I Was Made For More 4-5-2026 (Easter Sunday)

If this is your first time listening you can check us out at lifefamily.church or on Facebook and Instagram at @lfcbeardstown

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Life Family Church Sermon Podcast. If this is your first time listening, you can check us out on our website at lifefamily.church or on Facebook at LFC Beardstown. Now let's get right to the message. Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 0:19

Thank you, Lord. Aren't you glad we serve a risen king? One that loves you everlasting. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Look to the person beside you and say, I serve a risen king. Amen. You sound so good. You guys can be seated this morning. God bless you this morning. God is so good. The Bible says his mercy endures forever. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, praise and worship team. You guys did outstanding. Beautiful. Amen. Today we are celebrating Resurrection Day. A day that Jesus forevermore settled it. That we are alive forevermore. That death could not stop him. The grave could not hold him. Jesus is alive. The day Jesus conquered death and opened the door to a life far beyond what we could ever achieve on our own. You see, we're not supposed to do this thing on our own. You're not supposed to live life on your own. We have a partner. His name is Jesus. And he said, He will never ever leave you, and he will never forsake you. He'll be a friend that sticks closer than a brother. We have a promise. This morning I woke up and I was looking outside. It was before daybreak. And I was watching as the sun was coming up, and I was thinking, as surely as this sun rises, Jesus rose from the dead. If the sun didn't rise this morning, we have no hope. We might as well fold it up and give up, quit, go home. But he rose. Hallelujah. Have you ever felt like you were made for more? Anyone ever thought that way? I'm just made for more. I'm designed more for just survival, more than just getting by, more than uh unmet expectations or regret. That longing in your heart points to a deeper truth. God has made each and every one of you here today for more. Resurrection day shows how He made that possible. You see, we're made more than our past hurts. We're made for more than shame and regret. We are made more than the things that you left undone. Or things that you wish you would have done. We're made more. More than that. God wants you to stop looking at the things that are behind you and look forward to the things that are ahead. He's created you for more. Philippians 2, verse 5 through 8 says this let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Verse 9 through 11 says, Therefore God has also highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God our Father. You see, one day, whether you like it or not, every knee is going to bow to the name of Jesus. We're all going to stand before Him one day, and when we do, glorious day. It's going to be a glorious day, amen. For those who are born again and know the Lord, that's going to be a beautiful day, a wonderful day, a day of celebration, a day of rejoicing. But for those who have not received Jesus as their Lord and Savior, that will become a judgment day on them. I want to be on the celebration side, amen. How many of y'all like parties? You ain't supposed to raise your hand about Jesus is the Son of God. He humbled himself and went straight to the cross. You know he doesn't, he didn't hesitate. He didn't hesitate. He walked straight up and he did exactly what he was created to do. He took our shame, he took our pain, he took everything to the cross. He humbled himself. He traded his glory for suffering. So we could take our brokenness and our hurt and our pain and exchange it for his goodness and his mercy. It was truly a great exchange. You may feel limited now, but resurrection day reminds us that God made you for more than what you can see today. You were created for more. Go to Matthew 27, verse 17. I'll give you just a moment to turn there. Matthew 27, verse 17 is a probably a part of the Bible we haven't read very often. But it talks about a guy by the name of Barabbas. I'll start in 15. Now at the feast, the governor, it was an accus a custom to release to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, Who do you want me to release to you? Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ? For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife said to him, saying, Have nothing to do with this, that just man. For I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him. But the chief priest and the elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, Which of these two do you want me to release to you? They said, Give us Barabbas. Barabbas. Pilate said to them, What then shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? They said to him, Let him be crucified. Let him be crucified. Now, Barabbas was a notorious criminal who was chosen by the crowd over Jesus. Barabbas walked free while Jesus went to the cross. Jesus stood silently, willingly took the place of the guilty, saying essentially, the Father had to treat Jesus like Barabbas so he could treat Barabbas like Jesus. Watch this video.

