Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see Gods moving in your life. Enjoy the message. So
Speaker 1: blessed to be here. Hello from Las Vegas. It was
Speaker 1: one eighteen yesterday when we flew here, one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighteen degrees. I don't know if y' all know what
Speaker 1: that meant, like not one eighteen PM, like it was
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighteen degrees this week. So it's good
Speaker 1: to be here, and it's an honor to be here.
Speaker 1: God has been doing some great things at our church
Speaker 1: here in Las Vegas. But I'm a very honored to
Speaker 1: be here. And honestly, we really are the product of
Speaker 1: relationship with the product of amazing people that God has
Speaker 1: blessed us to connect with, and the first on that
Speaker 1: list is Pastor Stephen, Pastor Holly Ferdick. We are who
Speaker 1: we are or I am who I am because of
Speaker 1: your pastors, because of this house, because of what God
Speaker 1: has done through them. And I'm so grateful I've always
Speaker 1: been so grateful for Pastor Stephen, but especially in this season.
Speaker 1: The way that he rose and the way that he
Speaker 1: stepped up, and the way that he led, and the
Speaker 1: way that he preached, and the way that he wrote songs,
Speaker 1: and the way that he loved us and gave to
Speaker 1: us and prayed for us and encouraged us. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm the only one, but I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful that Pastor Stephen, honestly, in the pandemic went
Speaker 1: I can't just Pastor Elevation Churchy. He literally became like
Speaker 1: an apostle to our nation into the world. And I'm
Speaker 1: part of the e FM. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: know that, because we were recording on Wednesdays, and I
Speaker 1: would preach on Wednesdays during the pandemic, and then we
Speaker 1: would stream on Sundays and Sundays, I just woke up
Speaker 1: depressed and frustrated and shut down. And you can only
Speaker 1: clean your garage so many times on a Sunday, and
Speaker 1: I had to join the EPAM because I needed a word,
Speaker 1: I needed a song, I needed the blessing. I needed
Speaker 1: graves in the gardens I need I needed it. I
Speaker 1: didn't know I needed it. Might get loud, but I
Speaker 1: needed that song in my life. I needed rattle. I
Speaker 1: needed it, and I needed every every Sunday morning when
Speaker 1: I would when I would log in and I would
Speaker 1: hear the word, and I would hear this amazing team,
Speaker 1: and I would and I would be fed. And we
Speaker 1: were a two year old church when the pandemic started,
Speaker 1: and we made it. And I made it because because
Speaker 1: a man of God preached me through hell. Pastor Stephen,
Speaker 1: I love you, I honor you, I thank God for you,
Speaker 1: and we just want you to know how much we
Speaker 1: appreciate the way that you could have. You could have
Speaker 1: sat back, but instead you let us and we love you.
Speaker 1: We love Pastor Holly. Come on one more time, cluse
Speaker 1: show our honor appreciation every location. Amen. Why don't you
Speaker 1: stand for God's words? Stand for God's word? First Samuel,
Speaker 1: chapter seventeen, verse thirty two. Why not? I won't keep
Speaker 1: you long, First Samuel, chapter seventeen, verse thirty two. David
Speaker 1: speaks to Saul, and he says, don't worry about this philistine.
Speaker 1: I'll go fight him. Don't be ridiculous. Saul replied, there's
Speaker 1: no way you can fight this philistine and possibly win.
Speaker 1: You're only a boy. He's been a man of war
Speaker 1: since his youth. I'll just read the first little line
Speaker 1: of thirty four. But David persisted. David persisted. Acts Chapter thirteen,
Speaker 1: verse twenty two. Acts Chapter thirteen, verse twenty two. But
Speaker 1: God removes Saul and replaced him with David, a man
Speaker 1: about whom God said, I have found David's son of Jesse,
Speaker 1: a man after my own heart, a man, a man.
Speaker 1: Saul called him a boy. God said, this is a man,
Speaker 1: a man after my own heart. He will do everything
Speaker 1: I want him to do. Verse thirty three, Saul gives
Speaker 1: David a compliment. He didn't know he was giving him
Speaker 1: a compliment, but he gave him a compliment. He said,
Speaker 1: he said, don't be ridiculous. I want to preach from
Speaker 1: that subject for just a few moments today. A ridiculous reality,
Speaker 1: A ridiculous reality. I have a ridiculous reality. Father. I
Speaker 1: thank you for your word. I thank you for the
Speaker 1: moments we share. I thank you for the presence we feel.
Speaker 1: I thank you that one word from heaven, one word
Speaker 1: from you, literally change everything we're believing. For that now
Speaker 1: we're leaning in for that our ears are open, our
Speaker 1: hearts are open to a phrase, a sentence. Lord, you
Speaker 1: don't even have to use me. Just use something said today,
Speaker 1: Use something sung today, Use a phrase, use an idea,
Speaker 1: use a verse to change somebody's life forever. I thank
Speaker 1: you for it in Jesus' name, and the whole church said, amen, Amen.
