Elevation with Steven Furtick - The Hope Cycle(Holly Furtick)

Episode Date: May 13, 2019

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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. In just a moment, we're going to welcome Holly to the stage. She's going to share God's word with us today. My wife, come right now, but as a matter of fact. Come on. Let's thank God for her as she comes. What I wanted to say just by way of introduction to her sermon today is that as the world becomes more and more artificial, the authentic becomes more and more attractive. And what we love about you, I speak on behalf of all of these people, the ones who have good sense, to appreciate a woman of God who is comfortable being who she is.

I remember when we first started the church, and there were so many questions that you had about what is a pastor's wife supposed to do and be. And there's so many different templates, models, and bolts. But you had the courage to play the role that God had given you. And when people come up to us in the mall and they come up to us at Red Lobster, and they come up to us and say, thank God for your ministry. Usually they just push me out of the way to get straight to you. And there's something that they know that they're very correct in assessing is that for so many times that you could have grabbed a spotlight,

you chose to be a servant and a support system for me and our three children. So I thank God for you. What they usually say is thank you for giving me permission to be real. And I want you to be assured today there are thousands of people in our physical locations all over the world with our eFAM who are excited and expected to hear the word of hope that God has given you for us today. So do your thing. I love you. Let's thank God for Pastor Huffam.

Welcome to all of our campuses so you can go ahead and be seated. I do want to say, oh, there's my table. It's like magic. I do want to say welcome to all of our campuses because I don't get to say it very often, and I just want everyone to know how much I love you and I appreciate you, and I love our church. Do you love our church? I love our church. And of course, happy Mother's Day to my own mother, and it's a special day, like Pastor Steven said.

It's her birthday. Can we give her one more hand? Happy birthday, Mom. I'm really excited to be able to bring the Word of God to you today. But first, I have a secret, and I kind of didn't want my husband to know this, but now he knows, because he's heard me preach this sermon twice already. But here's my secret. It's unfortunate that he knows this, but I don't mind doing the dishes.

I actually kind of love loading the dishwasher, because to me, tell me if you agree. To me, it's kind of like playing Tetris. And Tetris is the only video game I have ever been even remotely good at. My kids are like, Mom, Tetris, I don't know. I love puzzles. To me, loading the dishwasher is like a challenge. How many dishes can I get in this dishwasher? My husband doesn't like loading the dishwasher.

In fact, he usually chooses to just hand wash everything. I don't know. He's not good at puzzles, so maybe that's one reason. But also, he grew up in one of those houses where they had a dishwasher, but they didn't use it, anybody? Something about his dad not wanting to wear it out, or they didn't think it cleaned as good, or I don't know. Anybody else?

You grew up in a house where you go? Okay. Well, there's this thing that happens to me. I don't know when I'm going to learn my lesson, but I will load the dishwasher after dinner. And I will know in my heart this dishwasher is full enough, and you need to go ahead, put this open and run the cycle. But inevitably, I will decide, no, I'm going to wait till bedtime because there are a couple of boys that live in my house. And they always come in after dinner and they have a bowl of cereal or they have a bowl of ramen noodles.

And I just want all the dishes to be in the dishwasher and all of them to get clean, right? But I always forget. And the next morning, I will open up the dishwasher and it's always on that night when we had salmon, you know? and I'll open up the dish, and it will smell so bad, and I'll be so mad at myself. When am I going to learn to just run the cycle? I know this is silly, and you're probably going, like, where is she going with this? Pastor Stephen is way funnier. And if you're a first-time guest, just come back next week. He'll be here, and it'll be amazing. Okay, but I do have a point. I do, I want to talk about a different kind of cycle today, and so the title of my message is

the hope cycle. So if you have a Bible, would you turn with me to to Romans chapter 5, and I want to read a passage of scripture, Romans chapter 5, starting in verse 1. It says, therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope, does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Will you

