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 God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: First Samuel, chapter seventeen, verse fifty. Just one scripture today
Speaker 1: that I want to share with you. But it's a
Speaker 1: good one. It says in One Samuel, seventeen, verse fifty,
Speaker 1: So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and
Speaker 1: a stone, without a sword in his hand. He struck
Speaker 1: down the Philistine and killed him. There's power in the
Speaker 1: mighty name of Jesus, and every war he wages he
Speaker 1: will win. So David triumphed over the Philistine, and I'm
Speaker 1: not backing down from any giant. With a sling and
Speaker 1: a stone, without a sword in his hand. He struck
Speaker 1: down the Philistine and killed him. Would you look at
Speaker 1: your neighbor and sing my sermon title, Tell him I
Speaker 1: know how this storys Come on, tell your other neighbor
Speaker 1: the safet one. Tell them I know how this story. Father.
Speaker 1: We thank you for your word the power of it,
Speaker 1: and that he who began a good work is faithful
Speaker 1: to complete it. In Jesus' name. Amen, you may take
Speaker 1: your seat, God bless you. I know how this story
Speaker 1: ends because Holly and I have a rule in our
Speaker 1: marriage that when she's telling me a story, if it's
Speaker 1: a negative story, then I need her to tell me
Speaker 1: the ending before she gives me the details, because sometimes
Speaker 1: she tells expanded stories. You like how I said that
Speaker 1: that was real PC, How I said that that was
Speaker 1: really cautious. How I said that she tells She tells
Speaker 1: stories and puts in all the deleted scenes it's the
Speaker 1: director's cut. But sometimes I just need to know when
Speaker 1: she says today was a terrible day, I need to
Speaker 1: know how this ends. You know, Oh, how how was
Speaker 1: your day? Oh? And then she starts with breakfast. But
Speaker 1: I need to know, like, well, how much does it
Speaker 1: cost at the end of it, Like, you know, is
Speaker 1: it seven thousand dollars or do we both have to
Speaker 1: go to the kids' school this time or just one
Speaker 1: of us. I need to know how this ends, or
Speaker 1: I'll just get lost in the middle. It's different when
Speaker 1: you know how it ends. If you tell me how
Speaker 1: it ends, you know, don't worry, it's not that bad.
Speaker 1: We got it all worked out well. Then I can
Speaker 1: follow you on all of the twists. But I just
Speaker 1: need to know how it ends. I need to know
Speaker 1: that this is going to be all right. I need
Speaker 1: to know that it's not fatal. I need to know
Speaker 1: that they didn't quit. You just had a bad meeting.
Speaker 1: Because she'll be telling me something about something at the office,
Speaker 1: and she'll she'll want to put it. You know, she
Speaker 1: has good storytelling technique and she's a great storyteller, but
Speaker 1: that works against us in marital communication because I'm not
Speaker 1: looking for suspense and drama. I just need the bottom line.
Speaker 1: So she'd be like, oh, I had a meeting with
Speaker 1: so and so today it went terrible, And I'm thinking, like,
Speaker 1: are they moving back to Nebraska where their famili's from.
Speaker 1: Do we have to replace them on staff? But just
Speaker 1: tell me how it ends, and then you could get
Speaker 1: me all the details. Then you can tell me that
Speaker 1: eggs were on sale when you went back home on
Speaker 1: the way to the thing, and then the thing with
Speaker 1: the thing, and then the car cut off, but then
Speaker 1: it cut back on and it's not in the shop.
Speaker 1: Just tell me how it ends, and then I can
Speaker 1: listen to the story. I want to show you something
Speaker 1: real quick. This is a picture from our summer vacation
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago. Just a picture of some family
Speaker 1: time that we had. Yeah, see that's how it ended.
Speaker 1: I don't know, can they see that the campus is Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how it ended. That's how it ended, with Graham smilet,
Speaker 1: with everybody breathing, Elijah making some questionable sign with his hand.
Speaker 1: Notice there is only one or there were two when
Speaker 1: we set out and embarked on this family adventure. But
Speaker 1: it ends like this. Thankfully for me, as I've already mentioned,
Speaker 1: I have a great wife who when she saw us
Speaker 1: struggling on the kayak, because contrary to my knowledge, sand
Speaker 1: bars are temporary. They don't just stay there. The sandbar
Speaker 1: that is there one minute might be gone in thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: There's this thing called the tides. You think I would
Speaker 1: know this stuff. You would think you would drag the
Speaker 1: kayak further than just the very edge of the sandbar
Speaker 1: before you walked all the way out to the middle
Speaker 1: of it to have a family memory. But thank God
Speaker 1: for my wife because when she saw us struggling, when
Speaker 1: the tide came in. How many notes? When God gives
Speaker 1: you a great wife? When she sees you struggling, she
Speaker 1: picks up the iPhone and records it. So check out
Speaker 1: this video she took real quick from the shore. All right,
Speaker 1: here's the boys paddle to this sandbar. But the tilling
Speaker 1: is coming in minutes away from including no minutes, and
Speaker 1: they're not even they don't know where they're honey, even
Speaker 1: worried about it. Oh there's Graham. He's running everything. Yep,
Speaker 1: that's Graham running how they're stuck. So you know, Graham
Speaker 1: said it best. He said when we got back and
Speaker 1: we were telling everybody what had happened, he said, that
Speaker 1: could have ended a whole lot different, you know, because
Speaker 1: you obviously have the leisure of laughter because you know
Speaker 1: how it ends. I mean, well, hey, pastor, I mean
Speaker 1: it's pretty funny. Actually the monoculars. You're dry now you're
Speaker 1: not dead, because it's different when you know how it ends.
