Elevation with Steven Furtick - What God Left Out: Flatbread Faith

Episode Date: January 18, 2021

Sometimes, God’s provision isn’t in what He gives, but in what He leaves out. In “What God Left Out: Flatbread Faith,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church reminds us that God is still in the details – even when we don’t understand them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. How many want to receive the Word of God today? How many want a fresh-baked Bible lesson today? All right. If you're not standing, stand up for a moment. If you are standing, remain that way in the upright position. We're about to take off. Look at Exodus Chapter 12 with me.

Thank you for your spirit, Lord. Put that in the chat. Thank you for your spirit, Lord. Welcome all over the world. We welcome you. Let us know where you're joining from right now, where you're worshiping from, not watching, worshiping. I'm a participator.

I'm not a spectator. I want to get in on it, what God is doing in this season. I don't want to be left out. Look at this scripture. I mentioned it last week. I told you that last week when I preached on comfort food, I had a Tupperware anointing, so hopefully your fridge has been stocked this week and you've been able to nibble on what you need.

That's a goal anyway. And I want to go back into one of the passages that I mentioned and really, really see what God is saying to me. Please help me, Lord. You lavished your word on me. Help me to access it now for your people who need it. Exodus 1237, the Israelites journeyed from Ramsey's to Sukkot. There were about 600,000 men on foot besides women and children. And many other people went up with them and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread.

They baked loaves of unleavened bread with the dough that they brought from Egypt. All right, lean into this. It's getting good. You smell the bread? All right, here it comes. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. Now, the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. And at the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord's divisions left

Egypt, because the Lord kept vigil. Somebody say, God is looking out for me. That's not my sermon, but I needed to underscore it real quick in case you've been wondering lately. The Lord kept vigil. That means you don't have to watch all the things all the time. The Lord kept vigil. The Bible said he doesn't slumber or sleep, so that means you ought to get some rest. Tell somebody, take a nap. Take a nap. The storm will still be there when you wake up. Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt. On this night, all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for generations to come. I wanted you to get the full context, but really I want to go off of verse 39, where it says, the dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt

and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. I want to give you two titles that you can choose from. The first is more descriptive. It says on this title, we could say, what God left out. What God Left Out. If you like your titles a little on the spicy side. We're going to call this little sermon flatbread faith. Flatbread faith.

Serve your word to the people and use me as a waiter, God, in Jesus' name. Amen. What God left out, you never really tell anybody everything, not even yourself, not even God. Self-awareness is an ongoing process. You tell yourself the story that you can live with, the version of events you can live with. But in our own little way, we're all revisionist historians. So when we compile how certain things went down in our life, we do it in a way that will accommodate our pain or our fear.

Too fast verdict back up. said, slow down, slow down. Revision is history. It's like you leave certain things out. You say a certain part, you leave a certain part out, and you kind of stack it in a way that makes you feel better about it. Everybody does this. I do it, you do it. I've done it before. Oh, that staff member left because they were this and that and underperforming. Well, I'm still salty about it. So what you are getting is me seasoning with the details that I like. And then they will say a different room. Well, my season was over.

And I'm like, no, you were just lazy and quit and didn't want to stick it out. And then they're going back and they're like, well, no, this was going in my life and that was going. And we're all working off of our point of view. And that's very important to realize is that we are all when it comes to how we understand our life doing a revisionist history. And another thing, if you like to write down things that the preacher's, process. Not mandatory, it's recommended. We're all reductionists. And that's when we take something that's incredibly complicated and make it sound so simple. So taking something that's so big and difficult to understand and just trying to boil it down to something that,

especially preaching. I'm going to talk a little bit about preaching today because, hey, That's something I care about. Aren't you glad? It'd be bad if I didn't. But you want to boil it down, make it rhyme, you know, make it start with the same letters and all that. I do that. I like that. But sometimes I have noticed that I oversimplify what is actually very complicated.

I'm preaching to you today. I came over. I came over. I brought a big old casserole. I hope you're hungry. So that's one thing. But then I also sometimes overcomplicate what is really pretty simple. And both of those can get me in trouble.

