unknown: And amen.
SPEAKER_00: Can we thank the Lord this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for allowing me to not preach for the last couple weeks, spend some time with my kids and my family.
SPEAKER_00: Can we give it up for Chris and uh Pastor Merle as they shared?
SPEAKER_00: I thought both messages were really strong, and just what we needed is we ended up the Hearing God series, and uh so honored Pastor Merle to come to the great country of Texas.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we took him for some good Tex Mechs, and he loves y'all already.
SPEAKER_00: And and listen, if you haven't watched that message, I want you to go back and watch it on taking care of your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I'm not gonna preach every Sunday for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's what I was looking for.
SPEAKER_00: Uh because my soul's too important.
SPEAKER_00: Your soul's too important.
SPEAKER_00: And I just think it was a great message, and I just I just would encourage you with that.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing to feed your soul?
SPEAKER_00: And uh he met with our staff this week.
SPEAKER_00: We talked more about what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Our team, hey, as a volunteers and our leaders, how do we make sure that we are healthy?
SPEAKER_00: And uh so it's just our heart and our prayer for you that you would walk with strength and health in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really looking forward to this next series called The Jesus Life.
SPEAKER_00: And as we get ready to go into Easter Sunday uh in the next month or so, uh I'm really excited about unpacking some of Jesus' life and what it really means for us.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you would like to have a good life?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Five of you.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you would like to have a good life?
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all like, some of y'all like, two hands, please.
SPEAKER_00: I need it in the back.
SPEAKER_00: And uh listen, um, how many of you know that wanting a good life and having a good life are totally different?
SPEAKER_00: I I mean, a good life.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you even start for a good life?
SPEAKER_00: So some of y'all just gonna be honest.
SPEAKER_00: A better bank account would be a better life.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you're at church, you can be honest with God.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you're like, man, a better job would be a better life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I'm not gonna say this, but better behaving kids sometimes would be a better life.
SPEAKER_00: You're sitting with your daughter.
SPEAKER_00: A better uh perspective, a better outlook.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, as we think about it, sometimes we're hopeful that maybe some of our friendships would be a little bit better and a little bit stronger.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, dear Lord, I've been praying for this friend to stop the drama.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has not answered my prayers yet.
SPEAKER_00: The challenge with wanting a better life is often knowing where to start to find it.
SPEAKER_00: And as we unpack this, the reality is you know where you know where I'm going with this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh many of you know that there are many people out there with better houses than yours, but worse lives than yours.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you know there are times in life where there is the better job that you've always wanted, but when you finally got it, I've talked to a lot of men in the church lately, they're like, this is the job I always wanted, and now I don't want it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Now that I now that I worked for 40 years to get here, the very thing that I always wanted is no longer the thing that I want.
SPEAKER_00: Wanting a good life and knowing how to get there are two totally different things.
SPEAKER_00: My granny used to make peanut butter chocolate rice crispy treats.
SPEAKER_00: I am convinced they were from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is, after granny passed away several years ago, everybody in the family has tried to bake the exact same rice crispy treat, but how many of y'all know what I'm about to say?
SPEAKER_00: It ain't the same.
SPEAKER_00: Aunt number one tried, she got pretty close.
SPEAKER_00: Aunt number two can't cook at all, so I don't even know what she was doing.
SPEAKER_00: We've tried everything.
SPEAKER_00: But inside of Granny's recipe, it doesn't matter that I know how good they taste because there's an ingredient that she used that we just can't seem to find.
SPEAKER_00: There's a way that she did it.
SPEAKER_00: There's some kind of secret to it.
SPEAKER_00: And today I want to talk to you about having a better life, having a good life, but I want to reveal to you some secrets over the next few weeks that I believe are secret sauce to the ingredient list or the way of living that Jesus would say, without this you will never find it.
