April 5, 2025 • 30 mins
Today's episode of Sunday Service by Pray.com features Jim Graff.
"Character Counts: Experiencing a Cultural Comeback" explores the profound concept of revival, emphasizing that it transcends divine intervention to become a response to our obedience to God's Word. This sermon challenges us to reflect on the protective power of godliness and its role in fulfilling our destinies. It assures us that revival is not just a possibility but a promise, urging us to engage actively in the spiritual battles that shape our future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let us pray. Let all your things be done with
charity for Corinthians sixteen fourteen. My God and my Father,
thank you for your unconditional love. Allow everything that I
do to be done out of love. It's easy for
me to get lost in my daily tasks and forget
(00:20):
my purpose. Please help me to be kind and encouraging
as I start my day. Remind me to be loving
and attentive to the important people in my life. And
may I always see your hand at work in my
future and trust you with a great plan that you
have for my life. May your light always shine brightly
(00:42):
upon me. Amen. Thank you for listening to to day's
daily prayer for more inspiration and an incredible message from
our feature pastor stay tuned to Pray dot COV's Sunday service.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Revival It's a term uttered often, whether in the recounting
of a powerful historical event or in the whispering of
a solemn prayer for the future. But as often as
we speak of revival, do we really understand what it is.
Revival is not simply divine intervention. It's a divine response,
God's response to our obedience to his word. That's what
Jim Graff's new book, Character Counts, experiencing a cultural comeback
(01:27):
is all about. In it, we discover how Godliness protects
us and allows us to experience fulfilled purpose. If we'll
engage in this war for our future, revival is not
just likely, it's promised.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Today.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
For your gift of any amount, we'll send you a
copy of Character Accounts. We believe that as you apply
the principles found in its pages, you'll be on your
way to experiencing personal revival that leads to a broader
cultural comeback. So give today at a significant life dot
com and together let's experience our long awaited revival as
(01:59):
we build Character that Counts.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
You know, Tara is such a joy to help people
experience God the same way that we've experienced God and enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
How good He's been to us.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
And today's message is going to talk about the fact
God has determined outcomes for victory planned for our lives.
He has certain blessings prepared that we can step into
if we learn to trust.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Them right and today we're so blessed by the riches
of God's word and we're going to help today. We're
going to help see how important it is that we
do more than celebrate big events. In the Bible, God
calls us to celebrate the great privilege of having Him
at work in our lives. And you know that's clear
in the Bible. And we'll see that's the case in
our life too. We've seen it, you know, in our
(02:47):
thirty five years of pastoring. People come, for instance, to
an Easter service and they get excited when we talk
about Jesus' victory over death and the grave, and we
should because that's good. But we'll see today that the
disciple Martin made it a point to describe how determined
Jesus was for us to experience the victory God planned
for us as well. And our world doesn't change until.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
We do that.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
That's really for sure. That Jesus doesn't just want us
to celebrate his victory. He wants us to celebrate the
victories that He longs to bring into our lives. And
I remember, as a young Christian walking out of an
Easter service, and I was so grateful for the empty tomb.
But until I learned to deal with the emptiness of
my own heart, until I let God learn, God do
something about that, you know, I always lived with the
(03:30):
longing that I didn't know how to have fulfilled. And
I'm so glad today that I've learned what it means
to have God's power at work in my life. It's
really the greatest joy of my life, and the second
greatest joy is really helping others to do the same.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So enjoy the message today.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
We're so glad you're with us.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
I really enjoy looking at beautiful pieces of art. My
missionary travels have given me the opportunity to see artwork
is not just beautiful, but it's legendary. A lot of
us have seen the print, for instance, of Leonardo da
Vinci's Last Supper, and this is the painting of it.
It's on a Dominican monastery in Italy. And when I
(04:31):
first looked at that painting, I thought, man, it is
so beautiful. And then I learned two facts that really
surprised me. Number One, that you know, it took him
three years to paint that picture, and of course some
of it's because it's so big. It's fifteen feet tall
by thirty feet wide, and so that would take you,
you know, a good amount of time. But the second
(04:52):
thing I learned is that He literally got a person
to pose for every single one of the people that
he painted as a disciple. So he had to look
for people. He had, you know, to check a lot
of people out. He had to recruit them, and then
they posed, and literally he painted each one of their faces.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So you could you imagine if you grew up in
that town, You said.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Man, I can't believe he made Uncle Luigi into John
And how did Uncle Dominic become Judas? I mean, I
can't believe he's going to be in that wall forever.
But listen, folks, it takes time sometimes for masterpieces to
be created. And here's another interesting fact about that painting,
and that is it said that the first person that
(05:36):
he painted was Jesus, and he looked for somebody who
was so kind, so pure, who looked like sin had
never hardly affected their life, and he painted the face
of Jesus. Then the last person that he painted was Judas.
And for Judas, he went into a prison and he
looked for somebody whose face was so hardened that this
(05:57):
person looked like they could betray their very best friend.
And it said that whenever he got done painting Judas,
and they were taking him back to prison that Judas
said to da Vinci, Hey don't you recognize me? And
da Vinci said, no, I don't recognize you. Why he said, well,
three years ago you painted me as Jesus, and now
today you're painting me as Judas.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And I don't know about that. But can I tell
you what I do?
Speaker 6 (06:22):
No.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I can tell you that I know that.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
I've seen sin ruin a lot of great plans that
God had for people's lives. And I've seen sin ruin
the best version of people that God wanted to bring
out of them. But the good news is I've also
seen that there's a power that can restore, there's a
power that can redeem, there's a power that can make beautiful,
(06:46):
and it's the power of Jesus Christ. Paul spoke about
this in Ephesians chapter two, verse ten, when he said
we are God's masterpiece, and he said He's created us
anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good
things that God planned for us long ago. You know,
I can still remember the first time I heard that
scripture read, the first time I heard that scripture taught on.
