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- [00:00]
Steven Furtick
You're listening to an I Heart Podcast.
- [00:05]
JLo Beauty
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Better Woman
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- [02:00]
Steven Furtick
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.
- [02:13]
Elevation Church
Enjoy the message.
- [02:17]
Steven Furtick
Our scripture today is found in Mark 6:1:6. I want to read this to you from our Savage Jesus series which just keeps going. This is now the longest series I've ever preached. I didn't intend it, I just got stuck in it. We've been just tracking this man named Jesus we thought we knew so much about. He keeps shocking us and surprising us. We realize we can spend our whole lives studying about him and only begin to glimpse how great he is and also how revolutionary his life was in his time here on Earth. We want to pick up in Mark 6 today. We're in for a real treat today because we get to see Jesus take a trip back home. We get to see the response his ministry from those who knew him as a little boy. We'll get to evaluate that in the light of our own lives. I want to read you the Scripture and then take some time teaching it today. I'm very excited about this particular message. The scripture says in Mark 6:1, Jesus left there and went to his hometown accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue. And many who heard him were amazed. Where did this man get these things? They asked. What's this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? It's going good, right? Wow, this guy is good. Whoa.
- [03:54]
Elevation Church
Write that down.
- [03:55]
Steven Furtick
Hey, this is amazing. But then something shifts in the tone of the text. This is where we'll spend our time trying to discern the difference between their amazement in that verse and their annoyance in the next one. Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son, the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?
- [04:21]
Elevation Church
Aren't his sisters here with us?
- [04:23]
Steven Furtick
And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives, and in his own home. This next part, I know you think they made a mistake when they typed it in for the screen because it says Jesus could not. And we're not used to seeing anything he can't do. I know you think I need to fire the production team who put the scripture up. It should say he would, not that he was unwilling to, but it actually says he could not. He was unable to. There was one thing even Jesus was not able to do, and it was to override the unbelief of the people that he wanted to heal, that he wanted to serve, that he wanted to save. The Bible says when Jesus came home, he could not do any miracles there except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. It's interesting because when we started the passage, the people were amazed at Jesus. But now when we come to this verse, Jesus is amazed at the people. The only time we see Jesus unable to do something in Scripture and the only time we see Jesus amazed in Scripture is in regards to faith. It says he was amazed at their lack of faith. There was something he wanted to do for the people that he couldn't do for the people because of something that was within the people. That's what I want to speak about today. The title of this message is Trapped in Nazareth. On your way to your seat, look at the person next to you and say, you seem stuck. Please be seated. Sometimes people think Jesus was from Bethlehem. He was born in Bethlehem. Oh, little town of Bethlehem. How still we see the lie. But he was born in Bethlehem. He grew up in Nazareth. That's where this passage takes place. Not where he was born, but where he was raised in Nazareth. Not where he did most of his ministry. He didn't do most of his ministry in the place where he grew up. Because sometimes in order to be used by God, you have to leave what is familiar. That's an important point. We'll cover it more fully. But I just want to tell you a little bit about Nazareth, which is 25 miles southwest of Capernaum. That was his base. That's where he set up shop and moved around that Sea of Galilee to do miracles. That's where his fame was being published. When it says in verse one, Jesus left there. He didn't leave the place where he was ministering and go back home because it wasn't working out. He left his success to go back to where he started. Isn't that interesting? He didn't go back because he needed a room in Mary's basement or to sleep on the couch for a little while while they raised some funds for the ministry. He wasn't go funding me and trying to get it off the ground. He was in fact going back home for a specific purpose, which we know because it says this important detail that he took his disciples with him. Why is it important that he took his squad, if I may call them a squad, just to modernize the text a little bit. If the Bible were written today, it would say he went accompanied by with his squad. He went with them and went back to the people who he grew up with. And he took them with him. Now, that's important. Why? Because he's taking them as a part of their training. He is commissioning them to change the world. He takes them back. I'll never forget when I took Holly to Moncks Corner for the first time. She was so bored and she acted so interested. I knew I found the woman I wanted because she pretended like Moncks Corner was the most fascinating city in the United States of America. Now, she had traveled by this point to 49 of the United States. She had seen many things. I know there was nothing special about Moncks corner. But boy, she made me feel like she was interested in Sonic, where we hung out every Friday night. Just different landmarks like this that were important to my development.
