Transcription
[music] [applause]
Father, I I pray that it blesses your heart. Um that your children gather and simply sing about the truth and reality of who you are, that you are a perfect holy God who does all things well. And so we come to say thank you that in your holiness part of that holiness is your humility that drew near to broken, fallen rebels and sinners in order to create a way through your son, Jesus Christ, for us to be reconciled to you and reconciled to one another.
[music]
And so I ask this morning as we open your word I pray that your spirit would be active and working. [music] Your word's enough. All I need to do is read it and you'll do your work. And so as we gather to humble ourselves under your word, Father, would you [music] draw those who are far from you near to yourself? Would you strengthen and encourage would you give us what we need as your children to take steps of obedience [music] towards you, but mostly would you help us? Would you give us wisdom and understanding and hearts that are soft and open to see your son Jesus Christ high and lifted up, exalted so that we might fall more in love with him, surrendering more of our lives to him today. And so Father, I pray that you'd [music] fill me with your spirit to serve your children really well. I pray that we would leave well fed on the truth of what a great Father you are and and Jesus, what you have done for us today. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Welcome to Hillside, y'all. Man, it's good to see you. Let me start out by welcoming guests and visitors. If if you've never been here before and this is your first second time we simply want to say we're delighted that you're here. Welcome. This is Hillside where a very simple group of people. We believe Jesus changes everything and he does that by changing us individually from the inside out. As humans were broken we generally we get frustrated with God. Why don't you change everything? But what we mean by that is why don't you change everything out there? Why don't you change your spouse? Why don't you change your kids? Why don't you change the government, the HOA and the other things that just kind of frustrate me? Why aren't God why aren't you at work? He he is changing everything and he always wants to start by changing me and starting from the inside change me from the inside out. He does this through a simple truth. It's called the gospel. Now the gospel just means good news. Many of you grew up and walked away from the church. You didn't understand that this whole book is about good news. The entire thing is about good news and for some of you I'm sad you were never told that. The really good news is this put in a nutshell. The good news is that Jesus was crucified for your sins. Jesus was buried and Jesus rose again. It's the best news this world has ever ever heard and it's that simple. You're like wait a minute. I thought there was something about not wearing clothes woven of two fabrics in here. That's not good news cuz I got polyester on you and I think God's mad. And then you're missing it.
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And I don't want you to miss it. Christ Jesus was crucified for your sins. Christ Jesus was buried and Christ Jesus rose again. Well Dave, how does that change anything? Changes everything. You know, let me walk you through it. You were born with the human condition which means you were born dead in your trespasses and sins and for a lot of your life you just tried to make it. And you sinned and and you function according to your own will and that's really bad news because with that came guilt and shame and burdens that separated you from from others and from God. And it was exhausting. The really good news is God so loved you that he sent his son Jesus Christ and Jesus died on that cross, but he didn't die for his sin. He had none. He died for your sin. So, if you come to him today and say, "I've sinned, will you forgive me?" He will say, "Yes. Yes." And he'll remove all of your sin as far as the east is from the west. That's where it starts. Forgiveness, justification, declared not guilty. You begin with everything in Christ Jesus, but he doesn't end there. You see, after he was crucified and put to death, we buried him and sealed the tomb and the Roman guards guarded it because that trickster Jesus Christ said he would rise again in 3 days. So, we guarded the tomb and you know what he did 3 days later? Yeah, he rose again. Our whole calendar kind of revolves around it. We call it Easter. It's the resurrection, the objective empirical historical resurrection of the person Jesus Christ. Why does that matter? It matters because as humans we're all desperately afraid of death and we pretend it's not coming and we try and cover it up and we buy a lot of Revlon and Just For Men to prove to others they're dying faster than we are because that makes us feel better on our social media pages, but the reality is death doesn't care how much Just For Men you use to cover up your gray. Death is coming and there's only one answer and only one hope. His name is Jesus Christ that when you put your faith in him, he gives you his life and because his life is eternal life, you can have eternal life in Christ Jesus by grace through faith. And when your sin is forgiven and your eternity is secure, you can know a peace, a joy, a patience [snorts] that is supernatural. It's other world worldly. It's found in Jesus Christ. And here at Hillside, none of