Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message now, listen.
Speaker 1: I was telling somebody the other day. They said, Easter
Speaker 1: must be the easiest time for you to preach. I said, oh,
Speaker 1: on the contrary, it's really the hardest because everybody thinks
Speaker 1: they know the story better than they really do. And
Speaker 1: this part of the Easter story is maybe something that
Speaker 1: you've heard before. But if we study it together today,
Speaker 1: I believe you see something you've never seen. In John
Speaker 1: chapter twenty, verse twenty four. It's kind of the climax
Speaker 1: of John's gospel. Now, Thomas, also known as Didamus, one
Speaker 1: of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
Speaker 1: So the other disciples told him we have seen the Lord.
Speaker 1: But he said to them unless I see the nail
Speaker 1: marks in his hands and put my finger where the
Speaker 1: nails were and put my hand into his side, I
Speaker 1: will not believe. A week later, his disciples were in
Speaker 1: the house again, and Thomas was with them, though the
Speaker 1: doors were locked. Jesus came and stood among them and said,
Speaker 1: peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas,
Speaker 1: put your finger here see my hands. Be careful what
Speaker 1: you ask for. Reach out your hand and put it
Speaker 1: into my side. Stop doubting and believe. And Thomas said
Speaker 1: to him, my Lord and my God. Then Jesus told him,
Speaker 1: because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are
Speaker 1: those who have not seen and yet have believe. Now
Speaker 1: listen to this. Jesus performed many other signs in the
Speaker 1: presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
Speaker 1: But these are written that you may believe that Jesus
Speaker 1: is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by
Speaker 1: believing you may have life in his name. Can you say, man,
Speaker 1: that's the word of God. Now let me give a
Speaker 1: title to dis sermon, and you can give it to
Speaker 1: your neighbor. Tell them, I know you're I know you're
Speaker 1: Tell them I know you're a good person. Tell him
Speaker 1: I know you're a Christian, I know you're nice. Tell
Speaker 1: him I know your moody. Now I don't want to
Speaker 1: start anything, but tell him I know you're kind of
Speaker 1: crazy now, but that's not the title. Here's the title.
Speaker 1: Come the title. Say that's not all you are. That's
Speaker 1: not all you are. Now be seated, and let's talk
Speaker 1: about Thomas, or as you judgmental church people like to
Speaker 1: call him doubting Thomas. If you're new to church. We
Speaker 1: have nicknames that we give certain disciples. We don't do
Speaker 1: it to all the disciples. We just pick on certain disciples.
Speaker 1: Like Peter gets to be called the Rock, right because
Speaker 1: Jesus called him that. We don't call Peter. Peter cussed
Speaker 1: somebody out one time when they were trying to see
Speaker 1: if he was a church member of Jesus Christ. But
Speaker 1: we don't call him, you know, profanity Peter. No. But Thomas, Like,
Speaker 1: for real, I wish you were here right now because
Speaker 1: you can hide on the other side of that screen.
Speaker 1: It's much better when I can see you in the
Speaker 1: like eyeball to eyeball. I love that because somebody that
Speaker 1: I don't know, what's your name? Yeah, yeah, oh I
Speaker 1: know you work for the church. Okay, I'm gonna pick
Speaker 1: somebody else. What's your name? Yeah yeah, hunter? Hunter? Do
Speaker 1: you ever? Do you ever? Do you ever? You ever
Speaker 1: do do you ever? Do you ever do something that
Speaker 1: contradicts your beliefs? But you know you should do better,
Speaker 1: but you do the wrong thing anyway. You're real slow
Speaker 1: to nods. She nodded quickly. I wish you could have
Speaker 1: seen it. She was nodding before I finished the question.
Speaker 1: But but, but, but that's called hypocrisy. So what if
Speaker 1: we called you hypocrite? Hunter? Right? That be fair? Be fair.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be kind or gracious or anything like that, Lisa,
Speaker 1: Does Tom ever lose his temper? I've never seen him
Speaker 1: do it, So we should call him right tantrum Tom
Speaker 1: because the Bible passage I just said, Thomas was doubting.
Speaker 1: Oh he must be doubting, Thomas. Stick a label on him.
Speaker 1: We love to label things. Is there anybody in the
Speaker 1: back of the room that ever struggles with overeating? Just ever?
Speaker 1: I mean just even like on Christmas, you eat crap
Speaker 1: on the back of the room, on the back of
Speaker 1: the room. I'm not looking at y'all right now, on
Speaker 1: the back of the room. I'm not even looking at
Speaker 1: the Epham at the back of the room, all right,
Speaker 1: what's your name? All the way up there in the
Speaker 1: corner of the room, right there in the back of
Speaker 1: the room. No, no, back behind you, even back behind you,
Speaker 1: even no over that way, over that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: She raised her hand. She said she struggled with overeating.
