Elevation with Steven Furtick - There’s A Hole In Your Story

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

You get to choose the story you tell. In “There’s A Hole In Your Story,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church shows how the narratives we create can hold us back, and reminds us that freedom begins when we stop living by secondhand assumptions and start seeing our lives through the truth God is revealing.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 fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. So thankful that you're here today. And I am going to go ahead. I normally have you stand to read the scripture. It's 19 verses today. So go ahead and sit down and we'll take it slow. God bless you. My scripture from today's point of view is Acts chapter 11. This sermon will probably take two weeks to preach. We did it last night. The Lord showed up. I thought

he did till nobody said that was here last night. Yeah! To me he showed up. And so we probably won't get to the entire message today. But in Acts chapter 11, it's a very unique and pivotal story as the gospel is going forward through the ministry of the early church, where it says in verse 1, the apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him. and said, you went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. Starting from the beginning, verse 4, Peter told them the whole story.

Here it is. I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners. And it came down to where I was. I looked into it. Oh, I'll touch somebody and say, look into it. Yeah, I looked into it. to it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds.

Then I heard a voice telling me, get up, Peter, kill and eat. I replied, surely not, Lord. How are you going to say no and call him Lord in the same sentence? That's crazy. Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth. And the voice spoke from heaven a second time. I'll thank God for second chances. Third chances. Fourth chances. Can I get a fifth chance, six chance, seven chance, eight chance?

Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again. Then three men who had been sent to me from Cessaria stopped at the house where I was staying. The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house. And he told us how he had seen an angel appear in the house and say, send to Joppa for Simon, who would called Peter. He will bring you a message through which you and all your households will be saved. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them, and he had come on us in the same way. Then I remembered what the Lord, turned a page, has said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So if God gave them the same gift he gave us

who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God's way? would nudge your neighbor gently and say, get out of God's way. When they heard this, they had no further objections, Your Honor, and praised God, saying, so then, even to Gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life. So we've gone from, from, in verse one, we've gone from, what did I write down? I wrote it in my nose because I was seeing it before I came out. Oh, We went from protest to praise. From protest to praise. But that's not the title of my message.

The title of my message hinges on verse four. Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story. Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story. Now look at your neighbor and give them my title. Say, I'm not calling you a liar. I promise I'm not. But there's a hole in your story. Come on, say it like you're on CSI and they've been in the interrogation room all night and

the coffee is cold. Look at them again and say, there's a hole in your story. Look at your other neighbors. Say there's a hole in your story. A story within a story. Acts 11. It's really about the purpose of God, but it's told through the perspective of Peter, through the writing of Luke for Theophilus.

to describe simultaneously both the ministry of Peter and the purpose of God. Did you know that your story is a story within a story? There's always a story within the story. There's the surface story, and then there is the story that is beneath the surface, and then there is the story that is overarching. And sometimes we don't even realize how many missing pieces there are of the stories that we tell ourselves. Even worse, we don't even

really understand the missing. I would call it a plot hole. You've been watching a show and there's just a plot hole in the story. We were watching this Christian movie called Friday Night Lights with St. Tim Riggins.

And they had a plot hole in it. We were talking about this. And Lila Garrity drove her car into Buddy Garrity's car dealership through the window. In the next episode, everything was fine and she had her car back. And even in our family, we adopted that. We call it, can I get a garrity?

When you do something stupid in our family and you want total immunity and forgiveness and never bring it up again as far as the east is from the west, can you cast us in the seat? You have to ask for a garrity. How many of you have ever needed God to give you a garrity? Yeah, I can preach on anything. And the truth of the matter is in Acts 11, you know, it's a microcosm for what we experience. so many times in our lives where when there is space, a story fills it. And then the space between what you know and what you think you know sometimes is the story

that you tell yourself that keeps you stuck. Are you all too sleepy for me to preach or can I do this like I want to? When the church was first starting and I was an inexperienced pastor, just a whippersnapper and a monarchy t-shirt with some antique denim jeans and some Martinace and boo. I was oblivious about certain things. And I invited this man to come share his story with our church. The church was only about two years old. And I had him share with the whole church, his story.

