Powerless Idols

Powerful name of Jesus, the Alpha, Omega, the beginning and the end, the one who was and is and is to come. What a joy and an opportunity, a privilege to get together and lift up the most holy name of Jesus. The name above all names, the only way to heaven, the only way to eternal life, the only way to life abundant.

And we have the opportunity to gather and worship Him and lift Him up. Not only Sundays, any time, any time when two brothers come together, we lift up the King. This is glorifying to God.

I have been so encouraged. Thank you for sharing your meditation that God laid on your heart. Something that God has been speaking to me lately is that we as His people don't meditate enough.

We don't sit and take the time to let God speak to us. God said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations.

The name for all generations, not only for them, not only until they reach the promised land, but for all generations for us to remember. This is the name by which we are gathered today. And it is a powerful name.

It is a name that has power to overcome the powers of the devil that we sing about. What a beautiful song. Claiming the power of Jesus over the powers of the enemies, but recognizing that the enemy has power in this world.

But only the power that we, as humans, give to Him. Because if we rest in Jesus, His power has disappeared. Because Jesus has taken it.

Let's take a look at that a little bit today. He has enabled you and us to share in the inheritance. This inheritance that we are talking about is not an inheritance that will vanish one day.

It is not an inheritance of only a billion dollars that you can blow on new vehicles or land. But the inheritance that He has enabled you and me to become a part of is an eternal inheritance. It is an inheritance that people have physically, with their eyes, human beings, testimonies that we can read about.

It is an inheritance that they have seen the Son of God rise to heaven to claim and to prepare for us. This inheritance is eternal. It belongs to His people who live in the light.

We in here, God has given us the intuition in our hearts to know if we live in the light or if we are living in darkness. We will not one day die as adults and come to God and be surprised that we are not ready to die. We will not be surprised when God says, I have never known you.

We may act surprised, but the intuition, if we have the teaching, we know deep in our heart if we are clear with the Father. We know if we would be able to lay down today and take our last breath and meet the Father. We know that deep in our heart.

Some people try to fool themselves by comparing themselves among themselves and considering that I am not as bad as this man. But today, deep in your heart, you know if you are walking in the Spirit or if you are walking after the flesh. And this is in all parts of your life.

This is not in one part you are walking in the flesh, one part you are walking in the Spirit and you think, like the Buddhists, like the Muslims, that my good deeds will outweigh my bad. This is a trick from the enemy because that is not how God's measuring scale works. If you are walking by the Spirit, you are walking in the light and you have an inheritance and the Bible says that His Spirit gives witness to your spirit.

If you are His, you are indeed an inheritor with Jesus Himself. Do we believe in here that Jesus inherited the Kingdom of Heaven and everything in it? Not because the devil led Him to a mountain and showed Him everything in the world and He said, I would give it to you, but because He laid Himself down for His fellow men. And this is how we inherit.

But if the Spirit gives witness to you this morning, you are a fellow inheritor, an heir of God. And to be an heir of God makes you a rich, rich person. It looks foolish to the world according to the Bible.

But you are a rich person this morning. There's people in here who glow on their faces, who you can see that they are heirs of God, heirs of the Kingdom, walking in the Spirit. This is why we inherit.

For He has rescued us, not because we have done so much good, but because He has rescued us from the powers of darkness, from the grips of the enemy. He has rescued us and set us into the Kingdom of Light, the marvelous light it is. This is a light that is so brilliant that when you encounter the devil, the people of the devil, the world, and the people that are walking in the flesh, you will convict them.

Your countenance will convict them. When there are people who are saying they are Christians, claiming, I am a child of God, but not walking in the Spirit. When you walk in the Spirit, you convict them.

Your life becomes a conviction to their life. And instead, so many of the people who claim that they are God's children today, they join the ones that have no power. They are not walking in the power of victory.

They are not walking the victorious life. And because of the peer pressure, we join them, in many cases. Today, I want us to ask ourselves, when we left Egypt, what did we leave behind? How is our life different? We know that there's many, many, many people in America, because America is the free country.

You do not have to give up your reputation to say with your mouth that I'm a Christian. In fact, in some cases, it's cool. Many people can hide in Mecca churches and sit in the back pew here, however you want to look at it, but never bring their hearts, never start walking in the Spirit, and you are living a defeated life, if that is you this morning.

You are not walking in the Spirit of victory. And this is not what God called us out of, to call us into something. Did you ever get the picture of salvation? I think some of you in here have probably visibly already seen the picture of salvation in the Exodus story.

God did not just have an afterthought one day and bring salvation into the world. I believe this was God's plan, and He showed it so clearly to us in the book of Exodus. Why did Moses have to go and say to the people, and these were God's people, we could go way back and talk about the promises He made to Abraham.

Why did Moses have to go and say to God's people that Yahweh has sent me? The name above all names, the name that will never end, the beginning and the end has sent me. Why did Moses have to go tell the people that? I do not think that the people were crying out to God. The Bible says the people cried out.

