Holy Week: The Last Passover | Pastor Alex Himaya

When we're playing football, we'll just start playing, play a little while, then we'll tell them, let's rest. Nowadays I get tired pretty quickly. I live with my mom, auntie and uncle, and my two sisters. We don't eat sometimes in the morning, and we find that I'm going to school without anything to eat. Eating would be hard. Thinking about eating, it hurts pretty bad. I was even asking myself in my mind, like, why are we staying this way? Why are we eating this? I feel sorry for my mom, trying to find food for us. It makes me feel like wanting to grow up pretty fast so that I can help my mom. Yeah. I was married with my husband. We used to live a happy life, but after we had kids, he started misbehaving, beating me, beating the kids. My husband said that, if you can't manage keeping these kids, just throw them or take them to orphanage. My mom said that we can't be living with a person like that. He's not doing anything. My mom would have to be the one who's struggling to find money for us to eat, to find shelter, clothes, school. Most of the times, if I think about it, it just makes me feel something else in my mind. Pretty angry. All I know is that I'll concentrate on school, and then when I grow up, I'll just be the opposite of him. I can't lie. I'm not managing enough for the kids because, you know, they need to pay their rentals, they need to look after some groceries, but I can't manage. We found out that every time we come to school, we would get some food.

We wouldn't even want to stop going to school because we know at school we are going to find food, we are going to eat, we are going to be healthy. The food is very delicious because I even thank the people who are cooking it. If it wasn't for their cooking or what we eat, I wouldn't be even healthier. Yeah, my studies have gotten better. I know if I do concentrate on school, I will help my mom. I need them to finish their education, have a better job, and have a good life. Yeah, it's giving me hope. I don't want my kids to pass through what I'm passing through, but I'm proud of them. I'm telling you, I'm proud of them. I want to be a businessman, yeah, working in a company, all that, and owning my own company. Building a house for my mom, helping everyone, yeah, like you are helping us. I also pray to help others as well, following in your footsteps. Well, good morning, church. So good to be with you today, and we are celebrating Holy Week. As we move into this week, I'm asking Battle Creek Church to do everything that we can to change someone's lives. That begins with Palm Sunday today, Good Friday, we'll walk through the Passion of Christ. If you've not been to a Good Friday service, I encourage you to come to one of those entirely different service than what we do on Saturday and Sunday, and then on Easter weekend. The ways that I want you participating in helping change people's lives is number one, by inviting them to come along with you. Number two, by serving. Remember, we're asking you to attend one and serve the others, and then this year, brand new, giving. We're going to, for the first time, take a Easter love offering today, and the One Day to Feed the World Easter offering is a special love offering where you give over and above, and you take your annual salary, you divide by 365, and that's your one day, and what you make in one day.

A few people texted me a few weeks ago, and when I said that, they thought, I'm so overwhelmed by that, and then they did the math, and they apologized for being so overwhelmed. It's one day. And it's amazing to me in the economy of the world, how those of us in Tulsa can take one day's salary and change children's every day for the rest of their life. And 100% of that will go to feed hungry children in the world through our partner, Convoy of Hope who feeds 600,000 children daily in 39 countries all over the world with a goal of reaching a million children that they feed every single day. And here's what I love. They make the local church in all of those countries, the hero. It's not 18 wheelers pulling in and dumping food and then pulling out. It's pastors and people like you and me in that city that live in that city, that live in that village, that are feeding those people and they're sharing the gospel with them often. And so church, would you this week prepare for Holy Week in those three ways. Let's pray together before we jump into today's message. Would you just hold your hands like this open on your lap? And would you just say, Holy Spirit, I need you today. I need you to speak to me today. I need a fresh word today. I need a touch from you today. Would you come do what only you can do? And would you take the word of God and bring it to life in my life? In Jesus name we pray and together we all say, amen. Doctors and scientists have studied both why and how people remember things and how and why people forget things as well. And one thing that they've discovered is that people tend to remember stories. In other words, if you learn something and you can learn to tell it in a story, you will be able to remember it. And that's something that the Jewish people and Christians from the first century already knew because they were great at remembering because they were great at telling stories.

