Easter 2022: One Way or Another

Tim Ross | April 17, 2022

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Transcription

Tim: if you have your Bibles I want you to turn to Philippians 3. I want to read two verses in your hearing. Two verses in your hearing. Philippians 3. Woo, I love to hear a Bible page turning. Amen. Where my paperback Bible people like? Y'all.

[applause]

All 14 of y'all in the house.

[laughter]

It's only 14 people that got a Bible. Where all my digital Bibles at? All my digital people.

[applause]

I'm not mad at y'all. I love y'all. I love y'all. Where are my screen people? All my screen people that's just like, "Yes. I ain't got none of that. I'm just going to watch it."

[laughter]

I love your honesty, sir. I respect you. He was like, "Yes. Not a fan, you do it. I ain't got no Pastor Time." [laughs] It's going to come up on the screen anyway. It's redundant. I don't understand what the problem is. I salute you, man. I love you. I just want to read two versus in your hearing, and then I'm going to back up and just go. Is that all right?

Congregation: Yes.

Tim: Philippians 3:10-11 here's what it says. This is Paul writing. He's coming to an end of some very powerful words, but these struck me and captured my heart leading up to this Sunday. "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death so that one way or another, I will experience the resurrection from the dead." That thing took me this week. If you're taking notes on this message, please write this down. Very, very simple, "One way or another." That's what I want to talk to you about today. One way or another.

Would bow your heads let's pray. Holy Spirit, would you show us in one way or another how powerful you really are? Amen. One way or another, I'm going to find you, I'm going to get you, get you, get your, get you. Now that that's out of your system.

[laughter]

Let me preach my message. I knew it was in your head as soon as I said it. Some of y'all just-- It is indeed the greatest story that's ever been told. A story that by many accounts should to this day be outlandish and ridiculous, and there's absolutely no way we should have got out of bed this morning to even come here to talk about it.

Not only is the ending of the story implausible, the beginning is too. We, as believers in this room, hold the tension of sharing to a whole world a story that is compelling, compassionate and altogether confusing, because how?

How does a God step into a human narrative and through all of our weaknesses and our frailties and our lust and our depression and our flaws, produce something that is still to this day the most beautiful story that's ever been demonstrated? How could He take a liar and go into covenant with him? How could He take a murderer and make a deliverer out of him? How does He take a prostitute and make a redeemer out of her? How can He take you and make salvation out of you?

The story is absolutely ridiculous. The reason why we all showed up today is because we are reminded that if it had not been for God's love, none of us could walk into a room where His presence would so readily greet us and stand. The first messianic prophecy given with promise is to Eve. He literally looks at Eve, but in the same time looks through Eve, and says to her, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent, and he shall bruise his heel."

Eve is the one that's receiving this prophetic word, and so she's got to be thinking to herself, "Okay, thank you, we messed up, but if Adam and I have some kids we can turn this whole thing around." So she has Cain, then she has Abel, and then Cain kills Abel. Just to let you know how early humanity was jacked up. Before there were hatfields and mcCoys and Crips and Bloods, and Vathos and Cholos and [chuckles] wealthy people and poor people, two brothers from the same womb couldn't find a way to get along over an offering. hen one would kill the other, and then run for his life.

They did produce a third child named Seth, and maybe they're thinking, "This is our redeemer". It wasn't, because God knew something that Eve did not, and this is true for so many of us as believers that God can be speaking to you, and actually be speaking through you. God can be having a conversation with you that is not meant to materialize into your great, great grandchild. How do you hold with faith that which you have heard while also holding the disappointment that it's not about you?

Can you imagine Eve's disappointment? She lived and died and did not see the thing that was manifest spoken to her come to pass, but yet God's Word continues to just unfold over time. I don't have time today. We have another service that wants to get in at their proper hour. I do not have the time to afford me to casually stroll through the entire Old Testament and bring up every Old Testament prophecy that was ever spoken about Jesus, but suffice it to say, there are many of them that just kept repeating the same things in different ways.