Speaker 1: But if the man on the jet ski hadn't come by,
Speaker 1: it could have ended. This is what Graham said. It
Speaker 1: could have ended a whole lot different. Or if he
Speaker 1: wouldn't have had southern hospitality to go get my kayak
Speaker 1: and bring it back to me with his jet ski.
Speaker 1: It could have ended. Look at somebody say, it could
Speaker 1: have ended a whole lot different. How many know there's
Speaker 1: some things in your life that could have ended a
Speaker 1: whole lot different. That drunk driver swerved right into your lane,
Speaker 1: but some kind of angel just pull that car back over.
Speaker 1: It could have ended a whole lot different. Come on,
Speaker 1: you know I'm right about it. If you had got
Speaker 1: stopped by the police at the wrong time when you
Speaker 1: were in college, it could have ended a whole lot different.
Speaker 1: Some of us. It's not that we never did anything wrong.
Speaker 1: We just didn't get caught. If we would have been
Speaker 1: at the wrong place at the wrong time, it could
Speaker 1: have ended a whole lot different. Paulisher, Halo, if you want,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna turn to the heathen section. This where the
Speaker 1: heathens sit. It could have ended. Come on, stand up
Speaker 1: and testify if it could have ended if it had
Speaker 1: not been for the Lord on my side. You better
Speaker 1: give him praise right now before he pulls up your
Speaker 1: search history. It could have ended all whole You know
Speaker 1: I'm right. Tell somebody you know that preacher is right.
Speaker 1: So it's funny now and when I read David and
Speaker 1: Goliath as my text. There's some Bible nerds sitting out there,
Speaker 1: maybe watching online, going like a really, David and Goliath,
Speaker 1: all the stories in the Bible, you want to pick
Speaker 1: this one? Oh boy, I all already know this one.
Speaker 1: David kills Goliath, Goli. It goes down every time you
Speaker 1: read it. I already know about the sling shot in
Speaker 1: the stone. He had five smooth stones, buddy old and
Speaker 1: need of wine. The giant came. He had a big,
Speaker 1: heavy helmet, Jesse. He called David, said take this bread
Speaker 1: down to your brothers, jack on them. And Baby got
Speaker 1: down there and golith was shoven, and David heard it,
Speaker 1: and Baby said, you want no smoke, and Dave they
Speaker 1: grabbed the sleigh and it threw a stone at the giant,
Speaker 1: and the giant went down. I already know how this
Speaker 1: story ends. So since you already know how it ends,
Speaker 1: let me suggest some to you. David never read first
Speaker 1: Samuel seventeen, verse fifteen. It's different when you know how
Speaker 1: it ends, so we can shout. But David was shaking,
Speaker 1: shaking in his sandals, holding his slang, trembling, wondering how
Speaker 1: this ends, wondering Will this jet, ski, get my kayak,
Speaker 1: wondering preaching to somebody today And you have not read
Speaker 1: for Samuel seventeen fifty yet about this situation in your life,
Speaker 1: and you are still looking at a giant that is
Speaker 1: bigger than you. And since we know how David's story ends,
Speaker 1: I want to spend just a few moments today thinking
Speaker 1: about how it could have ended, because it could have
Speaker 1: ended a whole lot different. Had I had I gone
Speaker 1: to that one school and married that other girl, how
Speaker 1: many knows, it could have ended a whole lot worse
Speaker 1: for Holly, she could have missed a whole buffet. But
Speaker 1: now think about it. If David makes some different decisions,
Speaker 1: the story ends a whole lot different. And see, God
Speaker 1: is writing your story right now, for your family, right now,
Speaker 1: for this season of your life, right now. And although
Speaker 1: we know that Goliath goes down, David has to do
Speaker 1: it in the face of uncertainty. And yet, no matter
Speaker 1: how many sermons you hear about David defeating Goliath, you
Speaker 1: must recognize that there were three things that David had
Speaker 1: to face before he even ever got to Goliath. And
Speaker 1: if any of these three things had gone differently, it
Speaker 1: could have been a whole lot different. If David had
Speaker 1: been a typical teenager when his father came in said,
Speaker 1: you know, he's only seventeen when he kills Goliath. And
Speaker 1: if he had had a response to Jesse's instruction when
Speaker 1: Jesse said, I want you to run these snacks down
Speaker 1: to your brothers. If David had rolled his eyes, you know, God, Dad, seriously,
Speaker 1: I'm like a future king. Dad. Samuel has already annointed David.
Speaker 1: He already knows he has a great future. But now
Speaker 1: if David refuses to be faithful in his present because
Speaker 1: he's too focused on his future, this story ends a
Speaker 1: lot different. How many you heard the story of David
Speaker 1: and Goliath? Raise your hand? Yeah? No, Because it's even
Speaker 1: a sports analogy. People use it in the NBA, the NFL.
Speaker 1: It's an archetypal story. It's so famous, it's so wonderful,
Speaker 1: it's so fun to preach. I bet I've preached it
Speaker 1: fifty times, at least fifty times in this one church.
