transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:01] Hey, this is Steven Furtick. 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.

Speaker 2:
[00:09] Hope it builds your faith.

Speaker 1:
[00:10] Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Speaker 2:
[00:13] Enjoy the message. How many are ready for the Word of God today?

Speaker 3:
[00:20] Hey, hey, we have 2,000 people in Houston, Texas. Let's welcome them. How many in Houston are ready for the Word of God today? Yes, Lord.

Speaker 2:
[00:32] It's going to be a good day. You know how you can know that?

Speaker 1:
[00:36] Look who you're sitting next to.

Speaker 2:
[00:37] Why would God sit you next to somebody that good-looking if it wasn't going to be a good day?

Speaker 1:
[00:43] Praise the Lord.

Speaker 2:
[00:47] I am going to be sharing today from Exodus, chapter 4.

Speaker 1:
[00:51] Please remain standing for the Word of God.

Speaker 2:
[00:53] The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord stands forever. Y'all need to learn the Bible better so you can quote it when I quote it. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord stands forever. Amen.

Speaker 1:
[01:08] The Word of the Lord in Exodus, chapter 4, may be a familiar Scripture, but there is one thing I want to highlight for your life today.

Speaker 2:
[01:15] By the way, if you're watching online, just put in the comments. I'm here. Let us know that you're joining too. If you're here in person, just go ahead and shout it at me too. Say, I'm here. I'm awake. I had my coffee, and I want to break through. When we see this meeting in Exodus 4, we are walking in to the middle of a mess. That's where God likes to work the most. Exodus 4, verse one. Moses answered, What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, The Lord did not appear to you? And then the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? A staff, he replied. The Lord said, Throw it on the ground. I feel like he probably hollered at him, because it's a pretty weird thing he's asking him to do here, so the Lord said it with confidence. Throw it on the ground. Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. Uh-oh, this is getting worse, not better. When your staff becomes a snake, it looks like you're going backwards when you need God to comfort you. A staff, he replied, and the Lord said, Throw it on the ground. Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Well, that makes sense.

Speaker 3:
[02:51] I would do that too.

Speaker 2:
[02:52] But then the Lord said, Reach out your hand and take it by the tail. So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. This, said the Lord, is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, this is so that they may believe that that God has appeared to you. Now, drop down, please, to verse number 17, because God gives him two more signs to show him that he's with him, that he's to perform in the palace before Pharaoh and in the desert before the Israelites, but Moses argues with God. He even tries to say, I'm not a very good speaker. How can I tell Pharaoh to let your people go when I'm not even eloquent? Well, the Lord said, I'm not asking you to take a speech class. I'm asking you to take a faith step. Because I don't need your ability, I need your availability. Who is that for today? Right. But let me show you one more thing. When God tells Moses, well, I'm going to give you your brother Aaron, he's going to help you since you can't do it alone.

Speaker 1:
[04:07] I've already got your partner lined up.

Speaker 2:
[04:09] But watch this in verse 17, he says, but take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it. So you can perform the signs with it. And then go to verse 19. Now the Lord had said to Moses and Midian, go back to Egypt for all those who wanted to kill you are dead. So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. I love that. Today the Lord told me to give you a word. And the word is this, it still works. Hallelujah. God woke me up this morning at 4 in the morning and said, just get ready to tell somebody, it still works.

Speaker 3:
[05:04] So I got good news for you today. The Lord said it still works.

Speaker 2:
[05:15] Touch all seven people you can reach and say it still works.

Speaker 3:
[05:21] It still works. It still works.

Speaker 2:
[05:26] And you may be seated. On your way to your seat, shout, it still works. It still works. Let's talk about this for a moment.

Speaker 3:
[05:38] What a job.

