Fear Says It’s Over, God Says Move

Beware of any word from God that pulls you toward an escape from reality rather than an embrace of responsibility. If you don't even know what you're going toward, it may not be God's word. It may just be your wish. The Lord said, I know it looks bad. I know you feel desperate. I know they let you down. I know they abandon you, but what I put in your hand… When my word comes, you can change the end. A fresh start is technically impossible. I know we all want one. I know we may need one, but the experiences of your past don't evaporate as you move into your future, and you know that. It doesn't keep us from praying, God, just give me a reset, like if it was a video game. Just go back and do that again. You can't really have a fresh start, but what I want to try to show you today practically is that you can't get a fresh start, but you can take a forward step. We have three responses, essentially, in this passage to an impossible obstacle. I'll break them down for you as we begin. The first response is the response of God's people, and their response, to be summed up in two words, is, it's over. We've only been free for a few days, and here comes Pharaoh to drag us back, and it's over. That's their response. Not only are they responding, it's over, with desperation, but their desperation leads to anger with Moses. Specifically, because they are afraid, they get angry. So, the anger is a response to the fear, because rather than just feel the fear and move forward, they stop in a place to place blame on the person whose fault they think it is. So, any time you see someone who is angry, including yourself, ask the question, What are they afraid of? Because the anger is usually a masquerade for the fact that they're afraid. That's the response of God's people. It's over, and they're afraid. They start doing revisionist history. Moses, we told you to leave us alone. No, you didn't. You begged him to bring you out. We told you we were better off in Egypt. No, you didn't tell us you were better off in Egypt. You're adding that part back. I found out that oftentimes our version of the past is just as imaginary as our version of the future. We go back through things, especially when we're feeling paralyzed, and we project things onto the past that never happened. So, that's the situation with God's people. That's their response. Response number two is Moses. Moses is trying to bring some calm. He's breathing everybody. Bach's breathing everybody. Fore in, hold it

fore, fore out, downward dog, upward dog. Whatever y'all need to do to chill out, be still. God has got this. He's saying the thing it would be appropriate for a leader to say in this situation. His response is, Stand still. But there's a third response in the passage we want to talk about for a few moments today, and I want to apply directly to your life and the situations you're facing that seem impossible and the past is threatening to drag you back and it looks like it's over. God's response says, Move on. So, there are three responses for us to consider here today. One is desperation followed by fear and then manifesting in anger. It's over. The second one is the response of Moses, where he says, Stand still. God's going to do it. It's going to be fine. Then the third one is God's response. Spoiler alert. God's right and Moses is wrong. Now, I wish I could teach a leadership session off of this text because I would really love to. One of my favorite things to teach as a leader, for those who work closely with me especially… I always train this. I say, Big doors swing on little hinges. I didn't make that up, but I say it all the time, and I'm trying to get them to understand when I say that to them. You may think this really doesn't matter, but big doors swing on little hinges. In the case of Moses, you might ask the question, when God gives him the command to stretch out his staff over the sea, what good is something so small stretched over something so big? How could something as small as a stick affect something as big as a sea? Well, big doors swing on little hinges. Or you might say, big seas open with little sticks. Good marriages die by little eye rolls. Big problems, big addictions begin with little curiosities. By the same token, great joy can erupt from small praise. By the same token… Just a small decision, the smallest decision you make can be a hinge to the biggest event. I prove it to you from this, the Exodus narrative. Exodus means exit. This is to be the defining, distinguishing miracle of the people of God for centuries to come. It starts with a stick, because big doors swing on little hinges. But it matters in this moment for Moses. What response will you give when the results are not under your control? This is the separation we have to make for the decisions of our life too. When God corrects Moses in this passage, because the people are crying out and asking him to do something about their enemy, and he says that what you have in your hand is enough for what I've called you to do next… Remember, something as small as a stick, little hinges, something as big as a C, big door. What is that picture for you today? I need you to stop and

