Elevation with Steven Furtick - When Better Feels Backwards

Episode Date: September 23, 2019

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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. Just one verse to get us started today. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 9, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure. of better things. Somebody shout better things. You shouted that like you want God to do something awesome in your life. Yeah, he said, because the context is some are falling away and some are giving up on what they first believe and some are going back to old systems of thought because it's too challenging. But he said, not you, not you. You're not going to give up or burn out

or fade away. We speak in this way. It does happen. Yet, in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. I want to preach to you for a few moments today with God's help on the subject of

when better feels backwards. When better feels backwards. And I pray that this might encourage you. In fact, let's pray one more time before we take our seat. God, if I share my opinion today, it will be close to worthless. And if I share from human wisdom today, it'll have a short shelf life. But your word is eternal. So speak now.

We're listening. Give us open hearts to receive the things that you desire to say in Jesus' name. Amen. Tell the person next you on your way down to your seat. You've never looked better. If the Lord has to forgive you for lying, you were just doing what the preacher said. Yeah, because on the Enneagram, which is like the personality type, it's not new, but Holla just discovered it a year or two ago.

And she told me, she studied the different nine personality types, and she said, you're number one. And I was like, I know. It's about time you caught on to that. I said, well, what is it? She said a perfectionist. I thought at first she said perfection, but she said, is. She said a perfectionist.

She said a perfectionist. She said the motto of the number one on the enneagram is it could always be better. I thought about how that can be such a wonderful thing if you're trying to make something great and create something special, but it can be such a horrible way to approach your everyday life that it could always be better. And you meet these people every once in a while, don't you? I never forget the guy who got a raise and I congratulated him. And he said, oh, I wish.

My tax bill is about to go through the roof. One guy, he saw us doing the baptisms at the church and we baptized over 2,000 people. Remember Rick? In two weeks. And when I told him about it, no, listen, this is what he said. Wow, your water bill must have been through the roof. Always looking for how it could be better. And I relate to this because honestly, I think y'all ought to thank God for all the perfectionists like me.

I know we're annoying, but don't you kind of want a perfectionist to design the airplane that you fly in? What, you want somebody who just glued the wings on kind of halfway straight? Give them more peanuts, they'll never notice. But the blessing of seeking perfection may be progress, and yet the byproducts so many times in our lives. is that we can often in our quest for perfection fill our minds with ways that it could be better when not realizing that some of the best things in our life come through not the things that we asked or prayed for, but the things that we are currently working through. The challenge for the author of Hebrews is that he's writing to a group of Christians whose lives are getting worse. They have accepted Jesus as the Messiah, and that caused all of their Jewish counterparts to think that they were crazy, that they had absolutely lost their minds to follow the teachings of a carpenter who was crucified on a Roman cross. And so now this group of Christians in Rome is being written to to encourage, don't go back.

And just look at somebody next to you because they've been tempted lately. Tell them, don't go back. That's the temptation. Don't go back. Don't go back to the old way of doing it. Because this way is better. And the Christians in Rome who are about to face severe persecution from Nero, this is for anybody who's going through anything right now, it might not be Nero persecuting you, but it can just be the unfamiliar territory of trying to learn to live by grace and faith when you are constantly being tempted to live by logic and calculation and what is fair. the temptation to control when God is calling you to surrender, and there is a temptation to go back to the old way, and he's telling them, don't go back. Jesus is better. He tells them that 13 times in the book of Hebrews. He uses this word that a perfectionist like me really likes. In the Greek, the word is chritone, and it means better. It's translated several different ways in English, superior, supreme, but mostly is translated better, better in quality, better in substance, better by comparison. Jesus is better.

And he's better because he made a better covenant than the old covenant. A covenant is an oath. God didn't make an agreement with humanity. He made an agreement with his son. He knows that you have a hard time holding up your end of the bargain. So rather than make an agreement with your fickle faith, he made an agreement with your with his faithful son who was obedient even unto death, death on the cross. He did it better.

He says that we have a better hope, not the kind of hope that only works when things are going in your direction, but a kind of hope that is like an anchor for the soul, Hebrew says. It is a better hope because an anchor only works when it hits the bottom. There is a certain kind of hope that floats, and as long as everything on the surface is going good, you feel pretty good. And then there is a better hope, a crytone hope, a hope that gets down to the bottom, and it doesn't fully function and serve its intended purpose until it is at that bottom place. If you've bottomed out in your emotions, if you've bottomed out in your bank account, if your health has bottomed out, if you feel like the worst is happening to you, I want you to know that you have a better crytone hope in Jesus because he's better. Somebody shout better. better covenant, better hope, better promises.

