Sermon Transcript:I mean, really after last week, the last thing anyone wants pointed out about them is that they're a Cowboys fan. It was kind of a rough week. I am really happy to be with you all today in El Paso in West Texas. And let me just mention to you, you took a point of personal privilege a minute ago, I'll take a slightly lighter appointed personal privilege. I actually grew up in West Texas, so not quite this far west. But of course, nothing else is quite this far west, in Texas, so I don't feel like I've lost the competition. But I grew up actually in crane, Texas, south of Odessa, so about 30 miles south of Odessa. So I love I love this area, I love the love of the Desert Southwest and love being a part of this part of Texas. And I've lived after that once I started growing up and got into adulthood and all that I spent a lot of time in the Metroplex. So I always feel like I've been freed a little bit, when I come back out here where you can drive a car, the speed that it was designed to go and all that kind of stuff. So I really am happy to be out here. And you know, when I was when I was growing up in crane actually, the things that it was funny because I mean, I was just a little kid I was introduced to the world there, you know, this is this is where I found out what life is about, and what life was about for me. And it was fantastic because my dad worked for El Paso natural gas. And so we actually lived in a camp outside of a gas plant, and which meant my life was entirely about tarantulas and catching red and black ants and putting them in a jar together and collecting rattles from rattlesnakes and Jackrabbit. So that was pretty much my whole life. And out of all of those things, the weird thing is, you know, you're just trying to figure out how to live when you're a little kid. And so I was just trying to figure out how to live and when I would go to sleep at night, I wouldn't have nightmares about tarantulas of all the things. I mean, we we woke up some mornings and had tarantulas covering completely covering our welcome mat on the on the floor at the front door. I mean, it was just it was just sort of a second nature thing in our home. And you would think that's what I would have been terrified. I've never had a dream about a tray until I can't ever remember ever having a dream or nightmare about a tarantula, never had a dream about a rattlesnake or anything like that not even a giant Jack Rabbit eating me, the thing I always thought they were pretty big. The thing I always had nightmares about when I was a little bitty kid was one of the tanker trucks running me down, chasing me down. That's what I was terrified of when I was a little kid. And as you know, as it turns out, you know, you go further into life, you figure more things out. And I figured out that most tanker trucks are not trying to run me down. And I realized that all the things I might have been terrified when I was a little kid weren't the same things that I actually needed to be concerned about. Then I became a teenager. And I realized there were other things to be concerned about, just not that. And when I left the home and got married, and all of those things that transpire as your life goes forward, you realize that in every single part of your life, you're still really always working at trying to figure things out, you're trying to figure out how things go. And you go to other people, and you ask them for advice, and they give you their experience, and you learn some things from them. But you're still always trying to figure things out. And that's true about our Christian lives as well. Because as firm and absolute as the answers we have are in Scripture, our grasp of them is always limited. We're always fallible as people and the same thing was happening in the early church. And so the I'm gonna speak to you from a specific passage early in the church's history, it's in the book of Acts, it's an act for, and we're just going to read this prayer that they prayed, not so that we can just pray the prayer, although that would be worth doing. They repeated it regularly. As you will see from us reading the reading the passage, they must have used the prayer regularly. So it was valuable to them for that reason. But the reason I want to read it to you is because they're early in their understanding of what Christianity is about and how to live it out. And what we can gain from looking at believers when they were in the early church trying to figure out what Christianity would look like, is how we're supposed to live out our Christianity as we run into the parts of it that seem like a brick wall sometimes, or that are just unexpected, where there does seem to be a truck or something trying to run us down. So I want to look at a passage that might give us a little better grounding for how we're supposed to act actually practice our Christianity. And so I'm really grateful for the invitation to come and be able to spend the time with you. If you don't know my background at all. When I left West Texas, I moved to the Metroplex and went through school there and became a Cowboys fan there and all that stuff. But also also started was called into the ministry when I was 16 years old, and I've been preaching pretty much every week since since I was 18, usually three times a week or so, because my only real commitment is just to Scripture, and what God has given us in itAnd then being able to communicate that and learn how to conform our lives to it. And I, you know, I'm 60 years old now. And the Lord is constantly taking this book, and just pounding me over the head with it and saying, Are you not listening? To me, I am discovering things constantly, that still