Steven Furtick's Blog, page 54

Elevation Creative: A Monologue from the Chatterbox

What if I married the wrong person? What if I didn’t pick the right college? What if I never get the job I want? Many of our greatest fears start with this simple question – ‘What if…?’ And once the Chatterbox gets us asking ourselves this question, then we can quickly drown out God’s promises and let our fears begin to overwhelm us. In this light-hearted video from our Creative team, we take a look at how the Chatterbox can ask a few unsuspecting questions to begin exploiting some of our deepest fears.

Finding God’s Purpose In the Ordinary

Most of us think that greatness is reserved for someone else. The CEO, the super mom, the perfect couple. They have the chance to be great. But not us. We are just ordinary. We aren’t influential enough. No one really cares what we do. How could God have a plan for our lives? What could He possibly have for us to do? In this clip from our series Greater, Pastor Steven teaches us that through the Holy Spirit that lives inside of every believer, God can take our lives that we consider unexceptional, and use them for extraordinarily great purpose.

When Our Fears Feel Bigger Than Our Faith

Our fears are fueled by worry. Playing out the ‘what if?’ scenarios of things outside our control and producing nothing more than anxiety and insomnia. But what is really at the bottom of our worst fears? In part 3 of our series Crash the Chatterbox, Pastor Steven teaches us through the story of Paul’s shipwreck in Acts to show us how to shift our fear to faith, and how, through Christ, we can face any situation with the promise, “God says He will.”

Remember Egypt

You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.

Deuteronomy 7:17-18

Nothing can sabotage radical belief in the promises of God quite like calculation.

The Israelites were facing a seemingly insurmountable task. They were about to enter the Promised Land and face not only a multitude of enemies, but enemies who were clearly stronger and more capable than them. God knew what would happen: they would ask the faith-shattering calculative question, how?

And so He preempted their question with an instruction: remember Egypt.

Essentially, don’t try to calculate how I’ll do it…just remember how I did it.

God’s instructions haven’t changed much thousands of years later for those of us facing uncertainty as to how God is going to come through for us. You might be wondering how God is going to provide for your family now that you’ve lost your job. Or how He is going to cover the costs of your education. Or how He is going to do any of the other number of things you need Him to do.

Well, I don’t know how. Neither do you. And the truth is, we don’t have to know how. We just need to know that He can. And the way we know that He can is by calling to mind what He’s done.

And He’s done plenty. Your life is littered with signposts of God’s faithfulness. Regardless of your circumstances, take a moment and take a look at them. Remember Egypt. Remember what God has already overcome in your past as you face your present. Then leave the how to Him.

This entry was originally posted July 25th, 2011

Finding Victory In Your Struggles

In Romans 8, Paul writes, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” That seems like a real encouraging verse. But then we look at our life and see that our prayers haven’t been answered. Our healing hasn’t come. We’re still waiting on God to provide. From this vantage point, it doesn’t make sense to say we have conquered anything. But what if we could celebrate triumph in the midst of our trial? In this clip from our series Christ Alone, Pastor Steven teaches us that as believers in Jesus, we can have victory in our battles before we ever get out of them.

Elevation Creative: The Job Interview

We all have talked ourselves out of something. Sometimes it’s the right choice, like when we talk ourselves out of eating that second doughnut. But what about when we start talking ourselves out of things that could be good for us? What happens when we let our fear and insecurities control our choices? In The Job Interview, our Creative team takes a light-hearted look at what happens when we let our insecurities overpower over our decisions.

Where To Look When We Doubt Our Self Worth

If we buy these clothes, they’ll notice us. Once we get this new car, the neighborhood will see how successful we are. In a culture that tells us to create the ideal identity, what do we do with the daily insecurities we feel on the inside that question our self worth and value? In this clip from Fearfully & Wonderfully Made, Pastor Steven explains how we can combat our self-doubt by building our lives on a Christ-centered confidence from the inside out.

What God Says When Our Insecurities Overwhelm Us

“You’re not ___________ enough.”

This is the lie the enemy plants in our heart every single day. We aren’t smart enough. We aren’t talented enough. We aren’t beautiful enough. At their root, our insecurities don’t necessarily make us question God, but they make us question whether or not we are valuable enough to be used by God. How can we give God glory through our lives when we are so dysfunctional, deficient, and doubtful? In part 2 of our series Crash the Chatterbox, Pastor Steven teaches us through the life of Moses how we can overcome our insecurities with the promise “God says I Am.”

My Advice for Single People

There’s a lot of advice I could give to single and dating people.

How to be content in this season you’re in.

The kind of person you should be looking to marry.

Boundaries for when you’re dating.

All of those are good and necessary. But there’s something that most Christians completely miss that’s an essential principle for optimal relationships and marriages. If you don’t get this, it doesn’t matter who you date because it will be a fraction of the relationship God meant for you. And your marriage to them will be too.

Happiness is not finding the right person. It’s being the right person.

I’ve seen countless Christians sabotage their marriages not because they married the wrong person but because when they got married they weren’t the right person for the other person. Not in their chemistry, but in their character.

If two half people get together and they’re not complete in Christ, they don’t make a whole person. They subtract from each other rather than adding to each other and they become more miserable.

There’s only one half you’re responsible for right now. And that’s your half.

Stop looking for the person of your dreams and start becoming someone another person is dreaming about. Make someone else’s dreams become a reality.

A lot of single people make lists of what they want in the person they’re looking for. That’s fine. Just make sure that if the person you’re looking for had the same list, they’d find you.

You may be waiting in this season of your life for God to bring the right person.

Or you may be wondering if the person you’re dating is the right person.

He will do it.

He will reveal it.

In the meantime, be what you’re looking for.

This entry was originally posted February 21st, 2011

Resource of the Day: I recently preached a sermon called “Dig Some Ditches” in our Get Back series that talks about preparing for a blessing before God brings it into our lives. That includes relationships. You can watch that sermon by clicking here.

The Answer To Our Insecurities

“Do you really think you can handle this?”

“Are you strong enough to make it through this time?”

“Don’t you know who you really are?”

Questions of doubt in the midst of our most challenging circumstances inevitably stir up insecurity in our lives. We can’t avoid it. But it is possible to avert it. In this clip from our series Treatment, Pastor Steven reveals the one statement that will overcome every insecurity that the enemy tries to interject into our lives.