Untitled Sermon (5)

I

am so excited to continue what I began to build last week about those times in our

lives, and we've all had them, whether we responded to them or not, where God calls

your name. And very specifically, I was talking about, sometimes in the Scripture,

where God called somebody by their name, And he said their name not once but twice.

And my point was that sometimes you are in a pivotal moment of your life where

it's your past versus your potential, your past versus your purpose.

And in those moments, sometimes God will use repetition to underscore the urgency of

what he has for you to hear. I believe there are many of us, maybe not all of us

who would find ourselves in a moment like that. And so today I want to continue

that from Exodus chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. And all the Bible school students

already know who we're talking about today. Somebody say, "Moses, Moses." We grew up

singing a song in church called "Farro Farro, Oh Baby, Let My People Go." And then

if you really got into it, you would go, "Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." It was to

the tune of Louie Louie. I don't want to get a copyright strike on YouTube, so I

won't sing it. But we would do that pharaoh, pharaoh, "Oh, baby, let my people go."

And then everybody would go, "Uh." And a quick story. One time I was 17 years old

just getting started in ministry, and I was leading that for the youth. And one of

the parents was really uptight, and she walked in, and she saw how I had all the

kids going uh and she said don't do that again that's not a holy that's not a

holy gesture I said lady it's just a uh but she was really special and sanctified

and holy in her own way.

Exodus chapter 3 somebody say Moses Moses now Moses was tending to the flock of

Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the far

side of the wilderness." Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was confirmation on my message, okay? "The far side of the wilderness, and came

to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in

flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire,

it did not burn up.

So Moses thought, "I'll go over and see this strange sight." It's crazy why the

bush does not burn up. I got to figure this out. This thing should be down to a

stub, but somehow it's still standing. This thing should be flickering out, but

somehow there's still a flame. This thing should be over, but somehow it's kept

going. And when he thought like that, just touch the person next to you and say,

"It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense why I'm still here." After

all of the times that I thought about quitting, it doesn't make any sense why I'm

still here. After all of the times that I tried to push God away, but he wouldn't

let me, it makes no sense why I'm here. and watch this when the Lord, verse 4,

saw that he had gone over to look. God called to him from within the bush,

Moses, Moses. Only one of seven times this happens in the Bible where he said the

name twice. And Moses said, "Here I am, Lord. Here I am." "And do not come any

closer," God said. "Take off your sandals for the place You are standing as holy

ground And then he said I am the God of your father the God of Abraham The God

of Isaac and the God of Jacob at this Moses hid his face because he was Afraid to

look at God and the Lord said I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt

I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned

about their suffering So I've Come down to rescue them from the hand of the

Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land.

This isn't going to be a midland. This is a good and spacious land. This isn't

going to be a cramped land. This is going to be a good and spacious land. A land

flowing won't be dry like the desert. It's going to be flowing with milk and honey,

the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parasites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and

now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the

Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go! I am sending you to Pharaoh Pharaoh to

tell him, "Oh, baby, let my people go." But Moses said,

"That's not very appropriate, God." I can't say that to Pharaoh. Verse 11,

"And I'll give you my subject for the day." Moses said to God, "Who am I?" This

is what I call the burning question.

Who am I? Not only the burning bush, but the burning question Who am I?

That I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt So the Lord gave

me a word for your insecurities today and for the things that you're dealing with

that are chapters in your life That feel like it's never gonna change and this is

what the Lord said move it to the middle

Touch your neighbor on your right or your left you choose and say move it to the

middle Touch your other neighbor that feels very very discouraged by your lack of

preference for them and Put it in the chat when you say it say move it to the

middle in Jesus name you may be seated move it to the middle

Okay,

four points to this message. I'm not going to preach it. I'm going to preach it

how the Lord gave it to me, like a prophecy.

Sometimes you've got to prophesy. Sometimes you don't need points. Sometimes you need

a prophecy where the Word of the Lord transcends human understanding and all rational

factual evidence and tells you what God says, and that's a shift in perspective that

we need to learn.

First part of this message might hurt a little bit, but I'll stitch you up before

lunch.

But I'll do it at my own expense, so maybe that'll make it better. We just got

back from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

As we were moving through the airport, Abby said, "I hope there's an update in a

few years where you can see projected over people's heads where they're going."

Now, apparently my daughter has been sneaking episodes of Black Mirror.

Apparently, we need more parental supervision over our 13 -year -old. And just about

the time I told her that's ridiculous, I thought it might actually happen.

Upon further questioning as to why she would want to see where someone was headed,

we looked around the airport and realized that everybody in the airport was carrying

and moving in what's commonly culturally called "main character energy." I don't know

if you've heard this phrase as something that is often encouraged to say, "Hey, You

got to own your story. You can't wait for other people to come rescue you. You

can't wait for somebody else to do it for you. You need that main character energy.

