After four months away from the pulpit, Sarah Jakes Roberts returned with a message forged through pain, uncertainty and a personal journey that left her with screws in her neck and titanium in her throat. With it, though, she brought a testimony that God can breathe life into what looks broken.
Roberts returned to preaching after experiencing a trampoline injury, giving a sermon titled “The Same, But Different,” centered on John 20 and Jesus’ appearance to His disciples after the resurrection. But before diving deeply into her message, Roberts acknowledged the physical ordeal that had kept her away.
“I said, ‘Lord, you break your neck, and you can’t get no Wi-Fi. Got to get some things together on my return,’” Roberts joked.
Yet underneath the humor was a much deeper testimony.
Roberts candidly admitted that the season had taken a toll not only physically. She told the congregation she had been “struggling with depression, struggling with worries, struggling with uncertainty,” describing moments when she strained to see where God was in the middle of everything happening around her.
That struggle became the heartbeat of her message.
Drawing on the creation account in Genesis, Roberts argued that what appears to be chaos to humanity can become an opportunity in God’s hands.
To order Abby Trivett’s new book, The Power of Suddenly, visit Amazon.com.
“When God sees chaos, God sees an opportunity,” Roberts said.
Roberts connected this to the disciples after Christ’s crucifixion. Frightened and uncertain, they locked themselves away. Yet the resurrected Jesus entered the room anyway, bringing His presence directly into the place fear had convinced them to hide.
The passage carried particular weight after everything she had endured.
The message reached a powerful crescendo as she turned to Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones. This time, Roberts did not simply preach about resurrection. She pointed to her own body.
“I got screws in my neck. I got titanium in my throat,” Roberts declared. “I came here to tell you that bones do, in fact, live again.”
She continued with a declaration that seemed to summarize her entire return: “The enemy tried to knock the wind out of me. Little did he know I got breath on reserve.”
Roberts then urged the congregation to breathe, dream and pray again, reminding those who have endured seasons that nearly took everything from them that exhaustion is not the end of their story.
“You going to have to become somebody new to do it,” Roberts said. “But that’s all right. He specializes in creating. He specializes in doing a new thing.”
By the conclusion of the message, Roberts confirmed just how significant the moment was: “I ain’t preached in four months.”
She may have returned to the same pulpit, but Roberts’ message was clear: encounters with pain, chaos and God’s restorative power can leave us the same—but profoundly different.
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the newly released book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].