SPEAKER_00: The sacrifice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What is a sacrifice?
SPEAKER_00: A sacrifice is giving up something voluntarily for the sake, giving up something precious to you voluntarily for the sake of something else.
SPEAKER_00: Giving the voluntary giving up of something precious to you for the sake of something else.
SPEAKER_00: That's a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Usually, that something else is you have reckoned it to be higher than what you are giving up.
SPEAKER_00: But what you are giving up is not something that is not something to be winged at anyway.
SPEAKER_00: The sacrifice is giving up something that is precious to you for the sake of something else.
SPEAKER_00: And we're talking about the sacrifice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 10, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus speaking, he says that no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
SPEAKER_00: A sacrifice is not given under duress.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it is not a sacrifice if you are forced to do it.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a sacrifice if you are forced to do it.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it's not a sacrifice if you are forced to do it.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is telling us here that nobody took my life.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the Roman soldiers actually nailed him to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: But he's saying that nobody can actually take my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the one that laid it down.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says the Lord loves what?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord loves a cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_00: Can we um welcome Sister Lucy?
SPEAKER_00: Our first time at the landmark church.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the landmark church.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome, welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Sister Lucy, welcome to the landmark church.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is saying that I'm talking about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It was not forced to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Anything you are forced to do does not have reward.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're hearing what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: Anything that you are forced to do does not have reward.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says the Lord loves what?
SPEAKER_00: A cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord loves a cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever find yourself in a place and you are being forced to do things, find yourself in the church and you are being forced to serve, you are being forced to do things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you may not know the word is in view for you.
SPEAKER_00: Know the word is in view because sacrifices are done voluntarily.
SPEAKER_00: Voluntarily.
SPEAKER_00: If you give under duress, you serve under duress.
SPEAKER_00: If you are doing your devotion under duress, if you are like, oh, I have to do this devotion because if I don't do it now, God will be angry at me.
SPEAKER_00: That your devotion has there's no there's no reward in view for it.
SPEAKER_00: There's no reward in view for it.
SPEAKER_00: You you your your sacrifice, your your everything we do in the kingdom has to be done willingly.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord loves what a cheerful giver, not a grow, not a giver that is that is doing it grudgingly or doing it as if ah, something a gun has been put into your head.
SPEAKER_00: No, not the kind of sacrifice the Lord loves.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I lay down my life and I do it off, I will do it willingly.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody is taking it from me.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's taking it from me.
SPEAKER_00: That is why it is called a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it qualifies to be what?
SPEAKER_00: A sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: The thing about a sacrifice is that while you are giving up something that is precious to you, somebody else is benefiting from what you are giving up.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're hearing what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: As you are giving up something, that thing that is precious to you, somebody else, and you are losing it, somebody else is benefiting from what you are you gave up.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sacrificed himself for us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did what?
SPEAKER_00: He sacrificed himself for us.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Romans chapter 5, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 5, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read it together.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody with a loud voice.
SPEAKER_00: One to go.
SPEAKER_00: But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: One more time, but God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say Christ died for me.
SPEAKER_00: First Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 9 to 10.
SPEAKER_00: For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
SPEAKER_00: Died for us.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you're reading your Bible and you encounter these three words, died for us, it is speaking to something called substitution.
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking to the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When you hear died for us, died for us, he's telling you that something has been done for you, that all you now need to do is to appropriate it.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's saying that something has been done for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now all you need to do is appropriate it.
SPEAKER_00: That is make it manifest in your own life.
SPEAKER_00: Appropriate is lay hold on it.
SPEAKER_00: See it as a reality, see it as a benefit that you need to lay hold on.
SPEAKER_00: You appropriate it, it has been done for you.
SPEAKER_00: So Christ did what?
SPEAKER_00: He died for us.
SPEAKER_00: So he laid down his life and he sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_00: For you to be an effective New Testament Christian, a Christian that will not be cheated out of their inheritance in redemption.
SPEAKER_00: For you to be a Christian, that the devil will not cheat out of their inheritance in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You must understand this.
SPEAKER_00: That Christ died for you.
SPEAKER_00: This must be etched in your consciousness.
SPEAKER_00: It must be etched in your consciousness that Christ did what?
SPEAKER_00: He died for you.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Say Christ died for me.