Speaker 1: Here you could be seated online lead into this word.
Speaker 1: I believe God has something for us. Doctor Charles Swindle
Speaker 1: said that life is about ten percent what happens to
Speaker 1: us and ninety percent our response, our attitude, our outlook
Speaker 1: on what happens to us. I've been saved now for
Speaker 1: twenty three years. I got saved when I was fifteen.
Speaker 1: I'm now turning thirty eight, and I've been following Jesus
Speaker 1: now for twenty three years. And I can attest to
Speaker 1: that statement. I don't like that quote from doctor Swindle,
Speaker 1: but I know it's true. I've been right there where
Speaker 1: I have to make a decision. I don't like what's
Speaker 1: happening to me, but my response is more important than
Speaker 1: what's happening to me. My outlook is more important than
Speaker 1: my circumstance. My attitude is more important than my surroundings.
Speaker 1: What I think about God and what I think about
Speaker 1: His word, and what I think about He's doing in
Speaker 1: my life has much more weight and can do much
Speaker 1: more in my life than what is simply going on
Speaker 1: around us. Life is so much more about perspective and
Speaker 1: attitude than it is circumstances. And while we find ourselves
Speaker 1: praying to get out of things, I find that usually
Speaker 1: we ignore the thing God is trying to do in us.
Speaker 1: We pray to get out, but God's trying to do
Speaker 1: something in I'm trying to change what I'm surrounded by,
Speaker 1: but God's trying to change what's going on inside of me.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you why this is important. It's important
Speaker 1: because if you get the thing you think you want,
Speaker 1: but never let God do the thing you need, you'll
Speaker 1: get the thing you want and you'll mess it up
Speaker 1: because you won't have the character, you won't have the
Speaker 1: prayer life, you won't have the annoying, you won't have
Speaker 1: the compassion, you won't have the love for God or
Speaker 1: love for people to carry the thing that God has
Speaker 1: put on you. A lot of you are praying for
Speaker 1: things that I would say, don't don't stop praying for
Speaker 1: what you're believing God for. Just make sure that you
Speaker 1: are asking God to do something in you. Don't limit
Speaker 1: God to simply someone who can get stuff for you.
Speaker 1: Don't limit God to a God who can just do
Speaker 1: things for you while refusing to allow him to do
Speaker 1: something in you, because it's what He does in you.
Speaker 1: Because here's the reality that if you'll allow God to
Speaker 1: do something in you, even if you don't get the
Speaker 1: thing you wanted, you're content. Even if you don't get
Speaker 1: the thing you've been believing God for, you're happy. Even
Speaker 1: if the circumstance doesn't change exactly how you thought it
Speaker 1: was going to change. Because of what the spirit of
Speaker 1: God did in you, You're now not tripping as much
Speaker 1: about what you thought was the thing isn't even the thing.
Speaker 1: The thing is the thing God's doing in you. Huh.
Speaker 1: So David had to make a choice. David had no
Speaker 1: idea that morning he was gonna step into a fight.
Speaker 1: He didn't expect to fight. He didn't he didn't know
Speaker 1: there was gonna be a fight. He had no plans
Speaker 1: for a fight. His father woke him up one early
Speaker 1: morning and said, here's some bread, here's some cheese. Shout
Speaker 1: out to carbs and dairy. Just side note, they're amazing.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. Pastor chunks doesn't eat carbs. Carbs pastor
Speaker 1: chunks are where they take wheat and they grind it
Speaker 1: up and then I know you want to eat broccolini
Speaker 1: and salmon, but some of us got to eat wheat. Amen,
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. So anyway, he Praise God. Praise God.
Speaker 1: Praise God. So he gets his bread in this cheese
Speaker 1: and he's going to serve his brothers he had. He
Speaker 1: had no intention to fight that day. He had no
Speaker 1: idea that he was about to hear the taunts of
Speaker 1: Goliath and it was going to provoke something in David.
Speaker 1: I want to give you a reality that maybe you've
Speaker 1: never thought about before. But you rarely choose your giants.
Speaker 1: Usually your giants choose you. You rarely choose your fight.
Speaker 1: You rarely choose your storm. You rarely choose your struggle.
Speaker 1: We don't always get to choose our fights, but we
Speaker 1: must choose to fight. We don't always choose our battles,
Speaker 1: but we can stand in the presence of God in
Speaker 1: the midst of our battles. We rarely choose our storms,
Speaker 1: but we can trust that Jesus is with us in
Speaker 1: the storm, will sustain us in the storm, will not
Speaker 1: leave us in the storm. We'll see us through the storm.
Speaker 1: We don't always get to pick our goliath. Most of
Speaker 1: the time Goliath picks us. But we can still have
Speaker 1: victory even in situations that we did not choose. I
Speaker 1: don't know about you. I didn't choose twenty twenty. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe you didn't choose the marriage that you're in right now.
