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- [00:00]
Podcast Advertiser
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- [00:02]
Steven Furtick
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- [01:36]
Amy Corbett
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- [02:09]
Steven Furtick
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
- [02:23]
Amy Corbett
Okay, so here's our scripture Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28. Jesus is talking and he says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Lord, would you bless the reading of your word today? Thank you for the message that you have given me. Speak through me now. In Jesus name I pray.
- [02:58]
Steven Furtick
Amen.
- [03:00]
Amy Corbett
You can be seated. Well, it's Mother's Day, and I feel like it would be amiss if I did not take a minute to pick on my own kids. Now I have teenagers. Any moms of teenagers here with me today, let me know online. My kids are 20. I know that's not a teenager, but it basically is 20, 18, and 15. I know you're thinking, she does not look old enough to have children that age. I do. Okay, listen. So I just want to say that raising kids is no joke. And for those of you who are here, you didn't raise your hand. Maybe you have little ones and you think that you cannot wait for things to get easier. Look, this is all I have to say. It doesn't get easier. It just gets different. And every season has wonderful and hard, and it's all mixed in at the same time. So just buckle up, settle in, and stand your ground. All right, so our teenagers. Teenagers can be really fun, and they bring a lot of life into our house. And we have some amazing conversations and debates around our dinner table. It's really fun, actually, to get to watch your kids grow up and to start to develop their own opinions, especially when their opinions match up with my opinions. I like that. And just watching them begin to, like, thrive in their giftings. And one of the things that is easier with teenagers is a lot of the communication happens over text messaging. And often my kids will use words or phrases that are new to me, or they're like, I know them, but they're using them in a different way. And sometimes I like them. Like, I like it when Abby calls me queen. But then I have figured out that she usually calls me queen after I send her money. You know, so it's like, mom, can I have money for lunch? And I'll say, yes, and she'll say, thanks, queen. So, but there's one phrase that they all text me, and I just. I have mixed feelings about this phrase. There's just. There's something about it that bothers me, and I haven't been able to put my finger on it. And I know that they're basically just saying yes, but to me, it doesn't sit well with me. So the conversation might go something like this. I will text Elijah, can you take out the trash? And he will reply, I got you. Abby, did you practice piano? I got you. Graham, you need to be home by midnight. I got you. And recently, it all clicked for me. So it's Graham's senior year, and his prom was right around the corner. And we all know that boys are not like girls. They do not plan their outfits months in advance. And they care, but they don't care. They don't remember to care or something. I don't know. So about a month before prom, I checked in with Graham and I texted him, and I was like, you know, what are you wanting to wear to prom? And he said, can you help me find a baggy suit? So I was like, okay. So I sent him several links to several suits that would arrive in plenty of time. And then I just mentally checked it off my list. Well, two weeks before prom, I panicked, and I realized that Graham never replied to me. And. And we had nothing on the way. Now, a good mom would have just said, I guess you'll have to wear your not baggy suit. The old one. But that's not what I did. I rush ordered a suit for him because it was a senior prom, you know, And I was like, it's fine. Get him a baggy suit. And so the suit comes in. It's five days before prom, and of course, the sleeves need to be tailored. So I found a tailor. I found one that was close to our offices where Graham works. And I texted him this. I just. I'm going to read you exactly what I said. I said, I got your suit to the office. You need to pick it up and take it to the tailor. Please let me know you see this. And he replies, I got you. Okay. It all came together. Why this phrase annoys me so much? Because in this scenario, how do you got me? I got the suit, I got the tailor. I got the suit to the office. No, you don't got me. I got you. And I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of mothers everywhere, to children everywhere, this Mother's Day 2026. I got you. I got your lunch. I got your ride. I got your cleats, I got your iPad, I got your toilet paper. I got your dentist appointment. I got you. I been getting you your whole life. All the moms, if you're anywhere near your Child, maybe you just want to send them a text message. If they're not with you, this is your opportunity. Look at them and say, I got you. Okay, here's the title of my message today. Are you ready for this? God's got you. God's got you. Now we got to get back to Jesus. Matthew 11. I love this passage of the Bible because Jesus is inviting his disciples into a new rest. He says, come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest for your souls. And today I want to talk