Steven Furtick - Move In What You're Made For
Put a "Hallelujah" in the chat and let me know where you're watching from, and let me know what song is your favorite song off our brand-new album Lion. Roar! Y'all didn't think Katy Perry was the only one who could roar, did you? I know my pop culture references are dated. We're so excited. Everything God is doing… God is really busy. I know the Devil is too, but God is busy, and we have to look for him at work. I believe that, today, he has given me the kind of word… I was going to do a lot of announcements and all that, but they did all of them before I got here, so now all that's left for me to do is preach this Word to you. Make sure you get the new Elevation Worship album. Make sure you go to elevationnights.com, but right now, the presence of the Lord is in this place.
And I want to share with you from the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible. What a week it was. I'm talking about Genesis 1. I'm not talking about 2022. I'm talking about when God made the whole world in six days. The seventh day he chilled, and you should chill too. Be still and know that he is God. Genesis 1:20: "And God said…" You know I could preach three weeks on those three words. And means it's a continuation of something he already started, and he's still speaking. And. It's a continuation. God. That's the Creator. It's not the critics that count; it's what the Creator says that counts. "And God said…" It's a command. It has to happen because he spoke it.
"And God said, 'Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.' So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw…" Ah. "And God said…" "And God saw…" We live in the space in between where we can't see everything God has spoken yet. We can't see the promises he made us yet. They're not in finished product form yet. We are in the process between the beginning of that verse, "And God said…" and "And God saw…" We don't see it yet, but we don't have to see it to believe it. That's what our faith is for. "And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.' And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. And God said…"
He's not done yet on the fifth day because you didn't get here yet. God saved the best till last, and that's you. God can't stop speaking because you're not here yet. God can't stop speaking because your destiny isn't fulfilled yet. God can't stop speaking yet because he hasn't made the apex crown jewel of his creation: humans in his image. But before he created us, the Bible says (I think this is interesting), "'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.' And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'"
What I want to do is take verse 26, where God said, "Let us make man in our image…" That's the most famous one, when God on the sixth day made you before he sat down. I want to back up and see if there's a lesson we can learn from the fifth day about the sixth day. On the fifth day… It's not as famous as the sixth day, because we're self-centered and narcissistic and think we're the ones it's all about. But actually, there is something the birds know that you don't know, and there's something the fish have learned that we haven't learned yet. So, we're going to go to school with the fish (that was better in my head), and we are going to learn from the birds this fifth-day principle. Okay? Here it is. I'm going to give it to you at the top of the sermon, and then we'll unpack it together. This is going to be an amazing class. This is going to be an amazing moment. What God wants to teach you from this creation account is a principle from the fifth day from the birds and the fish.
Look at your neighbor and say, "Move in what you're made for". Look at your other neighbor and tell them, "Listen to the fish and move in…" Come on, tell them. Look them in the eyes. Why are you scared of eye contact? You can't catch COVID through the eyeballs. Look at them and say, "Move in what you're made for". Now give them a little bump, just a little bump. Say, "Move in it". Let's go to school. Class is in session. The Lord told me that. He told me, "Move in what you're made for," and I needed it. Different sermons come from different places. All sermons are not created equal. Some of them, you'll say, "That was the best you ever preached". No, that's the best you ever heard. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. It's not really based on that. It's based on what you need in that moment. The Lord told me something really interesting. Today, he wanted to give you a word for your insecurities, a word that would speak directly to your insecurity, but he doesn't want to deal with it on the surface level.
See, the creation of mankind tells us something about the calling of mankind. The process by which God made everything I see tells me a lot about what he's doing in my life now. So, we're not going to study today whether God literally made the world in six 24-hour periods or whether it's symbolic of a longer period of time. I'm not a scientist. We're not going to study today the different species and the genome of the… I'm not going there, because I'll sound so stupid, and you'll Google me, and you'll know I'm wrong. Before the Internet, preachers could say anything, but now y'all fact check me in real time, so I have to leave that alone. Instead, I want to look at this process by which God made us as a pattern. The first thing you'll notice is that God doesn't speak to the surface. A real word from God will never speak to the surface of your situation. That's why advice can only help you so much.
