Elevation with Steven Furtick - It Is What It Is But It's Not What It Seems

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

“It is what it is” is a common phrase people use when faced with a difficult situation. To a certain extent, it’s true. Yes, this is what we’ve been dealt. But have we started accepting disappointment as the norm without questioning if God is at work?See 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. Well, I'm very respectful of the presence of God, so I want to transition right into the Word because I believe that he desires to speak to you in a profound way. And I want to move into Romans chapter 4 and speak a message of faith and inspiration over your life today. We're continuing a teaching on functional faith. And what I really pray that these messages are doing is that they are showing up after you hear them in another form.

That as opportunities present themselves to you, for you to be full of doubt, that something that you've heard, you know, the word of God is seed. And so I'm praying that it's breaking through the surface and helping you to experience God's presence in a new way. Would you just tell about five people around you that the presence of the Lord is here? Just make sure that they know if they didn't get the memo, the presence of the Lord is here. And what I want to do now, I want to plant the seed of the word in the soil of your heart. I believe God has given me good seed to sow into you today. But I can't make you good soil.

And if you sit there distracted or discouraged or, you know, kind of in your own little world or kind of like just get it over with, that seed is going to fall, but it's not going to take root. So why don't you just open your heart now? Let me read this scripture to you from Romans chapter 4 verse 18. It's interesting because I have noted in my Bible. I do something with my Bible. I just thought that would be cool to give each of my kids a Bible that I had preached through. So doing it on like seven-year cycles, and I gave Elijah after seven years of preaching in this church, the Bible that I preached from for those seven years.

And I'll highlight all the passages that I preach from and then note what the sermon was. Just a little something that I can give them and hopefully, you know, an investment I can make in them. So this is Grams. I'm on the second seven years right now, and this is going to be his. And we're like about halfway through the second seven years of ministry at the church, I think. Did I calculate that right?

Yeah, yeah, you're 10. So I was looking at my notes, and I was in this passage about the same time of the year two years ago. So there must be something about spring that makes me want to preach about faith and hope and life. It must be something about the greenery on my trees and the pollen in my... That just gets me thinking that maybe it's time for some things to bud forth and spring forth in your life.

So I want to spend some time in this passage today, Romans chapter 4 verse 18. Apostle Paul says, against all hope, Abraham in hope, believed and so became. Do you know that that's always true that you always become what you believe? If you see yourself as a grasshopper in the land God has promised you, you won't take possession of it, not because it wasn't yours, but because you didn't see yourself as the rightful owner. So what you believe eventually is reflected. in what you become. Just pointing that out. Okay. That's not my sermon. That's the chips and the salsa before the enchilada. Now look at this. It says he believed and so became the father of many

nations just as it had been said to him so shall your offspring or your seed be. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old. Well, that's definitely not an overstatement. Your reproductive days are certainly coming to a close around age 100, especially if you live in a time where there are no little pills. I'm sorry, y'all. Let me get back on this.

And that Sarah's womb was also dead. So this is an impossible situation from every angle. And yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith. Come on, you came to the gym today to get strengthened in your faith. This is the original CrossFit. All right? We're going to be strengthened in our faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded

that God had power to do what He was. He had promised. Shout over the scripture now. So here's my declaration, my title. I want you to give your neighbor my title. Look them right in the eye and say, neighbor. It is what it is, but it's not what it seems. My God, I feel fire on that. It's a declaration of faith, you understand. It is to look at your other neighbor. Tell them it is what it is. But it's not Come on, you've got to get into this. Tell them, it is not. You got to do your finger like that, but it's not

what it seems. Come on, high five, seven people on your way down until you see you. Let's get to work. Thank you. Not what it seems. It's not what it seems, but it is what it is. Essentially, we are walking into the middle of an argument in Romans chapter 4 that Paul is presenting against the Judaizers who would have the Gentile converts to the faith be circumcised as an outward expression of their new commitment to the community of faith.

