Elevation with Steven Furtick - Same Devils, New Levels

Episode Date: February 1, 2021

It’s time for a new strategy. In “Same Devils, New Levels,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church teaches us to re-think the battles we’ve been fighting and ask God for the support we need for the season we’re in.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 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 you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Hey, let's do a roll call real quick. Just turn around somebody in your area if you're in a physical location. If you are watching online before or after the fact that I preach it, I want you to just put your first name front. and your city. Your first name from and your city. Do it right now. Turn around and tell somebody, my name is, tell them I come from and tell him I'm here to praise the Lord. I'm here. Come on, state your intention. Tell them, I'm here to praise the Lord. Tell them, I'm glad

to be with you. But I'm here to praise the Lord. I didn't come to look at you. I didn't come to listen to you. I didn't come to hear a preacher in a plaid jacket. I came to hear from God and give him glory. That's what I came for. Praise the Lord. Let's get into the Word of God, remain standing, or stand up if you didn't yet.

Shake off all those lazy devils and all of those get that sleep. out of your eyes, just wipe it right out of the inside of your sockets, and get ready, because God is going to speak to you. I thought about texting y'all that are going to be on the stools in a minute. You should have put a five-hour energy drink in your omelet today. You should have just cooked it right into your omelet because I've got quite a few miles to cover today. Are you ready? You're ready. I've been teaching and preaching in a stream about making room for the new things that God is doing in our life. I want to continue in that stream.

And I want to share a story that is really, really a lifesaver. It's really a lifesaver. And so don't underestimate the power in this little story. I wonder if you've ever heard this one before. It's not very well known, but I think it's very, very rich. In 2nd Samuel 21, verse 15. Did I give you my scripture yet, or was that the first time I said it? Okay, I'll give you a second.

I've been in this scripture so long. I feel like we just, we've been together all we. Because while I've been preparing it, I've been picturing you and praying and hoping that God would communicate it. They moved my camera way back to the back of the room like it always was. For months, I had it real close, but let's just, there's no distance in the spirit, all right? So wherever you're watching this, we're right there together. 2. Samuel 21, 15, if you're in Philippians, just look at the screen because you won't find it. Once again, there was a battle between the Philistines and Israelites, and David went down with

his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became exhausted. And everybody feels that that scripture is not about David. It's about you. Say amen real quick. And Ishvi Binaab, one of the descendants of Rafa, whose bronze spearhead weighed 300 shekels, and who was armed with a new sword, said he would kill David. He threatened to kill David, King David. But Abashai, son of Zeruya, came to David's rescue. He struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David's men swore to him saying, never again will you go out with us to battle?

so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished. There's quite a few preacher cliches, and I like them. They're really cool. I like to use them in my sermons because they stick. Things that you might hear preachers say, like, I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow. And it's true. I think that's very true.

I think you could make a biblical case for that, and I like it. But sometimes you want to kind of ask the preacher who's saying that, well, could you please tell the one who holds tomorrow? Ask him what I should do today and ask him to let me in on it because I had some decisions to make. Amen. I heard another one one time. I've said this one before, actually. Confession time. I've said, it's not a setback.

It's a setup. Your setback is a setup for a combat. It's like, I see what you did there. I'm broke, right? And the light company doesn't take Mother Goose Bible verse spin-offs for payment. I got paid of bills. Help me with that. The one that I've heard a lot, and I found it to be partially true, is they'll say, when

you're moving forward in your relationship with God, you'll experience increased resistance, and that's not necessarily a sign you're doing something wrong. It just means that you're advancing. And so every time you go higher, you have to fight harder. And the way that I've said that before and heard it said is, I wonder if you've heard this one. New levels. New devils.

Have you heard that before? It's true on Mario Brothers, you know, the more you win, the bigger the bosses get. And it's true in life. I'm not discounting that fact, but today I want to preach it a little bit differently. And I don't want to preach on new levels, new devils. Instead, the Lord sent me with this passage to talk to you about same devils, new levels. Father, what you gave me was good. Don't let me mess it up. The needs are too great, so I put it in your hands. I know that you will multiply it and

feed your people now all over the world in Jesus' name. Everybody say amen. Come on, say amen. Say amen in the chat. You may be seated. Reminded me of Thanksgiving when I think the Detroit Lions play every Thanksgiving. Is that right? My Thanksgiving memories consist of going over to Uncle Tommy's and Aunt Mary's in Florence,

South Carolina, then feasting. But always Uncle Tommy had the NFL on TV. It was always the Lions, the Detroit Lions. We will know that Jesus is about to come back for real when the lions don't play on Thanksgiving. A lot of crazy crap has happened over the last 12 months, but when that happens, the signs of his coming are near. And my Papa, at the end of his life, he would play dumb, but he would know what was going on, and his mind was sharper than he would let you think, and he'd sit there for a long time

and then he'd say something kind of funny just to mess with you. And one Thanksgiving, I must have been about 11 or 12, we were watching the Lions. I don't know why I remember this. You just remember little dumb stuff. It's like the spice of life, these little weird memories. And he goes, ah, he looks at the lions playing football on Thanksgiving, and he goes, they're still going at it after all these years. They're still going at it.

