Resurrection Power For Real Life

Mary Magdalene shows up at a grave expecting loss and walks away with a name, a calling, and a future. That’s the doorway we step through this Easter morning to the places we actually live: shame, father wounds, regret, family pain, and the quiet fear that it’s too late to change.

We follow the Bible story of the empty tomb, and the moment Jesus speaks Mary’s name, we move straight into what resurrection power means right now. We talk about a new beginning through surrender to Jesus, access to God as Father, and a new identity that is not built on performance or broken appetites.

God chooses you, renames you, blesses you, and gives you an inheritance you can pass on to your children. Listen, share with someone who needs hope, and if it helped you, subscribe and leave a review so more families can find it.

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Transcript

Sunrise Welcome And Prayer

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Hey, good morning. Well, this is one of the most amazing days in the world many thousand years ago, the day that the rock was rolled away. I am so grateful to be with you here. I'm your guest, Ed Tanya McLassan, was a senior pastor for 35 years, and then the Lord um calls you as he does to reach men and families. And so we're at the Father Difference Ministry, and I just cannot go by an Easter sunrise service and not be with you, not share this time. I've done it for so many years. And my friends out there, you were saying, hey, I want to hear more from you. And so I am so grateful that you're here. You give me a shout out when you tune in. People are starting to be online here. And so good to see you there, Nancy. And uh here. So why don't we pray? So, Father, I pray that today that uh the in the way, the only way that you can, that you would speak through your word and you know minister to those that come and those who watch this service and fill them with hope and a new sense of how powerful your resurrection power is, and how it not only changes our life, it can change everything in our stories. And so so grateful for all my friends that are joining different countries and will see this, and we we all say as as we do in tradition, he is risen, he is risen indeed. So welcome, no matter what church you're from. I'd I'd love to hear that too if you want to shout me out here, and uh so grateful that you're uh joining us and connecting with us online. If you're an early body like me, it's a great time. So we're gonna get right to this incredible message, and we're gonna talk about how the power of the resurrection heals my life and family. Uh boy, that is truth. So much true about that. And I'm gonna give a shout out first to my dad, who made all this possible in my own life. His faith, the way he lived this life, that's his flag back there that was given to me by the president of the United States in lieu and service of my father. It was actually given before I was born to my mom, and she made sure that I'd have that with me, my dad Ed Tandy. And so those who have gone before us have great power in our story, in our life. And yet this story just uh calls us to something much bigger. So if you got your Bible this morning, you can follow along with me, and we're gonna look at this this amazing story of Mary Magdalene as she shows up at the tomb. Well, if you know anything about her story, she she she was there to not only to minister to Jesus' body and to prepare him, she had to see for herself. And so if this, you know, some have said that, you know, if you want to prove that something really happens, back in that culture, the women of that time weren't seen as being the most trustworthy eyewitnesses. You would, you wouldn't, if you wanted to fake a story, you would never fake it with somebody like Mary. But she is exactly the one that God chose to reveal this incredible truth to you and to me, and a new beginning and the power of the resurrection. So that's what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about how the resurrection can change, the power of the resurrection can change you and your family. You ready? Let's get rolling here. The Bible says as she comes to the tomb, she sees something that's extraordinary. The rock had been rolled away. And so she stooped in. She had to get low, and she stooped in to look into the tomb because the man, Christ Jesus, whom she met years earlier, when she had seven demonic spirits upon her life, Jesus set her free from the power of these demonic spirits and set her free from the abuse of so many men and and and the craziness of her life. Now, this guy who set her free, the her hopes were being dashed, and she didn't go to the tomb to to see about the resurrection. She went to the tomb to find the only man who truly loved her, who who cared for her life. And so she stoops in and she sees two angels in white. I mean, can you imagine you know what you must be thinking? Sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, and one at the head and and and one at the feet, and all that was there was the wrapped up shroud there, sitting on that that place. And the it goes on in the story, and not knowing that uh Jesus was there, that it was Jesus, all of a sudden he speaks and says, Woman, why are you I just love this uh weeping? Whom are you seeking? And supposing him to be a gardener, you know, she's not connecting that he is risen from the dead, because no one has ever done this before. And she thinks, well, maybe he's a gardener, and he's taken away his body because she saw him die, she saw him be crucified, and and she saw him, she's probably walk watching at a distance. She would have been one of those women that no matter where she went to, she got these looks, and they weren't these looks of affirmation, and you're amazing, but the looks of maybe from the men that lust and and from the the wives, you know, suspicion, and and from the religious community, she would never be included in anything. And so she went herself and she says to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, oh if you carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and and I will take him, I'll take care of his body, and Jesus just loved just this interaction, sends chills down my spine. Even today, Mary.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

He speaks her name. Mary.