When you read the Bible, the biggest mistake that you can make is to think you already know what you're reading. You miss all kinds of stuff when you take out the parts, revisionists, you take out the parts that make you feel uncomfortable, take out the parts that you don't initially understand. or when you try to boil it down to something that is palatable, you can't take all of the tension out of the truth. You just can't. Well, you can, but you're not going to have a strong faith that way. You'll be weak. Then any time something happens that doesn't clearly fit your version of the truth, then

you won't have any shield to protect you from the attacks of the enemy. I need a little help online. This room's kind of sleepy today. So we all do it. We all do it. I tell people sometimes how our church started, but I don't tell them everything, because you can't tell everything. First of all, it would take forever.

You can't go all the way back. And secondly, there are some things I don't even remember. It's like I blocked them out. I had this memory come back to me when I was preparing this sermon of how me and Holly went to this place one time, and Nicole went with us. went with us. We drove about eight hours, and we drove to preach at a camp, and Adrian DePray asked me to go tag team. He disciples you in college, didn't he? Made you memorize scripture. If you missed a word, what did you punch you in the jar or something like that? Adrian's this big,

intimidating guy. He used to throw chairs around on his sermon illustrations. Yeah, do wear a motorcycle helmet to go to Adrian to pray sermon. Great man of God, great passion. I looked up to him. Did you ever hear Adrian do the four chairs? He had this one sermon. He would put sticks down his pants. I still don't know what the thing was about, but he would go gather sticks and shove them down. Anyway, he is a very powerful man of God. He told me, I blocked some of this stuff out, but it came back to me.

He told me, I want you to meet me at such and such, and tag team preached this camp with me. That was a dream come true for me, Tim. I thought, well, that's like getting to play with LeBron or something like that. Me at the time, I thought preaching with Adrian. So we drove out there eight hours. And when we got there, y'all, it was the weirdest situation. They said, when we got there, they said, welcome to Hobo Camp.

I said, Hobo Camp. They said, yeah, tomorrow is the Hobo Parade. I don't know if it's politically correct to say hobo anymore. I might get shut down, canceled, and all over this or not, but I didn't make it up. I didn't know it was a hobo camp. I just knew Adrian asked me to go. He said, meet me out there. I drove out there and he wasn't even there.

I asked the lady, the lady running the camp was 90 years old and legally blind, and it was in her house. And there's 150. Am I making this up? It's a whole campground, but then the meeting was in the house, and the lady was so nice. There was nothing. I just didn't know that it was a hobo camp, right? I didn't know that they were divided.

We went to eat in the cafeteria the first day, and the kids all start banging their glasses on the table in unison, because they all come back to the same camp every year as my first time. They start banging their glasses on the table, and they start singing, I remember the song. How do I remember this? Hatfields, Yokums and McCoys and kettles have gathered together for some fun, fun, fun, fun, some have come by box car, some have come from walking, others have traveled by their thumb, thumb, thumb, thumb. Though we roam a thousand miles away, we'll return here for convenience.

invention day. I don't remember the rest, but I remember that much. And I was so freaked out, and Adrian wasn't even there. And so I went to the lady running. I said, where's Andrew? She said he doesn't get here until Sunday. So he gets there Sunday. I'm waiting for him.

Like, man of God. You didn't, you left out the part where it was a hobo camp and a hobo parade. You left out the part where I had to do the first two sessions by myself. I didn't have a sermon ready. You left out. He said, yeah, I left that part out. Because I thought if I didn't leave it out, you wouldn't show up. Y'all thought I was just having a random flashback, like pray for pastor.

He's over-caffeinated. No, no, no, no, no. It came back to me for a reason. He left it out. Today I don't want to talk to you about what God brought the Israelites through, the Red Sea. because I figure you've heard that part before. I don't want to talk to you about who he struck down the firstborn of Egypt to cause Pharaoh to let his people go with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, because I figure you've heard

about that and it's really scary too. Instead, I wanted to mention something that happened when they were leaving, that you can skip over. You can skip over it so easily. But it really speaks to me. It said that when they left Egypt where they had been 430 years, and by way of review, they were not in Egypt because of something they did wrong. They were in Egypt because that was the place God provided for them.

When God finally brought them out as their situation had changed from one of provision to imprisonment. The Bible records an important detail that says they left with bread. One verse says it was wrapped in their clothes on their shoulders, and the bread was unleavened. It says specifically, the dough was without yeast because they had to leave so fast. They didn't have time to prepare food for themselves. And I was thinking, if God had the foresight and the planning ability to get them ready to get all of the clothes of the Egyptians, all of the jewelry, all of the things they took, if God could

plan out all ten plagues to get his people out, surely he could have had them bake the bread the night before. So the only thing I can think is that God didn't want them to take yeast from Egypt. into the place of their promise. When we're praying over a new year, I told you I was going to focus on room to receive. Everybody say, room to receive. Say it out loud, like with your mouth and your vocal cords and your larynx and stuff. Room to receive.

