The Here I Stand Theology Podcast Episode 9 (Steven Furtick's false teaching)

and welcome back to the next episode of the Here I Stand Theology Podcast.

Here I Stand, usually Matt is there to say, I can do no other, and then together we'll say,

God help me, but I'll say it by myself today. Matt is on a little hiatus.

However, I want him to realize while he's on hiatus that we still want to recognize the fact that he is a vitally important part of this podcast.

And so with that being said, we'll show to Matt. To Matt, the baddest man in cartoon land.

Bad, bad Matt. All right, Matt, we do miss you, man.

We look forward to our next episode together. We're gonna be doing an episode on creeds and confessions.

We're gonna be having Kevin Michael with us on the episode. So we're looking forward to that as well.

And before we get into this episode, let's also not forget our friends over at Righteous Wretch.

We wanna make sure that you go and support them. They're doing some great work for the kingdom of God.

They are selling and producing some great Christian gear. I encourage you to go get some, by the way.

I should have already had my hat on. I didn't, however.

And so that being said, let's take a look at the promo. So don't forget, go over to righteouswretch .com,

get you some great Christian gear today. Use the promo code HIS21.

That's here I stand, HIS21. Get some great gear that'll help them out. It'll help us out as well.

Very quickly, let's show the disclaimer. All right, that being done, that's all the housekeeping out of the way.

Let's move forward. Today, in this episode of the Here I Stand Theology Podcast, we're going to be examining actually two sermons of Stephen Furtick.

But do not let that scare you away. We are going to keep it to a minimum time as possible.

We have about 25 minutes worth of clips that we're gonna look through. So it's likely will be an hour on the episode.

That way you can prepare for what's coming ahead. We want to also say that when we look and examine these sermons, when we quote unquote critique these sermons, we are not critiquing them by the standard of how well someone speaks, how eloquent they are, how good they look, whether they look good or they look bad, whether they're muscleheads or whether they're pipsqueaks.

That's regardless whether they've got a suit and tie or whether they've got a sweater on, it does not matter.

We're not talking about style when we're examining a sermon. When we examine a sermon, we are looking and listening to the sermon to see if the content is correct.

Now, a biblical sermon will be, you guessed it, biblically sound.

It ought to be measured for if someone is claiming to be speaking in the name of God, we need to be able to measure what they say by the standard.

And the standard is the word of God. It is the scripture itself.

So when we examine a sermon, we want to make sure that there's biblically sound content in the sermon.

Again, rhetoric is beside the point. We're missing the point if we're listening to a sermon for clever or cool rhetoric, clever or cool reasoning, or if we're looking for the cultural norms of the day to be highlighted within that sermon so as to make it appear relevant and hip.

We're not talking about that because the truth is that the word of God is just as relevant today as it ever has been.

And it will ever and forever be relevant because the condition of man is the same.

Man is a sinner. Let's proclaim the gospel right up front here. Man is a sinner according to the word of God because of the fall in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sinned against the thrice holy

God, therefore they fail. And God, having made a provision, a sacrifice, killed an animal, gave them coverings for their skins, foreshadowing and typifying what

Christ Jesus, our Lord, was going to do on the cross to pay the forever price for sin.

So Christ died for sinners according to the scripture. He was buried and on the third day he arose.

So the basis and the standard for salvation for a preacher's message should always be that.

Man is a sinner separated from God by our sin. Christ Jesus lived a perfect life, the life we could not live in his active obedience.

He fulfilled the law of God in his passive obedience. He undertook upon himself the wrath of God and was crucified by the hands of wicked men, buried, put in the tomb.

Three days later, he arose victorious, never to die again. The only person ever in the history of the world to die, raise again, and remain alive.

So that being said, when we listen to a sermon, we ought to be looking for biblically sound content.

So let's look today for just a few minutes. And what we're going to do is we are going to look at two

Stephen Furtick sermons, and this is the reason. So we're going to look at two of his sermons because the first half of the time we're going to spend on his sermon is from a sermon in 2019, entitled,

My Maker is My Mirror. And then the second half, we are going to look at some clips from a sermon from just week before last.

And the sermon is entitled, Too Grown to Give Up. Now, on your screen, you may see that this is not a high definition image that we have that's intentional.

