Don't Miss Jesus

Well, good morning, Apex.

Like Mike said, my name is Daniel. It is a real privilege to be here preaching God's Word to you, partially because I remember when y'all started. Like Mike said, I've been here for a really long time.

I've been on staff almost 11 years, which in some years is like being here 50 years. But I remember when y'all were 200 people. Y'all were meeting at Cary High. I remember when y'all had your, like me and Pastor RJ were talking the first time that y'all had your first person get baptized. And then here we are. And I think just looking through the years, you guys have had hundreds of people get baptized here. Hundreds of people say, look, I've been living my life one direction, but God has intervened and God has saved me. And I want to go public so that the world knows that I'm a believer. And it's because the ministry that's happened through this campus, through you guys. So it really is a privilege to be here. So let me just tell you one of the biggest things that ever happened in my life.

In 2000, I was going, I'd only been a Christian about six months, and I was going to like this kind of prayer gathering, this kind of like small meeting of a campus ministry that just started at the college that I attended in Charleston, South Carolina. And I walked through the front door of my friend's apartment, and there seated on a couch right in front of the front door were three very pretty girls. And I don't know why, because I remember distinctly all three of them being pretty.

But the one in the middle took my breath away. Like I was able to talk to the girl on the left in a normal way. I was able to talk to the girl on the right in a normal way.

But I was not able to talk to the one in the middle in a normal way. I don't know if you guys remember, well, some of you do, the show Seinfeld. There's this episode where George Costanza sees this pretty woman that he wants to ask on a date. And every time he tries to talk to her, all he can say is, uh.

And the whole episode, every time he runs into her and tries to talk to her, he's like, uh. That's literally what happened for six months, and this young lady named Wendy Miller that I was trying to talk to. Now, eventually, I got over that, and we got married.

This is us right here. Yeah, I know. I know. What in the world happened? There were a couple of people that actually asked me that. What happened? Like, what did you do to her?

And I'm like, I don't know. It was persistence and smiling, okay? Those two things won her over.

But I have another picture of someone that got married. Let's put that. There they are. That's Josh and Clara Hill. They were 14.

If you ever get in a prayer time with Josh Hill, if it's long enough, eventually, he'll thank God for lax marriage laws in North Carolina, you know? But in both of those instances, you know, that's a great day for us. We were so excited. We were in love.

We both, you know, we were both just smitten for a long time and kind of wondered, what in the world is this girl ever going to, like, see in me? But they said yes. But yeah, that time when they said yes, it was a really important question that happened six months or nine months for both of us before that day. And that question demanded an answer. And that question was, will you marry me? And you can answer that question in one of three ways. You can answer it with a yes, which is what happened in both of our cases.

Praise God. You can answer it with a no. Or you could, in some cases, answer it with, let me think on it.

And, you know, that question is so important that that might be actually a pretty reasonable response. When I think about the show The Bachelor, I don't know how that is not the answer every single time at the end of the show. Don't look at me like some of you don't watch The Bachelor. I know that you do.

Mike Passero, look in your way. I don't believe you. I'm just kidding. I actually do believe you. I try not to watch The Bachelor, but if I'm downstairs when my wife watches, like, the first two episodes, and I'll get hooked. All right?

That happened this past season. I just get hooked. But sometimes I think my point of that is sometimes a question is so important that it demands an answer. And if you push answering it off for too long, your answer is actually no. Like, there could come a time where, like, you could reasonably answer the question, will you marry me with a let me think about it. But if that goes on, if that thinking goes on for too long, really what you've said is no.

You see, that question ultimately demands a yes or a no. And that's what we're going to look at today. I'm going to follow up Pastor JD's sermon from last week. He preached through part of Luke 23.

I'm going to follow that up. He preached about five different people and their responses to Jesus, and he challenged us to look at our lives and see which one of them did we kind of relate to. I've got a little bit easier task. I'm only going to look at two guys.

I'm going to actually give you a true dichotomy of a choice. And he gave us a kind of a picture of the continental divide that runs through the Appalachian Mountains. And he gave us this picture of there could actually be two drops of rain. They could come from the same cloud, and they could literally fall through the air for about a mile inches apart from each other. But if they hit in just the right spot from each other on the continental divide, if one lands on the east, it's going to go to the Atlantic Ocean. If one lands on the west, it's going to go to the Gulf of Mexico.

