It’s Your Time (Larry Brey)

Some people call me lb even if few folks call me skinner. But I get the chance to preach God's word with you today, and what a privilege it is for me to open up God's word. And if I haven't had the chance to meet you yet, chances are

you've probably heard me. The few folks we have inside of our balance I location, they're laughing right now because if you've watched any of the sermons at Elevation Church, you might have heard like a voice in the background going like, MMMM, come on, preach it, pastor what other stuff do I say? JJ, that's good. So that's me true confession, Like I want to apologize all the sound engineers. I make your job really hard. But sometimes I just got to praise God. God's been too good for me

to remain silent. And I happen to believe that our pastor is anointed for this generation. He is a Joshua to this season of our life right now, and he's speaking something over the landscape of our world that is needed, and it is in season. But I've been he's been my pastor for eighteen years. I've been following him. I remember the first sermon I ever heard him preach. God is great, God is good. I don't remember what he said, but I know what God spoke eighteen years ago. God spoke,

You're creative for more than what you've become. I know. A pastor preached last week. He preached about thoughts the last two weeks at Elevation Church. Whoo, I'm not what I thought following up with thought Baba's Oh my gosh, because I was sitting in that seat right there when God spoke to my spirit through our pastor's words. He said, you're addicted to your thoughts LB and he said, your

anxiety becomes you're addicted to your thoughts. Because the anxiety comes because you think everybody sees you the way you see yourself, and so I project that you see me the way I think about myself. And it's this gap of anxiety. And the more I honor you, the greater the gap becomes. But now I'm projecting all of my dysfunction on you because I think you see and that's

my anxiety. I was sitting in that seat right there, and so when God gave me that key to unlock that door that had been holding me, I got to praise him. I gotta say thank you, God, thank you for what you've done. But it's not just my anxiety that I'm addicted to. It's also I'm realizing my frustration is coming because I'm addicted to my thoughts. Because I'm not just here because I'm a staff member at Elevation Church. I'm a member of Elevation Pastor. Stephen's my pastor, and

he's preaching words into my life. And when he preached about your thoughts, I realize most of my frustration have because I'm addicted to my thoughts, and my frustration is you're not doing it like I think. And so when I look back and I see where God has brought me from. Oh, my soul, I just got to praise him. So if I act a little undignified, I do not apologize. I'm gonna stand up here and not gonna praise God. And I'm gonna thank my pastor because he is preaching

the word of God. So let's take a second. Tell me thank you past the seamen for that, My Lord, thank you, thank you. Jesus. Hey, I'm gonna open up the Gospel of John today. I'm gonna be in chapter two is where I'm gonna be, says this. This is on the third day. A wedding took place in Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, problem, jesus mother said to him, they

have no more wine. Woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied, my hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you to do. And here's the title for my message today. It's your time. Come on. Type it in the comments, say it out loud to say it's your time. Hey. For those of you at Valentine, you could have a seat, but you're probably sitting already at home, and if you are, hey,

I'm glad you're joining us today. And I'm going to jump right into this text because this is a story that comes out of the Gospel of John. I've been reading it for the last couple of months. Actually, I was inspired to jump into it by a sermon that Pastor Stephen preached. And I'm fascinated by this because you see this scene and this is the first miracle that

Jesus performs. And Mary's at the wedding. She's obviously involved somewhere in the wedding planning situation because the plans don't work out and to run out of wine would be like this huge insult to all of the guests. And she's like, oh snap, we've got a problem. As she does what all of us good Christians should do whenever you have a problem, take it to Jesus. And she's looking at Jesus saying, Jesus, it's in short time. Come on, man, you are creative for this. Do something about it. And

that's funny how she takes her problem to Jesus. We would do well to follow that pattern. Because it sometimes feels like Jesus, rather than being a first option, is way more of a last resort. It's so much easier to go complain to everybody else, send it out on Facebook, and then when it doesn't work out, we just bail and we say Jesus, you're my last option. And she's taking it to him. That's a good pattern to follow.

