Oh, crossing family, it is good to be with you.
If you're like me and you're in agreement that there ain't
nobody like Jesus, can I get a Hallelujah?
Oh, it's good to be with you. I want to welcome you joining
from all of our different locations, those of you watching
online and inside. I also want to welcome those of
you who are joining us for the first time or the first time in
a long time. You're going to get encouraged
at the end of the service to go back to the New here booth.
But I also want to encourage you to take advantage of the QR code
on the seat in front of you. People who get connected grow in
their walk with the Lord, people who don't, don't.
And I want to encourage you to get connected and take steps
that will help transform not just your life, but the lives of
the people around you. I also want to tell you that
next weekend is Father's Day weekend.
We're going to be celebrating all the fathers and it will be
an incredible weekend for you to invite a friend or a family
member, whether they are a father or not.
And I really believe I have a message that will bless you and
encourage you. So if you're looking for a great
weekend because we've been doing politics and you're like, I
haven't been inviting for a while because I didn't, I didn't
know what you're going to say. Next weekend would be a great
weekend for you to bring a friend.
Finally, we are in our 4th week of our sermon series on faith
and politics called Don't Take the Baked and I was thinking of
this sermon the moment we decided to do this series.
So I'm going to come at you hard in the paint, but I think we're
going to survive. At the end I titled this message
there's another King and his name is Jesus.
So in case you guys are taking notes, there is another king and
his name is Jesus. You actually find this in Acts
chapter 17. If you were here at the very
beginning of the sermon series, I mentioned this a little bit.
The reason why we did this series is because the people
around you over the from now until November and for some of
them all the way till January and for some of them until the
return of Christ, they are going to lose their mind over politics
and elections. And I had no idea during the
middle of this series that Donald Trump would get indicted
for hush money to a porn star. And so I need you to know that
this was planned way in advance. We didn't like, hey, we're going
to this is going on. This is that's not how we roll.
I will say this, what I'm hoping for our church, what I'm hoping
for Christians, is that as we go through this next election
cycle, we would look and act and behave differently than the
people around us. And that the difference that
they see in US would point them to Christ.
That they would see you not losing your mind, that they
would see you not losing your peace.
That they would see you having a firm foundation that can walk
through any storm. And they would go, how can you
be so calm? How can you have so much hope?
How can you have so much peace and that you'd be able to tell
them that's because there's another king and his name is
Jesus. Acts chapter 17 verse one.
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia.
I don't know really how you say those their cities don't exist
anymore. They came to I know this one
Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
The they here is Paul and Silas. Paul eventually went on to write
2 letters to this church in Thessalonica that you can find
in your Bible, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.
Paul has travelled all the way from Jerusalem to Greece with
the message of the gospel. This is back when there's no
cars, there's no bikes, it's donkeys, camels, walking in
boats. He has travelled this far from
Israel all the way to Greece with the message of the gospel.
This should at least pull on our heartstrings a little bit
because we have a hard time going across the street, talking
across the counter or across the workbench.
Verse two. And Paul and Silas went in, as
was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with
them from the scriptures. So on Sabbath, which was
Saturday, which was a holy day for the Jews, they would go into
the synagogue. The synagogue was a place where
the Jews would gather for worship and for teaching,
similar to what you guys are doing by showing up for church.
And he would show up and he would talk to them.
What did he do? Well, he would explain and
proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to
rise from the dead and saying this Jesus, whom I proclaim to
you is the Christ. Here's the message that Paul is
preaching to the Jews. Other people are overhearing it,
but here's the message. He's, he's telling them in the
synagogue. He's saying the Messiah Jesus is
the one you've been waiting for. They've been waiting for a
Messiah to free them, to save them from the Roman oppressors.
They were waiting for an earthly king.
And he's saying, listen, he's not an earthly king.
He's the King of kings. He's the one who has come to
fulfill all the prophecies that you have read about in your
scriptures, the Old Testament. And Paul spends 3 weeks telling
them Jesus is the one you've been looking for.
That is the message that we have to a broken and hurting world.
You're looking for purpose. Jesus is the one you've been
looking for. You're looking for peace.
Peace has a name. His name is Jesus.
He's the one that you have been looking for.
He saw their felt need and he showed them that Jesus is the
answer to that felt need. Verse verse four.
And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as
did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the
leading women. People heard the message that
Paul was proclaiming that Jesus is the one, and many believed.