(07:09):
I was in a Sunday night Vesper's service in the
college that I attended, and I remember walking back to
the athletic dorm at the university where I stayed, and
I thought, you know what, Lord, if you see beauty
that you want to bring out of my life that
I can't see and I could never bring out of
my life, I want to do whatever's necessary, Lord, so
that you can do what you're trainment about doing with
(07:31):
my life. And I can tell you forty five years
later that you know, I'm not everything I wish I
was as a person, but I do have the joy
of seeing beauty that God brought out in my life
that I couldn't see. I could have never developed without
a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And that's what Mark's Gospel is going to talk to
us about today.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
It's interesting when you read Mark's Gospel that really it's
in three sections when he talks about the resurrection, and
in the first eight verses he talks about the event,
he talks about Jesus when in the victory over death,
Hell and the Grave. But then in the next part,
in the next six verses, he talks about how even
though Jesus won the victory his followers, we are still
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dealing with the same things they dealt with in their life.
And we see the determination of Jesus, the tenacity of Jesus,
the compassion of Jesus, and we see that Jesus wasn't
content for people he loved, not to live in victory.
And I love how God inspired the Four Gospels because
in the Four Gospels we get such a different view
(08:38):
of the beauty and majesty of Jesus based on the
personalities of the author. For instance, whenever Matthew wrote his Gospel,
you know, Matthew's kind of in the face of.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
The religious crowd.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
He starts it out with the genealogy and he says,
you know what, you can think whatever you want to
think about Jesus, but he fulfilled three hundred pre per
day events in his life, and he's the messiah God
promised us long ago, and we need to deal with
that fact. And then he's the only one that talks
about how there was this great earthquake whenever Jesus breathed
(09:15):
his last breath, and whenever that earthquake happened, this curtain
that symbolized that man needs forgiving of sin to experience God. Right,
that curtain was torn from top to bottom whenever Jesus died,
And it says, if Matthew is saying to us, man,
this has to shake us up. Man, you're not saved
(09:35):
just because you know about God. But how many of
you know when you know Jesus, he's going to save
your life because he has so much life on the
inside of him.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
And then we come to Luke's Gospel. And I love
Luke's gospel because it's so detailed. It documents the story
of Jesus and he says to us, now, I'm going
to give you infallible proof about Jesus you could never deny.
But he also goes into such great details. So when
I read Luke's gospel, I'm just astonished at how merciful
(10:07):
Jesus was. That he was sympathetic to people, whether they
were the worst person who made all kinds of poor choices,
or whether they were a person who had a lot
of things done to them and they really needed help.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
He was so wise.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
When I read the Gospel of Luke, I think, you know,
whatever I'm still working on, Jesus has enough wisdom. If
I honor it, He's going to work things out. Whenever
I read about how Jesus prayed so much and had
such an incredible supernatural anointing on his life. When I
read Luke's gospel, I want to be a person of prayer.
(10:42):
And then we come to John's gospel, and it's easy
for me to see that John was the little brother
of James, and also he was the youngest of the
disciples because the brother needed help. There's just no other
way to say this. When he says of himself, I'm
the disciple Jesus loved. You know, somebody should smack somebody
for saying that, right, because he loves all of us.
(11:04):
And then it gets even worse when he describes the
resurrection account and how the women told he and Peter
that Jesus' body wasn't in the grave. He said, Peter,
and I took off running for the tomb, and I
want you to know I outran Peter. Now, how many
of you know when that guy got to heaven. I
bet he got a noggie whenever he got to heaven.
If you don't know what a nuggie is, it's when
(11:25):
your older brother takes his knuckles and he applies pressure
on your head because he's saying there's something stupid in there,
and somebody has to do something about it. But then
we come to Mark's Gospel, which we're going to talk
about today. And here's what scholars have written about Mark's
gospel that the three most obvious characteristics of Mark's gospel
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are compactness, and vividness, and orderliness. In other words, in
the Gospel of Mark, we have the shortest of the
four gospels.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
We also have very.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Vivid description of the things that happen, and you can
feel the emotion of Mark, not just the facts of
what happened, but what Mark was feeling is all these
events were happening wherever Jesus went. And then it's orderly.
It caused us to something very important. And I'm only
going to be able to preach on two out of
three things this morning, because I don't want your brisket
(12:19):
to burn, Okay, But basically Mark talked about three and
he said, first of all, he said, the church needs
to celebrate the victory that Jesus gave us in a
big way, and I'm going to talk about that event
number two, he said, you need to celebrate victory in
your life. You need to celebrate the beauty that God
wants to bring forth in your life, and he shows
(12:41):
us the reason why it's kept from us, even though
God wants it for us so bad. And then he says,
it's the people who experience Jesus who now have the
power to express Jesus to a world that needs him
so bad. But when we read this today, I reference
that because I want you to feel the kind of
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feeling that Jesus has in his heart for the things
that have happened to you. I want you to feel
the kind of feeling he has in his heart for
what he wants to do in your life, because that's
really what the Gospel of Mark is all about. And
here are the questions that Mark wants us to ask ourselves.
Number One, am I only celebrating jesus victory over sin
(13:23):
death in hell today? Because how many of you know?
If that's all you celebrate? Men, that's awesome, because how
many of you are glad to swarn there's some people
you love and they're not alive anymore, But you know
they're not in your path there in your future because
Jesus said, because I live, you're going to live too,
and you're going to spend an eternity with me. Amen, Jesus'
(13:43):
victory over death and the grave and hell should be
celebrated great in the church.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
But here's the second question we're.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Going to focus on, and that is, am I celebrating
my victory over those things that I have because of
the lordship of Jesus Christ in my life? Because let's
face it, most Easter productions don't do a good job
of this. Most Easter productions. Basically, Jesus pops out of
the tomb and we all start clapping for Jesus because
(14:12):
he overcame death.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Hell and the grave.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
And if you're a modern day evangelical, everybody starts singing,
He's alive. He's alive, He's alive and unforgiven. Heaven's gates
are open wide. If you're a traditional evangelical, you may
have sung because he lives, I can face tomorrow because
he lives, all fear is gone. Or if you were
(14:35):
Catholic like me, we sang Christ, our Lord has risen today.
