Well, good morning, church.
You know, these moments in these waters we were just talking about backstage, they never get tiresome. They're not normal, but they're a supernatural act of God to meet these people where they are. And again, we'll baptize these people in some Kool-Aid if we need to. It's about the public profession of our faith.
And again, just like we know, these waters, they don't have saving power. But what they do is they have the power to allow us to publicly profess our faith, not only to you, but to moms that are online today and to family members that are online. It will never be the same, just like this wedding ring that married me to my beautiful wife. It doesn't marry me. The covenant that I professed of my love to her does. Man, it tells me and by God everybody around me that I've married the most incredible woman in the world, just like these waters.
And so in the midst of life and what brought us together was tragedy. But isn't it only like your God to take something tragic and make it something triumphant? It's only by His power and His will. And so tragedy can be a catalyst to cripple us or it can cultivate something in us. And this man decided to allow it to cultivate something in him. It's powerful.
And again, as a church, regardless of how big we grow numerically, I pray that we always make time for growth spiritually and who we are. This is what it's about. Man, you can fill this room up and sing as incredible as you want to. But man, if there's not true life change, these beautiful lights and all this money we spend on this incredible room is worthless. This is why it matters. This is why it matters.
So I'll step off my soapbox and step back in the water. Tell about your name, brother.
My name is Austin.
All right, Austin. I have two very important questions I want to ask you. Number one, are you absolutely convinced that you've accepted Jesus?
Yes.
Are you, number two, are you absolutely convinced that He has accepted you?
Yes, sir.
Well, my brother, it's by your profession of faith that I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Be buried with Christ through baptism and raised to walk in the newness of life.
So, uh, what is your connection to that fine young man?
He's... yeah, he is.
Baby, come on, man. I'm gonna be very, very quick, but, um, so we just all kind of connected through some circumstances. My wife ordered something from a restaurant that she works at and crushes it. The order was wrong, and so me in my flesh, if you know me at all, you're like, "Tyler, please don't say something." That's usually who I am as a human. But the Lord just softened my heart, praise God, and I walk in, and we're talking, and she goes, "Tyler, that's you, right?" And I was like, "Oh, thank God I didn't try to cuss anybody out or flip you the bird or something."
You know, but don't tell me the Lord won't meet you where you are and do whatever He has to to bring you to Him. It's just who He is. He doesn't care if it's a coffee with too much cream or whatever the circumstance is, man. He'll do whatever He has to bring His children to Him and to profess their faith publicly.
So much to everybody, your name?
Savannah.
Yes, man, I have two important questions I want to ask you. Number one, are you absolutely convinced that you've accepted Jesus?
Yes.
Number two, are you absolutely convinced that He's accepted you?
Well, my sister, it is an honor to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in the newness of life.
We got one more.
We'll see you next week.
We'll see you next week.
We'll see you next week. Bye.
Well, good morning, church. Again, welcome to Crossland Community Church. We are a refuge and hope for every single one of you. And most of you probably know me. My name is Tyler. I'm the worship and young adult pastor here at our Bowling Green campus.
And so leading up to Easter, we felt the best thing that we could do would be a Christology kind of series. And as we get to kind of our Super Bowl, if you will, in the Christian faith, it only made sense to talk about the one that allowed us to win, that gave us the victory over death, that death where is your sting? It's been swallowed up in victory. And it's His victory that we have to celebrate, that we have to profess, and only because of Him.
And Hebrews does a beautiful job of outlining, you know, what Jesus is, that He is greater than all these other people that have come. And so we kind of want to take our own approach to that and get us, you know, mentally and physically and spiritually aligned and focused on who Jesus is.
And like we've learned these past couple weeks, He wasn't just a great priest. He wasn't just a great prophet. He was the greater one. He was the complete fulfillment and did what those people couldn't do. Again, great Moses, Elijah, these beautiful prophets that we learn of in the Old Testament were great, but they weren't greater.
And so as we know, all throughout the Old Testament, God did everything possible He could to reunite us with Him. We see that through the laws, the decrees, through the separation of the Israelites, of those people. He did everything possible, but it took something greater. It took something to reconnect us and reunite us with the Father, that nothing this side of heaven. It took a greater king.