And so there is conceivably two drops of rain that when they land, when they start, start in the same exact spot, land only inches away, but in the end wind up thousands of miles apart. And Luke 23 is a chapter that demands an answer. Luke 23 is a dividing line in scripture that says human beings are going to start off in the same place, but at some point, you've got to make a choice. And that choice is going to result in you being on one side of the divide or the other.

And you might start off in the same place with another human being, but you could wind up eternity apart. And these two men are an incredible picture of that. Because when they start off this last day of their life, they're both criminals. They're both going to be executed. In fact, in another story in Matthew, as it talks about this, it says that both of them mock Jesus.

Both of them are slandering him. But somewhere along the way, one of these guys has a radical encounter with Jesus. One of these guys is radically changed by Jesus.

And these two men who start the day in almost an identical spot are now in two different eternities in their lives. Cry out to us today, what are you going to do with Jesus on the cross? What side of eternity will you fall on? This story tells us that it is not enough to believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins in some general sense.

You need to know why he died. It needs to get deep into your heart, and you need to make a decision of how you're going to respond to him. Let me pray as we get started. Father, this morning, I pray that the words in my mouth and the meditation in my heart will be pleasing in your sight.

Oh, Lord, my rock and my foundation. I pray that you would speak to us today. I pray that through your mercy and your grace, you would open up the eyes and the ears of all of our hearts, and that we would hear from you today through your word.

Put me to the side, and you shine through. Because, God, I even want to hear from you. As I'm preaching, I want to hear from you. I want to be changed, and I pray that every single person in here would also have that desire, and I pray all this in your name. Amen. Well, if you've got your Bibles, you can kind of just read along with me.

I'm going to start in verse 32. Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with them, and when they came to the place that is called the skull. The skull is not a good place. If you get in a car with someone, and they say, hey, I want to take you to a place called the skull. Get out. That is not going to be a happy place. I've got two daughters. If they ever come home, and they say, hey, Dad, a guy asked me on a date. His name is Skull. I'm like, you ain't going on that date. Okay? Nobody named Skull.

No place called the Skull is good, and it is definitely not. Because at a place called the Soul, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, and they cast lots to divide his garments.

And the people stood by watching. But the ruler scoffed at him, saying, he saved others. Let him save himself, if he is the Christ, his chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews. And one of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. It is easy to look at this dying man and just move past him kind of quickly, thinking in your mind, well, you're a vicious criminal and a moron.

But I want to be honest with you. While he is a serious criminal, I mean, the Romans were pretty brutal, but they didn't just crucify you for getting a speeding ticket. I actually think that he misses Jesus for reasons that we miss Jesus. I think there's two things that he can't see past that are actually pretty relatable for everybody, for all of us in this room. The first one is, he can't see past the crowd. Like, he gets carried away by the crowd that is around him. And the second thing that he can't see past and he gets carried away with are his circumstances. So let's take a look. Let's take a look at the crowd and what's kind of going on here because he can't see past them.

It's like one of those pictures that's kind of artistic where you can see the things up close really, really clearly, but the background is really blurry. So first of all, we need to know that what's happening here is a rejection of God's Savior and King. He's making that very clear to us. The Jewish leaders are mocking Jesus, saying, how in the world can you be the Savior and the Messiah that God has promised you can't even save yourself? And Pastor J.D. went into this a little bit last week, that the religious leaders were incredibly angry at Jesus. And one of the reasons that they were so angry is that they thought that they had lived really good, righteous, holy lives, and that when the Messiah comes, that if they were to see him in his lifetime, that he would be like, man, you guys have done awesome. Like you are the guys that are going to help me lead this movement to set God's kingdom back up here on earth.

We're going to overthrow Rome and y'all are going to be seated next to me. Well, Jesus doesn't do that at all. In fact, Jesus comes in and says, you're a huge part of the problem. You think your good works, you think your good works make you righteous. You think your good works make you holy. But you've missed the deeper thing. You've missed that God was never primarily after your works.

