A Great House - Week 8 (Resurrection Sunday 2025)

We're gonna be in Luke Chapter twenty four. Luke, chapter

twenty four. We're gonna conclude our series today the Great House,

and I want to talk to you today about the

Empty House. Luke, chapter twenty four, starting in verse one.

If you're there, Samen, one person, I'll give you just

another second. Now, if you're there, Samen. If you're not,

oh my, if you don't intend to, just say go ahead,

all right, follow along now. On the first day of

the week, very early in the morning, they and certain

other women with them came to the tomb bringing the spices,

which they had prepared before I finished. Let me catch

us up to where we start reading right here. So basically,

this story begins to unfold as Jesus enters Jerusalem, during

what we call the triumphal entry. He comes in, people

are waving palm branches. They're shouting Hosanna jose hose Adam,

which means God save us, and they're celebrating Jesus.

And then we get a few days later.

And the tides or the sentiment begins to turn. There

have been schemes against Jesus to paint him to be

this in this this criminal, this seditious person who's trying

to bring strife and envy into the into the kingdom,

and they have been whipped into a frenzy. And he's

now gone, and he has had a meal with his

most trusted ministry partners, his closest friends. He goes into

the garden to pray, to pray that the cup that

was about to come would pass. But he submits his

will to the Father, and his one of those twelve

that was numbered as a as a ministry associate, a

close friend, comes to the garden with a legion, and

he betrays Jesus with a kiss. He kisses him on

the cheek and Jesus is seized and they take him away,

and he stands before Pilot, and he has tried and

he has found guilty of nothing. But because of the

political listen to me, because of the political pressure of

the day, Jesus was turned over to be crucified anyway.

It was a sign of indifference from Pilot, and he

was turned over to a crowd, to a mob, and

they were screaming. The same people that were screaming Hosanna

and praising him one Sunday earlier now are screaming crucify him,

crucify him. The crowd's asked, Hey, as tradition goes, we're

gonna give you. We're gonna hand over one person. We're

gonna set one person free. We're going to wipe away

their sins. And they cry for a murderer. They cry

for a person who had caused trouble and broke the

law his entire life, and they call the name Barrabbas.

And Jesus spares Barrabbas life right there that day by

offering his own. And Jesus is beaten beyond human recognition.

Crown of thorns thrust on his head, and he was

bleeding from every possible area on his body. And he

shouldered the old rugged cross, the very instrument of his death,

and he walked through those dusty streets of Jerusalem, up

the incline towards Calvary, and seeing the city in the distance,

surrendered his life with that word, it is finished. He

breathed his lass, and he died, and he was taken

from that old rugged cross, and he was placed in

a borrowed tomb. Three days later, that rock began to

shake a little sound from inside the darkness, that damp,

dark dungeon called Death, and something began to happen. And

as that rock began to roll away, and the soldiers

fell as dead men, Jesus came out and he defeated Death, Hell,

and the grave once.

And for all. It was beaten. Now we pick up

where I just caught you up to.

Now, on the first day of the week, very early

in the morning, they and certain other women with them

came to the tomb, bringing the spices.

Which they had prepared.

But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

Then they went in and did not find the body

of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were

greatly perplexed about this, that behold two men stood by.

Them in shining garments.

Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to

the earth, they said to them, why do you seek

the living among the dead?

He's not here, but he has risen. Amen.

Let's pray, Father, We thank you for your it's the

only change agent on the face of the planet. And

I pray that today there'd be a revolution of life

that sweeps through this place. Father, that we are shaped

and molded into your image, that people would come to

know you for the very first time, that you would

transform our lives in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now, these women came to worship and honor Jesus. They

thought he was dead. They show up at the tomb,

they start looking for him.

They can't find him.

To angels show up and they say, hey, why are

you looking?

Why are you looking for the living among the dead?

In other words, why did you come to an empty

house looking for life? Why did you come to a

house that's been vacated looking for life? You know, when

I was when I was in college, I came home

from college one day. Mama knew was gonna be but

I gotta tell this story anyway. But so I came

home from college and I roll into my home that

I had lived in for years and years.

And I walked into the house.

And when I walk into the house, the first thing

I noticed is I entered the kitchen.

The refrigerator's gone. It's just gone.

There's no refrigerator in the house. And I started looking around.

