I have a short message for us tonight. I'm going to try to keep it short. And, you know, a lot of times Easter is this moment where there's a lot of people that come to services that don't normally come to services at churches. And most of the time there's a message given so that you can be saved, right?
And the main focus of my message is that you would know Jesus. And I want to highlight who Jesus is and what he's like and what he's done because you weren't born to just be saved from hell. You know, you weren't born just to avoid eternal damnation. You weren't just born to go to heaven.
You were born to know God. And you were born to know him and not just know about him. Because even demons and Satan himself knows all of the facts about God. Demons know all of the information that is in the Bible, all of the facts about Jesus they know.
So what that means is that it's not about mental ascent. What it means is you can be culturally a Christian but not actually be a follower of Jesus. What that means is that you can know a bunch of information but be far from God. And you can come up and come to the altar and say a prayer and say, Man, I confess with my mouth that I believe the facts that Jesus is Lord and I confess with my mouth and I believe in my heart that he rose from the dead and then actually not be a follower of Jesus.
In other words, you can be an American Christian but not be a follower of Jesus. Are you hearing me? There's many in the land in America that have set a prayer but live in constant rebellion towards the leadership of God. And what I want to call us to today is him.
I just want to talk about Jesus. And I just wrote something up and I'm just going to read through it. It might feel a little different than I normally preach. It might feel a little bit different than normal.
But that's because of what I was sensing for today from the Holy Spirit that I felt like there's this invitation to slow down and look at him. And I know we always look at him, right? That's what we're doing in worship. We're gathering around him and singing to him.
We're not singing to the ceiling, right? We're singing to a person. I don't want to talk about him. So some of this might be review for you.
And you might know the facts. But I want us to not just know about him. I want us to know him. You know how that's different?
You can know about someone. But then you can have this. It's like maybe a husband and wife that have a healthy marriage. And they've been together for a while.
They built history and they can just like finish each other's sentences, right? They see a facial expression on their spouses face. They know exactly what it means. I know exactly what you're thinking.
You were meant to know God like that. You were meant to be close to him. I'm meant to be near him. Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus and God the Father and the Holy Spirit. They were all together and present in the beginning. Before the foundations of the earth were spoken into existence. Jesus was.
Jesus is all-powerful. He's God's mercy on display. God loves the world so much. And he loves who he created and what he created to such a degree that he decided to enter into what he created.
To make clear who he is and what he's like and how we can know him and how we can live. Jesus was born to a virgin who was conceived by the power of God through the Holy Spirit. Jesus was and is fully God and fully man. And Jesus is a Jewish man.
And part of a people group that is one of the most hated people groups in all of human history. Jesus' birth was in a small town and he didn't have a birth announcement that was like many of our birth announcements with a card or a Facebook post and a beautiful Instagram image with filters. No. Jesus literally had angels, thousands of angels appear in the sky to a couple blue-collar workers working in a field that were shouting to one another and singing about the glory of God arriving.
And then at the same time, there was astrologers and kings from a different land that started walking towards Jerusalem because they saw the stars aligning and a great star. So they traveled with riches and wealth and gifts to give him. I mean, that's a different type of registry. Come on.
When you're watching the stars and that you're going to gather your meringue gold, that's a different registry that we're talking about. I can't think of anybody that had their earthly dad get visited by the angel Gabriel to warn him that there was actually all of the boys of that city were going to be murdered because your son was being hunted by the king of the land and that you need to flee and become a refugee in Egypt. That's a Jesus story. Jesus, his emo and how he did things was it was always God the father's way.
He would always, he had this thing about him where it was whatever the father wants. He was sinless, perfect, void of mistakes, sins, flaws. He was free from selfishness, completely pure, entirely spotless. He restored what humanity had lost.
Everywhere he went, he healed the blind, the death, the mute, the paralyzed, the leper. He restored the emotionally broken and the chronically ill, those that have Lyme's disease, those that have all of those chronic issues and they don't know what's wrong. He died for that. He came to restore the outcast and the prostitute and the pimp and the swindler and the religious and the murderer and the adulterer and the child and the widow.
He loved the inconvenient and hung out with the undesirables. He came to bring life, to show us what life could be if we lived in connection and submission to the Creator. He came to destroy the works of the devil. He moved in power and he didn't just teach but he showed.
He showed the way. These are all the things that he did but what was he like? He's patient. He's not hurried.
He's not too busy or irritable. It helps you, you can close your eyes and just listen. He's not in a rush. He's never late but he doesn't seem like he's ever early.
He's not worried and he's not discouraged. He's content and humble and bold and even though he has every reason to be arrogant, he's not prideful or selfish. He's quick to forgive and void of bitterness and resentment. He doesn't celebrate falsehood.