He was after your heart. You can sin on the outside. You can sit on the inside just as easily as you can sin on the outside. And these guys hated Jesus for it. And here we can also get a sense that there's just no place in their mind that the Messiah would ever die a death like this. That in their minds, they did not have room for a suffering savior. And it's kind of weird to me because as I was getting ready for this sermon, I looked through all the Old Testament prophecies. And it's pretty clear if you read the Old Testament prophecies that the Messiah is going to suffer.

And so as I kind of thought about it, I'm like, well, what is it? What did they not understand? And I'm like, it has to be the utter and total humiliation of the cross. It has to be the stripping of all of his dignity. Because we have stories where heroes die. But in all of those stories, when I think about Braveheart, right? He dies with dignity.

He dies with his fist shaking at the enemy. And his example rouses up his allies and they overthrow the bad guys. But in this case, the Pharisees have been humiliated because he tells them your life actually doesn't make you worthy before God.

And they're also looking at him being utterly humiliated. And there's just no place in their mind for a suffering, humiliated, complete loss of dignity Savior. But you also have the Romans. The Romans are fairly secular.

And the Romans are all about power. And so they're mocking him because there's no way you're a king. What kind of king gets crucified? A king has a land. A king has a throne. A king has a people. A king has an army. What kind of king are you?

You're not one now. So this guy gets swept up with what the crowd is thinking, with what the crowd is feeling, with what the crowd is saying. It could also probably change the word crowd to culture. The culture is influencing this man away from Christ.

He can't see the reality of who is standing next to him because the culture is screaming in his face. And I think that we can all kind of relate to that a little bit. We've all probably been in a crowd and kind of get swept up in what they're doing. Sometimes we sometimes we know it. We kind of go along with the crowd and we're like, man, I know I shouldn't do that, but we do anyway. And sometimes it's more like it's more like we get kind of swept away and we're not even we don't even know we're being swept away. It's like being in the ocean where there's a current and you're kind of playing around.

And before you know it, you're a hundred yards down the beach from where you started. I see that. I see that a lot, actually. I see it in politics. If you go conservative or you go liberal, you just kind of get swept up and you just go. There's YouTube videos out there where where these people try to trick people that say they're either a Republican or a Democrat. And they'll say, hey, there's a there's a Republican that we're talking to a Democrat. But hey, there's a Republican policy or there's a Democratic policy that says this.

And the person back, I believe it. Actually, that was a Republican policy. And I go right and they'll do the same thing to somebody that's a Republican. They'll say, hey, this is a Republican policy.

And they'll be like, I love it. No, like it's actually a Democrat policy. So it doesn't actually matter what the policy is.

It just matter who agrees with it. There's also this movement that's kind of sprung up with incredible force in our culture, which is a complete redefinition of sexuality, gender, marriage, family. And it's it's pretty foreign to me at 42 years old.

I never faced this. These things, my children are facing them kind of in incredible ways. If you're a college student out there, my guess is you're facing it on a daily basis.

And it's easy. We're seeing our culture move in this direction because there's just there's so many voices speaking about that. It is the movement of our culture.

And if you don't kind of know where you stand, you're going to you're going to get swept away with it. But I also see it in church. I see cultures in church that actually move people away from Jesus. It's what I would call like the quasi religious crowd. It's the people that kind of come to church once a month, maybe twice a month. It's the people that, you know, you give a couple of times a year, but you're not like really radically generous.

It doesn't really affect your budget much. You don't you know, you come and you're served, but you never serve. You've been coming for a couple of years, but you're not you're not a member yet. I mean, I think this this this man that got baptized here, that that's kind of his story when he was growing up. You know, Jesus was a part of his life, but he wasn't Lord of his life. And the reason that there's so many people like that across the south in particular is because there's a whole crowd, a whole culture where that's true. And people just get in that culture. And it shapes how they think. It shapes how they feel. It shapes how they see Jesus. But the second thing that this man cannot see past is his circumstances. And I think this is probably one of the most significant reasons that people reject Jesus. This man says, get me off the cross. It's not actually an unreasonable request. He's suffering.

He's being mocked as well. The crucifixion is a terrible death. It's a slow death. It's a painful death.

And it's a humiliating death. But a lot of times when people find themselves in suffering, when they find themselves in trial, they're not merely asking God to pull them out of those things. They're demanding God to pull them out of those things. They're setting up a test of whether or not they're going to trust God.

