Hope City Sermons
This is where you will find all of the messages shared at Hope City Church. These messages are always straight from the Bible and bring insight into the love of Jesus and the truths the Bible holds.
Hope City Sermons
Easter 2026
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An Easter message from Peter's perspective.
Morning. Happy Easter family. I prayed like none other that it would not rain today. And uh yet you guys could not be stopped. You were tenacious, and here you are. Um yeah, so Holy Spirit, I just ask for your help right now. These amazing people need so much more than a couple, maybe clever words from just some guy. They need a word from you. I need a word from you. So, Lord, I pray that this morning, God, that you would grace me to share the truth of your word. That it would be anointed to get past and cut through every every concern, everything that would have our mind elsewhere. God, that this word would be anointed to get to the area of our deepest needs in Jesus' name. Amen. We've been in Luke for a minute. If you are just visiting, and by a minute I mean a year and a half. I'm jumping ahead today because this is not where we would be, but we're going to be in Luke chapter 24. And I want to start here right now. It says, but very early on Sunday morning, the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. Now, like what were these spices? They're going to, because the the body of Jesus after the crucifixion, uh, he was so rushed for burial, he wasn't able to be fully prepared. And so they're bringing spices. However, they thought they would get to him, they didn't know, but to basically anoint his body and also make sure that it was fragrant as the body would decompose to the best of their ability. That's what they're going to do very early on a Sunday morning. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes, like what y'all are wearing this morning. The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. The men asked, Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn't here. He is risen from the dead. Remember what he told you back in Galilee? That the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day. And they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples and everyone what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. I love that Jesus uses women to be the first one to carry the gospel. Verse 11, but the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn't believe it. Check this out. However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings. There he went home again, wondering what had happened. The salvation, right? Like the sacrifice for our sin happens on the cross. Why is the empty tomb so important? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, you can write this down, it won't be on your screen, but 1 Corinthians 15, verse 17 and 19. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost. And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more, we are more to be pitied than anyone else in the world. Minister Alistair Baggs says, if Jesus Christ had never risen from the dead, none of us would even know he existed. Who would have even cared? Man, the cross is critical, and we're going to talk about that in just a moment. But the empty tomb, we're going to switch this right now because I can't stand the mic that cuts out. The empty tomb is a moment of hope for every believer. It's a moment that solidifies that Jesus not only called his shop, but he fulfilled what he said that he would do. The prophecy would be fulfilled in his raising from the dead. And so I want you to kind of think about this because up until the empty tomb, the cross that's right there on the wall would have been nothing more than a torture device. An empty tomb changed the meaning of that cross that's on the wall right there. Are you with me on that? So sometimes we kind of forget, like, what did Jesus go through? Let me tell you what he went through. When he started his trial, he was taken away from the garden. He was betrayed by Judas. His trial starts. What happens? One of the first things that happens when he's being guarded is the guards blindfold him and they begin to strike him in the face, mocking him, saying, Hey, prophesy, who just hit you? And then they punch him in the face again. Tell us. You're a great prophet. Let us know. Could you imagine? You created the world and your creations punching you in the face and mocking you. That's where it begins. The next thing that happens is he was beaten with what's called a flagrum. A flagram is a short-handled whip. It would have had three to four leather cords coming off of it. At the end of each leather cord would have been lead ball bearings or shards of bone. So Jewish law said that nobody could be flogged more than 39 times. But he wasn't being flogged by Jewish people, was he? He was being flogged by Romans who only stopped when they decided they wanted to stop. One of the most powerful evidences for the resurrection of Jesus is the shroud of Turin. And some people say, well, that's just an old Catholic thing. No, no, no. The Catholic Church didn't even have that until like the 80s. It's one of the most powerful evidences, and 110 different disciplines have studied it. Mathematicians have studied it. Crime scene people have studied it. So many people, over 110, and everybody, the mathematician said there's a one in two