Transcript
A (0:00)
This is an I Heart podcast.
B (0:05)
Hey, this is Steven Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. So I thought we would call on Moses. If we're talking about faith, he certainly deserves to be heard as to how he did what he did. I chose a selection in Exodus 4:1:5, and I want to read it to you now. Let's go over and see Moses on the far side of the desert in Midian. The voice of God has summoned him from the crackling of a bush that will not burn but is on fire. I think that's a picture of a life that is set on fire by faith. It burns up, but it doesn't burn out. Now he's negotiating with God and he says in Exodus 4. One, what if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, the Lord did not appear to you. Then the Lord said to him, what's that in your hand? A staff, he answered. The Lord said, throw it down on the ground. Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake, and he ran from it. Somebody say, smart guy. Then the Lord said to him, reach out your hand and take it by the tail. So Moses reached out, took hold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. This, said the Lord is so that they may believe the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. How has appeared to you? I really want to lift. Verse 4. The Lord said to him, reach out your hand and take it by the tail. So Moses reached out, took hold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. I need your help for one moment before you take your seat. I need you to announce my message title to your neighbor. Put your hand on their shoulder. Get their attention. When you give them my title in a moment, I want you to holler at them. When you give them my title, I don't want you to whisper it, mumble it, suggest it. I want you to command it. Okay? Tell your neighbor, say, neighbor, I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what you're dealing with. But God told me to tell you, handle it. Find your other neighbor. Say, neighbor, other neighbor. You were my second choice. Don't be offended, but just know that God wanted me to tell you, handle it.
A (3:29)
Amen. Clap your Hands.
B (3:33)
You may be seated. Thank you, worship team. Don't we have fun together? Don't we have a good time? Amen. Look at this. Because if you can have a flashback with me from when Tom Hanks was on that island alone and he had to make friends with a volleyball. Now, those of you who are participating in this portion of the sermon are old. I know only five of y' all would remember this reference. But in the movie Castaway, where Tom Hanks had been alone so long that his only companion was a volleyball, and he called the volleyball what Wilson. They did a good job with that movie. They bonded you enough with a volleyball that you remember it as a character. You can become so attached to something inanimate that it becomes lifelike to you. Exhibit A, right? I remember when I first asked Chris Brown, I was like, do you think I should get an iPhone? I don't think I would use it very much. Yeah, right. I just didn't know what it was capable of. Moses has a staff in his hand in Exodus, chapter four. By the time God gets through showing Moses what that staff can do.