this is hypothetical or theoretical to us. We're all a bunch of hot messes. And we gather together to celebrate the one who transforms hot messes into holy messes. His name's Jesus Christ. My name is Dave. I'm a new creature in Christ. I have new life in Christ. And Jesus Christ has done something for me that nothing in this world could. This August, he will have given me 23 years clean and sober as a recovering addict and alcoholic. So, if if you're just showing up, you're like, "Well, my sin's too great. God can't forgive me." No, I guarantee you mine's worse than yours. I've never met anybody worse than me. And if Jesus Christ can do that in and for me, he wants to do it in and and for you as well today. So, I want to show you how Jesus changes everything. You're not going to like this message, but it is beautiful and profound. Um let me show you how Jesus Christ changes everything in and through us individually and corporately as the as the body. Luke chapter 23, I'm going to read from verse uh 26 down through verse 39. We're going to see the perfectly tested one. His name is Jesus Christ, and because he was perfectly tested, he can be perfectly trusted. God says, Luke writes this in Luke chapter 23 verse 26. Uh when they led Jesus away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus. And following Jesus was a large crowd of people and and of women who were mourning and lamenting him, but Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. They will then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it's dry? Two others also who were criminals were being led away to to be put to death with Jesus. And when they came to the place called the skull, there they crucified Jesus and the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left, but Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they're doing." And they cast lots dividing up his garments among them themselves. And the people stood by looking. They were looking on and and even the rulers were sneering at Jesus saying, "Well, he saved others. Let him save himself if this is the Christ of God, the chosen one." The soldiers also mocked Jesus coming up offering him sour wine and saying, "If if you are the king of the Jews, why won't you save yourself?" And there now there was an inscription above Jesus that said, "This is the king of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanging there was was also hurling abuse at Jesus saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." This is God's word that we're going to get to sit in, soak in this morning.
So, let me let me begin this way and give you a big theological perspective on this passage through the whole Bible. If you read from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, the whole book, 782,815 words, seeking to understand, okay, what is God like so I can have a relationship with him? If I'm going to relate to God or to anyone else, I I have to know what they're like. If you read straight through the Bible, you would understand this truth from Psalm 18:30 that God is perfect. Everything he does is perfect. Uh everything that he does is without flaw. It's perfectly carried out. Now, that's good news and bad news. It's really hard to be in a relationship with somebody perfect. Amen. Anybody ever tried it? Or even to be in a relationship with someone who thinks they're perfect? It's difficult, isn't it? Because it exposes flaws. Well, here's the bad news. If you begin reading in Genesis chapter 3, once sin entered into this mug and began to ricochet and spread, sin is always pretend. It always pretends perfection, but it's absolutely phony. Do you know how much I'm just going to throw this out? It's a rhetorical rhetorical question. Do you know how much of our lives is pretend? Where we pretend to be perfect pastors or perfect parents or perfect spouse or the perfect mom or the perfect dad or the perfect human. Like so much of our life, we would call it the cultural norm, the sociological norm. So much of my life is pretend. I desperately hope nobody finds out how messed up I am. So we pretend and we end up being very phony. It takes external pressure to expose the pretend phoniness in us. If you ask, "Why is life so hard?" Because it needs to be to expose the phony in me. Now, here's the really good news. In the gospel, we get to see perf- perfection on display. The only perfect thing in a person, his name is Jesus Christ. That is the perfect one who came from heaven to earth and he is perfect. The question then becomes, how do you prove perfection? How are we to know that Jesus was perfect? I'm going to show you today. From the Garden of Gethsemane to the grave, all of the pressure that Jesus faced shows his perfection. I've got to do this slowly so that you see it. Nobody's ever been under more pressure than Jesus Christ. Let me draw it out for you. We saw it 2 weeks ago. If you have Jesus Christ and you just study his life from the Garden of Gethsemane, when he said, "Father, if there's any way let this cup pass, yet not my will but yours be done." He was sweating drops of blood. Do you know he was put under the perfect pressure in every area of his life? Relationally, pressure. Emotionally, pressure. Mentally, pressure to the point of sweating blood. Physically, we'll see today, absolute pressure. Spiritually, being separated from the Father, absolute pressure. Today we'll see it. Sociologically, being canceled by the people around him, absolute pressure. And here's what I want