Foreign.

So I'd be honored if you'd turn your scriptures with me today to Matthew, chapter 27.

I'll almost. I would almost be willing to bet, but I'm a Nazarene, and we're not allowed to play games of chance. Those of you who are Ben Nazarenes, you're like, yeah, I know the old book has a lot of those rules, but I'd almost be willing to bet you've probably never heard an Easter message from this passage. I could be wrong. We're going to be in Matthew 27, starting in verse 62.

And to me, the reason this is so interesting. Well, I'll share those reasons with you. This is actually what's taking place in the time while Jesus was in the tomb. And don't worry, we'll get to that. He has risen again.

Part of it in a little bit, but Starting in verse 62, it says this. The next day. In other words, the day after his crucifixion, which is the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled before Pilate. Now, by the way, Pilate was the governor who had. Who had presided over the death of Jesus.

Now, the next day, which is after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled before Pilate and said, sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive, he. He said, after three days, I will rise again. So give orders to secure the tomb until the third day. Otherwise his disciples may come and steal his body and say to the people, he has been raised from the dead, and the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, take a guard of soldiers, go and make it as secure as you can.

So they went with the soldiers of the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

This is interesting to me. You're like, how. How is it that interesting? Is that what you were going to say? You can say, okay, so here's why it's so interesting to me.

Because as you're looking at this, there is a group of people that really either didn't believe that Jesus was who he said he was, or they did believe and it was just inconvenient for them to abide by that. There's these chief priests, these people who are the. The supposed to be the religious leaders of the people. They're supposed to be the ones that have been entrusted with showing the people who God is, with showing the people how to live for God. And yet they are the ones who are disbelieving or they're leading the people to disbelieve.

They were the ones that incited the people to have Jesus crucified. These chief priests and the Pharisees that were in agreement with them had decided that Jesus had to die. They looked at what he was doing and they looked at the position that they had had, and he was a threat to that position. Jesus threatened everything that they held dear, the power that they had over the people, and they really enjoyed that. It made them feel good about themselves.

It made them wealthy. It made them just say, you know what? We've got this all wrapped up. And the truth of the matter is there are a lot of people in ministry today in different places and in different churches that really have the same thing. They're really happy because things are going well.

The seats are filled, they're baptizing people, they're on the Internet and things are going great. And so they say, well, hey, you know what? I really love this position that I have. And so I don't want anything to mess that up. They're willing to work for their ego and their position rather than for the benefit of the people.

And so the chief priests and Pharisees were teamed up in this way. Although there was a couple Pharisees, one named Nicodemus and one named Joseph of Arimathea. Of Arimathea wasn't his last name. That's just where he is from. They just, There was a lot of Josephs.

They wanted to keep them separated, you know, so nothing. Okay, man, you guys got a smile and liven up just a little bit. So the, the, these guys, they buried Jesus. They had taken him down off the cross and put him, gave him a burial. Now the way they would do a burial back then was they would actually wrap up the body with about 75 or more pounds of spices and wrap the body up and then place him in a tomb usually that was kind of in a carved out section of rock, like a cave.

And they would put them in there and that body would stay there for maybe around a year or more. And then when it was just kind of a pile of bones, when it had decomposed, they would gather those up, put them in something called an ossuary or a bone box. And that's what they would. That would be their kind of final resting place. And so Joseph of Arimathea and what's his name?

I just said it. I forgot it already. I was just messing with you guys. Make sure you're paying attention. Nicodemus.

I really, I couldn't Think of it. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, they were the ones that took the body of Jesus. And it was interesting because they went to Pilate, who had pronounced his death sentence, and they went to him and they said, hey, can we have the body of Jesus? And he said, he's already dead. And it didn't make sense because normally crucifixions might take days, up to maybe nine days at times.

Crucifixions were something that were invented by the Persians and perfected by the Romans. And it was not meant to be a quick and painless death. It was meant to be embarrassing, cause lots of pain, prolonged agony. And that's what Jesus was intended to suffer. And yet he bore our sins all the way to the cross, carried them to his death, and yet God gave him the mercy of dying quickly on our behalf.

