July 19, 2024 • 21 mins
I’ve got what I need for now. In Mindset MasterClass Session 6, New York Times bestselling author Pastor Steven Furtick sits down with Brendon Burchard to teach us how to embrace now so we can prepare to steward the blessing of what comes next.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
I want to get this in your heart as we
close this mindset masterclass, not as we close this process,
(00:22):
because it is a daily decision that you have to make,
which me will I be? Which you will you do?
You're not done choosing. It's not a one time event.
I want to give you this last little nugget for
the seasons where you're struggling. It may not even just
be one rep. It may not even be just one day,
It may not even be just one month. You may
(00:44):
go through long stretches of time. Yeah, with a little reprieve.
But you might say this is mostly a struggle. The
stage of life my kids are at right now, this
business challenge relative to my industry, this rhythm of my
life that feels completely unsustainable. And while I don't always
(01:04):
think that we should seek out more struggle, I think
we have to know that when we struggle, God gives
strength if you can know that in those moments and
say to God the greatest three word prayer that I
never heard, help me fail. I don't ask God to
help me fail. I want him to help me win,
(01:26):
help me succeed, help me crush, help me kill, help
me destroy. You know, like, well, you don't want to win.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You're saying help me stretch, help me grow for those
who are like an aversion to fail. But I think
it is important that well, I chose the language help
me fail, because it's inevitable that you are going to
feel like you're failing, but maybe you're not. That's what
I think is so interesting about you being a success
coach is that some people go, well.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
A success coach? Is that really scriptural to success? Well,
first of all, God told Joshua, I'll give you good success,
the kind of success that God gives, a good success
where you make a difference for him and you don't
rip your life apart. I mean, you wrote a whole
book called High Performance Habits about people who are not
just succeeding over here and then making a mess of
(02:14):
their relationships, are destroying their health. God wants to bring
all these things to integration in our life. But I
think just as important as what's our definition of success
is the question what's your definition of failure? Who said
it fail? Right? We talked in an earlier masterclass about
disappointment and disappointment is relative to time, and when you
(02:36):
remove the element of time, you don't have to be
disappointed because it's going to happen and it's in God's hands.
So what do you walk people through when they are
experiencing what they perceive to be failure? But you know,
as a coach, ah, this is a growth moment, this
is a growth season. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I think the first part is always as I said earlier,
just remove the surprise from people. It's like they're so
shocked that they had a bad performance. I was like,
you've been on tour for three years. You didn't think
one of them you were going to suck or you
just remove like the struggle and the failure is going
to be there and it is a personal definition. You
thought you failed, but fifteen thousand people chanted. You thought
(03:18):
you failed, but you weren't arrested the next day you
thought you I mean, we have these cataclysmic things about
failure and we always realize failure is a personal definition.
So first someone to go why were you surprised? Second,
what is your definition? Tell me what does that mean
that you failed? And what's interesting when people use the
terminology of failure, they drop into the fixed mindset right
(03:41):
away because they believed that the failure stopped something I
failed and it's just like this defined event and their
progress stopped and their growth will stop. And so their
definition of failure off and off comes with it like
a stop sign, and I have to say, oh, there's
no stop sign. That was an incident in life. Tomorrow
(04:03):
there's gonna be forty other incidents. That was one struggle.
You're gonna have another thousand. So there was no stop sign.
It was something that occurred, but it occurred in the
stream of life. And now you're downstream of that difficulty
and now you're going to face another boulder that's similar. Okay,
how are you going to navigate this one? Because that's
what that gave you. That difficulty gave you navigation instructions.
(04:28):
It wasn't a failure, it was a navigation instruction manual.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
It was like love that. Hey, Okay, you hit this thing.
It didn't go right.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That boulder is going to appear in the stream again,
probably a lot of times until you learn.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So, now you know the boulder is coming up, Well,
let me skal up. Let me learn how to navigate that.
Let me learn how to use my ore and snap
my hip and the kayak to pop around that boulder. Yeah,
let me skill up. So next time I face it,
I'm a little stronger. Yeah, I'm a little smarter. I'm
a little more wide. And so that's a developmental standpoint.
