Why Is This Taking So Long Steven Furtick - Steven Furtick

It's frustrating when life feels unfruitful.

There's nothing more fulfilling than bearing the fruit you're meant

to bear because of the seed God put in you.

But there's nothing more frustrating. And I'm not talking about

feeling unfruitful.

When you haven't sown any seed.

Because I have no right to be disappointed about the

fruit that wasn't born from.

The seed I didn't sow.

I have no right to be disappointed about the A

I didn't get from the book I didn't open. But

when I did study, when I was a good person,

when I was planted in church, find a young couple

that has been trying to have a baby for three

and a half years, struggling with infertility, and one of

their couple's friends that they hang out with got pregnant

on accident and is complaining about it.

The frustration of unfruitfulness.

Find a man who went to school for a certain

trade and now is working in an industry that will

barely provide for his family. And he's way overqualified for

what he's doing. There's nothing more frustrating than feeling unfruitful.

Notice I said feeling unfruitful. I didn't say being unfruitful.

Because the fact is, some of the times in your

life that feel the least fruitful and the most frustrating

are actually the times in your life where God is

preparing you and tilling you and cultivating your character for

the greatest gifts that he's gonna give. Has anybody experienced this? See,

it's the difference between being cut off and cut back.

Now I want to preach because somebody came into church

today feeling cut off. You feel cut off from opportunities

and cut off from potential and.

Cut off from purpose.

But what I want to tell you, like Holly told

Elijah when we drove by those crepe myrtles and it

looked like those men quit caring about those plants. It

looked like that man had lost his mind. It looked

like that man had no good sense. What Holly told

Elijah is he cuts them back.

So they can grow.

Back better than they ever did before. To get them

ready for the next season. I came to tell somebody.

Give me that camera.

I came to tell somebody. You're not cut off. You

were just cut back. You're not cut off. You were

just cut back. God wasn't cutting you down because he's

done with you. He was cutting you back because he's

got something more in store.

Tell somebody say it's just a cut back.

And if it's cut back, that means it's coming back.

Good measure.

Press down. Shake it together.

Running over. It's coming back.

My joy is coming back. My peace is coming back.

All right.

I'm going to get them standing in the back before

I'm done.

It's just a cut back. It's just a cut back.

It's just a cut back.

Before church started, right when the choir was singing so beautifully,

I got struck by a thought.

I never do this because I like to worship.

I don't like to be preparing my sermon while I'm

supposed to be worshiping. I'm supposed to have that done already.

But the Lord hit me with something so strong. I said,

go get a notebook.

I need to write something down.

And I found a post-it note and I wrote down,

let me go back so I can read it now.

This is why I had to write it down. Because

I need to say it to you just like this.

Life may make the cut, but God is holding the scissors.

And I felt like if I would say that to somebody,

it would change your perspective on.

The pain you're experiencing.

Because all you can see is what people are doing

to you.

Snip, snip.

All you can see is what the company did to you.

Snip, snip.

All you can see is what the disease is doing

to your mom.

Snip, snip.

But if you can ever realize that no matter how

life cuts you, it's God that controls your destiny. My

father is the gardener. He knows just where to cut,

when to cut, how to cut to make it grow

back better.

Told you they'd be standing in the back.

Who was that for?

Life may be cutting you. People may be cutting you.

But God is superintending this process.

It's just a cutback. I'm not cut off. I'm cut back.

I might be down. I'm not out. I feel unfruitful.

But though there is no fruit on the vine, no

cattle in the stalls, I will rejoice.

Please, please believe me when I say I know the

frustration of unfruitfulness. I know what it feels like when

you put a lot into people and.

They let you down.

I know what it feels like to be the person who.

Somebody put a lot in and let them down. Nobody

ever preaches about the other side of that, by the way.

I know the frustration of unfruitfulness.

And yet in this beautiful passage of Scripture, John 15,

which everybody in the church has memorized, He said, I'm

working on it. In other words, this may take a while.

He just proved my subject. This may take a while.

Come on, tell the person next to you.

This may take a while. I preached last week. The

problem is the pattern. So you went home and you

tried to change the pattern. By Tuesday, you quit. That

didn't work. It's Tuesday.

It's been two days since Since I preached, you're trying

to undo 22 years of patterns in two days.

This may take a while.

You cheated on your wife four times and you expect

her to forgive you in four minutes.

This may take a while. Your kids saw you live

without God for 14 years.

And now you don't understand why they don't want to

come to church with you and they think you're a hypocrite?

This may take a while.

You've been eating one way, thinking one way, approaching life

one way. You want God to undo in 45 minutes

of preaching what took 45 years of living to plant

in the soil? This may take a while. The hardest

thing in life, I'm shifting to another thought, but it's

under the same subject because.

What we're after is fruitfulness. That's what you really want

in your life.

When you see people chasing after fame, what they really

want is fruit. When you see people chasing after fortune,

what they really want is fruit. And sometimes fame is

a byproduct of fruit. And sometimes fortune is a byproduct

of fruit. But what we all really want is I

want my life to be more than it was. I

want it to be more next year than it was

last year.

I want it to be more in a decade. I

want my life to be greater in peace.

And I want to be greater in wisdom. And I

want my home to be greater in love.

I want to be fruitful. But I'm frustrated. Frustrated.

All because of this one little word, while. He cuts

off every branch in me, verse 2, that bears no fruit.

While. While. I don't even like the word while.

Because it's indefinite.

While means while this is happening, that's happening. Well, I

don't want to miss that.

But I'm doing this. I don't like things to be

happening while I'm doing something else. I don't like you

to be posting something on Instagram while I'm trying to preach.

While we're here, we're doing this. I don't like that.

I don't like that very much.

I especially don't like it when it refers to a

period of time.

Because what does that mean?

