Facing Not Enough | Steven Furtick
Our circumstances can trick us into operating from a place of lack, but we have a God who is orchestrating victory behind the scenes, even when we can’t see it on the surface. This is an excerpt from “Navigating Not Enough.” To watch the full message from @elevationchurch, click here: 
• Navigating Not Enough | Pastor Steven… To subscribe to more content like this click: https://ele.vc/DJwb4R Do The New You is available for purchase wherever you get books. Go to http://dothenewyou.com to get your copy today. #faith #peace #hope #stevenfurtick #elevationchurch #provision #grace #trust 0:00 – Facing Not Enough 2:58 – They Doubted Jesus Again?! 4:53 – Girl Math 6:53 – Let’s Talk About God Math 10:45 – You’re Not Seeing This Right 13:42 – God Is Greater Scripture References: Matthew 15, verse 32
Sometimes “not enough” is a fact. It is. I
met a lady last weekend. She came up to me
in tears. She said, “I listen to your sermons.
I love God, but I need a job.” We prayed on the
spot. I didn’t tell her, “Well, I’ll go home and
pray about whether God wants you to have a job.”
“You need a job? You have a God? I pray that
God would give you the greatest job. I pray that
he would open a door for you right now before
you get home today.” I don’t know if he will,
but I prayed for that. I love how she said
that. “I love God, but I need a job.” You
do need God and a job. For all of y’all
“All I need is God” things… And a job.
How many can testify? The light company,
the power company… They don’t really
respect that Holy Ghost currency, do they?
She said, “I love God, but I need a job.”
Sometimes it’s a fact. When I said “Sleep…” If
you have a child under the age of 73 or 74, there
are going to be some sleepless nights. Right?
But what you don’t want to do is let one need
feed another need, feed another need, until you
let a situation that is not enough turn into an
identity that you are not enough and eventually
start to believe that God is not enough, and
you die in a desert or a wilderness of want.
You don’t have enough money, but if you don’t
trust God with that and move forward in that,
then you definitely won’t get enough
sleep. And if you don’t get enough sleep,
you won’t have enough energy. And
if you don’t have enough energy,
you will not have enough opportunities. And if
they come, you’ll kill them. You’ll yawn at them
and pull a muscle. (I’m going to call back as
many times. I’m going to use what the Devil
meant for evil this morning, and I’m going
to preach it. I’ve been afflicted, y’all.)
“I don’t have any friends.” Well, if
you let it define you, and you begin to
navigate according to what you don’t have…
Jesus said something interesting. He said,
“I have compassion.” When you tap into
that… When you tap into the compassion
Christ has for you and the compassion he
has for others, bread is no problem to God.
I was just thinking how different this passage
would have been… You know, they fed 4,000 people,
verse 38 says, and they started with seven
loaves. I think it’s amazing that Jesus saw
people and they saw a crowd. It made
me start to wonder when it said that
they fed 4,000 people. Why did we always
say that it was the feeding of the 5,000?
How many of y’all have heard the story
that Jesus fed 5,000? Why do we always
call it that? Like, why don’t we count
the women and the children too? Well,
they didn’t at this time. That’s how they
did it at that time. Why do we call it
5,000 where it says 4,000 here? How many
of you were wondering that when I read it?
You were like, “Four thousand? I thought it was
five. What happened to the other thousand?” You’re
not going to believe this when I tell you.
This is the second time Jesus did this. So,
now you’re really judging the disciples,
because in Matthew 14, there were 5,000
people and 5 loaves of bread, and Jesus fed all
of them, and there were 12 baskets left over.
A chapter later… I’m not talking about
that happened in Matthew 3. That happened
in Matthew 14. What chapter is this? Okay. How
many of y’all are good enough at math to say,
“That’s not that long”? And how many of
you are good enough at math to put this
all together? They fed 5,000 with 5 loaves.
Now it’s only 4,000, and they have 7 loaves.
This should be easy. This should be simple. It’s
just simple math. Holly came to me this week. She
was like, “You need to see this.” Every once in
a while, she’ll bring me a trend or something,
just something that’s going on in pop culture,
just to make sure I’m aware. I
can be kind of clueless sometimes.
She’s like, “You need to know a few things today.”
She’ll tell me about gas prices or wars or Taylor
Swift attending football games…important
things. She started showing me something
called girl math. You’ve heard of this? I
have too because Holly showed me. Girl math.
She was like, “Watch this clip.” It was
a lady saying, “Okay. If it’s ‘buy one
get one free,’ and I don’t buy it,
I basically lost money. #girlmath.”
“If I spent $38 online at Sephora, but
it’s free shipping if you go to $40,
and I buy $20 of mascara so
I qualify for free shipping,
I basically saved money and got the mascara
for free. #girlmath.” I’m watching this like,
“Why, woman, are you showing me this? This
is triggering to me.” All kinds of stuff.
Then Abbey goes, “If I put the money on my
Starbucks card six months ago and spend it,
it’s basically free because I already put the
money on the card. #girlmath.” I’m like, “Well,
let me teach you some dad math. Until you are
paying rent in my house and buying food…” Anyway…
I don’t really know anything about girl math,
and I’ll probably get criticized or something.
I’ll get called a sexist or a misogynist or
some toxic masculinity something over this.
