His Burial

It's a good day to be in the house of the Lord. If you're joining

us on live stream, thank you for joining us. It is Spirit break

week and, some people decide to go out of town. So I hope that they

are on a on live stream today. And

next week is resurrection Sunday and that is and and

guys we should be excited about that. But do you know that he didn't just

resurrect on March 31st? It's every day we get to

celebrate that Jesus is alive. Are you glad Jesus is alive

today? Before I get in too deep into where I

wanna go, today, let me make a few announcements leading up to this week. This

week is Holy week. And so, as a part of Holy Week, we have some

things happening here at Springhouse that we want you to be aware of. First of

all, on Thursday night, we'll be closing out the series lessons from the table

that pastor Jonathan, Jesus has been leading.

And, man, just a wonderful word each Thursday. If you haven't had an

opportunity, go back and look at that online. And, it's

rich and you'll learn a lot, and you don't have to have come to the

last ones to come this Thursday and be a part of it. It's Maundy Thursday.

It would be a great thing to do during Holy Week to come and worship

with us from 6 to 7 on Thursday. And then, again, on Good

Friday, we're going to be meeting from 6 to 7 and having a worship

service, that evening in this room from 6 to 7, we'll also be doing

communion together, on Good Friday. So we want you to be a part of that

as well. And then of course, Easter Sunday, Jesus is

alive, we're gonna celebrate. As I mentioned last

week, I do have a favor to ask. If you are not serving in

any capacity next Sunday and your and your schedule

allows, if you could come to the early gathering, they will be

repeat gatherings. You won't miss anything. That will just make some

more room in this gathering for those new people who will be coming that

week. We find, typically throughout history, we have

more people show up on Easter Sunday and this service tends to get kind of

packed out. So if you're able to come to the early gathering, I would appreciate

the following week we're gonna have something special happening here at Spring House. We're gonna

have the Lee University Singers are gonna lead us in worship and that's gonna be

followed by an outdoor picnic, okay? So the reason why we're putting our

picnic there is because we want an opportunity to

get to know the people who come on Easter Sunday and the week after.

So next week, if you if the people you bring enjoy the service,

enjoy the gathering, and you want to invite them back, let them know there's gonna

be a picnic the next week and we will feed them. People like food, that's

what I learned. People like food, so we will feed them. We want them to

come and be a part of that. The thought I don't have a slide for

this, but the following week, Jonathan Evans is gonna be with us and that's gonna

be a real, real rich, Sunday, as well. So God

has saved the very best for Amen. Right now. And,

and I'm so grateful for the word that the Lord has given me,

today. We are in the middle of a mini series within a series. And,

we've been talking about His word at the beginning of the, of the year. We

are in His life, and then, in a few weeks, we're gonna be opening up

His church for the remainder, of the year. And within the His

life, portion of our series, we're doing this mini series because it is

Easter. And last week pastor Justin did a phenomenal job of unpackaging

It is the truth. Jesus went through the torture on the cross

for us and we need to hear that and be reminded of that.

Man, sometimes we can skip right over those portions of scripture that we don't want

to feel, but sometimes we need to feel the whole

truth, to to better lean in and to understand.

And then this week we're gonna talk about his burial. Next week we're gonna talk

of course about, his resurrection. And so, we're God to stand today

and read from John theater 19. If you'll stand with me. And we're

going to start reading. Here we go.

Now it was the day of prayer and the next day was to be

a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not

want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath,

they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies

taken down. The soldiers therefore came and

broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with

Jesus and then those of the other. But when they

came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they

did not break his legs. Instead, one of the

shoulders pierced Jesus side with a Spirit,

bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man

who saw it has given testimony and his testimony

is true. He knows that he tells the truth and he

testifies so that you also may believe.

These things happen so that the scripture would be fulfilled.

Not one of his bones will be broken and as another

scripture says, they will look on the one they have

pierced. Later, Joseph of Arimathea

asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph

was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because

he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate's permission,

he came and took the body away. He was

accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had

visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a

mixture of myrrh aloes and about £75.

Taking Jesus body, the 2 of them wrapped it with the

spices in strips of linen. This was an accordance

with the Jew burial customs. At the place

where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden and in

the garden, a new tomb in which no one who'd ever

been laid because it was the Jewish day of preparation

and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus

there. Father, I thank you for your word and that it brings life.