Speaker 1: What's your name, Camille? What if we call you Calorie
Speaker 1: intake Camille? Huh, I'll just make the He's off right.
Speaker 1: This is what we do. We love to label stuff
Speaker 1: because if I label it, I can be lazy, because
Speaker 1: I can think I know you, because you remind me
Speaker 1: of something that's in myself that I won't admit. This Easter,
Speaker 1: I would like to talk about Thomas and suggest to
Speaker 1: you that if any of the other disciples had been
Speaker 1: in his same situation, they would have had his same doubt.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that Thomas wasn't there when Jesus showed up. Now,
Speaker 1: remember he rose from the dead. He showed himself to
Speaker 1: Mary Magdalene, not to the boys first, because he knows
Speaker 1: that women have the ability to feel and not be
Speaker 1: so calculative about everything, and know things that their minds
Speaker 1: can't conceive, and see things spiritually that men are blind to.
Speaker 1: Because we are so ego focused that we can't even
Speaker 1: connect with one another. Let alone resurrected Son of God.
Speaker 1: You like that pandering idea to the female demographic there?
Speaker 1: That was good, wasn't it? But I really believe that.
Speaker 1: I really believe that Hollywood was with a bunch of
Speaker 1: other pastor's wives a while back, and she was saying, like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's so good, and we opened up and we talked
Speaker 1: about this, and we talked about that. And I said,
Speaker 1: if that had been the pastors of those churches and
Speaker 1: not the women who are co pastors or pastors' wives,
Speaker 1: all we would have talked about is things that started
Speaker 1: with how many or how much? Because we love to label.
Speaker 1: Guys are really simple. We are still trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how much do you bench? Just you know, now
Speaker 1: with dollars instead of dumbbells, like how much did you
Speaker 1: make last year? And all this stuff. Because we love
Speaker 1: to label, it helps us. It helps us to accommodate
Speaker 1: our assumptions. If we can label something, look at somebody
Speaker 1: and say, that's not all you are. We love sometimes
Speaker 1: to identify ourselves as Christians by our jewelry, even though
Speaker 1: the cross was originally a torture instrument, not a fashion statement.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong. I got one myself and I'll wear it.
Speaker 1: But my point is sometimes it's easier to label it
Speaker 1: than to live it. Doubting Thomas, Yeah, that's really fair.
Speaker 1: I mean, when it says that he wasn't there, he
Speaker 1: wasn't there. We don't know why, you know how you
Speaker 1: fill in the blanks and assume things about people. He
Speaker 1: wasn't there because Jesus had been crucified and he was
Speaker 1: ashamed to be identified with the others, or maybe he
Speaker 1: was running an errand I mean, after all, the other
Speaker 1: disciples were not exactly full of faith. How do you
Speaker 1: know that the Bible says they had the doors locked
Speaker 1: because of fear of the Jews. You know how you
Speaker 1: say Easter's the super Bowl? Not really? Not really, It's
Speaker 1: not really like the super Bowl, because even though Jesus
Speaker 1: was risen and they had heard about it, they still
Speaker 1: had to live with the reality that they represented a
Speaker 1: threat to the Jewish Council that represented the religious establishment
Speaker 1: of the day. So it's a strange celebration. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like how how sometimes in your life you can
Speaker 1: be really happy about something but really worried about something,
Speaker 1: and you can't exactly jump up and down about this
Speaker 1: because you're distracted about that. So somebody says, how you knowing,
Speaker 1: You're like, I'm good, But that's not all you are.
Speaker 1: You are good in the particular area of your life
Speaker 1: that you chose to disclose in that moment. Thomas wasn't there.
Speaker 1: The only difference between Thomas and Peter is Peter got
Speaker 1: to see Jesus when he showed up. Peter didn't have
Speaker 1: greater faith than Thomas. He just he's had a different experience.
Speaker 1: Don't judge people about where they are if you don't
Speaker 1: know where they started. Maybe he wasn't there because he
Speaker 1: was scared, or maybe he was just struggled with punctuality.
Speaker 1: Maybe Thomas was late. It's no worse of an assumption
Speaker 1: than the fact that he wasn't there because he didn't
Speaker 1: love God. I don't know why he wasn't there. It
Speaker 1: just says, let's read the text again, so y'all will
Speaker 1: think I'm not making this up. I don't want y'all
Speaker 1: to trust me. I want you to trust the text now. Thomas,
Speaker 1: also known as did amis one of the twelve, was
Speaker 1: not with the disciples when Jesus came. What if he's
Speaker 1: not doubting Thomas at all. He could be tardy Thomas.