Speaker 1: But watch how the story could have gone. It could
Speaker 1: have been a whole lot different. Jesse wakes David up
Speaker 1: one morning. He says, I got a task for you.
Speaker 1: I want you to run this cheese and bread down
Speaker 1: to your brothers on the battle lines. They're in the
Speaker 1: Valley of Ela, fighting with Saul. David wakes up slowly.
Speaker 1: David rolls his eyes. David jecks his phone. David post
Speaker 1: on his Instagram story the fake account, the one that
Speaker 1: Jesse doesn't follow, and David puts that on Instagram. God,
Speaker 1: my dad makes me sick. This is ridiculous. God, I
Speaker 1: hate my parents. I hate my life. David goes to
Speaker 1: the battle line, but he gets there forty five minutes late.
Speaker 1: He gets there after Goliath came out to shout his
Speaker 1: usual defiance. He didn't know Goliath was on the battle line.
Speaker 1: You don't know what day God wants to use you. You
Speaker 1: You don't know what conversation is going to turn things around.
Speaker 1: You don't know what moment is going to be holy.
Speaker 1: You don't know when a bush is going to burst
Speaker 1: into flames and spontaneously combust with the presence of God
Speaker 1: and the direction for the next step of your life.
Speaker 1: You don't know this. But if you don't show up,
Speaker 1: watch this and do the ordinary with a good attitude,
Speaker 1: it could have ended a whole lot different. Do you
Speaker 1: really think they would have taught us this Bible story
Speaker 1: in Bible School, in Sunday School. If the story went
Speaker 1: like this, Jesse woke up, David, David got up, David
Speaker 1: went down to the battle lines with the bad attitude,
Speaker 1: dropped off the food, threw it at his brothers, and
Speaker 1: went back home. And yet it could have ended like that.
Speaker 1: That could have been the very end of the story.
Speaker 1: It could have ended a whole. It could have ended
Speaker 1: with David. It could have ended with David feeling slighted
Speaker 1: because he was asked to do something that he deemed
Speaker 1: in significant. You know who I am, Dad, Really, you're
Speaker 1: asking me to be a delivery boy to take this
Speaker 1: food down to my brothers. You're serious, right now, God Dad? Okay,
Speaker 1: Oh okay, Oh go, but I'm not gonna run to
Speaker 1: the battle lines and I'm not gonna have my eyes
Speaker 1: open for up to Oh Okay, I'll go, but I
Speaker 1: don't have to like it. Okay, I'll go to church,
Speaker 1: but I'm not lifting my hands. That's what the weird
Speaker 1: people do. Oh okay, i'll go, but we're leaving early.
Speaker 1: That parking lot gets crazy and I want to be
Speaker 1: at the restaurant before the Methodist church less. Oh okay,
Speaker 1: could have been a hole. Come on, work with me
Speaker 1: with a vowel sound. It could have been a whole
Speaker 1: You don't even have to buy a vowl, just say it.
Speaker 1: It could have been a whole lot different. I'm David.
Speaker 1: I'm not door dash what you think. I am uber Eats,
Speaker 1: I'm not dropping nothing off. My name is David. Say
Speaker 1: my name, David King, David Crown, David Samuel. Put the
Speaker 1: oil on my head, David. It could have been a
Speaker 1: whole lot different if David had tripped over the ordinary.
Speaker 1: So here's what I'm learning is that opportunity presents itself
Speaker 1: as ordinary. There is not going to be You know,
Speaker 1: I want to kill my goliath. I want a breakthrough
Speaker 1: in my life. I want to whatever. You know. We
Speaker 1: use goliath to mean anything, by the way, in church,
Speaker 1: if you're new here, Goliath could mean anything. It could
Speaker 1: mean we want a good parking space. It could mean
Speaker 1: we want a healing in our body. It could mean
Speaker 1: we want to stop beating so many chips. Goliath can
Speaker 1: mean almost anything. In this particular instance, it means anything
Speaker 1: that opposes the purpose of God. He was standing against
Speaker 1: the people of God God, opposing the purpose of God,
Speaker 1: defying the armies of the Living God. That's what Goliath was.
Speaker 1: And they usually won't be physical. But before David ever
Speaker 1: got to the real battle, he had to face the ordinary.
Speaker 1: There's not going to be one conversation with your kids
Speaker 1: that is going to change their life. It is going
Speaker 1: to be picking them up and dropping them off and
Speaker 1: trying to get them to say more than three words
Speaker 1: to you at a time. That is going to change
Speaker 1: their life. Is three words on top of three words
Speaker 1: on top of three words on top of three words
Speaker 1: on top of three words. You are not going to
Speaker 1: take your son on one trip to Ireland and reenact
Speaker 1: Braveheart or Scotland or wherever that overrated movie happened, and
Speaker 1: he's going to come back shouting freedom and he's a
Speaker 1: warrior now. For Jesus Christ, it's not going to be
Speaker 1: one trip when he turned sixteen. It's going to be
Speaker 1: many trips. It's going to be many back in forth
Speaker 1: and back and forth. And David went back and forth
Speaker 1: and back and forth and back and forth. See, we
Speaker 1: know how the story ends. David didn't. He didn't even
Speaker 1: know there was a giant in the Valley of the Law,
Speaker 1: not when he sets out that day, and if he
Speaker 1: refuses to do the ordinary, it could have been a
Speaker 1: whole lot different. What a boring story this would have been.
