The Gift of Myrrh: Embracing Sacrifice for the King

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

Welcome everybody. We're in our series called Jesus

the one and Only and speaking about gifts given, there's never

been a greater gift than the gift that we received when

Christ Jesus decided to leave the glory and the splendor of

heaven and come and make his abode here on earth with us.

We're looking at Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

If you want to open up your scriptures, that's the the text

for this entire series. If you need a Bible, you can

raise your hand and they will bring a Bible to you.

Our wonderful ushers, Matthew the 1st of the four gospels, the

good news retelling of Jesus time here on earth.

Anyone need a Bible? They're standing by to give you

1. Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Here we go. We're going to just read four or

five verses. Matthew chapter 2, verses one

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

and two and then 9/10/11 and 12. I guess that's 6 verses.

Verse one says after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea

during the time of King Herod. Magi from the east.

You want to pay attention and underline these words in your

scripture because every scripture, every word is

intended by God. Magi from the East came to

Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king

of the Jews? Not heir apparent, not Prince of

the Jews. He's born king of the Jews.

We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

Skip down to verse 9. After they had heard the king,

they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose

went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the

child was. When they stall the star, they

were hyped. They were overjoyed.

On coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary.

They bowed down these magi from the east, these non Jews

worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures

and presented him with gifts of gold, say gold, frankincense and

myrrh. Yeah, myrrh.

Father, use your word today to bless us with revelation.

We don't want to leave here the same as we walked in and we

believe your word God is meant for teaching and encouraging and

even rebuking, making us better to glorify your Son who gave

himself this Christmas even unto Easter.

We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

The text of Matthew 2 calls the Magi from the East.

I told you in week one that I wanted to talk about the Magi in

week 3. Here we are given the context of

Matthew chapter 2, specifically that there's this juxtaposition,

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

this battle going on between King Herod and Jesus, who is now

proclaimed as the King of the Jews.

The scholars believe that Matthew is deliberately using

the term Magi. Why?

Well because these are highly educated priestly astronomer

astrologers from Persia and Babylonia, what we kind of know

today as modern day Iraq, part of Syria, Turkey, even a little

bit east and Iran. These are these magi still carry

this ancient title and this reputation as Persian Magi.

They were ancient even in Jesus time, meaning the magi had been

around for generations and generations doing what they do

in the book of Matthew. It's not always the case they

are portrayed positively. These are men seeking genuine

seekers of truth who recognize the star as a divine sign from

the Lord of the birth of the quote King of the Jews.

The Magi in the Christmas store are not just wise men, as

sometimes they're referred to. Not at all.

They're not just generic. They are specifically

historical, ethnic, religious. They're holding this title that

points to the priestly class of these famous Persian magi.

And what were they famous for? Throughout the generations on up

into Jesus time and beyond, they were known to read the stars, to

look at them and honor newborn kings.

In fact, in Persia and Babylonia, a king was not a king

without the blessing and the conferring of kingship done by

the Magi. Even if there was a coup when

somebody took over the kingship, they weren't considered the king

by everybody until the Magi said so.

The Magi had to speak. In other words, In short, and

you can know this for the rest of your life, the Magi were true

kingmakers. They made the decision no

coronation was valid without them.

They could declare A reigning king to be illegitimate.

They could choose or approve whoever's supposed to be the

next ruler when succession was disputed amongst the people.

They even had religious veto power to overturn certain major

royal decisions. They're kind of like the Supreme

Court in some ways. That's why when Matthew calls

them these visitors from the East Magi, he's not just saying,

oh, there's some wise astrologers who happened to stop

by again, He is deliberately identifying these as members of

the only priestly class in the ancient world that had the

historic and the constitutional authority to recognize and to

crown, even depose kings. And here they show up to Jesus's

house. In coming to crown Jesus as king

of the Jews, they were doing exactly what their priestly

class had done for centuries, officially acknowledging

officially Halloween, a newborn or a newly elected king.

They're not there by accident, just some wise guy that's

happened to stop by. And if that wasn't enough, and

this has gone wild on social media, you might have seen this.

But this is fascinating. If you look in the book of

Daniel, which is in the Old Testament, Daniel a leader of

God's people, Daniel a prophet, that the context is the people

of Israel and Judah. They were two separate nations

at this time. Because of warring, they both

got taken away into captivity. 1 after the other, Israel went

first, Judah went second. Babylon king Nebuchadnezzar now

has them as exiles. In Babylon, most of the people

are just doing regular stuff, becoming Babylonians, kind of

falling into whatever gods are there.

