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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Steven Furtick » Steven Furtick — Beating Burnout

Steven Furtick — Beating Burnout



In Exodus 27, we have an instruction from the Lord, and I'm going to put it as simply as I can. I think there's a direct connection between what God was telling these people about how to keep these lamps burning and what He would speak to me and you about how to keep our passion intact in our lives.

In this section of scripture, God has just revealed to His people the Ten Commandments. He's called them out of slavery. He's showing them a new way to live. I said a new way to live, University City; not the old way, not the oppressed way, not under bondage, but in freedom and in liberty.

And how many know it's not as hard to be set free as it is to live in freedom? And they're set free from their slavery, but now they've got to learn how to live in freedom and how to tend to their passion so that their lives reflect the God who called them out. And He's given them not so much regulations of how to live, but a revelation of Himself that will show them how to live together as a new community.

And that's a whole sermon in itself, but by the time you get to Exodus 27:20, He's spelling it out in detail. God said, "I want to build a place where I can meet with My people." In fact, one of the things that they call the tabernacle. It goes by several names, and one of the names of it is called the place of promised presence.

I love that phrase, that God said, "There's a place where I will promise to meet with you. Even when Waffle House is closed, I'll be open, which is never, but I'll always be there. I'll be there beyond 24/7, 366 leap year. You can count on My presence in this place."

And where the Ark of the Covenant was in this tent of meeting or the tent of promised presence, outside of it, there were curtains 'cause the people couldn't just come in any old way. They had to come in a certain way represented by priests.

Now, you and I don't have to do that anymore, and I don't have time to break down how the book of Ephesians said that we are all members of the body of Christ and how the scripture says that you are a royal priesthood in 1 Peter 2:8. "You are a holy nation." In other words, Jesus is our high priest. He tore the veil or the curtain, made a way for us to come to God. That's how you can come into church and even though your week was characterized by burnout, you can still have a fire in your life and it doesn't have to be started by a preacher. Come on.

I want to show you this 'cause He said in verse 20, Exodus 27:20, He said, "Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives." In other words, it's the people's responsibility to start the fire, not the priests. Let me keep chewing.

Let me keep chewing. It's not my job to fire you up. It is nobody's job. Take me out of the equation. It's not your mama's job, it's not your husband's job, it's not your best friend's job. It's your job to keep your passion intact. You've got to tend your own passion.

He said, "Command the Israelites to bring the oil, and out of the oil there will be a light, and out of the light there will be an illumination of the place where I have promised to meet with you," the place of promised presence.

Now, let's go to the New Testament. Matthew 6, Jesus is giving some instructions, much like God in Exodus 20. I try to show you every chance I can how the New Testament and the Old Testament are telling the same story of the same Savior, how Jesus is in Exodus 27 even though He's not mentioned by name.

And when Jesus finally came upon the scene in Matthew 6, He preached this sermon called the Sermon on the Mount. And when He preached it, He was inaugurating a new kingdom. He was teaching people how to not live as slaves, how to not live oppressed, how to not live in bondage.

They were in the bondage of religion. They were in the bondage of legalism. They were in the bondage of a political system. And He's teaching them how to be set free on the inside. He's teaching them how to unhook those chains that bind them on the inside.

And one of the things He said, "The eye is the lamp of the body." Okay? We've got an external lamp in Exodus 27, and we've got an internal lamp in Matthew 6, 'cause a lot of times what you see in the Old Testament external, when Jesus came along and when He went to ascend to the right hand of the Father as we believe that He did as Christians and sent His Spirit, it's internalized in the New Testament.

So He's saying, "You know how they had those lamps on the outside of the curtain in the tabernacle?" He said, "Well now, in your relationship with Me, the eye is the lamp of the body." Now, "if your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light."

I love that scripture 'cause it means that God isn't interested in just saving my soul. He wants everything about me to be lit on fire with Him. He wants me to actually enjoy the life that He died to purchase to give me as a gift. And He said, "I want your whole life to light up. I want to light up your life." But it happens through your eye.

Now, we understand He's not talking about a physical eye here. Jesus isn't giving a diagnosis about cataracts. Jesus is talking about that eye of your heart. He's saying, "The way that your heart perceives your life determines what you see and what you don't." Are you with me? But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. And if the light within you, the light within you, the light within you... Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa. We just stumbled upon something.

In Exodus 27, God met with the people in a tent of promised presence. Now, Jesus says, "You don't need a tent anymore 'cause you are a tent and My presence is no longer in a place. My presence is in a person." Let me stay on this for a minute because I need you to know you are a person of promised presence.

Jesus said, "I will be with you always, even to the end of the age" (24/7, 365) "I'll be there" - not around you, not in a place waiting for you. God wasn't waiting for you in church today when you came. He was with you when you showed up. It's only a church 'cause you're here, 'cause His presence is in you.
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