Elevation with Steven Furtick - Straining To See (Chet Pete)

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Look for the “E” in every situation. In “Straining To See,” Chet Pete shares that no matter what you walk through, you can stand on the truth that Emmanuel sees you — and He’s got the perspective you need.  To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfrSee 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 fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. If we haven't met before, my name's Ted. I'm the pastor at our University City campus. And my dad is in the room. And I'm saying, in front of everybody. Happy Father Zay to my dad, to my father. I'll say this thing. The greatest gift, the greatest gift you gave me wasn't a pair of shoes.

The greatest gift you gave me was me seeing you give your life to Jesus. You see, I had the great opportunity to be able to see my dad before Jesus and after. I'm not saying he's perfect. just saying it's better. It's much better. It's much better. It's much better. And I'll tell you this. If you're a dad in the room, the greatest gift you could give your kids is for them to see you following Jesus. It's for them to see you serving Jesus. It's for them to see you running after his purposes for your life. And I have to take a moment and honor the father of this house. Can we thank God for our pastor, Pastor Stephen? God for Holly too. The thing that I got to say,

about pastor is, is that I just thank God that he is a pastor that sees me. Not only sees what I can do for him, but sees what God is trying to do in me. I thank God for my pastor seeing me. I did not see myself standing on a stage being a pastor at Elevation Church. This is all blown my mind, but it's beautiful to be able to have a pastor that sees you. It sees you. How many of you walk in every Sunday and you're like, my pastor have been following me around? He bugged my phones.

Thank God. Thank God for a pastor that sees, that sees, that sees. Can I sing to my wife? Whitney, I love you. Whitney, I love you. Y'all ready for me to get to my scripture for today? All right, all right, all right. We're going to be in Mark chapter six.

Mark, chapter six. Mark chapter six. You're going to see the scriptures on the screen. If you're taking notes right down, Mark chapter six verses 45 through 51. We're going to jump in right here and praying and believing that God's going to do what only he can do today. God touch my mind, touch my lips. God flow through me today. Open up the eyes of your sons and daughters. love you, we thank you, and it's in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Verse 45, you'll sit on the screen. It says, immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat. Can I just preach while I'm reading the scripture? I'm sorry, but that just jumped out to me. That a lot of times in my life, the miracles that I experience are on the other side of

Jesus making me do something. Sometimes it's a push from God, not my plans, that leads me to see so much that God is doing. He made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to Besseda while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountain side to pray. Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars because the wind was against them. Shortly before Don, he went out to them walking on the lake. What a sight. Imagine what that would have looked like.

My favorite movie right now is The Equalizer. I imagine he walked out there like Denzel. I don't know about you, but my Jesus walks like Denzel. Walks like Denzel. He came to them walking on the lake. He was about to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the lake, They thought he was a ghost.

They crowd out. They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately, he spoke to them and said, take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid. Then he climbed into the boat with him, and the wind died down, and they were completely amazed. The title of my message today is called Straining to Sea. straining to see.

On your way to your seat, ask your neighbor, I'm asking to say, when was the last time you got your eyes checked? You can be seated. You can be seated. The reason I ask is because many of you were straining to see the scriptures on the screen. And those of you that wear glasses, how does looking over the lens help you? How does that help you see well? And me and my wife, we have identical twin boys, Carson and Carter. They will be 13 next month. I'm going to have teenagers.

And yeah, pray for me. Anytime we have a major shift like this, I get real nostalgic. I love going back and looking at pictures. And here's a picture from their preschool graduation right here on the screen. Their preschool graduation right here. Yeah, so sweet. Now, I'll be honest. No matter how hard I strain, I can't tell you who's who on this picture.