billion chance that it wasn't Jesus in the shroud. One in two billion. Another man, he tested it and he found 58 different kinds of pollen on it. 20 different kinds of pollen represented the areas that it had been, the shroud had gone since it had been discovered. The other 38 were all local to Jerusalem, and of those, the majority were from flowers that bloomed in the springtime. There are several scholars that believe that AD 33 on today's date, what's today's date? April something. I'm so excited. Fifth, thank you. There's a lot going on in my brain right now. A lot of scholars believe that this is the day that he rose. Like the actual day. Whether it was or it wasn't, we see that there's there's evidence. Man, the shroud of Turin suggests they can they can only see one side. 300, over 300 lashes. So how would this work? They would start, there'd be two Roman guards, and Jesus would have had his hands strapped up so he can't guard himself. And they would take turns hitting him with these metal ball bearings and shards of bone. Now, these are Roman soldiers. These aren't like wimpy people, right? They've gone through some training. They know how to inflict, and let their life is about inflicting pain. And they're ripping into, and listen, check this out. Can I just, can we get real today? This is gonna feel uncomfortable for a minute, but I we need it to feel uncomfortable because he would get beat not only around his shoulders and his back, but he would be getting beat in the pelvic region. What does that mean? There are our shards of bone and metal ball bearings reaching around to his groin area. He's being beaten all the way down to his ankles. There's indications that would suggest that they would have even reached around, possibly even giving him a blinded eye. Listen, he was the majority of people never made it to crucifixion because the beating was so intense. People believe, scholars believe, that a third of his blood was lost during the flogging. That it would have been a miracle that he could just make it to the cross. Can you imagine? Like you can't, I can I can't fathom that. The pain, the agony, you can't go anywhere, you can't get away from it, and it just keeps coming. But they're not done. The next thing they do is they take Bethlehem thorns and they twist them together, and it's not like a crown that looks like a wreath, it's more like a helmet. Right? That's what it would be. And there's only one person in antiquity that there's ever been a crown of thorns made for, and it's Jesus. They would suggest that his head would have had 30 to 50 puncture wounds. They're three-inch long Bethlehem thorns, three-inch long, sharp as nails, driven down onto his skull. And as they would hit him, they would continue to mock him, throwing a robe around him, a purple robe, oh king of the Jews. Then he has to carry the cross to Calvary. He's so beaten, he's so exhausted, he's so spent he can't make it the whole way. Simon the sirene is told, you better pick that up and carry it for him. When he gets to the place where he's going to be crucified, he would have been stripped naked. All the pictures we see, he's got something wrapped around his midsection. No, their intention was full pain and full humiliation. So he's completely exposed. And they take him and they would use, like one of the one of the favorite things of Roman soldiers were those nails. They would reuse the nails they crucified with. Over and over. It was like reusing a bullet for them. And so they would drive it in, but they wouldn't leave it because they wanted to inflict maximum pain while ensuring minimal ability to move. But to ensure more pain, every so often they would come up and they would hit the nail and readjust it to inflict more pain. Most of us believe you can see some images that there would have been showing like a little pedestal or a platform out on the front that his feet would have stood. Other pictures are from nails being driven through both feet. This is how it happened. They would take one leg, put it on one side of the cross, the other leg on the other side of the cross, and then they would nail through your heel bone to drive it into the cross on both sides. So the only way you can catch a breath is to put your weight on nail-driven feet, stand up and get a breath before you asphyxiate. I said that word terribly, I'm sorry. Asphyxiate. He later would get stabbed through the ribs by a spear. And it says blood and water flows. It's like, hey, Joey, this is Easter. Right? Hey, I don't know if you got the alert, Joey. This is Easter. We want to, man, I want to talk about tulips. I want to talk about peeps and the different flavors. The pink ones, all the I want to talk about all of them. I want to talk about Easter eggs and little bunny rabbits, and I want to talk about an empty tomb and have fun. But here's what happens. When the cross becomes calm and your faith becomes soft, then every time the wind blows, you'll begin to shake. And if you forget the price that was paid for you, your faith, it just becomes this anemic, pathetic little thing that it was never intended to be. Luke is writing a letter to all believers that they would be certain of their faith, that you had a savior that was beaten with whips, torn apart, not for your salvation, but for your healing, is what the Bible says. By those stripes you are healed. And we're weak about, I don't know if I should pray for you. If