Speaker 1: I like that tardy Thomas. You know how I think
Speaker 1: Jesus would call him. I was sinking about this. What
Speaker 1: would Jesus call Thomas? What would Jesus call the one
Speaker 1: that wasn't there? What would Jesus call the one who
Speaker 1: came back a week later to make a special guest
Speaker 1: appearance too? He thought so much of him that he
Speaker 1: showed back up. Maybe Jesus would call him honest Thomas.
Speaker 1: Honest Thomas, because what he said. I think. I think
Speaker 1: he said a good thing. He said. I've got to
Speaker 1: see it for myself. There comes a time when your
Speaker 1: faith in God, when what your grandparents taught you, or
Speaker 1: what you learned on a flenograph and a Sunday school
Speaker 1: can't really get you through the real complications of adult life.
Speaker 1: So what he said wasn't I won't believe, he said.
Speaker 1: I won't believe unless I see the nail marks in
Speaker 1: his hands and put my finger where the nails were
Speaker 1: and put my hand into his side. I won't believe
Speaker 1: unless what would it take for you to believe that
Speaker 1: God was with you in this moment, in this season.
Speaker 1: What would it take for you to believe that God
Speaker 1: had your kids in his hands. What would it take
Speaker 1: for you to believe that He knows what's best for you?
Speaker 1: What would it take for you to believe that God
Speaker 1: does not relate to you on the basis of the
Speaker 1: thing you're most ashamed about. What would it take for
Speaker 1: you to believe? He's already seen so much? Thomas has
Speaker 1: He's seen a lot. And John says, Jesus did so
Speaker 1: much we couldn't write it all down. So John, in
Speaker 1: making this we call it a book, his gospel account,
Speaker 1: he says, I put the ones in the book that
Speaker 1: would serve as a sign so you could believe. And
Speaker 1: he includes seven of them, which is a significant number,
Speaker 1: especially for the Jewish mind, because it was seven days
Speaker 1: of creation, you know. And John is saying, here, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna show you seven things. He starts talking
Speaker 1: about the signs in John chapter two, where Jesus turned
Speaker 1: the water into wine at a wedding. Then in chapter four,
Speaker 1: Jesus heals this official sun. It's crazy because Jesus didn't
Speaker 1: even have to go physically to the place in order
Speaker 1: to heal the boy. All it took was for the
Speaker 1: man to believe it was his faith that made his
Speaker 1: son well. In John chapter five, there's a man trying
Speaker 1: to get to the water and Jesus says, well, it's
Speaker 1: a good thing that the water showed up, since you
Speaker 1: can't move. Because the man was actually paralyzed, he could
Speaker 1: not get to the water, so Jesus brought water to him.
Speaker 1: That's the third sign. One of the miracles that we've
Speaker 1: heard a lot about if we were around church was
Speaker 1: when Jesus fed five thousand men, women and children, and
Speaker 1: is significant in this particular sign because when they found
Speaker 1: this little boy in John chapter six, they said, here
Speaker 1: is a boy. To them, he looked like a boy.
Speaker 1: He was carrying a buffet. In't that amazing? Look at
Speaker 1: your neighbor again and say, that's not all you are.
Speaker 1: That's not all you are. Yeah, you look like a boy,
Speaker 1: But when your bread gets in the hands of the
Speaker 1: one who knows how to do with it. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, when Jesus went walking on the water,
Speaker 1: they thought he was a ghost. They didn't recognize him
Speaker 1: at first, they didn't see him at first. They felt
Speaker 1: fear at first, not faith. And then in John chapter nine,
Speaker 1: I think it is you can check all these later.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you a Bible study for the next week.
Speaker 1: By the way, you could go through all of this
Speaker 1: where this man was born blind and Jesus healed the
Speaker 1: man born blind, which was amazing. But the greatest thing
Speaker 1: that he did to show who he was started with
Speaker 1: what he didn't do. My favorite story in the Bible
Speaker 1: last year was the story of Lazarus in John chapter eleven.
Speaker 1: I spent the greater part of the year off and
Speaker 1: on looking at this story. And I want to show
Speaker 1: you something that's in the story that I think might
Speaker 1: relate to your season of life as well. If you
Speaker 1: have John chapter twenty right now, just maybe put that
Speaker 1: little ribbon in your Bible. Who am I kidding? Like
Speaker 1: y'all brought paper to church today, Just mark it on
Speaker 1: the screen and go to John chapter eleven for just
Speaker 1: a moment, because if we flip back to John chapter eleven,
Speaker 1: it will show us something about who Jesus really is. Now,
Speaker 1: John says, I can't tell you everything, but I told
Speaker 1: you enough that you can believe. For the part that
Speaker 1: you can't see, I can't I can't tell you everything
Speaker 1: that he did, but I gave you enough to believe
Speaker 1: God said, I'll give you enough to go on. So
Speaker 1: when Moses asked God, who are you, he said, I am.
