Steven Furtick - Get Out Of Your Feelings
Great faith doesn't look like you think it does. I don't care what anybody tells you about how long they pray or how much they believe God or how they taught their children how to knit quilts and pray for missionaries at the same time. That's all wonderful, but I promise you that their testimony had a stage of terror. It has been terrorizing you, hasn't it? Some things you did in the past that you wish you could get back. It has been terrorizing you. Some things you didn't do to prepare, and now you're not ready. It has been terrorizing you, hasn't it? It has been chasing you, hasn't it? It has been making you want to give up on you, hasn't it? It has been making you sabotage yourself, hasn't it? It has been making you think, "Maybe there's not a reason for me to go through at all". It has been making you want to turn around and go home. It doesn't work in reverse. You can't go back there. Moses is in a difficult dilemma, because now they want to go back to Egypt and they're making crap up.
This didn't happen. Verse 12: "Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'"? No, you didn't say that to him in Egypt. They never said that in Egypt. If you find it, put it on some social media and I'll meet up with you there. You can't find it. They didn't say that. This is a revisionist history. I feel really bad for Moses even more than I feel bad for them, and I feel bad for everybody. I would be saying the same stuff. I would be having the same thoughts. I'd be wanting to go back too. I do it all the time. But Moses has to motivate them to keep moving. In fact, in verse 13, he answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still".
Now part of that is true. The Lord will fight for you, but part of it is false. You don't get to be still. In fact, the moment Moses gets his motivational speech out of his mouth, God corrects him. I wonder if you've ever read this about the green light at the Red Sea. I wonder if you've ever really thought about this. Moses is saying, "Hey, God has got this. He told us to come through the Red Sea. He's going to do it. He's God. He's faithful. He brought us out. He didn't bring us this far to leave us. Just stand still". Watch God in verse 15. "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.'" That's God honking. That's not Pharaoh chasing; that's God honking. That restless thing inside of you that's letting you know you can't stay in these excuses and just be who you were 10 years ago… That's God honking. Beep, beep! That's God honking. That's a "Beep, beep".
Now God will give you a courtesy honk before he lays on the horn. This is a courtesy honk from God. This word, this message today from God through me to you is a courtesy honk from God, because if you stay here in this dry spot and feel sorry for yourself or blame others or spend your time in reverse, you're not going to make it out of the parking lot. You're not going to get to see the manna. You're not going to get to taste the grapes. You're not going to bring down the giant. This is God honking. He said, "If you stand there and stay in your feelings…" I don't know if you noticed, but it said they were terrified. I guess they were! "Well, see, I wouldn't, because the Lord fights my battles". Shut up! I don't want God to strike you for lying while I'm preaching. I'd have to call the ambulance and all of that. Don't lie. The miracle is not in your feelings; the miracle is in your feet. What you have to do is move. Beep, beep! It's green.
You have the go-ahead from God, even though it doesn't look like it, even though you don't see it, even though this is kind of an off-road season for you, and you've never been this way before, and you've never figured this out before, and you weren't educated for this. You have a green light, and if you sit at this green light in this intersection long enough… God will give you the green light, but he's not going to drive the car. Uh-oh! It looks like I hit a nerve. Y'all were singing, "Jesus, take the wheel". He's like, "Nope"! "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because you're with me". Okay. It's in my feet. He enables me to go through the valley. That's what he gave me grace for, not to make it so I never experience a valley. Quit looking to external means of testimony to the goodness of God. You have to get a green light on the inside to say, "You know what? I know God is calling me to love this person even though they get on my last nerve".
That's what I mean by a green light at the Red Sea: when God enables you to do something you could never do apart from him. "Apart from me you can do nothing". But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and I can do this too. God is going to get his glory, but you have to go. I don't mean running from stuff. I don't mean moving cities. I mean walking by faith, not sight…to pass through the sea. That's the reason he brought you to the Red Sea. The Egyptians can't swim that far. All I came to prophesy today is you have green, and you have to go. "So, where should I move? Tampa? Atlanta"? You keep thinking it's about geography. It's not about geography. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…" Though I walk through. I feel fear, but the miracle is not in my feelings; it's in my feet. Do you know what else Psalm 23 says? "He maketh me lie down…" He knows when it should be red. He knows when it should be green. "He maketh me lie down in…" What pastures? Did you just say "Green"?
