God's About To Flip It Pastor Steven Furtick - Steven Furtick

Whatever you went through that did not destroy you, God

is now going to use to deliver you.

It's not meant to kill you.

It's meant to kill your enemies. For many years, I

thought salvation was just what we were saved from. But

the big picture of God's purpose for your life and

my life is what we're saved to. And so on

this journey to freedom, not just from sin, but freedom to,

they're going, this is the crazy thing about God. When

he brings you out of something, he does not let

you choose your escape route. Because I should probably talk

about this. Because there is a Bible verse that says,

God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what

you are able. That with the temptation, he will provide

the way of escape. But it promises he will provide

the way of escape. It does not promise that he

will let you pick the way of escape. It is

not a multiple choice. It is not a choose your

own adventure escape route. So God's way of escape is

not up for debate. When God calls you out, he

leads you sometimes in strange ways. Which is why they

must have been so disappointed when Moses took them on

those backcountry roads to camp out right in front of

the Red Sea. Because it would have been shorter. Even

the Bible says it would have been shorter. It wasn't

just their opinion. The Bible says it would have been

shorter if if they would have gone through Philistine country,

but they weren't ready for war yet. A lot of

times when God brings you from point A to point B,

he takes you on a zigzag because he knows, and

I don't mean to hurt your feelings, how fragile your

faith is even if you don't. And so he brings

them out on a way of escape that to them

must have seemed long, but they could deal with it.

They didn't complain about that. What must have seemed really

weird to them was when they heard the wheels of

the chariots, the horsepower of the engines of Pharaoh's 600

chosen chariots coming up behind them when they thought they

had left Egypt and they were done with that. Now

we're at the text in verse 26, where the Lord

said to Moses, stretch out your hand. I'm so excited

to share this with you. God showed me something this

week that was so cool because the first time Moses

stretched out his hand, which had a staff in it,

the sea parted so that the Israelites could go through

so that they could walk through what they shouldn't have

been able to walk through. Now, there are some things

that God did in your life this year with a

strong east wind that if he didn't do those things,

you wouldn't have been able to go through. Within yourself,

come on, admit it. Within your own strength, with your DNA.

And with your dad and your mom and their genes

still kicking around in a cage fight inside of you,

you would not have gone through it. You would have

stopped in the middle of it and you would have drowned.

But one thing about God is he is only known

by the evidence of what he does. He is not

experienced directly. The Bible says that the reason they went

through is because a wind blew from the east and

made the waters stand at attention so that the people

could go through. Now, you can't see wind. You can

only see the effects of the wind. You ask me

how I know God is real. I can't point to

his nose or his ears. I've never heard his audible voice.

But there are just some things in my life that

don't make sense unless there was a wind blowing. There

are just some things. How about you? There are just

some things that I went through. That I know me

and I would not have had the grace to go

through it if there hadn't been something working with me.

Now let's get into the text. This is a good part.

Touch somebody and say, come through. So Moses is stretching

out his staff so the people can. I'm trying to

get you tonight. I'm trying to get you tonight to

come through. I think it would be a shame for

you to be stuck in an inferior version of yourself,

clutching onto a beta blessing when there is an update

available in this house tonight by the Spirit of God.

So I'm trying to get you to come through. But

by the time verse 26 hits, they've already done that.

And now they're on the other side. And so it

seems strange that God would tell them to do anything

other than run. But he tells Moses to do something

that God wants you to do tonight. And he says,

I want you to take the instrument in your hand

that is a symbol of your past. That is the

symbol of the mistakes that you made when you killed

the Egyptian Moses and ran and hid him in the

sand and then hid yourself. The staff that is the

symbol of your potential. The same one that you used

to turn the Nile River to blood in those 10

plagues of Egypt. I want you to take that same

instrument and before you leave Egypt, stretch it. Back over

what you just went through. And when you do, you

will understand the purpose of what you went through. God

brought you here tonight. If I can be so bold

as to say that, I believe this applies to everyone

in the room who will have the faith to receive it.

Because he wants to use what you went through. That's

the good news. Got to tell you the whole thing.

