Elevation with Steven Furtick - Get Back In The Gate

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Responsibilities are a fact of life, but meeting the demands of life isn’t always easy. Learn how to stop disengaging and start living with confidence.See 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 faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. When I was praying about how to start the year and the theme we should start the year with, I was led to 2 Samuel 19, a scripture that originally I was attracted to from a leadership perspective, but I think it has implications for our church. As I set this image before you, I invite your attention to 2nd Samuel chapter 18. Let's go 18 verse 33 and get the context and read down to chapter 19 verse 8.

And so I know we were done with David because we preached a whole series about him last year called Bars and Battles. But I asked him would he come over to 2018 and help us start the year? And so he said that he would. But there's going to be a real dramatic difference between the David we saw in 1st Samuel 19 and the David we see in 2nd Samuel 19. Because when we saw him in 1st Samuel 19, he was on the come-up and God was really blessing him and he had a lot of courage. But now we're going to see him at a place that is very unfamiliar to someone of his caliber. And David's confidence is shaken. And so this would be a very strange thing if you just picked up the Bible and you heard about David from Sunday school.

and he was killing Goliath and ripping off the heads of Philistines and driving back the enemies of Israel. But now the scripture says in 2nd Samuel 1833, the king was shook. I put it in a little bit of a modernized translation. He was shook and he went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said, oh, my son, Absalom, oh, my son, my son, my son, Absalom, if only I had died instead of you. Oh, Absalom, my son, my son. Way to pick out an inspirational scripture to start the year with, Ferdic.

Chapter 19, verse 1, Joab was told, The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom and for the whole army. The victory that day was turned into mourning, which is exactly the opposite of what God does. God turns a day of mourning. into a day of victory. Don't believe me, just ask those disciples who were gathered together in sorrow and shame one Sunday only to get the news that what looked like hell's final defeat of heaven was actually

the starting point of salvation. God specializes in turning your day of mourning into a day of victory. The enemy, however, would desire to turn your day of victory or your position of strength into weakness and sorrow. That's exactly what has happened here. The whole army is experiencing mourning in a time of victory. Did you know that you can experience mourning in a time of victory? You can experience depression in a place of provision.

You can experience what feels like failure in a season of success. So much of life is determined not by the event, but by our ability to process the event on the correct level as to be blind to our own blessings. We have many instances, but here David has lost so much in the course of the battle that he cannot celebrate the victory. He lost his own son. We'll see how that affects him now. The troops had heard it said the king is grieving for his son.

And so the men stole into the city that day as men steal in who are ashamed when they flee from battle. They actually had defeated the enemy, but their heads were hung in shame. There would be no parade this day. For the king, verse four, covered his face and cried aloud, O my son, Absalom. O Absalom, my son, my son. His focus is so narrowed to what he has lost that he is about to lose what he has left.

He cannot get over what's gone. And he is about to step right over what is and miss it. Because waiting for his support are all of the troops and the resources for him to reclaim his throne and get back where he belongs. But he's not ready yet. He's weeping in isolation over the gate. And then verse 5 says that Joab, his general, had the guts to go into the house and say something to the king that nobody else had the guts to say. say. Sometimes you need to thank God for the people in your life who say stuff that you don't like to hear. Those are the ones who often really love you. Sometimes you need to, I see every

parent in this room looking at their teenager. I caught you. Look at somebody in and say, tell me the truth. You are not my friend if you don't tell me the truth. God uses Joab to give David, watch this, the gift of confrontation. You see how nobody said amen. If I would have said the gift of comfort you would have gotten it but sometimes the gift of confrontation is greater than the gift of comfort joab challenges david goes in a house the king and says today you have humiliated all your men who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines you love those who hate you and you and hate you and and hate those who love you.

Why do you keep attaching yourself to stuff that is doing you no good? Why do you keep running back to things that hurt you? You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. Why do you keep chasing that which is trying to walk away at the expense of that which God has given you? Or as David asked Samuel about Saul, how long will you mourn over what God has rejected? You have made it clear today that the commanders and their men mean nothing to you. I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead.

