Elevation with Steven Furtick - Never Not Enough

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

It’s easy to feel like we don’t have enough and even easier to feel like we aren’t enough. But what if our perspective is off? Learn why God’s ability to provide never has to be questioned.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. This week, we want to look at a scripture in John chapter 6, verses 1 through 13. I'll read it, and I may interrupt myself if I get excited about something that I see while I'm reading, and you just hang in there with me, and they'll put it on the screen, and so they'll follow along with me. They are trained professionals in the back, and if I stop, they'll stop, and if I go, they'll go, and we'll all get there together in Jesus' name. John chapter 6, verse 1, are you excited?

Say, yeah! Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee, that is, the Sea of Tiberius, and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs He had performed on the sick at this point. They are following him for the stuff he can give not for who he is It is the first stage of following Christ At first you follow him because of what he can do for you Progress with him long enough and your question will no longer be what can he do for you It will be what can he do through you

Now Jesus is on a boat We studied about the boat in a previous week, we learned that Jesus picked Peter not because he was such a great preacher, but because he had a car or a boat in this case. You know how some friends that you have you have because they can give you a ride? Well, Peter was like that for Jesus in some sense. I'm kidding, of course, but the truth needed transportation. Jesus is the truth, and in order for the word to get out, it's going to take a vehicle, it's going to take a vessel, in this case, a boat. And since his ministry was happening primarily around the Sea of Galilee, Peter had, what?

Jesus needed to get around and Jesus had what Peter needed that he couldn't be without him. How many of you want God in your boat? God in your life, God in your decisions. And so Jesus had been healing many people and crowds had been coming all because Peter was willing to say, yeah, sure, use my boat. They launched out, ministries growing, people here, Jesus is so successful that he can't even get away for a little bit of a retreat. You see it in verse 3. Then Jesus went up on a mountain side and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover feast was near.

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? And he asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he had. he was going to do. He already knew what he was going to do. Can I tell you something about Jesus hanging on that cross while everybody wept and thought that the light of the world was extinguished? He already knew what he was going to do. Can I tell you about every situation in your life that you didn't see a way out before God ever let you get in it? He already knew what he was going to do to bring you out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

I can't find any help at Elevation Ballanty to preach about the waymaker. So Jesus is messing with Philip because he is the Messiah after all. Whatever. Philip answered him. I think he took a little while before he answered because he gives a pretty precise calculation. He doesn't guesstimate. He says, eight months wages. Hold on a second.

If we took eight months wages, we still couldn't pass a crumb out to everybody who came to hear you preach. It's 5,000 men out here. Many of them brought their wives. Their crumb snatching kids are running around. Eight months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. Another of his disciples, Andrew Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, here's a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many? And Jesus said, have the people sit down and be humble. There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down about 5,000 of them. Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks.

Huh? Can you say thank you over a little bit? Can you be grateful over what seems to you not enough? If I look at this passage, I see the theme, not enough. Look, it's not enough. Now, the Bible says in verse 10, there's plenty of grass, but we don't need grass. We need grub. And it's not enough. But Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks over what was not enough, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. And he did the same with the fish.

And when they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are left over, let nothing be wasted. So they gathered and filled 12 baskets. Each of them got to take one home. Twelve disciples, 12 baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. I told the Lord I didn't want to preach this text because I preached. I reached it so many times before that there would be many in the church who would think I didn't have time to study this week.

And I reached and grabbed something from Sunday school. And plus I said, all the Sunday school people in the church are going to look at me judgmentally when I read the text about the feeding of the 5,000, because I already know this story. And I know how it ends, and I know about the little boy, and I know about the leftovers, and there's nothing you can say about John chapter 6. Now, I don't already know that this is the miracle, the only miracle other than the resurrection that is recorded in all four of the Gospels. And so are you really going to bring me out here today and preach about this little Bible,

vacation Bible school, backyard Bible club story in the Bible. And I told the Lord I didn't want to preach it. And he said, fine, you can stop preaching it when you get it right. So what I began to see, because the Bible to me is much like my relationship with Holly in that it continues to unfold for me over time with new levels. of transcendence and beauty. I was talking to one of my friends who has a little bit of a different belief system than me, and he said, he admitted it that he said, I don't see the Bible like you see the Bible.

