Easter at the Crossing

Well, good morning, welcome to Church of the Cross. Same. My

name is James, and I just want to say Happy Easter, and it

is so good to see you today and I'm excited. We have been working

through the last words of Christ on the Cross, and today we come to

the last phrase of the words that Christ uttered on the Cross. So let's

pray and let's prepare our hearts to receive from God today. Lord, we

call on you today. And Lord, now we just want to take every

distraction and just let it go, and now we want to receive from you.

We want to be challenged by you, and we want to hear from

You today. In the mighty mighty name of Jesus, we pray Amen.

In two thousand and five, I had two what I would consider big life

defining journeys begin in my life, two in the same year. The first

one was my daughter Caitlin. She was born that year. She's now eighteen,

and she is absolutely my most favorite person on this earth to have a

conversation with. She is brilliant and she laughs at everything I say, either

at me or with me. I don't care, but she is awesome.

And for those of you who have a children from eighteen years old, maybe

up to sixty. You do realize that we're still their parents, right,

We're still parenting them. Somehow, in two thousand and five, no one

in my circle chared to share that with me, and so yeah, I

was very, very surprised at that life sentence. I mean at the rewarding

experience that lasts until you breathe your last breath. So that was one big

defining moment. The second big defining moment was I started my grad degree.

Now, at that time, this grad degree was the I designed to be

ninety six to about one hundred and ten course hours, and so for those

who really buckled down, worked hard, concentrated, focused, they can get

the degree done in three to four years. And I'm happy to say that

I completed the degree in eleven years. Some would say that's sad. I

would say that I soaked that degree up for all that was worth. Now,

that journey, unlike the journey with my daughter, that journey had a

finish line. And let me tell you, after eleven long years, I

can honestly say that was one of the most satisfying days of my life to

say that it is finished, The work is done, and it felt great.

And I know that it's custom after you have the ceremony could take off

your cap and gown, but I didn't care. I wore my cap and

gown for a couple hours. I still remember downtown, being in downtown Pittsburgh

and the CVA clerk looking at me like are you okay? And I'm like,

I don't care. I just graduated and I'm so happy right now,

and yeah I look like a goofball. But man, I relish that moment.

Why because I had worked so hard to finish a three year degree in

eleven years. But it was finish, it was done, it was completed.

Today we're gonna look at our savior Jesus as he crosses the finish line,

as he finishes his work, complete the task that he was sent on

this earth to accomplish. But instead of him receiving a diploma, they put

a sign up above his head that mocked him, saying King of the Jews.

Instead of him having a graduation outfit, what do they do? They

took his clothes from him and they gambled them away. Instead of him receiving

cars of congratulations, he experienced shouts. People were calling for his death and

instead of a party with a close group of friends friends, he was abandoned

and alone at the cross. He didn't receive any pats on the back from

well wishers. Instead he received lashes on his back from the cat of nine

tails, and there was no toast to his future. Instead, he was

given wine vinegar to drink. Jesus he finished his work that he came to

Earth to do, and while he was giving us his best, he received

back the worst from those he came to save. And today we're going to

see that. Let me throw this out to you today, our first quote

that as humanity was doing us very worst to Jesus, Jesus was at its

very best. And today, as we look at the finished work of Christ,

a question to every single one of you in this room today, to

every single one of you, here's the question for you today. Are you

allowing the work of Christ to be finished in you? Are you allowing the

work of Christ to be finishing you? So let's go ahead and let's look

again at the famous last words of Christ. Now, as we headed to

this week's phrase, we're gonna focus on this one part of the story where

the context of it is it comes to us within a prophecy that was given

over a thousand years before this moment. So let's look at this at John

chapter nineteen, Verse twenty eight says later and talking about Jesus is already on

the cross, knowing that everything had been finished, and so that scripture would

be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. Now think about this.

A thousand years before this moment, it was prophesied. It was prophesied that

on the cross he would be offered wine vinegar while the messiah was suffering.