Now go out and encourage your men, I swear by the Lord, if you don't go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This would be worse for you than all the calamities that have come on you from your youth till now. So the king got up and took his seat in the gateway. The king got up and took his seat in the gateway. That's our theme as we begin the year. So look at your neighbor and say neighbor and force them to make eye contact with you before

you go any further. Tell them get back in the gate. Get back in the gate. If they're looking at you crazy, it was the wrong neighbor. Turn to the other one and say get back. in the gate. Get back in the gate. And so we could understand why David is shook, because we are seeing here the inextricable connection between character and confidence. It is impossible to sustain your confidence with a faulty character. You can hype yourself up, chest bump yourself in the mirror. You can even get abs and feel good about those, but without the deep-seated core of character to sustain you in life, it is impossible. to maintain a sense of real confidence. He's shook. He's allowed some things into his life that are now overpowering him. He let some things in little by little, and now it's been

years and years of dysfunction. It wasn't so much the dysfunction that brought trouble to David. It was the way he dealt with the dysfunction. God knew he was dysfunctional when he picked him out, and he knew that he had father issues when he picked him out. And he knew that he was quite lustful when he picked him out. None of those things stopped God from choosing him, and so they couldn't stop God from using him. It is never your dysfunction that stops God from using you. It is how you choose to deal with the dysfunction. When David fought Goliath, he fought him from a distance, which was a strategic thing,

because if he came close to him, he would die by his sword. Goliath was skilled in hand-to-hand combat, but David was a slinger. That was the way he fought Goliath, and it was the way that he fought Goliath, and it was the way that he had tried to live his life and in certain situations it worked for him. Until it came to the point when you may remember this story, it's not told in vacation Bible school because it's rated MA. It's more like a Game of Thrones episode really than a Bible story when Davis should have been at war and he wasn't.

And it wasn't where he was, it was where he wasn't that got him in trouble. It wasn't what he did, it was what he didn't do that brought him to a place until he had enough freedom of capacity to entertain thoughts he wouldn't have thought if he'd been doing what he should have done. He wouldn't have been tempted to do what he did. But since he did what he did and ended up sleeping with a lady who was taking a bath named Bath Sheba, the Bible is full of these happy coincidences, where he messed up wasn't necessarily his sin, which was wrong, but it was the way that he compounded his sin because he responded to his shame rather than receiving God's grace. And so rather than deal with the dysfunction and the decision of his disobedience,

he piled several layers of shame on top of his sin and ended up having her husband killed. But when Nathan, the prophet came to David, he said, because of the way you've acted, because of the decisions that you've made, God is going to forgive you, but you're going to experience some consequences. Please write this down if you're under the age of 18. You can pick your decisions, but you can't pick your consequences. And he received grace, but it left a residue. And the aftermath of David's sin would play out through the course of his family line

when his son Amnon raped his half-sister, Tamar, and you thought your family was dysfunctional. You could write a parenting book compared to David. I mean, David's son raped one of David's daughters from another wife. Are you following this? Do you feel like you left church and went to Jerry Springer, 1992? Hello. And Absalom had to do what David wouldn't do because David wanted to deal with it from a distance. Rather than confront the dysfunction, he kept it out here, but you can only keep it out here so long.

Just like he did with Bathsheba, he kept it out here, but only for so long. just a matter of time before the dysfunction shows up on your doorstep once you let it through the gate. And so now it's working his way through his family and because David will not stand in his place and make a decision on how to deal with it, even if it's the wrong one. He makes the greatest mistake to become passive. The greatest trouble in David's life came when he became passive. Or you might say disengaged.

disengaged. I have an Instagram account and every month our social media team brings me reports for the engagement on our Facebook, the engagement on Twitter, the engagement on social media. It's how we measure effectiveness, how many people are commenting and liking and looking and sharing engagement. Even our eFAM online. What's up? Epham. Maybe you got here because somebody shared the link with you. It's called engagement. I don't think there's ever been a time in the world where we've been more engaged on the surface and more disengaged in our souls. Because we got all these fake connections and fake friendships and fake sexuality and fake relationships and stuff that won't do you any real good when the devil fights you in your life

because you are not engaged. Now, Absalom has taken matters into his own hands. Years ago, he killed Amnon himself. He went running. He wanted to come back. David wouldn't see him. He kept him at a distance. And now the battle has arrived. on his doorstep because he would not deal with it at the gate. He would not deal with it when it showed up. So now it has gained power, and Absalom has actually tried to overturn his own father as king. Absalom was pretty smart. The Bible says he was real good looking.