I think the Bible is a good starting place, but he said, I look at the Bible as basic instructions before leaving Earth. You know, B-I-B-L-E. And just because you can make an acronym out of it doesn't mean it's true. He said the Bible is a good place to start, but then you should progress past the Bible. I've never had that problem because for me, the Bible is not only a starting place for me to understand my own life, my own needs, my own psychology, my own psychopathy. Is that a thing? my own, it's not only a place for me to discover who God is in his fullness, but I find that the more I read the Bible, the more the Bible starts reading me. And so something so simple as this story

can unfold with new layers and levels of meaning, not only from the customary background in which it was written, but also in seasons of our life, we will see our needs differently. And there may be a sense in which the driving point of this passage is what to do when there is not enough. I thought it would be a good time of year to preach about not enough, and a time of year where there is so much demand and so little supply, so little time. Here in Charlotte, we have people all over the world. It's getting dark right now at about 2.30 in the afternoon. Not enough.

They like, not enough patience. Do any of you have any family members that there is no supply of patients that could equip you? Oh, y'all are going to look at me like that. Not enough. I like this author named Brune Brown. You like Brne? She says that the mantra of our day is never enough. She says, we live in an age of never enough.

And she's right because no matter how much. information we seem to put out into the world, we come up with more ignorance, less wisdom. She says that often we wake up in the morning, and our first thought is, I didn't get enough sleep. We go to bed at night, and I didn't get enough done. We earn a lot of money, but we don't have enough opportunity to enjoy it. We have opportunity to enjoy our lives, but we don't have enough money to get out the house. Never enough. But when I read the passage this week in preparation for the season that we're in as a church, God spoke something new to me.

When I began to realize that this in John chapter 6 is the collision of too much and not enough, and God said, I want you to realize that with my spirit within you and the power of my word on your lips, in Christ who is enough in Christ who before all things existed was all things and now is the word made flesh

to dwell among us in Christ you are never not enough say it with me never not enough I don't know what little bit of bread you've got in your cupboard today

but I want to tell you in the hands of the master it is never not enough. I feel a spirit of faith rising up. It's never not enough. Push your neighbors so hard they think they're going to fall over. Tell them it's never not enough. It is never not enough. And what a powerful practical passage where we can see this principle illustrated dynamically. Never not enough. Never say it. Never not. Not. Enough. Never not enough. Never not enough. Never not enough. Even in a drop, even in a famine, never not enough. God will send a bird to drop food where you are if you will be in position. It is never not enough. I got a little bit of oil. Get your little bit of oil. Get some jars from your neighbors. It's never not enough. Give me something to fill. I'll fill it. It's never not enough. I thought scarcity was a situation, but now I found out it's a sensation. Because I found out that there can never be. be enough money to make you feel like you have enough until God within you becomes enough. It will never be. I thought enough people could compliment you where you would get enough compliments, where you

would have confidence. But I found out that if Christ is not the cornerstone of your core concept of yourself and your character, it'll never be enough. But now when he speaks over my life who I am in him and what I have because of him, There is no shortage in this world that can disconnect me from my supply. You hear what I'm preaching to you this Christmas season? It's enough. And the disciples are going to learn this.

And in order to learn this, there are three things they must do. I would love for you to take that pen that we generously gave you because of the financial support of our ministry partners and write these three points down. And the first thing that the disciples had to do that we must do if we are to receive what God has promised to us, God's promises are optional. I thought they were promises. They are. But the promise is always attached to a principle.

And you cannot separate the promise from a process that creates it. So he promises peace, but the process of peace is keep your mind stayed on me. He will keep you in perfect peace if you keep your mind stayed on him. You can't fill your head with Facebook and then ask God to cancel out the empty calories of ignorant opinions. and provide you with supernatural, celestial, extraterrestrial peace. Peace is produced by a process. And so is provision. Both are in the passage.

But the first thing we must do to receive, all that God has will to supply, is to do what many of you are doing, especially in the first few rows today. Lean in. Lean in. I mentioned that this miracle is recorded in all four gospels. It seems to be an insignificant miracle to record in all four Gospels. I don't mean that it's not cool. It's very cool, very impressive, very entertaining.

But to choose one miracle to record across Matthew's Gospel, his record, and Mark's Gospel, his record, and Luke's Gospel, his record. And then John wants to talk about it, too. When we see people getting up off of stretchers when Jesus walks through the street, and that's not in all four Gospels, We see little girls being raised from the dead. Even Lazarus didn't make all four Gospels. But this little boy did with some barley bread. Barley bread. The cheapest bread available in the day.

This is not a yeast roll. This is not a cheese biscuit. This is not even pumper nickel. And yet it's recorded in all four Gospels, which is fortunate. Because John leaves something out that I need to know. about the situation that created the provision. And what John says is, verse one, sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore.

