Elevation with Steven Furtick - Make Peace With Your Strength

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

God’s preparing me for a great purpose. In “Make Peace With Your Strength,” Pastor Steven Furtick explains that the strength we have now will become the strength needed for what’s next. 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 11-19 Ephesians 3, verse 20 Luke 15, verses 28-31See 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. And now, as promised, I am going to pick up right where I left off last week. We got to get Gideon out of this wine press.

We got to get you out of your wine press, too. been whining about things, been depressed about things. But last week I preached when God goes in. And we had a powerful time in God's presence, so powerful that I only got to one of my five points. But good news for my job is every six days, another Sunday, another opportunity to help you fight whatever devil that you've been facing. So I believe God gave me something for you today. Let's go back to Judges 6. After I read this scripture, you can be seated, but not before. Just stand up for the Word of God. Let's give our attention now to what he wants to speak.

He has a word for you. I read you verses 11 through 14 for now. Versus 11 through 14. the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in or i always say it wrong can i start the whole verse over the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in ophra that belonged to joash the abies right where his son gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the midianites and when the angel of the Lord appeared to gideon he said the Lord is with you mighty warrior. Pardon me, my Lord, Gideon replied,

but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand

of Midian. 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? And with that question, I want to give you a title today. The subject is, make peace with your strength. This is what I intended to teach you last week before the Holy Ghost blew my notes off my pulpit and took over on my first point. But I'm going to teach it today, God helping me make peace. God said it's time to make peace with your strength. You have spent so much of your life at war with your weaknesses, wishing you weren't something that you are,

wishing you are something that you're not. But today, God wants to help you make peace with your strength. Spirit of God, reconcile your people to yourself today. Use me as a vessel, a conduit, a bridge builder, whatever I need to be. I'm available to you. So speak those words that only you can whisper to each and every man and woman, boy and girl.

I give you praise for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, subtitle, on your way down, tell your neighbor, I'm going in. I'm going in. We'll get back to that. We'll get back to that. You want to know my vote? Gideon is the greatest judge in the book of judges. The greatest judge of all time.

Do you know how they have debates about the greatest of all time with like basketball players and guitar players and rappers and stuff like that? Well, I got to say to me, fresh off of a study of all the different judges, Gideon is the greatest of all time. They call that the goat. Who's the goat? The greatest of all time. I think Gideon is the greatest of all time, the greatest ever to do it, the goat. And I want to speak to you a little bit about Gideon, the young goat. Now, he's the youngest in his family, but that doesn't stop God from using him.

His family is the least in their whole clan, but that doesn't stop God from using them. Their tribe is the least of all the tribes, but that doesn't stop God from using them. Are you seeing a pattern here? Nothing stops God from using who he wants to use. So Gideon is a goat, but God is getting him ready. Because he's not looking much like a goat at the moment. He's not looking like the greatest. He's not thinking like the greatest.

He's not speaking like the greatest. He's not moving like the greatest. He's not doing what the greatest would do. But God is preparing him for something very amazing. Not just a new house, not just a new boat, not just a new car. There is nothing wrong with any of those things that I listed, but for a great purpose. Say this out loud. God is preparing me for a great purpose.

That was about 40% participation. Let's try again. God is preparing me for a great purpose. Maybe the reason you're hesitant to say that is because you don't like talking out loud in church and you're a little bit defiant and rebellious and you're like, you can't make me say anything. Well, I can't. That's true. But maybe the reason you had a hard time saying it is because it doesn't feel like preparation. It feels pointless.

I'm trying to adopt the mindset in my life more and more that everything is preparation. If God is sovereign and if he has a plan and if all things work together for the good of those who love God who are called according to his purpose, then all things are preparation for the purpose that he called me to. Because I love him, and I'm called. I'm called. I am called by God. I've never been more convinced in my life of what my calling is. I got it down to a sentence.

Now, there's my relationship with Holly as her husband. My call there is just to be the simply amazing man that I naturally am every day when I wake up. Let her bask in the glory of that. But when it comes to what I do with you each and every week, whether you're part of our eFAM online or our local church. My job, God showed me what my job is here. Yeah, I have to make leadership decisions and be a leader. Yeah, I have to have vision and strategy and tactical stuff.

And there are so many wonderful people who do that because my job, my priority, my focus is to put God's words in people's hearts. If it's a sermon, if it's a snippet of a sermon, if it's a song, if it's a line in a song, I might spend nine months trying to get the line better. Because I feel like if that thing gets in you right, oh, it could be dynamite. It can be the power of God. It is the power of God if you believe it. And so my job is to help you hear it. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God in a way that you. you can receive it, digest it, and do it, and do it, and do it.

