Steven Furtick Sermon: Comfort Food (Full Text and PDF Note)

Steven Furtick Sermon: Comfort Food (Full Text and PDF Note) , Note that more sermons by Steven Furtick are available on our homepage.

Below is the sermon note on this great message by Steven Furtick .

well would you look at somebody next to

you please do not touch them

they might not be comfortable with that

but just look at them and say

i am so looking forward to experiencing

god’s word with you today

would you do that right where you are

and say it even in the chat

say i’ve been looking forward to this

all week i’m looking forward to being

strengthened by the word of god

we’ve worshipped him we’ve turned our

hearts to hell

now let’s set aside every distraction

don’t be like

martha busy in the kitchen take these

next few minutes

and just get in position to hear from

the lord

and i promise you he’s going to speak to

you today

all over the world let me know right now

in the comments or the chat where you’re

watching from i don’t like to call it

watching where you’re worshiping from

amen watching is something you do for

like yellowstone or

uh the game of thrones or something like

that but this ain’t the game this is the

real throne

all right so we came to worship

y’all shouldn’t have given me a few

weeks off i’m in bad shape today

pray for me fam now

the scripture for today that i want to

read to you is from numbers chapter 11.

y’all quit being funky and pat me with

something spiritual

some church chords all right praise the

lord

numbers chapter 11

[Music]

verse four through six you ready

are you ready readier than you just

sounded i hope y’all are ready are in

your room than they are in this room

all right lake norman okay

the rabble with them began to crave

other food

and again the israelites started wailing

and said if only we had

meat to eat

we remember the fish we ate in

egypt at no cost

also the cucumbers melons leeks

onions and garlic

but now we have lost our

appetite we never see

anything but this

manna if only

we had meat to eat we remember

the fish we ate in egypt

at no cost i thought i’d talk to you

today on the first sermon that i

preached from the new year

about comfort food comfort food

lord feed us the bread of heaven today

because we need it in jesus name amen

you may be seated

right now i want you to say in the chat

or maybe look at somebody if you’re in a

room with more than one person and tell

them your favorite comfort food

put it in the chat right now or if

you’re sitting next to somebody

what’s the food that makes you feel

better well it makes you feel

temporarily better

because that’s the definition of comfort

food right

the food that’ll make you feel better

for five minutes

right your favorite i researched this

week

the bible and i researched on google

and the favorite comfort food is still

pizza for 15

of americans so i don’t know other parts

we’ll put it in the chat

and do not take this moment to show off

how healthy you are you know

[Laughter]

kombucha is my comfort food shut up go

away let’s go to another church

all right i’m talking about i’m talking

about something

is not good for you but it tastes good

to you

put it in the chat i’m not going to tell

you mine

yet i’ll tell you hollies

if you ever want to make her feel better

french fry send her french fries

and i thank god for that because they’re

cheap and they’re predictable

it’s a lot cheaper than jewelry right so

if i see her down i

and it’s it’s not just food i hope

you’re putting these in the chat by the

way because i’m really interested to see

how many of you will be honest

about it and um and i know this is

really bad because you’ve got all these

goals for the new year that you’re not

going to eat it anymore here i am

bringing it up and you turned on the

church to try to get away from this

stuff and here i am talking about it

but i think we should talk about it i

think we should talk about comfort food

today

and i think we should talk about it

beyond just physical food but i want to

use physical food to get there

because it’s something that we can feel

you know

something we could we could feel um

when we went to singapore a couple years

ago

holly’s laughing because we kind of had

a fight we had a disagreement

our host i was there to preach and our

hosts were so

amazing the the church that we were at

and they took us to really nice

restaurants i thought they were all

really nice restaurants

because they were all restaurants that i

knew the name of and i liked it that way

holly on the other hand was so

disappointed

that they were taking us to the same

restaurants do you remember

they took us i remember one night they

took us to roots chris which is like my

favorite that’s that’s like one of the

first

nice dates i saved up 18 months and took

holly to roots christmas i’m serious

when we went to uh came to charlotte and

and and uh and so i was happy to be at

ruth’s chris

and she’s kind of disappointed and and

she told me afterwards

she said um i could have ate all that in

charlotte

and apparently she had just read a book

i don’t remember the name of the book

she read a book crazy rich asians where

they

put a bunch of stuff about uh food

markets and stuff

so she’s reading this book right and

we’re going to singapore

and she’s thinking about all this new

food she’s gonna try

when we get there and then they take us

to tgi fridays

in the mall and i was happy i like tgi

fridays

there’s nothing wrong with tgi fridays

anywhere in the world

any day it doesn’t have to be friday

i’ll make it a friday on thursday

i’ll eat chicken tenders any day of the

week makes me feel good

makes me feel something familiar in my

soul

i like it

i like chains chain restaurant chain

[Applause]

i like james

that’s what they call it a chain

restaurant

it’s the same anywhere you go

i like them it’s comfortable

to me don’t even have to look at the

menu

don’t have to acquire a taste who has

time for that

especially in an unfamiliar place

if the place is unfamiliar

at least give me a taste i can recognize

numbers chapter 11 the israelites are in

a strange place

they left a strange place that they came

to

to escape a famine that they did not

cause

but it’s been 430 years since they first

entered asia

how many know that 430 years is enough

time

to adjust your taste buds

they were not slaves for 430 years they

were only slaves for 400.

