Steven Furtick - Grow Your Gift (01/28/2026)
This sermon explores how to develop the gifts God has given us, using the story of David being called to play the harp for Saul (1 Samuel 16). The key point is that while God deposits a gift or anointing within us, we have the responsibility to develop it through diligence, excellence, and by embracing our unique makeup. The conclusion is that we must actively "work our field" to see the hidden treasure of our destiny come to fruition.
The Deception of the Gift: Underestimating the Grind
Ask your neighbor real quick, say, "Are you growing in your gift?" Are you growing in your gift? Because from time to time we'll see somebody who is very good at what they do, and often we'll say about a person like this, "Man, they're so gifted." You ever met somebody and the gift is just dripping off of them? It's just like coming out their nostrils. They can't get enough Kleenex to catch all the giftedness that's coming out, just dripping with an anointing. Maybe it's not necessarily in an athletic environment or a musical environment where we tend to see people who are just so gifted. I mean, just people who are maybe so good in meetings with their words, and they can convince somebody to do anything, and there is a gift in them.
I've noticed something about the term "gift." It's a little bit problematic, because when we say that someone has a gift, often what we assume is that because they have a gift, they never have to work. They never have faith in God. We assume we have to work to prepare, but they don't. We see K.D. dunk, but we don't necessarily see him on the squat rack, because nobody wants to see the squat rack. We all want to see what happens in the finals. Here's one thing that's very deceiving about someone who has a gift. You can be so overwhelmed and mesmerized by the gift that you underestimate the grind that it took that person to be able to operate in the gift that they have.
And that's why I wanted to preach. I didn't just want to go, "Okay, David killed Goliath," because I wanted you to see that before David ever killed Goliath, there was a gift at work that David had to work on developing. He had to be in a position where he could be strategically maneuvered by God to be able to do what God called him to do. So here's what I wanted you to know. God has anointed you to accomplish your assignment, but just because God put a deposit in you doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to come out of you. In order for the deposit that God put in you to come out of you and make a difference in the world around you, you've got to develop what God has deposited.
The First Key: Diligence in Development
So here it is. Here's the first word: Diligence. Diligence. How many hours did David have to practice his harp in order to be good enough that when the king needs a personal musician, you're the first person they think of? How many lessons did David sit through? We know he was a teenager at this point in his life. How many times did he have to drag his harp? This is a harp, y'all. This isn't like an acoustic guitar you can carry back and forth. You can't load it up in Mom's SUV. How many miles did he lug his harp across the countryside of Bethlehem in order to be the best harpist? When they called for him, he was ready. So you see the gift when it's in full operation, but you don't see the grind that it took to get the gift ready.
And in this room, there are a lot of people who have a deposit that God has put inside of you that's never been developed. And if you don't develop the deposit that God put inside of you through diligence, you'll never experience the destiny that God prepared for you before you were ever born. See, we've got to put this out there, because a lot of people, they want the benefit of the gift without the burden of diligence. I remember when my father-in-law first got a motorcycle, I said, "Man, let me have that." He said, "You can have it, and you can have the payments." "No, no, no, I don't want the payments. I just want the product."
Be very careful when you envy somebody else's gift. Because when you get a gift, it doesn't come as a finished product. It comes with payments. In fact, I'll say it another way. God gives each of us gifts—things that he deposits inside of us. But the gifts that God gives should come with a warning. And here's what it should say: "Some assembly required." Come on, talk to me, somebody. You know, the gift comes in all these different pieces. The gift doesn't look like a bicycle when you open it out of the box. It just looks like metal. It just looks like parts. It just looks like bolts. It just looks like stuff.
So if you ever see somebody functioning in a gift, you can bet on two things. One, God gave it to them. And number two, they put it together. Because if God's going to give you something, he'll give you everything you need. But he'll expect you to put it together through the process of diligence. So God has anointed you. That's the deposit—the Spirit of God. Like Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:14, he said, "Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." So there are two realities here. One, you've got a gift. You didn't earn it. You don't even know how you're good at that.
You don't even know why people think you're funny. You don't even know why people like to tell you their problems. You don't even know why people love to be over at your home. You don't even know why you have this gift of hospitality. The gift of hospitality still means you have to put something in the oven. The gift of hospitality still comes with mops and brooms. So if you're going to have a gift, you have to put it together. I don't know why I'm hollering on my first point, but I feel it. Maybe it's because I'm alarmed at the number of Christians who expect the product without the payments.
