SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Lake Church.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take our Bibles, turn to Luke chapter number 23.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter number 23.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to get straight to the point this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all good with that?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to beat around the bush.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to ease my way into this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to give you some catchy story to draw you in.
SPEAKER_00: I want to get straight to the point.
SPEAKER_00: I want to dive headfirst into this thought.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all ready?
SPEAKER_00: You are going to die.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how you present a sermon, is it?
SPEAKER_00: You are going to die.
SPEAKER_00: One day, you are going to take your last breath.
SPEAKER_00: You are going to say your last words.
SPEAKER_00: You are going to, your heart is going to beat for the last time.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us, let's just get real.
SPEAKER_00: In a hundred years, every single one of us is going to be six feet in a grave, most likely.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us will be, have taken our last breath.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody once said there's only two certainties in life.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to die and pay taxes.
SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily in that order, but I think you will pay a death tax.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody will pay it for you.
SPEAKER_00: But you are going to die.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that's not pleasing, but that is the uncomfortable reality that we must face living in this sinful world is that death is going to face us all one day.
SPEAKER_00: It's appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the question.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the question is not if you're going to die.
SPEAKER_00: The question, listen, it's not even when you're going to die, believe it or not, because that doesn't really matter.
SPEAKER_00: It could be tomorrow, it could be today, or it could be 50 years from now.
SPEAKER_00: When you are going to die is not the question.
SPEAKER_00: If you are going to die is not the question.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, how will you approach death?
SPEAKER_00: How will you approach death?
SPEAKER_00: What will you feel in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: What will you say in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: What will you experience in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: Will you die in fear or will you die in faith?
SPEAKER_00: Will you die in panic or will you die in peace?
SPEAKER_00: Will you die in certainty or uncertainty, fulfillment or regret?
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to guess about it.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus showed us how we can approach death.
SPEAKER_00: He reveals to us how we can approach death.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't just die for us, he showed us how to die.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we look at how Jesus faced death, he finished strong, didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: He finished strong.
SPEAKER_00: He cried out on the cross, it is finished.
SPEAKER_00: He cried out to his father in prayer, and he finished and approached death in a powerful way.
SPEAKER_00: He shows us how we can approach death.
SPEAKER_00: And we've been walking through this seven sayings on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We've been going leading up to the resurrection by walking through the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give you a quick recap, all right?
SPEAKER_00: It's just to refresh our memories.
SPEAKER_00: The seven sayings on the cross, because each one of these sayings that Jesus gave us, they reveal something powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus said these sayings on the cross, the first one he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, right?
SPEAKER_00: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a it was a it was a saying of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Today you will be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_00: Today you will be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_00: It was a saying of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Woman, behold your son, and son, behold your woman.
SPEAKER_00: It was a saying of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: He said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: It was a saying of abandonment.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I thirst.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a saying of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, well, not finally, but the last one we looked at, he said, It is finished.
SPEAKER_00: Which was a saying of victory.
SPEAKER_00: He said he was going through one after another after another saying these powerful statements on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And now we come to the last saying of Jesus while he was on the cross, in his dying breath, once again he prays to the Father and He reveals more truth to us in this saying.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to notice that in this time of intense suffering, in this time of darkness, in this time of pain, in this time of emotional, spiritual, and mental anguish that he was in, Jesus prayed and he died in peace.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, here's the wonderful truth.
SPEAKER_00: I started with some bad news, but let me give you some good news.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus died in peace, we can die in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't just die for us, he showed us how to die.
SPEAKER_00: And because he died in peace, listen, we can die without fear.
SPEAKER_00: We can face death in peace.
SPEAKER_00: We do not have to die in fear.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says here in Luke chapter 23, look at verse number 44.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 23, verse 44.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then he said to them, These hold on, I'm in the wrong, I'm in verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in chapter 24.
SPEAKER_00: Verse chapter 23, verse 20 uh 44.
SPEAKER_00: Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
SPEAKER_00: Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Having said this, look at these last four words.
