January 5, 2025 • 46 mins
We all have battles we wish we didn’t have to fight, but there are some things a battle develops inside you that you can’t get any other way. Don’t run from the battle because you’ll find blessings on the other side when you move forward in faith.
Each year, we come together to stretch our faith by giving a sacrificial offering, believing that God will move in our lives and in our church in the coming year. To take part in this offering and help us in reaching more people with the gospel all around the world click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/
If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr
Scripture References:
1 Samuel 21, verses 6-13
1 Samuel 17, verses 32, 34-35
Matthew 11, verse 12
2 Samuel 11, verse 1
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yo, I'm at Elevation child. I know y'all, know y'all
how good you have it.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
But sometimes you can get so close to something that
you take it for granted and you're like, oh, this
is church every Sunday, and you have no idea how
blessed you are. People don't get to walk into places
like this all over the world every Sunday. You are
the favored of the Lord. Somebody say Amen. And one
of the reason why God favors you the way that
he does is because of the phenomenal leadership that God
(00:49):
has given you. And Pastor Stephen and Pastor Holly, come on,
can you put your hands to get come on with
these golf collaps?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Can you honor?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
If you know anything about us preachers, we're a little extra.
And I was thinking about Pastor Stephen and us pastors.
We have these terms that we use and we kind
of delegate him for only a few type of people.
But we'll say certain people are generals of the faith,
like you ever talk people about talking about like Billy
Graham or whatever, generals of the faith. And when you
think about a general, they're the one that gives the
(01:24):
orders for the army to march out. And I don't
know if y'all notice that I probably shouldn't say this
from a platform, but there are bootleg elevation churches all
over the world following what you guys do here, and
it's not copycat.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
It's because God is.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Giving you a general that is setting the pace for
the Kingdom of God. And we are grateful, grateful, grateful.
And I'm not just saying this. Pastor Holly is one
of my favorite preachers.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
On the planet. Come on out. A lot of times
when you think about preachers, you're.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Like, oh, are they funny? You know, love how they
tell stories or breakdown the word. But there's some preachers
that when they preach, it's not the stories, it's not
the word. It's the fact that you can tell that
person has been somewhere with God and they have proven
God in their life, and it loses out of everything
that she says. One last time, put your hands together,
Come on, get your honor.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Ah thluyah.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Hey, before you take a seat, high five two people.
Tell them I've got perfect church attendance this year. Come on,
tell somebody I have not missed a Sunday in twenty
twenty five. Hey, turn to your Bible to First Samuel
chapter twenty one, First Samuel chapter twenty one. And while
(02:39):
you turn there, I want to show you why I
am more blessed that you are. And I know that
sounds ignorant because blessings are not a competition. But it's
not a competition because I win and you lose. I
am more blessed than you are because my family is
better looking than your family.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Don't blame me, blame your mama.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
But uh, they're gonna throw up a picture of my
beautiful family. Standing on my far left is my beautiful wife.
I call her my African Queen. She hails from Cile On,
West Africa. Her name is Zai Chandler. She is the
preacher of the family. I am on the backup Standing
next to me on my right is my son. He
(03:20):
is my twin. He's six years old. His name is Roman.
His rapper name is Roro. Sitting on the bench is
my beautiful Queen, my oldest she's eight. Her name is Zoe.
Her rapper name is Zozo. Then on my lap is
my fallen angel, my three year old. Her name is
Jade Mariah. Her rapper name is Jamo's. Somebody say Jamo.
(03:41):
Can y'all do me a favorite? Can you pray for Jmo?
She is not a Christian, she looks like an angel.
She acts like a fallen angel. And we were praying
for the salvation of that cutie pipe.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
But I'm pumped.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I'm ready to preach because my children are in Maryland
and I am in Charlotte, which means I got the
bestly last night I've had in a long time. Don't
tell them, Mama, but I am pumped. I'm ready to go.
Last thing before I preach. I've got a brand new
book coming out in just two weeks. Relationship road Maps.
(04:13):
If you're single, come on, can you wave at me?
Can you wave at me?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Put it?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Keep your hand up, keep a hand up, put it
in the chat. One of the reasons you're single is
because you run right to your car after church.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Linger in the lobby, look around the room.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
There ain't a better place to get chose than in
the House of God. But it's where everywhere where books
are sold. And I'm telling you it's gonna be a
blessing to you. Are y'all ready to work today? Not preach?
Preaching ain't my job, it's our job. But God's gonna
work through this text. It says this and for Samuel,
chapter twenty one, verse six. And let me give you
(04:49):
a little context before I preach it. This is the
period when David was running for his life. Saul had
just thrown spears at his head, trying to kill him.
Jonathan said, let me test out my dad and see
if he's serious about these death threats. And Jonathan comes
to David and said, no, no, he's serious. He's trying
to kill you. You've got to run for your life.
(05:11):
So David leaves everything, brings no weapons, brings no food.
And ah, I'm not preaching yet, but the first place
he runs to is to the House of God as
he is running for his life. This ain't even the message,
but let me preach it already.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Hey, if you are.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Running from something, don't run to gossip, don't run to friends,
don't run to confusion, run.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
To the house of God.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
This is in verse six says So the priest gave
him holy bread, for there was no bread there but
the showbread, which had been taken from before the Lord
in order to put hot bread in its place on
the day when it was taken away. Now a certain
man of the servants of Saul was there that day,
detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg and
(05:59):
eat a mite, the chief of the herdsman who belonged
to Saul. Doeg worked for David's enemy, and not the message.
But just know that when you're in the presence of God,
the enemy is going to try to whisper to you
opposite of what God has promised you. And you've got
(06:20):
to develop the discipline of blocking out the thoughts and
the whispers of the enemy and being anchored in what
God has said over your life.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Verse aid, and.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
David said him, is there not here on hand a
spear or sword?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
For I have brought neither my sword.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Nor my weapons with me because the king's business required hays.
Now he was lying, he ain't on no king's business.
He's running for his life. So the priest said, the
sword of Goliath, the philistine whom you killed in the
value of Ela. There it is wrapped in a cloth
behind the ephought if you will take that, take it,
for there is no other except that one here. And
(07:01):
David said, there is none like it. Give it to me,
somebody shout, give it to me. When David arose and
fled that day from before Saul and went to Akish,
king of Gath, and the servants of Akish said to him,
is this not David, the king of the land. Did
they not sing of him to one another in dances
(07:22):
saying Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Here's the message.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Now, David took these words to heart and was very
much afraid of.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Akish, King of Gath.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Before we pray, can you give your neighbor my sermon title,
Look at your neighbor and tell them the battle made me.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Come on, tell somebody, tell somebody the battle.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
What you're looking at on battle orn? Father God, we're grateful,
We're thankful for this moment. We say that we trust
in you. Got You're heired, healed, delivered, and transformed, open
eyes to move supernaturally.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
God, do what only you can do.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And God will be ever so careful to give you
all the glory, honor, and praise in Jesus' name, we pray.
Come on, shot at me like you shot at your kids.
Somebody say amen and amen. I I'm not gonna lie
to you. I feel a little bit uncomfortable coming with
(08:31):
a message about David, and uh, don't judge me, but
I feel like David, particularly David and Goliath, is like
elementary preaching. I feel like when you get your trial
sermon and it's like, this is my first time preaching
that you don't know what to preach.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
David and Goliath is what you go for.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Why, because you can't mess up David and Goliath. You
get up there. The little guy was against the big guy.
He took a stone. God helped them. Giants will fall
in your life. Aim you fold up your Bible, you
step down. You successfully accomplished your first message. But for
some reason, I get stuck on these biblical characters. And
(09:10):
in this season, I'm just stuck on David because you see,
as the Bible walks through his life, the hand of
God and God's favor on his life every single step
of the journey, and it is impossible to see how
God's hand is on David's life and not also recognize
(09:31):
how God's hand has been on your life every single
step of the journey. When we are introduced to David,
we find him in the backside of a wilderness taking
care of sheep that was a servant's responsibility, but yet
his father relegated him to something that honestly was beneath him.
(09:52):
The priest showed up and said, God has anointed a
new king, and it's none of these sons.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Is there not another?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So we see God plucking David out of his family
that is not a called family, bringing him out of
a place of wilderness to use him in a great way.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And it doesn't take.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Much to look at your story and realize that God
plucked you out of your family and annoying you for
a particular reason. Here on earth, can somebody testify that
the part of the country I come from, my town,
my community, my family, it does not actually produce what
God is producing through my life, but the favor of God.
