Steven Furtick's Blog, page 64

The Truth About Grace

As Christians, there are several truths we must come to accept. For starters, it is true we are all sinners. It is true that because of this sin, we were separated from God and there was nothing we could do to repair this relationship. And if that was it, then believing these truths would crush us, leaving us to live the remainder of our lives feeling unworthy and insignificant. But in this clip from our series Grey Matter, Pastor Steven explains how Jesus came not to just remind us of our broken human condition, but to also offer a grace that is strong enough to stand alongside these foundational truths.

Elevation Creative: How Christian Are You?

Often times we view Christianity like it’s a sliding scale. Billy Graham and Mother Teresa are near the top, some of those Pharisees and doubting Apostles are near the bottom, and then there’s us somewhere in between. We minimize our relationship with Jesus into knowing the right vocabulary, being better out-loud prayers, and having a top-notch testimony. In this fun video from our Creative team, we show the problems that occur when we turn our faith into a test of knowledge, putting ourselves on scale that we can never measure up to.

Why God Doesn’t Just Give Us What We Want

The Christian faith is not about wanting something from God and believing that He’ll give it to you. God is not some magical genie we can send our wishes to, and then sit back and wait for Him to deliver. That drastically minimizes who God really is, while wrongly emphasizing the things we really want. A relationship with Christ is much deeper than our surface desires. And in this clip from our series, Greater, Pastor Steven explains how faith isn’t the fast track to the easy life, but instead is rooted in a steadfast, obedient spirit that believes God is good even in the face of uncertain circumstances.

What To Do When You Don’t Know What You Believe

It doesn’t matter if you have been a Christian for one week or seventy years, there are parts of our faith that we will never fully know or completely understand. And while it can be frustrating — it’s ok. When we don’t know what we believe, our only option is to trust in Who we believe. In the first four parts of our series I Don’t Know What I Believe, Pastor Steven has been teaching through the foundations of our faith — salvation, sanctification, sovereignty, suffering — helping us understand these concepts and instilling a Christ-centered confidence in Who we believe, even when we don’t always know what we believe.

Click here to watch part five of I Don’t Know What I Believe from Elevation GTA Campus Pastor, John Bishop.

God: Protective. But Not Overprotective.

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Mark 14:35-36

It’s interesting that Jesus can still call God, “Abba, Father,” considering what’s coming. After all, the cup that He’s asking God to take from Him only involves…

Getting beat within an inch of His life.

Having thorns jammed into His skull.

Having the flesh ripped off His back.

Nails being driven through His body.

And bearing the wrath of His Father.

This doesn’t exactly sound like the kind of loving, protective person that you’d want to call, ‘father.’ Yet Jesus does.

I think it’s because Jesus knows His Father better than we do. He knows a truth we have to keep in mind if we don’t want to become jaded when we’re experiencing seasons of suffering and pain. And it’s even something all parents should keep in mind as well:

God is a protective father. But he’s not overprotective.

Overprotective fathers try to keep their children from ever getting hurt. They shield them from anything that could potentially harm them or bring them any measure of emotional distress. As a result, their children are ill-prepared for the realities of life. And the growth of their character is stunted.

While no parent likes to see their kids in pain – even when it’s a minor thing – any good parent knows that pain is unavoidable. It’s the soil in which the seed of anything good and lasting grows.

That alone would probably be enough, but God isn’t overprotective for yet another reason. He doesn’t just let us experience pain because it develops us. God allows His children to feel pain because He can use it for a purpose.

He allowed Joseph to spend over 13 years in slavery and prison so He could save a nation and His people.

He allowed the early church to be persecuted so the gospel would spread outside Jerusalem.

He allowed Jesus to take the cup and suffer for our salvation.

God is more concerned about preserving His purposes than preventing our pain. He’s not overprotective. But we also need to know that even our pain can be used for His purposes. And therefore be redeemed. He’s very protective.

That’s what made Jesus be able to say, “Not my will, but yours be done” in His darkest hour. It’s what makes you able to say it in your darkest hours, too.

