Elevation with Steven Furtick - The God Of Already

Episode Date: August 6, 2023

God already sees you for who you truly are. In “The God Of Already,” Pastor Steven teaches us that God’s plan for our lives is closer than we realize. 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: John 21, verses 4-9 2 Corinthians 6, verse 10 Luke 15, verses 13-20See 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. With your hands like this, you in this place. King of kings and Lord of Lords.

Exalted and lifted high. Ever present, always faithful. Anything you want to do today, Lord. Whoever you want to heal, whoever you want to set free, whoever you want to change, do it again. You've done it before. Do it again. Do it again. And again and again.

We give you glory and we rejoice in your presence. In Jesus' name, amen. I don't think I have to tell you what to do, but just in case. High five, seven people and tell him he's going to do it again. Oh, yeah. God is so faithful. How many know he's a faithful God? You know, I've been preaching this series about God and, yeah, I mean, hopefully all the things we preach here are about God.

But in a very unique way, God has been downloading to us that there's so much about him. There are so many ways that he desires to show up in our lives that we haven't recognized yet. And so I started week one. I talked about how he's the God of also. That message really meant a lot to me because it reminded me that, you know, we haven't met all of God yet. God isn't changing or morphing or expanding. He can't.

He's immutable. He can't change. But we certainly, as we move through different seasons of our lives, need to see him in different ways. And so he's the God of also. So, last week we preached on how He's the God of again and again and again, because if he told that, stop, stop, because I got to move on to part three. God gave me a part three, and today I want to talk to you about how he's not only the

God of also and not only the God of again, but he's the God of All-So, but He's the God of All-So. but he's the God of already. So real quick, shake three hands and say, it's on the way, and you may be seated. The God of already. You may be seated. You're here for a reason today. You are here for a reason today. God has something for you today.

In the spirit of, thank you so much, in the spirit of last week's message about the God of again, I'm going to use the same passage from last week again. John 21, verses 4 through 9, we'll select a little different passage this time, but from the same story. And time permitting, I want to also hit that Luke 15 again from the prodigal son. One was the story Jesus told a parable to teach, and one was a miracle that he performed. But they share a similar lesson, the God of already. Verse 4, early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but his disciples, did not realize that it was Jesus.

He called out to them, friends, haven't you any fish? No, the answer. And he said, throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you'll find some. And when they did, they were unable to haul in the net because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. And as soon as Simon Peter heard him say it is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he'd taken it off and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far

from shore. They were not far. Put it in the chat, not far. And tell your neighbor not far. Not far from shore. About 100 yards makes me get ready for football season. About 100 yards. landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread.

When they landed, they saw a fire burning coals there with fish on it and some bread, the god of already. And this message has a subtitle, Let Him Cook. I thought I'd tell you a little story. I couldn't remember if I shared it. My oldest son said he had never heard it. I was in high school right after I got really fired up for Jesus Christ, I was running around telling everybody that they needed to be saved and they were going to hell and I wasn't.

So be like me. I was burning all my Motley crew in Guns and Roses CDs and listening to Striper and burn my Pantera and went over to Petra. If you're in the subculture, you know. If you don't know, you don't know. You don't need to know. I just tell people all the time I was very, very bold. Some would say zeal without knowledge, but I was excited.

Fired up. My dad, he wasn't in church at the time. He'd been in church when I was a little boy. My mom always took us to church, but my dad wasn't in church at the time. He would go out and play golf on Sundays, a little part three golf course, get drunk with my uncle. I think as sort of an atonement when I was getting ready to go to church, he would wake up early and cook us breakfast. And so he'd be over there making some scrambled eggs and grits.

If you don't like grits, I don't need you as a member Elevation Church. And then he would make, on occasion, some corned beef hash, some fried bologna. But it was all because he felt bad because he wasn't going to church. So he'd wake up early and cook for us, and then he'd go off to the golf course, and we'd go to church. And that was going on for a little while. One Sunday morning, I remember it really clearly, whatever came over me, I looked at him and said, Dad, this breakfast is great. Thank you for making it. But I want to tell you something. I'm only 16, 17 years old, something like that. I say, it's not going to be long before God's going to get a hold of your life.

