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.
Speaker 3: Is there anybody that came to lift up the name
Speaker 3: of Jesus on Palm Sunday? I'm trying to see where
Speaker 3: God's been moving? Has been moving in your life?
Speaker 1: Over here? What about right here? Has He been moving
Speaker 1: in your life? He's been showing up this week? What
Speaker 1: about on this side?
Speaker 3: Has God shown up in your life this week?
Speaker 1: My God?
Speaker 3: Hallelujah, Thank you Jesus up. We haven't met before. My
Speaker 3: name is set I'm the pastor at our University City
Speaker 3: campus and I I'm so honored to be able to
Speaker 3: preach on Palm Sunday to our church. I want to
Speaker 3: take this moment and welcome all of our campuses and
Speaker 3: our e fam all around the world. I want to
Speaker 3: give a special shout out to Elevation Winsday Salem just
Speaker 3: celebrated their eight year anniversary. God.
Speaker 1: But I want to pray for us since.
Speaker 3: I believe that God has a word that he wants
Speaker 3: to speak to you today, he open up your hands
Speaker 3: like this a posture, just ready to receive whatever it
Speaker 3: is God wants to speak to you. Jesus, we come
Speaker 3: to you saying thank you, Thank you for being a
Speaker 3: good God of faithful God. God, we trust you. We
Speaker 3: pray right now in the mighty Name of Jesus, that
Speaker 3: you would have your way today, you would do what
Speaker 3: you want to do.
Speaker 1: And God, let us leave this place changed.
Speaker 3: Because of your love, changed because of your grace. God,
Speaker 3: let our life be evidence that we had an encounter
Speaker 3: with you. We love you, Jesus, We thank you, and
Speaker 3: it's in the mighty mighty Name of Jesus. Amen Amen, Amen, Amen. Well,
Speaker 3: there's two quick things that I need to do before
Speaker 3: we open up God's word, if you can remain standing.
Speaker 3: First thing is is next Sunday is Easter Sunday, and
Speaker 3: I want to make sure that you have the details.
Speaker 3: On Good Friday, we're actually going to be taking communion
Speaker 3: together as a church, and so Friday at six point
Speaker 3: thirty we have it online and at our campuses as
Speaker 3: well as on Sunday we have Easter happening across our
Speaker 3: campuses and online. Go to Easter at elevation dot com
Speaker 3: to be able to see all of the details. The
Speaker 3: second thing that I have to do is make sure
Speaker 3: we take a moment and thank God for our pastors,
Speaker 3: Pastor Steven and Holly.
Speaker 1: Can we thank God for the gifts now? Now?
Speaker 3: If I give you a good gift and you go
Speaker 3: crazy about it, it makes me want to give you more.
Speaker 3: So how good of a gift do we have it
Speaker 3: with the pastors that God has given to us? The
Speaker 3: pastor Steven in Holly. As I was preparing to preach today,
Speaker 3: I remember the first time that pastor asked me to
Speaker 3: preach to our church, and he came up to me
Speaker 3: and he could tell that I was overwhelmed, nervous and
Speaker 3: could not understand why he would trust me to be
Speaker 3: able to stand on this stage. And he looked at
Speaker 3: me and he said, shaid, I want you to know
Speaker 3: I could have anybody come and preach. You know, anybody
Speaker 3: would love to come and have a moment to be
Speaker 3: a part of this move of God.
Speaker 1: But I chose you, and I believe in you.
Speaker 3: I'm grateful for to have a pastor that believes in me.
Speaker 3: And so if my past called me and gave me
Speaker 3: this opportunity, he believes in me.
Speaker 1: And I know God gave me a word. I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to preach. Now, are you ready to hear
Speaker 1: a word? Okay, we're gonna be.
Speaker 3: In John chapter twenty, starting at verse one, you'll see
Speaker 3: the scriptures on the screens. Here's what it says. John
Speaker 3: Chapter twenty, Verse one. It says, early on the first
Speaker 3: day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary
Speaker 3: Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone
Speaker 3: had been removed from the entrance. So she came running
Speaker 3: to Simon, Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved.
Speaker 3: Just to notate John is writing this about himself, okay,
Speaker 3: And this.
Speaker 1: Is what she says.
Speaker 3: She says, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb,
Speaker 3: and we don't know where they have put him.
Speaker 1: So Peter and the.
Speaker 3: Other disciple, the one that Jesus loved, they started running
Speaker 3: for the tomb.
Speaker 1: Watch this.
Speaker 3: Both were running, but the other disciple out ran Peter.
Speaker 3: So not only is John saying I'm the one that
Speaker 3: Jesus loves, he wanted you to know that I'm faster
Speaker 3: than Peter.
Speaker 1: Peter reached the tomb.