It doesn't say I stopped there, it's forever fixed. I'm
(05:06):
always gonna be ruined here. It says that's probably gonna
come up again. Let me teach myself. How would the
best self deal with it? How would I skill up
to deal with it better. It's taking a struggle that's inevitable,
and it's equipping ourselves for the future. And maybe what
came out of that struggle is I'm going to equip
myself to be kinder next time. I'm going to equip
(05:28):
myself to be more patient. I'm going to equip myself
to develop a skill that I can do this or
that so that doesn't feel so harsh or surprising or
awful next time. Because that's maturity is we get better
at things like you do as a speaker, right my metaphor,
but for that would be I trained myself to speak
to a small group, and then a slightly bigger group,
(05:51):
and a slightly bigger group, and a slightly The problem
was I was, you know, probably level of a thousand people.
I still felt like I wanted to throw up before
going out there, and I had to say, I need
to train myself to be in a good place to
handle life's challenges. M M. And that's what I want
people to hear, is like, the struggles are inevitable. Train
yourself to be in a good place, learning from your
(06:12):
past lessons and preparing yourself now for the struggle that
you're in because the season that you're in, which is
why I love the chapter title here. Yeah, it's like
the season that you're in, you're equipped, you're in bolden,
You got backing, and you have to step in faith
and stay in motion and not hit the stop sign.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Step in faith because the struggle is not a stop sign.
It's a strength builder. It's a struggle build strength. So
write these two down struggle build strength, not all struggle.
Some struggle you're struggling because you're stubborn, like, you're not
supposed to still be struggling with this. You're supposed to apologize,
quit trying to prove your right. But when the struggle
(06:52):
is something that God is taking you through and leading
you through is going to build strength.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Don't put a stop sign on the struggle.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Put a stop sign on the struggle, especially when it's
bad and you didn't want it. I mean people, I
know you. You minister to.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
People who who've their struggle or their challenge, and this
season they lost a child, and when you tell them, well,
just be strong through it, it sounds so flippant. But
sometimes when you say there will be strength, you'll be
provided for.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
But also don't stop there.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You know, don't forget you do have maybe another child,
or don't forget that your life doesn't have to stop because.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
They were called.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And so I think it's a matter of when our
struggles hurt us and there's no growth from them, is
when we put that stop sign and we think that
ended our life, that ended our progress, that ended our reputation.
And so when I say don't put a stop sign
on a struggle, it's not trying to say that anyone
ever wanted those terrible things that happened to us that
are our struggles and problems. It's saying when you have
(07:56):
that terrible thing and that awful thing and you can't
find the strength. When they hear guys like I say
well there's strength there, and they're like, I can't find
there's no strength that came from this awful I lost
my dad.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
There's no strength from that. Brendan, I go, yeah, it
doesn't feel like.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It, and you might be right, but don't stop living
because your dad didn't want you to stop living.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
He doesn't want you to stop living.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
And so the most important thing when you say that
there's a season for everything and that God is with you,
there is don't put stop signs on the struggle.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well, I don't preach to the people in my church
in those moments they preach to me. You know, it
becomes a role reversal because I love that. I have
seen amazing faith from people in our church who have
gone through the most agonizing situations over and over again,
and in those moments they become the messenger to me.
(08:47):
And it's almost like they take the pulpit in their
life and I learn I become the parishioner. And for
some reason, I feel compelled to share this, And I
never thought that this master class session would go to
this place, but I feel like it's supposed to. Of
one of my favorite church members. His name is literally
(09:10):
Tom Layman. You know we have like ministers in Layman.
He's literally Layman. So I always tell me he's my
favorite Layman. And one night they were at church and
his oldest son died in a car wreck while he
sat in church, and his phone was off and he
didn't find out till he left church. And after his
son had gone to heaven, and after we had done
(09:31):
the funeral and everything, I watched him and I wondered,
what will he still want to pray? Will he still
want to come to church? Would I? If I was
in church and my son wasn't drunk. My son wasn't
doing anything wrong. My son was a good kid. But
what he did was was he preached a whole life
(09:55):
message back to me through his decisions. Because before his
son died, his I had wanted to start a fishing
club and they love to fish together, and he never
got to do it. And when Riley died, Tom decided
(10:15):
we're going to start the fishing club. But it's not
just going to be fishing for fish. It's going to
be fishing for men. Like Jesus said, I will make
you fishers of men.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
It's beautiful and man, they started this club called Riley's Catch,
and not only you've seen hundred kids come to Christ
through the club because they actually not just give them
these amazing experiences, but they share the gospel with them.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
But I've told his story to our church with his permission.