I've been praying for you, and God answers my prayers. And pretty soon, you're going to turn to the Lord, and it's going to be crazy. And you're going to be reading the Bible all the time. going to church, not going to be just cooking breakfast and going off. You can cook this breakfast today, but eventually. Soon and very soon, you'd be going to church with us. And I don't remember if he said anything. He didn't go to church that day. He kept cooking.

And I ate and went to church. It was about a year or more later when I had gone off to college and I came back home to preach at Santys Circle Community Church for a weekend. And after I preached a sermon, my dad came down for the altar call. And when I went down to pray with him, he said, never stopped preaching. Well, you know, we had many bumps and bruises after that. He wasn't raptured up to heaven. He didn't become the next pope, Billy Graham or Bill Gates, for that matter.

But it really was a change in his life. He started memorizing the Bible and stuff like that. And he told me something. He said, remember that day when you told me when I was cooking breakfast that God was going get a hold of my life and all this stuff you were saying to me. I said, yeah, because I was proud of my prophecy having come to pass. He said, what I didn't tell you is I felt so sorry for you when you were saying all that because I thought he's going to be so disappointed. He has no idea. And I felt so sorry for you that you didn't know how low I was and how far I was from God

and how I was standing in the shower every morning before I go open the barbershop and just thank God, if you give me the strength to get through this day, I promise I'll change, but I couldn't change. And so I sat there and listened to you and I felt so bad that you were that crazy and that naive to think that I could change because you didn't know how far away I was. Will you do me a favor? Will you look at your neighbor real quick and say, you're not as far as you think you are? That's what God knows that you don't. That's what the devil knows that you don't. That from that life that God has called you to live and from that victory that he's called you to accomplish in his name, from that freedom that to you feels like some sort of dream

right now, you're not as far as you think you are, because the God of already is in the house. I tell you that story not to impress you, but as the motivational speakers would say, to impress upon you or rather to reflect myself on these moments that we have in our life like I had with my dad where you know something, you don't know how you know it, you sense it, even though your senses are telling you different. Your spirit says it. It actually just came to me this morning to tell you that story. As I was asking God, how can I bring them into this text, which is a story about a fisherman named Peter who was called to be a shepherd and had to make a transition? Because he had been through an experience where he'd let himself down and he thought let Jesus down.

Now he's out there fishing and Jesus is on the shore and I was wondering like, what was happening in that moment with my dad? What's happening in those moments of our life where one thing is seen to be already in progress? Do you remember back when they used to interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to give you a news report or a weather report? You used to be watching. Watching Family Matters on Friday night, watching Erkel try to get Laura Winslow one more time on Friday night, and the news would come on. There's a storm. They'd just interrupt your regularly scheduled program.

And then when they would get back to the program after they had said whatever they needed to say and just broke in on your program, they'd say, we now return to your regularly scheduled programming already in progress. And then it would just go right back. No DVR, you can't rewind, so Erkel still isn't with Laura, like always, and you just drop right back in in the middle of it because it's already in progress. Now that's the challenge with the text I read you because I just jumped right into something where Peter has denied Jesus three times.

He's outfishing. Who knows how bad he felt? Who knows how far he felt? He's already seen Jesus, but Jesus shows up again. And I love verse four, this really touched me because I related to it. It said early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. You know, kind of far off in the distance.

They're tired. They've been fishing all night, caught nothing, frustrated, probably a little discouraged. And they did not realize it was Jesus. But that doesn't mean he wasn't there. In seminary, they taught me this term that stuck with me. It's called the already, not yet view of scripture. And it sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. It's just the tension that we all live in.

Everybody say already. Now say not yet. This side you can be already. Y'all ready? Y'all don't sound ready. How about y'all be already? Y'all get to be not yet. Already?