It took someone to step in our place, to reunite us, to bring us a kingdom that is not of this world. Because again, Scripture tells us we're not of, we may be in this world, but we are not of this world. We are His, and He is ours, and so that's who He is for us. He is something greater. He is something much greater than you and I can even fathom.
And so as we kind of dive in today, as you know, this weekend, you know, March Madness is, we're getting, it's Selection Sunday, right? Like it's that time where you find out where your team made it or where your team didn't. I'm sorry.
But also, you know, it's the SEC Championship today, and obviously as a UK fan, you have no business watching that, right? Amen.
But last night, and again, I was treading very lightly on releasing this information to you about who I am and the teams that I root for. But see, here's what's great. My team won their conference championship. They might have even beat a team from this same state, a team that happens to be red with a cardinal. Come on, Duke.
Yeah, we got any Duke fans in the house? Just one or me. God, what'll start me dead? I knew it was coming. No, he'll be fine by tournament time. Come on.
But, man, I've grown up a Duke fan my entire life. And somebody's like, "Ty, I didn't know that about you." There's a reason that you did not know that about me. And y'all, crazy enough, and I mean this as serious as a heart attack, I thought Dina's wife, Dina's family was just going to disown me. You know, I waited until we got engaged to tell her family because they are like diehard UK. Like I bring up Christian Laettner, and they're like, they can't talk for three or four hours.
You know, but that's always been my team growing up, you know. I don't want to say I was the J.J. Redick of my time, but not even close. But, man, I love basketball. I've always been a fan. And, you know, I just want to be different, which, again, probably doesn't surprise most of you who know me at all. But I was like, "Man, I'm not going to be a UK fan."
Now, here's the thing. I want UK to win every game besides when they play Duke. And you beat Duke. So your one win of the year, yeah. But I'm not that guy, man. I want UK to play. I'm so glad Louisville's having a fantastic season. Obviously glad they got beat by Duke, you know, pretty handedly, you know. But that's okay. It's not their fault.
But I love this time of year. It's so much fun. You know, you're like, "Man, you love the Cinderella stories unless it's your team that gets beat by the Cinderella story." Like this time of year is so much fun. We make our brackets. You know, we can't wait to see where everybody gets seeded at today. And Duke has the overall number one seed. You know, it's going to be a hard journey for us, but we're excited.
But also this time of year, you see a lot of division, right? You see a lot of us put a lot of stake in a bunch of 18-year-old kids and again are mad for weeks at a time. But what's really cool I saw, I think it was Miami of Ohio and Akron were playing. And the mother was actually the sons of both the coaches. You know, and so she would wear one of the team's colors. I guess she would wear red and sit in the Akron section. And so she would kind of go back and forth.
There was a shirt that went out with a lady or a guy had on a Missouri and a Kentucky shirt and had family members on both teams. You know, houses divided, right? You know, and some of you, maybe you went to school somewhere here local or you went to Western. You're a big Western fan, but you married a UK fan or a Louisville fan. We're hoping they get saved, amen.
But you married these people or you step into this family and, you know, it can be divisive, right? It's awkward for a little while. Or you think even something a little more drastic and polarizing is the political landscape that we live in, right? Like there are family members who don't talk to you because of the way you voted in November.
Like there's people that didn't show up to the holidays because they're like, "Oh, they voted for him." And that could be either way, honest truth. You know, a crazy man or a man who's just wild. I mean, they're both just wild. But they, you know, they won't show up or like it's divisive, right? And we've seen this political climate throughout the last eight to ten years, especially with the people who have rose on the scene.
And it's sad. It's so drastic and it's emotionally driven. And we make these divisive decisions that have consequences that last for years at a time. I found an article from the American Psychiatric Association. It was right after the election. It said this: one in five members of a family felt estranged based on political reasons. One in five.
I mean, if you think of five family members in your life right now, probably one of them didn't show up for Christmas. I can think of that. You know, there's people in our life that have made their value and their hope come from something on this side of heaven. Both ways.
