Elevation with Steven Furtick - It’s Your Time (Larry Brey)

Episode Date: August 31, 2020

Whether you’re facing loneliness or disappointment or fear… God sees you. Elevation Matthews Campus Pastor, Larry Brey, shares that no matter what season you find yourself in, it’s still your time. God wants to connect with you — and work through you — in every situation.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. I want to welcome our Elevation family from all around the world joining us today. My name is Larry Brigh. Some people call me Larry. Some people call me Larry Charles. I know I'm in trouble if I get that one. Some people call me LB. Even a few folks call me Skinner.

But I get the chance to preach God's word with you today. What a privilege it is for me to open up God's word. And if I haven't had the chance to meet you yet, chances are you've probably heard me. The few folks we have inside of our Valentine location are laughing right now. Because if you've watched any of the sermons at Elevation Church, you might have heard like a voice in the background going like, come on preach it pastor what other stuff do i say j j that's good like like so that's me true confession

like i want to apologize to all the sound engineers i make your job really hard but sometimes i just i just gotta praise god god's been too good for me to remain silent and i happen to believe that our pastor is anointed for this generation he is a joshua to this season of our life right now and he's speaking something over the landscape of our world that is needed and it is in season. But he's been my pastor for 18 years. I've been following him. I remember the first sermon I ever heard him preach. God is great. God is good. I don't remember what he said, but I know what God spoke. 18 years ago, God spoke. You're created for more than what you've become.

I know what pastor preached last week. He preached about thoughts. The last two weeks at Elevation Church, who, I'm not what I thought, following up with thought bubbles. Oh my gosh! Because I was sitting in that seat right there when God spoke. to my spirit through our pastor's words. He said, you're addicted to your thoughts, L.B. And he said your anxiety becomes you're addicted to your thoughts. Because the anxiety comes because you think everybody sees you the way you see yourself. And so I project that you see me the way I think about myself. And it's this gap of anxiety. And the more I honor you, the greater the gap

becomes. But now I'm projecting all of my dysfunction on you. Because I think you see, and that's my anxiety. I was sitting in that, in that, in that, seat right there. And so when God gave me that key to unlock that door that had been holding me, I got to praise him. I got to say thank you, God. Thank you for what you've done. But it's not just my anxiety that I'm addicted to. It's also I'm realizing my frustration is coming because I'm addicted to my thoughts. Because I'm not just here because I'm a staff member of Elevation Church. I'm a member of Elevation. Pastor Stevens, my pastor, and he's preaching words into my life. And when he preached about your thoughts,

I realize most of my frustration happens because I'm addicted to my thoughts. My frustration is you're not doing it like I think. And so when I look back and I see where God has brought me from, oh my soul, I just got to praise him. So if I act a little undignified, I do not apologize. I'm going to stand up here and I'm going to praise God and I'm going to thank my pastor because he is preaching the word of God. So let's take a second. Tell me thank Pastor Stephen for that.

My Lord, thank you. Thank you, Jesus. Hey, I'm going to open up the gospel of John today. I'm going to be in chapter two is where I'm going to be. It says this. It says on the third day, a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, they have no more wine.

Woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied, my hour has not yet come. his mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you to do. And here's the title for my message today. It's your time. Come on, type it in the comment. Say it out loud. Say it's your time. Hey, for those of you at Ballantan, you could have a seat, but you're probably sitting already at home. And if you are, hey, I'm glad you're joining us today. And I'm going to jump right into this text because this is a story that comes out of the gospel of John. I've been reading it for the last couple months. Actually, I was inspired to jump into it, by a sermon that Pastor Stephen preached. And I'm fascinated by this because you see this scene, and this is the first miracle that Jesus

performs. And Mary's at the wedding. She's obviously involved somewhere in the wedding planning situation because the plans don't work out and to run out of wine would be like this huge insult to all of the guests. And she's like, oh, snap, we've got a problem. And she does what all of us good Christians should do. Whenever you have a problem, take it to Jesus. And she's looking at Jesus saying, Jesus, it's your time.