The literacy rate or the percentage of people that could read and write during Jesus day was probably less than 5%. So instead of writing stuff down, they memorized things and they memorized it through stories. And stories have a huge impact on our lives, right? Whether we realize it or not, you tell your friends stories, right? You don't sit around and talk about facts. You celebrate stories. You don't celebrate data. Nobody goes to lunch and says, let me give you three data points about my weekend, right? If they do run from them, right, they're going to sell you something. But what you say is you're not going to believe what happened this weekend, proving that stories don't just inform us. They actually pull us in. In fact, let me illustrate it this way. All the good holidays have good stories connected to them, right? If I were to ask you the meaning behind Christmas or Thanksgiving or Memorial day, you could tell me because they all have good stories and you know the story. But what about Valentine's day or labor day or Arbor day? Right, right. There are no good Arbor day movies, but because there's no good story behind it. In fact, I wrote that in and then I thought, I'm not sure what Arbor day is all about. I know it's trees, but, but, but I went and looked it up. I didn't know that it's just for tree huggers. I thought it was like you plant a tree in honor of a soldier. It's not, you plant a tree in honor of a tree, right? But at the time of Jesus, he celebrated all kinds of holidays and each of those holidays had a very, very special story attached to it. I'll give you a couple of examples. One is called the festival of tabernacles or booths where every family would build a tent sort of out of sticks to recreate what it was like in the wilderness for those 40

years living in tents. Another popular one is Hanukkah where every night for eight nights, the whole family gathers and lights one of eight candles telling the story and remembering the story when the oil didn't run out in the temple and the candle stayed lit. And then you have the greatest holiday of all in the Jewish calendar, which is the Passover where every Jewish family would gather around the table and tell the story of the Exodus of coming out of Egypt. And the thing is, they wouldn't just tell these stories, they live them out, right? Imagine if at Thanksgiving you had to actually dress like a pilgrim and churn your own butter and sail across Keystone Lake before you were allowed to eat. You would remember Thanksgiving, right? And that's what they did. To remember it, they stepped into the story and they would live in those tents for a week. They would light those candles together in their home every night for eight nights. They sit down around a table and they eat the Passover meal together in the very same way that Moses and the others did. In Egypt and on their way out of Egypt. In fact back in the Old Testament God told them how and Why to remember the Passover? Let me show it to you in the book of Exodus God said on this night the Lord kept his promise to bring his people out of the land of Egypt So this night belongs to him and it must be commemorated Every year by all of the Israelites from generation to generation now this word Commemorated it doesn't mean just to talk about it means to live it out It comes from a Hebrew root word, which means to keep and The idea is that you keep it so that you keep it alive And it's in the living out of the story that the story comes alive and stays Alive in fact, Jesus himself celebrated the Passover every year of his life And it's one of the reasons that we actually know Jesus ministry was three years long is because the Gospels mentioned three Passovers during his ministry and at the end of his life on earth with his disciples He celebrated it one last time and if you are new to church

Look, this is huge because it means that what looks like a religious dinner is actually Jesus Redefining the biggest story in their whole history around himself In fact today Palm Sunday is the beginning of what we call Holy Week where our celebration of Easter coincides with the Jewish observance of Passover Look look at this in the New Testament with me if you will it says when the time came Jesus and the Apostles sat down together at the table and Jesus said I have been very eager to eat this look at it Passover meal with you before my suffering Begins for I tell you now that I won't eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the kingdom of God This is Jesus Foreshadowing his death his resurrection and his return and he wraps it all up in one verse. He says I'm gonna go away I'm gonna suffer. I'm gonna die I'm gonna rise again and and one day I will return and when I return I'm taking you with me for a feast and What Jesus is referring to is the marriage supper of the Lamb. Look at this in verse 17 he says then he took a cup of wine and he gave thanks to God For it and he said take this and share it among yourselves For I will not drink wine again until the kingdom of God has come This is when he comes back to take those of us who are his his bride home in other words the last Passover meal that Jesus celebrates is the shadow and a type of the next feast he will enjoy with His children now if the Passover is a shadow and a type we need to study it and we need to see What is it that it tells us? about Jesus and remember it's a story that is laid out now Let me just show you some of it today. In fact a Passover meal today in Israel is called a Seder say Seder