There's no dishes in the house. I turned the corner

into the living room. All the furniture's gone. Everything is

gone out of the house. And I'm thinking, what in

the world I look in mom's bedroom. All her furniture's gone.

I walked back. Everything in the house is gone except

for my bed. And I guess I should have been,

you know, gracious that my bed was still there.

I don't know, but my bed was still there.

And there was a note that said, hey, we moved.

We'll come get you tomorrow. I didn't know where they

moved to. I didn't know the address, I didn't know anything.

So I just did what any normal person was, laid

down and went to sleep. But I remember the feeling

of that empty house. It just didn't feel like home anymore.

There was just something about the emptiness that did not

feel good or feel settled, something disconcerting, something that just

put me a little bit off. Now, I will say

that they did show up the next day to pick

me up, and they did have a room for me

at the new house, but that empty house left an

imprint on me, the hollowness and the lifelessness of it.

And as I look back, I think that must have

been what it felt like when they entered that tomb

where they thought they would encounter the one who had

done the miracles. They thought they would find the one

who had shared those words of wisdom, who had preached

the Kingdom of heaven, who had brought them through so

many hard times, who had brought provision into their lives,

that in those moments, they were looking for the one

that they had seen do all of these remarkable things,

and all they find is this empty house, this empty

house where things used to be, That everything they remembered

and everything they lived for and pointed their lives.

Towards, was now gone.

And I think that so many times we come to things,

those things that we used to find value in, those

things that used to bring us peace, those things that

used to bring us hope, those things that used to

fill in the blank, and those things don't quite satisfy

the way they used to. Those things are like an

empty house, because what makes the house empty is not

an absence of furniture, but an absence of life. It's

an absence of any vitality, any vigor, anything that brings

an ex depression of who we are and who the

Lord is. If those things are not there, then it's

an empty house, and there's nothing there for us. But

time and time again, we spend our time chasing those

things that are empty. We spend our time chasing those

things that may have one time brought us fulfillment. They

may have one time cut the edge off just a

little bit, but it just takes a little bit more

now than.

It used to it.

It's not just it doesn't feel like it used to feel.

I don't get the same joy that I used to

when I go to or when I see we find

ourselves standing at the door of empty homes, empty houses.

Knocking.

In Matthew chapter seven, verse seven, it says, ask and

it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone

who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to

him who knocks.

It will be opened.

I wonder if the door you're knocking on, if you're

getting an answer, If the thing you're looking for are

you finding it? Are you asking questions from those empty houses,

asking questions from those things that you try to find

earthly and worldly fulfillment in. Are you knocking on those doors?

Are you trying to find those things but you're not

getting an answer. You used to find wisdom, you used

to find that comfort, but now it's just not there

like it used to be there. You're knocking on the

door many times, pounding on the door of empty lifeless devices,

trying to find fulfillment, trying to find a little comfort,

trying to find a little direction, but it's just not

there anymore. By a show of hands, on this Resurrection Sunday,

how many of you feel like there's got to be

more to life than there is right now that they're

just things like this season of wondering, this season of searching,

and we continue to go back to the same doors

and continue to knock on the doors of empty houses

trying to get an answer. But there is no life

on the other side of that door. As a matter

of fact, the life that used to be at that door,

you gave it life. You were standing on both sides

of the door, and you're absolutely exhausted from trying to

help yourself and pick yourself up and give yourself guid us.

But I want you to know that when you knock

on the door of the Great House, the house that

Jesus built, the house that Jesus when he.

Left the tomb he filled.

Here's the greatest thing in the world is that because

he left that tomb empty, your home can be full.

That because he left the tomb empty, your heart can

be full. That he left the tomb empty so your

family could be full.

That he left the.

Toomb empty so your health be restored. He left the

tomb empty so that all of those things can happen

in your life. And he says, when you come to

the Great House and you knock on the door and

you ask, there will be an answer. When you knock,

it will be opened. When you seek, you will find

what you're looking for. When you seek purpose in the

Great House, you find purpose. And purpose brings life and

life more abundantly. In Romans, chapter ten, verse eleven, it says,

for the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not

be put to shame, for there is no distinction between

jew and Greek. For the same Lord overall is rich

to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on

the name of the Lord shall be saved. You know,

I always like to make sure I'm really reading what

I'm reading. So I did some research, and I look

that word up in the original language, that word shall.

