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Mariners Church Weekend Messages
March 29 - Death of Death - The King Who Forgives and Absorbs Our Sin - Eric Geiger
00:40:36
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Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast. Inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes. Good morning and happy Sunday everyone. If we haven't had the opportunity to meet yet, my name is Esther and I have the joy and the honor of my life to be able to serve as a women's pastor here at our beautiful church. And it's such a great Sunday to be together because it is Rooted Celebration Weekend. We got to see how God has been moving the past 10 incredible weeks with our cardboard testimonies. Can we give it for our testimonies? Isn't that incredible? We just never get sick of it. It's absolutely amazing. It's actually an invitation for you as well because right now in the next few we will be starting a new session of Rooted, our spring Rooted session. And so I want to encourage you if you have not gone through the journey of joining a rooted group, we want to invite you to that in this season. And when you sign up our team and the behind the scenes, we prayerfully consider and strategically place you with those that are in a similar life stage so that after those incredible 10 weeks, you guys can move on to become a life group and continue to grow together in your relationship with Jesus and one another as well. If you have any questions, myself and our team would love to meet you out on the patio. So feel free free to stop by and we'll help you get registered for this next session. You know, a couple weeks ago we shared about Mexico 500, which was our initiative of raising $500,000 to plant 500 churches in Mexico. And I feel super spoiled this morning to be able to be the one to share with you guys that we met our giving goal of raising $500,000. You guys, absolutely incredible. Great job, church and way to operate in joy and generosity that truly transforms us as well. I'm so there are more still opportunities for us to continue to go on faith adventures. So I want to encourage you, your life group, your families to consider that as well. Next weekend we celebrate one of the most incredible weeks, incredible days in history and in our faith, which is Easter. And I want to encourage you on your way out, there are these incredible invite cards and on the back you'll see the bajillion services that we will have. We are so excited to host you host, your family, friends and neighbors, coworkers, frenemies, whoever needs to be here to hear about the resurrection of Jesus. Because we have been transformed by the power of God. We believe that we want to help other people experience that as well. So on your way out, make sure to grab a few invite cards, and we'd love to see you there next weekend. Today, I want to encourage you to stand with me right now as we read the passage that we will be studying from. One will be from the Gospel of Luke, and one will be from the Gospel of John. Two others criminals were also led away to be executed with him, Jesus. When they arrived at the place called the skull, they crucified him there along with the criminals, One on the right and one on the left. Then Jesus said, father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing. And they divided his clothes and cast lots. The people stood watching, and even the leaders were scoffing. And he saved others. Let him save himself. If this is God's Messiah, the chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him. They came offering him sour wine and said, if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. An inscription was above him, this is the King of the Jews. Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at him. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the other answered, rebuking him, don't you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? We are punished justly because we're getting back what we deserve for the things that we did. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus, he said to him, truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. Now from the Gospel of John. Then they took Jesus away, carrying the cross by himself. He went out to what is called place of the skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had a sign made and put on the cross. It said, jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, don't write the King of the Jews, but that he said, I am the king of the Jews. Pilate replied, what I have written, I have written. When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts apart for each soldier. They also took the tunic, which was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who gets it. This happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled. That says, they divided my clothes among themselves and they cast slots for my clothing. This is what the soldiers did. Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, he said to his mother, woman, here is your son. Then he said to the disciple, here is your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her into his home. After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, I'm thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was sitting there. So they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. Then, bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