you to see. Today you're going to get an MRI or a CT scan. You ever had one? But you're going to get an MRI or a CT scan of what was inside Jesus. Was he truly perfect? You see, if you take Mark chapter 12 verse 30 and you understand humanity, in Mark 12:30, Jesus was asked what's the greatest commandment and he said, "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." He outlines hu- humanity perfectly. Mind, heart, soul, and strength. So, the question we have, if I'm going to trust Jesus with my life, I need to know he's perfect. Well, what do you mean by that? Well, was Was perfect mentally, in his thought life? Was he perfect emotionally in his interior life? Was he perfect Was he the perfect soul? And was he perfect in strength? This is the question that's going to get answered through this text. You're going to get a CT scan of what was in Jesus Christ. You're going to see his physical body absolutely crushed where he had no strength left. This is necessary. If you want to know why is the crucifixion so brutal, it had to be to crush his external strength and I'll show you because once that strength is crushed, we're going to see where his mind was at. I'll show you why that's important. We'll see where his emotions were at and we'll see where he gained his identity and how he dealt with ultimate sociological canceling and pressure. The end point of this sermon is I want Jesus Christ to be magnified, exalted, and I want you to fall in love with him. I want you to know that you have a savior, Jesus Christ, who's been tested to the extreme and found to be perfect. Therefore, you, in whatever your struggle is today, can draw near to him with confidence to find mercy and grace to help in whatever your storm is. Let's jump in. We're going to start here looking at his strength and how it was broken. This This is important. Go to verse 26. Typically, we just read over this, but it it shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Simon of of Cyrene. It's very important. Watch. When they led Jesus away, they seized a man. Luke puts his name in, Simon of Cyrene, because Luke is writing this from eyewitnesses and says you can still go talk to him. It's Simon of Cyrene. Um in fact, Mark puts in his kids' name and that becomes an important part of church history. Coming in from the country and they placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus. Why is this important and why does Luke put this here? It's super duper important and it's needed for the CT scan, the MRI to know what was in Jesus Christ. We would call it hitting the wall physically. Anybody ever hit the wall? We would call it neuromuscular fatigue. When you have gone through physical trauma like the flogging, exhaustion, Jesus has been up all night. He's been through multiple trials, Annas, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod, Pilate, the people. He is he's dehydrated. His flesh is torn up. He is exhausted and he does this thing that we call hitting the wall or neuromuscular fatigue. When your body no longer works. You ever seen those marathon runners? They're close to the finish line, but they're just their bodies no longer work. You see, if we're going to trust Jesus, we have to know that he's been tested to the extreme physically. That he's been taken ultimately to the edge because if he's not not tested, we can't we can't trust him. Let me give you an example. Do you know what the most trusted car in America is? Well, me neither. So, it doesn't matter. My lawyer friends say never ask a question you don't know the answer to. I can guarantee you the most trusted car is the one that is most tested. They run it into the wall over and over and over and that's the one we're like, yeah, that's the one I want for my family because it's been tested. Therefore, it can be trusted. Here's what we're going to be looking for. Jesus can no longer physically function, so they grab Simon of Cyrene because nobody else was going to carry that 75 lb crossbeam to the cross. So, they compel Simon. Jesus' body isn't working, so now you do it. Here's what we're going to be looking for. Right here, it's actually called scientifically a uh Pain-induced emotional response. How many of you have ever stubbed your toe? What came What came out? Yeah, that's rhetorical. Don't say it. We've got kids here. No, it is It's called a pain-induced emotional response because when my body's strong, I can keep everything in and I can pretend that everything's good. For me, it's called the Restoration Hardware effect. We have a bed. I bought it for my wife. We got it from Restoration Hardware. And it's not designed well. On both corners, it's got like these protruding punji sticks. It's I Yeah, it's horrible. So, I'll wake up in the morning and and and hit my shin and all of a sudden, I blow up and then I blame others. Do you know why I blow up whenever I hit my shin and blame others? You know who I blame? China. Isn't that interesting? But when there's a pain-induced emotional response, something happens mentally. Our prefrontal cortex goes offline. Our amygdala comes on. It's called amygdala hijack. And we blow and blame. That's what humans do. When you stubbed your toe, what did you do? YOU BLOW UP AND THEN YOU BLOW WHY did you put that there? You blame someone because your mind is no longer reasonable and logical. You're in a pain-induced emotional response. And what's truly inside now come [cough] [clears throat] comes out. Um So, now that Jesus is at the end of himself, we