Maybe this is a new thought for you, and if you believe they cried out to God, maybe they did, maybe some of them did. But the people cried out to God, and the Hebrew word for that is they zehkah, meaning they cried out in agony, but it does not say they cried out to God. They cried out.

They were in despair. And we recognize that they were slaves. They were slaves in the land of Egypt.

Was it by choice? Why were they slaves? Let's take a look at the story and recognize that a lot of those people probably had adopted the Egyptian gods. Just because the Bible says they were God's people does not mean they were walking after God's law. I think they were God's people because God had chosen them, and this is good news for us because God pursues you even after you stop pursuing Him.

I believe that God pursues many, many people today, especially in the Muslim culture, that are not pursuing Him at all. But He pursues them sometimes because of the intercessors, because of you and I pleading for their souls, because we have a compassion in our spirit that is broken because it feels like it is unfair. Who is telling them the good news? And here we are, many of us, walking after the flesh, serving ourselves.

We have many idols among us. I think there were many idols among God's people in the land of Egypt. And there is scripture that confirms that.

We will get to it. But when God heard their cry, He sent Moses and we could look at Moses and why Moses came to the place where God could use him. It's important for us to look at that one day.

But today we want to look at the beautiful picture of the Exodus and who God is and how God is still the same God today. Do we believe that God is still the same God today as He was in the book of Exodus? If so, if we believe it, we know that God has the power to annihilate any idol and any false god among us. Let's look at it.

When Moses came to the Egyptians, what did he do? He took what was in his hand and he used it for the kingdom of God. Every one of you in here is called to use what God has given you. We don't know what it is.

You may know what it is. But God has given you a tool and He wants you to use it. It's a powerful tool if you allow the Spirit of God to use it through you.

Maybe it's a little stick, a harmless little stick, and it turns it into a snake. Whatever God gave for you to use, use it. And when you use it, you have the power to overcome some powerful gods, false gods that actually have no power.

The people in the land of Egypt believed strongly. They believed strongly that the pharaohs had power. This was not just a mystical belief.

This was not just a belief that maybe the pharaohs had power. The magicians had power. You can read about that.

But the people, and I believe God's people, started thinking, hmm, what is it that they have so much power? Do you think that some of the plagues, the beginning of the plagues, God did to prove to His own people that He has more power than the Egyptians' gods? I think He did. I think God had to prove to His own people that He had more power than the false gods that over generations had crept into their hearts. We know from Scripture that they clung to some of those gods.

The very first god that the living God attacked, when I talk about a god with a small g, these are the pharaohs. These are the gods of Egypt. There were many, thousands and thousands of gods in Egypt.

And they all had a specific purpose and a meaning. And so they worshipped many, many gods. But they had gods that were over other gods.

And there was one god one day that said, I'm going to prove that I'm God with a capital G. But I need to show the people, my own people, that the gods of Egypt actually have no power. The Egyptians believed that the Nile was the bloodstream of Egypt. And in their mystical faith, they believed that every spring, when the rains came, the Nile overflooded and the blood of the Nile revived their land.

Do you remember that we just mentioned briefly, and I know that you believe this, that the devil can only manipulate what God has already established. So you will recognize that their beliefs are just a false, mystical belief of what God has already established. Especially with the Nile.

Why blood? Why does blood have to come and give them life? They would trust that every year the Nile would overflow and they would pray to the Nile, it was one of their gods, that he has to come and bring them life. We know a bloodstream that brings life, right? They thought that under the Nile was the blood vein that was endless. It had endless storage of life that came to their land every year.

This was the devil and his way of bringing a god with no power to the people. But see, everybody believes in a god. Everybody serves something.

Some people, a lot of people in America, serve themselves. This is very sad. But many, many people today have made an idol out of themselves.

People no longer meditate, how can I be a blessing today? How can I be the spirit of life for somebody by my actions? Bringing encouragement. I always told my students, never go through life without stopping and meditating. And I often told them, sit in the hayloft.

You must stop. Probably some of us have childhood memories of sitting and thinking, what is life all about? Is it meaningful? Does it have meaning? Does it have purpose? God speaks to you in those times when you stop and meditate. What is life all about? I think it is a very important habit for us to every morning think about how are we going to be intentional today to show somebody that the love of Jesus is in my heart.

And actually make a decision, who am I going to bless today? Who am I going to show that the love of Jesus is flowing out of me? This is a longing that we have in our heart. And so when the Nile River was attacked by the God with a capital G, what happened? Must be somebody punctured the blood vein in it. Because their God turned into blood and the fish died.

The Bible says there was a terrible stench in Egypt. All of a sudden the God that they claimed was the vein became exactly who they believed it was. And it was not who they wanted him to be.

For seven days, they started digging along beside the Nile for water. They were probably thirsty, their animals were probably thirsty. God had attacked their God and proven to the people that this God that they worshipped had no power.