think about it so we don't dislocate our application by going back into the past of the history of the text and realizing that you yourself are standing at hinge moments every day. That's what I call them. Hinge moments. It's the moment where you decide, go back, go forward, stand still. It's the moment where you decide, continue to blame and become more and more bitter or forgive and be set free for my future. It's a hinge moment. You say, well, it's not that big of a deal. It is a big deal, because the smallest of offenses can become the most unforgiving prisons, and it matters what you do in this moment. Moses and the children of Israel have a perspective on this miracle that we do not have because they had to respond in real time. This is the challenge, not that we would respond to God's goodness with praise on Sunday. My goal for you when you leave this sermon today and every Sunday is that your real-time response would reflect what God spoke to you in the service. That means that when you get bumped by life, the word you receive from God comes out of you instead of the other stuff, because there is some other stuff that comes out of us. I got an encouraging testimony from Lindsay, who serves on our staff. Y'all give Lindsay a hand real quick. She said, thank you for the message you preached last week. She said, it really helped me. She said, you talked about how sometimes you have to do it doubting, and the Lord really confirmed something for me. I said, well, what was it, if you don't mind me asking? She said, I have been feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities my boss, who is Chad, and he's also here today, has been asking me to fulfill. She was texting me this. She was saying, I've been feeling overwhelmed because he's been asking me to step up, and I have been shrinking back. Not only does she have a very young and growing family, but she said, I was comparing myself to the other leaders and how they did it. I was comparing myself to people who I think are more confident, but the Lord really spoke to me that I need to step up in my area of responsibility, and he used the word you preached to confirm that. Now, she was thanking me for the word, and then I started thanking her for her thank you, and I'll tell you why. I said, Lindsay, thank you so much for this text. It's so refreshing. Do you know how many times I've preached sermons and people have used them as an excuse not to step up in responsibility but to bail out on their responsibility? I remember one time there was somebody who told me I was preaching about when the Israelites left

Egypt, and I was preaching specifically how they had to leave before the yeast had a chance to rise. They were listening to me preach, and what they took from that message was, God is calling me to quit my job. I don't have another one lined up. I don't have health insurance, and I have kids. My husband doesn't have a job. We don't have another thing to step into. Pastor, when you said, Leave Egypt before the bread has time to rise, I just decided to quit. The organization they were quitting was Elevation Church. So now I'm thinking, am I Pharaoh in this analogy? If you're going to play the whole thing out… Last time I checked, you were getting a check. This is not exactly a situation for you to escape. I texted Lindsay back something, and the Lord told me to put it in my sermon for you today. Beware of any word from God that pulls you toward an escape from reality rather than an embrace of responsibility. Beware of any word from God, because we think we get a word from God. Well, beware of any interpretation of a word from God that… pulls you toward an escape from reality rather than an embrace from responsibility. Sometimes we confuse freedom with relief. Sometimes we will believe that God is saying something to us because it is what we have already decided we wanted to hear. Sometimes it is not the word of God. It is confirmation bias that makes us think we heard the Lord say something, but the Lord did not tell you to leave somebody you committed your life to. The Lord did not tell you to just hop around from church to church every time you get offended by one person. The Lord wants you to stay long enough to learn how to work through an offense in the place where you are so you don't end up in the prison of always having to run from place to place. So, it is a good way to discern a word from God. Am I just trying to get out of something or am I going toward something? If you don't even know what you're going toward, it may not be God's Word. It may just be your wish. Who among us doesn't want to escape a situation? I have found that in many cases, by trying to escape a situation, you end up in a worse prison than you were in to begin with, because now you have imprisoned yourself to the flippant decision you made to walk away from something God was calling you to step up in. So, I said, Thank you, Lindsay. That means a lot to me. It's rare that somebody will take God's Word as a challenge to step up. We're always looking for God's Word to get us out of stuff.

