Remember Me | Luke 23 | Pastor Ed Kang

Apr 03, 2026 | Good Friday Service | Pastor Ed Kang

A criminal asks Jesus to remember him—and Jesus does, welcoming him into eternal life. It’s the story of a man who didn’t deserve it, and in many ways, it’s the story of us all.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everybody, good to see you guys. Man, I uh I come here, I don't know how how often I come here, but it's uh it's good to be back. Uh maybe we should have the house lights on a little brighter so I can actually see some people. Okay. All right, that's that's good. We don't want it glaringly bright. Okay, so um Good Friday. Um why is Good Friday so good? It's because um, like I prayed, you know, Jesus said that he is a physician, and if you're sick, and uh like you want to get a good physician, right? And what if you're terminally ill and the great physician, this is the physician of all physicians, this is the Dumbledore of Obi-Wan, this is this is the Yoda of all physicians. Says, I'm here to heal you. You would be happy, right? You'd be happy, and so even though we're gonna meditate on the cross, which is the greatest horror and uh injustice and uh the darkest moment in history, it's also the happiest. And so Christians have called this Friday Good Friday, and I want us to appreciate that afresh. Um so we have to talk about what what connects us to the cross, right? Like what's your connection to the cross? What's your connection to the cross? Uh I remember going to Washington, D.C. for the first time and going to all the war memorials, and happened to meet a Korean War vet. Fewer and fewer of them around. I think it was a couple of years ago, I think when the last World War II vet passed away, and uh, you know, the Korean War is not that far afterwards. And um, you know, I thanked them. What's my connection? Because I'm Chinese. No, I'm not, I'm Korean. That's my connection. I'm Korean. Korean War. This fine man, when he was young, he got on a ship or a troop transport and he came to this tiny little peninsula and fought this war against communism. And then my parents, uh still unmarried, you know, young singles, took advantage of that big retreat and uh made it down to the south. That's my connection. So I look at this war vet and I'm like, thank you. If if it weren't for guys like you, I wouldn't be here. Literally. So that's my connection to that guy. And uh, you know, we had we had some little kids, and so we we lined them up and had them say, Thank, thank you. And and the this old guy, he turned around, he spun around. And then he turned back, composing himself. Because I guess he he hadn't counted on something like that happening. He was moved. You know, and we decided to make that connection. So, what's your connection to the cross today? You know, here we are, Good Friday, you know, big cross. We're gonna do the Lord's Supper. Hopefully, you'll be able to participate. You know, if you're not Christian, you can be Christian today and participate in your first Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper, Jesus took bread, common thing. And he said, I want you to remember, I want you to remember that my body was broken for you like this bread. And he broke the bread, and then he gave him the cup and he said, This is my blood shed for you. Eat it. It's gonna be good for you. Because I want you to remember this is what I did for you. Right? So, what's our connection? Our connection is we look at the cross and we say, Jesus, what are you doing on the cross? Do we have anything to do with it? And today's the day that we that we say, thank you, Jesus, for the cross. Thank you, Jesus, for the blood. Oh man, there is a fountain. Sinners plunge beneath that flood, wash all their guilt away. Yeah. But if you're sitting here going, well, some people need that. But I don't know. I don't know if I needed that. Seems a little over the top. Right? Well, this is where we have to think about who we really are. So that's what we do. Today we're gonna talk about, man, who are we? So we're gonna look at this story. I know I say this a lot, but this has got to be my favorite moment in all of the Bible. I really think it is. I think it's it's better than the Red Cross. I mean, not the Red Cross. What is the Red Sea? The Red Sea Crossing. I know the cross is in there somewhere. The Red Sea crossing, it's better than that. It's this moment. All right, so let's look at this. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. So there were three crosses that day, right? Okay, we got three. It's many enough. Let's do the crucifixion. They got three guys, unrelated, Jesus and Christ. And the worst criminals were to be crucified. They didn't do this for just any criminals. So these are hardened guys. These are bad, bad guys. Okay? So that so there's two of them, and the artists usually depict them, one on one on the left and one on the right, Jesus in the middle. One of the criminals were hangrailed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. It says in the Gospel of Matthew that in the beginning both of them railed at Jesus. And you know, these guys are not like merely critiquing Jesus, they're just they're cursing everybody, probably cursing up a storm. And then one of the criminals pauses, pauses enough to listen to Jesus, say, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Pauses enough for him to say what he ends up saying. But the first criminal, bitter, probably bitter that he got caught, you know, as far as as far as he looks at the world, it's sort of a dog-it-dog world. There's no sin, there's just power. And he's at the wrong end of the power now. So he's probably angry, bitter, life is unfair, probably feels like a big victim. He's not only denying his own sinfulness. I think he probably would deny that there's such a thing as sin. But the cross of Jesus gives a very different answer. When you encounter the cross at the center of Christianity, what you're what you're encountering is the centrality of this message that there is such a thing as human sin. And it's really serious. It's deadly serious, it's this serious. God takes it this serious, so that the perfect, righteous Son of God died on a bloody cross for your sins. That our sins are this serious. That's a primary message. Of course, right along with that message is that God's love is this great. But first, how do we connect with that? Our sins are this serious. Here is the first criminal cursing up a storm, denying that he's done anything wrong. His only mistake is to get caught. And I think that represents a popular human response to this nagging sense of something not right with me. It's just to deny the whole thing. Denial of sin. How does that relate to? Do you do you deny sin? When's the last time you denied sin? Probably this morning. Everybody who's married, we deny our sinfulness every day. Husbands, can I get an amen? Right? Why'd you do this? You know, like that was hurtful. No, you're just being sensitive. Just denying sin. You did no, I didn't. Just denying facts. Why? Because sin is threatening. Sin is threatening to our sense of self. And so we'd rather curse up a storm or deny or blame or deflect, accuse somebody else. I think it's because we know, deep down inside, how serious this is. We know that when we sin, we're violating something deep in the structure of the universe. We're scoffing at God's authority, we're staining his holy and clean character. I mean, it's scary to defy like a normal authority figure. To think that your immorality and your sin and your violence and your cruelty and your selfishness and your ingratitude, that this is defying God is maybe a little hard to take. And so we act brave and like the first robber, like, nah. Maybe that's why it's so instinctive for humanity to deny our guilt, our sinfulness. We'll go for any other theory. So let's start there. Like, are you a sinner? Are we a sinner? All right, are we gonna come to the cross and say, that's for me? I'm a sinner. There, but for the grace of God, I should be. Is that our posture? Well, what did Jesus say? Jesus says, Here's your heart. For from within, Mark 7, for from within, out of the heart of man, come, and look at this list: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. This is what's inside of you, Jesus said. Like, I don't think there's a single word on that list that I can escape. All of it. Yeah, that's me. That's you. That's a lot. That's not nothing. That's not trivial. In other words, we've all violated God's holy character, we've transgressed his laws. And the question is, what's God supposed to do with it? What's God supposed to do about it? Nothing? No, I think deep down inside we would find that answer very revolting. No, no, God's got to do something with it. There is a final accounting that must come. When the unrepentant sinner, shaking his fists at God, gets an accounting, a judgment, a message planted into his rebellious heart that that was not okay. For the unrepentant sinner who to the end will not bend, there will be eternal separation. God says, C.S. Lewis quote There are two kinds of people in the world, ones who say to God, thy will be done, and ones to whom God says, Okay, your will be done. Your narrative stands. Your bizarro story about your victimhood and how everybody is wrong except you, and you're the righteous, pure saint. Like, okay, you want that to stand, okay, that shall stand, but not in my presence. Because God is true and he will not lie, and he can't have a fake relationship, and so you are eternally separated from him in a state which the Bible calls hell, here represented by the cross of the first criminal, refusing to repent to the end. Unrepentant sinner going on forever. Hell is exactly what that would be. You get a little miniature version of it, like