Did Pharaoh leave the people go? I think God was now, the real God was now starting to show his own people that he had power more than the gods of the world. How is God today in our life, through our life, proving to the people who serve themselves, to the people who love to live life the way most American dreams are, how is God flowing through us, convincing those people that there is more power in the living God that we serve than the gods of this world? Because those, by the way, are the gods of this world. Did you know that on radio, America proclaimed that sports is the American's idol and it is the best place to go if you have marriage issues? Go to an evening of sports and relax and just enjoy your family.

Do you believe that going to a Cleveland Indians game is going to bring a family that is at the verge of divorce back together? There is no power in it. It is a false claim that America made. But the reality is that sports is the American idol.

What happens to many, many nominations who call themselves Christians when the Super Bowl Sunday comes around? We will not have church. Or at least maybe just a few people show up. What really is most important in your life is an idol.

And in many, many people's lives, it is sports. There is no secret about it. Maybe somebody here is saying, I love sports but it is not my idol.

Do you talk about it more than you talk about the love of Jesus that has control over your life? Do you talk about it more than you talk about the man that has set you from the bondage of sin into the marvelous light and given you an inheritance that is eternal? One day we know that all the sports and the idols that people worship, the men that they honor, will all vanish away. The God we serve has much more power than the God of sports. And then God goes and attacks the rest of their gods.

There were many. He attacks the boon gods. He attacks the animal gods.

We know that the Hindus still worship the cows. And then all of a sudden, all the cows lay out there bloated. All the flies and the gnats and the frogs, these were all gods.

And all those gods had memes. The one god especially, the fertility god, he had the head of a frog. And it was a sin in their culture that could cost the death sentence on them if they killed a frog.

What does the Bible say about the plague of frogs? It says that they chomped into their dough when they were kneading it. And they chomped into their beds, the Bible says. Could you walk down the aisle without stepping on the frogs? No.

So all of a sudden, there was a death sentence on all the people. They were killing frogs. The fertility goddess in the Egyptian culture had the head of a frog.

Her name was... I may have it in my notes, let me see. Hekwet, if I can pronounce it right. Hekwet.

And then there was another god by the name of Amun-Ra. And it was the sun god. And we again can see how the devil is trying to twist what God has already created.

If you believe in creation, it's the only way that you can actually believe in the Creator. You believe that God created everything and you marvel at it. Or your heart is twisted with the teachings of... all the different teachings that our children learn if they go to school.

I believe probably not very many do. Because of the teaching of evolution. It's subtle.

And people try to just bring it. I think there's much, much influence that we with our own eyes don't really see if we would even study the curriculum. Because the devil has a way to creep in to subtly, in ways that we are not aware of, start indoctrinating our children.

And I think it is very important for us to be aware, to ask the Spirit of God to show us. What indoctrination is government, is the world around us trying to bring into our family? When we live in the Spirit, when we live by the Spirit, we will see it on the billboards. We will see it all around us.

And we can teach our children. And rest in the fact, part of the psalm that I read last night, if you read a little further, it talks about the salvation that comes to us generation after generation. So many times I think, I'm not sure why I'm going here, but so many times I think we live in a sense of fear of what will happen with our children.

And we know that the sins of our forefathers and our fathers and even ours, if not repented of, will go on to the next generations. It's a true reality. But the glory is that we get the opportunity to repent, to close the doors, and then rest in the fact.

I think so often then we miss to rest in the promises that the salvation is also for generation after generation. And so when we rest in that, we no longer have to take control and make sure this happens. But we know that the harvest that God has started, I invite you to pray for me and my family because when you have children, sometimes the reality hits you.

What about the next generation? What about my grandchildren? Will they have the conviction? Will they have the spirit to direct them? I think they will if they seek it. But it is a battle that we're in. We need to fight it together.

We need to pray for each other. Back to the Egyptian gods, the sun god, the god that they believed brought life every day, day after day. We believe that the rays of the sun brings energy to us.

But we also believe in a sun that brings life to us every day. These people truly believe that the sun brought them life day after day. This was one of their most important gods.

They believed that it was the mother to a lot of their other smaller gods. And the name of this god was Amun-Ra and it was the sun god. And Amun-Ra has never failed them.

And one day, the god that we serve allows darkness to come. So heavy and so thick that the Bible says they couldn't move. Where is our god? Where is Amun-Ra, the mother to all our other gods? Did she die? What happened? It is so dark.

I cannot walk. I cannot move. Where the children of Israel were, it was not dark.

It was light. God was convincing His people once again that He is the true God and that they should follow Moses. Do you think after this many revelations, this many right in front of your eyes, seeing the most holy god move, do you think you would still cling to any of the Egyptian gods? Would you still stick at least one of them in your pocket? The false belief that these gods have power had infiltrated these people.

And when we believe in a false god, it is hard to give it up. I think many of us, in our past, we believed in false gods. We believed in things that had no power, but we thought they may have power.

Maybe it was ingrained in us. The Bible talks about in Joshua, when Joshua was talking to the people, this was after Moses had died. Many, many years walking through the wilderness, Joshua tells them to put away the idols of Egypt once and for all.

