Elevation with Steven Furtick - When Your All Seems Small

Episode Date: May 14, 2018

“Does what I do even matter?” We’ve all wondered it. But in this message, Holly Furtick challenges the way we view our significance. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://ele.vc/TI55jRSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.

Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Welcome to all of our locations and all of you watching online are EFAM. No, I'm sorry. Pastor Stephen is not preaching. I hope it's not too much of a disappointment

because you're going to have to settle for me the other ferdick. I'm just kidding. I know you love me too. And I count it such a privilege every time that I get to teach on this stage at elevation. So I'm recording this message here to a small group of people, but many of you are watching this message as we're celebrating Mother's Day weekend. And Mother's Day is such a happy day. But for so many, we can't ignore the fact that it's also a difficult day.

And what I love about our church is how we take the opportunity to celebrate all women on this day. To me, Mother's Day is a day to celebrate the beauty in God's creation of the woman. He put a nurturing, mothering heart in each one of us, whether we have children or not, whether our children are still with us or not. And together, as women, we are able to contribute to our church and to this world in a unique and so. special way. So can we take a minute to celebrate? Find a woman near you and tell her, you look thinner. So speaking of looking thinner, have you ever experienced one of those moments where your kids' honesty was like a slap in the face? You know? They really know us well, don't they? We think we know them, but they really have us pinned too. So I had one of these moments recently. Abby came home

from school. And Abby is one of those kids, too, who tells you everything about school. And my boys, they, like, I get nothing from my boys. But Abby, I get it all. So Abby is in her, you know, talking, talking, talking. And she goes, Mom, Monday is the bubble test. And my teacher said that we need to go to bed early so that we can get plenty of rest. And she also said that we need to get up and eat a big breakfast like pancakes and bacon so that we won't be hungry during the test. And then she said, and I thought in my mind, I don't think my mom's going to do that. At least she had realistic expectations of her mom, right? Being a mom often comes along with feeling underappreciated and unqualified,

constantly feeling like, I'm never enough, I can never do enough. We can never be enough. I can't take you enough places. But as I was thinking about this message and preparing and praying about what I felt like God wanted me to say, I started to think, wait, like, that's not just moms. That's all of us. That's called being a grown-up.

That's life. And we all struggle with those feelings. And how about this one? Do you ever struggle with the feeling of, does this really even matter? One time we were in a restaurant with another pastor. My husband was preaching at this pastor's church, and he was taking us out to dinner,

and they had a reservation. And so we're standing in the entryway of the restaurant, and nobody was attending to us. Nobody asked us how many people were in our party or anything. And the hostess wasn't in the hostess stand, but there were people buzzing around. So we all just kind of stood there for a few minutes. And this particular pastor, I'm not going to tell you,

who he is, but he's really loud and has a really boisterous personality. I know that doesn't even narrow it down for you, because that's like pretty much every pastor. And you could tell he was getting frustrated. And all of a sudden, he just yells, I mean yells at the top of his lungs, does anybody even care that we're here? And I was like, oh my gosh, does anyone even care? Does this even matter? Does it even matter what I do? I just, I wonder that so often, that things like, does it matter that I try so hard to provide healthy food and a neat house? I mean, not a perfect house, but a neat house and clean clothes for my family when, I mean, three out of four of my people would just as soon eat junk food and live in complete squalor. Does this even

matter what I'm doing. Like, maybe when you do a project at school and you give your all just for a grade, does it even matter? Or a report at work? Does it even matter if I show up to volunteer at elevation? There are hundreds of volunteers. Do they really need me? Am I really making a contribution? Do you ever feel like you gave your all, but it probably didn't even matter? We all long for significance in our lives. We want to know that what we are doing will be worth it. And that's what I want to talk about today. So I want to jump right into our scripture and get started.

We're going to read a passage of scripture in Luke, starting at the very end of chapter 20, verse 45. And I'm going to read the whole passage to you. So here we go. While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogue

and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely. As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow, put in two very small copper coins, also known as a widow's mite.

Truly, I tell you, he said, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on. The title of my message today is, When Your All Seems Small. Look at your neighbor and ask them,

Does your all seem small? Have you been enjoying pastor's messages on savage Jesus? I can't even say it, savage Jesus. I really have. I think this is one of my favorite sermon series that we've ever done. I know I say that every time, but I really mean it this time. I have been reading the Bible differently. I've been seeing Jesus, not just as the calm and compassionate Jesus.