Speaker 3: Both were running in the other disciple out ran Peter
Speaker 3: and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked
Speaker 3: in at the tomb the strips of linen lying there,
Speaker 3: but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along
Speaker 3: behind him and went straight into the tomb.
Speaker 1: He saw the strips of linen.
Speaker 3: Lying there, as well as a cloth that had been
Speaker 3: wrapped around Jesus's head. The cloth was still lying in
Speaker 3: its place, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple,
Speaker 3: who had reached the tombe first, also with inside he
Speaker 3: saw and believed. The title of my message today is
Speaker 3: follow the evidence.
Speaker 1: Follow the evidence.
Speaker 3: On your way to your see introduce yourself to your
Speaker 3: neighbor and tell him hello, my name, and then say
Speaker 3: I'm the one that Jesus loves.
Speaker 1: Oh he loves you too. Someone's like, oh he loves
Speaker 1: you too.
Speaker 3: To start my message, I have a little illustration just
Speaker 3: to be able to set the direction for this message.
Speaker 3: You know, you know you have John, you know making
Speaker 3: these these claims. I'm the one that Jesus loves. And
Speaker 3: then he says, I'm faster than Peter and back then
Speaker 3: we didn't have cell phones.
Speaker 1: Oh there's my mic.
Speaker 3: Go ahead and I need some help. Here we go,
Speaker 3: Thank you, Give God praise for our teams. You're gonna
Speaker 3: take it off. We go and take it off.
Speaker 1: You're good. So you have these let me give them
Speaker 1: a second and give them a second.
Speaker 4: Uh, give God, praise for m give God phrase form.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So you have these outlandish claims that people make sometimes
Speaker 3: and uh, you're like, again, there's no video, you know,
Speaker 3: for us to go back and see that that John
Speaker 3: actually beat Peter in a race, and so he's not
Speaker 3: here to defend himself, and so you have these moments
Speaker 3: where you're like, hey, show me, show me the evidence. Well,
Speaker 3: this week I got inspired by the masters that that
Speaker 3: that's been on any any golfers in the room, or that's.
Speaker 1: Been keeping up.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, okay, okay. Where you're gonna you're gonna like this.
Speaker 3: You're gonna like this, shut up. Here is a video
Speaker 3: of me making a putt on a whole eighteen four
Speaker 3: par and uh, you know, we were playing best ball,
Speaker 3: so it was a big, big big deal. Go ahead
Speaker 3: and put it up on the screens, just really quick
Speaker 3: We're gonna have to show it, probably twice so you
Speaker 3: can see it.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, put it up. Put it up.
Speaker 3: Now, the golfers, you can see you're paying attention that
Speaker 3: there was a little slim. I had to curve it
Speaker 3: a little bit. Playing one more time. This is just
Speaker 3: playing one more time, one more time, one more time,
Speaker 3: one more time. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Y'all didn't know I could preach the gospel and play golf.
Speaker 1: You didn't. You didn't. You didn't know. Let me let me,
Speaker 1: let me, let me be honest with you.
Speaker 3: This was actually the first and last time that I've
Speaker 3: ever played golf. The clothes that I had on all
Speaker 3: were purchased forty eight hours before tea tan the hat,
Speaker 3: the polo, the pants, and the golf shoes. The only
Speaker 3: thing that we know for sure is that I came
Speaker 3: home smelling like I had been outside, like the grass
Speaker 3: was was permeating our house.
Speaker 1: The clubs that I used were borrowed.
Speaker 3: There's something else we read about in the text that
Speaker 3: was borrowed. Who knows that Jesus was put into a
Speaker 3: borrow tone. You see, that's evidence that he was going
Speaker 3: to be raised from the dead. Because he made the
Speaker 3: decision to borrow the tone because he wasn't gonna stay
Speaker 3: there bury long. Is anybody came to have church on
Speaker 3: a Sunday morning. So you started to look at this
Speaker 3: video and some of you were like, oh, I can see.
Speaker 1: He could play golf.
Speaker 3: But that was compelling evidence of my golfing ability, but
Speaker 3: it wasn't conclusive. There's a difference. When I say follow
Speaker 3: the evidence. All of us are following something. You know,
Speaker 3: you can scroll on social media. You had a lot
Speaker 3: of people and things that you're following. But today God
Speaker 3: told me to tell you that you need to make
Speaker 3: sure you're not just following compelling evidence, but you're following
Speaker 3: conclusive evidence.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: All you know is is I went out and play.
Speaker 3: That was one of two good hits the whole eighteen.
Speaker 3: They were so excited because I finally did.
Speaker 1: Something good and y'all are here ready to sign me
Speaker 1: up for the Masters.
Speaker 3: I wonder in your life, what compelling evidence is leading
Speaker 3: you to tell a story that's that's not true.