This is what we understand that God is always doing in our lives, because we see him do it so many times through the characters that he raises up in Scripture, is that he is preparing you. He sends words to prepare you. He sends people to prepare you. But when you compare you, when you compare you to others, or when you compare you, I was thinking about this, we either compare ourselves to people who make us feel better about where we are. Well, at least I'm not, you know, I'm not doing good, but hey, at least I'm not that bad off. You can always find somebody to make feel a little better or to make ourselves feel just worse about it. But in the passage that I read you, there's something kind of weird going on because, okay, you've got God calling Gideon a warrior, and you've got Gideon who is hidden, who is heroic.

He's about to go on. If I told you all the things he's about to do, you wouldn't believe it looking at him right now. If you memorize him by his lowest moment, you've missed the point. Because Gideon is not sinning in this passage. He's threshing wheat in a wine press. Last week I tried to illustrate that not only is he threshing wheat, but God is threshing him. To get you to see that in certain seasons of your life, God is allowing things to be added or subtracted, given or taken away people in your life to be coming or going. But everything is preparation when it passes through his hands. His hands.

Somebody say his hands. Now, the Bible says that they were in Midian's hands. That was their enemy. And my friend told me this week, slow down a little bit when you're giving us this background. You act like we have all week to study this stuff, and we don't. And you do. So break it down. So I'm going to break it down. My friend said, the only thing I know about Gideon is the Bibles, the little Gideon's Bibles that they hand out. I said, really, you don't know anything about Gideon other than the Bibles? He said, no. I said, you don't even know that the angel of the Lord sent a word into a wine press and called him a warrior while he was down there scared that the swarms of Midianites were going to come get what he planted,

so he had to hide it. You don't understand that Gideon, the great warrior, took on the Midianites with just 300. men who were lapping water like dogs. You don't know. Gideon had that dog. Gideon had that dog. Gideon had that. I'll do it with who I've got, where I am, with the God I know. You don't know that Gideon could get up with a jar and put a lamp in it and break the jar and blow a trumpet and say, we're coming for you. We're 300 strong, but with God we're a majority. He said, no, I didn't know any of that. And especially I didn't know that before he did. any of that, he was hidden in fear and hidden in a certain place within his family that nobody

expected him to be the one. A word from God just came through me for somebody. You're not insignificant because you're hidden. Nobody sees me. Nobody notices me. Nobody appreciates me. Do not confuse your hiddenness with your significance. The significance of Gideon's life and your life and my life and what's happening in this season cannot be discerned just by looking at us in this moment. We have to read a little further. There's so much more to the story. So when Gideon is hidden, he is not sinning, but he is shrinking. The picture we get of Gideon is not of a sinner, but of a survivor.

Are there any survivors at Elevation Valentine? Not on the front row. Y'all didn't make it through anything. Because when I say survivor, I don't mean you had a headache and you took two things and then it went away and then you went to work anyway and you didn't get fired. That's not the kind of surviving, I mean. I'm talking about you almost lost your faith. You almost said, is there a God? But something like the hand of God

snatched you from the hand of your own doubt. Something like the hand of God. It was invisible, so you can't exactly prove it and say, well, it was on this date at this time. But for everybody who knows that I was in the hands, in the grip, in the stronghold of the feeling that I might not make it, and something snatched me. And I can't show you what snatched me because it wasn't a person. I can't show you what snatched me because it wasn't just one event. I can't show you what snatched me because it wasn't just one day.

It was the hand of God. That's what it was. It was him that snatched you because he has something for you. Something to do, something to build, something to be. Something to do, something to build, something to be. I got all three. I got something to do. I'm created for good works.

Something to build. I can't stay torn down. And something to be, I am becoming the new creation in Christ. High five, somebody say, I got some. something. I got something. Something to do, something to build, something to be. Don't memorize me down here. I know I look shrunken right now, but there's a good reason for that. See, I'm a survivor. I'm a survivor. I'm a survivor. I'm a survivor. Say it. I'm a survivor. Even if you have to say it under your breath because you don't want the devil to hear you because you're scared if he hears you say it, he might attack you again, but say, I'm a survivor. I'm a survivor. I'm a survivor. I'm a survivor. My buddy, who fights in the UFC, he said, you've got to survive the assault and work the cut. I said,

what does that mean? He said, there's going to be a round every time you fight unless you get lucky with a spinning heel kick in the first round where it's going to come on like a storm. And the only goal in that round is to survive it. But then he said, there will be an opportunity to go on offense. And when you cut him, I feel my Rocky 4. I'm scared of it. I'm really scared of it. I'm really scared of it. Because if it comes on me, I might shout Drago. I might shout devil. I might start doing some stuff. I might start swinging because there comes a time when survival, survival becomes selfish. When God gives you an opportunity to do the good that he created you to do, And you shrink down. Now, sometimes when we shrink, get the picture of Gideon in the wine press. Getting out of the sight of his enemy, the Midianites.

