Letting Go of Normal

And let me show you how God's people have always

been trying to go back to normal at the moments

when God is trying to bring us into something new. Now,

this message is for my business owners in the church,

those of you who are hoping things go back to normal,

but you know that they won't, but you don't know

what to do. This message is for those in the

church who are trying to deal with the level of

uncertainty that was unprecedented in your life before, and you're

just trying to even get a daily schedule figured out.

This message is for you.

This message is even for those who have lost something

in this season that you will never get back again.

And the question becomes, what is the new normal that

God has known all along?

Is the what is the new normal that I should

look forward to? Now? Remember this and write it down.

Faith looks forward. Faith looks forward.

And you'll see in Exodus chapter fourteen, remember a nation

who has only known slavery in Egypt for four hundred

and thirty years, when that is all you've known, that's

what is normal.

On one hand, they hated it.

They hated it because not only was there no freedom

in it, but there was frustration that was increasing because

the Egyptian task masters had begun to require more from

the Israelites than they could reasonably do. I mean, they'd

make them make bricks, but they wouldn't give them straw.

Go fetch your own straw and make the same number

of bricks. So you still got to fulfill your quota,

but you're not going to have enough to do it with.

So now listen, this is a generation of people who

had gotten used to never having enough. I wonder for us,

has never enough become our normal? Like I'm not talking

about last week or the week before that, and I'm

not talking about bank account I think the spirit of

this age is the spirit of never enough. We can

never get enough information, we can never get enough what

we call connection, it's not really connection, it's the it's

just the apparatus. It's just the illusion of connection that

really keeps us more fragmented than ever before. So now

we call ourselves connected in the world because we have

social media. I'm thinking about introducing a new trend. Social

distancing is catching on. We're practicing it right now. But

how about social media distancing. That's when you can go

more than five minutes without your phone y'all ain't saying nothing.

Social media distancing is a thing. Put it in the

chat five minutes without your phone.

See.

To us now, is just completely normal for us to

be overloaded all.

The time and just to.

Have acts to everything that's happening in the world. And

then we wonder why are we so fearful? Why can't

we feel It's because we were never intended to carry

so much in our minds and in our hearts. But

to us, it's just normal. We're used to making bricks

without straw. Many of us are used to never really

getting a good night's sleep. It's just normal. We're used

to running around this and that and the other. We're

used to spending too much money. It's normal, totally normal.

It's what the neighbors do, it's what my dad did,

it's what my dad's death.

So so what.

We're seeing in Exodus fourteen isn't just God's people coming

out of Egypt as a territory. They're coming out of

what they've known as normal. So while it sounds.

Sexy, open the grave, I'm coming out.

I'm gonna live. But what if you've gotten so used

to death that real life seems weird? Get back to normal.

I'm not so sure. Now this is how the Israelites

expressed it. You already Exitus fourteen to ten. As Pharaoh

approached wait, Pharaoh represents fear. Pharaoh represents the old got it.

Pharaoh said eat you eat, Pharaoh said make bricks, You

make bricks.

Pharaoh is the old boss, the old regime.

Pharaoh is the old ruler, but he's also the one

who fed you. So Pharaoh is the one who fed you.

And Pharaoh is the one that you fear. A lot

of the things that we get used to meet certain

needs in our life, and until we know a better

way to meet that need, we will always depend on

the wrong source. That's what addiction is. It meets a

need that's for some of you. What that person that

you keep running back to every three weeks that isn't

good for you is that's a form of Pharaoh. That's

what certain thought patterns that we embrace are to us. See,

they're familiar. And this is the principle that I want

to show you. When you are afraid, you reach for

what's familiar. When you are afraid, you reach for what's familiar.

And this is very explicit in Exodus fourteen, Chapter fourteen,

verse ten. As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and

there were the Egyptians, the ones they were running from,

marching after them. They were what does the next word say? Terrified?

They were afraid. Put that right there on one side.

