WHOA That's Good Podcast - It's Not About 'Your Truth' — It's About THE Truth! | Sadie Robertson Huff & Steven Furtick

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Author and pastor Steven Furtick is here to say "just do you" is an OK thing to say to someone when they're trying out a new hairstyle or outfit but NOT when it's about how they're choosing to live their life. It's not about living "your truth" but THE truth — something Steven remembers from a sermon Sadie preached. Steven challenges us to shift our mindset and be ready to become who God made us to be: "Do the new you!" Steven's book, "Do the New You," is available now. This Episode of WHOA That's Good is Sponsored by: https://preborn.com/sadie — Visit the website or dial #250 and use keyword BABY to donate now. https://www.hungryroot.com/whoa — Get 40% OFF your first delivery and FREE veggies for life! https://www.auraframes.com/whoa — Get $30 off Aura’s best-selling frames when you use code WHOA at checkout! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sasquatch here. You know, I get a lot of attention wherever I go. Hey Sasquatch, over here! So when I need a judgment-free zone, I go to Planet Fitness. Get started for $1 down and then only $15 a month. Offer ends April 12th. $49 annual fee applies. See Home Club for details. What's up, Whoa That's Good fam? Happy Wednesday everybody. I hope you're having a good week, but per usual, it is about to get so much better.

I am so excited about today's podcast. You guys are going to freak out because we have an awesome message coming from the one and only Stephen Ferdy, Pastor Stephen Ferdy. Welcome to the Well That's Good Podcast. Hey, Sadie. Hey, everybody. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, Sadie.

I am so excited you're on. I'm so excited for this new book. Do you have a copy with you? Oh, yeah. I might just have one. Let me see. Come on. Show it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's up? So do the new you. Do the new you. It's so good, everyone. I can't wait to chat about the book right here, right now. Before we even get started, do yourself a favor and go buy this book.

If you're not convinced yet, we got a whole podcast to talk about it. Pastor Stephen, I gotta ask you the question that everyone gets asked when they come on the Will That's Good podcast. And it's interesting because you actually talk about in your book, your son asking you a very similar question, which is awesome.

So what is the best piece of advice that you've ever been given? I couldn't believe that's the first question you wanted to ask me because that's literally how the book starts. The first sentence. I know, it's crazy. Is my 18 year old son, Elijah, right before he went to college, he goes, all right, out of everything you taught me,

what's the best advice you can give me right now? And then I describe how that's such a crushing question, like 18 years of parenting. Now just say it in a sentence, give me one thing that rhymes and give me one alliterated piece of advice. So that's literally where the book starts. All right, but I wanna be true to the spirit of, well, that's good. And I want to answer the question directly, not just use

it as a segue. And the thing that I thought about, I don't know if it's the best advice, but it's from my best advice giver from Holly. And it came, can I set it up a little bit? Yes, please do. We love a story. You know how you have these preaching engagements, Sadie, where you just feel like it was so much better in your head? Oh yeah. Yeah, I've never got to talk to you about that.

I mean, when you preach, you always look like you're doing what you meant to do, but a lot of times we had a completely different sermon and it was so much better how God gave it to us than how we feel like we gave it to the people. Yes. So I was beating up on myself one Sunday and kind of wandering around like, oh, that didn't, that was terrible.

I thought that was going to be so good and it didn't connect and I felt like I failed. So I was telling Holly, I just can't believe after all these years of preaching that I could still fail that hard in the pulpit. And she goes, maybe you didn't fail, maybe you just didn't finish. Maybe you should just give a little more next week. And the reason I wanted to use it as my best advice is because it really speaks to the way

that I tend to look at things as being, you know, so performance-based and my perfectionism. And she lives with me. So, Holly, I jokingly call her the Holly Spirit. Some people are offended by that. I don't mean it in any real serious way, but it's just God uses her to speak to me so many times. And when she said that, maybe you didn't fail, maybe you just didn't finish. I think about that constantly. That was a few years ago, when I feel like, oh, that didn't turn out how I wanted in a conversation or, you know, like, I'll have this bad parenting moment. And I'll feel

like, well, I blew that. And it's a way of seeing, like, seeing that there's grace for those moments, too. And then I'm going to get another chance at this. So I know it isn't technically like advice. It was just a perspective shift that I really needed. Maybe you didn't fail. Maybe you just didn't finish. Maybe there's more. Maybe there's gonna be another chance.

And so that's what came to my mind. What's yours? Did anybody ever ask you your best advice? See, I love it whenever people like you come on and hit me back with my own questions. Actually, no. No one on the podcast has asked me back. But in 5 and 1 half years, I don't

know that anyone's asked me back, which is kind of funny. But I will say, before I answer this, what's really cool is that I was listening to a message of yours recently or an interview that you had, and you shared this story and I wrote it down in my notes because I'm like, I need that. I needed that advice because I'm the same way. It can be so hard to not put that perfectionism on yourself or the performance whenever you

feel like God gave you a word and you want to steward it so well. Then you go and you preach the word and you just kind of fumble through it or you're like, man, that went way better in my head. Or recently, you know, I thought I had all this context and all these things and then I went for it and I was 10 minutes in and I was like, oh shoot, I already said like everything I was kind of trying to say. Where were you? Can you say?

