Your mind can make you miserable if you let it. Learn how to fight negative thoughts and encourage yourself in this timely message from Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church.
If you let too much fear in right now, if
you let too much content in right now, you
are going to go crazy.
If you start imagining what your kids are
going to be like at their graduation of high
school and they’re in second grade, you’re
going to go crazy.
Keep it in a bubble.
Let me give you a Bible verse.
“Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
You have enough trouble in today’s bubble.
Trouble bubbles.
That’s part 3.
I’m going to do part 3.
Will you help me preach part 3?
But it gets crazier than that.
“When they came to the home of the synagogue
leader…”
Now we have his home where the issue is and
his position, and he comes into the home,
and watch what’s going on.
Jesus sees a commotion, people crying, wailing
loudly.
Everybody is tweeting and blogging and streaming
and talking and pontificating with a million
opinions.
Jesus went in and said to them, “Why all this
commotion and wailing?
This child is not dead but asleep.”
Verse 40: “But they laughed at him.”
Watch what he did.
You say you want to be like Jesus?
When did the miracle happen?
“After he
put them all out…”
I feel a delete party happening in your contacts
section while I preach the Word of God.
Now, don’t delete everybody.
He took the disciples with him.
You don’t put everybody out.
You don’t put every thought out, but sometimes
you have to believe in a bubble.
Sometimes you can’t ask everybody.
I mean, you have to ask your boss.
You have to ask your wife.
You have to ask the important people.
You have to have a few, but it’s too much
right now.
God sent me with a word to get you in a bubble.
He said, “Everybody, leave,” because sometimes
breakthrough only happens in the bubble.
Thank you, Lord.
He’s showing me things.
He’s giving me things right now as I speak
to you, and then while I’m getting those things,
there are other things being like, “Oh, that’s
dumb” or “Wow, that’s really stupid.”
But I’m in a bubble.
I have to keep it in the bubble.
I have to remember while I’m preaching that
I’m not preaching for somebody who’s going
to criticize what I say or think it’s weird
or think it’s crazy.
If you think I’m out of my mind, that’s the
goal.
My mind has made me miserable for most of
my life.
They laughed at Jesus, not because he was
weird but because he was focused.
Jesus had the original NBA bubble.
Not the National Basketball Association…No
Buts Allowed.
Come on, let’s have some fun together for
five minutes.
I don’t want to say it like this, but I’m
going to.
We could probably edit it for the archive.
Get your but out of the bubble.
Does the Bible say but in verse 40?
“But they laughed at him.”
“Get out.
Get out.
Get out.”
“You can do it, but it’s…”
“Get out.”
“Why bother?”
“Get out.”
“But…”
“Get out.
I’m doing this.”
Some breakthroughs can only happen in the
bubble where you have a few friends, where
you have a few objectives, where you have
a few priorities, not trying to be everything
all the time.
No, I’m going to do this and this and this,
and I know who I am.
I’m not trying to prove to anybody that I’m
something else, and I’m not trying to play
a different role.
Just because we have to wear physical masks
doesn’t mean we have to wear emotional ones.
I thought it was so weird when they said,
“It’s weird to see people in masks.”
I said, “Not for me as a pastor.
I’ve been looking at people in masks…”
Jesus knew that sometimes it takes a bubble
to maintain belief.
After we get done with this, you’ll put in
the chat or in the comments this week what
the bubble means for you.
It could mean I need to have five minutes
when I start my day to remind myself where
my help comes from.
I did it today, because once I come here there
are too many stimuli.
I’m going to be like, “The room is too hot.
The room is too cold.
Why is that person not here?
Why is this person there?
Can I get to the thing?
Did I do the thing?”
It would be too much.
I sat there and breathed in the bubble for
a minute, and it really helped me.
I don’t always do it, but when I do it helps
me.
Out loud I started saying…
I popped the thought bubble and actually prayed.
I said, “God, thank you today that you have
given me something that will help and heal
people.
I thank you for it, Lord.
I thank you today that as I preach, I stand
in your authority, not my own.
I thank you that you’ve given me what I need
for the role I’m in.”
Maybe you want to start your day that way.
Maybe you want to clarify your priorities
again.
“You know what?
I’ve been so busy over here…”
Then, of course, after he made the bubble,
he showed them what a breakthrough looks like.
I don’t even want to read it because I’ll
be tempted to preach it.
The Bible says when he went in where the child
was (verse 41), he did the impossible.
One daughter thought she was a woman with
an issue, but another daughter who they thought
was dead, when he took her hand…
Wow!
What would it feel like for something that
you thought was dead…?
Maybe not a person…joy, clarity.
He took her by the hand.
This was not how Jairus thought it would happen.
This was not what he believed for.
It was even better.
What if God wants to burst your bubble to
give you something better?
Thank you, Lord.
I receive it.
God, I don’t want to live my life trapped
in my bubble.
You know, Jesus took this girl by the hand.
Jairus said, “Will you put your hands on her,
and she’ll live?”
Remember that?
That’s how he scripted it.
That was his blueprint, but Jesus didn’t bless
him according to his blueprint.
He took her by the hand and said, “Talitha
koum!
Little girl, get up!”
And when she got up…
Jairus didn’t even ask for this.
Look at verse 42.
“Immediately the girl stood up and began to
walk around (she was twelve years old).
At this they were completely astonished.
He gave strict orders not to let anyone know
about this…”
Keep it in the bubble.
