Elevation with Steven Furtick - He Answered

Episode Date: September 21, 2025

Pastor Steven gives us three things to remember when life is hard. The enemy wants to keep us circling the wilderness, but God will bring us through as we learn to repeat what leads us to victory. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: ele.vc/tIepfr Scripture References:Psalm 114, verses 5-8Matthew 4, verses 1-4, 11Hebrews 4, verses 14-16Numbers 13, verses 30-33Matthew 3, verses 16-17See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. There have been so many times where God gave our church a song, and two years later, five years later, 10 years later, somebody will come up to me and say, that song got me through my cancer treatments. That song got me through my prison sentence. When they send us videos of those prisoners singing, trust in God. And even people who aren't in a physical prison, people will say,

that thing got me through some sleepless nights. I listened to the blessing when I was dealing with incredible anxiety and fear and all of these songs. And this Thursday, you have an opportunity to be a part of that. So I'm not telling you that because we need people to attend. it's always pretty full, I just didn't want you to miss it and not know what's happening. Now, I take my job seriously, and my job is to put God's words in people's heart. That's my job. That's my job. Whenever I'm not preaching to you or studying to preach to you, I'm usually humming a melody

into a song, changing a lyric for the 15th time. So the team has to learn it at 9-13 before we try it the first time. And it's all the same thing. I want you to have, watch this, a new loop in your life. That's what I'm preaching about. Today, that's what I preached about last week. Our series, shown the graphic, it's called Same Lies, New Loops. And meditating on the Word of God is hard when we have so much noise in our world, isn't it?

You all go sit there and act like it's not noisy in your mind? So a noisy mind needs a new loop, something else to latch onto. So you don't go absolutely crazy with temptation and with anger or with shame. And one thing that I love to do is when we can get a meditation from God's word and then God gives us a melody to go with it, it helps us to remember it in the hard times. Today I want to share with you from a Psalm, Psalm 114. We read it in our family Bible club. We don't stand the whole time in our church in case you're wondering, did you wear the wrong shoes?

I'll let you use that seat to its fullest in just a moment. But please stand for the reading of God's Word. And if you're watching this somewhere else, you may want to stand too. There's something about respecting and reverencing God's words, because his words are eternal. Everything else everybody says, it comes and it goes. God's word lasts forever. 114, I pick up in verse 5. You're going to like this one. Wow. Why was it sea that you fled? Why, Jordan, did you turn back? Why mountains did you leap like rams? You hills like lambs.

To us, that's kind of strange imagery. First of all, he's talking about the things that God did in Israel's past. This is a Passover psalm that they would use to remember how God brought them out of Egypt. How many of you remember when God brought you out of something in your own life? So now he's taunting their trauma. Why is it sea that you fled? Why Jordan did you turn back? I got to say something about that verse. Did you know you have a God who when he speaks to the sea, it sprints to obey him? If God says to the Red Sea right, left, the sea doesn't dawdle, the sea doesn't walk, the sea doesn't crawl, the sea doesn't think about it. When God says sea split, the sea sprints to obey his word.

That's how powerful he is. I got to go faster. That's only one verse. Verse six, why mountains did you leap like Rams? Did you know you have a God who, when he speaks mountains leap? I know we're used to talking about mountains moving, but this is a different picture. He said, not only do they move, the mountains leap when he speaks. The obstacle moves when he speaks.

It can happen quickly and suddenly and irreversibly and dramatically when he speaks mountains leap, when he speaks, seas split. And I'm trying to read my scripture, but I'm excited because he's been doing it for a long time. Verse 7. Tremble earth at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock, into springs of water. One verse from Matthew chapter 4, verse 4. Matthew chapter 4 verse 4. The Bible says, Jesus answered, it is written. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Say amen to that, somebody. I want to take those two words from

verse four. Put it up again, please. Jesus answered. The title I'd like to preach to you from today is two words. He answered. He answered. Turn around and hug five people on your way to your seat. Say, I'm so glad he answered. I'm glad he answered. I'm glad he picked up my call, my collect call. I'm glad he paid the price for me. He answered. I'm grateful because he answered. I'm standing here today because he answered. He answered. I asked him for another day and he gave it. He answered. I asked him to help me keep my mind together. Somebody put it in the chat. Say he answered. Say it out loud at every location. He answered. Aren't you glad you have a God who answers prayers?

