Well, good morning. So glad

to be in the house this morning. If you're joining us on livestream, thank you

for joining us today. It is it is certainly a

a good day. A couple of things,

want to encourage you, that we have a midweek

gathering, 6 o'clock, pastor Justin on Thursday

night, 6 o'clock. Pastor Justin has been doing, a

series, about the table and, it's been

really rich. And so I want to encourage you if you can make

that happen, if your capacity allows for you to be here on Thursday

night, come and be a part of that. It's certainly

in keeping and in line with, where we are in the

season of leading up to Resurrection Sunday.

And with that also, on Good Friday, Good Friday this

year, we are going to have a worship gathering here from

6 to 7. Okay? It will be an hour long. We are going

to partake in communion together, and so, you can

bring your family. We won't have kids ministry. The kids will join

us in here. We will have, I believe we will have a nursery

available, but during that gathering, families will will be in here. And we're God

pray together, we're gonna worship together, and take communion. And so I encourage

you, Good Friday, 6 o'clock to come and be a part

of that hour service. And then, of course, we have resurrection

Sunday, that's March 31st, And so, we're God celebrate the resurrection of

our king because we get to live with him forever. Jesus is alive.

And, and so we're excited about that. I'm going to

ask you guys to, I'm going to ask you for a favor,

okay? Typically visitors who will come on Easter Sunday,

there may be some people who will come once or twice in a year, they'll

choose that day to come to to church and as you can see, our

auditorium is pretty full. If you have the ability to come to

the early gathering that day, I would certainly

appreciate it to allow there to be room in this gathering for our visitors

who come. It is a repeat gathering. You won't miss anything coming

to the early gathering. And so if it is within your capacity to come to

the early gathering on Easter Sunday and participate then, I would

greatly appreciate it so it opens up room for our visitors during

this during this during this time. Speaking of Easter, we are

into that we are into a series. We're gonna start a 3 week series. We're

gonna talk about Jesus' death. We're gonna talk about his burial, and we're

gonna talk about his resurrection on Easter Sunday. And today, we're gonna talk about Jesus'

death and pastor Justin's going to kick off this new series. Would you welcome pastor

Justin?

Thank you,

Thank you, sirs. Just give you a fair

warning. I do not know how long this jacket will make it this morning.

It's a little warm. I'm trying. It's green. Right?

Olive is a shade of green, so don't even

out there. Right? It's the only green I'll wear year

round. If you're able to, would you

stand with me? We're God go ahead and read our passage for this morning.

We'll read it together and then we'll pray and we'll get into the

message today. Are we ready?

So they took Jesus, and he went out bearing his

own cross to the place called the pray of

a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

There, they crucified him and with him 2

others, 1 on either side and Jesus

between them. Father, we thank you for this day that you've given us. God, I

thank you for the sweet spirit that is in this room today,

God. It is heavy and it is beautiful.

God, I pray that your word would penetrate into our hearts

and the ways that we have made the cross too small, that you would

magnify our view of the cross and the work that you

have accomplished therein. Father, I pray that everything

I say today would be soon forgotten. But, Holy Spirit,

anoint me to preach your words to your people for the

advancement of your kingdom, that the name of Jesus would be

glorified through the power of the Holy Ghost. It's in Christ's name

that I pray. Amen and amen. You guys can be seated.

How many of you guys remember Smokey the Bear?

Right? Right? Everybody remember Smokey the Bear? If you don't know, you youngins,

there was a commercial, pretty tragic and

traumatizing when we were younger and,

and there was a bear and he was a park ranger and

he had a park ranger hat and his name was Smokey, Smokey the Prayer, and

Smokey had a catchphrase. Right? What was the catchphrase Smokey had?

Only you can prevent forest fires. Do you know how much pressure that is

for a 9 year old kid? I'm serious.

I thought my whole life that it was up to me

to prevent force because that's what Smokey told me. They'd show a tragic story

and then he'd come on in the end and he'd point and say only you

can prevent forest fires. And that's heavy.

I'm serious. I carried that for a long time to realize there ain't no way

I was not even there. It had nothing to do with me.

But the reason I'm telling you guys this is because for most of

my life, this is how I have carried the cross.