Like, you know, Donald Trump is not your savior. Right? And in whichever way you vote, another statistic was this: 41% of those people, almost half of them, argue with family over political differences over the holidays and just throughout the year.
I mean, a divisive spirit is such a nasty, nasty quality to have. And division is what? Two different visions. And again, sometimes there are positive consequences to that, right? Like, sometimes we can come to a compromise or we can kind of find a middle or we can bring the good things from both and find something that works.
But so many times what happens, if someone has a different vision than us, we just don't speak. We just don't talk to them. We block them on Facebook so they can't like your post anymore, but they can see it anyway, okay? Like, that's what happens to us.
And so what happens is these external behaviors all stem from internal conflict. There is a lack of unity within our soul and within our heart. Again, think about the Israelite people. You know, you have their first three kings in about 120 years or so of non-divided, undivided kingship and kingdom. Right? But we get past Solomon. Again, you see this in 2 Kings and 1 Chronicles. They talk a lot about this, but you see this division to the north kingdom and the south kingdom.
Solomon's son actually breaks to the south kingdom with Benjamin and the tribe of Judah. The other ten stay with the north kingdom. And one of Solomon's servants ends up becoming their king. Right? And they got to this point anyway because they no longer want to be a theocracy. They no longer want to be ruled by judges. Remember the series we went through this summer? They didn't want that anymore.
They say all these other kingdoms and all these other places, they got a king. So we want one. And you're like, are things really going that well for those people in the first place? Right? Like, why are we wanting to look like people who don't look good?
And so they're like, "Samuel, okay, come on. We want a king." So he appoints Saul. And then we get from Saul, loses his anointing, loses his appointment. We come to David. We know David's journey. He finally has Solomon. And it's after that point, we lose the unity that the kingdom was supposed to have and supposed to be.
And can you imagine as God's chosen people, the ones who are supposed to be distinct, the ones who aren't supposed to look like the entirety of the world, end up looking a lot worse half the time than the entirety of the world? And it's because of one thing: division.
Because there was something in their heart that they could not get fixed. There was something in their soul that they just couldn't get right. There was something they were missing: a true king, someone to truly step in in the way, someone to truly unite them back to the Father.
Again, we know since the garden there's been division. There's been animosity between us and God, right? We sin. Think about the first two brothers, like the animosity, the hatred, what that leads to. So there's been this division since the beginning of time that's going to take something supernatural to fix what is natural within us that can be fixed. It's the only way we get there.
And there's benefits to that. There's benefits to choosing God as Him as a greater king over everything else. There's peace, there's prosperity, there's harmony, there's well-being, there's wellness, there's wholeness—all these things that wait for you that man can't take from you. The powers of hell can't take away from you. Nothing this side of heaven has the right to take something away from you that they didn't fight and die and live blamelessly for.
That's what you have waiting for you because why? He's the greater king. And so that's our next step in this whole series. As we know, He is the greater prophet, He is the greater priest, but the reason we can experience the fullness of God and all that He has to offer is because of the kingship that He has, because of the kingdom that He reigns over. Nothing on this side of heaven can ever give you what He can on that side of heaven.
But here's what's great: we can experience what waits for us eternally right now. Why wait till heaven to experience the peace that God has for you? And some of you, I can see it in your eyes, your soul hurts. Man, why not experience the fulfillment that you've looked everywhere else for in the one who has come to fight and save and die for you?
Want to experience the wisdom that Solomon had but just never got right? Heavenly wisdom, taking the tools that He has given you and put within you intrinsically and use those to change those who are around you evidently. That's what waits for you if you choose His kingdom because He is and will always be the greater king for you and for I.
And what's so great about this and how it works, the reason that it works is because He is focused on one thing and one thing alone: that's your soul. And He's not worried about the prosperity of the United States. I mean, He wants you to be successful and have a good life and be a good steward of your time and of your money and all those things. That's all very, very important.
