Steven Furtick - Are You Headed in the Right Direction? (02/14/2017)
Pastor Steven continues Functional Faith in Philippians 1:12 and 1:20, where Paul says his imprisonment actually advances the gospel and he expects Christ to be exalted whether in life or death. The core message: true progress comes from effort plus right direction—interpret hardships through faith's "why" (God's glory), then shift to eager anticipation (apokaradokia) by stretching your head forward, rejoicing in advance because you're headed toward God's purpose no matter what happens.
Continuing Functional Faith in Philippians
I have an exciting word to present to you today. Okay. Okay. Well, let's do it then. Let's get in Philippians chapter 1 together. I'm just going to share two verses that introduce two different sections of Philippians chapter 1, and then I can come back and fill it in. I so enjoyed Holly's message last week. She was preaching on James and Ruth and just everybody. Old Testament, New Testament. She helped us. She instructed us. She inspired us. She looked good doing it. I'm not going to lie to you. I was a little distracted at times and not thinking about Jesus at all. But the Lord is good. Touch somebody and say, He's good. The Lord is good.
And so I want to keep on going in the flow that I've been in on functional faith. I've been hearing people that have been with me like 9, 10 years saying, This is my favorite series you've ever done. I mean, I'm not saying the other ones weren't good, but this one's really helping me. So I figured, well, you know, if you've got momentum in an area, just stay on it. So I'm going to stay on this idea of functional faith for however long it takes you to start living it out. We might be here a while.
Paul's Key Statements on Progress
Look at Philippians chapter 1, verse 12. And I am bogged down in this chapter. Can't do it justice in the time that's allotted today. But I do my best where Paul says, Now, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. That's one heading. And then go to verse 20. He says, I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always... Boy, Paul's really sticking his neck out here, isn't he? He's facing a trial before Caesar, and he's boasting of the power of God. And he said, You know, I have a feeling that whatever happens to me, that God's going to use it. And so I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body.
Just like God saw me through before, he's about to show himself strong on my behalf in this situation too. Now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. Rather than a title today for the message, I'm going to be teaching a little bit more than I'm going to be preaching. So I want to use a question to get you thinking today. And the question is, are you headed in the right direction? Are you headed in the right direction? And we'll do our best to consider that and take a look at it.
Prayer and Setting the Learning Posture
But let's pray before we sit down and learn. Lord, open our hearts. Your word needs good ground if it is to grow and produce. So we ask you, till us, open us, and make us receptive and ready. Somebody say, I'm ready. Tell the Lord, say, I'm ready. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Thank you, band. I just love our worship teams so much. I love our production teams, our parking teams. I love our children's ministry teams. Somebody told me that the E-Kids album might have been a billboard album on the chart or something like that. That's pretty cool. On the billboard charts with the kids' album. I didn't verify it, but it sounds cool, so I just thought I'd say it. We'll look it up later.
Look here, because I want to teach today, and I need a little bit of grace. See, about my handwriting, it's going to make you question whether or not you can sit under a pastor with the level of intelligence that my handwriting indicates. I have sent people birthday cards before, handwritten birthday cards, because I'm a good man. I'm a thoughtful person. And they didn't have any more courtesy than to respond to me talking about my handwriting on the handwritten birthday card. Never mind what I said, the words of life that I spoke into their soul. They say things like, wow, do you get your kids to write the birthday cards for you? Did Abby write that for you? And, well, that's just mean.
And so, I figured that you're not that type of people, that you are loving and accepting. And the message I want to use today requires a little bit of writing. I want to write some words on the board and kind of teach from that standpoint. So, I want to plead for your forgiveness on my handwriting, if you'd be willing to forgive me for my handwriting in advance, and for anything that I misspell, because there's no spell check on a whiteboard. And so, we're going to try to do it. But, you know, just kind of to break it down, and I want you in the posture of a learner today so the message can last past when I finish preaching it and go into your week with you. So, you may want to write some of these things down.
Progress: Essential for Happiness
And the first thing that I want to mention from the text and really from life is progress, because they say, they say, anything sounds official if you started with they say, they say that one of the basic elements and requirements of human happiness is a sense of progress. You can't be happy in a sustained way if you don't feel like you're making progress in life and in different areas of your life. And I think that's true. Maybe I'm a little bit more ambitious than most people. I don't know. I'm not most people. I'm me. But I certainly need a sense of progress to stick with something.
