Steven Furtick - Why Breakthrough Requires a Breakup
This is an excerpt from: Breaking the Bondage of Wrong Belief
You have a Midian in your life, an external enemy that you so badly want to see God drive back. He can, and he will, and he has plans to do it and to use you in the process, not just for you but for everybody God has called you to impact. That's all true, but before you can defeat Midian, you must dethrone Baal. Would it be helpful if I explained to your neighbor what Baal is? I know you know all about Baal, but maybe your neighbor doesn't. He was the local god. It's not even his name; it's his title.
Baal was said to control the fertility and the weather. Without those two things, you can't eat or recreate. But we understand Baal isn't real. We have progressed as a society. We are so advanced. Thank God that we're alive at this time in history. We no longer trust in stuff that claims to be God but isn't. It's not like we have Baals in our culture. Right? It's not like we have stuff that controls us in our culture. Right? It's not like we're all a bunch of zombies in the zoo of 24/7 news cycles telling us what's going to happen in the world when our Savior already told us, "I have overcome the world".
Before I can defeat this army called Midian and have real peace with God… That's what Gideon said. He said, "The Lord is peace. I'm going to build an altar". That's great. The Lord is peace, and he does love you, and he will never leave you nor forsake you. In fact, he loves you too much to leave you like he found you. When God comes into your life, not only will he break through for you, but the next thing that happens when God does break through for you is God will call you to break up with something.
See how much we love to shout about breakthrough? But what if there's a breakup before the breakthrough? Is that why you've been feeling restless? Is that why you've been feeling uncomfortable doing the things you used to do? Is that why there has been a conviction in your heart that "You know what? I'm not living like this anymore. You know what? I'm not talking like this anymore. You know what? I'm not walking like this anymore. You know what? I'm not accepting this negativity that comes from my inner critic anymore, because I need to hear what God says in this season of my life".
Maybe you're in a smashing season of your own. Maybe there are some things God is breaking off of your life in this season. Maybe there are some Baals you have been believing in that have let you down, and maybe you're going through a breakup with Baal. I was talking to a lady the other day who had a boyfriend. I said, "How's he doing"? She said, "I don't know. I quit answering his calls". I said, "So y'all broke up"? She said, "I guess". I said, "Does he know"? She said, "He will". It's called ghosting. She's just going to ghost the man. I thought it was bad when I was a kid. The most cowardly thing you could do was send somebody else to tell. Not that I was traumatized by Melissa in fifth grade, but why would you send someone else to tell me?
How many think it's disrespectful to break up by text? Raise your hand. Yeah, I think so too, if it has been over two weeks in the relationship. We'll get into this later. Here's what I want to say. Israel has ghosted God. When I said earlier you tried to break up with God, you were like, "Nope. Nope. Didn't do it. Didn't do it. I did not," like what I meant by that was you drew a pentagram on your wall and started listening to Slayer and worshiping the Devil. I think sometimes we just stop answering. Stay right there and act like I'm not talking to you. All you're doing is proving you're the one this message is for.
Stay right there and act like you're always a 10. The only reason you're a 10 is he kept coming to get you. The only reason you're in is because he kept coming, not because you did. Like you always prayed. Like you always did it right. Like you always deserved it. Like you were always so wonderful. Like you always rode around singing, "Way maker, miracle worker". Like you always were kind. Like you always gave. Like you always forgave. The reason I didn't break down is God wouldn't let me break up with him.
All right. I'm going to tell you a story. I can tell you're ready for it. Did y'all know Holly tried to break up with me? She tried to break up with me for the summer. This has never been told from the pulpit. It has only been discussed behind closed doors. She looked at me seriously. She really thought this was going to be something I was going to accept as a term of negotiation.
She said, "Well, you're going to do this this summer, and I'm going to do this this summer. What if we just see if the Lord brings anybody else into our lives"? But she's on the front row because I, like God, wouldn't let her. I always wanted to be God in an illustration. I'm so far from God in my real life. Usually, she gets to be the good one. I'm so happy that I said, "No. I know what I've got, and I want it. I will not". God feels this way about you. He loves you so much he would let you be in bondage for a little while rather than let you worship Baal for the rest of your life. Baal is a false god. Baal is a god who keeps you in bondage. Baal is a god you cannot appease even with human sacrifices.
Baal can't make it rain. Ask Jezebel. She thought Baal could make it happen, but she was wrong. She had to apologize before she died because she found out that Baal is not God. Before Gideon could build an altar to God… Before you can build a new beginning in your life, before we can get past this temporary behavior modification that doesn't last 10 minutes after we leave church, there might be something you have to go home and break. If somebody sent you this YouTube link, they might be breaking up with you. But it might not be a relationship. Don't go quit your job talking about, "I'm smashing my Baal". I can just see a kid.
You know, because people like to take the message and twist it all up. I can see a kid going home and taking a baseball bat to their parents' car. "I'm smashing my father's altar to Baal". No, you're not. You're about to feel the wrath. Isn't it amazing? He said, "Before you can go forward and fight this battle, I need you to demolish your father's altar". For the purposes of the class we're having today, I do not want you to think about your father's altar as being about what your family taught you biologically. That would be too limited. It was not only Joash who had erected an altar. He was just a custodian of the cultural corruption.
What God was really telling Gideon in this passage and what he's really speaking to us, as a New Testament church today, has nothing to do with the family you were raised in. It has to do with the beliefs you cherish, the beliefs you behave out of, the beliefs that are ingrained in you. The beliefs. That's what Baal was. Baal was not just an idol. You picture the object. The object was just pointing to the belief behind it that we need something other than God to make it rain, that we need something other than God to give us life, that we need something other than God to defend us. How's that working for you? How is your Baal doing? You said if you succeeded this much you would be happy, and you got success. How did success serve you when you made it a god?
I guarantee you it left you emptier, because more success came with more pressure. You found out there is nothing that can make you feel full if you are empty without him. That's what I'm saying. Smashing Baal's altar. This isn't you going home and deleting Facebook for a week. It may include that, but that is not what I'm trying to achieve by preaching this message. When I say there may be a breakup with Baal that needs to happen, what I actually picture in my spirit is a kid going back to school this week, and there are things you believed last year, but God has been working on your heart, not only in this message but in this season.
When you go back to your school in a few days or, if you've already gone back to school, when you walk in tomorrow… You walk in, and after a while, people notice you are not as easily drawn to and seduced by the things you were drawn by, seduced by, duped by, and destroyed by in a previous season, and they begin to say things to you, like, "You've changed. You're different". Maybe they even make it a little bit meaner, and they start calling you names because you won't have sex. They start leaving you out because you won't go places. You have the audacity, Gideon, to look at them and say, "Yeah. I know I look a little different, and I know I act a little different. It's not that I'm better than you, but it's just that something happened to me over the summer.
I don't know if I told you about this, but I've been through a breakup. Me and Baal broke up. I decided he wasn't doing it for me. I decided that living to be popular was costing me too much peace. I decided that living for pleasure costs me too much pain on the other side. I decided that not having God's priorities meant I can't have God's peace. So, y'all be anxious if you've got to be anxious. Y'all be crazy if you've got to be crazy. Y'all be hateful if you've got to be hateful. Y'all call me what y'all have to call me, but the one who called me is more important than you".
So, I might not look the same next time you see me, because I'm going to be going through a breakup. It might be a painful breakup. I may have to relearn some things, I may have to be alone sometimes, and I might have to cry some nights, but I'm determined to see this through. Why? Because after the breakup, there will be a breakthrough.