Y'all just give him a shout of Praise real quick, say woo, let's go. I'm going to jump right in, guys, we're going to be in Mark chapter today. Last week we talked about the Garden of Gethsemane, the moment where Jesus was praying to his father. He said: if this cup would pass from me, let it, but if not, your will be done, not my own. And so at that point Jesus is then, hanging out with his disciples.

He is betrayed by Judas es scariot. He is sent to a trial with the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then he is sent to pontious pilate, which is- he's the Roman Governor at the time, Roman leader in the area, and pilate washes his hands clean of Jesus and says: I don't want to deal with this stuff, I don't want an Insurrection, from the Pharisees and Sadducees. So here, like he delivers him over to be flogged or beaten, he gives him a cross that he has to Bear up a hill because he's been beaten so badly. They conscript a man, Simon, from sirene, to help Jesus bear his cross, goes up to the hill called gatha, is put, the cross is put into the ground, their nails in his hands, a nail in his feet, and he is crucified.

And the Bible says, Mark 15, beginning in verse 25 it says it was 9 in the morning when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the Jews, They Crucified two Rebels with them, one on his right and one on his left, and the Scripture was fulfilled, which says: and he was numbered with transgressors. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying: so you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself. In the same way, the chief priests and the teachers of the law mock him among themselves. He saved others, they said, but he can't save himself.

Let this Messiah, the king of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him at noon. 3 hours later, Darkness came over the whole land until 3:00 in the afternoon and at 3 in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice: ELO, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When some of those standing near heard this, they said: listen, he's calling Elijah. Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff and offered it to Jesus to drink.

Now leave him alone, let's see if Elijah comes to take him down, he said with a loud cry. Jesus breathed his last. You know, when I look at this moment, I mean this is Palm Sunday, right, the week before Easter, next week is Easter and, for years of my life that I've been a man of like following Jesus. Every year the week before Easter there's a Palm Sunday message, but all I could think about is the crucifixion and what it took that Jesus now, in this moment, is in a place where the same people, the very same people who were laying down palm branches the week before, they were praising him, saying Hosanna, hosan, the people who thought he was the coming King, those very people are some of the same ones that are right now watching him be flogged, led up the hill and crucified, and they are insulting him because what he came to do is vastly different than what they thought he came to do. And so, yeah, it's Palm Sunday, but I'm thinking about the nails in Jesus's Palms this Sunday and I think about the rejection that Jesus must have felt.

You know, I like to put myself in the position of any character in Scripture, but especially Jesus. In this moment- and I'm Not Jesus, I'm nowhere near Jesus- I don't want you to leave here thinking that I said I'm like Jesus or trying to be like Jesus. I don't have a messiah complex. I don't think I can save you. Only the blood of Jesus can save you, and so I, I.

I think I'm simply here to communicate God's word to you and in any other way that I can help you. I want to be of assistance, but really I don't ask: add any value to you, just by being me. It's what God does through me and through the people here. I don't think I'm Jesus, but I do like to put myself in the position of him right here, because not only is he Our Savior, but he's also our example. And right in this moment, when a week before, people were praising him, right now, they are either pitying him or they are putting him in a position of pain.

And if, if I'm Jesus, I've got to feel, because Jesus is both man and God. And, like I said last week, I don't fully understand that stuff. It's above my pay grade how, his humanness works and how his godness works, but somehow they come together in ways that we don't understand. But The Human Side Of God, The Human Side of Jesus here has to be struggling, right, he struggled to accept the cup. I would imagine he's struggling to receive these insults.

And so today I want to talk to you my sermon title today I called it deep cuts and Easter eggs. I know weird. I'm going to explain. You know anyone here like music. Yeah, some of you like music.

Cool, it's good, cuz you stand up and sing it for like 20 minutes, so I hope you like it. I know there's at least one person in here who's like: can we skip the music and jump straight to the sermon? You know who you are. I was talking to him about it this week, never mind anyway. So, if you like music, there's this thing that that happens.

