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Walk through the blood

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  1. Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.

  2. You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.

  3. We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the

  4. cross. Now let's join the service.

  5. Have you Bibles going to be Matthew chapter 27 and got a

    Matthew 27 chapter mention

  6. message. I got this message back in

  7. September. Man, I've looked at it four

  8. times going to preach it and I guess tonight's a night.

  9. Amen. It just keeps reoccurring.

  10. It's very familiar passages of Scripture, but it's some very

  11. important stuff in it and appreciate everyone coming

  12. tonight. Matthew chapter 27 finds Jesus

    Matthew 27 chapter mention

  13. before Pilate. Very important time in eternity.

  14. You know, there there's there's two ways and and it's always you

  15. know, how many is confused about some things in the Bible when

  16. you read it. Maybe, maybe the plan of God

  17. kind of sometimes we, we wonder about it because, you know, we,

  18. we can preach this as, as, and I'm going to preach it this way

  19. tonight about living in neutral and not really taking a stance

  20. because I see it everywhere in the world and in the church, in

  21. our parenting sometimes. And sometimes when it seems like

  22. things aren't working and we're not gaining ground, especially

  23. in our family, sometimes it's easier just to just to be

  24. neutral sometimes. Hey, man.

  25. But I found when I'm neutral, it really piles up and it really

  26. gets worse, right, if we don't address some of these things.

  27. But, you know, ultimately this was the sentencing of Jesus to

  28. the cross, very pivotal time in human history and eternity in

  29. the Bible. And Jesus didn't say anything.

  30. He had already said it. He had already, he had already,

  31. he had already had the Gospels that he knew people were going

  32. to spread the word. And sometimes, you know, I had

  33. to answer a question today about preaching in the same place for

  34. so long, someone very close to me, I might add, and preaching

  35. to the same people week in wake out.

  36. Do you really feel like you're doing anything?

  37. And God's called us to go out and disciple, which is true.

  38. He told us to go out and into the world and preach the gospel.

  39. He's also called us to to make disciples.

  40. He's called us to do any, to do a lot of things.

  41. But I answered that question. I said, I don't know what you

  42. think, but I know what I'm called to do.

  43. Hey man, I'm going to do what I'm called to do.

  44. You do you. But somewhere in the mix, I got

  45. to not let you affect me, right? And that's where the hard part

  46. is, especially when it's people close to us.

  47. And it took me to the Scripture because with eternity hinging

  48. right here, Jesus didn't say anything.

  49. He didn't defend himself. Now there's two sides to this

  50. message. I've heard it preached in

  51. different ways. I've preached in different ways.

  52. But but see, we, we, we want Pilate to, to step up and take

  53. the authority that he had and take it away from the people and

  54. set Jesus free. I mean, that's one way to preach

  55. it. Why didn't Pilate do that?

  56. Because it wasn't in the will of God.

  57. But he could have, Jesus could have called 10,000 angels and he

  58. could have been released, but it wasn't in the will of God,

  59. right? Why don't why don't I do some

  60. things easier sometimes or you as a Christian take the easy way

  61. out sometime because it's not in the will of God for our life and

  62. we're greatly affected. But as we look at this is at the

  63. first part of this. I'm not going to have time to

  64. read it all, but in chapter 27, Jesus was of Matthew.

  65. Jesus was sent to pilot. We know what Judas had already

  66. done. He had sold the Lord for 30

  67. pieces of silver, and Jesus had seen his closest betray him.

  68. Man, if that was one of us today, we'd have to tell the

  69. people in the courtyard and all around the way where we were

  70. being tried at, at what Judas had just done to us.

  71. But Jesus already knew. He'd already warned you to say

  72. you're going to betray me. It's going to happen.

  73. He already knew that. And there's some things that we

  74. see going on in people's life. We we know because we've lived a

  75. lot longer than them. Hello.

