Why You Put Yourself Down | Steven Furtick

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments
Captions
There are two tendencies we all have.  Let me go in teacher mode for a moment.   We either have a tendency to dramatize   (I don't think you should look at your husband  or wife right now; I think you should look   straight ahead. I'm just giving you a marriage  seminar) or to downplay. Both are dangerous.   To dramatize… "Oh, this is  the worst ever. It's never   been like this before. Nobody  ever said anything nice to me." Yes, 17 people did, just not the one you wanted  to say it the way you wanted them to say it.   That's dramatize. Overgeneralize.  "They always… They never…" Dramatize,   dramatize. That's to make it  bigger than it really is, and   that's a problem. Trust me. From firsthand  experience, I know. I'm not talking about what   I studied in a textbook; I'm talking about what I  lived out in my own psychosis of sanctification. To go, "That really wasn't that  big. What was wrong with me?" You   watch old film of yourself in your mind,  and you're like, "God, that's embarrassing.   Please, let's delete that off the hard drive  of history." I'll tell you what else is just as   bad as dramatizing, though: downplaying  stuff, to go like, "Oh, it doesn't bother me." I was encouraged that God allowed Samuel to go  through a grieving process of his disappointment.   He wasn't saying, "You're not allowed to mourn."  The eleventh commandment is not "Thou shalt not be   disappointed." But if the disappointment  becomes a dead end, that's a problem. What I'm having to learn to do in  my adult life right now… How many   grown-ups do we have watching the  message? Or grown-ups in the making,   in metamorphosis. How many potential,  future, hopeful grown-ups do we have?   In my adult life, I'm having to learn how not   to dramatize it while at the  same time not to downplay it. "How long will you mourn over what I have  rejected?" There comes a time where you   have to put it in its place and move on, but  there also comes a time where you have to   say, "That sucked." That sucked when they lied  to me. That sucked when they said they had my   back and they actually did have my back,  but they had a knife they used in my back.   That sucked. I gave so much and  received so little. That sucked. The funny thing is some people  can't even hear the message I'm   saying right now because I said the word  sucked. Something so small is that word,   and the holes in my jeans will keep somebody  from hearing the message I'm trying to preach.   We have this tendency to make big what God calls  small and to make small what God calls big. The trick of it is don't ever  diminish anybody else's pain…ever.   Don't ever try to tell them things like, "Eh,  psh." I mean, you can give them a little tough   love, like, "Come on. Let's go. Let's do it.  Come on, it'll be all right." You can do that,   but don't ever look at somebody like,  "That's all you're going through?" I used to get frustrated when people would… I call  them toppers. I don't know what you call them.   Like, you have a good story; they  have a good story. You won a trophy;   they won a Grammy. There's nothing you can do.  You have a house; they have a neighborhood.   You went to the beach; they went  to Mars. They bought an island. Not only do we try to top each  other with accomplishments,   but it can be like, "Oh, you went  through that? I went through this."   We do it mentally. We kind of make  what other people go through small.   Something we don't realize is  we are only seeing it… Remember,   what you think is small is  relative to what you've seen. That's also true when it comes to people's pain.  Sometimes you're only seeing it on the surface,   and you're like, "Why is that so hard for them?"  There is a history to why that's so hard for them.   Something knocks them off balance, and  you're like, "Well, I went through that,   and I didn't act like that at all. That's a  small thing." No, that's what you call small. You have your own little petty problems  too. We all do. In the passage,   Samuel has this moment that, for us, is  so… You're just going to pour some oil on   somebody's head? No, it's much bigger than  that to him. This is a big moment for him. Even what we've been going through the  last year since our lives changed so much…   I think there's this tendency to be like,  "Oh, it's not that big of a deal." It is.   It's weird. I'm kind of worried about what  it will do to us as a society that we're not   touching each other. That's not a small thing.  Do you understand that? Sometimes we downplay it. Sometimes when I'm excited about  something that's in my life,   I will downplay it. There's a reason I do  it. If I make it seem small, I feel safe.   The other day, I was telling somebody about  a song I wrote. I was showing it to them,   but I was scared they wouldn't like it as  much as I did, so as I'm playing it, I'm like,   "It's not really that good of  a song. Just a little song.   I'm not saying it's a big song or  anything like that." What was I doing? I was making it small while I showed it to them so  I could beat them to the punch of putting it down.   If I call it small, you don't get the chance  to. Sometimes we go around just saying stuff   about ourselves, just putting ourselves down.  The problem with that is Christ is in you.   When you put down what he made, you insult the  manufacturer, and you don't get to do that. See, there's a danger in downplaying it too.  "Oh, this song…" Elijah said to me afterward, "I   thought we liked that song. Were we talking about  the same song? Are we listening to the same song?"   I said, "You caught me." I admitted  to him. I confessed to him. I said,   "Forgive me, father, I have  sinned." I do that sometimes. I'll make it small because it makes me feel safe,   because somehow, I believe that for God to be  big I have to be small. God is not like Saul.   God is not insecure. In fact, this is  worth putting on your refrigerator:   God doesn't need you to be smaller for him  to be big. God is not going to get any bigger   because you shrink yourself down smaller.  "Oh, I'm just a worm. I'm just a sinner." That's already established. All of that is  already a fact. We already know you came   out of Bethlehem. We already know you're  limited. We already know you're human.   The thing about when you bring  yourself down to that level…   It doesn't acknowledge your humanity; it  diminishes the divinity God has put inside of you. We think God is like our insecure  friends from middle school   who had to bring us down for them to climb up. God  is not like that. Religion is like that. Religion   treats God like the worst boss you've ever had.  