Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. 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 God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Just one verse to get us started today Hebrews chapter six,
Speaker 1: verse nine. Though we speak in this way, yet in
Speaker 1: your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things. Somebody
Speaker 1: shout better things. You shouted that, like you want God
Speaker 1: to do something awesome in your life. Yeah, he said,
Speaker 1: because the context is some are falling away, and some
Speaker 1: are giving up on what they first believe, and some
Speaker 1: are going back to old systems of thought because it's
Speaker 1: too challenging. But he said, not you, not you. You're
Speaker 1: not going to give up or burn out or fade away.
Speaker 1: We speak in this way. It does happen. Yet in
Speaker 1: your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things
Speaker 1: that belong to salvation. I want to preach to you
Speaker 1: for a few moments today with God's help, on the
Speaker 1: subject of when better feels backwards, when better feels backwards?
Speaker 1: And I pray that this might encourage you. In fact,
Speaker 1: let's pray one more time before we take our seat. God,
Speaker 1: if I share my opinion today, it will be close
Speaker 1: to worthless. And if I share from human wisdom today,
Speaker 1: it'll have a short shelf life. But your word is eternal.
Speaker 1: So speak now. We're listening. Give us open hearts to
Speaker 1: receive the things that you desire to say. In Jesus' name, Amen,
Speaker 1: tell the person next to you on your way down
Speaker 1: to your seat, you've never looked better. If the Lord
Speaker 1: has to forgive you for lion, you were just doing
Speaker 1: what the preacher said. Yeah, because on the enneagram, which
Speaker 1: is like the personality type, it's not new, but Holla
Speaker 1: just discovered it a year or two ago. And she
Speaker 1: told me she studied the different nine personality types. And
Speaker 1: she said you're number one. And I was like, I know,
Speaker 1: it's about time you caught onto that. I said, well,
Speaker 1: what is it? And she said a perfectionist. I thought
Speaker 1: at first she said perfection but she said ist. She
Speaker 1: said a perfectionist. She said the motto of the number
Speaker 1: one on the enneagram is it could always be better.
Speaker 1: And I thought about how that can be such a
Speaker 1: wonderful thing if you're trying to make something great and
Speaker 1: create something special, but it can be such a horrible
Speaker 1: way to approach her everyday life that it could always
Speaker 1: be better. And you meet these people every once in
Speaker 1: a while, don't you. I never forget the guy who
Speaker 1: got a raise and I congratulated him, and he said, oh,
Speaker 1: I wish my tax bill is about to go through
Speaker 1: the roof. One guy he saw us doing the baptisms
Speaker 1: at the church, and we baptized over two thousand people,
Speaker 1: remember Rick in two weeks. And when I told him
Speaker 1: about it, no listen this way, he said, Wow, your
Speaker 1: water bill must have been through the roof, always looking
Speaker 1: for how it could be better. And I relate to
Speaker 1: this because, honestly, I think y'all ought to thank God
Speaker 1: for all the perfectionists like me. I know we're annoying,
Speaker 1: but don't you kind of want a perfectionist to design
Speaker 1: the airplane that you fly in? Well, you want somebody
Speaker 1: who just glued the wings on kind of halfway straight.
Speaker 1: Give him more peanuts. They'll never notice. But the blessing
Speaker 1: of seeking perfection may be progress, And yet the byproduct
Speaker 1: so many times in our lives is that we can
Speaker 1: often in our quest for perfection, fill our minds with
Speaker 1: ways that it could be better when not realizing that
Speaker 1: some of the best things in our life come through
Speaker 1: not the things that we asked or prayed for, but
Speaker 1: the things that we are currently working through. The challenge
Speaker 1: for the author of Hebrews is that he's writing to
Speaker 1: a group of Christians whose lives are getting worse. They
Speaker 1: have accepted Jesus as the Messiah, and that caused all
Speaker 1: of their Jewish counterparts to think that they were crazy,
Speaker 1: that they had absolutely lost their minds to follow the
Speaker 1: teachings of a carpenter who was crucified on a Roman cross.