Verse twenty nine, it says a jar of wine vinegar was there, so

they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the

hissip plant, and lifted it to Jesus's lips. When he had received the

drink, Jesus said, now here's the words that we're going to focus on

this week. And Jesus said, it is finished. It is finished,

it is finished. And as Jesus said those words, with that, he

bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. Now, when we look

at this word or this phrase, it is finished. It actually comes from

one Greek word to tell us side, and it's one of those Greek words

is power packed. It's one of those words that has multiple meanings and it's

used in multiple situations. It's the power packed Greek work. In this word

to tell us die, it could be translated the end, some's come to

an end, or something is finished, something is complete, something has been

accomplished, or to discharge a debt. It could mean that the debt has

been paid in full. And so the Bible shows us Jesus now knowing that

all that he had it came to this earth to do, was finished.

It was complete. He shouted out to tell us sty, it is finished.

It is complete now. During Jesus' time, they actually use this word

a lot and just in their common everyday language. Often this word was used

whenever a servant was given a task by their master, and so when the

servant came back from a long day of work, the servant would look at

his masters and say, to tell us sty, in other words, the

work that you gave me to do today, it's completed. It's finished.

Often a merchant would put a stamp on a piece of paper that says,

this debt has been paid in full, to tell us sty, you don't

owe anymore. The priest would use this word whenever they were checking out a

lamb, and they would look it all over sacrifice, and they would see

that the lamb was perfect for his sacrifice, and so they would say,

to tell us, why this is worthy, this is perfect, this is

complete, a perfect lamb for sacrifice. So here's Jesus on the cross.

His work is done. He looks out to the world and he says,

to tell us side, it is finished. And let me tell you what

was finished. The perfect work of Jesus Christ was finished. The servant Jesus

looked to his father and says, the work that you sent me here to

do, it has been accomplished. The debt that was owed on behalf of

mankind's sin, it has been paid in full, to tell us sy And

then he looked at his father and said, hey, I kept myself sinless,

so therefore I was the lamb without blemish, and I have shed my

blood to tell us syh, it has been completed. But also, don't

you remember at this beginning of our scripture here, why did Jesus say I

am thirsty? It was to fulfill the last prophecy. So not only did

Jesus complete the work of Christ that he was sent to do. But Jesus

also fulfilled all the prophecies that would point to him being the true Messiah.

Now, let's talk about those prophecies just for a moment. First of all,

for thousands of years, prophecies were given about the one who completes and

fulfills these prophecies. That person is the Messiah. By the way, it

would be nearly impossible for anyone to fulfill all these prophecies, let alone just

a few. Matter of fact, you would have to have the divine hand

of God helping you just to fulfill a few of these prophecies. Jesus fulfilled,

and listen to this, over three hundred prophecies during his ministry. Now,

let's just look at just eight of them. Okay, let's just look

at eight of them all right. First of all, one prophecy was that

he would come from the tribe of Judah, and he did. Another prophecy

was that he would be a descendant of King David. Another one said that

he would live in Egypt, and we know that whenever heard was chasing us

down, his family went to Egypt. Another one says that he would be

born in Bethlehem, and because of a sense the situation, he did have

to go back to Bethlehem to be born. He'd be born of a virgin,

said that he would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and then

on the cross none of his bones would be broken that was fulfilled. Said

that his hands and feet would be pierced. In his book Science Speaks,

Peter Stoner applies to modern science of probability to just fulfilling eight eight of the

three hundred Messianic prophecies and said, he said, the chances of anyone fulfilling

just eight of these would be one and ten to the seventeenth. I gonna

throw that number up. Are in other words, one and one hundred quadrillian?