Where was this? Oh man. Okay. Well, this is the thing. Yes. I was recently at this event, it's called Life Surge, which is awesome, an amazing event. But it was a little bit different for me because it's one my dad's a huge part of and it's helping people in business,

but it has a huge faith-based component to it. And so this is like not my typical crowd, you know? It's like all ages, business minded people. And I'm preaching and normally it's Priscilla Shire, which she's like my favorite person to listen to. You know, those are big shoes to fill. And so I feel like God gave me a specific word for this group of people and it felt good. It felt right. I had it going on in my head. I felt like I was like, this is going to be great.

And man, 10 minutes were great. And then I just started kind of being like, oh shoot, I kind of got out the main part that guy gave me and there's, I got, you know, 25 more minutes. But I mean, God is so good. And I was able to share the story about being in Guatemala recently that was extremely powerful that I had personally been impacted by.

And I think in those moments, I'm like, okay, God, what are you teaching me right now? And sometimes those overflow moments where you just share what God's teaching to you, connect with people even more, which is amazing. But then still, you kind of beat yourself up after it. And you're like, oh, man, I didn't communicate very well. I didn't steward that as well as I could have. And especially right now, like having two little ones, I have a almost three-year-old, almost one-year-old, they were with me at the event. So I was a little distracted that morning. I just

felt like, oh I could have done better. And I love when, so when I heard you say that advice, I wrote that down because like I need that. And I've actually told other people things similar to that. Like when people are writing their first book or people are preaching and they ask me advice and I always say, don't try to put your whole life message in this one book or this one sermon because this isn't your only opportunity. I hate how people say, oh, it's your 15 seconds or minutes of fame or whatever. It's like, no, you have an entire lifetime to live. It's not like these, oh, that was my moment. If dancing with the stars, which could have been like my moment of fame,

but that was my moment, that would have been sad for me. I was 16, 17 years old. There's more to come. And so I love that. You didn't fail, you're just not finished. So I'm gonna keep working on that message I preach at Life Surge. I'm gonna circle back to that one.

Yeah, cause I guarantee you the seed of something else amazing was in what you didn't say or what you didn't do. Like, Sadie, I was just working on a song yesterday that we're about to record, and it's been on my phone for a year, but it needed a new bridge. And I knew it, and one of the other writers that was writing it with me knew it.

And I'm telling you, I went almost insane trying to crack this bridge. And the moment that I finally found the right bridge for the song, I knew it was alive and I knew that it was, it was time for that song to be completed. So it's just another example of, it wasn't that you failed in that moment. It wasn't that you wasted the days you spent writing that song or, you know, having those conversations. You show up for a meeting. You show up for something you thought it was going to actually lead to something and it

leads to nothing. But I found that the seeds of tomorrow's success are often in today's failure. And so, it's something that you glean from that. You perceive it as a failure. I don't think God does. Yeah. And you call it a failure and you label it, but be careful labeling those things

because it may have been the thing that you said that you were forced to say because you ran out of content that you hear in two years somebody says, Sadie, do you remember at Life Surge when you said blah, blah, blah? And you're like, yeah, that's when my notes had run out. And I was just trusting and God, yeah, yeah. Well, the Lord spoke to us and we adopted a kid and here he is. And he's going to be a doctor and he's curing every disease. It doesn't even have to be that big. We can just walk with confidence that a lot of times what we think is a failure is just unfinished business

and that's our room for growth. And that's where God's grace is gonna show up. That's great. That's so good. Gosh, I can't wait to dive into that more. You know, if you asked me my best piece of advice and it's crazy because the whole reason this podcast started was based off of this question that I got.

But now, since that question was asked, I've gotten to do five years, over 200 episodes of hearing good advice. I could go on and on and on. I should probably do a whole episode later about all the good advice that I've gotten over the years in these moments. But it all started originally with my great grandma.

So my great grandma is a legend. She's awesome. She's still living. And when I say living, I don't just mean alive. She is living. Like she has her community group. She's 92 years old, about to be 93. She has a community group.

She's at church every Sunday. She is just rocking. And she gives such sound advice. Like she's the kind of person that if I feel overwhelmed by the world, it's like, I just kind of want to go sit at her feet and listen to the advice that she has. But a long time ago, I came in and I was riled up about something. I was like, oh, so and so did so what blah blah. And I was just kind of like, what am I going to do in response to what this person did to me? And she looked at me and she just like, I mean, as quick as whip, she said,

Sadie, you are not kind because other people are kind to you. You are kind because that is who you are. And that's just like stuck with me. I mean, it was just one of those moments where I'm like, wow, you know, I'm gonna take that. I'm gonna live with that. And, you know, over the years, that's actually become maybe even a lot harder

because I feel like now I have a lot more. That was a moment in high school, you know, that meant nothing. And now I have a social media following and I have all these things and so many opinions and it can be hard when you feel like you're getting attacked or you're misunderstood or all these things and it's like what am I gonna do to respond? But my response isn't a reaction to what I'm getting. I'm responding out of who I already am. That's just a lot better way to live. Someone texted me actually last week with Shelly Giglio, mutual friend.

I was kind of same thing. I was dealing with some social media stuff and I just said, man, I'm struggling. She just said, keep thick skin and a soft heart. I just love that. Like you, you know, you gotta say who you are and then that's how you're going to respond. So much about this book is about who you are, who you are right now. And so to segue into that, do the new you, this isn't like a self-help book,

your typical self-help book. It might look like that by the title, but this is a lot deeper than that. Can you explain a little bit about what it means to do the new you? ["The New You"] Whenever I think back to my pregnancies, I just love the memories of seeing my ultrasounds and my girls and just a special time

of feeling them kick inside of me. It really is the most magical time. I absolutely love being a mom, but there are a lot of women out there who find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy with nowhere to turn and no one to support them, which is so hard, I cannot even imagine. And that is where our partners at PreBorn come in.