But He's here for one purpose and one purpose alone: He came to unite you back with Him through your soul. Because you know as well as I do, y'all, I've tried to do everything as right as I can, but man, it never brought me internal peace. Growing up, I tried to live as closely to the Father as I possibly could from a legalistic standpoint, and I was still broken and lonely on the inside.
But we can experience His benefit because He came to unite us. The division that has defined us no longer gets to because of who came to unite us. That's what you and I have: the unity of Christ. That's why He's the greater king.
And we can go home. See you next week, right? You know, that's it. That's what we have awaits for us. And so we're going to be in Matthew 12 today. And what Jesus does is He kind of makes that argument. And what we're going to do is look at a couple of verses that you probably have looked at a lot throughout your life. If you're like me, you know, especially this time of year, spent a lot of time in the gospels and what they have to say to us about who Jesus is.
But I want you to look at these verses a little differently today. We're going to start in chapter 12, verses 1 through 8. If you have your Bible, congratulations, you did it. If you don't, the Lord will save you, but for now you can read this.
All right, here we go. Now we breathe. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."
So again, it's very evident the day this is. It's the Sabbath. It's the day of rest. It's the day that God told Moses that the Israelites were supposed to experience once a week, and then again every seven years, supposed to let the land rest. Like, they understand. I mean, these sweet little Jewish boys know what the Sabbath is. They've read it. So do these Pharisees. They know what the Sabbath is, but two very drastic and different ideologies, division, if you will, right?
And so understand, up to this point, they have fed thousands of people. At one point, Jesus says, "I need you to go to the disciple. I need you to go do my work and do my ministry." Like, they have been all across Judea and Samaria. They have been across so many places at this point. He has healed the sick. He has caused the dead to get up. Well, not yet, but he's caused the lame to walk, the blind to see. He's done miraculous work, and here's what's so great: obviously, they didn't keep anything. They didn't keep any of the food. They didn't keep any of the money. They didn't keep any of that because they ain't got no money or no food. They don't have a pot to pee in, and so they're walking around.
And so the reason farmers would leave these heads of grain is they would harvest their crop, but they would leave some for those who are poor, those who can't afford anything, those who are lesser than others. And so these sweet little Jewish boys, they hate. They're not even hangry, really, because they're really still nice. They're hungry, and so they're walking around just picking this stuff off, eating it, eating it, and the Jewish leaders are like, "Wait a second. Look, I get what you've done." Actually, they don't even care about that. "Well, you're breaking the law. Who do you think you are?"
That's where these Pharisees are looking at the Savior of the world, the one who has fulfilled the prophecies that they have longed for, and His disciples who have done really a great job helping those who are sick, helping those who are poor, helping those who are... what are you doing?
See, when there is division in our soul and a lack of understanding in our soul, we start to prioritize the wrong things in our soul. Our priorities aren't correct. They're not aligned with Scripture. I mean, they're so much more worried about the law than the love that Jesus has so kindly and openly given all those around Him.
That's why your soul matters. Man, you can read as much Scripture as you want. You can do your Bible app, you know, Bible in a year plan, as much as you want. But if you don't experience the love of Christ, why does the law of Christ even matter to you? Remember, He didn't come to abolish it. What? He came to do what? Fulfill it. Yeah, we knew the call and response. Greg's not here. Come on. Fulfill it.
And these Pharisees are missing the mark because of their humanity, because of who they are focused on. How many times do we miss the power and the work of God because we're focused on the things that just don't matter?
And Jesus says this next. He says, "Now wait a second. Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests."
So understand this takes us back to an Old Testament story. And so every seven days, every week, the priest would set this bread in front of the Holies of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant. It would be 12. It would be two rows, row six. Great math. Come on.
And so that's to represent the 12 tribes of Israel. So they make that as an offering to the Lord. And after those seven days, the priest would eat it because the Levites, they weren't given an inheritance. They weren't given any money. They were expected to be supported by the Israelites and what they give. And so that's how they would eat. They would take that food and eat that bread.
