Elevation with Steven Furtick - More Than Miracles (Holly Furtick)

Episode Date: May 11, 2020

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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 fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Are you excited about God's Word today? Holly's going to preach, but before she does, no, hold on. I didn't tell you this. She's walking toward the stage. Stay there. I want to bring up. Both of the boys are wearing a suit.

Grams is safety pinned because the tailor is quarantined. It's safety pinned at the bottom. So don't look at that. And Elijah had some yogurt on his lapel, but I think we baby wiped it off. And Abby looks perfect like she always does. So y'all come on up for a minute. And Abby's going to introduce you. So handsome.

So handsome. So good. So good. Hey, baby. All right. Go ahead and bring out her pulpit. We've got to be ready. The table.

Coffee table. Here, let's make a line together. Who stands where? All right, you hold her mic. Then you go on the other side, you hold her hand. And just face right that way where Holly's about to come up. Don't step back, my table's coming. I did that one time.

I tripped over that table so bad. Did you bring it out the week I tripped over it? Six feet, six feet, six feet. Did you? Thank God for your biceps, man. You've been taking creatine on quarantine, haven't you? Creatine on quarantine. Anyway, just hold that mic.

You want to hold it yourself? You want to hold it? Hold her hand, boy. What's wrong with you? You want to hold this hand? I'm good. All right, just read the fifth. What about my mom before she preaches to you today?

You probably already know that she likes to read, but I bet you didn't know that she doesn't read the books on paper, but she listens to them on Audible. She probably doesn't want you to know that she's loved bags and purses since she was about three years old, and used to take her mom's purses and grocery bags and put her toys in them. She always takes time.

to cook delicious healthy meals for our family. But my favorite thing about her is how she talks to me in at night and reads to me and prays for me. So Elevation Church all over the world, let's welcome my mom, Holly Ferdick. It's like a tin out of death. I don't know, there's not a lot of people, but the tin who are here really love you. I'm going to sit down in a minute, I promise, but you've got something exciting coming up, and I wanted to make sure the entire church family knew about it.

So share it. Okay, so this Wednesday, I am. I'm starting a live open enrollment of Mrs. Better Half. It's a Bible study that I wrote several years ago. It's actually something that was sort of birthed out of our house. Exactly. I was going to say that I would watch her welcome all of these women into our home. I had to take the kids and you all remember we would go to a movie or go to what's that restaurant, Highway 55?

And we would bug out while she would teach the women the study. Remember, the house would always be full of women, and she'd be teaching them about being a wife and not really trying to lecture, but just sharing from experience. So I had one group, and then another group, and then the team was like, you should do this as an actual study. And from my perspective, you're too humble sometimes, so you're like, well, I don't do Bible studies, and then you did it. And God has used it in a great way. And we were taking a walk the other day, and I said, people right now that either if they're quarantined or if they're just, like they've been spent too much time with people that they're with. You should do becoming Mrs. Better Have study for the whole world and do it on Facebook live and do it each week.

And so she committed to do that. And I think it's going to be absolutely amazing to share this with our family at this time with our church family. I'm really excited. So it's going to be live every Wednesday night on Facebook. And all you have to do to be a part is completely free is go to hollyferdick.com and register because it is a Facebook group. So, It's not just open to everyone. It's a group. So you have to ask to be a part of the group, and we will let you in. You don't need a book.

Some people will have a book, but we'll have a digital copy of the book available for you within the Facebook group. And I'm kind of nervous about it, but I'm also really excited. All right. If you're coming to the study, say I'm in in the chat so she can know she's not going to be better having alone. Let me know. It's going to be amazing. And you can jump in this Wednesday.

If you're watching this later, you can jump in. later on as well. Completely free. Our gift to you during this time. Yep. Preach the word. You look amazing. Thank you. You are amazing. Thank you. I mean that. And I thank God, that God gave you a husband that cleans up as well as me. I love you. You look good.