Lou Yeah, right, and we celebrated this great victory that
Jesus accomplished. But Mark writes about that victory, but he
writes about more.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
So let's go through the story. First of all.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
In verse one, it says when the Sabbath was over,
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salomi brought
so that they may go to anoint Jesus's body. So
the first thing we learned is that the original spice
girls came from the Bible, right, And it says very
early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise,
they were on their way to the tomb.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And they ask each other, who will roll.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
The stone away from the entrance of the tomb. Now,
this stone weighed four thousand pounds, y'all, So two women
in his spirit, as I'm sure these two women were,
we're not going to move the tomb from the front
of Jesus's grave. And the Bible says when they looked
up and they saw the stone had been rolled away,
they entered the tomb and they saw a young man
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dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side.
And they were alarmed, and the angel said, don't be alarmed.
You're looking for Jesus the Nazarene. He's been crucified, but
he's risen. He's not here. Look at the place where
they laid him. Now that's the first victory that we
celebrate on Easter. But then John goes into the second
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victory that we celebrate and he teaches us three things.
Number one, he teaches us that if we're going to
have victory in our life, powders need to turn into
people who start celebrating what God promised to do in
our life. The next verse says that Jesus rose early
on that first day, Resurrection Day, and he appeared first
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to Mary Magdalen, out of whom he had driven seven demons.
I don't know what those demons were. Maybe they were anxiety,
maybe they were bitterness, maybe they were depression. Maybe she'd
been abused as a little girl and she had a
lot of issues that she was dealing.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
With in her heart.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
But I know that Mark is making it clear to
us that Mary had these issues. She wasn't getting passed
in spite of the fact that God was a God
who clearly demonstrated himself as a God who fulfilled promises.
And Mark goes on to say in the next verse,
he said that after Mary had Jesus appeared to her,
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that she went back to the other people, and the
Bible says they were all weeping as well, and they
didn't believe what happened. And it just tells us that
even though we are celebrating the first victory, which is Jesus'
death on the cross, it's so easy for us at
times to say, what's going on in my heart is
bigger than what happened on the cross. What's going on
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in my heart is still bigger than what happened in
the tomb that day, and Jesus will say.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
No, it's not bigger.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
I need you to get over the pouting so I
can bring forth what I promised you that I would
do in your life.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Amen.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
John's account gives us the most detailed description. He says
in verse eleven and John twenty that Mary stood outside
the tomb crying, and as she wept, she bent over
to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels
in white seated where Jesus's body had been, one at
the head and the other at the foot. And the
angels ask her, woman, why are you crying? And listen
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to what she said. She said, they've taken my lord away,
and I don't know where they put him. And at
this she turned and she saw Jesus standing there, but
she didn't realize it was Jesus. Now I want you
to mark that phrase because we're going to hear it
again later in this message that Jesus, for some reason
chose to appear in a form that they didn't totally
recognize whenever he came to them. And then notice, whenever
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she looked around, the Bible says she saw Jesus, and
notice Jesus asked her the very same question that the
angel asked her. Jesus said, woman, why are you crying?
What are you looking for? You know what Jesus was saying.
He was saying, listen, what are you looking for in
the resurrection? Because if you're pouting, there's something I want
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you to see that's going to change everything about your life.
And that is I want you to see that there's
a God who loves you. There's a God who has
power over the power of sin. There's a God who
fulfills everything that he promised. Had said so well in
Romans chapter eight, Paul said, what can separate me from
the love of God? Trouble that I don't know how
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to take on hardship I've been through.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I don't know how to handle.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Listen, I've learned a great reality and that is I
can be more than a conqueror through Christ who loved me.
Can say, man, Jesus rose from the dead, and he
can help me rise up above it. But you notice
that first God wanted to help the powders say there's
something about the resurrection I need to embrace that's going
to cause God to fulfill his promises in my life.
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And then there was a second group of people that
Jesus appeared to. It's in verse twelve, and it says
after appearing to Mary Magdalen, Jesus appeared in a different
form to two of them while they were walking in
the country. And this is talking about a man named Cleopus,
who is also called Alpheus and also called Clopus at times.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
In the Bible.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
And he was a very dedicated, very mature disciple of Jesus,
but he'd gotten highly discouraged. You want to know how
powerful he was as a person. One of his children
was one of the twelve, His son James, not James
the brother of John the Apostle, but the one called
James the lesson Scripture was the son of Cleopus. Also,
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his wife Mary was so dedicated and devoted to Jesus
that when he was hanging on the cross and being crucified.
She boldly stood there and she poured out her love
on Jesus because.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
They knew who he was.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
But sometimes even dedicated mature Christians get discouraged. And I
want you to notice what Jesus did. It said best
in Luke's Gospel, which is.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Very very descriptive.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
It says, now that same day, two of them were
going to a village called Amaeus. It was seven miles
northwest of Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other
about everything that happened. And as they talked and discussed
these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and
walked along with them. But again they were kept from
recognized him. Now why were they kept from recognizing him?
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I believe it's because, listen, you can always find God,
but you're going to have to seek him. He's not
going to force himself on you. He's a gentleman. Sometimes
people say, well, pastor, God just doesn't speaking to me.
And you know what I do, just because I'm a
bit ornery as a pastor. I take my Bible when
I do this, and I say, He's speaking to you
right now, these words right here they will heal you
(21:24):
and they'll deliver you from all of your destruction. Can
somebody give me a good amen? And here's the reality.
If you will read God, you'll have no trouble hearing
God in your life.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
But let me tell you, the devil is deceptive.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
And you've got to watch whenever the talking and the
pillow talk starts happening, because he's very good at knowing
your emotion and he's very good and knowing how to
get you off track in life. And so Jesus came
in to these discouraged disciples who needed a course correction,
and verse seventeen says that Jesus asks them, what are
(21:58):
you discussing together as you walk along? And they stood
still with their faces downcasts.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Can I tell you.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Something I wish I learned earlier than I did, And
that is there's only one emotion that I should allow
in my heart, and it's the emotion of joy, because
any other emotion tells me the devil's playing with my heart.
