Messiah - Part 2

i'm ask you to hold this but not open it

yet

Okay So you may have heard uh we won an

award Now when I found out that we were

the finalist for the best of the album

award as a house of worship um some of

our leaders were in that room when we

found out and we determined that we

would not use social media church social

media or uh this pullpit to solicit

votes Uh we figured that if we were

going to win which we didn't think we

would we would but if we were going to

win it would be a grassroots effort uh

organic uh people that just wanted to

bring attention to the church that they

loved And so uh we figured that we

wouldn't win Um but we did what we've

done for the last decade and just did

the thing that we thought wouldn't work

And it actually did work So Larry could

you unveil our award sir come on Vanna

It's literally a folder man It's

not

Hey so this award states that Sawers

Creek Baptist Church was voted best

house of worship uh for best of the

album 2025

So um yeah

Now I I gotta be honest this is not uh

awards aren't my thing Probably because

I never win awards so I'm not really

used to like having to deal with stuff

like this But uh I do like this one

because I feel as though it's it's

validation Uh it should be encouraging

not just for our church but for all the

other churches in our community because

what this does is it validates that

historical churches who want to have a

future can actually make decisions that

give them and secure them a future It it

validates this idea that when you have

worship that is based on passion and not

preference that you can actually

generate authentic worship that people

respond to It validates the idea that

small groupoup ministries can really be

the foundation of a church It validates

the idea that volunteer-led ministry

structures can accomplish big things It

validates the the model of the

congregational church where all church

members have a voice It it validates the

fact that God rewards churches that

don't just hoard talent but try to send

it out to help other branches of God's

family tree It validates the idea that

you can still be a unified church even

if you have members that don't agree

with all of the decisions that are being

made It validates the the concept the

the the preaching of the word actually

matters That putting God's word front

and center in every single ministry at

every level of the church produces great

results It validates the idea that

pastors can still use Taco Bell sermon

illustrations in 2025 Amen We can Yes we

can do it Don't lose hope fellas Don't

lose hope But ultimately it validates

that the core values that were created

by the people that call this little

branch of God's family tree this little

church by the creek it validates that

the culture and the core values that you

bring to this assembly actually have an

impact on the world around you So I just

want to take a moment to thank you for

allowing us to win this award So thank

you Thank you

[Applause]