They were afraid. They experienced fear. They were terrified and

cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, was

it because there were no graves in Egypt that you

brought us to the desert to die. The sarcasm is

dripping in this statement. Egypt was famous for grapes. Three

quarters of their land mass was set aside for grapes.

So when they say were there no graves in Egypt,

it's like saying were there no trees in Charlotte. It's

like saying was there no orange at elevation? It's like saying,

was there no electric guitar in Slash. I'm gonna keep

trying to lie to somebody. It's like, that's what Egypt

was known for. It was known for graves.

And watch this.

When you feel afraid, you crave familiar, even if familiar

is killing you. Egypt was killing them. And on one hand,

they're crying out, get us out of here. We'll go anywhere,

We'll do anything. God, just make it stop. Some of

y'all were praying that three months ago. God, I need

a change.

God. This is not working. God. I'm not happy. God,

I don't feel joy.

Remember Remember three months ago when you were praying. God

helped me get my priorities. Remember your New Year's resolutions.

I know that was like BC before Corona. You're like, oh, well,

I've gained seventeen pounds in san I'm just trying to breathe.

That's my new New Year's resolution.

Take another breath, tak another breath, take another breath. But

when you feel fear, you reach for familiar. When God

showed me this, I realized why. To me, sometimes negative

feels normal. A lot of times when I'm feeling uncertain, unstable,

little thing, big thing, I reach for something negative because

negative is what I know, not because I had horrible parents.

I had great parents. But I will say this, my dad.

Was not normal. His childhood was not normal.

His dad killed himself when he was nine on his

ninth birthday.

That was not normal.

In fact, one of the last things that my dad

said to me while he was alive he said, I

only ever wanted to be normal. He was talking about

how through his upbringing, when he was sent to reform school,

and just the different things that happened in his life,

you know, blowing through two marriages before he met my

mom and all of that. He was saying, I just

always wanted to be normal. I've never been normal. I've

never been normal. I've never been normal. The Bible says

that about Moses, who was leading the people out of Egypt.

Did you know that.

Says in Acts chapter seven, verse twenty that Moses was

no ordinary child.

Isn't that cool?

So say this as a compliment to whoever you're sitting

next to, and I hope this doesn't start an argument.

Tell them you're not normal. In fact, tell them stronger,

say you've never been normal. You've never been normal. There's

nothing normal about you. And you look at Josh and

just tell him. Come on, say it in the Josh

Blackton voice. You have never been normal, Josh Black's in.

The deepest voice. And the man from Michigan.

You should have sayen based in a southern gospel quartet.

Only problem is your tone deaf, but you got the

range for it. You've never been normal. You were a

boy scout, but you weren't normal. See look, normal is

just a story that you've told yourself. And so the

Israelites God helped them. They are standing at a red sea,

which is a body of water that they have.

No context for. Like us right now, we have no

context for this crisis. We have no context for this challenge.

We have no precedents for.

This global pandemic because we've never lived through one.

So when they fell terrified, watch what they did. They

craved familiar.

Were there no graves in Egypt. We'd rather be dead

in Egypt than alive in uncertainty.

They craved the grave.

Over having to stand in front of something in an

uncertain situation. And so do we We do it all

the time. We go back to places that kill us.

People that kill us, patterns that kill us, routines that

kill us, bottles that kill us, pills that kill us,

stations that kill us, feeds that kill us, keep going,

websites that kill us, accounts that kill us, thoughts that

kill us. Because it's normal, and normal is nice. Normal

is nice if you don't think so, you never had

a nice old sweatshirt. It's nice because it's normal. It's

not nice because it looks good. It looks terrible. You

look homeless, but it's normal. Oh, I like this. This

is my good sweatshirt. These are my good underwear with

seven holes in it. But it's got seven holes. But

it's normal. It feels familiar.

So watch this.

Oh, I'm annointed by the spirit of God today to

help you see normal is not all that.

Is wanted to be the way it was. We want

to go back to Egypt. Take us back to Egypt.

The place you were crying out to God to take

you from. Now you want to go back, Yeah, I

want to go back. I want to go back to normal. God,

I will never complain about my kid's teacher again, as

long as it doesn't.

