The Three Unlikely Bystanders | Pr Dr Daniel

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

You know, I always started by saying that a mature

as boy, I am still a Cherras boy. But today

I have my wife with me and my family. Uh

and I always say she's my CEO, my chief encouragement

officer that's here today. But yeah, fun fact is that

she's also a Cherirass girl. In fact, she's more to

us than me. So many generations of a family have

been here, so so yeah, it's good to be here

worshiping together as a family for the first time. Anyway,

my two boys are here as well. Okay, so yeah,

so good to be here together in next Churras as

we celebrate Good Friday. You know, before we even begin,

I just want to quickly ask you know this question.

Have ever received or been surprised with something that maybe

you don't quite deserve or maybe you don't quite I

think that you get it, but you actually see something,

let's say a price or a gift or anything like that.

Anybody have those experiences before? Just curious you have? Right? Yeah,

So for me, I was tide of a story. I

remember I was a student many many moons ago. I

was still look like a student, right, Yeah, and then

I was studying. My wife will laugh at me, encouraging,

very encouraging. Yeah, but you know, I was a poor student,

but I was also blessed to be studying abroad at

a time. But poor but poor. And I remember I

used to come back quite regularly, try my best to

come back as regular as I can because at the

time I was dating my then girlfriend now wife, So

I always found an excuse to come back. But it

was not easy. And every time I hit back to

my it was one of those very challenging moments because

it's like, you know that long distance here we go

again kind of a thing. So long story short, I

actually was hitting back and I went to the airport.

I was dressed frum billy, you know, like student line jeans,

toorn jeans, a little bit T shirt, nothing too fancy.

No one would turn the you know ben and I,

you know, like student for a students. Then I got

into through the security, through the check in process, and

then at the gate I was succeated. I mean this

after clearance. I was waiting for my flight, and then

some officers came by and talked to me. Then I

was a little bit nervous because what happened? Did they

find something? Just to give you a bit of backstory,

I used to also uh cramp a lot of items

into my bags as in books and Maggie me and

those kind of things. Like back then it was, uh,

you know, the the Asian roses overseas are not very

well stopped. Just give you some contexts. In fact, it's

very very hard to find any Asian food abroad. So

literally as much as you can pack, you pack. Uh. So,

So anyway, they stop buy and they say in check Daniel.

You know, you know, it's like very formally. So I thought, okay,

I'm in trouble. Where are you going? Okay? Then I,

you know, un said I'm going to study or study.

Then after they came and say something along the lines, hey,

you know, I mean he said you've been upgraded to

business camera you said something like that along those lines.

Huh number. But I mean, like, by the way, I've

never had the I mean I've never been upgrade before.

That's the first experience. Uh. And and I'd be like,

who me wrong? Wrong? Daniel? Is it? Because again student

poor looking? Uh? Definite about economy class tickets, uh, and

and and and then of course after that, the whole

experience was a little bit different from my traditional economy

class kind of experience. So when you get on board,

people will address you by your first by your surname,

mister Kong. This is your seat, which is like a

hot towel, you know, which is like some champagne before

you begin, and the works. So even though my hands

weren't dirty, of course I just took the towel and

you know, used it because you know, why not right,

don't want to look out of place? Yeah, and would

you like another pillow? Of course being gas, whatever I

can take, I take. Then of course this the seat

can recline all the way flat. Wow, what a luxury man.

And again I probably needn't now more that I'm older,

but back then, you know, I really enjoyed it. And

of course there's something very different. Back then. There wasn't

much age, so I had to fly Malaysian airlines during

my time, so we had this infamous business class statists.

Just imagine having that uh you know, many many you

know up in the sky is amazing. But of course

I enjoyed experience but after the experience, I thought to myself,

I didn't deserve the upgrade, certainly not pay for it,

certainly didn't look the part. You know, sometimes they say

you get upgraded because you dress properly. And I know

some people, some of my friends, they try to dress properly.