- [08:55]
Elevation Church
She he isn't taking the disciples home.
- [08:57]
Steven Furtick
To show him around.
- [08:58]
Elevation Church
He has a purpose.
- [08:59]
Steven Furtick
He's not making a detour. He's not even coming home for Thanksgiving. He's not checking in. It's not been a while. He's actually coming home for a purpose. He's coming home for a purpose. While he is there, he is invited to give the guest lecture in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. As he does that, as he stands up to teach, the people notice that there is something about him they did not notice when he lived among them. He had been there for a long time, but now that he's been gone for a while, they see him differently when he comes back. Since I already read the whole passage to you, we may as well talk about the fact that Jesus was rejected by those who were the closest to him. He found wider acceptance among the sinners than he did the religious. In fact, one way the prophet said it was, he came unto his own, and his own received him not. That's a very sad place to be, by the way, when the people closest to you don't appreciate you, don't support you, and don't express their love to you. In fact, I have met grown men who are still trying to prove something to their dead dad, who never said, I'm proud of you. There's something about when you wanted approval from somebody who was closest to you. We all have these people in our lives. We really desperately crave for them to tell us that not only what we do matters to them, but that they.
- [10:36]
Elevation Church
Admire us as a man.
- [10:38]
Steven Furtick
Maybe it's a man thing. I don't know if you can help me sort this out. Whether this is a gender thing or whether it's across the board. I want to be admired by the people who really know me. That means something to me, because I figure I can fake everybody else out.
- [10:56]
Elevation Church
But if the people who are closest.
- [10:58]
Steven Furtick
To me and know me the most, if they don't think I'm full of crap, I'm doing something. Talk to me. I love how y' all look at me confused, like you're not full of crap sometimes. You know how you're really nice to the server at the restaurant, but you yell at your wife like that. Like that thing that just made you.
- [11:19]
Elevation Church
Go, ah, it's too early. So the pain of wanting someone close.
- [11:32]
Steven Furtick
To you to notice.
- [11:34]
Elevation Church
Have you ever just Wanted someone to notice. Come on, I know you're sitting next.
- [11:39]
Steven Furtick
To them, so we have to play it straight.
- [11:42]
Elevation Church
Have you ever wanted somebody to just notice?
- [11:44]
Steven Furtick
This is why I make Holly preach occasionally. I just want her to know how freaking hard it is. That's why she leaves me with all of the kids occasionally.
- [11:54]
Elevation Church
She just wants me to know this is not as easy as I make it look. So every once in a while I have to leave these demons. I mean, blessings from the Lord so.
- [12:07]
Steven Furtick
You can know, know so you can know. Yet what amazed me about the life of Jesus was how often the people closest to him took him for granted. Isn't that what happens? You know this sometimes when you get too close to something, it becomes too common. Remember, these people had a hard time seeing Jesus as their deliverer because they had seen Jesus in diapers.
- [12:44]
Elevation Church
It's kind of hard to believe he's.
- [12:46]
Steven Furtick
Going to save the world when you knew him in his terrible twos. Did Jesus have terrible twos? I don't know. That's a theological question for another time. But it's kind of hard sometimes to see the miracle in something you have become familiar with.
- [13:05]
Elevation Church
He quotes a saying because these people he grew up around don't seem to receive him on the same level. The Gentiles, even who were not known to associate with the Jews and in.
- [13:18]
Steven Furtick
Fact were known in many ways to.
- [13:20]
Elevation Church
Be resistant to the Jewish religion, had no problem welcoming him. In fact, when he showed up for them, they came in droves to hear him speak. But now he's back home. The disciples must have been shocked because I know they were looking forward to this. They're taking the show back home. Certainly we're going to get to see the impact of the ministry in this small town. Nazareth isn't a big place. Nazareth is only like a couple hundred people. The only reason you know the name Nazareth is because Jesus put it on the map. Before Jesus, Nazareth was unknown. So going back to Nazareth, 25 miles from where we're doing all this great ministry, going through the precipitous cliffs of Arbel, all of these routes, they would travel the seven mile major trade route as they're going, don't you know. Peter was excited.
- [14:08]
Steven Furtick
I can't wait to show them what Jesus can do.
- [14:11]
Elevation Church
Boy, they're going to be shocked when.
- [14:13]
Steven Furtick
They see what you've become.