SPEAKER_00: When I hear the words of Jesus in John chapter 10, verse 10, which is really the inspiration behind this series, as I was reading it one day, John 10, 10, a verse many of you know well, I have come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when you read a scripture like that, don't you get like a little bit hopeful, a little bit eager and expectant that maybe the way things are don't have to be the way they always will be?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe things as they sit currently in this present circumstance aren't too far gone.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some things can be turned around, maybe the ship that was headed in one direction can start going in another direction.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I read the words of Jesus and I think if Jesus said it, it has to be true.
SPEAKER_00: And the challenge is not whether or not what he said is true.
SPEAKER_00: The challenge is what is the secret sauce that goes with it?
SPEAKER_00: What are the ingredients that need to go into my life so that I can live the way that he says that I can live?
SPEAKER_00: So that my life can be more abundant, more full, more full of life, more full of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all say, more full of peace.
SPEAKER_00: Please, can I have two servings of that?
SPEAKER_00: And as you look at all of these things, today, I want to give you a secret ingredient that nobody wants to hear about.
SPEAKER_00: I begged the Lord to stay on vacation.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes I have to preach messages I don't even really want to preach.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I don't really want to preach is because I know what you're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: You're thinking, well, you're up there, you must be the expert on it.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I'm no expert on it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm more human than I am pastor.
SPEAKER_00: And every time I dive into this all week long, the Lord makes me work on it.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know there are sometimes on the Lord, I'm not preaching on that because I don't want to work on that this week.
SPEAKER_00: Just being honest.
SPEAKER_00: And one of those messages that I believe today that really boils down to this is that there is this sense, and I've titled today's message The Crucified Life.
SPEAKER_00: I've titled today's message The Crucified Life.
SPEAKER_00: I think there is an absence of this word in the American church today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not railing against churches, I've been a part of it, I've contributed to it, but there is something about getting back to the basics of the ingredients that go into our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And it started all, not on the cross, but in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: That as Jesus prayed, he said, My Father, my father, take this cup from me.
SPEAKER_00: If at all possible, Jesus is praying.
SPEAKER_00: He says, If at all possible, I really don't want to do what I'm about to have to do.
SPEAKER_00: So if there's any way possible, and some of y'all pray like this, you're like, Lord, did you hear me?
SPEAKER_00: I'm praying again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't pray once, he prays it again, and he's praying in the garden, he's sweating blood, and he's praying and he's praying.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you know the famous line where Jesus says, But not my will, yours be done.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lesson in the midst of the garden that Jesus teaches us about how to have an abundant life, and it started with him being willing to crucify his life long before anyone else crucified him physically.
SPEAKER_00: The crucifixion I want to talk about today is not just the crucifixion of Jesus hanging on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: It's the crucifixion that took place in the garden when Jesus prayed and surrendered his will over to the will of the Father, his wants over to what God wanted.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in that life.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I believe: that Jesus' life is not just something we can look and say, good for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is not just something you read about in your Bible, that Jesus actually came as a model and as an example.
SPEAKER_00: That when we pick up his life and live his life the way he lived his life, some of y'all are like, I'm I'm too far gone for that, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I I can't be that.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, listen, I want you to know today that by the power of the Holy Spirit, that when you follow Jesus, the things that Jesus did, he did so that you could do too.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus is praying in the garden and he lays down himself in the garden, long before the soldiers ever came to him, it was a model for you and for me that the abundant life doesn't start when it gets good.
SPEAKER_00: The abundant life starts when you lay it all down.
SPEAKER_00: And in the garden, he laid it all down.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you an illustration this morning.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all know this was man's best invention right here?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody.
SPEAKER_00: We used to buy these all the time, and and because of my dietary needs, I tried to limit them in my house until we had kids, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Now we will have no less than four, five, six canisters.
SPEAKER_00: It's hearted on our H E B app.
SPEAKER_00: It shows up in the groceries every week.
SPEAKER_00: It's coming.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all know this this is a blessing from heaven?
