Steven Furtick - Come Out of Your Corner (10/31/2018)
Jesus modeled humble conversation by sitting down to teach, to rest, and to engage across divides—like with the Samaritan woman at the well. Pastor Steven calls us through the "gate of conversation" to sit, listen, and talk with those different from us, rediscovering common ground, overcoming outrage culture, and opening doors for God's favor and revival, because true change begins when we stop commenting and start conversing.
The Gate of Conversation—Rediscovering Real Talk in a Comment Age
Listen, I'm so glad you came today for this installment of Gates of Change. Normally my pulpit comes out right here. There's even tape on the stage to show where it goes, so we get it right there, center, so all the campuses can see it. It's not crooked, driving the OCD people crazy. But today I told them to bring me a different instrument to illustrate this gate of change, because today we're going to go through the gate of conversation. Now, I know that word is archaic, because we live in the age of comments. We live in the age of outrage, and we so hide behind virtual walls and digital personas and screens that sometimes we have forgotten how to talk. And many young men will never know what it was like to do this and to have to still and steady your heart to talk to a girl on the other end of the line. People don't talk. People don't talk no more. All they do is this. Have you noticed?
And yet we find that God is a conversationalist. Prove it to you. The very Cadence of creation is call and response. God spoke, and it was. Everything we see is a result of something that God spoke. And so to walk with God is to involve yourself in a conversation, because I really want to model my ministry and my life after the ministry of Jesus. And as obvious as that should sound, I've missed it in so many ways. I missed it because sometimes I was so focused on what Jesus said and his words that I missed some of the context that he said those words in. And a lot of it was ignorance. I slowed down recently, and I noticed a pattern in Jesus' ministry. Something that he did is so simple on the surface, you will miss it if you are not looking for it. I'll show it to you, and by the time I show it to you a few different ways, you'll pick right up on it, and you'll wonder, how did I never see that before?
Jesus Sat Down to Teach with Authority
But the first one I thought I would mention, there are a lot of these I could have pulled from, but since I tried to memorize the Sermon on the Mount one time from Matthew 5-7, you know, he really starts preaching around about verse 3. But verse 1 says something. I never thought much about it before. It just says, Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He sat down to teach, and the Bible says at the end of that whole discourse that the people were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority, not as one of their teachers of the law. He broke their expectations by virtue of the power of his wisdom. That was the first one I wanted to read you.
The second one is in Luke chapter 4. It's kind of cool because Jesus is preaching in his hometown of Nazareth, Nazareth, and he was Nazareth. I was thinking Lazarus and Nazareth together. It just kind of came out. A bit of a mashup. But he stood up and took the scroll, and he read his scripture. And he was quoting from Isaiah 61. He read it, but he stopped because he was talking about, The Spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, open the eyes of the blind, recovery of sight. And he said that it is the year of the Lord's favor. And after he had said that, look at Luke 4, verse 20. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant. And what did he do next? Talk to me. This is a conversation. All of y'all who look at me like some kind of clown to entertain you, I am not used to that. I am a conversational preacher. I need you to talk back. My questions are not rhetorical. I really expect an answer. What did he do after he rolled up the scroll? Jesus sat down. And the funny thing was, he sat down before he got to their favorite part of the scripture. Because after he said, it's the year of the Lord's favor, it said the day of vengeance of our God. And they really wanted him to be the kind of Messiah that would repay all of their enemies. But before he got to that point, because he is full of grace and truth, he rolled up the scroll, said it's the year of the Lord's favor, and he sat down.
