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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's words you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 830 or 10:30 a.m. If you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, find [email protected] be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Jessica Roca did what a lot of people do. Anytime they're getting ready to graduate high school or maybe graduate college. One of the things that usually happens is you get a senior picture or you get some kind of graduation photos. And usually one of the things that happens, maybe this is because of Instagram, I don't know. But you find a field, you want to go to a field. Maybe it's a field that's filled with flowers, or maybe it's a field that's filled with grass, like knee lengths high. And you stand in that field with your nice outfit, and you get your picture or pictures taken. And that's exactly what Jessica did. But the field that she chose to get her graduation photos in was one very different, not one that most people pick. And that was a field of crops, specifically a crop field of strawberries. See, what happened in Jessica's life is when she was really little, her mom and her dad, along with her as a little baby, migrated here. And as being immigrants here in the United States, freshly coming into the country, they didn't have a lot of money, and so they tried to find a job. The first job, and the only job that actually was presented to them was the opportunity for her mom and her dad to work in the strawberry field.
And so every single day, sometimes even into the wee hours of the night, Jessica's mom and dad would be working in that field. Well, as Jessica started to grow up, guess what she also started doing? Working in that same strawberry field. And so she would work with her mom and dad during the day and when she would get out of school. And according to Jessica, several of the things that she remembers, even as a little girl, was that there would be certain times that her mom and dad would be working so late in that field that they would make her mat on one of the crop rows, let her fall asleep. The bus would come by, and sometimes she said she would only have, like, an hour or two of sleep. They would help put her on that bus, and she would go to school. While she was in school, mom and dad continued to work in that field. Well, Jessica ended up graduating from high school, and when she graduated from high school, she decided to go to University of California family to go to college. They continued to work in that strawberry field every single day and oftentimes nights, walking down, up and down every single one of those rows of crops.
When she thought about the great sacrifice that her parents had made for her to go get an education, but also just to have and make a living, she wanted to get her cap and gown, and you can see in the pictures behind me that she wanted to get her graduation photos in that very field where her mom and dad, and even she as a little girl, worked.
According to her, the reason why she wanted her graduation pictures in this field. She said, I never want to forget the sacrifice that my mom and my dad made for me.
Now, I don't want to just remember that, but I want their sacrifice to actually encourage and inspire me to make sacrifices of my own.
I would dare to say, for every person in this room, when you go back into your own family's heritage, there's somewhere along the lines you can think about or remember the sacrifice that somebody made in your genealogy, in your family, that helped you to get where you are.
I know for me, the first one I think of is my mom and dad. The place that we lived in Montgomery, the school I was zoned for was not the greatest school. And so what they wanted is me to go to a christian school. But the problem was, we didn't have the money to go to a christian school. So I remember growing up from the age of four, all the way till the day I got married, my mom and dad. My mom cleaned the church building, and my dad cleaned this three story retirement complex on Faulkner's campus called Elizabeth Wright Apartments. They cleaned the church building and he cleaned that complex in order for me to be able to go to a christian school. But one of the things I remember, even as a kid, kind of like Jessica, I used to ask them, I was, you know, every Sunday. I know. And every Thursday, we're cleaning this church building. When will we get to stop doing this? And you know what my mom said? She said, the day you get married, you'll get to stop. And I'm not kidding. Lorianne and I got married on a Friday. Mom gave me a list of things to do that very Friday morning at the church building, which included the toilets and trash.
The day we got married, I was done. So she really did use my labor up until then.
But I would dare to say we all have something like that. That not only was it something we witnessed, but it was something that we are a part of. And I know for me now, I know what they went through. And at that time, I didn't fully appreciate it. But then the more I start to think about that sacrifice they made, they don't want me just to say, hey, thank you. But I know for my mom and dad, they want me to do something with it. The same thing for Jessica. The way you and I honor the sacrifice of somebody is through surrender. It's not just enough to talk about it, but what we have been called to do is to do something with that sacrifice.
