Fix Your Focus | Steven Furtick

Praising may not make our problems disappear, but it will put them in perspective. When we praise, we’re reminded that our God is fierce, great, and powerful — and He’s fighting for us. This is an excerpt from “Don’t Tap Out Tap In.” To watch the full message from ‪@elevationchurch‬, click here:    • Don’t Tap Out Tap In | Pastor Steven …   #faith #peace #hope #stevenfurtick #elevationchurch #protection #attack #struggle Chapters: 0:00 – God’s Got This Fight 2:30 – You Have A Song, Use It! 4:28 – Focus On Your Fruit 6:30 – Rising Out Of The Chaos 9:00 – Permission To Protect Your Destiny Scripture References: Isaiah 27, verses 1-2 Song of Solomon 2, verse 15

The Enemy is after me, but God doesn’t tell me
to defeat the Enemy. I’ll read it again until

at least one person shouts about that. “In that
day,” God says, “I will punish with my sword,

my fierce, great, and powerful sword.” Notice
what the Lord didn’t say. “In that day,

I want you to fight a little harder and
do a little more and try a little harder.”

God says, “I see what’s going on in your life.
I know what’s dragging you down in your spirit.

I hear the cries of your depression. I see the
trembling hands your anxiety is causing. I see

the trauma you buried deep enough to get it
past people.” But man looks on the outward

appearance and God looks on the heart. God sees
past the struggle, and God sees the source.

God looks past your weakness, and God
gives more strength. “What shall we say,

then, in response to these things? If God
is for us, who can be against us? Shall

not he who delivered his Son freely give
us all these things?” I came to announce,

“It’s his fight.” High-five three
people and say, “It’s his fight.”

Okay. You don’t get it yet. Let me help you get
it. God is not like Graham in the story I told,

and the Devil is not Vitor. God is not at the
mercy of anything or anyone or anywhere to do what

you’re asking him to do in your life. His sword is
fierce. His sword is great. His sword is powerful.

His sword is fierce. His sword is great. His
sword is powerful. I know three things. His

sword is fierce. His sword is great.
His sword is powerful. Guess what that

means for me? It means I don’t have
to focus on what I’m fighting with.

I can focus on the one who is fighting
with me in the battle anytime I choose.

So, if I could break it down for you, I’d
say there is a fight and there is a sword,

but the sword is in God’s hand, not
yours. This is why all of our efforts

to try to fight in our flesh fail eventually.
You’re not bigger than it. You’re like Graham

trying to armbar Vitor and wondering,
“Why does this keep happening to me?”

It’s because you haven’t really understood your
responsibility in this relationship with God. He

said, “The fight is mine.” The sword is his, but
watch this. Verse 2: “In that day—’Sing about a

fruitful vineyard…'” The sword is his. The song is
mine. I will help you with this in any way I can,

because I believe your song is God’s sword.
I believe our worship of Jesus Christ is a

powerful weapon against whatever has wrapped
itself around your life. When I say worship…

I am not confined to the first 20 minutes of
church when I think about worship. Worship,

for me, is a way of looking at
my life. When I praise his name,

something miraculous happens. My problems
get smaller. I can’t explain it, but when

I praise his name, stuff starts shrinking
and strength starts growing. So, my question

is…Have you been more focused
lately on your fight or your fruit?

I want you to focus more on your fruit and less
on your fight. I want you to focus more on where

God is growing you and less on how the Enemy is
grabbing you. You know that’s happening right

now. The Enemy is grabbing for your soul, grabbing
for your peace, grabbing for your family, grabbing

for your right mind, grabbing for your destiny,
grabbing for your advance, grabbing for your

maturity, grabbing for your discipleship, grabbing
for your prayer life, grabbing for your worship.

But while he’s grabbing, God
is growing. Very practically,

let’s run it back and walk it out. There’s a
fight and there’s fruit. My question is…Which

one are you focused on more? The one you
look at more and the one you speak about

more will have the leverage in your
life. Understand this. God is telling

them to sing about a vineyard that isn’t even
there yet. Sometimes you sing over the fruit;

sometimes you sing over the seed. That’s when
God has given you the potential for something.

God will cause you sometimes to sing
over a seed. Remember, the nation of

Israel was facing captivity, yet in the chaos
of captivity comes forth the beauty of creation.

I see it happen in your life as I preach
it to you. Out of the chaos…Leviathan,

the chaos monster…out of the chaos of this
season, out of the chaos of the mistake you made,

out of the chaos of what was passed down
to you that you’ve been dealing with,

out of the chaos of a failed business,
out of the chaos of a failed relationship,

out of the chaos of the distraction you’ve
been dealing with comes a new creation.

The Lord says, “I want you to start singing.” One
thing I realized when we’re worshiping together is

there are things I’m dealing with back home that
God is doing because of what’s happening in here.