He's trying to tell me I can't get past this difficulty.
He's trying to tell me what he's doing is bigger
than what God's doing in my life. But when I
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get into joy, I realize there's a god who not
only fulfilled his promise in that empty tomb years ago.
How many of you are glad we have a god
who won't let us have an empty life, will let
us have an abundant life because of who Jesus is. Amen,
And Jesus says, why are you downcast? And they say, well,
didn't you hear about Jesus of Nazareuth. He was a
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prophet powerful in word indeed, and the chief priests and
our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death,
and they crucified him. But we hope that he was
the one who was going to redeem Israel.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
And what's morris?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
The third day, since all this took place, and some
of the women amazed us. They were at the tomb
early this morning, but they didn't find his body. They
came and told us that they had seen a vision
of angels who said he was alive. Then some of
our companions went to the tomb and they found it
was just as the women had said, but they didn't
see Jesus. Now do you see how crazy discouragement is? Basically,
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they said Jesus did everything he promised us he would do.
We're sitting here discouraged, and they went to the tomb
and the angels told us he's alive. The women said,
he's not there, but we're still living here in our discouragement.
And can I tell you something before discouragement lifts off
your life, lifts off your family, before God bursts the
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new beginning and a legacy of blessing you never want
to miss.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Because listen, the most beautiful work of art I've.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Never seen isn't hanging in a museum somewhere. The most
beautiful works of art I've ever seen are in front
of him this morning. It's kids whose dad walked away,
and they said, Jesus is going to lift me up
above that. It's two dysfunctional people who came together in marriage.
They said, Jesus is going to lift us up above that.
It's people who were fighting addictions and they fell down,
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but they didn't give up, but they let the mercy
and the grace of God heal them. Whenever people looked
at him and said, there's no way.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
And that's what this is about.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Jesus wants to birth victory in our lives. How determined
he was not just the rise of the dead, but
to find Mary who let the demonic power back in
her heart. And she was so depressed and so discouraged
to find these two mature disciples who somehow got confused
and they needed.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
A course correction.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
You know a number of people have sent me messages
this week about how in our nation, you know, powerful
people are making a big deal out of how this
is to be like the transgender Day of Visibility. They're
not talking about Easter. They're talking about you know that,
And they say, pastor, what do.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
You think about that? Can I tell what I think?
Speaker 4 (25:07):
I think that the America that I was raised in
is very different than the America i'm pastoring in right now.
And we live in a very confused society. And you
know what God wants from his church. He told us
in Micah sixth eighth. He said, I've told you, oh man,
what's good and what the Lord requires of you.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I want you to do justice.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
I want you to stand up for what's right, because
what's right is what causes people that have a great life.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Can you say, amen?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
But I don't want you just to do justice. I
want you to love mercy. I want you to love
people even more than you love truth. And I want
you to walk humbly with your God. Hey, I got
news for you. The devil's messing, but God's going to
start blessing. There's going to be a revival come to
this country as the Body of Christ does our part.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Can you say amen?
Speaker 4 (25:55):
And then there's a third group of people that Jesus
appeared to, and it was the eleven. Sadly, Judas had
died at this time, he had committed suicide. But verse
fourteen says later Jesus appeared to the eleven as they
were eating, and he rebuked them. Everybody say he rebuked them.
He rebuked them for their lack of faith and their
(26:15):
stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after
he was risen. In other words, Jesus was saying, ma'am,
what do I have to do.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
To get you all to believe? And I love the
fact that he loved.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Them so much he just kept coming back to them.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
But can I tell you.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Something, If you're here today and you have any unbelief
about who Jesus Christ is, you don't have any valid
reason to have any unbelief in your heart for who
Jesus is If you study the three hundred predictive prophecies
made about him, if you look at the miracles the
Holy Spirit did to accreditate the life of Jesus, there's
(26:51):
no doubt that Jesus Christ was the son of God.
Some of us may have stubbornness in our heart. The
stubbornness might come because of what happened to us, because
of even what happened to us in the church. And
I just want to say to you that hopefully you
have family members and hopefully you're in a church like
faith family where our motto is, We're not here to
see through you, we want to see you through How
(27:12):
many of you know, when you know God has great
things in people's lives, you don't want to give up
on the great thing. You want to see the beauty
and the masterpiece be brought forth. Can say, Man, that's
what Jesus calls us to. And that's why he kept
coming to the powder, kept coming to the one who
needed the course correction, kept coming to the people who
were stubborn and they had unbelief in their heart, and
(27:35):
he helped them and somehow Jesus changed.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
The world through them.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Hey can I tell you what my greatest joy is
at Faith Family Church. I'm not looking at perfect people
this morning, but I'm looking at passionate people this morning,
who love Jesus with all of your heart. And how
many of you know because of that you can know
that your blessing will not be because you were perfect.
It's because you just kept saying yes to the one
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who is perfect, and he brought blessing into your life.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Amen. I close with this scripture.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
It's in first John five four, and this is what
it says, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
Say that with me for everyone. Now look at your
neighbor and say, so, what's your excuse?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Would you go ahead and do that?
Speaker 4 (28:22):
If everyone born of God can overcome the world, then
what's my excuse? And then listen to how John closes.
He says, this is the victory. Everybody say, this is
the victory. This is the victory that's overcome the world,
even our faith. If you have faith, God has more
than enough power to overcome what the enemy's up to.
(28:44):
He has more than enough power to bring blessing and
a beautiful legacy into your life and into your family's life.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Revival as often as we speak of it, do we
really know what it means. Revival is not just divine intervention.
It's a divine response, God's response to our obedience to
his word. That's what Jim Graff's new book, Character Counts.
Experiencing a cultural comeback is all about. In if we
discover how Godliness leads to revival, today, for your gift
of any amount, we'll send you a copy of Character Counts.
(29:19):
Give today at a significant life dot com. Together, let's
experience the revival we prayed for.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
You will be like.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
God, human unity. God was suffered, and through it all,
God's promise remain true.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Follow me, April, and I will make you great.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
This means the chosen people. Listen to the chosen people
at the Chosen.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
People dot com.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
That's the Chosen People dot Com.
