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- [00:00]
Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:04]
Greenlight Advertiser
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DSW Advertiser
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Host
From building pillow forts to building a.
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DSW Advertiser
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Stephen Furtick
Hey, this is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and.
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Host
This is our podcast.
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Stephen Furtick
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.
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Host
Come on everybody. Let's let's clap our hands and thank our Savior today. Come on. If you're grateful to God. If God's been good to you, Come on. If you can testify of the faithfulness and the goodness. Come on. If you've tasted and you've seen that the Lord, he is what? Come on, clap and give him a shout of thanksgiving. Give him your highest praise today on elevation. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will continually be in my mouth. Go ahead and take 30 seconds and just clap and thank him. Say thank you, God. Never have you left me. Never have you forsaken me. Hallelujah. I want to pray for some people today. There's such a spirit and an atmosphere of faith today, and we just want to welcome all the campuses, everybody online. Come on, clap and welcome, everybody. Come on. Welcome everybody in New York City joining us today. Why don't we pray together? Why don't we believe for miracles, signs and wonders? Why don't we believe that our God is the same yesterday, today, and how long forever? And so if you need a miracle, good news, you came to the place where we believe still that God is still moving. God is still healing bodies. God, come on, clap if you believe it. He's still shutting the mouth of the lion. Anybody believe he's still parting the Red Sea and making a way where there seems to be no way. So if you need a miracle today, financially, physically, emotionally, why don't you lift a hand to heaven right now? Come on, church, let's pray together. We just thank you, God. We thank you in advance, God. We don't wait for the check to show up. We don't wait for the doctor's report. We already in advance give you the glory and give you the honor for what you're about to do. We thank you, God, that if you can take care of the grass and if you can take care of the birds, how much more can you take care of us? So right now, we confess with our mouth what we believe in our heart, that you're seated on the throne, that you're sovereign and that you rule. We thank you, God, by faith, we declare that all these things will be accomplished in the name of Jesus. Come on, clap and give God a praise today. If you believe it, come on, clap like you believe it today. Amen and amen. Just stay standing just for a moment. It's an honor to be here today, and I'm going to jump into the Word in just a moment. But while we're standing, I just want to make sure we take a moment to honor the pastors of this church. For 20 years have led so faithfully, so diligently, with so much character, so much integrity, and I just want to thank Pastor Stephen and Hawley for their leadership. Because not only have their lives touched all the campuses in Just America. But God has breathed on these efforts to touch the earth. And I just want to say thank you to Pastor Steven and Holly for your faithfulness. Come on, clap. And thank God that they keep saying yes to the call of God on their life. And I just think in 20 years, in 20 years, all the continual yeses they've had to walk in and all the things they've had to say no to. Pastor Steven ain't had a dessert in 20 years. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Ain't missed a day in the weight room in 20 years. But I just. I just can't believe what God has done in them and through them. And we honor them. The Bible says to share good things with those that teach us the Word to be a blessing to those that are over us, that oversee our life. And so, you know, to translate that today, it really means send them a Starbucks gift card. Amen. But come on, clap one more time and thank God for our pastors. Pray for your pastors. Love them. Thank God for them. Do me a favor. Before you sit down, turn and give three people a church high five next to you. Tell them how good it is to see them in church today. Tell them how awesome it is to have them in the house of God. Clap for the worship team at every location. Clap for everybody leading us in worship. My God, how good is the worship today? If you have a bible, go to second Timothy, chapter three, verse 16. My name is Chad Veach. In Spanish, that's Chad beach, and I'm half Mexican. Are there any Latins in the house? All right, there we go. And I come from Los Angeles, California, and I just want to say thank you so much to the Efam. Because in January, fires broke out in our city in two main areas. On the west side in the Palisades and on the east side in Altadena. And our city was literally on fire for a few days. And by the time we were able to start Our Outreach Ministry, 15,000 people displaced from homes. And by the time we were able to start our outreach ministry, I'll tell you who showed up in force was the EFAM of Southern California. And they showed up in their shirts. They showed up with smiles. They showed up with faith and honor. And I just. I say it is a tribute. It is a representation of the leadership of this house. So