And it's better than me being up there saying there's
strength in the struggle, right Like, this isn't pinterest from
the pulpit that we're trying to give people today. I've
seen it. I've seen that the strength that Tom and
(10:59):
Lisa Layman, and we could name a lot more, the
strength that they needed for the season that they never
would have chosen, was there. I don't know how. I
don't know how the spot or helped them when they
felt like I probably can't take another breath, and then
they did. I don't know if I can put on
(11:20):
my face and smile at people today at church when
my son is no longer here and we were in
church trying to be a good family. But when you
see that from my point of view as a pastor,
it's what lets me know that what we preach and
teach is more than platitudes and cliches. Right, these are
(11:40):
the words of God for you, because when you get
into that season, if you're in that season right now,
whether it's the loss of someone or whether it's you
know something within yourself that you lost. You lost your compass,
you lost your joy, you lost your direction, you lost
your enthusiasm. We're not here to qualify whose loss is deeper.
(12:04):
When you're in it, it feels deep. I want you
to remember the Bible story. And it's crazy how this
session is coming together. I feel like it must be
really annointed for somebody to hear because we planned on
talking about Peter, who was a fisherman in the Bible,
and Peter Man, the dude had a lot of strengths,
(12:25):
but he was stupid. I mean he was he run
up on somebody and cut off their ear trying to
defend Jesus, and Jesus is like I am trying to
go to the cross. They came here to do what
they're supposed to do. Let them pass. Jesus puts the
ear back on. He ain't put up with so much
out of Peter. But you know what, when Jesus was
starting his ministry and he needed a boat to preach from,
(12:48):
he looked at Peter's boat and said, I want to
use his boat. And Peter's like, cool, you can preach
from my boat. You need somewhere to stand, You need
somewhere to push out where you can get away from
the crowds and your voice will echo over the water. Sure,
use my boat. And that was his first decision. It's like,
you can get in my boat. Now. He had no
idea at that point that he was going to go
all around the Sea of Galilee and See Jesus heal
(13:13):
blind eyes, See Jesus caused those who could not speak
to utter their first words. See Jesus feed people off
of a Do you have Captain D's or Long John
silver Is or any of those little fish restaurants back
in Montana. You know, he's multiplying food, and he's performing miracles,
and he's healing people that others wouldn't touch, all because
(13:34):
Peter let him in his boat. And I think that's
a significant moment when you say God, I don't know
what's ahead for me, but you can get in the
boat with me. You can have my life, my gifts,
my skills, and I don't know what my potential is
for you. In fact, sometimes I feel like it's not
like these other people. But if you're calling me, you're
(13:56):
speaking to me. If you gave me this to do,
if you put me in this season, this assignment, come
on in. And then when Jesus goes to the cross,
Peter doesn't do so well. And Jesus told Peter he
wasn't gonna do so well. He said, Peter, Satan has
asked to sift you as wheat. And Peter's probably thinking
(14:19):
you told him he couldn't write like he's gonna tempt
you and test you. But Jesus said, yeah, you're gonna
You're gonna deny that. You know me, You're gonna have
a moment of failure. You're gonna fail. But Simon I
prayed for you because his name was Simon before it
was Peter. Jesus changed his name like he does for
all of us. He gives you a new nature, and
he said, uh, I prayed for you that when you fail,
(14:44):
that your faith would not fail. And that when you return,
you'll strengthen your brothers. So now fast forward. Jesus has
died on the cross, he's risen from the grave. Peter
has seen that Jesus is alive, but he doesn't really
know what's next for him. And that might be you
(15:04):
right now, like I just don't know what's next for me. Remember,
everything that is next in your life is connected to
what you do right now. God has given you everything
you need for this season that you're in. So Peter
says something in the scripture. He goes, I'm going fishing.
And I've heard preachers say, you know, Peter was backsliding.
(15:24):
He was going back to his old life and going fishing. No,
he needed dinner. He's trying to feed everybody. Jesus being
risen from the dead didn't mean that they didn't need nutrition.