it's your will, God, if it wasn't his will, why would he have been beaten half to death? Why would his flesh be ripped apart? That doesn't make any sense. If it's your will, heal. Listen, I pray for people's healing, and sometimes I see it and sometimes I don't. But what I'm not going to do is create a theology of why somebody doesn't get healed. I want to keep being obedient to pray healing over the sick because he paid a price. And so what happens is you look around and you're like you forget what he went through, and so you have this faith that the world's scratching the head is like, if you really believe he's the savior, wouldn't you live a little bit differently than the way you're living? Is there any evidence to convict that you are a Christian? And so I'm coming at you hard, man, but I've been studying this for a minute, and so I've been getting corrected. I'm like, man, I I'm studying, and it gets uncomfortable to read about how brutal, how torturous it was. I'm like, man, I don't want I don't want to think I want to think I want to think about the early morning jog of the women to get to the tomb. And the guys in the dazzling robes saying he's not here. I love that. It's victorious, right? I want to talk about the victory. I don't want to talk about the pain, but if you don't remember the pain, the empty tomb won't mean anything to you. You're just like, oh, cool, I'm gonna come to church because it's Easter. I'll come this time this year, then I'll show back up at Christmas time and I'll come back next year. Let me challenge you. Listen, I love you guys. I'm grateful for that you're here. Everyone that you've been invited, man, thank you for coming. If you're seeking, if you're searching, man, ask questions, ask tough questions. Listen, don't you just have to feel like I'm just gonna drink the Kool-Aid. No, man, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But if you call Hope City home, listen, I want to challenge you with something. It should not be two more months before you come into this place. And I want to challenge you with something. If you find faith in Jesus today, or if you're searching, I want to challenge you. Invest the next two months not to miss. Invest the next two months, you're like, ah man, that's gonna cost me something. Yeah, but I'm telling you right now, it's not a cost, it's an investment. It will change your life, it will change your family's life. Before Jesus dies, he declares a word, a few words, it is finished. Is the word. This word gets used in a couple ways. When a person finally paid off a loan, they had a debt they couldn't pay back, they finally pay back a loan, on the paper would get stamped to telesty, paid in full. Financial term. It was also a judicial term. It was used in a judicial context when a sentence was completely served and had been completed, to telesty, fully served. It had a third meaning. It was used as a military term, and when a battle was over and won, to telesty, complete victory. What Jesus was declaring when he says it is finished, he was declaring that the debt of your sin has been fully paid, the judgment for your sin has been fully served, and the battle against sin, death, and hell had been fully won. It is finished. But um I can't stop thinking about Peter. Over the next 40 days after his resurrection. So Jesus, some people think, well, he he resurrected and he's like, peace, I'll see you. It's been real, but not a lot of fun, right? Like so he's been good to do. 40 days, he says, over to over 500 people he appears to. Not just to a few, but in Jerusalem where he died and in Galilee. Like he's in the people in the community where it happened, he's appearing to. Let me just say this. If you're gonna make up a story, don't make it up around the people who were there. If this was fictitious, this was the worst written way to start a religion that you could have. First off, the women that go to the tomb, their confession wouldn't even be admissible in court. And those are gonna be the primary people that saw the tomb empty. And now the people that these men that are supposed to carry the gospel to the nations, you see that they all bailed and they're in a room locked away, fearing for their lives. And these are the guys that we're supposed to follow. If you look at it, it is horribly written to start a faith with. Unless it's true. Because it doesn't make any sense. And I keep thinking about man, he you showed up to 500 people over the course of 40 days, but I can't stop thinking about Peter. Because the women come back, all the other guys, like this is crazy. Now, John accounts that he goes with Peter, in fact, that he's faster than Peter. Gotta love guys, right? It's like for eternity, everybody's gonna read this. This will be awesome. Um Peter runs and he looks and he gets in there. He's like, what's going on? And he shook. Later on, the the resurrected king would kind of like, I don't know how he comes into everybody's eating, and he like into the room. What's up, y'all? Everybody's like, right? You know what I mean? About to have the healing service for all the little pacemakers in the room. Right? And and they and he sits down and he eats. Ghosts don't eat. He sits down and he's eating. Go, ghosts, I I don't I don't think ghosts don't eat. Right? So he's eating fish, everybody's staring at him. It's real awkward, it's real weird. He's eating, and everybody's just like would that be