Elevation with Steven Furtick - The Devil In 3D

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

In order to resist the enemy, we have to learn how to recognize him. Here are three ways the enemy tries to get into our minds.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. Just to hit it real quick from 1st Peter 5, 8, and 9, which serves as a theme. We won't preach from it today. But be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring line. lion. See, I always read it wrong. I thought he was a lion. I thought he was bigger than me and stronger

than me. But I found out that he's just loud like a lion. And the place where he roars is in my mind. That's where he's the loudest in the thoughts that I have. And so he's looking for someone to devour. Did you ever wonder why all those Twitter feeds and Instagram feeds and Facebook feeds, why they call them feet, is because they're eating your mind alive. Did you know that? And so he devours people in any way that he can. He's looking for someone. The command is resist him. But how many know it's hard to resist what you don't recognize? And if we're to resist the enemy, because I don't know about you, but I don't intend to live the rest of my life as a Christian and be a slave to my own imagination. Amen. I don't intend to live the rest of my life forgiven by Christ

as a prisoner to my past and replaying memories of moments that have come and gone, but I can't escape them in my mind. And so I really intend, if it takes me the rest of my life, and it might, It seems like sometimes I take two steps forward and three steps back, but I'm trying to get free. I'm trying to take my mind back so I can serve God with my mind and love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength. And I don't want to be drained, so I go into each day with no energy and broken focus. I really want to be able to see clear the way ahead so I can follow Christ into my future. That's the intention of this series. But in order to resist the enemy, we've got to recognize him or we'll spend our whole life resisting

all the wrong things, resisting silence when sometimes that's where God speaks the loudest. Resisting or trying to avoid awkward situations, and God's middle name is awkward. He'll run out of food on purpose to see what you're going to do in an awkward situation. sit down next to a disreputable woman at a well and make it awkward so the disciples have to decide if they really believe that this message is for everyone. And so let's take a look today at this idea of recognizing the enemy so we can see how he's at work in our lives. And this may be a weird title, but I want to call this message, the devil in 3D.

What does he look like in real life, not our cartoon image of him, our coloring book devil? Once we get the cape off of him and try to understand how he really operates to try to master our minds and set up a seed of influence in our souls through controlling our emotions, we can start to do battle. And you know, Paul said one time, we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. Devices. Satan's devices. And of course, I don't think this is the devil, but I wanted to give you three things just to make it memorable that start with the letter D. And rather than continue on talking about Peter this week, I want to move into the Old Testament for a few moments and tell you a story about a Bible character that I know you've heard of named Moses.

And I want to use this one example from his life. It's probably not the one that he would choose for us to evaluate because he made a great mistake and it cost him dearly. But hopefully, like 1st Corinthians, 10 says we can use him as an example. So the same thing doesn't happen to us. How many of you want your kids to learn some stuff from your experience that they don't have to learn through their own pain? And so let's look at this. I'll read it to you. I'll be honest with you.

I never preached on this passage before because I was intimidated. by it. And really it's a little confusing. You'll see that. It seems a little harsh what happens in this passage. And honestly, I knew that if I ever preached it, that God would probably speak something to me that I wouldn't want to hear because I relate to a little thing that happens in this Bible story. But I want to share it with you now as we lean into this message, the devil in 3D. And of course, Moses's devil was a little different. than ours, he would have said Pharaoh, who was the ruler of Egypt, the one that he had to demand emancipation for the people of God from. He never really asked for that assignment. He didn't seek

that assignment. He wasn't looking for a life purpose. God just interrupted what he thought was his second half of life and gave him something different to do and wasn't terribly convenient. But now we're looking at Moses at the end of his life. And this is a what the Bible says. Numbers chapter 20, verse 1. In the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived at the desert of Zen, and they stayed at Kadesh. Their Miriam died and was buried. Their Miriam died and was buried. Now, there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. And they quarreled with Moses and said, if only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord. Why did you bring the Lord's community

into this wilderness that we and our livestock should die here. Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines, or pomegranates, Wi-Fi or Starbucks. It's trying to bring you into the text. I don't want you bored. I'm trying to listen to this Bible story. And there is no water to drink.

