Steven Furtick - You're Made For More
This is an excerpt from: The God Of Also
I believe God has called us all. I don't believe God just selects a special few to work for him and serve him. I believe God calls us all in particular ways at certain times in accordance with his purpose. That's kind of why I read you Romans 8. I wanted you to get a picture that you don't have to lead a whole nation out of captivity to be called by God.
You certainly don't have to be some preacher or some kind of amazing billionaire mogul or a singer to be called by God. You can be called by God and nobody else really know the calling he has put inside of you. He knows. The biggest comfort in my life is that God knew it all when he called me. I'm grateful for that. Even as I send my oldest son off to college in a few weeks, I try to tell him, "You know, God knows it all. So, this next step you're going to take in your life, as you turn 18 on Tuesday… It's going to involve things you never saw coming, but God saw it all when he called you. Not just called you to do something but when he called you into the earth". He foreknew.
Go back to Romans 8 for a minute. Can we study this? It's so good. Everybody always reads Romans 8:28. "All things work together for the good". The other stuff, what comes after, is really good too. I want to show you this too. It says, "All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose". Now go to verse 29. "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…" Ah! So, God's calling is really about character. God's calling is less about what college you go to and more about who you're going to be when you get there. Tell somebody, "God is calling you…to be nicer".
I know a lot of people are like, "I don't know what God is calling me to do. That's fine if you know what God is calling you to do. I don't know what God is calling…" He's calling you to be kind. He's calling you to apologize when you're wrong. He's calling you to be generous. He's calling you to be more submitted and surrendered to the moment he has placed you in and not so anxious about the future you can't control. He's calling you. Somebody shout, "I'm called". I'm called to be like Christ. This whole sequence the apostle Paul gives us, which is demonstrated in the life of Moses… It tells me (verse 29) that God knew you when he called you, and he called all of you. God knew you when he called you, and he called all of you away with a half-hearted commitment to a God who called all of me and gave all of himself so I could be saved and redeemed and conformed to the image of his Son.
"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters". That's talking about Jesus. It says, "Those he predestined, he also called…" It's about to get good. I'm telling you, man. Your neighbor had better watch out because you might start praising God when I show you this. Somebody watching this in your apartment, they're about to call the cops when they hear what's happening. They're going to think it's a crime scene. Oh, but it's an amazing chain of events. It says, "Those he predestined, he also called…" Here's where I want to spend a moment with you. "…those he called, he also justified…"
Here's what happens. God called you to do something. God called you to be something. God called you to move into a certain new position he put you in. God called you to raise a family. God called you to glorify him in a difficult situation. No matter what the situation we would name, God gives a revelation in every situation of who he is. And it is changeless, but it is ever-expanding in our consciousness, because we will never know all there is to know of God. So, the first thing we have to understand when we come to God is we must not box him in with our broken understanding of who he is or our limited language. That's why when Moses said, "Who do I tell them has called me"? he said, "I Am". "Well, that leaves a lot of room".
Right, because you are going to need God to be a lot of different things in your life at a lot of different times. Sometimes you might find yourself in a wilderness, and you might need water for your soul. He will be what he will be: living water. Sometimes you might need guidance from God, and it might be dark, so you need a pillar of fire to guide you. God will light up the sky to show you your next step. No, he won't show you the next 10 years, because then you would think you didn't need him and you would dismiss him from his role in your life. You would start living by reason rather than revelation.
So, he'll show you by fire at night enough to take your next step, and that's really all you ever need. As a matter of fact, if it gets too hot in the day, he'll take the fire down and put the cloud out on the day shift, and he'll guide you by a cloud cover in the daytime so that the sun will not harm you by day nor the moon at night. He will preserve your soul forevermore. He is God, and he'll go with you in every season of your life. That's why he said, "I Am". God does not have many identities. He only has one identity, but he has infinite expressions.
So, you will never exhaust God by your own human knowledge. That not only includes the nature of God but it includes the nature of you. What I love about God's conversation with Moses… By the way, it is so good to be preaching here today. I love preaching God's Word to you. I mean that. I love it. I love being able to talk through things with you that seem simple on the surface, but really, if you dig down deep, they're very complex. When Moses is called by God, he doesn't immediately agree with what God says about him. It takes time for that to happen. One of the things I'm realizing about each and every human being I speak to is that your potential is a mystery. Not to God, but to you and to all of us who are watching you, your potential is a mystery. It is a mystery that will be revealed with maturity.