get to see what comes out. This is going to be interesting. We are now at the testing threshold. Jesus can no longer make it on his own. He's at the end of himself. Watch 27. Watch what comes out. I want you to see what comes out of Where is his mind at? And where is his heart at? Where is his mental life and emotional life? Because he's being tested perfectly. Watch 27. Following this may There's two huge tests that come up in this. You'll miss it. I'm going to walk you through it. And following Jesus was a large crowd of people and of women who were mourning and lamenting him. Do you know why this is such a huge temptation? When there is the pain-induced emotional response, as a human being, when you're suffering, there's something true of every single one of us. We need suffering to make sense. That's why we blow up and blame. We're trying to make sense out of the suffering we're going through. I can guarantee you in some area of your life it's difficult right now, and your trying your brain tries to make sense out of it. Now, in that, we seek social bonding. We want somebody else to see, validate, and enter into our suffering with us. Now, in America, this has gone the wrong way. The symp- sympathy, empathy, compassion has gone off the charts, and we allow people to enter into that that space of woe is me, I'm a victim, and we allow them to stay there. And they find their identity there. So, this is a huge temptation to play the victim. Because Jesus is the ultimate victim. He is being victimized. He has no sin. And now there's a large group saying, "Jesus, we're so sorry. We see what we're going through." And the temptation is for Jesus to play that role of a victim and say, "Yes, I know. Isn't it bad?" Let me tell you how how tricky this is. Whenever we enter into that, watch. There's a large group mourning. Whenever we we enter into it, we enter into what's called a triangle. Whenever we play the victim, woe is me. Someone else has done something to me. We also need a villain. And so we will blame somebody and say, "They're the bad person." Now, all of us need a villain. This is why we compare and why leadership is such insanity in America, because typically the villain will be whoever's in charge. And in America, we've realized there's great power in being powerless. Whoever's the most traumatized has the most power. Now, this isn't okay because we can do this, but we still feel alone. So, what we do is we recruit volunteers. And we say, "Come join me in hating them." And the more volunteers we get, this is actually called the fire triangle. You need three things. You need a spark, fuel, and air. Um in America, we just call this social media. We We We genuinely do. I can I can put social media into two categories. Number one, my life is so wonderful that I'm going to take pictures of my breakfast because even my breakfast is wonderful and you should be green with envy. Because I am the victor. I've figured out life. Now, it's all fake. I'm like, "That's probably plastic and it's not even real and whatever." But that's one. I'm My life is wonderful and you should be green with envy. But there's a whole another one. My life is the worst and you should be gushing with empathy for me because I've been harmed and I need volunteers to join me. That's the American culture right now. It's a race to the bottom of I'm the biggest victim, therefore I have the most power now. Watch what Jesus does. It's amazing. Watch what comes out because it's not guilt and shame put on other people and blame. Jesus, turning to them, said, "I know, aren't they horrible? Did you see what the religious leaders did? Come join me in hating them. And did you see what Pilate did? Join me in hating him. And did you see what Herod did? Join me in hating him. Did you see what the crowd did? Join me in hating them." He doesn't. What you're going to see is under pressure where where is his his heart? Perfect grace. Daughters of Jerusalem. Imagine you've been up 24 hours, you've been flogged, crown of thorns on, you're exhausted, you can't even walk. And Jesus turns beat to a pulp and it's perfect grace. Daughters of Jerusalem, don't don't weep for me. Weep for yourselves. His mind is still perfectly set. He sees what's coming. You've rejected truth. Good is not coming. In fact, when Jerusalem gets sacked, you're going to you're going to wish you never had kids because it's going to be that bad. When you reject truth, the consequences are not good. Jesus' heart is compassionate towards the people who've rejected truth and bad is coming. Isn't that amazing? Friend, you have a savior who can sympathize and cares about you, but he doesn't just sympathize and empathize. He also gives truth. Watch. Weep for yourselves, for your children. Verse 29. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, "Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, the breasts that never nursed." 30. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, "Fall on us and to the hills, cover us." Do you know what he's doing right here? His heart is compassionate and where is his mind at? Go back one. His heart's filled with compassion. What's his mind thinking about? Hosea chapter 10. He's literally giving them an expositional sermon. Go home and read Hosea chapter 10. It's perfect. Israel is a luxurious but crooked vine. She does everything for herself and she's going to re- it ends with she's going to cut her king off and destroy him. Even in the midst of the pain and suffering grace and truth he's giving to the people around him. Friends, Jesus Christ is perfect. You You know I've never even read of another person like this. You know if you go through what it means to be human, you know you can be brilliant in mind but very blunt and harm other people? Do you know you can be very balanced emotionally but blind in how you carry that out? If you don't carry it out with wisdom, you'll actually do more harm and become codependent. You know you can be You can have a beautiful soul but be very brittle to to criticisms? You know physically you can be really beefy, strong but use that in brutality to harm others? It's only in Jesus Christ that all of these come together perfectly. Friends, this is why I tell you worship him. Love him. Serve him. Give your life to him. There's never been anyone like this man. Utter perfection and in his perfection he invites us, "Come with whatever you need. Be with me and I'll give you whatever you need today. I'm humble and lowly and gentle in heart, filled with grace and truth." Now, watch what comes next because you're about to see at the crucifixion of Christ something he does I still can't fully wrap my mind around it. The propitiation and the atonement. Watch what he does. Next, his mind is filled with truth. Hosea chapter 10. His heart is filled with compassion. Daughters of daughters of Jerusalem. Now, let's look at his soul. In this MRI, let's look at what we see inside of him. Where is he finding his identity, his security, significance, value, meaning, purpose, and worth? Watch, go to go verse uh we'll go 32 through 39 with the last 10 minutes. I want you to see this. Luke is going to repeat something three times and I I need you to see it so we can understand how humans naturally respond and how the ultimate human supernaturally responded. We need that contrast comparison. So, I'll show you what's repeated three times. Two others also were who were criminals were being led away to be put to death with Jesus. 33, when they came to the place called the skull, Golgotha, uh there they crucified Jesus and the criminals, one on the right, the other on the left. 34, but Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they're doing." And they cast lots, dividing up his garments among themselves. Now, watch 35, here it starts. But go 35 and the the people stood by looking on and even the rulers who were sneering at him, here's what they said. "He saved others, let him do what?" >> Save himself. >> All right, I need you to say it like you mean it. He saved others, let him >> Save himself. >> Because normal humans use their strength to serve and save self. We're all about self. I'll prove that to you in a minute. Now, go verse 36 and 37. Watch what happens and I'll show you again. The soldiers also mocked Jesus coming up offering him sour wine. He was dehydrated, they offered him sour and they were saying, "If you are the king of the Jews, >> Save yourself. >> Because normal humans use their strength to save and serve self. It's how we operate. Watch 39. Jump forward to 39. One of the criminals who were hanging there was hurling abuse at Jesus saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." Do you see it? He He repeated it three times. Now, we don't like talking about this, but it's something that the Central Intelligence Agency taught me. Uh here at Hillside, do you know the CIA is here? I don't mean that to freak you out, but they are. Um I don't know. It is what it is. Like, there's no conspiracy theories. I pulled up on the property here probably a decade ago, and there was a car, white Acadian GMC, with a flat tire. So, I had extra time, so I jacked it up, took the tire up off, took it up to Jesus's, had him patch it, put it back on, and left a note. I said, "Your tire was patched. I wouldn't drive on it far. I would go get new tires. Have a great day." I didn't sign it. It was about 2 weeks later somebody showed up here at church and looked me in the eye and said, "Why did you change my tire?" And I said, "My name's Dave. What's yours?" Like, this is now we're in a weird interaction. "No, I want to know why you changed my tire." I said, "It was flat." Ends up in the course of the conversation, he worked for the CIA and said, "No, all humans function for self-interest. They use their strength to serve self. Humans do not function to serve another without ex- pecting something in return. So, are you trying to turn me? Are you want me to be your asset? What's going on here? Because the CIA and I would say it's not just the CIA, most of us think this way about one another. What's your angle? It destroys marriages. We filter everything through you're going to use your strength to serve yourself, therefore I'm going to use my strength to serve myself, and now we're at loggerheads. In fact, I can cast this whole sermon from verse 25. They handed Jesus over to their will. Jesus said, "Not my will, but your will be done." Whose will is getting done? Who's functioning for self-interest? They're all saying, "Jesus, if you are the Christ, you can prove your identity to us. Use your strength to serve and save yourself, and we're telling you that will prove your identity to us. If you function like a human being, because every other human being on the earth would use their strength to serve themselves, prove it." This is an incredible temptation. You may not know this, but do you know most of us spend most of our lives trying to prove our identity to someone else? When