Trapped In A Lonely Place Steven Furtick - Steven Furtick

I do need you to know that the reason some

of you feel like you feel is because God's hand

is on you and you're different.

You're different. You're different. That's why you find yourself when.

People that are around you, they're being kind of hateful

or they're making fun of someone and they're calling them

gay or they're calling them this or they're calling them

that and you just kind of can't can't go along

with it and even when you find yourself laughing along

you're like man that.

Doesn't feel right to me you're a leader.

That's not what god put you here for is just

to be a part of that that that mentality you're

You're like one of those shining stars that was in

Holly's Bible study that she taught that is thoughtless and

pure in a depraved generation, that you would shine like

a star.

That's you.

But leaders are lonely. I think Jesus was very lonely.

Nobody got him. They were always trying to talk him

out of going to the cross.

That's the whole reason he came down in pampers. He

didn't come to feed them fish. He did that, but

that's not the main thing he came for. So you

will see this pattern. Jesus chose to be alone.

They're looking for you.

You've got to do amazing things. Even that's what the

devil told Jesus. Right before he was going to start

his ministry, he had to be tempted, and the devil said,

do something spectacular. You know how right now one of

the only ways to be popular for girls sometimes is

to go on certain social media platforms and kind of

like show everything that's too much that's really not for

everybody else to see that is really sacred to you

but if there is something inside of you that knows

that's not who i am that's all right that's all

right that's all right.

I'd rather be fruitful for.

30 years than famous for 30 minutes.

I got something inside of me And Jesus chose to

be alone. But when I read you the text, there

was another man who was lonely not because he chose it.

The Bible doesn't say his name. I doubt many people

ever asked him his name. The Bible just tells us

His condition, which was a skin condition called leprosy. Now,

the Bible is pretty clear about what lepers were treated.

Like in this culture. And it wasn't that they were mean.

Y'all thought social distancing was so 2020?

Way before everybody was wearing masks around. Social distancing.

And the Bible has all kinds of stuff that is

way more relevant than we think it is.

So when people tell you, oh, the Bible's outdated. Social distancing.

In fact, it wasn't six feet.

If you had the skin disease called leprosy, the first

thing you would have to do is go and show

yourself to the priest. And what would normally happen is

a spot would start to form there.

On your skin.

So they check you out and they would see if

the spot was just on the skin, like a scab,

or was it in the skin?

And if it was in the skin and the.

Coloration of the skin was starting to change and it

was starting.

To spread, then they would quarantine you.

And they would keep you outside of the camp until

they could see if it got worse. If it got

worse after seven days when you came back to the

priest and he checked you out, the sons of Aaron,

the ones who kind of ran the church of that day,

when you came back to them.

Now, all of this is in the Bible in Leviticus.

What verses did I give you? Leviticus, the Leviticus verse

I gave you. Put it up for me. 13.

It said anyone with a defiling disease must wear torn clothes.

which some of us do by choice, but for the lepers,

this was to signify something about their skin condition. And

not only did they have to wear torn clothes, but

they couldn't shave their.

Beard, cut their hair.

Man, this sounds just like March, April, May, June, and

July in the United States of America.

How did Leviticus know?

But put it back up.

It said, this is the saddest part about it for me.

It said, cover the lower part of their face and

cry out, unclean, unclean. So that means before anybody even

got to know who you were really, they identified you

by what they saw on you.

Amen.

And I need you to get that context because a

lot of us in our lives, we have issues, but

they're not on our skin. They're not spots on our skin.

They're spots on our soul. The places inside of us

that keep us isolated. What's your spot?

What's your spot? Oh, everybody's got a spot.

And if you look at me with that holy heart

playing church face, Gabriel, I will look in your eyes

and prophesy every demon that you've been. I mean, I'm

telling you, everybody in this room has a spot.

Not me. No, no. Yours is just a little deeper.

When I thought about this man and In Mark chapter one.

I noticed that when he came up to Jesus, because remember,

he's not supposed to get near Jesus. In fact, he's

not supposed to get near anybody, let alone the spotless

son of God, let alone a rabbi.

He's supposed to stay back. How far back? Not six feet,

50 steps back.

Now I preached this text a couple of years ago

in our church. But it feels a little different right

now where our world is. This feels really like it's

for us right now.

50 feet back. You know how lonely that would be?

To live your life 50 feet back from human touch.

You know how lonely that would be?

That every time you walk into a room, you had

to announce.

Yourself by what was wrong with you. unclean.

You had to say it loud too. If you didn't,

they could stone you to death. If they found out

that you were carrying something that you didn't let them

know about because they saw it as being contagious and

they were trying to protect people from it and that

was the reason for it.

It wasn't to be cruel.

They were trying to be careful so they kept them

back and you had to walk in the room and

tell them not who you were, not what your hopes were,

not what your dreams were, not what your gift was,

not how you had a good heart.

Unclean. How many of y'all would have come tonight to

hear me preach.

And I want you to really, really think about this.

If before you came in, you had to shout every

sin you struggled with at the door.

They didn't get it, Elijah.

Listen, he asked me the other day, we were watching YouthX.

I don't remember who we were watching preach.

Do you?

You said, if every thought that you had right now

came on the screen at YouthX, would you still have

your job as the pastor?

I said, oh, God, no. I said, would you have

any friends? He said, no. I said, well, what are

you thinking that would be so bad? He said, I'm

not telling you.

I said, I'm not telling you either.

And then we finished our workout. But I want you

to really think about it.

