My Redeemer Lives

Well good morning Cross Assembly family, good morning guests who are with us. Have y'all heard of a guy named Harry Poudini? You ever heard of him before? They called him the greatest escape artist of all time. And he was kind of the David Copperfield or the David Blaine of his day.

And listen to the things that the greatest escape artist of all time could escape. Leg irons. Handcuffs. Metal containers filled with water, straitjackets, who's buried alive. And he escaped.

In 1906, The greatest escape artist alive was stripped, handcuffed, chained, put in a prison cell at a penitentiary, and he escaped in two minutes. Before he died on Halloween in 1926. He said to his wife I'm going to give you a code word. On the anniversary of my death, one year after I died. I'm going to communicate with you.

And you'll know it's my spirit because of this particular uh code word.

So Harry Houdini died Halloween. One year later, on the anniversary of his death, His wife Went into a room. Cut out all the lights. Had a table, put his picture on the table, lit a candle, and waited. And waited.

And waited. And Harry Houdini, the greatest escape artist of all time, did not contact her.

So she did it the next year. Went into a room. Turned out all lights, put his picture on a table, lit a candle, and waited and waited and waited. And the second year, His spirit did not contact her. Year after year after year.

She did this. And finally, on the 10th, Anniversary of his death on Halloween night when he did not communicate with her. She packed up the picture of the greatest escape artist of all time. She blew out the candle. And she never tried it again.

There is one thing that a great escape artist could not escape from, and that was the grave. And perhaps it was because he wasn't the greatest escape artist of all time. Perhaps the greatest escape artist of all time is in this room right now, who was buried and went to the belly of hell and came out of the grave and is alive today, Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

Now for some of y'all who you know you're not interested in church You're doing this because it's what you do once a year. You're investigating Christianity. And you want to know what the big hullabaloo is about. Here's what today is about. Christianity hinges on two statements.

Everything we do comes back to these two truths. Number one is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was our substitute on the cross. He died in our place.

Somebody has to pay for your sins, and Jesus, the substitute, died on the cross to pay for your sins. The second truth is this. Three days later, He came back to life. And we are here to celebrate that second truth: that on this day, 2,000-something years ago, Jesus Christ came back to life.

Now, the most beautiful, hopeful statement of the resurrection of Jesus Christ actually was uttered about 2,000 years before Jesus even came on the scene. The oldest book of the Bible is actually the book of Job. It's not Genesis. Moses wrote Genesis in about 1400 BC. The book of Job takes place in about 2,000 BC.

Job was a contemporary of Abraham. He lived in northern Arabia. And 2,000 years. Before Jesus rose from the grave. Job Spoke a prophetic word about Jesus rising from the dead.

Now the context of this is very important. The man has just lost 10 children in a tragic accident. Imagine 10 of your kids dying. Just like that. The man has just had ten funerals.

His health is broken. He has just filed for bankruptcy. He has nothing. And yet in the midst of all that heartache and tragedy, He says something profound. Job 19, 25, he says this, for I know that my Redeemer lives.

And he shall stand at last. on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed... This I know. That in my flesh I will see God.

What I just read to you is one of the most important statements you will ever hear. Because as a follower of Jesus Christ, there are three foundations of hope. If you don't have all three of these, you don't have hope. Uh A triangle is not a triangle with two sides. It's got to have three sides.

Hope is not hope unless you have all three of these. And some of you, as followers of Jesus, and a lot of you as not followers of Jesus Christ, are dealing with hopelessness today because you have ignored one, two, or all three of these things. If the Gallup people are right, the Gallup Pole. Our society now is the most hopeless society in the history of mankind. Did you know that?

Depression is at an epidemic level. If you don't have these three things, You don't have hope. But as a follower of Jesus, when you have these three, when they come together, life won't always be easy. There's still going to be challenges, but you will have hope if you have all three of these. I'm as serious as I can possibly be right now.

First foundation of hope is this. I want you to listen to me. First foundation to have hope, you've got to believe Jesus is alive. Job says in verse 25, For I think it's possible that my Redeemer might live. Is that what he says?

No. I know my Redeemer lives. Jesus is alive.

Now, how do we know that? I could give you a lot of reasons that we know Jesus is alive. Let me just give you four of those reasons. Number one, this book says so. And I know you're thinking, well, that's a self-perpetuating argument because it's a Christian book.

The Christian book says he's alive. It's a lot more than that. We actually have archaeological evidence. We have fragments. We have full manuscripts of the New Testament that are dated just a few years after Jesus.

