God, today is our last message in the series that we've been in now for quite some time.
It's the lowliness of mind series. I see a lot of new faces this morning. I would encourage
you to go to our website and to listen to this series because I'm just coming to the
end of it today. So a lot of what I'm really talking about today may or may not make sense
to you, but I'm going to try my best to give a review to the measure that I can. I do want
to make a quick correction of what I said actually last Sunday. And I'm like, man, this is so good.
Like, people are listening. I said something last Sunday where I was talking about,
you cannot allow this secret place to exceed the pulpit. You guys remember when I said that?
What I was really trying to say is you can't allow the pulpit ministry
to exceed the secret place. I want to make that correction. Though I know you guys knew
what I said, but my English, man, I'm still working at it. I've been in America for 27
years and I'm still working at it. So I thank you that you understood me, but I want to make
that correction because I believe those corrections are very important for us to make.
We can't, we can't let this, let me just kind of go back to this. We can't let
the public ministry ever exceed the private ministry. And let me, let me elaborate and
give a little bit of an example of what I mean when I say that. I don't want to just make a
statement and you're like, oh, amen, that's cool. Let me explain a little bit. We can,
now hear me correctly, we cannot allow the excitement of talking, of talking to people
about Jesus, exceed the excitement of meeting Jesus privately. You guys catching what I'm saying?
It's good. We should be excited to talk about the Lord. We should be excited to pray for healing.
We should be excited to pray for deliverance, but the public ministry cannot, the excitement
that we have here, cannot exceed the, the excitement we have to meet with him privately
and get to know him privately. Because everything that we do in private is actually an over, I'm
sorry, everything that we do in the public is actually an overflow of what we do in the private.
Does that make sense? It's okay to be excited and you should pray for healing. You should
pray for deliverance and it's okay to have that excitement, but a lot of the times we
get caught up in this and we actually lose our first love to the Lord. And then next thing,
you know what? You're a dry vessel. You're praying for healing and nothing's happening. You're praying
for deliverance and nothing's happening. And you're like, well, what's going on? And the Lord might
speak to you just like you spoke to me. He said, son, you've loved the pulpit more than
you've loved to be with me in private. And that cuts deep. Amen? Quick Sunday overview.
We talked about Jesus entering the ministry last Sunday. And I talked about how he was
baptized by his cousin and how lowly that was. John the baptizer being somebody that was
deemed to be a lesser than in society. He was deemed to be a crazy guy. You know, I even said,
you know, if a John the Baptist in the time of the Bible walked into our church,
I guarantee you it'd be like the Red Sea would split here and people would go to this side and
John would be sitting by himself. Okay? I talked about that last Sunday. We talked about how
the Spirit of God after Jesus was baptized, the heavens tore open, the Father spoke to him.
And then the scripture tells us that, that the Spirit of God drove Jesus into the wilderness.
And I was explaining how that's lowly because Jesus didn't stand there and waited for his
applause and his praise because what the people just saw, they just saw heaven tear open.
And the people heard a voice. It wasn't just that Jesus heard the voice of the Father,
but literally a multitude that was around him heard the voice of the creator of the heavens and
the earth saying this is my beloved son. And Jesus did not stand there and receive his
applause and all this stuff. But the Bible says that immediately the Spirit of God drove him
into the wilderness. And in the wilderness, what the Lord actually did is what Adam and Eve
failed to do. The serpent in the Garden Genesis 3, we read that the serpent tempted Adam and Eve
with three things, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It's the three
things that he was tempted with or that they were tempted with and they failed in it. But
now we read, Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to actually accomplish
what Adam and Eve failed to do. The scripture tells us that the Lord made a statement. He said,
I have not come to basically remove the law, but I've actually come to complete it. In other
words, the Lord came in lowly, being God, he could have flipped the script. He's God. Remember this.
This is the Genesis 1 God. I'm kind of bringing some of you back here. This is the Genesis 1 God
that now came into earth, that now came in and stepped into his creation. This is the
Almighty God. He can speak anything into existence. He can literally, in a snap of a
finger, he can take the breath away from your lungs. And if you don't believe me, read
Acts. Read the book. If you don't believe that God can, in a snap of a finger, take breath
away from your lungs, you're not reading your Bibles. Because in the book of Acts,
we see what happens to people that lie to the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you a quick story here.
I just, I want to emphasize this here quick. Let me tell you a quick story. My parents
shared the story with me. Back in the Soviet Union, when Christianity was persecuted,
my mom shared stories with me the way that God moved in those meetings. These meetings were in
homes. They'd gather anywhere from 10 p.m. to 2 o'clock in the morning. They would gather.
They didn't have the luxury that we have now. Did you hear me? They didn't have the luxury
that we now have. And my mom said the way that the Holy Spirit would move there,
if somebody was living in active sin. Okay, I'm not trying to scare you here, but I'm trying to
speak something to you about our God. He's grace. He's graceful. He's mercy. But there also is a
level of holiness of our God that we oftentimes don't talk about. And my mom said there would
be people, if they were living in active sin, deliberate sin. They know that they know
you can't sleep outside of marriage, but they were still doing it. My mom said they would
gather. It'd be like 30, 40 people at, you know, one o'clock in the morning and they'd be praying.
And as soon as prayer started, God would speak right away and he would call out people's sin.
Like to the tea. And you would say, well, that's not right. Like why would God do that?
You know what I mean? Isn't he gracious? Isn't he merciful? That's actually the
mercy of God. That's actually the mercies of God. We think being put to shame and being
put on a spot is, oh my goodness, this is bad. That's actually the mercies of God.
I would rather have you, I would rather have God expose something publicly that I was living in
than burn in hell for eternity. I would rather be embarrassed publicly, but know that my soul is
eternally saved than be like, I don't want to be exposed. God, don't call out my sin,
but then for eternity burn in hell. Do you see how shallow our society has become?
Friends, my wife and I, when we were traveling churches, this stirred the holiness in me.
We were sitting in a service. You're never going to see me do this, by the way. And I said never
are going to see me do this. We were sitting in a service and the pastor said, we don't want to
make an altar call. He said, we don't want to make an altar call because we don't want to
embarrass you. We don't want to shame you. We don't want to bring you up to the altar
and expose your issues on and so forth. So just lift your hand. Just lift your hand wherever you
at. God meets you where you're at. Just lift your hand. Do you know what ran through me? There
was this holiness of God that ran through me. I said, my God, our Lord Jesus hung on the cross
publicly naked, mocked for everybody to see. And you as a pastor are saying, we don't want
to shame you. Just stay where you're at. We don't want to embarrass you. Stay where you're at.
What about our Lord? What about the fact that He hung naked? What about the fact that He was
mocked and beaten publicly for everybody to see? Humiliated. And now you as a pastor are saying,
we don't want to shame you. And I'm going somewhere different with it, but I feel the
Lord on it. When we make altar calls, it is a privilege for you to come to the altar. It is
not a place for shame and to expose you. This right here, remember this. This right here is a
privilege. This right here is a privilege. The altar is a privilege. It is not a place
to expose your wrongs. It is a privilege that we still have to come to the altar
and to cast everything on to the Lord. While we still have breath in our lungs, this is a privilege
because the day that you lose the breath in your lungs is the day that you will lose the
privilege to repent. Our Lord hung publicly. He hung on that cross for everybody to see.
To this day, we still have people with pictures and different things of our Lord hanging on the
cross. So don't you tell me we don't want to shame you. We don't want to make you feel embarrassed.
How dare pastors even say that? How dare we trample what our Lord did?
There is a holiness in me that is stirred when I hear pastors say, don't come up.
Just raise your hand. Just raise your hand where you're at. We don't want to embarrass you.
You're not going to see me do that. But I'm also not going to make an altar call to shame you.
I am simply given an invitation for a privilege for you to partake in. That's what I'm doing
when I make altar calls. It's a privilege that you have to partake in. You with me this morning.
Yes. Jesus didn't flip the script, but he said, I've come to fulfill the law. So he goes back.
He accomplishes what Adam and Eve lost. He goes into the wilderness driven by the spirit
and the three things that they were tempted with, our Lord was tempted with.
