Steven Furtick - Creating Separation (01/27/2026)
Drawing from Exodus 14:19-22, the pastor dives into how God sets up barriers like the cloud pillar and split sea to pull the Israelites away from Egypt, stressing that true growth comes from God carving out gaps in our lives that force us to rely on Him alone, ending with a call to let go of old doubts through faith.
Introduction to the Scripture and Theme
Hey, let me read this scripture, then I'll let you be seated. I want to read you a scripture today from Exodus chapter 14. And I'm going to only read a few verses, guys, so it'd be a little different than what I did last night. But I want to read Exodus chapter 14, verse 19 through 22. This will set up the topic that I want to speak to you about on this fourth week of our series, Stretch Marks.
This is a pretty familiar scripture, even for people who don't have a lot of church background. It's the scene where the Israelites are leaving Egypt, where they've been enslaved for over four centuries. They're coming out of something that was frustrating, but they're going into something unfamiliar. They're dealing with all of the tension that creates when you're coming out of something you really didn't want to be in, but it's all you ever knew, and you're going into something preferable but perplexing.
And that was the situation in Exodus 14 as they're leaving one place and entering another. I believe there are some people here who are leaving one place in your life and entering another. I believe this is going to speak to you. Here's what happened as they left. The scripture says,
Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
The Core Message: Creating Separation
I want to speak to you for a few moments today on this subject: creating separation. I believe that the major thrust of this passage, and really one of the main objectives of God in our lives, is to create separation—to make a space that only God can fill. That's what I want to share with you about today.
Let's pray one more time. Father, this is your word. We expect your blessing as we study it. We expect your power as we come before you today. We thank you for an awesome time in your presence. We thank you for the place you've brought us to, and we thank you for where we're going. On the way to where we're going, we thank you that you take us as we are. We love you now. Now, in Jesus' name, and everybody that loves Jesus, shout it, Amen.
Before you take your seat, touch the person next to you and say, I need a little room, because I'm planning on enjoying this. You may be seated.
Personal Anecdotes and Family Illustrations
Creating Separation. A little bit more about my kids. I enjoy talking about them as sermon illustrations. I figure it helps justify the expense of having them and raising them, if I can put them in a sermon. But Abby began her career yesterday—she was a flower girl for the first time.
And I brought a picture… I just want to show you real quick how she looked when she came in my room. Holly's really good about when Abby comes up to me. Holly will tell me what to comment on, because Abby's my first girl. And I've never had boys come up to me wanting me to look at them. They want to wrestle or punch, but not look. So Holly will be like, her eye shadow. So Abby walked up to me with her eyes closed yesterday. Holly goes, eye shadow, eye shadow. I said, baby, your eye shadow. She said, I know.
She was a flower girl in a wedding for one of the young ladies that serves on our staff, Caroline. Holly and I were talking about, you know, if you would like Abby to be your flower girl, she's available. She's expensive—$8,000 an hour—but we'd like to make that offer to you. But when your daughter comes in with makeup on, it's one of those moments where it's like, oh my God, this is the beginning of a whole lot of other things.
Parenting Moments and Mixed Emotions
And as a parent, you have these moments where you can't wait until your kids are out of the house. Then you have these moments where you're like, stop growing up. A lot of times when I go away for a trip, and I've been gone for like a week, a really long trip, maybe an international trip or something, I'm so looking forward to seeing my kids. It's like, get me back home to Charlotte immediately. And then, you know, after an hour sometimes being back with them, it's like, get me back on a plane anywhere.
It's interesting because they have this psychological term called separation anxiety. You've heard that term. How many of you have heard separation anxiety? It's a normal thing for a child, say maybe six months to three years, when a child starts having to deal with being away for a short period of time from their parents, and they start to get anxious about it. It's completely normal.
It's normal because they came out of this woman's womb where they were cozy, where they had like a naturally God-designed Snuggie inside their mom. And so it creates psychologically, as the child's cognitive abilities begin to develop, it can create anxiety to be away from the one that carried them for a long time. It's a psychological phenomenon, separation anxiety. It's normal.
Understanding Separation Anxiety in Children
It's normal for a kid when you put them to bed sometimes to begin to cry. Now, Abby took it a little far. For about six months there, she had this little routine that we would go through every time we'd put her to bed, and if you didn't do the routine exactly right, she would scream her head off until you came back and finished it.
