Elevation with Steven Furtick

I'm referring to a gentleman in the Old Testament named Job.

Job's story is put in the pages of Scripture because God wants us to gain wisdom from Job on how to handle Job-like seasons.

In Job 1 verse 1 it says, 'In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. He was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil.'

So, the writer of this narrative is trying to get us to see that if anybody should have been able to avoid seasons of ambiguity and uncertainty, it should be this man.

Then Job replied to the Lord, 'I know you can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted, meaning that what you have for me will be performed in me and through me, regardless of what happens to me.'

But when God was revealing himself in the book of Job, the Devil was going all through the earth trying to look for somebody he could tamper with.

God asked a question to Satan. He said, 'Have you considered my servant Job? Have you thought about picking on him? He's my guy.'

Job had a reputation with heaven, and heaven knew about Job he could be trusted with trouble.

However, if we read the Bible in a way that treats us like an ancient text with no application to our current day lives, then we might as well read Harry Potter.

I've always had this little Harry Potter thing right there on my wrist.

Let me tell you how mysterious potential is. We don't hear Elisha's name again until 2 Kings, chapter 2, which many tell us was 13 years after his potential was first suggested.

deep track from the book of second Kings

How am I going to get back to 2 Kings 13

For said Peter, it is written in the book of Psalms, may his place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell in it and everybody say and may another take his place of leadership.

It's a mess right now but it is not because God forgot where to put things. It is not because God has left you. It's messy right now. Something's missing right now. It doesn't make sense right now but it is a necessary mess. For the Holy Spirit to come, Judas had to go. I will prove it to you. Peter says that it was written in Psalms when David wrote about Judas and he mentions how Judas see the language served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus.

And he said it was written in Psalm 69 25 that Judas was going to leave. That's what God was talking about all those years ago. And it's happening in our situation. And see, if you stop there, may his place be deserted. Let there be no one to dwell in it. It's hopeless. We don't have what we need. We can't move forward. Jesus is gone.

And in Psalm 109 verse 8 it says may another take his place of leadership. I prophesy another over your life today. Another chapter, another victory, another testimony, another one, another one, another one, another one.

It is written in the book of Saul. May his place be deserted. Let there be no one to dwell in it. That is a direct quote from Psalm 69 verse 25. And, everybody say, and may another take his place of leadership.

We are rocking to his mixed tape, the book of Psalms, three millennia after he penned these words. They still resonate in our souls.

I don't know what the Lord wants me to do first Peter 2 1 just told you when you get those five then come back and then ask me about the book of Daniel in the book of Revelations.

And yeah, there's a white horse that I read about in the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelations.

Book of Revelations, Walmart's, Revelations.

I remember before our church got started reading Sun Standstill, I remember seeing the videos of the baptisms that were happening.

I wrote a book called Sunstand Still early in the church. Y'all didn't even read that one? Go get that book.

This is why Tozer said that what you think about when you think about God, it's the most important thing about you. Because your theology will dictate your purpose more than anything else.

A.W. Tozer says this. He says, what comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.

Eugene Peterson said, 'Your time for tears is over'.

When Eugene Peterson had this idea... He was trying to preach the Bible. He's in heaven now, but he was trying to preach the Bible to his church. He realized they weren't really getting it, so he sat down to write a translation of the Bible in a way they could understand.

Do you know that little version on your Bible on your phone? I hope you have the Bible on your phone. I hope you have the Bible up above Facebook on your phone, because you need that one to start your day. You really do.

If you click on it, there will be one version that says MSG, and it has nothing to do with a Chinese restaurant. It's The Message translation, and it was written by a man who just had an idea.

What if I write the Bible in the language that's common to the people? He ended up translating the whole Bible that way, The Message translation, all because maybe God will use this.

You were praising him because you memorized Colossians in your men's Bible study.

So thank you for your faithful giving in this time for not holding back for stretching the tent curtains wide so we can keep taking the gospel to people in this crazy time And make sure that you sow the seed of the Word too You know it really helps when you share the message when you share the link on social or even just text it to a friend or talk about it That's one way we share the gospel

I actually brought two Bibles to church today.

Put that one up there again from the New International Version. He says, Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you... I like casting all these cares, like Salty said in the King James Version.

I don't believe that we have this dusty book full of principles that applied at one time, but don't make sense in a modern age. I got my Bible and it's living and it's active and it can penetrate through all the noise.

He gave me books for that and he inspired people.

I must have a really bad version of the Bible.

This is a little older Bible that I preached from. It's a great Bible. It has Billy Graham's signature in it.

He signed this Bible. They told me he signed it. I wasn't there. I never met him. But it could have been Larry Bry with some good penmanship. Who knows?

This might be the King James Version or something like that.

I'm going to show you this from Mark, chapter 5, the same story we were in last weekend.

Let's go to Mark, chapter 5, where the woman formerly known as the woman with the issue of blood, now known as a daughter of God...

I want to pick up right there in Mark, chapter 5, verse 35.

You wrote a whole book called High Performance Habits about people who are not just succeeding over here and then making a mess of their relationships or destroying their health.

I've been reading a book an old book written by an old author a doctor who said the body keeps score you read it? the body keeps score so everything I didn't say and everything I held in

and everything I suppressed and everything I wouldn't get out the body kept score the body kept score and so I survived heroes I survived heroes I survived

And he had just released a book called greater.

And this book impacted me so much.

He wrote three words when he signed this book to Jonathan and Anna, three simple words that would profoundly shape my life.

He wrote greater things ahead.

And those three words have meant the world to us.

That's why when Barbara Kingsolver was on Holly's book club and she was talking about the opioid crisis in Appalachia I was so enlightened for her to talk about how we judge people as being bad by their behaviors But we don't understand the brokenness that came from their background to create the behaviors to begin with

She said stand up be a spider. I'll have a legs. I'll spin webs

This book I brought up here with me today was written in 2004, and it was a New York Times bestseller.

In 2007, a 27-year-old young man walked by this book just before he went on vacation in Mexico.

He needed something to read because he really needed to disengage his mind.

The book, of course, is the biography of Alexander Hamilton written by Ron Chernow, and the person who picked it up is none other than the great prophet Lin-Manuel Miranda.

When you're in a good place, like with your finances, you did the Dave Ramsey.

go in your Bible to numbers chapter 13 and I want to look at a passage of Scripture That has been really helpful to me so many times through the years when I am caught between two thoughts and when one thought says You should and you can And one thought says you can't so don't try

And that happens to us all the time So what we see in Numbers chapter 13 verse 30, and I'm so excited to show you this I'm having to contain my excitement Is that There will always be a thought that God will bring you to deliver you There will always be a thought that the enemy will bring to destroy you

They said the land we explored devours those living in it All the people we saw there are of great size We saw the network There the descendants of a neck come from the Nephilim We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them

They wandered around and around and around in the wilderness for 40 years 40 years Not because of their enemy But because of their thought

And so now i'm fighting on the level of my feelings, but watch this Before it became a feeling Even paul it wasn't just like moses was a bad leader Even paul had to fight against opposing voices And thought systems that undermined the essence of the grace of god in the gospel