And I'm so excited to be telling y'all about this. PreBorn provides mothers with unplanned pregnancies with free ultrasound so that they can meet their babies for the first time. So once a mom hears the baby's heartbeat, they're actually twice as likely to choose life, which is so amazing and I can definitely understand why. Pre-born gets no government funding, so their work depends on people like us and the pro-life community coming together.

They've helped mothers choose life for over 280,000 babies. Plus, pre-born can provide love, support, and counseling for up to two years for free, which I think is so amazing because I know those first two years can be really rough on a new mom. So I'm really thankful that preborn is helping mothers during that time because I actually went through postpartum anxiety.

Did not expect that to happen to me. I don't think anyone expects that to happen, but it's so hard. And if you're already walking through this alone, it can feel even harder. So, I'm so grateful that this is a great option to actually get help and community and counseling. One ultrasound is just $28 and a gift of $140 can help save the lives of five babies. Five lives can totally change the world and I know that we can step in and help and this is gonna be one of those things

that you might not know the impact your money has until heaven, right? But it's gonna be a huge impact. I think that it would be so awesome if the Well That's Good fam rallied around this mission to help women, to help moms, and so I would love to see you guys come together and do this for so many different people and babies

that you might not ever meet, but you helped save their life. So together, you and I can help mothers choose life. Please join us in the fight. All gifts are tax deductible. To donate, dial pound two five zero on your cell and say the keyword baby. That's pound two 50 and use the keyword baby or go to preborn.com slash Sadie. That's preborn.com slash Sadie. I'm so thankful for you, Sadie. The way you set that up. That's exactly how I want to talk about it because, you know,

I follow your ministry and I see the kinds of messages God puts on your heart. You know, the, theyear-old that asked me, what's the best advice, Elijah? He's at Liberty University now. All right? That's awesome. And I watched you preach there the other day.

And it was so amazing what you shared. And I think about the way that God has given you a passion for truth. The reason I wanted to talk to you about this book is because of something that you actually said in a sermon you were talking about living your truth and It's probably been a few years ago. That phrase was really really hot a few years ago and it still is and I don't have a problem with the phrase like I'm sure that

you also think that if what we mean by live your truth is the embodied truths of Jesus Christ that have been spoken in scriptures and impressed upon you by the Holy Spirit and confirmed, then yeah, live your truth. Great. That's what we want. But the idea that I heard you talking about was your truth doesn't set you free. The truth sets you free. And when I heard you preaching that, I mean, it must have been two years ago. Maybe you're still out preaching that. I hope you are because it's such an important message.

So let me tell you why this is different than self-help. Do the new you isn't just, you know, get your abs right, get your nutrition right, count your macros. It's not that. And it's also not just do you you know, like express your uniqueness, however that comes out. Because as I say in the opening of the book, when my son said, What's the best advice you can give me now? I say I didn't know what the best advice was.

But I know what some of the worst advice would be just do you just do you like like and we use that to talk about when people I don't know they get a new hairstyle one of our staff members came up on stage with a man bun the other day and the rest of the staff was totally divided like I thought it looked good and somebody's like well yeah do you I wouldn't I wouldn't wear that man bun I wouldn't wear those crocs but you know that's fine when it comes to like, uh, whether or not you have a certain hairstyle, but when it, when it comes to your, your mindset and your identity, I think that's a trap.

I think to tell somebody just do you, it kind of suggests that the most authentic version of you is the most automatic version of you. And automatic does not equal authentic, not in God's word. That's good. Yeah, it's so important we get this. Like think in Ephesians four, you asked me why this isn't typical self help. Okay, Ephesians four talks about not indulging

in your sinful desires, which are being corrupted, but to live into the new self, which is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. So take those two words like corrupted and created. One is the original version of you that God made, the one that he's calling for, And the corrupted you, it's deceived. So you think that's you because that's what you feel like. Like, I was doing me, I just go off on people. I'm just, that's just me. I just gotta be me.

I just gotta say what I think. No, you don't have to say everything you think. You don't have to do everything you feel. You don't have to give into everything that you like. That's a recipe for a prison ministry from inside the prison. If you just do you. So I call that the trap, Sadie, the trap.

When you call it your truth, but it falls short of what God says about you, it's not truth, it's a trap. And I think a lot of people are trapped in what they call their truth. And what if what you call your truth really isn't true? What if it's just your experiences, your beliefs? And I think a lot of people are cheating themselves

because they're just doing you just doing me. But then you get into a lot of stuff where you go, OK, I want to get better. I want to get my momentum. I want to get my flow. And then you get out of the trap of do you, and you get onto the treadmill of future you. So everybody's been there before like, okay, there's this future version of me. I got to be, and it's usually, it's usually not even a future version of you that you're chasing. It's usually not even a future version of you that you're chasing. It is a highlight reel of what you think everybody else's life that shows up in your feed shows you what you think you're supposed to be.

Yeah. To be happy, to be successful, even for me to be an effective minister, preacher, husband, right? So, you've got do you, which is the trap of just, I'm just gonna do what I feel, I'm just gonna live my truth. And then you've got the treadmill of future you, which is chasing something. So the first one is cheated, the second one is chasing.

