Elevation with Steven Furtick - Acceptable Sacrifices

Episode Date: October 22, 2018

How do we worship God when we don’t feel like we have anything to offer? To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://ele.vc/TI55jRSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. I'm excited. I'm expecting God because he spoke to me as I was preparing this message. And we're going to start in 1st Peter, chapter 2, verse 5. And it says this, you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Let me read that one more time. First Peter says, you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a

holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And so today I want to talk about acceptable sacrifices. Acceptable sacrifices. Let's pray. Lord, I just come to you right now. And we just thank you for the promise that when your word goes forth, that it will never return void. And I thank you, God, for what you've shown me. Help me to communicate it with clarity and with power, Lord. And I pray that something eternal will happen in all of our hearts as we seek your face today. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, thank you, worship team. Don't we have the greatest worship teams serving at every campus, not just out on tour, but every single location.

All right, before we begin, I got to tell you about something in our family called the Big Fish Moment. And so the Big Fish Moment stands for an uncontrollable emotional outburst. And if you don't know, I'm the dad of three little girls. I have twins that are 10, and I have a, my youngest daughter, is five.

And you would think that something that deals with volatile emotions would have originated with one of my three daughters. But it did not. It started with one of the adults in my family. So 15 years ago, 2003, I'm taking my then-girlfriend Ferris, who's my wife now, taking her to see a movie called Big Fish. Has anyone seen this movie? All right, not a ton of you.

But I was taking her to see this movie, and I had, if I'm being honest, some ulterior motives because I knew it had a sad ending. And I thought this was going to be my chance to kind of comfort her at the end in the theater. All Holy Spirit approved. But I had everything planned out. get in the theater and it's building up. I can feel that the emotions are building. And it hits the scene where the main character is walking down, this grassy gno on, something sad is about to happen. And I'm getting ready. And I'm about to kind of move my arm over. And I look over and Ferris is just stone cold. Like no emotion. And then something funny happens. My chin starts to quiver a little bit. I'm like,

that's odd. And then one tear starts to fall down my cheek. And the next thing I know, I am just ugly crying in this theater. Like the kind of crying that's not silent. It's very, very noisy. And I'm like rocking back and forth. I can't look at Ferris. I can't. We have to stay to the whole theater. It's cleared out.

And so we're walking out to the car. And in the parking lot, I feel like, okay, maybe I can try to tell her what's going on. And I try to say, hey, you know, he was going down the grassy knoll. And then I start crying again. And I swear to you, it was a 20-minute drive to drop her off at her house. and I cried the entire way to drop her off. So the next morning I call, I feel like a fool, I'm an idiot. And I call her up and like, Ferris, I don't know what happened last night.

She goes, well, can you explain why it got to you so much? I was like, well, you know that one part on the grassy knoll? And then, like, the floodgates opened again. Somebody over here just lost all respect for me. But I made a vow in that moment that I was never going to watch Bigfin. ever again. And I was strong and resolute with that vow until a couple weeks ago. And that is one of my loving wife, my caring, just amazing wife. She went behind my back and she betrayed me, y'all. We have this rule in our house that if our kids read a book that then a movie's made based on the book, they can watch the movie.

And so my kids have heard these stories. They've heard the legend. And so Ferris behind my back got the girls to start reading big fish at night. And I didn't find out. until about three nights in. Like, Ferris, what are you doing? And so they were committed to reading the book, though, because not out of their love for literature, not out of their love for learning, they wanted to see their dad cry like a little girl. So about three weeks ago, I get the call that I had been dreading, the call that triggered me. And that's when Adley says, Daddy, when you get home tonight, we're watching big fish. And I was terrified. But I showed up, it's like, okay, I'm going to do it. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry. I still had a blanket to hide behind just in case. But for the first hour and 55 minutes, I was strong. And my kids didn't

even watch the movie. They just watched me the whole time. But then he hit that grassy knoll. And I cried just like it was 15 years ago. My kids were loving it. I was embarrassed. I didn't feel like much of a man in that moment. And once again, my loving wife shows how much she loves me by getting the phone out and videoing me. And because I love y'all so much, because I'm committed to preaching this word that God gave me. I'm going to show you all just a little glimpse. Now, granted, I've wiped off most of the tears, but I want you to see the difference

in emotional composure between me, a 42-year-old man, and my 10-year-old twins. So take a look at this. He's crying again. Can you talk about it? He looks like, he's sick. Got you then. What made those tears come?