I've been seeing his savagery too. Is that a word savagery? And I hope that when you read your Bible, that it's not just on Sundays, that you're reading it in between Sundays, not because it makes you some sort of a better person or a better Christian, but because God wants to speak to you personally through his word. Okay, that's totally not my message, just like a little side thought. But as I've been reading through the Bible and I've been looking at Jesus's teachings in the Bible, you often find him saying this phrase, you have heard it said, but. I say. And throughout the scripture, we find Jesus challenging what we value. Okay? And that's where we find him in this story. He's warning the disciples that the Pharisees have their values all messed up. And this woman who gave the smallest, most insignificant gift really, truly gave more than anyone else. And so today I want to look at this passage of scripture and I want to challenge your thinking. When you feel like your gift doesn't matter, like you're pouring out your heart and soul

into your job or into your marriage, into a relationship, into your family, into your kids, and it feels like just a drop in the bucket. I want to challenge your thinking. Maybe you're valuing the wrong thing. I want you to consider that God is way more concerned about how you do something than what you're actually doing, okay? Now, I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute. Didn't Pastor Stephen just tell us a couple of weeks ago that we don't need to know how?

Yes, he did. And we're both right, okay? He's talking about how, in a context of faith. And by the way, if you missed that message, it was called Let the Dirt Do Its Work, my favorite message of the year. I know they're all my favorite, but no, that one was really my favorite message.

of 2018. So you've got to go back and watch it. But Pastor Stephen is talking about how in the context of faith. Today I want to talk about how in the context of like the way in which you do something. Okay? God is way more concerned with the way I do something than he is with what I'm actually doing. Okay? Don't worry.

If you're a little bit confused, it'll all make sense. We're going to take a closer look at this passage of scripture. And as we look at it, I want to point. out to you three earthly values that Jesus came to challenge. Okay? Are you ready? Yes. All right. Let's look back at verse 45. Jesus said, or Luke tells us, while all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, I just have to stop right there. I love how Luke is giving us this picture of Jesus, and he knows that all these people around are there, but he said it to his disciples. Kind of like when I,

I say to my husband, like I know my kids are within earshot, and so I say to my husband, I swear if these people don't start picking up their crap, I'm going to start throwing it in the trash, okay? See, Jesus used that device too. He was talking to his disciples. He knew that everyone was listening. So he took this moment to say this to them. Beware of the teachers of the law. they like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. You see, here's the first thing I want to point out to you. We value appearance, but God values attitude. I love to throw birthday parties for my kids, and I mean, I really get into it. I don't know why. I never even ask my kids if they like it. I mean, honestly, if one of my kids said they wanted to

to have a birthday party at one of those jumpy places, I'd be like, are you sure? Because think of all the things we could do. So in the past 12 years of my motherhood, I've thrown a lot of birthday parties, and I just like really get into the theme. So whatever my kid is into, we're going to have a birthday party with that theme. And I particularly get into the snacks. I don't know, go on Pinterest and, you know, search shark birthday party and come up with all. the decorations and whatever. So I love the snacks. One time Graham had a Batman birthday party, and so we had Poison Ivy Punch to drink. And one time Abby had a Rapunzel party. And so I went

on Pinterest and found this recipe where you take a hot dog and then you braid the crescent roll dough over it to make it look like a braid. It probably looked more like a Pinterest fail, but we were going to eat braids at that birthday party. I get into the decoration. and the games and everything, okay? And again, I really don't know why, but it's just fun to me, okay? So just whatever, do what's fun to you. So, but there have been a few birthday parties

over the years where I have failed. And no, I'm not talking about the Rapunzel braid fail. And I'm also not talking about the time that Abby had a panda party. And so I thought it would be really cool if we hired a face painter to paint, like, you know the face painters at Kerouins and your face looks so cool?

I was like to paint panda faces on the girls. And about midway through the party, my husband leans over to me, and he's like, they kind of look like the 80s hairband kiss. Okay, not that failure either. The failure that I'm talking about is the times where I was doing something for my kids and I was fussing at them at the same time. Like, stop eating the cheese off of the cheese tray. This is for other people. And, you know, stop punching the balloons. I bought the balloons for them, but I'm so.

obsessed over the way that it looks and get out of my kitchen. I'm trying to throw a party, can't you see? It's funny, but it's not funny, you know? There have been so many times where maybe I've posted something on social media that made it look like everything was awesome, but in reality, I am yelling and fussing. If you don't say cheese, I'm going to take that phone, I'm going to smash it, and you're never going to play Fortnite again. And I'm like, Happy Easter from the Ferdig! We live in a day that is ultra-focused on appearance. And there's nothing wrong with caring about the way that you look.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But when you use appearances to cover up what's really going on in your heart, that's when you get into trouble. One time Jesus in the book of Matthew was talking about the Pharisees, and he called them whitewashed tombs. He said, on the outside, they're beautiful. But on the inside, they're full of dead bones. Jesus came that we might have life.

He doesn't want me to be walking death, walking bones. But if I'm hyper-focused on the way that I appear, God can't even get to the inside of me. He can't even get there and minister to that part of me and work from the inside out, like he wants to, if I'm always covering everything up and always concerned about how I appear, how my family appears to others. I think I'm stepping on some toes, so let's get back to our scripture. I'm stepping on my own toes. All right, so I'm going to start over again in verse 46.

Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at the banquets. They devour widow's houses. See, here I find that we often place value on importance, but God values integrity. The Pharisees are running around, seeking the seat of importance. Meanwhile, they're devouring what little a widow has left. Whenever I get a chance to teach at our church, I always like to highlight a woman. Now, I know I've said this before, but Pastor Stephen, you know, he's like, he's a man's man, he's got his big muscles, and he likes to teach about David and bars and battles and savage Jesus, and how many of you were here when he did

the series on Elijah called Work Your Window? And one day I want him to do a series all on women of the Bible and call it something really feminine like glitz and glitter. That was the best I could come up with. I tried really hard to come up with something better that he might have come up with, but we'll leave the creativity to him. He can just get started with glitz and glitter. Okay, anyway, so the woman I want to highlight. Do any of you know the story of Rebecca in the book of Genesis? So Rebecca was the wife of Isaac, the mother of Jacob and Esau. Remember? another sermon series that my husband did on Jacob called Death to Selfie. That was years ago.

I don't know how many of you were here for that. When you talked about the bowl of beans and I love that series too. See, I told you they're all my favorite. Okay, so what you might not know about Rebecca is the way that she came to be the wife of Isaac. Now, I don't know about the men, but ladies, we like to hear how people got together, you know? So say, so how'd y'all meet? If you ask Rebecca that question, she would say, well, it all started with some camels. Isn't that interesting for you?

I want to read to you part of Rebecca's story found in Genesis chapter 24. So in this chapter, we have Abraham, so you have Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so Abraham was the father of Isaac, and he wanted a wife for his son from among his own people. They were living in the land of Canaan, and he did not want his son Isaac to marry a Canaanite woman. So he went to his servant, and he said, I'm going to send you back to my people to find a wife for Isaac, okay? So we find in Genesis chapter 24, Abraham's servant has set out on a journey, and he's taken along with him ten camels. Here's where our camels come into the picture. And when he finally arrives into the town of Nahor, he prays that.

this in verse 12. Lord God of my master Abraham, make me successful today and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, please let your jar down that I may have a drink. And she says, drink and I'll water your camels too. Let her be the one that you have chosen for your servant, Isaac. By this, I will know that you have shown kindness to my master. So here comes Rebecca with her jar and the servant approaches her and he says, please give me a little drink from your jar. And what does she say back to him? Drink my lord, she said, and quickly lowered her jar to her hands and gave him a drink. After she had given him

a drink, she said, I'll draw water for your camels too until they have had enough to drink. So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water and drew enough for all of his camels. Now, you're probably thinking, I don't know what this story about Rebecca and camels and this weird tradition of sending someone off to find a mate for, I don't, what does this have to do with integrity? Okay, it has everything to do with integrity. Because how many, did you catch how many camels he had with him? He had 10, okay? This man has just made a 500-mile journey with 10 camels, okay? Watering his camels was not a small task. These are not puppy dogs that you just put a little bowl down for, okay? Listen to what I read this one man say about this event.

He said, a gallon of water weighs eight pounds. A thirsty camel can drink up to 30 gallons of water. There were 10 camels, you do the math. Okay? This man was not important to Rebecca, okay? She did not know, that her future husband was riding on these camels, okay, literally. But she had integrity. Integrity is who you are when you don't think anyone is looking, okay? And God blesses integrity. In Luke 1610, one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, a verse that has really ministered to me throughout my adulthood.

It says, one who is faithful in the little things is also faithful in much. and as I was studying for this message and thinking about that verse, and I started reading it over and over again, and I had this revelation. See, I had memorized that verse wrong. I thought that the verse said, he who is faithful in the little things will be made faithful over much. But that's not what it says.

It says, one who is faithful in little things is also faithful in much. I was reading the verse like a promise, you know? Okay, God, if I'm faithful in the little things, then you will entrust me with more. But this verse is not a promise. It's a principle, okay? A promise is, I will never leave you nor forsake you. There's nothing contingent on it. I will never leave you nor forsake you, God tells us. But God doesn't make if then promises because he will never allow me to reduce him down to a formula. God doesn't work that way.

It's not like, okay, God, if I water these camels, you're going to bring me my man. Wouldn't that be nice? If we could just reduce everything down to an if then? This is a principle. And because it's a principle, it can become my pep talk, okay? So it sounds like this. Holly, if you can't do the small things, then you'll never be able to handle the big things. So I wake up every day and I hear my kids fighting in the kitchen for the last.

like one millionth time, and I think, here come my camels. Well, I care for my household if no one else ever thanks me, because it's my calling. I don't need to be acknowledged every time I unload the dishwasher. I mean, if that's what you're waiting for, you're going to die waiting, okay? But can I just do these simple things that God has called me to? Because he's called me to them, not because I'm waiting for somebody else to pat me on the back and say, Good job, Holly. No, that's not, God is so into integrity, what I'm doing when nobody else, when I think nobody else is watching.