to anyone here who feels weary and burdened, because I think that accounts for most of us in this room. Most of us are weighed down by something. We're weighed down maybe by our job or our bills or relationships, our commitments, our responsibilities. We're weighed down by the events going on in our world. And we're wondering how it's going to affect our families. We carry the weight of our past decisions. We worry about the future. We think about our dreams. We think about our challenges. We think about our disappointments. And I want to show you that Jesus is inviting you into a new kind of rest. It's not a rest that means sleep. It's not a rest that means a break from work. It is a rest that means it's a lifting of your burdens. It's a weight off your shoulders. So I wanna look at this passage again because I wanna show you something that I almost miss. Because a lot of the times when I read the Bible, I'm not like Pastor Steven. When I read the Bible, I like to go to the good verses. Like, you know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm like, I just need that today. Cause I just read that one. Or, you know, all things work together for good. And then I sit stop after the end of the good verse. And I sometimes miss the context of the verses around it and being able to understand what the verses really mean and who they were spoken to and how I can actually apply them to my life. So I wanna get back to read these verses again, and I wanna show you the events that were surrounding what Jesus is saying right here. And I want you to watch for the action. So we'll start back at Matthew 11:28. It says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath. He answered, haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven't you read the law that the priests on the Sabbath duty in the temple, desecrate the Sabbath, yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus says these beautiful words to his disciples on the Sabbath while they're walking through some grain fields. He's teaching and he's demonstrating. It's not a coincidence that he's telling them this on the Sabbath. He's talking to them about rest on the day of rest. And he allows them to eat some grain as they're walking through the field, knowing that this is breaking a Sabbath rule. Now, what's important to note is that during this moment in time, the Jewish people were weighed down with rules. They had rules on rules on rules about everything, but especially the Sabbath. Now these rules, they started out as well intentioned, the Pharisees. They were the teachers of the law. Their original intent was good. They were trying to interpret the law so that ordinary people could obey it under daily conditions. But what happened was the law that was originally intended to give God's people structure, it began to suffocate them. And the people were burdened with the weight of. Of all the things they could and could not do on a daily basis. They had rules for rules for rules. And when it came to upholding the Sabbath, the day of rest, they had developed 39 categories for what was or wasn't considered work. Here's a few of the more extreme rules that I found. So wearing a jacket was permitted, but carrying one would be considered a sin. A tailor was not allowed to carry a needle for fear of being tempted to mend a garment. I like this one. No fire could be lit or extinguished, but fires already burning could be used. Baths were forbidden on the Sabbath because if water spilled, it would be considered work to. To mop up the floor. And then this one's pretty funny. Women were not permitted to look into A mirror on the Sabbath, lest they spot a gray hair and pull it out. Okay, now we laugh because this seems really absurd, but I don't know what's in your feed. But lately, as a woman in her 40s who does look in mirrors and find occasional gray hairs, my feed has a lot of rules for rest too. Like, here's a few that I wrote down. I'm supposed to drink enough water during the day, but not after 7pm or you'll be up all night. I'm supposed to avoid caffeine six to eight hours before bed. I'm supposed to exercise so my body will be tired, but not exercise too close to bedtime or you'll be awake. You're supposed to wake up and go to bed at the same time every day, even on the weekends. Avoid long or late naps. Keep naps under 30 minutes, no screens, two hours before bed. Avoid having bright alarm clocks. I think we have also made a job out of getting rest. The one thing that was supposed to be relaxing we've turned into work in something that we need to worry about. And this is what's happening in this passage. They managed to turn the Sabbath, a gift, a day of rest, into this impossible amount of work and something to worry about if they were doing it right or doing it wrong. And so when the Pharisees sat, saw the disciples picking grain, they waved the red flag. He said, jesus, they're breaking the rules. And, and, and, and Jesus, of course, he turns around and, and he. And he uses scripture to overrule their rules. And he starts talking about David and the priests, and he quotes the prophet Hosea to them. And he says to them, I am the Lord, even over the Sabbath, I came to set you free. Free from these rules. Now listen, rules are man's attempt to define faith. They're our way of controlling the parts about God that we just can't necessarily grasp. So we hear something like, God wants to have a relationship with