I have no idea which ones, Carter, which ones. Carson, I turn my head sideways. I really don't know. I really don't know. And if Whitney tells you she knows, she's lying. She don't know who it is. She doesn't know who it is. But a couple of weeks ago, my boys just finished 6th grade.

grade, and we were at their award ceremony. And so here's the picture for when they had all AB honor roll for the whole year. So proud of my boys. Where did my babies go? Where did my babies go? Now, if you pay attention to Carter, who's standing next to my wife, Whitney, you see, Carter actually has on glasses in this picture. Okay, so just remember that.

You'll freak them out if you see them. You come up and say, hey, Carter, you know. know it's Carter because he's the one with glasses. You can pull the picture down. A couple years ago, we went to the doctor and we found out that that one of Carter's eyes didn't develop all the way. And so he had to wear a patch for a little bit to strengthen the other eye. And so we went to the doctor. They test his eyes and they were like, oh gosh, he's straining. He's straining to see. You see, my son Carter could see, but he couldn't see well. my son can see but he couldn't see well and i remember when he got his glasses for the first time

he did it 360 and he was like did it always look like this did it always did it always look so clear so crisp but what happened what happened and god really spoke to me because i don't know about you but i want to see all god has for me i don't want to miss anything and and i'm going to preach about that for a second. So get ready to praise God because I'm telling you, God has some good things in store for you. But this week, God gave me a real-time illustration. And I prayed and fasted on whether or not I was going to show you this, because I'm not going to lie, it's kind of embarrassing. And just to give some context, anybody watch the show Ridiculousness. Okay, so this is one of those videos that you could see on ridiculousness.

Somebody put a poll in the office in front of Elevation Worship Studios that I didn't know was there. I didn't know it was there. I'm going to show this video one time. One time, one time. If you want to see it again, you're going to have to go back and watch it on YouTube. But go ahead and show them this video. I could preach about the fact that I didn't stop after I could hit.

I could preach about it. here's the thing. I ran into that wall. Why? Because I didn't see it. I got a question, what things are you running into? Because you couldn't see it. Are you running into bad relationships? Because you couldn't see it. Are you running into horrible financial decisions because you didn't see it? Are you making bad business moves running into things because you couldn't see it clearly? Or it works the other way because some of you are missing miracles because you just don't see it. Some of you, your vision is blurred. And so you're missing the blessings that God has in front of you.

And so I'm telling you, I don't know about you. I want to see my family blessed. I want to see my marriage blessed. I want to see my ministry blessed. I want to see my church blessed. I want to see my health blessed. I don't know about you, but I want to see a full picture of everything God has for my life. Here's the thing about when you have blurry vision, you don't see reality well.

And when you don't see reality well, it gets delusional and gets real dangerous. And for some of you've been running into some things and missing some things for far too long. And God sent me here today to deal with your sight. Tap your neighbor and say, I'm going to see it today. I'm going to see it today. I'm going to see it today. And so when we go back to our text for it today, we see that the disciples are in this boat straining, straining to see what Jesus said. You see, Jesus said, I need you to get into the boat, and I need you to go to Beth Seda. Where is Jesus sending you? Where is Jesus sending you?

And I'm going to tell you today, I don't know about you, I'm going to strain until I see what Jesus said. You see, a lot of us, a lot of us times we read the Bible, we make fun of the disciples. They're usually doing something stupid, something foolish. But in this text, in this text, I started to applaud. Because when Jesus said, get into the boat and go to the other side, he looked at it. left some details out. He didn't tell them that the wind was going to be blowing in the wrong direction. He didn't tell them that they were going to be going against the grain. And so I don't know about you, I would have been a little bit frustrated at the fact that I'm doing what Jesus told me to do.

And it's starting to get hard. So just for a second, I want to deal with your perseverance. Am I in a room for the people that are fighters that won't give up at the first sign of trouble, at the first time of adversity. You see, me and my wife, we just celebrated 16 years, 16 years in January. We got married at 21. We got married at 21. We had to strain through being dumb. We had to strain through some insecurity.