The next week, somebody called our church office and requested to have a phone appointment with me. And the person who called was a man of God. He had a radio ministry, and I had heard his voice on the radio so many times. So when we finally talked on the phone, it was surreal to hear his voice because I'd heard him on the radio and never talked to him before, didn't even know that he knew who I was. So I felt kind of important when they said, so-and-so wants to talk to you and set up a phone appointment.

Oh, phone appointment. And so when they came to have the call, he said, hello, pastor. It's a beautiful, rich baritone voice very soon. Hello, pastor. I said, hey, it's so good to talk to you. And he said, you might want to hear what I have to say before you say that. Now, what he said next was an education. He gave me a seminary education and a five-minute phone call.

He said, I watched your interview with so-and-so, the person I had brought up. Let me do it in his voice. I watched your interview. And it was very entertaining, but it wasn't very accurate. I said, well, all I did was let him share his story. And he said, well, there's a few holes in that story. Then I'd like to fill in. See, the man I was talking to, he was playing this victim role.

And when he told his story, it was everybody who didn't help him, everybody who didn't care about him, everybody who mistreated him. He didn't mention the people who gave him rent payments. He didn't mention the people who gave him second payment. chances, third chances, fourth chances. He left a lot of that out, but I never forgot what the older, more experienced pastor said, because I've been trying to apply it to my life. There's a few holes in your story. Now, I don't mean to get all up in your macaroni at this time of the day, because I know it's early. But are there a few holes in the story that you've been telling

yourself? About yourself? About others? about your parents, about your kids, about God? Are there some holes in your story? I want to take this text for a moment and interrogate it. I want to see what Peter said in verse 4 that took us from, what did I say again, from protest to praise. It started with this whole group. It started with a rumor.

Now, back in the Bible days, they spread rumors. Things have changed. We have evolved societally. In the Bible, they spread rumors, and they weren't always accurate. So in verse one, if you revisit it with me for a moment, they're talking about Peter going to eat with the Gentiles. Did you hear what Peter did? I heard he was down there.

I heard he was down there playing poker. I heard he was drinking beer and watching Cinemax and HV. You know how stuff. And so by the time one author said a lie can make it around the world by the time the truth gets his shoes laced up. And here's what's crazy. The story about what Peter did got back to Jerusalem before Peter did. The story beat Peter back to Jerusalem. And he's 70 miles away sharing the gospel.

The gospel of Jesus Christ has just gone beyond the borders of one people, the Jews, to the Gentiles, which was God's original intention. When he called Abraham, he said, I'm going to bless you. But I'm not just going to bless you to bless you. I'm going to bless you to be a blessing. And through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That's always what he wanted to do. And now he's doing it.

But sometimes we get so lost in the story, the story that was handed to us, that we missed the bigger story that God is telling. And the key word to me in verse one was, it said, the apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard. The word was heard. They heard something. Did you hear about what? Did you hear what they did? Do you hear what they did? Did you read the article?

I just read the headline. You go to evolution, what's it called? Elevation Church. I heard they don't have a cross on the building. I heard they don't have a, I heard that they have a trampoline on the stage for leap year. I heard, I heard, I heard, I heard. You know how much trouble there is when you take to heart what you heard? Without checking it out.

So the first thing I want to say, I want to do a sermon around this. I want to warn you about four types of stories. that will ruin your life if you let them. Four types of stories with some hole in. The first one I want to show you is beware of secondhand stories. Beware of what you believe that you have not seen for yourself. And for everybody over the age of 12, raise your hand if you're over the age of 12. Raise your hand and wave it at me real good.

Just let me know that you got all your circulation left. Yeah, wave it at me. If we are grown-ups, can we please make a quality decision to stop letting our opinions of others be determined through the filter of the opinions of others? The contrast is severe in verse one. It says the apostles and believers, they heard about what Peter was doing, and they criticized him out of their ignorance. But verse 5 says that they heard what Peter did, but watch what Peter has. Peter has a first-person perspective. So he's not going off of what he heard. He's going off of what he experienced. That's why it doesn't affect me what you think God is like. You can tell me God is

judgmental and hateful, but I don't believe that because I have experienced his love. I have seen his goodness. I have felt his touch. I have experienced his embrace. And so when you hear something secondhand and take it as truth, it can be worse than secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke can destroy your lungs. Secondhand stories can destroy your life. Secondhand stories can keep you from getting to know people that you would actually like if you didn't just meet them through a screen. Secondhand stories can keep you from stereotyping genders and races and other denominations. I was riding around with a pastor one time, and we drove by a church, and the parking lot was full. The parking lot was so full that people were parked on the side of the road to go to that church.