And I don't know if she knew that Jesus was going to turn water into wine, because here's what happened. Somewhere along the journey. Joseph, Mary's husband, had died, because in the scriptures, Jesus goes from being Jesus the son of the carpenter to being Jesus the carpenter. You see, he was forced to grow up at an early age because in that culture, when the father figure in the house dies, the oldest son takes over. Jesus was the

oldest son. We don't know how long he's been living in this pattern, but it would have been customary for Mary to go to Jesus say, hey, the water pipe is broke. Can you fix it? We need some new breaks on the car. Can you take care of it? We got the bill over there, can you take care of it. It would have been the pattern of her life because she is used to taking all of her

problems to Jesus and she's dependent upon him. And it's just it blows my mind when Jesus looks at her and he's like woman, because you would almost kind of be offended by his response to her. And it's funny because she just kind of ignores it, and rather than being offended, she just tells the servant to do whatever he tells you to do. Because it's really hard to be used by God when you're easy to be offended, and Mary takes a posture that's really hard to be offended.

But we get in this pattern that we only go to Jesus as a last option. Everything else didn't work, so I might as well take it to Jesus, And now I just end up being here in case of emergency, break glass, Jesus, Jesus, I got nothing else what you got for me. And if the only time you're calling someone is to get something from them, there's not much of a relationship. So, ladies, if some dude is only calling you late at night to get something from you,

what do you call that guy? Actually, don't call him put him on the do not call lists, and sometimes we can do the same thing with Jesus. He just doesn't want to do something for you, but he wants a relationship with you. So when he looks at Mary and he says woman, it's something a little more than a correction and a little bit less than a rebuke. And he's not correcting her language, but what he is saying is I need to give you a new perspective.

That's what's happening in this moment. So when he says woman, it kind of startles her because up until that point, all she had seen was her son. What she needs to start seeing him as is as her savior. She comes to him as mother, but she's gonna walk away as a follower. That's what Jesus is starting to do. It's the very first public miracle he does on the landscape at the Horizon, and it is a pivot point in his life that says, now I'm going to show my glory and so that you would believe, and so

whoa Mary. The terms of this relationship are about to change. And because Jesus says, my hour has not yet come, Jesus hour was when he was going to go to the cross and give up his life. That was his hour. And he says, this isn't my hour. And he saying, this isn't my time, but he gets up and he does it anyway. That's where I'm fascinated by the text. Pastor a couple of weeks ago preach a sermon I'm tired on the inside, amazing sermon. Please go back and

watch it. But he says, we cannot manipulate God to fit our agenda. That's what made me go study this whole passage, and it made me study the whole Book of John. One word from my pastor causes me to study this whole thing. And we've had a couple hundred people every morning at seven am in our Matthew's community doing a Bible study based upon one thought that Pastor Stephen preachs. Tell me, Pastor, what you do doesn't matter. It making a difference around the world. Thank you, sir

for doing that. But Jesus said, my hour is not yet come. But yet he gets up and he does it. Why Jesus said, it's not my time, but it's yours. It's your time, Mary, It's your time to start seeing me as something different than you've always seen me. He said, you need to start seeing me as Jehovah Shira, your protector. You need to start seeing me as Jehovah Shabah, the god who is your provider and protector. I am Jehovah Nissi, the banner over your life. I am Elroy, the god

who sees you. And he's about to start revealing parts of his character to her. But it will happen through relationship. It says Jesus, It's not my time, but it is yours. But what prompted the whole thing was a problem that Mary had. It was the it. What's your it? Some of you are like, I got a long list of it's man. Some of you are like, I'm married to it. I drive to it. I can't get away from it. It keeps following me. I thought I paid the bill on it, but it keeps showing back up in the mail.