S-e-d-e-r, I believe I think it's er maybe a are but but but it's er I think it literally means that word in Hebrew means order In other words, there's an order to the whole thing in the same way that God created the heavens and the earth through order Salvation brings order to our messy lives Let's be honest. Most of us our lives don't feel very ordered. Do they right? It feels more like 47 tabs open in your brain at the same time, right? three of them playing music and you can't figure out where it's coming from right and Jesus steps in and says let me bring some order to That now now the order of the Passover goes like this The first thing that would happen is they would take the first cup and they would pour the wine and then they would mix it with water and The Passover is this huge celebration it goes well into the night by the way a lot of drinking a lot of singing they are Having a good old time right and the head of the family and this meal in this case would be Jesus would take this cup and lift it up with his right hand and he would say blessed. Are you O God? ruler of the world creator of the fruit of The vine you bless Israel and you bless this feast and the whole family would say a Man, and then they would pass the cup and they would all drink from the the cup and then would come the appetizer, which is greens, all kinds of greens, and they would dip it in a wine vinegar with herbs and they would eat that. And we know this happened because in John chapter 13, Jesus tells his disciples, one of you is going to betray me. And John nestles up to Jesus and says, who is it? And Jesus says, the one who dips in the bowl. And Judas was dipping at that moment. This is exactly what was happening right there in that Passover. Meaning what? That the betrayal for Jesus didn't start in some dark alley. It happened at a dinner table.

Then came the main course, uh, the, the lamb, the Passover lamb the day before or earlier that day, they would take the lamb to the priest at the temple and the priest would inspect it and make sure there are no defects. And then he would have it slaughtered. And then they would roast it. And the family would take the lamb back to the table to eat it. Let me show you the, uh, the prescription in Exodus that same night, they must roast the meat over a fire and eat it along with bitter salad greens and bread made without a yeast. And so they would eat these, uh, bitter herbs, this horseradish, uh, kind of, uh, dish as a way to remind them of the bitterness of their slavery in Egypt. And you eat it until you cry. This was clear. Your sinuses rethink your life choices, kind of spicy. Why? Because God did not want them to just talk about slavery. He wanted them to feel how bad it was. Because if you forget how bitter it was, you might be tempted to go back to it. And again, each part of this is a reminder of what happened in the Exodus, a way to retell and live out the story in their own, uh, lives. And again, uh, here's how this plays out. There's unleavened bread, which is a flat bread, uh, made, uh, without yeast today. It's called, uh, matzah. I want you, you can think of it as just like a big cracker and the head of the family breaks the matzah and blesses it and then shares it with all of, uh, the family. And then he pours the second cup of wine and he shares it as well around the table. And then they all start eating the Passover, uh, lamb. But during the dinner, one of the kids, usually the oldest, stands up and asks, what makes this night so different from all the other nights? And I love this part because God built curiosity into the tradition.

And he basically said, your kids are going to interrupt dinner and they're going to ask questions and instead of shutting them up, this is your moment to tell the whole story. And again, this was all explained by God to Moses back in the old Testament. Look at it. And in the future, your children will ask, what does all this mean? And you will tell them with the power of his mighty hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, the place of our slavery and the head of the family will then explain the whole meal. And they call it the Passover because God passed over them and they eat the unleavened bread to remind them of God's provision in the wilderness when they left Egypt in a hurry and the bitter herbs as a reminder of the bitterness that they left behind. And then he tells the story of Israel and not just the story of the Passover. He's going all the way back to Abraham and it's a long night with lots of songs and lots of drinks. And when the meal is over, the head of the family will take the third cup and he will pour it and then he will bless God for it. And then he will pass it around to everyone in the family. And you're getting the picture. Some of you are getting the picture and you're, and you're starting to think the Passover looks a whole lot like the last supper. And that's because the last supper was a Passover meal. And then they would sing some Psalms. We know which ones God prescribed, which ones. Psalm 113 through Psalm 118, which means we know exactly what the last song Jesus sang before he died on the cross was how powerful is that? In fact, we sang part of it a moment ago. I will exalt the Psalm 118. And when the singing is over, they would drink another cup, a fourth cup of wine. And what I want to do is I want to talk real. quick about these four cups, because it's not just some random number