Speaker 1: You're like, they were awesome when we started. Don't say
Speaker 1: anything to your spouse. Is they seem normal? I didn't
Speaker 1: choose this struggle. I didn't. I didn't choose to lose
Speaker 1: my job. I didn't choose this situation. I didn't. I
Speaker 1: didn't choose to be born at this time. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't believe for this. This was not on the
Speaker 1: prayer list. But please don't die as a victim of
Speaker 1: your circumstance because you're angry with the fight that's been
Speaker 1: given to you. You may not be able to change
Speaker 1: the fight, but you can fight. You may not always
Speaker 1: be able to stop the storm, but you can stand
Speaker 1: in the storm in the presence of Jesus. You may
Speaker 1: not like everything that's going on around you, and if
Speaker 1: you're not careful, you will spend the next year of
Speaker 1: your life trying to pray out of something that God
Speaker 1: is trying to do in you, and you'll miss the lesson,
Speaker 1: you'll miss the growth, you'll miss getting to seek Goliath
Speaker 1: fall because you didn't like to fight. I've had to
Speaker 1: learn that my greatest seasons of growth have been in
Speaker 1: moments where I had to take on fights I didn't expect.
Speaker 1: But David sees some things, and I see some things
Speaker 1: in the text that David saw that I want to
Speaker 1: I want to share with you because I think there's
Speaker 1: some keys to victory that David had over his goliath.
Speaker 1: And we all have a Goliath. We're all gonna face giants.
Speaker 1: Your last giant is not your last. There will be
Speaker 1: more giants to have a way of popping up. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you some things that I see from David,
Speaker 1: and here's the first. In order to have this ridiculous reality,
Speaker 1: this victory mentality, you have to choose courage over worry.
Speaker 1: Courage over worry, David said in verse thirty two. Don't worry.
Speaker 1: Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the
Speaker 1: ability to do something that frightens you. So when David
Speaker 1: says don't worry, he's not claiming he's fearless. Courage is
Speaker 1: not fearless. Courage is the ability to place more faith
Speaker 1: in God's word than in the mountain. Courage is the
Speaker 1: ability to put more faith in what God has promised
Speaker 1: than in the giant. David said don't worry. Here's what
Speaker 1: he's saying. He's not saying that the emotion is gone.
Speaker 1: He's saying, I refuse to let worry and fear dictate
Speaker 1: every decision in my life. Have you read Joshua? Chapter
Speaker 1: one of God tells Joshua, hey, hey, be strong, be courageous.
Speaker 1: You're like, I'm trying, don't ever read stuff like that.
Speaker 1: You're like, isn't that easy? Jesus is, don't worry about tomorrow. Wow,
Speaker 1: working on it. Try and do him my best. Here,
Speaker 1: when God commands us not to worry, When God commands
Speaker 1: us to be courageous, he's not saying that we're gonna
Speaker 1: be robotic and that we're no longer going to have emotion.
Speaker 1: He's just saying that your faith will go beyond the emotion,
Speaker 1: that God's promise will go beyond the feeling that what
Speaker 1: God has said about you will be stronger than the
Speaker 1: fear that you feel. In the moment, when David says
Speaker 1: don't worry, I think his knees were knocking. When David
Speaker 1: said don't worry. I think his stomach was probably turning.
Speaker 1: When David said don't worry, I think sweat was falling
Speaker 1: from his head. But there was something in him that
Speaker 1: knew that God had done enough in his life that
Speaker 1: he could get through this because of all God has
Speaker 1: already done. I'm sorry, I'm already screaming, but I just
Speaker 1: want to tell somebody that fear doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: your anchor emotion. Worry doesn't have to And I know
Speaker 1: these are scary times. I know these aren't worried sometimes.
Speaker 1: I know these are crazy times. I don't like it either,
Speaker 1: but if I got to be in it, I might
Speaker 1: as well be in it with some courage. So the
Speaker 1: Bible said, for forty days, every morning and every night,
Speaker 1: Goliath is cursing the people of God forty days every morning,
Speaker 1: every night, every morning, every night, every morning, every night,
Speaker 1: with his usual taunts. Can I tell you that the
Speaker 1: devil knows your usual talks it might be addiction. It
Speaker 1: might be lost, It might be anger, might be hatred,
Speaker 1: might be fear, it might be greed. I don't know
Speaker 1: what your taunt is, but the devil knows your taunt,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing new. So he'll just keep working your taunt.
Speaker 1: As long as you let him talk. He will taunt
Speaker 1: as long as you allow the enemy to speak every
Speaker 1: morning and every night. Here's what he will taunt you,
Speaker 1: and he will remind you, and he will bring that
Speaker 1: up and up and up and up. So for forty days,
Speaker 1: Saul is under this influence of his taunts. Saul was insecure.
Speaker 1: Saul was troubled by evil spirits. Saul was well aware
Speaker 1: of his weaknesses and well aware of everyone else's strength.