pray with me, Lord? We thank you for your word. We thank you that you speak to us. And so today, I ask that we would open up our hearts to hear what you have to say. Would you speak through me in this moment. In Jesus' name, amen. I thought I would teach a little bit today. Some of you may not know that I have a degree in elementary ed. And so I thought it would be fun if I brought out a blackboard. Now, this is not the blackboard that I used 15 years ago in public school. It's actually kind of a fancy one. But I want to draw out for you this hope cycle that just leapt off the page for me when I was reading Romans 5. So Paul gives us this hope cycle. I have some little girly ass and give me some girly colors up here. So Paul tells us that we hope in the

glory of God. And then he says, not only this, but you also glory in your sufferings. Sorry if my handwriting is a little bad. You would be nervous if you were doing this in front of all these people too. And then our sufferings produce perseverance. I've spelled it right every time. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. This is the hope cycle. All of us as believers, we have this hope, Romans 5 tells us, and this is not just a generic hope. Generic hope is good. Generic hope is that, like, I hope my situation will get better, or I hope that my spouse will change, or I hope that my help will improve.

I hope that my children write me a card for Mother's Day. You can always hope for these sort of things, but that's not the hope that Romans 5 is talking about. Romans 5 is talking about a special hope. Paul tells us that our hope is in the glory of God. This is that Romans 828 hope. Do you know that verse that says God works all things to the good of those who love him? This is the belief that God takes everything that happens to me, every suffering, every disappointment, every mistake, and he works it for his good. Now, it may not be my good, but he works it for his good. It may not

turn out the way I thought it would turn out. I may not even ever get to see the good, but I can hope that he is working all of these things in my life for his glory. We all believe that deep down somewhere, but then we kind of forget because we head into a season of suffering. Now, unfortunately, one thing that is guaranteed in life is suffering. Being a follower of Christ does not exempt me from suffering. Being a good person or a nice person or following all of the rules does not exempt you from suffering. Suffering is a part of life. But remember, as followers of Christ, we have this hope.

So we operate out of the assumption that God is working all of these things for our And Paul tells us that part of that good is that our suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance is when you keep going, even when you don't think that you can. Have you ever been in a situation where you just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and you have no idea how you were doing it, but you were able to keep going? I feel like moms, we know a lot about perseverance, right? I mean, we can operate under very little sleep. And when we're sick, we have to keep going.

Not everybody has to do that, but moms, we have to keep going. And for me this week, I went through a lot of things. I was preparing this sermon and that's sort of a type of suffering for me. And it's something abnormal that I don't normally do. And then on top of that, it just felt like things were not going so well in my family with my kids. I had a meeting at school for one of my children. And then another one of my children just randomly threw up all over the bathroom floor. I was downstairs exercising, and Abby came to me, and she said, Mom, Graham just threw up all over the bathroom floor, and it's gross.

It's like, awesome. And I get up there, and it was gross. Like, our air vents are on the floor. Yeah, it was gross. And then another one of my kids, it was just, really, God, can I get a break here? Another one of my kids started having breathing issues, so I'm doing breathing treatments, and I'm working on my message. And you know, as moms, we have to push through a lot, but it's not only moms who have to push through.

We all have to keep going to work every day when we're sick, when we're struggling, because how many of you know your bills don't just pay themselves? This is perseverance. Life does not just stop because you're going. through a difficult season. But the beauty of perseverance is that you get to find out how strong you really are. You tap into that strength that you didn't know you had. And then perseverance leads us to character. So just as you get on the other side of this trial, you start to realize that you're stronger now than you ever were before because of before that suffering, and

you're wiser now, and you're kinder now, and you're more compassionate, because you're more because God has sustained you through something. He got you through, and now you have more hope. This is the hope cycle. Several years ago, I endured one of these major cycles when the local news started running a series of stories on my husband and our church here in Charlotte. And I was so hurt because the things that they were reporting about us

were exaggerated, and a lot of it was just simply not true. And these stories would run on and off for months. And I remember waking up in the morning and just opening my eyes and realizing that this nightmare was still going on, that it wasn't a bad dream, that this was a reality. Do you know that feeling when you open your eyes in the morning and immediately the anxiety just sets in because you remember the situation that you're going through? just when I would think they cannot have any more news or stories to make up about us, they would run another story. And the paper would pick it up. And then the comments would start.