that some rabbi came up with. It, again, it goes back to the Exodus. It's prescribed by God in the Exodus. Let me show you what I mean. Therefore, say to the people of Israel, this is God speaking to Moses, I am the Lord, underline these verbs in your Bible, okay? I want you to remember this and I want you to see it next time you come to this passage. I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression. I will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Four cups out of these four things that God says he's going to do for them. Number one, the cup of freedom. He says, I will free you. The story of Israel is a story of slavery and freedom coming from that slavery. It starts with Joseph going down to Egypt, being sold into slavery, and through the power of God, he wins his freedom, but years and years later comes a pharaoh who knows nothing of Joseph, puts them all in slavery, and they cry out to God again for freedom, and in Exodus three, God says, I see you. I hear you.

I am aware, and I'm coming to help, which coincidentally is the four-part outline for the series I'm gonna do for four weeks out of Easter, dealing with the four deepest needs every single human being who has ever been born on Earth feels, it's universal, and freedom from us is freedom from a slavery to sin. Hear me, sin doesn't care who your parents are, and if you think that you can coast into heaven on your grandmother's coattails, you're mistaken. You need to make a personal decision for Jesus yourself. Why? Because sin is personal. Romans 3.23 says, for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and because we have sinned, we are slaves to sin, and some of you here, you may say, slaves to sin? You're being a bit dramatic, Alex, but if you've ever said to yourself, I'm not gonna do that again, and did it again, that's not a bad habit. That's called bondage, and Jesus, through the cross, has secured your freedom. The first cup is the cup of freedom. The second cup is the cup of rescue. He says, I will rescue you. This was physical and literal in Moses' day. There were real enemies that were trying to kill them, but don't think that's any less true for you and me today because we have a real enemy who really hates us,

and according to 1 Peter chapter five and verse eight, he is on the prowl out to get all of us, and apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, what is theologically true is he owns you, and we all need rescuing from that enemy, and Jesus made a way for that on the cross, so the cup of rescue. The third cup is called the cup of redemption. He says, I will redeem you, and if you were with us when we studied the book of Ruth last year, you know this because our sins, we owe a price, and it's death, and it's a price too steep for any of us to pay, so instead, Jesus stepped in and paid the price for your sins and for my sins. That's called redemption, and it's a spiritual act whereby he pays your price for you. The fourth cup is called the cup of identity. He says, I will claim you as my own. This may be the most important part of the whole thing because when you give your life to Jesus, everything changes. The old is gone, the new has come. You are different, and you have been set free. You are rescued. You are redeemed, and now you can live real life, abundant life in him, and you will find your new identity in him, not in what you do, not in your social media platform,

not in your title, your status, or even your bank account, not by your past, thank God, not by your struggles, not by your failures, but you can now be identified by the one who loved you enough to go to the cross and die for you, and listen, that's what this whole Passover feast is all about. It's about death, and it's so strange to us that you and I, we hear that, this thing that is designed for kids to ask questions, where people drink and sing songs is really all about dying. And the reason that sounds strange to us is because we don't like talking about death. We rename it, we soften it, we avoid it. But the Bible doesn't avoid it, it explains it. And the word Passover refers to the moment when death passed over their house because they took that lamb that they butchered and they poured its blood out and then they took a hyssop branch and they painted blood on the doorpost of their house so that when the death angel came by, he would pass over their house. Why? Because the blood of the lamb had been applied. In other words, the firstborn lamb that shed its blood had taken the place of the firstborn in that house. And in the New Testament, in the books of John and first Peter, the Bible tells us that Jesus is our Passover lamb. And while he was celebrating this last Passover