Speaker 2:
[05:40] What a job. Right? We understand Moses' hesitation because we understand that he's over his head. You mean you want me to go to the most powerful man in the world and tell him to let your people go who have been in Egypt for 430 years? Wow. We understand his hesitation. We have grace for Moses' need for clarification when he says, what if they don't believe in me? I mean, of course, you would wonder that if they had rejected you 40 years earlier. Do you remember how the story of Moses begins? He's put in a basket and he is discovered by Pharaoh's daughter, but he is raised as an Egyptian. So he is Egyptian by background, but he's Hebrew by birth. This presents a conflict because to be an Egyptian is one thing, to be a Hebrew is another, but Moses is both. Because Moses is both, he is uniquely positioned to do this job. But Moses, like many of us, has been spending years of his life paying the price of regret for a mistake that he made earlier with the passion that he did not know how to manage. Because God had put it in his heart for a long time to help his people, but one day when he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, he killed the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. The next day, two Hebrews were fighting, and he said, why are y'all fighting? Y'all are supposed to be on the same side. I wish we could preach some of that in politics today. I wish we could preach some of that in the church today. We're supposed to be on the same side. Really? Y'all are fighting? One of them turned to him with an attitude and said, you're going to kill me like you did the Egyptian? Moses ran to Midian because he said, what I did must have become known. And he ran and he ran and he ran and he ran until a well appeared. Moses' name means drawn out of water. And isn't it interesting that he met his wife drawing water for her from a well? He finds out that her father's name is Jethro, and he settles in tending sheep for Jethro. But now God has a job for Moses that is bigger than Jethro. And God says, I need you to go. And Moses says, I don't know if they'll believe this. First of all, who am I to go to Pharaoh? And secondly, who are you? Why do I tell them about all of this? So as we settle into the text, we understand that it's a mess. Because Moses is a murderer who's being turned into a messenger. And that's always messy when God gives you an assignment that contradicts your current understanding of your identity. Because whenever God gives you something to do, you will try to overlay who you think you are onto what he's called you to do. But Moses is about to find out that God works in crazy ways. Now, as much as I respect Moses' decision to do what God called him to do, we need to be direct about the fact that he doubted God. He doubted God so much that God became angry with him. But God's anger did not cancel the assignment. God simply sent him forward in power as he leaned on his staff. I'm gonna talk about the staff in a moment, but I wanna make this personal first of all. A few years ago, I had something that God had called me to do, and I became very intimidated about it, and I had a bad attitude about it, but I did it anyway. After I did it, I was driving home, and God had so handled all the things that I was worried about that I didn't even have to deal with them when I got there. So I felt grateful, but I also felt guilty, because I had made it to be this huge thing in my mind. I mean, how many of you have done this before? I made it to be this huge thing in my mind, like, oh, I gotta call my coach and tell him I'm not coming back next year and my coach is gonna kill me. Your coach isn't gonna kill you. Your coach is just gonna say thank you, but you make it out to be this huge thing in your mind. You make it out to be something so much bigger than it is, and then a lot of times, God just deals with Jezebel and you never even have to. It almost made me feel so guilty about my attitude that I couldn't even enjoy the achievement of doing the thing God had called me to do. It's like when you take your kids on a vacation, but now you're gonna have to send them to therapy to deal with the way that you acted on vacation. Come on, talk to me.

Speaker 3:
[10:26] Talk to me or I'll prophesy.

Speaker 2:
[10:30] It's the feeling of like, God, I'm so sorry, so I was coming home in my car and it just went so beautifully, but I had been so burdened about it and I just felt bad about it and I couldn't even enjoy how good it went because I felt so guilty. I was like, I had such a bad attitude, and the Lord showed me something. Sometimes great faith is taking the right action with a bad attitude. I'm going to say it again for the note takers. Sometimes great faith is taking the right action with a bad attitude. As I was praying to the Lord, I was like, I'm so sorry I had such a bad attitude. You took care of it. You handled it. I didn't even have to worry about it. God, I was so worried. I was so stressed. I complained so much, and then you just did it. I'm so sorry, God, that I doubted you. It was like the Lord spoke to me. He said, You're embarrassed because you doubted. I'm proud because you did it. I don't know who is for, but the heart of the father wanted to say that to you today. That you have been beating yourself up so much about your doubts, that you are not even celebrating how much you have done and how far you have come and how many ways you have changed because all you keep focusing on is, God, I'm so sorry that I had such a bad attitude. God, I'm so sorry that I blew up at the kids like that. Well, at least you didn't kill them. I mean, at least they're still here. The Bible says if you train up a child in the way that they should go when they're old, they won't depart from it. That means all you have to do is not kill them, and God will fix it in the meantime.