Moses and Aaron went from the assembly. to the entrance, to the tent of meeting, and fell face down, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. That's when God's glory shows up when you've run out of answers. That's when God's glory shows up. When you admit, God, I'm powerless to do this on my own. I need you, God. I've tried everything, and still these people are driving me crazy, but I'm here at the entrance to the tent. And I need you to speak.

So for everybody who came into church with a cocky attitude today talking about, I wonder what this sermon's going to be about. And he better hurry up and get to it because I don't really even want to be here up here in that karate kid shirt looking like a Halloween costume. Say something, won't you? You're not going to get it. But those of you who came in here humbled under the mighty hand of God, he might just speak because you're listening. Now then, the Lord said to Moses, verse 7, take the Lord. staff, that same staff that you raised over the Red Sea and it parted, that same staff that you initially threw on the ground and I proved who I was to you because I turned

the staff into a snake and you picked it back up and it became a staff again. That same staff that turned the Nile River into blood until your enemy had no choice but to release you from bondage. That same staff that when you raised it up, the Amalekites were no match. for the Israelites, that same staff. Take it now. I want you to get Aaron and get everybody together and speak to the rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock and drink. So Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence, just as he had commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly

together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, listen, you rebels. I'm going to start saying that around my house more to the kids. Must we bring you water out of this rock? Isn't anything I do enough for you? I've been leading you through this wilderness for 38 years. And it's never enough. It never stops. It never stops.

Somebody shouted, it never stops. I screamed that one day on vacation. Top of my lungs. I'd been such a good dad all day. I took my kids swimming. I went on a bike ride with the kids. We went and ate Japanese food, and we sat with people we didn't know. And I pretended to think it was funny when he flipped the bull into his hat like I never saw it before.

I was a good dad that day. I was a great dad that day. I read to him at bedtime, and still at the end of the day, they were fighting. And all of a sudden I heard myself screaming at my kids. Have you ever had an out-of-body experience screaming at your kids? And you were surprised what you said next. And you were thinking I might have to bleep myself, edit myself. I don't know what's coming out next.

The Holy Ghost just left and something else took over. And now I'm watching myself and I'm scared of myself. And I shouted at the top of my lungs, it never stops. Now we can laugh about it. It wasn't funny at the time. You rebels. Must we bring you water out of this rock? We already did this one time 38 years ago.

This has happened before. God kept your shoes from wearing out. Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock, which God did not instruct him to do, twice with his staff. And water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. So on the surface, what Moses did. worked. But just because it worked on the surface doesn't mean it was wise and does not mean it will have a sustainable effect. And this is why when you control people with your anger or you're

pouting or you're manipulative. See, I can't even say the word as a foreign concept to me. manipulation you end up very lonely because the cost of controlling people is to end up alone and I know I got you pinned up against your chair right now talking about this sermon so look confused and you get through this but some of the stuff that that works on the surface costs us in the end and that's why it's so important that we understand this because watch Everybody got water, but it cost Moses what God had promised. And if the passage ended at verse 11, you'd say, well, what's so hard about that scripture?

Unfortunately, verse 12 tells that even though the water came out of the rock, what came out of Moses' heart in that moment prevented him from going further into God's promise. and even though all the people were happy and the people were impressed and the people might not have even known anything was wrong because they were all too busy drinking. The people got hydrated. The people got what they wanted, but Moses lost what God had promised. First 12, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, You will not bring this community into the land I give them. These were the waters of Miraba, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them. Makes me wish I would have paid more attention in my Hebrew class because if I knew that Miraba means quarrelling, I would understand that God does some great miracles in places of great conflict. You know, it's funny all the little things we miss if we read the Bible in English

because the interpretation sometimes the writers will put little humorous things in there that I wouldn't know to look for. But this particular wordplay, if you go back to verse 2, and I told you I'm going to give you three Ds, and I am, the first one is deficit because he is describing a deficit that the people of God are in. It says in verse 2, there was no water for the community. And the people gathered. Now, the Hebrew word for gathered here that he uses is a word that means to come together

for the purpose of conflict. And see, I didn't even know Facebook was in the Bible. Talk to me. They call it a community. But the community came together to quarrel. Isn't that a nice word, to quarrel? Not to fight, not to argue, but to quarrel. And so they're fighting with each other, and they don't have patience, but they don't have patience because they don't have water.