He is messing with us. They're still going at it after all these years. I kind of felt like that when I was reading Second Sam. Samuel 21. Because if you'll notice how it starts, it says, once again. Put it on the screen, please. Once again. And I'd love for you to write those words down or just put it in the chat right now.

Once again. It kind of signifies a cyclical struggle. Once again. Put it on the screen one more time, please, just to make sure that it sinks in. I'm going to use repetition here. is describing something that's repetitive in David's life is that he's fighting the Philistines. Now, all of you Bible students are like, hey, wait a minute. He can't be fighting the Philistines. He killed the Philistine in 1st Samuel 17. And Pastor Steve, I'm not so good at the Bible or theology,

but 2 Samuel 21 comes way after 1st Samuel 17 so David can't be fighting the Philistine in 2nd Samuel 21. He killed him in 1st Samuel 17. His name was Goliath. He was 9 foot 3 by some traditions, at least 6 foot 9 by the lowest estimate. He had a big old 600 shekel tip of his spear and he came at David talking trash. defied the armies of the living God, and David had five stones, but he sold the other four on eBay as miracle memorabilia, because he only needed one. So you're correct, you're correct, you're correct, you're correct.

He's fighting a different Philistine, the same enemy, the same opponent, the same thing. I had these moments in my life now where I'm like, really, still this? So it doesn't surprise me like new levels, new devils. Like, okay, well, yeah, I've never done this before. Of course it's just kind of hard. But can I be honest with you, when I find the same insecurities that I was dealing with as a 15-year-old and they're still running after me, running after, running after me, when I find those kinds of things that are still on my heels, and I've been running with the Lord

for 25 years. So when I called the message, same devils, I knew that you would know what I was talking about. Because every once in a while, you get a look at yourself in the mirror, and you see some things that have changed, much to your chagrin. And then you see several things that you're like, still? This? Really?

And so where I want to get us in the sermon today, God being my hope and portion, is I want to get us from verse 15. Put it up, please. Once again, there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. And I want to get us and you and your family and me and all of us crazy people. I want to get us all the way to verse 17. And verse 17, right in the middle of the verse, he says, never again. So that's what I'm interested in today, is I want to get from verse 15 where it says once again.

You ready? Are you ready? To verse 17 where he says, never again. Now, I need a loud-mouthed person to shout, never again. All right, so sit down and let's get there because this is going to be a rough journey. He is fighting the same giants. Now, it's not Goliath. Goliath is dead and his heads cut off and he doesn't come back.

But it lists here in 2nd Samuel 21 some of the people who were kind of like Goliath. They were kind of like Goliath, the descendants of Rafa, not the tennis player, chunks, different guy. It's kind of like Goliath, but it's not Goliath. And David has changed, but some things about him are still the same. And so you kind of surprise sometimes every once in a while to see what's still the same and what has changed. I mean, for David, he's come a long way to be the king of the United Monarchy. He's got the southern and northern kingdom together.

He's 40 years old now. I relate to David in this way, not in many ways. I don't have a harp in my music room. David played harp. I've never done that. I played acoustic guitar, so it's kind of like that. I don't relate to David all the way. I remember somebody telling me one time, we shouldn't compare ourselves to the Bible characters.

Then what are we doing? Study in history? God gave these people to us as examples, the good and the bad. And so I relate to David in certain ways. In some ways, he's very different than me. I don't have his fighting skills or anything. I have his temper, but I don't have his acumen. I relate to him in the sense that he had a sense for what God wanted him to do as a teenager.

I relate to that. I started sensing what God wanted me to do early. I even relate to the fact that in some ways he didn't fit in, because you can feel like that sometimes. I don't relate to bringing the Ark of the Covenant back. I've never done anything that big in my life. I really have. I started a YouTube channel. I never brought the Ark of the Covenant back. So in a way I relate in a way is much different. There are some things about the story that are probably just to show me a bigger picture of what God has always been doing. And that part I don't relate to so much. But when it said once again,

there was a battle between the Philistines, and I realized that David was still fighting over two decades later with some of the same giants that he killed at age 17. I related to that. So we may want to give this message a subtitle. It's the same devil. It's just dressed different. Once you begin to understand that the devil is not creative, God is, you can more easily discern when he's bringing a different flavor of the same temptation into your life in a different season.

And I think that's important because otherwise you will become like David exhausted, trying to fight every new devil. But once you recognize that this is the same fear that's making me drink too much, that earlier in my life was a part of how I grew up. Or once you realize this is the same fear that's making me push people away at age. Now, here's what happens though. It's the same stuff we deal with, right? It's the same exact stuff.