But Daniel says faithful to the one true God, to Yahweh, and God

because of it favors him. Daniel stands for the Lord when

other people are sitting down or rejecting the Lord.

And so because God favors Daniel, Daniel gets elevated in

the nation of Babylon. Daniel chapter 2 verse 48 look

Daniel 2:48

at this. Then the king placed Daniel in a

high position and lavished many gifts on him.

He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and

note this placed him in charge of all of its wise men.

Daniel, a Hebrew Daniel who lives for Yahweh, Daniel who

knows the Hebrew Scriptures and the Hebrew prophecies, is now in

charge of leading, teaching all the wise men of Babylon.

Well, who are the wise men? We get another descriptor of

them later in Daniel chapter 4, verse 9.

Daniel 4:9

I said Beltestrazar, which is Daniel's name in Babylonian.

All right, it's the same guy, Beltrazar, however you say that

name, chief of the magicians, the Magi.

I know that the spirit of the Holy God is in you, and no

mystery is too difficult for you.

Here is my dream. Interpret it for me.

Now, clearly there's another part of the story going on here,

but what's important for us to note today is that Daniel is the

head of the wise men. And who are the wise men?

They're the magician. Who are the magicians?

They're the magi. Daniel, 600 years before Jesus

is born, is leading the very people who will be the first to

recognize Jesus as the king of the Jews.

And Daniel being a good Hebrew with the best Hebrew, he's the,

he's the one standing for God when everyone else is kind of

sitting down. Daniel leading these magi

assuredly as they are astronomer astrologers would have said to

them, you know, there's prophesied in my faith tradition

that a star will rise in the East and you will note it.

And when you see that star rise, it'll be because the king of the

Jews have arrived 600 years later, passed down from magi to

magi to magi, generation, generation, generation.

These magi today's like, oh, the stars rising that that guy 600

years told our forefathers about.

We finally see it and they follow the star and the rest is

history. I'm telling you folks, it is a

sovereignty, the creativity, the divinity of God, that it's no

accident that it's these magi, these kingmakers, these holders

of the biblical prophecy taught to them by Daniel, that they are

the ones who come to acknowledge Jesus as King of the Jews.

It's mind blowing to me. It's fascinating to me that the

Lord sets us all up. Just them being there should

have been enough for people. The magi have arrived.

The magi have spoken. He is king of the Jews.

But to double down, if you will, the Magi bring these gifts that

we've been reading about, these prophetic gifts, these symbolic

gifts that overwhelmingly make this declaration for the magi.

This Jesus is God Incarnate. This Jesus is the king of the

Jews. This Jesus is the one that the

world has been waiting for. We've been waiting 600 years and

the Jews have been waiting longer.

So as we are coming to the close of this short series, Jesus the

one and only. The entire point of it was for

us to consider the gifts of the Magi and bring those gifts

ourselves so that as we bring them, we make the same

declaration that the Magi made. When I bring the gift of gold or

the gift of frankincense, or today the gift of myrrh, I want

my life to say the same thing, that there's that He is God

Incarnate, God in the flesh. He is royalty.

And today, as we'll see with the final gift, He is God also as a

human God also who will die for our sins.

Let's just refresh today with gold.

We said in week 1, the magi said, and we get to say along

with them that this is a king. He is royalty.

Our goal to bring to him means that we're going to off our

lives in holiness. I'm going to live according to

His word. I'm going to get a live

according to the Kingdom culture so that my life glorifies him.

My life is gold to him and to the world.

Wow, look at that shiny beautiful thing and remember the

Scripture. They will see your good deeds

and glorify your Father in heaven.

Also to bring our treasure, our physical treasure, and bring it

to the Lord as an offering, just as these wise men did.

They brought millions of dollars worth of gold to Jesus, to a

baby. Who does that?

Then we have frankincense, and with the frankincense, the Magi

said, and we get to say as well that the baby is divine God in

the flesh. He is the high priest who

forever removes the distance between US and God by his own

sacrifice. If you missed last week, the

shed blood of Jesus is the covering that we need to stand

in front of a holy God. There's no way to stand in front

of a holy God without a covering.

And Jesus has become that covering.

