Elevation with Steven Furtick - Flip It

Episode Date: January 7, 2019

Are you going to live by the traditions of men or the truth of God? It may be time to flip our flow. 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. The Bible says that when Moses had crossed over the Red Sea with the nation, he stretched his staff back over the sea, the same sea that the nation had just passed through. And that sea collapsed on their enemies, killing every last Egyptian horse, killing every last one of Pharaoh's chariots, rust in the wheels right off of Pharaoh's chariots. And we believe that we are in a season today where God has the ability, if we have the faith, to believe that he is about to flip the flow. And that's my new series for the new year. Touch somebody say, God's about to flip it.

God's about to flip it. Amen. Amen. You know that sermon series is from God because he gave it to me in TGI Fridays and the Miami airport. I was reading for my New Year's Eve sermon called Come Through Drippin. And the Lord told me to tell you to flip the flow and to focus on different things this year. And so we will work through these challenges together. We'll sit down. We should get started. It's going to be a great year in God's house. How many believe that? Welcome to all of our locations and our eFAM around the world. We thank God for you this year from this house.

We declare that healing will flow, that restoration will flow, that wisdom will flow, that the treasures of the Lord will flow, that friendship will flow. We believe great things are coming your way in 2019. This is the year where you stop coming to church for what can I get out of it, but what can I bring to it? I brought God a praise today, a sacrifice of praise. fruit of lips that confess his name. I brought it to Blakeney. I brought it to Matthews. I brought it to Riverwalk. I brought it to my kitchen. I brought it to my living room. I brought it into the hospital. I brought a praise. Don't somebody tell them. Bring it this year. Amen. We are so excited. Please be seated front

three rows. We are so excited to flip the flow. Amen. And so we want to go over to the New Testament book of Matthew, which parallels so nicely the ministry of Moses and gives us great continuity. Did you get a chance to listen to the New Year's Eve sermon? If you did, make some noise. That thing is online for free. You don't even have to buy a VHS tape. You can stream it at elevationchurch.org. And I keep on rewriting my sermon, so I've got a lot of different notes up here. And you'll bear with me for a moment. While I'm doing this, You go to Matthew 15 in your Bible, please, whether by digital device or the old school. This Bible I call Fat Cat.

See how big this Bible is? Abby gave it that name. She said, I love Fat Cat. I said, what's Fat Cat? She said, it's that big Bible you preach from. And what I do for my kids, every seven years, I retire a Bible from preaching, and then I save it for them. And so Elijah got the first one, and Abby knows that this is her Bible, so she named it Fat Cat.

And what I'm going to do is she's not in here. She was in here for the worship today. She wanted to hear that new song that was saying, Your love won't give up on me. And she wanted to come in and hear that song because she heard us working on it. She wanted to hear how it turned out. But I'm going to put a cat on the front of the Bible before I give it to her. I don't know if that's unholy or anything like that,

but I'm going to put a cat on it from my daughter. But right now take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 15. And we're going to see Jesus and how he found himself in an encounter, not with the Red Sea, but with the Pharisees. That's really premium preacher humor right there. New Year, same old corny jokes. In Matthew chapter 15, verse 10, Jesus is going to show us how to flip it. You ready?

Are you ready? Jesus called the crowd to him and said, Listen and understand what goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them. Then the disciples came to him and asked, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this? Did you look at the comments section of that post, Jesus, where you said, what goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of the mouth?

That's what defiles them. Jesus replied, verse 13, every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be pulled up or plucked by the roots. Leave them. You know what you need to do this year with some of the stuff. that you argued with last year and fought against last year. Touch somebody. Say, leave it alone.

Because they are blind guys. If the blind, lead the blind, both will fall into a pit unless they have a bird box. Peter said, explain. Settle down. Explain the parable to us. Are you still so dull? Jesus asked him, don't you see, key phrase. Don't you see?