And the comments, the freaking comments, they were so terrible. Don't read comments. Don't comment. My mom always said, if you can't say something nice, don't say something at all, right? Sorry. It's very raw. It's coming back for me. So I remember right around my husband's birthday, we were watching the opening ceremony for the Olympics. And the local news kept running this commercial, this teaser to get you to stay on and watch the 11 o'clock news. And I will never forget it. They did it like 12 times, and it just was seared into my brain. And here's what they kept saying.

Stephen Ferdig, pastor of local megachurchurch and New York Times bestselling author. Or is he? He was suggesting that he had cheated his way onto the Times list, and I was so hurt. I was hurt for our church members who were hearing these things and having to sort out what the truth was. I was hurt for my husband, who not only did he not cheat to get onto this list, but he actually gave up sales so that his book could be sold to our church members at our church for a discounted rate. It was absolutely crushing for me as his wife to watch my husband's integrity come into question. And he never defended himself. He just kept ministering to people week after week.

This is your pastor. So at different points during this season, I remember driving to church and just wondering if people were even going to come. And I remember not wanting to walk my children into school because I didn't know. know what people had heard or read or commented or what they thought about me. And I remember not wanting to go play tennis with my tennis team. I was suffering. But you know what I did? I walked my kids into school with my head held high. I don't know how I did, but I did. And I kept playing tennis, although not very well, but that had nothing to do with the situation. And I kept coming to church. And you did too, right? I just kept going. And I remember feeling

God's presence, almost as if it was tangible. Even in this moment, I can remember the promises that God spoke to me. There was a source of strength there that I experienced that I had never before known in my life. Did God cause that reporter to do those stories on us? No. But did God use it to build endurance in me? Absolutely.

He was building my character. The situation forced me to place my church and our ministry and our reputation in his hands. And I'm stronger for it today. And I'm wiser for it today. And I never read newspaper comments. So there's this thing that each time I go through this cycle, my hope gets stronger. Where is my pen? It's like this.

every time that I cycle, my hope, it gets bigger, it gets stronger because I've experienced it and I felt it and I know that God was with me and I know he's going to be with me. There's a newer translation of the Bible, the Passion Translation, and it actually says, and proven character leads us back to hope. So here's the thing. When the cycle begins again because it will, I go into it stronger. I go into it more hopeful. Now, wouldn't it be nice if we only had to deal with one cycle at a time?

But the reality is that we have many cycles going on simultaneously, and they can be all different sizes. So this large one might be an ongoing issue for you. Maybe you have a health issue, or maybe you have something going on in your marriage, or whatever. It's an ongoing. It's a big one. But then we also have these smaller ones. So maybe over here you have a bill that you don't know how you're going to pay. And then maybe one of your children is just struggling in school this year. They're having a hard time clicking with their teacher. Their grades aren't good. So maybe that's an issue that you're going through. And then maybe you have just a little one, like one that happens all in one day, and your child throws up in the area.

air conditioning vent. I'm just going to write, yuck. Just a little one. And then maybe you have one that's a little bit bigger that is a relationship issue, maybe something that you have going on with a friend in your life. And then maybe you're a student and you have a class that you're taking and you have no idea how you are going to pass this class. I have no idea how I pass physical science in college.

It was a miracle of God. So remember, each trial, each problem, each suffering is running the cycle. And each cycle is not only building up your perseverance and your character, but they are feeding into one another. And they're feeding into this big situation that's going on in your life. So maybe from this situation you learned, from this bill, you learned self-control. You have to budget. There was no way you could pay that bill if you didn't cut some things out.

So you learned self-control and that fit. And maybe in this situation, you learn to pray and maybe you learn when to speak up and when to keep your mouth shut. So that's building into that situation. And maybe from this one, you just learn, you know what? I can do gross things without complaining. It wasn't that bad. I got it done.

