You Are Not Your Mistakes | Encouraging message about identity | Steven Furtick

Your past has no authority over your identity. God says you’re loved, chosen, and purposed for more–speak this over yourself today. This is an excerpt from “I’m Going Through But I’m Running Over.” To watch the full message from ‪@elevationchurch‬, click here:    • I’m Going Through But I’m Running Ove…   Scripture References: Psalm 23, verse 4 #faith #peace #hope #stevenfurtick #elevationchurch #identity, #perspective, #discouragement

We should never let an event become our
identity. Ever. Watch me work this out

now. I’m talking about our adversities and
our achievements. No event should become your

identity. That is a fragile, flawed foundation to
build your house on. One storm can knock it down.

No achievement should be me
in my mind. No achievement,

no talent, no ability should be conflated
with my character as I decide who I am.

I remember a lady told me one time, “I
grew up in the Lowcountry where you did.”

She said, “I have a bone to pick with
you.” I said, “A bone to pick with me?

You are from the Lowcountry talking
like this. Let’s pick.” She said,

“I’ve got a bone to pick with you. I listen to
your sermons, and you don’t talk like where you

come from.” She had a deep Southern accent.
She said, “If you’re from Moncks Corner,

South Carolina, why can’t I hear your
Southern accent when you preach?”

I said, “Lady, I don’t know. I didn’t take
a class. I didn’t have it cast out. I don’t

know. I can put it on anytime I want to,
but I don’t know. It just kind of fell off

along the way.” It’s a good question,
what she asked me. “Why don’t you talk

like where you come from?” I’ve got a
bone to pick with a lot of believers.

How our mouths speak so much about what we’re
missing, and we claim to have Christ as the

center of our lives. “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.” “And through him were all
things made that were made,” Colossians says. So,

the beginning was the Word. The Word
was Jesus. Jesus is in you. If Jesus

is in you and you came from him, then
why do you say you can’t make it?

If Jesus is in you and you come from him and all
the fullness of the deity dwells in Jesus… Not

baby Jesus. I’m talking about reigning Jesus. I’m
talking about Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Touch your neighbor and say, “Talk like where
you came from.” Come on. Let’s practice. Say,

“I’m blessed. I’m highly favored. I’m anointed

for this. I’m absolutely dead smack in
the center of God’s will for my life.

He woke me up this morning. My
cup is overflowing. I owe him

the praise. Do you know where I come
from?” I wonder. Did you forget where

you came from because of what you went
through? “Yea, though I walk through

the valley of the shadow of death…” But
that’s Psalm 23:4. We’re not there yet.

David started this whole thing off by saying,

“The Lord is my shepherd.” Identity.
“I walk through the valley.” Event.

Flip the whole thing around, and you’ll
feel better. Flip the whole thing around,

and you’ll be able to breathe again.

Flip the whole thing around, and you might be
surprised at what you see about your situation.

No success makes me who I am. No failure limits
what I can be, because the Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want. We could go home, but
we’re not going to, because some of y’all

are going through. It would shock you what
someone on your row might be going through.

I had two conversations in the last 24
hours that shocked me. People I had been

around and had no idea what they were going
through. People I was in regular contact with,

and I had no idea their family member committed
suicide. They didn’t tell anybody. They didn’t

even tell their pastor. They didn’t know
if they could. They felt ashamed about it.

I had a conversation with someone
I love very much the other day,

and they made a statement that I believe
expresses the sentiment of many of us,

spoken or unspoken. He was in the middle of a
spiraling emotional state, and he said to me,

“I hate myself so much right now. I hate myself
so much right now.” I didn’t say anything,

because that kind of statement
needs a little bit of space.

But after he had said it as much as he needed
to say it, I said, “Let’s say it a little bit

differently this time. Let’s say it, but let’s
say it differently. Let’s say it like we know

where we come from. Not ‘I hate myself
right now.’ ‘I hate how this is making me

feel right now.'” Do you see? Now I’m talking to
addicts. Not “I hate myself because I do this.”

“I hate how this sin chains me to the ‘me’
that I don’t have to be anymore that is pattern

program-based, not potential-conscious. I hate
this event, but the event is not the identity.

So now I can fight it because I am not it.” Say,

“I am not it.” “My mama told me to pick
the very best one, and I am not it.”

Give God praise that you’re not it.
“I did it, but I’m not it. I’m in it,

but I’m not it. It’s with me in church this
morning, but I’m not it. It came with me, but

it’s not going to get in me, and even if it’s in
me, it’s got to get out, because I’m not built…”