Paul sees this as a grave mistake for understands that it is not the circumcision with human hands that makes you a believer. It's the circumcision of your heart. It's not something that's cut away from your skin. is something that has to be removed from your heart that enables you to connect with God in this relationship. And in presenting one of the most important doctrinal beliefs that you'll find anywhere in the canon, Paul is elaborating on this concept of justification by faith. It's never been presented exactly this way until Paul puts pen to paper and God uses him to expound upon the fact that you've got to come in on your knees.

Relationship with God cannot be the product of works, although works are a byproduct of that relationship. And in the middle of this argument about what it means to have real faith, what it really takes to have faith, what faith really looks like, and in this contrast between the the seen and the unseen elements of faith. Paul is using Abraham as an example because he is the father of faith. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel.

The nation came from Jacob, but Jacob came from Isaac and Isaac came from Abraham. So sometimes your life is a part of a bigger picture that you might not even be the one to see certain things come to pass, but you might be the one. that God uses in the life of the one, and that takes faith to have that kind of perspective on your life. I texted Pastor Mickey this morning, and I didn't tell you, but we were talking about him. And I just said, God used you in my life so much. I was just thinking about you this morning, and we pray for me because he believed in me at a stage of my life where my potential was hidden. Not anybody can believe in you once your success is evident.

But if you got somebody who believes in you while your potential is still in seed form, never forget that person. So that's why I was reaching out to him just to tell him, thank you, I'm preaching today, pray for me, just had you on my mind. And he doesn't preach in a big church, but he does preach in a big church because his faith lives on through me. So this is the kind of framework. And last week we talked on frame game. Have you been working on your frame game this week? Would you do me a favor? Would you just frame up your neighbor real quick at all of our locations and tell them,

you look better than you did last week? I see signs of improvement. Frame game. And now Abraham enters the frame of the discussion about faith, and Paul has given us a synopsis of the story. Now, a synopsis is different than a story. story. A synopsis requires some essence of prioritization to try to figure out what to put out and what to leave in, you know. And this is something that women would do well to learn when

you're trying to communicate with men. It's that we typically do better with a synopsis than the full story. All of the men are leaving me up here by myself. But you know you did not need to know all of that to find out what's for dinner. And sometimes you just want to press the button to skip to the synopsis. Can I get a cliff note? And sometimes you think that in marriage. You do, you do. I don't think that. My wife is captivating.

Now, speaking of Holly, she's on this kick lately of audible.com. Audible.com. Audio that speaks to you wherever you are. How do I know that? Because my wife, my wife folks are up in the house. She's listened to, I don't know, over the last year, 10 or 12 books on audible.com. audio that speaks to you wherever you are.

And she says she read them, but we kind of have a debate about that because I always thought reading meant your eyes were involved. So she'll say, I read a book and I was saying, listen to one under my breath in my head. And one book that she was looking at, she said, she was looking at it and I don't know if she downloaded it or not, but she said that she wasn't going to listen to that one. because she said that it was narrated by a child, not that the child read it on audible.com, not actually that a child did the voice work, but that the point of view of the book was a child telling the story. And she said, I just don't think I would enjoy a whole book written from a child's point of view. I think that would get old. And that was interesting to me because when you think of elements of a story, you think about the characters,

and you think about the plot, and you think about the story. and you think about the setting. And it always blows my mind. I don't know if any of you are fiction readers. Any fiction readers? If you have any good books that I should take to the beach this summer, feel free to send them my way. I should totally read more fiction.