And we were driving past it to go to his church, and I was speaking for him, and we were going on the way to his church. And he pointed at the church with the full parking lot and said, that's a weird church. I sat under my breath, and it's full, too. And see, when something else makes you feel insecure, you shield yourself. yourself by calling it weird. So this is what I want you to get out of it. Some of you are holding on to stories that are not even true about you that were given to you secondhand.

About who you are, Gideon. I am the least in my tribe. This is an Old Testament story that illustrates it. I am the smallest. My tribe is the smallest. I'm the smallest in the tribe. And I want to ask you what God asked Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Who told you that?

Who told you that story? Sometimes it's even well-meaning people. I mean, these were not pagans. These were observant Jewish Christians who just wanted to get it right. But what happened in their day happens in ours where when God originally blessed his people, he wanted them to take it beyond just these borders. But over time, tradition gets in the way of truth. So then you start thinking that your tradition is the truth.

And if you've ever had a family member say something to you like, oh, well, you're getting kind of big for your britches. Is that just a monk's corner thing? You make a move forward. Oh, well, you're getting too big for your britches. It's a way of trying to keep you stuck in a tradition of what our family has accomplished and what we do. And so it's so subconscious for most of us.

It's a story that runs in the background and we never even know it. But it is a story that someone else told themselves and then they passed it on to us and we took it as our own and we stay stuck in a story for 80 years of our life that we could have broken out of if we would have believed the voice of God. I hear my preaching mentor saying, slow down Ferdick. So let me do that for a moment. What stories are you holding on to that are old that are keeping you from what's new and what's now and what's true and what's real?

Secondhand stories. It's a dangerous thing. If you ever played the game where you pass a thing down the row, I could start and say, milk is on sale. And by the time it gets to Christy, by the time it passes all the way down this row, you know it would turn into, you know, Donald Trump is the pastor of elevation church. By the time it got down that row, and it's never been worse than it is right now in our world that we don't read the whole story just the headlines. So then it becomes, oh, well, you're not this.

only that, and you can't this, and all white people, and all black people, and all men, and all women, and this community, and that community. And it is a generic way of keeping us from peeling back the labels, because labels always limit, and when you label yourself, you limit yourself. So all that to say, there might be a few holes in your story. Some things that you have told yourself that aren't necessarily. He said, it was very entertaining. but it wasn't very accurate.

And sometimes you tell yourself a story to survive, just to make it. And what's sad to me about it is, somebody might have rejected you at one point in your life because of how they felt about themselves. And then you took it as an indication of your value. Oh, well, they walked out of my life. There must have been something wrong with me. That's their story, not yours. That's their story not yours. That's their story not yours and you don't have to own it and

I love Peter because he is so reckless and so the reckless Reverend comes in but he's got He's got himself under control and he just told them the whole story Don't you want God to show you the whole story of your life and and when he starts the story? He starts with everybody's favorite main character in the story. Look Look at verse 5. You ready for this? This is how every story starts. Watch this. I.

Number two, beware of self-centered stories. Oh man, when you put yourself at the center of every story, you're going to be stressed out. There's not enough peptobysmal in the world for you to keep your stomach calm if you put yourself at the center of every story. And this is for all of us who are easily offended, all right? Did you see how they looked at me? They don't like me.

They like you fine. They're sleepy. They don't like their husband. It's not you. Oh, look at somebody and send them free. Say, it's not you. It's not you. They weren't mad at Peter.

They were stuck in a structure and a system and a way of thought. When I make myself the center of the story, I take on unnecessary stress. Sometimes when I'm preaching, I think I'm not doing good if everybody's not saying amen or something like that. But what if you were up till 3.30 in the morning and you didn't get your sleep? I'm going to take that as a reflection of my preaching. I don't think so. The devil is a liar.