I have put a filter on his video. It's the raster effect in iMovie.

That's simply what I use there. Put the raster effect on it so as to alter it just so much that him and his mafia don't come after us for copyright infringement.

So that being said, let's begin. Let's remember that we are examining the sermon for content, for biblically sound content.

So when we're listening, we're listening to see, does what he says jive with the word of God?

So let's take a listen. Here we go. But when God called him, his stuff wasn't even working anymore.

And the reason I'm telling you that is because sometimes God will speak something over your life and you will look in the mirror and not see it.

So there, first and foremost, within the first 10, 15 seconds right where we came in, so he's already given his introduction.

And so if you didn't listen carefully or if you thought maybe it didn't matter, remember the content of what's being said matters greatly.

The content matters greatly. So what he says here, he's speaking about Abraham.

And in speaking about Abraham, what he's doing there, he begins by talking about how

God gave the promise to Abraham, but in a public setting, he says, so his stuff didn't work.

And then he said. You're looking. Listen to what he said.

But when God called him, his stuff wasn't even working anymore. And the reason I'm telling you that is because sometimes

God will speak something over your life and you will look in the mirror and not see it. So immediately we can see that this sermon isn't pointing us to Christ.

Although throughout the sermon, if you listen to it in its entirety, and I'm gonna be completely transparent.

If you listen to it in its entirety, he'll mention Jesus. He'll quote some scriptures about Jesus.

They'll get excited about Jesus, but the emphasis always comes back to you.

The emphasis and the focus is on you and what you need to do. How Abraham's faith is an example of what you need to do.

Abraham's faith pointed to Christ. It does not point to us.

It does not truly have anything to do with us becoming better. Abraham's faith pointed to Christ.

So he'll speak something in your soul and you'll look in the mirror and you won't see it, which is so important to know that it's not how

God sees you that determines where your life ends up. If it had been,

Moses wouldn't have died in the wilderness. It's not how God sees me. It's how

I think God sees me. It's not how God sees me. It's how

I... You might be asking yourself, did he just say that it's not important how

God sees you? What's really important, he says, is how you think

God sees you. Now, a lot of folks can think a lot of things and what it boils down to in reality is that as sinful men, we always think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.

But what are we taught in the scriptures? Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think of yourself, but consider yourselves in the light of Christ, that this is not what he's teaching.

I think God sees me that determines where I end up. I prove it to you all the way.

Now, here, let me say this. We ought to affirm the word of God.

If while you are at church on Sunday and your preacher prepares throughout the week, studies, prays, has the word of God for you, lays the bountiful feast of the word of God out in front of you, and he's proclaiming the word of God from beginning to end in the sermon, then you as a

Christian, you ought to affirm the word of God. In the Old Testament, we have the example when the law was read, they would bow their heads and they would raise their hands and they would say, amen, giving affirmation and confirmation to the word.

Saying amen to the word of God, giving that affirmation is very biblical. You ought to do it.

You will be amazed how it does, the entire congregation good to hear folks affirming the word of God rather than hearing folks nod off and snore and snort and go on.

Pay attention, focus, listen to what's being said when the preacher is preaching because he is either telling you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, or he might very well be teaching you a half truth.

You need to be able to identify half truths or in this case, he might be telling you a flat out lie and you need to be able to discern the difference between truth and error.

And that is according to the word of God. Are you able to do that?

Listen to their responses. Away from Genesis. When he says, God sees me, it's how

I. So listen close. I think God sees me.

That determines where I end up. I prove it. Yes, wow. Yes, wow.

All the way from Genesis chapter one. Remember, let us make man in our image.

God needed someone to show the world what he looked like or else he would have just been a concept. God would have been an abstract theory.

So he made man and woman to reflect who he was. He needed someone to show his nature through.

So he made me and you. So right there, let me calm myself for just a moment before I say anything.

So in no uncertain terms, he just said, this is 2019.

He said, God needed man so that he could show who he was.

The scriptures do not teach that God needs us. The scriptures do not teach that God needs man.

The scripture says, as a matter of fact, that Yahweh Elohim, the eternal self -existent

God, made from nothing but the words of his mouth, the heavens and the earth and all that is in it.