This entry was originally posted on August 10, 2011.

Finding Purpose In Our Unplanned Circumstances

We can make plans. We can hope and pray. We can script out the exact way we think our lives should go. And sometimes that works. We get the job. We marry the girl. Everything works out. But what happens when it doesn’t? What is God’s purpose for taking our lives in a direction we never wanted to go? In this clip from our series Storytellers, Pastor Steven explains why God sometimes leads us down roads we didn’t intend to travel and how to find purpose in those unplanned circumstances.

Elevation Creative: The Marionette

A prevalent viewpoint of God is that He is some sort of celestial puppet master who just wants to control us and limit us from experiencing the life we want for ourselves. Many people think that the life of a believer in Christ is rigid, mechanical, and boring. We have too many rules. Too many restrictions. But in this video from our Creative team, we show how God’s power actually gives us freedom to the live the meaningful life He has planned for us all along.

Why Honor Matters to All of Us

Honor. When we hear that word, thoughts probably come to mind about the way we should treat our parents or our boss or anyone in authority over us. We typically only see it going in one direction – up. But the Bible says something different. In this clip from our series Honorology, Pastor Steven shows us throughout scripture the true breadth of honor, who deserves it, and why it really matters.

The Right Way to See Our Suffering

A lot of us wish that our lives as Christians were a constant stream of never-ending blessing – like God is some sort of celestial Oprah, giving away all His favorite things. We get the parking spot. We get the tax refund. We get green lights and clear skies. But if that’s our view of God, then how are we supposed to deal with everything that doesn’t turn out just right? When we hurt, and grieve, and suffer. How are we supposed to find God there? In part four of our series “I Don’t Know What I Believe” Pastor Steven helps us to reestablish our perspective on suffering, and how God ultimately intends to use it in our lives for our good and His glory.

It Doesn’t Matter if I Like God

God isn’t always likable.

We can pretend like He is. Like it’s always easy to understand His rationale behind the things He does. Or that undergoing His grace-filled discipline is a fun exercise.  But it’s not. It can actually be downright frustrating.

Now sometimes this is true because people try to fashion God into what they would want their ideal friend or version of God to be like.  They dictate the parts of God they can accept and the parts they won’t. You hear them say things like:

I wouldn’t like a God who did ________.

I couldn’t believe in a God who ________.

These people have already set the terms of a likable God. And that god tends to be a reflection of what they like about themselves. Until they come to understand that God is not limited to the confines of their own opinions and prejudices, there’s really not much you can do for them.

Some of you fall into that category. But most of you probably don’t. Instead you’re probably like other people who experience pain. Struggle. Disappointment. Discipline. And in these moments, if you were honest, you don’t always find God very likable.

You don’t say things like the other group. Yet you wonder:

How could God let this happen to me?

Why won’t He take me out of this situation?

I thought God was a God of grace. Why am I being disciplined for my sin?

What do we do in these situations? What do we do when we don’t like God?

Well, there’s not really much you can do. Whether you like it or not, we’re all going to undergo times of pain, struggle, disappointment, and discipline. There’s no way around it.

Instead I think the biggest thing is coming to an important realization:

It doesn’t matter if I like God.

God’s not interested in making me like Him. God’s not trying to stay in my good graces. What He is interested in is making me love Him more. What He’s interested in is doing what’s best for me. And what’s best for me isn’t always a likable thing.

God is like any good parent. A good parent doesn’t always try to be buddy, buddy with their kids. They love their kids but they’re not interested in whether their kids like them from day to day. They’ll let their kids learn tough lessons because they know that’s how they’ll grow and develop character. They’ll lay down the law if they’re disobedient. And that doesn’t diminish their love for their kids in the least bit. In fact, their kids will eventually realize it was because their parents loved them that they did things that didn’t make them like them.

God can handle you not liking Him. What he can’t handle is you not being like Him. What He can’t handle is you not truly loving Him. And so He’ll do what He has to do to make you into who He wants you to be.

You may not always like Him for it. But trust me, in the end, you’ll love Him for it.

This entry was originally published May 12, 2011.