She would make you say these things in this order: Good night. I love you. I'll see you in the morning. Crack the door. Don't let the monsters come. Don't let the bedbugs bite. Don't let the bedbugs come. Good night. I love you. Good night. Good night. If you didn't say all ten of those things in that exact order, if you left out the bedbugs or forgot about the monsters, you're doing it all over again.
She developed this need, this psychological need, to have this certain sequence of things said to her. I could tell while I was telling you that, you were like, oh, that's cute. It was cute the first 15 times. I actually thought about preaching a sermon one day called It's Not Cute Anymore.
Outgrowing Old Habits Spiritually
I was going to preach it about how sometimes we still gravitate toward things we ought to have outgrown. I thought I would preach it maybe to people who act like baby Christians, but you've been in the church 20 years, and you're still coming to church for what you can get out of it rather than what you can bring to the king who gave his life for you.
If I ever preach that sermon, I'll have you touch three people and tell them it's not cute anymore. When you can't forgive somebody and what they did to you happened 15 years ago, it's not cute anymore. But that's another sermon for another day, because I'm talking about separation and the anxiety that separation creates.
Write this down: Greatness is always preceded by separation. Of any variety, greatness is always preceded by separation. Or if you like, success always starts with separation. And we see it in the passage.
Connecting Personal Stories to Biblical Parallels
I know you're wondering what Moses has to do with Abby and what a four-year-old flower girl has to do with an 80-year-old who is leading his nation out of four centuries of slavery, but I think there are some parallels here, because God is separating his people from the tight place where they've been held for a long time. And we see in this passage a lot of anxiety.
I want to give this sermon like three headings. How many of you are note takers? Yeah, this will give you something linear, and then if you don't like the sermon, you can calculate how long it has to go so you know where I'm going.
But I put three things down that I thought might be helpful for us to talk about this idea of separation. You've got Moses leading a people out of a nation that was really all they've ever known. You've got the water separating like giant walls so they can walk through. You've got a cloud and a pillar that were leading the Israelites, going behind them, between them and their enemies. It's all about separation. And I prayed a lot about this sermon, particularly what was the theme that I was to bring, and I kept coming back to this thing of separation.
Clarifying the Concept of Separation
Let me be clear, though. Don't hear this sermon and then go home and tell your husband you're leaving him because the pastor preached about separation. No, you didn't. You had your selfishness validated by a misinterpretation. Because the Scripture says, What God has joined together, let not man separate.
So we get in all kinds of trouble when we try to separate what God joined together. But if that's true, then it must also be true that we get in all kinds of trouble when we try to put together what God has separated.
People have, throughout centuries, created separatist movements. I mean, it would have been unthinkable in 1950 that a white preacher…. I'm only white in my body. That a white preacher would have a campus that was over 80% African American in the same city with other campuses. But see, one thing about God is, He has a way of bringing things together that people wanted to be separated. He has a way of showing the world that He is God. When we look like one church, one army, one people with one mission, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one birth, one gospel, one man on the middle cross. Tell somebody next to you, it's good when we come together. It's good that we're together.
God's Way of Unity and Distinction
What God has joined together, let not man separate. But what God has separated, don't you try to bring it together. Let me give you our first subheading. I want to talk to you from Moses' life, and I first want to look at the distinctive feature. Yes, I had to Wikipedia what that meant. It's a linguistic term from phonology where they try to figure out what makes one form of speech different than another. And they use the sounds that we make to identify the distinguishing marks between languages.
All right, that's all the background I want to give you about that. Because I don't want to teach a lesson on linguistics. I want to use it to talk about how destiny is always driven by your distinctives.
The things about you that make you different are the things that will drive you into your destiny. Often the things that embarrass you about yourself are the very things that God has empowered you with to make a difference in your world. Come on, Blakeney. I know I'm not normally on the screen, but you can clap. Because a lot of times we spend our time running from the things that God wants to use to lead us into our new season and into our greatest effectiveness. Touch somebody next to you and say, be distinctive.
Embracing What Makes You Unique
Israel was always meant to be different than the other nations. God never intended for them to fit in. In fact, the reason that he called Israel was so that he could have a special possession, something different than all the surrounding nations, a nation on which his name could rest.
He wanted them to be distinctive and it broke God's heart more than anything when his people tried to pretend like they were what God had called them out of. It broke his heart when they wanted a king for themselves, a human king, when God wanted to be their king.