Speaker 1: You don't have time for me to tell you all
Speaker 1: that I am, because the moment that I tell you
Speaker 1: exactly what I am, you will label me, and the
Speaker 1: moment you label me, you will limit me. It's like this.
Speaker 1: People will say, oh, oh, that must be a Pentecostal church.
Speaker 1: That must be a Baptist church, that must be a
Speaker 1: well they say. Sometimes they'll say oh, they'll say, I
Speaker 1: remember one person said, sometimes I don't like how elevation
Speaker 1: mixes different genres. It should either be worship or gospel,
Speaker 1: not both. So the definitions I found in the Bible
Speaker 1: confused me because I thought worship was our job description
Speaker 1: and gospel was our message. But now what's what we'll do.
Speaker 1: We want to create a genre about a God who's
Speaker 1: worthy of eternal worship, because if we can categorize him,
Speaker 1: we don't really have to trust him. So Jesus, watch this.
Speaker 1: Thomas wasn't the only one who wasn't there. Jesus wasn't
Speaker 1: there in John chapter eleven to heal his friend Lazarus.
Speaker 1: And what I'm discovering in the Bible is you can
Speaker 1: learn just as much about God through absence as you
Speaker 1: can through presence. Prove it to me. Okay, one time
Speaker 1: Paul said, I had this storn and I wanted God
Speaker 1: to take it away, but God didn't do what I
Speaker 1: asked him to do. How many have something in your
Speaker 1: life right now that God's not doing that you asked
Speaker 1: him to do on the timetable that you're asking him
Speaker 1: to do. If he is doing it, he better go
Speaker 1: ahead and get to it because it's gonna be too late,
Speaker 1: real soon. This is the situation in John eleven. At
Speaker 1: first Lazarus is sick, and then Lazarus is dead, and
Speaker 1: they do not get the attention of the healer. Now
Speaker 1: we can see this most clearly because there's a lot
Speaker 1: in this passage, and God, I wish I couldppreciate it
Speaker 1: all to you right now. If I summarized it, it it
Speaker 1: would actually ruin it because I would squeeze out at
Speaker 1: all the detail. So I'm not gonna summarize it. By
Speaker 1: the way, just to the side point, don't trust the summary.
Speaker 1: Don't trust the summary. Put that in the chat. Don't
Speaker 1: trust the summary. When we try to summarize something, we
Speaker 1: squeeze out of at the meaning right. So if I
Speaker 1: tell you John, chapter eleven, Lazarus died, Jesus raised him
Speaker 1: from the dead. You missed the tears that he cried
Speaker 1: at his tomb. Don't even try to summarize salvation and
Speaker 1: just make it about heaven and hell. Because I need
Speaker 1: Jesus on this earth, and they needed Jesus to show
Speaker 1: up and heal their brother. And they had a reason
Speaker 1: to expect because he would stop through Bethany every time
Speaker 1: he needed airbnb at Martha's house, and Mary would listen
Speaker 1: because she had a good heart. But Mary, Martha actually
Speaker 1: knew how to cook, so she's the one doing the work,
Speaker 1: paying the mortgage, and Mary is over here doing anyway.
Speaker 1: It's a whole dynamic. Again, I can't summarize it. It's
Speaker 1: a very very involved story. But I thought I would
Speaker 1: show you verse thirty two, John, chapter eleven, because their
Speaker 1: brother is now dead and Jesus missed the opportunity to
Speaker 1: heal him. Now, very specifically, before I came, God said,
Speaker 1: you're going to speak to somebody today who thinks it's over.
Speaker 1: And the limitation that they have placed is not on
Speaker 1: a genre of music. The limitation that they have placed
Speaker 1: is on themselves. In the story of Lazarus, they asked
Speaker 1: for the healer to come. They call him the teacher
Speaker 1: or the rabbi. That's how they knew him. And it
Speaker 1: says in verse thirty two, when Mary reached the place
Speaker 1: where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his
Speaker 1: feed and said, Lord, if you had been here, my
Speaker 1: brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping,
Speaker 1: and the Jews who had come along with her, also weeping,
Speaker 1: he was deeply moved in spirit and trouble. Where have
Speaker 1: you laid him? He asked, Come and see Lord, they replied,
Speaker 1: and Jesus wept. Wait a minute, I thought you were God.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to be drying tears, not crying them. What
Speaker 1: I what you've heard about God is not all there
Speaker 1: is to him? What if the God that you've heard
Speaker 1: about is only a sliver? See, people will describe God
Speaker 1: in many ways, and they'll say that God is a healer.