need to be changed in my life. And so I really invite you to take a moment with me to look at the very beginnings and sort of the foundation of our faith and how we practice it and how we live it. And what those elements are, that will help secure the way that we're following the Lord. And if you don't mind, I know y'all prayed a lot already. But if you don't mind, I want to pray and just ask the Lord to bless the time that we get to spend together in the Word. So would you join me in prayer, please, for just a moment. Father, thank you so much for this congregation. I am blessed by seeing who they are here today and what they've done. I'm blessed to know that you have a body following you in this community just like this, I pray that You would bless their pastor, I pray that You would bless them, then I pray that You would help me not to be a hindrance, a barrier between what you've said in your word. And these people that you love, pray instead that you sort of move me out of the way, and allow what you want to say to be what shines through, because that's the only thing that really matters today. And we prayed in Jesus name, Amen. So what's happening in this passage that I'm going to read to you, it's an X for it's in verse 24, where they actually start and describe going into this prayer. What's happening in this passage is that, you know, the Lord has just risen from the dead, he's appeared to the apostles, he spent time with them. Now he ascends into heaven. And they're left behind trying to figure out how they're going to obey how they're going to follow the Lord, they have the the day at Pentecost, which is a day when he told them, the Holy Spirit would come on them, they, the Holy Spirit comes on them, they preach the Word, and there are 1000s of people who believe and by the time you finish Acts, chapter two, for all, you know, everybody everywhere is going to believe every time the gospel is preached, that that will be the coming of the Kingdom of God onto the earth. And by the way, if you hear that phrase, the coming of the Kingdom of God, and only think of, you know, weird pictures of the future, and horsemen and stuff like that, you're sort of missing the point, the coming of the Kingdom of God, is the answer to the question. Everyone asks about why on earth if God is so good, and if he's so powerful, there's so much evil, there's so much suffering, there's so much pain, there's so much confusion and frustration, and anger and everything else in the world. Why is the world still messed up that question, which a lot of people ask regularly? That question is the same question as when is the kingdom of God going to come? When is God going to make everything right? And so in the process, as they see Christ rise from the dead, they're thinking, Well, surely this is going to make everything right. I mean, the Lord of the universe rose from the dead and made clear that He's sovereign, he's over everything. Surely this will make everything right. And he says to them, Well, I'm not going to answer that question for you, but you will receive the Spirit, and you will begin to preach my word, you will be witnesses to my resurrection, here in Jerusalem and everywhere else. And so he, he gives them that they go preach, everybody that's listening. As far as the story goes, everybody that's listening response. So they're bound to think that's what's going to happen. In the very next chapter, they do it again, they go back to the temple, they have a healing that they that they do, the crowd draws together just like before, and they preach the gospel, just like before, 1000s believed just like before, but this time they run into opposition, and the people who are in charge in the city, get mad at them for preaching a message that's different from what they would have represented because they want to keep the authority under them. So they put these messengers from Christ into jail, and they put them in jail and tell them that they can't preach in the name of Jesus anymore, whatever that whatever you think of that, that command and their rejection of it, and what they do all of that's important. But for us, the only thing that matters about it is they suddenly realize they've still got to deal with problems in the world, they've still got to deal with the reality that their lives are going to be messed with. By a world that's still not perfect. And that's a world we're pretty familiar with. So here's how they respond. They leave the jail, they're told not to preach in the name of Jesus anymore. And what they do is they go back to their congregation. So just like this, they go back to the congregation, when they heard that, here's, here's what they do. They tell them. Look, this is what they've told us that we can't preach in the name of Jesus anymore. And so in verse 24, the congregation heard that and they lifted up their voice to God with one accord in one note, and so it's just like, we were just singing the songs and we all knew the words to the songs. Israel has a long history and they have a book full of songs and messages that they've memorized, and they know how to say toGather. So when it says they lift up their voice with one accord, there's nothing mystical about it. They bring up the psalms that they're familiar with. And they sing them back to God, they pray them back to God together. And so it says, when they heard that they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, that basically what they're needing to say, is this, your sovereign God, we know that. But this is a mess, because you've told us to do one thing. And all the rulers in the city are telling us to do the opposite. And they're putting our leaders in jail when