Elevation with Steven Furtick - The Step Of Faith And The Sound Of Praise (The Basin)

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

You are an instrument in the hands of a God whose power is infinite. In this bonus teaching from The Basin, we learn that when we use the tools in our hands, God does what only He can do. Today, take a step of faith and let out a shout of praise. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ Scripture References: Judges 7, verses 17-19See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, I'm coming to you now from The Basin. This is a special bonus teaching that I recorded just for you. To break it down a little more, to take it a little deeper. I hope you enjoy this overflow message. Let me know. Let's go.

Hey, if you saw the sermon Sunday, I told you that I would try to teach a little bit it more and I would put it on YouTube. So guess what I'm doing? I'm picking up my sermon from Sunday. The message was called Instruments of Victory. I'm in the basin. This is a place where God gives me overflow. That's why I named it the basin. Great things flow from this place for me. and I'm hoping to do a few of these as we get out on elevation nights. Spring 2023. The Lord was speaking to me this morning. I was seeking him on what to do over these next eight cities.

We're going to let's see Austin, Texas, Oklahoma City, Minneapolis. I don't have the list in front of me. other places to eight cities that we're planning to be in you can still get tickets to some of them elevation nights.com and I would love to be with you in person if that's a possibility even if you have to fly in I think I think it will be worth it because there's something special God is doing I feel it in my spirit I know our team does too I'm talking to several of them over the last week and we just sense it. We sense that we're in a season of integration,

and don't worry, I'm not going to sing. Although you love my singing, right? One of these days, I want to put out a project where I sing different hymns and old choruses that I used to sing when I was a worship leader, and we'll auto-tune my voice, and they'll make it sound great. Maybe they'll put some AI on my voice and make me be able to sound like Justin Vernon

and maybe they can combine it where I sound like Justin Vernon, meets Chris Stapleton, meets Eddie Vedder, meets Darius Rucker. That would be amazing. Meet Billy Joe Armstrong. Meet Marvin Satt, meets John P. Key. That's what I really want in life. Meets Chandler Moore, meets Brandon Lake, meets Chris Brown, the real Chris Brown. Anyway, I don't have long because we're about to journey and hit the road.

And I told Holly today, what an amazing privilege to do ministry. You know, that girl is the same girl that was by my side when I was 18 years old, 19 years old singing, Lord, I lift your name on high. And every move I make, every one of the straps in the way, a little rusty here, y'all. Every move I make, I'm making you, you make me move Jesus. I don't want to get copyright strike, so I'm not going to sing it. Hopefully they can't copyright a 1-4-5 chord progression. I don't know.

But it's just amazing that when we were 18, 19 years old, we were in little churches. I'm telling you, 20 people in the church was packed. A lot of the places that we went. We had four other people on our team. first summer we ministered together. We were 18, like just a little older than Elijah. And we were out there, you know, leading the ministry and stuff. It's crazy to think about. And really wanted God to use us. I remember back then, 25 years ago, man, 25 years ago. This is even before we were dating, but we were, I was, I was working my angles, you know, hey, come be on my summer ministry team.

And, yeah, and come get on this bus with me and let's go glorify the Lord. And maybe just maybe, maybe, maybe just maybe the residual effect of that will be, you be my girlfriend, maybe be my wife. Anyway, we would lead worship and preach the word. And our theme, I remember that first summer was run to win. And we got to the first church and there were no kids signed up from the event. Hampton Heights. Was that the name Hampton Heights? I believe that was the church.

