So I mentioned that next Sunday is Easter. And uh that's exciting. Easter falls on a Sunday every year. And so, in let's be honest, in like modern American church, Easter is like it's a really, really big deal. You know, it's kind of like those old uh used car commercials. It was like Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. It's like Easter, Easter, Easter. And you know, the reality is I've I've actually I've been on staff here at His Hands for 15 years. Last month was 15 years, which is uh a long time. Yep. It's a really large percentage of my life. I'll just say that. It's uh it's been a long time, and and every year Easter's been this thing. And we've been so focused on Easter, and and man, Easter, and it's crazy because like Easter is a part of a big part, but of a big story. And sometimes we can get so focused on Easter that like we we fail to stop, at least I do, fail to stop and and appreciate all the other elements that made Easter possible. You know, traditionally, today is the beginning of something that has been known for centuries from people of our faith as Holy Week. It's funny, we started our service this morning with the song Hosanna, and that's really appropriate because today is what's known as Palm Sunday. It's the day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and people were laying palm branches in front of him as he entered the city, and they were shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. That's where that song comes from. It was them recognizing that Jesus was the Messiah, he was their Savior, and they were inviting him into the city excited. That's today, Palm Sunday. And then over the course of the next few days, there's a lot of things that happen. There's a lot of moments, significant moments in Jesus' life, right? We have, for example, the Last Supper. We took Lord's Supper together. We do that every single Sunday. And that first moment where Jesus took his disciples together and he broke the bread and he passed around the wine, that was this week. There's Jesus going to the garden, and in the garden he prayed and he fully submitted to God's will and said, God, I'll do whatever you want me to do, even if it's the cross. He knew that was coming. And he prayed for his disciples, and he actually prayed for us. If you've never read John chapter 17, read it. It's Jesus praying for you. It's powerful, and that was this week. And then there's what we call Good Friday. And Good Friday is the day that Jesus was crucified, died on the cross. And then obviously that leads into Easter Sunday. And all of that is this week in terms of our calendar, how we celebrate it, how we remember it. So it's a really, really powerful and important week. And honestly, we could pick any one of those moments, any one of those moments and focus on it, hyper-focus on it, and have so much to talk about, so much to learn from. But today I just want us to look at the cross. I want us to look at Jesus on the cross and what that really means. It's one of those things that I think for me at least, I'll just be honest, I kind of go, yeah, I get it. I'm a Jesus follower, been a Jesus follower since I was a kid. The cross, he died, my sins, all that kind of stuff. Even if you're someone, by the way, who who's never gone to church, maybe you're here for the first time, you probably have some idea of the cross and what it means and the sacrifice, and Jesus died and it's important and meaningful. But at the same time, it's one of those things that I'll just be honest, I can take for granted. It's one of those things that I can assume I know more about than I actually do. But I believe that if we see the cross for what it really is, number one, it gives us an attitude of joy, it gives us an awe and a wonder and a, to be frank, a gratitude toward God that we would we wouldn't have otherwise. And it puts Easter in a totally different perspective. Because see, if Easter had just happened, if it was just like Jesus died and his death was just a normal death, and then he happened to get back up, Easter would just be another and a long string of miracles that Jesus did that make you go, wow, there's something different about this guy. And clearly there is something different about Jesus. I mean, he stands alone in human history. He's the most influential person in human history. Did you know that Jesus has been on the cover of Time magazine more than any other person? And he lived like thousands of years before magazines were even invented? I mean, that says something. And like he did all these crazy things, right? He fed thousands of people multiple times and he healed diseases that science to this day still doesn't really know what to do with. And he walked on water, and he turned water into wine, which made him very popular back then and would make him extremely popular today, right? That's like everybody's favorite friend if he could do that. And if he would have simply died and then gotten back up, and it was just another miracle that he did to prove to the world that he's he's different, yeah, that's that's great. But but what makes Easter so powerful is its connection to the cross and what that means for us and what it signifies for us, because Jesus' death was purposeful, it was intentional. To be honest, I believe his death