Do you even know what one hundred quadrillion is? I was certain that

it was one in ten to the sixteenth, but I was wrong. I

was shocked this week to find it was in the seventeenth. So I was

like, oh jeez, to understand that amount. The author said that it

would be like taking silver dollars all over the state, laying them all over

the state of Texas, putting them two foot high, marking one with an

X, blindfolding a man and sending him off for as long as he desired

to travel all around Texas, and at a certain moment they would pick up

that coin. And just the odds a someone fulfilling eight of the three hundred

prophecies would be the same odds one in one hundred quadrillion of someone picking up

that one silver coin marked with X. And yet what do we see here?

We see that Jesus fulfilled three hundred prophecies concerning them aside. And here's

what it did. It proved to the world that he was more than just

a carpenter, and he was God in flesh. And here's what we see

God bring through Jesus, I fulfilling these prophecies. Let's look at this last

prophecy here says so this would be now fulfilled. Jesus spoke again and he

said, I am thirsty. When he had received the drink, Jesus said,

it is finished. Now, here's what I want you to understand that

whenever we look over at Matthew or Mark at the parallel passages, it actually

says that Jesus just say to tell us diy. It says that Jesus shouted

to tell us diy. It was a shout of victory. It was a

shout of trial. It was a proclamation that the work had been done,

and the work of redemption that his father has sent him to do have been

accomplished. Sin had been atoned for, Satan had been defeated, every requirement

of God's righteous law had been satisfied, God's holy wrath had been at peace,

and every prophecy fulfilled. To tell us, diy, it is finished.

That's what Christ was shouting from the cross. Jesus did everything that his

father said him to do, and then he gave up his spirit and his

body died, and God then fulfilled his promise. Three days later he resurrected

Christ. And we see that Jesus overcame death, and he overcame the enemy.

The tomb was empty, and the Lord was victorious. And now we

see in the Bible here that Christ finished his work, and all of us

who have been separated from God because of sin can now come into a relationship

with Christ. All right, that's our passes today we're walking through that.

We look at that and we see that the work of Christ was finished,

complete, perfect, And now I want a transition. Christ fulfilled the work

and the business that he was called to. He completed his work. And

now those of us who are followers of Christ, he turns to us.

And now those of us who have been following Christ, now he turns to

us and say, now, will you complete the work that God has begun

in you? And here's what I want to say today to all of us.

We all have unfinished business. I have unfinished business. You have unfinished

business. All of us have been called by God to do a work of

God, to do a work that brings honor and glory to God through His

Kingdom and Jesus. Again, he can say with confidence, my work is

done. But I want to ask you a very personal and profoundly important question

today. Let's look at the screen. Are you allowing Christ to complete the

work he has called you to do in your life? Are you allowing this

to happen? And to be honest again, I still got work to do.

You still got work to do. And let me tell you, in

fact, if you have a breath left in your body, you have unfinished

business. I won't say that again. If you have breath left in your

body, you have unfinished businesses. So that's our key thought today. We're

gonna be looking to rest of time at unfinished business. Now, if you're

alive, here's what God says when he's talking about his followers. Here's what

he says. And Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven says, for I know the

plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and

not to harm you, plans to give you a hope in a future.

See. God has plans and purposes for every single one of you, every

single one of you, even before you were born, when you were being

k it together and your mother's God said, this is my child, this

is my son, this is my daughter. I have plans for them.

And he calls us, and for years he's called us and called us to

come into a relationship with him. And for those of us who came into

a relationship with him, he says, all right, now that you belonged

to me wholeheartedly, I have a work for you. Will you walk with

me? Will you let me lead you? Will you let me guide you?

And will you stay focused? It's gonna be a long journey, But

will you finish the business that I have called you to do? Maybe some

of you in this room God maybe called you to a specific ministry. You've

ignored the calling. Maybe God's been calling you to step up into leadership,

but your insecurities have kept your back. Maybe God has calling you to serve

again, but for some reason or another, you keep ignoring that call.

And you have unfinished business with goding and God is eager and excited to partner

with you on this adventure. Here's a question. Do you trust him?

