Looking Forward to Normal
- Steven Furtick
- Jul 2, 2020
- 27 min read
Looking Forward to Normal
Steven Furtick
But this is not normal. This is not normal. And we hear a phrase a lot, at least I do
right now, and listen, since this is not a normal weekend, I'm not a normal preacher,
this is not a normal church, you're not a normal person, either. Matter of fact, the only
people that think you're normal are the people who don't know you.
John Ortberg wrote a book called "Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them". So
anybody that you think is normal is somebody that you don't really know. "Everybody's
normal", John Ortberg said, "till you get to know them". Your wife is weird. You didn't see the
weirdness of your wife when you were dating her. Your wife was weird when you met her,
you just didn't know her yet. And so, what we're looking at right now is a sentiment that a lot
of people feel, and here's what I'm doing.
I did not give them my title for the message, because I wanted to try something new today.
Rather than put it up on the screen fancy, I wanted to do my own special effects today,
'cause I don't know what's gonna happen in the next weeks to come, but what if we can't put
the title up anymore, and I still need to preach to people? Well, I'm gonna make my own title
card, okay? I'm doing my own stunts today, and here's the phrase I've been hearing from a
lot of people. I'm gonna show you this, get ready to zoom in on it once I write it, but I've
heard this, oh, man, like, I've heard it at least 100 times, whether it's people on the news or
people that I know, or our staff here at Elevation, and here's the phrase. This seems to be
the goal.
Let me shut up for a minute, so I can concentrate on writing. I'm not a very good multitasker.
Don't wanna misspell anything. Oh, I love it, 'cause I've heard this a million times, and I've
bet you said it a few times, too. Here's the phrase, I'm hearing this a lot. Can y'all see it? I
can't see whether you can see it or not, because there's no, like, IMAG in the screen, 'cause
there's nobody in the room that needs to see IMAG. It's just not normal. Normally, I would
just look over here to my left or my right, and I would see if it's a tight shot, but can y'all see
it? Is it a good shot?
This is what I'm hearing a lot of people talk about right now, and this is just a piece of
Elevation Church stationary, I just wrote it down, 'cause it's not a normal Sunday, so I didn't
wanna preach a normal sermon, and throw it to a normal title. But I'm hearing this right now,
like, oh, man, I just can't wait till things get back to normal. Okay, put that in the chat. If your
thumbs still work, put it in the chat. "Getting Back to Normal".
I'm hearing a lot of people talk about how long is it going to be before things get back
to normal. And honestly, I'm ready for some normalcy in the Furtick zipcode as well. I
really am, I'm ready for some normalcy to our schedules. I'm ready for some normalcy
to date nights with my wife. I mean, I know that sounds, like, real fancy or frilly at a
time when people are hurting so much, but, there's something nice about things just
being normal. Even little things being normal, like, I don't even like sports that much,
but I miss 'em. I don't even care about the outcome, I just like to have it in the
background, 'cause it's normal. It's normal.
Normal is nice. And you really don't realize how much you need normal until you are forced
to live without it, 'cause I was talking to one of my friends about normal the other day, and I
promise you I'm gonna preach from the Scripture in a moment, because my scriptures are
Exodus 14:10-15 and Romans 12:1-2. So go ahead and turn to those two books, one in the
Old Testament, one in the New. But I've been hearing this phrase so much, "Oh, man, I just
can't wait till things get back to normal". But, something arrested my attention the other day,
is that the person who was saying to me how much that she was waiting for stuff to get back
to normal, had complained to me two months ago, before any of this global pandemic
started, about how much she hated her life. And that was weird to me. Because, the normal
that she had been complaining about two months ago was the normal that she would give
anything to get back to right now.
Some of us would give anything for normal right about now. Would give anything to get to
deal with the annoying person that you work next to if you could get back to work. Oh, I
would sit next to Teresa all day, and pretend like her stories were good, and funny, and
interesting, and her breath didn't smell bad. I would love some normal right about now. It's
like when you go to college, you know? If you went to college, and you hated your
hometown, and then you get dropped off in the middle of a new world, and nothing is
familiar, and you were complaining, "I just can't wait to leave Moncks Corner". Shout out
Moncks Corner, we sent Convoy of Hope and Elevation Outreach resources and teams all
week to help those who were devastated. You're gonna be seeing about that soon if you
haven't already.