the reason i point that out is for the

first 30

egypt was the place that fed them what

they needed

to survive can i show you this

i would love to show you this in genesis

i have so many scriptures today we might

just chop this up and show it for the

next

for the rest of the year

but in genesis 41 and i’ve been waiting

to share this with you

for a while now so just forgive my

excitement about it

but it talks about how the people of god

got to egypt where

where god took care of them and i’ve

mentioned before from this pulpit how

the place that you escape to in one

season

can become the place that you are

enslaved by in the next

you know and and and this really really

shows this

in a way that i think you can get it in

genesis 41

verse 53 i can’t give you the whole

story but let me just try to give you a

little taste of it

it says the seven years of abundance in

egypt came to an end

and the seven years of famine everybody

say famine put it in the chat say famine

famine the seven years of famine began

just as joseph had said there was famine

in

all the other lands but in the whole

land of egypt

there was food

they came to egypt not out of rebellion

but out of survival

they came to egypt and one day i’m going

to preach this message i’ve been

promising it for a while

i’m going to talk about sins with

benefits

you’ve heard the other phrase but that’s

not the one that i mean i’m talking

about

things that you do that meet a certain

need in your life

but the way that they meet the need

creates a greater need

throwing you into a spiral sometimes

[Applause]

of what ends up feeling like slavery so

listen to this phrase this got my

attention

it said in verse 55 when all egypt began

to

feel the famine that’s that’s the phrase

that i want you to underline there okay

or write it down or put it in the chat

feel the famine

i believe i’m preaching to somebody

today who

feels the famine it could be a famine

of encouragement in your life like

nobody has told you you’re doing a good

job

in a while and nobody has told you in a

while that you matter

or if they are telling you you don’t

really believe their motives because

they’re just trying to use it to get you

to do something to manipulate you to do

something they want you to do

so now you’re so jaded that you can’t

even receive the nutrition of other

people’s encouragement

because you experienced it in a

manipulative format and so now you’re

really reluctant to receive anything

anyone says to you that’s positive

because you are more trained in your

taste buds to something that is

negative

but you feel the famine and watch this

the bible says

when all egypt began to feel the famine

the people

cried to pharaoh for food

so right beside famine put pharaoh

pharaoh was of course the ruler of egypt

right he ended up putting joseph in

charge of the food supply

and if you don’t know all this back

story you’ll still get the message okay

it’s all right and plus i’ll give you

something to study this week

so you can look all this up this week

and and realize that

there was a famine that brought the

people of god

joseph who was an israelite it brought

his whole

family to egypt now now god will use

famine in your life to get you into

a place or position of his purpose

over and over again in the scripture so

when we say we want god to move in our

lives and how many would say that i want

god to move in my life in 2021.

yeah yeah yeah yeah okay so for god to

move in your life he will often

remove something from your life

so when you pray that you have to think

of those at the same time

move and remove if god’s going to move

if he’s going to do something if he’s

going to

change things and and we say we want

change and we

shout about change and we pray about

change what we really want is

we want change that we choose and that

we can control

talk to me church of the living god come

on get pentecostal for a minute and talk

to me talk to me talk to me talk to him

that’s what we mean we say we want

change

so when they felt the famine they came

to egypt and of course

verse 57 says all the world came to

egypt to buy grain

from joseph because the famine was

severe everywhere and this is where my

compassion kicks in

when i hear a preacher yelling at

somebody for being an alcoholic or

yelling at somebody because they have a

sexual addiction or yelling at somebody

because they go over here and do this

and that and the other i feel kind of

like the person on the other end

needs to be able to say in their own

defense

it meets a need

and then we can help you once we’re

honest about that

find a better way to meet that need

through god

that’s what salvation is that’s what

transformation

is not that god tells you to starve and

swallow your spit and like it

but to get joy from a place that won’t

create

chains just to make you comfortable

[Applause]