Speaker 1: But then someone that you love will die. And to
Speaker 1: assume that he's not as powerful as you thought he
Speaker 1: was because he didn't do what you thought he would
Speaker 1: misses the entire basis of true faith. Our problem is
Speaker 1: just like we do to Thomas, we do to God.
Speaker 1: We want to define people and even define God, and
Speaker 1: even define ourselves by our worst moment. Now, the danger
Speaker 1: in this passage is that by seeing their expectation unmet,
Speaker 1: their faith could have been discontinued. And you've got two perspectives.
Speaker 1: At the tomb of Lazarus this day, in verse thirty six,
Speaker 1: the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some
Speaker 1: of them said, now watch this, this is my message.
Speaker 1: Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind
Speaker 1: man have kept this man from dying? You see what
Speaker 1: they did. They labeled him according to their limited experience
Speaker 1: of what he could do, because they heard he was
Speaker 1: a healer, So to them, that's all he is. And
Speaker 1: if he's a healer and he didn't heal, then it's over.
Speaker 1: If he's only the one who opens blind eyes and
Speaker 1: your brother died, then he didn't do what he could do,
Speaker 1: and he can't do it now. But sometimes you've got
Speaker 1: to have enough faith in God. Listen to me, by
Speaker 1: the spirit of the Lord. Sometimes you got to have
Speaker 1: enough faith to say, God, I thought you were a healer,
Speaker 1: but that's not all you are. God, I thought, I
Speaker 1: thought you were the one who would keep it from happening.
Speaker 1: But that's not all you are. Have you ever had
Speaker 1: God not stop something and he could have, then you're
Speaker 1: just like Jesus. His father could have stopped him from
Speaker 1: going to the cross. Even Jesus said I could call
Speaker 1: a legion of angels and they would rescue me. And
Speaker 1: they thought he was a king. And when we worship
Speaker 1: Jesus and we say you're a king, he is. He's
Speaker 1: also a carpenter. And the greatest revelation that Jesus ever
Speaker 1: gave anybody in the scripture of who he was was
Speaker 1: after what he didn't do. So let me break this
Speaker 1: down real simple. I was talking to a YouTuber the
Speaker 1: other day, and there's nothing uncommon about YouTubers, but he's
Speaker 1: fifty nine and he was sharing with me how he
Speaker 1: had been a music producer and then when that stopped
Speaker 1: and he was down to his last little bit of
Speaker 1: money in the bank account. I told you this story,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell them now. He kind of was at
Speaker 1: the point in his life where, you know, by the
Speaker 1: time you're fifty four, he's fifty four when he started
Speaker 1: his channel. You kind of have a pretty good idea
Speaker 1: of what you can and can't do, right, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: one day his intern walks and he told me the story.
Speaker 1: He said. One day his intern walks and he says,
Speaker 1: you should start a YouTube channel. And the beautiful thing
Speaker 1: about this guy, he's got the grayest gray hair, shocking white,
Speaker 1: like the transfiguration of Jesus Christ himself. And he said,
Speaker 1: there's nobody with hair like this on YouTube. I'm a producer.
Speaker 1: This is what I do. I'm a music teacher. This
Speaker 1: is what I do. I don't even know how to
Speaker 1: make the videos. Now, I wouldn't be telling you this
Speaker 1: story if he tried and failed. Obviously he succeeded, right,
Speaker 1: I was studying. There's all these other YouTubers who are
Speaker 1: younger and more hair and different colored hair and all
Speaker 1: of these different things. See. See, I'm telling you the
Speaker 1: story because you can tell yourself a summary of what
Speaker 1: you are and what you're not based on the experience
Speaker 1: that you've had, not the potential that you carry. And
Speaker 1: so what he said was, I'm not a YouTuber. I'm
Speaker 1: a fifty four year old producer. His channel is bigger
Speaker 1: than all the young guys today, right right, And you
Speaker 1: would be clapping so hard if you realized that whatever
Speaker 1: you have told yourself is the stopping point of what
Speaker 1: you can be fails to factor in that the limitless God,
Speaker 1: who says my name is I am and will not
Speaker 1: be confined to one category, is living on the inside
Speaker 1: of you. Sophy was gonna do it, he'd have done
Speaker 1: it by now. Well, maybe he wants to do something different.
Speaker 1: So God, I expected you to be this in my life.