Let us pray. Let all your things be done with
charity for Corinthians sixteen fourteen. My God and my Father,
thank you for your unconditional love. Allow everything that I
do to be done out of love. It's easy for
me to get lost in my daily tasks and forget
(00:20):
my purpose. Please help me to be kind and encouraging
as I start my day. Remind me to be loving
and attentive to the important people in my life. And
may I always see your hand at work in my
future and trust you with a great plan that you
have for my life. May your light always shine brightly
(00:42):
upon me. Amen. Thank you for listening to to day's
daily prayer for more inspiration and an incredible message from
our feature pastor stay tuned to Pray dot COV's Sunday service.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Revival It's a term uttered often, whether in the recounting
of a powerful historical event or in the whispering of
a solemn prayer for the future. But as often as
we speak of revival, do we really understand what it is.
Revival is not simply divine intervention. It's a divine response,
God's response to our obedience to his word. That's what
Jim Graff's new book, Character Counts, experiencing a cultural comeback
(01:27):
is all about. In it, we discover how Godliness protects
us and allows us to experience fulfilled purpose. If we'll
engage in this war for our future, revival is not
just likely, it's promised.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Today.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
For your gift of any amount, we'll send you a
copy of Character Accounts. We believe that as you apply
the principles found in its pages, you'll be on your
way to experiencing personal revival that leads to a broader
cultural comeback. So give today at a significant life dot
com and together let's experience our long awaited revival as
(01:59):
we build Character that Counts.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
You know, Tara is such a joy to help people
experience God the same way that we've experienced God and enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
How good He's been to us.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
And today's message is going to talk about the fact
God has determined outcomes for victory planned for our lives.
He has certain blessings prepared that we can step into
if we learn to trust.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Them right and today we're so blessed by the riches
of God's word and we're going to help today. We're
going to help see how important it is that we
do more than celebrate big events. In the Bible, God
calls us to celebrate the great privilege of having Him
at work in our lives. And you know that's clear
in the Bible. And we'll see that's the case in
our life too. We've seen it, you know, in our
(02:47):
thirty five years of pastoring. People come, for instance, to
an Easter service and they get excited when we talk
about Jesus' victory over death and the grave, and we
should because that's good. But we'll see today that the
disciple Martin made it a point to describe how determined
Jesus was for us to experience the victory God planned
for us as well. And our world doesn't change until.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
We do that.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
That's really for sure. That Jesus doesn't just want us
to celebrate his victory. He wants us to celebrate the
victories that He longs to bring into our lives. And
I remember, as a young Christian walking out of an
Easter service, and I was so grateful for the empty tomb.
But until I learned to deal with the emptiness of
my own heart, until I let God learn, God do
something about that, you know, I always lived with the
(03:30):
longing that I didn't know how to have fulfilled. And
I'm so glad today that I've learned what it means
to have God's power at work in my life. It's
really the greatest joy of my life, and the second
greatest joy is really helping others to do the same.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So enjoy the message today.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
We're so glad you're with us.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
I really enjoy looking at beautiful pieces of art. My
missionary travels have given me the opportunity to see artwork
is not just beautiful, but it's legendary. A lot of
us have seen the print, for instance, of Leonardo da
Vinci's Last Supper, and this is the painting of it.
It's on a Dominican monastery in Italy. And when I
(04:31):
first looked at that painting, I thought, man, it is
so beautiful. And then I learned two facts that really
surprised me. Number One, that you know, it took him
three years to paint that picture, and of course some
of it's because it's so big. It's fifteen feet tall
by thirty feet wide, and so that would take you,
you know, a good amount of time. But the second
(04:52):
thing I learned is that He literally got a person
to pose for every single one of the people that
he painted as a disciple. So he had to look
for people. He had, you know, to check a lot
of people out. He had to recruit them, and then
they posed, and literally he painted each one of their faces.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So you could you imagine if you grew up in
that town, You said.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Man, I can't believe he made Uncle Luigi into John
And how did Uncle Dominic become Judas? I mean, I
can't believe he's going to be in that wall forever.
But listen, folks, it takes time sometimes for masterpieces to
be created. And here's another interesting fact about that painting,
and that is it said that the first person that
(05:36):
he painted was Jesus, and he looked for somebody who
was so kind, so pure, who looked like sin had
never hardly affected their life, and he painted the face
of Jesus. Then the last person that he painted was Judas.
And for Judas, he went into a prison and he
looked for somebody whose face was so hardened that this
(05:57):
person looked like they could betray their very best friend.
And it said that whenever he got done painting Judas,
and they were taking him back to prison that Judas
said to da Vinci, Hey don't you recognize me? And
da Vinci said, no, I don't recognize you. Why he said, well,
three years ago you painted me as Jesus, and now
today you're painting me as Judas.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And I don't know about that. But can I tell
you what I do?
Speaker 6 (06:22):
No.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I can tell you that I know that.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
I've seen sin ruin a lot of great plans that
God had for people's lives. And I've seen sin ruin
the best version of people that God wanted to bring
out of them. But the good news is I've also
seen that there's a power that can restore, there's a
power that can redeem, there's a power that can make beautiful,
(06:46):
and it's the power of Jesus Christ. Paul spoke about
this in Ephesians chapter two, verse ten, when he said
we are God's masterpiece, and he said He's created us
anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good
things that God planned for us long ago. You know,
I can still remember the first time I heard that
scripture read, the first time I heard that scripture taught on.
(07:09):
I was in a Sunday night Vesper's service in the
college that I attended, and I remember walking back to
the athletic dorm at the university where I stayed, and
I thought, you know what, Lord, if you see beauty
that you want to bring out of my life that
I can't see and I could never bring out of
my life, I want to do whatever's necessary, Lord, so
that you can do what you're trainment about doing with
(07:31):
my life. And I can tell you forty five years
later that you know, I'm not everything I wish I
was as a person, but I do have the joy
of seeing beauty that God brought out in my life
that I couldn't see. I could have never developed without
a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And that's what Mark's Gospel is going to talk to
us about today.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
It's interesting when you read Mark's Gospel that really it's
in three sections when he talks about the resurrection, and
in the first eight verses he talks about the event,
he talks about Jesus when in the victory over death,
Hell and the Grave. But then in the next part,
in the next six verses, he talks about how even
though Jesus won the victory his followers, we are still
(08:16):
dealing with the same things they dealt with in their life.