Speaker 3:
[12:12] Just let them live. Somebody shall let them live. Some days that's all you can do is just to say, Hey, I didn't do that perfectly, but I did it. The first point of my message is sometimes you have to do it doubting.

Speaker 2:
[12:30] Sometimes you have to do it doubting. Notice in the text that Moses' first response to the assignment is not gratitude. Moses' first response to the assignment is not to receive it, but to run. Just in case you're dealing with something in your life right now, and you're looking at it like a snake on the ground that God has told you to grab by the tail, that's okay. It is natural to run from something that you have never seen in this form before. I am concerned that you are beating yourself so much up about your fear that you have not properly contextualized the magnitude of the faith that it took for you to be where you are. I want to tell you one time, I don't like when I go to church when the preacher just tells me I'm doing good and makes me feel good. I just need the preacher to step on my toes. Just slap me in the face, just spank me a little bit. I'm like, dude, that's not my gig. I don't know what you… You need to call somebody else for all that you just mentioned. Maybe it's because everything I ever did for God, I did it doubting. Every sermon I ever preached to you, my hands were shaking while I held my pen. I'll show you my handwriting, and you'll believe me then. You'll say, Pastor Steven would have been a serial killer in another life. Look at that handwriting. You'd be psychoanalyzing me. No, it's because I had to do it doubting. You know, Graham, I think Exodus 4, 1 is my whole preaching life verse, because this is the verse that I felt the most preaching up here. What if they don't believe me or listen to me? I wish my biggest preaching verse was Isaiah 6, 8. Here am I, send me. But really, my preaching verse, how I feel is, what if they don't believe me or listen to me? Now, I want to start this sermon this way, because I'm going to encourage you in a moment about the things in your life that look impossible to you right now. Let me be less vague than that. The current thing in your life that you are doubting about. I don't even necessarily mean you're doubting God. I might just be doubting you. I don't even mean that you doubt that God is good. I just mean that you feel like you are not good enough. Everything that I have ever done for God, I have never felt good enough to do. Do with that what you will. Judge me if you want to. Make fun of me if you want. Tell me that I should have more confidence in Christ if you must. But everything I ever did for God, I did it doubting. Every song I ever wrote from the Lord, I did feeling like a bad singer. Every chord I ever strummed to write a hymn for our church to sing, I did it wishing that I knew more music theory. You don't understand what I'm saying. Everything I ever did for God, every time I ever played back one of my preaching clips and listened to it, I had to cringe to find the clip, because I didn't even like the way I sounded. Everything I ever did for God, I did it doubting, but I did it.

Speaker 3:
[15:47] But I did it.

Speaker 2:
[15:49] Sometimes great faith is not eliminating doubt. It is looking at doubt right in the face and telling doubt, you can sit in the passenger seat, but you can't drive, because we're doing this.

Speaker 3:
[16:04] High five, somebody. Say, I'm doing this.

Speaker 2:
[16:07] There's a whole word in this right now.

Speaker 3:
[16:09] Do it doubting, but do it.

Speaker 2:
[16:11] Do it afraid, but do it.

Speaker 3:
[16:13] Do it with suicidal thoughts, but do it. Live another day thinking you don't deserve to be on the earth, but live another day. Take another breath feeling anxious, but take another breath. Give God a praise not feeling a goose bump, but lift your hands. Lift your hands with your shoulder hurting, but lift your hands. Lift your hands with a bad back, but lift your hands. Do it, and I'll tell you something.

Speaker 2:
[16:39] Worship will work whether you feel it or not.

Speaker 3:
[16:43] I said worship will work whether you feel it or not. Tell somebody it'll work. It'll work. Worship still works. Worship still works when it's the middle of the night and there's nobody around to listen to you cry, and you cry out to God saying, When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. It'll work. It'll work.