SPEAKER_00: Say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Say Christ died for me.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he died for you.
SPEAKER_00: He died for you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God the Father could have stopped the pain that Jesus was experiencing at any time.
SPEAKER_00: He could have, he could have.
SPEAKER_00: He could have.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had the he had the clearance, he had the access to the father to to ask him to send a legion of angels.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Matthew chapter 26, verse 52 to 54 says.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said to him, Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
SPEAKER_00: Or do you think that I cannot pray to my father and he will provide me with more than 12 legions of angels?
SPEAKER_00: How then could the scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen thus?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is telling Peter here that you don't have to start cutting people's ears and doing all that.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not think I can pray that God will bring a legion of angelic hosts and come and sort this out?
SPEAKER_00: The reason I'm not doing that is because one, I'm laying down my life, it is a sacrifice, and I'm also doing it so that the scriptures will be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it so that the scriptures will be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus did not ask his heavenly father to intervene.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew that if the father intervened and prevented him from going through the pain and the shame, it would thwart the fulfillment of the prophecies of scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that if he did anything to ask God to intervene, that it would thwart the fulfillment of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: God did not stop the pain Jesus went through because of the consequences for you and I.
SPEAKER_00: And the death as a substitute and not a victim.
SPEAKER_00: Right that down, right now.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus went through all that pain.
SPEAKER_00: He went through all the pain.
SPEAKER_00: He went through that gruesome pain and the death.
SPEAKER_00: He went through it as what?
SPEAKER_00: A substitute and not a victim.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus was not a victim of the Roman system.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was not a victim of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was not a victim of the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was not a victim of Pilate.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus was not a victim.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was not a victim of the soldiers that nailed him to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He was not.
SPEAKER_00: He laid it down by himself.
SPEAKER_00: And he can pick it up again.
SPEAKER_00: He did it as a substitute and not a victim.
SPEAKER_00: Victims are pitied.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're hearing what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: A victim is supposed to be pitied.
SPEAKER_00: Substitutes are honored and worshipped.
SPEAKER_00: Victims are pitied.
SPEAKER_00: Substitutes are appreciated, honored, and worshipped.
SPEAKER_00: You you pity a victim.
SPEAKER_00: You pity a victim of abuse.
SPEAKER_00: You pity a victim of violence.
SPEAKER_00: But when somebody says, I'm taking this up for you, oh, you place them in a class of their own.
SPEAKER_00: You respect them, you honor them, you celebrate them.
SPEAKER_00: Substitutes are meant to be celebrated, not pity.
SPEAKER_00: I know you might have seen you know movies depicting the gruesome sacrifice of Jesus, and that's great.
SPEAKER_00: It gives us the pictorial.
SPEAKER_00: But the response, when you see the horrible things it went through, the response shouldn't be pity.
SPEAKER_00: The response is not pity.
SPEAKER_00: He's not asking you for pity.
SPEAKER_00: He's not asking us for pity.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking us for devotion, for worship.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking us for what?
SPEAKER_00: For devotion and worship.
SPEAKER_00: Victims are pitied, substitutes are worship.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of substitute that Jesus is, they are worship.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at what the sacrifice of Jesus means for us.
SPEAKER_00: What does the sacrifice of Jesus mean for you and I?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at four quick things and then we'll begin to bring this to a close.
SPEAKER_00: What does the sacrifice of Jesus, what does it mean for me?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for you?
SPEAKER_00: What does the sacrifice of Jesus mean for you?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for me?
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the sacrifice of Jesus, it shows us that it was penalized as an innocent man so that we can be justified though we are guilty.
SPEAKER_00: He was penalized as an innocent man so that you and I we can be justified though we are guilty.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 23, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Let us establish the fact of his innocence.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was penalized as an innocent man.
SPEAKER_00: Let's establish the fact of his innocence.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke chapter 23, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody read together.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go.
SPEAKER_00: So Pilate said to the chief priest and the crowd, I find no fault in this man.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say it again.
SPEAKER_00: So Pilate said to the chief priest and the crowd, I find no fault in this man.
SPEAKER_00: The highest authority in the land at that point was the Roman government, as you know.
SPEAKER_00: And that Roman government, the contingent that was sent to Israel to watch over Israel, the highest authority there was Pilate.