The Bible says that Jesus had a better ministry, not only a better ministry, but that his blood speaks a better word. So when condemnation rises up in your heart to tell you what you're not, remember for a moment who Jesus is. And if he went into the Holy of Holies and shed not the blood of bulls and goats, but the blood of his very own perfect life for your sake, when a drop of his blood hit the mercy seat, It spoke over your life, a future, and a hope that is better. And it doesn't matter what has been, because what's ahead is better.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. And these Christians who have lost so much are left wondering if Jesus is better, how come my situation is getting so much worse? See, better is subjective. Right? Some things are just better than others objectively. Kendrick Lamar, Jay Cole. One of those is better.

iOS, Android. Some things are just better. I didn't even take a side and y'all are booing me. Pharisees. Some things are just better. Clips and tigers. Every other football team this season. cream, Dunkin' Donuts.

I won't even have the conversation. You cannot beat. I'm prophesying over your future after church today. An original glazed, hot dozen. I prophesy over your life. The carbohydrates won't even count. Stop by and get one and see if it doesn't melt in your mouth. It will bless you.

Lepa Corrobo. Sorry. Things are just better. But when it comes to things that really matter in life, I think all of us know that better is a perspective is very subjective. You know why you think some people's lives are better than yours because you see the part that they show you? They might have a better house, but I wonder what goes on inside. And see, you don't know which one's better.

Oh, if you live long enough, you will find out that some of the people you spent so much of your time envying were secretly miserable. Better is a perspective. Better is not necessarily something that you can measure from what you can see with your eyes. But we all live in this world like, you got to get the iPhone. What is it? 11 that just came out. Why, I got to get it. I don't even like the text I get now from people on the old one. No, it's better.

It's got a camera. It can see through people. It can put X-ray vision. It's better. Oh, I get it. It's better, you know. That's interesting because the writer of Hebrews, he goes all the way back to get the people to move forward. He goes all the way back to get the people to move forward. He knows the only way that they're going to move forward in their faith is if they go backwards. Go backwards. Better. I thought I'd be better by now.

You are. Look where you started. You remember when you weren't even going to church? Look at you now. You got a pen. You're going to steal it, but at least you stole it from a church. That's better. Touch somebody say, I'm doing better. I'm doing better.

If you could see my bloodline, I'm doing better. If you could see the thoughts that I didn't act on. If you could see the temptations that I did resist, I promise you I'm doing. See, it's subjective and it's relative. Better compared to what? Every time I preach, I know because I am a number one. That the sermon could be better. Of course.

I'm speaking on behalf of God. The gap between what he means. knows and what I say will always be a pretty big one. So I understand that it could always be better. And that torments me sometimes. Truly it does. Because a lot of times I get used to doing things a certain way. Remember, these people that the author is writing to so eloquently are not unfamiliar

with religion. They came from a religious system, not out of a meth lab. They're not being tempted to go back to the world. They're being tempted to go back to an old religious system and to drift away, or he says, fall away from grace. He makes an argument that you should be further along by now. He says it in chapter 5, that you should be teachers by now, but you're still dealing with the basics.

And then he says that if you fall away from grace, that it's impossible to come back. When I read that, I got depressed until I realized what he was really saying, is that if you ever really get grace, you can't really fall away. And what he's teaching them, Jerry, is kind of like on tennis. He has to teach them to switch their grip. When I first came to get him to teach me, the first thing he said to me was, Because I had developed my own unique style of playing tennis. I wasn't good at it or anything, but I had this certain way of getting the ball over the net that worked for me.

And as long as the person on the other side of the net was less athletic than me, my way worked just fine. Or even if they were more athletic than me, I would only pick people to play against who I knew had never played. It was good for my ego and my self-esteem, but bad for my tennis skills. And when I first came out to Robert Stevens, if you want to look him up on Google, get him for a tennis teacher, he's pretty good. But when I first went out there, this made me mad because he said, let me see what I'm working with. Show me your serve. So I did what I do. I had this little thing.

I put my pointer finger on the racket like that. It's my grip, okay? It puts the ball over the net. Six miles an hour, maybe, but it gets over the net into the box. It works. And when he saw my grip, he said, okay, now you need to hold it like this. And he switched my grip. But let me tell you what happened when he switched my grip.

