Steven Furtick - The Breakthrough You Need
This is an excerpt from: Don't Let The Funeral Fool You
When you are hurting, your interpretations become distorted. When you are hurting, your interpretations cannot be trusted. When you are hurting, you will see the best thing as the worst thing. When you are hurting, you will be attracted to unhealthy people who will enable you rather than healthy friends who can help heal you. When you are hurting, you will run to things that will numb you rather than running to things that can set you free. When you are hurting, your interpretation of events cannot be trusted.
That’s when we need Jesus. I need Jesus to walk with me. I need Jesus to wake up with me. I need Jesus to lie down beside me when I lie down and I’m tossing and turning about the storms I’m facing. I need Jesus to help me know which door is him, because not every open door is God. I need Jesus to let me know which calls to pick up. I need Jesus to let me know which text to send. I’m trying to say that I need him every hour.
Let me tell you a story before I break this all the way down in the Scripture. Graham, I didn’t ask permission, so I ask for future forgiveness for telling this story. He was fussing at us the other day because we were leaving and we had just left for tour, but we needed to leave and get a few days away after tour to recover. Graham said something very funny. He’s 17 years old now, but he said, «I still need parents»! You would think he would be happy we were going out of town, but he is such a good kid. There’s nothing he wanted to do that he couldn’t do when we were there, and he wanted parents. Holly said, «You have parents. We flew you out for four days of tour, and you had all of your friends over this weekend, and we were here the whole time. We’re just leaving for three days». He said, «Well, I don’t need you on the weekend».
What a phrase. What a confession. «I don’t need you on the weekend. I just need you when I want you. I just need you when it’s convenient». I’m not saying he’s a bad kid. He’s a great kid. But what if that’s our attitude toward God? What if we need him for all of it? What if we need him for every single bit of it? What if he wants to be in all of it? What if God is waiting for you to pray his presence into your panic attack? What if he wants to be in that with you too? What if he will follow you down an Emmaus road, going the wrong way, when you say, «I’m spiraling out of control here, God. I’m spiraling out of control again, and I’m tempted to sabotage because I’m spiraling».
What if Jesus is just waiting to be more than your weekday Savior, more than just the one you need when things go wrong? The Bible says he began to expound everything that was in the Scriptures concerning himself. That would be an amazing sermon. It would take two or three hours to walk these seven miles, because it said it was a seven-mile road. So, over the course of two or three hours, this man gives a whole series where he tells them who he is, and they still don’t get it. That’s the irony of the text. «As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther». Key words: as if. You ask, «Why would Jesus continue on as if he were going farther»? Because sometimes God delights to be invited.
You say, «Well, isn’t he present everywhere»? Yeah, but he permeates you when you ask him to. He’s present, but he permeates when you give permission. Watch this. This is more than just hospitality, y’all. He acted like he was going farther. He was like, «Well, good chat. I hope you learned something». They still don’t know it’s Jesus. How do they not know it’s Jesus? They’re still at the funeral. He’s supposed to be in the ground. They don’t believe the angel. They don’t believe the report. They don’t believe the women. They don’t believe what they heard, and they can’t even believe what they’re seeing. They don’t recognize him. «But they urged him strongly, 'Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.' So he went in to stay with them».
My favorite thing about the text is not even that he followed them going the wrong way down the road. My favorite thing about the text is not even that he gave them an amazing summary, an entire semester’s worth of education in how he was the rock in the wilderness, how he was the rod of Aaron, how he fulfilled everything Moses spoke of, and how he was the cloud by day and the fire by night. Not only do I love the fact that he talked to them along the way, I love verses 30 and 31, because once he got inside the house with them… The Bible says, «When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks…» He took a Bojangles biscuit. «…gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them».
Everybody shout this word: «Then…» Then, and only then. «You mean they heard a master’s-level class from the Master and they still didn’t get it»? No. Then, and only then… After the bread had been broken, then their eyes were opened. I’ll say it again in case there has been a breaking in your life lately. After the bread had been broken, then their eyes were opened, but not before the bread had been broken. Not when he spoke it…when he broke it. Something about the breaking of the bread helped them to see who he really was. Now they realized he wasn’t just killed on the cross; he gave his life on the cross. He wasn’t just hung there by humans; he was sent there by God. He wasn’t just dying physically; he was paying the price spiritually.
It was only after the breaking that the revelation came. There are some revelations that only come after the breaking. They don’t come before; they only come after. They don’t come before you go through; they only come after. But for everybody who has been broken lately, I have good news. After the breaking comes an opening. May your eyes be opened. May your ears be opened. May your road be opened. May your Red Sea part.
Say it out loud. «This is not the end». Give God praise for it. This is not the end. For a moment, it looked like it was over, but this is not the end. Say it to your neighbor. «This is not the end». Tell them, «You can do better than him anyway». This is not the end. Tell them, «You were bigger than that place anyway». This is not the end. It wasn’t ready for you anyway. This is not the end. You couldn’t handle it back then, but this is not the end. I’m going to bring this thing full circle today for somebody who has been standing at a funeral and weeping over a loss, weeping over a regret, weeping over a mistake, punishing yourself over a mistake, and saying and thinking that this is the end.
The Enemy has been telling you, «This is the end. You will never recover from this. Nobody will ever love you after this. There is no way back from this. You cannot climb out of this. You cannot recover from this. There is no redemption in this. There is no light coming. There is no help coming». For everybody who the Enemy has been telling, «It’s the end,» give me verse 31, please. «Then…» The Lord spoke to me and said, «This is not the end». There’s going to be a then. Do you hear me today? I can’t put my faith on this word for you. I can preach it, but it’s going to take your faith. There’s going to be a then. «Then their eyes were opened».
There’s going to be a then. Laid down in grief, then got up with the keys. There’s going to be a then! When God gets finished with this, it won’t be a funeral; it will be a celebration day! Shout now like it’s already then! You get to make the decision now what’s on the other side of then. «They left me, then I went into isolation and died alone» or «They left me, then I went to work on what was inside of me that made me feel like I wasn’t a person without him». «It got so bad we could barely speak, but then I slapped him, cussed him out, and spit in his face» or «Then I decided I would try to find a way in that didn’t involve my ego, which was too big to fit through the door, and then…»
You can’t die in this, because there will be a then. Holly was talking to me the other day, and I was telling her something, such a sad story, like Cleopas and his companion, about the sad things that had happened. And they were real. Y’all, we must say they were disappointed and devastated because of real-life events. It wasn’t that that didn’t happen; it was just that the then was in progress. «Then their eyes were opened,» when he broke the bread.
Only what is broken can be really blessed. So, after the breaking, expect a revelation. After I got done telling Holly my story, she said, «Yeah, but then…» Because I was going through a part of our history where somebody had really hurt us. I mean, really hurt us. She said, «Yeah, but then…» She told me the thing that happened after they hurt us that wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t. Just when she reminded me of that, she said, «But then it gave me faith for my future».
I realized that just like farmers plant seeds and don’t cry about losing them, there are certain things in your life and in my life that are waiting for the appropriate time to come forth. Don’t let the funeral fool you. You keep saying, «This is it. This is the end». It’s not the end. It’s just pre-then. One day, maybe you’ll be talking to somebody and you’ll say, «I was about ready to give up, but then…» I think the real skill of living is to be able to trust God enough that you leave the then with him.