This is a good preaching matter whether you nod at it or not. And you know what? I need to get better about that in my life because I really struggle thinking that every story starts with me. How they treated me. And so I say like, you know, that God has a reason for everything. And what I mean by that is, okay, this is my dirty little secret. What I mean is God has a reason for this that I am going to like, agree with, and understand. And that's just not the way it is.

How many know that's just not the way it is? A self-centered story in parenting. When I make it about myself, remember, these are circumcised believers. That is an external sign of a covenant. It's something that you can see. You wouldn't necessarily always see it, but you could see it. I'm going to leave that right there in case your kid didn't go to the kids ministry today. You can do that Bible study at home.

But you couldn't necessarily see it, but you could see it. And here's the temptation. When we try to go off of what we can see and tell ourselves a story, and then we start filling in the space, remember, Peter is 70 miles away from Jerusalem, and they start telling the story. Space creates stories. space creates stories. Sometimes you don't need to text certain things. You need to pick up the phone and call. Sometimes text doesn't get the tone across, and you're going to spend six months fixing a relational mess because you used your thumbs rather than your feet to walk over

and have a real conversation. And so when you have space, you create a story. Even the space of time creates stories. You know, a lot of time goes by in your life. You start remembering things differently, don't you? It's hard for me right now raising kids to remember what it's like to be a kid. So if one of my kids acts up, my immediate thing is to make it about me. They are disrespecting me. I am the man of God. And one day the Lord really, this was like, Have you ever had one of those God bombs just go off inside of you where you just knew that what you were thinking was wrong? I was thinking about one of my kids. They are so selfish.

They were making certain decisions. I thought, this is so selfish. The Lord said, they're not selfish. They're scared. Think about what it's like when you start getting flooded with all of those hormones. Think about what it's like when the rules change on you all of a sudden. And y'all don't have big kids yet, but you will remember. You will remember certain times in your life where you were acting selfish.

The reason you were acting selfish is because you were scared. And when you get scared, you start acting selfish because you are in protection mode. So what am I doing? I'm going from there. They're so selfish, and God is showing me that the whole story. See, there's a hole in your story. There's a whole story, and then there's a hole in your story. And sometimes we tell ourselves stories about others without realizing that they are going through things too.

Y'all don't want to say amen to this because it means we have to have compassion on people kind of like God has compassion on us. Kind of like we want God to forgive us. Kind of like we want God to excuse our gaps. We're going to have to sometimes say, God, help me to stop making it about me. God, forgive me for making this about me. I feel the Holy Ghost and fire in my bones right now. It's bigger than you. It's bigger than you.

How could Peter have known that what he was being criticized for in this moment would lead to the gospel penetrating the Roman Empire? You have no idea what God is doing through this conflict, this season in your life. There is a bigger story being told and there is a hole in your story. There's a hole in your story. Dear Holly, dear Holly, There's a hole in, did you know this song? There's a hole not in your bucket. There's a hole in your story.

There's a hole in your story. And we can't stand not to know how things are going to take. turn out. So what we do, we make up a story. I mean, we make up, look, sit now I've got to tell you about selective stories. Selective stories. This is when you don't know what's going to happen next in your life. Think about the uncertainty that the early church was facing under great persecution and yet great purpose at the same time of great persecution. And they're both happening simultaneously, but what story are you going to choose? Selective stories. You are always choosing your story. And some of us, for some God-forsaken reason, keep choosing horror stories.

We fill in the unknown parts of our future. You know what? Some of us could give Stephen King a run for his money. If we put down the paper the scary stories we write about what might happen in our lives. I mean, if Stephen King has nothing on you, you create boogeymen, you create scenarios out of the small, have you noticed how the smallest thing can put a story? Have you known, you know, if you're a new parent, raise your hand, they're not sleeping through the night. How many you've got a baby that's not sleeping through the night right now? And how many times have you thought, what if this is a sign of things to come, and now

you got them in rehab, and now you got them on drugs, strung out on, they've got a needle in their arm, and they're just colloquy. Flat tire. Oh, God, it's just going to be one of those days. That's a story. It's just going to be one of those days. Flat tire. Now, the same person might have got a flat tire and said, well, God must have been keeping me from a wreck that was going to happen two miles up the street. That's just a story. You ready for this? You don't get to choose every situation, but you get to choose the story. Oh, the power of God is in that truth. You choose the story. You choose the story. You choose the story. You choose the story. story that you tell yourself. So if something's hard, you can be like, oh man, this is hard. I thought God told me to do it, but I guess the Lord isn't in this. This is hard. It must

not be God. What if Jesus would have thought about the cross that way? Oh, this is hard. This must not be the will of God. I must not have heard God on this one. Boy, this is hard. That's a story. Here's another story. This is so hard, it must be God. Devil must have got a memo that I'm on to something good. I'm on the edge of Cana. That's what these giants are here to signify. It is dangerous when you select a certain story. Nobody cares about me.