SPEAKER_00: I made some for my kids this week, and the Lord was really working on me on this message, and I pulled a fresh uh, you know, I'll be honest with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not that good of a husband, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not that good of a dad sometimes because I I just like I say I'm doing stuff for my kids, but I'm really doing it for myself.
SPEAKER_00: I pulled a fresh pan of these cinnamon rolls out, and my four-year-old Cohen he comes up with another can right out of the fridge.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What are you doing with that, buddy?
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all know this ram can ain't near big enough?
SPEAKER_00: He came out with another can and he starts to pop the top, and I said, What are you doing, buddy?
SPEAKER_00: He said, An icing for me and an icing for my sister.
SPEAKER_00: He was gonna open a whole can just for the icing.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at him and I'm like, boy, you are cut from my DNA.
SPEAKER_00: Like you were just and uh, but but I did the dad card.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I said, son, put it back right now.
SPEAKER_00: Son, put it back right now.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit met me in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm being so honest with you.
SPEAKER_00: When I say that, I realized that as I was telling him to put his away, I was taking the smallest dollop possible of icing to put on his cinnamon roll.
SPEAKER_00: And the smallest amount possible to drizzle on his sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that three-quarters of the ramekin would be left for my one cinnamon roll, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, my kids are still at the age, they don't even know, I'm just hiding it over there, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And I realized something in that moment that is exactly what we're preaching today.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all new to this church, and you're like, where is this guy going?
SPEAKER_00: I realized something really profound.
SPEAKER_00: While I was telling him no, I was telling myself yes.
SPEAKER_00: As I was telling him no, no, no, I was telling myself, you can have whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00: There's no dad watching over you.
SPEAKER_00: You're a grown man now.
SPEAKER_00: You can eat as many of these cinnamon rolls as you want to.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, I'm I'm realizing something about gratifying the desires of our flesh.
SPEAKER_00: I'm realizing something about our life, and that that is that it is really hard to tell ourselves no.
SPEAKER_00: But really easy to tell other people no.
SPEAKER_00: It is really hard in our own life, and I'm starting here and being lighthearted because I want you to know that your abundant life starts when you're willing to say no to what you want so that you can say yes to what God wants.
SPEAKER_00: The abundant life, the crucified life, starts when we're willing to say, I'm going to lay down my plans, my dreams, my visions, my desires, so that I can say yes to what God needs done on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So that I can say yes to what God wants to do in my family.
SPEAKER_00: And if God wants my bank account to be empty because I gave it all away, then I'm saying yes to his wants in my life.
SPEAKER_00: If God wants me to spend my schedule less on the activities that I'm currently focusing on, my hobbies, and he wants me to spend more time helping other people, then I'm willing to crucify myself to say yes to what it is that he wants me to do.
SPEAKER_00: The abundant life starts with crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: The cross.
SPEAKER_00: The cross is the example of crucifixion, uh, a killing, uh a laying down, uh not taking up of your own, but a surrendering.
SPEAKER_00: To crucify your life is to give it up in exchange for something else.
SPEAKER_00: To give up your life.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about the power of the cross this week.
SPEAKER_00: I hope all week, I hope this is not just a Sunday message.
SPEAKER_00: I hope all week you'll be reflecting on just what it is that Jesus did for you.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, it's not just this week, it's 365 days a year.
SPEAKER_00: We highlight it in moments like this, but how many of you know God wants to highlight it in your life every day when you wake up?
SPEAKER_00: That when you lay your life down the way Jesus laid his life down, you're able to pick up everything he says that you can pick up.
SPEAKER_00: But what I realized is I've gotten so distracted to saying yes to my wants that it makes it really difficult for me sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: It makes it really difficult sometimes for me to say yes to what God needs for me.
SPEAKER_00: And today what I want to do is I want to wrestle that tension with you.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I'm learning this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: As I'm preparing this this week, I'm realizing every event in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen, I'm I'm gonna tell you guys way too much information about my family and my kids, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm being very vulnerable and transparent.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody told me this week, they're like, I just love that you're vulnerable and transparent.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, great, let's make a deal.