Come on, it's not a rhetorical question. Aren't you glad you have a God? Put it in the chat. Say, I'm glad. He answers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes other people don't. He answered.

Sometimes other people turned away. He answered. Now, speaking of rhetorical questions, I love the way Psalm 114 puts the truth across. It was fresh to me. And again, we have a family Bible club, and we landed in this just at the time that my message was coming together. Thank you, Lord, for speaking to me in my personal life so I could share it with others. I want to give it to you like he gave it to me.

It's a rhetorical question. Why was it sea that you fled? Why Jordan did you turn back? Why mountains did you leap like rams? You hills like lambs. We know the answer. because God told it too. But in framing it rhetorically, it invites us into the story, and it invites this truth into our story as well.

The story of your wise and what-ifs, the loops and lies that the enemy has you in imagining worst-case scenarios and replaying past hurts to the point that you cannot see God who is your present help. Into this, the psalmist speaks, and I wonder what melody was attached to this meditation. why was it C that you fled? It's a rhetorical question. Now, you know the phrase rhetorical question, right? A rhetorical question is a question that you ask, but you really don't expect an answer. Right? Like somebody says, what were you thinking? All they're saying is you're stupid, but they're framing it with a question, but don't answer. It's rhetorical. It means you weren't, right? Or there's other ones too. I don't know. I was thinking of a few before I came out. Here's one. One time, Elijah did something that Holly kept telling him not to do, and she

kept on him, kept telling him, and she finally goes, how many times do I have to tell you? And he goes, three times? It was a rhetorical question. It wasn't a literal question. It was a rhetorical question. And by framing this question as rhetorical about the Red Sea or the mountains that God moved for his people, God is not only asking a rhetorical question, but he's asking a historical question. What did God do for you in your past? That when you remember it, it reveals to you how powerful he is in your now. Go ahead and get ready to write down some notes.

I'm going to give you three points today. Somebody say, he answered. Put the title of my sermon right there in the comments, please. He's just put, he answered in all caps. And of course, when he answers in Psalm 114, he says, tremble earth at the presence of the Lord. Now, that's how it happened, the presence of the Lord. Let me put all this together really quickly.

Why did the sea sprint when God's people were passing through? That's a historical event, a rhetorical question. Why did the mountain move when God told it to? What about those impossible things that he did in your life? It's rhetorical. It's also historical. And if you look back over your life, you'll see that his presence was everywhere. You didn't always recognize it because you were hurting too bad, but his presence was there with you.

You couldn't quite see it because there were enemies surrounding your table, but he prepared a table for you in the presence of your enemies. Who was it that told the sea to split the mountain to move? it was God. It's a rhetorical question. It's a historical question. I'd like them to bring my teaching screen out, please. Everybody clap to give me the courage to draw a little bit today. See how supportive the ladies are when I... I think I'm going to preach, reflect myself next year. It looks so fun. It looks so fun. Okay, I heard you. I heard you. I am not going to answer that. Do you hear what they said? No, we want Holly. We want Holly. I know, me too. Just to get you back in the mindset of this message, I drew a loop and I talked about how

the enemy is always speaking and so is God. Same lies, it's abbreviate, new loops. This is the process of transformation. Does that kind of look like a brain a little bit? Like, not really. The renewal of your mind. To stop repeating the same stuff over and over again that leads you to defeat and start repeating what leads you to victory. Victory and defeat are both found in the repeat. That doesn't only rhyme. That's really good.

The victories you experience in your life or even in your physical body, the victories of losing weight, the victories of building strength, it's found in the repeat. So are the defeats. You lift weight one time every four months, and you only lift one time every four months. We will see that. Result. If you lift it every day, 40 times, we will see that. If you get the right thing on repeat, oh, God, I feel like somebody's about to get set free.