That was Cindy. She was crying with me in the background. He's sick. What made those tears come? It's crazy to me, though, these are the people, my family, that are closer to me than anyone else on the planet, and I still was ashamed of how I felt. I didn't want them to know what I was really feeling in that moment. I mean, I kind of get it 15 years ago. I didn't want my girlfriend to know that she was

dating a guy who cried more than her, but this is my family. Like, why am I ashamed of how I feel? And I think that's actually a pattern in my life. And I think all of us can relate to that, that sometimes it is so hard to be honest with other people about what's truly going on inside of us. Because we feel like if they really knew the truth, they wouldn't love us anymore. They wouldn't respect us. Maybe they wouldn't trust us. Maybe everyone would leave us if they really knew how messed up and how screwed up and how confused and how we don't have anything together.

People really knew the truth about us. And so we hide it and we put up walls. And then it gets really messed up when we begin to project those same fears and those same insecurity. onto how God views us. And yes, we know intellectually that God knows everything, but we start to believe the lie that if God really knew this about me, maybe His grace couldn't cover that. And we begin to put up these walls, and it really shows up for me when I come into worship, because I walk through these doors, and a lot of times I'll disqualify myself from being in the presence of God before I even sing the first song. And maybe you've experienced the same thing.

you feel like you have to show up and you have to look the part and you have to have the perfect smile and you have to have the right attitude. Never mind the fact that your attitude just went out the window just trying to get your kids here on time and checked in. But all you're thinking about is the things you've done this week and how you feel in that moment and you come in here and you feel completely unworthy to worship. You feel completely disqualified and you don't feel like singing these songs because the only thing you feel are the weight of your inadequacies, the weight of your insecurities. And how are you supposed to worship

when you feel like that? And one of my favorite songs off of the album we just released is called Hallelujah Here Below. It's what the album's named after. And there's a lyric in that song that has helped me so much. And it says,

we're an altar of broken stones, which you delight in the offering. And so that's based on a passage where God told Moses to build an altar of unhewn stones. Those were stones that were jagged. They weren't cut to things. fit together perfectly. But God was saying, hey, worship me in a place of imperfection. And so the whole

theme of that song, the whole theme of this album is that God doesn't want us to hide our brokenness from him. We can actually build an altar in the midst of imperfection. And so that verse I read earlier from 1st Peter continues that theme where it says, you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So now we're not just building an altar with unhewned stones. We are the altar. We are the unhewn stones, the living stones that come together where the spirit of God dwells. We're the body of Christ. We are the altar. But what has been really messing me up lately is this question, if I am an altar, how come sometimes I don't feel like worshiping?

You would think an altar that was designed for worship, what would feel like worshiping. And a lot of times I don't feel that way. And if I'm the worship pastor, I have to imagine that maybe you feel the same way. And I want to know how to do what First Peter says, where it says offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. I want to bring God acceptable sacrifices, but a lot of times my sacrifices don't feel very acceptable. Have you ever felt that way? So I just started to dig into God's word, not to prepare a sermon, but to help me to try to figure this out. And so there was phrase in there it says, we're a holy priesthood. So I started looking through the Old Testament and looking at the priesthood and the Levites. And they're the closest things that we get to worship

leaders in the Old Testament. And they were to minister in the temple of the Lord and the presence of the ark. And this is where Israel, the nation of Israel, made their sacrifices of worship, these acceptable sacrifices. And so I wanted to see, was there something about how they honored God through their worship that made those sacrifices acceptable? And so here in First Chronicles, This is David giving them instructions on how to minister in the temple of the Lord. This is right before the temple was about to be built. And so we'll spend some time in this text today. It's chapter 23.