  76. I had to tell my son, though. They said it doesn't matter what

  77. I tell you you, you already know it.

  78. You know, you've already figured this stuff out.

  79. And half the time that I did So what good does it do?

  80. How many men ever feel like that?

  81. See them making mistake after mistake and you know where it's

  82. headed. And if they would just tap into

  83. some of the wisdom and stop for a little bit, they could go way

  84. around this thing. But you know the truth.

  85. Sometimes you got to find out for yourself and it hurts.

  86. It hurts us, especially as parents.

  87. If you're a young, if you're a young parent, you don't know

  88. what I'm talking about yet, but you will.

  89. But they just sold the Lord. And in verse 11, I want to read

  90. a little bit and I really want to take some time on this

  91. tonight and talk about it. But it says Jesus stood in

  92. Matthew 27 and 11. He stood before the governor.

  93. I'm going to be in the King James Version tonight for y'all

  94. back there if you want to post it.

  95. But Jesus stood before the governor.

  96. He was speaking here to Pontius Pilate, and he asked him, He

  97. said, are you the king of the Jews?

  98. And it was a kind of an ironic question to ask Jesus because in

  99. reality, there was a man named Jehoshin, which was the Last

  100. King of the Jews, which reigned 600 years prior to this, because

  101. we had had what, 400 years of silence.

  102. So this Jehoshin guy, he was the Last King that was recognized by

  103. God to settle on the throne of Judah back in Second Chronicles

  104. 36 and 9 through 10. So he was asking Jesus this, the

  105. last one that said in the place that Jesus that that they were

  106. pinning on Jesus as king of the Jews, because Jesus had not yet

  107. answered that question. He had not yet said, I am the

  108. king of the Jews, but he answers it.

  109. And he said unto them, thou sayest it as it is as you say, I

  110. am the king of the Jews. But as far as it as it was

  111. recorded, this was the first time that Jesus claimed this

  112. John had added some things to this and John 18 and 36 that

  113. when Jesus said my Kingdom is not of this world, when they

  114. they were always trying to pin the worldly things on Jesus,

  115. right? Everything he did, they tried to

  116. relate it. Hello somebody.

  117. Is that like a Christian today? We try to relate everything of

  118. the Kingdom to to the earth and it does not relate because we

  119. have a big problem there, because his ways are not our

  120. ways, His ways are higher. But yet we as Christians, we

  121. always try to relate our life and our flesh to the Kingdom.

  122. And it cannot happen. It does not happen that way.

  123. But standing there, Jesus said it, sitting there, it is as you

  124. say. And see, Pilate knew that his

  125. claims were spiritual and he wasn't of this world.

  126. And when he was accused of the chief verse 12 and the priest

  127. and the elders, he answered nothing.

  128. Man, that would be hard to do. Done open blinded eyes, done

  129. raise the dead. Done, done all kinds of

  130. miracles, turn water into wine, put money in the fish's mouth,

  131. calm the sea. That would be hard for me to do

  132. is to not sit there and and and not say anything that just got

  133. me when I read that he answered nothing.

  134. He would not defend himself before the people, which they

  135. cared nothing about the truth anyway he ever found you spend

  136. all this time defending something that you believe or

  137. something you say sometime and then they come out with the

  138. stupidest answer that you could ever imagine and and you're like

  139. where did they get that something you learned back in

  140. the second grade of your Christianity walk that that they

  141. should have done been way past. I told somebody one time I said

  142. you said under more teaching than that.

  143. Surely then said Pilate unto him.

  144. Do you not hear how many things they witnessed against you?

  145. They were coming against him, but yet he had done nothing

  146. wrong other than what? What was the one thing that

  147. Jesus did wrong that offended the the thing that the only

  148. thing that he really did wrong. They couldn't they couldn't

  149. convict him of a law when they reverted back to the law healing

  150. on the Sabbath. Some things that that mess with

  151. their law, but legally they had no ground to stand on.

  152. Hey man, they had no ground to stand on, but Jesus did not

  153. defend himself and he answered verse 14 to him, never a word.