If you get the right thing on repeat in your life, you're going to get stronger. You're going to say like the prophet Isaiah said, they that wait on the Lord will renew their strength. I'm renewing my strength by what I do every day. I am renewing my strength every time I come to church. Give yourself a hand for coming to your class today for tuning into this message today because this for me is not just a church service. This is a new loop. This for me is retraining my brain. to move away from the lies and believe what God says about me.

Not only is your victory found in your repeats, though, but your defeat is often found in your repeats. What you say to yourself over and over again that disagrees with what God already spoke about you before you were ever born. We'll leave you feeling weak. You're not really weak. You just are repeating the wrong thing. Repeat the right thing. You'll be stronger. This is not the same.

that our praise and pursuit of God will preclude all of our proclivities towards sin. In other words, I'm not saying it's going to be easy. Think about this way. I read to you what seemed to be a random verse from Matthew chapter 4, where Jesus answered and said, it is written, man will not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. You know where Jesus was when he said that? The wilderness. the wilderness. I want to show this to you. You're not going to believe this is in the Bible.

In Matthew chapter 4, verse 1, turn there if you'd like or just we'll put it up on the screen for you. Matthew chapter 4, verse 1, the Bible says this, then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. That's the part I thought would shock you. because I thought the Spirit would lead Jesus to an easy place. But it gets worse. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. I have got all kinds of questions about that verse, and none of them are rhetorical. I really need to know.

Why would the Spirit lead him into the wilderness? And I thought about that over and over again. And I realized, the more I read it, that it was a repeat because I remembered how Israel in the Old Testament went through the wilderness too. Not for 40 days and 40 nights, but for 40 years. And here's what the enemy did to them when they were coming out of Egypt. God was bringing them out of Egypt to the promised land. And on their way out of Egypt into the promised land, the devil told them a lie that they could not do what God had called them to do. The devil has been telling you that same lie, hasn't he?

That you are not enough and that you are not loved. You are not enough, you are not loved. I said this last week, but victory is found in the repeat. And when you begin to understand, that's all the devil ever says to you. You're not enough. It's not enough. They're not enough. You're not loved.

It's not enough. You're not loved. Unless you do this, you can't be that. They won't love you if. They only love you because you're not enough. You're not loved. You're not even enough for God to love you unless you act a certain way. You're not enough for God to hear you unless you reach a certain level of spirituality and scale

yourself up to the highest height of the best Christian. It's not enough. You tried, but it's not enough, and you're not love. Now, those two lies play on the loop in our mind, but in the case of Israel going through the wilderness, I want to tell you something, it was actually true. They were not enough for their enemies without God, but they were not without God. And that's what you forget. You forget that he's with you in the wilderness. He's with you in the wilderness. He's with you in your weakness. He's with you as you fight through this addiction. He's with you as you resist temptation.

He's with you for that hard conversation you need to have. He's with you as you care for somebody who doesn't appreciate you. He is with you as you work through those bills and try to get yourself back on some financial stable ground. He's with you as you try to consider, how am I going to mention this so I can begin to deal with it because I'm tired of caring. He is with you in the dry place where you haven't. felt him for a really long time, and you're starting to feel like, well, maybe something's wrong with me. Maybe God has left me. But the Bible says that Jesus was led into the wilderness by the spirit. It says that the spirit led him, but it doesn't say the spirit left him. The spirit

led him to a hard place, but the spirit did not leave him in the hard place. The same spirit that led him in the wilderness was there all 40 days and 40 nights. And I know you need some things in your life to get better. And I know you need some chains and shackles to fall off your feet. And I know you need God to turn some stones into rivers of water. And I know you need God to do some things and he can and he will. But even until he does, he's with you in this wilderness. He's with you in this in between. He didn't drop you off in the middle of your adversity. He didn't leave you to figure this out by yourself. He did not abandon you when you got attacked.

He's not waiting for you to get it together to come down and rescue you. He picks up the phone and if you call him, he'll come. If you call him, he'll come. If you say Jesus, he'll say yes. I've done it a thousand times. I didn't feel like calling on him. But I lifted my hands by faith, not sight. By faith, not feeling.

And I call on the Lord and I sought the Lord and be heard and he answered. So I want to give you three truths today to remember for new loops in your life. And the first one is this. I want you to shout it out. Everybody say, he's here. Say that again. He's here. In the verse I read you, he's not the only one here.

