Torn

♪♪ Good morning, Celebration Church. Man, wasn't it awesome to celebrate and watch those get baptized today? It's just been an amazing service. On fire for the Lord. Hey, I want to take a moment to welcome everyone who's watching online as well as those at our correctional facilities. We see you and we're thankful you joined us here today. Let's give it up for them. I especially, I want to shout out Thomas and Anthony that are doing ministry behind bars, that God has his hand on you. One day we'll be able to worship together in the free world, but I'm glad to see the kingdom of God being multiplied and populated with people because of what you're doing in your faithfulness to live that out. It's a blessing to be able to see the ministry of God be fruitful from Celebration Church. For those of you who are new today, my name is not Pastor Joe Champion. I am relatively taller and more handsome than he is, but he will be back next Sunday to kick off a brand new series that is called Together. As we approach the fall, which is our legacy season, we have big vision for what God is going to do in and through the church in the coming years, and so you don't want to miss next Sunday as we kick off that series. And so what that means for us today is that we are in the final part, the final Sunday, the final message of our summer series in the book of Mark, which we have called Jesus is

King. Somebody say Jesus is King. Here's what I want you to do. Let's open up to the book of Mark chapter 15. If you don't have your Bibles with you, we will have it here on the screen, but I always encourage you to have a Bible. Have a physical Bible. There's something about having a physical Bible. One, you'll grow endeared to it. It'll be hard to go anywhere without it because you fall in love with it. But another thing is it helps illuminate the scripture. You can write down your thoughts in it. You can highlight verses that are important to you or significant in seasons of your life. I encourage you to always bring that because we want to be able to dive in. We want to be able to learn. I'm going to have you go to verse 6. We've talked throughout the entire book of Mark, walked through the life of Jesus, walked through his ministry. We've gone through the dynamic of Gethsemane and his submission to the will of the Father. He's always wanting to please the Father. The beautiful thing about the Trinity, the Godhead, is that everyone on the Trinity loves each other and serves each other. It's a beautiful picture of the harmony that we want to have within the body of Christ. We see Jesus navigating the Last Supper with his disciples.

This is happening on Passover, and now we see him arrested, and he is being charged, and he is being accused, and he is being placed on trial for crimes against the Jewish people. And so in verse 6, it says, Now at the feast, he was accustomed, he being Pontius Pilate, was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them whomever they requested. At the feast on Passover, he would release one criminal who was bound for execution to be pardoned, to be freed at the request of the Jewish people. And there was one named Barabbas who was chained with his fellow rebels. They had committed murder in the rebellion. Then the multitude, crying aloud, asked to Pontius Pilate to do just as he had always done for them. But Pilate answered them, saying, Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? He is saying this with a wink-wink and a nudge-nudge, like, Surely I know you want me to release to you Jesus, right? For he knew that the chief priests had handed Jesus over because of envy. Aha. So Pilate knows that there's something going on beneath the surface. There's some controversy that is going on. He has seen it. He has witnessed it. And he is torn about what is happening. But the chief priests had stirred up the crowd. The chief priests were meddlesome, and they're trying to get the crowd on their side so that he, Pontius, would

rather release Barabbas to them. Pilate answers them and says to them again, What then do you want me to do with him who you call the king of the Jews? He's trying to reason with them because he's wrestling with this situation. So they cried out again, Crucify him. Then Pilate says to them, Why? What evil has this guy done? Just as quickly as he can get it out of his mouth, they cry out again, crucify him. And so Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd. As Christians today, we are often more concerned with gratifying the crowd than standing for the truth. And Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and he delivered Jesus after he had scourged him to be crucified. Lord, first I wanna say thank you. Thank you for the cross and for taking our place. Thank you for your sacrifice to us, God. Even as today, as we dive into your word, let us be reminded of all that you've done for us. Let us be reminded of the great life that we as believers, this eternal life, we get to spend with you, God. And we thank you for the greatness of your word. We pray, God, that you would illuminate our hearts, that you would bring revelation, Father God, that it will fuel us to live for you, to be a light to the world