But, man, I hated my hometown for a minute till I left it. And then, everything that felt small to
me started to feel, I don't know, like instead of confining, it felt comforting. Here's what I'm
trying to say, 'cause I think I'm being a little too vague for you, okay. Some of the stuff that
you're praying for right now is the same stuff you were praying away two months ago. And
isn't it weird how quick we can shift to where what we want to get back to is the same thing
that we wanted to escape from? Y'all ain't helping the preacher a bit today. It's so, so easy in
a moment like this for us to make our goal getting back to normal.
But here's what the Lord showed me, this is where I need my hot pink Sharpie. I think red
would've been better, but I couldn't find one, so I'm doing hot pink. And I want us to shift our
mentality today, and this may be a whole teaching series, I don't know, because I'm hearing
so many people say, "I wanna get back to normal", "I wanna get back to the way things
were", "I wanna get back to", and the Lord posed a question to me this week. What if normal
is something to look forward to? And what if the normal that we knew is not the normal that
God is leading us into next?
I'm about to throw my title card at you, Holly. This might be the most anointed
message that I've ever preached in my life. It's called "Looking Forward to Normal".
Why do we assume that normal is back there? Why would we, as Christians, who
serve a God who is always moving forward, from glory to glory, from strength to
strength, why would we serve a God like that, a God whose very essence is defined by
resurrection, why would we serve a God who is defined by resurrection, new
beginnings, and think that the whole goal is to get back to something that we knew
before?
And I hope that certain things are normal again. I hope, for God's sake, that my kids can go
back to real school again. I hope, for God's sake, that certain things in our society change. I
hope, for God's sake, that there's a time where, you know, these chairs can be full of people
again, and even the obnoxious parking volunteers at Elevation, I missed 'em today. You
know, the ones that do too much? You know, the extra parking volunteers, where you're like,
it's 8:45, it don't take all that. Just wave me to my parking space, man. Just 'cause you got a
baton doesn't mean you have to act like a clown.
But I even miss the hyperactive parking volunteers. I even miss the people in the church who
looked bored while I was preaching. The ones who looked like terrorists when I was
preaching to 'em. I miss 'em. I want normal back. But God has been speaking to my spirit, e
fam. God has been speaking to my spirit, Indonesia. God has been speaking to my spirit,
and yours too, but you just didn't have the language for it. God said, "I'm bringing you into a
new normal", because what you thought was normal wasn't really normal. It was just what
you knew. And I'm gonna show you this from the Scripture.
Turn in your Bible, or let's be honest, just wait for it to come on the screen. I'm acting like y'all
got books spread out all over the coffee table. Fact of the matter is, you're probably stirring
your oatmeal right now. But, turn in your Bible to Exodus 14, 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 a 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?
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 14, remember, a nation who has only known slavery in Egypt for 430 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 taskmasters had begun to require more from the Israelites than they
could reasonably do. I mean, they'd make 'em make bricks, but they wouldn't give 'em straw.
Go fetch your own straw, and make the same number of bricks. So you still gotta fulfill your
quota, but you're not gonna 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 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, it's a thing,
put it in the chat. Five minutes without your phone. See, to us now, it's just completely
normal for us to be overloaded all the time, and just to have access 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 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. That'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 dad, so, what we're
seeing in Exodus 14 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. Y'all ready? Exodus 14:10. "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 wanna 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 14:10. "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 graves. Three-quarters of their land mass was set aside for graves. 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 try keep trying till I hit 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 outta 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, help 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 17 pounds since then, I'm just trying to breathe. That's my new new
year's resolution, 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 7:20, 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 'em, "You're not normal". In fact, tell 'em stronger, say, "You've never been
normal". There's nothing normal about you. Angie, look at Josh and just tell him, come on,
say it in the Josh Blackson voice. "You've never been normal". Josh Blackson, the deepest
voice in, the man from Michigan. You should've sang bass in a southern gospel quartet. Only
problem is, you're 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 precedence 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 kills, 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,
'cause it's normal, and normal is nice.