Sometimes through words, and sometimes through deeds. Sometimes through historical narrative and sometimes just a reminder based on what somebody faithfully wrote down on a piece of paper to ensure that you knew that by the time that this happened, you will know that God had never changed His mind from the beginning of how He wanted to redeem His people. Your sin has not caught Him by surprise. Your life's biggest failure has never caught God by surprise. Your biggest blander has never made Him wake up out of His sleep startled thinking, "I didn't think you would do that."

For He is alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, He is omniscient, He is omnipresent, He is all powerful, and He knows who you are on your best day, and on your worst day. He keeps His Word. Even through flawed people, He keeps His Word. Even through crisis, He keeps his Word. Even through bondage, He keeps His Word. He kept it. Kept it all the way up until a angel named Gabriel went and found a teenage girl and told her, "I know you're engaged to be married, but before that even happens--" This is where it gets confused, and ridiculous y'all. "Before it even happens, God has chosen you to be the fulfillment of what He said to Eve."

Can you imagine how long this Word has taken to materialize? 4,000 years between the time that God spoke to Eve and the time Gabriel spoke to Mary, it's about 4,000 years, and you mad because a prophetic word you got four months ago, hasn't come to pass. You salty because you have a whole prayer journal of things you've been writing down since you were 11, about what God said He was going to do in your life and you 27 and talking about, "I don't understand why He hasn't done it yet". Just be reminded that God has way more patience than we do because He has more time than we will.

Gabriel speaks to Mary and Mary has no idea how this is going to happen, but this is what I love about Mary and I think this is why she is one of the greatest women ever. She said, "I have no idea what this means or how it's going to happen but be it as you have said".

Basically, what Mary said to Gabriel was, "if you say so". I think we need more if you say sos instead of I was running from God and He gave me a word and it scared me and so I tried to avoid it for like two years and I wish we just had more people that said, "if you say so". I don't know exactly how you're going to do it but if you say so, I don't know how this is going to work but if you say so. I have no idea how you're going to explain it to my parents and my husband and my kids and my family but if you say so, I'm here.

She is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and in that one moment, she is carrying the Son of God. Imagine being the carrier of the Son of God like with any other woman that is pregnant, her cravings would've changed, her sense of smell would have become way more sensitive. She would have been going through all the changes that a woman's body goes through when she is preparing her body to make room for another human to be born. Make no mistake that when you give your life to Jesus and you are in filled with His Spirit, you are a carrier of Jesus.

Therefore in the same way Mary would've had different cravings that change, you should have different cravings that change you. When you're carrying something, you walk a little bit differently. When you're carrying something, your diet changes. When you're carrying something, you don't allow stress to bother you the same way. When you're carrying something, your sensitivity changes. When you're carrying something, your sense of discernment starts to change. There is something different about somebody who's carrying something than somebody who isn't.

She's pregnant and because God's not going to leave anybody without a testimony and somebody to identify with, she finds out that her cousin, Elizabeth, is also carrying. The difference between Elizabeth and Mary is that Mary is a teenager and let me say this sensitively, Elizabeth is an older woman. I wanted to say it sensitively. It's 2022. People age differently now, 70 ain't old no more.

Amen to all my people that are in the seventies. It ain't old no more. You think it was old till you get there and you're like, "I ain't old". Can you imagine that Elizabeth is six months down the road from Mary and Elizabeth is walking around with a baby bump, Oh, Mary's walking around pregnant young and before Gabriel, I don't know if he flies off or if he just appears, because I still don't know how angels do what they do, but before he leaves, he goes, "Oh, by the way, your cousin, Elizabeth, is pregnant too."

Just so you can have somebody to identify with. Yours is a miracle and hers is a miracle too. She's too old to have a baby and there's no way you could have one without a man, except by the power of God. They get in the same room and when they get in the same room, John who is in Elizabeth's womb jumps just at the presence of a zygote Jesus. Without being political if you, ever want to know when life starts, it's when God says.

