Don't Diminish Your Gift | Steven Furtick - YouTube

When you start thinking, "I don't have  anything to feel good about right now.  

I don't have anything to be proud of right now…"  

I just want you to look at the Devil some this  week when he's telling you you don't have anything  

and you are not anything. Only you and  the Devil will know what this means. Say,  

"It's still a million." I got really arrogant one  time, because the church was growing, and we had a  

holiday weekend, and there were only 8,000 people  in church. One staff member showed me my million.

They asked, "How many people  lived in the town you grew up in?"  

It was 6,000. What I needed  was to break down my blessings,  

to break down my bag and remember, "It's still a  million." Here's what I mean. If God never does  

anything else for me, he has been so good to me.  Let me explain it to you. He canceled my sins.  

He did not treat me as my sins deserve.  No, I'm serious. He gave me a purpose for  

living. He gave me a hope. He called me. He  brought me into the kingdom. He put a crown on  

me. He gave me 750 million breaths, and I ought  to use a few to thank him while I still can!

You ought to thank him right now for your million!  

You ought to thank him right now for your bag! You  ought to thank him right now for your blessing!  

It's still a million. Break it down. You  have a lot once you start counting it.  

Come on, let's count to a million. One, two,  three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,  

ten… See, when you break it down,  it doesn't sound so little anymore.  

Break down your blessings,  and then invest it back.  

Flip the bag. One becomes two. Two becomes four.

See, I found this out. Would you  rather have a million dollars today  

or a penny today but I'm going to double it every  day for 30 days? I asked Graham last night. He  

thought for a minute. The first thing he said was,  "Is this a real offer or is this hypothetical?  

Because how much do I need to  think about this?" If we do it,  

and you can probably imagine, the first day that  we double it, it's still not going to be much.  

It's still going to be significantly less than  a million dollars. It's going to be two cents.

If you just double it… That's 4…times 2, times  2, times 2, times 2, times 2, times 2, times 2.  

Now, it's still only $10.24,  

but what if you double it and keep doubling  it? All discipleship is is doubling.  

All we can do as parents is try to double  the values we think are important imperfectly  

as we model them before our kids and  apologize when we think they're wrong  

and just try to invest something that has been  invested in us. All my mom did raising me was try  

to take what she had and apply it toward what she  saw. And I'll be honest with you. It wasn't much.

She would set aside $15 every week to send me  over to Jack Cribbs' garage to learn guitar.  

Before that, my dad would cut Harold Staley's  hair to get him to give me a guitar lesson.  

I think at that point it was hard for them  to afford the lessons, so it was an exchange.  

Then my mom dipped pine cones and sold them  around holidays, dipped them in scented wax, and  

then she would sell that and put that  money aside and drive me to Jack Cribbs.

Jack Cribbs' garage… He would sit on the freezer  

for the lesson, and you would get the chair.  It was a really high-class operation there,  

but that was a good man who taught me beach  music. I didn't want to learn beach music, but  

beach music set the foundation for punk rock.  I didn't learn a lot of chords. To this day,  

I don't know a lot of music theory. I know a  little bit, but it's not how many chords you know.  

It's not how many bags you have. It's not  how much education you have. It really isn't.

I promise you. There are educated  fools, and there are brilliant idiots.  

I've written songs now that God  has graced, because one way you  

flip the bag is you collaborate. My  favorite collaborator in the world is  

Chris Brown. There's nobody creatively I  would rather collaborate with than Chris.  

It's not how many chords I know; it's whether  or not enough people can come together,  

put their preferences aside, and move something  forward and flip the bag. It's still a million.

I'll tell you, I don't know that many guitar  chords, but compared to most of y'all,  

I'm Mozart. Do you understand? If Billy would have  just kept on… "Oh, man. Well, this is not much."  

You don't have to stay stuck with what you  started with. Look. I'm still going. That's over  

10,000 now. It's still not a million, but we  haven't gotten to 30 yet. If I keep doubling it,  

if I keep showing up… "Okay. I didn't get  much out of church this week. Honestly,  

I was distracted by Pastor's shirt. It was bright  and it hurt my eyes, but if I keep coming…"

If I keep doubling, in 30 days… Now it's over  20,000. Now it's over 41,000. Oh, now it's  

getting interesting, because now I see we started  two services so we could start two campuses.  