Yeah, I don't show up for something that's not working. I don't just show up again and again and again and again if it's not working. I'll just stay home. And by the way, that's why some men quit their marriages, because it feels like they never get back to that original state of love that they had, and so it feels like they're going backwards in the relationship, and a man won't show up to play a game that he never can win at. And women, too. I mean, this goes both ways, but we all need a sense of progress. Everybody say progress. Yeah, you sound good today. You sound like you want to make progress.
I sat down with some of our staff members this week and coached them for different areas. You do know that I work between Sundays, yeah? So in leading the church, one of the things that I am privileged to do, not as much as I would want to, but sometimes I get to do a one-on-one session or a group session of coaching. And three of the staff members who are in their 20s asked a variation of the same question. I thought it was interesting. And the idea was, I do a lot in ministry, and I work hard, but it's hard for me to tell, am I making a difference, or is it effective? And essentially, they're asking, am I making progress?
Because I don't mind working hard. I'm a hard worker, but I need to know that it's working. And in ministry, that's hard to tell sometimes, because you don't often go home with a checked-off list. It's not like you mowed seven lawns today, and you can see the progress. And so it's very difficult to see ministerial progress, and Paul certainly knows something about that, who's writing in the book of Philippians, progress.
Effort Alone Isn't Enough
If progress, then, is essential to human happiness, and if we can't feel satisfied and fulfilled in our lives without progress, either as moms or as husbands or as employees in a church or as business owners or as students or as Christians, then how do we make progress? And so you would say to me, and you would be correct, that effort is essential to progress. It amazes me, by the way, how something that sounds so simple and seems so obvious seems to have skipped a whole generation. Talk to me. How in the world do you expect progress without effort? How do you expect to ace what you didn't study for? How do you expect to burn something off when you won't move what you got? Touch somebody and say, effort.
So I need effort if I'm going to have progress, right? I need to push towards something. I need to move towards something. I need effort. It's going to take effort. However, what I would suggest to you today, kind of my thought pattern, is that effort alone does not produce progress. Effort alone is not enough. Now, you know this if you've had a kid with a learning disability, and some of you are school teachers. You can give a kid more and more and more and more work, but if they are not learning correctly the way that they need to learn, they'll eventually conclude, I'm not a good student, because they're not making progress, and the effort doesn't help it.
Can I tell you another thing? You won't make progress just because you're passionate about something. Passion is not enough for progress. You can sincerely want to make something better. I see people who sincerely want to get in better shape, but never learned how. So, we don't just need effort, because you can see people who go to the gym six days a week and don't look like it. Oh, it's quiet. It's quiet, because you've been there. Effort alone does not produce progress.
The Equation: Effort + Direction = Progress
I'll give you a little bit fuller equation. Effort plus direction equals progress. I thought y'all would say amen to that. I mean, I know it's real common sense on one level. In order to make progress, I have to know that I'm headed in the right direction. I preach from Charlotte. If we want to go to Columbia, South Carolina, or Miami, Florida, and I head north, I might get there quick, driving 90 miles an hour, but is it progress? Progress is determined by destination and my proximity to the destination.
I'm trying to say that if you get turned around the wrong way, you'll get there fast, but when you get there, you'll realize this ain't Miami. This ain't Columbia, because I didn't have direction. Now, I mean, I drove hard. I had my hand on 10 and my hand on 2, but I woke up in the wrong place, because progress is more than effort. Progress is effort in the right direction.
Now, I bring it up, because could it be in your life that you've been pointing your effort in the wrong direction, feeling tired, feeling frustrated, feeling stressed, feeling burned out, feeling like it didn't matter, feeling like it didn't work. And sometimes all you need is somebody to come along and point you in the right direction. Ask your neighbor, where are you headed? Ask your other neighbor, where are you headed? It's an important question, and I'm grateful that Paul gives us a picture of how he sees progress.
Paul's Context: Imprisoned Yet Advancing
How cool is it that we not only get a narrative of Paul's missionary exploits in the book of Acts, but we have the letters he wrote. In the book of Acts, we see what Paul did. In the letters he wrote, we saw how he thought. To me, that's really a privilege to get inside the head of one of the greatest thinkers in the world, in the history of the world, let alone one of the greatest Christians, one of the greatest minds. We get in his head.