But so David, again, he comes in. He's on the run. Saul is just cracking down on him. He's got his men with him, and they're hungry. They've been fighting. They've been terrified. They've probably been a little paranoid. They've been running away from Saul and his army. He's like, "Man, we don't have anything." And he goes to ask the priest. He says, "Well, I have, you know," he's asked him a couple of questions. And he goes, "All right, you can eat that. You can eat that."
What was the priest more worried about when these Pharisees were in this moment? Compassion, love, mercy. You want to fulfill the law of the Old Testament? Show the mercy of the one who came to fulfill it for you. Show His compassion. Show His grace. Show His mercy.
And He already gives us a little look at one of the kings that they would understand, one of the kings that they would connect with and relate to. Everybody loves David. I mean, the king of war. The man after God's own what? Heart. Yeah, come on. Man after God's own heart. Man, I'm gonna be like David. He's a great instrumentalist. Bad priority sometimes. A man could play a harp. And a great songwriter.
I mean, I'm not gonna say from that standpoint he reminds me of myself, but I mean, if y'all wanted to, I'm not gonna. Man, y'all can laugh. It's okay. Look, it's all right. We got love in here, you know.
But He uses one of the most monumental, powerful figures to say, "Well, what about him?" And they go on to say this, "Or haven't you read the law? Even further backing His argument that the priests on the Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent."
You know who works on the Sabbath? The priests. He's like, "What? Y'all are missing everything." They've added all these just pointless laws to the Sabbath of like, you can't take more than a couple thousand steps. You can't, if you write two letters, you can't erase them because then you got to write two more. It's the silliest thing. They're so much worried about their legalistic ideologies than loving the innocent, loving those that are hurting, loving those who need mercy, loving and meeting people exactly where they are.
So many times we want to see, we want to help somebody, like, "What's your story first?" No, just help them. You see, the priests were working. They're the ones that are making this whole offering. They work every Sabbath. They're the ones that are allowing you to experience the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant, to experience, to see the mercy seat of the Father. They're the ones that are giving that opportunity.
Jesus completely takes away and just dismantles their whole argument. He tells us this: if your soul is out of line, the amount of work that you do is going to get it back lined up. "Tell her, I do read my Bible every day." Well, how's your soul? "Tell her, you know, I do come here and sing these songs on Sundays, and I serve, you know, once a month, you know, and I cancel the other time a month. I know who you are, and I do all these things, but how's your soul?"
Again, man, you can see into somebody's soul. Just look through their eyes. "Tyler, I'm doing everything right." I hear you, but you're not experiencing the eternal, complete peace of Christ because your soul hasn't been completely and fully united to Him. What are you missing?
Because we've seen them try this time and time again. He goes on to say this: "I tell you something greater than the temple is here. I am more important than the place that you're worshiping. I am more important than this temple that you have built. If you had known what this word means, this is what I want from you: mercy, not sacrifice."
You cut up as many goats and cows and sheep as you want. That's fantastic, but I need mercy from you. It's not about the law that is in your life. It's about the love that is within your heart. That's what matters to me. That's how we can finally unite your soul back to me.
And He goes on to say, "For you would not have condemned the innocent, for why the Son of Man is the Lord of Sabbath." How can I decide what happens on this day? It's my day. It's like my birthday every year. You know, it's like, "What do I want to do?" Or now it's really like, "What can we do with JT before he needs a nap?" You know?
No. Mercy, not sacrifice. That's what I desire from you. That's what reveals my kingship in your life is the mercy that I give to you to experience me.
And what I love about this, He gives us a great look into three kings. Again, in the time that the kingdom of Israel was still united, the only time, 120-ish years before 900 years of divided kingdom, and we know where we are now. We talk about David. We talk about the temple. Who built the temple? Solomon.
When we talk about this, who tried to also give sacrifice when it wasn't his time or his ability or his right to? Saul. Three of the greatest kings that have ever lived. The most influential, impactful. I mean, you have Saul, right? The first king of Israel, right? Because they no longer wanted a theocracy. They wanted a monarchy. They were like, "We don't want to be led by you anymore. We want to do what everybody else is doing."
