You are who God says you are. In “Losing Sight Of Who You Are,” Pastor Steven Furtick teaches us not to let the labels from our past determine our future destiny. This is an excerpt from “Reputation Rehab.” To watch the full message from @elevationchurch, click here: 
• Reputation Rehab | Pastor Steven Furtick #faith #peace #hope #stevenfurtick #elevationchurch Chapters: 0:00 – Trouble Isn’t An Indication Of God’s Absence 2:07 – God Works Through Who He Wants 5:06 – “God can’t use me. I still struggle.” 6:46 – Who Would You Want To Meet In Heaven? 11:07 – Don’t Call Me That 13:10 – Rehabilitating Your Reputation 15:31 – You Need A New Perspective Scripture References: Matthew 1, verse 5 Hebrews 11, verses 29-32 James 2, verse 25 Numbers 13, verse 33
I’m concerned that a lot of times we are
convinced
that our trouble is an indication of the
absence of God’s presence
when more times than not in the
scripture you can find that trouble
accompanies God’s presence
he is an ever-present Health in the time
of trouble so if you’re in trouble
you’re in God
who are you
oh yeah the devil’s looking at some of
y’all who are you
I don’t even have to I don’t even have
to mess with your life you’re doing a
good job by yourself who are you
who are you
I’ll get paid to argue with you
[Applause]
so they go to the house of Rahab
the prostitute
and y’all I probably would not preach
about a prostitute
if she were only mentioned in Joshua
chapter 2
because I would figure that’s the Old
Testament
but a funny thing happened
in the Book of Matthew
when the writer started listing the
genealogy of Jesus
and all of the generations that he came
through it’s like 14 generations and
then 14 more and then 14 more and this
is the stuff that we skip over sometimes
when we’re reading the Christmas story
because it’s all these names that we
don’t recognize and
so and so begot so and so begot so and
so begot so and so and really all I want
to do is get to verse 18 then came Jesus
but some of the stuff you skip is some
of the places where God speaks
I said some of the stuff you skip
is some of the stuff God speaks through
and Matthew said in Matthew 1 verse 5 I
feel I preach him Salman the father of
Boaz whose mother was Rahab
whose mother was Rahab now to get to
Jesus in the genealogy you’ve got to go
through Rahab the prostitute
God works through who he wants to work
through and all things work together for
the good of them and love the Lord
whose mother was Rahab
stop being so stuck up stop categorizing
people and casting them out like you
don’t have issues
you ought to be glad to see rahab’s name
in there
hope for me too
if Rahab made it maybe I can by faith
Shout It Out by faith
by faith so then you get to Hebrews 11
and not just once
before the second time in the New
Testament Rahab gets an honorable
mention in the Hall of faith
where they’re inducting all of the
Sunday School Heroes
all of the classic events on which
Redemptive history hinged are mentioned
in Hebrews chapter 11 by faith 29.