Speaker 1: I expected you to plan it and do it and
Speaker 1: executed like this. But what I thought you were is
Speaker 1: not all you are. So the message of Easter is
Speaker 1: just like the tomb. I'm open. I'm open. Say it
Speaker 1: out loud. I'm open. I'm open. I'm open. And the
Speaker 1: thing about it is, I'm not open to what I
Speaker 1: hoped would have happened. I'm not open to what I
Speaker 1: thought would have happened. I'm not open to what I
Speaker 1: think would be better. God, I believe if you could
Speaker 1: put a fifty nine year old on the top of
Speaker 1: a YouTube mountain, watch this. If you can heal a
Speaker 1: man who's been in the grave so long that his
Speaker 1: sister is more concerned about the stinch than she is
Speaker 1: about the potential. If you can do that. Come on,
Speaker 1: I'm open. God wants you to unlearn your limitations. You've
Speaker 1: got to unlearn your limitations and stop thinking that it
Speaker 1: had to be on one schedule. Well, their kid is
Speaker 1: smarter than mine. Their kid is peaking too soon. All right,
Speaker 1: that's all it is. Your kid has got street smarts
Speaker 1: and d's on their report card. And later in life,
Speaker 1: Later in life, the lateness of God. Why did he
Speaker 1: make Thomas wait a week? Thomas wasn't there. Jesus could
Speaker 1: have waited, caught up with him somewhere else. Why did
Speaker 1: he wait a week? You didn't see it when I
Speaker 1: read it. Okay, I'll go back to it for you.
Speaker 1: This is really and Elijah's reading through the Book of
Speaker 1: Matthew right now, and he said, Dad, do you ever
Speaker 1: feel like Jesus is trolling his disciples? And I said kinda,
Speaker 1: he does. Doesn't mean like I'm going to pay the
Speaker 1: temple tax, but go fishing. It'll be in the fish's mouth.
Speaker 1: He's like, this is just weird, and I'm like, it
Speaker 1: kind of is. I see. I'm glad he's reading the
Speaker 1: Bible for himself so he can learn to wrestle with
Speaker 1: questions about God. And about life, and not just trust
Speaker 1: the summary that Jesus loves the little children. Jesus does
Speaker 1: love the little children. Jesus also flips tables. I asked
Speaker 1: him the other day, did you get to the party
Speaker 1: in Matthew yet? Because he read chapter nine? I said,
Speaker 1: you get the party at where he's cussing it all
Speaker 1: the pharisees out. Not exactly cussing, but he might as well.
Speaker 1: I mean everything you'd want to call him. He's calling
Speaker 1: them whitewashed tombs and all these things. But see, when
Speaker 1: you have a view of God that thinks that he
Speaker 1: only says soothing things, you get surprised. That's why I
Speaker 1: hate preaching on holidays. We took something as powerful as
Speaker 1: the resurrection and dressed it in pastel. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you my Christmas sermon. I already got it. You're ready
Speaker 1: my Christmas sermon. You know, silent night, Holy night, all
Speaker 1: us calm, all his bright away a manjing Cridford, a
Speaker 1: better lord. Jesus laid down the sweethet. The cattle are
Speaker 1: lowing the sky. I don't know the word, but this part,
Speaker 1: little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. That's a lie.
Speaker 1: I like the song to y'all, but it's not true.
Speaker 1: He's a baby in a bard. He's crying. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do a message on Christmas, not silent Night. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be called Screaming Jesus. I hope you'll put it
Speaker 1: on the It's December twenty fifth, twenty twenty one, right
Speaker 1: here from this pulpit, coming soon, Screaming Jesus Ah. I
Speaker 1: know you know me as a healer. I know you
Speaker 1: know me that I open the man's blind eyes. I
Speaker 1: know you know me in this season of your life
Speaker 1: is this. I know you know me as that I
Speaker 1: know up until this point I provided for you this way.
Speaker 1: And I know you think that what you've seen is
Speaker 1: all there is. But blessed her those. This is what
Speaker 1: he told Thomas, who have not seen and still believe.
Speaker 1: Who's he talking about in that? Who's he talking about?
Speaker 1: He's not talking about the other disciples they saw. Who's
Speaker 1: he talking about? I think he's talking about Mary and
Speaker 1: Martha because Martha was like, if you would have been here,
Speaker 1: my brother wouldn't have died. And Mary was like, if
Speaker 1: you'd have been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And
Speaker 1: if you would have did what I thought you could do.
Speaker 1: But Martha says something real powerful. Watch this, she said,
Speaker 1: But I know that even now it's too late. But
Speaker 1: even now you didn't fit the definition of what I
Speaker 1: thought a good friend was God. But even now you
Speaker 1: withheld the healing that you easily could have given in
Speaker 1: you intentionally missed the opportunity to perform. But even now
Speaker 1: I thought you were a healer. But that's not all
Speaker 1: you are. Martha's confession is the powerful confession. She says,
Speaker 1: you are the Christ, the Messiah who has come into
Speaker 1: the world. So whatever I thought you were, whatever I
Speaker 1: thought you would do, whatever I expected from your hand,
Speaker 1: that's not all you are. Would you say that to God?
