Steven Furtick - Give and Take (01/28/2026)
This sermon introduces a season focused on being «Full.Filled,» using Joshua 21:43 as the key scripture, where God gave Israel the promised land and they took possession. The preacher argues that we become empty when we take in areas God calls us to give, and also when we fail to take what God has already given us. The conclusion is a call to actively «take» God’s promises through faith and generosity, specifically through the year-end offering, to see God fill and overflow the church’s mission.
A Season of Fulfillment: God’s Promises and Our Possession
I love this scripture that God gave me to preach for week one of our Full.Filled series. I’m not even going to call it a series. I’m going to call it a season by faith. That this is the season where God is going to show you the true source of satisfaction and fill you to overflowing until every dry place in your life is well watered with the Word of God. Hallelujah. It’s a special day, so I have a new screen. Look at that screen, y’all. Is that beautiful? You know what bigger screens mean? Longer sermons. Look at this scripture in Joshua. Joshua chapter 21, verse 43.
«So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there.» Now listen, you don’t want to settle until you’re there. So you don’t want to settle in a place where God didn’t call you to live. He just called you to pass through. Touch somebody and say, «Don’t settle yet.» «They settled there in the land God had promised them, and the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their ancestors, and not one of their enemies withstood them. The Lord gave all their enemies into their hands.»
It did not say not one of their enemies fought against them. It just said they couldn’t stand up when God’s people fought back. Man, I feel like preaching today. Oh! Here’s the theme verse. «Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to…» Stephen. I just felt like I could put my name in there. Just like it says Israel. I felt like you could put your… Shout your name real quick. Amen. «Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to [Your Name] failed. Everyone was fulfilled.» Give him praise. He is a promise-keeping God.
The Dynamics of Give and Take
So I want to preach to you for a few moments on this subject. I want to talk about give and take. Give, woo, and take. I need you to turn to your neighbor and ask them one question before you take your seat. Ask them, «Are you a giver or a taker?» Just ask them that. Give them a moment to respond. See what they say. Give and take. You may be seated. Thank you, worship team. Give and take. It’s become a favorite tradition of mine the way we end our church calendar year, ending the year by every family that calls this church their home, praying about and offering to bring to God.
We’re not going to give Uncle Bobby Christmas presents and not give Jesus a gift. And so we always do it toward expansion, and we’re doing it this year. And last year we gathered around the word «surround.» People gave $5.7 million in our offering weekend. That’s why some of you have the seat that you’re sitting in by the faith of people that gave offerings like that. And people give every week through what’s called the tithe. That’s the first 10% of your income, giving it back to God. That’s a starting place. And then people give offerings.
And I really love it because it not only represents a time to build the church, but when we build the church corporately, we build the faith of the people who make up the church individually. And I love that. So every year we end by picking a word and just a word we’re believing God for. And usually with our offering, we’ll have a word. Some people would choose like restoration or healing or faith or pick any word you want, but just a word. We try to narrow it toward. And, uh, and last year when we were doing surround, Holly and I had our check and we were giving our offering and it was big, big to us. Big is different to everybody. I know, but it was big to us and, uh, prayed about it, bumped it up, prayed about it, bumped it up.
And I finally bumped about as far up as we could go without me popping a disc or something like that. And, and had the check, but I had not yet picked my word. And so I was up in front of the church on a Saturday night and I was calling the people to give their offering and bring their gift and their word. And I didn’t have a word yet. And I hadn’t thought about it. And yet I heard myself standing up in front of the whole church saying, «We’re going to bring our offering and pick our word for the year, what we’re believing God for in 2015, as we end 2014. And me and Holly have a word and our word is…» and I’m watching myself waiting to see what’s going to come out next. Cause I’d forgotten to think about it.
And I kind of, I don’t know if you ever saying something and you feel like you’re watching it come out of your mouth while you’re saying it, but it’s not really you saying it. And I said, «Our word is fulfillment.» Just kind of came out of my mouth, just spilled out of my mouth, tumbled out of my mouth, fulfillment. And, uh, what I didn’t know at the time is that that was not only going to be my word to begin 2015, but Full.Filled was going to be our church’s word to end this year on. Ask the person next to you. «Are you Full.Filled?» Are you? Cause I know your life is full. That’s not what I’m asking you. I know you got appointments and meetings and deadlines and messes and stresses and bills. I know your life is full. It’s not what I asked you. I said, «Are you fulfilled?»
