The Questions of the Cross - Good Friday, 2021

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Because you and you alone can save.

Our head and our heart are kind of turned towards you tonight, God.

Because there's things every one of us in this room have put it in the ditch, despite our best efforts, at some point and some place, and for some reason in our life, we screwed up royally.

And it was so bad, God, we wanted to crawl off in the dark somewhere and cry ourselves to sleep and hate ourselves more than we did the day before.

Then the God of the universe sees us, knows everything we did, and He said, I love you, and I have the power to forgive you.

Thou can cleanse, and thou alone.

There's a double cure for sin.

What we did and how we feel about what we did can both be healed by the power of God and the good news of the gospel.

And so, God, I pray for anyone in this room tonight that's laboring and this fear being found out.

You just even now, God, would just whisper to their spirit, I already know, and I've already dealt with that.

Let's move past it into all that I have.

The cross is just not about our past, it's about our future.

So, Holy Spirit, lead us into this truth tonight.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Yeah, I'm gonna read from Romans chapter 8, starting verse 31, and I want to talk to you uh for a few moments about the questions of the cross.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

The questions of the cross.

There's some things that the Bible asks us, it puts it in language we understand, it doesn't beat us up, it doesn't come to give us this religious whooping or this guilt trip.

It's not like your grandma who's religious, who meets you at the front porch and says, Where have you been?

What have you been doing?

That's not what God is like, okay?

But the Bible does ask us some questions.

So I want to just jump in.

Let me give you some context.

Paul is writing, the apostle Paul is writing to some people, the Christians in Rome, who are close to facing persecution like they've never known.

I don't know if you know of any Christians in any country where they're kind of looking around, kind of going, hey, is it getting hot in here?

And that's not a Nelly reference either, okay?

Uh, but they're like, hey, persecution is coming up, Nero is the emperor, and soon he's gonna persecute them like never before.

And Paul writes to them about how much God loves them, why he loves them, because they're gonna be vexed by what is to come, and they need to be rooted and established in God's love for them.

And so basically, what the Bible's saying to these people is what it says to you and I hey, there's some crazy stuff that's gonna happen sometimes, and it doesn't mean that God doesn't love you, it doesn't mean that God hates you.

It just means that you live in a world that's under the price and the penalty of sin.

So, so when people sin against you, don't take that out on God.

Matter of fact, fill up your headspace with these responses, with the right responses to these questions.

Romans chapter 8, verse 31.

Romans 8:31

What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all?

How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn?

Christ Jesus is the one who died.

More than that, who is raised?

Who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or covet or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.

We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, and all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure, for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things succumb, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Bible gets down in the gritty crooks and crannies where life is lived out, and it kind of asks us some questions.

And I just want to talk tonight about the questions of the cross.

The first one being, what shall we say to these things?

In verse 31, what shall we say to these things?

Notice that the Bible doesn't ask you to believe in nothing.

It kind of jams some concrete realities in your face and says, Hey, what do you think about this?

What do you say to these things?

Now, now that's notice it doesn't say, uh, what do you suppose uh about these things?

What do you think about these things?

It says, What do you suppose we say to these things?

It's a sounds like a little difference, but it's a big difference because we as a culture have eroded into this place where we have five words, we have five words that are the answer for everything.

And those words are homophobic, trans, xenophobe, misogynistic, and trump.

That answers any question you get asked.

Just what uh what's wrong with the world?

Well, Phil, pick one of those words.

What are you?

Pick one of those words, and the Bible comes along and says, Hey, you guys want to talk about these things?

I want you to speak to these things.

What shall we say to these things?

Because the Bible puts forward some propositional truths and says, Hey, you've got to contend with it.

You can talk about it your whole life.

You can go, I'm just not religious, I don't talk about religious and politics.

There you go, about.

But what do you say to?

Because the Bible puts some concrete, unchanging, eternal realities that it doesn't matter if you avoid it your entire life, it's not gonna change it.

What shall we say to these things?

Well, if you're a thinking person, most of you are, your first thought is, well, what are what is he talking about when he says these things?

It's these things that start back in verse 28.

Sounds like this.

We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

Or excuse me, I'll start in verse 26.

Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and he searches hearts, and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit, because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called.

And those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

Now you may be thinking, that's great, dude.

I you lost me about seven words into that.

