Steven Furtick - Waiting For God to Work It Out
This is an excerpt from: God Will Work It In
The reason you keep worrying about stuff God has already worked out is because of the way you keep thinking. "…not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling…" You stop there. Church, that's a comma. I feel like I'm a multitasking preacher. I talk about fitness, English grammar, theology, parenting, recipes, tomatoes. I work it all in. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling". Now, if you read that, you will be worried, because you are trying to work out something without God. What gets me tripped up every time I get overwhelmed… And I'm not talking about just having butterflies or getting nervous. I think all that is good. But when I get overwhelmed to the point where it really shuts me down…
You know how there's that line between when you're working on something and it's wearing you out and you realize, "Huh. This feels kind of cyclical because it's making me sick". If that's where you are in the feeling, read what comes after the comma. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you". That's a very interesting thought, isn't it? It is God who works in you. Don't forget that while you work it out. Don't forget that. Don't get so good at trying to figure stuff out on paper that you forget to work stuff out according to purpose. The Bible said it is God who works in you to will and to do according to his good purpose. God starts with the purpose, not the person, and then he finds the person who will accomplish that purpose, and he shapes the person who will accomplish that purpose.
That's why you can know God is working on you right now and working in you. I will never forget sitting down to work on something one time. I'll tell you exactly what it was, because I think it's a great illustration. I had the opportunity several years ago to interview Bishop T.D. Jakes right here on this stage at Elevation Church, and I was so honored to do it. He is my preaching hero. He's my friend now too, but if someone is your hero, even if they're your friend, you still get really nervous, even if it's not their fault. I was so nervous to interview that man, because I wanted to do a good job for him. He was promoting a book called Soar. I sat down for weeks beforehand, and I would work, but mostly I would worry. It wasn't like I wasn't getting anything done.
By the time I got done being a complete stress ball for several weeks, I think I counted 75 note cards of questions to ask the man about the book. Everybody would say, "Aren't you excited to interview Bishop Jakes"? and I'd be like, "Yeah". Excitement and anxiety can kind of feel the same sometimes. What you call it depends on what you're focused about. When I look back on it, I regret all of the stress I felt from the pressure that wasn't even real. The fact of the matter is he could have had anybody interview him for the book. He wanted me to do it. He could have gone anywhere he wanted. He didn't go to Oprah. He came to Furtick. He didn't come to Dr. Phil. He came to Dr. Furtick. But I couldn't feel that way about it, because I thought, "What am I going to ask him? He's so smart".
The very reason I was stressed was the very reason I should have relaxed. Not five minutes after we got on this stage and he sat in his chair and I sat in mine… I had my whole stack. I said my first question to him. Twenty minutes later, I still had 74 questions left, and the interview was only 90 minutes. I remembered in that moment, "Oh, it's Bishop. He's good at talking". "Oh, all this time I've been thinking about this". Like, "I've got to carry it. What am I going to do if my questions are stupid? And what if the people look at me funny? What if I mispronounce a word? What if he doesn't sell any books? What if he never wants to talk to me again? What if I accidentally say something that wasn't intended to be offensive, but I was just trying to be casual and it came across as disrespectful"?
All of this to interview one of the greatest talkers in the world. The only thing I had to do to be successful in the interview was this. You know, just a reverse nod for variety and effect, but between those two nods, he had it covered. I see you stressing about something in your life today. I don't know what it is. I don't need to. God knows. I see you playing out the situation over and over again. You call it preparation, but it's not preparation, because it is eating through your peace. Here you are thinking, "Well, when I get to that in three weeks, it's going to be terrible". "Oh, when my kids become teenagers…" They are yet toddlers. You have 12 years to read books about this crap you're going to be dealing with, and by then all of the books will be saying different stuff than they say today.
I see you looking at a situation in the future of your life, and you are afraid. I'll tell you why you are afraid. You forgot God is going to be there when you get there. I remembered, "Oh, Bishop is going to be there. He's a good talker". I wish you would remember with all of the scenarios you're playing out in your mind and all of the ways it could go wrong and all the stuff you're scrolling through, talking about "Is it another world war…"? Well, what are you going to do about it if it is? Are you going to go fight in it? Whatever happens, you're going to have God. If it's a prison, he'll be your cellmate. You're going to have God.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot. I'm going to have God in it with me. That's why I'm not stressed about retirement, because I've never seen the righteous forsaken. I was young, and now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread". "God is going to be in this with me. God is going to be in the challenge with me. God is going to be in the uncertainty. God is going to walk into that doctor's office with me. God is going to be on the other side of this painful breakup with me. God is going to be with me when I make my first appointment with a counselor. God is going to be with me when I show back up first day to school and I'm 27.
God is going to be with me when I open up my finances and begin to get it in order and humble myself. I forgot about God. That's why I was shaking. That's why I was trembling, but I'm not trembling anymore, because I'm trusting that when I get there…" My bracelet fell off, but let me work it in. There's some stuff that needs to come off of you in this season. It happened, so I might as well work it in. There are some things in your life you need to stop stressing about at a level that assumes you're going to have to do it alone. I never get stressed about a sermon if I remember, "Oh, yeah. God is going to be there".
Just like Bishop is pretty good at talking, God is pretty good at "Godding". I'm so tired of hearing people say, "Life be life-ing". God be Godding. (Don't quote me on that. That's so corny.) I think sometimes we take the journey in our mind as if God is not going to be there. That was so profound for me when I realized it. Have you ever been going into a situation and were so stressed, and then you remembered, "Oh, yeah. They're going to be there," and the person you thought of…?