I have had felt this overwhelming sense

of guilt and shame and this

heavy weight because my sin is what sent him

there. And my whole life I have felt this weight,

this pressure that that if it wasn't for me and my

sin, then he wouldn't have had to die. And there's

hymns and songs and it was my sin that held him there and it was

the thought of me and I'm just my whole life. I'm like God, this is

this is heavy. And I feel like on my

journey over the past, few months years that I've felt the

love of God say, son, you've made the cross way too small.

You have made the cross way too small.

I we will never understand the magnitude of what was accomplished

on the cross of Christ, but the love of God is

whispered to me over days months years of

what exactly has been accomplished on the cross.

And every new revelation magnifies

its beauty and lessens the burden for me in my

life. I know that my sin was

responsible, but that's an incomplete and a small

and minuscule

the accomplishment of the cross.

I'm gonna give you guys a disclaimer. I am fully aware that there are many

things that I don't know. I don't know what I don't

know, but I know that I don't know what I don't know,

and therefore, I'm open to God showing me what I don't

know. Somebody got that.

I know that's that's Southern, but there was one guy was like, I'm tracking.

I am tracking you today.

So, however, this is an attempt for us to find even more

value, even more value

in the cross than we already have. So

we're gonna start with one thing we do know, the forgiveness and the

atonement, since that's what we know.

The cross provided the means for our redemption. First

Corinthians 57 says this, cleanse out the old leaven

that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened for

Christ, our Passover lamb

has been sacrificed. Our Passover lamb

has been sacrificed. Paul describes

Jesus as our Passover lamb. Pastor Kevin, referred to a series

that we've been doing on Thursday nights. And I've I shared some of this

information with you guys that have been attending. But

Paul describes Jesus as our Passover lamb. Where does this come from?

This originates in Exodus chapter 12 verses 1 through

13. The Israelite people are about to be brought out of slavery

from Egypt and God is giving them specific instructions

on what's going to happen before the angel of

death comes and all of the firstborn of

everyone that does not have the blood covering their

house will be killed that night. And God gives him specific

instructions. He says, matter of fact, look, everything we've done up to this point, I'm

changing it. This month is gonna be the 1st month of the new year.

Starting in this month, this is gonna be the 1st month of the new year.

And what I want you guys to do is on the 10th day of this

month, I want you to take a lamb, a perfect spotless

lamb, and bring it into your household and keep it there for the week. Then

for the whole week, what you're going to do is inspect this

lamb for spots and blemishes. And then on

the 14th day of the month at sundown, you're going to

slaughter the lamb and you and your family are going to take the blood of

the lamb and you're gonna sprinkle it on your posts and the angel of the

Lord will see the blood and passah or

pass over. Passah

is the Hebrew worship means to spare or protect it

was not that the angel of the Lord just skipped over the house it

spared that house. Passover was to

passah, spare or protect.

John chapter 12 verse 1 tells us that Jesus

arrived in Bethany 6 days before Passover

on 9th day of the month. And then John theater 12 verse

12 tells us the the next pray, that

was the word that he used, the next pray, which would have been the 10th

day of the month that Jesus on a donkey

rode into Jerusalem, which was the center of the house of

worship for the Israelite people. The lamb of God

brought in to his house on the 10th day.

And for the rest of the week, all they did was try to find

faults in Jesus. They was asking him, like, tricky questions. They were trying

to trip him up. They were inspecting the lamb for blemishes

and spots. And then on 14th day,

the Friday, the lamb of God, the Passover lamb

was slain on the cross at the same time that the

priests were taking lambs and slaughtering them for the

people. The true Passover lamb was being

slain at the same time that those Passover lambs were being

slain right before sundown.

Revelation 138, John describes Jesus this way.

And all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose names has not been

written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb

who was slain. I don't particularly like the way the e f ESV says it,

but if you didn't catch that in all that language, Jesus is the

lamb who was slain before the foundation

of the world.

That's hard for me to get my head around. That's hard for me to

get my head around that before the world was created, the Spirit

had some type of conversation. We're gonna

make a world, we're gonna make man, and they're gonna mess this

up big time.