And for three weeks, I'm doing good with this, but now I'm exhausted. I bought every Bible study book, I'm listening to every podcast. I'm only listening to worship music. No more hip hop for me. I'm going all worship music. But if that is chasing something that you don't truly believe you already are,

it's going to end in exhaustion. And there's no grace of God in that. There's no reliance on the Holy Spirit in that. So, do the new you is actually a wordplay. I use the word new, N-E-W, but I know a lot of people be listening to this, so I can't like write it down and show you. If you put a K in front of that, K-N-E-W, the new you, in Jeremiah 1-5, God tells Jeremiah before I formed you I knew you KNEW

before you were born I set you apart. So the me that God is calling me to be isn't something that I have to chase after and it isn't just settling into the lowest version of who I am it's actually who he made me to be all along. So I say to my son, not just do you, do the new you, the you that God knew before trauma caused you to go back to patterns that are so far beneath who God says you are. Do the new you, the you that God knew. The you that God is calling you to become isn't some future thing you have to chase. You're already chosen to be that. And God will not ask anything from you

that he didn't first put inside of you. So that's where my passion comes from, Sadie, because I'm seeing a lot of people go, I just got to do me. And that's an excuse for immaturity. That's not authenticity. I'm never going to grow up. I'm just going to be like this. I got to do me. And that's an excuse for immaturity. That's not authenticity. I'm never going to grow up. I'm just going to be like this. I got to do me. That's fine when it comes to your fashion, maybe. But that is not fine when it comes to your faith. And then I see a lot of people just

running, running, running after something that God didn't even call them to be. But when you know that you are chosen and called by God, you are growing into what he already spoke and he'll help you do that step by step. Yep. Gosh, that's so good. I love that so much. It's so true. It feels like you have to run and run and chase and chase whenever you're striving for something. But whenever you're resting in who God is, it is that. It's restful. I love, I think it's Psalms 127 where it says, unless the Lord builds the house, the laborer's labor in vain,

eating the bread of anxious toil, but he gives his beloved sleep. And I love that and I've experienced that. Like when I'm trying to build house, when I'm trying to build a thing, when I'm trying to become, you know, whatever it is that I wanna become because I've seen someone else do it,

it is like anxiousness and striving and never enough and constantly failing because you're comparing yourself to someone else, you're always gonna be underneath that because that's what God has for them. And man, when I started being like, hey God, you're building the house. Like my foundation is set on you alone. And there's so much peace in that.

And I think that's when you get out of that, oh, I got my, you know, 15 minutes of fame, I got to capitalize, I got to do it. It's like, no, I just have to be. And it's been so cool over the years in my life to see what God has done with that. And, you know, the ministry that, you know, I do live original to be like your original self and not compare yourself to someone else. Like you got to sit in that and let God fully nurture that in you and just be steady in that because it is so easy to conform to the pattern of this world. But whenever you actually just let God make you all that you are,

all that He's established in you since before time, it's the most amazing thing to get to experience. It's so much freedom. There's so much confidence. And to some of you listening, you might be like, this is so foreign, you know? You've been scrolling social media, you've been looking around, you've been trying to become all these things, and there's so much grace in what Stephen's saying, there's so much beauty in this message. Because it's not that you have to do anything to become greater, to become better, to achieve the thing. It's right here, right now, realizing that who God formed you to be before the foundation of the world began is enough. And you right where you're at,

right where you are right now, listening to this podcast, God loves you, God sees you, He approves you, He's proud of you. And yes, is there ways to improve on that? Yes, Stephen's not saying stay where you're at, be exactly who you are. No, be the best of who you are. Be all that God originally created you to be. This message is so, so good. Speaking on the your truth, the truth, all this stuff,

I love that you brought that up because whenever I did that message, yes, at the time and and still is that phrase, like, your truth was such a big thing, and it still is such a big thing. And the danger of it is that people are saying to people, you know, your truth will set you free. And that sounds good, and that sounds encouraging,

and all this stuff. But the truth of that statement is that Jesus said those words, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. The context of the word, in the Bible, it says Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one gets to the Father except through Him. And so the truth He was talking about was not your truth you identify with.

It's the truth in who He is. He is the truth, and He's able to set you free because Jesus is the only one that conquered the grave. And so, He can set you free of your sin. So it's dangerous when you hear something like, the truth will set you free out of context, And you think any truth will set you free. You think your version of truth will set you free when your truth isn't capable of bringing that freedom. The truth in who Jesus is, is what brings that freedom. And so I love that you brought that up. And you actually say a quote,

I think it's in the book too, where you talk about how truth, you say, or not truth, sorry, you're talking about good advice. And you say, sometimes good advice sounds good, but if it's not sound, it's a problem. Can you speak a little bit? Because we have a lot of people in our day, especially in social media, I mean,

TikTok's probably the biggest thing that we're seeing this on, where people are really good at saying things that sound good, but at the end of the day, they're not sound. And so you do have all these self-help things and it's like, it's helpful-ish and it's sounding good, except for the fact that it's not rooted in truth is leading people astray. How do you guard your heart towards that? And how do you, as you scroll social media, make sure that you're

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and don't forget to use our link so that they know we sent you there. Yeah, I don't I don't think there's anything more important than what you're asking right now, because what we don't realize is we're kind of just assimilating and aggregating a lot of times points of view by either people that we don't know or people that we don't know the full story of, you know, I was thinking about live your truth and how good that sounds, right? Okay, well, let's break that down. There was a time in your life where you probably thought that when you lost a tooth, that during the night, somebody like an angelic fairy type presence found your tooth valuable enough to come and leave

a dollar or $5 or whatever. I think by the time Sadie, by the time Abby was coming along, I was like putting $10 because she was my first girl. She's our youngest. So it was really, it got ridiculous. Now it got cost prohibitive, but there was a time where each of my kids and probably you thought that somebody thought your tooth was valuable enough to exchange for a dollar for a $5 bill. Okay. And, you know, there are so many things like that. One time I was preaching it and I called it baby truth, like baby tooth.