These are eyewitnesses. I'm going to tell you, these aren't written hundreds of years after Jesus. A few years after Jesus, these eyewitnesses say this. I saw him. Don't tell me I didn't see what I saw with my own eyes.

I saw him. He's alive. It's in this book. Second argument, ironically. comes from Jesus's enemies His detractors outside of the Bible.

We have people who hated Christianity, who lived around the time of Christ, and they will say. We don't believe in that Jesus. He was a liar. He was a charlatan. He was a fake.

But.

Okay. That tomb was empty. That tomb, something happened to that tomb.

Now they'll say. The disciples stole the body. Maybe he faked his death and walked out. They'll have all kinds of reasons. But it's interesting when you look at ancient documents, ancient accounts, even the enemies of Jesus say time and time and time again: the tomb was empty.

We don't know how it got empty, but it was empty. Isn't that ironic? A third basis of our belief that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, not just the word of God, not just the fact that even his enemies admitted the tomb was empty, but number three. Twelve of his closest followers, we know this from history. History tells us 12 of his closest followers We're tortured?

And all of them, except for John, were killed because they said he was alive. If anybody knew this was a lie, it would be those guys.

Now, because we got kids here today, I won't tell you the kind of torture they went through, it'd make your stomach turn. And yet, they could have stopped the torture by saying, ha ha, time out, just kidding. He's not alive. But every one of them said, You can torture me, you can kill me, but I saw with my own eyes: that man is alive. How do we know Jesus is alive?

Word of God tells us so. Even his enemies admitted that tomb was empty. We know from fact, history, every one of these guys went to their graves saying, he is alive. And let me give you one more. I can give you a lot more.

Let me give you one more. Did you know Jesus is appearing to people even today? There's a big move of God in the Middle East. Muslims are converting to Christianity left and right in the Middle East. I looked at two studies this week from sociologists and missiologists, and they said a weird phenomenon is happening in the Middle East.

When they interview Former Muslims Who became Christians? And they ask him. Why did you become a Christian? Did you know 30% are saying, because Jesus Himself appeared to us. We have seen him, he has spoken to us.

He's not just a historical figure, he is still talking to people today. Let me give you an example of this. All right, y'all know the New York Times is, right?

Okay, for those of you who don't know, the New York Times is not a conservative evangelical Christian magazine or newspaper. It is a liberal newspaper. But even the New York Times had an article a few years ago about a man called Bashir Muhammad. Here's what the New York Times called him. The jihadi Who gave his life to Jesus?

Uh Bashir Muhammad. was a wicked man. He and his cousin were in Syria. They were members of ISIS. Y'all remember ISIS?

Now, again, I know the kind of audience we have.

So, parents, I'm not going to make your kids have nightmares tonight. But this article talked about the way they would torture people. And kill people. It was horrible. These were wicked men.

But Shir Muhammad's Cousin Fellow member of ISIS, get saved. And Bashir Muhammad is lifted. We used to kill people together.

Now he's one of those Christians. But then Bashir Muhammad's wife has a terminal illness, and he tried everything to help her, and nothing worked.

So one day, out of desperation, he calls his cousin, a former associate in ISIS, who's now born again, and he said, Can you help me? Cousin said You caught it just the right time. I'm in the middle of a Bible study with a bunch of Christians. He said, tell your wife to put the phone to her ear. But Shir Muhammad put the phone to his wife's ear so that she could listen to this Christian prayer group praying for her healing, and she was dramatically, supernaturally healed.

And then a short time later. Bashir Muhammad and his wife said, Jesus himself appeared to them. And he called himself the bread of life. And they turned from their sins and turned their lives over to Jesus Christ. And let me tell you, now, I'm going to read to you how the New York Times now describes this former member of Isis.

It says, He is now a calm man. Who leads Bible studies and serves others. Folks, when the New York Times even says there might be something to this Jesus thing, you need to perk up your ears here, okay? And so here's what you need to understand. If you're going to have hope.

You got to be more than he was a good religious figure who did a lot of good stuff. No, you have to believe that man who was crucified 2,000 years ago is alive today. If you don't have that, you don't have hope. And I'm going to say this: we're in Raleigh. There's a lot of liberal churches in Raleigh.

And it's popular in liberal Christianity because they're smarter. You know, the liberals are smarter than the rest of us. And so they say, hey, you know, we believe in a spiritual resurrection of Jesus because bodies don't come back to life. We're scientifically minded. We're more logical than that.