[applause]

John jumps at zygote Jesus, beanie Jesus, don't even know the gender yet, Jesus John jumps just at the look, the very little formation of the chromosomes and the cells, John goes, "Oh, He's here." He's not even fully formed yet and He's here. He doesn't have arms and legs yet and He's here. He's not taking one step, but He's here. He hasn't laid one hand, but He's here. He is here. Can you imagine having so much power that even in your beanie form. At six month though, John was Pentecostal.

[laughter]

She carries that baby full term. This is how our whole narrative starts. She carried that baby full term and gave birth to the Son of God in a manger. Talk about coming down from a mansion. It's different from coming out of like Highland Park and going to get some good soul food in the hood. It's a little bit different than leaving Westlake or South Lake to go down to DeSoto, to get some greens, beans, jams, yams.

[laughter]

It's one thing to come from a really affluent zip code to one that's under serviced and under resources. It's another thing to come down from glory to a barn and make your bed in an animal trough and it be acceptable.

I think maybe the biggest implication of where He was born had to do with the fact that He wasn't going to be here long anyway. That what He had to do in the larger scope of things was so magnanimous that it didn't matter if He was born in a palace or in a barn. What I have to do is so amazing, it doesn't matter what zip code I came from. I'm here for a purpose.

for the first 30 years, you don't hear much about Him. We know about baby Jesus. We usually talk about that around Christmas and most people that talk about him around Christmas, think that that's His birthday. That's not His birthday and all like the woke people are like, Yes, you celebrate Christmas. That's not even His birthday. … I’m just like, "Bro, He was born. I don't care".

[laughter]

I know we pinning the tail on the donkey. He was just born. Okay? His life is so can compelling that he didn't even start fast. You would think if you've waited 4,000 years, He would get busy like maybe at His Bar Mitzvah, let's get it popping. You 13, you and man let's ride. You got to redeem a lot. All these Old Testament prophets have spoken about you. All of these narratives have been written about you. All these prophetic utterances have come through people like David and Moses and all these different people and you're 13, are you're going to get started?

He's like, no, I got to go to work with my dad. He's a carpenter. We got Doors to hang up. We got some walls to shore up. We got some roofs to make sure that that they're in place and that they're okay and you would think because so many people want to start ministry early and want to get out there and want to hand in your business card, you would think maybe they got that from Jesus but then you go read the narrative and it's like, no, Jesus was not eager to get started because when it's really purpose, you know it has nothing to do with business cards and it has nothing to do with websites and it has nothing to do with flyers that you pass out.

People asked us how come we didn't pass out flyers and are you going to do a big Easter production? I was like, have you seen our building? We couldn't get an angel to come down from the roof. It would be no surprise to nobody. They would just be hanging from right there.

[laughter]

This is not a building conducive for production. Are you going to increase your services? You should have like five or six services. I was like, why? Next week, we ain't going to have them. Why would we give visitors that are first-timers a false expectation of what we really do?

[applause]

I'd rather you just see, this is what we do. You know what I mean? Dancers might come back. I don't know.

[laughter]

What you're seeing today is basically what we did last week and what we going to do next week because we not about to just do no big old production for you to visit and go back home and not come back for the next year. I'm not doing it. Jesus was not in a rush. He wasn't in a rush because he understood that when you have purpose, purpose comes to you, you don't go to it. Lord at mercy. Purpose doesn't come to you, you go to it or it doesn't whatever I said.

[laughter]

Just rewind the video it'll play right. He's 30 years old before he starts His earth ministry. We see Him at birth. We see Him at 12 talking to some rabbis in the synagogue and we don't see Him again until he is 30 years old.

John is baptizing. His cousin, John, is baptizing people in the Jordan river He looks up and he's like, there he is. That's him. You do know that this is what makes John the greatest prophet. Not because he was greater. What makes him the greatest is because he got to do something that Elijah did not do, that Moses did not do, that Isaiah did not do, that Habakkuk did not do, that Hosea did not do, that Zephaniah did not do, that Zachariah did not do, that Micah did not do, that no other prophet got to do.