Come on, man, you were created for this. Do something about it. And it's funny how she takes her problem to Jesus. We would do well to follow that pattern because it sometimes feels like Jesus, rather than being a first option, is way more of a last resort. It's so much easier to go complain to everybody else,

send it out on Facebook, and then when it doesn't work out, we just bail and we say, Jesus, you're my last option. And she's taking it to him. That's a good pattern to follow. And I don't know if she knew that Jesus was going to turn water into wine. Because here's what happened somewhere along the journey. Joseph, Mary's husband, had died.

Because in the scriptures, Jesus goes from being Jesus, the son of the carpenter, to being Jesus the carpenter. You see, he was forced to grow up at an early age. Because in that culture, when the father figure in the house dies, the oldest son takes over. Jesus was the oldest son. We don't know how long he's been living in this pattern, but it would have been customary for Mary to go to Jesus, say, hey, the water pipe is broke, can you fix it? We need some new brakes on the car. Can you take care of it? We got the bill over there. Can you take care of it? It would have been the pattern of her life because she is used to taking all of her problems to Jesus.

And she's dependent upon him. And it's just, it blows my mind when Jesus looks at her and he's like, woman, because you would almost kind of be offended by his respect. response to her. And it's funny because she just kind of ignores it. And rather than being offended, she just tell the servant to do whatever he tells you to do because it's really hard to be used by God when you're easy to be offended. And Mary takes a posture that's really hard to be offended. But we get in this pattern that we only go to Jesus as a last option. Everything else didn't work, so I might as well take it to Jesus. And now I just end up being, he's my in case of emergency break glass, Jesus. Jesus, I got nothing else. What you got for me? And if the only time you're calling someone is to get something from them, there's not much of a relationship.

So ladies, if some dude is only calling you late at night to get something from you, what do you call that guy? Actually, don't call them. Put them on the do not call lists. And sometimes we can do the same thing with Jesus. He just doesn't want to do something for you, but he wants a relationship with you. So when he looks at Mary and he says, woman, it's something a little more than a correction and a little bit less than a rebuke. And he's not correcting her language, but what he is saying is, I need to give you a new perspective. That's what's happening in this moment. So when he says, woman, it kind of startles her because up until that point, all she had seen was her son.

What she needs to start seeing him as is as her savior. She comes to him as mother, but she's going to walk. away as a follower. That's what Jesus is starting to do. It's the very first public miracle he does on the landscape of the horizon. And it is a pivot point in his life that says, now I'm going to show my glory and so that you would believe. And so, whoa, Mary, the terms of this relationship are about to change. And because Jesus says, my hour has not yet come. Jesus' hour was when he was going to go to the cross and give up his life. That was his hour. And he says, this isn't my hour. And he's saying, this isn't my time. But he gets up and he does it anyway.

That's where I'm fascinated by the text. Pastor, a couple of weeks ago, preach a sermon, I'm tired on the inside. Amazing sermon. Please go back and watch it. But he says, we cannot manipulate God to fit our agenda. That's what made me go study this whole passage. And it made me study the whole book of John. One word from my pastor causes me to study this whole thing. And we've had a couple hundred people every morning at 7 a.m. in our Matthews community doing a Bible study based upon one thought that Pastor Stephen preached. Tell me, Pastor, what you do doesn't matter. It's making a difference around the world. Thank you, sir, for doing that. But Jesus said, my hour is not yet come, but yet he gets up and he does it. Why? Jesus is saying, it's not my time, but it's yours. It's

your time, Mary. It's your time to start seeing me as something different than you've always seen me. He said, you need to start seeing me as Jehovah Jira, your protector. You need to be to start seeing me as Jehovah Shabbat, the God who is your provider and protector. I am Jehovah Nisi, the banner over your life. I am El Roy, the God who sees you. And he's about to start revealing parts of his character to her, but it will happen through relationship. And it says, Jesus, it's not my time, but it is yours. But what prompted the whole thing was a problem that Mary had. It was the it. What's your it? Some of you're like, I got a long list of it's, man.