Cause I feel like we’ve never lived in a time more than this time. Well, I mean, I’ve never lived any other time, so I can say this with confidence, but it seems like lives have never been fuller while souls are emptier. My friend Ken Costa put it this way: «We got too much to live with and too little to live for.» Why, why is that? What, how, how could this be? So much information, so many opportunities. I came across a book by the same name of my sermon title. I thought of the title first, and then I found there was a book also called «Give and Take».
Givers, Takers, and Matchers: Which Are You?
And the brother who wrote the book, I want to say his name, give him a shout out. I doubt it’ll help him much on Amazon, but you know, just see what I can do. Um, I think his name was Adam Grant. He proposes that in life, there are really three types of people: givers, takers, and matchers. Shout if you’re a giver, by the way. If you’re a giver, you got the givers and the takers. All the takers make some noise. I’ve never had anybody tell me, «You know, my thing is I just take too much.» Usually when you talk to people about their problems, they want to talk about, «You know, I’m just so compassionate. I just do too much for too many people. It’s just like, you know, I can’t say no.»
I’ve never heard anybody say, «You know what? I can’t say yes. I never help anybody with their issues. I’m rather consumed with myself.» Do you know any takers? I mean, let’s try that route because it’s kind of hard to self-identify here. You know any takers? Anybody? Anybody? Any takers? Any takers? Yeah, I think every relationship has someone, right, who’s predominantly a giver and somebody who’s happy to fulfill the other side of that equation. «Oh, you’re a giver, you say. Well, this is going to work out perfectly. I love to take. You like to cook? I like to eat. You like to clean? I like to make a mess. We’re going to do just fine together.»
But my man, Adam Grant, I think his name was, said that there’s givers, takers, and we all know Mother Teresa givers. We only know like two or three of them. We know people. «Oh, Roy, he’ll give you the shirt off his back. He’ll give you the skin off his back. He’ll give you his teeth.» You know, there’s only a few of those in your life, though. And so you got your givers, your pure givers, and you got your pure takers. But most of us are like, eh. Wouldn’t you say, like, we’re somewhere around here? And what my man, Adam Grant, he called these people the matchers. You got your givers and your takers and your matchers.
And the matchers are the people who are always trying to, like, figure out how much you gave me. «Oh, we’ll split the bill three ways. It’s going to be $9.37.» And if they could break the 37 into a smaller… Because they want to match. «You know, I didn’t eat that appetizer. I only ate a fourth of that appetizer.» I’m a matcher. Givers, takers, matchers. Every marriage has a giver and a taker. But then, you know, you get married a little while, and it’s kind of like, «Hey, you know, meet me in the middle.» And if we can meet in the middle, and you can give me enough, and I can take too much. But, you know, maybe I start out giving, but I give, I give, I give, I give, I give. I have nothing left to give. And then I find somebody else who gives to me, and that feels good for a change. So I get out of that marriage, because you didn’t meet me in the middle.
Every marriage has a give and take. Yeah? Every relationship. Parenting is give and take. You give and take and take and take and take. They start out taking from your physical body if you’re a mom, and they end up taking from your bank account. It’s a relationship. It’s symbiotic on their side. And it’s a give and take. Every church. Every church has some givers. If it’s going to, if it’s going to grow, it’s got to have some givers. You’re going to build a bunch of campuses, reach people, feed the hungry and clothe the naked and lift up those who are downtrodden and get the gospel out to the world. You got to have some givers who give their time, give their money, give their prayers, give their praise, give their encouragement, give their love, give their lives.
You know, I started the church with a team of unpaid staff, right? You want to know why God’s blessing our church? I don’t think it’s because the preaching is all that… whatever. I think the music’s great, but I can get good music anywhere. You don’t have to leave your house for that. I think it’s because it started with a group of… but when the givers are real good givers, it makes it easier for the takers to kind of slip over here, kind of out of the way, and then start coming to church every week. And they say things like this: «Oh, I got a word from God.» Emphasis on got. You got a word, but what did you give? I’m going to preach this until attendance goes down in the holiday season.