SPEAKER_00: You ready to make a deal?
SPEAKER_00: I will continue to be vulnerable and transparent as your pastor so long as you don't hold my kids accountable for it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm serious, there's a reason they're in the room next door.
SPEAKER_00: So don't go over and you know, listen, I I've chosen this life, my kids just got this life, okay?
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of you and only two of them.
SPEAKER_00: You know a lot more about them than they know about you.
SPEAKER_00: So stop scaring my kids.
SPEAKER_00: I uh this week my daughter and I are learning this lesson together.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, my daughter's six.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that says about my intellect, but we're learning this lesson together.
SPEAKER_00: There's a movie out right now, and and a really popular thing going around.
SPEAKER_00: It was the number one movie in 2025.
SPEAKER_00: One Oscars.
SPEAKER_00: The music is uh really popular right now, and all the kids know it.
SPEAKER_00: It's geared and it's tailored towards kids, and its primary message is about demon hunting.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most number one watched thing of all time on Netflix.
SPEAKER_00: And it's about hunting demons.
SPEAKER_00: And now I now listen, I want you to hear my heart today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm processing with you what I'm having to learn and teach to my daughter, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know this because I'm not railing against culture.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I think Christians get it wrong when they expect the world to act like the church.
SPEAKER_00: We should expect the church to act like the church.
SPEAKER_00: And when the church acts like the church, they don't have to rail against the world anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the world's gonna experience the love of the church, being the church so much so that they just want to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not here to rail today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking to church people today, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So don't go out there and say my pastor, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm really perplexed by this because here's here's what I'm wrestling with with my daughter.
SPEAKER_00: She's never watched it in our house, but she comes home from the playground and she knows every character and all the stories.
SPEAKER_00: She knows all the songs.
SPEAKER_00: We don't listen to the songs.
SPEAKER_00: The last four birthday invitations she has gotten have all been the theme of this.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm I'm I want to tell you, church, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: This is a wolf dressed up in sheep's clothing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible talks about.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think the enemy's favorite line is it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: That when the church walks around saying, Oh, it's it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: No, there are things we have to give up.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the message I'm teaching my daughter.
SPEAKER_00: She got in the car this week and she was crying.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Why are you crying, babe?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I got made fun of.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Why'd you get made fun of?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Because of you.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh no.
SPEAKER_00: I said, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: And she says, You're the only dad who won't let me watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Parents, you ever been there?
unknown: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, but in our house, you know, it comes out real powerful at home, you know?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, in my house, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, when you do that, your kids still have to go to the playground.
SPEAKER_00: And at six years old, they have to learn to say, you know what, we just do things different.
SPEAKER_00: And so what I'm trying to teach my daughter right now is that when she says no to what she wants, she will be able to stand in a way that other people won't be able to stand in.
SPEAKER_00: That when she sacrifices or gives something up, it is not to her loss, it's to her gain.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm teaching this to her this week, and the Lord says, Why are you talking to her so much?
SPEAKER_00: And the question I begin to wonder and grapple with is when did we graduate from telling ourselves no?
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to deny others.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to say, you should go without or you should give it up.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to say, well, man, y'all are really messing it up.
SPEAKER_00: But it's so difficult for some reason.
SPEAKER_00: Something inside of our will and our spirit says, Ah, it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a movie, it's just a show, it's just, it's just words, it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: It's not really gonna amount to much.
SPEAKER_00: And I I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I know most of y'all cleaned up lives and got no problems and stuff, but most of us have like 90% of our life cleaned up, and there's this last little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm finding is the Lord is refusing to allow me to allow the last 10% to stay in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Good for you, Clayton.
SPEAKER_00: You gave up that years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Good for you, Clayton.
SPEAKER_00: You made some difference, but I want to work on you today.
SPEAKER_00: And on you today, Clayton, there's some things that you are holding on to that you refuse to let go of.
SPEAKER_00: And until you ref until you make the decision to let go of, you will not experience the abundant blessed life I've already told you about.