they're obeying you. So how on earth are we supposed to respond this, that's what you expect them to pray about? That is indeed what they do pray about. And here's how they say it. They lifted up their voice with one accord in harmony. And they said, Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them. Who by the mouth of your prophet of Your servant, David has said, Why do the nations rage? And why do the people imagine vain things? This is the first part of the prayer, we'll read the second part in just a moment. This first part of the prayer establishes something that they assume this is just sort of a preface to the rest of the prayer. And it's an assumption they all hold, which is worth all of us remembering. But they say is first thing to the Lord. They say you are the Lord, Who created the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything that's in them. So the first declaring your the Lord. And then they're saying that that's a quotation from Psalm 146. I'll tell you about that psalm in a moment. Why, why, why we know they're quoting from there, because there's a phrase that used all over the Old Testament, so that could be quoting it from anywhere, but they're quoting it from a psalm. And then they quote, a different Psalm. And they say, so why are the nations raging? They lifted up their voice and a raging against your servant David, why are they doing that? They're quoting from Psalm two and that song, that's the reason they're able to lift it up and sing it together. They all know the psalm together, they don't need somebody to lead them in it. They just offer it up to the Lord together, the assumption that they have is, you're the Lord. And these men want to be the Lord, they want to be king. But in truth, you're the one who's king. And the thing they use to appeal to that to make that statement is, you're the Lord who made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them. And in that statement, what they're declaring is that the sovereignty of God, the power of God, His Lordship is declared from the creation. Even when other people don't like that, it's still the fact that the Lord is the one who made the creation. Now, let me let me give you an idea of where that phrase came from, in their minds. So in the Old Testament, most of us are familiar with the creation story. I mean, even people who don't know anything about Christianity or Judaism know, the creation account in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And we all know that's a statement that God's creating everything right, he creates it all. So here's the beginning. Once you get past Genesis, though, when you say the Lord created everything, unless it's a direct quotation of genesis of that statement, he created the heavens in the earth. Once you once you get past Genesis, from then on, you say more than that, when you say He created everything, you don't just say, He created the heavens and the earth, you would think that's sufficient. But remember, in the creation, He divides the waters that are above from the waters that are below and there's all this weird description of it. So from that point forward, when they want to say he creates everything they say it like this. In fact, I'll give you the example that comes from the 10 commandments, you know, the 10 commandments, when you get to the fourth commandment, the Sabbath day, so remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. You know, in the six days, God creates. So this is how he says it. In six days, you do all your labor in the seventh day, you rest in the sixth, on the seventh day, you don't let anyone in your household do any labor, because in six days, the Lord created the heavens and the earth and the sea. And all that is in them using exactly the same phrase we're using in this prayer. And it's used from that point forward, when you want to say, God created everything. And it's, you know, it's the technical term for this. You know, I'm the president at critical college. So I'm an educator. So every once in a while, I've slipped in something educational, right? So this is it's called a mare ism, it's when you you include the middle but what you're really trying to do, I mean, you're including everything in the middle, because you include the extremes. And the extremes are the heavens and the sea, the thing that's below but what he does is mentioned all three, the heavens and the earth and the sea. And for them, I know we look at it and think well, there are sky and then there's Earth, and then there's the sea over there, right next to the earth. That's not how they think of the sea. The sea is the thing below the earth. It's the water. That's why it's called the deep it's the it's the thing that's beneath so when you say the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them, you're encompassing everything in the creation, the whole of cosmos, the Lord created everything in sixDays is the 10 commandments how it says it. And in the seventh day he rested. So you're also going to rest on the seventh day. So they quote that throughout the rest of the Old Testament, by the time they get to the end of the Psalms, a book of songs that they all sing together, and they all pray together. By the time they get to the book of Psalms, Psalm 146, they quote that phrase, and they quoted in this context, they say this. Now remember, these are people in Acts that we're talking about, who've just been commanded by the rulers in their city, not to preach the name of Jesus anymore. And so they lift up their voices, and they quote, the Psalm. And what the psalm says is, Do not put your trust in princes, because they breathe for a little while, and then they perish just like