Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 1: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. Well, welcome, y'all. Messed up our Easter service.
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be nice.
Speaker 3: And calm, dignify how many people love Jesus in this place. Father,
Speaker 3: We thank you for your presence. Now, we thank you
Speaker 3: for your power. We thank you for the ways you've
Speaker 3: provided for us. You've seen us through so many seasons,
Speaker 3: and we call you faithful.
Speaker 1: We thank you for this day we celebrate.
Speaker 3: We celebrate that the God of miracles triumphed gloriously with
Speaker 3: scars in his hands, declared victory over the grave. We
Speaker 3: thank you for blood that was shed so we could
Speaker 3: be spotless. We thank you for breaking through the barrier
Speaker 3: of death itself so that we could be justified, raised
Speaker 3: to life in your name. And now I ask you, Jesus,
Speaker 3: the Jesus who rose from the grave, the Jesus who
Speaker 3: lives in my heart. I ask you to speak to
Speaker 3: every person who came today. A personal word, A personal
Speaker 3: word that can turn their life around. A personal word,
Speaker 3: a personal word that can bring hope in the darkness.
Speaker 3: A personal word, a personal word so specific that you
Speaker 3: can shout it or with h for it. But we
Speaker 3: lean in now declaring that you are Lord of all.
Speaker 3: I thank you for the enthusiasm of the faith of
Speaker 3: the people around me. They were not dancing because they've
Speaker 3: never been depressed. They were dancing because they are delivered
Speaker 3: from depression. They were not dancing because they've never been down.
Speaker 3: They were dancing because you got up and you reached down,
Speaker 3: and you lifted us with you. So we praise you today,
Speaker 3: Great God. Now, Lord, with all that you showed me
Speaker 3: in your word, help me to have the miracle of
Speaker 3: talking fast, and help them to listen fast as well,
Speaker 3: so that you can say all that you want to
Speaker 3: say in Jesus' name. Amen, remain standing. Put your hands together.
Speaker 3: If you know that our God is God and beside him,
Speaker 3: there is no other. Thank you, choir, Thank you for
Speaker 3: coming today. God bless you. I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 1: Wow, remain standing.
Speaker 3: I'm going to read our scripture and then give you
Speaker 3: our topic for today, and we're gonna be sharing from
Speaker 3: John chapter twenty and I want to go from verse
Speaker 3: twenty four to verse twenty nine and share something with
Speaker 3: you that I believe is very pivotal and powerful on
Speaker 3: this the most pivotal day in human history.
Speaker 1: Now, when I read this to you, don't be confused.
Speaker 3: Jesus at this point in John's Gospel has been up
Speaker 3: from the grave for a week, and the Bible says
Speaker 3: that he appeared to his disciples. He went to the
Speaker 3: women first, all the women make some noise. Went to
Speaker 3: the women first, he did. That's just the fact. He
Speaker 3: went to the women first. But then he showed up
Speaker 3: to the disciples, and the Bible tells us about one
Speaker 3: of them. Now, the reason that I believe the Holy
Speaker 3: Spirit selected this passage today is us.
Speaker 1: He wants to speak to each one of us.
Speaker 3: And this is not a public appearance of Jesus as
Speaker 3: much as it is a private audience that he has
Speaker 3: with the disciple named Thomas, the one that you mistakenly
Speaker 3: have called all your life doubting Thomas. But I'm going
Speaker 3: to show you why it's a mistake to label him
Speaker 3: that way. In just a moment, the Bible says in
Speaker 3: John chapter twenty, verse twenty four. Now Thomas, one of
Speaker 3: the twelve called the twin, was not with them when
Speaker 3: Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have
Speaker 3: seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I
Speaker 3: see in his hands the mark of the nails, and
Speaker 3: place my finger into the mark of the nails and
Speaker 3: place my hand into his side, I will never believe. Now,
Speaker 3: give him some credit. This was before Ai. But Thomas
Speaker 3: feels like this is unlikely that this has happened, just
Speaker 3: like they said. But just after he says, I will
Speaker 3: never believe. Put that back up in verse twenty five. Please,
Speaker 3: I will never believe. The Bible says. Eight days later,
Speaker 3: his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.
Speaker 1: Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them.
Speaker 3: Y'all missed a great place to shout, because although the
Speaker 3: doors were locked, Jesus came. How many are thankful that
Speaker 3: he came anyway. He came anyway, through locked doors, through
Speaker 3: a broken heart, through a divorce that you went through
Speaker 3: last year. He came anyway, even though you were trying
Speaker 3: to push him back and tell him no, he came anyway,
Speaker 3: He came through locked doors and stood among them and said,
Speaker 3: peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas, hey,
Speaker 3: I heard you've been talking about me, So let's do this.
Speaker 3: Put your finger here and see my hands, and put
Speaker 3: out your hand and place it in my side. Do
Speaker 3: not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him with one of
Speaker 3: the greatest confessions in all of scripture. My Lord and
Speaker 3: my God. Now I want you to turn to your
Speaker 3: neighbor one more time and tell them my title. First
Speaker 3: of all, just introduce it and say this. Say today, please.
Speaker 1: Forgive me.
Speaker 3: If I seem a little focused. Tell him I can't
Speaker 3: talk to you for the next thirty minutes. Don't bother
Speaker 3: me for the next thirty minutes. Now give them my title.
Speaker 3: Say this might be my God moment. This might be
Speaker 3: my God moment in Jesus' name. Amen, be seated. So
Speaker 3: what did I miss? Thomas asked Peter after not coming
Speaker 3: to the little prayer service on the Sunday that Jesus
Speaker 3: rose from the dead. And Peter said, oh, man, Thomas,
Speaker 3: you picked a bad time to miss prayer meeting. Jesus
Speaker 3: came and Thomas is like and shut up. Quit playing
Speaker 3: for real, though, what did I miss? He's like you
Speaker 3: missed it.