But I didn’t come to talk about girl math.
I do know something, though, about God math.
That’s the class I came to teach. Do you know
anything about God math? This is not a trend;
this is the truth. Can we talk about God math for
a minute? God math is when you have seven loaves
to start with and seven big basketfuls when
you’re done feeding a crowd. That’s God math.
I know something about God math. I don’t
know about this girl math or man math or
boy math or dad math or mom math, but
I know something about God math. Do any
of you know anything about God
math in your life? Maybe not.
Where everybody else walked away from you, but God
stayed with you, and you found out that if it’s
just you and God, that makes a majority, that’s
God math. I want to teach a class about God math,
because the Bible says he fed 4,000 with seven
loaves. Anytime you have something left over
that is greater than what you started with,
that’s God math. They fed 4,000 men besides
women and children. Did you see that? They didn’t
count the women. They didn’t count the children.
But God doesn’t count like people count, and
I’m glad he doesn’t count like people count.
If we were doing my math, and I’m standing at
a Red Sea, and all I have is a staff, then the
sea is greater than the staff, but if God put me
in front of that sea, and he spoke a word over
my purpose, then guess what happens? The staff
becomes greater than the sea. That’s God math.
If Moses were here, he would teach this class
with me. Can Moses be my adjunct professor today?
Come on. I need an assistant teacher, somebody
who knows something about God math. Maybe we
could call on David who had a nine-foot
giant and a little, tiny rock, but in the
hands of one who is committed and called and
chosen and anointed and oiled and raised by God,
by faith in God… One little rock. It
couldn’t have been that big. What,
about two inches around? Yeah. Two
inches around, nine-foot giant.
Watch two inches versus nine feet. That’s what
happens when you get God math in your situation.
Or maybe we need to call on Joshua who’s standing
in front of a 12-foot-thick wall called the wall
of Jericho, and all he has is a trumpet to deal
with a wall. Anytime you have a trumpet versus
a 12-foot-thick wall, you have a problem unless
you have a God who is greater than the problem.
One trumpet can collapse a 12-foot
wall. That’s God math. That’s not
man’s math. When you get in man’s math,
you start saying, “They’re bigger than
us. They’re stronger than us. It’s greater
than us.” But when you know he is for you,
who can be against you, even if the whole
host of the enemy’s camp rises up? I love it.
There’s this one story in the Old
Testament. The prophet named Elisha
sends his servant out to check in the
morning. The servant comes back and says,
“We’re in trouble. There are more of
them than there are of us.” Elisha says,
“He’s not seeing this right.” God is saying
over somebody, “You are not seeing this right.”
You’re on the wrong app. You keep pulling up
your map. You keep pulling up your calculator.
You keep doing your math, but I’ve got news for
you. Where God guides, he provides. Watch this.
If it’s God’s map, it’s God’s math. So, when
you find yourself in a remote area, and you
don’t know what to do or how to do it or what
to do it with… If I just came for three people,
I wanted you to know that if you’re where
he put you, then you have what you need.
If it’s God’s map, it’s God’s math.
So, the prophet said, “Open his eyes
that he may see that there are more with us
than with them.” That’s that God math. Yeah,
all of us who are bad at man’s math, let’s
get good at God’s math. Man’s math says,
“There’s nothing there but a cloud the size
of a man’s hand.” God’s math says, “I hear
the sound of the abundance of rain getting ready
to swell in your life.” Yeah, that’s God’s math.
I want to have a class called God’s
math, and we only need one thing
to show in the class. It’s just one
thing. If you want to write it down,
you can write it down. We don’t need a whole
semester. We don’t need a whole course. I
don’t even need but five more minutes. Show them
what God’s math looks like. That’s God’s math.
It’s not a hashtag; it’s a prophecy. It says
that whatever I’m going through is not greater
than the God who knew I would be in this
remote place with this limited resource. “Yeah,
but I only have six more months with my
kids. That’s not enough.” It is if you let
God do the math. He can take six months and
accomplish more than you could in six years.
Come out of man’s math. Come out of little
boy’s math. Come out of girl’s math,
women’s math. I don’t need man’s
math any longer because God knew
what I would need for this season. I have
never been in a situation that God called
me to and felt like I was enough in that
situation. Never. Enough is not a feeling.
Enough is a place of faith that God is greater.
God math. I know life has you in a place right now
where you never knew you’d be. The disciples could
relate. The interesting thing about this passage
is they were no longer on the shores of Capernaum
where they had done all of their ministry.
They were now in a Gentile region,
having to feed people who were
strangers to the covenant they belonged to,
and Jesus said, “I have compassion for these
people.” What that lets me know is that
God saw my situation coming before I did,
and he put in me what I need
before I felt the need arise.
If I say this to a crowd, then
it has a very limited yield,
but God sees people today who are navigating a
“not enough” in their life. You know that “not
enough” so well it has almost become your
name. For some of you, it is the shame of
the mistakes you have made that is keeping
you stuck in this season. By man’s math,
we all fall short of the glory of God, but
God’s math says that his grace is greater.
That’s the one word I want in your spirit
about your God for whatever you’re facing
today. As simple as it sounds, if the
disciples had realized that God’s plan
was greater, they would have never asked
the question, “Where are we going to get
enough?” You don’t have to ask about
bread when you’re standing next to it.