Is the devil talking? I'm not even going to write out this whole name. I'm going to just put that D right there and you know who I'm talking about. And then there's Jesus. Hold up. I'm going to do that in all caps. I can't draw, but I can do that. Listen to me and listen to me close about this.

It's a conversation going back and forth in the wilderness and the Spirit is with Jesus to defeat the enemy. The Spirit is with you to defeat the enemy. Yeah. Yeah. I love how we make it seem like Jesus as our perfect risen Savior, and he is, never experienced difficulty. Or at least, you know, we may not say that about Jesus because we know we went to the cross. Sometimes we act like that was the only time that Jesus' life was hard.

Jesus' life was hard the whole time. It was hard. This is the brink of his ministry. He's 30 years old, and the Spirit leads him in the wilderness to him. be tempted by the devil. That's his ministry apprenticeship. That's what the Lord gave him. That's what his father gave him to prepare him. And so I have recognized every time in my life that God was about to do something huge, I had to go through hell before I got there. Every time. And I passed that along to you in case you're going through hell. You might be on the brink of something huge.

And the devil might know that. And he might be deploying extra resources. to try to get you to choke before you arrive at your destiny. Everything I ever released for God faced tremendous resistance. I just say that in case it's been difficult for you. Now, with that note made, then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, this has to be the most obvious verse in the Bible. He was hungry.

And yet it's not because Jesus was saying stuff with his disciples like, I have food to eat that you know not of, but he still had a stomach, and it was still empty. I fasted 40 days one time when we started the church. It was one of the hardest things I ever did. And people told me before I did it, don't worry about it. Once you get through the first three days, you don't even think about food anymore. They said, it's not hard after like day three. Let me tell you something.

Every one of them, I rebuke your lying spirit. Talk about the same lies, new loops. It was hard the whole time. I started dreaming about foods. I don't even eat in my normal life. I would see brussels sprouts and salivate. I don't even need bacon in them. I just need the brussel sprout.

I'll eat it without oil, without salt. The whole 40 days, it was hard the whole time. And, you know, we think that the only time that it was hard for Jesus was when he went to the cross because we read about him healing blind eyes, the highlight reel, and people who couldn't speak spoke when he spoke for them to speak, because whatever he speaks to, does whatever he says. If he speaks to a sea, it sprints. If he speaks to a mountain, it leaps.

Whatever he speaks to, does what it says, except for us sometimes. I'll come back to that in a future series. But it was hard the whole time. It was hard for him when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. His life was hard ever since he was a baby. Not only was he born in a barn, but Herod tried to kill him. From the day he was little, he was on the run. Not from the devil, toward the purpose of God for his life.

So if it's been hard for you, that's okay. And the devil would just get you stuck in that. Get you stuck in how hard it is. So I'm going to go ahead and put it there. It's hard. It's hard. And you're like, that's not a lie. I don't know if you're about to say that that's not true.

No, it's true. It's true. It's just that if the enemy can get you to go from a line to a loop, that instead of going through the hard thing, you get stuck in the hard thing, that instead of God delivering you through this season, you get in this season and you dig down deeper and you actually define yourself by the difficulty of the season, let me speak to that for a moment. Do not define yourself by the difficulty of the season. Define yourself by the size of your God. Because greater is he that is in you than he that's in the world. So I'm not saying it's not hard.

I'm just saying he's bigger than it is. And I am also saying that you don't only have a God who stands high above the hard things in your life. You have a God who became a human and did the hard thing. The book of Hebrews chapter 4, verse 13, about verse 13, says something very interesting. He says that that's not the right verse. I don't know what the verse is. There it is, verse 14 that I gave you earlier. Since we have a great high priest, everybody say Jesus is high.

Who has ascended into heaven. This is after his resurrection. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses. But we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. Here's your shouting verse. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence. Somebody shout, he's here.

So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us. us in our time of success, our time of blessing, our time of wholeness, our time of completeness. All of that is true, too. But if you are in the hour of need right now, I know a name that is greater than your need. I don't care what need you name. Name cancer. Name bankruptcy. Name divorce.