that. But instead, Happy is the nation whose God is the God of Jacob, because the God of Jacob created the heavens and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them. And then it says, and he's the one who freeze the prisoners who releases the captives. So what he does for them in that Psalm is tell them how they're supposed to respond to that circumstance, which is first by acknowledging that even creation itself, this is the point that they're appealing to, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them. So we fear you, not these rulers who are raging against you. That's what they say. It built into that is the presumption that the testimony of creation itself is that the world belongs to God, and not to us, whether we like it or not, this, this is from the beginning of the creation testifies that now we could choose any kind of example we want. But this is something that's hard for us to remember, sometimes, we think, yeah, I believe in God, but I'm not sure other people believe in God, we all begin believing in something so far beyond us that created all of this stuff. Because we emerge into a world that clearly wasn't our design. We didn't make it, we don't have the power to make it. The way Psalm 19 talks about it. Romans one, Paul talks about it in all these other passages in Scripture, it says clearly, that we understand from the creation itself, both that there is a power over everything. That's simple, right? You can tell by the world around you and your encounter with it, that you don't have all power, because there are things you would do. I mean, the Cowboys wouldn't have lost last week, if I had all power. Clearly, this universe is not mine, right? There is a power in the world that belongs to someone other than us. And you can tell by the enormity of the cosmos that some power is creating it beyond us. And we could go into more details on that. But it's enough to make that point. Everybody wakes up and realizes the world belongs to someone other than them. But at that point, all we all we would need to say is, well, you know, there's something in charge of the universe, and it's the force Luke or something like that, you know, whatever is just some power that created the universe and made it so enormous. This is more than that. It's not just that we know, the eternal power. But we also know that there is this eternal in the way Paul says in Romans, his Godhead, or deity, we know that there's something personal behind that power, that is the order of things, the way things work together, declares not because we make an argument about it, not because somebody persuades us that it's the case, just by looking around when we're seven years old, we go, see, not just some thing made this world that's bigger than I am, but also something that had a purpose in mind. Because they, whoever it is that did this, they made things work in a way that makes sense, you know? Now I know, I know, we can explain these things away. But if you just take biology as the example and you say, how on earth did these animals become so complex? And how are our eyes? And well, you know, I know how I know how evolution works. I understand the theory behind evolution, I understand the idea of natural selection, survival of the fittest and all those things and mutations and blah, blah, blah. I don't even care what you think about evolution, I just want to ask yourself, I asked you to ask yourself this question. Why do we need the theory of evolution? The reason we need a theory of evolution. And again, I don't really give a rip what you think about the theory of evolution, yay. No, you can be a denier. You can be an unbeliever, I don't care about it. What I care about is this. We have a theory of x of evolution, because we need something to explain how on earth all these complex things could have come about. If somebody didn't design them. That means our presumption from the start was, look how well designed this world is. And then we started trying to find a way toexplain it away so that we didn't have to say, well, it's well designed because someone designed it. In fact, we use evolution so thoroughly for that we've personified evolution, all you have to do is just listen to anyone talk about it. Evolution itself is designing us to be a certain way, we've just replaced one way of understanding whoever that personal God is who made us for a purpose, we just replace him with a force that has characteristics to it that create us with a design that makes sense to us, we have to have some way to explain it away. I don't care if you buy the teleological argument is what that's called, I don't care if you buy that argument or not. All I need you to recognize is that when we start out, the world looks so well ordered. And things fit together so well, that it just declares to us by the fact that we emerge in it, that something bigger than us made us and that that something has a purpose in mind. And following Paul's reasoning and Romans one which we won't go and read right now you can go read it later. If you watch Romans one, verse 18, following, but following his reasoning in that passage, it sort of forces us to answer a question. I mean, if I didn't put myself here, if something bigger than me, put me here. And then that something had a purpose for me. And Paul doesn't say the question, he only gives the answer. We're left with this question. Am I doing what that thing put me here for? Am I and I'm not saying we think this because we're Christians, or you think this because you're pursuing God? I'm saying human beings automatically ask ourselves this. Am I doing what I was created for? And the automatic answer to that in everyone's life? Is No, I'm