They bring even the checking golf golf bags and all that,

just to look a bit more in place. I'm certainly

not that person. I didn't expect anything, but I was

treated like royalty for sure. But sometimes it's life is

a bit like that. You know, you don't really deserve it,

but you get something that you know out of well

unintentional something or unintentional surprise or even a gift. And

that's sometimes how God works, right when you are going

through life thinking they're going to economy, prepared to go economy,

but God just steps in and turns things around a

little bit. And you know, it's almost the same as

when you come in today. You didn't think that you're

going to be hearing anything different. It's probably like you

one hundred good Friday or Easter Sunday service kind of

a message. You're just passing by doing life. But you know,

when let's say for its pastor pastor, you know, Lauria

comes up and say, hey, would you like to take

over the microphone? Or you know you won the prize today.

You know, something would change automatically and you think like,

is it me? God, did you get it wrong? Am

I the one that's supposed to be doing that? And

this is exactly what has happened in some In the

stories that I'm going to be sharing today and tonight, I'm

going to be looking at three people that perhaps were

invited to a good Friday service almost okay, and they

were just doing their own thing, and suddenly they were

in for a surprise. They were a part. They were

being a part of something bigger than they thought, and

they thought they're just coming in for just a regular

Friday night. Okay. So I don't know about you, but sometimes,

even for me, you entered the wrong door and they're like, oops,

it's not the right place I'm supposed to be right now,

there's even Toilets's quite hard to differentiate whether it's a

female or male. Right, But now imagine this stage, you're

being invited to something bigger, something that you perhaps were

not ready for, and something that you even don't know

how to respond. And this is how I want to

start today's message, because there are some bystanders here today

that you may have come through this thinking that why

did they come here? My friend just dragged me here.

I just got an invitation, and I was wondering what

am I doing here? And you're no different from that

student that was there many years go. But there must

be a reason, right, there must be something bigger, And

let's see what we can learn from some of these

lessons here today. So I'm titling to this message three

unlikely bystanders, unexpected encounters at the cross and this involves

some characters here, and I know a lot of you

will know. These characters will start off with the first

character from Luke twenty three. Okay, this is simon of Serene. Okay,

let's read from Luke twenty three areay? Okay? So far

all right? So but the mob so after a pilot

asks the people to decide, Okay, do you want to

decide to crucify Jesus or crucify the other prisoner? Right? Barbers? Right? Actually,

fun fact, his name is Jesus Barbus full name, but

most people know him Barbers on me, So it's almost

like they chose the around Jesus anyway. After that period, then,

of course, you know, there is that walk to the cross,

right their journey to the cross, and this is where

we're going to pick up. But the mob shouted louder

and louder, demanding that Jesus be crucified, and their voices prevailed.

So Pilots sentenced Jesus to die as they demanded. As

they had requested, he released Barbus, this the other person

who is actually naughty, evil, etc. And the man in

prison for insurrection and murder. So they set the murderer free, Okay,

but he turned all Jesus over to them to do

as they wish. This is the mob, the people. So

the next part talks about the crucifixion. So as they

led Jesus away, the man named Simon, who was from Serene,

this is the place where he's from, happened to be.

I highlight what happened to be, because it's just like

doing his own thing, coming along, probably my name's own business,

a bystander so to speak, coming in from the countryside,

and the Jesus seized him, pulled him over and put him,

put the cross on him. And made him carry it

behind Jesus. Do you see that, right? Jesus was mock

Jesus was beaten just to port he said, he put

the cross on his back and he began to carry it.

And sometimes it comes to a point, the story comes

to the point that even Jesus himself, the almighty god son,

I mean, in this example here his man, but he

physically couldn't carry it across anymore. Hey, I should imagine

that couldn't carry across anymore. That an intervention has to happen.

Jesus destination point is actually very clear. He has to

go to where to a place called galgotta right the

hill where it's going to be crucified, and to get

to the to the top, he has to physically steal journey.