Brandon and I, over the past few weeks, have been doing a series on each and every one of the gifts that were brought to Jesus soon after his birth. And as we were going through those gifts and looking at them, we've been looking at the practical and the spiritual significance of each and every one of them. Well, the one that we're going to conclude with today is the gift of myrrh. And the gift of myrrh. And Myrrh was something that, during these days, was representative of sacrifice. It was used as something we're going to talk about that was used to embalm the dead, but to symbolize that there was a sacrifice that would be made. But we're going to look at two men in particular, that when Jesus, after he had died, they have this picture of them walking to one of the most important people in their land, asking for the body of Jesus. When they found out about the sacrifice of Jesus, they understood that what they must do is respond by surrendering to it. And so what I want to encourage us with, as we look at this today, is to not just think about the sacrifice that Jesus made, but understand, just like Joseph of Arimathea, just like Nicodemus, that the way we honor sacrifice is in our own lives, surrendering ourselves to it. So let's go to the context. In Matthew, chapter two, the wise men have made this really long trip to go see Jesus. One of the estimates that we've been talking about is maybe several hundred miles. Well, knowing that that's likely the case when they show up with these gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, more than likely, Jesus was at least two years old. And so that kind of changes our picture, because if you bring a gift to a newborn baby, they don't really know what's going on. But we had Christmas with Lorian's family yesterday, and one of the things that happened is we had these little ones that are close to two years old, that even though they're not babies, but yet they're not, like, three or four, they still knew what was going on. And so today we usually give know toys or we give a monogrammed outfit. What's a baby supposed to do with gold and frankincense and myrrh? Well, what Brandon and I have been looking into is the practical nature. First of each and every one of these gifts, you think about gold for Joseph and Mary. A lot of people believe that the reason this was such a practical gift is as they were trying to escape what was ruled in their land. Death of any child, two and under. That would have cost them a lot of money. They weren't known for having a lot of money and being super wealthy. And one of the things that was assumed is that usually a gift like this that was given of gold could have lasted them their entire lives. So when they went through moments of difficulty that they could have pulled from that gold to help make a living, there was also the practical nature that Brandon talked about last week of frankincense. And what makes frankincense so incredibly practical is, and some of you know this, whether you've had it as an essential oil or not, but frankincense is something that is known to be of great healing. It is known that was kind of during the day of, if you had a sickness, if you had something going on, an element of some sort, that you would use frankincense a lot of times to bring about healing for you. It was super practical. But here's what's interesting about each and every one of these gifts. Not only are they practical, but more importantly, they represent things that are spiritually deep. For the gold. We talked about, that gold represented the kingship of Christ. That when the gold was given to Jesus, what they are saying and declaring is that he is to be king. And if you remembered, as we talked about that, that we can't just say, hey, I see Jesus as king in our lives. We have to allow him to set up a kingdom. To allow him to make reign and rule in our decisions. To make reign and rule in our hearts. To make reign and rule in our lives. That if we say he's our king, we also have to say, you have a kingdom. But the other part we looked at with the frankincense last week, that one of the things in temple worship they would do is they would put that frankincense there and the incense would go up to heaven. And that was symbolic of what Jesus is going to be for us today. That when you and I pray right now, we probably, a lot of us in our prayers say in Jesus what name that we know that it's Jesus Christ that is taking up to the Father. That if on our own, we took it up, it wouldn't hit the ceiling. But yet, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, he brings up that offering so we can have that stand in through Jesus Christ to bring up our request to the Father. Well, then, if you'll notice here, the next one that was brought was Myrrh. Now, myrrh is somewhat similar to frankincense in the fact that it comes from a tree. But frankincense was known as something that was a little bit more of a sweet taste. Myrrh was actually known as something that was kind of bitter. In fact, it was known as a bitter resin. And one of the things it was used for was to embalm the dead, but also to deaden pain. In fact, the Egyptians, if you remember some things from that time period of history, the Egyptians actually use myrrh all the time on mummies and wrapping of their bodies. You might remember in the story of Lazarus, when the Bible said that Lazarus was so dead that he. What? He stunk. And one of the reasons why he would have stunk is that they hadn't yet prepared his body. Maybe with myrrh. Myrrh was something that would get rid of that stench in that smell. It was interesting that something bitter could take away. Also something that was bitter. And the reason why I mentioned that is this is a tree that myrrh would come from. Brandon gave an awesome picture last week of how the man would go up to the tree and start pulling from it, and then the SAP would ooze. That's exactly what happened with myrrh. The SAP would ooze, it would get hard, and then you would start to chip away at it.
