Use Your Inside Voice – Pastor Steven Furtick- Elevation Church

Mark 3:20-31 (NIV)

            ²⁰ Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. ²¹ When his family^[b] heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

²² And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” ²³ So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. ²⁶ And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. ²⁷ In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. 

²⁸ Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, ²⁹ but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” ³⁰ He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.” ³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 

Pastor Furtick’s reflection about his daughter Abby:

Abby is so loud she doesn’t even know. Pastor Furtick tells Abby to use her inside voice, but she replies back by saying “this IS my inside voice!”

What is your inside voice? Not as in volume level, but as in what is going on in your mind?

Pastor Furtick’s reflection on his inside voice vs Holly’s inside voice.

While Pastor Furtick feels that Holly’s voice is nice, he feels that his is terrible.

He mentions this comparison when watching a movie, in which they are both watching the same movie but have very different perspectives of it.

 

Cynicism

• Jesus was rarely, if ever, driven by the opinions of outside voices.

Have we accepted that Jesus not only died to forgive us for our sins, but he also died to deliver us from cynicism?

He also died for our cynical hearts.

• Jesus was not tempted by sin, but he was dealing with the cynicism of those he came to save.
• For many of us, cynicism has become our strategy!
  • Its how we deal with disappointment: If we don’t get our hopes up, then no one can bring them down.
  • It has served us as a shield: to keep us from exposing ourselves to the elements of mystery which are the essence of faith in God

Example: The cynical scribes! They had a lot of knowledge! Information! Trained in the law! But they lacked wisdom! (I’m now thinking Proverbs here)

• They criticized the very one they spoke of, and they didn’t know it!

The ones that create crowds to teach others are the same one questioning Jesus because he was doing this they didn’t understand.

 

Crowds

• Jesus was not forming crowds (at least not in this story). Mark’s gospel mentions crowds 13 times and in a negative way. Crowds was getting in the way of Jesus from doing his thing. Most preachers are trying to create the very thing that actually got in Jesus’ way of doing what he came to do.
• A lot of the times, our busy-ness is the very thing keeps God from doing his work, his business. We use our busyness as a form of a crowd.
• Jesus himself stated that He was about his Father’s business (NKJV Luke 2:49).

• The scribes in the story of Mark came in to use law to use it against Jesus to fulfill the law. However, they were unable too. They lacked wisdom.
• They had too much knowledge, too much noise, too much ‘mastery of God’….which closes us from the mystery of God.

• It makes you cynical! It makes you start to think you know God better than God!

Our Inside Voice

JESUS KNOWS YOUR INSIDE VOICE! Jesus came to deal with your inside voice!

Matthew 12:25-28 (NIV)  ²⁵ Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶ If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? ²⁷ And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

• Jesus came to deal with your inside thoughts! He already knows them!

• The scribes were blaming Jesus for using the devil for his work. Sometimes we blame too much the devil, or give him too much credit on something that God is trying to do.

• The devil didn’t do it! Sometimes our decisions do it!

• Its like this voice that makes you the victim but you blame the devil. Don’t miss on God’s miracles because of your cynicism.

• Satan is more strategic about his Kingdom, than a lot of God’s children are about God’s Kingdom. As God’s children, we don’t have enough good sense, so we embrace strategies of cynicism and call it wisdom.

Cynicism is Counterfeit Wisdom

• It looks like the truth; it isn’t the truth!

It looks like righteousness; it not righteousness.

It looks like faith; its really manipulation.

• Cynicism is not The Spirit of God!

Gospel means GOOD NEWS!! FREEDOM! HALLELUJAH!

Going back to Mark 3:28-29 (NIV) ²⁸ Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, ²⁹ but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

• God mentions that He forgives us of ALL our sins and every slander. This is God’s work in us until we are in full completion in Him. However, sin against the Holy Spirit is never forgiven. If you have questioned going against the Holy Spirit then perhaps are haven’t, perhaps because you are being convicted by the Holy Spirit itself, and God is still working within you.

 

Division & the Inside Voice

• You have the Kingdom of Satan vs the Kingdom of God

Eternal vs Temporal

The word of the Lord vs the values of the World

• In Mark 3, Jesus is receiving division and optimism from not only the scribes but from his family too.

