Elevation with Steven Furtick - That's Not All You Are

Episode Date: April 5, 2021

God wants you to see past your limitations. In this special Easter message, “That’s Not All You Are,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church challenges our faulty perceptions of ourselves – and our preconceived notions about God.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. No, listen, I was telling somebody the other day, they said, Easter must be the easiest time for you to preach. I said, oh, on the contrary, it's really the hardest because everybody thinks they know the story. than they really do. And this part of the Easter story is maybe something that you've heard before, but if we study it together today, I believe you'll see something you've never seen in John chapter 20, verse 24. It's kind of the climax of John's Gospel. Now Thomas, also known as

Didymus, one of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas, put your finger here.

See my hands. Be careful what you ask for. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, my Lord and my God. Then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Now listen to this.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And that by believing you may have life in his name. Can you say amen? That's the Word of God. Now, let me give a title to this sermon, and you can give it to your neighbor. Tell them, I know you're a good person.

Tell him, I know you're a Christian. I know you're nice. Tell him, I know you're moody. Now, I don't want to start anything, but tell him I know you're kind of crazy. Now, but that's not the title. Here's the title. Tell them the title, say, that's not all you are. That's not all you are.

Now, be seated. And let's talk about Thomas. Or as you, judgmental church people like to call him, doubting Thomas. If you're new to church, we have nicknames that we give certain disciples. We don't do it to all the disciples. We just pick on certain disciples. Like, Peter gets to be called the rock, right? Because Jesus called him that.

We don't call Peter. Peter cussed somebody out one time when they were trying to see if he was a church member of Jesus Christ, but we don't call him, you know, profanity Peter, no, but Thomas. Like, for real, I wish you were here right now because you can hide on the other side of that screen. It's much better when I can see you like eyeball to eyeball. I love that because somebody that I don't know. What's your name? Yeah.

Yeah, oh, I know you. You work for the church. Okay, I'm going to pick somebody else. What's your name? Yeah. Yeah. Hunter. Do you ever do something that contradicts your beliefs, but you know you should do better,

but you do the wrong thing anyway? You're real slow to nod. She nodded quickly. I wish you could have seen it. She was nodding before I finished the question. But that's called hypocrisy. So what if we called you hypocrite hunter, right? Would that be fair?

It would be fair. It wouldn't be kind or gracious or anything like that. Lisa, does Tom ever lose his temper? I've never seen him do it. So we should call him, right, tantrum Tom. Because the Bible passage, I just said Thomas was doubting. Oh, he must be doubting Thomas. Stick a label on him.

We love to label things. Is there anybody in the back of the room that ever struggles with overeating? Just ever. I mean, just even like on Christmas you eat crap. On the back of the room. I'm not looking at you all right now. On the back of the room. I'm not even looking at the e-fam.

At the back of the room. All right there, what's your name? All the way up there in the corner of the room, right there in the back of the room. No, no, back behind you even. No, over that way, over that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She raised her hand. She said she struggled with overeating.

What's your name? Camille. What if we call you? What if we call you calorie intake, Camille? I'm just making these up, right? This is what we do. We love to label stuff. Because if I label it, I can be lazy, because I can think I know you because you remind me of something

that's in myself that I won't admit. This Easter, I would like to talk about Thomas and suggest to you that if any of the other disciples had been in his same situation, they would have had his same doubt. The Bible says that Thomas wasn't there when Jesus showed up. Now remember, he rose from the dead, he showed himself to Mary Magdalene, not to the boys first because he knows that women have the ability to feel and not be so calculative about everything and know things that their minds can't conceive and see things spiritually that men are blind to because we are so ego-focused that we can't even connect with one another,

let alone the resurrected Son of God. like that pandering I did to the female demographic there. That was good, wasn't it? But I really believe that. Holly was with a bunch of other pastor's wives a while back, and she was saying, like, oh, it's so good, and we opened up, and we talked about this, and we talked about that. And I said, if that had been the pastors of those churches and not the women who are co-pastors or pastors wives, all we would have talked about is things that started with how many or how much. Because we love to label guys are really simple. We are still trying to figure out how much do you bench. Just now with dollars instead of dumbbells, like how much did you make last year and all this stuff?