Preach the word. Come on, let's give it up for Holly. Special, guys. I want it to go on record and let everyone know that it was Elijah's idea for them to dress up and wear suits. And so not his dad. And his dad said, yes, let's do it. And Graham said, are we sure we want to do that? And guys, thank you. Thank you for dressing up and being here at Abby. Thank you for introducing me. That was so special. I love you guys. I love you too. Everybody watching. Hi. Before I start, I have to say my piece about the blessing, because I am just continually amazed. I don't know if you are, but I just can't seem to get used to the fact that God is continually using this church and this ministry all across the world.

I love how almost every video showcases people who are part of the Elevation Family all over the world and the music, the freaking music. Can I say that? God is taking these songs that my husband and Chris and our Elevation Worship team have written in. He is using them to bring hope and peace during such a crazy time of uncertainty. What I can't believe is that we get to hear them first. So whether you're in the building or you're watching online, we get to hear these songs first. They're birthed here and they're sung here and the blessing. All of those people that were singing the blessing, we got to sing it here first on this stage.

And I've never had a song that gets me every time like that one does. And I can't seem to listen to it enough. Yesterday, I was walking down this greenway, and I was listening. And I was like, I think I was by myself, but I was like lifting my hands and I was singing. And I have to say, personally, my favorite part of the blessing, the live version that's on the elevation album, Graves in the Gardens. If you don't have it, you're dumb. But my favorite part of my favorite part, babe, is when you say, you take the stage. Do you know what I'm about to say?

and he comes up and, you know, everybody's singing, and you wanted to go into the blessing one more time, and he goes, put another blessing on him, Carrie. Do you know that you do that? It's my favorite part. So anyway, thank you, Pastor Stephen, for pushing so hard and writing such incredible songs in elevation worship, wherever you guys went. You are blessing us in this season. So happy Mother's Day. It's my turn to say, Happy Mother's Day to all of the ladies who are watching. My mom is watching. I love you, Mom. This year I sent my mom a beautiful little framed print of a church, and the title of the print was called, Ben Sings My Soul. And I wrote her a little letter and told her that I was grateful for her for raising me in the church. Some of my earliest memories are at church, and it's now the thing that I've chosen to give my life to.

So thank you, Mom, for planting those seeds in me. I love you. I also feel like Mother's Day is a day to celebrate all women. A woman's touch is a beautiful thing in this world. And so I also want to take the opportunity to say to all of the ladies under the sound of my voice that I honor you today. And I want to thank you for loving and nurturing and caring for all of those that God has placed in your life. I love that they use that scripture, Proverbs 31, where it says, her children rise up and call her blessed. And I hope that everyone watching today will take a moment to reach out to a few women. I mean, I know you've already reached out to your mom, but if you'll take a minute to reach out to a few women who've impacted your life today and just thank them, it could be a teacher or a friend or just a woman that you look up to and let them know how they have impacted your life. you know, I feel like these past two months have been particularly hard on the women.

And so I want to take a second to honor some of the hero moms that I feel like need to be shouted out today. Okay? So, shout out to the mom whose kids cannot fix their own cereal. If that's you, just type it in the chat. Yes, Lord. And we all salute you. All of the moms whose kids can fix their own cereal, we, We're sorry that you're still in that stage, but we shout you out.

Shout out to the mom who thought she had an empty nest, but all your adult children came back to invade what would have been a very peaceful quarantine for you and you're cooking food for an army of people. If that's you, type, yes, Lord, in the chat, okay? Shout out to the mom whose kids cannot read the directions that were sent to them by their teacher. If that's you, I'm so sorry. Just say yes, Lord, and we will give our blessings to you and call you our hero. This one's for me.

I'm shouting myself out. Shout out to the moms of teenage boys who cannot get enough to eat. My boys do not accept cereal for dinner as an answer. Cereal is like a post-dinner pre-desert thing in our house. A box of cereal lasts one day. And poor Abby, you guys, poor Abby. She's going to have some serious food issues. because she's always hiding food in her room from her brother so that they don't get it.

