Got so overjoyed by the kids, I forgot, I

was supposed to put this on. So I'm down here fumbling around and Kevin's up

here and I'm like, what's you up there for? And then he said, his friend,

and I'm like, I was hoping to talk about James at that moment and I

was like, no, he's talking about me. Can you get this thing on? So

if this thing pops off, like in the middle, it's just, it's just gonna have

to land on the floor and we'll just have to roll without it. He warned

me, he said, we may lose power Saturday night. I said, hey, I can scream.

I may lose, not have a voice Sunday, but I can scream.

Wow. Wow, welcome tonight, Saturday night, and

I'm expecting God to do something in in my heart

tonight. I I hope that you came expecting Him to do

something. I got to tune in online and hear Barbie's message

Thursday and then at Justin last night, and,

just incredible how God, how the Spirit, I think,

coordinates behind the scenes. I mean, states away, cities away,

right? And He coordinates behind the scenes, and so you're here tonight for a

reason. I believe we're all here tonight for a

reason. And, and there's somebody that's not

here tonight that I think will be

impacted by what's gone on

Thursday, Friday, and tonight because of you being

here, because of what God's going to do in you

and through you. And so we'll dig in. I know we're gonna

have a scripture up on the screen. Before I do, let's just, let's pray

and, and just ask God's Spirit just to move freely. Father,

we just come before You, and Lord, I,

I couldn't even begin to start guessing all the back stories in

this room. But there's a congregation here, Lord, and you said where

two or three are gathered, you're in our midst. And we've

already felt you at work, Lord, through the worship,

through your Spirit, Lord, the liberty that is here.

But now, Lord, we just wanna tune in with You individually, one on one,

and just say, Holy Spirit, shine a

light in my heart.

Holy Spirit, be my one thing.

Holy Spirit, let me not come in here and just sit again in

another service, but Holy Spirit,

would you stir the embers deep in my heart? Would you blow on those

coals? Would you light that fire again that I once had?

God, I just pray that you'll take any words I'm not supposed

to say out and insert whatever words I'm not even planning to say in,

and Lord, just help people to see you

be glorified tonight, Father, I pray. Amen.

We're going to Luke, Luke chapter number

23. Luke chapter

number 23, verse number 21. We're

gonna read this together, and I'm, I'm gonna do this like Barbie did it.

I'm gonna do this like Barbie did it, because I've

learned that if you speak enough, people can get

tone deaf, right? And you're gonna hear me all night long. So I'm gonna not

say it. I'm gonna say it quietly. I'm gonna like whisper it, okay? And you

all are gonna say it, but I gotta hear you. What did you say, gusto?

Is it what Kevin says, gusto? So say it with gusto, but

let's read this together. So ready? Let's stand for God's word and we'll we'll

begin here. Pilate addressed them. Once more,

his eyes. And to release Jesus. They kept

shouting, Crucify, crucify him.

A third time he said to them, what? What

evil has he done? I have found in him no

guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish

and release him. But they were urgent demanding

with loud cries that he should be crucified

and their voices prevailed so Pilate decided

that their demand should be granted. He released

the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection

and murder for whom they asked, but he

delivered Jesus over to their will. And

as they led him away, they seized one,

Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the

country and laid on him the cross to carry

it behind Jesus. Thank you so much. You may be

seated.

This wraps up the mock trial. This wraps up

the betrayal. This wraps up

really Jesus' earthly ministry up to this point. This

wraps up his freedom.

And Pilate, Pilate got it.

I study, and I can't believe. I mean, Pilate got it. He's

like, he didn't do anything three

times. Tried to convince them to let Him

release Him. But they were more urgent,

and they haul Him out. And the Romans who had

perfected crucifixion, they now are, it's on their timetable.

They're now performing this. They're marching them up

to Golgotha. And because of the brutality,

because of all of the things that he had had, even before the Romans took

him into their jurisdiction, the high priest had men

there who, all night in Caiaphas' house, had him under arrest,

and had flogged and beat him, and had already done, and then the Romans

took and added their torture to him,

beaten and bruised like no other.