And I think what bothers me about it is it’s okay to start out as a taker. Whether you’re a little baby, what else can you do? You got to get fed somehow. But if you’re still, I’ll say it graciously, on the breast, after three years in the church… I could have said it a lot different than that. That was the G-rated version of what went through my head. If you’re still a taker… Joshua chapter 21, where he said something very interesting. They’re dividing up the inheritance of the children of Israel. And the people fought for this land. And so if you read the first 13 chapters of Joshua, you can see a summary of their conquest.
Stuff like Jericho, which was the first city. Places like the land of Ai, where they had to re-strategize. And you can see the western and the eastern opposition that they faced. And you can see how Joshua was able to lead the people into what Moses was unable to lead them into. Joshua was able to lead them, not to settle here, but to take the land. And they did it. And they did it in such a magnificent fashion. And when the writer wants to summarize what happened, he said, verse 43, «the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors.»
God is a Giver: The Foundation of Our Faith
Here’s what I like about this. Here’s what I like about this. It says that he gave them all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors. Everything he promised, he gave. How many are glad that God is a giver? If there’s one reason people don’t come to God, I think it’s because he’s been presented as a taker. Which makes absolutely no sense if you break it down from a logical perspective, because what do you think you have that God actually needs? It’s just preposterous for you to think that if God were hungry, he would tell you about it. But people grow up with an image of God. He’s a taker. And they don’t want to come to a taker, because I’m afraid that if I come to a God who wants to take away my life and my fun and my choices and my decisions, God wants to take. It’s presented like that.
But I found God, in my own personal experience, to be an outgiver. Forget about a giver. I found him to be an outgiver. I found out that God has such an ego about how big he is, and he’s the only one who’s allowed to have an ego, that when you give him something, he’ll multiply it, give it back to you bigger than it was when it left his hand, and look at you like, «What? You want some more?» Ask that little boy who gave his lunch to the disciples, and the disciples gave it to Jesus. When Jesus got finished with it, there was leftovers, 12 bags of leftovers, because God will not be out-given. Touch somebody and say, «God’s a giver.» You need to know this in the core of your theology, that God is a giver.
Every breath is a gift. Every word is a gift. Every season you’ve made it through that you shouldn’t have made it through, it’s a gift. Every time you recycle blood through your body, and it makes one more circuit, one more trip to keep you alive, every beat of your heart is a gift from a God who has given you every piece of ground you’ve ever stood on. He’s a good God, a giving God. One time Job was confused because he lost everything dear to him, and he was wondering what kind of God would allow it to happen, but he made a profound statement. He said, «The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.»
You know what I found out? Sometimes the things that God took away from me resulted in the greatest gifts that he gave to me, because he’s a giver. He’s a giver. And if there’s one thing I believe about God, I believe he’s a giving God, an ever-giving God, a living God, a giving God, a living God, a God who lives to give. And if you are his child, you ought to be a giver like your God. Get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get. Have you ever noticed the people who approach situations looking for what they can get out of them are the emptiest people? Mathematically, that doesn’t make sense. But it seems like in real-life, long-term kind of practicality, the more I take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take, the emptier I feel. And the more I give, the fuller I get.
Eugene Peterson says it in an interesting way in the Message version of Proverbs 11:24. He said, «The world of the generous gets larger and larger, but the world of the taker gets smaller and smaller.» Because when you approach every situation looking for what you need out of it, it shrinks your heart. When you approach every situation looking for what you can give to it…. I wonder today, did you give any encouragement? Or did you need encouragement so badly that you pouted about who didn’t give you the encouragement you thought you needed, and now you’re still bone dry? But if you would have encouraged somebody, God would have encouraged you. He will not be out-given. The more you take, the more you need. The more you give, the more you have. It’s the weirdest thing. And we get empty.