Speaker 1: He came.
Speaker 3: Jesus came, you mean like his spirit. No, Jesus came.
Speaker 3: He showed us where they put the nails. He showed
Speaker 3: us where they pierced his side.
Speaker 1: With the spear. It was him.
Speaker 3: I know it was him because I would recognize that
Speaker 3: voice anywhere. It's the voice that told me come over
Speaker 3: choppy waters.
Speaker 1: It was him. I know it was him.
Speaker 3: And if I wasn't certain by his voice, I was
Speaker 3: certain because I saw his scars.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 3: Sometimes when even words can't convince you, wounds will. Some
Speaker 3: of the things in life that you and I have
Speaker 3: to learn, we have to learn not.
Speaker 1: Through words, but through wounds.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you have to touch the hot stove to realize
Speaker 3: why your mom told you not to. And yet in
Speaker 3: the scripture we don't see Thomas learning from his own wounds,
Speaker 3: but by the wounds of Jesus Christ. Let's clap our
Speaker 3: hands and thank God that by his wounds we are healed. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that the message of the Cross and the Resurrection is
Speaker 3: that I don't have to do everything stupid in order
Speaker 3: to receive what God has for me. And in this
Speaker 3: particular passage of scripture, Thomas is missing on the day
Speaker 3: that Jesus appears, and since he missed the experience of
Speaker 3: seeing Jesus, it is hard for him to believe what
Speaker 3: he has never seen. Now, the Bible says in verse
Speaker 3: twenty six, and I thought this was a very anointed verse.
Speaker 3: Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas
Speaker 3: was with them. In other words, he said, I Am
Speaker 3: not going to miss it again. And I believe that
Speaker 3: there are some people listening to me preach on this
Speaker 3: Easter celebration that feel like you missed it.
Speaker 1: You feel like you missed it.
Speaker 3: You feel like you missed the opportunity to really be
Speaker 3: there for your kids. You feel like you missed the
Speaker 3: opportunity to really be what you could have been. It
Speaker 3: could have been a mistake that you made, or it
Speaker 3: could have been a distraction that had you pulled to
Speaker 3: the side and you missed what God was doing. I
Speaker 3: missed it, And the spirit of Thomas in this passage
Speaker 3: is someone who said I'm not going to miss this again.
Speaker 3: In the same that some of us feel drawn to
Speaker 3: church today, and we were not dragged to church. We
Speaker 3: were drawn to church. Let me say my theology. Even
Speaker 3: if somebody dragged you, God drew you. Even if they
Speaker 3: made you come, God got you here. Even if your
Speaker 3: mom told you she was going to beat you within
Speaker 3: an inch of your life if you didn't get dressed
Speaker 3: and get in the van, that was God speaking through
Speaker 3: your mom, threatening a beating through your mom, using your
Speaker 3: mom as the instrument of his rat so that he
Speaker 3: could bring you to the place of his mercy. And
Speaker 3: it's amazing how moments can happen in the presence of
Speaker 3: God that can supersede all of the moments that came
Speaker 3: before it. That's what we celebrate on the cross, that
Speaker 3: every sin that was committed up till that point in
Speaker 3: human history was on the back of our Savior, and
Speaker 3: in that moment when he died for you and I,
Speaker 3: it made a way for all of us to be forgiven.
Speaker 3: Let's clap our hands again and thank our Savior that
Speaker 3: he made a way for us. I'm making you clap
Speaker 3: today because I don't want you to miss it.
Speaker 1: I want you to celebrate the resurrection. I don't want
Speaker 1: you to miss it. Some of y'all.
Speaker 3: When I came out here, I was dancing, and you
Speaker 3: didn't dance you missed it. You could have got your
Speaker 3: church and your cardio all in one package deal, but
Speaker 3: you missed it. And if we dance again at the
Speaker 3: end of service, I want you to get ready because.
Speaker 1: You're not going to miss it again.
Speaker 3: If I have to come out there and dance with you,
Speaker 3: if I can dance with my limited rhythm in front
Speaker 3: of thousands, you can dance too.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to miss this.
Speaker 3: Thomas said, I'm gonna be in church next Sunday. And
Speaker 3: this shows us a very important lesson because I think
Speaker 3: as much as Thomas has become a villain for those
Speaker 3: who doubt, I believe he is also an architect, an
Speaker 3: archetype of those of us who press through doubt in
Speaker 3: order to find true faith.
Speaker 1: And Thomas shows up on a Sunday.
Speaker 3: Eight days after Now they counted the days from It's complicated,
Speaker 3: but it's basically been a week. The first Sunday that
Speaker 3: they met together was the Sunday Jesus got up from
Speaker 3: the grave. It's been eight days in the way that
Speaker 3: the Jewish calendar runs, and it's Sunday again, and Thomas says,
Speaker 3: I'm coming to church with you. Yeah, but you said
Speaker 3: you didn't believe. I don't yet, but I'm coming. Here's
Speaker 3: the principle. Sometimes you've got to show up unsure. And
Speaker 3: I said that just in case you're here today feeling
Speaker 3: like I don't know if I really believe this. The
Speaker 3: fact that you showed up is enough for God to
Speaker 3: show up and show you who he is, even though
Speaker 3: you're not sure. Sometimes you've got to show up to
Speaker 3: work unsure. Sometimes you've got to show up to a
Speaker 3: doctor's office unsure what the diagnosis will be. Sometimes you've
Speaker 3: got to show up in prayer, unsure, even wondering, Lord,
Speaker 3: are you listening? Now? I won't ask you to raise
Speaker 3: your hand, but have you ever been praying about something
Speaker 3: and wondered, Lord, are you listening? Somebody pull out your
Speaker 3: phone real quick. How many believe that your phone is
Speaker 3: listening to you? Raise your hand. If you believe your
Speaker 3: phone is listening to you, how do you know? Because
Speaker 3: stuff shows up because you said something, but you didn't
Speaker 3: type anything, and you weren't even talking to the phone.
