As Preached by Pastor Steven Furtick
0:00
You know how many things that the devil has kept you from doing in your life that God called you to do? Because of what might happen if you did. And a lot of us, the enemy doesn’t even have to fight us with real events or circumstances. Just even the suggestion of a disaster is enough to send some of us into retreat. And so, just even the thought that what if they don’t like you is enough to keep you in the house, or just even a thought if what if they break my heart is enough to keep you from extending yourself in relationship. Or just even a thought, you know, many of you are reluctant to get involved in this church because you had a previous bad church experience. And I understand that, because once you have been through a storm, I lived through Hurricane Hugo. I was eight years old when Hurricane Hugo hit Charleston, South Carolina; It terrified me. I didn’t want to spend the night away from home. For two years after that, as a little boy, because one thing after you have survived a storm, after you have survived bad weather, after you have survived abuse, what people don’t tell you about is that even after the storm is over, it’s still rages on on the inside of you.
1:18
And the saddest thing in the world is to see a Christian who has been set free by the love of Christ, to know that neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, neither death, nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither the president, nor the future, nor any other powers shall be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, my Lord. What I’m trying to say, some of us need to fire the devil as our weatherman. We have been consulting the wrong source to find out what our future looks like. And so now we stay indoors and we stay in fear and we stay in paranoia. And we never plant and we never reap.
2:05
Solomon said because we watch the wind; What a weird image. You really can’t see the wind, You can only see the effects of it. And he says when you watch the wind, you know, like, is this a good time? I’ll give you one. This one looks like the watch the wind, cussing about that phrase, watch the wind. And I was like, This is not a literal message. I’m not using it to talk about physical storms. I’m using it to talk about when the sower goes to sow he wants the wind to work with him. And when the wind is blowing the opposite direction all your seed smacks you in your face, but you ever feel like everything you so just, like stuff just backfires on you? You trying to be nice to somebody, That’s the last one of those i’m doing i gotta preach this twice tomorrow only my brain cells.
2:56
But you ever just been smacked by your own seat because that’s what he’s saying. When the wind is blowing against you, some of you have had the wind against you your whole life. You didn’t have the right shoes, Your parents didn’t make a lot of money, You had to learn to fit in, you had to learn how to be tough, You had to learn how to be hard, and you learned how to survive a storm. But the problem with that, the only problem with that is sometimes the wind isn’t even against you, but you still feel like it is because your mind is collecting evidence in support of a verdict, That is no longer accurate. So you watch the win, try to find out what’s popular. It’s not popular. I’m precious to our students. They’ve got rhythm night coming up next next Sunday night. And I want you to talk about this in some form, Tim, is that watching the wind is like trying to determine what’s going to gain you clout. And then you let cloud overrule character. And watching the wind is trying to be like, Oh, do they like me? Do they like me? Is this what I need to be, to be like, that that’s watching the wind. Can I give you another one that’s watching the wind is needing to be in a good mood to keep your commitments. That’s watching the wind. Because some of my weather systems are internal. And I found out a long time ago, that usually the mood that you’re in when you make a commitment will not match the mood that you’re in when it’s time to keep the commitment.
4:44
And so to watch the wind is for those of us who sometimes need to feel it, in order to fulfill it. And Solomon says, the wisest man, the richest man, the man who said that to do things for vanity sake is like chasing after the wind. He uses this metaphor a lot in his book, Ecclesiastes, he’s the collected teachings which are like Proverbs, but it’s written in such a way as to convince the knowledge of the universe and the futility of vanity. He uses this image of the wind, why? Because it is an invisible force. And he says, if you are always checking with and consulting, how you feel, you will always find a reason to contradict your responsibility. So there will always be a reason, watch this, that you don’t feel like forgiving people. But if you want to be free, you might have to go against your feelings, in order to live in freedom. I’m saying you might have to walk against the wind, you might have to forgive against the wind, especially in marriage.
6:07
I love Holly so much because she decided a long time ago that I was the man for her. She reached the verdict on furtick before she ever took my name as her own. And because she reached the verdict that she loves me, and I’m a good man. In our marriage, she works to collect evidence to support that I’m the man for her. She could just as easily do the opposite. She could, she could find 15 reasons. Well, he’s only five foot nine, He’s bigger on screen. You know, she could find 15 reasons, I’m usually moody three and a half days out of seven. She could find 15 reasons not to feel that way about me. But sometimes, commitment means facing Resistance, with resolve in your heart.
7:05
You can find a reason to leave this church in the next three days if you want one. Matter of fact, the law of averages says that there’s somebody on your row right now, who if you get to know them, they will give you a reason to leave this church in the next three days, because they will disappoint you with their lack of Christian character. But if you move one person over on the same row, I bet you there’s somebody on that row that loves Jesus, there’s somebody on that row who is honest, there is somebody on that row that is sincere. But you’ll never saw, we’ll see, I’m gonna get my woman do, I’m gonna get my, I’m gonna do the tithing thing. I’m gonna do it after I did my thing. Cuz the thing after the thing is gonna do the thing and then this happened that was the thing and but the economy but the presidential election, you see how we do it? consulting the forecast instead of consulting our faith.