mad awkward? You have anybody just stare at you chewing food? It's weird. He's chewing like he's he's there, he's showing Thomas. Look, man, Thomas, you're not believing. Put your put your fingers in the nail prints. They're not mad at him. John 21, starting verse 7. What had just happened was that evening, there's been a night where Peter's like, man, I I want to go fishing. And as a fisherman, somebody that grows up fishing, you're probably like, yeah, it's probably a therapeutic thing to do. Right? Some people say, ah, he went back to his old life. I don't know. Maybe he just needed some time away. He goes out fishing, him, the guys are like, Yeah, I will go with you. And they're not catching anything. Not catching anything. Reminiscent of the day they're called by Jesus, not catching anything. And then Jesus is like, hey, boys, and it's like he uses the word for like children, right? Hey, little fellas. Y'all catch anything? Your fisherman is not caught anything, they don't want to be asked. Y'all caught anything? No. Right? He says, throw your net off on the other side. They throw it off, catch 153 fish. 150. Like, so so so why put a specific number in? Some people will break it down and have different reasons for 153. Listen, when significant events happen in your life, you remember. Right? If I were to ask you if you were alive when 9-11 happened, could you tell me where you were? What was going on? John's accounting, like, man, that's 153 fish. It's crazy. And John goes, after they catch the fish, John's like, then the disciple Jesus loved, that's how he called himself. May we all be that kind of a disciple? I'm the one Jesus loves. He likes you, right? No, he didn't say that. Then the disciple Jesus loves said to Peter, It is the Lord. And when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his robe or his tunic, for he had stripped for his work. He jumped into the water and headed to the shore. You gotta love that Peter is all in. If he gets it wrong, he's all in. If he gets it right, he's all in. Right? You with me on that? Like he's the guy that in the garden, when they're taking Jesus away, pulls out a sword and chops a guy's ear off. That's that's Peter. Yet he's also the same guy that when he sees Jesus walking on the water and says, Lord, if that's you, call me out, and he walks in the water. But he's but he's also the same guy that when Jesus says, Who do you say that I'm in? He goes, You're the Messiah, you're the Son of God. But then he's also the same guy that the Messiah calls Satan.
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SPEAKER_01Because there's another moment where he's dealing with Peter's like all over the place. But I love that about Peter because I feel like Peter a lot of my life. My faith? Am I preaching? I'm like, squirrel, right? Like distracted all the time. But he's all in. So he puts on his tunic, he jumps in. The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded fish ashore. So isn't that hilarious? He's like, You got it, guys. The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore. For they were only about a hundred yards from shore. And when they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them, fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread. Bring some of the fish you've just caught, Jesus said. So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net had not torn. Now come and say, come and have some breakfast, Jesus said. None of the disciples dared to ask him, Who are you? They knew it was the Lord. And then Jesus served them the bread and the fish. This was the third time, check this out, this was the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead. After breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord, Peter replied. You know I love you. Then feed my lambs. And Jesus told him, Jesus repeats the question, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Yes, Lord, Peter said, You know I love you. Then take care of my sheep, Jesus said. A third time, he asked him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, Lord, you know everything. You know everything. You know, you know I love you. And Jesus said, Then feed my sheep. I tell you the truth. When you were young, you were able to do as you liked. You dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and others will dress you and take you where you don't want to go. Jesus prophesies the death of Peter. Three times. He's like, Peter, do you love me? And you can dive into the words and the root meaning. Did he say Phileo? Did he say agape? These words, but the question is, Peter, do you love me? Did Jesus know? He's Jesus. He just rose from the dead. He's not looking for information. Let me just say this. Whenever you sense God's asking you a question, he's not looking for information. So who needed to hear that Peter loved Jesus? Was it Jesus or was it Peter? Jesus is restoring Peter in this moment. I want to look at just a couple things. Jesus asked three times and he restores three things. Jesus restores Peter's hope for today. First Peter chapter one, verse three and four. This is Peter writing, I'll praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation. There's another version that says, now we have a living hope, and we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach and change of change and decay. Peter, in that moment, he's like, with Jesus, do you love me? Yes, Jesus, I