  154. But see back in Isaiah 53 and seven.

  155. He was fulfilling what Isaiah said in so much that the they

  156. marveled greatly. It says so in verse 15.

  157. It says now at the feast. So you got to picture this, you

  158. have Barabbas and you have Jesus sitting on the stand and we're

  159. at a pivotal time. As I said, the governor he was

  160. that was accustomed to release some a prisoner to whom they

  161. they they wanted. In other words, see the people

  162. could choose which one they wanted released.

  163. And Pilate thought that that he had found a way out of his

  164. dilemma. What a dilemma he was in.

  165. Amen. Because Pilate really didn't

  166. want to. He didn't want to to crucify

  167. Jesus. He would he didn't want him.

  168. He wanted to release him. He knew that Jesus was innocent,

  169. but they they in verse 16 it says and they had then a notable

  170. prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they gathered

  171. together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will it?

  172. Whom will you that I release unto you?

  173. Barabbas or Jesus? And, and, and some manuscripts

  174. say that his name was Jesus Barabbas.

  175. They say so the people were forced with a choice.

  176. It was Jesus or Barabbas, A murderer or someone that had

  177. done nothing wrong. But yet they chose the murderer,

  178. for he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

  179. And in verse 19, it says when he was set down on the judgment

  180. seat, it was a chair raised up on a platform.

  181. His wife talking about pilot's wife Here it says she sent unto

  182. him saying, have thou nothing to do with the just man?

  183. For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of

  184. him. You know, most men listen to

  185. their wives sometimes. But here she he chose he chose

  186. not to see when we look back in in history in the time her name

  187. was Claudia and another another name was Persulia.

  188. And tradition says that ultimately she became a

  189. Christian later on. And she was also anybody know

  190. the history of this? She was also a Gentile.

  191. She was a gentile. Well, that touched me when I

  192. read that Amen. We got a place in Jesus heart,

  193. right. She was a Gentile and she later

  194. met Christ personally. But but in verse 20 it says, but

  195. the chief priest and the elders persuaded the multitude that

  196. they should ask Barabbas. The governor answered and he

  197. said unto them, Whether of the two will you that I release?

  198. They said Barabbas pilot said it to them, What shall I do then

  199. with Jesus, which is called the Christ?

  200. You know, that's the greatest question probably ever asked in

  201. the Bible. What shall I do with Jesus

  202. called the Christ? There's still people today that

  203. can't answer that. They can't answer what will I do

  204. with Jesus? There's a lot of people in

  205. church that need to answer that question today.

  206. Maybe they're in the church, but they're not of Jesus, right?

  207. They need to at some point in our life.

  208. What shall I do with Jesus called the Christ?

  209. Greatest question, the answer decided eternal destiny.

  210. Think about that for you and I when we make that decision to

  211. follow Jesus. And they all said unto him, look

  212. what they said, let him be crucified, let him be crucified.

  213. You know, I've often wondered right here if the people would

  214. said just release him, just release Jesus, if they could

  215. have believed right there, what would have happened.

  216. It's always stumped me right there.

  217. But it wasn't in the will of God for him to be released, right?

  218. Maybe the trial you're going through the night though, you

  219. think you need to be out of it. It may not be in the will of God

  220. for you to be out of it. But they said crucify him

  221. because see, they knew that such a death, such a death would be

  222. like in Deuteronomy 21 and 23 under the law of Moses and

  223. anyone that was hanged on a tree where it was believed to be

  224. cursed by God. But God was changing something

  225. here with grace right from from the law to the dispensation of

  226. grace. And the governor said, why?

  227. What evil has he done? They could not answer that

  228. question. They couldn't answer it, but

  229. they just hollered crucify him. And you know, as we look at the

  230. news many times today, we see the same thing, especially from

  231. the left. Crucify him.

  232. Do away with this Jesus. Let's don't do anything with

  233. him. And you know, on the other side

  234. of that, the Republicans are really good at not doing

  235. anything, just kind of take in the neutral position.