people pass through the Red Sea on dry
land but when the Egyptians tried to do
so they were drowned side note God
doesn’t bring you into deep Waters to
kill you he brings you into deep water
to drown your enemies he knows they
can’t swim
and in deep Waters that’s where you deal
with your doubts and in deep Waters
that’s where you come face to face with
your dysfunction and have to lean and
rely on the grace of God so the
Egyptians drowned by faith the walls of
Jericho fell not because they fought so
well but because the faith that they had
enabled them to do what made no sense
naturally and by faith the walls of
Jericho fell after the Army had marched
around them for seven days and here
comes Rahab by faith The Prostitute
Rahab because she welcomed the spies was
not killed with those who were
disobedient and what more shall I say I
don’t have time to tell about Gideon
Barack
Samson jephthah David Samuel the
prophets you mean you don’t have time to
talk about David the greatest King that
Israel ever knew a man after God’s Own
Heart but you had time to mention Rahab
God says I don’t look at people based on
your standard of importance
I don’t look at people based on your
standard of significance
God doesn’t check your followers to see
how much favor he gives you
God is looking at your faith
and then James jumps in and for a third
time this this Harlot is mentioned
alongside the heroes of scripture
hero Harlot Harlot hero and now I can’t
tell the difference because God calls
someone that I call a harlot a hero and
I know you don’t like it and I know it
doesn’t go down easy and I know we can’t
eat it with vanilla wafers and put it on
a flannel graph because the story of
Rahab is R-rated and it doesn’t teach
very well any kids
but James said in the same way 225 in
the same way was not even Rahab the
prostitute
considered righteous
for what she did when she gave logic to
the spies and sent them off in a
different direction
and keep calling her that Rahab the
prostitute
keep labeling her
it’s crazy God didn’t
change her before he used her
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you know how we think God can’t use me
because I currently struggle with
it’s not like she was a prostitute
and then she became a prophet she was
still a prostitute
this doesn’t excuse bad behavior
but it helps me to see that the love of
God is not the reward for change it is
the resource by which I am changed
that revelation
of the love of God is so powerful
and you know I was telling you my son
Graham he talks a lot more now
and he actually says some really funny
stuff
I’m praying that he will not become a
stand-up comic
praying that you know he’ll
well I’m not praying that he’ll be a
preacher either I really don’t I really
don’t care if my kids take take on this
profession or not like that I might even
tell them you know do something else if
you can because you got to be called to
do this
but all my kids have heard so many
sermons they come up with funny little
questions about the Bible that I never
thought of before but just from a
child’s mind is so funny and Graham
asked me the other day
um he said I hear people say all the
time when I get to heaven I want to see
Jesus
and he said but have you ever thought
about how long the line is going to be
and we had just been to Disneyland so he
had that in his mind like you know
and he said this could be a long line to
see Jesus I wonder if you could get
somebody to hold your place in Line to
See Jesus and then go see some of the
other characters in The Bible
so I kind of played it out
and I was thinking you you know you
probably could there are probably some
characters in the Bible that no one will
want a selfie with and you could
probably just walk right up to him like
Jonah
[Applause]
who wants to meet Jonah he’s the most
dysfunctional discouraging prophet in
the Bible he preached and God sent a
Revival and he went outside and wanted
to die
so Jonah’s available you could go see
Jonah for a few minutes a few hundred
years while you wait to see Jesus you
know turning these long and then you
could probably go see you could probably
go see Bartholomew
Apostle Paul might be unavailable and
John the disciple who Jesus loved he
might he might have a little weight wait
list but you can probably see
Bartholomew
[Laughter]
Jewish Legend says that Rahab
was one of the most four beautiful women
who ever lived
that’s true
but maybe you want to see for yourself
you know get to heaven
Samson
[Applause]
walk over to the front desk there’s
Peter
got his iPad
and uh you say hey
I’m in line to see Jesus I’m Number 15
million 973 223.