SPEAKER_00: He breathed his last.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us will come to that point where we will breathe our last.
SPEAKER_00: And in this moment, we see Jesus reveal to us some truth.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to share with you a few things this morning we see in this saying, this last saying on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: First off, it reveals communion.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals our communion.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Father, father.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing Jesus says in the last statement on the cross is Father.
SPEAKER_00: Why are we highlighting that?
SPEAKER_00: Because the last time we saw Jesus crying out to God on the cross, he didn't call him Father.
SPEAKER_00: He called him God.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: Because as we've seen the last time when we looked at Jesus praying on the cross, he called God God and not Father.
SPEAKER_00: And that is, I said this last uh few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: That is the first and only time Jesus ever referred to the Father as God.
SPEAKER_00: And you go back all the way to the beginning, Jesus, y'all remember when Mary and Joseph lost Jesus in the temple?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever lost your kid before?
SPEAKER_00: Mary and Jesus had one job to do, and they lost the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: But when they went back, they went back a day's journey to find Jesus, he said this, don't you know I'm about my father's business?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And then you go on, he's teaching, he says, I and my father are one.
SPEAKER_00: And he says that, you know, I came not to do my own will, but the father's will.
SPEAKER_00: And we see when he's agonizing in the garden, he says, Father, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_00: And and and and when he's on the cross, he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
SPEAKER_00: But then right in the middle of those three hours of darkness of that judgment, he cried out on the cross and he said, Not Father, but he said, My God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because in that moment he was not experiencing the loving communion of the Father, he was experiencing the holy wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: While he was being made sin for us, right?
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 5 21, he was being made sin for us, he was being made a curse for us, he was dying in our place, he was being judged and experiencing the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Father's fellowship and communion with the Son was hindered in that moment because he was being made sin.
SPEAKER_00: Our sin was being placed on him.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of looking up and crying out to the Father, he cried out to God.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the here's the amazing truth this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gave up fellowship with the Father for a moment so we could have fellowship with the Father forever.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, he was dying, suffering under the wrath and judgment of God.
SPEAKER_00: He did that.
SPEAKER_00: He accomplished it.
SPEAKER_00: And once he did, he cried out here on this last thing of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He's cried out once again, Father, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because communion and fellowship was restored between the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Now look, the Trinity was always intact, but the fellowship and the communion of God the Father and God the Son was broken in that moment while he was being made sin for us.
SPEAKER_00: I can't understand it, I can't comprehend it, but it is significant.
SPEAKER_00: And he cried out, he says, it is finished, like like we looked at uh last week.
SPEAKER_00: He cried out to telesty paid in full.
SPEAKER_00: The work of redemption was finished, he accomplished the work that the Father gave him to do, and because the work was finished, communion and fellowship was restored.
SPEAKER_00: Now something very significant happened in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: It said in verse number 44 or verse 45 when the sun was darkened, the veil of the temple was torn into.
SPEAKER_00: The veil of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to spend just a second here.
SPEAKER_00: We could dive deeper into this, but I want to talk just a second about that veil that was torn.
SPEAKER_00: I think I got a picture of the veil.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a picture of the temple, and the temple, uh the holy place, and the holiest of holies is behind the veil.
SPEAKER_00: And that veil, it separated the it separated sinful man from the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: God's presence would dwell behind that veil in the holiest of holies, where the high priest would go in once a year.
SPEAKER_00: He was only able to go into this uh holiest of holies, into the manifest presence of God once a year.
SPEAKER_00: And he on the day of atonement, he would offer the blood of a sinless lamb and spread it on the uh ark of the covenant, on the mercy seat.
SPEAKER_00: And he was only able to do this once a year.
SPEAKER_00: That veil represents the barrier between sinful man and holy God.
SPEAKER_00: That veil represents that we are restricted from entering into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: We could not without Jesus go into the presence of God, have a relationship with God, call God our Father because He is holy and we are sinful.
