Steven Furtick - This Could Be Why You're Tired
This is an excerpt from: Source Material
I just want us to read the Bible like it's real. Here comes a violent wind. You're not shouting; you're ducking under stuff. Here come tongues of fire. The Bible doesn't say it was actual fire. Watch this. Read it really slowly. It says it was a sound like the blowing of a violent wind. It seemed to be tongues of fire. It wasn't what it looked like. I know it looked like it was the end for you last year, but it wasn't what it looked like. I know it looked like the reason they pushed you away was because you're no good, but it wasn't what it looked like.
Oh, tell your neighbor, "It wasn't what it looked like". It looked like a dead end, but it was really a doorway, because it wasn't what it looked like. How many have a testimony? "It came from heaven. It hurt like hell, but it came from heaven". I hear the Holy Spirit blowing in my spirit today, telling me to tell you, "It wasn't what it looked like". It looked like it would be the last time, but God has new wine. Open your mouth and fill this atmosphere with praise! It wasn't what it looked like! The Devil thought he had him. They put him in the grave. It looked like he was a criminal there to stay, but it wasn't what it looked like. Three days later… Don't let me preach on the Holy Ghost. I'm telling you right now it wasn't what it looked like.
Isn't it interesting the Bible said it filled the house where they were sitting? Sitting. Are you sitting where you're supposed to be sitting? I don't mean right now in the church. "This is where the usher told me to sit. It's not my fault". Are you sitting where you're supposed to be sitting? See, I think some of you… I don't mean to be confrontational. I'm just trying to help you. I think some of you aren't getting what you should be getting because you're not sitting where you should be sitting.
Okay. If the disciples try to go in their own strength and take the gospel all through the Roman Empire, what are the chances that it makes it to Ballantyne today? What are the chances it makes it to Winston-Salem? What are the chances it makes it to Gaston County? What are the chances it makes it to Zimbabwe? What are the chances it makes it to your room, your hospital room right there? What are the chances that we're still preaching about Jesus today if they tried to do it in their own strength?
Recently, in preaching, I had to adjust some things about my style of preaching to sustain my ability to preach. One of the things I decided I would do, in addition to the way I prepare and plan and try to lean more into God and less into this idea that I have to change someone's life when I preach and more that he is the source and I am just a sail and his is the wind… Even in raising your kids, sometimes you have to realize the reason you are so stressed out as a parent is you are trying to fill a role in their life that you are not supposed to fill. All of the teenagers are like, "Thank you, Jesus. Preach, Pastor Steven". I see 13-year-olds waking up all around the church. "Tell them. Leave me alone". No, no, no. You are supposed to be their guide, not their god. Sometimes we get confused about what we're supposed to do.
So, I want to ask you… Are you weary, are you out of stamina, are you out of strength because you are asking God to support something you're not even supposed to be doing, trying to make them what you think they need to be? Are you minding your own business or do you keep borrowing drama from social media, trying to pray away stress you ingested in your own system by mindless scrolling? You weren't supposed to be scrolling at 11:30 p.m.; you were supposed to be sleeping. Then you saw something you weren't supposed to be seeing because you were scrolling on something when you should have been sleeping. You were sitting somewhere you shouldn't have been sitting, and now you're not getting what you could be getting because you're sitting where…
Anyway… It's half Holy Ghost, half Dr. Seuss today. I went to see a guy. I said, "One thing I need to work on is my voice," because I would preach a lot of times, and I would feel very hoarse after I preached. I thought the guy… He is a voice coach. His name is Roger Love. I thought he would say, "Stop screaming so much". So, I came to him and said, "I know you're going to tell me two things to do, and I'm not going to do either one of them. You're going to say, 'Stop drinking Diet Coke.' That's off the table. The Lord and I have an arrangement. That is not my Isaac. Secondly, you're going to tell me to stop screaming, and I'm not doing either".
He said, "You can drink Diet Coke. It's going to kill you, but it's not what's messing up your voice". I said, "It's not? I thought you were going to tell me the chemicals came from a conspiracy in China. They're trying to…" He said, "No, no, no. You can drink Diet Coke, and you can scream all you want". He said, "I don't want you to stop screaming; I want you to start breathing". Now, this guy is expensive. I said, "I paid you how much for you to tell me to breathe"? He said, "Yeah. No wonder your voice hurts".
I had had a thing in my throat for about six months, and I couldn't make it go away. I said, "I know when you scream it's supposed to hurt". He said, "It's not supposed to hurt". It's not supposed to hurt. Yeah, we go through things, but I was sustaining damage I didn't need to sustain because of something as simple as I wasn't breathing. Did you hear how much I just screamed at you? My voice still feels strong, because he taught me I can scream if I breathe. If I breathe, I can make the sound I need to make. Whether I should scream or not, that's your business, but I do have a Scripture. Acts 2:14: "Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice…" I have a Scripture I can scream by. He didn't say it softly; he said it from a deep place. It says he stood up, and it says he raised his voice. I have been learning that the only way you can really make a volume is if you take a breath.
The Bible says he raised his voice. What the Bible does not say is that he took a deep breath. However, we have evidence that he took a deep breath before he raised his voice. That day, off of one sermon, he preached about the crucifixion of Jesus, he preached about the resurrection of Jesus, he preached about the judgment of Jesus, he preached about the need for repentance and baptism and confession of sin, and he pierced their hearts, and 3,000 of them became believers that day. There were no microphones. There was no public address system. How did his voice get all the way from here to 3,000 people? He had to breathe. I want to give you a Holy Ghost voice lesson today for your life. You have to breathe. You're not breathing.
