If you’ve ever felt left out, know that God wasn’t using it to punish you — He was using it to prepare you. This is an excerpt from “Concealed But Not Canceled.” To watch the full message from @elevationchurch, click here: 
• Concealed But Not Canceled | Pastor S… #faith #peace #hope #stevenfurtick #elevationchurch Chapters: 0:00 – What Do You Mean Canceled?! 2:55 – Feeling Hidden 5:08 – God Doesn’t Work How You Expect 7:59 – This Makes No Sense! 11:30 – God’s Raising Up A Warrior 13:30 – Left Out, Looked Over, Less Than Scripture References: Isaiah 49, verse 2 Judges 3, verses 12-15
I want to speak to everybody today
who is in a season of your life where
you sense that God is hidden, that you are hidden,
and the reason you’re going through what
you’re going through has not been revealed.
Turn with me to the words of Isaiah who said,
“God spoke of me before I was born. He
made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made
me into a polished arrow and concealed me in
his quiver.” Do you remember the first time
you ever heard the phrase “They got canceled”?
I remember very well someone saying that a
major celebrity was canceled. I said, “What,
their show is off the air?” They said, “No. It
doesn’t mean that. That’s what it meant in the
80s, back when there used to be sitcoms. This
is not Full House. It means they were canceled.
It means they did something wrong and they got
canceled.” I said, “They died?” “No, they got
canceled.” I said, “They got fired?” “No, they got
canceled.” I said, “Explain to me what it means.”
What they showed me were comments people
were making about this person that were
disagreeing with what the person did,
and they called that canceled. Now,
these comments were not coming from the
chief executive officer of the company;
they were coming from people who didn’t even know
the person, and they said they got canceled. A
little phrase went through me, and I want to see
if I can get it to go through you, too, today.
Man can’t cancel what God created. Put that in
the comments section. Let’s do something good
with the comments section. Repeat after me. Man
can’t cancel what God created. Or if you prefer
the language of Isaiah, man can’t cancel what God
has called. Now shout, “I’m called!” “I was called
before I got here. I was called before I blew it.
I was called before I went through this sickness.
I was called before I passed through these waters.
I was called before I came to this challenge.”
If I’m called by God, how can I be canceled
by man? I understand we can lose a reputation
and we need to have character. I understand we can
make mistakes and have to suffer the consequences.
I understand there’s accountability
for those who are in the public eye.
But I’m not talking about those in the
public eye. I’m talking about those who
feel hidden in this season of their life. You
feel like nobody even cares that you’re here,
because you’re here but you’re hidden.
Let me illustrate. Right now there are
frequencies going through the air making my
voice go to your heart. Hopefully your heart.
First it has to pass through your ears,
and in order for the noise that is coming
from my mouth… I’m shouting way too loud,
so let me modulate down in order for the sound to
reach you. Where I am there must be vibrations,
but the vibrations are not visible, yet we
all believe the vibrations because we know
the words I’m speaking are going through the air
and maybe into your heart or maybe in one ear and
out the other. Something that is vibrating
is creating something that is not visible.
It is proof for the fact that if God speaks
a word over your life, you might not see it,
but that doesn’t mean it isn’t here right now. I
came to have an anniversary party for every word
God spoke over your life! From the womb he spoke
it. Before you were you he spoke it. Before you
got your Social Security digits he spoke it.
Before you messed up the last relationship he
spoke it. If he spoke it and if he created
it and if he made it, you can’t mess it up.
All right. Let me teach you a Sunday
school story now. They left this one
out of your Sunday school storyboard
flannelgraph textbooks. It is quite
possibly the most inappropriate story I
could share with you on such a glorious,
beautiful occasion as the anniversary
of a church on the eighteenth year.
It involves a dagger. It involves a stabbing.
It involves a king named Eglon and a warrior
named Ehud. I’m going to go quickly, but I have
to show you this. God has secret weapons. He has
more than one way to win in your life. He has more
than one way to make a difference in the world.
So, the Israelites were doing what they always
did, turning away from God. They were turning
away from the one who rescued them, turning
away from the one who redeemed them. Let’s
pick up the text in Judges, chapter 3. The most
inappropriate anniversary Bible text, but I’m
just a guest speaker today, so what do I know?
The Lord took me to Judges, chapter 3, verse 12.
“Again the Israelites did
evil in the eyes of the Lord,
and because they did this evil the Lord gave
Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.” Now,
I want you to understand the Enemy has no power
over you other than what you give him by your
disobedience to God. Always remember that.
You’re in God’s hand. He sharpened me in the
shadow. He polished me in the secret place,
getting me ready for such a time as this.
The Bible says in verse 13 that God wanted
to act on behalf of his people. This king
Eglon took it a little too far. “Getting
the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him,
Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they
took possession of the City of Palms.” So
they’re under attack. You may be too. You
may be under attack in your life right now.
