All Things Are Possible

Dr. Bernie Miller: So we fall into discouragement and we fall into failure, and we think that those two things really make us who we are. And you stay down on the ground, wallowing around in the mud, and thinking God will never forgive you, but he's already forgiven you. He forgave you on the cross.

Guest (Musical Performance): Oh, when I'm afraid, I put my trust in you, from where my strength comes from. When I am weak, I'm strong in you. You've bottled every tear that I've cried, and you saved my life. For when I was sinking deep in sin, you were my only friend, because you died for everything. I could not do for God so loved the world, that he gave his only son.

It was more than I could give, more than I could give. He cleansed my every thought, he washed away the sin within my heart. It was more than I could give, more than I ever thought about. It was more than I ever dreamed that he died for me. And he died for all of you. It was more than I could give.

He was the lamb of sacrifice, the only one with life to give eternally. It should have been me when they nailed him to the cross. There he paid what my sin cost. For me, he died on Calvary to redeem my soul to him who made it all begin. It should have been me when they pierced his feet and hands.

It was more than I could give, more than I could give. He cleansed my every thought, he washed away the sin within my heart. It was more than I could give. And as he hung upon the cross, there were two hung with him, but only one who recognized in him who was no sin. And as he cried out, "It is finished," all the saints arose to live. It was more than I could give, more than I could give. He cleansed my every thought, he washed away the sin within my heart. It was more than I could give. It was more than I could give.

Dr. Bernie Miller: Who people say Jesus is isn't as important as who Jesus says he is. He is "I am the bread," he said. He said, "If you're hungry, I'm the bread." Bread can mean fulfilling spiritual needs and also physical needs because if you're hungry, it affects your spiritual disposition. Don't let nobody be hungry, and you go up and tell them, "I want to tell you how to be saved." No, tell me about the growl in my gut before you tell me about Jesus.

Because remember now, Jesus fed 4,000 and then 5,000. And why did he feed them? Because they had been listening to him for long hours. And they didn't have a store where they could go to, nor the resources to feed that many people. They had to deal with the growl in the guts before they could tell these people, "Go home now and be good." No, he had to feed the stomachs, and that's what some people want. They want to witness to people and their stomachs are growling. They want to tell them how good Jesus is rather than asking them some personal questions. "How are you today? Do you need anything? Have you had a good meal lately?"

I mean, let's get to the things that matter most to them, not what matters most to you. We want to win some souls to Christ without doing it the way Christ did it. Remember, he talked to the woman at the well? He knew where he was going with the question. He said, "Can you give me something to drink?" Now, she knew, wait a minute, this is a Jew and I'm a Samaritan, and he's asking me to give him something to drink? They don't even have anything to do with us. But he dealt with her on her level because he knew she was going to open up about her own personal situation.

And Jesus says, "I am the bread when you're hungry. I am the light that overcomes darkness. I am the door if you want to get saved. I am the shepherd when you're lost or when you're worrying. I am the resurrection when you die." If you die without Jesus, you will be resurrected. There are two resurrections: the resurrection of those who are saved and the resurrection of those who are not saved. One goes one way, and the other goes the other way. Which way are you going?

Jesus said, "I am the vine," meaning without him, you can bear no kind of fruit. So if you think you're born again and there's no fruit, then there's no root. For weeks we've been on contentment. Paul said he learned how to be content, and he learned while he was in confined circumstances and situations. He's writing from prison and says, "I have learned the secret to how to be content in every circumstance." Contentment begins when Christ becomes enough.

Now we're going into a new series because we need to know who Christ is and not who people say that he is. So our series is "Who is Christ?" We're going to look at three things: one, the people's public perception of who he was; the people's popular opinion of who he was; and the personal revelation from the Father that Peter gets, and it's revealed to him through God the Father, and it's a wonderful, miraculous thing that happens.

So Jesus said, "Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father." We'll be in Matthew 16 where the disciples were worried about bread in their hands as Jesus was teaching them about belief in their hearts. Our series moves from public opinion to personal confession. And the question is: have you noticed that everybody has an opinion about everything? Go on social media. Just post something crazy and watch how many people respond to it. I started to do that one day and I said, "No, I'll just get too many things crazy back to me, and people will think I'm serious." And some people take a lot of people on social media seriously. Some people just lay a little bait out there for you to see if you're going to bite. I don't bite on stuff on social media unless it's a member celebrating something and if I hadn't sent them a card, then I'm in trouble. But I try to send all members cards.