So that's building into that. Maybe with your friend, you learn the power of an apology and how that made your relationship better. in this class, you're learning discipline. You're learning that you're going to have to work and study and ask for help. So here I am in this big one, but my hope is being built up. And I don't know how I'm going to make it through this one, but I know that I made it through before. And this time, my hope is stronger. I almost called this sermon, Thank You Next. You know, my husband always has multiple titles. I thought that might have been a good one.

What I want you to know today is that you have got to run the cycle. Don't get stuck in the suffering stage. The more that you lean into this process, the more that you will be able to gain from it. There are a few things that will get you stuck in this suffering stage that will break up your cycle. And I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about it because I don't like negative things, but we should actually talk about them sometimes. So one of those things is comparison. Nobody understands. Nobody's ever felt this way before. Nobody has felt the pain that I feel, or maybe we complain. And we think, why is this happening

to me? I mean, me? Why? Again? God, you know, I can't do this. Or maybe we blame. Because there's something in our minds that wants to have a reason for our pain and a reason for our suffering. So the easiest thing to do is just say, well, if my husband hadn't have done what he did, I wouldn't be in this position. Or if my parents had fed me healthier food, then I wouldn't be overweight or whatever your situation is. It's so easy to blame. And then sometimes we just get angry. If you ever been angry with God? Just like, God, why did you let this happen to me?

These things are all valid ways to feel. And some days, you have to feel all of these things. Some days you can't get out of the bed and you're hurt and you're angry and you're blaming because your pain is real and you will want to numb. But I'm telling you, be very careful. Don't stay here too long because these thoughts and these attitudes will get you stuck. And then you'll become a resentful person. And then you'll become a bitter person.

and then you're going to smell like that dishwasher because you got stuck. Don't prolong the process of what God wants to do in your life. Yes, it hurts. But did you know that complaining, I know you know this, complaining costs Israel 40 years in the desert. It was supposed to be a two-week journey, and they ended up being there 40 years because of complaining. I know it hurts. I know what it feels like to not want to get out of bed and continue fighting this situation

that seems like it's never going to end. I know what it feels like to have a wave of anxiety hit you so hard that you have to sneak into the bathroom just to make it through the moment. I know, I know what it feels like to not want to come to church because I don't want to look anyone in the eyes. I don't want them to see my pain. then I know that Pastor Stephen is going to make me look at my neighbor and say something to them. But I know from experience that stopping only delays the process and keeps me from what God has for me.

So just like there are some things that will slow your cycle down, there are also some things that will give you momentum. One of those things for me is church. You're here. This is the big. best place that you can be when you're suffering. Maybe I shouldn't have told you. It's so true. Maybe I shouldn't have told you that as a pastor's wife, that I have days where I don't want to come to church. But I hope that that encourages you to know that it is totally normal, that when you're hurting and you're struggling, that you're not going to want to come to church. The pool is always going to be for you to stay home. Don't get dressed. You can't see people. This is your only day to rest. But it is here. Can anybody, anybody agree with me that here is where God

meets with me? And God will speak to you if you can just get here. I know that sometimes the best you got is to open up your computer and just watch online. I get it. And I know that some of you that watch online every week, you don't have an elevation location that you can come to. But I got to tell you, there is something special about coming to, you, about coming to with a body of believers and getting in this faith environment and being able to pull from her faith and from his faith. And God will just give you a word that will get you through the next moment, that next step. Another thing that will give you momentum is having the right voices in your life.

Sometimes the last thing you want to do when you're suffering is to tell someone else what you're going through. I know how that feels. Maybe sometimes you just feel shame over what's happening or you just feel too hurt. You can't even talk about it. Or maybe you feel like nobody could possibly understand. But I have been through some situations where the words and the prayers and the encouragement of some of my friends were just life to me. And I know that it's counterintuitive that when you're here, the instinct is to withdraw. But when you are here, And you open yourself up, and you're vulnerable with a person that you trust, and you say, I'm hurting.