And I think it still must really break the heart of God when we try to get out of other people something that God himself desires to give to us, something that only he can give. If you're a business owner, raise your hand, or if you're an aspiring business owner, an entrepreneur of any kind, one of the things you've got to do if your business is going to succeed or be great, remember we said that greatness is preceded by separation.
Separation as Preparation
Both work. I mean, I screwed it up, but the other one worked too. Even my mistake was anointed just now. That's how great University City is. Now watch this. There's something to that separation preparation. There's something to that. Isn't there? Because Moses had to spend 40 years in Midian in the desert separated from his people in order to go back to his people and lead them to a place that they no longer believed they were fit to go into.
Sometimes God has to pull you away from people. Sometimes God has to pull you away from comfortable circumstances to propel you into your calling. Separation is preparation. Jesus often had to go away and pray away from Peter and away from John and away from James. I love y'all, but I can't be with y'all all the time because I have a calling.
In order to fulfill my calling, I have to be separate. I have to be consecrated. That's the church word. Consecrated. What does that mean? Separate. Set apart. Another popular spiritual term is sanctified. It means set apart for a purpose. Sometimes God has to pull you away from people to set you apart for purpose.
Moses' Journey of Separation
And you see it in Moses' life. God was preparing him to be a deliverer. But in order to prepare him to be a deliverer, he had to give him a distinctive feature. So Moses is born and at three months old he goes through his first separation where his mother had to send him down the Nile. And the reason she had to do that is because Pharaoh was so afraid of the Israelites because they were becoming so numerous that he started killing all the firstborn boys.
And so Moses' mom had to send him out. And then when he was taken up, he was taken up by one of Pharaoh's daughters. So now he's an Israelite by birth, but he's living in an Egyptian culture. He's no stranger to separation. He knows what it means to be living in one place but to have come from another place.
And some of you know that feeling as well. It's to be separated from your background. It's to be separated from the things that are in your blood. It's to be separated is to say, you know, everybody in my family didn't go to college but I think I might get a degree. You know, all the males in my family ran off and left but I think I'm going to stay and raise my kids. You know, my father was an alcoholic but I don't think I need that. I think I'm going to find a different addiction. I think I'm going to get addicted to fulfilling my purpose and accomplishing the calling. There's a separation. It's separation.
From Birth to the Burning Bush
So he's born Israelite or Hebrew. He's raised in Egypt but then one day he murders an Egyptian because the Egyptian is beating the Hebrew and he's torn between the people that he came from and the people that he's had to live with and he doesn't know what to do so he responds in the wrong way because sometimes it feels like life is pulling you apart between your past and your present between who you were and who you are and you don't know what to do.
And so he does the wrong thing but he ends up on the run and that's why he went to Midian and that's why he ended up in Midian tending sheep for 40 years and that's why he ended up separated not only from what he was born into but what he was raised in. And then God speaks to him about what he was called to do in a scene called the burning bush.
And that's where God said take off your shoes, Moses. Take off your shoes. I'm not taking these off, because I know there are some sneakerheads. He said, I want you to separate yourself from who you are so you can see who I am. The place you are standing is holy ground. Moses, I've chosen you, and I've made you distinctive. I've set you apart. I've given you a destiny.
Overcoming Excuses with God's View
Moses has all these excuses. He's like, Well, I can't talk very good. God said, Your distinctive feature isn't your ability to talk. Your distinctive feature is the words I'm going to put in your mouth. I need you to separate your view of yourself from my view of you. I need you to separate yourself from your excuses for a minute so you can embrace my purpose.
What was God doing? He was creating a separation between what Moses was not and what God certainly was. He was creating a separation so that Moses, when he went back to Egypt, wouldn't think like the people who were still there. That's what the loneliness was about. The separation was preparation for purpose.
I didn't preach this to be a dating seminar, but I just felt God say that there are some people who are holding out for a person that will complement your calling, and you're not giving yourself up, and you feel kind of weird about it, and you feel kind of strange about it, but I needed to tell you to hold on, because if you compromise what's distinctive about you, you will disrupt your destiny by joining with something that doesn't look like you, that won't walk with you, that won't work for you, so I wanted to tell you you're separate on purpose. You're here for a reason in this season.