Put as many O's as you want in the word room. Room to receive. That's why I give God a great big praise. I want him to have a whole lot of room to run around and do what he wants. wants to do. And I found out sometimes you can have a big room that's cluttered. You can have a big gift that's cluttered. You can have a smart mind that's cluttered. You can have a good relationship that's cluttered. But God is doing something in this text that I wonder has he been doing in your life? My life, this church, this ministry is that rather than God demonstrating

his power through what he adds, he gives his people a lesson in leaving it out. Taking a deep breath and shout, leave it out. One, two, three. You weren't ready. I'll do it again. One, two, three. Leave it out. Leave it out.

He said, get up in a hurry out of Egypt, and they didn't even have time to let the bread rise. That's what the yeast does. makes the bread rise. And before the bread could even rise, they had to get out. They didn't even have time to prepare for a global pandemic, I mean for the Exodus. Sometimes my mind goes back and forth like a duet on TikTok or something. It's going back and forth. I don't know. So I want you to ask a question today. And this could be very good homework. Or we could just do it right now. Let's do it right now. We've got time, right? We got time. You got anything better to do than hear the Word of the Eternal God who sits on a throne in heaven?

heaven above all principalities and authorities? All right now. So let's do it right now. What is God leaving out in my life right now to lead me to where he called me all along? And I want to do it under a couple of different headings. I want to talk about it from disappointments. That's number one. I want to talk about it through deficiency, and then I want to talk about it through deletions.

Feed them back to me real quick. Disappointments. Put it in the chat. Next one. Deficiency and three deletions. They left Egypt with bread with no yeast, and they went into a place where they had no knowledge of how to survive. Remember, they went into the wilderness. God gave amana. All of that is awesome. You know, when I read the Bible sometimes, I think the more important things that we learn are in the spaces where nothing is written. I want to give you a few examples of that, because in your life a lot of times it will not be the obvious things that will leave the greatest clues to what God has called you to do.

One example that I thought of that was when God told Moses his name, he said, I am. I figured out over time that God didn't get tongue-tied about what came next. He wanted to leave it open. We want to limit God, right? We want a picture of God that we can hang in our kitchen. We want a picture of Jesus that looks just like somebody with our same last name. But when God left that blank, he wanted you to know that he will not be confined to something that you can call him with human language or a picture that your eyes can perceive.

Let me show you this in the New Testament. Acts chapter 1 is kind of like Numbers 12, or Exodus 12, because it's a picture of a nation in transition. It's the same thing in Acts 1. It's the same thing in the New Testament. Jesus is leaving. The Holy Spirit is coming, and life is happening in that transition. Life happens in the transitions.

Life happens in the car. Life happens on the way to stuff. Life happens with something that came up on your caller ID, and you don't even know what number that was. Life happens good and bad in places you didn't know to look. And so this is a parallel that God gave me. They were coming out of Egypt. God was bringing his church out of a religious system in Acts chapter 1. So they're standing there talking to Jesus who they walked with in Acts 1. And look at verse 6. They gathered around and asked him, Lord, are you, Acts 1 6 at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? But God was not going to go.

to restore what they had before. He was going to replace it with something much better. I've got to get this through to somebody. God is not going to restore the earlier version of your life. God is not going to make things back like they were. He doesn't do that. That's not his thing. I'm not saying that Jesus was like ADD or anything like that. But I'm not But he couldn't do the same miracle the same way twice. He's spitting and touching and speaking, and it's not going to be like it was. Now, when they asked him this, they said, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? I want you to notice what he said back to them.

It's not for you to know the times or the dates, Father set by his own authority. He reveals his power, not by the details that he puts in, but by the details that he left out. He could have told him the answer to that. You think you didn't know? You didn't have a plan for it? You think God is like, oh, I didn't see this thing happening over there in China. This is a real game changer. What are we going to do, Gabriel?

Hey, Michael, get your war clothes on. There's a really got caught off guard. Goodness of Sam Bush on the... No, no, no, no, no, no. That blank space right there. That's the place where we learn to believe. See, if we know something, we don't have the opportunity to believe it. I don't have to believe what I know.