What? They were still hiding some of those Egyptian idols. Somebody had snuck some idols along because they thought, what if we needed it? What if one day, the god that we saw so powerfully acts against all the false gods and proves them wrong? What if one day he fails and we need this false other god? Do you think today, some of us are going through life, clinging to some little idol? Just putting it in our hip pocket, maybe. Because what if we might need it? God wants us to, by faith, lay them all aside and trust what the children of Israel's wickedness, stubbornness.

Are we this stubborn? Sometimes our stubbornness to try to prove that we are right. Even when we hear testimony, powerful testimony, we still want to prove somehow that I can live this way and it won't hinder me. I can carry this little idol along and it won't affect me like it did the person that shared the testimony.

You know, one day I heard a testimony in Cambodia of a demon worshipper. And he had power. Not all demon worshippers have the same amount of power.

But this demon worshipper, he had the power to undress any woman he wanted to. And in the spirit, he could molest her. He could live according to his flesh as the devil wanted him to.

But any lady with a head covering on, he could not touch. And this is what broke this demon worshipper. He could not believe that this veiling had any power.

And so intentionally he would attack them. He never once had the power to undress a veiled lady. I don't know that every lady that had a head covering on even knew why.

But there is a power. And you can claim that it has no significance. Many people say they don't know why.

But there is a reason. There are some ordinances in the Bible that will not change. When God told Moses to go, tell the people that I am Yahweh, he was saying, tell the people I have not changed.

I have not changed. Today we serve the God that has not changed. We live in a culture that has changed.

But God has not changed. He will not change. We don't want Him to change.

If He changes, maybe we will lose our inheritance. He will not change. And God has some ordinances that will never change.

And when you study the Word of God, you can try to manipulate it. You can say I can walk in the Spirit, but I don't have to follow all of that. It is outdated.

It is not outdated. It is vibrant. It is alive.

And the enemy that is losing will have no power over you when you walk in that vibrant life. When you walk in the way of the Lord, God has not changed. And one day God asked the people, do something that will show me that you trust me.

What did God ask the people to do? He said, go and find the lamb. Go and get a sheep and tie it in your front yard. What? The Egyptians' number one God was the ram God.

He was the father of all their gods. Miles and miles when you come into Egypt, on either side of the road, there are rams laying. Proud looking rams with little pharaohs under their chin.

Giving the pharaoh the power. And God says, the living God says, to show me that you trust me, take their God and tie it in your front yard. And then do what? Kill it.

Kill their God. Kill their God. Do we even have the courage to put a sign in our yard that says, abortion is wrong.

Divorce is wrong. This is very minor. When we think about what God asked the children of Israel to do.

When you do this by faith, and when you do this by faith, when the death angel comes, you will not die. Do you think every Israelite did it? I don't know. I'm very curious.

Because this was an attack, a physical attack, for three days. Their God was tied in their front yard. In Egypt, you will never kill a lamb.

You will never kill a sheep. They were shepherds. They were already despised for who they were.

They were shepherds when they came and then turned into slaves. The Egyptians did not like those people simply because who they were and how they came against their God, against their system. And here the people by faith sprinkled the blood on their doorposts.

I cannot imagine what those dads felt. If this does not work. If this does not work, that tonight the living God shows up and delivers us, tomorrow the Egyptians may kill us all because we have just gotten done killing their God and they must be enraged.

And God was faithful. He is asking you, will you take the courage to sprinkle the blood on your doorposts? He will be faithful. It will feel very vulnerable.

In the culture we live in, things will change. When God is asking you to leave your old life behind and go into a new life, He is asking us to leave behind the things that we used to serve. And the question for us this morning, what did you leave behind? Has anything changed in your life when you claim that Jesus changed you? What has changed? How has something changed? Did you experience victory? And then God redeems His people.

In His faithfulness, He takes them out. We could talk about the stubbornness, the rebellion, but I want us to see the picture. When God redeemed them, the Bible says they were a redeemed nation, but it does not say they were a holy nation.

That's a sermon on its own. In Peter, it talks about the call that God has for us. We are a holy nation, a holy priesthood, and a chosen nation.

So when we become a holy priesthood, we can look at the culture and how did that look to be a holy priesthood. Every single one of us in here is called to be a holy, that's not the message today. When we look at the picture of Exodus, what did God do next? He baptized them.

He let them out and through the Red Sea, He baptized them. I believe this is the picture that God wanted to show us, His children, that when we are done with our old life, by faith we receive the blood of the Lamb on the doorpost of our hearts. He takes us and He buries our old life and we're raised to a new life and we know the Jordan of Israel came out worshiping the Lord.

They sang the worship song, glorifying the King. Read the song, it's beautiful. It's powerful.

They felt the cleansing of God in their life. How do you think the people felt that we're hiding the little island? We just may need them. What hindered the people from becoming a holy nation? It was God's plan for this generation, for this group of people to walk through the land, I believe, and show the people other nations, the people they pass by.

How does it look to walk with God? How does it look to follow the living God? Were they able to show the world? Are we able to show the world? Let's just look at one little thing on their journey. When they came to Mount Zion, God invited them to come. This, I believe, is significant.