This is not a church growth seminar. I'm trying  to get you to think about the time you have,  

the talent you have, the treasure you have,  the friendships you have, the skills you have.  

Double, double, double.  

We're almost there. If you would have taken  the penny, you could have had $5,368,709.12.  

You're like, "You can keep the  change." No, don't keep it. Flip it!

You saw what we could do with one.  If we take 12 and do that 30 days… Do  

not allow the Devil to diminish the gift God gave  you. Do not allow the Devil to tell you your best  

years are behind you. I came to declare your  blessed days are still up ahead. Flip that bag!  

In the name of Jesus, it is not nothing; it is  more than enough! There is a gift inside of you  

that man did not deposit. It came from the Master.  "Flip the bag" starts with your belief about God.

B-A-G: belief about God.  

Until you flip that, you will always operate in  fear like Billy instead of faith like Freddy.  

You will always hide what God gave you. The  way the text ends, where you were like, "Oh,  

that doesn't sound like my loving, good, good  Father…" Throw him out? Gnashing of teeth? That  

was his experience of the master that was based  on his perception that was not rooted in reality.  

Do you know how I know? Here's how I know.  He said, "I knew you were a harsh man.  

I knew you harvest where you didn't  scatter and you reap where you didn't sow."

See, he thought God was trying to get something  out of him that God didn't put in him. Here's what  

I know about God. Here's what I believe about  God: he never makes a withdrawal where he did  

not make a deposit. The proof of God's power and  presence and provision in your life is the demand.  

The demand proves the deposit. It shows  you that he trusted you with something.

I want to trust God, but I  have to start understanding  

he trusted me. Just like you trusted  me with your time today by being here,  

and I take that very seriously, God trusted you  with something. How seriously do you take it? God  

trusted us with a church, and it could have stayed  one service. It wouldn't have bothered me much.

When I had that dream and I was seeing the church  small again, I was like, "Oh, that was fun."  

It wasn't complicated. I mean, honestly,  if we didn't double the church,  

what bothers me about it is you wouldn't be here.  

I don't know what you've received through this  ministry, but I know it started with a bag.  

It started with a belief about God. It  starts with a belief about your gift.

The biggest flip in the passage is just to  see that all three of them received something,  

to see it as a gift. So, where the Enemy comes  and goes, "Hey, man, that's not enough time  

to do that…" A lot of us don't spend time  with God because we keep waiting on a week.  

You might have to catch some  time with God in the car.

You might have to turn off (I'm going to  personalize this message to me) Sirius XM  

satellite radio Channel 34 Lithium where they  play the 90s music that God likes. Turn off the  

worship music. Sometimes you'll be like, "This is  all the time I'm going to have today to breathe."  

When I was in college, I remember I used to  go into the bathroom sometimes between classes  

and just go into a stall and try to take 3 to  5 minutes, because I wasn't a morning person,  

so I would sleep right up to class,  and I didn't get my time with God then.

So then the Devil would be like, "Oh, you didn't  spend time with God. He's not going to bless you  

today." I'd be like, "I'll meet God in the  bathroom. God will meet me right in there in  

that stall." To stay in a scarcity mindset is the  Enemy's objective to get you to think about all  

of the things that other people have. To be honest  with you, it's going to go psychological as well.

You're going to start to feel like,  

"I'm just a messed-up person. That's the  problem. I'm just not one of these good  

people. I'm just not one of these stable  people. I'm crazy. I was raised by crazy.  

I was raised by third-generation crazy. Crazy came  before. Crazy begot crazy begot crazy begot me."  

If that's going on in your mind  too, you will hide what is his.

What I mean is when we live afraid and  when we don't double what we've been given,  

not only do others miss out but we end up in  a place of darkness and isolation, wondering  

what we could have done with one bag. So, I want  to say to you that as I look over my life today,  

I think I've done a lot with what God gave  me, yet there comes a point where all of us  

must decide if we want to double it again or if we  should stay in a scared place or a scarce place.