And without going into the whole Good Friday thing, which is funny that we call it Good Friday, because not much seems good about it, but it was good for us in hindsight, looking back, is because of Christ's death that we are able to have new life. It's because of his new life on Resurrection Sunday that. That we are able to live the new lives that we have in Christ. It's worth an amen. So when Jesus has died, then they asked for his body.

Pilate says, I can't believe that he's already dead. That never happens. And he's thinking that some of his soldiers did their job a little too well, you know, because like when you're. When they would whip the person, I'm not going to get into how gory and nasty that was. But when they would do that, some.

Some people that were slated for crucifixion might have almost died from just that beating alone. It was worse than a beating. It would tear the flesh apart on a person. And they might even die just at that moment. But these were trained soldiers.

They were good at their jobs, as gory and disgusting as it is. And they knew how to bring somebody right to that point of breaking but not dying, so they could have their agony on the cross. And yet Jesus died rather quickly for what a crucifixion death was. So Pilate sent orders that they would check and make sure he's dead. And because the Scriptures had said that not a bone in Jesus body would be broken, that was a prophecy that was made over him.

They pierced his side with a sword, with a spear, and it says blood and water came out. That water was the fluid that built up around the heart and lungs. As part of the condition that he was in through his crucifixion death. And so his legs aren't broken like the others were, but the men on the crosses on his left and right, they break their legs because you. Your body would try to push itself up to get a breath.

Because of the way the arms were strung out, you couldn't breathe. So you'd push up and get a breath, and then the breath would be sucked back out of you and pushed out of you. And so they would break their legs to speed the process along. And since it was a Jewish holiday that was happening starting that evening, they wanted to get these guys off their crosses and dead. But the thing is, what they would do, what the Romans would usually do with the body once it had died on the cross.

See, these were usually people that the state didn't care about. Many times only their family cared about them, and sometimes even their families didn't care. And so many times the bodies would simply be left there until they naturally fell off of the crosses that they were on, and the wild animals would take it from there. It was gory, disgusting, dehumanizing. That was its goal, was to dehumanize the person that was on it.

And yet Jesus is the ultimate human. He's the one that carried out the completeness of our humanity all the way there. And he bore the sins of us as human beings so that we could ultimately have them cleansed from us, forgiven from us, and we could live a full life in him. And so what's interesting is that these two men, these two disciples, they ask for his body. Now, normally it wasn't oftentimes that somebody would actually bury a person that had been condemned on a cross.

And yet these two men asked for Jesus body, and they put it in a tomb. They don't just toss it aside. They put it in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. It was a tomb that he had bought, looking forward to his own death. Folks, we all understand that we all have an end date, an expiration date on this earth, and he was looking forward to that.

Some of you probably have bought prepaid funeral arrangements. You want to make it simple for your kids to take care of you when you're gone, so. So they don't have to go through all of that. As a pastor, I've walked with people as they're in that process of burying their parents or their loved ones, and they've never gone through that before. And unfortunately, I've sat with people, I've gone to the funeral home with them as they're trying to figure out all the things that they have to do.

We've got some friends that are trying to figure out how to bury the ashes of their mother that just passed away. And they said, it's this whole process just to get the, the, the people to dig a hole at a county cemetery. And I said, yeah, I've. I remember walking through that with some of the stuff with my aunt at her funeral and remember hearing, you know, just some of what is involved in all of that. And I thought, I got a jumpsuit I can put on and I can look official.

I'll bring a shovel out there if you guys want me to. I'll make it happen real quick. You know, nobody has to know. We'll. We'll get your mother's ashes in the ground.

And they're about ready to take me up on it. But anyway, Joseph, he had prepared ahead of time. He had his own tomb ready. Nobody had ever been buried in there. And so he places Jesus body in there.

And it's the end of the day. On the day that Jesus was crucified, it's the end of the day and at sundown marks the new day for the Jewish people. And on that day, it was a Sabbath day. And so they were done at that point. There were some women that were followers of Jesus that wanted to do something about his body.