Resurrection As A Personal Encounter

Five Ways Resurrection Heals Families

SPEAKER_01 9:39

You know, there's there's gonna be a time uh where we will all stand before Jesus at this picture in in Corinthians of we will stand and our life will be measured, and we will hear him call our name. Mary. And she turned to him and said in Aramaic, Rabonai, teacher, which means teacher, and Jesus said to her, and notice what he did, he he just immediately grabbed him. She wants to see if he's real. Uh she w she wants she can't believe that I mean, can you imagine the shock of this moment? And Jesus said, Don't cling to me, for I have not yet uh ascended to the Father. I mean, he is now uh letting us all in on this uh reality of the resurrection of Jesus that he he raised in bodily form. That body that was dead and crucified is is now stand it's standing there before him. She thought he was a gardener, and when he speaks her name, she begins to know who he is. For I have not yet ascended, and look at this picture to the father, but go to my brothers and say to them, and so in other words, Mary then becomes the witness, the first witness to the resurrection. Uh, she is, you know, we're disciples, they're hiding. They their hopes are dashed that this guy who claimed to be the messiah, who taught them, and they saw miracles happen through him, they saw miracles happen through their own hands in their own life. Wasn't enough for them to believe that this was absolutely possible. And she he says, No, you go and you tell them about this amazing moment, and and then says something that is the is the moment that changes history. One of my favorite lines in scripture of Jesus' interaction with Mary and to all of us. For I am ascending to my father. Now look at this next line, and your father, to my God and your God. Access to God the Father, who's been leading all of history and the pre-incarnate Christ all through the Old Testament in the power of the Holy Spirit. Here he is, you know, with this woman who has lived just in the disdain of looks and life, and in a and just an amazing, amazing moment, and yet this incredible promise that that he also wants to be our father. We have access to God the Father, God the Son, the the Holy Spirit here. And and so Mary Magdalene went and announced and and booked it to the disciples, and burst into their room in their room of mourning, and in the room of loss, of that they have lost access to the one, to the message bearer, to the hope that maybe he would be the messiah, and they watched him die, a brutal death between two thieves on Calvary. And she goes to announce to the disciples, Mary Magdalene, not you know, in a real way, the the first true evangelist preacher of the resurrection, Mary Magdalene. I have seen the Lord. You imagine coming out of her mouth in front of them. They're seeing her, knowing her, and many loved her because of what they saw Jesus do in her life. Yet she was a woman, she was outside the leadership team, as we see can suspect in scripture because of culture. I have seen the Lord. And then he said these things to her. And they found it just the way Mary described. And you know, here's the key insight that just hit me as I was preparing for the day. And I'll bless you. Yes, Renewed 27, he is risen. Happy resurrection Sunday. Mary's encounter shows that the resurrection is not just history, it is personal. It's healing encounter with the living Jesus that can transform my life, your life today, and can only heal my family. Too often, these kind of messages are just, you know, they're talked about, it's history of something that once happened, but the reality of the resurrection, Jesus, you know, and Paul writes that he was a living sacrifice. When Jesus' blood was poured out ultimately for our sin, that sacrifice is still living. It still has powerful, it still has the same power that when Jesus blood was poured out on Calvary. You know, he covered our sin. And it's not a history lesson, it's it's the current reality for you and for me that healing can happen in my life right now, right today, because of what he did for us in the resurrection. And so her encounter, it's the same for us. Maybe you're in a place today and you need an encounter and to be made whole. So, how does the power of the resurrection heal my life and my family? Just a five little points and then a closing testimony of what God can do. And number one, the resurrection gives me a new beginning. Boy, don't we need those in our life? And how many need more than one? But the ultimate new beginning the Bible talks about is therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they he is a new creation. When we are born again and we receive God's mercy of what he poured out on that cross and ask Christ to come into our lives and to be the Lord of our life, the leader of our life, when we we uh turn by repenting of our sin and connect to him, something happens. The the old, you know, the scripture says, passes away. Behold, the the new has come. And it's this new life, this new beginning. You need a new beginning today. And you, when you think about Mary coming to the tomb, right, to to honor the only man that she who didn't take her, and and his love that set her free from seven demons, and a lifetime of being used by the object of the lust of men. I mean, here this girl was just devastated in her life, and his love and his sacrifice and his resurrection gave her a brand new start, a a new beginning right today. So, no matter you know how broken your past has been, Jesus can give you a new beginning today. Maybe this is your day. You're you're tuning in, you're not going to church today, and you've showed up here. This could be your day. Maybe you're gonna see this after on YouTube, and it kind of lives up there. Any day that you say yes to Jesus can become a brand new beginning and a new day. And I just I just love the how this story. You know, here's the second thing the resurrection gives me now access to God is our father. When Jesus even taught us to pray, uh, my father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. People marveled at the relationship that Christ had. He he was talking to his father in prayer, he was getting away and meeting with his father, he was leading his life by only being able to do what he saw his father doing. He lived the same kind of life that he wants to give you and me. He came to also give us a whole new identity and the resurrection of Jesus, that resurrection power gives you and me access to God the Father in our life, no matter how great our dads are. If you got a great dad, well, the ultimate bonus in your life is you to being introduced to God as your father, too. And there's a reason why he wants to be your father. We're gonna look at that in a few minutes. But one of the primary things to begin to shift inside of Mary in her life was her identity. Her identity of sin, her identity, it seemed, of maybe witchcraft in her life, her identity of being a woman who was the object of men's lust. Can you imagine? She when she woke up in the morning, she saw herself that way. I know there's some of you that are watching, you wake up and you see yourself through your brokenness, your your sin in your story. And the resurrection, the promise of the resurrection, as you embrace this. And in in Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10, that you know, if you confess with your mouth that that Jesus is Lord and believe that God has raised him from the dead, the resurrection is right there in this new beginning of being born again to where you confess your sins and the love of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit and the love of the Father and the Son come and they physically enter your life to give you that brand new beginning story. God, I just love that. Don't you love that picture? And not only that, it gives us access to the Father. I just imagine being able to have access to a father you never got to know. Because your dad of your own story was really broken. And you know, the truth of the matter, my my dad, the only thing I know about my dad was what that flag represents. And what a what a powerful picture that is. But check this out. Here's God's promise. Oh, I remember reading this many years ago. And I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty. You know, there is a search for so many young people to find out who they are.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Well, they've been made.