When he switched my grip, the ball no longer went over the net. Instead, it went over the fence. When he switched my grip, my percentage shots that went in the box went way down. And I looked at him like, I'm paying you for this crap. You switched my grip, but you didn't fix my serve. But I didn't understand at the time that sometimes in order, order to get to better, you have to go backwards. Y'all help me preach if you have spiritual ears. Sometimes in order to get to better, you have to go through bad. And I'm preaching this for somebody

today who has been feeling like things have been going backwards for you. The thing about it is, when God shows you a new grip called grace, for a little while in your life, is harder for you because you're used to controlling things and manipulate things. And when you get something new, have you ever noticed if you get something new, even if it's better at first it gets on your nerves because you don't know how to use it? And the temptation for us is, watch this, God will do a new thing in our life, and He'll be teaching us to forgive, and He'll be teaching us to get over offenses, and he'll be teaching us to trust him, and he'll be teaching us to find different ways to connect to joy,

And he'll be teaching us to not be so fake and he'll be teaching us not to live by our feelings But then we look at what he fixed on our grip and we see our shot going so far over the fence and I wonder if I would actually be better off doing it the old way than the new way So I go back instead of moving forward into better He said you can't go back You have something better. Better. When you get depressed, you stop believing that. When you get uncomfortable, you stop believing that.

You start trying to grip life like you used to. We've got to go backwards to get better. We've got to go all the way back to get better. That means I have to be comfortable. In some seasons of my life, I'm looking in the camera, because I think this is for somebody watching online. I have to be comfortable in my life to accept that sometimes loss is the way to gain. I have to be comfortable enough in my life to know that sometimes the most painful moments are the most purposeful moments.

I have to be comfortable in my life to stop comparing myself so much with people who are not meant to be the standard anyway. Jesus is better. I know some of you are intimidated because you don't know if you're as good of a Christian as some of the other people in the room. But let me tell you something about being a better Christian. You know, well, they're a better Christian than me. Look, they've memorized all this scripture. They're not better at Christians. They're better at memory.

They just got a better memory. That doesn't make them a better Christian. The religious people that crucified Jesus had a good memory. They could quote all 600 plus laws. You're not better than you. I wish you would tell the person next to you, you're not better than me. Not when it comes to my purpose. See, better is relative to purpose.

Can I preach this? So I walked into a guitar center, and I asked Jamie behind the counter, which one is better? I was buying software for Elijah to make beats. Which one is better? He said, that depends what you want to use it for. That depends how you intend to utilize the software. Better is relative to purpose. Some of you think that everybody else is better, smarter, taller.

Maybe God needed somebody short enough to fit through that door. Have you ever thought about that? Maybe God needed somebody ignorant enough to display his wisdom. Maybe God needed somebody humble enough to know that it is not I, but Christ in me. And besides, if Jesus Christ walks in this room, none of us are going to have any fashion show to put on. None of us are going to roll out our righteous deeds. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And grace is a way of life because you need him like I need him.

And his blood that was enough for you was enough for me. If it cleansed Billy Graham, it can hit me too because he's better. Because he's better and the fact that he's better doesn't mean that sometimes life won't get worse So we need a new definition of better. What if better is not always higher? What if better sometimes is deeper? What if better is not always a feeling? What if it's more like a foundation? What if better is not always what God is doing for you but sometimes it's what he's doing through you? They couldn't recognize Jesus when he came in the form of a baby because they were waiting for something better. They couldn't recognize Jesus when he was led away silently and didn't say a word before his accusers because if he's really the son of God, he should say something and come down.

They expected better. And is it possible that better is right in front of us and we don't even recognize it so we don't receive it? You know what? Some of us are so used to bad that we reject better when it comes. Sometimes backwards feels better. Feels familiar. Sometimes we'll go back to bad relationships because they feel better. Oh, I'm preaching now.

It got quiet. I called the sermon when better feels backwards, but what about when backwards feels better? I think I'll just go back to this. I think I'll just go back to that. I think I'll just quit trying at this. I think I'll use my old grip. I'm tired of waiting on... That's what happened to Abraham, by the way.

God told him he was going to do it a certain way, but he thought he knew better. So instead of waiting, he went in and slept with the servant of his wife, Sarai. Her name became Sarah. But Abraham went in and made a baby with her. Because God had a promise and a timetable for the promise, but Abraham, I know you never did this before, but he thought he knew better than God. And the Bible even uses this illustration of Abraham in Hebrew 6. He reaches backward to show them how much better it is to wait for the promise of God. He reaches all the way back to Abraham.