When I look around and see you at church,
I know your decision to be here doing this

is waging war against whatever is waiting for you
when you leave this place. Do you believe that?

One time, somebody wanted healing from Jesus,
and Jesus said, “Go. They’re already healed.”

At the exact time he spoke the word the child
was healed back home. Do you want God to fight

your battles? Start focusing more on your
fruit than you focus on the fight. When

you call people it’s all right to vent, but
don’t vent so much you ruin your vineyard.

The Bible says in Song of Solomon 2:15
you have to catch the little foxes that

spoil the vine. Isn’t it the little foxes?
Isn’t it the little fox you allow to repeat

in your head? Isn’t it the little things that
build up until you go, “Where the…?” Because

Leviathan is a gliding serpent. He doesn’t
make a lot of noise. He’s a coiling serpent.

He doesn’t say, “Hey! I’m the Devil. Want to
ruin your life? Come along with me. We’ll get

it done together. It’ll be a lot of fun. You’ll
end up in rehab. You’ll have deep debt. You’ll

be crippled in debt. You’ll never be able to
afford to send your kids to college. Come on

over here.” He’s a gliding serpent. He’s a
coiling serpent. He is a silent strategist.

I’m really glad my dad talked to me about
our family’s genetic predisposition to

alcoholism when I was young. I think
it’s a brilliant thing he did for me.

Because he took me aside and talked to me,
he kind of got in my head and convinced me,

“If you ever start drinking, you will love
it.” He was like, “Trust me. I do it. I’m

being honest with you, son. I’m telling
you this will be hard for you to beat.”

He was like, “What I think would be cool is if
you just never do it.” I was like, “Dang, man.

All of my friends…you know.” But he started this
when I was, like, 5. My friends weren’t drinking

when I was 5. Then every year he would renew
the conversation. “You know, if you ever start

doing it, you’re going to be homeless. You’ll
probably end up on heroin if you start drinking

alcohol.” He had me so scared because he had seen
what it did because it was all in his family.

I use this as an example, but we could
substitute a lot of things here. I’m

going to tell you about my journey with this.
For years of my life, when I was an adult,

I would explain to people sometimes… They’d
go, “Do you want a glass of wine? Do you want

a drink? Do you want this?” I’d be like,
“No, I don’t drink.” I’m telling y’all,

they would look at me like I said, “I don’t
brush my teeth. I don’t shower. I don’t pray.”

They’d look at me so crazy, like I was an alien.
Holly and I would be around a lot of people… And

no judgment on any of it. I don’t think it’s a
sin to drink, but it was just my dad had told me,

“Just so you know, this Leviathan has ruined a
lot of my life.” He didn’t call it Leviathan,

but that’s what he was telling me about. He didn’t
give me Isaiah 27:1. He just said, “If you ever

start drinking, it’s a bad boy.” So, we’re 25
years old now, 30 years old now, sitting around.

Sometimes we’d be sitting around with preachers.
“Hey, do you want something to drink?”

“No, it’s cool. You go ahead.”

“You don’t drink? Why don’t you drink? Would
you like a Hi-C? Would you like a Capri Sun?”

I’m telling you, we have been mocked over this
more… And we’ve been mocked over a lot of stuff.

This one ranks up there with all of them. I would
never say you shouldn’t, and I don’t think that.

I don’t even believe that, but what I would say
is this is something in my life that I feel very

predisposed… In fact, most of my disciplines
are a result of my weakness, not my strength.

If you saw how many Diet Cokes I drink a day,

you would be glad I don’t drink alcohol,
because it could get ugly. (Don’t email me

about cancer in Diet Cokes. Everybody needs
something in their life to look forward to.

Do not take my aspartame away. I’ll fight
you like a… I’ll put you in an armbar.)

Watch me. I said, “We don’t drink.” One day
I realized that if I had lost my family to

alcoholism and told them, “Hey, I don’t drink.
I’m in recovery. I lost my family,” they’d go,

“That’s great. Good for you. You
should write a book about that.” So,

I spoke to our youth at YTHX in Orlando this
summer, and I told them about Leviathan.

I said, “Everybody in here has a
Leviathan. Your parents have one.

Your preacher has one. Some of them we
know the name, and some of them we don’t,

but one thing I do know right now is that you have
permission from God to become very intentional

about living your life in a way that protects
you from whatever threatens your destiny.”

I told the youth, “I’m not in recovery; I’m
in precovery.” I made that up. Do you like it?

I’m going to trademark that. Precovery. I know
I am such a mess, I know I am such a goofball,

I know I am such a dork there are certain
things I can’t handle or play with. So why

not make a decision today that I’m not going
to play with something that I’m going to have

to pray for God to take away 10 years from
now? Who the Son sets free is free indeed.