SPEAKER_00: And God recognizes earthly authority.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're hearing what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 115, verse 12 of Psalm 115, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us that the heavens are the Lord's, but the earth he has given to the sons of man.
SPEAKER_00: The earth he has given to the children of men.
SPEAKER_00: So God recognizes the authority of earthly bodies.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you understand what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: God recognizes the authority of men on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he says, Whatever you bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't do it on the earth, it will not be done in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You have to do it on the earth first.
SPEAKER_00: Because God, if you want something to be done in your life on the earth, you have the responsibility to initiate it.
SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: You are because God recognizes spirits generally, because they don't have the um license to operate on this earth, they need human hosts, they need people that would partner with them, that would agree with them for them to carry out their enterprise on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: The same thing with God.
SPEAKER_00: So God recognizes earthly authority.
SPEAKER_00: So God could not have said from heaven and said, Ah, this my son, in whom I'm well pleased, is guiltless.
SPEAKER_00: No, he needed an earthly authority to proclaim that verdict.
SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing?
SPEAKER_00: He needed an earthly authority, a respected and agreed-upon earthly authority, and a heartly authority that is known in antiquity and that is this is historically verifiable to declare the innocence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To declare the innocence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to say God recognizes the authority of those that are in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he recognizes the authority of your parents, he recognizes the authority of your boss, He recognizes the authority of those who have authority over you.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't just say that, oh, it's me and God.
SPEAKER_00: As long as God knows that you know I'm I'm no no no no no.
SPEAKER_00: You submit to the authority that God, because God Himself submits the authority.
SPEAKER_00: Are you here?
SPEAKER_00: You understand what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: So we're he recognizes the authority, and the God needed the earthly authority over Jesus' jurisdiction to declare his innocence.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 14, he says it again, he said to them, verse 14 of Luke chapter 23, you have brought this man to me as one who misleads the people, and indeed, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was penalized as an innocent man, so that you and I, though guilty, can go free, can be justified.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22 of Luke chapter 23.
SPEAKER_00: Pilate saying it the third time, then he said to them the third time, Why?
SPEAKER_00: What evil has he done?
SPEAKER_00: I have found no reason for death in him.
SPEAKER_00: I would therefore chastise him and let him go.
SPEAKER_00: Pilate was like, Okay, you guys, I don't want blood on my hands.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna beat this man, give him a few strokes, and you know, let him go.
SPEAKER_00: But before he could do that, he started shouting, crucify, crucify, crucify.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to say, Thank God Pilate did not let Jesus go.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, thank God that Pilate did not let Jesus go.
SPEAKER_00: Because if he had let him go, the prophecy of scriptures wouldn't have been fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: The innocence of Jesus being confirmed by earthly authorities is very critical for our redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's only a perfect man that could have died for the sins of the world, it's only a perfect man, an innocent man is only the one that whose sacrifice could have been acceptable before God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus's innocence and sinlessness was not only um a verdict of heaven but or his disciples, it was also a verdict of earthly authorities.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it was the verdict of earthly authorities, recognized earthly authorities that are verifiable in history.
SPEAKER_00: You see, and that is the reason for our confidence that because it was penalized though guilty, we though guilty, it was penalized though guiltless, we though guilty can be justified.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say amen.
SPEAKER_00: I said somebody say amen.
SPEAKER_00: This is the confidence that we have in approaching God.
SPEAKER_00: Not only approaching God, but we also have this confidence in the face of the devil, in the face of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: We also have this confidence when we confront the devil.
SPEAKER_00: We have this confidence when we confront the prevailing situation.
SPEAKER_00: The reason for our confidence is because the penalty for our sins have been carried by an innocent man.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing, we're talking about what does the sacrifice of Jesus mean to you and I.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, we said the sacrifice of Jesus means that he was penalized so that you and I, though we are guilty, we can be justified.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he lived right but died with a negative label so that you and I, having lived wrong and deserving a negative label, can have a positive label ascribed to us.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about what the sacrifice of Jesus means to you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus lived right and died with a negative label, so that you and I, even though we have lived wrong and we deserve the negative label, can have a positive label ascribed to us.
SPEAKER_00: We can have a positive label ascribed to us.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 23, verse 32 to 33.