Working Your Field: The Process of Digging Deep
A story is told about this pastor. He went out and bought himself a ranch. When he bought it, he didn't realize what he was getting himself into. He got out there and decided to go fix up his land he had bought. He got out there and realized, "Man, this thing is a money pit." There's gopher holes. There's tumbleweed and broken windows. Every Saturday on his day off, he'd be out there working his farm, you know, fire up the tractor and other stuff you do on the farm. I never lived on a farm, but he worked real hard. He worked like this for years. It took him a few years to get the place right.
After he finally got it right, and he worked so hard—this guy worked so hard—he got sick. His neighbor stopped by for a neighborly visit. We'll call the neighbor Farmer Brown. Farmer Brown came over and said, "Well, preacher?" And he kind of nodded approvingly, looking over the land. He said, "Looks like some good work you and God have done out here together." The preacher said, "Well, thank you, Farmer Brown, but I have to tell you, you should have seen the place when God had it all to himself." Touch somebody next to you and say, "Work your field. Work your field."
See, the treasure is hidden in the field, and the gift is hidden in your humanity. If you're ever going to step into your destiny, you're going to have to dig deep. We have a habit as Christians of reaching up high, trying to get God to do stuff, but God says, "Actually, I put what I put down in you, and if you want it to come out, you're going to have to dig. Dig for it." Look, my sermons don't just come to me. Do you think they show up on the back of a truck? You have to dig to have something to say to people, especially if you're going to preach every six days to the same people over and over again.
You have to dig for it. You have to be diligent about it. You have to do what Paul told Timothy. He said, "Study to show yourself approved of God. You have to be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." If you're going to flow this year, and if you're going to grow this year, you're going to have to dig this year through diligence this year, because God puts it in you, but you have to work it out. Touch three people and tell them, "Work it out. Work it out. Work it out." That's called diligence. So I must develop what God has deposited. Are you growing in your gift or have you become stagnant?
Are you sharpening your skills or are you chopping at the tree wondering why it won't fall because you forgot how to sharpen your ax? Did you read anything this year to make you better at what you're called to do? Did you meet with anybody this year and say, "Teach me how you think because I see where you are and you're farther along than where I am"? It requires diligence. David didn't get called to play the harp because he loved God. He got called to play the harp because he was good at playing the harp. It's amazing how many times we'll give God something that's no good.
Excellence: Why Loving God Isn't Enough
Let me show you this in the Scripture. This kind of blew my mind when I was reading it. When you think of David, you think of a man after God's own heart and the reason God chose David is because he loved him. All of that is very true, but I want you to notice when they were putting up flyers on the telephone poles for "Harpist Wanted for Saul." Look at it. In verse 16 they say, "Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play," not who can pray. I'm about to mess with your religious beliefs now. Just hang on. Verse 17: So Saul said to his attendants, "Find someone who plays well." Not someone who prays well. Someone who plays well. Not someone who loves God.
In fact, look at it. In verse 18, part B, they start listing off all of the things he's good at. He can play the lyre. He's brave. He's a warrior. He speaks well. Fine looking. And the Lord is with him. But that's the last thing they mention. It's the most important thing about David, but it's the last thing people see. So how did they see that the Lord was with him? Because he was excellent at what he did, because God made him capable. My second word is excellence. How do you grow in your gift? Maximize your potential. Flow in all the things you have. Flow in all the things God has planned for you. Well, it's going to take diligence, and it's going to take a commitment to excellence.
It's true because a preacher told me one time when I was first getting started, I said, "What do I need to know about ministry?" He said, "Just love God and preach the Word." No. That's a good start. But you have to do more than love God and just preach the Word. I mean, yeah. You're never going to not preach the Word, but let me tell you something. You better know something about the Word you're preaching if you're going to stand up and preach it. Come on. How many of you want to show up and hear a sermon the preacher didn't study for? How many of you want that? "Well, I just love God."
We have a lot of people that sing in church who ought not be singing, but they love God. Well, they can love him in the seat on the fourth day. They can idolize him. They can adore him. But we can't confuse spirituality with skill, right? So, it's not enough that I'm good at what I do, just as long as I love God. "Well, I'm doing it for the right reasons." Well, why don't you do it with skill and excellence and for the right reasons? Why don't you get so good... This is a vision for somebody in your business this year.
