Your Prayers Aren't Pointless

I am concerned that you are beating yourself so much up about your fear that you have not properly contextualize the magnitude of the fate it took for you to be where you are. Sometimes great faith is not eliminating doubt. It is looking at doubt right in the face and telling doubt, you can sit in the passenger seat, but you can't drive because we're doing this. Take another breath feeling anxious, but take another breath. Give God a praise not feeling a goose bump, but lift your hands. A few years ago, I had something God had called me to do, and I became very intimidated about it. I had a bad attitude about it, but I did it anyway. After I did it, I was driving home, and God had so handled all of the things I was worried about that I didn't even have to deal with them when I got there. So, I felt grateful, but I also felt guilty, because I had made it to be this huge thing in my mind. I mean, how many of you have done this before? I made it to be this huge thing in my mind. You make it out to be something so much bigger than it is, and then a lot of times God just deals with Jezebel and you never even have to. It almost made me feel so guilty about my attitude that I couldn't even enjoy the achievement of doing the thing God had called me to do. It's like when you take your kids on a vacation, but now you're going to have to send them to therapy to deal with the way you acted on vacation. It's the feeling of, like, God, I'm so sorry. I was coming home in my car, and it just went so beautifully, but I had been so burdened about it, and I just felt bad about it. I couldn't even enjoy how good it went, because I felt so guilty. I was like, I had such a bad attitude. The Lord showed me sometimes great faith is taking the right action with a bad attitude. As I was praying to the Lord, I was like, I'm so sorry I had such a bad attitude. You took care of it. You handled it. I didn't even have to worry about it. God, I was so worried. I was so stressed. I complained so much, and then you just did it. I'm so sorry, God, that I doubted you. It was like the Lord spoke to me. He said, You're embarrassed because you doubted. I'm proud because you did it. I don't know who it's for, but the heart of the Father wanted to say that to you today, that you have been beating yourself up so much about your doubts that you are not even celebrating how much you have done and how far you have come and how many ways you have changed, because all you keep focusing on is, God, I'm so sorry I had such a bad attitude. God, I'm so sorry I blew up at the kids like that. Well, at least you didn't kill them. At least they're still here. The Bible says if you train up a child in the way they should go,

when they're old they won't depart from it. That means all you have to do is not kill them, and God will fix it in the meantime. Just let them live. Some days that's all you can do is just to say, Hey, I didn't do that perfectly, but I did it. Sometimes you have to do it doubting. Notice in the text that Moses' response to the assignment is not gratitude. Moses' first response to the assignment is not to receive it but to run. Just in case you're dealing with something in your life right now and you're looking at it like a snake on the ground that God has told you to grab by the tail, that's okay. It is natural to run from something you have never seen in this form before. I am concerned that you are beating yourself so much up about your fear that you have not properly contextualized the magnitude of the faith it took for you to be where you are. Everything I ever did for God, I did it doubting. Every sermon I ever preached to you, my hands were shaking while I held my pen. I'll show you my handwriting, and you'll believe me then. You'll say, Pastor Stephen would have been a serial killer in another life. Look at that handwriting. You'd be psychoanalyzing me. No, it's because I had to do it doubting. Everything I have ever done for God I have never felt good enough to do. So do with that what you will. Judge me if you want to. Make fun of me if you want. Tell me that I should have more confidence in Christ if you must. But everything I ever did for God, I did it doubting. Every song I ever wrote from the Lord, I did feeling like a bad singer. Every chord I ever strummed to write a hymn for our church to sing, I did it wishing I knew more music theory. You don't understand what I'm saying. Everything I ever did for God… Every time I ever played back one of my preaching clips and listened to it, I had to cringe to find the clip, because I didn't even like the way I sounded. Everything I ever did for God, I did it doubting, but I did it. Sometimes great faith is not eliminating doubt. It is looking at doubt right in the face and telling doubt you can sit in the passenger seat but you can't drive because we're doing this. There's a whole word in this right now. Do it doubting, but do it. Do it afraid, but do it. Do it with suicidal thoughts, but do it. Live another day thinking you don't deserve to be on the earth, but live another day. Take another breath feeling anxious, but take another breath. Give God a praise not feeling a goose bump, but lift your hands. Lift your hands with your shoulder hurting, but lift your hands. Lift your hands with a bad back,