SPEAKER_00: What I find is that God is gentle, he's kind.
SPEAKER_00: His kindness, the Bible says, leads us to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he oftentimes I oftentimes the person beaten with the stick over your back is probably not the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes that's a lot of stuff going on.
SPEAKER_00: What I've found is the Lord is very kind to work with me.
SPEAKER_00: And what I have found is that when I hold on to stuff I'm supposed to be letting go of, it keeps me from living the life I was created to live.
SPEAKER_00: You know the challenge is oftentimes the things that we're holding on to, we think this is me.
SPEAKER_00: I can't let go of me.
SPEAKER_00: This has been a part of who I always have been, and this is how I've always done it, and this is the way I was raised and born, and my mama taught me this way, and this.
SPEAKER_00: And often the things we're afraid to let go of is we're afraid that if we let go of them, we will no longer be me.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth or the reality is when you surrender these things of your life over to Jesus, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You become more of you than you've ever been before.
SPEAKER_00: The real you is able to actually come out of you when it's surrendered over to the identity of the work of Jesus Christ in your life, and what you'll find is you're more you than you've ever been before.
SPEAKER_00: That's the abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 10, verse 10, that you will begin to live and walk in the life that God has for you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, I want you to know today that life is good.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all wait for the other shoe to drop.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about the other shoe to drop.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, that life that God has intended for you is good.
SPEAKER_00: It may not look the way you thought it would look.
SPEAKER_00: It may have different clothes and a different face than you ever expected it to be.
SPEAKER_00: It may be a different career path or a different situation or circumstance than you ever intended upon, but I can promise you this: you know it's good.
SPEAKER_00: You know it's good.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to give you a scripture today that I think as we read and reflect on the life of Jesus in his final week, as we do this, I want you to understand what was happening with the people in Jesus' day as they were shouting to crucify him.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 19, here's what the scripture says.
unknown: It is my
SPEAKER_00: Face.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: It was the preparation day of the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: In the context, the setup for this scripture is that Pilate is torn.
SPEAKER_00: You're not quite sure whether or not Pilate is going to release Jesus or have him crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Pilate, in this moment, Pilate is looking at Jesus, says, This guy hasn't done anything wrong.
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing here?
SPEAKER_00: But Pilate is afraid of the masses, and more importantly, Pilate is afraid of Caesar, and people begin to appeal to Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: And so Pilate goes ahead and he hands down this verdict.
SPEAKER_00: And here it is in John chapter 19, verse 14, as we head into the week of Easter, it was preparation day of the Passover in about the sixth hour.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to the Jews, Behold your king.
SPEAKER_00: How fitting is it?
SPEAKER_00: How fitting is it that the not person of God is the one who acknowledged who Jesus really was?
SPEAKER_00: This is your king.
SPEAKER_00: The king you've been waiting for, the king you've been praying for, he is right in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what the church people said.
SPEAKER_00: Because you know church people always say good stuff, right?
SPEAKER_00: Always holy, never miss it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, but they cried out, away with him, away with him.
SPEAKER_00: They cry out, crucify him, crucify Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Pilate said to him, Shall I crucify your king?
SPEAKER_00: And the chief priest, the pastor in the room, said, We have no king but Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: Then he delivered him to be crucified.
SPEAKER_00: So they took Jesus away and they led him away.
SPEAKER_00: And he, Jesus, bearing his cross, went out to a place, the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center.
SPEAKER_00: Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross, and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of Jews.
SPEAKER_00: The King of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: This passage is central to our Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: If you're newer to the faith, here's what I want you to know.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the crucifixion, the life, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of Jesus that we're even gathered here today.
SPEAKER_00: If it wasn't for this message that we're talking about, Easter's not just a holiday.
SPEAKER_00: If it wasn't for this message that we're talking about today, we would not be gathered in this room today.
SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't have been at Unity Park yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be preaching.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't be gathered with the people and the community that you have right here.