They wanted to prepare it and take care of it, but they couldn't because it was sundown. And so that's why they were the first ones at the tomb on Easter morning. But these men, they put Jesus in the tomb. And so while Jesus is there, the chief priests and the Pharisees, they've had an investigation going into Jesus for a long time. Actually there was people that would come and ask questions of him and try to entrap him in different things and try to trip him up.

And he always came out on top smelling like. Like daisy, you know, or looking like a day. I don't know. How does that one go? I always mix those things up.

I should never do it. Smelling like rose, looking like a daisy. I don't know. Anyway, and so Jesus always came out being just doing great. I should have just said it that way.

And he, they, they'd been investigating him and they end up, you know, having all this dirt on him. Basically, they bring it to his trial. In fact, he said that if you tear this temple down, he'll rebuild it in three days. Of course, he was talking about his body and, and the chief priests and the Pharisees actually began to understand what he meant. He wasn't talking about the temple that they worshiped God at.

He was calling his body a temple. And he was saying, if you tear this body down, in three days, it'll be back. Jesus had said to his followers, he said, nobody takes my life from me. Like. Like, you might think you're killing me, but you can't actually kill me.

I am giving my life up of my own accord. Now, it'd be one thing for somebody to claim that later, but there were eyewitnesses who had heard Jesus saying that. He's saying, I'm going to lay my life down is my decision. You might think it's your decision. You might think that the, the courts and the pilot and the people and all these people said this stuff.

You might think it was their decision, but it was my decision. And I am laying my life down for you. He says, but I'm also. I have the authority to pick it back up again. Now we can decide to lay our lives down for someone.

You can decide to end your life or to give up your life. None of us has the ability or the authority to say, I'm also coming back to life. None of us can pick our own life back up again, but Jesus did. And apparently the chief priests, as much as they made themselves out to be enemies of Jesus, they were unwilling to obey him and to follow him. But they did listen to what he said.

And so they came to Pilate and they said to him, dude, this guy said he'd be back in three days. Now, we don't really believe it, but his disciples might have believed it. And if it doesn't happen, or when it doesn't happen, they were skeptics. When it doesn't happen, they might be tempted to go in there and steal his body and then make up a rumor that he was alive again. And so can we just go and do something about this?

Pilate, being a governor, did what a lot of authorities do. You know what people in power do? They seize things, they take things. Sometimes I just call it taxes. But they.

What they. That was a joke. Come on, you worked for it. They take it. You know, like, come on, tell me that's not robbery.

Did you vote for these taxes? No. Okay, so they took it from you then. So what happens if you don't pay it? Like, they charge you more and maybe put you in jail.

So, like, yeah, that's robbery anyway. So they, they, they. Did you get a say in how they spent your taxes? No, I don't think so. Okay, I'm done with that.

Anti government, whatever. But what happens is Pilate says, well, I'll tell you what, even though that's a privately owned tomb, why don't you guys post Roman guards there and make it as secure as you know how and put a stamp on it, a seal on it, a wax seal that says that nobody's allowed to open it. It's a felony. In other words, if you open this thing. I remember.

It's funny, as I was thinking about Easter. Does anybody remember Easter five years ago, where you were at in church? Oh, you weren't, were you? Why? You were told you couldn't.

We were told that if we gathered it might be deadly for us. We were told that if we came to church that we would all get deathly ill. Now, I'll grant that there was a lot of stuff that was unknown at that time. There was a lot of stuff in easter week in 2020 that we didn't know how the world was going to shake out and what was going to happen. Like, I get that I'm sensitive to the fact that there was a lot of suffering that happened from that time, but the fact that a government told people that were willing to come to church and willing to take the risks and said, I want to be there regardless of what might happen, and they said, no, you may not.

No, you are not allowed to, tells me that the government's willing to step over your rights and your bounds, to take from you and impose upon you what they wish. And that's what they did with this tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. They wouldn't let anybody in to see Jesus. They wouldn't let anybody in to that tomb to do what they felt was necessary, and they were going to guard it for whatever reason they wanted. Now, I know you think I'm reading a little bit into the text, and maybe I am.

Maybe I'm just getting my little jabs in at what I think is wrong with the world and the government today. But I just see that, that it's not anything new that has been going on for so long. And what's happening here is they wanted to make sure that Jesus was dead. I mean, he was dead, right? They'd already crucified him.