When you ask a human being for advice, you only tell them the information you deem relevant. A lot of times, they give you good advice based on bad data. They don't know deeper down that the reason your relationship is in… What do you call it when it's shattered on the floor? In pieces. The reason you have no peace in your situation is because you are constantly critiquing, and you are constantly correcting. So they give you advice, "Well, you should just leave them," but what they don't know is if you leave them, you take you with you. Sometimes the problem is something you don't think to tell them. God doesn't give advice, because he knows what's beneath the surface. So, while you're praying about symptoms, God is prescribing a remedy and a cure for what is causing the sickness. That's what makes him the Great Physician. Is it just me or could we go home and we already got our gas money worth out of that?
I want to know what "And God said," because when God spoke… Remember, he has been busy. We jumped right into the middle of the creation story. We didn't even talk about all that God did in the first four days. I feel kind of bad skipping it because it's amazing stuff, when he said, "Let there be light," and light was like, "Okay". That's crazy. I thought that was amazing until I saw what he did on the second day. Actually, God just keeps one-upping it. After he created the light, he created the vault, and then he created the sky, and then he created the waters, and that looked pretty good until the third day. Then on the third day, God gets busy calling forth life out of the land he created and separating the water so they could sit in their place so he could create a setting for human life to begin.
That's on the third day. On the fourth day… I know you know this already, because you've studied this stuff all week, and you read your Bible, and you never watch Netflix, and you've been reading Genesis, chapter 1, too. You even read it in Hebrew. But let me tell you what I learned this week. He gave the sun and the moon and the stars, which he hung in the sky that he created on the second day, and then on the fifth day… That's why I picked up on the fifth day. The fifth day, God did something different that he didn't do any other day. Lean in for this. He made it, and then he blessed it. Study it for yourself at your leisure. Look and see that he didn't bless the light. He didn't bless the darkness. He didn't bless the moon. He started blessing on the fifth day.
On the fifth day, God started to create the living things. Raise your hand if you are a living thing. That means you're blessed. Touch somebody and say, "I'm blessed to be alive". I know you've been complaining all week, but it's in the past. Now look at them again and say, "I'm blessed to be alive". I'm blessed to have a breath. I'm blessed to still have the use of my body. I'm blessed to be here. I've had some good days. I've had some hills to climb, but I'm blessed to be alive. Come on. Let's rejoice in it. I'm blessed to be alive. He didn't bless the bean sprout, but he blessed the bird. I wonder why. To me, I'm thinking a bird is much less impressive than a star, but there was something about the bird, and there was something about the bass (fish…the bass and the bird; it's alliteration, people) that God blessed. And not only did he bless it, he directly created it.
Now watch this. Bible nerds, wave at me. You love this little stuff. You don't just need a cliché to rhyme, and you don't need it to start with all the same letter, but you really love the Word of God. This is for you. When God told the land to produce vegetation, the land brought it forth. When God told the waters to bring forth the fish, it said God himself brought them forth, but now I'm going to blow your mind even more. When he got ready to create you…you…messed-up you… When he got ready to make you, he did something he didn't do for the birds, the worms, the moon, the stars, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, the octopus, the crabs, the lobsters. None of them did he do this for. He bent down… Up until this point, everything he made he made with his mouth because he spoke it. When he made me, he got down in the dirt and made me by hand. Who are you?