The world, the flesh, the devil. Everybody say that? The world, the flesh, the devil. Only three enemies. The world, the flesh, the devil. The world is the system. The flesh is the patterns. And the devil is that other thing.

That other thing. We can't exactly pinpoint on a person. But once you understand that that's all the devil has, and it just comes back and forth in your life in different seasons, it dresses up in different disguises. And when you're younger, the devils are less expensive. So when you're younger and you want attention, you just act out in class and you get detention. That's it. That's it.

You just want attention. what you want, so you do something stupid, and you get detention, and that's it. But what about 25 years later? When the same need for attention outside of your marriage doesn't end in detention, it ends in divorce. Do you see what this country preacher is trying to say to you? It's really simple. It's the same devil.

It's just coming at you at an entirely different expense. The stakes are higher. That's why I love, like, elevation youth. Because while my kids are young, I want to teach them they can pray about anything. They can ask God for anything. They can trust God with anything. They can go to God for anything. They can find everything that the world falsely advertises in the house of God.

And you don't have to run from your calling. You can embrace it because you've got it on. the inside. I don't know if you know this, but the same passion that made David great as a teenager to kill Goliath, which was his first giant that he killed, almost got him killed a little later in his life. See, he's conflicted in 2nd Samuel 21 because he's not a shepherd boy anymore. He's a king now. He's not in a wheelchair. When I first read this, I was like, like, man, David must have been really old that he got so tired in battle. Then I thought he was weak, but I read it a few more times and it didn't say that.

It said, once again, there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became, the Bible says, exhausted. It didn't say he was weak. That's not almost what got him killed. was not weak. He's one of these guys, even if you thought that, you wouldn't say it to his face. He wasn't weak, and he wasn't lazy. The Bible doesn't say that David was careless. It said he was weary. There's a big difference between weak and weary. It's like the other day,

me and my partner, who's also my firstborn son, were pumping some big weights in the pound. That's what we call the room we work out in. The place of ultimate natural development. Pound, it's an acronym. Have a good time. You've got to have a good time in life. You can't preach all the time. Yeah, use your creativity in other ways.

So call it the pound. And I said, what would you do right now if I put a video of you curling these five pound weights? But see, when I tell you he was curling five pound weights, what I didn't tell you is it was the fourth exercise. in a super, super, super set. If you had walked in at that moment where you saw him with the fives, you'd be like, ha, look at you. Do you even lift this? Like, yeah, I was lifting for five minutes before you got here.

You just walked in at the end. So here we are. I'm curling tens. He's curling fives. And we're laughing at ourselves, but knowing we're much stronger. We're not weak. just weary. I thought you'd be happy. I'm letting you off the hook. That's why you did the dumb thing that you did yesterday. You are not a weak person. How can Christ live in you and you

be weak? It's not possible. That's not possible. How can greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world? How can the great I am be the spirit that brings life inside of you and you be weak? David wasn't weak, and neither am I. I feel weak when I get weary, and I get weary when I've been fighting the same battle over and over and over again. And then people walk in on you and they're like, why would you do something so dumb? Oh God, why would you do something like that? If you would have saw the three sets I had to do before you got here.

I used to want to walk out because for years I preach. three services or four services, and I used to want to walk out to the 1130 on the third service and go, can y'all be nice to me today? I mean, I barely have a voice left. I drank all the throat coat that they make, and I'm practically like living off a re-cola cough drops to even get these words out. Can you please not sit there and look at me, cross-eyed and crossed arm looking at me, like I stole something out of your house and you want to throw me in prison?

Can we please not have you looking like a terrorist on the front row of the church today while I'm trying to preach? I'm just like pity me, I'm tired, please, help me, help me. I need to help. I'm a person. Dave is a person, you're a person. We have this treasure in earth and vessels. Yeah.

And you get tired. The only thing I hate is when I see you getting tired over battles that you don't even have to fight. I hate that for you. Some battles you have to fight. When you're running back and forth to the nursing home where your mother is and she's an hour away, away and then you're coming back home and you don't have enough to give and you're spread thin. That's one thing. But then to have imaginary battles that you fight alongside the real ones. So where in my life am I being defeated because I'm drained? What a question,

right? Where am I stronger than what I am acting like? Where am I actually? I remember when I went over to somebody's house one time and their kid was acting so bad. colicky and bad, probably like a six-month old kid. And they said, I promise they're good. They just need a nap. And sometimes I want to apologize for myself like that. I promise I'm good. I just need a nap.

I just need a bubble bath. I just need a walk with Holly. I just need something. And yet, so much of it, if you'll notice in the passage, so much of it is solved when we allow the strategy to match the season. And that's what drew me to the challenge of this text was that David is doing what he has always done and what has made him successful up to this point. And it almost gets him killed. So here's how God showed it to me.