A New Beginning And A Miracle

SPEAKER_01 23:04

And the devil and his minions have influenced a lot of people, sometimes political people, sometimes broken preachers, that they were to look inside themselves for who they are. They're to look inside of their appetites, and your appetite will help you find your identity. The only problem with that is that what if that appetite is wickedness and causes you great harm in your life or shortens your life? Maybe it's a sexual orientation, and you know, the devil wants you to name you by the sin in your life so that you would never come to know God as your Father and Jesus as your savior, and the Holy Spirit is the ultimate power from uh on high to give you a new beginning. Because if the devil can get you or me to name ourselves by our brokenness, the one thing that we do when that shame comes, that that separation, you don't believe that God wants you in. You don't want you don't believe that he wants you. And so religious churches for years have said, well, just change yourself and make yourself presentable. The problem is you can't become presentable to a holy God. You can only come to him through the finished work of the blood of Jesus and the resurrection that that happened when the Bible even says that Jesus, he even rose himself from the dead. God the Father did, but Jesus as well. Incredible picture. A lot of people don't know in the scripture. The power though that that that happened in that moment is the same dead raising power that can come in your life, no matter where you started. You might say, I'm I'm I've been too abused, I've been too hurt, I've been too separated. Brothers and sisters, and let me tell you, the same resurrection power that caused Jesus to rise from the dead can take your broken life and restore you. That's what he did to me. I didn't ever know my my father, I didn't know I could have access to God the Father in my life. The only father in my story was, you know, my stepdad. And and he was like every other dad. He was flawed, like I'm flawed as a father. And yet, when I discovered that God wanted to give me a new beginning and I said yes to him, something miraculous happened in my life as a young Christian minister at Yangson State University laid hands on my knee that I had hurt, and you know, that needed major reconstructive surgery the next day in college, and the dream I had of playing football was shattered. And he with a knock on a door many years ago, in walks Bill Romanowski, who I had never met, and I said, What are you doing here?