I have to believe what God spoke. You want another one? God is often revealed by what he leaves out more than what he puts in. You really want another one? I got about 300 of these. All right, let me give you another one. When they talk about Abraham in the Bible, he's known as the Father of Faith, the Father of many nations. And it gives this little reductionist verse, revisionist history.

It says, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. Now, for someone who's been studying the Bible, like I have, these 20 and some years, 20 and some. You like that? Leaving it open. I want you know exactly how well. He said, he did a lot more than believe God. He lied about who his wife was. He had sex with Hagar who was supposed to be clean in the house.

He did a lot more than... Y'all don't like the real Bible, do you? Oh, you like that airbrush. You want me to leave the stuff out that you don't like about your Bible heroes. No, here's the thing about it. All that was left out when Paul wrote Romans, and I was going, why? Why did God leave that out? And I figured out that Abraham's life was not defined by his failures, not by God.

It was defined by his faith. You got it? Are you getting it? So when Paul gets ready to describe Abraham, he doesn't mention the things we might mention. Oh, then they went bankrupt, and then they're kind of nuts over there. He mentions none of that. He said, he believed God. That's what counts.

That's what matters. That's what will be said after the fact, even with the ups and downs. Leave it out. Leave it out. Last week I was preaching about the prodigal son, and I was mad at the dad in the story, right? Because the younger one took his money and wasted it. Let's go to that passage real quick. Luke 15.

I love the word of God, Skinner. I love it. I love it. My heart is parted in finding out something to preach. My hardest part is figuring out what to leave out, because this thing is so good to me. I told Abby last night she came in, she said, you got your sermon ready? I said, no, I got three. She said, you'll find one verse to bring them all together.

You always do. Did you say that or am I making it up? She was a prophet because I didn't know what it had to do with yeast and bread and the prodigal son. I'm like, I guess they both have food in them. But what else? Watch this. You ready? Luke 15. So the younger brother, he goes out and he's doing his younger brother stuff, and he's out there, you know, spinning everything he had, trying to be independent from the father. You know, I want my freedom. It's not really free.

It's not really free. When the devil tempts you, he leaves a lot of stuff out about what it's going to cost you. You think God's the only one who leaves stuff out? You think God's the only one who leave stuff out. The devil has the same strategy. He will tell you all about the feeling. I got to go back real quick. I got to go back real quick. When they were saying, we wish we were back in Egypt, remember from last week? Remember? They said, we had fish in Egypt. You also had an unreasonable quota of bricks that you had to make with not enough straw. You left that out. You left that out. And there's a way our memory gets selective. All, the good old days.

I should probably leave this out. We can take that out later. I don't know what that was. But look at me. I'm preaching the Bible now. You remember how the fish tasted, but you forgot how the Pharaoh treated you. You're leaving something out. You're leaving something out.

You're leaving the wrong stuff out. All right. So the younger brother, he's like, oh, God, I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I remember my father, we used to eat around there. We ate good around there. I'm going back to my father. I'm not going to beg like this anymore. And you get there right, you're like, I'm going to do this different. I'm going to set some priorities. I'm sick of this. I don't want to live this way, right? Like when we say, go back to your father, what does that mean? I don't want that to be abstract for you. It means going back to who you truly are, being known by your identity, not seeking after it by trying to. to add status and stuff and layers and personas and busyness and think that that's somehow going to fulfill your life, is not. Gain the world and lose your soul.

So that's what it meant when he came to his senses and came back to his father. And he had a speech ready. He wrote a whole speech, Father, I have sinned against heaven, against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants." Verse 20, Luke 15, he got up and went to his father. And watch what happened. While he was still a long way off his father, Psalm was filled with compassion.

He ran to his son. Can you believe this undignified decision of a great wealthy man who has hired servants to run toward his son, who wasted his money? I see the son getting his speech ready because he didn't expect to see his father until he rounded the corner. But before he could get all these things out of his mouth, I'm not worthy. Make me a servant. I'm so horrible.

Before he could get to any of that, the father said to his servants, quick. Bring the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet. Wait, I have a speech to give you where I'm going to list all the bad things I did. I hear God saying, leave that out. That's not what this moment is about. That's not why I'm convicting you so I can just crush you under the weight of bad decisions. I know you've got a lot of those thoughts, too. But if I'm hearing God right, he's saying, leave that out.