But they have an opinion about everything. People who've never raised children tell you how to rear your children. But you ain't got no kids. "Yeah, but my mama told me..." You ain't got no children. How you going to tell me how to rear my baby and you ain't never had one to put a diaper on? Have you ever changed a diaper? People who've never raised kids, they come up with some squirrelly things. People who've never pastored a church in their entire life come up and tell me how they think it ought to run. Some of them have an idea it ought to be a social club. Others think it ought to be like elections where everybody can vote.

Let me explain something to you all real quickly why we don't vote because some of you all have opinions about that. The reason why we don't need to vote is because we have deacons. Each one of you has a deacon assigned to you. And if you have a problem, call a deacon. "How do I find out, Pastor?" Well, you can go online on our website and you can find out who your deacon is, or you can call my secretary on Monday and ask Andrea who your deacon is. All she needs is your last name. The deacons, now this goes back to the Old Testament. Remember Jethro came up to Moses? Moses was up all hours of the day trying to listen to everybody's grievances. And Jethro came up to him, the priest, and he says, "Man, why are you wearing yourself out? Why don't you assign some people who can watch over a large group and give them certain assignments and break it up into groups, and then they bring the weightier issues to you that they can't seem to handle?"

Well, who do the deacons bring the weightier issues to? To the elders. We take care of the policy, the deacons take care of the people, and the trustees take care of the property. It's very organized. It's biblical. You say, "Well, why can't we vote?" Well, a democracy means one person may have all the power. Now, y'all may vote, but you see, the bottom line is, if somebody knows how to work those people that are in charge, they're the little pastors in every little church. And there are some in here. That's okay, as long as they know who the head is. It's fine. It's fine. But we are divinely led according to the Bible. I don't come up with no crazy stuff. I work the word, I listen to God, and some people tell me after church, "You've been in my mail." I said, "No, I haven't been reading your mail." It says, "Well, you've been in my house." Really? I don't even know where you live. But I know what they're saying because the word of God, the word that God gives me for the flock, is going to hit somebody.

It hits me first. I gotta study it. So now, I'm already upset with God because he convicted me about something, and then I get over it, and I gotta come and tell y'all about it. And then y'all get upset with me, but then y'all have to get over it. So we all got to get over it. But it's divinity. Remember now, Jesus said the church is his. So he is in charge of man, meaning me as the undershepherd. And so I don't try to be the dictator. We have a lot of people here who are smart and they are very knowledgeable in practical things that I don't know anything about, and I value their membership here and I value their input because I don't know it all. And when you get to the point where you think you know it all, you've lost your right to lead. Nobody knows it all. And if you don't rely on somebody else's opinions, then you're missing something. Somebody, even a fool, can tell you something that you don't know. Because they've been a fool long enough to know something is wrong.

We are a theocracy, and Jesus is the head. People who don't know how to cook will stand in somebody's kitchen asking, "Do you know what else you need for it to be good?" No. Do you? "Well, I was thinking maybe you need to make it taste better. I think maybe you need..." No. If you knew, you'd be in the kitchen cooking it for me. But there you are on the sidelines telling me how to cook it. Nowadays, everybody has an opinion about Jesus. Some say he was a good teacher. Others say, "Oh, he was a prophet." Others say, "Well, he was a good man." But Jesus asked his disciples, "Now you've heard everybody else's opinion, but what do you say? Who do you say that I am?"

This one guy came up to him and he said, "I think you're a good man. Oh, good teacher." Well, good men don't claim to be God. Jesus asks the young man, "Why do you call me good? Only God is good." The man had a misconception about goodness. Jesus is good not because he teaches, but because he's God's incarnate son. Now, before we look at the people's public perception, I want to go just a little bit back to Matthew chapter 16 and verse 5. I want to set the stage for you because several things have happened. In Matthew 16:5, they have just come back from a little boat trip and they're all there and all the leaders are there. And so the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread.

They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, "He said that because we did not bring any bread." But Jesus, aware of this, said, "You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the 5,000 and how many baskets full you picked up? Or the seven loaves of the 4,000 and how many large baskets you picked up? How is it that you do not understand that I do not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees." Then they understood that he did not say beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These folks were so stuck on stupid. They just thought that the law, they could appease God by the law. And if you read the Bible, it says no one's perfect under the law. So how are you going to try to be perfect under the law when the Bible already says you can't be perfect? That's why God sent Jesus.