on the cross is arguably the most important event that has ever happened in human history. Jesus once said this to his harshest critics the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the people that were supposed to be the God experts in his day, this is John chapter 5, verse 39. He said, You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me. It's a bold thing to say. Basically, what Jesus is saying to these men who hated him and opposed him is like, you guys have been reading this book your whole lives, and you haven't even figured out yet that you've just been reading about me. There's countless moments in Scripture and in the part of Scripture before Jesus. We call that the Old Testament. It's the ancient, the most ancient of the scriptures that are all about Jesus. And they're not just all about Jesus, it's amazing how often they're all about the cross. The cross is such a monumental moment in history. It's something that God clearly intended and planned that he hinted at it for thousands of years. All throughout Scripture. We could point to so many different examples. I want to look at a few this morning. And we'll go through these pretty fast. You could look, for example, at Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15 tells a really interesting story about a man named Abraham. If you don't know the story of Abraham, he's a guy. Uh one day he hears this voice, it's God, and God says, Hey, I want you to leave your home and take your all your stuff, all your belongings, your wife. He didn't have any children at the time. He was actually getting to the point where he was too old to have children, had given up on that. And God says, If you follow me, I will give you, I'll give you children, I'll give you a son with your wife Sarah, and I'll make you into a nation, I'll give you a land. And that kind of begins the story of this family in the Bible, the Israelites, and they become the people that God himself shows up through in Jesus to reveal himself to the whole world. But in Genesis 15, Abraham has this moment with God, and to be honest with you, it's it's just sort of weird and gross because lots of stuff in the ancient world was weird and gross. There's just lots of blood. There's just so much blood. In this story, God makes a covenant with Abraham. A covenant is a it's an agreement, but it's more than a contract, it's a deep relational commitment. And in this covenant, God is promising that he's gonna be with Abraham and his family. He's gonna be with all of us, really, who follow him. And then he has Abraham take a bunch of animals and cut them in half, which is gross. And then the Spirit of God, this is so strange, the Spirit of God shows up, and the Spirit of God moves between all of these severed animals. And we might read that and be like, on to the next page. That was really strange. I don't know what that means. But it's it's really interesting. It's about the cross. Because in that culture, in that time, there was a tradition, there was a ritual. When a mighty king would conquer another king. And that that conquered, defeated king was now subject to the stronger king. They would enter into a covenant. And the mighty king would say to the defeated king, You're my subject now, you will do what I say, you will follow my lead. And that defeated king, having no choice, would agree. And then that defeated king, now subject to the new king, the new boss, would walk through the bodies of severed animals. And in doing so, blood would inevitably get all over the clothing. And what that was, it was a symbol saying that if I ever disobey you, if I ever break this covenant, then let what has been done to these animals be done to me. But in the moment with Abraham, it's not Abraham who walks between the animals. It's not the weak one who does that. It's God Himself. And it's God saying to Abraham, I'm making this covenant with you and with your people. And by the way, if you ever break it, let what's done to these be done to me. I'll pay the price. It's a hint of the cross. You could go to Genesis chapter 22, there's another story with Abraham. And he has a son at this point, Isaac. It's that son that he was promised. And at this point, Isaac's gotta be like 20 years old or so. And very oddly, again, so strange. You read these stories sometimes in scripture, and you're like, what in the world is that about? It might even give you a crisis of faith, but if you pull back and see the bigger picture, you understand that God is doing something really powerful. In this moment, God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac up to this mountain and sacrifice his son. And this is strange because actually, child sacrifice was a really normal part of the world at that time, as horrible as that is. And it appalled God. In fact, there's a saying, a moment with God in the Old Testament where people are sacrificing children, and God says, I never even could have imagined you doing this. He's like, I couldn't even fathom this. And so then God tells Abraham to sacrifice his child, and it's like why? Why? And they go up to this mountain, and when they get there, at this point Isaac's old enough to kind of figure out what's going on. Like he's looking around, like, well, there's no animal. And I don't like this. So he goes up, and