Speaker 1: And so now this group of Christians in Rome is
Speaker 1: being written to to encourage don't go back and just
Speaker 1: look at somebody next to you, because they've been tempted lately,
Speaker 1: tell him, don't go back. That's the temptation. Don't go back,
Speaker 1: don't go back to the old way of doing it,
Speaker 1: because this way is better. And the Christians in Rome
Speaker 1: who are about to face severe persecution from Nero. This
Speaker 1: for anybody who's going through anything right now. It might
Speaker 1: not be Nero persecuting you, but it can just be
Speaker 1: the unfamiliar territory of trying to learn to live by
Speaker 1: grace and faith when you are constantly being tempted to
Speaker 1: live by logic and calculation. And what is fair the
Speaker 1: temptation to control? When God is calling you to surrender
Speaker 1: and there is a temptation to go back to the
Speaker 1: old way, and he's telling them, don't go back. Jesus
Speaker 1: is better. He tells him that thirteen times in the
Speaker 1: Book of Hebrews. He uses this word that a perfectionist
Speaker 1: like me really like. In the Greek the word is
Speaker 1: chritone and it means better. Is translated several different ways
Speaker 1: in English superior, supreme, but mostly is translated better, better
Speaker 1: in quality, better in substance, better by comparison. Jesus is better,
Speaker 1: and he's better because he made a better covenant than
Speaker 1: the old covenant. A covenant is an oath. God didn't
Speaker 1: make an agreement with humanity. He made an agreement with
Speaker 1: his son. He knows that you have a hard time
Speaker 1: holding up your into the bargain, So rather than make
Speaker 1: an agreement with your fickle faith, he made an agreement
Speaker 1: with his faithful son, who was obedient even unto death
Speaker 1: death on the cross. He did it better He says
Speaker 1: that we have a better hope, not the kind of
Speaker 1: hope that only works when things are going in your direction,
Speaker 1: but a kind of hope that is like an anchor
Speaker 1: for the soul. He Brew says it is a better
Speaker 1: hope because an anchor only works when it hits the bobble.
Speaker 1: There is a certain kind of hope that floats, and
Speaker 1: as long as everything on the surface is going good,
Speaker 1: you feel pretty good. And then there is a better hope,
Speaker 1: a crytone hope, a hope that gets down to the bottom,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't fully function and serve its intended purpose
Speaker 1: until it is at that bottom place. If you've bottomed
Speaker 1: out in your emotions, if you've bottomed out in your
Speaker 1: bank account, if your health has bottomed out, if you
Speaker 1: feel like the worst is happening to you, I want
Speaker 1: you to know that you have a better crytone hope
Speaker 1: in Jesus, because he's better. Somebody shall better, better covenant,
Speaker 1: better hope, better promises. The Bible says that Jesus had
Speaker 1: a better ministry, not only a better ministry, but then
Speaker 1: his blood speaks a better word. So when condemnation rises
Speaker 1: up in your heart to tell you what you're not
Speaker 1: remember for a moment who Jesus is, and if he
Speaker 1: went into the Holy of Holies and shed not the
Speaker 1: blood of bulls and goats, but the blood of his
Speaker 1: very own perfect life for you your sake. When a
Speaker 1: drop of his blood hit the mercy seat, it spoke
Speaker 1: over your life, a future and a hope that is better.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter what has been, because what's ahead
Speaker 1: is better. But I'm getting ahead of myself. And these
Speaker 1: Christians who have lost so much are left wondering if
Speaker 1: Jesus is better, how come my situation is getting so
Speaker 1: much worse. See better is subjective, right. Some things are
Speaker 1: just better than others objectively. Kendrick Lamar J. Cole. One
Speaker 1: of those is better. iOS Android, some things are just better.
Speaker 1: I didn't even take a side, and y'all are booing me. Pharisees.
Speaker 1: Some things are just better Clipson Tigers every other football
Speaker 1: team this season. Chrispy Krean dunkin Donuts. I won't even
Speaker 1: have the conversation. You cannot beat. I'm prophesying over your
Speaker 1: future after church today, an original glazed hot dozen't I
Speaker 1: prophesy over your life. The carbohydrates won't even count. Stop
Speaker 1: buy and get one and see. If it doesn't melt
Speaker 1: in your mouth, it will bless you. Leo horrible. Sorry,
Speaker 1: things are just better. But when it comes to things
Speaker 1: that really matter in life, I think all of us
Speaker 1: know that better is a perspective. It's very subjective. You
Speaker 1: know why you think some people's lives are better than
Speaker 1: yours because you see the part that they show you.