SPEAKER_03 8:57

We see the story of Jesus going to the cross, and everything seems to kind of be hand in hand. And then there's this one character that seems to interrupt the marriage, states Barabbas. We don't even know much about him except that he's a murderer, a leader of an insurrection, a rebel, and why he's even mentioned, sometimes I'm not so sure. It's like, what? This is about Jesus going to the cross. So in this moment, Pilate thinks I hold the destinies of these two men in my hand. I know the Jews have a tradition that on a holy day I will release one of the prisoners on death row. Pilate stands on this audacious stage who now presents Jesus, Son of the Living God, versus Barabbas the thug and rebel. He says, Alright, who do you want? This is blasphemy! This is this has gone too far. There's no comparison! This is a rightful prisoner! A man who should be on death row! He's a rebel against Rome! He leads a rebellion, he murders people, he's a bad man, he's a thug, and he's a crook! He deserves the pain, and he deserves the crucifixion. Jesus? What has he done but heal, restore, deliver, set free, open blind eyes, open deaf ears, heal the lame and the leper. What has Jesus done? Who do you want? We want Barabbas. Yeah! Give us Barabbas. And he walks down the platform, welcomed by all of his thug friends. Yeah, the people love me. Yeah, that's right. I don't even know who this Jesus guy is, but all I know is my people love me. There seems to be no conscience in Barabbas, there's no record of him turning to Jesus and I owe you everything now for you have set me free. I don't see any of that in Barabbas, and God knew that. Jesus stood there silent for he knew the will of the Father. He said, That's fine, Father. Let him have Barabbas. For Jesus knew that the Father would have to treat Jesus like Barabbas so he could treat Barabbas like Jesus. Barabbas thought it was the people that set him free. No, no, no, no. It was the love of the Heavenly Father. When I look at the story, I realize who Barabbas really is. That's me. That's you. That's us. I thought I was reading this the other day. And I felt God speaking to me. I love Barab. I love him. God isn't bad. I love him. And I wanted him to go free. But didn't he acknowledge it? He probably would have never acknowledged the free gift. Yeah, but I love perhaps. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God sent his son for Barabbas. Even the one he knew would walk away from Jesus in his free gift and never come back. He loves. And the nerve, the call, and the audacity of believers to think, I got saved by grace, but now that I'm in this deep dark place of bondage, I'm gonna work hard to get myself out. What? That's the opposite of the gospel. Are you bound? Are you held under the power of this temptation? This still feels like it's controlling you. What are you gonna do? I'm gonna take myself free. Stop it! Don't you won't? You're not with the powers of hell! You're not gonna stop. I just started conflict with it! I deserve it! Jesus needs to look at me! Say no stop! Let me have it! Let me have your sin! Let me have your pain! Oh god, I did it to myself! I deserve it! My marriage won't make it! This is what I deserve. I deserve divorce! I deserve poverty! I deserve sickness! I deserve it all! No! God, I'm so ashamed. Give me your shame. But God, what if I do it again? I'll still be here. Oh God, I don't want to hurt you. I love you. I don't want to do this anymore. Give me your sins. This is all we got. It's all I got, it's all you got. We can play games, we can play church games, we can pretend like some people are better than others, and that's why they're blessed, or we can all come to the honest conclusion that it's God. And it's God alone. The greatest challenge is not your discipline, your devotion, your focus. Your greatest challenge is believing the gospel. Could it be? But there's a God with a love so standalous, so wide, so deep, so fast, so high, so expensive, so welcoming, so inclusive. Let me have your stand stop. Can I give him my stand I stand in this empty space of forgiveness? And accept it my Jesus walk stuff to the closed I deserve. I see it my free walking to the closet. It'll still Jesus! It'll always be Jesus! It'll never stop being the power of Jesus! If his blood is sufficient for your salvation, his blood is sufficient to sustain you through every challenge and every sin and every temptation! Jesus is enough.