If you were to taste it, if you were to touch it and get in on your fingertips, even the smell was something that was incredibly bitter. But what was interesting about mer being symbolizing of sacrifice was also the bitterness that is involved in a sacrifice.
One of the things we all know we've gone through bitter moments in life, and not that we invite those, not that we necessarily, of course, want those but while we think about all those bitter, difficult moments we've gone through, sometimes we can also see that those bitter moments also produce for us a lot of growth. I think back to the story of Ruth and Naomi. Do you remember when Naomi lost her two sons and she also lost her husband? Do you remember what she said? She said, don't call me Naomi anymore, but call me Mara. Mara means bitter. She said, call me bitter. Like, that's the way I'm feeling. That's the way life has dealt me this kind of hand. In Exodus chapter 15, God's people had been wondering, and they had just crossed the Red Sea. God had provided them so many things, but yet they were thirsty. They find a place in Exodus 15 to drink water. Drink that water. They spew it out because it's bitter. They make this long journey, but yet they have to drink of bitter water. But later, as we read in the text, it makes them appreciate what they have. The reason I say that is that. That myrrh was something that was symbolic of sacrifice, but also the bitterness that goes into a sacrifice.
Whenever I study with people, one of the things that I like to do is to get a whiteboard. And I try to connect the Old Testament to the New Testament, because I want them to see that the Bible is not two different books. It's one book with one overall story that has, in essence, two chapters, one reflecting the other and the other reflecting the former. And whenever we go through that study, one of the things that we talk about is the gift of a lamb on that altar. I don't know if you guys are like me, but when I was younger, and I used to always think about that lamb on that altar, I used to think, why, like, of all things you could do, why would you have to put a lamb on an altar? That didn't mean to me, makes sense. But during this day, the lamb or their animal was, in essence, their livelihood. It would have been something that they would have poured a lot of time and a lot of energy and effort into. And so every year on the day of atonement, they would put that animal up on that altar. They would burn the wood on that altar, and then the blood would then go down. And on that day of atonement, it would cleanse their sins. And so for them, it was great to know that their sins were forgiven. But the bitterness was that animal that they had helped raise, that animal that they had trained, that animal that they had spent so much time on is now dead. Like, why did God make them do that? Well, he's giving us a picture that anytime we sin, there is some kind of loss. There's something bitter. We go through that when we sin. It's no such thing as an isolated sin. Our sin doesn't just impact us, our sin impacts other people. That's what this myrrh was symbolic of, is that whenever there was sacrifices made, yes, it was bitter, it was difficult, but it was ultimately for our good. But here's the difference between those Old Testament and those New Testament sacrifice is in the Old Testament, they would put that animal up on that altar. But the Bible says in Hebrews ten that the blood of bulls and goats is unable to take away the sins of the world.
Now, we look at those Old Testament sacrifices, they're giving us a shadow of our desperate need for Jesus Christ.
In fact, if you look in the book of Hebrews, he said that those sacrifices of old, they were just merely a shadow. Well, what does that mean? Imagine for just a second you go to a lot that has a bunch of trees on it because you're wanting some firewood. And you go to that lot and you say, hey, I want to get your best firewood that you have. And the guy says, oh, absolutely. And so he starts to take you over to the corner of this field. He shows you this massive tree. He said, this is your tree. This is the tree that has the firewood that you want. He's like, yeah, that's the one I want. And he said, all right, here's what. What I'm going to do. I'm going to sell you this tree shadow for $50.
Well, you're not going to want that, because you don't want the shadow of the tree. What do you want?
You want the tree itself. Why? Because the tree is what provides you warmth. The tree is what you need.
The same thing with the sacrifices of old. They were just merely a shadow. I'll give you another example. A few weeks ago, it was just two days, but I had been away from my wife and my kids.
And if you've been away from people that you miss a lot of times, I love to kind of look at pictures, and iPhone is very nice that they like to give you the memory of what you were doing a year ago today or five years ago today. And so when I opened my iPhone, it immediately popped up several of the memories of, like, five years ago or one year ago. And I was going through those pictures, and I was like, man, I can't believe they grew up so much. And I can't believe that they look like that. And I remember that time. And I want to tell you in that moment, because I miss my family. That did me really good. But let me ask you, would I rather have pictures of my kids or would I rather be with my kids?