 We call it like they their normal fans or people who kind of generally like music. And then there's like really Stark, raving, passionate followers of different music musicians. Or maybe you like an album, right, and so, in an album, like, if there's something, if there's something that is popular, you hear it on the radio, but if you're a real fan, you know the album and you know the songs that never play on the radio or you know something about the context of that album that nobody else knows. You can geek out about an artist or a specific album and talk about it and everyone else listens to you and they're like kind of bored but you're pumped, you're thrilled about it. This is like that's the deep cut, right where when you're listening to a song that's not as popular, or you knowing things about the artists that are not as popular, that's that's the deep cut.

And I think, this text today that I just read you, there's a surface level to it and there there's kind of a deep cut and unless you're really, really passionate or trying to learn more about who Jesus is, you're not either going to enjoy or track with the deeper level. So what I want to do today is I'm going to give you the surface level, cuz I know where some of you are. Some of you are like I barely showed up today, Matt, don't give me this heady stuff that I'm going to leave and struggle to understand and comprehend. I want to give you the surface level that I think will immediately feel applicable to you. You might leave and say a that spoke straight to me.

But. But look at your neighbor and say: but there's a deep cut. Just thank you for you, you right here who did it. Well, look at your other neighbor. We're going to try that again.

There's a deep cut. There's a deeper level and there's a portion in this sermon where, after I've talked to you about the surface level, I'm going to go to the deeper level and I might lose you, but I'm telling you up front so you can prepare yourself right now to not be lost and to track with me as I go into the deeper cup. Because if you hear it, if you, if you pay attention, I really think God might speak something directly to you. He'll do it in the surface, but I think if you really lean in, he'll do it in this deeper portion, of it. But the first level I want to talk about is kind of the surface level, like what is happening in this scene.

Really, simply put, Jesus is being rejected by men. He's being rejected, anyone in here? I'm just, I just like participating. Anyone here ever felt rejected before? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got some true people in the back.

It's I. I never forget first time I got rejected by a girl. My, my first girlfriend. I was, I was 9 years old. Y'all know I didn't.

I was, was really a girlfriend, but at the time it felt like it. You know, I forgot her name completely. I've been trying to remember it but I can't. So she's obviously not that important. She is to God, but not to me anymore.

And so I, she was at the church I was at- I didn't go to that church really, but she was there and we hung out and she looks at me, she walks up and she's like she had glasses and, she's like, I think you're kind of cute and I'm like, oh, that's the first time any girls ever said that to me and this the first time that if they did say it to me, they weren't like taking off my hat or getting me in trouble by the principal. So, hey, let's chat. And so, I was over at her house with my twin brother and, I think there were babysitting us that day and that was when she told me. And then, because I'm a, I was a, I'm still a boy, right like CU.

I was a boy at 9 years old. I did what boys at 9 years old, do dumb stuff. And so my brother was acting a fool, running down the hallway and I said it' be funny if I clotheslined him. And so he's running down the hallway and I put my arm out and I actually clotheslined him. It was one of those clothes lines that you're like you can't even plan that one, like it just, and then he falls backward.

It was crazy and I thought it was funny. But I turned around and looked at her about 45 minutes after she told me she thought I was cute and we started dating and she said: I don't like that. And she broke up with me and- and I remember I was just 9 years old but I was that hurt man. But then as I got older- other girlfriends then, as I got older jobs- whether I was interviewing at a job or whether I was at a job for a little while and it wasn't working out. I've been in situations where I wanted to a group of people to like me and they didn't necessarily like me.

And you would think this goes away when they stop calling you loser in seventh or e8th grade and when you get to high school or even adulthood, that it changes. But then I get it. I know where you're at. You walk into a group of people that you've never, encountered before and you're like I hope they like me, and if no one talks to you, you feel rejected. Maybe maybe some of you came in here today and I pray, pray, pray.

You did not feel this way, but maybe someone was talking to somebody else. You walked in and you weren't seen at the level that you had prayed that God would help somebody see you, you want to feel known, and so you walked in here hoping to find a community and maybe someone didn't connect with you immediately. I- I hope we can shift that, but maybe you've done it in other churches. I've been to other churches. Guys where you, where you walk in, no one says Hey to you.