And so his spirit came to life. Or his good deeds have been resurrected. His beautiful example that he gave us, that's what's resurrected. You can't play that game, church. In fact, y'all remember who.

Christopher Hitchens was. Y'all remember him? He was a famous atheist. Christopher Hitchens was not a Christian. He was an atheist.

And years ago, I read this as in a reporter. Um Because Hitchens, everybody thought he was so cool.

So, this reporter is kissing up to Hitchens and saying, Look, look, Mr. Hitchens, I know you're an atheist. I'm a Christian, the reporter said, but I'm not one of them fundamentalist Christians. I don't believe in things like Jesus died for your sins or Jesus rose from the grave. I'm a cool Christian.

I'm an urbane, intelligent Christian. I love what Christopher Hitchens said to this reporter. He said, I would say that if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, then the Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead, and that by his sacrifice your sins are forgiven, you're not really, in any meaningful sense, a Christian. That comes from an atheist. If you're gonna have hope.

You got to believe your Redeemer lives. Second thing you got to believe is you're going to have hope. If you ever believe it. Jesus actually loves you. Because a lot of y'all A lot of y'all believe he's alive.

But you said, Jad, if you knew how messed up I am, Jesus could never love somebody like me. I'm going to say this again. When people ask me to describe cross-assembly, I say this: it's a bunch of messed up people. Led by a messed up man serving a perfect Jesus. We all messed up.

But if you're a follower of Jesus, he still loves you. You said, Check. Where do you say he loves you in that passage?

Well, look at that word. For I know that my Redeemer lives. That word redeemer in Hebrew, it is loaded with love and emotion. Over and over again, the Bible refers to Jesus as our Redeemer. Hebrews says, We are like his brothers and sisters.

There's a whole book in the Bible called Ruth that's a prophetic picture of Jesus being our Redeemer. What do you mean by our Redeemer? It's a great word. Again, that word implies love. The Hebrew word is go el.

G-O-Apostrophe E-L. Go El, it means kinsman redeemer. In Hebrew culture, here's what the Goel, the Redeemer, would do. It's a family member, okay? They gotta be family members.

Um If you lost family land, because you know, you lost whatever out of financial mismanagement, you lost family land, your kinsman Redeemer would come back and buy that land for you. If you are sent to debtors prison. Or you became a slave. Because you couldn't that you you owed a debt you couldn't pay. Your Go L, your kinsman redeemer, would say, That's my cousin.

I'm binding you out of bondage. I'm bailing you out of jail. Right. If if somebody came at you. and hurt you.

or killed you. Your Goel, your kinsman redeemer, would avenge your death. Does it make sense? Like when I used to pass through the foothills of the Appalachians, Appalachian Mountains, and here's what I noticed about the mountain people. They fight with each other all the time.

Cousins would fight cousins. Aunts and uncles would fight with each other. They always squabble all the time. But if somebody outside the family Came and fought them, they'd gut you. All hell would break loose.

We can fight with each other, but you're not to fight with us, or we're going to be coming after you. That is that kinsman redeemer. I recorded a movie a couple weeks ago on network TV, so they bleeped out all the bad words.

So if there's bad words in it, I'm sorry, I watched on network TV. But it's a kind of cool picture of Go El, Kinsman Redeemer. The movie is called. Taken with Liam Neeson. Have you ever seen that before?

Okay, that is an example of the kinsman redeemer. For those of you who don't know Here's what taking is about. His daughter is kidnapped by some human traffickers. And um they're taking her. They're going to take her away and sell her into slavery.

And somehow Liam Neeson Gets one of his daughter's kidnappers on the phone before he takes her away. And here's what he says. He says, I don't know who you are. I'd like to do it in the Irish accent, but I can't do it. I don't know who you are.

I don't know what you want. If you're looking for ransom. I can tell you, I don't have any money. But what I do have or a very particular set of skills. Skills I've acquired over a very long career.

Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, That will be the end of it. I'm not looking for you. I will not pursue you. But if you don't...

I will look for you. I will find you. And I'll kill you. Hey, remember the trafficker said? Traffic or Sid.

Good luck. And hand out the phone. And at the very end of the movie. When Liam Neeson finally finds the gang that kidnapped his daughter. He says I told you I'd find you.

And he kills them all. Uh happy Easter. I love that. I told you I'd find you. And when the Bible says that Jesus is your kinsman and redeemer, here's what it say.