now the text that we’re in remember it’s

been over 400 years

and the people of god have come out of

egypt but as we’ve learned

it’s a lot easier to come out of egypt

than to get egypt out of you

and that’s why no amount of new cities

that you move to can free you

from internal struggles that you carry

i should do this no amount of churches

that you can hop to

you want another one no amount of hair

colors

i’ve had a lot of hair colors i’m

telling you what i know

but but what’s in using you know when

they felt the famine they went to egypt

and that that wasn’t a bad thing it

wasn’t a bad thing it wasn’t it wasn’t a

sinful thing it wasn’t like they

went to egypt to run away from god it

wasn’t like you know in the bible you

have jonah running from god going to

nineveh

instead of going to tarshish for

governor wasn’t that kind of situation

it was a survival

instinct

and that’s been you for a little while

it was either go to egypt and survive

or starve to death you self-medicated a

lot of pain

you used anger as a defense mechanism

so that you wouldn’t be abused in the

areas where you feel most vulnerable

that’s how they got to egypt and if we

could start there

with a little bit of compassion to

understand what the israelites you know

the passage i read it sounded kind of

rough right

they started complaining in the verses

just before it says that

they complained about their hardships in

the presence of the lord and the

outskirts of the camp started to burn

and be consumed with fire when they were

complaining

i’m like dang that’s rough because

i guess one thing to criticize their

attachment to egypt

but we don’t even understand their abuse

to put them in that position to begin

with

so i’m reading it and i’m thinking about

graham

a while back holly asked him when you’re

out there wrestling because he’s he’s

he’s a pretty good little wrestler she

said do you listen to the

coaches can you hear them when they’re

screaming at you what to do all this

stuff because she doesn’t know much

about wrestling but we’re over there

yelling

um crossface sprawl you know all these

things to

do he said well i can hear him but i

don’t listen

because they don’t know what i’m going

through

they don’t know they don’t know what i’m

what i’m feeling i said son that’s the

benefit they have

is that they can see it they’re trying

to get you to see

what you need to do because when what

you

feel i started preaching to him about i

started preaching to him about it

i started preaching about it i said

because they have the

they have the benefit of being outside

of the situation

to see what you need to do you are so

deep in the struggle

that’s the children of israel in numbers

11.

we look at this and we’re like oh how

stupid could you be

you want to go back to egypt yeah they

want to go back to egypt

just like you want to go back to

[Music] [Applause]

let me see your phone and and i can find

your pharaoh

let me see your phone

i can find your fear i’m not going to do

it to you but i could oh i could do it

i could do it i could find it because

because i know how it is we’re sitting

preaching we’re preaching it

it’s been centuries since this was

written right so i don’t have a pharaoh

um

then why do i see you ignoring your kids

not living your real life and watch this

filling yourself with stuff that makes

you

feel worse in the end

what’s that about

[Applause]

i’ll find your pharaoh you can find mine

yeah because you’re thinking i don’t

need this sermon comfort foods i’m doing

pretty good with my eating i’m on a

gluten-free uh drink uh only uh

almond milk and uh wheat grass shots and

things of this nature that are

uh good for my digestive system and

really kick the enzymes into overdrive

so

you can give this to someone else okay

so you don’t have comfort foods you

don’t like cracker barrel i get it

you’re not saved you’re not going to

heaven

but that’s all right

[Applause]

do you have comfort friends

and i’m using the term friend loosely

because we all need people that can sit

with us and be with us and we know

they’re there i mean i have several

people in this room that would i

wouldn’t i wouldn’t have made it this

far without them

it’s not what i’m talking about i’m

talking about

they make you feel better for five

minutes

like i’m not saying you can avoid them

or cut them off because you got to show

love like jesus

but i just want you to identify this

because i think some of us

are drawn to relationships

that keep us in chains

and we like the chains because they’re

comfortable

and when we meet somebody who would

really challenge us to change

we push them away

i like chains it’s it feels comfortable

but it’s not safe it’s not safe

you know there’s a difference right

it’s um kind of interesting to me

that we not only have comfort foods

and sometimes comfort friends

comfort phrases things that we say

to make ourselves feel better like

excuses we make or we blame

comfort phrases not just comfort foods

comfort phrases

we feed ourselves these lines

oh well that’s why i’m like that and i

never do that and well they can only do

that because of this and that and

well nobody really loves me that’s just

all a way

to keep us in the comfort

of our dysfunctional life

and you see it in the israelites but you

gotta feel for

them because they’ve been in the

wilderness for a year now

one year one year

and they’ve been eating the same menu

item

called manna the the mana

is kind of difficult to describe to you

one is because we don’t have the same

version of that now i can’t bring it up

here

pass it around do communion with it

you’re not getting this at whole foods

and i don’t know that it was very

delicious but it got the job done and

some seasons god will provide for you

with something

it’s not necessarily like

[Applause]