Do I have any moms of teenage boys out there to support me? I cooked dinner last night. I made the same recipe that I made. I probably made it three months ago, and we had leftovers. And last night, there was no food left, and my husband went to get seconds, and he was like, guys, where's the, I'm telling you, the food is an issue in our house. Shout out to all the working moms out there. I cannot tell you how many Zoom calls I've been in where a mom is walking a baby or kids come in and interrupt. I'm also shouting myself out on this one because my kids just come in the room.

They don't check to see, they don't listen at the door to see if you're talking to yourself or anything. They just walk in the room talking to you, anybody, any working moms out there. You feel my pain. Abby came into my office the other day, and I was on a Zoom call, and she was like the fourth person that interrupted me. My husband wasn't one of them. I mean, they just kept coming into the room. And she comes in, and I turned around, and I was so done. And I looked at her, like, and she goes,

you obviously don't want to talk to me right now. And she stomped out of the room like I was the one who was being rude. Anyone out there with me on this, okay? Shout out to the moms of the kids who have special needs. I just want to say, your sacrifice is an example to all of us, and you are a hero. And one last time, one last shout out, shout out to all the moms who have missed milestones these past few months, whether it was a graduation or the birth of a grandchild or even a wedding. I am so sorry. And I'm praying that God would multiply back to you everything that you have missed during this season. Ladies, wherever you are, whatever stage of life you're in, you're doing better than you think you are. That is one of my favorite lines from a Stephen Ferdick sermon. How many people are, you want another throwback Thursday. I want another throwback Thursday, and I'm calling for them to play my husband's sermon, the most encouraging message you've never heard. And it's a word for all the moms,

because you are doing better than you think you are. And I'm praying over you today that no matter what this Mother's Day is like for you, that you would feel encouraged and that you would feel comforting. Am I losing the guys out there? They're like, hello, I promise that my message is for everyone today, and I'm about to get to it. So right now, I'm really excited to bring this word today. I have the privilege of thinking about my sermons for a lot longer than Pastor Stephen does. He has an average of six days. And I, on the other hand, have the ability to just gather, gather, gather, and mentally think about next time I preach, what I want to preach about. So this sermon that I'm bringing you today, I actually started taking down little notes on it in October. And so I feel like everything came together

this week as I've been preparing, and I'm really excited about what God has to say to us today. So will you pray with me before we get started? God, first of all, I just want to lift up all the women under the sound of my voice. And I pray for those who have lost their mom. And I pray for those who want to be a mom. And I pray that you would comfort them today, God. I pray for the woman that is tired that you would encourage her today. And God, I'm just so thankful for all of the women in my life who have impacted me and encouraged me and prayed for me and pushed me. And I'm just so grateful for their touch in my life. And so now, Lord, would you speak to us? We are listening. Our ears are open. You are such a good God. And we count it a privilege every time that we get

to open up your word and hear your voice and is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. If you have a Bible, will you turn to John 628? In the book of John, Jesus makes seven statements. And last month, when I preached, I talked about there's seven I am statements. And last month when I preached, I talked about when Jesus said, I am the way. Today, I want to go back and talk about the very first I am statement that Jesus presented to his followers. And that is, I am the bread of life. to me this is perhaps the best description Jesus could have given himself. Do I have any other fellow bread lovers out there? I love bread. I love bread. I think sourdough is my favorite, but really any warm bread with butter on it, and I will throw any diet out the window. Bread, it gives comfort, and it gives fullness, and it represents life and sustenance. And today I want to show you how when Jesus shows up in your life, He starts often with the things that he can do for you, but he wants to move you in a space of who he can be to you. All right? So let's look at John, chapter 6, verse 28. We're going to pick up

just after Jesus has performed the miracle of feeding the 5,000. And here's what it says. Then they asked him, what must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered. The work of God is this. to believe in the one he has sent. So they asked him, What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, very truly, I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, always give us this bread. And then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never grow hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Today, I want to talk to you about moving past miracles. My title is More Than Miracles. Several weeks ago, Pastor Stephen started this series called Looking Forward to Normal. And this series has just been mind-blowing to me. I feel like every week he comes with the exact words that I didn't even know that I was needing to hear. Like he's on this special tap with the Holy Spirit that just goes right into my soul. And ever since he began this idea of looking forward to normal, I've been reading the Bible differently.