Lord All right enough of that Let's get

to God's word today We're going to be

looking at a few passages of scripture

Uh mainly Matthew chapter 11 if you want

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

to go there And as you're turning there

I do want to give a shout out to uh

Pastor Rich Ganon Hope Fellowship and Dr

Douglas Gius for uh their work and uh

providing me some resources that I would

need to use in today's sermon to help

you uh have a stronger faith because

that's what this thing is all about It

it's my conviction that no matter who

you are no matter how old you are that

you should have an answer for your faith

I don't want you to walk out of these

doors and say "Hey I believe in Jesus

because Pastor Kevin said so or because

my grandmother said so." I want you to

have a faith that you can defend that

you can carry with you into every

context that you go into even when other

people try to talk you out of your faith

I want you to have the answers for why

you believe that Jesus really is the son

of God And so last week uh we talked

about this undeniable historical figure

named Jesus who made these incredible

claims about himself And we talked about

how all of those those claims could be

validated And and that's what I'm trying

to bring in this sermon series It's

really one sermon that'll stretch all

throughout the month of April But I want

you to understand that Jesus is the

reality of what is hoped for He is the

proof of what is not seen That is faith

You don't have to turn your brain off at

the door to believe in Jesus You can

have a logical faith that's based on

things outside of the scripture So if

you missed last week's sermon I would

encourage you to go back on YouTube and

uh listen to it or you can go to our uh

Sawers Creek Sermons podcast and listen

to it Uh one because I put a lot of

effort into it uh two because there's a

lot of information in that sermon that

will help you have a a more uh more

grounded faith a faith that can be

defended outside of using the word of

God to defend who Jesus is And then

number three it's because I got the best

single review of anything that I have

ever done in my entire life Uh let me

read this to you Only our

pastor it's usually bad things that

happen after that Only our pastor can

give suchformational truths in history

in such a great way and correlate it

somehow to

Chick-fil-A That is a gift You're right

That is a gift It's one that nobody else

needs but it is a gift Let's

pray Father thank you for uh what you've

done here today already Thank you for

showing up in a big way when we needed

you And Lord I pray that you would

continue to have your spirit uh just

speak to us in this house of worship

today Jesus name I pray

Amen Jesus undeniably changed the world

Even non-Christian historians at the

most secular of universities will tell

you that the man named Jesus undeniably

changed the world Most people will tell

you that Jesus death and of course we

believe his resurrection is the most

significant event in human history

Friends there is abs this is not

preacher talk There there is no way to

oversell the impact that Jesus has made

on our world from establishing our

calendars to forming our great nation

here in the United States of America the

every aspect of reality has been touched

in some way or correlated to the Messiah

Jesus Christ W- which is crazy because

Jesus never led a military He never

built a building He never wrote a book

He never started a company He never held

a political office He was not aligned

with the the Jewish leadership the

Pharisees or the Sadducees or the

Sanhedrin He was not aligned with the

Roman Caesars His initial followers were

unremarkably

uh unremarkable people Uh Heracles we

talked about him last week He was a

first century Roman philosopher a

non-believer And he criticized Jesus in

his books portraying him as a gang

leader with get this

uneducated followers Uneducated

followers Right so so Jesus didn't even

have like the elite people following him

around He spent the majority of his time

teaching in a region known as Galilee a

region with an accent that was so strong

that people in larger cities would not

allow people from Galilee to actually

even in the synagogues like read scrolls

or speak in public because they detested

that accent so much And these are the

people that Jesus spent the majority of

his time with He literally did not check

any of the boxes necessary to become a

cultural fulcrum Yet here we are 2,000

years later still talking about Jesus So

here's my main idea for today Jesus is

an undeniable historical figure that

must be reckoned with Jesus is an

undeniable historical figure that must

be reckoned with So specifically Jesus

claimed to be the way the truth and the

life The only way to life the only way

to truth and the only way to heaven So

with those claims in mind we have to ask

ourselves the question do we trust Jesus

now here's where a lot of you

misinterpret that question You hear that

question as should I trust Jesus to make

a place for me in heaven when I die so I

grew up old school Baptist Like if you

got caught drawing on the back of the

ombre offering envelope during worship

service there were little ladies in the

church that carried spoons in their

purse and they would wrap your knuckles

if you did that And the crazy thing is

like your mom the one who birthed you

the one who like is supposed to love you

she scoots you closer to those people

when you get in trouble She's like "I

don't even know them Go ahead beat

them." You know like that's the kind of

environment that I grew up in in the

churches that I attended Now in those

churches you also had preachers that

would preach those hellfire and

brimstone style services that a lot of

people still like today but they'd be

like "Well you better get your life

right with the Lord because if you died

on your way home you would either be in

heaven or you'd be in hell." And I I

would look over at my mom I'd be like

"Man I've seen your driving You know I I

don't know that we're going to make it

home on Route 34 tonight so I don't want

to go to hell I want to go to heaven."