It's a good escape, but I don't read enough. But I can't figure out how somebody can have enough imagination to make up a whole world in a fiction book. I've written books before, but it's real stuff. And I just don't imagine that I would ever have the imagination to make up a whole world, you know, names and where people went to school and cities that don't really exist and aliens and zombies and walkers. And, you know, I just can't imagine that I would have that kind of imagination. But some people do. Yet, yet the plot and the characters and the setting when you're reading a book are all experienced through the medium of whoever the author chooses to use.

to tell the story. Y'all know where I'm going with this. You guys are quick on the draw because I found out that in life you have to select a narrator. Stay with me on this. You have to select a narrator because the narrator you choose will determine the way you experience the events. Everybody in here has an internal narrator. who in every situation is trying to tell you how to think about that situation, how to interpret

the motives of people in certain situations, how to look at an opportunity and to size it up. And the Lord told me to come out here and tell you today that some of you need a new narrator. I'm going to say it again, maybe it'll hit the back, maybe it'll hit Providence, maybe it'll hit Gaston. Some of you have a really annoying, whiny, complaining, suspicious, negative. narrative. And see, it's wearing you out because you keep going into situations and your narrator keeps on telling you what to think about this and what to think about that. But I got good news for you. Anytime you get ready, you can get a new storyteller. I'm trying to say you can have a life narrated not by feelings, but by faith. I got to ask you a question. Is your life

narrated by your feelings or your faith. And I think that's the plot line that we're plopped into with Abraham, who has a decision to make. In Romans chapter 4, Paul is giving us some of the story, not all of the story. If you read all of the story, you're going to read about how Abraham, while he was waiting on God to give him a son, slept with his wife's assistant to try to produce something that he couldn't be patient and wait for. That happened. And in general, as we hear about it, but it didn't make the trip across the centuries to Romans chapter 4. That interesting, that in the story selection process, in the synopsis, it didn't even make

the story. It didn't even make the story that Abraham got in trouble one time and he was scared because his wife was beautiful, and he thought that if the king knew that it was his wife, he'd be in danger, so he told his wife, Sarai, to pretend like she was his sister, and then the king almost slept with his wife because he was in danger. He thought that it was Abraham's sister, and then God started messing with the king because God didn't like it very much, that the king was about to take Abraham's wife. And so the king figured it out real quick and said, why did you lie to me?

Yet I can't find that in Romans chapter four. And it's not as if it didn't happen, it's just that when you narrate your life by grace, when you narrate your life by grace, this is the context of faith. And so some of the failures that are most prominent in your mind didn't even make the cut of the story in the mind of God because he sees you from a different perspective and sees you in a different dimension. I feel the Spirit of God on me today. I'm just going to preach this like I feel it in my heart.

Touch somebody say, it's not even a part of my story. It's not even a part of my story. But it is. But it is. But it is in your story. See, there's a kind of faith that is very dangerous. I'll show you two extremes here, and both are warned against in Romans chapter four. Sometimes there is a version of faith that really looks more like denial.

And then there is the absence of faith which creates despair. What I see in Romans chapter 4, front and center, from the Father of Faith, is that he was able to avoid both extremes. It says in verse 19, without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact. Now that one phrase helps me understand what faith is and what faith isn't. the kind of faith that I am to emulate from my father Abraham, whose seed I am, is not a sort of denial. And I'm putting that before you because when we teach about being positive, it doesn't mean that everything in your life is positive. And I want you to know that.

Because here's the thing. some people don't exercise faith because they live in denial. And they actually begin to use their faith as a cop-out and don't confront things for what they are. Somebody look at the person next to you and tell them it is what it is. Come on, some of you aren't participating in. And that makes me really, really, really angry and insecure. Look at your neighbor. Tell him, it is what it is.

Yeah, Abraham faced the fact. He was old. He faced the fact. His stuff stopped working a long time ago. He faced the fact. He looked at himself and he said, it is what it is. And he looked at his wife and said, it was what it was, but it ain't what it was. Now, it is what it is.

We're old now. We could have done this 30, 40 years ago. Maybe. We could have done it 50, 60 years ago. But now it is what it is. I didn't go to college. It is what it is. I didn't go to high school. It is what it is. I went through my first marriage. I was too stupid to make it work. You know what? You can't get over what you do not own. So face it. Faith doesn't mean living in denial. Fake doesn't mean that it's all good. I've got women in my church that were sexually abused. It's not. It's not all good. I got people in my church who can't get a child because they have a criminal record. It's not all good. I got people in my church under the sound of my voice right now who didn't grow up with the dad.