I don't know what you're it is, but I want you to see it. And what I want to flip your perspective, like Jesus did with Mary, is that problem. It becomes an opportunity to see a new perspective. Because Jesus solves her problem. He does it, but he does not do it for her reasons. He says, I'm not doing it to solve your problem. I'm doing it to give you a new perspective. Everybody is at this wedding, hundreds of people. Not a COVID wedding where you have

four people and everybody else watching. It's not that kind of wedding. It's a wedding where there's hundreds of people there. Everybody sees it, but only a couple people see it. Everybody is there because the scripture says in verse chapter two, verse eleven, it says what Jesus did here in cana Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. The

problem was they ran out of wine. But the motive for Jesus doing it is not for people to have wine. It's so that people could see him at a deeper level and just maybe, just maybe the problem that you're facing is an opportunity to upgrade your perspective and see a whole new aspect of Jesus. Because Mary's there and the disciples of there, and Mary had a relationship with Jesus for thirty years. But don't let familiarity be mistaken as faith, because you can sometimes be close to something

you don't see it anymore. And you got Mary who's been rolling with him for thirty years, but you got the disciples who have just been following him for a couple of days. And what I would submit to you is maybe some of the you that are brand new Christians have it more figured out than some of us that have been walking with him for a long season. And so do not despise the day of small beginnings. And the disciples has just been rolling with him for

a couple of days. So I want you to put a pause on chapter two, and I want to jump back to chapter one because it's so that we see the genesis of a relationship, because God reveals himself through relationship, and God desires to reveal more of himself through you to you through the problem that you're facing. But let's look back and let's see the genesis of a relationship because in chapter one, wait, so happening is two disciples

Andrew and John. Because when Jesus is at the wedding, there's five disciples there, and the first two are Andrew and John. And they're just hanging out and they see Jesus walking by, like, hey, let's follow him. They don't even know why. He's like the lamb of God, like, let's follow you. And Jesus turns to them and he says the most outlandist statement. He looks at them and he says, what do you want? Because some would tell you that God doesn't care what you want. That's not

the God that I know. The God that I know cares deeply about what you want. And he's going to start there and take you to a deeper revelation of him. And they just look at him, says, we just want to be with you. He's like, cool, hang with me. Let's go. So Andrew and John are follow in Jesus. Then the next day that Andrew and gets his brother Peter. He's like, Peter, come check this out. So now you

got three disciples that are following Jesus. Peter and Andrew are from a city in Galilee, and they now convinced Jesus to go to Galilee, where they get this other guy named Philip. God reveals himself through relationship. What you see a pattern with the early Disciples. It spread infectiously through relationships. God gave you that relationship because His glory wants to come through you. That's why you have that relationship.

H'it share right now, h'it share it right now. Share this sermon because somebody needs to come into relationship with Jesus, and God's going to use your relationship to bring them into relationship. So Philip goes and gets his brother Nathaniel, and I want to zoom in on Nathaniel for just a second, because this is the embryo of a relationship.

In verse forty five, it says found Nathaniel and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph Nazareth. Can anything good come from there? You're going to evolution church? Can like Nazareth talking about practice? Man? Nazareth, where you talking? Because he had a box of what the Messiah would look like and God was about to boot pop that bubble. He was about to just just erode all of that.

And in Nathaniel, rather than being offended by him, simply says, just come and see man, just coming, like that's the greatest invitation you could give somebody, just come and see man. That's and here's the here's the crazy part about the story. When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said to him, here, truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Really, he's a human. He's got a lot of deceit. He's

just like you and me. But it's interesting what Jesus calls him and and Nathaniel says, how do you know me? Nathaniel answered, or asked. Jesus answered, I saw you while you will still under the fig tree before Philip called you. Wow. Then you declared, Rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the King of Israel. Jesus said, you believe because I told you that I saw you under a fig tree. You will see even greater things than these. It's a fascinating story that Jesus says, before you came,

I saw you. Because Jesus sees the fullness of you. He sees all of your good and all of your bad, the good, the bad, and the ugly. He sees everything. So when he says I saw you underneath the fig tree, it makes me think about the fig leaf because In the beginning, God created Adam and the If. They had complete intimacy, an amazing relationship. There were no barriers, there were no boundaries, nothing separating us and God. It was perfect relationship. That is Genesis two twenty five. They were

both naked and they felt no shame. It's not a verse about nudity, it's about intimacy. Seven verses later, they're eating, their eyes are opened and sin is injected into the human DNA, and it has echoed throughout the generation since that moment. And so when it says he saw him sitting underneath the fig tree, he says, Nathaniel, I saw you sitting underneath all of that shame. I saw you sitting all underneath all of those decisions you ever did.