not, I'm not measuring up. I mean, we think there's some arbitrary list of favorite sins that we violate. And so we talk about the word sin as if it's the violation of this list over here. Sin is just any way that it's obvious that your life is not exactly like it's supposed to be. And I can ask around the room and say, anybody here think your life is absolutely pristinely perfect? Anybody, anybody? I'm not, I'm not, I'm not it, don't raise your hand, you would be highly suspected. If you raised your hand, we all know our lives are not perfect. That's all. What creation is declaring to every single person is that somebody greater than you made you and the world around you and expect you to measure up to it. And inside of us, it's an awareness that we haven't measured up to it. And so what a lot of us do is we push back against that, and we try to make ourselves our own king, I don't want to get to answer anybody else, my life, I'll do it my own way. And the way the kings were doing that, in the Old Testament passage I was talking about is they were raging against the anointed one that God had chosen David in that day, and they were in New Testament times. And this is what the church is experiencing, raging against Christ, but the opening declaration is still there. And this is the point not to not to have to have the argument about whether God exists and all of that that's not the point. The point here is that we can go on the assumption that every single person began with an understanding that the creation itself had already declared that God is the Ruler over this world and not us. Whether we like it or not just the way the world is, that's where we start. And if we start there, it puts everything on a different footing. Because we're not uniquely believing in God, we just happen to have returned to this to this awareness that there's a God that we have to deal with, with whom we have to deal no matter what we think about it. Okay, there's the first part of the prayer, the second part of the prayer. And remember, in the first part of the prayer, this thing that I referred to as a mare ism is so important that you created the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them. So from the very top of the cosmos, to the very bottom of it, and with all of the ingredients that are mixed in the middle, including where we stand on the earth itself, in the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them, you are the creator, and therefore you are the Lord of it. And so we come to you, because these other people are telling us they're in charge, and we think you are in charge. So we come back to you. That's the first part. Second part starts in verse 27. After they quoted that second Psalm that I mentioned to you literally the second song, they then apply it specifically to Jesus. And this is probably another part of an early hymn that they sang together because they seem to say this together as well. And it's this four of a truth. So in that Psalm that I was quoting to you, it's written about David and all the kings around Israel that oppose David and even people inside of Israel, who opposed David and tried to fight against him in that day, okay. They quote that part and that's just a reminder that those kings oppose the idea that the Creator owns the world that he created, which sounds kind of silly, but we do thatat all the time we'd rather be the King Show in verse 27. This is how it's applied to Jesus himself because Jesus, he's the creator, and he comes into the world. And lo and behold, the people who are in authority oppose him as well. And that's what the apostles are starting to run into. So they want to tell us about that. So in verse 27, it says, For other truth against your, this is a unique phrase. In the New Testament, it's only used right here in chapter four, twice, you'll see it in the passage we're reading, it's used twice. And then once in the very next chapter in exactly the same context, the only time this phrase is used anywhere in the Bible, it says, For a truth against your holy, and then some translations say servant, some translations say child, there's just not a way to resolve that dispute. Because the word means both. It's a Paideia is the word we use for pediatrician, but it's the word they use for a child who you would use as your servant in some way in your home. So this child who worked in your home so the idea here is either Jesus as a little baby or Jesus as the servant of the Father. So here's, I'll give you my resolution to it in just a second. Yeah, it'd be fairly obvious in verse 27, forever truth against your holy child, Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together, but what they accomplished with this for to do Whatsoever thy hand, your hand and your council determined beforehand, to be done. So what are the fact that he raises the names Herod and Pontius Pilate say something to us. Now there are Harrods all over the New Testament. There's a Herod when Jesus is born, and there's a Herod Agrippa. And there's when Jesus is dying, and there's a Herod and tapas and there's a whole list of Herod's that go through the New Testament. And so you might just be thinking to yourself, well, it's just some Roman authority, but this is not some Roman authority, all the other Harrods get their own name. Herod is Herod the Great, Herod the builder, he's referred to as he's the one who established the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the way the Wailing Wall, the Western Wall in the in where the temple is, where the where the temple used to be, where you see people praying at the Wailing Wall, that's not part of the original temple. It's part of the wall that Herod had