Had a lot in common with Rick Parker. Except one thing, Rick, he had so much hair. The Bible said his hair was so long when he would cut it off every spring. it would weigh two pounds. So he would stand by the gate with his luxurious locks. And when people would come to see David, he'd say, oh, Dad's busy. If I were King, I'd help you out. I would hear your matter if I were King, but I'm not.

Well, four years of that, and he won their hearts. Be very careful who you let stand at the gates. You've got to be real careful who you let represent you. And over the course of time, the Bible says that the hearts of the hearts of of the people were with Absalom. It ended in a bloody result in the woods of Ephraim, where Absalom was riding through the forest with his militia, trying to overtake David's men. Now, David has crossed the Kidron Valley.

He has left the throne. He is on the run just to survive. Absalom's men catch up with him. There's only one problem. Absalom's hair gets caught in a tree, snatches him right off. of his horse. Why? Because the thing that makes you great outwardly makes you vulnerable inwardly. He gets caught up in the thing that made him so attractive. And as he is hanging there, Joab decides to end his life, three knives in him, calls 10 men to slice him up. They send

the nudes to David, and he is shaken. He's shaken like any father would be who lost a son, but perhaps even more deeply because he feels responsible for it. I kind of wish that. I kind of wish Sometimes I could talk to my dad just one more conversation. And I know he's probably listening to this sermon on heaven. I know he's part of the e-fam, eternal fam. But I wish I could sit down with him for real. And I would only tell him one thing. This would be the whole conversation.

I've thought about a lot. Because now I'm raising my own kids. And there are ways that I judged him when he was raising me. That I would love to go back and say to him, one thing. This is what I would say. the title of our talk would be, I get it now. Because when I became a teenager, my dad went from coaching my teams to going out drinking. And I didn't see him much over those years.

And I really thought he was, to be honest with you, a pretty poor father during those years. Right. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the fact that he did not have a dad to show him how to do it. His father committed suicide, and so on his ninth birthday, he found his father dead. So without any frame of reference, he stayed around to raise me. But what I would tell him now is I get it now because even as much as I love my wife, which is more than you can possibly imagine. And I love my kids, and I am grateful for them, and we enjoy some wonderful times together.

But there have been times that I have played. into my garage, gotten out of my Nissan Maximum, walked into my house, and fantasized about getting back into my Nissan Maximum, and going back to work so I could get some rest. I get it now. There are times when the challenge of responsibility will make you walk away from something that you actually love, and people will judge you in that moment, and they will think you're walking away because you're lazy. But you're not walking away because you're lazy. You're walking away because deep down inside. I don't know if I have what it takes. And this is the danger of

disengagement. It is when you find yourself in a state of shame or fear or trauma or exhaustion and you walk away from what God gave you because you don't know how to manage it. It is the danger of this engagement. It is the danger of showing up in body and not in mind. I've learned that there's a big difference between coming to church and being in church. I've learned that there is a big difference between coming home and being home. Y'all ain't going to say nothing to me all year? Is that how it's going to be? You're going to look at me crazy all year like that? There is a big difference between having a child and being a mom. And sometimes the temptation is not to exactly run away, but to just disengage.

I'm disengaged, not because I don't care, but just because I'm afraid. I don't know if I have what it takes. David was shaken. The death of Absalom represented his own failure. If only, did you hear him? If only I had died instead of you, it's my fault. I didn't give you what you needed and it's my fault. You're dead and now it's caught up with him and he's shaken and he's disengaged.

He's not defeated. He's disengaged. He has the victory, but he's not acting like it. He's the king, but he's not where the king is supposed to be. He's lost his sense of passion because he's moved from his position. In ancient times, the sea, cities were well guarded by gates. Now, David is in Mahana'in, which is not Jerusalem, the capital city. Absalom is there, and he's going to drive him out, but not yet.

The first thing he has to do is relocate himself. Around the city are two gates. Everybody say two gates. Our theme for the new year is gates. I want you to pay great attention right now. This is very important. In each city there would be an outer gate that everybody saw. We all have one of those. We all have the outer gate that people It's our personality that we project into the world so people won't judge us. So we will appear successful. Then there is the inner gate. It's the second line of defense.