Jesus Sat Down—Finished Work and Open Doors
And when he sat down, the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, hanging on his every word, because he was the word. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is God's conversation with humanity. So that if we see him, we see the Father. You got time for one more? The Bible says in Hebrews that every priest that came before Jesus, the great high priest, would stand. This is around about verse 11 of Hebrews chapter 10. And day after day, these human priests in the religious system would stand and offer sacrifices. And they would stand day after day and perform religious duties. And day after day, they would make atonement for the people's sins day after day, performing these religious duties. Again and again, day after day, they would stand and offer the same sacrifices, the bulls and the goats and the pigeons and everything else they could find to kill, to try to shed blood to cover their iniquities. They would do it day after day, again and again, which can never take away sins. But, verse 12 says, when this priest, speaking of Jesus, had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, what did he do? So I got good news for you. He didn't sit down because he was tired. He sat down because he was finished. He sat down because everything that needed to be done for you to be right with God was accomplished on that cross. And when he did it, when he stretched his arms and shed his blood and breathed his last, got up from the grave with all power in his hand, trampling over death, hell, and the grave, he sat down at the right hand of God to make his enemies his footstool. Pretty cool that he's still seated today. No matter how anxious the world is, Jesus is not pacing the halls of heaven, wondering what I'm going to do about this. Do me a favor, touch somebody and say, he's still seated.
It's interesting to me that he sat down. But my favorite time that Jesus sat down is recorded in John chapter four. This one's a little different because he sat down in a strange place. He sat down in a town called Samaria. The Bible says now he had to go through Samaria. Technically, he didn't have to do anything. He is God. But there was an appointment that he wanted to keep in Samaria that he did not give to the disciples to put on the itinerary. And he knew about it. He knew about it. He had a reason. He had a conversation that was waiting in Samaria. And when he came to a town, verse five, in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son, Joseph, Jacob's well was there. And Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down. And he got tired. Jesus had to blow his nose. Jesus had to sleep. Jesus cried as a baby. You know the Christmas Carol, little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes? It's wrong. It's pretty, but it's not true. He cried, screamed his head off. And Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon, and when a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink?
Jesus Sat Down—Crossing Divides to Start Conversations
A quick question. How many of you believe that Jesus is the answer? Just raise your hand if you believe that. So if Jesus is the answer, what is he doing asking a question? To a woman, as a rabbi who's not supposed to speak to a woman, to a woman who we will find out in the course of the conversation… We're not going to read it today, but if we did, we'd find out she had questionable conduct. A woman who had not only questionable behavioral conduct, but a completely different belief system than Jesus. A different belief system, a different moral code, and a different ethnicity. So why would Jesus sit down and start a conversation? Something the church isn't very good at is something the Savior came to do, to start conversations with people who were different. And we've lost the art of conversation in our culture today. I can't speak to the whole world, but at least in America, we don't do conversation anymore. We do comments. Y'all aren't going to help me. You're going to leave me right up here on this stool by myself. I don't even have a pulpit to hide behind. We do comments. One of my friends told me he calls when people go on and leave nasty comments but won't say it to your face. He calls that Internet courage. We live our lives sometimes in echo chambers where digital algorithms are force-feeding us our preconceived prejudice and reinforcing our biases.
And then we will sit down and watch news programming that is owned by the same conglomerate that sells us our antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication, where they will gather people on a panel to talk about a cultural or social issue. And they'll call it a conversation, but it's really a cage match because we don't know how to have a conversation. And the church is not much better sometimes because we're always wanting to know where do we stand on the issue? Well, we do need to take a stand. And there are standards. And I preached about them two weeks ago, and you should have been here because I preached it real hard. I didn't even have a stool. I didn't need one. Standing for truth and standing for what's right and standing for justice and turning back the battle at the gate and all of that is important. But Nelson Mandela once said that where you stand depends on where you sit. Your beliefs are shaped by your background. And sometimes we speak before we sit. Sometimes, as a preacher, I've been better at developing my one-liners than listening to the worldview of somebody who was different than me. And I believe that Jesus gives us a model here of conversation. He asks this woman a question. And the woman, verse 9, was really shocked. She said, You're a Jew. I'm a Samaritan. I'm a woman. You're a man. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
From Comments to Conversations—Finding Common Ground
Yet the Savior sat by the well and spoke with this woman. And he said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. And they had a conversation. And because of that conversation, the gates to the entire region of Samaria were open for the year of the Lord's favor. And it didn't start with a statement that Jesus made. It started with a conversation. He sat down. I had the chance to do this recently. I got to sit down with somebody who on the surface seemed really different from me, but wasn't that different at all. Actually, I'm from a town called Monk's Corner, South Carolina. Proud to be from the corner. Learned manners in the corner. Learned how to make people feel special from being from a small town. Population 7,885, according to the 2010 US Census. Only reason I know that, I was recently on Wikipedia looking at Monk's Corner to see if I was on the section called Notable People from Monk's Corner. My ego got the best of me one day, and I wanted to see if I made it. And I got good news, church. I made it. I was right there on the Monk's Corner Wikipedia page. Praise his holy name forever, and blessed be God in the highest. Glory, glory. And there were some other people on there too, a few that I knew of. And then one guy that I had never heard of on there called Charlemagne, the God.