He created everything. He does not need us.

He's not worried about whether I think or you think or Stephen Furtick thinks or anybody else thinks if he's an abstract image, unrecognizable.

The scriptures teach us exactly what God has done, that he gives a general revelation through creation and that he gives special revelation through his holy word.

Through his holy word. Let's move forward. It's how you see it. It's how you see yourself.

And I think I can prove to you. It's how you see it. It's how you see yourself. If you give me like two and a half minutes that the reason the people didn't go into the land under Moses was because Moses never really saw himself in the image of his creator.

So Moses didn't go into the land of promise because he never saw himself in the image of his creator.

False. False. We know this because in Exodus three,

Moses is tending the flock of his father Jethro, the priest of Midian. He's watching the flock.

God appears to him in the burning bush, right? Says, take your shoes from off your feet for the place where you're standing is holy ground.

Right? And he recognized God. He recognized God. He knew that he was but a creature and that the creator was speaking to him.

But this narrative that Stephen Furtick is spinning, although you've got to be honest, it's easy to get pulled into this.

It's easy to get pulled into this because he is truly an eloquent speaker.

He does know how to turn a phrase. He does know how to emotionally charge the crowds.

However, it's a false hype. It's a false emotionalism.

Abram did, Abram did, even though he had a hard time getting with it, even though he was like, you got any pills for that or anything like that?

Cause I'm old now. And even though he had to wait for Isaac and he messed up in the process and ended up producing something that caused him more trouble by sleeping with Hagar, even though all of that happened,

God still called him the father of faith, the father of many nations. And to show him who he was, he brought him out of his tent, out of his limitation, out of his situation.

And he said, okay, here's your revelation. Here's your situation. Do you see how he positioned that?

So there was nothing about revelation. God brought him out of his tent, brought him out of his situation.

And then unconsciously, we're assuming that he was given some, a special revelation.

Out of your situation and now look up. And so what he's getting the crowd to do. Preaching to somebody, look up.

And he said, count the stars if you can. I don't know how far he got before he was like, what's the point of God?

I can't, you know, 343, 344. What are you trying to show me? And God said, as many as they are, so shall your descendants be.

So shall your seed be. So he gives him an image, an image, not just an idea, but an image.

Now, so let me say something right there. Very, very important.

Cause he's going to, he's going to quote this a little later. From Colossians 115. It's concerning Christ, that he is the image of the invisible

God. Jesus in the book of John, we see the word used Logos.

In the beginning was the Logos, the word. Okay. So we know that Jesus was not a created being.

We know that he was, he is the father, the son, the spirit, co -equal, co -eternal, consubstantial, all of those things, true

Christian orthodoxy on the Trinity. But what he, the way he is framing this, he is framing this as though the idea of Christ is equal to the ideas and the image, the picture that you have of where you want to go, that these two are equal.

Anytime that Christ is ever put on an equal plane to anything concerning his creatures is false teaching.

We must be able to recognize this. Now, Colossians 115, look it up real quick, says that Jesus is the image of the invisible

God. That's very powerful. That Jesus shows us what

God is like, that the word became flesh and dwelled among us. That's what

Jesus is. He is the image of the God that we can't see. Did I get it right? Colossians 115, that he is the image of the invisible

God. This is the challenge for everybody under the sound of my voice. There is a way that God sees you because he formed you.

There is a way that you see you. There is a way that others see you.

And where you go from this point forward in your life is going to depend on which mirror you believe.

And he steps away from the pulpit as though he's going to drop the mic on that. So there's a way God sees you, there's a way other people see you, and there's a way that you see yourself.

All right, and he's already laid the foundation that it doesn't matter what you think or what

God thinks of you, but it's what you think God thinks of you. So it's whatever the image of God that you have in your mind thinks and approves of you and your doings.

We see, are going to hear, you're going to hear a diminishment of the heinous nature of sin within this sermon, these two sermons.

When Moses was coming into his identity and assignment. Identity and assignment.

These are more catchphrases. You'll hear identity and assignment in a lot of the NAR apostolic movement, speak, preaching, and teaching.

You hear it in the vast, in a large swath of general evangelicalism today.