There are some things that are hurting in your life that aren't supposed to be hurting, but you're not breathing. If you would get a breath from heaven before you would take that next step, you would feel the wind of God in your sail, and you wouldn't have to row your boat alone. You would have something blowing your sails that would help you get where you're trying to go. But you haven't been breathing. You've been running from one appointment to another. You've been running from one stressful situation to another. You've been running from one hypothetical scenario to another, and you haven't been breathing. You haven't stopped lately and said, "God, I need you for this. God, show me what you have called me to do".
If you are trying to do something in your strength that you are not supposed to do in God's sovereignty, he will not support it. The Holy Spirit will only support what the voice of the Lord orders. That means God will not help you be more like the person you're comparing yourself to. God will not help you reach the goal of somebody who has different gifts than you. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire. They heard what sounded like a rushing wind. Part of my wisdom is knowing what I'm not supposed to do so I am not expecting God to support me in something I'm not even supposed to be doing. You're not supposed to be hanging around them, so you will not have the strength to avoid the temptation if you keep spending the majority of your time with them, because you are not supposed to have them as your inner circle.
I am going to preach this word to help somebody so you don't hurt where you're not supposed to hurt because you are sitting where you are not supposed to sit. This is an amazing revelation for us. The way the Spirit of God moved in the disciples, the way the gospel of Jesus Christ reached the end of the world, the end of the earth, is all through this one little phrase. It says, "The Spirit enabled them". That means they breathed in the same Spirit that was hovering over the waters in Genesis 1. They breathed in the same Spirit that was hovering over the creation when it was still chaos. That same Spirit does not hover over your life today; it lives within your very soul. Breathe it in.
Stop arguing with people and breathe God in. You know, I feel like our whole problem sometimes is we try to ask the right question, but we ask to the wrong crowd. The Bible says there were people staying in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven. If you think I'm pronouncing all of those names again, you're crazy. The Bible says they were amazed and perplexed, and all of the people… Now imagine this. They are hearing the gospel in their own language. When you talk about tongues in church, there are different things that can mean. One is a prayer language that is known to God but unknown by others and spoken by the person who's speaking it, and that is real.
This is not that. This is they were speaking in one language, and the people were hearing in another. It was known to the listeners even though it was not previously known to the speakers. So it was a miracle. "How are we going to get the gospel to the ends of the earth when we don't even speak the language"? The Spirit will enable you. "How am I going to show up in that situation and know what to do"? The Spirit will enable you. "How am I going to be a witness to Jesus Christ when my life is such a mess"? The Spirit will enable you. God hovers over darkness. God fills emptiness. God comes to people who are open and waiting and ready and breathing and needing. The Spirit enabled them.
The Bible says that as all of these different crowds gathered around, "Amazed and perplexed, they asked…" Here's the mistake. "…one another…" That will always get you in trouble, trying to process your life with somebody who's at your same level. That's why God gives you the gift of his Spirit. Watch what Peter said. He stood up, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. The answer was not coming from the crowd; it had to be given to the crowd. Peter raised his voice and said to the crowd, "Fellow Jews…" Let me do it louder. "Fellow Jews".
Let me get a deep breath. "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say". Stop asking one another. Stop looking for solutions from people who don't know any more than you do about it. He raised his voice, addressed the crowd, and said, "All of you listen to me. These people are not drunk, as you suppose". Ooh, I love that phrase: as you suppose. Here's what happened. The crowd saw this crazy thing happening, and they thought, "They must be crazy. They must be drunk. This is ridiculous. This makes no sense.
What do you think they're doing"? "I think they're drunk". "What do you think they're doing"? "I think they're crazy". "What do you think they're doing"? As they're passing this around all through the crowd, they begin to support what they have already supposed. Have you noticed in your life that you support whatever you've supposed? So, if you supposed today that you came to Elevation, and you're like, "I heard it's a cult," because somebody told you it was a cult… If you come in here looking for a cult, do you know what you will find? Evidence for the verdict you already created.
You thought you were supposed to be the judge, and you're really supposed to be a witness. Even if you suppose somebody doesn't like you… "I don't think they like me". You will find every reason they don't. "Did you see how they just looked at me"? "They smiled at you". "Yeah, but it wasn't a full smile. It was like a three-fourths smile. Did you see that three-quarter smile? Eighty percent at the most. I didn't see any teeth. Did you see any teeth? They don't like me. I told you they don't like me".
We do this all the time. We suppose, and then we support. I suppose it's my destiny to be an addict, so then I find the friends who will support what I suppose. I suppose I'm never going to get out of this cage; I'm never going to break free. I suppose, so then I don't see anything. What happens in your life is you see something, you think something. You think something, you think something, you think something, and then you believe something. You believe something, you become something. I'll do it again. You see something, so then you think something. You think something, you think something, you think something, so you believe something, and then you become something, and then you say, "See"? No, no, no. You saw something, you thought something, you believed something, and then you became something, and then you say, "See? I told you that's how it was".
No, no, no. You just supposed and then supported. You supposed that nothing ever goes your way. You supposed that God can't use someone like you. You supposed that it's too late. You supposed that you're too young. Meanwhile, somebody else who's half your age already did it. Somebody else who's twice your age is still doing it, but you support what you suppose. Sometimes you don't realize that what you have supposed is not coming from the right place. It's not coming from God.