And so I just want to break it down.

What do you mean, these things?

What are these things?

I got a list.

Don't try to write this down.

I'll email it to you.

What are these things?

I'll list them out for you.

There's about seven or eight.

Like, like number one, that God leaves his spirit here on earth to be active and real in our lives.

That God leaves his spirit.

He says, I don't leave you.

If you got abandonment issues, Christianity is for you.

He leaves his spirit here on earth to be active and real in our lives.

And he tells us there that the spirit helps us when we're weak.

He prays for us in ways that transcend words.

He intercedes with groanings that are too deep for words.

And those are what I call the life and death moments.

Those are the moments when, as a pastor, I've been in a lot of life and death moments.

I've been at the hospital when the baby's born, and the dad comes out and he doesn't say, Hey, we just had a baby.

The dad that really is moved by this kind of like, you can tell if it's our first baby or their third baby.

The first baby, the dad's like, oh, oh my god, oh it's the third baby, the dad's like, Hey, can you go to Salt Grass and get me some chicken strips?

My wife's a little hungry in there.

But there are moments, those life moments, where it's just so overwhelming.

Words came out, are so thin and pallid, they can't support the weight of this reality.

And then there are death moments.

I was in the room with a friend of mine when his dad died.

And his dad kept trying to talk, and his dad couldn't talk.

His dad had had congestive heart failure, and he kept trying to get words out.

And I watched a grown man put his hands on his dad and go, Dad, it's okay.

It's okay.

And I stepped over in the corner because I didn't want to screw it up with my sobbing.

And his son just and I'm over in the corner.

And finally I hear his son say, He's gone now.

And the Bible says that the Holy Spirit of God kind of prays for us in ways that transcends words, and he prays for us according to the will of God.

This is how sometimes great things can happen in your life and you didn't deserve them because you haven't been living greatly.

It's because the Holy Spirit's been interceding and say, Hey, I want, I want them to experience this, not because they deserve it, but I want them to know there's a force at work in their life that's bigger and beyond them and better than them.

It's the second thing he said, what are these things that God works to cause all things to work together for good?

All things don't have the power to do anything.

It's like your mom dumping out some vegetables and a pound of hamburger meat and saying, This is gonna cook itself.

It doesn't happen that way.

So let's don't be willy-nilly and mentally lazy and say, Well, doesn't the Bible say all things work together?

No, in all things, God is at work.

God has a purpose for my life.

God knew me before anyone else could.

God determined beforehand that I would look like Jesus.

I take great comfort in this.

Christianity is not me trying to make myself more religious, Christianity is me yielding to the to God's work in my life.

He called me.

He called me.

I didn't find him, I wasn't looking for him.

He let me hear his voice, calling me any spoke a language I understand.

I don't know how you said in this room tonight, but it's not about oh, I gotta do some big words, I gotta always read the Bible.

I have an acquaintance of mine named Bubba.

Bubba worked on the King Ranch.

He was a real cowboy.

He didn't wear wranglers and go to the rodeo like some of you.

You think you're a cowboy because you got to pass to the rodeo.

No, you got disposable income.

Bubba Saul was a cowboy, worked on the King Ranch.

He told me, he said, I said, what was that like?

He said, He said, you know that we own orange groves in Brazil.

And I was like, the king, what?

All I know is Ford and King Ranch had a baby and it's called a truck.

That's all I know.

And he's like, dude, we we invented the Santa Gertrudis breed.

I'm like, shut up.

And he's like, no.

And he said, they've got pastures there, Neil.

I said, how big is it?

He said, well, I worked in some pastures that were 6,000 acres.

And I said, How many of those pastures do you have?

He goes, I don't know, but it's it's infinitely bigger than that.

But what was your job?

And he said, I would meet me and my horses, me and my guys, we'd line up against the fence.

And he said, the brush was higher than your head on a horse, and you couldn't see the guy on your right and left.

And so we would line up early in the morning, we're driving the cattle to worm them or inoculate them or whatever, or just move them.

And we hit we would, you couldn't see the guy on your right or left.

So we all had a call.

He said, The guy on my right, his call was he would just kind of whistle.

And but what happened was you you couldn't see them.

So you'd call out his was the whistle, the guy over here was like, and so we would like, and he said, and Bubba's was woo-hoo, woo-hoo.

