I'm Under Pressure! | Steven Furtick

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Have you ever wanted to ask God,   "Before I do this, before I trust you on this,  what level of pressure is it going to involve?" The truth be told, if some of you would have  known the level of pressure that came along with   parenting, you would have stayed celibate, because  you prayed for the baby, but along with the baby   came the pressure. Write this down: with privilege  comes pressure. Sometimes I see people who want   certain privileges but don't welcome the  pressure that comes with the privilege. When we see Paul in 2 Corinthians, we are  getting a picture of a minister and a man   who is at that point. Have you ever been at that  point of pressure where it feels like something   is unraveling on the inside of you? I don't  necessarily mean it's a clinical breakdown. Paul is under pressure, he says, from  every side. Let's read it again in verse 8,   because I think it describes something that  maybe you've experienced. Maybe not on Paul's   level, because there are levels to it, but one  thing I have learned is that pressure is relative.   When a 16-year-old gets their heart broken,  they don't have the wisdom of experience to know   that there will be others, so it  really does feel like they want to die. A lot of times you minimize other people's misery  because you have graduated beyond that season,   but if you could find the compassion to  remember there was a time when you, too,   listened to Milli Vanilli "Blame it  on the Rain" 17 times. Oh, just me?   There was a time when the pressure felt so great… Paul said, "We are hard pressed on every side."  That means it was all of the areas at once.   I believe that the times in our lives  when we are able to pick our battles   and focus our concentration… Generally, most  of us are able to stand up under pressure if   it is coming from one direction.  It's when I can't find any relief   on any side… Sometimes when I preach,  I'll be preaching to one side,   and then I'll turn to another side,  and then I'll turn to another side   to see, "Is this helping anybody?" If I can't find any love in  the middle, on the right,   on the left, sometimes I just turn around and  look at LJ, because I pay him to look happy.   Paul says, "It was coming at us from every side."  Now understand what this means for Paul, because   last week we were talking about Paul on an island  called Malta a little later in his ministry.   He's there as a prisoner, and he makes  it through a shipwreck. Luke gives us   a picture of Paul that is kind of a heroic  portrait, because Luke respected Paul so much. He talks about how Paul got up and  gave a motivational speech to the   other prisoners about courage and faith in  God no matter the circumstance and how Paul   prayed and had a vision and then relayed that  vision to the people to inspire their faith,   because sometimes somebody is waiting on you to  encourage them, to put courage in them that they   don't have right now. So Paul did that. Then when  Paul gets to the shore he gets bitten by a snake. Did anybody listen to the message and watch  how cool and calm and collected Paul was on   the shore of Malta? The snake didn't even seem  to bother him. He didn't rebuke the snake. He   didn't cry out to God. He didn't "In the name  of Jesus" plead the blood of Christ the Lamb.   He just shook it off. So cool. Don't  you admire people who are like that,   by the way? Don't you hate people who  are like that, by the way? Just people   who never get rattled. Just people who nothing  bothers them. Just people who shake stuff off. Luke is telling us, "Man, it was amazing.  I was there. Paul just shook the snake off   into the fire. It was amazing, and  they thought he was going to die,   and he didn't die. He just stood there,  and they thought he was going to swell up,   but he didn't even say anything, and he just  stood there. Then he went to Publius' house,   and he started healing everybody, and it was  amazing. Then Paul went to Rome and lived in a   rented house for two years." Paul says, "Wait  a minute. It wasn't that easy on the inside." "What you saw was what I did, but you did not  see the doubts I had while I was doing it."   You make it look so easy  sometimes that nobody even knows   you need to be encouraged, because you  just do that. You just pay the bills.   You just smile at people. You just dress well.  You just walk strong and walk tall and walk proud. "But on the inside," Paul said, "I was so  pressured. I couldn't find relief on the right,   on the left, in the middle. I looked  up. I looked down. I looked all around.   I couldn't find a companion. I couldn't find a  helper, but I didn't die at the pressure point."   Pressured but not crushed. They have sayings they put out  to encourage you under pressure.   We say that pressure makes diamonds. Have you ever  heard that? Pressure does make diamonds, but it   also makes dumb decisions. For real. Pressure  does make diamonds, but it also makes divorces.   Pressure does make diamonds, but it also   can leave you the proud owner of a timeshare.  Some of the things you do under pressure…   I don't think God wants to prevent pressure  in our lives, though. Let's read it again. I think there's a point to the pressure.   Maybe today you have come to that point.  Paul describes it. He said in verse 10,   "We carry around in our body the death of Jesus."  It means that I feel like I'm dying inside.   That's the kind of pressure that Paul, "snake  shaker" Paul, "shipwreck survivor" Paul… He says earlier in his ministry, "There was  so much pressure I thought I was dying."   