and to see your kingdom expanded. In the name of Jesus, we pray. And everybody said, amen. How could these people, these Jewish people that are there, I find it funny that they can witness these miracles. They can witness these signs. They've witnessed healing. Some of them have even witnessed the resurrection of a man named Lazarus. What is it that could happen to them that all of a sudden it seems like overnight, they are hell bent on the crucifixion of Jesus. After everything they've witnessed, after everything they've saw him do, they've only seen him love. They've only seen him defend them. And now it seems like on a dime, they are standing here saying, crucify him. Well, when I think about it and we really cut down to the core of it, I think it's simple. And I think we can all relate. So reality is, is that you are drawn to what you identify with. And so when given the choice between Jesus and Barabbas, they choose Barabbas because they can identify better with the sin that is in Barabbas than with the righteousness that is in Jesus. And you're drawn to what you can identify with. How do I know this?

Because we, even as believers, when we stumble, when we make mistakes, when we find ourselves doing unrighteous things, we don't draw closer to the church, closer to God. No, instead we isolate ourselves and we pull away. And all of a sudden we're not going to church. We pull away from our small group and we're ghosting them. We're leaving them on read and not responding to them because we know that we're doing unrighteous things. And there's something about standing in the presence of righteousness that causes a conviction on the inside of us that is uncomfortable because we are drawn to what we identify with. Paul, the apostle Paul says it like this. He says, it's like there's two wills on the inside of me. It's like there's two men on the inside of me and they're warring. This one man that wants to do the righteous thing that wants to please God and this other man that only wants to satisfy its own desires and I'm torn and I'm embattled on the inside because I want to please God. But it's like there's this other person on the inside of me that only wants to please itself. You've heard me say it this way before, that we as believers, each and every one of us has an upward calling and a downward craving. And so this conflict that is on the inside of us is real

and it's important for us to recognize it because it helps us to frame the rest of the chapter in Mark 15. We're gonna try and go through this entire chapter for the most part. We're gonna get some chunks of it. So I'm gonna try and get it all done within the next 120 minutes. Buckle up. Here's the reality. Because of this battle on the inside of us, we have to realize that we need the Holy Spirit. This is why we need the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the only one who allows us to accomplish all that God has called us to accomplish. The Holy Spirit is the only one who allows us to attain the upward calling of Christ. And so that's why Jesus comes. Jesus comes so that he can rebuild the bridge, the relationship with God, the Father. And the Bible says that when he resurrected and he ascended, the Holy Spirit descended on the inside of us. So now Jesus could live inside of us by way of the Holy Spirit, each and every one of us individually at the same time. This is important for us to recognize because Romans chapter 6, 23 says that the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life. The wage of sin is death. So for something to be atoned for, for sin to be atoned for, something has to die. die. So the chief priests and the heads of the families in this day, they would sacrifice an unblemished lamb to atone temporarily for their sin, the sin of their nation, the sin of their family, because for something to live, something has to die. And for this temporary amount of time, the sin of man would go on to the lamb, and the innocence of the lamb would go on to the man. And for the chief priests, this particular activity would happen in the temple, maybe about half a mile or so for where Jesus is about to be crucified. And inside this temple stood this massive veil separating two rooms. On one side is the holy place. And this is where the priests would carry out their daily duties in the temple. They would refill the bread, they would tend to the candle lamp stands, and they would burn incenses as worship unto God as as an aroma unto the Lord. But on the other side of this veil was the holy of holies. And this space was a sacred space. It is the very presence of God dwelling amongst the people. And it's surrounded by this veil. And the veil is important. The Jewish historian Josephus says that the veil because he saw it with his own eyes before the temple fell, he said that this veil is thick. It's a wondrous work of craftsmanship. It's thick, it's heavy. It's adorned with blue and purple and scarlet and gold. And it's about as thick as a man's hand is wide, which shows us that this is not some thin fabric. No, no, this is thick fabric that is woven together. I want you to view this less as a veil like a wedding veil, what we're used to when we think of