You hear this terminology used because it seems to really play to the masses in step into your identity and your assignment.

There is nothing in this text that talks about identity and assignment.

He had to deal with the fact that he was really living with two different images of who he was.

And remember, God is using Moses to deliver the Israelites out of this Egyptian oppression.

And when Moses first starts to act on his impulse, he does the right thing, but he does it the wrong way.

He defends his people, but he does it by murdering an Egyptian. So he's ahead of his time and he's out of his zone, but he's doing the right thing.

Ahead of his time and he's out of his zone, but he's doing the right thing. But he still doesn't know who he is yet.

And it's difficult for him because he doesn't really fit in with either group that he's living with. The Hebrews are the people he was born from.

The Egyptians are the people that he was raised by. But he identifies more with the people that he was born from than the people he was raised by.

So he doesn't really fit in. And when you don't really fit in to either group, you end up running.

So here is where he is bringing again, carefully listening, carefully paying attention to how he's formulating his message.

Um, he's, he's, it's constantly coming back to you, your identity, your assignment, and how this plays into his speech.

That's what happened to Moses. He, he confronted an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew one day and he killed him and buried him.

But then the next day he went out and saw two of his brothers fighting. And he was like, break it up guys.

You know, we're suffering enough from them. We don't, we don't have to kill each other. And this is an

Exodus chapter two. I want to show it to you real quick. You got it. Exodus two, the man said back to him, who has made you a

Prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you have killed the

Egyptian? And then Moses was afraid and thought, surely the thing is known. And he ran, he ran.

We don't really see him in his next stage of his assignment until 40 years later, he ran.

Because he was to Hebrew to be an Egyptian and to Egyptian to be a

Hebrew. And when you don't really fit in with either, you don't know who you are. And you spend years of your life running from who you really are looking in the mirror of your last mistake.

He ran and he ran and he ran. And see the question is the right one.

He said, who made you? Now, listen, he, he, he just read the text.

And what the text said was that the, that the

Hebrew said, let's read it right there with him. Do you mean to kill me as you have killed the

Egyptian? And then Moses was afraid and. So then he ran and he ran and see the question is the right one.

He said, who made you? Who made you? Wow. But if you don't know that.

Yeah, the question wasn't to Moses, who made you? The question to Moses was who made you a ruler over us?

It is so clever the way that this is put in there. It is spectacular.

And by the way, this is, this is one of the, the, one of the main reasons that I think elevations church,

Stephen Furtick's where he's pastor. I think they founded it like 2016.

So it's been just five years. They have, I can't remember how many locations.

What is it? Oh, here we go.

20 locations, 20 locations. They have weekly attendance.

Are you ready? You might want to sit down for this. Weekly attendance over throughout all the locations, 25 ,317 people.

So this message is popped into all of these churches. So everybody is just the, everybody's getting this.

Large numbers of people are drinking this Kool -Aid and that's exactly what

I'm calling it. And I'm unashamedly calling it that because the people of God are not being discerning

Berean listeners as, as we ought to be. We ought to be concerned about the content of the message that is coming from the pulpits from churches around America.

You will hand other people, your mirror to show you who you are. And let me tell you something about people.

People would rather define you by your worst mistake. What's crazy about Moses is he killed a man and there's only one verse in the

Bible about the murder. Now, if you let church people write the Bible, they would have had a whole book about, it would be called the book of Moses' murder.

The book of Moses' mistake, the book of Debbie's divorce, the book of your lowest moment, but maybe

God doesn't see you through the lens of your mistake. Maybe he sees you through the lens of his grace.

Maybe when he looks at you, he sees the finished work of Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about the fact that if they didn't make you, they can't define you?

My maker is my mirror. I promise

I'm trying to be as calm as I can be, but when God showed me that my maker is my mirror, he showed me

Moses standing in front of the burning bush, and God's like, I'm going to use you. You're going to be the one to do it.

You're the one who's had the conflicted identity and so many mistakes, and you don't even really believe in yourself. And so I was thinking about you and how you might be standing in front of something that God is speaking to you.

You see how he is immediately turning this. He's turning it to you. And it's burning on the inside, but you can't really locate yourself because honestly, you don't fit into either group.