- [14:14]
Elevation Church
He's going back home. Bieber is going back to Canada. Drake is going back to Toronto.
- [14:21]
Steven Furtick
Jesus is going back home to Nazareth and he's preaching. And it's amazing. They're amazed.
- [14:27]
Elevation Church
That's good.
- [14:28]
Steven Furtick
Preach Jesus. That's good.
- [14:31]
Elevation Church
All of a sudden somebody said, wait, he's one of us.
- [14:36]
Steven Furtick
The moment they categorized him as one of us, he became common. The moment you categorize something as common.
- [14:45]
Elevation Church
That was sent to be special, you trip over the miracle because you miss it in the mundane.
- [14:56]
Steven Furtick
Yes, Lord, I'll preach it just like that.
- [14:59]
Elevation Church
God said for me to tell some.
- [15:01]
Steven Furtick
Of you husbands that some of the.
- [15:03]
Elevation Church
Things you used to be amazed about in the woman you married are some.
- [15:08]
Steven Furtick
Of the same things you're complaining about eight years in.
- [15:16]
Elevation Church
You know how it is. Some of the things that are amazing when a relationship begins, oh, he's just so amazing. He's just mysterious.
- [15:28]
Steven Furtick
Okay, I want to holler at you in 11 years about how mysterious he is and how amazing it is. In 11 years.
- [15:42]
Elevation Church
You might be mad that he won't talk.
- [15:45]
Steven Furtick
It was sexy that he was mysterious.
- [15:48]
Elevation Church
It was amazing. But now what was amazing is annoying. Let me help the fellows out. Do you know how she looks amazing when she comes out for a date? The reason she looks amazing is because you don't yet have a glimpse into the process by which she looks amazing. I promise you something about the process it takes to make her look amazing. It's going to be two hours of you waiting. I'm not preaching about me. He quotes a proverb, a prophet is without honor only in his hometown.
- [16:33]
Steven Furtick
In other words, sometimes the people who are the closest treat it the most common. This is the principle we would summarize by saying, familiarity breeds contempt. But I'll tell you something else. It also breeds complacency. When something is so close to you for so long, when God puts something in your midst that is magnificent and miraculous, but you live among it long enough, sometimes you have been around it so long that you cease to be amazed by it. You start taking things for granted. In one way, if people take you for granted, I want you to know it's a compliment. It's a compliment to your consistency.
- [17:32]
Elevation Church
If.
- [17:32]
Steven Furtick
People take you for granted. This is why your kids never say thank you. Because they always eat. Starve them three days.
- [17:46]
Elevation Church
Cut the water off.
- [17:49]
Steven Furtick
For a week.
- [17:52]
Elevation Church
The reason they don't thank you for.
- [17:53]
Steven Furtick
It is because it's always there. I had to understand this about preaching because when I started preaching, people were always pinching my cheek. Oh, that was so good.
- [18:01]
Elevation Church
One day they stopped pinching my cheek. At first I was offended because I.
- [18:07]
Steven Furtick
Thought they didn't appreciate me. Then I realized maybe it wasn't that I wasn't preaching good anymore. Maybe I had preached consistently well enough.
- [18:20]
Elevation Church
For long enough that they no longer felt the need to pat my bottom to get me to do it again. This is what I teach our staff at Elevation Church. I'll say, you know you're getting good at something when people stop telling you you did a good job because it just becomes what they expect from you. They'll stop complimenting you because you're consistent. So when they stop complimenting you, that in itself is a compliment. In other words, if I'm telling you thank you so much for doing this on time, that's not a compliment. You are so unreliable and undependable that I am literally shocked that you got your stuff together for once. Thank you for making your bed. What are you, 12? I expect you to do it. You're supposed to do it. You don't have to thank me for preaching. I preach because it's fire shut up in my bones. Woe unto me if I do not preach the gospel. If you want to send me a gift card, I'll spend it, but I don't have to have it.
- [19:35]
Steven Furtick
I don't have to have it touch somebody and say I don't need it.
- [19:39]
Elevation Church
Not to survive on. Because I have matured like Jesus to the point that even when they did not see him for who he was, he still did what he could. He could not do many miracles, but he did what he could. Unappreciated what he could, uncelebrated what he could, Unnoticed what he could. Unrecognized what he could. Taken for granted what he could.