He's not amused by sin and deception and wrongdoing. But he always is celebrating the truth. He's the type of leader in the person and person that bears the load no matter the way to communicate his love. He's relentless in his pursuit and even when all seems lost and it seems like things have grown too dark, he's full of hope.
He has perfect memory, is fully present in the moment and at the same time knows the end of the story, all of our stories. He's the beginning. He's today. He's the end.
He endures all things to reveal how great his love is for us. He has eyes that are passionate and are loving and he is the most wise person in the history of the cosmos. He is unmatched in his stable leadership. His justice is perfect and his love is too.
There's just no one like him. He's the most powerful person in human history and his words are the greatest force known to mankind. His words bring life to death and mountains shake before him. They tremble in his presence and his voice is like the clap of thunder and the roar of rushing waves.
Satan fears him. He is distinct, unique and not just a prophet as the Muslims say and he's not just a teacher as the new age sages would suggest. He's just not a healer. He's more than that.
He's not just a leader of a major religion. This is the king. He is the king of kings. He's the Lord of Lords.
He's God in the flesh. He is the mighty one, the ancient of days. He is the creator God, the one enthroned above the circle of the earth and he is savior of the world and we are all designed to know him. There's all of these things that are true about him and we are all designed to be close to him.
He's the only one in history that can maintain deep intimate connection with billions of people all at the same time. He's the only person in all of the universe that knows every single intricacy of your story and every single detail of your past, present and future and you multiply that times every single person that has ever lived on the planet and that will ever live in the future. I'm talking about Jesus. I'm not talking about a prophet and I'm not talking about a teacher.
I'm talking about God in the flesh, the king, the all knowing omnipotent, all powerful. He is the one that knows you and knew when you were conceived and he knew when you took your first breath and he's going to know you when you take your last breath. He's always there. He's enduring.
He's a man you well. He's God with us. He doesn't leave and he doesn't give up and he doesn't give in and he keeps on fighting and he keeps on believing even when you walk away. Even when you go your own way and think oh I'm going to do my own thing for a little bit.
I'm going to figure it out on my own apart from God and man there's been so much brokenness that's happened in my church hurt and I just got to figure it out on my own and the Lord's going that's fine but I'm not leaving you. You might leave yourself but I'm waiting and I'm going to keep on knocking and the reason why you're in the room is because he is a relentless pursuer and lover. Like man I wish he wouldn't pursue me. I wish he wouldn't be such a hound.
I wish he wouldn't be the hound of heaven that just keeps on fighting. But you got somebody in your corner that loves you more than you love yourself. You got somebody that's fighting on your behalf when you don't think anybody is left in your corner. He's the one that keeps on showing up because he knows you and he loves you and he sees you and he never loses sight of your worth.
He never loses sight of your value even when you look in the mirror and you go I have no value. I have no worth. All the things that have been done to me. All the things that I have done.
What do you mean worth and the Lord's going you're worth my blood. You're worth infinity. You're priceless. You were worth God blood getting poured out.
God desires that we would all know him and yet we have this problem and this tension because we've got all these obstacles. We've got these walls. Some of them are emotional right. We've got these blocks in our brain where we just like can't go before God.
But I'm talking about the spiritual blocks. We're all flawed. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short.
Despite popular opinion in America where we think that we're all good. Where we think that our good works are just going to outnumber our bad works and then maybe we're just going to be accepted because we're pretty good people. That's not how it works in heaven because God calls the shots. And so when he looks at all of our works and he says that they're like filthy trash and we're like but I thought my good works were pretty good and then we begin to realize that all of our good works were actually selfish because we were manipulating and doing kind things to actually feel better about ourselves and doing all of this work so that we could get something from it.
