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- [00:00]
Ryan Seacrest
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Unknown Speaker
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- [00:38]
Steven Furtick
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Unknown Speaker
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- [00:52]
Steven Furtick
At Lenovo.com Lenovo Lenovo Lowe's knows how to help you get the most out of your store run. That's why members save more with Mylo's Rewards. Earn points towards Mylo's money on eligible purchases. Get access to member only deals and free member gifts. Plus unlock free standard shipping when you reach Silver Key status. So what are you waiting for? Join for Free Today Lowe's we help you save loyalty programs subject to terms and conditions. Details@lowe's.com Terms subject to change hey this is Steven Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. This week I have one more installment on Gates of Change. It's in 2 Kings 7. I think this story for most of you will be unfamiliar, which is good. I'm praying that God will use it to speak to you in a personal way and kind of catch you off guard today and create change in your life. Here's what The Bible says 2 Kings chapter 7, verse 1 Elisha said, Hear the word of the Lord. You've been listening to your doubts so long. You've been listening to your dysfunctions so long. You've been listening to your disappointments so long. But hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says. About this time tomorrow a seah of flour will sell for a shekel, and.
- [02:34]
Unknown Speaker
Two seahs of barley for a shekel.
- [02:36]
Steven Furtick
At the gate of Samaria, the officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, look, even this joker, even if The Lord should open the floodgates of heaven.
- [02:50]
Unknown Speaker
Could this happen?
- [02:55]
Steven Furtick
Do you know how certain people always want to put limits on what God can do? Tell you a little secret. I actually love limitations. I know that usually in church they say, take the limits off. I personally love limits. In fact, I'm calling this final bonus message in the Gates of Change series embracing limitation. I think limitation can be a good thing. I think it's a good thing that sometimes we limit our consumption on certain foods. I'm a real strict person on my eating because I'm too wild. I need the. What do they call it? The gutters. I will bowl into the gutter every time if I don't have those little guards. So I actually do it where I'm not allowed to eat past a certain time or before a certain time, but during that certain time I can do it. But I need limits. Are you like me? Maybe I have no self control. I need limits. I don't even like restaurants with big menus. Cheesecake Factory gives me heart palpitations.
- [04:11]
Unknown Speaker
The menu looks like Encyclopedia Britannica.
- [04:15]
Steven Furtick
I can't do it. I need Prozac to make it through my order. Usually I'll get Holly to narrow it for me. I'll be like, can you tell me just three things I might like? And can you just narrow the options for me? Because I can't do it. I like limitations. I like to know. Even in preaching, when I go somewhere to preach, they'll say, take as long as you want. I'll say, well, how long are the people expecting me to preach? I want to know how long I have to work before they tune me out. Because I can preach as long as I want, but they might not listen as long as I want to preach. Why are y'all clapping about that?
- [04:53]
Unknown Speaker
That was a little awkward, but I'm saying it because limitation can be a good thing. It really can.
- [05:01]
Steven Furtick
It can be a good thing. Especially one thing I love is when somebody tries to put a limit on me that contradicts what I believe God has called me to do.
- [05:13]
Unknown Speaker
Maybe it's my ego, maybe I have wounds from my childhood, failed wrestling career that I'm still compensating for.
- [05:24]
Steven Furtick
But I like somebody to tell me I can't do something.
- [05:28]
Unknown Speaker
I do. It fuels my faith.
- [05:32]
Steven Furtick
When we were getting ready to start the church one time, I sat down with a guy and I was sharing my vision with him and I was telling him we were going to start a church. I didn't have any better sense than to tell this Guy my dreams. He was a little older and jaded because he had been disappointed in his life. It's a dangerous thing. Are you ready to write something down? It is a dangerous thing to entrust your dream to someone else's disappointments. A lot of times that's what happens is we share our dream, Joseph, and we show our coat to people who are not really ready to receive what we speak. So then if we receive their doubt, they will dis our appointment. I put that in for Holly. Holly dared me to put that in my sermon today and I didn't get it at 9:30. So there it is, baby, you owe me some. It's a dangerous thing to speak something. So here's what happened. We're sitting down, having lunch, and I'm like, I'm going to start a church.