- [20:03]
Steven Furtick
Here's the danger. While it is a compliment to you when people take you for granted, it is a danger to them. Hear me Lake Norman. What is consistently taken for granted is eventually taken away. Here comes Jesus to his hometown, Nazareth. He's coming with the same healing power that resurrected a 12 year old girl in Mark chapter 5 that healed a woman with the issue of blood. She didn't take Jesus for granted. She knew she had one shot to get to him and she wasn't going to throw away her shot. She knew this might be the only chance I have. It's funny to me, people come to Elevation sometimes from other parts of the country. It always shames some of us who live here because it's in our backyard and it's on their bucket list. They're excited. They have the VIP brochure. They have an Elevation worship hoodie on with an Elevation youth hat on. They know all the songs better than the people who live In Waxhaw, it's kind of crazy to us because they come with a spirit of worship. They're early. They don't complain about the parking. They didn't have to deal with it because they got there early. Then it puts some of us to shame because what's on their bucket list is in our backyard. Sometimes we can take something for granted. I'm guilty of it sometimes. God has given me the privilege to pastor such a wonderful, beautiful church, but full of such diversity of thought, diversity of ethnicity, diversity of income, diversity of background, diversity of strength. Sometimes I can let it become just another Sunday.
- [22:01]
Elevation Church
But the devil is a liar.
- [22:03]
Steven Furtick
This is not common.
- [22:09]
Elevation Church
And I will not take these things for granted. I will not allow my miracle to become trapped in my familiarity.
- [22:28]
Steven Furtick
Hear what I said, because you might.
- [22:29]
Elevation Church
Have clapped over it.
- [22:30]
Steven Furtick
I will not allow my miracle to become trapped in my familiarity. Jesus comes to Nazareth full of healing.
- [22:39]
Elevation Church
Full of resurrection, full of blind eye opening power, Full of deaf ear opening power, full of lame to walk blind.
- [22:48]
Steven Furtick
To see power full of dead raising power.
- [22:53]
Elevation Church
All that power shows up in a little town like Nazareth. Jesus has not lost any power on the 25 mile journey through the cliffs of Arbel, but the people have lost.
- [23:04]
Steven Furtick
Their appreciation of his power.
- [23:07]
Elevation Church
Since they have lost their appreciation for his power, they have limited the potential for his power to be released into their lives. I wonder, has it happened? To some of us, when we first got saved, we were grateful. It felt good to be forgiven. It felt good to be free. It felt good to have something to live for. It felt good to have an orientation in life that was not us on a throne. It felt good to not need people to tell us what we were worth because we had been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. But something happens because we don't have to sacrifice bulls and goats and pigeons and doves and bulls. Since we don't have to smell the blood of the sacrifice, sometimes we can become complacent and treat the blood of Jesus which was shed for us as a common thing because we don't feel it. And because we don't feel it, we begin to become familiar with it. When you become familiar with it, sometimes you miss the power of it. Some of you are tripping over your miracle because it has been in front of you so long. You have stopped being amazed. I came with a word for stay amazed. Don't get jaded by it. Don't start to back up and put your hands in your pocket and act like you have yourself here. If we can get honest you know, you still need that same grace. If it wasn't still flowing, you wouldn't be still breathing. Don't play me like that. There's some stuff in your life that if it had not been for the Lord on your high five people tell them I'm still amazed. Stay amazed by it. Don't get too comfortable with it. Don't start thinking you earned what you first received. Don't start acting like God owes you a favor to leave you on the planet. Every day is a gift. Every breath is a gift. Now let's do what David said. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Let everything that has hands clap those hands, hog ye people and shout unto God with a voice of triumph. Power came to Nazareth, but.
- [25:37]
Steven Furtick
It was trapped in their familiar expectation. They missed the miracle. They tripped over it. Literally. It's implied in the word Mark uses. They were amazed. But then when they started thinking about it, watch their dialogue. Where did this man get these things? They didn't deny his power. What's this wisdom that has been given him? They didn't deny his wisdom. What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? They didn't deny his miracles. They didn't doubt it. They despised it. Why did they despise it? Because he looked like one of them. He came in a common way. When God comes in a common way, we trip over him in our process of trying to get to something we think is important. Here's what they said. Isn't this the carpenter? They're tripping. They're tripping. They thought he was tripping. Who does he think he is? This guy is tripping. I love how they call him. This man. This dude. There are only 500 people in the town. You know good and well what his name is. But they gave him a different name. Watch what they called him the Carpenter. Common. This one is even better. Isn't this Mary's son? You don't do that in Jewish custom. You call the child by the name of his father. Maybe at this point, Joseph is dead. But even if Joseph is dead, you still call him by the name of the Father. I? Unless you don't know exactly who his father is. Remember, Jesus came from questionable circumstances. Mary said it was God. But none of us saw the pregnancy test. That angel didn't tell us she was telling the truth.