  236. We've become very good at that. But see, when they hollered

  237. crucify him, what has he done? They had no answer.

  238. But let's look at what Pilate does right here.

  239. He's in a situation and when Pilate saw that he could not

  240. prevail, nothing but that rather a tumult was made.

  241. He took water, He took the water and he began to wash his hands

  242. before the multitude, saying I am innocent of the blood of this

  243. person. He didn't do anything about it.

  244. He just washed. You know, I read that when the

  245. Lord gave me this message, I was in a motel room in McAlester.

  246. OK? And I'm going to preach it on a

  247. Sunday. But there was, there's many

  248. Christians today that they're just washing and they think

  249. they're innocent. Paulo had a chance but he denied

  250. the chance but like I say it's a catch 22 because it was in the

  251. will of God was pilot part of the will of God but still we

  252. have to work out our own salvation.

  253. Even though the crowd was hollering crucify him he could

  254. have still took a chance. You can wash all you want but it

  255. doesn't make you clean. He said I'm innocent of the

  256. blood of this person you see to it.

  257. Then answered all the people and said look what the people said

  258. here man, I found this astounding.

  259. They said they said let his blood be on us and on our

  260. children. And they wasn't talking about

  261. the the redeeming blood of Christ.

  262. They was talking about the punishment and the chastisement

  263. of Christ and they just spoke it on their self.

  264. And you know, today, 2026 years later, people are still doing

  265. that. When we reject the gospel, when

  266. we reject the blood of Jesus, we're they're, they're releasing

  267. curse and not blessing upon their life.

  268. And then they released Barabbas unto them.

  269. And when he they had scorned him, they had they had beat him

  270. so horribly, but yet they delivered him to be crucified.

  271. But see, many times in our life, we're like Pilate.

  272. We just stay neutral. It's easier to just wash.

  273. It's easier not to come clean. Clean on some things it's

  274. easier. I can picture Pilot just

  275. washing. Much like people today lot call

  276. their self Christians. You know, we find as we get

  277. older, I have found an age age-old lie that the enemy is

  278. just selling people and they're still buying it, still buying

  279. it. You know, I heard my son today

  280. saying it, talking about the church and and as y'all know he

  281. don't come to church much anymore.

  282. He was raised in church, but he was the one asked me the

  283. question about preaching to the same people in those things and

  284. how many. Remember when you were running

  285. from the church, you didn't need the church, but God brought you

  286. to a place and that's what I told him.

  287. I said one day you will need the church.

  288. Well we're called to go out and and lead people to Christ.

  289. Can you do all that? And once I said, Oh yeah, we can

  290. do it. I said I pretty got a chance to

  291. preach a funeral the other day to over 100 people at the grave

  292. site. And I said it was a little

  293. different than what I preached in the church.

  294. We got down and we got real. We talked about the Grays

  295. busting open and I said don't be ignorant concerning death

  296. because one day you will die. The apostle Paul said do not be

  297. ignorant. And I preached and I could see

  298. some hands in the back slip up. But after it a young man come up

  299. to me. I've never seen him in my life

  300. to my knowledge. And he said I just want you to

  301. know. My hand didn't go up today.

  302. But he said I come to your church one time and he said I

  303. didn't really know about it because it was a non

  304. denominational church. I was told.

  305. But he said, I want you to know that day I came, I accepted

  306. Jesus as my savior and I want you to know it.

  307. You never know who you're touching, but see so many, it's

  308. just it's just easier to wash and say, I don't need the

  309. church. I'm not really doing anything.

  310. But I'm I'm in neutral. The devil loves to put people in

  311. neutral because when you're in neutral, you're not going

  312. anywhere. See, it sounded good what pilot

  313. did, but he didn't have the courage to do the right thing.

  314. He didn't have the courage to stick up for what he was, what

  315. he knew was right. But I say to you tonight, we

  316. can't take a neutral position regarding Christ, even what

  317. people have to know where we stand.

