Everything’s cool. The electronics work perfectly. Everything is great, and you know we’ve kind of come accustomed to all of that sort of stuff. Yet we walked in here today and the first thing to happen the air conditioning is not working properly, and then the sound doesn’t want to operate exactly like it should, and then we had the static and stuff going on in it. And all of the things that happened, all of these things that happened, and here’s what I believe 100% today.

Satan does not want you to worship today. Today, he’s doing everything he can to stop you from worshiping because it’s the fact that Jesus rose from the grave that today we can worship. Amen? Amen. Amen.

And so because of that, Satan doesn’t wanna hear that. He’s lost. It’s a reminder of the fact that he’s already lost the battle. He’s already lost the war. And so today, as we show up, you know what we’re gonna say?

Satan, get behind me. Get behind me. We wanna hear about Jesus today, and we wanna worship him today. Amen? Alright.

So last week, we talked about the bill came due. Right? The bill was due. You know, you you put stuff on the credit card and eventually it comes due. Right?

You have all these bills and eventually you gotta start paying them. You know, you you go to these things, then you you buy some furniture or whatever, and they tell you, oh, yes. You can buy it with no money down and and however many months, no payments. But then the bill comes due, and suddenly, it’s a lot more than you thought it was gonna be. Right?

There’s a lot happening. Well, last week, we talked about the bill that was due was the bill for your sin. The bill for your sin and my sin, the bill came due. And when the bill came due, we couldn’t pay. Well, in the modern world, if something happens and we can’t pay, then what happens?

Well, then we get, all kinds of trouble. We could actually go to jail because we couldn’t pay our debt. But if the debt for sin could not be paid, then hell wins. If the debt for sin could not be paid, hell wins. God created a plan from the very beginning.

All the way back in the Garden of Eden, he said that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. He created the plan. He said, there will be salvation. He made that plan. And when the bill came due, he sent Jesus to the cross.

He put him on the cross to pay for our sins. Jesus willingly went. He had an opportunity to back out, but he didn’t do that. He went to the cross. He went to the cross, and he paid the full price for our sin because he was the only one that could.

He was the only one that could. Jesus paid that price. And so when we think about the resurrection day, we think about all of the things that’s happened. I I want you to understand, only Jesus could pay that debt. There’s a one of the songs that we sang, it says he took his final breath as heaven looked away.

That breaks my heart every time I hear that. Because what that means is while Jesus was covered in our sin, he was so disgusting that God couldn’t even look at him because he was covered in our sin. And in that moment, it pleased God to crush him because it was our sin, and he died for our sin. The bill came due. I said that when Jesus said it is finished, the price was paid, but the grave had not yet been overcome.

And that’s true. Jesus said, it is finished. The price was paid. Our debt was completely paid in full, and no longer would we have a debt of sin if we accepted Jesus as Lord and savior. But then he was placed in the grave.

Today, I wanna look at what that price that he paid actually covered. Look with me at Isaiah chapter 25 verses seven through nine. Isaiah 25. I know somebody said, Isaiah, preacher, this is this is about the resurrection. This is the New Testament.

It started in the Old Testament. Amen? Alright. Isaiah chapter 25 verse seven through nine, And it says this, and on this mountain, he will swallow up the covering which is over all people, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, and the lord god will wipe tears away from all faces.

And he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth, for the lord has spoken. And it will be said on that day, behold, this is our god for whom we have waited that he might save us. This is the lord for whom we have waited. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. The prophecy said he will destroy the covering which is over all people.

I want us to understand this. We’ve been talking about the prophecy of the Messiah. Why are we focusing on the prophecy? Because the prophecy told us from the very beginning what was going to happen. This morning at at the Sunrise service, I talked about faith, and I talked about walking in faith and how do we have faith.

We have faith because of what we have already seen. We have faith because of the things that have already been done. We have faith that all the prophecy that was foretold, Jesus already fulfilled. And so, therefore, prophecy is extremely important because the prophecy said this is what’s going to happen. And then when it’s fulfilled, it shows that it was true, that everything that Jesus said would be done.