Speaker 3: But five minutes later, how did this hair replacement pill
Speaker 3: get on my phone? All I did was look in
Speaker 3: the mirror and think I got a little spot back here?
Speaker 3: How is this on my phone is listening to me.
Speaker 3: I'm convinced that it's listening. I don't know who's spying
Speaker 3: on me or what they want other than to sell
Speaker 3: me stuff, but is listening to me.
Speaker 1: Now, hold up your phone. You believe it's listening.
Speaker 3: You believe that there is technology that was invented by
Speaker 3: man that can know your thoughts from a farm and
Speaker 3: can show you stuff that you said. You have more
Speaker 3: faith in your phone than you do in your father,
Speaker 3: who made you.
Speaker 1: Look phone was made by a man, but man was
Speaker 1: made by God.
Speaker 3: And if my phone can hear me talk about going
Speaker 3: to Disney World and put it on my Instagram feed.
Speaker 1: How much more can God here? I'll prove it to you.
Speaker 3: When Thomas said, unless I touch his hand, I won't
Speaker 3: believe Jesus wasn't in the room.
Speaker 1: No, it means he's listening even when you're not looking
Speaker 1: at him.
Speaker 3: He's listening, even when you don't fully feel him.
Speaker 1: He's listening, even.
Speaker 3: When you don't have the courage to say what you think.
Speaker 3: Touch your neighbor and say, my God listens. He's a
Speaker 3: good listener. My God is a good listener. My God
Speaker 3: doesn't break eye contact with me. My God was listening
Speaker 3: when I was singing to him today. My God likes
Speaker 3: to hear me sing. My God loves to hear me praise.
Speaker 3: My God listens to me. He not only hears the
Speaker 3: song that I sing. He hears the groans that are
Speaker 3: within me. When I have a groan that is too
Speaker 3: much for a word, his spirit intercedes for me. And
Speaker 3: God listens even when I don't see him. He's listening,
Speaker 3: even when I can't discern him. He's listening even when
Speaker 3: I cannot trace him. I can trust him because I
Speaker 3: know he hears my prayer. We serve a Lord who listens,
Speaker 3: so that when he shows up to tom As, he says, Hey, Tommy,
Speaker 3: I heard you want to touch right here.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and touch right here.
Speaker 3: I heard you want to touch this one too, Go
Speaker 3: ahead and touch both hands.
Speaker 1: I've got time.
Speaker 3: By the way, speaking of time, realized that God transforms
Speaker 3: lives on his timeline, not ours, not ours, Especially if
Speaker 3: there's somebody that you're praying for that you care about,
Speaker 3: who you know is far from God. God knows the
Speaker 3: right time to show up and touch their heart, and
Speaker 3: just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean he doesn't
Speaker 3: hear your prayer.
Speaker 1: I want to say that to a parent.
Speaker 3: Just because it hasn't happened for your child yet doesn't
Speaker 3: mean he hasn't heard your prayer. I want to say
Speaker 3: that for a wife who's praying for your husband and
Speaker 3: he wouldn't come to Easter service.
Speaker 1: A lady told me the other day I met her
Speaker 1: out on tour.
Speaker 3: She said, you're the only preacher I can get my
Speaker 3: husband to listen to.
Speaker 1: Please keep preaching.
Speaker 3: I can't get him to go to church with me yet,
Speaker 3: but he's listening. And I said, if he keeps listening, God.
Speaker 1: Will keep speaking.
Speaker 3: And it is only a matter of time because God
Speaker 3: transforms lives on his timeline, not mine, His timeline not mine.
Speaker 3: Put it in the chat, his timeline, not mine. Lord,
Speaker 3: are you listening, Yeah, I'm listening. Well, Lord, you're a
Speaker 3: little late. And the Lord said, I'm listening. I'm not late.
Speaker 3: I'm waiting eight days on purpose, which begs the question.
Speaker 3: If he waited eight days to come and tell Thomas
Speaker 3: to touch him, why would he waste eight days when
Speaker 3: he's only going to be on Earth fifty before his ascension.
Speaker 3: That's almost a tenth of the time that he is
Speaker 3: going to be on earth that he wasted waiting. Now
Speaker 3: here's the beautiful thing about this passage. And I'm going
Speaker 3: to tell you why I chose Thomas for our Easter sermon.
Speaker 3: We've been in a series in our church called called
Speaker 3: Very Creative. The series is called called We've been knowing
Speaker 3: this twenty years. I'm running out of ideas. I just
Speaker 3: called it called But in all seriousness, has been for me,
Speaker 3: one of the most rich studies in scripture that I've
Speaker 3: ever done, because I'm going through different people that God
Speaker 3: called by name, but specifically he called their name twice.
Speaker 1: Now, if you'll notice in the scripture, Jesus didn't.
Speaker 3: Call Thomas's name, but Thomas's name means twin and it
Speaker 3: says that in verse twenty four.
Speaker 1: Now Thomas one of the twelve. Watch this.