SPEAKER_02 26:33

And he said, He just looks at me and without saying a word, he opens the Bible and he says, For God so loved the world, he reads John 3.16 to me, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

See, I needed a new beginning. I I thought everything was over, my knee had been held, everything I had built my life to be about, being a football player. And I even played football because it was also the dream of my father who was killed in action as a test pilot. Then he never got to realize those dreams.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

And I remember when he said those words to me. I said, How does this happen?

SPEAKER_01 27:36

You know, I was I was also mad because I'm I'm pointing at my knee. And I'm just like, how about this? You know, I I I believe that if I just lived a good life that God was gonna, you know, take care of me. But you know, there's a real enemy out there, and he loves to destroy the dream that God's made you for. The difference that God's made you for to make with your life. And I just uh I said, what do I do? How does this work? And he said, when Jesus died on the cross that he he died as though he were you so that when you receive him and ask for forgiveness, you can live as though you were him.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

You can live like a son.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

And I and I remember just uh praying my this this first prayer of my life. I'm not talking about the religious one, and you know, people are praying, and we hardly ever went to church, and yet it was just a simple prayer. Maybe you're in a place where you need a new beginning, like Mary Magdalene got, and I just prayed a simple prayer.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

Forgive me, Lord, for all my sin. I give you my life. I I had I had no other options, blood.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

I was I was done with ice packs wrapped around my knee and the surgery scheduled the next morning. And there he was there he was again, there he was. And all I can just the way I can describe it was like it was a waterfall of mercy that poured out and forgiveness on my heart that day.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

And I just I felt forgiven.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

I don't know how long that time was. And then he said, Can I pray for your knee? And he reached his hand out to my ice packs that were wrapped around my knee. And he asked, Jesus, heal Edge knee in Jesus' name. And I didn't feel anything, my knee was frozen. And a few hours later, the uh school ambulance picked me up, put me in a wheelchair, and rolled me in surgery. The doctor did another exam on my knee and comes out just shaking his head. And I'm not really sure how to tell you this, Dr. Vuxta, who is a teen physician, but here's our test this morning, and here's what we did yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

It seems as though the ligaments that were torn have been reattached. And there's nothing wrong with your knee.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Oh my gosh, I jumped off my eurie. You know, wearing that dress that doesn't tie in the back all the way. I'm a normal-sized guy.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

And my knee was perfect.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

And I started weeping and dancing before the Lord, shouting hallelujah.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

That's the way it's spelled, and I got a new beginning. I remember walking back to the dorm and talking to God.