Have to be me. I'm going back to normal.

Normal. I just want normal, just normal. I just need

something normal. That's why I wanted to come in the building.

To preach to you. It's like, do you want to

do it in a studio.

I was like no, no, no, no no, because I want

people to get.

A little bit of normal.

I think it'll help people, even our e Faan that

meets all over the world, and y'all when I say

all over the world. Watch the chat. Put in the

chat if you're from somewhere other than Charlotte, and put

where it is. And I just want you to see

I'm not lying, because there's nothing normal about this church.

You know, the church I grew up in, it was

like one hundred people. It was an amazing church. But

in the town amongst Corner is only six thousand.

That was my normal.

So as the ministry grows bigger, to me, it's not familiar.

So sometimes I fear when something is expanding or getting

bigger because it's not normal to me.

So it's really difficult.

For us to understand those of us that were coming

to church buildings in River Walk and Concord.

Oh God, we're building a building for Concord. Now we

don't get to use it. It's so bad. Guy, Just

let us get back to the plan. Let us get

back to the let us get back to the thing

we had a few weeks ago.

I know I was complaining about it, but I'll take it.

I'll take it. I'm sorry, God, I'm sure sorry. Give

it back, give back, give me a job back. I'm

so sorry.

God, give my car back. I'll ride my Honda cord.

Just let me take it somewhere. Just have something for

me to do. God, I'll do it.

I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it.

Because when you're in something you don't know, you crave normal.

Do you see all those cities and hamlets and provinces

on that screen. I can't read them all out There's

too many. That's amazing, you know. I used to say

this all the time to our church. I used to

say to the people who could come to church here

and a physical location, I would say, some people came

here this weekend on their honeymoon, their vacation. They wanted

to come to Elevation for vague where you want to

go to vacation this year? I want to go to

you want to go to Dine World. I want to

go to Elevation. I want to go to Elevation, the

vacation destination of the world, right here off of five

twenty one, and be like some people be.

Here, like man, this was on my bucket list to

come to Elevation. People would say that this is my

bucket list. And I used to say to.

Those of y'all who were sitting out there, I'd say, don't.

Ever take for grant.

That what God put in your backyard is on somebody

else's bucket list, didn't I say that? And now I

can show you better than I can tell you. Some

of the same people that used to complain about the

parking lot at Valentine, I bet you would love to

have to wait for a parking space right now if

you could just come to church and be in the

presence of God.

Now I know some of you, you're like, no, I

kind of like this church at home thing. Better. This

is actually pretty awesome, brother Steve.

I'll tell you what that ephan was onto something. This

is this is this is really an innovation right here.

I mean, I'll tell you what. Right now, I'm sitting

right here, I've got my oreos and I'm getting.

Spiritually fed as well. Praise the Lord Christ and carbohydrates.

This is the ticket.

I'll tell you what. I praise God for innovative ministry.

This is a digital revolution, this is a revival. You know,

all I'm trying to think about these days is not

the normal that I want to get back to. Because

I have a feeling. I have a feeling, and I

think you do too.

Let's just.

Let's just have the funeral right now that we are

not going back to normal.

We're not.

I was on a zoom call this week with a

department and our staff, and by the end of it,

I was beating the desk saying, y'all aren't getting it.

Everything has changed. Y'all are having a normal meeting. This

is not a normal time. People need the gospel more

than ever.

Before, and y'all are talking about what happened ten days

ago and right now. For our ministry, we have to

be in the moment because people need this oxygen.

This is not a normal time.

This is not a normal church, and I hope in some.

Ways, I hope this building is full again. But I

hope we never just go back to normal where.

We come in church and act like you know, it's

just start right to come in here.

I hope we.

Never go back to normal where we just come in

and we can't get the ebooker out of our eye

until the fourth song, until they play our favorite song

and everything has to match our preference and we just

kind of yawn and wait for it to be over.

I hope we never go back to normal. I'm never

going back to normal.

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