SPEAKER_00: But when Jesus died on the cross, just like his body was torn and broken, that veil, which that veil was 60 foot high, 30 foot wide, and some say it was four inches thick.
SPEAKER_00: That's not just a little sheet they had hanging in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: But whenever Jesus died on the cross, that veil was torn from top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: And that's significant.
SPEAKER_00: Because it was not man opening the way up to God, it was God opening the way up for man.
SPEAKER_00: Where the sinful, where sinful man could enter into the presence of God because and only because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only way.
SPEAKER_00: He is the way, he is the truth, he is the life.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other way unto the Father, into the presence of God, but through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And all of that was a picture, the foreshadowing and the fulfillment of prophecy and the law.
SPEAKER_00: It was all finished in that moment when Jesus cried out, it is finished.
SPEAKER_00: And now the high priest doesn't have to go into the holiest of holies.
SPEAKER_00: The temple and the sack and the sacrificial system was done away with because Jesus said, It is finished, it was completed in him, and now he opened up a new and living way where we can enter into the presence of a holy God as sinful beings.
SPEAKER_00: Enter into the presence of a holy God only through the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You know what's beautiful about that?
SPEAKER_00: You can go to your father anytime.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: You can go into the presence of your father anytime.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now some may not have a good representation of how a father should be, and some maybe you have a great father.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but the thing is, is is God as our father, you don't have to walk in with uh with with with fear and with guilt and with shame.
SPEAKER_00: You can enter into the presence of God at any time, anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go to a temple in the Middle East, and you don't have to go through all this system, you don't have to sacrifice a goat.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can go into the presence of God and approach him as your father with boldness and with confidence and with assurance because of what Jesus did on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: I love how it says in Hebrews uh 4.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Pastor Byron quoted this last week.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let us come boldly.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we should come with reverence, and yes, we should we should come with with you know respect, but we can come boldly into the throne of grace that we may obtain grace and find help in time of need.
SPEAKER_00: We may obtain mercy and grace in our time of need.
SPEAKER_00: I heard a story about a uh a king that was ruling a kingdom, and he was sitting on his throne, and he was in a great palace, and there was guards, and there was authorities, and you know, there's hierarchy and all this stuff, and all of a sudden a young boy started running through the king's palace, and he was he was running past the guards, and they were trying to catch him because you can't just run into the presence of a king, right?
SPEAKER_00: You have to be invited, you can't just approach the throne of a king, you have to you have to be invited into his presence, you have to go through the right motions to get into the presence of the king, you have to be allowed.
SPEAKER_00: But this boy was running past the guards and running past the authorities, and he ran up to the throne and he jumped in the king's lap, and they were trying to stop him.
SPEAKER_00: But then the king said, No, this is my son.
SPEAKER_00: The servants couldn't rush into the presence of the king, the slaves couldn't rush into the presence of the king, but the son could go right up into the presence of the king, jump on his lap, and tell him what he needed.
SPEAKER_00: That is a picture.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the cross did not just offer us forgiveness, it offered us sonship.
SPEAKER_00: We can become children of God through the work Jesus accomplished on the cross because he said it is finished, because he cried out, Father, I commit my spirit, because communion and fellowship was restored between Jesus and the Father.
SPEAKER_00: We can call him Father.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good?
SPEAKER_00: I'll get I'll get happy about it all by myself, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: That's good that we have a Father that we can come to anytime.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals communion.
SPEAKER_00: It also reveals security.
SPEAKER_00: This statement that Jesus said on the cross, it reveals security.
SPEAKER_00: Where he says, he says, uh, Father, into your hands.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, church, there is no safer place in the world than in the Father's hands.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: There's no safer place for us to be than in the hands of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: You can find comfort in the hands of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: You find security in the hands of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: We live in an insecure world, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: But you can find security in the hands of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world that's that's shaky, but you can find stability in the hands of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world that's full of danger and fear, but you can find comfort and peace when you place your life into the hands of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Because his sovereign hands are able to handle whatever you place in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's amazing how sometimes we think, well, I'm just, I just don't know what to do about this.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't know how to handle it.