you. And so we give it a tangible definition. Well, what does that mean? Well, it means go to church, read your Bible, pray, memorize scripture, and do these things and avoid these things. And these parameters are not bad. They're meant to bring us joy. They're meant to help us grow in our faith. They're meant to give us guidelines so we don't ruin our lives. But if we're not careful, we will begin to worship the rules instead of the Savior. I wish I had heard this message when I was in my 20s. There's nothing wrong with Sabbath. Many People today practice upholding the Sabbath. They set aside one day each week to rest and to reset. That's amazing. Sabbath is. It was given to us by God. God rested on the seventh day of creation. He wants us to have rest from our work, too. But that's not what this message is about. I'm not talking about physical rest today. I'm not talking about going on vacation. I'm talking about what you carry and why are you carrying it, and should you be carrying it, and why are you so tired and how do we find rest? And so Jesus, he's introducing this new idea. He's saying, what if there is a way to find rest while you're living out your everyday life? And I believe that God sent me to tell you today that you're letting some things weigh you down that he never intended for you to carry. And there's a rest that we can enter into as believers in Christ that goes beyond the rules. And it allows us to somehow move through the hardship and the difficulties and the seasons that we go through in life in a way that we never knew was possible. Jesus is redefining rest, and he's using this word picture of a yoke to define it. Now, the irony here is funny because a yoke was an instrument that represented work. So a yoke is a piece of farming equipment that would have been a common sight in this day and time. It was a piece of equipment that you would use to harness two oxen together. And in order to pull a heavy load. I have a picture so that you can sort of get your mind around this. Okay, so here we have two oxen who are yoked together. They're pulling a plow. And the man behind them, the farmer, he's guiding the plow. This would have been a picture that they knew well. So essentially, Jesus is saying to us, true rest is found when we do the work together. Saying, yoke up with me. He's calling them to relationship over rules. He's inviting them, come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble and hard, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Today I want to point out three words straight from this text and break it down. Come, take, learn. The Pharisees said, do, do this, don't do that, do better, do more. Jesus says, come, he's calling you. He's calling the weary and the burdened and I want you to know today that if you feel weary or burden, that is the very thing that qualifies you to come to Jesus. We get this backward. We think we need to get rid of our burdens so that we can come to Jesus. We think in order for God to use us, we have to get rid of the weight of our guilt, get rid of our shame, get rid of. Or to somehow make up for our mistakes or our worries or anxieties. Before we can come to Jesus, we have to make ourselves a vessel that he could use or somebody that he would even want to. Why would he want a partner up with me? I'm so weighted down. But some we, we think that God needs someone that he would want to yoke up with and pull the weight together, right? But the opposite is actually true. The very fact that you feel burdened is what qualifies you to come to Jesus. He's waiting with the gift of rest that he has for you. But in order for you to receive it, you have to come to him. He says, come to me. He says, stop going everywhere else to find rest. You're not gonna find rest at Sandals. Stop numbing, stop avoiding, stop thinking that rest is something out there. Stop going to other people to relieve your burdens. You don't have to work harder to avoid these feelings. He says, just come to me. Come to me. And then he reveals something about his heart. He says, I'm gentle and humble in heart. Now, did you know that this is the only time in all four gospels that Jesus reveals the nature of his heart? I read a book by the man name of a man named Dane Ortland. And he says that when the Bible talks about the heart, it's talking about the center of all we do like, the reason we get out of bed in the morning, the center of who we are. And he said, so when Jesus reveals his heart to us, he could have revealed a lot of things. But what he says, my heart is gentle and humble. Some versions say lowly of heart. Gentle, meaning he has open arms for you, not pointing fingers. His heart towards you is not judgment, it's patience. It's kindness. It's love, not lecture. And when it says that he is lonely in heart, this is. Did I say lonely? Lowly in heart. It's talking about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the one that one day we will all bow our knee to and confess that he is Lord. That guy. He humbled himself so that he could be accessible to you. His heart toward you is gentle. It's not harsh. It's not condemning. It's not punishing. He's gentle and lowly. He bends towards you. He wants you to get in the yoke with him. He's okay with your mess and your problems and your mistakes. This is who we are coming to. Jesus. Jesus, our gentle and lowly Savior who wants to give us rest. He says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. And