It's a long walk, right, So what has happened here

is that because he physically couldn't reach his destiny, God

the Father also intervened. What did he do? Simon, who's

just mining his own business, being a bystander, probably even

think or even sign up or even know they's going

to be doing this. But he was in the picture

because he was just there. He was just passing by.

And what had happened is that the Romans so just

called Simon and said again, happened to be passing by

right to help Jesus. So Simon is forced to then

get down bear the lord of the Cross of Jesus.

And for some photos here, I think it's taken from

some movies and all that. But yeah, before we focus

on the inconvenience, sometimes you're like, Hey, why's so inconvenient? Why?

Why me? Why am I stopped? I'm doing my own business.

I'm just hitting from point me to point B. Why

am I pulled aside? It's not even me? I why

but we can sometimes you do that. You know, why

is God taking me from what I got to do?

Doesn't God know that I'm busy? He's before we focus

on all these incomunists and even the heaviness, even the

burden of the cross. Think about this. Simon actually became

the very first quote unquote bystander to be able to

be so close to the blood of Jesus, or to

the blood of Christ to be more specific. And we're

saying about the blood of Christ tonight right first, also

to chick up the cross cross figuratively speaking and also

physically right literally, is picking up the cross right, and

the inclusion of Simon here. It's actually quite interesting one

because depending on the perspective of where you stand, it

could be uh, wrong place, at the right, wrong place,

at the right time, or right place, I don't know

you wrong place, wrong time, yes, correct, depending on how

you look at it. But Simon was definitely edged into

the history books because he was just passing by my

names on business and Jesus of course you know, fell

down under the way of the cross and he couldn't

care anymore, so he had to come in because the

gods just pulled him over. So what can we learn

from this moment with Simon? Okay? Some facts, just some facts. Okay.

God could have gave Jesus supernatural strength to carry on.

I mean that's always say movies, right, and we will

expect that from the almighty God to do it. But

he didn't right. Interesting fact, he didn't do it right.

And then God could have also, with his ability, his sovereignty,

his power, give Jesus a second win that it is

just a short I don't know, like how he injected run,

just a short win, right, so it just won't look

weak in front of people because this is the king, right,

but he allowed it to happen right in front of

all the masses, all the people. The shame, the humiliation,

the ridicule. He doesn't, but what does he do? He

still stepped in, but he brought somebody else into the picture.

And this sends a very clear message to us many

years ago, two thousand ages, and it's also relevant today

in twenty twenty six. And I've got the first slide

over here. Firstly, we do not have to be always

very strong, or don't be strong enough to be more specific,

because that's even true for Jesus. He doesn't have to

be at least physically strong enough. Okay, you don't always

have to have everything under control as well. In other words,

it's okay to feel overwhelmed. It's okay to even say, Lord,

I don't think I can do this myself when life

often begins to weigh us down. You know, even the cross,

so to speak, that we carry in two different seasons

of our life, that sometimes it can get really heavy.

It's okay to say, Lord, I can't do this on

my own. God, I don't know how to do this

on my own. Please intervene. I don't know how I'm

going to raise a child in today's world. You know,

this teenish boy is beyond me. It's driving me bonkers. Right,

I give up. I can't deal with this illness. I

can't deal with this you know long I'm accepting it.

I can't, Lord help me or I'm hurting. Why do

you send people like this to me? Why do they continue?

Why do they condemn me? And you feel down and

you feel out of control, and this is a reminder

again that the Lord is saying it's okay to feel overwhelmed,

because this is where the pressure can then go to

somebody else. A Simon can come along because why they

see Simon and made him carry the cross behind Jesus.

I don't know who who who this is? You know for?

But sometimes you're battling voices, right, You're battling these challenges

and see different seasons, different presures in life, and you

do sometimes even don't know where they have enough faith

to carry to You need to be stronger. But it's

a reminder that sometimes these are enemies lies, that you

have to go through this on your own because there

are Simons around you, but you may maybe not recognize

and the Simons are just doing their own thing. They're

not sometimes even realizing that the mission is to come

and assist and help you. But you see, just as

Jesus can't carry the cross, look what happened, God send Simon.