And it was my way of saying like, some of that stuff needs to like fall out. Like even this, some of the things that were true at one time in your life aren't true anymore. Some of the things that were true of you in one stage of life are not true about you anymore.

For example, you know, I have a real hard time accepting myself. Accepting Jesus for me was relatively easy. Once I understood the gospel, I was 16 years old. This is my story of how I came to Christ. My mom raised me in church, and at age 16, I met somebody who shared the gospel with me in a way

that it registered that I needed to make a decision to follow Christ. So I went down the aisle at the Baptist Church and I did all of it and it was amazing. And I felt a change. And my belief is that in that moment, by accepting Jesus, my sin was forgiven. I was given a new nature. I believe that I am completely accepted and loved by God, even as He continues to work on me, to make me to become everything that He knows that I actually am. I believe that, right? I believe I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. I believe I'm a child of God. But listen, I'm also somebody who struggles so much with condemnation, with a talk that goes on inside of my head that knows all the reasons why I'm not worthy of

love, whether from Holly, whether from God, whether from the people that I minister to, all the reasons that I don't feel qualified to do this, to preach, right? And so here's the thing. Accepting Jesus took a moment to place my faith in Him. Accepting Stephen, that's taken a lifetime. I'm 44 years old now. And I'm still learning how to accept Stephen. So to your question, how

do we get out of this trap of good sounding advice? One of the mindsets, I do six mindsets in the book to really align you with God's word. And one of them that I think may be the most important is this, Christ is in me, I am enough. And I explain how the first part of that, Christ is in me, is the basis for the second part of that. So you're gonna love this, Sadie, I think everybody will. This thing of I am enough, you are enough, right? You ever noticed how just by itself, it can kind of feel empty?

Because something deeper down in you knows, no, I'm not. Yeah. Like I am not enough. Abby turned 13 this week and I'm looking at this little girl that I am responsible to raise and set a good example and show her what a man is and try to figure out how to navigate. When does she get Snapchat? Does she get Snapchat? All the things that I don't know how to do, right? So to sit there and say I am enough you are enough. I am enough. You are enough I don't buy it like it sounds great. It feels good if I just did something amazing But what about the times when I know I'm not enough? Yeah, so then I take you to this if Christ is in me I'm sorry. I'm preaching Sadie. I'm just, this is my passion.

This is, I want to help people get from one extreme to the other, right? There's a lot of people just walking around going, I am enough, you are enough, I am enough. And we don't buy it. And that's why we still are addicted. And that's why we still scroll and numb ourselves because we know deep down we're on that treadmill.

So if you just take that, it's very hollow, isn't it, to just go, I am enough. I've never met anybody that can sustainably just tell themselves that outside of Christ is in me. But the moment I get that, that the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in me, that he knows the plans he has for me, and that I am his handiwork, that I am his masterpiece, that he has given me gifts and abilities and anointings. And I'm not just talking about me, I'm talking to you, that God has given you everything

you need for the season that you're in. And that's the crucial part, Sadie. You're not enough for what you're gonna face five years from now. Yep. But God is gonna make you that. You were not enough to do what you're doing right now, Sadie, when you started it. And the process of Do The New You is that you get to know that in every moment, you are enough for now because God is with me in this moment. And I want to encourage somebody who's raising a baby

or a child on your own, or you're starting a business and you didn't learn how to do all this, or you're launching a ministry, or you're just really trying to finish your degree, or you're just trying to get your life back on track after rehab. I know all kinds of people listen to you, Sadie. And if we could get right now past this thing

of just you are enough, but to start from the foundation, Christ is in me. It's great. The Holy Spirit is in me. God's presence is with me. Now I can say, I am enough because, you know, go back to Moses in the Bible. He's standing there talking about, well, God, I'm not very good at speaking. And God says, who made man's mouth? Yeah, love that.

And I like the picture like this I don't I didn't put this in the book or anything, but we're just talking you know imagine God and Moses going back and forth and and Moses getting this command from God you're supposed to be a leader of millions of people he's like but I'm not and and you're supposed to have everything that you that you need to lead them out of Egyptian slavery and And you're you're supposed to be the mouthpiece of God to go to Pharaoh and tell him, let my people go. But I'm not.

And I picture God saying back, I am. And when you let that I am, the great I am, God's I am, get into your I'm not, I'm telling you, even everything that you're not right now, this is what I want to get you to see, even your weakness, even the skill set that you don't have that was underdeveloped, even the training that you didn't get, the opportunity that you didn't receive, even those things in the hands of God, I promise you those are going to be some of the greatest opportunities that he is going to use to show off who he is. So if you're like, well, I'm not that, I could never do that. That's great.