someone says you're worthless, especially if it's somebody we love, a dad, a mom, a brother, you know we'll spend our life trying to prove to them that we're not worthless. Do you know if you tell somebody they're stupid, they will spend their entire life trying to prove, "I'm not stupid." to people who don't really care. You will seek to try and prove yourself, because as humans at the soul level, our identities are very flimsy. It's based on what we can produce or do. Therefore, we get on the treadmill. Jesus shows us what true leadership, true love, and true strength truly is. And young men, I want you to listen to me, because this is what this is what marriage and and being a dad is going to look like for you. You want to know what being a true leader is? Look to Jesus. Because he used his strength not to serve himself and save himself, but to sacrifice himself to serve others. And that's true leadership that you're not going to hear in America. That's truly being a husband and a dad and a leader. How do I become less, so others are better off because I was here. Now, Jesus doesn't just do that. Watch. 39 um What he does here I I don't know how else to explain it except the science experiment. Did you see? Go back to verse 35. I'll show you. Uh the people stood by looking on and even the rulers were sneering. You are a loser, Jesus. And enjoy the shame. Look at you naked hanging on a cross. Everyone who hangs on a cross is cursed. You're They were sneering at him. How is it now, son of God? And Jesus did what? He took it. Go 37. Uh 36 37. They said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." Oh, yeah, look at you, king. What did Jesus do? He He took it. Go to verse 39. One of the criminals who hung there he was hurling abuse saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and save us." And Jesus he took it. Why was he taking it? He took it from Pilate. He took it from the people. He took it from the Herod. He was silent. He took it from Annas. He took it from Caiaphas. He took it from the religious leaders. He took it from the rulers. He took it from the criminals. And he took it all onto himself. Why was Jesus doing that? Can I explain it to you? This is just a glass tube. Nothing special about it. This is just water. Brand new bottle. Do you know God created everything perfect, pure, absolutely pristine, but in Genesis 3, we messed it all up in our sin and our rebellion blackened everything. Do you know that at that point sin began to ricochet around humanity? It is how sin works. Because all of us are born dead in our trespasses and sins, all it takes is a little bump and sin spreads out on those people around me. Jesus knew that. Sin has a power, an energy. It has a system and a process. It loves to ricochet. So, Jesus took all of it. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21, he who knew no sin was made to be sin. He literally soaked up the contempt, the bitterness, the lies, the greed, the lust. He soaked it up onto himself. We think that being a Christian means walking around this world and avoiding all the sin. What if I sin and it's bad? Like Jesus showed up just to say, "No, I don't want to be around sinners because I might sin and I might be bad." No, no, no. He came and he soaked it up. He literally absorbed it. But he did something amazing to it as he entered into it in that he was made to be sin. Notice, never at one point as he absorbed all of the hate, anger, and bitterness around him, never at one point did he respond in kind. He became what we would call chemically a super absorbent polymer. Do you know what a super absorbent polymer is? They exist. That one little chunk of SAP, super absorbent polymer, can absorb 3,000 times its mass. So, when Jesus showed up, he didn't show up just to show us how awesome he was. He came to absorb it. Onto himself. Why? Because the wages of sin is death. So, as he absorbed and absorbed and the people came to him, it's not just that he absorbed it. Next week we'll see what he why he absorbed it. But I want to show you what he did. Go to verse 34. Maybe the most amazing If you want to know how Jesus changes everything through me, through you, through us. Watch this, verse 34. But notice the verb tense. But Jesus was That means Jesus didn't just say it once, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." It's in the imperfect active indicative. Here's what that means. We don't have anything in the English that explains this. If I threw my lacrosse ball down this aisle, it would bounce down that aisle. You see, it took me a whole sentence and a half to explain that. Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do. Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do. Father, forgive them." So, as they would sneer, "You're a loser." Jesus would say, "Father, I'm not going to return evil for evil. Forgive them." As they would say, "Hail, King of the Jews. How glorious are you?" He would say, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." As they divided up his garments and said, "I don't even like his clothes." He would say, "Father, forgive them." It You see, you want to know why this is so profound? You want to see the world change through us, Hillside? Jesus, right here, showed us how to disarm the powers and rulers of darkness. It's what he just did. That's why in in Colossians chapter 2, verse 15, it says he disarmed the rulers, the authorities. He disarmed sin. How? Well, let me show you. It takes electrical theory to