Steven Furtick - Fix Your Focus (Excerpt)
This is an excerpt from: Don't Tap Out Tap In
The Enemy is after me, but God doesn't tell me to defeat the Enemy. I'll read it again until at least one person shouts about that. "In that day," God says, "I will punish with my sword, my fierce, great, and powerful sword". Notice what the Lord didn't say. "In that day, I want you to fight a little harder and do a little more and try a little harder". God says, "I see what's going on in your life. I know what's dragging you down in your spirit. I hear the cries of your depression. I see the trembling hands your anxiety is causing. I see the trauma you buried deep enough to get it past people". But man looks on the outward appearance and God looks on the heart. God sees past the struggle, and God sees the source. God looks past your weakness, and God gives more strength. "What shall we say, then, in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Shall not he who delivered his Son freely give us all these things"?
I came to announce, "It's his fight". High-five three people and say, "It's his fight". Okay. You don't get it yet. Let me help you get it. God is not like Graham in the story I told, and the Devil is not Vitor. God is not at the mercy of anything or anyone or anywhere to do what you're asking him to do in your life. His sword is fierce. His sword is great. His sword is powerful. His sword is fierce. His sword is great. His sword is powerful. I know three things. His sword is fierce. His sword is great. His sword is powerful. Guess what that means for me? It means I don't have to focus on what I'm fighting with. I can focus on the one who is fighting with me in the battle anytime I choose.
So, if I could break it down for you, I'd say there is a fight and there is a sword, but the sword is in God's hand, not yours. This is why all of our efforts to try to fight in our flesh fail eventually. You're not bigger than it. You're like Graham trying to armbar Vitor and wondering, "Why does this keep happening to me"? It's because you haven't really understood your responsibility in this relationship with God. He said, "The fight is mine". The sword is his, but watch this. Verse 2: "In that day, 'Sing about a fruitful vineyard…'" The sword is his. The song is mine. I will help you with this in any way I can, because I believe your song is God's sword. I believe our worship of Jesus Christ is a powerful weapon against whatever has wrapped itself around your life.
When I say worship… I am not confined to the first 20 minutes of church when I think about worship. Worship, for me, is a way of looking at my life. When I praise his name, something miraculous happens. My problems get smaller. I can't explain it, but when I praise his name, stuff starts shrinking and strength starts growing. So, my question is…Have you been more focused lately on your fight or your fruit?
I want you to focus more on your fruit and less on your fight. I want you to focus more on where God is growing you and less on how the Enemy is grabbing you. You know that's happening right now. The Enemy is grabbing for your soul, grabbing for your peace, grabbing for your family, grabbing for your right mind, grabbing for your destiny, grabbing for your advance, grabbing for your maturity, grabbing for your discipleship, grabbing for your prayer life, grabbing for your worship. But while he's grabbing, God is growing.
Very practically, let's run it back and walk it out. There's a fight and there's fruit. My question is…Which one are you focused on more? The one you look at more and the one you speak about more will have the leverage in your life. Understand this. God is telling them to sing about a vineyard that isn't even there yet. Sometimes you sing over the fruit; sometimes you sing over the seed. That's when God has given you the potential for something. God will cause you sometimes to sing over a seed. Remember, the nation of Israel was facing captivity, yet in the chaos of captivity comes forth the beauty of creation.
I see it happen in your life as I preach it to you. Out of the chaos…Leviathan, the chaos monster…out of the chaos of this season, out of the chaos of the mistake you made, out of the chaos of what was passed down to you that you've been dealing with, out of the chaos of a failed business, out of the chaos of a failed relationship, out of the chaos of the distraction you've been dealing with comes a new creation.
The Lord says, "I want you to start singing". One thing I realized when we're worshiping together is there are things I'm dealing with back home that God is doing because of what's happening in here. When I look around and see you at church, I know your decision to be here doing this is waging war against whatever is waiting for you when you leave this place. Do you believe that?