Because we love to label. It helps us to accommodate our assumptions if we can label something. Look at somebody and say, that's not all you are. We love sometimes to identify ourselves as Christians by our jewelry, even though the cross was originally a torture instrument, not a fashion statement. There's nothing wrong. I got one myself and I'll wear it. But my point is, sometimes it's easier to label it than to live it. ...thagting Thomas.

Yeah. That's really fair. I mean, when it says that he wasn't there, he wasn't there. We don't know why. You know how you fill in the blanks and assume things about people. He wasn't there because Jesus had been crucified and he was ashamed to be identified with the others. Or maybe he was running an errand. After all, the other disciples were not exactly full of faith.

How do you know that? The Bible says they had the doors locked because of fear of the Jews. You know how you say Easter is the Super Bowl? Not really. Not really. It's not really like the Super Bowl because even though Jesus was risen and they had heard about it, they still had to live with the reality that they represented a threat to the Jewish council that represented the religious establishment of the day.

So it's a strange celebration. It's kind of like how sometimes in your life you can be really happy about something but really worried about something. And you can't exactly jump up and down about this because you're distracted about that. So somebody says, how you doing? You're like, I'm good, but that's not all you are. You are good in the particular area of your life that you chose to disclose in that moment. Thomas wasn't there.

The only difference between Thomas and Peter is Peter got to see Jesus when he showed up. He didn't have greater faith than Thomas. He just had a different experience. Don't judge people about where they are if you don't know where they started. Maybe he wasn't there because he was scared, or maybe he was just struggled with punctuality. Maybe Thomas was late. It's no worse of an assumption than the fact that he wasn't there because he didn't love God. I don't know why he wasn't there.

It just says, let's read the text again so you all would think I'm not making this up. I don't want you to trust me. I want you to trust the text. Now, Thomas, also known as Didomis, one of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. What if he's not doubting Thomas at all? He could be tardy Thomas. I like that, tardy Thomas.

You know how I think Jesus would call him? I was thinking about this. What would Jesus call Thomas? What would Jesus call the one that wasn't there? What would Jesus call the one who came back a week? later to make a special guest appearance too. He thought so much of him that he showed back up. Maybe Jesus would call him honest Thomas, honest Thomas. Because what he said, I think he said a good thing. He said, I've got to see it for myself. There comes a time when your faith in God and what your

grandparents taught you or what you learned on a flenograph and a Sunday school can't really get you through the real complications of adult life. So what he said wasn't, I won't believe. He said, I won't believe unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side. I won't believe unless. What would it take for you to believe that God was with you, in this moment in this season. What would it take for you to believe that God had your kids

in his hands? What would it take for you to believe that he knows what's best for you? What would it take for you to believe that God does not relate to you on the basis of the thing you're most ashamed about? What would it take for you to believe? He's already seen so much, Thomas has. He's seen a lot. And John says, Jesus did so much, we couldn't write it all down. So, John, in making this, we call it a book, his gospel account. He says, I put the ones in the book that would serve as a sign so you could believe. And he includes seven of them, which is a significant number, especially for the Jewish mind because it was seven days of creation.

And John is saying here, I'm going to show you seven things. He starts talking about the signs in John chapter 2, where Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding. Then in chapter 4, Jesus heals this official son. It's crazy because Jesus didn't even have to go physically to the place in order to heal the boy. All it took was for the man to believe. It was his faith that made his son well.

In John chapter 5, there's a man trying to get to the water, and Jesus says, well, it's a good thing showed up since you can't move because the man was actually paralyzed. He could not get to the water, so Jesus brought water to him. That's the third sign. One of the miracles that we've heard a lot about if we were around church was when Jesus fed 5,000 men, women and children. The and children is significant in this particular sign because when they found this little boy in John chapter 6, they said, here is a boy. To them, he looked like a boy. He was carrying a buffet. Isn't that amazing?

Look at your neighbor again and say, that's not all you are. That's not all you are. Yeah, you look like a boy, but when your bread gets into hands of the one who knows how to do with it, as a matter of fact, when Jesus went walking on the water, they thought he was a ghost. They didn't recognize him at first. They didn't see him at first. They felt fear at first, not faith. Then in John chapter 9, I think it is, you can check all these later.