Shrinking down in a low place where we discovered last week, there is no wind to blow the chaff away. Where the devil pushes you down where there is no fresh air of God's spirit. where you get in a place thought patterns and thought processes that feel safe because you are a stuck survivor, a survivor who got stuck in a season of survival. Now, how is that selfish? Because God did not just come to get you through it. He came to get it through you. Yes.

Yes, we need that revelation for all of the survival sermons that we've heard that are saying, you're going to make it, which are wonderful when you need them. But if every six days, the only word that you can receive is you're going to make it. And then six days later, you're going to make it. And then six days later, you're going to make it. And God is getting you ready. And six days later, God is getting you ready. And six days later, God is getting you ready.

Meanwhile, your teeth are going to fall out while you're waiting. Oh, God will get me ready. God are going to get me ready. You're going to have a bad back when he finally does. So then the key becomes, watch this. We can't just stay here. shrinking in survival forever. At some point, God is going to give you a survival word when you need it,

and then he will give you a stretching word. Fourth, something dormant in you, to call forth, something holy in you. If we were to put a New Testament verse here, I would recommend for your consideration, Ephesians 320. Which states now. Somebody shout, now. Don't leave that word out. It's important because it doesn't say in three years. It doesn't say when you get out of rehab. It doesn't say when they come back and start living with you again. It doesn't say when the doctor tells you if it's a tumor or not. It says, now unto him who is able to do how much more, immeasurably, You've got an immeasurably more anointing, but sometimes we have a depressingly low view of ourselves. Keep going. The best part of the verse is at the end, more than we ask or imagine, according to his power,

which we love. Oh, it's his power. Yes, it is. It comes from him. Every single time. All power comes from him. All power. No more than we can unplug this sound system and the microphones still get a signal

over the camera, can I preach this word without his power working? But watch where it works. Watch where it works. It is at work within us. The contrast is not only that it's his power and it doesn't come from me. The contrast is that it doesn't work from without. It works from within. I go a little bit deeper with this word?

Oh, I'm going in. I studied too much to preach this thing like it was third grade class. I am going to teach the Bible to three people today who want to go into God's word and get what He has for you so you can be what He called you to be, build what He called you to build and do what he called you to do. Somebody shout, go. That's the key because you're going to see this like, you'll play. Pickleball. God and Gideon go back and forth for a moment. Where Gideon doesn't know it's God, you

usually don't at first. You usually don't at first. Usually God first appears as something that you fear. It's a ghost, Peter said. No, it's God. Gideon thinks he's got an interruptor. Maybe he even thought it was the enemy coming to get some of his wheat, but it was an angel. And the angel starts talking to Gideon, which happens every day. No. No, this is an unusual occurrence for the word of God to come to Gideon. There is a sense when I read this passage. The reason I use pickleball is because it's got this back and forth to it that I want to show you, where Gideon is asking God to pardon him while God is trying to empower him. So, God keeps...

You may say that again? Okay, she's going to say that again. What did I say? Does anybody know? I was going to the next thing. You know, no, it was... Gideon is saying, pardon me, and God is trying to empower him. Gideon, the next thing I was going to say, before I got interrupted by the Holly Spirit.

It's good. I'm going to tell a story about you in a minute if I remember. But when Gideon is saying... Pardon. God's trying to give him permission to get out of that. And Gideon keeps saying, pardon me. Now, the first thing he does is he shrinks his view of God down to his experience. He shrinks his view of God down to his experience. Look at verse 13.

Pardon me, Lord. But if the Lord is with us, God just said he's with you. Well, if that's true, then why has all this happened to us? Because he's looking to external events and personal experience for his definition of who God is. And that's the wrong starting place. God doesn't start with your experience. He was God before you got here. He'll be God when they lay your body in the ground.

He'll be God when everybody's eating chicken five minutes after they all cry that you're gone. Everybody's moving on. Everything is coming. Everything is going. And he is still God. He's big. He's mighty. He's not as small as one little life. One little lifespan. One little opinion. One political party. One view of seeing things. One color. One ethnicity. One denomination. God is bigger than any of this stuff that we fight about. So watch Gideon. He's not sinning, but he is shrinking. He's shrinking. He's shrinking. If God is with us, why has all this? Y'all going to put it up or? Okay. Happened to us. Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about?

Get the questions. Get your list going, okay? You got your little list for God. Okay. So why is my daughter struggling in school? And why am I always having to go down there? And why don't I have a husband when you know that I am chased? Okay.

