Nov 4, 2018 Elevation Sermon notes

Elevation Ballantyne
Pastor Steven Furtick
Sermon Title: Game Changer Series part 1 - “The Secret Score Board” - Am I playing the right game?

Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2HXEQ62ggM

For these pressed for time, here are Pastor Steven’s major 1 Peter 3:15 talking points:

• Are you a game changer or are you a bench warmer?

• It’s interesting that most of us learn how to go through life learning how to play the game - and we master the
game whether it’s popularity, position, or certain skills - and we learn how to play the game but never stop
and ask this question: Are we playing the right game?
• So, what are we to make of this inversion of values that Jesus presents in his sermon on the Mount? Jesus
seems to be saying that when your actions match your values you are winning.
• In a world where there are more scoreboards than ever before to artificially approximate levels of success, we
need to come back to a source of validation that finds its satisfaction in God and God alone.
• If your values are shallow your victories will be empty. Your reward is connected to your reason.
• God is both my reason and my reward. And we all have a tendency to separate the two.
• The scriptures tell your not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing – this often confused me.
What the Scripture is saying is when you give, when you encourage, when you serve, when your share of
yourself, and when you sacrifice something, it should emanate from your value system such that it is
automatic.
• When you get in the habit of practicing your values it no longer comes from a place of obligation - where we
arrive at a station where we praise God and no one has to tell us when to do it - and your left hand and your
right hand should know what to do - because what we do reflects your values and it is automatic.
• Pastor Steven classic: Gold in heave is used as road gravel. So, I realized over time that the treasure in
heaven is not in heaven but it is from heaven - it’s not that it’s in another place it is from another place - it
means that my validation does not come from the outcome – but comes from the process of knowing and
believing God.

Scripture:
• Mathew Chapter 6: 1 to 3
• Sermon on the mount: Mathew Chapters 5, 6, and 7
• Hebrews 11:6: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Pre-sermon stuff:
• New song: “It is So” - fantastic!

Sermon notes from Pastor Furtick:

• Opening prayer: Father in heaven, we declare our praise, honor, and glory to your matchless name. Thank
you for inviting us today into your presence to worship you in the beauty of your holiness. We thank you for
cleansing us - in preparing us to be in your presence today with no fear and shame of retribution - but only in
the assurance of your love and mercy. Thank you Lord for the promises that you made toward us that are
certain in every season of our lives. And I declare now over each person present who made their way to

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 church today - or who may be watching online - or who is facing a circumstance that contradicts what you
have spoken into their lives. And we decree and declare in the name of Jesus that what we see is never
greater than what you have spoken. Yes, Lord there is nothing that we see or feel that is greater than what
you have spoken.
• Good morning church were starting a new series this week called “Game Changer.”
• in my course of study in preparing for this sermon, I remember some training in my early years where I was
told that the gospel is spelt DONE. And I was thinking - well that is sort of corny. Because most people think
gospel is spelt by the words DO - since we all think that the gospel is something that we have to do.
• We just finished singing a song called “Let It Be Done.” It means that we came into a space today where we
don’t have to achieve as much as we have to receive - because everything that needs to be done for you and
me, in order to be right, with God has already been done.
• And so, in that confidence today we stand knowing that yes God wants to do some things in our lives, but it’s
already done. I wish I can find about 15 people with that kind of faith. And whoever they are, I wish they
would turn around and tell everybody near them it is already done. I’m already accepted, already placed,
already loved, already made right, and already secure. It is already done. If this you, give God a great shout of
praise. Make your boast in the Lord.
• Turn your neighbor and ask this question: Are you a game changer or are you a bench warmer?
• Thank you God our team at the Matthews-NC campus this week. In the wake of the tragic loss of life during a
high school shooting at Butler high school - just across the street from our Mathews church office. I was
proud of our church leadership at the Matthews campus led by Brad - you were there with arms open wide to
pray and support families during this tragic event.
• Great job elevation worship team and singing a new song “It Is So.” A powerful anthem of faith. Sometimes
we have to sing this even when we do not feel it. Consider this: sometimes I don’t feel like brushing my
teeth, however, if I go by what I feel all of the time, I get cavities and I’m going to feel depressed - so I have to
understand things on a different plain – it is called faith
• It is very appropriate to sing the song “It is so” today
• It is also very appropriate to preach from Matthew chapter 6 today.
• See Mathews 6:1-3.
• Oh no! It looks like we need to delete some Phone apps on our phone and not boast so much.
• People do things outwardly that aligned with their own values.
• Recall the story of Pastor Steven explaining how he lived vicariously by watching his son play T-ball for the
Mint Hill Mudcats. Also recall the question by Pastor Steve to a parent as to why they don’t keep score during
games of introductory T-ball. Key statement: At the end of every game just asked me what the final score is
because your father will be keeping score in secret
• Also recall the story of Pastor Steven’s dad becoming a great baseball coach because he studied the rulebook
everything - not because he was a great baseball player.
• It is important to know who runs your scoreboard.
• We increasingly live in a culture that measures success by all the wrong metrics.
• Do you agree with this?
• It seems to me that it’s harder to keep score and answer this question: Am I winning?
• Just about the time I think that I’m winning in one area I find that I’m failing in another area. Because winning
in one area often comes at the expense of winning in another area.
• Social media has measurement tools. We know for example that when we post something, it is liked by
someone else. And there are other measures of status like net worth and wealth.
• However, are we winning?