Normal is nice. If you don't think so, you've never had a nice, old sweatshirt. It's nice 'cause
it's normal. It's not nice 'cause 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 anointed by the Spirit of God today, to help you see, normal is not all that.
"I just want it to be the way it was". We wanna go back to Egypt. Take us back to Egypt. The
place you were crying out to God to take you from? Now, you wanna go back? "Yeah, I
wanna go back". I wanna go back to normal. God, I will never complain about my kid's
teacher again, just 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. I was like, do you wanna do it in a studio? I was like, no, no,
no, no. Because I want people to get a little bit of normal. I think it'll help people.
You know, all I'm trying to think about these days is not the normal that I wanna get back to,
because I have a feeling, and I think you do too, 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 in 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 our right to come in
here. I hope we never go back to normal, where we just come in and we can't get the
eye booger out of our eye until the fourth song, until they play our favorite song, and
everything has to match our preference, and we just kinda yawn and wait for it to be
over. I hope we never go back to normal. I'm never going back to normal.
Just because something is normal to you, does not mean that it's normal to everyone. And
that's very important for us to understand. Like, best example I can give you is with my kids.
Are y'all getting something out of this so far? Okay, Abby said to me the other day, "What
would you tell 9-year old Steven Furtick", 'cause she's nine, "if you could tell him anything"?
So I was like, "I would tell him that one day, you're not gonna walk through Walmart looking
at CDs, figuring out which one to buy. You are going to be able to instantly listen to any
music in the history of the universe on a device that is the size of a notecard. I would tell him
that video games are going to radically change because see, for us TEC Mobile was high
tech".
Now, when my kids are playing video games, they laugh at my video games. Because their
normal was something that I didn't even know to imagine. Like, we didn't have, for instance
Abby, we didn't have Roblox, "Flying Unicorn", neon unicorns, flying, driving, neon, exploding
unicorns. We didn't have any of that. And once you bought the game, you didn't have to
spend any more money on it. That's new. That's new. You bought it one dang time. One
time. Now, you had to blow in it until you had a seizure to get it to work, but once you bought
it, it was yours. And you didn't have to buy anything else for it. You didn't have to grind to get
your team ready. My God. It's a video game. Not a job. But it's your normal.
It's your normal that we put trolls on the video screen. Look at me sounding like an old man.
It's your normal that we rented the movie, "The Trolls World Tour". And we didn't have to go.
See back in the day, let me give you a history lesson, back in yonder years, back in the times
of Jesus, Blockbuster Video reigned supreme. Come on, y'all don't know nothing about late
fees. And I know you don't know anything about rewinding, or you pay an extra $0.99 cents.
If you don't rewind the tape, I'm taking you back, that was normal. Not now. Not now.
My daughter's never been in a Blockbuster in her life. Blockbuster, what's Blockbuster?
Alright, so here's the question. I'm gonna go deep on you. Are you holding onto a
Blockbuster blessing? Something that God is trying to put out of business in your life.
Something that God is saying, "You know what? I'm taking you through something uncertain
alright now". Who is this for? "I'm taking you through something right now that you've never
seen before. But just because you've never seen it before, doesn't mean it's not normal".
Thank you, Jesus. Just because I have never known it, doesn't mean it's not normal.
You mean, it can be normal for me to have a heart that is at peace? Yes. Yes. That's
how it's supposed to be. You are supposed to have peace in the middle of the storm.
Jesus did. He's slept through stuff that we scramble about, because He's not from
here. See, when you're from someone else, or somewhere else, it changes what you
see as normal. Help me preach. Stand up and help me preach. Because I come from a
different place. Because I am not from this world. Because it is not my home, I do not
have to accept the patterns of this world as normal. I don't have to accept Egypt as
normal. And what if God is trying to bring me into a new normal? But I'm so afraid that
I reach for what's familiar?
Can I tell you one new normal I think God is trying to give us right now? Better priorities.
Because we are so toxic in the way we treat each other. What we say to each other. How we
categorize and box each other. But we can't box each other like that anymore. Now, I need
you, and you need me. And if we don't all do what we're supposed to do, we may not ever
get out of this. God is making a nation. God is bringing the people through the Red Sea
together. But not for them to go through. For them to get there, there's something they have
to give up.