We had to strain through some financial struggles. We had to strain through some health scares. but to strain through some loss of loved ones. I want to take a moment in front of everybody, the whole church, and just tell my wife, thank you. Thank you for straining with me. Because I knew when I stood at that aisle, I cried when she came down and she was laughing.

She was laughing, she was laughing. But I knew God told me that my marriage would be blessed. I don't know what you're dealing with. what you're going through today, but God told me to tell you to strain to see what Jesus said. Strain to see it. Don't give up. Don't throw in the towel. Some of you decided to settle at the first sign of an obstacle that came.

Some of you decided to stop at the moment that it got difficult. Strain to see what Jesus said. Strain to see what he said. Now, some of you are like, it said, I hear you, but I've been straining for a long time. And if I could be honest, I'm getting tired of straining. If I could be honest, I feel like I've heard this before. As I was reading and I was studying, I found out that it would have taken them anywhere from six to eight hours to make it from one side of this lake to the other side of the lake.

Now, the wind was blowing against them, so that probably would have added more top. to their journey. Now, in the text, it says that Jesus saw them in the middle of the lake. They have been straining at least five hours. I could imagine they were tired. I could imagine they were exhausted. I could imagine that Peter was like, hey, listen, let's go back. This is dumb.

This is stupid. Just let's stop. Let's stop. And there's one thing, one thing that jumped out in this text. me that I want to preach for a second. Put up verse 48 for me. Put up verse 48 for me. It says, he saw the disciple straining. Watch it. It says, at the oars. Straining at the oars. He saw them. So here's the thing that I want you to know right now. You probably should write this down is that don't strain alone. Don't strain alone. Don't strain alone.

Don't strain by yourself. It was, it was disdain. It was disdain. It was disdain. It was disdain. It was day that were in this boat straining. Some of you, you're not going far because you haven't invited friends into your situation. I tell you the truth. There's been some time in the 16 years. I thank God I had some friends. Autumn, come to the house. Sita, Omar, we're going to show up today.

I've had some friends that in the middle of some straining here, here, here, I'll make it clear. You need to have some friends that can take an oar. You need to have some friends that'll take an oar. Because some of you, some of you've been straining for a long time, but you're straining in circles because you're on one side of the boat straining by yourself. You've been circling some things for a long time. Hey, can I go as far to say this one's going to hurt?

You've been straining for a long time, and it's your fault. I'm going in circles because I ain't let a friend take an oar. Hey, can I make it plain? Let me tell you about an o'er. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, you feel overwhelmed. I need a friend that can take me when I'm overwhelmed. Hey, I got some anxiety. My head's all over the place.

I need some friends that can handle me when my mind's all over the place. And I need some people that when I'm ready to give up, I'm ready to throw in the towel. They can take an oar. Hey, can you take a moment and thank God for your friends that have jumped in and helped you in the moments that you couldn't give up? That helped you move forward. And if you're here today, you're like, I love to have a friend that can take an o'er. I love to have somebody jump into this situation with me.

Every Sunday, JJ stands on this stage at Valentine. on my campus pastor stands on stage at their campuses. You have Chad Zolo online, and every single week you won't hear something about, hey, we got an e-group for you. Join an E-team, start serving today. It's not something that we want from you. It's something we want for you. You need to have some friends that will take in a war.

But also, also, just like my son couldn't see, well, maybe you need some glasses. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe you need some glasses. And there's two parts, two parts, two parts, two parts, the glasses. The first part, first part, I want to explain. I had to take, we had to take my son Carter to the store to be able to get his first set of glasses. I remember, couldn't see, and finally, he was able to get his prescription. And so I couldn't go with Whitney and the boys to the store. I couldn't go with them, so Whitney took them.

And, you know, when she, she FaceTime me at the store, and it was one of those face-times where she was like, hey, husband, I got an oar for you. Like, she was done. Like, she was done. The boys were getting on her last nerves, on her last nerves, on her last nerve. And I was like, hey, what's going on? What's going on? And so she explained to me what was going on. Those of you that wear glasses or contacts, you will understand this.