And we see the determination of Jesus, the tenacity of Jesus,
the compassion of Jesus, and we see that Jesus wasn't
content for people he loved, not to live in victory.
And I love how God inspired the Four Gospels because
in the Four Gospels we get such a different view
(08:38):
of the beauty and majesty of Jesus based on the
personalities of the author. For instance, whenever Matthew wrote his Gospel,
you know, Matthew's kind of in the face of.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
The religious crowd.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
He starts it out with the genealogy and he says,
you know what, you can think whatever you want to
think about Jesus, but he fulfilled three hundred pre per
day events in his life, and he's the messiah God
promised us long ago, and we need to deal with
that fact. And then he's the only one that talks
about how there was this great earthquake whenever Jesus breathed
(09:15):
his last breath, and whenever that earthquake happened, this curtain
that symbolized that man needs forgiving of sin to experience God. Right,
that curtain was torn from top to bottom whenever Jesus died,
And it says, if Matthew is saying to us, man,
this has to shake us up. Man, you're not saved
(09:35):
just because you know about God. But how many of
you know when you know Jesus, he's going to save
your life because he has so much life on the
inside of him.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
And then we come to Luke's Gospel. And I love
Luke's gospel because it's so detailed. It documents the story
of Jesus and he says to us, now, I'm going
to give you infallible proof about Jesus you could never deny.
But he also goes into such great details. So when
I read Luke's gospel, I'm just astonished at how merciful
(10:07):
Jesus was. That he was sympathetic to people, whether they
were the worst person who made all kinds of poor choices,
or whether they were a person who had a lot
of things done to them and they really needed help.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
He was so wise.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
When I read the Gospel of Luke, I think, you know,
whatever I'm still working on, Jesus has enough wisdom. If
I honor it, He's going to work things out. Whenever
I read about how Jesus prayed so much and had
such an incredible supernatural anointing on his life. When I
read Luke's gospel, I want to be a person of prayer.
(10:42):
And then we come to John's gospel, and it's easy
for me to see that John was the little brother
of James, and also he was the youngest of the
disciples because the brother needed help. There's just no other
way to say this. When he says of himself, I'm
the disciple Jesus loved. You know, somebody should smack somebody
for saying that, right, because he loves all of us.
(11:04):
And then it gets even worse when he describes the
resurrection account and how the women told he and Peter
that Jesus' body wasn't in the grave. He said, Peter,
and I took off running for the tomb, and I
want you to know I outran Peter. Now, how many
of you know when that guy got to heaven. I
bet he got a noggie whenever he got to heaven.
If you don't know what a nuggie is, it's when
(11:25):
your older brother takes his knuckles and he applies pressure
on your head because he's saying there's something stupid in there,
and somebody has to do something about it. But then
we come to Mark's Gospel, which we're going to talk
about today. And here's what scholars have written about Mark's
gospel that the three most obvious characteristics of Mark's gospel
(11:47):
are compactness, and vividness, and orderliness. In other words, in
the Gospel of Mark, we have the shortest of the
four gospels.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
We also have very.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Vivid description of the things that happen, and you can
feel the emotion of Mark, not just the facts of
what happened, but what Mark was feeling is all these
events were happening wherever Jesus went. And then it's orderly.
It caused us to something very important. And I'm only
going to be able to preach on two out of
three things this morning, because I don't want your brisket
(12:19):
to burn, Okay, But basically Mark talked about three and
he said, first of all, he said, the church needs
to celebrate the victory that Jesus gave us in a
big way, and I'm going to talk about that event
number two, he said, you need to celebrate victory in
your life. You need to celebrate the beauty that God
wants to bring forth in your life, and he shows
(12:41):
us the reason why it's kept from us, even though
God wants it for us so bad. And then he says,
it's the people who experience Jesus who now have the
power to express Jesus to a world that needs him
so bad. But when we read this today, I reference
that because I want you to feel the kind of
(13:02):
feeling that Jesus has in his heart for the things
that have happened to you. I want you to feel
the kind of feeling he has in his heart for
what he wants to do in your life, because that's
really what the Gospel of Mark is all about. And
here are the questions that Mark wants us to ask ourselves.
Number One, am I only celebrating jesus victory over sin
(13:23):
death in hell today? Because how many of you know?
If that's all you celebrate? Men, that's awesome, because how
many of you are glad to swarn there's some people
you love and they're not alive anymore, But you know
they're not in your path there in your future because
Jesus said, because I live, you're going to live too,
and you're going to spend an eternity with me. Amen, Jesus'
(13:43):
victory over death and the grave and hell should be
celebrated great in the church.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
But here's the second question we're.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Going to focus on, and that is, am I celebrating
my victory over those things that I have because of
the lordship of Jesus Christ in my life? Because let's
face it, most Easter productions don't do a good job
of this. Most Easter productions. Basically, Jesus pops out of
the tomb and we all start clapping for Jesus because
(14:12):
he overcame death.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Hell and the grave.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
And if you're a modern day evangelical, everybody starts singing,
He's alive. He's alive, He's alive and unforgiven. Heaven's gates
are open wide. If you're a traditional evangelical, you may
have sung because he lives, I can face tomorrow because
he lives, all fear is gone. Or if you were
(14:35):
Catholic like me, we sang Christ, our Lord has risen today.