He says, "I was hard pressed on every side,  but not crushed." Now I always heard people   shout about that verse, but realize that it's not  automatic. When I read that verse, some people are   like, "Yeah, hard pressed but not crushed," but  that verse suggests that pressure can crush you. Oh yeah. I've met so many people who  let the pressure… I had a friend whose   family had a recycling plant, and you'd  see the cans just crushed into these   cubes. I have seen people crushed into cubes  and melted into a little bit of nothing   and sent away and their dreams deferred  and their hope crushed because of pressure. So before you shout, "I'm pressed but not  crushed," realize that if you don't know   what to do with the pressure it will crush you.  If you don't know what to do with the snake,   the poison will kill you.  "I'm pressed," Paul said,   "but I'm not crushed. I'm perplexed…" That's  mental pressure. "…but not in despair." "I'm persecuted…" That's pressure from other  people. "…but not abandoned. I'm struck   down but not destroyed." Now I see a contrast. It  is the contrast between what is pushing on Paul   and what is pushing in Paul.  Can I preach a little bit?   I'm going to help you today. Your  pressure is trying to point to something.   So many times in my life, the reason I was  under pressure is that I was full of pride.   He said, "We have this power, this  treasure in earthen vessels," or   vessels of clay. An ordinary vessel,  and it's an extraordinary power. I'm an ordinary person with an extraordinary  promise of the presence of God, but sometimes   I get confused and forget that I'm just the pot;  I'm not the power. Sometimes I get so burdened   because I put the weight of the world on my  shoulders and carry a cross I'm not strong enough   to carry that has already been carried for me.  So I'm under pressure sometimes because I'm full   of pride. Sometimes (not all the time) pressure  comes into your life not because of what you're   handling but because of how you're handling it.  You forgot your source and you lose your strength. Pressure sometimes points to pride in  your life. I'm going to help you today.   I'm going to help three people  today who are under pressure,   because when pressure comes, some of us begin  to perform to a standard that we have projected   that isn't even true to our purpose. I saw  it like this. Maybe I could illustrate. I've been preaching a lot in the last year  about the gap. I've been preaching this message   really all over the country, all over  the world, I guess, about the gap,   and it's the gap between where I am and where I  want to be, where I am and where I used to be.   I think I'm going to keep preaching it,  because it continues to speak to me,   that there are two gaps in my life: one is  for my gratitude and one is for my growth. One is how far I've come. I look back and it  makes me grateful. I can't stay there too long,   though, because I have to grow or I die. This  week, I was seeing a different gap in my mind,   and it's the pressure gap. Again, I'm not saying  that all pressure is bad, but there is a type of   pressure that is rooted in pride and  manifest in performance, and this is it. This is the gap between who I think I  need to be and who I believe I really am.   Stay right there with me,  because when you think you need   to be something you secretly believe  you are not, the pressure is crushing.   When you secretly believe that you need to have  an ability, that you need to have a strength… This is what I do all the  time. Therapy session. Bill me.   Holly says I do it. She says I got it from my dad.  He's not here anymore, so he can't defend himself,   so we talk about this genetic stuff all the  time, but my mom is perfect. She's right over   there in the front row. Holly says, "You've got  to quit drawing thought bubbles on other people." She says, "You project expectations on  people that they don't even have of you,   and you disappoint imaginary expectations that  don't even really exist." Can you believe my wife   would talk to me like this? She didn't read  that Bible verse about "Submit, woman." But   she's right. I do it all the  time, and then guess what I do? Because of the pressure, I start  blowing up and exploding at people   with frustration because of projection  of expectations they didn't even have.   So now I'm mad on the inside, and  I'm walking around with all this   combustible pressure. "What do you want from  me?" and people are like, "Nothing, man." One time I was getting up to preach… Actually,  it was when the podium comes up. We have some   traditions here at Elevation Church. My little  pulpit comes out right at a certain moment   during a certain song. It's just little things we  do, because it has to get out here at some time,   so we just put it out there right then. They were carrying the pulpit out, and I felt this  weird pressure to perform, and God spoke to me.   "When you were 16, did I  call you to be a performer?"   The moment I realized I was projecting an  expectation that was not from the heart of God,   the pressure left the building  and I was free to preach. But it was right when that pulpit was  coming out and they were doing the last song   and Chris was hitting a high note. It was a  pressure point. I wonder what it is for you.
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Channel: Steven Furtick
Views: 156,911
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Keywords: pastor steven furtick, elevation church, steven furtick sermons, steven furtick sermon clips, 2021 sermons, steven furtick 2021, preacher, preaching, i’m under pressure, pressure points, pressure, people pleasing, struggle, under pressure, performing for other, performance, stressful situations, sermons about pressure, sermons about struggles, steven furtick, anxiety, resilience, external pressure, looking within, elevation church steven furtick, furtick steven, stephen furtick
Id: T-M64gZW2hM
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Length: 16min 55sec (1015 seconds)
Published: Thu Sep 23 2021
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