the word veil and more like a tapestry of woven fabric together as thick as a man's hand. I dare someone in here to be able to take a tapestry as thick as a man's hand and try to rip it in half. Even trying to cut through it would be challenging. The reality is that it's thick, it's big, it's intimidating to the people. And once a year on the day of atonement, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies. It was such a sacred space and there was such concern about it because God himself said that nobody can see my face and live. So they knew that him being allowed into the presence of God was a sacred thing so much so that they would tie a rope around his ankle so that if something happens while he's in the presence of God, they can pull his body out with the rope because nobody could enter into the temple after him or they would die. This would happen once a year with the high priest, a mediator. So this was not decoration. This is architecture with the message, God is holy and you are not. And it's symbolized with a wall, with a barrier, with a border, with a gate, with a veil. God himself designed it this way in Exodus 26 because God judges sin and so how does a righteous judge allow the presence of sinful people to be in the same room as him? Let's put a pin there, we're going to come back to that. But now let's move on in the story to verse 17 that it says, after they sent him, they clothed him with purple. They twisted a crown of thorns and put it upon his head and began to salute him, hail the king of the Jews. Then they struck him on the head with a reed and they spat on him, bowing their knee to him, worshiping him in mockery. And as they mocked him, they took the purple off of him, the royal colors off of him. They put his own clothes on him and they led him out to

crucify him. One of the other gospels describes them as tearing out his beard. What a juxtaposition from the beginning of Jesus's ministry that we talked about all the way back in the beginning of June. In Mark chapter one, verse 10, where Jesus is getting baptized, a day to celebrate much like today is for those who got baptized. That the Bible says immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens parting and the spirit descending upon him like a dove. And then a voice came from heaven and said, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This phrase that he saw the heavens parting, this word for parting, the original Greek word is the word schizo. means a violent and a forceful splitting. Sometimes when we picture this, we picture this baptism as this peaceful encounter. And certainly indeed it was, there was a lot of peace and joy in the people realizing that this is the Messiah. But when God speaks, oftentimes it's violent. And the Bible says that this splitting is forceful like the splitting of an ax to wood. Heaven itself tears open and God comes down and he claims and affirms his son, this is my beloved. But the violence is redirected in chapter 15 as Jesus is beaten and as he is whipped and his flesh is torn like ribbons hanging from his body. He is the lamb of God taking the punishment that is owed to each and every man and woman who has ever sinned. He is led to the cross where nails were hammered, where spikes are hammered into his wrists

and into his feet, tearing through skin and muscles and ligaments and tendons, tearing and scraping through bones and nerve endings, sending jolts of pain through his body like electricity, all the while his body is swelling with blood, causing more pressure on the wounds and more pain in any attempt to push himself upward would cause this immense pain on these spikes on his feet as he would try to catch a breath and then that pain kicks in and he would have to release it so that the pain would go away but then this would inflict pain on his wrist and this pain on his chest and shoulders and back and he can't breathe. He has severe blood loss, he has dehydration, he has muscle cramping and breathing difficulty all the way weakening his body even to the point that his heart fails or his lungs do. And Jesus endures the cross for you and for me that while we were yet sinners, I could maybe, maybe I could get it if we were really good and really valuable and we really had things together. Maybe, maybe it could have been worth it but how often have you given your life for something worthless? But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us the wage was death and Jesus paid it all for you and for me. I don't know about you but at 10 46 a.m.

that's a pretty good place to be grateful to God and to thank him for what he's done in your life. Oh, come on, if you remember how you used to be and where you want today, you ought to be grateful, grateful that he gave his life to you but see, here's the thing, we're so far removed from this reality. Pastor Avery's talked about it a couple of Sundays ago so beautifully, it's like we can spout this story and completely lose the picture, the importance of the cross, the importance of what Jesus did for us and he doesn't just go halfway, he goes all in. In verse 33, it says that now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. The day began at 6 a.m. so the hours would count from 6 a.m. on so what that's saying to us is that this is really from noon to 3 p.m. in the afternoon. Every one of us is well aware of what 3 p.m. in the afternoon in a Texas summer feels like and looks like. When you walk from your house to your car and you're drenched in sweat, it's like yes, the summer came late but it is here, baby and it's bad, thank God for air conditioning, amen? We all know what 3 p.m. looks like on a Sunday afternoon in the state of Texas. It's the brightest time,

the sun is the highest it's going to be but the Bible says that between noon and 3 p.m., the sun at its highest point is going dark in the middle of the day. We know that this is not a solar eclipse because this is happening in the spring and the moon is not positioned between the sun and the earth at this time. This is something supernatural that is happening. It's like a response from creation, in fact, In the fifth century, Saint John Chrysostom said that creation itself couldn't bear the wrong being done to its creator. It's as if the very sun itself turned away from the atrocity that befell Jesus on the cross. Creation knew who its creator was, and it couldn't stand to witness what we, as the created, were doing to Jesus. And in verse 34, it says that at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I need you to understand that this is not a spontaneous cry. This is not a spontaneous cry of despair. Jesus is actually quoting Psalm 22. It's a Psalm that is written by King David 1,000 years earlier. This cry is not a momentary pain. It's a thousand-year pain.