And the issue is that they don't. They see only the surface. And Jesus now reveals what cannot be understood with natural eyes. Whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body. What a vivid illustration. But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart. And these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

I think he got all of us by the time he finished that list. These are what to file a person. Eating with unwashed hands, it's gross, it's disgusting, it's unsanitary. It's against the law if you work in a restaurant. But eating with unwashed hands does not defile them. Touch the person next, you tell them, flip it. Don't fix things this year at the surface level. Don't fix things this year at the level that you see the problem.

Seek the Lord and ask him to show you where the sewage starts. Instead of just cleaning up crap all year, ask God to show you where it starts. And here's the interesting thing, and I won't preach long for this opening sermon because we're going to be on this topic for the whole month. So we'll just move in the right direction today. And I pray that you'll make attendance a priority this year is that where something comes out is not usually where it comes from. That's what Jesus was getting at with the Pharisees because they were offended.

And so he took their offense as an opportunity to talk about the origin. and then he shared a little bit about the outcome. And those are my three points for today. Just in case you have to leave early to watch a playoff game, I'll give you all three up top, offense, origin, outcome. And may this year be the year that you take notes in church with the elevation pen that our tithers generously provided for you. Three points.

The offense, the origin, and the outcome. The offense is this. The Pharisees have caught Jesus' disciples, eating without any hand sanitizer, eating without any pural, eating without obeying their oral tradition that before you eat the meal, you've got to wash your hands. And I want you to watch how Jesus flips it, because what we tend to do, like the Pharisees, who were religious separatists, who felt the need to identify their righteousness by appearance, because it's much easier to do that than to cultivate righteousness through love and compassion and selflessness. I'm saying something today, y'all.

And in fixing it at the level that it can be seen, they fix it in a way that does not produce or sustain real change. But Jesus is about to flip it, and he does this every time the Pharisees challenge him. Now, these Pharisees came to him, and they came all the way from Jerusalem. Look back at verse one. It says that some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem. These are the major leaguers. These are not the AA Pharisees.

This is not the farm team. This is the big boys. And they come to Jesus, and they ask, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat. What's the question? Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? If you came to church last year you learned that Jesus is not only a Savior, but he also has the ability to be a savage. So watch what he does. He takes their question, why do your disciples break tradition? And in verse three, Jesus replied, why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? And God wants to know which one is more important. The tradition needs. The tradition needs. of men or the truth of God. And it's about time for some of us to decide. Are we going to spend this whole year living out of tradition or living according to truth?

A challenger this year to flip it. It is so easy to live with an invisible belief system that regulates your responses in situations and even your ideas of what is possible in your life. An unquestioned belief system is a dangerous thing. The phrases are significant because the Pharisees are talking about the traditions of the elders, and Jesus is talking about the command of God. One is tradition, one is truth. And a lot of times we don't know the difference, because for some of us, we give more attention to our traditions than we do to God's truth.

Now, give you an example. May I? Sometimes people would rather, I've noticed this, they would rather argue about things that they don't agree about than work together on things that they do agree about. Can I get you another example? Sometimes in my life, ways of thinking have been handed down to me, not necessarily by my parents. I love you, mom. But just by the culture that I live in, and I never stopped the question, where did this come from? I want you to write that phrase down if you're the writing type.

Where did this come from? Is this really from God? What an excellent question to start our year with. Where did this come from? Because where it comes out is not usually where it comes from. And sometimes we are living out scripts that we have not even identified the author of to wonder, why do I think it has to be done this way? Why do I assume that this is all I can be?

Why have I told myself the story that everyone in my family was this way, and I'm going to be this way too, and it's just a generational curse or a genetic defect? Why have I believed that up until this point it can't change so it never will? This is when I live according to tradition rather than truth. But this is the year to flip it. Somebody shout, this is the year to flip it. And this year I'm not letting my truth flow from my tradition. I want my tradition to flow from truth.