Can I give you the equation for emptiness? Here’s the equation for emptiness: When you take where God has called you to give, you’ll always come up empty. Even if you get what you want, if you get it that way, you won’t even want what you got. You’re a taker. In relationships, seeing if she’ll have sex with you, you’re a taker. You don’t want to give sacrificial love to one woman and be faithful to her. You just want to take what you want in the moment. You’re a taker, and you’re going to wind up empty that way. And that’s why you’re empty, and that’s why you cry, and that’s why eight different women in the last two years couldn’t satisfy that hole in your heart. You’re a taker. It shrinks you, doesn’t ever enlarge you.
It doesn’t ever enlarge you to put other people down. It doesn’t ever… You think you’re taking from them, but you’re really taking from yourself. And you come up empty. We’re so empty because we’re consuming and not contributing. It says that God gave them all the land that he had sworn to give to their ancestors. God gave, because that’s what he does, Israel, because that’s his people, all the land, because that was their possession, that he had sworn to give their ancestors. And you know what? I want everything that God has promised me and not a thing that he didn’t. I want all the land that he assigned to me. They’re dividing up the inheritance and they’re giving it out. And the writer stops to summarize. He said, through all these conquests and all this bloodshed and all these years of waiting in the wilderness when they wouldn’t go in, «the Lord gave Israel all the land he has sworn to give their ancestors.»
The Time to Take: Claiming What God Has Given
But look at this. It says in verse 43, «and they took…» Wait a minute. Give and take. I think I made the case pretty strongly that when you take when God has called you to give, you come up empty. But I also want to suggest that there is a time to take. I’m losing you, but I’m going to get you back in a minute. Because it said, «The Lord gave and they… The Lord gave.» This side can be gave. «The Lord gave and they took.» Give and take. There’s a time for both. There’s a time for both. You come up empty when you take when God has called you to give. But can I also notify you that you come up empty when you give what God has called you to take?
Let me preach this. Can I preach this? It said God gave them the land, but they still had to take it. It said that God gave them an inheritance, but they still had to claim it. Some of us are empty because we don’t take what God gave. We don’t possess what he promised. So he puts peace before you, and he puts joy before you, and he sets hope before you. That’s his promise. He said he would do it. He won’t leave you or forsake you. But just because he promised it doesn’t mean you possess it. See, you’ve got to be a taker of what God gave. You’ve got to be a giver and a taker.
And our problem is we get them so mixed up. We’re taking what God wants us to give, and we’re giving what God wants us to take. Some of you have given up on your children. You have given up on your dreams. You have given up on your marriage. But today is the day, and this is a season where you look that devil in the eye and say, «I’m not giving up one more square inch, not another inch, devil. You’ve taken enough years off my life with worry, with complaining, with bitterness, with unforgiveness. I’m drawing a line, and I’m taking it back. I’m taking it back. Everything God promised, this is my season to take it back.» Touch seven people. Tell them, «Take it back. Take it back. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it.»
I’ve got a little pocket over here that looks like they’re taking it. I’m going to preach until the whole church looks like they’re ready to walk into Canaan and stare down some Amalekites and take everything God promised to his people. So I said, «God, what do you want me to tell the church leaving 2015, entering 2016, finishing our 10th year of ministry, looking at 40 more?» God said, «Tell them, you can take it.» Shake your neighbor. Say, «You can take it. You can take it. You can take it. You can take it. You can take it.» The reason their enemies couldn’t stand up against them is because God was bigger within them, and whatever is standing against you, I declare, you can take it. In Jesus' name, «the Lord gave, and they took.»
They gave, and God gave, and God gave, and they took. And they took. And they took from what God gave, and gave, and God gave, and they took. And then they took from what… This is what I do every time I tithe 10% to God, you understand? God gave me the whole 100. So I took the 10th, and I put it aside, and I gave it back to God to let him know everything I have comes from your hand. You’re a giver. «Give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure. Press down.» Now, listen. This is a special weekend. Touch somebody, say, «You can take it. You can take it. You can take it.»