So he's going back fishing, doing what he knows to do.
And I gotta wonder Brendan also, was he going back
(15:45):
to the last place where he knew that God could
use him, That's where he'd connected before. Was he going
back to that same sea of galley, that area called
Capernaum where he had dropped Jesus off to teach a
little bit and heal a little bit and multiply those
bread and loaves. Was he running from Jesus or was
(16:06):
he looking for Jesus. I remember when he called me
on the lake. I remember when he got in my boat.
I remember when he walked toward me on the water.
And you got to think, like, the memories are going
through his mind, and maybe if I just get back
out here and I fish. And suddenly at the moment
of his failure, after he fished all night and caught nothing,
(16:28):
which is exactly what happened the first time Jesus used
his boat, He's like full circle with this failure, because
we never stop going through moments and nights and situations
and relationships and opportunities and ventures where it doesn't work
out like we wanted it to. But the Bible says
that a voice called out, saying, friends, do you have
any fish? And Peter recognized something that's Jesus, and he
(16:51):
jumped in that water and swam toward Jesus. Because he
was impulsive, he gotta stayed in the boat. Probably got
there quicker, Yeah, but he was so excited to have
another chance, and he realized the truth that I want
to leave you with as we close out this session together,
he realized in that moment that God brought me through
(17:14):
that season of my failure, and he is bringing me
in to a season of even greater effectiveness. Because remember
Peter started out as a fisherman, but Jesus called him
to feed his sheep. He turned him from a fisherman,
a fisher of men, into a shepherd, and he went
(17:37):
on to influence the church like few people in history.
All that from letting Jesus in his boat, all that
on the other side of his embarrassment, on the other
side of his betrayal, and I just want you to
get to the other side. I know this session isn't
quite as practical, and I know we haven't given five
(18:00):
steps for moving through failure, and we're kind of moving
in the realm of images right now, but I just
feel like this is where we want to leave. This
message in your heart is that God has already chosen you,
with your unique abilities, with your unique background, with your
small town or big city self, with your tall self,
(18:21):
short self, with your loud self, quiet self, with your
introverted extroverted self. God chose you. The question is will
you choose you. Will you choose the you that God
knew before you were ever born, The you that is
capable of making a difference, The you that is capable
(18:45):
of moving through generational patterns that held your mom back
in your dad back, like I think that is available
to you right now, in this moment and in every moment.
And this is the decision knowing that God that I
don't need to be somebody else, that if I need
to have it, God will bring it, that if I
(19:06):
need to be good at it, I can grow into it.
That God will send me people that I need to
teach me what I need to know, people to help
that I'm supposed to help, people to link up with
or are strong where I'm weak. God will supply all
my needs according to His glorious riches in Christ. And
I'm sorry I'm preaching Brendan, but this is my life message.
(19:28):
This is what I believe for each and every one
of you, that there is a shepherd in you. There
is a next level of what God wants to do
through your life. And it may not look like more
followers on Instagram, or it may and it may not
look like you know starting seventeen companies or it may.
(19:49):
But I know one thing. I know that God shows
you for something that you are the perfect person for.
And if you can anchor that belief, no matter what stormy,
let me see your tossed on. No matter what failure
seasons you go through, no matter what mistakes you have
to go back and correct, I promise you this much.
You will have the grace you need. You will have
(20:10):
the gift you need. It's in you right now. You're
not on the treadmill chase in future you. Peter was
Peter while he was still calling himself Simon. Peter was
a shepherd while he was still catching fish. Peter was
a fisher of men even when his nets were empty.
Peter was a preacher even when he was cursing and
(20:32):
denying Christ. It's in you right now. God has given
me everything I need for the season I'm in. So
expect growth, Expect stages. Expect there to be some times
where the seed is underground and you don't see anything happening.
That's okay. God is often doing the most when we
see the least. Expect harvest, Expect blessings, Expect things to
(20:55):
be grateful for. Expect a testimony from your experience from
these scriptures getting in your heart. Expect for the truth
to take root and bear fruit in your life. But
while you're waiting for it, just believe I'm planted in
the soil of God's purpose for me, and nothing can
pluck me out of his hand. Thank you for joining us.