SPEAKER_00: And we try to fix things in our own self.
SPEAKER_00: When the hands that hold the universe, we think he can't hold our little world.
SPEAKER_00: We think we have to control.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, into your hands.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this was a this what Jesus was quoting Psalms 31, 5 here.
SPEAKER_00: This was a quote, this was a verse that Jewish kids would pray before they go to sleep every night.
SPEAKER_00: They would pray Psalms 31, verse 5, which says, uh, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was quoting this verse, but he wasn't about to lay in the bed.
SPEAKER_00: He was hanging on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't closing his eyes in sleep, he was closing his eyes in death.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't pray this prayer when everything was good and everything was easy.
SPEAKER_00: He prayed it when he was dying and suffering and bleeding and hurting and mistreated and falsely accused and beaten and rejected and nailed to a cross to say the least, his circumstances were less than ideal.
SPEAKER_00: But that's when our faith is tested, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's when we look, your faith is tested in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And it was in the darkest moment of Jesus' life that he found security in the hands of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to ask you this morning, where do you turn to when your life is falling apart?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' default reaction was to cry out to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It was to run to the Father, it was to turn his heart towards the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It was to pray to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: What is your reaction when things go wrong in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you turn to when life gets hard?
SPEAKER_00: That's the question we need to really seek in our heart.
SPEAKER_00: What do I just keep my mind busy?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody do that?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just keep your mind busy.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes maybe you maybe you turn to numbing agents in your life, whatever that may be.
SPEAKER_00: Substance abuse.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe relationships that are unhealthy.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you just try to stay distracted.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you internalize it, you don't deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in this world will fail you, but God never will.
SPEAKER_00: And you can turn to him in times of difficulty when you don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus trusted in the Father in this moment of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He said that word, I commit my spirit unto you.
SPEAKER_00: That word commit, it means to entrust to another.
SPEAKER_00: He entrusted his spirit in this time of death.
SPEAKER_00: He entrusted his spirit to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And you look at the other gospels in this account, Matthew, it says, He yielded his spirit up.
SPEAKER_00: That word yield, it means he released his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: John said it this way: he gave up his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That means he handed over and surrendered his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: What are you?
SPEAKER_00: Here's where we at.
SPEAKER_00: I believe somebody needs to hear this this morning.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that you're trying to control that you need to let go of?
SPEAKER_00: We all got something.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that you're holding on to and you're trying to force something and you're trying to figure it out and you're trying to fix it and you're just making it worse?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God is letting you make it worse to make you realize that you need to let go, to release it, to entrust it to him, to turn it over to him, to give it to him.
SPEAKER_00: You need to let go and let God, like the like the cliche says, you need to turn it over to him and take your hands off of it.
SPEAKER_00: You're just gonna make a mess.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be like a little kid in a high chair with with the food in front of you just spreading it everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't making it look better.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't making it.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't fixing the problem.
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to force something.
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to fix something when God is saying, release it.
SPEAKER_00: Release it to me.
SPEAKER_00: Because He can do a whole lot better with that situation than you ever could think of.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's your relationships in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to force it.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to fix it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a sickness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's finances.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's, you know.
SPEAKER_00: What is your thing you're holding on to?
SPEAKER_00: God is saying, we see here, as Jesus, he released it to the Father's hands.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Father's hands, there was safety, security, and stability.
SPEAKER_00: Release it to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you, move on to the next thought.
SPEAKER_00: We see not only it reveals security, it reveals authority.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals Jesus' authority over death.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a very important word in this last saying on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Father, into your hands, and he said this one little word with one letter, I.
unknown: I.
SPEAKER_00: Yep, just I.
SPEAKER_00: Capital I.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was in control of everything the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: He had victory, he had authority over death.
SPEAKER_00: He says, they're not taking my life from me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving my life for them.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't take his life.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his life.
SPEAKER_00: His life was not being taken, his life was being given.
SPEAKER_00: The ones that thought they were in control, Pilate thought he sent this Jesus to death.
