Unavoidable Life (LIVE)

Stones can be sealed, soldiers posted, and stories fabricated—but when heaven moves, everything changes. We walk through Matthew 27–28 and watch “It is finished” ripple into history: the temple veil tears from top to bottom, the ground shakes, rocks split, and graves open. A centurion confesses, faithful women remain, and joy rushes in where fear tried to rule. Then dawn breaks, an angel descends, and a single act from heaven shatters the strongest seal on earth. The contrast snaps into focus—some hearts harden into a fight, while others fall at Jesus’ feet in worship.

We talk plainly about what this means now: life in Christ is unavoidable when He makes you a living temple. The Holy Spirit indwells, bears fruit, and equips with real gifts for real service. The call is to become a broken vessel that lets light shine, not to polish the jar. We name the resistance—envy, fear, cynicism—and we answer it with Romans 5:8: God proves His love while we are still sinners. No bribe, guard, or lie can bury a risen Lord, and no past is powerful enough to cancel the grace that calls you by name.

If you’ve been fighting God, consider this your invitation to lay it down. Put the faith you once placed in sin, pride, or self into Jesus. Ask for new birth, a clean heart, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Then step into community and mission with courage and joy. If this moved you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the message. And if you’re ready to talk or take a next step, reach out—we’d love to hear what God is doing in your life.

Chapters

• 1:01 Unavoidable Life In Christ
• 4:27 Broken Vessels And Holy Spirit Power
• 5:49 The Veil Torn And Immediate Signs
• 9:52 Guarding The Tomb And Hard Hearts
• 17:16 The Angel, The Women, And Joy
• 25:02 Bribed Soldiers And A Manufactured Lie
• 28:44 God’s Love While We Were Sinners
• 33:50 Invitation, Repentance, And Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:36

And uh we'll be in Matthew uh twenty-seven, starting in verse fifty, Matthew twenty-seven, fifty. And um good news is this um Jesus is alive, and every single person out there, man, woman, child, every single person out there who hears him, every single person out there, if you hear Jesus, if you believe Jesus, if you trust Jesus, if you follow Jesus, if you love Jesus, well, glory, amen, and hallelujah. That all leads to unavoidable life. That leads to life abundant, that leads to a fullness of life, that leads to you you become the living temple of God. Very literally, you become a living temple. The Spirit of God indwells you. The Spirit of God starts bearing fruit in you, the Spirit of God starts bearing fruit through you in other people. He starts to use you to point other people to Jesus. He starts to gift you. Every single person in Christ, every single person in the church, you have at least one gift from the Holy Ghost. You have at least one. And as you go through the years, the Lord may add a few. Hallelujah. Um, but you've got at least one. So he starts to use you to bear fruit in other people. The life is unavoidable. You you can't know uh, you know, earlier. I mean, even if you deny him, and you're his child, even if you fall into sin as a Christian, he will not deny himself. The life is unavoidable. Um, God is coming for you, and God comes for the Christian harder than he comes for the lost. God comes to the Christian with more zeal and more passion than he comes for the lost because you are his. You are his bride, you are his child, you are his beloved, you are the apple of his eye, you are engraven on his hands, and he cannot and will not forget you. God can't tell a lie, God can't contradict himself, and God cannot forgive, uh, God cannot forget, cannot forget his beloved. And so, my friend, God comes for you, and God comes with a passion, God comes with a joy, God comes you know with with a zeal, uh, God comes with a gentleness, God comes with a peacefulness, God comes with the truth, God comes, and but the life, and you gotta hear that tonight, the life is unavoidable. Nothing can stop it. Nothing can stop a born-again man, woman, or child from bearing fruit. Nothing can stop it. Because God is the one who bears the fruit. And he's not stopping it. Oh, my friend, he's not stopping it. Um, so let the Lord use that. Um, because my friend, um, you know, a yeah, a gentleman um from halfway around the world, uh, you know, almost um over a hundred years ago now, just about a hundred years ago now, he wrote something that was so true back then and so true today, that for the Holy Ghost to really be released in a person, the flesh gotta be broken. Yeah, the vessel has got to be a broken vessel. There'll still be some light that gets out every now and then because of the goodness of God. But how much more, you know, just like in those days of Gideon, we we might get around to preaching about that someday, they broke the jars. And they had the lights. The lights weren't inside it, they broke them, and then that light just came out. Um, my friend, um, may you not get in the way of the Holy Ghost, may you not resist the Holy Ghost, but let the Holy Ghost have his perfect will and way in your life. And my friend, the