Speaker 1: This Easter? I had my nice little pretty picture of
Speaker 1: little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay, or the great
Speaker 1: King Jesus, who destroys every devil and drives out all darkness.
Speaker 1: But you're also the one who weeps with me in
Speaker 1: something that you could have prevented. You are the one
Speaker 1: with all authority. You are also the one with all empathy.
Speaker 1: I wonder what else you are. You know, for years
Speaker 1: now you've been defining yourself by your dysfunction. MHM. I
Speaker 1: hear it because I talk. I talk to you, I
Speaker 1: hear you. I hear when you talk. You do it,
Speaker 1: you do I do it. I do it all the time.
Speaker 1: I think it's somewhat of a cop out from us
Speaker 1: having to grow, because if we condemn ourselves, we don't
Speaker 1: have to work towards change. That's just how I am.
Speaker 1: Hey man, I'm just not organized. I can't hope it.
Speaker 1: I'm just not organized. You know, there's like methods for that, right,
Speaker 1: And now I'm worried because, Yo, when they do personality
Speaker 1: tests Myers Briggs and Enneagrams and all of this, I
Speaker 1: know Aneagram's not a personality test. Trust me. I get
Speaker 1: a lot of feedback every time I make fun of
Speaker 1: Vineagram on the internet, and I'm grateful for that. It's
Speaker 1: a blessing. And uh, but that's a helpful tool. But
Speaker 1: if you take something that was meant to be a tool,
Speaker 1: do you know, Enneagram, you put a number and that's
Speaker 1: kind of your dominant sin or weakness or something, then
Speaker 1: you can understand it and all that that is really
Speaker 1: what it is. But see, we like to slap a
Speaker 1: number on something so we don't really have to know it.
Speaker 1: I hear people walking around all the time. You're a seven,
Speaker 1: you're a three, you're an eight. I'm like, I'm like
Speaker 1: a at least a like because Holly told me I'm
Speaker 1: a one, I'm at least I'm at least a one
Speaker 1: point five, a one point seven? Like do I get
Speaker 1: a decimal? Like? Do I really have to be that
Speaker 1: exact of a thing? And there's nothing against all of that.
Speaker 1: It's good, it's good. It's good, it's good. But we
Speaker 1: will even turn a tool into an excuse. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: a perfectionist. That's just who I am. That's just how
Speaker 1: I am. You're also a payment. You're also aggravating to
Speaker 1: some people. That's not all you are. And I love
Speaker 1: yelling church. I'm a child of God. I am a
Speaker 1: child of God. That is not all you are all
Speaker 1: the time. If you clap, I won't call you out.
Speaker 1: We won't pretend like you are always holy and righteous
Speaker 1: and blessed and full of faith. So how do we
Speaker 1: deal with this? Thomas aka Didamus I love how he
Speaker 1: even had a little nickname means the twin You ever
Speaker 1: feel like there's two of you? By the way, this
Speaker 1: is an opportunity for him who experienced Jesus not through
Speaker 1: another spectacular miracle, but through a sacred scar and notice
Speaker 1: what he wanted to see. I've already seen him walk
Speaker 1: on water, I've already seen him feed the hungry crowds,
Speaker 1: I've already seen him open blind eyes. But I never
Speaker 1: saw him die before. And the experience of the cross
Speaker 1: would be enough to confuse any of us, because how
Speaker 1: can God be with you? And how can God before
Speaker 1: you and you go through this? So when Thomas says,
Speaker 1: my Lord and my God, one commentator said that it
Speaker 1: is the most powerful expression of faith in any Gospel account.
Speaker 1: Now let me ask you something. What do you take
Speaker 1: from the fact that the most powerful expression of faith
Speaker 1: in the whole Bible was uttered from the mouth of
Speaker 1: the disciple with the greatest doubt. I think it means
Speaker 1: that even though you might be a skeptic, sometimes that's
Speaker 1: not all you are, right And even though you might
Speaker 1: be addicted to something right now, an attic is not
Speaker 1: all you are. And even though you've limited yourself to
Speaker 1: the path that you've seen thus far, Jesus said, it's
Speaker 1: great to see it and believe it, but blessed her
Speaker 1: you if you really can believe it and you don't
Speaker 1: even see it. So if I don't see God making away,
Speaker 1: is he still a waymaker? This is the decision of Easter.
Speaker 1: This is the decision of every day. Don't trust the
Speaker 1: summary because people will tell you things in the summary
Speaker 1: that are just too simple. God is good all the time,
Speaker 1: all the time. God is good. Oh, they repeated it.