SPEAKER_04 17:20

We give him everything that we thought we were, and we get everything he is. You see, you might be fat you might be facing some challenges in your life that are tough, that are hard, maybe the hurt of some past relationships or friendships that didn't make it. But I'm here to tell you you were made for more than that. God gave us his son Jesus to die on the cross so that we could receive everything that heaven has provided and not live in the past any longer. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 21, for he has made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus didn't just take Arabas' punishment, he took ours. He became our substitute. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ for what he did. John 10, 10 says, I have come that they may have life, and they may have it abundantly. Jesus came so that we could have life. That word life in the Greek is the word Zoe, and it means the God kind of life. Do you know what the God kind of life is? Perfect peace, perfect in every area, complete wholeness, complete soundness, everything finished, everything complete. There's nothing left undone. That is the Zoe life of God, and Jesus gave us that same kind of life. But you have to receive it. It's not something He makes you receive. You see, Barabbas could have come back and said thank you, but he didn't. See, the way that you can respond to such a great thing Jesus did is coming back and saying, Thank you. Thank you. I receive what you've provided. I take it for myself. Do you receive your healing this morning? Do you receive your restoration this morning? Do you receive the goodness of God this morning? It's for you. He gave it to you. You have to receive it by faith. Take hold of it. You see, there's practical ways of doing this, applying this to your life. First, you've got to let go of the old chains because your past has been forgiven. Embrace resurrection power. Walk free from the shame and the guilt of the past. Number three, live for eternity now. I want to say that again. Live for eternity now. Don't start when you die. You see, eternity didn't start the moment you die. Eternity started the moment you receive Jesus as your Lord and your Savior. That's when eternity started. There will be no death for those who are created in Christ Jesus. Amen. We just step out of this body into a new. Amen. Glory to God. So we can go ahead right now and start celebrating what Jesus has provided for us. And we don't have to wait to be perfect. You see, many people think I'm going to go to church when I get things together. I'll go and spend time worshiping when I feel like I've got my life in order. That is the opposite of the gospel. We don't worship God because we're good. We worship God because He's good. We don't worship God because I'm full of love. We worship God is because He loved us. He said, I love you. The Bible says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. So He went first. Look to someone beside you and say, He was first. Amen. He was first. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 17, therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. You see, when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, it's kind of like this. It's like taking off this coat, throwing it down, and putting on a new outfit. Recreated in Christ Jesus. I told this story before, but I'm going to say it again. Because I know it just ticks my wife off. Amen. That's what I'm here to do as a husband, is to get my wife tore up. Amen. You husbands out there, y'all say, Amen. Help me out now, you're being too quiet. I come home one day after work, and my wife and her sister were working in the house. Don't want to do it again. They were in there painting my bathroom. And they had these sponges that were supposed to be. What were they supposed to be? I think they were supposed to be. Dragonflies. Okay, dragonflies apparently were in in the early 2000s. And purple. Dragonflies. In my bathroom. And when they pushed them on the wall, they were pterodactyls all over my bathroom. Smeared all over my bathroom. And I remember I was, I was just kind of like, I walked in and they're so proud of what they were doing. And I was like, you know, have you ever been proud of like your work? And someone came in and they weren't as enthused as you were about your work? Yeah, that was me. I walked in and I'm like, okay. And they're just so happy. They're beaming. They're expecting me to just be celebrating with their triumphs and their glorious painting ability. And I walk in and I'm like, this looks horrible. And of course, she's got her sister there, so she can't be, you know, she can't just sit down and say nothing. So they gave it to me. Well, how dare you? They're tore over. So my response wasn't to say, hey, maybe I'll take care of it. I'll paint it over and give you all a new opportunity to fix it. No, I tore out everything in that bathroom. I mean, I stripped it all the way down to the stud. And I didn't. The Bible says to count the cost. And I didn't count the cost. Because I stripped it all the way down. I forgot that I wasn't rich. I didn't have a lot of money. I was just married. I had nothing. We didn't have the money. I tore my bathroom up, but we had no money whatsoever to fix it back up. And my wife was how many months pregnant? And she had to walk downstairs to the bathroom to use the restroom. All because she wanted to paint our bathroom with pterodactyls. I have thought about that many times, obviously. And um every time I think about that, I think about the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You see, when we come to Jesus Christ, he comes in. And he doesn't just remodel us. He doesn't just tear down a few things, he strips it all the way down to nothing. You see, when you come to Jesus and you become a born-again creature in Christ Jesus, he doesn't just remodel your life. He tears it completely apart, destroys it, burns it in a fire, gets rid of it, throws it in the sea of forgetfulness, gets rid of your past, every bit of it's gone. And then he re-does anything, he creates you into his image. A new house built in him, created in Christ Jesus. So he doesn't renew you, he redoes everything. He completely tears everything apart and builds a new. See, when you become a new creature in Christ Jesus, everything's gone in your past. We should have spiritual amnesia. When people say, remember when we used to do this? No, I don't. I have no clue what you're talking about. I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus. So we're supposed to act that way. I always wondered what it would be like if there was no sin in my life. If I never made a mistake, if I never messed it up. What would it be like? You would be bold. You would be confident. And the Bible says sickness is a result of sin. You would never get sick. Think about it. How awesome would that be? Well, because of what Jesus did on the cross, now we can become a new creature in Christ. Jesus built in him. Amen. And when the inspector comes in and he looks for mistakes, he can't find any. Amen. You can't find any mistakes in perfection. Jesus didn't come to dwell on the inside of people who were imperfected. He came and he perfected you, and then the Holy Spirit came to dwell on the inside of you. You say, Well, I'm a bad person. No, when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Spirit of God comes to dwell on the inside of you. He calls you holy and without sin. That's hard to believe. That's almost what we call the gospel. The gospel is hard to believe. Why is it hard to believe? It's because we see ourselves for who we are, right here in the flesh. Jesus doesn't look at us according to our flesh. He looks at us and he looks at our heart. And he wants to know have you changed? Have you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior? So when he looks at you, he's not looking at your sin. He's not looking at your past. He's not looking at what you used to believe. He's looking at you through the lens of the blood of Jesus. And if you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, he now sees you through Christ. Perfected and true holiness and righteous in Christ Jesus. You see, the way that we live for more is we put on the lens of what God sees. He sees our ability in Christ, He sees our nature in Christ, and He declares over us we were made for more. Now get up from where you are and start walking out who you really are in Christ Jesus. No more pain, no more shame, no more guilt, no more regret, but in Christ Jesus, righteous. The word righteous means I'm right. That I am justified with Christ. No more sin holds you bondage. We can walk free and we can walk in joy and we can walk in peace, knowing that I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus. And we were made for more. I've asked the worship team to come up if you guys will do that now. I've got a song I want you guys to hear. And this song is by far the most powerful song that I've ever heard. Now, this is my favorite song. You might have your own, but this is my favorite song, and these guys do it. I'm so excited for you guys to hear this song. Today's message has been I was made for more. And I want you to know that no matter what you're going through in life, no matter what you're facing, you still have something to look forward to. And you are made for more. And no matter what you might be facing right now, Jesus has conquered it all. And he's delivered you from all the shame, all the guilt, all the pain. And the reality is that you were made to for more. Amen. You guys, let's all stand up and worship with these guys.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