Speaker 3: He still wanted the twelve even though he doesn't have faith. Yeah,
Speaker 3: God knew it was going to take him a while
Speaker 3: when he called him. He called him anyway, He's still
Speaker 3: one of the twelve. Now, Judas that didn't go so good,
Speaker 3: So it's technically eleven. Judas is going to be replaced shortly,
Speaker 3: but he's one of the twelve and watch this he
Speaker 3: has called the twin. That's literally what the name Thomas means, twin.
Speaker 3: There's widespread speculation amongst scholars as to who Thomas's twin is,
Speaker 3: and if you research that question, you'll get many different answers,
Speaker 3: none of them satisfactory.
Speaker 1: The Bible doesn't tell us who twin is.
Speaker 3: But I want to suggest to you that there is
Speaker 3: a twin in Thomas that reflects the twin in you,
Speaker 3: because regardless of who his actual brother or sister was,
Speaker 3: that was his twin. We see a man swing in
Speaker 3: this passage from I will never believe to my Lord
Speaker 3: and my God in just a moment. Furthermore, he said,
Speaker 3: I'll never believe unless I touch Jesus's hands. I'll never
Speaker 3: believe unless I touch Jesus's side. But if you'll notice
Speaker 3: in the passage, the moment never came where he actually
Speaker 3: touched Jesus's hand, because, in spite of all that he
Speaker 3: thought it would take for him to trust in God,
Speaker 3: seeing Jesus alive was enough. And so Thomas, who you
Speaker 3: call doubting Thomas. The Bible does not call him doubting Thomas.
Speaker 3: Nobody called him doubting Thomas until a few hundred years
Speaker 3: ago when the church began to canonize his dysfunctional moment
Speaker 3: and make it his identity. So who we call doubting
Speaker 3: Thomas only doubted for eight days? He went on to
Speaker 3: be one of the most effective disciples that ever lived.
Speaker 3: So my question for you today is shouldn't we give
Speaker 3: him a better name than doubting Thomas, because doubting Thomas
Speaker 3: also had a twin and his name is not doubting Thomas.
Speaker 1: But watch this.
Speaker 3: I am renaming this disciple today on the spot because
Speaker 3: Jesus didn't name him doubting Thomas. People, did you say
Speaker 3: he's doubting Thomas, I say he's trusting Thomas. And I
Speaker 3: say that he went from doubting Thomas to trusting Thomas
Speaker 3: because Jesus loved him enough to show up, and not
Speaker 3: only show up, but to show him the scars where
Speaker 3: the nails had been, to remind him of the price
Speaker 3: that had been paid. And when Thomas saw the print
Speaker 3: of the nails, and when Thomas saw the wound in
Speaker 3: the side, he makes a confession that is very meticulous
Speaker 3: and we should observe it for a moment.
Speaker 1: On Easter Sunday, he says, my Lord and my God.
Speaker 1: Now you say that's not a big deal. It most
Speaker 1: certainly is.
Speaker 3: For a first century Jew to call any man Lord
Speaker 3: would have been considered blasphemy unless that man was God. Furthermore,
Speaker 3: throughout the ministry of Jesus, many people called him Lord.
Speaker 3: It was a title given of respect. And so Thomas
Speaker 3: says two things. When he sees the proof of the
Speaker 3: wounds of the one who won his salvation, he says,
Speaker 3: my Lord and my God. And let me show you
Speaker 3: why I call him trusting Thomas. John's Gospel starts and
Speaker 3: John one one says, in the beginning was.
Speaker 1: The Word, and the word was with God, and the
Speaker 1: Word was God.
Speaker 3: John's purpose in writing his gospel was to declare the
Speaker 3: truth that Jesus is God, not just a good man,
Speaker 3: the God man. Jesus is the Word of God made
Speaker 3: flesh to dwell among us.
Speaker 1: John one fourteen.
Speaker 3: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
Speaker 3: with God, and the Word was God. But it is
Speaker 3: not until John chapter twenty, when Thomas sees the wounds
Speaker 3: of the Savior, that Jesus is called God by another person.
Speaker 3: Isn't it interesting that the one who was latest to
Speaker 3: see Jesus after the Resurrection, made the greatest confession of
Speaker 3: faith in the entire Gospel of John. Tell your neighbor,
Speaker 3: don't count me out. I'm a little late, but don't
Speaker 3: count me out. I got some issues I'm still working through,
Speaker 3: but don't count me out.
Speaker 1: I've got some things that are really.
Speaker 3: Dragging me down and dragging me back right now, But
Speaker 3: don't count me out. I got a little something that
Speaker 3: I'm working out over here on the side, and I'm
Speaker 3: not exactly as holy as everybody on this row, But
Speaker 3: don't count me out. Don't judge me just because you
Speaker 3: met me as doubting Thomas. I have a twin. My
Speaker 3: twin is trusting Thomas. And after Jesus gets through with me,
Speaker 3: after Jesus gets finished doing what he's doing in my life,
Speaker 3: he who began a good work in me will be.
Speaker 1: Faithful to perform it.
Speaker 3: The truth of the matter is every Thomas has a twin,
Speaker 3: and everybody in here praising God has a twin that
Speaker 3: we might meet on Tuesday if we encounter you in
Speaker 3: a different situation.
Speaker 1: So it just depends on when I meet you that
Speaker 1: determines how I identify you. But in the beginning, was the word,
Speaker 1: and the word.
Speaker 3: Was with God, and the word was God. So God
Speaker 3: does not label me by my lowest moment. God does
Speaker 3: not label me by my doubts inside. God does not
Speaker 3: label me by what I missed out on. God does
Speaker 3: I label me by the shame of my past. He says,
Speaker 3: I heard you were talking about me, Thomas. Now I
Speaker 3: want to show you something because I was listening to
Speaker 3: you like a phone listens to you when it's not
Speaker 3: in the room. I wasn't in the room, Jesus, how
Speaker 3: did you get in? I don't really have a problem
Speaker 3: with locked doors. Hey, anytime you can walk out of
Speaker 3: a sealed tomb, a locked door is not a problem.