They kind of expect you to figure out where to go. It is our heart that no one would ever walk in and feel rejected. Or or you step into some other location or life situation and you feel this Rejection. It could happen from people, it can happen at a company, it could happen at another organization, it could happen in one of your hobbies, where you feel rejected, and maybe you've been trying, maybe you put yourself out there in ways that you've never done it before, and then the result of you putting yourself out there was met with someone who did not, was not compatible, or did not reciprocate that very thing you were putting yourself out there to do. This is where Jesus is right now.

He has spent 33 years on Earth, three years doing Ministry. He's been teaching really really well, reinterpreting the Old Testament really really well in ways that people are confounded and they're marveling at his teaching. That's like the. The best that I can do is teach in a way that maybe some people are like like positively confused. But Jesus doesn't just teach.

He's feeding 5,000 people, 4,000 people. He's hanging out with all of these disciples and helping develop them into people who, in Acts, they would say these are just galileans. How are they speaking this way? How are they so eloquent? He's also doing Miracles, and in the Book of John we see that he heals it or he brings his friend Lazarus back from the grave.

So Jesus is teaching, he's leading, he's confounding the leaders of the time, he is performing Miracles. Jesus is doing all of that stuff and he comes to this place where what he really came to do is about to happen. But I can't help but thinking that in this moment where Jesus has fully put himself out there, now he's borderline naked on a cross, with Nails in his hands nailing his feet, and he's about to die. He's on public display in front of all of these people who were praising him the week before, but this week they've forgotten what they were thinking about and they're rejecting him. Am- and I know we haven't gotten to that level, but we felt it before- like that's the surface level.

What I see in this text: cuz, cuz, words cut deep, words cut deep. I mean. I'll just give you a couple examples of what they said. It says this: those who passed by hurled insults at him and shaking their head. They said: so you who are going to destroy the temple and build in three days, come down off your cross and save yourself.

The same way the chief priests and teachers of the law. They mocked him. He saved others, but he can't save himself. Let him come now from the cross so we might see and believe those who were next. These are robbers on a cross, on his left and on his right.

These guys are about to die and they're still insulting Jesus, literally everybody, from the worst of the worst first to what the world at the time would consider the best of the best, they are talking trash. I remember the first time someone called me a loser. I was in sixth grade at a church camp. This dude looked at me cuz I was collecting Star Wars cans. You remember those Star Wars cans when episode one came out?

Y'all remember those? No one. Oh, I said I was a loser, maybe I don't know. He said, bro, you're a loser. I still remember that.

It doesn't impact me as much as it used to, but words cut deep and picture what Jesus feels on the cross, public display in front of everybody else, and they're tra? Ing them with their words. I think about the words that have been spoken to you that have taken you away from God's calling on your life. Someone said something and it's inhibiting you from following Jesus. It's not that like you mean to.

It's that someone said that thing and that's what you think every time. Somebody says the opposite of that thing. You might have strolled into church, say, hey, you'd be really good at this. You might have strolled somewhere else and someone was like, hey, I think. I think God has a calling on your life.

Or they might talk about the potential you have in Christ Jesus. They might even just say something as small as you got a good podcast Voice or whatever, and all you're hearing is: I'm going to reject this because I felt rejected by that one thing a long time ago, that one person said, no matter how much positive comes into my brain, for some reason, 50 things on a Sunday. Someone say: I likeed your sermon, I likeed your sermon. Hey, this spoke to me directly. One person's like: I've been asking this question forever and today it was finally answered.

But the one person who's not even negative. They're like: hey, you might have adjusted this. That's all I think about, because words they cut deep. Where is Jesus In This Moment? He's feeling the rejections.

But it's not just words that cut deep, so do the nails and some of you. It was just something that somebody said, it was something that somebody did, and you feel, you feel incapable guilt, shame, like you don't have the capacity, to do what God has called you to do because of what that person did to you. It wasn't just what they said. I, I want to be very clear. It.

It was what somebody did to you. Maybe they broke your trust, maybe you spent so much time putting yourself out there and then they rejected it that you're not going to do it again. I talk to people who struggle with church hurt. I, I, I get it. I have this weird thing where I'm socially awkward enough that if someone hurt me at church I'm like: oh, wasn't Jesus.