Run in my way, I know who I am yours.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

One more time. I was made to be tender and grave was called me. Born and raised back to life again. I was made for more than a man.

SPEAKER_04 36:52

At this time, could the prayer team come up, please? If you would remain standing, bow your heads. See, for a long time in my life, I felt like God was mad at me because I had chosen to do things that were contrary to God. And I went to a church that preached that I was no good because I was a sinner and I was a mess, and I didn't deserve anything because I was just dirty and rotten. And I lived under condemnation and guilt all the time. But when I finally got a hold of the word of God for myself and started to read about who Christ had created us to be, I started to see that we were created to be righteous in Christ Jesus. And there was nothing we could do to earn it or deserve it. But it was all in Christ. And then the devil would play with my mind and he would say, Yeah, but you were saved, and then you're still making mistakes in your life. And there's no more sacrifice for sin for you. That's right. There is no sacrifice for sin for me because the sacrifice has already been done through Jesus Christ. And he doesn't have to do it again, devil. That it happened once and for all, and it was enough to satisfy the Father. So if you're here today and the enemy has been toying with your mind and telling you that you're not worthy, that you're no good, that you don't have any hope, I'm here to tell you in Jesus He is enough. And then when we give our heart to Him, He takes it from us and He gives us who He is. So if you're in here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, first and foremost, that is the entrance into heaven. That is the entrance into a new life. That is the entrance into a new created vessel for Christ Jesus. So if you've never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, this is your day. Come to Jesus. We've got a prayer team here that would love to pray with you and lead you to the Lord. But it takes a step of faith, it takes you getting up from where you are and making a commitment that I'm gonna give my life to Jesus once and for all. I come to you, Lord. Also, if you're in here and you've walked away from the Lord and your life seems to be incomplete now, and you seem like you've you've kind of separated yourself from God, I'm gonna welcome you back. And I want to tell you something that probably not very many people will tell you. God is not mad at you, he loves you, and he wants a relationship with you, and his love never stopped because you made the mistakes, his love never stopped because we chose other things. He loves you, period. If you need anything in your life, prayer, asking God, and joining an agreement with this prayer team. We welcome you. So if that's you and you want to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you want to come back to God, you want to make a decision, or you just need prayer for anything at all, I invite you right now to slip out from where you are and come up to the front. And this prayer team will pray with you. They're gonna love you and encourage you, not condemn you or to put you down, but to lead you to Jesus. So if that's you here today and you want to get some prayer, we welcome you to come forward right now in Jesus' name. Come to Jesus. Come to the Lord. Hallelujah. I'll just give a few moments. If your heart is pounding and you know I'm supposed to come to the Lord, if your heart is beating fast, you know that I need to make that commitment. You are welcome to slip out from where you are and come to the front. We would love to pray with you. This church is not about condemnation, we're about the love of God. This church is not about guilt, shame, or inferiority. This church is about the love of God. This church is not about rehearsing your past. This church is about telling you about your future in Christ. And we love people and we love you. And if you're a visitor here for the first time, we want to tell you thank you for coming and visiting Life Family Church. It was an honor having you this morning, and we would like to personally invite you to come back because we want you to have the opportunity to grow in faith and to come to Christ and to be born again and to know Him for who He is.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

Thanks for listening. We hope that this message helps you draw closer to God as you walk out your faith. We'll see you next week.