love you. Feed my sheep. There's a restoration going on in Peter for first thing today. How hopeless he would have felt. Listen, if you had denied Jesus three times, right? Because that's the story. Jesus says to Peter, Peter's like, I'm never leaving. Jesus, like, no, you're gonna, you're gonna deny me three times before the rooster crows in the morning. And then Jesus, and then Peter follows through and ends up doing that. And I kind of wonder the whole time, when every time Peter seeing Jesus resurrected, is he excited or is he torn? Because on one hand, his risen Lord is not dead, he is alive. On the other hand, he rejected him flat out at a moment where he should have been needed most. And so Jesus said, Peter, do you love me? I love you. Feed my sheep. He's restoring hope for the day in the day that would have probably felt hopeless. I'm wondering, as at night he's throwing the nets out, trying to catch fish. Is he thinking about fish? Or is he thinking about I can't believe? He's drawing the net back and I can't believe. I said, I don't know it. Now Peter says, he writes in his letter. We've got a living hope. It's not a hope once you get things right. It's a hope for today. It's a hope for right now. It's a hope for this moment. It's not, it's not for later on. Are you with me on that? Like this is a you're live. If you have a living hope, it's in this room right now, but you got to submit to it. The next thing that he says is this He says, Jesus, and Peter, do you love me? Peter says, You know I do. Jesus removes Peter's fear of the future. Imagine, imagine Peter worrying about, okay, I know I know that you're redeeming me. I know what you're calling me to to feed your sheep. I would be afraid I'm gonna screw up again. I'm afraid I screw up enough already. And I'm not Peter, right? But I would be so worried about the future, like what if you're calling me to do this, but what if I get it wrong again? Jesus said, I still love you. Yeah, but what if I screw it up? What if I what if I miss the mark again? I still love you. What if I fail you again? You're still gonna be called. I'm still a redeemer. You know what that does when you know, like when you remove the idea that you are capable of sinning bad enough that you're beyond the reach of Jesus. Because some of us feel like our sin is worse than everybody else's, and that that cross and the price that he paid isn't enough for my sin. It might be for yours, but not for me. And sin is this, it's every time we get it wrong. And the Bible says the wages of sin is death, right? But he paid a price for all that. It is finished, it is paid in full. The sentence is fully served. You with me on that? So so so Peter's saying, okay. What if I get it wrong? Man, at some point it changes. At this moment, I believe there's a redemption where the fear of the future is removed. Joey, how how do you know that? Can we look at a moment and have how he preaches on the day of Pentecost? This is in Acts chapter 2. This is this is Peter about to preach. This is the guy who denied Jesus. He says, I don't even know that may a curse be upon me if I'm lying. He's lying. And yet Jesus comes, redeems him, and redeems his future and restores his future. This is Peter now talking in Acts chapter 2. People of Israel, listen. God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. But God knew what would happen, and his pre-arranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed with the help of lawless Gentiles. Check this out. You nailed him to a cross and killed him. That is in the face of the crowd that he bent the knee to and fear earlier. Right? These the same people, he's like, I don't know him. Now he's saying, not only do I know him, but you put the nails in his hands. You nailed him to the cross, but check this out. But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip. Peter's like, not only is his present restored, but his future is restored. And now he's proclaiming with the fearlessness and the boldness that would eventually lead to his death, for his proclamation of the gospel. History holds that he was crucified but didn't feel worthy enough to be crucified like the Lord, so they crucified him upside down. And so, regardless of how it happened, we know this that he was put to death for his standing. Listen, if this is made up, how would Peter go from a guy locked away, hidden into a room, to standing in front of thousands of people that when he preaches that day, thousands of people say yes to Jesus. Thousands of people repent. He's calling them out on their sin. He's not bending his knee in fear anymore. Does it mean that he never faced it again? It doesn't mean that. But it means in the restoration, he had courage to go into the calling. I want to tell you today, some of you might be nervous about what's coming down the road for you, but I believe that Jesus wants to give you courage for the calling. I believe that Jesus wants to give you courage for what's coming. Listen, it doesn't matter to me, check this out, if you're in if you're still in school. You don't have to reach a certain age before he'll give you courage for the calling. It doesn't matter if you're retired. There's not a moment where you retire out of the kingdom. There's still calling. If you have breath, you have purpose. And don't ever, ever let a lie come and say you'd be better off if you weren't here. That's a lie from the pit of hell because