Steven Furtick - Is This Part of The Plan?
This is an excerpt from: Page Turner
The Holy Spirit showed me we would be speaking in this series about some necessary messes in your life. It’s a mess right now, but it is not because God forgot where to put things. It is not because God has left you. It’s messy right now. Something is missing right now. It doesn’t make sense right now, but it is a necessary mess. For the Holy Spirit to come, Judas had to go. I will prove it to you. Peter says it was written in Psalms when David wrote about Judas, and he mentions how Judas (see the language) served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus.
Now, in our story, the fact that Judas led Jesus to be arrested makes him… Let’s write it. Judas is the villain. Right? You sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. They take him to the cross just when he’s at the height of his ministry. Judas is the villain. By the way, I thank God for the Holy Spirit, because I was practicing this sermon this morning, and I was spelling villain wrong. The Holy Ghost told me, «Go get your dictionary app,» and I realized the A comes before the I, and I didn’t have to learn it on YouTube. Let’s thank the Holy Spirit, the ghostwriter. I’ll tell you, I wrote it 15 times while I was practicing this sermon, and it was like, «That doesn’t look right. I don’t know about that». Thank you, Holy Spirit, for keeping me from making a fool out of myself.
So, he’s the villain, but Peter said something very interesting. He said he served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus. It has been 45 days now. As the story is unfolding, Judas is the villain. He is the one betraying Jesus. But it has been 45 days, and Jesus has given instructions now, and they have spent time with the ghostwriter. Now Peter sees it a little differently. He says, «It had to be fulfilled». We thought Judas was the villain, and from one standpoint he is, but it had to be fulfilled because he was the guide who got Jesus arrested, and Jesus had to be arrested in order to be accused. He had to be accused in order to be sentenced. He had to be sentenced in order to be sacrificed. He had to be sacrificed in order to be buried. He had to be buried in order to be raised. He had to be raised in order that you could be saved.
So, now I see Judas wasn’t the villain; Judas was the vessel. God says what you’ve been calling the villain of your story, the thing you think came to kill you… Oh, no. God said, «I sent that as a vessel to deliver my grace in your life». There is something in your life… Are you ready for this? Not everybody can handle this level of preaching, because we need Judas to be the villain. We think everything that hurts comes from hell, but some of the stuff that hurt me didn’t come from hell. David said, «It was good for me that I was afflicted». Some of the stuff that hurt me humbled me. It humbled me because God said, «If you’ll be humble in my sight, at due time I will lift you».
So now let me preach. It’s not a movie; it’s an episode. You think this is the end of your story, but you forgot something. This is a page turner. Get ready for this. In your life right now, there is somebody who is waiting to see if you’re going to keep going after you’ve been through what you’ve been through. There’s somebody. You know what? Your life is a page turner. Your grandbabies are waiting to see how this turns out. Will you go back or will you go forward? Will you stay in Luke 22 or will you stand up by the Spirit of the God who saved you?
Don’t tell me this is a fairy tale. It’s real in my life. I’ve watched people die and praise God with their last breath, and the story still wasn’t over. I’ll tell you about an encounter I had in a bookstore with a lady named Bianca. She wandered into the bookstore and had prayed that morning, «I need a sign, God». She was leaving her house for the first time in weeks. She saw me, and I was over there in the Christian living section, checking if they had my book on the shelf.
I wish I could say I went to pray for people or learn something, but I was on a different mission. She walks over and says, «Pastor»? I said, «Yes»? She said, «I don’t mean to bother you». I said, «It’s not a bother». She said, «I’m Bianca». I said, «Hi, Bianca». She said, «I just kind of can’t believe what I’m seeing right now. I’ve had a really hard time the last few years, and I have all but quit on God. The worst part is I moved to Charlotte to go to Elevation Church, and I haven’t been since quarantine. But today I said, 'I’m going to get out of the house. I’m going to make an appointment to have a facial, and I’m going to go to the bookstore. I’m going to do one thing physical and one thing spiritual.' I said, 'God, if I go out today and don’t get a sign that you’re still with me, I don’t know if I can make it. Two miscarriages in three years. I don’t know if I can make it. Marriage barely hanging on because of how low I am at the bottom of these feelings. I don’t know if I can make it. But if, God, you will give me a sign today…'»
I said, «Bianca, what about the sign that you moved to Charlotte to come to Elevation and God brought somebody else who moved to Charlotte to go to Elevation to this bookstore»? (I don’t want to give them by name, because they’re not sponsoring me and they didn’t have my book.) She said, «Well, I came over here to buy a book. Can you recommend a good one for me»? I said, «Absolutely. I’ll buy you two. If the first one doesn’t work, surely the second one will. If neither of them are good, I paid for them so you can’t complain, Bianca. This is your sign». I thought it was really funny, because I bought her a Joyce Meyer book and signed it «Steven Furtick». Then she turned to me before we left and said one more thing. «You’ve done so much, and I don’t mean to ask for more, but do you have anything to say to me that might help me to believe that God is not done with me»?