It's saying you had a debt you couldn't pay. He paid it to the cross. You were a slave to sin, and Satan, and hell. He bought you out of slavery. He took on your forces of your enemies, the forces of hell, at the cross.

And one day, on that final day, Jesus is going to look at Satan in the eye and say, I told you I'd find you. And he's gonna kill him and throw him in the lake of fire where he'll burn forever. He is your kinsman redeemer.

So if you're gonna have hope You gotta believe he's alive fundamentally. You gotta believe he loves you. And then number three. You gotta believe. He has a plan.

Now, here's. Look, I'm not mad at y'all. I'm going to rebuke you, but I'm not mad at you, okay? Look at my right. I'm happy.

See, I'm not mad at you. But here a lot of y'all believe he's alive. Even though he actually might love you. But you really don't believe that there's a divine plan going on, or you wouldn't be as stressed out as you are. You gotta believe that The man knows what he's doing.

He's got a plan. And what Job is saying in Job 19, the context is. I just I just did ten funerals for my kids. I just left the lawyer's office. Signing the bankruptcy papers.

I have nothing. And yet I know this is not the end. I don't understand what God is doing, but he is in charge. He is in control. God has a plan, and I want you to listen to me.

God has two kinds of plans, okay? Two kinds. Number one.

Alright, he has a cosmic plan. Do you know what I mean by that? Bye.

Okay, what's going on in Iran? Y'all think it's chaos? It's not chaos, it's all part of the plan.

Some of y'all gonna be mad at me saying this. Modern Israel. It's part of the plan. You said, Chad, how long has this plan been in place? Revelation says it's been in place from the foundation of the earth.

God knows what he's doing, he has this big geopolitical cosmic plan. He is moving all human history to a certain point. And that point ends, Job says, that cosmic plan ends, verse 25, when he, the Redeemer, shall stand at last on the earth. Do you know what he's saying right there? That Redeemer One day he is coming back to planet Earth.

His feet will plant be planted on planet Earth. And I can tell y'all, now y'all believe Jesus is coming back. Y'all know I can tell you the exact spot Jesus is coming back. No, I'm serious. The Bible already tells you exactly where the Redeemer is going to come back to.

In the book of Zachariah, it says, They will look upon me. the one whom they have pierced. And they will mourn. And on that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will split apart. Here's a picture of the Mount of Olives.

According that word right there, you know, that's where Jesus ascended, went into heaven. He's going to come back to that very same spot one day. And today may be the day. Here's my point: God has a plan, and that plan culminates with Jesus Christ coming back to earth. He has a cosmic plan.

Now listen. He also has a personal plan. Mm-hmm. The God that put human history in motion. The God that knows every electron surrounding every nucleus and every atom in the entire universe, that God is big enough to have a plan for your life.

Y'all believe that? See, again, I'm not trying to be mean, but if you really believe that. No, I'm serious. If you really believe that, you would not be stressed ever again. In fact, I had dinner with a couple people a couple weeks ago, and I said this: if you believe two things, you'll never stress out again.

If you believe God loves you. And you believe He has a plan for you, you'll never get stressed out again. Because anything that happens to you, God has the power to turn it into good.

Okay. He has a cosmic plan.

But he also has a personal plan for you. And Job says that here in verse 26. And after my skin is destroyed, You know what he means by that? After my body's buried in the ground, the maggots eat it up and I decompose. This I know.

Then in my flesh I'll see God. Here's what he's saying. Does that make sense right now? And I may go to my grave not knowing why God is letting this happen. But I do know in the end, God has a personal plan for me.

He's going to turn all this for his glory, and one day, in a resurrected, glorified body, I'm going to look upon God's face face to face. He has a cosmic plan and he has a personal plan. Years ago, the Reader's Digest had an uh a story. about an event that took place a couple years after World War II. In New York City, there was a Hungarian businessman.

named Marcel Sternberger. Marcel had come to the United States after the war from Hungary. And he took the 909 train. every single day into New York City. Day after day after day.

On this particular day, he had a friend in New York City that was sick. And so he said, I'm not going to take the 909 train today. I'm going to take a different train that I've never taken before. It's going to be the noon train.

So he went to visit his sick friend. Took the noon train. At this time, New York has about seven, eight million people. And when he got on the train, it's just packed. People are getting off, getting on, off, on.

And as people are leaving, a seat opens up, and so Marcel Sternberger jumps in that seat and he sits there. And when he finally gets comfortable. He notices the guy to his left. Reading A Hungarian newspaper. He's from Hungary and he he can kind of read the newspaper.