Speaker 1: I have some examples for you.
Speaker 3: I was thinking that, you know, many of us battle
Speaker 3: and struggle with comparison.
Speaker 1: That will watch others and we'll.
Speaker 3: Scroll on social media and God, give me a quick
Speaker 3: I'm gonna give you something to write down very fast.
Speaker 1: Comparison is when you collect.
Speaker 3: Evidence of someone else's life to tell a story about
Speaker 3: your own life.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that one more time.
Speaker 3: Comparison is when you collect evidence about someone else's life
Speaker 3: to tell a story about your own life.
Speaker 1: And so you'll do things like this. You just got
Speaker 1: a job.
Speaker 3: You've been working it for six months and you love it.
Speaker 3: You get up every morning you go, you thank God
Speaker 3: for that. You were praying for this job. And then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, somebody on your team gets an
Speaker 3: opportunity or gets promoted, and all of a sudden start.
Speaker 1: Do they see me? The organization must.
Speaker 3: Not value me any more. You don't know the details.
Speaker 3: It might have even been a lateral move. You don't
Speaker 3: see their paycheck.
Speaker 1: But you have.
Speaker 3: Gathered collected evidence from someone else's life to tell a
Speaker 3: story about your own. There's a wife that just this week,
Speaker 3: you were scrolling on social media and you saw someone
Speaker 3: else's husband sent their wife some flowers and they posted
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 1: Look at what my book got mean?
Speaker 3: You and your husband, y'all been having a good time,
Speaker 3: been going on dates.
Speaker 1: Husband's working hard.
Speaker 3: Everything's been good, but one story got you mad. Husband
Speaker 3: comes home and he's like, hey, what's up baby? You
Speaker 3: rolling your eyes?
Speaker 1: What's going on? I thought everything was okay.
Speaker 3: Well he bought his wife some flowers. Why won't we
Speaker 3: buy me some flowers? You don't even like flowers. I
Speaker 3: just want to thank God for my wife. My wife
Speaker 3: don't like flowers. She says, chocolate is her love language.
Speaker 3: Bring me a double fudged chocolate cake. The flowers will die.
Speaker 3: Bring me something that will satisfy my sweet to show
Speaker 3: up with some re season, some kit cats.
Speaker 1: I'm telling my wife, thank you, baby.
Speaker 3: But you mad because you allowed yourself to collect evidence
Speaker 3: from someone else's life to tell a story about your own.
Speaker 3: Even when we start to look at a palm Sunday,
Speaker 3: we look at palm Sunday and you have Jesus riding
Speaker 3: into Jerusalem on a donkey, and you.
Speaker 1: See all of these people applauding.
Speaker 3: You see they were there because they just heard about
Speaker 3: about Jesus raising Lazarus from the day, so they started to.
Speaker 1: Follow him and they're celebrating him. They're like o Zenna.
Speaker 3: They're waving these palm branches but where were those people
Speaker 3: when they begin to yell crucify him?
Speaker 1: Where did they go?
Speaker 3: It led me to believe that that maybe maybe people's
Speaker 3: praise and celebration isn't conclusive evidence of their heart and
Speaker 3: how good of a.
Speaker 1: Friend they will be.
Speaker 3: I want to know if you're gonna show up when
Speaker 3: all hell breaks loof in my life.
Speaker 1: I want to know if you're.
Speaker 3: Gonna show up when I'm struggling, when I lost the
Speaker 3: job and I can't sleep and it's keeping me up
Speaker 3: all night. I want to know that's more conclusive of
Speaker 3: the type of friend you want in your life. You
Speaker 3: see Palm Sunday them celebrating Jesus. It wasn't conclusive evidence
Speaker 3: about their hearts.
Speaker 1: What it was was Jesus fulfilling a prophecy. That's what
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 3: For many of you have come today and the prayer
Speaker 3: that was on your heart was I need some proof.
Speaker 3: I need some proof that God is real. I need
Speaker 3: some proof that he hadn't forgot about me. I need
Speaker 3: some proof. I need some evidence today and you've been
Speaker 3: scrolling on social media and some people have started.
Speaker 1: To build a TikTok and instagram.
Speaker 3: Theology about the church, about the Bride of Christ. But
Speaker 3: have you shown up to one of our campuses.
Speaker 1: Have you showed up to a pop up?
Speaker 3: Have you showed up and seen people give hugs the people.
Speaker 1: That desperately needed to be encouraged.
Speaker 3: Have you showed up and checked your kids and the
Speaker 3: kids and had them teach you about Jesus. Can we
Speaker 3: take a moment and thank God for the Bride of Christ.
Speaker 1: I love my church.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying we're perfect, but my church is praying.
Speaker 1: For some people. My church is serving in some people's lives.