Why don't you run your business with such excellence that you don't even have to put a cross on your logo or a fish by the name of your company, but the way you do it will show the people you serve that there's something different about you, because you serve with excellence. I was talking to somebody the other day about sports. This person is a very accomplished athlete. I was asking what certain shoes I should buy one of my kids for a sport they wanted to play. Then my friend said, "Don't buy them any nice shoes yet, because you don't want your kids to be those kids." I said, "What kids?" He said, "The kids who have all the gear but no game. Make sure your kids have some game before you get them the gear."
They don't need Nike ID custom cleats if they don't have no game. So send your kids out there in some hand-me-downs so your kids can get the game and then the gear. I'm afraid, church, that in the world today, often what they see when they look at us is a lot of believers who have all the gear but no game. In other words, we have a lot of talk, but we don't quite walk it. I'm afraid sometimes what they see is that we claim it's for God, but it's no good. Let me tell you something. If it's for God, it ought to be good. If you fix cars for God, you ought to fix them on time and at a reasonable rate.
If you're in accounting and you love God, you ought to do your job with accuracy, because if it's for God, it ought to be good. God is good, and if he's good, I want to offer him something that's worthy of his goodness. I'm not talking about perfectionism. I'm talking about excellence. Perfectionism is when you need to be the best. You've got to be the best. That's rooted in a prideful spirit, which does not come from God. But excellence doesn't say, "I have to be the best." It says, "I want to bring God my best." Are you excellent at what you do? Students, don't be inviting your friends to Elevation Church and you have a D in chemistry because you're lazy.
Why do they need a God in their life who can't even help you from flunking out of your sophomore year of high school? It's getting kind of rough in here now. I feel like I need to back this down a little bit. It's true. It's true. Excellence. Look at it. In Psalm 90, I believe verse 17, the psalmist is praying, and he says, "May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us." Now, you might say, that's what we want. Okay. "May the favor of God rest on us." Sounds pretty passive. But then he says, "Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands." All I'm saying is, if you're going to ask God to build something in your life, at least give him good lumber to build with.
Uniqueness: How Your "Weird" Points to Your Calling
If you're going to ask God to build something in your life, I love this quote from the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. I just came across it the other day. He's talking about excellence, and nobody was more theologically adept than Martin Luther. If anybody was about the glory of God, it would have been Martin Luther. But I want you to listen to what he said about excellence. He said, "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays, not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps, but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."
God is interested in excellence. The next time the sun comes up and you're awake to see it, I want you to give God a grade. How did he do? He could have set the universe up to run any way he wants, but have you ever noticed how the whole universe shouts of the excellence of our God? One psalmist said, "O Lord our Lord, how majestic your name is in all the earth." And if the excellent God lives inside of you, what would he desire to produce through you? Excellence is not enough for us to just claim that we are living for God. We are supposed to grow in our gift so that we will live for God.
We can show the glory of God, the goodness of God, the excellence of our God, to declare the praises of our God. How great is our God, and how will the world ever know how great he is if his people don't do what they're called to do with an excellent spirit? I could preach about this another 30 minutes, but I have to get to my third word, which is uniqueness. I don't know if you noticed this, but the Scripture points out something here in verse 18 that to me seems contradictory on the surface. Look at it. When they're describing David... They're talking about what he's good at.
They say he knows how to play the lyre, which is the harp. Look at the next thing they say. "He is a brave man and a warrior." Harpist, warrior. Did you ever watch Sesame Street? They used to have a song that said, "One of these things is not like the other." When's the last time you've ever seen somebody? "Man, that dude looks tough. You think you can take that guy?" "Nah, dude. I don't think I could at all. You know what else I heard about him? He plays a mean harp." When have you ever... Come on, now. We're tracking David's trajectory, and we're trying to see how God got him ready for what he was anointed to do.
We see here a convergence of two abilities that don't seem to go together. Okay? But both of these things would be needed for David to be in position to fulfill his purpose. And so you've got to understand that it is at the intersection of your idiosyncrasies that your destiny will often make itself clear. Those things that don't seem to go together, those things about you that don't seem to make sense... Because all of us are walking contradictions. But here's the good news. Your calling will often become clearer because of your contradictions. I didn't say in spite of them, but because of them.
Check it out. The reason David had the courage to approach Saul and ask him if he could fight Goliath in chapter 17 was because he had been playing harp for him in his bedroom. Saul's job replacement was sitting in his bedroom singing him to sleep. And he didn't even know it. But if David was just a warrior, he never would have had access to Saul. If he was just a harpist, he would have got killed on the battlefield. You can't sing Goliath to sleep. No, you need a sling for that. But how many know God will give you everything you need for every situation you face? So if you need a harp, he'll give you a harp. If you need a sling, he'll give you a sling.