I think this is where God wants us to come to and to anoint us with the Holy Spirit to experience the power and to become a holy nation. What did the people do? The Bible says they stood afar off and they were afraid. I think this made God very, very sad.

This was the moment that he wanted to marry his bride. This was all marriage language in their culture. There was a cloud over the mountain.

When you understand Jewish weddings, this was a picture of a wedding. And when God came, the people said, Moses, you go. Just tell him to talk to you.

We don't want to talk to him face to face. God wants to change you in a radical way. And the people knew when they experienced God, things will change.

I don't know what they were clinging to still, but they were afraid of the Holy God. And they chose that day not to come near. The Bible says they stood afar off.

That's also a message for another day. I love to talk about the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ, and the beauty of who Jesus is. I think Exodus is such a beautiful picture of salvation, of Jesus sprinkling our hearts and then burying our old life and raising to a new life, rejoicing.

And then God taking us. He has redeemed us now and taking us through the wilderness. What a beautiful meditation.

Wanting to take us to a point where we become a holy nation. He wants to anoint us with the Holy Spirit. I remember being redeemed, knowing that I was born again.

There was a man one day that was bold enough to preach truth. He didn't last for a long time there, but he was bold at the time he was there. And so he was preaching the truth one day.

I was sowing my wild oats and I was sitting in the back pew or the bench where we used to sit, the boys, and I was pretending I was sleeping. I know exactly the spot and whose house it was. And this preacher was bold enough.

He had the love for souls enough. He loved his Redeemer enough to preach the truth, even if it would cost his reputation. John appreciates this man deep.

Noah Miller. You know him, right? He was one of the only men who shared the truth. And that day he started talking about the gift that is on the shelf in many people's lives.

We are invited to a very special gift. And oftentimes we believe that maybe one day, maybe one day we will get that gift. If we live a good enough life, if we can just discipline us enough, maybe when we die, God is gracious enough to give us the gift of grace.

This is the way we heard grace. This is how we understood grace. Maybe we will get the gift of grace if God's grace is enough when we die that we can inherit eternal life.

And that day when I was pretending to be sleeping, he said something that jerked me wide away. If you leave the gift on the shelf, if you never get the gift and you take it and you rejoice that it is yours, you receive it into your life and you die, it will still be on the shelf. It will not suddenly become yours.

This gift is yours today. This is the gift of salvation to you. You cannot do anything to good enough to receive it, to get it, but this is the free gift of salvation.

On that day, I went home and I knelt beside my bed and I felt Jesus kneeling right beside me. It was glorious. In a very, very small faith, I became born again.

But I had no idea what walking in victory looked like. I believe God, by His grace, redeems us. And when you are a redeemed person, you receive a measure of the Holy Spirit because the Bible says in Ephesians that when you became born again, you received His Spirit.

But I believe that God wants to pour out His Spirit upon you, to cleanse you, to sanctify you, to make you into a holy nation, to walk in newness of life, to renew your mind. But God started talking to me. I remember going to a party after that.

On the way home from the party, I saw devils running after me, trying to get me. And I felt like God was telling me, this was your chance. If you ever go again, you will lose the way.

By the grace of God, He does not let us go. He pursues you. And I promised God that night, I will never go again.

The love of Jesus in your life, pursuing you, wanting you to walk, sanctify. Don't try to go against that love. And then the beautiful picture of coming to baptism, burying our old life, raising to a new life.

And then going and drawing near to God, and He will draw near to you. Don't stand afar off and resist the presence of the Holy One. Yes, He will burn off the draw.

He will. When you dare come close, every one of us knows deep in our heart, when the Holy Spirit anoints us, things are going to change. I remember keenly knowing, if I let the Holy Spirit rule my life, things are going to change.

And it will not be an easy life. And I resisted it. I did not want that radical change.

I just wanted to know that when I die, I will go to heaven. That is enough. But God wanted me to be willing.

He wanted to anoint me. The Holy Spirit is something that pursues you in a person form. It is the Trinity, the Father who has never changed.

Jesus, who came in physical form and died on the cross, took all the shame away, redeems us. And the Holy Spirit who will comfort you. It is alive from the devil that when you allow the Holy Spirit into your life, that it will be so hard you cannot, you will not be able to go through all the changes.

He is the comforter. What often looks like the hard life is the life of peace. The peace that passes all understanding is when there is a storm and a bird sits there and maybe sings.

This is the life that you are after all longing for. But your flesh is resisting it. God wants to pour out His Holy Spirit on you, to change you, to make you look like a fool in this world.

But this is the fool that God can use. The person that is willing to become anointed and to surrender it all, it's the person that God can use. I want us today to see who Jesus really was.

I believe that the kingdom that we are a part of is so much more tangible. It is not something mystical. It is not something out there that we don't really understand.

When you look at the Exodus story, it was a fight between God. And it always has been. Today, it is a fight between God.

We need to be aware of who those gods are. Is it Muhammad? In some cases, yes. I believe that we, maybe in our generation, will come against the climax of this fight of who is God this time.