I don't know you by those things that you identify yourself by. Leave that out. Stop introducing yourself to the next season of your life. with the resume of your regrets from the last one. Leave that out. Leave it out. Leave it out. Leave it out.

Leave it out. Leave it out. Leave it out. You know when you go in your mind and you're like, I think God is calling me to do, but, da, da, da, da, da, da. Go back to the first thing you said and make a little sandwich with the last thing God had said and leave out whatever you put in between. Because that's the space for you to believe, right? I thought you were going to talk about disappointment. I am talking about disappointment.

The father had every right to be disappointed in the son, but he left that out. He left that out. And I wonder, why are we so quick to put stuff back on people that God is leaving out? God doesn't talk to them like that. God doesn't see them like that. God doesn't judge them like that. And we do, leave it out. time this week, you get a little something in you, it feels real good, right? You're going to say

something bad about somebody? You know, oh, well, they're good. You know what I heard, Shana? Leave it out. I hope y'all make a meme out of me. I hope y'all make a meme out of me. Leave it out. Leave it out. Leave it out. Put your little speech up, put your little self-righteous thing. And so we don't know what to leave out. And God's trying to send us, right? The Holy Spirit. But we need too many details. And because we will not leave the details in the hands of God, we cannot receive what He has given us for this moment. So there come moments in your life, and I wonder, are you in one right now, right now where God is saying, I'm calling you out of Egypt, but you can't wait for the bread to rise. You can't wait for everything to be perfect.

You can't wait for everything to be convenient. You can't wait for everybody to cheer you on. You can't wait till it makes total sense. You can't wait till it comes on paper. You can't wait till you have the facts. You can't wait until you have more strength. You can't wait until you have more wisdom. You can't wait until you have the trophy.

You've got to celebrate right now. You've got to go right now. You've got to have faith. Flatbread faith. I almost said flatbed like a big truck backing up. Beave, beep, beep, beep, beat, beat with the blessings of God. But does he have anywhere to put them? Flatbed faith.

Flatbread faith. I don't know what to call the sermon, but do you have anywhere for it? Or are you scrolling at the same time I'm preaching, and you don't even have a place in your heart? The thorns are growing at the same time the seed is hitting the soil. Jesus of Nazareth, come and preach to these people. You need you, Lord. It's amazing what God sends to your life.

You know, he does for his sins, he takes something away. In between, your job is to believe that something better is coming. Jesus, I'm leaving you in the body. I'm sending my spirit. I want you to go. What verse is it? Start up, what verse is it? Give me Acts 1.

14. Is it maybe 14? He said, wait for the Holy Spirit. a blank for the part that you don't know about right now. Oh, God, how's my kid going to turn out? What college are they going to go into? They're three. Your baby is three.

You can put Duke jammies on them all you want, but they might go to UNC. You can't control that. It's a regional joke. But on 14, Acts 114, what is it, Star? A bunch of names. They all joined together constantly in prayer. No, because that's who was there, Mary and the mother and all the people. Go back to the 13, maybe.

When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room. Why'd they go to the room? To what? He said they went to the room to receive. Do you have room to receive? Do you have the right people in place? Because I do want to preach a sermon one of these weeks. here early in the year about seasonal people.

And I will, God, permitting. I will, God permitting. I will. But let's start with the place. You know, you're the temple. Crazy to me. However many times I read the scripture, I just miss it until I make more room in my heart to receive it.

You know, it's like, I read this verse a million times where it said, you are always with me, all that I have is yours. And I love that verse. You're always with me. All that I have is yours. It's like a great thing to pray, right? God, you are always with me. All that I have is yours. And just when JJ and Greg and them, they had their campus pastor meeting the other day. And I zoomed on in the... I was thinking in the room where it happens in the Zoom where it happens.

A little Lynn Manuel, Illinois. The Apostle Lin-Manuel Miranda once said I want to be in the Zoom where it happens. Well, when I was talking to y'all, the verse came to me, you were always with me. All I have is yours. When I told you that verse, I left something out. I left out who said it, because it sounds like something we say to God. I wrote a song with some friends, but I started it in my basement one night. I don't like the way my voice sounds that much.