You don't really fit in with really churchy people. So yeah, you're like Moses. You're like Abraham.

No, we're not. We're not like Moses and we're not like Abraham. We are ourselves, our own people separated by God or separated from God by our sin.

God does not need us to write further new revelation.

We're not trying to write a new scripture. We're not trying to reenact the old scriptures. We're trying to live according to the truth of the old scriptures themselves.

Because they are so perfect and they pray so much and they make

Bible verses out of their kids' sandwiches before they pack them in the lunch. They're not telling you that you're something greater than that.

And you're kind of righteous, but you're kind of ratchet. You're all the way, you ratchet.

You're kind of worship and you're kind of organized, but you're kind of chaotic and you're kind of powerful, but you're kind of petty and you come on,

I'm preaching to somebody and you're a little bit of both. And your self -concept is in development.

And this is when it's very important who holds your mirror. Because if the wrong people show you, you'll get a distorted image of yourself.

It's called a mirror neuron. Here's what was happening while you were singing. This is how

I fight my battles. Somebody out there was going through a battle, but they've been feeling like they were losing.

But God put you out here as a mirror. So now all of a sudden they didn't feel victorious this week, but when they saw you worshiping

God, they didn't feel like they had the victory.

But while you were shouting the victory… Now I wonder if you would do that for somebody on your row right now.

I know you had a hard week too, but magnify the Lord with me.

Let us exalt his name together. If you don't have faith today, borrow mine.

You're gonna make it. I said so. Let's be honest right there.

That was exciting. That was inspirational, but we can't call that inspired.

The inspired text of scripture ought to be the energizing and the exciting force.

In the worship service for us, that ought to be the driving factor. Now again, he's a very encouraging and let me be honest here as well and say this.

I cannot see his heart. I don't know his motive.

Okay, personally, I don't know his motive. However, I can say that even if his motive is genuine and wanting to help people, which it likely is,

I believe it's very easy for us to get misguided in our affections and with our motives and even have a kind of a self -justified reason for doing the things that we do, but they must always be weighed against and according to the word of God.

There were the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. There were giants in the land, big, strong adversaries that we would have to dispossess to take the land, and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, not to God.

Do you see yourself as a grasshopper? Most people see God really big. Even those who barely believe in God see him really big.

It's not how big you see God. It's how much you believe that God is in you, which if we simply engage our minds and consider logically what he just said, it doesn't matter how you see

God. It's how much you see God in you. Our view of God is always going to be proportionate to our knowledge of God.

If you have a small knowledge of God, your view will never be bigger than your knowledge.

Your view will never be greater than your knowledge of God, and our knowledge of God comes from the scriptures and the scriptures alone.

Not from seeing, looking into ourselves, but to looking unto the scriptures.

This is very important. We seemed to ourselves as grasshoppers, and so we seem to them.

Our reflection determined our reality. So, if you see yourself as a grasshopper, the giants are going to get you.

I always thought it was funny because he's like, hey, Joshua, I know you're rolling these little lots. So, he's going to start telling us here about Joshua and Caleb and his claim to Hebron, and then he's going to make a very uninspired reference when he says sea level.

I'm going to have to take a month off after I preach this message.

I'm giving you everything I got. You've been living at sea level. You've been looking in the wrong mirror.

You've been consulting the mirror for your flesh. You put 20 minutes into your makeup today, but you didn't get in this mirror right here.

This is a mirror too. This is a mirror too. You've been struggling over external issues, but what about what's in you?

Again, looking to yourself. Let's take just a minute to look to James.

And see what the book of James says, actually says here. And we'll go a little bit bigger on the screen for the scriptures here.

So, considering looking into the perfect law of liberty, which is the word of God, and particularly in context, it's the law of God to the hearers here.

So, the word of God says in James chapter one, let's look at 19 on for context.

So, know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

So, receive with meekness the implanted word, what God has given.

And then he said, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, for you are deceiving yourself.

If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his face, natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Do you see that? That looking into the perfect law of liberty, looking into God's word.

The psalmist put it this way. Actually, the psalmist said, Psalm 119 particularly, the psalmist writes that he lists

God's law, God's statutes, God's commandments, God's ordinances.