The psalmist said, "What is man that God is mindful of him, or the son of man that you would visit him"? That God would stoop down in the dirt and that divinity would touch dirt. God didn't leave it up to the land to bring you forth. He got his hands dirty. God rolled up his sleeves. I need everybody who has a messy situation in your life right now to know what your Maker did when this whole thing got started. He rolled up his sleeves, and he said, "I'll make the moon with my mouth. I can hang it with a syllable. 'Moon.'" And the moon said, "Yes". The Lord said, "Hang," and the moon said, "Yes". The Lord said, "Shine," and the moon said, "All right". But when it got down to you…
So, it seems to me, if we believe Genesis 1:26, that I was made from a mess in the image of my Maker, that there is no mess in my life right now that I cannot bring to my Maker and expect him to say, "I'll bless it anyway". I'm blessed because God said I'm blessed. Hey, let me throw this in, in case some of you have any haters: what God blessed no man can curse. Even your haters are the PR department. God is going to use the people who don't like you to fulfill Genesis 1:26. Not everybody liked Jesus. If everybody had liked him, they wouldn't have crucified him. If they didn't crucify him, he couldn't have died for your sin. If he didn't die for your sin, he couldn't have fulfilled his mission. Is God using the dirt in your life to create and bring forth? That's what he did in Genesis 1, and I think that's what he has been doing in me. Some words God gives you as a preacher are not meant to be shared, and that's frustrating.
When the Lord speaks to me, I get excited. You can ask my family. This isn't a show I put on. I'll grab the kids in the middle of video games. "Come here. You've got to hear this". I'll start preaching to the kids. Then sometimes the Lord will give me something that I think is just for me, and that's what happened to me with Genesis 1. Okay. Let me tell you something about creative work. I consider myself a creative person. Well, I mean, in this area of life I'm creative. Other things I'll never do. I can't do arts and crafts. I don't like arts and crafts. Some people go through the supply section of Walmart and stuff, and they get all excited in the craft section. "Ooh, glue sticks"!
I was taking Abbey through Barnes & Noble the other day. She was getting excited about colored pencils. I never in my life got excited about a colored pencil. All of my kids are different, all good at different things. It took me a while to realize that as God reveals your assignment in life, it will surface your insecurities. There's that word again: surface. Remember, when God started… Genesis 1:2 said in the beginning, before God spoke anything, the Spirit of the Lord hovered over the waters. Look at what it says. "The earth was formless and empty…" That doesn't just mean there was nothing there. The connotation of these words in Hebrew is that it was chaotic. It was not just formless and void; it was chaotic. It was empty, and it was futile, frustrating, like your life sometimes. Not all the time.
I know right now you look amazing, but that's your surface self. That's your Sunday self. Aha! I will put a Nest camera in your house this week, and then I'll come preach to you, not based on what you showed me on Sunday but what you dealt with on Wednesday. Don't make me bring a Wednesday word in this church this week that I saw you on Wednesday in the Spirit. The Lord was hovering over the surface, and he brought forth something out of that. So, I was going to Genesis 1, because I'm trying to understand, not only in my professional life but as a parent, as a husband, as a man who wants to be like Christ… Some people said it's a midlife crisis, but I don't really look at it that way. I just think it's the process we all go through of trying to figure out, "How can I know that God is my Father, know that he's my provider, see him do so many miracles, so many things, and still be insecure"?
How come it even seems like success creates extra insecurity, because now I have to sustain it? Now I have to throw the dart another time and hope I didn't just randomly hit the bull's-eye. How do I keep this going? How do you do that? As my assignment is revealed, my insecurities surface. By the time you get good at changing your child's diapers, you will need to teach them to drive. The skills needed to teach your kid to drive are not the same skills needed to change the diaper. When you change the diaper, the worst they can do is pee on you in the process, and you can clean that up. When you teach them to drive, they can send you to meet Jesus early. I need everybody who did it to clap those hands and give God praise that I'm blessed to be alive. I'm blessed to be alive, like Genesis 1 said. It's like that in every area of life.
I was talking to a man who's 62 the other day. He said, "I've never felt so insecure". I said, "Really? You're the man". His net worth is crazy too. I mean, crazy. Crazy net worth. He said, "Yeah, man. It's this and it's that and it's the other and it's the third and it's that". I said, "You're still insecure after all the success you've had". On the surface, he looks very confident, but beneath the surface is an insecurity. What insecurity is beneath the surface in your life right now that God wants to speak a word to? You don't experience insecurity as insecurity. Nobody runs around, "Just pray for me for my insecurity". When we ask people to pray, we say, like, "I'm worrying a lot lately". But why are you worrying? Because you're insecure. "No, no, no. Now, Pastor Steven, that's quite a jump. I'm worried because life is crazy, and I'm worried because I have these things".