A while.

A while? Well, the writer of Hebrews one.

Time, he was trying to encourage the Christians not to

give up and they were persecuted. And he told them something,

Hebrews 10 verse 37. He said, and I don't have

Hebrews 10:37

this one memorized. He said, for in just a little while.

He who is coming will come and not delay. When?

A little while.

But then the Bible also says in Peter that a

day to the Lord is like a thousand years and

a thousand years is like a day. So I'm not

sure I'm very comfortable with God's definition of a while.

Because if by a while you mean 15 minutes, we're good.

But if by a while you mean 15 years, I'm.

Not so sure about this. And it's hard to commit

to consistency. Consistency.

When you have no frame of reference for the duration.

Yet we're all driven by a sense. that destiny has deadlines.

And I might be missing my season to bear fruit.

I might be missing my season to make it happen.

This might be the only chance I have to make

a run at it.

This might be my window of opportunity.

The great preacher Leonard Ravenhill said that the opportunity of

a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity.

What's he saying? You got to strike while the iron

is hot. There's a window called while. While.

While your kids are young, you have a very profound.

Opportunity to be their parent.

But after they hit a certain age, let's be honest,

you're really nothing more than an advisor at best.

Only have a little while to do this. Only have

a little while where I'm.

Going to feel enough energy to preach, you know, three

times a weekend.

Full blast. So I got to do it while I can.

And I can't. I can't.

I can't do it with my whole heart if I'm

focused on a lot of things that aren't worth my

while at all. And some of you are missing what

you should be doing while you have the chance because

you got your mind on stuff that's not worth your while.

Come on, Nehemiah, help us.

Nehemiah in the Old Testament was overseeing a construction project

to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, right?

He only had a little while to do it.

He got special permission from the king whom he had

served as cupbearer to go back, check out the situation.

He had resources, he had time, but he only had

so much. God is an unlimited resource. That's why Jesus

is divine. You are a limited resource. That's why you're

the branch. You only have a while. The grass withers.

The flowers fade. The days of man are like grass

here today, gone tomorrow.

I only have a little while.

I only.

I only have a little while for this. I know

it seems long, but it's really only a little while.

It's just a little while. So Nehemiah sets out.

And begins the great work of rebuilding the walls and

is going well. He's fired up everybody in the vicinity

except the enemies because when everybody gets fired up, about

the work of God, there will be a pushback from

the surrounding people who are afraid that they're losing territory.

Because of what God is building.

Nehemiah's situation exhibits this because the enemies tried to call

him out of where he was supposed to be and

while he was building, they wanted to arrange for him

to have a meeting with them and they were conspiring

to hurt him. They were conspiring to distract him. They

were conspiring to get him off the wall. They were

conspiring to try to get his opportunity to expire in

the lifetime of the opportunity. They were trying to get

him to waste days. They were trying to get him

to waste thoughts. They were trying to get him to

lose focus. And they said, come meet with us in

the plains of Ono. And I love Nehemiah because he said,

oh no. Everybody say, oh no. Sometimes you got to

learn how to tell your enemy, oh no. Oh no,

that's not worth my while. Watch Nehemiah.

This is a master class on leadership, y'all. So I

sent messengers to them. He didn't even have the conversation himself.

I'm not even having this conversation. This is not worth

my while.

He said, I sent messengers to them with this reply.

I am carrying on a great project. I am building

a great family. I am putting my all into getting

this degree. I am restoring some stuff that the enemy stole.

I am carrying on a great project. I'm in the

middle of something important and cannot go down. Why should

the work stop while I leave it and go down

to you? Some of you came off the wall for

some stuff last year that wasn't worth your while. And

while you were down off the wall, not laying bricks,

the enemy was laughing and life was passing. And you

spent 32% roughly of your mental energy having arguments with

people who aren't even in your life anymore about what

they did to you. And you didn't have the focus

to give. One time David was getting a report, David

in the Bible, King David, he was getting a report

from one of his generals, that his son who had

rebelled against him had been successfully taken out. David was

so upset about losing his son that he couldn't celebrate

the victory that his men had given.

And the commander said something to him.

He said, you love those who hate you and you

hate those who love you. You are giving so much

of yourself trying to.

Get approval from people who.

Aren't even paying attention to you, that while you're focused

on building that image that you think will make them

like you, you are losing the moments with the people

who really love you. You are so stuck in what

happened that you're missing what's happening. And I wanted to

say to somebody, whoever it is today that's chasing down

opportunities that have long since passed, let it go.

It's not worth your while.

It's over.

It's gone. It hurt. It happened.

Yes.

But it's not worth your while.

To stand in dead places, regretting dead dreams that will

never come to pass. It's not worth your while. Holding

on to an offense is not worth your while. Complaining

about how you were raised is not.

Worth your while.

Resenting the opportunities that you didn't have is not worth

your while because while you're focused on that you can't

build this every moment you spend on the plains of

oh no is the moment you sacrifice that you could

be putting another brick on the wall Now come on,

let's get back to building. Let's get back to construction.

Let's get back to the great project God has called

you to. Let's get back to what's worthwhile. What's really worthwhile?

That's what I want to answer today. What's really worth

your while? See, you can't be consistent at everything. So

we're in a series about challenging our inconsistencies. But the

first thing to challenging our inconsistencies is to prune the

things that shouldn't be a priority. Because if there's too

many branches in your life and there's too many pursuits,

it's going to be sucking all the stuff that should

be flowing somewhere else. If there's too many commitments, you

won't be consistent in any of them.

So God says, like I.

Prune you, I want you to prune your own life.

I want you to prune your priorities. I want you

to ask the question that even adults rarely stop to ask.

Is this worthwhile?

To make decisions at a different level so you can

keep commitments at.

A higher one. Hey, thank you for watching.

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