It's a prophetic pain showing us that Jesus grieved the separation between God and man long before he ever showed up on this earth in a suit of skin. This pain he carried with him long before the cross. This was not momentary. It was eternal. This is a picture, as Scripture says, that God the Father could not look upon sin. And Paul says in 2 Corinthians that the Father made Jesus who knew no sin to become sin, to be made sin, so that you and I could be made and become the righteousness of God through Jesus, through the Lamb of God. It was as if the face of the Father now had to turn. Because he did not see his Son, he saw our sin upon his Son. The sin of the man goes on to the Lamb so that the innocence of the Lamb can go on to the man. And Jesus in 37 cries out in a loud voice and breathed his last. And then something supernatural happens that's pretty crazy, that this is happening here on Calvary, this is happening at the cross, but there's something else that is happening at the temple at the exact same time. In verse 38 it says, then the veil of the temple was torn. This schizo happens and it's torn from the top to the bottom.

Only two times in the Gospel of Mark is the word schizo used. One, when heaven tears open and God affirms his Son, and now happens again when Jesus dies on the cross. This schizo, this violent tearing, there's a tear in the fabric of the temple and there's a tear in the fabric of the spiritual. When the veil, the tapestry of the Holy of Holies rips, not from the bottom to the top, not from man to God, but it rips from the top to the bottom violently. It rips from God to man. It rips from the top to the bottom because there is no need now to contain the presence of God. Something happened when Jesus' body was torn on the cross. The veil was torn in the spiritual. And you gotta understand that there's a tearing in the people who are seeing it because the giver of life has died, but they don't yet realize that it's the actual death that is going to bring life. That's where life is truly given and they're torn. And the veil represents a wall. It represents a gate. It represents a border. And you and I all know, every person who has a house with a fence around it, you know that the reason why you have a gate, the reason why you have a wall is not to keep things in,

it's to keep things out, amen? That this veil is sitting here and it is now ripped open. And God is trying to get us to understand that the veil is ripped open, not so that God could get out to us, it's so that we could get in to the presence of God. He ripped it from top to bottom, saying, I will do the act, I'm the only one. And because of what Jesus has done on the cross, now access is granted to each and every one of us so that we could come in to the presence of God. Every sinner, every liar, every deceiver, every betrayer, every murderer, that we would be allowed entry into the presence of God. It doesn't matter what you've done. Maybe you have cheated. Maybe you are addicted to alcohol or addicted to drugs, or maybe you are fighting right now these various addictions. Maybe you are someone who's promiscuous. I want you to understand something, that all of that is on the cross. All of that is nailed with Jesus. I don't know how bad it is or what you've done, how bad what you've done is. I don't know the mistakes, but I do know one thing, is it doesn't matter what your sin is. Jesus nailed it to the cross. It's on the cross. It's done. He's paid the price for you. And you've got to understand, every murderer, every sinner, every liar, every betrayer in this place of some things, I have done in my life.

But here's the thing. You might not like what I've done. You can't keep me out, because the same blood that covered your mess covered up mine. And this is the glory of God. This is why we celebrate who He is. This is why we celebrate what He's done. Because there's nothing better about me than you. We are all the same in the eyes of God, but the difference is, is that some of us are standing before the cross, and instead of seeing our sin and our shame, we turn away. Others were torn. There's a tearing on the inside of us. I didn't say this in the last service, but a month or two, maybe three ago, who's familiar with Theo Vaughn? You'll know Theo Vaughn, the podcaster and comedian, and anyway, there was this clip that was going around, and I don't remember all the specific detail, but it's interesting because he's wrestling with the story of the man who's healed at Bethesda, and Jesus was asking the man, do you want to be healed? And Theo, in this transparent moment, is like, and I'm asking myself that question, because obviously, you know, if you know anything about him, he's wrestling, he's torn about his faith. And he says, but I have to ask the question, do I want to be healed? He says, because the thing is, is if I'm healed, that means I'm different. I'm not blind anymore. I'm not lame anymore. I can't use these things as an excuse to continue to throw my life away or not attain all that God, like the moment that I'm healed, I'm changed. And he gets real transparent, and he says, I don't know if I want to be healed. And I think that's the real conundrum that we face, is when it relates to our spirit, I don't know that every one of us really wants to be healed, because if we were, that requires change.