I'd rather be with them. That it's not that there was anything wrong with the pictures, but I want the real thing. What we're seeing as we think about those old Testament sacrifices, it wasn't that the Old Testament sacrifices were wrong or it was that they were evil. The thing about those Old Testament sacrifices, they were shadows. They were insufficient to deal with the thing that we all need to be dealt with. And that is our sin problem, that we didn't want a shadow. We want the real thing. Everything in the Old Testament is pointing to that shadow, which is Jesus Christ. And so as we think about that, without that sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you and I will never get beyond the shadows of God. So here's the question. Knowing that myrrh represents sacrifice, we're going to look at two guys that help answer this question. What do we do with that sacrifice? You think back to Jessica Roca. It wasn't just enough for her to take a picture in that field. She wanted that picture to motivate her to surrender herself to a life of service and helping other people. I know for me, when I was cleaning those toilets, mom wasn't wanting me just to remember that. She was wanting me to create a pattern in my life. The same thing for each and every one of us. What do we do with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
We need to surrender ourselves to it. You know, it's interesting. If you are a church history person, you might find this interesting. But if you are not, it's interesting to me that if you look at a greek orthodox calendar, one of the things that they have on that calendar, of course, is what we see on our calendars too, which is Easter Sunday. Well, the following Sunday after Easter Sunday, greek orthodox churches celebrate what is called mer bearing Sunday. And the reason why they celebrate that is that they had noticed that a lot of times Easter rolls around and we celebrate the fact that Christ rose from the dead, which we should. But they also wanted to create a pattern and a lifestyle that, knowing he has risen from the dead and given his life, we all need to do something with it. In greek orthodox churches, what they tend to do is they highlight Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. So as we think about how we can better serve Christ through our sacrifice, let's look at these two men to understand what we should do with his sacrifice. Here's what it says in John 19 after these things. Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but notice this. But secretly, because of fear of the Jews, he asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus, here's the second guy, also earlier, had come to Jesus. By night, he came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloe, about 75 pounds in weight. Now, I want to stop here for just a second. When we read 75 pounds of weight, that may not mean a lot to us. But one of the things that I read this past week, it said that wealthy, well known people in those communities that whenever they died, that they would use usually 20 pounds of myrrh and aloe to cover their bodies. So when these guys bring 75 pounds, do you know how much that was equated to somewhere between 150 and $200,000 today to embalm his body? I mean, this is incredible coming from two guys that kind of just stood at a distance. But doesn't that also give us the picture that at all times we look around, there are people that are seeking. There are people that are looking. That's exactly what's happened with these two men. So what can we learn from the first one, Joseph of Arimathea? Well, not only can we learn a little bit about his background, but we can learn a lot about the actions he took as a person that gave sacrifice. It says this in Mark 15. This is Mark's account of what happened. It said that when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath. Joseph of Arimathea was a respected member of the council. The Sanhedrin, who was also himself waiting for the kingdom of God, took courage, went boldly to Pilate, and he asked for the body of Jesus. Now, one of the things, anytime you're translating the Bible or from its original text in Greek into English, one of the things that you oftentimes come across is moments where there's, like twelve greek words that would be used for maybe one of our english words. And this is one of those instances. And here's why this is important. When it says here, and this is the ESV, that he was a respected member of the council, some of your translations say he was an honorable counselor. The reason why that matters, the Bible is trying to make sure we understand this guy had a lot of influence. The word honorable really focused or the word respected in the Greek would have focused on the idea of an outward appearance. People knew who he was when he would walk through the streets. People like, that's him. That's the one. Like, he had a very well known name. He had a really well known influence. But then it also says that he was a member of the council. That would have been the Sanhedrin. So the Bible's trying to make sure we understand this guy who's about to come out into the open and say, hey, I want his body. This would have put he and his life and his family in a huge amount of jeopardy. He was about to lose that influence with that certain group of people. He was about to lose some of his living by saying, hey, I want to take care of that body. I mean, this was a big deal for him to come out into the open.
In fact, one of the things that it says is this about him, that the way he did this is he first spent some time waiting.