Like it was a good time for a retreat and a good time for a buffet. But it wasn't because the other writers tell us that John the Baptist, who had been the forerunner of the message of Jesus Christ, the one who prepared the way for the Lord, had just had his head taken off by a king who didn't want to hear the truth. On the heels of this news in an effort to get away and regroup with the disciples who would have no doubt been confused by this turn of events Jesus is met by a crowd now every mother of a three-year-old can relate to the time when you finally get five minutes for a shower and hear somebody banging on the door of the shower this is the situation for Jesus

He is finally on the boat, and he gets up to sit awake, and he sits down to tell his disciples, whatever he wants to tell him, and here come people. Write it down. Your greatest opportunities will come at the most inconvenient times. You won't be in a good mood. You won't feel ready. You won't have an extra $15,000 laying around, and no kids going to college. Uh-uh. God is going to show up in a time of shortage to see, do you really? trust me or do you trust stuff? That's the question. And the disciples' first instinct was a pretty logical one. Because Jesus, Jesus is irrational. And Jesus will just teach people all day long. I mean, he just, who needs to be healed? I got all day. I'm eternal. But the disciples, it was like, hey man, probably they should eat. And that, and, and that, and that

Matthew records it, he said, that the disciples came to Jesus with the suggestion, send the crowds away. There is always a temptation to send away the very thing that God sent to supply you with the very thing you prayed for. Remember, they followed him because they wanted to make a difference. Now here comes a chance to make a difference, and they do this. Because they were operating by this. They were operating by this, not by this. Send them away. If they had sent the crowds away, not only would this miracle not have occurred,

but they wouldn't have had lunch. Can I tell you how I know that? Because it was a little boy's lunch that ended up feeding the multitude, not Peters. Peter didn't pack a sandwich. Why are you pointing that out? Because the very provision was in the inconvenience. You see it? It was what they wanted to go away that was carrying what they needed that they signed

up for in the first place. And so when you come to church, there are certain things that the preacher will say that you will lean into because your neighbor needs to hear that. Because you've been trying to tell your husband, and would you please listen to Pastor Stephen? saying some important stuff right now and you lean in to that. Can I tell you the word that you need the most in your life is the one that you resist at first? That one that makes you cross your arms and look at me like you think you're Connor McGregor. That word, that's the one you need to lean into, the one that makes you uncomfortable, the one

that makes something inside of you conflict with something else inside of you. That's the tension that produces growth. That's the one. The one that challenges your comfort zone, that's the one. That's the one to lean into. Even if you've got to lean in with crossed eyes, even if you've got to lean in with sweaty palms, it is the word that God brings to you that you most fiercely resist at first. that often releases the resource that you need the most. So are you leaned in to where we're going as a church in this season?

Because not everybody is. Some people come to church and sit back, sit back, and leave early to avoid traffic and watch football. And we announce an offering, and some people go, here we go. I heard about this. I knew it was coming. Of course it was coming. You think God was going to let you sit there in your comfort and never challenge you to take your own step of faith? Of course it's coming.

This is what we signed up for. You thought Jesus was your Burger King, where you could have it your way. And now you sit back at the time when the very thing that he came to do is being done? Lean in. In your marriage, lean in to the difficult conversations if you want to stay married. It was the thing they wanted to send away that held the supply that they needed to accomplish the mission that they signed up for. That's why the man said, he's leaning in. That's why we give with a cheerful heart.

I'm leaned in. I'm leaned in. How can you be a part of what you're not? leaned in toward how can you receive from God if your posture is this but if you lean in I'm not talking about physical posture is fine I know you got a back thing and you're paying attention but you just need some lumbar support I know I'm talking about the posture of your heart Blakeney the posture of your heart like Norman the posture of your heart

heart is most reflected in where you put your treasure. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So they had to lean in. And here's the second thing that they had to do, not only to lean in to the situation that they wanted to send away, but after they had leaned in, they had to number two, look down. Maybe you think I made a mistake on my text, because if you were paying close attention to all these little details. The Bible says that when Jesus went up on a mountain side, verse three, and sat down with his disciples, in verse five, he looked up and saw a great crowd. So intuitively, we would say, look up. But studying the passage a few more times, I realized that as Jesus looked up at the crowd, he was looking down from the mountain.