That is, I want my life to reflect my values, not necessarily my habits up until this point in time. And Jesus is so brilliant in the way that he flips their tradition and says that you are actually using God as a cover. up for your dysfunctional behavior. But he has the ability to flip it. Because he is truth. See, they're talking about truth. He embodies truth. They think they know the truth.

He is the truth. The way, the truth, and the life. They study the Word of God. He is the Word of God. They live in creation. He is the creator. See, where he's coming from, is different than where they're coming from.

So what he knows is different than what they think. And his insight is greater than their opinion. And that's why I want to know God's heart this year. God's thoughts. His ways are higher than my ways. His thoughts are high. You can shout in the back of the room. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts.

So this is my year to ask the question about what I believe and the behaviors I've embraced. Where is this coming from? That's the origin. The offense is this. They're not washing their hands. Well, God never told the people you have to wash your hands every time you eat. That's great for OSHA, but it's not from God. It's great for your health, your well-being, but it's not in the Bible. It's in the tradition. Because the elders would take the law of Moses, and then they would put layers on the law, and layers on the law.

And so they passed it around by word of mouth. And so they kind of started thinking what they thought God meant by stuff. And they started interpreting it according to their religious vantage point. And by the time that Jesus showed up on the scene, there were so many layers on top of the truth. Nobody could get to it. That's why he had to come to show us that the word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth. I'm talking all right this year. Flip the flow.

And start with what God says, not what you see. Because if I spend this whole year fixing stuff at the level where I can see it, Jesus said it doesn't even work that way in the human body. You put it in your mouth. And I don't mean to be offensive here. I mean, Jesus was offensive, but I don't want to be. But Jesus said, you put it in your mouth. But it doesn't come out of your mouth.

Do you get the picture or shall I continue? I mean, occasionally it comes back out of your mouth. But typically, unless something is really wrong, it doesn't come out where it went in. It doesn't come out in the same place that it came from. I've noticed this is true in so many of the areas of my life where I'm trying to see change and improvement. Even in the area of my anger, I wonder sometimes when I'm driving down the road and something comes over me. A demon called Legion comes over me.

And I will think to myself, there is no way that that woman, that 73-year-old woman's turn signal could have made me as mad as I just got. I mean, if she were in my church, I would hug that woman. And here I am thinking thoughts about this woman, maybe saying some words about this woman in the safety of the sanctuary of my vehicle. And I've been wondering, where does this come from? You know, that's a great question to ask about the stuff in your life, if we can put it that way.

Jesus said, it goes in your mouth one way, but it comes out. in a different form and a good question to ask about that stuff in your life is Where did it come from? Why did I take that out on somebody who didn't even do anything to me? See, because usually where it comes out is not where it comes from. We don't usually get angry and lose our temper with people who we're actually mad at We lose our temper with people who we know will forgive us and now you're taking out something on the people that that you love the most, but where it's coming out is different than where it's coming from. And if we don't get honest about what we need from God this year, we will spend yet another

year mopping up the floor without finding the pipe that was busted that was causing the leak to begin with. I know this is the truth. A lot of times when I'm angry, it's not really even that I'm angry. It's that I'm afraid. And rather than be vulnerable in my fear, I'd rather express my fear through anger as a protective mechanism. And so I'm trying to work on my temper, but really what I need to work on is my trust.

Because if I trusted God more, I wouldn't be afraid. And if I wasn't afraid, I wouldn't find an expression of anger. Where's this coming from? It's great to make a list at the beginning of the year of the things that you'd like to do differently. But it's better to find out where it's coming from so you don't just recreate a different issue that was caused by the same disease because you only learn to take ibuprofen for the symptoms, but you never underwent the surgery to understand some of the beliefs. beneath the behavior.