(10:36):
We've got a church in Maryland. I get irritated every
time I tell people my church is in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Ooh, Baltimore. Is it like the wire. No.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
But what they're saying is almost like Nazareth. Can anything
good come out of Baltimore? No, except for the hand
of God plucking somebody out of a place that God
is ready to do something. As we walk through David's story,
not only do we see God pluck him out of
a family, but we see God pour oil on his head,
anoint David, and we see David get results out of
(11:12):
his life that are not equal to the effort that
he puts in.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Just in case you were wondering what anointing is.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Anointing is when you put in human efforts and you
get back supernatural results. When you look at the results
you get back and you realize it is not equal
to the effort I put in.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
This was none other than the hand of God.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And if you would be honest, and I'll be honest
with you, ain't a lot of honest people in church.
You cannot take credit for everything that has happened in
your life. I know you are edgumicated, I know you
worked hard.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I know you put that.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Effort in, but the results you are seeing in your
life are not comparable to the effort that you've put in.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It is none other than.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
The hand of God on your life.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Be careful being.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Jealous of what somebody else has because you have no idea.
They didn't get it based on their effort. They got
it based on the favor you. Ever, we're family, y'all
said it, so you're gonna get the family stuff. I
get irritated when you run into certain people and they
begin to take credit for things that they should not
take credit for.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You run into a married couple.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I'm talking about real married couples, not like five years
or ten years. I'm talking about thirty five years, thirty
seven years, forty years.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Now, you run into some folks that have been married
for three or four decades.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Wow, how do I build a godly marriage? Like you?
And they've got the nerve to give you an answer? Whaw?
You know?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, just gotta be long suffering. You gotta keep knowing
record of wrong. You gotta make sure that you for
a give and make sure that you come. I'm sure
you communicated, I'm sure you forgave, but homicide was on
your mind at least one night. You made it thirty
five years because of the favor and and mercy of God.
(13:04):
When you look at David. You see him plucked out
of his family. You see the anointing of God. You
also see outrageous victories that David won. And God just
had a way of making David win in front of
his haters. It wasn't just a victory in the backside
of nowhere, but the exact brothers that said, how dare
(13:25):
you leave those sheep? What are you doing here? Who
do you think you are? They had to watch David
defeat Goliath. They had to watch David be celebrated. If
you would look back over your life, you would see
victories that God brought because of his hand of favor.
Somebody shout Amen in his play. The problem with David's story,
(13:50):
y'all know, preachers, all that was a setup is you
don't just see God pluck David out of obscurity. You
don't just see anointed for the supernatural. You don't just
see massive victories in David's life. The Bible also shows
us the battles that David had to fight that David
(14:13):
wish he never had to fight. It doesn't just tell
us about the anointing, and it tells us about the
lion that jump on him, that he had to fight
for the sheep and fight for his life. And it
tells us about the bear, It tells us about Goliath,
it tells us about the time that he was in
battle against his own son. As you look over the
(14:36):
life of David, you see the favor of God, but
you see battles that David wish he had never fought.
And if you look back over your own life, you
can see the favor of God. But we all see
battles that we wish we never had to fight. Maybe
it was battles with depression, maybe it was battles with sickness,
maybe it was battles with confusion, or relational battles. But
(14:59):
we we all have battles in our stories that we
would not wish on our worst enemy. And we sometimes
ask God, why did I have to go through this?
And here's what I've discovered, That you can waste a
lot of time commiserating over all the battles that you've
(15:20):
been through, that you can actually forget all of the
blessings and favor and open doors of what God has done.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
New Year twenty twenty five, let's go.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
It is hard to find somebody that has something good
to say about twenty twenty four. Man, so glad that
year was over. Believe in God has more for me
in a new year. And yes, you may have had
some rough things in twenty twenty four, but I'm telling
you you had some miracles, and you had some favor,
and you had some open door. It is all based
(15:57):
on what you choose to obsess over. And I'd like
to submit to you that, whether you realize it or not,
the battles that you wish you could have avoided, there
is a blessing in those battles because for some reason,
God uses battles to make us. You are not just
(16:19):
who you are because of the parents who raised you.
You are not just who you are because of the
effort that you put in.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
You're not just who you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Are because how have you educated yourself and developed you.
There are some things that were developed through the battles
that you had to fight.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
There are parts of your personality.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
That you built based on the fights that you had
to fight.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And I'm telling you it is the battle.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
That God allowed you to walk through that made you.
Three thoughts, Three Krik thoughts about the battles that we face.
The first one is this, Some battles come looking for me.
Some battles come looking for me. Pastor Steven a few
weeks ago about how trying to avoid drama or battles
(17:02):
is not a way to live in life. It doesn't
matter how safe you try to live, some battles will
find you. Now. I wish I had a great story
about how I grew up. I used to fight and
all this other kind of stuff. But the reality is,
I'm not a fighter. I'm a pastor's kid.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
And not only am I a pastor's kid, but I
was homeschooled, so the only people to fight at school
were my siblings. So I don't have any like I
got into fistfights growing up. I've got one story. It's
the only story half about a fight ever. Actually, what
happened is a kid came to my house and he
rang the doorbell. It was one of those deals, you know.
Back in the nineties, parents used to live their kids
(17:41):
at home. Nowadays it's oh, you can't leave your kids. Well,
they used to leave us at like six, seven, eight whatever.
I think the statute of limitation is over. Sorry, dad,
So my dad's at work, my mom's gone. You know
how it is. Don't open the door for anybody. A
kid comes to the door, and I didn't like this kid.
The kid didn't like me. We knew we didn't like
each other. Rings the doorbell, and because my mom said
(18:02):
don't open the door, I do what every kid does.
I open the door and I'm like, what do you want?
And he goes I came to borrow some.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Cheese, He said, cheese. I don't got no cheese.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
He said, then, why don't you scrape it off your
mother's teeth.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
That's what I said.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Now, this pastor's kid, who's homeschooled and has never been
in a fight in his life, it don't take a
high IQ to understand you've got to protect your mother's honor.
So I said what I took off running out the door.
He took off running. I don't know if my dad's
have heard the story. Sorry dad. Anyway, he goes running.
I mean, we're running through the neighborhood, through people's backyards.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I'm chasing him. I finally catch him. I tackle him.
But remember I've never been in a fight before. I
didn't think this far. I do, what do you do now, y'all?
I hit him.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It didn't cross my mind. So I went take it back,
and he like, that's it.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I take it back. I'm like, yeah, for it away.
I walk home.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
You can't tell me, nah, some fights come and find you,
no matter if you do everything.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
You possibly can in life to avoid drama.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
The Bible says in First Samuel seventeen thirty thirty four.
But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep
his father's sheet. And when a lion or a bear
came and took a lamb out of the flock, I
went out after it and struck it and delivered the
lamb from its mouth, And when it arose against me,
(19:55):
I caught it by its beard and killed it. We're asking, David,
why do you think you have what it takes to
feat this nine foot giant? And David said, because this
fight ain't my first fight. I didn't go looking for
a fight. But a lion came and found me, and
that lion bit off more than he could chew, and
a bear came and found me. And because I fought
(20:17):
the lion, and because I fought the bear, I am
now prepared to fight this giant in front of me.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Hear me, some fights come and find you.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
By the way, be careful judging people for what they're battling.
Do you really think they picked that fight. They didn't
pick that fight. That fight picked them. They didn't pick addiction.
Addiction picked them. They didn't pick mental torment. Mental torment
picked them. And hear me, just because the fight picks
(20:49):
you does not mean you get to surrender. You have
Almighty God on the inside of you. You've got to
fight the fight that comes your way. But not all fights.
We pick some of them like us. And here's what
was wild. David gott in a fight with a lion
and a bear and it wasn't even his sheep. He
(21:10):
was taking care of his father's flock and God in
a drama with an enemy because he was protecting something
that does not belong to him. Some of you have
been fighting for your life and you believe the lie
of the enemy that you did something wrong, that maybe
I messed up some way and that's why I'm battling
the way that I'm battling, or maybe because of the
(21:32):
fight that you're facing. You're like, has God forgotten about me?