And He's on the road. He's staggering under

the load of the cross.

And then in verse number 23,

or verse number 26.

And as they led him away, they seized one,

Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the

country, and laid on him

the cross to carry it behind Jesus.

Now the title I was praying over leading up to this conference

was, what's the one thing I'm believing

God for? And I went to the Old Testament,

and I went to Caleb. I want that

mountain. It belongs to me. And I went to

Hannah, who got on her knees and believed God for

a son, and I went to all these Old

Testament. I said, Lord, which one is it gonna be?

And then on my devotions, I stumbled across this verse, and immediately,

I felt that's the verse. It was like,

Simon of Cyrene? Like what?

And so I changed the title a little bit, and I hope by the end

of tonight, we can see that the one thing I'm

believing God for

and one step closer to the cross

can be the exact same thing.

Because they picked one.

This, Jerusalem's teeming with about, they

estimate, 200,000 to a million people. It's

Passover time, teeming with people.

What is a sleepy city at Passover

becomes a thriving, bustling

metropolis, teeming with people, packed

streets you can't even get through. And

on the road to Golgotha, out of hundreds

of thousands of people, they

picked one. Says they picked one,

Simon of Cyrene. They picked one.

Just do something to kinda wake you,

wake yourself. Just squeeze your hand or just touch your leg or just look at

the person next to, next to you and say, one. You're one.

You're one. You are here for a reason.

You are here for a reason.

I do not think Simon appreciated that moment being pulled out of a

crowd. I mean, since the Romans pulling him out of a crowd,

I don't think any Jew, Jewish person, anybody for that matter around the

world with the oppressive force the Romans were appreciated being pulled

out of the crowd to be conscripted to carry someone else's cross, a

criminal at that.

But they pulled one, Simon of Cyrene,

who is coming in from the country. So that term

coming in from the country can mean several things. He could have been a craftsman.

He could have been out lodging outside

Bethany, some of the close by cities. Many of the pilgrims lodged

around Jerusalem. Scholars believe he was one of the

dispersed Jews in Cyrene who is coming in from the country

to Passover. Cyrene.

North Africa. One thousand miles

away. Okay, I

drove from Virginia, five hundred maybe,

right? Nine hour trip, not too bad. Central time,

gain an hour, I'll take it, right? But imagine,

back then, a thousand miles, most of the

time on foot. If you were well-to-do, you might have had a burrow, you

might have had some means, you might have even had a chariot. If

you were really wealthy, you could have maybe taken a ship and cut some time

out. Went through some of the Suez Canal, whatever. They don't

think they had this, but went went by way of went by way of the

water, right? But chances are, he was

coming in from the country. He had just completed this pilgrimage. I can

only wonder, back in Cyrene, North Africa,

now Libya, the country, I could only wonder

as Passover drew near. I don't know, was this his

first Passover? Was this the first one

that he had saved all his life for? Was this

the prized pilgrimage? Was this it? What

sacrifices did his family go through so he could make

this pilgrimage? This was the thing the Jewish people would do,

go to Jerusalem, if they could, for Passover.

How holy an event. How life changing an

event, right? I mean, this is like the mission. This is the calling.

Maybe as a young boy, he was taught Torah,

and he dreamt all his life. This is the one thing.

This is my bucket. You ever have a bucket list item? Like, this is my

bucket list item. I wanna go to The Alps. This is my

bucket list. I wanna go skydiving from, you name

it. Anybody been skydiving? Not me. I

like my feet on the ground. Hallelujah, amen.

Bucket list item. I could just imagine bucket list item, and I also

believe that bucket list item for Simon of Cyrene was

probably rooted in some love for Adonai. I could just

imagine him going and dreaming all along the journey a thousand nights as the stars

came out, and he would camp alongside the road, probably in a caravan because they

traveled for safety back then. I could just imagine he's sitting there

going, Adonai in heaven, thank you for this opportunity. I can't

even imagine what's going through Simon's mind as he's

nearing the city, as maybe he had just enough for some lodgings that may be

a cheap in outside because those hotels in the inner city are just

too expensive. So I'm gonna stay outside. Maybe he had a

friend close by. I don't know. But on this

particular day, he's coming in from the country.