Do you trust God to lead you, to guide you? Will you follow

his lead? Now? Even though and I'll say this with just I'll say

this about as blunn as I can say this. Okay, no one here

should be shocked here as blun as I can say this. Yes, God

has called every single one of us to complete the work in our life that

He is designed for us. But you and I have a choice, and

we can stop that work of God. Let's look at this passage right here,

and I want to just throw this out to you right now, this

thought before we jump to this passage, many of God's children they leave this

earth. We're saved by grace, yet with some unfinished business. And again,

for some reason, some people, some followers of Christ, at a

certain point they settle and I want you to know today that the choices here.

As a matter of fact, we see Christ come to the same moment

where he had been on a journey, but at a certain point he had

to decide will he finish the business that he was called to. Let's look

at this, says as he began to be sorrowful, and he began to

be sorrowful in trouble, was talking about the night he was betrayed, and

he went off of his disciples to pray, and says then he said to

them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Other

scriptures say that he was so anxiety filled that he was actually sweating drops of

blood. And scientists say that that is just where you get to the point

where you can be no more stressed out. And it says, going a

little farther, he felt his face to the ground, and he prayed,

my father, if it is possible, may this cut be taken from me?

But then, what did our Savior do at this defining moment here he

is He's in this moment in the garden where he realizes that in order to

complete the work that God has called him to do, that he is going

to have to suffer. But then, what does our Christ say? He

says, yet, not as I will, but as you will. He

proclaimed. It's not about me, it's not my will, but it is

your will. May your will be done through me and see it. Just

as Christ had to make that decision along in his journey, so many of

us who have been following Christ for years, we get to these spots where

we just settle, where we get comfortable, where we come in and it's

just another Easter, it's just another Christmas, it's just another VBS, it's

just another event, and we settle in and this just becomes a part of

our lifestyle, and we get settled and we don't move forward. And God

has said, hey, I have great plans for you. I have a

calling for every single one of you, as long as you have breath in

your lungs, I am not finished with you. And a question again today

is are you allowing him to complete that working Two common ways that we leave

business unfinished. Number one, we procrastinate. Sometimes we put things off spiritually

okay, and sometimes we just put everyday things off in life. My childhood

best friend he took a pastor it up in Wisconsin, a couple of years

ago, and so I let him borrow my bass boat because the whole area

is famous for fishing. Matter of fact, the town that he moved to

was named after a lake. Well last summer, he got himself a boat.

So I was really excited to go back and grab my bass boat.

And so I talked to him and I said, all right, here's what

I'm gonna do. I'm gonna come up and hunt, but the biggest goal

is to get my boat back. And I was on the back of his

farm, and so we get up there and every single night we would talk

about our plans for the next day. We're gonna wake up early, we're

gonna go hunt, and then we're gonna come back and we're gonna go back

to the back of the farm and we're gonna grab that boat. And then

after that we'll eat some lunch and then we'll go back out and hunt.

And then we wake up in the morning and we would say, all right,

after we hunt today, we're gonna go to the back of the farm

and we're going to get that boat. And then every single day we would

go out and hunt, and then after our morning hunt. Now, if

you were just to look at both of us, you could tell that both

of us are destined someday to play Santa Claus. And so we would go

hunting in the morning, and somehow someway we would find any place that was

serving business and gravy, and we would go there just to minister to people,

love on people, encourage people in Christ. And then we would go

back and take a nap, and then we would go hunting, and then

that night we would say, now, remember tomorrow. We did this nine

days in a row. It was almost a routine, almost to the point

where we were laughing, like, all right, now, don't forget,

we got to do this tomorrow. So it finally got to Saturday, and

we're leaving Sunday morning, and so we go to his church on that Saturday

night day of Saturday night church services, and we said, all right,

we're gonna get it after service. As we were walking out from Saturday night

church. In northern Wiscon, unbeknownst to me, they can sometimes have snowstorms

and all of a sudden, we're in our church clothes at the back of

the farm in a big snowstorm and we're trying to get the boat out.

