Steven Furtick's Blog, page 67

When You Feel Like God Doesn’t Have A Part for You

We see God. We read about His mighty works and power throughout Scripture. We see His hand in the beauty and breadth of creation. And then we look in the mirror. We see a mess. We see mistakes, disappointments, and missed opportunities. How could God ever use us? How could He ever find a purpose for us in His story? But in spite of how we see ourselves, in this clip from our series Living A Better Story, Pastor Steven explains what God sees when He looks upon us.

Elevation Creative: The 10 Cents of Tithing

When it comes to generosity, we all have our excuses why we can’t. Finances are tight. Bills are late. Jobs are slim. As humans with sinful predispositions, living selfishly comes natural. We get all we can and then clinch our fists holding tight on to whatever is ours. But that’s not the life God has called us to live as believers in Christ. During a sermon from our series, (This Is Your) Permission Slip, Pastor Steven used a jar of dimes to illustrate how God responds when we decide to live a generous life and put Him first in our giving.

The First Step For True Followers of Christ

Many new Christians have a hard time figuring out what their first step should be after accepting Jesus. Do I join a small group? Do I find a Bible reading plan? Do I buy a tie and some pleated khakis? It can be difficult to navigate this new terrain we find ourselves in. But Jesus was very clear what our first step should be – and in this clip from our series Follow, Pastor Steven explains why this next step is so important to the foundation of our faith as believers in Christ.

If you attend Elevation Church and you’d like more information on being baptized, please contact us.

Raised to Life Baptisms

“So that people far from God will be raised to life in Christ.” That is the mission of Elevation Church. It’s the reason we exist. We want to present the Gospel and allow people to respond. For our series Raised to Life, we gave those who hadn’t, the chance to stand with Jesus and be baptized. That day. Right there on the spot. No hesitations, no excuses. And as the saying goes, “We can show you better than we can tell you.”

I just want Jesus

I was at a gas station the other day and there were too many options.

Do you want a car wash?

Is this credit or debit?

Enter your zip code.

Enter your PIN.

Do you want to donate money to a charitable organization?

What kind of gas do you want?

Do you want a receipt?

I was so confused. Sure, some of it was kind of necessary. But the abundance of options obscured what I was really wanting. All of this wasn’t what I came to do. After about six or seven options, I said, “I just want gas.”

We sometimes do the same thing to people in the church.

Are you a Calvinist or an Arminian?

Baptism by immersion or sprinkling?

Have you kissed dating goodbye? Or on the mouth?

Do you believe in all the gifts of the Spirit or only 73% of them?

And then we wonder why they’re confused. It’s probably because they’re thinking, “this isn’t what I came here for. I don’t know all that. I just want Jesus.”

Right here is where we usually write them off by saying they don’t care about the Bible or theology. Possibly. But maybe they just don’t care about debating and taking stances on secondary issues at the expense of their primary desire: Jesus.

This isn’t to say that these things don’t matter or that their inherent beliefs aren’t worth considering. There’s a place for them. Behind the bold, clear proclamation of Christ.

If you’re going to err, err on the side of simply giving people Jesus.

Because that’s simply what most people want.

This entry was originally published January 18, 2011.

Calling All Chatterboxers

That voice.

The one inside your head discouraging you. Planting seeds of fear and insecurity. Making you relive the mistakes from your past.

That voice is about to meet its match.

You’re about to flip the script and begin winning the war of words inside your head. Inside your heart. Inside your soul. You’re about to defy the inner critic and overcome the chatter that’s trying to derail your destiny. You’re about to become a chatterboxer.

In early 2014, Pastor Steven is releasing his third book, Crash the Chatterbox.

Our chatterboxers are going to be the heart and soul of getting this message out. You’ll receive free resources, exclusive content, and early release information. So lace up the gloves, connect for free using Facebook, and let’s start crashing.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN

– Team Chatterboxer

Elevation Creative: You Have Permission To _______

In our series, (This Is Your) Permission Slip, we’ve tried to shift our perspectives and realign our paradigms to see the Bible less as a prison sentence and more like a permission slip. In this thought-provoking video from our creative team, we show examples of what the freedom a life in Christ can provide us.

What God Says When We’re Ashamed of Who We Are

The devil sure does have a way with words. He knows how to twist and manipulate the promises of God. He knows how to speak words of shame and condemnation over our lives and exploit our sin and mistakes. He’s been at it since the Garden of Eden and he’s still at it today. But in this clip from our series INFIN8, Pastor Steven reminds us that there is another Voice – a Voice that calls to us in our embarrassment and hiding. A Voice of love and grace that is able to dismantle the lies of the Enemy and rescue us from ourselves.

Why Most People Hate Sermons On Giving

Giving has always been a sermon topic that makes people clinch their fists, shift in their seats, and begin checking their watches. But maybe that’s because we approach our giving from the wrong perspective. Far too many of us see giving as an obligation to God, or as a way to manipulate Him into blessing us. If that’s the way we were taught about giving, then yes – there’s not much there to get excited about. But in the final part of our series (This Is Your) Permission Slip, Pastor Steven teaches us a third way to approach our giving – one that breaks us free from our own selfish desires and draws us closer to a God who will not be out given.

The Gehazi Generation

I believe that we are living in one the greatest periods in history to do ministry.

We can leverage technology for the spread of the gospel in ways the apostles would never have dreamed. The spirit of collaboration that exists between us is allowing us to share the best practices available. We’re seeing things in our time that the generations of pastors that went before us longed and prayed for.

But as Luke 12:48 says, to whom much is given, much is expected. And as the torch of ministry is being passed to our generation, I’m worried that we’re going to fall short of the destiny God has for us.

Not through moral failure. Or complacency. But by chasing after the work of God for all the wrong reasons.

You can see this very real possibility in the contrasting lives of Elisha and Gehazi.

Elisha was Elijah’s protégé. He was so determined to fulfill God’s calling on His life that He chased after that calling with all of his heart. He wouldn’t allow Elijah out of his sight. As a result, he inherited a double portion of Elijah’s spirit and was used greatly by God in his generation.

Gehazi was Elisha’s protégé and should have been next in line to carry on the ministry. But instead of chasing God’s calling and His glory, he chased after Naaman’s gold. And because he did God’s work for his own reasons, he became leprous and useless in the Kingdom of God.

Sometimes I fear that my generation will become the Gehazi Generation:

More interested in favors from God than the favor of God.

Losing our desire to chase after God in the chase for glory and gold.

Pursuing God’s gifts more than we pursue His glory.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We’re not consigned to that fate. We can be used greatly by God, if we embrace and grasp onto this truth:

There is no greater gift and reward for our ministry than God Himself.

Pray this with me today for our generation:

God, raise us up to be a generation that will chase after Your glory alone.

May we faithfully fulfill our destinies in a world full of distractions.

This entry was originally published October 13th, 2010