And the key point here is Jesus can't carry the

cross on his own. He needed a Simon. So the

question is who is your Simon in your life? But

more importantly, if you're discouraged, God will send a Simon

because why, just as God knew that the task has

to complete, the whole mission has to go on. Otherwise

we're not even you know, there's no purposes to meet

here even right, if Jesus couldn't make it without Simon,

there will not be, you know, the story that we

are talking about today. So God will send simons. God

will send a friend. God will send a miracle in

that friend. God will send a solution in that Simon. Yeah,

God will send somebody to make a difference in your life.

And believe in that all right? So who has God

sent to live your burden? Is the questionnaire? And I'm

quite sure all of us have got our signments in

our lives. Uh, Just somethings don't recognize it. And what

I'm trying to say here is that in the midst

of all this, yes we struggle, but we also to

focus on God's promises. What is God's promise? God's promise

is always that he will finish something that he has

begun in you or is planted in you, because it's

the you know, he's the author and the finish of

our faith. So trust God that he is going to

help you finish what you started, just as how Jesus

even his journey, he finished it, of course with some help.

So that's the first observation or the first past bystander

that is involved in this story. Second bystander, let's look

through this. Okay, I'm gonna get you to turn to

John nineteen twenty three now here I will read first. Okay,

when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing

them into four shares. So one garment for you, one

garment for you, one garment for you, and so on

and so forth. The only thing left is the undergarment. Okay,

by the way, it's not underwear undergarment. He is just

in the inner piece. Okay, it's not it's not the

triangle that we know the modern day triangle. Okay, this

garment is seamless. Now it's seamless. That means it's not

uh joined together with thread. You know how sometimes like

you know the jacket, for example, it's not seamless. There's

a there's a there's a seam here. So this is

one continuous piece. Okay, women in one piece from top

to bottom, verse twenty four. Let let's not tear it.

They said to one another, let's decide by a lot,

or in some transitions they say they roll dice. Okay,

who will get it? This happened that the scripture might

be fulfilled that they said, they divided my clothes among

them and cast lots for my garment. So this is

what the soul just did. So just wanted to highlight

what does the scriptures about the you know, the thing

be fulfilled. The scriptures be fulfilled. This actually comes from

some training. You can look it up. Where they sit

in psalms. They divided microthes among them, and they cast

lots for my garment. So it's for for for for toll,

and then it is then fulfilled here where they actually

gambled for that one garment. Now then of course, uh,

that God kept that particular thing and then carry on

with the putting Jesus on the cross. Now why do

I classify these gods as bystanders? Okay, let me explain. Now,

Romans soldiers during that time, right of course, so just

they have their their their role to defend, attack and

those kinds of things that conquer and all that. But

that is in the active, uh time of war, and

when they are seizing territories or even guarding you know,

but when it's passive or sorry, when when there are

times that are quieter, what do you think soldiers do?

Just curious Roman soldiers train? Okay, train, there's one. They

also do non guard or non soldier or guard duties.

That means they will be put to work. They would

also be put you can read it up. They can.

They will put to build roads and things like that.

So they will always have something to do, right they're

not passively waiting for the next war or the next conquests. Okay,

if they're not guarding or fighting a war, they will

be doing these things of government. The Roman government will

put them to work, uh, and they always get up.

So imagine this on a Friday morning, uh. The one

of the four guards got a what's that message to say, hey,

stop stop doing uh you know, laying you know, laying

the ground or laying the road. Come here from the supervisor.

So he got transferred from repairing roads to then escorting

a prisoner all the way to you know, to to

to you know where. So the guard probably like, okay, wow,

suddenly it's such an important assignment. He got roped in.