In Egypt, who was supposed to be the God? Pharaoh was supposed to be the main God. He had received, in their way, powers. We know by the song we sung that the devil has some power, but only what we give him, only what the world gives him.

And it is such a glorious feeling this morning. You can feel the rest, even in your muscles, if you're resting in the Holy Spirit, knowing that all those demonic powers have no power on our kingdom. We are walking in a kingdom that is tangible, that is in a battle against other gods again.

When Jesus came, it was very similar. We will look at it a little bit. Jesus did not one day just come into this world, and most people had no idea where they were going.

Nobody was really serving anybody, and everybody was longing. That a Messiah would come, so that they have somebody to serve again. Jesus came into a culture and a world that thought they had it established.

And he came among people, scribes and Pharisees, who called themselves the called out, the chosen, that were proud. They were getting rich off the system. And Jesus did not only come for the Jewish nation, Jesus came for the Gentiles.

Isn't it glorious how he came through Ruth, even in his lineage, some Gentiles. And when the proud Pharisees, if they looked at all of that, it did not make any sense that Jesus would come from that lineage. That is a contaminated lineage.

It is not pure. Jesus would not come from there. And many other areas and places where he was born, what good could come out of Samaria.

It did not make sense. But Jesus, I think it is important for us to see who Jesus really was. Jesus, once again, became the king of kings and Lord of lords.

Who was the king at that time? The Roman emperor was established. Caesar Augustus was the king. You read it in the book of Luke.

Who was Caesar Augustus? He was the son of Julius. And Julius was who? Most of you may not have known. He was God.

In the Roman culture, Julius had become a god. So what did that make Caesar Augustus? A son of God. Who is the son of God? Jesus is the son of God.

Thank you. In that culture, they believed that Julius became a god because whenever somebody became the emperor, they had what they called a triumpe, a triumphant entry into becoming the king. When Julius died, he was their former king.

For seven nights in a row, there was a comet in the sky. And they believed that Julius had ascended from his death into the heavens. Even the Romans believed that heaven was the CEO office of the god.

The Romans believed that the calls were made in heaven. And so here was another fight against who is God? Who is the real living God? And they proclaimed, the Romans proclaimed, that Julius' son, Caesar Augustus, is the son of God. And what he says, this is it.

When he puts his stamp on it, you dare not go against it. Anybody who went against the call of the son of God will have to die. This is the culture that Jesus engaged with every day.

This is also the emperor that gave the scribes and Pharisees the liberty to meet in their synagogues and argue. And they knew if they functioned with no power, with no threat to the government, they can still become rich. And so they appreciated the system.

They were being very comfortable and just glad that the Roman emperors didn't abolish the synagogues, their schools, or their culture. But do not stand up against it. Do not come against the Romans.

Just let them go so that we can have our easy life. We live in a culture where it is hard to go against the teachings of our country, of any government, and there's many that directly and indirectly contradict with the faith and walk of Christians, of real Christians. You cannot, I wish we could, no, I don't.

You cannot fit in. You cannot just somehow blend in. Sometimes you want to just blend in.

I think the scribes and Pharisees wanted to befriend the Romans so that life would somehow become easier. And they always had this idea that one day the Messiah would come and then we will show them. One day the Messiah will come and I think they believed, annihilate them.

And maybe they believed in that day, I don't know what the scribes and Pharisees believed. I doubt if they believed really in their heart that Caesar Augustus was the son of God, but maybe they wanted to just somehow prove that he wasn't. But when the real Messiah, the son of the living God came, they were blinded to it because of their pride, because of their arrogance, because of their unwillingness to walk the difficult road.

In a triumphe, they would always start out at Pilate's hall. So let's take a look at Jesus. He did not only come to convince the Jewish people that I am the Messiah.

He also came for the Romans. I believe when Jesus was hanging on the cross, just as much as he wanted the Jewish people to see I am the promised Messiah who came to deliver you from the bondage of Egypt, from the bondage of the Romans, just as much he wanted the Romans to see that this is the King. Julius did not ascend into heaven to become the God.

He was not sitting, they believed that Julius went and sat on the right hand of Omesis. And this was a God that they called him the ascending and descending God, that once a year, this God would go into the earth and come out again to bring life back. Again, the devil manipulates.

We know God's plan. The devil maybe thought he will have it on God and before God comes, he will raise up a God that goes into the underworld, comes back up. But it never happened.

These gods were dead. There was no life in the statue that was in Pilate's hall. And there was a purple robe hanging on over this goddess.

And once a year, Caesar, Augustus, Pilate and all their little white houses or whatever you want to call it, they would walk out on the balcony to show that the God had gone into down the world and he has returned again. He brought life back. And then they would hang the purple robe over the statue again.

When a triumph happened, when they decided that they saw signs in the heavens that obviously Julius ascended, he's sitting on the right hand of this goddess that goes into the underworld once a year. Obviously his son is the son of a God, so we have to make him king. So Caesar Augustus would have done this.

He went to Pilate's hall. They put a purple robe on him. They put a crown on him.