- [06:50]
Unknown Speaker
It's going to be awesome.
- [06:51]
Steven Furtick
It's going to be great. We're going to reach this city. We're going to go to Charlotte. We're going to have a church.
- [06:56]
Unknown Speaker
We're going to reach people. We're going to break the rules. It's not going to be all this tradition and religion. We're going to do it.
- [07:02]
Steven Furtick
It's going to be edgy.
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Unknown Speaker
It's going to not be for church people. We're going to reach people far from God. We're going to blah, blah.
- [07:07]
Steven Furtick
The more I was talking, the more he stuffed his mouth and just smirked at me. Not scowled at me. He didn't look mad, he just looked amused. He was just smirking at me. He's stuffing his face with french fries. Oh, overweight pastor. Just eating. I'm just trying to color the story a little bit. I don't even remember if he was overweight. But what I remember is I went on and on telling him, we're going to write worship songs and we're going to do worship songs, going to touch.
- [07:35]
Unknown Speaker
The world, and we're going to write songs that are going to go around the world.
- [07:38]
Steven Furtick
It's not just going to be a white church. It's going to be a lot of.
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Unknown Speaker
Different kinds of people.
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Steven Furtick
It's going to be white people and.
- [07:46]
Unknown Speaker
Black people and old people and young people and Presbyterians and Pentecostals and atheists and agnostics and just all kinds of people. Single people and married people and divorced people.
- [08:00]
Steven Furtick
I'm going on and on. He's just eating, looking at me. Mm. When I finished, he looked at me and said, not going to happen, bud. Not in the South. Not in the South. Not going to happen. Do me a favor. Look down your row really quick and check your row.
- [08:22]
Unknown Speaker
I dare you to shout at the top of your little sanctified Sunday morning voice. Somebody shout, it's happening. As a matter of fact, I kind of hope he watches this sermon on television. Y'all excuse me me for a minute. So he can see black people and white people and Hispanic people and Latina people and loud people and quiet people and big people and little people and young people and old people and broken people and whole people all together. Somebody shout, it's happening is something. Because the limitations you embrace will regulate the blessing you experience.
- [09:26]
Steven Furtick
When you allow beliefs to limit your.
- [09:29]
Unknown Speaker
God because your mindset is too small to accommodate the magnitude of his glory.
- [09:36]
Steven Furtick
You miss out on on the very miracles that have your name on them. Please follow me for a moment. When the officer said to the prophet, look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen? What he did is he closed the gate on the gift God was giving him. So it was a desperate situation in the nation because the famine had been going on so long that within the gates of the city walls, the people had resorted to cannibalism. I debated whether to tell you this, but it's right in chapter six, should you choose to read it. They had started eating their own babies. It sounds extreme. However, I think we can all see ways that at times we compromise the next generation when our value systems get shifted. As the value system has shifted within the nation, the favor of God has not been so much withheld as it has been held up. Here's the difference. When you read about famine in the Bible, you probably associate famine with drought. Usually when you see a famine in the Bible, it is connected to a pronouncement by a prophet, like when Elijah said, there will be no rain or dew in the land in the next few years. Except at my word to King Ahab, God withheld the rain from the heavens. God cut off the source of supply so that the people's hearts would turn back to Him. Now, in antiquity, people did not regard famine and drought only with agriculture or weather conditions. In antiquity, people regarded the rain as a sign or symbol of the presence and blessing of God. Because blessing was associated with life, and life with blessing. And without rain, there can be no life. So where there is no blessing, there is no life. Where there is no rain, there is no food. Where there is no presence of God, where there is no worship, there can be no life, no strength, no hope. However, this is a different kind of famine. That was not created by a drought. This famine started with a siege. Abinadad was an excellent military strategist. So when he surrounded the northern kingdom of Israel, which was known as Samaria, what he did of common military tactic was that he cut them off from their supply. When he cut their line to their food supply, it wasn't that he eliminated the food, it was that he prevented them from accessing it. Since the devil cannot prevent God from blessing you, his only alternative is to put you in a state of spiritual siege so you cannot access the blessing God has freely given you. Sometimes we are starving not because of something God did not supply, but because of something he supplied we cannot seize. When the enemy puts you in a state of unbelief, it blocks you from your own blessing. King Jehoram had the wrong people around him at this time. We saw it in the text. The officer on whose arm the king was leaning, side note for all the students, be careful who you lean on. He was leaning on a man who would not believe, who would not connect to the prophecy by faith. When you lean on people who insist on dragging you into their dysfunctional way of thinking. This might be only for five people, but sometimes something you lean on in one season that props you up can paralyze you in the next season.