It's often used to speak of people who are very charismatic, driven, and disposed,

and biased toward action. They got main character energy. Maybe they just seem

special or something like that.

Moses was born with what might have been called character energy if the video game

had been invented by then. You know it's kind of a video game term. Everybody else

is just an NPC and you're the main character and everybody exists to help you on

your quest. And Moses when he was born was born in a very difficult circumstance.

And I like to break his life down into three 40 year stages to help you understand

this message today called move it to the middle. The first 40 years of Moses' life

were spent being raised as Pharaoh's daughter, though he was not Pharaoh's daughter.

At the time Moses was born as a Hebrew, the Hebrew boys were under tremendous

threat. Pharaoh had decided that their presence represented a threat to him, and so

each of the Hebrew born boys were to be murdered and thrown into the Nile River.

The Hebrew women were so vigorous in giving birth, the midwives could not allow them

not to live. They would have the baby before the midwife would show up and carry

out the assassination plot. This presented an opportunity for some of the children

that were born during that time to live when they should have died. Moses was one

of them. The Bible says that he was no ordinary child. When his parents saw that

he was special, they did something kind of cool. They made a basket and floated him

down the Nile River. It just so happened at that point in time that Pharaoh's

daughter was out there kind of cleaning, doing some Nile River activities.

(audience laughing) And seeing how beautiful the baby was, she decided to take him

in as her own.

And needing a nurse for the baby, she located the nearest nurse she could find,

which happened to be Moses' mother.

You can see how this presents not only a sense of Moses' uniqueness,

but perhaps a sense of loneliness as well. Whereas he grows up, you could say that

he is a Hebrew in nature and an Egyptian in nurture.

He is an Israelite baby in nature, in an environment of Egypt in which he's being

nurtured. The first 40 years of his life go this way. And one day,

Moses takes a trip. In fact, rather than tell you this, let me just read this to

you. I think it'd be good if we read it for a moment. If you go over to Acts

chapter 7, we can summarize the life of Moses from the speech of Stephen.

Now Stephen was an apostle in the New Testament church who was being stoned, not

recreationally.

But in all seriousness, he He was persecuted for his faith in Jesus and his face

shown as they stoned him. He was shining with something from the inside,

even as he was being killed on the outside. And in giving his speech to the people

who are stoning him and accusing them of missing Jesus, the Messiah, when he came

to save them, he goes into a little history lesson about Moses. and I thought it

would be great for us to pick it up right in verse 20. He goes back thousands of

years and says, at that time, Moses was born and he was no ordinary child.

For three months he was cared for by his family and when he was placed outside,

Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated

in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful and speech, and action.

I wanted to read that verse because often Moses is presented to us as being a

bumbling, stumbling idiot because when God called him, he was like, I don't talk too

good, Lord. So we kind of made Moses this Bubba who was born in a basket missing

the point that he spent the first 40 years of his life, not only as a survivor,

but a student in the most powerful position of his day, and all that background is

going to play into what I'm going to tell you in a moment. But move down to verse

23, because this moves us into the second phase of Moses' life. The Bible says when

Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. He saw

one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged

him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that

God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. He thought that he would be

helpful, but they hated him for being helpful. He thought he was doing something

significant, but it ended up that what he did that he thought was significant

actually became the end of his time in Egypt. Verse 26 says,

"The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting." He tried to

reconcile them by saying, men, you are brothers. Why you want to hurt each other?

But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said,

who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed

the Egyptian day, uh -oh, when Moses heard this, he fled to Midian,

where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. Verse 30,

"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a

burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai." We just read about this in Exodus

chapter three, But when we read about it in Exodus chapter 3, we missed a crucial

bit of context I want us to come back to for a moment. In Exodus chapter 3,

verse 1, it says, "Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father -in -law,

the priest of Midian." But in Acts chapter 7, verse 30,

we learn, "After forty years I passed. So what is presented in one sentence in

Exodus 3 took four decades from Moses' perspective at the time it happened.

Everybody in your life is in the middle of something.

Our tendency is to treat people according to where to where we meet people.

This is the part I told you would be challenging. Some of us, if we meet somebody

and it seems like they're in a position to help us, we are good to those who we

think are good for us. Some of us, if we meet people and we see them as a

liability to our social credibility or maybe a liability to our time or our energy,

We have a tendency to treat people according to where we meet people. Christian

maturity does not treat people according to where you meet people. Christian maturity

never judges the man by the moment. Let me be inclusive.