- [27:50]
Elevation Church
We know Mary is his mom and.
- [27:51]
Steven Furtick
She'S got the same nose. But that daddy thing, that baby might have. I don't know. Mary was talking to Tom. They spent a lot of time together. It had circulated.
- [28:12]
Elevation Church
Nazareth is a small town.
- [28:13]
Steven Furtick
You didn't grow up in a small town, so you don't know how it goes in a small town. It didn't take long for this rumor to become embedded. Where did he come from? None of us really know. It wasn't what he did that they doubted. It was where he came from. Where did he come from? From Nazareth.
- [28:37]
Elevation Church
He was one of them.
- [28:39]
Steven Furtick
So they looked at him for a minute. Oh, this is good. And then they remember, wait, he's one of us. He can't be special. He came from us. What would make them think like that? What was it about Nazareth that had them trapped in their perception? Okay, now we need Nathanael. Because, you know, Christmastime, everybody always sings. Mary did, you know. But Mary wasn't even in church that day. She wasn't even there. She wasn't even in the synagogue. You don't hear this. Preached from pulpits a lot, I think, because it's hard to tie up with a bow. Jesus. Family thought he was crazy during the three years of his ministry. In Mark, chapter three, they came to get him from Capernaum. They came to bring him back home because he had gotten. Here's how we say it in the South. Too big for his britches. That's a Southern saying, britches being our pants. I don't know how you say it. Back home, I went to Australia. In Australia, they call it tall poppy. It means when you get too high, you want to grow up too high, somebody needs to cut you down. This is what's happening in Nazareth.
- [29:51]
Elevation Church
They're like, ooh, it's good.
- [29:53]
Steven Furtick
The healer is here. Wait a minute. Mary's boy. This is too familiar.
- [30:02]
Elevation Church
This feels like us. When it felt like them, something within.
- [30:07]
Steven Furtick
Them caused them to push it away.
- [30:09]
Elevation Church
We only see why in John, chapter one. I'm so glad that God gave us four gospels. Mark puts one perspective. Matthew puts one.
- [30:21]
Steven Furtick
Luke puts one.
- [30:22]
Elevation Church
In Luke four, it says, they were so offended. Skandalon is the Greek word. It means to set a trap. They were so offended, they became trapped in their offense. God's power could not operate at its full capacity because their mentality was trapped in their offense. Why were they so offended? What was it about Nazareth and the people of Nazareth other than the fact that they grew up around Jesus? Was there something else? There had to be something else for them to push away. To have sickness in their village, but push away the one who could heal them. For them to have demon possession, oppressing their children, but send away the one who could make the demons shriek. And run out of town. What was it about Nazareth that made them push away the One who came to set them free? What was it about Nazareth? Well, Nathanael is going to tell us. Nathanael doesn't get a lot of speaking parts in the Bible, so let's pay close attention. It's very uncommon that Nathanael speaks, but the Bible tells us one thing. He said that this whole text and our entire understanding of why God often cannot do what he wants to do in our lives hinges on this. Because when Philip came to find Nathanael, he was excited about Jesus. This is when Jesus was first assembling his squad. This is before he sent them out to do any miracles. Philip comes running up to his friend Nathanael. He's called Nathanael in John's gospel. Other writers call him Bartholomew.
- [32:00]
Steven Furtick
He had an alias here.
- [32:02]
Elevation Church
He's called Nathanael. Philip comes to Nathanael because sometimes the first thing you do when you really meet Jesus is drag people with you. Sometimes when God really gets a hold of your life, you will bribe people into coming to church with you. You'll buy them Starbucks to get them to sit with you in church because you know how messed up they are. But you can't tell them that. But if you drag them in this church and let me open the Bible, they God will tell them and together the Holy Spirit and you can get them fixed. So you say, come with me to church. They say, I don't like church. You say, well, this isn't normal church. They say, I've been to church before. I heard about that. Evolution church. Isn't that the church? That's the church where you're coming with me. Now shut up and come. So Philip found Nathanael, verse 45 John 1, and told him, we have found the One. Somebody shout, we found him. This is the one Moses wrote about in the Law and whom the prophets also wrote.