And he said, if you didn't work there, you just thought these people are crazy.

And so we'd be riding through there.

And and because what didn't you what you didn't want, he said, because rookies did it all the time.

If I got too far ahead of them and they were back here, the cows were smart.

The cow, the cattle would hear you and realize there's a there's there's a delta between you two, and they would cut back between you, and you'd have to go all the way back to the fence and start over.

And when you lined up, they were giving you the stink eye.

Like, really?

Have you ever ridden a horse before?

And so he said, Ben, I first got it.

I was just like, oh, he said, I was like, and they go, dude, we're good, we're good, relax.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Because God speaks a language you understand.

Months later, he said, I was living my my my my my the life I wanted.

I was living out in the country.

He said it was 20 miles to my nearest neighbor.

I was like, and that's your that's your dream.

He goes, Oh yeah.

Laying on my couch, he said, but I was starting to have a this gnawing sense that God was calling me into ministry.

And one Saturday, I was laying on my on my couch and I was just trying to take a nap, and I just thought this.

I didn't even say it.

I this is how intimate and familiar God is with us.

He said, Yeah, I just thought this.

I just thought, well, God, if this is you, you got to give me a sign.

And when he's talking to me, he just bursts into tears.

I was like, oh man, whoa, whoa.

Because sometimes y'all think giving a sign that God's gonna hurt somebody you love to get your attention.

He said, I was laying there on my couch, Neil, and all of a sudden in my spirit, he just called out to me, woo-hoo! And I started crying.

And I was like, shut up.

And he said, Yeah.

And I said, Lord, if that's you, make it louder.

He said, It just got louder.

Woo-hoo! And he was just saying to me, he knew, he and I knew it was intimate language.

He was saying, get synced up with me, Bubba.

You can't see me.

I'm over here.

Come on, we gotta go, son.

He said, My wife got home from town, 20 miles to the grocery store.

And he said, I met her on the front porch of my trailer.

I was like, You lived in a trailer?

Oh man, it was heaven.

I lived in a trailer when I was a kid, and I would use a different word to describe it, but go ahead.

And he said, I grabbed her by the arms and said, Babe, we got to get out of here.

And she said, He said, What happened?

He said, The Lord's calling me.

I gotta go to college, I got to get ready for ministry.

And his wife said, Well, Bubba, let's sell everything and go.

Why?

Why do I tell you that?

Because God speaks a language that you understand, regardless of what your little call is, he speaks a language so, but if you're going through something right now or you're doubting something, or you're wondering about something, I would just want to say to you, get in bed tonight and just say to God, hey, would you just kind of make it really plain, really clear in a language that I understand?

Because he doesn't speak this foreign language, so you'll feel stupid.

He speaks a familiar language, so you'll feel loved.

That is the God of the Bible.

Couple more things though.

What shall we say to these things that God made me right with himself by the sacrifice of himself?

That God has a plan for my life from here to heaven.

Here's a second question: if God is for us, who can be against us?

If God is for us, this sounds like no big deal, but I just want to say this: that God is for you.

Not just Jesus, but God the Father is for you.

You say, why the big distinction?

Because many people believe that Jesus dies in order to convince God to love you.

That God really doesn't want to love you because you're such a screw up, but Jesus dies, and now God is somehow hamstrung.

He's just got to take you on the family plan.

No, Jesus doesn't die in order to convince God to love you.

Look at me.

Jesus dies because God loves you.

You can't separate God and Jesus.

It's the Trinity, the triumph of God, the three and one.

We like to do that.

Me know God in the Old Testament, He kills people.

Jesus, He heals people, hangs out with hookers.

I like Him.

They're the same.

They're the same.

God is for us.

It's not a rhetorical question.

It's not a question that's kind of hanging in the air based on our daily performance, where we go, well, I did good today, so God's for me.

But last Tuesday, well, I probably had one too many pours of wine, watched something on Netflix I shouldn't have.

And so on that day, God was not for me.

But I felt so guilty the next day I really determined myself to be good.

So on that day, God was for me.

God would never, ever in all of eternity base his affection and his momentum towards you on something as uncertain as our performance.

If God is for us, have you ever pondered what your life could be like if you believed that God was for us?

See, our problem, he says, if God be for us, who can be against us?

Our problem is that we know more about those who are against us than we do about those who are for us.