SPEAKER_00: The connection that we have centers around what happened right here in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes I like to put myself in an elevated position.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I like to put myself and think, well, man, you Jews really messed it up.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's easy to read the Bible and point fingers and think, man, if I was there, I sure wouldn't have done that.
SPEAKER_00: But how many times, you know, what I find is that the more I read it, the more I realize if I was there, I probably would have done the same thing they did.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's something inside of them in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: I think the crucifixion message that is emphasized here is not just the crucifixion of Jesus happening physically, it's a realization that the Jews in the room gathered at the time were unwilling to crucify their own will.
SPEAKER_00: They were unwilling to give up their plan.
SPEAKER_00: They were unwilling to do what God was doing because they were too busy doing what they were doing.
SPEAKER_00: And in this, here's what I want you to realize: they are standing face to face with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They are standing face to face with the King of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they miss their moment.
SPEAKER_00: And in this moment, it would be so easy to say, well, if I was there, I would have got it different.
SPEAKER_00: But often I reflect in my own life, if I was there, I probably would have got it wrong too.
SPEAKER_00: Because there was something in them, and as I look at it, I find it so interesting that instead of getting closer to Jesus, hear the words they say, away with them.
SPEAKER_00: They're standing in the physical presence of Jesus, and their response is, get them away.
SPEAKER_00: The response is take them out of town.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to look at them anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what I find so interesting about that is in the moment when they should have pulled in, they pushed away.
SPEAKER_00: I find that to be true in my own life.
SPEAKER_00: That when I have areas of my life that I haven't surrendered, that I haven't crucified, that I haven't turned over, what happens is instead of leaning in and pulling into Jesus, I will push away from him.
SPEAKER_00: And so the challenge is this: that if we can get this principle down, that if we can realize that every day we wake up, we have our own life to crucify so that we can pick up his, guess what happens?
SPEAKER_00: On the other side of that, instead of pushing away from Jesus, on the other side is we'll wake up closer to him than we have ever been before.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to get closer to Jesus this year, if you're looking at your life and you're saying, I want some things to get better, then I want to tell you the place that you start is by pulling into Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways that you pull into Jesus is you make the decision, I'm gonna lay down my own stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna lay down my own plans and my own ways and my big ideas.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna lay down my own success and I'm gonna lay down the things that I thought would work, that they may or may not work, but it really doesn't matter because in the grand scheme of things, my life starts and ends with the crucifixion of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In which I make the choice that if Jesus laid down his life and his calling to me is to do the same, I will lay down my life so that I can pick up his.
SPEAKER_00: And so when they're saying away from him, they should have been pulling in.
SPEAKER_00: The next thing they do is they they say, crucify Jesus, when the one person they should have been crucifying in that moment was their own inner self.
SPEAKER_00: I find it so funny that the thing that they are shouting is, crucify Jesus, crucify Jesus, when on the inside we know the enemy is working in the midst of what's happening here, and on the inside of them, they should have been saying, It's time for me to crucify me.
SPEAKER_00: You see, they had an idea of what a Messiah would look like.
SPEAKER_00: They've been praying for a Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They were awaiting a time when a king would come, and the king is finally here, but they can't even see the king and his plans standing right in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because their own plans had become the king of their life.
SPEAKER_00: Religion had become their king.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that listen to this line right here.
SPEAKER_00: This should just astound us.
SPEAKER_00: But I again I find myself in their shoes.
SPEAKER_00: In this moment, here's what they say: We have no king but Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the world, this is the church.
SPEAKER_00: This is the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the people where God had delivered them, God had saved them, God had set them apart, God said, You're gonna be my holy uh people.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You're gonna be my sons and my daughters, and he had made them promises, and they look at God in the face and say, You're not our king, Caesar is.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you some things today that I think can help us when we find ourselves in their shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, Well, listen, I'm not gonna be at the crucifixion of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the risk is not in crucifying Jesus on a cross again.