(21:18):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
You can share it with your friends. You can click
the share button, take a screenshot and share it on
(21:40):
your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
I want to get this in your heart as we
close this mindset masterclass, not as we close this process,
(00:22):
because it is a daily decision that you have to make,
which me will I be? Which you will you do?
You're not done choosing. It's not a one time event.
I want to give you this last little nugget for
the seasons where you're struggling. It may not even just
be one rep. It may not even be just one day,
It may not even be just one month. You may
(00:44):
go through long stretches of time. Yeah, with a little reprieve.
But you might say this is mostly a struggle. The
stage of life my kids are at right now, this
business challenge relative to my industry, this rhythm of my
life that feels completely unsustainable. And while I don't always
(01:04):
think that we should seek out more struggle, I think
we have to know that when we struggle, God gives
strength if you can know that in those moments and
say to God the greatest three word prayer that I
never heard, help me fail. I don't ask God to
help me fail. I want him to help me win,
(01:26):
help me succeed, help me crush, help me kill, help
me destroy. You know, like, well, you don't want to win.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You're saying help me stretch, help me grow for those
who are like an aversion to fail. But I think
it is important that well, I chose the language help
me fail, because it's inevitable that you are going to
feel like you're failing, but maybe you're not. That's what
I think is so interesting about you being a success
coach is that some people go, well.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
A success coach? Is that really scriptural to success? Well,
first of all, God told Joshua, I'll give you good success,
the kind of success that God gives, a good success
where you make a difference for him and you don't
rip your life apart. I mean, you wrote a whole
book called High Performance Habits about people who are not
just succeeding over here and then making a mess of
(02:14):
their relationships, are destroying their health. God wants to bring
all these things to integration in our life. But I
think just as important as what's our definition of success
is the question what's your definition of failure? Who said
it fail? Right? We talked in an earlier masterclass about
disappointment and disappointment is relative to time, and when you
(02:36):
remove the element of time, you don't have to be
disappointed because it's going to happen and it's in God's hands.
So what do you walk people through when they are
experiencing what they perceive to be failure? But you know,
as a coach, ah, this is a growth moment, this
is a growth season. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I think the first part is always as I said earlier,
just remove the surprise from people. It's like they're so
shocked that they had a bad performance. I was like,
you've been on tour for three years. You didn't think
one of them you were going to suck or you
just remove like the struggle and the failure is going
to be there and it is a personal definition. You
thought you failed, but fifteen thousand people chanted. You thought
(03:18):
you failed, but you weren't arrested the next day you
thought you I mean, we have these cataclysmic things about
failure and we always realize failure is a personal definition.
So first someone to go why were you surprised? Second,
what is your definition? Tell me what does that mean
that you failed? And what's interesting when people use the
terminology of failure, they drop into the fixed mindset right
(03:41):
away because they believed that the failure stopped something I
failed and it's just like this defined event and their
progress stopped and their growth will stop. And so their
definition of failure off and off comes with it like
a stop sign, and I have to say, oh, there's
no stop sign. That was an incident in life. Tomorrow
(04:03):
there's gonna be forty other incidents. That was one struggle.
You're gonna have another thousand. So there was no stop sign.
It was something that occurred, but it occurred in the
stream of life. And now you're downstream of that difficulty
and now you're going to face another boulder that's similar. Okay,
how are you going to navigate this one? Because that's
what that gave you. That difficulty gave you navigation instructions.
(04:28):
It wasn't a failure, it was a navigation instruction manual.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
It was like love that. Hey, Okay, you hit this thing.
It didn't go right.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That boulder is going to appear in the stream again,
probably a lot of times until you learn.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So, now you know the boulder is coming up, Well,
let me skal up. Let me learn how to navigate that.
Let me learn how to use my ore and snap
my hip and the kayak to pop around that boulder. Yeah,
let me skill up. So next time I face it,
I'm a little stronger. Yeah, I'm a little smarter. I'm
a little more wide. And so that's a developmental standpoint.