Somebody like, I'm married to it. I drive to it. I can't get away from it. It keeps following me. I thought I paid the bill on it, but it keeps showing back up in the mail. I don't know what your it is, but I want you to see it. And what I want to flip your perspective like Jesus did with Mary is that problem, it becomes an opportunity to see a new perspective.

Because Jesus solves her problem. He does it. but he does not do it for her reasons. He says, I'm not doing it to solve your problem. I'm doing it to give you a new perspective. Everybody is at this wedding. Hundreds of people, not a COVID wedding where you have four people and everybody else watching.

It's not that kind of wedding. It's a wedding where there's hundreds of people there. Everybody sees it, but only a couple people see it. Everybody is there. Because the scripture says in chapter 2, verse 11, that says, what Jesus did here in Cana, Galilee, was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him. The problem was they ran out of wine, but the motive for Jesus doing it is not for people to have wine. It's so that people could see him at a deeper level.

And just maybe, just maybe, the problem that you're facing is an opportunity to upgrade your perspective and see a whole new aspect of Jesus. Because Mary's there in the disciples of their, and Mary had a relationship with Jesus for 30 years, but don't let familiarity be mistaken as faith. Because you can sometimes be close to something. You don't see it anymore. And you got Mary who's been rolling with him for 30 years, but you got the disciples who have just been following him for a couple days. And what I would submit to you is maybe some of you that are brand new Christians have it more figured out than some of us that have been walking with them for a long season. And so do not despise the day of small beginnings. And the disciples had just been rolling

with him for a couple days. So I want you to put a pause on chapter two. And I want to jump back to chapter one because it's so important that we see the genesis of a relationship. Because God reveals himself through relationship. And God desires to reveal more of himself to you through the problem that you're facing. But let's look back and let's see the genesis of a relationship. because in chapter one, what you see happening is two disciples, Andrew and John, because when Jesus is at the wedding, there's five disciples there. And the first two are Andrew and John. And they're just hanging out. And they see Jesus walking by and like, hey, let's follow him.

They don't even know why. He's like the Lamb of God. They're like, let's follow you. And Jesus turns to them and he says the most outlandest statement. He looks at them and he says, what do you want? Because some would tell you that God doesn't care what you want. that's not the God that I know. The God that I know cares deeply about what you want,

and he's going to start there and take you to a deeper revelation of him. And they just look at him and says, we just want to be with you. He's like, cool, hang with me. Let's go. So Andrew and John are following Jesus. Then the next day, Andrew and goes, gets his brother Peter. He's like, Peter, come check this out. So now you've got three disciples that are following Jesus.

Peter and Andrew are from a city in Galilee. And they now convince Jesus to go to Galilee, where they get this other guy named Philip. God reveals himself through relationship. What you see a pattern with the early disciples, it spread infectiously through relationships. God gave you that relationship because His glory wants to come through you. That's why you have that relationship.

Hit share right now. Hit share it right now. Share this sermon because somebody needs to come into relationship with Jesus. And God's going to use your relationship to bring them into relationship. So Philip goes and gets his brother Nathaniel, and I want to zoom in on Nathaniel for just this. second because this is the embryo of a relationship. In verse 45, it says Philip found Nathaniel and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about him the law and about whom the prophets also wrote

Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nazareth, can anything come from there? You're going to evolution church, can't be like? Nazareth? Talk about practice man? Nazareth? Because he had a box of what the Messiah would look like. And God was about to pop that bubble. He was about to just, just erode all of that. And Nathaniel, rather than being offended by him, simply says, just come and see, man. Just come and like, that's the greatest invitation you could give somebody. Just come and see, man. And here's the crazy part about the story. When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said to him, here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Really? He's a human. He's a human. He's got a lot of deceit. He's just like you and me. But it's interesting what Jesus calls him.

