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Frozen Oil & Chosen Vessels - Elevation with Steven Furtick | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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Frozen Oil & Chosen Vessels

Elevation with Steven Furtick

Fri May 30 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: Elevation with Steven Furtick – "Frozen Oil & Chosen Vessels"

Episode Details:

Title: Frozen Oil & Chosen Vessels
Host: Stephen Furtick, Pastor of Elevation Church
Release Date: May 30, 2025

Introduction to the Message

In this compelling episode of Elevation with Steven Furtick, Pastor Stephen Furtick delves into the profound lessons drawn from 2 Kings 4:1-6, exploring the themes of deficiency, resourcefulness, and divine multiplication. He challenges listeners to reconsider their perceptions of scarcity and recognize the hidden blessings within their existing resources.

Understanding Deficiency Beyond Finances

Stephen begins by expanding the traditional notion of poverty. He states:

“You can be rich financially and broke emotionally. You can be rich financially and broke relationally...”
[02:00]

He emphasizes that deficiencies can manifest in various aspects of life, not just financial. This broader perspective sets the stage for his exploration of the biblical story of the widow and her limited resources.

The Story of the Widow and Elisha

Stephen recounts the narrative from 2 Kings 4:1-6, where a widow approaches the prophet Elisha in desperation:

“The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha... her creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
[03:20]

Elisha's response is both unexpected and strategic. Instead of providing immediate financial aid, he instructs her to gather all her empty jars and begin pouring her remaining oil into them until they are all filled. This act of faith leads to a miraculous increase in her resources, preventing her from falling into deeper debt.

The Significance of "Frozen Oil"

Stephen introduces the concept of "Frozen Oil," symbolizing the untapped potential and resources within each individual:

“Oil in the Bible is symbolic of the Holy Spirit... It represents God's empowerment, joy, and gladness.”
[11:17]

He draws parallels between the widow’s small jar of oil and the personal resources believers possess. Often, individuals underestimate their worth and the impact of their contributions, seeing their resources as insufficient.

Chosen Vessels and Divine Multiplication

Delving deeper, Stephen connects the story to New Testament teachings, particularly 2 Corinthians 4:7:

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be from God, not from us.”
[26:24]

He explains that the "earthen vessels" represent our imperfections and vulnerabilities, which are essential for God's power to flow through us. By recognizing and utilizing our "oil," or gifts, we become conduits for divine blessings and miracles.

Personal Anecdotes and Relatable Insights

Stephen shares personal stories to illustrate his points, making the message relatable:

“There are things about me and things about you that make us feel insecure and make us say it's nothing when it's really something...”
[17:31]

He recounts a moment when his family’s smoke alarm went off, highlighting how small actions and faith can lead to unexpected blessings. These anecdotes serve to reinforce the idea that even seemingly insignificant resources can lead to significant outcomes when used in faith.

Encouragement to Pour Out and Multiply

A central theme of the episode is the encouragement to "pour out" one's resources without fear of insufficiency. Stephen urges listeners to:

“Keep on pouring because the more you pour, the more it’s going to flow.”
[24:16]

He challenges the audience to overcome insecurities and begin utilizing their gifts, assuring them that their efforts will lead to divine multiplication and unexpected blessings.

Prayer and Call to Action

The episode culminates in a heartfelt prayer, inviting listeners to commit to pouring out their resources and trusting in God's provision:

“Father, today, with our hands lifted up, with our hearts open and with our minds renewed, we thank you for the oil we have...”
[36:21]

Stephen encourages the audience to seek God's kingdom first, assuring them that their needs will be met through His abundant grace.

Conclusion

In "Frozen Oil & Chosen Vessels," Stephen Furtick masterfully weaves biblical lessons with personal experiences, urging listeners to recognize and utilize their inherent resources. By viewing their gifts as "oil" meant for pouring, believers are encouraged to act in faith, leading to divine multiplication and fulfillment.

Notable Quotes:

On Deficiency:
“You can be rich financially and broke emotionally. You can be rich financially and broke relationally...”
[02:00]
On Oil Symbolism:
“Oil in the Bible is symbolic of the Holy Spirit... It represents God's empowerment, joy, and gladness.”
[11:17]
On Pouring Out:
“Keep on pouring because the more you pour, the more it’s going to flow.”
[24:16]
On Divine Multiplication:
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be from God, not from us.”
[26:24]
Closing Prayer:
“Father, today, with our hands lifted up, with our hearts open and with our minds renewed, we thank you for the oil we have...”
[36:21]

Key Takeaways:

Redefining Poverty: Recognize that deficiencies in life extend beyond financial aspects, encompassing emotional, relational, and spiritual areas.
Utilizing Resources: Acknowledge and utilize the limited resources and gifts you possess, trusting that God can multiply them beyond your imagination.
Faith in Action: Act in faith by "pouring out" your resources, leading to divine abundance and overcoming feelings of insufficiency.
Embracing Imperfections: Understand that your imperfections make you a chosen vessel for God's power, allowing His strength to shine through your vulnerabilities.
Continuous Pouring: Maintain a consistent attitude of generosity and faith, even when resources seem scarce, knowing that God’s provision is limitless.

