Steven Furtick - Don't Let Burnout Win
This is an excerpt from: God’s Got Your Back — Part 2
Life lesson: be very careful who you let in your head. How many people won’t let people walk into your house unless they take their shoes off? So what in the world are you doing on Facebook letting people walk all through…? I’m so sorry. That was so confrontational. I’m just trying to help you to see the discrepancy. A lot of times, we will protect everything more than we protect our head space. Everything. «Don’t get in my car with…» Don’t get in my car? You can’t leave trash in my car, but I will go seek out trash on my phone. I can get a new car, but I only have so much head space. I only have so much, and I need it for my family. I need it for my church. I need it for those who count on me. I need it for my future.
So, no, you can’t just walk through my mind with muddy shoes. I’m not being mean. I’m being strategic, because I have a call on my life. He went into a cave and spent the night, 40 days away from the northern kingdom where the wicked king Ahab was still reigning, even though Yahweh God had just sent a shower to prove his presence and revival was on the way. Ah, but the Enemy always wants to threaten you to make you run at the time of revival. I never did anything important for God that the intimidation didn’t increase right before I did it. I’m talking about breaking down, crying, freaking out, stomach sickness…all of it…just to try to get me to run from what God is doing. He goes into a cave. How many times have you heard me preach about this cave, Holly? She said, «A few».
How many times have you seen me go into that cave in my personal life? Yeah. Yeah, I know this cave well. It’s not so much the physical implications of the cave. We call it a «man cave,» and that’s supposed to be a good thing, but when a man goes in the cave, the cave of your own counsel… Now the Enemy has you right where he wants you. As many times as I’ve preached about the cave, there’s something that’s even more important than where Elijah ended up in the cave, because God called him out of the cave. By the time he got there, the Bible says… Have you ever seen this before in verse 8? It says, «He traveled forty days and forty nights».
Now, the last recorded conversation he has had with God happened 40 days ago. You cannot go 40 days on the strength of your last conversation with God. You cannot go four days on the strength… You can’t go four hours. You can’t go four minutes. Let me tell you a little secret. When I’m preaching, I’m talking to God about you while I’m talking to you about God. If you could see the conversation in my head… In between each sentence is an internal conversation where I’m saying, «What do they need next, Lord? Of what I’ve studied, of what I’ve prepared, what do you want to say next, Holy Spirit? Oh, thank you for that, Lord. That’s good. No, I’m going to skip that, because that’s me; that’s not you, God. Oh, I’m going to say this next, because it might be vulnerable, but it might help set somebody free».
That constant conversation with God is not just for preachers. It’s for all God’s people. Yes, you. Forty days is too long for you to go. I told you last week you can’t let every Sunday be the next time you expect God to speak. You really can’t. The way people do church now, it’s probably, if we’re being honest about it, about every three or four Sundays people come. So, when I say what I preached two weeks ago, some of you all are like, «Was that your Easter sermon? That’s the last one I heard». I’m not beating up on you. That’s fine…we all get busy…just as long as you are talking to God along the way. The last thing he said to God was, «Kill me. I’m done. That’s it. I’m finished. I have had enough, Lord».
God follows him all the way to the mountain he wasn’t supposed to be at after feeding him on the journey he wasn’t supposed to take. Thank God for his grace. This is how intent God is on getting our attention for what he wants to do, not because we’re so important but because what he wants to do is so important. «He replied, 'I have been very zealous…'» Oh, sorry. I missed the best part. I almost left out the best part. Verse 9, part B: «And the word of the Lord came to him: 'What are you doing here, Elijah? '» I will resist the temptation to preach that question, because I’ve done it many times before. I want to show you something different this time. «He replied, 'I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.'»
I want you to find the lie in what Elijah said. Find the lie. Let’s keep going. Let’s see if he’s right. I just wanted to quiz you real quick so you could hold on to what you think. He said, «I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too». Go to verse 11. «The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.' Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave».
Isn’t that an interesting phrase? I know this isn’t what it means, but it almost reminds me that the whole time he’s in the cave there’s talk going on that doesn’t come from God. The mouth of the cave. The whole time he’s in that cave, he’s playing a conversation. The whole time he’s in that cave, there’s a conversation happening in the cave. The whole time you withdraw from people, the whole time you pull back from community, the whole time you skip what God gave you to do… The cave keeps talking. It’s an echo chamber. It just bounces around. It just goes back and forth and back and forth. Forty days to get to the cave. He spent the night in there, and the Lord asked the question, «What are you doing here»?