Speaker 1: David's dad said, go, David went, did it with a
Speaker 1: bad attitude, came home, slept for eight hours. Could have
Speaker 1: been a whole lot different if David had been typical.
Speaker 1: So then he gets there right, he does the ordinary.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Bible says this amazing. He ran to
Speaker 1: the battle lines, he left his things with the keeper
Speaker 1: of supplies. He's very responsible. He runs to the battle lines.
Speaker 1: So he's there in position with the attitude to see
Speaker 1: the opportunity. And when he hears Goliath shouting. See if
Speaker 1: Dad goes down like most of us go around and
Speaker 1: just gets through his day, he's not gonna be in
Speaker 1: the frame of mind to seize the opportunity. And even
Speaker 1: when he gets there and gives the brothers the food
Speaker 1: that he brought for them, one of his brothers has
Speaker 1: such a bad attitude with him that the second thing
Speaker 1: that David had to deal with before he even got
Speaker 1: to the real opponent, was of fence. Now, I want
Speaker 1: to show you this. It's very powerful, how some of
Speaker 1: us are fighting the wrong battle we are fighting a
Speaker 1: preliminary battle and missing the real one because when David
Speaker 1: gets there, he's like, what's up, guys? You know David
Speaker 1: is that dude. He's like, hey, guys, what did I miss?
Speaker 1: And They're like, it's nothing new, man. This dude is
Speaker 1: nine foot two. He keeps coming out every day and
Speaker 1: keeps saying the same thing. He keeps telling us, send
Speaker 1: your best man, I'll kill him and you will be
Speaker 1: our slaves. But we can't do anything with him because
Speaker 1: I mean, look at him, Look how big he is.
Speaker 1: And David's like, look how big he is. One country
Speaker 1: preacher said this. He said, the rest of the army
Speaker 1: saw Goliath and said he's too big to kill. David
Speaker 1: looked at Goliath and said he's too big to miss.
Speaker 1: I wonder what's your perspective today. I'm preaching for fifteen people.
Speaker 1: God said, this challenge in front of you is an
Speaker 1: indication of the power within you. Yeah. Yeah. David's like,
Speaker 1: so what do I get if I kill him? It's like, well,
Speaker 1: Saul said, like at first he was like, does anybody
Speaker 1: want to fight him? But it's been forty days now,
Speaker 1: and so Saul keeps opping the ante like the airlines
Speaker 1: do when they got to overbook flight. You know, we
Speaker 1: need two volunteers, from the kindness of your heart, to
Speaker 1: give up your seat. We need two volunteers. We'll give
Speaker 1: you two hundred dollars. We're gonna need you two volunteers.
Speaker 1: We'll give you five hundred dollars. We need two volunteers.
Speaker 1: We'll give you a thousand dollars voucher for travel. The
Speaker 1: more desperate they get, the more the reward becomes. Now
Speaker 1: you can only use thee thousand dollars every seventeen Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: on this voucher, and blackout dates apply. But now Saul
Speaker 1: has gotten so desperate he got to the point where
Speaker 1: he says, look, I'll give you my daughter in marriage,
Speaker 1: the hot one, and you don't have to pay taxes.
Speaker 1: So David's like, for real, Now somebody verified this. Now
Speaker 1: here's the difference. Here's the difference. It could have been
Speaker 1: a whole lot different. But David hadn't been out there
Speaker 1: forty days, and he hadn't gotten used to the dysfunction,
Speaker 1: and he hadn't got used to standing there defeated in
Speaker 1: a dead block, And so he comes up and to them,
Speaker 1: Goliath just sounds normal, But to David it sounds different.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, he's not supposed to talk like that.
Speaker 1: You know, you can get comfortable in your dysfunction when
Speaker 1: you've been in it long enough, when all your sick
Speaker 1: friends are lying around in five covered colonnades, it can
Speaker 1: be easy for you to start making excuses. And David
Speaker 1: was like, hold on, So he said, what about God?
Speaker 1: And I get what if A kill him? I love
Speaker 1: this though, because this is what always happens when God
Speaker 1: is trying to do something in your life. The enemy
Speaker 1: will always present another enemy that is not the real enemy,
Speaker 1: to keep you distracted from fighting the one that you're
Speaker 1: called to defeat. In David's case, it was his brother,
Speaker 1: his big brother. His name kind of sounds like Goliath,
Speaker 1: but it's not Eliab. He was tall. For a minute,
Speaker 1: Samuel thought he was supposed to be the king, Becausaul
Speaker 1: was tall. And he saw in Samuel saw in Eliab
Speaker 1: what he had seen in Saul, which is height, not heart.
Speaker 1: And God said, don't look at his height, look at
Speaker 1: his heart. Stop judging your situation externally. It's what's inside
Speaker 1: the counts. It's what's inside the counse. And a live
Speaker 1: starts judging David's motives. He's like, look at this. In
Speaker 1: verse twenty eight, he goes, why have you come down here?