Now, there are some times where you're going into a situation and remember they are going to be there, and then you really are reaching for the prescription pills. But there are other people… Like, I know for Holly when Amy is going to be there when she's preaching or recording, there are certain things she doesn't have to worry about. She's going over to get ready, and I can see she's stressed. She's like, "I'm good. Amy is going to be there". She just realizes, "There are things I don't even have to think about because she's good at… We've been together so long. She's going to take care of some stuff so I can just focus on what I need to do".
I hear the Lord saying, "I'm going to be there, even if Paul can't, even if nobody else does, even if you've never been there before". I only needed three note cards and two nods. Joyce Meyer said, "Worry is a down payment on a problem you may never have". Isn't that just like the Devil, charging you for stuff you don't even need that you didn't even order? So, he said, "Work this thing out". You don't need 75 note cards. Just make sure the mic is on and nod your head. I think as simple as this sounds sometimes to just assume God is going to be there, we should just sit in it for a minute. What would it change about the situation you're afraid of facing if you knew God was going to be there?
One time when they got so big on cancel culture, I thought, "What if they cancel me"? God said, "How many people were you preaching to when I called you"? The answer was "Five". The Lord said, "Well, surely you can find at least five who will come listen to you if they cancel you. The whole earth? You can find five". The fact is whatever happens in your life, before it even happens to you, God already has a way to work it in. I didn't make this bracelet fall off. It just happened. I worked it in. Remember when we were at Elevation Nights in Oakland? The reason they laughed when I said, "Oakland…" They're not West Coast prejudiced or anything like that. When we got to Oakland for Elevation Nights… This was 2022. I will never forget this night.
Now, when we preach at Elevation Nights, we're going into these big arenas, like basketball arenas and stuff. They're always telling me, "This is the NBA team that plays here". I don't care about basketball. I don't care about any of that. I just care about serving him. No, actually I'm looking at, "What bands came here? Oh, the Rolling Stones were here. That's cool to me. I don't care who played basketball here". But when we were in Oakland… I don't know what made me wear that big, heavy jacket that night. I remember wearing this big, heavy jacket. I'm up preaching, and there are a lot of distractions, because it's not like a church service where y'all are so attentive. Even watching online right now, you're just… At Elevation Nights it's like a concert and then a sermon.
Some of the people who are there got totally bait-and-switched. They had no idea they were going to have to sit through a sermon. They thought it was just music. So I am a total buzzkill for the whole room. But in Oakland it was going pretty well. You know, you have to work around the distractions. This guy is over here eating popcorn and chicken fingers. "Does she have a beer while we're singing 'Trust in God'"? You know, just all kinds of things going through your mind. You have to learn to work around it. But a couple of times on these nights, something happens that you can't work around, and in Oakland something happened.
I was in the middle of my sermon. I was preaching about Acts 3:1-10. The message was called Surprise. I was talking about Peter and John at the gate called Beautiful. A man showed up, and he wasn't expecting to get healed, and they weren't expecting to be healers, but surprise. Right when I'm revving up… You know, I've gotten my background covered. All of the lights in the whole arena go out. Not gradually, not dimmed…out. I'm thinking, "Huh, that's weird. They'll come back on in a minute". Six minutes and 45 seconds. I'm not exaggerating. It felt like six years. All of the lights go out, and the first thing I think the whole audience thought was, "Oh, this is a part of his sermon".
So I tell them really quickly, "This is not a part of my sermon". I'm standing up there. Ten seconds go by. Twenty seconds go by. I'm a professional, man. I've been doing this since I was 16. I've been doing this since I was in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. I can do this. I can hold this crowd for a minute. I can preach through this. But then it's 30 seconds. It's a minute. You kind of run out of steam to stall. "How about those lights"? Then it hit me. "You don't know how long it's going to take for them to work this out, so work it in".
I'm telling you the truth. With the lights off, I started preaching about when you're in a dark season. I started preaching about how Peter and John weren't always at the gate called Beautiful, but they had once been in a garden called Gethsemane where the Savior of the world was facing the darkness of our sin. What do you do when you're in the darkness of the garden of Gethsemane and the lights are out all around you and you are uncertain?
See, because I don't know how long it's going to take them to put the lights back on, so while I'm waiting for them to work it out… I'm trying to close this message. I really am. But there is somebody listening to me who's waiting for God to work it out, and God is saying back, "While you're waiting in this dark season for me to work it out, for me to show you the next step, for me to give you the next crumb, for me to give you the next notice, for me to give you the next relationship, for me to turn this thing around, for the report to be positive…" "While you're waiting for me to work it out, work it in".
I hear God saying, "Work it in". "For it is God who works in you…" Show them the video. About five minutes in, the people did something. The people had their phones out. I didn't tell them to. They just did it. Surprise! Give him a shout of praise. Are you a praiser? Are you a lifter? Maybe that's the message God wanted me to preach. Look at all of those lights. Look at all that evidence. Look at all that praise. Hallelujah! Look at all of that strength. Look at all of that glory from something we didn't see coming. Surprise! It's not what I ordered, but it's what God ordered.
God is sovereign. God ordered my steps. God is in this with me. Get your light out! You had that light in your pocket the whole time, but you didn't need to work that light out until the light was absent. The absence became the opportunity for the illustration, because while I'm waiting for God to work this out, I might as well work it in.