savory but it’ll help you survive

and some seasons in our life are like

that when they saw it

manna literally means what is it

it was brand new to them didn’t taste

like anything they’ve tasted before

and but you gotta imagine like the way

it would work is when the dew

would appear the manna would come and

they could get enough

for that day right give us this day our

daily bread

that’s how god provides for you enough

for right now enough for right now and

there will be more for the next day but

you cannot reach into tomorrow and pull

in today’s peace or supply or joy

or anything like that that’s where you

get stressed that’s where you start

wanting to go back to egypt start

thinking about the future

or the past all these things are

dangerous but but

but what was it like the first day they

saw the manna

wow what is it

i’m curious wow there’s this strange

sweet

food on the ground it’s like

honey-covered wafers

it’s a strange taste but at least we’re

eating

remember god wanted to bring them into

the promised land

they tasted the grapes of canaan but

they forfeited their right to the fruit

of that land because of their lack of

faith

so this put them in a position of

circling in the wilderness and they’ve

been there for one year now

and the manna has gotten monotonous

the miracle has gotten

monotonous

all of us complaining ungrateful people

get ready because i’m coming for us

the miracle got monotonous to you

i thought that’s that’s how it said it

in the in the verse put numbers 11

6 up there again so jenna can see it she

needs to see this

we’ve lost our appetite we never see

anything but this

manna like how you felt in quarantine

looking at john sal every day

looking at that same guy every day you

remember when you used to see him up on

stage praising god oh

if i could just be with that man of god

with his anointed vocal cords

and then about month month three of

quarantine

month four you’re looking at him like

what is it

you know it’s changed from a statement

of possibility to predictability

and now i’m bored with this

used to watch elevation online all the

way across the world

now it’s 6 am rehearsals what is it

[Applause]

that’s what amazes me about how you stay

excited i love that

because to eat the same thing every day

[Applause]