But the boat is stuck. See the front jack of the boat on the

trailer is stuck in the mud. And we're doing everything. We're pushing,

we're pulling, we're trying to get it out. And I said to my

friend, I said, listen, don't worry. I have great experience at

pulling things out of the mud. And so I remember that a year before,

a year before, I was in Missouri and I got our youth pastor's

dad side by side, stuck in a tree stump on a snowy morning.

So I went out and I bought one hundred dollars worth of chains, and

I pulled it out. And I was so proud of it that I couldn't

wait to come back and look at the picture. You might remember I use

it as a sermon illustration. I was so proud of myself. I couldn't

believe I actually did something on my own. And so I was so proud

of myself. So I look at my best friend and I said, listen,

I got one hundred dollars worth of chains and experience, and I'm gonna

take care of this. And he looked at me and said, you're going

to break that jack. I said, no, I won't have experience.

You're gonna break it. No I won't. I know what I'm doing.

Then I showed him that picture. I said, I know what I'm doing,

buddy, And we went back and forth. I said, you're gonna

break it. No I'm not. Yes you will, No you won't,

Yes you will. We went on and I pulled it, got it all

up and put the chains on, and then also boom, took it out,

and the boat followed me. The jack didn't. So guess what.

Guess where my boat is right now on the back of a farm in Wisconsin.

And now it's bass season and I have no bass boat. My dreams

of going on Geist and watching the solar eclipse have been eclipsed. I have

unfinished business. I have a boat. See here's the thing. I procrastinated

for so long that my small problem turned into a big problem, and now

it's gonna cost me a lot of money and a lot of time to correct

this. See the illustration proves appoint many of us. We have unfinished business.

God has called you. You know what God is calling you to do

in your life. You know the next steps that God has called you to

do. The ways you can serve him ways you can be led by Him,

and it's not just ministry. By the way, some of you have

sins and right now there may be small and you're not dealing with them,

and God says, hey, we have some unfinished business to do with the

sin in your life. It might might be a big deal right now.

But that porn that you're watching every once in a while, eventually that's gonna

be an addiction. That unforgiveness that you have right now is eventually gonna turn

to bitterness and hatred. That unreconciled relationship you have right now is gonna turn

into a division. It's gonna divide your family. That materialism that you're chasing

right now is eventually gonna turn into huge debt. See, we all have

this unfinished business in our life. And maybe some of it is spiritual,

and maybe some of it's just life, and maybe some of it is just

Hey, God is calling you to that next step. Commit too procrastinating.

Secondly, another way that we get in our own way when it comes to

finishing the business that God has called us to is we allow sin to creep

in Again. God has wonderful plans for every single one of us. And

look at me today. I know that as I struggled with this message all

week and I was praying for you, I know that a lot of times

on Easter we like to have a message where you know, we just go

straight to text and then the whole rest of the time it's just encouraged and

courage and courage and courage and courage. But I could not ignore that he

finished his work and that there's a handoff to us. And as your pastor,

you know that I love you and I want God's best for your life.

But oftentime, oftentimes God's blood best your life requires some hard conversations.

So sometimes we allow sin to creep into our lives. As a matter of

fact, God has called every single one of us, and he called us

to great works. Let's look at Ephesians two ten and says, for we

are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared

in advance for us to do. So, you and I we were created

to do good works. But guess what we could do any day? We

could just decide to stop the good works in our life. We could put

it into it by allowing sin to creep into our life, and I've watched

his first hand, my first boss in ministry. You know what, he

was really a good mentor in many ways. He taught me about systems and

ministry, taught me about how to organize ministries. I really admired the father