Never judges the woman by the moment. Never judges the book by the chapter.

Never judges the potential of someone by the problem they are currently carrying.

So you find in life two different approaches. Main character energy, which is kind

of like, "I'm focused on what I'm doing. I'm focused on what I'm becoming. I'm

focused on my goals." And sadly, a lot of this gets pedaled into church as

spiritual growth, but it is not sanctification because sanctification and self -help

sometimes are little different. Self -help is sometimes about what you can do for you

to reach the goal you set without God.

Sanctification starts with God's goal that he wants to do that is much bigger than

what you see right now.

Moses did it his way. He became a murderer. Moses did it God's way. He was a

messenger. All I'm trying to get you to see is that it's a matter of perspective.

Tell somebody, "Move it to the middle." Come on. Tell the person on either side of

you, "Move it to the middle." Tell both of them in case the first one doesn't like

it. Tell the second one, "So you've got a backup plan. Move it to the middle."

"Amy, I'll never forget something you said to me. We got cut off by somebody in

traffic. This has been years ago. I never forgot it." Amy lives her life with

whatever is the opposite of main character energy. She lives her life with Christ

-like nature, and I guess that's the opposite of main character energy. It's not like

she's a side character. She's just more Christ -like than me. And I was talking

about the person who cut us off in traffic in a certain way. It wasn't very

mindful of their potential in Christ or their value to God.

And I said, "Amy, how do you never get mad when you get cut off in traffic? I've

never seen you road rage." She said, "Well, I like to play a game. I like to

pretend that the person in the passenger seat is pregnant and the person driving

them has to get them to the hospital because their water just broke." I don't know

if you remember that, but I never forgot it, because I also like to play pretend

when somebody cuts me off in traffic.

I like to pretend that I'm not a pastor, and I never even met Jesus, and I never

even heard his name. I like to pretend like I'm a terrorist. I like to pretend

like I've been trained as an assassin.

I like to pretend like God sent me to teach you a lesson. I can't let you get

away with that.

I saw it as a shift. Now here's the picture that the Lord gave me. We're gonna

work this out on the fly because honestly, I kind of thought of it last minute.

When we finish singing at the church, usually they bring my pulpit to the stage and

they put it in the place where it goes. And we do it in a way where it just

kind of signals a shift to say we've worshiped God with our singing and the

melodies. Now we are going to worship God through his spoken word and his message

and both the worship. So when we position the pulpit, the camera shots also change.

You will notice that you no longer see the drummer very much once it's preaching

time. You no longer see Scotty as handsome as he is and As unified as he looked

leading the South Carolina State Choir last week, I mean he's got that main

character gift But everybody switches positions somebody say positions now say

perspective Okay, now that we're in this part of the message the perspective has

shifted not because I'm more important than anybody on the stage But because it is

my time to deliver the message that God has given me to share with you. Therefore,

the camera operators have to be instructed at this point. You no longer need to

show Otis. You no longer need to show Scotty. They'll be back when we sing again.

But for now, this is our focus. Now, here's what I want you to understand about

the way a lot of us live our lives. If they disobeyed that order and just go with

me for this picture because I'm going to show you a lot of why we stay stressed

out. I'm going to show you a lot of why we stay resentful, bitter,

demotivated, angry. I'm going to tell you why a lot of our passion goes out because

people hurt our feelings. If at the moment that I take this pulpit, the camera

operator just decides to rebel and go like, "I think the podium is boring." Now

camera operator, do what I'm about to say to illustrate my point.

and as swath as debonair as he is on those drums.

It is a distraction at this moment to show the drums.

Now go back to what you're supposed to be shooting.

Not because I'm better looking, not because of status, Not because I'm the boss

around here, but because of purpose

Purpose determines position get

the picture and then we'll break it down

Purpose determines position So show them the oldest shot

This is me focusing on something that is meant to be peripheral in the moment.

Show them the tight shot.

This is me focusing on what is being spoken from God.

If you keep doing this, you're going to miss this.

Clap your hands. I thought that turned out pretty good.

Now of course Put it back on the drums. I could

Takes two men to carry this out most Sundays.

I could do that. I Could carry I could carry the burden for a little while

I'm pretty strong. I curled some fifties yesterday. I could do it for a little

while, but I don't think I could do it for long.

So which one's easier? Go back to Otis. Which one's easier? For me to carry this

and move it to the middle,

or stay on notice, stay on notice, stay on notice, for them to do this and move

it to the middle.

So God said what you're trying to do by lifting, you could do by looking.

I divide Moses' life. Can I preach this like God gave it to me? Come on. I'll

behave in Fort Worth. I'll behave in… I promise. I'll represent you well in Detroit.

