Steven Furtick - Get Out of Your Head
This is an excerpt from: Silent Sermons
Some of your relationships went off track not because of what was said in the relationship but because of what was not said, what you started saying to yourself. "He said within himself…" That's what the rich man did in the parable. He said to himself, "I'll build many barns. I'll take life easy". He didn't know that very night his life would be required. He said to himself. It matters where you start with what you think about. Self is a very small sun for your life to orbit around. It's a very limited loop. Self is a very small scale to see the world in. In fact, sing with me. "Do, re, me…me…me…me…" I'm just…me…singing the song…me…that many of us…me…have been singing all week…me…me…me…me…me. What's your favorite meditation? Me…me. What are they thinking about? Me…me. When is anybody ever going to notice…me?
I changed the key, but it's still about me. Sometimes I can find a way to make anything about me. Come on, let's have choir practice. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart… Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. I don't think it's a hit. I don't think anybody is going to buy the album. I don't think it's going to bring me joy. I don't think it's going to bring me peace. I don't think I'm going to figure out a solution if I start with myself. I need a new loop. Some of you came to church today not just to hear a sermon but to preach one to yourself. Why don't you start with your source and not with yourself? "Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more than I ask or imagine…"
I'm tired of that track. I thought about singing it until it wasn't funny anymore, and it sounds like we're already at that point. I didn't know how long it would take. How long will it take until you change that meditation, realizing that if you start with yourself, you stay in yourself, and you will always be limited by who you are? But when you start with the Great I Am… David said, "Who's that"? They said, "I think his name is Goliath". David said, "I'll fight him". Saul said, "You're small". David said, "I'm not coming against him in myself or in my name, but I come against you in the name of the Lord". The skies declare the glory of God.
Notice David did not start with what was in his heart. If you start with what's in your heart, you'll scare yourself to death. That's a horror movie, to start with what's in your heart. I was going to preach one time, and the guy who invited me… I'd never been to his church before. He said, "Just share what's on your heart". I said, "Oh no. You don't want me to do that". I'm going to share what's in heaven, because if I tell you what's in my heart it won't help any of us. I don't start my meditation with what's in myself. I notice that every meditation… Again, don't think meditation… Think about the loop. Think about the lines that loop over and over again in the way you think. Think about how you have this subtle way, if you let yourself, into turning every interaction into a stage on which you are the star.
"I don't do that. I don't like to be noticed. I don't do that. I don't like people to even look at me. I'm not that type of person. This must be a preacher thing". No, I promise you, you talk too much sometimes. I promise you some of the stuff you post… Oh, you didn't think I was talking about your Instagram feed, did you? Some of you need to go home and change the bio on your Instagram, and it should just say what it's really all аbout: "Me, me, me, me, me". Just give us an expectation of what's going to happen on that feed. When you're easily offended, when everything is an insult… "Did you see how they looked at me"? They weren't looking at you. They were thinking about dinner. They have not bought groceries this week, and their mom has cancer. Could you get outside yourself and think about something bigger?
The skies declare the glory of God, people! Life is bigger than what happens in here. Get out of your head. That's a horrible place to take your orders. Every meditation, every loop that starts with self, ends in one of two places, and I want you to look for this in your life this week. It's either going to end in scarcity or shame. Every sermon you preach to yourself, and you are always preaching to yourself. In fact, Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that our problem is we spend too much time listening to ourselves and not enough time preaching to ourselves. Isn't that what David's psalms have shown us? Where he would say to his soul, "It's time to go to school. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name". He's preaching to himself, and so are you. But when you preach to yourself from yourself your sermon will always lead to scarcity.
Brené Brown says the number-one meditation of many of our hearts is "Not enough". She says we apply it to time, we apply it to money, we apply it to our talent, and the sermon that plays in our minds, if we would ever stop and listen to it… It starts every morning. "Not enough". How much sleep did you get last night? How much money do you make on that job? Graham asked me the other day, "Dad, is $56,000 a year a lot of money"? I said, "It is until you make it". That might be the Devil's favorite sermon: "Not enough". He preached it to the disciples, because they looked at 5,000 men and women and children, and Jesus said, "Feed them," and they said, "Well, we don't have a whole lot. We have five loaves and two fish, but that's not enough". They were starting with themselves, but they were standing next to the source.
I wonder how different the story would be if you would ask the source instead of asking yourself. Check the source. He's more than enough. I know y'all don't like it when I holler, but this is not a silent sermon; this is a loud sermon. Somebody shout, "He's more"! More than enough. Every need. Every deficiency. All my failures. His blood is enough. His grace is enough. His Word is enough. "The law of the Lord is pure, reviving the soul". If I start with myself, I end with scarcity. It's a loop. I start down here, so by the time I've looped around through my day I end my day feeling depleted. If you got a new loop and started with the source instead of starting with yourself, I wonder how the cycle would change. I know it's basic, but didn't David start with the heavens and then move toward his heart?
The skies declare the glory of God. They show forth his power day after day and night after night and day after day and night after night, and all I have to do to stay in step with God is keep the beat of heaven happening inside my heart. There's always enough in heaven. There's always enough patience in heaven. There's always enough provision in heaven. There's always enough bread in heaven. There's always enough. "My God shall supply all of your needs according…" What if you got in that loop? What if you asked God to fill your empty places? If you start with yourself, you end in scarcity. If you start with yourself, you end in shame. I look at myself and I feel like David. David does something weird. I think he wrote this psalm. It's contested. He might have written it, he might have not written it, but let's give him credit.
This is a psalm that embodies a characteristic known as wisdom poetry. It kind of switches beats in the middle of the song. It's going on and on about the skies and the heavens. For many years, they thought it was two different poems put together. As they were studying back and trying to find out how it was written and when it was written, it was such a sharp break at verse 7 they thought, "Well, maybe this is a different thing". We're talking about the skies and the sun and the stars, and then all of a sudden David makes a break in verse 7 and starts talking about the law of the Lord. Watch what he says. "It's perfect, refreshing the soul". Look at verse 12. "But who can discern their own errors"? He is an imperfect man looking into a perfect law. He's looking at what the law is and what it does and how it brings peace, wisdom, and joy, yet he knows he has broken the very law that produces the very things he wants.
I don't think it's much of a break, because he is contemplating how the heavens are able to effortlessly declare the glory of God but he cannot. I'm stuck in a cycle called sin. There are secrets in my heart. No matter how much I dress them up with the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart fall short of the glory of God. Paul knew it too. He said, "What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature…" Look at what God did. God started a new loop. Through the law man tried to reach his way to God, but it was a cycle of shame caused by sin. I reach and fall short and try and fall short and repent and fall short and get up and fall down and reach and fall short and try and fall short and get up and fall down. God broke the cycle. For in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man so that we can say, "There is therefore now no condemnation…"
Let me give you a new loop. No condemnation, no condemnation, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is the kind of gospel preaching that got me to the cross. This is the kind of gospel preaching that'll break the chains of shame off of your life. This is the kind of gospel preaching you can preach on Monday morning, Tuesday night, Wednesday afternoon. You can preach this stuff to yourself. "There is therefore now no condemnation". Why? Because I'm in Christ. In other words, touch seven people and tell them, "I've got a new loop". That's what the gospel gives me: a new meditation. I no longer live by situation; I live by revelation. I know who he is. I know who I am in him. Whatever I go through, I have a revelation of who's in the fire with me. I know what he did. I know who he is. I know who I am in him. I got a new loop. I’m losing my voice, y’all shout for me.