Built Different | Pastor Steven Furtick | Elevation Church

Just kidding... "Ma'am, I'm not even on the nose yet." She was touching the ridge of her nose. Yes it's true. You didn't tell them that part. I got the microphone this week. Everything she told them... There were all these people around. She said, “I got a COVID test.” I said, "Is that all you're going to tell them?" That's all we do. "I did it by the grace of God." You barely made it. You're still not sure you've made it. Don't make me take off my sweater to preach. Everything we showed you on the occasion of the 15th anniversary was a time-lapse testimony.

You can't see the deleted scenes, but I know them deep down. That is what gives me confidence through the grace of God, knowing that the one who started it will be faithful to complete it. I am looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. What is so strange about us is that knowing all this, that God is building us like stones (that is, we need each other, because it is not a singular stone), we will isolate ourselves and think that we have to be good at everything. No no. This kingdom will be

built

different

ly.

The kingdoms of this world are based on self-sufficiency and independence. The kingdom of God is

built

on the union of imperfect people. This kingdom is built

different

ly. It is enhanced by imperfections. Allow grace. The fact that we are not perfect allows us to fit in with each other. It is an absolutely amazing thing that I can accept Jesus and not accept myself, yet the Scriptures say that the process of maturity is to offer God a spiritual sacrifice...that is my life...acceptable through Jesus. So the real challenge of my faith will not be accepting Jesus; He will be accepting his process with me.

If that's sanding and if that's cutting and if that means I've been looking at the wrong box and that God wants to build something completely different in my life than what He had in mind, then I'm fine with that. Built different. That is a statement of clarity. It helps you know, "Hey, man. It's okay if my life doesn't look like yours or if my gift doesn't look like yours or if my timeline doesn't look like yours." Who gave you your blueprint to start with? Your beliefs are your model. Most of us never really check which model we are building according to.

What happens in a marriage is essentially repeating the same pattern that was demonstrated in front of you without even stopping to analyze: "Is there a new pattern that God wants to give to our family?" No one was supposed to have such a diverse

church

in Charlotte, North Carolina, but God had a model that we were building after before we knew what the model was. I love the image in which Moses is building the tabernacle where God's presence would dwell in the desert. Remember, the tabernacle was mobile. You had to be able to follow him. Kind of like life is now.

You have to plan everything in pencil right now with a big, thick eraser, just to know that everything is moving, just to know that the plane might not be what we think it is. There was a verse that always caught my attention. I would use it to talk to leaders. The verse is after God has given Moses these very specific instructions about "This is how the curtains for the tabernacle are built." It goes into great detail about the lampstands and the presence table where the shewbread was. He gives great instructions on where the covenant was to be kept... all these things in the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place.

Then there is a verse where it is as if God is reminding him of Moses, because he showed him all this on Mount Sinai where he gave him the law. He gave him the instructions. He gave him the vision. He gave him the plan. After telling her where the furniture should go in the tabernacle, he tells her in Exodus 25:40, "See that you make it according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain." "Make sure that when you come down from this place where I am giving you a revelation of what is real and you have to come down to everyday life where there are people, you have to come down to everyday life where the problems are, you have to come down to life everyday life where there is confusion, you have to go down to everyday life where things are not so directly connected...

See, the pattern you build according to is not the pattern you see in the world, but the pattern you see in me. presence." I think it's very difficult for us, because God gives us great glimpses of the kind of person we can become. You see it through another person. You'll hear it in a moment. You can glimpse it. Then you have to take that look to the distractions of your real life. Let's be honest. Now, because many have

church

at home, you can't even go to church alone anymore. Even as I preach this, there is a distraction.

While I give you the details that God gave me to give you about what He is building and designing your life, there are things going around all over your house. Some of you even have AirPods on because you're embarrassed to listen to a sermon in front of your roommates, because they know how they really live and you don't want to be made fun of. So now you have to take the faith that God birthed while I was preaching in your ear and live it out loud in front of people who may not respect, expect or accept you at all.