But I know what we'll do. I know what we'll do. I know what we'll

do. Jesus said, matter of fact, I'll go and be slain for

them. I'll go in their place

and be slain for them and but that's not really good enough. God's

like, you know what? I love the way Graham Cook describes it. He says, no.

We can't just forgive them. We're gonna have to kill them.

We're gonna have to kill them, And then what we'll do then what

we'll do is we'll we'll we'll we'll tell them that if you if you

die with him, that will will submerge you in theater.

And when you come out, that'll be called being born again.

We'll kill them too and then they'll be born again. And Holy Spirit, it'll be

then your job to reveal them everything that Jesus had done for them and empower

them. Before the foundation of the world, this

had already been established. You know what that tells us? Redemption

is in his nature.

Redemption is in his nature.

We can see this in his interaction before Pilate with

Barabbas. If you're not familiar with the

story, before Jesus goes to the

cross, they're standing before Pilate and it was their

custom that on a holy pray, they would let somebody go free,

a prisoner go free and so they bring out Jesus

and they bring out Barabbas and Barabbas is a bad guy.

Barabbas murders people,

murders people. He's a

rebel. He leads insurrections against the government.

He tried to overthrow the government. Him

and a whole bunch of other people, and they bring this guy out and they

put him here and then they bring Jesus, son of God, who's never

done anything wrong, Perfect spotless

lamb and they bring him out and you know what Pilate says. Pray. Who do

you want? Who do you want? And what do they

say? What did they say?

Give us Barabbas. He said, who do

you want, Barabbas? Yes. Give us Barabbas.

And Jesus is there silent because he

knew what God knew. And I love the way that Judah Smith says it. He

says that God knew, Jesus knew that

God had to treat Jesus like Barabbas so he

could treat Barabbas like Jesus.

Even his name, Bar means son,

Abba means father, the son of the father for the

son of the father.

It's it's in his nature.

Redemption is in his nature. He

Why? Because he was a substitutionary Passover

lamb slain before he even decided to make the

world. That's his character. That's who he is.

Our redemption, the forgiveness of sin, our

atonement is found in the cross.

Calvary is also the fulfillment of God's promise to the serpent. Yeah.

He made a promise to the serpent in Genesis 315. So get

this. I will put enmity between you and the woman and

between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head

and you shall bruise his heel. This is God's promise to

the serpent. This is referred to as a seed war. This is a

millennia Holy battle

garden.

Man was created to have dominion on the earth.

It was a birthright that god gave his people. Be

fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth.

Reign over it, rule over it. I want you to do a little thought exercise

with me for a second. Think of something that has

been created and then given a purpose.

Name one thing that has ever been created that was created and

then given purpose. You can't do

it, can you? You can't do it. Why?

Because nothing is created without purpose. You are created

for a purpose. Nothing is created and

then given a purpose. So how much more so

mankind created for a purpose?

We are created to be God's regents on the

earth, representatives of the heavenly kingdom

here on this earth. We we so detach

the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth, and we and we

and we say things like, well, that's just a supernatural. He has set things

in order here on Earth the same way they are

in heaven. Why did Jesus pray? Your will hear the way it is up

there. What where do we even get these concepts

of kingdom? We don't just come up with these on our own.

God has set this in motion

and the authority and dominion of mankind has been usurped by

the enemy or given away throughout history. We have

given away the authority that God has given us. And according

to Deuteronomy chapter 32 verses 8 and 9, look at this. It says, when the

most high gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind,

he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of

God. But the lord's portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted heritage.

What does this mean? Growing up, my mom used to tell me, well,

the Jews were God's chosen people. And I'm like, well, flip them a

fish. Lucky them. Right? How'd they get that?

Right? Have you you've heard that Jews were are God's

chosen people. Well, where did that come from? This is where it came from. God

divided the nations up and he took Israel as himself. Have you

read passages in the New Testament theatre seem like, well, that was

kinda harsh for Jesus to say that, but we don't understand it

Where the Syrophoenician woman is coming to Jesus for something, he said, Look, it's not

my time to come to you yet. I'm here for the Jews right now. And

she's like, Well, even dogs get crumbs from the master's table. And he's

like, I love your tenacity, lady. He did that's

Justin speak, man. It's a little bit cleaner than that if you go read

it, but that's the gist of it. It's all throughout the New

Testament. You can see it, and Jesus is like, it's not my time for that

yet. It's not my time for that yet. And I'm like, what is he talking

about here? Why? Because God had come for the nation of Israel

first. Why? Because those were his allotted people.