And Nathaniel says, how do you know me? Nathaniel answered, or asked, Jesus answered, I saw you while you will still under the fig tree before Philip called you. Wow. Then Nathaniel declared, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus said, you believe because I told you that I saw you under a fig tree, you will see even greater things than these. It's a fascinating story that Jesus says, before you came, I saw you, because Jesus sees the fullness of you. He sees all of your good and all of your bad, the good, the bad, and the ugly. He sees everything. So when he says, I saw you underneath the fig tree, it makes me think about the fig leaf.

Because in the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. They had complete intimacy. An amazing relationship. There were no barriers. There were no boundaries. Nothing separating us and God. It was perfect relationship. that is Genesis 225.

They were both naked and they felt no shame. It's not a verse about nudity. It's about intimacy. Seven verses later, they're eating. Their eyes are open and sin is injected into the human DNA and it is echoed throughout the generation since that moment. And so when it says he saw him sitting underneath the fig tree, he says, Nathaniel, I saw you sitting underneath all of that shame.

I saw you sitting underneath all of those decisions you ever did. And he said, I still called you. I still chose you. You are mine. Come to me. And it's amazing what Jesus says to him. He knows he's been living under the shadow of shame. And some of you don't want to come to Jesus

because you don't feel worthy to come into his presence. And I'm telling you that's the very reason Jesus died is to take that shame from you. And he sees you in full, but he loves you fully. And what's amazing to me is what he says to Nathaniel. He knows he's been sitting underneath that shame. and he looks at him and says, here's a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit.

He does not identify him by his lowest moments. He identifies him by his highest potential. And that is the same thing that God is doing to you. He is calling you into a relationship with himself. And of course Nathaniel's going to follow him. And he invites him into relationship and it begins by seeing who Jesus is. And he had a box that Jesus just popped.

And he blew his perspective of what the Messiah. Messiah should look like. And he says, I want to follow you. And he says, you believe because I saw you? Dude, you're going to see even greater things in these. And when you hear the word greater, I don't want you to think like more square footage, a nicer car, or a bigger paycheck. I want you to think deeper. Because what it is, it's like, follow me into relationship. And it's going to go deeper. Greater means deeper. You're going to see new shades of me who I've always been. And what you see introduced into the text as a concept of progressive revelation. Progressive revelation is this. A fancy way of saying, like evangelical terms is you were saved,

meaning you had a moment where you placed your faith in Jesus. You will be saved, meaning one day you will see him face to face and you'll be made like him. But in between, you're being saved. It's working out your salvation. Actually, let me tell it to you this way. My wife, Janet, is here and two of my four kids, Dalen. Dailen turns 12 on Wednesday. That's my girl. And then my son, Corbyn, here. He's 14. me tell you this about progressive revelation he's an amazing young man i love him i remember taking him to school when he's five years old he wants to like dad hold my hand let's go to the classroom he got his little backfaf gone he's like daddy i love you i's like yeah and then when he's like in fifth grade he's like

dad i love you now he's like in ninth grade he's like dad man do i have to say it like you better say you love me boy i'll embarrass you in front of all your but he's like he loves his dad then one day he'll graduate high school and he'll say dad i love you one day he'll get married and he'll say dad i love you and one day he'll hold his firstborn and look at me and say dad i love you he's used the same word his whole life but his understanding has changed over time that's progressive revelation as some of us are sitting in an outdated revelation of jesus you're stuck in an old download it's time you update what god has called you to see in this season And the way that he gives you a new revelation is through the situation, whether it's a struggle or a

celebration. It's all designed for you to see it. It is not the problem being solved. It is the person of Jesus in the problem with you. That's what he wants you to see. But what I realize about relationship is progressive revelation, because when I was sitting in that seat and Pastor Stephen was preaching, he was talking about carrying multiple roles. Look at Jesus, carrying all of these multiple roles. He has all of it. Because when you come to faith in Jesus, you get the fullness of. of Christ, but you don't understand in full. That's the progressive revelation. You grow in his character over time. That's he reveals it to you. And it's funny when pastor was preaching about roles, here's the other thing that God's so spoken to my spirit. Because Corbin, I'm his dad. I've been

his dad for 14 years. It's one of the greatest privilege of my life to be his dad. And I remember being his dad when he's five and we'd eat pizza and we'd wrestle and it was awesome. And then when he's nine, I had a bunch of rules like, hey, clean your room. brush your teeth, go to bed. And what God spoke to me, he says, you're still living in a five-year-old definition of dad. And the reason I'm having frustration in the relationship is not because he doesn't get it.