The thing that got him crowned almost got him killed. He was crowned for killing a giant, which was what he was supposed to do in that season of his life. But now we find him almost dying. David almost died. He almost died. He almost died before he did everything God called him to do. He almost died, anointed, and he almost died. You can be anointed and exhausted. And if you don't know what to do in those moments, then the thing that crowns you in one season can kill you in the next. Can I show this personally? When COVID-19 says it, are y'all sick of even hearing?

that. Can we call it something else? When the plague broke out on the earth for four weeks, and you'll verify this, I went on Zoom to every meeting in the church. Every meeting, it was me creeping on every meeting. What are we talking about today? I think the EKids logo should have a slightly lighter shade of yellow, because I was scared, because they told me we couldn't open the doors of our church. And I spent almost 15 years. This church will turn 15 next week. Dius to kill some big ones. Now, back in those days, I was in every meeting at my kitchen table with no office.

I mean, and I'm not trying to make the sermon about me. I know I'm not David, but I just relate to trying to do something that made you successful in one season, but you don't have the strength for it in the next season. And you can't figure it out. Why is this killing me? So I was trying to run the church how I used to run the church. Just like you're trying to live in your marriage like you did when you were single. You don't get to keep the same schedule as a married person as you did as a single person.

That will kill the love that you had in your marriage. I feel it in my legs. I don't know why. So for a few weeks, I was going to every meeting. You remember I was going at every meeting. I was going in every meeting, and I think I needed to for a minute just to stabilize. But then there came a point where I became so exhausted from doing what I did 15 years ago to start the church.

And I realized, and maybe it will help you realize that you have your own version of this, that I'm killing my creativity that God needs me to use to do what he called me to do. Can you relate? I'm not David. I never fought, what's his name, Ishbi, Bnob, I can't even pronounce it, let alone can I kill him? I never fought something like that. All right? But what I can relate to is trying to use an old strategy in a new season.

And like if you've lived through any kind of scarcity, this is a big temptation, because you can have enough but not know what to do with it. You can have a phone full of people who would love to hear from you and tell yourself the lie. Nobody wants to talk to me because maybe at one point in your life nobody would talk to you and you're still 15 and you're 40 You're 45. Here's what I'm trying to say nicely you're running out of time to upgrade weapons Because Ish by binobi is coming for everything you have One version says he cornered David and some of you are feeling cornered right now and if you don't figure out what to do in this weary place That same instinct that God gave you for survival that David had. Remember?

He said, I killed the bear. I killed the lions. Papa said, they're still going at it. It was the lions. That's what made me remember it because David was killing lions, right? But now, if he tries to fight in this season like he fought in that season, he will die at the hands of his own instinct. You want to go home or you want me to keep going?

So I realize I can't keep going in all these meetings. It's just taken all. So I want to ask you the question again. Where in your life are you using an old strategy in a new season? Where does that need to be upgraded? You know, like when you do go through the legend of Zelda, this is a current pop culture reference here, okay, for all the young people. When you do go through a video game, you've got to pick up all the weapons along the way.

And now the shame of it is when you're fighting with an inferior weapon because it reminds you of Goliath. You know, when you're defensive but nobody's attacking you, that's bad. The whole thing of whether David lives or die, the whole thing on whether your joy lives or die, the whole thing on whether or not you make it, the whole thing on whether or not you live to show your kids something different. See, I feel sorry for David. He doesn't know how to be a king in this way.

He had a bad example in Saul. He was only the second king that Israel ever had. The whole reason Israel wanted a king was because the Philistines were oppressing them. The whole reason the Philistines were oppressing them is because the Philistines were metal workers. So they had more weapons. The Israelites didn't have the weapon, so they wanted a king. But they got a bad king because they selected on the basis of height, not heart.

When David came into the throne, he had the heart for it. He didn't know how. And that's the thing about the people I pastor. I have the heart to be a good dad. I have the heart to be a good woman. I have the heart to be a good employee. I have the heart to break these chains. I want to get free, but I never saw how.

So now I'm out here fighting 40-year-old giants with 15-year-old tactics. And you can't fight grown-up battles with teenage tactics. You've got to grow into this season. You've got to grow into this challenge. You've got to grow into this assignment. You've got to grow into the anointing that you've had all along. It's not automatic. It's not automatic.

And whenever I face something that scares me, you know what I do? They say, same, what is it? New levels, new devils? No. When I hit a new devil, I sink back to the same level. I go back to the sewer, you know? I go back to the dumpster. Back when I was emotionally homeless and had nothing to eat, I go back inside myself and keep counsel

with the most unreliable person that I know, me unchecked. New level, new, how does it go? See all these crazy things preachers say. New levels, new devils. So I wanted to show you on one hand how this is not Goliath, it just reminds you of him and that you have grown. Really what I want to show you is what God did for David when he was cornered. I believe he's going to do it for you.