He lists all of those things as the standard and the things that he loves.

It's not about looking inside. When you look inside yourself, all that we will find is sin.

James said something curious. He said, if you listen to the word and don't do it, you're like a man who looks at himself in a mirror.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. My maker is my mirror.

So I can't run around to people who are struggling with their own sense of self to determine mine.

God is raising you up right now. He's doing it through a process.

The level you will settle on is the level that you see yourself. It makes me so sad to think of how many times you and I have gone to the wrong mirrors, and so we see a grasshopper when we're really a giant.

Do you see? Were you able to recognize that he just completely flipped on what he said earlier?

When God said, I am to Moses, you know, my name is, I am.

He was trying to get him to see you are as I am.

Inconceivable. You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Let's listen to that again.

When God said, I am to Moses, you know, my name is,

I am. He was trying to get him to see you are as I am.

Scoobalong. That is garbage. That is heresy equating man with God.

But I know that whether they show up or not. All of that 2019, my maker is my mirror.

The sermon. Now we move to May 16th, 2021. When this this sermon was posted, we see that he's had two years to to to learn, to grow, to to repent, to change the message.

And so here it is a week and a half ago. God is right there with you right now.

So we're not waiting for next week. Somebody say I need a word from God right now, right now, right now, right now, right now, right now.

And so now he uses the example of baby Moses. I don't know if you saw that in verse 23.

Let's look at it again. It talks about how when he was little and the Pharaoh had issued an edict to kill all the firstborn of Israel because while they were living in Egypt, they became very powerful.

And he knew that if they became too powerful, they would no longer serve his purpose. Therefore, he he set up a system by which the midwives, when they were delivering these

Hebrew babies, would kill all the firstborn children. Moses' parents had the faith to see the purpose of their child or the potential of their child when he was still just a baby.

And that's a beautiful thing. If you've ever had someone see potential in you before you saw it in yourself, that's a beautiful thing.

So, of course, we want to be encouraging. We want to help people.

But here he immediately is shaping the funnel.

He is shaping the focus of the message, and the focus is not aimed toward Jesus Christ, but the aim is you and the potential you have within yourself.

How many of you have ever had somebody that you just borrowed some of their belief in you? Yeah, it's an awesome thing.

People like Aunt Jackie who told me, God has a very special plan for you. He has a really special plan for you.

At the time when she was saying that to me… That's something that sounds really good.

It's something that maybe if you hear that in your own right, you could fill that with your own preferences of what that plan is.

But she said it to me, but the beauty of it was that she saw it in its baby form.

So, here we go. The connection. Baby Moses, his aunt saw the opportunity within him as a baby.

And so maybe, and this is always the aim of these false teachers, so maybe there's potential in you, and it's in baby form, and you just need to find that.

She saw it in its baby form. She believed in what was in me in baby form.

And see, Moses' parents had the faith to see the significance in what was hidden.

And the author of Hebrews, you have to understand… So, this is

Gnostic language. Again, it's so popular, and it's the idea that's pushed so much.

And if every preacher's honest, we've all been guilty of leaning that way.

But when you are confronted with the truth of the

Scriptures as a preacher, as a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are not called to proclaim anything, we are not called to teach anything other than what is specifically laid out for us in the

Scripture. We're not to morph it into something that it's not, but we're to preach the gospel as it is to men as they are.

Stan, he's giving us a picture of those who did not quit on what

God called them to do. And to give us a picture of those who didn't quit, he shows us someone who was almost killed before he even had an opportunity to be called.

The thing I want you to know is that everything significant

I ever did in life I was tempted to quit. I am preaching this message to somebody today who is tempted to quit on something

God called you to do. And I understand how people love to take a sermon and put their initials on it.

So, this is a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black right here.

For whatever they want it to mean. Trust me, I've seen it happen over and over and over again.

I'm sure he has. Right now. And yet, they are being tempted as God is birthing the church into the world to return to the thing they were set free from.

We talked about hidden significance. Let's talk about conflicted identities. It's when you're not used to the new way of doing things enough, so you return to what you knew,

K -N -E -W. Because what is new in that moment is costing you.