Speaker 3: My church shows up when disaster strikes. Don't let what
Speaker 3: Instagram told you fool you.
Speaker 1: The church is.
Speaker 3: Alive, God is moving, peace, faithful, Thank you Lord. So
Speaker 3: let's get back to the text. What true my attention
Speaker 3: was is that you see Mary share this story. She
Speaker 3: says to the disciples. She says, they took my savior
Speaker 3: and I don't know where he is.
Speaker 1: They took my savior and we don't know where he is.
Speaker 3: We wouldn't be here today if that was true. We
Speaker 3: didn't come to worship, but did God. We came to
Speaker 3: lift up a risen savior. So I was like, why
Speaker 3: would she go and tell this story? Without gathering evidence
Speaker 3: to corroborate her story.
Speaker 1: And there was two mistakes.
Speaker 3: There's two mistakes, two mistakes that we see Mary makes
Speaker 3: in this text.
Speaker 1: Go to verse one, Verse one, verse one. Watch this.
Speaker 3: It says, early on the first day of the week,
Speaker 3: while it was still dark, that spoke to me. Write
Speaker 3: this down. Beware of the evidence you find in the dark.
Speaker 3: You see, it wasn't just dark because the.
Speaker 1: Sun hadn't came up yet.
Speaker 3: It wasn't just dark outside, it was dark inside.
Speaker 1: Remember, they just lost their friend. They just saw.
Speaker 3: Jesus brutally beaten and hung up on a cross.
Speaker 1: They're grieving.
Speaker 3: God gave me this point for somebody who walked in
Speaker 3: today and the sun still hadn't came up yet.
Speaker 1: I don't know what.
Speaker 3: You're walking through today, but God told me to tell you,
Speaker 3: beware of the evidence you find in the dark. You
Speaker 3: can't see well when the lights.
Speaker 1: Aren't turned on.
Speaker 3: There's some evidence that will start to misconstrue the story
Speaker 3: that God is trying to bring together. Just about six
Speaker 3: weeks ago, my oldest son I twin boys. When I
Speaker 3: say oldest, he's oldest by six six minutes. He wants
Speaker 3: me everybody to know I'm the oldest. I'm the oldest.
Speaker 3: I'm the oldest. I can corroborate his story if he
Speaker 3: tells you the oldest, he's the oldest.
Speaker 1: Twin.
Speaker 3: He was in gym playing and got pushed too hard
Speaker 3: playing around and he fell into his shoulder and broke
Speaker 3: his collar bone. And my son's they played basketball, they're athletes,
Speaker 3: and you know, a couple of days in I started
Speaker 3: to look at my son's eyes and I could tell
Speaker 3: that the enemy was trying to use this to dim
Speaker 3: his light. He was trying to use this. He was
Speaker 3: trying to use this to me can think that that
Speaker 3: maybe I'm gonna fall behind and I'm not gonna be
Speaker 3: good enough to be able to play again, or the
Speaker 3: pain of what he was feeling that it was becoming
Speaker 3: so much. There's things that he wants to do he
Speaker 3: can't do. We went on a spring break trip and
Speaker 3: he can't get out into the ocean, and he said
Speaker 3: saying it was starting to get darkened. I'm trying my
Speaker 3: best to encourage him, like, hey, son's son, It's okay
Speaker 3: for you to be mad, it's okay for you to
Speaker 3: be frustrated, hey, but but I want you to know
Speaker 3: that God's hand is on your life, that God could
Speaker 3: use this too. There's still hope. There's still hope. They're
Speaker 3: still Let's not listen to that voice that's telling you
Speaker 3: that it's over.
Speaker 1: Let's not listen to that voice that's telling you.
Speaker 3: I'm using my son as an example for God to
Speaker 3: speak to you about yours.
Speaker 1: How about this. Don't let what's broken blind you.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't know what it is in your life,
Speaker 3: but don't let what's broken blind you. We went to
Speaker 3: the doctor, and our doctor that's taken care of my son,
Speaker 3: he comes to the church and he's encouraging my son.
Speaker 3: And when we're getting done, he looks at my son
Speaker 3: and he starts to tell him. He said, God can
Speaker 3: use this too. He was trying to let him know.
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 3: He told my son and he said, most athletes that
Speaker 3: actually make it to the college level, they gained the
Speaker 3: mental toughness to be able to do what they do
Speaker 3: because they made it through that obstacle. They came over
Speaker 3: an injury. And at the end of his speak, he
Speaker 3: put his hand on my side.
Speaker 1: He said, would you, magnif I prayed for you. See,
Speaker 1: he's ministering to my son.