There's two sections, two sections in the store where you. you get glasses. There's this section that the insurance pays for. Sometimes it's a square, but this is the place that the insurance pays for. My son, my loving son with so much swagger. When is he's at the designer frames? My son is trying on Gucci frames and prodig frames. Like, he has a job. Get over there to the other side. I think I'm going to leave and come over there and get you. The reason why I bring it up,

the reason why I bring it up is because God spoke to me as I reflected on it, is because my son was trying to let me know, I can't do cheap frames. It went right over their head. It went right over their head. Some of you are looking through cheap frames. And here's the thing I know about cheap frames. They're easily broken.

Some of you, some of you, you need a new frame today. You need something else to frame what you're looking at, where you're going. And here's the thing about frames. Put this up there. Frames give strength. Frames give strength. Now remember, why are they on this lake? It's not a...

What? Jesus told them to go. You want to know what's going to give you strength? A word from God. A word from God. When they got tired, when they got tired and they were ready to give up, somebody had a frame. They said, hey, hey, hey, we can't give up because Jesus said. We can't give up because I got a word from the Lord.

I can't stop because he said go to Bess Seda. I can't throw in the towel because I'm heading in the direction that he's sent me to go to. That's why it's so important to show up to church. It's because you're getting tired. You're getting weak and you need a word from God. But that's why you have a Bible or you have a Bible at your house that you can open up when you get tired and you get weak because you need a word from the Lord. How far you go may be determined by how strong your frame is. Now, who can stand up and maybe praise God for a second because I've seen God's word never failed.

I've seen God's word never got. I've seen him speak life and there was life. I've seen him speak healing and there was healing. I've seen couples ready to walk the other way and God spoke a better word. I've seen God's word works. Tell your neighbors say, hey, hey, hey, hey, I got a frame, I got a frame, I got a frame, I got a frame. When I look back over my life and I think things over, I can truly say that I've been blessed. I got a testimony, and guess where it started?

When Jesus said, when Jesus said, when Jesus said, you could be seated, you could be seated. You need a frame, you need a frame to give you strength. You need a frame to give you strength. But not only that. I don't know if you remember back in the early 2000. We used to think we were cool. We were wearing frames with no lenses. Don't leave you by myself.

Who else did it? Who else did it? Who else did it? Who else did it? Who else did it? So it's one thing to have a frame. But you got to participate in this. And so you need a lens. And so, so we got a frame. That's what gives strength.

And you have a lens, that's what gives sight. You have a lens, and that's what gives sight. Something interesting happens in the text that I want to use to break this down. Look at this in verse 48. It says, he saw the disciples straining at the oars because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn, he went out to them walking on the lake. They didn't recognize, and they was like, yo, that's Denzel. Oh, you saw Equalizers.

That was him out there. So I'm walking on a leg. They thought it was a ghost. They crowd out because they all saw him and were terrified. It says immediately he spoke to them and said, Take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid.

This really, really leaped out to me because Jesus was close enough for them to hear for them to hear his voice, but they still didn't recognize him. This really jumped out to me. And as I was studying, I was like, you know what? Them disciples, they need to get their eyes checked too. You know, so if I was an optometrist and I went to school for a lot of years, I would have learned about this eye chart, this eye chart that they used to be able to test your eyes. So let me show you this eye chart.

This is called the Snellan eye chart. It's called the Snellan eye chart. And Dr. Snellan, he used this eye chart to be able to test a lot of different things. Some of you just remembered when you found out you were blind. When you saw this, you just were triggered by this. You were triggered by this. And I was studying, and there's a lot of different things that it tests. It tests eye sharpness.

It tests eye movement. You see the green and the red line. It tests whether or not you're color blonde. So if you didn't see a green and a red line, there you go. And here's the thing that really stood out to me, is you see that there's 10 E's 10 E's on this eye chart. There's 10 letter E's. There's 10 letter E's.