One time, somebody wanted healing from Jesus, and Jesus said, "Go. They're already healed". At the exact time he spoke the word the child was healed back home. Do you want God to fight your battles? Start focusing more on your fruit than you focus on the fight. When you call people it's all right to vent, but don't vent so much you ruin your vineyard. The Bible says in Song of Solomon 2:15 you have to catch the little foxes that spoil the vine. Isn't it the little foxes? Isn't it the little fox you allow to repeat in your head? Isn't it the little things that build up until you go, "Where the…"?
Because Leviathan is a gliding serpent. He doesn't make a lot of noise. He's a coiling serpent. He doesn't say, "Hey! I'm the Devil. Want to ruin your life? Come along with me. We'll get it done together. It'll be a lot of fun. You'll end up in rehab. You'll have deep debt. You'll be crippled in debt. You'll never be able to afford to send your kids to college. Come on over here". He's a gliding serpent. He's a coiling serpent. He is a silent strategist. I'm really glad my dad talked to me about our family's genetic predisposition to alcoholism when I was young. I think it's a brilliant thing he did for me. Because he took me aside and talked to me, he kind of got in my head and convinced me, "If you ever start drinking, you will love it". He was like, "Trust me. I do it. I'm being honest with you, son. I'm telling you this will be hard for you to beat". He was like, "What I think would be cool is if you just never do it". I was like, "Dang, man. All of my friends…you know".
But he started this when I was, like, 5. My friends weren't drinking when I was 5. Then every year he would renew the conversation. "You know, if you ever start doing it, you're going to be homeless. You'll probably end up on heroin if you start drinking alcohol". He had me so scared because he had seen what it did because it was all in his family. I use this as an example, but we could substitute a lot of things here. I'm going to tell you about my journey with this. For years of my life, when I was an adult, I would explain to people sometimes… They'd go, "Do you want a glass of wine? Do you want a drink? Do you want this"? I'd be like, "No, I don't drink". I'm telling y'all, they would look at me like I said, "I don't brush my teeth. I don't shower. I don't pray". They'd look at me so crazy, like I was an alien.
Holly and I would be around a lot of people… And no judgment on any of it. I don't think it's a sin to drink, but it was just my dad had told me, "Just so you know, this Leviathan has ruined a lot of my life". He didn't call it Leviathan, but that's what he was telling me about. He didn't give me Isaiah 27:1. He just said, "If you ever start drinking, it's a bad boy".
So, we're 25 years old now, 30 years old now, sitting around. Sometimes we'd be sitting around with preachers. "Hey, do you want something to drink"? "No, it's cool. You go ahead". "You don't drink? Why don't you drink? Would you like a Hi-C? Would you like a Capri Sun"? I'm telling you, we have been mocked over this more… And we've been mocked over a lot of stuff. This one ranks up there with all of them. I would never say you shouldn't, and I don't think that. I don't even believe that, but what I would say is this is something in my life that I feel very predisposed… In fact, most of my disciplines are a result of my weakness, not my strength.
If you saw how many Diet Cokes I drink a day, you would be glad I don't drink alcohol, because it could get ugly. (Don't email me about cancer in Diet Cokes. Everybody needs something in their life to look forward to. Do not take my aspartame away. I'll fight you like a… I'll put you in an armbar.) Watch me. I said, "We don't drink". One day I realized that if I had lost my family to alcoholism and told them, "Hey, I don't drink. I'm in recovery. I lost my family," they'd go, "That's great. Good for you. You should write a book about that".
So, I spoke to our youth at YTHX in Orlando this summer, and I told them about Leviathan. I said, "Everybody in here has a Leviathan. Your parents have one. Your preacher has one. Some of them we know the name, and some of them we don't, but one thing I do know right now is that you have permission from God to become very intentional about living your life in a way that protects you from whatever threatens your destiny". I told the youth, "I'm not in recovery; I'm in precovery".
I made that up. Do you like it? I'm going to trademark that. Precovery. I know I am such a mess, I know I am such a goofball, I know I am such a dork there are certain things I can't handle or play with. So why not make a decision today that I'm not going to play with something that I'm going to have to pray for God to take away 10 years from now? Who the Son sets free is free indeed.