But if you believed that you are so blessed… Like, deep down, if I believed that, then I would look at the birds, who neither store nor reap, yet my Father feeds them… There is something in me that does not believe I have what I need for where I am. Fundamentally now, I do not believe I have what I need for where I am. Or maybe in one area of my life I know I have what I need for where I am, but then I get in another area of my life, and then I get in another area of my life… This is the kids that are really good at school, but watch them on the soccer field. Or they suck at school, but they can kill you on the soccer field. This is one thing I know. This isn't a Bible verse, but I want to say it. Everybody in here sucks at something. It's not in the Bible. How many think I'm right? Everybody in here has an area of your life… Don't make me come through that camera. But God told the birds…
Let me show you this. I don't know if this is getting through. Hang on a second. I'm going to be like God for a minute. I'm going to go back in the dark, and I'm going to bring something out in the light and show you what I'm talking about. I'll be right back. This is like the beginning without form and void. The earth is without form and void. Then God said, "Let there be light. Let there be vault. Let there be sky. Let there be ocean. Let there be moon. Let there be stars. Let there be plants. Let there be ground. Dry ground, appear". Then on the fifth day (because we're talking about the principle of the fifth day), God said, "Let there be birds. Let there be fish". I know this is not the natural habitat. This is a reproduction. It's just for a mental image, because you'll forget what I say if I don't show you something, because you're a visual learner. That's how God made you. They told you you were slow, and they told you you were stupid, but they just didn't teach you right yet. I'm going to do it enough where every bird gets to eat today. All right?
I have the deep stuff in this sermon for the deep Christians, the ones who just want to be confused so they don't have to apply it, and then I have the… I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. The Lord said both are blessed. He blessed both. That confused me at first, because it said… He told the fish, "Fill the waters," and he told the birds, "Fill the sky," and it was good. Which one? Both. It leads me to believe that I'm blessed when I'm doing what God called me to do where God called me to do it. The quote I read was attributed to Albert Einstein, but I don't think he really said it, upon further review. It said if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend the rest of its life believing it is stupid. Some of you tell yourself you're stupid because you are trying to swim in somebody else's sky. Some of you are telling yourself you are incompetent or nothing or insignificant or ridiculous because you, on the other hand, are trying to flap…
Look. Here's what I'm trying to say. We have a lot of "Little Mermaid" Christians. Did y'all see the movie? I used to have such a crush on Ariel. I'm confessing it in front of Holly just so I can get healed from it and delivered from it. She was my first crush. But Ariel had a problem. Remember? What did she say? "I want to be part of that world". We have a lot of Christians who haven't read Romans 12:1. "Do not conform to the pattern of this world". Did y'all see The Little Mermaid? God is not King Triton, and God is not going to give you legs if he made you for water. God is not going to help you flap if he gave you fins. You have to move in, operate according to, and function by what you were made for. I didn't want to bring any animals out here, because we live in a contentious time, and I figured I would offend somebody and PETA might shut my church down, but just imagine… (This would be really bad. I would never do this. I'm not an animal person, but I would still never do this.)
Imagine if we put a bird in the bowl. I knew Holly would like this sermon. Babe, did you know there are six birds for every human? I thought about you this week. I was studying the birds. She's a bird person…in theory. Let one fly up close to her… She likes the information about the birds. A lot of Christians are confident in Christ in theory. "I'm a child of God. Yes, I am". That's your surface self, but before God can bring forth what he really wants to bring forth in this season, he has to move waters. He has to start clearing out stuff that is covering up stuff to ask you what is beneath the surface in your life and whether you are moving in it. Are you moving in what you're made for? Take a picture, if you want to, so you can put this on your screensaver this week. You know what I'm saying? I'm not saying you want to look at me, but maybe you just want a little reminder, like, when you're comparing yourself, when you're sitting there looking at other people's lives, comparing yourself, because what we do…
Go back to Genesis 1:26 for a minute. "Let us make man in our image," God said. But we don't go off of God's image. We go off of an image of what we think a good mom is supposed to look like or a good dad or a good man or a successful person. That's what we think. Right? You have to be like that. But it's an image. You imagined it. It's not the real image. It's a surface image. So, now you try to make memories with your kids, and they backfire. It doesn't go down like it was supposed to go down. That's because you are making memories compared to somebody else's pretend memory that they posted. They captured it. You're a bird in a bowl. We have these amazing things God made called brains. Your brain is amazing. Your mind is amazing, absolutely amazing. I mean, even the ones of us in here who had to take algebra a few times… Your brain is amazing. What it enables you to do is just amazing.
