Buried in a Garden

Praise the Lord. It's uh quite overwhelming to look out over such a great congregation tonight. Pastor asked me to greet the congregation to cast um some sort of vision. Brother Ericen took five minutes and I hope that I can stay under maybe three. Um this is a very overwhelming. such a skinny pull pit and a big screen. Can't hide behind this and sure can't hide behind that, right? But I give u I give honor to all of you great people. What an amazing evening this has been already um just in the drive down and everything that's taken place. I give honor to brother and sister Carpenter. Um I know right now it is very joyous. I know like she said she's um shed some tears this evening. I know pastor has as well, but um if you would just knew and I don't dare want to um share anything that they wouldn't want me to share, but I don't I don't feel that way. They may not want me to say this, but there's been some very dark times and building this and the process of this and the the burden that's weighed on them. And so, like brother Ericen says, I think they're very much deserving of this evening and a building such as this and what God has just done through them and the vision that he has cast. And so, we could go on and on giving them honor and I appreciate you both and um everything you mean to this church and to our lives. I'm going to give honor to my wife and thank her for holding our baby in just a few more days to get past this day. And who knows, we may have a baby tonight or tomorrow. the doctor says. So, just pray for us that our life's about to change and that everything will happen the way it's supposed to happen. I challenge our students this past Sunday in our last chapter 29 service in that gymnasium. And let me just say, thank God that we're bringing the anointing and the power of God in this thing before we start playing ball in it. Everybody knows that's a good thing, right? Um but I challenge our students to to step out in worship. We u focus a lot on prayer and devotion and Bible reading a lot of times and um when we teach different series and things and um but I really stress to them um talk to them a little bit about David and how David is known as a man after God's own heart and he's one that didn't make the same mistake over and over again. And I believe without a shadow of a doubt that David didn't make the same mistake over and over again because David was known as a worshipper. And for every devastation that he had, he had a dance. And every situation, he had a shout. He had something to go along with it that would trigger that that worship would remind him not to fall back into that same trap. And so I challenge our students that no matter what you're going through, and I feel like one thing that our students get caught up in, they find themselves outside of um the youth group or outside of the church doors when they know they ought to be in here, they know they ought to be involved as they keep making that same mistake over and over again. And it separates them from their relationship with God. So I challenge our students once again tonight to just worship God and worship Jesus for what he's done in your life in spirit and in truth. to worship him because it's it's it's it's it's easy to worship in times like this when everything's great. But no matter what's going on, if you'll learn to worship, if you'll learn to express your passion to God in spirit and in truth, God will always see us through. And just to the church, to everyone that's here tonight in this evening, the one thing that comes to my mind is sacrifice. And when I think of that word sacrifice, you can't think about sacrifice without thinking about the greatest sacrifice that ever took place over time. And that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ dying on a cross for our sins. And I just when pastor asked me to address you all the sacrifice Jesus made in the gospel of John, he says he had been crucified on at Calvary on that hill at at Galgothan. John records at the end of of one of his chapters. He says, "Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new suppler, wherein was never man yet laid." And I read that a few weeks ago, and it just triggered my odd way of thinking to think, you know, God created a garden. He created that place for mankind. He created this garden of Eden in the beginning. And so they took Jesus and put him in a place that he had created. And so tonight up until this point, and I know it's already been mentioned, we have this place that God has built. But what is going to happen from this point on is going to become miraculous and amazing because you have put Jesus into something that he has built. Because you don't bury something in a garden and not expect it to come back up. They buried him in that garden and then the miraculous took place. Then God stepped in and began to fight and conquer death, hell, and the grave. And we understand that we may be here tonight and there may have been some sacrifice to get here, but now we're placing Jesus. We're placing the anointing. We're placing the power and the worshippers that the spirit of God has come into this place. And now the miraculous is really going to take place. Who's to know what God is going to do in this place? If you believe that, why don't you clap your hands and just love him and agree with me tonight that there's no telling what God's going to do in the city of Marville and in Blunt County through First Apostolic Church of Maraveville and the students that make up this great church. God bless you in Jesus name.