This episode serves as a powerful reminder that what we often view as insufficient is precisely what God can use to bring about extraordinary miracles in our lives. By embracing our roles as chosen vessels and actively utilizing our "oil," we position ourselves to experience the fullness of God's blessings.

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Transcript

Ryan Seacrest (0:00)

This is an iHeart podcast.

Ryan Seacrest (0:04)

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Stephen Furtick (0:35)

Hey, this is Stephen 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. The Lord put it on my heart to share from this passage and this thought with you. And I want to speak to you today from 2nd Kings 4:1 6 Really, I want to speak to someone who is in a deficit in an area of your life. The more I become exposed to I'm convinced there are many different varieties of poverty. You can be rich financially and broke emotionally. You can be rich financially and broke relationally. You can have a lot of responsibility and not a lot of joy. Or you can have a lot of joy and not a lot of influence. I learned that poverty, although we tend to associate it with finances, can be a poverty of a different kind. That really helped me when I was first starting preaching. I was telling Mike this this morning right before I came out to preach how, you know, some people come to church and take the bus and some people come in a Bentley in the same church. You kind of feel on the surface like, well, maybe you can't preach the same message to the person who is in the top tax bracket and maybe the person who hasn't had a job for two and a half years. But you learn over time if you pastor people and pay attention that everybody has a deficiency and that we're not all that different. The reason I like this text from 2 Kings 4 is because it seems like a small, little practical, I don't know, almost incidental miracle on the surface. But understanding the surrounding context in the life of the prophet Elisha, he just finished solving a problem for three Kings. Right after this, he performs a great miracle for a very wealthy woman. Sandwiched between those two magnificent miracles on a grand scale where he's consulting political advisors like a real prophet would, where he's hanging out with a top donor. There's something that happens that seems so small on the surface. That's where my assignment is today. In 2 Kings 4, 1 6. I hope to be able to preach it to you on a very personal level. Let's read the text together and discuss it a bit. The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, your servant. My husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that are not the result of our disobedience. Have you noticed that life doesn't make allowances for your crisis? That the universe doesn't send out a memo when you're having a bad day? Hey, everybody, be nice to her today. Her mom is sick. It would be nice if life's demands would accommodate my crisis, but they don't. The bills were still due, although the woman did not have the means. This creates a sense of deficit, a very desperate deficit in her life. As it turns out, this crisis is not a national crisis. It's a personal crisis. But the man of God takes time for one woman, just like he took time for three kings. I love that. That just touches my heart so much. Because he's not just presiding over a royal wedding across the pond somewhere, but he's right up in your life while you're crying at night and while you're trying to figure out how to build your own relationships. God is into that touch. Somebody say, God is into you. She comes with this need. It probably seems small in the scope of a big, bad, important prophet who's commanding kings, but she comes to him boldly and says, you, servant, my husband is dead. And you know he revered the Lord, but now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves. Elisha replied to her, how can I help you? So it sounds like he's about to get the checkbook out, but then he makes this weird move where he answers his question with a question. Tell me, what do you have in your house? She said back, your servant has nothing there at all. That's why I'm coming to you. If I had something to put on ebay, I would have done it by now. Do I need to back up and take it from the top? I told you, nothing except a small jar of olive oil. Elisha said, go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. This dude can't hear. He's good at talking, but he can't hear. I don't need Jars.

