Steven Furtick - God Will Never Give Up On You
This is an excerpt from: The God Of Again
Immaturity is doing something once in awhile and wondering why it didn't work. If God is the God of again, what makes you think you're going to quote one Scripture and the Devil is going to run off of everything in your life you need him to leave? Come on. If God is the God of again, what makes us think we could just come to church once on Sunday and put a space of six days between us and God and be okay? I'm going to need God to get in the gaps between Sundays for me to fight against the stuff I'm struggling with, because he's the God of again. That's why I put these messages on YouTube for free: so you can get it again and again and again.
Some of you are like, "You talk too fast when you preach. You need to slow down". No, you need to rewind and get it again. YouTube even has a slowdown function. There's no excuse. Slow me down and get this word. I'll go as slowly as you need me to because I have something for you, and I want you to get it. Oh, sometimes he will leave you in a season a little longer, and you'll think he's being slow, but what you call his slowness is actually his love, because his slowness, as you perceive it, is his steadiness to prepare you by his sovereignty for something your eyes cannot see. He's the God of again.
Don't be so discouraged by what you're still working through. I guarantee you it takes all of us time. It takes everybody time. In marketing, they used to have a rule called the rule of seven. Have you ever heard of this? This is way back from, like, the 30s and stuff, way before social media. They said you have to touch somebody seven times with a message before they act on it. Seven times. Seven times before they see the product, and you have to show it to them here, show it to them there, show it like this, show them that. They said, on average… This isn't completely scientific, but on average, it's at least seven. The walls of Jericho. It's at least seven. Naaman dipping in the Jordan. It's at least seven. There's a cloud the size of a man's hand. It's at least seven. So, do you want to dabble in seeking God?
Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him". Not them who haphazardly dabble in him. Should I say it again? Pete and Repeat were on a boat. Pete fell off. Who was left? All right. Peter was following Christ. Peter fell away. But who came to get him? And how many times did he come back for him? How many times did he restore him? I would suggest to you that even if you are not diligently seeking God, he's diligently seeking you. Don't you see how he kept coming for you all your life? Don't you see how when people gave up on you, he was there? Don't you see how even when your nets came up empty, even the empty nets were preparation for the greater blessing? Don't you see how even the rejections in your life were making room for something you did not know to expect that was next?
I don't know what's next, but I get a sense in my spirit that God is getting somebody ready for next, because he's the God of again. I don't think he brought you this far to leave you. I don't think he gave you this much to abandon you. I don't think he brought you into this earth to step back from you and have you figure it out on your own. I think he's going to show up in a great way in this next season of your life. I was talking to this friend the other day, and they were stuck in regret. They just kept expressing their regret over and over again. They said this fishing term. They said, "I just feel like it's the one that got away. It's the one that got away".
Now, they were taking this as a sign that it was over and they would never get it back. It was painful, and I could tell it was painful, because it was an opportunity they lost. They couldn't get over what they lost, and they couldn't even think about what they had left because of what they lost. I never like to just say stuff that sounds like a fortune cookie because I'm a preacher. I don't talk in sound bites. If you ever meet me, and you say, "I'm having a hard day," I will not say, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice".
I do that up here because I have a different role up here, but this was a friend I was talking to, and I'd walked with this friend through some of it. I could see that while they were saying, "The one that got away," they were literally, like Peter, fishing, fishing, fishing. Like, empty, empty, empty, and they couldn't find an explanation. They couldn't find a way forward. So, I let him say it a few times, and I just listened, but on the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh time they said, "The one that got away," something hit me, and I said it. I don't know if I made it up. I don't know if God gave it to me. I don't know if it was arrogant. I don't know if it was right or good, or whatever, but the Lord said to say it to you today, so I'm going to say it to you. They said, "I just keep feeling like this is the one that got away".
I looked back and said, "Stop saying that". "It's not the one that got away; it's the one that got you ready". It's not the one that got away. Every time you let the net down, and it came up empty, and you let it down, and it came up empty, and you let it down, and it came up empty, all it was doing was holding the place so when Jesus shows up, you'll be ready for what's on the other side of the boat. You're ready now. Your nets are ready. Your heart is ready. You're humble now. You're wiser now. You're with it now. You're whiter than snow now. You're washed now. You're clean now. You're open now. You're hopeful now. I'm ready now. Glory to God.
In basketball they say, "Nothing but net". That's what Peter had as long as he was fishing without Jesus, but when he got to the other side of that boat… I came to say, "Stop focusing on the one that got away". God said to tell you, "Don't focus on anything in this season. Nothing but next," because what's coming, what is yet to be, is greater! He's going to do it again, but it's going to be bigger! He's going to do it again, but it's going to be greater! I'm going to preach this thing until you believe it. How many times will he have to part water before you take the step when you're ankle deep? How many times will he have to kill Goliath before you get your rock and start swinging?
At everything in your life that is in front of you, there is something God already did. He will not do it the same way, so stop expecting to part seas with rocks. The rock is for Goliath. The staff is for the sea. God will use different tools in different seasons. There is no "one that got away". Not with God. "Prove it, Pastor". He came back to get Thomas. He didn't let Thomas get away, and he won't let you get away. Anything that's truly for you in your life God won't let get away either.