He got to say there He is. Every other prophet said He's coming. He's coming. Hey, He's coming. Hey you, pay attention. He's coming. What makes John the greatest is not that he did more than the others, he just got to be the one privileged enough to go, there He is.

Jesus, with no fanfare and no entourage, walked straight into that Jordan River. John said, "I'm not worthy to untie your sandals." We shouldn't-- you-- I don't think. Jesus, as humbly as He could, reminded him, we have to do this so that everything that's been written can be fulfilled. Can you imagine being the Son of God and not start your ministry until somebody else baptized you?

If there was one person that ever walk to earth that could justify being a lone ranger and not needing to be under spiritual covering and not needing anyone to lay hands on them and not needing anybody to report to and not needing any kind of ability, it would've been Jesus and Jesus would not start his earthly ministry until someone else took Him down in the water and brought Him back up, Knowing that He is baptism.

[applause]

He submitted to baptism knowing I am baptism. The very thing that I am, I must submit to because if not, there will not be order. He comes up out of the water, still wet behind the ears in ministry. Get it?

[laughter]

Just wanted to make sure you're still with me. Still wet behind the ears in ministry, He hears His Father's voice from heaven saying something that I can't do as good as … would do. "This is my Son, in whom I well pleased." It's the best I could do.

[laughter]

Gabe is here. That's the best I could do. I believe That this moment calibrated Jesus in two ways. First of all, He gets to know upfront that my dad loved me. Before I do anything, my dad loves me. Before I turn water into wine, my dad loves me. Before I heal blind eyes, my dad loves me. Before the lame will walk, my dad loves me. Before the death will talk, my dad loves me and I don't have to do anything out of performance because He's already pleased with me.

My dad is pleased with me. My dad is pleased with me. My daddy is pleased with me, so I don't have to do anything to get His pleasure. He just told me I am His pleasure before I've done anything to produce His pleasure. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could all rest in-- could you imagine how much competition would leave the church? If we all walked through to the door knowing that we were already loved and He's already pleased as opposed to thinking that if I do this right, then He'll love me. If I do this right, then He'll be be pleased. I just wish we could have a church that could just rest in what he said about Jesus, He says about us.

Jesus starts walking around doing all of these miracles. I can't get into all of them because, again, another service wants to come. Jesus did a whole bunch of miracles. He did open up blind eyes. He did allow the lame to walk. He did cast out demons from people's bodies. He did miracles, but He didn't do those miracles for the sake of doing miracles. He did those miracles to bring glory to His Father. Nothing He did was about showing anything of himself because man cannot handle glory. We can't handle glory. We can't handle praise. Praise is fine. You can handle a compliment. You can handle, yay. That was amazing. Woo. Good job.

Here's what you cannot handle, glory. It wasn't designed for you. It wasn't made for you. You've done nothing to earn glory. Anytime Jesus was being venerated as King or they were like, let's make Him King now, He always slipped away because he knew on this side of heaven, in this body, I can't even handle glory and I am God's Son. He did all these miracles, but those miracles were just to bring glory to the Father and then started from last week, which we talked about which was this triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on the back of a donkey.

He comes in a week before His death. Things get serious because ministry is all fun in games until it's not. It sounds great to be a pastor until you get your heart broken. Sounds great to be an evangelist, until they literally yell at you and scream at you for literally preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. It sounds so amazing to be a counselor and until the person you're counseling, don't take your advice.

Oh, it sounds so good to be an apostle until you're persecuted by demonic stronghold. [laughs] Ooh, I could go into that. Things got serious there last week and it's in that last week that we start finding out who's really with Jesus and who's really not. Judas would go on to betray Jesus as He's wrapping up His time on earth for one reason and one reason only. It's not because he hated Jesus. He had been following the man for three and a half years. It wasn't because he hated Jesus.