I looked it up in the original Greek. And you

know what shall means. Shall means exactly what it says.

It means that when you call upon the name of

the Lord, you will be saved. That when you cry

out to him, when you walk to the door of

the Great House and you cry out the name of Jesus,

he opens the door.

And he comes out to meet you.

And when he comes out to meet you, he doesn't

come with any preconceived idea. He doesn't come to find

somebody that looks different than you, that's acted different than you,

that's been in different places than you.

He comes out to meet you right where you are.

I think so many times we come, especially to an

Easter service where everybody listen, I don't ever I bought

a new shirt for Easter. Come on, somebody, and this

is my Easter wardrobe. I mean you know, I mean

I spent like nineteen dollars on this at Academy Sports.

I mean, it's like East. You know, it's Easter. Everybody's

got to have a new dress.

Everybody's got to have new shoes, everybody's got to have,

you know, some new I makeup.

I don't know what y'all wear.

But anyway, somebody got to have And we come and

we're like, oh, it must be what it looks like

on the outside.

But I want you to know that a new shirt,

a new dress, new I.

Makeup doesn't make the emptiness on.

The inside go away.

And for so long we've walked into services like this

and we act like everything is okay on the outside,

and we look around and everybody else looks a certain way,

and everybody acts a certain way.

I want to assure you.

Of something that probably at least sixty percent of the

people that you saw lifting their hands during worship have

learned when to do that. Y'all are looking at me like,

oh no, this is Easter. You're not supposed to do

this on Easter. It's learned behavior. We've learned that during

this part of the song when everything kind of ramps

up just a little bit and that seems like it's

getting a little louder and the drums go just a

little bit harder, that I mean, we know that we're Pentecostals,

We've been to Pentecostal school, and we know when to

do that. You don't want to say that when that

basically we learn those things. We learn those things, and

we do those things out of rote memory. It's not

because everything is okay. And of the other forty percent

probably twenty percent of the forty percent are doing it

out of absolute desperation because if God doesn't show up.

Then I'm not gonna make it till tonight.

And I may look good on the outside, but on

the inside I'm broken and I'm hurt.

And then there's twenty percent that are living right in

the medium. They're right in the.

Middle, and everything's okay, and everything's good, and I'm in

love with Jesus. So Jesus, thank you, and we come.

And we've been looking for answers. We've been going to

those empty houses. We've been trying to find peace and

we can't find it. We've been trying to find fulfillment

and we can't find it. We've been going from job

to job to job, looking for provision, looking for purpose,

and we can't find it.

Because those are the doors of empty houses. But all

who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But we come, and instead of crying out to God,

we think that we've got to come and make everything

right before we come to him.

We think that we got to get our off together right.

How many people got stuff? Gotta get your stuff together

before you come to Jesus.

I want you to know Jesus knelt down right in

the middle.

Of my stuff when he came to save me, that

he didn't expect me to get rid of any of it.

It was stinky and it was.

Smelly, and he knelt down right in the middle of

my stuff and he put his arms around me, and

he said, it's going to be okay.

Trust me.

And in room three oh one of Wellands Hall, I

literally verifiably met Jesus at Emmanual College, not in church,

not in revival, not in vacation Bible school, but in

my dorm room with somebody that prayed a prayer that

may have not even been that theological, but they just

cried out to God on my behalf. And I stopped

beating on the door of empty houses, and I was

welcomed into the gate of the Great House, the Kingdom

of God, where he said you were once a nod

of people, and now you're My people, a holy nation chosen,

a holy priesthood. That there was a transformation the moment

I walked into that door. Pastor Clay, you guys can

come and get ready. In Revelation chapter three, verse twenty,

Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

I want you to just imagine this imagery that Jesus

has built this great house, this place of peace and provision,

of kindness and purpose and power and healing, where there's

no anxiety, there's no stress, there's no worry. That we

choose those things, but those things don't exist in the

Great House.

And we walk out to the door.

And we look at this great door, this door that

was built for us. And as we stand there on

the outside, the visitor to the Great House, something begins

to happen that defies logic, because Jesus always defies logic.

Everything in the Kingdom is upside down. You find yourself

at the door of this great house, and from the inside,

the owner, the builder of the Great House, begins to

knock on the door.