He's writing to the Philippian church. He started this church in AD 50. He was going through on a missionary journey, and Philippi was the first church that he founded. Well, it was the first one he preached in in Europe. So he goes through there and starts a church, and he visits, and he stops back by a few more times. But by the time he's writing the book of Philippians, there has been a turn of events, and Paul is in prison. Scholars debate as to whether Paul was in Caesarea or whether he was in Rome. I take the view that he was in Rome. In Rome, he rented a house where he taught everybody who came to him. He was under a form of house arrest for preaching the gospel.
The Philippian church knew that he was imprisoned, but these latest developments had the community at the church at Philippi all shook up. They're saying that there has been a setback for the gospel because Paul, who was kind of like the point guard for their team, is locked in prison. That's kind of bad when your point guard is on the bench in the championship, and they're worried about it.
So Paul writes to them and he says, I need you to know something about what has happened. What had happened was, Paul might say. He says, we need to talk about what has happened. That phrase right there for everybody in the room would have a different meaning depending on the time in your life or the area of your life you apply it to. What happened when I was young? What happened in my first marriage? What happened that caused me to leave that job? What happened that caused that relationship to fail? Everybody say, what happened?
What happened was, Paul got moved from his house arrest to the palace guard where they would keep the prisoners while they were waiting for the trial. So the church at Philippi is hearing secondhand information. There wasn't good journalism in that day, very different than the day we live in, where the journalism is accurate. Paul said, no, I want you to hear this straight from me. What has happened? But then it's interesting because he doesn't go on to detail what happened to him, which is weird. He goes, I want to talk to you about what has happened to me. But then, and I love this and I'm excited to share it with you.
I was telling them the last time I preached this, that this is one of those sermons that if I wrote it just for myself, it was worth the time. I preached this stuff to... I watched this in the IMAX theater of my own mind before I present it to the general public viewing audience. It got to me that Paul, instead of going on to describe what happened to him, which is he's falsely accused, which is he's been imprisoned for his faith. He doesn't describe so much what has happened, but instead he gives, and this is so important, an interpretation, not just of what has happened, because life really isn't about what happened to you. Life really isn't about what has happened. Life is more about what it means to me.
Faith as Interpretation – Focus on Why
And Paul is not going to spend the next 14 verses describing in detail what happened to him. He makes a swift transition. Can I teach this message? He makes a swift transition to say, instead of going into the details about what has happened, which is largely outside of my control, because there's a lot of things that happen to you that are in your control, but sometimes you get in a situation where there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.
And so Paul said, since I can't change the what, let me talk to you for a moment about the why. And he starts talking about the very first thing that your kids want to know the moment they start learning to use their words to ruin your life. And what they want to know about every decision, every bedtime, every curfew, every rule is why. And then you get to invoke that great parental privilege of the response that every parent ought to use every chance you get while you can. And it starts with, because, and it ends with, I said so. And it feels good just to look at your kids and say, because this is not a courtroom. This is not a negotiation. I do not have to structure logic to help you understand my decision. It has been implemented by the highest court in the land. I said so. That's why. Pick it up.
And they ask this question because it's the most important question of life. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? And, of course, we grow out of this. We never ask God why when we go through anything. That's only children that do that. And so, Paul says, life is less about this and more. You don't realize how long this word is until you write it in front of 20,000 people.
He said, let me give you, instead of a description of my current state, let me give you an interpretation of my state. You know what faith is? Faith is an interpretation. Faith is an interpretation. Paul's faith didn't change this. It changed this. Paul's faith didn't affect this. It informed this.
Now, one of the things I love about the Holy Spirit in my life is that he is my interpreter. He helps me take a situation, and instead of starting with what, I start with why. Instead of starting with what, I start with why. Here's the secret. You can survive any what if you have a good enough why. The reason people quit when all hell breaks loose is because they didn't have a strong enough why when they started. The reason people get so confused when they get thrown in prison is because they didn't determine their purpose before they were behind bars.
I can't tell if this is getting through to you, so help me and touch somebody next to you and tell them, you need a why. You need a why. See, here's the thing. You can't depend on God to give you the why. He's already given you the why. I put you on earth to glorify me. Whatever happens to you, you already know the why before you see the what. Here's the key. Decide why before the what. Decide the why before the what. Decide the why before the why. I'm going to repeat it. I'm a redundant preacher. Decide the why.