Speaker 1: And with whom did you leave those few sheep? Now,
Speaker 1: all of these things David had taken care of. He's
Speaker 1: a very responsible young man. But really, what's happening here
Speaker 1: is I believe the enemy is trying to trigger David
Speaker 1: to get him to fight the wrong person. Because watch,
Speaker 1: if he stands here and argues with his brother, he
Speaker 1: will never even see his enemy. This might be the
Speaker 1: whole sermon for somebody. Now just look straight ahead. If
Speaker 1: you're married, sometimes you're fighting against what you're supposed to
Speaker 1: be fighting for, and you have to call a time out.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you have to sometimes be like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: you're not my enemy. Wait a minute, you're you're You're
Speaker 1: not who I'm supposed to be fighting. And if David
Speaker 1: gets caught up fighting Eliab, he never sees Goliath. If
Speaker 1: he gets distracted, some of us are defeated simply because
Speaker 1: we're distracted. Now you know how the story ends, but
Speaker 1: think about how it could have ended. David for the
Speaker 1: next two hours defends himself to Elia. I was the
Speaker 1: other day checking on some Instagram post seeing if they
Speaker 1: were touching people's lives. You know, I would like to
Speaker 1: say that I always do it with a pure heart,
Speaker 1: but sometimes I'll scroll to look for people who say
Speaker 1: mean things to me, and that's a dysfunction. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saved all the way yet. I am saved. I
Speaker 1: was saying, I'll be being saved. This is the part
Speaker 1: that's in progress, because sometimes I'd just like to imagine
Speaker 1: the response I could sing. You know what the sphear
Speaker 1: of the Lord told me the other day. First of all,
Speaker 1: is one out of three hundred people who say something negative.
Speaker 1: That's number one. Number two. If you would invest a
Speaker 1: fraction of the energy into blessing people that you put
Speaker 1: into defending yourself, you would be Mother Teresa, you would
Speaker 1: be Saint Paul. You could change the world if you
Speaker 1: would stop trying to defend yourself. And I'm coming right
Speaker 1: for you, because some of us trip over an offense,
Speaker 1: and so we never defeat the real opponent, because we
Speaker 1: stand and argue with Eliab and we never even get
Speaker 1: to Goliah. You that's so powerful. Could it could have
Speaker 1: had a whole different ending. It could have been a
Speaker 1: whole lot different and I've that Jackie wouldn't have taught
Speaker 1: me that Bible story in Sunday School if David had
Speaker 1: stood there and argued with Eliab. Now here's the thing
Speaker 1: that's practical about this. Some of you are fighting Eliab today,
Speaker 1: and because you're fighting Elia, Goliath continues to go unchallenged
Speaker 1: in your life. You know you're fighting Eliab if you're
Speaker 1: still blaming people. David did this move that I want
Speaker 1: to learn how to do when I realize I'm fighting
Speaker 1: the wrong enemy, when I realize I'm fighting something outside
Speaker 1: when I really need to be dealing with something inside.
Speaker 1: When I realize I'm trying to control how other people
Speaker 1: are versus trying to have self control the fruit of
Speaker 1: the spirit for myself. This is a word today. This
Speaker 1: is a word today. It said that David did something
Speaker 1: very strategic, and this is like the turning point of
Speaker 1: the story. It said in verse thirty that when Eliab
Speaker 1: was going back and forth in David hit him real
Speaker 1: quick with an insult, just to let him know I'm
Speaker 1: not a punk. And then after he said what he
Speaker 1: had to say, watch what he did. David turned and
Speaker 1: ask somebody else and watch this when he turns away
Speaker 1: from Eliab, it positions him to face Goliath. So whoever
Speaker 1: is for, you'll never even get to Goliath. You will
Speaker 1: never even get to the insecurity that is causing the
Speaker 1: issue if you keep blaming the people who are bringing
Speaker 1: it out for you to look at. Eliab wasn't the giant.
Speaker 1: Eliab wasn't the enemy. Eliab was his brother that he
Speaker 1: was supposed to fight for. So now we've watched David
Speaker 1: two different alternate endings. If he argues with Eliab, then
Speaker 1: he misses Goliath. If he doesn't obey his father in
Speaker 1: a simple thing, then he misses Goliath. It could have
Speaker 1: Graham was so prophetic, he said it could have ended
Speaker 1: oh lot different. I was so mad at my mom
Speaker 1: for forgiving my dad. I didn't think he deserved it.
Speaker 1: What would that funeral have been like if she had
Speaker 1: listened to me rather than listening to God, if we
Speaker 1: weren't even on speaking terms when he died, it could
Speaker 1: have ended up. And I only bring it up because
Speaker 1: every story in this room is still being written, and
Speaker 1: sometimes you think you know how it ends. But what
Speaker 1: if it's not over yet? What if it's not over yet?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna preach it through that little facade that you
Speaker 1: have right now. What if it's not over yet? What
Speaker 1: if you've wasted a lot of time? But what if
Speaker 1: God really is able to redeem the years that the
Speaker 1: Lucus have eaten. What if it's not over yet. I'm
Speaker 1: just closing a question. What if it's not over yet?
Speaker 1: What if your best days are not behind you? What
Speaker 1: if the devil is a liar? What if everything that
Speaker 1: you have been through can serve a greater purpose. What
Speaker 1: if a generational curse was being broken through your battle?
Speaker 1: What if God brought you to the Valley of Elah
Speaker 1: because he's the god of a turnaround, the God of
Speaker 1: a second chance, the God of a new beginning, and
Speaker 1: the God of a new Indeed, Mary and Martha said,
Speaker 1: I know how this story is. But one thing they
Speaker 1: didn't know is that Jesus doesn't provide resurrection. He is resurrection.