I'm giving you a Bible study for the next week, by the way. You could go through all of this where this man was born blind, and Jesus healed the man born blind, which was amazing. But the greatest thing that he did to show who he was started with what he didn't do. My favorite story in the Bible last year was the story of Lazarus in John Chapter 11. spent the greater part of the year off and on looking at this story. I want to show you something that's in the story that I think might relate to your season of life as well. If you have John chapter 20 right now, just maybe put that little ribbon in your Bible. Who am I kidding? Like y'all

brought paper to church today? Just mark it on the screen and go to John Chapter 11 for just a moment. Because if we flip back to John chapter 11, it will show us something about who Jesus really is. Now, John says, I can't tell you everything, but I told you enough that you can believe for the part that you can't see. I can't tell you everything that he did, but I gave you enough to believe. God said, I'll give you enough to go on. So when Moses asked God, who are you, he said I am. You don't have time for me to tell you all that I am. Because the moment that I tell you exactly what I am, you will label me.

And the moment you label me, you will limit me. It's like this. People will say, oh, oh, that must be a Pentecostal church. That must be a Baptist church. That must be a... What will they say sometimes? They'll say, I remember one person said sometimes, I don't like how elevation mixes different genres. It should either be worship or gospel, not both.

So the definitions I found in the Bible confuse me because I thought worship was our job description and gospel was our message. But now, watch what we'll do. We want to create a genre about a God who's worthy of eternal worship. because if we can categorize him, we don't really have to trust him. So Jesus, watch this. Thomas wasn't the only one who wasn't there. Jesus wasn't there in John Chapter 11 to heal his friend Lazarus. And what I'm discovering in the Bible is you can learn just as much about God through absence as you can through presence.

Prove it to me. One time Paul said, I had this thorn and I wanted God to take it away, but God didn't do what I asked him to do. How many have something in your life right now that God's not doing that you asked him to do on the timetable that you're asking him to do it? And if he is doing it, he better go ahead and get to it because it's going to be too late real soon. This is the situation in John 11.

At first, Lazarus is sick and then Lazarus is dead, and they do not get the attention of the healer. Now, we can see this most clearly because there's a lot in this passage. God, I wish I could preach it all to you right now. If I summarized it, it would actually ruin it because I would squeeze out of all the detail, so I'm not going to summarize it. By the way, just a side point, don't trust the summary. Put that in the chat. Don't trust the summary. When we try to summarize something, we squeeze out of it the meaning, right? So if I tell you John chapter 11, Lazarus died, Jesus raised him from the dead. You missed the tears that he cried at his tomb.

Don't even try to summarize salvation and just make it about heaven and hell. Because I need Jesus on this earth. They needed Jesus to show up and heal their brother, and they had a reason to expect because he would stop through Bethany every time he needed Airbnb at Martha's house. And Mary would listen because she had a good heart, but Martha actually knew how to cook, So she's the one doing the work, paying the mortgage, and Mary is over here doing it. Anyway, it's a whole dynamic. Again, I can't summarize it.

It's a very, very, very involved story. But I thought I would show you verse 32, John Chapter 11, because their brother is now dead, and Jesus missed the opportunity to heal him. Now, very specifically, before I came, God said, you're going to speak to somebody today who thinks it's over. And the limitation that they have placed is not on a genre of music. The limitation that they have placed is on themselves. In the story of Lazarus, they asked for the healer to come.

They call him the teacher or the rabbi. That's how they knew him. It says in verse 32, when Mary reached the place where Jesus was in Psalm, she fell at his feed and said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and trouble. Have you laid him?" he asked. Come and see, Lord, they replied.

And Jesus wept. Wait a minute, I thought you were God. You're supposed to be drying tears, not crying them. What if what you've heard about God is not all there is to him? What if the God that you've heard about is only a sliver? See, people will describe God in many ways. And they'll say that God is a healer, but then someone that you love will die. and to assume that he's not as powerful as you thought he was because he didn't do what you thought he would

misses the entire basis of true faith. Our problem is, just like we do to Thomas, we do to God. We want to define people and even define God and even define ourselves by our worst moment. Now, the danger in this passage is that by seeing their expectation unmet, their faith could have been discontinued. You've got two perspectives at the tomb of Lazarus this day. In verse 36, the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, now watch this.