He sees that the guy is reading in Hungarian and he's reading the classified section. And he says to the man, He said, I notice you're reading the classified. Are you looking for a job? The man said, no, I'm actually looking for my wife. He said, talk to about that.

The man said, Well, Right before the war, I was living with my wife, whom I love so much, in Dubrecon, Hungary. And then the Nazis came in. Took me captive along with some other men. took us to the Ukraine. And for the rest of the war, it was our job to bury the Nazi dead.

He said when the war is over, I just could not wait to get home to see my wife. He said, I go back to Dubrecon and I look for my wife and the townspeople said she's gone. I said, she's gone. Where?

Well the Nazis came in and took her to a place called Auschwitz. He said, I started to read about Auschwitz. And he said It looks like my wife had been killed and cremated. But he said, as I was reading about Auschwitz, I did read that right before the war ended, some allies went in and liberated a small group of people. And I said.

What if that was my wife? And if the Allies liberated her, where would they have taken her? He said, My mind said, New York City. And so I'm here in New York City. And I know my wife, she's a thinker, she's a reader.

If my wife is looking for me, she'll probably eventually put an ad in the classified section.

So I'm looking for my wife. Marcel Sternberger thought for a moment. And you remembered that a few weeks ago, he had been at a gathering there in New York City. And he met a woman. Who said that she was from Dubrec in Hungary and that during the war her husband had been taken to the Ukraine.

and she was looking for her husband. And her name was Maria Paskin. He said, I wrote down her name, I wrote down her number, and I put her number in my wallet. And he asked this guy, he said, Well, sir. He said, what's the name of your wife?

The man said, Well, you wouldn't know her. Her name is Maria Paskin. He said um He said, what's your name? He said, my name is Bella Paskin. He said, Bella, I need you to trust me.

At the next stop, You and I need to get off this train. It's very, very important. Do you trust me? He said, Yeah.

So at the next stop, they get off the train. And they find Um a payphone.

Now, young man A payphone was something they used to have that would be. He said. He finds a pay phone. He takes that slip of paper. out of his wallet.

And he dials the number. And a lady answers, and he said, Ma'am, my name is Marcel Sternberger. Do you remember me? She said, yes, we met a couple weeks ago. He said, ma'am, what is your husband's name?

Chisu. My missing husband is Bella Paskin. He said, describe your husband. She described him. And Marcel Sternberger turned and said to that man, I need you to take this phone and say hello to your wife.

And the man began to scream and cry. And Maria said, I've been praying that God would reunite me with my husband, and then I get a phone call, and I'm reunited with my husband. And then the reader's digest... closes that story with this question.

Some would say that it was just chance. Was it chance? Was it chance that Marcel Sternberger rode the noon train that day instead of the 909 train? Was it just chance that in the city of seven million The one seat that needed to be sat in was the seat next to that man. Was it a chance that that man was reading a Hungarian newspaper?

Was it chance that Marcel Sternberger had met this woman just a few days before? And then, I love this. The Reader's Digest said this: no, it wasn't by chance. God rode the subway that morning.

Now here's my point. The God that can put that together, the universe together, the geopolitical conflict together, the God that can put all that stuff together. And bring his good out of all that stuff, that God wants to step onto your train, into your life, take control of your life, and bring something good no matter what bad has happened in your life. God has a cosmic plan, and he's got a personal plan just for you.

So I'm I'm telling you, to have hope. Poday? You've got to believe Jesus is alive. You gotta believe he's for you. And here's what the Bible says, if Jesus is for you, who can be against you?

He's alive. He's for you. And he's got a plan for your life.

So here's my question. Have you ever repented of your sins? And submitted your life to the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Have you ever done that?

Well, yeah, I go to the Catholic church down the road, and it's not what I asked you. I ask you, have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? Yep, Chad, when I was 13 years old, I took communion at the Lutheran Church. That's not what I asked you. Yeah, Chad, I buy Girl Scout cookies because it helps them out.

I recycle when I can't. That's not what I asked you. When you stand before God one day, He's not going to ask what church you went to, how many Girl Scout cookies you bought, He's going to ask one question: What did you do with my son Jesus Christ? Because the Bible calls this the good news. Before I give you the good news, I've got to give you the bad news.

Bad news is this. You're a sinner. I'm a center.

Somebody's got to pay for your sin.

Well, I just think God's going to let everybody off the hook.

Okay, let me explain something to you. If God just let everybody off the hook at that moment, He ceases being God, He is a holy God. He's got to punish sin.