and all of the preparation was happening, he was actually preparing for something else that would happen. Jesus knew he was the Passover lamb. He knew what had just taken place in that meal. He knew it was more than retelling of a story. He was resetting a covenant. And the covenant had to be sealed by his blood. So Jesus finishes the meal and Matthew tells us that he went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane. You might have heard of it called or referred to as the Garden of Gethsemane. It wasn't really a garden in the way that you and I think of garden. Garden is about production in the Hebrew mind, not about beauty. But in the middle of this grove of olive trees, the Mount of Olives is a mountain with olive trees all over it. In the middle of a grove of olive trees would be an olive press. And to understand the whole scene, you need to know how the olive press works because when the olives get ripe, they're brought to this room and to this press. And literally what they do is pour them in this rock basin and this big heavy wheel goes around and around and around pressing the olives. And at the bottom is a container where all of the olive oil is collected

and it is a rich, rich, golden, golden color. We call it extra virgin olive oil. And when they've passed that thing three times, they're not done because now the pulp is left at the bottom of that. And they would gather all of that and they would put it in these baskets. Think wicker trays actually. And they put these in these trays and in a cutout section over near the wall, they would stack these trays up and then they would put a wooden beam on top of these trays and this would press down on those trays. And they would weight it down with 100 pound boulders so that the pressure was intense so that more oil can come out. And in the middle of the olive press, Jesus is standing there with his disciples and he tells them to stay and to pray and he's gonna go and pray. And his prayer is intense. And in Mark 14, he tells them, my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. In other words, Jesus isn't calm and detached, he is being crushed. And Luke, the physician, tells us in his gospel that Jesus prayed more fervently and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground

like great drops of blood. What was it that was causing him such agony and why was it so intense? Look at this in verse 42. Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me, yet I want your will to be done, not mine. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And these words right here, of suffering, are not in the original Greek manuscript, the translators are doing some interpretation here, but it fits perfectly. But some translators use the words of wrath. It would be the cup of wrath. You see, there was a fifth cup on the Passover table. And there's always been a fifth cup. And some of you noticed that. And as I was going through these cups, you counted them. And you thought, Alex, you missed a cup. But then you thought, nah, he didn't mess up. The production team accidentally put a fifth cup out there, right? It's called the cup of Elijah. You remember Elijah, don't you? He's the one that took on King Ahab and the prophets of Baal and Asherah. Mount Carmel. And he said, you call on your God and I'll call on Yahweh. And whichever God answers with fire is the one true God. And Yahweh answered with an intense fire.

And then Elijah chased the prophets and he killed them. And the Bible says that Elijah was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire. And the story goes that he's still alive today. And so anytime in the Jewish world among the rabbis, there is a question that needs to be answered, a problem that needs to be solved, or a rescue that needs to take place, the rabbis to this day would say, Elijah will answer that when he comes. In fact, when Jesus was on the cross, one of the things he cried out was, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But some of the people standing there heard him say, Eli, Eli, and they thought he was calling on Elijah to come and to rescue him. And when John the Baptist shows up on the scene, they ask him, John, are you Elijah? And Matthew says, yes, he is Elijah because he prepares for the Messiah. But here's the deal, these four cups, every rabbi in the whole world agreed on. But there are other cups in the Old Testament, right? Especially what's referred to as the cup of wrath. Jeremiah 25 says, take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath. We got the cup of freedom, and the cup of redemption, and so on, and all the rabbis asked, should we include the cup of wrath?

So here's what they agreed on. Let's pour a cup for Elijah. They do this to this very day. And when he returns, he can tell us. So on the day that Jesus shared the last Passover with his disciples, there was a fifth cup sitting on the table, and no one touched it. They left it there in case Elijah would return. But Jesus knew what that cup meant. And he goes and he prays near the olive press under intense pressure because he knows what has to happen. He knows this cup is a cup of wrath. And he prays to the Father. Why? Because it's the Father's wrath. In John 18, he calls it the cup that the Father has given me and Jesus knows it must be poured out. And the question is, on what? It can either be poured out on us, because Romans says it this way in chapter one, that God's wrath is poured out on sin. And you and I are all sinners. It can be poured out on us or it can be poured out on Jesus. So what does Jesus do? According to 1 Corinthians, he became sin. Meaning he's willing to take the wrath of God. And he takes that cup and he says, I will take the wrath. And he cries out, Father, you can pour it out on me, let me take the wrath, Father. If it's your will, if there's no other way,