I know what we want to happen. That is not going to be what happens. We want when David's got a sword to his throat. Remember, this guy, this ish, I like how his name starts with ish, because we're all dealing with some ish, aren't we? That's the part of his name I can't say. Somebody put in the chat, newish, same God. All right, stop.

He had a sword 300 shekels. Can you believe that? That's 7 pounds. Can you believe that? Goliath was 15 pounds, 600 shekels. It was only half the size of Goliath sword. So why couldn't David beat him? I should be able to do this.

I should be able to move it. I always did it this way before. And I got up and go, got up and went while we're doing cliches. What's happening right now? Why is it this working? Because it sucks. Because the moment you mastered the strategy, it shifts. So when my oldest became a teenager, I'm so proud of him, but I didn't know how to raise

a teenager. And you know, everybody started telling me, just give him his space. I said space. So let me get this right. This human being that gave me no space or sleep for the first two years of his life. Now I'm supposed to just back off. That's hard to do. Why are you looking at me crazy?

You can't parent a 15-year-old the way you parent a two-year-old. I see people try to do it, and then I see the kid explode when they get out from under that supervision because you did not shift the strategy to match the season. Do you think pastoring this church now is like how it was pastoring when we had a 19 people? Imagine if we tried to have the cookout on my grill after this sermon like we did back then. There's not enough propane in North Carolina. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. So what you have to do is what Abishai. I want somebody to name their baby that. I wish I would have named one of my kids of Abishai. It's a good name. No, it's a good name. It means

Father of a gift. And what I wanted for the Bible to say, because when you're not a good name, I feel like the enemy is closing in on me and I'm tired and I'm spent and I'm out of ideas and I'm sick of people. I want him to send me an angel. God did not send an angel to rescue David. He sent Abashai. God did not send an angel. He sent a person.

What David does when Abashai comes determines whether or he's not he's not. He lives or dies. Are you pushing your Abashai away? Because it's like, I'm waiting on God. You know the old story. The man was dying and the Lord sent him a helicopter. How's the story go? Danny?

You heard it before? He's like, God, if you'll save me, he's dying and he's about to drown. And helicopter flies by. He says, no, I'm waiting on God. The boat comes by. I'm waiting on God. Jet ski comes by. He says, I'm waiting on God.

And he dies. And he gets to heaven. And they said, Lord, I waited on you. You said, I sent you a helicopter and a boat and a jet ski. I sent you Avishai. But you know what you keep doing? You keep reverting back to when you had no help. How stupid does a king look with a sling like this?

You know how stupid we look when we start trying to fight things in the flesh? I'll show them. I got in a fight with a woman the other day. Not a physical fight or anything. She was just talking crap. She was saying some stuff, and I checked her. It wasn't inappropriate. You wouldn't have been ashamed to call me your pastor, but I checked her enough.

Enough. Enough. And do you know what I got for it? Y'all are clapping. Y'all are carnal. Y'all are real carnal. Just like me. I got two hours of an elevated heart rate.

Good job. Didn't get a check, didn't get a royalty, didn't even get a belt. Like, nothing, no metal, no nothing. That's what I'm used to doing, right? That's what I'm used to doing. I'm going back to what I used to do. In some cases, that's worked well for me. In some cases, that's what I had to do, but you don't always have to.

In some cases, you had to make it alone, but maybe you don't have to right now. Maybe God's got somebody carrying the Father's gift. Abashai. Pray for the next seven days. God, make me aware of the Abashai, the help that you've sent in my life. Pray it and see what happens. Get some cards, get two or three cards, and handwrite some notes to people who have been in Abashai for you in a season. Because at the moment that David would have died, in steps Abashai. And Abashire is like, no, no, no. We can't let the light go out. David is symbolic of the land.

He's the one who keeps the covenant for Israel. He's the one that God gave. They were protective of their light. Are you protective of your light? He said, you can't put verse 17 up. You can't go out to battle like this anymore. You can't keep doing this like this anymore. You have got to upgrade how you do this, or the light is going to go out.

And what I'm seeing in this season of being a pastor, if I can be honest with you, I'm I'm seeing a lot of people's lights go out. I'm seeing the light in their eyes go out. I'm seeing the light in their mind go out. They're not thinking clearly. They're just tripping over stuff in the dark, just getting real reckless right now, getting real crazy. Going back to stuff they left alone for six years.

Going back to stuff they hadn't thought about in a long time, because that's what you do in survival. But you're in a different season now. You've got Abishai now. has put something between you and your enemy. I'm talking about Jesus. I'm talking about the grace of God. Because while I was praying for those who are alone, God said, if they don't have a human Abashai, I'll be their Abashai. I will stand between them and the pestilence, and the sword, and the depression. I will stand between you and the darkness. Stop pushing

Abashai away. I'm waiting on God. No, God has given you some help in the form of humans. And if you keep pushing people away like you're pushing people away, you will die at the hands of a giant that is under your feet. One more layer of this sermon I want to show you. Skinner, it got so good to me and every word I was seeing was showing me something. Everybody say, same devil, new level. It means that, yes, I'm dealing with the same thing.