Receiving The Father’s Blessing

SPEAKER_01 31:55

I every time I did, I I guess I was such a rookie, I I lifted my head up and uh thought maybe that maybe God was up. So I'm I'd say, what now what do you want me to do with my life? I'd been so focused on this mission of playing football. A little a little scared to ask that question. When you ask the guy who made you who wants you to do, you have to sort of give up the the rudder in your life. And many times you're rowing the oar and you're steering the ship. That was me. And this internal voice, not it wasn't outside and the audible voice of God. You know, I I think that God speaks audibly to really, really hard-headed people. So maybe I'm less hard-headed. He's speaks internally, and it's it's one of those moments where he'll use a scripture the same way, where it sort of echoes inside your bones, and you just, oh, that's good. That's thank you, Lord. It's so good, Lord. And he said, I I want you to fulfill your childhood dream and play professional football. But when I call for it back, I want you to give it up. And I gotta tell you, it was shocking to me. You want me to do my dream? I thought. So I didn't know what that meant in at the time, but I I lifted up my voice and I sort of shouted there at the campus. If I knew you were this cool, I'd have given my life to you a long time ago. See, there's nothing that comes close to being perfectly loved by God. That's exactly what Mary experienced. And his promise is he'll be that father that we lost, or maybe wasn't there, that ultimate father, whether you're a daughter or you're a son, God wants that for you. And you know, Mary heard that God was now her father, too. Let me go, for I need to go to my God and your God, my father, now your father. That changed history. So it doesn't matter how broken your family is. God, at any time, you say yes to him, be your father too. She was unfathered and alone no more. Maybe you felt alone in your life. Maybe you felt unfathered. Maybe you're mad at the way your dad treated you, and you're still sort of blaming him for your current circumstance. And there many times there's abuse, many times there's neglect, or maybe your dad just died early, and so you don't know. He was saying to her, she was now a beloved daughter, just like Jesus was a beloved son. Such an incredible power of the resurrection. See, the resurrection gives me the father's blessing. We saw in Christ the way he was with people. Matter of fact, he said, I don't even, the son of man can only do what he sees his father doing. He modeled a life that was being completely loved by the Father, but he announced it at the resurrection to Mary. That not only is he my God, he's your God. He's not only that he is my father who art in heaven, he's your father who art in heaven. Wow. And blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And and and love this in Ephesians 1:3, who has what? He has now blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. So God the Father wants to bless your life. God the Father wants to fill your life. God the Father wants to resource your life. That's what being a new creation is all about. It's not that, boom, he speaks the word, you're all brand new. He wants to spend a lifetime refathering you and shaping you to look just like Jesus. Because the Bible says that when we one day are taken up with God, we will see Jesus as he really is, and we will be just like him. He is fashioning you and me to be just like his son. Wow, wow, wow. And the Father's blessing that day that Mary experienced is now ours in Christ too, healing our shame and access with every spiritual blessing that God poured into a son is now ours in Christ Jesus. Can you imagine how that felt for Mary? She thought she needed the man who loved her more than any other man. And what she got at the resurrection was she was now God's beloved daughter, too.

unknown 37:49

Wow.

Adoption And Inheritance For Children

SPEAKER_01 37:51

That trumps every wicked identity, every place that the enemy wants to come in and name you broken, name you desolate, even in the Old Testament. But now you will be called not forsaken, not like a like a desert with no water. You'll be called beautiful, beulah, beautiful, the scripture says in Hebrew. That's what happens when God renames you and remakes you as you're born again and shaped and adopted as sons and daughters. It changes your story. Imagine Mary for the first time in her life, she loved Jesus and got him. She has him now for eternity, but she has the father she never got to have. God the Father. Wow. So powerful. See, the resurrection gives you this new identity as a son or a daughter. Completely brand new identity. No matter what identity that you have put upon yourself, or you believe that's who you are, or you have cut your life out. Imagine you hearing from God who you are. Incredible, incredible picture. And all through the Bible, when God renames somebody, it comes along with the capacity that they need to fulfill the mission that He's made their life for. That's why it's so powerful, so empowering for you and for me. The Bible says it there in Ephesians in chapter one. We just quoted a verse. He predestined you and me for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ and daughters, not just sons. According to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has blessed us in the beloved. He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, verse three says. And right here in five, and not only that, he predestined you and me to be adopted as sons. That's the resurrection power. Right? God has chosen, I want to adopt you, and I'm here's how I'm gonna pay for it. I'm gonna pay for it with the most the highest price that anybody's ever been paid for. The blood of my son. And when you receive that and receive what I did at the resurrection, and that resurrection power, I now that power is gonna unlock and it's paid for your adoption, and you're gonna be added into my family, the family of God. I received my own adoption, my new identity, no longer defined by my past failures or pain or or my successes. Right? When you get a win and you think, you know, this is you're a great businessman, and then you lose money, then who are you? But as a cherished son or daughter of the Father, what a powerful thing. For Mary that day for me. And finally, the resurrection gives me an inheritance to give my children. And this is where it changes the family. Because what you carry, beloved son or daughter, will become the starting point to your children's inheritance and their relationship with God as their father. And the most powerful thing you can do, even for a lost son or a lost daughter, is to be a beloved son or beloved daughter, where you get your identity, not necessarily in being a father or a mother. Because what if you're a mom and they're not listening to you? Don't you feel like a bad mom or the same as a dad? But when your identity doesn't shift from this to that, to this to that, and at the core of who you are, you know who you are. It gives you great confidence because you can't lose that. You can go through all kinds of hardship, you can go through all kinds of things, but the resurrection gives me an inheritance. And the Greek word for adoption is hustia, which actually means the placing as a son. So as Paul is writing these verses, he knows the current Roman way of adoption. And in a Roman family, you're you are born into a family and you're known as the children of that family. But you're not necessarily the heir. The heir happens when the father determines what child, most of the time the older son, and they do a ceremony called adoption. And and in that ceremony, he they actually grab you as a child and now place you as a son, so that legally they can give you the inheritance of the father. Because children don't get the inheritance, sons and daughters do. And so Mary didn't keep the good news herself. She ran and announced it. She got something. She got something that the disciples didn't have. Her healing became this blessing to the whole world, there's something that you carry. And one of the scriptures that nailed. It for me is I was discovering this in my own life. Was and because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of a son into our hearts, crying, Ah, the Father. So you're no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir. There it is. Being placed as a son or a daughter.

