okay, you guys are going to have a child in old age. And so they were already old when they got the promise. And watch this. And watch this while they're waiting on the promise. They deal with a season, I believe, a season where they get to

the point and something causes them to act impulsively. So Sarah recommends that Abraham hook up with someone named Hagar, and as a result of that, she gives birth to a child named Isaac. What does Isaac represent? Isaac represents the fruit of impulsive activity. It's what you produce when you get ahead of God. And it didn't stop Abraham from getting to the place God had for him. It just made the journey much more difficult than it had to be. This principle of perspective helps us manage These seasons were wisdom. Because where you sit determines what you see, and what you see determines what you do. So maybe there are times I don't understand what God is doing because I'm not seeing what God is seeing.

And I'm not seeing what God is seeing because I'm not sitting what God is sitting. I see to the corner, he sees around the corner. I see to the hill He sees over the hill I see today he sees tomorrow I see the crucifixion on Friday but it lets me hang on the cross because he sees

a resurrection coming Sunday morning and maybe God's not behaving the way we feel like he should be behaving Maybe God's not intervening in the way we feel like God should be intervening because we're looking at the same thing but we don't see the same thing.

An example of this is in John 11th. When the Bible says there was a man named Lazarus who was dead, and the scriptures say, who was dead. And the scriptures say that Jesus gets word of his death, and he says these words, Lazarus has fallen asleep. Now, everybody else is saying he's dead, but from Jesus' perspective, he's sleep.

So everybody else is expecting that Jesus to rush because Lazarus is dead. But Jesus doesn't rush because in his mind Lazarus is sleep They're looking at the same thing but they aren't seeing the same thing and Jesus is like I'm not rushing Because you think what I'm actually doing is performing a resurrection But in my mind I'm just waking them up for my nap Because where you sit determines what you see what you see determines what you do Maybe that opportunity didn't manifest itself maybe that

that promotion didn't happen. Maybe that transfer didn't happen. Maybe that contract didn't happen. Maybe you being positioned at the department in that department didn't happen six months ago because God knows six months from now that department's going to phase out. See, where you sit determines what you see. And what you see determines what you do. And Job's story is an incredible example of this reality.

We are introduced to this gentleman named Job with these words. In Job 1 verse 1, it says, in the land of us, there lived a man whose name was Job. He was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil. Very rarely have I seen the Bible speak so favorably about a man, and very rarely have I seen the Bible give such detail about the character of a man. So the writer of this narrative is trying to get us to see that if anybody should have been able to avoid seasons of ambiguity and uncertainty, it should be this man. It's trying to get us to see if anyone should be exempt from unfavorable circumstances and inconveniences.

It should have been this man. But this man starts experiencing this downward transition. trajectory of tragedy. And so the writer, whether literally or metaphorically, gives us some behind-the-scenes spiritual backstory to see what is happening to facilitate this tragedy. And so whether literally or metaphorically, the writer says that one day angels were lined up to have conversations with God, and one angel, a fallen angel named Satan, had to stand in line just like everybody else. So he's standing, uh-huh, that's how much of a defeated foe he is. He's got to stand in line just to get an audience with the father.

He over-inflates his ability because he wants to intimidate us into believing. He's got more power than he has. But my Bible tells me Jesus gave us power over all the power of the enemy. He got to stand in line. He's standing in line, y'all. He's standing in line. And he finally gets his turn. And God, God's such a boss.

He gets his turn. God says, what's up? He says, none. So where you been? I've just been to Valentine and Roanoke and Melbourne and Greenville and Rock Hill and University City, just trying to find somebody's life to mess up. And God says, have you considered a joke? Wait a minute, God.

Wait a minute. I just read in the land. of us that lived a man named Job. He was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil. And God says, yeah, how you consider Job? Wait a minute. There's some other people in my Bible that I think might be better recommendations. I'm going to see if I can find anybody that's honest. Have you ever felt like God? I don't want this. to happen to anybody. But I am wondering why this happened to me and not the person down the street. It's a powerful picture, right? Of just ambiguity. We don't have an answer. I can give you

some hypothesis. I don't have an answer. It reigns on the just and the unjust. That's the declaration of a reality that exists in the world. But I do not have the rational. for that reality. It's like, man, sometimes the worst stuff happens to the best people. That's tough, isn't it? So he says, have you considered myself a job? And watch what Satan says.

He says, well, does Job fear God for nothing? He says, have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? Hold up. Wait a minute. The text says that Satan says, have you not put a hedge around him, his household and everything he has? It didn't say that God said, I put a hedge around him, his household, and everything he has. Come on, come on, fall a floating area. He says, where you've been, I've been all over trying to find somebody's life to mess up.

Have you considered my servant Joe? Yes, but you put a hedge around him, his household. and everything he has. Wait a minute. You not only Satan know who Job is, but you also know there's a hedge around him. Here's my question. If God didn't tell you there was a hedge,

how did you know unless you tried to get to him previously and you couldn't because of the hedge? And maybe we ought to pause and thank God for hedges you don't know about. Maybe sometimes we are so focused on the things that got to us, not realizing that every day there are some things that don't get through because of a hedge. I want to tell you for every time the devil got through, there were more times he couldn't get through because of a hedge of protection that was around you. Now listen, I know what it's like to praise God for things we know about that he did. I want us wherever we are in the car, in the living room, in the kitchen.