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Thank you. Esther, I'm really glad that you are here with us this weekend. If we haven't met, my name is Eric. I'm the senior pastor here. We've been walking through the major events in the final days of Jesus, his final days here on the earth. We began this teaching series. We called it the Week that Changed the World. It's Passion Week. We began it six weeks ago when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. It's known as Palm Sunday or the Triumphal Entry. And that is him setting his gaze toward Jerusalem, knowing he's going to go there to die the next week. We looked at the events of Monday is when he walked into the temple and overthrew tables. And he knew at that moment that him being so offensive in the temple was gonna cause him to be crucified. And here we are on the events of Friday. We just read the events of Jesus and his crucifixion. The events that we just read clearly. If you press into the Scripture, you see that crucifixion was designed to be as humiliating and as painful as possible for the person that was being crucified. In fact, we get the word excruciation from the same word that crucifixion comes from. Romans would never crucify another Roman. So if you were a Roman citizen, no matter how vile of a person you were or what kind of crime you committed, you could not be crucified. And the point of crucifixion was to elongate the process of death so that the person would be so humiliated that anyone within the Roman Empire who thought about going against Rome would be terrified by what they saw through crucifixion, that they would never wanna go against Rome at all. In fact, the process of crucifixion was so excruciating and painful that a person, when they wanted to exhale, they would have to lift up on the stake that was driven through their ankles, and their back had already been ripped open via the scourging process. That was to exhale, and then to inhale, they just would lay down on the weight that was in their wrist from the nails through their wrist. So breathing was so painful. And most people died in the crucifixion process because they just gave up breathing. They gave up pushing up, and therefore they suffocated to death. Jesus spent six hours on the cross on the Friday. And if you were there 2,000 years ago and you saw the event happening, you would not have thought at all that this was victorious or that this was beautiful. You would have only seen the humiliation in the moment. In fact, let me show you the humiliation of the cross that Jesus experienced. And we read all of this in the passages that we read. We saw that Jesus carried the cross. And the person who was crucified carrying his own cross was designed to make a public spectacle of the person so that you would go through the streets of Jerusalem carrying your cross, and that people would see you in your lowest moment, your weakest moment, and they could spit on you and shame you and mock you. Jesus carried his own cross. The person who was crucified and carried his cross did so after being scourged. And Jesus was scourged. That is, he was whipped with a scourge, which is a device like a whip that the Roman centurions would use against the person who's gonna be crucified. And it was designed to rip the skin off of the body, to mutilate the flesh and to weaken the person. Jesus, in fact, was so weakened after the scourgin that in the passages you read in the Gospels, as he goes to the cross, as he's carrying his own cross, he can't. He is exhausted and he falls down. And the centurions have to grab someone from the crowd, a man named Simon, to carry the cross of Jesus the rest of the way. When Jesus is then crucified, we read that he was crucified between criminals, which was making a major statement that this man who's being crucified is like the worst criminal there is. He's evil and he's vile in The Jewish culture to be crucified meant to be cursed by God. And so if you were a Jewish parent who saw someone crucified, you may tell your kids, whatever you do, son, don't be like that person right there. That person is cursed by God and humiliated throughout society. Jesus is crucified between two criminals. People mocked him in that moment. Save us. Hey, you overturned tables in the temple, acting like you're the king. Save yourself and save us. They mocked him. You saw that there was a sign placed over his head written by Pilate. And Pilate had King of the Jews written. Now, the Jewish people went to Pilate and said, hey, be sure you make it clear. Can you add? He said, he's the king of the Jews because we don't want anyone to think he's actually the king of the Jews. And Pilate was not concerned. Pilate, who is a Roman governor in Judea, doesn't think anyone actually will think that a Jewish person can be the king. That. No, Caesar is the emperor. Caesar is king. I wrote what I wrote. Pilate says, and he meant it to shame Jesus and to warn others. This is what happens to you if you try to be a king in the Roman Empire. And then we also read that his clothes were divided. They gambled for his clothes, which means Jesus was stripped naked as he died. He was filled with shame, naked and humiliated on the cross as he died in our place for our sin. If you have studied the Bible, you may recognize the language of naked and filled with shame. The very first humans, Adam and Eve, that God created and placed in a garden, a beautiful Garden of Eden. And they enjoyed God and they walked with God in the cool of the day. God told them, if you obey me and follow me, you're gonna have everlasting life here. But Adam went his own way, disobeyed God. And when he disobeyed God, sin and evil came into the world. And Adam realized he was naked and he was filled with shame. So much so that he tried to cover himself with fig leaves to eliminate his shame. Well, here's Jesus on the cross, filled with shame. Adam was filled with shame for his sin. Jesus is filled with shame in this moment. For our sin. He's naked, humiliated on the cross. If you were there 2,000 years ago, watching the events unfold, there is no way that you would say, this is beautiful and this is good. So why 2,000 years later, do us Christians refer to the events that happened on Friday