So at the baptism, heaven tore so that God could approach Jesus. But at the crucifixion, the veil tore so that we could approach God through Jesus. But at times we're torn with this reality, the reality of our sinful lives, and the prospect of Jesus's goodness to us. It's not enough to experience Christ's goodness. It's not enough to attend church every Sunday and tick the box and run out early to beat the crowd at the line or in the circle drive. We have to submit to his lordship. That's what is required. How do we know? Because Peter, we talked about it in Mark 8. Jesus says, who do you say that I am, Peter? And Peter says, you are the Christ. You're the son of the living God. Yet where was Peter at the crucifixion? It wasn't enough to experience God's goodness. Where was he? He's out denying him, having seen miracles, having seen signs, having seen wonders. Because miracles, signs, and wonders don't save you. God giving you what you're praying for, for many of you, is not going to draw you closer to God. Because you're not concerned about his lordship. You're concerned about your desires. Everyone who was ever healed in the New Testament still died. Every single one of them. In fact, he healed 10 lepers and only one of them came back to worship him and to thank him. This is who we are. This is how we are. And we're faced with the reality and the prospect of his goodness and we're torn about it.

We who can come to church every single Sunday, who can serve, but still not realize that we might actually be farther away from God than we realize. And credit to you. I'm glad that you do it. I want you to serve. I want you to be involved. I want you to be plugged in. But that's not the echelon of your Christianity and your faith. faith. At the end of the day, what we do is we submit to the Lordship of Jesus and say, whatever it is you want me to do, I'll do. Wherever it is you want me to go, I'll go. But there's a particular man that witnessed the death of hundreds, maybe even thousands of people over the course of his life. He's administered multiple executions, multiple crucifixes, and we can presume that he's never seen one miracle of Christ. He's probably never seen a healing of Christ, and yet here he stands. He is the farthest from the religious system that the veil and the temple represent. He is not a priest. He is not a disciple. He's an executioner. We know him as the Roman centurion. And he sees Jesus on the cross, and he witnesses something that he hasn't seen before. He doesn't see a man who is cursing the people who put him up there. He doesn't see a man who's blaspheming. He doesn't see a man who's scared. He's a man up there who's only concerned with the glory of the Father and the salvation of humanity, and it checks something in his spirit. This man who didn't have all the stories about Jesus, didn't have the history of Jesus, didn't walk with Jesus, he just comes to the reality of the cross. And 39 says, when the centurion who stood opposite him saw that Jesus had cried out and breathed his last, he said, truly, this man was the Son of God. The Messiah is truly understood only through the cross. Peter confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, but he rejected the suffering that comes with it. This man sees the suffering of Jesus, and because of it, he accepts the Lord of the suffering. But he's torn, I'm sure, between his profession and the experience that he's having. I'm sure he's torn between his past and his purpose. I'm sure he's torn between what he knows he has to