A Real Conversation Across Differences—Monk's Corner Story
Well, see, I'd never heard of him. And I clicked on him because I figured that wasn't his given name. Maybe I knew him by something different. Because we were born right around the same year, and we're from this little town. Surely I knew him. I found out that his first name was Lennard McKelvey. Well, see, I didn't know a Lennard. I knew Tamisha McKelvey, JJ McKelvey, Larry McKelvey. Didn't know Lennard, who later became Charlemagne. I didn't know him. I started asking around to some people that grew up in Monk's Corner with me. Do you know this Charlemagne, the God who came from Monk's Corner? One of them said to me, Yeah, I've seen him. He has this big radio guy, but you wouldn't like him. You wouldn't have anything in common with him. I said, Why not? Because that just makes me want to get to know him more, that you think I won't like him. Because I made a grown-up decision not to let other people's opinions inform who I will and won't like. But that's up to you. I said, Why not? They said, Well, he's like the Howard Stern of hip-hop radio. So now you know I had to watch him. Now you know I'm straight from Wikipedia to YouTube. I watched him on his show called The Breakfast Club.
Now, this was a while back. I watched a few of his interviews. I thought, Man, this guy…. He's shocking. We probably see a lot of things differently. But I liked him. I liked him. I thought he was a great communicator. I liked the fact that he would say some things that maybe other people wouldn't say. I thought that was kind of cool. I knew that we were probably different from a religious standpoint. I definitely knew when his book, Black Privilege, came out that we were different in terms of our skin color. But I already knew that pretty quickly. My friend Eric, who grew up in Monk's Corner with me, he bought the book, Black Privilege, that Charlemagne had put out, telling a little bit of his story, and said, You have to read this book that Charlemagne wrote. Charlemagne, who is Lenard, who happened to also be Larry, which was the guy that I knew, but his real name was Lenard. But he went by Larry, and then he became Charlemagne. So I knew him all along. I picked up the book, and I read it in a day, and some of the language was colorful. Some of the stories were interesting. Some of the ways he saw the world were different, but I thought, we came from the same town and went to the same school. We never even talked to each other. Did I remember? I wondered what would happen if we talked.
I went to our video team. I said, I'd love to do something with Charlemagne. Y'all know Charlemagne? They all knew Charlemagne. I said, I'd love to do something with Charlemagne. I'd love to go back to Monk's Corner and go around town and tell our stories to each other, just about growing up in the same town, going and doing different things, and having different perspectives, and not preach to each other, not debate each other. I liked to just talk to a guy that was from my same town. They said, well, that would be cool. I said, but I don't really know him. We've talked a few times on social media, but I don't really know him. I went to get my hair cut an hour later, and my barber fly tie said, do you know Charlamagne? He was here in Charlotte last night for an event, and he was asking about you, and he wanted me to give you his phone number so you guys could talk, but I don't know what for, but here's his number. Well, I know what for. That's a God wink. God's pseudonym is coincidence. And so we started a conversation, and it took a little time, but I found out that Charlamagne was going to be in Monk's Corner doing a Turkey drive at our old high school. And I said, well, what if I brought a video crew and picked you up, and what if we went around and talked? Just talk. Just talk. I know we're different, but what if we just talked? And he was kind enough to sit with me, and I learned a lot that day, and I think he liked it too. Some of the footage we had to edit out because it's not exactly Sunday morning church material, but I want you to go with me now to Monk's Corner. You've always wanted to go, but let's load up the whole church. I want to ask that you don't slip out. There's no popcorn in the lobby, but for the next 30 minutes, I want us to have a conversation and find some common ground. Touch the person next to you. Say, let's go to the corner.