And I've been seeing that all throughout Jesus' teachings, he was actually trying to get the people to look forward to normal, but they had such a hard time with this. And in this particular passage of Scripture, we find the crowds coming to Jesus and expecting him to repeat the miracles of Moses and actually physically lead them out of Roman oppression. But Jesus came to do so much more than that.

He came to bring a new life. He came to bring a living hope. He came to bring a freedom that went so far beyond their physical captivity. He came to bring them a life. relationship with the living God that would go so far beyond their traditional religion of following the law and making sacrifices. The problem with this is that the people could not see beyond what they thought the Messiah would do, and they were disappointed. Have you ever been disappointed because following God didn't turn out the way that you thought it would? I mean, we've all been

there. Maybe you've asked God for something, and he did. didn't do it. Maybe you thought God would change something in your life and he still hasn't done it. It's easy for me to stand here and tell you when God doesn't do something for you. It's because he has something that he wants to do in you. But it's harder to believe that when you can't get past why God didn't do the thing that you were expecting him to do in the first place. It's Mother's Day. So is it okay if I talk about being a mom? Because being a mom has been one of the most disappointing experiences of my life. Now, don't get me wrong. It's also been, guys, sorry, it's also been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. But it just didn't turn out the way that I imagined that it was.

You see, I wanted to be a mom from the very beginning. From my earliest memories, I loved playing with dolls as a little girl. I loved playing house with my sisters. I always fought it to be the mom and my older sister, Emily, would be the dad. And I'm ashamed to say that sometimes we would make our little sister Joy play the dog. Sorry, Joy. But even as I grew up, I loved babysitting, and I loved working in my church nursery. And when I married the man of my dreams, I wanted to start a family right away. And my husband held me off for a couple of years because he was smarter than me. And finally, I got pregnant at the mature age of 20. 24. And this beautiful baby was placed into my arms. And guys, when I tell you that he came out crying,

he came out screaming. And he did not stop. Like for five years, he did not stop. And the doctors and the nurses would come into our hospital room and they'd say, wow, he's got a great set of lungs. We thought that was a compliment. Really, it's code for your baby's crying really loud. He took him home and he kept crying, and then I started crying. And nothing was the way that I thought. I have a meme that I want to show you. This is what you thought motherhood would be like versus what it's actually like. This one really ministered to my soul.

This baby came out and there were no flowers. This wasn't the way that I pictured it, but the problem. wasn't the baby. The problem was my expectations of him. Babies cry. That's what they do. And so I started asking God to make him stop crying, and God wanted to draw me closer to him. And God was building an inner strength in me that I would need for every stage that would follow. So much of what I dreamed about when it came to being a mom was actually based on my ego. Sorry, this isn't turning out to be the most comforting Mother's Day message. That's not the thing that we want to hear on Mother's Day. But I had to realize, and I'm still 14 years later, learning

this, that raising kids is mostly about releasing your expectations and embracing who God has created them to be. Have you ever been disappointed because something didn't turn out the way you thought it would. I think we all feel that way about 2020. God, this is not the way I pictured this going. And that's how the Jewish people felt in John 6. They had spent 400 years waiting for the promised Messiah. They had memorized the Old Testament prophecies, and they had built up in their mind what they thought the Messiah would do when he finally came to rescue them. So here they are, under Roman rule, and they view themselves much like the Israelites when they were under Egyptian slavery. They even had this prophecy that said that the Messiah would call down manna from heaven like Moses had.