Sometimes it sounds good in a certain range, but in other parts I just don't like to hear it that much. But it's okay in a certain range. And I said that that way on purpose, because one time I said, on stage, I'm not a singer. And Holly said, next time you talk about that, leave that out. Don't you ever say you're not a singer again? I got scared. Like, God might give me nodules or throat cancer or something if I said it again. I was like, okay, I'll leave that out.

But the fact is, I have to go in this big, echoy room to sing. And then I'll send these memos to Chris, he can tell you, and different people. And I wrote the thing that said, I am available. I hear you call I am available. Wasn't many notes, but it was just a thought. A little while later, we got together with some friends and some different things came together, and the song is something that we recorded. We sang it earlier in the service that I was in.

The part of the song that really touches me says, here I am, you can have it all. And that's a great prayer. In fact, right now, where you are, just put your pin down and taking notes, your phone, and just lift your hands like this, lift it up, and say, here I am. You can have it all as a song of surrender. Now put your hands down. I love something out. In the text, that wasn't something that someone said to God.

It was something that the Father said to the Son. And when I show you this, it's going to flip how you're going to be living this week. In Luke 1531, the Father said to the Son, the son, the older brother, the one who wouldn't celebrate, not the one who wasted money, but the one who was wasting his life. He said, my son, you were always with me, and everything I have is yours. So I was thinking the next time we sing available, we can sing the same words, but we can sing them instead of with our hands like this. Here I am, you can have it all. I want you to do this with me. We can sing them with our hands like this.

because that's what the Father is saying to you. You are always with me, and all I have is yours. All I have is yours. Some of the clothes Elijah wears are from my closet. That's all right. All I have is yours. The ones in your closet are mine, too, if you want to get technical about it. All I have is yours.

It changed my thing because I always thought it was this, this, this, this. You can have it. God, and God's like, yeah, that's a real good deal for me. You can have it all, God. God's like, thanks. What a bargain, my blood for your broken life. But if you flip it and you say, Here I am, here I am, you can have it all.

What if God is saying that to you? While you're saying it to him. The power of that point was in what I left out. I didn't tell you that the father said it to the son, And so you thought you were supposed to say it to the Father. No, no, no. It's by grace. God's bringing you into a grace space.

Everything that's being removed is making room for you to receive. There was no yeast in the loaf. God didn't want Egypt's yeast in your life for this next season. And he wanted them to eat it. They eat the Passover meal every year, right? To remember. Not only what God brought them out of, but it was to remind them to have flatbread faith. That if you don't have enough, that's all right.

You can still eat flatbread. Y'all are too luxurious, I'm telling you right now. Y'all need a bubble bath blessing. Look at me. Some people need a yeast roll word of God. It's got to be buttered like you wanted. Did you ever go to Quincy's with the big fat yeast roll? Wasn't it Quincy's?

Was it Quincy's? Some of y'all need the yeast roll blessing. Some of you all need the crispy cream blessing. But how many of y'all got flatbread faith? And that kind of faith, watch this. Somebody somewhere is getting this. Because it's like, I didn't have enough, but somehow this is the fish and the loaves in the New Testament.

This is David with one. I see David showing up to the battle lines. I see you showing up to your life with one stone. Five foot seven looking small next to a nine foot Philistine. But I got flat bread fain. I got cheese and bread for my brothers. And I got a rock that'll knock out a bear. And I've got a praise that will stun depression.

Flat bread faith. Flat bed. Flat bread. You know what I'm talking about. Give God the praise. You think we're praising him because of what God gave us. We're praising God because of what he took out, what he removed, what he pruned for more fruit. We got flatbread faith.

We're going into Canaan. Egypt is not our emotional home. And the wilderness is not our destination. Flatbread faith. What God leaves out is what makes you a masterpiece. They said 600,000 left Egypt. and they didn't count the women and children or the rabble. But it was the rabble they didn't count what they left out of the number that cost them in the wilderness.

You see how it works? It's what God leaves out. I'm not a great singer. You know, that's awesome. I'm not a great singer. It made me surround myself with great singers. See how it goes? I told, we had a board meeting the other day where we oversee the direction of the future

of the church, and it was amazing to celebrate what God has done in a global pandemic, with the inability to open most of our campuses to full capacity. God still grew us. How? I don't know. He left out what I thought we needed, and he gave us what we didn't know to ask for. That's true for you, too. And I told Holly, it was all these numbers and chunks as our CFO, and he started the church

with me, Chunks in Amy, started the church with me in Holly. And I was telling Holly afterwards how my eyes went blurry while he was going through the numbers. Just a blessing. I was blurry with the blessings of God. And a little zoned out too. I like words more than numbers. But that's another thing I said one time preaching.