Because I was looking at him, he just doesn't get it. He needs to respect his dad more. And what I realized, it's about my perspective. Because I have not had a new revelation of what dad is in five years and I'm still treating him like an eight-year-old. And so we had a good talk a couple weeks ago and said, Corbyn, I want to apologize for that

because I need to see you differently because I need to be something different for you. It's a progressive revelation. And I would submit to you that wherever you have frustration in a relationship, this is going to sound cheesy, but this is the way God gave it to me. That frustration is an opportunity for a revelation. I just gave somebody marital advice. It's like the old couple that's been married 50 years. And they're talking to the young couple and the old man looks at the young buck and the young buck says, man, how did you show you loved her every day? He goes, well, when we married 50 years ago, I told her, I loved her. And I said, if anything changed, I'd let her know.

Belief in Jesus is not a one-time event. It is an everyday occurrence. It is growing in your belief. And so when we jump back into the text, I want you to understand. You've got somebody who's been in relationship 30 years and somebody three days. And all of them, Jesus wants to reveal himself to them. I don't care where you're at on that continuum. I don't care if you're brand new at Jesus or you've been following him for a long time or you're wherever.

Jesus wants to reveal himself to you. Verse six at chapter two. Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding between 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, so they filled them to the brim.

Then they told them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the wine that had water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, everyone brings out the choice wine,

and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you've saved the best till now. What Jesus did here in Cana Galilee was the first of the signs to which he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. So the initiation of this miracle began with a mother just having a problem. and I want to tell you that your problem matters to God. And he sees it and he's drawn to it.

But he's going to do something with it. It might not look like what you thought. It would. But the opportunity exists for you to see him in it. And some of the miracles you don't see until you look back on it. Because in this thing, there's an Old Testament sacrificial system where people had to earn the right to be clean before God. It's following these rules and doing these rituals.

and it's so much easier to be a parent with rules rather than a father in relationship. It's so much easier because I can live in rules that stay the same for generations and never change, but that's not relationship. Relationship is living in a way that sees the other person and adjusting with them over time. And so Jesus is going to kick over the Old Testament sacrificial system. And from the ceremonial washing jars, he's going to bring forth a new sacrifice that will be a new atonement for the forgiveness of sin. They wouldn't see that until later. But everybody's at the wedding.

Everybody sees it, but only a couple people see it. And I think there's three groups of people that are sitting at this wedding. And as I walk through these three layers of people, what I want you to understand, this is taking it deeper. So when God told Nathaniel, you'll see even greater things, he would now walk with him for three years, miracle after miracle after miracle. And the miracle wasn't the feeding of the 5,000. the miracle was seeing Jesus in the middle of it. That's what the miracle was.

Not everybody saw that because some people only wanted to eat the food and fill their belly and the next day they were hungry again. I got to decide where do I want to be? Do I want to be hungry tomorrow or do I want to be with Jesus today? That's what God brings us to.

And so this top layer, I think, is at the wedding is a level of enjoy. Because Jesus brings out the choice wine. I mean, read the text. This isn't a pro or against alcohol. Jesus brought it and it was good stuff. And everybody at the wedding enjoyed it. And many people woke up with a little buzz the next day. But they went right back to life as normal. And the miracle's happening in the moment, but some people are only caught up with the wine. Maybe we would do well to

inspect what is it. Do I just want him to solve it? Do I just want to enjoy it? But what I want to tell you is Jesus always starts with what you want to get you to see what you need. There would be some that would preach that Jesus doesn't care what you won't. He doesn't want you happy, wants you holy. Come on, man, he cares about your happiness. He absolutely does. But he's got something deeper in mind for you. It's the starting to figure out how to homeschool your kids. And you're so overwhelmed by looking at the images on our TV right now. And it makes us give up hope that it could ever change. And what Jesus is saying, in the middle of all that problem, I am in it. And if you choose, you can see me in it. I think there's a second layer, because in verse nine, it says, and the master of the banquet