Isaac himself actually carries the wood for the sacrifice on his own back, on his own shoulders. And they get there, and Isaac lays down on the wood, and it's like about to go down, but but Abraham knows something's gonna happen because no, my God would never do this. And at the very last moment, God says to Abraham, Stop, and he looks up, and there's a there's an animal, there's a ram, and it's like just there. And he's provided that sacrifice. And he takes Isaac's place, and that that ram, and sacrifice was part of their world, it was part of how they engaged with God. That became the sacrifice in Isaac's place. And so, what's really interesting about that is Abraham's so blown away that he actually names that place, that that mountaintop. He names it, it will be provided. God will provide it. That's what it gets named. And so, okay, how's this a picture of the cross? Well, it's it's like a thousand different ways. The journey that they had up the mountain was three days, just like Jesus was dead for three days. Isaac carries the wood for his sacrifice up the mountain, just like Jesus carries the wood of the cross himself. And that that mountain where that happened is the same place where Jesus himself was crucified. It's the same place. In fact, we don't know this, but it could be the exact same spot. But that that mountainous place is where one day later, years and years later, the city of Jerusalem would become, would become built. And it's in that place that Jesus Himself died. And so when God said, here on this mountain, it will be provided, it was about Jesus. You can look at the story of Moses, there's a holiday that the Jewish people celebrate called Passover, and and it's a story that it's connected to this time in the Old Testament. Many of you might be familiar with this, where uh the people of Israel are slaves in Egypt, and God wants to change that, and so he sends all these plagues to Egypt, and they get more and more severe. It's like God trying to convince Pharaoh, who's the king of Egypt, like, hey, I'm God, you're not God. Pharaoh believed he was God, he was wrong, but Pharaoh had a hard heart and he refused to let the Israelites go, and so finally it gets to the point where there's this one final plague, and it's it's big time, and God has given them so many opportunities to change course. But he says, All right, if you won't listen to me, you'll listen to this. And he says, the spirit of death is gonna pass over the nation of Egypt, and all of the firstborn are gonna die. And Pharaoh still says, you know, no. But he tells the people of Israel, do this. Take Lamb's blood and put it on your doorposts. Put some of it on the top of your doorposts, some of it on the sides. And if you do that, because of that blood, the spirit of death will pass over your homes and spare your firstborns. And that's what happens. And it breaks Pharaoh and he lets the people go. And there's so much symbolism there, right? There's the blood that's it's poured out, and that blood allows judgment to pass over us, just like the blood of Jesus has allowed what James said, that wrath, that judgment that maybe we deserve, if we're honest. Because we've all made mistakes, we've all done stuff wrong, some of it on accident, a lot of it on purpose. Like anybody with me in that? Like I've done a lot of things I shouldn't have done, and I knew it the whole time. But but it's amazing how even more specific it is. I mean, think about the doorpost, right? You have blood on the top and on the sides, and if you put blood on the top of a doorpost, it's gonna drip down. So you're gonna end up having four spots of blood. You're gonna have it here, at the bottom, where it would have dripped, and then on each side, and it's the perfect image of the cross. That when Jesus was put on the cross, those are the four places that he was pierced. The crown of thorns on his head, his hands and his feet. It's even in that shape. It's crazy. It's just like time and time again, there's there's picture after picture after picture. I could I could tell the story of Moses and the Israelites, and there's this bronze snake in the desert with poisonous snakes and venom, and they look at the bronze snake and they're healed, and Jesus told this man named Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, and it's this image of Jesus thousands of years before. If you've never read that before, just look it up, it's an interesting story. Countless times where we're thousands of years before Jesus, God isn't just foreshadowing that he's going to send his son, he's foreshadowing this specific moment, the cross. Maybe the most explicit is something Jesus himself actually referenced in Matthew chapter 27. It says, at about three o'clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, Lemasabakani, which means, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Quick show of hands. How many of us have thought about Jesus saying, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? That's been something you've read and you're like pondered. For a lot of people, this is like a really hard scripture to reconcile. Because the idea of Jesus, like Jesus, He's amazing, He's awesome, He's the Son of God, He's been perfect, He's done everything right. And Jesus on the cross