And before we're too hard on them, these complaining Israelites, we need to consider that this was a matter of life and death. This is not the barista messed up your order and forgot that you prefer almond milk. This is something different. This is, we can't live but a few days without water and so we're desperate. I've noticed that when people get desperate, they start doing things they wouldn't normally do. Have you noticed this about yourself that when you get desperate, you get edgy, you get touchy, and sometimes you're lashing out at people, and it's not about the people.

Like I had to explain to the kids about my road rage. It's not really about the driving. It has nothing to do with the driving. just that dad finds this a convenient place to be shielded and anonymous where I can let some stuff fly that's been building up. Y'all don't want a real preacher. JJ, you preach next week. Fake them out. It's a whole thing because they came together to quarrel.

And what they didn't know, couldn't know, is that they were on the border of Canaan. The land that God had promised them was just a few short months away. But in a time when they should have been preparing to conquer, the enemy had them in a state of conflict. Don't you understand that the reason that you've been fighting like you've been fighting, and even the reason sometimes that the devil will get you focused on fighting against people, is because God is trying to bring you into what he spoke over your life and the promise of his inheritance in the saints. And now the closer you get to that promise, the greater the conflict is going to be.

I think one of the reasons that our church gets so divided is because the enemy knows that if we would ever stop fighting and focus on the mission that we were given by our captain and the savior of our souls, we would be dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. But we can't come together because we quarrel too much. It never stops. We never quit finding new things to fight about. It's not only that Christians fight against other religions, we can subdivide on a multiplicity of different levels of Christianity, and we can get into little groups so that we no longer come together to lift up the name of the Lord and to take this message to the ends of the earth, but now we're fighting over a translation of the Bible, or we're fighting over what you wear to worship, or we're fighting over what specific nuance you believe about the Holy Spirit. But I didn't come to quarrel, so I don't need to be. to fight with you. I came to conquer, and I need you in my corner, and I don't have energy to spend fighting against the people. God called me to fight with. So if you're black, fight with me, if you're Hispanic, fight with me, if you're a woman, fight with me, if you're

young, fight with me, let's get together. Old heads, young people, let's fight this fight together. And there's no water in the wilderness, and when there is no water, when there is a deficit, You start reacting instead of responding, I'm going to preach this message, Holly. I feel it happening right now. Because what I want to say is forget about the budget deficit. We got a whole lot more than a budget deficit in our nation today. And it's a different deficit than they faced. It's not a lack of water.

I feel like in our world today, we are severely lacking. in our ability to empathize with others, because we've got a surplus of opinions and a deficit of empathy. Let me try another one. They didn't like that very much. We have a surplus of information and a deficit of wisdom. Because if we don't have insight into information, we will get caught up in highlights and headlines and highlights and headlines and highlights and headlines and highlights and headlines clicking on crazy stuff and not even bothering to read anything but the first sentence and then somebody wants to ask me do you really have a water slide on your stage in the church because you don't want to come I almost lost my faith in the human race

over that water slide it's a deficit and I've been noticing about myself maybe this is why I wanted to preach the series that I'm having a hard time focusing because the devil's devices. I think it's, I think I'm no neurologist, but I think when it's getting hard for me to read three sentences in a book and now I'm trying to swipe paper, when I reached up to swipe a book the other day, I thought, I got to take my mind back. Actually, next week if the Lord wouldn't enable me and help me. I'm going to try to preach on that very subject of focus. Because I'm talking to more and more people who feel like their mind is fragmented and can't