well I’m waiting um I was kind of
stranger class could I see uh
prostitute
hey you know Peter’s loud rap The
Prostitute let me check
sounds bad man keep it down
oh I’m sorry
we do have a Rahab up here
but you said Rahab the
prostitute
there’s nobody here by that name
[Applause]
because up here
we don’t call people what they were
we don’t call people what they did
[Applause]
we don’t call people what they were
labeled
up here she doesn’t go by that name
so you can see Rahab but make sure you
call her by her new name up here we call
her Rahab the righteous there is a
righteousness
that comes from God by faith
I said there is a righteousness that is
not of works so that no one can boast
and I don’t know about you but I’m
grateful for the blood of Jesus that
covered my path
I’m not what I’ve been and I’m not what
I was and I’m not what I think and I’m
not where I’m broken and I’m not what
they said I got a new name
[Music]
I got a new name
I got a new reputation I am a child of
God
I am the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus
look at somebody say don’t call me that
you don’t know me like that don’t call
me according to how you memorized me in
my past God is doing a new thing in my
life
[Applause]
[Music]
and when condemnation comes in you know
to remind you
of all of those reasons that God can’t
use you remember Rahab
remember Rahab
who had nothing to offer except faith
and God said even she was considered
righteous
because
[Applause]
that’s what church is
a place for you to come
and leave all of the labels
that you’ve accumulated in your life
because of your behaviors
oh yeah some of the stuff people said
about you
is facts
it’s not always that they were lying
it’s just that there is a greater truth
that supersedes
whatever they can say about you and
every weakness
[Applause]
is potential straight
but when I was writing this message
I made a critical mistake I I was typing
so fast in my phone I kept misspelling
rahab’s name
and I kept spelling it r e h a b because
I was writing fast not because my IQ is
low
oh
after writing it down 10 times I noticed
I keep spelling it rehab
and God said you got it right
because what I want you to tell the
people when you preach it
is that I am in the business
of rehabilitating
get my title again on the screen
you did not come to a religious service
today
you came to rehab
and the place that starts is not with
what others think of you we spend so
much time on that
we fail to realize that
really the issue is how you see you
the greatest place my reputation needs
repair is within myself because I’ve let
myself down so many times and I’ve made
promises to myself and others over and
over again and I’m really going to have
a better attitude this time and I’m
really good at this time and I’m really
going to this time and some of you have
developed a reputation with yourself
that does not reflect your reputation
with heaven
God doesn’t see you like that
and see it like that
and the gap between your reality and
your reputation with yourself
could cost you
the opportunity to see God use you in
the future if if you don’t deal with
that
it costs the spies
10 of the twelve said we can’t go in
that’s
83.6666 percent of the people that went
into the land came back with the wrong
report
and I think
83.6666 percent of stuff I tell myself
is probably wrong at least
at least
and if I don’t deal with that
I can have a new reality
a new nature
I can be chosen by God Loved by God
accepted by God
and he can even have an assignment for
me
he can even want to use my house
to bring forth the promise
if I don’t see myself that way
I’ll be like those spies
the reason they didn’t go into the land
wasn’t how they saw God
was how they saw
themselves
and the reason they saw themselves as
small is because they had spent 430
years enslaved
and sometimes you carry that with you
the Bible actually says that before they
could go into the land
God had to roll away the reproach of
Egypt
their past
their shackles
their former condition
and when you carry forward with you the
reproach of different things that you
struggled with or currently struggle
with it will always keep you from
realizing your righteousness in Christ
always
always
you see your life through the lens of
self it’s very small that’s what the
spies came back and said they had
totally lost sight of God’s reputation
because they were so concerned about
their own
numbers 13 33 says that
they gave the man of God Moses this
report they said we saw the
Nephilim there
the Nephilim were giants
it might represent anything in your life
that’s too powerful for you and your own
strength
it might represent your fear your
insecurity
that chronic thing keeps creeping into
your life
it’s taking you down thought pattern
doesn’t have to be a physical giant or a
physical enemy
in fact the Bible says we wrestle not
against flesh and blood there’s a good
chance that your Nephilim has a
different name
and we saw the Giants
and we seem like grasshoppers in our own
eyes
why were you comparing
yourself to the Giants you were supposed
to be comparing your Giants to your God
but you lost sight of that didn’t you
and you start thinking
what’s wrong with me is more powerful
than what’s right with God
we looked like grasshoppers in our own
eyes
and we look the same to them
because when you don’t know who you are
you depend on the rest of the world to
tell you
and now you’re empty
and now you’re projecting
and now you’re trying to perfect this
reputation but God brought you here for
Rehab
brought you here for a reminder
of who he is
hey thanks for stopping by my YouTube
channel I hope you were blessed today if
you were share this with somebody like
And subscribe and leave me a comment let
me know where you’re watching from what
we can pray for you about hope to see
you back here again really soon
[Music]