a child who refuses to say sorry and just paralyzes the whole family. Like, please, just say sorry. Please, kid, just say sorry. And then that child grows up, and maybe he becomes an alcoholic father who's just who just violent and causes misery and unhappiness to all of the people in his family. But his story is that the real problem in this family is that my children and my wife do not treat me with sufficient respect. And his refusal to look at himself creates a hell for his family. Yeah, unrepentant sin going on forever and ever. That would be hell. That's the first cross. Denial of sin to the very end. And then there's the second criminal. He says, He says suddenly to this other guy, maybe they're friends, maybe they're they're they're co-bendits and they got caught together. Do you not fear God? Do you not fear God? Fear of God, that most basic of all biblical teaching. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Like you're you're not, you can't even calibrate yourself. You're not even starting in the right starting block unless you start with this, the fear of God. Fear of God. The basic posture of men before his Maker should be one of reverence. The basic posture of men before God should be respect and awe. That God matters above all things, that he's the one in the room that you care about, that you honor in your decisions, in your speech, that he should be regarded, right? Fear of God. And this reverence of God then is meant to curb the tyranny of your own emotions and to blow the cover on all of your false narratives. The sense of, well, I can spin this false narrative, but God knows the truth. And so I think I'll just stop. And I'll just humble myself before God. The fear of God. Don't you fear God, the second robber says. Repentance starts with fear of God. You know, in the hymn Amazing Grace. I think when I first became Christian as a 15-year-old, I understood the first stanza really well. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me. Oh my gosh, I was a wretch. I was shoplifting, I carried knives with me, I was uh a petty criminal and a vandal. Uh fought all the time, plotted the murder of my dad in my fantasies. I mean, I just knew I was a wretch that saved a wretch like me. Oh yes. And then the second stanza, twas grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace, my fears relieved. It took me a while to understand how profound that was. To be taught to honor God, what a grace that is. And then having honored God that way, I realized I have nothing to fear from him. Fear not, says God, to those who honor him. So we need to start with the proper fear of God. Do you not fear God? And then he goes on and he says an amazing thing. This condemnation, this sentence of condemnation, it's just and we indeed justly are receiving the just, the due reward of our deeds. He's saying, you know what? I deserve condemnation. If all my sins, all my thoughts, all my evil, all my envy, all my lusts were displayed, I should die for the nearest whole. I would say, like it says in the book of Revelation, I would say to the mountains, come and fall on me and hide me from the gaze of the Holy One. I deserve condemnation. And you know what? It's not just him, it's all of us. We deserve something for our sins. What is that? What is it that we deserve? We deserve condemnation. Because there's no little sin, because there's no little God. And sin is against God before it's against any other people. You hurt somebody, God is offended because God loves that person more than that person's mom. We are being condemned justly. And then, and then he suddenly brings in Jesus and says, But this man, he's done nothing wrong. And then the most remarkable, most amazing exchange happens between Jesus and this criminal, which makes this my favorite moment in the Bible. It's like that moment when the prodigal son comes back. The prodigal son. Father, give me half of your estate because I can't wait till you die. I want it now. The father gives it to him, he goes off, he spends it all, he's feeding pigs. You know the story. He comes to his senses. How many of my father's hired men have food to spare? And here I am starving to death. I know what, I'm just gonna go back and offer myself as a hired person, because of course I can't be a son anymore after what I've done. He comes back, and as he's coming back, the father runs to him and embraces him. And he can't even finish his speech, bring out the best robe, put the ring, put a sandal on his feet, kill the fatted calf. We are going to celebrate. This man turns to Jesus and he says this amazing thing. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus is being crucified next to him, and he gets it somehow that he's got a kingdom, but he's not a king of this world. He's the king of the next world. He is the promised Messiah. He is the one that Isaiah talked about in Isaiah 53. By his wounds we are healed. The lamb led to the slaughter was so silent. This must be him. Said, remember me when you come into your kingdom, and Jesus says, Today you will be with me in paradise. Today.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 21:03