Speaker 3: But he didn't know that he was ministering to me
Speaker 3: in that moment because I was praying, I don't know
Speaker 3: anything about broken bones.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I'm like God, I need you to do something. And
Speaker 3: it was a moment for God to just start to
Speaker 3: turn the lights on. Now here's the next thing that
Speaker 3: that Mary did wrong, It says verse two, verse two.
Speaker 3: So she came running to Simon, Peter and the other disciple,
Speaker 3: I know, the one that Jesus loved.
Speaker 1: Come on, John, did you catch it? She didn't go in.
Speaker 3: Beware of the evidence you find in the dark, and
Speaker 3: beware of the evidence you find at a distance. She
Speaker 3: didn't even go into the tube. She saw that the
Speaker 3: stone was rolled away, immediately ran back and told the
Speaker 3: disciples they've taken Jesus and we.
Speaker 1: Don't know where they put him. And she didn't even
Speaker 1: go in.
Speaker 3: You see, when my son broke his collar bone, you know,
Speaker 3: he was hurting at the school and the nurse calls
Speaker 3: and she says, hey, listen, he's in pain. We tried
Speaker 3: to give it a few minutes, but I think you're
Speaker 3: gonna need to take him into the doctor to be
Speaker 3: able to see what actually's going on? What has been
Speaker 3: misdiagnosed in your life because the evidence that you you gathered,
Speaker 3: you gathered.
Speaker 1: At a distance.
Speaker 3: You didn't get close enough to see exactly what was
Speaker 3: going on. You're calling things that God has blessed, you're
Speaker 3: calling them broken. This might be somebody you just now
Speaker 3: are going through a breakup and you walked in heartbroken today.
Speaker 3: God told me to tell you stop for a moment,
Speaker 3: just to tell you that's a blessing. He wasn't the
Speaker 3: one you just dodged the bullet. I don't know who
Speaker 3: that is for. That's not in my notes. But then
Speaker 3: there's somebody else in here that's like, hey, you've had
Speaker 3: your eye on a girl since you came in, and
Speaker 3: you've been watching, and here's the story you're telling you.
Speaker 3: You're at a distance, and you're like, there's no way,
Speaker 3: there's no way. She talked to someone like me. There's
Speaker 3: no way, there's no way, there's no way. And she's sitting,
Speaker 3: she's sitting, She's beautiful, but she's sitting. She's like, there's
Speaker 3: no way. Then anybody will love me. Hey, hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 3: young man, you'll never know if you don't go on
Speaker 3: in and have a conversation.
Speaker 1: You'll never know.
Speaker 3: You'll never know if you'll get the job you called yourself.
Speaker 3: You're standing at a distance. I'm not qualified for that job.
Speaker 3: Put the application in. Put the application in. I wonder
Speaker 3: how much pain my son would have been in if
Speaker 3: we wouldn't have gone into the doctor to actually get
Speaker 3: an accurate diagnosis of what's going on. Beware of the
Speaker 3: evidence you find in the dark. Beware of the evidence
Speaker 3: you find at a distance. I thank god, I thank
Speaker 3: god that Peter and John that they they didn't just
Speaker 3: stare at the tomb that was rolled over, the stone
Speaker 3: that was rolled away, but they actually got closer to investigate.
Speaker 3: And so here's what I want want to do. Here's
Speaker 3: what I'm doing. I need somebody that has a Bible.
Speaker 3: Somebody has a Bible. There you go, Okay, the John
Speaker 3: chapter twenty, John chapter twenty, what's the title of this section?
Speaker 1: When you go to John chapter twenty, what's the title?
Speaker 1: It says? The empty tomb, says the empty tomb? Right now.
Speaker 3: Our pastor has taught us that a lot of times
Speaker 3: we don't realize that these titles and things they were
Speaker 3: put on after the scriptures were written. And as I
Speaker 3: was reading. God blessed me because I realized that that
Speaker 3: just wasn't true. Jesus did rise from the dead, but
Speaker 3: that tune wasn't empty.
Speaker 1: The tune wasn't empty. It was full of evidence.
Speaker 3: And so what I want to do is I want
Speaker 3: to I want to preach for the rest of my
Speaker 3: time to be able to show you what was left
Speaker 3: in that.
Speaker 1: Tomb that we can follow. I believe it be compelling.
Speaker 3: I believe that you'll get to the point we have
Speaker 3: conclusive evidence that God hadn't forgot about you, that you're
Speaker 3: not alone in this, that God has been with you.
Speaker 1: And so let's let's let's get into it. So let's
Speaker 1: go to verse Let's go to verse three.
Speaker 3: So so Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.
Speaker 3: Both were running, and John was faster. Okay, we got
Speaker 3: it John.
Speaker 1: Verse five. John gets there.
Speaker 3: He doesn't go in, but he bends over and he
Speaker 3: looks in and he sees the strips of linen lying there.