What if you had to stand at that door and

shout what you struggled with before you walked in? What

if you walked in the door and instead of taking

your temperature.

You had to name your biggest temptation. What if you

had to walk in the room?

Porn!

That was too real.

Porn!

I don't think there would be any men that would

come in and watch me preach if you had to

name your greatest temptation out.

Loud before you walked in. Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior,

help me preach.

I'm preaching to the holy people right now. And yet,

sometimes I think it would be better if our issues

were on the outside than on the inside. Because when

your spots are on the inside, you can learn how

to manage around them. So you never really deal with them.

This man walked up to Jesus. and he begged him

on his knees. Verse 40, if you're willing, you can

make me clean.

And think about this. He hasn't been this close to anybody.

We don't know how long, and we don't really know

this man's story not fully anyway we know that he

had leprosy on his skin but we don't know when

it started or how far it has spread we know

that since leprosy attacks the nervous system one of the

things that it impairs is your ability to feel your

ability to feel and it's been a long time since

this man had felt anything that's a lonely place that's.

A lonely place when you can't really feel anything.

And I'll tell you this, I've been around some people

who are really famous, who are the loneliest people of all,

because although a lot of people know their name and

know what they do and see how they perform, to

most people, they are just an idea or an image,

not an individual. And so when you think to yourself, oh,

I'll be famous and then I'll feel fulfilled, it's a

lie of the enemy. You don't want to be famous.

You want to be fruitful. You want to be fruitful.

And what good is it for you to be famous

if it just makes you more isolated because you have

to fake it for fame? This is what I love

about the man. He was willing to risk being seen

and and his issue being exposed in order to be touched.

And the first person who touched this man.

Since his disease showed up on his skin was the

sinless son of God. I love how Jesus touched him

because we know that Jesus didn't have to do that.

Jesus had the ability to heal people and elsewhere he

did just by the power of his word. But he

decided to do something that would communicate more than syllables could.

He didn't just want to show this man that he

had the power to heal. He wanted to teach him

a lesson about what God is like. And I want

everybody in here who is struggling with shame right now

to hear the word of the Lord.

I want you to hear this in Argentina. I want

you to hear this in Rock Hill.

I want you to hear this right now in Tennessee

and Alabama and Idaho.

I want you to hear.

This right now sitting watching this all by yourself today.

And you've been isolated.

And there's something inside of you that makes you feel

like there's something.

Wrong with you.

See, in the Old Testament, if the priest touched something

that was unclean, it made the priest dirty.

That's why he couldn't touch it.

But Jesus was not just any priest. I wish I

had an organ like it was Sunday morning. Jesus was

not just any priest. This is not a human priest.

this is the lamb of god this is a great

high priest he is not defiled he is not ashamed

he knew no sin so watch this when you touch

jesus the unclean doesn't make the clean unclean The clean

makes the unclean clean. Y'all act like y'all want to

praise God on hour 71 of YouthX 2020. Come on

and let him touch you.

I have a word for somebody today who.

Has been carrying shame. And it's had you in a

lonely place. A lonely place.

Oh yeah, you still text people, but it's not really

you texting. It's a representative of you that's trying to

figure out what to say that's gonna create.

The image that you think they won't reject.

And the places that you go when you're lonely often

make you even more lonely.

It's a lonely place outside the camp.

It's a lonely place when the spot isn't on your skin,

but the spot is in your soul.

And you think, if anybody knew that part about me,

they wouldn't love me. But they didn't make you. They

didn't make you.

They didn't die for you. And let me promise you something.

They got their own spot too.

Yeah. So for all of you who feel like, I'm

not one of these good people. I'm not one of

these good Christian kids. I'm not one of the church kids.

I'm not one of these.

Notice how Jesus did not resist the man when he

got at a distance that he wasn't supposed to be.

He said, watch this. You ready? This is what I

came for. This is what I came for. I didn't

come here to win a popularity contest.

I came to touch people and use people and raise

people and heal people that nobody.

Else would touch.

I want to use that kid right there, the weird one.

Where are the weird ones at? Where are the weird

ones at? Where are the weird ones at? And I

know you feel weird sometimes, and so do I. But

the text says that when that man came out of

his lonely place.

Lonely place. Lonely place.

It's a lonely place when you have an addiction and

you can't tell anybody about it.

It's a lonely place.

It's a lonely place when sometimes you have suicidal thoughts.

It's a lonely place. It's a lonely place when your

dad wasn't there to raise you. It's a lonely place.

It's a lonely place when you've only been able to

hang out with your eight-year-old.

Sister and your mom for the last 14 years.

And y'all are all wearing masks together, watching the same

movies on the couch for the hundredth time. It's a

lonely place when you can't even come to church for YouthX.

You got to watch it on your phone. And yet

the Lord says, don't make life decisions. when you're in

a lonely place. Don't make life decisions when you're in

a lonely place. You do some things that you have

to live with the rest of your life and some

of the places that some of y'all are going so

you won't be lonely.

Are making you more lonely.

Because now you're on here comparing and now you're on

here posing and now you're on here just and now

you feel more lonely. So when that man came to

Jesus and Jesus touched him, I'm sure he was surprised.

And the leprosy left him immediately. You don't have to

wait the.

Next five years for the shame to fall off your life.

It may take a while for the behavior to change,

but you can leave the shame right here.

Today, right now, right here, right now. right here, right now.

The shame stuff's here, right here, right now. Hey, thank

you for watching.

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