Give me your phone. I will show you people who care about you who checked on you this week. But you let that devil in your editing room and gave him your typewriter. I'm an old school preacher. You gave him the same. feet in the chair to edit your story. You get to choose your story. I didn't always believe this.

I thought, well, you know, certain people, they have certain stories. No, no, those are situations. Life will give you a lot of suffering. You don't get to choose it. But if you're going to have to suffer enough because of the situations that life brings, why would you choose to suffer with a story? I don't know who this is for, it's probably not somebody in this room. You've suffered enough.

What you're going through is hard enough. What you're dealing with is heavy enough without telling yourself a story about it that reinforces the thought that God is not with you. I'm still in Acts 11. Peter told them the whole story. He saw what God did. They heard it. He saw it.

They heard it. He saw it. They heard it. He showed up and said, I heard what y'all been saying about me, but there's a hole in your story. You're telling me what you heard. Let me tell you what I saw. I saw the vision of the whole earth being reached by the gospel of Jesus Christ. I saw it.

I experienced it. I know that God is for me. How do you know? Well, I was there. I was there when he picked me up. I was there when nobody else could give me the comfort in the balm and the medicine, but God helped me through that night. I was there when I was in the middle of an emotional storm that I saw no way through. But look at me on the other side, dancing on the shore.

I was there. You can't tell me God's not real. You can't tell me He didn't choose me. You can't tell me grace doesn't work. You can't tell me it's over. You can't tell me the best is behind me. You can't make me doubt him. too much. I saw it. You tell me what you heard. I'll tell you what I saw. I feel the spirit

of the Lord. You choose the story. Now, if this is the most difficult season of your life right now, you still get to choose the story. Did you clap because you're going through hell? You get to choose what you tell yourself the story of this season. Because watch this. says, I'm going through the valley of the shadow of death. Somebody else says, there's a table for me in the presence of my enemies. It's the same situation, but it's a different story. Y'all forgot how to shout while I was gone last week. Shout if you know that the devil might take your money.

He might rob you over a few years, but you can't have my story, my joy, my anointing, My authority! Get under my feet, Snake! Now, one of my best friends is going through the most horrible season of their life right now, and he and his wife lost everything last year. Lost everything. I don't mean that like we say it. You know, your video game progress got lost.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about stripped. I'm talking about I felt like I was watching the book of Job. I thought they would lose their faith. I really did. What would make me mad, every time I would call to encourage them, they would start encouraging me. And I was like, stop it!

This is your encouraging phone call. You ever been trying to unlock the door and somebody else is unlocking it at the same time? Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! And so she said something. The wife, they lost their ministry, had to move to the other side of the country. And much of it was his decision. It wasn't her decision. And then at the consequence of his decision, she ends up having to leave everything that she's

known. The town they grew up in, the ministry, the family, all of it, left it, gone, gone, other side of the country. Then she gets diagnosed with cancer. So I'm like, you're for real right now? Her? All right. So I saw her, after all her hair was gone from chemo, and after she was, you know, 33 percent

smaller than she was when I saw her all of the stuff was in full effect. She started talking about, thank God for the insurance. No. I don't want you to clap yet, because think about this. She said, even though we lost everything, if we hadn't moved across the country, we wouldn't have gotten put on different insurance, and our old insurance wouldn't have covered this. Hold on, don't clap yet. So I'm thinking, I've got an attitude about it. I'm like, well, if God can get you to the other side of the country for better insurance,

he should stop the cancer. That's how I think. I know y'all are, halos just glowing right now. Y'all trust the Lord with all your heart and lean on your own understanding. Sometimes I lean on my own understanding. And I'm like, this is ridiculous. I said, and I didn't say it out loud, but I'm sitting over there thinking it. I'm thinking like, well, did God really have to make you lose everything, get you across the country, give you insurance? If he's a healer, I'm thinking that. I called them yesterday. I was like, I keep thinking about this insurance thing, y'all keep saying.