They'd stabbed him with the spear, the blood and water came out. He. He wasn't coming back from that, naturally speaking, right? Anybody think, like, anybody heard the theory that they call the swoon theory, that he was just kind of like passed out on the Cross. And they took him down, they put him in a tomb.

And it was nice and cool and damp in there and. And that revived him and. And somehow he was able to just walk around. Like, he was actually like, super walking later, like the first place. Like, they see him in the garden.

They see him on his road, on a journey. They see him back in Jerusalem, like the day of Resurrection day. Like, no, he didn't have just super energy after being crucified almost to death, quote, unquote. He was dead. There's no way around that.

And yet they wanted to make sure he stayed dead, so to speak. They wanted to make sure there was no chance that anybody could. Could make a story that he was alive again. So they secured the tomb. Now, I think about the church throughout the years.

There's a whole list of people that have claimed that the church of Jesus Christ is dead. Have you ever heard them? Sometimes it's scientists. They say science has replaced the need for religion or for the need for God. I'll tell you something, I'm not opposed to science.

I've got a neighbor a couple roads over that they used to have this sign that said, in this house, we believe in blah, blah, blah. One of them is science, Science. And I'm like, yeah, we do too. Like, you're not going to find a Christian that doesn't believe in science. You're not going to find a Christian that says, oh, science is wrong.

Improperly processed science, science that goes through an improper process, I would say is not scientific. Not to go back to the COVID thing, but I think we were told, hey, you got to cover up your face. This paper mask is going to fix it. And then you wear two or three of them, some people, for weeks on end, and then they got sick, and some of us didn't wear them and we didn't get sick. And it's like, I don't think that that actually fixed anything.

I don't know. But they said, science has settled. And then later they say, oh, well, we figured out that that wasn't accurate. And it's like, so what you're saying is science has flaws in it. That's okay.

So does religion. The pursuit of trying to understand God has flaws in it. I'm going to tell you something sometime as I study the word of God, and I'm going to come to a conclusion. And then at some point I'm going to say, you know what? I was wrong about that.

And I'm going to revise how I understood it. It's A process that grows. Science, properly understood, is something that seeks the truth, seeks to understand it and to prove it. And then when it finds out, hey, we did the wrong method of doing that, we'll revise it and come back to it. That's proper scientific process.

And science, properly understood, is not in opposition to faith in Christ. Science tries to claim that Jesus is dead, that there's no need for him, and it doesn't work. Marxism was a socioeconomic thing that was created by a guy that hated the idea of Christ and hated the idea of religion. He said religion is the opium of the masses and all these things. And he tried to say that if we create this world, society, order, financial setup, all this stuff, it'll make everybody on equal footing and we won't ever need religion again.

He tried to make Christianity dead, tried to kill Jesus again. There's so many things in our own lives, though, that we do that try to keep Jesus dead. In other words, we say, I can do this on my own. I don't need Jesus. Sometimes it's just our busy schedule.

I know. If you've got kids, there seems like there's always something that's calling for your time. We've got things like, you know, it might be dance, gymnastics, karate, sports, birthday parties. We were at a birthday party yesterday. This seemed to never end.

And there's not that many kids in my daughter's class. But it's like, how many birthdays can you all have? Can some of you be born in June? You know, like, so we don't. Never mind anyway, you know, not during the school year.

So there's all these different things going on. There's all these different things going on that are calling for our attention, and yet they're calling for our time. And. And yet those things, those things are not. They're calling to say that Jesus is not necessary in your life, that Jesus is dead.

And yet we say, no, Jesus is alive and he needs to rule over my time as well. Some priorities I need to put in line with him. There's other things that threaten to keep Jesus dead in our lives. It might be screen time, it might be addictions. It might be finances or status or position.

But we say if we achieve these things, we don't need Jesus. In other words, he can functionally be dead in our lives. We try to live our lives without the input or influence of Christ. We're standing alongside those guards and those pharisees and chief priests and saying, we need to make sure Jesus is dead. Because if he really is alive, it changes how I live.