He's coming in for the country.

This would have been taken about a month. K? I

just want us to think. What have we in our life

dreamt about, worked on, worked

towards? What's the business that we've poured blood, sweat, and

tears into? What's the personal sacrifices you've made?

And in a moment's notice,

hey, he seized. It says they seized

him. This wasn't like, hey, sir. No, they had

a time schedule to keep. They seized him, and as soon as he

sees, he's, he knows what, what this means. And it says, and

they laid on him,

not a cross, the cross.

They laid on him the cross.

I want us to think about the word laid, laid on him.

I wonder if Simon along the road prayed, Lord, let your will

be done. I wonder if he was praying,

God, I wanna see you. I wonder if in his

mind, he was thinking,

temple, Shekinah glory, the

story of Solomon. I don't know what was going through his mind.

I don't know what image he had in his mind, what

his destination towards fulfilling that one

thing he was believing God for. I don't know what that looked like, and I

don't know in your mind what that one thing you're believing God for in

your mind looks like, but what I know from my own experience

is I've often believed God for something

that fit a version or a vision I had

of me serving God. And it wasn't a bad

vision. It wasn't a bad vision, but it was my

vision. And in my own

experience, I have

driven to pick something up to make that

vision happen and to carry something that I had to

carry, that I thought I needed to carry to

make this vision of pleasing God happen. I don't know. Again, he's

on his journey, his pilgrimage, most likely his pilgrimage,

but in this instance, he didn't pick anything

up. He was seized,

and they laid the cross

on him. I just want us to think for a minute.

What is that thing that I am striving for, that thing

that's stressing me out, that thing that's causing anxiety, maybe causing

discord in my marriage, maybe something happening within, and

I'm like, But God, this is what I This is the thing I'm believing God

for. I've prayed for this. This isn't the way I'm envisioning this to

go, God. Like, what is going on here? I didn't Or maybe a relationship broke

up, split up, whatever, and you're like, God, this was supposed to be it. This

was the thing I was believing you for, God. I just wanted a family. I

just wanted this. God, I just had, this was the vision I wanted. In

that moment, I can only imagine what's going through Simon's mind. Wait

a minute, I'm going that way. Passover's that

way.

And a cross is being laid on him.

Instead of trying to pick something up, or as we try to pick

something up, I believe I've often missed

what God was actually trying to lay on me, and I'll

tell you a personal story. We, as you know, my

wife's gone through two rounds of breast cancer. She's been in remission for two

years. Praise God. But I will tell you,

I only had recently admitted this, and I was afraid to admit it to

her. But we just celebrated

eighteen years, and we were down in Amelia Island, and

I asked her, I said, what do you need this vacation to be? And she

said, just deep conversation. I said, all

right. So I'm like, God, what are we gonna talk about? Like, what do we

need to talk about? And, and we talked about some

stuff. I mean, we talked about some deep stuff, and we choked up some

stuff, and I talked about stuff that I had previously been afraid to

talk about. And one of the things I told her,

you know, I've tried to, I've tried to be at every appointment with her,

but one of the things I admitted to her was sitting

in UVA, holding her paper,

being wait, waiting to be called back, and looking

down.

You see all her prescriptions. You see her

hormone, the Lupron, the Lexrozole. You see the stuffed tamoxifen, and then you see the

big note up here, allergic to this, and going back

to the time they gave her that and seeing her almost die.

I'm sitting there looking at the piece of paper, and I finally admitted

to her that everything inside of me

in that moment, from the get go

of her diagnosis, and even now, every injection, every quarter, every time

we go up there, every oncologist visit, every time we go up

there, it's actually easier now that I've admitted it, but

everything inside of me wanted to run away.

Everything inside of me wanted to run

away. I was afraid to tell her that.

I really was. But I told her, and she said, Baby,

that's okay. She said, I felt the

same way. She just, she kinda laughed a little bit, like give you some comedic

relief. But the last time I was up there,

this was just a couple weeks ago, while I still felt the,

ah, I hate this. This is unjust.