It's bugging me. It doesn't make any logical, tactical sense. The great I am who can part the Red Sea can't stop you from getting cancer. He'd just get you on a better insurance policy. I say, I don't get it. She said, it's not your story. Y'all better help me shout or we're never going to get to the 1130. I want you to look at the devil and say it's not your story.

She said if I believed that this was the end for me, I wouldn't survive. But if I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, She said, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Let the devil know, come hell or high water. I get to choose the story that I tell. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel empowerment in this word. I get to choose the story that I tell.

I get to choose. Be careful about selective. stories. Be careful about self-centered stories. Be careful about secondhand stories. And be careful about short stories. Y'all sitting down like you want me to finish. Now, be careful of short stories. This point is not for Holly. She has never in her life. I might have to pay for this when we get home, but it's going to be worth it to get the point across. My wife, when she was growing up, her dad used to say, because there were three women in the house, well, three daughters and a wife. So he was just, it was him versus the estrogen, and the estrogen was just

so powerful. And so when they would start telling a story, he'd go, how long is this story going to be? I just need to know, should I get comfortable in my chair? Should I fluff my pillow? Should I get an MRE? How long are we gonna be here in the story? I thought that was so rude that he would say that But I'm kind of like now I know what he was saying because it's not I don't want to hear it I just want to pace myself with my attention span make sure I Make sure I make some notes you know so I can refer back to point number three a and and ask you know But it's always so eloquent and you know I don't mind Anyway

She says something all the time to people that I've never said to anyone. She'd say, somebody would tell them story. This happened last week. True story? Okay. Because I said this last night, she knows what I'm going to say. She said last week to somebody. They were starting to tell a story.

I'm yawning. I look interested, but I got an inner yawn. I'm thinking the more I nod the faster they'll do this. And she goes, she goes, when it said Peter told them. the whole story. I thought about Holly. I thought about the whole story. All the details. And sometimes you let doubt cut you off in the middle of a sentence that God is speaking in your life. So be careful about the short story. Be careful when people try to summarize your life into a neat little category. Be careful when you tell yourself a story like that's all there is.

That's not all there is. There's more to the story. There's a hole in your story right now. And I wonder what you're going to fill it with. When Peter went down to preach to Cornelius, he went down to tell him the good news about Jesus Christ. When he recounted it to the circumcised believers in Jerusalem, he left one part out. Let me show you what he left out of his story. He left out the sermon that he preached while he was there.

I want to show you just one thing before I sit down and put this mic up and send you home happy. I want to show you why some of you are stuck in a part of your story that was never intended to be the end. Because when Peter got up to preach to Cornelius in Acts 10, verse 39, he said something about Jesus that we are all witnesses. I saw it. I know what you heard. I saw it. I was there. I saw him save me.

I saw him pay the price for my sins. I saw him shed his blood. I saw him with the lashes on his black back. I saw him as a sheep before the shear and he didn't say a word. I saw it for myself. And we are witnesses of everything that he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him. They hung him on a cross, comma. They hung him on a cross, comma. They hung him on a cross, comma. They hung him on a cross, comma. They hung him on a cross, comma. The word of the Lord for you today, my brother, my sister, don't stop at the comma. Don't stop at the comma. Because the next verse says, but God. I love those two words like I love the breath in my lungs. But God. We were trespassers. We had broken his law.

We did not deserve mercy. Somebody shout, but God. See, and if you stop. At the comma, you never get to see the butt. God was raising him from the dead by the time the story started to spread. Resurrection is possible when you realize he didn't stay on the cross. When they nailed him on the tree, they put a nail in his hands. But early one Sunday, he showed Thomas something.

Put your finger where the nails were. There's a hole in your story. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's a hole in your story. Follow me down to the garden tomb where they laid his body in a cave. His body is not there. He is risen. There's a hole in your story.

And the best is yet to come. And he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. If you believe it, give him a shout right now. Give him a shout! 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.

This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.