Now when we use the word wait today, we kind of use it in more of a passive tense waiting, as in just kind of standing back off and distance, seeing what's going to happen next. If you look in the Bible in the way that the Bible uses the word wait, it's not passive waiting. Anytime it's usually used in the bible is active. It's the idea of looking with eager anticipation in order to act. That's the idea of waiting. Kind of like my uncle Dean. When I was growing up, my dad had a twin brother. My dad's name is Pop, and we called my dad's twin brother Tupac, which is kind of a funny name, but anyway, so we always would wait for Tupac. And when I was a kid, I remember a house in Montgomery. On my window was, you know, the age where I could sit on it, and I would pull up the blinds, and I would look for a white car. He had a little white Corolla. And I would always be looking for any white car. Anytime a white car came by, I was like, that's him. Oh, that's not him. That's him. That's not him. That's him. And I was eagerly waiting for him to get there. Well, the moment that he got there, I would be the first one to greet him at the door. I was the first one to give him a hug and to bring him in. And Uncle Dean told me the moment he came into our house, I would walk him into my room, shut the door, and lock it so no one could have time with Uncle Dean. Like Tupac. So that's the way that I treated that. That's the idea of waiting here.
It's not just sitting back. And, man, I hope something happens.
I'm saying there are people like that right now. There are people that aren't just sitting back. It may feel like wait, but they are looking for something. And the beauty of what Jeremiah says, as we talked about a few weeks ago, jesus and God are the easiest people to play hide and seek with. The Bible says, if you seek me with your whole heart, you will find me. This idea of waiting is with eager anticipation, ready to act. And you might be in a spot right now in your life where you've been waiting for something, but your waiting is more passive. I'm waiting for an answer. Well, maybe you should take that next step, reach out to somebody that's been there, that's done that, that's maybe had questions of their own, because notice what happened next. He waited. And notice what it says. He took courage.
I love that phrase, took courage, because one of the things that that describes is exactly what the disciples struggled with over and over again, and that was courage. Do you know what Jesus said twice in the gospels to the disciples when they were dealing with fear? He didn't say, hey, guys, go be courageous, because he knew there's moments in time that we don't feel courageous. We don't feel like stepping out. We don't feel like challenging ourselves. We don't feel like growing. So courage is something that sometimes does not come natural. Courage is something a lot of times you have to take. It's something you have to grab. And so, for him, he was waiting. And when the moment came, he took that courage. And it says this, he went boldly to Pilate.
If you ask this guy by job title what he was, he was probably going to be in the who's who of that day. He was somebody that, if you looked at his resume, he had a lot of things that were going on.
He's a guy to me, like a lot of us, and he's maybe a very well respected person. He's had a lot of accomplishments. But what I love about him, he did not let his title, he did not let his place in society impact the next step he took with Jesus.
One of the phrases that I've heard before is that what we're becoming is way more important at times than what it is we're actually doing.
And I love that, because if you think about it, what do we call us as humans? We don't call us human doings, we call us human beings. It's the idea of what am I going to be? What's going to happen next? It's that idea of pursuing righteousness that we're always taking that next step in growth. That's Joseph of Arimathea. Maybe you're here today and you're trying to figure out how to take that next step. Let me go ahead and tell you you need to wait.
But it's not passive. It's active looking with eager anticipation for what God's going to do next. And if you don't feel courageous, let me go ahead and tell you you're not. And so because of that, you're going to have to take it. It's going to have to be something you grab. And then when you do take that bold step, here's the next one. There's Nicodemus. It said that there was also this guy named Nicodemus that showed up to ask for the body of Jesus. And if you remember what it said in that text earlier, it said he was the guy that came to Jesus at night. Here's that moment, and this is one of my favorites. When Brandon and I did the series of encounters with Jesus, it says that there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, rabbi, we know that you're a teacher, that you've come from God because nobody can do the signs that you're doing unless God's with him. Now we got to get a little bit of context of who this guy is. When it says that he is a ruler of the Jews, we know Nicodemus is this. He's a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a group of 6000 elite people.
But when it says he's a ruler, that meant he was one of the 71.
So you see who he is. He's one of the 71 of the 6000. So he's on the top tier. Similar to who? Joseph of Arimathea. Both of them have a reputation. Both of them have influence. Both of them are making a living, by the way, through this.
It says here that Nicodemus came to Jesus at what time of day?
At night. Why did he come to him at night? Well, he didn't want other people to find out. So you see him seeking.