And he said, I still called you, I still chose you. You are mine. Come to me. And it's amazing what Jesus says to him. He knows he's been living under the shadow of shame. And some of you don't want to come to Jesus because you don't feel worthy to come into his presence. And I'm telling you that's the very reason Jesus died is to take that shame from you and he sees you in full, but he loves you fully. And what's amazing to me is what he

says to Nathaniel. He knows he's been sitting underneath that shame, and he looks at him and says, here's a true Israelite in whom there is no He does not identify him by his lowest moments. He identifies him by his highest potential. And that is the same thing that God is doing to you. He is calling you into a relationship with himself. And of course Nathaniel's gonna follow him, and he invites him into relationship. And it begins by

seeing who Jesus is. And he had a box that Jesus just popped and he blew his perspective of what the Messiah should look like. And he says, I want to follow you, and he says, you believe because I saw you. Dude, You're gonna see even greater things than these. And when you hear the word greater, I don't want you to think like more square footage, a nicer car, or a bigger paycheck. I want you to think deeper, because what it is is like, follow me into relationship

and it's gonna go deeper. Greater means deeper. You're gonna see new shades of me who I've always been and what you see introduced into the text as a concept of progressive revelation. Progressive revelation is this a fancy way of saying like evangelical term says you were saved, meaning you had a moment where you place your faith in Jesus. You will be saved meaning one day you will see him face to face and you'll be made like him.

But in between your being saved, it's working out your salvation. Astley. Let me tell it to you this way. My wife Janet is here in two of my four kids. Dalen turns twelve on Wednesday. That's my girl. And then my son Corbyn here, he's fourteen. Let me tell you this about progressive revelation. He's an amazing young man. I love him. I remember taking him to school and he's five years old. He wants to like, dad, hold my hand, let's go

to the classroom. He gots a little backfaft gone, He's like, Daddy, I love you. I was like yeah, And then when he's like in fifth grade, he's like dad, I love you. Now He's like in ninth grade, he's like, Dad, man, do I have to say it? Like? You better say you love me? Boy, I'll embarrass you in front of all. But he's like, he loves his dad. Then one day he'll graduate high school and he'll say, Dad, I love you. One day he'll get married and he'll say Dad, I

love you. And one day he'll hold his first born and I look at me and say, Dad, I love you. He's used the same word his whole life, but his understanding has changed over time. That's progressive revelation. And some of us are sitting in an outdated revelation of Jesus. You're stuck in an old download. It's time you update what God has called you to see in this season. And the way that he gives you a new revelation is through the situation. Whether it's a struggle or a celebration,

it's all design for you to see it. It is not the problem being solved, It is the person of Jesus in the problem with you. That's what he wants you to see. But what I realized about relationship is it's progressive revelation Because when I was sitting in that seat and Pastor Steven was preaching, he was talking about carrying multiple roles. Look at Jesus carrying all of these multiple roles. All he has, all of it because when you come to faith in Jesus, you get the fullness

of Christ, but you don't understand in full. That's the progressive revelation. You grow in his character over time. That's he reveals it to you. And it's funny. When Pastor was preaching about roles, here's the other thing that God so spoken to my spirit. Because Corbin, I'm his dad. I've been his dad for fourteen years. It's one of the greatest privilege of my life to be his dad. And I remember being his dad when he's five and we'd eat pizza and we'd wrestle and it was awesome.