You know these preachers like scared the

heaven into me But but here's the

problem It is possible for you to accept

heaven into your heart and not Jesus Let

me say it again It is very possible for

you to accept heaven into your heart and

not

Jesus We have this story in scripture

about a rich young ruler and he asked

Jesus he says "What must I do to inherit

eternal life?" So where's his mind his

mind is on the future It's on past his

death It's on eternity and and he's like

"What do I have to do to make sure I

live forever in this paradise that I've

heard about this this

heaven?" And Jesus reads off a a list of

Old Testament commands and the the ruler

says "Well I've done all that." I'm like

"Really man you're going to lie right to

the face of Jesus Like take the Ten

Commandment quiz There is no way on

earth that you passed the Ten

Commandment quiz." Okay So this guy

basically lying to Jesus says "Well I've

already done all those things you know

follow the law perfectly never sinned

before Anyway Jesus peers into his heart

and he sees what the real issue is And

so he tells the rich young ruler about

his idol An idol is anything that you

trust more than you trust Jesus Like you

have a throne on your heart This is the

decision-making core of who you are And

so your decision-making core has a ruler

And whatever sets on that throne that

ruler controls everything that you do

You sacrifice for the thing that you

love the most And so that could be

sports that could be money that could be

whatever So he looks into this guy's

life and he sees that sitting on the

throne of his heart is this this thing

this this money this issue with wealth

And so he says "All right here's what

you need to do If you want to have

eternal life I want you to sell

everything that you have and give it to

the poor." And the rich young ruler

walks away sorrowfully See he wanted to

know that his eternity was safe He

wanted heaven but he didn't want Jesus

to tell him how to live in the here and

now So faith isn't just about trusting

Jesus with your eternity It's about

trusting Jesus It's about believing that

Jesus is right And you say "Right about

what?" Right about everything Jesus is

Lord See we have these rooms in our

heart a lot of times that are off limits

to Jesus We love for him to come into

our heart and guarantee us a place in

heaven forever We we'll open that door

for him any day But there are other

rooms in our heart that have been sealed

off because of trauma or because of

sinful behavior that we just don't want

Jesus messing around in And so we're

like Jesus you can come in and you can

bring that eternal life with you but

you're not getting in my kitchen You're

not getting in my television room You're

not getting into my entertainment you're

not getting into my bedroom You can go

anywhere else but these places are off

limits Or if you have trauma you have

that trauma that you've shoved into the

closet You're like Jesus you're not

going in there You're not opening that

door because I'm not ready to deal with

that yet So we kind of segregate our our

hearts to Jesus But that puts us in a

really bad position CS Lewis calls this

his trilmma He says Jesus is either a

liar a lunatic or he's the Lord And

there is no other choice Jesus is either

a liar a lunatic And I hope that my my

teaching last week helped you see that

Jesus is definitely not a liar And he is

definitely not a lunatic He is an actual

undeniable historical figure that did

all the things that we believe that he

did said all the things we believe he

said and proved himself to be the Lord

So we we believe all that But if he's

not a liar and he's not a lunatic that

only leaves one option That means he has

to be the Lord He He's not just somebody

that's in charge of your eternity in the

future Although he is and he went before

you and prepared a place for you that

you can enjoy forever in heaven after

you die Like that's legit but there's

this whole other aspect of your life So

well uh what if you don't die on your

way home tonight uh like who's going to

be in charge of your tomorrow is

basically what we need to focus on today

Jesus is an undeniable historical figure

that died on a cross and rose from the

dead But is he your Lord or is he just

your fire

insurance so Jesus didn't show up to die

on a cross I mean he did That was his

mission But that's not all he did He

wasn't just born in Bethlehem died on a

cross There was stuff in between

specifically after he became a rabbi

when he turned 30 years old And so Jesus

was a rabbi He was a teacher Rabbis kind

of functioned like colleges or

universities do today So rabbis had

different renown different skill sets

And so you would apply to set under a

certain rabbi And that rabbi would look

over your application and determine

whether or not he wanted to teach you

And so he would accept you as a disciple

into his his group or he would reject

you Now the function of the rabbi was to

help the the communities figure out how

to live out the Old Testament law

commonly known as the Mosaic law So the

first five books of the Bible Genesis

Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy

They call that the Pentatuk that is

where the the when they refer to Torah

that's what they're talking about So

they would teach the Torah which

contained all kinds of laws especially

like Leviticus if you read through that

lots and lots of laws And so in

communities people would read the law

that says do not work on the Sabbath and

then they would naturally say what does

it mean to work on the Sabbath like are

they talking about things where I make

money or is this talking about like

doing my laundry you know what does work

on a Sabbath actually look like and so

the rabbi would teach his disciples how

to answer that question in the cultural

context in which they lived So if you

ever wondered why a hetic Jew will not