The issue wasn't really bread; it was really their belief. They were concerned about their provision because their faith had forgotten who their provider was. Now, Matthew moves from the disciples worried about bread in their hands to Jesus asking about belief in their hearts. Matthew 16 shows us how easily we can forget who God is and what he's done in the past when we're faced with a situation that's new to us. So here we are in a situation we don't understand, it's something totally new to us. And when something new comes in, a new trial, we go, "Oh, Lord, how am I going to get out of this?" Whoa, wait a minute. How did you get out of the last one you were in? Did you have to beg, steal, and borrow, or did God do something miraculous for you?

The disciples are worrying about food while Jesus is warning them about spiritual leaven from the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Jesus says, "Oh, you of little faith." He told Peter that when Peter saw him walking on water and they were in a boat trying to go over to the other side, and Peter said, "Lord, if that's you, bid me to come on the water." And he said, "Come." He walked on that one word, "Come." And when Jesus and the scripture and the spirit give you a word, walk on it. If it's "believe," walk on it. If it's "wait," walk on it. If it's "go," walk on it. Don't walk on any word from anybody else but God. Because if you walk on a word that's not from God, you're going to end up in trouble. You're going to drown. Because now he's walking on water, right? On his way to Jesus. And I can imagine the folks in the boat. "Man, you can't walk on water! What is he doing? Peter's out of his mind! He's going to drown!" And then what did Peter do? Took his eyes off Jesus. And what happened? He started to sink. And whenever you take your eyes off of Jesus, you're going to sink.

He told Peter, "Come." Now they're worried about food. Why? He's already told them in Matthew 14, 5,000 were fed with five loaves and two fish, and they had 12 baskets full left over. But they had forgotten to pack a lunch on this trip. In Matthew 15, they saw the feeding of 4,000 with seven loaves and a few fish—didn't even name how many they were. They were worried about bread while walking with the bread of life. Really? Did you not remember what Jesus did when people needed bread and all you had were these little five loaves and two fish, and he fed 5,000 with that? That was just enough for the last lunch, but it multiplied.

So what is it in your life that you need to multiply? Is there a scarcity in your life? Where is it? God is saying, "Give it to me. I can multiply it. If you have faith in this little thing, I can multiply it." Folks, I've seen God multiply many things in my life personally. They were worried about bread while walking with Jesus. I can't imagine that, but we do that. Jesus' point is: why are you anxious about bread when you already have seen what I can do with bread? The disciples were worried about what they didn't have while overlooking who they did have. We do that sometimes too. Before we worry about what we don't have, remember who we do have.

We have a God who says in Hebrews 11, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." But he writes it in a double and a triple negative. He says, "I will not, I will not, no, ever leave you." Then he says, "I will not, I will not, I will not ever forsake you." So that we can confidently say, "The Lord is our helper. What can man do to us?" He says, "What can mere man do to us?" really. And what can they do to us? He promised to supply all of our needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. The problem wasn't shortage of provision; it was a shortage of perspective. They'd forgotten what Jesus had already done. I do the same thing sometimes. Be honest, don't you do the same thing sometimes? Why do we have a short memory when it comes to God providing for us, but a long memory when somebody does something to us?

I mean, God does a miraculous thing, and then somebody does something that hurts your little feelings, and then you remember that more than you remember what Jesus did for you. That doesn't make much sense to me. David wrote, "Forget none of his benefits." Verse 12 says they understood that Jesus wasn't talking about literal bread, but Jesus was trying to take them deeper. But they were trying to figure out dinner. Just imagine Jesus sitting in your car and Jesus sitting in your car and he says, "I'm about to reveal some mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to you." And then somebody in the back seat says, "That's great, Jesus, but we forgot to stop at Chick-fil-A." You know you got somebody like that in the car. Jesus sitting there, already fed 5,000, 4,000, and people worried about trying to find something at Chick-fil-A.

Anxiety makes us forget what God already did. Have you forgotten who you're traveling with? Last week I told you contentment says, "I may not have bread in my basket, but if we have the one who multiplied the bread before, why panic about where the next loaf is coming from?" Yesterday's provisions ought to give us confidence about today's problem. Christianity isn't just about knowing what Jesus can do; Christianity is about knowing who Jesus is. Let's look at the people's public perception. Matthew 16:13 says, "Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Well, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'"

They had some good answers because all of those men talked about Jesus' coming. You can have a high opinion of Jesus and still misidentify him. They respected Jesus, they responded to him, but that's not the same thing as recognizing who he is. You can call him teacher, you can call him prophet, you can call him miracle worker, but he's more than that. Yes, he's a moral example. Yes, he's a religious teacher. But Jesus moves from public perception to a personal confession in verse 15. He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Now the pronoun carries an emphasis. He says, "But you, who do you say I am?" And if God asks you who you think he is, what would you say?