Yet with everything, he stood his ground. Yet with everything, he stood his ground.
You know, I would like to ask you the question and be honest with you.
If you had somebody, let's say Satan himself came to you and said, you can have everything,
all the kingdoms of the world, everything, all power. I'm giving you everything,
as long as you bow to me. See, you guys are saying that now. I'd be very careful with your answer
right now. Get real with yourself. Get real with yourself. This is our church right now.
And when I say the church, I'm saying a church as a whole.
Get real with yourself. Don't answer. Just think about that.
Because some of us make excuses to the smallest things.
We make excuses to the smallest things. So when you got a pastor up here that says
something like this, a congregation right away, no, I would never say that.
Friend, be careful what you're saying. Be careful with what you're saying.
Don't be quick to respond, but weigh what you're saying.
This is why our church has become the way it's become. We have Christians that have not counted
the cost of what it means to be a follower of Christ.
We're quick to respond. I'd never, no, no, I would be like Jesus. I'd never give in to that.
I wouldn't give in if the devil came. Yet somebody hangs a cheeseburger in front of you
and you're like, I'm ending my fast. I'm going to eat that cheeseburger.
So be very careful with the way that you respond to what I'm saying.
We are so quick to end our fasts, our one day fasts, because somebody hung a cheeseburger in
front of us. And now you're telling me that if devil came and said, you can have everything,
you'd be like, no, I ain't doing that. I would really weigh and really get real with yourself
and find a place and say, God, forgive me and help me. Forgive me and help me.
For this flesh of mine is wretched and it needs to be crucified.
You're still with me? Did I already step on some toes? And I do this with complete love.
There is nothing but love that comes from me this morning, friends.
There is nothing but love that is in me for people of God to know our Lord and what he did.
I don't say sharp things to be offensive. I don't say sharp things to step on your toes
purposefully, but you will never catch me, give you a gospel that is self-centered. You
will not. I've seen it far too many times. I've seen a gospel preached that is self-centered.
Sermons preached off pulpits that are self-centered. How can we fit Jesus into our busy schedule?
That's a self-centered gospel. But pastor, I have these things. My kids sports,
my wife's birthday, all these things. I get it. I get it. Life is busy.
But would we have a renewal of the mind? And would we hear a gospel from pulpits once again
that wouldn't be how can we fit Jesus into my busy schedule? But how can I build my schedule
around the Lord? That's the gospel. And if you haven't heard me say this before,
I'll say it right now. The gospel is actually not even about you. Did you know that?
The gospel is actually not about you. You fall into the story of the gospel, but it's not about you.
It's about a God that loved the world and that he gave his only son.
That's where we fall into the story. The gospel is not about us. It's about Jesus.
It's about a father who loves his son and loves his son so much that he created a people of God
that they would forever eternally be his bride in heaven. That's the gospel.
You didn't die for Jesus. He died for you. So everything I say is with love, friends.
There's love that comes from me. And I ask the Lord over and over, I say help me, Lord, to love a people.
Because I can't do it on my own. I can't do it on my own. I'm going to be honest with you.
Us pastors oftentimes like to portray that we are these macho macho men and we can love people
and wear this and that. I'm going to be transparent with you. I cannot love you
unless the Lord helps me to love you. You're still with me. Jesus was not swayed by the people.
Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord, to not be swayed by people. Help us, Lord, to not be swayed
when we go from 250 people to 600 people. Let us not be swayed by the eyes of people.
Amen. I watched my father who's been in the ministry for many years. I've watched Pastor
Vernon Mary as they've been in the ministry for many years. And there is something that I've
learned both from my father and my mother and from our pastors, Vernon Mary. Can we please
applaud our lead pastors? Can we? I do this. I do this in honor of what I have the privilege
to observe and learn from in front row. It is a privilege for me and Tanya to do this.
And there is something that I've learned about you and my parents. It did not matter if there was 30
people sitting in the pews or if there was 300 people sitting in the pews, they preached the same.
I honor that. I honor that.
It never fazed you. It never fazed you when it was only you, your wife, and just your kids,
never fazed you. You stood true to the vision of God and you maintained it and you went with it.
And like was prophesied over you before, I believe you are about to see a harvest reaping
like you've never seen before in your ministry. I believe that. I believe that.
Jesus wasn't swayed by the crowds. And more than that, when a multitude would follow the Lord,
Jesus would turn around and he would make statements like this. He would say,
he who does not eat my body as my flesh and he who does not drink my blood, which is the cup,
doesn't have life or you're not worthy to be called my disciple. You know what happened?
The 70 disciples that Jesus had that turned away and they walked away from him. You know why?
The scripture says it was too hard for them to hear what he was saying.
Let me tell you something here. Maybe you're a first time guest here today. Let me encourage you with this.
If there is something hard that you may hear this morning, don't be quick to leave
and say, I'm not coming back. That was way too much because in the scriptures,
that's how our Lord spoke. That's how our Lord spoke.
If you don't eat my body, you don't drink my blood, you don't have life. 70 left and the scripture says,
and they turned away and they never walked with him again because it was too hard for them.
And you know what else the Lord did that I find so interesting? He turned to the 12,
the inner circle. Think of it this way, the team. He turned to them and he said,
God, you guys want to leave me too? Wasn't swayed. The Lord wasn't swayed. Even if I do this by myself,
Father, your will be done, not mine. He turned to the 12 and he said,
do you want to leave me too? And Simon Peter answers something that is so personal to
me and I share just a glimpse of it this last Friday. Simon Peter turns to the Lord and he
says, where can we go? He says, where can we go? You, you Lord, have the words of eternal life.
You have it. So Jesus wasn't swayed, but he would make statements. He would do things
that people would leave. Even when the young rich ruler came to him, Jesus wasn't swayed
that he was a multimillionaire. This man could have really helped his ministry. Listen to me.
This man could have really helped the Lord's ministry, but the Lord had resources that this
young man did not even have. You're still with me. We talked about how Jesus oftentimes
withdrew in his ministry and nobody could find him. For days nobody could find him
because he never allowed the public ministry to exceed the time that was spent with his father alone.
The Lord was excited to pray for healing and to deliver people. I'm sure that Jesus was excited
for those things, but he made sure that his time spent with the father
was something that was held to a higher degree than the public ministry. And you
can find that in Scripture. Literally, you can find that in the three years, in the three and a
half years that our Lord was in the ministry, you will find oftentimes he withdrew. Couldn't find
him. Where is he? I don't know. Where'd he go? I don't know. And then he would make statements
like, Lord, you're not hungry? Say, I have food that you don't even know of. Quick last point
for the overview and we're going to get into today. The Lord lived, or I should say the
Lord did, his ministry in such a lowly way. He went so low in the ministry that even the man,
John the Baptist, that brought him to the forefront to begin his ministry began to actually
doubt that Jesus was even the Messiah. This is recorded in Matthew 7. John the Baptist
actually sent his disciples and he said, go ask him, is he the one that we've been waiting for?
Is he the one that we've been waiting for? And the disciples came to Jesus. John's
disciples came to Jesus. And Jesus didn't even make a statement like, yes, tell John that I'm the
one. Jesus replied, because he's lowly, because our Lord is lowly, he replies and he says,
you go and you tell John the blind, see the deaf here, the dead are raised, the lame are walking.
He's saying, listen, just tell him this, tell him these things.
Can I tell you something? Listen, I want to encourage you with this. Don't be surprised
that your own people that even led you to Christ, not only brought you into the ministry,
but actually led you to Christ. Don't be surprised that they will begin to doubt you.
Don't be surprised. That just means that you're living lowly. That just means that you're going
so low that people are looking like, ooh, maybe I made a mistake with the prophetic word that I
spoke over them. Don't be surprised that people will doubt you when God begins to cause you
to go low. And then he's doing all these things through you, or I should say in the
process of going low, don't be surprised when people will start doubting you. And they will
say, man, I think we made a mistake. Is it really, man, is it really though? Is that the one? Are
you sure? Are you sure that's the person that God actually called into the government area
to speak something? Are you sure? They're very timid. They don't know how to speak so well.