If Jesus really is alive, then I have to change the things that I do. See, everybody wants a better life, but nobody wants to change their life. Everybody wants a better outcome. They want more success. They want better family life and all these things.

Better finances. They want all this stuff to work out well, but they don't actually want to come to the true source of life and to say, christ, Jesus, what is it that I need to do to be saved from all of this? There was a young man who came to Jesus. He said, teacher, he's a good teacher. What things must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus says, why are you calling me good? There's only one who's good. That's God. He wants the young man to acknowledge that if he truly is good, then he is also God, that Jesus is also the Messiah. And so if Jesus is good, then okay, great.

If Jesus is good, then that means he's God. If he's God, then you should do what he says, right? And so the young man says, what good things must I do to be saved? And he tells him, you know, the commandments, follow the commandments. And he starts listing some of them.

And the young man says, oh, I've kept all these since I was a boy. Liar. No, you haven't. Can any of you say, like, ah, I've been perfect. I've done all the right stuff.

Anybody. I'm raising my hand as an example, not because I've done it. I haven't. Like, probably not this week. And so it's like, nope, you're a liar.

So I know you're not keeping the commandments because that's one of them, you know? So automatically you're out. But he says, yeah, I've kept all those commandments since I was a little boy, okay? And it says, jesus, he was asked by this young man what else is still lacking. He knew there was still something missing in his life.

He'd done all this stuff supposedly, right? He'd been religious. Maybe he'd been in synagogue or temple every week of his life, honored his parents, did all the right stuff. He was a good kid, good young man. But it also says that he was very wealthy.

And Jesus, it says now, don't ever forget this part. It says he looked at him and loved him. Now, when Jesus looks at you, he. He knows you, like. Like he sees through to the you that nobody else sees, that part of you that you try to keep hidden.

That part of you that you think nobody knows about. Jesus sees, right through to all of that, and he looks at that, and he still loves you. If anybody's ever made you try to think differently about that, I want you to know right now, I'm sorry. And they're wrong. If there's anything that I know that I'm sure of as I study this book, as I spend time in prayer, as I.

As I do that and prepare to speak to you, if there's one thing that I know for sure, because I might not know about a lot of things, and I might even say some stuff that I'm pretty sure of. And I might also be a little bit wrong about this one. I'm sure of. Jesus sees you. He knows you, the good and the bad, and he loves you.

And I also know that there's nothing you can do to make him stop loving you. There's nothing you can do that will make him love you any less. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do that can make him love you anymore. That's the beautiful thing about the grace of God. You can't earn it, and you can't unearn it.

He gives it to you freely. This young man, he was wealthy, and he looks at Jesus, and Jesus looks at him and knows him, and he loves him. And he says, there's one thing that you still lack. Now, I believe I'm not a good. Like, I'm not a scholar of, like, Hebrew and Greek that the Bible is written in.

But I'm pretty sure you know how there's. Well, some of you are Southern, and some of you just live in Florida, which is southern geographically, but not Southern. Like, Southern. You know what I'm saying? The South.

Those of you who are from the south, you know the difference between you and y'all and all y'all, this is one of those y'alls, meaning one of you. Y'all is just you. What are y'all doing today? You know, what are you doing today? And then there's.

Well, anybody from the Midwest, You's. You know, you's. Okay. What are yous doing today? What's up, Marvin?

You coming to pray?

Really? Okay. All right. So the thing is, there's this thing Jesus says you. And I believe it's the Y'all.

It's the singular you. There's one thing you still lack, young man. You need to take everything you have, sell it, give to the poor, follow me, and you'll have treasure in heaven. He just invited this man to be poor and homeless. That's what he wanted him to do.

And the Guy's like, I know I can't do that. And he went away sad. He went away sad because he had the. The. The offer of full life, of true life, the offer of everything that he could have ever dreamed or wanted.

But he couldn't let go of that thing that he held on to the most. And he walked away from it sad. He held on to his wealth. He lost his life. The worst thing you can ever do is to.