God knew this world needed you at this time, at this place, in this moment, in this season. And you might face things that are fearful, but he will give you courage for what you have to face. Jesus restores his present and restores Peter's future. Jesus restores and redeems Peter from his past. Check this out. When Peter had swam into the shore, and they're getting the fish, there's a unique moment that happens right here. And I I never really slowed down and gave it a whole lot of thought. Because I was thinking about, I'm listening, I'm thinking about the meal. My wife cooked a ham last night, it's gonna be glorious. Mashed potatoes, all the stuff. It's gonna be, man, thank you, Jesus, for a woman that can cook. I see Jesus made fish, I'm like, that's awesome. Because the meal, the meal itself, is restoration. Eating. Eating with Jesus is like you're not shunned. You weren't so far away that I want to eat with you. I want to break bread with you. I want you to be a part of me, and I want to be a part of you because that's what the Jews believe. When you break bread with somebody, that when you were eating the same thing, you were becoming the same. And Jesus, like you're gonna become like me. I want you to break bread with me. And I was so focused, I was so focused on the meal. Always, I have always been when they got there, they found breakfast. I was so focused on the breakfast waiting for them. Fish cooking over what? A charcoal fire and some bread. I walked out my door the other day. Ash and I were doing some work and I smelled it. Somebody grilling. And these blessed people were using charcoal. No gas, charcoal. The good stuff, I guess. But the smell, it took me back. Man, I'm I'm like thinking about when I'm with my dad and he's cooking on the grill. Thinking about like 4th of July moments. Isn't that crazy how scent works? Like, oh, I just smelled it for a second, and boom, my memories were back. Smells a crazy thing. I remember on our honeymoon, we're like on our first day of our honeymoon, and I'm getting ready, and I'm like, oh no. I forgot deodorant. It's not a good move, right? I forgot deodorant. I'm like, honey, cannot. What's mine is yours, and yours is mine. We said it yesterday, right? Like, can I borrow your deodorant? She pulled out degree powder fresh. I used it the entire week of our honeymoon cruise. I cannot smell degree powder fresh deodorant without feeling elated about life. I go back, I'm like, what an amazing week. Oh, it was just incredible. And I just, everything was so amazing about it. I smell it, and I'm back to the cruise ship. I'm back to the honeymoon. It's crazy how that works, right? Man, sense a crazy thing. You know, scent works different. It works different than the other senses. I don't know if you know that or not. Smells a unique sense, it functions differently than the other senses. The sense of smell is a powerful trigger because it has a directed fast track connection to the brain's emotional and memory centers. The I had to write it down because I would forget. The amygdala and the hippocampus. I sound so smart. It's not like sight or sound. Smell signals bypass the thalamus, whatever that is. But check this out allowing odors to evoke instant, vivid, and highly emotional memories. A charcoal fire. Smelling that. Only one other place in the entire New Testament is charcoal fire mentioned. Can we jump back to John 18? John 18. Verse 17 and 18. Jesus has already been taken. John and Peter followed. They're in a courtyard. There's a woman standing there. The woman asked Peter, You're not one of the man's, one of that man's disciples, are you? No, he said, I am not. And because it was cold, check out this detail that John includes. Because it was cold, the household servants and the guards had made a charcoal fire. They stood around it, warming themselves. And Peter stood with them warming himself. I don't want to stretch, put anything in scripture that's not there. But is it is it is it weird to you, too, that the only other there's only mentioned in two places. That his denial of Jesus. Can you can like that is the scent profile of failure for him? When I smell charcoal, fire, when I the smoke hits my nostrils, it the the smell bypasses everything and goes straight to my emotions and straight to my memories. And there I am again standing by that fire, denying my savior. I hate that smell. Could you imagine? I don't ever smell that again. He rolls up on shore, he swims up, he's got his robe when he comes out, sopping wet. Jesus has made breakfast for him over a charcoal fire, and there's gotta be, oh, in his heart a tearing, like, I can't stand that smell. Could it be that the love of Jesus is so detailed that he would say, Not only am I gonna redeem your present, I'm gonna restore you right now and give you hope in the moment. I'm gonna restore and give you hope for the future, but I'm gonna restore and I'm gonna redeem your past, even down to your senses, that from that day forward, when he smelled the smoke of those kind of fires, it didn't remind him of his greatest failure, but of his greatest restoration. It didn't remind him that he was so jacked up and got it so wrong. It reminded him that he was so loved. Did Jesus called man? He was so loved that Jesus. Man, Jesus could have had this conversation. Do you love me anywhere? Right? He could have had it any day. He's like, no. I love that John includes this detail