Speaker 3: The thing you are worried about, God's like, really you
Speaker 3: think that's gonna keep me out? Really you think that's
Speaker 3: gonna stop my plan for your life?
Speaker 1: Really you think that's going to derail the destiny that
Speaker 1: I planned for you. Eight days he.
Speaker 3: Doubted, And after eight days he made the greatest confession,
Speaker 3: My Lord and my God.
Speaker 1: Nobody has called Jesus God.
Speaker 3: Up until this moment, and it was the one who
Speaker 3: doubted him the most. Is God saving the best for
Speaker 3: last in your life? And could it be that the
Speaker 3: darkest moments reveal the deepest truths about who he is.
Speaker 3: My Lord and my God. Put that verse back up there,
Speaker 3: say it my Lord and my God. And that was
Speaker 3: Thomas's my God moment. You're my God, You're not just
Speaker 3: my GPS. That tells me where to go to feed
Speaker 3: the multitudes. Thomas had followed Jesus for three years, but
Speaker 3: this was the moment that he saw Jesus as what
Speaker 3: he always was. He said, you're not just my guide,
Speaker 3: You're my God. You're not just my guy. Jesus is
Speaker 3: my gud.
Speaker 1: No, he's not your guy. He is not just a guy.
Speaker 1: He is my God. He's not just the one that
Speaker 1: I worship and serve.
Speaker 3: When he does it the way that I wanted him
Speaker 3: to do it, when I wanted him to do it,
Speaker 3: he is my God. He is God. He's either God
Speaker 3: or he's not. And if he's God, I'm going to
Speaker 3: have to accept what he gave me and accept what
Speaker 3: he didn't give me.
Speaker 1: If he's God.
Speaker 3: Notice, however, it's not just that he calls him God.
Speaker 3: But this is really the heart of the matter, isn't
Speaker 3: And he says, my God, my God, this is personal
Speaker 3: my God. It's one thing for you to serve the
Speaker 3: God that you were told about growing up in church.
Speaker 1: But Thomas said, my God.
Speaker 3: I believe there are people that God brought here today
Speaker 3: who believe in somebody else's God but have never experienced
Speaker 3: him as your God. And this could be today your
Speaker 3: my God moment, not just where you take what you've
Speaker 3: heard about him as truth because you heard it from
Speaker 3: the other disciples, but where you say, my God. And
Speaker 3: the beautiful thing about a my God moment? Have you
Speaker 3: ever had a My God moment?
Speaker 1: By the way, I.
Speaker 3: Mean that in a couple of different ways. Some of
Speaker 3: us are going through a my God moment right now.
Speaker 3: It is the moment where you no longer can walk
Speaker 3: by sight, you must walk by faith. It is the
Speaker 3: moment where you no longer can cling to your will,
Speaker 3: but you say, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I think when Thomas said my Lord and my God,
Speaker 3: this is an echo of something that he heard Jesus
Speaker 3: say on the cross. You know, on the day that
Speaker 3: Jesus died. The Bible says something really crazy in Mark
Speaker 3: chapter fifteen. Put it on the screen, please. It says,
Speaker 3: when the sixth hour had come. This is noon, when
Speaker 3: the sixth hour had come. I'm giving you a timeframe
Speaker 3: for this for a reason. When the sixth hour had come,
Speaker 3: there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
Speaker 1: That's three pm. We've never seen that before.
Speaker 3: It doesn't get dark from noon till three pm, not
Speaker 3: on our timetable. But when Jesus was dying, the sun said,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna stop shining for a little while because he
Speaker 3: is the light. How much God do you have to
Speaker 3: be to tell the sun to take a break? How
Speaker 3: much God do you have to be that the solar
Speaker 3: system responds to your sacrifice. When they hung Jesus on
Speaker 3: the cross, it looked like he had lost control, but
Speaker 3: he was still sovereign. He was sovereign enough to tell
Speaker 3: the sun stop shining. Because I want darkness to know
Speaker 3: that it works for me. I want darkness to know that.
Speaker 1: I am God.
Speaker 3: But from this stretched physician of sovereignty on the cross
Speaker 3: making a sacrifice for our sins. I feel like preaching
Speaker 3: the crucifixion of Jesus today because my hope is in
Speaker 3: this moment. This is my God moment. This is when
Speaker 3: God sent his son who knew no sin, and he
Speaker 3: became sin that I might become the righteousness of God.
Speaker 3: This is where Jesus died as if he had sinned,
Speaker 3: so that I could live as if I never did.
Speaker 3: This is where Jesus took my place. This is my
Speaker 3: God moment, not that I came to God, but that
Speaker 3: he came down to me. This is what we got
Speaker 3: up for this morning, y'all. This is why we have
Speaker 3: a reason to dance on the grave that we once
Speaker 3: lived in, because he died on the cross that we should.
Speaker 4: Have died on.
Speaker 1: And my sin is on that cross.
Speaker 3: And everything I ever did, every mistake I ever made,
Speaker 3: past present, future, it's all up there on that cross
Speaker 3: on him. It was the ninth hour. Verse thirty four says.
Speaker 3: And when it was the ninth hour, Jesus cried with
Speaker 3: a loud voice, I gotta show you something. I've been
Speaker 3: studying this all week. I've been waiting to show you
Speaker 3: this all week. Jesus cried with a loud voice. Eli eli.
Speaker 1: Loma shaboctini.