The only way they can feel big is to belittle you.   So then we bring that same mentality  into our relationship with God. We think that for God to be great and glorious  we have to be screwed up and horrible. "O God,   I'm so sorry. Everything about me is wrong."  That's how Saul was. That's not how God is.   Saul was so insecure… Remember, he didn't  think he was a king in his own eyes,   so when David came out to fight Goliath, Saul  said, "You can't fight him. You're too small." Can I ask you something? Was Saul talking  about David or was Saul talking about Saul?   That's the same thing David's big, tall brother  Eliab said. He was still salty that Samuel   didn't anoint him. Remember? Samuel is walking  around. He's like, "Oh, the tall one." The tall   one reminded him of the Saul one. We gravitate  toward what's familiar, even if it's not right.   "Oh, this must be how it is." The Lord  said, "I don't look at what you look at.   I don't see what you see. I  don't measure like you measure.   I don't take stock like you take  stock. I don't count like you count." "What you call small I call sacred."   Aren't you glad that what you call  small…? Your little life, running around,   barely getting the to-do list done on a good day,  and I mean barely. I didn't even say you got it   done well. I just said you kind of got through  it enough to call it a day. All of that adds up. Davide was asking about a RHYTHM album the  other day. I sent him a screenshot of every   single that RHYTHM has released. I said, "You  already made the album. You just didn't know   it while you were doing it. You've released 11  songs. That's an album. But to you it was small."   You're already building a legacy in  your kids. If your kids are not yet at   the stage or age where they're telling  you "Thank you," that doesn't matter. The kids started reminiscing the other  day about things we did for them.   They remembered stuff I didn't remember.   They remembered stuff that while I was doing  it, I was like, "You ungrateful angels."   "Remember when you took us out of school and  took us to the thing?" I'm like, "You know,   I don't remember that. It was a blur to me."  What I thought was small… They were getting it. The words we speak, the good ones, the bad ones…  Sometimes you just say something to somebody, and   you think nothing of it. You tell them, "Oh, that  looks good on you." It changed their whole day.   Even if you have to lie to somebody once  in a while, just take five seconds. "That   looks great on you." It's like a Rahab  lie. You know what I'm saying? The Lord   will forgive you for it. It's a greater good  kind of issue. But even the little things. I was talking to a friend the other day. I  said, "Remember when you told me [blah, blah,   blah]?" He goes, "Nuh-uh." I said, "Really?  It was a turning point for my life." He said,   "Yeah, that's cool. I don't remember it. I'm glad  about it." I figure he must be in such the habit   of just doing the small thing and letting  God count, and letting God do the math… God doesn't look at what you look at. You look for  immediate results. God looks for eternal impact.   God doesn't look at what people look at.   God doesn't see the situation. He doesn't see the  challenge. I think the reason David could kill   Goliath was because he saw him with fresh eyes.  Everybody else had been out there for 40 days.   The longer they looked at the challenge, the  smaller they felt, the smaller God seemed. The longer you think about it, whatever it is… The  bigger it gets, the smaller God gets in your mind.   On the other hand, when you worship, like  you are right now… This is not a small thing   that you're spending an hour listening  to the Word of God. This Word is seed. This seed of this Word implanted is able  to save your soul. It can be grafted   into your grief and give you joy.  It can challenge and redirect.   One word. James compared it to the rudder of  a ship. The rudder is small. The ship is big.   The little thing affects the big thing.   A horse can weigh 2,000 pounds. The human  tongue weighs less than a quarter of a pound. James makes the argument in James 3  that the tongue is to the life what   the rudder is to the ship. The tongue is  to your life what the bit is to the horse.   What you call small… Stuff you say in  anger people live with for a decade.   What you call small… You have to watch  what you speak in moments of frustration. My mom taught me, "Don't ever tell me when you and  Holly get in a fight." She told me this before I   married her. She said, "Y'all will get over it  by Tuesday, and I'll still be hating her about   it on my deathbed, because you're my baby. I don't  want to know." I thought, "That's great advice."   It'll be a little thing to y'all. It's  small to y'all, but it's big to me. That's why I used to get hurt when I  preached. I'd go up to somebody and be like,   "Did you like the sermon?" They'd be like,  "Yeah, yeah." "What did you get out of it?"   "Uh…that part where you said the thing about  God was, you know, doing stuff? I liked that."   God was doing stuff? I studied so  hard. That's what you got out of it?   It was small to you. It was a sacrifice for me. And vice versa. There are volunteers in the  church, and you start feeling like, "Nobody   ever even cares I do anything. No, that's fine.  I'll mop. I'll get my mansion in heaven." But deep   down inside you're wondering, "Does anybody care  that I'm here? Does anybody see that I'm here?"   Oh, I know it seems small. I know it  seems unappreciated. I know it seems   like people just trample over top of you  to something they think is more important. Good thing that what man  calls small God calls big.   "We need to feed this big crowd, Jesus, and they  need to go away. The crowd is big." "Okay. What   do you have with you?" John 6:9. Get ready to  shout over the small stuff in your life. Get   ready to shout over the small assignments.  Don't shout yet. Just get ready to shout. "Here is a boy with five small…" What kind  of barley loaves? Big fat barley loaves?   "…five small barley loaves and two small fish…"   Of all the ink God needed  to use to write the Bible,   he wanted to make sure you knew it was  small stuff he blessed and multiplied.
Info
Channel: Official Steven Furtick
Views: 221,940
Rating: 4.9648623 out of 5
Keywords: pastor steven furtick, elevation church, steven furtick sermons, steven furtick sermon clips, 2021 sermons, steven furtick 2021, preacher, preaching, why you put yourself down, what you call small, perspective, comparison, pain, disappointment, negativity, sermons about perspective
Id: KhdGkSwkiJk
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 18min 10sec (1090 seconds)
Published: Tue Mar 09 2021
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.