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• It’s interesting that most of us learn how to go through life learning how to play the game - and we master
the game whether it’s popularity, position, or certain skills - and we learn how to play the game but never
stop and ask this question: Are we playing the right game?
• It is true. When Jesus came along he fundamentally changed the game.
• He changed the very basis of the game.
• And so, he preaches a sermon and it’s called the sermon on the Mount.
• The Bible says that Jesus went on an elevated section of a mountain to sit with his disciples to preach this
revolutionary thinking. By the way “elevation” is a great name for church and a U2 world tour.
• The work that Jesus does in this sermon is more like excavation. By digging, Jesus shows the importance of a
proper foundation as opposed to the structure.
• Jesus starts the sermon with something fascinating: “last are those that are poor in spirit and blessed are
those who are who mourn.”
• And we get the idea right away that Jesus is not going to validate the values of the current church leadership
in Israel. Instead he’s going to challenge them.
• Do you know how you can tell when you’re really met (the spirit of) Jesus? It is when your values are
challenged to the core. Jesus will challenge your sense of what really matters. He will start to invert your
sense of what really is important.
• Jesus challenges the values of those that preach in the name of God.
• Say this: the game has changed.
• It is hard to live a life with authentic values in a world that is increasingly superficial.
• I don’t mean to say this in such a way as to convey that the world is terrible. My point is this: Sometimes
it’s hard to tell if your winning in a world where everyone else’s victories are on display in social media.
• Important point: On social media people only show you their trophies
• Case in point: For those that serve as this church you going to get a Christmas card from my family. One of
these years I am going to try to send you the out-takes that reflects all of the toil and effort that went into
getting that perfect Christmas photo - but I won’t send you that card.
• The same way that you don’t feel like a worthy parent if you don’t carve out your kids lunch sandwich with
letters of a Bible verse and then take a picture and posted on Facebook.
• Here’s the issue with me: it has to do with intention.
• This is a powerful word.
• At this stage in my life I’m learning in order to keep a lasting and sustaining sense of fulfillment I’m going to
have to get a different definition of victory.
• That I’m going to have to give up on the expectation that everyone is going to like me - or be impressed by
me. If I live this way, all that this creates is exhaustion and burn out.
• From this way forward, I need to have a different definition
• So, what are we to make of this inversion of values that Jesus presents in his sermon on the Mount”
• Jesus seems to be saying that when your actions match your values you are winning - whether people are
cheering with you or staring at you.
• If your actions match your values, you are winning and you need to practice your values - and when you do
this - in order to be successful in some seasons, it is going to require you to stop looking at the scoreboard
that is visible - to engage with God a different level - and ask this question: What does victory look like for
me in this season of my life.
• And to get into your car during a period of reflection and asked this question: Father did we win?
• In a world where there are more scoreboards than ever before to artificially approximate levels of success,
we need to come back to a source of validation that finds its satisfaction in God and God alone. Amen.