So can you imagine their excitement when Jesus does this miracle and he feeds the 5,000? And the people thought, this is it. This is him. This is the man who's going to start a revolution and lead us to freedom. And so they chase Jesus down the very next day, and they say to him, look at what it says in verse 30. They say, what sign will you give us that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate man in the wilderness as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

But Jesus was trying to get them to look forward to a new normal. He wanted them to see that, yes, he is the Messiah. And yes, he does miracles. And let me just say, God delights in showing up in miraculous ways. And God still does miracles. He's our heavenly father. And he loves you. He loves it when you pray about your job and your children and your finances.

He loves to show up in your life and make a way when there seems to be no way. He gave them bread to eat. He satisfied their physical needs. But that is not where he stops. And the beautiful thing about following Jesus is that he offers so much more than just meeting our physical needs. And so he begins to teach them. And he wants them to understand that he's offering more than just physical bread that goes into your belly, that he is the bread who has come down from heaven.

He tells them, I am all that you need. I am the one who satisfies the hunger in your soul. I am the bread of life. They wanted Jesus to fit within their formula of religion, but Jesus came to completely change everything. The old standard was works and sacrifices and following the law. The new standard is simple, faith and belief, and an actual living, breathing relationship with the God of the universe.

That was better. What matters most in the Christian life. If we could just get this today, this is the thing I want you to get. What matters most in the Christian life is not what Jesus can do for you. Yes, he still does miracles, but what matters most is who he is to you. Maybe you know Jesus is the one who provides physically, but have you moved to knowing him as the one who satisfies, your soul, because I'm standing here today and telling you that that is a real thing in my life.

He is the one that satisfies my soul. So what does this look like practically? Because it's great to talk about how Jesus is the bread of life, but what does that mean in your everyday life? You all knew I used to be a teacher for three very long years of my life. Is it already if I teach you a little bit today? I want to teach you about what it looks like to access this bread of life. this bread that Christ offers to us. And I would like to dedicate this sermon to my low-carb-eating

husband and all of his keto friends out there. Bread is biblical. So this sermon is dedicated to all of you. The first thing that we need to do, before we can identify what the bread looks like in our everyday life, is we need to figure out what it is not. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He even quotes to them from their prophecy in Isaiah 55, verse 2. The prophecy says, why spend money on what is not bread and labor, your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to me and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest affair. It's important that we identify the things in our life that are not bread. One day this week, I saw, I came out in my office from having a meeting and I saw that Graham ate cocoa puffs for lunch.

Coco puffs are not an adequate lunch. Coco puffs are going to fill you up for about an hour and then leave you coming back for more junk that does not nourish your body. And I got to thinking, are there any cocoa puff Christians out there? Are there any things in your life that are not nourishing you but you keep going back for it? Maybe it's a habit that you just can't seem to stop doing. Maybe it's an offense that has caused you to become bitter and kind of blocked you from experiencing what God wants you to experience in your life. Maybe it's a person who always pulls you away from the things that you know that God is trying to do in your life. Here's one for me, gossip.

Proverbs 26, 22 gets me so good every time it says the words of a gossip are like choices. morsels, they go down into the innermost parts. Have you ever noticed how it feels good to talk about someone in the moment? But it's kind of like those garlicky breadsticks, they feel good going down, but then later, you start to worry that maybe you went too far. And then deep down, I don't know if there's any over-analyzers out there, but deep down, you start to wonder if the person that you were gossiping to will trust you less because they're like, well, if she would talk about them to me, she might talk about me to them. I need to get past that one quickly. Sometimes I buy things that I don't need to impress people who aren't even looking. I need to keep moving.

Sometimes I depend on others around me to fill me. What a heavy burden to place on the people that God has placed in my life. Spiritual bread can never come from another person, good or bad, Because any time that you try to find nourishment from an earthly person, you will be disappointed. Because people are imperfect. People will always let you down. People have their own flaws and their own failures. And if you think that your spouse or your child or your friendship will fill you, you will ultimately be let down. Sometimes God does use others to fill us.