So we ended up recruiting kids all week, you know, knocking doors and putting flyers on windshields in the Walmart parking lot. True story. By the end of the week, we had something like 20, 30 kids. And it felt like we had a Billy Graham crusade. and she was by my side during that. On the last elevation nights tour, we were at the forum in L.A., getting ready to do ministry,

and it was sold out at the forum. And, you know, it's just amazing because you walk up and down the halls of the forum, that kind of iconic venue, and there's all the people that have been there. Oh, there's Mc Jagger. Okay. And right beside him,

there's Madonna. Okay. And whoever, you know, I'm just saying names here. But it's just halls and halls of all the people who have played there. And, you know, there's only one reaction to that. All right, when you're a kid from Monks Corner, South Carolina, and you grew up in a town that at the time had 6,000 people, you just go, what the heck am I doing here? You know, we, we, we, we, we started our church. Many of the people who started with me are still with me. My friend Eric, who I brought up on stage, that's my best friend in high school. You know, he started the church with me. He was one of the families that came here, Nicole. And, you know, my main guy, his name is Chunks. He's kind of famous in our church. He's a physical therapist started with me. And there's Chris

Brown and I've known Chris, our main worship leader for Elevation Worship, I've known him since we were boys. We were playing at a club called PS 150, instead for Psalm 150. And the owner, the guy named Ross, I remember. I remember his name was Ross. That's about all I remember about. And, you know, there's a sense of which me and Holly and Chris and Chunks and Eric flies out, I think he's flying out to see me on this tour too and we just look at each other and look look at god isn't god amazing and um and yet there's this sense of fear oh man you know i've done this a bunch of times i've been doing this since i was in my 20s but i still always feel and i want you to hear this i still always feel a lot of fear when i get ready to step you to step

into the moments that God has called me to step into. And maybe you do too. And Gideon certainly did. And that's why I was preaching about Gideon over the past several weeks. And I believe that God is going to call me to take that same spirit of faith that I've been preaching in our church over the last month from the life of Gideon and take it into these cities and impart faith to you, those of you who will be there for elevation nights, as well as those of you who have been listening to the messages and hearing the messages, all right? Because the idea behind the life of Gideon in your life and my life and the things God has called each of us to do is that we are instruments who need to be put in the right hands. And yesterday, when I was preaching,

I don't know when you'll be watching this, but I preached yesterday on how Gideon was an instrument who had been in the hands of the Midianites, the people who were oppressing the Israelites, and he had started to believe his insecurities more than his potential. And that's what happens When you put your instruments in the wrong hands, what are your instruments? Two that come to my mind. Your mind, so that comes to my mind, your mind, and your mouth. What I'm using right now? I'm using two instruments.

I'm also using a computer. I'm also holding a guitar. I also know there's some Wi-Fi signal that is making this all go to you. But there are instruments involved in this communication right now. And I'm using my instrument. my mind and my mouth so I can speak encouragement to you. But the thing is, these instruments on your end, how you manage them, how you care for them, and what you allow to control the instruments that God has given you will determine where you

end up at the end of this day, at the end of this week, at the end of this month, at the end of this year, and ultimately where your life goes. So that's why we need a word from God to renew our minds. And that's why we need worship. Worship coming out of our mouth, it purifies our atmosphere. it resets our intention. It realigns our motives. And that's why I'm going out with our whole team over the next two weeks. That's why we show up each week and invite people into the presence of God and honor what he says from His Word. And that's why we sing songs of Declaration of Truth. When we don't feel it, when we do feel it, by faith we declare what God says. We use our instruments.

Instruments. So what was interesting, interesting instruments, what was interesting, touch somebody right now and say, you are an interesting instrument. I had everybody do that in church yesterday, but just put it in the comments right now. I am an interesting instrument. That means God has given me, this is a hollow body guitar. That's how I can pick it up so easy. I'm not that strong.

A guy sent me this. This is a Gretsch guitar. A guy sent me this from California. He said, Pastor Ferdick, I want you to have this guitar. I appreciate your ministry. I hope somebody will write a song on it one day to glorify God. A few weeks later, I took it into an appointment with Chris and Brandon and Tiffany, and we wrote the song Graves Into Gardens.

That song was in this guitar. And the man from California, he sent me the guitar, and we took it in and we collaborated together. and God sent a song, Graves in the Gardens, that has now gone around the world to touch people. How grateful am I that he sent me this instrument? Something in him new, and I need to thank him again. I hope you're watching this. I hope he's watching this.