as Good Friday? Why is it considered to be good and beautiful? Well, Those of us who are Christians who study the Scripture, we see that though it appeared to be humiliation, though it appeared to be as if Jesus was being only suffering and only losing, it appears as if he's losing that God in His great mercy and his great wisdom and providence, is arranging all of the events. So he's not really losing. He's actually winning us to Himself. That though the cross looks like it's lost, it's actually victory. Let me show you this. The same exact events that happened, if you understand them through the whole of Scripture, you actually see them as victory. Jesus carried the cross. And as he carried the cross, he carried our shame and our sin away. Therefore, those of us who believe in him, our sin is no longer on us. It's been separated from us as far as the east is from the west. That Jesus willingly laid down his life, it wasn't taken for him. He willingly carried the cross so that he could carry all of your sin and all of your shame away from you and place it upon Himself and in your place to make you his forever. He willingly lost so he could win you to Himself. He carried your shame away. He was crucified between criminals because he became our sin. The scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, that God made him who knew no sin, that's Jesus, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The cross of Jesus is referred to as the darkest moment in human history. Because for six hours, from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon, as Jesus is being crucified, all of our sin is placed on him. All of my pride, my unrighteous anger, my selfishness, my worry, my doubts, my struggles, all placed on Jesus. He became my sin. And this is victory for us because Jesus endured, embraced our sin. For those of us who believe in him, there's no sin left on us. Which is why the last verse we read, Jesus cried out, it is finished. Not I'm finished. He's not finished. We'll celebrate next weekend that Jesus is alive. He's not finished. But our sin is finished if we've believed in him because Jesus absorbed all of it in his flesh for us. This is good news for you. People mocked him. If you're really the king, save yourself. He could have. He could have ended the moment of the crucifixion. According to the Scripture, he could have called angels down from heaven and ended all of it. But he didn't save himself so that he could do the other thing. People mocked him for save us. He didn't save himself so he could indeed save us, so he could bring forgiveness and redemption to us. The sign that was put over his head that read King of the Jews was written to mock Him. But Pilate, who wrote King of the Jews, didn't realize how true what he was writing is. Jesus is not merely the King of the Jews, he's that, but he's more than that. Since Pilate wrote King of the Jews, the Roman Empire has fallen and the kingdom of Jesus has expanded as he's conquered hearts from different peoples, from different tribes, tongues and nations. Because he is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world to rescue men and women for God from every tribe, tongue and nation. Jesus is not merely the King of the Jews, he is the King over everything. He's the King over everything. And if you've believed in him, he's conquered your heart and he's made you his as well. He's the King over all. He's the King over all. And though his clothes were divided and Jesus was stripped naked because he was absorbing our shame in his flesh, this is why this is victory for you. This is why this is good news for you. This is why us Christians insist that Friday is called Good Friday. Because he gives you all of his righteousness, meaning that he made a trade with you. If you believe in him, that on the cross he took all of your sin, all of your shame. That's why he's humiliated and naked, so he could win you to himself. And the trade is he gave you his righteousness and his forgiveness, and he took away all of your sin and your shame. So the cross, though when you first read it, is only humiliation. You see that Jesus intentionally absorbs and embraces and submits to the cup of wrath, the cup of humiliation, so that it appears that he's losing, but he's really winning you. He conquered your sin. He conquered your heart. He conquered your shame. If you've believed in Him. The moment of Jesus, God the Son on the cross is the moment where he makes you his forever. And so we glory in what Jesus did in the cross. The Apostle Paul would write later, I boasted in the Cross. What Jesus did on the cross for me is everything and has changed everything about me. Now, that day, the day that we read about in the events of the Friday in the week that changed the world that day, there were three different responses to Jesus that day. And in this room, there are three different responses to Jesus today. Some ridiculed Jesus, some rejected Jesus. And some received him. And in this room, ridicule reject, receive three different responses that humanity has to Jesus, God the Son. I'll walk you through these three responses and I want you to evaluate what is your response to Jesus. First we see that some ridiculed Jesus. You saw that there was a crown placed on his skull to mock him as the king. A sign over his head. When he, king of the Jews, people spat on him. They, they mocked him. They gambled for his clothes. The spirit of ridicule still happens today. People still make fun of Jesus and make fun of us, his followers. It's common. Sometimes it's even cool like, hey, let make fun of the Christians. Jesse Ventura was a governor of Minnesota and he said this in a mocking way of Christianity and of religion. He said organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak minded people who need strength in numbers. He's calling