Name hatred. Name evil. I know a name that is great. And when I call it, he answers. Five people say he answered. Turned to the throne and he answered. He answered. He answered.

God saw humanity striving in our sin, trying to keep the law and couldn't do it, trying to be perfect and couldn't do it, trying to keep the commandments and couldn't do it, so he handled it himself. He's not only a high priest, he became a human. Why? He came down to handle what you couldn't. Point number one says he's here. Somebody shout he's here.

Point number two says, it's handled. Somebody shout, it's handled. I'm trying. If I could get three people to agree with me, we could get you out of this loop that the people of God were in all the way from numbers 13. We can't attack them. It's too hard for us. It's too hard for us.

You know how sometimes we vent about our problems to people? Be careful who you vent to. Because sometimes when you start venting, you start inventing. I study. I study. I thought about what I wanted to say. I wanted to tell you how the Israelites looked at the land that God wanted to give them. And remember, they turned something.

that should have been a straight through into a 40-year loop. And it all started because they were venting. Numbers chapter 13, about verse number 30. Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses said, we should go up and take possession of the land for we can do it. I know we've been slaves for a long time, but we can do it. We're sons and daughters of God. We can do this.

God is with us. Somebody shout, he's here. He's here or anything's possible. If he's here, did you see what he just did to the seat? we came through? When the devil gets rhetorical, you get historical. Start pointing to stuff that God already did and remind him how big your God is. I got a word for somebody. He already handled it. So it's hard, but that's how you break that spiral. That's how you break out of that loop. That's how you break out of this stupid crazy stuff that the devil's been feeding you just like he tried to feed Jesus,

you break it with a butt. Where is y'all's mind? It's hard, but he's here. I want everybody that puts that on a Post-it note somewhere around your house this week to tag me, but I don't have social media, so I won't see it, but somebody will print it out and give it to me. And one of the reasons I don't have social media is because if I had social media on my phone, right about now, I wouldn't be able to preach this sermon to you because in this season of my life, I have got to be very, very careful about the voices that I allow to have weight in my life.

Because I refuse to let the voice of a human keep me from hearing from heaven. I'm going to speak what God says. It is written. But tag me anyway. Somebody will print it out for me. Hashtag new loops. Hashtag less news, new loops. Hashtag more word, less news.

I am saying nothing but what God says is more important than what you think, what any human opinion says. So be careful, because if you keep venting, you might start inventing. You might make an enemy out of somebody who is actually your brother or sister in Christ. Okay? New loops. It's hard, but he's here. He's right in the middle of all of it. His name is Jesus, and he's here.

And also is Handel. Who told the C to sprint? Rhetorical question. It's a historical question. God did. Who told the mountain to move? God did. And I know it's hard, but can you believe it's handled?

Here's what Caleb said. He said, we can certainly do this. God's got us. There is a Caleb inside of you. There is a Caleb inside of you to tell you that you got it. To tell you that you don't, but he does. To tell you that you don't have to respond to temporary pressure by making decisions that are going to set you back for your destiny.

The Lord wants you to know its handle. And in verse 31, the people start responding. The men who have gone up said, we can't attack those people. They are stronger than we are. It's too hard. It's too hard. Verse 32, and they spread among the Israelites' bad report about the land they explored, and they said the land we explored, devours those living in it.

All the people we saw there are of great size. That's true. And they're venting. But what's verse 33? We saw the Nephilim, the Descendants of Inact, come from the Nephlin. We seem like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we look the same to them. Well, now you're inventing. Because you don't know how you look to them.

But if you look like that in your eyes. You start inventing. There have been times in my marriage where I started treating Holly like my enemy because of my own insecurity. I start pushing her away because of something in me that I don't want her to see. So now I'm treating the person that God gave me as my help, and I am treating them like they are the person that I'm assigned to fight. Is your insecurity leading you to believe your enemy, to create new enemies, to join new enemies, to judge. join with the words of the enemy. Jesus would have none of it. When the devil spoke to Jesus, Jesus talked back. Jesus talked back. And it was hard and he was hungry, but he understood that

the spirit led him to the wilderness, but the spirit did not leave him in the wilderness. And he understood that his father already had a plan. Now, the devil has a plan and God has a plan. Which one are you going to go with? One plan is to satisfy you temporarily. and short term, and the other is for you to trust God with your tomorrow because he's the one who's already there. The tempter came to him. He was hungry because he was human. He's high and holy, but he was born as a human to pay the price for our sin.