They're not very, you know, their vocabulary is very, are you sure? Are you sure? If they doubted
the Lord, the man that brought Jesus into the ministry is the one that doubted him, aside from
everybody else, because the Lord lived lowly. Open up your Bibles to John chapter 13, the
Lord, help us this morning. Holy Spirit, help us this morning.
Give us eyes to see the Scriptures. Give us ears to hear the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, I'm asking you that you would open the ears and the eyes of our inner man
to hear you this morning. Let a spirit of revelation rest in this place.
I said, let a spirit of revelation rest in this place, Father. Give revelation to your people
this morning. Give revelation and understanding to your people this morning, Lord.
Let the train of your robe, Lord, fill this temple and let us see it and behold you.
In Jesus' name. John chapter 13, verse 1. Now before the feast, let me give a little bit of
where we're at right now. So we talked about the Lord entering the ministry last week. We
talked about the Lord in the ministry. I want to talk to you today about the way that our
Lord exited his earthly ministry. Let me say that again. I want to talk about the way that our
Lord exited his earthly ministry because the Scripture says that he is a priest forever.
That means that he is forever and ever and ever the high priest in heaven. His ministry in
heaven never ends. It is eternal. He is the great intercessor. He is the high priest. He is the
all in all. He is everything forever and ever. But I want to talk to you today about the way that
the Lord exited his earthly ministry. And we need to pay very close attention to that.
We need to pay very close attention to the way that Jesus not only came into the ministry,
but the way that the Lord did ministry. And more than that the way that he exited his earthly
ministry. John 13 verse 1. Now before the Feast of the Passover.
When Jesus knew that his hour had come. That he should depart from this world to the Father.
Having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end. If you didn't hear
it yet, I'm going to tell you something. The Lord loves you. I don't know who needs to hear that,
but I'm going to tell you this morning. The Lord loves you. Jesus loves you. The Father loves
you. The Holy Spirit, they love you. And if they did not love you, the Son would have never
went to the cross. And supper being ended, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas
Iscariot, Simon's son to betray him. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things
into the hands. And that he had come from God and was given to God.
Verse four, rose from supper and laid aside his garment. So he took off his outer clothing,
his cloak, the sign. See, a lot of the times in those days, if you were a rabbi or if you were
a teacher, you wore like a robe on you. It was a representation that you were a rabbi. It was
a tunic, if I'm not mistaken, is what I believe it was a tunic that was called, that was on
him. So the Lord takes off his outer garments. He takes them off as a sign, as a sign. Remember
this, he's a rabbi, he's a teacher. Rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel
and girded himself. Here we see our Lord who is God. This is the Genesis one God
is now taking off the sign of him being I am a rabbi and I am a teacher. He's taking it off
and now he is girding himself with a towel as a sign of being a servant. He's going low.
And in the midst of all this, I'm not going to read the rest of it, but in the midst of all
this, the Lord already knows who the betrayer is. More to that at this point in the upper room,
John starting at about John 12, all the way up to John 17, scholars call that the upper room discourse.
It's the upper room discourse. It's where the Lord instituted the last supper.
This is the night before Jesus was betrayed, you know, taken, brought and crucified.
So in this John 13, Jesus knows who his betrayer is. And he's sitting with him. He's up there in
the upper room with them. Judas Iscariot is up there with them, breaking bread. They're doing
the Passover. They're doing this thing together. And to that, not only is the betrayer there,
the Lord knows that the 11 are going to flee too. The Lord already at this point knows
that Peter is going to deny him three times. The other 10 are going to scatter. They're going to flee.
They're going to run. Yet still, friends, pay attention to this. Yet still, Jesus, knowing all
this, takes off his outer garment as a sign of him greater than you, so to say,
girds himself with a towel, goes low down and washes the feet of these 12 men that are about
to leave him. Our God is lowly. I guarantee you, I guarantee you, there is far and few,
there is far and few that would do that. I guarantee you, majority of our pastors
in our modern day church, if they knew that one of their staff members was betraying them and
were doing something, they would fire them on the spot. They would not invite them into the office,
take off, so to say, their suit coat, put on a towel, and wash the person's feet that's about to
betray them. Very few would do that. Do you know what that tells me? That the church has actually
gone up rather than gone down. You see, I believe, I believe this is my theory. I believe
that when Jesus was doing that, I believe that some measure of Jesus was hoping,
was hoping that Judas, that Judas would repent and not betray him.
It's like he was giving him one more chance of don't do this. I am going to wash your feet.
I am going to go low to show you my nature. Yet, how many of us would do that?
We don't even do that to our family members. When we know that our family member
has spoken about us badly, or there is some kind of gossip going around, instead of us going low
and serving the person that is gossiping about us, that is slandering us, that is causing strife,
instead of us going low and serving this person, we make sure that we get on our
high horses and we make sure that we trample them. We make sure that we come over to them
before they come over us, but that's not what the Lord did. That's not what the Lord did.
The Lord went low and he served in the time that he knew that's my betrayer. I am going to
wash his feet. These are the 11 that are going to leave me. I am still going to wash their
feet. Why? Because I'm lowly. Because my very nature is who I am. I am lowly.
And everything that I do, I do it in a lowly way.
Friends, listen to this. You've heard me say this before. Prayer does not bring unity.
And some of you are shocked when I just said what I said. Prayer does not bring unity. Prayer
solidifies unity. What brings about unity is actually transparency and vulnerability.
You can be in your house all day long praying for unity, yet not causing the faith that you have
and not putting your works to it, ain't nothing going to happen. If you are not putting the
works to your faith, ain't no unity coming in your marriage, ain't no unity coming in your
family, ain't no unity coming to the body of Christ. We have prayer meetings. Let's pray for
unity. Awesome. What are we going to do to follow up with that? You can fast for weeks.
You can pray for weeks. But if you're not putting your works to it, ain't no unity going to come.
The Lord was transparent with His disciples. Let me read it to you. That's why they walked in
such unity. And by the way, to be transparent and vulnerable, it's two different things. And I'll
explain it to you here in a second. But more than that, it's very lowly. It is very uncommon in our
body for somebody to be transparent and vulnerable. Everybody wants to share all the things that
they've succeeded in, but very few want to share in their failures. But the truth be told, we
all have them. I like how Pastor Mary says that, Pastor Mary, I'm going to quote you. She says,
we're all jacked up. Because we've all been affected by sin. Can I tell you something here?
To break the ice a little bit? Each and every individual sitting here at one point has sinned
or is still sinning. Did you catch what I just said? Each and every individual sitting in
this place has at one point sinned or is still sinning. The same thing that Jesus did for me,
he did for you. The same blood that was spilled on the cross for me was spilled for you.
The same sin that the Lord died for me, he died for you to set you free.
To be transparent is to simply do this. I'm telling you what I'm going through,
being real. Not throwing myself a pity party. Remember this. I'm being real. Hey, I got this
and this going on in my life. That's transparency. I'm sharing with you. I'm sharing with you
the real stuff that are happening in my life. Now, vulnerability is a step even deeper.
Now that's me inviting you to help me. I'm inviting you to help me. I'm being vulnerable.
Hey, here's what I'm going through. I'm being transparent. My marriage, my kids,
this and this. That's me just sharing with you. But then the next level would be, hey,
can you pray with me? Can you stand with me? Can you help me? Can you find wise counsel?
Can you give me something? Please. Let me read it to you here. Listen to this.
This is in John chapter 12 verse 27. Listen to what the Lord says. These are the words of our
Lord. Listen to what he says. He says, Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour.
Jesus, in the crowd of multitude of people, Jesus is being transparent. He's saying,
I am troubled. My soul is troubled. Remember, our Lord was still a man. Though he was God,
he was still a man. He had feelings. He had emotions. He wasn't some robot.
But the reason why he's the great intercessor, and he can sympathize with us, because everything
that we've been tempted with, everything that we've lived through, our Lord went before us.
That's why the scripture says he is the forerunner that has gone before us.
