I Caught A Thought | Pastor Steven Furtick | Elevation Church

you ready you sure ready for the work MA good catch y'all don't have confidence in me they get nervous ready you ready Josh better stick with the front row it's a very litigious society ready not just like she did we're about to do Oh around the audience response my that's premium Minister my brother look at somebody next to you and say I caught a thought I caught a thought chunks you ready see caught it sorry about that cough I caught something by the way this guy who just threw me the Bible it's like my best friend in the world but he's the worst he's always blaming people when he gets in he's always trying to track back to who had a runny nose four months ago blaming it on my kids you know it was his own so you came back from that mission trip but think I caught it from them it was food poisoning you can't catch food poisoning why trying to blame the missionary cuz you got a stomach virus he's magnum p.i trying to investigate it's a pop culture reference for the young people very relevant and current I caught it look at somebody and say I caught a thought yes some is it possible to catch an attitude you got anybody just when you see their name on your phone y'all responding a little too much to this you might be giving yourself away I caught a thought can't can you catch can you catch faith can you catch fear can you catch an idea can you catch a dream can you catch a vision can you catch a word from God that will cause you to worship from a deep place past the shallows of feelings and emotions you're here today because you caught a thought you thought you should come to church you caught a ride and you came but before you caught a ride you caught a thought I should go to church and because you caught a thought you're about to look at 12 people ready that's how we all do a caught I thought now I'm demonstrating this physically but I want to demonstrate it scripturally 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 this passage has often helped my perspective and it's a familiar story for anybody who knows about father Abraham had many sons and many son said father Abraham I am one of them and so are you so let's just praise the Lord that Bible School stuff it works in grown-up life too because the children of Abraham are of course coming into the land that God promised them and in the Book of Numbers they have the opportunity to receive the gift but they get more focused on the Giants that oppose them than the gift that God has given them 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 and they're both right here in numbers chapter 13 let's study this together the Bible says then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said we should go up and take possession of the land for we can certainly do it but the men who had gone up with him said we can't attack those people they are stronger than we are and they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored they said the land we explored devours those living in it all the people we saw there are of great size we saw the Nephilim they're the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim and we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them stop there was no conversation between the Giants and the spies about who was bigger that wasn't what they heard that was what they thought the nation never saw the promised land for themselves they relied on the support or the report of the spies to give them a picture of the promise of God as well as give them a prediction about the outcome and it wasn't because they saw something it was because they heard something and what they heard was a result of something that the spies thought so when it said in the scripture they spread among the Israelites a bad report and that report kept the Israelites from going into the land that God had given them I realize it is possible to be stopped not because of your Giants but because of your thoughts not because of something that is actually bigger than you but because of something that you have made bigger than you on the movie screen of your mind how many of you have an IMAX screen in your mind and you can blow things up all to all different proportions the whole nation caught a thought and it made their faith weak and God had given them the land and they could have had the land in fact the land was already theirs because the enemy can take away anything that God has given to you however if he can attack your faith through weakening your immune system that that faith immune system that is supposed to filter out those microscopic germs those seeds of discontent that will cause you to walk away from what God is calling you to walk into although he can't take it away from you if he can get to your faith if he can get to that part of you that believes God and cause it to be disrupted by something that your eye see or your ears hear Holy Spirit help me say this the right way he can't take it so what he wants to do is to move you from a place of believing that he loves you called you qualified you set you apart put you there to do it and the issue with me is that I experienced both thoughts both voices simultaneously let me try to break this down I got Caleb telling me this is one thought you should you can and then I got 10 other spies you ever notice how it seems to be more reasons why you shouldn't then that you should you ever felt outnumbered in your thought life yeah I got 10 spies now the spies are going into the land and the number one rule of being a spy is don't get caught right y'all with me yeah it's the number one rule of being a spy whenever you do sneak in and Joshua told him our Moses told him Joshua was one of the two spies that saw it the right way and he told him Moses told Joshua and Caleb and the ten other spies he said when you go in there make sure make sure that they don't see you okay but then they got caught but they didn't get caught by