They're setting up a test. Am I going to trust Jesus? Jesus, I will trust you if you pull me out of this situation. And because God is merciful, there's going to be times that he does. And when that happens, you're really happy.

You feel good. You come into worship and you raise your hands. But there's also times that God is not going to pull you out of those things. And when that happens, you pull back relationally. You're like, I don't know if I can trust God.

I hear things like this from people. How could God put me through this? How could God let this happen? See, that's a test. And what you're really saying to God and yourself when you say that is that I actually know what's best for my life. My plan is the best. I may not have the power to make all of those things happen, but I definitely know the direction it should go. I've got the brain.

God has the muscle. God, you need to do what I say. They think they know what's best for their lives. But let me ask you a question.

Is that really true? Are you really smart enough to know everything that you need for your life? Like do you know all things at all times? And you can say with certainty that you know what would be best for you and those around you in every single situation. And if you kind of do relate to that, let me ask you a question.

Like when did that change? Because surely you didn't think that about yourself when you were five. I've got an eight-year-old, an 11-year-old, and a 13-year-old.

I know it's not true about them. There might be some teenagers in here, so hear me say this with all love. I don't know if I made one solid good decision between the ages of 15 and 19.

I just give you one example of this. When I was 16 or 17, me and a group of four of my friends decided to repaint the entire parking lot of our high school. Our goal was to reverse the flow of traffic. So we went out there one night at 1.30 a.m. in the morning and we repainted everything. We took every single traffic sign and we reversed them. We got cones.

I'm not going to tell you where we got cones, but we got them. And we set them up so that on Monday morning it would be absolutely pandemonium as you pulled into Mountain Brook High School. Guys, it wasn't a spur of the minute decision. We planned it. We planned it for about a month. We thought that this was brilliant. That was the type of decision-making that I made when I was a teenager. I thought that that was the best thing for my life. Dr. Stiles and Dr. Barlow, if you're out there, it was me.

And if you contact me, I will be happy to rat out the four other guys. Here's the truth. We don't actually know what's best for our lives. I bet that if I were to tell you, hey, I want you to write down the things you want to be true about you when you're 80, most of those things would actually probably not be just physical things. A lot of those things would probably be about character and integrity and about the way that you really impacted people. But when you think about, well, how do I grow in character, how do I grow in integrity, you actually have to go through trials in order to become a man or woman of integrity. You actually have to go through hard things in order to be the kind of person that you want to become. But when we face those things in the moment, we usually are like, I don't want to go through them.

It's very difficult to see past them. Even C.S. Lewis, the brilliant C.S. Lewis, who knew that he was not smart enough to be in control of his own life, in a letter that he wrote to a friend of his named Malcolm, he said, had God granted all the silly prayers I've made in my life, where should I be now? Here's what I would say. He probably wouldn't have been a Christian. And neither would I and neither would you.

Because I'm not smart enough and you're not smart enough to know everything you need for your life. And neither was this man on the cross. So let's look at the other dying man.

Let's look at the other dying criminal. Because he was able to see past the crowd. He was able to see past his culture and his circumstances. He saw something in that moment that nobody else in the crowd that day saw. So what was it? Well, let's look at the text.

I think it actually tells us. But the other rebuked him saying, so this one man who is railing against Jesus, the other one speaks up and he defends Jesus and he says, do you not fear God? Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation and we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.

But this man has done nothing wrong. And then he speaks to Jesus and he says, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. The first thing he sees that no one else sees is that he sees his greatest need. Unlike everyone else who would see the savior and see the king and his criminal who sees Jesus as a means to an end. This man sees Jesus as the end. Jesus isn't the means to a treasure.

Jesus is the treasure. I remember when God opened my eyes to this truth. That young pretty thing that I was so in love with when I first saw her, we dated. We dated for about nine months. And in that nine months I realized that she began to compete with Jesus for what I loved most in this world. And especially towards the end, I was like, man, I don't know what's wrong, but I can't even imagine breaking up with her.

I think my heart would be broken. And eventually we did. We broke up and I even felt a sense of freedom as I walked away. But I remember thinking, God, you need to do some big work in my life because she was too important.