He can sympathize with what you're going through. Bad relationship? Trust me,
the Lord can sympathize with you. Your kids are undisciplined. Trust me,
the Lord had 12 that he had the discipline. The Lord can sympathize with us. So here he shares
his transparency with everybody that's around there. He says, my soul is troubled. Now that's
lowly, because you would think, but hold on a second. You're the savior of the world.
You got this all put together, man. You're God. You're the Genesis one God. And now
you're saying when you're in this degree, you're saying your soul is troubled.
He's being transparent. Very lowly. More to that. Let's read this. Matthew chapter 26.
Open up your Bibles to Matthew 26. Let me show you the vulnerability of our Lord.
This is Matthew 26 starting at verse 36. This is the prayer in the in the garden,
the garden of Gethsemane. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and he said to
his disciples, here's where the Lord is being vulnerable. He's inviting them. Come. This is
what he says. He says, sit here while I go and pray over there. And then he took with them
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. So think of
it this way. Our Lord comes to the garden of Gethsemane with all the 12. Three of them, or I'm
sorry, three of them come with him and the rest stay. And the three that come with them to the
depth of the garden, the scripture says he was but a stone throws away. He wasn't that far.
He wasn't that far. It was a stone's throw away. They could see him. Peter, James, and John could see
the Lord. They could see him being sorrowful and deeply distressed in what was about to partake.
Because earlier we read he knew his hour has come. Then the Lord knew that he was destined.
The scripture says, since the foundations of the world, Jesus was predestined to die.
It was always plan A for the father to crucify his son. Always plan A for the father to crucify
his son. Always. So now Jesus knowing this, since the moment that he's creating the world,
Jesus knowing this now comes into it. And now he's at that point where he knows my hour has
come for my destiny to be fulfilled completely through and through. He says, I'm troubled in my
soul. He's being transparent. I'm troubled. I'm troubled in my soul. Then they go to pray in the
garden. He takes the three with them deeper. And it says he was sorrowful and deeply distressed.
And he says this, pray with me. He went low. That's very lowly to lean on people that you're
mentoring, to lean on people that you're leading. That's low.
Can I be honest with you? I don't have all the answers.
Did you hear what I said? I don't have all the answers. We think that pastors
have all the answers. Yes, I agree. Pastors should be held at a higher standard. And the
scripture tells us that. But I'm going to be real with you. I don't know all the answers.
But here's another thing. I'm going to quote Pastor Mary. Pastor Mary, I'm quoting you
this morning. Here's what Pastor Mary says. She says, if I don't know it, let's go search it out together.
If I don't know the answer, as your pastor, I'm willing to search with you and figure out the
answer. Because all of our answers are right here. This is a manual to life. Did you hear me?
This is a manual to life. Don't wait five years to realize that your car has a remote start.
Read your car manual. You can figure it out a lot quicker. Don't wait 40 years in the ministry
to realize that you have authority to cast out devils. Don't wait. Open up your Bibles.
Don't wait to realize I have healing power by the Holy Spirit. Don't wait 30 years. Start
laying some hands on people out in the street and watch God do miracles.
Jim, thank you for activating our people. Thank you for teaching on the gifts and activating our
people. You don't have to wait and be 65 and realize I can see the dead rise? Really?
Huh? I thought those just were pastors. So the Lord invites them. He's transparent,
then he gets to the garden and he begins to be vulnerable. And he says, pray with me.
Pray with me. Would you stay and pray with me for one hour? One hour. You know what,
oftentimes just baffles my mind. Is that, by the way, this was not the first time that
Jesus did this with his disciples. They knew that Jesus was a praying man. They knew that.
They wrote it about him. They wrote it about the Lord. They knew. They even asked them,
teach us to pray. Why did they ask that? Because they knew that they're Rabbi Jesus Christ,
which is not his last name. Again, I'm quoting Pastor Mary. I'm just going to quote you all
day today as a sign of honor. They knew that their Lord prayed for long hours. They knew this.
And what baffles my mind is that here they are, they're doing this again. They're going,
let's just call it the prayer meeting. Let's call it intercessory prayer. Okay, let's just call
it that. They knew that he does this, yet in that process, they still fell asleep. It's like,
but you knew. You knew that this is what your rabbi does often. Would you have not now by this time
three years into it? Would you have not known already that your rabbi is a praying man?
Don't you think as a follower of somebody who invests their life into praying, would you not
realize if you're being mentored by them? Wouldn't you be like, okay, I need to do that?
It baffles my mind. I'm like in the moment that the Lord needed them the most and he actually
was vulnerable with them, inviting them. And it's in that moment that they fell asleep.
That to me is like, but you know what's crazy? You ready for this? How many times do we do
that to the Lord? I said, how many times do we do that to the Lord?
The Lord asks us to do something and we know the voice of God. Friends, I'm preaching to
people this morning that know the voice of God and the Lord speaks to us and he asks us
to do something. And when he actually needs us, we're like, I don't know. I'm a little scared
right now, God. Let me share with you a quick story. This is years ago in the beginning of
my ministry. When I had my business still, I was running it. I was working far, which is down in
Hastings. From here, that's like going down to Egypt. So, you know, Hastings is far.
And I finished my job and I always enjoyed when I was working far away, I always enjoyed
going to like a local gas station or something that was there, grab some snacks because I had
an hour long drive. So I'm like, cool, I get to get fat and eaten. It's going to be great.
And I came to a gas station and I would think I was buying like a Snickers or something. No,
actually, no, I wasn't buying a Snickers that time. I was buying something else. It doesn't
matter. I was buying some snacks and I come up to the cash register and there's this young girl
there and she's like fumbling like, you know, she took my payment and then she's fumbling to
pick up the bag to put my stuff in. And I can just, you could just tell. You could just
tell like something's going on in this girl's life. So the Lord dropped some things and I'm
like, Oh, I know, have a nice day. God bless you. And then I'm walking towards my truck. It's
parked further on that gas station. I'm walking towards my work truck. And as I'm walking,
the Lord tells me, he says, I want you to turn around and I want you to go and talk to her.
I want you to go ask her if she knows me. And I'm like, Lord, I just paid. It's going
to be super awkward. I get in my truck. I start my truck. I start driving. The Lord said,
I want you to turn around and go back and talk to her. And I'm like, Lord,
this is like awkward. I'm five minutes out. Like I've, like literally I've driven
five minutes out already. It's like about 10 minutes into it. The Lord came in such a way.
He said, son, he said, you don't know what's going on in her life. You don't know if she's
about to commit suicide. You don't know what's going on in her life. He said, I need you.
I need you to turn around and go back and talk to her.
It felt like my truck turned around by itself. I went back there. I went to the gas station.
I looked super weird and awkward standing in line of four people. And I'm like, what do I buy? So
I grabbed the Snickers. I can't just come up there. I grabbed the Snickers and I'm standing
in line and she makes eye contact with me. And she looks at me and she's like looking at me
and I'm like, super awkward. Super awkward. I come up to the counter and I almost
told her, I really don't need the Snickers. But I put the Snickers down and I can't remember
exactly word for word what I said. But let me just tell you this. The Lord touched that young woman.
He touched her. I didn't say anything extravagant. I was probably so nervous that I probably said
something half Russian, half English. I don't know. She understood me because her face lit up.
And it's like something ran through her like, my God, there is still a God that exists and
actually sees me. Do you know that we, the church, are the hands and feet of our Lord?
Do you know that we are the hands and feet of our Lord? That's why the Holy Spirit lives in us
so that he can move and he can touch and he can speak to and he can do all these things.
That's why the scripture says we are the body of Christ. Members, each of us. Each of us are members.
When the Lord needs us the most, I want you to remember, don't be like one of the 12 and fall asleep.
Did you hear me? Go low and obey. Obedience is lowly. That's why we don't see it in the churches.
To be obedient is to be lowly. Now let me show you what I mean by that. Open up your
Bibles to Philippians 2.8. Is this still good so far? I want to get to the meat of today's message.
We're not even at the meat yet. We just had our dessert, by the way. It's a cheesecake and
some coffee. That sounds good. Now we're about to get into the filet mignon. You ready for this?