built, that built up the mounds so that the temple could be expanded and made greater because Herod did everything magnificently. And it was always greater. It's that Herod that's being talked about here. And he's also the Herod you know, from me, we were talking about Halloween today, we're kind of avoiding the word but we're talking about Halloween. But Christmas is the other, you know, get a bunch of candy kind of holiday, every Christmas, you read the story of Herod, and how he wanted to have Jesus killed, right? So the wise men come to him and they say, oh, where's the where's the one who was born to be king of the Jews? Y'all remember the story of Herod and they come and ask, and Herod says, Oh, well, you go find him. And then when you do bring the word, because I want to worship him as well. But of course, what he wants to do is find him and kill him. And when he can't find him, when he doesn't know where he is, he finds out what the prophets would say about where Jesus might have been born. And he has all the children. It's just so similar to some of the things that happened recently. But he has all the children in that region slaughtered because he wants to kill this one, child, Jesus. That's what Herod wants to do. Why does Herod want to do that? Because Herod is already king. He doesn't want there to be another king. I'm king, you're not. So you come into my world, I'm going to kill you. That's what Herod does. And then who's Pontius Pilate, on the other end, he's the one that commits Jesus to the execution itself, under the authority of Rome. So from Harry saying, you know, and today they've done this same thing to your and I think in the first instance, when he says the words he means child, to your holy child, Jesus, whom Herod in his birth, was trying to kill as soon as he was brought into the world. Herod was trying to kill him, and all the way to the end of his life. I mean, how is his ministry described? He'll do some kind word, he'll heal someone, he raises a widow's son from the dead so that she'll have someone in this world and to fulfill the Old Testament commands that we care for the widows, Jesus does all of that and you know what the Jewish leaders do? They say, how can we kill this man? How can we get him into the ground? Because from the beginning of his life, all the way to the end of his life pilot who actually does this with the execution, the crucifixion that takes place? The kings of this world the people who already have their authority established, are sayingHang, we don't want Jesus to be king, we want to be king. It's not because in truth, they have something against Jesus, they just have something against anybody who wants to take their authority away, then we can say, we're not the same way. But we're exactly the same way. Everyone in all of history has been the same way. We just want to be king of our own little world, we want to be the ones who determine everything that we do. And some of us want that world to be bigger. And some of us wanted to be smaller. But we all want to be our own king. And so from Herod, all the way to Pontius Pilate, the entire life of Jesus is a testimony that men oppose the idea that Jesus is Lord, they oppose the idea that the creator of the world actually owns the world, and is in charge of it. And so the opposition is natural. You say you're king of this world, you say you have lordship over everything, well, we'll just do the same thing to you that takes the throne away from every other king throughout all of history, we'll just kill you, we'll take your life, because when you die, it becomes fairly apparent, you don't own the world, right? Because the world does the opposite to you. Well we do is we spend all of our lives trying to get our little piece of land, or trying to get the whole land, or trying to get the whole earth to be ours here, the land is mine, I am king. I'm not having a seizure here. I'm just, I'm aware that I'm not I'm saying this is what we do through our whole lives. This is my property, this is my life, this is my decision. This is my career, I get to choose what I'm going to do. This is my plot of land, and then ultimately, every for every single person, every single one, you would think it would be impossible for us not to be aware of this. Every single person in all of history, who has said, This is my piece of land, the land has opened its mouth and eaten them hole when they were put into the ground for their burial. It swallowed them all. Now the general rules of life are that if you are the one being devoured, you are not Lord. This is the general rule of life, right? So the earth opens its mouth and it eats every single person. We all go into the ground dust, to dust, ashes to ashes, happens every single time. So what are the kings think when Jesus starts going around and healing people and helping people and declaring that he's Lord, they think to themselves, well, we'll just prove he's not Lord, we'll put them in the ground. That doesn't every time mean, you're not King. Once you're in the ground, you can say you were a great king. But you can't say the world is yours. You cannot say your Lord, if you were in the ground, so we'll, we'll put them in the ground. This is what they did from the beginning. Why did Herod do it at the beginning, oh, show us the one who's to be the king of the Jews. So Herod says, I'll kill him. They bring Him to Pilate. And what's the declaration that forces pilots hand and causes him to say to them, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to commit him to the crucifixion, I'm going to put him into the ground. It's their declaration that he's telling them to worship a God, other than Caesar. And they