Speaker 3: How much God do you have to be just still
Speaker 3: have the breath to scream while you are suffocating on
Speaker 3: a cross?
Speaker 1: How much God.
Speaker 3: Do you have to be, How much love does it take?
Speaker 3: How much pain would it be that you would press
Speaker 3: yourself up? The very last words in the beginning was
Speaker 3: the word, and the word was with God, and the
Speaker 3: word was God.
Speaker 1: These are the last words of the word.
Speaker 3: He said, eloi, eloi lama shabaktany, which means, my God,
Speaker 3: my God, why have you forsaken me? Lord? Are you listening?
Speaker 3: It's okay if you wonder that, because Jesus did one
Speaker 3: time too. I know it offends you that I say
Speaker 3: Jesus wondered anything because he knew everything. So why did
Speaker 3: he quote Psalm twenty two, verse one, My God, my God,
Speaker 3: why have.
Speaker 1: You forsaken me?
Speaker 3: I think we all come to moments in our life
Speaker 3: where if Jesus is asking why, we will ask why
Speaker 3: to Sometimes the best answer is I don't know. Sometimes
Speaker 3: when somebody experiences something so horrible, the only thing to
Speaker 3: tell him is I don't know why. Sometimes that's the
Speaker 3: most loving thing that you can do, is to sit
Speaker 3: with somebody in their why and say I don't know either.
Speaker 3: But isn't it even more comforting to know that Jesus
Speaker 3: will sit with you in your why? Then another human
Speaker 3: who doesn't know why, And that Jesus said, watch this, Matt,
Speaker 3: my God, why. And what I love about it that
Speaker 3: is so powerful for our lives today is that even
Speaker 3: when he was asking why, he still.
Speaker 1: Said, my God, why.
Speaker 3: So even when I don't know why, you are still
Speaker 3: my God. And God has got some of us in
Speaker 3: a moment, in a season where it's gone darken the
Speaker 3: sky at noon right now in your life. But notice
Speaker 3: that when the light left at the cross that day
Speaker 3: and the Lord listened Eli Eli lana chaboctyny, My God,
Speaker 3: my God, why.
Speaker 1: Have you forsaken me?
Speaker 3: The next verse says that many that were hearing it said, behold,
Speaker 3: he is calling Elijah. And they went to get some
Speaker 3: vinegar or some sour wine on a sponge, and they
Speaker 3: put it on a reed to give to him to drink.
Speaker 3: And they said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will
Speaker 3: come and take him down. Now, this seems strange. What
Speaker 3: does Elijah have to do with the Savior dying? And
Speaker 3: this is what I was studying all week that I
Speaker 3: was trying to figure out why were they talking about
Speaker 3: Elijah when Jesus was dying on the cross. Elijah lived
Speaker 3: eight hundred years before Jesus Elijah was a powerful prophet,
Speaker 3: no doubt. He called down fire on Mount Carmel. No
Speaker 3: doubt he was a man of God. He broughtphesied, a drought,
Speaker 3: and a famine resulted. No doubt there was power in
Speaker 3: his words. But why are they talking about Elijah while.
Speaker 1: Jesus is on the cross.
Speaker 3: Well, for one thing, el Yahoo is the name for
Speaker 3: Elijah in Hebrew, and Jesus says eloi, And so if
Speaker 3: you're shouting from a distance, it sounds very similar.
Speaker 4: Eli wait.
Speaker 3: Is he calling Eli Yahoo Eli? He's calling Elijah Eli.
Speaker 3: He's calling on Elijah to come get him down. So
Speaker 3: they devise a plan. Let's get some sour wine.
Speaker 1: If he gets dehydrated, he'll die.
Speaker 3: Let's give him a little bit of substance so he
Speaker 3: can make it a little bit longer. And let's see
Speaker 3: watch this, Let's see whether Elijah will come to take
Speaker 3: him down. Verse thirty seven. And Jesus uttered a loud
Speaker 3: cry and breathe his last So to the onlookers that
Speaker 3: day hear me good. It looked like that God the
Speaker 3: Father did not listen to Jesus. But if you read
Speaker 3: the next verse, the Bible says that when he screamed
Speaker 3: and breathed his life. Next verse, the curtain of the
Speaker 3: temple was torn into But watch this from top to bottom.
Speaker 3: Why not from bottom to top, because that would mean
Speaker 3: a person did it. You know. The devil tried to
Speaker 3: tell me this message was too deep for Easter. But
Speaker 3: I told the devil, there's somebody here who needs to
Speaker 3: have a My God moment this Easter in church. There
Speaker 3: is somebody here who needs God to do something, not
Speaker 3: from bottom to top.
Speaker 1: I need God to.
Speaker 3: Do something from top to bottom. I don't need a
Speaker 3: person to do this. A person can't do this. If
Speaker 3: a person could have done it, it would be done
Speaker 3: by now.
Speaker 4: But I need a God who can take the curtain
Speaker 4: in the temple that's separate Holy God from Unholy Man.
Speaker 3: And tear the curtain from top to bottom. So let
Speaker 3: me tell you why I'm in his presence today because
Speaker 3: my God.
Speaker 1: Hurt me when I.
Speaker 3: Called him and he tore the veil from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: Say that he tore the veil from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: What is the veil?
Speaker 3: Its separated the Holy of Holies from the next place
Speaker 3: in the temple, and nobody could go in but Jesus.
Speaker 3: When he was dying was going in why because he
Speaker 3: was representing you to the Father, and he said, Father,
Speaker 3: don't hold.
Speaker 1: It against them, forgive them. They know not what they do.
Speaker 3: This is the gospel, This is the good news. This
Speaker 3: is the moment everything changed. And at the moment that
Speaker 3: it like God.