I don't want to make him, I don't want to publicly say his name, but you know who you are. It wasn't that I needed a new guitar. I had guitars. We have guitars here. But isn't it cool that he sent the instrument and the song came out? And I wonder what instrument God is trying to send to you today, an idea that he wants to put in your mind,

an encouragement that he wants to put in your mouth. You go, well, I'm not a songwriter. I'm not a preacher. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how God uses you in your daily life. Nobody can encourage your best friend like you can. Nobody can encourage your husband like you can. Nobody can speak the word of life and faith over your family like you can.

Nobody. The instrument is in your hands. And yesterday I called my buddy Eric up, and the only thing he knows on guitar is one half-song intro from the 90s. And I knew that. So I handed him my first guitar, not this one, the first one I bought, the Paul Reed Smith, that I bought when I was about $14 for about $1,400. And I said, play it. And it wasn't plugged in and he didn't really know anything. And then we handed it to E, which is funny because in my phone, there's E, my best friend from high school.

And then E, who's one of our guitar players at Elevation, very gifted. Look him up. He's got a lot of guitar tutorials out as well. All the musicians at Elevation Worship are, to me, world class. No argument about it. And when I put the instrument in his hands, you should have. or heard it. Go watch the sermon. It's available right now. You can go watch it. It's called Instruments of Victory. And man, when we got it in his hands, it sounded like Clapton. It

sounded like John Mayer. I'm probably imbellishing a little bit, but it sounded really good. It sounded really good. Same guitar. It still had six strings, not nothing changed, but it got plugged in and it got put in the right hands. And I think that's sometimes what has to happen in our life, is that we feel defeated, we feel deflated, we feel discouraged, we feel depressed. Remember, that's just a state. That's not your true self. God calls you what? More than a conqueror. An overcomer. He calls you precious. He proved that because he paid for your life with his blood. Remember Romans 613 from yesterday? That he has brought you from death to life. How did he do that? How did Jesus bring you from death to life? He went from a perfect,

sinless life, shed his spotless blood, the spotless lamb shed his blood and brought you from death to life because he went from life to death. He died for you, rose again, sent his spirit to live in you, and now he wants to make you an instrument of victory. But for that to happen, there are two things I want to point out. And just picture all day as you go through that you're not a hollow body Gretz guitar. You are a wind instrument for the Holy Spirit. What do I mean wind instrument? Well, I shared yesterday that in the passage where Gideon gets the victory over the Midianites, I didn't get time to get all the way to the end of Judges chapter 7, but the enemy turns against itself. The Midianites that they were so afraid of, the Midianites that outnumbered each other,

they got confused when Gideon told his men to do two things. Okay. Remember that only 300 men stayed. Only 300 men who lapped water like dog. I got that dog. Put it in the chat. I got that dog. I don't have to be fancy with my faith. I got that dog. I don't have to be proper with my praise. I got that dog. Put both of those in the comments. That's good. I don't have to be fancy with my faith. I don't have to be proper with my praise. I got that dog. Man, I thought about that woman who said, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Jesus said, go, your daughter is healed. Don't be too dignified to fight the devil back, man. Praise God in your current situation.

Praise God with what you've got. Take your trumpet and blow your breath and praise God. See, when I say Gideon is a wind instrument, wind represents the Holy Spirit a lot of times in the scriptures. So I think the reason God loves the instrument of the trumpet as a symbol is because it signifies how he breathes the breath of life into us. And sometimes we're so busy trying to figure out solutions to situations when really we need to get in the spirit by being grateful by spending time with God.