can we clap for everybody online? If you're in Riverside today, if you're in Orange county today, thank you for being a part of helping us serve our city. We love you and we thank God for you today. And so, thank God. Anybody excited for serve week coming up? Excited to serve and help the city. It's gonna be awesome. Okay, go there in your Bible. Second Timothy, chapter three, verse 16. I'm going to jump in. Anybody believe in the Bible today? All right, we're going to jump in second Timothy 3, 16. It says, all scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness so that the man or the woman of God. Come on, all the ladies in the house. So the man or the woman of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Let me read that same verse now. Let's go to the niv. Same scripture, same verse. All scripture is God breathed. Let me just pause there. All of the Bible is from heaven. All of the Bible. I don't know how you grew up. I'm a pastor's kid and after church my dad used to take us to the golden corral. Come on, somebody. Ain't nothing like church and golden Corral. Nothing like life change. And then lunch. And we used to go the golden corral. And I'll tell you what, dad was too tired to pay attention to our plates. So we're not putting on any of the meats or any of the veggies. We're going straight to the dessert. We? Who am I preaching to right now? I love going to the golden crowd. When it comes to the Bible. You can't just have the desserts. Don't just get stuck in psalms and proverbs and the Gospels. You gotta get some of the epistles in there. You gotta have some of the prophets, major minor prophets. Get you some Pentateuch in there. All scripture is God breathed. The Greek. There is Theo nusos Theo meaning God. Gnusis means the breath of God. God breathed on these pens through different authors and gave us all of the Bible. Anybody believe from Genesis to Revelation, all scripture straight from God and it's useful in your life. Come on, clap like you believe that all authority is in that word right there. All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. I want to preach a message today. Write down the title. It's called this is my Bible. This is my Bible. I'm trying to channel my best. Joel Osteen. This is my Bible. I can do what it said I could do. I can have what it said I could have. I'm about to grow a mullet as I say it. Come on. This is my Bible, man. Do you love the Bible today? There's something about the B I, B, L, E. Yes, that's the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God. Look at all the clap for everybody that grew up in church and still here. Lot of people left us, but y' all are still here. I love the Bible. There's something about the Scriptures. There's something about reading the Bible. I fell in love with the Bible two times in my life. The first time I fell in love with the Bible is when I was 16 years old. When I was 16, I went to an event called Promise Keepers. Promise Keepers. Back in the day, men filling stadiums around America worshiping God. And I encounter God at Promise Keepers. This is back in the day when we used to have tape cassettes. How many of y' all remember tape cassettes? If you're younger, Google it. And I'll never forget, man, when I went to Promise Keepers, I got rocked by Jesus. And I came back to my house and they gave us a little Bible and they gave us a cassette of worship. And I'll never forget, I'd wait for my whole house to go to bed. I didn't want them to know I was this in love with God yet. And I'd wait for my whole house to go to bed, and I'd kneel beside my bedside, put my Walkman on, and I'd take out my Bible beside my bedside, and I'd read the Bible and listen to worship. 16. And I'll never forget. I didn't know what the Bible was saying, but I just try and circle anything that made sense. So I started circling the word. Every time I saw the word, The. Mm, that's good. The. In the beginning, yes, it was the. The second time I fell in love with the Bible when I was 19 years old. When I was 19, I was in Bible college and I had long hair. Don't care like your boy. Just trying to get our Brannon Lake on. Put us in some tank tops, let us sing. All right. God did. Okay, so that was not planned anyways. So I never forgot. I was 19. And this gentleman ended up being my best friend in Bible college. His dad developed a Bible reading plan. So he took us one day. We were in Bible college. Beginning of the semester, he took us to Starbucks. Said, boys, I want to teach you how to read the Bible. So he took us to Starbucks. He allowed us to order whatever we wanted. And we sat there and he Taught us how to do a Bible reading plan and how to choose a verse. And he called it soap. Scripture observation, application and prayer. And he said, every day, boys, I'm going to go. He's from Hawaii. I'm going to fly back to where God lives. And I want you guys to every day come meet at this Starbucks. And I want you to open up your Bibles and I want you to read and grab a verse and I want you to write down your scripture, put a little observation, write a little application. How does it apply to your life? And finish it with a prayer. And so he taught us how to do it and he went home. And then for about four years, me and this guy, we would get up every morning at 6am we drive to Starbucks. For about four years, I ordered every morning. This is embarrassing. It's before we counted calories. I would order a grande vanilla latte and a scone. You couldn't pay me to order that today. But we would sit there together and we'd read the Bible. And I'm telling you, I fell in love with the Bible. This is my Bible. I