Okay?

Somebody's going to be punished for your sin. It's either going to be you or somebody else. Good news is this: 2,000 years ago, God sent His Son into the world. And when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He was taking your whooping on the cross. He was paying for your sin at the cross.

He died in your place. And now Now, watch this. He was buried, and three days later he came back to life. If you will now turn from your sins, And turn the control of your life over to Jesus. You give Him your life, you trust in Him.

At that moment, all of your sins are forgiven. Jesus comes to live in your heart. When you die, you go to heaven, all because of Jesus, not because of me or you, it's all because of Jesus.

So here's my question. Have you ever done that?

I want every head bowed and every eye closed in this place. If you're not certain that you have eternal life and you're going to heaven when you die, There's only two people. There's not 2,000 people in this room right now. There's only two people in this room: you and Jesus.

Okay. And I want you to say something to him and don't just repeat words.

Okay, magic words don't save anybody, Jesus saves you. But if this captures what's going on in your heart, I want you to say this to Jesus right now. Jesus, I am a sinner. Yeah. Lord, I deserve to be punished.

But I believe you died. For my sins. Lauren, you You paid the price for my sins at the cross. Say something like that to him. Lord, I believe you were buried.

Play this TM. I believe three days later, God raised you from the dead. You're alive right now, Jesus. This is so important. Say to him, Lord, I turn away from my sin.

I turn to you. Say this to Jesus. Please forgive me of my sins. Come and take control of my life. And when I die, take me to heaven.

You said that's it? Yeah, I don't know what your Bible says. My Bible says all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. There's a man dying on the cross next to Jesus. You remember the guy who said to Jesus, Lord, just remember me when you get into your kingdom?

He simply called it on the name of the Lord.

Now, if you just prayed that prayer, this is so important. Jesus said, you can't keep this to yourself. Jesus said, If you're ashamed to confess me before people, I'll be ashamed to confess you before my Father in heaven.

So, the very first step I feel in letting people know that you are now a follower of Jesus and you're not ashamed is to scan that QR code or text cross to that number. That's gonna be your first baby step. and telling people. I know.

Now I want you to listen to me. If you do that, we're not going to ask you for money. In fact, conversely, we're going to give you some stuff. See, you've just made the most important decision you will ever make in your life. And we want to send you some resources to help you start growing in Jesus.

So if you prayed that prayer, scan that or text that. And let's get you growing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look, I told you before. I thank God for good Christian counselors. who really have wisdom and sympathy and compassion and empathy.

Unfortunately, I ain't one of them, okay?

So I don't have a lot of counseling to give you today. If you're depressed... Anxious Stressed out. Hopeless. And you've come for a profound word from Pastor Chad to make you feel better.

Here's all I have for you today: for I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after this skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I want to see God one day. There's your word of encouragement right there. The best word I could give you. Is that Redeemer who put the Son in orbit And the moon and the stars and the planets, that same Redeemer.

who controls the ocean tides. He's not dead. He's alive. Look at right here. Church.

The best news I could give you today is this. Your Redeemer lives. Your Redeemer lives. Where to stand in the morning and who told the ocean you can only come this far? And who told the moon where to hide till evening?

Whose words alone can cut a falling stone?

Well, I know my Redeemer lives my Redeemer lips and all creation. Just to find that there's life within thee. Crying up every single child that spends things in your bed comes who weary, the warning, the weak, and the same gentle hands that hold me when I'm broken. They conquer damn to bring me victory.

Well, I know my redeemer. I know my redeemer lives let all creation testify that there's life within me I know my redeemer he lives to take away my chain said he lives forever unfrozen that the payment for my sin was the precious life he gave and now he's alive and there's an empty soul I know my redeemer lives my redeemer lives Let all creation time still mine that there's life and in me I know my redeemer I know I know yeah I know I know I've spoken for morning There's cold in the day He lives, he lives, he lives. Raise your hands and receive this blessing, church. If you believe what she just saying... Did you wanna leave this place the most bold?

Confident? Strong men and women of God. Because about fourteen hundred years ago, a man named Joshua. was facing giants. Hostile armies?

Demonic forces? And God said to him in Hebrew, What I say to you right now. Hazak Vey Amatz. Out I wrote the auto hit. Which means church, be bold.

Be strong. Man, y'all be afraid. And you're gonna be terrified of anything this week. Why? Because the Redeemer who walked out of the tomb Will be with you everywhere you go.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you, beloved. Go change this world for Jesus Christ. Yeah.