- [13:58]
Unknown Speaker
Sometimes we build in our lives support.
- [14:01]
Steven Furtick
Systems that are unable to accommodate the weight of what God is speaking to us. So be really careful who you lean on. Ask somebody, can I lean on?
- [14:08]
Unknown Speaker
You? See, I don't want to get in the middle of a famine and be.
- [14:13]
Steven Furtick
Leaning on someone who doesn't have faith.
- [14:15]
Unknown Speaker
For the life I'm trying to live.
- [14:17]
Steven Furtick
I can't just be surrounded by people who refuse to believe that better days.
- [14:23]
Unknown Speaker
Are ahead and that greater things are in store. Sometimes I have to restrict access and I can't just be around anybody. And I can't just listen to anything. I cannot believe everything I see. And I certainly cannot believe everything I think. So sometimes I have to shut it down. Sometimes I have to mute some people. Sometimes I have to spend some time in the presence of God. Why? Because my signal to noise ratio has caused me to miss the provision of God. Because I'm leaning on the wrong people and listening to the wrong voices. This is the word of the Lord. I'm not saying be mean to people.
- [15:08]
Steven Furtick
Just don't lean on them.
- [15:10]
Unknown Speaker
Lean on the everlasting arms. Lean on the promises of God. Build your house on a solid foundation, not the shifting sands of people's opinions.
- [15:25]
Steven Furtick
The man on whose arm the king leaned, said, could this happen? Look how Elisha responded. He said, you will see it with your own eyes, but you ain't getting none of it. That's the new, new international version. I was just thinking how sad that was, that it was a day of deliverance. The top advisor to the king starved to death. As a matter of fact, he didn't even get the chance to starve because, look, when the people went into the enemy's camp and plundered the enemy's camp, in accordance with the word of the Lord, verse 17 says. Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate. Question, who have you put in charge of your gates? What regulates your thoughts? What regulates your belief? What regulates your self image? Look, he put the man in charge of the gate. There's a lot of revelation in this message. I'm going to give you all of it I can.
- [16:33]
Unknown Speaker
But you will need to lean into this message because sometimes you have put.
- [16:38]
Steven Furtick
A past experience in charge of the.
- [16:41]
Unknown Speaker
Gate to your future. Listen, when you let your past experience regulate access to your future, you will always be stuck in a stage of life that can no longer accommodate what God is speaking in this season. Not going to happen, bud. What if I had listened to him? We wouldn't get to hang out today. What if I had listened to him?
- [17:12]
Steven Furtick
I would have built me a little.
- [17:13]
Unknown Speaker
White church with some little white people and it would be about 50 of us and we would just preach to the choir and we wouldn't change anything and we wouldn't touch anything and we wouldn't have Efam watching all over the world. The devil is a liar. It's happening and it's going to happen with or without you. You might as well get in on it because it's here, babe.
- [17:37]
Steven Furtick
Preaching my.
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Unknown Speaker
Watch off my wrists. Somebody say it's happening. What a horrible thing for it to be happening right in front of you, but you don't experience it.
- [17:49]
Steven Furtick
The man on whose arm the king leaned stood in the gate while the people were running to the victory. The Bible says they trampled him in the gateway. He died in the gate of what was possible. Y'all give me a minute. I don't really know what to do. It's a little too much touch. Somebody say, get out of the gate. Tell 12 people so I can have. Come on, 12 people get out of the gate. Nobody coming to help me either. Do this myself. I started week one. I was saying, get back in the gate. But I heard the Lord saying, this Time. Get out of the gate. I said, what is it? He said, make a move. You hear all this teaching?