But I love the way that he's seeking. He's seeking through what?
Still pursuing. He didn't go to Jesus about, hey, can we meet at the Starbucks? He's in essence, saying, hey, can we go behind the chevron? I still want to talk to you. I just don't want other people to find out. But what's interesting about this, he says, rabbi, we know that you are a teacher. I love the fact that even though he had this certain reputation, that he was still willing to be challenged. One of the most important thumbprints of what it looks like to be a person that's sacrificial is a person that is willing to be challenged to say, hey, listen, I still have a lot to learn.
I still have a lot to grow in.
I think about several of the people here that I look up to in a big way spiritually. One of the things I hear most common from them, I still got a lot of growing to do.
When it comes to our life and our walk with Christ, there is no such thing on this earth as a rival. We're always growing. We're always learning. We're always pursuing, or as we talked about today, we're always waiting. But the other thing that I noticed about Nicodemus here is that their reputation in this society was known as people that were the best.
And here's the thing about them. They knew it, and they like to let other people know it. In fact, pharisees like him, one of the things that they would have done anytime that they obeyed one of the laws, they would get these tassels that would hang down from their garments, and they would walk through the streets like this to parade around to other people all the things that they had accomplished. That's who he is.
But yet he still makes the decision to what? To come to Jesus? Yes, at night. But every seeker is different. Everybody waits different. And the reason why I want to point this out is that sometimes it's easy to think that I might be better than you or be better than that person just because I obey better than you.
One of my favorite people to read about is Phil Jackson. And if you don't know him, he was one of the coaches for the Bulls and the Lakers. But one of the things he was really well known for is he coached some of the most well known athletes, and that was Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. And one of the things that made him such an impactful leader is the way that he treated everybody the same. In fact, if you think about it, he had two of the greatest basketball players of all time on his teams, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. And what's interesting is you've seen other phenoms like I have that are the best people in the league, but yet they don't win the same amount of championships. Well, I'll tell you, part of the reason why that is, is because of Phil. See, he had this mindset. He said, I don't care who you are. If Michael Jordan runs sprints, this guy's going to run sprints.
If this guy's going to run bleachers, Michael Jordan's going to run bleachers. If this guy, and he had this whole exercise where he would make them be blindfolded with a basketball, moving it around on a court that just know random Joe Robert Ori had to do, you also had to make the same thing happen with Kobe Bryant. That's the way he operated. And his idea was this, that when the rule applies to the greatest, it also applies to everybody else.
So when Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, Jesus then tells him, he says, listen, I know what your resume says.
I know what things you've accomplished. But what I also want you to understand is that the rule still applies to you.
And he says something to him, he says, unless you are born again.
See, when the rule applies to the greatest, it still applies to the least. See, the world is filled with people like Nicodemus. It's filled with people like Joseph of Arimathea. And I dare say it's all of us. We are know, to some degree, you think that every one of us, that somewhere along the lines, maybe it's this morning that we've kind of planned out our life of how everything should go. But then somewhere along the lines, we realize, you know what? I'm off.
I've charted myself the wrong position. There's in a story of a ship captain that was letting one of the young men on the boat use the compass to try to figure out where their next move should be. And so he says to the young man, hey, I want you to help us kind of navigate our way through the sea. I want you to give me the latitude and the longitude of where we need to go next. He said, oh, I got it. And he was so excited. He got that compass out. He was figuring out the latitude and the longitude. He said, captain, here's the latitude. Captain, here's the longitude. And the captain said, are you sure that's correct? He goes, yes, it's correct. I've never been wrong about this. I've never had the wrong latitude. I've never had the wrong longitude. He said, we'll check again. He goes, there's no need to check again. I know I'm right to which he responded, well, you better put on a jacket, because according to that latitude and longitude, we're going to be at the top of.
You know, I think we're all that man. We're all Joseph of Arimathea, we're all Nicodemus, that sometimes we've charted our own course, which is not necessarily bad, but what we've done is just invite God into something. Instead of understanding, God's invited us into something. And when that happens, we start to understand that the chart that we were laying out for us was wrong. And here's ThE BEAuty of JESus ChRist. Jesus ChriSt in our life always forces a definition.