It's not all good. And you know what? Faith can handle that. Faith can handle that. The starting place of authentic faith is honesty. It is what it is. I'm disappointed right now. Do you know you can tell God that?

And he won't hold it against you? When God spoke to Abraham and said, I'm going to give you a seed that's going to be your son and out of your seed is going to come a nation as numerous as the stars, Abraham laughed in God's face. Didn't bother God because faith is not a feeling. Faith is a decision. I'm going to say it again to counteract all the wrong thinking that you've ever had in your life about faith. Faith is not a feeling. You know, you can be a pessimistic person but still have great faith.

Even great faith has weak moments. So the call to faith is first a call to come out of denial. Otherwise, you'll be waiting on God to deliver you from a situation that is going to require discipline. I'm going to say it again. This message isn't sinking in, Joel. 930 was on fire. I don't know what happened in the lobby before the people got here. Maybe it's better at the other campus.

But when you live in denial, you'll be waiting for deliverance in a situation that requires discipline. Are you waiting for deliverance in a situation that is going to require discipline? In other words, are you waiting on God to cancel your debts or are you making a plan to pay them off? Faith doesn't wait on a check. Faith gets up and goes to work or at least looking for work. Faith will do it. But you've got to face it. You've got to face it.

Or you live in denial and you'll say, well, I guess the reason that nobody wants to be my friend is because God has just got me in a lonely season right now. No, God doesn't have you in a lonely season. Your bad attitude and poor relational habits of not treating people correctly have got you in a lonely season. And until you face it, faith can't fix it. Until you face it, faith can't fix it. can't fix what you won't face. So he faced the fact, but he kept his faith. And you can do both.

Stay with me, camera. He faced the fact, I'm not living in denial, but he kept his faith. I'm not living in despair. Faith is standing in the middle and making a decision. That it is what it is. But watch this. It's not what it seems. I got that beneath the surface faith. I got that Saturday faith, waiting on something to come up out of a tomb and resurrect for the healing and salvation of the world. So he narrated his situation with his faith. And so he became the father of many nations. And we are his seed. How cool is that?

That we are the seed of Abraham. See, that made me think about something. Will you think with me today? Yes. That when Jesus was trying to explain to the people what the kingdom of God was like, he said in Mark Chapter 4, verse 31, the kingdom of heaven is like a sky star. Big and bold, big and massive towering structure. I wish he said that.

I wish my faith was as big as a skyscraper. I wish I walked around, never doubting. I wish all my stuff worked. That's what I'm trying to say. In fact, I wish that this stuff that I preach was as easy to live as it is to preach sometime. Talk back to me. Talk back to me. Talk back to me. Don't you wish it was as easy to live as it is to write down in your notebook? Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Show them the mustard seed. Can you show them? Show them. Show them. Show them to see. What? Come on, talk to me. It's all right. You can talk in church.

No, it's not. I mean, that's what it seems to be. Now that it's been through the process that it went through. And guess what I have in my pocket? No, not mustard seeds. I got trees in my pocket. I came to preach to somebody, you got trees in your pocket. You've got potential in your life. You've got trees in your pocket.

You've got healing in your mouth. You can tell your neighbor, you got trees in your pocket. That's what God was telling Abraham. I put a seed in you. I put a promise in you. I put a purpose in you. I put potential in you. And don't judge the tree by the size of the seed.

Because when it's grown, it's going to look like something. You can't even... So he says, can you see the tree in the seed? And this is the question of faith. Can you see the hope of the world in a barren womb? Can you see leadership potential in your rebellious child? Can you see how it might have been a blessing that one person walked out of your life? Can you see?