Speaker 3: And and then at verse six, Simon Peter came along
Speaker 3: behind him. He went straight into the tomb, and he
Speaker 3: saw the strips of linen, and.
Speaker 1: He sees this cloth.
Speaker 3: Okay, So, so Mary didn't go in, but what she
Speaker 3: sees is that the stone had been rolled away. So
Speaker 3: here I want to give you exhibit A exhibit A
Speaker 3: put up on a streen.
Speaker 1: This is the stone.
Speaker 3: This would have This would have been what a Jewish
Speaker 3: tomb would have looked like where Jesus would have been buried.
Speaker 3: They having a side of a mountain. They've they've carved
Speaker 3: out this hole and they would place bodies in there
Speaker 3: after they've been wrapped in this this stone that's rolled away,
Speaker 3: it weighs over a ton.
Speaker 1: It would have taken it would have taken.
Speaker 3: About four to five men to be able to roll
Speaker 3: this stone in and out of place.
Speaker 1: And so I put my you know, my detective.
Speaker 3: Jacket on today and I said, if I was there
Speaker 3: and I had to question it, who did it?
Speaker 1: Who rolled the stone away? You know what I did.
Speaker 1: I would have started dusting for fingerprints. I just start
Speaker 1: dusting for fingerprints. Who did it? Who rolled this stone away?
Speaker 3: I'd been dusting it and I'd have saw some of
Speaker 3: the men that rolled it in and out of place.
Speaker 3: I saw these these men, and then I would have
Speaker 3: started to uncover some fingerprints that looked a little different.
Speaker 1: That that's stood out.
Speaker 3: They were different than anything else that I'd seen before.
Speaker 3: And then you know, John doesn't show us who rolled
Speaker 3: the stone away, but when you go to Matthew.
Speaker 1: You see who does.
Speaker 3: Go to Matthew, Chapter twenty eight, verse two, here's what
Speaker 3: it says. It says there were a violent earthquake, for
Speaker 3: the Angel of the Lord came down from heaven and
Speaker 3: going to the tomb, rolled back.
Speaker 1: The stone and set on it.
Speaker 3: What I'm trying to show you is, as I begin
Speaker 3: to dust for fingerprints, I start to see that there's
Speaker 3: some fingerprints that don't look human.
Speaker 1: I start to see that.
Speaker 3: This stone could have only been rolled away by someone's
Speaker 3: hand that came down from heaven. What I'm slowing down
Speaker 3: to say is sometimes you gotta dust for fingerprints in
Speaker 3: your life and see God's hand was on this. Is
Speaker 3: there anybody here today that has stones that had been
Speaker 3: rolled away that you could say it was no way
Speaker 3: that that could have happened if it wasn't for the
Speaker 3: hand of God.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm about to get happy.
Speaker 3: Can you have church with me for a second. As
Speaker 3: I look back over my life, I see times that
Speaker 3: I went to the doctor and he told me one thing.
Speaker 3: I came back, they said something different.
Speaker 1: It was the hand of God that was on my life.
Speaker 3: Some of you, when you go to your car and
Speaker 3: you were wondering how you were gonna get transportation, dust
Speaker 3: it for fingerprints.
Speaker 1: God open up the door for you to get that.
Speaker 1: When you walk into your house and you.
Speaker 3: Start dusting around, you ever see somebody praising God like this.
Speaker 1: God told me to tell you when you start doing
Speaker 1: like this.
Speaker 3: This is, I'm just dusting for fingerprints over my life.
Speaker 3: I'm just dusting for fingerprints. Maybe they're shouting at University City.
Speaker 3: Maybe they're excited at University City because God showed.
Speaker 1: Up for you.
Speaker 3: You didn't do it by yourself.
Speaker 1: You weren't smart.
Speaker 3: Enough to make that happen. Some of you, next week,
Speaker 3: this is you'll see the v dusting for fingerprints to
Speaker 3: see that God showed up. Not only do we see
Speaker 3: the stone that's moved, but then we walk in and
Speaker 3: we see that there's strips of linen lying there. It
Speaker 3: would have looked something like this. These were Jesus's grave clothes.
Speaker 3: These strips of linen was wrapped around Jesus's body. Can
Speaker 3: you imagine leaning and looking and seeing the dried bloodstains.
Speaker 1: What was crimson red is now turned brown.
Speaker 3: As you look at these strips of linen that were
Speaker 3: wrapped around my saviors by that was broken and bruised,
Speaker 3: you see the stone. It tells a story of God's power.
Speaker 3: The strips of lenin they tell the story of God's pain,
Speaker 3: the pain that Jesus went through for you, the pain that.
Speaker 1: Jesus went through for you. You needed evidence.
Speaker 3: Look at the strips of linen you might have walked
Speaker 3: in today and the evidence you need. You're like, I'm
Speaker 3: not valuable. You may be even considered taking your own life.