  318. I know what's right and and everything that that you want to

  319. do, you know, they come to your house and they say everything I

  320. want to do. You don't call it fun.

  321. You don't want to do any fun stuff.

  322. I don't want to hang out with you.

  323. They they, they begin to attack who you are and who you are.

  324. I don't know what God's called you to do tonight, but I know

  325. what God's called me to do. Hey, man, I'm not sure of myself

  326. many times when I stand behind this pulpit, but I'm sure of my

  327. calling. Hey, man, and I'm not giving up.

  328. It's not just a hand washing, it's not just a Dunkin under and

  329. come up a mighty man or woman of God.

  330. It's it's, it's being, it's living for God every day and

  331. never taking a neutral position. Amen.

  332. But see, they can talk about the church all they want, but they

  333. need to see the church in US, Amen.

  334. If there's anything I'm glad, I'm so proud that that God has,

  335. has created something within me that Satan can't tear down.

  336. Amen. As long as I keep feeding it, as

  337. long as I keep nourishing it. And that's what I begin to tell

  338. my son today. I said, you know, I said when

  339. you look at the church as a whole of what many of them do,

  340. maybe you don't think you need it, but you need spiritual

  341. nourishment every day. It never changes.

  342. But so many are just washing, living in neutral, never taking

  343. a stand. And we see this.

  344. I read this thing about silence. See, silence grows louder over

  345. time. Can I say that again?

  346. Silence grows louder over time. But silence speaks.

  347. Jesus was the pure image of that.

  348. He didn't have to say anything because he had already walked it

  349. out. He had already lived it.

  350. He didn't have to defend anything.

  351. He was saying, hey, I've showed you the way.

  352. I've showed you the truth. I've presented the promise of

  353. eternal life unto you and told you that I'm going to prepare a

  354. place that where I am, there you can be also, so I don't have to

  355. defend myself. But now here in a few days, when

  356. you hang me on that old rugged cross and you play some thorns

  357. up on my head and you Pierce my hands and feet and my side,

  358. something is going to happen that you will never forget.

  359. Amen. I don't have to talk about it.

  360. I don't have to explain it. I just have to receive it.

  361. Amen. And when I receive it, then I

  362. begin to live it. Because silence grows louder

  363. over time, but silence speaks. Time doesn't shout but shows

  364. everything. Time doesn't shout, but it shows

  365. everything. You don't believe it.

  366. Go back and look at 8th grade picture.

  367. I said time doesn't shout but it shows everything.

  368. I like this. Who's real?

  369. Who's fake? Isn't that true?

  370. Time reveals all. Regret comes too late, but it

  371. stays long. A few things we should remember

  372. about time. I said time doesn't shout but

  373. yet it shows everything. Time reveals everything.

  374. No one escapes it's lessons. Amen.

  375. I go Coon hunting with guys and I had a buddy the other day.

  376. He had this little young dog. He didn't pay a bunch much money

  377. for him and he did really good one night and I knew just

  378. because I know him I knew he wasn't going to sell him.

  379. Most time he will but if I he thinks I want it because we hunt

  380. together he ain't going to sell it to me.

  381. So I offered him kind of a lot of money for what the dog was

  382. doing at the time and this and, and, and people to see the enemy

  383. works this way. See it when when things are

  384. going good, you know, we don't need to quit doing anything

  385. ever. Our life's good.

  386. The money's good. The social drinking's good.

  387. The all the things are good in our life.

  388. We don't need to give up anything.

  389. We just kind of get neutral because we're just kind of

  390. cruising along. You're not really hearing from

  391. God because there's no problems to draw you to God to make you

  392. pray. The thorn in your flesh seems to

  393. be gone. Am I preaching to anybody?

  394. But I told him that and he said he called me as he said.

  395. I said, well, think about it. He thought about it and it was

  396. way over double. It was over doubling his money.