Why? I also looked at that piece of paper, and I

thought about heaven's Lamb. As he stepped from heaven's

throne, he said, I'll go. He's the Lamb

slain before the foundation of the world. What did that council

room meeting look like when the Father turned to the Son and said,

Here's my plan, and nobody can know about it? When He handed over the

piece of paper with all of the prescriptions and all the things that were

never supposed to be in the body of the holy God, to take on

flesh blasphemy, what? To step down

onto earth, our creation, what? To go

take on the wrath, your wrath for sin on what?

We have a high priest who understands

what it feels like to want to run away when

he was in the garden, prayed, if at all possible,

let this cup pass from me. But if

not, not my will, but yours be done. And

I wonder in that moment of Simon having this cross laid on

him, if everything inside of him didn't want to run

away. I guarantee you it did. Like, what's going through his, his

mind? But I like the next part of the

verse. He says,

they laid on him the cross to carry

behind Jesus. Behind

Jesus. He did nothing.

He was grabbed. The cross is laid on him.

And without even knowing who he was following. I don't believe,

from everything I've researched or studied, I don't believe he knew at that moment who

he was following. He just had to follow behind

the convict. He just had to follow behind Jesus.

So have you ever been at that time where you were

given something to carry you did not wanna carry in your life,

and you just thought, God, you

started with the why, then you went through the how.

Why me? Denial, anger, all the good stuff. Then you

got through that. You came to surrender, at least part surrender or

maybe somewhat surrender? Mine came a little

further down our journey. I think I shared that last time I was here.

But then all of a sudden, it's like, okay, God, how?

And I think the answer's right there, behind Jesus.

Behind Jesus. He's felt it

already. He knows exactly the pain. He knows

exactly the temptation. He knows exactly what it is. He knows

exactly how to fight for you. He knows exactly how to overcome the

enemy. Even as he's beaten, bruised, and bloodied, and can

barely walk to get up to Golgotha to finish the work of a high

priest for us, he knew his cross was right

behind him, and all Simon had to do in that moment was follow behind Jesus.

Follow behind Jesus.

I also noticed that Simon put the cross down, or they took it off his

back. Some crosses are ours to carry.

So I think, I believe we're born and into

a sin nature, into a broken world, and I think that we have a cross.

Each one of us have a cross. Hebrews says that sin that grips

us continually, right? I think each one of us have a bent to

something that is a cross to carry, probably permanently.

But I believe there's also crosses in our lives to carry for a season, and

this is one of them. He laid that cross down. But see, I don't believe

Simon left that day. I don't think he left that day. Now

if, as he was walking, I could only imagine,

I could only imagine the question, Simon,

why are you carrying that cross? I was speaking at an event, and a

mortgage banker came up to me afterwards, and he's like, and I was just giving

a sales talk, but he came up afterwards. He says, You're a believer, aren't you?

I was like, Yes, sir, I am. He said, Well, I'm a minister of the

word. I'm like, That's amazing. What? He's like, Yeah, man. Mortgage

banker by day and minister of the word by night. I'm like, That's awesome, man.

And, he had this earring with a cross,

and I grabbed his earring. I have a tendency to grab people's earrings, but I

grabbed people, I grabbed his earring, and I was

like, I love that. Why do you wear that?

And he told me the story, lost a brother, gave his life to

Christ, got the cross, and now it's a conversation piece,

conversation starter. But I asked why he wear that. He said, You know what?

He said, I, and he kinda was there for the sales and marketing stuff too.

So he's like, You know what? He's like, I've thought about, like,

man on the street, like, I thought about going out, like, to a big city

and just finding somebody who has, like, a cross. You know, everyone's like wearing a

cross. He said, I thought about going and just stopping people on the street

and, like, recording. Just do a reel of it. And like, why are you wearing

that cross? Why are you wearing that cross? He said, because I bet you there'll

be stories like mine, but he said, I bet you there'll be people like, ',

what? Oh, that's a cross. Like, you know, grandma gave it to me. You know,

whatever. And he said, I would just love to hear the story. Why are you

wearing that cross? And I could just imagine if somebody had asked Simon

that day, why are you wearing that cross? I

don't know that he was around when Jesus said,

unless you deny yourself, just

back to Luke nine, unless you deny yourself and take up

your cross daily and follow me, you

can't be my disciple. Like, Jesus was using

cross terminology to his students. No other rabbi would do that.