We all have one of those two. It's our actions. Two gates. Two gates. Two gates. Two gates. And the action happens. Watch this.

the gates. The Bible does not say, put my verse up again, it's my theme verse, that David took his seat. It's verse 8 at the gate. It says that he got up and took his seat. What? Where? Now, up until this point, he's been near the gate, but he wasn't in it. He was in isolation above the gate, like a lot of us live our lives. Watching events unfold but not taking responsibility for our outcomes. When we live online in an ecosystem of pretension and narcissism and opinions, but don't really make a commitment to make a difference in the world, and we show up in the places that are most convenient to our ego but refuse to confront the issues that sabotage our soul.

The action happened between the gates, not outside and not inside, but the But often between the gates, transactions would be made. It was like a marketplace of the day, but between the gates of the city, there would be buying and selling and negotiation. Between the gates, prophets like Amos would prophesy to maintain justice in the gates. When Ruth, if you remember the Old Testament story, was claimed by Boas, her kinsman Redeemer, he did the deal in the presence of ten witnesses in the the gate. When Abraham bought the burial ground for Sarah in the Old Testament, he bought it in the presence of witnesses in the gate.

It's where the witnesses were. It's where the judges would sit. It's where negotiations happen. It's where the conscience of the nation was developed. It's where Absalom would stand at the gate and before people could go through, turn them back after he had promoted his own agenda. And everything changed for days. David when he did something so simple. The Bible says that after all he had lost, and after all the tears he had cried, and after all the mistakes he had made, he did something so simple and so profound. The king got up, left his chamber, and took his seat the gate. In other words, I hear David saying, like Arnold Schwarzen. Senegger, I'm back. My heart is broken. I made some mistakes, but I'm back. I wish I could go back and change some things, but I can't. But I'm back. I'm devastated about what happened. I'm uncertain about the future. I don't know where it's going to go from here. I'm a long way from home, but I'm back. Now, what I picture in my picture in my future. I don't know where it's going to go from here. I'm a long way from home, but I'm back. Now, what I'm

my mind is today thousands of people who have gathered to hear this message online or in person at every location. And I see you getting up from the failure and the shame and the regret that has kept you paralyzed and taking your stand in the gate of praise and entering his gates. With Thanksgiving, I wish 70 people would jump up on your feet right now and shout at the top of your lungs. Jim Nation, no, perfect body, you can resell people for the next 20 years because of the last 20. Get thee behind me, Satan. Enemy comes with his accusations and his excuses.

I want you to look him square in the eye before the year. even get started good and tell him, devil, this seat is taken. I said this seat is taken. No room for you. Places with Christ's back in position. I'm back in purpose. Get back in the gate. Get back in the gate.

You cannot change what you tolerate. Get back in the gate. You cannot change what you won't face. Get back in the gate. You can't change it by complaining. You can't change it by if only. But now, if you will take your seat, God has prepared a place for...

In the presence of your enemies. He might not rid you of your problems, But he has given you him. And I'm broken, and I'm better because I was broken. Because I learned how to fight the battle in between. It's not what happens to you. It's not what they say about you. It's what happens between the gates.

That's what I want to study with you for the next four weeks. I want you to invite every jacked up person that you know. Because we're going to get our gates. back. We have been too flooded with images and points of view that do not promote peace in our lives. We are practicing the habits of worry and we are living in the state of anxiety. The place of power is when you take your seat. Watch this. David got up, took his seat in the gate. He wasn't healed yet, but he's here. I'm hurting, but I'm here.

It's going to be hard, but I'm here. You know what's cool? You already got perfect attendance for the year in church. Celebrate yourself. And to get everything he needed, all he had to do is what Kendrick said. All he had to do was sit down. When he sat down, all of his men came to him. Your weapons are waiting for you to take your place.

Your weapons, you're waiting for your weapons to come. Your weapons will not come until you take your place. This is the place of responsibility. This is the place of owning your story. This is the place of dealing with your dysfunctions, not from a distance. This is the place of power. We fight the enemy in the wrong place. and we wait for things to appear that are waiting for us in our assignment.

And I feel the Spirit of God on me this year to teach this message on the gates of change. Each of us is standing at a gate of change, and there are four gates that I want to teach you about over the next four weeks. Here's the key. This gate only opens from the inside. It only opens from the inside. This battle has to be fought at the next four weeks. the gate. Keep that camera shot on me real quick. I want to show them this. Keep that tight shot.