And God, I remember that summer that we were broken up. God took me to a verse, Hebrews 11 six, and it says this, and without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever comes to him must believe that he is and he is a rewarder of those who seek him. And I studied that verse for three or four days and I got tripped up on that word rewarder.

But I kept asking myself, what's the reward? And I started listing out stuff. I listed out Wendy. And I was like, what's not Wendy? I'm broken up. There's no guarantee we're going to get married.

She might marry somebody else. So is God lying? It can't be. God doesn't lie. It's not money because there's plenty of people that are poor and they're thriving in their relationship with God. And the scripture doesn't promise that. It's not health. It's not success.

It's not ministry success. Because look at Jesus on the cross. Where are all the people that he loved? Where are all the people that he did miracles with?

Some of them are in the crowd mocking him. His followers, his best friends are gone. The reward of Jesus can't be ministry success. It can't be financial success. It can't be popularity.

It can't be the approval of people. He doesn't promise any of those things. And somewhere in my study I stumbled across Genesis 15 one. God is talking to Abram and he says, do not fear Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.

And it struck me like lightning. The reward of the Christian life is God himself. I can lose everything else. And if I have Jesus, I have everything I need for life and godliness. I can be single.

I can be married to Wendy or I can be married to somebody else. But as long as I have Christ, I have everything I need. I can be poor and have everything I need.

I can be sick and everything I need. I can be on my death bed just before I'm about to cross over into death and I can have everything I need for life and godliness if I have Christ. You can be on a cross suffering, being humiliated with no dignity and have everything you need for life and godliness. That's what this man's life tells us. The second thing he saw that no one else saw, he understood his guilt before God. Look at what he said. He says we're receiving the due reward of our deeds.

Now what is he talking about? He is not talking about his sentence from Rome. This man was just like Barabbas. He was an insurrectionist and he probably murdered people in his attempt to overthrow Rome. But insurrectionist is the word that like Rome would use for him.

He would have seen himself as a patriot and he would have seen himself as a freedom fighter. He would have thought that being crucified was an act of injustice from Rome. So why does he say this? Because somewhere as he's being crucified and Jesus is being crucified, he stops comparing himself to the people around him and he begins to compare himself to Jesus. Remember what Jesus says? Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Most scholars believe that Jesus was crying that out as the nails were being put through his wrist and his feet. Now if you're in a situation where you feel like you're unjustly accused and being unjustly punished and you look over and you see a man crying out for mercy for the people that are ridiculing him, mocking him and he's asking God to forgive them, what are you going to think about him versus you? This guy realizes there is a world of difference between him and Jesus and he realizes that his guilt is ultimately before God. And the third thing, the third thing we see about this guy, he recognizes the great reward of this life. He recognizes his guilt, but he does some, he does a third thing that is kind of unbelievable. He makes an audacious request of God. He says to Jesus, Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.

What nerve? There's a Hebrew word for this, it's chutzpah. How in the world are you seeing your guilt before God and then you have the nerve to make a request that he would remember you? But he does. And somehow he realizes like you're going to come back and you're going to set up a kingdom in the future. And he says, hey, when that happens, will you remember, will you remember this guy, this criminal who's recognizing you in this moment right before I die? And will you just give me a little piece of that? The only thing, the only thing more audacious than his requests, and I'm quoting pastor JD on this, the only thing crazier than the request of this criminal is that Jesus answers it.

In fact, Jesus answers it more than this man can ask or imagine. Jesus says, look, brother, it's not going to be sometime in the future. It's going to be today. And bro, I'm not just going to give you a little piece. I'm not just going to remember you. You are going to be with me. Me and you are going to have a deep, intimate relationship. If I'm in the center, you're not going to be a thousand miles away from me.

You're going to be right there with me. What an incredible radical change this man stands out in this crowd of what God wants for you. Now for this to happen, it's not a change that you can produce in yourself. You don't have the strength. You don't have the fortitude or the grit to make this kind of change in your life. It has to come from outside of you.

It's not a change of circumstances. This guy dies on the cross that day. In fact, it even gets worse. It says they come and they break their legs.

It's about to rain. They're like, we don't want this to break their legs, kill them a little bit quicker. His circumstances don't change. He still dies that day. It isn't a behavior change. You see, this guy never reads his Bible. He never has one, what we would call in church, quiet time. He doesn't give one cent to a church.