- [32:59]
Steven Furtick
Jesus of Nazareth. Where is he from again? Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael's reaction helped me to understand why the people of Nazareth resisted Jesus and missed his miracles. It helped me understand why I tend to push people away sometimes. It helped me understand why sometimes I reject the love people are trying to give me. But really I'm rejecting something else. When Philip said we found the One, Nathaniel was excited. But when he said where he was from, Jesus of Nazareth, Philip said, 46 Nazareth. Let me do this in my best AI voice. Practice Nazareth talking about Nazareth. Watch what he says. It hinges on this. I thought they only rejected Jesus and took offense and were trapped. I thought they were offended by Jesus because they were so familiar, familiar with him. But now I think the reason they rejected Jesus is because they rejected themselves. Apparently Nazareth had a reputation because the first thing Nathanael said was, nazareth, can anything good come from there? That's how I feel about myself sometimes, you know, because I know myself. When they took offense at him, at first I was angry with them. But then I realized they weren't really rejecting him. They had a reputation. Nazareth is this backwoods town. Nazareth is on nobody's bucket list. They talk funny in Nazareth. It's not like Jerusalem. It's not a very religious place. Nazareth. You mean the boy with a baby daddy who we're not even short? Nazareth. He came from us. It wasn't that they couldn't believe what he did. They couldn't believe it came from them. His miracles to them were remarkable. But when they tried to reconcile the fact that he was one of them with what he was doing, they couldn't reconcile the fact that something good could come from us. When you have a view of yourself that has been shaped year after year, even generation after generation, by stereotypes or by generalizations or by failures, it comes to a point where you really start to believe that nothing good can come from you. Some of you are right there today, trapped in Nazareth. You have some things in your past, and some of them aren't even your fault.
- [36:34]
Elevation Church
But just because it wasn't your fault.
- [36:35]
Steven Furtick
Doesn'T mean it's not your prison. In this room, there is sexual molestation that happened 23 years ago and still dominates your perception of what your future can be. There are many in this room who are still imprisoned in a failed relationship. The relationship failed five years ago, but you are living in it in this very moment.
- [36:59]
Elevation Church
Nazareth, can anything good come from someone like me? He's just like us. He's one of us.
- [37:07]
Steven Furtick
They were amazed at first. Then they began to despise what they were first amazed at when they realized.
- [37:14]
Elevation Church
Wait a minute, he's one of us. There is a part of us who is able to believe that God is great. But when we try to reconcile the fact of his greatness with the reality of our brokenness, we start to feel.
- [37:29]
Steven Furtick
Like these people and we push Jesus away.
- [37:33]
Elevation Church
It's not that we can't believe he's great. It's just that we can't believe that.
- [37:38]
Steven Furtick
Anything good could come from our life.
- [37:43]
Elevation Church
Because there's so much I don't know and there's so much I should have done and so much I shouldn't have done. And now I'M trapped in Nazareth because, see, I've made some mistakes and I know Jesus is a healer and I know he's amazing, and I know he's a miracle worker. It's not his miracle working power that's in question here. It's me. I'm trapped in Nazareth. It's me. And I'm going to preach until all of your facade comes falling off. You come in this church and you look at me a certain way and you come with this sterile approach to God, but he can't do what he really wants to do in your life because you're trapped in Nazareth. So you'll listen to me preach, you'll sing a few songs, you'll say a few prayers, but Jesus is limited in what he can do through your life because you are trapped in what you were. Nazareth was so unknown and so disregarded that Nathanael's first response was not Nazareth, not Nazareth like the Devil tells you, not you. You really think you can raise those kids? You never saw it done. What makes you think you're going to be any better than your dad was? It's what tells you you can't. It's what can be in proximity of the power of God but not receive. They were right there, but they resisted and rejected it.
