Steven Furtick - You Are Enough
This is an excerpt from: Talk Yourself Into It
God has given you his courage. If you're going to live in courage and fulfill your purpose, you're gonna have to talk yourself into your purpose. Keep it on your lips. So what you need, and I am gonna get very practical now 'cuz what good is all this screaming and shouting, if the moment it leaves my lips, it leaves your heart? The way that you keep it, is you need a phrase to fight with. You hear me? Your mind is always going to be murmuring and muttering. Have you noticed that? Okay? It's always going to be doing it. So, what you want to do, is take control of the conversation by the Spirit of God. And the way you do that, you need a phrase to fight the devil with. Here is my current phrase to fight the devil with, This is how I fight fear, 'cuz I have a lot of fear. I know I am not supposed to. I know I am the pastor of the church, but I get scared sometimes; scared of big stuff and scared of stupid stuff. But, I have learned that if I am in a state of fear the reason I am there is because I talk myself into it and if I talked myself into, then I can talk myself out of it.
There are really only two fears, they all fall under these categorize; its the fear of falling short and the fear of running out. Any fear you have in your life falls into one of those two categorize. If you are scared to lose a relationship it is because you're afraid of falling short in someones eyes or you're afraid of running out of love; and if their not there you won't have love. Every fear that you've ever had in your life falls under those two categorize: fear that I will fall short or that I will not be enough and fear that I will run out, that I will not have enough. So since I know that the key to me persevering in courage and in strength and in purpose is to fight back. Somebody say, "Fight back". You are not going to take the land automatically and you are not going to live in peace and purpose automatically.
So I've got a phrase that I do; and it's four syllables on the front and it's four syllables on the back. And I did it in four 'cuz you can breathe in four times and breathe out four times. So I do it all the time. And the devil doesn't like it, he really really hates it. So I am doing it more and more, 'cuz I like to make him mad. and I like to fight back, I like to let him know that he can't just push me around and keep me stuck in the wilderness and he's not gonna have my destiny and he's not gonna disrupt God's dream for my life with discouragement, and anytime he roles up on me and tries to make my soul downcast, I got something for him, 'cuz it's trained my fingers for war and my hands for battle and he will not keep me out of the land God's promised. He will not keep me out of the purpose.
I am gonna raise my kids to love God. I am going to serve God in my generation. I am gonna complete the calling that God has placed on my life. I am gonna go forward in Jesus' name. I am gonna build the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. I am going to see it come to pass. So I just do this, I say, Christ is in me, that's the first half. I am enough. Why don't you try it. You know if you are sitting at a restaurant and somebody says, "Here taste this, taste this, taste this. You try it". Say, "Christ is in me, I am enough". Tell it to your neighbor. Tell em, "Christ is in you. You are enough". I love people who absolutely refuse to participate with anything you do in church. Do they have a secret meeting before church? Where does this happen in the lobby? When he says, "Touch your neighbor." do nothing. It's okay, it's okay. Let's go for 97% participation, okay? I think we are about 80%. Touch your neighbor, say, "Christ is in you. You are enough".
Now you gotta get it in that order, 'cuz if you start with "You are enough," it's just a matter of time before you find out that is just not true. They're stronger than we are. Yeah but didn't you hear the verse, devil. Christ is in me. I am enough. Let's take the volume up a little bit. Christ is in me. I am enough. Think about that fear that you have, look at it and say, Christ is in me I am enough. Think about what was discouraging you last night, robbing you of your sleep, robbing you of your joy, robbing you of your peace, robbing you of your purpose, and shout it out loud. Say, "Christ is in me. I am enough".
Now, break it down. If you walk around shouting like that it's gonna cause some trouble for you at your job. So God tells Joshua, he says, "Keep it on your lips, as the background, as the soundtrack and take it into any situation that you face". I love it, because God at once, gives him a big destiny. How many of you believe that God has a destiny for you? How many of you want to believe that God has a destiny for you? It's kinda hard sometimes, 'cuz I thought I'd be there by now and I am not there by now. Well, he gives him a big destiny, but he gives him a small direction. He said, "For you to fulfill your destiny, you're gonna have to talk yourself into it."
So I was flying into Charlotte... You can stand I am closing. I was flying into Charlotte one time... Did you get blessed by this word at all today? I was flying into Charlotte one time and I started to tell you this story, how I was discouraged and afraid. And while we were landing, I open my window and I remember it real clearly, 'cuz the guy next to me had been sleeping and he was kinda mad when I opened the window. But, I opened the window and looked out and it was the perfect setting, like the sun was setting and, remember I was afraid and discouraged, and I am not comparing myself to Joshua. I don't have some kind of grandiose idea of what God put me on the earth to do, but for my calling, for my part to play in the kingdom, I take it very seriously. And I believe that God has given me a promise and I believe that God has given me a purpose. And I believe that he desires me to live in peace as I fulfill that purpose and possess that promise.
So, as we were landing, and it was like a scene out of Thomas Kinkade, you know what I am saying? Like, do you know that guy? The guy who paints all the stuff. It was like the city of Charlotte was bathed in the orange sunset; and orange was our church color and it's also the color of God's team, the Clemson Tigers And so, these two things served to confirm to me that God was speaking. I just felt something. I got my notebook out that I had and I just wrote down, just as fast as I could write, the impressions that I was receiving as we were landing in Charlotte. And it started with this idea, "This is your city. I have given it to you for influence". Not that it isn't other people's city too, but just that God had called me here. You made the right decision. You did it. And I wanna give.. And it was about a page and a half of stuff that I wrote down and a couple days later I read it to our team. It was very encouraging, very inspiring.
The reason I told you that story is because, I have landed in Charlotte many times since then. Almost every time I am landing I open my window just in case that could happen again. And you know what, it's never happened like that again, ever. Ever. I mean, I have even put my notebook out and gotten my pen ready. And what I see is buildings. But see, you can't live in a place where you're depending on God to always give you a sunset and a poem. And the sense I get from the LORD is, I've already spoken my promise to you, now you've got to speak it to yourself. There are some promises in your life that you have not yet possessed; and you are waiting on somebody or you're waiting on God, or you're waiting on a circumstance to align. It's not going to happen that way. If you are going to experience the peace of God, it won't be because God gives it to you; he's already given you peace.
In John 14:27 when Jesus, like Moses, was preparing his followers for his departure and telling them about the Holy Spirit that was coming; not only to live with them, but to live in them. God told Joshua, "I am with you". But God tells you something even better. He says, "I am in you". Christ is in me. And I am more than enough. And he tells his followers, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I don't give like the world gives. Don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't let them be afraid". Do you see it? Don't let your heart be troubled. Don't let it be afraid. Why are you so downcast. Stop listening to your situation and start preaching to your situation. In the name of the LORD, dry bones will live. In the name of the LORD, the promise will come to pass. So Jesus said, "I have given you my peace. Now talk yourself into it".
Day and night. The refrain of my heart. You need a phrase to fight the devil with. I am not afraid anymore. I feel fear but I am not afraid. He didn't say I couldn't feel it. He just said that I had to face it. He didn't say that the fear wouldn't come upon me he just said that it shoudn't define me. Come on, I am preaching to somebody. You've been stuck. You've been afraid. You've been terrified. You've been worried about it. You've been stressed. But, lift your hands in the presence of the LORD. and say, "Christ is in me, I am enough". Say it again. Christ is in me. I am enough. One more time. God said it three times to Joshua, I want you to say it three times too. Christ is in me. I am enough. Now clap your hands and thank God. Clap your hands and praise God. Open your mouth and speak praise; speak peace. I will yet praise him, My LORD and my God.