Speaker 1: That's why he was jealous. So the devil knew exactly
Speaker 1: what to tell Saul. And I don't know what your
Speaker 1: taunt is, but many of you you keep hearing the
Speaker 1: same thing. You can't do it, You'll you'll never make it.
Speaker 1: It will always be this way it was. It was
Speaker 1: better before you started serving God. It was easier before
Speaker 1: you really committed to the Lord. And he will just
Speaker 1: keep talking to you. I want to submit this. Saul's
Speaker 1: fear was justified. Goliath was nine feet tall. That's scary.
Speaker 1: His fear was justified, but living in it was not justified.
Speaker 1: So I've learned that you're either gonna be a don't
Speaker 1: worry person or a don't be ridiculous person. I've learned
Speaker 1: that you're either gonna be a Saul or you're gonna
Speaker 1: be a David. You're either gonna live in the fear
Speaker 1: of life what might happen and never take a step
Speaker 1: of faith, or you're going to be like David and
Speaker 1: you're gonna be ridiculous and you're going to live in
Speaker 1: a don't worry spirit that says, you know what, my
Speaker 1: worry can't change anything anyway. It's doing no good anyway.
Speaker 1: It's not preparing me for anything anyway. So I might
Speaker 1: as well stop because all it's doing is stopping me
Speaker 1: from entering into what God has for me. And I
Speaker 1: just refuse to be a Saul. I don't want to
Speaker 1: live that way. I don't want to live small. I
Speaker 1: don't want to live insecure. I don't want to live
Speaker 1: talking people out of their dreams. And I know that
Speaker 1: over the last fifteen months, eighteen months, I know the
Speaker 1: devil has worked so hard to just talk us out
Speaker 1: of our dreams, to retreat, to give up, to quit,
Speaker 1: to play it safe. But I want to tell you
Speaker 1: today that you can choose courage over worry. That you
Speaker 1: can get your fight back, that you can get your
Speaker 1: prayer back, that you can get your praise back, that
Speaker 1: you think, get your relationships back, that you think get
Speaker 1: it's your mind back. I understand that the devil has
Speaker 1: fought us hard for month after month after month, but
Speaker 1: I think it's time to fight back a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think it's time to say I refuse to live
Speaker 1: in the worry of what might never happen. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: step into what God already said what happened. Faith will
Speaker 1: always look ridiculous, Courage will always be a rare commodity,
Speaker 1: Hope will always look unrealistic. But never forget that the
Speaker 1: miraculous and the ridiculous are always connected. They is they is.
Speaker 1: See every time you see a miracle in the Bible,
Speaker 1: we read right over it. But every time you see
Speaker 1: a miracle in the Bible, you will see a ridiculous
Speaker 1: instruction from God every time. They just don't seem crazy
Speaker 1: now because we've been reading about him since we're five.
Speaker 1: But they're ridiculous. The Bible is full of people who
Speaker 1: need miracles and God who answers with instructions, not miracles. Instructions. God,
Speaker 1: I need a miracle, do this. I don't want to
Speaker 1: do that. I want you to do this. And a
Speaker 1: lot of us miss out on our miracle because we
Speaker 1: don't like the instruction. A lot of us miss out
Speaker 1: on answer prayer because we don't like what God's telling
Speaker 1: us to do. I don't want to do that. I
Speaker 1: want you to do something that goes I will do
Speaker 1: something if you will do something. But the thing that
Speaker 1: God is calling us to do will usually push us
Speaker 1: out of our comfort zone. It feels so ridiculous, y'all
Speaker 1: don't believe me. Hey, Noah, build a boat, bro, what's about.
Speaker 1: It's a big piece of wood. You're gonna live in
Speaker 1: it because it's gonna rain. Beat what's rain? It's water,
Speaker 1: but it's not gonna come up from the grass. Gotta
Speaker 1: come up from the sky. Bet it's ridiculous. And so
Speaker 1: for over a hundred years, no it builds a boat
Speaker 1: with no rain, and we read it, and we read
Speaker 1: it in Sunday school, so we don't realize how crazy
Speaker 1: this is, and we wonder why God never does anything
Speaker 1: for us. Abraham, just go just go where I saw you?
Speaker 1: So like you want to tell Sarah, right, not like
Speaker 1: I can't even take my wife on a date until
Speaker 1: I tell her where we're going. Fay, let's go on
Speaker 1: a date where and you want me to fack of
Speaker 1: my wife? They just start walking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. Elijah, build an altar. I'm gonna send fire,
Speaker 1: so put water on it. Okay, Isaac, so in a
Speaker 1: time of famine, naming dipping the Jordan, but not once,
Speaker 1: on twice, on three times, go ahead and dip seven times.