Has he abandoned me? Has he left me? You're not
fighting because you did something wrong. You are fighting because
your Father's kingdom and purpose is on the inside of you,
and the enemy is attacking the potential that God has
placed on the inside of you. The fight has found
(21:53):
you because there's destiny on your life. And by the way,
the size of your fight is an indication of the
size of the call of God on your life. You're wondering,
why does it seem like I am fighting for my
life because of the potential that God has placed on
the inside of you. The enemy said, let me take
(22:14):
you out before you even realize who God has called
you to be.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
As you track through scripture, the enemy did it all
the time.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
When he knew Moses, the Deliverer was coming, he tried
to have all the Hebrew boys executed. Why because he
will always attack in infancy. What he does not want
to deal with immaturity with somebody elbow. Your neighbors say,
but he failed. He failed. He should have taken me
out when he got a chance. He should have taken
me out when I did not know God and did
(22:41):
not in my right mind. But I made it a
church today. I made it into the house of God. Today,
I made it into an atmosphere that is telling me
who I am.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
And whose I am. The fight did not take me out.
You've got Aha.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I gotta get dramatic because I think sometimes we don't
realize that that part of being a Christian means you're
gonna take some shots. And it's not because of who
you are, it's because of who your dad is. We
are not living in a demilitarized zone.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
We are at war.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
And there is an enemy and he is trying to
take out the Kingdom of God. And you've got to
stand ten toes down saying I've got in a sick
I know who my dad is, and I'm gonna fight
for what he's One of the problems is we think
what we're fighting over belongs to us. So I'm confused
(23:42):
while I've got to battle so much over this marriage
because this is my marriage. Can I put you on
notice that ain't your marriage. That marriage belongs to God.
God created marriage a husband loving a wife and a
wife loving a husband as an example to the world
of God's love for his church and his bride.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And as you, guys, love each other.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
And build a family that God has called you to build,
it is example to unbelievers of the hope and love
and joy of God, you're not just fighting for love,
you are fighting for the Kingdom. I get in trouble
because I tell these stories about my family and then
y'all start thinking my family was ratchet, and we were,
but we were educated in love God too. I was
(24:26):
driving with my mom when I was a kid, and
this would happen quite often. And there's this one mall
up in Maryland. If you're from Maryland, you know it.
It's a massive, one of those, you know, kind of
outlet malls. And there's like enough room in the mall
for a million people, but they only have four parking spaces.
I don't know if they want to have like Instagram
fist fights. I don't know what it is, but you
(24:46):
spend more time looking for parking that you spend in
the mall. So I'd go to this mall my mom,
my siblings in the car, and my mom would be
driving up one aisle and she would see a parking
space in the other aisle. You would look at me
and she would say, Stephen, I love these moments and
(25:06):
preach it because half of y'all, like my mama, did
the same thing, and half of y'all light I.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Don't know, and they say it's going. Hey, my mama said,
get out the car.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Y'all have to say mama and go stand in that
parking space until I could drive around.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
So I come like, I'm like ten twelve, So I
get out of the car.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I go stand in that parking space and my mom,
I mean, it would seem like it take her four
hours to go up and come back down. And as
I'm standing there, a car would come and try to
park in the space and they go honk, honk, and
they move a little closer, and I'm like, it's taken.
And they'd be like, you're not a car. Honk honk,
(25:46):
and they move a little.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I'm like it's taken.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
And sometimes it would get a little dicey, and it's
like almost like they're gonna hit me with their car.
What they did not realize is you hitting me with
your car not hurt as much as what my mama
gonna do to me if I So, you do what
you gotta do. But I'm gonna say it, I need
some believers that know what God has promised them, And
(26:11):
you are gonna stand ten toes down on the healing,
on the hope, on the purpose, on the joy, devil.
You can give it your best shot, but I know
what my God has promised me, and I am not
moving off of this. And you might not have picked
the fight, the fight picked you. But you do not
(26:34):
have the option of backing down. So there is a
blessed scene in the battle. Do you realize that there
are some things that you learned about yourself in the
fight that you would have never learned about yourself if
it had not been in that fight. You learn that
you have more faith than you thought you did. You
(26:56):
learn that you have more fortitude than you thought you
You learn that you have more creativity. Who takes a
stone and a sling against someone who has their back
against the wall and knows who their God is?
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Man?
Speaker 3 (27:15):
The worst fight of my life was when my mom
was battling cancer for thirteen years and ended up passing
away after thirteen years. And by the way, you can't
tell me my God is not a healer because the
doctor gave her three months to live, said that we
could do with you. Go home, make your peace with God,
and God extended her life thirteen years. But hear me
(27:36):
walking through that battle, watching her battle the faith that
it built in me to still preach about healing and
hope and purpose. There is something that battles develop on
the inside of you that nothing else can. Some battles
will find me, but some battles I go looking for.
(27:56):
Here's what it says in First Samuel seventeen thirty two.
Then he even said to Saul, let no man's heart
fail because of him, your servant will go and fight
with this philistine. So in one passage we find David
fighting a lion and a bear that he did not
(28:19):
want to fight. In just a few passages later, we
find David running towards a battle that nobody else wanted
to fight.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
What happened, well, what happened was.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
When you make it through a few battles and you
realize that the victory belongs to the Lord, it brings
a confidence on the inside of you that all of
a sudden in your life. I'm not intimidated by a fight.
Matter of fact, I'm looking for a fight. And instead
of running from the enemy, I start running towards the enemy.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I start picking a fight.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I start looking for places to push back the forces
of darkness. The Bible says in Matthew Chapter A Lie
and Versuol that says the days of John the Baptist.
The Kingdom of God has suffered violence, but the violent take.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
It by force.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I believe this year, a supernatural violence is gonna begin
to rise up in the people of God, and we
begin to realize I'm no longer gonna be on the
defense against.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
The enemy, but I'm going on the offense.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Why did David run after Goliath because Goliath dared to
defy who God was.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Here's the battles.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
You need to start picking in your life anything that
defies the promise that God has made over your life.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
You've got to.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Stop allowing the enemy to occupy territory that does not
belong to him, and begin to declare, this is what
God has promised me, and I'm taking it back. I'm
taking my joy back, I'm taking my peace back. I'm
taking prosperity back. I will not lack, i will not
have not enough. I'm taking my health back, no matter of.
I'm taking back every unbelieving family member in my family.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
As for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord Devil.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Get your hands off my teenager, get your hands off
of my spouse, get your hands of aunt, off my uncle,
addiction is broken in my family in the name of Jesus.
Divorce is canceled in my family in the name of Jesus.
You've got to start attacking.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
What God has promised you.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Here.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Here's the problem. What happens when you're fighting.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Is is sometimes you don't know how to calm down.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
And I see this a lot.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Can I just be ignorant on social media? People fighting
fights that they ain't got no business fighting. As you
are running after the fights that God has for you,
make sure you're not picking fights that don't stand between
you and the destiny that God has for you. Because
one of the things the enemy wants is to get
(31:08):
you occupied in a fight that ain't got nothing to
do with what God has called you to do.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It happened to David.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
He's fighting a lion, he's fighting a bear, he's fighting Goliath.
He don't know who Insaul's army he can trust. And
next thing you know, him and his army they're marching
and they go ask a man, Hey, we have no food.
Can you feed us? The man said, I don't know
who you are. Y'all could be thieves, y'all, y'all could
be enemies. I'm not gonna feed you. You know what
David said, We gonna kill him. And it took somebody
(31:37):
talking David down. Of David, this ain't your fight. Leave
that alone. Some of us men.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
People talk to you the wrong way. Say something. Oh,
I'm gonna give you a peace.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
In my mind. First of all, you don't have much
mind left. You can't be handing pieces out all willy nilly, Okay.
You need to keep all the mind that you've got,
keep your mind stayed on him, and you've just got
to make a decision.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I'm not going to fight a.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Fight that doesn't have the ability to splock me from
all that God has for me. Bible's Sysition, Chapter twenty one,
verse eight. When David is in that temple, it says,
then David said to a Himelek, is there not here
on hand a spear or a sword? For I have
(32:31):
brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because
the King's business required. Hayes, You've got to understand us, pastors.
Our brains are like Rupek's cubes, and we write messages
and then the message writes itself. Even as I'm reading this,
I'm reminded when Jesus told his disciples when they went out,
don't bother to take anything with you, because when you
(32:52):
get to the place, it is going to give you
the resources that you need to accomplish what you need
to accomplish. The priest said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Whom you killed.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Watch this in a past battle, is now available in
your moment of need, wrapped in a cloth behind the
ephod if you will take that ticket, for there is
no other except that one. Ear and David said, there
is none like it. Give it to me. Come on,
(33:28):
where's my bible scholars at You've already preached this to yourself.
If I'm David and I'm fighting Goliath, the only thing
I am thinking about is don't die. I ain't worried
about being king. I'm not worried about the rest of
the Philistines. I'm not worried about who talking about me.