you weak. Pilate said, king of the Jews. He didn't realize how true what he was writing is. And we would step back and say, yes, he's the King of the Jews. He's the king of every people group. You're actually right. He's the king over everything. Jesse Ventura says, christianity is for those who are weak. And those of us who are Christians, we say, yeah. It's for those of us who've quit pretending we have it all together. It's for those of us, It's for those of us who've given up, that we're perfect. It's for those of us who aren't trying to be strong in our own strength that we actually know that if we will be weak before him, he makes us strong. And, and if he makes us strong, then we are filled with his grace and his strength. It's much better to live with his strength than our own cause. Our own strength fails us. And if you rely on yourself, all you have is your own strength. If you will be weak before Him. He fills you with his grace, which is always sufficient for you. He fills you with his strength. We embrace our weakness. We embrace it. The Apostle Paul said that this is gonna happen, that people are gonna look at the cross and some are gonna say, oh, it's beautiful. It's beautiful what Jesus did for me on the cross. And some are gonna say that is foolishness. He wrote this, the Apostle Paul did in 1 Corinthians 1:18. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. So for those who don't believe in Jesus, the cross makes no sense. God Dies for us foolish. But for those of us who know him, who believe in him, it is the power of God because we are made whole by Him. So some ridicule Jesus. That's the first response. Second response is some reject Jesus. Now, the reality is today in this room, many, I would say hardly, probably none of you are ridiculing Jesus. At least so far you haven't, in the middle of the sermon. Thank you for that. You're here. You're here. I'm glad you're here. You're not ridiculing him. You're at least curious about him, or you're at least respectful to the people around you who you can tell, worship him. You're not ridiculing him. A more common response in a room this size would be there would be many who would be rejecting Jesus because you feel you don't need him, or you can do fine in life without him, or you're not sure you want him. We saw that in the responses to Jesus being crucified on the cross on the events of that Friday as Jesus, there's someone right next to him, one of the criminals who's being crucified, who rejects Jesus. And this moment is so painful to read because this man is being crucified for his own sin, right next to Jesus, who's being crucified for his sin, not his own sin, but for the man's sin who's rejecting him. Do you understand what's happening in the moment? The man who is being crucified, who rejects Jesus, is dying for his own sin. Jesus is not dying for his own sin. Jesus has died for this man's sin because Jesus has died. The Son who entered this world through the womb of a teenage virgin named Mary, he lived pure and perfect, so he could go to the cross as the pure and perfect sacrifice to die in this man's place. This man is right next to Jesus, and he's missing the most beautiful display of love in human history. He's missing it, and it's right in front of him. He's close, but he's really far away. It's possible that some of you are close, but you're far. You're close because you're here, and I'm really glad you are. And you're looking at passages and you come to church and you're around Christians who, you know, love Jesus, but you're far because you haven't yet received him. You may know a lot about Jesus, but that's different than actually knowing Jesus. This man knew a lot about Jesus. He was right next to Jesus as Jesus dies on the cross. But he doesn't know him. He doesn't know him. So some ridicule, some reject, and then some receive. Oh, you saw the beauty of this moment, where the other criminal corrects the one who's mocking Jesus. Notice the passage in Luke 23, verse 40. But the other answered, rebuking him. Don't you even fear God since you were undergoing the same punishment? We are punished justly because we're getting back what we deserve for the things we did. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. This man, I want you to see what he understood, because you must understand this if you're gonna receive the forgiveness and grace of Jesus. He understood that he deserved death. I'm getting what I deserve because of my deeds. And all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. You can't receive grace and forgiveness unless you know you need gr. This man knew that he needed God's grace, but he also knew that Jesus was different. He said, this man, Jesus has done nothing wrong. He senses. He understands that Jesus is perfect, that Jesus is God the Son. And we see this because he looks at Jesus and he says, remember me when you go into your kingdom. I want to go into your kingdom. You're the king. I want to be in your kingdom. Here's a man who's given himself to a whole lot of earthly kingdoms that have never delivered. Just like the earthly kingdoms have never been enough for you. Just like the things of this world have never satisfied you. I want you, Jesus. I have nothing to offer you but my sin. Will you take me? Audacious. The man has hours or moments left to live. He can do nothing good for God. And he ask, can I come with you to everlasting paradise? What's more audacious than the request is the response of Jesus, Today you will be with me in paradise. Alistair Begg is a pastor who imagines what happens after this man dies and enters into everlasting paradise. This is an imaginary tale that Alistair Begg pictures. He says that the man dies. He stands before the gates, and there's a junior angel that is there at the gates. And the junior angel sees the guy walking