But don't worry about that, because God selects what people reject. Don't turn around and do the opposite. Don't reject what makes you special. Don't downplay what makes you destined. Don't take what God gave you on the mountain and your true self and build on an old model. I read it and thought, "That's it." You have to take what God shows you on the mountain and build it in the valley. You have to take what you know to be true when you feel joy and apply it when you feel depressed. You have to take the blueprint of what God showed you it should look like and just build it and hammer it in.

You have to build an ark when you've never seen rain. You have to build in the valley what God showed you on the mountain and not vote for a committee of cynics who are going to tell you it can't be done. He told Moses, "Be sure to put all the furniture in its place in the tabernacle, just as I showed you on the mountain." Moses had a pattern that was shown to him on Mount Sinai, but that is not the mountain where we get our pattern. That is the mountain where God gave the law to his people.

The kingdom that Jesus came to inaugurate is built differently. It is not built on Mount Sinai with roars of thunder, lightning and wrath. It was built "on a distant hill there was an ancient steep cross." The mountain I want to follow in my life is not Sinai, where the law lives. The mountain that I want to model my life on is called Calvary, where grace is greater than all my sin and shame. What I think God is saying more than anything else is to make sure that you are building by grace so that when your faith runs out, Peter, and you come up short, and when your faith runs out and your answers aren't there, and when your faith runs out and your explanations fall short, you have a greater grace at work in your life.

God is not going to build the rest of your life based on what you deserve. No no no. It is built on a much truer foundation than that. This base cannot be shaken. If the rain blows, if the wind blows, if the streams rise, if it hits your house, it will have its foundation on the rock and it will stand firm. That's what you've been learning at this stage of your life. You've faced some rejection. Some doors have been closed. Some things have gone wrong. Some things have collapsed. Some truths have been proven, but it's not about the furniture.

It's about the base. God can move everything, but what a great foundation, what a firm foundation is Jesus our Lord! If you know you have the right foundation, give a shout of praise to God right now! Lord, I release this word in the spirit that you gave it to me. You said to tell these people that if a thousand fall on their right or their left, they will not come near them because they are made differently. You told me to tell them that although the world may be shocked and discouraged, they are not, because we are made differently.

You told me to tell them that in a politically divided time, your church still remains united under the only name that matters, because we are built differently. On this rock you have built your church, and on this rock you are building our lives, and on this rock of revelation you are building an understanding that can never be shaken, and we praise you for it. In the name of Jesus. Lift up high praise if you receive it, if you believe that the stone which the builders rejected is the chief cornerstone. Lord, here we are. We are not moving sand.

Our lives are built on you, the solid rock, the one who never walks away, the one who never gives up. I pray for people today who have been flapping back and forth. Maybe they cared more about the furniture than the foundation. Maybe they've been more concerned about certain little details and things in their lives and this going well and that going well, but none of that mattered when the storm hit. The only thing that mattered was what it was built on. Lord, we want to build what we contemplate in your presence. Today you showed us some things.

I could feel it as I preached. You were showing us some things. All we see is what is wrong with us, but today you showed us what is right with you. If I can accept Jesus and Jesus accepts Steven, I have to accept me too. We join Pedro's statement today. He told it to people thousands of years ago, but he also said it for us. You are a chosen people. Once you weren't. Now you are. He raises his hands as if you were receiving on the mountain. "God, give me a new blueprint this week. I've been looking at some of the wrong models.

Give me a new blueprint for how to spend my day, how to spend my week. Give me a new blueprint for how to handle temptation, pressure and stress." "Give me a new model of how to treat other people when they are unfair to me. Give me a new model of what that really means, because I need it." Listen to me. What it is built on determines what it can be destroyed with. Anything that is not built on Jesus, who is eternal, can be destroyed by something that is temporary. But you are a chosen people. Peter was chosen while he was cursing.

He was chosen while he was preaching. On this rock, the living stone, rejected by men, accepted by God. We thank you right now. Receive it. Just receive it.