What was really surprising is not only were some Jews
converted, but some Greeks, people who were not Jews, and
also some women. In other words, this message of
Jesus was making its way into all of the cracks in the
culture. Verse five.
But the Jews were jealous and taking some wicked men from the
rabble. This is a fancy word.
It really means the marketplace. The way we would use it today is
from the mall. Well, malls are kind of dead now
too, but you get the idea. They formed a mob, set the city
in an uproar and attacked the House of Jason, seeking to bring
them out to the crowd. So Jason was a Christian and he
had been hosting them at his house.
So they show up at his place and they attacked it and they
brought him and the other Jesus followers out.
This is what they said verse 6. And when they could not find
them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the
city authorities shouting, These men who have turned the world
upside down have come here also. And Jason was has received them.
And they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying
that there is another king, Jesus.
Look at the accusation. The accusation, and we're going
to unpack a little bit more of this later, is that they are
charged not with just saying that there is another king, but
that there is another king. And this king has a name and the
name is Jesus. Then verses 8:00 and 9:00.
And the people of the city authorities were disturbed when
they heard these things and when they had taken money as
security. In other words, they posted bail
for Jason and his friends. Some of you guys know that
you've posted bail for somebody. You chose not to post bail for
somebody. Yeah, you've been there.
OK. From them, from and the rest,
They let them go. Let's keep going.
The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to
Berea. And when they arrived, guess
what they did? They went into another Jewish
synagogue. Paul is a repeat offender.
He just got in trouble in Thessalonica for going into the
synagogue and telling people about Jesus.
He moves 45 miles away in the middle of the night because the
last town was trying to was in an uproar and where they're
trying to do all kind of violent acts.
So he goes 45 miles away, he shows up, he's a repeat
offender. He goes right back into the
synagogue and he immediately starts telling people about
Jesus. Now, these Jews were more noble
than those in Thessalonica. They received the Word with all
eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these
things were so. These people were more noble
than the people involved in the revolt against the gospel.
So what made them more noble was one, they were receiving the
Word with eagerness, and they were examining the Scriptures to
make sure that what was being preached was true.
Two things I want you to notice here.
I'm just teaching. I'm going to preach here in a
little bit. There is something about having
an eagerness for the word of the Lord.
There is something transformative that happens when
you deeply desire time in the Scriptures.
How many of you today, you don't have to raise your hands, want a
word from the Lord? Or do you just want confirmation
that you're right? How many of us want a word from
the Lord or we just want to baptize our political beliefs?
How many of us want a word from the Lord or we just want to
check a box? The second thing is, is beyond
the eagerness that they had to for the word of God.
The second thing they did is they examined the scriptures.
What scriptures? They were examining the Old
Testament. You guys have probably started a
one year Bible reading plan. Most of them always start you in
the Old Testament which is a bad idea.
Find one that starts you in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
Go through the New Testament but don't gloss over the Old
Testament. This is what they were examining
to see if what was written about the Christ was actually true.
There's an old saying that says this.
The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New
Testament is the Old Testament revealed.
When you read the New Testament it is going to talk to you about
a loving God sending his Son Jesus to die on a cross to pay
for our sins. If you read the Old Testament
it's going to tell you that a loving God is going to send his
Son to die on on behalf of our sins.
The other thing I'll tell you is a quote I heard a long time ago
and that this it's this. You've heard me say this.
A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to a life that
isn't. If you have any expectation to
storm proof your life, if you have any expectation to offer
your very best to your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your
wife, your family, your kids, you need to be a rooted person
who doesn't just stand on the Word of God, but actually
applies the Word of God to your life.
Let's see what happens next. Many of them therefore believed
with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
Yet again, Paul goes out to the synagogue and more people find
Jesus. If you're looking for a path
forward in your life, there's a math problem that gets laid out
in Acts chapter 17. Regularly telling people about
Jesus because you learned about Jesus because you were spending
time in God's Word learning about Jesus opens the door for
more people to find Jesus. If you would like to think that
your political beliefs are biblical, your strategy is not
to make more Republicans. Your strategy is not to make
more Democrats. Your strategy is to make more
people into the likeness of Christ.
That should be your first and foremost priority.
So if you don't know enough about the Scriptures to help a
person come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, you might be
doing it wrong. So before you post on social
media who the next president should be, find somebody who
will help you understand how to articulate the good news of the
gospel. Because the first question when
you die is not who did you vote for in the political arena.
The first question is, what did you do with my son Jesus?