up and is like, whoa, I was not expecting to see you here today. Before we let you in, I need to ask you a couple of questions. Is that okay, sir? Okay. Wow. Okay. So do you know any of, like, the theological words like propitiation or justification or sanctification? Do you know any of those words? The guy says, I've never. I've never heard of those in my life. Okay. That's okay. It's okay. How many verses do you have memorized? Just curious. I don't have any verses memorized. All right. All right. Okay. Have you been to Rooted yet? Have you been to Rooted? Guy says, no. No. Oh, wow. Wow. Oh, okay. Okay. Have you volunteered and served? No. Have you told anyone about Jesus? No. I need you to wait right here. I need to go talk to my supervisor. Can you wait right here? And so junior angel walks off or flies off and goes gets senior angel, and senior angel comes back and grabs the sheet of paper, the clipboard, and looks at him and says, okay, I'm just reviewing your paperwork here. This is new for us. I just. I want to ask on what basis should we let you into everlasting paradise? And he says, the man on the middle cross said, I can come. And that's the only reason any of us get in. It's not by a long list of things we've done. The only reason that we have everlasting life is because Jesus died in our place for our sin and yelled out, it is finished, and gave us all of his mercy and all of his forgiveness. And so those of us who believe in him, we now stand right before Holy God. Not by our goodness, but by his grace. We are in because the man on the middle cross said we can come. That's the only reason that you're his, is by the grace and mercy of Jesus. We see Jesus pardoning a man who receives the forgiveness of Jesus. But we also see in this moment the beautiful and tender provision of Jesus. Didn't you see the moment when we read, oh, it's beautiful that as Jesus is dying, there's only one of his disciples that have stayed around John. Everyone else is scattered. And John is standing next to Jesus, Mom, Mary, and Jesus as he dies on the cross. He offers pardon to a sinner who cries out for mercy and forgiveness. And then he offers provision for his mom. He tells John, behold your mother. Take care of her. Provide for her. See, I don't want you to think that everlasting life is only what you receive after you die, though that's part of everlasting life. And if you've believed in Jesus, you will receive everlasting paradise after you die. But you also receive in this life, real life, abundance his provision, his tender mercy towards you, his care. I am not saying that Jesus is gonna give you all of your dreams. I am saying that he's gonna be with you always to the utter end of the age. And that he gives joy and purpose and meaning and significance into your life. That he's with you always. That he provides for you in his grace. We see this as Jesus is on the cross, providing for his mother. This last week, I was outside and the breeze hit my face and it felt awesome. And I said, God, thank you for the breeze. Thank you for letting me live in Southern California, the most like the Garden of Eden and all of the world. Thank you. Thank you, God. And I sensed him say. I didn't audibly hear, but I sensed him say, you enjoy the breeze more because you're mine. I sensed him say it, and I thought about it for hours after that moment. It's true. I do enjoy the breeze more because I'm His. I know, because before I met Him, I would never even thought about the breeze. I. I surely would not have thought, thank God for giving me this breeze. I would not have been refreshed by Him. I just would have kept going on with my life. I do enjoy the breeze more since meeting him, but I also enjoy the breeze more than I would if I was standing next to someone who doesn't know Him. Now, I'm not saying the person who's standing next to me, who doesn't know Jesus, doesn't enjoy the breeze. No, the person who's standing next to me who doesn't know Jesus does enjoy the breeze. Because according to the scripture, God causes it to rain and to have sunshine on both the righteous and the unrighteous. That this is what scholars call God's common grace. That he gives gifts to all of humanity because he loves people. But those of us who are Christians, we enjoy the breeze more. We enjoy the common grace more because when we receive it, we know it's from Him. We know it's from him, and we thank him for it. And then we realize that we're being refreshed not only with a physical breeze that hits our face, but we're also refreshed internally because he's with us. He's good to us. He's kind to us. So the death of Jesus, if you were there 2,000 years ago, you're watching it happen. You could think this is loss, but it's really victory. You could think it's only humiliation. It was humiliation. But it results in exaltation. That the death of Jesus was designed by God for your good, for you, to make you his own. The death of Jesus is the death of death. As Jesus dies on the cross for you, he gives you life. The death of Jesus is the death of your everlasting death. Because if you believe in him, you are given by his grace everlasting life. The death of Jesus is the death of a meaningless life. The death of Jesus is the death of a life with no purpose. Because he provides for you everlasting life and a full and abundant life. Now, the death of Jesus is the death of death. Now for you to enjoy everlasting life and a real life, now you must do what Jesus did. You must die to your old life. Jesus, it appeared as if he was losing, but he was really winning you and you must lose. Now, I know some of you, this is why you are currently rejecting Jesus and not receiving him. Because you're smart enough to know that if you believe in Jesus, he's gonna become your king. And you're not sure if you want him to be your king. Cause you