And the tempter came to him and said, and said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones, this is going to be a stone. if you are the son of God, tell the stone to become bread. If you are the son of God, do something. Take something that's not supposed to be something and make it something that it can't be. Now, we already know that if Jesus tells the stone to be bread, it'll be pumper-nickel in a minute. It'll be rye bread in a minute. Before he says the first syllable, it will be the softest, warmest loaf of bread.

Jesus could not only speak to the stone and make it bread, he could speak to heaven and rain down butter on the bread. He could speak to the sun, and the sun would toast the slice of bread that wasn't there before that was a stone. He could do that. But watch what he said in verse 4. I think this is powerful for our lives. Jesus answered.

Jesus answered. He's fully human and he's fully God. That means he's able to be tempted, but he's also able to overcome. So when the tempter spoke, watch this, he answered. It is written. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. to the sea and it split, the God who spoke to the mountain and it leapt, the God who spoke you into existence. That's what I live off of. That's what I go by. That's my new loop, what God spoke. And any time that I get stuck, any time that I'm going around and around, this is so messy, I should probably just start all over. Anytime that I feel like what is against me is greater than what is for me.

Here we go. Same lies. Watch the lie. It's not enough. You've got to turn the stone into bread because God won't provide for you. It's not enough. But at the heart of this chunks, something very interesting, if you are the Son of God. Because not only it's not enough, but you're not loved.

that there's something that you have to do to get God to love you. But Jesus knew better. Jesus knew not only he's here, not only it's handled, but Jesus knew I'm his. Think about the absurdity of the devil's temptation. Turn a stone into bread. Jesus already is both of those things. Peter said it this way. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

The rock that Moses drank from in the wilderness, the one that God pulled into a pool. Jesus is what the devil is trying to tempt him to turn something into. And don't even get me started about bread, because Jesus is. the vibe. Jesus is the branch. Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.

Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus is the gate, and Jesus is the bread. So, devil, you can't give me what to God. He's got me. I'm his and he knows me. I'm his and he chose me. I'm his and no man can pluck me from his hand.

I'm his I'm called. I'm his. I'm sustained. I'm his. I've got grace for this season because I am his. And he's here and it's handled because I'm his. Because he's here and it's handled because I'm his. Tell your neighbor, be nice to me.

My father is a great God Tell him be good to me Because my God is a great king And he's here And this handle And I'm his Receive the word of the Lord, my friend Receive the word of the Lord, my brother

Receive the word of the Lord, sis Receive the word of the Lord, man of God Receive the word of the Lord, you pastor Receive the Word of the Lord, single mom. Receive the word of the Lord high school student. Receive the Word of the Lord recovery program, Day 33. Receive the word of the Lord. The bread is already here.

The song that the builders rejected shall become the chief cornerstone. Thus, you belong to God. Come on, let's sit in that for a moment. For every devil that's been lying to you, The devil came at Jesus three different ways. He told him, if you're the son of God, what you mean if I'm the son of God? Y'all never read Matthew chapter 3, verse 16? Well, you're about to.

Because the Bible says that before Jesus was led into the wilderness, he went through the water. And as soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was open, and he saw the Spirit of God. descending like a dove and a lighting on him. He's here. He's here. And a voice from heaven. Ain't it crazy? One verse before he had to deal with the voice from hell. God gave him the voice from heaven. You need a fresh encounter with Jesus. You need a fresh revelation of Jesus. You need a fresh word from God. A meditation in your heart. If you don't meditate on His word, you're going to medicate on other stuff. and you are going to choke on stones because you don't have any bread.

And a voice from heaven said, this is my son, whom I love with him. I am well pleased. So when the devil, Matthew chapter 4 of verse 1, started tempting Jesus in the wilderness. And in verse 2, the Bible says, after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, not 40 years, because Jesus was doing for them what they could not do for themselves.