I'll preach polite in Toronto. But this is my church where I can preach it dirty,

where I can preach the word like a bush coming up out of the desert ground that

won't burn up no matter how long it's been burning, that won't give out no matter

how much it's gone through, that represents the very life of Moses himself whose

perspective is being shifted from the first 40 years of his life,

which started in a basket, past the 40 years of his life that he spent in Midian,

And now this bush, a basket, first 40,

a bush, next 40. But the 40 years that we read in one sentence is the middle.

Now I guarantee you, it did not feel like the middle to Moses. I'll tell you how

I know. Now, the verse I read you in Acts chapter 7. Oh, I'm so glad I got that

New Testament perspective on Moses. Because if I would have just read, "He was

tending sheep, a bush burned," we would have thought we're meeting Moses at the

beginning of his story. But Moses, for Moses, it didn't feel like the beginning,

it felt like the end. And the Bible says that when Moses heard this,

he fled verse 29, Acts chapter 7 to Midian, where he settled.

He wasn't passing through in his mind. He settled in Midian and had two sons.

That's not something you do on a quick trip.

That's not something you do just passing through. He's in a place called Midian,

and it feels like the end, For us it looks like the beginning, and I need you to

remember so you have Christian empathy that everybody you meet is in the middle of

something. We could be nicer to people on road rage if we said they must be in

the middle of something very important. They must be in the middle of giving birth

to a child. Maybe that child will be the next Moses. That's how Amy does it. I'm

like, "Maybe Maybe they're gonna die before they get there if they cut me off one

more time. That's me main character energy Christ -like energy

and Whoo, I feel it strong

When you realize that everybody you meet is in the middle of something you will be

more merciful

The middle will make you merciful

the middle will make you merciful, it will make me and it will make you more

sanctified in order to stop seeing ourselves as the point of every pursuit.

To stop seeing ourselves with the destination over our head rushing through the

airport trying to get somewhere. Here's Moses in a Place that seems like a

destination feels like a detour. It's not the beginning

It's not the end either Moses doesn't know that yet and neither do you when you're

in it You know, that's the thing about it When you're in it the middle feels like

the end.

I'm talking about failures and I'm talking about moments of setback and I'm talking

about closed doors and I'm talking about rejection. It was interesting to me to

study about Moses and I wanted to give you this because I thought it was very

psychologically and theologically aligned. So Greg, the Bible goes on to say that he

was sent to deliver the children of Israel. And he was sent to deliver the children

of Israel but the children of Israel resented him. He is sent to someone who

resents him. He's not all Hebrew in their mind.

He's not all Egyptian either. He is a middle child.

When you are in the middle, it can be difficult to find where you fit in. Someone

told me one time my preaching was too black.

In fact, they said, "I used to listen to you on podcasts. I was surprised to find

out you were white the first time I saw you on video." What they said was,

"You might want to consider modulating your preaching in order to reach a broader

audience." I said, "What exactly do you mean modulate?" They said, "Sometimes when

you do the really high preaching and the organ starts playing, it's a little

distracting." I said, "It's only distracting for you because it is different to you."

If you think I preach like I preach because I did a market study on ways to

incorporate different ethnocentric backgrounds into a message so that all people will

feel included, you're crazy. I preach how I preach because When I was 16,

Chris Dixon invited me to join the Voices of Unity Gospel Choir, where I was the

only white one in the whole choir. I stood in the middle. I didn't sway in rhythm,

but I stayed in the middle. Because of that, my life was informed that there are

different styles and the same substance. I don't have to Apologize to you for any

weapon in my arsenal that God gave me to get this word across Yeah Because I don't

have to preach like I'm white. I don't have to preach I Can move it to the

middle. I can do it either way Pentecostal Baptist, Gospel, Episcopalian Catholic.

I can hail Mary. I can thank you Jesus I can do it in homes. I can give a Ted

talk. I can preach it how he gets it, 'cause

I'm a middle child. Don't label me, such a neighbor say,

"Don't live in me." I'm a middle child.

All the middle children give God a praise. I'm a middle child.

Holly is a middle child Graham is a middle child. There's benefits of being a

middle child You can watch how the first one did it dumb make some corrections Get

right in front of the younger one that they're still more busy with and do what

you need to do

No less significant, just hidden in the middle, in the middle.

My legal name is not Stephen Furtick. My legal name is Larry.

That's funny. You know you just offended every Larry watching this sermon online.

You are going to get us canceled by the Larrys and the Karens. You messed the

whole thing up.

Yeah, little Larry Furtick. Because I'm Larry Stevens Furtick.

Stevens Furtick Jr.