And it says, The duty of the Levites was to help Aaron's descendants and the service of the temple of the Lord, to be in charge of the courtyards, the side rooms, the purification of all sacred things, and the performance of other duties at the house of God. They were in charge of the bread set out on the table, the special flour for the grain offerings, the thin loaves made without yeast,

baking and the mixing and all measurements of quantity and size. They were also to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord. They were to do the same in the evening and whenever burnt offerings were presented to the Lord on the Sabbaths at the New Moon Feast and at the appointed festivals and they were to serve before the Lord regularly in the proper number and in the way prescribed for them. So in this passage, I think we see three different ways that the Levites honored God in their worship. Honored God in the place where sacrifices were made. And let me get this out of the way. The sacrifices they were talking about were animal sacrifices. God no longer requires that of us because as followers of Christ, the one and only sacrifice has already been made.

But I still think there's something we can learn about as followers of Jesus. How do we bring God worship that he's pleased with? And so let's look at three things that we can learn about how the Levites brought acceptable sacrifices to God. And the first was they honored the Lord with their priority. So write that down if you're a note taker. Priority. because the most striking thing to me reading this passage at first was just the time commitment involved. Look at verse 30 again. It says they were to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord. They were to do the same in the evening. So that's a huge commitment of time every single morning, every single night, every single day. And I know for a lot of us, it can be a win just to get to church twice a month. No judgment there. We're really glad that you're here. We'd like for you to be here a little bit more.

But we'll celebrate that win. But they were worshiping twice a day every single. day, it was a commitment of time. It was a commitment to precision and process because verse 31 says the Levites were to serve before the Lord regularly in the proper number and in the way prescribed for them. So there was an order to it. That's what priority is. It's ordering your life consistently around your values. So it didn't matter if they wanted to sing in the morning. They showed up. They sang. It didn't matter if they were in a bad mood. At night, they showed up and they sang. It didn't matter if they felt like it. They were in their post ready to worship. But I have to wonder if sometimes the Levites felt the same way we do, that they just weren't feeling it.

And if they weren't feeling it, I wonder if they wondered if it was truly worship, if maybe it was a little forced, if maybe it was a little legalistic. Because I felt that way growing up. I grew up, my granddad was a pastor. And my dad was the music minister at our church. My mom played the organ. It was like a real family affair there. But I was at church every single time the doors were open. And that's how I grew up. and I didn't have a choice in the matter, I was always there. And what I found is when I got to college, I started to rebel against some of that consistency because I thought it was legalistic. I was like, you know, I don't have to read my Bible every day if I'm not feeling it.

God wouldn't want that or I don't have to be in church every time the doors are open because it needs to be an overflow of my heart. And so I rebelled against what I thought was legalism. And I found that in running from legalism, I was actually running from discipline. and those two are not the same thing. They can look the same, but they can have different motives. Legalism is doing something out of fear of man. It's out of a fear of trying to prove something to somebody else. It's trying to avoid punishment. Discipline is pursuing God, being passionate for God based on our priorities. Legalism is a bad thing that can lead to a lot of destructive habits. Discipline is one of the things I admire most about the people that I look up to, like Pastor Steve.

and he's one of the most disciplined people that I know because his discipline is based around the right priorities. So for me now on this side of life, I'm so grateful for my parents' discipline who said, you're going to be in the house of God. We're going to be in the house of God no matter what because it's important to us. And as a kid, whether I wanted to admit it or not, I noticed that. And I knew if it was going to be between, you know, being in worship or basketball practice, they were going to be, they were going to pick church. And some of that was to save me from embarrassment at basketball. They were good parents.