• The secret to Jesus doing his Father’s work and the secret to you doing the Will of God is going to be the voices that you respond to. Mainly from what you surround yourself with.

Mark 3:23 (NIV) – How can satan drive out satan?

• Jesus doesn’t shout to them. He uses his inside voice. Real Power doesn’t have to shout. He knew who He was. Do you?

Externally speaking, Jesus came from Bethlehem. But Internally speaking The beginning was the Word, He was God and the Word was with God. He came through Mary.

• Jesus was not driven by the outside voices, and opinions, he was steered by the opinion of His father. Are you?

If not you are going to be tossed like the wind, and your emotions are going to ruin your life and your cynicism is going to restrict your wisdom.

 

Where do you come from?

1 John 4:4 (NIV) ^4 “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

• Why don’t you talk like where you come from?

Why isn’t your attitude like where you are from, if you are a child of God?

You are a child of God, so why don’t you talk like a Child of God.

TALK LIKE WHERE YOU COME FROM!!!!

• I come from strength! I come from The Rock. I come from The Well.

I came from the Lord!

I have an inheritance!

You are of Royal Priesthood!

You are a Holy Nation!

To declare the praises!

It doesn’t take faith to be cynical.

It takes faith to contradict your circumstance with your confession.

• You are God’s workmanship, created in Christ. Talk to your inside voice like where you come from! God knows what is going on inside your heart today.

Greater is his that is in you!

 

Voices Become Viewpoints: CHECK YOUR INSIDE VOICE!

1 John 4:5-6 (NIV) ^5 “They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

• How can we have God’s spirit and speak Satan’s language? How can Satan drive out Satan? Cynicism is counterfeit strategy! The real wisdom of God is peaceful and pure and creates more faith, not less. But who are you listening to?

• Cynicism is not wisdom, it’s a sickness.

The things we say to ourselves, is from the world and not from God!

• Jesus knew where he came from.

We are from God. Talk like where you come from (verse 6).

Use your inside voice!

Cynicism will say “This is the way I am”….but what about the Great I am?!

Are you not seated in heavenly places with Jesus where he reigns?

So what are you doing down in the sewer of cynicism?

• The real issue is whether your heart is divided!

Jesus has internal authority and didn’t need anyone to tell him who he was.

AMEN: Mark 3:28 Side notes

²⁸ Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter”.

• The literal translation is “AMEN, I tell you the Truth”.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus states this many times “Amen, I say to you” or “Amen, I tell you the truth”. This suggest that Jesus is vouching for Himself and the Truth of His own Word without requiring external human testimony to his testimony.

• Say AMEN from within. Get to the point in your faith, in your life, where you do not wait for Humans or event to validate your faith or optimism.

So, SAY AMEN! SAY IT and not wait for anyone to help you or say it for you.

• Jesus had an AMEN that came from within.

We are so consumed from the voices of others that we can’t even hear our Father.

Then we start asking God to take away things we put in our hearts through the wrong voices.

• Today, the Lord says to begin your week with AMEN.

• Jesus who was surrounded by cynicism, was not driven by the agenda of others. He was led by the Spirit of God.

• Help me to begin by Day with Amen. To agree with you.

How many need help with your inside voice? Check yourself! For He who is in you is greater that He who is in the world (1 John 4:4)!

Believe it!

The voice you give attention to is the one you’re going to experience.

 

When God hears you

John 11:33-43 (NIV) ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you laid him?” he asked.“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸ Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹ “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” ⁴⁰ Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

⁴¹ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

• Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
• Jesus did not get loud until he was talking to Lazarus, but when He was talking to his Father, he used his inside voice, because he know God is not up there, out there distant.
• I and my Father are one!

This week, when you talk to your Father, use your inside voice. That’s the real you. That’s your spirit. That’s what God knows about you.

 

Closing Prayer

Lord, Help us hear your voice of Wisdom.

The enemy is crowding the minds of your children to limit hearing your voice. You are not a God of confusion. God right now we ask for the clarity of the whisper of your Spirit. The word that only you can speak, form the inside voice. That we start talking like where we come from. That we’re loved.

I am made of the same substance that God made the world with!

Lord help us use our inside voice with you! That we remember that we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom and we have a King and His name is Jesus.

That King is inside of me!

Use your outside voice to worship and praise the Kind inside you!

Amen!