Not yet. They taught me that in seminary. The kingdom of God came when Jesus came to earth. He said, the kingdom of God is at hand, and he inaugurated that kingdom with miracles, signs and wonders. He did amazing things. He was crucified, dead, and buried, risen from the dead. He ascended to the right hand of God, and he's coming again to establish his kingdom once

and for all. He already died for the sins of all who will believe on him. He already rose to life, and he's risen with all power, and the keys of death, hell, and grave are in his hand. He's interceding for you right now. He's already paid the price. He's already won the victory. But as the Bible talks about these realities, there is a sense in which they are already fulfilled

and a sense in which they are. Y'all still aren't ready? Maybe next week I'll do it again again and y'all can try it again. But the picture here is that if the Bible says you are saved, it will also say you will be saved. And so it's talking about something that happened and something that will happen. And it's like, I am saved right now from the penalty of my sin, but I am still not completely set free from the pattern of sin. And that's why I can say, I'm already a child of God, but I'm not yet well-behaved.

I'm not yet grown up like I want to be. It's the already not yet. And I think if you'll look at the Bible that way, it'll help you understand why sometimes you see things in the Bible and you're like, oh, am I even a Christian? Pray without ceasing. I don't live that way. Well, you already pray some, but the without ceasing part, that's the not yet. The Bible even says that we have been adopted into God's family.

And then it says that we are awaiting our adoption. Which one is it? Well, it's already technically true, but I have not yet fully understood all of the implications of it. It'd be like if they switched cameras right now. There's somebody back there that's on the other camera. Let's just switch to this one. And he had to be ready to do it. And I gave him no preparation.

That's why he had to be there. He was already there waiting for a word in order to do what he was there to do. So you find yourself in moments in your life where you get the sense that you are dealing with the not yetness of you and you're hearing about the all readiness of God and it can be hard to reconcile. So I think that's the scene here with Peter and Jesus having breakfast on the shore. I think that was the scene that day with me having breakfast with my dad. I think that's the scene in your life as well.

And I invite you into it for all of your not yetness. One scripture that I really love, I honestly had never really paid attention to it, just skimmed right over it. But Paul is describing this in 2 Corinthians 610. So he kind of describes it. And it sounds a little schizophrenic. but I think he's just being real. He says, 2nd Corinthians 610,

we are sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Doesn't that sound? Paul, you need some medicine or something, man? You kind of can't decide. I'm serious. Like, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. And then it gets better. He says, poor yet making many rich.

Having nothing yet possessing everything. He's showing us this shift, just a little shift. He's like, we're sorrowful. Yeah, rejoicing. We're poor. We're counting poor. But out of our poverty, it's creating a spiritual richness in the earth. And I'm glad about that.

And then that last part really got me because I taught you this last week, and I want to go a little deeper. He said, having, put it back up, having nothing yet possessing everything. So this is where I showed you my trick last week. When I start getting entitled, when I start getting petty, when I start forgetting what God has given me, it's a little trick that I've learned to do to realize that I have everything. Oh yeah, you're looking at a blessed man. A very blessed man. I got it all. I have everything.

And here's how I get everything. I'm going to teach you how to get everything in five seconds. All right? Because I can really convince myself, nobody loves me, everybody hates me. I guess I'll go eat worms. I guess I'll just go over in my corner and write one of my other little sermons and nobody loves me. And then I go, no, I'll talk about. Not only have I been blessed with so many things, but I do an exercise where I imagine the loss of someone that I love the most. I imagine the loss. I imagine the loss. You're like, that's very negative. No, watch where it's going to get me because it's very, very powerful. I imagine, what if I lost Holly? What would I give to have her back? $200?

Come on, man. Everything. I'll kill you and take yours if I have to to get her back. Everything. Whatever it takes. I'll be, what's the movie, Ransom? I'll be Mel Gibson. I'll be Liam Neeson.

I will storm through the gates of hell. I would give everything to have her back. And I have her now. So what do I have? Everything. See how quick that was? I went from being annoyed, being perturbed, just being all, you know, just how stupid we can get. When we get adjusted to something that we've had access to too long.