Lou Yeah, right, and we celebrated this great victory that
Jesus accomplished. But Mark writes about that victory, but he
writes about more.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
So let's go through the story. First of all.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
In verse one, it says when the Sabbath was over,
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salomi brought
so that they may go to anoint Jesus's body. So
the first thing we learned is that the original spice
girls came from the Bible, right, And it says very
early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise,
they were on their way to the tomb.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And they ask each other, who will roll.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
The stone away from the entrance of the tomb. Now,
this stone weighed four thousand pounds, y'all, So two women
in his spirit, as I'm sure these two women were,
we're not going to move the tomb from the front
of Jesus's grave. And the Bible says when they looked
up and they saw the stone had been rolled away,
they entered the tomb and they saw a young man
(15:37):
dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side.
And they were alarmed, and the angel said, don't be alarmed.
You're looking for Jesus the Nazarene. He's been crucified, but
he's risen. He's not here. Look at the place where
they laid him. Now that's the first victory that we
celebrate on Easter. But then John goes into the second
(15:58):
victory that we celebrate and he teaches us three things.
Number one, he teaches us that if we're going to
have victory in our life, powders need to turn into
people who start celebrating what God promised to do in
our life. The next verse says that Jesus rose early
on that first day, Resurrection Day, and he appeared first
(16:19):
to Mary Magdalen, out of whom he had driven seven demons.
I don't know what those demons were. Maybe they were anxiety,
maybe they were bitterness, maybe they were depression. Maybe she'd
been abused as a little girl and she had a
lot of issues that she was dealing.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
With in her heart.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
But I know that Mark is making it clear to
us that Mary had these issues. She wasn't getting passed
in spite of the fact that God was a God
who clearly demonstrated himself as a God who fulfilled promises.
And Mark goes on to say in the next verse,
he said that after Mary had Jesus appeared to her,
(16:58):
that she went back to the other people, and the
Bible says they were all weeping as well, and they
didn't believe what happened. And it just tells us that
even though we are celebrating the first victory, which is Jesus'
death on the cross, it's so easy for us at
times to say, what's going on in my heart is
bigger than what happened on the cross. What's going on
(17:20):
in my heart is still bigger than what happened in
the tomb that day, and Jesus will say.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
No, it's not bigger.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
I need you to get over the pouting so I
can bring forth what I promised you that I would
do in your life.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Amen.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
John's account gives us the most detailed description. He says
in verse eleven and John twenty that Mary stood outside
the tomb crying, and as she wept, she bent over
to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels
in white seated where Jesus's body had been, one at
the head and the other at the foot. And the
angels ask her, woman, why are you crying? And listen
(17:56):
to what she said. She said, they've taken my lord away,
and I don't know where they put him. And at
this she turned and she saw Jesus standing there, but
she didn't realize it was Jesus. Now I want you
to mark that phrase because we're going to hear it
again later in this message that Jesus, for some reason
chose to appear in a form that they didn't totally
recognize whenever he came to them. And then notice, whenever
(18:20):
she looked around, the Bible says she saw Jesus, and
notice Jesus asked her the very same question that the
angel asked her. Jesus said, woman, why are you crying?
What are you looking for? You know what Jesus was saying.
He was saying, listen, what are you looking for in
the resurrection? Because if you're pouting, there's something I want
(18:42):
you to see that's going to change everything about your life.
And that is I want you to see that there's
a God who loves you. There's a God who has
power over the power of sin. There's a God who
fulfills everything that he promised. Had said so well in
Romans chapter eight, Paul said, what can separate me from
the love of God? Trouble that I don't know how
(19:05):
to take on hardship I've been through.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I don't know how to handle.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Listen, I've learned a great reality and that is I
can be more than a conqueror through Christ who loved me.
Can say, man, Jesus rose from the dead, and he
can help me rise up above it. But you notice
that first God wanted to help the powders say there's
something about the resurrection I need to embrace that's going
to cause God to fulfill his promises in my life.
(19:30):
And then there was a second group of people that
Jesus appeared to. It's in verse twelve, and it says
after appearing to Mary Magdalen, Jesus appeared in a different
form to two of them while they were walking in
the country. And this is talking about a man named Cleopus,
who is also called Alpheus and also called Clopus at times.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
In the Bible.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
And he was a very dedicated, very mature disciple of Jesus,
but he'd gotten highly discouraged. You want to know how
powerful he was as a person. One of his children
was one of the twelve, His son James, not James
the brother of John the Apostle, but the one called
James the lesson Scripture was the son of Cleopus. Also,
(20:15):
his wife Mary was so dedicated and devoted to Jesus
that when he was hanging on the cross and being crucified.
She boldly stood there and she poured out her love
on Jesus because.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
They knew who he was.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
But sometimes even dedicated mature Christians get discouraged. And I
want you to notice what Jesus did. It said best
in Luke's Gospel, which is.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Very very descriptive.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
It says, now that same day, two of them were
going to a village called Amaeus. It was seven miles
northwest of Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other
about everything that happened. And as they talked and discussed
these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and
walked along with them. But again they were kept from
recognized him. Now why were they kept from recognizing him?
(21:03):
I believe it's because, listen, you can always find God,
but you're going to have to seek him. He's not
going to force himself on you. He's a gentleman. Sometimes
people say, well, pastor, God just doesn't speaking to me.
And you know what I do, just because I'm a
bit ornery as a pastor. I take my Bible when
I do this, and I say, He's speaking to you
right now, these words right here they will heal you
(21:24):
and they'll deliver you from all of your destruction. Can
somebody give me a good amen? And here's the reality.
If you will read God, you'll have no trouble hearing
God in your life.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
But let me tell you, the devil is deceptive.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
And you've got to watch whenever the talking and the
pillow talk starts happening, because he's very good at knowing
your emotion and he's very good and knowing how to
get you off track in life. And so Jesus came
in to these discouraged disciples who needed a course correction,
and verse seventeen says that Jesus asks them, what are
(21:58):
you discussing together as you walk along? And they stood
still with their faces downcasts.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Can I tell you.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Something I wish I learned earlier than I did, And
that is there's only one emotion that I should allow
in my heart, and it's the emotion of joy, because
any other emotion tells me the devil's playing with my heart.
He's trying to tell me I can't get past this difficulty.
He's trying to tell me what he's doing is bigger
than what God's doing in my life. But when I
(22:25):
get into joy, I realize there's a god who not
only fulfilled his promise in that empty tomb years ago.