Your words, your list. I'm just using some Bible words. All right. And you know she's not. And so why does she have a husband, and I don't have a husband? When I was a lady in waiting, I got three promise rings, purity rings, promise rings. I am a Proverbs 31 woman, and I'm 31 years old, and I don't have a man. Why?

All right. But all of that is just experience. All of that is just events. All of that is external. All of that is outside. All of that is what I see. That is what I know. All of that is what I understand. So watch God. Keep the verse up, y'all. Where are all the wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt?

I love what God does here. This angel is amazing. Verse 14. Now the Lord has manned us and given his hand in Medina. Okay, now verse 14. And the Lord turn and said, go. He answers none of it. God's like, the reason I call it pickleball, It's because Gideon's like, okay, you are calling me a mighty warrior and you're saying this about me. Then how about this thing that I struggle with? And how about that thing that I deal with? And how about the other thing that they did to us? And how about what I heard that you would do that you haven't done? And that's why I'm down here in this wine press.

And so you expect God, right? To Gideon goes, why? And you expect God to go, well, you know, here's a reason. And then you expect Gideon to hit it back over the net. Well, then what about? And then God's like, yeah, so about that. And you expect this to go back and forth. And you're kind of waiting for this back and forth.

And God's like, uh-uh, go. Because we don't have time for you to figure out and work through every single weakness that you've got. Some of you have taken every personality test that they sell in the personality test. store and department and you are more confused than ever and you have read every book you have eaten you have prayed you have loved you have searched you have tested you have Myers Briggs you have disc you have enneagramed you have done it all and those are all wonderful things but God is like by the time you finish the tests the lesson will be over and the blessing will be passed and at some point and it might just be while Pastor Stephen

is preaching today. We have got to go at some point. Do you know how much more I could have put in this sermon if I didn't have to preach it right now? But at some point, I got to preach it. A lady got in an elevator one time at a conference I was going to. There were 40,000 people at the conference. She said, hey, Stephen, are you ready? I said, what's ready got to do with it? I've never been ready to preach a day in my life. But I'm about to have to have. have the microphone. So I guess, yeah. Pray for me. Whatever kind of prayers you do, pray them for me. This one, the one in tongues, any of them, I'll take all of them. I'll take every single prayer. So we were a restaurant Friday, and the lady was so nice to us. It was the restaurant that the Jonas

family owns. What's it called? Nellie's. It was good, but the server was really nice. She came over and I think she listens to our messages and so she was extra nice and I tipped her extra big So if you're a server and you go to this church tell me and I do a little you know we take it up a little We could do it just keep the Diet Coke coming and don't judge me by how many I drink and I'll take care of you Now I could drink a lot worse things than Diet Coke I think you know what I'm talking about Now the lady the lady's like Do you have any questions about the menu?

And I'm like, she does. Holly loves menus. I just love full. It's not that deep. Does it have onions? If no, bring it to me. That's all. If it doesn't have carbs and it doesn't have onions, bring it to me.

But not Holly, not my holly. Oh, not my holly. So she said, do y'all have any questions? I'm like, Go ahead, babe. Have at her. Looking at Stephanie, like, you asked for this. Just remember, you asked for this. So then the whole quiz started, the whole test, the whole final exam started. Like we are buying a ranch. So the meatloaf, what's the meatloaf like?

And I'm so bored because I didn't bring my phone because I was trying to be focused on our day together. I wish I had my phone. I took her phone. Start playing with her phone. Then after, I guess it was only about 90 seconds, but it felt like longer because I'm hungry. And she said, now they're talking about the dumplings and the diameter of the dumplings. And I'm like, babe, I think, I think you know enough to get going to move forward with this lunch. I think we can go ahead and do it now. We can go ahead and order now, Stephanie. We're good.

She's got enough information. And Stephanie goes, no, no, I don't mind. I don't mind. And I said, no, that's Stephanie. You don't understand. This could go on a long time. I know this woman. This could go on and on.

When does your shift in, Stephanie? This could be she loves menus. If we do this, you know, what about the dumplings? What about the meatloaf? What about the other stuff? About those dumplings again? Are they like dumpling, dumplings or dumpling dumplings? dumplings. Like, because dumpling, dumplings, are they chewy, chewy, or are they, we got to eat?

I'm a dopamine addict, and there's nothing interesting on your text messages I've looked. 20 reasons why you're struggling. What good would it do? Just an endless awareness of your weakness? That's what God saved you for? Just an endless awareness of who hurt you. Well, they hurt me, and they wounded me, and they hurt me, and I have church hurt, and I have job hurt and I have marriage hurt and I have relationship hurt and I got burned over here and burned over here and burned over there and God's like that's cool I'm fire let's burn different now if the fire shows up I say fight fire with fire if you got burned let's call on the God who answers by fire I feel fire I feel fire falling from heaven fresh right now

Yes, Lord. God says, I'm going in right now to the strength that you have. Now, this is a word for a person who you've been going back and forth in your mind, back and forth. Well, if I do that, then they might say that. And if I go there, then they might do this. And if I go there, it is the pickleball game from hell. And you're hungry. And meanwhile, God is like, would you like me to bring you something? off the menus so I can show you who I am and what you have, or you just want to go back and forth like this. I thought about bringing out a pickleball paddle and tell you to give it back to God.