We get acclimated to what's available. And then we become unaware of how valuable it is because we become too acclimated to what's available. So when it says in verse four, oh, I've got to give you a little bit more about this. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. I realized that their awareness had not caught up with his thereness yet. He was there They weren't aware yet He was no less there

Because they weren't aware of it He's standing on the shore Cooking fish Getting ready for them to haul in some more fish They've got plenty of fish It's going to be fish today But the one thing they couldn't know in that moment Was that he was already there

Where they were headed for But there was something he wanted to show them before they got there too. And so I look at Jesus in this passage, and I realize that it's one thing to look back over my life. I feel like teaching and preaching and shouting and praising today. And I see almost like a sign hanging over every open door in my life. Jesus was here.

You know, like almost I think of Jesus as a graffiti artist. You know how they have a tag and they tag when they do it. And Jesus does it legally, but they tag it. I studied a little bit. The first graffiti artist that was recognized for his tag was named Cornbread. And he was really cool. He was in Philadelphia. He hopped over the fence at the Philadelphia Zoo one time when he was 17 and spray painted the side of an elephant.

And he tagged it, Cornbread lives. And I look back over my life now and I see all these tags over not just the open doors and the opportunities God. gave me, but even some of the closed doors that God didn't let me go through. And now I look back and I see a tag that says, Jesus was here. I look back over some of the relationships that God brought into my life and some of the ones that I asked him for. And he said, not yet. Not yet. I look back over some of the already blessings in my life, and I see that, hey, God has already

been working on this for a long time for me. I mean, he's already done so much for me. And the more that I access the already blessings in my life, the more aware I am, no takers get ready. the more aware I am of the already blessings, the better I can deal with the not yet questions. Isn't this good to get in a space where you go? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Yeah, there are some things that I want God to add to my life. But being blessed is not about what he might or might not add. It's about what I access that I already have.

And learning to access what I already have is the process of gratitude. And gratitude is the access point to joy. That's why I love my little exercise, because when I am unaware of a blessing, I feel like it's not there, even though it is. Read the scripture. Jesus was on the shore. They didn't know it. He's there. they're not aware. He can be there, but until you are aware that he is there, it will feel as if he's not.

So, the challenge of this season of my life as a grown man is not to look back and say, Jesus was there, but to stand in the middle of my not yet and declare Jesus is here. I've got to tag it while I'm going through it so I can hold to the truth in this situation that what I will look back on in my life in the next season and say, God was there. He's here in it right now. But his thereness always outpaces your awareness, which is how you end up like my dad. And you go, I felt sorry for you. You felt sorry for me.

I feel sorry for you. God was working on your dumb butt, and you were too blind to see it. God sent an arrogant little 17-year-old punk wearing some dog Martins to tell you God's going to turn your life around and you couldn't see it. He was there. You just weren't aware of it. How many of y'all got something you're worried about this week coming up in your life? And I mean this week. I'm not talking about when you turn 94 and will there still be Social Security and will Biden still be president or something?

somebody older. But this week, this week, all right. God's going to beat you to it. Let me get more specific. Jesus is already there. Oh, that's so nice. Imaginary Jesus is already there. This is the problem with you Christians. You just have this imaginary friend named Jesus that you think is going to work everything out for you. It's not imaginary. It's not imaginary. For me, and I don't know if you could say the same thing, I have more proof that he has been there for me than almost any other person in my life. So if you wanted to convince me that God wasn't real, you should have done that a long time ago, because you're a little late.

Because I've already seen the ways that he's made for me. I've already seen the things that he's brought me through. I have already seen him bring water from a rock. I have already seen him. Now, high five somebody and say, I already know. So you can't make me doubt him because I know too much out of him. I already know. I'm not studying a book to find out if he's real.

I'm not waiting on a scientist to bust open a molecule or splitting Adam to tell me if Christ lives. I got the tag over my life. Said Jesus lives. Already praise. Ready, praise him. Get a situation. I need to teach, but high five at least three people. But you didn't tell me what to tell him.