Cross terminology? This is an acceptance of Rome. This is an

acceptance of this brutality, this day. Why are you talking

about a cross?

Unless you deny yourself, take up

your cross daily and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. But at that moment

in time, I bet you Simon had shock and confusion going through his mind.

Remember, Passover is that way, not that way.

Fear of the Romans for sure. I I mean, I would have been afraid of

the Romans every time I got, you know, it's like when you're going down I-twenty

4, about 95 miles an hour, and you see that cop car behind you, what

happens naturally? What seizes your gut? Fear, right?

You're like, Oh, you look down, oh, no, I was just seven two.

Whew, okay. Felt like it was

95. I do have a story. I moved back from Germany when I was 18.

I got my job up in Smyrna, Tennessee. I was running, I was

a gopher guy, and I was running something up to Nashville, and I

drove a clunker. So then when I got in the company truck, GMC, back then,

it was 02/2008, so it was like a 02/2006 GMC Sierra,

I get in that thing. That thing was smooth, man. I mean, my clunker, you

had to press the gas all the way down to get to 70. This thing,

you just like touch the gas, you're 95. And I'm 95, and I have a

Iowa driver's license. I had just moved here, and I wasn't even in Iowa alone.

I had come from Germany, so state trooper. My introduction to Tennessee was a

state trooper right between So by the way, Sam Ridley Parkway and

Amityville Road, there's that little turnaround right there. Just, oh,

I learned quickly. That was the spot. They were always there.

So I quickly learned, but no, at 95. So he was very

gracious to me that day. I mean, I would look like a toddler, really. I

was 18. You know what I looked like when I was 18. 18 and and,

or not, yeah, yeah, still 18. I was about to turn 19. And, he

wrote me up for 90. He kept it right at 20. He was very gracious.

I could have lost my life. Could have been out of a job, like it

was very gracious, but anyway. I could just see the shock and confusion, the fear

of the Romans. I think he probably had some pity for the

condemned man. But I think what probably grabbed Simon

the most, Simon, why are you carrying that cross? I could

imagine his first response would be, I don't know. I don't even

wanna be here. I'm supposed to be somewhere else.

But I think then he heard Jesus, because it says they

laid on him a cross to carry behind Jesus, and there followed him a great

multitude of people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

Convicted criminals in that day and age, they were usually the

refuse, like they didn't have anybody. They were being

led out to be crucified, and I think what probably struck Simon was, who

are all these women? Who is this great multitude?

What's the commotion for this guy? What's different

about this guy? And then Jesus turns to them and

actually prophesies. He says, don't weep for me.

Weep for your kids, the city. He's prophesying about the fall of Jerusalem.

Weep for them. And then he goes up,

all the way up to the cross, and I believe Simon probably heard the words.

The first words Jesus said was, Father, forgive them.

Father, forgive them. And then the sky grows

dark, it grows black. He says his other statements from the cross, and then

he says the last thing is, Father, into your hands, I commend my, my

spirit. And of course the ground is shaking, and everything

else is happening. The veil of the temple is torn. And I think that

day, Simon realized, I miss

church. I miss Passover.

But I think in that moment, he realized

that he was at the ultimate Passover. He had

just witnessed the Passover lamb. And I

think if Mark records it correctly over in

Mark chapter 15, verse 21, he

says, and I wanna read this real quick. His account, of course,

Mark is more of a Summation Gospel. He says, and they compelled a passerby,

Simon of Cyrene, who is coming in from the country, the father

of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

I was like, whew, when I started studying this, I'm like, woah.

Scholars believe that's Rufus who was in the early church,

who Paul says, Greet Rufus and his mother, who's been like a mother to me.