They're like, man, whatever, whatever it is, it is what it is. And let's do what we can do with what it is, because we know who God is, which is actually the turning point of the passage. If you want to know the truth about it, it's when God says, go in the strength that you have. Say that. Go in the strength that you have. Let's get that verse on the screen. Get it real deep in your spirit when you don't feel strong, when you don't feel kind, when you don't feel backed, when you don't feel endorsed, when you don't feel important, when you don't feel significant, when you don't feel like turning off the thing and not snoozing it the seventh time.

snooze at six and get up and go with the sleep that you have. Can we all stop saying tired as our primary identification of what we are? I wonder what God feels who never sleeps nor slumbers when we take his name I am and put tired after it all the time. I mean, I'll take a nap, whatever, or I won't. But is this really going to be my primary identity in life? How are you? Just tired, man. I got to take charge of some things on the inside of me, starting with what I say.

Starting with what I say and say things that make me feel stronger. I'm collecting little mantras. I'm going to put a lot of them in a book that I'm working on that you can get in your spirit and say things like, he's in it with me, working through me, fighting for me. That started as a mantra that I told myself driving up to church. Didn't start as a song. Became a song. You know what? That's a weird thing. For years of my life, I resisted the gifts that I had been given. I didn't know that's what I was doing. I thought I was being self-aware, right? Which is a very good thing to be, by the way. But if self-awareness doesn't lead to spirit dependence, it has its limits. Self-awareness is meant to get you to the place.

not only of being at war with your weaknesses, but being aware of your strengths. For many years, when I went into a songwriting situation, I would think, I'm a preacher, not a songwriter. The reason I probably felt that way is because over the course of giving up things to God that he had given me, I felt like maybe in preaching I was giving up this love that I had for music. I never will forget Israel Houghton standing on a sidewalk in Sydney, Australia, telling another pastor, what an anointed songwriter I was. You know how I say? I am. I wasn't being false humble.

I literally didn't feel like I was one. In fact, it was reinforced by the fact that a lot of people would tell me, I heard you just put your names on the songs because you're the pastor and you don't really write them. So now I've got a couple things going on. One is people. God love them. You know how easy ministry would be? If people weren't in it? I'm kidding. I love people.

But it gets in you, doesn't it? You ever have something get in you that you believe about yourself? Especially now, man, not only on songwriting, but if I could just share with you honestly, there's a lot of fear for everybody who is a public figure these days. with cancel culture and the way that things get clipped, taken out of context, abused, be rated, and nobody even bothers to read the story. They look at a headline or they hear a headline that was passed on to them by someone else. They put that headline in their heart and they define you by something that they heard

that somebody else didn't even read. They skimmed. And for a couple of years, the last few years, it has been a wrestling match for me. On one hand, I want to spread the gospel, put God's words in people's hearts. On the other hand, I find myself wanting to shrink because when you talk into a microphone for people, you become a target. Every word you say, every syllable, look how he mispronounced that, oh, look how he said that. And it doesn't even have to be what you really said because they don't have to take the 10

seconds before you said it. They can chop it, crop it, and drop it. And then the next thing you know, people will say, oh, well, you know, he's a this, or he's a that, or she's a this or she's that. It's just a real thing. Now, you deal with it on your own level. I deal with it on my own level. But sometimes it makes me want to go, maybe I don't even want these sermons to go online. I drove by this little Baptist church one time.

I was like, I think I'm going to just go over there and preach and not tell anybody I'm preaching so I can still help people, but I don't put it online. I'm going to make sure there's no internet connection. and collect everybody's phones at the door and just preach like it's 1937. And that fear is real, man. That probably happens to you in some way where you feel like, oh, I feel like if I really step forward with me to be who I believe God is calling me to be, I feel like I'm probably going to get like either attacked or misunderstood or criticized or I might fail. So I shrink to stay safe.

I shrink this day, say. So I feel like the Lord will tell me to say something, but I'm not going to say it. Because what if it comes out the wrong way? What if it comes out the right way and somebody takes it the wrong way? What if it comes out the right way and somebody takes it the right way, but twist it the wrong way because they don't like me? We could do this all day, Stephanie. But there comes a time when God gives a word. And the word is, did you just say, come on, Ferdick?