I want us to praise God for the things he blocked that we don't know about. Hedge. Hedge. He says, have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? It means you've been trying not just to get to me. You've been trying to get to my house. Some people in your house. are being blessed by your hedge.

That's a result of your faithfulness to a God they want nothing to do with. Did you hear what I just said? There are times of people like, why are you so committed to that church or why are you so committed to that God? And they don't even realize that the reason I'm able to be who I am to you, and the reason I am able to handle you in a responsible manner is because of this very church you're complaining about and you're benefiting from a hedge that is protecting you. That's a result of my commitment to God's church that you're complaining about. Complaining about what they benefit from.

Don't even know. They benefit from your hedge. So the Bible says Satan leaves the presence of God and begins to engage in orchards. in orchestrating. So influencing some people to do some interesting things. And then there are some unexplainable natural disasters that happen that also directly impact Joe. So this is one of things that happens. The Bible calls it a windstorm. So we don't know during these times there weren't meteorologists and weathermen. And so we don't know if this was a tornado or a hurricane, but some natural disaster happened, and it hit his children's house, and he lost his kids.

Now, this is what the text says, and it says, while someone was giving him that news, while they were still giving that news, somebody else came and said, listen, all of your assets, which were agricultural back in that day, oxen cattle, says a group of people named the Sabians have just come, they stolen that from you. and are you following me and while that person the bible says while they were still speaking someone else comes and give some bad news i want you to see how the enemy is at work here it is sequential it is cumulative have you ever felt like if it's not one thing it's another have you not felt like when it rains it pours this is a strategy

of the adversary to get us to act out of our anxiety. Because before the enemy takes us out, he tries to wear us down. Did you hear what I'm saying? So the sequential nature of what's happening weakens your resolve. Have you ever felt that way that, okay, I got big faith and I'm believing God, and then you just get hit with blow after blow, after blow, and then your resolve is weakened. Samson, your hair is cut. And then when you lose your strength, here come the Philistines.

And the Bible says in the midst of all of this, Job did not charge God with any wrongdoing. It's amazing. But what I love about this story is that that very often is where teachers and preachers stop. But in chapter two, the Bible says Satan comes back to God and says, yes, I need another round. Here's my question. If you took his kids, if you took his assets, if you disrupted the course and the quality of his life, why are you coming back in chapter two trying to get more access to Job? Maybe it's because everything you took in chapter one was not what you were really after. Because Satan's exchange with God initially said,

If you take his stuff, then he will curse you to your face and break his level of commitment. So maybe Satan is coming back because he's frustrated that no matter what he took, he still didn't get the one thing he was really after. He was after Job's commitment. And I want to tell somebody that's listening to this and watching this, that the enemy is equally as frustrated with some of you because he's been coming after this and messing with that and infiltrating this and stealing that.

But he's upset because he's not getting the thing that he's after. He wants your commitment to God. But you've got a job like resolve that says, though he slay me, yet will I trust him, you can take everything but you cannot have my commitment. So Satan says, all right, I got all this stuff, but let me get access to him. And Joe gets inflicted with personal sickness and suffering. His wife is his only caretaker because his children are gone.

His assets are diminished. He can't hire any help. He's not used to living this way. His quality of life has diminished relationally, financially, and nationally. and now physically. And his wife, who I don't believe was a bad woman, I believe she got caretakers fatigue. I don't think we should judge her whole story on a statement.

I think we at times paint an unfair picture of Job's wife, not excusing or affirming or endorsing what she said, but stress will make you say things. Let me see if I can find the honest section. if I'm teaching, if you're honest, say you're teaching, pastor, put it in the chat, listen to this. Listen, stress and pressure will make you say things. Listen to this, you don't mean to people you really love. And this is what she says.

She said, it's interesting to coincidence. She says she recommends to Job that Job do the same thing that God said he wouldn't do. She said, why don't you just curse God and die? Insensitive. So everything in Job's life seems to be unraveling at the same time. And he did nothing wrong. Then all of a sudden, his pseudo-spiritual friends come over. His friends come over.

One comes over all deep. You know I had a dream. Right? And everybody's giving him all of his friends. They're either trying to give him spiritual answers or religious platitudes that you don't want to hear in a season of ambiguity. God's got a plan. I know. God's going to work it all together for your good.

I know. They misunderstood. They didn't have relational intelligence. They misunderstood the power of the ministry of presence. That when there is trauma and ambiguity and pain. You don't always have to offer words. You give the gift of your presence. The Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as a comforter.

There are times where God helps us with strange and suffering seasons, not by saying anything, but by giving us the gift of his presence. And sometimes many of you may feel like, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. And it's like, no, sometimes the doing is in the being. And Job now at this point, he's deflated. He's confused. And what he didn't do in chapter one, he did. He starts to question God.