He probably didn't know what he got roped in for

is to continue the crucifixion. But imagine this. The gods

probably have heard of this story because this is a

very big case, right imagine the biggest court case, you know. Again,

I'm just using whatsappens a funny thing. But they probably

word of mouth, you know, they probably heard of what

the famous Jesus, and oh I got roped in to

this case, you know, and I get to then be

the executor or to ensure that everything is done. And

they probably watched Jesus doing miracles and heard about jesus

miracles as well, also heard about what he proclaimed, and

also heard that Jesus proclaimed that his king. So when

he these four came into the assignment, probably thought okay,

it's quite cool, but they're probably also very focused on

getting a job done, right, because they're tasks. Maybe they

are quite quite processed oriented. But at the same time,

you see in this past sure they had a sight hustle,

they did something funny because of a valuable piece. By

the way, seamless thing is a very valuable piece. So

it's probably too you know, to to to be so eventually,

so all of them wanted this one piece, and of

course one of them wanted But here's the amazing thing here.

All of them were so close to Jesus, but they

never got anything of Jesus except for the clothes. You

think about it, right, they were just passing by, so

close to even the opportunity to have fullness of life, right,

because this is the person that will give you, is

able to give person fullness of life. And Jesus, you

know he wants this for everybody, right, we know that.

But they missed it. And how easily it is for

us to miss as well, because we are so distracted

with in this case the garment. So these past bystanders

were part of the story, but at the same time

not part of the story, or didn't contribute in a

positive way in the part as part of the story.

They were so close to the fullness of life, and

yet they missed it. And sometimes you're like that, right,

we want to be full of life, We want to

be full of life, but we can miss it. And

how do we miss these things? It is easy to

know about Jesus, just like I said, they've probably heard

about Jesus, but they miss it because they settle for

something less, in this case the garment, rather than God's best,

which is what life. Imagine that, so lessons from the

Roman soldier and put a cute Roman soldier up there.

Don't settle for less than God's best. Right, And these gods,

like I said, were meters away from the opportunity of grace,

and yet they settled for short term the rope, the garment. Sorry,

imagine that question. Are we settling for just good enough

when God actually offers us abundance? And sometimes another way

to put it is that you can sometimes trade God's

best for just temporary comforts. So, friends, today is good Friday.

Let me just say, don't settle for anything less than

God's best in your life. Right, do not settle because

God Jesus went to the cross for the sole purpose

that you and I will have victory, will have life

and also freedom, abundant life, not a life of struggles. Right,

But at the same time we can miss it now,

not saying that life will come without struggles. But I

can guarantee you if we if we get this right,

or if we settle for Jesus, life may have struggles,

but you also have Jesus with you. Right. He gets

your struggles. He definitely has gone through it. But like

I said, he's got a gift to offer you. Let

us not lose focus and settle a second best. Sometimes

we say, oh no, I may have this picture last time,

even when I was younger in my mind that when

we get to heaven and it's like, oh, finally got

there is like a Mount Kinaba Loo kind of a climb,

you know, finally get there, you almost limp into. But no,

we are not supposed to be limping into heaven. We

are supposed to be having God's grace helping us. True, Yes,

there will be struggles, Yes we pain, but we can

face it, face it, hit on because we have Jesus. Right,

Glicious one for remind us that Jesus died to deliver

us and cause us to overcome. The word is overcome,

not just in the past times or the past world,

but also in prison. Right, we are made this as

we take a comminant We talked about abundant life. This

abundant life, this victory, is God's gift for us. But

sometimes we water down and settle for mediocre. Mediocre. I

think Passassandra always just to use the expression of lute warm. Right,

we sometimes settle for lute warm because we don't know

what it is, or rather we forget that it's not

meant to be lutwarm. It's not meant to be just enough.

So I'm just here to remind us again to stir

up our faith. Right, God still has something in store

for you, still has the best in store for you.