Yes, I'm dealing with the same uncertainty. No, there is no abracadabra anointing. I wish I had that power, man. I'll sprinkle it all over all of y'all. I'd just be out sprinkling it all through the hospitals, all through the streets, all through the divorce courts, all through the custody courts, all through the unemployment lines. I just sprinkle it abracadabra. But God sent him Abashai.

And what really got my attention was not only did. Ish by Binab, have a sword half the size of Goliaths, but look what it said in verse. There it is. Verse 16. You ready? Is it bad that I'm this giddy over a scripture? Okay. I feel bad.

I feel like I'm like being corny because I'm excited about the Bible and stuff, the Word of God and all that stuff. It's like I'm paying too much attention to the Word of God. All right. It said that he was armed with a new sword. I'm wondering, why does it matter if it's new or used? Why did it say new sword? I believe God is using the new sword that the enemy had to point to a deeper reality.

Not only did the enemy have a new weapon, so did David. Not only did the enemy have a new weapon, so did David. Remember, this is the same David that struck down the lion. The same David that struck down a bear. The same David that put a smooth stone in Goliath's forehead. You remember when he came up on Goliath and Goliath is coming closer, closer, closer, but David doesn't let him come all the way. David is practicing.

Watch this. Spiritual distancing. Spiritual distancing. It said David ran to the battle line and he took his stone and he hit him from a distance. Because look, look, look, look, you've got to keep your enemies out there and your abishis here. Many of us do the exact opposite. We bring our enemies right here and we keep our abashis out there. So what we'll do, we will go and spend five hours on Facebook having imaginary battles

with people we don't know and wouldn't like if we did. Or somehow we think we owe the universe an account of how we spent our day and our money and our week. So I don't go on social much anymore. I was reminded why the other night. Somebody in our family, we were having a Friday night dinner. We had a very, very busy fruitful week last week. I can't wait to share what we created. It's amazing.

One of my favorite things I've ever been in a part created, and I can't wait to share it with you. But right after that, right? Right after that, while I was trying to rest, somebody in our family was like, Oh, somebody's saying something bad about the church on social. And I noticed in that moment I had a decision to make. I had a decision to make in that moment. Do I want to be a part of a gang fight in a fish tank? Because if I choose to, y'all better listen to the man of God.

This is wisdom for your life. If I choose to at that moment, I can go so deep into this. Who said what? And they said this and they said that. And then when I'm preaching to you today, I'm mad and you didn't even say anything, but praise the Lord. So now I'll be fighting you in the pulpit. So I said, I don't want to hear anymore. I made a phone call.

I said, hey, if anything happens about this, let me know if I need to deal with it. Boom, boom, boom. Now let's go watch that movie because I had told the kids that we were going to. Now, for us, movie night is like a big endeavor anyway. I mean, game night is like hiking to Himalayas. We don't even try game night anymore. That's a bloody sport in the Ferdick family. We can't do game night.

But movie night, I had just said, hey, you want to watch a movie tonight? Everybody's feeling it. We had this big week as a family ministry. God's doing a great work in our church, and I can't wait to share it with you, but we all experienced it together. I said, let's watch a movie tonight. And they said, okay, I said, without our phones. They're like, okay, you would have thought I said, let's go on a mission trip, right?

Like this is some huge thing. Like, we're going to watch a two-hour, just very, very, very, very brave of us. And I said, what do y'all want to watch? And then I realized, don't put it to a vote. I said, I'll figure out what to watch. And while that was happening, somebody said, hey, so-and-so is saying so-and-so about so-and-so and so-and-so, and I said, stop. They don't get to come to my movie night.

Huh? You get it? They don't get free space in the movie theater of my head. If they want a ticket, they got to buy it. Uh-uh, uh-uh, no, right there. Ah, you don't come in the front door. So, so what about you? Because I'm meeting a lot of people and they are letting all these voices come all in and

you are dying at the hands of Ish, pushing away the gift of the Father. It's complicated. It's not easy. David got this far by fighting. But to stay alive, these same freaking Philistine. These same habits, these same crazy, same 15. This? Again?

Really? So God said it's the same devil, but I want you to fight it at a new level. Because if you don't come up higher and see it from God's perspective and seek him and be with him and start your day different, end your day different, and make some adjustments, you'll be walking around with a slingshot. when you're supposed to be wearing armor. The Lord said, put down the sword, put on the armor. Say it with me, put down the sword, put on the armor. When David fought Goliath, he tried on the king's armor, but it didn't fit him yet.