Even in relating to people, I have to remember that even the way they're treating me might not be a reflection of how they feel about me. It might be a reflection of how they feel about themselves. It might be a reflection of what they're dealing with in their own time alone in the way that they push me away. And that's why you really got to be careful not to let rejection take root in your heart because sometimes people are pushing you away, not because of anything that is undesirable about you, but it's actually that the person finds themselves so undesirable that they don't

know how to let anyone get close, because to let anybody close carries a risk with it, that they will be seen and found out to be less than which they already believe that they are, and you are spending all of your time trying to love someone who is unable to receive your love, And the rejection is not proof of your defection. It is proof of something in their own life, but where it shows up is not necessarily where it starts. And Jesus knew that. He knew that, which is why he didn't go back and forth with these Pharisees. He knew better.

He knew where he came from. And he knew that every plant that my father does not plant will be plucked up. So he knew that where it comes from determines how it comes out. Can I preach a little bit today? I know you've got a lot on your minds and you've got to pack lunches for the kids and get back to school. And I know all of that, but I want to stop and ask the question today. Where did it come from? And in my life so often, I have been dealing with things at the level of visibility.

and because I'm dealing with things at the level of Jesus takes us inside, he says, when food goes into the stomach and comes out the body, it is like a thought that goes in the heart and comes out the mouth. He's making an analogy. And there's not a lot of scientific, you know, explanation. It's not a biology lesson necessarily. He's not going into the small intestine and the secretion of the fluids of the kidney and the pancreas. Did that make any sense? But he's giving us something to understand about how we metabolize our thoughts and our lives and even our disappointments and our failures. And I think it's so valuable because a lot of us started this year counting calories, counting carbs. Some of y'all are on paleo and keto and counting macros.

I still don't know what macros are, but I heard a lot of people have been counting them. And I wish you the best with that because we all got to count something. We've all got to count something, or we're going to keep counting our waistline as it expands, like the prayer of J-Bez, and God enlarges your territory. I've got to count something at some point. Like when I first married Holly, she started, the demon of fried rice came into our house. You like how everything's a demon today? The demon of Doritos got in our house. And when I got to size 38 and it was bulging, I mean, I had a braided belt stretched across those size 3rd.

And I started size 30. 18 months later, I said, I got to start counting carbs. I got to start eating bacon. I got to get a healthy alternative. I got to get the Atkins diet. I got to have a low carb lifestyle. And you know what the Lord told me last year? Because I was letting all this toxic talk and toxic thoughts just get all in my spirit.

And it got me to a real dark place. And God said, if you would count your complaints like you count your carbs. And it's funny because it's funny because it's just, Because the majority of things we think we need to do better this year have to do with putting stuff in our mouth, what we put in our mouth. And maybe you do need to stop putting some stuff in your mouth. But maybe the priority, flip the flow, is what you put in your heart. Because where it comes from determines where it comes out. Now, I'm not telling you what movies to watch or what music to listen to this year.

I'm not that kind of preacher. In fact, I think sometimes some of the stuff that we put in our heart that hurts us the most has nothing to do with bad words. Man, I've heard pagans speak a word of God with bad language in it, and Christians curse without saying a single four-letter word. I've heard Christians say some of the most hateful, judgmental, fear-inducing, condemnation. you've ever heard in your life. And listen, this year, I'm guarding my heart. And I don't mean that I'm not watching Netflix, and I don't mean that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm not talking about reading the Old Testament before next Sunday. I'm talking about really paying attention to the types of pattern of thought that you allow your heart to digest because your spirit has a digestive system. Jesus said it's out of your heart that's causing you the real problem. You know, Pharisees are like offended, Jesus, because you said that they don't have to wash their hands before they eat. Well, they don't. Only Aaron and the priests had to wash their hands.