So I just keep doing it, like I get over it. I don't know why. I think it's just gracious stupidity on my part. But at the same time, there are things that happened in church that church people should have never done, but it happened. And so I feel hurt and I'm frustrated and you know what that does.

It makes me slow to step into God's calling on my life and I get it. But I mean, like you, felt that rejection, but I guess I want to look at what Jesus did. He followed through Amen on the cross for me and you. And when he, when he did that, what do we see? We see that because of what he did on the cross, he was able to offer us forgiveness of sins.

He was able to able to bring us into a connection with the father. Because of his obedience. God was able to do much through it. Now, when God looks at you and when he looks at me, if we have trusted in Jesus, he doesn't see our sin. He sees Jesus's death on the cross and the blood that was shed for forgiveness of sin.

So when he looks at you might screw up, but now he sees you through Jesus, kind of like Passover, where they had to put Blood on the door and then, when the blood was on the door, the spirit of the Lord passed over it, way back in ancient Egypt. I could give you more context at some point. Come ask me the question. Just like that, when, je when God looks at you, he sees his son's Blood on the cross that was shed for you and now you can have life abundantly and life eternally with Christ Jesus. So that's what happened, because of Jesus's obedience.

But he's not just our savior, he's also an example that we should follow. So surface level for you, if Jesus can follow through- and I know you're not Jesus, but I think we should still look to him, put oursel in his position and recognize, you know what, that, even if I'm rejected by men, you know what? Even if someone said that negative thing to me that one time. You know what? Even if something really, really, really, really, really, really, really- I'm going keep going really really bad happened to me, then guess what?

Guess what? Thank you, I can still move forward. Amen, that's right, I can still be obedient. Jesus was obedient. He humbled himself to a death, even death on a cross, for you and for me.

And because of his obedience, he's now seated at the right hand of the father and you and I can follow his lead. That's the surface level. Even when words cut deep, even when the nails are deeper, even when we struggle, we can still follow his example. Amen, and so on Palm Sunday, just reflect on who he is, reflect on his pain, reflect on, I guess, Palms Sunday, if you will, and then you'll recognize that God has a calling for you. That might be difficult to accomplish because of the things you've experienced and the things that were said, but that doesn't take away God's desire to use us for his purposes.

That's the simple right. I hope that's encouraging to you. What does it look like to face rejection and still be obedient? We see this in Jesus. But look at your neighbor again.

We're going to practice one time, not two times. There's a deeper cut. There's a deeper cut. Yeah, so, so, anyone like the MCU or Marvel Cinematic Universe in here? See, I never connect with anybody.

It's like I don't know why. Maybe I look like Southern and so it doesn't look like I watch movies. I don't geek out like crazy, but I do like the Marvel Cinematic Universe because it was like it was a new thing. It was the first time something that big had ever been done, and I recently watched through a lot of those movies with my son and we did it in order, cuz the first time I was like I've just watched them when they come out in the theater, cuz cuz I'm that old, but my son, he wasn't even born before most of them were, made and put out and so we started watching through it. We did it in order and I don't know why he didn't have short-term memory, but he, he doesn't remember anything that happened in the movie before.

So we'll get to like the fifth, 6th, 7th, 10th, 20th movie or whatever, and I'm sitting here watching it and I can. I can see the. Anyone know the term Easter eggs? I can see the Easter eggs cuz I'm like, oh, I watched that. There's a reason that some of y'all went to see Avengers, infinity War endgame.

And you were like, oh, that was a good film. It's like me. It's like me watching the Taylor Swift eras movie on Disney plus. You know, I put it on there and I was on the first song and I'm like, what, what is this? And again, it's not she's bad or anything, but I, I did my thing, because if there's one thing I know, I can put all the great sermon clips that I want on to Tik Tok, ain't nobody going to like them.

But as soon as I say something about Taylor Swift, go invite. I didn't go viral either, but either. But so I'm watching the. On the first song, I took a video, flipped it around to my face. I'm like I don't get it.

And then, the swifties came after me a little bit and on Tik Tok, I'm getting all these comments and what the people are saying is: but did you get to this song, or did you get to this? Or do you understand what she did here and how it was super cool? And I'm saying here, I don't get it. And when I went to Avengers endgame, I'm sitting here like when Captain America picked up the hammer, a lot of you were sitting there, yeah, yeah, yeah. So say you what I'm talking about.

