Good Friday

Not as a statement of relief, but of completion. What was required has been done. And if that is true, then this is no longer something we can simply observe. This is something each of us has to face. Because the cross does not leave us where we were, it does not allow us to walk away unchanged and draws a line. You can turn from him or you can follow him, but you cannot pretend this means nothing. And you cannot see this clearly and remain the same. [00:53:01] (46 seconds)  #CrossDemandsResponse

Tonight is not about comfort. Tonight is about the truth. We are not here to feel better. We are here to face what love was willing to carry. Good Friday does not ask for your agreement. It asks, what will you do with what you see? Pray with me. Heavenly father, tonight we come to remember, not casually, not out of routine, but with clarity about what it cost. Your son, Jesus Christ, endured suffering, rejection, and the cross, not because he had to, but because he chose to. [00:02:52] (50 seconds)  #GoodFridayTruth

Forgive us for the ways we have grown familiar with this, for the times we have been distracted, indifferent, or unmoved by what should bring us to our knees. So tonight, slow us down. Open our ears to hear the truth of what was done. Open our minds to understand the weight of it. And open our hearts not just to feel, but to respond. By his wounds, we are healed. By his sacrifice, we are given life. Through his death, sin is judged, and mercy is made available. [00:03:48] (46 seconds)  #OpenOurHeartsToTruth

And he bears not only the weight of our sin, but the full shame of it. The son of God treated less than human so that everything we try to hide could be brought into the light. And then the scourge begins. He would have been brought to a post. It's about that high. His hand shackled. Maybe he started standing up. Maybe he knelt. But rest assured, by the end, he is on his knees as the Roman soldiers would have begun whipping him. [00:42:21] (47 seconds)  #HeBoreOurShame

Jesus walked thousands of miles in his ministry, but the most important two miles he ever walked were at the end. Those were the miles that led to the cross. And he walked every step of it willingly because love was not forced. Love was decided. This is what love looks like when it refuses to turn back. [00:50:11] (35 seconds)  #LoveDecided

I wanna take this time and remind you the cost of our salvation. It's a steep cost. One, it's actually in prophecy when we look at Isaiah 53. It is written, he was despised and abandoned by men. A man of great pain and familiar with sickness. Like one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised. We had no regard for him. However, it was our sicknesses that he himself bore and our pains that he carried. Yet we ourselves assumed that he had been afflicted, struck down by God, and humiliated, but he was pierced for our offenses. [00:38:01] (58 seconds)  #PiercedForUs

This evening, we are to be reminded that our salvation comes in an unimaginable price, one that we could not pay on our own. See, the cross is not something to admire and something to reckon with. Jesus does not suffer as a victim of history. He chose to walk this road on purpose. And that road led him to the scourge. And the scourge is just the beginning of an unimaginable crucifixion. It's designed to break a person down mentally and physically. [00:39:28] (54 seconds)  #PurposefulSacrifice

They would have stripped Jesus. You heard that already, that they placed a robe on him to mock him, and then they placed a crown of thorns on his head. Now, these aren't thorns like you're thinking that are out in your rose bush, out in your garden. Thorns are three to four inches, and they're strong as nails. So when they wove that crown together and they placed it on his head, they didn't do it gently. [00:40:22] (36 seconds)  #CrownOfThornsPain