Word by aligning our day, just those three things alone. By getting grateful, starting from that place. I've been teaching lately on that here in the basin. You can go find one of those teachings too. I'll load you up, man. I'm going to get you ready this week. It's going to be a good week. You're going to worship God this week. But you're going to start from a grateful place, right? And then you're going to start from a place of God's Word, a chapter a day, a little passage. a day. I want you reading more than one verse a day, though. A verse you can focus on a verse, but I want you to get enough context to understand what this meant originally. So then you can say, well, what does it mean to me? Gives you more accuracy. Let's the word penetrate a little deeper. But it doesn't have to be a whole book of the Bible, be a few verses. But you're going to get that going in your life. And then on top of that, the gratitude to God for what he's already given, that gives you breath, the Word of God, which is going to speak to you.

The Spirit of God will never contradict the Word of God. And then aligning each day. And that's the image that I didn't get to in my sermon, that I may come back and preach a little bit here in the next few weeks. We'll see. But I want to share it with you today, and you can think about it. And we can come back to it another time. All right. I hope I get to do some more of these from the tour bus.

The basin on the bus. Somebody on my team needs to make me a little sign that I can take on the road. It can say, the bussing, the bussing. Somebody make me a little sign. I'll put it up and I'll come on here and teach you while we're out about this week, God willing, no promises, but I'll try. Pray for us. But listen to this.

And there's this one cool part where Gideon tells the Israelites in verse 17. This is Judges 7, verse 17. I'm back into NIV. Watch me. He told them, follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. Now, this takes guts. Gideon has come a long way.

He's seen how God works. You recognize that song? You put it in the comments if you recognize it. We're going to be singing that on elevation nights. I promise you that. He's come a long way. He's seen how God works. and he just heard the enemy saying, oh, no, Gideon is coming.

Gideon is coming. And he's like, wait, the enemy is intimidated by me? Yeah. He's gone from an army of 20,000 men who were trembling and turned back. And he himself is trembling. And you might be too, you might be kind of trembling on the inside. Like, oh, another week of this job. I can't do it.

Oh, the meeting today. I can't do it. I'm not going to be able. I got to be here at 4 o'clock. I got to be there at 6 o'clock. Oh, my knee is still, man. I can't even get out of this chair without it hurting. Every time I think about this, it just gets the best of me.

I can't do it. I can't do it. Gideon was there, but then he has a flip. He reinterprets the end, the intact, what's the word? When somebody antagonizes you. He rethinks, let me say it this way. He rethinks the intimidation of the enemy, because the enemy will try to intimidate you. You can't do that. You're the smallest. You're the least. You're the worst. You're terrible. You tried that

already. Nobody's going to laugh at you. Nobody's paying attention to you. Just go do what God called you to do. Right? And he thinks to himself, wait a minute. If the enemy is talking about me, if the enemy is focused on me, the enemy must know something about me that I don't even believe. So if all hell is coming against you, that might be because heaven, all of heaven has an agenda for you. And the enemy doesn't want you to realize it that you are an instrument in the hands of a God whose power is infinite. Say it in the comments. I am an instrument in the hands. of a God whose power is infinite. Again, I am an instrument in the hands of a God whose power is infinite. I'm in his hands. I'm in his hands. And not only that, am I in his hands, but I'm a wind instrument.

And he breathes the breath of life into me. And he's put something in my hands today. what I want to ask you as I close this little teaching today, not a little teaching, it's a big teaching. This could change your life is since you are in his hands, right? God, renew my mind. It's yours. I'm sorry, God, that I've spent so much time thinking like you don't exist, worrying like you don't exist, trading my imagination where there should be faith for thoughts of fear that lead me to dead ends. God, I repent of that way of thinking. Thank you that you forgive me. And I'm moving forward. And I'm putting all these situations I can't control in your hands.

I'm putting all my gifts in your hands. I'm believing that you're enough and I'm trusting in your enoughness and that you breathe into me. And I can make it one step at a time. Watch this. Gideon says to all the people, do what I do. And, man, that really touched me because I realize in this season of my life, life, I need to be a leader, and so do you. I don't care if you're 16 or 60. Somebody in your life needs to watch you win today. They need to watch you win so that they can believe that God can do it

for them. Don't be selfish and just think about, oh, man, I don't have enough and I can't do enough. I realize now I got a teenage daughter. Oh, she's going to be a teenager next year. Two teenage boys. I can't play around with this stuff. I got to come and to the truth. You got to come into the truth of who God says you are. My teenagers are watching. My teenagers need to see me win. They need to see me win over any battle that I am facing that tries to keep me from being who God has said that I can be and doing what he called me to do. And the same is true of you. Even those little battles, your daughter needs to see you blow your trumpet. Your son needs to see you blow your trumpet to rise up, mighty warrior and watch you win.