I'm just worried about don't die. I'm trying to take
(33:50):
Goliath out now. While I'm trying to take Goliath out,
God ain't even thinking about the battle that I'm in
right now. He's already two three year ahead in in
my future and knowing yeah, Goliah's a big battle when
you're gonna need a win. But make sure, David, you
snatch his sword at the end of this battle, because
this battle is not about this battle. This battle is
(34:13):
about equipping you for a battle that is coming on
from your future. Hear me, Some of you are so
consumed in this situation that you're in right now you
can't see two three years down the road and not
realize that this may be a battle to the enemy.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
But it's only training ground to God.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
This is a season where He is preparing you for
what He is getting ready to take you to.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Can anybody testify?
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I wouldn't want to go through that fight again, but
I learned some things in that fight.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
That I'm telling you, baby, I'm using right now.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I'm not happy that they walked out on me and
stabbed me in my back, but I picked up desernment
in that moment and ain't gonna get me twice. I
can see it coming a myt somebody shout prove it.
There was this passage in this Bible. The prophet came
to this widow. It was just her and her son.
There was a famine, you probably know the story, and
they had nothing to eat. The prophet said, can you
(35:07):
make me a cake? She said, bro, I ain't got nothing.
We're gonna make a cake for me and my son.
Then we're gonna die and that's it. He said, great,
do that, but first make me a cake. She had
enough faith to obey the word of God, even though
it made no common sense. She made a cake for
the prophet and then for her. And it said that
(35:28):
the flour and the oil sustained her through the famine.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Somebody say they survived the battle.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
The Holy Spirit showed me something that passage that blew
my mind years later. Here's what it says. It says
after they survived that famine. Later on her son died. Uh, oh,
what's a bigger deal, hunger or death. But when her
son died, it was not her first battle, and she
(35:59):
knew who her God was. And she said, I wonder
if the same God who can multiply flour and oil
can breathe life back into my dead boy. Let me
take him to the same place where God did the
last miracle.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Whole time, it was never.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
About the famine, never about the flower, never about the oil,
all about building.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
That faith muscle.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
For when she actually needed it, she knew how to
use it. Hear me, the battles that you fought in
your past were only preparing you for the victory that
God has a head of you. You may have called
it a battle, but I'm telling you it was a
blessing because it made you who you.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Are.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Some battles, come find me, some battles I go looking
for the last thing?
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Is this?
Speaker 3 (36:54):
But running from battles is not an option? Says this
in verse eleven, the end of that story. David eat
the bread, he has the sword, and it says the
servants of Acus said to him, is this not David
the king of the land? By the way, y'all, he
was anointed king, but he wasn't operating his king. Here
(37:18):
was the enemy calling David by his future, even though
nothing about his current situation looked like the future that
God had promised him. They said, is this not David
the King of the land? Did they not sing of
him to one another and dances saying Saul has slain.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
His thousands and David his ten thousands.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Now David took these words to heart and was watched
this very much afraid. You would think, if people are
reading your resume that your chest.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Would go out. Yeah, that's me. That's me.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
I'm been killing for the days. Said fear came over David,
and he says, watch this. So he changed his behavior
and pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors
(38:16):
of the gate, and let his saliva fall down.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
On his beard. You can play him done. Here's David.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
In the face of a new enemy with a resume
of victory, and instead of standing ten toes down and saying,
the God who brought victory in every season of my life,
he will do it again, David started to pretend to
be less than who God called him to be because
(38:50):
he didn't want to fight another battle elevation. Hear me,
there will be opportunities in your future if you do
not have the right perspective to diminish who God has
called you to be just to avoid another fight. Oh man,
(39:12):
when I get around these people and I talk about
all that God's going to do through my life.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
They get angries. So I'm just gonna stop talking.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
When when I when I walk in boldness and I'm
actually moving that, I get pushed back, I get flack,
I get attacked. So let me there are gonna be
temptations of let me just shrink, let me just stop dreaming,
let me just stop pushing, let me just stop pressing.
And if you're not careful, you can look at the
(39:42):
blessings that God is done in your life up to
this point and.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
You can say this is good enough. The heat that
I've had to take to get this far, I don't
want to fight anymore.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
A lot of times people they passed me that message,
which just for me. Sometimes I'm transparent, sometimes I'm not.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
But in this moment, I will be going. I tell you,
this message ain't for you. This is for me.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Because I'm walking out of a season where I just said, God,
I don't want to fight anymore.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
This thinks I'm tired. I'm exhausted.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Our church has been outrageously blessed, and God has moved
it forward and leaps and bounds, and every time it's
moved forward, there has been an insane attack prior. And
I'm like, God, if this is what building your kingdom
is like, count me out. And I'm not talking about
like stupid attacks like people talking about you. How many
people know people talking about you ain't got nothing to
do with nothing.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
But it's tax like you know your children.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Our church went through the season where we grew exponentially,
and right before we grew exponentially, we sit down in
the doctor's office and doctor tells me my seven year
old is losing her hearing and she'll never be able
to hear. Let's begin to start this process of figuring
out how she's going to live without hearing.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
God, if this is I ain't signed up for this church.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Crew on the other side got supernaturally healed her, no
healing problems, whatsoever. Another season like that comes, church grows exponentially.
Me and my wife are traveling at some conference or
whatever may be. We get a phone call or two
year old broke her femur and is in the hospital
(41:30):
and we're in another city. I am you want to
talk about naus just nauseousness, I said, God, if this
is the fight, count me out those last year She's
run around healthy, healed, perfect good.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
God's covered by the way. Pray for your pastors every time.
God bless us.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
You have no idea the battles that they fought and
they won, But there's such a temptation.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I know that's my story.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
You've got your own story of man, I just can't
handle another fight, Dave. I read this and I'm gonna it'
Second Samuel eleven, verse one. It says this, it happened
in the spring of the year, at the time when
kings go out to battle, that David sent Job and
his servants with him in all Israel, and they destroyed
the people. If I'm on besiege watched this, but David
(42:19):
remained at Jerusalem.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Y'all Bible scholars, you know the story. You could preach
it to yourself.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
David was supposed to be at war, and Steady stayed home,
ran across this chick called Bathsheba, and wrecked the whole deal.
If you look at the life of David, there's one
thing that you might miss that the only times David
nearly died was when he was in the palace, not
(42:48):
when he was out on the battlefield. The safest place
for David was out fighting the debt battles that God
called him to fight. It was in the palace that
sold tried to kill him. It was in the palace
that Absalom created that q ku and tried to take
him out. It was in the palace that he thought
about Sheheba and ruined his legacy. David was safest when
(43:12):
he was on the offense, going after all that God
had called him to go after. But when David allowed
the intimidation of the enemy to keep him blocked up
in what he thought was a safe place, is when.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
He was not safe at all.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
Hear me, you are safest not when you're playing it safe,
but when you are running forward in faith towards all
that God has for you. And you may say, hey,
I don't want to fight another battle, hear me, don't
look at it as another battle. Look at it another
victory on the other side of this battle that I'm
gonna walk through. What in ten spies say, Hey, we
(43:48):
can't take the city. There's giants in the land. What
in two spies say, when we kill these giants, we're
gonna sleep in giants' beds, and we're gonna live in giants' houses,
and we're gonna have giant blessings on the other.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Side of this.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
Hear me, I got bad news and I got good news.
The bad news is there's some battles ahead of you.
You cannot avoid them. Here's the good news. If you
don't back up, if you don't quit, if you don't
throw in the towel. Victory has your name on it,
and the size of the blessing on the other side
of the battle will be greater than any battle you
(44:22):
can face.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
In your life. If you believe it.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Somebody shot hallelujah.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Come on, Can you hop up on your feet? Father God,
We're grateful.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
God, We're thankful that you said, though the enemy comes
in like a flood, that you will raise up a.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Standard against him.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
God.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
I pray over every single person under the sound of
my voice, God, that your victory will go before us,
that you would cover us, that we would see your
hand on everything that we do. Come on, right where
you are, Can you close your eyes? Can you pray
this prayer? Say, Holy Spirit, what are you.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Saying to me? And just give God a moment to.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Make this time to make this message personal to you.
For some of you, you are in the fight of
your life, and God's word to you, as you're not alone,
this will end in victory. Your best days are ahead
of you, not behind you. For some of you, if
you'd be honest, you are fighting this fight by yourself
because you've never asked God to be a part of
(45:24):
your story. Well, if that's you, this is your moment
where if you find yourself. If you say, pastor, I'm
tired of fighting by myself. I need God to be
my victory. Right where you're standing, pray this prayer. Say
Lord Jesus, this is my moment. I surrender to you.