SPEAKER_00: There were also two others, criminals.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said criminals, criminals, yes, led with him to be put to death.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him.
SPEAKER_00: And the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
SPEAKER_00: Think with me here for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Say you knew these two criminals, you knew them that they were the people that were disturbing the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_00: They were just good for nothing guys, and you were just walking around Calvary that day, and then you saw the two of them on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You saw that these are the guys that used to come and steal our things.
SPEAKER_00: And then you see one man right in the middle of them.
SPEAKER_00: You see one man just, you know, also crucified in the middle of these two thieves that you know are the trouble in the society.
SPEAKER_00: What will you think of that man sitting being crucified in the middle?
SPEAKER_00: Will you think of that man as different?
SPEAKER_00: You probably think, Oh, he's their ring leader, he's the one that has been locking in the shadows that used to send them to come and disturb us.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, because I mean, people will come up with all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: If he smells like a dog, if he walks like a dog, it's probably a dog.
SPEAKER_00: Evil communication corrupts, good manner.
SPEAKER_00: You know, show me your friend, and I will tell that was the people that Jesus was seen with.
SPEAKER_00: It was seen with criminals, it was it was killed with criminals.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody came and just observed it, he will look at Jesus and say, He must be a criminal.
SPEAKER_00: Are you on are you understanding what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Jesus would Jesus was crucified with criminals, he was crucified with who?
SPEAKER_00: With criminals.
SPEAKER_00: So if somebody came to that scene that day, he will have just said that everybody being crucified today, they are all criminals.
SPEAKER_00: It took on that negative label, it took on what that negative label.
SPEAKER_00: So that you and I don't have to accept any legit negative label over our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what negative label they have called you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they have called you not smart, maybe they have called you good for nothing, they have called you dumb, they have called you black, they have called you immigrant with no prospects.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever label they have called you, you don't have to accept that negative label.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say amen to that.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you don't have to accept that negative label.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus already took that negative label.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say, I'm not accepting that label.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you don't have to accept that negative label, you don't have to accept it.
SPEAKER_00: Any negative label that is on your heart, that is on your mind, that you it is because you are aligned the devil to play tricks on you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is because you are aligned the devil to play tricks on you, you don't have to accept it.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say, I'm not accepting it.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, don't accept it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took on the negative label of a criminal so that you don't have to take on that negative label.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to, you don't have to take it on.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's just the way Jesus is, that's just the way Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: Think about his encounter with the woman at the well.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well in John chapter 4, verse 15, John chapter 4, and verse 15 to 18.
SPEAKER_00: This woman had had five husbands.
SPEAKER_00: Think about a man of Jesus' caliber encountering a woman that has had five husbands.
SPEAKER_00: Five husbands.
SPEAKER_00: You would think Jesus would judge the woman.
SPEAKER_00: You would think Jesus would say that this woman, yeah, maybe what's what good can come out of you?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not look at the negative label that society has placed on that woman.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Jesus did not look at the negative label that the society had placed on that woman.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus bypassed, he bypassed other negative level and was having deep theological conversations with this woman.
SPEAKER_00: He was having deep conversations about where you know we will worship, where our fathers worship.
SPEAKER_00: You know.
SPEAKER_00: When you meet people that we call people of low morals, you know, like that, you don't they're not the people you start wanting to have deep theological conversations with.
SPEAKER_00: You might you are you might have quoted this scripture many times.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the father is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think Jesus spoke those words to?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke those words to a woman that has had five husbands.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke those words to a woman, he spoke those words to a woman that has had five husbands.
SPEAKER_00: Deep theological conversations.
SPEAKER_00: The father is spirit, God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't have known that if Jesus had accepted the negative label on this woman.
SPEAKER_00: The way of Jesus, I'm trying to show you that the way of Jesus that he doesn't see the negative level.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't care about the negative level that the society has placed on you or the society is trying to place on you.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't care about it.
SPEAKER_00: The same thing with Rahab, the halot.
SPEAKER_00: Rahab, the halot.
SPEAKER_00: Rahab is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus, a woman that was an alot.
SPEAKER_00: Because the way of Jesus is that he doesn't look at the negative level that society places on people, it bypasses it.
SPEAKER_00: It bypasses it.