I had no idea what to say to her, because what do you say? You don’t say a cookie-cutter Christianese phrase that rhymes and sounds like «Hickory-dickory dock, it takes all you’ve got». What do you say? I’m thankful that I had help in that moment. Do you know the Holy Spirit will help you know what to say…to say to your kid, to say to your wife, to say to yourself, to say to your accuser, to say to your shame, to say to your mountain? I’ll tell you what to say to your mountain. «Move! I don’t feel like climbing today, and I don’t have hiking shoes. Get out of my way! Move»! God is not through with you. I reached and grabbed one more book off the shelf, and the Holy Spirit gave me something to share. I shared it last year, but y’all forgot it. I reached and got a book, and I just held it. Where I held it was about right in the middle.
I looked at her and said, «Bianca, I’m so sorry for what you suffered. I’m so sorry how it has hurt you. I have no words to say that can make the miscarriages go away. I have no words to say that can guarantee the next result. I have no prophetic word from the Lord, but I feel like the Lord wants you to know that your life is a story he’s telling, and you’re only this far in». You’re only this far in. Y’all, I preached all this, and it’s just Acts, chapter 1. The Devil wants you to think this scene is this, and it’s not this. God is just getting started. «In my former book, Theophilus…» «In my last book, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do, but he’s just getting started».
He’s just getting started, because when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you will have power. When the Holy Ghost comes, he will guide you into all truth. When the Holy Ghost comes, you will stand up straight where you used to sit in shame. When the Holy Ghost comes upon you… He’s a baptizer. The Holy Ghost is a corrector, the Holy Ghost is a comforter, and the Holy Ghost is a page turner. If your life is a story God is telling, like Peter’s life is a story God was telling, like the gospel is the story God is always telling, that dead things rise, that sins can be forgiven, that new beginnings are possible… You look at your life from your point of view. You call Judas the villain, heartbreak the villain. You are tempted in this moment to close the book and go back, but the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, is a page turner who does not leave me in Luke 22 but brings me to Acts, chapter 1.
So, welcome to the next chapter, Bianca. Welcome to the sequel, Theophilus. Welcome, Peter. Y’all, what touched me so much reading this was to realize Peter could have been dead right there alongside Judas. They both failed Jesus. The difference between Peter and Judas wasn’t what they did or didn’t do. They both messed up. It’s that Peter was a page turner. «Okay, God. That happened. That happened. That happened. Now, Holy Spirit…» I ask you, I adjure you, I commission you by the grace of God that is given to me to sit with the Holy Spirit this week. «How do I do that, Pastor? I’ve never done that before». It is as simple as you sitting down with a page of the Scripture. Sit down with the same Scripture I read today.
Take your Bible, open it to Acts, chapter 1, and say, «Lord, Holy Spirit, speak to me. Show me your lens on my life, because I’m looking through my lens, and it doesn’t make sense. I’m looking through my lens, and I’m a single mom, and I’m not going to be able to give this child what they need to grow up with a strong family presence. I’m looking through my lens, and I don’t have enough to do this, yet you gave me the opportunity. Why did you call? God, give me your lens, the lens of your Spirit». Peter, who was sitting by a fire, stood up among the disciples. «In those days…» In between the space of Jesus the Savior rising from the grave and the Spirit of God coming, not knowing how long they would wait, he acknowledged the mess and the uncertainty, and he said some very powerful words. «For it is written…»
That is what is going to tell you what to do next. «It is written in the book of Psalms: 'May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it…'» That is a direct quote from Psalm 69:25. «…and, 'May another take his place of leadership.'» So, he said, «It was written in Psalm 69:25 that Judas was going to leave. That’s what God was talking about all of those years ago, and it’s happening in our situation, and…» See, if you stop there, «May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,» it’s hopeless. «We don’t have what we need. We can’t move forward. Jesus is gone. We don’t know». It is the power of this and. Peter said in Psalm 69:25 it says, «May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it». But in Psalm 109:8 it says, «May another take his place of leadership».
I prophesy «another» over your life today…another chapter, another victory, another testimony…another one, another one, another one, another one. You don’t get this kind of wisdom unless you’re a page turner. You have to get in here and start to see what God says about you, about your life, and ask him, «Holy Spirit, speak to me». That’s what I write at the top of my notes every time I read the Bible. «Holy Spirit, speak to me from this Scripture».
If I don’t, I’ll think Judas was the villain when really he’s the vessel. I’ll think the rejection was a curse when really it was a blessing to make more space in my life for what God has next. I’ll think the problem is permanent and the faith is temporary, and I will not know that the faith was meant to remain and the problem came to pass. I’m telling you that God can speak over your situation, but you need the ghostwriter so you stop telling yourself there’s a period where there’s a comma; so you stop telling yourself that because you’re messy God can’t give you a ministry. The Devil is a liar, and the Holy Ghost is true.