We're about to get into that rare filet mignon right now. Listen to this.
Obedience is lowly. Remember that. To be obedient unto God is a sign that you are walking in lowliness.
And there is even in that, in the obedience of God, there is actually even a progression to go lower.
Just because you have been obedient once, don't mean you're lowly. Let me just give you that
newsflash real quick. Just because you were obedient once, does not make you a lowly person.
It's simply behaviors of becoming a lowly person. Listen to this. Philippians chapter 2, starting at verse 8.
This is the apostle Paul, by the way. This is the foundational scripture to all these series,
and here I'm ending with it. Listen to this. And being found, now this is talking about Jesus,
and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself.
Remember what? It means to be humble. It's to go. Come on, somebody. It means to go.
There you go. One more time. It means to go. I want that to just drive through your heads.
And he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death. Now let me show you
the progression in obedience. Jesus was obedient. He humbled himself.
He was obedient to the point of death. And then the scripture says, even death on the cross.
That's the progression. That's the progression. Remember, we're talking about the Genesis 1
God. This is the God that created the heavens and the earth. Colossians writes,
in him, through him, and for him were all things made. This is the Genesis 1 God that now comes
into the flesh. To be in a womb of a 14-year-old, and I'm just saying 14-year-old as an example,
because scholars say that Mary was a very young virgin. Young virgin, she was
teenager. Let's just call her a teenager. Is born to a teenager that is deemed lesser in
society. He just continues to go low. The Lord continues to go low. Born to a stepfather who
just had a carpentry business. He was a carpenter. In Bethlehem, among cattle, all these things that
the Lord does, enters into the ministry lowly, does ministry lowly, chooses his disciples very
lowly. The Lord did not handpick scribes and Pharisees and teachers of the law. The Lord went
to where the fishermen were, the stinky guys, the ones that look weird and ratchet.
He went to them, and he called them. He chose friends. Remember this, if you're young in this
place, and I believe a lot of you are going to say, amen, if you're young in this place,
the Lord chooses the young, unexperienced, uneducated to do what he wants to do.
Because in the weakness of us, the Scripture says his power is manifested. In the weakness,
Paul says, when I am weak, I am weak, then I am strong. So now this same God, the Genesis
1 God, humbles himself. This is the humbling. And now begins to obey to the point of death
and even death on the cross. By the way, that is a very significant thing.
Jesus didn't just die, but the Scripture tells us he died on the cross.
Remember this, because I'm about to get into it. Jesus did not just die, but he died and was
crucified on the cross. Let me talk a little bit about that with you. Follow me here. I did
probably one of the most deepest studies on the crucifixion that I've ever done in my ministry.
Rocked me. It literally rocked me. I said, my God, give us a spirit of revelation
to literally what the cross means, because if you listen to this, listen, listen, listen.
If a people of God can have a revelation of the cross, you are literally unstoppable.
If we can actually have a revelation of what Jesus did on that cross and what he paid for,
that which was stolen from us by the devil, Jesus now freely, friends, I said freely,
freely gives back to us. If we, a people of God sitting in chairs and in pews,
can have a revelation of the cross in such a depth, I promise you, everybody you pray for will
be healed because of the revelation of the cross, because you're going to know what the power of
the blood actually paid for. We're not going to be fumbling and saying, why isn't a person
getting healed from cancer because of your lack of revelation? It's not that God doesn't want
to heal you. It's the lack of your revelation of what he did on Calvary. That's why.
And now we have pastors that can't explain certain situations and they begin to blame people.
It's your problem. It's, it's, there's, God just doesn't want to heal you.
People will say that because they don't have an explanation.
If we can have a revelation of the cross and what Jesus has done, friends, I promise you,
we will see signs, miracles and wonders that will blow your mind. It will cause you to be frozen
and paralyzed in awe when we get the revelation of the cross. When we actually understand, Lord,
by your stripes, I am healed. Lord, your blood poured out for me, sets me free
and no devil, no demon, no unclean spirit can remain in me because you paid for it.
My people perish. What does the scripture say? My people perish for the lack of knowledge.
You can all day long quote that scripture by his stripes, I am healed. But unless
that becomes a revelation to you, ain't nothing going to change in your life.
Friends, we have people that walk around in Pentecostal churches. Now listen to this,
I'm speaking with love. We have people in charismatic Pentecostal circles that are quoting
all these scriptures, by your stripes, I am healed is that and the other. Good, I like that you
do that. But the problem that we're seeing is that simply just because you're quoting it
does not mean something's going to manifest. You got to know that you know, that you
know that by his stripes, I am healed and you don't get that on a Sunday morning.
You get it when you're tucked away and you say, God, give me the revelation of the cross.
Let me see what you paid for. Let me see the blood. Let me see the body. Let me see it,
God, let me see it, God. And then when you begin to quote by his stripes, I am healed
because you have a revelation, because here God met you and he made it known to you
that by his stripes, I am healed. Then when you speak it out, boom, manifestations happen.
All of a sudden the woman that could not get healed of cancer is getting healed and you didn't
even pray. You just came up and you said, Lord, boom, the Holy Spirit comes. Boom,
the Holy Spirit comes. He comes like he came in the upper room. He comes because they were
with him. They were with him for more than just one day, for more than just two days.
They were with him because they chose a lonely life. They chose to go low. They chose to be
without reputation. They chose to be unnoticed. They chose so God honored their choice, their
obedience. God honored them and anybody that they laid hands to, even the shadow, even the
shadow healings, deliverances, all these things. Friends, if we can have a revelation
of the cross of Christ, I promise you you will be unstoppable.
Gifts, signs, wonders, they will flow faster, faster than you can even hold back on them.
God will begin to speak to you about people sitting in restaurants and you're going to say,
Lord, why? Why are you talking to me about these people? And the Lord's going to tell you
and he's going to say you just have a revelation of the cross and I want you to know
what I did for that person sitting in that booth. Are you with me this morning?
There is a lack of revelation of the cross of Christ in our churches.
There is a lack of understanding what the blood is. There is a lack of understanding
what the body is and what it did. The victory was the cross. The result was the resurrection.
I said the victory was the cross and the result of it was the resurrection.
The Lord did not defeat death. He would have never defeated death unless he would have died
because remember, remember, he did not come to remove the law. He came to fulfill the law,
the spiritual law. And according to Romans 6, the scripture says this. It says,
the death of sin or the wages of sin is death.
The wages of sin is death. So Jesus knew I have to die.
I have to die. Follow me here. I know we got food there, but just stay with me.
Pastor, can I go a little bit longer? Can I go a little bit longer?
Let me ask this in all seriousness. Don't even laugh because I can stop right here
because the next portion that I'm going to go to, I don't want it to be quickened.
Are you guys okay if I go a little bit more here?
I don't want to squander what the cross actually is when I begin to talk about it.
Can I go a little bit longer? The crucifixion is the, let me say it again,
to die on a cross and to be crucified is the worst way that a human being could die.
Let me show you here real quick. Romans, by the way, this was not invented by Romans.
The reason why everybody likens the crucifixion to the Roman Empire is because the Roman Empire
embraced this form of death the most out of any other empire. The Romans actually didn't even
invent it. And I forgot to put it in my notes, but there was a different people that actually
invented the crucifixion. But the Romans are known for it because they embraced it
and they elected this type of execution because it was found to be the harshest method of death.
Ruthless people. The Roman Empire, we know them as ruthless. They were, they were bad.
And they chose and they said that this is the harshest way that any human being could ever die.
Worse than drowning, worse than hanging somebody, worse than slitting a
throat to be crucified on the cross and the process of it is literally the worst way to die.
Let me show you something here. This type of death was so bad that young Julius Caesar,
when he was kidnapped by pirates, he told the pirates he said, I'm going to see the day that
you die. And they laughed at him. Lo and behold, history proves that Julius, young Julius
Caesar did see these pirates killed. But even being with them for so long, they became so human to them
that he forbid that they be killed on the cross. He said, slit their throats.