- [18:55]
Unknown Speaker
You hear all this excitement? Oh, it's good, but you have to get started.
- [19:00]
Steven Furtick
He died in the gateway. He blocked his own breakthrough. He saw it, but he did not.
- [19:10]
Unknown Speaker
Experience it because he would not believe. Is our unbelief that blocks our blessing, not others. Some of us block ourselves by blaming others. So we stay locked in prisons of offense and we miss blessings because we would rather blame somebody else than believe God. Let me preach this. You cannot believe God and blame them at the same time. You can't believe God and blame others. Either you believe that what people meant for evil God means for good, or. Or you don't. If you believe God, it means there's nothing life can do to you. There's nothing people can throw at you. There's nothing they can say about you, think about you, or lock you out of that will keep you from receiving what God has assigned to your life. Here's the announcement. Elisha, you can have your breakthrough or you can have your blame, but you can't have both.
- [20:26]
Steven Furtick
When the king came to Elisha, he said, this is God's fault that we're in this famine. It wasn't the Lord's fault. It was the fault of the leader. Sometimes we will not lead our own lives and take initiative for our own repentance. So we block our blessings, boys. Do you hear me? We block our own blessings. Not the devil, our disbelief.
- [20:59]
Unknown Speaker
God is going to do it.
- [21:01]
Steven Furtick
The other day, a great man of God was encouraging me. If you made a list of the top five people in the world, he would be, in my opinion, somewhere in the top 10. But I respect him so much now. Why I respect him. He has longevity in ministry. He was introducing me to speak. He had invited me to speak. He got up to introduce me. The things he was saying about me, they were so nice and encouraging. I thought he was talking about someone else. It was a kind of introduction where he wasn't just speaking like he wrote a book or he pastored a church. He was saying things he saw in me and how God had called me and our ministry a voice to the generation, a bridge to reconciliation. Just things that. But while he was saying them, at the same time he was affirming me there was another voice, not on the stage, but inside my soul. Have you ever had this happen? Like somebody is trying to affirm you, trying to love you, trying to validate you, but you cannot receive it because your gates are blocked There is something in the way called you.
- [22:40]
Unknown Speaker
That will.
- [22:40]
Steven Furtick
Not allow you to receive the love God is trying to give you through someone else. While he was saying these things about me, it's almost like the more he said good about me, the worse I felt. Because what I thought is, he doesn't know me. The problem with you is you have too much dirt on yourself. The problem with you is you think you know yourself better than God does. The moment the revelation hits your life that the only one who knows you completely is the same one who loves you unconditionally, you will be unsure, unstoppable.
- [23:24]
Unknown Speaker
In the kingdom of God.
- [23:30]
Steven Furtick
While he was sitting there affirming me and saying things about me, the devil, that old.
- [23:35]
Unknown Speaker
Slithering serpent that came crawling up to Eve, talking about, did God really say he was placing limitations? It was my own limitation. It's hard for you to take on giants when you see yourself as a grasshopper. It's hard for you to come out of a famine when you are living in the depths of your own frustration. Even when I preach, sometimes some of you play me off and hold me off and cross your arms and close your heart and you lean back and it is your way of shutting the gates. But you are missing the miracle because you feel unworthy. But God never predicated his blessing on your worthiness. Perfection is not the price of admission to the kingdom of God, nor to the great works and mighty things he has called you to do in the earth. I feel anointed to tell you today imperfection has never stopped God from blessing anybody. The only thing that blocks your blessing is unbelief. But I dare you to shout right now, loud enough where that devil can hear you. I believe I am the righteousness of God. I need y'all to shout. My voice is tired. Shout I believe.
- [25:09]
Steven Furtick
Elisha said, you'll see it, but you won't experience it. He doesn't say how. Have you ever noticed how God doesn't give you a lot of the details?
- [25:18]
Unknown Speaker
Sometimes I wish he did. It would be super nice.
- [25:23]
Steven Furtick
But he does.
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Unknown Speaker
All he says is, this time tomorrow.