Speaker 1: They might have a better house, but I wonder what
Speaker 1: goes on inside and see, you don't know which one's better. Oh,
Speaker 1: if you live long enough, you will find out that
Speaker 1: some of the people you spent so much of your
Speaker 1: time envying were secretly miserable. Better is a perspective. Better
Speaker 1: is not necessarily something that you can measure from what
Speaker 1: you can see with your eyes. But we all live
Speaker 1: in this world. Like you gotta get the iPhone? What
Speaker 1: is it eleven that just came out? Well, I gotta
Speaker 1: get it. I don't even like the text I get
Speaker 1: now from people on the old one. No, it's better.
Speaker 1: It's got a camera that can see through people. It
Speaker 1: can put X ray vision, it can it's better. Oh,
Speaker 1: I gotta get it. It's better. You know that's interest
Speaker 1: because the writer of Hebrews he goes all the way
Speaker 1: back to get the people to move forward. He goes
Speaker 1: all the way back to get the people to move forward.
Speaker 1: He knows the only way that they're going to move
Speaker 1: forward in their faith is if they go backwards. Go
Speaker 1: backwards better. I thought i'd be better by now you are.
Speaker 1: Look where you started. You remember when you weren't even
Speaker 1: going to church? Look at you? Now you gotta pin.
Speaker 1: You're gonna steal it, but at least stolen from a church.
Speaker 1: That's better. Tell somebody and say, I'm doing better. I'm
Speaker 1: doing better. If you could see my bloodline, I'm doing better.
Speaker 1: If you could see the thoughts that I didn't act on,
Speaker 1: if you could see the temptations that I did resist,
Speaker 1: I promise you I'm doing better. See a subjective, and
Speaker 1: this relative better compared to what every time I preach.
Speaker 1: I know, because I am a number one that the
Speaker 1: sermon could be better. Of course, I'm speaking on behalf
Speaker 1: of God. The gap between what he knows and what
Speaker 1: I say will always be a pretty big one. So
Speaker 1: I understand that it always be better, and that torments
Speaker 1: me sometimes, truly it does, because a lot of times,
Speaker 1: you know, I get used to doing things a certain way. Remember,
Speaker 1: these people that the author is writing to so eloquently
Speaker 1: are not unfamiliar with religion. They came from a religious system,
Speaker 1: not out of a meth lab. They're not being tempted
Speaker 1: to go back to the world. They're being tempted to
Speaker 1: go back to an old religious system and to drift away,
Speaker 1: or he says, fall away from grace. He makes an
Speaker 1: argument that you should be further along by now. He
Speaker 1: says it in chapter five that you should be teachers
Speaker 1: by now, but you're still dealing with the basics. And
Speaker 1: then he says that if you fall away from grace,
Speaker 1: that it's impossible to come back. When I read that,
Speaker 1: I got depressed until I realized what he was really
Speaker 1: saying is that if you ever really get grace, you
Speaker 1: can't really fall away. And what he's teaching them Jerry,
Speaker 1: is kind of like on tennis. He has to teach
Speaker 1: them to switch their grip. When I first came to
Speaker 1: get him to teach me, the first thing he said
Speaker 1: to me was because I had developed my own unique
Speaker 1: style of playing tennis. I wasn't good at it or anything,
Speaker 1: but I had this certain way of getting the ball
Speaker 1: over the net that worked for me, and as long
Speaker 1: as the person on the other side of the net
Speaker 1: was less athletic than me, my way worked just fine.
Speaker 1: Or even if they were more athletic than me. I
Speaker 1: would only pick people to play against who I knew
Speaker 1: had never played. It was good for my ego and
Speaker 1: my self esteem, but bad for my tennis skills. And
Speaker 1: when I first came out to Robert Stevens, if you
Speaker 1: want to look him up on Google, get him for
Speaker 1: a tennis teacher. He's pretty good. But when I first
Speaker 1: went out there, this made me mad because he said,
Speaker 1: let me see what I'm working with, show me your serve.