Why are you Stevens? Do you have multiple personalities perhaps and so do you

depends

on which moment I meet you in Mm -hmm Mm -hmm saying hallelujah one minute and Other

multi -syllabic words the next minute

never judge a man by the moment, never judge yourself by your lowest moment, never

pride yourself in your high moment.

Moses, who was in a murderous situation, hid in a place called Midian and assumed

that these 40 years would be the end. 40 years is a long time to wait for an

angel, y 'all. I think it's verse 30. Put it up and see if I'm right. It said,

After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses and said,

"Moses, Moses," I guess God was calling him by his middle name,

Moses, Moses. Moses means to draw out because he was drawn out of the river.

And now he was being sent to draw out. He was moving from what God had done for

him to what he was being called to do for others, and God said, "Moses, Moses,

you know as much as my name made you laugh, it could have been a lot worse." My

mother tells me that there was a time when my parents considered naming me different

names. Well, Larry Stevens, Furtick Jr., it turns out, is not the worst one that

they rehearsed.

She says, and he's in heaven now, so he can either confirm or deny that there was

a season of time where my dad seriously and sincerely wanted to name me Clem. His

reasoning was solid. Don't judge the name until you've heard what creative plans he

had for it. He said, "I wanted to name you Clem, so when I called you, I could

say Clem's

See, my mom went to Clemson University, and my dad thought it would just be so

amazing if when he said my name, the next thing that came, Clemson.

Let's all thank God for my mom.

See, this That's why I threw my notes away, because I knew the Lord was going to

take us in a few directions today. It's what came after my name that mattered to

him.

It's what came after my name.

"Clem, son." You're my son, son. Get it? "Clem, son." And here's God calling Moses,

but he doesn't really talk about Moses. I want I'll read it to you from Exodus

chapter three. Oh, this is gonna help you so much. And let me give you this

principle real quick.

Selflessness is the most underused tool for stress management.

Selflessness, I don't mean thinking less of yourself. I mean thinking of yourself

less.

Selflessness is the most underutilized tool for stress management. Being at the center

is keeping you stressed. And I'll show it to you from Moses and then I'll show you

why. And then we'll have a big party in the place and go home.

But Moses gets all caught up in main character energy and we forgive him because

look, the Lord calls his name and says, "Moses, Moses." Moses is like,

"That's me. Here I am. I'm here in Midian." Do not come any closer,

God said. This is verse 5, a place where you are standing in holy ground. Take

your shoes off. You're not going to run from this one. Remember, Moses ran to

Midian, fleeting and hiding. Then God is bringing him to this bush,

and he says, "You're not running away this time." Now that he's standing and not

running, turning and paying attention to what God is doing, the Lord says,

"The place where you are standing is holy ground." And then the next thing God said

is, "I am the God of your Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the

God of Jacob." God's been doing this a long time, y 'all. Now,

God's miracles didn't start with your mortgage payment.

The God you pray to has done much tougher stuff than what you're asking him to do

right now This man led a nation out of slavery You don't think God will show you

how to raise those kids Have you lost your mind? You forgot who you're talking to

You forgot who called you you forgot who promise to keep you. You forgot who lives

in you. But just about the time we get the perspective of who God is and what

he's come to do, verse 8, "I've come down to rescue my people out of the

Egyptians' hands, to bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey," verse 9,

"and now the cry has reached me," and now in verse 10, "so now go I am sending

you to Pharaoh, to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt, but Moses said to

God, "Who am I?" This is where I think we miss it.

Go to the drums real quick, cameraman. That is the total wrong focus.

When God is speaking and you shift your attention back to you… Let me say it this

way. When the great I am is talking and You say, "Who am I?" You need to shift

your attention back to me, back to the one who is speaking to you, back to the

one who put you in the basket, back to the one who floated you down the Nile,

back to the one who made sure you survived. There's one thing about it for sure.

The Enemy has already made so many attempts to end your faith journey, to end your

life, to end your hope, to end your optimism, to end your faith,

to end your progress, to end your sanctification process. The enemy has already tried

to end it, and he didn't. Why is that? Because he couldn't. Because it was what

came after what God called Moses, Moses, Moses, that mattered more than what Moses

was. I'll put it to you this way. When Moses got confused and said, "Who do I say

sent me to them? If they doubt me," God said, "Tell them I am that I am." You

didn't know this verse, but Exodus chapter 3, 14 teaches us something very powerful.

God's name, Yahweh, is "I am." He wasn't was. He isn't going to be.

He is I am. Now, I've taught you that before, and I've taught you that his name

being "I am" means he's a present help in the time of trouble. But what I never

taught you so clear before is when he said, "I am that I am." The place of "that"

is meant to represent every place where God will express his power in your life.

