My tolerance for tension determines my potential for growth. But if we invite God into it, He’ll help us navigate through it. This is an excerpt from “Make Room For The New.” To watch the full message from @elevationchurch. click here: 
• Make Room For The New | Pastor Steven… #faith #peace #hope #hard #stevenfurtick #elevationchurch Chapters: 0:00 – Holding Onto The Old 2:12 – Who Is Your Faith In 4:12 – Living In The Tension 6:20 – Your Potential For Growth 8:30 – God, Increase The Quality Of My Problems 10:46 – Under A New Contract 12:32 – Threatened By Your Blessings Scripture References: Leviticus 26, verse 9 Acts 11, verse 1
this is a word for you make room for the new you
know I’m getting into old stuff now I’ve got about
80 records upstairs in my office at my house in
a turntable vinyl something about getting up and
having to only listen to three songs at a time is
preferable to having every song in the history of
the Universe on my phone at my fingertips for
some reason I would rather listen through a
scratchy analog representation of the music than
a digital Recreation of the music that fits in
my pocket I think there’s something comforting
about something that you you used to touch and
and hold old you know I used to like something
and be attracted to it if it was new but now
I like old stuff I just it’s just I like I like
old I like old I like old songs I like Smashing
Pumpkins I don’t need any of this new stuff I
don’t need any of the I like the old stuff the
hymns that I used to yawn through in church are
the ones that I now write songs around as as a
grown man and so a lot of things come full circle
in your life that you don’t appreciate at the time
uh but the the the challenge is now to hold on
to the old to the exclusion of receiving the new
when I shared with you last week we were given a
picture of Peter who was having to fight against
the traditions and the customs of the well-meaning
circumcised Believers and one thing that it
is difficult for us to appreciate about this
community is that they were they were receiving
from God an entirely new system by which to relate
to him imagine that at one point you had to atone
for your sins with the blood of bulls and goats
and now instead of shedding the blood of an animal
you were trusting in the blood of Christ that’s
a very difficult thing to apprehend when you had
something tactile something you could touch and
now you have to believe something by faith the
Paradigm of justification we call it justification
by faith but it’s actually justification by grace
through faith see it’s not how much Faith you
have that saves you it’s how much grace God has
that saves you CU if it was about how much
faith I had I would be going to heaven one
five minute period And I would be bound for the
same hell as a serial killer in the next five I
don’t always have that much Faith sometimes High
sometimes low and depending on whether you catch
me at 9:00 a.m. and I’ve had my coffee or whether
you catch me after one of my kids said something
disrespectful I might have a lot of faith or a
little bit of Faith the point is not how much
faith that I have it’s who I have my faith in
y’all ain’t going to help me preach a bit today
this Bible says that it is by Grace you have been
saved through faith and this not of yourselves it
is the gift of God not of works so that no one
can boast and think about this God’s people had
always related to God through a covenant that
was based on works that was based on keeping
the law and now all of a sudden in the passage
I shared last week not only are they learning
to relate to God by faith which is the hardest
thing in the world to just take it by faith we
talk a good game when it comes to Faith we say
we’re trusting in the Lord with all of our heart
and leaning not to our own understanding but it’s
still creates a tension which is how much should
I trust God and how much should I try myself this
tension is written into the very script the nent
days of the church were filled with this this
kind of tension so the community God’s people
they are now learning to relate to God in a brand
new way touch somebody say make room for the new
make for the new and just about the time they’re
getting used to this Paradigm of Grace here come
the Gentiles who were the ones they were supposed
to stay away from and the point guard of the New
Testament Allstar team Peter is going in eating
with these people who are contagious I use that
word for reason because when I told you that they
wouldn’t associate with Gentiles you’re like well
that’s wrong you know it’s easy to recognize a
truth when you’re not living in the tension of
it it’s easy for us to look back on certain
issues of racial segregation now and say why in
the world but when you’re living in the tension
of it when you’re living in the tension you can
lose sight of the truth and in the tension
of the New Testament Church there’s not only
Grace versus works but there’s this exclusive
idea that God is blessing a select group of
people and then now get this tension with me
they have to try to figure out how to protect
what they’ve been entrusted with at the same
time that they don’t hold it too tightly every
parent can relate to this how do I protect my kids
while not putting my kids in some sort of bubble
where they won’t be prepared for the real world
how do I I’m thinking this about Abby right now
she’s probably going to be pretty she’s already
pretty pretty nine-year-old probably going to be
a pretty 13-year-old then there’s probably going
to be some 13-year-old boy that wants to come up
and talk to her about something and how am I
supposed to let her out of her room and trust
a 13-year-old boy when I’ve been one how will I
do that I don’t know but what I do know is this
you ready this is the first thing I’ve said that
you probably will want to write down today but
hopefully not the last okay your tolerance for
tension determines your potential for growth
your tolerance for tension determines
great what’ I say your potential for
growth and we don’t like tension when
it comes to Christianity God said it I