That's how bad the crucifixion was that even young Julius Caesar, kidnapped, felt sympathy
because he knew what the death on the cross actually is that he felt bad. He said, I
can't even bear to think of these pirates being crucified on the cross. So give them the lesser
death and slit their throats. That's how bad it was. It was horrible.
Caesario, it was one of the other leaders in the Roman Empire, was so afraid of this practice
in the first century that he literally made a law. He made a law in the empire, and this is
around the first century, that the very word cross should be removed from the vocabulary of the Roman
citizens. He was so afraid of this type of death. It wasn't just death, but just like Philippians
writes, to the point of death and even and even death on the cross. He was so afraid of this
practice. He said, remove the very word cross from the vocabulary of the Roman citizens. Don't
even let him think about it. Don't even let him hear it. Don't even let him see this word. Remove
it. I want it completely gone. Removed and to never be. The crucifixion was truly the worst
phenomenon in the Roman world. That's what one historian writes, scholar and historian writes.
It was literally truly the worst phenomenon in the Roman world. The people that would actually
die on the cross was not just your everyday people that, you know, had a little conflict
here and there. The people that were given that type of penalty were considered, were considered,
and we'll read it here in a bit, were considered the worst of the worst of the worst.
So, think right now in your mind, in our modern day, who to you is one of the worst people? And if it's
your cousin Bob, don't think about Bob. He's a good person. God give grace to Bob that he
repents in Jesus' name. Think of the worst person that you know or maybe read of or something.
Think about it. Those are the people that died on the cross. Let me show you here. This
is Matthew 27. This is Matthew chapter 27, verses 15, starting at verse 15.
Give me a moment here and I'll open it. It's 12 o'clock.
Matthew 27 starting at verse 15. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to
releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. So again, this is already Jesus. Just give
you a little bit of background for those that don't know your Bibles. Jesus is already betrayed.
They took him from the garden. They brought him to the high priest. Here they're
spitting at him in the in the courts of where the high priest is. They're mocking him. They're
doing all these things. Now they bring him to Pontius Pilate, who's the governor. And it
was accustomed to them in that day. I'm just trying to show you the type of people that
die on a cross. It's not your everyday Joe guy that, you know, oh man, he said something
against the police. No, no, no. These are bad, bad, bad people that die on a cross.
Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude
one prisoner whom they wished. And at the time they had a notorious prisoner called Brabis.
You know what it means to be notorious? That means that you're well known for doing what you do.
Brabis wasn't just a thug like a lot of people call him. Now he a thug. He was worse than a thug.
He was a thug times 10. He was notorious for what he did in the Roman Empire. That's why
he was one of the people that was about to be crucified on the cross with the other two which
the scripture describes them as thieves. Therefore when they had gathered together,
Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release to you? Brabis or Jesus who is called
Christ. For he knew that he had hand, for he knew that they had handed him over because of envy.
So Pilate recognized the lowliness of Jesus. He recognized that he knew that Jesus was not this
person that they made him out to be. So he brings Jesus and he brings Brabis. And he says who do
you want me to release? And what do they say? We all know our Bibles. Brabis. No, they said
release Brabis, not Jesus. They said give us Brabis. Can I tell you something? Somebody
needs to hear this this morning. Somebody needs to hear this this morning.
You were that Brabis that the Lord released and he died for you.
That's how low our Lord goes. Some of you are sitting here today and when I ask the question
think of the worst person that you can think of. Some of you were thinking about yourself.
I'm prophesying to somebody right now. I said I'm prophesying to somebody right now.
You were thinking about yourself and you said, hey Igor, I'm that person. I'm the worst of the
worst. Let me tell you something. The Lord went so low that he released Brabis and he was crucified.
If he can do it for Brabis, ha, you got to hear me. If he can do it for Brabis,
what tells you he can't do it for you?
If he did it for Brabis, what tells you he won't do it for you?
They released Brabis and here Jesus takes his place and Pontius Pilate has the audacity to say
something. When he's interacting with Jesus, he has the audacity to say something. He says,
do you know that I have the authority to either crucify you or release you?
Jesus turned to him and he said, listen, you would have not had the authority unless
it was given to you from above. Do you know what that says? That Jesus was not forced to go low.
He chose to go low. Now let me apply this to us. Follow me, follow me, follow me. Let me apply
this to us. Why do we have to force? Why do we have to be forced to go low? Why can't we
choose to go low? Because a lot of the times we are actually forced to go low.
Why can't we be as Christ was and choose? We see a situation and instead of us going low,
we are actually forced by somebody that's over us in authority, whether it's in a church or in a
family or in a business. Let's say you work for somebody. How about when your boss wrongs
you next time? Why don't you go low? Why don't you go low as Christ did?
When your boss wrongs you and doesn't pay you what he was supposed to pay you,
instead of making a big fit about it and saying, how dare you? Why don't you do what our Lord
did and go low? And say, okay, Lord, give me an opportunity. Give me an opportunity, Lord.
But right now I'm choosing to go low. Do you know that the Scripture says,
give room for the vengeance of God? Do you know that? I'm not saying that we should sit back and
just have everybody walk over us like we're a rug. Actually, sometimes that's what it looks like.
Be honest with you. Sometimes it does. Sometimes when you look at it, you're like, why,
why are you doing this? Now, let me clarify something. Let me clarify something here.
Okay, because somebody asked me this. They said, well, is this what you're saying? No,
it's not what I'm saying. So just let me clarify this. If you are in an abusive relationship,
a husband or a wife or whatever, I'm not telling you, stay there and get physically abused. That's
not what I'm telling you. Okay, hear me correctly here. Hear me correctly here. But what I'm telling
you is, yes, leave for safety. But what I'm telling you is don't gossip. Don't slander.
Don't speak about even that man or that woman in a bad way. Just bite your tongue. Go low.
I'm not telling you stay there and get physically abused by a man that you could die. That's not
what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that when you leave, don't talk about him. Don't be the person
that everybody knows. Oh, she always gossips. Oh, he always gossips. Always this, always that,
everybody knows your problems. Let me give you a word of wisdom. The less people that know
your problems, the better it is for you. So Jesus releases Barabbas, gets crucified,
he releases him, and then they choose him. Now let me explain to you some things. Can you
put a picture of the Crown of Thorns for me? Can you do that for me up there?
This is Matthew 27 verses 27 and 31. Actually, let's go to John. Let's go to John real quick.
John chapter 19. John chapter 19. We're getting to the end here friends. We are getting to the end.
So I want you to understand that the people who died on the cross
were not your average, everyday criminal. These were the worst of the worst. And now our Lord
goes from being the Genesis one God that creates heaven and earth. Now progresses,
he keeps going low to the point of where he dies the worst death that a man or a woman could die.
That's how low our Lord goes. Don't tell me he can't meet you where you're at.
I said don't tell me that he can't meet you where you're at.
Because he's been places you have not even yet been.
John chapter 19. Listen to this. So then Pilate took Jesus after he released Barabbas,
the worst of the worst, a thug times 10. Released him. And now Jesus is counted to be that thug times 10.
The scripture says that all of sin, all of the world's sin, past, present, and future was laid upon him.
Every sin known to man, known to God, all of it was laid upon the Lord in that moment when
Barabbas was now released. Now Jesus is the one that, yep, he's gonna get crucified in that moment,
all of sin bestowed upon a man. Now that's low. I said now that's low. That's why sometimes I say
we do have to be a rug and let people walk over us. And I can explain more in details of some
of you are confused about that. Feel free to reach out to me because every situation is
different. But I need to make that statement. So then Pilate took Jesus and scorned him.
And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns. Can you put that up on the screen?
Put up that picture for me on the screen. A crown of thorns. Now other people say that
it looked like a helmet. I put this one up. They put that on him. They stripped him naked.
The scripture says they stripped him naked. They mocked him. They beat him.
They took it. I see I believe they went to a whole another level.
I believe when they were crucifying our Lord, they went to a whole another level. I believe
they did things that they wouldn't do to a Barabbas or they wouldn't do to a thief.
I believe that the Pharisees and the scribes and the teachers of the law
made such a report about him. Now there's no scriptural evidence to this. But I wouldn't
be surprised if they even paid off the guys and they gave him more money and said,
make sure you take care of them there. Make sure you take care of them there.