Speaker 1: So I did what I do. You know, I had
Speaker 1: this little thing. I put my pointer finger on the
Speaker 1: racket like that. It's my grip. Okay, it puts the
Speaker 1: ball over the net six miles an hour maybe, but
Speaker 1: it gets over the net into the box. It works.
Speaker 1: And when he saw my grip, he said, okay, now
Speaker 1: you need to hold it like this, and he switched
Speaker 1: my grip. Let me tell you what happened when he
Speaker 1: switched my grip. When he switched my grip, the ball
Speaker 1: no longer went over the net. Instead, it went over
Speaker 1: the fence. When he switched my grip, my percentage shots
Speaker 1: that went in the box went way down. And I
Speaker 1: looked at him, like, I'm paying you for this crap.
Speaker 1: You switched my grip, but you didn't fix my serf.
Speaker 1: But I didn't understand at the time that sometimes in
Speaker 1: order to get to better, you have to go backwards.
Speaker 1: Y'all help me preach if you have spiritual ears, sometimes
Speaker 1: in order to get to better, you have to go
Speaker 1: through bad. And I'm preaching this for somebody today who
Speaker 1: has been feeling like things have been going backwards for you.
Speaker 1: The thing about it is when God shows you a
Speaker 1: new grip called grace for a little while in your
Speaker 1: life is harder for you because you're used to controlling
Speaker 1: things and manipulate things. And when you get something new.
Speaker 1: Have you ever noticed if you get something new, even
Speaker 1: if it's better at first, it gets on your nerves
Speaker 1: because you don't know how to use it. And the
Speaker 1: temptation for us is watch this. God will do a
Speaker 1: new thing in our life, and he'll be teaching us
Speaker 1: to forgive, and he'll be teaching us to get over offences,
Speaker 1: and he'll be teaching us to trust him, and he'll
Speaker 1: be teaching us to find different ways to connect to joy,
Speaker 1: and he'll be teaching us to not be so fake,
Speaker 1: and he'll be teaching us not to live by our feelings.
Speaker 1: But then we look at what he fixed on our grip,
Speaker 1: and we see our shot going so far over the fence,
Speaker 1: and I wonder if I would actually be better off
Speaker 1: doing it the old way then the new way. So
Speaker 1: I go back instead of moving forward into better. He said,
Speaker 1: you can't go back. You you have something better. Better.
Speaker 1: When you get depressed, you stop believing that. When you
Speaker 1: get uncomfortable, you stop believing that. You start trying to
Speaker 1: grip life like you used to. We got to go
Speaker 1: backwards to get better. We got to go all the
Speaker 1: way back to get better. That means I have to
Speaker 1: be comfortable in some seasons of my life. I'm looking
Speaker 1: into the camera because I think this is for somebody
Speaker 1: watching online. I have to be comfortable in my life
Speaker 1: to accept that sometimes loss is the way to gain.
Speaker 1: I have to be comfortable enough in my life to
Speaker 1: know that sometimes the most painful moments are the most
Speaker 1: purposeful moments. I have to be comfortable in my life
Speaker 1: to stop comparing myself so much with people who are
Speaker 1: not meant to be the standard anyway. Jesus is better.
Speaker 1: I know some of you are intimidating because you don't
Speaker 1: know if you're as good of a Christian as some
Speaker 1: of the other people in the room. But let me
Speaker 1: tell you something about being a better Christian. You know, well,
Speaker 1: they're a better Christian than me. Look, they've memorized all
Speaker 1: this scripture. They're not better at Christians. They're better at memory.
Speaker 1: They just got a better memory. That doesn't make them
Speaker 1: a better Christian. The religious people that crucified Jesus had
Speaker 1: a good memory. They could quote all six hundred plus laws.
Speaker 1: They're not better than you. I wish you would tell
Speaker 1: the person next to you you're not better than me.