You can have a high opinion of Jesus and still miss his identity. And you can miss eternal life. Until you call him Lord, you'll never learn who he really is and who he wants to be in your own personal life. People go to church for years and never meet Jesus. It's just like putting a Volkswagen in your garage hoping that tomorrow, when you open up the door to get into the garage, it's going to be a Mercedes. Ain't happening. And you can be in church for many, 20, 30, 40, 50 years and never know Jesus. Don't you know that there are people sitting in churches now that don't know Jesus? I mean, they've heard about Jesus, people have tried to give them the word, and as soon as the word goes in their ear, the Bible says the devil comes and snatches the word so that you won't be saved.

But you just keep coming to church. You say, "Well, I'm tithing." That doesn't get you to heaven. You say, "Well, I'm doing some good works." That doesn't get you to heaven. "Well, I read my Bible." Do you understand it? Because if you don't know Jesus, you don't understand what you're reading. I remember how that felt. I was sitting in my bedroom in Texas when I lived in Texas, Fort Worth, Texas. I remember that. I open that Bible because I went to a church that was a Bible-teaching church and I was saying to myself, "Yeah, I'm gonna learn something and I can go in there next time I walk in and tell them I know something about Jesus." I open that Bible that night, man, and I tell you, I wasn't thinking about nothing. I couldn't understand anything. And I was in Acts. And I don't know if you ever tried to study Acts, but you got to be saved to understand Acts. Because it's the acts of God in Acts, and I'm trying to read some stuff I don't even understand.

"You, who do you say Jesus is?" Not what your mama believed. Who do you say he is? Not what I believe, but what God has shown you. Not what your denomination believes—and there are many of them, everybody's got their belief—but it ain't about them. It's about you. What do you believe? You've read the Bible, you've heard sermons, you've had invitations given to you. You've denied Jesus for many years thinking that, "I don't need Jesus," or, "I don't want anybody to know that all these years I didn't know Jesus." Better they know now than you go to a place where you're not known. Because if your name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, you're in an unknown place. Nobody has you on the register.

Folks, we've gotta get our act together. What did your grandparents believe? He didn't ask about that. He asked, "Who do you say I am?" Sooner or later, everybody has to answer that question personally. Let me show you Peter's confession in verse 16. Simon answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." "You are the Christ." He's saying, "You are the anointed one." Peter is saying, "You're not merely another prophet. You're the promised Messiah." But Peter doesn't stop there. He says, "The Son of the living God." Well, why did he say that? Because in Caesarea Philippi where they were, down at the bottom of the hill, there were all these kind of images and all these kinds of gods that they worshipped and everything. And so he was recognizing who God was in light of that. That's the backdrop. And he's saying, "You are the living God."

Do we say that out loud? Some of us don't. We're afraid of people unfriending us. I don't care if you unfriend me or not. I'm going to tell you about Jesus. But Peter doesn't stop there. He talks about Son of God. Not merely a son of God, but he says, "The Son of God. The Son of the living God." Peter identifies Jesus uniquely and exclusively with God. Caesarea, as I said, was surrounded by pagan gods and influences, and that's where Peter and God are talking. Those gods are dead, kind of what Peter is saying, "But you are the living God." He's not one option among many. He's not one teacher among many. He's not one prophet among many. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Next, the proper revelation from the Father, verse 17: "And Jesus said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.'" Jesus essentially says, "Simon, you didn't figure this out on your own. You didn't have human reasoning to get to this." Flesh and blood refers to human sources or either natural human ability. The Father revealed Christ's identity. The Greek word translated "reveal" means to uncover, to unveil, and to disclose. Jesus says, "Peter, God pulled back the curtain and allowed you to see who I really am."

Verse 18: "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." Now, "the rock" and "the church," there's intentional wordplay here. Peter means Petros. Rock means petra. It's a difference. God is the rock, the petra. Peter is the Petros. There's a big difference. Interpretations differ among Christians, and I'm not getting into that; that's not the main thing. The main truth of the passage is unmistakable. It means Christ builds his church around the revealed truth of who he is.