and God does just that, he pours all of his wrath on Jesus that was meant for you and me. And here's the beautiful thing about it. You don't have to clean your life up first. You don't have to understand anything I just said. You don't even have to become religious. You just have to say yes to the one who already said yes to you. Let's pray together across all of our campuses. Heads bowed and eyes closed and hearts open. And if you're here today, and as the Spirit you asked to speak to you earlier has spoken to you, and what he's spoken to you is that you deserve the very wrath of God. You deserve, because of your sin, the pouring out of that cup on you. But you need a Savior. You need a relationship with Jesus. And today he's calling you into that relationship. If you're here today, on any one of our campuses. And you would say, Pastor, this is for me. I deserve the wrath of God, but what I want is the grace of God, amazing grace. I need a relationship with Jesus Christ. I need to be covered by his blood. I need to know that when I die, I'm going to heaven. If that's you all across all of our campuses, and you'd say, Pastor, please pray for me, that's me. I need a relationship with Jesus. Would you just raise your hand across every campus,

just raise it high so that I can see it, and say, hey, Pastor, that's me. I see you right here on the front row. Anybody else, I see you right here on the second row. Anybody else back here, I see you. Over here, I see a couple side by side. Anybody else, Pastor, please pray for me. I need a relationship with Jesus. I need salvation to come into my life and into my house. Sweetheart, I see you right here. Anybody else, hey, at Midtown, would you just raise your hand right now? At South Tulsa, raise your hand right now, would you lift your hand up? At Allen Gamble, would you lift your hand up? At Jenks, would you lift your hand up? Anybody else here in BA, I see you right here. I see you, ma'am, right here, holding the baby, sir, right here. I see you, anybody else in the chapel, just raise your hand if you would. Pastor, please, pray with me, pray for me. If you're gonna pray, include me in that prayer. I see you over here to my right. I see you, Pastor, please. Okay, anybody else? You're gonna pray, include me in that prayer, okay? I see you right here on the aisle. I don't wanna belabor it, but I don't wanna rush it either.

I wanna give you a chance to be included. You say, Pastor, if you're about to pray, include me in that prayer, please. Okay, okay. Believers, you're praying already with me. You can put your hands down. Let us pray over you. Father, I pray for every man and woman and boy and girl under the sound of my voice that doesn't have assurance of salvation, that doesn't know that they have a relationship with Jesus, that today could be the day of salvation. I can't save anybody, this church can't save anybody, but Jesus, you shed your blood to save all of them. And I pray today they would take a step towards you and receive the gift of salvation, that you'd win the victory in every life and every heart under the sound of my voice this morning. Now, if that's you today, you wanna pray and give your life to Jesus, I wanna lead you in a prayer helping you do just that. And you may say, I don't even know how to pray. That's okay, I'm gonna pray it one phrase at a time so that you can repeat it after me. But I don't want you to repeat it in a rote fashion, I want you to pray it to God in heaven. And you're gonna hear people all around you praying, no one's gonna pray alone. But if you're here today and you wanna give your life to Jesus,

would you just say, dear God, I know I'm a sinner, but today I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin. Jesus, come into my life to be my Lord, my Savior, my forgiver, in the best way that I know how. I turn my back on my sin and I trust you alone, Jesus, to save me, thank you for saving me, for forgiving me. In the best way that I know how, I trust you alone, Jesus. I receive you and I receive the free gift of salvation. Now before we say amen and before you look up at all of our campuses, if you just prayed that prayer and you meant it with all of your heart, you prayed that prayer and you meant it with all of your heart, would you just raise your hand across all of our campuses and say, pastor, I just prayed that prayer. I believe Jesus just stepped out of heaven and into my life. Anybody else, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. At Midtown, would you just raise your hand right now so that Pastor Jameson can see your hand? At South Tulsa, would you raise your hand so that Pastor Keith can see your hand? And Jenks, so that Pastor Josh can see your hand? And Pastor Adam in Owasso, Pastor Skip at Allen Gamble. You prayed that prayer, just raise your hand high all across all of our campuses. Anybody else, I prayed that prayer and I meant it with all of my heart. Just raise your hand high so that I can see it or your campus pastor can see it, okay, okay, okay.