See, ah, I think we need to recognize the connection. between appreciating our already as we anticipate our not yet. This is the greatest skill that God can give you to help you fight depression, distraction, discouragement, temptation. See, when you stay in not yet and forget you're already, you go running after stuff that is less than you because you got tired of waiting on something that was not yet ready for you

when you know what you've already got when you know who's already chosen you ask you can stand and say like Paul I don't have it yet I love that word I went to therapy and my therapist taught me how to say that word I'm serious It helped me. I'll say, I just can't figure it out. And the therapist would interrupt and say,

uh-huh, yet. I got on my nerves. I said, I'm not peeing you to correct me. I said, I can't figure it out, and I hadn't figured it out. And the therapist would say, yet. And every time they said, yet, it took me back to how many things God had already done for me. I see, my already gave me the balance for my not yet. That's why I want you to imagine things being out of your life that are in your life so you can get back in your already. I drove up to the church today, and I was like, oh man, this church got so much debt. We just got to pay off all our debt.

Oh wait, no, God already paid off our debt. That made me want, now y'all see why I'm in such a good mood preaching today? I preached real good with no debt on my back. It didn't get paid off in those five minutes before I came out to preach to you. I just recalled it to my mind and I accessed the already so I can move ahead into the not yet. I thought about how many things in this passage of scripture that Jesus asks the disciples that he already knew? It's kind of funny.

Please hear me, I'm not disrespecting Jesus when I say this. I'm just using a current term to describe something that's in the text. Jesus was trolling these boys. I don't mean like troll the motor on the boat. I mean like troll and messing with him. Jesus said, okay, first of all, I did a sermon that made him mad one time called Sneaky Jesus. They thought I meant that he was deceptive. I didn't mean deceptive.

I mean he'll sneak up on you. He snuck up on the shore. Didn't tell him it was him. All right. So they don't recognize him. He's there. They're not aware. That's just like you right now.

He is there in ways you're not aware of right now. And you'll look back and see the tag and it won't say cornbread lives, it'll say Jesus lives. But you got to see it now. So he's on the shore and they don't know he's there. And then verse five, he said, friends, haven't you any fish? So the one who created fish doesn't know if they've caught any. I think, I speculate that he already knew because he's sovereign and he's God. So I think he knew.

So they say no, and then he says, okay, throw your nets over to the right side of the boat, and you'll find some. Now, the other thing that he knew is where the fish were. He already knew that. And the other thing he knew is that their nets were going to break, and they couldn't haul them in without some help. But then, because the nets didn't end up breaking, but the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, is the Lord. And as soon as Simon Peter heard him say, is the Lord, he wrapped the saddle and he'd have taken off, jumped into water. And what I really couldn't get over about this passage, and I don't know if you noticed it, is that it said they were not far from the shore about 100 yards.

Wait, so let's do some math. They're in the boat fishing, catching nothing. Jesus is on the shore, 100 yards away. I don't know the exact dimensions of Peter's boat. It is Peter's boat. That's why Jesus chose Peter. Jesus chose Peter to be his disciple because Jesus needed transportation. I heard all these deep things.

He chose Peter because he was, nope. It wasn't his boldness. It was his boat. That's why Jesus chose him. I'm settling it once and for all. And his boldness, but mostly his boat because he needed to travel around. So now Peter's back in that boat and he's fishing. And I don't know the exact dimensions of the boat, but I do know one thing.

No matter how big this boat was. Is there anybody here who has a boat? Got a boat? Come on, God's not going to strike you for having a boat. You can have a boat in, tie, then go to heaven. All right. How big could the boat be? Let's say it was like a pretty big fishing boat, but just a singular boat.

