Living Word Live! God Finds Us Where We Are!

Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into these fearful disciples. He didn't wait for them to to to get brave. He doesn't wait for them until they've, you know, prayed more or studied more and gotten their theology all straight, got their lives in order. Right there in the midst of their fear, he gives them the spirit. And then he says in the next verse, if you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. [00:46:29] (36 seconds)  #SpiritInFear

And the longer you carry that backpack, the heavier it gets. Your your shoulders ache. Your steps slow down. You're exhausted. You can't go any further. And then Jesus shows up on the path. He he probably, you know, didn't hike the whole thing. He just dropped right in. I think he thinks they're pretty pointless too, hiking, I mean. And Jesus walks up beside you and he says, let me take that. You don't have to carry that anymore. Turn it loose. [00:50:23] (36 seconds)  #DropTheBackpack

Imagine you're on some senseless hike somewhere else. Maybe it's up in the same Colorado Mountains. You're on there, and you're carrying a backpack, and this backpack is full of rocks. And every rock has a little word on it or a phrase on it for you. One says, you know, that betrayal in 2026. Another one says, the harsh words my dad said. Another one says, oh, the mistake that I can't forgive myself for or the anger that I'm still nursing over my ex friend. [00:49:46] (37 seconds)  #BackpackOfBurdens

He meets us in our locked rooms, but he breathes new life into us so that we can step out and live differently. I mean, look what it look what happened to these same men just a few weeks after this. A few weeks later, and we're gonna study this. They're they're right now, they're hiding behind locked doors, these disciples who are so afraid. But in a few weeks, they're gonna be standing in the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming to these same religious leaders that they're afraid of, you killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead, and we are witnesses to it. It's the same men. [00:51:49] (44 seconds)  #FromLockedRoomsToBoldWitness

And that's real close to the original Greek because Jesus is saying to the disciples, I'm giving you my spirit so you can live free. Free from what? Free from carrying around the the bitterness and the burdens and clutching those old wounds. Free from holding grudges, grudges that will eventually hold you hostage. And as I thought about that, I thought, look look who's saying this. This is Jesus. [00:48:13] (33 seconds)  #FreeFromBitterness

when we read it and dig down into it, that's exactly what he's offering the disciples that first Easter night. And it's also what he offers each one of us today, right now. We say this often in this church, you can come to Jesus anywhere you are, but Jesus never leaves us where he finds us. He meets us in our fear. He doesn't leave us fearful. He meets us in our in our bitterness, but he doesn't leave us bitter or angry or whatever it is. [00:51:06] (43 seconds)  #FoundWhereYouAre

Do that. Use that time to look at your life and say, what am I still holding on to that Jesus wants me to release? What fear? What grudge? What anger? What bitterness? What area of my life needs the fresh breath of the Holy Spirit in it? And then work at turning it over. Maybe that's when you find an accountability partner, a prayer partner, a friend, someone to walk with you on that journey. And when I say that, I I want to tell you choose wisely. [00:57:58] (35 seconds)  #TurnItOverToJesus

They're facing the same kind of persecution that Jesus faced, but they did it with love and patience and, know, some of them, this supernatural joy. Because the resurrection didn't just change their situation, their circumstances. It changed them from the inside out. I hope it did that for you at one point in your life or it continually does that. [00:52:40] (35 seconds)  #ResurrectionChangesYou