To look at what you've got and to look at what Christ offers and to say, no, I'd rather keep what I've got than to look at what's behind curtain A Or, I don't know if you watch game shows, you know, but, like, what's behind that curtain and what do you have right now? And you say, no, I'm more comfortable with what I have right now. I don't want to give up what I have right now to find out that behind this curtain is everything I ever could have wanted, everything I could ever need. And so when that's going on, we. We see what Jesus is offering, and we see what is at stake is that Jesus threatens to call away from you everything you've held dear.

And that's what he was threatening to do with the chief priests and the Pharisees. And they said, we can't give up what we have. We don't want to allow Jesus to be alive. We don't want his memory to live on. We want to try to put that to rest.

The problem is, we continue reading, and you look at Matthew, chapter 28, and you find these words. After the Sabbath at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. Suddenly there was a severe earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descending from heaven came and rolled away the stone and sat on it. Did the earthquake cause the angel?

Or did the life of Christ coming back to him with so much power, did that cause the earthquake? Folks, I think that the life of Christ coming back into him. He says, I have the authority to take my life up again. I think that's what caused this earthquake. The angel rolled away the stone and sat on it.

His appearance was like lightning. His clothes were white as snow. By the way, when we think, oh, there's an angel. You wouldn't have that, like, feeling if you saw an angel. You'd be scared.

Every time the angels show up to people, they say, don't be scared, fear not. Because they were really freaky looking. I mean, they're covered in eyes and wings, like, read the Bible. It's in there. Anyway, the guards were shaken and became like dead men because they were so afraid of him.

They were so afraid of this angel that they just had a seizure, fell to the ground like they were dead. But the angel said to the woman, the women that had come there, do not be afraid. I know that you're looking for Jesus who is crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he was lying.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples he has been raised from the dead. He's going ahead of you into Galilee and you will see him there. Listen, I have told you. Now the thing is, these women, they went and told the disciples, the men who had been with Jesus, the men who had heard Jesus say, I'll die and I'll come back to life. On more than one occasion, like more than one time, he had told them what would happen and they just didn't hear it, they didn't believe it.

Even when he says, seriously, this is going to happen, and Peter says, I can't let that happen to you, he says, get behind me, Satan. You're an adversary to me. A stumbling block like that should have been ingrained, seared into their brains. Like, if not for all the disciples, at least for Peter, when he got called Satan, you know, like literally the worst name Jesus could call you, he's like, you're Satan, you're my adversary. And so they didn't believe the women.

These women said, we've, we've, we've, we've been told by an angel that Jesus is alive. We've actually later in the day they see Jesus and they share that testimony. And the men just won't believe him. Guys, sometimes we ought to believe our wives. I'm just throwing that out there.

Just sometimes, you know, maybe, maybe it was the other car's fault, you know, I don't know. Anyway, sorry, that was a bad one. Just tiny bit of chauvinism. I apologize, I apologize. Although I rode in a car that was full self driving and I said, man, this drives better than all the women and most of the men that I've ever met.

And I just say those things for my daughter because I want her to actually know. Like, here's live above the standard, you know, when it's time for her to drive, I want her to be like, I'm going to be the best driver out there, you know, so I'm really using minor chauvinism to teach my Daughter to be awesome at driving. So that's just all it is. I've got one kid, I got one shot at that. You know, she's going to be a good driver.

She's going to make it anyway. These. I hate when I do that and forget what I was saying. So these women, the disciples didn't believe them. The disciples wouldn't believe them.

And so often we're the same way. Somebody will tell us what God's doing in their life. They'll share their testimony. Here's how my life was and here's how my life is now. Since Christ has healed me, since Christ has redeemed me.

By the way, if you're a Christian and you think, well, I don't have much of a story, I've been a Christian a long time. I don't have a testimony. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Because sometimes, like, let's say how you are on your worst day.

Just think how bad you were going to be without Christ. Just think what kind of a person you were going to be without what Christ has done in your life. And if you say, well, I haven't really grown much, I can't tell you the things that Christ has redeemed me from or relieved me from, what that really means is you haven't been growing as a Christian, and shame on you. It's time for you to start reading your Bible. It's time for you to start spending time in prayer and saying, God, I haven't grown much and I want to grow.