- [39:27]
Steven Furtick
Yet it wasn't Jesus they were rejecting. It was that they had been rejected. When people have said something about you long enough, you start to believe it's really true. I am convinced that the people of Nazareth that day were not rejecting Jesus as much as they were rejecting themselves. See, you have to develop your view of who God is through the prism of who you think you are. If you believe the rest of your life that you are worthless, it will be very hard for you to worship a God who thought you were worth dying for. As a matter of fact, I want to help set somebody free who has been disappointed because someone rejected you. A lot of times they're not rejecting you. A lot of times what they are rejecting is something that had nothing to do with you. Sometimes they push you away because there's something pushing on the inside of them. A lot of what we experience as rejection is really just projection. It's people who have been disappointed, who have been hurt. And now you're thinking, what's wrong with me? Why doesn't she appreciate me? It's not you she doesn't appreciate.
- [40:50]
Elevation Church
It's that she.
- [40:51]
Steven Furtick
She can't appreciate herself because she has not yet healed from something. Sometimes when people are pushing you away.
- [40:58]
Elevation Church
It'S not even about you stop being so self centered. Stop thinking people are responding to you. People have real hurts, people have real issues. Sometimes they can't get over what happened to them to celebrate you. Will you love them anyway? Are you strong enough in God to. Is your relationship with him strong enough to know that what they say about me doesn't change who I am? Men's denial cannot block my destiny. Jesus was still a prophet, whether they knew it or not, whether they celebrated him or not, whether they rolled out a red carpet or ran him out of town. He knew who he was. Do you know who you are? Or do you need people to tell you who you are? If you let people tell you who you are, they'll say you're just a carpenter. They'll say you're just a single mom. They'll say you're just a teenager. They'll say you're just a divorcee. But if you know who God is, you realize your life is not defined by an event. Oh, as a matter of fact, it actually is. That event happened on a hill called Calvary. When he shed his blood for me. When the precious Lamb of God looked at me through time and said, I'll die for him. So now I know.
- [42:28]
Steven Furtick
That I am accepted by him. I love Jesus. Tenacity. A lot of us, if we would have been rejected in our hometown, that would have been enough to kill our mission. But what I want to show you, for everybody who has been rejected or has been rejecting the grace God has been trying to give you, sometimes you're rejecting yourself. Is that something good can come.
- [43:05]
Elevation Church
I said something good can come from Nazareth. I want to tell you another thing. While I have you here, you don't have to stay where you started. How many praise God for that? I don't have to stay. I don't have to stay where I started. I don't have to be who I was.
- [43:33]
Steven Furtick
I don't have to be trapped in Nazareth. Don't go home and tell your husband you're leaving like he's Nazareth. People will abuse my little sermons sometimes, take them out of context. Be quitting your job like it's Nazareth. You have a mortgage to pay, brother. I need you to tithe, so keep that job. Maybe Nazareth isn't a place. Maybe it's a perspective. That's where we get trapped. Not where we are, but what we think about where we are. Jesus could have done it in Nazareth. They just weren't willing to receive it. Watch what he did. Because this is what somebody, under the sound of my voice needs to do today. I don't know why, but I feel like when I show you this, it's going to help you understand how to get unstuck something that has been playing like it's on repeat on your playlist over and over in your mind that you can't get out of. It could be a failure. It could be a friend who left you. It could be somebody you keep trying to prove yourself to, but you're never going to prove yourself to them because they've never proved themselves to themselves. So how are you going to get their approval if they don't even approve of themselves? This is what's going to help you. Because I never saw it before. I preached this passage. One day I'm going to do a whole series called I Apologize. It's going to be all of the passages I preached and I screwed them up. I'm going to go back and apologize to those passages of scripture in a whole series. This is installment one. I apologize for stopping in verse six, because often I would stop right here and say he was amazed at their lack of faith. But right there in the same verse that says he was amazed at their lack of faith. Right there in that same verse where it says he was rejected by the people who should have respected him the most. Have you ever felt that way? It could be a parent. It could be a child. You've done the most for the only people who can really hurt you are the ones you really love. There's nothing like being rejected by people you expected more from and even had the right to expect more from. He should have been able to do 10 times the miracles in Nazareth. He should have been able to do much more for the people who already knew him. That could have been enough to stop him. Soft Jesus would have stopped in Nazareth. Oh, I'm sorry. Y' all think I'm taking it too far. I'll tone it down. I apologize.
- [46:14]
Elevation Church
I'm so sorry.