It's not like this, this or there's not Three options. You're either with him or you're not. But the BEAuty of who he is, he gives you the opportunity. Maybe if you're seeking from far away, maybe you're seeking up close, maybe you're waiting that you have the opportunity anytime in your life because of the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus to take courage, and as the book of Hebrew says, to come before his throne boldly. Isn't that awesome to know that we have a God like that? Maybe you're here today and just like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, that you've lived a certain way, but you're dissatisfied where that's gotten you. And you might even think right now, well, is it worth me taking courage this morning? Is it worth me maybe making a step in my walk to boldly say, I need forgiveness of sins, I need the prayers of the church? Well, let me encourage you with this, that when you make sacrifices, here's a few things that happen. Number one, Satan can never take away from you what you give to God. That's the beauty of sacrifice. That if you give it to God, not only does God receive it, but one of the things the Bible talks about is God multiplies it. You make one big, bold decision today. God will multiply it not just into a bold decision for you, but some of you as a bold decision for your family. The other thing that we know about sacrifice is this, that it always yields eternal rewards. That whenever Paul talks about death, you know what he always connects it with? He always connects death with what is to come.
There's always an understanding of the reality of hope. And the final thing is this, that one of the reasons why you should choose sacrifice is because it changes you.
At the very beginning of this message, one of the things that we talked about is that we honor Christ's sacrifice. Through surrender in our life.
Sacrifice and surrender, while they do go hand in hand, they're different from one another.
That maybe you're here this morning and you do believe in that sacrifice. You look back at it, and you're like, man, I am so grateful because I know because of the grace of God, I have the hope of life eternal. I know because of the grace of God, I can have his spirit living within me. And I know because of the grace of God that I can have all of my sins washed away. It's one thing to know that. It's another thing to surrender yourself to it.
That I don't know about you, but when I think about the blessing of sins forgiven, I don't want it just to be something of the past. I need that continual cleansing. And I know when I think about the Holy Spirit and the blessing of that is that I know what life has gotten me. When I've been in the control center, when I've been trying to call the shots, when I've been walking my way, not in the way, but let Christ kind of join me along the way. I've seen the dangers of what happens. Maybe you're there, too. I pray for each and every one of us. Just like Jessica when she thinks back to the sacrifice her mom and dad made, that it's not just something she thinks about and appreciates, but it causes her to surrender herself to something greater. Maybe you're here today, and as you think about that sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you will do exactly what Joseph of Arimathea did to take courage and to take a bold step. Maybe the way you do that this morning is to come forward in front of this church family. We would love to pray for you or go to one of these exits and let one of our shepherds pray for you. Or maybe you want to give your life to Christ in baptism this morning. I want you to understand that as you're waiting, we have a heavenly Father that's looking, and that is such great news. So whatever it is that you have in need of today, please come while we stand and we sing this song.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: All to Jesus surrender all to him I really love and trust him in his presence daily.
I surrender all I surrender all to be my surrender all to Jesus I surrender Lord, I give myself to thee fill me with thy love and power thy blessing for me I surrender all I surrender all to be my life surrender all.
[00:40:24] Speaker C: Be seated, please.
First, I just want to say it's so good to see you all here with us today, and I hope you have a great Christmas with your family and a great time together. It's been an awesome day of worship. If you are a guest here with us this morning, one of the things that we always offer every single Sunday, but really every day, is the opportunity for you to be prayed for or to be encouraged in some kind of way. We offer, like we did this morning at the very end of a worship service, an invitation. And that invitation is, no matter what you've dealt with, no matter what you've been doing, as we talked about today, it's about what we're becoming. And so we have a brother here at Madison that wrote this down, that he wanted me to read it this morning. He's actually out of town, but I love the sense of urgency he felt to want to confess this, but to share it with you all, and I'll share more with you. This is what he says. Recently, I've heard something from a highly credible man who studies and discusses the Bible and other things. But the reason for this reading today is because of something that resonated with me on such a level that I immediately started in my life a brand new journey. Part of that journey is why I wrote this letter. In particular, the video I watched was the topic about God and the devil and how Satan is the ultimate liar. He's a deceiver and he's a manipulator. He will deceive you into justifying your actions, that they're okay, that you feel like you're not doing anything wrong, no matter what in God's eyes is sin and all sins.