My prayer today is that the dark things would be exposed

and that light would penetrate darkness and that

redemption would draw near. I love you today in Jesus

name. Amen. You may be seated.

We're talking, this week about,

about his burial. In the middle of looking at his

death and his resurrection is his is his burial. Does anybody

like a good game of hide and seek? Anybody? When was the

last time you played hide and seek? In fact, I'm gonna count and if you

guys would go hide. No. I love a good game of

hide and seek. In fact, I like playing hide hide and seek right now. When

my kids try to look for me, I'm hiding every time, but they always seem

to find me. But I love I love playing

hide and seek. In fact, a few years ago, I remember I was at the

school and, the teens at the school enjoy a good lock in.

They love staying up all night and they love being at the school during the

lock in. And, and one of the things that they like to do during

the lock in is play hide and seek. And so what I what I

did because hide and seek is no fun in the light, so I went and

cut all the power off to the building and we played hide and seek.

And I'm a really good hider. And so I went and I found

a great hiding space. I went into the library of the school and

I laid, I laid horizontally on the top of

one of the bookshelves. And, and I just laid there and

it was 20, 25, 30 minutes that they

were searching and looking for me all over the school. And what was so

fun was when they would circle the bookcase looking for me

and I would literally be laying there on top and they had no idea. And

I would hear them, they would say, Maybe he's down on this end of the

hall, or maybe he's in a locker, or maybe he's in the restroom, or maybe

you know, and they could not find me. And I was content to lay there

all night long. I had no there was no rush for me to

get out of a hiding spot. I would have let them just continue to look

and look and look, but something happened, that caused

my hiding place to be discovered. The

bookcase crashed down onto the floor. So here

I go a tumbling down on all of the books with a loud cry

and all of the teens knew where I was whenever I

screamed out loud from falling, on the on the on the bookcase.

But man, I pride myself on being a really good hider during hide and

seek. But something that I'm not so very proud of is that I'm good at

hiding my sin.

If I'm really honest, I am really really good at hiding

the things that really need light in my life.

And I wonder if anybody could join me in that sentiment.

That we become really really good at

hiding. Paul writes a letter to the Corinthians

and he wants to be sure that they understand the very

basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's in 1 Corinthians

15 he says this, Now brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the

gospel I pray to you church you have received, and on which you have

taken your stand. By this gospel, you are saved. If you

hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise, you have believed

in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you

as a first importance. And this is the gospel,

that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,

that he was buried, and that he was raised on the

3rd pray according to the scriptures. So

the gospel literally translates into good news, and the

good news is that Jesus Christ died according to the

scriptures. He was buried and he was raised again

3 days later. That is the crux of the gospel. But

we spend a lot of time, especially around this time of year, we spend

a lot of time focusing on His death, which we should, and we

spend a lot of time next week focusing on His resurrection,

which we should, but there's this middle section that is

included in the picture

encapsulation of the gospel. His death, his burial, and

his resurrection. Well, the reason that the burial is a

very important part of the 3 piece

encapsulation of the gospel, the reason that's important is because we need to

understand that Jesus Christ was emphatically dead.

If he was not dead, he would have not been able to raise from the

dead. He was emphatically

dead. He did not faint. He did not fall asleep.

There was a Gnostic movement that believed that Jesus wouldn't even have a

body. He was just a he was just a figure or a spirit. No,

Jesus had a body and Jesus died,

completely died on the cross. And he died at

the moment when he uttered those words, it is

finished. Three powerful words. Of course, he

did not say it is finished. He, he said he did not say it in

English, but that was the translation. It is finished,

meaning it is done. Now, did it is finished mean

that the work of Jesus Christ was just done and

we just move forward in time? No, it is finished

meant that Jesus commission from his father had

come to completion, but the redemption of mankind was just

beginning. The redemption of mankind was just

beginning. The Roman crucifixion, as

Justin pointed out last week, was one of the or

the most grueling, shameful

ways to die. Painful, horrific

ways to die. The Romans wanted to ensure that

there was complete and utter suffering when it came to the

cross. And suffer, Jesus did. And

so what the Romans would do after they had

crucified the people is they would leave the bodies

on the crosses for days, perhaps sometimes weeks.

And sometimes because of the way Justin was talking about how the

feet were nailed in the hands and they would have to pull up for breath

and then allow themselves to go down until they suffocated to

death. Some of this would sometimes this will last for a few days

because they were able to pull themselves up, but theatre Romans would allow the

bodies to stay on the cross for a long period of time.