The accomplishment of the cross is that Jesus reclaimed all

authority that man had abdicated and gave it back to us as

regents. Matthew 28 18, I love this.

I love what Jesus says here. Jesus came and said to

them now this is after the death, burial, and resurrection. And

look at what Jesus says. What is that first quotation?

All authority in heaven and

on earth has been given to me.

All authority in heaven on earth has been given to

me. Go therefore and make disciples of

all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching

them to observe all I have commanded you and behold I am

with you always even through the end of the

age. Jesus accomplished on the cross

the reclamation of the authority that we had abdicated and that had

been you served. And what did he do? He gave it back to us now

empowered by the Holy Spirit for us to go and

be regents and ambassadors of the kingdom in the earth.

You gave up the authority I gave you. I'll come get it back,

and I will give it back to you, but now I'm sending you

with my spirit. And now the gospel is

available to who? All nations

that happened at the cross. I read a verse this past

Thursday where Jesus said, and this used to mess me up.

He said, hey, you'll do greater things than

me. Have you read that passage? You'll do

greater things than me, and I'm like, God is

that possible Until you realize that Jesus was 1

man in one place at one time

and now and now he has given us

the promised Holy Spirit. And now you get to be a regent at

your job and you get to be at your job and you get to be

where you're at on vacation and and where you go grocery shop at, and the

places that you interact. And now we are doing greater things because

the spirit has been multiplied and magnified and the gospel of

Jesus Christ is preached to all nations.

And he accomplished it at the cross. What we

had given up, he took back for us.

The way in which he died was one of the most brutal deaths in the

history of the planet. The Romans had perfected crucifixion.

They spent about 500 years perfecting their craft.

Crucifixion was not just a way to die. It was a method

of torture, and it was a statement to all would

be opposition to Rome.

Imagine we let out a service here, and we all get out, and

we go down here on San Ridley and right in front of First Watch, There's

3 men hanging bleeding naked

on crosses in the side of the road and a sign that

says, this is what they did. Do you think you would be doing the same

things to mess around and find out like that? You probably would not.

Right? You would not and that was the point. That was the

point. Anybody that's God come and defy

the Roman rule like this, this is what'll happen to you. This

is exactly what will happen to you.

It was a method of torture. It was a particularly

cruel and unusual form of disposing

people. Disposing people,

says Jeremy Ward, head of the physiology department at King's College in

London. Each aspect of the death on the cross had its

particular ghastliness, some less accurately depicted

by artists than others, the discovery of the bones of a crucified

man now in a museum in Israel point to the fact that the feet

were likely not stacked on the front of the cross. In

the remains, the nail goes through the heel leading to the conclusion that

the crucified were more likely nailed with their ankles

on either side of the cross mass. Can you

imagine that? This it's not this

picture we see here. Most likely, your feet are on both

sides of the pillar, and there's a nail through both

ankles. So so the only thing

to support you is your ligaments and your tissue

resting against that nail. It's not like they said, well, let's put him a

little foot rest up there to stand on. No. They probably

laid him down, nailed it through, and then slid it up and

let it drop into place.

Both sides of the mast. Both sides of the

mast.

Ward says some artist interpretations have been especially accurate. The

classic position of the hands in paintings is that they are clenched.

A neurologist suggested that the church was due to the fact that if the median

nerve was struck, it would cause neuropathy,

which controls the thumb and finger so they would indeed clench in a particular

way as that would have been contributed to death, but it would not have been

nice. As far as a nail goes through your hand,

it causes nerve damage, and you can't control the

way your fist will church up. So now

you don't have anything to grab onto. There's there's

nothing to grab onto anyway, and there's nothing to really support

your weight except the nail that's through both ankles and a

beam of wood. Your arms were usually positioned

higher than your torso.