Speaker 2:
[17:12] I know it will work because the people of God in Exodus chapter 4 had been enslaved for four centuries, and Moses has been in exile for four decades. But this text pops up into the transitional moment to remind us that it still works. Because God said to Moses, watch this, the cries of my people have reached heaven. What's he saying? I heard. I heard. And even as the burdens of the people grew heavier, God says, I heard. See, you think when it doesn't happen, God didn't hear. So, for all of those years that Moses tended sheep and thought, it's over, I blew it. For all those years that you thought, if I could just go back and do it different, I would. For all of those years that you have thought it was over, for all of those years that they prayed, the people prayed, God sent us a deliverer. God sent us a sign.

Speaker 3:
[18:11] God set us free.

Speaker 2:
[18:13] God came down to Moses to say, it worked. So, I want to remind you today that your prayers aren't pointless, even if you don't have proof that they're heard. Please write that down and put it somewhere you can see it when the enemy tries to tell you it's not working this week. My prayers are not pointless. Even if I have no proof, they have been heard. God might be multitasking some things in your life right now. God might be setting some things up for a generation from now that you don't know about. God might need you to help somebody in the future, so you have to go through hell right now so you can help them later. God heard you. Oh, I feel anointed today, and I'm not even saying I'm anointed for everybody in the room. Maybe just for three people, maybe for 300, maybe for somebody in the back, maybe for somebody in overflow. But the Lord said, it's not pointless. My prayers are not pointless because my God has a plan. Keep praying for your babies. Keep praying about what's going on that the doctors can't figure out. Keep praying about it. It's not pointless. This is what Exodus 4 teaches me, is that God's lack of activity does not mean God's absence. Just because he is not active in the way I have prescribed for him to be does not mean his purpose isn't working. It still works. Say it again.

Speaker 1:
[19:46] It still works.

Speaker 2:
[19:48] This sermon has three points, but it's really only one point. It still works. Even if you do it doubting, it works. Isn't it just amazing that if you go in the weight room and lift weights and you lift them hard enough, you'll get stronger whether you wanted to go in the weight room or not? Because it still works if you didn't want to. Isn't that the case? Is that true? If I put my body under the right amount of stress with the right form for the right amount of time under tension, my body will respond to that, whether or not I had the feeling and the motivation that I wanted to do it. Godly exercise profited little, but godliness has great value, and it means that it still works. Come to church, listen, go, I didn't get anything out of that. Well, first of all, that's your fault, because I study. But secondly, you don't even know that yet. What if it went in like a seed and it's going to come up like an oak at a later season in your life? It still works. Now, you may go through winter, but every winter yields to spring. It still works. I can't hardly get off of point number one, and I don't know why. There must be somebody in here who needed to be reminded that you can do it doubting, that you can pray with chains still on your feet. You can praise with shackles still on your hands. Ask Paul and Silas. I said ask Paul and Silas. They were fastened in the inner cell. That's the hardest place to get out of. But ask Paul and Silas if you sing at midnight, even when you don't see anything happening, even when you have no proof that the chains are starting to weaken.

Speaker 3:
[21:39] If you will worship in this situation…

Speaker 2:
[21:42] And I'm saying in this moment right now. So, sometimes you have to do it doubting, and number two, sometimes you have to do it delayed. Delayed. Do you know what I mean by delayed? God asks you to do something on this Tuesday that is only gonna make sense in two years. Or maybe I could say it like this. God tells you to pick up a snake by the tail. That is the exact wrong way. Not that I have ever picked up snakes, although there is probably some account that says we do it every Sunday in our church along with our baptism water slide that we have that I have never seen before except Photoshop. But I never did it. But I know if I did it, I wouldn't do it like that. I wouldn't do it like that. But see, this is the pattern. Let me preach. This is what God is trying to show Moses. Is that like, I grab you the way I want to. I grab you in a way that doesn't make sense. I use things that don't make sense to get your attention. Please write this down. God's sovereign plan does not always make practical sense. God's sovereign plan. The plan that he has marked out before time began. Remember, God was working this deliverance narrative in his people's life to foreshadow the work that Jesus Christ would do on the cross, so that when Jesus would show up, he would lead not only through the cross that he died on, but through the life that he lived, he would lead us to freedom as our true Moses. Knowing that, we understand that God is working things out in a way that seemed weird to us. I'm at the point in my life where I'm willing to be weird if it works.