Don't you get it? He was in the wilderness for you. He was handling it for you. He was achieving a righteousness that you and I could never achieve. He was paying the price for you. That's why the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness so that you would never be there alone again. And when the devil said, if you are the son of God, turn something into something, Jesus said, I'm not turning anything into anything.

I already know who I am, because I'm still dripping with the water. of the affirmation of my father in this dry place. So I don't think so. I don't think so, devil. I don't think I'm just going to be depressed, devil. I don't think I'm just going to live the rest of my life, reliving and rerunning this and repeating this and dredging this back up. I don't think so, devil.

I don't think I'm going to let the world make me mad and angry and cynical, devil. I don't think so, devil. I know I'm his. I'm a royal people. I'm a chosen priesthood. I'm a holy nation. I belong to God. In three ways, I'm almost done. I know y'all want me to preach for four more hours.

Come on, four more hours. Come on, four more hours. If Jesus could fast 40 days, y'all can say five more minutes in this message. He's here. Say it. It's hard, but he's. And it's hard, but it's hard. handle. Uh-oh. D definitely comes before L in the word handle. I do know that. But I was confused when it said, I'm his. Because that's what the Lord gave me that he said was more important

than anything else. Because if you don't believe that you're loved by him, you will be trying to turn everything else in your life into loaves when he is. My favorite verse after the devil tempts Jesus three times? Because remember, defeat in victory or in the repeat? So he's not just going to do it once, not just twice, not just three times. But after he told him, hey, throw yourself off the building and the angels will catch you. Jesus, like, I know the angels on a first name basis, and I do not need to do something to get the angels to come. If I ask my father to send angels, they're already on the way. Oh, touch three people say they're already on the way. The help you need is already on the way.

The support you need is already on the way. The book you need is already in your mailbox. Check your mailbox. The book you ordered last week, it's got the answer. It's already on the way. And after being tempted, ooh, I feel this in my spirit. After he had tempted him as hard as he could tempt him, as hungry as Jesus was, tried to get him to step outside of who he was to do something that he already did, something that he

didn't even need from the enemy. Because watch this. Bible says in Matthew chapter 4 verse number 11. Then the devil left him. Oh, come on, get happy. I don't need no music. Just get happy. Come on, get happy. Then keep clapping so I can erase. Then come on, come on. You want the devil to get up out of your mind? You want the devil to get up out of your psychology. You want the devil to get out of your kids. You want the devil to get out of your feed. You want the devil to get out of your... All right, get happy. Then the devil left. I'm going to just start all over. And the Bible says, verse 11, is it on the screen? Is verse 11 on the screen?

Yes. I saw a picture. Then the devil left and... Oh, thank you. Jesus, that's supposed to be an angel. The angels came. The angels came. The angels came. We're through hell. Don't smell exce because the angels came.

Touch seven people say, wait for the angel. Wait for the angel. Wait for the angel. Wait for the angel. Don't be too anxious. It's already on the way. Don't talk yourself out of standing strong for Christ. Wait for the angels.

The angels are on the way. The angels are in route. You don't have to throw yourself up a building. The angels are coming. The angels are coming. The angels are coming. Somewhere in those 40 days, I know Jesus prayed because I don't believe that the devil was the only.

one Jesus was talking to in Matthew chapter four. I believe that Jesus, as human and as hungry as he was, prayed to his father and said, Father, I need you. And when he called his father, he answered. And just because the answer hasn't arrived yet does not mean God didn't send it. But in this season, if you start trying to turn stones into bread and substitute other human relationships for your relationship with God, you will miss your angel because you ate something that was never meant to be eaten.

Stand on your feet. The angels are waiting. I believe there's angels coming to your house this way. I believe angels are coming to somebody's central nervous system right now to calm you down. We're freaking out, swinging at stuff that didn't even swinging at you. Stop it. Wait for the angel. He's here.

It's Handel. You're his. Speak those things quietly. Say, he's here. His handle. I'm his. Come here, Abby. I called.

She answered. Because she's mine. Come on up. Come on up, all the way up. We love you, Abby. Answer them, say, I love you too. I love you too. Person I don't know.