That is the most amazing moment in the Bible, which makes this my favorite, favorite passage in all of scripture. Because you might think, you know, Pastor Ed, he grew up on Pastor Island where they never allowed anybody to sin, and he is this holy man. No, uh-uh-uh-uh. My hope is this guy. This guy never went to church, never read a page of scripture, never went and sung to the elderly or taught Sunday school, never shared the gospel, never did anything good, only bad. Moments before he dies, he's saved. And God's telling you that's the gospel. You don't add to it, you don't contribute, you don't pay for it, you don't qualify. You just ask as a contrite sinner. So We're gonna hear from this man. Because he ended up in heaven, ended up in paradise, and he's got his story to share with you. And we interviewed him in heaven, and we captured his story. Okay, so anyway, here is uh an account of that day from the perspective of this robber.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

And this is it. This is the day that I'm gonna die. I don't deserve this. That's all I can think as I drag up the cross that I'm gonna die on. I don't deserve this. And if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die cursing every single one of them with my last breath. Cursing these Roman pigs, cursing these religious hypocrites, cursing this whole system, cursing this whole world. One by one, they nailed us to our crosses. I didn't see the first guy get nailed, but I saw the second when they pinned his forearm to the crossbeam. And then I heard the guards say, This is what happens to thieves. And then it happened to me. The pain defies description. Every part of my body screams in agony as I'm raised into the air, along with the other two. The first guy was drawing a lot of attention. They're shouting things at him. And for the first time, I look over at him. There's a sign above his head. He's Jesus, King of the Jews. Jesus. I'd heard about him from Nazareth. He claimed to be a Messiah. I heard about him performing miracles, healing people, and things like that, but that's always the same with these religious types. They talk a good game, but what they say really makes very little difference in the real world. And now seeing Jesus hanging up there twisting like a little worm on a hook only proved my point. All his teachings, all his miracles, what did they amount to? And then I see Jesus looking up to heaven, and he says, Father, forgive them. For they do not know what they are doing. Forgive them. You gotta be kidding me. Forgive them? These savages that are mutilating us, and now this fool is talking about forgiving them. Who does he think he is? And deep down inside of me in that moment, I detested him. And I wasn't alone. Someone down in the crowd shouted, If you are the son of God, come down off your cross. He saved others, but he can't even save himself. If he is the king of Israel, let him come down off that cross and we'll believe in him. He said he's the son of God. Well then, save yourself. Fueled by pain, I also shouted at this absurd man. If he saved people and saved others, what did he save them from when he couldn't even save himself? I thought, if God had a son, would he look like that? All my bitterness towards life in this world, I I poured it out on this man, Jesus. And then it hit me. I hated God. The same God who allowed Rome to stomp all over his people, the same God who allowed the tax man to extort from my family, the same God that made a world where people die like animals on wooden beams. I hated Rome, I hated God, I hated myself. I was on the brink of hell, and I could taste it already. The rabid crowd continued, so I looked over at Jesus to see how he was responding. And he wasn't. He was just looking at them and just taking it and looking at them and taking it and taking it and taking it, and they were screaming at him and throwing things at him and spitting on him, and he was just doing nothing. He was just silent. And suddenly my mind goes back to when I was a small boy and I was sitting there in temple listening to the reading of the Holy Scriptures. I could hear my rabbi's voice again, and he'd be speaking about the Messiah. He was painfully abused, but he did not complain. He was silent, like a lamb being led to a slaughter. And then I started thinking, what if? What if it's him? I mean, what if it is? And then I hear my mother's voice saying to me, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord. I'd always acknowledged God, but I never feared him. But now, as my life was slipping away for the first time, I began to think very seriously about my situation. What'll happen