Steven Furtick - How to Get Your Momentum Back
This is an excerpt from: The Momentum Of A Decision
Do you know what we do? We go through things, and they're painful. We don't take the opportunities, and we weren't there like we should have been there, and we go back and say things that make absolutely no sense, like, "If I knew then what I know now…" You didn't, but now you do, and now you have different wisdom. Right now, in this moment, you have wisdom from that painful experience. You have wisdom from that dumb decision.
I was talking to one of my good friends the other day, and he was beating the crap out of himself. He was saying, "I should have done it differently. I would have done it differently. I could have done it differently. I coulda. I woulda. I shoulda. I'd have done it differently". I said, "You would have, and you will, but don't judge yesterday's decisions with today's wisdom. That's only going to paralyze you, and the momentum of shame will carry you to an even deeper place of despair".
How many have experienced this? I said to my friend, "You are literally…" This was a deep pain. This was not he wished he would have bought $2,000 of Zoom stock at the beginning of the pandemic. This was much deeper than that. I said, "You would have done it differently, and you will do it differently, but you are using today's wisdom as a weapon to beat yourself up for yesterday's decisions". God doesn't want you to do that, because in the wisdom of God, he chose you knowing you would do something dumb. Do you believe that?
I want to help you believe that, and I want to help you from Luke, chapter 5, verse 3, where the Bible says Jesus saw at the water's edge… Isn't that a beautiful image? I'm on the edge. I could do it this way. I could do it that way. I'm making a decision. Jesus got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon. He hadn't even changed his name yet, but he chose his boat. That's his old name. He hadn't even grown yet. He hadn't even done anything right yet. In fact, we find out later in this story that Peter said, "I'm a sinful man. Go away from me, Lord". Some of you have been doing that. "Not me, Lord; I'm not a good person. Not me; I'm not a good parent. Not me; I'm dumb. I don't know what I'm doing. Not me. Anybody but me".
That's what Peter said. This was the revelation I got: Peter's destiny didn't begin with Peter's decision. It said there were two boats. That means Jesus chose. Do you see? This is a fishing village. There's way more than one boat available. And how did he choose it? I wonder. Did he go "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"? I'm picturing Jesus. Jesus is choosing, "Whose boat do I want to preach from? I'm launching a ministry. Not only am I launching a boat; I'm launching a movement. I'm launching the gospel. Whose boat? Here's a boat. There's a boat. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a disciple by his boat". I felt like God was saying, "I knew what was in Peter when I got in his boat".
He got in your boat. He knew where I was broken when he got into my boat. He knew what I didn't know when he got into my boat. He knew where I would fail when he called me to follow. So, it wasn't my decision that started this. He got in the boat. See, we thought it started when Peter let down the nets. No. We thought it started when Peter let out a little from the shore. No. You thought it started when you were born. No. He said, "Before you were born, I formed you. I knew you. I knew the good stuff, the funky stuff, the weird stuff, the perverted stuff, the twisted stuff, the genetic stuff. I knew your dumb stuff, and I got into your boat. It's you I called, and it's you I chose. I know whose boat I'm stepping into".
See, the momentum depends on who made the decision, and if you think you chose God, then it is dependent on you. But when you get a revelation that Peter got much later in his life… It took him years. He went back fishing in John 21 and didn't catch fish again. He never really got it, but he still preached. Why? Because Jesus knew his condition before he called him. I don't think there's anything more important than this to teach you about the grace of God and the life of faith. God's decision predated your dysfunction. He knew Peter was a cussing mess when he got into the boat. He knew he was an impulsive idiot when he got into the boat. He knew you were predisposed to these emotions when he got into your boat, when he came into your heart. He saved you by grace.
I just want you to know that. Where it starts determines where it stops. If God's purpose for your life stopped with your last bad decision, it would be over for all of us. Peter said something later in his life that I think he learned in that boat. This Scripture came to me right before I came out. It was the last thing God gave me, and it's the last thing I want to show you. He said in 2 Peter…. He went on to write some of the Bible. That's pretty cool that God picked him as an author of the Word of God while he was cleaning empty nets. We get so arrogant, and we get so crazy we think something we brought to God drew him to us. No, no. He chose you before all that, before the achievement. Put all of those trophies back in the basement. God doesn't need any of that.