saying, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? It's hard to wrap our heads around how in the world could God the Father have abandoned Jesus. There's actually been a lot of, just in my personal opinion, which doesn't really matter that much, but a lot of really bad theology that has developed from people trying to reconcile and rationalize this statement of Jesus. Because the idea usually goes like this. Well, if Jesus said, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? that must mean that God did abandon him. And so, how in the world can we understand God abandoning Jesus, turning his back on Jesus? People will go back to this one particular verse in the Old Testament, Habakkuk chapter 1, verse 13, which Habakkuk says to God, your eyes are too pure to look at evil. And so the idea would be when Jesus went to the cross, he took all of our sin, all the sin of the entire world, everyone that's ever lived. He took it upon himself. And there was so much sin on Jesus that God the Father, being pure, couldn't even look at him. Just turned away in disgust. That must be what happened. Because God is too pure to look at evil. But guys, I don't believe for a moment that's what happened at all. I mean, how many of us have watched our children, those of us who have kids, do some pretty terrible things, and yet we don't turn away in disgust? Right? Or we're not better parents than God the Father. I'm reminded of that all the time. I'm a decent dad. I'm getting better, some days worse, but it's it's a it's a journey. I'm not a better father than God. And if my children can do pretty terrible things and I don't turn my back on them, how in the world could God turn his back on Jesus? The truth is he didn't. Number one, that that verse in Habakkuk, let's just unpack this for a second. I think this is important. Because we gotta be people of, if we're gonna follow Jesus, we have to be people who understand some of the deeper context and things. This is important stuff. First of all, the translation's kind of interesting because some translations will actually put it this way: um, you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. It's like God's like, I don't like evil things. Evil bothers me. That's good to have a God who's bothered by evil. We look at the world and we see some evil things happening and it bothers us. It definitely bothers God. It's not necessarily saying that God can't look at evil. If God had to turn away every time there was evil, he would just turn his back on the world at all times. He couldn't look at anything. We see Jesus so many times encounter people who have really serious problems, messed up, and he didn't turn his back on any of them. Usually it's compassion and love that he meets him with. Sometimes he's really direct and frank with him and says, Hey, you gotta stop this. But he doesn't turn his back on it. No, what's really interesting about the cross and about Jesus saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Is that he's actually quoting Scripture in that moment. Psalm chapter 22, verse 1 begins like this, verse 1. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? The exact words that Jesus said on the cross. Now, interesting thing about Jesus, this is the only time he ever called God God. He never called him God. He always called him father. Always, every time. Jesus would say, My Father, my father. In fact, when people asked Jesus, how should we pray? Jesus said, Pray like this. And he said, Our Father. So this is the only time that Jesus has ever called God the Father God and not Father. Why? Because he's quoting something. It's the exact same phrase, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? This was a psalm written by a man named King David. He wrote it a thousand years before Jesus. And check out some of the things that are in this psalm. If you're familiar with the crucifixion and what happened, you'll see these. Verses 7 and 8, it says, Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads, saying, Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him. If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him. The people who crucified Jesus mocked him and they said the exact same thing. They said, Oh, he was able to save others. Let's see if he can save himself. If God loves him so much, if he really is the Son of God, let's see if God rescues him. That happened. And it was written about in stunning detail, a thousand years earlier. Verse 14, he says, My life is poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax melting within me. When you died on a cross, uh, almost always your bones would completely come out of joint because of the pressure and the weight. In fact, they've said that people who died of crucifixion when they were taken off the cross, that their shoulders, their arms would often be two inches longer, up to two inches longer than they were when they were put up there. And it says that my heart is like wax. You know, when they they pierced Jesus' side on the cross to make sure he was dead, it says that blood and water came out. And that's medically an indication that Jesus, something happened to his heart, that his heart literally ruptured on the cross. And it talks about that. Psalm 22, 15 says, My strength has dried up like sun-baked clay, my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. One of the things that Jesus said on the cross, we only have seven statements that we know Jesus said on the cross. One of them was, I'm thirsty. Matthew chapter 22, or rather, Psalm 22 18, says, They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing. David wrote that. And if you know the story of the cross, that happened. The soldiers were rolling dice to see who got Jesus' clothing. It's crazy. This is the weirdest one. Psalm 22. 