In the video I was watching, the man was speaking metaphorically about sitting on a fence, not knowing whether you want to continue the spiral into sin. But remember, you reap what you sow, or take that step and hop off the fence and be on God's side. To be in allegiance with God. It doesn't matter what you're struggling with, because the reality is we are either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or preparing for another storm together. We need to be prepared. But like most of us, especially me, I struggle with one or more of these. I struggle with pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Maybe it's the fact that you're struggling with your relationship with God. Maybe your struggle is through prayer. Maybe for some of you, you just want to know that you're not alone and that God is always watching over you and that he'll never leave you. I want you to know that no matter the circumstance that is keeping you on that fence, just know you're not the only one. And know that no matter how dark or bad times may be, that God will provide you a way out. God is always and will always be there to help, no matter the magnitude of your circumstances. And when you decide it's your time to start a new journey or fully commit yourself to God, God will always give you a way of escape. Remember, this is not a one way street. It goes in two ways. So you have to be willing to commit yourself to that process. Know this, as I write this letter, I've only began my journey. There are still parts of me that are still sitting on that fence, running wide open, nonstop, unaware of what I was doing. And again, I know I reap what I sow. But when I saw that video, I immediately decided to try something different. Part of that is what led me to where I am today, and I'm writing this letter. Something inside me and stronger than myself is drawing me to get this message out to everyone.
I have thought about this for weeks now, but I realize this is my next step. With that being said, and he has in all caps I'm jumping off the fence and I'm ready to embrace God. Praise God. And I find the courage today. And I hope you find if you're here today to do the same, it doesn't have to be public. You can do this in your own privacy, but you want to take that leap of faith. I encourage you to join alongside me in getting off the fence. I can be public or it can be private. I want everyone who is sitting on the fence with me to take a moment. Let us pray together for the courage to do the same and jump off the fence. I love and respect everyone so much at Madison how you've helped me in my faith journey and I can take this leap of faith by typing this letter and I have the utmost belief and respect for those who join me. It's a small but I know, difficult task. Just know God will always be there for you and me in time of need. God bless you. Happy holidays to everyone who's watching the livestream and those that are physically at worship. God bless you on your next journey and I pray that you'll be successful no matter what obstacles come your way. Just stay diligent. Focus on God, not the traps of Satan, because he will be willing to be there at your weakest moment. Stay alert. Be aware of your surroundings. God bless you. Thank you. Signed, Joshua Crowell. We love Josh, love his family so, so much. And so let's spend this time right now to lift him before the father. And one of our shepherds, John Walton, has an announcement to make. God, we thank you so much for your sacrifice, the sacrifice that you gave of your son. And so, Lord, we know, as we think about that sacrifice that we have, as Josh talked about today, one of two options, to get off that fence or to follow you. And oftentimes Satan tries to deceive us to think that there is this middle option. There is no life in that middle option. But life is you. Life is in you. Life is through you. And, Lord, maybe it's for some of us that have put on Christ, but at times we've maybe grieved the spirit and we've not been walking as we should. Help us to understand the power you have and the power you have within us. Lord, help us to take hold of that. Maybe there's some of us in this room that are on the fence. Lord, I pray whatever it is for anybody in this room, exactly what Josh prayed, that they will get off that fence and walk to you knowing that you're a God that is looking. Lord, we also pray for Josh. We thank you so much for his heart, and we thank you for putting that video in his way. We thank you so much for putting your people along his path. And, Lord, we pray that he will continue to seek out your will. Lord, I thank you so much for the courage that he's exhibited, but also the lesson that he has shared and what it looks like to get off that fence. Lord, we pray for Josh, and we ask that you continue to be with him in his walk. Help him to know your love and to feel and know our love and support, too, just as Josh shared. We all deal with sins and we all have different things we struggle with. And, Lord, we know that when we bring those before you and we bring them before our brothers and sisters, the Bible says there is great healing through confession. Lord, we ask that you bring healing into Joshua's life. Help us to be a source and a pathway to help point him to you in that ultimate healing. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for every person that's here. Lord, we're all in a different place in our spiritual journey. And, Lord, I hope we know and we focus on and think about today, that it's about what we're becoming. And because of Jesus Christ, we can become better than we were. And we ask you that you be with us to give us courage for that and that we will take hold of it. We ask all these things in your son's name. Amen.