unknown 44:26

Wow.

A Modern Mary Finds Freedom

SPEAKER_01 44:29

See, when the father makes a difference in you or in me to the resurrection, just as he did for Mary, calling my name, revealing himself and sending me, I'm able by his grace to make a difference as a beloved son or daughter to my family or to whomever I meet. That's the resurrection power. That's what we like to call the father difference. And that's how the power of the resurrection heals my family, heals my life first in my family. I want to end with this amazing story that happened to me. I was invited to speak at a church back in a men's group back in East and Kansas City and it just it was an incredible event for the man, and the pastor said, Would you would you stay over and preach to our gals? We're gonna, you know, we can get about 500 gals together. Would you do the blessing of the father for these gals? And so I said, sure. And the next day I had all these amazing daughters, many of which you didn't understand they were daughters. They a lot of them saw themselves as just moms or wives or naming yourselves by stuff. And and so I had this in the end of the message. I said, How many of you never were blessed by your dad? And you want the blessing of a father, God the Father in your life. And I kind of laid out some of the same scriptures I shared with you, and um just kind of incredible altar call. There were very few people left in the seats, and and so all these women were there forward, and we were ministering to them, and God's spirit was just blessing them, and they're receiving their adoption as daughters, and it was tearful. I mean, there wasn't enough Kleenexes in the world for that moment, if you can imagine. And all of a sudden, I felt somebody grab me, grab my feet, and I looked down and and I said, How can I pray for you? And she looks at me, she says, You talked about me today in that message. I'm Mary. My name's Mary, and I am I've been a prostitute, and I've I've been so sick, and I have these conditions because of that life, and they told me I won't ever be able to have children.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

And is there anything that Jesus can do for me? And I felt in that moment like I had Mary Magdalene at my feet.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

And I stooped down and grabbed her and picked her up. And I said, Mary, I think God's got something for you here today that's so special. But he wants you to become his daughter, just like he did Mary Magdalene, just like he did the other Mary in the Bible. He wants to bless your life, and I started to pray for her, and I uh I'll never forget this moment. The spirit of the Lord began to move on her, and she started to shake and moan, and there was a demonic presence on her life, just by Mary Magdalene. And I just I bound its power and said, leave her, and she shook violently in my hands and was set free and just passed out on the ground. The Spirit of God overwhelmed her, and she was moaning and crying, and she was laying there in a in a mass. I realized that God was filling her with the Holy Spirit. God was doing to her what you know what Jesus did to Mary Magdalene. And she was shaking and weeping and crying out to Jesus and to God now as her father. And she started to speak in her new language. The gift of tongues was poured into her, and she started just worshiping the Lord, and she gets up and and hugs me, and she smiles. This this look, I'll never forget, this look of just absolute restoration of joy and into this shattered woman who is now a beloved daughter.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

I got a report a year later that she's having a baby. You're never too far gone for God to do a miracle.