He never goes on a mission trip. No, this change is a lot more profound than circumstances or behavior. It is a change of identity and it is a change of position.

If you are taking notes today, that's the only thing I actually care that you write down. If you're going to have a conversation after this with somebody, with your family or anybody that you brought, talk about this. That Christianity is not about a change of behavior. It's not about a change of circumstances.

It's not about getting your best life now. It is a change of position before God and it is a change of who you are as a person at the deepest levels. You see, when you confess your sins to God, when you repent and say, I don't want to be like that anymore, Jesus takes your sin, all of them, all the sins you've committed in the past, all the ones you've committed today and every single one that you will commit in the future. And he says, I'm going to take those on me.

They're now mine. That's why he's on the cross. That's what he's doing. He's paying for those. That's why he's been stripped of dignity.

That's why he's being humiliated. Because that's the payment for our sin. But it doesn't stop there because he then takes his identity before God and he gives it to you. So all the love and all the delight and all the excitement that God has for his son becomes yours. The holiness of Jesus, the righteousness of Jesus becomes you.

He gives it to you so that God sees you in the exact same way that he sees his son Jesus. In fact, it's so profound, this is how Paul writes about it in Ephesians 2 six and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Notice that word seated is past tense.

You know what that means? That means if you're a Christian, if you know God, deeply know him, then there is a part of you that is already with him in heaven. There is a part of you that is already seated there in Christ.

That's why I can say with confidence that it is a change of position and a change of identity. He has already given it to you if you're a believer. How do you know if this has happened to you?

That's a really good question. How can I know? Well, one, I actually think that there's a confidence. There is a confidence that God has done this in your life because you know what it is to be loved by God. There's an assurance that comes your way.

I'm not saying you never doubt, but I am saying that in general, there's this strong assurance that you understand that knowing God is not about what you do. It is about understanding the gospel. It is about understanding that he did everything necessary as we just asked this man in the tank, that he has done everything necessary to save you.

You brought nothing to the table. He brought everything and you're in him. You're also going to notice that there's this love for God's people. That's going to change in you. With your new identity is going to come a love for the church. Listen, the church is not perfect. We're actually far from perfect, but there are some things about the church that are beautiful and wonderful.

Jesus loves the church despite all of our flaws. You're going to grow in that as well. You're actually going to long to serve.

You're going to add that change of identity. You're actually going to become a servant. You're going to follow Christ in that because it says about Jesus, the son of man, he actually says this about himself, the son of man came not to be served. Most kings want to be served. This king says, I came not to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many.

You're going to see your life in a whole new light. I'm here. I'm here to serve. God has filled me up. I have everything I need for life and godliness in Christ. Therefore, I don't have to go find it anywhere else. I'm here to pour out.

I'm here to serve other people so that they can see Jesus. Fourth, you're going to be radically generous. You're going to look at the cross and be so thankful that he even remembered you. You're going to be so thankful that he didn't just remember you. He said, you're going to be with me.

That's going to overflow out of your life. And lastly, man, you're going to love and have a heart for non-believers. And when Jesus says, father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

That shows the heart of God. That people who are far from God would be brought in. That people who are enemies would come in. That the outsiders outside of the religious crowd, those people would be brought in. That they would be brought close. That they would not fall on the outside of the dividing line. That they would be brought near to God.

That they would be on the side of the dividing line that is going to be with God for all eternity. How are you going to respond to Jesus today? You could say yes. Oh, I want you to say yes today. You could say no. Or you could say, hey, I'm still trying to think about this, but can I just urge you? And if you are like searching, just say, God, I want to search in your way. I do need to investigate this, God, but if you're real, will you just show it to me?

Put the ball in his court. God wants nothing more than for you to do that. So here's what we're going to do.

This is how we're going to close the service today. I'm going to ask all of you to ask yourself that question. And I'm going to ask you to ask God that question. God, what am I going to do with Jesus on the cross right now? This story tells us that we need to ask ourselves that question frequently, every day, maybe even more than once a day. So I'm going to give you an opportunity to do that. So go ahead and just close your eyes and bow your head. Our worship team is going to sing over us just a little bit as we're doing that because today is the day that God wants you to say yes to Him.