their enemies they got caught by their insecurities I'm a preach to you they got caught by a thought and the thought was we're not big enough the the thought was we don't have enough the thought is we can't they're bigger and so then now all of a sudden they are dominated not by their enemies but by their thoughts and God said that I was preaching to somebody today who is caught between two thoughts one is telling you that God gave you everything you need to raise that child the other is telling you that you're the one who screwed them up I'm a preach in to your business today one is telling you that it's all right God can restore the years that the locusts have eaten the other is telling you you've wasted too much time and now nothing good can happen in your life so I'm caught between two thoughts and on one hand I see the size of the grapes I see the size of the promise and I know the size of my God on the other hand I hear all of the reasons why a great big God could not use a little puny person like me from Moncks Corner South Carolina a little puny person like me who never did this on this level before even as I preach to you I'm caught between two thoughts she looks like she's never heard a better sermon in her life somebody up there looks like they hate me and are contemplating how they can slip out and how did I get stuck in the middle of this road for this sermon and why is he yelling like that and that shirt is too bright and it hurts my eyes and I just want to get out of here i'ma preach to you i'ma preach to the I'm a preach to the love in the room I'm gonna preach to the faith you feelin better LJ he had to miss last Sunday it's the first time he's missed playing behind me in three years he's never missed but he he caught he caught a stomach bug and I'm not gonna lie to you this may make me a bad pastor when I saw him Tuesday I waved at him I didn't dap him up I don't love him that much I'm not gonna spend the whole week throwing up just to tell you hello we can do this virtually love you man praying for you from a distance I'm not getting close enough to catch it and honestly this is why I had to stop hanging out with some certain people because I started realizing you catch what you're close to now if you need to take out your phone at this point in my sermon and do some surgery with that swipe left delete move some of y'all don't need to lift your hands to have more faith you need to swipe your thumb because it is your contacts I caught something I catch something every time I'm around them every time I scroll I noticed this the other day I get in a certain mood and I can't figure out how was I so happy three minutes ago and now have you ever had to switch that quick yeah so I started studying and I realized that before I caught a feeling I caught a thought now sometimes that thought is just me going through my feed and and I will see something that won't register now here's what I noticed you don't feel it while you're scrolling when I ate a whole bag of Oreos one Thanksgiving after I'd already eaten three meals I didn't feel sick while I was eating them my taste buds didn't tell me to stop so I'm scrolling and I don't feel sick until after I've stopped what I realized about myself and maybe you're more spiritually mature than me and you can find a church where the pastor is whole healthy and doesn't have these issues but for all of us who understand that sometimes you are you are mad about something that you saw 10 minutes ago on your phone because you were in everybody else's life but your own trying to figure out am I better than them are they better than me and so what happened while I was scrolling I saw them on vacation and I know they're in debt so I caught a thought of judgment why should they be on vacation when I know they're in debt and now I feel sick 10 minutes later because of the thought that I caught while I scrolled through somebody else's situation that has nothing to do with my responsibility y'all gonna help me with this or am I gonna so what happened to me was I caught a thought of offense and then I reaped an attitude of frustration I got offended the other day because I saw God blessing somebody that he wasn't supposed to bless did you ever watch God just do something awesome for the wrong person he didn't consult you and so I found myself feeling insecure the reason that I felt insecure in myself is because I've I caught a thought of offense about somebody else so here's what happens you become a victim of your own judgment when you judge others that way you judge you that way so when you catch a thought of judging others don't be surprised when the judgment comes upon you the less y'all say amen the more I know I'm preaching so I caught a thought I caught a thought and I realized that the thought that I hold on to the thought that I you know like you can catch a wave you could catch a football for the game-winning touchdown like Graham Furtick did yesterday just this very yesterday but I never knew I could catch a thought I knew you could catch a case I had some relatives that did it I knew you could catch a cold but I found out you could catch a thought and then I traced sometimes the weakness of my faith and I asked myself the question where did that thought come from and it's important where it came from because where it comes from determines where it leads to my issue is that when I say I hear from God I don't hear him out loud God bless you if you do I've never heard the audible voice of God ever I mean he speaks through my wife all the time but other than that exception I've never heard the audible voice of God if you have I'm not mad at you unless you start trying to use it to manipulate people by making up stuff that God told you cause God has 3-way calling and he can tell us both so don't tell me God spoke to you something that I'm not an agreement with and try to get me to do something you want to do by saying God told you to especially if you