hold a thought. And it's not just because you're getting old and fish oil won't help it. There's some principles in the Word of God about distraction that we need to look at. It's a deficit, a deficit where we have more ways to communicate and we're connecting less than ever. I think that's what the skyrocketing porn rates are about. I think that's what the skyrocketing sleep deprivation rates are about. We are desperate to connect. And we call ourselves connected and nothing could be further from the truth. And it's too much. Costa called it too much to live with, too little to live for. It's a deficit, a deficit of meaning, a deficit. A

deficit of insight. And when a deficit is left unaddressed, you know what happens next. Disappointment sets in. And that's the second D is disappointment. Because I'm looking at how the Israelites are talking to Moses, right? And I get it. I get it because when you don't have what you need to live, you start doing things that you would not normally do. And it's not even you. And you always want to explain to people sometimes. I don't even know who that was. I'm so sorry, can we take back the last five minutes and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you can't undo it. And what the Israelites said to Moses here, apparently hit that button.

Now everybody has a button. All of you who are calm, we just haven't found yours yet. Really everybody has a boiling point. Everybody has something that if you hit that, you will see a different version of them. And you will completely change their enneagram number if you hit the right button. They'll go from a seven to a two, a peacemaker to a shooter, and it can happen so quick. Moses, the man of God, is violently striking a rock when God is trying to show his people grace. But the reason he did it, and this is why I can't figure out sometimes in my own life where it comes from,

because I find things coming out of me, and I'm confused about where it came from, because I know I'm not mad about what I'm mad about, because it's not a big enough deal to make me as mad as I am about what I'm mad about. Please help me preach to you. We're in this together. And they just got done telling him they wanted to die, and it's his fault. Because anytime you are facing a deficit in your own life, you start looking for someone to blame. Anytime you are confronted with your own barrenness or brokenness, you want to find somebody else or something else whose fault it can be. The first thing we do when we run out of resource is to look for someone else to take responsibility. If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord, why did you bring the Lord's community? Why didn't my mom? Why wasn't my dad around?

All these are reasonable things to say, but they don't really help the situation. They only make it worse. Why did you bring us out here into this wilderness that we should die here? They weren't actually about to die. God wasn't going to let them die. They were on the edge of destiny about to take the land that God had promised for generations and they want to die at the edge of destiny. Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place?

There we had figs. There we had grapevines. There we had pomegranates. There we had grain. I forget to mention the whips. They forget to mention the mud and the straw. And they begin to glamorize a past that really didn't even exist. Well, the good old days.

I get it, man. It's tempting to go back there in your mind. Just as long as you know it's. your version of the past is just as imaginary as your version of the future. Back in Egypt, the place that you were praying God to get you out of? Oh, I never forget this. One time a lady came to me, she said, you need to change some things in the church, very early in the church. And I was, ooh, I was cocky. I was 28. So what I said next, don't hold me responsible. There's statute of limitations. She listed everything she wanted me to change in the church. Change this and change that and change this and change this and change.

that and either the Lord of the devil prompted me to say what follows. I said, so you want me to recreate the church that you left to come to this one? I didn't mean it how it came out. I meant to say I'll pray about it. I am but a servant in a vessel. Just gushed out. Came out. Frustration.

See, understand that frustration operates when your experience is different than your expectation. So when you are frustrated, it is not your life that you're frustrated with. It's your life compared to your expectation of your life. That's what makes you frustrated. It's that it normally takes me 13 minutes to get there, and today it took me 30, and I didn't plan for that. And so since I was already at a time deficit and a sleep deficit, and I didn't put margin on this trip. Now I find myself frustrated. I'm not really frustrated at how long it's taking.

I'm frustrated about how long is taken compared to how long I thought it was going to take. And one of the best things we can do for our peace of mind is to crucify our expectations of others. I mean, really, just put it up there on the cross and get to the place where we no longer have an expectation of people to meet our needs because we understand that our water flows from a different rock, that our joy flows from a different place. Come on, Epham, shout at the phone, that I don't depend on people to provide for me what God has promised. It's already mine, and so they got really upset, man.