So let's say in this specific season of your life God wants to accomplish a

purpose, and in order to accomplish his purpose, he is going to have to open a

door for you that you can't open for yourself, and only God can do that. Well, I

am that open door. I am. Let's say you're in a season in your life where it looks

like there's no way you're going to be able to move through this next month. It is

so busy. It is so hectic. It is so overwhelmed, and you need a sustaining power in

your life. Come on, a sustaining energy over your life. Some of you are so tired.

Your biggest prayer last week was, "I can't do this." You didn't even have the

faith left to ask. Every time you thought about it, it started twisting up inside

of you. But what you didn't realize about God's name is that that feeling, that

place, that need is the place where God wants to express his name. So if tired is

the place where you need God to show up, that is the place where God's energy will

be. Wherever it is that he has positioned you, that's where it is that he will

empower you. I'll take it further. If there is an insecurity in your life that

makes you think you can't do it, that's good. The insecurity is the insurance policy

that lets you know that when it gets done, you won't be tempted to take the

credit, because you'll know, and they'll know, and everybody who knows you will know.

It had to be God. I watched them in the basket. I saw them make a mistake,

but somehow God kept drawing them out, and that's what I see in this season for

your life. You're going to be drawing from the God who draw you out of the water,

and you are not going to run out of resource because you will not run out of God.

You are not going to run out of wisdom because you will not run out of God. You

will not run out of meal because you will not run out of God. You will not run

out of support because you will not run out of God.

You will not run out of it because you will not run out of him because I am that

I am

Take your need and move it to the middle and make a great. I am sandwich and God

says I am that I Am "Boy, if I had a plan this better, I'd have brought some

bologna and some pumpernickel bread up here,

and I would have showed you how to sandwich your situation by the presence and the

spoken promise of God and move it to the middle."

What we know that Moses doesn't know, and that's a bold statement, because the Bible

said, "Other prophets have I spoken to other ways, but Moses I spoke to face to

face." Now that's in numbers. After they complained to Moses and didn't appreciate

him, well I almost forgot to say this. Thank you, Lord. His hesitancy to do what

God called him to do, because he argued back and forth with God, his hesitancy to

do it wasn't rooted in rebellion.

It was rooted in rejection,

Because he tried to do this the first time it didn't work the

first time he tried to fight for his people It cost him 40 years in the wilderness

And now you understand why you're uncomfortable receiving love from others And when

people try to treat you good you treat them bad just to get things back to the

natural habitat that you're used to

seeking the lower state because it's the state that you know.

He wasn't rebelling against God. That's Jonah.

He wasn't rebelling against God. That's Jonah. He was rejected by them.

And the rejection takes root. And it gets to the place where you go, I don't

really want to put it out there like that anymore.

I love when y 'all get quiet thinking

about those hesitancies in your life to trust God because of a root of rejection

where the first time it didn't work.

And after 40 years, you pretty much assume this is it, and There's not much I can

do about it But Moses should have known he should have known because he was an

ordinary child That even in those 40 years and even with his perceived lack of

natural talent to speak watch this he should have known This can't be the end

It's called mid yin

This can't be the end. It's Midian.

Now, a few years ago, I was having my own sort of Moses moment. I know,

boo -hoo, wah -wah, tell us your therapy session, Pastor Steve, and that's what we

came for. No, no, I'm just trying to relate this, because it's one of the powerful

things that I ever did in my life. It helped me so much. The story that was going

in my mind was a little bit like the Moses story in that I had had a few things

that I tried to do in an effort to trust God, and I'm sure I didn't do them

perfectly, but I was doing them sincerely. You ever been there? I'm not saying I

did it exactly right, but I meant well. I meant well. I'm not saying it wasn't a

mistake, but I meant well. That's Moses' story. That's why he's in Midian. I meant

well. I was trying to protect an Israelite, But I ended up killing an Egyptian and

maybe I shouldn't have got in the middle of it And so now he's on the far side

of the desert In a place called Midian And this place will ultimately be the

mountain where God will give the Ten Commandments Mount Sinai, but it's not yet

Because this is just the middle Now here's Moses tending his sheep all of a sudden

the burning bush go to Otis

Becomes becomes the focal point, and Moses moves over in

order to see why it doesn't burn up. Okay, now go back to the normal camera shot.

As he's doing this, the voice of the Lord speaks to him about the future that God

has planned for him, which revolves around the purpose that God has created him for.

Now that's what this is about in your life, nothing else. For a few days, Forget

about your preference and your plan of the way you want this situation to turn out.

'Cause I see you going through a valley and that feels like that's all there is.

While I was recently reminded that it can only be a valley if there are mountains

on either side of it.