then he says, take my yoke upon you. So now we have to take action. We have to. We have to put the yoke on. Okay, can I illustrate this for you? So all the ladies who cheered earlier that you are coming to reflect, any of you, were you here last year at Reflect? Okay, cool. Yeah. All right. So do you remember this? Okay, so at Reflect, we talked about fighting the good fight and finishing the race, and we talked about all of the things in life that we're called to carry and the things that we're not called to carry as we run this race that's marked out for us. Nod your head if you remember the sermon so I can feel good about how hard I worked on that sermon. Okay. Okay. So remember how I told you that I got one of these because Instagram told me that I needed it so that I could be strong and open Jars when I'm 70 years old? So I told you, though, that it was. You know, it was. It was September, and I'd gotten mine in June, and I was waiting for it to get cooler before I really started wearing this on my walks. Well, I have a bit of a confession. I do not feel, in all honesty, that I have the right to put this thing on again in front of you because I have had the cooler weather of fall, winter, and spring. And I confess to all of the women of our church that I've maybe worn this thing three times since it made its appearance on this very stage. And so, because, like, this is what I've decided, this thing, it takes all the fun out of walking. Like, walking was the last shred of exercise that I did not dread until the Internet told me that my walks don't count if I'm not wearing one of these. And I'm sorry, but I just don't want to do it. I have decided that I am not giving up the enjoyments of walks around my neighborhood with my husband so that I can open a jar when I'm 70. Look, props to you if you love your hot girl walks. You do you. Okay. Oh, okay. Sorry. Anyway, so, because of that, I feel a little bit hypocritical putting this on in front of you. So I thought maybe I could get my dear friend Amy Corbett to come up here. Everyone, help me welcome Amy Corbett to the stage. Okay? Chonks and Amy were the very first couple to commit to starting this church with us. They have been by our side for 20 years. Amy is one of my best friends in the whole world. And you know, Amy, I thought about how many times my husband has called your husband on this stage during a sermon for an illustration. And to my knowledge, you have never been used as an illustration. It's been 20 years. It's been a long wait. Today is your day to shine. Happy Mother's Day. Okay, Amy is going to represent us today. Today, all of the people who feel weary and heavy, burdened. Now, Amy and I have been close for 24 years, and I'm pretty sure I know everything there is to know about Amy. I know things about Amy that she has forgotten. I'm still mad at that girl who stole your baby name 21 years ago. We're that kind of close. Okay, now, when we think of the yoke that Jesus is talking about, we could think that the yoke is sort of like this weighted vest. And inside the vest are all of the weights that we carry. So I've got some weights here. Like, Amy has severe allergies. Amy's allergic to chicken. Who's allergic to chicken? Amy is. So Amy carries the weight of allergies of a health issue. Okay. Amy's the mom to two young adults who also text. I got you. So we're going to give her a weight for that. Amy is married to Chunks Corbett. So, I mean, obviously, this is a weight that Amy. That Amy carries. Okay. I don't know if you know this. Amy works full time at Elevation. Her job, one of her jobs is to who get elevation. Worship songs on Apple Music and Spotify and radio. Aren't you grateful for Amy? Okay. But she carries the weight of the responsibilities of her job. Here is a weight to represent Amy's sin and her mistakes. Amy doesn't have a lot, but we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we've got a weight for all of her. Her sins and her mistakes. This is the things that Amy's worried about that are keeping her up at night. She carries that weight. This is a weight for grief. I know that Amy's lost several loved ones, and that's something that she thinks about and that weighs her down. But here's the thing that I want to illustrate to you today. Most of us think that God is another one of these. A lot of us have gotten the wrong impression about God. It's easy to confuse having a relationship with God with. With religion. But Jesus did not die so that we would be weighted down by a different, more modern set of rules. Jesus came to set us free. Romans 8:1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The enemy wants you. He wants nothing more than for you to think that you need to try harder. He wants you to think that you need to pray more. He wants you to think that you need to clean yourself up. He wants you to think that you need to prove that you are worthy. And I want you to know that that is not from God. Jesus is not another weight in your vest. First, John 5. 3. Look at this. It says, we know we love God because we keep his commands, and his commands are not burdensome. Listen to this. God's way is meant to make you lighter. He says, take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Okay, so, Amy, put those weights down right here. And let's take this vest off. Because as long as we have this vest on, I'll help you because I know it's heavy. We cannot take up the yoke that Jesus offers. So, okay, this is not the yoke that Jesus is talking about. This is, Jesus came to save us, not to weigh us down. And no matter what is weighing you down, no matter what feels like it is about to take you under, I want you to know that God's got you. Take his yoke. He says his yoke is easy. Some scholars suggest that that word means that it's well fitting. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. It lifts you. And then he says, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart. This is a process. Jesus is not saying that when you take his yoke that you're immediately gonna be freed of all pain and hardship. Pain and hardship are part of living on this earth. When you learn to take his yoke, you not only allow him to abide with you in your place of need, he wraps you up. No matter what is weighing you down, he offers you open arms. He stands by ready to show you that there is a new way for you to carry this load together. Jesus, your Savior, is in. In it with you. Thank you. Thank you. Amy, let me have that jacket just in case I need it. Okay. I'm going to Put these down here. Stay with me here. I want to show you another passage of scripture. I want to take you to Hebrews, chapter four. Because I want to show you something else that we can learn about Jesus. Now the book of Hebrews, it was written to Jewish Christians. And the Jewish Christians, they were second guessing their conversion to Christianity. And they were wanting to go back to the old, more comfortable Jewish customs and laws. Because sometimes rules, they make you feel good, they make you feel safe. And the writer of Hebrews, he's trying to convince them the whole book, he's trying to convince them not to go back to, to the burden of the old law. And he gets to chapter four, verse 11. And it says this. Oh, you're going to like it. Let us therefore make every effort to enter into that rest so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than a double edged sword, it penetrates to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith that we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses. But we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are. Yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Now we get a new picture of Jesus. Matthew tells us that Jesus said that he is gentle and lowly of heart. But Hebrews adds to us and tells us that Jesus is our great high priest. The job of the priest in the Old Testament was to represent the people to God. Jesus came to earth and he lived in human form. He was tempted, the scripture just told us, in every way. But he knew no sin. That means that he can be our high priest. He not only knows all of the things that we carry that are making us feel weary, he is a priest who empathizes with our weaknesses, meaning he actually knows how we feel. And because of his work on the cross, we can look at that last verse again. This has got to be the most beautiful verse in the entire Bible. Maybe we one of. Okay, it says this. Look at it. Verse 16. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. I'm sorry, one more time. What was that? That third word? Let us then approach. Our pastor just spent the last two weeks telling us how we can change the the end to then. And this is so beautiful because this is a then moment for you. We have the opportunity to come before the throne, and we can trade this for this. Let us then approach God's throne. Some of the versions say boldly so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need. In other words, every weight in this vest, I can't even lift it up. Why do we wear those things? Every weight in this vest is either pardoned by mercy or empowered by grace. That's something you can write down. Every weight you bear is either pardoned by mercy or empowered by grace. Now, here's the difference between grace and mercy. Warren Wiersbe said this. I'm gonna read it slow. Cause you kind of have to listen. Mercy means that God does not give us what we deserve. It's talking about, like, punishment or judgment. That's mercy. Grace means God gives us what we do not deserve. Forgiveness, pardoned, new life, power. Every weight that you carry. God's got you covered with either mercy or grace in your time of need. So if you carry the weight of shame from a past mistake, you can come boldly and receive mercy. If you carry the weight of a lost loved one today, you can come with confidence and receive grace to get through your grief. If you're walking through a job loss, there's grace. Maybe you could have handled a situation differently. There's mercy. Maybe you're trying to finish the school year strong. There's grace. Rest is not an event. It's an invitation to receive grace and mercy in your time of need. You do not have to go through life feeling weary and burdened. All you have to do is come boldly and accept the gifts of mercy and grace. Pastor Stevens said something last week that really stuck with me. He said, you can't always change the result, but you do get to choose your response. And that really spoke to me. And as I was praying about, like, how God wanted me to break this down and to make this really clear and practical. I was just thinking about that and the weights that we carry and how they fall into these two categories, like the ones that we probably could have prevented, the ones that. And the ones that we carry that were outside of our