Question. What is God calling you to give up to get there? What if there's a new normal?
What if your true nature has been so buried and embedded in what Roman's 12 calls the
patterns of this world. Can I show you this? Y'all sit down. I'm still feel like I'm just barely
started this message. I'm gonna teach it again next week, but let me get as far as I can today
before the time runs out. What time am I supposed to be done? Like ten minutes? Twelve
minutes? How long? I don't even know what that clock means. How many of y'all kept stop
looking at clocks and days of the week awhile ago? What month is this? I dunno. But here's
what I wanna show you from Romans 12:1. Some of y'all have heard this scripture before,
but let's put it in God's context, okay?
Just like the children of Israel were going through the Red Sea, and remember all they've
known as normal. All their parents knew as normal. All their parents' parents knew as
normal. All their parents' parents' parents knew as normal. This is 430 years. Look how weird
our world has gotten in just a few weeks. Okay, this is 430 years of you thinking you're never
supposed to have enough. You'll never be free. This is what it's like to be in bondage. And
some of you know this, cause you've been in bondage to depression. You've been in
bondage to patterns of thought. And this is a chain breaking scripture in Romans 12:1.
And I never saw it before, y'all. I never saw it before Rob, Debbie, Chelsea, Dawn, Lisa,
Shaniqua, May, Sharon. I never saw it before. Somebody's name on here is Honey.
That is not a normal name. I like it. If it's my message. My name is Honey. What's your
name? My name is Honey. That's one way to get a date. Alright. My name is Honey,
call me Honey. But watch the scripture in Romans 12:1. Are you ready? This
revelation to me, I've read both of these scriptures a lot. They're both classic
passages. The children of Israel are coming through the Red Sea. They wanna go
back to Egypt. They wanna go back to what they've known. They wanna go back to
what's familiar, because they are afraid. I'd rather go back to what is negative, even if
it's not really normal. So we'll call negative normal, just because it's what we know.
You see this? Some of the things that I've called normal my whole life aren't normal.
And this scripture shows me just the full extent of it in Jesus Christ. Now let's put the gospel
on this Old Testament passage. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's
mercy", that's not normal. That's not normal. How many of you, in a relationship can just do
wrong over and over and over and over, and over again, and the person fully accepts you?
Only God. So, in view of that kind of mercy, and that's where we get used to things. We get
used to things that we used to be grateful for, we've become entitled to. But remember, for
this community that Paul is writing to, none of this is normal. They're used to relating to God
through a sacrificial system.
So when they come before God, they have to make offerings and spill blood in order to have
their prayer request heard. In order to meet with God. In order to atone for sin. So this is not
normal for Paul to be talking about mercy. Coming to God on the basis of grace. This is new.
This is a new normal. And you know what their temptation was? To go back to the old way.
So he's telling them, "No, no, no, no, no. In view of God's mercy, I urge you, I need you to,
I'm begging you to stop trying to get back to normal. Stop thinking that there's something you
could do to earn God's love, and realize that it's already been done through the gift of His
Son Jesus Christ, that the blood has already been shed".
Instead of getting back to normal, move forward into this new way of life, and instead of
offering pigeons and turtle doves, and lambs, and goats, and rams, "offer your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true", true, your true, "and proper
worship". This is your new normal. Your new normal is that you are forgiven and not
condemned. Your new normal is that you are a child of the most high God. I am no ordinary
child. I am a child of God. Me and Moses have Acts 7:20 in common. I am no ordinary child. I
am a child of God. I am a royal priesthood. I am holy nation. I am set a part. I'm not trying to
be normal. Normal is broken. Normal is broken. The culture is broken.
The world is weird and it didn't just get weird when a virus was unleashed. The world
has been weird for a long time. I'm gonna show you in the bible, Romans 12:2, this is
way before coronavirus. You got it? Romans 12:2, "Do not conform to the pattern of
this world", why not? Because the world is weird. "I don't know about Christians,
they're weird". You know what's kinda cool about going through something really
traumatic? What used to be weird now is the only thing that works. That's the only
thing I'm excited about. I'm not excited about anybody being sick, anybody dying,
anybody losing their job, anybody losing their company, anybody losing their life's
work. I'm not excited about anybody having to work 20 hours days. I'm not excited
about any of it. But what I am excited about is that our faith finally fits.