It doesn't say I stopped there, it's forever fixed. I'm
(05:06):
always gonna be ruined here. It says that's probably gonna
come up again. Let me teach myself. How would the
best self deal with it? How would I skill up
to deal with it better. It's taking a struggle that's inevitable,
and it's equipping ourselves for the future. And maybe what
came out of that struggle is I'm going to equip
myself to be kinder next time. I'm going to equip
(05:28):
myself to be more patient. I'm going to equip myself
to develop a skill that I can do this or
that so that doesn't feel so harsh or surprising or
awful next time. Because that's maturity is we get better
at things like you do as a speaker, right my metaphor,
but for that would be I trained myself to speak
to a small group, and then a slightly bigger group,
(05:51):
and a slightly bigger group, and a slightly The problem
was I was, you know, probably level of a thousand people.
I still felt like I wanted to throw up before
going out there, and I had to say, I need
to train myself to be in a good place to
handle life's challenges. M M. And that's what I want
people to hear, is like, the struggles are inevitable. Train
yourself to be in a good place, learning from your
(06:12):
past lessons and preparing yourself now for the struggle that
you're in because the season that you're in, which is
why I love the chapter title here. Yeah, it's like
the season that you're in, you're equipped, you're in bolden,
You got backing, and you have to step in faith
and stay in motion and not hit the stop sign.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Step in faith because the struggle is not a stop sign.
It's a strength builder. It's a struggle build strength. So
write these two down struggle build strength, not all struggle.
Some struggle you're struggling because you're stubborn, like, you're not
supposed to still be struggling with this. You're supposed to apologize,
quit trying to prove your right. But when the struggle
(06:52):
is something that God is taking you through and leading
you through is going to build strength.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Don't put a stop sign on the struggle.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Put a stop sign on the struggle, especially when it's
bad and you didn't want it. I mean people, I
know you. You minister to.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
People who who've their struggle or their challenge, and this
season they lost a child, and when you tell them, well,
just be strong through it, it sounds so flippant. But
sometimes when you say there will be strength, you'll be
provided for.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
But also don't stop there.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You know, don't forget you do have maybe another child,
or don't forget that your life doesn't have to stop because.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
They were called.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And so I think it's a matter of when our
struggles hurt us and there's no growth from them, is
when we put that stop sign and we think that
ended our life, that ended our progress, that ended our reputation.
And so when I say don't put a stop sign
on a struggle, it's not trying to say that anyone
ever wanted those terrible things that happened to us that
are our struggles and problems. It's saying when you have
(07:56):
that terrible thing and that awful thing and you can't
find the strength. When they hear guys like I say
well there's strength there, and they're like, I can't find
there's no strength that came from this awful I lost
my dad.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
There's no strength from that. Brendan, I go, yeah, it
doesn't feel like.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It, and you might be right, but don't stop living
because your dad didn't want you to stop living.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
He doesn't want you to stop living.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
And so the most important thing when you say that
there's a season for everything and that God is with you,
there is don't put stop signs on the struggle.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well, I don't preach to the people in my church
in those moments they preach to me. You know, it
becomes a role reversal because I love that. I have
seen amazing faith from people in our church who have
gone through the most agonizing situations over and over again,
and in those moments they become the messenger to me.
(08:47):
And it's almost like they take the pulpit in their
life and I learn I become the parishioner. And for
some reason, I feel compelled to share this, And I
never thought that this master class session would go to
this place, but I feel like it's supposed to. Of
one of my favorite church members. His name is literally
(09:10):
Tom Layman. You know we have like ministers in Layman.
He's literally Layman. So I always tell me he's my
favorite Layman. And one night they were at church and
his oldest son died in a car wreck while he
sat in church, and his phone was off and he
didn't find out till he left church. And after his
son had gone to heaven, and after we had done
(09:31):
the funeral and everything, I watched him and I wondered,
what will he still want to pray? Will he still
want to come to church? Would I? If I was
in church and my son wasn't drunk. My son wasn't
doing anything wrong. My son was a good kid. But
what he did was was he preached a whole life
(09:55):
message back to me through his decisions. Because before his
son died, his I had wanted to start a fishing
club and they love to fish together, and he never
got to do it. And when Riley died, Tom decided
(10:15):
we're going to start the fishing club. But it's not
just going to be fishing for fish. It's going to
be fishing for men. Like Jesus said, I will make
you fishers of men.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
It's beautiful and man, they started this club called Riley's Catch,
and not only you've seen hundred kids come to Christ
through the club because they actually not just give them
these amazing experiences, but they share the gospel with them.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
But I've told his story to our church with his permission.