And if we are going to be Jesus people, if we are going to be
people who are going to make this region the hardest region
on planet earth to get to hell from, we must become prolific at
being able to explain the beauty of the cross.
Remember the math that we did at the very beginning of the series
where I told you to take your age, subtract 18, divide by 4,
and that's how many presidents you have voted for.
If the number you get at the end of that is bigger than the
number of people you've baptized, we are guilty of being
better Americans than we are of being Christians.
Verse 13. But when the Jews from
Thessalonica remember the town that hated them, learned that
the Word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea, 45 miles away,
they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.
How many of you have ever hated so somebody so much that you
traveled 45 miles to tell them? How many of you have ran a
marathon? OK, point it yourself.
That's who you hate, right? At least you half hate that much
at 3 miles an hour. They walked 15 hours to tell
people, hey, don't lean in to the scriptures, don't lean in to
God. But the bottom line is you and I
should not be surprised that when the Kingdom of God is being
proclaimed that it will face opposition.
It has always faced opposition. Don't be surprised when
following God's plan puts you at odds with the world or with
popular opinion. We are not trying to please
them. We are not trying to please the
world. We are not trying to be friends
with the world. We are trying to save the world.
We are trying to please our Heavenly Father.
We are trying to please the one who died on the cross for our
sins. That might put me out of touch,
out of step with culture, but I'm not concerned on being the
on the right side of history. I'm concerned on being the right
side of eternity. And we should be too.
What is so compelling about this story to me is that the church
in Thessalonica was only three weeks old.
There was not a major problem. There was not a bunch of social
unrest. There was not a bunch of riots
as people were coming to Christ. So the accusation that these
people were turning the world upside down was not based on
something that was happening in the town.
It was happening because they were getting reports from all
over the Roman Empire that anywhere that Paul went with the
gospel of Jesus Christ, lives were being transformed.
Their reputation had traveled by word of mouth.
What was their reputation? We turned the world upside down
because we have another king and his name is Jesus.
No wonder when Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, in
Second Corinthians, he says this.
We, this is you and I, are therefore Christ's ambassadors.
This is government talk as though God were making his
appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's
behalf, be reconciled to God. What?
Being reconciled to God means being made right because of our
sin. We are not right with God.
It has separated us from Him and he's saying they're imploring
people on behalf of God come to faith in Christ Jesus.
Why? Because that is how you get
reconciliation. Verse 21.
How did God bring about this? God made him.
This is Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him,
that's Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God.
What Jesus did on the cross is he took our sin.
So God treated Jesus like we deserve so he could treat us
like Jesus deserved. That's a pretty powerful
message. That's the message we're
supposed to proclaim as Christ's ambassadors.
If God could tell anybody that you know about anything, he
would not say vote for Trump. If he could tell anybody that
you know one thing, he would not say vote for Biden.
These words would come out of his mouth.
My Son has died on the cross on your behalf, so you and I can be
in a right relationship today. You can have purpose, peace
today, and you can have the hope of heaven for eternity.
That is what he would utter to you.
If a political party was the answer to the world's problems,
Jesus would have started one. If the government was the
solution to our world's problems, Jesus would have been
crowned and earthly king. But it is Kingdom soil that you
and I stand on first and foremost.
It is not American soil first. It is Kingdom soil.
It first and foremost belongs to him.
He created it, He bled for it, and he died for it.
And he redeems it. And Colossians tells us he holds
it all together. You and I are embassies,
churches are embassies stationed all over the world in every
economic status, in every shade of skin color to proclaim the
Kingdom of God is at hand, that there is another King and his
name is Jesus. And as ambassadors of King
Jesus, the only deals that you and I can make are the deals
that he has authorized us to make.
And the deals that we have been authorized to make is you can be
forgiven, you can be set free, you can have peace, and you can
have purpose. And everything that we do, our
presence, our conduct, are offered in service to King Jesus
and to the King Jesus's Kingdom. And when you and I do this, it
will turn the world upside down. That means that as Christians,
we oppose abortion, and then we will support adoption and foster
care. That means as Christians, we
care for the poor, we empathize with the addicted, and we fight
against racism in every single one of its forms.
We are on the side of justice. We are on the side of love.
We are on the side of truth. We are on the side of
compassion. And where the Bible speaks, we
proclaim it loudly. And where the Spirit leads, we
follow immediately. Why?
Because there's another king, and his name is Jesus.