I believe it was your cross, it was your blood
(45:47):
that bought my freedom.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And in this moment, I give you all of me.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Be my Lord, be my savior, and use me for
your glory in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Amen and Amen.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Come on, Can you celebrate for every single person? God
bless you.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch
dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yo, I'm at Elevation child. I know y'all, know y'all
how good you have it.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
But sometimes you can get so close to something that
you take it for granted and you're like, oh, this
is church every Sunday, and you have no idea how
blessed you are. People don't get to walk into places
like this all over the world every Sunday. You are
the favored of the Lord. Somebody say Amen. And one
of the reason why God favors you the way that
he does is because of the phenomenal leadership that God
(00:49):
has given you. And Pastor Stephen and Pastor Holly, come on,
can you put your hands to get come on with
these golf collaps?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Can you honor?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
If you know anything about us preachers, we're a little extra.
And I was thinking about Pastor Stephen and us pastors.
We have these terms that we use and we kind
of delegate him for only a few type of people.
But we'll say certain people are generals of the faith,
like you ever talk people about talking about like Billy
Graham or whatever, generals of the faith. And when you
think about a general, they're the one that gives the
(01:24):
orders for the army to march out. And I don't
know if y'all notice that I probably shouldn't say this
from a platform, but there are bootleg elevation churches all
over the world following what you guys do here, and
it's not copycat.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
It's because God is.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Giving you a general that is setting the pace for
the Kingdom of God. And we are grateful, grateful, grateful.
And I'm not just saying this. Pastor Holly is one
of my favorite preachers.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
On the planet. Come on out. A lot of times
when you think about preachers, you're.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Like, oh, are they funny? You know, love how they
tell stories or breakdown the word. But there's some preachers
that when they preach, it's not the stories, it's not
the word. It's the fact that you can tell that
person has been somewhere with God and they have proven
God in their life, and it loses out of everything
that she says. One last time, put your hands together,
Come on, get your honor.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Ah thluyah.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Hey, before you take a seat, high five two people.
Tell them I've got perfect church attendance this year. Come on,
tell somebody I have not missed a Sunday in twenty
twenty five. Hey, turn to your Bible to First Samuel
chapter twenty one, First Samuel chapter twenty one. And while
(02:39):
you turn there, I want to show you why I
am more blessed that you are. And I know that
sounds ignorant because blessings are not a competition. But it's
not a competition because I win and you lose. I
am more blessed than you are because my family is
better looking than your family.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Don't blame me, blame your mama.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
But uh, they're gonna throw up a picture of my
beautiful family. Standing on my far left is my beautiful wife.
I call her my African Queen. She hails from Cile On,
West Africa. Her name is Zai Chandler. She is the
preacher of the family. I am on the backup Standing
next to me on my right is my son. He
(03:20):
is my twin. He's six years old. His name is Roman.
His rapper name is Roro. Sitting on the bench is
my beautiful Queen, my oldest she's eight. Her name is Zoe.
Her rapper name is Zozo. Then on my lap is
my fallen angel, my three year old. Her name is
Jade Mariah. Her rapper name is Jamo's. Somebody say Jamo.
(03:41):
Can y'all do me a favorite? Can you pray for Jmo?
She is not a Christian, she looks like an angel.
She acts like a fallen angel. And we were praying
for the salvation of that cutie pipe.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
But I'm pumped.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I'm ready to preach because my children are in Maryland
and I am in Charlotte, which means I got the
bestly last night I've had in a long time. Don't
tell them, Mama, but I am pumped. I'm ready to go.
Last thing before I preach. I've got a brand new
book coming out in just two weeks. Relationship road Maps.
(04:13):
If you're single, come on, can you wave at me?
Can you wave at me?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Put it?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Keep your hand up, keep a hand up, put it
in the chat. One of the reasons you're single is
because you run right to your car after church.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Linger in the lobby, look around the room.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
There ain't a better place to get chose than in
the House of God. But it's where everywhere where books
are sold. And I'm telling you it's gonna be a
blessing to you. Are y'all ready to work today? Not preach?
Preaching ain't my job, it's our job. But God's gonna
work through this text. It says this and for Samuel,
chapter twenty one, verse six. And let me give you
(04:49):
a little context before I preach it. This is the
period when David was running for his life. Saul had
just thrown spears at his head, trying to kill him.
Jonathan said, let me test out my dad and see
if he's serious about these death threats. And Jonathan comes
to David and said, no, no, he's serious. He's trying
to kill you. You've got to run for your life.
(05:11):
So David leaves everything, brings no weapons, brings no food.
And ah, I'm not preaching yet, but the first place
he runs to is to the House of God as
he is running for his life. This ain't even the message,
but let me preach it already.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Hey, if you are.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Running from something, don't run to gossip, don't run to friends,
don't run to confusion, run.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
To the house of God.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
This is in verse six says So the priest gave
him holy bread, for there was no bread there but
the showbread, which had been taken from before the Lord
in order to put hot bread in its place on
the day when it was taken away. Now a certain
man of the servants of Saul was there that day,
detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg and
(05:59):
eat a mite, the chief of the herdsman who belonged
to Saul. Doeg worked for David's enemy, and not the message.
But just know that when you're in the presence of God,
the enemy is going to try to whisper to you
opposite of what God has promised you. And you've got
(06:20):
to develop the discipline of blocking out the thoughts and
the whispers of the enemy and being anchored in what
God has said over your life.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Verse aid, and.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
David said him, is there not here on hand a
spear or sword?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
For I have brought neither my sword.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Nor my weapons with me because the king's business required hays.
Now he was lying, he ain't on no king's business.
He's running for his life. So the priest said, the
sword of Goliath, the philistine whom you killed in the
value of Ela. There it is wrapped in a cloth
behind the ephought if you will take that, take it,
for there is no other except that one here. And
(07:01):
David said, there is none like it. Give it to me,
somebody shout, give it to me. When David arose and
fled that day from before Saul and went to Akish,
king of Gath, and the servants of Akish said to him,
is this not David, the king of the land. Did
they not sing of him to one another in dances
(07:22):
saying Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Here's the message.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Now, David took these words to heart and was very
much afraid of.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Akish, King of Gath.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Before we pray, can you give your neighbor my sermon title,
Look at your neighbor and tell them the battle made me.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Come on, tell somebody, tell somebody the battle.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
What you're looking at on battle orn? Father God, we're grateful,
We're thankful for this moment. We say that we trust
in you. Got You're heired, healed, delivered, and transformed, open
eyes to move supernaturally.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
God, do what only you can do.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And God will be ever so careful to give you
all the glory, honor, and praise in Jesus' name, we pray.
Come on, shot at me like you shot at your kids.
Somebody say amen and amen. I I'm not gonna lie
to you. I feel a little bit uncomfortable coming with
(08:31):
a message about David, and uh, don't judge me, but
I feel like David, particularly David and Goliath, is like
elementary preaching. I feel like when you get your trial
sermon and it's like, this is my first time preaching
that you don't know what to preach.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
David and Goliath is what you go for.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Why, because you can't mess up David and Goliath. You
get up there. The little guy was against the big guy.
He took a stone. God helped them. Giants will fall
in your life. Aim you fold up your Bible, you
step down. You successfully accomplished your first message. But for
some reason, I get stuck on these biblical characters. And
(09:10):
in this season, I'm just stuck on David because you see,
as the Bible walks through his life, the hand of
God and God's favor on his life every single step
of the journey, and it is impossible to see how
God's hand is on David's life and not also recognize
(09:31):
how God's hand has been on your life every single
step of the journey. When we are introduced to David,
we find him in the backside of a wilderness taking
care of sheep that was a servant's responsibility, but yet
his father relegated him to something that honestly was beneath him.
(09:52):
The priest showed up and said, God has anointed a
new king, and it's none of these sons.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Is there not another?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So we see God plucking David out of his family
that is not a called family, bringing him out of
a place of wilderness to use him in a great way.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And it doesn't take.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Much to look at your story and realize that God
plucked you out of your family and annoying you for
a particular reason. Here on earth, can somebody testify that
the part of the country I come from, my town,
my community, my family, it does not actually produce what
God is producing through my life, but the favor of God.