Said that he is said to have expired after 6 hours

on a Friday. In addition to the positioning of the cross, Ward says that

the length of survival also depended on the health of the individual

being crucified and on the severity of their treatment beforehand. They

routinely whipped them and had them carry at least part of

their cross to the side of the execution. I mean, we we quote this

verse, and by Christ's stripes, we are healed. And we have no idea what

those stripes actually were. The Romans were

brutal. There were some instances that the man being

crucified never made it to the cross.

Never made it to the cross. They would take

them and they would strip them down. They would strip them down and

they would tie them to a block. And they had this

crazy thing with pieces of leather hanging off of it

with glass and metal or whatever that they could inflict pain

with, and they

whipped him. I tried to

cut my 2 fingertips off the other pray.

Didn't particularly like that, but if you've ever hit your finger

on something or or it's like if you get hurt, now your body says, hey,

touch everything with that. Right?

So you imagine you get hit one

time with this brutal device

and it just lands wherever it lands

on your back flesh bone muscle tissue

ligaments anything and then the only way to get it out is for them to

snatch it and everything goes flying with it and that would have

been enough but they go right back to the same spot he'd been hit

in. Some of these criminals hung on this

cross for days and Jesus died within 6 hours. Why?

Because they were killing him on the way.

39 times they hit this man

over and over and over and over and

over and over and over and over and over and over

and over and over and over and over and over and over and

over and over and over and over and over and

over and over and over and over and over and

over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over

and over. They hit him.

39 times.

And then they said, get up And they put they they put a

robe on him. And if you've ever put a band aid on something

that's hurt, right? They put a robe on him and then it

stuck to whatever was wet, whatever tissue was there

long enough where they could spit on him and and put the crown on him

and humiliate him. And then when it was time to carry the cross, they snatched

it off and ripped open whatever wound was there.

Can you see why 9 year old me is like, God this is heavy. My

sin did this. He's like, it's bigger than you.

It's bigger than just that son, don't make the cross this small.

I didn't do all this just to have you have a small view of the

cross.

Then they then they put his they were ordered to carry parts of their

cross. And so he had to carry his cross and I

love the way the gospels, I love the way God understands

us because they brought somebody along

to help him carry it. I read

passages that say, pick up your cross and follow me and some

days, oh my God, I can't do this. I wanna quit.

Now I realize he sent somebody to help me carry it.

He sent someone to help bear the burden. If he did it for his son,

why wouldn't he do it for me? He did do it for

me because he did it to his son. The son

of the father for the son of the father.

By the time they got there to the side of the execution,

they were already pretty traumatized and had probably lost a

major amount of blood. For some,

it could be a day or more and how they were treated once installed on

the cross had a significant effect as well. You have to maintain the

weight of the body on the legs so that the weight of the arms isn't

too much so that you can breathe properly.

As he hung there, he would slowly suffocate.

His body would slink down so church, and the only way to

get a good breath was to pick himself back up against the

nails. It's torture.

It's brutal. They were making a

statement and this is what the Jews asked for. Give

us Barabbas

They They didn't know what he would accomplish.

Gradually, the exhaustion gets worse and worse, and you can't keep the weight

up as warden. It is known that the guards would break the legs

in order to hasten death sometimes. So was the case with those

on either side of Jesus according to the gospels.

Romans 5 00:30:26

6 says, for

Romans 5 00:30:30

while we were still weak at the right

Romans 5 00:30:34

time Christ died for the ungodly. Do you think it's

Romans 5 00:30:37

any coincidence that he came when he

Romans 5 00:30:41

came? Pray out to me, I would say, can I be

Romans 5 00:30:44

poisoned and and die in my sleep? Or it

Romans 5 00:30:48

could have been an electric chair in 2019. Or it could have

Romans 5 00:30:52

been a lethal injection, or he could have been killed,

Romans 5 00:30:56

when they were trying to wipe out all of the babies. But instead, he comes

Romans 5 00:31:00

at the point in history where the most brutal way to

Romans 5 00:31:03

die is the way to die. Do you think that's coincidence? He

Romans 5 00:31:07

just so happened on a Roman cross? No. He said, I'll take the most

Romans 5 00:31:11

amount of pain for the most amount of time if that's

Romans 5 00:31:15

what it takes. Why? Because he was the lamb who was slain before

Romans 5 00:31:19

the foundation of the world. Redemption is in his

Romans 5 00:31:22

nature.