so i thought what got them in trouble i

thought what got them in trouble

is that is that they had the same thing

every day and so they started

complaining oh

we want the fish of egypt

the fish of pharaoh oh it’s so good i’m

sick of this man

i’m so tired of this man i’m so tired of

this man i’m so tired of this woman i’m

so tired of this life

i’m so tired of this thing it’s the same

every day

but i had to keep studying it for the

context

because that’s where the key was to me

understanding what really happened here

what made them want to go back to a

place

where they were slaves what made them

want to give up their right

to freedom to go back into their role

as slaves see on on one hand the manna

was the same every day

never changed flavors it’s like god put

a hello fresh in the wilderness

but it was the same it’s like it got

locked on the same

all right the same meal every time

and you keep waiting on a change and it

doesn’t

at the same time

while everything was the same every day

same wilderness

same food same diet

same same same same same same old crap

same old patterns same old me

i asked the lord one year could i just

have somebody else’s dysfunctions

just to try them on and see if i like

them better you get tired of your own

at the same time that everything was the

same

and they were sick of it everything had

changed

at the same time that they were eating

the same food every day i want to see if

you can relate to this

at the same time that they were doing

the same thing every day gathering the

same man okay we take it this day

we leave it on sunday we get you know on

saturday we get twice as much before the

sabbath and then we rest

at the same time that they’re going

through this this gridlock system

of the same everything has changed

never been free before

not for 400 years at least

and everything has changed

and everything is the same every day

and it is the combination of everything

feeling the same

mundane boring

along with the instability of everything

that you’ve ever

known going away that causes them to

crave

something that almost kills them

do you think this is a little bit like

us in the year 2021

where it feels like everything changed

and at the same time every day just

feels like

another replay

the same bad news the same fear because

look everything

i got i got to tell you the whole story

because if i just give you a compendium

of this you will miss the essence of it

it’s really important that you get

inside of this they had to move

constantly

in the wilderness and they had no you

ready you ready to see how relevant the

bible is

they had no schedule for it

so every day it was like am i taking my

kids to school

am i going to drop them off at school am

i going to drop them in a river am i

going to homeschool them cooking lunch i

mean

well you know what am i going to do with

them today

so it was day by day the manna was day

by day but it was the same

but everything had changed and so at

first i thought okay well

they just wanted a change but no they

wanted the same but they wanted to

change but they wanted the same

and they were stuck in between

and in between you have nothing

that’s what bono said bono said one time

they were about to break up you two

he said in order to get to the next

expression of the band you have to

reject the first one

and in between you have nothing

that’s what it feels like at first

so to fill it you want to go back to

what you know right

that’s why we can preach these sermons

you know i want you to leave your life

of sin behind

and and and that sermon feels good for

five minutes

four five okay i’ll give you 15 minutes

i’ll even give you three days but see

that doesn’t really

change anyone because what is happening

as you are embracing your new nature in

christ is

you got out of egypt but all of

egypt is not out of you yet

and it’s not that you’re not a real

christian and it’s not that you’re a bad

person

and it’s not you need somebody to beat

you of you sprawl across

face i got something on top of me that i

need to know how to deal with

i feel the famine and then the question

becomes

so where do you go when you feel the

famine

when you feel alone

when you feel ashamed when you feel

afraid

i heard it this way in my mind fruit

or fish not that one’s bad on a dietary

level i’m not i’m no nutritionist

promise you that

i can’t teach you about boiled peanuts

and the correct way to eat them and the

exact time to eat them we could teach

you these things in another seminar at

some point

but remember what god wanted for his

people

when he let them spy out the land the

grapes of canaan

and then look what it’s come to after

one year in the wilderness and think

about what it’s come to after a year

of us going through a very unsettling

time and at the same time it’s

unsettling it’s completely boring

how can we be so bored and so

scared at the same time

it’s been one year in the wilderness i

remember when the first guy came to

elevation with a mask on and i told

security to keep an eye on him

because i’d never seen that before this

was before the pandemic

before the nba shut down before we

before we

have any clue that this was going to be

what it is and i remember them telling

me on a saturday night

there’s a guy here with a mask on

there’s a guy here with the mask on

and we thought he was an alien we’d

never seen that before

and now the whole world feels like um

no offense but like a tsa checkpoint

where i don’t know the rules from one

thing to the next

and i’m completely disoriented like if i

wear a mask and some places they’re like

oh that’s great you love your neighbor

other you’re a communist you’re a

conspiracy illuminati

you know ah and so everything’s so

predictably

stupid

everybody’s so predictably

matt that’s mad all the time

and so now i crave something stable

but watch this chains aren’t stable

they only make you feel that way

[Applause]

so now if i stay in egypt if i stay with

meeting the need

if i stay with pharaoh whatever my

pharaoh is

i will never be full

that’s the thing about pharaoh’s fish we

want

fish like we heard in egypt

you want whips like you had in egypt

i want to get back to how it was

bc before corona i want to get back to

the old ways

the old times i want to get back to how

it was when i was having a nervous

breakdown

and i was in the verge of divorce so

yeah get back to that

garlic and onions and leeks that’s what

they were talking about

[Music]

and the reason they were thinking about

egypt’s garlic is because they had

forfeited kanan’s grapes

it’s the same every day and yet we can’t

plan anything

and i just thought i got to preach this

because it feels like it belongs in

a newspaper it feels like it was written

for us

we’re hungry we’re hungry

and we’ve got to decide whether we’re

going to crave the fish of egypt

or move forward into the fruit of canaan

the manna was never meant to be

permanent

the manna was the mercy of god you know

the reason they didn’t like the taste of

manna they weren’t supposed to

god didn’t want him to die in the

wilderness

so he’s using those things to get you

going forward

to the grapes he’s using these things

he’s using this dissatisfaction

so that you don’t settle in a place of

survival

but you step into everything that he has

for you

and some of us were going to die in the

wilderness

but god allowed us to lose our taste

for comfort food

it’s pretty good it’s pretty good

i didn’t even give you the message yet

watch this

the whole time that i’ve read this

passage because i’ve read it before and

i’ve heard it used to

talk about a devotion on complaining you

know make up your bed don’t complain

you know do the right thing don’t

complain shut up or wear your mask or

don’t wear your mask and don’t complain

right

that’s a surface level interpretation

what we’re looking for is

what really makes me crave something

that kills me or like you said in the

pound the other day elijah said

something

he goes why do we crave what we hate

i said stop right now we’re in the

middle of a workout i said stop right

now

i took a big red marker and wrote it

down on the on the uh page

that’s the question we’re after remember

they cried out

for god to get them out of egypt

and then god did and now they’re willing

to go back

but i get it i get it because like

graham said

i’m not under the pressure of having to

follow a moving cloud and a fire

and not ever knowing when i’m going to

be situated

so why do you crave what you hate

why do you prefer pessimistic thoughts

why you tend to gravitate toward that

or or self-pity why you like that

why do you like to say stuff real

horrible stuff about yourself that you

would fight somebody else if they said

it to one of your friends why

do you crave that why you feed yourself

that

feed yourself that i always like to

point out when we’re talking about

your phone as your pharaoh that most of

the stuff that you’re doing is called a

feed

and have you noticed it doesn’t really

fill you how many of you got off

instagram or facebook one night this

week and say god i just feel so fresh

i feel so ready for what’s next you know

what my faith in humanity is restored to

seeing the comments of those

who the lord has appointed to speak into

my life

garlic onions leeks this is delicious

listen man it’s like it was in egypt

they gave them bricks with no straw

that’s what these social media apps are

designed to do to us

to starve us and to keep us coming you

better watch the documentary

on netflix this crap is real

and it doesn’t fill you your appetite

for the wrong things

is insatiable

[Applause]