And it's better than me being up there saying there's
strength in the struggle, right Like, this isn't pinterest from
the pulpit that we're trying to give people today. I've
seen it. I've seen that the strength that Tom and
(10:59):
Lisa Layman, and we could name a lot more, the
strength that they needed for the season that they never
would have chosen, was there. I don't know how. I
don't know how the spot or helped them when they
felt like I probably can't take another breath, and then
they did. I don't know if I can put on
(11:20):
my face and smile at people today at church when
my son is no longer here and we were in
church trying to be a good family. But when you
see that from my point of view as a pastor,
it's what lets me know that what we preach and
teach is more than platitudes and cliches. Right, these are
(11:40):
the words of God for you, because when you get
into that season, if you're in that season right now,
whether it's the loss of someone or whether it's you
know something within yourself that you lost. You lost your compass,
you lost your joy, you lost your direction, you lost
your enthusiasm. We're not here to qualify whose loss is deeper.
(12:04):
When you're in it, it feels deep. I want you
to remember the Bible story. And it's crazy how this
session is coming together. I feel like it must be
really annointed for somebody to hear because we planned on
talking about Peter, who was a fisherman in the Bible,
and Peter Man, the dude had a lot of strengths,
(12:25):
but he was stupid. I mean he was he run
up on somebody and cut off their ear trying to
defend Jesus, and Jesus is like I am trying to
go to the cross. They came here to do what
they're supposed to do. Let them pass. Jesus puts the
ear back on. He ain't put up with so much
out of Peter. But you know what, when Jesus was
starting his ministry and he needed a boat to preach from,
(12:48):
he looked at Peter's boat and said, I want to
use his boat. And Peter's like, cool, you can preach
from my boat. You need somewhere to stand, You need
somewhere to push out where you can get away from
the crowds and your voice will echo over the water. Sure,
use my boat. And that was his first decision. It's like,
you can get in my boat. Now. He had no
idea at that point that he was going to go
all around the Sea of Galilee and See Jesus heal
(13:13):
blind eyes, See Jesus caused those who could not speak
to utter their first words. See Jesus feed people off
of a Do you have Captain D's or Long John
silver Is or any of those little fish restaurants back
in Montana. You know, he's multiplying food, and he's performing miracles,
and he's healing people that others wouldn't touch, all because
(13:34):
Peter let him in his boat. And I think that's
a significant moment when you say God, I don't know
what's ahead for me, but you can get in the
boat with me. You can have my life, my gifts,
my skills, and I don't know what my potential is
for you. In fact, sometimes I feel like it's not
like these other people. But if you're calling me, you're
(13:56):
speaking to me. If you gave me this to do,
if you put me in this season, this assignment, come
on in. And then when Jesus goes to the cross,
Peter doesn't do so well. And Jesus told Peter he
wasn't gonna do so well. He said, Peter, Satan has
asked to sift you as wheat. And Peter's probably thinking
(14:19):
you told him he couldn't write like he's gonna tempt
you and test you. But Jesus said, yeah, you're gonna
You're gonna deny that. You know me, You're gonna have
a moment of failure. You're gonna fail. But Simon I
prayed for you because his name was Simon before it
was Peter. Jesus changed his name like he does for
all of us. He gives you a new nature, and
he said, uh, I prayed for you that when you fail,
(14:44):
that your faith would not fail. And that when you return,
you'll strengthen your brothers. So now fast forward. Jesus has
died on the cross, he's risen from the grave. Peter
has seen that Jesus is alive, but he doesn't really
know what's next for him. And that might be you
(15:04):
right now, like I just don't know what's next for me. Remember,
everything that is next in your life is connected to
what you do right now. God has given you everything
you need for this season that you're in. So Peter
says something in the scripture. He goes, I'm going fishing.
And I've heard preachers say, you know, Peter was backsliding.
(15:24):
He was going back to his old life and going fishing. No,
he needed dinner. He's trying to feed everybody. Jesus being
risen from the dead didn't mean that they didn't need nutrition.
So he's going back fishing, doing what he knows to do.