Speaker 1: Do something that's ridiculous, to something that offends you, to
Speaker 1: something that pushes you out of your comfort zone. Elisha, Uh,
Speaker 1: you need water, cool, don't pray for rain to ditches,
Speaker 1: don't look up, look down, don't pray for out to form. Instead,
Speaker 1: just start digging holes. Widow, you need some food, Go
Speaker 1: ahead and gather vessels from your friends, servants. You'll need wine,
Speaker 1: get some water. We don't even know what we're praying for,
Speaker 1: so we start praying for miracles, and then we start
Speaker 1: seeing weird things around us, and we go God, You're
Speaker 1: not head, He's going I am. It just is not
Speaker 1: what you thought it was gonna be, but it is
Speaker 1: what you need. Hey, you want to beat five thousand people,
Speaker 1: break them up in the groups of fifty. Hey you
Speaker 1: want me to raise Lazarus from the dead, then you
Speaker 1: roll away the stone. Because if you'll roll away the stone,
Speaker 1: I'll raise the dead. If you'll do what you can do,
Speaker 1: I'll do what I can do. You can't raise the dead.
Speaker 1: But if you can roll away a stone, if you
Speaker 1: can park a car, if you can give in the offering,
Speaker 1: if you can serve in the kids ministry, if you
Speaker 1: can play a guitar, if you can a song, if
Speaker 1: you can love old somebody, if you can hold a
Speaker 1: sign and welcome them to church, if you'll roll away
Speaker 1: the stone, I'll raise the dad. I don't want to
Speaker 1: hold a sign. I want to preach too bad hold
Speaker 1: a sign. I don't want to be a host. I
Speaker 1: want to sing. No host. Do something ridiculous that stretches
Speaker 1: you and offends you, that makes you go, God, why
Speaker 1: are you doing me like that? Because I don't want
Speaker 1: to just do stuff for you. I want to do
Speaker 1: stuff in you and if I just gave you everything,
Speaker 1: you would never change. So you have to do something
Speaker 1: ridiculous and then you'll watch God do the miraculous. Somebody
Speaker 1: praise God. I'm I was gonna say I'm almost dumb,
Speaker 1: but I'm not. I'm only on point one. Pray for me.
Speaker 1: Sit down, Sit down, I gotta preach. It's ridiculous. You
Speaker 1: want me to serve in church. Yeah, it's ridiculous. You
Speaker 1: want me to tie tie tie. My friend the other
Speaker 1: day she was cutting my hair. She goes, you know,
Speaker 1: tithing is just you know, it's from the hearts, whatever
Speaker 1: you feel lad to give. This is a scary conversation
Speaker 1: to have when they have razors. Sharp just goes to
Speaker 1: our church. I said, actually go always like ten percent,
Speaker 1: and she's just what I said. It's like tenbers out
Speaker 1: of your income. But like, no pressure. Just let me
Speaker 1: get out of this. But I follow the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like who we're not legalistic. You know,
Speaker 1: it's ridiculous. You want me to love my enemies, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: You want me to forgive those who are talking about
Speaker 1: me is ridiculous. You want me to you want me
Speaker 1: to obey, It's all sounds, so it sounds so ridiculous
Speaker 1: till it works. It feels ridiculous until it looks miraculous,
Speaker 1: and that that point is like really fast, so you
Speaker 1: feel foolish for a long time, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden you look wise. Four years ago, we packed
Speaker 1: up a Penske truck and we left Newport Beach, California.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're a bet at Newport, but
Speaker 1: Newport's like heaven for real. And it felt so ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It felt so ridiculous four years ago to take my
Speaker 1: six month old daughter out of our car and it
Speaker 1: was one hundred and eight degrees and she's sweating, and
Speaker 1: we didn't have a house yet because we didn't have income.
Speaker 1: So we're living with my brother and sister in law
Speaker 1: in their guest room and they go, all good. We
Speaker 1: got to bed. It was an air mattress. They lied
Speaker 1: to us, And as I laid in that air mattress,
Speaker 1: I went, God, you lie to me. And it felt
Speaker 1: so ridiculous till it looked miraculous. And I won't I
Speaker 1: won't bore you with the details, but God has been
Speaker 1: so good to us. But it didn't. It didn't feel
Speaker 1: good At first, it just felt like God, like I
Speaker 1: knew it was God, but it didn't feel good. But
Speaker 1: I knew it was God. But the longer you stay
Speaker 1: with it, I'm gonna create a word right now. The
Speaker 1: gooder it feels, the better it feels, the wiser you
Speaker 1: feel because you trusted God when they looked at you
Speaker 1: and said you were ridiculous, but you knew God puts
Speaker 1: something in you. Number number two, Faith over facts, Faith
Speaker 1: over facts. I'm not here to deny facts, but I
Speaker 1: want you to understand something. Saul said, there's no way
Speaker 1: you can fight this philistine and possibly win. He was right,
Speaker 1: Saul said, you can't. Saul was being very realistic. Saul
Speaker 1: was actually being wise. Saul was looking at a teenager
Speaker 1: and saying, you can't go up against a nine foot
Speaker 1: tall giant. I love what he says. He's been a
Speaker 1: man of war since his youth, like he's been grown
Speaker 1: since he was a kid, Like he's he was one
Speaker 1: of those twelve year olds. And you're like, are you thirty?
