wavePod

Get Wave AI

Your Label Is Lying - Elevation with Steven Furtick | Wave AI Podcast Notes

Back to Elevation with Steven Furtick

Your Label Is Lying

Elevation with Steven Furtick

Sun Oct 19 2025

Summary

Elevation with Steven Furtick – "Your Label Is Lying"

Date: October 19, 2025
Host: Steven Furtick (with Holly Furtick)
Podcast: Elevation with Steven Furtick, iHeartPodcasts

Episode Overview

This episode, titled "Your Label Is Lying," is the culminating message in the "Same Lies, New Loops" series at Elevation Church. Pastor Steven Furtick and his wife, Holly, focus on the power of labels—how the things we've been called, or have called ourselves, can become lies that limit our potential and identity. Drawing from John 5 and the story of the man at the Pool of Bethesda, they challenge listeners to reevaluate the labels they've accepted, recognize their true identity in Christ, and place trust in God's word over any limiting beliefs or negative self-definitions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Danger of Early Labeling

Labeling Before Experiencing:
- Steven shares an anecdote from a songwriting session to illustrate how premature labeling can restrict something (or someone) from becoming what it was meant to be.
- Quote (09:15): “If we name it before we make it, there may be something else the song wants to be that we don’t allow it to become because we already gave it a name.” – Steven Furtick
Diagnosis versus Destiny:
- The hosts caution about society's habit of diagnosing and labeling children too early, limiting future possibility.
Advice:
- "Make it now and name it later." – Don’t define yourself by your current condition or setbacks.

2. Labels vs. True Identity

John 5: The Pool of Bethesda (07:19 – 11:00):
- The story of a man labeled by his disability for 38 years; his identity is overtaken by his condition.
- Bethesda translates to "house of mercy," a place supposedly for healing but in reality is filled with those left out.
Memorable Quote:
- “There are some of you listening to me preach today who have been labeled so long by what you can’t do that you forgot your name.” – Steven Furtick (19:19)

3. Retrospective Wisdom & Timing

Perspective Changes Over Time:
- John wrote about Jesus’ miracles decades after they happened—a reminder that what we label as “bad” in the moment could later prove to be a blessing.
- “Sometimes it is better to evaluate your situation later.” (18:10)
Naming the Process, Not Just the Product:
- Holly highlights the importance of being honest about the struggles, not just the victories, in our testimonies.

4. The Package Doesn’t Determine the Value

Gift-Giving Analogy (21:20 – 24:14):
- Holly would put expensive-looking gifts in cheap boxes, while God does the reverse—He puts invaluable blessings in the least attractive boxes (pain, disappointment, struggle).
- Quote:
  - “God will put the best stuff in the worst box.” – Steven Furtick (23:15)

5. Interrupting Old Loops with God’s Word

38-Year Loops & Freedom’s Journey:
- Reference to the Israelites’ 40-year (really 38 years) wanderings: it’s often the middle “loop” years, not the endings or beginnings, where most of growth happens (25:50 – 27:30).
- Real deliverance is more about learning new ways to handle old problems than being instantly set free.
- Quote:
  - "It was actually more powerful to hear about their process than it was to hear about their product." – Steven Furtick (27:17)

6. Jesus Sees You Past Your Labels

Jesus Saw the Man, Not the Mat
- Emphasizes that Jesus looked past the man's label ("lying", "invalid") and saw his true self (32:54).
- The religious leaders see only the mat—the sign of past failure—not the man's miracle.
Quote:
- “He stops by to see about somebody that doesn’t even have a name. Of course, he has a name, but his name has been replaced by his label.” – Steven Furtick (18:52)
- “How can they see a man who has never walked before... and say, ‘You can’t do that’?” (35:44)

7. The Power of God’s Command

God’s Word over People’s Labels
- Jesus’ command, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk,” looks impossible, but it overrules the voice of limitation.
- Quote:
  - “Sometimes God will give you a command that makes no sense in the face of your condition.” – Holly Furtick (28:56)
- Steven frames it: religion points at the mat (your history), but God sees the man (your destiny).
Countering Condemnation with Truth:
- “Shame said die. But God said, live.” – Worship Team (41:53)

8. Rejecting the Lies, Embracing God’s Voice

The Label Is Lying:
- The stuck patterns in our thinking, identities, and emotional history are described as “lying labels” that only the Word can break.
- Memorable Moment: The congregation chants “The word says otherwise!” as a declaration against the lies of the world, religion, or internal voices (40:31, 44:07).
Personalizing Faith:
- Listeners are encouraged to not just accept the labels that life, circumstance, or even well-meaning people put on them—but to hear and claim what God actually says about them.