He's become the veil. He's become our frankincense and

because of it we get to enter into His presence and pray unto

Him and spend time with Him. Prayer is communion and prayer

is the exchange of wills. Father, not my will be done, but

my, Your will be done. Amen.

Amen. 9:00 AM Hallelujah. And today we have one final

gift, the gift of myrrh. And as I briefly said, myrrh

signifies Jesus's humanity and death.

As Isaiah chapter 53 says, as we just sung in this last song, he

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

is the suffering servant, and the myrrh is the what represents

that myrrh. This myrrh is miraculous.

It is beyond fascinating what myrrh is.

Myrrh is used, was used and is still used I guess today in some

traditions for healing and also embalming.

Why? Because of how God created

myrrh. It is amazing.

This myrrh stuff. Myrrh first of all kills germs.

It has antiseptic power. How does myrrh do this?

I researched it. This is so fascinating.

You're like, well, tell us. OK, Myrrh is like soap.

In fact, some people call it soaps when they speak, speak

about myrrh. I don't know why how it

translates, but myrrh is like a soap.

What myrrh and soap both do is they have these spikes in its

chemical makeup that you can see under microscopes.

And these spikes drill into the membrane of bacteria and fungi,

and only bacteria and fungi, your healthy cells, They're all

right. But bacteria and fungi, when

myrrh comes to him, has all these spikes and it drills into

the membrane and separates the membrane, and the innards of the

bacteria and fungi spill out and it dies.

It kills bacteria and fungi just in the way that is designed,

with all these spikes on it to destroy it.

Not only that, myrrh also helps reduce swelling and pain.

You all know this. When your body gets hurt, it

gets infected, it sends out these alarm chemicals called

cytokines. They they go rushing out and

they say, hey, repair crew, ambulances, paramedics, all

rushed to the spot and inflammation happens.

You all know this. So yes.

And there's some swelling in redness.

Yes, it's doing its job in there, yes.

But sometimes it's overdoing it. Too much pain, too much

swelling. And so you want to get the

swelling down. Well, Mer does that.

It's chemical properties block the production and the release

of these messengers that go out and say, everybody come and help

right here. It sends us out so that swelling

goes down. In other words, it's like Mer

brings peace to the situation and says the paramedics, like,

we have enough here, turns off the fire alarm.

It's OK everyone, calm down. This is what myrrh does.

And because of this, because it kills germs and reduces swelling

and pain, myrrh actually helps wounds to heal faster than if

they were just left to themselves.

You all know the process. Healing a cut happens in stages.

First we got to stop the blood, then we got to clean up the dead

stuff, Then we got to build new skin, and finally we got to

strengthen it. That's how a heal gets a wound

gets healed. Myrh helps by keeping germs away

more, helps by reducing extra swelling, and then it encourages

skin cells to multiply and make new tissue faster.

It's like giving your body's repair crew a boost while at the

same time protecting them while they do their work.

It's fascinating, don't you think?

Am I the only one? It's incredible.

Yeah. So it makes sense that when

somebody in Jesus time and even before Jesus died and since he's

passed, that myrrh was used on the body of a dead person to

slow down the decay, the decomposition and deterioration

of the body. It's put in place when Jesus

dies upon the cross. It should be no surprise to us

that myrrh is also used upon his body.

John chapter 19, verse 38. Later Joseph of Arimathea asked

John 19:38

Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of

Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders, with

pilots permission he came and took the body away.

He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited

Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of

look at this, myrrh and aloes, about £75.

That's a lot. Taking Jesus body, the two of

them wrapped it with the spices, that's myrrh in strips of linen.

This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

Jesus is dead, body smeared, covered in myrrh.

Let's talk about myrrh just a little bit more.

Myrrh comes from a tree. It's a funny name.

It's called Comaphora mura. Kamaphora.

That's the first word mura. You want to say it's a kamaphora

mura. It looks like this, another

beautiful tree, kind of like frankincense last week, this

beautiful tree. But I want to show you a close

up of the limbs of myrrh and see what you see.

Y'all, When I saw this picture, I'm my hair standing up in my

arms, my heart started beating faster.

The myrrh tree is covered in thorns.

Your brain starting to go somewhere.

You start the spirit starting to speak to you and connect the

dots. Thorns are actually present on

the earth only because of sin. Exactly part of the curse of

turning from a loving God in the garden.