The example of Moses is a perfect illustration of maturing enough.

Can I preach about maturity? It seems like every sermon people want to click on these days is, you know, miracles.

But what about maturity? What about maturity to know what to do with a miracle when

God gives it to you so you don't mismanage it? In verse 27, by faith

Moses, when he had grown up… I read you this, but I'm reading it again for a reason. He refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

I can't stop there. 26. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead.

So the scripture he's reading, he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward.

Right? He regarded disgrace for Christ. That's what the scripture is talking about.

Disgrace for the sake of Christ being of greater value than the world.

What do the scriptures teach us in Luke 9? What will it profit a man if he gained the whole world and loses life?

What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul?

That's what the text is about. Okay. This is a description or a picture of maturity.

In Acts chapter 7, it tells us that Moses was 40 years old when he made the decision to be identified with God's children, not the

Egyptians that were oppressing them. Now, there's a lot of great stuff in the backstory that won't make time to get into the message today about how his parents floated him down the

Nile River in a basket. The same Nile River he would turn into blood 80 years later. He floated on to survive when he was a baby.

I thought about preaching faith to float because sometimes you feel like you're floating between two things, waiting to see what it's going to be.

I thought about preaching that, but I have discipline. I'm only going to preach one message today. This message is about how one day

Moses makes a decision to be identified not with the

Egyptian who raised him but with the parents who birthed him.

This is not primarily a racial text. This is not primarily a nationalistic text.

Conclusions could be drawn in those directions, but what's really happening here is about Moses choosing what he will be defined by.

I want you to realize in your life today that you have a decision about what you will be defined by.

Even though his early life was defined by an assassination attempt, even through the trauma of floating through a basket…

Some of us end up in therapy because our pampers were slightly too tight. This man was floating down a river in a basket coated with tar.

Even though his life began with trauma, he made a decision in this moment that I will not be defined by something

I have become bigger than. This is where the significance of the text is in the detail.

It says, When he grew up. When he grew up.

I wonder if there are some things God is waiting for us to outgrow that we are praying for him to remove.

The challenge of Moses' life is, in order to become what he really was, he had to outgrow everything that he had ever known.

In order to become what he was, he had to outgrow everything that he ever known. Where is that in the text?

Where is that idea? That is not there. Moses' life points us to Christ, not to ourselves.

You see, growth is chosen. And in the moment, he has a decision to make, and so do you.

And so did the Hebrew Christians. Do we outgrow what we've known so we can become who we really are?

So who are we, basically, is the question he's posing.

Do you not recognize who you are because you are still where you were?

What kind of a psychological postulation is that? I mean, it's silliness.

And Moses didn't even do it the right way. In fact, in Acts, chapter 7, it tells us that one day when he was 40 years old…

This is Stephen giving us this information. He decided to visit his own people, the Israelites, and he saw one of them being mistreated by an

Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Well, that's one way to do it.

He feels something on the inside. He knows he's not what he's around. He understands that there's something different in him than the people, the culture he's surrounded in, so he does something out of his impulse that is really an indication of his destiny.

This is a rehashing of everything he said in 2019. He does something out of his impulse that is really an indication of his destiny, and he kills an

Egyptian. Verse 25 really got my attention. Moses thought his own people would realize God was using him to rescue them, but they didn't.

So now we understand what it means to say that Moses chose to be misunderstood rather than to give up who he was.

So now I want to get into a section of the message. This is going to go on my YouTube channel as a standalone. This is a little mini message within the message.

I've been promising this for a long time, and I'm going to preach it right now, and I thought about preaching that, but I have discipline, and I'm only going to preach one message today.

I want to talk to you about sins with benefits. So just a few minutes earlier, he says,

I've got discipline. I'm not going to preach about faith to float like I was going to. I'm only going to preach one message.

Oh, but wait, this is a standalone message that's going up on my YouTube page, and so here's the big reveal of the title,

Sins with Benefits. Did you hear that? Yes. Sins with Benefits.

I want to talk to you about sins with benefits. Sit down and listen to this. I want to talk to you about sins with benefits.

Sit down and listen to this. In verse 25, it says, he chose the reproach of God's people, or we could say he chose the inconvenience of purpose.