A couple of weeks ago, my brother-in-law was over at our house, and he was in the kitchen making a sandwich. I want to show you a picture of his sandwich. I took a picture, because to me it was so remarkable. Here's the sandwich. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, indeed, that is a turkey and jelly sandwich. Come on, that's terrible. How many agree turkey and jelly don't belong between two pieces of bread touching one another? I like turkey. I like jelly, but don't put them together and call them a sandwich. It's not a sandwich. It's an abomination. And I told him so. I said, "That's disgusting." He said, "No, I like them together."
And I think sometimes God looks at things sometimes that we think don't go together, and God says, "You know what? I like turkey with jelly, because my thoughts aren't your thoughts, and my ways aren't your ways. And I made you weird in a wonderful way." Here's the way one Scripture says it: "Fearfully and wonderfully made." Fearfully and wonderfully made. That means there's some stuff about me that's strange. But guess what? God made me strange. See, God put the turkey with the jelly. God gave me that experience and that experience, because he couldn't give me just the same old experiences that everybody else has, because there's something he wants me to do that only I can do.
So God had to make me a... harpist and a warrior. God had to make me a little bit insecure over here, so I would rely on his strength over there. The thing that makes me weird to you makes me wonderful to God, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. See, what God will do in your life, if you'll let him... He'll take the turkey and the jelly—Aah!—and he'll take your upbringing and your current situation, and he'll take the thing that you went to school for that you thought you were going to use in your career, and the thing that you're really doing to get a paycheck, and if you'll follow him and trust him, and be diligent where he puts you, and serve him with excellence where he put you, and trust in the uniqueness of how he made you.
You know, the Scripture says that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So God will take the conflicts and make them work together to complete your calling. I'm speaking to somebody today who's conflicted. You've never made sense to yourself. You can't reconcile this with that. You can't reconcile what you've been through with where God said he was going to take you. But I want to announce you're a harpist and a warrior. Nothing is wasted in God's economy. He's making something out of what you went through. He's bringing it together with what you're going through. And he's going to put it all together. And it's all good. It's all good. It's all good.
That's why God made you weird. You ever wondered why you were weird? You just found out. Because God needed a harpist in chapter 16 that would know how to handle his business in chapter 17. So you had to be both. It's like somebody said you had to be both. You had to be both. You couldn't fit in. You couldn't fit in. It wasn't possible. Because you were custom-tailored for something. So you couldn't be off the rack. You had to be made to measure. You had to be fearfully and wonderfully made. Uniqueness.
Putting It All Together: Diligence, Excellence, and You
Let's review. Diligence. Are you diligent? Are you developing what God has deposited inside of you? Excellence. Are you giving God the best gift? One theologian who wrote a book on prayer said, "What you are is God's gift to you. What you become is your gift to God." Excellence. If it's for God, it ought to be good. If it's for God, we ought to work hard at it. If it's for God, it ought to matter to us. If it's for God, we ought to do it better than somebody who's doing it without God. Christian music ought not suck. It ought to have a beat. It ought to feel good. It ought to sound right. If it's for God, it ought to be good. But it all comes down to... Did I say uniqueness? Oh, you knew that one. Well, uniqueness. You're weird. We got that. You don't need a reminder.
But it all comes down to experience. See, because it says that for some undisclosed period of time, David, verse 21, entered Saul's service, and Saul liked him very much. Now, if you know the rest of the story about David, that sentence in itself is a little funny, because this is chapter 16, and Saul likes David, because he can play well and he's a warrior. By chapter 19, Saul's going to be throwing spears at David, trying to kill him, because the people are praising David more than Saul. And I just threw that in there for free to let you know that sometimes the very thing that makes you great is the thing that will also get you in trouble.
Sometimes the thing that makes you gifted is also the thing that will get you killed. So don't be surprised when trouble comes because of your gift. Don't be surprised if when you sing for somebody, sometimes they applaud and sometimes they throw something at you, because the same gift will accomplish both. The same thing that makes you great is also the thing that makes you vulnerable. Right? But here's the part I wanted to read. It says that Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. Again, this is all part of God's strategy to get David in position to fulfill his purpose. And then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, "Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him." I want you to understand that God will arrange every experience in your life to serve his purpose, if you will embrace it.