Speaker 1: So if he's on the scene, WA's this. When David
Speaker 1: showed up, he said, I come against you in the
Speaker 1: name of the Lord. Now one more thing I gotta
Speaker 1: show you, y'all. Calm down. It's a Bible study, not
Speaker 1: a football game. It's not a basketball game. There's nothing
Speaker 1: to be excited about it. Here, it's not like the
Speaker 1: blood of Jesus is enough for you. It's not like
Speaker 1: depression is defeated. It's not like the devil has to
Speaker 1: back up when you call on the name of your God.
Speaker 1: It's not like worship can push back darkness. It's not
Speaker 1: like praise can break says, now, sit down, because now
Speaker 1: he has to go through Saul, the one that should
Speaker 1: have been celebrating him, the one that should have been
Speaker 1: supporting him. David kills Goliath. Stop being so boring. When
Speaker 1: you read the Bible. The Bibles boring, you're bored. Read
Speaker 1: it better. This thing could have had so many endings.
Speaker 1: It could have ended when David had a bad attitude
Speaker 1: towards the ordinary. It could have ended when David was
Speaker 1: fighting against who he was supposed to be fighting for.
Speaker 1: He could have got offended. It could have ended with ordinary.
Speaker 1: It could have ended with the fence. And it could
Speaker 1: have ended with only do you know only the spirit
Speaker 1: of lack and limitation? Do you know only what Saul
Speaker 1: said to David. David was like showing Saul his resume.
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm pretty good at beating stuff that's bigger
Speaker 1: than me. I beat a lion. One time, I beat
Speaker 1: a beer, put me in coach, and Saul said, you're
Speaker 1: only a boy. I wonder what you're only in your
Speaker 1: own Remember Saul wasn't the enemy. Saul was supposed to
Speaker 1: be a friend. You ever had something inside of you
Speaker 1: turn on you, You're only I had it. This week,
Speaker 1: I was thinking that I'm just a preacher because I
Speaker 1: was thinking how really influencing culture is done through rappers
Speaker 1: and fashion and others, and I was thinking about changing
Speaker 1: a generation, and I felt discouraged about it, like I'm
Speaker 1: only a preacher. But there's this one verse that always
Speaker 1: comes up when I think that way. And God told
Speaker 1: Jeremiah one time he said, do not say I am only.
Speaker 1: While thinking about that, I know this isn't exactly what
Speaker 1: the text means, but I was thinking, how God's name
Speaker 1: is I am. So when you say I am only,
Speaker 1: and you're supposed to take God's name, you mess up
Speaker 1: the name that he gave you by diminishing it in
Speaker 1: your own sight. I am only. Do not say I
Speaker 1: am only. Do not say I am only. I'm only
Speaker 1: a boy. But David said, no, no, no, I've never
Speaker 1: faced this giant before. Get ready to shout, but I
Speaker 1: brought the same god to this valley that I brought
Speaker 1: to the last valley. Because the only reason I'm preaching
Speaker 1: it is because you're standing in front of something right now.
Speaker 1: You've never seen this before, But David said, here's the
Speaker 1: common pattern I've noticed. Okay, I dropped the lion, I
Speaker 1: dropped the bear. It only stands to reason that if
Speaker 1: the lion didn't stand a chance, if the bear didn't
Speaker 1: stand a chance because they opposed my father's business, if
Speaker 1: this giant opposes the purpose of God, I predict and
Speaker 1: upset victory over everything in your life that is thicker
Speaker 1: than you, that opposes the purpose of within you. Come on,
Speaker 1: He's the god of a turnaround. So I know. Somebody said,
Speaker 1: I know how this story ends because I know who
Speaker 1: wrote it. I know who wrote it. He is the
Speaker 1: author and the prefector of my fame. She looked at
Speaker 1: me last week and on our date night, and this
Speaker 1: movie was gonna have a nice ending. But then she
Speaker 1: remembered that the writer of this particular movie is noted
Speaker 1: for everybody dying in the end. And she looked at me. Now,
Speaker 1: I want you to get this when I say it Okay,
Speaker 1: she said it can't be over. I just remembered who
Speaker 1: wrote it. Come on, you know it's a word for you. No,
Speaker 1: there's some things because we tell our selves these stories.
Speaker 1: But if God wrote it, it's not over till we win.
Speaker 1: It's not over until the light over comes the darkness.
Speaker 1: Come on, my Robie, come on, caston, Come on, Balentine,
Speaker 1: it's not over. Could have been a whole different story,
Speaker 1: and I want to suggest that maybe it still can be,
Speaker 1: because I know in church we talk a lot about
Speaker 1: new beginnings. What about new endings? What about putting two
Speaker 1: more periods behind that one that you thought ended the
Speaker 1: sentence and making it an ellipses? What about new endings?
Speaker 1: What about to be continued? What about the third day?
Speaker 1: What about Sunday morning? What about Jesus? I know how
Speaker 1: the story ends, so when I see him on the cross,
Speaker 1: I'm not worried. The disciples didn't know that. This is
Speaker 1: the challenge to know how the story ends, even when
Speaker 1: you don't know how it's gonna get. There might not
Speaker 1: be a straight line, it might not be perfect, it
Speaker 1: might not look like somebody else's situation. You get in
Speaker 1: the worst trouble of your life, trying to wear Saul's armor,
Speaker 1: trying to fight like everybody else fights. Yours might be messier.
Speaker 1: Can I say something for somebody that God put on
Speaker 1: my heart? Yours might look laughable. I'm only high school educated.