And then Moses got upset and he went to God and he wanted God to be upset like he was upset and Moses was mad because God wasn't mad That's that's what happened here He was disappointed It never stopped Been here before before Even even in high school When I was the athletic trainer Waterboy for the football team

Coach Meyer recruited me to be the athletic trainer said you can get a scholarship. One day I was mixing that Gatorade so sweet and I thought, I don't think they give scholarships for this. I think he tricked me into this, you know. I kind of didn't like it anyway. It wasn't like I really cared too much about football. Football is fine. I'll turn it on.

I'm not like some of y'all fantasy lineups and stuff. I got a real life. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding, I'm just kidding. It's fine, it's fine. But man, it was a relatively simple job. I did it for over a year.

And the main part of the job, you know, every once in a while, they would let me tape a wrist or an ankle. I think it wasn't even really people that was hurt. I think they just sent cast members over. Because if anybody was really hurt, Dr. Bounds came in. So I don't even think I was really taping anybody. I don't even think it was. But I did have one job. And every time they would have a water.

break, it was my job to turn on the water. That's right. Bobby Boucher got nothing on me. Well, I did it like clockwork. They blow the whistle. I was positioned close enough to the spigot, which was connected to the hose, which went to the PVC pipe. In Monk's Corner, it was fancy with a PVC pipe with the holes in it, a trough of sorts, with

the water would come out of the pipe. But I was the man who turned it on, and I turned it on about three or four times every practice. One day I went over there to turn it on, and nothing came out. I don't know who forgot to pay the bill, but nothing came out. Those football players went to drink, and they lined up at the PVC pipe, and nothing happened. And they start yelling at me, like these rebellious Israelites, started yelling at Moses, started yelling at me, calling me Steve.

I don't even go by Steve. There's an in on my name, pronounce the consonant. This ain't will of fortune. Oh, I was mad. Yelling at me. For the one time the water didn't come on. Hundreds of times the water came on. One time it didn't come on.

And guess what? I'm not controlling the water. just the one turning it on. So they were yelling at me. So I wasn't saved yet. Let me get that in. So I turned around and said, God bless all y'all. Only instead of God bless, I've said some different BC vocabulary that is not appropriate for this church setting and holy people such as yourself. And in that moment, I forgot they were bigger than me because I do have a level of crazy that if it kicks in, I will stop caring how much bigger you are, and I would rather die than have you cuss me out.

I got in my Toyota Tursle and I drove off. So all just kind of came back to me, man. I'm sorry. Because all these times I get Moses' disappointment. I really do. And this one I've done for you, all the meals I've cooked, all the prayers I've prayed, all the compliments I gave, all the Christmas presents I've been. bought all the sacrifices I made.

And you mean this one thing, this one time, and now you want to yell at me and disrespect me and ignore me. I figure Moses is tired of being taken for granted, tired of people just assuming that you're always going to do it, and it's just easy for you. Until I realized that Moses wasn't really disappointed with the people. was still dealing with a fear that he had carried with him since the time God met him at the burning bush and possibly before that 40 years earlier when he killed an Egyptian to try to rescue one of his fellow Hebrews and he never really fit in because he was raised

as an Egyptian but he was by birth the Hebrew and when he tried to defend the people that he was one of from the people that he had had to live with. Moses ended up having to run. That's why he ended up in the wilderness with the shepherd staff to begin with. And that's why when God met him at the bush, Moses said, you got the wrong one. Pick somebody stronger. Pick somebody more capable. Pick somebody with more experience. Pick somebody who doesn't struggle with what I struggle with. Because I'll let you down, God. And I'll let them down. And not only is Moses dealing with this moment, but he's dealing with 40 years of frustration.