The prophecy said he will destroy the covering, which is over all people. Do you understand what the covering which is over all people is? Well, just in case, look with me to Hebrews chapter nine verse 27. Hebrews chapter nine and verse 27. And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.

Understand that the covering which is over all people is death. The covering which is over all men is death. We’ve heard about this prophecy. We’ve read this in the scripture. The prophecy said he will destroy the covering which is over all peoples.

That means Jesus has overcome death. He’s overcome death. Hallelujah. We don’t have to worry about that. Well, wait a minute, preacher.

People still die. That’s true. But they don’t have to remain dead. If you know Jesus as lord and savior, he’s already conquered death. He’s already destroyed that covering that’s over all men, and all we have to do is when we accept him, then he will resurrect us just like he resurrected.

The covering over all men is death. Look at verse eight of our text from this morning, and it says, he will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. For the Lord has spoken. He will swallow up death for all time. It wasn’t just for a little bit of time.

He didn’t just conquer death for himself. He didn’t just conquer death for a short period of time, and after that, we would go back to it. You know, sometimes, these restaurants have, special promotions, and they have some products like, the McRib. Right? It comes out, but it’s only available for a limited time.

You either get it during that time or you don’t get it. That death that he swallowed up, it’s not a limited time offer. He did that for all time. For all time. For all people ever came before him, while he was alive, or after him, if you call upon his name as Jesus, Lord and savior, then death has been swallowed up, and you do not have to experience that.

You say, well, people still die. Yes. But if they don’t stay dead, is it really death? Is it just a transference from this world into the next? So he swallowed that up.

He defeated Satan. Satan wanted you to stay dead, but he defeated Satan. He swallowed up death. Now listen. I know some of you got a early start this morning, and I know that some of you are thinking about later today.

But when we hear that Jesus swallowed up death, it should make every single one of us shout. We should be so excited. We can hardly contain ourself. Amen. Because whoever believes in him shall not perish.

Whoever believes in him shall not perish. You can’t get a guarantee like that anywhere. The only place you can get that guarantee is through Jesus Christ. Whosoever believes in him shall not perish, in case you didn’t realize. That’s part of John three sixteen.

For god so loved the world that whosoever believes in him shall not perish because he gave his only begotten son. We need to understand that. We need to wrap our heads around that. We need to embrace it, and we need to believe it. I said this morning, too many Christians say, I believe.

I got faith. And as soon as something happens, oh, what’s gonna happen now? I don’t know. I don’t I don’t know what to do. I don’t I don’t understand.

I don’t trust whatever that’s going on. Who can I call? You call on the same one that gave you the salvation in the first place, Jesus. We gotta have that faith. Whoever believes in him shall not perish.

Have that faith. Understand that. It wasn’t only the forgiveness of sin, but the forgiveness of death has also been defeated. Death has also been defeated. You see, if you die in your sin, the scripture says that you will spend an eternity in a devil’s hell.

But when you receive the forgiveness of sin, the scripture says that you will spend an eternity with the father in heaven, that death cannot hold you. You will be resurrected from the grave. Jesus said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will return for you. He’s already told us he’s coming back. He’s coming back for us.

We need to understand that. We need to live our lives that way. We have too many Christians that walk around like this all day, defeated. Defeated. Every time I see you, you got a frown on your face.

You look like the weight of the world is on you. You look just like the rest of the world. Everything that’s going on is defeated. I tell people all the time, smile. Makes people wonder what you’re thinking about.

Right? Sometimes it’ll make them ask you what you’re thinking about, and that’s when you can say, you know, I was thinking about that song I heard Sunday that it told us that we are resurrected. The grave can’t hold us. We have been lifted up. The power of God is greater than all other power.

We can hold on to that. We can live our life that way that others will see that in us. Sometimes as a as a pastor, and you’re preparing for a major weekend, Easter, Christmas, maybe you won’t talk about Thanksgiving, whatever it is that you won’t talk about. And you wonder, how can I tell the same story again different than I’ve already told it for the last however many years? How can I do that?

