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Steven Furtick (2:07)

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.

Jonathan (2:23)

What an awesome atmosphere of thanksgiving and praise today and I'm so grateful to be able to be here with you today to share God's word. My name is Jonathan. If we haven't got the chance to meet, everybody calls me A lot of love from over here at Valentine. I have the privilege of serving here as the Ballantine Campus Pastor. I've had the honor of serving under Pastor Steven and Pastor Holly for 12 years now, almost 13 years now, and it's been the joy of our life. How many are grateful that Pastor Stephen and Pastor Holly gave God their yes and created a place for us to live out the calling and mandate on our life? And I'm so grateful I get to share God's word with you today. I've been praying about what to share and I felt like the Lord gave me a really clear assignment. I was asking God to give me a word that would inspire you to give as we are in this special time in our church. And the Lord said, don't inspire them, instruct them. And so I came with a word of instruction today. How many know that God's word serves different purposes in our life? He can encourage us through his word. He can inspire us through this Word. Sometimes His Holy Spirit will give us an insight. But I'm growing more and more grateful for the times the Lord shows up with an instruction for me. And that's my assignment for today. And this really is a special time of year for us here at Elevation Church as we're getting ready for our expansion offering. In just a couple weeks, we got a new building coming in Raleigh, North Carolina. Shout out to our Raleigh campus. We just opened a brand new Greenville campus. We're about to launch a campus in Somerville, South Carolina, outside of Charleston. And can we thank God for all the outreach that's happening through this ministry? Well, I want to read this scripture to you today from Haggai chapter one. If you haven't heard of Hagg, he's a minor prophet that the Lord uses in a major way. And one thing that caught my attention was, you know, in your Bible, there's the inspired word and then there's the parts the publishers kind of put at the top of each section to give you an idea of what that chapter's about. Well, right at the top of Haggai chapter one, it says this a call to build the house of the Lord. And I just thought that was so fitting for the season that we're in because whether you've been a part of this church for just a little while or whether you've been a part of this church for over a decade or all 20 years, maybe there's a call on each of us an assignment from God right now to build the house of God. And well, of course, you know, this offering will go towards helping us launch new campuses. You all know this. It's never been about new buildings. The Bible says God does not live in houses built by men. But we are the temple of the holy spirit. It's always been about seeing people far from God raised to life in Christ. But there's something powerful that happens in our lives when we connect our purpose to the purpose and priorities of God. So let's look at haggai. Chapter one says, in the second year of king Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet haggai to zerubbabel son of shealtiel. I worked really hard on pronouncing that the governor of Judah and Joshua, son of jozadak, the high priest. This is what the Lord almighty says. These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house. Then the word of the lord came through the prophet haggai. Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in paneled houses while this house remains a ruin? Now, this is what the Lord almighty. Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but you are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it. This is what the Lord almighty says. Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house. Go up into the mountains, bring down timber and build my house so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord title of My message today is this is the time. This is the time. Touch your neighbor as you take your seat. Say, this is the time. Last week, pastor Steven preached, this is then what a powerful word for us. And today I want to stay in that spirit. This is the time. I thought about opening up this message with a little bit of audience participation, but then I decided against it because I was gonna ask the question. I was gonna have you raise your hand and self identify if you are a procrastinator. But the more I thought about it, I realized you wouldn't be honest. And so the better way would have been to say, raise your hand if you're sitting next to a procrastinator. And then I might have yeah, yeah, yeah. But the more I thought about it, I thought it's not really a fair question to ask because the more I gave a thought, the more I realized that while each of us have certain areas and aspects of our life that we treat with urgency and diligence at the same time, all of us have areas in our life where we procrastinate. So what you treat with Diligence and urgency might not be the same thing as someone else, but there's something you procrastinate on that's probably driving your spouse nuts. And I thought about just a couple weeks ago, I got really aggravated with my wife, Anna. Now, before I know I don't get the preacher all that often. Not all of you know us, so trust me, I say, we're good. We've been married 15 years. She's the love of my life. She's obsessed with me ever since I grew up. My hair. She calls me her Maui. Her Canadian, Chinese, Jamaican, Maui, I don't know. And I