Whether it be identity or love or affection and we had hooks on those little works and we're going no but I'm a good person and then you start looking at all of the good and you're like I thought I was a good person and then the motives get exposed before the holy one and you begin to realize I thought I was going to earn it and then you realize that even what you thought was going to be the count where you were going to have a score and your score was going to outnumber your sins and then you even look at that and you go man I thought that was going to be a higher score and the Lord's like even if it was higher than the number of sins you said it still wouldn't be enough because you've got this problem called sin and nothing can wash it away except blood and an animal blood can't wash it away and you don't want it to be your blood and so God and God doesn't want it to be your blood so because he loves you with so much ache and desire and passion he wants you to know him and because he wants you to know him and he wants you to be without shame and without guilt what he did is he became a man and then he hangs on the cross naked he fully is exposed with his body spread on a cross fully shamed because you've got shame and he knows that the only way that he's going to set you free from your shame is if he takes your shame on and then you've got guilt because you know that you haven't done all those things you haven't lived perfectly you know that you're guilty before holy God and so Jesus takes on all of your sins past present and future sins and he becomes one with them on the cross and God pours out his wrath on those sins because God hates those sins because what does sin do it it's blocks between us and God and God's going I'm removing every obstacle I'm removing every hindrance I'm removing every wall it's like that no wall you don't kick down like song you know what I'm talking about he's going I'm gonna kick down every wall that's in between me and the ones that I love he loves you that much that he's gonna he's gonna move heaven and earth because he's after you and you're like me no he must not know me no no no no he knows you more than you even know yourself he knows you more than your mom knows you he knows you more than your dad knows you your siblings know you your co-workers your friends he remembers every intricacy of even your thought life that you thought and he still loves you because you know how hell is your thought life is and he's actually loving you even in the midst of that and he's going I love them I want them you weren't designed to say a prayer at the altar and then just know some information and continue to be the god of your own life you were designed to know God intimately to dwell in his love and be transformed you were meant to shine when God thought you up he had an original design for you and he knew that you were going to uniquely love him different than anybody else in all of creation in all of history he knew that as he was forming your little fingerprints everybody look at your fingerprint and know that your finger is perfectly unique and there's been no other human that's ever had your identical fingerprints no one that's ever had your eyes no one that's ever had your tonal can you believe that you're completely one of a kind and unique no one in all of history can receive his love the way that you can and no one else in all of history can love him the way that you can it's completely unique when you sing to him it sounds different than everybody else's voice and he makes it out you're like man there's a sound system no he hears he hears the little raspiness that you've got and all of the ways that you sing off key and he loves it in Matthew 16 Jesus is talking to his disciples and and he's he's probably around a crowd this size and he like whispers over to him he's like hey who do they say that I am he like points at the crowd who do they say I am they go well some say a prophet some say teacher and then Jesus looks at them in the eyes he says but who do you say that I am Jesus he could kind of care less about the crowds and what they think about him he's after what he doesn't care about your dad and your mom and what your dad and mom say about him I mean he loves them but today Jesus is after this question for each one of us it's a question of who do you say that he is if Jesus is who I describe him to be and who the Bible says he is and who he claimed to be then you just saying a prayer going on with your life saying a prayer God I believe in you I believe the facts that you rose from the dead believe in my heart that your Lord and then I'm going to just be a Christian no the scripture says we should slow down believe in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead so it's a belief thing though you haven't seen you weren't there when he rose from the dead it'll be counted to you as righteousness that you believed to having not seen what great love but it starts with belief and it's not just blind belief it's belief and some facts when you look at the scriptures and all the records and all of the evidence and some of you guys are going to need to to study it to challenge to kind of shoot holes through it but as you do your research you begin to realize that it's bulletproof there's a reason why you can put faith in it and believe that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead has gotten the flesh and then the next step is confess with your tongue that he is what? Lord not Savior not not anything else than Lord and that makes us kind of face the counting of the cost because he doesn't want to just be Lord over your spirit are you hearing me he wants to be Lord over your money oh no and he wants to be Lord over your sexuality Lord over your relationships Lord over how you talk Lord how over how you interact with people Lord over your thought life Lord over everything when you sign up to follow Jesus you are signing up for a lifestyle you're not signing up for some tenants you're not signing up to be religious you're not signing up to be a Christian as America has defined it you're signing up to lay down your whole life because what you really want is all in if we actually look at ourselves in the mirror and go why am I so and you begin to realize this because I'm half-hearted but what I want is all in and Jesus is going I didn't die on the cross bleed God blood out of my body and get tortured and hold the whipping post with my hands as skin was ripped out of my body I didn't take my your sin on me and become one with it so that the wrath of God gets poured out I didn't do that just to have mediocre people that kind of feel indifferent about God go through the motions and maybe love him a little bit but kind of not and are mostly bored you were designed for more you were designed for more than just what you've known religiously you're designed to be all in and God has a way he is a way for you to live it's not the way of the world you can't have both you can't be the God of your own life and all