  397. And this particular breed of dog, though, will bring a lot of

  398. money if they're trained. And he happened to tree one Coon

  399. because he was with my dog and he kind of my dog was treated

  400. over here about to tree and he runs under there and gets the

  401. Coon. So he thinks his dog did it.

  402. See. And and and I've done this sport

  403. long enough. I know the insurance and outs

  404. just be and and it's just like Christianity, you know, just

  405. because we won one battle, we're still going to have to pray to

  406. win the next battle. It ain't just going to come.

  407. So he calls me, says I'm not going to I'm not going to say

  408. that dog, I'm going to keep him. I said, OK.

  409. I said, well, I'm really glad you didn't.

  410. I said, because I got caught up in the moment.

  411. He said, oh, he's a good young dog.

  412. I said, OK, but see, I control the hunt because I have the

  413. better dog and if I don't bring the better dog, I can bring

  414. something that'll make his dog mess up.

  415. So I brought two dogs the next night and he there was nothing

  416. but whooping and choking and beating his dog.

  417. But yet he don't understand that I control it, right.

  418. That must be how I thought. That's the kind of how God

  419. feels, you know, we get cocky and we, we get we get all of our

  420. Christian kicks and we get to posting some good things and I

  421. get to preaching a few messages that are just easy, you know,

  422. and then here comes the here comes the trouble.

  423. But see, life is like this, we can't just wash the cares away.

  424. We have to stand up for something.

  425. I wonder what he thought my wife had a dream about this man.

  426. What was it? What was it?

  427. If I take a stand, what's going to happen?

  428. If I take a stand and release Jesus and and don't release some

  429. Barabbas, so will will I have a job tomorrow?

  430. Well, that hits home, doesn't it?

  431. Think about it. Pilot had a chance here.

  432. He had a choice, but he he did something that looked good.

  433. You know good will lead you away from God sometimes.

  434. Not all churches that look good are good.

  435. Not all ideas that sound good are good.

  436. But never enough to bring a change in his life.

  437. Pilot held his office, as history tells, for for 10 more

  438. years. He was the governor, he was

  439. Pilot, but at the end of that time he was removed for cruelty

  440. and extortion, and history tells that he was banished, that he

  441. was vanished to to Vayen and GAO, where he committed suicide,

  442. killed himself, did the same thing that Judas did, took

  443. matters into his own hands. He, he knew about the blood, but

  444. yet it never changed him. How many are that way today?

  445. How many know somebody in your family that's that way?

  446. They know all about it and, and know all about it, but they're

  447. just in neutral. They're just in neutral, not

  448. really going in any direction. Shaking hands, washing hands

  449. doesn't make you free. We learned this many times.

  450. And in parenting, there was, I'm sure we could all go back and

  451. look at something that if we would have took a stand and we

  452. could have cut it off and stopped it, then maybe we made a

  453. mistake. But Romans 12/1 and two, Paul

  454. says that I beseech you, that means to ask to pray for

  455. something with deep urgency and desperation.

  456. Paul says, I beseech you that you present your bodies.

  457. He says, I pray that I pray to God that you present your bodies

  458. as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable.

  459. You know, as I preached the Sunday before last, or maybe it

  460. was Wednesday, I don't remember, but or something that really got

  461. me that Jesus said if you love me, you'll do what keep my

  462. commandments. Assembling ourselves together is

  463. a commandment. It's not one of the 10

  464. commandments, but all through the New Testament, every

  465. everyone that was anointed of God said Fred, Paul said as

  466. forsake not the assembling of yourselves, but Jesus said, if

  467. you love me, you'll keep my commandments and I love what I

  468. shared after that. And he said when you keep my

  469. commandments, he said, and I will pray the Father.

  470. See that's why why don't we preach holy?

  471. It's not just to be holy. So everybody say, oh, look at

  472. them or I haven't done this this week.

  473. It's so that Jesus will pray the father on our behalf because he

  474. looks down and see us keeping his commandments and sees a

  475. child trying to obey his father. And when he does, he says, I'm

  476. going to pray the father. And when I pray the father is a

  477. really cool thing that's going to happen.

