Steven Furtick - You Are Right On Schedule

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This is an excerpt from: The Limp Won't Make You Late

I came to preach to somebody who has been limping. "I've been behind lately. I don't know what I need to know. I didn't get what I wanted to have". But watch what Paul said. "I'm the least. I don't deserve it. But by the grace of God I am what I am". "I'm not racing to become something I'm not called to be. I am what I am". Somebody say, "I am what I am, and where I am is where the Great I Am wanted me to be". So, I'm limping, but I'm not late. "I'm not up to your standard, but I'm not living for your approval because I'm not created by your hand because my days aren't ordained in your book. I'm right on time, because watch this. The light is coming. I've been depressed, but the light is coming. I've been down, having trouble figuring it out, but the light is coming. I've been unsure, down on myself, drowning in insecurity, but the light is coming. The light is coming! The joy is coming! A new day is dawning!

I'm waking up to what I always was. I am what I am by the grace of God, and the grace that brought me safe thus far will lead me home. If I've got to get there limping, if I've got to get there a little behind, if I've got to get there Tuesday, if I've got to push it back to Wednesday, if I've got to make up for it at the end of 2023, I shall do it"! The Lord said it's no coincidence that I'm preaching this on Daylight Saving Time Sunday, because something happened this morning when you woke up. You had an extra hour you didn't know you had. God said, "I'm going to give you time. I'm going to restore the years. You're going to have time to do it".

Whoever it's for, it's hitting deep right now, and I don't want this shout to get in the way of you receiving this ministry. It is a terrible thing to watch everybody else go ahead of you and feel like you're limping, to watch everybody else be happy and feel like there's some demon in you that won't let you enjoy life, to watch everybody else move up in their career and feel like you keep moving backward, staying plateaued. Every time you get a little momentum, you get a little setback. You're limping. But the grace of God came to Paul. The grace of God came to Jacob. The light of God is dawning in your life to let you know you're not late. In order for you to be late, there would have had to be something God did not account for that happened in your life, and if something happened in your life that God didn't account for, then he's not God.

So, the fact that God started it means he knows where it's supposed to be right now. It means that when God called you, he accounted for traffic. I'm so tired of watching people beat themselves up over comparison that has nothing to do with their calling, asking little 4-year-olds, "What college are you applying to"? We've gone absolutely crazy in this culture. I want to say to you that the spirit that gets on you that has you subjecting yourself to a standard that has nothing to do with the Spirit of God has to let you go right now in the name of Jesus. You can put your Christmas lights up in February for all I care. I'm not late. I abide in Christ. Since I abide in him, that means everything in its season that's supposed to come forth is coming up.

Say, "I abide in Christ, and everything in my life is coming up". Say it again. "I abide in Christ, and everything in my life is coming up lovely, in abundance, at just the right time". I dare you to give God a praise for that. The light is coming, man. I know it has been a dark night. You've been wrestling alone. You've been feeling behind your whole life, but the light is coming. Limp into it. I said, "Lord, what do you want me to tell them about this message that they can never forget"? He said to tell you, "Limp into it". If there's one thing I love about Jacob… He might have been limping, but he didn't lie down. That's how you accomplish it, that's how you make it, that's how you grow, and that's how you know who God is. You limp into it. The beauty of today's limp is that it becomes tomorrow's lean.

Follow me really quick. I was reading about the end of Jacob's life. He lived 50 more years after this wrestling match, so guess what: Esau didn't kill him. He had to limp to Esau. In Genesis 33:4, the Bible says he made his way toward Esau. Remember, he's limping. As Esau is coming toward him… The Bible says in Genesis 33:4, "Esau ran to meet Jacob". The beauty of that is that Jacob couldn't run to it, so it ran to him. Did you hear what I just said to you?

You've been thinking, "Well, if I would have had this opportunity sooner, I could have done it, but I can't now, because look at where I am now". No, no, no. You limp to it, and God will make it run to you. In fact, when the writer of Hebrews many centuries later… Remember, it's progressive revelation. We don't even know at this point in the story where Jacob and Esau are going to go. We don't even know at this point in the story that this is the nation of Israel that Jacob is carrying with him. We don't know any of that yet, and you don't know any of that yet, but it's all on God's schedule of revelation. So, at the end of Jacob's life… This is what the author of Hebrews said about him. Hebrews 11:20: "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come".

Now watch this. This is how I want you to leave today. Verse 21: "By faith Jacob, when he was dying…" Fifty years after he wrestled with God. "…when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff". What it means to me is that my limping today will teach me to lean tomorrow. The greatest blessing of Jacob's life happened not as he was running, grabbing, but as he was leaning. So, the Lord said, "Limp into it," but make sure that what you're leaning on can hold you as you do, because for what you're going through, you can't lean on the addiction.

It won't hold you. For what you're going through right now, you can't lean on your own understanding. It can't direct you. For what you're going through right now, you certainly cannot lean on what other people are saying you should do, because they don't know either. They are just as lost as you, and they don't have the light. So, today, if you've been limping, yet you see some light coming through, I want you to stand up, because I want to pray for you in this moment and in this season of your life that you would not lie down and die in the light but you would live to see the scheduled revelation of who God has created you to be and what he has called you to do.

Father, in Jesus' name, I take a page from Hebrews, chapter 11, and I bless your people by faith. For some of the things we're going forward into, nothing but faith will get us there. Nothing but faith will carry us forward. Specifically, now I want to pray for someone who has been limping and thought it made them less. Maybe the light you want to give them today is the knowledge that you've still got them right where you want them, and even just that would be enough to keep them going forward.

Our eyes are on you, Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. We fix our eyes not on things that are seen but things that are unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Thank you for the light. Thank you for your Word. Thank you for the gospel of your Son Jesus. Thank you that we don't wander like those in darkness, hopeless. Thank you that you have not left us in our ignorance but have given us the light of the revelation, and this in the face of Christ, the glory of God. We have seen you face-to-face, yet we did not die. We call this place Peniel, and we thank you for the light of the gospel flooding in. We thank you for new beginnings today.