Now here's what I wanna ask you to do. At every campus, if your hand just went up, put your hand back up and hold it up high and then look up at your campus pastor or look up at me, okay? Look up so that we can make eye contact with those of you who prayed this prayer. Wave your hand. so that I can find you. Sweetheart, right here. You meant that with all of your heart. Okay, congratulations. Ma'am, right here. Sir, right here. Anybody else? Wave at me. I see you right here in the plaid. I see this couple, all three side by side. Congratulations. Anybody else? Wave at me. Okay, I see you, ma'am. Back here. Okay, right here. Ma'am, right here. Anybody else? Sir, right here. Okay, sir. Right behind him. Right here on the front row.

Yes, sir. Congratulations. Young boy, right here. Little one over here. Anybody else? Look up at me or look up at your campus, pastor, so they can find you. Sir, I see you back here. Let me ask you to do this. I wanna address just those of you who prayed this prayer. Okay? These lights are really, really bright so that all the other campuses can see me. But if you just prayed that prayer, would you just stand up so that I can just speak just to you? Just stand up where you're seated. The rest of you, keep your heads bowed and eyes closed. But if you meant it, just stand up, the three of you side by side, right back here, sir. People standing all over the room. And you don't need to look yet, church. But the Bible says when one comes to Jesus, all of the angels in heaven are rejoicing. So you can celebrate with those that are standing right now. Woo! Anybody else, just stand up. Just stand up. And let me say this to you. Congratulations. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Just stay standing, just stay standing. It's the wisest decision that those of you who are standing can make. And we wanna welcome you into the family of God. But before you leave, we would love just to have somebody just say a prayer over you and make sure if you have a question, you can get that answered. And so here's what I want you to do. If somebody brought you, just say, come go with me right now, okay? Or somebody sitting next to you, say, come and go with me. But if you just step out into the aisle, right here, one of our pastors is here, right outside that door is a room. They just wanna pray with you for five minutes and get your name and address so they can follow up with you and help you grow in this new relationship with Jesus. So just say, excuse me, step out and come this way if you would. And we're just gonna pray with you for a few minutes. Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations. They're still coming, church. We got some coming from the very backside. We encourage you just make your way. In fact, if you're in the back of the room, you can just go to that corner

and we'll have a pastor back there as well. Just stay along the back wall as they make their way. Anybody else, you need to stand and go with them. Now is the moment for you to do that. Anybody else need to stand and go with them before we look up and finish that prayer? Just stand if you would and just make your way to one of these two corners. And when we get done today, some of you raised your hand and didn't come, and that's okay. We'll have some pastors standing across the front of the stage when we dismiss in a moment. And when everybody's going out the back door, you just come to the front and take one of these pastors by the hand that's gonna stand and say, hey, I prayed the prayer. That's all you gotta say. You say, I don't know what to say. All you gotta say is I prayed that prayer. They know how to take it from there. And they'll help you. Father, thank you for using us. And I rejoice over every one of our people who brought those people who just came forward today. That they were bold enough and courageous enough to make that invitation. That they were bold enough to say, I'll meet you there. I'll take you to lunch or breakfast. Just come, just come with me.

I rejoice with those who are rejoicing right now that know every one of those men, women, boys, and girls across six campuses that are just walked forward to give their life to Jesus. In children's rooms and in student rooms. Father, today, for those who are responding to the gospel, we give you glory and we give you honor. This holy week, may we feel it consecrated and feel closer to you than we ever have before. In Jesus' name we pray and together we all say amen and amen. Put your hands together and thank the Lord.