Elevation Ballantyne Campus Sermon notes Saturday, September 24, 2016 (Post Elevation Revival) Pastor Steve Furtick Sermon title: Elisha re-visited: Overwhelmed - but not out-numbered Scripture: Psalm 46: 1-2: Psalm 46:1-2: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea Elisha revised 2 Kings 6:15 to 17: Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, Alas, my master! What shall we do? 16 So he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the servant s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. EP 1:18 to 23: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Pre-sermon notes following demonstrations in Charlotte-NC: Elevation revival: We are defined by the cross not by what discourages us. One person took two weeks off to travel from the UK to attend all 10 revival events If you think he is worthy, give Him praise and make the devil mad. What an awesome and mighty God we serve. Perfect love casts out all fear. It would be good to fill this atmosphere with love. We need to sing the same songs on the mountain top as well as the valley. We greet you today in Jesus name. The name that is above every name. A name that we can run to regardless of what we are going through. There is always a place that we can come to in his presence and we can come as we are. Opening prayer: Lord open our eyes and our hearts and show us what you want to reveal. And will be strengthened and made one. You are the God of this city. Impart your word to us. We will be saved and we will be strengthened. Thank you for all that have done and have yet to be done. Bless these people in Jesus name. Elisha re-visited: Overwhelmed - but not out-numbered: See 2 Kings 6:15 and 16 I do not remember in seminary where Pastors are taught how to lead during a period of racial unrest in the city of Charlotte. If this church was all white or all black, perhaps this sermon would be an easier activity. Page 1
How do you like to be pastor right now for the largest and most racially diverse church in Charlotte? And be a pastor to all of them? I was not planning on preaching this weekend after ten days of worship and revival. God never called me to be politician. Nor am I a TV pundit since I am not that good looking. Nor am I running for anything. (... therefore you can t let me go) All that I want to ever be is a pastor to people. However, how to pastor to a black man and a white police officer that attend the same church? This pulpit is a sacred trust and my opinions do not matter. When it comes to weighty matters of life and death, I and we have a part to play. We have a part to play and to see what God can do through us. The Lord told me that I have a part to play this weekend and to preach bold and hard. Jesus is the same person he was yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I ask for your grace today due to my lack of preparation and exhaustion from a ten day revival. In the context of all this, someone is going to read into what I say or did not say and mis-state what I say. Here, I ask for a little latitude and grace right now. We are all overwhelmed right now. The conflict is not as extreme as it was once was. Recall that racism in America was a lot worse than in the 1950a and 1960s. We are not living in times where it is worse than it ever has been. There is a narcissistic tendency that makes us think that today is worse than yesterday. Our bible is battle tested. This is why I love my bible. We can come to the bible in period of darkness. Jesus came into a broken world to redeem broke people. The crisis has not changed, but the context is different. It might not have been as bad as before, however, It was not always buzzing inside of our pockets. Darkness in the bible = ignorance. It is dangerous context to post onto facebook 5 min. after learning about a crisis. You need to pray before you post something. Nothing good comes from an early post on a facebook page. The news cycle used to come on and go off. Now it is 24 cycle. We never wake up to bad news. We never wake up to it any more since the news never went to sleep. It can wear you down and overwhelm you. The cameras will always train to the bloodiest of events. The agenda of the mass media is not to inform you. Consider the context in 2 Kings: He was surrounded by enemies and his enemies were surrounded by God. How you react to a crisis depends on your context. The presence of trouble does not prove the absence of God. It provides people the greatest opportunity to see the abundance of God. It also proves that the people of God really believe what they believe. God is ever present during times trouble. The bible tells us this. God is still in Charlotte. There are great people in Charlotte. You might have missed this point if you were glued to Fox News. Elevation Church s first reaction is to reach out to include reaching out to the Scott family and the police officer involved in the shooting + City of Charlotte leadership. The presence of trouble does not prove the absence of God. This affords us the opportunity to shine a lite in the darkness. You would not want to be a part of church that does not reach out. Nor do you want a pastor that selects who is deserving of love and grace. Page 2
This is why we have been reaching out to community leaders and outreach partners in areas that are most affected because God does not become less real in times of trouble. Who we are and what we do are significant to this community. The world is watching what we will do when the mantle of leadership falls into our hands. Nothing you do out of fear is productive. In times of trouble, the question we ask most is what shall we do? Elisha deploys a parental tactic to answer this question: He does not answer the question of was what shall we do? Instead of getting practical, Elisha gets philosophical. He says: Don t be afraid. Therefore, Elisha answered the question of what to do by stating what not to do. Here Elisha is saying what you don t do is more important than what you do. Because nothing you do out of fear will fix anything. Paul Scanlon wrote the following on fear:.. What is going on in our country is far beyond the issue of race. Perhaps fear is the real enemy.. It is as if racism and hatred have ceased to be causes and now have become systems of a new root cause. Fear breads fear. And before long, communities and nations (both black and white) become enslaved to a new master