SPEAKER_00: The Roman soldiers thought they were the ones crucifying him.
SPEAKER_00: The Jewish mob and the Pharisees thought that they are the purpose he was on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to me, from the first nail to the last breath, Jesus was perfectly in control.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I commit my spirit unto you.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I like how the details of this it says, Jesus, he cried out with a loud voice.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that significant?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you've ever, some of you have probably been there, if you've ever been at the bedside of someone in their last few moments, they ain't shouting.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They're not yelling.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've been at the bedside of many people as they were in their last few moments and last few days, and their voice is failing and their body is failing.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what you gotta do?
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get this close to them to actually hear a word that they're saying, right?
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes their mouth is moving and words aren't even coming out.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times I'm just I shake my head and acknowledge and act like I heard what they said, just so they'll be at peace, you know, in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus was not whispering here, he was shouting.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: He was in control the entire time, and he was telling death when it was time to arrive.
SPEAKER_00: He shouted out.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they heard seven sayings of Jesus on the cross clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them he shouted out.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he was they were not taking his life, he was giving his life.
SPEAKER_00: He was dying willingly, he was dying intentionally, and and I'll just keep throwing this in there, and he was doing it for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he was doing it for me, he was doing it for us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Romans they perfected execution, and and one thing they wanted to make sure of is that it was a slow, painful, agonizing, excruciatingly painful death.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus, you know, they would make some people would stay on the cross for days.
SPEAKER_00: 24, 36 hours, some people would hang on the cross, dying.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus died in six hours on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, when they told Pilate, Pilate was surprised that he had died so soon.
SPEAKER_00: When they when they realized he was dead, they went up to him to break his legs.
SPEAKER_00: They did that to speed up the process of dying because they had to obey their religious Sabbath rules.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they were killing a man, but they wanted to obey their religion to get him off the cross before the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: But when they went up to Jesus to break his legs to keep him from being able to push up and breathe, they saw that he was already dead.
SPEAKER_00: And they were surprised.
SPEAKER_00: So, what'd they do?
SPEAKER_00: They pierced his side.
SPEAKER_00: Now come blood and water, right?
SPEAKER_00: Proving that he was dead.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, that tells us that Jesus was not on death's timeline.
SPEAKER_00: Death was on Jesus' timeline.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had authority over death.
SPEAKER_00: When death came for Jesus, it had to wait until he said it's time.
SPEAKER_00: Death didn't tell Jesus, okay, now's the time.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Okay, death, now I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00: And he said this in John 10.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: I love this, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: He said, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
SPEAKER_00: No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: I have authority.
SPEAKER_00: We should say, Amen right there.
SPEAKER_00: I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.
SPEAKER_00: This charge I have received from my Father.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, in that moment, after He said it is finished, after He endured the wrath and judgment of God, after sin was atoned for, after the veil was rent, he said, Okay, now is the time.
SPEAKER_00: God, I commit my spirit unto you.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I commit my spirit into your hands.
SPEAKER_00: He will have authority over death.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I am declaring that now is the time.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, church, we do not have that kind of authority to decide when, but we do have victory over death.
SPEAKER_00: And we've been given the victory through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you one more thought this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This last saying on the cross, it reveals rest.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals rest.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, this is a saying that reveals rest.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals relief.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals peace.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know if we're still in that TikTok trend where 6'7 means something.
SPEAKER_00: Are we still in that?
SPEAKER_00: Are we done with that yet?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we have teenagers in here.
SPEAKER_00: Can y'all tell me?
SPEAKER_00: Are we still there?
SPEAKER_00: Are we done?
SPEAKER_00: Can we stop all this?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: I say that to acknowledge y'all gonna hear me say six seven, and uh every time I do that, the teenagers are like, you know, but but look, there's significance in the number six and the number seven.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: No, there's significance because six is the number of work, and seven is the number of rest and completion.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus uttered six words on the cross, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then the seventh was a word of rest.