like being the king over your own life. And you're smart enough to know you've heard messages that he's not interested in being a genie in the sky that just hooks you up with some things that he wants to be your king. I understand. I know you, bro. I know exactly who you are. Cause I was you. I know exactly what it feels like in this moment to kind of want Jesus because you want his forgiveness, but to not be sure you want to surrender to not really sure yet that you want to lose to Him. Because to become a Christian, you have to lose to him. You have to lay down your arms and surrender to him. I know this because the end of my junior year in high school, this is the summer before I become a Christian. If you know my, you know, it was a very dark season with arrest and drugs and all kinds of things. And I got to the end of myself and I understood that Jesus was offering me a brand new life. But I also understood that that meant I would need to surrender to him. And I wasn't sure I wanted to surrender because I knew that meant he would have control over my life and it really wouldn't be my life anymore, it'd be his life. I also would have to lay down, surrender, die to caring about being popular. My senior year in high school, and I had the same group of guys that were the in crowd that I would run with all throughout high school. And we did things together that I would likely stop doing. After I followed Jesus, this meant that I would lose the pleasure that we were pursuing on the weekends. This meant that I would lose some friendships. This meant that I would lose some things if I followed Jesus. In fact, I even knew that the Gospel said that if you're to follow Jesus, you have to lose your life. I'm not sure I want to lose some of you. Oh, man, I know where I Pastor, you like to win. You want to win, lose. But Jesus kept going after my heart. And just like he's going after yours, because even though you keep saying no to him, he keeps breaking you down because he loves you and he wants you to be His. And so, finally, he won. He won. I gave in. I surrendered. And here's what I found. Everything that I thought was everything is really nothing compared to the greatness of knowing Jesus, for whose sake I lost everything. That everything we think is everything is really nothing compared to how awesome and amazing Jesus is. That everything we think in this world satisfies is nothing compared to the greatness of knowing Jesus. He's the absolute best. He's the best. So when Jesus died for you, it appeared like he was losing and he was really winning. And when you become his, it may feel like you're losing, but you're really winning. You're getting real life. Real life. Now, for you to become his, there has to be a moment in your life where you do what the criminal next to Jesus did, where you ask him for everlasting life, where you allow him to be the king over your life. Some of you have been on a journey. You've been hearing the good news of Jesus, the gospel, and you've been understanding it. And you know that he's calling you. But there has to be a moment where you say, yes. A moment where you're, I'm in. I'm in. We saw cardboard testimonies earlier. There's a moment where you go from I was dead spiritually to I'm alive. I was lost and now I'm found. And the moment is when you place your faith in him. The moment is when you ask for the King to be your king, the moment where you receive his forgiveness. The scripture says about this moment in Romans 10, verse 9. If you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So you must confess with your mouth and believe now. Believe is not simply knowing about Jesus. The criminal who rejected Jesus knew about Jesus. Believing is you are trusting him with your life. You're believing in him because we've been looking at these events. We must do this this morning, which is give you an opportunity to believe in Jesus. I'm gonna ask us for the next couple of moments to be as still as we can. We're gonna see God the Father find new sons and daughters this morning. And last night has just been beautiful, what Jesus has been doing, bringing people to himself. Last night I talked to a couple, and the wife was just filled with such joy. She was weeping. She had been praying for her husband for 47 years. And last night he stood and confessed faith in Jesus and became his. 47 years. I never seen anything like what I saw last night. We had multiple people in wheelchairs who asked people around them to stand them up so they could confess faith. And so God is moving right now. He's seeking to save. He's going after you. Some of you. You've been considering him for a while. This is the moment. Will you look at him and invite him to be your king, your savior? If you're ready to receive him. We're going to one at a time, and I'm going to ask us to hold our applause to the end. I'm going to ask you to stand and you're going to confess. I believe. Which is you saying, I don't believe in myself anymore. I believe in him. And you may ask, why would I do this in front of so many people? When Jesus died for you, who died for you in front of everybody? And every time Jesus invited people to follow him, it was always public. And here's the reality. If you know Jesus, he's going to change you over time. So everyone's going to find out anyway. So you might as well start with people knowing that you're his. And so, as still as we can be, I'm just gonna give us a couple of moments. If you're ready to receive his forgiveness and become his one at a time, I invite you to stand and confess. I believe. All right. Extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week that you would remind them that you are gentle and approachable and that you love them. Cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week.
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