I think the biggest factor that
determines whether you’re under
attack from the Enemy is whether you’re
alive. So, if the answer to that is yes,
you’re under attack in some way, shape,
or form. It may be a long-range attack
or it may be something that’s happening
immediately. Watch what happened in verse 14.
“The Israelites were subject to Eglon king
of Moab for eighteen years.” Now you see
why I picked this passage. That got my
attention. Eighteen years. I’m like,
“Yeah, but, Lord, we haven’t been subject
to Eglon for 18 years.” They were having to
pay tribute. They were having to bring
all this extra taxation to the king,
and they were oppressed by him. It
was causing them great hardship.
We’re here today celebrating 18 years of
blessing, but let’s see before we finish
this celebration if there’s a parallel for
these 18 years of oppression Israel suffered
and the victory God gave them and the 18 years
of victory he has given us. Watch this. Verse 15:
“Again the Israelites cried out to the
Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud,
a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite.”
Now we have a completely confusing situation where
God gives his people a gift that makes no sense.
The tribe of Benjamin is literally known as the
right-handed tribe, because the name Benjamin
literally means son of my right hand. That’s
what it means. So, when God wanted to deliver his
people, he sent them a left-handed warrior from
a right-handed tribe. This makes no sense. How
many have been feeling like that about a situation
in your life right now? This makes no sense.
Why would God sharpen an arrow, polish an
arrow, and then conceal it in a quiver?
Did you notice that Isaiah 49:2 said, “God
hid me in the quiver”? Did you know that
God has a quiver? The quiver is the pouch
where the archer keeps his arrows so he can
carry them to the place so that when the
time is right the arrow can be launched,
but until the arrow is ready to be
launched the arrow is kept in the quiver.
If you judge your potential by the quiver,
you’ll think, “I’m never going anywhere.” If
you judge the potential of your child by what
they’re struggling through in adolescence,
you’ll be preparing to give them money
for a homeless ministry named after them.
But what if it is not a destination where they
are right now? What if you have been cursing
something in your life and what you call a curse
God calls a quiver? So I came with a challenge,
church. Let me smile at you while I say
it. Don’t curse your quiver. That’s where
God keeps his most valuable weapons, his secret
weapons, his special weapons, his sharp weapons,
his ready weapons, his capable weapons,
his weapons that no one will see coming.
Now the Bible seems kind of brilliant, because I
understand it is the shameful things God uses to
shame the strong, that it is the foolishness
of the cross God used to save the world. When
he got ready to redeem us from our sin, he
found a virgin womb. Why? This makes no sense.
When he got ready to take down a Philistine giant,
he chose a shepherd boy who was hidden in a field,
because this makes no sense. When he
got ready to use somebody to liberate
the Israelites from Egypt, he chose a murderer
who was a fugitive. Why? Because this makes no
sense. When this makes no sense, that’s
where God can get the greatest glory.
So he said, “I’ve got to get a
left-handed warrior.” Somebody in
here has felt left-handed in a right-handed
tribe all your life, and you’ve never really
fit in. You’ve never really been what
you thought you were supposed to be.
You’ve never really had what you felt like you
were supposed to have, and what other people do
easily you struggle for. You’re a left-handed
warrior from a right-handed tribe. God looks
across 50,000 Benjamite soldiers. They had about
47,000 swordsmen and only 700 lefties, and God
said, “I need a lefty for this.” God is looking
for lefties, and you’re about to find out why.
If you want to hear the rest of this message,
make some Holy Ghost noise in this 18-year-old
church. You know what happens when you turn
18. You can go to war when you turn 18. I
believe God is about to raise up a warrior as
I preach this word today. As a matter of fact,
what’s that in your hand? You look like a weapon.
Isaiah said, “He had me in the shadows, but
he wasn’t punishing me; he was polishing me.”
I’m not being punished; I’m being polished.
That’s his hand working on me. That’s his
hand sanding me down. That’s his hand hiding me
for the right time. When the right time comes,
I’m going to be the right one for the right time,
because he hid me in his quiver. It’s not a curse;
it’s a quiver. Loneliness sometimes is because
you feel left-handed. One of my best friends
said three phrases describe how he has felt his
whole life: left out, looked over, and less than.
Understand this, church, for the historical
context. If you were left-handed in a right-handed
tribe, they didn’t let you serve in the military
except in a special position, and it wasn’t the
best position. So, imagine all of the times Ehud
got looked over, left out, and felt less than. The
Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them
a deliverer from a place they weren’t looking.
He gave them what they had looked over. He gave
them someone who had been left out. He gave them
what they considered less than. When we regard
Christ according to the flesh we miss his glory,
because God will always wrap his favor in
flesh. When we look for God to do something
only from the right hand of what we consider a
blessing, we miss what’s on the left every time.
I’m trying to say God is trying to give you
stuff, but you’re watching the wrong hand.
You’re waiting for everything to go right, but
sometimes God wants to bless you from the left.