tasted some of the water that had been turned in wine. He didn't not realize where it come from, though the servants who drew the water knew. The second level is no. It's knowledge. It's to know something. So yet everybody enjoying the wine, some people, knowing where it came from. And there's a guy in the Bible named Nicodemus in chapter three of John that he's one of the religious leaders. He's like on the Supreme Court of Israel. And he comes to Jesus at night and at night speaks of disbelief. And he's got a box of knowledge that he is created from all of this studies that comes into the presence of Jesus and says, who are you? And he says, I'm the Messiah and says, how could this be? That doesn't make sense because it does not fit in my

box. And sometimes the very thing that keeps you from believing in Jesus is the knowledge you have. Because Jesus looks at him and says, this can only be revealed by the truth, by the spirit. He says, how can that be? He said, it won't make sense until you have the spirit. How can it be? It's because you have a paradigm of what you think God is supposed to look like and not look like. What you think God should do and should not do. When God doesn't do something you don't think lines up with what he should do, you walk away from it. Don't forfeit what you believe about God based upon what you don't understand. Because every time you come to this paradigm to say, I don't understand it, you can either walk away and reject it or you can lean into it, say, God, show me a new revelation of who you are.

Nicodemus represents this knowledge base that says, God should look like this. Thus saith the Lord. And he walks away from the conversation. But the beauty of our God is long suffering, willing that none should perish. So when you see Nicodemus later in John, while all the disciples have scattered, he's helping taking Jesus' body off the cross. That's how much he loves you. Even if your knowledge is a roadblock today, I believe that Jesus is going to be persistent. He's going to keep bringing things into your life.

I believe that one day you will bend your knee. You will declare him as your Lord and Savior. But some of us have a lot of knowledge, but the third level is belief. That's what he spoke of in verse 11, that God's glory would be. revealed and that you would believe. It's fascinating to me that we would be included in a sentence with God's glory. That alone makes me go like, your glory and my belief, like, to believe. To believe, like, and I have to believe at this point in the miracle, Mary forgets about the original problem because she sees the person of Jesus. And she's got an upgraded revelation of

who he is. He has gone from son to Savior. He's gone from just, I am his, mama to now I am his follower. It's absolutely amazing. And there's a difference between knowledge and belief. I used to teach college classes in sports medicine. So I would teach college classes about sports nutrition. And I could teach you about macronutrients and micronutrients and the value of vegetables in your life. And I know a lot about vegetables. But do you know how many vegetables I eat in a month? Probably about zero. Why? Because I don't believe in vegetables. Like, I know about him, but I don't believe in him. Do you believe Jesus or do you just know about him?

I'm not talking about a list of rules that you follow in order to earn his favor. I'm talking about a persistent ongoing relationship that calls you into deeper, that calls you into deeper. He's saying, come off the shallow end of the pool. I am a deep well and you'll never get to the bottom of it. And Jesus is biting you into a deeper relationship with him and we've got to push past the knowledge into the land of unbelief. of these things are only revealed by spirit. And Jesus goes on to record, John records six other miracles that Jesus does in this book of John. It is a book of belief, misunderstanding, miracles. And what you start to see is the whole crowd enjoyed the wine. The whole crowd

enjoyed the bread. Some people knew, but a few. believed. It's not a one-time event. It's a relationship. That's why Jesus did these miracles. But it's funny, Jesus did the miracles so that the disciples would believe. But did you know that when John wrote this, he was thinking of you? Jesus did the miracles for the disciples. John wrote this book for you. Let me show you. You never knew this, did you? I believe that in eternity past when God thought of what would happen in the future. He had you in mind. And that's why he had John write this letter. He had him write this book in John 20, verses 30 and 31. It says, Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written