How can I tell the same story? And oftentimes, I agonize over, you know, how can I change things up? How can I tell the story but make it in such a way that that it’s different than the way people have heard it before? And most of the time, the Lord comes back to me and puts in my mind, the story is so great. You can tell it exactly the same way every single time, and it’s still the most powerful message anybody will hear this year.

That is the most incredible thing. We have to understand the power of God that he gave his only son, that when he died for you and was buried and resurrected for you, that he’s offering you eternal life, and all we have to do is accept it. Whoever believes in him will not perish. Not only that, but it says he will wipe the tears from their faces. He will wipe the tears away from their faces.

Not only will we not perish, but he also will wipe the tears away. The scripture tells us that in heaven, there will be no sorrow. There’ll be no tears. There will be none of that, only joy being in the presence of the father. He’s going to wipe all that away.

So many of us go through a lot of things in our life. We go through depression. We go through fear. We go through heartache. We go through all of the things that we go through.

And that sorrow and depression and heartache and the tears that we go through are very difficult for us all to go through. And I’m so excited to know that one day, I don’t have to worry about any of that anymore. All I will do is celebrate and worship and be full of joy. He said he will wipe away the tears from the faces of the ones who accept this salvation. Look at verse nine.

And it will be said in that day, behold, this is our god for whom we have waited, that he might save us, that the lord for whom we have waited, let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. Let us rejoice. Christians, you know Jesus as lord and savior. We should be rejoicing every day.

Every day, let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation, the salvation that he gave. We couldn’t earn it. There’s nothing we could do to get it. He gave it to us. If we just accept him, we need to rejoice.

If you’ve ever felt bad, been in a bad mood, depressed about something, and someone comes in and they just their faces lit up, they’re full of joy, they’re celebrating, they’re talking to you about whatever it is, it’s hard to stay in that state. It pulls you up. It begins to pull you up, and there’s something about that that just makes you feel better about what’s going on in your life. There’s something that makes you feel better. If a Christian is celebrating their salvation every day, we’re full of faith and we live in that joy and we walk into the presence of those who are desperately seeking something.

They’re gonna see there’s a difference. They’re gonna see there’s something in our life. I know. You said, but look, preacher. We just can’t be upbeat and happy and smile all the time.

We just can’t do that. Why not? Why not? Well, life happens and and things are hard, and sometimes I’m sad. Sometimes I’m angry.

Sometimes I’m I’m depressed. Sometimes I’m going through all these things. Yeah. We are. But you know what the common denominator is and all those things?

Every one of those things need to be laid at Jesus’ feet. And we lay those at Jesus’ feet, he takes up that burden and his burden is light. He takes it and lifts it up for us. He helps us get through. He doesn’t say he’s gonna take it away, but he will definitely help us get through everything that’s going on.

Can we really be joyful every day? The real answer is yes. We choose to not be joyful every day because we choose to allow these other things to bring us down. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. Move with me to Titus chapter three.

Titus chapter three. Somebody said, Titus, I don’t think I don’t even know where that book is. I’ve never been to it. Titus chapter three. There’s only three chapters, but it has a lot to say.

Titus chapter three verses four through eight, it says, but when the kindness of God, our savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing and regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior. So that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement. And concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed in God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

This was not just prophecy. The passage that I just read to you is in the New Testament, and that passage is saying, it happened. The kindness of the Lord appeared. It happened. The prophecy said it would.

The New Testament said it did. It would, and it did. And because of that fact, we can live rejoicing today. God did not have to save us, but he did. God did not have to send his son, but he did.

God did not have to, raise him from the dead, but he did. God did not have to do any of these things, but out of love and mercy and kindness, he did. He did for us. He gave it to us. He gave his son for all who would accept him.

And just as a check, all means All. Okay. You’re listening. All means all. There are no exceptions.

There’s no exclusions. There’s no small print. All means all. He gave his life for all, all who would accept him. We have to accept him.

He doesn’t force himself on us. We have to accept him. He said, I sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay the price for your sin. And, yes, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But he sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay that price for your sin.