started to read it, I started to memorize it, I started to understand it. You know, there was a study that recently came out that said reading the Bible once a week does nothing in your life. Reading the Bible two times a week though, does nothing in your life. If you read the Bible and expose your eyes to God's Word three times a week, it does nothing in your life. But the moment you get to four times a week, God's word starts to do something in your heart and in your life. Come on, anybody want to be in encountering the love of Jesus not just once a week, but anybody believe that you can get a word every single day from God? I want to give you a few things to write down today. A few things to encourage your faith. Write down, number one, this is about God's Word. This is God speaking directly to me. Oh, I love this about the Bible. God speaking directly to me. Jesus said my sheep will recognize my voice and, and a stranger's voice, they will not follow. The more I open God's Word, I'm telling you, when I start to understand what his voice sounds like, when I start to understand how he operates, his character and his nature, the way he moves, I'm telling you today, God speaks loudest. He speaks clearest and most consistently through the scriptures. When you open up God's word, if you want a word from God, good news, he gave you the word of God. You don't need somebody on TikTok to prophet lie to you. You can open, oh, I'm coming for somebody's. He woke up and chose violence. When I start reading the Bible, God himself starts speaking directly to me. And I rec. The more I read it, the more I recognize that wasn't just a word on paper. That's a word in season. That's a word for my situation. That's a word for my circumstance. That's a word for what I'm going through. That's a word that I needed today. Today, I needed daily bread. Oh, I love that part in the Lord's prayer when he says, give us our bread, our daily bread. Any bread fans in the house today? I want to make it clear I'm pro gluten. I voted gluten. When I get to heaven, I'm eating gluten, but it's God speaking directly to me. Jeremiah 15:16. Your words were found, and I ate them. And your word was to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts. Oh, I'm telling you, there's something about when you find God's word, you want to chew it, you want to marinate in it. You want to sit in it, you want to just study it. You want to understand it. Why? Because it's God speaking directly to me. And I want to tell you, when you read God's word, all of a sudden you start to understand, oh, God's talking to me about my attitude. God's talking to me about my finances. God's talking to me about my character. God's talking to me about my future. God's talking to me about my children. Come on. Anybody thankful today that we don't serve a God that's mute? We serve a God that speaks. Come on, give him a praise today. And he's speaking directly to me. And the more I read God's word, the more I sense I hear. I train my ear to hear. That's God. It's kind of like, you know, when you listen to radio, you can just right away know, oh, that's so and so singing. That's so and so singing. I'll never forget. Pastor Steven was so kind. He sent me an early release. New thing coming. He said, I got one for you. Hallelujah. He did. And I'll never forget. I was in my car, driving like this. I was lost in the sauce. But when pastor Steven came on, I had to hold my steering wheel because I knew that voice I've listened to that voice. I've been trained on that voice. Oh, I'm thankful today that the more you open God's Word, you're going to recognize that's not a word for them. That's a word for me. It's God speaking directly to my heart, directly to my life. Oh, I love Psalm 119, verse 18. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. See, I'm telling you today, God's word is alive and active. And when I read this book. This book is not a dead book. This book is an alive book. And when I start reading it, God starts speaking. Oh, we're dropping money up in here. My wife put money in my Bible yesterday. That's a true story. But God is speaking directly to my heart. And just look here. Put it on the screen. I love this thought. You can't see wonderful things about God without God showing you. This is the only book in the history of the world where the author himself comes to sit down with you, to teach you what he was trying to say. That when you read God's Word, God himself and the Holy Spirit starts trying to open your eyes to see what's going on in that story. See, it's not just a story about Noah and the ark. It's a story about a man of God that was set apart, that prepared his life for whatever was come his way. And God was looking for a man of righteousness. And so he chose Noah to be mightily used, even without Noah even asking to be used that way. See, God will show you things in the Scriptures. From Noah to Moses, from Abraham to Elijah to the woman at the well, God will show you marvelous things. And it's God speaking directly to your heart. I can't tell you how many times I sat with my Bible. So sitting there with a coffee, no scone, and I'm sitting there and God starts to download. God starts to help me. God starts to speak to me. Anybody thankful today that you don't got to get a word from somebody else? Come on, clap. If you believe it, you can get a word for you. And what I find is that we need to stop putting our Bibles on our shelves, start putting God's word in our heart. Thy word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee. You got to grab the Bible. What did Jeremiah say? When I found your words, I ate them