And don't miss the pronouns. He says, "I will build my church." Jesus is the builder. The church belongs to Jesus. He didn't say, "Peter, build me a church." God didn't tell me to build a church. He said he had a land prepared for me, and it was over here. And then he gave me little pieces of what he wanted me to do. "So now you got the land. Now here's what I want you to do because now you don't have a church, so you can have services over at the YMCA, so you're gonna need a place where you can worship." And so we were at the YMCA. You had to have a sense of humor to be over at the YMCA. It was a good bonding experience with all of us that went through the YMCA. Folks were making fun of us all over the city. Pastors were making fun of me, and people were making fun of you because you're at the YMCA.

But we had a roof over our head and we were worshipping on Sunday. And do you realize that we never ever in the life of the church, except for COVID, missed a Sunday service? When we left the church across the street, people were saying, "Well, where are we gonna worship?" I said, "I don't know, but God is in control." I got a call. "Pastor?" "Yeah." "I work at the YMCA." Oh, one of our members. "Yeah. You want me to ask them if we can worship over there Sunday?" I said, "Please." Five seconds later—maybe about 10 minutes—"Pastor, it's all taken care of." I said, "Okay, how much?" "Nothing." "Nothing? No. Why?" "Because you allowed them to use the church for their after-school program free. So they want to pay you back by allowing you to use their facility for free."

Do you see how this works? God says, "I will build my church." And unless the Lord builds the church, those who labor, labor in vain. You know, one of the most exciting things that happened when we were building this: the women were praying, all of us were praying, but specifically the women were over here walking on the property. My wife and Frankie and others. And the superintendent who's dead now, Pete Moore, when I was a laborer over at the mall when they were building that area up there, Bonefish and all those other places, I was a laborer over there and he was my boss. And then he left that company, that construction company, and another construction company hired him, and that construction company is who we used to build our property here, the building. And when he came and showed up, I said, "Pete!" He says, "Yeah!" I said, "Oh, now I'm your boss!"

He said, "Yeah, be good to me now, you know I was good to you." I said, "Yeah, you were." And I had put a tract in his cab, in the cab of his truck. And I remember I gave it to him on a Friday. and that Monday when he came in, he saw me get out of my car. He says, "You!" I said, "Oh Lord, I'm gonna get fired for proselytizing or for passing out the tracts." He said, "Come here." God says, "All right boy, stand up straight." I went walking, man. I said, "Well, he can't fire me because my boss is over him, my boss is the president of the company." But you know, maybe he gave him the power to get rid of me. So I walked up to him. He said, "Did you put something in my truck?" I said, "Yes, I did." He said, "My wife told me to tell you thank you." I said, "What?" He says, "Yeah, she has been praying for years for me to give my life to Christ. And she said and you put a tract in my truck." And he said, "And it was so simple, I read it and I gave my life to Christ. She told me to tell you come on up for dinner." I said, "I will. Where you live?" He's on Lookout Mountain. I said, "I've never been up there to eat. I'd love to go up there and have something to eat with you."

And then he came over here, and you know what he was doing? He was showing me all the ways to be able to cut costs. He said, "No, you don't need to pay that price. Let me help you with that." And man, I'm October, September rather, 9/11 and in October we started building the property and in March we came in here. I mean, do you realize this all happened during that span of time? Everybody was taking stuff up to New York, sheetrock and all that, going to New York. Nobody was doing anything here in terms of building but us. And so we had discounted prices on the architect because I had a design-build where I tell the architect, "No, I don't want that. That's too much. They can't build that for that. You got to take that out." But see, if you go to an architect and have him do his rendering and then you pay for the rendering, well, the rendering that you pay for, you may not have the money to build.

And see, having work with the contractors, God had me out there digging ditches with Pete. I understood that. And so I said, "No, we want design-build." And so when he was saying about certain things, I said, "No, I can't afford that." So then he had to scrap that and so, but we were able to do it without being penalized because of design-build. You can determine who your subcontractors are and everything else. And that's what we did. It didn't cost us as much money as it would have if we had to pay $75,000 for an architectural rendering that we couldn't afford. We didn't have to pay for that. Praise Jesus.

Folks, I wish I could give you the whole story, but I can't. I'm going to tell you about Jesus. Peter, he was going to build something, but everybody misses this point. He's not building anything. God is the one who's building something. He's the one who built this. I mean, I can't take no credit. The contractors can't take no credit. And while the women were out there praying, there was a dark cloud down on Brainerd Road. And the workers called Pete and said, "Pete, are we still working today?" He says, "Well, why wouldn't you be working?" They said, "Well, it's raining on Brainerd Road, and that dark cloud is moving your way." And he said, "No, that dark cloud has made a different turn. It's going some other way." They said, "What?" He said, "Yeah, you better come over here and work." You know why that happened? Because people were praying. Let me tell you, prayer is what got us here and prayer is what kept us here. And I don't give nobody the credit but God. I wish I could give some, but no. God said, "You better not give nobody no credit. And don't you even take no credit." I don't take no credit for nothing. People say, "Oh, that's your church." No, I didn't have a million dollars to pay for this church. No, the people who God used, and God used them to be funnels, conduits, to build something for him. All he did was help those that were working here, and nobody got hurt on this job site.