And then when he's nine, I had a bunch of rules like, hey, clean your room, brush your teeth, go to bed. And what God spoke to me says, you're still living in a five year old definition of dad. And the reason I'm having frustration in the relationship is not because he doesn't get it. Because I was looking at them. He just doesn't get it. He needs to

respect his dad more. And what I realized it's about my perspective because I have not had a new revelation of what Dad is in five years, and I'm still treating him like an eight year old. And so we had a good talk a couple of weeks ago and said, Corbin, I want to apologize for that because I need to see you differently, because I need to be something different for you. It's a progressive revelation, and I would submit to you that wherever you have frustration in a relationship.

This is going to sound cheesy, but this is the way God gave it to me, that frustration is an opportunity for a revelation. I just gave somebody, Marri little advice. It's like the old couple that's been married fifty years and they're talking to the young and the old man looks at the young buck, and the young buck says, man, how did you show you loved her every day? He goes, well, when we married fifty years ago, I told her I loved her, and I said if anything changed, I'd let

her know. Belief in Jesus is not a one time event. It is an everyday occurrence. It is growing in your belief. And so when we jump back into the text. I want you to understand. You've got somebody who's been in relationship thirty years, and somebody three days, and all of them Jesus wants to reveal himself to them. I don't care where you're at on that continuum. I don't care if you're brand new at Jesus or you've been following him for a long time or year. Wherever Jesus wants

to reveal himself to you. Verse six a chapter two. Nearby stood six six stone water jars, the kind of used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding me to twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, filled the jars with water. So they filled them to the brim. Then they told him, now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the

wine that water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water new. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, everyone brings out the choice wine, and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you've saved the best. Tell now, what Jesus did here in Kana Galilee was the first of the science to which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him. So the initiation of this

miracle began with a mother just having a problem. And I want to tell you that your problem matters to God, and he sees it and he's drawn to it. But he's going to do something with it. It might look like, might not look like what you thought it would, but the opportunity exists for you to see Him in it. And some of the miracles you don't see until you

look back on it. Because in this thing, there's an old Testament sacker official system where people had to earn the right to be cleaned before God is following these rules and doing these rituals, and it's so much easier to be a parent with rules rather than a father. In relationship, it's so much easier because I can live in rules that stay the same for generations and never change.

But that's not relationship. Relationship is living in a way that sees the other person and adjusting with them over time. And so Jesus is going to kick over the old Testament sacrificial system, and from those ceremonial washing jars, He's going to bring forth a new sacrifice that will be a new atonement for the forgiveness of sins. They wouldn't see that until later, but everybody's at the wedding. Everybody

sees it, but only a couple people see it. And I think there's three groups of people that are sitting at this wedding. And as I walk through these three layers of people, what I want you to understand this is taking it deeper. So when God told Nathaniels you'll see even greater things, he would now walk with him for three years, miracle after miracle after miracle. And the miracle wasn't the feeding of the five thousand. The miracle was seeing Jesus in the middle of it. That's what

the miracle was. Not everybody saw that because some people only wanted to eat the food and fill their belly and the next day but they were hungry again. I got to decide where do I want to be. Do I want to be hungry tomorrow or do I want to be with Jesus today. That's what God brings us to. And so this top layer I think is at the wedding is a level of enjoy because Jesus brings out the choice wine. I mean, read the text. This isn't

a pro or against alcohol. It's saying Jesus brought it and it was good stuff, and everybody at the wedding enjoyed it. And many people woke up with a little buzz the next day, but they went right back to life as normal and the miracles happening in the moment. But some people are only caught up with the wine. Maybe we would do well to inspect what is it? Do I just want him to solve it? Do I just want to enjoy it? But what I want to tell you is Jesus always starts with what you want

to get you to see what you need. There would be some that would preach that Jesus doesn't care what you want. He doesn't want you happy, he wants you holy. Come on, man, he cares about your happiness, he absolutely does. But He's got something deeper in mind for you. It's the starting place. And I know you're so overwhelmed trying to figure out how to homeschool your kids, and you're so overwhelmed by looking at the images on our TV right now, and it makes us give up hope that