Genesis chapter 1-2 and three. Go read it for yourself.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Adam and Eve are given the beauty of the garden that God

says eat from any tree except for one.

Don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

For when you do that, you're trying to become God and that

will not go well for you. Let me be God, you be humans.

I'm giving you one command. Don't eat from this tree.

Of course, if you know the story, Adam and Eve eat from the

tree, and because of it, God pronounces a curse on both the

woman and the man. To the woman's, she's going to

toil and labor, physical pain and labor and for the man, this

working of the land to produce the food, you're going to have

to work the dirt in order for food to be produced.

Genesis chapter 3, verse 17 to Adam, God said because you

Genesis 3:17

listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which

I commanded you, you must not eat from it.

Cursed as the ground because of you through painful toil.

You will eat food from it all the days of your life.

It will produce thorns and thistles for you.

You will eat the plants of the field that by the sweat of your

bow brow. You will eat your food until you

return to the ground, since from it you were taken.

For dust you are, and to dust you will return.

Part of the curse is the thorns and the thistles, and your mind

is already jumping to the crucifixion of Jesus our Savior.

Matthew 27 Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the

praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around

him. They stripped him and put a

scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of

thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right

hand. They then they knelt in front of

him and mocked him. Hail, King of the Jews.

Have we heard this words before? These words the Magi declare it

first, saying this is the king of the Jews.

And now here the Roman soldiers are mocking him, saying King of

the Jews. They spit on him and took the

staff and struck him on the head again and again.

After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put on his

own clothes on him. Then they led him away to

crucify him. Notice they never took off the

crown of thorns. So the soldiers intended this to

be pure mockery. Jesus, by wearing the crown of

thorns, symbolically takes on the curse of humanity, said

suffering in our place to redeem us for the penalty of sin.

What was meant for humiliation by these Roman soldiers has

become a powerful image of His sacrificial kingship for all

time. And now consider the mercury

again covered in thorns, the tree of thorns itself

symbolizing the crown of thorns, and Christ's own passion, which

is as love poured out for us on the cross of Calvary.

And now here's the even more crazy part.

In order to get this wonderfully powerful healing resin from the

tree, the tree bark has to be cut.

Myrrh does not seep out of the tree unless the skin of the tree

is pierced. Oh my word, this is what it

looks like when you Pierce the tree.

When you research the word myrrh, it talks about the myrrh

coming out of the tree like tears in the world.

God, you designed all of this. The piercing of the tree crowned

in thorns in order to release healing parallels Jesus's wounds

that yield redemption. And the fragrance, this

spiritual sweetness that comes from his suffering.

Wow, Isaiah 53, five. Now we understand.

But He was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by his

wounds we are healed. Glory to God in the highest.

Like wow, wow, wow. Go with me back to Bethlehem.

About a year, year and a half after Jesus birth, we moved from

the Manger and now Jesus is in a home.

Joseph and Mary are there, right Open the door.

Joseph standing there, he's like Mary.

It's the Magi, foreign to us, but known in their area of the

world for centuries upon centuries.

When the magi showed up, you were like, I wonder who these

guys are? Mary, It's the magi.

It's the kingmakers. Now, of course, they believe the

Angel that came and said that this would be the son of God.

But every time there's affirmation and confirmation.

It must have felt really assuring to Joseph and Mary.

Yeah, he is who we heard he is. And here are the magi, the

kingmakers, Mary. And look, they have gold.

Gold is reserved for royalty. It's true.

He's the king. And frankincense.

Wow. Frankincense is reserved for the

high priest. Mary's.

Like, I know, Joseph, you don't need a mansplain.

Everything to me. But it works for the story,

right? OK.

And Mary, they have one more gift.

What is it? Mary's like, what is it?

It's like it's the spice that we wrapped the dead in.

The 1st 2 can't be true and then the third one be false.

It answers the question of the song.

Mary, did you know? She sure did.

Mary, did you know? Could you comprehend the cost?

Could you bear to understand that your sweet baby boy came to

give life to anyone who to receive him but look at on a

screen. The only way for him to give

life to us was to give his life for us.

This child was bound and swaddling clothes.

This child would be bound to the cross and one day with myrrh be

bound in burial, all so that we could be unbound from sin.

Somebody say Hallelujah, what a savior.

Yes, I've been asking this question.

It might have been the title, should have been the title of

the series. But is he your king?

And the way that you answer the question is by the way that you

live and you give the way that you pray.