- [25:27]
Steven Furtick
The famine is going to be over. How is he going to do it? Well, we're going to get some manna from heaven. A little flashback Friday Famine flashback. Remember when they were in the wilderness? Dropped down the man out of heaven. So you can drop down a man out of heaven. What's it going to look like? How's it going to do it this time? You might be surprised how God blesses and delivers the nation because the Bible says, ooh, I love this part right here. Can you tell that I love what I do to preach to you? I really feel like I've been cooking this all week. And we're about to eat something right now.
- [26:14]
Unknown Speaker
I mean, I smell.
- [26:18]
Steven Furtick
Smells good. Now there were four men. Everybody say four. Four, Four. Number of creation. The north, south, the east, and the west. Winter, spring, summer, fall. 4. 4 represents creation. There's a creative miracle on the horizon. Now, there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. Now a contrast emerges. I have somebody in the gate who doesn't believe. Then we have a group of men. They are outside the gate. Not because they're coming back from Whole Foods. This is a gated community in the sense that these men. When the white flaky spots started showing up on their skin, they had to go to the priest. Leprosy was used to refer to a wide variety of skin diseases in this day, from the most moderate being a change in coloration to bloody sores. Since leprosy is a progressive disease, eventually maybe your fingers start falling off, but it's also a contagious disease. So when you start to see the signs and you are pronounced ceremonially unclean, they move you and quarantine you and position you outside the gate. Now, your only hope of survival is to beg, because you can't even carry on a normal conversation. If you approach somebody, you. You have to announce your condition before you engage. To even get into the gate, you would have to start hollering within about 10 or 20ft. Unclean.
- [28:02]
Unknown Speaker
Unclean.
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Steven Furtick
Can you imagine if you had to announce your condition to people out loud before you met them? You would have no friends. I'm serious. If you had to externalize things that.
- [28:18]
Unknown Speaker
People don't know, what's wrong with you.
- [28:20]
Steven Furtick
Some of y'all would have to announce, I don't know, Amazon addict.
- [28:29]
Unknown Speaker
Huh? What if you had to announce everything.
- [28:31]
Steven Furtick
That was wrong with you? You had to announce lust, perversion.
- [28:35]
Unknown Speaker
What would that be like? What would it be like? I talked bad about you the other day, but, hi, how are you doing?
- [28:43]
Steven Furtick
I can't stand you. They announced their condition. They're outside the gate, and they're isolated and they're desperate and they're not welcome and they're starving. The doggy bags have stopped coming because the people inside the gate are going to take care of themselves first and foremost. And they're outside the gate, and there are four of them like those four men. You remember the New Testament, don't you? Because Jesus was preaching. Maybe we'll preach about it in my next series. So many people were in the house, nobody could get in. But there were four crazy men who were a friend to this man. So they got creative. Don't you try this. If you come to Elevation Church and it's full, they ripped the roof off of the house and lowered Promise security will wrap you up. But this was Bible times. They ripped the roof. I ain't sitting in overflow. Yes, you are. They ripped the roof, lowered the man down, and the man got healed because of the faith of four crazy men. Now watch the crazy faith. Somebody say crazy faith? I'm just going to say this right now. I don't mean to offend you, but some of you have way too many limits on what you will and won't do to obey God. You have too many limits. You have too many, many conditions. You don't want to look weird. You don't want to be different. You don't want to stand out. You don't want people to talk about you. And so you're starving inside. These men didn't have the option to stay inside, and they couldn't stay where they were. The Bible says they eventually, after many days of this, said to each other.
- [30:31]
Unknown Speaker
Why stay here until we die?
- [30:35]
Steven Furtick
What a question. In other words, it is complacency that kills us. It is our willingness to stay in.
- [30:45]
Unknown Speaker
Places where we are starving because we fear the repercussions of our obedience. We don't join an E group because we're scared of being seen. So we stay in isolation.
- [30:59]
Steven Furtick
I'm going to push these E groups today.