It fits now. It fits now. I said it fits now. You're not that scared little girl anymore. No, no, you're not that weak, little defeated, little anemic. I'll take every crumb. You are not that now. It fits now.

Now step into this season with the confidence that you have the anointing for this assignment. Come on. Let the weak say, I am strong. That fits me now. I got a little tired, but I'm strong. I got a little vulnerable, but I got the victory. I got devil. I got an Abbasid.

I got an anointment. I got the shield of faith. I've got the helmet of salvation. I've got a new wardrobe. Yeah, I'm dressed different now. I don't have the rags of my filthy unrighteousness. I come into the presence of a God who has clothed me with a garment that is white, with a raiment, that is righteous. Same David, new sword.

Same David, new sword. Same you. New altitude. Same you, new focus, same devil, same insecurity, same problem, same problem, new passion. I want you to protect your light this week. I want you to take Abashai's advice, man. Remember what you asked me the other day on the campus pastor call? What happens when we see people who are really strong fall?

I think they don't take Abishai's advice. They keep going out over and over again to fight the wrong battles and pushing the right people away. At least that's what I've noticed. I told you I'd answer you and that's my answer. That's God's answer. Are you pushing Abashai away? Abashire wasn't an angel. Abashire was just one of David's guys, you know, one of those dirty,

Now, he was a fighter like David. He said, stop letting people get your light. Stop letting things steal your light. You remember in Revelation 2 where the church at Ephesus they're having trouble keeping what the author calls your first love? That's what the angel said. He said, you're losing your first love. And he gave a warning in Revelation 2.5 that I want to show you before I pray for you today.

because I know somebody's been caught and cornered on the battlefield, and you are very weary. You are very weary. Not calling you weak. I'm saying you're weary. Not because you've been fighting for a few days. You've been fighting for almost all your life. And the way the Lord said it in the revelation to John, he said, consider how far you have fallen, repent, and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamb stand from its place.

That's not a threat from God. It's a warning. It's a warning. If you don't guard your light, and I wrote down three things for light, you can write them down later. Just receive it right now. I said that light represents perspective, it represents passion, it represents purpose. represents purpose. So when they said, stop fighting these battles this way. And that might

mean a lot of things for you, you know? Like a lot of times we'll say, well, I prayed about it. Did you? Like a real prayer. Like a real, not, you know, where you're playing out every worst case scenario in your imagination and calling it prayer because you said, dear Lord, when you started that exercise. But like, did you really say, God? I mean, I was coming in today to preach, right? And the Lord is like, this message is good, but you hadn't really asked me much about it. I said, all right, let's go. Holy Spirit. Felt like Abashai came in the room, right? Like, you need some help, right? And when we get back to that, when we get back to it wasn't anything wrong with David. It wasn't that he was, it wasn't that he was a bad

person. It's just that if he kept fighting, not from a distance, but in the way he was fighting, the light would go out. Have you lost your perspective? Have you lost your light? He said, repent. Come up higher. Change levels. Repent. You see it in the text? Repent. Consider how you've fallen. Consider where you brought your enemies too close and kept your avish eyes at a distance. And I'll bring your light back. I hope you start seeing clearly again. You'll know what to do in this season. You'll know what to do. I'll give you an open door for how to win your kids' heart back.

I'll give you an open door for how to win your wife's heart back. I'll give you an open door for how to reestablish yourself as the leader. I'll show you how to start spending your time since you have a lot of free time. I'll show you how to reinvent yourself for a new career since things are happening that are beyond your control. I will give you your life back. That's what God wants to do. But now not if you keep fighting battles at the wrong level. Same devil, new level.

Are you saying when I go home that all of my giants will be dead? Nope. I'm saying that between once again and never again, between once again and never again, it's not about a devil. It's about a decision. You've got a decision to make. You're going to keep coming down to these battles, keep coming down to these streams, keep coming down to these sewers?

Are you coming back up and getting where the the light is. Are you swinging stuff in the dark? No, God. I thank you today that Abashai is coming to help your people, not just kings and leaders, certainly not just preachers or parents, but for every person in the room, I pray that you would sign, assign an Abashai to their life. I thank you, I thank you that Abashai is standing by for someone who will open their eyes and see, oh, I don't have to fight this way. Oh, I don't have to do this alone. Oh, I don't have to fight it like I used to fight it.

Oh, there's new leverage, there's new levels, there's new awareness, there's new weapons. Not only does my enemy have a new weapon, I have a new weapon. I have the blood of Jesus. I have the righteousness of Christ. I have the new mind. I have the new heart. I am a new creation. Same David, new sword.

Same David, new sword. Same devil, new level. You're raising us up. We're seated with you. We don't have to be afraid. We don't have to die by the sword. We can put on the full armor of God. You don't have to die, David, but you've got to stop pushing Abashai away.