I want to be more like Christ. If you're not seeing the growth in your life as a Christian, then you haven't been really dwelling on who Christ is and what Christ has for you. If you're not a Christian, if you haven't given your life to Christ, confessed your sins, admitted you're a sinner, said, lord, thank you for saving me. Then look at who Christ is and say, clearly, I'm not that. And the hope that I have for both life here on earth and for eternity isn't much.

I can keep trying on my own, but I'm just not going to get there on my own. Jesus, I need you. Jesus always comes to us in that moment. He looks at us and he loves us. See, on this resurrection day, if there's anything that that tomb tells us is that no matter who the powers that be are, no matter who the governors are or the religious leaders or any of those people, no matter who they are, they can't keep Christ away from you.

That even if they Shut down the churches. We're still going to meet. If there's one thing that I learned five years ago is that I don't care what they're. What they tell me, and I don't care what's going on. We'll be here.

It might be the most unpopular thing to do, but we're going to continue meeting and worshiping the risen Savior, and we're going to keep learning and growing in Him. Amen. You guys aren't as excited as me. I listen to a preacher that yells every Sunday. He gets so.

He's not angry. He just gets so riled up. I'm not trying to be that guy, but I'm serious about this. This is exciting times. And so when I look at this, this empty tomb, I think, what are the possibilities for your life and for mine?

What are the things that Jesus wants to do for you and through you? Where are the areas in your life that are actually leading you to death and decay and destruction? What are the things that threaten your eternity? What are the things that threaten to pull you away from God? See, Christ wants to redeem us and relieve us of all of those things.

He wants to take all those things from us. We leave those burdens before his cross. We leave them at the altar. We leave them to Him. And we say, lord, take these from me.

There's no amount of good things I can do to be saved. But if I come to Christ and leave it all before him and allow him to lead me and to save me and to guide me, he can bring you not only into eternity, to heaven to come, but walk with you every day on this earth. And as we do that, we're equipped to be a light and a blessing to others. If you've been trying to live life in any other way, you're missing out. I don't normally do this.

I'm not going to actually ask you to come forward and pray. However, I do want to have a prayer with you, and I do want to offer you a chance that you might receive Jesus Christ to be your Savior. And I had actually thought this week that we ought to fill up the Baptistry. There's a Baptistry behind this cloth back here. And I thought we ought to do that and have some changes of clothes for people.

I felt God saying, no, not this week, but maybe next week. Next week there's going to be water in that Baptistry. Because I believe there's somebody here today, maybe a few of you, that haven't been walking with Christ. And it's Time for you to make that decision. For some of us, the time is running out quicker than we believe it is.

And we don't know that. For some of us, there might be an unexpected turn down the road and we find ourselves face to face with our judge. I'm not one of those to try to scare you to heaven. I'm just saying that time is ticking. None of us knows the last day.

None of us knows the date that will be on the end of our tombstone. But we all are guaranteed to have one. And I don't want you to meet that day unprepared. If you meet that day and you haven't met Jesus Christ before that day, you won't enjoy that day. But if you meet Jesus Christ here on this earth and you allow him to be your Lord and savior, what you'll find is this life on earth is the closest thing to hell that you will ever see.

You will never see hell any more than what you see on this earth. And you might say, well, this earth is great. Don't worry, Heaven's better. God promises us that. And he hasn't lied to me yet.

And I don't believe he's lied to you either. I want to close with this thing and then I'm going to lead you in a prayer. More than 20 years ago, 22, 23 years ago, I moved to Tennessee and I got a job working at a car lot. Brand new cars and used cars. And I wasn't technically a salesman.

I was a customer service associate, which basically means you need to learn just a little bit about the product and just help people and take them for test drives and fill out paperwork. And then if they actually are interested in buying it, you take them over to this office over here and they talk to this guy that doesn't know really how to deal with people. He's really annoying and pushy and he's going to try to push them into buying a car today rather than serve them and hopefully get one sold. And I didn't find much luck with that because people would like me and how I talked with them and helped them and then I would bring them to this guy and he was kind of rude and obnoxious and they say they would walk out not buying a car and say, hey, Nick, thanks, we really appreciate your help. We liked you.

