Hey guys. Below you’ll find the notes that I took during Pastor Steven’s message at Elevation Church this weekend. He titled the message “Looking Forward to Normal” which is quite appropriate during this tumultuous time. (Just in case you’re reading this way down the road, or you know…are living on Mars – we are in the midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic.)

Elevation is located in Charlotte, NC – but you can get involved from anywhere in the world. Now is the perfect time to join an eTeam or and eGroup. You can visit elevationchurch.cc for more information, or just leave a comment and I’ll help as much as I can. 😁

You can find the sermon to watch for yourself here on YouTube, so make sure you go do that. Pastor’s messages are speaking life into my life right now.

Not to get too into it at this moment, but something is stirring in my heart and soul – I have no idea what is coming, but I’m bracing for a huge shake up, and soon. 😬 (Momma doesn’t do well with unforeseen change.)

Anyways, here are my notes! (As always, these are taken in real time, and I was watching the 8:30 experience – so some stuff you may need to watch for more context.)

Pastor Steven Furtick – Looking Forward to Normal

• Everyone is normal until you get to know them
• There’s something nice about things being normal.
• You don’t realize how much you need normal until you are forced to read about it.
• the stuff we want to get back to is the same stuff that we want to escape from
• what if normal isn’t something to get back to, what if normal is something to look forward to?
• God said I’m bringing you into a new normal
• what you thought was normal wasn’t really normal, it was just all you knew
• what is the new normal that God has known all along?
• has never enough become our new normal?
• we were never intended to carry so much in our minds and in our hearts.
• a lot of things in our lives meet certain needs, so until we figure out a new way to meet those needs we will keep turning to the wrong source.
• when you are afraid you reach for whats familiar, even if what’s familiar is killing you.
• we reach for the negative, because negative is what we know
• normal is just a story that you told yourself
• we’d rather be dead in Egypt than alive in uncertainty
• god is doing some of the stuff we asked him to do but we don’t now it because we’re trying to get back to normal
• we get confused because we think that what we know is normal
• your normal is somebody else’s goal
• are you holding on to a blockbuster blessing? Something that god is trying to put out of business in your life?
• just because you’ve never seen it before doesn’t mean its not normal
• what if god is trying to bring me into a new normal,  but I’m too afraid to see it
• what is god calling you to give up to get there?
• romans 12:1 is a chain breaking scripture
• we get used to things that we used to be grateful for – we become entitled to
• stop trying to get back to normal
• move forward in to this new way of life.
• normal is broken
• our faith finally fits
• as long as everything is normal, there’s no space for faith
• in this season God is helping people reset their schedule
• we have a different baseline for busy and a reordering of priorities
• romans 12:2
• the news does not make money by showing you normal
• the news is there to engage you so you’ll keep watching
• culturally accepted does not make it normal
• what does God call normal?
• the world is weird, faith is normal
• the unseen is the most significant
• god cannot bring change while we hold to comfort
• I want god to transform me by the renewing of my mind
• what the world calls normal, god calls broken
• maybe god is bringing us closer to what he wanted for us all along

Thanks for reading along with me today – and I hope that you find a blessing in this message!