Romans 5 00:31:26

This is the death we should have died. This

Romans 5 00:31:30

is the death we should have died. And as a matter of fact,

Romans 5 00:31:34

it is the death that we died.

Romans 5 00:31:38

We need to understand that we were so corrupted in our

Romans 5 00:31:42

flesh. Mankind had been so corrupted

Romans 5 00:31:45

in our flesh that we could not just be forgiven, we

Romans 5 00:31:49

had to be crucified.

Romans 5 00:31:53

We had to be crucified. Romans

Romans 5 00:31:57

6:6 to 7 says, we know that our old

Romans 5 00:32:00

self our old self

Romans 5 00:32:04

was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be

Romans 5 00:32:08

brought to nothing so that we would no longer be

Romans 5 00:32:12

enslaved to sin for one who has died has

Romans 5 00:32:15

been set free from sin. Galatians 2:20

Romans 5 00:32:19

says, I have been crucified with Christ.

Romans 5 00:32:23

Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The

Romans 5 00:32:27

life that I live now, I live by faith in the son of God who

Romans 5 00:32:30

loved me and gave himself for me. That should be our life verse

Romans 5 00:32:34

every single day of the week. I have been crucified with

Romans 5 00:32:38

Christ. Literally, I died with him.

Romans 5 00:32:44

Jesus did not just die for us, he died as us.

Romans 5 00:32:49

He did not just die for us, he died as

Romans 5 00:32:53

us. The accomplishment of the cross

Romans 5 00:32:56

places us in a present future life instead of a

Romans 5 00:32:59

past present reality. Our old nature has been

Romans 5 00:33:03

killed and our past has been redeemed. I love

Romans 5 00:33:07

I love so much that Jesus' very first miracle

Romans 5 00:33:11

was turning water into wine. And you know why I love it so

Romans 5 00:33:14

much? Wine takes time. Right?

Romans 5 00:33:19

You don't just put the pray. I still hadn't figured out how that works, by

Romans 5 00:33:22

the way. I said, I told y'all that's I God need a little

Romans 5 00:33:26

bit more time. I just now realized that. I don't know how to thresh or

Romans 5 00:33:30

press grapes yet, but I'll get there. Wine

Romans 5 00:33:33

takes time. Am I right? There's a fermentation

Romans 5 00:33:37

process, but look at what Jesus did. He gave the

Romans 5 00:33:41

water a past it never had.

Romans 5 00:33:46

I don't know if I'm even talking to anybody today.

Romans 5 00:33:51

He gave the water a pass it never had.

Romans 5 00:33:57

The the cross gives us

Romans 5 00:34:00

a present future reality instead of this

Romans 5 00:34:04

present past mentality that we're always walking in.

Romans 5 00:34:08

We're always looking back, oh, I did this and I'm so this, and our mind

Romans 5 00:34:12

is back here when we have been crucified with him. That means

Romans 5 00:34:15

all that is dead too. Now, I am responsible

Romans 5 00:34:19

to live a present future life. I

Romans 5 00:34:23

am presently wonderful

Romans 5 00:34:27

because of the cross. I love the way Graham Cook says it.

Romans 5 00:34:31

I'm not everything I'm supposed to be yet, but when he

Romans 5 00:34:34

died, I died.

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When he died, I died.

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Most of us has Spirit our entire lives living past,

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present and not present

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future. The work of the cross,

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the gospel of Jesus is not about improving your life

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or learning to be kind to your neighbor. The

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gospel is not, I used to do drugs, and now I don't.

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The gospel is not, I used to be mean to my wife, and

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now I'm kind to her. That's you can find that any

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other place. You can find that in other

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religions. You can find that at AA meetings. You can find that in a number

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of places in the world. And I'll and the world will tell you, you can

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sometimes you can even find that in yourself. You've all known

Romans 5 00:35:32

people that have gotten sober or got older and and stopped being

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so mean and crass. That's not what the

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gospel is about. The gospel was about and the cross was

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restoring mankind back to the family of God.