(10:36):
We've got a church in Maryland. I get irritated every
time I tell people my church is in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Ooh, Baltimore. Is it like the wire. No.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
But what they're saying is almost like Nazareth. Can anything
good come out of Baltimore? No, except for the hand
of God plucking somebody out of a place that God
is ready to do something. As we walk through David's story,
not only do we see God pluck him out of
a family, but we see God pour oil on his head,
anoint David, and we see David get results out of
(11:12):
his life that are not equal to the effort that
he puts in.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Just in case you were wondering what anointing is.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Anointing is when you put in human efforts and you
get back supernatural results. When you look at the results
you get back and you realize it is not equal
to the effort I put in.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
This was none other than the hand of God.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And if you would be honest, and I'll be honest
with you, ain't a lot of honest people in church.
You cannot take credit for everything that has happened in
your life. I know you are edgumicated, I know you
worked hard.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I know you put that.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Effort in, but the results you are seeing in your
life are not comparable to the effort that you've put in.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It is none other than.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
The hand of God on your life.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Be careful being.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Jealous of what somebody else has because you have no idea.
They didn't get it based on their effort. They got
it based on the favor you. Ever, we're family, y'all
said it, so you're gonna get the family stuff. I
get irritated when you run into certain people and they
begin to take credit for things that they should not
take credit for.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You run into a married couple.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I'm talking about real married couples, not like five years
or ten years. I'm talking about thirty five years, thirty
seven years, forty years.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Now, you run into some folks that have been married
for three or four decades.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Wow, how do I build a godly marriage? Like you?
And they've got the nerve to give you an answer? Whaw?
You know?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, just gotta be long suffering. You gotta keep knowing
record of wrong. You gotta make sure that you for
a give and make sure that you come. I'm sure
you communicated, I'm sure you forgave, but homicide was on
your mind at least one night. You made it thirty
five years because of the favor and and mercy of God.
(13:04):
When you look at David. You see him plucked out
of his family. You see the anointing of God. You
also see outrageous victories that David won. And God just
had a way of making David win in front of
his haters. It wasn't just a victory in the backside
of nowhere, but the exact brothers that said, how dare
(13:25):
you leave those sheep? What are you doing here? Who
do you think you are? They had to watch David
defeat Goliath. They had to watch David be celebrated. If
you would look back over your life, you would see
victories that God brought because of his hand of favor.
Somebody shout Amen in his play. The problem with David's story,
(13:50):
y'all know, preachers, all that was a setup is you
don't just see God pluck David out of obscurity. You
don't just see anointed for the supernatural. You don't just
see massive victories in David's life. The Bible also shows
us the battles that David had to fight that David
(14:13):
wish he never had to fight. It doesn't just tell
us about the anointing, and it tells us about the
lion that jump on him, that he had to fight
for the sheep and fight for his life. And it
tells us about the bear, It tells us about Goliath,
it tells us about the time that he was in
battle against his own son. As you look over the
(14:36):
life of David, you see the favor of God, but
you see battles that David wish he had never fought.
And if you look back over your own life, you
can see the favor of God. But we all see
battles that we wish we never had to fight. Maybe
it was battles with depression, maybe it was battles with sickness,
maybe it was battles with confusion, or relational battles. But
(14:59):
we we all have battles in our stories that we
would not wish on our worst enemy. And we sometimes
ask God, why did I have to go through this?
And here's what I've discovered, That you can waste a
lot of time commiserating over all the battles that you've
(15:20):
been through, that you can actually forget all of the
blessings and favor and open doors of what God has done.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
New Year twenty twenty five, let's go.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
It is hard to find somebody that has something good
to say about twenty twenty four. Man, so glad that
year was over. Believe in God has more for me
in a new year. And yes, you may have had
some rough things in twenty twenty four, but I'm telling
you you had some miracles, and you had some favor,
and you had some open door. It is all based
(15:57):
on what you choose to obsess over. And I'd like
to submit to you that, whether you realize it or not,
the battles that you wish you could have avoided, there
is a blessing in those battles because for some reason,
God uses battles to make us. You are not just
(16:19):
who you are because of the parents who raised you.
You are not just who you are because of the
effort that you put in.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
You're not just who you.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Are because how have you educated yourself and developed you.
There are some things that were developed through the battles
that you had to fight.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
There are parts of your personality.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
That you built based on the fights that you had
to fight.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And I'm telling you it is the battle.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
That God allowed you to walk through that made you.
Three thoughts, Three Krik thoughts about the battles that we face.
The first one is this, Some battles come looking for me.
Some battles come looking for me. Pastor Steven a few
weeks ago about how trying to avoid drama or battles
(17:02):
is not a way to live in life. It doesn't
matter how safe you try to live, some battles will
find you. Now. I wish I had a great story
about how I grew up. I used to fight and
all this other kind of stuff. But the reality is,
I'm not a fighter. I'm a pastor's kid.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
And not only am I a pastor's kid, but I
was homeschooled, so the only people to fight at school
were my siblings. So I don't have any like I
got into fistfights growing up. I've got one story. It's
the only story half about a fight ever. Actually, what
happened is a kid came to my house and he
rang the doorbell. It was one of those deals, you know.
Back in the nineties, parents used to live their kids
(17:41):
at home. Nowadays it's oh, you can't leave your kids. Well,
they used to leave us at like six, seven, eight whatever.
I think the statute of limitation is over. Sorry, dad,
So my dad's at work, my mom's gone. You know
how it is. Don't open the door for anybody. A
kid comes to the door, and I didn't like this kid.
The kid didn't like me. We knew we didn't like
each other. Rings the doorbell, and because my mom said
(18:02):
don't open the door, I do what every kid does.
I open the door and I'm like, what do you want?
And he goes I came to borrow some.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Cheese, He said, cheese. I don't got no cheese.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
He said, then, why don't you scrape it off your
mother's teeth.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
That's what I said.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Now, this pastor's kid, who's homeschooled and has never been
in a fight in his life, it don't take a
high IQ to understand you've got to protect your mother's honor.
So I said what I took off running out the door.
He took off running. I don't know if my dad's
have heard the story. Sorry dad. Anyway, he goes running.
I mean, we're running through the neighborhood, through people's backyards.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I'm chasing him. I finally catch him. I tackle him.
But remember I've never been in a fight before. I
didn't think this far. I do, what do you do now, y'all?
I hit him.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It didn't cross my mind. So I went take it back,
and he like, that's it.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I take it back. I'm like, yeah, for it away.
I walk home.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
You can't tell me, nah, some fights come and find you,
no matter if you do everything.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
You possibly can in life to avoid drama.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
The Bible says in First Samuel seventeen thirty thirty four.
But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep
his father's sheet. And when a lion or a bear
came and took a lamb out of the flock, I
went out after it and struck it and delivered the
lamb from its mouth, And when it arose against me,
(19:55):
I caught it by its beard and killed it. We're asking, David,
why do you think you have what it takes to
feat this nine foot giant? And David said, because this
fight ain't my first fight. I didn't go looking for
a fight. But a lion came and found me, and
that lion bit off more than he could chew, and
a bear came and found me. And because I fought
(20:17):
the lion, and because I fought the bear, I am
now prepared to fight this giant in front of me.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Hear me, some fights come and find you.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
By the way, be careful judging people for what they're battling.
Do you really think they picked that fight. They didn't
pick that fight. That fight picked them. They didn't pick addiction.
Addiction picked them. They didn't pick mental torment. Mental torment
picked them. And hear me, just because the fight picks
(20:49):
you does not mean you get to surrender. You have
Almighty God on the inside of you. You've got to
fight the fight that comes your way. But not all fights.
We pick some of them like us. And here's what
was wild. David gott in a fight with a lion
and a bear and it wasn't even his sheep. He
(21:10):
was taking care of his father's flock and God in
a drama with an enemy because he was protecting something
that does not belong to him. Some of you have
been fighting for your life and you believe the lie
of the enemy that you did something wrong, that maybe
I messed up some way and that's why I'm battling
the way that I'm battling, or maybe because of the
(21:32):
fight that you're facing. You're like, has God forgotten about me?
Has he abandoned me? Has he left me? You're not
fighting because you did something wrong. You are fighting because
your Father's kingdom and purpose is on the inside of you,
and the enemy is attacking the potential that God has
placed on the inside of you. The fight has found
(21:53):
you because there's destiny on your life. And by the way,
the size of your fight is an indication of the
size of the call of God on your life. You're wondering,
why does it seem like I am fighting for my
life because of the potential that God has placed on
the inside of you. The enemy said, let me take
(22:14):
you out before you even realize who God has called
you to be.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
As you track through scripture, the enemy did it all
the time.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
When he knew Moses, the Deliverer was coming, he tried
to have all the Hebrew boys executed. Why because he
will always attack in infancy. What he does not want
to deal with immaturity with somebody elbow. Your neighbors say,
but he failed. He failed. He should have taken me
out when he got a chance. He should have taken
me out when I did not know God and did
(22:41):
not in my right mind. But I made it a
church today. I made it into the house of God. Today,
I made it into an atmosphere that is telling me
who I am.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
And whose I am. The fight did not take me out.