Watch it again. Verse three. Jesus went up. on a mountain and sat down with his disciples verse 5 when he looked up so it matters your vantage point in terms of what your decisions will be it matters where you're seeing it from it matters at what altitude you are looking at your situation what conclusions you will come to now I would suggest to you that the only reason Jesus was able to see the needs of the crowd is because he saw them from heaven's perspective If he had not been on that mountainside seeking the will of his father in heaven, he would have seen the people as an inconvenience.

But because he had been on the mountainside spending time with God, when they saw an inconvenience, he saw an invitation. It was where he saw it from that determined what he saw. And if you look at your life from the level of your life, you will only ever see problems, obstacles. If you ever look at your life from the vantage point of your Heavenly Father, who knows the hairs on your head and not one sparrow falls from the sky, you will not see shortage, you will see opportunity. You will see space for God to move. You will see room for God to maneuver. But you have to go up to look down. This is such a powerful principle. If you would let me, I'd like to explain it one layer deeper.

Okay. All right, we have to break away from the Bible for one moment to get this. Because you got Philip, you got Andrew, and they are both employing two different methods of information processing. This is the psychological terminology, okay, not the biblical terminology. But there are two ways of processing information. One is called bottom up. One is called top down. Bottom up processing is when you look at something and don't have knowledge about it, and so the way you look at it is based on your visual or sensory perception of it.

It would be like you looking at this microphone. You would know certain things about this microphone through your senses. You would see that it is perhaps a black microphone, a black cordless microphone. So I can move all around this church. A big black cordless microphone. A big black, loud cordless microphone. And then most of you would be done. Why?

Because you can only describe it according to your senses. However, if Zach Kimri, who is on our tech team, and I believe he's off this weekend, so I can say whatever I want about him, if he came up to talk about the microphone, He would bore you to tears with details about this microphone that you never asked in your life to hear about. He would tell you what frequency this microphone must be on to cooperate with the equipment that lines up with the solar eclipse and how it was engineered in the 1932s by a German, and he would tell you more. He knows more about this microphone than he knows about his wife. It's scary.

It's scary. They'll go on and on how it's a special thing on the microphone and which battery and what all these little numbers mean on the microphone. Why? Because he brings his knowledge and experience to the situation. That's not bottom-up processing. This is called top-down processing. It means I take what I know and I apply it to what I see. So I don't start with what I see and guess about what it is.

I start with what I know because of what I've seen and I apply it to what I'm looking at now. So I want to ask a question, church, are you living life from the bottom up or the top down? Because when you have a revelation of the faithfulness of God, I'm trying not to holler holly, but I'm getting excited. When you've seen him move the mountains in your life, you look at the next mountain, you look at the next knee. You look at the next man You look at Goliath You stare him down and say God's got this I've been there done that

But the slingshot dick I'll do this too I'm living from the top down And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory I know his glory I know he's good I know he's a provider He's Jehovah Jira He's been there for me He'll see me through

Somebody say I know something I know something I know something I know something Jesus knew something that they didn't know because he came from somewhere they hadn't been The only way I know this is because of what he said later in John chapter 6 And it was the first of seven statements that he made That started with two English words

I am The background of this phrase It is so sacred, it is the very name that God gave Moses when Moses wanted to know how. God did not answer the how. He answered the who. Never not enough. He left a blank. I am what you need.

I am. So he performs the miracle. He feeds the people. And then he reveals his identity. And he says something very challenging to his Jewish audience. I am the bread of life. If you're hungry, I am enough for every appetite. Do you believe this?

Or do you have to go get your needs met somewhere outside of God? I am the bread of life. When you bring your offering next weekend, you will be declaring who God is to you. Is he a bare minimum? Is he an insurance policy? Or is he the bread of life? He said, I am the bread of life. So what you're searching for, I supply.

What you need, I am. The next thing he said refers to darkness. For the times that you live in confusion, I am the light of the world. There will never be so much darkness that my light cannot guide your path. The world will never get so dark that the witness of a unified church cannot shine brightly the love of God. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, but this light is not. of you, it shines through you. I am the bread of life if you're hungry. I am the light for all

those who walk in darkness. I am. Somebody shout, I am. I am the gate for the sheep. I am your way out. I am your way in. Feel trapped. I am. Feel stuck. I am. Feel locked out. Feel unincluded. I am. Feel unwanted. I am. I am passage to greener pastures. Not only am I the gate, I am the good shepherd. You need some direction in your life? Get behind me and follow me through the valley, through the pain, through the toil, through the pestiless, follow me. I am the resurrection, even if it dies.