Don't get distracted, don't settle, uh, you know, for anything else,

because you know, as part of this process you also

get to mature in your in your in your faith

in Him. And I believe even at the work of

the work that's happened at the Cross will continue to

mature us, will continue to always give us peace. Right,

Like I said, things are not easy, like say, marriage,

you know it's never easy. You you, but you must

understand God has intended marriage to be what He intended

it to be, full of love, to be full of life,

Jesus at work at it. But don't just say, okay,

this is what marriage is like, or this is what

life is like, or oh God, I hit my job.

You know at least i'm employed. No, don't think that way.

You're not meant to be like they never settled for

just good enough. Or you know, I've got this this boyfriend,

you know, at least he's got car or or he

you know, at least he's got hair or whatever. You

know it was tall. No, if it's not, it's a

non believer. That is not good enough, right. Don't settle

for that because that's not what God intended for it.

It's not okay to just say it's okay, right, And

or if you been struggling with sickness and then you

accept it, this is how I'm supposed to be. I live,

I'm settled already. No God, Oh, it's a spiritual to

continue praying for that breakthrough and believing that it's not

okay to just say it should it's okay, right, because

that's not how God created our life. Because we are.

He died for you to experience abundant life, and therefore

we need to focus on the abundant life. One fact

that I had to quickly stay here. The enemy cannot

stop God's plan in your life, right, but sometimes the

enemy can convince you to settle or be contented with that.

It's okay, law, you know, just this is sufficient, more

than enough, aday, don't don't be too greedy. No, I'm

here to remind you again, whatever God has promised in

your life, you've got to revisit that. You've got to

go back to that. Don't let the enemy talk you

of that dream that God has placed in your in

your heart. Refuse to settle, you know, don't settle for

partial freedom. Go for full freedom, because Jesus has promise

you full freedom. Don't settle for just an okay marriage.

You know, marriage supposed to be fulfilling right as God

intended it. Don't settle for just I just know just

a little bit. No, No, go for it. He's you're

supposed to be walking with him, not just know him,

walk with him. And that's what is supposed to be.

And that's what Victorias life is about. So again, the

soldiers just reminds again, don't settle because God really wants

all of you, and he wants to give you all

as well, So keep on believing, guys, especially, It's good Friday. Now.

Third bystanders, I'm gonna entergy. I was told nine forty

five a very generously extra us. You should my sidea

like push me along when you asked, just anyway, let's

let's let's finish. Okay. Yeah. The third bystander is the

teeth on the cross, and we know this one right

of course. The story here that you know, there's this

uh you know, let me just recollect my thoughts. This

guy is sentenced to death or other two guys are

sending to death, and we know why they are sending

the sentence of death and fact, in fact, he is

also aware why he's there, right. But what this guy

doesn't know is that maybe on the day when the

sentence or even the days before when the sentence was

already delivered, he knew that there was his destination. But

one thing that he probably didn't know is that Jesus

is going to be next to him, the fellow inmate

or the I don't know what it was. The propertem

just helped me. This the fellow executionee on that day,

so to speak. Yeah, anyway, you know, I'm trying to say, Okay,

he doesn't know who's gonna be allocated next to him

at the cross Okay, but you know why he's there,

but it doesn't know who is there, So he's also

a bit surprised, right and what he doesn't also know

that on that particular Friday. Let's just use Friday Love

because it's good right there, right that when he wakes up,

it's about to actually encounter the Savior of the world.

Imagine that this is the the champion of all the

bystanders here, right, can you imagine that? Let's read from

Luke Turning in three. Okay, now I'm reading for an

amplified version because I thought this is a cool version

to read. Now, there was an inscription above him. This

is above Jesus inscription the above the crosser. This is

the King of Jews. They're mocking Himler if you didn't

know thirty nine one of the criminals who has been

hanged kept hurling abuse at him, hanging across next to him.

Are you not the Christ? Save yourself from and us?