So the first appointed and anointed king of Israel. He loses his anointing. He wants to go into battle and doesn't wait for Samuel to come and make the offering or the sacrifice. He goes, "No, I got this. I can do both. I can do what I want to do and how I want to do it." Loses his anointing.
You think about David, right? Like, in all seriousness, man, again, he's a man after God's own what? Heart. But, man, he sure liked his flesh a lot, didn't he? Woo-wee. Makes your skin just stand up, or the hair on your skin stand up. I don't know if your skin's going to stand up. You've got a bigger issue if that's the case. Amen?
Think about David. Disobedient. Wanted his woman when he wanted her and how he wanted her. Didn't care about the ramifications to follow. Was never allowed to build the temple. He had too much blood on his hands.
When you think about Solomon. And distracted is a very nice word. I mean, the wives, the concubines, the gods that he would worship. I mean, and I hope this kind of gives you a little bit of hope, right? Like, the wisest man who ever lived was still a moron. Distracted.
Three of the greatest kings on this side of heaven. Arguably. Defiant. Disobedient. Distracted. Perfect. Brought peace that he never could. Fully wise and acted out his wisdom in a way that he never could. Offers full prosperity for your life. This isn't a prosperity gospel message because we don't do that. But this is prosperity for your heart and for your life and for your soul. Available to you.
What they could never do, He already was. What they can never become, He has always been. Perfect. Perfect. The greater king. That's my king. I don't know if something greater is here. It's because He is everything that these people could ever be.
And it's intrinsic within Him. Inherent. No one had to teach Him how to do these things. Since the beginning of time, the word was God and the word was with God. Since the very beginning of time, Jesus has always been these things. That's what makes Him perfect. He didn't have to become it. He already was it. That's my king.
And no president, no Pharisee, no prophet, no priest, no team captain who falls down on somebody's ankle in just a random ACC tournament game and you're still trying to deal with it. None of those things fulfill you like He can. He's perfect.
And I hope we understand the reality of that kind of word. Like perfect, blameless, wholesome, did literally everything perfectly. How some of y'all think your kids are until they, you know, get out with somebody else. Me. Y'all tell her he's great. He's perfect. Is he? Perfect king. That's my king.
And so obviously what He has to offer is always going to be better than just fill the blank in. Whatever He has is always bigger and better. And this is a, it sometimes can be a deeply theological concept of like a greater king and these prophecies fulfilled. No, man, He's just, He's perfect and better than those guys. David and the boys. He's better than all three of them.
It can be that simple because of how perfect He lived. That's why it's simple for you and I. It's because of what He was willing to do. That was Him.
So I'm going to kind of read quickly to you. This isn't in your outline, but He goes on to say this in verse 9. Going on from that place, He went to the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there, and so they were looking for a reason to charge Him, and they asked Him this question: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath now? Is this okay?"
I mean, my man, he's like, "Is that really the question we got to ask right now?" I mean, we don't know how long he's dealt with this. He's like, "Man, I just want to be healed." And Jesus goes, "Well, if one of your sheep was to fall in a pit, were you going to go get it, or are you going to leave it there?"
So if you get a sheep that falls in a pit on Sabbath, are you going to go get it? So if you care that much about a sheep, why not care about my sheep, those who are innocent? And He goes on to say, "Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Tell him to stretch his hand out and heals this man.
And in my mind, do you think they would like swallow their pride, humble themselves enough to be like, "You know, he's, I mean, this is powerful," but division is an ugly characteristic. Division is an ugly feeling within your soul if you don't get a handle on it.
Because here's what happens next. The Pharisees went out. Okay, this is great. So how can we take him out? Now, he is jeopardizing everything: our political power, our cultural power, our societal power. He's taking everything from us.
When you are so blinded by the division in your heart, you can't see the unity and the goodness that your God wants to offer you. Let's kill him. Luke tells us this: they were filled with rage. Could you, could you imagine being so mad because someone performed a miracle?
I mean, you got a heart issue. I mean, you thought the Grinch's heart was bad. Look at your own, son. You know, like, can you imagine missing the mark that bad because of the division within your soul? Yeah, we do it every day, and this is why your soul matters because it has drastic ramifications to it. Eternal ramifications to it if we don't deal with it this side of heaven.