And oftentimes they were crucified up on a hill so that all the

people who would look up on those people who had died would know you better

not cross the Roman law or this could become your fate.

And so these bodies would just decay. They would be if they were

when they were taken off the cross, they were just thrown into the trash heap.

They weren't given dignity. They were not given a dignified burial or

any type of graveside service. These bodies were as

if they were trash. Crows would nibble at

them. Dogs would, they were nasty. They

smelled. These bodies were left there for a very long

time, except for this occasion. Why? Because of

this occasion. Well, this was a very special

time period that Jesus was crucified. This was the day

before the Sabbath. The Sabbath was about to happen, but not just any Sabbath.

This was the Passover. And those who

crucified Jesus wanted to get home to their families to

enjoy supper, to enjoy their time of Sabbath without having to know

that these crosses with these individuals were were on were on

on on the crosses decaying there. What's more, their

law told them that they had to take the bodies down. This

is what it says in Deuteronomy. If someone has committed a crime worthy of death

and is executed and hung on a tree, the body must not remain

hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the

body the same day for anyone who is hung is cursed in the

sight of God. And so they were ordered by their law, by their

custom to take these bodies down before the Sabbath and get them

buried. And so what did they do?

Well, the Jewish leaders went to Pilate and they said,

hey Pilate, according to our customs, we need to have

these bodies taken down and they need to be buried. So could you please

God? Would you please go and break the legs of the people on

the crosses so that their death could be quick and we could

remove the bodies from the cross? You see, when you break the

legs, that means that any chance of them lifting up and getting prayer,

it's taken away from them. And so in a way,

breaking the legs was actually an act of mercy because

death happened a lot quicker. Well, it

was customary in Roman and Roman times that there would be 4

Roman soldiers assigned to the cross,

assigned to do the work and they sent the 4 Roman shoulders up and they

see the person who is hung to the left of Jesus and

they beat the legs of the person to the left and break his

legs. He dies. They go to the person on the right of

Jesus and they take their club and they beat the legs and

they break the legs of the person to the right and he dies.

But as they gaze upon Jesus, they notice that

Jesus has already died. And

instead of breaking his legs, the Roman soldier

takes a spear and thrust it into Jesus side.

And the word tells us that when that thrust happened, out of

the wound, out of the Holy came both blood and

water. That's significant. That's significant.

Hold on to that thought for just a second. Over in Numbers, Exodus and Psalm

34, we are told that none of Jesus' bones would be

broken. None of Jesus' bones were

broken. They didn't break his legs. Why didn't they break their

theatre, his legs? He had, they had every right to do it. That was the

order that they were given, but they didn't break

his legs. Morticians

would look at, morticians would look at the flow

of water and the flow of blood and they would see these two

ingredients together. I believe that the theater would be called,

pericardial fluid. I'm probably saying that wrong.

But the fluid that would be mixed in with the blood, they would look at

this, morticians would look at this and they would pray, they would determine that the

reason or the cause of death would be because of heart failure, because

of something surrounding the heart, the pressure on the

heart. So it could be believed that Jesus died because of some

type of heart failure. Now morticians would actually call

this broken heart syndrome. If you've ever been notice

anybody that's been married for a very very very long time and they have a

spouse that goes on and they die and you see them start to

just completely lose everything within and then they die right after,

broken heart syndrome is actually a real thing. And it

means that there's lots of pressure put on actually on the

interior artery of the of the heart Pressure is put there and it just

caves in and you can imagine the amount of stress,

emotional, spiritual, physical that

Jesus was enduring. And so if this is

correct, if Jesus died of heart failure,

it could be said that Jesus died because of a broken

heart. Jesus died

on this cross.

In fact, in Psalm 22 and later in John

19, he records the story. Jesus dies

and He didn't die in dignity or honor

because they were casting lots for His very clothing. I

mentioned earlier, there were 4 Roman soldiers. Well, there were 5 pieces of

garments on a on a Jewish person. There was the inner tunic, the

outer tunic, a belt, a hat, or a covering rather, and

shoes. So there would not be an even distribution between the

Roman soldiers of any of the garb that Jesus would have worn.

And so they cast lots and they didn't wanna shred the garment.