control. Like, for instance, maybe you made a Bad choice. And you would give anything to go back and relive that moment again and make a better choice. And that moment weighs you down. Others carry burdens of things that we could not have prevented. Maybe you have an illness or you have a family situation that you have to manage every single day, and you feel like it just sets you back. We don't always get to choose the things that. That are weighing us down. But Pastor Steven said we can choose our response. And sometimes I think that we need to get bold with our situations and respond to what we're going through rather than just react. Do you know what I mean by that? Like, when my boys were little, they were wild. Like two little boys two years apart. They ran everywhere. They're like running and darting everywhere. And so. So it was hard to, like, take them anywhere. And I remember one time we went to the offices in the middle of the day, and Elijah, like, somehow, I don't know, he was probably like 4 years old. He got away from me and he ran over to the door of his dad's office, and he was about to go in, and one of our staff members stopped him and said, you can't go in there. They're having a meeting. And Elijah looked back at that staff member and said, yes, I can. That's my dad. The enemy wants you to stay weighted down with shame and anxiety and worry. He wants you to think that weary is your way of life. And I want you to know that that is a lie. And it's gonna take some boldness for you to break free from it. But you can come boldly to his throne. You are a child of God because of Jesus. We can come boldly. We just read in Hebrews that the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two edged short. It says it's able to divide between soul and spirit. Now, when this was written, they didn't have the completed work of the Bible like we do, but many of them had walked with the Word himself. You know, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The words of Jesus, the things that he taught, they were fresh and they were circulating among them. And I wonder if the writer of Hebrews, when he said, let us enter into this rest, if he was recalling the words that Jesus had said when he taught his disciples about this new rest. And I want to tell you today that there is not only mercy for every bad decision that you have made and grace for every situation that you face, I want you to know that there is a word that God wants to give you that you can cling to. You can get bold with the Bible. There is instruction in this book. There is victory in this book. There is comfort in the words of this book. There is power found in this book. When I was in college, I was that I was supposed to write out scripture and put it up where I could see it. And I thought that it was something I was supposed to do, you know, like a rule. But now I'm a grown woman and it's not a rule to me. It's a lifeline for me. And recently I got a fresh journal and I started writing out scripture that I felt that God was giving me about different things that I was going through, things that were weighing me down. And I would just find the couple Bible verses each week and I would write it out. And then I just began to read these scriptures out loud when I felt overwhelmed. And it's not magic, okay? But I can tell you that even though the situations that I was praying about didn't necessarily see some massive change because I spoke scripture over them, but somehow they just weren't weighing me down the same way. I felt a lift off of my shoulders. And I want you to know that you can get aggressive about the things that are weighing you down. I'm just giving to them. And that's how I wanted to end this week, because I want to pray for you, that you would be able to start to gather scripture that speaks to you with what you're going through. You can get a journal, you can get some index cards. You can get gas receipt and write a verse on the back of it and start to read those verses out loud because you can come boldly. Maybe you think, like, I can't come to God. I don't know what to say. You can come boldly to his throne of grace and receive mercy and grace in your time of need. That's what I want to tell you today. Jesus, gentle and lowly of heart, bends towards you. And he stands before you today with open arms. And he's offering rest for your soul. And I just want that to minister to you. I just want you to think about that for a moment. God of the universe, he wants to yoke up with you. He wants to lift your burdens. You don't have to carry your burdens all by yourself. He stands by ready to help in your time of need.
- [43:55]
Steven Furtick
Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can Click the link in the description to Give now or visit Elevation 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 LevationChurch thanks again for listening. God bless you. Most Mother's Day gifts end up in a drawer, but a song lives in the heart forever. This year tryjoybox.com is giving away 11 million free custom songs to celebrate 1 million incredible moms. Just share a few memories and joy. Box produces an original track in greeting card just for her instantly. It's the most personal gift you'll ever give and right now it's completely free. Make mom the star of her own song@tryjoybox.com 1,000,000 songs $0 only@tryjoybox.com @cvs it
- [44:59]
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