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He restored us back into the family of

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God, a place we could not go

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before the cross. We are

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all of Adam, and therefore, we all have the same problem.

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And Jesus is the solution for the problem.

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Jesus said in John 14, I am

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the way, the truth, and the life. That phrase, I am, is the

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exact same phrase that he used later when he when they asked,

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are are you Jesus? He says, I'm him. It's the same phrase. It's

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in Exodus when they said, who are we gonna say send us? And God said,

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I am. Jesus reveals that he is God and he

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is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way to have

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a relationship with the father, and he did it through the means

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of the cross.

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From the beginning, all God has wanted is a

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family with us included in

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it. And everything that has happened

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along the way has separated us from that,

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separated us from that.

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And there have been things that have been good enough

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over the centuries, Atonement,

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sacrifices, but it was never good enough.

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None of it was ever good enough.

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So god said, I'll do it myself.

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Every other religion, you have to find your way to God.

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But in Christianity, God says, I'll find my way to you.

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I'll find my way to you.

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If the focus is healing and life change and active service,

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then the gospel's not any different. But when we

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understand that Jesus is restoring us back into the family of God, then we have

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a relationship with the father through the Holy Spirit. So how

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much more precious is the blood of Jesus

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when I know that I can be relieved of

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that overwhelming feeling I've carried my whole life

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and I can walk free understanding that it

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was bigger than that. It's so much bigger than I can

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understand. I'll never get it. I don't even know if I'll get it when I

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cross over Jordan. But for now, the cross has become

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even more powerful when I see exactly what Jesus has done in my

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place. He has given me back the authority that

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I abdicated. He's restored me back into a relationship with the

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father. He has empowered me with the Holy Spirit

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for spiritual warfare. And that spiritual warfare is making

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disciples of all nations, telling of the gospel

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that Jesus came and died in my pray. And when he died, I

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died. And now I'm restored back into relationship with the father.

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How precious is the blood of Jesus? Worship team, you come out, and I'll pick

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my jacket up. How

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precious is the blood of Jesus to you? How

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small have we made the cross?

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The blood of Jesus will never lose its power to love.

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It will never lose its power to forgive. It will never lose its power

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to restore. It will never lose its power to a point. It

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will never lose its power to redeem. It will

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never lose its power to redeem.

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It will never lose its power to transcend our thinking.

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It will never lose its power to accomplish everything

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that God has set out to do. He could have gotten to a to b,

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a 1000000 different ways and this is the way he chose to do it.

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This is the way he chose to do it.

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How precious is the blood? It's for this reason I

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shout. When y'all see me acting stupid down

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here.

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When you see me with my earbuds in singing and you don't wanna hear

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it. When

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you see me on my face. When you see me

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crying in that corner. When you see me praying over another brother.

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This is why. It's

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always been Jesus. It's always going to be Jesus. It's

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never gonna stop being Jesus. And the power of his

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death and the beauty of his resurrection.

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Forgotten the power of the cross and the work that God has accomplished.

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But now, in this season, in this

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moment, at this time in history, I repent and I

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look to the beauty of the cross, and I see the blood that was shed,

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and I understand that this is bigger than me. God

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is restoring all of mankind back into his family.

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And we when he died we died with him. And I don't have

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to live back here. I don't have to carry that weight.

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This is the reason we shout. This is the reason we celebrate.

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This is the reason we proclaim his death until he comes

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again. This is the reason why

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we worship. So stand with me.

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If you made the cross too small,

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this is a moment for you too As we

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worship our risen king. See, he's not dead anymore.

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He's not dead. Come on.

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Because if he if he just died, then what good

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was that? But when he rose, I rose too.

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So we celebrate that this morning. That

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he didn't die, and it was brutal and beautiful.

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That was horrible and holy.

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But when he died, we died and now we live in newness of

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life as sons and daughters of the risen king king, and for that reason we

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worship. If you need to pray with somebody this morning for any need, I'm

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gonna ask brothers and sisters to come down here, and you can come down here

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and pray. But I just I would just like for us to just worship this

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king. How precious is the blood?

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It will never lose its power and I I get to

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celebrate with you for all of eternity.

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Let's worship.