I need help. You experience an intimacy in this place with that friendship that you cannot experience when everything is awesome. It's a special place when you have the right people. Another thing that's small, but it's huge for me, and I don't know if it is for you, too, But have any of you ever had a song that just got you through, a worship song? We're so blessed to be able to have a church that the songs that come out of this church, they're just life-giving.

For me, Unstoppable God was an anthem for me during that time where the news media was running all of those stories. I still, to this day, how many times have we sang Unstoppable God at Elevation Church And still, every time they sing it, even if they just do a little tag, I tear up. Because when I sing that song, I remember the promises that God spoke to me during that time. I can almost, it's funny because songs, they're kind of like smells. And all of a sudden, when they started playing that song, you put yourself back in that moment and you feel the pain, but then you feel the joy and you feel the presence of God all at that time.

Get you a song. Get you a song that will get you through this time. Do it again. I mean, that one works every time for every situation. A couple weeks ago, we sang the song, This is How I Fight My Battles. I don't know if that's the title of it. It was exactly what I needed in that moment.

There are some things that you can do that will give you momentum so that you can run the cycle. Now, there's this story in John Chapter 9 that I love. It's the story of Jesus healing the man who is born blind. I don't know if you've ever read it before. I love John because John gives so many details. The story is so long. And even when I was preparing for this message, my husband was like,

you better be careful because that's a really long story. I love long stories. I love details. John gives us details that a lot of the other gospels don't give. In fact, my dream, I just have this dream, my husband will look me in the eyes and he'll say, Holly, please do not leave one detail out of this story. Tell me everything. Still waiting. Enneagram experts say it's called epic talk style. That's what I have. Epic talk style.

So, don't worry. I'm not going to read the whole story. John also has a little bit of epic talk story. What did I say? Talk style. I'm just going to start out and read a couple verses for you in John chapter 9. Verse 1. It says, as he went along, this is talking about Jesus, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind? You see, we are just like the disciples. We immediately ask the wrong question, because we want an answer. Whose fault is this, Jesus? And Jesus looks back at them, and he says, neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Jesus is saying, stop trying to explain it. God will not be constrained

by our formulas. God is so much bigger than cause and effect. And so Jesus is telling them, this is not a cause and effect situation. Take your eyes off of the side. of this man, and because I am doing something so much bigger. He said, this happens so that my glory might be displayed through this man. Ann Voskamp put it like this. She said, my darkness becomes a canvas for his light. So Jesus bends down and he spits in the dirt and he makes some mud. There's so much in this story.

One tradition says that when people would walk by this man, they would spit on the ground because they believed that to be born with the deformity meant that you were cursed. You had some kind of curse. So by spitting, they were rejecting that curse from them. And so here comes Jesus, and he makes that familiar sound. He hears that familiar spitting, but Jesus is not rejecting him. Jesus is accepting him, and Jesus is about to heal him. And he takes the spit, and he makes some mud, and he puts it on the man's eyes, and he says, go and wash.

And so the man does. And the Bible says that he went home seeing. Cycle ended. Man healed. Everyone parties. God's glorified, right? Not exactly. So the man comes home seeing. Just remember, this man has been born blind. And the Bible tells us he's a man. So it's at least, you know, 30 years old. He comes home seeing, and his neighbors start questioning him. And they say, who opened your eyes? And then they say, is this really the man that was born blind? And the man says to them, he says, the man they called Jesus healed me. And they say, where is he? And the man says, I never saw him.

I was blind, remember? The Bible's funny. There's some great details in the Bible. But the people were upset because Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath. So never mind that the poor guy, he was born blind, and now he was born blind, and now he was can see, it's not good enough because he was healed on the wrong day. So they take him to the Pharisees because really the people were afraid, because the Pharisees had been throwing people out of the synagogue who believed in Jesus.

They didn't want to be associated with this healing because if you got thrown out of the synagogue, that meant you were thrown out of the community, and they didn't want to be cast out of the community. And so they just take him to the Pharisees. And then the Pharisees even questioned the man's parents, and the man's parents don't even stand up for him. They say, ask him. We don't know.