to me next? I didn't know. And over the years, I really didn't care, but right now, nothing mattered more. You know, I had had a defense for everything. I rejected the temple because the temple had failed me. I stole from Rome because Rome had stolen from me. I could justify anything with that defense. I was right, they were wrong. You take from me, I'll take from you. But now I began to wonder if my greatest theft was not against Rome or the temple, but against God Himself. God gave me a life that I spent on myself. I saw it as my life that I could do whatever I wanted with, but as I hung there, I knew that I was far from good and far from God. And I knew that I deserved this. And I looked at Jesus again and I thought, what if he was the Messiah? What if he's the Lamb of God that the scriptures talked about? The crowd continued with their abuse, and the other guy being crucified next to Jesus also heaped abuse on him. And suddenly I found myself saying, Don't you fear God? We are being punished justly. But this man, this man has done nothing wrong. And then I looked at Jesus and I said, Remember me when you come into your kingdom. I know I have some nerve considering the life I'd lived, considering that a few moments ago I had been cursing him out with the rest. Honestly, if he remembered all that when he came into his kingdom, well, I would probably be done for. The fact is, I I figured I was done for already. But then I remembered his words. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing. Forgive them. And if Jesus could forgive his torturers, well, maybe he could forgive me. Maybe he could remember me when he came into his kingdom. And if he did, it wouldn't be because of anything I had done or I had to offer. It would be purely an act of undeserved mercy and kindness, which is exactly what he was offering the soldiers that were crucifying him. Mercy and kindness. It was a childish request, really. I put my life into his hands. My hand outstretched to his hand, asking for mercy. The request was almost embarrassingly simple, and his answer simpler. I asked Jesus to save me, and he did. Freely and gladly, without hesitation or condition. And right then darkness fell. And an agonizing cry broke through, and Jesus said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Forsaken. That's what I deserved. But Jesus, in that moment, I saw him, he was taking my sins, my place, and the sins of everyone who would put their trust in him. Jesus did it for me, for sinners like me. And then I heard Jesus' voice again, only this time not weak, but loud. He said, It is finished. Father, I commit my spirit into your hands. He sounded triumphant. And then he died. He entered into death, not in defeat, but in victory. After that, it was mostly a blur. As the night approached, they wanted to speed things up, so they brought out the clubs, the sharp pain in my legs that I remembered. And then the soldiers speared Jesus' side just to make sure he was dead. And the last thing I saw on earth was the blood of Jesus spilling on the ground. I used to wonder what the journey of my soul leaving my body would be like. Would I be launched, lost, and alone into a vast nothingness? The thought was terrifying, but the reality was very different. After hours of pain, the release was sweet. And in this very moment, I was not alone. I was accompanied. I was caring. And I was welcomed by Jesus Himself. Looking back on it now, all I can think is, I don't deserve it. Yet here I am. Why would heaven let me in? It's not because of anything I've done. I'm here because I asked the man crucified next to me. And he said that I could. That's my story.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

That's his story. So you know, there's a book, uh, I think that this monologue is based on. Uh, and the title, um I just got it, I haven't read it. The title is How I Got Here. I wonder if you find yourself face to face with Jesus, you know, in that in that heavenly scene that the book of Revelation describes, of every tongue and every nation gather around the throne, singing, salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb. And you got to tell your story of how you got there. Yeah, that'll be that'll be something. And I'm almost tempted to have you guys turn to each other and say, I think it'll go something like this, you know. And that's his story. And his story is extreme. But it's extreme in order to really deliver this point, which is that you don't have to do anything. We really need to get this. We don't have to do anything, we do not contribute to our salvation, we just present ourselves in what the Bible calls contrition. God says, I dwell in a high and holy place, and then I dwell one other place. Isaiah 57, for thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, to revive the heart of the contrite. God says, I dwell in a high and holy place, and we get