Speaker 1:
[24:12] You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2:
[24:16] In order to grab this snake by the tail… Just imagine this. Moses is like, all right, you want me to do what? Okay, no. And he runs, and he resists for a little while. But remember, great faith sometimes is doing it delayed. Okay, so he wastes some time, not only running from the snake, but he's been 40 years running from his assignment. Forty years, and God shows up to say, I'm going to do it through you anyway. I break the spirit of accusation over your life that has told you it's too late. I break the spirit of accusation over your life that says you can't get it back. I break the spirit of condemnation over your life that says that you cannot become what God has called you to be. I break the spirit of condemnation that tries to stamp you with your worst mistake, because the life of Moses tells me that my past mistake is not my permanent verdict.

Speaker 3:
[25:18] That's what it shows me. When I say past mistake, I mean, it could be five years ago.

Speaker 2:
[25:24] It could be five minutes ago. But that will not define me, because God has a plan for me. God has a plan for the things I did right. God has a plan for the things I did wrong. God has a plan for my doubts, just as much as God has a plan for my bold declarations of faith. Moses picks up the snake by the tail, but not at first. Moses is used as a messenger, but before he's a messenger, he's a murderer. I just want to remind you that God makes all things beautiful in his time. Sometimes you have to do it on a delay and just pray stuff like, God, I pray that you would make up for the time that I wasted. God, I pray that you would put me on an accelerated course. God, I pray that you would put me in summer school so I can graduate with all my friends.

Speaker 3:
[26:18] God, I pray that you would just give me the grace, God.

Speaker 2:
[26:20] God says, okay, because once Moses got on the same page with God, it only took 10 plagues for God to do what he was going to do. It's not going to take as long as you think it's going to take. It's not going to take everything you think it's going to take, because sometimes God does it on a delay, and that means you've got to praise him in advance in case he does it on delay, because you don't know. You don't know. The Lord anointed me to preach today that sometimes you have to do it on a delay. Do it on a delay. I mean, we all get stuck in the past sometimes. I've been stuck in the past a lot lately, just in a fun way, actually. I've been going around buying records, albums, LPs, vinyl. I've probably bought about 300 in the last year. It's getting ridiculous. I'm going to tell you why it's getting ridiculous, because I already had all that stuff on my phone, and now I'm spending money on what I already subscribed to Spotify to hear. But it's something comforting about it. So I've been buying records. Now I don't want you to think I'm older than I am. When I grew up, records were on the way out. We had cassette tapes. And then, get ready to shout. Every boomer in the house just shout right now. Gen X just shout right now. Everybody make some noise.

Speaker 3:
[28:04] Put your hands up. If you know anything, put your hands up.

Speaker 2:
[28:09] Now you may say to me, like the Lord said to Moses, what is that in your hand? Come here, Graham. Come here. Come here. Come here. All right. This is a boombox.

Speaker 3:
[28:23] And not only that, but this is a Sanyo boombox with a cassette deck and everybody say and because Moses was a Hebrew and an Egyptian. This is a cassette and CD player. This is the first CD player that I ever owned.

Speaker 2:
[28:53] But this is not the original because I got rid of mine, because I thought it was obsolete. Sometimes, you need to hang around with your old stuff, and sometimes you need to be careful not selling something that you might want to buy back later. Because I went on eBay and I found this exact model of the boombox, and I plugged it in, and the lights came on, and I got excited, and I put the CD in because I've been buying those two. I only bought about 100 of those in the last year, and I've been buying those two. I don't know if midlife is just stressing me out to the point that I just need every escape valve. Hey, there are worse midlife crises than CDs and records, so if I keep it to vinyl, I'm doing very good. Tell somebody he's doing very good. I'm doing really good. I turned it on, and I put the CD in, and it didn't work. It didn't work. But I mean, what else would you expect? It's been around since 1994. Who knows what kind of devil music has been played in this machine? The Lord shut it down. It didn't work. Just as I was about to put it up, because it was no refunds. The seller told me that up front. Forty bucks is gone. I remember that just because one thing doesn't work, hold it up, doesn't mean it's worthless. So I went and found a cassette. I've been collecting those too lately. Sometimes you have to reach back to where God brought you from. I found a cassette tape from Jackson Memorial Baptist Church. 8-9-31, Highway 11, Campo Bello, South Carolina, 2-9-322. It says Steven, October 29, the year 2000. I'll tell you about Y2K later. We almost lost everything.