Some things are for you. “…and told them
to give her something to eat.”
He threw lunch in for free.
When I say that God has got something better…
God said, “I’m going to put fries in the bag
that you didn’t even ask for.
I’m going to feed you something your faith
didn’t even know to reach for.
I’ll call you back and make you a daughter.
I’ll fix you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I’m a provider.”
Speaking of extra, can I give you another
Scripture?
I promise you I have preached to you enough
where I can close the Bible in good conscience
and we can go on and watch something else
or you can stay with me while I traverse centuries
of history and introduce Jairus, the man whose
bubble saved his faith, the man who believed
even when his daughter was dead, the man who
kept moving forward even through the worst
pain of his life.
Like Levi Lusko.
Like Fly Ty, my barber.
The man who pressed through unimaginable pain
to experience restoration.
I want to show Jairus about a man he never
met because he lived hundreds of years before
him.
His name was Naaman, and Naaman had a bubble
too.
Naaman was a great man.
That’s what the Bible says.
He was good at fighting.
I want to introduce Naaman to Jairus, because
they’re very similar.
I think they would be good friends if they
met.
Jairus was a synagogue leader.
Well, they probably wouldn’t have been great
friends, because Jairus was Jewish and Naaman
was over Aram, modern-day Syria.
Israel and Syria didn’t like each other, so
they would have a lot to get past.
Sometimes the people God wants to bless you
through, sometimes the people God wants to
use in your life are going to be people from
totally different backgrounds; AKA, God wants
to burst your bubble.
I thought about having a prop up here, blowing
the bubble, you know, sound effects or whatever,
but I said, “No, this isn’t a cute message;
it’s a powerful message.”
Just because I’m saying that it’s a bubble…
It’s so much bigger than that.
I never knew Moncks Corner was going to marry
Miami.
Holly was from Miami, Florida, and I always
thought I would marry a Southern girl.
Let me tell you how not Southern she is.
She thinks boiled peanuts taste like dirt.
At least she did.
I showed her boiled peanuts.
Some of y’all in other places of the world
are like, “Is he speaking in tongues?
He said something about a peanut being boiled.”
See, I grew up in the Moncks Corner bubble
where boiled peanuts were a delicacy.
I didn’t crack no crab legs.
I’m cracking the boiled peanuts, and from
the gas station.
The homemade ones were a treat, but I’ll do
it at a gas station if we need to.
You never had a boiled peanut in your life
before you came to Charlotte.
That woman tasted boiled peanuts in my mom’s
kitchen.
I was so excited.
I was trying to impress her.
I had my dad fry some shrimp, and I had some
boiled peanuts my mom made.
It was a whole family effort.
We were just dating.
She tasted them, and I watched her to see
what she would think.
She said, “It tastes like dirt.”
I laid my hands on her until every Miami demon
came out of that woman.
This day…I stand to give God glory…she
cooks me boiled peanuts once every two weeks,
and she eats them too.
Let’s praise God for the miracle.
I have a testimony from death to life, from
Miami to Moncks Corner.
A man told me, “I couldn’t stand to watch
you preach because you were white, but God
used you.”
A man told me, “I couldn’t stand to watch
you preach because you were young, but God
used you.”
A teenager told me, “I used to not like to
listen to you because I thought you were boring,
but then God used you.”
God might not use who you thought he would
use.
Naaman was a great man.
Oh my god!
Many victories.
That was his position.
Look at it in verse 1.
“He was a great man in the sight of his master
and highly regarded…”
That means in the public places.
“But,” the
Bible says.
Do you see it in verse 1?
The Lord gave him victory.
God has given you victory.
God has given you some things.
“…but he had leprosy.”
Nobody would have known that under his armor.
The woman was bleeding on the inside.
Naaman has something that is eating away at
him, even as God is working through him.
Both can happen at the same time.
Naaman kind of demonstrates what I was telling
you about, that often God will send you an
answer through an unexpected person you didn’t
even ask the question to.
God will answer your prayers in places you
didn’t even think to ask.
When that thing happened at school last year,
I did not know you were going to be my workout
partner, but those are some of the best times
of every day for me.
I’m talking to my son Elijah.
Sometimes when I’m down there I don’t know
whether to be a dad or to be a trainer, because
I want to yell at him, and then I also want
to be a good dad and comfort him, like, “It’s
okay.
You don’t have to…
Get one more rep!”
I don’t know which one to be.
God used something we were both frustrated
about with school to get us down there in
that Pound.
You never thought you’d be throwing around
those big weights either.
At first, we wouldn’t work out together because
his weights were too small.
I didn’t feel like re-racking that much.
I’m a big guy, you know.
But now we lift together.
He’s getting strong.
I never thought my son would be my workout
partner in this season.
I know it’s a silly analogy, but sometimes
God will use something to bond you with your
child.
It’s just amazing.
We talk about everything.
I’m going to write a book about the things
we talk about in that workout room.
I already wrote the introductory chapter.
I’m going to wait until he’s 50 years old
to publish it in case he doesn’t listen to
any of it.
Maybe I’ll just give it to him.
Maybe I won’t ever write the book.
I don’t know.
See, I’m getting to this point in my life
where I’m going to stop trusting so much in
what I thought.
Bust the bubble.
Stop thinking there’s only one style of ministry
God can bless you through.
Stop thinking that ravens can’t bring you
food.
Stop thinking that sticks can’t part Red Seas.
Stop thinking that only the first one in gets
healed.