So now we've got a Moses who spent 40 years rough start. He went through a dry

season and now God is bringing him to an Expected in to be the leader that God

has always meant for him to be and he's in a place called Midian well as I was

going through some of my self pity in in moments and Specifically the narrative that

was playing out is the best is behind me Now I think that's one of the lies that

the devil tells That we don't talk about very much that all walk around wondering

about it. It's like, "Is this going to be all there is for my life?" And it

doesn't take a divorce to make you feel that way. It doesn't take turning 45 to

make you feel that way. It doesn't take having to wear readers to make you feel

that way. You can hit a wall in your life where you wonder, "Is this the most joy

I'm going to experience? Is this the most difference I'm going to make is this the

greatest accomplishment that I'm ever going to accomplish and then you hit a wall Or

you hit what you call a failure. It may not be a failure You just see it as a

failure and so then the enemy says it's the end The enemy loves to tell you where

the end is

So does God and as I was sitting with this I think it had been going on a couple

of months. I was sitting with this feeling that my best work is behind me, my best

sermons are behind me, my best songs are behind me. It was just an avalanche. I'm

going to come to this side and see if anybody has ever felt this way before. They

are looking at me like they are on a streak, man. They are on a roll over here.

They are winning medals and getting raises and paying no taxes, 6 % body fat,

$50 million net worth going on over here. Is there anybody over here who got to a

certain place now, and it's like, "This is Midian. I'm tending sheep. I'm very busy,

but is this the end?" I did not get this idea that I'm going to tell you about

from David Goggins. No offense to brother David Goggins, but his energy just gets a

little intense for You know, that kind of like, "You're a piece of crap. Get up

and do something about it, energy." That doesn't really work for me very long. I

already have that voice in my head. I don't need an external one. I didn't get

this piece of advice from like some chicken soup for the soul book with an

inspirational thought. It was almost like the Lord gave me this. I've never shared

it even with Holly, and I looked for the notebook where I wrote it down and I

can't find it. But something came over me and I began to write about the next five

years of my life as if they had already happened and

As if God were with me

and I didn't write anything. There's a time to do this I didn't write anything

about how bad I felt and how down I was and how lonely it was and how carried me

and all Just fears I had no stuff stressed about nothing bells. bells I need, and

all the people depend on me, because I've done that enough. But I took what felt

like the end, and I moved it to the middle.

And I picked up there, and I wrote down two words, "but he."

Somebody say, "but he." And I wrote those words, and it was almost like Moses,

Moses. It was like I saw everything that I had been, everything that I had been

through, everything that I was wrestling with, and then that second Moses, but he.

I began to write. My pen began to move, and I began to write about potential.

I began to write, "But he continued to show up in preach, and God helped him and

gave him messages that went around the world in order to help people with their

struggles. But he continued to write songs and collaborate with other creative

individuals who were strong where he was weak, and so he was able to continue to

be a part of making music for the people of God to sing and be ministered to by.

But

He humbled himself and realized that he didn't have to be good at everything as

long as he was in touch with the one who was.

But he… See, what happened was, I showed you this last week, I made a pivot, and

in that moment that I made a pivot with my pen, something started to come alive in

the Spirit. And I began to see that what I was dwelling on as the end… The Lord

says, "I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a hope in the future.

After 70 years that are completed completed in Babylon, I will come to you. And

after I've come to you and delivered you, you will praise me on this mountain." God

said to Moses, "After you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship

God on this mountain." He is taking what Moses thinks is the end and moving it to

the middle. Because I'll tell you something. It can be the end if you let it be.

If you Let it end you, it will end you. If you let it make you tap, it will end

you. If you let it define you, it will define you. If you let it bury you,

it will bury you. But he who began a good work in you

will be faithful to complete it. The Bible says that all things work together for

the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. So if it's

not good, God's not done. He said, "I'll bring you to an expected end." So if his

purpose isn't finished yet for this situation, it is not the end. Move it to the

I'm talking about the thing that you've been crying about. I'm talking about the

thing that you've been gossiping about. I'm talking about the thing that has had you

so down you can't rejoice. I'm talking about the thing that has blurred your vision

and fogged your faith. I'm talking about the thing that has beat you into

submission, the thing that's got you tied up in knots. You've been treating it like

the end, and you need to move it to the middle.

So when you're telling this story...

You will not go down in this state, for there is a burning bush with your name on

it, Moses.

You know what makes the bush significant? It's burning, but it won't burn up.

It's still burning after all it's been through. I'm preaching to somebody today that

after all you've been through, After every red sea he split,

after everything he forgave you of, after every breath he poured in your lungs,

after every mercy he brought to your door, you have a reason to raise him.