And today it's by bringing him your myrrh.

Bring him your myrrh. What does that mean?

I'm glad you asked. To bring myrrh to Jesus means to

bring him your sacrifice. And you are that sacrifice.

I am that sacrifice, as myrrh was a representation of Jesus's

impending sacrifice. Our response is to consider how

great a sacrifice that Jesus made for us and then compare it

to the sacrifice that I'm willing to make for him.

Do they even come close? I mean, is it even like in the

same neighborhood? The sacrifice he made for me

compared to the sacrifice that I'm willing to make for him?

He suffered for us. Are you suffering for Him?

In the giving of our gold, we're giving our lives in holiness.

In the giving of the myrrh, we're giving of our lives in

sacrifice. You're going to suffer when you

sacrifice. Jesus suffered when he

sacrifice. Your pride may suffer if you

become bold for Jesus. What will people think of you if

you actually speak his name at your workplace or don't imbibe

on what they imbibe on when you're out of the business trip

or you're in a circle of friends and they're all doing something

like this isn't representative of Jesus, but I really want to

fit in. So I'm I'm going to do this

instead of standing up and saying, you know, the most

important thing to me is Christ Jesus my king.

You're going to suffer when you make that sacrifice.

People will look at you funny. People don't want to be near the

light because then it reveals the darkness within them, and

they'd rather you not see that. So your pride's going to suffer.

Matthew chapter 5, by the way, says blessed are you when they

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

revile you because of me, For in the same way they reviled me.

Blessed are the persecuted, blessed are those whose pride

suffers because you make a stand for the One He made more than a

stand. It feels like such an

underselling to say He made a stand for you.

He gave his life. He took on the weight of all sin

and all darkness and opposed every demonic agency of Satan.

Your money's going to suffer when you bring your treasure to

the Lord. People will scoff at your

generosity to the Lord. You gave what?

And you say, listen, I'm not motivated by your opinion.

I'm motivated by the generosity of my Savior.

I'm trying to match what He's given to me.

You cannot give God, by the way, you can try.

Your time is going to suffer when you give it to the Lord.

Sacrifice it to the Lord. Taking time to help a neighbor

when you could have just been doing whatever you wanted to do.

Taking time to serve in kids ministry when everyone else is

in the big church suffering over there with snotty nosed

beautiful children. I drove in this morning early,

as I often do on Sundays, and there's other people here before

I am. In fact, one guy was out on the

median out there on Sinclair Rd. putting out parking signs all by

himself. And he does this all the time.

I rolled down my window. I said good morning, Alex.

He said morning. It's like, how are you?

He says I'm tired because it's early.

You know what time you had to get up to get here, to get the

pickup truck to go load it with all the stuff from the trailer

over there, and then to drive around the property putting up

cones and signs so that you and I can move orderly about our

parking lot. It's a sacrifice.

When his alarm went off this morning, he suffered.

Our worship team, I'm looking here at Wayne, our AVL team,

They're all part of the worship team.

You know what time they get here.

What time is it, Wayne? 6:00 AM.

They get here when their alarm goes off at 4:30 for Wayne 555.

He just out the door right here is like I'm here on time.

They're suffering and the enemy wants to tell you this lie that

the suffering is the end of the story.

So that all that you do when you consider the cost of following

Jesus is just consider the cost. The enemy does not want you to

think about what you're suffering.

What Jesus is suffering produces because his suffering produced

salvation. His suffering was not wasted and

neither will your suffering be. When you bring your sacrifice,

it will produce something, but the enemy is just going to have

you focus on the sacrifice. The Lord your God today, via me,

wants you to think about what suffering produces, what a

produce for Jesus, and what it can produce for us.

The tree was cut. The tree was suffering, but it

produced healing. The tree of life was pierced and

it is suffering produced healing.

What could your suffering produce?

Romans chapter 5. Therefore, since we have been

Romans 5 · chapter mention

justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord

Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into

this grace in which we now stand, and we boast in the hope

of the glory of our God. Not only so, but we also glory

in our sufferings. This is the mark of a mature

believer because we know that suffering produces something.

Perseverance. Perseverance is your ability to

stand up under it. Whatever it is, whatever comes

crashing down, whatever the cost, the sacrifice, you're able

to stand up under it. And then perseverance produces

character. Yeah, come on, say it.