Yeah, the tight shot right there. Do not move that camera no matter what I do or no matter what you are trained to do. I am overriding your training right now. Do not move that camera. Now, the only way for us to get the back of his head off the bottom of that screen is for me to get back where I belong. Watch this. The camera is not broke. I'm just out of Oh, no. Let's get a new camera. No, you need to get a new attitude. You don't need a new wife.

You need a new mindset. You need to get back in the gate. You got a good wife. That's why you married her. If you would get in the gate, I don't want to run them off week one. They just got back. You don't have to be perfect.

Just be present. And Isaiah said, I want us to think about this, and I'll start here next week. You coming next week? Tell somebody, tell somebody. Get back, get back, get back, get back. Do what you got to do to get back. You should cancel some stuff just to let the devil know this year that God is your priority and be in church. Set six alarms if you have to and be here.

Because the word you need might be here. Hold the camera shot tight. Hold the camera shot tight. And if you're over here, you will miss the word that was waiting for you. So I got to be here. Because Isaiah says, stand, I'm closing. I'm closing. Isaiah said, that God will be, oh, I got so much to teach you, I can't wait.

This is just a syllabus, and this isn't even the class. Tell somebody, I'm coming back. I'm coming back. He will be, listen to what the Lord Almighty is. Isaiah who prophesied so eloquently of Jesus Christ, he will be a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment. He gives justice when you are in the seat. of judgment. And he will be a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

A lot of the defeats that you have been suffering have been because you've been fighting them on the wrong level. You've been fighting them in the wrong place. But this is our year to stop it at the source. He will be a source of strength. It starts with God, not with me. This is not self-help. This is the overflowing, abundant spirit of God that empowers believers, the spirit of justice, the Holy Spirit of God. He will be a source of strength to him who sits in judgment and turns back the battle at the gate. If David had dealt with Absalom at the gate, Absalom wouldn't have had to die in the forest. Sometimes we let the devil come all the way in, and then we pray to God to get him off of our backs. But the time to turn the devil back is at the gate. The time to turn

depression back is at the gate. And there is a word from God that will push back the darkness. But it has to happen at the gate. We're going to learn about these gates for the next four weeks, but it begins with the decision for you to take your place in the gate. And we're going to start getting intentional about our thoughts so that we win the battle between the gates. We're going to put Christ back on the throne, and then we're going to sit right there by him and guard our gates. I am seated in heavenly places. If you're hearing this word right now, rejoice where you are. Rejoice in your kitchen.

Come on, when you enter his gates with praise, you drive back the devil before he ever gets a chance to sit down at your kitchen table. We're going to turn back the devil, and we're going to make some decisions early this year. We're going to set up some areas of our life where we're not going to negotiate anymore. We're getting back in the gate and the promise of God is this that the gates of hell will not prevail against it there is so much revelation that God wants to release but this gate of change opens from the inside so I want you to lift your hands now if you feel comfortable stand to your feet some people think that lifting your hands is some sort of denominational thing for exuberant emotional people but really is just for people who know they need God.

I get it now, Dad. Sometimes it's easier to run than to take responsibility, and sometimes you don't run because you don't care. You run because you're scared. You run because you're ashamed. You run because you've tried to change before, and so you live your life in a chamber of isolation. God is calling you back in the gate, and I know you've been embarrassed about some things,

And I know you don't really believe in yourself anymore and you haven't kept some promises to yourself So you don't feel like making it anymore and I know some people around you have kind of Boxed you in. They think they know how you are and you're not going to be any different But Jesus said I am the gate not what people did Not even what you think of yourself I am the gate Will we come before you this year some of us with heavy hearts But all of us with expectation

You didn't leave us here for nothing You didn't bring us into 2018 just to drop us at the gate. So we're going in. We're going in. We're going to enter in your gates with Thanksgiving and your courts with praise. God, we're also bringing some baggage. We're bringing some pain and we're bringing some questions. We're bringing some anxieties.

We're bringing some if onlys. We're dropping them off at the gate and we are entering in. to your joy. I thank you, Lord, for the revelation that you've given us today. It has been so sweet and meaningful. I thank you that chains have fallen now because of the sound of your word echoing forth from the portals of heaven and doing what only you can do in the hearts of people. I believe this is just the beginning, and so I pray that this series would be unlike any

that we've ever known. Open from the inside. You're a mighty God. And as we praise you today, we expect the best of heaven to empower us in broken place. places. Have your way, God. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information.

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