God has a purpose for your life, and he gave you a purpose. But you’ve got to take what he gave. Keith, take this microphone. Let’s demonstrate again. God has been trying to give you some stuff, and you haven’t taken it. And now you’re empty because you didn’t take what God gave. You’ll say, «Pastor Steven, I’m not so sure that God wants me to be a taker.» Okay, tell Jesus, because he was serving his communion before he went to the cross to give his life, and he says something interesting. He took the bread, and he broke it, and he took it. Matthew 26 records his exact statement. «While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take…'» Take, take, take. You can’t give to the world what you didn’t take from the Lord. You can’t give to the world out of an empty heart that wasn’t filled by his word. So you’ve got to come to church to get a word. But you’ve got to give out of the word that you’ve got, or God can’t refill what’s already full. Give and take.
A Testimony of God Filling What We Bring
I’m really glad God’s not a matcher. I’d be so screwed. I don’t know about you. You might do good if there was, like, a tally of all the times that you deserved God’s blessings. If he looked out for you when you deserved for him to look out for you, you might be fine. I would be dead. I would be in a ditch. I would have been dead by the age of three if God were a matcher. How many are glad that where sin abounded, grace did abound all the more, so that the unrighteousness of your filthy heart was cleansed by… I’m glad he’s not a matcher. And if you look at the story of our church, I was about to tell you, and I got sidetracked, there’s some people here, special people here this weekend. We’re hosting an event called Seven Day Seminary. Where’s my Seven Day Seminary people?
These folks travel from, what, 20, 30-something states and came to spend this week with our church staff. And I’m going to get some time with them, too. It’s going to be good. I’m going to mess them up real good. I’m going to send them home crazy. But I need to tell you, this church that you’re sitting in today is what it is because of give and take. Not because some people prayed for God to give us a great church, but because some determined people, bold people, set their foot where God had spoken his word and took what God gave by faith. See, when God makes you a promise, you can’t look and see if it looks right. You’ve got to take it by faith. You’ve got to believe God. You will never give to God appropriately on a faith level. And you will never live out your calling and your destiny if you live it by sight. You’ve got to take it by faith.
That’s what we did over at the Senior Center. I’m thinking about all the different times where God filled what we brought him. I’m going to show you in this series. You’ve got to come back through the weeks. I’m going to show you how whatever you bring God, he’ll fill it. But if you don’t bring it, he has nothing to fill. He’s not going to pour it out on the ground. And when we first saw this Senior Center where we would meet… How many know the story? Raise your hand. I want to see you in my home. Yeah, some people don’t, though. They don’t know that we started out meeting over at the atrium, then the Senior Center. The Senior Center, we went over there. We had 160 people or something like that. I’ll show you a picture. That little room right there, I thought, I thought… Everybody say, «He thought.» And then say, «And he was wrong.»
I thought we’d be there five to six years. My faith was so big. I thought in five to six years, God would fill that room. Six months after we went in that room, it was full two times, and we had to move, because God filled it. God filled it. Touch somebody and say, «God filled it.» So we went over to Providence High School. We still have a campus at Providence. We used to pack that sucker out. One time, it was like 5,000 people there on a record attendance in that little high school auditorium. I was preaching 8:30, 10 o’clock, 11:30, 1 o’clock. By the 1 o’clock, I was saying such stuff. I mean, I was saying stuff you would never want to get out on YouTube at 1 o’clock. Four times, and guess what? God filled all four of them. We went in there with two. I remember the first time I saw that auditorium before we started the church. I laughed at it. I said to Chunks, «Imagine if we could fill that auditorium.» He laughed back. «Ha ha,» because he didn’t have no faith either. «Ha ha ha,» I mean, crazy. But everybody shout, «God filled it.» Yes, he did. And we had to start another location.
Now, I’m not going to show you the Butler location. This is the Matthew’s location. Matthew’s make some noise. They were launched out of the overflow of Butler High School. Think about it, how stupid I felt, and how much faith I had to utilize. A little bit of faith that I did have to think that people would watch a preacher on a video screen. Stupidest thing I ever heard in my life. But God gave us the opportunity. And so this warehouse, there’s a whole other story to this. It’s a whole other story, how they didn’t want us in there, and we just bought the Plaza last year. The whole Plaza, not even written in it. Somebody shout, «Take it!» Filled it. God filled it. God filled. God’s still filling it.