but lift your hands. Do it, and I'll tell you something. Worship will work whether you feel it or not. Worship still works when it's the middle of the night and there's nobody around to listen to you cry, and you cry out to God saying, When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. It'll work. I know it will work because the people of God in Exodus, chapter 4, had been enslaved for four centuries, and Moses has been in exile for four decades. But this text pops up into the transitional moment to remind us that it still works. God said to Moses, Watch this. The cries of my people have reached heaven. I heard. Even as the burdens of the people grew heavier, God says, I heard. See, you think when it doesn't happen God didn't hear. So, for all of those years that Moses tended sheep and thought, It's over. I blew it. For all of those years that you thought, If I could just go back and do it different, I would. For all of those years that you have thought it was over. For all of those years that they prayed, the people prayed, God send us a deliverer. God send us a sign. God set us free. God came down to Moses to say, It worked. So, I want to remind you today that your prayers aren't pointless, even if you don't have proof that they're heard. Please write that down and put it somewhere you can see it when the enemy tries to tell you it's not working this week. My prayers are not pointless, even if I have no proof they have been heard. God might be multitasking some things in your life right now. God might be setting some things up for a generation from now that you don't know about. God might need you to help somebody in the future, so you have to go through hell right now so you can help them later. God heard you. Oh, I feel anointed today, and I'm not even saying I'm anointed for everybody in the room. Maybe just for three people. Maybe for 300. Maybe for somebody in the back. Maybe for somebody in overflow. But the Lord said it's not pointless. My prayers are not pointless because my God has a plan. Keep praying for your babies. Keep praying about what's going on that the doctors can't figure out. Keep praying about it. It's not pointless. This is what Exodus 4 teaches me. God's lack of activity does not mean God's absence. Just because he is not active in the way I have prescribed for him to be does not mean his purpose isn't working. It still works. Now, you may go through winter, but every winter yields to spring. It still works. There must be somebody in here who needed to be reminded that you can do it doubting, that you can pray with chains still on your feet. You can praise with shackles still

on your hands. Ask Paul and Silas. I said, ask Paul and Silas. They were fastened in the inner cell. That's the hardest place to get out of. But ask Paul and Silas if you sing at midnight, even when you don't see anything happening, even when you have no proof that the chains are starting to weaken, if you will worship in this situation. I'm saying in this moment right now, I double-dog dare you to throw up your hands and open your mouth and say, "'Do it, God! I praise you, God, because you're a good God, and you're a worthy God, and you're a mighty God, and you're a holy God, and it works if you work it.'" Sometimes you have to do it doubting. Doubting. Number two… Sometimes you have to do it delayed. Do you know what I mean by delayed? God asks you to do something on this Tuesday that is only going to make sense in two years. This is what God is trying to show Moses. It's like, I grab you the way I want to. I grab you in a way that doesn't make sense. I use things that don't make sense to get your attention. Please write this down. God's sovereign plan does not always make practical sense. God's sovereign plan, the plan he has marked out before time began… Remember, God was working this deliverance narrative in his people's lives to foreshadow the work Jesus Christ would do on the cross so that when Jesus would show up, he would lead not only through the cross he died on but through the life he lived, he would lead us to freedom as our true Moses. Knowing that, we understand that God is working things out in a way that seems weird to us. I'm at the point in my life where I'm willing to be weird if it works. You know what I'm saying? Just imagine this. Moses is like, "'All right. You want me to do what? Okay. No." He runs, and he resists for a little while. But remember, great faith sometimes is doing it delayed. He wastes some time not only running from the snake, but he has been 40 years running from his assignment. Forty years. God shows up to say, "'I'm going to do it through you anyway. No. I break the spirit of accusation over your life that has told you it's too late. I break the spirit of accusation over your life that says you can't get it back. I break the spirit of condemnation over your life that says you cannot become what God has called you to be. I break the spirit of condemnation that tries to stamp

you with your worst mistake, because the life of Moses tells me that my past mistake is not my permanent verdict.'" That's what it shows me. When I say past mistake, I mean it could be five years ago. It could be five minutes ago. But that will not define me, because God has a plan for me. God has a plan for the things I did right. God has a plan for the things I did wrong. God has a plan for my doubts just as much as God has a plan for my bold declarations of faith. Moses picks up the snake by the tail, but not at first. Moses is used as a messenger, but before he's a messenger, he's a murderer. I just want to remind you that God makes all things beautiful in his time. Sometimes you have to do it on a delay and just pray stuff like, "'God, I pray that you would make up for the time I wasted. God, I pray that you would put me on an accelerated course. God, I pray that you would put me in summer school so I can graduate with all my friends. God, I pray that you would just give me the grace, God.'" God says, "'Okay.'" Once Moses got on the same page with God, it only took 10 plagues for God to do what he was going to do. It's not going to take as long as you think it's going to take. It's not going to take everything you think it's going to take, because sometimes God does it on a delay. That means you have to praise him in advance in case he does it on delay, because you don't know. The Lord anointed me to preach today that sometimes you have to do it on a delay.