From death. Okay, this is the other guy. But the

other guy, the other one, rather rebuilt him, saying do

you not even fear God? So first indication here that

he readognizes that this person in the middle is actually God.

All right, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation,

we are suffering justly. That means we are punished because

we deserve it, because we are getting what we deserve

for what we have done. But this man has done

nothing wrong. Forty two and he was saying, Jesus, please

remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus said

to him, then I assure you, and almost solemnly, I

say to you today you will be with me in paradise.

Such a powerful, powerful story, right, because a lot of

these is a reminder of redemption, that there's always still

grace to redeem us. But when the thief says please

remember me, right, he must have heard what Jesus his

repetition or report report, reputation of Jesus. Right, he must

have heard that he's aware that Jesus was wrongfully sentenced

to death. And also he knew of Jesus talking about

the kingdom. Right, he must have hurt crowds and the

people mourning and people aron. He must have just seen

Mary there at the foot of across. So this guy,

he's experiencing everything as close as to Jesus eyes because

he was actually there. And he realizes or he came

to realize that, you know, to a place that his

heart had to then express himself of his faith right

because he said that Jesus, you can do something about unbrokenness.

Only you can help me. He realizes that he needs help,

and he realized one thing that only Jesus can help him,

and he believes with faith for sure that Jesus can

do what he says he can do before of course

at the cross. So one key point here is that

it's never too late to next line, it's never too

late to turn to Jesus. And of course we know

one other thing. I'm quite sure Lobby had shared this before.

The thief's faith saved him, not works, just pure grace

and faith. If you're ever not sure that salvation comes

from grace alone, this is the reminder again that only

true faith in Jesus we are saved, not true what

we do. Because we know this guy definitely has no

work that will earn him salvation. Right, he's a criminal,

but his faith actually got him across the finish line

to eternity. And this is so powerful now, one thing

I wanted to just highlight here as well. In the

original Greek text, when it says the man was asking

Jesus right, it is actually adamantly asking What's adamantly asking?

What's adamant English? Persistent? Right? Right? And is to keep

on asking just the how it's not testimony right, persistently

asking or reminding right that you When it says remember me,

it's not just once as we read it very quickly,

it's actually remember me, remember me, remember me, remember me.

He's trying to convince Jesus to not over to to

of course, overlook all his mistakes and his crime, but

remember me, remember me, don't forget me, don't forget me.

So powerful, you know, he recognizes it's so important that

he keeps on asking. And of course we know that

his life was put back together, his future life, right,

and Jesus can do that somehow. We must understand that

Jesus has the ability to put things back, even though

it may seem like things have broken apart, that there's

no way it can be fixed. You know how many

of us sometimes come with that perspective. Cala, whatever I've done,

No one can forgive. Man can't forgive. God definitely can forgive. Right. No,

if you're persistent, your adamant, Yeah, you have your faith there,

he will save you. Another thing is important, as we

sung even earlier just now blo or shed right, even

as Jesus was physically undone cannot do anything anymore, he

was still putting this guy back together in the spiritual

sense because he received peace and comfort even before everything

was completed. And this is how I'm going to end

today's message because as we sung earlier, thank you Jesus

for the blood applied. There's a power in this blood right.

And also it's an invitation to all because not only

he was putting together this man, Jesus, this criminal together,

he was also at the same time symbolically putting all

of mankind together, putting you and I us together on

the cross where we are all bystanders. Some as you

look at it as a bystander, I'm just here. I'm

just reading this right now. It's really up to you

whether you want to allow Jesus to fix you, to

put you together, because it's already promised at the cross.

It is finished right. Here is my power, and that

power is meant to put you back together. Here's my peace,

here's my grace, here's my redemption. You just have to

take it. You just have to say, God, remember me,

allow me. So it's really up to you because if

you do not receive it personally, yeah, it's just it's

there for the taking, but nobody takes it. Right. So

God's spirit comes in and can transform, but you need

to take it. God can change you, and and and

and from you know who you are and remind you

of who you're caught to be, and transform you who

you're caught to be. And let Lord the Lord guide you.

