Steven Furtick's Blog, page 53

Elevation Creative: When I Grow Up

Sometimes things don’t turn out quite like we planned. Maybe that fast-track career is suddenly standing still, or that happily-ever-after marriage is taking a little longer than expected. In the video from our Creative team, we set up a sermon about dealing with discouragement by taking a playful look at how our current disappoints were never our childhood dreams.

What To Do When Our Faith Falls Short

Where does our faith come from? Is it from our experiences? A feeling in our gut? A hope for our future? And where can we turn when our faith is shaken? The struggle to keep our faith is in the midst of uncertainty is nothing new. The Bible is full of people who struggled to believe in a God they couldn’t see or fully understand. In this clip from our series Give Me Faith, Pastor Steven reminds us that we all fall short when we put our faith in our own ability, and the only hope we have is found in the One who never waivers.

How God Handles Our Discouragement

Few things will derail us faster from the plan God has for our lives than discouragement. The enemy wants us to believe the discouraging words he puts in our heads and our hearts. But the truth is, God has given us everything we need to silence those thoughts that hold us back every day. In part 5 of our series Crash the Chatterbox, Pastor Steven’s wife Holly Furtick examines the Biblical story of Leah, and teaches us six ways to use what God has already shown us to quickly counter the discouraging chatter we face everyday.

Finish the Devil’s Sermons

As you navigate the story that is unfolding in your life, you’ll be quick to find that discouragement is everywhere. It seems that the harder you run after God, the harder the devil is going to try to prevent you from getting where you’re going. And all he really has to do to trip us up is drop one little hint of discouragement in our ears.

You’re unworthy.

You’re a terrible father.

You’ll never be any better than this.

He’s said it to me and I know that he’s said it to you. The worst part is, the devil doesn’t necessarily speak in complete lies. He gives us half-truths with just enough reality to hit us between the eyes. But here’s an easy way that you can overcome those conniving schemes:

Finish the devil’s sermons.

It’s simple. The devil is only giving you half of the truth—give him the other half.

Yes, I am unworthy. I am absolutely nothing without Christ. But thankfully, He died so that I may become a new creation, void of you and full of the purpose that He has for my life.

No, I may not be a perfect father, but I am loved unconditionally by a perfect father who breathed the stars yet knows the number of hairs on my head. And He’s making me more like Him every day.

You’re right. on my own accord, I can’t do any better than this. But I am not doing this by myself—I serve the LORD, who is able to do immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine.

You don’t have to be Charles Spurgeon to preach the devil out of your life. The name of Jesus alone is enough to send your enemy running for the hills.

The devil will always try to show you the downside of your story. Make him pay. Show him who Jesus says you are.

This entry was originally posted Feb 14, 2012

Understanding God’s Calling On Your Life

Normally when we think about the calling God has for us, we think of all the great things He wants to do through our lives. But ‘great’ doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing to God as it does to us. Just look at The Apostle Paul. He fulfilled much of his calling while confined to a jail cell. From the world’s perspective, that’s a pretty terrible place to be. So how do we know if we’re doing the right thing God would have us do with our lives? In this clip from our series ‘The New Rules of Resolution‘, Pastor Steven explains what accomplishing God’s calling is really about.

Elevation Creative: Unconditionally

As Christians, we have a tendency to put limitations on the love of God. We know He loves us, but we wonder where the boundaries are to His love. What are the consequences of our mistakes? Does God love us more or less in different seasons? In this video from our Creative team, we used the song “Unconditionally” to illustrate God the Father, and His ever-present and unwavering love for all His children.

Dealing With Our Dysfunctional Relationships

They talk to much. She cares too little. He doesn’t have the right attitude. When it comes to others, we are so quick to pick up on their shortcomings and see the solution for their dysfunction. Even in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained that it’s far easier to point out the faults in others rather than deal with own issues. But what if we starting looking at everyone else in the same way that Jesus looks at us? In this clip from our series How to Hug a Vampire, Pastor Steven explains that the right way to see others begins with understanding God’s perspective on us.

How to See Beyond Our Shame

Our Enemy is full of convincing accusations about who we are and what we’re made of. Why we’re not good enough today, and why we won’t be good enough tomorrow, either. He hangs our shame in front of our face, trying to drown out the identity Jesus has given us as believers. How do we know what voice to listen to? In part four of our series Crash the Chatterbox, Pastor Steven shows us how to look beyond the shame of our sin that blocks us from the freedom of God’s promises.

Every Step is an Arrival

I was recently reading a book and came across a quote that grabbed me:

Every step is an arrival.

What the author meant is that it’s great to have goals. Aspirations.

But the problem is that we can be so consumed with the end game that we forget that every step we take is not just a means to a distant end. It’s the arrival at an end in itself. Even if a temporary one.

For example, if you’re an addict, the end goal is to be free of your addiction. And it should be. But every step you take on the way to that goal is itself an arrival at a desirable destination. And that’s because it’s a step further away from where you don’t want to be – engrossed in your addiction.

Or in your walk with God, you’re not going to become C.S. Lewis overnight. Or Spurgeon. Or Piper. Or anyone else you look up to. And that’s because neither did they. Discipleship takes time. There’s never going to be a point where you’re not on the road to becoming more Christlike. But even in the slow process of becoming, every step you take towards Christ is a step away from what you were without Him.

I wonder if the reason so many people give up on their goals and aspirations is that in their lust to arrive at the end, they’re blind to the fact that they’re no longer at the beginning. And when they don’t get to the end quickly, they conclude it’s a fool’s errand. Or at least a task they’re not qualified to complete.

These people miss the truth we must grasp if we don’t want to give up:

Every step you take is a victory. A chance for celebration. A small goal that must be achieved before you can ever think about getting to the larger one.

Every step is an arrival.

This entry was originally posted June 27, 2011

What We Should Really Expect From Others

We all have our own expectations. The way we think things ought to be. Expectations for our spouses, our kids, our employees, ourselves. And we are all afraid of falling short and being disappointed or even recognizing our own inadequacies. What if they don’t love me back? What if I mess everything up? What if they never come around? In this clip from our series The Expectation Gap, Pastor Steven explains the freedom found in understanding God’s perspective when it comes to our expectations for others.