Speaker 1: Not when it comes to my purpose. See, better is
Speaker 1: relative to purpose? Can I appreci this? So I walked
Speaker 1: into a guitar center and I asked Jamie behind the counter,
Speaker 1: which one is better? I was buying software for Elijah
Speaker 1: to make beats. Which one is better? He said, that
Speaker 1: depends what you want to use it for. That depends
Speaker 1: how you intend to utilize the software. Better is relative
Speaker 1: to purpose. Some of you think that everybody else is better, smarter, taller,
Speaker 1: Maybe God need is somebody short enough to fit through
Speaker 1: that door. Have you ever thought about that? Maybe God
Speaker 1: needed somebody ignorant enough to dislay his wisdom. Maybe God
Speaker 1: need is somebody harmful enough to know that it is
Speaker 1: not I but Christ in me. And besides, if Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ walks in this room, none of us are gonna
Speaker 1: have any fashion show to put on. None of us
Speaker 1: are gonna roll out our righteous deeds. We all have
Speaker 1: sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And
Speaker 1: grace is a way of life because you need Him
Speaker 1: like I need him, and his flood that was enough
Speaker 1: for you wasn't enough for me. If it clints Billy Graham,
Speaker 1: it can hit me too, because he's better, because he's better,
Speaker 1: And the fact that he's better doesn't mean that sometimes
Speaker 1: life won't get worse. So we need a new definition
Speaker 1: of better. What if better is not always higher? What
Speaker 1: if better sometimes is deeper? What if better is not
Speaker 1: always a feeling? What if it's more like a foundation.
Speaker 1: What if better is not always what God is doing
Speaker 1: for you, but sometimes it's what He's doing through you.
Speaker 1: They couldn't recognize Jesus when he came in the form
Speaker 1: of a baby because they were waiting for something better.
Speaker 1: They couldn't recognize Jesus when he was led away silently
Speaker 1: and didn't say a word before his accusers, because if
Speaker 1: he's really the son of God, he should say something
Speaker 1: and come down. They expect it better. And is it
Speaker 1: possible that better is right in front of us and
Speaker 1: we don't even recognize it, so we don't receive it.
Speaker 1: You know what. Some of us are so used to
Speaker 1: bad that we reject better when it comes. Sometimes backwards
Speaker 1: feels better, feels familiar. Sometimes we'll go back to bad
Speaker 1: relationships because they feel better. Oh, I'm preaching now, he
Speaker 1: got quaed when backwards I called the sermon when better
Speaker 1: feels backwards? But what about when backwards feels better? I
Speaker 1: think I'll just go back to this. I think I'll
Speaker 1: just go back to that. I think I'll just quit
Speaker 1: trying at this. I think I'll use my old grip.
Speaker 1: I'm tired of waiting. That's what happened to Abraham. By
Speaker 1: the way. God told him he was going to do
Speaker 1: it a certain way, but he thought he knew better,
Speaker 1: so instead of waiting, he went in and slept with
Speaker 1: the servant of his wife Sarah. Her name became Sarah,
Speaker 1: but Abraham went in and made a baby with her
Speaker 1: because God had a promise and a timetable for the promise.
Speaker 1: But Abraham, I know you never did this before, but
Speaker 1: he thought he knew better than God. And the Bible
Speaker 1: even uses this illustration of Abraham in Hebrew six. He
Speaker 1: reaches backward to show them how much better it is
Speaker 1: to wait for the promise of God. He reaches all
Speaker 1: the way back to Abraham that was like the progenitor
Speaker 1: or the father of the faith of the whole nation.
Speaker 1: This is what they came from. And now as they're
Speaker 1: attempted to go back away from what they're walking into,
Speaker 1: as their lives get worse, as their situation seems to
Speaker 1: decrease and diminish, he reaches back to Abraham and he
Speaker 1: talks about how he patiently waited for the promise of God.
Speaker 1: But that's not the whole story. See before Abraham patiently
Speaker 1: waited for Isaac, the child of Promise, to be born
Speaker 1: through Sarah, he got the word from God, and then
Speaker 1: he went in did something that he thought was better
Speaker 1: because he got tired of waiting. He had the right word,
Speaker 1: but the wrong Wombo, and so he went in. Now
Speaker 1: I know why he did this, because Abraham was from
Speaker 1: a place called Er of the Caldas, and so are
Speaker 1: we not geographically and it's spelled differently. He was from
Speaker 1: er you are, but ours is spelled er. Because anything
Speaker 1: that God does in our life, all we have to
Speaker 1: do is go on our phones and find somebody who
Speaker 1: is er than us, better, er, rich er, strong er, happy, er,
Speaker 1: thin er, ripped er, cute er. This is the one
Speaker 1: that'll break your heart. You think your kids are smart,
Speaker 1: and then you get around some other kids and you
Speaker 1: realize that your kids, by product of comparison, were better
Speaker 1: than their three year old brother but around the same age. Kids,
Speaker 1: it's always this temptation. You don't have to do anything
Speaker 1: but flip on a commercial and they will be pulling
Speaker 1: you back to the land of er. It's better is better,
Speaker 1: And there are things in your life right now that
Speaker 1: you're like, it'd be so much better if would it really?