Because now God gets to do it through you. That's the confidence you're walking in. And that is a game changer because that never runs out. I learned one thing about confidence, Sadie. Where it comes from determines when it runs out. Ooh, that's true. Where it comes from determines when it runs out. Ooh, that's true. Where it comes from determines when it runs out. So if my confidence is in the last sermon I preached,

oh, I got a lot of views on YouTube, okay. You're just one low viewed YouTube sermon away from not feeling confident if that's where your confidence comes from. If your confidence is from another person giving you a compliment, that's fine as a supplement, but that cannot be your diet. Because if it comes from them giving you the compliment, what are you going to do when they're distracted and they forget to tell you that your man bun

looks cute or whatever? I want you to think about where your confidence is really coming from, because if it's up and down, your confidence is probably in you trying to convince yourself or getting so far out into the future with what you're going to do rather than receiving it. You know what? God gave me this day. That's that's what I came on your podcast saying today, Sadie. My prayer was Lord, let me and Sadie create something today with you. This is my prayer. God, let me and Sadie create something together with you that will reach somebody right where they are,

give them the word that they need, the encouragement they need for their next step. Why wouldn't I be confident that God wants to help us do this? Now I feel like let's go. Now I feel like we got this because Christ is in me, I am enough. this because Christ is in me, I am enough.

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You know, I preached this message or shared this message back and it was more of like a chill environment. It was right in the middle of Alabama sorority week. And I was talking to a lot of girls who are rushing and I got in front of them and you know, rush is a big deal, especially in Alabama. And all the girls are made up, looking beautiful and trying to be accepted by this sorority.

They're trying to get into this Greek life. So they're all putting up their best front. And I get up in front of them and I'm fully dressed, ready to preach. And I said, does somebody have a makeup wipe in here? Someone had a wipe and she brought it up to me. And I just took off my makeup in front of them. And I said, if you put your confidence

in things of this world, it will be as fleeting as the foundation on your face. It's gonna crack, it's gonna break. At the end of the day, you're gonna be back in the room and you're gonna face with who you really are. And then you gotta ask yourself, then now what am I confident in? I was like, unless your foundation and your confidence

is in Christ and Christ alone, then it's gonna break, it's gonna fall, you know? And we just had this raw message of like the foundation of Christ being your confidence so that when you're not accepted into this sorority, you don't go home and think, oh, I'm not accepted, I'm unlovable, I'm not enough. No, you are enough because Christ says you're enough.

And that's why whenever you hear us talking about this is not just self-help, some of you might say, well, what's wrong with self-help? It's not that there's something wrong with self-help, it's just that at the end of the day, you've still got to help yourself. At the end of the day, it's on you. It's you to have to muster up this confidence,

but when it's in Christ, it's on you. It's you to have to muster up this confidence. But when it's in Christ, it's in Christ. And so then you go, okay, even though I'm not enough, I am in Christ. Even though I might not feel able, I can be through Christ. He is my strength, even though I'm weak. Moses is one of my favorite stories to talk about because I relate. Really? Oh, I relate to that so much because I felt like God was trying to call me to something so much bigger than I am. And I'm struggling with the fact that it's bigger.

And I'm like, God, I don't think I communicate very well. I mean, this is like back in the day, I'm throwing out all the excuses. I felt like a hypocrite because I was not living the best life. And I just felt like, who am day, I'm throwing out all the excuses. I felt like a hypocrite because I was not living the best life and I just felt like, who am I? That I can go do this and I'm like, who am I, who am I, who am I?

And he's like, no, I am who I am. It's not about who you are. And then when you go back with the great I am and people knew you for who you were, and now they see you for who you are in him, then they get to see, that's your testimony. Then you get to point people to Christ. And I have this girl that listens to the podcast,

she's become a good friend of mine now. And she said, she started listening because I had someone on who actually writes self-help books. And she said, I love self-help books, I buy all of them, I just wanna get better. And I said, that's great, you know her intention for it, it's great. She said, but then I kept listening to the podcast

time and time again, and these people were rooting the words. She said, I started reading the Bible. She didn't read the Bible. She said, this is the greatest self-help book of all time because it's rooted in truth and grace and love and actual truth that brings freedom and then Christ. And now her and her husband are reading scripture together. And she said, now, every time you have people on like she's probably

gonna go buy your book she says I buy all their books and I've just it's changed their life you know and I just think that's that's just the coolest thing ever and hearing this message today has just been amazing and I love the mindsets that you write in the book and how they I know you talk about they were really for you first these were you haven't written a book in like eight years. And I heard you talk a little bit about just your hesitation to write a book. And it was kind of, this message really was for you before it was for anyone, which I think that that's how most messages are, for me at least, how most books are.

Feels like you need to get the message first. And then it's like, okay, now I'll put it out. But, you know, people look at you, Pastor Steven, and you are such an incredible pastor. You're an incredible communicator. You're able to get people through some of the hardest things. But at the end of the day, you're human too. And you go through hard things. You go through those insecurities. What can you speak a little bit to those insecurities about writing a book and how you Overcame it because I know you talk about how you know, you're you know, your sermons hit you can write songs But you were a little bit more insecure when it came to writing a book

Which no one would think that about you because people have gotten your books and love them What was that challenge like facing it head-on and writing this book? It's the same challenge I go through every Saturday night. It's nothing different. I don't ever live in a state of uninterrupted confidence. I wish I did. I wouldn't have had to write the book if I did. I really feel like I wrote this book to somebody who you get

glimpses from time to time of who God has called you to be. And I mean that not just with what you do, you you preach or you sing or you are amazing in front of people or you're a great athlete. That can be part of it. But the kind of person that God has made you to be and you get glimpses of that. But in the same way that you get glimpses of it and then it kind of goes away, there are ways that you can grow into that more and more. With the book, I mean, Holly,

I feel like I'm making Holly in this thing like Adrienne Taraki or something like that, but she kind of is. That's great. And we kind of got in a fight at the end of, I don't remember if it was the end of 2022. Yeah, it must have been 2022. And I'm telling her, there's no more books in me.