We just didn't like him and couldn't deal with him. We're going to the other dealership, 20 minutes away that sells the same model. Like, heard it before. Thanks. Sorry.

But I would sit in that sales office. And sometimes he would think, I got them almost there now, by the way, I'm not a salesman still. I never have been. I'm terrible at it. I'm not trying to come at you like a salesman, but there's one line that he would say that just sticks with me and I think it applies here today.

What is it going to take for you before you walk out that door? What stands in the way of you saying, I want something new in my life? It's not a new car, it's not new financing that comes with it. Thank God for that. Oh, they would really stick people with that?

No, no, it's a gift. But you have to receive that gift. What prevents you from walking out of here today with new life in Jesus Christ? What is it that you might say, well, you know, I've got this one thing for them. It was, it might cost more than I planned.

Yeah, that's the game they play at car lots. They always try to get you for just a little bit higher than what you planned on it being. Don't worry. Jesus Christ tells you right up front, he says, you have to die every day. You have to die to yourself every day and say, it's not me who lives, but Jesus Christ who lives in me.

The thing is, what you get in return is not your life, but it's his life lived through you. It's the best life you could ever live. It's the hope for today and the hope for tomorrow and for eternity. It's the joy that transcends all trauma and pain that's going on in this world. In times where you think, oh, I don't know how I could possibly get through this.

You can get through it by the power of Jesus Christ. What thing is preventing you from accepting Christ today? I'm going to lead you in a prayer. That's my whole sales pitch. Elaine, would you play something?

And I'm going to pray. I'm not like those old time evangelists that would say, we're going to sing just one more verse just as I am, or something like that. I love Billy Graham and some of those guys. I'm not that guy. I'm going to give you one quick shot here.

If you want to come forward and pray, you can. The altars are open, but I think perhaps there's some of you, I know this, that need to pray this prayer and you need to yield your life to Christ. So let's bow our heads and we're going to close our eyes. I'm going to pray. If you want to pray along with me, I'll have you repeat a prayer in a little bit.

Lord, we come to you right now. It's Resurrection Day. It's the day that we reflect on everything that you've done for us.

Some of us are coming to you right now. Thankful for the years that we've served you and the years that you've been there to guide us and to bless us. But Lord, I know there are some who haven't yet started that part of their journey yet. Some might just want a deeper walk with you. Some might need to start that walk.

Some might have walked far away from you. And it's time to come back. God, like the father of the prodigal son, we know that you welcome us back with open arms.

Lord, on this Resurrection Day, we celebrate, we commemorate what Jesus did, but we also want to celebrate what you're doing in people's lives right now. And so if you're one of those who needs to receive Christ right now, pray out loud or silently, follow along with me.

God, I thank you for everything you've done for me. I know I'm not perfect. I know I couldn't even try. And I know I've done wrong before you and towards others.

God, I know you accept me as I am, but you also want to make me clean. I confess my sins before you. I want you to save me, to give me new life, to be born again.

Thank you, God.

Lord, I pray that you would lead us and guide us each step of the way. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Thank you all for being here today. It's an honor to celebrate Christ with you.

I want you to know that if you prayed to receive Christ today, I don't want you to just duck out and hide. We don't create orphan Christians around here. You see, if you became a Christian today, you have become part of the family of God. And that means you're a child of God. And that means you're our brother and sister.

That's important. Don't duck out of here and say, okay, cool, I'll keep that to myself. No, no, we share that. One of the ways you can share that is letting me know, filling it out on the connection card. Or you can just go, woo hoo right now if you want, but that's up to you.

But the other way that you can celebrate that is next week there's going to be warm water in the baptistry. We're going to celebrate that. I can't promise that, but it's going to be available. And so I want to hear from you. I want to know that you're saying, I'm ready to take that next step, ready to be baptized into the family of God, to be baptized into my faith in Christ.

So with that, I'm going to offer benediction. If you'll stand, we'll be departing from here now. May the God who has given you new life, who has raised Christ up from the dead, may he give you that new life that you may be living as born again children of God, go in the grace and peace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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