8:12
He will regards the wind or observes the wind will never sow. And he looks at the clouds will never reap because it always looks like it could rain anytime. And you can’t get the harvest in when it’s wet. And Solomon didn’t have a weather channel app. And Solomon didn’t have a weather channel. He’s dealing with people who would consult the conditions before keeping their commitments. Watching the wind. How many people have not started what God told them to start, because they’ve been watching the wind? been waiting for more spare time. Imma write a book one day, You even keep a journal right now. I’m writing a book one day, when you’re gonna write it. I’m gonna build a cottage in Maine, it’s the thing I’m gonna do one day, you got some family land? Nope. It’s an imaginary scenario that keeps you from an actual opportunity. Do you see it?
9:22
Watching the wind is wishing that you had a different wife, instead of loving the one that you’ve got, like Christ loves the church. This is being good. This message is going to be better than your beard by the time I finished with it, my brother and that’s saying a lot. But you know, Peter knew something about watching the wind, didn’t he? Peter, the apostle, who was always wanting to do something impulsive. Sometimes I’ve worked for him, sometimes It worked against him. But one thing that you gotta love about him he did not wait for perfect circumstances to say, he didn’t wait until he had knowledge to give his opinion. You ever live with somebody like that, it’s terrible. And I noticed something about God and I want to give this to you, because they have these things in church. They say, Well, God is an on time, God. Yes He is; He’s an on time God. He’s seldom early, but He’s never late. Asked Lazarus, if he was ever late. Lazarus, he’s about four days late, decomposing body, worms working their way into the eye socket. By the time Jesus got there, and Mary and Martha had set their watch by, ask Peter, if Jesus was ever late, asked him. Asked him if if one time they did not get sent out into a storm, by the instruction that Jesus gave to go to the other side.
10:59
Now This has been really exciting to me as I’ve studied it this week, because the real thing of faith is Do you trust God’s timing? You know that right? And that was the test for Mary and Martha. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life and she said, Well, you know, I am the resurrection. And she said, Well, I know my brother is going to rise again at the last day. He said, No, I am the resurrection. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust what he was able to do. It was are you able to trust when God is going to do it? You can trust somebody’s intention, but not trust their timing. And since I already talked good about Holly in the sermon, let me just say, I trust her with my life. I trust her to be faithful to our marriage vowes. I trust her if she cooks for me or orders for me off the menu for me, I trust she knows what I want to eat more than I want to eat. She knows me like that. I trust this woman with everything, but time. When she says it’s going to be 30 minutes, I allot three hours, because she taught me that her concept of time is different than mine. One is correct, One is delusional. And I trust her, I really do, I trust her. I put her in a room full of supermodels, men, calendar man and trust her in there. But if she said, we’re going to leave in an hour, I would set three alarms, because I trust her with everything but time.
12:47
Some of us trust that God is going to get us to heaven one day, Some of us trust that He died on the cross for our sin. We trust him with everything, but let him not do something at the moment that we want Him to do it, let Him leave us in the fiery furnace for seconds too long. And we’ll be screaming God get me out of this, but God said the real test for a mature Christian is Do you trust Me with My timing. Trusting him in the meantime, is where maturity is developed. And Jesus was always doing stuff at a bad time. He was always going to Jerusalem, at the time when they all wanted to kill him. That’s a bad time to show up when they’re looking for you, to execute you; It’s a bad time. 5000 men, women and children show up on the other side. Now this is right after John the baptist. I just want you to know how often God does things in our life at a bad time.
14:00
Cuz some of y’all are like right now in your life like, well, this is a bad time for me God. And I used to have this friend every time he called me on the phone, he was so respectful. He said good time or bad time?, always wanted to know that before he said anything else. And I believe the Holy Spirit is saying to somebody today, good time or bad time,? and you’re like this a bad time. I’m too old to be doing this now, I’m too young to be doing this now, I’m too busy to be doing this now. I used to have a better job, I used to have more money, It’s a bad time. But God likes to bless people at a bad time. He likes to raise people on the fourth day. And when Jesus had heard that John the baptist had his head cut off by Herod, it was a bad time. And He wanted to get away from the crowds, so He went over to the other side with the disciples, and when they got there, there was a crowd waiting to get autographs and healing and fish and chips and all this stuff. As a matter of fact, when he did the miracle and He feeds the 5000 the First thing the disciples said was what? It’s late. It’s a bad time. It’s a bad time. And, and Jesus when he took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. He did the miracle at a bad time.
15:18
Now I’m now I’m divorced, now I’m a single mom, now It’s a bad time for me to be believing God. It’s a bad time, I really wasted a lot of years. It’s a bad time for me to be doing this. I think I made the wrong decision, I don’t even think I’m supposed to live in Roanoke. I don’t even think I’m supposed to live in Charlotte. I mean, it’s a bad time, It’s a bad place. That’s what the disciples said. They said, it’s a remote place and it’s already late, so send the crowds away. And Jesus said, No, I want to bless them when it’s too little, and when it’s too late, because I want to bless you when you think it’s a bad time. So I can teach you how to consult your faith, Instead of consulting your forecast; You got the wrong weatherman.
16:09
You keep watching the weather and so now you live in fear of everything that could happen and everything that has happened and as long as you watch the weather as long as you keep that wrong weatherman, this is what God showed me. The weather is meant to be checked, not watched. When you, when you sit, when you sit around and watch it all day is scares you Oh, everything. It’s good to plan, It’s good to make provision, but don’t watch the weather. If you watch the weather, you get in your feelings and you’ll get out of your faith. And now the wind, watch this, will work against you to contradict the word that God spoke to you.
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