Prayer To Receive Christ Today

SPEAKER_01 50:16

As you're watching this morning, wherever you're watching from, so grateful for all those that are watching today. Mary Magdalene is a picture of what God can do if you run to that tomb. If you go to that man, Jesus. Maybe you have never really given your life to Christ. This is your moment. Maybe this you're listening to this going, I want to share this with my husband or my friend. Would you share this around this? It's on all the social media platforms. Share this message of hope. The Bible calls us, you know, to confess that we're broken. I want to lead you in a prayer right now. And I know that God will meet you no matter where you are. And so just pray this with me.

SPEAKER_02 51:15

If this is your prayer, to say, Jesus, right now.

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SPEAKER_01 51:24

I I can feel I can you I I can feel that you're here, Lord. And I ask you to forgive me. I confess to you my sin and my brokenness, and I confess that my life has been in my hands. More often than not, in my life, there's some broken places in me that I can't heal myself anymore. Would you forgive me for trying to do your job? Would you forgive me for all my attempts at naming myself? All my attempts at trying to use something to feel good about who I am. I give you my life, Jesus, and I want to be born again. I want to be new, I want to be adopted by you, to be a daughter, to be a son. And so I give you my brokenness, I give you my anger. I even choose right now to forgive my dad, because he had nothing to give me. Your dad was hurtful or gone. But I receive you, Jesus, in my life as my Savior. And God the Father, you've wanted to adopt me to be, you know, and I will be a father to you, you said in your scripture in 2 Corinthians era. And you'll be my sons and daughters, and I receive that. I want to be your daughter, I want to be your son. I want you to heal my story, I want you to heal my family. I want you to heal my kids. I give you this today on this resurrection day, and that should have come in my life. And Father, I pray that your resurrection power would come just like you. It comes on Mary that first day, on the disciples, on the church, and on the leaders, and the thousands of years of faithful preaching in churches. I pray for every church around the world on this day. May this be a resurrection day for the church of Jesus Christ and all those people who need you, Jesus. And Lord, I pray right now, and I just say over you that if you pray that prayer and ask Christ in your life, the Bible also says that your sins are now forgiven. And so it's time to receive. Holy Spirit, I ask you to fall now on them and fill them up right now. And I say over you what God said over me. Your name is no longer about what you do for a living. It's not around your past or those things. But from this moment on, you are my beloved son or daughter just listening. God the Father will bless your life. God the Father will fill your life. God the Father will use your life. For he has called you and chosen you before the world began so he can adopt you as his sons or daughters to fill you with his identity of being a beloved daughter or son, so that you can be everything that God's called you to be. And I bless you today in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. So grateful to be able to share my heart with you. It's the sun is waking up here through my window. And we'd love to follow this up with you and resource you. Maybe you would. There's a couple of things. If you go to my website, a couple of things. I have a free book for you called The Difference a Father Makes. That's my story. I share some things from it today. It's absolutely free. You can go to my website, type in free book, hit the prompt, and download it right now. And you can have that. Also, maybe, maybe you're you said, Ed, I would really love to get some coaching and and and change my life. Well, if you visit my website, thefatherdifference.com, there's a link there that you can go to and check out the Fatherhood Academy. It's it's it's kind of our online community. We do personal coaching for families to help them, or maybe to help you in your brand new decision with Christ. It's a great way for you to plug in and would love for you to check that out. If you go to my website, thefatherdifference.com, you'll get all the links, it's there. And I'm so grateful for you. And I would love, really love you to consider uh just following what we're doing and becoming a partner. There's a little video at the end here on this Easter, but I want to hear from you. And if you just gave your life to Christ and prayed, just could you send me an email? You go to my website, let me know. I'd love to correspond with you. And uh the Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, make his face shine upon you and give you peace. Happy Resurrection Day. This was an honor to be here and to share my heart today. Now go to church today and just worship like a son or daughter and say a lot of amens to your pastor. Make him feel great up there preaching. Lift up his arms, make the Church of Jesus great. In Jesus' name, so great to be with you. Uh, check out this little outro video.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

If you've enjoyed what you've seen and heard today, and you want to know more about how to be the husband and father your family really needs, please go to thefatherdifference.com and click on the Fatherhood Academy and sign up today. It only takes one loving father to change the course of generations and one perfectly heavenly father to begin the process. May God bless you, and we look forward to seeing you in the Fatherhood Academy.