Some research that I accessed, it doesn't say it in the text. It said it might have been about eight feet wide, max. That's not about right. Is it conceivable that it would have been eight feet wide? Okay. So you mean to tell me they have been fishing all night and they are about to row in a hundred yards to the shore. And from one side of the boat to the other is the difference between we're starving and we're stuffed. You mean to tell me that they've been out there all night and at this. And at just the moment they're about to give up, I'm prophesying to somebody, prophesying to somebody,

at just the moment they're about to roll the boat ashore 100 yards. What they don't know in that moment is that if they take the nets from the left side of the boat to the right side of the boat. And if the boat is only eight feet wide and the shore is 100 yards away, that means it's easier for them to keep fishing than it is for them to give up. Follow me. You've got to go 100 yards to give up, but you only got to go eight feet for a great catch the fish aren't on the way when you drop the nets the fish are the fish at the moment you drop the nets

the fish don't start to swim now that's why jesus got to the shore early because he told the fish to swim and they did so when you drop your nets in your not yet season you need to know that what your vision for is not ration. Freedom from your addiction. Eight feet away from a relationship that will take you out of loneliness and bring you into fruitful union. Eight feet away, wouldn't you hate to miss your harvest? And find out it was only eight feet away?

It's going to be big, baby. It's going to be big. It's going to be big. You're going to make a difference. You're going to tell others. You're going to help others. You're not just going to be selfish. You're going to serve others.

God already knows what he's called you to do. And the devil wants you to pull that boat in and give up because he knows you're eight feet away. See, it is the principle that sometimes a small shift can make a big difference. A small shift. Just to make a small shift today, you're not as far as you think you are. Whoever this word is for, it is burning like a fire in my bones. You're not as far as you think you are. I wish I could muster the faith I had when I told my dad that you're not as far as you think

you are. God can snatch you with his pinky finger. He's strong. His hand is not slack. I don't care how far you are. You're not as far as you think you are, not from God. He's God Who told the sun

When to rise And it did He's God I'm talking about God Who told the storm to be still And it did I'm talking about God Who told the walls when to fall

And they did I'm talking about God Who told the bones come alive And they did I'm going to have another one And if he told the fish Went to swim And they did

He will again And if he told the fish Wind to swell And they did He will again Oh, it's the remix We hadn't even released the Original yet

And we're already working on the remix Because he's God And he's gone So I see a picture right now Stay with me, stay with me, stay with me I want to minister to somebody You think you are so far from God Watch this

Not only was Jesus Jesus only a hundred yards away and they had no idea that he was. And not only were the fish only eight feet away and they had no idea that they were, but Peter, you have already been restored in God's eyes. Now it's time for you to be restored in your eyes. Receive it, receive it. Paul said you can go from having nothing to possessing everything. having nothing yet possessing everything your nets are empty you don't have it yet that doesn't mean

it's not there so the gift you have is real it just isn't fully grown yet the forgiveness that you have is real you're just not fully acquainted and familiar with your freedom in christ yet i'm saving money on a therapy bill. This is what they're going to do if you go over there. I'm trying to save you some money on a therapy bill. Drop a little something in the bucket for your therapist today. I want you to see the power of your yet. And to believe in the God of already is to trust the God of not yet. With every step you take, with every habit that you implement, a lady told me at elevation nights she was standing there and I did the thing that you take. that y'all hate when I do and I said turn to your neighbor and say and she said I rolled my

eyes and you made me say something to my neighbor and he was tall and I was single and he was single and she wrote me a letter and said today he is my husband I'm not making it up I'm not making it up I'll print the email I'll put it on Twitter at spaces and my space I mean because something as simple as turn to your neighbor turn to your neighbor real quick And tell him, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet. I thought he was finished, not yet. Hey, hey, so, so imagine. Yeah, you can stay in softly, LJ.

I'm done teaching, but I want to give you the picture from Luke 15, because I would hate not to give you this. You remember how I told you there are two stories here, and Jesus taught one, and then the other one he actually acted out. And they're both saying the same thing, that you're not as far as you think you are. There were two sons, and one sent to his father. I want my share of the inheritance.