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• If you don’t believe that the score is scoreboard has changed, notice how the video games have changed in
this generation. When I was young we play video games that had meaning with a mission to accomplish.
• Recall Pastor Steven’s funny story about the cookie clicker app - where the only goal is to click on cookies to
get more cookies in order to get more cookies in order to get more cookies. What is the point of this?
• Have you ever asked this question: what am I clicking for?
• Or better yet ask this question: why am I trying to impress these people anyway?
• Or a better question: Why am I going through the motions in trying to achieve while trying to impress people
whose opinion has no eternal value or a measure of significance as to my value - or my dignity - and we click
and we click and we click and we click - and we can’t eat a single cookie.
• Yet we continue to click and continue to play the game - but the question is what game are we playing?
• Jesus didn’t come to play the game - became to change the game.
• When I decided to call this sermon series “Game Changer”, I thought it sounded like a Gatorade commercial
at first - but I think it encapsulates what I think God wants us to do in this season of our lives.
• Jesus did not come to earth so that we can play some sort of peculiar religious game - as Jesus says “I did not
come to abolish the law of the profits, I came to fulfill the law of the profits.” Jesus is I didn’t come to do
away with the law, he came to fulfill it.
• In other words, grace changed the game.
• It moves the scoreboard from the outside to the inside.
• In his sermon on the Mount Jesus is talking to his disciples about the beliefs that underpinned behavior -
because he was speaking to church leaders who perfected a thing called religious appearance.
• There is something deeper and behavior called belief.
• Without the right belief system, you don’t get the right behavior – where behavior is an empty vessel that is
unfulfilling.
• So, we have to change the game and Jesus did this six different times in his Sermon on the Mount.
o First, he says “I didn’t come to abolish the law, I came to fulfill it.
o You have heard it said that murder is a sin - Jesus says even if you are angry at your brother it’s as if
you’ve committed murder in your heart - since you experience the same consequence of violence
even if you don’t commit the act. If you don’t address the underlying attitude - even if you don’t
destroy someone else – you potentially destroy yourself.
o You’ve heard it said to not to commit adultery but Jesus says if you allow your heart to be consumed
with lust, you will be imprisoned not by the act of adultery but by the attitude - and you will not be a
slave to the external sin but you will be a slave to the system of thought that is beneath the system
that is called sin
o You have heard it said to love your neighbor - and Jesus says to love your enemy because if you are
going to receive the grace of God from God - then you have to give the grace that you have received
from God. It is like this: You can’t insist on God treating you on a level of grace and yet you treat
others on the basis of love. You can ask God to treat you one way on the basis of mercy and grace
and then keep score with others and hold them accountable for their wrongdoings and boasting
about forgiveness you have from God for your wrongdoings.
• Grace changes the game. I don’t walk like I used to walk. I don’t think like I used to think. I don’t talk like I
used to talk.
• At the deepest level, grace doesn’t just change what we do, it changes the reason that we do it.
• And this is the essence of Matthew chapter 6 – When give it away, your father can reward you in secret. And
if you do it for any other reason than “this is my value that God places in me” - and you do it merely for the
recognition of others - then your only reward will be the recognition of others. Let’s suppose that people

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 decide not to recognize you? If your reason for doing something is for people, then your recognition will only
come from people.
• If your values are shallow, your victories will be empty.
• Your reward is connected to your reason. This applies to every area of life. So if you have a devotion
tomorrow morning and the only reason for the devotion is so you can post a picture of your devotional on
Facebook, make sure that you get the coffee mug in the shot right next to Colossians chapter 3 verse seven -
so you can put coffee and Colossians on your post – However, be aware, if that is the reason for the devotion -
then your only reward will be people liking your post. And don’t get mad because you only got 12 likes and
the devotion did not appear to have lasting meaning.
• Jesus tells us your reason forms the basis of your reward.
• If we do things for God, we don’t have to go to people for validation.
• Our reward comes from the Lord.
• Say this: God is my source and God is my reward. Since God is both my source and reward, he sees what is
done in secret - and we no longer have to live our life looking around seeing if what we did is satisfying to
other people.
• This will help in your praying preaching and ministering to others.
• This will help in your perspective. This will help when it seems that what you are doing has no tactical bearing
on your success - because you are not obedient as a condition for being successful – you are obedient because
the grace of God has become the dominant experience of your life.
• God is both my reason and my reward.
• And we all have a tendency to separate the two.
• We often error we say: “if we do this then God will do that.”
• The bible says: He who comes to God must believe he rewards those that diligently seek him. God is a
rewarder. See Hebrews 11:6
• But what is the reward?
• The answer: depends on the reason.
• Are your values too shallow? Perhaps this is the reason why your victories feel a little empty.
• This is why sometimes we get to “click the cookie” but we don’t get a chance to dip it into the milk.
• Take for example winning an argument: Did you ever stop and think of the time you lost it took you to win a
superficial argument? Was it even worth winning? Did you lose in the process of winning? What exactly is
the cost if your only value is to be proven right? Is your only reward to be proven right?
• As one old preacher says: “you argue too much – when you argue with a pig, you both get dirty and only one
of you (the pig) enjoys the experience.”
• Recall the funny story of Pastor Steven talking about entertainment app called “Fortnight” and request for V
bucks with real money that says IN GOD WE TRUST?
• Jesus tells us that we have to have some deeper values - so when we give the reason that we do it terms the
rewards we get from it.
• He was talking to people that were keepers and custodians of the law.
• If the reason that you do what you do it is merely to make you look righteous - Jesus says this is the wrong
reason.
• This is an exciting time of the year. For some, they will begin a lifetime habit of generosity for the first time –
not out of need but because out of values – not because we have to but because we get to.
• Over the next few weeks we hope to show you a demonstration (and not a presentation) of the gospel.
• This is always more powerful.