SPEAKER_00: The risk in our lives is the unwillingness that we would crucify ourselves so that we could take up his life and follow him.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you a couple things.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is this you have to crucify what you want.
SPEAKER_00: How do you how do you begin the path to abundant life?
SPEAKER_00: How do you make things start to turn in the right direction towards God?
SPEAKER_00: You have to be willing to crucify what you want so that you can say yes to what God wants.
SPEAKER_00: I I had a pastor and he was on staff, it was a large church, he had about a hundred staff members, and and and one day I was in his office and said, Hey, I gotta go, I gotta go to a doctor's office.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you you're healthy, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Are you sick?
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, I'm not sick, I just go to the doctor regularly.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, why do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Because I need somebody in my life to tell me what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What?
SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
SPEAKER_00: Are you married?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this one It's like, I said, I said, what?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Yeah, I made a realization years ago.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I also, I said, well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, I also work out and I have a trainer, and the reason I have a trainer is because I just need more people in my life telling me what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What?
SPEAKER_00: Most people in life, they want less people telling them what to do.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what you realize.
SPEAKER_00: You ever heard the leadership adage that goes like this?
SPEAKER_00: He said, the higher you go in leadership, the less people tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he told me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, What I found is that fewer and fewer people in my life will tell me the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And so I have to surround myself with people who will tell me the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I will just be living a life doing what I want.
SPEAKER_00: It was a it was a it was a discipline and a practice of making sure what?
SPEAKER_00: That he didn't become a king in his own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Every day I go to work, I tell a hundred people what to do.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I need to be reminded that it's not always my way.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I go to a physical trainer.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody goes to a physical trainer and gets excited unless you're just crazy.
SPEAKER_00: He said, and I go and they tell me what to do to the point of fatigue and exhaustion, and it hurts sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And I admired what he was saying because I think this is a practice that we need in our own life.
SPEAKER_00: Because listen, some of y'all may say, well, I'm not a leader at the top.
SPEAKER_00: I got a boss and they tell me what to do every day, and I'm married and they tell me what to do every day, and I got kids and they tell me what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's how it works sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: They tell me what to do every day.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, but how many of you know sometimes it's not just about being a leader?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the longer you go in life, have you ever found that sometimes the fewer people tell you the truth?
SPEAKER_00: So some of y'all are like, man, I've been around the block a lot of times, and everybody just acts like I know what I'm doing, but on the inside, I'm thinking, I don't know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: Why did everybody just let me jump off the cliff?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we didn't want to mess with you, we didn't want to offend you, we didn't want to tell you the truth, we didn't know how you'd respond.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, here's what we have to get ourselves in the practice of.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying this is your spiritual answer.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying a good regular rhythm and practice is denying yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it does something in you, it positions you, it postures you.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, it doesn't get you to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It's not do enough good things, it's not be a good enough person.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we're talking about here today.
SPEAKER_00: What we're talking about is the practice of denying yourself because here's what you're doing: you're practicing a posture.
SPEAKER_00: And that posture says, if it's not my will, then it's gotta be someone else's.
SPEAKER_00: And if it's not my will, then I'm making room for it to be God's in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And so so maybe for you in your own life, you need to get to a place where you listen to John 3, verse 30, where it says this, he must become greater and I must become less.
SPEAKER_00: He must increase, but I must decrease.
SPEAKER_00: The point is this if God is not increasing in your life, something else is.
SPEAKER_00: So what is it?
SPEAKER_00: And if I can get to a place where I say, you know what, today, I'm gonna set aside what I want so I can do what God needs me to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna set aside what I want so that I can be who he's called me to be.
SPEAKER_00: That is the same practice that Jesus took up in the garden hours before they physically crucified him.
SPEAKER_00: He laid down everything.
SPEAKER_00: There was nothing the enemy could take from him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus even said it himself, the enemy can't take anything from me.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he had already laid it down, he had already made the decision that he was living by God's will.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to crucify what you wish and what you want.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing is this crucify what you follow.