Watch his answer in verse 14. «He replied, 'I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.'» Y’all, I’m sorry. I think the tech team screwed up. That’s the same verse we read in verse 10. Y’all, put verse 14 up real quick. Who brought a paper Bible with you? I’m looking for a rapture-ready Christian with a paper Bible. You got it? Look at verse 14. They messed it up. They had the same verse on 14 they put on verse 10. Give me a new Scripture person back there.
Oh, that’s the right verse? But put verse 10 back up. «He replied, 'I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.'» Verse 14: «He replied, 'I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.'» You mean God just sent an earthquake, a windstorm, and a fire… God just sent earth, wind, and fire, and you’re still singing this same little sad song? I just want you to see it for yourself. We can get stuck in a story. God can do crazy things all around you to show you, «I’m still who you thought I was. I’m still who you claimed me to be on the mountain that you forgot in the cave».
It sounds like to me Elijah has rehearsed this so much he actually can’t get out of the conversation even when he comes out of the cave. God can bring you out of a situation, but if it’s in your spirit what you rehearsed, you will take a bad spirit into a blessed situation. After all, he had 40 days to practice this speech. He has it down now. With every step he took away from the will of God for his life, away from the purpose of God for the prophet, away from where God showed him miracles… Every step he took away in isolation, Jezebel’s voice got louder. Then he just starts leaving out the best stuff in the story. I don’t think this is the story he was telling 40 days ago, fresh off the encounter on Carmel.
I think when he started walking away from where God called him he was probably saying some other stuff too. «You know, this is really hard, I’m really tired, and I want to die. I mean, I saw God do great things on Mount Carmel, and I do believe there’s hope now that God has sent the rain». With every step he took, rehearsing the wrong story, it reinforced how big his enemy was, how intense his loneliness felt, and it diminished what God had done. That’s exactly what Jezebel intended with her threat. This is what the Devil does too. If he can get you to rehearse the wrong story, you will literally think it’s true by the time you get to the cave, and then you cave. You don’t have the strength to stand. You’re not weak; you’re weary. With every step he took by himself without talking to the God who brought him this far, the Devil was able to delete different things that could have been in his story. It said Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, and that’s why she threatened him.
Ahab goes home and tells Jezebel, «This dude… Don’t mess with this dude. You’d better do something about him. He’s going to yank your whole idol-worshiping kingdom out of your hands. He’s going to send you back packing to Phoenicia. This dude is crazy. He had them cutting up bulls. This dude told them to take water in a drought, four jars of water, pour the water on the wood three times, and then called for fire. This is not exactly a strategic mastermind, but he is a spiritual giant. He was wetting wood and praying for fire». That’s what Ahab said. His enemy was doing a better job telling his story than he was. I mean, Ahab wouldn’t shut up. He told Jezebel everything Elijah had done. He didn’t leave out any details. «And then he got the bulls, then he started taunting them, and then he was like, 'Hey, maybe you should call louder. Maybe Baal is in the bathroom.'»
He told everything Elijah had done. He told how Elijah had told him, in chapter 18, where he said, «There’s a cloud the size of a man’s hand,» then his servant said, «I don’t see anything,» and Elijah said, «Well, the problem isn’t with God’s word; it’s with your eyes. Go look again». He sent that poor servant… Remember when I had you running up and down the stairs one time preaching this passage? I sent him back and forth seven times, the most cardio he had ever done in his life. I sent him back and forth and talked about the frustration of faith. He told Jezebel all that…Ahab did. The Enemy did, because the Enemy is a better storyteller than most of God’s children. He’ll tell you stories… Here’s how good he is. He will just make up stuff that might happen, and then he will emphasize the hypothetical as you forget the historical.
All Elijah really had to do was give the Devil a history lesson. All Elijah really had to do to stop himself from going in the wrong direction, from sinking into the depths of despair and saying, «I’m suicidal. I don’t want to live. I don’t want to do this. They’re trying to kill me…» All he had to do while he was walking was stop for one moment and tell the story like it really happened. «I thought I was the only one, but my God is Yahweh. I stood on that mountain all alone. I called down fire. I wet that wood, and God came through. I went to the brook called Cherith, and the birds brought me food. I went to the widow’s house, and I multiplied her oil». Why do you keep deleting all the stuff God did and adding stuff the Enemy might do and running from your purpose?