believe it that settles it let me tell you
right now brother it doesn’t matter if you
believe it or not God said it that settles
it you can just take the middle of it right
there out God said it that settles it but
wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute
wait a minute to sit with the tension
of what God actually said as opposed
to the tradition of what we heard God said
through the filter of personal preference and
Prejudice it’s the gift of tension if you hire
a trainer at uh at uh what’s the name of a gym
Planet Fitness if you hire a trainer I don’t even
know if you can do that at Planet Fitness but if
you hire a trainer at the gym they are going to at
some point teach you about the gift of tension for
the building of muscle if you hire a trainer and
they do not employ tension in the training regimen
you should fire the trainer because time under
tension is the formula for growth and yet when
it comes to our movies we love tension when it
comes to our television uh entertainment Netflix
binging content we love tension I don’t want
to watch a show about somebody who had a good
day I want to watch a show about somebody who
ended up on drugs and had to fight a whole gang
single-handedly and almost died in the process and
got a divorce and went bankrupt but what makes for
a good TV show is the kind of stuff we try to
pray away from our lives so I started the year
praying something really weird I said God increase
the quality of my [Applause] problems Lord I want
higher quality problems in 2020 the reason I
prayed that is because I tried asking him in
previous years take my problems away that was an
ineffective prayer he did not seem too interested
in answering that prayer to take my problems away
in fact it seems as if some of the things that
came into my life in one season as a problem
some of the things that came into my life as
opposition were the things that God used to create
opportunities for me to know him and make him
known so what’s crazy what’s crazy everybody
say it’s crazy it’s crazy what’s crazy about
Leviticus 2610 is it can be interpreted as either
a blessing or an [Music] inconvenience because the
scripture said that if you live in alignment with
God in in agreement with his Covenant this is the
old Covenant which was by works remember they
had to conditionally receive the favor of God
through certain behaviors in community and so
as Moses is giving them all of this law they’ve
been out of Egypt only for a very short time
they’ve constructed a tabernacle which is the
space where they can meet with God and he says
in in verse 9 let’s just get a running start at
it I will look on favor with you and make you
fruitful and increase your numbers and I will
keep my Covenant with you old Covenant the the
Covenant that was established through obedience
and works it was still Grace but it was Grace
measured out through Behavior can I teach the
Bible on this particular worship service so
then when he gets to verse 10 he says if you
will keep your end of the Covenant then you will
still be eating last year’s Harvest when you have
to move it out to make room for the new I’m so
glad that I am not under that contract anymore
I really am I don’t want God to give me what
I deserve I don’t want God to be fair to me
I don’t want God to relate to me on the basis
of how much I prayed last week I really don’t
I don’t want him to I don’t want him to treat
me according to what my lifestyle would Merit
and so we understand now I think most of us
in this church understand that this is the
old Covenant but it’s the same Community they have
progressed from a point where they were wandering
in the wilderness until we get to acts chap 11
and now they are becoming a church now in that
setup I want to go back into Acts chapter 10
and I want to read the story to you again or
as we said last week the whole story you never
really know the whole story it’s why you got to
keep living that’s why you got to keep praying
that’s why you got to keep believing that’s why
you got to keep trusting that’s why you got
to keep swinging cuz you don’t know the whole
story that’s why you can’t kill your kids it might
grow up and pay for your retirement or something
like that because you don’t know the whole story
that’s why you can’t judge anything too soon and
you’re going to see this in the in the scripture
right here is that in the midst of great tension
a great truth was shown make room for the new
verse one says the apostles and the Believers
throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had
also received the word of God the gospel is
is spreading it’s spreading uh I guess you could
say grace is going viral it’s just out of control
can’t stop it it’s just all over the place and
they didn’t like that because they are in the
tension of trying to protect the old and when you
are protecting the old what’s new looks like a
threat when I asked my dad one time are you
threatening me he said something I’m sure
you’ve heard this before he said it’s
not a threat it’s a promise I was like
oh he was 6’2 I was like got it I’m good
no further questions it’s not it’s not a
threat it’s a promise he said that it’s
not a threat it’s a blessing they were
threatened by the blessing because they did
not recognize it and it did not remind them
of what they were used to in their religious
routine are you threatened by your very own
blessings come on Raleigh they get get
used to it I know y’all love the word of
God in [Applause] Raleigh and so they are they are
being blessed the church is growing that’s exactly
what they want and sometimes God can be giving
you exactly what you want but the tension that it
takes to produce the growth is super uncomfortable
we don’t like tension in our Christianity Rapture
me Jesus and get me out of here in the meantime
you need to pay your taxes and change your oil and
do all the stuff just in case he doesn’t get you
out of it you need to learn how to bring God into
it hey thanks for stopping by my YouTube channel
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see you back here again really soon [Music]