Of course he does. God speaks to me through the amazing people that he's placed. in my life, but you can't get it backwards. You can't confuse the source. He is our bread. And if he chooses to speak to me through a person in my life, it's still the Holy Spirit who is comforting me, not that person. When he is my bread, I know where to go when I feel let down. So what does the bread look like? If that's what it's not, what is it? What does it look like? First of all, bread is now. Have you ever eaten stale bread? It's not good. My mom used to take me to the store called the day-old bread store. At least that's what she called it. Anybody ever go to the day-old bread store? One day is okay, but stale bread is not good. When you know Jesus, you know that he speaks right now to your situation. Sometimes he only gives you enough to sustain you for a moment, sometimes for a day. The Bible tells us that His mercies are new every morning.

because they aren't meant to last forever. They're meant to make you coming back to him for more and for more. What if you had a relationship with someone that you never spoke to? That wouldn't be much of a relationship. God has a fresh word that can sustain you moment to moment. It's now. He gives you a word in season. Proverbs 15, 23 says, a word spoken in due season, how good it is. Back in March, God led me to Psalm 23. I didn't know why. I just started reading it. And then coronavirus came. And it became my anthem for the next several months. I read it over and over again. I read it in different versions. I shared it with everyone because it was getting me through all of the emotions and the uncertainties of quarantine. It was a word in season for me. Jeremiah 1516 says this,

let me find it. When your words came, I ate them. They were my joy and my heart's delight. You don't need signs anymore. Maybe a sign or a miracle brought you to Christ. But mature faith doesn't need constant signs and wonders. Sometimes God doesn't get you out of a situation because he wants you to go through. But he is going to give you everything that you need to push through, and he's going to go through it with you.

And you're going to come out on the other side stronger. Mature faith knows that the bread is right there in front of them, right now, in this moment, right now I just have to access it. I just have to open my eyes. His bread is also normal. So often we think that coming to God means that he has to be. has to always speak to us in this big thunderous clap or like the writing on the wall. I think that's a Bible verse somewhere. I don't know. God wrote on a wall. People use that phrase a lot. Or maybe we think, oh, I don't need writing on the wall, but God mostly speaks to me at church.

Look, don't get me wrong. God speaks to me at church. God speaks to me through the songs and the sermons that come out of elevation church. No doubt about that. But God is not limited to songs and sermons. And I wonder if one of the main reasons that we hear God speak to us when we're at church is because we come expecting it. We come looking for it there. But what if I woke up in the morning expecting God to speak to me? What if I expected God to speak to me through every mundane moment? God can speak words of encouragement to you the moment that you open your eyes in the morning. God can whisper words of peace to you while you lie awake at night. God can speak directly to you when you open up his word. You know, you can read the Bible when you're not at church, right?

And you don't have to start in a weird place. Start with what you know. Start with Psalm 23. Start with the Lord's Prayer. Start where you know what God will speak to you right there. Remember a few weeks ago when Pastor Stephen told us, faith is not a lever that you pull. I will never forget that. He said, we don't worship jackpot Jesus. Faith is a lens. And when I decide to open my eyes and see God at work all around me, my perspective changes, and all of a sudden I see him showing up in all the small moments of life. It's normal. It's now. And you know what else? It's near. God is constantly speaking to you. He's close. The problem is you aren't always listening.

Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would come to open blind eyes and unstop deaf ears. Did you know that you don't have to kneel down and close your eyes and fold your hands to hear God speak? In the Old Testament, the bread represented the presence of God. He's near. He's here. He's in your home. He's in your hospital room. He's in your car. If we haven't learned anything from 2020, I hope to God that we can learn that he will speak to us everywhere, even in our own home, even when we're walking through our neighborhood, even when we're alone. I think a lot of times I'm not listening because I don't want to hear what God is speaking to me. Have you ever felt like God is speaking to you something? You're like,

I don't want to hear that. But I think also sometimes I'm just too busy to be present in a moment long enough for God to speak to me. God can speak through your children. God can speak through your spouse. Yes, he can. God can speak through your friends. He can speak through a memory. He can speak through a moment of gratitude. He can speak in a thunderstorm. He's always speaking. He's constantly trying to remind you of his great, love for you. But I have to learn to incline my ear to the Lord. I have to train my eyes to see him. And the more I see him, and the more I hear him, the more I see him, and the more I hear him, and the more I hear him. It's about getting in a rhythm of seeing and hearing God because he's all around and he's speaking to you. And that's the beautiful thing about knowing God is that he's always speaking to us all around us. And finally, God's bread is new. God loves to work in new ways. Isaiah 43, 18 and 19 says, forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up.