If I say get up, it's got to live. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the true vine. If you feel disconnected, hook up with me. You've hooked up with everybody else, and they left you like they found you. When you get connected to this, I am the true vibe. I am the way, the truth and the life. And I'm making a way for everybody who will walk by faith.

Shout if you believe in. Seated in heavenly places with Christ. Philip, shut up for a minute. You're doing your calculations how we can buy bread. And we're standing right in front of bread. He is what you don't think you have enough of. Thank God for Andrew. Andrew saves the day.

Philip from the bottom up, let's see. It's about 5,000 men and they're CPA anointing on Philip about to mess up the whole miracle. And that will always mess it up, okay? Are you going to do this by reason or revelation? Well, let's see. They're doing the offering at the church, honey. I think we'll give them a little bit over there and then a little bit to the fire department, and it'll just be great.

It's want to be wonderful. Philip wasn't wrong. What he said was correct. It was just incomplete. It just failed to account for the greatest resource they had. So watch this. Lean in, look down, listen up. The Bible says something that never says again here.

Andrew spoke up. You never see him talk again in the whole Bible, except this one time. And thank God he taught, because what he said next led to a miracle that all four gospels would record. He spoke up. He spoke up. He was hearing something else. All Philip heard was reasons, excuses.

But Andrew, he heard something different in Jesus' question. He said, wait a minute. He wouldn't be asking us this if he didn't know what he was going to do. will never ask anything from you that he will not give to you. Please believe that. And that's how I can say that my God shall supply all my needs according to his glorious riches from the top down is never not enough. But if you listen down, you'll find a thousand reasons why not to trust, a thousand reasons

why not to pray, a thousand reasons why not to forgive, a thousand reasons why not to forgive, a A thousand reasons why not to stay. A thousand reasons why not to participate. You have an opportunity next weekend to come before God, not with empty hands, but with a faith-filled heart. We have preached these messages that have built your faith. Many of you have experienced healing in your life. Now you get to make that same way for somebody else.

There will be another voice after I put the mic down. It will tell you all the reasons it doesn't make sense. it will be the voice of calculation, not the voice of faith. And it will keep you from seeing what God can do through you. Andrew spoke up, and he said it doesn't seem like enough, and it doesn't make sense. But here's what we have. He asks a question of his own, though. How far will it go among so many?

Isn't that the question? Is it enough? Will it even matter? Will I have enough? If I give to God, will I have enough? It depends on who you think he is. If he is bread, how could you ever need bread? See, there's a question in verse 9. How far will they go among so many? And I think there's an invisible verse in here that didn't make the final cut. I think it's the verse where Jesus said, you want to find out? Bring it to me because you have seen what it can do in your hands. You have seen how many fish your boat could catch without me in it.

Put it in my hands. I'm not giving my offering away next weekend. I'm transferring ownership to someone who knows what to do with it. It's an investment. By the way, where did the 12 baskets come from? You think it's possible that Jesus put them in the boat before they ever got in? because he already knew what he was going to do. He already knows.

He knows all those voices that would keep you from doing it, and he already knows your needs. And if you have the faith to believe it, I declare that they are already met in his name this day. What are you doing in this office? next weekend. I'm living from the top down. I am declaring who God is to me. Father, I thank you for the word that has gone forth today. This word registered so deeply in somebody's heart that they will be set free in a way that will change the rest of their life. I believe it and

declare it in this moment. We thank you for this church that you are building, this ministry that you have established. We feel privileged to be a part of something. that is touching the world. I want to pray right now, God, for every person in every seat, watching on every screen, that this message would not just provide a moment of inspiration, but that you would speak now giving clear instruction to your people. Faith without works is dead, so show them what to do with what they've heard. Show them who you are, and then allow them to see what they're going through, through the lens.

of who you are. We don't want to live by reason. We want to live by revelation. And you are the bread of life. You are the light of the world. You are the gate. You are the shepherd. You are the resurrection and the light. You are the vine. You are the way. And now, God, we want to be waymakers. We want people to find you through us. It's what we're here for. Stand to your feet. No one moving. I'd like to take my hands like this sometimes and just put them out in front of me if you would do that now please all that I have comes from you God and you are more than enough for me declare over these people today that no area of shortage in their life is greater than your glory you are enough for me speak to our

heart Scott speak to our deepest needs may the knowledge of who you are be greater than the fear of what it is or what it's not. I pray that we would see a tremendous release of faith and a tremendous release of provision on behalf of your people as this year ends. Many need miracles in their families, in their bodies, in their minds, and you are the great I am. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give us. 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. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.