They plotted to kill him. They cared more about that than anything that he could do. Division can be the byproduct of wrongly aligned priorities. It's obvious. Those who are supposed to be religious and were the ugliest of all continuously got things wrong.
And so we read ahead in Matthew 22. We're going to skip part of Matthew. It's a beautiful prophecy. And then, so then they're like this. Okay, let's keep going. So then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, praise God, so he could both talk and see.
And all the people were saying, "Could this be the son of David?" Prophecies fulfilled in Jeremiah and 2 Samuel. Could this be it? The uneducated, the ones instead of listening, instead of listening to religious leaders saw the love that Christ was offering and what He was doing. These people saw Him work. These are the people who had followed Him. They've seen what He's done. The evidence is outstanding in front of them.
Their response: "Could this be it? The prophecy is it, is it, it's finally happening? It's like Christmas Day, you know? It's finally happening. Could this be it?" These are those who saw what He'd done. These are those who listened to themselves and what they think.
The Pharisees heard this, and they said, "It's only by Beelzebul, what a word, the prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons." I mean, just morons, you know? You see that drastic difference of what your soul has the power to do in your life.
You have one group of people who have seen what He's done, watched Him work, watched Him move, watched the things that He has performed, the signs, the wonders, the miracles, the Son of Man, the Lord of the Sabbath. Like, He's making powerful, blasphemy statements.
And by what they saw, so, you know, see, Twitter is coming up for the podcast and I'll give you a real—they believe. By what the Pharisees listened to and read, they got it wrong.
It's so powerful to know this. Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "I hate when Jesus is in my head. Praise God." Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand."
He understands the gravity of division. He understands what's at hand. If we don't get it right at home, we're not going to get it right anywhere else. If we don't get it right in our soul, we're not going to get it right anywhere else.
Your relationship with your spouse is never getting better until you get yourself right with the Lord. Your relationship with the estranged son or daughter or brother or uncle or aunt who you can't stand because of who they voted for last November, because of the things that they post and share on the internet, is never getting fixed until your heart's getting right with the Lord. Same for me because Jesus understands the gravity of what happens when it's divided against itself. It's not going to work.
It's never going to work because He backs it up with great practical statements. "If Satan drives out Satan, he's dividing against himself. How in the world can this kingdom stand? Why would Satan work against himself?" Great argument.
"And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out then?" So if your people are doing what I'm doing, at least you're saying that you do. And again, there's a lot of these Jewish individuals who would do some of this driving out demons. And sometimes it was temporary. Sometimes it just wasn't real. It wasn't right.
He's like, "So if y'all are supposedly doing that, how? Who? How are you doing that?" But Jesus understands the gravity and the reality of what happens when we are divided. There's no other option but for it to fall.
Because division is inherent in humanity, but unity is inherent with Christ. Why? Because His kingdom cannot be divided. Through Him, it's inherent peace. Through Him, it's inherent unity. Through Him, we can only be brought closer to Him and for Him and with Him.
But our humanity says, "I need that as far away from me as I possibly can. That doesn't agree with my ideologies. It doesn't agree with the cultural norms. It doesn't agree with how I think my relationship should be or how I live or my relationship with my co-worker." Like, that doesn't really agree with what I'm thinking or what I have.
So we have to be reunited with Him. We have to be brought back with Him and who He is. He came to unveil true unity and peace, not continued conflict and strife.
How do I know this? How do I feel like I can stand on that statement theologically? It's because He brought His kingdom to you.
"But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." If it is by my Spirit that the dead are raising, that the demons are fleeing, that the lame are walking, that the blind are seeing, that those who need redeemed are being redeemed, it's here. My kingdom. You ain't got to wait for.
You don't have to get all this law right. You don't have to get all this stuff figured out first. And some of us are that way, right? I mean, I know so many people will tell you, "I'm not coming to church. I got to get this right first. I got to get this thing first, man. And, you know, then I'll be there." Well, then you're never going to show up.