and yet some of the stuff you crave

isn’t bad

it’s just where are you gonna go to get

it

that’s what i love that’s what i love

about god

is that he’s got what i really want

so let me ask you a question why would

you

run to pharaoh to beg for something

that your father can freely give you

i i don’t want this to be a negative

sermon

let me preach for a few minutes about

your father’s fridge

all right let me preach for a few mo

we’re talking about comfort food

so let’s go all the way forward a few

centuries

when a rabbi named jesus showed up and

started teaching

and he said let me tell you what the

kingdom of god is like

the kingdom of god is like oh it’s like

a man who has a hundred sheep

lost one went after the one oh it’s like

a woman who had ten coins lost one

went after the one or if you didn’t get

that it’s like a man who had two sons

lost one the one said i’m going to

take my inheritance and the bible says

in luke 15

god i love how the bible just goes

together it’s like a great

meal where all of the dishes complement

each other

and i was thinking about the famine that

they felt in

in in in the wilderness and then i

thought about this this younger son in

luke 15

you know miss the prodigal son you might

have heard about him

he gets blamed for a lot of stuff he

went out and and took his money his

father’s money

and wasted it he took what he could have

invested

and wasted it and some of us have done

that we’ve wasted time

we’ve wasted thoughts we’ve wasted

energy we’ve wasted intellect

we’ve wasted passions we’ve wasted

desires

we have craved inordinate things

that’s what the word means in numbers 11

4.

it means to crave an inordinate thing

with an indiscriminate leaning on your

senses

just eating anything and that’s what

happened to the

the son who left his father’s house i

want to read this to you and see if this

is how you’ve been feeling lately

the lord told me that we are feeling the

famine

and it’s not even just an economic thing

because you might be like well my job’s

fine

i think we’re feeling a famine just for

some basic human contact these days

because everything’s new and

everything’s the same

and it feels endless and it feels

different all at the same time

i never had to walk up to people think

before and think do we shake hands are

we going to do this

i used to have to be like are we going

to adapt we’re just going to shake what

are we doing are we doing this are we

doing that

now i don’t even know if we touch each

other i never had to ask that before

but it feels like it’s just this the

same every day

and when the younger brother look at

luke 15 verse 13

it said he got together everything that

his father gave him set out to a distant

country

you see that yes yes put it in the chat

say i see it a distant country

so we went to a foreign place just like

the israelites

now here’s the difference

he went to a foreign place put the verse

back up please he went to a foreign

place

and he wasn’t running from a famine

he was running from his father

i understand running from a famine

but why would he run from his father

when he got there he squandered his

wealth

in wild living when you read that you

think about all the things that you

don’t struggle with

[Music]

but i would challenge you to plug in

something that personally fits for you

there

don’t take it straight to the strip club

because you would never go there when

you see wild

living think about the other things

think about the things that

that keep you spending spending spending

spending spending not just money

but keep you just spending spending

spending hungry hungry hungry thirsty

thirsty thirsty right

feeding feeding feeding think about

these things think about what it is for

you it could be something different for

each person in here but look at this

what what happened next first please

after he had spent everything because

that’s what eventually happens

that’s what eventually happens

eventually you’re just spent how many

can testify

that that eventually you you know when

you go to a foreign place

away from who you know you really are

away from character first

chasing after applause from people or

jason after somebody’s approval

it doesn’t fill you pharaoh can never

feed you

there aren’t enough fish in the world

and while we’re at it

the fish aren’t that good they aren’t as

good as you remember them

they aren’t as good as you imagine them

the fish are not that good

it’s full of bones and it’ll choke you

on the bones

the fish are not that good the fish are

not worth me giving up myself for

the fish are not worth me giving up my

peace for

no no there’s not a fish in the world

there is not a fish in egypt there is

not a fish in the nile

[Applause]

that is worth me giving up my knowledge

of god

and myself that’s what the younger

brother did

and after he had spent everything there

was a severe

famine in the whole country

and he began to be in need and it was a

good thing that there was a famine

because it brought him back to his

father

it’s a good thing if it brings you

closer to god it’s a good thing

i’m not talking about feels good in this

five minutes

i’m not talking about comfort i’m

talking about change

grace faith

the good stuff the stuff you can live on

not what this kid started eating

look what happens to you when you leave

your father look what happens to you

when you start remembering egypt’s fish

and forgetting god’s faithfulness

look what happens this boy went and

hired himself out

to a citizen of that country you don’t

belong here

i’m saying that to somebody you do not

belong

in this low place you do not belong at

three in the morning

on some porn hub trying to find

something to fill you

that only makes you more hungry you do

not belong in that place

and yes this is a real pulpit and yes we

talk about real stuff

and yes i live in the world and yes i

know that

some of us

i’m not yelling at you i’m

i’m pleading with you

don’t let a craving kill you

you want acceptance good you want joy

good

you want life good you want more good

the problem with most christians

isn’t that we want too much we don’t

want enough

we’ll settle for fish god wants to give

us fruit

we’ll settle for a high when god wants

us to be seated

above all the noise of this world i’m

telling you what i found out the hard

way

the boy didn’t want enough he just

wanted his share of the inheritance

and look where it left him look where it

leaves you this is why we’ve been

feeling weak this is why not because of

something going on externally no no

no no no no the bible says that

he looked at the pigs that he was

feeding verse 16.