Speaker 3:
[31:19] You think the Red Sea was a miracle?

Speaker 2:
[31:21] Wait until I tell you about Y2K, boy, when I tell you what the Lord did for us in Y2K. And I put it in, and at first I started to cringe, because listen to me preaching in the year 2000 in Campo Bello, South Carolina. You've heard me preach in California, but you never heard my anointing work in Campo Bello. I want you to understand that the same anointing that works in California was working in Campo Bello. Listen to this with my… Can y'all hear that?

Speaker 1:
[32:01] It's good enough. That's my mentality nowadays.

Speaker 3:
[32:05] It's good enough. Hey, it might not be the way I like it.

Speaker 1:
[32:07] It might not be my personal preference. There's a bit of sense to me, but it's good enough. I'm going to take some notes, and I'm going to learn what I can from it, because praise is a privilege.

Speaker 3:
[32:17] It's a privilege to be in church.

Speaker 2:
[32:18] Yes, it is.

Speaker 1:
[32:18] It is a privilege to be in this church with you guys this morning.

Speaker 2:
[32:23] Yeah. Not a single amen.

Speaker 3:
[32:27] But I was preaching.

Speaker 2:
[32:30] About 15 people in the church, but I was preaching. I didn't know anything I was talking about, but I was preaching. We were all stocking up on bottled water and ramen noodles for the apocalypse to come, but I was preaching. I wonder, did the Lord want to give us a message today from this cassette tape from a boombox that didn't work, but it did work with a word that I have been preaching because I realized, listened to myself preaching with a country accent in Tampa, Bellows, South Carolina in 2026 that I have been preaching the same book for 30 years.

Speaker 3:
[33:15] I preached it with twang, and I preached it in small spaces, and I preached it on tapes, and I preached it on CDs, and I preached it on podcasts, and I preached it on YouTube, and I preached it on Roku, and I preached it on Apple TV, and I've been preaching one book and believe in one book for 30 years and I came to announce it still works. I said it still works. I said it still works. Fake still works. Fake still works. Grace still works. Gratitude still works. Hallelujah still works. Thank you, Jesus, still works. It still works. If you know what I'm talking about, wave your hand and say it works for me. It's been working for me a long time, and it still works. It still works.

Speaker 2:
[34:18] I got some doubts I didn't have then, but it still works.

Speaker 3:
[34:22] I got some unanswered questions, but it still works. My faith is not having the answer. My faith is putting my hand in the hand of a man who does. It still works. Y'all don't get it.

Speaker 2:
[34:39] I'm trying to say that the method has changed, but the message is the same.

Speaker 3:
[34:45] It still works.

Speaker 2:
[34:50] And I'm trying to say, don't let what doesn't work in your life keep you from using what does.

Speaker 3:
[35:00] And I'm trying to say that what God gave you then is good enough to get you through. So tell somebody, it'll work. It'll work. It'll work. It'll work. Won't it work? I said, won't it work? Not if you don't work it.

Speaker 2:
[35:37] If you're like, this is weird. Thank you, sit down, take the boombox with you. Take that staff with you. So when you get to Egypt, you can throw it on the ground and watch what it'll become. Throw it on the ground. See, now, give me the cassette tape back. I want to show this all the way. I heard a testimony the other day, and we always say, God, help us, Jesus. I never said I was a good dad. I never said I taught my kids important things. You can't open the cassette tape. How are you going to run a revival?

Speaker 3:
[36:21] How are you going to be anointed by God and you can't play a tape?

Speaker 2:
[36:27] Love that boy. I bleached my hair too. My hair ain't black anymore, but my anointing still works. Okay, I'm going to tell you this and I'll start thinking about finishing my sermon. Tell somebody it still works. I was amazed that the moon box still worked. I was amazed that there was part of it that did work and choosing to say I'm going to use it. I was amazed when I put the tape in and I was like, yo, listen to that kid, 20 years old, hollering at those people. Tell them it's a privilege to be here in church.