say God told you to quit your job because you're just tired of dealing with frustrating people I don't know if that's God or if you're just tired need to get some sleep and have better attitude when you show up I've never heard from God out loud one guy asked me one time he was like when you say God spoke to you how do you know great question because I don't hear God at an auditory level so when I say God spoke that can be misleading you know when Peter said Jesus spoke to me it was literal Jesus was a person he spoke to me I was fishing one night I hadn't caught anything I was frustrated and Jesus said let down your nets in the deep for a catch and Peter would say at first I was frustrated because I thought you're a carpenter I'm a fisherman you do your job I'll do mine you wanted my boat to preach from I didn't know you were gonna try to drive it but watch this because you say so I will let down the nets now when he let down the nets he caught a great number of fish but God was showing me that before he caught the fish he caught a you like this church before there was a seat there was a thought now see the issue with this is I don't hear God out loud like that and so I connect with God not in an auditory or sensory level I connect with God at the level of thought which would be fine if God spoke to me at the level of thought and he was the only one who spoke that way but I got this other joker they call him the devil but when I say the devil tempts me or the devil discourages me I'm not I'm not talking about a guy in a Halloween costume that he got on clearance at Target walking up with a pitchfork and a cape and some horns I never saw the devil like that I just put him off my shoulder he's not on my shoulder when he comes to me he comes to me through a thought so now I got God speaking to me through my thoughts I've got the enemy trying to speak against what God spoke to me through my thoughts I got two voices on the same device and I'm caught between a thought one is telling me your greatest years are ahead of you one is telling me you've already done all the good things you're gonna do you better ride it out because it won't be much longer one is telling me go ahead and speak it and say it and do it and step into it and believe for it and the other one is telling me well you better not go too far out there you know if you go too far out there you'll be embarrassed and after all if you climb high they can pull you down and I'm caught between Caleb we can and the other spies I'm caught caught got a thought I got caught I got caught by a thought I don't know how it happened but y'all I got this thought that goes through my mind all the time that says it doesn't matter just all the time I could be doing anything and it'll be like it's on the way they thought you know that I roll emoji that you yeah it's that's that be the face of it but the thought behind it is like you know who cares doesn't matter you ever had that thought catch you trying to do something mm-hmm raise your hand again if you've ever had that thought why did y'all raise your hand so much higher the second time I asked you oh oh oh you're not enough I don't know if you say it exactly like that but it's crazy how many people I talked to and I used to think it was people who didn't have a lot of confidence but then I realized professional athletes have this thought that I'm not enough they they are the ones who our society worships and still there's a thought it's a thought that's going around the reason it's going around so much more now than it used to go around is because now we we don't judge ourselves or measure ourselves according to the calling God has given us we compare ourselves to a fictionalized account of somebody else's life that's where you always get in trouble now at this point you always get in trouble when you start comparing your calling to somebody else's because when you compare callings you catch insecurity when you when you compare callings you catch insufficiency when I think I'm not enough you know I'm not enough if even the disciples you know is it's not enough food to go around Jesus you need to send them away how many times have I sent away something that God put in my life because I caught a thought that I'm not enough they wandered around and around and around in the wilderness for 40 years not because of their enemy but because of their thought and then even sometimes when things are going good I got this thought I don't know where it comes from I don't think it's God I don't think it is it's hard to tell sometimes because it's not like he talks like this I don't even know what that was I'm glad he doesn't talk like that that was super weird yes not like Morgan Freeman it's just a thought come on if God sounded like Morgan Freeman you could do it if you narrated your life like that you could do it you could make it you would you would go to sleep and wake up and just be ready for the day but it comes like a thought you know even when it's going good it won't last they'll leave you too you can't count on them then you sabotage the gift because you're not secure in it because even while it's happening you don't believe it's real this is my thoughts I don't know where I caught them I had a good mom good dad I mean they weren't perfect don't get me wrong I wish I could trace it back to just one traumatic event I think that would be easier not enough yeah where'd that thought come from I'm not sure where it comes from but I know where it takes me and when I look back on the seasons of my life that I was so deep in depression oh yeah and I know the Bible verses yeah I know them better than you let's have a quote in contest rejoice in the Lord always I will say it again and rejoice see my hand motions I know the verse rejoice in the Lord always and then Paul says I will say it again rejoice well you can say it as many times as you want to Paul I'm sad right now and I can't find my way out and so now I'm fighting on the level of my feelings but watch this before it became a feeling look even Paul it wasn't just like Moses was a bad leader even Paul had to fight against opposing voices and thought systems that undermine the essence of the grace of God in the gospel even in the churches that he started even in the church at Corinth he would write to that church and and what would happen to them was they would they would they would be led astray or the word he likes to use in 2 Corinthians is deceived he says I fear that you're being deceived by the power of suggestion he uses the example he says like Eve was deceived by the serpent you remember that story when God said you can eat any of this and then she caught a thought from a snake she allowed something that was beneath her to speak to her and she caught a thought see I never had a snake slither up to me and talk to me I wish I did I wish it was a snake that I could chop the head off of it it's a thought and I have to live with this and I have to deal with it and and the serpent said to Eve did God really say you see it he introduces a doubt into the possibility and potential of faith causing her to focus on what is not available rather than what is and Paul says I'm I'm afraid that you will be deceived because there's these there's these spies in the Church of Corinth and there they're leading the Christians astray they're doing it by the power of thought they are introducing the thought into the church that you need something other than Christ to justify you he says I fear that you have been led astray from your pure devotion to Christ and pure is the right word that's the important word pure it's that uncontaminated place that you access occasionally where you know that God's got you and everything is gonna be alright you ever just felt that and you had no reason to and you didn't even have the facts to back it up you ever just felt that like wow I just feel like I feel like I'm gonna make it and God's gonna do it and I just feel and and I can't even prove it on a flow chart or anything like that but I just I just what happens is the enemy deceives you he can't take what God gave you you know that right I need to make sure you know that he can't take what God gave you but if he can get you to catch a thought that opposes it he can keep you so weak that you will not walk into it and this is what he says to the church at Corinth cause they got spies running around introducing lies to the church they got thoughts that opposed the knowledge of God in fact that's how he phrases it in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4 he says the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds what's a stronghold in military terms it's a place that you go to seek refuge a stronghold where you set up to do a battle where the enemy can't get to you or it can become a place where the enemy traps you in he says what happens in a physical battle can happen mentally spiritually emotionally to any one of us at any time see because it is with the thought that I can experience God I can catch a thought of Jesus and His grace for me and his love for me and His mercy toward me and that thought can move me to worship Him in the beauty of holiness in the splendor of his magnificence in fact I want to say this one thought of Jesus can lift you above any wave of word one thought of Jesus have you been have you been having trouble breathing this week get a thought on your mind of the goodness of God you see that battle he brought you through you see that way he made for you and just one thought of Jesus how many know one thought can lift me out of the pit one thought but a stronghold can also in sneer you a thought I'm not enough a thought I wonder what they're thinking about me right now they're not but that thought that thought this isn't gonna end well that thought I'm not what they think I am here's one of mine here's one of my strongholds if they really knew you they wouldn't like you if they really knew because all of us are bluffing all of us are faking it all your low cool friends are faking it they all got acne they all got issues they all feel lonely and none of y'all are cool everybody's faking it expensive your shoes are you ain't perfect but Paul they were coming in the church like oh he's an impostor he's not a real one they were introducing a thought to rob them you know the devil is a thief right he can't take your promise so now he wants to steal your thoughts but I was reading something in Proverbs can I show you this real quick I didn't get to show them this last night in Proverbs chapter 6 verse 30 it says people do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he's starving a thief is just a thief you know the enemy is a thief you can't blame him for trying to steal what he doesn't want you to have but check the next verse I love this verse 31 yet if he is caught yet if he is caught he must pay sevenfold so today we came into this service to catch a thief and to let him know give me my joy back give me my peace back give me my wisdom back give me the joy of my salvation restore sevenfold I caught a thought I realized that he loves me and if he loves me it doesn't matter if you like me I caught a thought I'm bold about it fall for it for it I'm called to it I believe I'll walk right forward into my future holding on to a thought of the favor of God some of y'all need to catch this come on catch this favor catch this word catch this joy catch this piece you've been hanging around Facebook but you came in here for some faith today didn't you will catch this God is for you he's more than the world against you keep those 10 spies out of your head and listen to Caleb we can we should we will he is I have high- five them and say I got a thought I caught a thought I caught a thought just like I caught a cold last February I caught a thought I found out that he is able I found out that he who began a good work in me will be faithful to