You don't get it, but they do, cuz, because they get the Easter eggs. They've been watching through it, right, and so I'm super pumped. The crowd's erupting and some people are sitting there. It's not that they're bad people, it's just that they weren't in. They didn't get the deeper cut, they didn't get the Easter eggs right.

This is how Scripture is layered: , it's layered full of Easter eggs that when you look at it on the surface, it still benefits you, but there is a deeper cut. There are Easter eggs that when you grab on to those, it gives you a whole new understanding. The Bible is split up into essentially, just to be simple, two books. You got the Old Testament and you got the New Testament. The Old Testament was written probably about 1500 years before Jesus- all the way to 300 years before Jesus, depending on the dating.

And then the New Testament was obviously written after Jesus. So the latest writing, or the earliest and latest writing, would have been 50 something after ad, all the way to probably 95 to 100 AD. Right, so they are different books. This is where I said I might lose you, but let's lean in for a second. The New Testament always refers back to the Old Testament in different ways.

It might be a citation, it might be a light reference, the whole understanding of the Messiah that would come and restore Israel to its proper state- that was all in the Old Testament. And so what you can do if you're trying to read your Bible surface level, it's helpful, let the Holy Spirit guide you in your reading. But if there's a reference to an Old Testament passage and you want to go deeper, you can recognize that that might be an Easter egg, or a hyperlink, as someone call it, that takes you back to the Old Testament, and then, when you look at the Old Testament passage, it helps you better understand the New Testament passage right? So when I'm at the surface level in this passage, there are a couple things in this, in this verse, that caused me to struggle. One thing that caused me to struggle for years was when Jesus said: my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

That's a struggle. One person came at the end of this-, Ser, this last service, and they said: I've been asking that question for years and I think there's an answer in the deeper cut, and so I wanted to show you some Easter eggs. Can we do that? Yeah, yes, no, yeah, I need a response here. All right, so I'm going to open up some Easter eggs.

I hope it's fun, and if you don't want me to throw an Easter egg to you, just let me know, or come walk up and grab it. All right, so we're going to start off with a verse, apparently. So what happens is this New Testament Scripture that we just read has six to seven verses or citations or references to Psalm 22, just that Psalm. There's one, there's two to Isaiah In this passage as well, but just Psalm 22 is referenced in this. Some of them kind of let you know, but for the most part, John Mark did not let us know that he was referring to Psalm 22.

So the deeper cut is that this is referring to an Old Testament understanding which we can now view as a prophecy. Now, the first Easter egg I'll open-, some of them are- are not Scripture verses. This one just says connection card on it. What that means is: y'all should fill out a connection card. If you haven't yet, I want to get to know you guys a little bit better.

If you fill that out, you're going to have a better experience. See what a great Easter egg. It's not $100 cash, but is a connection card, and you should totally fill that out, so that we know who you are and then we can help you take your next step toward God. This one, o it's. It's Hershey's Kisses.

Oh, I'm going to do so. Terrible at closing this. All right, who wants one? Yeah, all it might, I'm going to roll it. You catch it.

Yeah, give it. There's a lady back there behind you to. Yeah, Chelsea's her name. There you go. All right, we'll try another one.

 We'll try another. This one has candy, I think. Let's see. All right, more candy. I just want to give you guys some candy, cuz it's Easter, next week at least.

 Someone come grab it. Here you go, it's going to open what you got it. All right, give it up. She caught it, let's go. Here's another one.

Here's what it says. Psalm 228 says this: he trusts in the Lord. They say: let the Lord rescue him, let him deliver him, since he Delights in him. You, you see where that's familiar. It references Mark 15:30 and 31, where it says: let him save himself.

Isn't that interesting? I'm just try, I'm geeking out here for a little bit. Here's another one. I'm not good open. Psalm 226 says this, but I am a worm and not a man scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

He's: oh, it's more candy. Here you go. You got it, let's go. Oh, got it, bro. It's like baptism here.

When you catch an egg, you know. Oh, more candy, more candy. I'm going to throw this into the back, let's see how it goes. Let's go crazy, bro. You be care.