fear. Fear does not wait for rational thought - it possesses a person and reacts in seconds - and will take years for our generation to manage. For the removal of fear is neither possible nor human. I pray for a fundamental reprogramming of the implicit biases, our below the radar faulty belief systems, and our auto pilot default settings which have and always will govern outcomes. Pray for all educators, communicators, pastors, law enforcement, politicians, and city leaders to step up with forensic wisdom and help us disarm and identify our real enemy. Fear. Key point: If you never see the outer ring of protection that is God and you never see past your fear, you will never see help (that is available to you). Fear is the enemy. Important disclaimer: I do not know how it feels like to be black in America. Nor I am a police officer. Nor would not know how to be police officer during times like this. I never have fired a weapon. I do know it feels like to be judged as a pastor by the worst of our profession. This is more than a racial thing. It is more than a color thing. All I am trying to say is that we need perspective. Elisha s servant says: What do we do? Yes we have to do something about systemic racism, under-served communities, and the criminal justice system. First we need to change our perspective. Elisha offers the answer. See vs. 17: Open his eyes Lord. What we need to pray for is the ability to see. We can t fix at the source if we only see it at the surface. Elisha says: Your biggest enemy is your fear. When you deal with this, you can see beneath the surface. When you see anger, help to understand the root of the anger. What it s like to see this news from another perspective. This will require you to listen. What it is like to see the news through your eyes? Ask this question: Help me see it like you see it? If we can talk like this, we can deal with things. Page 3
However, the devil has us so divided, afraid, and ignorant we can t even talk to each other because we only see through our own lens. Recall the story of Pastor Steven s dad when he was 11. Pastor Steven s mom helped Steven see below the surface. We are so busy shouting, we can t see everything. Now we are overwhelmed with social media and can t see it and we think that there is more evil than good. But that is not true there is far more good than evil. Remove yourself from social media where cowards say things with anonymity and comment on things they do not understand - people hiding behind their phones. Otherwise, you won t see it. To see what? What exactly does God want us to see? Allow the text of Elisha to inform us in the present crisis. See the words US and Them. You can t see straight and are overwhelmed by the news reporting system designed to keep us all on edge. What does God want us to see? Fear makes us look like them. Fear will cause a white person tinted by racism to say: You see, that is how they are. To the black person that sees an idiot white person and says: You see that is how that you are. We need to expose it for what it is and expose the devil for what it is. It is ignorance. It is division. It is the enemy s ploy to divide us so that we are defeated. The devil is a liar. Now we can t defeat the enemy because we are fighting each other because it is us vs. them operating out of fear and only see things at the surface and we can t pray and affect change, because we are overwhelmed by fear and lack of perspective. We need to come together as us. When our eyes are opened, we see more with us than we see with them. We can t allow the enemy to separate us vs. them. Otherwise there is no hope for success. We came to church to today with all of our belief systems and creeds and we are the church. We are the church and it is up to us. Perhaps Jesus should comment on the matter. In this world, you will have troubles. But take heart. I have overcome the world. It is up to us. I pray that God will open our eyes so that we can see the pain of others. If we can share perspectives, we can solve problems. If we blinded by lies, fears, and prejudices, we are merely groping around blind as an impotent church fighting against the very ones we should be fighting for and fighting with. There is more of us if we stick together. We are on a shared mission. We are a city on a hill. The enemy s strategy is division and fear. Man s panic does not produce God s power. It is not a good time for us to panic. Elisha s message is clear. He showed us what no to do and then showed us what to do. Make sure conversations happen and you gain perspective. Problems will not get solved until we share perspectives. Pray for every officer in our city that God will provide grace and integrity to do the right thing. Because this is an US thing. Stop seeing them and see US. It is up to us. The first thing to do is to see straight. Closing prayer: It is up to us. It really is. If we see straight, we can do better. Father, thank you for the message today. Please use what I preached to heal and to help people. I pray that we help encourage people. The news cycle does not provide hope it pontificates the problem but does not point to any Page 4
solution. Yet you bring us together as church and bring us through revival and then you position us to people to help a city that is hurting. To you Lord, we are willing to be an example of imperfect people who are trying to learn and wrap our arms around one another. And love one another and be a place that screams unity. The world is becoming more and more divided. Please use us to change the atmosphere and the conversation and the environment that we would be brothers and sisters first that we would learn to lay aside what is not essential - to come together around Jesus Christ our common ground in him there is no east or west nor north and south. We thank there is neither Jew nor Gentile. We thank there is neither free nor slave. We thank there is neither white nor black since we are new creations in Christ. So that we have the eyes to see the hope that we have been called. Benediction: Ephesians 1:18 to 23 Elevation Worship: The atmosphere is changing now for the spirit of the Lord is here. The evidence is all around us. Overflow in this place, fill our hearts with your love for your love surrounds us. You are reason we came. Spirit of God fall fresh on us. We need your presence. You kingdom come will come here as in heaven. Page 5