9. Celebration and Application

Not Returning to Old Labels:
- Symbolized by the man carrying the mat that he once lay on—not going back, but using the symbol of former struggle as a testimony (36:35 – 39:13).
- Quote:
  - “He’s happy carrying that mat because he’s holding something that has been holding him his whole life.” – Steven Furtick (37:07)
Joyful Response and Worship:
- The episode closes in jubilant worship, emphasizing that God’s word sets people free from all false labels.
- “You can’t do that.” “But the Word says otherwise.” – Repeated call and response (40:31–44:07)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“Your label is lying.” – Holly Furtick (08:53)
“The word says otherwise.” – Steven Furtick (07:45, 40:31, 44:07)
“I am not what I did. I am not what I was. I am who God says I am.” – Worship Team (39:54)
“I might be in it, but it is not in me.” – Steven Furtick (42:25)
“I am the one he loves. I’m the one he stopped for.” – Worship Team (42:49)
“God is not disappointed in you. How can he be disappointed in what he appointed?” – Steven Furtick (34:28)

Timestamps for Important Segments

[03:11] Introduction to "Same Lies, New Loops" series
[07:19] Reading and exposition of John 5 (“Pool of Bethesda”)
[09:15] Story of songwriting session—danger of premature labels
[18:10] Evaluating situations with time; John’s gospel perspective
[21:20] Gift-box analogy—what’s inside often doesn’t match the outside
[25:50] 38-year cycles, testimony honesty, journey to freedom
[28:56] God’s commands often contradict our conditions
[32:54] “Lying” versus true name—seeing beyond labels
[35:44] Religious leaders label the mat, miss the man
[39:54] “This is the house of mercy” – Identity and worship declaration
[40:31] “The Word says otherwise” – Affirming God’s truth as ultimate
[41:53] “Shame said die. But God said, live.”
[44:07] Worship climax: “Get up out of that grave!”

Conclusion

"Your Label Is Lying" calls listeners to break free from the names, diagnoses, and narratives that have defined them in limitation and shame. Through scripture, story, and song, Steven and Holly Furtick point to the love of God and the authoritative word of Jesus, which call us out of old loops and into new freedom. The challenge is clear: Trust in what God says, not in the labels you or others have accepted. The episode closes with a rousing encouragement to “get up out of that grave,” celebrating the victory that comes not from the absence of struggle, but from embracing a new identity as one loved and called by God.

Loading summary...

Transcript

Steven Furtick (0:00)

This is an iHeart podcast.

Asma Khalid (0:04)

America is changing and so is the world.

Tristan Redman (0:08)

But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.

Asma Khalid (0:16)

I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.

Tristan Redman (0:19)

Tristan Redman in London. And this is the global story.

Asma Khalid (0:23)

Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.

Tristan Redman (0:28)

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Saint Bonaventure Indian Mission Announcer (0:34)

To. Aina we all know that water is life. An average American household consumes over 300 gallons daily. 40% of Navajo families residing on a reservation the size of West Virginia struggle to survive on less than 10 gallons of water per day yearly. Saint Bonaventure Indian Mission and School delivers over 1.5 million gallons of clean water to these families. And you can help support St. Bonaventure's water delivery program by going to stbonaventuremission.org.

IBM AI Agent Advertiser (1:05)

So your AI agents, they make the team that uses them more productive, right? But if they aren't connected to other agents or your data or your existing workflows, how productive can they really make your teams? Any business can add AI agents. IBM connects your agents across your company to change how you do business. Let's create Smile to Business IBM.

Steven Furtick (1:34)

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.

Holly (Steven Furtick's wife) (1:42)

Hope it builds your faith.

Steven Furtick (1:44)

Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.

Worship Leader / Choir (1:51)

But if you've been redeemed and you know it, if he snatched you out of the pit and you know it, he brought you this far and you know it. Say Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name. We can sing it all day. We can sing it all night. But we gotta stop. Cause it's preaching time.