Speaker 1: You know that was Goliath. Saul had a scouting report
Speaker 1: on Goliath. He said, he's a man of what we
Speaker 1: know about this, you can't and he was right. Hand
Speaker 1: to hand combat, no chance. Sword against sword not possible.
Speaker 1: There was no way David could do that. But faith
Speaker 1: sees another way. Faith looks for the possibility in the impossibility.
Speaker 1: Faith looks for what God could do in the midst
Speaker 1: of the problem. Faith is not moved by what is seen.
Speaker 1: Faith will move in the midst of what is seen.
Speaker 1: There's always going to be an excuse for why you
Speaker 1: can't fight your goliath. You can say you can't, and
Speaker 1: you would be right. But if you say you can,
Speaker 1: you'll be right. Ecclesiastes chapter eleven verse forces farmers who
Speaker 1: wait for perfect weather they never plant. Look at your neighbors,
Speaker 1: say stop waiting, stop waiting, stop waiting. Type it in
Speaker 1: the chat, please stop waiting. If they watch every cloud,
Speaker 1: they will never harvest. David could have easily said I'll
Speaker 1: fight him and then looked at him and said, my bad,
Speaker 1: just kidding. And if you're waiting for the perfect weather
Speaker 1: to step out in faith, friend, if the weather was perfect,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't need faith. You only need faith because there
Speaker 1: is a cloud in the sky. You only need faith
Speaker 1: because there is a giant. You only need faith because
Speaker 1: the circumstances aren't good. So hand to hand, sword to sword,
Speaker 1: absolutely not. But slingshot, he's too big to miss. You
Speaker 1: have to see the same issue a different way. Agree
Speaker 1: same issue, same marriage, different perspective, same job, different attitude,
Speaker 1: same city, different outlook. Do you remember when God was
Speaker 1: bringing Joshua into the Promised Land Joshua Chapter three? He said, Joshua,
Speaker 1: you're going to go in, but you've never gone this
Speaker 1: way before. You're still going in, You're just going in
Speaker 1: a new way, with a new perspective, with a new route,
Speaker 1: with a new path. You're going to the same place
Speaker 1: a different way. David and Saul saw the same giant,
Speaker 1: but they saw him differently. David and Saul saw the
Speaker 1: same enemy, but they saw him differently. David and Saul
Speaker 1: were looking at the same problem, but they saw it
Speaker 1: differently because Saul could only see it one way. But faith,
Speaker 1: Faith is creative. Faith will give you an imagination. Faith
Speaker 1: will get you looking at the same thing and going
Speaker 1: But I know what you're saying, but it feels different
Speaker 1: to me. When I moved to Las Vegas, I had
Speaker 1: two incredible, lovely probably pastors in town, and they called
Speaker 1: me and they said, you cannot plant the church here
Speaker 1: and you cannot plant the church there. It will never work. Thanks.
Speaker 1: They said, what part of town? I said, well, this
Speaker 1: part of the said no, no no, no no, one goes to
Speaker 1: church on the west side. It won't work. Copy. Thanks.
Speaker 1: And I had to look at the same part of
Speaker 1: our city a different way. I had to look at
Speaker 1: the same region with different eyes. I had to look
Speaker 1: at the same problem, but not see it as a problem,
Speaker 1: see it as a possibility. I had to look at
Speaker 1: a zip code that did not have a church like
Speaker 1: ours in it, or a zip code anywhere around us
Speaker 1: that had a church like ours in us and say
Speaker 1: to myself, either they're not receptive, or maybe my faith
Speaker 1: and maybe my creativity and maybe my tenacity can outweigh
Speaker 1: their lack of receptivity. And so I had to see
Speaker 1: the same thing from a different perspective. I cannot promise
Speaker 1: you that everything in your life is going to change
Speaker 1: after today, but I am promising that you can see
Speaker 1: it different. Isn't that what Elisha prayed for his servant
Speaker 1: when they were surrounded by the enemy, and his servant thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: you need to call down fire, you need to help us,
Speaker 1: you need to call on God. And Elisha praise. But
Speaker 1: he doesn't pray against the enemy. He prays for his son.
Speaker 1: It says, Lord, give him my eyes to see. Let
Speaker 1: him see what I see. Let him see what you see.
Speaker 1: Let him see the same situation. But instead of seeing
Speaker 1: it from his perspective, would you allow him to see
Speaker 1: it from your perspective. And I'm not saying that everything's
Speaker 1: going to change, But what I am saying is that
Speaker 1: if you'll see it different. Lastly, a ridiculous reality will
Speaker 1: require God's word over man's opinion. God's word over man's opinion.