understand how sin works. Can I show you very quickly in a minute? Here's how most of your relationships work. You have person A, very unhappy, because they don't know Jesus or they're not walking in Jesus, and they will sin against person B, who is in relationship with them. Now, something interesting happens to person B. This person absorbs the sin and amplifies it just a little bit. And then person B will respond in kind and sin against person A. And then person A will absorb that sin and amplify it and invite somebody else in to hate this person with us and let's sin against them. This is called a closed circuit and it is how most relationships work and it is how the kingdom of darkness advances. It's how it spreads. It's how it poisons our kids, our families. In system dynamics theory, it is how sin absolutely destroys everything. What did Jesus do when he absorbed it? He invited you to a whole new family system. You see how all of humanity sinned against Jesus. We were very unhappy and his perfection exposed us. So we chose to crucify him and sin against him, but Jesus Christ at the cross he never responded. First time in history, somebody absorbed all that this world had to offer and said nothing is getting out of me. This is sin done to me, but it's not going to be sin done through me to others. And all of a sudden, right there at the cross, how did Jesus disarm the powers, the rulers, the authorities? How many of you have breaker boxes at home? And what? Only seven of you. I don't believe it. How many of you are homeless and you need benevolent help from the the sanctuary will help you. At your house, you really do have a breaker box that I'm going to help you for free. Go to your breaker box and check them. If they are flipped off, it's a it's broken the circuit and no power is going to go. Jesus said, "Nope, I'm not going to return sin for sin. Father, forgive them." And at that point, he flipped. Sin no longer has power over you. You do not have to obey it. You do not have to repay evil with evil, insult with insult. You can actually be a blessing instead. You see, you can look at me and say, "Dave, I don't like the idea of forgiveness. It's not fair and it's not fun." Okay, I've got non-Christian friends who are here who will tell me that afterwards. This forgiveness is stupid. Doesn't make any sense. And I will say, "Okay, let me know how your life works out for you." Because if you choose not to, your life will be about repeating, replaying, rehashing, reliving, and being filled with resent. And I guarantee you will end up dead and alone and unhappy. We actually call that hell. But you're living hell right now and you're choosing it. May I suggest a greater way? You see, God so loved this world that he sent his son. Greater love has no man than this than that he would lay down his life for another. Beloved, if God so loved us, how ought we to love one another? Instead of replaying it, repeating it, rehashing it, flip that circuit breaker and release it. But it's not fair, it's not fun. It's the only way to be set free. And I choose to say, "Yes, sin has been done to me, but it will not be done through me and spread to my kids because I don't want John and Ella Paxton, Caden Brooke to be infected by that. I don't want my community to be infected by that. Stop returning the volley. Stop. Bring it to Jesus and say, 'I'm bringing it to you so that this system does not continue on. I want to be part of a new family system, one that actually functions in grace, truth, love, kindness.' That's how Jesus changes everything because sin will not continue through you in Christ Jesus. It will be done and it's lost its power. Friends, you'll begin to cling to the old rugged cross. It won't be an emblem of suffering and shame, it'll be an emblem of salvation and joy. And you'll actually be able to lay down and sleep well because your mind won't be replaying, rehearsing, rehashing, reliving, and and being controlled by resent. Well, how do I do it? Jesus showed you. Father, forgive them. I'm sure they didn't even know what they were doing. And yes, this is sin done to me, but Jesus, it was done to you. Would you give me the grace to release it? And then the next level's varsity level. Not just releasing it. Not just sitting with someone who's sinned against you and saying, "I forgive you." But then seeking to bless them. To pray for their well-being. Father, would you strengthen them? Would you give them a peace and a grace today? At that point, you're spreading the kingdom of goodness, kindness, joy, peace, and love. And Jesus Christ will be changing everything through you. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you didn't simply send your son to tell me what to do. But you sent your son to actually live the truth in front of me. Thank you for the brilliance that's pictured here, Jesus. Thank you for coming and absorbing all the sin of the world, arresting it so that you could annihilate it. Father, I pray that you would give us grace for those here who are repeating, rehearsing, rehashing, reliving the same old sin, the same old pattern. Would you allow us to release it today and say, "Father, forgive them."? Doesn't mean it didn't happen, doesn't mean it didn't hurt. But it means we're flipping off that power switch and not letting sin reign in our mortal bodies. Would you give grace, and even now as we sing to you the old rugged cross, Father, would you give us grace to lay our burdens down at your feet in Jesus name. Amen.