You never know who's watching because the servant was watching Rebecca the whole time. Can I do the project at work without needing my name to be put on it? Can I give my best to something that I know my name's never going to go on? Can I study for the European history test that seems like I don't know when I'm ever going to need this? Why don't I just cheat? No, because integrity matters. Camels build my character. Okay?

Now, when I say that Jesus values integrity over importance, it doesn't mean that, I don't mean to say that it's bad to be. important. It doesn't mean that it's wrong to desire a promotion. What I'm simply saying is, if you don't have the character, you won't be able to hold the promotion. Jesus ministered to important people and unimportant people all the time because it wasn't a thing of who's important or who's unimportant. He could see past their exterior and into their hearts. And in our passage, is saying to the disciples, hey guys, beware of those who seek the seat of importance, because that will never make you happy. That will never fulfill you. I wish that you could hear the Holy Spirit speaking through me, whispering to you today this one thing. Little things don't lead

to bigger opportunities. Little things are the opportunity. That's my opportunity. That's my right here, this person right in front of me that God has put in my path. This is my opportunity. All right. Finally, to my favorite part. I want to look back at the passage one more time, pick up where we were. They devour widows houses and for show make lengthy prayers. And then we'll skip down to the very end where Jesus says, all these people gave their gifts out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty put in all she had to live on. You see, we often values show, but God values sacrifice. Jesus looked up and he saw all the wealthy people putting their gifts into the offering. And he also saw this woman put in all that she had, all that she had to live on.

God doesn't care about the size of your gift. He cares about the size of your sacrifice. And what's a sacrifice for you may not be a sacrifice for me. And what's a sacrifice for me may not be a sacrifice for you. And if you think that I'm talking about money, then you've missed the entire point of this sermon. Yeah, I mean, sometimes it is about the actual gift that I bring to God. but there are times when I offer a sacrifice to God,

and it may not look like much to you, but God knows, and God sees, he knows what I have going on, he knows the troubles that are in my heart, and God sees when you sacrifice your personal time to provide for your family, God sees that. God sees when you're driving your kids around like you're their freaking Uber man, right?

Because he whispers to me, one day they're not going to need a ride. from you. God sees when you give your weekend to volunteer at your campus. He sees that. He sees your sacrifice. If you're a teacher who actually cares about your students, God sees that. And you may never know what God will do with your sacrifice. You may never get to see that. But when you give your all, I promise you, when you give your all to something, that's when God rolls up his sleeves and he rubs his hands together and he says, now that's something I can work with. That's what he wants to work with. He did it with the little boy's lunch, just the little kid offering his lunch.

He did it with the widow's oil. How much oil do you have? Just a little bit. And what can God do with your little bit? What did David defeat Goliath with? A couple small stones. I really hope and I pray that you're encouraged by this message. I don't want you to feel discouraged. I don't want you to feel like, oh, I've been valuing all the wrong things. And it's not a message to overwhelm you. My prayer is that this message would be a reset for many of us, for myself included, who have gotten our hearts just set on the wrong values. The beautiful thing about Jesus is that he only needs one small cry from us.

Do you remember just a few chapters before this story, the woman with the issue of blood? And Jesus is going to heal Jiris' daughter. And he's walking through a crowd, and he stops, and he says, who touched me? And the disciples are like, uh, Jesus, it's crowded. Everybody's touching you, you know? Like, everyone's in the Disney World, we're going to the parade? And you're like, stay close to me, guys, you know? Okay, so Jesus is, hey, the crowds are,

crying around me, he says, who touched me? And it's, and it's this woman because he says, no, no, no, the power went out of me. Somebody, somebody touched me. Jesus celebrated her tiny bit of faith, her tiny reach, and he healed her, and then he said to her, go in peace. What I want to do is I want to pray and ask God to seal this word on our hearts. Jesus not only wants to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to heal you today. He doesn't, he not only wants to reset your values. He wants to refocus your mind on the things that he values so that he can restore your peace. Some of us wonder, why don't I have any peace? Well, it's because my heart is set on all the wrong things. So let's pray and ask God to just really seal this word on our hearts. God, we cry out to you today. We think,

thank you that all we need to do is have a mustard seat of faith. Just one word, just one prayer to you, and you hear us, and you respond to us. And I pray that you would help us to see all of the things that we're chasing after that are the wrong things and open our eyes to see the things that you value. We ask God that as your word says in 2 Corinthians 418, that you would fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. Because what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. God, we ask that you would do this in our lives today. We love you so much, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at elevationchurch.org slash give And thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.