that you. Who's the you? It's your time. John is saying, so that you would believe. Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that by believing in him, that you'd have a moment that you believe, but you walk out a relationship, that you progressively keep believing in him, that you may have life in his name. And I know you're staring at some it's. There's some big it's, and there's some big problems. And Jesus is saying, I want to meet you in it, but I want to show you me in it. And all the time he's saying, my hour is not, yet come, my hour's not yet come. But as you get to the end of John, he looks at his disciples and he says, my hour has come. His assignment, when he stepped out of glory, robed himself in flesh and made

his dwelling amongst us, was to crawl upon a cross so that he would suffer a death so that you and I could be forgiven of all of our sins. That was his hour. And as he's walking with his disciples, they wouldn't understand this until looking back on it. And Jesus has to go to the cross, and that's his assignment. That's his hour. And while they're at the cross, the disciples had dispersed. And here you've got Mary, his mother.

John, the guy who wrote this book and a few other women. And I just want to speak over the ladies. You're working so hard. The mom who's trying to make it. The single woman who's just trying to get ahead. The single mom who doesn't feel like I have enough to give to everybody, I want to tell you that Jesus sees you. He sees you.

It says that as Jesus is up on the cross, it says, when Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her woman. So picture Mary watching her son give up his life. She's looking at this situation of despair, and she can't do anything about it. You want to talk about a pain that is deep. She's watching her firstborn, her child die, and she's looking up at her savior, and she's filled with grief.

And picture the scene. The Roman soldiers have just cast lots and divided as closed. The Jewish leaders have a righteous indignation, feeling like they have killed the one who will put us in power the rest of our days. And all of these other people, like, we don't know what to make of it. But there's a couple people who are believing in that point. But yet their pain is so immense. And the excruciating pain that Jesus is under, as he's watching all of this, and he looks down and he says,

woman. I've heard that before. He says, you're looking up and you're seeing me as your savior. But he says, woman, here is your son, because I'm also your son. And then he looks at John, he says, take her home. Because as a son, I need to make sure my mom is taking care of. Imagine the pain in that moment.

Mary's watching the pain of her son. And yet, On the cross, he sees her, and he sees you. He sees the pain. He sees the anguish. He cares deeply about the sleepless nights. And even on the cross, Jesus is revealing his character to his mother. Because one of the names of God is El Roy.

It's the God who sees and cares for me. even in his hour, he says, I see you because he said, my time is your time. My hour is your hour. The reason I came is for you. And he sees you in your pain. And he's leaning out of glory into humanity. And he meets with you. And he's calling you.

And imagine Mary, as she hears the words uttered from her son. woman, here is your son, and then she is taken care of. Whatever problem you're facing matters to Jesus, but he's using that problem to show you his person. And if you have never placed your faith in Jesus, this is the moment that God is calling you by name. Nathaniel, come here. Josephine, come here.

James, come here. Sally, come here. He's calling you by name, and you've been resisting your whole life. You've had a box of what God is supposed to do, but God has popped that box and you're seeing the person of Jesus, and he sees you. He is Elroyd to you. He's the God who cares. And he's calling you into a relationship with him. And if you have never placed your faith in Jesus, if you've never been forgiven of your sins, this is your moment, this is your time. All around the world, we're going to say a prayer together right now. for someone to begin that relationship with Jesus. There's a step that all of us need to take. Some of you have been staring at your problems,

but you've not been seeing the person of Jesus in it. Some of you, this is the genesis of a relationship. Wherever you're at, if you could buy your heads, if you could close your eyes, I'm going to lead us in a prayer right now. And as you say these words with your mouth, if you believe them in your heart, the Bible says you will be saved.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God who died on the cross and rose from the grave to forgive me of all my sins. I give you my life. I give you my sin. I give you my shame. Forgive me and I'll spend my life following you. Now, if you just prayed that prayer, if you just ask Christ into your life, what you need to know is that all of heaven is rejoicing. few people we have at Ballantanton and we're going to rejoice with you. Come on. Would you drop it in the comments and let us know if you just ask Jesus into your heart? Greatest decision you'll ever make. Welcome to the family of God. We're so proud of you. 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.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.