Call me by my last name. What's wrong with you? What if this is a turning word for you today? That God is saying the answer is not for you to shrink yourself. It is to depend on him and step into it. Now, I see you shrinking and you have your reasons. You don't have a college education. I see you shrinking and you have your reasons.

you don't have a support system in your life. I see you shrinking and you have your reasons. The business failed and you're embarrassed. I see you shrinking and you have your reasons. The addiction really has its claws in you. You feel like you're in the hand of Midian. I see you shrinking and you have your reasons. You have been diagnosed with something

that you don't know if you're going to live or die in this body. I see you shrinking and you have your reasons. You're really worried about your kids. So now life is just... survival and you're stuck here and you can't move here and you feel like if I shrink I'll be safe and if I'm not safe at least I feel safe because see when I take these pills I feel safe I'm not really safe but I feel safe I'm not talking about medication that a doctor prescribed you I'm talking about when you get in something when you shrink yourself down to stuff

that God is setting you free from you're shrinking to feel safe but The Lord told me something and I want to give it to you. God said, you keep shrinking, thinking that it'll make you safe. But the answer to your fear is not to shrink yourself down. The answer to your fear is not to shrink yourself. The answer is to get moving. When they do security training, touch somebody, say, get moving, get moving, get moving, get moving. Because when they do security training, they teach you.

The worst thing you can be is a security training. sitting target you have got to get moving in this season of your life and not just sit in the thoughts of what could go wrong we could do this all day i can give you a list of 10 more things to be scared of but you didn't even know to be scared of we can do this all day or you can go in the strength that you have. Now the problem is that doesn't feel like a lot right now. The wisdom you have doesn't feel like a lot right now. And there are some facts to back that up.

So now I just want to stay shrunk. But the problem is you are a sitting duck for the devil down there. You're not serving anybody. You're not encouraging anybody. Some of you quit giving because you started watching the news. Are you crazy? It's called currency. I've got to generate something through my giving so I can receive something as I wait. You're going to sit down there and die down there going in the strength you have. Gideon has a dilemma. He's in a real pickle. He's down low. God is calling him up high. He's down low. God is saying you're a mighty warrior. Now here's the word of the Lord for you. You might be. You might be.

Think about that. You might be in a hard place. You might be alone living by yourself. You might be in a very difficult dilemma. You might be in a situation where the odds are against you. But you are still a mighty warrior. If God is within you, he is always. more than anything that is against you. Go in the strength that you have, and the strength

that you have will become the strength that you need for what is next. If I am prophesying this word for you, put it in the chat. It's for me. I need to get moving. It's for me. I need to get stepping. It's for me. I need to get stepping. It's for me. I need to get back in it. I need to step back into it. I need to get out of this place of feeling sorry for myself. I need to get out of why and step into what God called me to be. He's able, according to his power. This fellow named Trenton, I hope he's there right now, wrote me this week, and he serves at Lake Norman on A week. He serves, you know, Trenton. Trenton sent me a text What meant the most of me is where he sent it from, sitting in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy.

He said, thank you, Pastor Stephen, for preaching about Gideom. And thank you for the song, more than able, because it means a lot to me, because I'm disabled. And God started speaking to me, he said, and God started speaking to me that I'm disabled. But when you said go in the strength you have and I'm sitting in this wheelchair listening to that word I realize if you take disable and put go in front of it help me preach this Trenton if you take disabled and put go in front of it what does it spell I said what Trenton he said God is able. I declare it.

Where are you at? I declare it. Over your life. God is able. I declare it. Over your life, God is able. I declare it. I declare it. I declare it. I declare it. I decree it. I establish it. So thank you, Trenton, for that truth. If you can say it from a wheelchair,

I can say it in my weakness too. If you can smile in that wheelchair, I can smile through my storm too. The problem is not what you have. It's what you don't know about what you have. You won't know what it is if you don't go in it. I promise you that. I promise you that. I promise you will always, you have not yet made peace with the strength God has given you.

Because you're not yet good with what he didn't give you. And we could do this all day. All day long you could wish that you were taller. I've never seen anybody grow a centimeter. All day long wishing they had stayed with you. They didn't. And they're only pretending to be happy in those pictures you see on Facebook. They miss you a lot.

She's giving you a little spiritual hug there. You can wish this stuff all day. We can do this all day, Stephanie. We can do this all day, Tom. We can do this all day, Gideon. or you can go with what I gave you and go in the strength you have. Somebody say it, I'm going in. I don't know what day it happened.

I don't know what week it happened. I don't know what month it happened. But at some point, I came to this in my spirit. That as I preach God's word and teach God's word and put God's word in people's hearts, there may come a day where I fail. I'm sure I've already had many of those days. where I failed, and I will have many more. I don't know the future of my life any more than you know the future of your life.