And those of you that are trying to count them, if you did not see the big E up top. I want to make it home today, so please don't drive, okay? If you can't see the big E. But all the way from the top, all the way to the bottom, there are 10 E's on this chart. And, you know, as I'm studying, as I'm preparing and I'm praying, I kind of got frustrated. I was like, why am I going down this rabbit hole? Like, why, you know, people are going to be looking me like I'm crazy, talking about the E,

and I'm not an optometrist. Like, what are you doing? and something really, really jumped out to me. I was really, really blessed by what God spoke to me. And because, you know, the E is, when you look this up, is actually the most common letter in the English alphabet. The E is used more than any other letter. And it has this vertical line and there's three straight lines,

which makes it harder sometimes to be able to see. And so here's what God told me to tell you today. I want you to write this down. He told me to tell you to look for E. Tell me to tell you, look for E, look for E. Tap your neighbor say, look for E. Look for E. Now, I'm not talking about E. Edwards, who plays the guitar. I'm not talking about Erica or Eric.

God really spoke to me. He said, hey, I need you to go back a little bit to the book of Matthew, and you're going to go to chapter 1, verse 23, and you'll see who he is. Put it up on the screens for me. It says, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. And some of you, you know Jehovah Jira, you know Jehovah Nisi, but some of you today, you need to to learn about E. You needed to know about Emanuel, God, with us. I don't care where you find yourself. You can look around and find E. I don't know what situation you're going through.

I don't matter how high you are or how low you are. You better look for E. Some of y'all still didn't get it. So let me make it plain. Hey, put up wedding. Put up wedding. Anybody engaged in a room? Anybody engaged in the room? Hey, I'll see you. I see. Okay. On your wedding day. ask the pastor that's officiating to do the three-strand cord braid because on your wedding day you better look for e you see one cord it represents the husband one quarter represents the wife but but but i want my marriage to have e woven through it but some of you enemy just start trying to speak to your ear you're like hey but i just walk through a divorce here's the thing i know about divorce is when you get all the way. Come on, put divorce up on the screen.

Somebody helped me preach today. I was sitting with my friend this week, and he was telling me about walking through a divorce, and he said at the end of it, all, that Jesus never left him, that Jesus never forgotten about him. He still saw his goodness. He still saw his grace. Some of you might be going through some sickness in your body. I'm telling you, if you find yourself going through sickness at the end of sickness, there's an E. But some of you are like, hey, I will find God when I get healed. He's there too.

He's there too. He's there too. As I was reflecting on this, as I was reflecting on this, I remember back in 2021, this is probably one of the hardest seasons of me and my family's life. Last time I preached, I shared a little bit about this, that my mother was in a horrible accident. Matter of fact, my mother is still in a coma to this day. And, and, and, and, and, and, you know, And we flew out to Arizona to be able to see. And it was all kinds of craziness going on. I'm telling you, it was a hard experience, probably the most difficult experience of my whole life. And I remember, I remember when we got there, we went into these hospital rooms and going back and forth.

And it was a lot. It was a lot. The moment I came back home, remember this is 2021, the moment I came back home, I wasn't even home a week. I end up catching COVID. And when I got COVID, it didn't get back. better. It kept getting worse. My oxygen level had dropped all the way down to 89. And my wife looked at me and she said, you're going to the doctor. Men, go to the doctor. Not going to be more elegant than that. Just go. Go to the doctor. Yes, you're in God's hands, but yes, it's the

doctor's in God's hands too. So if you haven't gone to get a yearly checkup in some years. I went to the doctor. I went to the doctor. Finally, I went to the doctor. My wife, she's going to have to go. My oxygen level wouldn't go up. And the doctor looked at me and he said, hey, listen,

I'm going to have to keep you overnight. I'm going to keep you overnight. So I got oxygen. And I'm telling you, he closed the door. I start speaking. I'm getting out of here. Hallelujah. Thank you, God.