216, they have pierced my hands and feet. Now, now here's what's insane. When David wrote this a thousand years before Jesus, crucifixion had not been invented yet. The Persians invented crucifixion long time after David. There's literally like no known explanation for why David wrote this a thousand years before Jesus. There's no story in the Bible of David ever having anyone pierce his hands and his feet. We don't know culturally what in the world that would have been. There's nothing that it relates to. It's this strange statement that's like, what does that even mean? It's because it's not about David. It's about Jesus. In fact, the the psalm finishes verse 22. I'm so sorry, verse 24. I'm sorry, I don't even have it written on here. But it finishes. Let's just go there. And it finishes with the phrase in Hebrew, he has done it. Because the psalm is actually, it takes a turn, and it's not about God abandoning me. It turns and it basically says, God, you would never abandon your people. It's a psalm to remind us that when we feel abandoned by God, he never abandons us. And it ends with the phrase, he has done it, which could also literally be translated in Hebrew to, it is finished. Which is the last thing Jesus said before he died. So we have this moment where Jesus is on the cross and he says, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? We've tried to reconcile this, figure it out. And what was happening is Jesus is there, and he's basically letting anyone in the area know who had any knowledge of scripture, anyone who would have been familiar with Psalm 22, all Jesus would have had to say is, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? It would have been like a hyperlink in their minds to that psalm, and all of a sudden, if they had any sense about them, they look around and say, Oh my goodness, it's happening. They're mocking him, they're dividing his clothing. They've pierced his hands and his feet. And he finishes by saying, It is finished. What I'm trying to say is simply this the cross is so monumental, it's so important, that God spent thousands of years foreshadowing it. Not just foreshadowing Jesus, not just foreshadowing that his son would come and be among us, but but God spent thousands of years saying, hey, be on the lookout for this. Hey, keep your eyes peeled for this moment because the cross is so consequential, it matters. It's the most important moment in history because it's the moment that everything changed. Not just for God, not just for Jesus, but for me and you. You know, if if I asked you to think of the most important day of your life. Like what's the what's the best day of your life? What day in your life has had the most impact, has changed things the most? You'd probably have a lot of different options. I could think of several. I can think of moments with our church that I'm like, that was a consequential day that's like changed things for us. The day that our debt was forgiven as a church. That was monumental. But I would never pick that, right? That would be like, that'd be my job. My family would be so mad. No, of course I've got to figure out which moment in my family is the most consequential. I could pick any of my kids being born, but there's four of them. You know? And it's like they kind of run together. Sometimes we'll be like, remember when Judah was born and this happened, and Megan will be like, no, that was Eli. And I'm like, you sure? Yes. Okay. You probably remember those really well. Like I could pick any moment that my when my one of my children came into the world, it was a monumental day. I picked my wife. I love my wife so much. The day we were married, big time. Like she walked down the aisle, I got a single masculine tear in my eye, you know, but held it in, because I'm a man. By the way, guys, it's okay for men to cry. A little. Okay? No one needs a man all out of control. I'm just joking. Kind of, kind of joking. Okay. So that was monumental, but even in my relationship with Megan, what was probably more monumental was uh the moment where we realized that God was really gonna let us get married. Because I fell in love with Megan. She was still in high school, she was a year younger than me. I was a senior, she was a junior, and we went to prom together. I was like, I do not want to break up with this girl. I was moving a thousand miles away to college, and so we were kind of a new relationship at the time, and I'd already decided on where I was gonna go to school, and my parents were like, you're not changing your college plans because you got a girlfriend, and that was probably good. And then she was like, Well, I'm gonna go to college where you go a year from now, and her dad was like, Oh no, you are not following some boy a thousand miles away from me to college because you went to prom together and