From inside. There's a knock, and it's perplexing.

At first, you don't understand why the person on the

other side of the door is knocking, because it just

doesn't make sense, Jeremy, for somebody to knock from the

inside as I'm standing on the porch wondering if I'm

even welcome, but the inside he's knocking, and we keep

looking and we're confused, but he keeps knocking faster and harder,

until the only logical thing for us to do is

to reach down and grab the doorknob and see what happens.

And I want you to know that you're not here

by accident today.

How broken, how hurt, how.

Shameful, it doesn't matter, None of those things matter. You're

not here by accident. God ordained for that invitation to

be given and for you to be here today. And

he's standing at the door and he's knocking. He's knocking,

and he's inviting you into the Great House, out of

that place of coldness where you don't fit, where you

don't belong, where there's only hurt and there's only pain,

and there's only misperception and all of those things that

you go through. And Jesus is knocking. Behold, I stand

at the door at naw and knock. If anyone hears

my voice and opens the door, I'll come to him

and dine with him.

And he with me.

Jesus is standing at the door and he's knocking.

He's waiting for you to reach down and turn the door.

Knob, and the moment you do, he'll walk out of

that great house. That he constructed, and he'll walk into

your house and he'll sit down, and he'll provide dinner,

and he will fellowship with you, and he will eat

with you, and he will bring peace to you, and

everything will be okay because Jesus has entered the house

with you, and you'll dwell with him forever and ever

and ever and ever.

I hear it. I woke up this morning and I

could hear it. I hit the snooze button and I

can hear it. I can hear Jesus knocking at your door.

All of the gift bags and the.

Photo opportunities and.

The parking and the hospitality and nursery and the band

and the preachy in everything, it's so he could knock

and you could hear. Those things don't exist, so they

can exist.

They exist so that.

We can hear the knock from the door, and you

can be invited out of that empty house that you've

tried and into the Great House where He dwells. If

you're here today and you don't know Jesus as your savior,

you've never asked him to forgive.

You of your sins to be the lord of your life.

But today you want to do that today you want

to trust him. Starts very simply. Every head bowed, every

eye closed, all over the room.

If you're hearing you say, Pastor, I hear the knock.

I've tried it on my own and it's empty, and

it's hollow and lonely, and I need Jesus. If that's you,

slip your hand up and say that's me, Pastor. I

want to give my life to Jesus today.

Just put your hand up and put it right back down. Amen.

He's knocking.

Will you answer? Believe there's three or four more people.

Just slip your hand up and put it right back down.

Amen.

Now the final thing, Pastor, I've been to the Great House,

but I've walked away from it. I'm not where I

need to be with Jesus anymore. I've allowed sin and

indifference to come between me and him. But I hear

him knocking one more time, and I want to come in.

I hear him knocking, and I want to be part

of that great House. I want to come back to it.

If that's you today, slip up your hand and say

that's me, Pastor. I want to come back to him today.

I want to come back to him.

Amen.

Amen, all hands down, all eyes open, all heads looking around. Everybody,

stand to your feet all over the room.

We're gonna pray a prayer together. Listen. Right back here.

When we dismiss, we're gonna receive communion before we miss.

But right back here in this back corner, if you

raised your hand and said, hey, I want to trust

Jesus as my savior. I want to come back to Jesus,

We're gonna have some of our alter team members standing

right back here in this back corner. Go to them, Kathy,

lift up your lanyard so they know what you look for,

a lanyard just like that. Back here in this back corner.

They're gonna pray for you. They're gonna help you answer

that knock. All you have to do is go right

back there and find one of them, and they're going.

But before that, Father, I just ask right now, for

every friend that's here, old or new, for those who

have purposed their heart to answer the door, pray that

you forgive every sin, that by your blood you wash

away every sin. Meet them right at their point of need. Father,

we surrender our lives to you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen, We're gonna worship together, the ushers are gonna come

and serve communion to you. Don't don't try not to

move around the whole lot, because it's gonna get confusing

if you move. If you need to catch an airplane,

you can go. I mean, I mean, you know, if

you got something like that. Otherwise, if you're just gonna

be running a few minutes late for Ham, then just

hang out and receive communion with us.

But I Glenn, if you guys will.

Go ahead and start serving, they're gonna come as we

worship together.

Past Clay