I said, I'm not a businessman. I'm a preacher. Holly said, leave that out. You are a business man. You're everything God called you to be. You build a great ministry. God's anointing you. So I never said it again until just now to tell you that I've never said it again.

It's not true. And I was telling Holly, when we went on a walk just to decompress before I started getting into the sermon, and Holly, I said, Holly, it's amazing that God sent us chunks and Amy. I said, it's just amazing. I said, I told her this, I said, even what makes him get on my nerves is what makes him so great for us to partner in the gospel. You still run up to me talking about I'll be working on a book or a song or something. He'd be like, are we ready to put it on Spotify?

I'm like, on Spotify, I hadn't even finished the verse yet. I don't even have a second verse. That's what makes us great. It's what God left out of me, what God left out of me he put in him. Now, don't get me wrong, you're complete in Christ. So if a person leaves you, God is always faithful. That's not what I'm saying. But when we said the disappointment, when we said the deficit, that's just the way you frame

it. The place of the deficit will be the place of deposit. That's why we carry the unleavened bread. That's why we still eat it just to remember, oh, God, well, I didn't have yeast in the bread then. I don't have money in the bank now. I don't have this wisdom here. I don't have this experience here.

That's why you carry around that bread, and that's why you eat it. To remind yourself that God's presence is often most evident in what he left out. We love to celebrate what he gives us. If you gave you a new house, praise him. I've received God's blessings in my home, in my cars, and all of those things. Sometimes what he left out makes it special. Sometimes you've got to leave with what you have. I don't mean leave your church, leave your marriage, leave your home.

Y'all quit misinterpreted my scripture before I can even post it on Facebook. I'm saying that in you, that's the grace space. What is that space for you? I'm not good at that. I didn't have a dad to teach me that. That's the grace. What God leaves out. I think of it musically.

You know I'm a songwriter. It took me a long time to say that, because I didn't think I was good at everything. But God surrounds you. Like L.J. came from Toronto. I needed someone who came and knew all of the hymns. And God sent us LJ. Praise God for him. He's amazing.

You're amazing. And all the people who used to sit on a piano playing when I was preaching, they were great, too. But then God sent us. LJ. And he's awesome. Play me real quick. I know this is way beyond your capabilities. I don't know all the right terms, but just play like a major scale. What key is that? D. What are the actual notes? Let's just do the numbers. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. I can play the notes. I just don't always know what to call. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. One, three, four, nine. Play it again? That's the major scale. Play me again. One, two, three, four. No, no, no, no.

Do it again. That's the first four notes, a major scale, the key of D. Leave out, play the one in the four. Do da-da-da-da-da. Play the other ones. Do it again. Five, six. And do again.

Drop to five. That's the six. Do the six. One, four, six, six. That sounds like something. Again, done. Just the one, four, and six. Dun, dun, da.

Ah, ah, amazing grace. One, four, six, six. Do all the notes again? That's a scale. Leave out the other ones, do the one four, see? That's a song. What turned the scale into a song wasn't what we put in. That's what we left out.

God said, I brought you out of Egypt, out of shame, out of sin. Leave it there. Leave the rabble there. Leave the regret there. Leave it out. Leave it out. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. So now, 1 Corinthians 5, 7 says, let us eat the unleavened bread and get rid of the old

yeast so that you may be a new unleavened badge. Here's the anointed part, as you really are. All that other stuff, somebody make this confession. That's Egypt. That's not me. All that pig slop that's on you when you come right, leave that out. Take that off and leave that out. For this next season of your life, all you need is the robe from your father's closet,

the ring on your finger, and somebody get ready for some unleavened bread. I am about to feast this year on the faithfulness of God. How many of you have that flatbread faith? That one stone faith. That I know who I am and I'm chosen faith. Yeah, that little boy with five loaves and two fish. If you've got flatbread faith, if you've got a praise that is not dependent on a circumstance. Give it to him right now.

Come on, it's a grace space. That's where grace goes. That's where the anointing goes. That's where the wisdom of the spirit goes. Right there. Right there. In your ignorance, that's the space for grace. Right there in your uncertainty.