He doesn't even talk about Simon. I don't know if Simon ended up giving his

life for the gospel. I'm not sure. Could have been a martyr.

Scholars don't know. They speculate, but Paul references Rufus. And

for Mark, who was in the early church, the very first church, to reference

the sons' names was he was making a reference to somebody they knew.

The early church would have known these boys.

Think about this. Think about the ramifications

of wanting to run-in, run away

but deciding to stay, not because I have the power,

I don't, but because all I have to

do is walk behind Jesus. I just have to

follow my high priest who already bore everything,

who understands every pain, who understands betrayal,

who understands the person who turned their back on you, who understands the person

who walked away after years, the person, who understands every

situation, every emotion,

every grief. He's been touched with it. The

feeling of our infirmity, he has been touched with, all I have to do

is decide to stay. And Simon, I believe that day

decided to stay. And then here his boys are in the church,

in the early church. I believe that day, his family changed.

So I wanna ask this question.

Like, what's most important, the month or those

minutes leading up to the cross? The month of journeying,

pilgrimaging to Jerusalem? The

month of traveling in for Holy Week

or those minutes leading up to the cross? And I would dare say both.

I would dare say both. I I I meet a lot of Christians who come

out of some denomination, and they're hurt. They're bruised

by religion. They've been hurt by some leader that they put on a

pedestal, and then when they walked away, they got,

they got hurt. And I see people get

stopped by that, or they kinda shame their past,

the church they were brought up in, or, but I would dare say

this tonight, and maybe this is the one thing, maybe this is the one thing

we need to believe God for, is acceptance of

everything, good and bad, up to this point,

that got me closer to the

cross. That month of journey, that month of pilgrimage was

just as important. Could you imagine, had he not been coming in that intersection at

that time, he wouldn't have been seized.

And I'm sure in the, in the seizure, he didn't appreciate anyway, but looking back

on this being seized, he then saw the clarity of what God,

Adonai, and heaven was up to in his life. So I would

dare say that the month of maybe religious obedience to him

was just as important to get Him to that place

of those minutes of conscription, which then resulted

in relationship with the Savior,

which resulted in life change. So

I'll just say, don't disregard the month. Maybe you've been in a winter

season. Maybe you've been in a mundane season.

Maybe you've been in just that season of saying, God, I don't know what you're

doing. God, I don't even sense you right now in my

life. Somebody said, If you can't sense

God's hand, trust his heart.

If you can't sense God's hand, trust

His heart. If it's not good, He

is not done. And I think that month,

that winter, that mundane plotting towards Jerusalem was just

as important for that one moment. I think nowadays, we

want things fast. Anybody like me, you want

things fast, and the emergence of technology, I won't

even say the emergence. It is now on a runaway train,

technology is, and I think it's only making that treadmill run faster. We

want things faster. We expect things faster. Right? Amazon, praise the

Lord. Right? Boom. You don't even have to hit buy now. It just say, you

just, when we click it, it doesn't say buy now to us. You know what

it says to us? It says put in my mailbox tomorrow, or put in my,

fly it in a drone in my kitchen in two hours. Right, whatever. That little

yellow button, we have come to expect things that fast, and everything about

God and what He's doing in our life is he is not in a

rush. God is not in a rush. If

you're in that season, you're like, Tim, I didn't even feel like showing up

today. Tim, I can't even do, I, I can't even right

now. Then all I wanna tell you,

I understand. You don't need a pep talk.

You don't. You don't need, it's all gonna work. You know.

But I will tell you something that cannot be taken away, because my words, you

can forget. But he said,

he said, Fear not. I've redeemed

you. I've called you by name. You are

mine. You are mine. You are graven on

my hands. You know what graven on his hands mean? That's even better than that

tad. Like, okay, Sharpie. You know how these, like, we used to do, like,

bus, run buses into Murfreesboro and get kids and pull them out. We always put

Sharpie, number of the bus they rode on their hand, right? And hopefully, they didn't

go try to wash it off, because then when they came out, they were like,

Were you on my bus? What are you gonna do? Gotta get you home. I

mean Sharpie's one thing, right? You got stick on

tattoos. You know when you got cool enough to put on a stick on tattoo,

you're like, I got a tattoo, you know? You're like showing your buddies. It's the

stick on kind, but you know, you got, and then there's the tattoo, right?