But I knew that it was important to them, and it grew to be important to me. Because even when I was in church and I didn't want to be there, the consistency of that is when God began to speak to me. And God began to become real in my life because I was in position and I was in my post. And so that means for worship, when you show up, even when you sing and when you show up to worship, when you don't feel it, that's not fake. That's being faithful. There is a promise. that when you show up, that's so freeing to me that if I can come here, even if I don't feel it, God's going to honor the fact that we're here and that we're drawing near to him. Because there's a

promise in James 4, come near to God and he will come near to you. And I love that promise because it's not just for the mountaintop peaks, the high points of your life. That promise is for the valley. It's for the times when you feel so weak that you barely even made it into church and made it into your seat. But God sees the fact that you're drawing near to him and he will, will draw near to you. And that became so real to me about two years ago. We were in a series in our church called Beyond. How many of you were here for that series? It was an end of the year vision series. And if I'm being honest, that time of my life was one of the most difficult struggles I've ever had with anxiety. You may not know this, but two of my daughters have different

special needs. My youngest, Sidney, she has something called cystic fibrosis. And I was really wrestling with its anxiety because any cold could send her to the hospital for a week. It was the realization that I was actually older than her life expectancy is. It was the pressure of having to feel strong for my family. And I didn't want to let anybody else know because I'm the worship pastor. I'm supposed to be the faith guy. And so I hid that struggle from other people. I hid it from God. I was also dealing with some insecurity. You know, am I smart enough to lead a worship team like this. And all of that combined to make me feel very, very distant from the Lord. And I couldn't hear God's voice. And I remember it was in that series. Pastor Preach a Message

called There's More to the Story. And so I was in my usual Saturday night post, my Saturday night position up here on the third row by the aisle. And this is the part where I get to sit next to my lovely wife. Everyone says, hey to Ferris. And I was in this seat. Pastors preaching, there's more to the story. And he said something to the effect of, you know, many of you want to give up on your story because the chapter is hard. But don't judge your story by the chapter. And in that moment, God spoke to me so clearly, you know that if you've ever experienced it. It wasn't audible. But in my heart, he said, all the chapters of joy and the chapters a breakthrough that you want to experience, you have to go through this chapter of trial first.

But all of it is a part of the beautiful story that I'm telling through your life. So don't give up on the story because the chapter is hard. And maybe that's a word God has for some of you today. You're in a very, very difficult chapter, but that chapter does not define the story of what God is doing through your life. Do not give up. And I wish I could say that everything changed in that moment. It didn't. But what it was, it was a spiritual anchor. It was a turning point. that began a process of healing in my life, and I would have missed it if I wasn't in this seat that Saturday night. I know some of you are like, well, you're on staff.

You're paid to be in that seat. Besides the fact that this is way more than a job to me, this is my life, this is my calling. The principle holds true regardless. There are some things that God wants to speak in your life in a sermon in four weeks that Pastor Stephen's going to preach. That is the word that you're desperately going to need to cling to a year from now. in a trial that's not even on your radar. God wants to give you that wisdom. He wants to give you that strength. But if you're not in position in that seat to hear it, you may miss out. Do not forfeit

the strength God wants to give you because of misaligned priorities. That's why discipline. That's why priority is so important to be in the house of God on a consistent basis for worship. He will draw near to you. Second thing we see in this passage is how the Levites honored God with their perspective. JJ, hand me this shirt. I need y'all to help settle a marital dispute for me. I'm going to take a poll in the room. If you're on another campus, you can vote on social media. We'll see who wins this in the end.

Is this a men's shirt or a women's shirt? If you think it's a men's shirt, raise your hand. If you think it's a women's shirt, raise your hand. Oh, overwhelmingly women's in this. That does not help me. So, a couple weeks ago, I came home from work, and I just had one of those days where I felt like I was just killing it. Like, everything went well.

I couldn't wait to tell my wife about it. And I walk in the door, and Ferris says, first thing, why are you wearing my shirt? I was like, Ferris, this is not your shirt. This is my shirt. I clearly got it off of the drying rack next to all my other clothes. She said, no, this is a women's shirt that I bought from H&M in the women's section. look at how the sleeves roll up all high up. So we had a healthy debate on it.

I wasn't backing down. I said, you know, I was in meetings with a lot of our worship leaders today. They're all fairly fashionable people. They would have told me if I was wearing a women's shirt. We agreed to disagree. I stubbornly wore it out to dinner that night. But the next day, I had a meeting with the whole worship team, so I brought it in because I was going to prove my point. I was like, men's shirt or women's shirt.