and he longed to fill his stomach with

the pods that the

pigs were eating comfort food

eating something that was fit for an

animal have you been doing that

thoughts that you telling yourself

things you’ve been believing

lies you’ve been going to just to feel

full for

five minutes

and then he had a moment

of realization and i love it because he

came verse 17

to his census

and he said to himself

my father’s fridge is full

i just paraphrased that i like the way

that sounded

put it right there in the chat say it

with your mouth

out loud my father’s fridge

is full say it again my father’s

fridge is full say it again out loud my

father’s fridge is full multitask while

you’re typing it say it

my father’s fridge is full look at the

person on the couch next to you and brag

about it look at them and say

my father’s fridge is full

and tell somebody else that you’ve been

going to that’s been abusing you

your fish are not that delicious my

father’s fridge is full and tell

every pharaoh that keeps you in chains

of ways of believing and behaving

and living and thinking and hurting and

bleeding

and starving my father’s fridge is full

goodbye pharaoh i got a father

goodbye pigs i got a father

it’s full it’s full

he’s got all the comfort you need he’s

got

all the joy you haven’t been needing the

wrong things you’ve been getting them

from the wrong place

[Applause]

it’s an acquired taste

truth is an acquired taste when you’ve

been eating lies all your life

[Applause]

so the lord said that we should think

about comfort food

today we should ask ourselves

the question why do i crave what i hate

and what would be a better way to get it

you know like practically

like there is a better way inside of god

to get this done for everything that’s

destroying your life

i want you to realize that your father

has it

in every decision that you make here’s

what you’re deciding

am i going to get it from pharaoh

or am i going to get it from my father

[Applause]

one is a chain restaurant

it’s gonna keep you stuck right where

you are in egypt

but the other one if the sun makes you

free

you will be free

and the key to everything i’m trying to

teach you

is in numbers chapter 11 verse 4.

when the israelites craved the meat of

egypt

it all started look at this because the

rabble

that was with him and you may ask me

pastor furtick i know what rabble is but

just for the other people

who don’t study their bibles as much

what exactly do you mean by ravel

when i show you this you’re going to

understand listen to me by the spirit of

god i’m not playing with your emotions

here i’m telling you what god showed me

when you see what the rabble was you

will begin to understand

why you’ve been craving things that you

hate that destroy you

when the israelites left egypt

they had to do it in a hurry they did it

in the middle of the night

and some of your life has been like that

you’ve just been trying to stay

one step ahead of something really bad

right survival mode

stay with me i know i’ve said a lot and

i know i cook too much

but but just get some tupperware and

take this home okay

get some tupperware yeah yeah tupperware

tupperware tupperware tupperware

tupperware i got a tupperware

tougher yeah

now what is it exodus 12

is it 37 it describes it 38

when they left in the darkness about two

million strong six hundred thousand men

women and children when they left on

foot like that

and they got everything they could in

their hands from the egyptians and they

left egypt where they were enslaved

where they went to originally be fed

which represented the place of bondage

which represents what you might be

leaving this year

or trying to leave here’s what happened

many other people went up with them

that’s the rabble

[Music]