- [46:15]
Steven Furtick
I won't say these things anymore. I'm sorry. I won't heal anybody. If y' all don't like it, I'll go back to the carpenter shop. It's cool. Just please don't make fun of me. We get so worried about rejection.
- [46:29]
JLo Beauty
That.
- [46:29]
Steven Furtick
We miss God's next direction for our life. The moment you understand many of the rejections we experience are really redirections. You will no longer be trapped in Nazareth. Some of us have gotten bitter, offended. We're trapped to set a trap. Trapped in Nazareth. What is Nazareth? The place where people said you couldn't the place where who was supposed to be there, wasn't there. The place where you failed and you had great expectations and you disappointed them. Here's what happens next. He was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus. So rejection is not the end. The next thing he did after they rejected him in Nazareth, went around teaching from village to village, calling the 12 to him. He has already called them to be his disciples. Now he can release them into their ministry, calling the twelve to him. God, I love your Word. Thank you for showing me this. I thought rejection minute was over.
- [47:48]
Elevation Church
But when I read this, I realized.
- [47:50]
Steven Furtick
Some of our greatest blessings can only come on the other side of rejection.
- [47:59]
Elevation Church
He began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
- [48:07]
Steven Furtick
These were his instructions.
- [48:09]
Elevation Church
Take nothing for the journey except the staff. Whatever you don't have, you don't need it. Whatever they didn't give you, you don't need it. Whatever they didn't say, you don't need it. Whatever wasn't put in your path, you don't need it. Don't take it with you. We're satisfied. Sandals, but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome.
- [48:31]
Steven Furtick
You or listen to you, leave that place. Don't you stay trapped in Nazareth.
- [48:37]
Elevation Church
Don't you spend the rest of your life trying to prove yourself to people. Don't you spend the rest of your life apologizing for a weak season.
- [48:51]
Steven Furtick
If they won't welcome you, if it doesn't work out there, if you can't get it right this time, leave that place. Leave that place. It's not an address. It's not a zip code. It's a perspective. Shake the dust off your feet. As a testimony against him. This must be why he brought the disciples to Nazareth. Because he wanted to show them what to do with rejection. He knew they were not ready to be released in ministry until they had first been rejected. The road to resurrection is paved with rejection. The stone the builders rejected, that the people tripped on became the chief cornerstone.
- [49:49]
Elevation Church
Jesus had showed them how to cast out devils.
- [49:52]
Steven Furtick
Jesus had showed them how to heal the sick. Jesus had showed them how to touch lepers. But now he's showing them how to do one more thing they're going to need and then they can be released. He had to show them how to shake it off. I feel the spirit of Taylor Swift.
- [50:10]
Elevation Church
He had to show them one more thing. It's not always going to go like you want it to go. Not Everybody is going to see what you want them to see. You're not always going to make the right moves. There are going to be some mistakes. But if you will shake it off and move forward in faith, you're ready now. You failed some and you're ready now. You've heard a lot and you're ready now. You're humbled by it. You're stronger because of it.
- [50:49]
Steven Furtick
You now know that only God can approve of you.
- [50:55]
Elevation Church
You now know not to look to.
- [50:57]
Steven Furtick
People for their validation. You're coming out of Nazareth. Stop tripping. Stop tripping over what people think. Stop tripping, trying to get somebody to clap for you who's not even paying attention. They have their own car payment. Stop needing people to validate what you know. God made you already. Those disciples went out from there and started casting out demons, taking authority. But first they had to go through rejection. First they had to go through disappointment. First they had to go to Nazareth. A 25 mile trip Jesus took the boys on just to show them what to do when it doesn't work. Just to show them that even Jesus had to be rejected. He was despised and rejected. Do you know why? So you would never have to be. You might be rejected by people, but you will never be rejected by him. I want to tell you one more thing.
- [52:23]
Elevation Church
Stand up so I'll quit.
- [52:25]
Steven Furtick
God selects what man rejects. So people pick Saul. God wants David.
- [52:33]
Elevation Church
You better celebrate everybody who has ever hurt everybody who ever had someone come on the stone that the builders rejected. I feel resurrection power rising up in 30 people. Where are the 30? We're coming out of Nazareth. Coming out of the grave. Coming out of fear, coming out of failure. If that's you and you know it, lift those hands and declare.
- [53:15]
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 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 LevationChurch. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
- [53:47]
Better Woman
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- [54:46]
Steven Furtick
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