SPEAKER_00: God does not remember the wrong that you have done.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took that negative level.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, high school.
SPEAKER_00: You have friends that used to be friends from high school, and then uh now they see you and they still want to be calling you those names that they used to call you in high school.
SPEAKER_00: Those names that are not flattery.
SPEAKER_00: When they see you today, they they still want to call you those names, they don't know that you have changed.
SPEAKER_00: That time when you had you know people and all sorts of things on your face, that you are not this pretty and fine.
SPEAKER_00: That time that you know that you had no prospect, but now you are a you know working class woman earning a lot of money, and and you know, they still see you and they still want to call you by that name.
SPEAKER_00: Would you be like, uh that name you are calling me?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody has called me that name for 15 years now, for 10 years.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it doesn't feel right.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it doesn't feel right.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you are no longer that person.
SPEAKER_00: Are you understand what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: You're no longer that person.
SPEAKER_00: That negative label, that label that they maybe they had a maybe that when you I mean some people I in high school, maybe you are you are still, you know, some people still bend wet in high school.
SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe you come to school and you are a little smelly and all that, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you you you do something and then a negative label kind of sticks.
SPEAKER_00: And they see you many years later, and they're still trying to call you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, many of us you will you will distance yourself from such people and say that okay, this person does not recognize it.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine somebody now, you know, looking at me from high school.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe of course I don't I don't even remember the name that I they used to call me in high school.
SPEAKER_00: But Auntie Lucy, when she came to America in eight eight or nine years ago now, ten years ago, you know, somebody that saw you then, that saw you, that saw the your hairstyle and the way you look then, and then they see you now.
SPEAKER_00: You that you are not a working-class woman, they see you now, they still want to like treat you like that or talk to you like that, you have changed.
SPEAKER_00: You have changed, things are different, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not stick with that negative label, that thing that is not flattery, that other people are prone to want to hold on to.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're hearing what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the world wants to hold on to the the most unflattering thing about you is the is what people want to remind remember you for.
SPEAKER_00: The most unflattering things about you is what many people want to remind remember you for, they want to hold on to it, but Jesus is not like that, he's not like that.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, let's move on quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus suffered helplessness so that we can stand to receive help from God.
SPEAKER_00: You're talking about what the sacrifice of Jesus means to us.
SPEAKER_00: We said what he was penalized as an innocent man so that we can be justified though we are guilty.
SPEAKER_00: We said number two, he lived right but died with a negative label so that you and I, even though we have lived wrong and we deserve the negative label, we can have a positive label ascribed to us.
SPEAKER_00: And we said number three, that Jesus suffered helplessness so that we can stand to receive help from God.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say stand, say it louder, say stand.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, so that we can stand to receive help from God.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 23, verse 35.
SPEAKER_00: And the people stood looking on, but even the rulers with them sneered, saying, He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ, the chosen of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looked so helpless.
SPEAKER_00: This man has been performing miracles for the past three and a half years.
SPEAKER_00: Now your life is on the line, and you are so helpless.
SPEAKER_00: You've been performing miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead, opening blind eyes for the past three and a half years.
SPEAKER_00: Now your own life is on the line, and you look so helpless.
SPEAKER_00: How come?
SPEAKER_00: He surrendered himself to that helplessness so that you and I can stand to receive help from God.
SPEAKER_00: Stand to receive help from God, not crawl to receive help from God, not beg to receive help from God, not genuflect to receive help from God.
SPEAKER_00: It is stand to receive help from God.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say stand again.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, stand to receive help from God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, many Christians of African heritage, like you and I, that have our own pigmentation, um, sometimes culture and religion could have damaged our psyche and our approach to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's very possible that culture and religion could have damaged our psyche.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us who've experienced this with, you know, maybe you have an auntie or an uncle, or worse, if it's your parents, that you know, if you don't greet them properly, if you don't kneel down properly, if you don't prostrate properly.
SPEAKER_00: Ah, I have an uncle like that.
SPEAKER_00: Till today.
SPEAKER_00: If you if you go to the village and you greet him and you don't and he's not satisfied with the greeting, he will report you to my parents, he will report you to my mother.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it recently?
SPEAKER_00: My sister went to the village, greeted him, he wasn't satisfied, and he reported my sister to my mother.