Speaker 3: The strips of linen. It shows me God's pain, but
Speaker 3: it reveals my purpose. It lets me know that I
Speaker 3: have value. It lets me know, It lets me know,
Speaker 3: no matter what compelling evidence the world tries to throw
Speaker 3: in my face, that Jesus loved me so much, he
Speaker 3: died for me. Why would I walk around being shackled
Speaker 3: and changed when Jesus paid.
Speaker 1: For my freedom? Why would I be walking around.
Speaker 3: In desperate need of hope and desperate need of peace.
Speaker 1: He died for you, He died for you.
Speaker 3: He took on the pain so you didn't have to.
Speaker 3: When I see the strips of linen. It reminds me
Speaker 3: the pain that he went through. Lets me know that
Speaker 3: my life has purpose. So you have the stone that's
Speaker 3: rolled away, shows this evidence of God's power, tells a story.
Speaker 3: You see the strips of linen lying there with the
Speaker 3: dried bloodstains, reminding us of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Dying for us.
Speaker 3: But then says that there's this cloth, it'll looks something
Speaker 3: like this, and it was. When you read it, it
Speaker 3: gives detail. It shows that it was separate from the linen.
Speaker 3: And when you start to look at the way that
Speaker 3: it was written, it.
Speaker 1: Actually was folded so less of a closet.
Speaker 3: Really was like a napkin folded left there for them
Speaker 3: to find. And I begin to study. I was like, God,
Speaker 3: what is the story that the napkin tells? And this
Speaker 3: blessed me.
Speaker 1: I hope it blesses you.
Speaker 3: You see in Jewish culture, if they were having a
Speaker 3: banquet and and the master sitting at the table, everybody's joyful,
Speaker 3: they're having a good time, and he's eating. When he's done,
Speaker 3: he'll ball up his napkin and he will place it
Speaker 3: on his plate, and he excused himself of the table.
Speaker 1: When the napkins balled up.
Speaker 3: It'll let the servants know that the master's done. But
Speaker 3: if the Master takes time to fold the napkin, he's
Speaker 3: letting you know I'm coming back. He's letting you know
Speaker 3: I'm not done.
Speaker 1: He's letting you know I'm not finished.
Speaker 3: I don't know what problem you face, but my God
Speaker 3: has a plan.
Speaker 1: He's coming back to save you. He's coming back to
Speaker 1: heal you. He's coming back to provide for you.
Speaker 3: The folded napkin lets me know that my God has
Speaker 3: a plan. I know we're trying to figure some things out,
Speaker 3: but my God has a plan. I know we're watching
Speaker 3: the stock market, like what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1: My God has a plan. I God.
Speaker 3: Tap your neighbor, tell him, God has a plan. My
Speaker 3: God has a plan. The napkin was folded. The napkin
Speaker 3: was folded. My King is coming back. He's not done.
Speaker 3: He's not done. He's not done. Thank you Jesus. But
Speaker 3: as I continued to read, I thought all was done.
Speaker 3: I was like, I got three points. Let's shut it down,
Speaker 3: let's go home. The God gave me one more piece
Speaker 3: of evidence left in this tomb that tells a story.
Speaker 1: So Remember Mary doesn't even go all the way in,
Speaker 1: but she sees the.
Speaker 3: The stone was rolled away. You got John, who gets
Speaker 3: the edge of the whom looks in. He sees the
Speaker 3: strips of linen. Then you got Peter. He goes all
Speaker 3: the way in and he sees the.
Speaker 1: Cloth lying there.
Speaker 3: Now, remember the reason why there was a crowd when
Speaker 3: Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on the donkey was because
Speaker 3: he had just healed Lazar, or raised Lazarus from the dead.
Speaker 3: That's why they showed up up. They were blown away
Speaker 3: by this miracle. And I went back and I just
Speaker 3: began to study his resurrection, and there was one thing
Speaker 3: that stood out to me. Let's go to John John
Speaker 3: chapter eleven, verse thirty nine. This is when Jesus is
Speaker 3: about to raise Lazarus from the dead. Pay attention to this.
Speaker 3: It says, take away the stone. He said, that's Jesus talking.
Speaker 3: But then listen to what Martha says to him. But
Speaker 3: Lord said, Martha, the sister of the dead man, this
Speaker 3: is Lazarus sister. By this time, there is a bad odor,
Speaker 3: for he's been in there three days. His body had
Speaker 3: had to start decaying. Get ready, because when we roll
Speaker 3: this stone away, there's gonna be a smell that comes
Speaker 3: out from a riting and decaying body. I went to
Speaker 3: Matthew and I read about the resurrection of Jesus. I
Speaker 3: went to Mark and I read about the resurrection of Jesus.
