Steven Furtick - Why Are You Consulting Your Enemy?
This is an excerpt from “The Power Of A Better Question”
I'm watching people stuck in survival mode. You get a little taste of tomorrow, a little glimpse of God's best, but the moment you taste the grapes, you start thinking about the giants. The people who made the decision not to go into this Canaan, this promise, this flowing place, this promised land… They didn't even see the giants for themselves. Do you know what's even crazier? The spies who came back answered a question Moses didn't even ask. I read you every question Moses asked. He asked, "What are the people like"? That was his problem right there. He started the question with "What are the people like"? That's something you can't control.
When you start with other people, you need a better question. No, no, no. This is going to have practical value. If you are going to entrust your time to me, I am going to help you in your Monday, your Tuesday, your Wednesday. I'm not giving you some Sunday syrup pancake preacher sermon where we just feel good for a few minutes and everybody goes out in a little Christian coma for 30 minutes. This is the Word of God. You can't start in the wrong place and end up at the right place. When Moses asked, "What are the people like? Are they big or small"? the people who were under his leadership went in and looked for exactly the lens he gave them. So, when they came back, all they could talk about was the Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites (it's holiday season…the cellulites), and all of the battles. (I couldn't resist it.)
When you start with that, when you start with desert questions, you end up in dead-end situations. In 11 days you could have moved through this wilderness. You have to study this sometime. Promise me you'll look this up later. Okay? In Joshua 2, one of the spies who carried the pole with Caleb… He got to go into the Promised Land. Everybody else who was over 20 died in the wilderness. They got stuck, because they asked questions God didn't tell them to ask. They tried to answer questions God wasn't even asking. "How is it going to work out"? That's above your pay grade, Bubba. (Moncks Corner coming out of me now.) I know all things work together for the good. Right?
So, my question about it can't be, "How is this going to work out"? If I do that, I will limit my answer to my experience, how I've seen God work it out so far at this point in my life. What if he wants to do something better? It's the power of a better question. "God, what have I not even asked, thought, or imagined that you have the power to do"? When Joshua led the people into the Promised Land 40 years later, he sent two spies, not twelve, because he didn't want another cluster. That represents focus. You have the wrong focus group. You're asking the wrong people. You're asking jealous people. Sometimes they don't even know they're insecure, and you are limiting your potential to their insecurity. "Well, I'd tell my wife off if I were you. I would just go down there to the golf course".
That's why your wife sleeps in another room, dude. Okay. "Oh, this is kind of rough now. I like the other stuff he was preaching earlier". But it's true, isn't it? Sometimes when we get the wrong focus group it costs us our fruit. There are three questions Moses told them to ask. When Joshua sent the people into the land, he didn't do any of that. He said, "Just go check it out. Come back. We're going in. God said it, so we're going to focus". Do y'all remember about Rahab? She was of a questionable profession. She was a prostitute, and the Lord used her. "I don't know if the Lord can use a prostitute". He didn't ask you who he could use. You didn't think virgins could have babies either, but you're going to be singing "Silent Night" in a few days. Nothing is impossible with God. When Rahab told Joshua, she said, "We're all scared of y'all". The spies came back saying, "They're huge. We look like grasshoppers to them".
Well, first of all, what are you doing asking your enemies what you look like? Why are you answering the Devil's question? The Serpent said to Eve, "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden"? That's the Devil's question. Look at verse 2. Eve said back to the Serpent… So, what would be a better question? The Serpent slithers up to you in the garden. "Did God really say…"? questioning God's intentions and motives and capacity and wisdom and all that stuff. What would be a better question than "Did God really say"? I have one suggestion for Eve. "Why am I talking to a snake"? "Why am I speaking to something that's beneath me? Why am I dealing with something…? Why am I consulting with something that Jesus can crush"? That's a better question. Right?
Y'all, the other day I was driving through a parking lot, and this lady whips out of her parking space and almost hits me. I had to put the brakes on. I put them on pretty hard. It wasn't like the airbag came out, but it was a close call. My car does this thing… I don't know if your car has this feature. When somebody does something stupid, the car honks. It grabs my hand and honks the car. It's a feature on my car. I honked at the lady. Y'all, I'm sure she saw my Elevation sticker, but she flipped me the bird, sideways bird with the thumb, and she was eating a bagel and looking at… She didn't even look up at me to flip me off. A bagel, driving with her knees, running out of the parking lot. She flipped me the bird.
Apparently, my car also has a feature that it goes in reverse when someone flips me the bird. Y'all, I wasn't thinking. Something took over. I put the car… Oh, this wasn't 18 years ago before I became a pastor. This was last week. I wish it was 18 years ago under the blood. I'm not even sure I'm forgiven of this one yet that I'm telling you. I haven't even told my kids this yet. I put the car in reverse. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get back, but I can't drive by somebody flipping me the… It was the bagel that put me over the top. If she hadn't been eating the bagel, I wouldn't have backed up, but bagel and bird, I'm backing up. I put the car in reverse. Boom! Right into another lady's Jeep.
So now I'm like… I got out of my car with my hands up. Not worship, just surrender to stupidity. I said, "I'm so sorry. Let's look at it. We'll do whatever you want to do. It's my fault. I'm an idiot. She had a bagel. She flipped me off". It was the bagel. It took it over the top. Then we looked. Her car was fine. It's a Jeep. God loves Jeeps. Mine was fine too. I gave her all the cash I had. She didn't want to call the cops. There was nothing wrong with her car. But when I drove back off, I looked at my car. There was a little scratch, just a little scratch. It could have gone a whole different way. Right? She could have been crazy. She could have been a church member. Thankfully, it was just a little scratch.
I got a lesson from it. A very simple lesson, but it was powerful. The Lord said, "I want you to be glad you have that scratch to remind you what happens the next time you are tempted to back up to something that is beneath you". It's a little scratch, but what a lesson. Here's the real question: What were you going to do when you got back there? You want to go back to Egypt? You want to go back to that? So, what are you going to do when you prove you're right? Are you going to be right and lonely? Every time you want to go back, remember you are going back to something that is beneath you.