Speaker 1: Didn't answer the veil Toeur.
Speaker 3: At the moment it looks like nothing is happening, the
Speaker 3: veil tears at the moment when it looks like it's
Speaker 3: getting worse in your life. Don't walk away now, Thomas.
Speaker 3: You need to come back. Thomas, you need to get here. Thomas.
Speaker 3: Jesus might be coming back. Jesus might be coming back.
Speaker 3: I don't want you to miss it this time, Thomas,
Speaker 3: Jesus might come back. The wounded one has risen with
Speaker 3: all power in his hands. And I don't want you
Speaker 3: to miss this. This might be my God moment.
Speaker 1: This might be The Spirit of the Lord is.
Speaker 3: In this place today. The spirit of the Lord is
Speaker 3: in your living room today. The spirit of the Lord
Speaker 3: is in your recovery meeting today. The spirit of the
Speaker 3: Lord is with you right now, laying there in your bed,
Speaker 3: couldn't even find the strength to get up. You miss church,
Speaker 3: But Church didn't miss you, baby, God doesn't miss this
Speaker 3: is your God moment. As a matter of fact, Jesus
Speaker 3: wasn't calling on Elijah because Elijah had called on Jesus.
Speaker 3: The very first resurrection recorded in the Bible was in
Speaker 3: One Kings seventeen. The Lord sent Elijah to stay with
Speaker 3: a widow or a woman at Zaraphath who had a
Speaker 3: son who was about to die from starvation because of
Speaker 3: the famine that Elijah had prophesied. And as he was
Speaker 3: there at that widow's house, something or that woman's house,
Speaker 3: something very terrible happened. Her son died. The woman brought
Speaker 3: the son to Elijah, and Elijah said, what am I
Speaker 3: going to do about this? Now? I've already told you
Speaker 3: about Thomisus my God moment. I told you about Jesus,
Speaker 3: my God moment. But Elijah had on my God moment too.
Speaker 3: The Bible says in First Kings, chapter seventeen, verse seventeen,
Speaker 3: the son of the woman became ill, and his illness
Speaker 3: was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
Speaker 3: Watch how beautiful the Bible lines it up. There was
Speaker 3: no breath left in Jesus. There was no breath left
Speaker 3: in this woman's son.
Speaker 1: This is the.
Speaker 3: First recorded resurrection in the Bible. Give me verse eighteen.
Speaker 3: And she said to Elijah, what have you against me,
Speaker 3: Oh man of God, You have come to bring my
Speaker 3: sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son. See,
Speaker 3: she thought, like so many of us mistakenly think that
Speaker 3: when God comes into your life, it's to punish you.
Speaker 1: That's what she thought. She didn't know God. But she
Speaker 1: was about to have her very own God moment, because
Speaker 1: watch what Elijah did. He said to her, give me
Speaker 1: your son.
Speaker 3: And he took him from her arms and carry him
Speaker 3: into the upper chamber, where he lodged, and laid him
Speaker 3: on his own bed verse twenty.
Speaker 1: And he cried to the Lord, say it out loud,
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, my God.
Speaker 3: It's the first time Elijah says it this way in
Speaker 3: all of scripture. Every time you see Elijah prophesying, he's
Speaker 3: prophesying about the Lord God. But this time he says,
Speaker 3: oh Lord, my God, because he's confused about it, because
Speaker 3: he doesn't know what to do about it, because it's.
Speaker 1: Personal this time. Are you standing over.
Speaker 3: A situation today that is too big for you? Are
Speaker 3: you standing over something today that is impossible for you.
Speaker 1: This is your my God moment.
Speaker 3: This is your moment to say, my God, this is
Speaker 3: not something I caused or my God, it is my fault.
Speaker 3: But I need you now. God, I missed it, but
Speaker 3: I need you now. Oh Lord, my God.
Speaker 1: Have you brought a lamity upon the widow.
Speaker 3: With whom I sojourn by killing her son? And then
Speaker 3: he stretched himself. I don't know about y'all, but when
Speaker 3: I saw that, I saw Jesus. He stretched himself upon
Speaker 3: the child three times.
Speaker 1: I don't know about y'all.
Speaker 3: But when I saw three times, I heard three days.
Speaker 1: He stretched himself. He stretched himself.
Speaker 3: I'm not confident in the fact that I can do it.
Speaker 3: This is my God moment. I can't do this by myself.
Speaker 3: I can't accomplish this by myself. I can't save myself.
Speaker 3: But he stretched himself. He stretched his arms, he stretched
Speaker 3: his love, he stretched his compassion. He flung open the
Speaker 3: doors of salvation. He stretched himself three times and cried
Speaker 3: to the Lord, Oh Lord, my God, O Lord, my God,
Speaker 3: O Lord, my God, let this child's life come into
Speaker 3: him again. And the Lord listened. The Lord listened to
Speaker 3: the voice of Elijah, and the Lord listened to the
Speaker 3: voice of Jesus, and the veil was torn, and the
Speaker 3: Lord listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life
Speaker 3: of the child came in to him again, and he
Speaker 3: revived and watched verse twenty three. And Elijah took the
Speaker 3: child and brought him down from the upper chamber into
Speaker 3: the house and delivered him to his mother, and acted
Speaker 3: like he had confidence the whole time, and acted like
Speaker 3: he didn't just have a complete panic attack on that bed,
Speaker 3: and acted like he wasn't just snotting and slobborn and
Speaker 3: wondering if God was going to do it too.
Speaker 1: And said, see, your son lives.