But they put traditions on top of truth and made it something it was never supposed to be. You can wash your hands all you want. You can break out your hand sanitizer every time pastor says touch your neighbor and squirt it on. You know, I was so offended the other day. Somebody came up to meet me and they introduced themselves and they shook my hand. I watched them walk away squirting stuff all over their hands. I'm like, well, hey, I didn't even want to talk to you. Don't you wish they made heart sanitizer for some of these people that we have to deal with,

for some of these thoughts, some of these memories, some of these habits? Wouldn't that be marketable? I know how to wash my hands. I know how to make people think I'm doing okay. I know how to smile and say I'm fine. I know how to crop the picture 12 times and post hashtag woke up like this. I know how to wash my hands, but how do I wash my heart? And this is where Jesus is greater than Moses.

Moses went up the mountain and came down with the law. Jesus went up on a mountain and taught a sermon and said, I didn't come to abolish the law, but I came to fulfill it. I didn't come to do away with it. I didn't come so that the law would not exist. I came so that I could flip it. And watch this, that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, not by us. For you to start this year thinking that there's a future version of you that God will like more

or a future version of you that can be happier is to negate the, you, the very nature of the grace you came to celebrate. Because Jesus came not to require righteousness, but to enable righteousness. That's what the cross was. You understand that when Jesus died on the cross, the angels did not get nervous in heaven. The angels didn't wring their hands in heaven. The angels didn't start devising a backup plan in heaven because the angels in heaven knew where Jesus came from. And when you know where it comes from, you know how it comes out.

And even when they beat him, and even when they mocked him, my voice is tired. I preach three times. I could use some help. Even when they buried him in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea, heaven didn't get nervous because we know where he came from, so we know how this comes out. Even before I go through the trial this year, I know how this comes out because he who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it.

Shout for 19 seconds if you've got faith. That's why Joshua said shout before the first brick hits the ground. I know where the command came from, so I know how the battle turns out. It's a spirit of faith to let you know that if it comes from God, If he called you, if he formed you, if your help comes from him, you can predict in advance how this comes out. Already know the outcome. Even when I was reading the scripture, God said, flip it. Because it said evil thoughts come from your heart.

And it's a hard thing to sort through your heart. to know what thoughts came from God and what thoughts came from ego and what thoughts came from Grandpa and what thoughts came from Fox News and what thoughts came from Bloomberg and what thoughts come from Twitter and what thoughts came from what's the other one uh CNN and Facebook and Uncle Ray and Uncle Tim and Aunt Cindy and Aunt Martha is hard to know It's hard to know. It's hard to know what's in your heart. That's why we need the Holy Spirit this year.

That's why we need Jesus. I know it sounds simple. And maybe this teaching is too elementary and some people are a little bored with it. But I need help with my heart this year. I need help because some stuff in there is from God and some stuff is not. And I need help. sorting it out. Because I sent Pastor Craig some Christmas gifts this year.

I always send him clothes for Christmas in case he wants to wear him to preach in the new year. And he's like one of my best friends, so it's not weird when I send him clothes. He gets it. He doesn't take it as an insult like I think he doesn't know how to dress. But he likes what I send him. I keep it a little on the youthful side for him. He's 51. But I feel like I don't want to push him too far.

I'm not going to have him up there dripping in off white, looking ridiculous from head to toe. And so I know just where to push him. So he trusts me. He trusts me. That's the point I want to make. He trusts me. And this year I sent him a nice little box of clothes. These two shirts in the box.

One of them was like a zip, kind of like a zip sweater thing. It came right there. And then a shirt, a shirt, Burberry shirt, to put under the sweater. And I told him in the note, Merry Christmas, here's your clothes. You can wear it three different ways. The sweater without the shirt, the shirt without the sweater, the shirt under the sweater. You're welcome. Merry Christmas. I am an efficient stylist.

I'm thinking about having a side hustle dressing preachers, but that's not the point. The point is he sent me a picture of him wearing the clothes and he put on the clothes. He put the, first of all, the sweater on, look good. Then he put the shirt on, look good. Then there was a third picture. And he was wearing something I never saw before in my life. It was baggy, bright red. Am I telling the truth?