Stephen Furtick (5:41)

I'm broke. I don't need something to put nothing in. Or do you see? In the beginning, when God created the world, it was without form and void. The first thing God did was to form it before he filled it. I'm going to keep reading this Bible passage because we only have so long. Go around, ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you. And your sons pour oil into all the jars. As each is filled, put it to one side. She left him and shut the door behind her. And her sons, they brought the jars to her, and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, bring me another one. But he replied, there's not a jar left. Then the oil stopped flowing. The gravitas of that last verse is such we have to read it in the King James Bible, like the one your grandmother had, that big one. I'm going to put it on this big screen for you. The King James version of that verse. I'm going to take my title from this one verse. It came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, there is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. I want to speak today for a few moments about frozen oil and chosen vessels. If there are many varieties of poverty and if the abundance of our life really consists in the flow. Like Jesus said, that from your belly will flow rivers of living water, or like it says in Proverbs, that from your heart flows the issues of life. So you have to guard is instructive that Elisha the prophet, in performing his first miracle, cut off the flow of the Jordan River. The first thing he did when he became the prophet was to grab the mantle that fell off of Elijah, who, by the way, he was known for giving strange commands as well. When he called the false prophets up to Mount Carmel. You can read about this in 1 Kings 18:19. It's amazing, because the people were in a drought. He said, whichever God answers by fire is the true God. Because he was challenging their idolatry. When he got up there on the mountain, before he called down fire, he made them pour water on the wood. Because sometimes God will make a situation seem impossible to men. So that when fire falls and the wood starts to burn, you won't think it was because of the quality of the firewood, but it is because of the power of God. If you have wet wood in your life today, start rejoicing right now because God is setting you up to do something so special, he wants all the credit. He wants all the credit. So he allows this woman to get down to seemingly nothing. Do you notice her first instinct when the prophet says, what do you have in your house? Is to say nothing. Her first instinct is to minimize what little she has left. I can't prove this. It's not in the text, but just imagine with me. I don't know. Prophets are weird. Maybe Elisha asked her that question, and when she started to answer, maybe he made eye contact with her. You know, awkward eye contact. Do you have anybody in your life who has really low relational skills? People who have no concept of personal space? Do you have any close talkers in your life? Let me see if you have any close talkers in your life. You know how some people just look at you a little too long and a little too hard?

Stephen Furtick (30:47)

Some Swiss chard preaching. I'm so grateful that God kept pouring into me when I seemed unprofitable. And so I have to keep pouring. It said that she kept pouring. I wonder how stupid she felt when she first started pouring. Once it starts working, it was probably kind of fun. I will point out one thing I thought was kind of funny. We were Talking about this J.J. weren't we? How Elisha told her in verse, 3. Give me the verse, go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Then in verse five, it says, she left him and shut the door behind her. And her sons, they brought the jars to her. She made her kids go to the neighbors. You heard what the man said. She did one more thing I want to point out, and it's what enabled her to pour. She shut the doors. That's such an important detail in this text, because it is what you pour out in private when no one is looking. A lot of us are so busy praying for more oil, more opportunity, more, more, more, more, more. God says, pour, pour, pour, pour, pour. The more you pour, the more it flows. You're never going to pour out what you have while you're so busy consulting what everybody else has. You'd be like the woman who came in and poured out that expensive fragrance on the feet of Jesus. All the men around called it a waste, and she called it worship. You're always going to feel like it's not enough. Even if you feel like it is enough, you feel like it doesn't matter. Have you had a day like that in the last seven where you felt like this doesn't even matter. Shut the door and keep pouring. In fact, sometimes the best thing to do is shut your mouth and keep pouring. And keep pouring. Because the oil only became more when it was in motion. The oil only flowed when the vessels were ready. I don't think this message is really about the oil at all. I think it's about the vessels. When Elisha told her to go around to her neighbors, he gave her a very specific type of vessel to request. He said, make sure they're empty. God can't fill what's already full. That's why it's so important that you pour out your pride. That's why it's so important that we pour out our own opinions and come before the Lord. Empty. Listen. When the vessels are ready, the oil will flow. There's something strange about these vessels that we only learn with a New Testament revelation. This is 2 Kings 4. But if you jump a couple of centuries over to 2 Corinthians 4, you get the full message where Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Why would God put something so special in such a cracked vessel? What keeps you from showing up is your cracks and your conflicts. But that is the very place the blessing flows through. Paul said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power might be from God, not from us. One season in our church I was feeling particularly overwhelmed. I said to Holly, I just don't feel like I'm the pastor they need it. The reason I said it is because the need was so great and my experience was so small. At this particular point, I had just turned 30 and the church was already about the same size as the town I grew up in. That'll make you stop and pause. That'll make you feel like not enough. If you ever felt like not enough, wave at me. I don't like to do this alone. It's a very vulnerable feeling. Yeah, I said, I don't feel like I'm the pastor they need. She looked back at me cold blooded and said, you're the one we've got. Y' all are clapping at me, but I'm saying it to you. You're the mom they have. You're the dad they have. You're the son they have. You're the daughter they have. You're the one God chose. You are are his chosen vessel.