of those details of your life and have him be your God we actually have to make a choice is he Lord or is he not and I want to give the opportunity to all of us to make that choice some of you go I don't maybe feel the emotion some of you feel it but the Lord spoke to me just before the service and he said all it takes is a little yes it's the weak yes that unlocks destiny in souls he said it's not it doesn't have to be huge and it doesn't have to be all put together because how many of you know that Jesus interacted with the people that were a mess and he wasn't expecting them to get all cleaned up before they can come to God some of us the enemy is chirping going you got just be a little bit better before you give your life to Jesus you got to clean all this stuff up before you can come to him maybe just take a little bit more time and figure it out listen that's the chirping of the enemy because he knows when you give yourself fully to God you will tap into the destiny you are designed for and God is saying hey today can be your day of salvation and not your day of getting saved from hell maybe that's amazing but getting saved from your old life save from the the lifestyle that you've been living that keeps you running dry he's gone I can save you from that way and I can have you turn into a new way and it looks like me being with you and you being with me and you knowing me and loving me with your whole heart and getting to experience me and it's not going to be easy it's not like all of your life is going to be perfect after you give your life to Jesus it's not going to make your circumstances better but it's going to change you so every circumstance that you face you begin to shine like the stars because he's beginning to transform you you can't control anybody you can't change anybody you can't dictate whether it's going to rain or whether it's going to be sunny but what you can do is you can find yourself connected to him and resting in his love and abiding in him and then having that change you from the inside out you're designed to know God and then become like him to be transformed to shine that's all stand holy spirit we just welcome you begin to move in the room just continue to move in the room holy spirit if you want to spread out a little bit get some elbow room you can let's just keep the altar open though I want to keep the altar open Jesus that you would have life and have it abundantly but life isn't how the world defines life abundant life is a life surrender to Jesus I'm going to give an invitation for people to come to the altar and in Hebrew the word altar means surrender I mean sacrifice and so this area at the front of the room we're calling it the altar because it's this place where you can have a beautiful exchange of your old life and receiving the new life through Jesus and what happens when you surrender your life to God is you make a choice even if you don't feel it and a lot of times people do but even if you don't feel it you make a choice a decision to go I'm turning away from me being the God of my own life and I'm turning to God and I'm giving him the seat I'm giving him lordship and so it's this decision to turn and you go and you what you do is you talk to him and it might be the first time you've ever talked to me it doesn't have to sound religious you just get to talk to him like he's a normal person standing in front of you and you get to communicate I want to give you my whole life and you get to confess your sins and say I've been living in this and I've been living in that and I know that this is sin and I confess this out loud and I need forgiveness I have sin and I fall short and I need forgiveness I need you to wash me and cleanse me from all of my mistakes and I want to have relationship with you and I want you to I want to give you my whole life and today that's what Jesus is inviting many of us into and if that's you and as I'm talking you're going oh a heart starting to beat and you feel like something is moving on the inside of you that thing that's on the inside of you is eternity it was built in your heart we are all born with eternity on the inside it's a longing to know God and when you feel that it's the pull of what you're always meant to live in to know him to be surrendered to him that's God because he needs something from you know because he loves you because you were designed to know him and some of us so if that's you I'm gonna give an opportunity after the service to to respond at the altar and give your life to Jesus and then some of us are going man I've forgotten that my life is not my own and I've been the Lord of these specific areas of my life and I've somehow subtly dethroned the Lord in that space and I actually want to sign up again to give him a Lordship in that area and that's the other group that the Lord's going oh I'm ready for it if you want to invite me in to take that place in that space you can I'm gonna pray and even as I pray if you if you want to respond at the altar and you're one of those two groups and you're going I want to give my life to Jesus I want to surrender my life to Jesus you can respond right away at the altar as I start praying or if you're going man I want to I want to surrender this part of my life that hasn't been in submission to Jesus what better day than resurrection Sunday this can be your day to kind of go man Lord I was forgetting I just joyfully repent okay so I'm gonna pray and if you want to come and respond while I'm praying you can and then as I'm done praying we're gonna close the service and if you want to wait till after the service is over that's fine too to respond at the altar and you can begin to connect with the Lord but I'll encourage you if that's you as I'm praying you can respond at the altar Lord we thank you you can come all the way to the front Lord we thank you that you are the God that laid down your life to reveal how much you love us Lord we say that we break off the fear of man and we come fully to you and we say that we want to be holy yours we surrender our lives to you and we say that I don't want to be the God of my own life and I want to know you I was designed to know you I was designed to love you I was designed to know you intimately and know your love Lord I thank you that you want to reveal your soul your heart and you want to bring life to death you want to take that which has been lost and you want to restore it so Lord we say yes to you as our leader we're all yours in Jesus name everybody said amen amen as as you're continuing to come I want you to come all the way to the front you can kneel or stand whatever you want to do there's people that would love to pray with you after the service if you want to respond be blessed he is risen he's risen indeed we'll see you at prayer room we're just going to keep this as more of a peaceful atmosphere for what God wants to do and then there's you can connect with each other out in the four year okay so as people respond you can come to the front and respond to the Lord