If I go into a situation and I don't know what's going to happen, I already predetermined the why. I'm not waiting to find out why. I pre-decided why. I'm here to glorify God. I'm here to see his goodness revealed in my life. That's my why. Touch somebody and say, you can't take my why. You can throw me in prison, but you can't take my why. You can disrupt my financial situation, but you can't take my why. You might even mess with my marriage, but you can't take my why. You can mess with my car, but you can't take my why. My why is my why. You can't have my why. I've got a deep motivation. I've got a sense of purpose. My life has a larger context. I'm here for the gospel. I'm here for his glory. I'm here to bring him pleasure. That's my why.
There's no what in the world that can defeat you if you know your why. I got my why. That's how I survived. I survived on a why. The devil threw a lot of what at me, but I had my why intact before the what started happening, and I can make it through the what if I got a good why.
Interpreting Setbacks as Setups
So let's look at how God might want to adjust our interpretation. Touch somebody, say why. Why? That's the question. My dad had this funny thing he used to do. He would always interpret someone else's silence as judgment. So he would tell me about somebody in the church, and he would say, He thinks he's better than me. And I would say, Why? Why do you think that? And he would say, Because he walked right by me and didn't even speak to me. Did you consider that perhaps? He had something on his mind. And my dad would hate you for seven years.
In fact, a lady stopped me at the baseball field the other day, and I had taken one of our kids to the bathroom, and I was walking out of the bathroom, trying to get back to the field to watch my kid play. And the lady said, Well, just walk by me then, and don't even ask how I'm doing, pastor. How many want to know my response? I simply said, Right now, I'm dad more than I'm pastor. I don't care if you like it. That's what I said. I said, But hello. I didn't notice you. I was going to the bathroom. It's private. But hello. It's his interpretation. I wasn't not thinking about her. I wasn't not speaking to her. I was going to the bathroom. Would you please stop drawing thought bubbles over other people's heads?
This was part of Paul's issue. There were these other preachers who wanted to use his imprisonment as an opportunity to kind of get ahead of Paul. And so they were preaching, but they were preaching with bad motives. And Paul said, It doesn't even matter. It doesn't even matter to me. The important thing is they're preaching Christ. Paul said, I'm so focused on my own motives, I don't have time to worry about anybody else's.
A good marriage requires interpretation. Oh, yes. It is a cross-cultural relationship, and you need an interpreter. You do. And the Lord will help you interpret it and say, You know, she didn't really say that because she's mad at you. She's just under a lot right now. And the Lord will help you with that. And it will help you to forgive offenses. And it will help you. I'm telling you, interpretation is everything. In relationships, interpretation is everything when you face conflict.
I can't count the number of times that I wake up on a Monday and two things go wrong, and I go, I guess it's going to be that kind of week. So I'm interpreting as an inconvenience, as an omen that the universe has conspired against me with the help of Lucifer himself. It's going to be one of those weeks. No, that's an interpretation. You are not experiencing life. You are experiencing your interpretation of life.
Interpretation is the ability that Paul has to say, Watch this. I know you're hearing a lot about what has happened to me. And the church at Philippi apparently viewed it as a setback. And it may be corny, but it's true. Paul said, It's not a setback. It's a setup. Because it has actually served... Give me verse 12 on the screen. It has actually... Somebody say, actually. Actually, if you have the right interpretation of what I'm going through, it has actually served to advance the gospel.
The word advance is interesting in the original language because it denotes making headway in spite of severe blows. It means, I'm rolling with the punches, but I'm still making progress. How many of you have had to roll with the punches to make progress? Yeah. It wasn't a steady, straight line. It wasn't a path that was unencumbered. You weren't walking along smelling flowers, but you had to fight uphill, but you made progress.
And Paul is saying, Don't get it twisted. I may look chained, but these chains on my ankles are actually serving to advance God's purpose. Sometimes you have to look at what's on you and realize it's subject to what's in you, and God is doing something in my life right now. I'm speaking to somebody by the Spirit of God. It looks like I'm going backwards, but it's propelling me forward. It looks like a setback. It's a setup. Touch somebody and say, It's a setup.
You have to get involved in this message. Touch somebody and say, I'm moving forward. I know I might not look like I'm moving forward. I might be slow and steady like the tortoise, but as long as I inch my way in the right direction, then I cannot be stopped. I will not be blocked. The gospel cannot be contained. Get happy about it. Praise him.
So I got a new interpretation. Oh, it's really hard? Well, God must be in it. You keep thinking if it's really hard, it must not be God. Jesus didn't get to the cross with that line of logic, and you won't get to your destiny either, but you have to have a faith interpretation. Is this helpful? All right. Don't get nervous, but that's my introduction. Sit down.