That was like the progenitor or the father of the faith of the whole nation. This is what they came from. And now as they're attempted to go back away from what they're walking into, as their lives get worse, as their situation seems to decrease and diminish, he reaches back to Abraham and he talks about how he patiently waited for the promise of God, but that's not the whole story. See, before Abraham patiently waited for Isaac, the child of promise, to be born through Sarah, he got the word from God, and then he went and did something that he thought was better because he got the child of promise to be born through Sarah. He got the word from God, and then he went and did something that he thought was better because he got tired of waiting. He had the right word, but the wrong womb. And so he went in. Now, I know why he did this, because Abraham was from a place called Err of the Chaldeans.

And so are we, not geographically, and it's spelled differently. He was from Err. You are But ours is spell ER Because anything that God does in our life All we have to do is go on our phones And find somebody who is er than us Bet er

Richer Stronger Happyer Thiner Ripped er Cuteer This is the one that'll break your heart You think your kids are smart, and then you get around some other kids, and you realize that your kids, by product of comparison,

were better than their three-year-old brother, but around the same age kids, it's always this temptation. You don't have to do anything but flip on a commercial, and they will be pulling you back to the land of er. It's better. It's better. And there are things in your life right now that you're like, it'd be so much better if. Would it really? Are you sure? Yeah, yeah. If I was famous, that would be amazing. I would be significant. If people knew my name, oh, really? That would be better?

You never saw a celebrity commit suicide? Are you sure it would be better? Is that what better really is? Well, if I had this amount of money, I wouldn't have any problems. Are you sure about that? You never met a miserable, rich person? I can introduce you to a few. It's not like this is new. It's not like it's only for the church here in Rome that is being persecuted for their faith. We are all drawn back to the land of Err, of looking around and never feeling really enough and comparing ourselves to things that were never meant to be our standard.

The only standard worthy of your comparison is the full potential of Christ in you, the hope of glory. And I want to declare over some of our lives today, we don't even realize how good it already is. We are forgiven, set free, redeemed, breathing, clapping, walking, talking, examples of the miracle working power of God. I release this over your life. It's already better. You can already rejoice. You can give thanks right now for His goodness. Cry tone, better.

For better in your life make you miss the grace of God that is already present. I'm preaching to every enneagram one right now. It could always be better, but it already is. Look what I deserved, and look what he did. He did not treat me as my sins deserve. It's already better. I'm going to walk around saying that all week. It's already better.

I'm going to declare it by faith on things that I'm waiting for God. to do. It's already better. It's already better. It's already better. Because once you give up the hope that it can ever be better, the only option is to go back. And yet I'm so interested in how this writer constructs his argument. Better. Better. He starts the whole book of Hebrews talking about Jesus Christ in his glory. And he doesn't give an introduction. He just gets right to business. He grabs the mic, starts talking about long ago at many times,

and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. He's going backwards. He's giving them what so many of us desperately need in our lives a frame of reference. You know, when the devil starts speaking to you, you lose all sense of where you really are in your life, And you lose all sense. You're drifting now. You're falling now.

You forget how good grace is because all you can think about is how bad you are. So he brings them all the way back. He rewinds it all the way back. And he says, long ago, in various times, various ways, God spoke through our fathers, the prophets. Give me the next verse. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. Now he's beginning to construct the argument, Crichtone, everybody say Crichton, not Cruton, but I'm going to help you remember it.

Crichton, better. He's going to introduce that word for the first of 13 times in this epistle, letter, declaration, that he said, I'm convinced of better things concerning you. Well, how do you know? You don't know me like that. You don't know what's going on in my life. You don't know what I'm actually dealing with. You're up here preaching all this stuff.

know my mom is sick and in a nursing home and I can barely afford to pay for it and I haven't been to visit her but once this year. You don't know. Gup are talking about better? Well, the writer of Hebrew says, let's go back long ago in various ways and at various times God spoke through the prophets. But now in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things. Somebody say better. Come on, I need full participation on every location. Say better. Jesus is better. The prophets are. were good, Jesus is better. The old way is good, the new way is better. Dunkin' Donuts is good, but Krispy Cream is hot. Now I see the sign. Preach it, Pastor Ferdit. In these last days,

he has spoken by his son, whom he appointed is a better operating system because he is the error of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God. It doesn't get any better. And the exact imprint of his nature. It is perfection in flesh. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Somebody shout better. Verse four, and I'll leave you alone, says this.