My whole sermon goes together to get you to realize that you have green even in the valley, that he will feed you in the low place. Yeah, you're depressed. Yeah, you're anxious. Yeah, you screwed up. Yeah, you did it, but he's going to bring you through anyway. I have that "go through" anointing. I have that "anyway" anointing. I have that Red Sea revelation. He led me through the depths like it was a desert. He brought me through dysfunction. He brought me into destiny. He led me through the desert. The proof that God is leading you is not that it's easy. He prepares a table for me in the green valley, in the presence of my enemies. He's leading me. I'm not going the easy way. I'm going through the sea. I've been baptized in water. I've been baptized in the Father's love. I've been baptized by fire, and I shall come forth as gold. I'm coming out of this refined. I'm coming out of this restored. I'm coming out of this with a revelation, because I have a green light at the Red Sea.
I asked the Lord in coming to preach this message what he wanted to give you to get you through. I said, "Show me, Lord, what you want to give them to get them through". He gave Moses a staff. I'm like, "Well, surely you can give them something". "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me". Moses had a staff. David had a staff. God of Moses. God of David. What did he give Annabelle? What did he give Kathy? So I'm praying, and the first thing God said he wanted to give you as you go through this Red Sea was grace. Not just any kind of grace, because we put that before we eat the casserole. "Let's say grace". Not that kind of grace. He said he wanted to give you grace for your greatest embarrassments, for the thing you won't talk about, for the thing you pretend like you got through, but you're really drowning in it. I won't stay here long, because you'll pretend like you have to go to the bathroom and get up and walk out if I keep talking about this. This is between you and God. He told me to say it just like that. He said, "Tell them I want to give them grace for their greatest embarrassment, for their most spectacular failure, for their most idiotic mistake".
I need to show you this again in Psalm 106, because I never saw it quite this way before. I thought the Red Sea was about faith. I didn't know it was also about failure. They rebelled. I think we need to keep talking about this idea that God will give you a green light, the strength and the assurance and the calling to go through something you've never seen anybody else go through and that you've convinced yourself… I was telling my friend the other day… They were saying, "Well, you're going to get better at this, and you're going to develop that". I said, "I'm 41. I don't believe you. Stop lying. If I'm not all of those things by now, I'm never going to be". I didn't even want to hear it. I put it in reverse. "I've always been this way". So now I'm going to be stuck in the parking lot. I'm going to be stuck outside of the peace of God because I want to go back to Egypt. My dad is running across. "Give him another chance. Please, ma'am". He's breathing heavily. Thank God for second chances. You'd better voluntarily testify. Third chances, fourth chances, fifth chances…
It said, in verse 7, they did not remember, so they rebelled. When you don't remember, you rebel. When you don't remember who God is, what he has done, what he has called you to, what Jesus has done for you on the cross… When you forget that, your sole focus becomes what's in front of you, and the Red Sea is big. Of course you want to go back. Where else are you going to go? But you just saw the Nile turn to blood. You just saw frogs cover the land. You just saw the firstborn of Egypt struck dead, because God will get his glory. He's committed to it. And God is committed to your freedom. "They rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea". I knew they rebelled in the wilderness. I knew they rebelled at Sinai. Remember they built the golden calf, dancing around it, taking their clothes off, and all that? But they rebelled before they even got out. They almost failed the test of faith in the parking lot on their way to the Promised Land. What really got me was the word yet in verse 8. "Yet he saved them for his name's sake".
Don't you know he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake? Green pastures, still water. They rebelled, yet he saved them for his name's sake, to make his mighty power known. I wonder if God brought you to the Red Sea to give you a green light, to kill off the insecurities, to kill off the arrogance, to kill off the idols, to kill off the Egyptians. I wonder if he brought you to this not to kill you, because it wouldn't make much sense if he did all of that to bring you out of Egypt and send his Son to spare you and then left you here at this Red Sea. They rebelled, but my soul got happy when I read what he did. Verse 9: "He rebuked the Red Sea…" See the symmetry of the text. They rebelled; he rebuked. That's what God will do. Okay. I'm going to preach it boldly. God is going to do it for you anyway. Don't list your résumé of all of the good things you did, of why God should help you right now. You won't need any of that. It's not what you did that's going to get him to do what only he can do. He's going to do it in spite of it… in spite of your stupid, in spite of your stubborn. He's going to give you grace for your greatest embarrassment, and your kids will live to tell of it, and your grandkids will know about it. He's going to save you anyway.