I mean, come on. The moon is jealous of you. The stars are jealous of you. God made you by hand. He made all that stuff with his mouth. He made you by his hand. Your brain is amazing, but your brain was not made to look at everybody else's life all day. Your brain was not made… I'm going to make CNN and Fox News mad (like they're watching). It was not made for you to process all the information of the world all the time. You're a bird in a bowl right now, and you are drowning in stuff God did not intend for you to live in. I'll read y'all a quote. Listen to how good this quote is. This book is called Gift from the Sea. The lady said, "We are asked today to feel compassionately for everyone in the world…" Listen again. This is the demand that's being placed on us today in the day we live in, going back to the beginning, what God made you for versus what is being marketed to you today as normal.
"We are asked today to feel compassionately for everyone in the world; to digest intellectually all the information spread out in public print…" All of it. You have to know everything all the time…what's happening on the other side of the world. You are watching people eat lunch on a screen, and they sit three cubicles down from you. That's how weird it is right now. You are asked to digest, on the same screen, world events and also somebody's vacation who lives three doors down from you. It's all right there. Now listen to what she says. "[We are asked] to implement in action every ethical impulse aroused by our hearts and minds. The interrelatedness of the world links us constantly with more people than our hearts can hold". She wrote that in 1955. What would she say today? What would she say about your week? Where have you been this week? Have you been a bird in a bowl? Here's what I mean by a "bird in a bowl". God told the fish "You are good in what I made for you".
I think the Lord wants to say that to somebody. You are good in what he made for you. You're going, "Don't you mean that he made me for"? No, no, no. What he made for you. Ephesians 2:10: "For we are created in Christ Jesus…" This is like the New Testament explanation of the illustration in Genesis 1. "We are God's handiwork…" Remember, he spoke the sun with a word. He made you with his hand. The author here is simply saying… Paul is reminding you God made you by hand. That's good enough…to know that he stitched me together. He made me by hand. I'm not mass produced. I didn't come off an assembly line. That means I don't have to fit in with something else, because I was formed by someone who knew me before my frame was. So then, if that's good news, how much better is it to know what comes next? "We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do".
To understand the fifth day, you have to understand the second day. To understand your life, you have to understand the heart, the mind, and the order of God. God wouldn't have made a bird before he made a sky. God wouldn't have made a fish before he made an ocean. Do you think God just dropped you down in your life and didn't put in you everything you need to do everything he has called you to do? "Break it down, Furtick". All right. If God put me in it, he put it in me. But, see, I have surface words that have been spoken over me that create insecurities that keep me from believing what God said and moving in what he made me for. Can I tell you how much I suck at most stuff? I mean, really, really bad. (I'll be right back. I have some other stuff back here.) Now, when I say I'm bad at basketball… I mean, my kids started beating me at HORSE when they were 4 years old. I am so bad. I'm not saying, like, "Oh, I'm not really good behind the line". No. I'm saying I'm not good against the backboard. On a ladder I can't shoot a basketball.