So they cast lots for it just as the prophecy

foretold. Why am I laboring on these points? I want

you to understand that Jesus never leaves

anything undone. Jesus never leaves

anything undone. Everything that he said was going to

happen,

You can trust, you can believe that the word of God is

true. It is accurate. It is sound and it will be

done according to his will.

And so here is Jesus hanging on the

cross, the Jewish leaders need to get these bodies completely

dead, get them off the cross. Everyone that rolls with

Jesus, all of his friends, all of his comrades, the people

who broke bread with him, the people who are surrounding him,

all of them leave and flee Jesus and they go

into hiding. Have you ever

felt a sense of abandonment in your worst moment?

Jesus abandoned by the ones he spent

the most time with. There is a quote

that goes like this. A friend is someone who comes in when the

whole world goes out. Jesus

had some friends show up that were not over

followers of him, not pronounced followers

of him. The scripture tells us that a guy named Joseph of

Arimathea and a guy named Nicodemus, which we read about in John

3, come and they decide that

they want to take the body of Jesus off the cross to give

him a proper burial.

Now, I want you to understand that both Joseph and Nicodemus

were a part of the Sanhedrin, which meant that they were a part of the

Jewish council. They both were a part of the group that

was saying, crucify him, though we don't know that they

actually agreed with the verdict of crucify

him. Yet while Jesus was alive, both of these

men were in the shadows hiding.

But after his death in an act

of courage, an act of boldness, and I

believe in an act of belief.

Joseph goes before Pilate risking

everything. This rich man, Joseph, who we learn about, goes before

Pilate and he says, may I please take this body

down so that I may bury him with

dignity. And Pilate shocked that Jesus has already

died, says, Absolutely, yes, you

may. This fulfills the scripture in Isaiah that says that he was assigned

a grave with the wicked, but he was to be buried among the rich.

The scriptures continue to unfold and be

done as it is said. Guys, that is something to be excited

about. It's exciting to know that we can

count on what he says he's gonna do, that he will do it, he will

complete it to the end of the age.

And so Joseph and Nicodemus, they

take this body off of the cross. Now, I want you to understand

that this is not a pretty thing. I don't believe Listen, Nicodemus and

Joseph probably had lots of servants. They would have had a lot of people that

would work for them. I believe that these 2 guys took Jesus

off the cross. And I imagine because of

Jewish custom, they had to prepare the

body for burial. And they had to do it in haste,

because Sabbath was coming. So here's the thing. They take

the body off of the cross. And can you just imagine

that they had to take every defiled part of the body pray? So

can you imagine the thorns that were still stuck in his head,

That they had to pluck out those thorns, any of the thistles that are

in there. That they had to take rags and cloths and wash

the wounds that were caused by the cat of 9 tails.

That they were washing the body to prepare for the burial. And I can

only imagine Nicodemus sitting there and reliving

his encounter with the Holy of Holies, with the Lord of

Lords, who said, you must be born again. Well, how

do you be born again? How can someone go back into the mother's flesh

and come out? And and Jesus says, no, you don't get it. Flesh gives birth

to flesh. Spirit gives birth to spirit.

This Nicodemus and Joseph who witnessed the miracles,

the teaching. I can only imagine as they have this

body and they're preparing it for its its burial, that they're reliving

and recounting these things and thinking to themselves, surely this

was the son of God. Surely

he is who he said he was.

Mind you, he had not resurrected yet.

I think Nicodemus and Joseph give a bad pray get a bad rap because they

were in hiding. But I want you to know they came out of hiding and

they made a choice. They made a choice and you have

the opportunity and the ability to come out of hiding today and make a

choice. No matter what the choices were in the past, you can make new

choices for the future and God will give you the strength to make those

choices. So we need to understand

that Jesus was emphatically dead.

He was dead. Anybody that would go up to Nicodemus and

Joseph and say, oh, I bet he's just fainted. I bet he's alive. I bet

they punch him right in the nose.

Because they were dealing with the body of

Jesus. £75

of Spirit, of aloe, of

myrrh. It was usually about £10,

£75 for Jesus

to wrap him up in strips of linen

And to take Jesus

to the grave, to take him to the rich man's

tomb. The word tells us in Hebrews 2, but we do see

that Jesus who was made lower than the angels for a little while now crowned

with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of

God, he might taste death for everyone that he might taste death

for you and me. Jesus Christ

separated from God in the midst of

darkness, taking on the weight in the sin of the world,

tasted death so that you don't have to. So

that I don't have to. Jesus Christ experienced

hell so that you don't have to, so that I

don't have to. So

why is it then that we are okay

with frequent visits to hell on earth?