That's the permanent. That one got you kicked out of the church. You know what

I mean? It was like, there was the tattoo, right? And then, so there's the

tattoo. That's permanent.

So I went back to my mom one day, because we grew up like, it

was like tattoos were a thing, or not a thing, or we're not cool. So

I went back to my mom one day, told her about a tattoo I wanna

get. She's like, Joe, Tim, don't, if you do, don't tell your dad. I don't

know. I was like, well, I was reading Isaiah where it said that God has

graven us on his hands, and I think, like, that's tattoo material right there. That

like backs up that belief. And so I was like, go, and I had like

the doctrine down, man. It was great. But no, no, it's all joking aside.

Graven on his hands? Now

I think the graven on his hands are those nail holes. I think

the graven on his hands are the nail pierced hands. I

think when he sees the nail pierced hands, he sees you.

He sees your face. He sees your face. When he sees the

graven on his hands, he sees your face. You know when he says he can't

even pluck, he, the enemy can't even pluck you? Like, I'm in, you're in my

hand, and I'm in my Father's hand, and the enemy can't pluck you out of

my hand. Like, I'm like, I used to think, yeah, because the enemy can't pry

God's fingers off and Jesus' fingers off, like he's not strong enough. But here here's

the thing. Even if he did, through some trick or gimmick, God, the

fingers pried open, he can't pluck you out of his hands, because you're graven

in his hands. So you can't just Tonight, don't take my word

for it. You can, k? I get excited about it,

because listen, I've been through the depression, I've been through the anxiety,

and all I had to go on, the only anchor of my soul was I

was graven in his hands. So I can maybe convince you,

but I want him to speak to you tonight. I want you to hear from

him. He said it. I can believe it.

You say, Tim, I wanna believe God for something

I don't know what to believe God for. How

about one step closer to the cross? How about

that be our prayer? If I don't know what. Sometimes you get around somebody

full of faith, and they're like, I'm believing God for this and this and this,

and I'm like, amen. It's like, what are you believing

God for, brother? I'm like, this phase

of my life, this season of my life, man,

it's not lose my temper, like right now. You know what I mean? It's like

just, just for, just to get

through the next moment. Right? But again,

everyone, every season, measures of grace, measures of faith,

like God, God leads us along. Here's what I wanna say.

Your steps are not compared

to your brother or sister's steps. Your steps

are only compared to what he has

to lay on you for this season. What

if Simon didn't walk, didn't move? Like,

we wouldn't have had the ultimate Passover. Your

steps, whether it's a few steps up Golgotha's

Hill or whether it's a long journey that you're in for Jesus, wherever

it's leading you, they matter. You matter. You were talking

about your vision, your dream, and then, it was

confirmed, like, what's God speaking to you? And it's like you were to come alongside

and help. And it's like I was, you know, just talked to ministry leaders all

over, but we were talking, sharing some meals and just seeing the spirit

of just community and volunteering and people pouring

out and sweeping floors and just pouring their spirit into this place for this

conference to happen. I'm like, that is You're saying, Yes, God.

I will take style. I'll carry this cross. Like, there's a cross. Paul the

Apostle says, Bury ye one another's burdens. There's a cross. If you don't know what

cross to carry, if you don't, Jesus, I wanna take up a cross daily and

follow you, but what is that? I will dare say, if he did, if yours

is not clear to you, say, Lord, one step closer to the cross. I'll say

one step close to the cross is bearing somebody else's burden, a brother or

sister's burden. So I think sometimes instead of like, what am I believing

God for? Sometimes, I'll be honest, take a step back from that statement.

I've been believing God for something for me, for my vision that I thought would

please Him, instead of taking a step back and saying, God, I wanna take

one step closer, one step toward your cross.