give up and the desires he wants to see for his future. I'm sure he is torn. He is the least likely person in the gospel of Mark to make the final confession at the cross. If you've ever felt like you've had to clean yourself up before coming to the Lord, I want you to know that the veil is torn. The veil is torn, and you have access to come into his presence. But here's the thing. There may not be a veil, but there is a doorway, and his name is Jesus. He said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. There's only one way to the Father. Now, there's many ways to Jesus. There's about 2,000 ways to Jesus in this room, presuming we're all believers. But there's only one way to the Father, and that's through Jesus. The Roman centurion, he got this. If you've ever felt like an outsider to the faith, I want you to know that the veil is torn, and you can come to his presence. But here's the thing. It may be free, but it doesn't come without a cost. For you to receive his life, you must be willing to give up yours. Because for something to live, something has to die. That means if you give your whole life to Jesus, then what you're doing 20 years from now is none of your business. It's his, because it all belongs to him. That's the cost, and I think that's why these people are torn, and I think that's why we, at times, are torn about the reality of what our faith requires. You cannot know who Jesus is until you stand at the foot of the cross, facing the reality of your sin and the greater reality of his love. Amen. You're like, Daniel, this is kind of heavy for 11.03 a.m. Well, God slapped me with it before he slapped you with it today, and he gave it to me a lot worse than I gave it to you. Here's the reality of it. What a Savior we have who loves us so much that he's willing to give everything for us. But in our decision, in our tearing, who are we gonna choose? We have to make a determination. What are we gonna do with this man, Jesus, on this cross that we're faced with here today? About a month ago, my son and I got to take an incredible father-son trip.

It was like on our bucket list. We got to go to Japan. We spent about seven to eight days in Tokyo, Japan. How many have ever been to Japan? And if you've been to Japan, it's amazing, right? It's incredible. Everything's awesome. We just immersed ourselves in the culture. We ate all the food we could possibly eat. Hello, somebody, all you can eat sushi? Let's go. It was amazing. Kobe beef, Wagyu A5. We tried to eat a lot of it, but you can't because it kind of makes you sick. It was amazing, though. We still loved it. We loved everything about it. We loved the people. They were so great. They were so kind and accommodating. We just kind of absorbed everything. In fact, I got a picture of my son and I. Let's put it up here on the screen. That's me and my son. My son looks a lot cooler on his spider than I do on my monkey adventure cart over here. And they had costumes to wear while you rode around. So I wore a Sulley costume, but I forgot that I had it on. So whenever we would stop at red lights,

there would be young people out saying, Sulley, Sulley, waving at me. And I was laughing. I was waving back, but I'm looking around like, does Sulley mean something in Japanese? And I looked and I'm like, oh, I'm in a Sulley costume from Monsters, Inc. That's why they keep saying Sulley to me. We had a wonderful time. We were driving out and we continued to immerse ourselves in the culture. We went to a museum where I was able to wear some samurai armor. Let's put that up. Yeah, look at that. Are you intimidated now? Look at that. I feel like I'm pretty intimidating, especially with my shorts on. I know I got sexy legs. Don't be looking too long. But I always say, if you got it, you might as well show it off. You know what I'm saying? My son would not join me for this photo. You can imagine why. But he did take it, did allow me to post it. But when we left that museum, we were kind of in a district that was known for like creating pottery and dinnerware

and all these things. And someone had gone to Japan before and brought us back some gifts of dinnerware. So we were looking for some dinnerware to take home. We thought, hey, that would be a really cool thing to bring home to the family. And as we're going about and as we're searching, I was aware of this particular art form here in the States, but I was faced with something about knowing about an art form and then seeing it in real life in the country where it's developed. It's pretty cool. And this is ancient art form called Kintsugi. And it means the golden joinery. And it's when a piece of pottery breaks, instead of throwing it away or hiding its cracks, the artist repairs it with lacquer. And in the more prosperous times of Japan, they would even take gold dust, actual gold dust, and they would mix it with the lacquer and they would piece the cracks together. The cracks and the tears are not disguised. They're actually highlighted by the gold. And the gold runs right along every line where the pieces are shattered. The Kintsugi pot, the Kintsugi bowl, whatever it is, is considered more valuable after it's been broken and repaired than it was before it was ever cracked. Let's put up a picture of the black one.