Holly (Steven Furtick's wife) (8:53)

Your label is lying. Your label is lying. Do you know how that thing said it was a healthy food? Your label is lying. Do you know how that guy said he was a Christian guy? Your label. And he wore a Christian shirt. Your label is lying. You know how people say, when you come to Christ, everything will just be better all at once? Your label is lying. But God's word is true. Father, thank you for your word. In Jesus name, Amen. Be seated. Your label is lying. I'll share by way of anecdote what I mean by this statement. But first, write the statement down. Don't label it until later. Don't label it until later. Now you're going to write that down. You don't even know what I mean by that, but you will later. I was in a songwriting session recently, and we were just starting to work on a song. We had really not identified the tempo of the song, the time signature of the song, or even the theme of the song. I didn't know yet whether it wanted to be a ballad or a bop. Sometimes you don't know. Sometimes a song starts, like, really, really worshipful, and the next thing you know, you're dancing on a table and you don't know what happened. The key to this is to be patient. Let the song tell you what it wants to be. Let the spirit of God have his way. If you're writing a worship song. We were just starting to write a song, and the producer who was recording the session and needed to save the song on his computer stopped and asked a question. He said, what is this song called? I looked back at him and I knew he needed to save the file so he could access it and be organized. I looked at him and said, I can't name it. We haven't even made it yet. We need to make it before we name it. If we name it before we make it, there may be something else the song wants to be that we don't allow it to become because we already gave it a name. So what we need to do is just save the file as a work in progress. Then we can see what it's going to be by the end of the day, because we'll label it later. We'll make it now and label it later. I don't know who this is for, but maybe that's the word you came to get today. Make it now and name it later. We're so specific in our time about trying to diagnose everything. Even every child is diagnosed with all of these conditions before they are seven years old. Sometimes that can be helpful, but other times it can be a hurdle. If I give a child a label before that child has even had the chance to develop beyond those developmental limitations, I may limit what the child thinks the child can be because I gave the child a label too soon that limited their potential mentally, even though their potential in God was unlimited. Label it later. And I'm not talking about not going to doctors and specialists, you understand? I'm using this as a way to get you to see that sometimes you are trying to label your life as you are Living your life, it is causing you to misdiagnose some of the things about you that only God can reveal in time. It is causing you to name things and save things to the hard drive of your mind. And you call yourself things and you call situations things that they really aren't because you are trying to label it before you have even lived it. So you say things like, this is the worst season of my life. How do you know that? Yet the seed hasn't even given the harvest forth. You have no idea. As a matter of fact, I would imagine that anytime the dirt is being plowed, it is hard for the dirt. But we understand that this is the part of the process that is absolutely necessary for anything good to be cultivated. And so it is true in your heart that some of the hardest seasons you will go through, some of the heartbreak seasons you will go through, some of the things you would wish away. If God came down and asked you.

Holly (Steven Furtick's wife) (25:50)

Imagine one of the loops says, you can't do that. That's the lie, right? But when everything that's around you looks like sickness long enough, you begin to believe the box. When everything your eyes can see, when everything your emotions feel tell you, well, I guess alcoholism is just a genetic thing. And there's no amount of therapy or recovery that can break those chains off of you. There are not even enough prayers for it. Didn't you pray about this last year? 38 years, man. That's a long time to circle the situation. It brings me all the way back to the first story I shared in this series. When the Israelites wandered in the same loop for 40 years. You know, technically it was 38. One year they spent getting out of Egypt, one year they spent getting into the promised land. Those years aren't counted in the 40. It was 38 years. People will always tell the story of your first year and your last year, but they don't see the 38 year loop. Please do this. When you're sharing your testimony with somebody, be honest with them. Don't make your label a lie. Don't tell them. And the Lord just set me free from anxiety. I had somebody tell me that one time, and the Lord set me free from anxiety. I said, I believe he does that, and I believe he did that for you. And I praise him for it. But what exactly do you mean he set you free from anxiety? When they said it, they said the Lord set me free from an anxiety in 1984. So what I wanted to ask was, and since then, what did you do? Swallowed the key. The Lord set you free, friend. You swallowed the key or the Lord swallowed the key. Like what happened? As they began to share in more detail, it was actually more powerful to hear about their process than it was to hear about their product. What they meant by it. When they labeled it the Lord set me free was they meant he began to show me ways to deal with it that were not harmful and destructive and sinful. Instead of just going to porn every time I felt anxious, instead of just going to drugs every time I feel anxious, instead of just going to self mutilation every time I felt anxious, instead of just waiting up all night. They didn't say this, but they basically said, I learned some loops. I quit just going around and around spiraling. And I found out how to interrupt my worry with the word of God. Isn't that more powerful?