Because we gravitate to our sin and our worldly flesh

desires when Jesus has life abundant

available for us.

Nicodemus and Joseph came out of hiding.

And I believe that the truth that they had to own was it is

not too late. And I want you

to understand this morning church, that no matter what

decisions you have made, no matter what choices you have made, it

is not too late for you to be redeemed and

restored to savior Jesus Christ.

It is not too late for you to experience life in

its fullest form. Here's what the

word says in John, everyone who sins is a slave

to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but

a son belongs to it forever.

So the sun set you free, you will be free

indeed. What does sin do? Sin separates

us from the father. Do you recognize also though, I've learned

sin doesn't just separate us from the father, sin also separates us from

one another. When we're dealing with

sin and we're hiding and we're in shame, there is a wall that

begins to build between one another. And you know what's hard about that

is God's most chosen instrument when He's revealing His glory and His grace is

to use people. And when we're building walls between each other, we're building walls

within, sin is separated and sin is the culprit.

And so we become shackled to our sin yet

We have a promise that we've been set free.

So if it's supposed to be dead, if the sin

is supposed to be dead, and if it's true that Jesus

has set us free, why then church

do so many of us bury our sin

alive? Do you know that you're not

supposed to bury things that are alive?

Burial is reserved for dead things.

But so many of us can get up. We have the propensity to get up

on Sunday morning and say, well, I gotta go to church, So I'm just gonna

bury that thing for a few hours knowing good and well, I'm gonna come right

back to it on Sunday night.

I'm about to go hang out with that group of people and I certainly

don't want them to know what it is I'm doing. So I'm gonna

go and bury him and dig a just a shallow enough Holy to bury this

sin for a moment, knowing good and full well I'm coming right

back to it when the moment presents itself.

Somebody said it this pray. We want to

defeat our demons, but we can't defeat our demons when we are

still enjoying their company.

But I like my sin. Or

maybe I don't like my sin, but I don't know how to get rid of

my sin. I don't know how to release it.

And so I'm just content being in hiding and I wonder

why I do not feel an experience the goodness and the

glory of God in my life. The extraordinary promises are not

unfolding in front of me. The extravagant love of God,

muck and nasty and in the muck and mire and there you are as the

prodigal son who has run from God and all he's doing is saying,

come home. Come

home. Are you hiding

this morning? Are

you hiding this morning? The invitation

this morning is to come out of hiding

into a place of light so that you can experience this

God in a way that you have never experienced him before.

And what ends up stopping us from making that

step, from taking that step, most of the time what stops

us is fear. What am I afraid of? I'm afraid

of what Barbie's gonna think of me if I'm exposed.

I'm afraid of what TJ is God say if I'm around him and hanging out

and all of a sudden he sees the evidence of my

sin. I'm so scared of

what they might think about me, but guys,

raise your hand if you need a savior in this place. Would you just raise

your hand? Would you look around this room? Every single one of

us need a savior. Every single one of us need this

God to do a mighty work in our lives. And the lie of the

enemy, the tactic of fear that he places in your life is that you

are the only one and you are alone.

But that is a lie from the accuser of the brethren. That is a lie

from the devil. That is a lie from the father of lies. You are not

alone. In fact, not only are you not alone, you have been set

free. You have been set free. And so

when it comes to fear, the antidote to fear, we

talked about this, is is love. Listen to this. This is how we know

that we live in Him and He in us. He has given us His Spirit.

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be

the savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,

God lives in them and they in God and so we know and rely

on the love God has for us. Listen to this, God is

love. God is love. Whoever lives in

love, lives in God and God in them. This is how love

is made complete among us so that we will have the confidence on the

day of judgment. In this world, listen to this, we are like

Jesus. We are like Jesus. There

is no fear in love, but perfect love

drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who

fears is not made perfect in love. Listen to me, when

you obedience the true love of Christ,

that sin becomes far, far, far less desirable.