And this feeble knowledge that should be the ballast in the bottom of our ship, this feeble knowledge of this great God.

We get on Instagram and we get on Facebook and we get on all social media and Twitter and we go, oh, that's what they think about me.

And you don't have this weighty knowledge of this God that is for you.

It just kind of says, I don't care.

The Lord is my light, he's my salvation.

Of whom shall I fear?

Of whom shall I be afraid?

I didn't get invited to your party.

The last one I came to was lame.

I didn't miss anything.

We can't be tossed to and fro like we're being voted on every day.

Here's a third question the cross asks us how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

It's verse 32 of Romans 8.

How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

I can tell you where I was when I first heard that question, when I heard that question for the first time.

I'd read it, I'd probably tried to talk about it, uh, but but but I'd really never really uh heard it.

It never really landed on me.

And it struck me because I was at the Hilton Head Christian Academy retreat playing basketball with Stan Smith, the tennis player.

Any of you old people remember Stan Smith?

Some of your kids got his shoes because they're back in style now.

His son was there, and some other not good white people that I was just slaying on the basketball court.

And I said to them, Hey, can y'all do y'all play anything else?

Because this is not fun anymore.

I've like beat you guys six games in a row.

And they were like, You want to play disc golf?

That's not a sport.

Okay, why don't we just do cheerleading?

Yeah, some of them were there.

They walked over to dinner that night.

We heard you say cheerleading wasn't a sport.

Do you keep score and can you tackle people?

Okay, thank you.

That night I read in Romans 8, I was just reading.

And Smith's kid, Stan's kid was kind of like, Hey, what are you gonna talk about?

Uh and I kind of explained to him, I went back to my cabin, looked down, and I just said, I don't want to read what I'm talking about, I just want to read something for my soul.

And I read these words.

I'm sure I'd read them before, but I heard them for the first time.

Verse 32 He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

And that question wrecked me.

That was easily 20-something years ago.

I'm 56 now, I haven't recovered yet.

You say, Well, what what do you mean?

I I don't get it.

How ponder this.

How will he not also with him graciously?

That means freely give us all things.

It means Jesus didn't have to talk God into loving you.

You don't need this dichotomy, this difference in the way you think about God and Jesus.

If you believe Jesus is or that God is infinitely uh displeased with you because you're such a screw up, and then and then Jesus, we gotta hide behind Jesus to make ourselves acceptable.

No.

How will he not also with him?

How will he, God, not also with him, Jesus?

Freely give us all things.

What am I saying?

It doesn't matter what I say.

What the Bible's saying to us tonight is that the cross is an indication of God's posture towards your past, that he has paid the price for your sin.

When Jesus dies on the cross, he dies in your place and for your sin.

But, and that's what we talk about all the time, but because we don't want to run the risk of sounding like some late-night chicken breath prosperity preacher, of which there are hundreds of them, and you shouldn't listen to them.

The cross is an indication of God's posture towards your past, but it's also an indication of God's posture towards your future.

And that's what I'm gonna ask you to open yourself up and like, what do you mean?

That's verse 31 again, or excuse me, verse 32.

He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

The offering up of Jesus on the cross is an indication of God's posture towards you.

Are you willing to believe that this God loves you that much that he wouldn't just have a plan for dealing with your past, but he also has a plan for dealing with your future?

The fourth question I want us to think about tonight is simply this verse 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

Charge is accusation.

Somebody say it like that.

Who shall bring any accusation against God's elect?

God's people.

You may think, well, I can think of three people: the devil, you, and everybody you know.

That's just gonna bring a charge, an accusation.

Oh, I thought Christians are supposed to be forgiving.

I thought you, I thought you were a Christian, I thought you're supposed to be loving.

Are Christians supposed to do that?

Can you listen to that kind of music?

Who will bring any charge against God's elect?

I mean, the list is just three people that covers the entire world.

But I want you to listen carefully to this.

The thing about most accusations the devil brings against us is that they are true.

That was our what you talking about, Willis, moment right there.

Say, what?

Your kids are writing on the floor right now, and they stand up like Scooby-Doo.

Yeah, let me say it again.

The thing about most of the accusations that the devil brings against you and me is that they're true.

Listen to this part very carefully.

He's not trying to get you to fear a lie, he wants you to fear the truth about yourself as if God hasn't done something about it.