I'm throwing it to this kid right here, but just let's go. Anyone impressed with my throwing skills? No, okay, that's okay. Here's another one ready, let's go. We got a couple kids in here we giving candy out.

One more, it might be more than one. W. Look at that one hand, look at you. Good job, elvar. That's what I'm talking about.

This is so like Sac religious, almost it feels all right. I got another one here. It says: talk about bounce houses next week. Oh, we got bounce houses the Easter next week. For those of you who need to know, we got bounce houses.

This is great. Here we go. I know right, I'm trying to make it fun. We make it fun here at Orbit Church. Oh, talk about Easter serving.

Hey guys, how are you doing today? This, an Easter egg? Because when you serve you're walking alongside Jesus and what he's doing. You get to see the miraculous, but also sometimes it feels mundane, but it's totally worth it because you get to know God better at the end of it. So I' would encourage you.

What's it look like for you? I give you a hall pass next week to serve for one day. We're going to have a lot of people. I'm already hearing some people inviting like eight family members and all this other stuff. Sometimes you like one and a half times regular attendance.

Sometimes it's like double your attendance. That means double the kids, that means double the- I mean double the people coming that are going to be firsttime guests, and so I would strongly encourage you. Even maybe you haven't prayed about it yet. What would it look like for you for one day? This is not require you to do it next month or the month after.

For one day, try serving and if God leads you, you can continue to serve, of course, but pray about what that looks like, and if you want to serve, you can write Easter on your connection card next to serving, and we'll reach out to you this week and get you set up for kids guest experience, setup, anything like that. We just have Desperate needs for it on Easter: more candy, more candy. You already got some. Oh, you already got some here. I'm going to put it right here for when we're done.

For when we're done, you put more Easter eggs in this one. It's all good, let's see what we got. Psalm 22:7 says: all who see me mock me, they H insult, shaking their heads. This is in Mark. And then this is a fun one, I think: baptism in next steps, April 7th.

You're going to want to join us for that? Hey, give it up for baptism. We got several signups. This one says: Psalm 22:1 says this: my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from My Cries of Anguish?

So it's interesting, because for years I listened to theologies that said Jesus, and God had separated while he was on the cross, that there was a disconnect. That happened there, and there's some validity to that conversation, . But if I, if I'm going to obey the kiss method, which has gotten me really far in life, which means keep it simple, Sally, that's not really what it says, some of yall know. But if I'm going to keep it simple and I look at this, in what world where Jesus and his disciples knew the Old Testament, like when they were raised, they were taught to memorize These Old Testament Scriptures. So they might not know Psalm 150, but they almost assuredly knew Psalm 22.

I mean, it's right before the real popular one you guys, like everybody likes, right, Psalm 22. Most, most good Disciples of Jesus and most people in Judaism would know, know Psalm 22. And so when Jesus is saying Elo, Elo, this is an Aramaic Lamas- when he's saying my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? They're not going to naturally look at it and say, oh my gosh, there's a disconnect between him and his father. They're actually going to look at that and they're going to hear Psalm 22 and they're going to know not just what it says in verse one.

They're going to know that it talks about the people scorning Jesus. They're going to know it talks about the people who are saying save himself. They're going to know it talks about the ways that he's despised, the way that he's rejected. They're going to know every aspect of that passage and they're also going to know what it says in verse 24, for he has. This is God, for God has not despised or scorned the suffering of The Afflicted one, he has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help.

And the interesting thing about the Psalm? I can't prove this, but I think it's accurate. The interesting thing about that Psalm is it actually tells you in a subscript, right under Psalm 22, when you start it, it says that this is meant to be read out with music, a specific song, and so what do I think is happening here? I think, in the moment of rejection and affliction, Jesus is locating his own life within the greater biblical story and he immediately gravitates to a Psalm that he's memorized, a song that he knows the melody to, and he begins, in this moment of rejection, reciting Scripture. In this moment where it's difficult for him, he says: my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Goes through it and finally gets to this, the spot where it says: but he is not despised you, he has not turned his face from you, his afflicted one. At some level, Jesus is finding peace in a hard Moment by utilizing God's word. At another level, Jesus is also fulfilling prophecy in this moment. So the surface- it helps me understand rejection, but the deeper cut, when I look at these Easter eggs, it helps me understand that Jesus as Savior fulfilled prophecy. But Jesus, as my example, is giving me a template from which I can live.