40 years of frustration that you could argue were the result of his lack of faith when he didn't go in and fight and take the land God had promised. In a sense, what they're saying about Moses is true and he knows it. It's not him. it's not them that he is disappointed in. So like for me, realizing in my adult life that my core fear and a lot of the reasons that I withdraw and a lot of the reasons that I lash out, it really came to me one time early in my marriage to Holly and it was a low-key argument, but all of a sudden it just kind of erupted and I yelled at her, I'm not stupid.

I'm not stupid It never stops I'm not stupid She said I didn't say you were stupid But I wasn't responding to what she said I was responding to what I felt Somewhere in me Was something that told me

That I didn't know enough Probably back to my dad in some ways He loved me It wasn't that he didn't love me But he kind of felt like it was him against the world And he didn't have a full deck to play with because of the way he was raised. And somewhere I probably started thinking that I was operating in life out of a deficit

of intelligence. And so my first instinct, when someone makes me feel stupid, what a phrase. When they make me feel stupid. How much power are you giving away to other people? When someone can make you feel stupid. That's a weak mind, but that's where I find myself. sometimes in that mental wilderness. That mental wilderness.

Do you know what I'm talking about? I'm afraid. I'm afraid sometimes up here, not that I'm going to get the Bible wrong or that I'm going to dishonor God, but unfortunately that I will disappoint you. And every time we start a new series, I feel it, you know? Because I try to create expectation. This is going to be the best series ever.

ever. And then I hope baby Jesus and Mother Mary and the Holy Ghost will somehow help us because I don't want to disappoint you. And I'm sharing this autobiographically, but I'm wondering, it's like, do a lot of us function in this place that I don't want to disappoint you? And that's why I hide. And now I find myself, I don't even want to pick up the phone when people call. Because now if I can text them back, I can carefully craft my response. Even in the smallest ways, I see this fear. I see myself withdrawing. I see myself wanting to isolate.

And it's a tendency that I don't fully understand because I do love people. I really do love people. I've always loved people. I was a dude that hugged everybody in his graduating high school class. the whole 230 of them, hugged them all. But I find myself sometimes wanting to withdraw, find myself wanting to walk out, find myself wanting to get out. And I wonder why, you know, like, am I losing my love for people? Is all this getting to me like lights and cameras and all that?

But I realized in the weirdest way one day what it was when a lady said to me, I've been going to your church seven years and I've never met you. And I said, I'm so sorry. I took it like an accusation, you know? She said, no, no, it's a big church. We love the minister. I said, okay, good, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, though.

That's bad. You haven't met your pastor in seven years. I'm sorry. She said, it's fine. It's fine. Stop apologizing. Now it's awkward because I'm making it awkward. Then she made it awkward.

She said, you're much taller on the screen. Will that help? You already see I'm insecure, woman. I don't want to let you down. So when Moses has this moment, and I'm calling in a moment, but it's really not a moment, because anytime something comes bursting to the surface like Moses, hitting that rock twice, when God specifically spoke to him to speak to the rock, not to strike it. And I know why he struck the rock, because this is the third issue.

It's the issue of dependence. You know, this staff was the thing that he carried with him. Like Tom Hanks had a volleyball. Moses had a stick. And now in this moment where the community needs water, and this is to be their last test, but they don't know it. This is to be their last test to see if they really trust God, and Moses fails the test.

What I could not understand is, why did God tell him to take the story? stick if he didn't want him to use it. Why did God tell Moses take the staff and then don't use it, just hold it, and speak to the rock? Until I remember what Moses said to God when God first called Moses, I'm not good at speaking. And before God could let Moses, lead his people into the promise. He had to know, do you trust me? Enough. When God said Moses, you can't lead the people, it wasn't for punishment, it was for protection.

If Moses would have led them in, in the condition that his heart was in with years and years and years and years of resentment, building up, they would have all got killed the first time God spoke and they didn't do what he said. Because God needs someone who is not dependent on their staff. I know you struck the Red, the Nile River and the Red Sea, and I know that the staff has been used to perform great miracles. And I want you to hold it in your hand but have the faith not to use it. I want you to speak to the rock.