I'll give you another example. I really want to break this down. You're like, He's just fussing because people leave the church. No. I mean, you can leave if God tells you to leave. I'm just trying to get you not to leave things God has called you to be loyal to. There's a reason we love the Red Sea miracle. It's because they're getting out. We love that kind of story. We're getting out. Did you miss the fact they had to go through? Even when they got through, guess where they landed? The wilderness. Now you have to go through that. Here's an example. I've heard so many sermons and preached many myself about how when people leave your life, it's just God getting you ready for the next level. That chickens can't fly with eagles, so tell them goodbye and go to the next level. But I want to ask you a question. If every three weeks you need a message about everybody leaving your life, is there a leak in your life that is causing everybody to leave? Because if all we give you is an encouragement that God has somebody better and better and better, you will look beyond the people God put in front of you for the better one they tell you is coming. But even if God sends the better one, if you don't get better at relationships, they'll leave too. Now you're leaking the next relationship because I'm going to the next level. You're not going to the next level. You are leaking love. So, it's important that you get this message so you get the right response in real time so you can come to what looks like the end and there can come seasons in your life where you think, like, it's totally over. I've totally blown it. This is it. I will never be happy again. I will never have joy again. My best is behind me. Now, if you've ever thought any of those thoughts in your life… Wave at me so I don't stand up here in my purple shirt looking like Barney the Dinosaur all by myself. Wave at me. Here's the phrase. Put it on the board, please. The end. So, let's act it out. Children of Israel. The Bible says they went out of Egypt marching boldly. I love that part. They were marching boldly until they heard something behind them. You know how you get all cocky while you're in church. Tell the Devil, you messed with the wrong one. But it's 6 p.m. tonight. God, why is the Devil picking on me? Now you go from bring it to, God, please get me out of this. God, I'm sorry. I'll never do it again, Lord. So, as they're leaving and they're moving toward a fresh start, remember? Then they hear a familiar sound, and they come to the end of the road. We're going to die here. It's over. This is the end. This is it. And it looked like that, and it feels like that. Can I be honest?

There have been so many times in my ministry where I have thought my effectiveness and my relevance has seen its greatest season, and now I'm going down. There were times where people criticized me publicly, and I thought, I'll never recover from this. There have been times where I lost my own joy, and I thought, I don't know how I'm going to get it back to preach. I've been in seasons like this before, and it feels like the end. Moses' response is very tempting here. Just be still. The people are like, "'It's over! The end! It's the end!' Moses is like, "'Just be still!' God is like, "'You're going to die!' Graham said last week, "'Every Stephen Furtick sermon ends the same way. You're going to make it.' So I thought I'd change it up this week. You might not.'" Do you like that? You can't say that no more now, can you? You might not make it. Not if you don't respond right in this moment. I'm not saying you're automatically going to have a better tomorrow just because God is with you today. So for the first time ever at Elevation Church, touch your neighbor and say, "'You might not make it.'" Stephen Furtick told you that. It's on a Stephen Furtick podcast. You might not make it. If they did what Moses said, they would have died, because you have to move on. You might not make it if you keep listening to all of the sad songs and never listen to a happy one. You might not make it back next Sunday if you keep feeding yourself all of the stuff you've been feeding yourself. I thought I would uplift the people of God and edify the saints by telling you the message. You might not make it. It all depends on your response. When you are standing at the end… Watch this. The end of the dream, the end of the vision, the end of the relationship, the end, the end, the end… There are so many unmentionable situations in this room today that are so deeply painful that if I said them right now it would take you out of the rest of the sermon, because you'd go, "'That's me. That's where I'm standing. I am paralyzed. I'm like the people. I'm angry because I was afraid. I'm afraid because I'm desperate, because it looks like the end.'" Which is why verse 15 of Exodus 14 is the hinge of this entire lesson God has given us, where the Bible says, "'Then the Lord said to Moses, what you need for this next season is in the feet of the people moving forward into what looks like an impossible situation.' Then the Lord said to Moses…" So, my announcement today is,

if you are standing at the end of something, standing looking at something that looks impossible for you to navigate and you don't know how, the Lord said to tell you, you can change the end. The Lord said, "'I know it looks bad. I know it looks dire. I know you feel desperate. I know you're kind of angry. I know they let you down. I know they walked away. I know it's been a rough night. I know it's been a rough year. I know it's been a rough season. I know they abused you. I know they left you. I know they abandoned you, but what I put in your hand…' When my word comes, change it, Jared. You can change the end. "'Then the Lord said to Moses, "'Move! Move! Shout to your neighbor and say, "'Move! I'll give you a little push start. I'll give you a little jump start. Move! Move!' "'Because you might not make it if you don't move, but if you will take what's in your hand…' I said, "'If you will take what's in your hand, it's good enough to get you through this too.'" Somebody take a step. Say, "'Move!' Take a step and move. Take a step and move. Take a step and trust God. Take a step and pray about it. Take a step and praise him again. Take a step and raise that baby. Take a step and go back to the doctor and say, "'I'm going to do the treatment, but I trust God. Move!'