There's no scripture to prove what I'm saying right now. I'm just expressing to you the way
that I see certain things and seeing the degree that our Lord actually was beaten and crucified.
They put the crown of thorns on him. Now put the whip on there. Can you?
It's called the... let me pronounce it here correctly. It's called the flagulum.
After they did that to the Lord, they stripped him naked. They put a crown on him.
They were beating him even there and they were mocking him. They were spitting at him.
They were mocking him. Remember, this is the Genesis 1 God. We're still talking about the Genesis
1 God who came to this point. This is that same God who sat and he created the people that
were about to crucify him. This is the same God. They put the crown of thorns. They bring him to a
post and then they hit him with that. It's called the flagulum. Naked. We oftentimes draw Jesus
with a cloth. The scripture says he was naked. There was no clothing to cover what they were
doing to him. And they beat him repeatedly with it. The scripture says that skin was
tearing off. All these things were coming off. More than that, when I did a deep study on the
crucifixion, they say that majority of the victims die at this point. That's how ruthless it was.
They die at this point. Majority of the victims don't even make it to Calvary to be
crucified on the cross because how brutal this is right here. Don't tell me our Lord can't do
something for you. Look what he paid for. Don't tell me that healing is not accessible for you.
Don't tell me that deliverance is not accessible for you. Don't you dare tell me that restoration
is not accessible for you. You have a lack of revelation of what the cross actually paid.
Don't tell me that God is not going to use you. Don't you dare tell me this because when I look
at the scriptures and when I look at our cross and what he paid for, he paid for something that
we don't even have revelation of. We quote it, we hear it, we see it, yet we still walk in
the level of lack of knowledge. After this, as he's still naked, remember friends,
at this point, majority of them die. As he's still naked, they put a wooden cross on the victim.
They put a wooden cross on our Lord and he had to walk through the streets. This was not a short
three mile run like the turkey trot. He had to walk from the place of where he was being
beaten and whipped naked. He had to carry across, skin tore open, all the wounds,
all these things. And now you got a wooden cross on you that is heavy to the point that
they had to get a bystander to help him carry it. And he's doing this naked and on purpose,
what the Roman Empire would do when they did this is they would tell multitudes. Listen,
they told multitudes of bystanders to be on that street from where they began to whip
to the point of coming to Golgotha. They encouraged and they said,
multitudes come around him and see the, my goodness, my word is leaving me,
the humiliated man. Look, whoever it is. And they would cause people to get into the streets
and they would look at the person who's naked, carrying a cross, bruised, unrecognizable.
And on top of that, the Roman Empire gave them the right to pelt them with stones as
they were walking. Don't you tell me our God didn't go low? And don't you tell me that you're
living a lowly life? You better come to a realization and realize, my God, I got to go even lower than
I've been. My God, I got to make some choices to go low. I got to repent. I got to repent
of my pridefulness of thinking I got it all. And here he's led, holding the cross,
pelted with stones. By the way, at the same time, they keep, go back to that picture for me,
they keep beating him with that flagellum, they keep whipping him as they're walking.
When they get to the point of the cross, historian scholars show that they used
iron nails. Can you put a picture of that nail for me?
About that size. You guys see that hand there, right? About that size.
And they would drive these nails repeatedly. Your legs would be crossed and they would drive a
nail through your flesh, through your shin bone, down to the other leg, through the flesh,
through the shin bone of your other leg, to the tree, to the cross.
Then they would take the same nails and they would put them on your forearms right here and it
would go through the flesh, through the bone, so you know this process was not quick. This was
not a five-minute process. He's nailed to the cross. They did not have Makita, Milwaukee,
and Dewalt to help them. They didn't. This was a slow process of a repeated swing
from a Roman soldier to get the cross driven through the bone into the wood. Don't you tell me
that God can't heal you? Don't you tell me that deliverance is not for you? Do you not see how
low our God has gone? Do you not tell me that your neighbor or that your sibling can get
saved? They're too far gone. Don't you tell me that you're missing what the cross has done?
They put them up on the cross and then even on the cross our Lord shows his lowliness.
One thief is mocking him. The other thief is saying, what are you doing, man? What are you doing?
And then he says, Lord, remember me. Remember me. That's all he says. He doesn't even pray,
forgive me, Lord. He just, in his heart, in his heart, he says, remember me. And even in
the moment of our Lord's most excruciating pain, bring up that other picture of a man
hanging on the cross. Time is against me to tell you all the details of there. I'm telling you,
I have never done such a deep study on the crucifixion and it rocked me when I did it.
I spent hours and days studying it. And in my studying, I said, God, my God, give me a revelation
of what you actually paid for because I don't even know the fullness of it yet.
And there on the cross, he says, remember me. And the Lord in his most excruciating pain
looks at that thief and says, you will be with me in paradise. Shows his lowliness.
He doesn't say, leave me alone. I'm suffering. Leave me alone. Don't you see that I'm under
pressure, that I have a decision that I have to make? No, the Lord goes lowly and he says,
you will be with me in paradise. Our Lord is lowly. May we measure ourselves to him.
May we measure ourselves to the cross and recognize just how prideful we are.
And begin to do what's been spoken in these series before. Begin to repent. Begin to walk in
grace and mercy and kindness. Begin to choose the behaviors of a sheep, dying to our self.
That's what our Lord did. By the way, he hung on that cross naked, as I've said before. He did
not have a cloak hanging. He was naked, humiliated. His mom saw him. Mary Magdalene saw him.
Multitudes. Roman soldiers. Roman citizens. They saw this man that said that he's the Messiah.
Now they see him fully humiliated. Don't you tell me that God can't meet you where you're at?
Would you repent of that this morning? Would you repent of the fact that you doubted him?
Look at the cross. Let me read you this and then I'm going to read Isaiah 53 and we're done.
In Ephesians 4, I'll just quote Ephesians 4, chapter 4 verse 9 and 10.
The scripture says that he who ascends is also he who descends to the depths of the earth,
which is talking about Jesus. Remember, Genesis 1, God, Jesus in heaven now descends to the
earth and now even further he dies or obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
And the scripture tells us he goes down into Hades. He still goes low.
He still goes low. Friend, if you're here this morning and you're saying, God can't hear me,
he can't find me, where I'm at, friend, I'm going to tell you you are wrong.
Because our Lord went down to death to Hades to hell. Our Lord went
to set the captives free there. He preached to the spirits there.
And that's why Ephesians 4 says that now, now he feels all in all. And he is everything.
He is everything. Friends, if you remove the cross from our faith, you've removed everything.
Did you hear what I said? If you remove the cross from our faith, you removed everything.
It is the pinnacle. It is the literally the chief cornerstone. It is everything that
holds our faith. It's the cross. It's our victory. It's our breakthrough. It's our
deliverance. It's our healing. It's everything is in that cross of Calvary that our God Jesus
died on. Listen to this and we'll come to an end here. This is a quote by a blogger
slash scholar and historian. Now, when I read some of his stuff, I was like, I don't even know if
this man's a believer, but listen to what he writes. And they will open up, actually open
up Isaiah right now. Isaiah 50, 53. And let me read this quote and we'll come to an end.
Thank you for your patience. In the end, this is the quote. Now I quote him. In the end,
the memory of one victim of crucifixion changed the moral arc of the entire empire,
knowing all that know about the practice of crucifixion. Now, this is where the statement
he made that blew my mind. He said, I believe that Christianity, if it is true,
that's what he writes. I believe that Christianity, if it is true, is the most amazing religion
in a history of mankind. The astonishing idea of a God who gave his son to be crucified and
killed in such a humiliating and painful way is, in my humble opinion, absolutely amazing.
If Christianity is true is what he says.
In my humble opinion, absolutely amazing. It is the ultimate, he writes, and this is how he ends
it, it is the ultimate expression of unconditional love. Our God is lowly. Our God is lowly.