Now, Luke 15. So he set up to a distant country. What kind of country? Say it again. A distant country. While he was there, he spent all that he had on Rydus Living. For a little while it went good, but then eventually he came to a point where nobody knew how bad it was.

And he longed to fill his stomach with a husk that the swine ate. He was that low. Finally, the Bible says he came to himself. He came to himself. I believe somebody's coming to yourself today, and God is already there. God already sees you like you really are. You just don't yet. Came to himself, and he said,

How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare? Here I am starving to death. I will arise and go to my father, and perhaps he will make me like one of his hired servants. So verse 20 is where it really picks up for our purpose as we close today. It said that he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him. How many times did I read this story and never really noticed what was happening? Because just before this, this boy is making a story that he's going to tell his dad.

He's making his plan to get back in good graces with his dad, to reconcile, to get back where he belongs. And a lot of you are like that. You're like, okay, I'm going to get my life together. I'm going to do this, I'm going to join a gym, and then I'm going to drink a smoothie. And then I'm going to, I don't want a smoothie. I want a milkshake. I'm going to drink a milkshake and then I'm going to join a gym. I'm going to join that gym where they have milkshakes at the gym and pizza.

I like that gym. So he's playing it all out, but he's tired, he's exhausted, he's a shame. And not to make light of the story. I mean, he really doesn't know. Am I even going to be welcome back? Is this even going to work? And I don't just mean this for people, y'all who are, I mean, I certainly mean this for people who don't know God,

but for those of us who do, there are times in our life where we think think. I feel sorry for you, preacher. You're telling me all this, but you don't know how far I am. You don't know what's going on with me and my wife. One guy finally told me the other day, he said, I've been faking you out for five months. I keep telling you everything's good, because I don't want you to think bad of me because you're a preacher, but I hadn't had a job for five months. I've been leaving the house every day, just going to Panera so my kids would think I had a job. And I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm running out of money. And all over the room there are not yet. empty nets all over the world. So you get this strategy in your mind and you think, okay,

here's how I'm going to get it together. Here's how I'm going to fix it. And you know, that could be exhausting. It could stop you from even taking the first step, really. I've got to imagine with every step that the boy has taken, he's thinking, God, I hope I hope dad will have me back. Even if he'll just let me sleep outside. I'll prove that. I'll prove that. myself. I'll work my way back. I'll get there. I'll get there. It may take me years. I'll get there. So I'm going to make a speech to him. Remember, it's a distant country. So he's got a long walk ahead of him. And at some point along this long walk as he's rehearsing his speech, Father, I'm no longer worthy, make me a hired servant, I've disgraced you, I've shamed you,

I've sinned and I'm sorry. Maybe I should put the first part first. So I'm sorry. I have sinned. I'm sorry. In every step he's working this out and rehearsing it in his mind. Here's how I'm going to get back. Here's how I'm going to do it. I'm going to say to my father. I'm going to say to my father. I'm going to say to my father. And while he's rehearsing his speech, I'm out some way. His father, and you realize, oh, he's already here. While he was still a long way off, while he still thought, I have so far to go. And the one that he was planning to grovel to, With grace and pulls him in. You're not as far as you. It takes a while to put your life back together.

But it only takes a moment to be right with God. That's all it is. He already decided. He already paid for it. Always his. You always will be his. Always have been welcomed in his presence. Always will be loved.

The God of already is the God of every not yet. We stand in the middle today. And I want to tell you, save your speech. God doesn't need you to tell them 25 reasons you're sorry. Just come to them and say, Father, I'm yours. And I trust that everything I'm worried about in tomorrow, you're already there. You're already on the shore. You're not far.

So I'm not far. I'm already loved. I'm already chosen. I know who I am. I'm a child of God. Nothing can change that. I know what you've spoken. I'm already loved more than I could imagine.

That is enough. the podcast. And if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available. I also want to take a moment and thank all of you who are a part of elevation. Whether you support us financially or serve with us or just share these messages, it's because of you that we're able to reach people all around the world. And if you want more information on how to be a part of elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review. share the message and subscribe. God bless you.

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