Speaker 1: Are you sure? Yeah? Yeah? If I was famous, that
Speaker 1: would be amazing. I would be significant if people knew
Speaker 1: my name. Oh really, that would be better. You never
Speaker 1: saw celebrity commit suicide? Are you sure it would be better?
Speaker 1: Is that what better really is? Well, if I had
Speaker 1: this amount of money, I wouldn't have any problems. Are
Speaker 1: you sure about that? You never met a miserable rich person.
Speaker 1: I can introduce you to a few. It's not like
Speaker 1: this is new. It's not like it's only for the
Speaker 1: church here in Rome that is being persecuted for their faith.
Speaker 1: We are all drawn back to the land of earth
Speaker 1: of looking around and never feeling really enough, and comparing
Speaker 1: ourselves to things that were never meant to be our standard.
Speaker 1: The only standard world of your comparison is the full
Speaker 1: potential of Christ in you, the hope of glory. And
Speaker 1: I want to declare over some of our lives today.
Speaker 1: We don't even realize how good it already is. We
Speaker 1: are forgiven, set free, redeemed, breathing, clapping, walking, talking, examples
Speaker 1: of the miracle working power of God. I release this
Speaker 1: over your life. It's already better. You can already rejoice.
Speaker 1: You can give thanks right now for His goodness. Chriton better, better, better, better.
Speaker 1: Don't let the quest for better in your life make
Speaker 1: you miss the grace of God that is already present.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching to every enneagram right now. It could always
Speaker 1: be better, but it already is. Look what I deserved,
Speaker 1: and look what he did. He did not treat me
Speaker 1: as my sins deserve. It's already better. I'm gonna walk
Speaker 1: around saying that all week. It's already better. It's already
Speaker 1: I'm gonna declare it by faith on things that I'm
Speaker 1: waiting for God to do. It's already better. It's already better.
Speaker 1: It's already better. It's already better because once you give
Speaker 1: up the hope that it can never be better, the
Speaker 1: only option is to go back. And yet I'm so
Speaker 1: interested in how this writer constructs his argument better better.
Speaker 1: He starts the whole book of Hebrews talking about Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ in his glory, and he doesn't give an introduction.
Speaker 1: He just gets right to business. He grabs the mic,
Speaker 1: starts talking about long ago at many times, in many ways,
Speaker 1: God spoke to our fathers by the prophece. He's going backwards.
Speaker 1: He's giving them what so many of us desperately need
Speaker 1: in our lives, a frame of reference. You know, when
Speaker 1: the devil starts speaking to you, you lose all sense
Speaker 1: of where you really are in your life, and you
Speaker 1: lose all sense you're drifting now you're falling. Now you
Speaker 1: forget how good grace is because all you can think
Speaker 1: about is how bad you are. So he brings them
Speaker 1: all the way back. He rewinds it all the way back,
Speaker 1: and he says, long ago, in various times, various ways,
Speaker 1: God spoke through our fathers, the prophets, give me the
Speaker 1: next verse. But in these last days He has spoken
Speaker 1: to us by his son. Now he's beginning to construct
Speaker 1: the argument cry tone. Everybody say criytone, not crouton. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help you remember it. Cry tone better. He's
Speaker 1: going to introduce that word for the first of thirteen
Speaker 1: times in this epistle letter declaration that he said, I'm
Speaker 1: convinced of better things concerning you, Well, how do you know?
Speaker 1: You don't know me like that. You don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on in my life. You don't know what I'm
Speaker 1: actually dealing with. You're up here preaching all this stuff.