SPEAKER_00: That ah, this she she didn't greet me properly.
SPEAKER_00: She she she didn't greet me properly.
SPEAKER_00: People like that.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine you are you are depending on such people for your daily bread or for dinner.
SPEAKER_00: They will say they will have you, they will have you crawl, they will have you crawl, they will have you beg, they will have you do all sorts of things before they can qualify you, before they can help you.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine you are depending on that person for the next breath in your lungs.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine you are depending on that person that that is so victimizing, that is so that that is so you know, that wants to victimize you.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine you're depending on them for the for the next help.
SPEAKER_00: But God is not like that.
SPEAKER_00: God is not like that.
SPEAKER_00: Stand to receive help, stand to receive help, not not beg for help.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5 to 6 says.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 to 6 says, Let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: So we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do to me.
SPEAKER_00: So we may what?
SPEAKER_00: We may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do to me.
SPEAKER_00: So I may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do to me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I wish somebody would say, I will boldly say, The Lord is my helper.
SPEAKER_00: I will not fear what man can do to me.
SPEAKER_00: Say it again.
SPEAKER_00: I can boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do to me.
SPEAKER_00: The day you find yourself fearing what man can do to you more than what God can do, you found yourself in a very bad place.
SPEAKER_00: You find yourself in a very you have put yourself in a bad spot if your fear of man is greater than your fear of God.
SPEAKER_00: The day you find yourself fearing what man can do to you more than you fear what God can do, you have put yourself in a very bad spot.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus suffered helplessness so that we can stand to receive help from God, so that we can stand to receive help from God.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my helper.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus had saved himself, we wouldn't have had the guaranteed help.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, if Jesus had saved himself, we wouldn't have had the guaranteed help from God that we enjoy today.
SPEAKER_00: I thought somebody will give God praise for that.
unknown: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I thought somebody would give God praise for that.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's why we can come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 41, verse 10 fear not, I am with you, be not dismayed.
SPEAKER_00: I am your God, I will strengthen you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I will help you.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say, I'm helped of God.
SPEAKER_00: I will upon you with my righteous right hand.
SPEAKER_00: See, there is nothing you can do, there is nothing I can do to convince God to help me.
SPEAKER_00: He has already made up his mind more than 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing I can do to convince God to help me.
SPEAKER_00: He has already made up his mind to help me more than 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, Ah, but I but I pray and fast, but I pray and I fast now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, you see, your prayer and your fasting is not what makes God inclined to help you.
SPEAKER_00: Your prayer and your fasting only places you at an advantage, at a vantage point so that you can receive the help that God is already stretching out because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Your prayer and your fasting only places you at a vantage point so that you can what receive the help that God has already stretched out to you because of what?
SPEAKER_00: Because of the sacrifice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This must be your consciousness.
SPEAKER_00: If your consciousness when you are praying and fasting is in the power of your prayer and fasting, you are just having a you are just having you know diet.
SPEAKER_00: The power of your prayer and fasting is rooted in Christ, in the sacrifice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That must be your consciousness that the what gives my prayer and fasting power and fuel is the access I have because Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: Not because I'm praying and fasting.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, God has already determined to help me because of what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot be denied.
SPEAKER_00: This has to be your consciousness.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot be denied.
SPEAKER_00: This is my consciousness.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot be denied, and finally, I'm talking about what the sacrifice of Jesus means for you and I.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, it was forsaken so that we can have access to God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He was forsaken so that what we can have access to God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He was forsaken so that we can have access.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, what did we say?
SPEAKER_00: It was forsaken so that we can have access to God the Father directly.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 24, verse 46.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 2027, rather.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 27, verse 46.
SPEAKER_00: And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli Eli Labak Satani.
SPEAKER_00: That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was forsaken.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus said in John chapter 8, verse 20, verse 29, he said, Jesus testifies that the father has not left him alone.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 8, verse 29, he said it that my father doesn't leave me alone.
SPEAKER_00: But on the cross, the father left him alone.
SPEAKER_00: And as a result of the fact that the father forsook him, you and I cannot have access to God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you and I cannot have access to God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Matthew chapter 27, verse 51 says, and behold, the veil of the temple was torn into from where?
SPEAKER_00: Top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
SPEAKER_00: It was torn into from where?