They all raise their hand for women's shirt. and Jenna and Tiffany, two of our worship leaders, said, we have that exact same shirt from H&M. And I got a little upset because I saw the two of them the day before when I was wearing the shirt and nobody said anything to me. So the moral of that story is nobody will look out for you but yourself. So remember that. But I had stared at myself in the mirror wearing this shirt. And I didn't realize I was wearing a women's shirt. How many times are we looking at something and staring at something so close, and we still have no clue what we're actually looking at. I think it happens way more than we think.

Let's look at this passage from First Chronicles again. Verse 28. It says, the duty of the Levites was to help Aaron's descendants in the service of the temple of the Lord, to be in charge of the courtyards, the side rooms, the purification of all sacred things, and the performance of other duties at the house of God. They were in charge of the bread, set out on the table, the special flour for the grain offerings, the thin loaves made without yeast, the baking and the mixing and all measurements of quantity and size.

So when I first read that, that to me looked like a list of chores. To the Levites, it looked like worship. I think the sound of worship that rose to heaven in the temple wasn't just the sound of people singing, wasn't just the sound of harps. I think it was also the sound of people sweeping those side rooms. I think it was also the sound of pots and pans clanging together to make sure the bread was made. just right. And what I'm learning more and more is that some of the things that look the least worshipful to me are actually the most worshipful to God. I believe there's some of you here.

Somebody at our Gaston campus right now, you feel like no one notices the little things that you're doing to serve God. And God wants you to know that he notices. He sees that and that is a beautiful act of worship unto him. And it is more worshipful than any note. that you could sing on the stage. You know, the Levites, they didn't audition to be on the worship team and just get thrown over to the cooking team. No, all of this was worshipful under God, the way they measured everything just right,

the way they prepared, the bread, the way they served in the side rooms. And we have people serving in side rooms at every single location in high schools and here at Ballanty and at a theater and uptown, and you're serving in these side rooms, making sure that the stage is set for our kids and E-Kids to experience the,

power and the grace and the love of Jesus. And so I just want to tell you volunteers who are doing that, you need to buy some jeans with holes in them because you look like a worship leader to God. You're every bit of worship leader as anybody who stands on this stage. I actually don't know if it'd be smart for you to dress like John Sauer or worship leaders. Maybe we should just dress our band up and have them all wear E-Kid's shirts because that's what worship looks like in the side of God. And some of you need to recategorize the things that you're doing and you think it's just a chore. you think it's just a task. You think it's just a job. And God's saying, no, this is worship. You are leading other people into the presence of God as you bring your gift to Him. First Corinthians 10 says, so whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. There's so much power when we begin to recategize and look at things differently. Because when you begin to look at what you're doing and the way you serve as worship, you begin to go into it with a little more expectation for God to move and for God to use you and for God. to speak, and you don't have to have a seminary degree to be used by God. You just have to show up

and say yes. And all of that is worship. And the reason I know that Elevation Church is a worshiping church isn't because of the worship albums. It isn't because of how loud we sing. It's because of how faithful you serve at every location. So can we thank God for all the worshipers we have at our church? We thank God for you. What would you do differently if you saw it differently? if you saw it as worship. All right, the final thing we can see from this passage is the Levites honored God through their posture. Through their posture.

I'm just going to fess up. I have terrible posture. I have very, very bad posture. I slouch, especially if I'm sitting down on a couch. I'll, like, kind of slouch back, and I'll kick my feet up on a table, usually because my feet can't touch the ground. But Shunk's Corbett, our CFO,

his office is next to mine. at church, and he loves just to collect. He has a folder on his phone of just embarrassing Wade pictures or videos. And so sometimes he'll catch me in my little productivity, bad posture pose, and he'll take a picture of it. So the other day I looked up, and I saw him just standing there, and so I'm just going to share this picture with you. Just that's when I'm in my zone, y'all. That's when I'm getting stuff done. You can take that down. It's a bad idea to show that. I know my posture's bad. I know my, that's not good for my neck. Poster's important. I also think posture is important in worship. And we see it here in verse 30,

