Steven Furtick - Better Is Ahead
This is an excerpt from: When Better Feels Backwards
I'm preaching this for somebody today who has been feeling like things have been going backwards for you. The thing about it is: When God shows you a new grip, called grace, for a little while in your life it's harder for you because you're used to controlling things and manipulate things. And when you get something new, have you ever noticed if you get something new, even if it's better at first, it gets on your nerves because you don't know how to use it?
And the temptation for us is, watch this, God will do a new thing in our life, and it will be teaching us to forgive; and it will be teaching us to get over offenses; and it will be teaching us to trust Him; and it will be teaching us to find different ways to connect to joy; and it will be teaching us to not be so fake; and it will be teaching us not to live by our feelings, but then we look at what He fixed on our grip, and we see our shot going so far over the fence. And I wonder if I would actually be better off doing it the old way than the new way, so I go back instead of moving forward into better. He said "You can't go back. You have something better. Better".
When you get depressed, you stop believing that. When you get uncomfortable, you stop believing that. You start trying to grip life like you're used to. We've gotta go backwards to get better. We gotta go all the way back to get better. That means I have to be comfortable in some seasons in my life (I'm looking in the camera because I think this is for somebody watching online), I have to be comfortable in my life to accept that sometimes loss is the way to gain. I have to be comfortable enough in my life to know that sometimes the most painful moments are the most purposeful moments. I have to be comfortable in my life to stop comparing myself so much with people who are not meant to be the standard anyway. Jesus is better.
I know some of you are intimidated, because you don't know if you're as good of a Christian as some of the other people in the room, but let me tell you something about being a better Christian. "Well they're a better Christian than me. Look, they memorized all this scripture". They're not better at Christians, they're better at memory. They've just got a better memory, that doesn't make them a better Christian. The religious people that crucified Jesus had a good memory. They could quote all 600+ laws. They're not better than you. I wish you would tell the person next to you, "You're not better than me. Not when it comes to my purpose". See, better is relative to purpose. Can I preach this?
So, I walked into Guitar Center and I asked Jaime behind the counter, "Which one is better"? I was buying software for Elijah to make beats. "Which one is better"? He said, "That depends what you want to use it for. That depends how you intend to utilize the software". Better is relative to purpose. Some of you think that everybody else is better, smarter, taller. Maybe, God needed somebody short enough to fit through that door. Have you ever thought about that? Maybe, God needed somebody ignorant enough to display his wisdom. Maybe God needed somebody humble enough to know that it is not I, but Christ in me. And besides, if Jesus Christ walks in this room, none of us are gonna have any fashion show to put on, none of us are gonna roll out our righteous deeds. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And grace is a way of life because you need Him like I need Him. And His blood that was enough for you was enough for me. If it cleansed Billy Graham, it can hit me too.
Because He's better. Because He's better. And the fact that He's better doesn't mean that sometimes life won't get worse. So, we need a definition of better. What if better is not always higher, what if better sometimes is deeper? What if better is not always a feeling, what if it's more like a foundation? What if better is not always what God is doing for you, but sometimes it's what He's doing through you? They couldn't recognize Jesus when He came in the form of a baby because they were waiting for something better. They couldn't recognize Jesus when He was led away silently and didn't say a word before His accusers. Because if He's really the Son of God, He should say something and come down. They expected better. And is it possible that better is right in front of us and we don't even recognize it, so we don't receive it.
You know what, some of us are so used to bad that we reject better when it comes. Sometimes, backwards feels better, feels familiar. Sometimes we'll go back to bad relationships because they feel better. Oh, I'm preaching now. It got quiet. When backwards, I called the sermon "When Better Feels Backwards", but what about, "When Backwards Feels Better"? "I think I'll just go back to this. I think I'll just go back to that. I think I'll just quit trying at this. I think I'll use my old grip, I'm tired of waiting on". That's what happened to Abraham, by the way. God told him He was gonna do it a certain way, but he thought he knew better.
So instead of waiting, he went in and slept with the servant of his wife Sarai, her name became Sarah, but Abraham went in and made a baby with her because God had a promise, and a timetable for the promise, but Abraham, I know you never did this before, but he thought he knew better than God. And the Bible even uses this illustration of Abraham in Hebrews 6. He reached backward to show them how much better it is to wait for the promise of God. He reaches all the way back to Abraham that was like the progenitor or the father of the faith of the whole nation. This is what they came from. And now as they're tempted to back away from what they're walking into as their lives get worse, as their situation seems to decrease and diminish, he reaches back to Abraham and he talks about how he patiently waited for the promise of God, but that's not the whole story.
See, before Abraham patiently waited for Isaac, the child of promise, to be born through Sarah, he got the word from God, and then he went and did something that he thought was better because he got tired of waiting. He had the right word, but the wrong womb. And so, he went in. Now, I know why he did this, because Abraham was from a place called Ur of the Chaldees, and so are we. Not geographically, and it's spelled differently. He was from Ur, U-R, but ours is spelled E-R, because anything that God does in our life, all we have to do is go on our phones and find somebody who is "er" than us. Bett-er, rich-er, strong-er, happi-er, thinn-er, ripped-er, cute-er.
This is the one that'll break your heart, you think your kids are smart, and then you get around some other kids, and you realize that your kids, by product of comparison, were better than their 3-year old brother, but around the same-aged kids... It's always this temptation, you don't have to do anything, but flip on a commercial and they will be pulling you back to the land of "Er". "It's better, it's better".
And there are things in your life right now that you're like, "It'd be so much better if..." Would it really? Are you sure? "Yeah, yeah. If I was famous, that would be amazing. I would be significant if people knew my name". Oh really, that would be better? You never saw a celebrity commit suicide? Are you sure it would be better? Is that what better really is? "Well, if I had this amount of money, I wouldn't have any problems". Are you sure about that? You never met a miserable rich person? I can introduce you to a few. It's not like this is new, it's not like it's only for the church here in Rome that is being persecuted for their faith. We are all drawn back to the land of "Er". Of looking around and never feeling really enough and comparing ourselves to things that were never meant to be our standard.
The only standard worthy of your comparison is the full potential of Christ in you, the hope of glory. And I wanna declare over some of our lives today, we don't even realize how good it already is, we are forgiven, set free, redeemed, breathing, clapping, walking, talking examples of the miracle-working power of God. I release this over your life, it's already better, you can already rejoice, you can give thanks right now for His goodness. Kreittón. Better, better, better, better. Don't let the quest for better in your life make you miss the grace of God that is already present. I'm preaching to every anneagram One right now. It could always be better, but it already is. Look what I deserve and look what He did. He did not treat me as my sins deserved. It's already better.