That's the space for grace. Right there in your addiction. That's the space for grace. Right there in your heartbreak. They left you because of your own. They were not of you. And God is bringing something better in the gray space. The grace space that you are always with me.

And all that you have is mine. So whatever you didn't put in me, you want to fill it yourself? Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! And no, I don't have enough yeast.

Yeah, but I don't even want Egypt's yeast. I'm moving forward toward Canaan's grapes. I told you last week, there is always a funeral before the feast. And what God is removing from you right now, it was just taking up too much space. I'm not driving a Mack truck of a Bible verse over your pain. I would never do that. Yes, we cry, yes, we hurt, yes, we struggle. I'm doing some of that right now in my life. I call that grieving Egypt. That's all right. But so now I'm going to let the grief of Egypt cost me the grapes of Canaan? No. There are hired men in my father's house with food to spare, and here I am starving to death. Get it out. Get it out. Get the resentment out this year.

Yeah, they treated you bad. They treated you like crap. What are you going to do, beat them up in the mental gymnasium of your own misery, and eventually they're going to get a transported signal that you're mad and it's going to, no, you're going to get an ulcer, an ulcer, and a doctor bill. So all the rabble, all the things we mentioned, all the things, when God is bringing something that we love, that we want, we lose something in the process. But all that he has is yours, all that he has is yours.

So you lack nothing. You lack nothing. I know I didn't get to all my deeds that I said, I don't even remember the last one, I said, but lift your hands right now. Everyone's standing. I think we need to receive this message actively. Yeast is an active ingredient. So activate your faith for a moment.

I'm serious, man. Your imagination is so crowded and cluttered. It's ridiculous. God gave you a big life, a big vision, but some stuff got to be. to go now. And I don't know what flesh this will wear for you what I'm about to say, but why every time that God makes space in your life to do what you asked him to do, why do you fill it right back with something he didn't give you before he can send it? Keep cramming your day like that. What are you doing? You're starving to death? Your father has plenty of food. Just

make room. Why are you already leaving the service in your mind? Why are you already back? You're already closing YouTube. You're already... Why not let this be a grace space? Why are you standing looking into heaven, Jesus asked the disciples? The angel said the same Jesus, he's coming back. You focused on the wrong thing. Why do you want to go back to Pharaoh's fish when you can have Canaan's graves? But in the meantime, listen, this is where we are.

We're in between, right? We don't have it yet. He promised it, but we're not really experiencing it yet. That's all right. That's why he gave you the flat bread. Flat bread travels better. You can eat it and remember that the kingdom of heaven is inside of you. Lift those hands again, but not like you're giving God something.

Lift it like you're reading it from his perspective, where heaven said all that I have is yours. I want you to keep your hands lifted. We rush so bad and our rush robs us of our revelation. trying to show you something right now. Lift your hands. I want one of my singers just to begin to minister to you right now, whatever's in your heart. Make a throne, make a throne, make a space, make a space. Make a praise, make a praise. Thank you, Lord, thank you Lord. That's the voice of the Father over you. He didn't leave you. He's here in the valley, in the mountain. In the winter, in the spring. He's the ever-present God. Receive it, receive it, receive it.

He says, you can have my joy. If you make room for it. Yeah. Here I am. Yeah, he didn't leave you. I promise you. He's running toward you. He's running toward you.

You can have his peace. You can have his joy. You can have his healing. You can have freedom. Why would you go back to fish? You can have freedom. Come on, you've got to believe this. This is how he feels about it.

You can have it all. Here I am. Make room for him. Get the shame out. Get the yeast out. Get the leaven out. Get the unbelief out. I'm not going to pile more on you.

But one thought that I had was when Paul said one time, make room in your hearts for us. He said that to the church that he didn't get to personally be with, but he wanted to share in God's word with them. I feel that way about you. If we've never personally met, it's still such a privilege to partner with you in the gospel and to hopefully provide you with words that come from God so that you can do what he's called you to do and be all that he's called you to be.

I just want to let you know we love you. And thank you for sharing. Thank you for giving. Your faithfulness is amazing. I feel so grateful to be the pastor of this movement. I'm excited about what God is speaking to us as the year has already started so strong as we're making room to receive. Have you done that in your life? How can you do that this week? How can you apply what you just heard in the message in a way that will give God the opportunity to lavish you

with His grace? I pray that for you. Holly and I love you. We'll see you next time. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.