He's saying: when you feel rejected, go to God's word. When you're struggling, sing the songs of the Lord. When you are in this place where you feel Afflicted, there is somewhere you can go. There is a frame you can look at. There is a template you can track with.

All you have to do is go to his word, amen. You know, it's interesting because so often we feel like God's left us alone to figure our lives out, that there's not a road map or a template. And that's got to be really difficult to think. Because if I walk around and I think I've got to make my own decision here, God's got no like like connection with me here. He's just letting me go on my own thing.

The Bible doesn't say anything about this. Well then, I'm going to have a really hard time making decisions. But if I recognize he, he's given me a frame within which I can walk and honor him. It changes everything. It would be like the band right here, you know, if the band, just did their own thing.

Wouldn't that be? I know y' y all raise your hand, said you like music. Wouldn't that be weird if the band just did their own thing, like the guitarist comes up here and then the drummer starts playing at a different Rhythm, maybe even in different Keys, they're just doing their thing? It wouldn't come together very well. Would it just say no, thank you.

You said no. A couple people said no, so what we do is we recognize that people tend toward disconnecting and not following the rhythms that God might have for them, and so we say: you know what? We're going to make it easy on people. We're going to give them a track so every musician actually has this behind them in their ears. Put the track second.

Pick the wrong spot. I got to wait for the guide. There's a guide she coming. All right, just give it a second. Sometimes you got to give it a second.

So what it does is it helps you follow what we're trying to accomplish interlude. And this is: this is what God has given you in his word and in his son, not just to savior. He is that you can find peace in a moment by confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. If you do that, but he has given us a template, he has given us a format, he has given us a track, and when we look at Jesus and what he do in does in rejection, that he finds his life in the greater story of the Bible, and that's what I've learned to do. What one of the things that we say- I don't do it all the time, but one of the things we say here- is we put God's word in our world.

And the reason we say that is because, if I can, in whatever emotion or difficulty I'm facing, whether it's words or deeds that I'm struggling with, I can locate myself within the greater story of Scripture. I'm one of those weirdos who, when I feel rejected, I go immediately back. I don't know why it's this way for me, but I go immediately back to where Paul got rejected by. The disciples said: you need to go up to Tarsus and hang out with your parents for about 5 to 10 years and we'll see what happens later. And then I see what Paul did after a season of rejection, how God used him, and so I go back to that moment.

But I could also go back to where Jesus was being crucified and put on display in front of people who rejected him and say: you know what? I can be obedient because at the end of that It produced much for others. I could go back to Psalm 22 and recognize that sometimes I feel like God's forsaken me. But if I continue through the Psalm, I recognize he's not despised me, he's not rejected me. I'm where I'm supposed to be.

Even when people are against me, God is for me. So that's my track right. And if you're wandering aimless, without something to track with, without a guide, you're going to struggle. But I'm believing better for you today. I'm believing that, for some of you, God is going to give you the opportunity to trust in him right now.

I know that's going to happen, but some of you got are going to take that step of faith today. And for others of you, you've been thinking that you can't step forward into your calling because it's difficult, or you can't read God's word because it's hard to understand. I want you to know that God will give you something at the surface level and as you move forward and see what's deeper and deeper. You're going to geek out about that stuff and it's going to help you in your life. But if we can end with one thing is recognizing that God has given us a gift, not just in his son, but in his word.

But there are some people who don't have the frame of Faith because they've never trusted in Jesus, and if that's you, I want to give you an opportunity to trust in him right now. So if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, we're going to pray, prayer, and this prayer is not magical. It is you talking to your creator about what it looks like to follow Jesus. You might say: God, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe he died on the cross and Rose from the grave.

Father, forgive me of my sin. Help me become a new creation. The old passed away, the new coming on. God, help me find my story within the greater story of Scripture. God, help me look to Jesus as an example and as my savior.

God, thank you so much for saving me today. It is in Jesus name that I pray, and God's people said: