It Will Come Together | Pastor Steven Furtick | Elevation Church

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments
Captions
We're not holding hands. I don't know how  we are on the spectrum of being able to…   Can we at least touch the shoulder of the person  on either side of you? That'll work. Baby steps.   Pray this out loud. "Lord, the person I'm touching  needs you more than I do, because they're a mess.   So bless them today. In Jesus' name." Just  kidding. You're a mess, and you know it too.   How many of you think you are the least  spiritual person on your row? Raise your hand.   How many of you all think,  "There's nobody in this room   who read the Bible less than I  did this week"? Raise your hand. It's such a weird icebreaker  for me to say that, isn't it?   I'm just excited to be here. I told  the Lord after we weren't able to   have public meetings that I wouldn't take it  for granted when we could get back together.   If you'll notice… Maybe you don't like  this, but I go longer now. I take my time.   There are multiple reasons for that.  One thing… If you're going to spend $350   filling your tank with gas to drive to church,   I ought to at least give you more  than "a little dab will do you."   The other reason for that is that the Holy  Spirit has really been doing a work in my heart. The natural overflow of that is I just  find myself less and less thinking of   preaching like a performance. Now I think about  myself, "Lord, make me a vessel for what you   want to give your people." I love that, because  it's not up to the box how good the pizza tastes.   If I can just be a box to get you what God  wants you to eat today, that'll be great. Yes,   I just called the Bible pizza, because Jesus said,  "I am the Bread of Life," and he didn't say what   kind of bread. Do y'all remember Book It!? You  used to get the personal pan pizza for Book It! It's going to be a personal word for you today.   I'm in a good mood. That's bad news for the Devil.  I'm happy and ready to preach. Hey, real quick,   check and see if we're coming to a city  near you…elevationnights.com. It'll be   cities such as, but not limited to, Indianapolis,  Chicago, Boston, Newark, Columbus, Grand Rapids… Why did you say "Grand Rapids" so loud? Are  you from there? Are you coming over in a   couple of weeks? Good. Do you have your ticket?  It's not free. You can't just show up. It's not   like regular church night, because the arena is  not free, so we have to pay for it. But you'll   be there? All right. Great. And you're here  today from Michigan. God bless you, Michigan. That's going to be awesome. I loved it so much  last year. I really needed it, after ministering   in an empty room for so long through COVID, to get  out and see the way people have been impacted by   our church, and see it firsthand. I needed it. I  felt like something just came alive inside of me,   like it needed to be watered. After we came back,  I was just fired up and full of life. That's why   I'm going back, selfishly, just to do ministry,  because I get more out of it than I could ever   give. I wish you could all come, but you get to  come every week, so what are you worried about. I wish we could have this conversation just  one-on-one from the Word of God today. That   would be ideal, because I could walk you through  it a little differently, but we'll have to do the   best we can with all of us. I want to take you  to the book of Ruth, chapter 4, verses 9-17. I want to say, "What's up?" to Taylor Shytle  at Elevation Columbia. He texted me before I   got up that he was praying for me while I  was preaching, and that's why I'm shouting   him out. I'm reciprocating. I appreciate your  prayers, too, as I preach today, that I would be   effective for who God wants me to reach. I've never preached a sermon  from Ruth before. Holly walked   by the other day and saw my Bible  open to Ruth, and she said, "Ooh,   Ruth." My reluctance to preach on Ruth isn't  just because it's a book about a woman. I'm not   a sexist. I think it's one of those  stories that just to give you a sliver   or one scene of the story feels like it doesn't  do justice to the beauty of the whole thing. But still, God directed me here and just sucked  me in, so I'm going to do my best today. I'm   not trying to be cute, but I just want  to show you one truth from the book of   Ruth. Let's look at this together. Ruth 4:9: "Then Boaz announced to the elders and  all the people, 'Today you are witnesses   that I have bought from Naomi all the property of  Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired   Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon's widow, as my wife,  in order to maintain the name of the dead   with his property, so that his  name will not disappear from   among his family or from his  hometown. Today you are witnesses!'" Verse 11: "Then the elders and  all the people at the gate said,   'We are witnesses. May the Lord make  the woman who is coming into your home   like Rachel and Leah, who together  built up the family of Israel.   May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous  in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord   gives you by this young woman, may your family be  like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.'" That's a blessing right there. Tell somebody next  to you, "I'm stepping into a blessing." Tell them,   "Give me some room, because I'm stepping into a  blessing. I need six feet because I'm stepping…"   All right. But that's not the word  today. We need to read the next verses. "So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When  he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to   conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women  said to Naomi: 'Praise be to the Lord, who this   day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer.  May he become famous throughout Israel!   He will renew your life and sustain you in your  old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you   and who is better to you than  seven sons, has given him birth.' Then Naomi took the child in  her arms and cared for him.   The women living there said, 'Naomi has a  son!'" "You're never going to believe it,   but she who was gone for over 10 years because of  the famine and came back bitter is holding a son."   "And they named him Obed. He was the  father of Jesse, the father of David." This is what the Lord told me to tell you  today as our message: It Will Come Together.   Who felt that when I said it? It might be online.  Put it in the chat. Put it in the comments right   now, or tell your 6'3" neighbor, "It will come  together." Tell your 5'4"… Whoever is standing   next to you, I'm trying to say. Just make  the declaration. "It will come together." It's kind of one of those clichés. I don't  like when people say stuff like that to me.   "It'll come together." I'll be stressed  about a sermon, and Holly will say,   "It'll come together." I'll be  like, "Yeah. It sounds good." That's just a millimeter better than "When  life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Clichés.   Yet I don't mean it in that trite way. It could  sound like that. "Oh, I know you lost your job.   It'll come together." Could you tell  the power company that for me? "Oh,   I know you're single and your friends are married.  Don't worry. The Lord has a Boaz for you."   I'm not going to do it. She wants me to do  it. I'm not going to do it. There's an old   thing online that says, "While you're waiting for  your Boaz, don't settle for Brokeaz…" All that.   I'm not going to do it. Temptress! It's a whole thing. In Christianity, the book  of Ruth is usually identified by chapter 1,   verse 16, and it's always in the King James at  a wedding. This is the famous verse of Ruth.   You're going to know it when I say it. You're  like, "Huh? What's he talking about?" You'll   know it when you see it. This is the King James,  where it says, "Whither thou goest, I will go." You have to get the whither in there for  the marriage vows. Doesn't that sound like a   wedding? "Whither thou goest…" You've never said  whither in your life, but now you're about to   commit your whole self to somebody, and  you're breaking out words you never use.   "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou  lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my   people, and thy God my God." I'm not making fun  of that verse. That verse in itself is a sermon. That one verse shows you that when  you decide who, you decide where.   Now, this is not how we think. We think, "I  need to decide where I'm going to college."   No, no, no. That's not as important as who  you hang out with when you get to college,   wherever you go to college. I teach  that all the time, because who   will ultimately identify not  only where you end up physically… Holly wouldn't be in Charlotte if she hadn't  married me, because she wouldn't have been   a pastor's wife, or if she had, maybe the guy  JJ she was talking to ends up somewhere else.   When you say yes to someone, you say yes to  something you don't know about at the time.   The same with God. When you say yes to God,   he'll take you places you never thought  you would go…when you say yes to him. Who you say yes to, who you say no to,  is very important. It's really important.   Tell somebody, "It will come together."   I want you to get that in your mind so we  can get it past your mind into your spirit   so that you hear it differently when I finish  in a few minutes than you hear it right now.   We are all standing in a space in our lives  where we are needing clarity on some things. Maybe you're not in the same situation as  Naomi and Ruth. Both of them being widows were   completely dependent on the kindness of someone  else. Maybe it's not that bad in your life.   Ruth not only lost her husband when she  lost Mahlon, but Naomi lost her son.   Naomi had already lost her husband Elimelek,  and they were already in a strange place. I want to talk to you about this, because   when you read a Bible verse in isolation, it's  almost impossible to really make sense out of it.   I want you to have that app on your phone  where they give you the verse every day,   but I don't want you to always  read the Scriptures in isolation,   because if you just take it in  isolation… Sometimes we don't   even read the whole verse and we quote  it, and then we think it didn't work. It's not that Romans 8:28 isn't true.  "All things work together for the good…"   You just stopped in the middle of the verse.  It said, "All things work together for the good   of them that love God and are called  according to his purpose." It means   God doesn't decide what is good in your life  based on your preference, but his purpose. So then you go through something, and "This  isn't good. How can this be good? God is good,   and this isn't good. What's going  on? I thought it was all good."   God didn't say that. In the Bible, God didn't  say that. He said, "All things work together   for the good of those who love the Lord  and are called according to his purpose." So his purpose comes first, not my preference.   His purpose comes first, not my plan. What  happens to us is we get addicted to a plan, and   if it doesn't fit the plan, we want to throw it  back to God and say, "Fix this!" But God doesn't   start with the picture called your plan when he  is building the pieces of your life. He's God! The truth of the matter is you can't  really judge your life in isolation.   You can't really know when you're going  through something whether it's good or not.   Don't judge it just yet. One Scripture says,  "Judge nothing before the appointed time."   God will reveal hidden things and bring them to  light, and the secret things will be laid bare.   Judge nothing…no thing. "All things work together  for the good of them that love the Lord." Now,   if you love something else more than you love the  Lord, Romans 8:28 is going to be hard for you. If   you love popularity more than you love God, when  people leave you, you will think that's not good. But if you love the Lord's purpose more  than you love popularity, sometimes   you will praise God not for who stays  with you, but for who leaves you,   because you believe the Lord is leading your  life. Wow! It will come together. We make the   mistake of thinking everyone who starts with us  will stay with us. It doesn't happen that way. This is not a sermon about abandonment or  divorce, but I do want to talk about those issues.   In the book of Ruth, you have this woman named  Naomi who goes to a place called Moab where there   is something to eat for her family, and through  no fault of her own, she watches her husband   and her sons, 10 years later,  die in front of her eyes. Her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and  Orpah, are committed to stay with her.   There is a reason this is not  called the "book of Orpah."   She left. There is a reason I said, "Turn in  your Bible to the book of Ruth." Ruth stayed.   Put this in your heart: whoever left you in your  life, whoever walked away from you in your life,   was not part of God's purpose  for your current season. It doesn't mean they're bad. It doesn't mean  they're evil. It doesn't mean you need to make   a voodoo doll and stick a pin in their left  ear, trying to get them to have an earache.   It doesn't mean any of that. It doesn't  mean you need to talk crap about them.   It doesn't mean you have to want them to fail.  It doesn't mean you have to go out and buy a   new car to show them you made it, and drive  by their house, and they're not even home. It doesn't mean any of that. It  just means… Can I preach? God   doesn't build my life on people who left.   One thing I'm learning to appreciate at this  stage of my life is the providence of God.   The plans of man and the providence of God are  two totally different things. The man directs his   steps in his mind. God orders his steps in real  life. Maybe I'm preaching to somebody today who   is like Naomi. When we walked into Ruth, chapter  4, it looked like everything was going well. On   the surface it sounds like this is a moment to be  happy, and it is if you look at it in isolation. But understanding what led up to this moment,  I think, gives me a greater appreciation   for who God is and what he is able to do. Let's  look at it a little deeper. Even the book of Ruth   is an interesting book. You have Genesis, Exodus,  Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges,   and then Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2  Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings… What's Ruth doing between all of those big books?  Why is there a book in the Bible about one woman   from Moab? Moab is not Bethlehem.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Moab.   Moab was like you went to school in Chapel  Hill and you are cheering for Coach K. Do you see what I've said? That level of hatred  right there? You felt it coming through the   room. This is a local illustration. I  could use another one somewhere else.   What is a woman from Moab doing between  the five covenants in the Bible? A   covenant is a concept we would do well to  understand in our current contemporary society.   We don't understand it at all. We don't understand  commitment at all. We just understand convenience. Even when we say marriage vows, we don't really  mean half of what we're saying. We're saying,   "As long as you make me happy, I'll be with  you." We don't really mean what we're saying.   I'm not saying that to shame anybody. I'm just  saying sometimes we would do well to understand   these verses in their context. God  made a covenant with Noah. He said,   "I'll never flood the earth again." That's  the first covenant. There are five covenants. The Bible is structured around five  covenants. The Noahic covenant:   "I will never flood the earth again." It means  there's going to be a limit on human evil.   The Abrahamic covenant, which God said,  "I'm going to make a nation out of you.   Count the stars if you can. Count the sand  if you can." And Abraham goes, "One, two,   three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine…  This is going to take a long time, God." God said, "Exactly. It's going to take a long  time for me to show you what I'm going to do   through you, and your descendants will be  as numerous as the sand on the seashore.   If you can believe it and receive it, even  though you are past childbearing years,   I am going to bring forth a life out of your  wife's dead womb that will bless the whole world,   and I will bless you, and you will be a  blessing." That's the Abrahamic covenant. Then you have the Davidic covenant, which God  made with David, the second king Israel had. You   remember Saul, the one the people wanted, and then  David, and he's like, "This is my guy right here.   He's after my heart." He said, "I'm  going to establish a throne from you." Now, you forgot about the Mosaic covenant,  where God had to bring his people out of Egypt,   and then the new covenant… How many  thank God for the blood of Jesus   that lets me know that I can't keep the law,   and what the law was powerless to do,  in that it was weakened by my flesh,   God did by sending his Son Jesus, the Son  of David, to be a sin offering in my place. Upon Jesus was placed all my transgression and  all my shame. So, whatever shame I carried into   church today, as a child of the new covenant,  I carried it illegally, because Jesus took it,   and whatever he took, he intends to keep and  deal with. So, I have to give it back to him   over and over and over, because God  has already made up his mind about me. He's not looking to see if I get it right  or if I get it wrong. He made a purpose   for my life, and it will come together. I feel  like preaching this like it's Code Orange Revival,   but you won't help me. Touch three people and  tell them, "It will come together." It will. I   know it's taking a while. I know it has been on  layaway and delay, and there's a shipping thing.   I know they can't get it to you like they were  supposed to, and I know you're three years past   the due date of when you expected God to do it,  but if Naomi encourages me about one thing, it's   that after she lost everything she held dear, God  still had something for her. I'm glad about it. I love that verse they said in the blessing  in Ruth 4:11. This is the one that got me. "We   are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who  is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah,   who together built up the family of Israel."  That sounds so nice. "Rachel and Leah,   who together…" Teamwork makes the dream work.  "…who together built up the house of Israel." Remember, they're saying this  hundreds of years after it happened.   They're saying this after they have the benefit  of seeing the blessing fully matured. They   are saying this like a parent who is 91 years  old, and all of their kids have kids now. They have lived long enough to  know, "Don't stress about that.   It's all right. Please don't worry yourself  that much about that. It's all right." See,   we don't get to live through that lens. We  don't get to live through the lens of knowing   that Rachel and Leah built up  the house of Israel together. We don't get to live through the lens of  Naomi knowing, "I'm going to hold a baby   named Obed in my arms, even though I'm going to  cry for years about my husband, only to lose my   sons." See, we don't taste life as a meal.  We experience the ingredients in isolation.   In God's mind, your life is a meal. In  God's mind, your life is Thanksgiving Day. What do you all eat on Thanksgiving?  I might come over. Put it in the chat.   What do you all have at Thanksgiving? What do  you like at Thanksgiving? What do you have at   Thanksgiving? Mac and cheese? I might  come. Can somebody do better than that?   Mac and cheese and sweet potatoes. Like,  sweet potatoes or a sweet potato thing with   marshmallows in it? The sweet potatoes  are the middleman for me. I just want   the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes,  honestly. So, yeah, that's good. I might come. What else? What do y'all have at Thanksgiving?  I don't know. I'm making everybody hungry. I'm   losing my audience. This is really bad public  speaking. What am I doing? You have to understand   that the moment Naomi is in her life right now  is a blessing, but it's a mixed blessing. I   noticed the room got happy when I said, "You're  stepping into a blessing." It's like, "Yes!" I forgot to tell you it's a mixed blessing.  That means you need to prepare for the blessing   as it is actually going to be or you might  miss the blessing because it's going to be   mixed when you get it. In fact, Naomi was in  so much pain there in Moab where she went to   escape from Bethlehem where there was a  famine… It seems like she did all right   when she lost her husband, but when she lost her  sons too, she said, "Don't call me Naomi anymore.   Call me Mara." Naomi has the connotation  of pleasant. Mara means bitter.   After what she has been  through, can you blame her? When somebody has been through something like  this, you don't tell them, "It'll come together."   "What will come together? How  can you replace those boys?   Even if God gave me 20 more,  it wouldn't replace them."   That's how it is sometimes in  your life. Don't try to tell me,   "It's going to get better. Call me Bitter." When that kind of bitterness hits your  heart, you don't even want to hear about   better from anybody…not from preachers,  not from teachers, not from Pinterest.   "Don't tell me all things work together  for the good of those that love God."   When you taste the ingredient in isolation,  it would be lying to say, "That's delicious."   It would be lying. I was talking to a guy… I think he was in London.  He said he had to lay off 40 of his 200 employees.   He said, "But you know what? It's a good thing."   I said, "I understand what you're saying,  but for them… I hope you didn't tell them   that." He said, "No, I'm not telling  them that. I'm just telling you that." I said, "Well, make sure you don't tell them you  feel that way, because they probably don't see it   like that right now from your perspective." He  said, "You've got a good point." It is a good   point. Have you ever walked in the kitchen…?  I'll just use an example. I'm not a cook. Take   a scoop of baking powder, and just down it.  Did you ever do it? So, baking powder is bad.   Anybody want a big heaping pile of baking  powder for lunch today? Raise your hand. This is the message. Do you want the whole message  in a moment? This is the whole message. This is   why you came from Michigan. This is why you tuned  in online. Just because it tastes bad in isolation   doesn't mean it won't serve a  purpose in the finished product.   I'm not saying that. The Bible said that after  Naomi had gone so low she said, "This doesn't   taste good…" Honestly, I figured out why people in  church often look so sour when they're in church:   because what you went through  this week didn't taste good. You are trying to praise God with a taste  in your mouth of disappointment and fear.   I mean, it's hard to say, "Hallelujah"  when your mouth tastes like hurt.   "Call me Bitter. You might as well." It doesn't  taste good, yet what a strange blessing they gave.   Let me give you a little bit more background  so I can make sure I'm not confusing.   Graham is my guy. He told me  the other day… He was like,   "Dad, sometimes you have to slow down with  these Scriptures. You've been looking at   them all week, and we're just waking up.  You have to slow down, break it down." Even though I can't do it justice,  the book of Ruth is beautiful. You   could read it in the time that you  could watch half an episode of Ozark.   When we move through it, we see Naomi, Elimelek,   Kilion, and Mahlon. Mahlon is Ruth's husband.  Orpah is married to Kilion. (Both of those   baby names are available, by the way, if you  want to have an original name for your kid.) When they went to Moab, they went to a place  that they didn't (this is important) plan to go.   This message is for somebody who is in a place you  didn't plan to go. I'm going to take it further.   Sometimes it's a place you hate being  there, because they're from Bethlehem,   and they're in Moab. Kind of like when the Israelites went to  Egypt. I mentioned it earlier. They didn't   go to Egypt because it was their dream to  go to Egypt. It wasn't on their bucket list   to go to Egypt. They went to Egypt to  survive. We've talked about that a lot.   I think a lot of the sin cycles we get sucked into  in our lives are out of survival mechanisms. If we   don't deal with it that way, we just put so much  shame on it, we can't help anybody get healed. People won't come to Jesus, because you  don't understand the power of his covenant   with you. You think Jesus is like other people  and that there will come a point where he'll be   ashamed of you and go, "Oh, that's too far there.  I was going to use you, but really? You did that?"   You don't understand the power of a covenant,   but Ruth did, because when Naomi said,  "Leave me. I've lost my husbands. I've   lost my boys. I've heard there's bread  in Bethlehem. We've been here 10 years…" Ruth said, "I'm not leaving. I'll make  a covenant with you. Whither thou goest,   I go. Your God becomes my God." Your god will  often become the same god as your friends.   If you are around people who  worship status and stuff,   it won't be long until you're  shackled to the same things they are.   Touch somebody next to you and say, "You ought  to hang out with me a little while. If you   hang out with me, you're going to have  strong faith. If you hang out with me…"   Come on, Def Leppard. "If you hang out with me…" So, they go back together, and Naomi, in this  honest moment, says, "Call me Bitter. I still   have the taste in my mouth. I'm going back  to Bethlehem," which means house of bread,   which makes it that much more depressing  when there's a famine in Bethlehem,   when there's a famine in the  place that is named after bread. When the joy of the Lord is supposed to  be your strength, and you are a Christian,   and you're depressed. You are a Christian and  you can't sleep. You are a Christian and you have   addictions. You are a Christian… "I am a C, I am  a C-H, I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N, but I have ADD,   ADHD, A-D-D-I-C-T-I-O-N. I'm in the house of  bread, but I'm hungry." "Call me Mara," she said.   Ruth said, "I was with you when I wanted your son.   Now you don't have a son to give  me, but I'm still with you."   I wonder who the Lord is saying  that to. "I'm still with you." "I don't sell low and buy high." God is not Warren  Buffett. God doesn't trade like that. God said,   "I'm still with you, because I made a covenant  with you. It's not the kind of covenant I made   with Noah. That was limited. It's not the kind of  covenant I made with Abraham. That was limited.   It's not the covenant I made with Moses. That was  limited. It's not the covenant I made with David.   That was limited. This is the covenant of my blood  made with the life of my Son, and I am with you."   In your bitterness,   in your brokenness, God said, "I'm with  you." "But I'm bitter." "But I'm with you." I love the Lord, because he wrote the Bible.  He knew the woman who said, "I'm bitter,   and it's over" in chapter 1 would  be holding a baby in chapter 4.   So he gave her someone named Ruth, the Moabite.  He gave her a Moabite. Not somebody from   Bethlehem…somebody from a place that she never  wanted to be. Remember, it's God's kitchen.   If you walk around God's kitchen tasting  stuff… "I don't like that. I don't like that."   You know how you are. Some  of y'all are faith foodies. You walk around. "Hmm. No, I  don't like that." Now listen.   You get to tell God certain things you want him  to do. "God, I want you to grow me, mature me,   bless me." You can say all that to God. It's  good. You don't get to tell him how to do it.   I'll go a step further. You get to  tell God what you want. Do you know   that's the first thing Jesus  asked in the New Testament? He turned around to people following  him and said, "What do you want?   Let's just get right to it. Cut to the chase.  Cut through all the niceties. I don't need a   soliloquy. What do you want?" They said,  "We want to see where you're staying."   You have to follow me to know me. That means  that if you judge stuff while it's happening,   you'll call yourself by what you've been through. I was in the kitchen the other day, and Holly  was making breakfast. I was trying to be helpful,   but I can't cook. But I wanted to help out.   She had just finished the sausage, so I was taking  the pan to pour out the grease from the sausage.   I can tell who cooks in the room by your reaction.   She said two things to me that  I'm going to preach to you. She said, "Leave the grease. I'm about to use it."   That's the first thing she said. I'm out  of the book of Ruth. I'm in "Second Holly."   She said, "Leave the grease,  because I'm about to make your eggs.   When I make your eggs, I'm going to  take these eggs, and I'm going to…" All things work together.   The grease on its own is not something you want to  eat, but if you'll let me leave the right amount   of grease for this recipe that I know… See,  because if I make your eggs without grease…   She looked at me and said the second thing.  She said, "You need to get out of my kitchen." I hear God saying to somebody who has been telling  him what he can't do, what he shouldn't do…   I heard the voice of the Lord. I was praying  about it, and God said… Hit your neighbor and say,   "Get out of God's kitchen."   Stop asking God to bring people back who  were supposed to go. Get out of the kitchen! Stop asking God to take thorns away that he left  so you could know him. Get out of the kitchen!   "Get out of my kitchen! Let me mix  this, because when I get done mixing   these eggs with this grease, when  I get finished mixing your pain   with my joy, when I get finished mixing your gift  with your opportunity… Get out of my kitchen!" In my weakness he is strong. That's   grease. That weakness is grease. Stop  trying to get rid of it, and let God mix it.   So, I put something in a song two years ago.   It's going to come out on the radio in a  couple of weeks, and you might hear it. Well, not some of y'all, because y'all  don't listen to the Christian station. But   it's a song, and it says, "If it's  not good, then he's not done."   Let me break it all the way  down. He hasn't mixed it yet.   You keep walking over to the grease,  going, "Hmm! God can't cook."   Judge no thing before the appointed time. Why?  Because all things work together. Did he say   everything was good? Or did he say that when Ruth  meets Boaz, when the thing… This is what had to   happen for Ruth. She goes back to Bethlehem. She's  gleaning in a field. A man named Boaz sees her. This is not a singles' conference. Do not get  an "Are you my Boaz?" tee shirt made after this   message. That's, honestly, quite off-putting. It  really is. It attracts the crazy guys. All right?   Don't wear that shirt. "Be my Boaz." Don't do it.  I'm telling you, don't do it. It's a bad idea.   But he sees her while she's gleaning. You had to leave a certain portion of your  field by biblical law for the foreigners and   for the orphans of which Ruth was both.  Because she made a commitment to Naomi,   she met a man named Boaz. He's called a  kinsman redeemer, which ultimately, of course,   points to Jesus. In this situation, it is a real  legal obligation, because he is a relative of   Naomi, which makes him (here's a word we don't  hear much in today's society) responsible. Responsible to redeem this widow named Naomi who  is his relative, and along with her comes Ruth.   That is what helped me to understand why they  said, "May the Lord make her like Rachel and   Leah." That goes all the way back to Jacob.  Remember the covenant God made with Abraham?   Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, you. You're in good company, and  you have a better covenant,   because all theirs had conditions to them.  All you have to do is believe and receive   and then obey to be blessed, but you don't have to  obey to be his child. Amazing. I mean, you think   Boaz is something? Do you have any idea what kind  of acceptance and resource you have in Christ? Now we use it as a picture, why they said… They  give a blessing. This is obviously something   they've said in this situation before. As  Boaz goes to redeem, take Ruth as his wife,   take Naomi in, to purchase Elimelek's land,  to care for the family so that his name   will not be blotted out…all this stuff that I  really don't have time to break down for you,   but maybe it'll whet your appetite to  read it this week… That would be awesome. All that stuff leads up to this moment where  they say, "May the Lord make this woman like   Leah and Rachel." Now, Leah and Rachel are not  exactly teammates, even though they're sisters.   Right here, it makes it  sound like they just agreed. "May the Lord make you like  Rachel and Leah, Ruth." Now,   the reason that was strange to me was, first,   when Jacob was running… Talk about mixed  blessings. He tricked his father into blessing   him, but then he had to run from his brother. Is  it really a blessing if you have to run from it? Talk about mixed blessings. God called him  Israel, which means prince or prevalent with God,   but his name was Jacob, which meant  deceiver. Don't we all know what   that feels like to wrestle with both  sides of ourselves? He came out of the   womb wrestling. Then when he  gets to his uncle Laban's house,   he wants to marry this daughter named Rachel.  Rachel… This is not in the Hebrew, but she's hot. Then her sister Leah is not hot.   The Bible says Laban tricked Jacob, because  it all catches up with you eventually.   The way you get blessed is the  way you have to stay blessed.   So, if you get stuff by manipulating,  don't be surprised when you're stressed   out about keeping it, but if you get it  from God, it'll be a whole different thing.   Yet these are the two names that  were mentioned in the blessing. So, watch what Laban did. He said, "Okay. Work  for me seven years. I'll give you Rachel."   Jacob worked seven years. On his wedding  night, he wakes up the next morning,   and the Bible says something so  crazy. "There was Leah." O Lord.   Just for a side Bible study, did you ever  think it was Rachel, but it turned out Leah? I'm not talking about women.  I'm talking about opportunities.   Did you ever wake up next to Leah? You went to  bed with Rachel. You thought that was such a   good idea, such a good investment. We've all had  those moments. We have all had those moments. Anyway, Laban said, "Oh, no, no, no. The way it  works here in our custom… If you want Rachel,   you have to first marry her older sister  Leah. If you give me seven more years,   you can have Rachel, but you still have  to keep Leah." Jacob is like, "O God."   That's how I know that Rachel was indeed  attractive, because he did another seven   years for her. So, she is not average  by my reasoned deductions, or whatever. She was beautiful, but she was  barren. She couldn't have kids.   Leah, on the other hand, the one the Bible said   had weak eyes… I don't even know what that  means, y'all, but that doesn't sound good.   The picture that comes into  my mind is not attractive.   She wasn't attractive, but she was productive. She started having babies so quickly. Boom!  Reuben. Boom! Simeon. Boom! Levi. Boom! Judah.   It's four to nothing. Rachel is not even on the  board. Rachel is like, "I've got to do something   about this. I heard what my grandma did. Jacob,  you need to sleep with my maidservant Bilhah." So she gives Bilhah to Jacob to sleep with.  Jacob is like, "Okay." So they got two more   babies by the servant. Now Leah all of a sudden  hits a period when she can't produce. Here's her   servant Zilpah. Now we're up to eight kids. Here  comes a daughter. Here comes Issachar…baby after   baby after baby. Finally, Rachel has Joseph,  and while she's dying, she has Benjamin. "Why, Steven Furtick, did you  slow down to tell us all of that?"   Because it helped me to understand that,  first, every Rachel comes with a Leah.   Take it out of the realm of people for a moment.  Rachel was what Jacob loved and what he wanted.   What do you want? What do you love?   Everything you love is going to  come with something that you don't. Let that sink in. You got it? Everything you love…  "God, I want success." Cool. It comes with stress,   sleeplessness, and sacrifice. Just the other  day, my family rekindled the campaign for a dog.   I thought we were through it.  I thought I stood my ground.   Y'all think I'm lying. The pressure they're  putting on me about this dog… It has been years. How many of y'all have been at Elevation  long enough? You've watched this whole   thing go down. Graham made a song  about it. Look. I brought something.   On my way out of the garage… I don't even know why  I left this up. Graham made this sign years ago,   so every time I leave my garage, I have to  look at this sign that says, "I want a…" I've been looking at that on my door  for years now, and standing strong too.   I didn't even remember this. At  the same time, Abbey made one too.   You can't really see it. That isn't even spelled  right and it's heartbreaking. I wish you could   see it. It says, "I wa god, dog." She wants  God. She wants a dog. She wants everything. What happened… I promise you I have a point to  this. They caught me the other night. Elijah was   out, and I was all alone. It was three on one.  They took the opportunity… Graham said, "I'm   a good kid. I've never wanted anything but a dog." Then he took it here:   "If I died, you would spend the rest of your  life thinking, 'Why didn't I get the boy a dog?'"   I said, "I know you want a dog.  You don't want what comes with it."   Abbey said, "But, Dad, you love us. I know  you'll give it to us, because you love us.   You give us everything we want." I  looked at Holly. I gave her a look too. She said, "What is that look?" I said, "This  is the look of me imagining the reality."   Graham said, "It's different." I said,  "You can't even clean your room, Graham."   He said, "That's different. My  socks are not living things."   Which, if you check the fungal composition on  those socks, you might be wrong about that. He said, "The dog is a living thing, and  there's no way I would let a living thing   suffer. You know I would take care of  a living thing, Dad. I'm a good kid."   I said, "But what about what comes out of the  living thing?" This is the point. Do you want   what comes with it? Do you know what comes  with it? This is a good question to ask:   If you knew Leah came with it,  would you still want Rachel? If you knew the bitterness came with Naomi, would  you still want to be a part of Elimelek's family?   Would you still want it if  you knew what came with it?   So, guess what. Nobody knows this, but I'm  getting you all a dog. I'm going to do it.   I know you're suspicious. Hey, this is  not a trick. This is not a game. They've   been here many times before. I'll say, "I'm  going to get you a dog," and they'll say,   "Really?" and I'll say, "Yeah. You want  mustard, relish, ketchup…?" I've got   jokes. I'm going to get the dog because of  something he said that changed how I felt. He said, "All right. I'm willing to say it'll be  my job." So now you get a dog, and you get a dog,   and you get a dog, but it's not my dog, and it's  not your dog. It's their dog. It's their stuff.   Everybody, stretch your hand toward  my family and say, "It's y'all's dog."   Toward these three right here, Shadrach,  Meshach, Abednego. It's y'all's dog. Sit down.   But now we're going to find out, saints of God.  Do they want what comes with it? Because I will   give it away a week from when we get it if  they don't. I'm not cleaning up nothin'.   We are about to find out. Remember, Boaz redeemed this family after  another close relative had the opportunity to,   but the other relative didn't want  it because it came with a Moabite.   Boaz said, "Not only do I want the land.   I'll take what comes with it." I have  to show you this. It's beautiful.   While Leah and Rachel were having all of those  babies, really to compete with each other…   From their perspective, they were  trying to get Jacob to love them,   but from God's perspective, it was all coming  together to make a nation. So, I need you to know   the dog comes with walking. The patience  comes with pain. It will come together. It'll be a mixed blessing. It'll be Leah  and Rachel. It will be Naomi and Boaz.   It will be both. I'm telling you this in case you  are holding a blessing but don't recognize it.   The baby's name was Obed. His son's name  was Jesse. His son's name was David.   David was the king through which came forth  somebody we're awfully fond of named Jesus.   But if you go all the way back, it came  from 10 generations after 10 years in Moab   from a man named Perez, who came from a man  named Judah. And who was the mom of Judah?   Leah, the one Jacob didn't even want. You have no idea what you're holding, and if you  taste it in isolation, it might just be pain.   If you taste it in isolation, it might  just be failure. But let God mix it.   You don't know who you're going to meet next  year. You don't know what you're going to learn.   You don't know what God might be protecting  you from by getting you out of there.   Get out of the kitchen. You're a terrible cook.   Get out of the kitchen. That grease is  there for a reason. Get out of the kitchen.   Leah is the one who gave Jacob the baby that  produced the king that produced your Savior. I want you to say this out loud: "God, I want  your will, and I want what comes with it."   I'm going to tell you what comes with it. If you  go through a trial, you'll get grace with it.   God will give you the grace to stand up under… How many of you went through something   so dark you couldn't even explain how  you got through, but there was a grace?   There was a grace, wasn't there? If somebody would  have told you you could live through that, you'd   say, "Call me Bitter. I can't make it. It's over."  You would have said that, but watch this. When she   was holding the baby, it wasn't Mara holding  the baby. That's the name she gave herself. It said "Naomi." God still knew her name.   As we close today, I want you to stand in every  auditorium and in every living room. If you're   in a hospital room with somebody and you're  standing next to somebody whose life has become   very bitter, if you're standing in need right now  of something that only God can give, or you're in   a desperate place called Moab where you never  thought you would be, this prayer is for you   to just lift your hands like this  to God. Naomi said, "I went out   full, and I went down to Moab. I went because  I had to go. I lost what I can't replace.   I went out full, and I came back empty." That would be a summary of how some of us  feel today, God, but we want to see that   reversed in our lives, that we would say,  "I came in empty, but I'm going out full,"   believing that while Rachel and Leah were  fighting themselves, disliking themselves,   and proving things to one another, you  were building a nation. If that was true   for their blessing, if that was true for  Ruth and Naomi, maybe it's true for me too.   For every blessing there's a  burden. It'll come together,   but our focus is chosen. Right  now, Jesus, in your name,   I'm asking you that you would  put a baby in Naomi's arms today. It won't take the bitterness or the pain away,  but it'll give us something to look forward to. He said you're holding Obed. Obed never  would have been here without Moab.   What you're holding, what you're  walking in… It will come together.   Say it. "It will come together." You  have to trust God in this part. You   have to trust God in this moment,  knowing it will come together. Almighty God; Jehovah-Shalom; Prince  of Peace; Jehovah-Rapha, our healer;   Jehovah-Nissi, our banner and victory; Jesus  Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords… Change our name today.   We came in holding bitterness, but we  believe that the baby held in Naomi's arms is   representative of the purpose we are holding.  God, if I preached it for one person today,   that's cool with me, because if they get this,   great things are coming forth from their life  that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard,   and it hasn't even entered into their heart, but  you know it and you spoke it and you can do it. It'll come together if you don't give up.   It'll come together if you don't mess it up  and manipulate it. It will come together.   I speak the blessing of the almighty over you  today. May the Lord make you like Rachel and Leah   who together built the house.  All things work together. How many of you love the Lord?   How many of you are called  according to his purpose?   If that's you… "I'm not called according to my  experience. I'm called according to his purpose." 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.
Info
Channel: Elevation Church
Views: 2,143,178
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: elevation church, steven furtick, steven furtick sermons, it will come together, elevation church sermons, 2022 sermons, pastor steven furtick, preaching, all things work together, big picture, timing, patience, blessings, god’s kitchen, ingredients, ruth, appointed time, order, direction, provision, provider, covenant, mixed blessings, purpose, season of life, people leave, relationships, god’s plan, pain, identity, shame, disappointment, desire, sermons about purpose, sermons about blessings
Id: X_dl50aDEr0
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 66min 48sec (4008 seconds)
Published: Sun Mar 27 2022
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.