like I was at the Golden Corral. And they became the delight of my heart all of a sudden. I love reading the Bible. It's not religious, it's relationship. It's not labor. It's delightful. It becomes delicious. The delight of my life. Why? Because when I meet with God. In fact, when the pastor from Hawaii taught us how to read the Bible, he says, I want you to make an appointment with the king every day. Don't be late and don't miss it. And so I started to make an appointment with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And I started to sit down so he could speak directly to my life. Because I knew I was a young man devoid of understanding. And I knew I needed to grow in wisdom. I knew I needed to grow in understanding. I knew I needed to grow in knowledge. I knew I needed to grow in insight. And so I need to sit down with the Maker. Can you believe that the Maker of heaven and earth comes to sit down with you to teach you what he put in this book? Come on. Anybody believe today? The grass may wither, the flower may fade, but the word of the Lord will last forever. It's God speaking directly to me. You don't know how many times I've went. You see, the funny thing about the Bible is you think you're studying it. It's studying you. It's reading your mail. It's saying, no, don't be anxious. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart. God speaking directly to me. I've got a direct line to heaven as I open up the Bible and so write down number two today. If it's useful, I should use it. If it's because. What did he say here? He said, all scripture is God breathed and is useful. I love that word useful. I love that word useful. It's useful. It's useful. And he starts to list. It's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. It's useful. I just want to give you a few things that the Bible is useful for in your life today. Here's the first thing it's useful for you, is useful for content. I'm just gonna use the word content because I know we live in the era of content. But let me just speak to the parents. If you want good things to say to your kids, start opening up the Bible and let God fill your heart. If you wanna say good things to your spouse. Any married people here today? We're the married folks. If you wanna say Good things to your spouse. Open up God's word. Oh, I love this scripture right here. Put it on the screen. Look here in Matthew. I Love this. Matthew 12. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil of his heart brings forth evil things. You know what the Bible's saying? Whatever you put in, that's what's coming. The content you consume becomes the content you create. So if you put evil things in your heart, don't you expect for good things to come out? I'll never forget the first time I fell in love with God's word. 16. I went to Promise Keepers. God started to deal with my music. Y' all remember Case Logic? And they'd hold all our CDs. And I'll never forget God said, I want you to get rid of all your CDs. I said, Lord, are you sure? Say, yes, I'm sure. So I went to this place that had a cliff, and I took out my Big Case logic filled with CDs, and every wrapper that started with Ice Ice T, Ice Cube, any Ice, Spice, Ice Vanilla, any Ice had to go. Any pox, One or two had to go. Small or Biggie had to go. Damn it, they all had to go. Cast Out, Outcast had to go. Why? Because I knew every single word to every single song. Don't think for one second that you can learn lyrics, but you can't learn the Bible. If you can memorize Mariah Carey, you can memorize God's word. Clap like you want to store it up. Clap like you want to eat it up. Clap like you want to memorize it. Clap like you want a word in season that I'm hiding God's word. It's the delight of my heart. What did he say? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So he said, a good man stores up good things, and an evil man stores up evil things. If you want good stuff. Oh, I'll never forget. I was in Bible college, and he was my buddy at the time. He was my best friend until he married my little sister. Changes the relationship. Change the whole relationship. Change the dynamic. Okay, but we worked at a church in east la. In the hood, in the barrio, Vatos Locos Ferreira. And we worked at this church, east la. So we go to Bible college in the morning, and then we drive to the church to work in the afternoon. And on the way from class to the church, we had flashcards and we were trying to memorize God's word. And so one guy would be driving and the other guy would have the flashcards. And we try and test to see if he's got God's word. So we would sit there and go like Galatians 2:20. I'll be like, I have been crucified with Christ, for it is no longer I that live, but it's Christ that lives through me. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself as a ransom for me. Try me again. Isaiah 40. Ooh. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall rise on the wings of an eagle. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk in that not faith. Try me again. Psalm 119, verse 9. Ooh. How can a young man cleanse his ways by taking heed according to his word? And we started to memorize and memorize and memorize. And I'm telling you today, when I go to visit somebody in the hospital, I don't have to Google a scripture. When somebody is going through depression, I don't have to check chatgpt to find out what God's saying in the situation. Come on, somebody, clap like you want to hide it and restore it and build a well. Come on, build a well in your life. Let God's word reside. Let it change. It's God speaking directly to me. Give him a praise today. Content, content, content. By the way, you got to be careful because whatever you're around gets on you. Whatever is on you gets in you. And whatever's in you come out of you. You got to be careful the atmosphere of where you walk. That's why I was glad when they said unto me today, let us go into the house of the Lord. Because when I get around the people of God and I get around the atmosphere of faith, oh, come on. That gets on me. And whatever's on me gets in me. And whatever's in me comes out of me. Anybody thankful today that I've got feet running to the righteousness of God? I've got feet running to the house of God. I've got feet, feet running to the atmosphere of faith. Whatever you're around gets on you. Whatever's on you gets into you. And whatever's in you comes out of you. That's why when I was growing up, we walk in the mall and I see that one store topic hot and say, oh, no, sorry, we not going in there. I don't know what it is, but we're not going in there because whatever you're around gets on you. And whatever's on you gets into you. That's why I love elevation. Because every time we get around, every time we gather, every Sunday, come on. We lift up holy hands. Come on. We stir up our faith and our expectation. Come on. We say, if God be for us, who can be against us? The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength and the stronghold of my life. And whenever I drove up to Starbucks, I wasn't just around. Some Starbucks, some coffee from Seattle. I was opening up my Bible, I was hanging around Jesus. And Jesus in the atmosphere got on me. But I'm telling you, God's word got in me, and God's word started to fall out of my life. When you get God's word in your heart, it will fall out of your mouth. You just walk around, you won't have to look up something. It'll just fall out of your mouth. You know what the Bible says? Well, you know, the Bible says. Well, you know, the Bible says. I found in life, people are not interested in what I say. People are interested in what God says. Well, you know what the Bible says? Well, that's cool. That's a great opinion. But, you know, the Bible says. And so if it's useful, we should use it for content. How about number two? How about for success? Anybody here? By show of hands, across all the campuses, if you would like to be successful in life, let me see your hand. You like? Yes. Wouldn't that be awesome? If you're a Panther fan, you better raise both your hands. You better pray in the tongue and the Spirit. Joshua 1:8. The Book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night. That you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. I like that. Good success. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it both day and night. So the Bible says we should meditate on the word of God both day and night. I'm all for the verse of the day, and thank God we got the verse of the day on. On your lock screen. But I'm telling you, when I go to brush my teeth, I don't swipe one time and think my mouth's clean. When I brush my teeth, I get up all up in there. We need more than the verse of the Day to make it today. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. But you shall meditate in it both day and night. That you may be careful to observe all that is written in it. And then you will make your way prosperous. And then you will have good success. So you know what the scripture's teaching you. The more you study this book, the more God will make you a success. You know, the more you study God's word, the more God will prosper your life. Why? Because I'm not walking in the wisdom of myself. I'm walking in the wisdom of God. I'm not leaning on my own understanding. I'm acknowledging God's understanding. And when I do that God. Come on. Anybody believe it? Today the steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord. God will lead me and he will guide me. He will show me his path. So if I want to be a success or I want my. My children's children to be blessed. Anybody believing that your children's children are going to be blessed. Anybody believing to be believe to leave a legacy. Let me say it this way. It ran in your family until it ran into you. And you know who stopped it? The man or the woman that got in God's word. Because the Bible says whom the sun sets forth free. And you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. So if I study and marinate. And by the way, meditation is not a hot yoga idea. Meditation is God's idea. God told us to meditate on his word. God told us to get some flashcards. God told us to walk around our kitchen and declare the word of the Lord. This book of the law will not depart from my mouth. But I will meditate on it both day and night. I will be careful to observe all that is written in it. And then I'm going to be prosperous and then I will be successful. Anybody want to be a blessing? You cannot be a blessing until you're blessed. So I love God's word. It gives me content for my reality, for my business, for my children, for my marriage. It gives me success. Write down the third thing. It shows me my motives. It deals with my intentions. These are my intentions. You guys are so unsaved. Thank God you're in church. For the word of God is alive and it's active. Sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to the dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. Other translations right there say exposes us from for who you really are. It exposed and you know what? We live in a culture of shame and hiding. We don't want anybody to know what's lurking. All that jealousy, all that greed, all that manipulation, all that envy, all that