Let the Lord lead you, and it's gonna be good.

You just have to receive it personally. I'm gonna end

here with the power of the blood because we sung

about it earlier as well. Now we all know blood

sort of rushes. Okay, let me let me tell sorry,

I tell a story about Esha. I sort of to

him a little bit, my son. Have you ever maybe

sometimes when you wake up in the middle of the night,

it's all that then you like bump into things and

then it hurts that crazy right, all right, my son,

Sometimes it happens more often to him than not, because

sometimes downstairs we can hear aloud ah and then you

know who I did stop his toe or something like that,

you know, But I mean that's not that's not the

main thing. But you get the idea when when whenever

you hit something or your shin or your knee, or

you stup your toe whatever, you will notice that spot

there gets warm for quite some time, right, and then

after a while what happens, m blue black bruised, Right,

It bruises because actually the blood and there's some exploded

blood vessels there as well, but everything sort of rushes there,

and the purpose of that is to uh nourish and

treat that that area. Okay, so what what What is

the context of what I'm trying to say here, is

that what the blood does, even in the physical form,

it rushes there to help recovery. So the blood Jesus

also does something similar. It comes to play. This is

where it is hurting. We do not realize it's actually hurting,

but we sometimes do not understand what's the purpose of wila,

What is it for? Why is it? What was it

meant to be? It's actually meant to repair the hurting.

It runs to the hurting places. So I don't know

what in what area of life that you may be

even hurting at the moment, but trusts that the blood

can heal. There's power the blood restores and get extreme

to come up right now. I'm going to end here

around time very good. So the question is, you know,

the the third bystander, the criminal here showed us that

the blood of Jesus can treat the hurting places, right,

So I'm going to make it very personal here. What

is hurting you right in your life? Right now? What

is really preventing you from experiencing God like how he

intended it, life to the full life that is victorious.

And on this good Friday, since you're here already, we've

really locked the doors anyway. You can't run away right,

allow God to identify maybe perhaps what's hurting, what is

hindering you from living a life that is full? You know,

it's just also just reasently gone through U turn. There's

a lot of reflection, there's a lot of prayer. It's

also fasting, of course, but you know it's really to

draw close to the Lord, because sometimes before we can

be effective, we also need to address some things that

are weighing us down or hurts, the past experiences. Maybe

even not recognizing that you know that anxiety, maybe even

that pressure in that season that has weighed you down,

it's actually hurting you. Maybe you feel that you're wayward

child or your teenager is causing you so much pain

and hurt that you forget that the blood of Jesus

is there to treat it. And I just want to

allow God to help you identify whatever is hurting you,

whatever is holding you back. Maybe it could be something

belong to do, your marriage, even your finances. Friends, we

need to release our faith to Jesus. The blood of

Jesus sometimes comes rushing to the area. It is not

to shame you, is not to uh stain you even,

but it's really there to treat that hurt. So wherever

you are, allow the blood of Jesus to rush in,

to transform, to restore. I donans to be like the soldiers.

Sometimes sometimes we hear of Jesus, we see Jesus even,

and yet we can miss the opportunity to really experience him.

So in this moment of faith. I just want to

close by saying that this is an opportunity for us

to really experience the power of the Blood of Jesus

and not just doing it, you know every now and

then when we particle communion and hear of the blood,

but we can experience it in our lives and release

that faith today. So right now, if you've identified that

area of hurting, that area that is preventing you from

giving your best, the area that has been battling or

even chewing you up, or eating you or making it

feel uncomfortable, I pray that the Holy Spirit today will

begin a renewal that relational reconciliation. That friend that you

sit not this guy can't be forgiven. I pray that

that healing will already begun. And for those of us

who are experiencing maybe sickness in our bodies, just allow

the blood to heal your body.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as Church Org. We

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this week is going to be a good week. I

hit for you, God bless