always like to make the message weird right at the top. But a couple weeks ago, I got real aggravated because one thing I can't stand is subscriptions. And there's nothing worse than looking at my bank account and realizing that I've been paying for something that I haven't even been using. And the other day, I open up my inbox and I see an email that says that we had subscribed to Apple TV through Amazon Prime. Help me make sense of this. We had subscribed to Apple TV through Amazon Prime. They're all in cahoots. And I said, anna, did you subscribe to Apple tv? And she said, yeah, I did. There was a movie I wanted to watch with the kids, and it was on Apple tv, So I subscribed. I said, well, that's not the problem that you subscribe to Apple tv. The problem is we already have Apple TV and Amazon Prime. And she's like, oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize it. She said, don't worry. I already put a reminder in my phone to cancel it. I said, well, go ahead and just cancel it right now. And she's like, well, no, I'm busy right now, but don't worry. I put a reminder in my phone to cancel it. And y', all, I know how this goes. We've been married for 15 years. That reminder might go off when our daughter's having a breakdown. That reminder might go off when she's in the middle of a conversation. And next thing I know, I might be paying another to 9.99 for Apple TV through Amazon prime when I already have Apple TV. So I said, no, cancel it now. This is the time. This is the time. Now, I can share that story because I'm the one with the microphone. But Anna could give you hundreds of examples of when my procrastination cost us. Like when she kept telling me to make sure I added her engagement ring to our insurance policy in case it ever got lost. And I didn't add the engagement ring to the insurance policy. How many of you know that that ring that got lost cost a lot more than a subscription? But all of us have places in our life that we procrastinated on. And that's really what the Lord is addressing in the hearts of his people in this passage. You see, God, of course, you know, had delivered his people out of Egypt, taken them into the promised land through King Solomon. He built a temple for the Lord in the promised land. Along the way, through their disobedience, they get invaded by foreigners, they get taken into exile. And now when we pick up in the book of Hag, God has brought them back into the promised land and he's giving them this charge to rebuild his temple because they have been procrastinating on it. Because what is not a priority to you, you will always procrastinate on. And so when God sends this word of instruction to his people, it's because he is trying to make important to them what is important to him. And he's frustrated. And how do I know they're frustrated? He's frustrated. Look at verse two. In verse two, it says, this is what the Lord Almighty says. These people say, not my people. These people say, it's like when Anna says, your daughter has an attitude today. These people say, and the Lord sends this word in his grace and in his mercy through the prophet Haggai to the leaders of the nation, saying, it's time for you to get back to work. It's time for you to prioritize in your life. What is important to me now. It's important to know that one of the ways the devil keeps you stuck in your life is by getting you to procrastinate and push off the things that God is calling you to. He's smart, you know, so if the enemy just tried to get you to disobey, hey, just ignore what God said. You're too smart for that. And he knows that you'd be like, ah, that's the devil. I'm not gonna listen to that. So when the devil can't get you to disobey, he'll get you to delay. And we have a way of putting off the things that God has called us to over and over and over again. And they're saying, now is not the time. And now is not the time. They've set a reminder in their phone and God's saying, you can't keep putting this off anymore. Now is the time to build my house. All the parents can testify with what I'm about to say. And it's true of this scripture. How many know that delayed obedience is still disobedience? All the parents make some noise. Delayed obedience is still disobedience. And the real premise of this whole text that I want to encourage you with is the truth that you see in the principle that you see in this passage of, when I build God's house, he'll bless mine. When I build God's house, He'll bless mine. And so no wonder the enemy wants to keep us in this cycle of delaying and putting off the very things that God has asked them to do. And if the enemy can keep us stuck in these cycles of delay in procrastination, then he can keep us back from the things that God has in store for us. If he can delay our sowing, he can delay our reaping. So God in His grace, sends this word to his people, saying, no, no, no, you've been saying the time has not yet come. But he's saying now is the time. It is a call to build his house. And that is really the invitation in the season that we have before us as a church right now. It's not about buildings. It's not just about this offering. It's about aligning our priorities with the priorities of God. So much of spiritual growth in your life is simply that God getting you to care about the things that matter to his kingdom and getting you to deprioritize the things that the world tells you are important, that is spiritual growth. The more I align my priorities with the priorities of heaven, the more peace I have, the more joy I have, the more blessing I walk in, the more favor I have. And so God is always calling us into