he could ever change. And what Jesus is saying in the middle of all that problem, I am in it, and if you choose you can see me in it. I think there's a second layer, because in verse nine it says, and the master of the banquet tasted some of the water they've been turned into wine. He did not realize where it comes from, though the servants who drew the water knew. The second level is no is knowledge. It's to know something. So yet everybody enjoying the wine,

some people knowing where it came from. And there's a guy in the Bible named Nicodemus in chapter three of John that he's one of the religious leaders. He's like, I'm the supreme Court of Israel. And he comes to Jesus at night and at night speaks of disbelief. And he's got a box of knowledge that he has created from all of this studies that comes into the presence of Jesus and says, who are you? And he says, I'm the Messiah, and he says, how could this be?

That doesn't make sense because it does not fit in my box. And sometimes the very thing that keeps you from believing in Jesus is the knowledge you have. Wow. Because Jesus looks at him and says, this can only be revealed by the truth, by the spirit. He says, how can that be? He said, it won't make sense until you have the spirit. How can it be? It's because you have a paradigm of what you think God is supposed to look like and not look like, what

you think God should do and should not do. And when God doesn't do something you don't think lines up with what he should do, you walk away from it. Don't forfeit what you believe about God based upon what you don't understand. Because every time you come to this paradigm to say I don't understand it, you can either walk away and reject it, or you will lean into it, say God, show me a new revelation of who you are. Nicodemus represents this knowledge base that says God should look

like this. Thus saith the Lord, and he walks away from the conversation. But the beauty of our God is long suffering, willing that none should perish. So when you see Nicodemus later in John, while all the disciples have scattered. He's helping take it in Jesus' body off the cross. That's how much he loves you, even if your knowledge is a roadblock today. I believe that Jesus is going to be persistent. He's going to keep bringing things into

your life. I believe that one day you will bend your knee, you will declare him as your Lord and savior. But some of us have a not lot of knowledge. But the third level is belief. That's what he spoke of in verse eleven, that God's glory would be revealed and that you would believe. It's fascinating to me that we would be included in a sentence with God's glory. That alone makes me go, like your glory and my belief line to believe, to believe, and I have to believe.

At this point in the Miracle, Mary forgets about the original problem because she sees the person of Jesus and she's got an upgraded revelation of who he is. He has gone from son to savior. He's gone from just I am his mama to now I am his follower. It's absolutely amazing, and there's a difference between knowledge and belief.

I used to teach college classes in sports medicine. So I teach college classes about sports nutrition, and I could teach you about macronutrients and micronutrients and the value of vegetables in your life. And I know a lot about vegetables. But do you know how vegetables I eat in a month? Probably about zero? Why? Because I don't believe in vegetables. Like I know about him, but I don't believe in them. Do you believe Jesus or do you just know about him?

I'm not talking about a list of rules that you follow in order to earn his favor. I'm talking about a persistent, ongoing relationship that calls you into deeper, that calls you into deeper. He's saying, come off the shallow end of the pool. I am a deep well, and you'll never get to the bottom of it. And Jesus is biding you into a deeper relationship with him. And we've got to push past the knowledge into the land of unbelief. And some of these things are only revealed

by spirit. And Jesus goes on to record. John records six other miracles that Jesus does in this Book of John. It is a book of belief, misunderstanding miracles. And what you start to see is the whole crowd enjoyed the wine. The whole crowd enjoyed the bread. Some people knew, but a few believed. It's not a one time event. It's a relationship. That's why Jesus did these miracles. But it's funny. Jesus did the miracles so that the disciples would believe.

