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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Steven Furtick » Steven Furtick — Chase The Chariot

Steven Furtick — Chase The Chariot



I want to speak to you today on this subject, "Chase the Chariot". Chase the Chariot. It's a challenge. It's a charge. It's a command. Chase the Chariot. If you're not sick of 'em by now, look at the person next to you and say, "Chase the chariot." Come on. The chase is on. The people of God were on the run.

See, they'd been enslaved in Egypt for like centuries. And so, they're getting out. And as they're getting out, they're marching out boldly because they believe God is with them. And you know what? It's easy to be bold before the battle begins, easy to be bold when all the bills are paid, easy to be bold when everything's going your way.

And for a little while, as they marched out from Egypt with great substance, they had the wind at their back. But at some point during the march, as they went through the Red Sea, they heard the sound of the chariots.

Pharaoh had deployed 600 of his choice chariots to bring back the people who represented his entire labor force, who were marching out boldly. And when they heard the chariots behind them, they were terrified. And all of a sudden, their boldness bowed down in the face of a battle.

Chariots coming up behind 'em. The clacking of the wheels. Maybe they heard the sounds of the whips that had lashed their backs as the chariots drove on them. Have you ever been chased by something? It's a scary sound to hear the wheels of the chariots when you're on foot.

And it says that actually not only did the chariots chase the Israelites, I'm only going to do that sound effect about 16 more times. But it says that the chariots eventually caught up with them. Have you ever had the chariots not only chasing you but something caught up with you? Look at me confused and nobody will know about that one summer that you spent with that guy. But there is a time when stuff starts catching up with you. Can't hide it anymore. Can't outrun it anymore. It says that the chariots, at a certain place, overtook the Israelites.

Now, I've discovered that everybody is running from something. Everybody is running from something or someone, even if that someone is themselves. One thing we all have in common who came to church today, we're all being chased by something. It might be a fear, it might be an anxiety, it might be an imagination, it might be guilt... but you are being chased.

Touch somebody and say, "The chase is one". Chariots coming up behind 'em and they're so afraid that they turn back to Moses and say, "Man, we would have rather lived in captivity than die in freedom." It's amazing how looking back can take all of your faith out of the frame. It says the chariots... Yeah, it is good. I wish these people would get on that page with you. It is good.

To say that as long as you're looking forward on the next step that God has called you to take, all you'll ever see is the waters parting with every step that you take. But when you look back, all you see is the wheels of the chariots. Before you, waters are parting. Behind you, the wheels of the chariot are turning. And your faith is dependent on which direction you look.

So they're running. They're running. They're running. They're running. And God, for some reason, allows the chariots to catch up with 'em. But not to kill 'em. Why even let 'em catch 'em if you're not going to let 'em kill 'em? I have a theory. I have a theory. I have a theory. See, I think that what kills God's children in the area of our faith is never the chariots. It's our complacency.

"No weapon that is formed against you will prosper." It's never the chariots. We all have these things we're running from. We've all got these things we're worried about. We've all got these things that are catching up with us. Yet, it's never the chariots that kill you. It's not.

I've been by bedsides of people who have died. I've seen their faith live on as their children watch them hold on to their faith. I've seen cancer catch up with a child of God and I've seen cancer eat the body. But I saw that when a seed falls to the ground and dies, what's on the outside may waste away but if you've got the resurrection power of Jesus Christ inside of you, even cancer can't kill you.

Jesus said, "I'm the resurrection and the life; if you believe in Me, even if you die, you live." The chariots can't kill you. Chariots can't stop me. Chariots can't stop you. Even if they catch me, God'll take their wheels off and throw 'em in the water. The speed of the chariots' wheels were no match for the velocity of the waves that God created to drown them. And then, weirdest thing happens.

They escape the chariots but they die in their complacency. That whole generation stops short and when the beheld their next battle, they lost their sense of boldness and they stopped. I don't know what chariots are chasing you today. We could talk about it over coffee. You could tell me. If it was just me and you, you could tell me. You can't tell me right now. I don't have time for all that. But it can't kill you, not the true part of you. Not your faith. The only thing that can derail your destiny is your complacency. The only thing that can ever stop our church is if we stop moving.

As long as the Israelites kept moving, miracles followed. Miracles will always follow a child of God in motion, in motion toward the next step. Miracles will dry up the moment you stop. As long as you move, even if you're afraid, as long as you show up, even if you doubt, as long as you come back and say, "God, I'm staying focused on what's in front of me. I hear the chariots behind me. But I know it's just a matter of time before You use what is coming against me to gain glory for..."

That's why God did it. He let the chariots chase the children of Israel because He knew if there was nothing chasing them they wouldn't move. They did better with Egypt on their heels than they did once they were safe from their chariots.
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