Do you not perceive it? Do you not see it? I'm making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. this is not one of my favorite passages in the Bible. And if I'm honest, I don't want God to do a new thing. I want him to fix an old thing. I want a better marriage, but I don't want to change anything about my habits to make it better. I want a less hectic life, but I'm not willing to say no to any additional social commitments or activities that my kids want to do. And I think about going out of quarantine, I don't want this hectic pace of life anymore, but I haven't said no to anything yet. I want to lose weight, but I don't want to make any changes to my health and my habits.

I want God to use me, but I can't seem to move on from my past. There are new steps that God wants me to take in order to make progress in my life. But if I'm unwilling to accept the new, I'm always going to feel stuck. The Jewish people wanted the Messiah to fit within their pretty little rule-following box, and Jesus came to do something new. He came to do something better. My daughter, Abby, she's the best. Everybody loves her. She's funny. She's kind. She just brings life into every room that she's in. She loves to talk to anybody. It doesn't matter if you're two or 22 or 72. She's got something to say. And she is,

such a gift to our family. But sorry, Abby. Abby is not perfect. And one thing that Abby does not like is new food. And my gosh, this girl can be stubborn. And her mom can be stubborn too. So in our house, if you don't eat your food, the rule is you don't get anything to eat the rest of the night. And unfortunately, Abby has chosen to go to bed hungry many, many nights. Now, Before you start feeling sorry for Abby, I want you to understand that I put the tiniest portions on her plate. We're talking about a bite of broccoli. It's a tasting menu, but there are still so many nights in the Ferdic household, and you guys know I love to cook, and the food that I cook, I think it's pretty good, but there are so many nights that I have sat at the table, and I have

begged Abby. Abby, please, just taste this. I promise you'll like it. It's got cheese all over it and bacon. It's good. And she will refuse to even taste it. She would rather go to bed hungry than taste something green. Do I have any moms out there that feel my pain right now or maybe some picky grownups who still don't like to taste anything green? One of my favorite verses in all of the Bible. Do I say that a lot? I have a lot of favorite verses. But one of my favorite verses is Psalm 34 verse 8. And it says, taste and see that The Lord is good. And I think so many times I am just like Abby, and God stands before me, and he's trying to get something new in my life. And he's saying, Holly, taste this season. You might actually like it. But I don't like change. I mean, I really don't like change.

I don't change the furniture in my house. I don't change the colors on my wall. I have driven the same style car for 14 years. My husband just keeps changing the color. I've had four different colors of the same car. I don't like change. I don't like things to interrupt my plans. But I believe that we will look back on the disappointments of 2020, and they will be some of our best memories. I know they will. Maybe you needed everything to stop so that you could hear God's voice through all the noise and that hectic pace of life. Maybe you had to lose your job so that you would go looking for a better one. Maybe through your fear you were able for the first time to experience God's presence in a new way in your life. His thoughts are not your thoughts. His ways are not our ways.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. He's standing here saying you won't even know if you like it unless you try it. We've got to try it. You've got to see that God is good and he may not fit into my plans and it may not be. the way I thought that it would be, but God is good and he has good things for you coming out of this season. John 6 has a really sad ending because the people received the miracle, but they missed the point because they couldn't let go of what they thought Jesus would do. They didn't want to change. So for these people to follow Jesus, to truly believe in him the way Jesus was asking them to, it meant that they had to let go of something old and reach for something new. They had to let go of traditional religion.