SPEAKER_00: From top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: Many times we don't really understand this, the value of this access that we now have to God.
SPEAKER_00: We don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: We we we trivialize it.
SPEAKER_00: So let me let me try and say some things before we begin to close.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that you and I can come into God's presence and say, Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father, I come into your presence, that's a big thing.
SPEAKER_00: If Aaron had read Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16, that we just read, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16, that we say we can come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain grace to help in time of need.
SPEAKER_00: If Aaron and his children read that scripture, it will say it's a typographical error.
SPEAKER_00: Because their experience was not coming boldly into the presence of God, their experience was coming into the presence of God with great trepidation, and they could only go into the presence of God once a year.
SPEAKER_00: Once a year, once a year.
SPEAKER_00: That was the only time when the Shekinah glory was on the ark.
SPEAKER_00: So they will go into the presence once a ark, they will offer goats and lambs for their own sins and for the sins of the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And then they will go, they will tie something to their legs and then go in case they are struck dead there.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that somebody placed the moratorium on our access to God.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine somebody said, Sag baby, imagine somebody said you can only pray once a year.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine somebody said you can only pray once a year.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine they placed the moratorium and said, Ah, there is now inflation.
SPEAKER_00: There is inflation in access to God now.
SPEAKER_00: So you can only pray once a year.
SPEAKER_00: You know, people's mental health.
SPEAKER_00: You that you know, every time you're only you're always calling on God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not possible, always calling on God, always asking him for something, always asking him to help you, always, you know, on bond unburdening yourself to him.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine, and then I say you can only pray once a year.
SPEAKER_00: The reason we can come into the presence of God with a guaranteed access to him is because Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: It is what gives us access.
SPEAKER_00: And you see, access is not what we think it is.
SPEAKER_00: Access is not what we think it is.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you think of access as, you know, maybe that card that people use to open doors at their workplace, or you know, when we were coming into this place this morning, for example, we had to use a code.
SPEAKER_00: They called it the access code, and we had to use the code to enter this place.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's access code, but it's not really the access that the Bible teaches.
SPEAKER_00: That's not really the access.
SPEAKER_00: See the way the Bible so because there's a problem with that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a back end to that card or to that code that somebody can mess up with, and then you put the code and it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible.
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's an electronic system behind it, right?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody can remotely get into it, turn it off, or do something that that code will not work.
SPEAKER_00: The biblical access is somebody, how many of us have you you you know somebody that you want to meet, maybe a social media influencer that you like or you admire, or somebody at your workplace, or a CEO or something that you really want to meet, that you think that if you meet this person, this person, if you meet them and they know you, it could be important for your career.
SPEAKER_00: How many of how many people you you you've had that experience?
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody ahead of you that you want to meet.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody ahead of you in your life that you want to meet.
SPEAKER_00: That's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody that that if you if you just had one minute audience with them, that you maybe they will help you in your career, help you in the next thing you're trying to do.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have that kind of person?
SPEAKER_00: Whether now or in the past.
SPEAKER_00: For example, right now, there are people in my life that I know if I have an audience with them, they will help me in my ministry because they've they've gone the path.
SPEAKER_00: They can tell me what I'm doing wrong, they can tell me what I need to change, what I need to do right.
SPEAKER_00: Just 30 minutes with them will change the outlook.
SPEAKER_00: You should have such people, you should know such people, you should have identified such people that this person, if I just spend 30 minutes with this person, that's why people pay for mentorship.
SPEAKER_00: That's why people pay.
SPEAKER_00: That's why because you are not only learning from your own experience.
SPEAKER_00: If you are always learning from your own experience, you are a bad student.
SPEAKER_00: You learn from the experiences of others, and sometimes you pay for it.
SPEAKER_00: Are you understanding what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you learn from the those who have gone the path, you are not the first person that is going to walk the path you are trying to walk.
SPEAKER_00: Many people have walked it and they've succeeded, and they've met the obstacles, overcome the obstacles, succeeded, met another obstacle, overcome it, and succeeded.
SPEAKER_00: Now you want to come so they can tell you how to avoid some pitfalls.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: You have them in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You should have them, you should always have them.
SPEAKER_00: Always.