push an elevator button on Saturday

which is their Sabbath they consider

that work If you ever wondered where

that came from it came from rabbitical

teaching the interpretation man's

interpretation of God's Old Testament

law that has been carried out through

generations So ultimately rabbis s

served a good purpose They would help

people have a better relationship with

God And they had these these lesson

plans these teachings that were referred

to as a yoke So a disciple was yolked to

his rabbi and they would go on a journey

to honor God together And rabbis had

this typically had unique perspectives

on the Old Testament law And that

created different yolks So depending on

where you studied you would learn

different things And so there would be

different belief systems and different

teachings on the Old Testament law And

Jesus by far had the most unique take on

the law of anybody else That's why he

captivated so many people to the point

where townships would shut down for days

and even weeks when Jesus would come

around Kind of like the Bassmaster

tournament here in Elizabeth City this

last week You know they would barricade

off stuff Business some businesses would

shut down so that people could go and

see the the entertainment By the way I

watched it on TV and I saw where these

guys were fishing and I'm like I've

fished there a thousand times and I've

never caught a fish and like they go

there for five minutes and they catch 30

pounds of fish So I took my fishing

license and I shredded it because I

don't deserve it anymore

anyway Like I don't deserve you Whatever

Anyway so that's kind of what would

happen when Jesus came near your town

They would just shut everything down all

the businesses because people wanted to

hear what Jesus had to say That's why he

had to feed 5,000 on two different

occasions because all the people that

came they didn't even take time to like

grab a lunch They were just like "No

we're going to go hear Jesus We don't

even think about food right now." And

they would sit there and almost starve

to death listening to the way that this

rabbi taught the Old Testament law of

God Everybody wanted to hear what he had

to say And so this is the way that Jesus

would teach If you want to go back and

read his very first sermon it's in

Matthew chapter 5 verse all the way

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

through Matthew chapter 7 and it's known

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

as the sermon on the mount And what

you'll notice is his teaching was

rebbitical teaching He was taking Old

Testament law and he was telling people

how to live out that law in their modern

context And he was doing it in a way

that no rabbi had ever done before So he

would say things like "You have heard it

said "Do not commit murder." And people

be like "Yep we've heard that." And then

he says "But I tell you it is wrong to

have hatred in your heart." And then he

goes on He says "You have heard it said

not to commit adultery." And they'd be

like "Yeah we've heard that." And then

he would say "But I tell you it is wrong

to have lust in your heart." Jesus

rabbitical interpretation of scripture

was clearly moving people from head

knowledge to heart knowledge Jesus was

doing something that no other rabbi was

doing Back then it was all behaviorism

And by the way you still have a lot of

that today in a lot of churches It was

all about behaviorism Don't do this Do

this Don't do this Do this They wouldn't

touch the heart of the problem They

would try to correct the behavior And

now here we have Jesus this man that

comes in out of nowhere starts teaching

the Old Testament law as a rabbi telling

people that "Hey this is deeper than the

surface level This is not just about

what you do and what you say This is

about what you think and why you think

it Like there's a heart level root issue

problem that you need to deal with and

it's known as sin And guess what nobody

else can fix that for you except me is

what he would say This is a totally new

yoke totally different way of

understanding scripture That's why you

read in Matthew Mark Luke and John that

people were astonished at his teaching

because Jesus taught with authority That

that word is schmica I love that word He

He had schmikica This is like Ivy League

elite level teaching that you could only

get certified for if you had two other

rabbis sign off on you as a rabbi with

Schmikah Like you had to earn this

degree But here we have Jesus who had

never been endorsed by another rabbi

teaching with Schmikah teaching with

authority So in Luke 20 verse one says

one day that Jesus was teaching the the

people in the temple courts and he was

proclaiming the good news and the chief

priests and the teachers of the law

together with the elders they came up to

him and they said tell us by what

authority you were doing these things

who gave you this authority and he

replied I will also ask you a question

answer a question with a question I like

it he says tell me John's baptism was it

from heaven or was it from human origin

So they're like "Where are your

endorsements can we see your resume can

we see something you pull off the wall

you know and show us where people have

signed off on you to be able to do what

you're doing?" And he says "Hey have you

heard of John the

Baptist?" John was the first endorser of

Jesus He was the first one to validate

Jesus ministry And that was a big deal

because John was super popular He had a

huge following And so if John endorsed

you that carried a lot of weight And

this is what John said in John 1:29 Said

John 1:29

"The next day John saw Jesus coming

toward him and he said "Look the lamb of

God who takes away the sin of the

world." In Luke 3:16 he says John

Luke 3:16

answered them all "I baptize you with

water but the one who is more powerful

than I am is coming I'm not worthy to

untie the strap of his sandals."