Parallels Between Exodus and Genesis
Many scholars have postulated that the Exodus account, where Moses is leading the people out of Egypt, is meant to parallel or mimic the Genesis account when God created the earth. And that gives us a further insight, because the Scripture says that when God was getting things started… How many feel like God is starting something in your life? How many want God to start something in your life, in your family, in your business, in your career?
So it said, in the beginning God created… Everybody say created. He created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning God created. What's the title of my sermon? Creating Separation. You get it in a minute, because it said he created the heavens and the earth. Now watch this. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep.
I need to show you something, because if I don't show it to you, I'm afraid you won't pick up on it. It says the darkness was over the face of the deep. It doesn't say God created the darkness. First John 1-5 says that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God didn't make the darkness. God didn't create sin. God didn't create shame. God is not the author of confusion. So the darkness was there, but then something happened.
God's Act of Separation in Creation
The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, and God said. How did God create what you see? By what he spoke. How many know God wants to speak some things over your life today? Some distinctive features. He wants to speak some things about what he put you here to do, about what he gave you your gifts for, about what you were created for.
So he spoke that. Watch, watch, watch. That's not the good part. That's not the good part. Tell somebody that's not even it. And he saw that the light was good. That's what he spoke. And he saw what was there that he didn't create. Then he spoke what he wanted to see. And then he said, I need to separate what was there before I spoke from what I spoke.
Now here's what I think about that. I think God wants to create a separation in your life today, a separation between what was there before God spoke, what people said about you, what your past is saying about you, what your weakness informs about you, and the better word that he's speaking over your life. Let's get all that other stuff out of here, all that darkness, all that doubt, all that dysfunction.
Becoming a New Creation
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. What God did in Genesis with the earth, he did through Jesus on the cross. And now he's saying, the old is gone, the new has come. Come on, give him praise on every campus. That's what God's doing in this place today. He's separating the light from the darkness. He's separating your purpose from your past. He's separating his words over your life from your worry about your future.
He said, I have to create a separation so that the only thing that shines is what I spoke. I'm preaching so good. Stand out, child of God. Stop trying to be so similar. Stop trying to look like what you came from. Why are you so scared to stand out? Why are you so scared to stand out? I didn't start a church to be like all the other churches in the area. How many know that's why you're here? Not because it was so similar, but God wants to do a special thing. Don't trade in special for similar.
I heard that term before, but I never heard it in a sermon. I heard it in sports. They talk about basketball players who have the ability to create separation so they can take a shot with a higher percentage. They talk about it even in fighting. They talk about a reach advantage. They say, if this guy can create separation, he's going to make his opponent miss.
Sports Analogies for Spiritual Separation
One of my friends plays football. I told him, I said, I'm going to preach about creating separation. I said, What would you say about this? Because he's a receiver. He said, Well, tell the people that creating separation isn't always about being fast. It's about knowing your route. I'm running out of time, but let me take a moment and hit on the comeback route.
It's interesting the way God leads us out of situations and into purpose. It's not usually a straight line. That was one of the things that was so confusing to Moses. God gave him some instructions that seemed insane. He said, I could take you straight into the Promised Land. This is where the people of Israel were headed.
I know a lot of you may not have a ton of Bible background. You don't need to know all this to get what God wants you to have. You just need to embrace at the level you can. I'm using the Promised Land they were going to to talk about all the promises God has established and has spoken over your life, but the way God took them was unusual. The way he led them wasn't in a straight line. He told them to kind of go around an interesting route.
The Unusual Path in Exodus
I want to read you this in Exodus 14. I'm going to back up. Before that point where the waters separated and they went through on dry ground, it says in verse 1 that when God was telling them where to go, he said to Moses, Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea.
That's what's unusual to me about the instruction. They leave Egypt after ten plagues, after Pharaoh has resisted, because God gets the greatest glory out of your life in the face of the greatest resistance. So it's not always easy. It's not supposed to be. It can't be. People can't see how strong your God is if your battles are never fierce.
But when they finally leave and they're walking out and they're leaving Egypt, they start going and God says, Tell them to turn back. Do I have any football fans, any big football fans? You can help me. Help me. Okay, just come help me real quick with this one point. Come on up, both of you guys. You know these guys. I love these guys.