Isn't that beautiful? This is a Kintsugi bowl. Now let's put up the picture of the white one. This white one right now, you can buy online for $27,000. Makes Pottery Barn look like Family Dollar, you know what I'm saying? But it's more valuable now than before it was ever cracked, not despite the break, but because of it. The breaking becomes a part of the piece's story instead of something to hide. The gold doesn't cover up what happens. The gold tells the truth about what happens. And it makes it beautiful because of the healing. And I think there's a lot of gospel in this art form. Jesus himself, when he resurrects on the third day, which is vitally important to our salvation, appears to his disciples as they're feasting in his transformed body. And he walks up to them and he shows them the scars on his hands. He didn't remove them, he didn't hide them, no, because the scars are the story. And scars can be a reminder that you've been hurt, or they can be evidence that you've been healed. But it all depends. on what you do with this man, Jesus, at the foot of the cross. You might say here today, Daniel, you don't know the horrible things I've done. You don't know the horrible things

that have been done to me. You don't know the horrible decisions I've made with my body, with my decisions, with my actions, the people that I've hurt. Like, I'm not just cracked, I'm not just torn, I'm completely shattered. And why would this great God that you talk about, why would he see any value in me? Our value does not come from what we've done, our value comes from what he did. And God will put gold in the gross places of your life and the mistakes that you've tried to hide. The past will become a pulpit for you to testify of the goodness of God. He died for you, he died for me. And the beautiful thing, the gold of it all is in the tearing, it's in the breaking. So this thing you might be wrestling with today, I don't know if I wanna give you my life because that means leaving some other things behind. You might be thinking, what's wrong with me that I'm battling this? And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. That's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is reckoning something inside of you. This wrestle, this tearing, this is coming from God. And it's time to make a decision. It's time to make a choice. This is coming from God. And it's time to make a decision

about who you're going to live for, you or him. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. All across this room here today, I want you to know that you can be forgiven of your sins. Every mistake, all of it, all of it can be forgiven, but it's not gonna be forgotten. God's gonna use those mistakes to see other people come to Christ because of your testimony. That's the beauty of the gospel. I wanna give you an opportunity to submit to his Lordship today. The Bible says that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. But the only way that you can come to this confession and believe is if you're willing to repent of your sin. All over this room, with every head up, with every eye open, if you are in this room and you want to give your life to Jesus, you want to declare him as the Lord of your life. I need you to understand, I need you to get this. Jesus is not an augmentation to your life. He is a complete abandonment of your life. That's what this requires. You've been in the driver's seat. The reason why you're in the problems and you have the problems that you have right now

is because of you. If you don't have a relationship with Jesus right now, the devil didn't mess up your life. He didn't have to. You were fully capable of messing it up on your own. So that means that when you give your life to the Lord, life might actually get a little harder because now you're on the radar of the devil. But what you're gonna have is you're gonna have the power to overcome in every aspect of your life. Joy, peace, compassion, love, confidence, courage, because you're fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit. But you have to decide. So if you're in this place and you believe this in your heart that he is Lord and God raised him from the dead and you want to repent of your sin and you want to confess him as Lord right now, I want you to locked eyes with me and I want you to put one hand up in the sky and I want you to leave it there. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. All of it, thank you, thank you. Keep your hand up for me if you wouldn't mind. Thank you so much. The whole family over here, thank you, thank you, sir. Thank you. A couple over here in the back, thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Your family's gonna be changed because of your decision. Thank you, thank you so much, thank you. Thank you over there in the back, over there in the back. Thank you so much, I see y'all back there. Thank you so much. That's why I wore my glasses. I wanna be able to see everybody in the back. Thank you, thank you, thank you, young lady. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All over the room, church, we should be excited that this is happening right now. Thank you in the back, thank you in the back. I see you, I see you. I see you, sir, I see you, ma'am, I see you, I see you. Thank you, sir, in the back, all the way in the back, all over the room. Thank you for indulging me in that so I can see, but it's less important that I see it, more important is that God sees it. He sees what's happening in your heart. So here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna pray a prayer, I'm gonna ask every single one of us to recite this together. For those of us who are saved, this is just a celebration and a reaffirmation of our faith, but for those of you who have said, I believe this and I'm gonna confess this today,

this is going to be a game changer. The Bible says that your name is gonna be written in the Lamb's Book of Life. In other words, there are no walk-ins in heaven, you gotta make a reservation, but your name's gonna be a book, in the book when you get there, and you're gonna be able to enter it and party up and have fun. In the kingdom of God, it's gonna be an amazing time, but it all comes down to your willingness to submit to the Lordship of Jesus. Let's pray this together. Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I repent of my sin and I turn to you. I believe that you live for me and I believe that you died for me and I believe that you rose again so that I could have new life. I receive that life today and I call you my Lord from this day forward, in Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen. What an awesome God we serve.