Endorser number one John the Baptist

Endorser number two is God He's pointing

them to God Matthew 3:17 "And I heard a

Matthew 3:17

voice from heaven and said "This is my

son whom I love with whom I am well

pleased." And then in Matthew 17:5 we

Matthew 17:5

learn that God also said "Listen to him

voice from heaven telling everyone this

guy he's the real deal Listen to what he

has to say." But people were still

skeptical with these endorsements

because Jesus didn't go through the

rabbitical schools He didn't set under a

rabbi He didn't follow the path that

you're supposed to follow to be in the

position that he was in Yet people still

listened But things changed on Palm

Sunday which would be today in our Holy

Week People were shouting hosana hosana

and they wanted to make Jesus king But

just a few days later they would be

shouting "Crucify him crucify him!" So

they could hang him on a cross So we're

going to talk more about that next week

But this week I want to talk about how

things changed for John the Baptist too

because John pushes Herod too far and

he's put in prison and he's sentenced to

be

executed So the one who endorsed Jesus

now sends some of his own disciples to

Jesus to ask him a very important

question one that you should probably

ask yourselves today as well In Matthew

Matthew 11:2–3

11:2-3 now when John heard in prison

that Christ was what Christ was doing he

sent a message through his disciples and

asked him "Are you the one who is to

come are you the prophesied Messiah or

should we expect someone else?" So John

is going through a rough patch to say

the least and he's wrestling with who

Jesus is the one that endorsed Jesus is

now wrestling with the the idea that

maybe Jesus really isn't who he said he

is And so he's in prison He's given his

entire life to this ministry and he

knows he's probably going to die for it

So he just needs to know He needs to

hear it from the the lips of Jesus Are

you really the

one see he doesn't ask to be released

from prison He doesn't even pray that

God will let him out of prison because

John will go through anything if Jesus

is the Messiah If Jesus is the one but

he just needs to

know are you the one friends you might

be going through the same thing And

maybe you don't talk about it publicly

publicly because you come to to church

every week but there's potential that

that perhaps you you've wondered the

same thing You just want to know is

Jesus the one well Jesus responds in

verse four He says 'Go and report to

John what you hear and see The blind

receive their sight The lame walk Those

with leprosy are cleansed The deaf hear

The dead are raised And the poor are

told the good news And the blessed is

the one who isn't offended by me He says

"Look at the facts man." And we talked

about those last week all these

thousands of historical accounts that

Jesus really is who he says he is and

did these things But you could also just

look up in the sky You see there there's

a thing called the big bang And I like

this story because it Einstein came up

with the theory of relativity which a

lot of people you know endorsed thought

was the greatest thing ever Um but guess

what it had an error in it Did you know

that einstein made a rookie mistake He

divided by zero Okay I don't know what

that means but he did He divided by zero

And because of that his theory has been

disproven over time So this guy named

Alexander Freriedman in the early 1900s

he corrected Einstein's theory of

relativity and he corrected that that

mistake that he made because what it did

it it showed that the universe is

actually expanding from one point Now

that was just a theory at the time He

couldn't prove it He just knew that the

theorem was wrong and there was

potential for that to be true So in the

1920s we had this guy named Edward

Hubble You may have heard of his

telescope um he observed data in the

stars that showed that dozens of

galaxies are moving away from the earth

at a rapid speed It's called a a red

shift You can see the change in color in

the light of these distant galaxies as

they look like they originated in one

point and they're just expanding outward

But still that was a theory and they

needed more proof So in the 1940s after

World War II these scientists got

together and they said "Hey if the

universe was created in a big bang then

there would be radiation still present

from said big bang." Unfortunately they

couldn't they couldn't see it or measure

it at the time But in the 1960s a

physicist named Arno Peninszes and

Robert Wilson they detected cosmic

fireball radiation therefore

establishing that all those theories on

the expansion of the universe were true

So then you have like the the these

these theories that come along that show

that things that are stable will like

normalize But when you look at the world

the world is not stable It's descending

from this point of singularity where

space and time came into existence

Literally nothing existed before So

we're not stabilizing We're actually

expanding And so the law second law of

ther thermodynamics says that our

universe is moving irreversibly toward a

state of maximum disorder and maximum

energy This end point which is known as

heat death indicates that the universe

is strictly linear And you say "Why did

you give me that boring science lesson?"