Here's how bad it was. When God called me to preach… Now, we're talking about what you were made for. Don't get distracted like I'm giving you a history lesson on my life. I know you don't come to church for a memoir, but there's something like this for you. Okay? I remember when I first went around preaching, Holly and I would go to these little churches, and we would end up… After I preached, the kids would all want to go in the gym and play basketball, and then it would undo the good impression I made on the pulpit when they saw me play basketball. They were like, "That guy can't know God. Look at him out there. Look at how he moves". So I went to my friend. Now, I'm going to tell you this, and this is a detail you may not need, but I went to my friend. She was the captain of the Lady Stags, the Berkeley Stags, the high school team. I said, "I need help". I said, "I'm out here preaching". She said, "I don't know anything about preaching". I said, "I don't need preaching. I need you to teach me about basketball". I said, "Can I come over"? We went out in her driveway, and after an hour, she said, "Maybe you should just ref". Okay. I'll be right back. Y'all hang out right there. Because I'm bad at that.
Another thing I want to show you… This one is a little bit more close to home. When I told them what to get me, I said, "Get a pink hammer," just to symbolize that Holly is a better handyman than I am. See, I don't like to tell you stuff like this when I preach, because I look kind of manly. I have a beard. I need to show you this because it's going to help you with something. It's going to set you free from something. When we first got married, I felt so insecure, inept, incompetent, incapable, insufficient, because I thought a good husband was a good handyman. That was the image I had. My dad could fix stuff. Her dad can fix stuff. What kind of husband can I be if I can't fix anything? Bird in a bowl. That's you. "O God, I'm not good at that. I'm not quick on my feet".
Well, be slow on your feet. Be deliberate. Be accurate. Chop them right in the throat when you hit. Boom! Right there. I was a fish in a tree in second grade. The teacher said, "Nobody wants to just hear you talk all the time". Oh yeah, baby! I'm a bad bird. I believe I can fly! Move in what you're made for. Let them say what they want. Let them count you out. You have what it takes! You were made for this, baby! Tell the birds, "Back up. I'm blessed". So, let's make a trade. She didn't need a handyman. She needed a holy man. Give me my mic. I just had the wrong thing in my hand. If you will focus with enough gratitude on what God gave you and how God made you, you little quirky bird, you little funky fish, you little weird… You get focused enough on what he gave you beneath the surface of what you see that's not what you thought it was supposed to be, and you can knock down giants, and God can break down walls, and you can see great and mighty things! So, I can't be her handyman. I'm her holy man. I like that. Make me a tee shirt. I'm your holy man. That's good. God prepared us in advance. Don't get me started. I'll start spelling words wrong. Prepared.
All right. Let's ask Vanna White if we can buy a vowel. I want to buy an I. Pre-paired. She was pre-paired. This is how I know God is God. On the second day, he made the water. On the fifth day, he made the fish to go in it. On the second day, he made the sky. On the fifth day, he made the birds to fly in it. The birds are smarter than we were, because we spent the first 30 years, 40 years, 50 years… How long is it going to take for us to go to fish school and learn what the fish and the birds knew from the moment God spoke them? You didn't see a fish flapping around in the sky, but you see people all the time trying to dress like something they're not, talk like something they're not, walk like something they're not. Quacking and wobbling all around, you ugly duckling. I'm putting all the fairy tales and Disney characters in this one, because I want you to get it. I want you to get that you're handmade. I'm not talking about marriage. This is an illustration. We were pre-paired. When you preached yesterday, I was so proud. My barber was cutting my hair, and he said, "Be still. I'm going to gap you up, and you're going to make me look bad on camera". I said, "I'm sorry. She's just doing so good".
She was out there in Austin, Texas, preaching. When it was done, Fly Ty said, "You must be proud". I said, "You have no idea how proud". Because I know the process. I know all the insecurity she pushed through to preach like that. Let me tell you a few. Do you mind if I tell them? It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. She has to forgive me for this, because this is what God told me to tell you. "Let the fish fill the water. Let the birds fill the sky". You will fill what you are formed for when you stop complaining about where you don't fit, when you find your water, when you find your sky, when you stop asking, "Can I be a part of that world"? Holly used to say, "I wish I could preach and be more Spirit-filled". Do you know what she meant? Spontaneous. Where we grew up, scripted and structure meant it wasn't Spirit-filled. So, she was a bird in a bowl. You love birds? Hold that bowl. She was in that bowl, the bowl of her belief about what God needed her to be for her to be effective.