Well, touch somebody, say, come out of your corner. Stay seated right where you are for a moment. I hope you enjoyed the tour of Monk's Corner. It only took 30 minutes to see the whole time. I want to thank Charlemagne for spending that time with me. I learned so much. But really, it wasn't about our conversation at all. It was about your conversations. Because I do believe that God is a conversationalist, and I believe he's still speaking today. I believe he speaks by his Spirit, by his Son, by others, by situations in our life. I think it's a good thing sometimes to do what Jesus did, tired as he was from the journey, to sit down, be humble, and listen. Listen and listen.
Sit Down, Listen, and Reconnect—For Calling and Change
Where you stand depends on where you sit. Sometimes we don't sit with ourselves long enough to really know ourselves, so we start trying to be something we're not. But if you would sit a little bit this week and ask God to take you back to your porch, your trailer, your core, some of you would find that God has brought you a long way, and you owe him praise for what he's done, and you've been so unnecessarily burdened. But to reconnect with your core and have a seat and just reflect on how far God has brought you can be a good thing. Sometimes I talk to 16-year-old Stephen, and he tells 37-year-old Stephen, shut up. Quit complaining. Look at how much God has done for you and brings perspective. Sometimes I need to sit with somebody who seems different than me on the surface to find out that we have more common ground than the world would have us to believe.
It might be good this week to sit with someone who has a different experience than you, who votes differently than you, who worships differently than you, or doesn't worship at all. Jesus, tired as he was, sat down. The disciples were surprised. John 4, 27 says, when they saw him speaking with a Samaritan woman, they were surprised to see him speaking with a woman. But no one asked. That's the problem. We don't ask. We don't ask. And Jesus cannot be the answer to a question that is not posed. If the church is to remain relevant, I think we have to come out of our corner sometimes. If Jesus did it, the only one who had a right to condemn sat down and had a conversation. If Charlemagne would be willing to sit down with me, if we could sit down together and talk, sometimes just sitting down and listening. This will help your marriage. There may be a teenager that needs to sit down and listen to your parents. There may be a parent that needs to sit down and listen to your teenager. But to sit down and listen and ask, how do you see this, rather than allowing this world system to feed us information divorced from relationship. Sit down and listen to God. There's a calling on your life. I hope you heard that loud and clear. There is a calling on your life, and it may not look like what you thought it would look like.
Sit in God's Presence—Listen for Your Calling
But let's take a moment and put into practice this sit down and listen thing. We're here, gathered together today, watching online. Let's just take a moment and sit in the presence of God. Before we get up and leave in purses, sit down and listen. Would you bow your head for a moment? Because I believe the Spirit of the Lord is in this place, and the Spirit of Christ is the spirit of conversation. God has positioned you where he has positioned you and given you a calling in the earth. But it's so easy to become disconnected when we don't listen. We start walking by sight, not by faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word of God, and God is speaking. You don't have to compromise your conviction to listen to someone who is different than you. If that were the case, God would have compromised his conviction. He's holy, and we're not so much. But the Creator speaks to the creation through the person of Jesus, the Word made flesh. And Jesus sat down and spoke with a woman. And because he came out of the box of religious expectation, that woman went into Samaria, and the whole town was turned upside down. God wants to use you in a great way. I'm going to give you just a moment as you sit there and listen. I pray that God would open our eyes and our ears to what he's doing in the world, ways we've been wrong, prejudice that we need to repent of, conversations we need to have, understanding that we seek. We need you, Lord. Speak in these moments.