SPEAKER_00: Six words, six sayings he uttered on the cross while he was actively fulfilling the work of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And then the seventh saying, he was it was a saying of rest.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now y'all track with me, y'all stay with me here.
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound familiar?
SPEAKER_00: You go all the way back to the beginning when God was creating the world, he created it in six days, right?
SPEAKER_00: He spoke in six days the world was created on the seventh day, he rested, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh he told the nation of Israel, you can work six days, then the seventh you rest.
SPEAKER_00: He told the nation of Israel, that's the Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_00: He told the nation of Israel, he says, You can till the land and work the land for six years, and then on the seventh year, the Sabbath year you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I just love this, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if y'all are getting it like I am.
SPEAKER_00: He said six things on the cross, and then on the seventh, he committed his spirit unto the Father and rested because the work was done.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_00: Our Savior, our Redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I love about this?
SPEAKER_00: Rest comes after the work is finished.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about y'all, but look, when I'll come home from work, a long hard days of work or night of work, you know, working shift work, I like to rest.
SPEAKER_00: I like to sit in my chair, drink me a cup of coffee, unwind for a moment, and rest.
SPEAKER_00: Rest can only come when the work is done, and thank God that Jesus finished the work.
SPEAKER_00: He finished the work.
SPEAKER_00: Rest not only comes after the work is finished, but rest comes after the war is over.
SPEAKER_00: We have a world and nations right now that are at war, and whenever there is war, there is no rest.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, while he was on the cross, he was battling the prince of darkness, he was battling the forces of evil, and the Bible says that on the cross, he triumphed over them, nailing them to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He won the victory, and we experienced the rest.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all okay if I get excited this morning about it?
SPEAKER_00: He he the war was over.
SPEAKER_00: He defeated Satan, he defeated sin, he defeated death, he defeated darkness, and we can experience the rest because of the work that Jesus did, because of the battle that he won.
SPEAKER_00: Victory was won at Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: And it's that victory that he won at Calvary that set us free and gave us the ability to have peace and rest in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Peace with God.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus died on the cross, church, he didn't die in panic.
SPEAKER_00: He died in peace.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't die in fear, he died in faith.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't die in worry, he died in assurance.
SPEAKER_00: He won the battle.
SPEAKER_00: He finished the work.
SPEAKER_00: And because of what Jesus did for us, we can also die in peace.
SPEAKER_00: As we have our worship team come forward this morning, I don't want you to lose me.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times I get the team to come up here and y'all start looking around.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, we got where's the door at?
SPEAKER_00: You know, where's let me get my kid.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose me yet.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about a, I want to continue talking about this very popular topic of death.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about it, really, what is death?
SPEAKER_00: Death really comes down to one thing: separation.
SPEAKER_00: Physical death is when your spirit separates from your body.
SPEAKER_00: This shell.
SPEAKER_00: You are not bodies with spirits, you are spirits with bodies.
SPEAKER_00: This body, this body, look, one day this body's gonna go on the ground, but y'all better believe this spirit is alive with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't get in your mind that Pastor Jay is dead.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's alive.
SPEAKER_00: His spirit is alive forever.
SPEAKER_00: But when your body, when you die, your spirit, and they talk about this in medical terms, the transition, right?
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit is transitioning from your body.
SPEAKER_00: That's physical death.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual death is when you are spiritually separated from God, body, soul, and spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You are spiritually separated.
SPEAKER_00: Eternal death, like the Bible talks about in Revelation 20, is when you experience the second death and you are separated from God forever.
SPEAKER_00: In a lake of fire, in outer darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talked about it, he preached about it, so we're gonna preach about it.
SPEAKER_00: Where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, you're experiencing an eternity of wrath from a holy God that was placed on Jesus, and all you had to do was place your faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, when you do that, he gives you eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Comes down to this there is no peace in death without faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's no peace in death without faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to your deathbed and you go like Jesus took his last breath, you come to that moment, you take your last breath, and you don't have your heart right with God, you don't have, you've never placed your faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: You're trusting in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: There's no peace in that.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're always gonna be saying, Well, I think I was pretty good, and you know, I think I did enough good to outweigh my bad, or what about that thing I did back then, you know, years ago?