This is just the middle of Corset's messy.

It's the middle of Corset's difficult. It's the middle of Corset's dry.

It's the middle. It's always different in the middle.

But the Lord said for us to take this thing that we think is going to be the end

of our testimony and move it to the middle.

Let it become the part of your story that you say,

"But he after."

Do I preach about this too much? I feel like every week I'm trying to tell you

not to quit in a different way. I feel like every week I'm trying to tell you

it's too soon for you to sit down and settle in Midian when God called you to be

a deliverer. Look what all God did through Moses. This is so personal,

and he wants to do it for you. The Bible says he called him by name to to lead

them out of Egypt. Look at Acts chapter 7 verse 36.

He led them out of Egypt, performed wonders and signs in Egypt at the Red Sea,

and for 40 years in the wilderness.

Now to me that's got to be the saddest scripture that I've read today, is that God

spent the first 40 years preparing Moses, his basket years, where he was preserved.

You know, God spent the first part of your life preparing you. It wasn't easy. It

may not have been what you chose, but he floated you to where you needed to be.

Then after Moses' mistake, he spent the next 40 years repairing Moses,

humbling Moses.

But after that burning bush, Moses was meant to lead the people into the Promised

Land. Look what verse 26 says, or verse 36 says, "Please." He led them out of

Egypt, performed wonders and signs in Egypt with the Red Sea, and for 40 years in

the wilderness. Now, here's the warning.

He wasn't supposed to be in the wilderness with them 40 years. Put it back up. At

the Red Sea he performed wonders, the sea split. In the wilderness he performed

miracles for 40 years. But the trip through the wilderness was not meant to be the

end, it was meant to be the middle.

To get through the wilderness to the Promised Land would have taken the Israelites

two weeks tops. How did they switch and make a 40 -year habitation out of a two

-week transition.

It's because they treated the middle like it was the end.

And there are some things in your life that God is doing right now, and he's

providing for you, and he's empowering you, and he's enabling you, and he's

sustaining you, and he's calling you, and it's a Moses -Moses moment. And if you

come forward and look and listen and turn aside and say, "Wonder why this bush

isn't burning up? Wonder why God left me here? Wonder why cancer didn't kill me?

Wonder why depression didn't have the last word? Wonder why I survived when they

did? Wonder why God put me at this place in time? Wonder why God gave me these

experiences?" If you move it to the middle, it changes everything. So I close with

one more illustration. Chris, when we were writing the song Jairah I have no idea

if you remember this I would feel sure that you do that you know the name Jairah

comes from one of the other times that Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac

and the Lord said Abraham Abraham don't lay a hand on the boy I've seen that you

trust me I don't want your son as a sacrifice I want your trust as worship and

there was a ram in the bush And when Abraham saw the place where God provided,

he called it Jehovah Jireh. It doesn't necessarily mean just the Lord provides,

it means the Lord sees, and he called that place Jehovah Jireh. The first time we

ever wrote with our friends Naomi and Chandler, we sat down and began to write a

song that ended up being the song Jireh. Have you heard it? Do you like it?

Yeah, let me tell you a little thing about that song that I think will cement this

message in your mind For everything that you need God to provide When we begin to

write the chorus it didn't sound very good. It said I

Will be content in every circumstance

Jaira "You are enough," and you're like, "That's how it goes now." Not exactly.

Listen again. This is how it started, okay? So, let me do the verse. I'll never be

more love than I am right now. I wasn't holding you up,

so there's nothing I can do to let you down. It doesn't take a trophy to make you

proud. I'll never be more love Then I am right now,

and then it went, I will be content in every circumstance,

Jairah, you are enough.

I will be content, that's how I went, in every circumstance, Jairah,

you are enough and I looked over and Naomi was yawning.

I thought, "This isn't very good, is it?" And then Chris said, "No, it's good." I

said, "It doesn't feel like a chorus." He said, "But what if we took I will be

content in every circumstance, and instead of starting the chorus with that line,

what if we moved it to the middle?"

I said, "What you talking about singing for me?" And he said,

"Put that first, Jire you are enough, then sing it again."

And then,

and to make a sandwich.

This sound pretty good, doesn't it?

When you move it to the middle,

when you move it to the middle, you'll always see Jehovah Jireh. When you move it

to the middle, there will always be provision. When you focus on what God has given

you, when you focus on what he's made you to do, when you stop comparing and fix

your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, it will always be

enough.

Say it again, Jairah.

Say that

And I move that line to the middle, say, "Let me sing the verse to you,

'Going through a storm, but I won't go down.' I hear your voice." You sing it.

This is not the end, because

you're right in the middle of it, huh?

Now lift your hands and call on your God and put it in the middle.