because I'm like, are there things in your past that haunt you? Let me ask you today, are there things that did that if you'd be willing that you would let Jesus come and say, No, I want to redeem your past so that you're not tortured by it, but that you would be restored. From that moment forward, after the fire and the fish, Peter would always have the ability to say, Man, let me tell you this. I had I had I had so wronged Jesus, I denied him, but he so loved me that he recreated the scene and brought redemption for that area of my past. See, when you have a relationship with Jesus, you don't get to have a shameful past, you get to have a testimony for your life. Your past doesn't get to hold you bound, it doesn't get to shut you up, it doesn't get to make you quiet, it doesn't get to disown you from what you're called to. When you let Jesus get a hold of your past, it's redeemed, it's transformed, and now you can go with confidence into the future because your past is taken care of. While we were yet sinners, while we were denying, what how have you denied? Is there any ways that you've denied him? Maybe like I don't want to talk about him because it feels weird. When I bring up Jesus, my friends, it feels weird. I can't say the right words. I don't have it all figured out. I believe that maybe he was a real man. I don't have it all sorted, and so I'm just gonna say, ah, I don't want to make make the effort to learn. But I'm telling you right now, the Bible says that he will work all things together for the good. Those who love him. Doesn't mean that everything that happened was good, but he'll work it together for the good. If you got a pass of addiction, give it to Jesus. Could you just see today that he's got like a fire ready for you? He's like, Man, would you come eat with me? The invitation, come, come break bread with me. I want to meet you right here in this moment. I want to deal with this moment right now. I want to heal your present, your future, and your past. I'm not into leaving things behind. I'm not into leaving Jesus, is not into loose ends. When Peter first smelled that smoke of that charcoal fire, he was transported to the courtyard where he denied knowing Jesus. But after that day, when he smelled that smoke, he was transported to sitting next to his Savior, seeing his eyes look into his. Seeing the eyes of Jesus, look right in his face. Peter, feed my sheep. You're called, you're purposed, you're loved, you're redeemed. It's been paid in full. I want to pray for you. You are fully loved. He desires to fully restore you, and you need to know that you are fully called. You're like, Joey, what does called even mean? It means that uh there's an intentionality upon your life, there's a purpose for it. But let's start right here, right now. I want you to take a moment and access the things that you want to keep hidden. I want you to take for a moment and access the charcoal fire in the courtyard. I don't want you to run from it. Whatever thing that you sense the most shame in your life, the anger you can't get under control, the lying you can't get under control, the betrayal that you've even experienced or handed out, the abuse you've suffered, the abuse you've given. There's nothing, there's nothing that Jesus cannot redeem. There is no one that he cannot restore. And so, with your eyes closed, I want you to go from the courtyard to the campfire. On the shore. With your eyes closed right now, could you just picture, man? The colds are hot, and he's sitting there. And here's the question, here's the only question he asks. He's not asking if you have a theology for redemption. He's not asking how many Christian books you've read or how many books of the Bible you've read. He's not asking you how often you pray. He's asking, do you love me? I want you just to have a moment with Jesus right now. But if you want to have a relationship with him, listen. And by relationship I mean this acknowledging. And saying, I believe that you, the evidence compels me. There's not one historian that would deny the existence of Jesus or his crucifixion. And evidence only builds towards his resurrection. The Bible was, the New Testament was, was eyewitness accounts written in the lifetime of other eyewitnesses to verify the truth. Could you recognize right now that Jesus had a crown of thorns put on and he didn't stop? He was beaten with a flagrum, flesh torn apart, and he didn't stop. Had to carry the cross to a point of collapsing, yet he didn't stop. A spear pierced his side and he didn't stop. It wasn't the nails that kept him on the cross, it was his love for you. The Bible says, but for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising his shame. He's like, Man, the shame's not gonna stop me. The joy, what is the joy set before him? It's you. You were the joy set before Jesus. He said, I'm gonna go through it all. The beating, the torture, because I love you. And now he asks, Do you love me? He doesn't ask if you have everything figured out. He just asks, Do you love me? If you want to have a relationship with Jesus today and make him the Lord of your life, not just your savior, not just a get out of hell free kind of thing. Your eternity will shift, but it shifts towards relationship. Would you today want to have a relationship with Jesus and say, God, I'm gonna submit my life in its entirety to you. I want a relationship with you where I have a living hope.