Speaker 1: Good God's gonna get that much more glory because you
Speaker 1: didn't have a college degree. Now when people look at you,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to know. It had to be God.
Speaker 1: I know your GPA. It had to be God, God's
Speaker 1: purpose advances. I know your GPA. You weren't smart enough,
Speaker 1: good enough, pretty enough. You didn't pray enough, you didn't
Speaker 1: do the right things. It could have been a whole
Speaker 1: different story. But the grace of God stepped in. Just
Speaker 1: did the nick of top. Spoiler alert, Goliath goes down.
Speaker 1: Plot twist. Goliath goes down and guess what, that's not
Speaker 1: how the story ends. I'm sorry. I know it looks
Speaker 1: great on the flannel graph. David's awfully cute with a slingshot,
Speaker 1: especially especially when it's one that you pull back, you know,
Speaker 1: like it's a spitball, like it's God's like it's a
Speaker 1: spirit spiritual spitball. Boom, you know, I know it's the
Speaker 1: it's the cartoon version. Here's the grown up version. You're ready.
Speaker 1: David never read for Samuel seventeen fifty Most of us
Speaker 1: never read for Samuel seventeen fifty one. All apologies to
Speaker 1: all the children's Bible teachers, But you don't really know
Speaker 1: how the story ended because David, when he hit Goliath
Speaker 1: with the rock is stunned him. But then David had
Speaker 1: something else that he had to do, in the spirit
Speaker 1: of Mortal Kombat, look at your neighbor and say, finish him.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that after he knocked him down, because
Speaker 1: some of us are content just to stun our enemy.
Speaker 1: Do you know what I'm saying, Just to come into church,
Speaker 1: feel good for a few hours, get a little word,
Speaker 1: go home, forget about it. Go right back into the
Speaker 1: same stuff, go right back into the same cycle, go
Speaker 1: right back into the same dead block, Go right back
Speaker 1: into the same pretending, go right back into the same image.
Speaker 1: But David said something, he says, he said something. He said.
Speaker 1: I didn't just come down here to bring cheese and bread. See.
Speaker 1: I always thought that David was the delivery boy. But
Speaker 1: it turns out that the way the story ends, David
Speaker 1: wasn't the delivery boy. Goliath was, so now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: preach us home. You're ready. What did Goliath have that
Speaker 1: David needed? That David didn't know that he would need.
Speaker 1: It's right in verse fifty. It's right in verse fifty
Speaker 1: is said he came to the battle without a sword
Speaker 1: in his hand. Spoiler alert, he left with one who
Speaker 1: was carrying it his enemy. I declare, Come on, y'all,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be good, but I declare, I know
Speaker 1: how this story is. Goliath has got your sword, Goliath
Speaker 1: got your grace, and if you want to see the victory,
Speaker 1: you're going to have to defeat what's standing in front
Speaker 1: of you. But you don't have to do it on
Speaker 1: your own. Come on, let's start something out all over
Speaker 1: the whole church, University, city blakening. I'm on every single warrior,
Speaker 1: every single worshiper, to declare, I know how this story is.
Speaker 1: Tell the person next to you, I know how your
Speaker 1: story is. Tell them your story ends with glory. God's
Speaker 1: gonna get the glory out of every situation in your life.
Speaker 1: I know how it is. Some jets is gonna bring
Speaker 1: me the kayak. I don't know who God's got in
Speaker 1: the water, but even now somehow the sister said to Jesus,
Speaker 1: God will give you what you want. So David stands
Speaker 1: over the giant. I always read it as being the
Speaker 1: final sequence in the battle, that after he knocked him down,
Speaker 1: he looked at the verse. He took the sword from
Speaker 1: the scabbard. Anybody ever said scabbard in the last ten years,
Speaker 1: he took the sword. Little things like that keep me preaching,
Speaker 1: you know. And after he killed him, he's already dead.
Speaker 1: He cut off his head. Why'd he do it for
Speaker 1: a trophy? Because this wouldn't be his last giant Now,
Speaker 1: I always thought that the story was over when David
Speaker 1: cut off his head. How much more savage can you be?
Speaker 1: The head is off the giants now, But that's not
Speaker 1: how the story ends. See, we only think we know
Speaker 1: how it ends. You tell your story. You're like and
Speaker 1: then I got a divorce. That's not the end of
Speaker 1: your story. That's not the last time you can love
Speaker 1: or be loved. That's not the end of your story.
Speaker 1: You know, they were doing pretty good and then they
Speaker 1: did this. That's not the end of the story. That's
Speaker 1: just character development. It can't be over because I know
Speaker 1: who wrote it. I said it can't be over because
Speaker 1: I know who wrote it. It's not the end of
Speaker 1: my story. I know how this story is. I know
Speaker 1: how I'm leaving this battlefield. I'm not leaving him the hand.
Speaker 1: I'm leaving with the sword. I'm leaving with a lesson.
Speaker 1: I'm leaving with a testimony. I'm leaving with a brighter
Speaker 1: day on my mind. I'm leaving with a new praise
Speaker 1: in my spirit. I'm leaving with a prophecy. I'm leaving
Speaker 1: with a word from God. You know what's so crazy
Speaker 1: is that the whole point of the story has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with David to begin with. It says that
Speaker 1: after Goliath died that all of the Philistines. Do you
Speaker 1: see it, When they saw that their hero was dead,
Speaker 1: they turned and ran. Your story is not even about you.