  478. He, the Holy Spirit, is going to come and dwell within you, that

  479. you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and

  480. acceptable under God, which is your reasonable service and

  481. perfect will of God. See, there's a will of God that

  482. He will allow us to walk in sometimes, but then there's a

  483. perfect will of God. I want to be in the perfect will

  484. of God. I think of Joseph when I think

  485. of this eight times in Genesis 39, it says that the Lord was

  486. with Joseph. Why?

  487. Because he was walking in the perfect will of God.

  488. You know, he said what the enemy meant for evil when he was

  489. throwed into the opiate. What happened?

  490. God turned it into good. Joseph is a great example of not

  491. grumbling and complaining at the situation that you're at, but

  492. just keep trying. And Potiphar saw that God had

  493. his hand up on him, so he entrusted him, he entrusted

  494. Joseph with all of his house. And you know what, what

  495. happened? Y'all know the rest of that

  496. story. But it's a great example of not

  497. being in neutral because when when she tried to seduce him, he

  498. said, how could I sin against my God?

  499. What a great attitude to have. It's not that it's not an

  500. attitude of just trying to live for God every day.

  501. It should be. How could I, how could I?

  502. I I've got to obey the commandments so so that the

  503. Father that that Jesus will pray to the Father.

  504. But as you stand your feet, I say this often, your greatest

  505. temptation will come with your greatest justification.

  506. You know, that's that's so true because so many people they're

  507. they're tempted not to go to church.

  508. They're tempted to walk away from God.

  509. They're tempted to to do though. But you know, we, we look at

  510. people today and many of us here, we've lived, we've served

  511. God a long time. And it's hard for us to go back

  512. to that time to where they were. There was a time you didn't

  513. think you needed God. There was a time that you

  514. thought you could do it on your own.

  515. There was a time you thought church was just for old people,

  516. right? But then there was that day that

  517. you quit being in neutral and you knew that I, I can't make it

  518. without it. You got to feed your spirit.

  519. But your greatest temptation to walk away from those things, it

  520. comes with your greatest justification.

  521. I have a whoop, my son since he was very young, but I almost

  522. slapped him because he said, well, we'll be we'll be

  523. different than going to church where everybody believes in

  524. going somewhere where, where and trying to live it.

  525. I guess you could try that, see how it works for you.

  526. You better go to the church and get fed and then go live it.

  527. Hey man, but just your greatest temptation will come with your

  528. greatest justification. You ever been there where you

  529. try to justify what was inside of you and you knew it wasn't of

  530. God? Your greatest temptation will

  531. come with your greatest justification, but when you do

  532. not yield to that temptation, you will see the manifestation

  533. of God and the power of God as you've never seen it before in

  534. your life. That's why it's important.

  535. But many forfeit the blessings of God because we refuse to

  536. humble ourselves before God. Joseph could resist the

  537. temptation because he had already humbled himself, right?

  538. Jesus didn't have to defend himself.

  539. You know, I, I get so tired. And if you don't watch it, your

  540. walk will get that way. You try.

  541. You like we're trying to defend God.

  542. We don't have to defend God. Hey, man, he's already hung it

  543. on a cross. He's already said it's finished.

  544. We start, we start fighting battles that he's already won,

  545. and we get caught up in the mess.

  546. Am I the only one? And I realized why I'm not

  547. worried about that. You've already said it's

  548. finished. Hey, man.

  549. But it's the hardest thing because it's hard for me to

  550. grasp sometimes. This is because we pray.

  551. Anybody pray for the kids? Anybody pray for lost loved

  552. ones? It ain't been a few days ago.