I thought it'll do, see. I was like, Jesus, I need you. I'm getting out of here. I start remember Pastor Stephen's prayers. I was like, I breathe you in. Holy Spirit. And your strength comes suddenly. I'm doing them all. I'm doing them all. I'm in, I'm like, I'm getting out of this hospital room. I'm getting out of this hospital room. It was scary. It was scary. It was scary. But God spoke to me because I had seen more hospital

than I'd seen in my whole life. God spoke to me. He says, you know what? Every time you walked into the hospital, there was a word on the door that said entrance. It said every time you walked out, that was a word that said exit. And here's the thing that God showed me. It doesn't matter what you're walking into. It doesn't matter what you're walking out of. At every entrance and every exit, there is an Eve. Hey, listen, hey, listen, I feel faith-wise.

And if you're missing it, I'm so sorry, you better look for Eve. That's the lens. That's the lens that you need to look through. There's no situation that you'll find yourself in that you won't be able to find your God. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. But you've got to look for them. You need a frame.

You need a lens. The frame gives strength. The lens gives sight. But all of that, it's cool. God ministered to me. I hope that ministered to you. But that wasn't the biggest thing that God showed me in the text. Can I show you?

Can I show you? Can I show you? The thing that really stood out to me was that verse 45. Put verse 45 up on the screen. Put verse 45 up on the screen. Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Best Seda while he dismissed the crowd, 40. 46, 46, 46, 46. After leaving, after leaving them, he went up on a mountain side to pray.

I wonder what Jesus was praying on the side of that mountain. As he climbed up that mountain, I wonder what Jesus was praying. I wonder what he was praying for. I think he was praying for the disciples. I think he was praying that God would give him strength. I think he was praying that they wouldn't give up. I think he was just praying for them. But he went way up, way up, way up, way up on top of this mountain. It says that he was on a mountainside praying. You're praying, man, right? Praise God. Praise God. God knew I needed to pick this side. Jesus was up on the mountain side praying. 46, 47, let me see it, let me see it. Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on the lake. And he was alone on the mountain.

land. Forty-eight. He saw the disciples straining at the oars and really blessed me, because maybe this message isn't about my sight. Maybe it's about Jesus. It's. Remember, they had been out there rowing for a long time, at least five hours into the middle of the lake. And Jesus is on top of this mountain. on the mountainside praying. This bless me because it says he saw them. God wanted me to tell somebody it doesn't matter how far you think you are from God. He sees you.

You may have to strain to see Jesus. He's never taken his eyes off of you. In Proverbs, as this verse it says, for the people perish for a lack of vision. I've always heard that. And I was like, have a vision. Have a vision for your life. When God was ministering to me today, I realized that I love that my life isn't built on my vision.

I'm going to sit down until they stand up and get the fact that it wasn't based on my vision, but it's his vision. That's the only way that you won't perish. That's the only way that you won't fall. Your sight may fail you. You need to see me. He's not straining to see you healed. He's you blessed. Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus. Terry neighbor, thank God for seeing me. Thank God for seeing me. Stand up. I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready to close.

It's Father's Day. And I was, God, just, just leaped to me. And I saw, I saw this. He said, hey, good. Take him to Luke to Luke chapter 18. because I want you to see the father's loving this. Some of you may know this story, the story of the prodigal son. There are actually two sons, and the younger son, asked his father for his inheritance.

He says, give me my inheritance. He ran off, and it says that he squandered it all. Another way to say he lost it all, he fumbled it all. and got so bad that he's sitting in a pig pit. And he's so hungry that he wants to fill his belly with the pods that the pig eat. It's a low place. Some of you're like, I'm in a low place, and I don't think he can see me that low. Some of you think the only way that he can see you is when you're standing up.