stuff that's lurking. All that Judas, Judas, why we give the money, we could have used it. No, no. All that stuff that's lurking. But when you get into God's word, everything is exposed. And God starts to deal with my motives. And so good news, if you've got bad motives like mine can get off sometimes just the same. We are all sinners saved by grace. When I get into God's word, it corrects my motives. It aligns my motives. It gets me back to live for the glory of God, not for the glory of me. And so it deals with my identity. You cannot know who you are until you know whose you are. And my prayer for you today is strong identity. The more you read the Bible, the more I'm confident in God. I can do all things. Through who? Through Christ. That strengthens me. So you need some Godfidence in your life. The more you get in that word, the more it's like, I might have weakness, but the power of Christ rests on my life. And so I'm gonna be bold. The righteous are as bold as a lion. I'm gonna be bold. Why? Cause I know who I am. Remember, the devil came to tempt Jesus three times after he was in a fast for 40 days. And three times he tempted Satan. He tempted Jesus. And every single time he tempted him. What did Jesus use to to rebuke the temptation, the word. In fact, he stood on Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 6 and Deuteronomy 9 every single time the enemy came to tempt him. What do they say today? 10 toes down or something? Yeah, 10 toes sounds so gangster when I say it. It's so fun. He just stood there and said, you know, the Bible says. And then you try to mess with him again. And what did he mess with him? Identity. Motives. If you really are the Son of God. And he said, well, you know, the Bible says. Well, the Bible says, why did he stand 10 toes? Because he had put God's word in his heart that he might not sin against the Father. And I want to encourage you today, you got to get your motives right. The word of the Lord is alive and active. It is sharper than any two edged sword. It pierces the bone and the marrow. It separates the soul and the spirit and it exposes us for who we really are. In other words, not Just the negative, but the positive. I am the righteousness of God. I am the head and not the tail. I am a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a marvelous light. I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. I am blessed beyond measure. Come on, clap today if you believe that you're understanding your identity because you found it. Come on. You didn't find it on social media. You didn't find it in your bank account. You didn't find it by what somebody else said about you. I found it by what God says. Come on, give him a praise today. I know what God says. I am. Stop living for the audience of man. Start living for the audience of one. I want to know what God says about me. So it helps me with content, it helps me with success, it helps me with motives, it helps me with movement. Movement. Oh, I love this next verse. Psalm 119. Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. These are dark days on the earth. These are dark days in culture, these are dark days in these patterns. But I'm telling you, when I get God's word, all of a sudden it shows me, what do I do in my home? What do I do in my marriage? What do I do with this child? What do I do in this circumstance? What do you want me to do with my gifting? What do you want me to do with my money? Anybody thankful that God's word will. Will illuminate your path? It'll show you what to do, it'll show you where to go. Come on, clap a little bit louder and just have faith that it's going to light up your path. You know, the Bible actually teaches us that the path of the righteous shines brighter and brighter. So the more I'm in this thing, the more it's like I'm not living in the dark, I'm living in the light. And it feels like the more I don't get into this work, the more I don't study it, the more I don't read it, the more my life just ebbs and flows into the darkness. But the more I'm in this thing, the more it's like God is showing me what to do and where to go. I'll never forget I grew up on a small island in the state of Washington. And whenever people would come to visit my family and visit my parents, we would take them to Fort Casey and we would take them through where there once was a war. We'd take them through the barracks. And there was this one barrack that we go through, and there was no light, no electricity. It was so dark in there. And I'll never forget, as kids, we love to run through this darkness just to see if we're gonna make it out alive. We would see if there was a boogeyman. We just, as kids, we just love to run through it. And I'll never forget the first time we were trying to do it, and my mom came through with a flashlight, and I was like, wow, this is crazy. We didn't know what it looked like in there. We didn't know what was happening in there. We didn't know any of the potholes we could have stepped into. But when that flashlight hit, we were safe. And I just want to encourage somebody today. You're walking through a season where you don't know what to do. I want to encourage you. Open up God's word and let it be a lamp to your feet and a light unto your path. I love the Bible. Write down number three. Not only is it God speaking to me, not only is it useful, but one of the things I love about God's word is it will set me straight, man. It will get me right. All scriptures God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. Let me translate that to you. God's word will show you what to do, what not to do, and what to do, what you haven't