I didn't even know where this Scripture was. I had to look it up. It said, "No prophecy ever had its origin in human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit". That's powerful all in itself. No prophecy has ever had its origin… It doesn't start with the human will. It didn't start when they left their boats. It started when Jesus stepped in. The momentum of that decision can carry you through any season of your life, any failure, any setback, any shame, anything you can name. He took it all to the cross, buried it all in the grave, and there's a resurrection that can happen if you realize no prophecy ever had its origin in the human will. The way I saw it… I asked them, "Do you have anything I can show the people"?
I want you to get this wherever you are in the world. You've been praying for momentum in your life. You have been very, very stuck and frustrated and in a state of disappointment this year, and the truth is some of us are drowning in it. We fished all night. We fished all year. We've caught nothing. Nothing is changing. I just said, "Give me something heavy on the stage so I can leave them with an image". I know how you are. You're like I am. We'll forget everything, but sometimes if we see it, we can get it. It hit me.
I need somebody who's not very strong to come here. You'll have to identify yourself. I'm certainly not going to point at you. I mean, I need you to be really weak. I need you to be like you haven't seen a gym since COVID started. You haven't seen a gym since Y2K. That's who I need right now. Do y'all remember Y2K? Like, you have not seen it. I mean, like, you really aren't strong. Who's the weakest person in this section? I wish you were all here so I could do a whole poll. Who is the physically weakest person in the room? Is it you? Like, for real? Okay. Come here. Everybody in the room, stand up. I'm going to show you this. I need you to just follow my instructions. Thank you for volunteering.
I chose you because you said you were weak. I chose you because I said, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers…" I could make a whole Christian song out of it. "If he sins, I won't let go. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe". I could do all this stuff. This is what I do. Remember how we'd say, "My mama told me to pick the very best one"? I know this is so simple and so silly, but sometimes it's the shallow stuff that sticks with us. How did he pick Peter? I heard, "My Father told me to pick the very worst one, the weakest one, the most impulsive one," and he got into that boat. That gave me hope, because I make dumb decisions. It's not my decision or my good decisions I'm putting my faith in. Not as a pastor, not as a parent, not as a husband, not as a man. It's his decision. Give that one good push.
All you're allowed to do is push it as hard as you can with one push. Don't keep your hands on it. Three, two, one. Who's the strongest person in the room? I mean, the strongest person in the room. I need the strongest person in the room. I'm going to have to select somebody if somebody doesn't volunteer. In fact, give me three strong people. Notice I didn't just say "men". I am very, very politically correct, y'all. I don't want to offend anybody. Give me the three strongest people. All three of you, come on up. I wanted to remind you of this. Line up. When I say "Three," all on one side, I want you to push it as hard as you can with one push. You don't get to lock out. You don't get to do anything, but I just want them to realize… You can be there for a backup in case we do it.
I heard the Scriptures say, "At the water's edge was a boat," and I was thinking about all of my dumb decisions and how prophecy and the word of God over your life don't originate with the will of man. I was thinking about the momentum of the decision. So, what I thought about is how far it goes depends upon how strong you are when you started. So, on three. One, two, three! Push it! Look at that. Oh, look at that! It's all right, because I wanted it to fall. It's all right, because I planned for it to crash. It's all right, because I set it up for the illustration. I knew it would fall when I called them, and I knew it would break when I chose it, and I knew what was in it when they pushed it.
So, the question is… Who started this? Who brought you into the earth? Who chose who? I don't think you chose Jesus. I think he got into your boat a long time ago. If I'm the one pushing it, eh. If it's Peter's decision, if it's Peter's prophecy, if it's human will, it stops when I sin, but if you understand that no prophecy, no word God spoke over your life, no assignment he gave you, nothing he put you to do, started with you… I hear the Lord saying the momentum is not based in your decision; it's based in his.