They say that we miss the forest for the trees, but sometimes I think we miss the trees for the seeds. So Elijah sends his servant up. He's like, hey, check it out because it's about to rain. And the servant comes back down and says there is nothing there. And he said, go and look again. I'm not just doing something kind of weird while he's sending the servant back and forth because he sends him six times. The Bible says, I'm not going to attempt to demonstrate this because my flexibility is limited. But he put his head between his knees.

And I think it's because if he looked at the sky, if he looked at the situation, if he went by sight, you know, the Bible says that we walk by faith and not by sight. So he had to close his eyes to what was there in order to see what would be. And finally, after six times on the seventh time, the little servant came back and said, well, it's a cloud up there, but it's only about the size of a man's hand. To what shall I compare the kingdom of heaven? It's like a seed, a cloud the size of a man's hand. It's like a mustard seed. That's the smallest seed they knew of at the time.

Yet when planted, it grows. I love that phrase. I feel the oil of God and the electric power of the Holy Ghost on that phrase. Yet when planted. When planted, it grows. That's your word for this season of your life. Is that, yes, it's small. Yet, when planted, it grows.

I'm going to stay right on this because I know when God is speaking, and he's speaking to somebody. It's a cloud the size of a man's hand. Yet, when planted, it grows. It's a little boy's lunch. It's only five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, put it in my hands because yet when planted it grows. He's just a shepherd boy in a field.

He looks like a seed. Yet he's a king. And when planted in the soil of adversity in Saul's court, David grew to become a king. To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It's like a seed. You can't see it at first. It doesn't even seem like something worth showing. It doesn't even seem big enough for the cameras to pick up. Yet when planted, it grows. God said it's time for you to start planting seeds of purpose. Even in the soil of doubt, if you plant it, it'll grow. If you planted, the cloud will burst. If you planted, the rain will fall. If you get your hands dirt. and have faith and hope against hope. Yet when planted it grows. Touch seven people. Tell them it's gonna grow. It's gonna grow. I feel a spirit of faith. I want to impart faith to you. I don't know if you believe in this kind of stuff, but I believe in a moment in the presence of God. He can plant the incorruptible seed of his word in the soul of an expected heart and a ripe harvest. You better catch that. You better catch that tree. You better catch that tree.

Come on, line, burgers. How many think I can get it all the way to Al? Better catch that tree. You better catch that tree. You better put that in your pocket. And this week when you're up in a situation and it looks like a small little thing and it looks like it doesn't stand a chance and it looks like a little virgin girl from Nazareth. And it looks like Joseph in a pit.

You need to understand that the pit wasn't a pit. It was the soil he was planted in so he could come forth in Egypt and bring place. Tell somebody, I'm growing, I'm growing, I'm growing, I'm growing, I'm growing, I'm growing, I'm growing, I'm growing. My faith is growing, my heart is growing, my capacity to love is growing. But the thing about the growth of the seed is, do y'all hate when I holler like that? I know some of y'all wish I didn't do it, but I watched some basketball games during Final Four and the NBA playoffs. I watch all kinds of fans get up with their shirts off and their chest painted and they're

jumping around about some men and some shorts running up and down a hardwood floor. I just think you're not going to be enough. It's growing, but the process. Stop. I want to teach. I want to teach. Jesus said, I got to go to the cross. I've got to be crucified.

And they're going to bury me in the ground. That's one narration of what happened when they put Jesus in a borrowed tomb. He was buried. But guess what? Jesus said, when they put me in the ground, I'm not being buried. I'm being planted. Harvest. Does somebody say, I'm planted.

I'm planted. I planted. And it does not appear yet what I shall be. But when you see me, I'm going to look more like him. I got news for you. It is what it is, but it's not what it was. And your eyes have not seen what it's going to be. Shout if you believe.

Planting you. He's planting you. I want to talk to somebody at the Rock Hill campus right now. Because at the Rock Hill campus, I got somebody listening to this sermon who's in a state of despair. You figured that, well, if it hadn't happened by now, it's not going to happen. And you know what? It may not happen just the way that you wanted it to happen. Because sometimes you have to put the seed of your dream in the soil of your faith so that God's dream for your life can but forth yet when planted.

it grows. And I pray for you, Peter, that after you failed, that your faith would not fail and that after you had returned, you would strengthen your brethren. You're coming up out of the dirt. You're coming up out of this failure. This is not your final resting place.