How many of you are glad we have a god
who won't let us have an empty life, will let
us have an abundant life because of who Jesus is. Amen,
And Jesus says, why are you downcast? And they say, well,
didn't you hear about Jesus of Nazareuth. He was a
(22:46):
prophet powerful in word indeed, and the chief priests and
our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death,
and they crucified him. But we hope that he was
the one who was going to redeem Israel.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
And what's morris?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
The third day, since all this took place, and some
of the women amazed us. They were at the tomb
early this morning, but they didn't find his body. They
came and told us that they had seen a vision
of angels who said he was alive. Then some of
our companions went to the tomb and they found it
was just as the women had said, but they didn't
see Jesus. Now do you see how crazy discouragement is? Basically,
(23:23):
they said Jesus did everything he promised us he would do.
We're sitting here discouraged, and they went to the tomb
and the angels told us he's alive. The women said,
he's not there, but we're still living here in our discouragement.
And can I tell you something before discouragement lifts off
your life, lifts off your family, before God bursts the
(23:45):
new beginning and a legacy of blessing you never want
to miss.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Because listen, the most beautiful work of art I've.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Never seen isn't hanging in a museum somewhere. The most
beautiful works of art I've ever seen are in front
of him this morning. It's kids whose dad walked away,
and they said, Jesus is going to lift me up
above that. It's two dysfunctional people who came together in marriage.
They said, Jesus is going to lift us up above that.
It's people who were fighting addictions and they fell down,
(24:15):
but they didn't give up, but they let the mercy
and the grace of God heal them. Whenever people looked
at him and said, there's no way.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
And that's what this is about.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Jesus wants to birth victory in our lives. How determined
he was not just the rise of the dead, but
to find Mary who let the demonic power back in
her heart. And she was so depressed and so discouraged
to find these two mature disciples who somehow got confused
and they needed.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
A course correction.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
You know a number of people have sent me messages
this week about how in our nation, you know, powerful
people are making a big deal out of how this
is to be like the transgender Day of Visibility. They're
not talking about Easter. They're talking about you know that,
And they say, pastor, what do.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
You think about that? Can I tell what I think?
Speaker 4 (25:07):
I think that the America that I was raised in
is very different than the America i'm pastoring in right now.
And we live in a very confused society. And you
know what God wants from his church. He told us
in Micah sixth eighth. He said, I've told you, oh man,
what's good and what the Lord requires of you.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I want you to do justice.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
I want you to stand up for what's right, because
what's right is what causes people that have a great life.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Can you say, amen?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
But I don't want you just to do justice. I
want you to love mercy. I want you to love
people even more than you love truth. And I want
you to walk humbly with your God. Hey, I got
news for you. The devil's messing, but God's going to
start blessing. There's going to be a revival come to
this country as the Body of Christ does our part.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Can you say amen?
Speaker 4 (25:55):
And then there's a third group of people that Jesus
appeared to, and it was the eleven. Sadly, Judas had
died at this time, he had committed suicide. But verse
fourteen says later Jesus appeared to the eleven as they
were eating, and he rebuked them. Everybody say he rebuked them.
He rebuked them for their lack of faith and their
(26:15):
stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after
he was risen. In other words, Jesus was saying, ma'am,
what do I have to do.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
To get you all to believe? And I love the
fact that he loved.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Them so much he just kept coming back to them.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
But can I tell you.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Something, If you're here today and you have any unbelief
about who Jesus Christ is, you don't have any valid
reason to have any unbelief in your heart for who
Jesus is If you study the three hundred predictive prophecies
made about him, if you look at the miracles the
Holy Spirit did to accreditate the life of Jesus, there's
(26:51):
no doubt that Jesus Christ was the son of God.
Some of us may have stubbornness in our heart. The
stubbornness might come because of what happened to us, because
of even what happened to us in the church. And
I just want to say to you that hopefully you
have family members and hopefully you're in a church like
faith family where our motto is, We're not here to
see through you, we want to see you through How
(27:12):
many of you know, when you know God has great
things in people's lives, you don't want to give up
on the great thing. You want to see the beauty
and the masterpiece be brought forth. Can say, Man, that's
what Jesus calls us to. And that's why he kept
coming to the powder, kept coming to the one who
needed the course correction, kept coming to the people who
were stubborn and they had unbelief in their heart, and
(27:35):
he helped them and somehow Jesus changed.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
The world through them.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Hey can I tell you what my greatest joy is
at Faith Family Church. I'm not looking at perfect people
this morning, but I'm looking at passionate people this morning,
who love Jesus with all of your heart. And how
many of you know because of that you can know
that your blessing will not be because you were perfect.
It's because you just kept saying yes to the one
(28:00):
who is perfect, and he brought blessing into your life.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Amen. I close with this scripture.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
It's in first John five four, and this is what
it says, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
Say that with me for everyone. Now look at your
neighbor and say, so, what's your excuse?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Would you go ahead and do that?
Speaker 4 (28:22):
If everyone born of God can overcome the world, then
what's my excuse? And then listen to how John closes.
He says, this is the victory. Everybody say, this is
the victory. This is the victory that's overcome the world,
even our faith. If you have faith, God has more
than enough power to overcome what the enemy's up to.
(28:44):
He has more than enough power to bring blessing and
a beautiful legacy into your life and into your family's life.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Revival as often as we speak of it, do we
really know what it means. Revival is not just divine intervention.
It's a divine response, God's response to our obedience to
his word. That's what Jim Graff's new book, Character Counts.
Experiencing a cultural comeback is all about. In if we
discover how Godliness leads to revival, today, for your gift
of any amount, we'll send you a copy of Character Counts.
(29:19):
Give today at a significant life dot com. Together, let's
experience the revival we prayed for.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
You will be like.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
God, human unity. God was suffered, and through it all,
God's promise remain true.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Follow me, April, and I will make you great.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
This means the chosen people. Listen to the chosen people
at the Chosen.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
People dot com.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
That's the Chosen People dot Com.
Host
Matthew Potter
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