That sin becomes so so less desirable in your

life because you are loved by

the one who breathes stars. The one who knows

your name. The one who puts you on this

planet. The one who knows the prayer, numbers

of hairs on your head. The one who sees the hurt and the

brokenness and the pain that you have endured. He's the

one who endured the cross and was buried

dead, but came back to life. So

that you would have the power in your life to overcome any

obstacle in any sin. Today is

Palm Sunday. Historically, we celebrate the

story in the scripture where Jesus rides in triumphal

triumphantly as the King. But here

is the crux of this, of this, of this story. This is this is

the problem. Jesus Christ was indeed

their king, but it was only from a positional

standpoint. It wasn't from a life changing

standpoint. We have access to a king that wants to change our life, wants to

change our heart. He didn't

come to give you just a wonderful life. He came to change

your life and for the better.

They wanted a king to liberate them from the Roman

oppression and law. That was the reason why they were crying out to this

king. But they didn't really want a King to liberate them

from their own wickedness and their own sin.

Because true freedom comes when we are liberated

from ourselves and reconciled to him.

So the cry of Hosanna, do you know what Hosanna actually means? This is

crazy. This is crazy. The people are crying

out, Hosanna, glory to God in the highest,

Hosanna. Well, Hosanna literally

means literally translated, deliver me, save

me. In other words, Hosanna is a cry for help and they

didn't even know they needed to help. Help

God in the highest. Help

God. Glory, glory God, the King

of kings, the King of the Jews but not just the Jews now, the King

of everybody. Holy, Hosanna. And I

wonder if there's somebody under the sound of my voice that needs to cry out

for help. Because the minute you cry out

for help, he draws near to you. The word tells us if you draw near

to God, what's gonna happen? He's gonna draw near to you. And there's no

caveat there, clean up your mess and then draw near to me. Get your life

straight then draw near to me. I don't cry out

for help when I don't need help. I cry out for help when

I'm in danger. When I need help, there's a

story that I've shared before of my daughter Lucia.

Sherry and I were getting in obedience night and I have a tradition of going

around and kissing all of the girls. And I went into

Hadassah's room, and I went to Ruby and Nora, and give them a

kiss. I see that Lucia is not in her bed. I'm like, what's going

on? Well, maybe she's in the restroom.

Stairs to get a drink. So I rode downstairs and I don't see her downstairs,

downstairs to get a drink. So I rode downstairs and I don't see her downstairs.

It's like 11:12 that night, and I run downstairs, I don't see her down there,

and there's the back doors cracked open.

You want to talk about a father's heart?

I Spirit to panic. And so I go to the back

door and I go outside and say, Lucy, Lucia,

Lucia, where are you? She's not answering.

Nobody's answering. So I start to fly through the house and of course I go

to the front door and I opened the front door and I go out to

the front porch. Lucy, Lucia. By this

time, Sherry's getting worried and she's like, what's going on? And I come inside, I

can't find Lucia. She's not upstairs, not downstairs, the back door is open. And as

I started to make my way up the stairs to go and grab my shoes,

I hear a noise and

it's coming from the front bathroom. I'm like, well, I passed the

bathroom, but maybe she's in there. So I quickly go in there and open the

door and I don't see anything. And so I turn around and and I hear

something else and I stopped and I get real still.

And I slowly turn around and I go into the bathroom.

And when I go down to the bathroom, I go to the vanity

and I get down on my knees and I open the

door, and there's Lucia

with chocolate all over her face.

Sin leaves residue.

I want you to know at that moment, as a dad,

it didn't matter what Lucy had done. It didn't

matter that she had chocolate on her face, that she had gotten out of bed,

that she had gotten into the candy jar. What had mattered was I

couldn't find Lucia and now she had been found.

And I want you to know that it doesn't matter how much chocolate you

got on your face, doesn't matter what you've done, Jesus is sufficient for all of

it. Can I say that again? Actually is sufficient for all of it. Can I

say that again? Jesus's blood is actually

sufficient for all of it. The totality of

it. And if you will accept

and believe that his blood washes you white as white

as snow, then you have access and you can come

into God's presence and you can benefit as

a son and a daughter of God Most High.

Do you wanna stay in the vanity or do you wanna come

out and be liberated this morning?

3 weeks ago, I really messed up.

I really really messed up and I got caught. Sherry found

me and I got caught.

And Sherry had every right to be angry with

me. She had every right to to for us to be

talking for weeks about it, for her to to just be on my

case, all of this stuff, I really messed up. But you know what Sherry did

in the middle of my mess? She grabbed my face,

looked me eyeball to eyeball, and said, Kevin, you could do

nothing that would separate the love that I have for you.