Speaker 3:
[37:11] Privilege to praise God.

Speaker 2:
[37:12] Amen. I need to bring some of that back. I need to bring some of that country preaching back in this church.

Speaker 3:
[37:18] It still works.

Speaker 2:
[37:23] Well, I got testimony that confirmed this message, because I'm always trying to make sure that I have the word that the Lord wants me to deliver. Now, back in the day, you had to wait six weeks before you could get a sermon. They had to mail it to you on tape. Now people can just watch online, and sometimes it still takes a delay before I know how God uses a word. There was a word that I preached from Exodus, chapter 4, 10 years ago called Handle It. Real tight, skinny jeans, running around the stage, preaching on. Pick up the snake by the tail, because that's weird. I was trying to say, it's only weird until it works. Trusting God, holding out.

Speaker 1:
[37:59] You're a virgin?

Speaker 2:
[38:00] That's weird. No, it works, because I'm protecting myself, because I know the value God has put on my life, so it works. Look, some of the things that work in God's kingdom look completely weird to the world, but forgiveness still works. Even if it doesn't fix them, it will free you.

Speaker 1:
[38:26] You see what I mean?

Speaker 2:
[38:27] That's weird, but it works. It's weird to grab a snake by the tail, but it works. It's weird. I was thinking about another one. It's weird for us to give to God so that our church can do outreaches, so that our church can reach the world, so that our church can preach the gospel. That is weird, but you find out that God doesn't need what you have. You need what he has when you give, and it allows you to access your faith. People are like, you give your money to that church? I give it to God through a church. You understand? I'm giving this to God, and that works for me, because it keeps me free from being mastered by money. That's weird, but it works. I honestly always thought it was weird to put our sermons online. When we first started doing that, I thought that was weird, and I thought it wouldn't work. I even made that argument. I told a brother one time, I don't have that gift to look into a camera and preach. You know, man, I came from Campobello. Only reason I remembered, I listened to the tape, the only reason I preached at Campobello was because the maintenance man at the college I was attending at the time had fixed my shower for me, and he said, now that I fixed your shower, you have to come preach at my church. I said, deal. So when you come from Campobello preaching like that, it's hard to get our mind around the fact that so many people are logged on right now, and I want you to put where you're watching from on YouTube right now. And I want to do this illustration, because see, the methods have changed, but the methods have… I messed that up, didn't I? The methods have changed. The message has not. Amen. And if you go on right now, people are watching from, I mean, all over the world. But sometimes I get a testimony from Alabama, from Michigan, from Denver, from San Diego. Y'all think I'm talking about me and preaching? I'm not. I'm talking about you and the challenge of your life right now that you feel insufficient for, and I'm trying to tell you, I've always doubted what I could do. And there have been times in my life I preached and felt nothing worked. Do you understand me? I went back and I prayed, God, what even was that? Well, 10 years ago, I was preaching the same passage. And a couple of years after that, there was a man in Greenville, South Carolina, who relayed his story to me, that he was in the middle of a horrible divorce. I said, he had a nine-millimeter on his coffee table, and he was in his apartment alone. And he didn't know what to do. And he said, I had this weird feeling. Something told me to plug up the Apple TV that my mom had brought over to my house a few days earlier. And so I did. And it felt weird. And then he said, after I plugged it in, trying to figure out, do I even want to be here? Something came up as I logged in on the screen, and it was a purple icon that said podcast, and I had never listened to a podcast. And something said, click it. And I clicked it. And then I clicked that purple icon that said podcast, and then an orange icon came up that said Elevation. And something said, click it. Listen to me. He said something said, click it. And he clicked it. And he said it was a sermon of a preacher I never heard of before saying, handle it. Handle it. And halfway through your sermon, you said you're sitting on the couch, and you're wondering, do I even want to be here? And God wanted you to know it's handled. Get up off the couch. He said, I got up and started walking around my apartment, and I can't explain exactly what happened that day. And I know it sounds weird, but God started working in my life. And it felt weird to plug up an Apple TV with a gun on the coffee table. But I plugged it up and it felt weird to reach down and grab a snake by the tail. And it feels weird for me to keep showing up, even though nobody appreciates me. And it feels weird for me to even be in church today, because honestly, I'm still struggling so much with my past. I can't even really focus on what you're saying right now. And it feels weird for me to believe that God could use me. He said, but I started walking around. And all I can tell you is that that day, that when I plugged in that TV and God hit me with that podcast, and it was a word that was preached 10 years ago from the exact Scripture that I am preaching to you today, all I can tell you is, it still works. With a gun on his coffee table, the Word of God was powerful enough to say, I see you.