All to get to one point One point And

that's this All that is winding down

must have been wound up at some point

It's where we're at today What does that

mean it means that the world was created

by some cause that is

eternal So there had to be an eternal

thing that created a thing that is

temporary and noneternal

We are moving toward an end point The

only way to move toward an end point

means that you had to have a starting

point And so what is that starting point

well all the theories in the world point

back to the most logical piece of data

that we have in the entire universe

which is Genesis chapter 1 that tells us

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

God spoke the world into existence There

was a big bang and everything expanded

from there It makes logical sense And

you say "Well how can you prove it was

God?" Well I can but I don't have time

today to do that All right but just know

this Your Bible teaches truth Dallas

Willard puts it this way At a mundane

level Jesus knew how to transform the

molecular structure of water to make it

wine That knowledge allowed him to take

a few pieces of bread and some little

fish and feed thousands of people He

knew how to transform the tissues of the

human body from sickness to health from

death to life He knew how to suspend

gravity and interrupt weather patterns

He needed only a word Surely God must or

Jesus must be amused at what Nobel

prizes are handed out for today Jesus is

Lord can mean little pra in practice to

people that don't believe that Jesus is

smart He is smart He is brilliant He is

the smartest man that ever lived In

other words John you are not placing

your faith in some abstract concept We

have proof through the signs and wonders

that were performed by Jesus that he

really is God He is eternal He is in

control of all things And so you say "Is

he worth it?" Yeah he's worth it I just

want to end with one quick story I went

to the Philippines on a mission trip

before I got married and I was super

broke Um but cool thing was the exchange

rate was definitely in my favor over in

the Philippines And so on my way home uh

as we were getting ready to leave Manila

I I saw this really cool jade ring It

was green jade ring and and I I took it

and I bought it even though I couldn't

afford it really but I I bought it and I

put it on and I just thought I was the

coolest guy in the world man I was

showing my ring to everybody I'm like

"Hey check out this ring all the way

from the Philippines." You know like I

thought it was amazing Right Well also

being poor you didn't like you couldn't

afford a lot of things So I didn't I

didn't indulge myself in like sodas all

the time things like that Like that was

a luxury item But when I did I had this

system I would buy a Sprite and I would

buy Jolly Rancher Anybody Jolly Rancher

fans anybody even know what they are are

they still in existence i don't even

know Jolly the green apple Praise God

Jolly Rancher is by far the be I can't

wait to see the review on this one Um

the uh by far the best of the Jolly

Ranchers for me So what I would do is I

would take my Sprite and I would open it

I would put the green apple Jolly

Rancher into the Sprite close it up put

it in the refrigerator overnight the

candy would dissolve and it would flavor

the soda I invented that You got 25

flavors of Dr Pepper because of me All

right So anyway so I loved green apple

jolly ranchers And so there was this

parade in Shinston I was there with my

fiance Susan and we were uh watching the

parade and all of a sudden it was back

in the day where you were actually

allowed to throw things at people in

parades the good old days right so they

would just get handfuls of hard candy

and be like throw it out into the crowd

And so you know the candy would be all

over the road and everything And I

looked down and I saw a green apple

Jolly Rancher right in front of me and I

was so excited But I also saw this kid

beside me who saw the same green apple

jolly rancher Like you know they'd been

throwing those cheap mints all day at us

but this was a Jolly Rancher right this

is worth fighting for So I look at that

seven-year-old I'm like whatever So I

dove literally dove onto the street to

get the Jolly Rancher Boom Grabbed it I

looked up and I had smashed my jade ring

into the pavement and it broke into a