been doing, what you're supposed to be doing. God's word shows me this is what you should do. This is what you are not to do. Like, if you're a cowboy fan, hear the word of the Lord. Really? You say you love God. God's word will show you what to do, what not to do, and what to do when you haven't been doing what you're supposed to be doing. It's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training. I have yet to meet the person that's, like, one of the things that's really great about me is I just love being rebuked. It's one of my superpowers. And I don't know if you've learned this about me, but I'm just like, oh, correction, it's my favorite. And, like, when my spouse corrects me, I'm like, yes. You know, and just like, my kids correct me. My boss. Oh, when my boss corrects me, dude, I'm nailing it. And I think God knows this about us, so he's like, okay, so maybe you don't like them correcting you. So I'll correct you. So when I open this thing up, listen, if your Bible's not messed up, your life will be. When I read this thing, this thing cuts me to my core. It not only teaches me, but it rebukes me and corrects me and trains me. This is the best school of training you'll ever go through for parenthood. Best thing you need for your marriage. Come on, men of God, let's be men of the Word and get our lives and our parenting and our marriages right. Come on, clap. Men of God. This right here will train you, rebuke you, correct you. Otherwise you'll morph into the world standards. Look at Romans 12, verse number two. And do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Don't morph into what culture says. Don't go by what the world stands standards are. If the world says it's okay, it doesn't mean God says it's okay. I'm not going by what man says. I'm going by what God says. I don't care about their opinion. I care about God's opinion. And every time I read God's word, it aligns my values, it aligns my attitude, it aligns my heart to God's will and God's way and God's truth. I don't care about what I want. I've got to live for what God. God wants. Whenever Julie and I get real real, like, you know, like, you ever take a red eye plane and you just like. And people are like, you. Good. Yeah, good. And if it comes to desperate measures, Julia and I go to this chiropractor. We don't want to go, but if it gets bad, we go to the chiropractor and we're like, you got to help us. This is a chiropractor right there. Like, you gotta help us out. And then he gets us right. Every time I read God's word, it gets me right. It aligns me back to say, hey, remember, this is not about you. This is all about him. Don't bring your stinking thinking here. I want you to think like you are blessed and you are favored and you are loved by God. Come on. I need you to live not for your own success, but I want you to live to build the kingdom of God. Every time I read the Bible, it aligns me back. That's why I like to read the Bible. In the morning, I wake up in my house, I need I feel like God speaks loudest before my children are awake. Once. Once my children are up, God's voice is silent. I wake up in my house early and I make me a French press and I walk out. I do the same thing every morning. I walk out to my sidewalk and I walk back in. Just getting outside helps get my day going. And I make me a coffee, and I sit in my kitchen counter and I sit there with my coffee and my Bible. The same thing I learned in 1999 is the same thing that I do today. I don't have another move. I don't have another option. All I have is the B, I, B, L, E and the everyday I love. And I'm not reading it for y' all. I'm reading it for me. This man of God needs to get right. This parent needs to get right. This husband needs to get right. And I read it. Oh, I've been reading the same plan since 1999. And I read it and I find it. And you know what? I've never read it and been, like, heard that one. Oh, that was last year. Oh, that was so 1999. No, every time I read it, something jumps into my heart, something leaps into my spirit. Because His Word is alive and His Word is active. And it's training me and it's teaching. Come on, clap and give him a praise. Last thing today. Write down the last one. God's word points me straight to Jesus. Oh, I love this about the Bible. John 5, last verse. You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. See, the problem is, most of us, we think that it's about reading the Bible. So we can look spiritual or we can. We can quote Scripture. No, we read the Bible because we want to know Jesus. We read the Bible because we want to know Christ. And he said to the religious people, the problem with y' all is you think that you're so great because you study the Scriptures. But the Scriptures are all about me. And I want to just get our hearts right as we study God's Word. We don't read it so we can sound powerful. No knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And the more I read the Bible, the more I fall in love. Not with the Bible alone. I fall in love with Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. Come on. The one that was crucified. The one that died and rose again. Anybody love Jesus today? So I'M reading about Joseph and Joseph and his deliverance. He led his brothers that sold him into a pit. And I'm understanding that the greater deliverance and the greater forgiveness was not just Joseph, it was Jesus. And my prayer is that we would not fall in love with the Bible so we can fall in love with the law, but we fall in love with God's word so we can know Jesus. Paul the apostle says, oh, that I might know him. Know him. How can you expect to get to know