The devil doesn't want you and I to live in fear of a lie.

That's easy because we know it's a lie.

What he what he's definitely afraid of is that you and I, he wants you to live in fear of the truth.

You say, I don't know.

What you mean?

I got stopped a while back.

And I don't know how fast I was going, but I figured he stopped me for a reason.

So I pulled over and I re I didn't reach for my my insurance.

I waited because I didn't I don't want to get shot or anything.

I was like, hey, hands up, here we go.

And the guy comes up and he says, uh license of registration or insurance.

And I reached over.

I said, Yeah, I'm gonna reach.

He said, Yeah, you're good.

And he said, Any reason you're speeding today?

And I said, Nope.

I don't have a good reason.

Matter of fact, was I speedy?

He goes, Yeah.

He said, This is a 35.

You're doing 52.

So rolling up in my head.

I thought, uh, okay, great.

Uh he goes, any reason?

I said, nope, I'm the guiltiest person you'll stop today.

And he said, Excuse me.

I said, I'm the guiltiest person you'll stop today.

I don't have a leg to stand on.

I not only was I speeding, I wasn't even paying attention.

Is that an offense, too?

Because I need a ticket for that.

And the guy was just like, and he had my license and registration, and my window was most of the way down.

He tapped it and he said, wait right here.

And he just walked back, shaking his head.

I think he got on the thing and said, Could you send the psycho ward out here?

He comes back after a few minutes and he said, Hey man, just because you didn't try to talk your way out with some preposterous excuse, I'm gonna let you go with a verbal warning.

He said, I just nobody says that.

And I said, No, I say it.

I'm not gonna defend myself.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Because here's what I mean when I say that the that the enemy is not trying to get you to fear the lie, he wants you to fear the truth about yourself.

He's gonna come and accuse you.

The Bible says he accuses the brethren before God day and night.

Did you see that?

I mean, really?

That's one of your kids?

Did you see what he did?

What about her?

Hello?

That party?

Hello?

Hello?

That was just last Friday.

Are you kidding, God?

Why do I tell you that?

Because not only does Jesus know, but the Bible says right in verse 34 that he is interceding for you.

He is praying for you, for exactly that thing that the enemy wants to accuse you of.

So you don't have to live in fear.

I don't have to live in fear.

When the policeman comes up, says, Sir, you have any idea how fast you were going?

That's first question.

I said, Clearly too fast, or you wouldn't be here.

Any good reason you're speeding today?

Nope.

I am the guiltiest person that you will stop today.

Now, I'm not trying to be funny.

I'm look at me.

We're almost done.

You still with me?

Say amen.

Look at me.

I'm just trying to live in light of the truth.

I'm still a good person.

I'm still loved by God.

Even if I get a ticket, I'm not gonna lie.

Well, you know, uh, there was a burnt building on fire down there, and I'm racing to get there and pull this baby out of the building.

No, I just wasn't paying attention.

Is that a crime?

Because I'm guilty of that too.

Just like, and he came back and he and he said, I'm gonna give you a verbal warning, just for being honest.

And I said, Hey man, by the way, not everybody's out to get you.

I don't think you're a bad person just because you're a cop.

Hold your head up.

Okay, we're not gonna die of nonsense in this country.

Our next vaccination is gonna be for that, and he just kind of looked cockheaded at me and I said, By the way, I'm working on that in my garage, and I'm gonna be a gazillionaire because there's lots of nonsense.

And he's like, I know some people you could start with.

Absolutely.

Again, who shall bring any accusation against God's people?

Look at me.

There's nothing that anybody, the devil, you, or your greatest enemy.

There's nothing that they can accuse you of that Jesus hasn't died for, won't forgive you for, and pray for you over.

The last question is simply this Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

So he says in verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

And we shall tribulation or distress or persecution or 2020 and part of 2021 or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it's written, for your sake or being killed all day long, we're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No.

I love how the Bible just kind of puts that word in.

No.

No.

For I am sure.

This is where I want to get you to.

Look at me.

We're just about done.

I am sure.

Can you just get to this place of verse 38?

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

What I want you to understand on this Good Friday, this is what makes Good Friday great, is that the fundamental goal of all these who's, who shall this, who, who, who, it's not what.

It's a personal engagement.

There's not this cosmic force of badness out there called karma.