God wants to use what you went through. And so

does the devil. And the question in this moment is,

will you allow God to use what you went through?

Watch this. And when he had finished leading an entire

nation all night long in the dark with water that

could collapse on them at any moment, don't you think

they moved fast through this tunnel of supernatural, miraculous, potential

death that at any moment could sweep them away and

they make it to the other side. And God says,

stop before you take another step. I need you to

stretch your hand back over what you just went through.

The water that you just went through was not sent

to destroy you. Can I tell you something? Everything that

made you afraid this year was not the devil. Everything

that made you cry this year was not the devil.

Everything that broke your heart this year was not the devil.

Everything that you lost this year was not the devil.

Everything that didn't go according to plan this year was

not the devil. Some of the stuff that was sent

against you was not sent to destroy you at the

time It felt like it would at the time you

felt like you would never be happy again at the

time You felt like you would just drive away and

never come back at the time You felt like you

would never find that love that passion that feeling again

at the time It felt like it would kill you

But the thing that you went through was not meant

to destroy you and when you stretch through Your hand

over what you went through, what you went through is

going to deliver you from what you just came out of.

Let me see if I got this right. What I

went through could have killed me, but it didn't hit

somebody say, but it didn't. It didn't. I could have

laid down and died in what I went through. Touch

them and say, but I didn't. Tell them I could

have lost my mind. But I... I don't know, maybe

you did. But here's the point of the message. Here's

the point of the message. Whatever you went through that

did not destroy you, God is now going to use

to deliver you Come to this side to see if

you believe the word of God. It's in the B-I-B-L-E.

He said what you just went through if you will

stop at this moment at this juncture in this time

in this season and stretch your hand over what you

went through.

It's not meant to kill you. It's meant to kill

your enemies. It was never going to kill you. No

weapon formed against you.

Now I know why I went through.

There were some things that God had to kill so

they wouldn't kill me. That's why I went through.

That's why God had to deal with some things in me,

in a me, in a me. God had to drown

some of my enemy.

That's why I went through.

So when I look back over at what I thought I.

Wouldn't get through.

And I see, look at verse 30. I didn't give

you that, did I? I forgot to give you verse 30.

I'm so sorry. It said when they look back that

the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians

and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. Now,

what do you want to look at this year? What

you went through or what God did in you through

what you went through God deliver me. You know he's

not going to do that in a cute, comfortable, convenient place.

Some stuff that you went through this year. Now, if

you don't process it correctly, if you just, am I

in a hurry to get out of 2018? Don't be

surprised when you hear the chariot wheels in 2019. We'll

be right back here in 365 days shouting over nothing

all over again. And the Lord gave me this word.

It's more like an image from the text. It said

that Moses, the way I saw it in my mind

was that the water had done something supernatural all night

long so the Israelites could could get through. God kept

stuff away from you this year so you could get through,

but when the time came for them to leave, God said, stop,

and before you're in such a hurry to get out,

turn around and stretch. What's the verse? Verse 28. Stretch

your staff, and the water flowed back and covered the chariots.

The water flowed back so it had been like this

and then it went like that and then the enemies

went like that and the people of god went like

that so god said to tell you it's time for

you to flip the flow touch the person on either

side of you and see if they can get it

say flip the flow It's been going this way. It's

been going this way all year long. It's been going

this way. But tonight we came to flip the flow.

And everything that was against me this year, now Romans 8,

28 says, oh, I got a New Testament verse too,

that all things work together for the good of them

that love the Lord. Is that you? Do you still

love him? If he's still your friend, do you still

trust him after what you went through?

If that's you, then all things.

Work together. High five 18 people say flip the flow.

Flip the flow. Flip the flow. Instead of concentrating on

all the moments that it didn't go your way this year,

flip the flow. What went right? What did work out?

Who did stay? Who did give you a hug? How

did he meet your needs?

How did he come through?

Did he come through for you?

Flip the flow. Stop focusing so much on what you

did or didn't get. Maybe it isn't about what God

wanted to do for you this year as much as

it is about what he wants to do through you

in the future.