The reason why Judas betrayed Jesus is because Jesus did not live up to his expectations. How many of of us have been Judas? How many of us can be honest and say, Jesus has not lived up to my expectations at one time or another, He did not. I'm the only one?

Congregation: No.

Tim: Anybody beside? I didn't say you sold him out. I did not say you handed over 30. Some of y'all were like this is a trick question. I don't want to be Judas.

[laughter] I feel very uncomfortable about identifying myself with the person that sold him and then hang himself, I don't want to be that guy. I've been disappointed with Jesus. I thought Jesus was going to do better than this for me. Anybody beside me? You just thought- I signed up for the blessing package.

[laughter]

I put a checkbox by my life is going to be great now. I signed up for my best life is now about to be lived. Nobody read me the verse about you shall suffer with Him. Nobody read that to me. Nobody read the letters to me in red where he said, "You shall in this life suffer persecution." Nobody read that part.

[laughter]

They gave me all the happy stuff, and it's only when you get in a test, in a trial and it gets dark that you really find out, I call it God's quality assurance check. I'm at a sequence now, but this is why the wilderness was so important after the baptism in Jordan. It was God's quality assurance check to ensure that what I have just said to you won't be compromised on your worst and darkest days.

When you go on 40 days and 40 nights and you haven't eaten anything and you're hungry and your stomach is growling and the enemy says, "Turn this stone into bread," and you have the power to do it, that's when if you are really on my side or not. It's when you have the power to turn a legitimate need into a illegitimate desire, that's when you find out if you're really on my side or not.

You don't find that out on the mountain top, you're going to always find that in the valley. Jesus is now going into His valley experience, and He sits down with his disciples one last time and pour some wine and take some unleavened bread and starts to break it all apart, and reveals to them on this day that I need you to know something, this is my body that has been broken for you. Remember about a year and a half ago when I said, if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you cannot be my disciples? This is what I meant. I think there was relief in the room.

[laughter]

I really do, because can you imagine walking with a guy for a year and a half after He said, "eat me", and you not knowing if you really had to do it until He broke the bread and passed it out and said, "This is my body," and you're like, "Fam.

[laughter]

Yo bro, are you serious? Bro, I thought you was serious. I thought we was going to have to eat you.

[laughter]

When you said this was the last supper, I thought this is how you're going out.

[laughter]

I thought legit you was just going to get on the table, and we was just gone have to-- You mean bread? [chewing] You mean wine?"

[laughter]

Then He said, listen, this is it. He would go into the Garden of Gethsemane and He would in anguish ask His dad, are you sure there's no other way? I know what we said before the foundation of the world, but being in this flesh, ooh, it's going to hurt, and my flesh has reminding me of the fact that this is going to hurt. Are you sure there's no other way? Never gets a response. Then He says at the end, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." You're talking about a theological dichotomy that I still don't have revelation to of the- How does the Son of God have a different wheel than His daddy and they are one? I'm confused.

This let's you know how strong the flesh is. That the flesh has a different will than the Father. It always will have a different will from the Father, and while He's wrestling with this tension, He says, "Not my will, but thine be done," and He never hears anything from His dad. Have you ever felt like He was ignored? Anybody beside me prayed to the Lord and asked for an answer and you got not even crickets, the crickets stopped chirping. You was just praying and praying and praying and like, "Lord," and the crickets was like, "I'm not gone even."

[laughter]

"We're not going to even squeak." Not hearing anything from His Father, He gets up off of His knees to friends that were asleep. Couldn't stay awake with Him one hour. Judas comes out of nowhere, plants a big kiss on His cheek. "Master," and He is arrested. He is arrested and put on trial overnight. Something that our broken court system in this country wouldn't even do. Very quickly He is given the sentence to death, death warrant signed by Ananias and Caiaphas and He is taken to a place and beaten beyond recognition.