My gift is more audible processing, not written. And I don't have the ability to write to the literary level and all that. And she's like, well, your words help people. And you have said that God's calling on your life is to put His words in people's hearts. That's what you're called to do, to put God's words in people's hearts. That's like how you have live original. One of my taglines to remind me what I'm here for is putting God's words in people's hearts. Once I started thinking of it that way, I was like, all right, I can write a book

like if I was writing it to myself in my low moments. Like if I was writing to my son, like if I was writing, all right, I can write a book like if I was writing it to myself in my low moments, like if I was writing to my son, like if I was writing to my daughter, like if I could sit down with you and it wasn't just a podcast and I could coach you. But when you say coach, people go, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. That's not the gospel. OK, here's how I think about that, Sadie. We need the truth and we need the tools, right? There's a lady that works with us who told me I got up to preach a few weeks ago

and she got so angry in the first five minutes of my sermon. She said, because I knew that everything you were challenging me with was true. But I sat there and said, but tell me what to do about it, pastor, because I got these four kids and I got this mortgage. And I think sometimes what you're really lacking in your life, it may be truth that you haven't heard what God says about you. But I had just as much of a passion to bridge the gap the other way, right? Not just that we need to realize that we can't do it without God, but that there is a process that God takes us through where the truth becomes real.

So I wrote the book in a simple way where I basically put stuff on Post-It notes for myself. The first one is, I'm not stuck unless I stop. I love that. The second one is, Christ is in me, I am enough. The third one is, with God there's always a way and by faith I will find it. The fourth one is, God is not against me, but he's in it with me, working through me, fighting for me. So can't you just see yourself saying that to yourself one day like everything is

going wrong. You're like in your case, Sadie, maybe it's like you accidentally saw a comment on on on social media and you weren't even trying to look at the comments. You were just checking to make sure the video is up, right? You're not even trying to bathe in that stuff and something just jumps up and bites you. Yeah. And so now all of a sudden it feels like everybody's misunderstanding your heart and they didn't hear you correctly. And you know, it's crazy how much people don't think those little seeds get in us, but they do. So you have to have a process where you go,

wait a minute, wait a minute, God is not against me. That person may be. And they're not even really against me. They're just interpreting what I said. But I believe He's in it with me, working through me, fighting for me. The fifth mindset is my joy is my job. The sixth one is God has given me everything I need for the season. I mean, I already preached that one earlier. But every single one of these over the last eight years, I've written down for myself somewhere. I've written down for myself to

preach to myself, because let's go back to Moses for a moment, okay? It is in the conversation with God that Moses realizes his calling. Yep. And you are having a conversation constantly about your calling. You're like, no, I'm not, I'm not a missionary, I'm not a worship leader, I'm not writing books.

Okay, but you still have a calling God has called you to where you are. That's why he put you there Y'all I love summertime it is my favorite season and I'm so excited to jump back in we are Approaching the best time of the year But no matter what your summer looks like, KiwiCo invites kids and kids at heart to enjoy their first summer adventure series. Kids can receive six hands-on science and art project kits over six weeks, no matter what their age is, with enriching activities that accompany each project.

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that doesn't really work for me. It doesn't hit. It doesn't hit. It doesn't hit. But I think that's a gutsy, brilliant illustration. I don't think Holly would do that, honestly, so you need to impart that spirit of faith to her. She would look great if she did it, but I don't think she'd do it.

I did something one time along these same lines that I just remembered. And I hope the audience will enjoy us just going through some things that we've shared that are meaningful to us and maybe hear it in a fresh way, because I was getting up to preach about Moses during the pandemic when there weren't that many people in the building, and it was just staff. And my oldest son, again, was sitting next to me on the front row. And just before I went up to preach, Sadie, because I was really spontaneous during the pandemic

because everything felt so unpredictable. So it's kind of like one of those last minute decisions. I wanted one more way to drive home the thought that you're not but God is. Whatever it is, I'm not capable. I'm not a good speaker. I'm not able to, you know, I don't have the wisdom for it.

Well, God does, you're not God is. So I basically, right before I went out, gave my wallet to Elijah, didn't tell him why. I just said, hold this. And he thinks I just don't want to carry it up there on stage and forgot to leave it in the back. And I knew exactly down to the dollar, how much money was in the wallet when I gave it to him.

And I don't remember the number now, but it was like $432 or something like that. Like I had a lot of cash in there. And I finished my sermon and I'm talking about Moses standing there and all the things he can't, all the things he's not. Maybe you relate. Maybe you've been given God a list in your heart. All the things you're not, all the things you can't. And maybe the enemy is even suggesting those to you. Maybe even today you were just overwhelmed by those thoughts. I can't, I'm not. Okay, stop.

Let's think about this. God wouldn't ask it from you if he didn't put it in you, because he knew you before he formed you. So if God is asking it from you, he put it in you because he knew you before he formed you. So if God is asking it from you, he put it in you. Now if he isn't asking it from you, then that's just social pressure. If he isn't asking it from you, then that's just you on a treadmill. If he isn't asking it from you, you just need to release it. But if he's asking it from you, if he put you in that assignment, he put it in you. So at this point in my sermon, Sadie, it's like the sermon's over. Everybody

thinks it's over. The band's playing, you know, they're singing Jairo or something like that. And I say, Elijah, come here, come here. And he comes up just kind of confused. Like he was thinking the sermon's over too. And I'm like, I need $432 right now. And I wish I could put the sermon clip up right now, because you can see the moment where he's like, what? And then his eyes, when he remembers, oh, my dad handed it to me right before I came up. And it's the favorite picture I have. I have this picture outside in the hallway. When you come preach for me at Elevation really soon, you'll see it, it's right before you walk out to the stage.