Uptown location. Uptown is amazing. It’s not that full every Sunday, but that’s one of the good pictures. That’s Easter or something like that. You know, you got to get a good picture. I sometimes drive up to Blakeney. I see them wrapped around in lines at Blakeney. When we built this building, I didn’t know if we had built it too big, but I thought we had. But I found out God will fill whatever you have the faith to build. He filled it. And he’s filling Rock Hill. Rock Hill. Rock Hill. Rock Hill. City on the hill. Fill the hill. Hey! Fill the hill. Went over to the University City YMCA. They were filling up that YMCA gem. Filling it with people and praises and purpose and progress. Another thing to start with the letter P. Everybody shout, «God filled it. God filled it.»
Now we got… They got their own building where they have to line up sometimes too. Because God’s a filler. I said, «God’s a filler.» I said, «God’s a filler.» If you’re empty, it’s not his fault. He’s a filler. Gaston, in the middle of nowhere. God’s filling Gaston. Built a new building in Lake Norman. What is it? Over 500 baptized at Lake Norman. Lake Norman. God’s filling it. University City was so full, we had to go to Concord. And Concord, God’s filling it up at Concord too. I’m just trying to testify to the faithfulness of God. I don’t know about you, but not one of God’s promises has failed to Elevation Church. Now, some of our plans fail. Some of our ideas fail. But God never failed. He’s not a failer. He’s a filler. Make some noise.
And then they wanted us to come to Toronto. God’s filling the GTA. And then a group in their basement. Five people in their basement in Roanoke, Virginia. Why am I screaming? Because God’s filling it. They got over a thousand people. Now we got to go to Raleigh. We got to go to Raleigh. And God’s filling it up in Raleigh. And God’s filling it up in… You know, this Blakeney building is so big we had to go to Weddington and go into high school. He’s not just a filler. He’s an overflower. When the disciples had fished all night and caught nothing and Jesus showed up, their next problem was their boats were sinking because they were too full. A few months ago, we went to Time Warner Cable Arena and filled it! And filled it! I thought we had a picture of Time Warner Cable Arena. Everybody shout, «Filled it!»
We Are Not Full Yet: The Call to Take More Land
And now we’re full. We’re full. Huh? We’re full? Let me tell you something my kids say. Leave that up. Leave that right there. Leave that right there. Leave that right there. Leave that right there. My kids are so annoying at dinner time. One question in particular that they should never ask me again, and if they value their lives, is the question: «Can we be full?» Because at our house, you don’t get to just get up from the table and leave just because you decided that you wanted to do something else. You got to ask for permission to be excused. Now, sometimes they get up anyway. Sometimes I yell at them. Sometimes I stab them in the eye with a fork. But they asked Holly a question one day. Made me so mad. They said, «Mommy, can we be full?» Can we be full? In other words, «I don’t like the broccoli. I’m not full, but can I be full? Because I’m done with what’s on this plate.»
You know how many times there’s been as a pastor where I wanted to look at God and say, «God, can we be full?» And see, if it were up to my preference, this could be full. Look at all that. Look at God. Look what he’s done. Not one promise has failed. But we don’t build a church on preference. We build a church on purpose and in perspective of all that God has given us to do. Because you know one thing the Bible says that I take very seriously: «To him who much is given, much more is required.» And God’s called us to reach 100,000 people. And we’re not there yet. When I first got married, I started putting on weight. I went on the Atkins diet. And I was telling one of these snobby, skinny people about the Atkins diet. And I had about 55 pounds to lose. That’s right. That’s right. 55 pounds and I wanted to lose it eating bacon. That’s right. That’s right. I went on the Atkins diet. Love that diet.
And I was talking to some skinny, snobby person about my Atkins diet. I was getting good results. And she said, «Well, that’s not actually very healthy. It’s not very healthy. The healthiest way to lose weight, if you want to really lose weight, is just, you know, when you’re full, stop eating.» You know, that might work for some people who actually feel full. But I’m not acquainted with this feeling that you call full. If you leave it up to me when I feel full, I’ll mess it up every time. And I don’t think we as a church get to decide when we feel full. Not when there’s a world to reach. Not when there’s a church to keep. Not when there’s a Savior to proclaim. Not when there are cities to redeem. Not when there are revivals to initiate. Does somebody say, «We ain’t full.»