when it says give me numbers 11 4 again

when it says the rabble with them begin

to crave other food

it’s the egyptians that left

with them that were not one of them

so when you left egypt all of egypt

didn’t leave

you

i’m not talking about people i’m talking

about perspectives

patterns i’m talking about the things

that went with you you’re in christ

you’re a new creation

but don’t don’t don’t be alarmed when

some of the old cravings are still there

that’s the rabble and god said that the

first step to receiving what this is

what i’m going to teach about for the

next few weeks are you ready i’m going

to pick this up next week

i’m going to pick this up next week but

we’re going to talk about having

room to receive in your life room

everybody put that in all caps in the

chat

i feel like it’s our it’s our series for

the new year room to receive

and in order to have room to receive the

new things the grapes of canaan the

promises of god

the good things the encouragement the

life the joy the honey the sweetness

the the things that god has called you

to savor the truth that is already in

you but keeps getting crowded out

by the lies by the by the by the rabble

by the routines by the attitudes by the

beliefs by the

behaviors by the limitations by the

examples you’ve seen i just spelled the

word rabble go back and check it

it’s all of those things it’s the

routines it’s the attitudes it’s the

beliefs

it’s the behaviors it’s the lies the

limitations you believe

and it is the examples that you have

seen set that keep you

reaching for egypt’s fish when canaan’s

grapes are right in front of you

and i want you to remember going into

this new year that before you can

receive the blessing

god has to remove the rabble

and so here’s the decision and we will

make it together

because i think we’ll be better served

if we do this together this year

in order to receive god’s best for our

life

i want to ask you a question are you

willing to allow god to remove

the rabble the old that feels good that

draws you back in

are you willing to it will be a process

look at this passage it says in numbers

11 verse 34

and it’s so crazy because they they

craved quail

meat fish garlic leeks onions all the

egypt stuff

you know how good they knew the menu

from egypt

they it had been ingrained in them i’m

familiar with this menu

i know exactly what to do with this old

pattern oh but the new one

the new one what is this manna

what is this that’s exactly where god

wants you

it’s uncertain that doesn’t mean it’s

unsafe

your father has enough in his house

so god is bringing us to our senses

and and when they they complained god

sent them so much

quail that it started coming out of

their

their noses one other scripture says

but they couldn’t digest it because

while it was in their teeth pharaoh’s

food

never fills you and it says in verse 34

that the place where they complained was

called kibroth

hatava because there they buried the

people who craved

other food

[Applause]

can i tell you what kibbath put it back

up because i don’t know how to pronounce

it

hatava means it literally means

graves of craving

[Music]

and the lord is bringing us into a new

year with a question

funeral or feast

funeral or feast or maybe he’s saying

let’s have the funeral for the rabble

so that we can feast

on what the father has more than enough

up i’m closing and give god 21 seconds

of praise i’m counting you just clap

no no that’s not praise

like a canaan praise like a grateful

praise

like a the egyptians you see today you

will see no more

come on get uncomfortable get

uncomfortable

come on get uncomfortable and praise him

if you know

it’s about to be a peace

in the father’s house

[Music]

so look at this and i bless you and i

bless you but before i bless you

with the blessing of a new year i want

to show you what the

what the father said to the to the older

son see

there was a younger son who left the

father’s house and he was starving

but that wasn’t the saddest part of luke

15.

there was another son who was starving

and he was in the house

and that’s you

that’s you that’s you

there’s no need for you to starve

for the need of what your father has

plenty of

and i want you to just turn your palms

like this is a new year’s consecration

moment i know we’re a few days into the

year you might even be watching this

three years after i preach it god

doesn’t care about that lift your hands

because the only thing that makes it new

is you

what good is it god to give you a new

opportunity

if you’re gonna stay on an egyptian diet

lord you are our food

our bread our sustenance

we live move breathe and have our being

in you that’s it

all that we need is in this moment

because you were in this moment

you are not enough you are more than

enough you are enough with tupperware

so lord in the strength of this word

that you spoke today we commit

a new year to you we would hate to be

the bearers of a canaan promise

and die with an egyptian appetite

we want to speak to you this week about

the rabble the rabble

the rabble for them it was people that

had to be buried before they could move

forward

in the graves of craving

but for us it’s going gonna be those

other things those routines

that are killing us attitudes that are

squeezing us

beliefs that are limiting us behaviors

that are sabotaging us

labels and limits and lies that are

confining us

the examples that we see that have shown

us that egypt that we’ve seen is what

we’re going back to

but we’re not going back we don’t want

to go back we’re looking back

we’re going forward you brought us

through this far

we didn’t come out here to die we’re not

going to wander in this wilderness

complaining about what you fed us

you gave us what we need for the season

that we’re in

and we’re grateful and we’re thankful

and you are a good father and it is

right for us

to celebrate so we clap our hands all

over the world

we thank you for our necessary food

we thank you for living water

thank you jesus thank you jesus

i’ll show you this and i promise i’m

going to turn it over to the team

when the younger son came home the older

brother was mad

but the father said in verse 31 of luke

15

my son you’re always with me

everything i have is yours but we had to

celebrate and be glad

because this brother of yours was dead

and is alive again

he was lost in this town

while the older brother stood outside

with his arms crossed

because he wasn’t used to this way of

seeing his father operate

just like you’re not used to what you’ve

been experiencing either

the father made a choice for the son

funeral or feast

your brother was dead he’s alive

you have a decision to make this year

the graves of craving

or the feast of your father i pray in

the name of jesus

that you will choose life

in jesus name

hey it’s me again you can’t get away

from me

what a privilege to share god’s word

with you today i pray that you were

fed strengthened and now ready to fight

the good fight of faith

thank you to everybody who gives to this

ministry

i always like to say that because you

know without someone

investing in the ground of the ministry

there can be no harvest

and so thank you to all of you who give

to the ministry regularly gave to our

favor offering we’re in a great position

to reach people around the world this

year thank you thank you thank you

make sure to subscribe share the sermon

always letting me know in the

comments what god spoke to you i love to

read through most of the comments we

delete the dumb ones but

uh we just want you to know we love you

thank you for being a part of our family

make sure you feed yourself what your

father has this week don’t go around

hungry like the snack machine used to

say outside my dad’s barbershop

i’ll see you next time we love you very

much