I don't know the future of this church any more than you know the future of, you hadn't even decided where you're going to lunch yet today. So let's don't pretend like you got it all mapped out either. What's the 10-year plan for the minute? What's your 10-minute plan? Let's talk about your 10-minute plan. So God gave me a thought, and I say it a lot. It may, but I won't.

And specifically it goes like this. It may end in failure. I can't control that, but I will not live in fear. I don't know who this is for. But the Lord released me to share that with you, and that is from my own personal wine press. That's from the grapes of my own heart that God has had to stomp out a whole lot of insecurity to get me to a place. where I can tell you, you need to make a decision, Gideon. Are you going to live in fear? And I just decided, I'm going to have moments of fear, I'm going to have days of fear, I'm going to

sometimes draw back, but I am not going to live in it. I'm going in. I'm going in. I told Holly, I'm going to write a song today. She said, I hope you get something good. I said, well, I don't know if I will, but I know I won't if I don't go. Let me give you the success rate on seeds that are not sown, zero percent. A hundred percent mortality rate on unsewn seeds. So I'm going in, but we don't, we don't go in. Watch what Gideon did. God said, go in the strength you have. And Gideon says something else, verse 15. He said, pardon me, we're still doing this. We could do this all day. You can make excuses all day. You can list reasons all day. You can talk about why you won't forgive all day. It'll make a wonderful

book. Write it. Sell it. I'll buy it. But at some point, at some point, you've got to receive the power and make peace with the power that God has put inside of you. Because God is trying to give you permission to live again, to love again, to breathe again, to open your heart again, to trust again, to move again, to flow again, to see him move a mountain again, to walk through an open door, to believe him for better days ahead, to tell the devil that he's a liar and I will not live in this wine press. I will not live in the wine press of why me and why it didn't. But it's so amazing how he kept going back to this thing about what's happening outside. Pardon me, Gideon replied, verse 15, but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to

us. And then the Lord said, go in the strength that you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you? God's like, I thought it was me that you trusted, not them. And then Gideon says, verse 15, pardon me, but how can I? Wait, wait, wait, wait, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. This is the wrong I am. God said, am I not strong enough to do it? Am I not able? Am I not enough? Am I not God?

Gideon's like, yeah, but I am. Gideon, we can do this seven more years, or you can get up right now and go in. I'm going in. You got to go in. Watch what happened. The Lord answered, verse 16, I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive, and Gideon replied, if now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign.

Oh, come on, like you wouldn't need one too. Some of y'all need a sign to join an e-group. He was taken down a nation. Let's give it up for Gideon. At least he was honest. Oh, Gideon. I get it. I get it.

I need a sign, too. Angels don't show up and talk to me every day. I would need to know too. Before I'm going to do this, show me this you. So watch what Gideon did. He said, please, verse 18, do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you. And the Lord said, I will wait until you return. What a word. God said, I'll wait. Remember the Bible said the angel was sitting. He knew it would take a while. He knew it would take you to get in your 30s to learn this. He knew some of you'd have to be 76 before you got it.

He knew. So he sat and he waited and he spoke. So he sat and he waited and watch what Gideon did next. Yeah, that baby is excited for a reason because this is a good word. God said, I'm waiting, I'm waiting. I'm waiting to see if you want to hide here the rest of your life. I'm waiting to see if you're going to arise and try again. I'm waiting to see if you're going to receive what I'm speaking.

God is waiting. I'm waiting on God. He's waiting on you. He gave you a spirit. He gave you his son. He's done a lot. He said, I'll wait till you return. And verse 19 is the climax of this text for it says that after Gideon asked his questions,

after Gideon second-guessed himself, after Gideon told the angel, I can't do it. And the angel said, no dice. You got to go with what you've got. The Bible says, verse 19. Get ready. Gideon went in. Somebody shot, I'm going in. I'm going in.

Gideon went inside. Now, to go inside the house, he had to come out of the wine breast. So that means God is bringing you out of some things to bring you into some things. Help me, Holy Spirit. I only got four minutes left, and I don't think they're ready for this. Gideon went in and watched this. He went inside, prepared a young goat. Wait a minute.

That's not only what Gideon did. That's what God is doing. I told you when I started my message that Gideon was one of the greatest of all time. That means he's a young goat. So when the Bible says that Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, it is nothing more than a picture of what God was doing in Gideon. Now somebody shout, God is getting me ready for this. is getting me ready for this. God is raising me up for this. God is strengthening me for this.