Speaker 1: You're a boy, he's a man. That's all he could
Speaker 1: see in him. You're a boy, he's a man. But
Speaker 1: God said, But God said, and there has to be
Speaker 1: a But God that gets in your spirit. There has
Speaker 1: to be something in you, Joseph that says, but God
Speaker 1: has turned this thing around for good and for the
Speaker 1: saving of There has to be something in you. That says,
Speaker 1: I understand what they're saying, But God, I understand. I
Speaker 1: understand why they're saying it. But God, I understand the
Speaker 1: thought process behind it. But God, I understand the reasons
Speaker 1: saw that you would declare that over my life. But
Speaker 1: God said, I found a man. Saul saw a boy,
Speaker 1: God saw a man, Saul saw a kid, God saw
Speaker 1: a king, And so much of your life is going
Speaker 1: to be determined by who you allow to speak into
Speaker 1: your life. This is why a church like this really matters.
Speaker 1: This is why it's really important that you're in this church.
Speaker 1: It's why it's really important that you attend this church,
Speaker 1: serving the church, given this church, this Epham or not.
Speaker 1: This is why you have to be a part of
Speaker 1: elevation because you need somebody with enough faith and enough
Speaker 1: humility to look at you, weak in and weak out
Speaker 1: and declare what God says about you and not what
Speaker 1: you're hearing from your family and from your friends, and
Speaker 1: from your frenemies and from your enemies and from everywhere
Speaker 1: in between. You need a man of God like pastor
Speaker 1: Stephen Verdicude. Every week, get up, stand behind this pulpit,
Speaker 1: open the Bible, and tell you who God is, and
Speaker 1: tell you who you are, because if you stop allowing
Speaker 1: that influence in, there will always be a Saul ready
Speaker 1: to pounce on you and tell you the lies of
Speaker 1: the enemy and remind you of all of your insecurities
Speaker 1: and all of your inadequacies and all of the reasons
Speaker 1: that you are not qualified, and all of the reasons
Speaker 1: that you do not measure up. You need this Man
Speaker 1: of God in your life to declare. Thus say it
Speaker 1: the Lord, to declare the King in you, to declare
Speaker 1: the Man of God, the Woman of God in you,
Speaker 1: to declare the promises of God over you. And not
Speaker 1: everyone is going to be able to see that, But
Speaker 1: you don't need everyone to be able to see that.
Speaker 1: And it's not your job to make them see that.
Speaker 1: And please don't waste your whole life trying to convince
Speaker 1: the unconvinced of who you are, because they can only
Speaker 1: see you for who you were. They can only see
Speaker 1: you through your weakness. They can only see you through
Speaker 1: your mistake. They can only see you through that nineteen
Speaker 1: year old kid, or that twenty five year old kid,
Speaker 1: or that fifteen year old kid. But I know what
Speaker 1: God sees in me, and I know a lot of people.
Speaker 1: They waste their whole life trying to convince somebody. They
Speaker 1: try to convince a soul who does not have the
Speaker 1: eyes to see it. So we don't live our life
Speaker 1: trying to prove anything to the haters. And we don't
Speaker 1: live our life life trying to convince those who have
Speaker 1: rejected us, we know who we are, we know whose
Speaker 1: we are, and we know that God has a word
Speaker 1: over our life that is greater than their opinion. Anyway,
Speaker 1: they did not create you, so they cannot call you.
Speaker 1: They did not create you, so they cannot DestinE you.
Speaker 1: You were not created in their image, so their word
Speaker 1: does not have that much authority. Hallelujah, somebody say hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Verse thirty four. And David, because this is the moment
Speaker 1: for me, this is the moment for me. This is
Speaker 1: the moment because at this moment, David could have went
Speaker 1: you're right, and instead he persisted. There's a moment that
Speaker 1: you have to push back. Not only pushing back against
Speaker 1: the enemy, you have to push back from the voices
Speaker 1: that are trying to stop you from walking in victory.
Speaker 1: You have to you have to push back. David persistity.
Speaker 1: No, no no, no, no no, no, You're not gonna talk me
Speaker 1: out of this. I believe this is my moment. I
Speaker 1: believe this is my time. I did not call myself
Speaker 1: and I did not choose this fight. But here I
Speaker 1: am David persistent. Here's why he persisted because he knew
Speaker 1: Goliath was an opportunity, not a death sentence, and I
Speaker 1: want to declare over you, Goliath is always an opportunity,
Speaker 1: not a death sentence. You need a Goliath because Goliath
Speaker 1: is your opportunity for elevation. Goliath is your opportunity for promotion.
Speaker 1: You don't become king without goliath. You don't walk in
Speaker 1: greatness without Goliath. You don't step into your all without Goliath.
Speaker 1: Here's why. Because goliath is a very interesting Hebrew word,
Speaker 1: we can have the band come up, play me out
Speaker 1: of here like the Grammys, Get me off the stage,
Speaker 1: don't preach all day. Goliath means Goliath means of the
Speaker 1: Hebrew language, it means to uncover. I'm already feeling it.