And you might be thinking to yourself, and This is why I
showed up today. But this following God's plan
really work well. Let me show you, Joseph was sold
into slavery by his brothers, sent off to a foreign country
and put in a foreign jail. After he had served, after he'd
been enslaved, he served. And while he was serving, he got
promoted to head of the whole House of the man who was in
charge of the King's guard. He was falsely accused, put in
prison. When he was in prison, he was
just obedient to what God told him to do, and he ended up
interpreting dreams for the people in prison.
And then the warden put him in charge of all the other
prisoners in the room. In the jail and eventually he
was asked to go and interpret a vision for the king and he spoke
truth to power and he told him that a famine was coming.
And eventually he was placed in charge of overseeing the
salvation of not just the people of Egypt, but the people
surrounding by creating provision.
He just followed God's plan, even though it took him from
slavery into jail and eventually into the palace.
Esther had lost her mother and father, was raised by her cousin
Mordecai. She was forced into a harem,
sexually exploited by a Persian king by the name of Xerxes.
Eventually, though, she was made queen, and she used her power
not to save herself, but to save her people from extinction.
Don't doubt what God can do with a simple act of obedience.
I'll keep going. Daniel was taken into captivity
to Babylon. The king ordered him to eat the
Babylonian food. He said, would you give me a
little bit of time to eat the diet that my heavenly Father has
prescribed? He made a deal.
The guy said, I'll do it. And Daniel, God to the test, and
God showed up in the testing, and his body and the people
around him were so much healthier than everybody else
that they were allowed to continue to follow their
religious practices in a Pagan King's palace.
Then when the king wanted the people to bow down and worship
him in the desert to a statue of gold 90 feet tall, they said,
we'll keep eating our food, but we're not going to bow down to
you. And Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego said, play the music as loud as you want.
Issue a decree as often as you want.
Everybody else might bow down, but we will not.
They said, if you don't bow down, we'll put you in a fiery
pit. And they said, well, then turn
up the heat because our God is able to save, but even if he
doesn't, I won't bow down. They stood, looked kings and
presidents in the eye and said we will not move.
We will keep trusting God. And they were put in the fire.
The beauty is, is when they went into the fire, somebody else
showed up. Some of you want God to show up
without you having to sacrifice, without you having to suffer.
But if you want God to be right next to you in the midst of the
pain, in the midst of the political mess, actually do
something that requires his presence.
And posting doesn't require his presence.
It requires your stupidity. We awake.
However, their prayers were answered.
Then another king came and made it illegal to pray to any other
God, and Daniel resisted. Three times a day.
He went to his window and he prayed facing Jerusalem.
I wonder how many of you, if it was made illegal for you to pray
three times a day, would be guilty.
So we kept praying, and he was thrown into the lion's den
because of it. However, the God of his prayer
life was the exact same God who showed up in the pit with lions,
and he survived. And King Darius was so moved
that he told the people of his Kingdom to show reverence.
To who? To whoever is the God that
Daniel serves, I wonder if people were issued a decree
today to follow the God that you serve, would it be you, or would
it be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
This is the decree that Darius issued.
Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and the people of
every language and all the earth.
May you prosper greatly. I issue a decree that in every
part of my Kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of
Daniel, for he is the living God and he endures forever.
His Kingdom will not be destroyed.
His dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves.
He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.
He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.
John the Apostle was exiled to the island of Patmos because he
would not bow to the emperor. And you know what he did when he
was there? He wrote Revelation, which gives
us a picture of our soon coming king.
Jewish religious leaders tried to snuff out Christianity, but
they ended up spreading it. In fact, one of the greatest
persecutors of the early church ended up being transformed by it
and became a leader of it. When Rome tried to kill it, they
were overcome by it in the year 57 AD.
The church in Rome was small. Paul writes to them in the book
of Romans, which you can read in your Bible.
In the 16th 9th chapter Paul references 5 house churches.
If there were five house churches with 30 people in each
of those churches, that would have meant that in 57 AD there
were 150 Christians in Rome and they were ruled by the very
emperors that killed Paul and Peter.
However, eventually the church won. 300 years later, the impact
of the Christian Church was so wide that the entire Roman
Empire was impacted by it. In fact, Theodicius issued the
Edict of Thessalonica, which made Christianity the official
religion of Rome. Caesar tried to kill
Christianity and he was not successful.
Today, Jesus is on his throne, the churches worldwide, and
Caesar selling $8 pizzas. The Church has survived every
government, every form of hate, and every form of persecution.
