For Those Tempted To Quit | Steven Furtick

I am preaching this message to
somebody today who is tempted to quit

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

initials on it for whatever they want it to
mean. Trust me. I’ve seen it happen over and

over and over again. So, you haven’t smoked
in three weeks, but then I preached on “Don’t

quit,” and you go get a pack right after I
preach because the pastor said, “Don’t quit.”

I know how y’all are. Y’all are real shifty
sometimes with these Scriptures, real slippery

sometimes with these Scriptures, real manipulative
sometimes with these Scriptures. But please, let

us reason together at the mercy seat. I’m talking
about quitting on what God called you to do.

The picture is of a man God
called to deliver a nation,

but he was almost killed before he even had the
opportunity to be called. This helps me understand

why some of the people who have the
most significant purpose to accomplish

for the kingdom of God go through the heaviest
attacks at the formative stages of their lives.

So, his parents had the faith. It says
they had faith. I’m concerned in the church

that we have confused childlike faith, which is
what Jesus told us to have, with childish faith.

These Hebrew believers…
Remember, they were just babies.

They were still being weaned off the
sacrificial system that Moses instituted.

In Moses’ sacrificial system… You may know
a little bit about this. I’m not going to

go into great depth about it. Their sin was
atoned for by the blood of bulls and goats.

Their sin was atoned for by the offering that
was made by the high priest who had to do it

every year. The theme of the book of Hebrews
is that Jesus Christ is superior to the Mosaic

covenant, to the Mosaic commandments, to the
Mosaic customs. So, we’re looking at a group

of believers who are learning a brand-new way
to do things. In their embrace of Jesus Christ…

In order to walk in this new way of life
Christ offers, it involves a letting go

of what they have known. Now that they have a
new identity… See, they’re transitioning their

identity from being justified by the law, which
doesn’t work… You can’t even keep the speed limit.

Please don’t look at me like you can
keep the law. “Be holy as he is holy.”

The law was just designed to bring us to the
place where we would know our need for grace

and receive it, so that you would quit trying
to keep the commandments in your own strength

so you could receive the grace of God through
the person of Jesus Christ. This is the gospel,

and it still works today. You can be forgiven
of your sin without a bull, without a goat,

without a turtledove. I don’t need another
high priest. I don’t need somebody to change

their mind about me. Whoever calls on
the name of the Lord will be saved.

You can be forgiven right now. Not seven steps,
not three classes, not ten years of sobriety,

but right now he can save you.

Right now! Yet they are being tempted, as
God is birthing the church into the world,

to return to the thing they were set free from.

Okay. 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, 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 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 Hebrews 11, there is a picture
of a prophet. Moses was a prophet.

He’s not your typical prophet. In fact, I thought
the writer of Hebrews was pretty nice to Moses

when he explained his story. I want to show
you that now. There’s a lesson even in this.

You know, all I’m deciding to do is
figure out what not to tell you today,

because there’s so much good stuff in this. So,
let me give you a contrast. This will be good.

Verse 27: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up…”
I read you this, but I’m reading it again for

a reason. “…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.

He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ

as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt,
because he was looking ahead to his reward.”

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 who were oppressing them. Now,

there’s a lot of great stuff in the
backstory that I 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, and
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
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…”

I wonder, are there 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 he had ever
known. Do you see it in the text? He was

raised as an Egyptian, but he was born as a
Hebrew, yet there came a moment of decision.

“I will not be defined by my environment.
I will not be limited by my experience.

I will not be affiliated with the
events that brought me to this point.”

There is something God is calling you to
outgrow in this moment, and I wonder what it is.

Until you grow past the point of needing God
to change things… Some of us have to outgrow

the need for everybody to like us or validate us
in order to see what God has really put in us.

He chose to be mistreated. He chose
to be lonely. He chose to be a weirdo.

He chose the uncomfortable space of
growth. You know what? Growth is chosen.

Not change. Change will slap you right in the back
of your head. Change will kick you in the shin.

But growth is chosen.

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?