What is character? Character is the integrity of

your heart, knowing that when I stand up under it, God meets me

and I'm able then to walk in the ability of what He has in me,

which eventually produces hope. And hope is this.

No, not a notion. It is a knowing in your spirit

that whatever comes next I can face because of what happened

before and who He is and what He's done and what He said He

will do. I have persevered.

It has grown my character. Now no matter what comes, I have

hope, which I didn't read the scripture, I just started

talking. And hope does not put us to

shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts

to the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

To bring your myrrh is to sacrifice.

Be willing to pay the price to suffer.

Air quotes for Jesus. Yes, you will feel pain, you

will experience it, but what it produces is worth it.

Here's the last way I want to tell you that you can suffer.

And maybe today you came just to hear this.

Somebody in here. This is this part God put on me

last minute for you. Here's another way to suffer.

You see, myrrh was not just for embalming the dead.

It was more often used for healing the living.

Rub it on a wound, swish it in your mouth.

It's used for healing. It's almost as if the Magi knew

Jesus. You're going to need this.

You will be wounded yourself, yet you will bring healing to so

many. This is what myrrh represents,

not the death, but the healing. So to bring your myrrh is to

partner with Jesus and become a healer.

The healing is first for you because there's a wound in your

heart because of sin. And God said, let me rush some

myrrh on it, the blood of my Jesus, and I will heal you of

the wound of sin, the penalty of sin, the price of sin, which is

death. Let me rub some myrrh on it.

I'm asking you to think of any wound that is currently going on

in your life. It's usually because we're

humans in relationship to another human, and there's a

wound between you and another person.

Or maybe there's a wound between you and the person in the

mirror. Either way, the solution is the

same. Wherever there's a wound, rub

some mirror on it. Rub the healing blood of Jesus

on it. Be a forgiver.

Be a peacemaker, not a peacekeeper.

Is there somebody you need to rub some mirror on?

Here's the last little part. You don't have any myrrh

yourself. We are smeared, covered in the

blood of the Lamb. So when you're rubbing myrrh on

somebody else, this is what you're doing.

What has been given to me, I give to you.

In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let's pray. God, what you have done in myrrh

is stunning. It's not just some throwaway

gift at the end of a sentence. It is spectacular and what you

have created, it is astonishing. And the parallels between that

and your son Jesus, who is far more astonishing than myrrh,

pierced for our transgressions and by his wounds we are healed.

For that we say thank you to the extent that the audacious

forgiveness you've given us in Jesus, we are commanded,

inspired to extend to another. And just now in your heart, in

your, in your mind where you can see mentally another face,

another person that there is distance between you and them,

would you just reach out and smear them with myrrh, smear it

right on them? You got to take what Jesus has

given you, the forgiveness that he's given you, and offer it to

them. Father, forgive us our

trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us.

And finally, know this church, if you have never received the

forgiveness of Jesus, never been smeared in the blood of Jesus,

the myrrh, the healing, the forgiveness of God, you can do

that right here, right now. He went to the cross for you.

The myrrh was for you, the piercing was for you, the blood

of healing and redemption shed for you.

Don't let it go to waste. Receive it into your heart today

by just repeating this prayer. In fact, everybody together

would you pray with me saying, Father, in the name of Jesus, I

recognize that I am a Sinner in need of the blood of Jesus, the

healing blood of Jesus. So I confess and I believe that

Jesus is Lord and I receive you, Jesus as my Savior now and

forevermore. Hallelujah.

Just pray that in your heart for a second.

If that's you today making a decision to receive Jesus by

faith, I'm going to ask you to do 1 bold thing in the same way

that Jesus love was bold for you on the count of three.

I'm going to ask you if you've believed this for the first time

today to raise your hand as high as it will go because I have

something I need to put in your hands here and now, something so

crucial and important that you would just raise your hand if

you believe for the first time today. 123, any believers today,

any new believers, come on, praise God.

Any others, we're coming to you. Keep your hands up.

Well done. You made the most important,

best decision of your life. Church is already celebrating.

Heaven is celebrating with you. Anyone else, praise God.

If you're making that decision online, just type in the

comments. I believe in Jesus.

We want to connect with you church.

I'm going to say Amen. And you know what to do,

Celebrate. His heaven is celebrating

because God is good and he just saved some people from hell in

Jesus name, Amen. Thanks for joining us today.

We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.

If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to

407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot church.

Have a great week.