Speaker 1: What you're going through right now might not even be
Speaker 1: about you. You know how many people I've seen come
Speaker 1: out of grief and release their greatest gift from their
Speaker 1: greatest grief. Goliath has got your sword. Goliath has got
Speaker 1: your sword. You're gonna be sitting across from somebody who
Speaker 1: needs it in five years and telling them I've been
Speaker 1: right there in the battle. But here's what I found out.
Speaker 1: The sword that came to kill you is gonna be
Speaker 1: the one that God uses to deliver you. And he
Speaker 1: killed Goliath with his own sword. Your giant has got
Speaker 1: your sword. But that's not how the story ends, cuts
Speaker 1: off his head, sends the sword to the temple at Knob,
Speaker 1: which was where a Hemelet was the superintendent. A little
Speaker 1: while later, David goes back to Saul's palace. Saul starts
Speaker 1: going absolutely crazy, trying to kill David. David has to
Speaker 1: run from Saul. Remember now, Goliath was not the last
Speaker 1: giant that David fake with face. You don't want to
Speaker 1: stay stuck in just one victory of your life. The
Speaker 1: Bible says, he leads us from glory to glory, from
Speaker 1: strength to strength. Stand up. I'm trying to close. I'm
Speaker 1: trying so hard. Don't leave, but stand up and clap
Speaker 1: your hands. If you know this is not my last one.
Speaker 1: This is not my last victory. I come against midlife
Speaker 1: crisis in the name of the Lord. There's more for
Speaker 1: you to do. You have a legacy to pass on.
Speaker 1: You're gonna make a bigger difference in your future days.
Speaker 1: Your latter days shall be greater. Zan no, this story
Speaker 1: your sun, so okay, hang on a second. So David
Speaker 1: runs down to the temple right he's running from Saw.
Speaker 1: He's already killed Goliath, and he has to leave so
Speaker 1: quickly that he doesn't have a sword. He runs to
Speaker 1: the temple attendant. He says, hey, man, I need a weapon.
Speaker 1: How many of you need a weapon to fight something
Speaker 1: in your life today? You need a strategy, you need
Speaker 1: an insight. Come on, you need a breakthrough. You need
Speaker 1: to turn on all right, David said to Ahimelek, don't
Speaker 1: you have a spear or a sword here? I haven't
Speaker 1: brought my sword or any other weapon because the king's
Speaker 1: business was urgent. Priest said, man, I'm sorry, David, I
Speaker 1: mean I got one sword. It's the sort of Goliath,
Speaker 1: the Philistine, at least it used to be until you
Speaker 1: killed him. But now the very weapon that you took
Speaker 1: from your enemy, the very strength you gained from the
Speaker 1: thing you survived, the sword of Goliath, the word that
Speaker 1: God spoke over your life. How many No, his word
Speaker 1: is a sword is sharper than any double edged sword
Speaker 1: he Brews four to twelve. The sword of Goliath, who
Speaker 1: you killed in the valley of Elaw is here, is
Speaker 1: wrapped in a claw behind the ephi. If you want it,
Speaker 1: take it. There is no sword here but that one,
Speaker 1: And David said, there is none like it. Give it
Speaker 1: to me. He started with a sling, he ended with
Speaker 1: the sword. And the difference was the enemy that he
Speaker 1: was willing to confront. And I know how this Oh. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly how long this story's going to take,
Speaker 1: and I don't know all the details of it, but
Speaker 1: I know how this story is. We got the drop
Speaker 1: on David. We read verse fifty. We got the drop
Speaker 1: on David. We've been to the empty tomb. We got
Speaker 1: the drop on David. We know how this story is.
Speaker 1: I know that the sufferings of this present time are
Speaker 1: not worthy. Do you hear me preaching to you right
Speaker 1: there in your living room? Do you hear me preaching
Speaker 1: to you right there in your kitchen? Do you hear
Speaker 1: me preaching to you? You're in a hospital room with
Speaker 1: a loved one right now, with the God of all healing,
Speaker 1: Jehovah Rafika is in the hospital room with you. I
Speaker 1: know how this story I love. I know no weapon
Speaker 1: that is formed against me south rossword. Now, the Bible
Speaker 1: doesn't say that the weapon won't be formed. It just
Speaker 1: says that it won't work. So watch this. The weapon
Speaker 1: was formed by my enemy. Isaiah fifty four seventeen is
Speaker 1: on the screen right now. The weapon was formed by
Speaker 1: the hand of my enemy. What you're going through it
Speaker 1: might not have been from the hand of God. But
Speaker 1: you gotta read verse sixteen to understand verse seventeen. Because
Speaker 1: verse sixteen, God says, behold, I have created the blacksmith
Speaker 1: who made the weapon. So God's the enemy might have
Speaker 1: formed the weapon, but I formed the enemy. And there
Speaker 1: is nothing then that enemy can bring against you. Come on,
Speaker 1: there is nothing because I get your hands. Get your
Speaker 1: hands gets afray? Yes, come on, Elia, you come against
Speaker 1: me with addcent, You come against me with anxiety? What
Speaker 1: gets you? In the name of thank you for joining
Speaker 1: us special thanks to those of you who give generously
Speaker 1: to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry
Speaker 1: is possible. You can click the link in the description
Speaker 1: to give now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash
Speaker 1: podcast for more information and if 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.