See, the world always operates by logic, but now we've come to a Red Sea. And so the
world is trying what it's always tried. Ah, more information. Ah, ah, ah. And none of it works.
So now, there's room to do what Romans 12:1 says, and worship isn't weird anymore. It's
not weird to worship now, is it? Because the only thing I can do now is call on God. People
are praying right now who used to think praying was superstitious. It's not weird anymore.
For once, we're not the weird ones. We're not weird. For just a minute, let's just take this
moment. It's like we're a middle school boy who finally hit a growth spurt, and our voice isn't
cracking, and we finally fit. The church finally fits. You could send this link to somebody
today, and they wouldn't be annoyed that you invited them to church. They'd be excited.
They are bored to death. They've got three ulcers. They've got ulcers in places where you
don't even normally get ulcers.
So, faith finally fits. This is our moment. This is our time. This is what we were born to do. I
wasn't born to be normal. We fit. It's amazing moment. Finally, there's space for faith in your
life. Long as everything's normal, there's no space for faith. Oh, I got this. I figured this out.
Blah blah blah. Here's what I do. I take the kids here, and I take the kids there, and I take the
kids there, and I take the kids there. The Lord said that in this season, He is helping people
reset their schedule. And since you didn't want to do it manually, now as the whole thing is
shut down, one of the new normals that God might bring us into, is that we have a different
baseline for busy. Or a reordering or priorities.
Think about this. Many of us worshipped soccer more than we worshipped the savior. I know
that sounds like one of those clichés. I would normally do it in the country preacher voice.
"Y'all worship soccer more than the savior". But it's the dang truth. And I don't have anything
against soccer, other than I hate it. But listen to me, church. Listen. You listening to me right
now? Sit up and listen to this. God said, "I'm not trying to get you back to the normal to
where you worshipped your kid's activities and left no space for Me". Not trying to bring you
back to that Egypt where you had to make bricks without straw. And you were just spending
your money, and spending your time. And never full, and holes in your purses, and just
running after this, and running after that. To impress people.
So now you're going through a season where you can put on any clothes you want, and
nobody is gonna see them. God's reordering some priorities because Romans 12:2, put it
back on the screen, please. I feel this message. Y'all want another week of this next week?
Thank you, Jesus. "Do not conform" anymore, "to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind". Why? The world was weird to begin with. It's not
normal. And even the way you develop your construct of the world is important, right? If you
get your construct of what the world is like from the news, you will not know normal. The
news does not make money by showing you normal. The news makes money by showing
you the most extreme example to keep you watching.
You think the news is there to inform you? The news is not there to inform you. The
news is there to engage you so you'll keep watching. So, you're getting your construct
of the world right now from the news, the news, the news, the news. That's not
normal. I'm not telling you not to check the news. I'm telling you not to watch it. Just
all the time. It's not normal. That is not normal. You know how the world has these
patterns. It's like all these patterns of the world where we overextend ourselves all the
time. And we do all these things to impress people. That has never been normal.
That's just been culturally accepted. That doesn't make it normal.
What does God call normal? That's what I wanna know in this season. What does God call
normal? I told Elijah the other day, I don't care if you like sports or don't like sports. If music
is your thing. Cause I grew up with this, too. The kids who did sports were normal. The kids
who liked music were weird. You know what? I'm 40 and I probably can't play sports
anymore either, even if I was good at them at one time. But I can still make music.
So, watch this. What was weird then is making ministry happen now. Can I preach? Do not
be conformed. That's to be acted upon by the outside. That's conform. You can make it what
you want it to be. That's what the world has done to us for so long. Your faith goes here.
Don't talk about your faith. Your faith is just this. That's not normal. The world is weird. Faith
is normal. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.
And now we get it. That the unseen is the most significant. I've been preaching this since the
beginning of the year. But now we finally get it. That what is unseen is most significant. We
get it because we're fighting a virus that we can't see.