Shifting to Anticipation – Eager Expectation
I'll be quick, but what really got me is this shift that Paul makes after talking about his why. He said, I'm in chains for Christ. And he said, that around here, man, he said, I got a captive audience, and I'm preaching to all of them. The guards, the other prisoners, he said, don't even worry about it. I know y'all think this is a bad event, but faith is an interpretation of an event that sees progress, even in pain. My God, this preaching is rich. I feel like I need to go on the Elevation app and watch it back on Monday myself to get the fullness of this message that God gave me.
You know, somebody wrote me online one time and said, you shouldn't say that you're preaching good when you're preaching, because, you know, I'll stop preaching every once in a while and say, I'm preaching good. And what I wanted to say is, if I don't like it, why in the world should you? I mean, I want to preach something that I need and that I like, but anyway. By the way, most people who criticize you are really just showing you that they don't like themselves very much. Interpretation. And when you see it that way, you can have compassion and say, okay, well, they must really be going through something. How can I help?
He makes a shift. Everybody say, shift! Happens! When he does it, I want to walk you through it. He picks up in verse 18, and the Bible is put in these verses for us, but originally there weren't like verses breaking up the different letters. It was just there so we can find it. But sometimes it jumps in in a weird place, and I think that happens in verse 18, because Paul says, verse 18, but what does it matter? And that's a phrase that you should use as well. What does it matter? What does it matter? Y'all pray for me that I would get better at that because I take little things really seriously. So Holly laughed when I made that point. That's a good sign.
And he says, you know what matters? The important thing, the priority, is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. That's what matters to me. And so everything that serves that purpose is fine with me, whether I like it or not, in the moment. That's what matters to me. What matters to you? What matters to you? Because what matters to you will determine the direction that you point your life in. What matters to you, that's your destination.
So Paul says, what matters to me is that Christ is preached and that's happening. So, you know, whatever they're saying about me, that's fine. For the important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. Because of this, I rejoice.
Now, this next phrase to me should be a different verse. They put it right in the same verse, but when Paul makes his next statement, he goes into a completely different mode. He goes in a different zone. And what I want to show you is the next skill that Paul teaches us. And this is not the skill of interpretation. This is the skill... Come on, say it when you got it. Anticipation.
There's like Wheel of Fortune up in here today trying to buy a vow, figure out what I'm writing on this board. He shifts and he says, Now that I've given you my interpretation of what has happened, let me give you my anticipation of what... Say it. Of what... Happened. And on one level, Paul says, I don't know. They might kill me, I might live. I'm not sure about that part. But I want you to notice the frame of mind and the state of consciousness that Paul engages over these ten verses, starting with 18b, where I read to you where he said, Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.
He uses the word will. He's shifting now. I've spent enough time talking to you about what happened. That's over. Can't control it. Can't do anything about it. Okay? I've acknowledged it. I've interpreted it. That's that. Now I'm moving forward. Now I want to tell you what will happen.
Counting "Will" – Forward-Looking Faith
I want us to do an exercise, okay, on every campus. This is for those of you at Butler High School or Matthew's campus, temporarily homeless. This is for our uptown location. This is for Weddington. This is for University City. This is for Lake Norman. This is even for those in Raleigh, North Carolina and Toronto, Canada who had record attendance last weekend. I want all of you, whether you're good at math or not, I want you to count with me the number of times that the word will is used in these 10 verses that start in verse 18.
There's the first one. You already got it, so put your hand up. It's one. He said, I will continue to rejoice. Count out loud. That's one. Next verse. For I know, he's confident about this, that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I in no way be ashamed, but have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
I don't know what, but I know why. And so for me to live as Christ and to die is gain. If I'm to go on living in the body, this means fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I'm torn between the two. I desire to part and be with Christ. We're not put up with anything anymore. Be a lot better if I was in heaven. But it's more necessary that I remain in the body. For you, convinced of this, I know that I remain and I continue with all of you for your progress.
Maybe sometimes our life is meant to be more about somebody else's progress than our own. Come on, let's keep counting. I just wanted to point that out because I was talking about progress and I wanted you to know sometimes it's not all about you. So that through my being with you again, you're boasting in Christ Jesus abound on account of me. Whatever happens, what has happened, whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ and one that I come see you and hear about you in my absence. I will know that you stand firm in one spirit.