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're always gonna have that doubt.
SPEAKER_00: But when you think about the truth of the gospel, that Jesus endured your sin, he endured the wrath of God for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And when you place your faith in him, he makes you alive, he gives you forgiveness, he cleanses you.
SPEAKER_00: That's where your faith rests.
SPEAKER_00: The thief on the cross, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: He did a lot of terrible things, but when he looked at Jesus, and Jesus said, Today you'll be with me in paradise, his heart had rest, and his heart had peace.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he was trusting in the words of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm asking you this morning to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5:1, it says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, justified had never sinned, because your sin was placed on him, justified by faith.
SPEAKER_00: We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 5 11 says, and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And this life is in his son.
SPEAKER_00: He who has the son has life, and he who does not have the son doesn't have life.
SPEAKER_00: These things have I written unto you that you believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may, listen to this, know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that all that really matters?
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus breathed his last breath, he was trusting the Father.
SPEAKER_00: When we look at what happened when Jesus took his last breath, but but the question is, is one day you will breathe your last breath.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, nothing else will matter.
SPEAKER_00: The money you made, y'all listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: The money you made, the careers you set up, the ladder that you tried to climb of success, your bank account, your 401k, how popular you were, none of that will really matter.
SPEAKER_00: When you come to that moment where you breathe your last breath.
SPEAKER_00: I know this is heavy.
SPEAKER_00: I want it to be heavy.
SPEAKER_00: None of it will matter.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul said when he was about to be killed for his faith, he says, in 1 Timothy 1, he says, I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him unto that day.
SPEAKER_00: That's where our faith is.
SPEAKER_00: I had a friend that just passed away, Dwayne May.
SPEAKER_00: He actually came and to church a few times.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he was battling sickness.
SPEAKER_00: He came and sat right there and fought a long battle.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the last things he told me was that he had peace about dying.
SPEAKER_00: When I went to his house a few days before he died, I prayed Psalms 23 over him.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
SPEAKER_00: And I got to this part.
SPEAKER_00: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it comes down to.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have peace in death?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have peace when you take your last breath?
SPEAKER_00: Have you placed your faith in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Let's all bow our heads this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you to be honest, to be real.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Pastor Jared, I do not have peace about death.
SPEAKER_00: I am not sure.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna make you do anything this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to pray for you and let you know that we have people that would love to talk with you.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, you were one breath away from eternity.
SPEAKER_00: You could be one breath away.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus breathed his last, then his spirit left.
SPEAKER_00: You you could be one breath away.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I'm not sure that if I take my last breath, I will go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if I'm truly a believer.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you this morning, I want will you slip your hands up in the air so I can pray for you?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone here?
SPEAKER_00: Lift your hands up.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I see it.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you an opportunity to talk to someone.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask Pastor Byron and some of our prayer partners to go in the back.
SPEAKER_00: And if you would like to talk to somebody, we have some people that would love to just talk to you about your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Because one day that day will come.
SPEAKER_00: And and I'm gonna close in prayer and we're gonna sing and worship the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But as we do, we're gonna have an invitation where you can leave out of this church knowing that you have that peace when you take your last breath.
SPEAKER_00: So if that's you, don't miss this moment.
SPEAKER_00: Don't play games with God.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come before you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray the power of the Holy Spirit would move in hearts, that you would give peace.
SPEAKER_00: Give conviction.
SPEAKER_00: God, we pray that you would draw that one that's far from you.
SPEAKER_00: God, that you would save that one that's lost.
SPEAKER_00: We know that Jesus, you did everything, and all we have to do is trust.
SPEAKER_00: It's so simple.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray you would do an eternal work in the hearts of people here today.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Will you stand and let's sing, let's worship.
SPEAKER_00: If you need to talk to someone, we have people in the back that would love to talk with you.