can't take that idea that Pilate can't stand that idea. So he says, All right, I will commit him to the crucifixion. What are what's Hara doing? What's pilot doing? What are all the Jewish leaders doing? They're all saying to themselves, we're gonna put him into the ground. And he's not going to be Lord anymore. So they do. They crucify him. They crucify Him, they kill him. They put him in the ground, they the earth opens its mouth and swallows him. He is dead.And thenthe weirdest thing. I mean, three days later, the ground has devoured him and declared along with every other person throughout all of history, you are not Lord. That's what it said. And then Jesus, on the third day emerges whole from the grounds mouth, and has to be saying, Now, who is it you were saying was Lord, because I think I'm the only one who's come out. And you know, the ground knows that Jesus is Lord at that point, you know, that the earth knows.But the Earth was created by him. It knows. We're the ones who should have come to an awareness in that moment. That he really is Lord. That's the declaration of the resurrection. That's why they are witnesses of His resurrection. They are testing they are testifying to the Lordship of Jesus when they say and we saw him, the one you were trying to displacerise from the dead. Now all those princes who had put Jesus into the ground are now telling by Princess, I'm using the Old Testament word for just the rulers in Jerusalem, the people who had authority, who are saying to these Christians stop talking about Jesus stop acting as if he's important. They're the ones who are saying that they're the ones who put Jesus in the ground. But they have breath for a little time, and then they're going to perish, and they're not coming back out of the ground. And so these Christians look at, look at look at themselves, and they sing the song together, and they say, Lord, we remember that from creation you had declared, The world was yours, and everything in it, whether we like it or not. And when your son rose from the dead, you said, the world is still mine. And everything in it, whether we like it or not. Now the truth is, some of us are confused about whether we like that or not. Because we've got our lives go on one direction, and we're just trying to get God to conform with what we want to do. And if He's sovereign, that sort of puts a wrinkle in in our texture, it doesn't go exactly where we want it to go. So the rest of this prayer is also important for what it says, here's, here's what it says, starting in verse 29. And I wish I could go back and explain the details, so many more details in this prayer. But starting in verse 29, he says this, and then we'll be done. And now Lord, behold, there threatenings, and grant unto Your servants, that with all boldness, they may speak your word by stretching forth your hand, to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of your holy child, Jesus, or your holy servant, Jesus. And when they prayed, the place was shaken, where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, which is the power of the resurrection, God Himself in dwelling us in the power of the resurrection. That's the Holy Spirit. That's why we have the Holy Spirit to be witnesses of his wretched resurrection testifiers, to the fact that he is still Lord in this world, and in our lives. So it says, and the Holy Spirit filled all of them who are there, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God, with boldness, and then they go on in their obedience to the Lord. So let me let me just illustrate what I'm talking about briefly, and then I'll be finished. So, a long time ago, I mean, 25 years ago, or so my daughter was younger at the time, and she was obviously 25 years younger than she is now. And she was in high school, getting ready to graduate. And she, you know, I had, so I have four kids, two girls, two boys, I have a wife. That's why I have four kids. So it all works out just fine. Until it's the middle of the night. And you have teenagers in your house. Two of whom are.Don't call me a misogynist, I'm just saying, two of whom are are women, and of the daughters, and then my wife. So I've got three women in the house, and three men in the house. I'm lying in my bed, I'm just trying to sleep. This is a normal thing to do at two o'clock in the morning, and it was about two o'clock in the morning. I'm a very light sleeper. I'm lying in bed, and I hear what no father wants to hear. If you have women in the house. I hearthat sound.So I'm just thinking to myself,who's crying, somebody's crying, I care. But I also just want to go back to sleep. So, Lord, please make it brief. And instead I hear it again. You know, like that. It's like, oh, okay, well, it didn't sound like it was in my bed. So it's not it's not Joan, thank heavens for that. So you because that's a long night, you know, if it's the wife, nothing personal. I'm just saying. So I go, okay. All right. So somebody else so I get up and I walked through the house, I walked, you know, I put my head in the doors and I'm listening. I don't hear anything. I walk through the living room. I walk around our dining room is I don't see anybody don't hear anything. I peek over into the kitchen. There's nobody there. I go through the hallway. I don't see anybody. And I haven't heard the sound again. And so I just I go back and lay down in the bed as soon as I lay down. You know, just like,I go back around.And when I walked through the house, this time, I go a little further into the kitchen. And when I go into the kitchen, I see over in the very corner between the refrigerator and the cabinets, just sitting in the corner, huddled in a little mass down on the