And he struck it instead. And God said, you don't trust me enough. You've allowed this resentment to build to a point that it has killed your potential. When we allow resentment to build and build and build and build when we never really believe that we are what God said we are, when we are constantly taking people's assessment of us as the ultimate reality, it limits our participation in the promise of God. It doesn't keep God from loving you, but it keeps God from being able to lead you into the great and precious promises that have your name on them.

God said, I just need you to trust me. I know you stutter. I know you stammer. I know you're afraid of letting me down, but it's never been about you, Moses. It was never about your mouth. It was about my mighty hand and my outstrand. It was never about your rod. It was about the rock.

So what are you trusting in today, my friend? The rod or the rock? Because 1 Corinthians 10 tells us plainly that this happened as an example for us, that the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness were an example for us, for you and me, in our daily lives, in our efforts to trust God in the face of our own frailty. He said the Apostle Paul said, verse four, they drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them.

Here's the revelation. And that rock was Christ. It wasn't about Moses. It's not about me. It's not about you. Yes, I will let you down. Yes, I will disappoint. you, but I'm not the rock.

You know how good that makes me feel to know. I'm not the rock. I don't have to force it. I don't have to fight it. I don't have to explode in anger when it doesn't go my way. He is my stable place. He is my solid ground. On Christ, the solid rock I stand.

All other ground is sinking sand. Please stand. I'm closing. Please stand. I'm closing. These, verse 13, were the waters of Maraba, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord. They quarrel with the Lord. In verse 2, it said they quarreled with Moses, but really they were quarreling with the Lord. It wasn't even about Moses. It's not even about you. It's not even about me. We've been taking things personally, you know, and we let it build and then it explodes, not in church. Oh, you look so fancy in here.

Your little boozy, blessed self come up in the house of God carrying a big old thick Bible. It explodes when you get home. It explodes when you're all alone. And you find yourself crying out, desperate for connection and disappointed with your life. So you start striking rocks and you start trying to get, you know, the water came out of the rock and it worked on the surface. But Moses did not get to enter into the promise of God. Did God still love Moses? Absolutely.

Is he the God of second chances? I sure hope so. I know he is. I know he's not going to punish me for one mistake. I can prove it. I can prove it to you. Give him that verse I sent you earlier. 14.8. When the psalmist reflected on this event, he said, you got it? 114 8? The one I sent you earlier today. No, is Psalm 114. Verse 8. What if I started yelling at the people on the screens to demonstrate Moses's frustration? But it said that God turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water. And God spoke to me through that verse and said, if they'll let

me the place of their greatest mistake will become the place of my mercy and their greatest miracle. But for this to happen, we can't keep it all up inside and keep exploding in situations and exploding. It's not anger for everybody. Sometimes it's much more subtle than that. It's the little ways that you withdraw yourself from those that you love because I don't want to be disappointed again. I don't want to be a disappointment. So I'm living my whole life trying to avoid disappointment. I'm bringing my expectations down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, because now no one can disappoint me. And I'm bringing myself back, back, back, back, back, because I don't want to disappoint you. It's not about you. This is the test. This is the test

with your rod in your hand to remember all that God has done for you and the rock in front of you, the presence of God, speak to it. Don't strike it. Speak to it.

Confess it before God. Speak to your weakness. Own your inadequacy. God said, I'm not I'm not looking for you to be what I need you to be. I'm looking for you to trust in what I already am.

And so when Moses said I'm not, God said I am. When Moses said, I'm not, God said I am. When Moses said I'm not, God said I am. When Moses said I'm not, God said I am. Do you trust him enough to let him handle

those who have hurt you? Do you trust him enough to allow him to use everything that's happened for your good in his glory? Lift your hands if you do. The rock is in this place. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Meet us in this moment, God. Pour out your spirit in a fresh way for your people now. I ask that you would speak to that weak place, broken place, discouraged place.

make that heart beat again for real water from a rock beauty from brokenness call to it call to speak to the rock ask it enter my decision-making process god i need you 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 dot 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.