that he was, the husband that he was, and I really wanted to

be a lot like him. But then we started to notice that with one

of our volunteers, they started to get a little too close, and I

thought, oh, you know, don't read anything to it. Don't be

judgmental, James. And then a couple months later we noticed that when she

would go into his office that he would cover up the window into his office

sold no one else can see. And I would say, yeah, you

know what, maybe it's a private conversation. And then we would see them

always together, and some people would make little comments and I'd be like,

no, no, no, we can't be judgmental. And then one morning,

our senior pastor came and pulled the youth staff out of a Bible study

and he shared with us that the day before, one of our students from

our student ministry walked in in the room, and there he witnessed our youth

pastor and this young lady in a compromising position. They were fired. We

were devastated, The church was devastated, his family was devastated, his kids

were devastated, and the work of God that he had been called to in

his life was destroyed. See. God has dreams for every single one of

us. Yet the goal of sin is to steal, kill, and destroy

the plans that God has for your life. So are you allowing sin to

grow in your life? Are you not dealing with a particular sin right now?

And my friend, there will be consequences if you don't stop it now.

We as your brothers and sisters of Christ here we might not be aware

of the sin that's going on in your life. But let me tell you

something Jesus knows. Matter of fact, he says to the Church and Revelation.

He says this, I know your deeds. You have a reputation of

being alive, but you are dead. In other words, you look pretty

good from the outside, but on the inside there's some sin eating your life

alive. Now, I wonder how many of us when we walk into church,

we look pretty good on the outside. We know what to say,

we know how to say it. We know how to worship, We know

how to listen during a sermon, We know how to hang out in our

small group, We know how to get a reputation. But Jesus says,

I know what's going on on the inside. I know your relationship with God

is flat, that there's no real intimacy, that you're not spending time in

the presence of Christ, and you're allowing sin in your life. You have

a reputation for being alive, but you're really dead. See when we allow

sin to creep in our lives, and the dreams of God will be abandoned.

See let me throw out this next quote. Some of us need to

take care of our sinful unfinished business so that we can get to the kingdom

building business we're called to. Now. I want to pivot again today,

and I'm want to talk to all of us. Maybe that last couple of

things I talked about doesn't apply to you, but I want to talk to

you about completing the task in your life. Maybe you don't have a sinful

problem. Let me look at Paul real quick. Paul says this. He

says, however, I consider my life or nothing to me. My only

aim is that I finished the race and complete the task. The Lord Jesus

has given me the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.

Now, if anyone at a certain point, now Paul's a little bit older

here, and if anyone at a certain point could have said, you know,

I've done enough. I planted twenty churches, I wrote like thirteen New

Testament books. I meant toward many young Christians. Now, if anyone could

say I've done enough, it was Paul. But what did Paul say?

I'm not done yet. And some of us, like Paul, we follow

Christ for a really long time. Yet you still have unfinished work. Maybe

you've served in the past, you've taught classes, you've attended church every week

in the past, but there's still unfinished business for you. Do let me

tell you something about our church, And if you're a guest here today,

I want you to hear this as well. Our church churches across and we

have a vision to become the hands and feet of Christ. Just last week

we helped feed over a couple hundred people. We helped over thirty people if

legal, and we have a vision for so many more. As we look

at our church and we look at our community. We want to be the

hands and feet of Christ to our community, everyone in our feeding. If

you have an issue, if you have a problem, if you have a

need, we want to be the church that meets that need. Now here's

the thing. In order to do that, some of you are going to

have to step up and say, I'll do that. And I got dreams

of a celebrate recovery someday, I got dreams of widow's ministry, I got

dreams of a ministry where we change oil for free for young mothers. And

there's just so many things that we can do to be the hands and feet

of Christ in our community. But it's going to take our body saying I

have unfinished business and I'm willing to step up and do what it takes.

That's their thing about our church, that we are a people of grit,

that we will do what it takes. And our church goal is not to

become a bigger church, but our church goal is to become a better church.

In other words, we want to grow in our relationship with Christ.

We want to be closer to Christ today than we were yesterday. But in

order to do that, we have to commit to the unfinished work being done

in our life. So here's what I want to do. We're going to

take a moment of discernment. Now, either grab out your phone or please

grab out there's some cards in front of you, a Connect card, grab

out a pen, and here's what we're going to do for the next few

moments. We're just going to discern. In other words, it's not going

to be a sermon when I say you got to finish business, now get

out of here. No, No, We're going to take some time.