You've got Aha.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I gotta get dramatic because I think sometimes we don't
realize that that part of being a Christian means you're
gonna take some shots. And it's not because of who
you are, it's because of who your dad is. We
are not living in a demilitarized zone.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
We are at war.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
And there is an enemy and he is trying to
take out the Kingdom of God. And you've got to
stand ten toes down saying I've got in a sick
I know who my dad is, and I'm gonna fight
for what he's One of the problems is we think
what we're fighting over belongs to us. So I'm confused
(23:42):
while I've got to battle so much over this marriage
because this is my marriage. Can I put you on
notice that ain't your marriage. That marriage belongs to God.
God created marriage a husband loving a wife and a
wife loving a husband as an example to the world
of God's love for his church and his bride.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And as you, guys, love each other.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
And build a family that God has called you to build,
it is example to unbelievers of the hope and love
and joy of God, you're not just fighting for love,
you are fighting for the Kingdom. I get in trouble
because I tell these stories about my family and then
y'all start thinking my family was ratchet, and we were,
but we were educated in love God too. I was
(24:26):
driving with my mom when I was a kid, and
this would happen quite often. And there's this one mall
up in Maryland. If you're from Maryland, you know it.
It's a massive, one of those, you know, kind of
outlet malls. And there's like enough room in the mall
for a million people, but they only have four parking spaces.
I don't know if they want to have like Instagram
fist fights. I don't know what it is, but you
(24:46):
spend more time looking for parking that you spend in
the mall. So I'd go to this mall my mom,
my siblings in the car, and my mom would be
driving up one aisle and she would see a parking
space in the other aisle. You would look at me
and she would say, Stephen, I love these moments and
(25:06):
preach it because half of y'all, like my mama, did
the same thing, and half of y'all light I.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Don't know, and they say it's going. Hey, my mama said,
get out the car.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Y'all have to say mama and go stand in that
parking space until I could drive around.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
So I come like, I'm like ten twelve, So I
get out of the car.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I go stand in that parking space and my mom,
I mean, it would seem like it take her four
hours to go up and come back down. And as
I'm standing there, a car would come and try to
park in the space and they go honk, honk, and
they move a little closer, and I'm like, it's taken.
And they'd be like, you're not a car. Honk honk,
(25:46):
and they move a little.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I'm like it's taken.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
And sometimes it would get a little dicey, and it's
like almost like they're gonna hit me with their car.
What they did not realize is you hitting me with
your car not hurt as much as what my mama
gonna do to me if I So, you do what
you gotta do. But I'm gonna say it, I need
some believers that know what God has promised them, And
(26:11):
you are gonna stand ten toes down on the healing,
on the hope, on the purpose, on the joy, devil.
You can give it your best shot, but I know
what my God has promised me, and I am not
moving off of this. And you might not have picked
the fight, the fight picked you. But you do not
(26:34):
have the option of backing down. So there is a
blessed scene in the battle. Do you realize that there
are some things that you learned about yourself in the
fight that you would have never learned about yourself if
it had not been in that fight. You learn that
you have more faith than you thought you did. You
(26:56):
learn that you have more fortitude than you thought you
You learn that you have more creativity. Who takes a
stone and a sling against someone who has their back
against the wall and knows who their God is?
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Man?
Speaker 3 (27:15):
The worst fight of my life was when my mom
was battling cancer for thirteen years and ended up passing
away after thirteen years. And by the way, you can't
tell me my God is not a healer because the
doctor gave her three months to live, said that we
could do with you. Go home, make your peace with God,
and God extended her life thirteen years. But hear me
(27:36):
walking through that battle, watching her battle the faith that
it built in me to still preach about healing and
hope and purpose. There is something that battles develop on
the inside of you that nothing else can. Some battles
will find me, but some battles I go looking for.
(27:56):
Here's what it says in First Samuel seventeen thirty two.
Then he even said to Saul, let no man's heart
fail because of him, your servant will go and fight
with this philistine. So in one passage we find David
fighting a lion and a bear that he did not
(28:19):
want to fight. In just a few passages later, we
find David running towards a battle that nobody else wanted
to fight.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
What happened, well, what happened was.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
When you make it through a few battles and you
realize that the victory belongs to the Lord, it brings
a confidence on the inside of you that all of
a sudden in your life. I'm not intimidated by a fight.
Matter of fact, I'm looking for a fight. And instead
of running from the enemy, I start running towards the enemy.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I start picking a fight.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I start looking for places to push back the forces
of darkness. The Bible says in Matthew Chapter A Lie
and Versuol that says the days of John the Baptist.
The Kingdom of God has suffered violence, but the violent take.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
It by force.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I believe this year, a supernatural violence is gonna begin
to rise up in the people of God, and we
begin to realize I'm no longer gonna be on the
defense against.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
The enemy, but I'm going on the offense.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Why did David run after Goliath because Goliath dared to
defy who God was.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Here's the battles.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
You need to start picking in your life anything that
defies the promise that God has made over your life.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
You've got to.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Stop allowing the enemy to occupy territory that does not
belong to him, and begin to declare, this is what
God has promised me, and I'm taking it back. I'm
taking my joy back, I'm taking my peace back. I'm
taking prosperity back. I will not lack, i will not
have not enough. I'm taking my health back, no matter of.
I'm taking back every unbelieving family member in my family.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
As for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord Devil.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Get your hands off my teenager, get your hands off
of my spouse, get your hands of aunt, off my uncle,
addiction is broken in my family in the name of Jesus.
Divorce is canceled in my family in the name of Jesus.
You've got to start attacking.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
What God has promised you.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Here.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Here's the problem. What happens when you're fighting.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Is is sometimes you don't know how to calm down.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
And I see this a lot.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Can I just be ignorant on social media? People fighting
fights that they ain't got no business fighting. As you
are running after the fights that God has for you,
make sure you're not picking fights that don't stand between
you and the destiny that God has for you. Because
one of the things the enemy wants is to get
(31:08):
you occupied in a fight that ain't got nothing to
do with what God has called you to do.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It happened to David.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
He's fighting a lion, he's fighting a bear, he's fighting Goliath.
He don't know who Insaul's army he can trust. And
next thing you know, him and his army they're marching
and they go ask a man, Hey, we have no food.
Can you feed us? The man said, I don't know
who you are. Y'all could be thieves, y'all, y'all could
be enemies. I'm not gonna feed you. You know what
David said, We gonna kill him. And it took somebody
(31:37):
talking David down. Of David, this ain't your fight. Leave
that alone. Some of us men.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
People talk to you the wrong way. Say something. Oh,
I'm gonna give you a peace.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
In my mind. First of all, you don't have much
mind left. You can't be handing pieces out all willy nilly, Okay.
You need to keep all the mind that you've got,
keep your mind stayed on him, and you've just got
to make a decision.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I'm not going to fight a.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Fight that doesn't have the ability to splock me from
all that God has for me. Bible's Sysition, Chapter twenty one,
verse eight. When David is in that temple, it says,
then David said to a Himelek, is there not here
on hand a spear or a sword? For I have
(32:31):
brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because
the King's business required. Hayes, You've got to understand us, pastors.
Our brains are like Rupek's cubes, and we write messages
and then the message writes itself. Even as I'm reading this,
I'm reminded when Jesus told his disciples when they went out,
don't bother to take anything with you, because when you
(32:52):
get to the place, it is going to give you
the resources that you need to accomplish what you need
to accomplish. The priest said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Whom you killed.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Watch this in a past battle, is now available in
your moment of need, wrapped in a cloth behind the
ephod if you will take that ticket, for there is
no other except that one. Ear and David said, there
is none like it. Give it to me. Come on,
(33:28):
where's my bible scholars at You've already preached this to yourself.
If I'm David and I'm fighting Goliath, the only thing
I am thinking about is don't die. I ain't worried
about being king. I'm not worried about the rest of
the Philistines. I'm not worried about who talking about me.
I'm just worried about don't die. I'm trying to take
(33:50):
Goliath out now. While I'm trying to take Goliath out,
God ain't even thinking about the battle that I'm in
right now. He's already two three year ahead in in
my future and knowing yeah, Goliah's a big battle when
you're gonna need a win. But make sure, David, you
snatch his sword at the end of this battle, because
this battle is not about this battle. This battle is
(34:13):
about equipping you for a battle that is coming on
from your future. Hear me, Some of you are so
consumed in this situation that you're in right now you
can't see two three years down the road and not
realize that this may be a battle to the enemy.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
But it's only training ground to God.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
This is a season where He is preparing you for
what He is getting ready to take you to.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Can anybody testify?