- [31:02]
Unknown Speaker
And we die outside because we won't let anybody in. But they didn't have that option anymore. They did not have the luxury to sit back and wait and see what God would do. They no longer had the luxury of patience. So they said to one another, we can't stay here. If we say we'll go into the city, the famine is there, so we can't go there and we can't stay here. So we only have one thing left to do. Let's go. Somebody shout, let's go. You didn't shout it. Shout, let's go.
- [31:38]
Steven Furtick
Let's go over to the enemy's camp and surrender. If they spare us, we live. If they kill us, at least we die quickly. Because I'm hungry, let's go. We can't stay here and we can't go there because we're outside the gate. Here's what I love. If you've ever Felt like an outsider. Raise your hand right now if you've ever felt like an outsider. That surprises you because where are the insiders? If we all feel like outsiders, that was kind of weird how more of us feel like outsiders. Here's good news for the outsiders. These men were on the outside of the city gate because of their condition. But what I love is God was using their condition to position them in.
- [32:34]
Unknown Speaker
The place so they would not be comfortable enough to stay. Their condition.
- [32:42]
Steven Furtick
Here's what I love. I love preaching to you.
- [32:44]
Unknown Speaker
I'm going to preach this whole point just to you. Their condition, position, position them to be God's secret weapon to save a whole nation. I am trying to say that sometimes the thing you hate is the thing God will use. Sometimes the thing that makes people not like you and reject you is the very thing I'm about to fall off this stage that will cause God to select you and choose you and use you for a breakthrough. Does anybody believe that? The stone the builders rejected. Why y'all leaving? I'm preaching. Good. Somebody shout if you know God's using unlikely people. If they had been inside the camp, they would have died. It was the fact that they were not allowed in the camp that led to them. Look what they did. This is so stupid what they did.
- [33:49]
Steven Furtick
It makes no sense. It makes no sense.
- [33:54]
Unknown Speaker
Sometimes in order to see what God has spoken come to pass. You can't be so focused on making sense. Your senses are killing you. Living by what you see is killing you. Living by what you feel is killing you. Living by what you hear is killing you.
- [34:14]
Steven Furtick
They had no choice. These are not the people who come to church to check it off a list because it's a nice thing to do. And their grandma would be proud if she was still alive today. These are the people who come to church because I need God to survive.
- [34:31]
Unknown Speaker
These are not people who come to church so they can get a good.
- [34:33]
Steven Furtick
Parking space perhaps on Tuesday morning.
- [34:36]
Unknown Speaker
These are the people who come to.
- [34:38]
Steven Furtick
Church because I can't make it.
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Unknown Speaker
I live and I breathe and I move and I have my being in him.
- [34:45]
Steven Furtick
And at dusk, before the light came, they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. And when they reached the edge of the camp, watch this.
- [34:56]
Unknown Speaker
Nobody was there.
- [34:59]
Steven Furtick
God had already displaced their enemies. All they had to do was show up. See, they went to surrender to the enemy, but the enemy had already surrendered to them. When will we realize that when we run from the devil, we are running from a defeated foe?
- [35:32]
Unknown Speaker
See, the Bible says he is already under my feet.
- [35:35]
Steven Furtick
Feet.
- [35:36]
Unknown Speaker
So all I have to do to have the victory in my life is to take another step. I want to apologize to John Gray because he preached so good last week. But he said something. I want to take a step further. He said these gates are voice activated. I'm not correcting him, I'm simply adding an addendum. They are not only voice activated, they are motion activated. God moves when you move. The devil runs when you take your stand, when you put on your shield of faith, the fiery darts of the wicked one will be quenched when they got to the edge. I'm not dying here. I'm not dying like this. I'm not living in this mess. I'm not passing this on to my kids. I'm not going out like this. I'm not starving when my God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Not like this. For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses. God caused the enemy to hear an army that wasn't even there when Elisha released the word of God. When you make a declaration of faith, it goes before you into your future. As a matter of fact, why not shout right now? Because when we praise God God, the devil gets a panic attack and he has to turn loose our sword. I feel like preaching. I'm really sorry if you don't like it loud like this, but somebody is.
- [37:25]
Steven Furtick
Starving in this church today.