This is my message. Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? You see what they did? They labeled him according to their limited experience of what he could do. They heard he was a healer. So to them, that's all he is. And if he's a healer and he didn't heal, then it's over. If he's only the one who opens blind eyes and your brother died, then he didn't do what

he could do and he can't do it now. But sometimes you've got to have enough faith in God. to me by the Spirit of the Lord. Sometimes you've got to have enough faith to say, God, I thought you were a healer, but that's not all you are. God, I thought you were the one who would keep it from happening, but that's not all you are. Have you ever had God not stop something and he could have? Then you're just like Jesus. His father could have stopped him from going to the cross. Even Jesus said I could call a legion of angels, and they would rescue me. And they thought he was a king.

And when we worship Jesus and we say, you're a king, he is. It's also a carpenter. And the greatest revelation that Jesus ever gave anybody in the scripture of who he was was after what he didn't do. So let me break this down real simple. I was talking to a YouTuber the other day. There's nothing uncommon about YouTubers, but he's 59. He was sharing with me how he had been a music producer, and then when that stopped, and

he was down to his last little bit of money in the bank account, I told you this story. I'm going to tell them now. He kind of was at the point in his life where by the time you're 54, he was 54 when he started his channel, you kind of have a pretty good idea of what you can and can't do. Right? I mean, one day his intern walks in. He told me the story. One day his intern walks in, it says, you should start a YouTube channel.

And the beautiful thing about this guy, he's got the grayest gray hair, shocking white, like the transfiguration of Jesus Christ himself. And he said, there's nobody with hair like this on YouTube. I'm a producer. This is what I do. I'm a music teacher. This is what I do. I don't even know how to make the videos.

Now, I wouldn't be telling you this story if he tried and failed. Obviously, he succeeded. Right? I was studying. There's all these other YouTubers who are younger and more hair and different colored hair and all of these different things. See, I'm telling you this story because you can tell yourself a summary of what you are and what you're not. based on the experience that you've had, not the potential that you carry. And so what he said was, I'm not a YouTuber, I'm a 54-year-old producer. His channel is bigger than all the young guys today. Right? Right?

You would be clapping so hard if you realized that whatever you have told yourself is the stopping point of what you can be fails to fact. factor in that the limitless God who says my name is I am and will not be confined to one category is living on the inside of you. So if he was going to do it, he'd have done it by now. Well, maybe he wants to do something different. So God, I expected you to be this in my life. I expected you to plan it and do it and execute it like this.

But what I thought you were is not all you are. So the message of Easter is just like the tomb, I'm open. I'm open. Say it out loud, I'm open. I'm open. And the thing about it is, I'm not open to what I hoped would have happened. I'm not open to what I thought would have happened. I'm not open to what I think would be best.

God, I believe if you could put a 59-year-old on the top of a YouTube mountain, watch this. If you can heal a man who's been in the grave so long that his sister is more concerned about the stench, the stench than she is about the potential. If you can do that, I'm open. God wants you to unlearn your limitations. You've got to unlearn your limitations. And stop thinking that it had to be on one schedule. Well, their kid is smarter than mine. Their kid is peeking too soon, all right? That's all it is. Your kid has got street smarts and Ds on their report card. And later in life, later in life, the lateness of God. Why did he make Thomas wait a week?

Thomas wasn't there? Jesus could have waited, caught up with him somewhere else. Why did he wait a week? You didn't see it when I read it. Okay, I'll go back to it for you. This is really, and Elijah is reading through the book of Matthew right now, and he said, Dad, do you ever feel like Jesus is trolling his disciples? And I said, kind of he does, doesn't he?

I'm going to pay the temple tax, but go fishing. It'll be in the fish's mouth. He's like, this is just weird. And I'm like, it kind of is. And see, I'm glad he's reading the Bible for himself. So he can learn to wrestle with questions about God and about life and not just trust the summary that Jesus loves the little children. Jesus does love the little children.