SPEAKER_00: Even the CEOs have people that they want to meet that will help them with their with their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so access in the Bible is that I identify these people, and somebody that has free and permanent access to that person comes and it takes my hand and says, You take my hand to that person and says, This person is my person.
SPEAKER_00: Any honor you give me, any access you give me, give it to Alza.
SPEAKER_00: That is biblical access.
SPEAKER_00: It is not just opening the door, it is somebody that has free, what did I say, free and what?
SPEAKER_00: Free and permanent access to that person that you want to meet, takes your hand and takes you to that person and says, Hey, she's my guy or he's my boy.
SPEAKER_00: Anything, any accord you give me, give it to him.
SPEAKER_00: That is access, that is what Jesus did for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus did for you.
SPEAKER_00: He took you by the hand.
SPEAKER_00: They know Jesus in heaven as he's coming like this, all the angels they are making way because they know him.
SPEAKER_00: But then they saw a strange fellow, they saw your face next to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, they just are looking at who is Jesus bringing again now?
SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Who is he bringing again?
SPEAKER_00: This person, we don't know this one, but they can't stop him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's holding you by the hand, and it takes you to the presence of the father and says to the father, ah God, whatever privileges I enjoy, let I also enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever privileges I enjoy, let him also enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: That is the access that you have to God, and it's what what kind of access?
SPEAKER_00: It is free and what permanent.
SPEAKER_00: It is free and what?
SPEAKER_00: Permanent.
SPEAKER_00: Free and permanent access to God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what this Luke chapter 23, verse 45.
SPEAKER_00: That the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was torn in two, the veil was torn into two from the top to the bottom, signifying that it is the person at the top that gave us access to the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: If it was torn from the bottom, we will say it was somebody at the bottom that thought, but because it was torn at the top, it is showing that somebody on top gave us the access.
SPEAKER_00: Are you here?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's showing that somebody on top gave us that access.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 5, verse 1 to 2.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read it together.
SPEAKER_00: Have what we want to go.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say peace with God, yes, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained what introduction by faith into his grace.
SPEAKER_00: In which we stand and we celebrate in hope of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have what introduction by faith.
SPEAKER_00: You have the introduction by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus introduced you to God by faith.
SPEAKER_00: We have access to God.
SPEAKER_00: We have peace with God.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2, verse 18 to 19.
SPEAKER_00: For through him we both have our access in one spirit to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of God's household.
SPEAKER_00: I have access to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say, I have access to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and because you have access to the Father, God is not angry with you.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said, God is not angry with me.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God expects you to do better.
SPEAKER_00: God expects me to do better, but He's not angry with you.
SPEAKER_00: That my uncle that I told you about is angry with me.
SPEAKER_00: He can be angry with you because of something you did or you didn't do, but that's not God.
SPEAKER_00: God is not angry with you.
SPEAKER_00: But does he what?
SPEAKER_00: Does he what does he expect you to do better?
SPEAKER_00: You bet.
SPEAKER_00: He does.
SPEAKER_00: He expects you to do better, but he is not angry with you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what should be our response?
SPEAKER_00: Let's go quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, what should be our response?
SPEAKER_00: Our response should be worship him.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say worship him.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And our second response should be obey him.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say obey him.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, we should spread his message.
SPEAKER_00: We spread his message.
SPEAKER_00: That should be our response.
SPEAKER_00: You say Jesus died as a substitute.
SPEAKER_00: He did not die as a victim.
SPEAKER_00: The response to somebody that dies in your stead is worship, not pity.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: The response is worship, not pity.
SPEAKER_00: And the other way you can appreciate him, that you can respond to the sacrifice of Jesus is by obeying him.
SPEAKER_00: By obeying him.
SPEAKER_00: Obeying him.
SPEAKER_00: And one way you obey Jesus is in Mark 16, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: Mark 16, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: You go and preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Preach his message.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody say, preach his message.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, spread his message.
SPEAKER_00: Spread his message.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is not about morality.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is not about the gospel, it is about the dead coming back to life.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's what the gospel is.
SPEAKER_00: Though we were dead in our trespasses, Christ died for us and he gave us new life.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is about the dead coming back.
SPEAKER_00: So you preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You ask for the opportunities and open doors for you to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to stand up and worship him and just respond in that way to his sacrifice for us.