But did you know that when John wrote this, he was thinking of you. Jesus is the miracles for the disciples. John wrote this book for you. Let me show you. You never knew this, did you. I believe that in eternity past, when God thought of what would happen in the future, he had you in mind. And that's why he had John write this letter. He had him write

this book. In John twenty, Verses thirty and thirty one, it says Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But they are. But these are written that you, who's the you, is your time. John is saying, so that you would believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him that you'd have a moment that you believe, but you walk out a relationship that you progressively keep believing in him that you may

have life in his name. And I know you're staring at some it's there's some big h's and there's some big problems, and Jesus saying, I want to meet you in it, but I want to show you me in it. And all the time he's saying, my hour is not yet come. My hour is not yet come. But as you get to the end of John, he looks at

his disciples and he says, my hour has come. His assignment when he stepped out of glory, robed himself in flesh and made his dwelling amongst us, was to crawl upon a cross so that he would suffer a death, so that you and I could be forgiven of all of our sins. That was his hour. And as he's walking with his disciples, they wouldn't understand this until looking back on it. And Jesus has to go to the cross,

and that's his assignment, that's his hour. And while they're at the cross, the disciples had dispersed, and here you've got Mary, his mother. John, the guy who wrote this book, and a few other women, and I just want to speak over the ladies you're working so hard, the mom who's trying to make it, the single woman who's just trying to get ahead, the single mom who doesn't feel like I have enough to give to everybody. I want to tell you that Jesus sees you, He sees you.

It says that as Jesus is up on the cross. It says when Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loves standing nearby, he said to her woman, So pitcher Mary watching her son give up his life. She's looking at this situation of despair and she can't do anything about it. You want to talk about a pain that is deep. She's watching her firstborn, her child die, and she's looking up at her savior, and she's filled with grief. And picture the scene. The Roman soldiers have

just cast lots and divided his clothes. The Jewish leaders have a righteous indignation, feeling like they have killed the one who will put us in power the rest of our days. And all of these other people, like we don't know what to make of it. But there's a couple people who are believing in that point. But yet their pain is so immense, and the excruciating pain that Jesus is under as he's watching all of this, and he looks down and he says, woman, I've heard that before.

He says, you're looking up and you're seeing me as your savior. But he says, woman, here is your son, because I'm also your son. And then he looks at John. He says, take her home, because it's a son. I need to make sure my mom is taken care of. Imagine the pain in that moment. Mary's watching the pain of her son. And yet on the cross, he sees her, and he sees you. He sees the pain, he sees

the anguish, He cares deeply about the sleepless nights. And even on the cross, Jesus is revealing his character to his mother because one of the names of God is Elroy. It's the God who sees and cares for me. Even in his hour. He says, I see you because he said my time is your time, My hour is your hour. The reason I came is for you. And he sees you in your pain, and he's leaning out of glory into humanity, and he meets with you and he's calling you.

And imagine Mary as she hears the words uttered from her son. Woman, here is your son, and then she is taken care of whatever problem you're facing matters to Jesus. But he's using that problem to show you his person. And if you have never placed your faith in Jesus, this is the moment that God is calling you by name. Nathaniel, come here, Josephine, come here, James, come here, Sally come here. He's calling you by name. And you've been resisting your whole life. You've had a box of what God is

supposed to do. But God has popped that box and you're seeing the person of Jesus. He sees you. He is elroyd to you. He's the God who cares, and he's calling you into relationship with him. And if you have never placed your faith in Jesus, if you've never been forgiven of your sins, this is your moment. This is your time. All around the world, we're going to say a prayer together right now for someone to begin that relationship with Jesus. There's a step that all of

us need to take. Some of you have been staring at your problems, but you've not been seeing the person of Jesus in it. Some of you, this is the genesis of a relationship. Wherever you're at. If you could buy your heads, if you could close your eyes. I'm going to lead us in a prayer right now. And as you say these words with your mouth, if you believe them in your heart, the Bible says you will be saved. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross and rose from

the grave to forgive me of all my sins. I give you my life, I give you my sin, I give you my shame. Forgive me, and I'll spend my life following you. Now, if you just prayed that prayer, if you just ask Christ into your life, what you need to know is that all of Heaven is rejoicing, and the few people we have at Balantine or rejoice with you. Come on, would you drop it in the comments and let us know if you just asked Jesus into your heart, greatest decision you'll ever make. Welcome to

the Family of God. I'm so proud of you. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevation Church Slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at

Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.