that, of course. But there's one other place that God dwells. It's somebody who says, Jesus, I'm such a sinner, I deserve this. Any chance that you could just remember me when you come into your kingdom? Such a humble, penitent request is all it took. That's all it took. You don't say, Jesus, look what I've done for you. No, no, no. You say, here am I. Helpless, hopeless sinner. Through and through. Can you remember me? Can you not reject me? Can you not forget me, Jesus? Don't leave me out. Can I just get included? Because I don't deserve it. But I trust in your amazing generosity and the infinite ocean of grace you unleash through the cross. I don't want to take that. I need that. And Jesus' answer to him and to you, to every one of us, again and again, is you will be with me. Might it be hopefully not today, hopefully not tomorrow, but one of these days is coming for us all. Gonna probably come for me sooner than you. Yeah. You will be with me in paradise. And I love that. I mean, it's not from the Bible, but I love that monologue, that moment when he says, I looked at him, and there was joy, which is totally biblical. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, who for the joy sat before him endured the cross, despising his shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus looked at the cross and thought about the salvation and the defeat of death and graven sin, and he had joy. He had joy. It's like a powerful physician. The worse you are, the greater joy he has in healing you. Who here is the greatest sinner? You say, surely I'm the greatest sinner. It's a happy day for you, right? Because Jesus rejoices to forgive you. He doesn't do it grudgingly. He doesn't grab you and say, okay, this time. Just this time I let you go. Next time, or else. He's like joy. How many times should I forgive somebody who sins against me? Seven times? No, seventy times seven. Abundant generosity. Today you'll be with me. We're going to be with him. Repentance is that invitation to have fellowship with Jesus. That's the invitation. You know, you have you have moms don't do this anymore. Grandmas still do this. Eat, they say, right? Eat. Eat, eat. And if you eat a lot, then you're a good boy. Right? Like you eat a lot. Good boy. Nowadays, moms are so modern. They're like, hey, watch what you eat, and don't eat that much. Jesus spreads the table and says, eat. My body broken for you. Man, you can starve, but this you need. You need what I've done for you on the cross. So let's take a step back. Why is God so intent on having us see that we're sinners? Why is God so intent that you come as a sinner? Like, Lord, I'm I'm a lot of other things. Don't you know? I I am I am ENFP and I'm Enneagram V and I'm Scorpio, and I'm I'm I'm interesting. I can sing, I can do this weird thing with my tongue, I can roll it into a W. Like I'm a I'm a I'm a lot of different things, Lord. Jesus says, I never knew you. Who are you? Because I'm here looking for sinners to forgive. And you say, that's me. Why? Why? Is he some interrogator? He wants to twist your arm until you confess something. No, it's because God is love, and love demands closeness. And closeness is not possible without full disclosure. All of our lies, all of our masks are full disclosure. That's what it is. It's an invitation to a genuine relationship. It's an invitation. This is why the Bible is all about sin, because that's the stuff we hide, but that's who we are. A lot of what we do come through filters of pride and filters of envy and selfishness. And so for God to love us fully, He wants all of us. So that you don't have to live a lie, so that He can love you and accept you as you are, a sinner. And if we don't understand this, we're we're all always going to be plagued with insecurity, anxious before people. Because of sins, because at the core we know we're sinners deserving of rejection where the truth to be found out. Rejection by others, and definitely rejection by God. And here is God saying, No. Look at my son. Jesus says, Come, I'm making a way for you to be ushered into the judgment seat and find it. The waiting Father who loves you. All the judgment came on me. Come and be cleansed. So Good Friday. That's why it's Good Friday. That's why the gospel is good news. It's good, good news. You want to keep running away? You want to keep like shaking your head and say, ah, you know, that's just uh one aspect so negative, you know. I'm such an interesting person. Of course, I sin here and there before God. You're gonna keep that up before God? No, don't do that. Because God wants to redeem you and He wants to love you. But you won't let Him if you keep hiding. And when you're fully known and fully loved and taken so Seriously, that your sins are not trivial. And he he dismisses it with a wave of the hand as if you don't matter. He says, No, your sins are deadly serious, bloody serious. And yet I was