Jesus without reading the book that's all about Jesus? How can you expect to get clean with only one swipe every single day? And I'm grateful that I got that soap in 1999, because every morning since then, try not to miss any appointments with my king. I've been getting up and soaping because I notice how quickly I can get dirty. It's kind of like my kids when I say, you need to take a bath. I'm not dirty, Dad. I don't need a bath. Son, you've passed dirty. You're disgusting. A lot of us are like, I'm good, I'm straight, come get a word, live my life, do my thing. When was the last time you let God speak directly to you? When's the last time you let God get you straight? When's the last time God's word was a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path? I pray that you wouldn't just fall in love with the Scriptures, but you'd fall in love with the one that the Scriptures are all about. His name is Jesus. And I don't know when you're going to need God's Word. I don't know when you're going to go through a circumstance when you're going to need the Bible, but I'm believing that you're going to store it up for the right time. We have a lady in our church. This last week was pretty cool. In March, she let us know that she had stage four cancer that the doctors would say was incurable. And she let our church know and she let our team know. And every Sunday, I'd look down, I'd see this lady who the doctors say is about to die. I'd see her worship better than everybody else. I'd see her dance more than anybody else. When I was preaching, she would amen better than about 10 people. And she kept just standing on God's word. God's gonna heal me. God's gonna heal me. I don't know how the doctors are saying this. I'm in pain, she'd say, but I'm standing on God's word. I'm standing on the verse that my God's a healer. Come on. Anybody believe today that by his stripes we are healed? Isaiah 50:5. So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty or void, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. I want to show you a picture of my friend Fabiola. This is at our all church prayer meeting. We were praying over Fabiola a few weeks ago. We were praying that God would touch her life. We're praying and we're standing on God's word. See, when you go through hardship and you go through trial, you're gonna have to stand on God's word. Come on. When you go through pain and tragedy, you're not gonna be able to stand on a tweet. You gotta be able to stand on God's word. And this Tuesday, she zoomed into our staff and she said, I wanna let you know, I just got back from the doctors, and she held up a certificate into zoom. And she said, the doctors went to check on me today and they can't find any cancer in my body. I've been completely and totally healed by the grace of God. Come on, clap it like you believe that God is not a man, that he would lie. Come on, clap like you believe that God is a promise giver and a promise keeper. Come on, clap like you believe that God is not a man, that he would change his mind. Come on, let's pray today. Jesus, we thank you. We praise you today for your grace and your favor in our life. We pray that your word would run through our homes and run through our lives and our marriages. And we say out loud, we're going to be like Jeremiah. We're going to find your words and we're going to eat them, and we're going to marinate on them, and they're going to become the delight of our hearts. We pray that as we stand, study your word, and as we memorize it and hide in our heart, Lord, that we not just fall in love with the scriptures, but we fall madly in love with you, Jesus. We have nothing. Whom have I on heaven and on earth and on earth? There's none that I desire beside thee. So, Lord, once again become the premium, Lord, once again become the priority. Once again become the first thing in my life. I'll seek first the kingdom of God and your righteousness. Come on, lift a hand. To heaven Lord I pray that we would not be lukewarm we would not be cold but we would be hot. We'd be zealous for the things of God and I pray today we'd open up our bibles and we're praying today as we open up your word. Show us marvelous things from your word. Show us who you are. Show us how you move. We love you today and we live for you. Oh come on Elevation Come on let's worship God. Come on lift it up. Come on lift it up. I called you no matter what I face. Hallelujah Just want to thank you Hallelujah all in your word.
- [53:33]
Worship Leader
Thank you Lord oh thank you Jesus Your word is everlasting. Just one word from you changes everything. Your word never fails, it never returns.
- [53:51]
Host
Void.
- [53:57]
Worship Leader
So I call you faithful and I just wanna thank you Lord Just sing that sing I call you faithful and I just wanna one more time sing sing like all you're faithful and I just wanna thank you Lord I call you faithful and I just wanna thank you Lord.
- [54:24]
Stephen 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 elevationchurch.orgpodcast 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 evationchurch. Thanks again for listening.
- [54:51]
Host
God bless you.
- [54:57]
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- [56:01]
Host
Here at the Almond Joy Factory, where tropical vibes abound, we use soft, fresh tasting coconut, the crunchiest almonds, and delicious chocolate candy. Ah, but do you know what our most important ingredient is? Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. Almond Joy's got nuts and something even way better than that. Yes, Almond Joy is made with almonds and johor. This is an I heart podcast.