you're all in love. You know, that's her name. I don't know if Lewis is in the room, but he said that. In fact, I know this because she told me on the phone that her dad said, God would have to give me undeniable proof that you're supposed to go there for me to let you go. And so we prayed. God, we need you to do something because we want to be together. And I was convinced, she was convinced, the college I was at, a thousand miles away, is the only college she applied to. I don't know if her parents knew that. Um I bought her an engagement ring while she was still in high school. My parents definitely didn't know that. Um I mean, that's how in love we were, and then this day came where she had applied for this incredible scholarship that they only gave to four incoming freshmen every year. And if she got the scholarship, college was paid for. And we prayed about it, and she came up and she interviewed for it, and it was like the odds are small, but maybe, just maybe, and she called me. I'll never forget the day she called me and said she got a letter that she got the scholarship. And turns out free college is undeniable proof. For any father. And so, you know, the rest is history. That day was monumental. That day changed everything. In fact, that day it was like, God, you've done this, and our marriage was kind of like just a formality after that. Like we knew it was gonna happen. We're together and we got married a few years later, and it was great. I've had so many moments in my life that were monumental. And I'm sure all of us could could think of several. No, that that day, that was the day that meant the most. But the truth of the matter is the best day of my life is the day Jesus died on the cross. The most consequential day in my life, the most consequential day in yours, is the day that Jesus, before you were born, before you were even a thought, in advance of you being here, Jesus paid the debt for all your sin, all your shame, all your guilt, allowing you to be born into this world where you can know, you can know, not just believe, not just have some faith, but you can know that the God who created you is good with you, and he loves you, and there's nothing that stands between him and you. There's nothing that can ever separate you from him because every single thing you ever have done wrong, whatever you're doing wrong right now, whatever you're gonna do wrong in the future, it's already been covered by Jesus on the cross. There is nothing that has happened in my life or your life that can top that. Nothing can top that. It's the most, it's the most important day of your life. It's the best day of your life. And this is the craziest part to me in all of it. Years ago, I was reading Ephesians chapter 1, and it says something very interesting. Totally changed my perspective on things. It says, even before he made the world, this is before the beginning. God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. Now, how do we become holy and without fault in his eyes? It's by placing our faith in Jesus and in the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross, right? So he decided that. It's like God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing him to himself, by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Now I had grown up believing that Jesus dying on the cross is what God had to do because of all my mistakes. It was, it was what, it was like the only option he was left with. This wasn't plan A or plan B or plan C. This is this is it. This is the the I guess I gotta do this. But that's not what this says. It says that before he created the world, God knew you, knew us, and he understood everything we would ever do, and he understood all the mistakes we would make. He knew that we would screw up, he knew that we would walk away from him, he knew that we would sin. He knew all of the horrible things that humanity, like like humanity's just basically one giant, hold my beer, uh, let me outdo the bad thing that we've done in the past. You know what I mean? Like every century, it's like, oh, you think that was bad? Watch this. And God knew all of that. He knew all of that. And before creating us, he never said, you know what? On second thought, I'm just not gonna make them. I'm gonna come up with some other plan. No, it says, no, I know that this is the way it's gonna go down, and I'm gonna create them, and I'm gonna send my son. And he's gonna have to pay the ultimate sacrifice to cover that. But that's gonna make it possible to bring them into a relationship with me, and this is plan A. That's what he wanted to do. Jesus did not go to the cross kicking and screaming. It's important we remember that. I've thought about it in these terms before. Jesus did not get nailed to the cross, Jesus allowed them to nail him to the cross. You know, our church are called his hands, and there's lots of stories in scripture of Jesus in his hands and what he does with them. It's powerful. He heals people with his hands, he raises his hands in the air and tells a storm to stop, and it does. He reaches his hands into the water and pulls Peter, who's walking on water but sinks because he loses sight of Jesus, he pulls him out with it. I mean, Jesus takes bread and some fish, and with his hands he divides it, and it miraculously