  553. My he's telling me he'd been praying about some banging his

  554. head up against the wall. It says exactly what you're

  555. doing. Because when when you're not in

  556. the will of God and when somebody's not in the will of

  557. God and God's using this trial to get somebody to come back to

  558. God. But yet we're over here crying.

  559. Oh God, don't let it happen. You know, it gets kind of mind

  560. breaking. So do y'all ever think of that

  561. or is it just me? Here I am praying for protection

  562. here. I'm praying for all these things

  563. because we don't want to go through the hurt that we can

  564. see. That's a head.

  565. So we're really worried about us.

  566. When God's got a perfect will, he's trying to perform in there.

  567. Where would you be today if you hadn't hit rock bottom?

  568. Hey man, where would you be if you hadn't landed in in the old

  569. jail cell or the old prison or the OR whatever the the with the

  570. bottle in your hand and nowhere else to where would you be

  571. today? But it's hard.

  572. It's hard when we see him making the mistakes.

  573. It's hard, isn't it? But yet we need to be like

  574. Jesus. He sat there with a steadfast

  575. faith. He said, look, I've already

  576. showed y'all what to do. I've already told you on the

  577. way, the truth and the life. So of course I'm the king of the

  578. Jews. I don't know, sometimes we get

  579. caught up in this stuff, you know, when it's already

  580. finished. But as I read earlier, I want to

  581. back up and read that again. They said Barabbas and Pilate

  582. said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called the

  583. Christ? You know, that's a, that's

  584. really a stupid question. We know what we should do with

  585. Jesus, but are we willing to take the stand?

  586. Are we willing to take the, the, the criticism, the whatever that

  587. comes with it? What shall I do with Jesus who

  588. is called the Christ? And they all said to him, let

  589. him be crucified. Then the governor said, wow,

  590. what evil has he done? But they cried all the more

  591. loud, saying let him be crucified.

  592. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all.

  593. You know, we feel like that sometimes.

  594. We're not prevailing sometimes as the church.

  595. And it's very hard when people are in the church and still not

  596. saved. In many churches there was never

  597. a change in their life. And the enemy, you know, I as I

  598. look back as a kid and it, I lay awake at not crying about that

  599. very thing because I never thought the enemy would get to

  600. God's children through the church.

  601. But it's happening. It's disguised.

  602. He's getting to us. But when Pilate saw that he

  603. could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumble was

  604. resting, he, he took the water and he washed his hands before

  605. the multitude. He had just rejected the blood,

  606. but he said, I'm innocent of the blood of this man, of this just

  607. person. You see to it.

  608. See, living in neutral, not doing nothing doesn't make you

  609. innocent. It might make it easy, but it

  610. doesn't make you innocent. Not doing nothing about the

  611. things that you could be addicted to very easily or about

  612. the thing that God's told you to get out of your life.

  613. Not doing it doesn't make you innocent.

  614. And all the people answered and said his blood be on us and our

  615. children. I want his blood tonight, but

  616. not in the way they said it. I want the grace.

  617. And you know, Pilate could have had that grace, but yet he went

  618. out and hung. It didn't work too good for him

  619. staying in neutral. You know, he could have.

  620. I don't know how it would have turned out.

  621. Anybody got a thought on it? It's kind of interesting, isn't

  622. it, because it was all the plan of God.

  623. But you know, did God have another plan if they hadn't

  624. crucified Jesus? I don't know.

  625. Kind of like the question brother Randy asked me and I

  626. said, I don't know that we have an answer for why kids die of

  627. Hank cancer this side of heaven. I can't explain how you know the

  628. you're going to have to answer that in your walk.

  629. Why would a loving God? I don't know.

  630. His ways are not my ways. His ways are higher.

  631. He's got a perfect plan and a perfect will.

  632. I just want to be part of it. I don't want to tell him how to

  633. do it. Amen That I challenge you.

  634. Don't stay in neutral. Thanks for listening to the

  635. Cross Power Church podcast. May you know that true hope,

  636. peace, and salvation can only be found in Jesus.

  637. If you're near Campbell, TX, we would love for you to join us in

  638. person. You can find service times at

  639. crosspowerchurch.com.