says that they were also to stand every morning and thank and praise the Lord. And so I was wondering, what's the significance of them standing? Maybe the Levites were at attention and they were just ready to do whatever God said to do. Or maybe they knew that they could come boldly into God's presence. So maybe that's why they were standing. A few chapters later, though, David tells them to bow. In chapter 29, he says, praise the Lord your God. So they all praise the Lord, the God of their fathers. They bow down, prostrating themselves before the Lord and the king. And so sometimes he tells him to stand. Sometimes they're supposed to bow. And I know you feel the struggle when you come in here in a church. Should I raise my hands? Should I kind of have my hands in my pocket? Should I do

the whole baby move? Like, one hand in my pocket, one hand I'm not fully ready to commit yet with both hands, what is the acceptable worship posture? And as I was praying and studying this week, I think I found it. I think I found the God-sanctioned, God-ordained worship posture. And David talks about it in Psalm 51, verse 16. It says, you do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure and burn offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. See, the posture God is most concerned about when you come into worship isn't something that someone on your road can see. It's only something God can see and only something you can recognize. And that is a heart that's bowed in trust and surrender. See,

a broken heart is a heart that realizes that it's only hope is God. And so it bows and surrender. A contrite heart realizes that I have no strength left. I am weak, but God, you are my strength. Even a joyful heart bows in God's presence because it realizes that every good and perfect gift comes from God and they offer it back up to thanks. It's the posture of our heart. It's the posture of our heart that bows down. See, you thought God despised your brokenness. That's not what that passage says. Your brokenness, he will never despise. God says, bring your brokenness into my presence. It doesn't disqualify. you bring it. I'll build an altar in the midst of your brokenness. God wants to use the thing that

you thought disqualified you from his presence. So today, if you have a broken hallelujah, sing it. At least it's a hallelujah. If you have a broken spirit, bring it to God. He can do miracles. He can do wonders with a broken spirit. What God won't do is do something with a proud heart, a heart that thinks it has it all together, a heart that thinks it doesn't, need God. And that is so freeing for me. I used to think worship was all about my perfection, that I had to have the right attitude, I had to sing things the right way, I had to have had my quiet time this morning. And God says, worship was never about our perfection. If it was, none of us could be in this room. None of us could sing. God did demand perfection, but we

couldn't meet that standard. Jesus was the only acceptable, the only perfect sacrifice when he took up our position on a cross so that we could take up his position. And the presence of God in a relationship with God for all eternity. See, worship was not about our perfection. It's about his perfection. And because Jesus was the only perfect, acceptable sacrifice, now we can bring our broken spirit to him. And he presents it as acceptable to God. It was in First Peter all along. It says, you're being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the acceptable sacrifice. He's the mediator between us and God. So we bring him our broken spirit and he presents

it whole to God because of the cross of Jesus Christ and because of the blood that he shed on that cross. So we can come to God today with our brokenness. We can come to God with our pain and he will present it to God and make it whole. And so if we recognize Jesus's position in worship as the center of our worship, as the acceptable sacrifice as the mediator, the question is, we assume our position and worship. Will we bring our whole hearts and bow them down before God and surrender? Bring our joy, bring our pain, bring our deficiencies, bring our strengths, bring it all, our hopes and our dreams, just lay it at the feet of Jesus in trust and surrender. Will you assume your position in the house of God on a regular basis knowing that this is where

God wants to work in your life? This is where God wants to speak. This is where God wants to use you as you serve. Will you just be open-handed and say, yes, God, I will be used. I will be used. by you because I trust you and that is my spiritual act of worship. Well, I hope you enjoyed the podcast today. If you did, there are just a couple things I'd love for you to do. Number one, subscribe to our show. That way, the most recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for you, ready when you are.

And secondly, if this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue to reach others, you can click the link in the description and you can give now. And I'll see you next time. on the Elevation Podcast. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.