So God told Joshua one time, in Joshua chapter 13, verse 1, something that’s very powerful. He said, «Joshua 13,» not John 13. They got John 13 on the screen back there. This is the one I want. John 13 is way different than Joshua 13. But we’ll talk about that after the worship experience. It said, «When Joshua had grown old, the Lord said to him,» and this scripture is for some of you, «you are now very old.» Figure out if that’s your word or not. Okay? So you only have so long to give what you’ve got in you. And what he said to Joshua, because they had done pretty well at this point, they’ve taken a lot of ground. «You are now very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be… There’s still some stuff that I gave you that you haven’t taken yet.»
The Land That Remains: Our Opportunity to Fulfill Purpose
God has given every person in this church as we end the year getting ready for our December 12th and 13th year-end offering. An opportunity to fulfill purpose. Will you take it? Will you take it? Are you going to wait for God to give it, but you don’t want to take it by faith? And then, after he declares this to Joshua, he said, «I know you’ve done good, but this is the land that remains. This is the land that remains.» Over the coming weeks, we’re going to show you some cool stuff with expansion. We’re going to show you some cool stuff with where we’re building, where we’re going, what we’re doing, what’s in progress. A lot of cool stuff happening.
But what if what God wants to take over isn’t so much something out there? What if there is still a level of purpose and fulfillment and true satisfaction that is never going to be yours as long as you continue to settle before you get there? I know it feels full, but we’re not full. We’re only just starting. Y’all ought to clap. That was some Matrix stuff right there. I said, we feel full, but there are still very large areas of land to be taken over. There is still blank space. There is still an opportunity for you to be involved. This is just the ground level. If you have the faith to believe it, what has been done is not all this shall be done. There are still large areas of land to be taken over. We’re going to 100,000. I said, we’re going to 100,000. We’re not full yet. We’re not full yet. We’re not full yet.
I need you to hug 10 people. Tell them, «We’re not full yet. We’re not full yet.» He’s able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. We ain’t done. You can take it. God said, «Elevation Church, you want to create a once-in-a-lifetime ministry that you’ll be telling your grandchildren about what God did, what you saw, what you beheld, how people were saved every weekend, how the baptismal tank stayed full and had to be refilled every week. You can take it. You can take it. You can take it.» Not going to be easy. But there are still people to be reached, stories to be written, kingdom to be expanded. And we pray in this season that every person will play their part.
They put together a little seed baggie for you. Something is strong. Follow scripture card. Commitment card. Lord, when you leave today, look at the ushers that are out there and say, «I’ll take it.» And when you say that, you’re not just talking about the card. You say, «I’ll take the challenge. I’ll take the responsibility to build the church that I’m a part of, to give back to the God who gave to me. I’ll take it. And I’ll take it seriously. And I’ll pray. I’m going to get this thing. I’m going to get this verse where it says, 'every promise was fulfilled.' I’m going to thank God for all that he’s given me as I end this year. I’m going to pray over it and say, 'Lord, what do you want us to do? '»
Some of you need to begin to tithe. Some of you need to give above and beyond. Son, we want to see everybody take the opportunity that’s before us. And then they got a little timer in there to remind you that you’re old now. And will you fulfill your purpose before your life is empty of days? So, in this season, what is it that you need to receive from the Lord? He said, «Take this bread, eat it. This is my body broken for you. Take my grace, take my mercy.» But don’t you just hold on to what you’ve been given. Release it. And open your hands. And I’ll fill them again and again and again and again and again and again and again. I’ve seen it again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. Everybody shout, «Do it again.» That’s what we want, Lord. Lord, we want you to do it again. We declare we are not full. We’re just being filled. Lift your hands. The presence of the Lord is in this place. Do it again, Lord. Do it again. Every person say it. «Do it again.» Fill our church. Pour out your Spirit on all flesh. Pour out your Spirit in our towns, in my family, in my life. Clap your hands and give Him praise like it’s already done.