Jesus also flips tables. I asked him the other day, did you get to the part in Matthew yet? I said, you get to a part yet where he's cussing all the Pharisees out? Not exactly cussing, but he might as well. I mean everything you'd want to call him. He's calling them, whitewashed tombs and all these things. But see, when you have a view of God that thinks that he only says soothing things, you get surprised.

That's why I hate preaching on holidays. We took something as powerful as the resurrection and dressed it in pastel. Let me tell you my Christmas sermon. I already got it. You ready, my Christmas sermon? You know, silent night, holy night, all is calm, all his bright. Away in a manger, no crib for the bed, the little Lord Jesus, lay down his sweet head. The cattle are lowing the sky.

I don't know the word, but this part. Little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. That's a lie. I like the song too, y'all, but it's not true. He's a baby in a bard. He's crying. So I'm going to do a message on Christmas, not silent night. It's going to be called screaming Jesus.

I hope you'll put it on it. It's December 25th, 2021. right here from this pulpit coming soon, screaming Jesus. I know you know me as a healer. I know you know me that I open the man's blind eyes. I know you know me in this season of your life as this. I know you know me as that. I know up until this point I've provided for you this way.

And I know you think that what you've seen is all there is. But blessed are those. This is what he told Thomas, who have not seen and still believe. Who's he talking about in that? Who's he talking about? He's not talking about the other disciples. They saw. Who's he talking about?

I think he's talking about Mary and Martha. Because Martha was like, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And Mary was like, if you'd have been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And if you would have did what I thought you could do. But Martha says something real powerful. Watch this. She said, but I know that even now it's too late. But even now.

You didn't fit the definition of what I thought a good friend was, God, but even now, you withheld the healing that you easily could have given and you intentionally missed the opportunity to perform. But even now, I thought you were a healer. But that's not all you are. Martha's confession is the powerful confession. She says, you are the Christ, the Messiah, who has come. come into the world. So whatever I thought you were, whatever I thought you would do, whatever

I expected from your hand. That's not all you are. Would you say that to God this Easter? I had my nice little pretty picture of little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay, or the great king Jesus who destroys every devil and drives out all darkness, but you're also the one who weeps with me and something that you could have prevented. You are the one with all authority. You are also the one with all empathy. I wonder what else you are. You know, for years now, you've been defining yourself by your dysfunction. I hear it because I talk to you. I hear you. I hear when you talk. You do it. I do it. I do it all the time. I think it's somewhat of a cop-out from us having to grow, because if we condemn ourselves, we don't have to work toward change.

That's just how I am. Hey, man, I'm just not organized. I can't help it. I'm just not organized. You know there's methods for that, right? And now I'm worried because, y'all, when they do personality tests, Myers, Briggs and Enneagrams and all of this, I know Enigram's not a personality test, trust me. I get a lot of feedback every time I make fun of Eniogram on the internet, and I'm grateful for

that. It's a blessing. But that's a helpful tool. But if you take something that was meant to be a tool, do you know an eagram? You put a number and that's kind of your dominant sin or weakness or something, and you can understand it and all that. That is really what it is. But see, we like to slap a number on something so we don't really have to know it.

I hear people walking around all the time. You're a seven. You're a three. You're an eight. I'm like at least a, because Holly told me I'm a one. I'm at least a one point five, a one point seven. Like, do I get a decimal? Do I really have to be that exact of a thing?

And there's nothing against all of that. It's good, it's good, it's good. But we will even turn a tool into an excuse. I'm a perfectionist. That's just who I am. That's just how I am. You're also a patent. You're also aggravating to some people.

That's not all you are. And I love y'all in church. I'm a child of God. I am a child of God." That is not all you are all the time. If you clap, I won't call you out. We will pretend like you are always holy and righteous and blessed and full of faith. So how do we deal with this?

Thomas, aka Didymus. I love how he even had a little nickname. It means the twin. You ever feel like there's two of you, by the way? This is an opportunity for him to experience Jesus, not through another spectacular miracle, but through a sacred scar. And notice what he wanted to see. I've already seen him walk on water.