Speaker 1: You don't know. My mom is sick and in a
Speaker 1: nursing home and I can barely afford to pay for it,
Speaker 1: and I haven't been to visit her, but once this year.
Speaker 1: You don't know gup, you're talking about better? Well, the
Speaker 1: writer of Hebrew says, Let's go back long ago. In
Speaker 1: various ways and at various times, God spoke through the prophets.
Speaker 1: But now in these last days he has spoken to
Speaker 1: us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of
Speaker 1: all things. Somebody say better, Come on, I need full
Speaker 1: participation on every location. Say better. Jesus is better. The
Speaker 1: prophets were good. Jesus is better. The old way is good,
Speaker 1: the new way is better. Duncan Donuts is good, but
Speaker 1: chrispy Kreme is hot. Now I see the sign preaching
Speaker 1: Pastor Ferditt. In these last days, he has spoken by
Speaker 1: his son, whom he appointed, is a better operating system
Speaker 1: because he is the heir of all things, through whom
Speaker 1: he also created the world. He is the radiance of
Speaker 1: the glory of God. It doesn't get any better, and
Speaker 1: the exact imprint of his nature. It is perfection in flesh,
Speaker 1: and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Speaker 1: Somebody shall better Verse four, and I'll leave you alone,
Speaker 1: says this, having become as much superior to angels as
Speaker 1: the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Speaker 1: Now what surprised me about that verse was not that
Speaker 1: he chose to say that Jesus is better than the angels.
Speaker 1: Of course, the creator is better than his creation. He
Speaker 1: made the angels. It stands to reason that he's better
Speaker 1: than the angels. There is nothing in your life that
Speaker 1: God has given you that he is not greater. Don't
Speaker 1: worship the gift, Worship the giver. The giver is the source,
Speaker 1: The gift is the resource. He's better. Somebody say he's better.
Speaker 1: That's the Greek word he translates. He says, having become
Speaker 1: as much verse four, superior, cry tone better. It's the
Speaker 1: same word better, covenant, better, word, better, promise better, ministry better, better, better.
Speaker 1: Jesus is better than the angels. And I'm not surprised
Speaker 1: whatever you put in the next blank. Jesus is greater
Speaker 1: than He's better than popularity. He's better than man's praise.
Speaker 1: He's better than a high you can get from some people.
Speaker 1: He's better than what you can put in your body
Speaker 1: and feel good for five hours. He's better, better, better.
Speaker 1: That's not what surprised me. What surprised me is when
Speaker 1: it said in verse four, Pardey having become because he
Speaker 1: already was perfect, So how did he become better? I
Speaker 1: know from my study of the Word of God God
Speaker 1: that he did not improve in character. I know from
Speaker 1: my study in the Word of God that Jesus didn't
Speaker 1: go into the gym and get gains bro I know
Speaker 1: from what I know about his immutable which means unable
Speaker 1: to be changed nature, that he didn't get better like
Speaker 1: people get better. So in order to understand when that
Speaker 1: shocked me, that just stopped me, I said, I know
Speaker 1: he's better, but he didn't become better. He was already better,
Speaker 1: and I had to go backwards to understand better. I'm
Speaker 1: appreciate to y' all. Three in verse three, it describes
Speaker 1: this process by which God became a man. What's better
Speaker 1: a God or a man? So right answer, ding ding ding,
Speaker 1: gold star God. But it said he became better. He
Speaker 1: didn't get better. He was revealed as better. And how
Speaker 1: did he do it? Because how we think of better
Speaker 1: is we climb up. But Jesus is not drake. He
Speaker 1: didn't start from the bottom. My God, this word is
Speaker 1: just blessing me enough to subscribe to the podcast. He
Speaker 1: started in a celestial space that is untouched by the
Speaker 1: temporal He started in eternity and came into time. He
Speaker 1: started robed in divinity and glory and entered into flesh
Speaker 1: and shame. Watch verse three. It says he was the
Speaker 1: radiance of the glory of God. He didn't become that
Speaker 1: he was, that he was the exact imprint of his nature.