Speaker 1: I went.
Speaker 3: I went to Luke and I read about the resurrection
Speaker 3: of Jesus. And I got to John. Not in any
Speaker 3: one of the four gospels does anybody talk about a
Speaker 3: smell coming from my savior soon. You ever had somebody
Speaker 3: say to you, hey, I went through the fire, but
Speaker 3: I don't smell like smoke. Jesus went to the tomb
Speaker 3: and didn't come out smelling like death.
Speaker 1: What I'm trying to tell.
Speaker 3: You is is that the smell tells a story. That
Speaker 3: even the smell is evidence. You know what it tells me.
Speaker 3: It tells me a story of God's protection. That what
Speaker 3: you are going through, you have been through, doesn't have
Speaker 3: to define you. I come to declare today that for
Speaker 3: some of years I was preaching about God moving stones.
Speaker 3: The enemy was whispering her year, but he didn't move
Speaker 3: that one for you. Yeah, I still I lost my job,
Speaker 3: and I'm still trying to pick up the pieces. I'm
Speaker 3: still waiting on God to I can't find the fingerprints
Speaker 3: on this one.
Speaker 1: The smell lets me know that what you what you're
Speaker 1: going through, what you've been.
Speaker 3: Through, that it won't define you, That that your life
Speaker 3: won't be defined.
Speaker 1: By bitterness, shame, anger.
Speaker 3: My Bible tells me that not only does God go
Speaker 3: with me, he's gone before me.
Speaker 1: He's gone before me.
Speaker 3: I'm mentioned earlier that the only conclusive evidence about my
Speaker 3: golfing ability is that you could smell I'd been on
Speaker 3: the golf course. You ever been around somebody and you
Speaker 3: know they were trying to mask with cologne or perfume
Speaker 3: that they had been partaking.
Speaker 1: The smell is evidence.
Speaker 3: A normal thief would try to conceal the evidence of.
Speaker 1: The crime that they committed. But can y'all help me close?
Speaker 1: My God went and robbed.
Speaker 3: The grave and left evidence to let you know I
Speaker 3: did it.
Speaker 1: It was me.
Speaker 3: I rose with all power and authority, I rose with
Speaker 3: all power in my hand.
Speaker 1: It was me. Yes, I did that. I did that.
Speaker 3: I left evidence for you to know what I did
Speaker 3: for you. Everybody stand on your one of the things
Speaker 3: we do every Sunday. If you don't have to leave,
Speaker 3: please don't I'm about to give an invitation for someone
Speaker 3: to make a decision to put their faith in Jesus.
Speaker 3: Don't let you walking past them become evidence of their insignificance.
Speaker 1: That's what the enemy has been trying to tell them
Speaker 1: all week.
Speaker 3: Bout your head, close your eyes. Somebody walked in today
Speaker 3: and he said I needed proof. I needed proof that
Speaker 3: God wasn't done with me.
Speaker 1: Then his hand was.
Speaker 4: On my life, that my life matters. He needed proof.
Speaker 4: I pray to the best.
Speaker 3: Of my ability that the evidence left in that tomb
Speaker 3: tells a story of how loved you are.
Speaker 1: So we're going to say a prayer.
Speaker 3: This is a prayer of salvation, a prayer of surrender
Speaker 3: for the benefit of those that are coming to Jesus.
Speaker 3: Or maybe you're here today and you used to walk
Speaker 3: with God, you used to talk with God, but you
Speaker 3: walked away from the faith. Maybe this is your moment to.
Speaker 1: Come back home.
Speaker 3: We're gonna save this prayer together as a church family
Speaker 3: for the benefit of those that are coming to Jesus.
Speaker 3: Everyone heads bowed, eyes closed, repeat after me say, I
Speaker 3: believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and
Speaker 3: that he died on a cross and rose from the
Speaker 3: grave to forgive me of my sins. So I'll give
Speaker 3: you my sins. I give you my shame, and from
Speaker 3: this day for it, I'll follow you. This is my
Speaker 3: new beginning. I am a child oh of God, with
Speaker 3: all heads about.
Speaker 1: And all us close.
Speaker 3: If you just said that prayer, you meant it making
Speaker 3: a decision to put your faith in Jesus or you're
Speaker 3: coming back to him.
Speaker 1: I'm going to count to three, and when.
Speaker 3: I get to three, I want you to shoot your
Speaker 3: hand up boldly so we can celebrate this moment with you.
Speaker 1: Here we go one, two, three.
Speaker 3: Shoot your hand up. If you're making a decision to
Speaker 3: put your faith in Jesus. God, bless you, God, bless you, God,
Speaker 3: bless you.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah, Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 3: Give God the biggest coup but praise in this place.
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
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 2: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe.
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.