Having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Now what surprised me about that verse was not that he chose to say that Jesus, is better than the angels. Of course the Creator is better than his creation. He made the angels. It stands to reason that he's better than the angels. There is nothing in your life that God has given you that He is not greater than. Don't worship the gift. Worship the giver. The giver is the source. The gift is the resource. He's better. Somebody say he's better. That's the Greek word he translates. He says having become as much, verse 4, Superior, cry tone, better. It's the same word.

Better covenant, better word, better promise, better ministry, better, better. Jesus is better than the angels, and I'm not surprised whatever you put in the next blank Jesus is greater than. He's better than popularity. He's better than man's praise. He's better than a high you can get from some people. He's better than what you can put in your body and feel good for five hours. He's better, better, better.

That's not what surprised me whatsoever. surprised me as when it said in verse 4 part A, having become, because he already was perfect. So how did he become better? I know from my study of the Word of God that he did not improve in character. I know from my study in the Word of God that Jesus didn't go into the gym and get gains, bro. I know from what I know about his immutable, which means unable to be changed, nature, that he didn't get better like people get better. So in order to understand when that shocked me, that just stopped me, I said, I know he's better, but he didn't become better. He was already better.

And I had to go backwards to understand better. I'm going to preach to y'all three. In verse 3, it describes this process by which God became a man. What's better? A God or a man? So, right answer. Ding, ding, ding, gold star. God. But it said he became better.

He didn't get better. He was revealed as better. And how did he do it? because how we think of better is we climb up. But Jesus is not Drake. He didn't start from the bottom. My God, this word is just blessing me enough to subscribe to the podcast. He started in a celestial space that is untouched by the temporal.

He started in eternity and came into time. He started robed in divinity and glory and entered into flesh and shame. Watch verse 3. It says he was the radiance of the glory of God. He didn't become that. He was that. He was the exact imprint of his nature. He didn't become that. He was that. He upholds the universe by the power of his word. That's not what he did. That's who he is. So how did he become better? He made purification for sins and then sat down. Jesus, I need you to hear this. For everybody who is deep, feeling with shame and you feel like you've been going backwards because you keep slipping and you keep stumbling and you feel like I'm going backwards. I want to tell you, Jesus went backwards so we could see that he was better. Now I need 10 seconds of praise from the church from Nairobi to Caston County and

Ballanty in the back section. Give him praise if you'll know. He came down to lift me. And so if you've been going down lately, if you haven't been feeling it lately, if some things have been subtracted lately, I wanted to declare you're getting better backwards. God's going to do it in you. He is preparing you. Stand up and let me pray for the people. God says sometimes you've got to get better backwards. Sometimes you've got to switch the grip and understand that it's his grace and mercy, not your.

effort and your ability to walk in perfect fame. I'm getting better. I'm getting better through the power of the things that I endure, and I refuse to go back. I refuse to go back when what I have is better. Make that declaration say, what I have is better. D.L. Moody, the great evangelist, was talking one time to a critic. The man didn't like his preaching because he made. He made too many grammatical errors. And the man knew better English than D.L. Moody. But just because you know better English doesn't make you a better preacher. Amen.

Amen. And even though the man criticized him, he responded with humility. And in the story that was told of him said that when a man approached him and said, hey, I don't like the way that you give invitations. I don't think it's good. And he was used to bring so many people to Christ, right? This was back in the day when you couldn't leave a comment on somebody's YouTube. You had to tell them if you didn't like them straight to their face. These were better times.

No internet courage back then. He said, I don't like the way you do it. And D.L. Moody said, neither do I. I'm trying to find a better way. Then he asked the man. He said, how do you do it? And the man said, I don't. I don't have a way.

D.L. Moody said, I like mine better then. I like mine better. I know it's not pretty sometimes. And other people's progress can make you tempted to revert to past ways of thinking when you compare yourself to the wrong standard. But in the presence of God, in the presence of Jesus, who is greater than all things, and the eternal Christ whose word has spoken not only from eternity but from time, from him who knew no sin, who became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. He says, don't get discouraged in your life. Don't get discouraged by your marriage. Don't get discouraged by another person's marriage.

Bad grammar, good theology. I feel you, D.L. Moody. He said, don't get discouraged by what you don't have that they do. have. But instead I want you to declare over your life today that relative to my purpose, there is not a better person to be on the earth in position, on assignment, humbled before the presence of God. You know what makes you better for the job than anybody else? The fact that you know that you can't do it on your own. That's what makes you better in this world of impover approving in this world of approving. And it could always be er. Don't miss what is on the way to a place called er.

God's name is not the great I-Ur. He's the great I am. I need 600 people to celebrate this word right now. The blood of Jesus speaks a better word. 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.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. Guaranteed human.