Speaker 1: He didn't become that he was that he upholds the
Speaker 1: universe by the power of his word. That's not what
Speaker 1: he did. That's who he is. So how did he
Speaker 1: become better? He made purification for sins and then sat
Speaker 1: down Jesus. I need you to hear this for everybody
Speaker 1: who is dealing with shame and you feel like you've
Speaker 1: been going backwards because you keep slipping and you keep
Speaker 1: stumbling and you feel like I'm going backwards. I want
Speaker 1: to tell you Jesus went backwards so we could see
Speaker 1: that he was better. Now I need en seconds a
Speaker 1: praise from the church from a Nairobi to Caston County
Speaker 1: and Balentine in the back section. Give him praise. If
Speaker 1: you know he came down to left me out. And
Speaker 1: so if you've been going down lately, if you haven't
Speaker 1: been feeling lately, if some things have been subtracted lately,
Speaker 1: I wanted to declare you're getting better backwards. God's gonna
Speaker 1: do it in you. He is preparing you. Stand up
Speaker 1: and let me pray for the people. God says, sometimes
Speaker 1: you gotta get better backwards. Sometimes you got to switch
Speaker 1: the grip and understand that it's His grace and mercy,
Speaker 1: not your effort and your ability to walk in perfect fame.
Speaker 1: I'm getting better backwards. I'm getting better through the power
Speaker 1: of the things that I endure, and I refuse to
Speaker 1: go back. I refuse to go back when what I
Speaker 1: have is better. Make that declaration, say what I have
Speaker 1: is better. D O. Moody, the Great evangelist, was talking
Speaker 1: one time to a critic. The man didn't like his
Speaker 1: preaching because he made too many grammatical errors, and the
Speaker 1: man knew better English than D. L. Moody. But just
Speaker 1: because you know better English doesn't make you a better preacher. Amen. Amen.
Speaker 1: And even though the man criticized him, he responded with humility.
Speaker 1: And then the story that was told of him said
Speaker 1: that when a man approached him and said, Hey, I
Speaker 1: don't like the way that you give invitations. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's I don't think it's good. And he was
Speaker 1: used to bring so many people to Christ right This
Speaker 1: was back in the day when you couldn't leave a
Speaker 1: comment on somebody's YouTube. You had to tell him if
Speaker 1: you didn't like them, straight to their face. These were
Speaker 1: better times, no internet courage back then. He said, I
Speaker 1: don't like the way you do it, and dal Moody said,
Speaker 1: neither do I. I'm trying to find a better way.
Speaker 1: Then he asked the man. He said, uh, how do
Speaker 1: you do it? And the man said, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't have a way. D L. Moody said, I like
Speaker 1: mine better. Then I like mine better. I know it's
Speaker 1: not pretty sometimes, and other people's progress can make you
Speaker 1: tempted to revert to past ways of thinking when you
Speaker 1: compare yourself to the wrong standard. But in the presence
Speaker 1: of God, in the presence of Jesus, who is greater
Speaker 1: than all things, and the eternal Christ, whose word has
Speaker 1: spoken not only from eternity, but from time, from Him
Speaker 1: who knew no sin, who became sin, that we might
Speaker 1: become the righteousness of God, he says, don't get discouraged
Speaker 1: in your life. Don't get discouraged by your marriage. Don't
Speaker 1: get discouraged by another people's another person's marriage. Bad grammar,
Speaker 1: good theology, I feel your dl moody. He said, don't
Speaker 1: get discouraged by what you don't have that they do have.
Speaker 1: But instead I want you to declare over your life
Speaker 1: today that relative to my purpose, there is not a
Speaker 1: better person to be on the earth, in position on assignment,
Speaker 1: humbled before the presence of God. You know what makes
Speaker 1: you better for the job than anybody else. The fact
Speaker 1: that you know that you can't do it on your own.
Speaker 1: That's what makes you better in this world of improving,
Speaker 1: in this world of approving, and it could always be
Speaker 1: er Er. Don't miss what is on the way to
Speaker 1: a place called er. God's name is not the great
Speaker 1: I Er, He's the great I Am. I need six
Speaker 1: hundred people to celebrate this word right now. The blood
Speaker 1: of Jesus speak so better a word. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give
Speaker 1: generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this
Speaker 1: ministry is possible. You can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description to give now, or visit Elevation Church 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.