They had to stop following a formula and start following a person. God in flesh. And they didn't want God in flesh. They didn't want to let go of their idea of what they thought God was. even though we know God and flesh is so much better than sacrifices, but they wanted miracle Jesus. They dreamed of seeing manna from heaven as their ancestors had seen it. And when it came in a different form, and they were asked to shift their mindset, and not just their mindset, but their daily patterns, no more sacrifices,

break the holy laws of our forefathers? Are you kidding me? But Jesus was offering them more. but most of them couldn't handle the change. They couldn't wrap their mind around it. And by the time that Jesus gets done, we started in verse 28, and now I want to show you verse 60, because he's been teaching, he's been talking over and over again. I am the bread of life, and this is what that looks like. And by the time he gets done, this is really funny to me. The disciples, you know, they say some really funny stuff, like kids, you know. Verse 60 says this. They said, this is a

a hard teaching. Who can accept it? And if you skip down to verse 66, we find one of the saddest verses in the Bible to me. And it says this, from this time on, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. John tells us that after Jesus did this teaching, many turned away. Can you imagine the hurt that Jesus felt when all the crowds had come to him for something he could do. But when he tried to explain to them who he was, they didn't want that, and they left. And I can't imagine how hurtful that was for Jesus. And the Bible tells us that he turned to the 12, and he looked at them, and he said, do you want to leave too? And Peter speaks up. And you never know in the Bible when Peter speaks up if it's going to be good or bad.

But this time, he comes through clutch. And he says this in verse 68. He says, Lord, to whom? shall we go. You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. You see, Peter had experienced true bread. And the more you see and hear and experience the true bread in your life, the more you come to realize that you cannot live without it. That time when you were so alone, and God whispered, to you that he was with you, that health issue that you battled for months. And if it weren't for that song, you don't know how you would have made it through when you went through the divorce, but you had that scripture that you clung to. The more moments that you have like that,

the more you realize you can't live without them. The true bread, the words of eternal life that Jesus brings to our soul are more precious than a miracle because it gives you love. And he gives you energy, and it gives you joy, and he gives you hope. And Peter may not have understood all that Jesus was teaching them, but he had come to know firsthand that there was more to Jesus than his miracles. And I believe that Jesus stands before us today, and he calls to you, and he invites you to a feast. He's near, he's here, and he's setting a feast before you, and he stands waiting, and he says, come. all you who are thirsty, come all you who are hungry. If you're weary, come to me. Seek the Lord while he may be found. He's right here. Call upon him while he's near. His word

will not return void in your life. There's a fullness that you've been missing. And Jesus stands before you offering it today. Will you let go of the old and accept the new that he's bringing to your life? Can you let go? of what you thought following Jesus would be like and accept what he wants to do in your life, not necessarily for you. So, God, we come to you. Would you please help us to move past the things that we want you to do for us and see that you are doing a beautiful work in us? God, your words to me are life. And I pray. pray that you would speak to us this week. Some of us have never heard you speak outside of church,

but this week, God, we are on alert. Our ears are open. Our eyes are open. We're looking, we're listening, God. We are excited to hear more from you. You are our true bread, and we thank you for the sacrifice that you made to be able to be that to us. I don't think we can ever wrap our minds around it, but we come to you with open hands and we say, okay, God, okay, okay, I give up on all the things that I thought that this would be like, and I just want you. I just want you. I need you to speak to me. I need you to bring peace to my soul. God, I'm scared. God, I'm tired. Minister to us in this place right now. Jesus, we love you so much. I love you so much.

And while all of our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, maybe you've never fully given your life to Christ. And I want to invite you to receive him right now. So all across our homes, will you pray this prayer with me? If you're coming to God for the first time or maybe you're coming back to him. Just pray this prayer. Heavenly Father, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. And today, I make Jesus the Lord of my life.

I believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose again to bring me a new life. I receive this new life now. This is my new beginning. In Jesus' name, amen. If you just prayed that prayer, I am so excited about the work that God is doing in your heart. Will you let us know, type it in the chat, for celebrating with you right now? And I'm so excited about how God is going to speak to us this week and how our eyes are going to be open to hear from him. 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.

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