You've got to let God fight for you. Sometimes you have to ask for Abashai. You have to tell people what you need. I don't mean be needy. We all have that friend. I mean, sometimes you need to reach out. Stop telling everybody, I've got this. I'm David.

I've got a smooth stone. Right now, you're weary and you need to receive the help that God has given you. Stop letting your enemies close and pushing your friends away. Receive this word. It came just for you at this time. He has given me a tongue to know how to encourage. the weary. And he sent this word for us today. Are you weak? No, you're just weary. But God has given us new weapons. Now, lift your hands all over the world, wherever this word finds you today. I want you to know you're not alone. You have an Abashai. You have an elder brother, Jesus. You have a great salvation. You have an unlimited grace. You have an unlimited grace. You have an You have a fresh anointing.

You have the Holy Spirit. Lord, as you open the eyes of every weary warrior this week to see the help that is already there, I thank you for the testimonies that I'm going to receive where people are glorifying you because they thought it was over, because Ish came with a new sword, but we came with a greater weapon. But you spoke a better word. But you sent your help. But you sent your word. But you sent an army. But you sent deliverance. But you sent an instruction. But you sent a grace. But you sent a mercy. And when the enemy came in like a flood, you raised up a standard. And David. So the Holy Spirit stop me on my tracks, and there's two things we're going to do in response to this

word, because I do think that somebody's life is in the balance, and if not your physical life, your spiritual one. So what I want to do is this week, I want our prayer team to stand in agreement with those who need God to show you an Abashai in your life. And right now, if that's you, look at me. You're not alone. You're weary. You're confused.

You're conflicted. You're between two things. That's all right. But I want you to put your name in the chat. And if you do that right now, then I'm assigning our prayer teams. We have hundreds of people around the world who are here just for this. And they're going to pray for you this week specifically. God, show them their Abashai.

Now this may not be a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a husband or a wife or a wife or a something like that, it may not be what you expect, but something to stand between you and your light going out. We stand in agreement with you this week. God, show me my Abashai. If you have the guts for it, there's a second prayer that we will pray for you this week. And you know what it is already? God show me where I need to be Abashai for somebody that you've called me to fight for. All right? All right? Because I'm sick of seeing David's die in the absence of Abishai.

So would you be that too? I don't want it to be creepy like we're running around and Valentine's like be my Abashy, be my Valentine. Not like that. But we need to pray about this. It's real out there right now. People are turning to crazy things in this season and they're reverting back to old ways. And can we stand in the gap as a church this week and just pray for the people around us?

Can we do that? I don't want you to die at the hands of a giant that God gave you the victory over. I want you pulling out slingshots that should be in a trophy case. I want your strategy to match your season. I want you to embrace who you are now. And be that person, be that parent, be that manager. that in this season. I'm sorry I can't make the devil's abracadabra away. But I am praying that God would give you Abashai.

The Father's gift. After all, if a 600 shekel tip of a spear couldn't kill you, what makes you think this is, well? You made it through a whole lot crazier. You made it through a whole lot crazier. Stand right now all over the world, living rooms, kitchens, hospital rooms, pull your car over. Pull over. Pull over. Pull over. Let me pray for you and then our teams will take it.

Lord, I feel like really I just began to unpack some of the things that we learned from David. But I pray that the one thing that they needed to hear, that it won't get snatched up now, and that they won't stand up and say, I've got this and pretend like that. they don't need help. Give us the humility to receive your help. Give us the boldness to believe that we've got it. I thank you that these enemies that we face, we don't look them in the eye, but we stand on the promise of your word, and we will not run from a defeated foe. Thank you for standing between me and the darkness. Thank you for giving light back. Thank you for giving

light back to homes, light back to churches. Light back to pastors. I feel an an anointing to pray for pastors right now. There are pastors who are dying in this season. Your light has gone out. You haven't been protecting it. You've been trying to do the old stuff, but this is a new season. God has given you fresh bread, a fresh word. God's going to give you your passion back. You're going to get happy to preach the word of God again. Worship leaders. Campus pastor. God's going to do it, God's going to restore it, God's going to light your lamp again. You're not out of oil, not yet. The Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is coming upon you in a greater measure than ever before.

I pray for you right now. I pray for parents, pastors, teachers, school teachers, business owners. I thank you for them, Lord. I thank you for students, sick of being in and out of online class, sick of having to wear masks, Sick of not known. Sick of God. We come into their life and we stand as an Abashai to say, you can't have these children. You can't have this generation.

You can't have what we've worked so hard to build. We thank you for the victory. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Let me hear your testimony this week. We want to hear from you. We love you. We bless you in the name of Jesus.

It's not over. You've got the same spirit. You killed the lion. You killed the bear. You've taken a lot of Philistines down, and this one can't kill you either. Be blessed. We love you. Thank you for joining us.

Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now, or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. you can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.