Because I sent it to Jess, who works in my office now for almost 10 years. I said, we didn't send him this, did we? She said, no, sir, I never saw that before in my life. And I texted him back to good news first. All the stuff I sent you is dope. Good news. The bad news is that third thing you put on, I don't know where that came from. But he trusted me so much that he said, if it came from Ferdick, this is real faith, y'all.

He said, even though I think it looks ridiculous. if it came from Ferdick and I said but it didn't come from Ferdick not this one I am not taking credit for this fashion decision this did not come from Ferdick you need to find out what happened and he found out what happened because one of his staff members

who knew how much he trusted me saw the box that came from me and decided to go in the box open the box can y'all believe this find the ugliest sweater they could find, stick it in the box under the stuff that I picked, and they knew he trusted me so much that he would wear whatever he thought came from me,

but the devil is a liar. I texted him and I said, you need to take that out the box. That was not from me. I hear the spirit of God saying you've been wearing some stuff in 2018 that I did not put in your wrong. box. It's time for you to go through the box and everything that does not look like joy and the garment of praise, take it off. Everything that does not look like the armor of God, take it off. Everything that doesn't look like victory, take it off. I'm coming into a new year dripping. I'm not coming into a new year wearing rags. His righteousness is my garment

and his victory is my guarantee. Shout about it. I feel the Holy God. So when they be afraid, when you know where it comes from, you know how it comes out. That's how you can already put a smile on, even though you're still going through the most difficult days of your life. And because my righteousness does not come from me or from washing my hands or from sticking to my diet or from losing 23 pounds. Because wouldn't it be a shame to lose 23 pounds and still hate yourself because you fixed it on the surface, but you didn't receive it at the source? This year I'm going to flip it. And I'm going to stand in the reality that I am the righteousness of God, not because of what I've done.

In fact, you can stand and I'll pray that for you right now. No one leaving, no one moving. This is your year to flip it. This is your year to evaluate your true. traditions, the empty traditions that have told you layers of lies, that there is something that you must do. You got to wash your hands before you. Jesus said, that's your tradition.

That's not the truth. Watch him flip it. He said, normally, the unclean, if it touches the clean, it makes the clean unclean. But I'm not a high priest like Aaron. I'm a great high priest. So if I touch you, I don't become unclean. You become clean. Somebody shout, flip it.

I want to change by grace this year through faith, not of works. Because if I fix it at the surface, I have to sustain it in my own strength. And so I'm not going on a diet so that I will be likable. I'm going on a diet so my knees don't hurt. See the difference? Flip it. Flip it. I'm not going back to school to get my degree so I can finally stop feeling like an idiot.

I'm going back to school to get my degree so that I can move forward into the opportunities that God has for me, not to earn approval or not to live up to a standard, but to live out what Christ has already given me. And to me, this is the beauty of the gospel. that everything that needs to be done for me to be right with God is already done. Bow your head. I've said what the Lord told me to say, and I pray that you've received it. This is your year to flip it.

Over the course of the next several weeks, we'll be talking about some very practical things, some very personal things. Maybe last year you attended church occasionally when the kids didn't have a game and you weren't too tired. Maybe this is your year to flip it. and to make a real commitment this year that I'm going to sanitize my heart by being in the presence of God with other people and really letting God's word cleanse me and uproot the things that have been destroying me. Lord, we thank you today for Jesus Christ who came to earth to flip it. We thank you today that he who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God.

Somebody shout, that's what I am. And so now, Lord, may all that we do and don't do this year flow from a heart that is already loved. Your word says that as the rain falls from the heavens and waters the earth, it makes it bud and flourish and bring forth springtime, so shall your word be that proceeds forth from your mouth. It will not return to you void, but will accomplish what you send it to do. We thank you for sending your word to us for a new year. we thank you for the flow of your word in this place today. I pray now that it would accomplish in our lives a great harvest of righteousness

for those who have been trained by it. 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 IHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.