And before we came out, I was showing her my angel. I said, it looked like an angel. I said, give me your hand. Put it up. Can y'all get this on the screen? I drew those two loops on her hand. Now this is my daughter, so I'm saying to her, and I know a 14-year-old can't get a tattoo, but if she could, I would probably have her get something like this,

but I have somebody draw up more professionally. draw up more professionally, just to remind her that he's here, that is handled. You don't have to keep it all in your hands and handle all the way yourself. And I'm his. And I'm his. Angels are on the way. Angels are on the way. Angels are on the way.

You said, what do you mean by that? What do you mean by that, Pastor Stephen? I mean that God is going to send you the help that you need as you call unto him. And yesterday, why are we on our? knees like this. Let's stand up. It's very uncomfortable. She had a soccer game yesterday afternoon. Yesterday morning, 10 a.m. soccer. I want to tell you, for somebody who's about to preach in 24 hours, I'm always stressed out trying to find the soccer field. That's my hardest part. I have no sense of direction. Holly got there. She sent me a pen. I left with plenty of time to part,

and I arrived exactly on time. Five minutes to spare. Two minutes. an empty church parking lot with no soccer field. I'm just driving, talking to my friend on the phone, talking about my sermon, talking about the angels and the bread and the stones. Does this make any sense? He's like, yeah, I'm sure it'll get there. But the angels are on the way, the angels are on the way. And as I'm on my way to the thing, I'm not paying attention, and all of a sudden I

realized, oh, I'm here, but I'm not there. I didn't disobey the GPS. Every turn it told me to take I took. I didn't rebel against the GPS. Turn right. I don't think so. Listen to me, I want to give you this. One, because I need to use it, because if something bad happens to me, I want to redeem it.

And there's no really bad part of this story, because all I did, I called Holly. I said, hey, this is weird. I went where you sent me to go before you left, but I need you to resend it to me now that you're there. the address that we had, I got to the destination that it was taking me to, but the destination it was taking me to was not the destination where you are. I said, so what do I do? She said, I'm going to drop you a new pin because she's here now.

Everybody say he's here. Because she's here now. I said, all right. And I put it in and it was 15 minutes away. I've 15 minutes off. And then I drove somewhere, and then the GPS took me down this very strange dirt road. Yeah, it was the weirdest thing. The sign said, keep out, and I went through anyway, because the GPS told me too.

I'm just obeying the GPS, you know? And of course, it's a dead end. It's some weird-looking government building. I don't even know where I was or what was about to happen to me. I don't know what got in my GPS. So I called her again. I said, okay, let's try it different this time. You're already there.

Tell me how to get there from where I am. And she said, okay, well, you go this is the road, and she's pretty good with directions, so she started describing it to me because she was there. And she said, he'd just stay on the phone with me for a minute. She said, all right, turn here, there's a long road, there's a classic car show. Don't turn into that. Keep driving, boom, boom, boom. Because she'd already seen all that because she was there.

Because we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize or empathize with our weaknesses just because he was tempted in the wilderness. And so Benchie really, really put the cherry on top. She said, I'm wearing my bright yellow hat and you can see me. And I'll wave you in and I will block this pickup truck that's trying to take this parking space until you get here. And I saw that yellow hat and I saw my woman standing there waiting for me. And I realized what was my woman.

wrong. In that moment, I didn't need a pen. I needed a person. I needed somebody who was already there to guide me in. Now, you keep trying to fight temptation in your own strength. You're going to stay lost. You're going to think you're taking the right turns. You're going to think you're doing the right things. But Jesus said, hey, I'll be standing in your next five minutes. I'll be standing in your Tuesday. I will be waving you in. You look for me. You stay with me.

He answered. He answered. Jesus answered the devil because the Father already answered him. And the angels. Call God on the mountain. I call God in the valley. I call God on the good days. And I call God.

Just to tell it. One thing you could do, you could just lift your hands to your father right now. I call God on the mountain. I call God in the valley. He answered. He answered Jesus. He'll answer you. And the Lord is in this place with you.

Angels in your wilderness, man. Angels in your dry place. He turns stones into pools of water. I call God. Let's have a little praise party. Let's get it warmed up, baby. For you at, you sexton. See my new friend.

For joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.

God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.