Now y'all make me mad because y'all see me in the store and y'all say, "We love when Holly preaches". I'm like, "What am I supposed to do with that"? I love it when she preaches too. She's not as available for romantic interludes when she's preaching, so I'm not going to let her preach too much. Spontaneous. That's my gift. This is my water. This is my sky. This is me being me. Blame it on the birds. I got excited. They'll put on YouTube… They'll say, "This isn't preaching. This is a motivational seminar with a failed B-rate comedy hour on it". Okay. You swim in your sea. I'll swim in mine. We can both be blessed. I'll preach it how I preach it. You preach it how you preach it. They told Finney, "I don't like your style of evangelism". He said, "What's yours"? They said, "I don't have one yet". He said, "I like mine better". I like mine better. I like my wife better, because I watched you… He said, "You must be proud". I said, "I am because I know the process". Not the product. People will see the product, but God knows all the mess you're in right now, and by hand he's crafting and designing you for it, because he pre-paired it with you.
So I watched her. I watched her go from "I'm not Spirit-filled" to realizing that the Spirit of God can fill a script, that you don't have to wing it. (Bird reference.) The craziest thing is now when she speaks and I see the Spirit of God, it reminds me of Genesis 1:2, that the Spirit was hovering over the surface, trying to bring forth what was already there. Do you know how many birds are in bowls today because of the insecurity that imprisons them? You can't move in it because you weren't made for it. Quit trying to fit in with those friends who aren't good for you. Let me be dad for a minute. Let me move in what I'm made for for a minute. God has given me a parental anointing as well, and there are times in my kids' lives where I'm like, "You don't fit there because it's not for you. I'm not saying you're better than anybody, but you don't fit there because it's not for you. So, everybody who doesn't want to be your friend… The real you is doing you a favor".
Oh, I'm going to preach somebody free today. You've been in this bowl going like… Some of you are trying to be sinners, and you suck at it, because you're not supposed to be a sinner. You're a saint. You're the righteousness of God. You're a child of the light. You're a child of the light, and that's why darkness doesn't feel right to you. Make the confession. Say, "I'm a child of the light". Now let there be light over your life. I'm a child of the light. If it doesn't fit, it's not for you. Give me that blazer. I'm going to show you how silly you look trying to fit into the customs of this world. Some of y'all are encouragers, and you are trying your best to be negative because negative is so normal now, and you're not even good at it. Some of y'all need to stop cussing, because y'all don't even know how to cuss correctly. You sound silly. Give me that. I could put this on. I told her I was going to do this. I said, "What if I rip it"? She said, "Then rip it if you've got to rip it".
I want you to notice something. It wasn't made for me, so I can't move in it. That's the mindset you've been in. Y'all can't take me seriously. She said turn around so we can see how you look from the back. This is you. "Oh, I can't be free. Oh, I can't fly". Get it off you and get back and know that he is God! I'm blessed! I'm highly favored! Watch this, birds! I can fly too. Come on. You were made to praise. Do what you were made to do. You were made to glorify. I believe I can fly. I know I can make it. I was made for this. He is the potter. I am the clay. I'm staying on the wheel. I have wings like a dove. I can make it over this situation. Now scrunch up your eyebrows like you mean business and tell somebody, "I was made for this". I was made for this, like a fish in water, like a bird in the sky, like something sprouting forth out of the ground. I was made in the image of God, so why in the world would I move in the condemnation of my Enemy? I'm coming out of insecurity today because I wasn't made for insecurity. I was made in the image of God. How do I know what I'm made for? I spend time with my Maker. I have to get with him now.