But I love that he sees me when I might be laying down. I don't know if I can get up. I thank God that he sees me. And it's like nothing. Put the verse on the screen. Put the verse on the screen. It says, he says, I will set out and return to my brother and say,

the verse before this, I don't know if I gave it to him, but it said he came to his senses. It's like he took the crud out of the middle of his eyes. That's what God's doing for some of you today. He came to a census. Hold on, no. Go back to my father. house. I'll go back to my father. This is what blessed me. I'll set out and I'll go back to my

father's house and I'll say to him, Father, I have sinned against you. When he came to a sense, okay, I got you. Y'all went back and got the verse for me. Y'all are amazing. Can we thank God for the production thing? Go to verse 19. Go to verse 19. He says, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. 20. So he got up. And he And he went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, how far? A lot. This blessed me, this blessed me because I saw Jesus up on the mountain side.

And then I saw this father sitting maybe on his porch. And while he was a long way off, the son couldn't see his father yet. But the father sure so his son. And I love what happened while he was a long way off. His father saw him. He was filled with compassion for him. And he ran. He ran.

He ran to his son. Hey, some of you went to a Pentecost to church and they was running around the church, praising God. But, hey, some of you are like, I'm too tired to run. I'm too tired to run. When you're too tired to run, he ran to you. Here's the thing. Some of you saw God as he was just sitting there watching. Watching and seeing is two different things.

I thank God that I don't have a God that just is watching over me, but that sees me, and he has compassion for me, and then he runs towards me when I need him the most. I thank God for seeing me. Then just to Tabos, everybody's standing, everybody's standing, everybody's standing. Hebrews 12, verses 1 and 2, this just put everything into perspective for me. Here's what it says. therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us

what does it say fixing our eyes on Jesus to your neighbor you better look for e you better look for e you better look for e you better look for e you better look for e The pioneer and perfecter of our faith. The joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and set down at the right at the throne of God. At the right hand of the throne of God. What a picture of my sight and God's sight. It's blessed me, church. Because maybe he was straining to see me. Because it says for the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

That cross wasn't easy. And on that cross, he had pain. Cross sighed. They mocked him. Cross, they spit at him. He was straining to take his last breath. But this gives, this blesses me, it says, but the joy set before him. While he was straining, he was seeing you saved.

While he was straining, he was seeing you delivered. While he was straining, he saw you with hope. While he was straining, he saw you with peace. While he was straining, he saw you. I'm going to give an invitation, but maybe some of you are like, why were they going to Bess Seda in the first place? Why was he so bent on making them go to Besseda? They don't get to Besseda until Chapter 8.

And guess he was waiting there for him? There was a blind man. There was a blind man. Maybe you're here today. And the reason why I stray and studying, I couldn't sleep well last night, is because you were blind. You couldn't see. And today, God was just filling back the scales over your eyes.

And he wanted you to see him. He wanted you to see his love. So at every one of our campuses, everybody's standing where you're at. If you're at home on Epham, if you're, everybody's standing. I want you to bow your head, close your eyes. No one moving. No one moving. If you're here today and you don't have a relationship with Jesus,

you've never given your life to him. For the first time you have experienced God knocking on the door of your heart. You realize he's not just watching you. He sees you. Not only that, he went to a cross to die for you. I want to give you an opportunity to give your life to Jesus today. Or maybe you're here today and you used to walk with God, you used to talk with God, but you walked away from the faith. I want to give you a moment to come back home.

We're going to say this prayer together as a day. church family for the benefit of those coming to God. Everyone to repeat after me. Say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he died on the cross and rose from the grave to forgive me in my sins.

So I'll give you my sins. I'll give you my shame. And from this day forward, I'll follow you. This is my new beginning. I am a child of God. Oh, it's about all eyes closed.

If you just said that prayer, you meant it, making a decision to put your faith in Jesus or you're coming back to him. I'm going to count to three. And when I get to three, I want you to shoot your hand up boldly so we can celebrate this moment with you. Here we go. One, two, three. Shoot your hand up if you're making a decision. Jesus.

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 elevation church.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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