multiplies, and it feeds thousands of people. I mean, Jesus does powerful things with his hands. And what humility and surrender it must have taken for him to allow those nails to go through his hands for us. But guys, it's what he wanted to do. Because he loves you. And so here we are. And it's the start of Holy Week, it's Palm Sunday, and this week is a special week. And here's all I'm I'm hoping for with this message. It's very simple. This week, we would be unusually mindful about what Jesus has done for us. Specifically this Friday. I don't know what your plans are for Friday, but this Friday is special. This is a good Friday. This is the Friday that we we remember what Jesus did for us. And so if you're a Jesus follower, take time this Friday to commemorate, to reflect, and to celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus has made for you because it's changed everything. You know, I said earlier that that without the cross, Easter is just another miracle. But see, because of Jesus dying as a sacrifice and being raised to life again, that put an end to the whole system of having to constantly sacrifice and sacrifice and make an offering to cover up for the most recent sin. That's the way people engaged with God for centuries. They'd mess up, they'd make a sacrifice, then they'd mess up again and have to make another sacrifice. We don't have to do that. We don't have to do that at all. Zero percent of our budget goes to buying sacrificial goats. I love it. I'm so grateful. But like that's been the way that the world has engaged with God for all time, like constantly in this pattern of mess up and then try to make up and mess up and make up. You don't have to make up for yesterday. You don't have to make up for last week, you don't have to make up for anything in your life because Jesus paid the price, it's finished, it's done, and then he rose to life again, just letting all of us know I was serious, I'm victorious, it's over. Now just enjoy a relationship with the God who created you and follow me. Changed everything. So this Friday, celebrate it. Yeah, you clap for that. But celebrate it. Like, like honestly, take time. This Friday, take time with your family. If you have a family at home, get your whole family together and spend some time saying, Hey, we're gonna pray and we're gonna thank Jesus for what happened on the cross. You know, if you're single, man, take time alone with God, like, oh, I have six people live in my house. I'm one of them. And man, it'd be great if there was just one every once in a while. You know, I actually had this unique opportunity. Megan uh went away with the kids for two days earlier this week, and then I came up and was with them from Wednesday on. And I was like, when I got to Megan, she was like, How was it? I was like, I'm not gonna lie. It was awesome. I mean, I love you all so much. But I told Megan, I was like, I realized that if our if not for our children, our house would never be messy again. Like, it just there's no like our the house is perfect. I did forget to water all the plants, and they're dead. They're all dead. I'm serious. I forgot. But other than that, it was great. But if you're you know, if you're single and alone, just spend some time, some one-on-one time with God on Friday, and just reflect and commemorate and thank Him. Like one thing we're gonna do is we're gonna put together a worship playlist this week, and we'll post it on our website on Friday, and it's just a worship playlist that's kind of hyper-focused on the cross. And you can just go there on Friday and maybe take some time, take 30 minutes, an hour if you want, and just say, I'm gonna set some time aside, and my home is just gonna be a place of remembrance and gratitude, and we're just gonna put on this worship playlist and just think about the cross and what it meant, and just say, Thank you, God. Like there's nothing you can do to pay him back for that. It's just a broken spirit where you say, I'm just in awe. Thank you, Jesus. So if you're a Jesus follower this Friday, it's a big deal. Easter's happening on Sunday, woo. But like Easter's woo and the cross is is whoa. It's waiting, but it changes everything. It's the best day of your life. If you're not a Jesus follower, then I encourage you to become one. Like right now. Guys, like, if you haven't given your life to Jesus, this is no, this is honestly, when when I talk with people who aren't quite there yet, the number one response I get when it comes to like, I'm interested, I'm thinking about it, and what people will often say is I just don't know if I'm ready yet. And in their mind, ready means they've got to get all their affairs in order. They gotta fix all this stuff so that when they come to Jesus, they're like, better? And that is just, I'm sorry, that's not how it works. I've been following Jesus for 20-something years, and some days I don't really know if I'm better. But I know that I'm loved, I know that I'm forgiven. I know that all my issues are covered. I know that I've been made holy, not because of how I've arranged my life better, but because of what Jesus has done for me. It's not what you do that defines your relationship with God, it's what he has done. And so if you're like, man, I I there's part of me that's like, I want to go all in with