Speaker 3: And I realized that the Gospel is in this passage
Speaker 3: because Elijah brought a son down who was alive again,
Speaker 3: and God raised a son up alive again. And so
Speaker 3: when Elijah was calling on my God, he was calling
Speaker 3: on Jesus, who is resurrection. So when they said Jesus
Speaker 3: is calling on Elijah, they had it backwards. Jesus doesn't
Speaker 3: call on Elijah. Elijah calls on Jesus. And I want
Speaker 3: to tell you something today. Some of you, the devil
Speaker 3: has it backwards in your life. Jesus does not bow
Speaker 3: to sin sin bows to Jesus. Death does not conquer Jesus.
Speaker 3: Jesus conquers death. Elijah brought down a son. God raised
Speaker 3: up a son. This is my God moment. So for
Speaker 3: everybody in here today who is dead in your transgression
Speaker 3: and sin, for everybody in here today who is at
Speaker 3: the dead end of your own hope or your own logic,
Speaker 3: or your own conclusions. And you say, like Thomas, I'll
Speaker 3: never believe. I believe God brought you here because this
Speaker 3: is your my God moment. This is your moment to
Speaker 3: give it over to God. It's his situation, it's his battle,
Speaker 3: it's his fight. You're his child. That is his assignment,
Speaker 3: that is his burden to carry. He paid the price
Speaker 3: for those sins. Don't you carry another day what God
Speaker 3: gave his son to remove from your life. This is
Speaker 3: God's moment in your life. For the Bible says that
Speaker 3: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,
Speaker 3: and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead,
Speaker 3: you will be saved. This is your my God moment.
Speaker 3: You've seen what you can do without him. Now I
Speaker 3: want you to see what He can do with you.
Speaker 3: Thomas went from doubting Thomas to trusting Thomas without even
Speaker 3: having to touch Jesus's poems. And I believe that Jesus
Speaker 3: has touched somebody here today, watching at a campus, watching online,
Speaker 3: even watching me in a prison, even watching me in
Speaker 3: a hospital room, watching me at the back row of Valentine.
Speaker 1: The Lord has touched you today.
Speaker 3: And this is your my God moment where he becomes
Speaker 3: personal to you, where it becomes real to you. It's
Speaker 3: a pivotal moment for you. Man, it's a pivotal moment
Speaker 3: for you. I know you're unsure, but you showed up
Speaker 3: and so does he. Everyone standing, no one moving.
Speaker 1: What a moment.
Speaker 3: For the risen Lord who is in this place today.
Speaker 3: Thomas wasn't the last one that he showed.
Speaker 1: Up to talk to. He's here to talk to you too.
Speaker 1: Will you bow your head and close your eyes?
Speaker 3: How good is God that he would listen and hear
Speaker 3: the cry of a sinner, Lord, be merciful. Unto me,
Speaker 3: the resurrection stands as evidence in our lives. Nothing is
Speaker 3: too far gone for God. And I just kept hearing
Speaker 3: the Lord speak to me when I was preparing. There's
Speaker 3: somebody who's saying it's too late. It's too late for me.
Speaker 3: I wasted it. It's too late for me. If it
Speaker 3: wasn't too late for Thomas, it's not too late for you.
Speaker 3: If it wasn't too late for that son who died
Speaker 3: in One King seventeen, it's not too.
Speaker 1: Late for you. Resurrection is what God does. It's what
Speaker 1: he does.
Speaker 3: And the one who was last to see him is
Speaker 3: the one who made the greatest confession about him. My God,
Speaker 3: my God. And he's not just my God, He's not
Speaker 3: just the God of Thomas. He wants to be your
Speaker 3: God too. And the only job that you have is
Speaker 3: to believe that God raised him from the dead. So
Speaker 3: right now, with your head bow and your eyes closed,
Speaker 3: in the holiness of this moment, I'm going to lead
Speaker 3: you in a prayer that you can pray to Jesus.
Speaker 3: This is your my God, moment, My God, my God.
Speaker 3: Why have you forsaken me? But Jesus was forsaken so
Speaker 3: that you would never have to be That's why the
Speaker 3: veil was torn. My God, My God, have mercy on me,
Speaker 3: my God, if you can save me. Here I am,
Speaker 3: and he can, and he will. Whoever calls on the
Speaker 3: name of the Lord will be saved. So right now,
Speaker 3: at every location and watching online, we're going to pray
Speaker 3: a prayer out loud as a church family for the
Speaker 3: benefit of those who are coming to God for the
Speaker 3: first time or coming back to God.
Speaker 1: This is your God moment. Do not miss it.
Speaker 3: He brought you here in your breathing. Do not miss it.
Speaker 3: He died for you. Don't miss Repeat after me, Heavenly Father.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say it again. Say it with your heart,
Speaker 3: Heavenly Father. Today is my day of salvation. I am
Speaker 3: a sinner in need of a savior. And I believe
Speaker 3: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the
Speaker 3: Savior of the world.
Speaker 1: And today I make.
Speaker 3: Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died
Speaker 3: that I would be forgiven and rose again to give
Speaker 3: me life. I receive this new life. This is my
Speaker 3: new beginning. I am a child of God. On three
Speaker 3: shoots your hand up. If you prayed that one, two, three,
Speaker 3: say this is my God moment. This is my God moment,
Speaker 3: from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: This is the.
Speaker 3: Moment where God breaks through. This is the moment where
Speaker 3: grace breaks through. This is the moment where shame falls off.
Speaker 3: This is the moment where darkness flees. This is the
Speaker 3: moment that the light comes. This is the moment I'm
Speaker 3: born again. This is the moment I received forgiveness.
Speaker 1: This is the moment my sins are rolled away. Come on,
Speaker 1: let's have a moment of praise today.
Speaker 3: For the great things God has done in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.