And God sits silently and he listens from chapter four all the way to chapter 38. God says nothing. Job questions God. I love this. You know what I love it? The fact that Job questioned God says to me he has a healthy view of God because you cannot hide your real thoughts

from a God who knows them. And there are times we deny what we feel. Right? And so all these chapters, God just listen to Job, and then all of a sudden, he says, all right, I'm kind of tired of this. And in chapter 38, God speaks to Job. And in verse 3, this is what he tells you.

Job, he says, brace yourself like a man. He says, all right, he says, now I will question you. You've had questions of me, but now I have a question of you, and I want you to answer me. Gone, Jesus. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me how I did that. Right? He's talking about what Calvin would call natural creation that demonstrates. the genius of God. Just creation itself is evidence of intelligent design. It takes more faith not to believe in intelligent design than it does to believe in a God. Watch this, who put the sun close enough to the earth where you can get his heat, but far enough away where you're not consumed. A God who puts just the right amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

so that you can breathe in a way. A God who allows clouds to be filled with water. A God who allows clouds to be filled with water, the water to release itself in the form of rain, to irrigate the land, to grow what we need to grow, to eat, to feed the cattle that we need to sustain us, and then evaporate back up in the atmosphere. He says, who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know, since you know everything, who stretched the measuring line across it, or on what footings where it's set, or who laid it's cornerstone while all the morning stars sing together and all the angels shouted for joy. You know what God's trying to? God is asking Job a question and he's not trying to get information. He's trying to give it. When God asks the question, he's not trying to see something. He's trying to get us to see something.

What is he trying to get Job to see? He's trying to get Job to see. I am the ultimate expression of intelligence. And just because this, watch this, just because this doesn't make sense to you, doesn't mean this doesn't make sense. It's not that my ways, Job, contradict reason. It's my ways transcend your reasoning. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. I see something you don't see. You're looking at chapter 38, but I'm looking at chapter 42 where I'm getting ready to give you double for all of your trouble. Watch this. This is what I want you to see. In the midst of uncertainty,

God asks Job a question because he's wanting Job to get something. He's wanting everything God said was about him. He never told him why the Sabians, he never told him why the sickness, he never told him why your wife said that. He didn't give him assurance about it, but he gave Job assurance about him.

In the midst of uncertainty, He says, Job, you don't have to be certain about it as long as you're certain about me. And so when you hit seasons where you're filled with angst and anxiety about what you don't know, Job teaches us to lean on what you do know. And I do know God is good. I do know God is faithful. I do know God will come through. I do know no weapon for him to get me shall prosper.

I do know I'm more than a conqueror. I do know he will restore unto me. me, the years that the enemy stole from me. He helps him walk through ambiguity, not by giving him certainty about it, but by giving him certainty about him. He says, Job, I know you want to know the reason for all of this, and I know you want an answer with this. I know you want certainty about this, but right now, you just need to be certain about me. And we're in an age of uncertainty. We're in a season of unprecedented uncertainty.

You've got two options to focus on the uncertainty of it. You can focus on what you don't know about it, or you can lean on what you do know. And I love it. It's in our foundational text. The Bible says, then Job replied to the Lord, I know you can do all things. Watch this. And no purpose of yours can be thwarted, meaning that what you have for me will be performed in me and through me, regardless of what happens to me. That I'm surprised by this, but you are not.

And this may feel like a delayal to me, but it is not denial. No purpose of yours can be thwarted. You ask, who is this that obscures my plans without? knowledge and then Job admits he says surely I spoke of things I didn't understand things too wonderful for me to know he said you said listen now and I will speak and I will question you and you will answer me and in verse 5 he said my ears had heard of you I was blameless I was upright I was moral I hated evil but I didn't know that I didn't know you that I knew morals more than I knew you that I knew ethics more than I knew you, that I knew religious platitudes, and I knew scripture more than I knew you.

He said, I didn't know how much I didn't know you until now. He said, my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes. I was complaining about the mess, but missing the miracle that I was alive to complain. I wouldn't even be able to complain about the mess if it wasn't for the miracle. You surviving that? all your assets gone you surviving that all your children gone in an accident you're surviving that your own wife telling you curse god and die you surviving that your friends turning their back on you telling you you need to repent you're surviving that in the midst of this jove did something i think we need to do

in your home in your well not in your car if you're driving do it in your heart if you're driving there's a part of job story where it says and jove fell to his knees And this is what I've learned, y'all. Worship is not therapy, but it is therapeutic. I think it says in Psalms 8, 2, you have established, through the praise of children and infants, you've established a stronghold against your enemies. Did you catch that? Through the praise, the praise created a stronghold, a fortress, offense in my thought realm, because praise requires mindfulness on the goodness of God. And those good thoughts about the goodness of God serve as a guard and a garrison that blocks some of that negativity from getting there. Worship is a defense weapon.

It's not just spiritual antics. It's a spiritual weapon because it reminds me of the real thing I need to know in seizes of uncertainty. God is good. God is for me. And God is faithful. And I'm talking to you wherever you are all over the world. God is good. God is for you.

And God is faithful. I don't have any more answers, but God is good. And may his favor go before you and behind you and beside you, all around you, in your weeping, in your rejoicing. in your rejoicing, he is for you. He, you, he is you, he is you. 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.