Speaker 1: It must be true. That's cute. But to really know
Speaker 1: that God is good for Thomas, he had to touch
Speaker 1: the wounds, and the most powerful expression of faith was
Speaker 1: uttered from the one with the greatest doubts. I think
Speaker 1: sometimes God can use the people the most who are
Speaker 1: willing to get honest about where they really are and
Speaker 1: just be willing to admit that every day doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like Easter in your heart. He showed up a week
Speaker 1: later because Thomas was ready yet. And isn't it crazy
Speaker 1: that the only thing that would stop God from revealing
Speaker 1: himself to Thomas was his own belief. Stop doubting and
Speaker 1: believe makes it sound so simple, doesn't it. Stop doubting?
Speaker 1: I wish it was that simple. Siri came on in
Speaker 1: my office a minute ago before I came to preach.
Speaker 1: I said, hey, Siri, stop, She said, there's nothing to
Speaker 1: stop here. I'm talking to right now, there's nothing to
Speaker 1: stop here. I wish doubt could be like just like, hey,
Speaker 1: fear stop, Hey, bad memory of the thing that stop? Hey,
Speaker 1: worrying about things that haven't happened yet stop. And the
Speaker 1: more I studied it, I realized Jesus wasn't just telling
Speaker 1: Thomas to do something mentally. The thing that he said
Speaker 1: is actually better translated like this, stop becoming an unbeliever
Speaker 1: and become a believer. That's what he literally said, Danny,
Speaker 1: stop becoming an unbeliever. When did you start becoming an unbeliever?
Speaker 1: When did you get so jaded about others about yourself?
Speaker 1: When did you start trusting more in the summary right
Speaker 1: than you did in the Holy Spirit? And so I
Speaker 1: want to share something with you today on this Easter.
Speaker 1: A few months ago, I was kind of just unsuspecting
Speaker 1: on a Thursday afternoon, writing some thoughts down about Lazarus,
Speaker 1: who eventually did get up and rise from the dead,
Speaker 1: and there's so much good stuff in that story, but
Speaker 1: it's for another time. And the opening line to what
Speaker 1: I thought was like a poem came to me and said,
Speaker 1: may I never lose the wonder of this gospel mystery.
Speaker 1: From the heaven came a savior from the ground to
Speaker 1: Rosa King. I sat with it for a moment, and
Speaker 1: it just kept coming to me in this way, and
Speaker 1: I wrote down the rest. Every day is born in darkness,
Speaker 1: every winter yields to spring. So let us speak of
Speaker 1: resurrection even in the suffering. As the sisters begged the
Speaker 1: Savior come at once to Bethany, for the one you
Speaker 1: love is dying. But his yes was not to be,
Speaker 1: and his weeping begged the question could his friend he
Speaker 1: not have healed? But he still is Resurrection Even when
Speaker 1: the two is sealed, speaks a whisper in the silence
Speaker 1: sleeps the harvest in the sea, cradled now a new
Speaker 1: beginning in the heart that dares believe. So crucify your hesitation.
Speaker 1: Whom did expectation bring? Will you welcome resurrection? Will you
Speaker 1: crown the risen key? So that's the question, will you
Speaker 1: welcome resurrection? I know you've lost some things, and I
Speaker 1: know that it seems like it's too late, But will
Speaker 1: you welcome the possibility that God is greater than any
Speaker 1: of your limitations? That's what Jesus wanted. The sisters to
Speaker 1: see that I'm greater than anything you imagine me to be.
Speaker 1: And when God doesn't meet our expectations, sometimes it's because
Speaker 1: He wants to exceed them. If the disciples would have
Speaker 1: had their way, Jesus never would have gone to the cross.
Speaker 1: But if he'd never gone to the cross, he couldn't
Speaker 1: pay for their sin, he couldn't redeem and set them free.
Speaker 1: I just want you to know in the bottom of
Speaker 1: your heart today that whatever you've done, however you've run,
Speaker 1: whatever limitations you've placed on yourself or God, he's so
Speaker 1: much greater and he's in you. Father. I pray right
Speaker 1: now for Easter resurrection, miracles in the lives of men
Speaker 1: and women all over the world. I thank you so
Speaker 1: much that you have called us to this hope. I
Speaker 1: thank you that it's a living hope, and I thank
Speaker 1: you that the empty tomb gives us confidence for any
Speaker 1: of the spaces we don't understand in our life. Lord,
Speaker 1: I pray for miracles. I pray for breakthrough, I pray
Speaker 1: for deliverance. I pray for salvation to come to their
Speaker 1: home today, that you would touch them and they would
Speaker 1: be whope. In Jesus' name, Amen, Thank you for sharing
Speaker 1: this day with us. We love you, we're praying for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being a part of this global ministry
Speaker 1: all over the world. May God bless you in a
Speaker 1: tremendous way this week