SPEAKER_00: Crucify what you follow.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Uh listen to what happened right here in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: They they were saying Caesar is king.
SPEAKER_00: Caesar is king.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, every time in the Bible when they got in big, big trouble was because they made a decision to follow a king other than God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: Serpent comes crawling in the garden, and they made the voice of the serpent the king in their life.
SPEAKER_00: They made their own desires the king of their life.
SPEAKER_00: And when they did, by the way, the whole world fell.
SPEAKER_00: Every time they took their eyes off the one true king and placed it on any other king than God himself.
SPEAKER_00: It was not the abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: And you you listen, it goes on.
SPEAKER_00: And in the in the Old Testament, they they got delivered and God led them out, and they parted the Red Sea, and life is getting good.
SPEAKER_00: They're going into the promised land, and they say, Hold up, everybody else has a king, we want one too.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, Let them have whatever they want.
SPEAKER_00: But it's at the expense of what they needed.
SPEAKER_00: And that was that God was their king.
SPEAKER_00: They were never designed, you and I were never designed to have any other king but God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what we have to do: we have to crucify the kings in our life.
SPEAKER_00: The things, the people, the ideologies, the things that we subscribe to or follow and put in a place of God.
SPEAKER_00: What did they have that day?
SPEAKER_00: They had Caesar as their king, they had religion as their king, they had their own desires.
SPEAKER_00: We we don't want a king on a cross, we want a king who takes over Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And we want a king with military power and worldly riches.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they were looking for.
SPEAKER_00: But when they can lay that down and crucify it in their life, they're able to see that Jesus was right in front of them, living the life that they were always made and designed to live.
SPEAKER_00: And I would encourage you this morning with Luke chapter 9, verse 23, as we close, here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
SPEAKER_00: This is a principle that Jesus taught right here.
SPEAKER_00: Deny yourself, take up your cross daily.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, Jesus died once and for all on the cross, and his one death covers it for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: But it is actually an example for you.
SPEAKER_00: And the example for you is that daily you make the choice when you wake up.
SPEAKER_00: This message is really important because some of you in this room are newer to faith and you're saying, I don't really know about this Jesus thing.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you this?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' death on the cross is to be received by you.
SPEAKER_00: And when you lay your life down and say, I can't do it, but God can, here's what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: You're crucifying yourself, you're laying down your life, you're surrendering and saying, I'm gonna trust in Jesus and his blood and what he did and his resurrection, and I need that on my life.
SPEAKER_00: And there's some of you in the room today, you're saying, I need that in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I've never made that decision.
SPEAKER_00: There's some of you we had a guy last service, and he said, Listen, I've been in church my whole life, and three weeks ago I realized I may have been coming to church my whole life, but I had never really crucified or laid down my life.
SPEAKER_00: And so three weeks ago, he made the decision to say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter what anybody in his life thinks.
SPEAKER_00: My greatest concern is there'd be a room full of people who've been to church their whole life and never said no to themselves and yes to him.
SPEAKER_00: And he made that decision.
SPEAKER_00: His wife is standing right next to him.
SPEAKER_00: She says, He's different now.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's you.
SPEAKER_00: That the last few things that you've been holding on to, you make the decision to let go of.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's another group of people in the room, and that is, I have a heart for you today, and you're like me.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, I've been at this a while, and I go to church and I gave my life to Jesus, but after I put some things down, I made the decision to pick them back up again.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord would say, if you're gonna hold on to this, I'm gonna encourage you to let go.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe there's some areas of your life where you're saying, I need to crucify myself and my desires.
SPEAKER_00: I need to surrender these things over to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Because until you make room, there's nothing, there's not a space for Him to fill.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's you today.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes and listen to the scripture, Galatians chapter 2, verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: I have been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life, the good life I now live in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come into your house today, and there are people in the room who've never said yes to you, and right now they want to make that decision.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that you are Lord and Savior, we'll be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And so today we say yes to you.