Because here's the thing I know about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is

more than happy to either convict maybe today it's a sin that's been creeping in

your life that needs to stop. The Holy Spirit is moren happy to say,

here's the next step I need you to take in the Kingdom. So

here's what I want you to do. We're gonna and I would encourage you

to. I want everyone to grab out this piece of paper. I want

everyone to grab out their phone. And here's what I know that if you

don't write it down, you're never gonna do it. I just know that.

So let's all together, let's just take a moment of discernment, and

I want you to write down and ask God this question. God, is

there some unfinished business in my life? Is there something that He's been calling

you to. Maybe it's just starting. Maybe it's just taking that next step

into a small group. Maybe it's taking that next step to serve. Maybe

it's finally taking that step to get into counseling and resolve some of these issues.

Maybe it's a sin. Here's what we're gonna do for the next few

moments. And if you're like me, and when people are writing next to

me and I have these moments, I write in code. I'm weird like

that, feel free to write in code. But let's just take some time.

I want everyone in this room right now and ask God, what is

the unfinished business you have for me? Right now? And let us just

respond m h. Now, staying in this moment here, This next thing

that I'm going to ask you to do is actually the make it or break

it, because if you don't write down this next step, you're probably not

going to do it. And so what I'm asking you right now is out

of what Christ just spoke to you about. What is your first step?

What is your first step? What's the next thing you need to do?

Take a moment process out with the Lord. He will lead you, he

will guide you. What is the next step for you? As we close

today, I want to share a little story with you. It's a true

story. It happened in nineteen sixty eight in Mexico City at the Olympics.

And there was a runner named John Stephen Aquari and he was from Tantania and

he was racing in this huge race and about midway through it, he tripped.

He fell down, he dislocated his knee. He got injured. It

was really bad. Stretcher had to take him away and the race was over.

Some guy from Ethiopia won the race. And now let's getting dark.

Only a third of the people are left in the stadium. And who do

we see enter back into the stadium, bandaged up, hobbling. We see

him, the man who dislocated his knee. And you watch this journey or

he's hobbling, and he continues on until he finishes the race. Afterwards,

a reporter came to him, and the reporter said, you had every excuse

in this world. Why on earth did you come back after the race was

done and complete the race? And here's what he said to them. He

said, I quote, my race was not finished. My country did not

send me five thousand miles to start a race, but my country sent me

five thousand miles to finish a race. And for those of you who are

following Christ today, I want to say this. Christ did not begin and

work in you. Yeah, it's gonna be rough, you're gonna have some

injuries, you're gonna have some tough days. But He did not begin a

work in you just so you could compete in a race. But He called

every single one of us to finish the race. Now, for those of

you today who are not a maybe you're not a follower of Christ, you've

heard us today proclaim that He is the Savior, He is the King,

he is the Messiah. He completed everything. He took upon our sins on

the cross in rows. Three days later. I want to give you an

opportunity today to begin your race, to start your walk with Christ. Let

us all bow our heads right now. If you're here today and you would

like to begin your relationship with Christ, I just want to give you an

opportunity right now to pray this prayer with me. Jesus. I come to

you today and I want to ask you to forgive me of my sins.

I want you to become the Lord of my life, my savior and Jesus,

I believe that you died on the cross. I believe that you have

filled over three hundred prophecies. I believe that you are the son of God.

And I believe that you died and you resurrected three days later. And

now I'm asking you to become my lord. If everyone's eyes closed and head

about you, just raise your hand. If you prayed that prayer with me,

just now, amen, I see those hands in the other hands.

Amen. Amen. If you could write that down on the communicator card,

just simply let us know that you made a commitment to Christ today. But

we're going to continue to worship today, We're going to continue to exalt the

Lord. We're going to continue to praise and because everything we have is because

of Jesus, and today we can sing with joy, we can sing with

confidence because of the resurrected Christ.