Illustrating the Comeback Route
All right, look. Just real quick, we don't have long. I'm really eating into my sermon time here, and they'll start leaving at the other campuses if I go long, and I don't want that. All right, so come here. We're doing a little mock-up football scenario. You know a comeback route in football. So just demonstrate real quick, because a lot of people out here aren't football fans and they don't know what I'm talking about, but this is what my friend was telling me about.
So just run a little comeback route. You be the defender. Just go. So watch. That's a comeback route. It means…. Boy, I want to preach this so bad, because where he's trying to go, the goal is over here, but he's got a defender on him, and if the defender is too close… Watch. Go out, go out, go out, go out. If the defender is too close, he can't get what he's supposed to carry.
So in order to make progress, in order to get to the goal eventually, he has to come back in the wrong direction momentarily. Let's do it again, because I do it again. Let's reenact that. Instant replay. God says, sometimes I'm going to send you out, hey, but I'm going to bring you back to create a separation. Thanks, man. Give me back my Bible. I'm done with y'all.
Applying the Comeback Route to Life
But God said, what we just did on that stage, what the receiver does on the football field, sometimes I need to do in your life. That is, sometimes when it looks like you're going backwards, all I'm doing is making a space where I can bless you.
Did someone leave your life recently? It's all right. God's got you on a comeback route. Did you lose your job recently? It's all right. It's a comeback route. Did somebody break your heart, sweetheart? That's okay. There's somebody better. Catch this way. God said, in order for you to receive. I got to go. Tell somebody it's a comeback route. It's coming back. It's coming back. It's coming back.
God will often create a space that he intends to fill with himself. I'm going to give every campus about 15 seconds to praise God that when it looked like you were being pushed back. It was actually God making some room so he could move.
Preparation Through Isolation
So we got it. We got the distinctive feature. It was a whole thing where God said, all right, I'm going to allow you to be separated, and then I'm going to allow you to be taken away, and then I'm going to allow you to be in isolation. But all that separation is a part of your preparation to lead you to your purpose.
So now I got you where I want you, standing in front of the Red Sea. And the reason I brought you to the Red Sea, which is a body of water that is too large for you to cross, is because I got some things that I need to get rid of. And if I don't get rid of them, you'll return to them.
So when you get in trouble in your life, you come to something and you're like, God, why did you bring me out here? And what happens to the Israelites? It happens to all of us. They get to the place. They leave Egypt. Maybe this represents you becoming a follower of Christ. Salvation. And Moses stretches his hand, and the water is parted. Awesome. But then they start having second thoughts.
Dealing with Separation Anxiety in Faith
Separation anxiety. Separation anxiety. I'm not so sure about this. And they start complaining. See, because Pharaoh got upset when he realized that he'd lost his whole labor force. And then they got upset when they found out that they had lost their security. Wow.
So they start complaining to Moses. And they say to Moses some of the stuff that we say to God in our hearts sometimes, when he's bringing us out of something, into something, but we're in the middle. I used to shout when somebody would say, we're in the middle of a miracle, until I found out the middle can be kind of miserable.
The middle is… I mean, the finish line is great. The starting block is exciting. It's the middle. That's what separates the people who have real faith and the people who just have a fantasy. It's the middle. But it said that Pharaoh approached, verse 10, and the Israelites looked up. Hold up. I have to hit this one thing.
Boldness in the Battle
In verse 8, it says that Pharaoh pursued the Israelites who were marching out boldly. You got it? That's how we are in church right now. Bold. It's kind of easy to be bold when you're not in the middle of the battle. All they knew at this point is they were leaving. But they didn't yet know that they were being chased.
So it said that the Egyptians came running after them. In verse 10, it says, As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them. Then they were terrified and cried out to the Lord. Real bold until the battle comes.
And they said to Moses, Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, Leave us alone, let us serve the Egyptians? They were begging to leave Egypt when they were slaves. They were bold as they were leaving. But the moment the battle started, they started looking back.
The Second Stretch Explained
That's why I want to talk to you about the second stretch. That's the final thing I want to talk to you about. I just want to mention the second stretch. Because there was that first decision they made to leave, and then there was the second decision they had to make about whether they wanted to go back.
God gives a solution to Moses. He says, Hey, stretch your hand over this place you can't cross. Stretch your hand. Stretch your thinking. Stretch your mind. Stretch your imagination. Stretch what you have that's not bigger than what you're facing, and it will become a symbol of my strength which is greater than anything you'll ever encounter. Stretch it out.