And I gotta wonder Brendan also, was he going back
(15:45):
to the last place where he knew that God could
use him, That's where he'd connected before. Was he going
back to that same sea of galley, that area called
Capernaum where he had dropped Jesus off to teach a
little bit and heal a little bit and multiply those
bread and loaves. Was he running from Jesus or was
(16:06):
he looking for Jesus. I remember when he called me
on the lake. I remember when he got in my boat.
I remember when he walked toward me on the water.
And you got to think, like, the memories are going
through his mind, and maybe if I just get back
out here and I fish. And suddenly at the moment
of his failure, after he fished all night and caught nothing,
(16:28):
which is exactly what happened the first time Jesus used
his boat, He's like full circle with this failure, because
we never stop going through moments and nights and situations
and relationships and opportunities and ventures where it doesn't work
out like we wanted it to. But the Bible says
that a voice called out, saying, friends, do you have
any fish? And Peter recognized something that's Jesus, and he
(16:51):
jumped in that water and swam toward Jesus. Because he
was impulsive, he gotta stayed in the boat. Probably got
there quicker, Yeah, but he was so excited to have
another chance, and he realized the truth that I want
to leave you with as we close out this session together,
he realized in that moment that God brought me through
(17:14):
that season of my failure, and he is bringing me
in to a season of even greater effectiveness. Because remember
Peter started out as a fisherman, but Jesus called him
to feed his sheep. He turned him from a fisherman,
a fisher of men, into a shepherd, and he went
(17:37):
on to influence the church like few people in history.
All that from letting Jesus in his boat, all that
on the other side of his embarrassment, on the other
side of his betrayal, and I just want you to
get to the other side. I know this session isn't
quite as practical, and I know we haven't given five
(18:00):
steps for moving through failure, and we're kind of moving
in the realm of images right now, but I just
feel like this is where we want to leave. This
message in your heart is that God has already chosen you,
with your unique abilities, with your unique background, with your
small town or big city self, with your tall self,
(18:21):
short self, with your loud self, quiet self, with your
introverted extroverted self. God chose you. The question is will
you choose you. Will you choose the you that God
knew before you were ever born, The you that is
capable of making a difference, The you that is capable
(18:45):
of moving through generational patterns that held your mom back
in your dad back, like I think that is available
to you right now, in this moment and in every moment.
And this is the decision knowing that God that I
don't need to be somebody else, that if I need
to have it, God will bring it, that if I
(19:06):
need to be good at it, I can grow into it.
That God will send me people that I need to
teach me what I need to know, people to help
that I'm supposed to help, people to link up with
or are strong where I'm weak. God will supply all
my needs according to His glorious riches in Christ. And
I'm sorry I'm preaching Brendan, but this is my life message.
(19:28):
This is what I believe for each and every one
of you, that there is a shepherd in you. There
is a next level of what God wants to do
through your life. And it may not look like more
followers on Instagram, or it may and it may not
look like you know starting seventeen companies or it may.
(19:49):
But I know one thing. I know that God shows
you for something that you are the perfect person for.
And if you can anchor that belief, no matter what stormy,
let me see your tossed on. No matter what failure
seasons you go through, no matter what mistakes you have
to go back and correct, I promise you this much.
You will have the grace you need. You will have
(20:10):
the gift you need. It's in you right now. You're
not on the treadmill chase in future you. Peter was
Peter while he was still calling himself Simon. Peter was
a shepherd while he was still catching fish. Peter was
a fisher of men even when his nets were empty.
Peter was a preacher even when he was cursing and
(20:32):
denying Christ. It's in you right now. God has given
me everything I need for the season I'm in. So
expect growth, Expect stages. Expect there to be some times
where the seed is underground and you don't see anything happening.
That's okay. God is often doing the most when we
see the least. Expect harvest, Expect blessings, Expect things to
(20:55):
be grateful for. Expect a testimony from your experience from
these scriptures getting in your heart. Expect for the truth
to take root and bear fruit in your life. But
while you're waiting for it, just believe I'm planted in
the soil of God's purpose for me, and nothing can
pluck me out of his hand. Thank you for joining us.
(21:18):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
You can share it with your friends. You can click
the share button, take a screenshot and share it on
(21:40):
your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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