The church has survived wars, crusades, trials, dictators,
communists, oligarchies, monarchies, and democracy.
Why? Because we have another king,
and his name is Jesus. And because of that, we are not
shaken by bad leaders, swayed by doomsday predictions, afraid of
persecution, humiliation, or canceled culture.
Nor are we defeated by injustice.
We are not fearful of political power because the Bible clearly
states that the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead
lives inside of us. And who gives us this power?
Our king does because we have another king and his name is
Jesus. We do not need another
representative, senator, governor, or president to grant
us our deepest desires because we have a spiritual inheritance
that was purchased, a heavenly citizenship that was sealed by
the blood of this King. And this king has a name, and
his name is Jesus. Live in fear.
How could we? The Bible clearly states that
God has not given us the spirit of fear or timidity but of power
and love and self-discipline. Will we win?
Of course we will. Why?
Because our king said so. Where?
In Matthew chapter 16 where he says the gates of hell will not
prevail against the church. Why?
Because we have another king, and his name is Jesus.
Even if one day this nation lies in rubble and another flag flies
in the place of Old Glory, the church will be alive and strong
and indestructible. Why?
Because there's another king, and his name is Jesus.
Doctor Shadrach Meshach Lockridge asked this powerful
question. Do you know my king?
And then he goes on to describe him.
Can I borrow you for a couple minutes?
This is what Doctor Shadrach Meshach Lockridge says.
He says my king was born king. The Bible says he's a seven way
king. King of the Jews, that's a
racial king, King of Israel, that's a national king, King of
righteousness, king of ages, king of heaven, king of glory,
king of kings and Lord of Lords. Now that's my king.
Well, I wonder if you know him. Do you know him?
Don't try to mislead me. Do you know my king?
David said the heavens declare the glory of God and the
firmament shows his handiwork. My king is the only one whom
there is no means of measure which can define his limitless
love. No far sing telescope can bring
into visibility the coastline of his shoreless supplies.
No barrier can hinder him from pouring out his blessing.
He's enduringly strong, entirely sincere, eternally steadfast,
immortally graceful, imperially powerful, and he's impartially
merciful. That's my king.
He's God's son. He's the sinner's savior.
He's the centerpiece of civilization.
He stands alone in himself. He is awesome, unique,
unparalleled and unprecedented. He's the miracle of the age.
He's the superlative of everything good that you or I
may ever choose to call him. He's the only one able to supply
all of our needs simultaneously. Let me show you.
He supplies strength for the weak.
He's available for the tempted and the tribe.
He sympathizes and he saves. He for guards and he guides.
He heals the sick, cleanses the leper, forgives the Sinner, just
charges the debtor, delivers the captive defence, the feeble.
And when he gets done with that, he blesses the young, serves the
unfortunate, regards the age towards the diligent, and
beautifies the meek. I got a question.
Crossing church. Do you know my king well?
My king is the king of knowledge.
He's the wellspring of wisdom. He's the doorway of deliverance.
He's the pathway of peace. He's the roadway of
righteousness. He's the highway of holiness,
and he's the gateway of glory. He's the master of the mighty,
He's the captain of the conquerors.
He's the head of the heroes, and he's the leader of legislators.
He's the overcomer of overcomers.
He's the governor of governors. He's the Prince of Princess.
He's the king of kings, and he's the Lord of Lords.
That's my King. His office is manifold and his
promise is sure. His light is matchless and his
goodness is limitless. His mercy is everlasting and his
love never changes. His word is enough, and his
grace is sufficient. His reign is righteous.
His yoke is easy, His burden is light.
I wish I could describe him to you, but he's indescribable.
He's incomprehensible, invincible, irresistible.
I'm trying to tell you that the heaven, the heavens cannot
contain him, let alone man. Explain him.
You can't get him out of your mind, and you can't get him off
your hands. You can't outlive him, and you
can't live without him. You see, the Pharisees couldn't
stain him, but they found out. They couldn't stop him.
Pilate couldn't find fault in him.
The witnesses couldn't get their testimonies to agree on him.
Herod couldn't kill him. Death couldn't handle him in the
grave, couldn't hold him. That's my king, you see, He's
always been and he always will be.
He had no predecessor and he will have no successor.
There was nobody before him and there's going to be nobody
coming after him. You can't impeach him, and he's
not going to resign. That is my king.
We have another king and his name is Jesus.