So now, we understand that the things which are seen were made of things which do not
appear. Faith finally fits, because we are standing in front of the Red Sea, and we no longer
understand. And we can't count on the things we used to count on. And in one sense, we
want them back for comfort. But God cannot bring change while we hold to comfort. There is
a new normal. There is a better you. A truer you. A real you. The patterns of this world are
just pretend. It is not real. There is a peace that comes from above. There is a wisdom that
whispers. And it doesn't shout. And God said, "I'm not trying to get you back to normal. I'm
trying to bring you into it". I'm looking forward to normal.
Somebody say it in the chat. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to God reinventing
me. I'm looking forward to God increasing my capacity to connect with people for real. I'm
looking forward to God. I prayed that God would help me with my gratitude. I'm looking
forward to being able to put it into practice in the next season. I'm looking forward to normal.
Not trying to get back to it. I left Egypt. I'm not trying to conform to the pattern of this world. I
want God to transform me by the renewing of my mind. And that starts with what I thought
was normal. What I thought was normal wasn't normal. It's just what I knew.
I'm so glad my dad wasn't normal. I mean, at times, I wasn't. But, looking back, I got
my passion to preach from the fact that he wasn't normal. I'm not trying to be normal. I
found out that what the world calls normal, God calls broken. So when I pray for
healing, understand I'm not just praying for bodies to be healed in this season. I'm not
just talking about immune systems. I'm talking about belief systems. Do you hear this,
preacher? I don't know. He looks kind of wild today. I am wild today. I'm ready. I'm
ready to flip this thing upside down and what the world calls weird, God calls normal.
Jesus was the only one on the boat who was normal. Everybody who was freaking out
in fear, they were weird.
So, I pray that God would bring us into, watch this, a new normal. There's nothing normal
about faith. There was never meant to be. There's nothing normal, there was nothing normal
about a shepherd boy fighting a giant with a slingshot. You thought that was normal? What
was normal was all the boys with the heavy equipment who didn't know how to do anything
with it. There was nothing normal about a virgin birth. You ever had one? Did you get here
that way? Well if that's the way Jesus came into the world, what makes us think it's gonna be
any different now?
So when we pray for Him to show up, He's not gonna show up looking normal. There's
nothing normal about stretching your staff over the sea. There's nothing normal. There's
nothing normal about what we're going through right now. There's nothing normal about the
panic. There's nothing normal about the fear. There's nothing normal about the order of
things. There's nothing normal about the rules. I pulled up to a red light today on the way to
church, and I was like, "Do we still stop for these? I don't know. Maybe we don't anymore".
Nothing is normal. And yet maybe God is bringing us closer to what He wanted for us all
along. Maybe. Maybe God is resetting and revealing. Resetting, revealing.
Be not conformed outside in to the powers of the throne that be. Transform inside out.
Transform inside out. Stuck in my house, but God transform my family. Transform my mind.
Transform my habit. Give me new neural pathways. Give me, teach me new ways to trust
You. I'm not trying to get back to normal. I'm moving forward into a new normal. That's what
the kingdom of God is. It's a new normal. A new way of being. A new form of humanity. A
new level of faith. Do it, God. That's what faith is. It's a new normal. "Blessed are the poor in
spirit", Huh? That's weird. No, that's the way it is. We've just been weird for so long that we
got it out of order. But God is bringing us into new normals.
How long till we get back to normal? You keep waiting all you want. Or you can worship. You
could keep resisting, or you can receive. I love what God told Moses. When the people were
looking for someone to blame. You know how we do. Yeah, it was the bats. It was the lab. It
was the, this. It was the, that. It was her that got. We always want somebody to blame. But
blaming somebody doesn't bring you into what God is taking you into. And no sooner did
they get to this uncertain place, till they start to say to Moses, "Didn't we say to you in Egypt,
'Leave us alone'", this is verse 12, Exodus 14, "'Let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have
been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!' Moses answered the
people", Hear the word of the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord.
"Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you
today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again". What does that mean?
You're never going back to normal. You're moving into a new freedom. I'll minister this
to you like it was just us. I love it, cause it can just be like we're having a conversation
right now. We're not in a big crowd right now. It's just me and you. And the Lord told
me to tell you, you're never going back to normal. In fact, some of the stuff that you
thought was normal, it wasn't really normal. It was just old. This is a season to
embrace the new normal