Now, only about three of you counted with me through the whole time. But if you counted ten, you counted right. Ten verses and ten times. he doesn't say has. He says will. He doesn't say maybe. He says will. Why? Because he has an eager expectation. Did you see it in verse 20? And this is what we need. Okay. He said, I eagerly expect and hope.
How many are enjoying the Bible lesson today? He said, I eagerly expect and hope. I eagerly expect and hope. I was interested to learn, Jody Jennings, that in Greek, eagerly expect and hope are not verbs, but they're nouns and they're joined together by the word chi in Greek means and and they have within them the idea and this is where I really need you to focus because I flunked Greek in college and then I took it again in seminary and I passed with a C plus. and I'm only telling you that for full disclosure to let you know that I don't typically walk around my house quoting Greek.
But when I saw this in the text, it was worth bringing out because when Paul says, I eagerly expect… He uses a word that has never been used before. He made up his own word to describe the kind of hope you have to have to survive in a situation where there seems to be no way out. Paul said, this is the kind of hope that there is no vocabulary for. So Paul had to take three words and put them together to make a new word to describe the kind of hope that can make you look at your kid on drugs and your husband acting crazy and your money low and your emotions are wrecked and say, I still have an expectation and I still have a hope.
Apokaradokia: Stretch Your Head Forward
And so he looks through his vocabulary. He goes, I can't even think of how to tell you how I feel about it right now. I can't. There's no word. So I'm going to make one up. And he makes up this word and I'm going to give it to you right now. And you're going to use it this week. The word in Greek is made up of three words. Come on, let's say it together on the count of three. One, two, three. All right, we're going to need some remedial classes.
It means to turn away with concentration. Ignoring other interests. That's the prefix. You know, Paul is good because I could preach a whole sermon just on his prefix. Oppo. He said, I'm in a situation right now when if I look to my left, I see prison walls. If I look to my right, I see prison walls. If I look to my feet, I see a prisoner's chains. So I got to turn my head intentionally from what's over here and what's over here. Everybody say oppo.
Sometimes you got to turn your head from what's here and what's here and what's here. And so he said, I turn my head on purpose, ignoring what I could be focused on. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo. Oppo.
Odokia. It's a company that was originally founded in Sweden that sells, ready to assemble, home furniture, and appliances and accessories. Dokia. Dokia originally means to stretch forward. So, when you put it together, you get this meaning, and I'm going to teach this to you, and we are going to break it out on whatever situation comes up in your life this week that tries to break your focus or steal your faith. You need a little bit of apokaradokia, which means stretching the head forward.
He said, I'm in a prison cell right now, and I can't move. I wish I was a better preacher. If I was a better preacher, you'd get excited about apokaradokia. He said, I can't move my feet. I can't move my body, but I'm stretching my head forward toward the future. And so, I will rejoice because I'm stretching my head forward. Would you touch three people? Tell them, stretch your head. Stretch your head.
See, here's the problem. With a lot of people, a lot of people, we have our heads so far up our past that we…. That we can't see our future, but God brought you to church today that gets your head out your past and give you a little apokaradokia thing, an eager expectation. I'm stretching my head toward what's next. I'm not stuck in what was. I'm not worried about what's going to be. I'm stretching my head toward Monday. I'm stretching my head toward next year. I'm stretching my head toward retirement. I'm stretching my head toward fullness. I'm stretching my head toward healing. I'm stretching my head toward my mission.
Let's practice. Jump up on your feet. This is a series called Functional Faith. Shove your neighbor, tell him, stretch your head. If you're going to be fit, you've got to stretch. If you're going to have faith, you've got to stretch. If you don't stretch, you might break. So let's stretch. Come on. Let's stretch our hamstrings first of all. I know how to stretch my hamstrings. I know how to stretch my hamstrings. That's about as far down as I'm willing to go in this tight suit to demonstrate it to you. Bad things, man, bad things.
But I know how to stretch my hamstrings. I know how to stretch my back. I know how to stretch my body, but nobody teaches us how to stretch our head. Apocoradokia. Stretch your head. Apocoradokia. There is a brighter day. Apocoradokia. It does make a difference. Apocoradokia. God is working in my. This is better than Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This is better than Taekwondo. This is going to teach you how to stick your neck out.
And I have good news for you. Paul said, it doesn't matter if they kill me or they let me live, because this is not a situational interpretation. This is not a situational anticipation. I feel like preaching this. I'm done teaching now. I'm in full-on preaching mode.