completed I found out he is the bread of life he is El-shaddai he is more than enough I caught a thought of God a thought brought me into depression and a thought is gonna bring me out when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my prime what's he saying I caught a lot of the goodness of God and it lifted me out of the pit of my despair you can't keep the thought from coming but watch what Paul said he said we demolish strongholds how do we destroy it verse 5 is important he said we demolish every spy that says we can't and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God how many know something about God that is deeper than a feeling I mean you've known it since you were a child you've known it in your soul you've known it in your spirit deep calls to deep so when I have a thought that opposes what I know about God what you can do about it I can't keep it from coming but he said we take captive every thought to make it obey Christ so when they say you seem different this week you don't look so stressed this week tell them oh yeah it's the craziest thing I caught a thought it was about this big I found out God is about this big I caught a thought of His greatness I magnified Him in my mind I began to rejoice in the rock of my salvation this I recall to my mind therefore I have hope I caught a thought and it led me to a hope now the thought that you hold on to the one that you allow to dominate that will be the stronghold of your life if the Lord is your stronghold if He is the place where you hide if you if you catch a thought a glimpse of your calling okay here it is there was a woman who was bleeding on the inside she heard Jesus coming through her part of town she had done everything to fix it at the level of the symptom but nothing worked the condition that she had was a deep one it was causing her to hemorrhage and lose blood just like many of us are hemorrhaging emotionally and losing energy and losing hope when she heard Jesus passing through her desperation for a change caused her to do something dramatic in her life because she had gotten a second opinion and a third opinion and a fourth opinion and none of that worked but here comes healing and here comes hope and the Bible says that she did what she had to do to get through all of the people who could have blocked her and to grab grab ahold to catch Jesus as He was passing by to heal somebody else and He's moving quickly and Peter's backing everybody away don't touch Him He's in a hurry but she reaches out and the Bible says that she is this verse 37 yeah she she touched His cloak she caught Him she caught His cloak she caught what could heal her she caught a flow she caught a miracle she caught a change verse 38 because she thought before I caught the answer I caught a thought before I caught forgiveness I caught a thought before I caught bitterness I caught a thought if I can catch a thought I can catch his cloak and if I can touch him he can make me well with everyone standing and your hands lifted to heaven like you need to catch what heaven has today I declare over your life that faith and favor are flowing from the person of Jesus in the form of the Holy Spirit in this moment across every location and our eFam around the world catch this you've been holding on to thoughts of low self-worth and low self esteem all to lead you to this moment in the presence of Jesus that if you can catch a thought the woman was made well because she touched His cloak she touched His cloak because she caught a thought and there are great opportunities for love and for joy and for peace and for provision there's a great calling and assignment on your life my sister there is a a tremendous promise in front of you and there's Caleb saying you should you can and there's ten other spies saying you can't and I don't care if you're outnumbered ten to two if you will follow Caleb into Canaan you can eat the fruit of the land you can experience the joy of the Lord if you can catch this thought this I recall to my mind I caught a thought and it lifted me from my despair I caught a thought and it lifted me from my addiction I caught a thought of Jesus and it lifted me from my shame and I begin to rejoice and worship Him with gladness because I caught a thought of victory for the battle belongs to the Lord He is my stronghold He is the strength of my life and I will not be put to shame for the joy of the Lord is my strength come on catch this victory catch this win lift your sails and catch this victory catch this win sing it over the people Chris till they catch it I'm gonna see it in the land of the living I'm gonna see the goodness of God I'm gonna sing it til I see it come on touch His presence Touch His healing I'm gonna see a victory I'm gonna see a victory for the battle belongs to you Lord come on you can feel a do you it's an impartation thank you for watching the Elevation Church YouTube channel don't stop here join the eFam our online extended family and join us live every Sunday subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a single video or live stream and share this with a friend you can also support the ministry by clicking the give Now button to help us continue to reach people around the world for Jesus Christ thank you again for watching god bless you

Channel: Elevation Church

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Keywords: elevation church, steven furtick, i caught a thought, elevation church sermons, pastor steven furtick, steven furtick sermons, 2019 sermons, preaching, preacher, focus, perspective, thoughts, anxiety, discouragement, faith, fear, attack, internal struggle, negativity, spiritual attack, when anxiety attacks, catch that thought, see the victory, steven furtick 2019 sermons, elevation church i caught a thought, church online, sermons, sermons about anxiety, sermons about focus

Id: JBH_SudUQoA

Length: 44min 8sec (2648 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 07 2019