This is the part of our Savior that's tough to hear, but we have to hear. Every blow He took didn't belong to Him. Every whip and lash He took was for Timothy and Nathan and Charles and Maxine and Juliet and Noah. Can you imagine your little children without this moment fit this penalty and He is taking whips that should have belonged to you. He's taking blows that should have belonged to you. He's having a crown of thorns literally dug into His scalp, but should have belonged to you. As if that wasn't enough, they strip Him butt naked, something artist's renderings of Jesus being crucified still won't get right. Because we as a Western civilization are too uncomfortable with a full-frontal nude Jesus.

As if His embarrassment wasn't enough, we think His exposed penis will be too shocking for the world to take. It was torture, and we mean to say in the middle of torture, we're going to get a loincloth and just politely put- "We don't want that to show." I say that because without a full-frontal nude Jesus, we can't have a naked church. Perhaps the reason why we keep covering up is because we refuse to receive our uncovered Jesus.

He's on the cross done, we know the story, but He's on the cross dying for me, for you, for people that have not been born yet, for people that have already died. He is dying on this cross with you on His mind. "Well, how could he have me on-" Shut up. He has you on His mind and He hangs there. I don't know how long it takes for all the sins to be appeased, but He hangs there, but here's what I love about Jesus. As soon as it was finished, as soon as it was finished, He called it.

Congregant: Oh my God. My God.

Tim: You-- Oh my God. As soon as it was finished. This is what I love about Jesus. Jesus said, I'm not hanging out another day with y'all. I have nothing to prove to anybody. I'm not just going to hang up here for looks. As soon as it was over, I don't know how you call it, I don't know if it was over His head, I don't know how it happened, but as soon as it was over, He said, it--

Congregants: Is finished.

Tim: He didn't say I am.

[applause]

He said, it is. He didn't say I am finished because had He said, "I am finished." The whole world would have folded up on itself and never been seen again. We wouldn't even be standing here. He said, "It is finished." What's finished? Your pain is finished. Your sin is finished. Your depression is finished. Your grief is finished. Your trauma is finished. It is. Not will be. It is. You don't even know it yet, but it is. It is finished. He finished it.

He said something then He did something. He said something then He did something. He said something and then He did something. He said something and then He did something. He said, "It is finished" and then He gave up the ghost. He gave up the ghost. He said, I can't hold you no more. There's only one way out of this and it's death. Let me go.

He gave up the ghost. Because you do know if He didn't give it up, He'd still be hanging up. Don't test Him. He could have sat there hanging there until everybody that beat Him died. If God wanted to be petty, He could have just been still sitting up there right now. Big old tourist attraction. Y'all come by. I'm doing this for you. He gave up the ghost and when He gave up that ghost, He died. God who has always been, let a piece of Him die. This had to be foreign. He's never not been. He wasn't born, He can't die.

He had to experience something that He had never even been connected to. Otherwise, He couldn't relate to us. He just gave up the ghost and a limpless, lifeless body was collected by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, put into a borrowed tomb. How appropriate. I don't need to pay for one, I won't be here long. I need a place to stay for three nights. I started in a woman's womb, I'm going to end in a man's tomb. On the third day, we know the story, He got up.

We do all the theatrical stuff and we make the Earth shake and rumble and and the thunder and the lightning [sings] because Americans like to just Hollywood up everything. [sings] Right, everybody? Oh, my God. Can I tell you that it was a little more anti-climatic than that? It really was. It's dynamic to us, but for Him, it was just-- He took them death clothes because He's neat. Can you imagine coming up out of the grave and you making up the bed just.

[laughter]

You doing turndown service on your own grave. He walked up to this stone and real recognize real. That rock saw that rock.

[applause]

I'm trying to stop. I'm sorry, it's dope. That stone said, "No, fam, I'm good. Let me just."

[laughter]

He came. He walked up out the grave and He just started running around doing victory laps. Yes. Thought you had one. I'm out. He came out the grave and hung around. Was walking up to people, "Hey, are you good?" Having full conversation with them. They didn't even know it was Him. Mary was talking to Him, "If you know where He is, just tell me where He is."