I've already seen him feed the hungry crowds. I've already seen him open blind eyes, but I never saw him die before. And the experience of the cross would be enough to confuse any of us, because how can God be with you and how can God be for you and you go through this? So when Thomas says, my Lord and my God, one commentator said that it is the most powerful expression of faith in any gospel account. Let me ask you something. What do you take from the fact that the most powerful expression of faith in the whole Bible

was uttered from the mouth of the disciple with the greatest doubt? I think it means that even though you might be a skeptic sometimes, that's not all you are. And even though you might be addicted to something right now, an addict is not all you are. And even though you've limited yourself to the path that you've seen this far, Jesus said, it's great to see it and believe it. But blessed are you if you really can believe it and you don't even see it? So if I don't see God making a way, is he still a waymaker? This is the decision of Easter.

This is the decision of every day. Don't trust the summary because people will tell you things in the summary that are just too simple. God is good all of the time. All of the time, God is good. Oh, they repeated it. It must be true. That's cute. But to really know that God is good, for Thomas, he had to touch the wounds.

And the most powerful expression of faith was uttered from the one with the greatest I think sometimes God can use the people the most who are willing to get honest about where they really are. And just be willing to admit that every day doesn't feel like Easter in your heart. He showed up a week later because Thomas was ready yet. And isn't it crazy that the only thing that would stop God from revealing himself to Thomas was his own belief? Stop doubting and belief. It makes it sound so simple, doesn't it? Stop doubting.

I wish it was that simple. Siri came on in my office a minute ago before I came to preach. I said, Hey, Siri, stop. She said, there's nothing to stop here. What I'm talking to right now? There's nothing to stop here. I wish doubt could be like Siri just like, hey, fear, stop. Hey, bad memory of the thing that stop.

Hey, worrying about things that haven't happened yet, stop. And the more I studied it, I realized Jesus wasn't just telling Thomas to do something mentally. The thing that he said is actually better translated like this. Stop becoming an unbeliever and become a believer. That's what he literally said, Danny. Stop becoming an unbeliever. When did you start becoming an unbeliever? When did you get so jaded about others, about yourself?

When did you start trusting more in the summary than you did in the Holy Spirit? I want to share something with you today on this Easter. A few months ago, I was kind of just unsuspecting on a Thursday afternoon writing some thoughts down about Lazarus, who eventually did get up and rise from the dead. There's so much good stuff in that story. It's for another time. The opening line to what I thought was like a poem came to me and said, may I never lose the wonder of this gospel mystery.

From the heavens came a Savior, from the ground arose a king. I sat with it for a moment, and it just kept coming to me in this way, and I wrote down the rest, Every day is born in darkness. winter yields to spring. So let us speak of resurrection, even in the suffering. As the sisters beg the Savior, come at once to Bethany, for the one you love is dying, but his yes was not to be. And his weeping begged the question, could his friend he not have healed, but he still is resurrection, even when the tomb is healed. speaks a whisper in the silence, sleeps the harvest in the sea, cradled now a new beginning,

in the heart that dares believe. So crucify your hesitation, wounded expectation bring. Will you welcome resurrection? Will you crown the risen king? So that's the question. Will you welcome resurrection? I know you've lost some things. and I know that it seems like it's too late, but will you welcome the possibility that God is greater than any of your limitations? That's what Jesus wanted the sisters to see, that I'm greater than anything you imagine me to be. And when God doesn't meet our expectations,

sometimes it's because he wants to exceed them. If the disciples would have had their way, Jesus never would have gone to the cross. But if he'd never gone to the cross, he couldn't pay for their sin. He couldn't redeem them and set them free. I just want you to know in the bottom of your heart today that whatever you've done, however you've run, whatever limitations you've placed on yourself or God, he's so much greater and he's in you. And Father, I pray right now for Easter resurrection miracles in the lives of men and women all over the world.

I thank you so much that you have called us to this hope. I thank you that it's a living hope. And I thank you that the empty tomb gives us confidence for any of the spaces we don't understand in our life. Lord, I pray for miracles. I pray for breakthrough. I pray for deliverance. I pray for salvation to come to their home today. That you would touch them and they would be whole in Jesus' name.

Amen. Thank you for sharing this day with us. We love you. We're praying for you. Thank you for being a part of this global ministry all over the world. May God bless you. in a tremendous way this week. This is an I-Heart podcast.

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