And he walked down a certain road every time. They called it the Via Mara. And along this path, there was always incense burning.

The people in the city could always smell that there is a new king coming into power. Do you know that the Bible talks about us having a smell? To some, it smells like the stench of death. If you are here today and you do not know the Lord Jesus, you must know that there is only death left over.

And this is not a good smell. It will not be a delightful smell. But to some, it is the sweet aroma.

Whenever this new king was becoming into power, he had a scepter in his hand, a sword. And they convinced the people that this man has the power of life and death. And as he was walking down the Via Mara, they would bring prisoners out.

And the new king that was gaining his power, that was convincing everybody that he is the son of a God, he would say, you are free, you are killed. And they would execute people along the way. And he had also the power to set some of them free.

Jesus came to bring us life. And he is all about life. You know that when even a sinner was hanging beside him, he gave him life.

He did not need the scepter of death. This is something that we choose ourselves. This morning, we heard a little bit about a God that would not damn anybody.

We have scripture that says, God did not come into the world to condemn the world. We condemn ourselves. Our actions condemn us.

It is our choice. It is not God's choice. Why would God come in the flesh and die on the cross and give his only life if his choice was to send us to hell? He came so that it is not his choice.

It is our choice. It is not him who sends us to hell. We know and are so thankful that God is a holy God.

How would we want to go into eternity and all kinds of sin would be in heaven? God knows that there will be no sin there. And he will not let anybody bring sin there. When the person walked down the Via Mara, this really happened in the Roman culture.

And the man would ascend the stairs. They would come to a place that was called Head Hill. And they had their little palace there.

And the man, before he ascended the stairs, they would offer him some vinegar. And to prove that he has the power to reject anything, he would take the vinegar and pour it on the ground. And then he would ascend the stairs and he would stand with two men lower than himself looking up to him to show that we will serve you.

And all the people would scream, Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar! This is now a son of a God. And from there on, his stand, his seal, is life or death. And Jesus comes into a culture that was scared of the Son of God.

They knew that he had power. They had seen him walk down the Via Mara. Some men he killed.

Some men he released. However he felt. And here comes Jesus wanting so much to prove to this culture that I am your king.

Look at the brilliance of Jesus. Don't we talk about the triumphant entry? Jesus is not some mystical figure that came in and it just so happened that he came into Jerusalem one day and the children started crying out. Some say that if the children hadn't cried out, the sons would have.

Why? Because it was prophesied. The prophecies of God will always stand. Nothing could have changed it.

Nothing. This was all prophesied. And Jesus had to be the slain lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He had to be the Passover lamb that people had tied in their yards and applied to their hearts because this is who he is to us. He is our Passover lamb. When we apply it, we no longer die.

We live. And he also had to become the king because he is king of kings and lord of lords. How can Jesus become a king? Luke, who was a Gentile, I believe if you read his gospel, you will recognize that he was writing and trying to convince the Romans, the Gentiles, that Caesar is not the son of God.

They captured Jesus one night as if he was the vilest man alive with no ability to make their own choices. It makes their counsel look very weak when they decide in their last meeting that we will not kill Jesus on Passover. Let's not kill him on Passover because it may give a riot.

The Bible says, Jesus said, they cannot take my life. I will give it. They were not going to kill Jesus on Passover, but Jesus had chosen to give his life on Passover.

So look at the puppets. Look at the men coming into the garden. Even by the spoken word, they fell over backwards.

This is the kingdom that you and I are part of today. The Jesus that was alive, that proved to the Roman emperors that he is the king. He dotted every I and he crossed every T. You know probably most of the parallels, how he became the lamb of God.

You know how he died on the exact hour when the shofars blew, when the proud Faroese were calling the people for prayer. At this moment, everybody will slit the throat of the lamb. All the families had chosen a sheep.

And there was a big hustle bustle going on in Jerusalem. And it was their favorite sheep. It was the sheep that they looked at and they made sure it was perfect for the perfect amount of time.

When Jesus walked, rode into Jerusalem, they chose him for the Passover lamb. That day, they chose the sheep. On that Sunday, people were all over choosing the lamb.

It was lamb selection day. And they chose the sheep. And on this specific minute, when the shofars blow, everybody will slit the throat of the lamb.

And the blood will run down the street. What happened at that very hour? Jesus went to Pilate's hall and despite their efforts not to kill him, Jesus had chosen to die on Passover. And they put a purple robe on him.

And they put a crown of thorns on him. And you know all the little details. We love the story of Jesus giving his life.

What is even more intriguing is that he was doing everything to show the world that he was king. And when he left Pilate's hall, he did not look at all like a king. But the people were making Jesus king.

They had no idea. In fact, they let him out the exact same path. And who did Jesus release? The murderer.

They released the prisoner. They brought the prisoners out. And Jesus released him.

Pilate released him. Not by his own authority. The prisoners were set free.

And as Jesus went on his journey, he was becoming king. He knew it. He could have proved it to the people.

He knew that he was becoming the king of kings and lord of lords. And they let him out. And even though the Psalms say he looked like a butchered man, his back looked like a plowed field.