He was like, "Mary, it's me." She goes, [gasp]. Says, go tell my cowards, I mean, my disciples--

[laughter]

Because none of them were at that grave, until the women went to go tell them. I won't get into all the ramifications of the theological distinctions of if women should preach or not, but I do think it was something, that He told this woman to go tell His men that He was alive. Making her the first one to preach about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm just saying.

[applause]

I'm not going to fight nobody. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. That might be a deal breaker for a visitor, but I'm just saying.

[laughter]

He got up, and He didn't just get up, He stayed up. You know He has not come back down? And when He does come back down, it's on. That's the story. Well then, how come you didn't read that part? Because this Resurrection Sunday, what Paul said just snatched me in my face. He said, "I want to know Christ in His resurrection." Not for His resurrection. I literally want to experience what He experienced."

"Paul, do you want to be crucified?" "Not necessarily."

[laughter]

"Do you want to be beaten with ropes that have little bone fragments on the end of it, with hooks that are going to tear you back open?" "No, but I still want to experience it so that one way or another, I will literally understand what the resurrection is all about." That got me to thinking that there was nobody in this room that is a believer of Jesus Christ, that has not, since you've given your life to Jesus, in one way or another, not experienced the resurrection.

Because if you've been saved for over three days, you already have in one way, a testimony that you were dead, now you're alive. In another way, you might say that you were in bondage, now you've been set free. In one way, you might say, "He got me over my childhood trauma." In another way you might say, "He delivered me from slapping people." In one way you might say, "I don't drink no more and wake up in the morning not remembering the night before."

In another way you might say, "I used to be promiscuous but now I'm celibate and pure." In one way or another, everyone in this room has experienced the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because it's not a one and done experience. If you do it right, you keep dying, and you keep being raised.

[applause]

I don't know who I'm talking to in here. If you do this life right, in one way or another, you will continue to die and live again. Die and live again. Die and live again. In one way, January 14th 1996, I died. The old Tim that I was, he died, and was raised again from the inside out to be a new person. In another way, the last 26 years, I've been dying ever since and being raised ever since. Because if you do this right, you should be what Paul said in Galatians 2:22, "I am crucified with Christ. Which means is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives on the inside of me."

What is your one way or another? That's what I'm leaving you with today. We're not about to hype it up. I'm not about to call the organ out here. We're not about to [sings] Nope. We know about His resurrection. Do you know about yours? In what ways have you died with Him and in what ways have you been raised with Him? In what ways have your attitudes died with Him and in what ways have the mind of Christ been raised with Him? In one way or the other, we should all be experiencing His resurrection. Not just once a year, but throughout our entire lives.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? I want to give somebody the opportunity, whether you are in here or watching online that the wonderful pleasure and distinction of having your one way or another. What would it be for you today to say, I want to start my one way or another with Him today. The message of Jesus is one that can only be fully comprehended by the love and the grace that Jesus did by shedding His blood on that cross, but if you want in on that, whether you're in this room or you're watching online, every head is bowed and every eye is closed. We don't do that to make it private, we do it to make it personal.

You have the rest of your life to publicly confess, but in a private moment, I want you to just be able to take a self-inventory right now, and even the ask the question, have I even died yet? That's what I hear the Holy Spirit asked me right now, to ask you have you even died yet? It's one thing to be on a cross, it's another thing to actually give it up. To say it is finished, I'm done with my life the way I've been living it. I'm ready to change. If you're ready for your one way or another and if you would not be against giving your life to Jesus Christ today, if you are in this room, I just want you to raise your hand.

If you say today is that day, thank you, sweetheart. I see your hand I see that hand right. Thank you. I see that hand right there. Thank you. I see your hand, I see your hand, man. See your hand. You're so sweet. Anybody else? It is finished for me.

God, I thank you for those whose hands have been raised, I see your hand sweetheart. I ask right now in Jesus' name, that today would be the day that everything changes for my brother, for my sister. Not for our credit but all for your glory. God, takes our one ways, and our other ways, and makes them always glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.