Would you tell the person next to you, stretch it out? Just tell them, you have permission to stretch it out. Even if it doesn't seem big enough, stretch it out. And I felt like today that one of the things that was really important to bring to this message is the idea that some of us would prefer the security of slavery to the uncertainty of separation. That's why we stay stuck.
God's Instruction to Stretch
And Moses is given this instruction. We read about it by God. He says, Stretch out your hand over the sea that you can't cross, and you'll see my power, and I'll create a separation. If you'll stretch, I'll separate. If you'll stretch, I'll make a way.
That's what happened when Jesus died for me. He made a way for me to cross over from death to life, from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness, from brokenness to wholeness, from sickness to healing. He gave me a way to cross over.
And so the Scripture says that the pillar and the cloud that was going before them went behind them, slipped behind them, and they must have thought for a minute, Oh, God is leaving us. No, he's not leaving you. He's leading you from a different position. He's creating a separation between you and your enemies. He's creating a separation between your faith and your sight.
Walking by Faith, Not Sight
See, if you could always see where he was taking you, you wouldn't need to believe in him. So he went behind them to create a separation that they would walk by faith and not by sight. While they're walking through, they're wondering, God, why did you bring us out here? Why did you bring us out here?
Some of you are wondering that right now. God, why did you bring me here? Why did you let me go through that? And God wants you to know, I didn't bring you out here so you would drown. I brought you out here because I know your enemies can't swim. I'm preaching to somebody who's in the middle of something right now.
I wanted to give you an instruction from God. God said, it's time for the second stretch. Everybody say second stretch. I'm about to close, but in closing, let me explain what that means before you take it the wrong way. The first stretch happened when Moses stretched out his hand and the Israelites crossed through. But once they got through, everybody say second stretch.
The Home Stretch and New Beginnings
Say home stretch. God was taking them to a new place, a new land, a new promise, a new home. God's taking you somewhere. This is going somewhere. You're not going to die here. You're not going to die. It's not over. You're not going to die. It's not going to kill you. It's not over.
But when they got through to the other side…. What verse is it? Let me show you this. Everybody say second stretch. It said that in verse 26… Yeah, that's it. After they got through to the other side, The first stretch happened before they crossed. Once they got on the other side, they got to see what all that trouble was about.
God said, now that you made it over, stretch out your hand over the sea. So now that you made it over, now that you know God, now that you're in his presence, now that you're in church, now that you've been through some things, now that cancer didn't kill you, now that you lived through divorce, now that you went through bankruptcy, now that you went through your kid turning crazy, flipping out on you, now that you've gone through, here's what I want you to do. Stretch your hand back over what you just came out of. Stretch it again.
Stretching Back to Drown Doubts
I wish everybody on every location would stand up and stretch your hand. If you've been through some things that didn't kill you, if you've been through some things that didn't stop you, if you've seen some struggles that didn't tear you apart, stretch your hand. Why? Stretch out your hand so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and their horsemen.
I'm going to say this, and then Larry Pryor is going to come because I have to go, and your campus pastor is going to come because I have to go, but I wanted to tell you why God brought you into deep waters, because your doubts can't drown on dry ground. Your doubts can't die on dry ground.
It has to be in a place where you look to your left and you see something bigger than you, and you look to your right and you see something bigger than you, and you look behind you and you see something chasing you. And the only way forward is faith. Second stretch. God said, I brought you into this difficult circumstance so I could drown your doubts. I didn't just want to bring you out of Egypt. I wanted to drown Egypt out of you.
Final Call to Praise and Faith
Who is this message for? Who is this message for in Uptown? Who is this message for in Providence? You're in the deep water right now. Some challenging circumstances right now. I believe this is your moment for a second stretch. Lift your hands in his presence if you feel comfortable.
Lord, we thank you for the deep waters you've brought us through. We thank you for the places you've delivered us from. We thank you for what tried to kill us, but it didn't kill us. It killed our complacency and it awakened our calling. God, we thank you for the separation in our lives. We thank you for the space that you've made that only you are big enough to fill.
God, I thank you that in this moment, the Egyptians that have held us in chains of doubt are drowning in the sea of our worship and our faith and our praise and our trust and our prayers. Father, we stretch our hands to you and we declare that if our God is for us, what could stand? If our God is for us, then who could ever stop us? Come on, praise him! Praise him!