And his tongue was sticking to the roof of his mouth. He was the slain lamb of God. He was also king of kings.

They offered him vinegar. He refused it. They took him out to a place called Golgotha.

And this word means place of the skull, which actually means head hill. This was right beside the palace. The little palace that had the stairs that Caesar Augustus would have walked up.

And the reason is, beside there is the place where he has the authority to kill people. And this is how the Roman emperor worked. That system has the authority to annihilate people or to let them live.

And this day, unbeknownst to them, they were making somebody king. And they were also slaying the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. So much was happening that to the human eye, they hardly saw any of it.

And the proud scribes and Pharisees were going about their business, making sure to keep the Passover in the right way, but blind to what was happening. Sentencing to death, screaming crucify him. Do you remember what the people look for in the sky? When there was a new king standing on the stairs, claiming that he had the power of life and death, they would always look for signs in the sky.

And when there were signs in the sky, this was a confirmation to them that truly the God that we saw ascending, Julius, which were only comets, he sees this, and it is from the CEO office in heaven, confirming that Caesar Augustus is the son of God. And one day Jesus was hanging in the balance. He could have proved to all the people that look, you just made me king.

Look what all happened. I had the purple robe. I had a crown.

I walked down the same path. I'm at the place where I could release or I could kill all of you. But Jesus is about life and releasing.

And when the moment came and Jesus cried out, it is finished. It was done. And who was his first witness? Not a chosen Israelite, a Roman centurion.

Truly this man is the son of God. By saying this, he brought the death sentence on himself. Depending on who heard him say, this man is the son of God.

He had just said, Caesar is not the son of God. But Jesus is. Today we know that this man is the son of God.

But is he Lord of Lords? Is he Lord of your life? Or is this man Lord of your life? Do you love your flesh? Do you have the courage to proclaim that this man is the son of God? Even if it costs your life. The Roman centurion knew how. The Bible says, the rocks split in two.

Darkness covered all the earth. There was a great earthquake. The CEO office in heaven was confirming.

Truly, this is the son of God. Not the son of Julius. Not Caesar Augustus who takes the scepter of death and childishly kills people if he chooses.

There is a kingdom that is tangible. You can feel it. You can walk in it.

You can live in it. It's your invitation. Or you can resist it.

This kingdom will keep right on marching. This man is the son of God. He is the slain lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He takes away every burden, every sin in your life. You do not have to cling to it. You can go to the place where he proclaimed, it is finished.

And it will be finished in your life. No longer do you have to waste your energy walking in the path of the world that is so vain. It is so empty.

And you're trying to make a God out of a person that is not a God. You're trying to somehow prove that the system works for you. But it doesn't.

The Roman system just didn't work. This man is the son of God. We can set our gaze on this man.

And this man gives us the inheritance that is eternal. We can live in it starting now and we know it will never end. This life that he is offering to us will never end.

We do no longer have to fight against it. We can rest in it. I believe that the disciples thought of scripture.

In the book of Daniel, there were four beasts that came out of the abyss, out of the turmoil, out of the darkness. It says there was churning water. And four beasts came out and tried to prove their power.

And there's the scene that happens that we don't understand everything. And then there comes a man like the son of man, dressed in white, dazzling white. And he brings under authority the beasts.

I believe the disciples recognized what is happening. This is fulfillment of scripture. We are living in an 11th hour.

We are living in a day when there's much fulfillment of scripture. In our pride, in our arrogance, we may not see it. We may miss so much of it.

But one day, this man that is truly the son of God, who truly ascended into heaven, we have words of testimony seeing him ascend. And who is sitting at the right hand of God? Not Julius. Sitting beside a fake God.

Those men died and they are still dead. They have no power whatsoever. But there is a man that ascended into heaven, sitting on the right hand of God, the CEO office of heaven and earth.

They are making the choices. They are making the decisions. We have an opportunity to work for this business.

And it is the business of redemption. It is the business of bringing life and hope to a lost and hopeless and dying world. One soul at a time.

This is the call that Jesus has for every one of us. It looks different. But it is about bringing hope to a dying world.

At the 11th hour, when Jesus ascended into heaven, this was not strange language. I think the disciples and whoever saw him go said, see, Julius never ascended into heaven. But our king did.

Our king really ascended into heaven. He rose one day and with it, he abolished the devil and all the powers. And now he even rose and is sitting at the right hand of the father.

Why do you think it angered the people so much? When Stephen said, I look into heaven, even now I gaze into heaven and I see him, the one that you killed, sitting at the right hand of the father. And they gritted their teeth and stoned him. This is the testimony that you and I can walk with.

Our brother Stephen saw Jesus sitting at the right hand of the father. And when they are resisting it, when they are wanting to cling to a system that is not working, and when they are claiming that somebody else may be king or a son of a God, they will grit their teeth. But sometimes when you share the story, it pierces their heart and they proclaim, what must I do to become saved? God bless you as you rest and know that this man is the son of God and nothing will ever change.