And it's the picture of him in that moment where he has a little smirk and a little sparkle where he realizes just before he realizes, oh, he gave it to me. That's so good. That's why he's asking it from me. And so, I want to minister to this in everybody's life who feels like there is a demand on you right now and you don't have it.

Check again, because before God ever put you in that situation, He gave you the strength for the situation. Sometimes we just forget. Sometimes we just overlook. Sometimes we just overlook. Sometimes we don't reach for it. I promise you God has given you the wisdom you need for right now. But if you are worrying about 17 steps ahead, no, God didn't promise you that.

His word is a lamp unto your feet, a light unto your path. He is going to give you the revelation for your next step. That's great. And that's my constant belief about God is that you have it in you. You have it on you because He put it on you. Even the language, Sadie, do the new you. In Ephesians 4, Paul says, put on the new self. That means there's a decision I have to make. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. If you say, put it on, that's something I got to take off first. Yeah, what am I taking off the old belief? Yeah, old pattern, the old self righteousness, the old way of trying to work my way to God. What am I putting on my acceptance in him? My, my full

approval because of his righteousness in me. And I have to do that every day. I have to do that every moment of every day. I don't just get to do that once, like the old infomercial, this was before your time, Sadie, but they used to have one that said, set it and forget it. And I always wanted my mindset to be like that. Like you hear the truth, you know the truth, it sets you free forever. No, you know the truth, you walk in the truth,

you do the truth, you do the truth in times of tension, you do the truth under pressure, you do the truth in times of temptation, you fall short, you come back to the truth, you do it again and again, and eventually you grow into everything that God has given you a glimpse of. It's great. That's so good. Gosh, this podcast has been absolutely incredible. I'm going to personally go back and listen to it. I know so many of you have been so encouraged today with this word and if you haven't read his books, if you haven't listened to the sermons

that he's putting out, I remember Pastor Stephen during the pandemic, I listened to you so much because everything shut down, everything's crazy and I would be like, walk in the treadmill, listen to your servants, which by the way, he's like the best pastor to listen to when you work out because your energy is like 10 out of 10. And then, y'all put out the blessing

and then I'm listening to the blessing. I'm running on the treadmill, which is not like me. I am like getting it. And so go listen to his talks. But I actually remember something that you said during the pandemic that I continue to tell people because it just inspired me a lot. And you were talking about how so many of us,

like we wanna go back to how it was before. And this hit a lot probably strong when we were right there dead in the middle because now we've kind of come at it. But you were saying like, no, we don't wanna go back to how things were before. Like were things even great before? Like, we want to go into what God has for us now and the next. And I know you were doing an illustration on Paul and everything. And it's interesting because yesterday

I was talking to a girl and she's going through a very unique sickness. She just got diagnosed with a very unique thing that's very rare. And she's been in the hospital a lot for it and she was out this week and we were chatting and she said, you know, I was just really discouraged because they told me, they said, you know, you kind of have this ABC in life. And the doctor said, you have your A and that's who you were. He said, you have your B and that's where you're at now with the sickness. And you have your C and that's who you can eventually become. And it will never be your A again, but it'll be, you know, C. And she said, and I'm just so discouraged because I want my A back, you know, and I'm never going to have my A

back. And I was thinking about that sermon you preached, and I was kind of encouraging her through it. And then actually Christine Kane preached a sermon at Passion this year, and she was talking about, behold, I'm doing a new thing. Remember, not the former thing. And then actually Christine Kane preached a sermon at Passion this year and she was talking about, behold, I'm doing a new thing. Remember, not the former thing. And I love the illustration Christine says. She says, hey, God's saying He's gonna bring rivers into a desert when back in the day,

He was drying up rivers and now He's saying He's gonna bring them. So your C, even though it's not gonna be your A, it's gonna be better because it's gonna be different and it's gonna be A, it's gonna be better, because it's gonna be different, it's gonna be new, and it's gonna be the now. And I just think about this word for people as they're maybe feeling that in life.

I'm not who I used to be, I'm not where I wanna be, I'm going to become something. And right here, right now, as you decide to be the new you stepping into that C version of you. It's not gonna be, yeah, the past. Don't compare it to the past. It's not gonna be the now. It's gonna be what has for you, what God has for you right now. And

everything that you've said has been just the most encouraging thing, but more than encouraging, it's packed with truth. I love how you back up everything with Scripture, biblical teaching. That's how you discern between, you know, good advice that sounds good and actually sound advice is when it's rooted in the word. So thank you for being a pastor who preaches the word. Thank you for being someone who is putting God's words into our hearts, we're grateful for it. And I'm just so thankful for this podcast.

So friends, you know what to do. Go pick up Stephen's new book, Do the New You. Thank you, Pastor Stephen, for being on the up Stephen's new book, Do the New You. Thank you, Pastor Stephen, for being on the Well That's Good Podcast and dropping some truth bombs. Thank you, Sadie. Let's write a song together. Let's get you to preach at Elevation soon.

Let's do everything. Let's go everywhere. Do it all. And done. Love it. Thank you. you