The Scripture does not say that. Look at the text.

What does the text say? In Hebrews 11, in Hebrews, let's make that just a little bit bigger here.

So let's go to 23 for a little bit of context. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Over the pleasure of sin. Or we could say he chose the inconvenience of purpose.

It does not say anything about the inconvenience of purpose. Over the pleasure of sin.

Anybody who says sin doesn't feel good didn't do it right. Amen. If you do not appreciate and acknowledge the need that a sin is meeting, you won't know how to get that need met in God.

If you don't appreciate the need that a sin is meeting, you'll never be able to get that need met in Christ.

Christ did not come so that we could experience the same thrills that we get from sin.

He came to bring the forgiveness of our sins, because our sins bring us condemnation.

And you will come right back to it. Now, I know how that sounds. Appreciate my sin.

My sin killed Jesus. How can I appreciate my sin? I'm not talking about appreciating the consequence of it.

I'm not talking about willfully rebelling against God. Quit cussing. You know what?

I would rather you keep cussing and not quit growing than thinking the whole point of the

Christian faith is behavior modification. All right.

Almost done. Just very little left here. There. So, the

Scriptures teach us in the book of Corinthians that Jesus Christ has been made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Sanctification is very much a part of the Christian life.

It's very much a part of the Christian walk. As a matter of fact, if the Holy Spirit is not doing his sanctifying work in you as a professing believer, you need to examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith.

Because if you are in Christ, you have been made a new creature, and the Spirit of God dwells within you and constantly points you to Jesus Christ.

So, sanctification is very important. And he said,

I would rather give that up for what God has for me. I would rather give that up because he was grown enough to discern what's really worth it.

Now, when I am tempted to quit on something that God gave me to steward,

I realize that the temptation to quit is an indication of the significance.

So, if the temptation to sin is the significance of the purpose that God is calling you to.

So, there are some sins that aren't quite as significant or more significant.

The benefits of sin. I know it sounds bad, but certain sins meet certain needs.

Did you hear again? Listen closely to what's being said every time it's said from the pulpit.

Test every single word that you hear the preacher say.

What Moses did, he had the ability, even though he didn't do it perfectly. Y 'all, he murdered a man. And God called it faith?

No. God did not call the murder of that man. He did not call what

Moses did faith when he that man. He calls it faith when he believed

God. This conflation of ideas is horrible.

It is absolutely horrible. Vance Habner, the old country preacher, made a reference to hash.

If you're from the country, you know what hash is. It's just where you kind of gather up all the leftovers and everything, whatever you've got in the pantry.

You make it. You mix it together. Vance Habner said, I don't eat hash when I'm away from home or I don't eat a hash when

I'm at home because I do know what's in it. And I don't eat hash when I'm away from home because I don't know what's in it.

What he is doing, he is creating a hash of ideas here. God does not frame our mistakes like we frame our mistakes.

I would say he frames our mistakes according to the scripture in a much more serious and concerning manner than which we frame our mistakes.

And by the way, mistake here is a word that is used to get away from saying the word sin.

Our sins killed Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus died for our sins.

And the process of maturity is learning to get from your father what you used to get from Pharaoh.

And there's the summary. Getting from your father what you used to get from Pharaoh.

Let's close by looking at 1

Corinthians 1, what the Apostle Paul in writing this letter to the

Corinthian church said. He was appealing to them concerning division and I guess it was about, let's just look at verse 17 forward there a little bit.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. That is the preacher's responsibility.

That is the pastor's responsibility. That is the elder's responsibility to teach and preach the gospel.

And Paul said, not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power or become of none effect.

For the word of the cross is folly, is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

Today, publicly, I'm proclaiming

Stephen Furtick is a false teacher. He is, again, most certainly one of the most popular preachers and teachers of our day in the past few years.

Popularity doesn't prove anything. The proof is when what he says is measured against and according to the word of God itself.

If it aligns with it, then certainly, certainly, we should say amen and amen.

But if it does not align with it, we should not give affirmation.

We should not give approval to it. I want to thank you again for your time. I hope that this has been helpful to you.

And I'll close by saying this, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and my love be with you all in Christ Jesus, our