something. And the enemy will get you to say, ah, it's not just the time yet. So there's a few things in this passage of scripture that I think were keeping the Israelites in this moment, in this cycle of waiting, in the cycle of putting off. See, most people never say no to God. Sometimes we just say, not yet. One of the things that I think they were waiting on is that they were waiting on peace. They were waiting for peace. Now, when I first read this passage, I thought, what is the problem with, they've just come out of exile, they're back in the land. What's the problem with them putting together their own homes and making sure that they have shelter over their heads and for their families? And once they get through that then of course, they could build the temple. But there's an important detail on this passage. In this passage in Haggai, God says, is it a time for you to be living in paneled houses? That's an important detail because the panel was not functional, it was aesthetic. And so what the Lord is saying is that you are continuing to live in comfort and luxury while my house remains in ruins. And listen, God is not bothered when we have nice things. God is not upset by our comfort. But sometimes we get so trapped in comfort and we call it peace. Some of us are waiting for peace. And when we say the word peace, we don't mean the peace of God, the peace that God gives, because the peace that God gives means the presence of God even in the midst of trouble, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. And so sometimes when we say peace, what we really mean is when things feel comfortable. I just didn't have peace about that. No, things just weren't comfortable yet. Things just weren't easy. Sometimes when we say peace, we mean that we're waiting on the ideal circumstances for everything to line up. And hey, when I get all my stuff figured out, then I'll prioritize the things that matter to God. And so they stay stuck in this place saying, if, then. If I can just get to this, if I can just get the kids graduate, then, then, then. Then we'll prioritize the things that matter to God. But the other interesting thing is that this wasn't one year or two years or three years after they had been in the land that God sends this word through Haggai. When God sends this word through his prophet Haggai to Joshua and to Zerubbabel, they had been back in the land for 18 years. 18 years they'd been living back in the land. That's like Anna asking me to take. To take the trash out. And I say, oh, I'll get to it. And I finally do it when my son is 29 years old. 18 years then, been waiting in the land. In the book of Ezra, it tells us the account of when they got back out of exile as well, and how they began right away rebuilding the temple. And in the first two years, they built the foundation of the temple. But then there was external attacks from nearby enemies. There was internal discord. They had pressures from the outside, pressures from the inside. And after two years of building the foundation in Ezra, chapter four, it ends with this horrible verse where it says that the work on the Lord's house came to a standstill when the circumstances got hard, they stopped. And somewhere along the way, we've convinced ourselves or bought into this idea that following God was supposed to be easy. So we say things like, oh, the Lord just shut the door. The Lord just shut the door. Or you just gave up because it got hard. Because I know a God who can open up doors that no man can shut. And if you would just keep moving in accordance to His Word, he could open that door for you. All of us have a decision we get to make in our life. When it comes to how we live. I can either base my decisions on my circumstances or I can base my decisions on what God says. When I choose to build my life on what he says, then I can't consult my circumstances. And the moment things in their life got difficult, whether it was attacks from the inside or attacks from the outside, they stop on the work that God had called them to do. Two years they built a foundation, and then for 16 years it sat there while they continued to work on their houses. Some of us in our church, we've built. Some of you have built a foundation of faith. Yeah, there was a time where you trusted God and you were pushing through and you were diligent about the things that he had called you to and you sacrificed and you were living by faith. And somewhere along the way you said, that's good enough and you stopped building. What I love, why this is a tradition for us as a church is because this is not a one time thing we invite you to be a part of every year. When we have this year end offering, it's an opportunity for you to decide, is God finished or is this just the foundation? I don't want it to be said of me what was said in Ezra chapter four, that the work of the Lord finished. I want to continue to see God take me from glory to glory, to strength to strength. And whether that's in your own life or your own family or your business or certainly this ministry, I don't believe that God is done yet. So I can't keep waiting for the perfect circumstances and the ideal scenarios before I say yes to what God has asked us to do. God has asked us to see people far from God raised to life in Christ. And that is the invitation before us now. They were waiting for peace, but not the type of peace that God gives. Because one thing I've just learned in my life is that very rarely did peace precede my obedience. Often it was when I obeyed. Then I experienced peace. The peace of God when someone gets up and says we're getting ready for our year end offering on December 14th. Someone might say, I just don't have peace about that. But what if you sought the Lord, listened to his voice, and obeyed what he said? I promise you, you would experience the peace God gives on the other side. The other thing that I think had them stuck. Thank you. Praise the Lord, everybody. That's a good word. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the enemy keeps us in this cycle because we're saying, ah, it's just not the right time. The economy's hard. When I get this debt paid off. No, no, no. If the Lord speaks to you, today is the day to obey him. Hebrews says, today, when you hear God's voice, do not harden your heart. And every time God speaks to you, it's an opportunity for obedience. Y', all, if you think this message is just about money, you're missing the point. This is about obedience to his voice. The other thing that kept them stuck was that they were waiting for more. Look at this description that the Lord gives in verse six. You planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You put on clothes, but you are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it. Does that not describe our lives in so many ways? Sometimes that cycle of discontentment that we live in, where it feels like no matter what we do, it's never enough. You look at your bank, you're like, I know I got paid. Where did it all go? Target. That's where it all went. Put it in a purse just to have holes on it. Where did this end up? And the Lord is addressing one of the excuses that so often we care. Because how many of you have found yourself in one moment or another in your life simply saying, well, if I had more, I would do more. If I had more, I would give more. And that's the place that the Israelites find themselves in. They keep saying they feel economically frustrated, and they're using that as a reason not to rebuild the Lord's temple. So they keep saying, well, we just don't have enough. And it's interesting how what the Lord is describing here is the very thing that they use as a reason not to give. But what the Lord is trying to get them to see is that what they are calling a reason is actually the result. Let me say that a little more clearly. They're saying, well, Lord, if we had more, we would build your house. And the Lord's saying, no, no, no. If you built my house. You would have more. Because it's about priorities. His temple represented his priority amongst his people, his presence amongst his people. And so he's saying, no, no, no, you keep waiting to have more, but when will you prioritize me and your presence? When you begin to do that, you'll see that it's better to have God in a little with me than to have much without God. Amen. When I was in high school, I spent a month living on a missions trip in Namibia, Africa. And while I was there, I met a pastor who had a church. His church was just a piece of sheet metal off the side of his house where his church met. And it made such a profound impact on my life and we developed a great relationship. And then when I went off to college, he actually ended up living with my family in Canada while he was attending school in Canada. And so when I was home for the summers, we'd spent all the time, all the time together. And we'd go to the church that I grew up in. And no matter what the pastor preached on, we'd get back in the car after church and Kamadi would always say to me, john, why don't they talk about giving? No matter what the message, why don't they talk about giving? And eventually said, I don't know, Kamadi, I don't know. I don't know the reasons why they're not talking about it. I said, sometimes people feel weird or get upset when you talk about their money. And he said, john, it's better that they be angry for a day than frustrated for a lifetime. Because what Kamati knew, with just a piece of sheet metal over the side of his house for a church and unreliable electricity, what he understood is that without God, it's never enough. But with God, it's always enough. Just ask the disciples when Jesus asked them to feed a crowd of people and they said, all we have is five loaves and two fishes. It's not enough. It's not enough. But with God, there's leftovers. And the enemy will keep us delaying and delaying on stepping into the things that God has called us to as a people. Why? Because he wants to keep us in this cycle of discontentment where it always feels like I just can't get ahead. I just can't get ahead. And the principle of the tithe is simply this. Every time I give to God through my tithe, it reminds me that God is my source, God is my provider. So no matter what I'm looking at, I know that God is in it with me. And so they were waiting on more. The last thing I think they were waiting on is I think they were waiting on an instruction. Look at this. What happens after God confronts their excuses? He says, go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. I love that. So that I may take pleasure in it and be honored. Because so much of this offering is not just about new buildings and outreach efforts. It's about honoring the Lord with our lives. He says, build my house so that I may be honored in it. And after the Lord gives this instruction, something miraculous happens. In the story that I want to show you, the Lord gives this word in verse eight, saying, go bring down timber and build my house. And then look in verse 12. Then Zerubbabel son of. Oh, man, I worked on it, y'. All. Shealtiel Joshua, son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of people obeyed the voice of the Lord, their God. Did you see that miracle in that text? Did you miss says that the people obeyed y'.