life, you're still alive. That's why the life is unavoidable. You can't avoid it. You're alive. God did it. Your as church, God did it. But oh, my friend, how much more a yielded and a broken vessel? Amen and glory, hallelujah. And so, with that in mind, we've got to come to Matthew chapter 27, verse 50. Oh, Jesus is hanging up on that cross, and it starts out, it says, Jesus. Oh, and he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. If you go over to John, you know what he cried. He cried, It is finished with a loud voice, and he yielded up the ghost, and my friend, there were immediate, immediate, immediate results. Immediate. And behold, so go from the cross, go to the temple. Go from the cross, go to the temple. Behold, the veil of the temple was torn, it was rent, it was torn in two, top to bottom. And this veil was thick, this is a thick thing. Uh, but it was torn from the top, it was a high veil, it was torn from the top to the bottom immediately. Oh, my friend, just like Jesus' flesh had been torn, and Jesus had yielded up that ghost, now that veil was torn. And we go through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. We go through the veil, and there's no longer a barrier between the church and the Lord. There's no longer a barrier between God and his people. There's no longer, there's no longer the law is fulfilled, perfectly fulfilled, the sacrifice perfectly fulfilled, and to the point where God is dwelling not only with you, not only beside you, not only in front of you, but inside. Inside, immediate. The earthquaked. This wasn't a small thing, it broke the rocks. The rocks were broken. Oh, and there was a resurrection. Immediately, the graves were opened. Oh, Jesus hadn't even been put in the tomb yet. But immediately graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and they and and and they did something. Hallelujah. They came out of the graves after his resurrection, and they went into the holy city, and they appeared unto many. Oh, my friend, I believe this is the cloud that Jesus went up in. Ah, these saints. After his resurrection, they went and they appeared to folks. And oh, my friend, the centurion and they were that were with him watching Jesus, they saw the earthquake and those things that they were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this was the Son of God. And many women were there, beholding far off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him. Oh, the men had fled. So many of them had fled. John was there, but so many of them had fled. No, these women had a purpose to play for these men, and that's another message. They followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among which was Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, the mother of Zebedee's children. Oh, my friend, immediate observable effects of Jesus dying. Hallelujah. And folks saw it. People saw it. There was a multitude around this cross. Jerusalem couldn't ignore it. And there was way more than this that happened. There was a darkness that came over the land. I mean, there was way more than this that just happened, but these are the immediate effects the moment Jesus died. The moment he gave up the ghost, and people saw. People saw, people saw, people saw. And my friend, they went and they borrowed a tomb and they laid his body in that tomb. And now come down to verse 62. There was the next day that followed the day of preparation. Um the chief priests and the Pharisees came together unto Pilate. They had seen. But I want you to see their hearts. And I want you to ask yourself, I want you to let the Lord, let the Holy Ghost illuminate you in this. Is this your heart toward Jesus tonight? They said, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, and this is in red in my Bible, so they quoted it accurately, After three days I will rise again. Ironically, when so many of the disciples seemed to just throw this out, the enemies remembered it. The Lord's enemies remembered it to the point where it's put in red in the King James. They accurately quoted this. They informationally knew this. They could recite the occasion upon which they had heard him say this. But it wasn't joyful. There's no joy in their hearts. And saying, you know, my friend, you need to believe in the Lord. You need to listen to your wife. I mean, you you need to believe on this is God, and he is going to rise up on the third day. There's no joy, there's no expectation. They're there to fight him. They're there to command, therefore, they're getting Rome to fight, they're using Rome against him. Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night. Ones who fled. So all of a sudden they're concocting this. Okay, his disciples might come by night, they might overcome the guard, they might move the stone themselves, they might steal him away. They might say to the people, He's risen from the dead. So the last error shall be worse than the first. And the word error purposely encapsulates perfectly encapsulates what these men thought of Jesus. What they thought of everything he did, what they thought of everything he said, what they thought of who he was. They thought he was a giant walking error. Is that your heart toward the Lord tonight, my friend? Is that your heart toward the Lord? Because oh, my friend, this wasn't the first time. These are the men who had come, you know, with weapons. Uh they sent those people. Uh, these are the men who saw Lazarus. They physically saw Lazarus after the Lord raised him from the dead. And so they began to plot not only against Jesus, but against Lazarus. These are the men who saw Jesus open the eyes of the blind. These are the men, perhaps some of them, uh the lepers that were healed. And Jesus said, okay, go to the go and show yourselves to the priests. Maybe some of them were there. They saw lepers healed. They they they they heard per saw perhaps heard of the widow of Main, her son, when Jesus interrupted that funeral. They saw the devils driven out. But even back then they had the accusation that, oh, he drives out the devils because he's he's using the prince of the devils to drive out the devils. See, it was always a fight with them. It was always a battle. They had seen so much. They had witnessed and heard so very much. And yet it got to the point where Jesus, one day, a little while before he was crucified, had to pronounce woes upon them. Woes upon the scribes and the Pharisees, and you can find them in the Word. But they had seen so much, but they had their own ideas about who God is. They had their own ideas about Israel, they had their own ideas about Moses, they had their own ideas about the law, they had their own ideas about themselves, about who they were. They had their own ideas about Rome and the political situation, they had their own ideas, and Jesus came in. God came in, and God started being God. And God started doing what God was going to do, and God started saying what God was going to say. But their hearts, with every passing miracle, grew harder. With every passing word grew harder, to the point where they they watched him die. But they somehow perhaps knew that he was he was going to rise again. But they still fought. It was still a fight, it was still a battle. And so they take their strength and they manipulate Rome to add Rome's strength. And Pilate said to them, You have a watch. Perhaps he kind of did it like that, dismissively, like, I just want to be done with these people now. I gave them what they wanted, I gave them the crucifixion, and that's not enough. I gave them Barabbas, that's not enough. You have a watch. Go your way, make it as sure as you can. And so they went. And oh oh, they they made it sure. They sealed the stone. That meant um, you know, over the entrance, they it was like a ribbon with a seal on it. They they they attached one uh side here, one side here across the stone. And they set a watch, and this watch were fighting men. They were soldiers. And um, if they failed, if they fell asleep, if they were derelict, uh legally speaking, they should be executed according to Roman law. So this was a watch. On pain of death. These men were to watch and to stop any interference with this stone. But my friend, how is your heart? See, Jesus is speaking to you. The Lord is showing you, the Lord is drawing you tonight if you're lost. Is it always a fight with you? Every word of God, is it a fight? In the heart. The good news is this God still did what he was gonna do. And oh my friend, look at this. Um, coming into chapter 28, hallelujah! In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, and we have two women. Came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre, and behold, behold, there was one more great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door. He broke the seal. All the power of the world at that time, the strongest political and military force in the world, could not seal that stone. All the manipulation of the Pharisees, all their accusation, all the scribes, all the chief elders, all of them, they could not stop only one angel of the Lord. This was one angel, and they couldn't stop it. They he rolled back the stone from the door and he sat upon it. See, something had been finished. He sat upon the stone. His countenance like lightning. This was a visible angel in somewhat of a form of a man. His countenance like lightning, his rain, his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him did the keepers shake, and they became as dead. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not you. He didn't say that to the soldiers, he said that to the women. He said, Fear not you. I know that you seek Jesus, which was crucified, he's not here. He's risen. As he said, Come. Maybe he invited them into the tomb. Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly, and encourage his disciples to be disciples. Go quickly, you two women. Encourage these men to be men. Go quickly. He's risen from the dead, and behold, he goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Lo, I've told you. Now the angel spoke once, and hallelujah, it was enough. Amen. He told. He did what he was there to do. Hallelujah. They departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear. And notice the difference with the Pharisees. Um great joy. Not an ounce of joy in the Pharisees. Not an ounce of gratefulness, not an ounce of thankfulness, not an ounce of glory to God, not an ounce of thank you, Jesus. Not an ounce of it in those hearts, but in these women. Folks have criticized uh, but they they had joy. They had joy. Do you have joy tonight? And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them. He knew that there was still fear there. So Jesus met him personally. The risen Lord met them personally. He said, All hail. And they came and they held him by the feet. And where was this in the Pharisee and the scribe? Where is this in you? They worshiped him. They worshiped the risen Lord. And Jesus said unto them, Be not afraid. My angel told you, now I'm telling you too, be not afraid. Be not afraid. Go tell my brethren. No longer my disciples, my brothers. He's not ashamed. Oh, and we know these brethren. You can read in the other accounts. You know those men on the way to Maest. You know, you know, they they they were hiding behind closed doors at this point. You know they were fearful, you know that they were unafraid, that they were afraid, that they were uncertain. You know that. But hear the Lord yet called them brethren. Yet called them brethren. He's not ashamed to call any of his church brethren. Tell my brethren that they go to Galilee, and there they shall see me. Oh, my friend, is that your heart tonight? The good news of the Lord being alive, the good news of the Lord speaking, the good news of God's word into your life, that you're no longer a slave to your sin. You're no longer a servant to sin. You're no longer a servant to your past. You're no longer a servant to the devil. You're no longer a servant. You were a little lower than the angels, but the Lord up and made you um a brother, a sister, a child, a bride. And he loves you with a love that It's more than love. He loves you with a perfect, holy, good, just love and and that life. Oh, my friend, whenever the Lord shows you something, hallelujah, is it is it a is it a thankfulness? Well, thank God I was afraid. Thank God I was selfish. Thank God I was, I was, I was. Thank God I was angry. Thank God I was distracted. Thank God I I got sidetracked into a moment of unbelief. And I went after it. But thank God. Thank you, God, for speaking to me. Thank you, Lord, for bringing me back. Thank you, lover of my soul, for embracing me. These women, you know, you can say that they were imperfect. But there was joy and there was worship. And you know what the Lord said? The Lord spoke. He didn't cast them away, he spoke. He said, He gave them a greeting. He didn't just say, Hi, how are you? He gave them a greeting. And he gave them a word, be not afraid. And he gave them a calling. Go and tell my brethren. Go and tell my brethren who are quaking with fear. Go and tell my brethren who are they're not sure what's going on. And go and tell my brethren. Go and tell them that I'm alive, just as I said. And go and tell them, go to Galilee. Because they're not going to just believe you. And most of them, they're not just going to believe you. Go and tell them, go into Galilee, and there they will see me. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, they'll see me there. Oh, now when they were going, those women, bless God, when they were going. Now, behold, comes to another scene. Some of the watch came to the city. They recovered and they went to the city and they showed the chief priests all the things that had been done. And the chief priests had an assembly. Chief priests got together with the elders. And they took counsel. Took counsel among themselves. They didn't go, they didn't bother trying to ask God what was going on. And here's what they did. It was just another fight. They used money before, they used money again. They gave large money to the soldiers, saying, So they bribed them and they told them to lie. Saying, say ye, his disciples came by night and stole them away while he slept. Now, in the Roman law, that was an admission of guilt, and that should get them killed. So these chief priests and these Pharisees are using these men. And the tragedy is the men were willing to be used. They have no regard for these soldiers, they have no regard for their lives. Oh, tell tell them his disciples came by night, stole them away. An impossible story. Because these are the same disciples who had fled. And if this comes to the governor's ears, if the governor actually takes an interest in this area of the world by some miracle of miracles, because nobody really wanted to be here from Rome, this was not a desirable post. This was a very, very low post. This was a borderline insult to send someone to be over this part of the world because all they did was fight. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we'll persuade him and secure you. So they took the money, they did as they were taught, and the saying is commonly reported among the Jews unto this day. It was always a fight. Even when Jesus walked out of that tomb, even when they could very easily go and see for themselves. Did not provoke a great joy, did not provoke an exceeding great joy, did not provoke did not uplift. This was not uplifting to them. This was another occasion to fight. And fight they did. They never got over their envy. You see accounts of the early church, you see accounts of Paul. You know, before the accounts of Paul, you see the accounts of Peter and John. There was always the envy. There was always the jealousy. There was always the trying to trap, there was always the trying to manipulate. How are you how how are you what's it like between you and God right now? Oh my friend, right this second, what is it like between you and the Holy Spirit? Are we going forward raising up our hallelujahs? Or are you fighting right now? Because can't end on that. Gotta go to Romans 5.8. If you're fighting God, I want you to hear this. Want you to hear this real clearly if you're fighting God. Just one verse in Romans 5. And oh, my friend, you could preach for years. Just out of the book of Romans. Hallelujah. But just one verse. God commendeth his love toward us. Write your name there. Write your name. You can just ignore us for a second and write your name. Whether you're hard-hearted, whether you're bitter, whether you're fighting, or whether you're faithful, whether you're being saved right this second, hallelujah and amen. Write your name. He commends his love, makes his love obvious. And that while we were yet sinners, cross out the we and put your name. While you were fighting, while you were in your envy, while you were in your unbelief, while you were in your anger, while you were in your your helplessness, while you were just wallowing and wasting away in sin, while you were there. All of your fighting didn't change what he would gonna do. All of your your blasphemy, all of your fornicating, all of your excuses, all of your unbelief, all of your arguments did not change what he said and did not change what he did. No matter what you wanted with him, no matter how you responded to him, he was going to love you. Whether you want it or not, he's going to the cross for you. Whether you were gonna rejoice or kick or fight, he was gonna rise again on the third day. And my friend, no nobody seeks God. But he's the one who does all the seeking. Even you right now, in the depths and the bondage of your sin. Even you right now, you you might you might you you you're just being used to the devil. Um, you're being used by the devil, and you're being used of the devil. You're in his clutches right this second. You're gnashing your teeth, the anger's flaring up, the fear is driving you insane. And my friend, the Holy Ghost, right this second, is still gonna come in. Give you a moment of clarity and say, This is for you. This is for you. This is for you. This blood is for you. This death I died is for you. This love I have is for you. This promise I have is for you. This abundant holy life, this abundant, glorious life, this joy and this hope and this peace is for you. Come to me now. See, he commands all men everywhere to repent. It's a command. Because you would never do it if he were never commanded. And so he breaks into your life, upends everything, puts everything on pause, and says, Turn to me. I love you. Turn to me. This blood is for you. Come. Come home, be washed in the blood, be the man and the woman and the child that that I I want you to be. No longer bound up in sin, no longer tearing down anybody, no mat no longer fearful or afraid, no longer bound up by lust, no matter bound up by anger or hostility or no, no, none of that. Come be a child of God. So will you come tonight? Because this love is for you. If our musicians come forward, we'll have a time of invitation. Come tonight. Be born again and be saved, be healed, be set free. Uh, church, be be revived tonight. Church be uplifted tonight, church be encouraged tonight, church, turn your eyes upon Jesus tonight. And oh, my lost friend, um, if you need to be saved, if you want to be saved, um my friend, oh the Lord only requires this faith. Put all the faith that you've had in your fight, all the faith that you've had in your flesh, all the faith that you've had in your addiction, all the faith that you've had in your fornication in your life, whatever it looks like in you, all that faith, all that capacity to believe and to trust and to follow. Put that on Jesus. On Jesus and ask him to be born again, ask him to be saved, thank him for loving you, ask him to apply the blood to you. Ask him to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen and hallelujah. And uh if you want to do that in this room, my friend, these people are gonna play. We ask you to come forward. And if you want to do that out there, just stop what you're doing, no matter where you are, and call upon the name of the Lord. Amen. Whether you're in a car, whether you're on the sidewalk, whether you're in a church service, whether in your house, wherever you may be, amen. Um, but bless God. Um, we want to hear about that. Um, you need a church. We would like to be that church. And so reach out to us, uh, connect with us tonight. Um, call us, send us a letter, send us an email. Uh, you'll find our service times and locations right there. Um, you can come and and I want you to come and I want to meet you. I want to personally meet you, and I want to hear what the Lord has done in your life tonight. And so, amen and glory, thank you for spreading these. Um, uh, the Lord has richly blessed us, he shall continue to richly bless us, and he shall continue to be glorified. Amen. Amen. Thank you.