But because the Spirit of God is available to you, the kingdom of God can be within you. His kingdom. His kingdom. That will know no end. That will reign for all eternity. His kingdom. His greatness. The greatness that is in us. Intrinsically already within Him, if we believe can be intrinsically already within us.
We say this all the time around here, and we just said that here, you were designed for something great. Why? Because here's what is upon you. Here's what's been given to you. You're literally His ambassador. You're His only option.
And don't that terrify you a little bit? I mean, like if I'd have walked in the cornerback, the restaurant I went to, on this week, God, Tyler, you idiot. And I'd have shown my whole self because Tyler Lindsay has a tendency to do that.
And my wife's like, "Tyler, you need to calm down now. You need to calm down, you know." And JT's in the car. I was like, "Tyler, you know, you got to be an example to this young man." And again, we're having another baby boy, and we're super excited about that in the fall, and just can't believe it.
So it's like, "Tyler, you gotta, you gotta get together." The kingdom of God is at hand, and you're its witness. And the reason you can walk into situations that scare you, the reason that you can step into a divided world and divided circumstance, is because you have the one thing, the one thing that can unite it all together.
Because your soul is united, you can live united with others. The only way peace is coming in your life is if you allow the God-sized hole in your heart to be filled with Him. That's how you experience peace that passes all understanding. That's how you experience the true love that God has to offer. That's how you get His joy. That's how you get His peace. That's how you get His patience. That's how you get His self-control by God. Praise God. Amen. That's how you get all these things.
And so Jesus understands the gravity of what we have to do. Because they go on to talk, and He gets, and He finally gets them back in line, and what has to happen for them to actually experience Him. And He says this: "I tell you that everyone will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every empty word that they have spoken. Because it's this: for by your words you will either be acquitted, or by your words you will be condemned forever."
And Paul is very, very, very clear about this in Romans. "For you must confess with your mouth that He is Lord, that He died, that He rose, and then you will be saved." Acquitted.
And then you inherit the characteristics of the creator of the heavens and earth. That's the kingdom I want to be a part of. That's the kingdom that brings peace in your home, where there is just strife.
And for some of us, man, we are dead people walking half the time. There's so much uneasiness in our soul. There is so much confusion in our life. Man, you wake up every day, and your stomach just hurts. Might be a bloating issue. I don't know. But, you know, it could be other things. Or don't eat Taco Bell at midnight. You can't, also this, you can't pray over Taco Bell and expect God to bless it. You know what I mean? The meat's not real.
But, man, you are lacking that peace in your life so bad. It's available to you. You just got it with your words. Speak it.
And I get it, y'all. There's so many days I wake up with anxiety that cripples me. With depressive thoughts that try to have a hold on me. I'm telling you, man, no one can bring me down like Tyler can. I'm telling you, I'll quit four times after this message.
But what would your life look like if the division was removed and the unity of Christ was implemented and planted in you? How do things start to change? It awaits you. The unity that He offers is for you. You just got to accept it.
And then His greatness is in you and within you and for you. And there ain't nobody, nobody that's taking that away. Acquitted or condemned? You choose. That's my king. I take that every day. The greater king has come and His kingdom is here. And it's available to you. Just take it. Take that peace.
Let's pray together.
Father, we love you. Man, we are so thankful for the unity that we have. It only comes from You, the goodness that can only come from You, the kindness that will lead us to repentance. We have seen king after king, leader after leader, prophet after prophet, Pharisee after Pharisee, do all that they could do, but no one can be who You are. That's my king.
And so, Father, let us live out the faith that we profess. Let us be reunited with You. Let us look more like You. Let that radiate all around us into the relationships that we have. Something greater is here, and it's You, King Jesus. We love You. We worship You. In Your name we pray this morning, y'all. Amen.
Come on, you've got a hand clap of praise.
Yeah.
Well, again, thank y'all for being here. We love to see you back here tonight for a concert. It's going to be incredible. I hope it stopped raining. Have a great day. May the God of heaven richly bless you. You are dismissed, y'all.
on Mar 16, 2025