glad to take it on myself. So now you come. That's the invitation. You can't accept this half-heartedly. Of course, I'm preaching to the choir, you know, everybody. I'm literally preaching to the choir, the people who sing up here, but I'm preaching to the choir in the sense that you all know this. This is the gospel. Of course. Do we really know it? The gospel is something you know again and again. You know, again and again. It's like it's like even the most amazing favorite song, you know, how long can you listen to it? Um I listened to um, you know, have a playlist of our own songs. It's kind of weird, but I I I love listening to our own songs, our own songs meaning the songs that we make for our silly uh music videos. So so Welcome to Elgin was on like I was playing that a lot in my office, and I was really surprised how long I can listen to that. Pick up new little pieces. Because uh rap sounds like um Greek to me. It's it sounds like uh a foreign language, and so little chunks of it I can hear, uh, and and so I keep hearing it. The gospel is like your favorite song that you can have on repeat forever. Because as you get older, the sense of the impossibility of your sin uh becomes more deeper impressed on you. Young people can be silly, they can't they think, oh yeah, I just need to try a little harder and I can perfect my life. I don't think so. I don't think you're anybody in here would think that. But as you get older, you totally know that's true. That's not true. You just know oh, oh yeah, there's there's sin and folly just like bound up in my body, just in my bones. And therefore, Father forgive them, they do not know what they're doing. A truer word was never uttered. Like, yeah, that's so true, Lord. Today you will be with me in paradise. Jesus, who said that to the robber, says that to us all the time. So I'd like for us to uh have the band come up and sing us some uh some old cross songs, the cross of Jesus, the wonderful cross of Jesus. And as they sing, you can you can join in and um appreciate the gospel, just really, really appreciate. Thank you, Jesus, for the cross. But I also would want to recommend that you spend some of that time in prayer, prayer of contrition, prayer of saying, Yeah, I'm a sinner. And maybe the biggest sin that we need to repent of is how we got so used to it. And one thing we must not get used to sin. Because the cross says, your sins are this serious. And then the cross immediately says, God's love for you is this big. So let's all stand as we get ready to sing some songs. And um before we sing, I I just want to I just want to have everybody just close your eyes and you know, maybe sort of break open our hearts a little bit, you know, our hearts that are so uh callous and so preoccupied by distractions and maybe sort of sealed shut from these kinds of thoughts, but I want to ask you these simple, simple kind of introspective questions. Have you ever lied? Have you ever lied? What is where are you in terms of deceit and truth telling? How do you use your words? Do you exaggerate? Do you straight up deceive people just to manipulate them? Do you exaggerate your virtues? You totally know that's not true, but you do make excuses that are just lies. Like just right there, just like wow, we know the truth, but and yet we act like God's not there. We lie, cheat, manipulate. Have you hated someone? Jesus says if you hate someone, it's like you murdered them because at the core it's the same the desire for someone to be eliminated. Have you ever been cruel? Have you ever been cruel in your imagination, in your conduct, in your words, online? Have you ever been cruel, hurting others for your own gain or hurting others for absolutely no reason? Have you ever been vicious? Arrogant, contemptuous, disdainful of others? Have you ever powered up like a tyrant because you didn't get your way? Made sure that you punished people for it, lashing out in anger, or stewing and making life gloomy for everyone? How about our lustful thoughts by which we violate everyone, treating people like objects? Or what about our grumbly attitude when we have been lavished with so much discontent, grumpy, ingrateful? How about our envy toward our best friends, toward our siblings? Envy despising God's blessing to other people. And we could probably go on and on. But isn't it true what the Bible says? We're sinners through and through. So isn't it amazing that the one thing Jesus came to do is deal with this with such love, with such a cost. So before we take the Lord's Supper, I think it's appropriate that we express our agreement with God on our diagnosis and express some degree of penitence and contrition and gratitude for the cross. So let's pray for a few minutes and then the band will start the first song. And just as you sing, pray the words, and then just feel free to continue to confess. So let's do that and have our time with the Lord.