God is breathing new wind into me for this. God is preparing me for this. I didn't see it coming, but God did. He's preparing you. I'm going to be a goat. The greatest of all time. The greatest what? The greatest me God called me to me to be. be the greatest dad Elijah and Abby and Graham ever had the greatest husband Holly ever laid her eyes on the greatest builder up of elevation church that can stand in the puppet till I'm not no more but I will not live in fear of what I'm not I know who I am you got to get this come on you got to get this he's getting you ready I know it's painful but he's getting you ready He's preparing you. He's preparing you.

He's preparing you. He's preparing you. That's preparation. That thing that hurts you. That's preparation. Before they do surgery, they prepare you for surgery. God is working on your heart in this season. God is making you ready in this season.

God is unzipping everything that wasn't you so you can come out strong and worship him again and praise him again and thank him again. You're going in. You're going in with what you got. You're going in with who you are. And it's going to be enough because he's with you. And you're going to strike down every swarm, every locus. The lion on the inside of you is going to roar like never before. God is getting you ready for this.

For this. For this. I don't even know what it is yet. But God said for this is preparation. For this. It's preparation for this. It's an open door. Are you going to go through it?

You're going to stand there looking at Christ. windows or are you going to walk through this door this is a season he's strengthening you it's not just your biceps it's your belief you got to get it back you got to get it back you got to get it back you got to take hold of it you got to go kiddian God is able the pain is preparation the pain is preparation the pain is preparation God is going to multiply what you have left in this season you are not left with nothing Go in and we don't go in. This story about the young goat, y'all be seated a moment.

It reminded me of another scripture that I saw in Luke 15. Gave me chills to think about this about another young goat, another young goat. This young man. He belonged to a very wealthy home, but he decided at one point to leave his father and see what life would be like outside. And he found out fast, his heart out here. His heart out under the father's protection. Have you found that out lately that your strength runs out? Talk to me, Elevation Baptist Presbyterian, Episcopalian Catholic Church.

Talk to me. You found out fast that where it comes from determines when it runs out. and get your strength for the wrong places. You won't have it when you show up for your purpose. That's why God is trying to give you his strength. But this young boy, Luke 1528, I asked him to prepare this scripture for the screen so we could close here. He finally came back home to his father and his father threw a party. And then he had this older brother, so we got the young boy who ran away, came back.

The older brother who represented the nation of Israel who didn't want the Gentiles to come into the kingdom, but Jesus is using a personal example just like I am today. He said the older brother, when he saw his young brother come back, look what he did. He became to go in. He refused to go in. Why wouldn't you go into the father's house? Why wouldn't you go into this next season of your life full of faith and confidence and hope?

Why wouldn't you go in? Why didn't you sing today when we were singing? Because there were new songs. I didn't know them. They're not that easy to learn. I'm fighting what I'm saying right now. Why are you distracting yourself checking a stupid snap right now while I'm preaching a word that can set you free?

Why don't you go in? What do you think you're going to find if you do? I think sometimes we don't go into God's presence because we think we're not worthy, but that's what the blood of Jesus was for. So you can go in knowing God is me again. Yeah, but I'm not worthy. We could give unworthy reasons all day. Yeah.

But God did not ask you about that. He just said, what do you have? Now watch this. The older brother refused to go in like so many of us. So his father went out. He wouldn't go in, so the father went out. Is this a picture of a God who will come down from heaven to die for a sinner and shed his blood for someone who sinned against him?

Is this a picture of an angel who will speak into a wine press, of a God who will make your strength perfect in weakness? So his father went out and pleaded with him. And verse 29 says that he went back and forth with the father. Look, all these years I'm enslaving for you, you're not going to believe what it says yet. Next. And never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat. Can you believe that's in there? So Gideon goes in and gets a young goat and brings it to the angel, lays it down, fire from heaven comes up, and he builds an altar.

And he names the altar, the Lord is peace. Jehovah Shalom. Thank you, Jesus. That's all right with me. Go in, go in. When that truth hits you, you shouldn't be quiet. You don't have to be quiet in my church. Just don't come down here and tackle me, all right?

Touch somebody and say, do what you want. I'm going in. I'm going in. I'm going in. Because there's a celebration in my father's house. Because there's strength in my father's house. Thank you. There's joy in my father's house.

There's freedom in my father's house. There's forgiveness in my father's house. I'm going in. I'm going in. I will not die out here. I will not stay out here. I'm going in. I'm going in.

So watch this. He said, you never gave me a young goat. I feel so bad for him that he never got a goat. But you never gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. Verse 30, let's go. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fat and calf for him. Here is the word of the Lord. Stand up and receive it. Stand up and receive it. For the father said to the older son, what he said to the younger son, my son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. Lift your hands. The father says, all I have is yours. Now go with what you've got and be who I made you to be.

And do it for my glory, and move in what I gave you, and flow in your anointing, and bring me glory for all is yours. 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 view 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. Make sure to leave a review, share the message, and subscribe. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.