No, it's very personal.

The fundamental goal of all of this is to separate you and me from the love of Christ.

To somehow to get us to believe that Jesus, what that what Jesus accomplished on the cross doesn't apply to us.

And then you spend the rest of your life trying to earn what God says I give you for free.

And if you're one of those people that struggles with that, you're not alone.

The Bible's full of them.

This same guy, Paul, who who's writing to some Christians, this is in Rome.

In another book of the Bible, he's writing some people who live in a town called Ephesus.

In the book of Ephesians, he says this to them: he says, For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, hear this, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Just let your mind hover, just kind of just hover your mouse over that line, that little phrase, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

You're smart people.

How can you know something that surpasses knowledge?

What the Bible's saying is that somebody, one of your friends, can't just explain it to you and you agree with some information.

It's not that it's unknowable, it surpasses knowledge.

So, how do you know it?

You don't just hear it and agree with it.

Look at me.

You experience it.

So I have to ask you, have you ever experienced the love of God?

Has it ever found you and just unwound you?

So when that little emotional cop pulls you over and says, Yeah, if these people knew what you did last year, they would never let you come to this church.

And you could just say, you know what?

God knows that anybody that asks me, they could know.

I'm not bragging, but I'm not gonna live in shame or fear.

Matter of fact, Jesus is right over there interceding for me about that very thing.

So I'm not gonna live in fear of the truth.

The truth sets me free.

Thank you for bringing it up.

It's another reason for me to rejoice in the sufficiency and the glory of the cross.

We say this here a lot at Grand Parkway, but you gotta learn to gospel yourself.

You've got to take the gospel and apply it to yourself.

Not like a stick where you beat yourself because you're so mad at yourself.

But look at me, it's fixing to get real creepy.

You ready for it to get creepy?

Say amen.

Not with you weirdos, not like a stick, like oh, the gospel, but like a lotion.

You ever put on lotion?

You can't get it back.

I know you're thinking ain't no off position on the genius switch on that guy.

But most of you, look at me, and I'm done.

Most of you, the way you think about the good news of Christianity, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, risen, is it's a stick.

And you're just gonna beat yourself with it.

And some of you, you were beaten with it.

It was just crammed down your throat.

And I just want to say, on behalf of God, as his spokesman, I'm sorry.

It's not Christianity, it's lotion.

And once it gets applied to you, you never get it out, and you smell like it.

That's why the Bible says of believers that we're the fragrant aroma of Christ to those who are perishing.

We smell like what's been applied to us.

And and he's got plenty to apply to anybody in this room that's never experienced it.

Because this this this knowledge, it's you know this, that surpasses knowledge.

It's not a star test, it's not a pop quiz.

It's this invitation from a God who sacrificed his son to say, I'm not I'm not mad at you, I'm not looking down at you, going, You just wait.

I'm gonna catch you one day when Jesus is not watching, and I'm gonna get you.

No, he's the one that offered up his son.

How will he not?

How will he not?

Also, along with him, graciously give us all things.

Wrote in my journal that night after I spoke to those kids.

Great kids, funny, didn't know the gospel from anything, but great kids.

I just I just say, I think I'm gonna practice the received life.

Because Jesus is an indicator to me that you've done something about my past and that you're gonna do something about my future.

Who couldn't trust that?

Who couldn't trust a God that says, I can deal with the guilt of your past and the uncertainty of your future?

That's what's good about Good Friday.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the sufficiency of the cross.

Thank you that Jesus dies knowing everything we've ever done and will do, and he died anyway.

And so, Holy Spirit, I pray for anyone in this room that has guilt over their past or uncertainty over their future, that when they look at the cross, they go, you know what?

This is an indicator that God doesn't just have a plan for back there, but he's got a plan for up ahead.

And I'm not gonna live in guilt or fear.

Because this God that died for me is interceding.

That means he's praying for me.

He's the spirit is interceding with groanings and utterings that are too deep for words.

So whether I come to a life moment or a death moment, I'm not alone.

Lord, we look around, this world feels like we're alone.

Anxiety is going through the roof, depression's going through the roof, and we tend to wonder is anybody in charge?

Hello, is uh are you are we here by ourselves?

The Bible tells us no, the gospel says no.

He's here and he's at work.

It's the Holy Spirit brood over us while we think about that.