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• In the Old Testament the 10th was given in the reason was in order to keep the law - which is how a lot of us
live – but, when Jesus changed the game - it changed the way we approach every area of our lives - even
generosity.
• Jesus changed the thought that we had to give or we would be punished – where we are now blessed when
we do.
• It is a foundational principal to say that all comes from God - so that acts of generosity are given freely.
• The scriptures tell your not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing – this often confused
me. What the Scripture is saying is when you give, when you encourage, when you serve, when your share
of yourself, and when you sacrifice something, it should emanate from your value system such that it is
automatic.
• Recall that Pastor Steven played “Talk Dirty to Me” from Poison without an amp (the first song that he ever
learned on a guitar). The point was to show that one hand is fretting and the other hand is strumming –
where both hands are working together – and their cooperation is automatic and normal.
• When you get in the habit of practicing your values it no longer comes from a place of obligation - where
we arrive at a station where we praise God and no one has to tell us when to do it - and your left hand and
your right hand should know what to do - because what we do reflects our values and it is automatic.
• Where we have a habit to trust God automatically – We say this: No, I don’t know how it’s going to turn out,
but I do not have to know - because faith is now my response - because I practice the habit of trusting God in
any situation - and he is my reward – and the blessing built into our daily obedience - it is built into the
process – and the outcome is the obedience
• So, the question this week is this: It is not that you are playing the game right - it is are you playing the right
game? - or are you clicking on stuff only to create more stuff – and never getting to dip the cookie into the
milk.
• Imagine how much peace we would have if the only one holding the scoreboard is the same one who loves
us and accepts us as we are. If this were the case you would not need V-bucks, validation, likes, and
followers.
• When our values are shallow our victories are empty.
• Have you arrived at a station in life where you are playing the game well only to realize that the game you’re
playing isn’t worth winning? If you have reached this point please understand that the grace of God is a game
changer. It gets you out of the constant clicking.
• We stop the need to commit acts of righteousness merely to be seen by others – forms of self-justification
and self-righteousness - and put our validation squarely in the hands of a God who loves you just the way you
are.
• I asked this question all the time: God, am I winning?
• We can always find others make us feel bad about ourselves - less body fat percentage, more money, and
better vacations on a private island.
• Pastor Steven classic: I saved up enough money to take a vacation at a nice resort only to learn about another
person that couldn’t remember the private island they were going to visit. So, when you clicked enough
cookies thinking that you earned a vacation at an expensive suite, there is always somebody else that has
their own private island.
• You father knows our weakness and knows our strengths and steers you in the direction of your calling - and
God never compares you with someone else is calling.
• And this is such a powerful revelation.
• Humans look at the wrong scoreboard and we feel like a failure as we are measuring ourselves to the wrong
metrics.
• But your father sees what is done in secret.
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• Pastor Steven classic: Gold in heave is used as road gravel. So, I realized over time that the treasure in
heaven is not in heaven but it is from heaven - it’s not that it’s in another place it is from another place - it
means that my validation does not come from the outcome – but comes from the process of knowing and
believing God.
• And I repent from my shallow values - the times that I wanted to be popular, wanted to have pleasure, and
wanted to have position.
• We all need something deeper and there is someone in this room that needs this message today.
• Closing prayer: Lord we have given the wrong perspective to those that are keeping a scoreboard on us. We
have come to realize that the pursuit of success is not necessarily fulfilling. We are left with 10 million cookies
to click and yet we are still hungry. The secret is to stop clicking just for a moment and allow God’s voice to
determine our values. In a world that is completely upside-down Jesus says blessed are those that are poor in
spirit for theirs is in the kingdom of heaven. Because God values humility. Blessed are those that are
mourning for they will be comforted. However, this does not sound like victory but God’s values are different
than ours. Father I ask right now that what is truly important to you would take precedence in our hearts and
minds. Our hearts are alive today because we know this principle is so life-changing - but it is also
challenging. As soon as we leave this church we are confronted with the world that contradicts these
important principles. God, give us the ability to turn to you at each moment in a season and in each situation
in our life and ask you this question: am I winning? Sometimes we feel like winning when we are losing and
sometimes when we feel we are losing when we are actually winning - which can’t be taken away - so God
today help us know the difference. Only you can show us this Holy Spirit. Lord today we surrender our
scorecards in many different ways we see life - and Lord instill in us values that come from heaven. We thank
you for your grace that came along and changed us all. And now we pray for this grace to work powerfully in
us and through us – and take us to a place where actions reflect our values and our values come from you. In
Jesus name we pray Amen.

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