Speaker 1: I haven't even told you all what I'm feeling yet,
Speaker 1: but I'm feeling something. Goliath means to reveal. Goliath means
Speaker 1: to disclose information. Golith means to reveal oneself and to
Speaker 1: make oneself known. The giant you are facing is actually revealing.
Speaker 1: The giant you are facing is actually uncovering a truth.
Speaker 1: The giant you are facing is revealing to you that
Speaker 1: you are bigger on the inside then Goliath is on
Speaker 1: the outside. Giants always tell on themselves, because giants always
Speaker 1: reveal who they are, who God is, and who you are.
Speaker 1: And without Goliath, you don't get exposed to it. Goliath
Speaker 1: of gath Goth means the wine press, the pressing place,
Speaker 1: the uncomfortable place without a press, without a Goliath, without
Speaker 1: a gath, without a situation that you never prayed for,
Speaker 1: but now that you're in it, it reveals something about
Speaker 1: God that you would have never known about God. It
Speaker 1: reveals something about the devil that you would have never
Speaker 1: known about the devil. It reveals something about you that
Speaker 1: you would have never known about yourself. Giants reveal our calling.
Speaker 1: Giants uncover are gifting. Giants make known our anointing t'thers.
Speaker 1: Giants teach me to pray. Giants pushed me to fast.
Speaker 1: Giants put me on my face where I say God,
Speaker 1: if you don't move, I'm gonna die. I hated to
Speaker 1: face my Goliath, but I'm better for it, bigger for it.
Speaker 1: I'm stronger for it. I'm more anointed because of it.
Speaker 1: I pray like I never prayed before it. I give
Speaker 1: like I've never given before it. I was a different
Speaker 1: man before I met Jesus, but Frankly, I was a
Speaker 1: different man before I met my Goliath. But after I
Speaker 1: had to face an enemy, it revealed to me the
Speaker 1: greatness of my God. It revealed to me the awesome
Speaker 1: power of my God. I stopped comparing myself to my giant.
Speaker 1: Then I started comparing my giant to my Jesus. Then
Speaker 1: I realized that my God is great. There was revealed
Speaker 1: to me that my God is awesome. There was revealed
Speaker 1: to me that my God is are answering, mountain, moving,
Speaker 1: way making God. I didn't know God like I know God.
Speaker 1: After I've left my Goliath. Giants cause you to discover
Speaker 1: that greater is he that's in you than he that's
Speaker 1: in the world. I don't know if I can think
Speaker 1: my Goliath, but I am thankful for my Goliath, because
Speaker 1: something had to break on my walk to my Giant.
Speaker 1: Something new had you come out of me that was
Speaker 1: not there before. And now that I'm on the other side,
Speaker 1: I realize how small he really is, and I realize
Speaker 1: how great my God is. So so so, now that
Speaker 1: I faced Goliath, I can say what Paul said Romans eight,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm more than a conqueror. This is a really
Speaker 1: interesting phrase in the Greek and I won't I won't
Speaker 1: bore you with it. But all all to say, this
Speaker 1: was a run on word sentence that the apostle Paul
Speaker 1: uses more than conquers. This one big word that simply
Speaker 1: means that you're actually stronger after the fight. You're you
Speaker 1: actually have more strength after the race. You're actually better
Speaker 1: after the conflict. You're actually better. After the battle, you
Speaker 1: were good, you were a conqueror, but after you face Goliath,
Speaker 1: you've become more than a conqueror. And you could only
Speaker 1: become that going through him. I don't know what you're facing,
Speaker 1: but I know who's greater. Maybe right here in this room,
Speaker 1: at every location, stand maybe even if you're in your
Speaker 1: living room or kitchen or whatever, maybe just stand with
Speaker 1: us for a moment. Our God is greater, and he
Speaker 1: will take what the enemy meant for evil and he'll
Speaker 1: and he'll turn it. And the devil tolds you it
Speaker 1: was a death sentence, but it was actually an opportunity
Speaker 1: for promotion. And I believe God is elevating. I believe
Speaker 1: God's promoting you. I believe God is lifting your perspective.
Speaker 1: So in Jesus' name, I release the grace and the
Speaker 1: strength of Almighty God upon you, upon your family, upon
Speaker 1: everything that you're currently going through. I agree with you
Speaker 1: for miracles, breakthrough signs and wonders. And I also pray
Speaker 1: for the courage and the faith and the humility to
Speaker 1: do whatever God is calling you to do. Next. I pray,
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, give us the grace to take the step,
Speaker 1: give us, give us the faith, give us the courage
Speaker 1: to break past the fear and the worry and to
Speaker 1: obey God. Oh God, would you do this in the
Speaker 1: name of Jesus sovereignly, by your grace and by your strength.
Speaker 1: Let it be so. Let it be so. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who
Speaker 1: give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that
Speaker 1: this ministry is possible. You can click the link in
Speaker 1: the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org
Speaker 1: slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you