I want you to know that that is the grace of your

savior. There is nothing that you can do, no mess up that's

so big that He will not meet you where

you are. And so God, this week,

I have been so praying for today, because we are going into

Holy week. We are about to celebrate Easter. Guys, what if

Easter 2024 was a celebration without

the shackles? What if 2024

Easter was a celebration where we actually

access the power of the gospel? Where we actually

access theatre this God of the universe. And when we came in

here and we jumped and we shouted and we sang praise, it was

because we're free. And we are sons and daughters of the most

high God. What if this year was different people?

All it takes is a choice to come out of hiding

into his glorious light. This week, I have been praying for you. I

have so been praying for you. And there were 3 specific areas that

the Lord gave me that he wants to liberate people from this morning.

The first area is to a 2 a 2 pronged thing.

The first area that the Lord wants to set people free from is pride and

pornography. Pride says,

I can do it myself. I don't need your help.

Situation going on in my home or my family with my life. I don't want

to call anybody. I don't want to let anybody know because I can take care

of it myself. I don't want to bother people. I don't want to invite people

in. And so it causes you, whether

it's inch by inch, small by small things, it causes you to hide.

Pride says, I don't need you.

Pornography. I don't have to go into an explanation. Pornography has a grip on

somebody in this house, maybe more than 1 person, but pornography has a grip.

And you have been struggling and struggling and struggling and you don't know how to

get free and you feel like like shame every single time.

And God says there's freedom today. The second thing

is this, some of you have confessed

your sin to somebody. You've

gotten liberated, but you buried that thing alive and it's

come back. And so now what you're dealing with

is, I already put that to death, but

it's reared its ugly head and I can't face the shame of going back to

that person or going back to those people and saying, I'm dealing with

this again and again

and again, and the 8th time, and the 20th

time. And so instead of confessing it

again, you have just gone right back into hiding.

And so now the issue isn't the sin of what you're doing, it's deceit.

And God says, don't believe the lie.

Come out of hiding. Go back to that person, go back to

them and say, listen, I am so flawed and messed up. I

I I did it again and I want to be set free. I want to

be right. I don't want there to be anything dark inside me.

And the third thing, if you are a leader at Spirit House or

in a workplace, if you are a leader, you would consider yourself a leader either

here or in a workplace, would you stand?

I am a leader of people in any facet.

Probably the hardest word I received this

week was the Lord wanted me to say,

you are not exempt from this word. You

are not exempt from this word. In

fact, leaders hide the most.

And the ultimate courageous act of humility a leader

can make, is to abandon their ego and position and

fall flat at the feet of Jesus and say, I need the savior

like everybody else. And the invitation

is for you. The invitation is also for you.

Jesus sees you. And it does not

lessen your importance or value in what you do by you

committing to him. And by you, surrendering

whatever it is that you're holding on to, to him.

And so the invitation is to you as well. And so if

you are a part of any of those three things, or you're just

in hiding, today is the day

of salvation. Today is the day to get

things right so that you can walk out of this place into

this world knowing, I'm free.

I'm free. This is what Romans 8 says,

Therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus. No condemnation.

Guys, everyone in here needs a savior.

And so if you come this morning, it's about you and Him, and

Him liberating you. And you know that every single

person on the side of my voice at one time or the other needed to

do that and will need to do it again and

again and again. And aren't you glad we have a

God who is the God of the again and again

and again. And so this morning, I want to

invite you to come to the altars

and be liberated and set free,

so that we can go into Holy Week with a celebration like

none other, unshackled, unashamedly,

wonderful, extraordinary God who loves us. Would you stand with

me this morning? And if you're gonna come

this morning, you come on down right now. Don't hesitate.

Is it me? Do I need to come? Yes, you need to come. Am I

included in this? Yes, you're included in this. God, are you wanting

me to clean this up? Yes. Come. Come.

Come to the altar.

And I want to say that it is impossible

for you to do this alone. And so

if you are not one of the ones coming this morning, would you come behind

these and would you agree with them? Come on down

here guys. Come on down. There's plenty of room right here in the altar.

There is freedom happening in the house this morning, friends.

And it is the most awesome thing when light meets darkness

and he clears things out. Get ready for a move of God like

you have never witnessed before.

God in all of his glory wants you. He

sees you. Let's worship and let's clean up what's

going on in our hearts.