Speaker 3:
[43:56] I got you. I got something for you. And the best part of his testimony is that he told me today he is a worship leader in a local church, because it still works. It works. Should somebody say, it works. It's always worked. And it still works. Come on, clap those hands and praise God like you know that the King of Glory is working in ways you can't see. You shall live and not die. It still works. In my darkest hour, it worked. In my lowest moment, it worked. In my most hopeless situation, it worked. Moses took that staff.

Speaker 2:
[45:04] I'm almost done. He picked it up, and it became a staff. When he got in front of Pharaoh, he and Aaron said, Watch this. Boom.

Speaker 3:
[45:12] It still worked.

Speaker 2:
[45:14] It not only worked in private, it worked in public.

Speaker 3:
[45:17] It still worked.

Speaker 2:
[45:19] When Pharaoh said, I'm not letting your people go, Moses said, All right. And he stuck up the staff and hails started falling out of the sky. Because no matter how much resistance you face, it still works. And when he still wouldn't let the people go, Moses pointed it and frogs covered the land. And when he still wouldn't let the people go, he pointed it and the Nile became blood. But there came a moment for Moses that is like the moment that most of us are in today. And it goes like this. You know it. The people of God have come out of Egypt. They are moving into their freedom as sons and daughters, but they are not yet free. They have to cross a body of water known as the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds. As they stand at that body of water, they hear the sound of 400 chosen chariots of Pharaoh, the Hitmen coming to bring them back. There would be no hope in this situation, even for the most well-suited army, much less millions of slaves and runaways on foot. What is the sound we hear behind us? We cried to the Lord to bring us out of Egypt, and here we are looking at a Red Sea. Moses is in an effort to do crowd control, because this is getting out of hand quickly as they begin to say, Why didn't you leave us in Egypt? Why didn't you leave us where we were? This is worse than where we came from. Sometimes you get there, man, with God. You're like, I'm trying to do what God called me to do, but it actually feels more difficult to do it God's way. At that very moment, Moses gives a speech, Exodus 14. Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.

Speaker 3:
[47:19] The Lord will fight for you.

Speaker 2:
[47:25] You need only to be still. Then the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? You know what to do. Tell the Israelites to plug in the Apple TV. Tell the Israelites to go back to quoting the Word of God. Tell the Israelites to wash their face and move on. Raise your stash and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. What I wanted to show you today from the Bible, leave the verse up, is that the same staff that was on the ground was the staff that was going to work in the water. The reason I wanted you to see that today is because the children of Israel had no point of reference for this red sea, had no way of knowing how God was going to do it. Maybe you don't either, and you're standing there saying, God, I feel like I've lost it. God, I feel like this is too much.

Speaker 3:
[48:50] God, I've never been this way before, and I don't know what to do. God says, you still got that staff, you still got that word, you still got that praise, you still got that gift. God said, it'll get you through this. It'll get you through it. It'll get you through the dry season. It'll get you through the panic attack. It'll get you through it. Because it still works. It worked on the ground.

Speaker 2:
[49:40] It'll work in the water. It worked when you were young.

Speaker 3:
[49:43] It'll work when you're old. Somebody shout, I've never seen the righteous forsaken. It'll work. It'll work in this season. It'll work when they like you. It'll work when they hate you. It'll work when they lie about you. It'll work when they leave you. I have a living testimony that the Word of God still works.

Speaker 1:
[50:09] Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now, or visit elevationchurch.org/podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.