- [37:29]
Unknown Speaker
It wouldn't be so bad if you were starving and there was no food. But when Christ died to give you life and the thief came to kill, steal and destroy. I'm sorry, but I can't stand by silent while the devil wipes out a generation. I can't stand by silent while teen suicide is at an all time high. I can't stay silent. The gates of hell won't.
- [38:09]
Steven Furtick
If we stay silent, we die. If we hide our leprosy, it kills us. God used somebody who wasn't even allowed in the city to save it. God is going to use all of you who feel unworthy and all of you who feel not good enough. And all of you who have been ostracized and all of you who feel limited. That's how God works is through your limitation. These men were so diseased, no one was allowed to even touch them. Touch them. That's who God chose. So they went into camp. Let me show you this. They went into camp and they saw that the enemy was already gone. A lot of times what you're scared from what you're running Scared from God has already dealt with. But the enemy has you under siege and he puts a spirit of fear on you. Because if the spirit of fear ever lifts, you will find out who you really are in Christ. When they got there, they saw that it was theirs for the taking. Now, the first thing they did wasn't to pray and give God the glory. The first thing they did was eat. They went in this tent. When they reached the edge of the camp, they entered one of the tents. They ate and drank. Then they start carrying away the spoils. The silver, gold, clothes, vibranium. But then they went off and hid them. Because that's what you do when you're a leper, you hide. That's what you do when you're ashamed, you hide. That's when you do when you feel like an outsider. Remember the man in the parable who said, I was afraid, so I took what you gave me and I hid it. The enemy wants to keep you in hiding. And if he can, he'll give you a condition that will cause you to hide your gift. Do you hear this word I'm trying to preach to you? I wish I could sit down one on one with everybody in the church and say, what are you hiding? Here they are. God has given them the victory and they're hiding it. Sometimes we hide because we are convinced we are not worthy. And sometimes we hide because we are afraid of what might happen if we let our light shine. They had a revelation in verse 10. I believe it is verse 9. They said to each other, you know this is not right. Here we are. We don't deserve to be here. This is a day of good news and we're keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, if we hold this in, if we keep this to ourselves, punishment will overtake us. What you hold inside, when you don't show your issues, you die. When you don't share your gift, you die. You are dying because of what you are hiding. If we wait, if we sit on this, we die. If we expose our sin, we can be healed. If we hide it, we will die. Here's the thing. A lot of us are dying on the inside because our issues are beneath our skin. So we stay outside the camp. Don't tell anybody. I'm fine. I'm good. We post them with your 10, do our thing. But they had a revelation. God is blessing us. Now we have to share what the Lord has done. Even though we're lepers? Even though I'm imperfect. You know how preposterous it is for me to preach to you when I struggle like I struggle, I stand on this stage before you each week by faith. See. But the thing about it is, what if the reason God chose the lepers to discover the treasure was because they knew how to make an announcement?
- [43:42]
Unknown Speaker
See.
- [43:45]
Steven Furtick
Once they once they found the goodness of God, they said, let's go at once and report this in the royal palace. Then look at verse 10. So they went and called out because that's what lepers do. Only this time they were not shouting unclean, unclean. This time they were shouting, let's go, let's go.
- [44:18]
Unknown Speaker
The only one who can really shout the victory is the one God has raised from the ashes of defeat. So I want to give you an opportunity. If he healed you, if he saved you, if he raised you, if he has been good to you, if you have a testimony, if you are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, all the grateful people shout right.
- [44:50]
Steven Furtick
Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to Give now or visit Elevation Church for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us Levation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
- [45:22]
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest For Albertsons and Safeway. February is the month of love. And while you're spending time showing love to your family and friends, make sure you show yourself some love too. Now through February 25th shop in store and online and save on self love items from Dove like Dove Cucumber and Green Tea Body Wash, Dove Deep Moisture Nourishing body wash, dove antiperspirants, dove shampoos and dove conditioners. Offer ends Feb. 25. Offers may vary. Restrictions apply. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
- [45:54]
Unknown Speaker
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- [46:01]
Steven Furtick
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- [46:08]
Unknown Speaker
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- [46:18]
Lenovo Lenovo.
- [46:24]
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