We're moving to a time of decision, and if you are here
today and you have not started an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, you have the wrong king.
I've seen people try to make themselves the king, but I've
never seen it work out. I've seen people put other
places, other people in the king spot.
They've tried to put their spouse there, but their spouse
couldn't handle the pressure. They've put their kids there,
but the kids weren't qualified. They've put their boss there,
their career there, they've put money there, and all of them
have taken them down a horrible Rd.
You see, you were made by this King, and you will only be
everything that God created you to be if He is the King of your
life. And if you're here today and you
haven't started an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus
Christ, you are in perilous waters, not just in this life,
but in the life that is to come. And the heartbeat of this
church, the prayer of this church is that you would find
King Jesus and that you would let him reign in your life today
and for every day after it. And the testimony of thousands
of people who call the crossing home and billions of Christians
worldwide is that it was the best decision that they ever
made. And their biggest regret is that
they didn't do it sooner. I mentioned Second Corinthians
chapter 5, verse 21. But he who had no sin became sin
for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Let me unpack that for you a little bit.
And this is good if you're a Christian.
This is our message. This is it.
What as ambassadors we are called to declare.
But to those of you who don't have a relationship with Jesus
Christ, I want you to understand why this church gets so excited
about Jesus. If you were to take all the
qualities of God and you were to list them off, we could go
around this room with a microphone and we could come up
with quality after quality after quality after quality, And if I
said let's just reduce it, and we did it and we reduced it and
we did it and we reduced it, we just kept reducing it, you'd be
kind of left with three preeminent qualities of God.
You would have His Holiness, you would have His love, and you
would have His goodness. God's holiness means that he is
separate, altogether different. He's perfect in every way.
And when you and I sin, what that creates is that creates
distance between US and God. We rack up for ourselves a
heavenly debt that somebody has to pay.
And God and His Holiness, He can't be in the presence of sin.
If he could, he wouldn't be holy.
You can almost hear the heartbreak of God in Genesis
after Adam and Eve ate from the tree and disobeyed God because
he used to walk with them in the cool of the day.
Before sin entered the world, there was perfect communion with
God. So God is holy, but God is also
loving. And His love desperately desires
to be in relationship with us, to save us from the very thing
that has alienated us from Him, to give us the life that He
desperately desires for us to have.
And so His love wants to be in relationship.
But if God decided to be loving and to lean all the way into His
love, he would no longer be holy.
And if God were to just give completely into His Holiness, he
would not be loving, which is why God is not just holy and
he's not just loving, He's also good.
And So what he did is he sent Jesus in his goodness to die on
the cross on my behalf and on your behalf.
And so Jesus takes the payment that you and I deserve, but not
just you and I, for every human, for all of human history.
And it was laid on the person of Jesus.
If you want to know how holy God is, look at the beaten body of
Jesus, look at the blood stained cross and you will see how holy
God is. If you want to know how loving
God is, look at the cross, look at a beaten Jesus and a blood
stained cross and you will see just how loving God is.
And if you want to know how good he is, you look at the cross.
Because in the cross he satisfies His Holiness and he
satisfies his love because he made him Jesus, who knew no sin
to be sin for us, so that in him, Jesus, you and I might
become the righteousness of God. What God did in the cross is he
treated Jesus like you and I deserved so that you and I could
be treated like Jesus deserves. That is not just a message for
us. That is a message for the world.
And when we believe it, own it, claim it, live in it, and share
it, we will turn this world upside down.
And there's some of you in here today that this is not your
story, but it could be. And in just a few moments, I'm
going to encourage you. All the people around you stand
and singing. Some of them come to the steps
and pray about whatever's going on in their life.
I'm going to encourage you to take a step right over there
underneath that screen next to the baptistry, and there'll be
people there who'd love to talk to you, answer some of the
questions you have. After everything he's done, how
could you not at least ask a couple questions to the rest of
you in the room, to those of you who are Christians, we must do
better. People are getting their view of
Jesus by the way you and I conduct ourselves in person and
online. And if we are indeed ambassadors
of God's Kingdom, what are we telling them about God's
Kingdom? I hope it's that we have another
king and his name is Jesus. Would you stand with me,
Heavenly Father, do a work in this church right now, not just
here, but at all of our different locations.
Not just at our locations, but to those who are gathered around
devices, to those who are behind bars.
God, take ground in each of our lives.
Take the ground that only you can take in ways that only you
can take it. And your name I pray.
Amen.