floor. My youngest daughter. So he's thinks she's 17 years old at the time, I think. And, you know, she's just, she's just crying. I mean, her eyes are just filled with tears. And I walk over she doesn't know she had any she didn't even know I'm there yet. I walk over and I put out my hand and I I touch her on the head and I just say her name Leah. You know what's going on? And she looksshe's crying and she can't even communicate, you know? So we go, we go and sit on the couch and I put my arm around her and we just sit there for a little while and she's finally able to tell me the story.And the story is not that complicated. I mean, the story is she had a paper due the next day, you know, when you're 17 years old, everything is the end of the world. And so I, you know, she, she had a paper due the next day, and she couldn't, she didn't have any good ideas, it was two o'clock in the morning, she willfail, and then you know, your whole life is gonna be over. It's that kind of thing. And so I'm like, Look, you're not going to write a paper at two o'clock. And it's just a one pager, you know, a creative kind of paper, and, you know, one page, and she just, you know, she was just out of steam, and I said, go go to bed, go to sleep, get up early in the morning, and just try to write something, then it'll be okay. Even if you can't do it at all, it will be okay, it'll work out fine. So she went back to bed and we hugged it was one of the sweetest times I've ever had with her in my entire life, you know, is encouraging and just an opportunity for us to be together for a few minutes. The next the next day, I find out she'd written a paper and she turned it in. And about a week later, she brought it back and gave it to me. And she had an A on the paper that she had written the next morning, and I looked at the words on the paper, and the opening line of, of the paper was, I was sitting on the floor in my kitchen. And, and then this hand came out of heaven, and touched me, you know, and so, you know, as a dad, I'm like,but it's okay for men to cry. That's all right.The point is, I mean, this, if I, if I had laid in my bed, and she cried, and I just said, I'm not going to deal with it. You know, I would have lost the sweetest time I've had with my daughter in our entire lives, you know, a wonderful time. But also, she needed somebody to come and help. You know, this is what she needed. If I pulled out my phone, and we just barely had phones at the time, but she did have her own phone. If I'd pulled out my phone and texted and said knock it off.Or, hey, you need something come and see me, you know, let's talk. Yeah, that wouldn't have been any good.What she needed was somebody to come and be present with her.So you're, you know, you're, you're looking at your life. And you're thinking, Man, I gotta I gotta pray together. And maybe some of you do, maybe maybe some of you haven't completely together. Some of you think, man, I'm tough. I don't need anybody to come in and rescue my life. Some of you are so angry, you think you're puffed up and powerful, but in your anger, you are the huddled masses sitting in the corner of your kitchen. You're sitting there and scared to death. That's why you're so angry if you can, if you have anger built into you. You are the person that's saying, I can't solve this problem. Why can't I solve this and you can bluster all you want. But what you are is huddled and alone and frightened and waiting for someone to come. And here's the thing. He did not just sit in heaven and watch our misery and our suffering.Doesn't matter, anger, fear, loneliness, loss, anxiety, depression, discouragement, frustration, whatever it is that's going on in your life that has you huddled in the corner, God did not say, you know, I'm in heaven. Don't bother me. He did not say, hey, I'll send you something to help. He himself came down, walked all the way into the kitchen, put his hand on our head and said, I will help you.I will take you out by the hand.I will lift you up and carry you if you can't do it yourself. And He the Lord of all of this world, the world we wish we were lord over until we realize we don't have the power to control it.In our anger, we realize we're not Lord.In the Lord's hand, being honest, we should realize not only that we're not Lord, that the person we're angry at is not Lord.But that the God who is the Lordcares about us.And is good to us.When we talk about the gospel, we get confused about what it is. In simple terms. The gospel is the declaration that Jesus is Lord. I'm not Lord. You're not Lord. Jesus is Lord. And in that recognition, we know that no matter where our life is huddled up, no matter where we're crying, no matter where we're alone, we have a God who has sought us out to say, the heavens and the earth and the sea. And all that is in it was mine at creation. And my mind hasn't changed about it at all. It's mine in the resurrection. And it's mine in your life. Right now. You're not facing it alone. You have a God who has come into your kitchen to be with you. Father, I pray that you would turn our hearts even this day, so that we stop thinking about fighting the war.world we stop thinking about owning the world. We stop thinking about solving all of our problems and we start acknowledging that weeping or alone or angrythat closing our eyes to it or opening them to it. The truth is that your Lord, not us,that you rule this world, not us. And that's the good news. That we don't have to control the things here. The creation knows it belongs to you. I pray we would know from that creation and your resurrection, that we belong to you as well. In Jesus name.

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