million pieces And at that moment I was

like was it worth it friends it was not

because I can get another green Jolly

Rancher I could not get another jade

ring that I could afford from the

Philippines But as I think about that

that story and that thought that went

through my head I can kind of relate to

what John's going through here He's like

"Is it worth it i don't I don't want to

change a thing I just need to know

before I die Is it Was it worth it was

it worth it see friends a lot of times

we we see these shiny new objects this

this new enticing idol that's placed in

front of us and we have this beautiful

thing with Jesus but we see that and

we're like "Ah man I really want that."

And so we dive and we we completely

eradicate our relationship with Christ

in order to get this temporary

satisfaction And so John just wants to

know hey is it worth resisting all of

the green apple jolly ranchers in the

world in order to have a relationship

with Jesus

jesus goes on in that chapter to let

John

know to let him know that yeah it's

worth it Yes it's absolutely worth

it to not chase after the things of the

world but to keep that relationship with

Christ Now look it sounds like it would

be a burden to be yolked to someone

because yeah you got to set under

somebody's teaching but the truth is

we're teaching dependent people That

means if you don't allow Jesus to be

your Lord if you don't take up his yoke

then someone else is going to put their

yoke on you You will pick up someone

else's teachings So why not pick up the

teachings of the one who said this in

verse uh 28 chapter 11 come to me all of

you who are weary and burdened and I

will give you rest He says "Take my yoke

Take my teachings upon you and learn

from me because I'm lowly and humble in

heart and you will find rest for your

souls My yoke is easy and my burden is

light." Why not take up the yoke of

someone who promises to relieve all of

your

burdens and to make all of your work

worth it

jesus would go on to deny the people

that wanted to make him king on Palm

Sunday and walk straight toward that

cross So why not take up the yoke of the

person who was going to be made king but

turned it all down in order to go die a

humiliating agonizing death on a cross

just so that you could have a

relationship with him and eternal life

Father question is what what if I live

for a

while what if today is not my day to go

home who am I going to listen

to who's going to influence me

it's my prayer today

that as we focus on the the cross with

this last

song Father that we would be reminded

that the person who h should have the

most influence in our lives is the same

person who willingly placed himself on a

cross to nail the burden of our sin to

appease God's wrath to sacrifice himself

for us to substitute uh his

righteousness for our sinfulness all

those beautiful analogies that have been

drawn out Help us Lord to remember that

Jesus is Lord He's not just the Lord of

our eternity He's the Lord of our

presence Lord I pray that as we leave

this place today we would have a burning

desire in our heart to yoke ourselves to

Jesus to his teachings to learn from him

to do the things that he wants us to do

to look at our heart the reason we act

the way we do the reason we speak the

way we do Lord to look inside of us and

see that that sinfulness that closet

door that has been locked for decades

because of the trauma that we went

through as a child Lord I pray that

today we will open that door and give

you full access And even if it hurts to

deal with some of those things Lord I

pray that we would walk through that

hurt the same way John walked through

the walls of that that prison on his way

to his execution knowing knowing that

Jesus is Lord and that it was worth

every moment Help us to have that

confidence today Jesus name I pray Amen

[Music]

on a

hill far away

Old

[Music]

cross where the

dear

rest

world was slain

So

[Music]

I'll

[Music]

cross till my

trophies at

last lay

[Music]

down I will

cling to the

rocked

cross and exchange it someday

[Music]

for the

world as a

attraction for

[Music]

me for the

dear lamb of

[Music]

God to

bear

[Music]

calary share There

[Music]

she

cross till my

trophies at last

lay down

[Music]

I will

cling to

the

[Music]

cross and

exchange

it for a crown