"And God said…" You're never going to find out what his hand can do, because you are so distracted by what your hands are holding that wasn't made for you. Now, God did not make the sky for the birds to hover in and hang out, and God did not make the sea for the lobsters to get some sun. You have to move in it. You have to move in what you were made for. That's how life happens. Did you ever have a baby? I didn't, but when it moved and it got uncomfortable, that's when we knew she was closer than ever to bringing forth life. The same is true in the Spirit. "And God said…" Don't you want to know what he spoke? Don't you? Don't you want to know what he who chose you before the foundations of the earth, before all this surface stuff got on you…? Don't you want to know what you were created in Christ Jesus for that was prepared in advance for you to do? This is your season to begin to move in your water, to begin to fly in your sky, to begin to control the atmosphere you allow in your heart. Your mind was not made to worry about the future. Sufficient is the day.
If you move in what God gave you… This day our daily bread. I feel anointed to help somebody. He said this was a word for your insecurity. When you bring that to your Maker and remember what you were made for… "Oh, I'm a reflection of God". I told my buddy a while back… He was getting criticized, and I said, "That's happened to me before. Let me tell you what I learned. I read a quote where the man said, 'Never wrestle with a pig.' Then he said, 'Because you both get muddy, and the pig likes it.'" Then God gave me something to say. "You're a prince, not a pig". I wasn't made for the mud. I was made from the mud, but when I'm in the hands of my Maker… Come on. Release it to God right now. If you just start getting ready to leave right now and you don't seal this word, the Enemy is going to snatch it. You're going to get back in the same situation, the same people, the same stuff you've been staring at all week. This is the principle of the fifth day, that we could learn from the birds what we don't know with our human minds, that when I fly in what I'm formed for, God always has a worm for me; that when I swim in where God set me…
Now, don't go quit your job and tell your boss you're a bird. You're going to be a broke bird looking for a worm. That is not my message. Do not put an asterisk by my message. I didn't say that. I want to talk about your heart. I want to talk about what you believe. I want to talk about the bowl you put yourself in. If the Lord helps me, I'm going to continue this same line of teaching next week. The Prodigal Son said, "I'm out here with the pigs, and my father has hired servants. I'm a prince, but I'm down here with the pigs. I wasn't made for this". I wasn't made for this addiction. My heart was made for God. I wasn't made for this bitterness. I'm not going to be down here with the pigs and forget that I'm a prince. I was made in the image of God, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, and God made the work for me to do before he made me to do it. So, whatever you're in right now… I don't care if it's for a job or for a challenge that can't be named in the room, because you know how we are.
We can only talk about, like, three things in church. Beneath the surface…that's what the Spirit of God brought forth. I believe he's bringing it forth right now in your life, just to get you to realize that when you move in what you were made for… "I don't know what that is yet". That's all right. Your Maker does. "Yeah, but my life is a mess". Do you not remember that's how the whole thing got started to begin with? He remembers our frame, Psalm 103:14 says, and he knows we are dust.
So, when it's messy, just remember your Maker knew all of that. We don't. We only see the pieces. Remember? He sees the picture. He knew what to make on the second day so what was made on the fifth day would have somewhere to live. He knew who to allow to leave you so that who came into your life later would have a place to be. He knew what disappointments to allow you so that he could teach you the lessons you would need for the level he wants to use you and the glory that shall be revealed.
This is the principle of the fifth day. I wonder, can we who were made on the sixth day learn from the birds and the fish who were made on the fifth day? Just to move in what you were made for. You can have this when your knee gets better. You can have this. God is calling me from glory to glory, from strength to strength. Is the insecurity keeping you from seeing the strength? The Spirit of the living God is hovering over your heart at this moment. He's drawing some things forth. Some of it's going to look ugly, some of it's going to look unfamiliar, but you just trust that the one who is speaking knows what is beneath the surface.
Heavenly Father, we receive the Holy Spirit, the equipping, the divine enablement, and the grace of God, not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought but to function in the gifts we've been given. Shall the thing made say to the thing that made it, "Why have you formed me this way"? No, God. You're the potter. We're the clay. As you shape and form and move our lives in conformity to your perfect will and purpose and your divine counsel, we offer ourselves to you, Jehovah-Jireh, the God who provides the sea before he ever speaks forth the fish; the God who provides the sky before he ever creates the bird; the God who gave us the grace before we ever encountered Goliath. We receive your grace, Lord. We worship you, Lord.