On the count of three, when I say three, I want you to start with your head to the right, your other right. And when I say three, I want you to turn your head. And it's symbolic of all of the distractions that aren't going to distract you this week and all of the cynicism that you're not even going to pay any attention to this week. I want you to turn your head. I want you to give them an apo on three. This is your apo. One, two, three. Turn it. You missed it. It wasn't quick enough. Turn your head to the left. Come on. We've got to practice.
I am your spiritual trainer. I'm trying to teach you what to do when life gets tough and I'm not here for you. And you're looking to the right and you're looking to the left. On the count of three, I want you to jerk your head forward and give yourself whiplash. One, two, three. Apo. Do it again. Head to the right. You're looking at that person trying to see what they think of you, looking at that situation, trying to see how it's going to turn out. But on the count of three, we've got some apo for the devil. On the count of three, turn your head and shout, Apo. One, two, three. Apo.
That's the first step. Now we need the dokia. Everybody say dokia. Now we need that thing where you stretch your neck like a giraffe, where you look forward to your future and smile at it, where you look forward to problems and difficulties and say, I've got something for you called the Spirit of God for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. What's Paul saying? He's saying, either way this turns out, I'm coming out ahead.
You missed it. He said, I don't know what's going to happen next, but I'm headed in the right direction. Somebody shout. Somebody shout. Somebody shout. Somebody shout. Somebody shout. Somebody. I got my focus on. I got my brave on. I got my courage on. I got my hope on. I got my faith on. Get your hands out your pocket. And when I say three, I want you to stretch your neck towards your future. One, two, three. Stretch. You missed it. Let's do it on every campus. Come on. On the count of three, stretch your head. I poke, Kara, Tokyo, and tell the devil, I'm coming toward my future in faith. One, two, three. Again. One, two, three. One, two, three. I poke. One, two, three. Kara. One, two, three. Tokyo. One, two, three. Four, one, two, three.
You got it. You got it. You got it. You got it. You got it. You got it. You got it. You got it. You got it. Clap like you got it. Shout like you got it. Rejoice just like you've got it. I will continue to rejoice, for to me I feel good about it. To live is Christ, to die is gain, and I'm coming out ahead. Yeah! One, two, three! One, two, three!
This is your new Cadence this week. You're not going into this week thinking about what happened when you were 13. I have something for regret. It's called apokaradokia. I turn my head from that. If I think about that too long, I get depressed. If I think about that too long, I start getting bitter. If I look over here, I might get jealous. If I look over there, I might get discouraged. So I've got to stretch my head toward my future in faith. I will. I will. I will. Rejoice.
Now stretch your hands to heaven. You stretched your head. Now stretch your hands. To let the Lord know that what matters to me is what matters to you. I have an eager expectation. Apokaradokia. My expectation creates my hope. I don't know what, but I know why. I can survive the what when I know the why. Lift your hands.
Closing Prayer and Charge Forward
Lord, we thank you for the word that you gave us today. We thank you for the instruction that you gave us through Paul. He told us that we've got to stretch our heads forward. Forward. That we can't do anything about the time that we've lost. We've got to forget what's behind us and strain toward what's ahead. That we've got to get our eyes fixed on where we're headed. To get our lives headed in the right direction.
And I pray it over your people now in Jesus' name. That they would experience this week significant steps forward. Everybody say forward. Forward. Forward. Look at me for a moment. I asked a race car driver one time, if you were going to teach one thing about driving that people wouldn't know, what would it be? He said, you've always got to keep your eyes where you want to go. When you're on a track, you tend to look at what you don't want to hit and what you don't want to happen. He said, that will always cause you to crash every single time. What was he talking about? What was he talking about? Apokoradokia. Stretch your head forward. Forward.
I can just see it this week that you're going to preach this back to the people that you love. And you're going to preach it without words. When they start talking about what went wrong and what's wrong. I just want you to look at them and like a turtle coming out of his shell just... I want moms to do this to your daughter this week. But most importantly, I want you to do it for yourself.
I've already been practicing this in my own life as I prepared to preach it to you. And it's amazing how just a quick shift, a stretch of the head can get you out of discouragement, can get you out of defeat, can get you out of despair. Forward. Everybody say forward. Forward. That's where I'm looking. I'm looking forward. I can't go into this week like this. I can't go into this week like this. How am I going into this week? I'm going. Say it. Forward. Are there any forward thinkers in the house?