So you can say to your kids one day, watch me win. I'm not doing it in my own strength. This is God. He gives me the victory. Watch God help me. He'll help you too. I think a lot of times in certain religious traditions we get into this thing. I'm like, oh, no, I can't do it. It's all. God is great and I'm terrible. The great I am, put his name on you. And you say terrible after that. I'm terrible. I'm horrible. I'm worthless. I'm a loser. I'm an idiot. I'm stupid. Stop. Stop. Gideon said, all right. The Lord has given them into our hands. Now let's go. And then he's going from letting go of how he saw himself, letting go of things and people that he thought he needed that God is now saying it's that season is over send them home and some of you have been in a season of a great letting go well now he goes

from letting go to let's go and the Bible says you ready the Bible says Gideon and the hundred men with him so he's got 32,000 then 20,000 and 300 now he takes 100 from the 300 and reaches the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle of watch just to say, I changed the guard. And this is what I want to challenge you to do today. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars

that were in their hands. They blew their trumpets. Everybody put that in the comments. They blew their trumpets. I'm so glad God led me to do this bonus teaching. Holly's the one who told me. She said, get on the basin and do the stuff you didn't get to do Sunday. I said, I got a lot to do. I don't know if I have time. She's like, okay.

She planted the seed and the Lord told me to do it. So I know this word is ministering. I know it. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars. Remember, the trumpets were what they took when they had 10,000 and they only kept 300. Out of the 9,700 that left, there were 300 trumpets. Enough for every man. You've got enough.

You've got enough. Now, you can't beat the enemy to death with a trumpet. I mean, I guess you can, but probably not going to happen. There's too many of them. But it wasn't that God wanted him to use the trumpet in order to defeat the enemy. He wanted him to confuse the enemy. And sometimes you've just got to come from within. And whether it's anxiety, fear, greed, lust, any of the things that we struggle with each and every one of us, you blow your trumpet.

And watch the second one, break the jars. because the Bible says he put a trumpet in one hand. Gideon told the man, come here, 300, I got love. Okay, here's who I've got left. He put a trumpet in their right hand and a torch in their left. And it was a jar with the light under it. And he said, blow the trumpet. When I blow it, break the jar.

Blow the trumpet, break the jar. When they broke the jar, it created a light all around the camp because this is like two in the morning. And they're looking at a big enemy, numerous enemy, but they've got a greater God. Remember that. Your enemy is numerous, but God's name is greater. So whatever your enemy is, fear, depression, disease, you know a name that is greater. We have this treasure in earth and vessels, the New Testament says.

that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us. So we have weird weapons, right? They broke the jars and they blew the trumpets. And the enemy, you're not going to believe this, turned on the enemy. So the enemy had swords and Gideon and his boys and his dogs. His dogs had a torch and a trumpet. When they took what they had in their hands, God took his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, and he took what was in the enemy's hands.

Remember, he takes what the enemy means for evil and turns it for good, and the enemy wiped itself out. And they started running. I see your enemy starting to flee as you take a step of faith and make a sound of praise. two things. The broken jar, boom, that's a step of faith. What do you mean? To break the jar, it means that you're going to go in the light that you have, right? Boom. I don't know how God's going to do this. Boom, but I'm going in the knowledge I have. Go in the strength that you have. You say, when I know I'll go. No, when you go, you'll know. How's God going to do it? You'll know as you go.

