Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast.

I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your

faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.

One thing I want to point out to you that you may not be aware of, we typically group

our messages in different series, and I decided to preach a series called Savage Jesus.

Why I did it is because I'm tired of us pretending like Jesus is safe.

And one reason I wanted to use the term savage Jesus is because I knew that religious people wouldn't like it.

We typically like our heroes better safe, and we typically like them better after they're dead.

You notice this sometimes, don't you, that the way that we present our heroes is that we prefer

a certain version of them that is safe that doesn't offend us. And one of the things that I hope about Dr. Graham's legacy is that he is not just remembered

for only the amazing invitations that he gave, but for the barriers that he broke down.

It's good that we take a little time this week to share some of his quotes about heaven,

but what he did here on earth in bringing heaven to earth and driving back darkness.

I mean, Dr. Graham, Dr. DeMoss, was a savage in his own way.

What he did in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1953.

That was the most savage thing I ever read about, where he tore down the barriers that

they had set up to keep black people separated from white people at his crusade and looked

at two white ushers and said, you can either leave those down or have the crusade without

me.

That's pretty savage. You can either leave those down or have the crusade without me.

That's pretty savage.

I kind of like that version of Dr. Graham.

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