I wanna take up my cross daily. You say, Tim, I have a lot of

things in my life, in my mind that I wanna do for God. I don't

know which one to do first. I love the verse that says the

steps of a good person are ordered by the Lord.

I didn't do well in math, but when I got to that,

exercise of ordering the integers, any mathematicians in the room, any

good math people, You had to order, you had those

like element sets, and you had to order the integers, right? And if you didn't

have any numbers in there, what was it called? An empty and null

set. There was nothing to order. And I think that

that's what I wanna just, if anything, challenge all of us with

is if you don't know what to do, if you don't know what, like

God, I I have all the Just just take one step.

I see so many people, myself included, who get paralyzed or

paralysis by analysis, which, what's the right thing to do here? What's,

what's, and we just don't lean into the thing right in front of us. It's

like, just start leaning in, because it says God is the one who

orders our steps. He's gonna rearrange them for you. He's gonna order them for you.

You're not gonna get them. Simon got there right on time, right at the

intersection, right in the nick of time.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. What's the one thing

you're believing God for? Could it be just

simply one step toward the cross? You know one thing I noticed?

In Scripture oftentimes, you see Simon

of Cyrene, the son of.

In this verse, it just said, Simon of Cyrene,

the father of these two sons.

There was no son of here. This was Simon's

moment, I believe, to change family

legacy. This was Simon's moment to say

yes to another way, to this distraction,

this disruption, and go, and ultimately receive the

ultimate Passover and change his family forever. You may be here saying, But my

dad, but my mom, that's

what's so beautiful at Jesus' cross. It wipes out. It

doesn't take away the pain of it, the trauma, things that are still there, but

he bore it all. He took it all. It is our chance

to say yes to following Jesus. It's our chance to

say, when Jesus said, Follow me, take up your cross daily and

follow me, it's our chance to say, I'm at a crossroads, yes.

You say, Tim, I want so badly to surrender. I want

so badly to say yes.

I just wanna leave you with this. Remember

to surrender. And I don't mean go

home in little cliche, it's kinda cool, right? Right? Remember to

surrender. Tim, today, remember to surrender. That's okay.

If that works, that's cool, little mantra. But here's what I want

you to think about. Think about all the times Jesus

told the disciples, I tell you this now,

so that when I rise, when the Son of Man is

lifted up, you will remember my words. And the women came to the

tomb, and the angel said to them some words.

And then, it says, they remembered, he said, Did he not tell

you? Blah, blah, blah, blah. The women said, Then

they remembered his words. Here's what I

wanna encourage all of us, as we go to bed

tonight, get ready to come in and worship tomorrow,

ask God to bring back to your mind

the people, the lighthouses, the

intersections, the voices,

His still small voice, the things that we've been

hearing for the last six months, nine months, a

year. He speaks. God does

not stop speaking. Tim stops listening. Tim's

moving too fast to remember. But if we'll stop

and look back, I bet you Simon, in that moment,

fought back. Wait pierced for

our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Father, forgive them, they know not what

they do. I think Simon was there saying with the

centurion, Surely, this man is the son of God. I think

to surrender, we must remember

all of the moments as he's brought us to this moment.

You are here for a reason. So as

we end tonight, I think of that old song that says, Jesus, I,

my cross, have taken, all to leave and follow

thee. And tonight, can we say that? As the band

gets ready to play, and I guess Kevin comes in, or somebody comes in

and prays and closes us out, can we just maybe just tonight, just say,

God, help me to remember. Help me to

remember. Lord, help my one thing to

be a step closer to your cross. To take it

up my cross, there's a cost involved.

Help me to count the cost.

Jesus, on my cross, I've taken all to leave,

follow thee. I'll tell you, I'll tell you,

there is nothing that gives you more peace. There is

nothing that gives you more joy. And it is so counter

Listen, this world offers it. They present a gimmick.

Go try it out. Go try it out. You probably already have.

It doesn't last. It's worthless. It's

a fleeting joy. But Jesus,

the lamb of God, the one who bore it

all for us, us, fills us with

everything, with purpose. Let's take up our cross, let's follow behind

Him, and let's trust Him with it. Thank you so much.