And would his bride mimic him and be conformed into his image that in this hour where we hear
about revival and we hear about this and we hear about that, we hear the good, we hear the bad,
would his bride in this hour go low and put on the image of her bridegroom
and make decisions that our Lord made. Would we measure ourselves to him and not to each other
and realize just how prideful we are and come to repentance?
Would we realize that as the church, I pray, I pray that this church
never ever gets to a place of such pride that we begin to miss God.
I pray that this church would be lowly.
I pray that this church would not be swayed when the multitudes begin to come in here
as they already are. Not because we got some good preacher or some famous preacher,
but simply because God trusts this church with himself.
And people would run here for healings and deliverances.
God has said that this house is a house of miracles.
When we see the cross and when we see Jesus and recognize I'm so prideful, Lord.
People call me lowly, but Lord, I'm so prideful. Help me, Lord.
Help me to recognize how much I need you. Help me to recognize that I have lack of revelation.
Give me the spirit of revelation, Lord. Let me recognize that I'm a weak and broken person
and I need a Savior who died on the cross. Let me recognize that my ways are not your ways, God,
nor are my thoughts your thoughts, God. Friends, I pray that each and every one of you,
I pray that I would see you in heaven. I do pray that.
But more than that, I pray that you would even make a choice today
and recognize. Put that picture of the cross and the man on it and keep it up there.
I pray that we would look and we would measure ourselves
to a God that was obedient to the point of death and even death on the cross
and recognize, my God, I got to go lower. I don't have it all figured out.
My God, you do want to heal me.
My God, you do want to deliver me. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to the cross.
I'm trying to stir your faith in something. Friends, put your faith to this picture.
Apply your faith to what you're seeing and recognize
that he can do it for you. For you were not purchased with precious silver or gold,
but the Scripture says in 1 Peter that you were purchased by the precious blood of Jesus
about the Genesis one God, friends. This is the Genesis one God that went low
to give us life and life in abundance. Now, I don't know some of you in this place,
but if you got something that you're going on in life, you're saying, Lord, I don't know how
I'm going to do this. I don't know if you're even willing to do it for me. Look at the cross.
He already did it. He already paid it.
The famous words of our Lord as he hung on the cross, the famous words, he said, it is finished.
And before that, our Lord goes low and he says, forgive them. Father, they not know what they do.
Let me read Isaiah 53 and then we'll pray. Who has believed our report
and to whom was the arm of the Lord been revealed? Can you put on a little bit of music for us,
please? Do me a favor. As I read Isaiah 53, I want you to close your eyes this morning.
I want you to close your eyes this morning. I know that we got food on the other side,
but that's fine. Food can wait. I do believe that the Lord wants to give people something this morning.
I'm not saying that we're going to be praying for people, but this is what I want to do.
As I read Isaiah 53 and as you behold the cross, keep that picture up.
Keep that picture up. Don't worry about the scripture. Keep the picture up there for me.
I want you to look at it. You can close your eyes and imagine it in your mind,
but I want you to recognize and have a revelation this morning.
And if you feel the prompting of the Lord to come and kneel at the altar,
you most definitely can because it is a privilege. But as I read Isaiah 50,
to behold Jesus and recognize that there is nothing that God won't do for you.
Won't do for you because he's done everything. He did everything.
Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.
If you want a revelation this morning of what the cross is,
you can come to the altar and ask him to give you a spirit of revelation this morning.
He has no form or comingliness and when we see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Make it a little louder for me, please.
And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him.
Surely he has bore our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken
and smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisements for our peace was laid upon him.
And by his stripes we are healed.
We, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have churned everyone. I said everyone.
To his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth.
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shears is silent.
So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment.
And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living.
For the transgression of my people he was stricken.
And they made his grave with the wicked. I said they made his grave with the wicked.
But with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth,
yet it pleased, listen to this, listen, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He has put him to grief. When you make his soul, when you make his soul an offering for sin,
he shall see his seed and he shall prolong his days.
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor of his soul
and be satisfied. By his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear
their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great. And he shall divide
the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the
transgressors and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressions.
Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord.
Help us, Lord.
Holy Spirit, help us. Counsel us.
To forever behold what Jesus did on the cross.
To recognize the lowliness of our Lord and to measure ourselves to it and choose to go low.
And choose to go low.
Holy Spirit,
fresh wind of heaven.
I want to do this this morning. If you're here this morning and you've never given your life to Jesus,
I want you to come up here and just kneel at the altar. I'm not going to ask you to pray a prayer.
But if you've never asked Jesus to be your Savior and have recognized them to be so,
can I have you come up here and sit and just kneel at the altar is all I'm asking you.
As a sign of Lord, I'm giving you my life. If there's anybody this morning that has never
given their life to Jesus, I want you to come up here and kneel. I don't care how old you are.
You can be three. You can be 93. I don't care. And maybe you're somebody here this morning that you've
backslid. And you're recognizing. I want you to come up here as well and kneel. Just
I'm not going to lay hands. We're not going to pray for people. I want you to come here
because there is something here. There is the sweet presence of the Lord here. If you've backslid,
just come and kneel before the Lord and just cast everything to his feet.
If you've been hot after God, if you've been hot after God before and now you recognize my God,
I've actually lost my first love. If you're in this place today and you feel like you've
lost your first love, I want you to come up here. There is something here that is very sweet. It's
an altar. It's a privilege. It's a privilege. If you've lost your first love, just come and kneel
before the Lord and say, restore to me, Lord, what I lost. Restore to me, God. That burning
desire. The burning desire to meet with you in private. The burning desire to hear the voice
of many rushing waters. There is people in this place. The Lord used to meet you and touch you
very gently and you've lost that. If I'm talking to you, I want you to come up here.
There is people in this place where you're saying, man, I used to experience God
and he would touch me so sweetly, but you're living in a stage where you've lost that. I want you to
come up and I want you to understand what he did for you. Come up and just kneel at the altar.
There is a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit that is just flowing.
There is a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit that is just flowing here.
And you can kneel and just begin to talk to him because he hears you. Look what he did
for you. He hears you. He has gone low. If you're somebody in this place that you're battling with
the thought of God, you don't hear my prayer and you're doubting that God is hearing your prayer.
I want you to come up here to the altar as well. I'm making these calls very strategically.
If you're somebody here that doubts that God even hears your prayers, I want you to come
up to the altar. As a sign of repentance of Lord, I will not squander what you actually did for me.
You do hear me, Lord. You do hear me, Lord.
If you're somebody this morning that you are plagued with condemnation,
I feel that really strong. I feel that really strong. There is people that are living under a
cloud of self-condemnation, of self-righteousness, of I'm not good enough. I want you to come up
here and kneel as well. You want to say something, Pastor? Go ahead. I'm going to let some people respond.
Heavenly Father, we pray specifically for those either sitting here or listening online
who have no movement inside of them whatsoever.
They've listened to the last hour and a half, and there's nothing in them that says
there's some things I need to change in my life. There's no movement of
God forgive me for the way I've been doing some things. I've been arrogant. I've been proud.
It's all about me. What I want, how I want to live, how I want to spend my money,
what I want to do. My whole life is built around me. And they've sat here for the
last hour and a half. They've listened to this. We've come to this point,
and there's nothing moving inside of them that would say I need to change. I need to
ask forgiveness. I need to repent. God, I'm asking out of your grace and out of your mercy.
Break that hard heart before it's too late.
I hate to see things happen in people's lives that just crushes their life.
Accidents, injuries, health, whatever.
But there's something Paul prayed a couple of times. And Lord, I'm not praying it now, but I'm bringing
it up because I know that what your scripture says shows the desperateness of what we're seeing
right now. He would deliver a certain person over to the devil for the destruction of the
flesh so that before they left this earth, their soul would be saved.
That can still happen. That our life, it's not God making it fall apart. It's God backing up and
saying, hey, you don't want me. I want you so desperately. I'm willing to allow my enemy to
come in and ruin your earthly life so that you turn to me and say, God, forgive me before you
leave this earth, before your last breath is drawn. So Lord, I pray out of your grace and mercy
for those who are so hard in heart that this has moved nothing in them. Out of your grace and
mercy, break them before they would spend eternity in hell, in Jesus' name.