SPEAKER_00If you want to have that relationship with Jesus, I just want you to raise your hands. I want you to be stressed out about who's around you. I just want you to lift your hand. Yep. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. I got you. I see you. I see you. You can put those hands down, man.
SPEAKER_01If you're like, man, Joey, I kind of played the Christian game, but I became casual about the cross, and my faith has become soft. Probably not faith at all, but you want to have a restorative relationship, you want to come home, as it were. You want to say, I, Jesus, I'm coming towards you. If that's you and you want restoration in your relationship, you want to come home again, you want to rededicate your life. I want you to raise your hand right now because I'm gonna pray with you as well. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Yeah, thank you, God. Family, we're gonna pray together right now. I'm sorry to be emotional, but man, every time that the Bible tells me that when one person says yes to Jesus, when one person says, I want to declare you as Lord and Savior and King, that all of heaven rejoices. Yeah, we rejoice with you, heaven. Family, can we pray this together? Would you all, family, join in with me with these ones who are saying, I want to come to Jesus. I'm gonna give my life to him, not just apart, not just the pretty, but the pretty and the ugly, the losses and the victories. I want to give it all to him. Can we pray together? Jesus, I thank you that you paid the price for all my failures. It's paid in full. And I thank you. And I ask for your forgiveness. I receive your redemption. Be my Lord, be my savior, be the king of my life. I'm yours, I'm all in.
SPEAKER_00In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Would you, who would you stand up with me, family?
SPEAKER_01I'm honored to spend this day with you. I want to do this, I want to extend the challenge again, and maybe it will be fresh for you now. If it wasn't earlier. There will be a lot of excuses of not to do this again next week. I want to tell you this. I want to encourage you. If you gave your heart to Jesus today, next Sunday we're doing baptisms. What is a baptism? A baptism is an outward sign of an inward act. It's a declaration letting your community know, your family, your world know. I have died to who I was, and I'm living for Jesus. Doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect, no. But it means you're telling this is what Jesus calls us to, as disciples, his followers, to be baptized. So we're gonna do that next week. Find me, Adam, raise your hand. Or Sheila, raise your hand. Find one of us after the service. Let us know. We're gonna set it up. Don't be waiting three months. Listen, this is not a thing you build up courage to, this is a thing you're obedient in. Cool? So, so this is you don't have to like, listen, we're not gonna put that much ice in the water. It'll be okay. I'm just kidding, we're not doing ice. But there's gonna be a lot of reasons not to come back next week. Squash them. Make a point, set your face, and say, I'm gonna be there. Listen, I'm honored that you're here. We are honored as Hope City that you've joined us today. And we'd be honored that you joined us next week. But to me, this is all kingdom. So this is not the spot for you. I pray that Jesus would help you find the right spot, but do not stop searching because you need to be ministered to, and the gathering together, the fellowship is what God calls us to. Why? Because it helps us grow in our faith. There's something in you that I need, and there's something in me that you need. And together we grow closer to Jesus. You with me on that? Be blessed. Listen, I want to pray favor over you today. I want to pray a blessing over you today. Uh, once we're done, parents, if you would, you got me? Adam's got all this stuff, so I don't forget any of it. Thank you, Adam. Lord, I pray blessing over these, your sons and daughters. I pray that your face shine upon them. That you bless them and they're coming and they're going and they're lying down and they're rising up. I pray that you'd be their front and their rear guard. Give them the mind of Christ and wisdom of God. Lord, I pray that everything their hands touch, let it prosper. Lord, I thank you, God, that we would also have opportunity this week to share this hope that we have in you with our friends, with our family, with our community. But we thank you, God, for opportunity. Because there are other Peters that can only think of the courtyard. But God, you don't want to leave them there. You're calling them out of it. So, Lord, may you use us to bring your hope to this world. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.