Hades, the Greek word for that, means realm of the dead. A gate, a gate is really a defensive structure, which takes me back when we first moved here. One of our former members came back here, drove in the back, and he saw a car all the way in the back before we had the vegetable garden and before we had that other extra space back there. He saw somebody back there in the car, lights out in the car at night. He back there being nosy. He says, "Pastor, I saw some people in the car." I said, "Yeah, and?" "Well, I think we need a fence up here so that we can stop people from coming in on our parking lot." I said, "I don't mind them coming on the parking lot. You got a problem with that?" He said, "Well, you don't know they're back there. You don't know what they're doing." I said, "Well, I'll tell you what, God does. And it ain't my business. Besides, they may get so comfortable coming on the parking lot, they might want to come here and go to church. I mean, you know, they got to go past the cross on the building and more they go past that, they may get convicted. You don't know what God is doing." I said, "But no, no fences."

It's a defensive structure, and I didn't want people to think that you couldn't come here unless it was service time. No, you can come on this parking lot. Do you know that the people that are neighbors, they come and they teach their kids how to drive on our parking lot? They walk on our parking lot in the mornings, they take their stroller around here. Why? Because it's safe. And there's no fence or gate at the entrance. What it says is, "Okay, come on, no problem." One person called me and says, "Look, I got my son and I don't want to drive on the street to help him learn. Can we come up?" I said, "Yeah, man. You can do that. This is God's property." And a fence is a defensive structure.

So the picture isn't merely the church hiding behind the walls while hell attacks. It's the kingdom of Christ advancing, and death cannot stop what Christ is building. People tried to stop this, but they couldn't stop it. Jesus is heading toward the cross. Jesus will die. Jesus will be buried. But even the gates of hell cannot hold him. And because they couldn't hold the head of the church, they won't defeat the church because we're his. We're his bride, and he better not lay a hand on us. So when people ask who Jesus is, he's more than a teacher, he's more than a prophet, he's more than a miracle worker. He is the eternal word that became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the image of the invisible God. He is the Son of the living God. And if you're not born again, you're not going to see God when you take your last breath. But if you're a son and daughter of God, it's because you have received him, because you believed in him, and you have confessed with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. And because you believe that and received that, you are now saved. You may be babes in Christ, but God is having to change you every now and then. But that's all right. At least God is changing you. Amen? All things are possible.

Remember the alabaster box? It was broken. You know, there's something about the alabaster box. You can't open it. In order to get into it, you gotta break it. God's been trying to get your attention, and he's been breaking things up all around you just to let you know, "I've been trying to get in."

Guest (Musical Performance): When the burdens press, oh and the night gets long, cast it on the Lord. He will make you strong. When the tears come down and the road feels dry, cast it on the Lord. He will hear your cry. He's a heavy load bearer. Yes, he is. He's a soul restoring savior. Yes, he is. What you cannot carry, he can carry. Yes, he can. Cast all your cares on God, cast all your cares on God. He will never leave you alone, never leave you alone. Bring every worry, bring every need. Lay it all down at his throne. Lay it all down at his throne. Cast all your cares on God. He'll take the weight and he'll give you peace. He'll take the weight and he'll give you peace.

When your heart is tired and your faith feels weak, cast it on the Lord, he will speak to you. When the way is dark and you cannot see, cast it on the Lord, he will carry you. He's a burden breaker. Yes, he is. He's a chain remover. Yes, he is. Put it in his hands. He'll see you through. Cast all your cares on God, cast all your cares on God. He's the one who knows your name, knows your name. Every pain, every fear, every loss, he can turn it into praise. Turn it into praise. Cast all your cares on God. He will hold you steady all the way. Hold you steady all the way.

I cast it, I cast it, I cast it on the Lord. I trust you, I trust you, I trust you more and more. I lay it down, I lay it down, I lay it at your feet. Your yoke is easy, your grace is sweet. Cast your cares, cast your cares. Give them away, give them away. He'll work it out, he'll work it out. He'll make a way, he'll make a way. He's still God, he's still God. He's still God. Cast your cares, cast your cares.