remember what God told Gideon? He said, if you're afraid to go down to the camp, you have to watch the sermon to get this. If you're afraid to go down to the camp, go down. And when you see the enemy, you're going to hear, they're talking about you. And if the enemy is trying to discourage you, he must know he's already defeated. And he is. He's defeated by the blood of Jesus. He's defeated by the cross of Christ. He's defeated by the word of your testimony. So there's the step of faith. What is that in your life today? the call, the appointment, the apology, the prayer, the commitment, the next thing, the step of faith, the light that you have, his word is what? A lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Enough for the next step. Say that out loud. He has given me enough light, enough revelation, enough grace, enough strength. His grace is sufficient. His strength is enough for today. I can't get out in tomorrow. I can't control tomorrow. I can break the jar and I can blow the trumpet.

And the trumpet is the sound of praise. I don't just mean shout, hey, Jesus, we love you, J-D-S. There's always at elevation nights every night, somebody who waits until it gets quiet and goes, we love you to us. And always look at Holland. There he is. Always, every time, never fails. Probably like, I don't know, 97% of the time, there will be that guy. I don't mean that. I mean, you can do that, whatever. It's also a sound that comes from within. And when you get those two together, what do you get? An instrument of victory.

Now, go watch the sermon from Sunday. Go watch the sermon, instruments of victory. Read that passage again where it says, break the jar, blow the trumpet, and watch the part where I said that the guitar that I bought when I was 14, oh, I love that guitar. I had to empty out my bank account to buy that guitar. What business is a 14-year-old have buying a $1,400 guitar? You said, what were you a drug dealer? No, I actually worked for the Pet Rest Cemetery and Cremation Service. I had a beeper, but I wasn't a drug dealer.

When it would beep, I would have to come run the crematory. Don't judge me. You're like, oh, you did. You killed dogs. I had killed dogs. I'm loving you. help people say goodbye to their dogs. It was a great job, actually. Thank you, Diane, for giving me that job. An amazing job. And I saved up and I bought the guitar. And two weeks after I bought it, you can see it if you go watch the sermon. I dropped it. And it cracked all down the back. I took it to one guy. I said, I can't fix it. I took it to another guy. He glued it together. You can see the cracks down the back to this day. But you can't hear it when E plays it. Because when I get it in the right hands, a broken instrument can still make a beautiful sound. Is that why a broken jar and a blown trumpet are side by side in the passage? Is God trying to get you to see that, yeah, there's places in your life that are broken? We all have those broken places.

He's called being human. But in his hands, your life has still got songs in it. melodies. After all, he turns graves into gardens. It's cool. I'm holding the guitar that he sent me. About to travel around different parts of the country telling people that God can do something very beautiful out of something that you think is broken. Leonard Cohen said, ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. And that's how the sound comes out too.

You're a wind instrument. God is breathing new life into you as we speak. Receive it. Receive it. Everything you can't control, let it go. Put it in his hands. And after you've put it in his hands, let's go. You got a jar to break today.

You got a trumpet to blow. You got something to thank him for. Do it. Use your mouth. to thank him. You got something to think about, something he's calling you to do. Get those instruments and glorify God with them. I appreciate your prayers. What an amazing day we live in that I can preach. I ran out of time Sunday. I said, I've got to finish this. And the Lord really did speak to us, didn't he? Let me know in the comments. I think y'all like these teachings. I'm hearing from people.

They're like, oh, we love the basin. Not everybody knows about it yet. It's just our secret for now, but it's a real privilege to minister to you. And I appreciate your prayers. Let me know if you're coming to Elevation Nights. If you're anywhere near the cities, go to Elevation Nights.com. Go check out the sermon from Sunday. Let's stay connected. Let's encourage each other. I'll check in here on the comments and you can let me know what spoke to you. And you can just say in the comments right now, I'm in his hands. You are. I promise you. Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast. And if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available.

I also want to take a moment and thank all of you who are a part of elevation. Whether you support us financially or serve with us or just share these messages, it's because of you that we're able to reach people all around the world. And if you want more information on how to be a part of elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message, and subscribe. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.