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I wouldn't want to go through that fight again, but
I learned some things in that fight.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
That I'm telling you, baby, I'm using right now.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I'm not happy that they walked out on me and
stabbed me in my back, but I picked up desernment
in that moment and ain't gonna get me twice. I
can see it coming a myt somebody shout prove it.
There was this passage in this Bible. The prophet came
to this widow. It was just her and her son.
There was a famine, you probably know the story, and
they had nothing to eat. The prophet said, can you
(35:07):
make me a cake? She said, bro, I ain't got nothing.
We're gonna make a cake for me and my son.
Then we're gonna die and that's it. He said, great,
do that, but first make me a cake. She had
enough faith to obey the word of God, even though
it made no common sense. She made a cake for
the prophet and then for her. And it said that
(35:28):
the flour and the oil sustained her through the famine.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Somebody say they survived the battle.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
The Holy Spirit showed me something that passage that blew
my mind years later. Here's what it says. It says
after they survived that famine. Later on her son died. Uh, oh,
what's a bigger deal, hunger or death. But when her
son died, it was not her first battle, and she
(35:59):
knew who her God was. And she said, I wonder
if the same God who can multiply flour and oil
can breathe life back into my dead boy. Let me
take him to the same place where God did the
last miracle.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Whole time, it was never.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
About the famine, never about the flower, never about the oil,
all about building.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
That faith muscle.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
For when she actually needed it, she knew how to
use it. Hear me, the battles that you fought in
your past were only preparing you for the victory that
God has a head of you. You may have called
it a battle, but I'm telling you it was a
blessing because it made you who you.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Are.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Some battles, come find me, some battles I go looking
for the last thing?
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Is this?
Speaker 3 (36:54):
But running from battles is not an option? Says this
in verse eleven, the end of that story. David eat
the bread, he has the sword, and it says the
servants of Acus said to him, is this not David
the king of the land? By the way, y'all, he
was anointed king, but he wasn't operating his king. Here
(37:18):
was the enemy calling David by his future, even though
nothing about his current situation looked like the future that
God had promised him. They said, is this not David
the King of the land? Did they not sing of
him to one another and dances saying Saul has slain.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
His thousands and David his ten thousands.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Now David took these words to heart and was watched
this very much afraid. You would think, if people are
reading your resume that your chest.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Would go out. Yeah, that's me. That's me.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
I'm been killing for the days. Said fear came over David,
and he says, watch this. So he changed his behavior
and pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors
(38:16):
of the gate, and let his saliva fall down.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
On his beard. You can play him done. Here's David.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
In the face of a new enemy with a resume
of victory, and instead of standing ten toes down and saying,
the God who brought victory in every season of my life,
he will do it again, David started to pretend to
be less than who God called him to be because
(38:50):
he didn't want to fight another battle elevation. Hear me,
there will be opportunities in your future if you do
not have the right perspective to diminish who God has
called you to be just to avoid another fight. Oh man,
(39:12):
when I get around these people and I talk about
all that God's going to do through my life.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
They get angries. So I'm just gonna stop talking.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
When when I when I walk in boldness and I'm
actually moving that, I get pushed back, I get flack,
I get attacked. So let me there are gonna be
temptations of let me just shrink, let me just stop dreaming,
let me just stop pushing, let me just stop pressing.
And if you're not careful, you can look at the
(39:42):
blessings that God is done in your life up to
this point and.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
You can say this is good enough. The heat that
I've had to take to get this far, I don't
want to fight anymore.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
A lot of times people they passed me that message,
which just for me. Sometimes I'm transparent, sometimes I'm not.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
But in this moment, I will be going. I tell you,
this message ain't for you. This is for me.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Because I'm walking out of a season where I just said, God,
I don't want to fight anymore.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
This thinks I'm tired. I'm exhausted.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Our church has been outrageously blessed, and God has moved
it forward and leaps and bounds, and every time it's
moved forward, there has been an insane attack prior. And
I'm like, God, if this is what building your kingdom
is like, count me out. And I'm not talking about
like stupid attacks like people talking about you. How many
people know people talking about you ain't got nothing to
do with nothing.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
But it's tax like you know your children.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Our church went through the season where we grew exponentially,
and right before we grew exponentially, we sit down in
the doctor's office and doctor tells me my seven year
old is losing her hearing and she'll never be able
to hear. Let's begin to start this process of figuring
out how she's going to live without hearing.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
God, if this is I ain't signed up for this church.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Crew on the other side got supernaturally healed her, no
healing problems, whatsoever. Another season like that comes, church grows exponentially.
Me and my wife are traveling at some conference or
whatever may be. We get a phone call or two
year old broke her femur and is in the hospital
(41:30):
and we're in another city. I am you want to
talk about naus just nauseousness, I said, God, if this
is the fight, count me out those last year She's
run around healthy, healed, perfect good.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
God's covered by the way. Pray for your pastors every time.
God bless us.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
You have no idea the battles that they fought and
they won, But there's such a temptation.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I know that's my story.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
You've got your own story of man, I just can't
handle another fight, Dave. I read this and I'm gonna it'
Second Samuel eleven, verse one. It says this, it happened
in the spring of the year, at the time when
kings go out to battle, that David sent Job and
his servants with him in all Israel, and they destroyed
the people. If I'm on besiege watched this, but David
(42:19):
remained at Jerusalem.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Y'all Bible scholars, you know the story. You could preach
it to yourself.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
David was supposed to be at war, and Steady stayed home,
ran across this chick called Bathsheba, and wrecked the whole deal.
If you look at the life of David, there's one
thing that you might miss that the only times David
nearly died was when he was in the palace, not
(42:48):
when he was out on the battlefield. The safest place
for David was out fighting the debt battles that God
called him to fight. It was in the palace that
sold tried to kill him. It was in the palace
that Absalom created that q ku and tried to take
him out. It was in the palace that he thought
about Sheheba and ruined his legacy. David was safest when
(43:12):
he was on the offense, going after all that God
had called him to go after. But when David allowed
the intimidation of the enemy to keep him blocked up
in what he thought was a safe place, is when.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
He was not safe at all.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
Hear me, you are safest not when you're playing it safe,
but when you are running forward in faith towards all
that God has for you. And you may say, hey,
I don't want to fight another battle, hear me, don't
look at it as another battle. Look at it another
victory on the other side of this battle that I'm
gonna walk through. What in ten spies say, Hey, we
(43:48):
can't take the city. There's giants in the land. What
in two spies say, when we kill these giants, we're
gonna sleep in giants' beds, and we're gonna live in giants' houses,
and we're gonna have giant blessings on the other.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Side of this.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
Hear me, I got bad news and I got good news.
The bad news is there's some battles ahead of you.
You cannot avoid them. Here's the good news. If you
don't back up, if you don't quit, if you don't
throw in the towel. Victory has your name on it,
and the size of the blessing on the other side
of the battle will be greater than any battle you
(44:22):
can face.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
In your life. If you believe it.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Somebody shot hallelujah.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Come on, Can you hop up on your feet? Father God,
We're grateful.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
God, We're thankful that you said, though the enemy comes
in like a flood, that you will raise up a.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Standard against him.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
God.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
I pray over every single person under the sound of
my voice, God, that your victory will go before us,
that you would cover us, that we would see your
hand on everything that we do. Come on, right where
you are, Can you close your eyes? Can you pray
this prayer? Say, Holy Spirit, what are you.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Saying to me? And just give God a moment to.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Make this time to make this message personal to you.
For some of you, you are in the fight of
your life, and God's word to you, as you're not alone,
this will end in victory. Your best days are ahead
of you, not behind you. For some of you, if
you'd be honest, you are fighting this fight by yourself
because you've never asked God to be a part of
(45:24):
your story. Well, if that's you, this is your moment
where if you find yourself. If you say, pastor, I'm
tired of fighting by myself. I need God to be
my victory. Right where you're standing, pray this prayer. Say
Lord Jesus, this is my moment. I surrender to you.
I believe it was your cross, it was your blood
(45:47):
that bought my freedom.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And in this moment, I give you all of me.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Be my Lord, be my savior, and use me for
your glory in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Amen and Amen.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Come on, Can you celebrate for every single person? God
bless you.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch
dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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