Jesus, but there's this other part of you that's like, I'm just not so sure and I don't feel worthy, none of us are worthy. And God is not waiting for the day that you finally get your act together and then you give your life to him. Like, he just wants you now, as is. As is. It's like it's like if you put a house for sale, it's like, will anyone buy this as is? Megan and I have sold a few homes and we recognize no one will buy this the way it is right now. So we gotta like fix it up. You know, and then we would fix it up and be like, why didn't we do this when we lived here? I don't know. Well, we're moving, you know, time to go ruin another house. Uh no, we get better at it every time. But like, God buys you as is. He bought you as is, and he paid a premium. Like, the price was was Jesus. And so you might think, well, I then I have been severely overvalued. But that would mean God is wrong, and he's just not. He has bought you as is. So wherever you are, however you are, whatever amount of progress you feel like you're at in life, you are ready for God. He loves you, he's died for you. It's already happened. I was talking to a young man years ago about this thing, he said, Look, I never just I never would have asked Jesus to die for him, and I was like, it doesn't matter, it's too late, it already happened. So you just have to figure out how to respond to it. If you haven't given your life to Jesus, now is the time. And I'm not the kind of guy, if you're new to his hands, if you're watching from home, this applies to you guys too. I'm not the kind of guy who stands on a stage and is like, right now, this second. Because we're not a church that's about pressure. But I will I will tell you that you have an opportunity if you haven't given your life to Jesus. You have an opportunity at the very start of one of the most powerful weeks that has ever happened in the history of the world. You have the opportunity to give your life completely and wholly to God, knowing that you are totally loved, knowing that he loves you so much that for centuries, for thousands of years, he planned Jesus coming and dying on the cross. He wanted to do it, he loves you, he has everything in store for you. He has forgiveness and grace and mercy and love. He will never abandon you, he will never leave you, he will never fail you. And all he's asking for is faith, is just belief. That's it. And so if you're ready to say, I do, I do believe, then he's like, he's here for you. Make that decision right now, today. And here's what I would tell you to do: go sign up to be baptized. That's the first step of obedience you take when you follow Jesus. And look, we'll baptize you next Sunday. Easter Sunday. You can get baptized on Easter if you want. That'd be awesome, by the way. Then you can like brag about that. You know, you can post on social media, I got baptized on Easter, and all the all the silly Christians who got baptized on a day that wasn't Easter are like, I should have done that, and you can be like, Well, you didn't, it'll be great. But honestly, like, these two tanks that we have on our stage, we fill them up every single week, even if no one has been signed up to be baptized. We fill them up, we heat the water. Yeah, we love you. Because if someone texts us on a Saturday night and said, I'm ready to be baptized, we would never say, Ah, sorry, the water's not ready. Like it's always ready. So next Sunday for Easter, we'll baptize you. And you can have this Easter Sunday be the first Easter Sunday for the rest of your life where you're coming into it 100% totally a child of God, part of God's family. It'll be unlike anything you've ever experienced. And so, Jesus followers, this Friday, enjoy it, savor it, thank God for it, worship Him. If you haven't given your life to Jesus, let this be the last moment that that statement applies to you, because there's nothing like a relationship with Him. I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna stop talking because speaking of baptisms, we're gonna do that. So, Lord, thank you for this day, thank you for this morning, thank you for this church. I love this group of people so much. Lord, help us be filled with gratitude for the cross, for what it means for us, that you purchased us as is, flaws in all. And it wasn't just some last-minute decision that you made because you were out of options. It's something that you planned from the very beginning. In fact, Lord, you planned it from before the very beginning. And you spent thousands of years hinting and hinting and foreshadowing that the cross was going to happen. And it says, Lord, in scripture, that you enjoyed that planning process because you love us so much that the idea of giving everything for us made you smile, blessed you. Lord, thank you. Fill our hearts with gratitude, fill our hearts with awe, help us, help us enjoy this week, every aspect of it as we reflect on Jesus. It's a hard week in many ways. It's hard to think about our Savior on the cross. It's hard to think about our Savior going through what he went through. But Lord, we know how the story ends. And we know about the ultimate victory when he rose from the grave. And we're gonna come back next week and we're gonna celebrate that like crazy. We love you, Jesus. It's in your name we pray. Amen.