Pastor Steven Furtick

Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church preached the second message at the Newspring Leadership Conference.  A majority of my readers are Elevators, but for those of you who aren't, I will give a brief bio on Pastor Steven Furtick.  He is from Monks Corner, SC.  At the age of 16, God gave him the vision to start a church in the southeast in a major metropolitan city.  The Furtick's and seven other families sold everything and came to Charlotte, NC to start Elevation Church.  Elevation averages over 12,000 people on a regular weekend and has six campuses.

Gratitude: Being Grateful 

Gratitude is key to leadership.  Keep a thankful heart.  We will not take this for granted. 

Psalm 69:30-31 - Gratitude is important to our God, so it needs to be important to us.
Psalm 22:3 - God is attracted to grateful people.
Acts 16:25-28 - After praising the Lord, the prison gates flew open.
Psalm 100:4 - God has a protocol for thanksgiving.  Say thank you before you say please.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 - Be thankful.
Colossians 3:17

5 Observations on Gratitude
1. Gratitude is never invisible or silent.  (Luke 6:45)
When  you are grateful, you'll tell them and show it!  If you're really grateful, it will pour out of your heart.  Example: Pastor showed a clip of one of Oprah's Favorite Things episode.  If they can be that grateful to get sparkly Uggs and a car, we need to be excited about being a part of the church of Jesus Christ.  We aren't in danger of being too grateful.  Unexpressed gratitude is a missed opportunity to praise God.

2. Gratitude sustains joy and blessing.
We need to learn how to sustain the blessings we already have.  If Christ is in you, you can relive his blessing!

3. Gratitude begins where my sense of entitlement ends.
You can't be grateful for what you feel entitled to.  You get to, not have to!  When you have to, you are entitled to it.  We aren't entitled to any of this!  Just to be used by God is a blessing.  God is God all by Himself.  We are blessed!  Every morning that we wake up, we have a direct deposit of His grace.  If He doesn't breathe out, we don't breathe in. 

4. Grateful people can find, enlarge or create a blessing in almost every situation. 
Example: When it rained for the first time at Elevation, Larry Brey found it as a blessing.  Some people are crap factories - They are able to find, enlarge and create crap out of almost every situation.  No matter what you put in, crap comes out.  It is easy to turn the blessing we asked for into a reason to complain.


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That was an amazing message.  The things that got me the most were, It is easy to turn the blessing we asked for into a reason to complain.  And, we aren't in danger of being too grateful.  I hope this message hit home to you in one way or another. 

After Pastor Perry and Pastor Steven, I don't remember the order that they went in at the conference.  So, tomorrow I will write about Pastor Craig Groeschel's message.