Don't despair and don't look at what you see. Because we don't fix our eyes on what is seen. What is seen is temporary. I'm only in this ground for a minute, but I'm coming up bigger than before. I'm coming up stronger than before. I'm coming up full of faith, full of wisdom, full of lessons, full of purpose, full of love. I'm planted." And yet the only way for the seed to grow was for it to disappear into the soil.

The way for Abraham's faith to be proven was for his hope to be planted in the soil of disappointment. Yet he didn't waver in his faith. What do you mean, Paul? He slept with his wife's assistant. Yeah, but faith isn't defined by what you do in your weak moments. That's not how the narrator, the narrator, you know what you have in your life? You have a third person narrator. I'm going to break it down even more for the English teachers. It's a third-person omniscient narrator. Because you've got different kinds of narrators. It's the first person. And when you narrate your life in the first person, you look at yourself and you say, it is what it is. But what a narrator can do in telling the story, and this is what faith can do in your life.

Faith can show you that although it is what it is, It's not what it seems. And in between denial and despair is destiny. To stand and know that God is, and I will produce my purpose. You got a disappointment in your life? It is what it is. No need in denying it. You fell short?

It is what it is. Boy, even just that first half alone would be a good start, wouldn't it? Just to say, it is what it is that I can't come in church and pretend to be something that I'm not and expect to be blessed in my state of pretension. I was reading something because I'm reading through Mark a little bit preparing these sermons for you. And I started the series in Mark, and I was over there about the woman with the issue of blood. Just for a Bible lesson for you, she had been going around to a bunch of different doctors. And they kept saying, you know, this is what it is and this is what it is. And she came to Jesus and he was able to fix it for what it really was.

Because anyway, you can try to fix all kinds of things in your life because you diagnosed according to the symptoms, but never really get down to the systemic parts that cause the symptoms. And you run around to a bunch of different doctors, a lot of different men, a lot of different women, a lot of different churches, a lot of different relationships, a lot of different places trying to get it fixed. But until you get to the guy who really knows what it is, it can't be healed. What I never noticed before is it said that the way. woman when she came to Jesus, because I always saw it a story like faith, just big faith. She came through the crowd, and she pressed through the crowd, and she said, if I can touch the hymn of his garment, I'll be made whole.

And I always was so focused on that, that I miss the part where it said, that the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. It was her faith that healed her, but it was her honesty that made her faith authentic. So the Lord told me to give you two things to come out of denial. It is what it is. And you can say it. You can say, I feel lonely in this season.

Now be careful who you say it too, because you can say it in Delilah's barbershop and wake up with a buzz cut that you weren't expecting. So don't just say it to anybody, but God can handle it. God can handle it. I talk to God real as if I'm talking to a friend because the Bible said Abraham was a friend of God and if I'm his seat I'm his friend too and Friends can talk to friends and he's my father, but he's my friend and I can come to him and say you know I don't get you right now Sir your majesty because I don't want a lightning bowl or anything like that so I It is what it is

It is what it is You know I feel like nobody appreciates me right now God just make sure that when you tell God how you feel that you feel that you let him narrate what you should do by faith, not feelings. It's okay to say it. It's okay. It's okay to, it's okay to, it's okay to Abraham faced the fact. Look at all these debts I have. Look at what the doctors are saying. Face it. Face it in faith. Face it in faith. Face it in faith. Face it in faith. Face it in faith. Come out of the sphere and realize that whatever it is that you're looking at It's not the end. It's a portal to your potential. It's not it's planted. It's not over

It's just in transition. It is what it is But my faith told me to tell you it's not it's not what it seems. If you receive this word, get up on your feet and give your God a great praise. A hot break. Thank you 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,

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