He's a grown man. Have you ever felt like you came out of one victory and then you just, like you went right back in to another trial? I mean, the man was blind, and he deserved a party. But they're not partying. They're giving him an inquisition. And so the man, I'm telling you, got to read the story, it's really cool. He starts to get an attitude with the Pharisees.

They're asking him all of these questions. And he says, at one point, He says, look, I don't know if he was a sinner or not. All I know is I was blind, and now I see. And so the Pharisees cast him out from the community again. They throw him out. But guess who finds out, Jesus? And he comes to him, and he asks him this question.

Because sometimes we have to stop asking so many questions, and we have to let Jesus do the asking. Jesus asks some really cool questions in the Bible. And so look at what happens. In verse 35, it says, Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, isn't it great that we serve a God who finds us, who comes to us right where we are? He doesn't leave us wandering around, blind, physically, spiritually, but he comes to us, and he asks us a personal question. And Jesus says to him, Do you believe in the Son of Man? Now, I was reading a commentary this week about this verse.

I have this computer program that you click on the verse and it gives you some extra information. And so what I read just blew me away. And it said this. It said, Jesus wasn't asking the man the question, do you believe that I am the Messiah? What he was really asking was, do you trust me? And I believe that that's the question that God wants to ask you today. He wants you to stop asking all of your questions, and he wants you to answer his, do you trust me?

My husband says it this way. He says, do you trust that even when God doesn't fix it, that he's going to fix something in you? he's going to do something through you. Remember, as believers of Christ, we're not exempt from suffering, but we have a hope. Hebrews 618 says, to take hold of this hope because it is an anchor for your soul. Paul says in Colossians 127, he says, to them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. See, I may not be able to hope that people will change, and I may not be able to hope

that I will get a new job or that my suffering or my situation is going to get any better. It's not a question of, can God change the situation? That's just the wrong question. The question is, do I trust him? He's never failed me yet. As I was thinking and praying about this message, I was thinking about a friend of mine who is walking through the big one. I mean, she is just in pain. Her pain is raw right now. And I was wondering, would this message be encouraging for her? Because, you know, when someone is suffering, they don't want to hear, oh, you just need to trust God.

When you are in intense pain, you don't want to be told, you just need to persevere. Don't you want God to build your character? And I get it. I know what it feels like when you just can't see how anything good could possibly come from this situation. And if you're in that place, it's okay. Sometimes it does hurt so bad that you cannot imagine how you're going to get through. And if you're in this place and I could look you in the eyes like I would, my friend, I would say to you, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you're hurting. I can't even imagine the person. pain that you're in. And I would not wish this situation on anyone. But I do know that God is going

to get you through. God is going to be with you every step of this process. He will never leave you. Never, no, never. Remember on Easter? Never, no, never. When you don't feel him and when you do feel him, he comes to you right there in your pain. He is the the hope that you can cling to when you have nothing else to hold on to. Just don't let go of that. He's here with you in this moment. Will you stand so I can pray for you? I know that there are so many people that are hurting today. I know that Mother's Day is a really painful day for some people. Maybe you've lost your mother, maybe you can't be a mother. And I know that it's painful that so many people in this size, in a church this size, there is so much pain.

And I just want to pray for you. If you just lift your hands to the Lord today, God, we thank you that you are our hope and that our hope builds and that you are with us and that you are here in this moment comforting us. You are the great comforter. And I just pray right now in this moment that you would just whisper words of encouragement to your people, that you would tell us that your grace is sufficient for this season. And Lord, I pray for those that are hurting today.

God, would you just comfort them? I pray for those that are weary. that just those feel like I can't do this anymore. I pray that you would just give them a breath of fresh air, a second wind today. Thank you, God, that you are our hope. You are our anchor. You're the one that we can cling to. We love you, Lord.

You are so amazing. Thank you. It's in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry. is because of you that this ministry is possible.

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