So, the more you decide to grow into and go forward in what God speaks to you, the more we will see what was there all along. This is why it's very important that you never limit God by speaking about your potential from the point of view of your past. Moses was a great man of God. He went on to be one of the greatest leaders the nation ever knew, but he was also a murderer. Moses had a great passion to lead God's people, but he also had a past. That's why I thought he was a good example for us to talk about the God of also. Moses was born as a Hebrew, but he was also raised as an Egyptian. He was called to lead people forward, but he was living in Midian in the mistakes of his past.
Have you ever been called to something but caught in something at the same time? Like, I know God is calling me forward. I know God is speaking to me about my future, but I'm also caught in something. I believe all of that, that all things work together for the good. I believe all of that, that God has a purpose for me. I believe all of that, that God is great and he can be anything. I'm called to this, but I'm caught in that. The beautiful thing about it is God knows exactly what he called you to, and he knows exactly what you're caught in. God knew what you would be caught in when he called you to what he called you to. All of the people who have some funky stuff in your life right now, make some noise and praise God. He knew what I'd be caught up in. He called you up even as he saw you caught up in the things you're walking through in your life right now.
So, the truth of it is you're here today, and you're praising God because "I am forgiven". You are forgiven, but it is also true that you may be frustrated. Although you are forgiven of certain things, you are not free of those things yet. So, I'm forgiven, but I'm also frustrated, because although I'm forgiven completely by Christ and I know that's done and he knows I'm his and he knows what he has called me to… He knows what he has called me to, but I don't, so I'm frustrated because I'm forgiven, but I'm not completely free yet. So, God says, "Moses, I'm sending you to do a big work, and I'm sending you in my name. I'm sending you because I've called you, and I chose you". Moses says, "Suppose I go and they ask, 'What is his name?' What do I tell them"? God says, "I want you to tell them 'I Am.'"
Then in verse 15 comes the thing that touched me the most, where, as Moses is going back and forth with God about what he's not… I mean, he gives God a whole list of his limitations. "I'm not a good speaker and you want me to talk. I'm a murderer and you want me to go back. I'm a fugitive and you want me to go back to the place where I'm wanted". He gives him a whole list of what he can't do, like we all do. I wish I could read your list out loud right now just to see how you'd feel about it if we read your list. List of limitations and list of labels. Moses says it all. What got me was the beginning of verse 15 where it said, "God also said to Moses…" "Who do I tell them sent me, God"? and God also said to Moses…
That in itself is powerful because he gives his name. "The God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Israel". Read them again. Get it right this time. It's on the screen. "The God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel". Why do y'all keep saying, "Jacob"? Jacob was his old name. In the Old Testament, there was a man named Jacob, and his name meant deceiver because he was tricky. They named him after his behavior. He was tricky. But God changed his name, and he called him Israel. That's what the whole nation Moses is being called… This is hundreds of years later now. Moses is being called as a continuation of what God started hundreds of years earlier, and God says, "Go back and tell them and remind them this is a continuation. This is a generational thing".
God didn't just get started when you got born. Your calling is a continuation of something much greater. I need you to believe that. It's not just about you. So, he said… I love it. Let's try it one more time. "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and…" No! He said, "Jacob". That's the revelation. You would expect for God, when he was identifying himself, to identify with Israel, which doesn't mean deceiver; it means prince. If God who is all-powerful is identifying himself with someone, he should identify himself with Israel, the prince, but he didn't. Why would God who is mighty; why would God who is high and lifted up; why would God who is all-encompassing… Why is God who is perfect, why is God who is holy stooping down to call himself "The God of Jacob"?
Maybe he wants you to know he doesn't just want to be your God when you're living like a prince. Maybe he wants you to know that he is also… Somebody shout, "Also"! He is God when I've got it together, but he is also God when I don't. He is God when I feel his presence, but he is also God when I don't feel a goose bump at all. So, I will praise him when I feel his presence, but I will also praise him when I don't feel his presence. I'll do it when I feel it, but I will also do it when I don't, because he's no less worthy. He's no less holy. He's no less capable. He's no less God.