Then he resurrected him from the dead to go to heaven and prepare a place for you. But the rest is up to you. Will you accept it? You have to choose. He said, I’ve done it all for you.

Here’s the gift. All you have to do is take it. Accept it. Bring this into your life. Change your life forever.

Will you accept it? Sadly, some say no. Sadly, some say no. I’ve talked to people that said, maybe one day. But right now, I just I wanna live life my way.

I wanna tell you about living life your way. When you live life your way, unfortunately, you die the wrong way. And if you live life your way and you die in your sins, the end result is the devil’s hell. There’s no way to sugarcoat that. That’s what the scripture tells us.

This life that we have is short compared to eternity. Very short. The scripture tells us once we die, there are two possibilities. Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will spend all eternity in heaven celebrating with him. Those who have died in their sins will spend all eternity in the torment of a devil’s hell.

Those are our two choices. We get to choose. We decide. God said, here it is. Take it.

You can say no, but understand the alternative if you say no. He gave his son for all who would accept him. We all owe a debt we can never pay, but today that debt is already paid if we’ll simply accept it. Look at verse five. It says he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.

He saved us. It’s not our works. It’s not what we have done. It’s not on the basis of what good people we are. He saved us because of his grace and mercy.

He saved us. Verse seven says this. It says, so that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We would be made heirs. You know what a heir is?

We don’t talk about heirs much today. A heir means we inherit. We inherit his kingdom. We become heirs to his kingdom. And so because of that, we know that when the time comes, we will also take part in the kingdom.

We will follow him. We will have that opportunity. We will be made heirs to follow in him, to be in that salvation in heaven with him, to rejoice and celebrate and sing to him all day long. Yes. Sing.

Even those of you who say, I can’t sing in the choir. You’re gonna be in a choir one day. Amen? Alright. Verse eight says, this is a trustworthy statement.

Concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently so those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for our men. Do you know the years ago on Sunday school roll, when you showed up, there was a checkbox. Right? I don’t know if y’all remember this.

Did you bring your Bible? Did you read your Sunday school lessons? Did you give your tithe? Did you do any good deeds this week? We don’t do that anymore.

Does that mean it’s no longer accountable? No. It’s still accountable. It’s just that man’s not keeping up with it, but god still is. Did you do any good deeds?

How many times have we seen an opportunity to good do a good deed, but I don’t have time right now. I gotta get somewhere. I gotta be somewhere. Good deeds. Well, you know, sometimes that’s a hard thing to do.

It is. Sometimes it’s really easy. Y’all know that my wife is vertically challenged. I’m not supposed to say short. My wife is not very tall.

Because of that, I understand some of her challenges. And there’ll be so many times I’m walking through the grocery store, and I see someone about her height staring at the top shelf as if they’re trying to will that sugar to come down from up there. Looking around trying to figure out how can I reach that? And I’ll simply pause and go, can I help you reach something? Oh, thank you so much.

Please can you reach that for me? You know how much effort that took? Almost none. That was a good deed. Was it a good deed that I shared salvation with them?

No. Was it a good deed that they felt like somebody cared enough to just stop and say, can I help you? Yes. And that alone might start a conversation in which I could share the gospel. Doing a good deed is not that difficult if we’re looking for them if we’re looking for them.

The scripture says we should. We should take this and speak confidently and understand that we should be careful to engage in good deeds. Things that are good and profitable for men. We should do these things to show that God cares. Not just because somebody said we should, but because god would want us to.

If you know Jesus as lord and savior, you are called, among other things, to do good deeds. More people come to know Christ when they witness God and not just hear about it. You understand what I’m saying? People can come into a church service like this and they can hear the most compelling message about Jesus Christ that they’ve ever heard and still turn around and walk away. But when they see in action God’s love, suddenly, it makes them sit up and take notice, and they wanna know more about that God that you serve.

When they sit up and notice. You know, we can do good deeds, and we can serve god in a lot of different ways. It doesn’t have to be even outside the church. We can do it inside the church. This past weekend, the men of the congregation got an opportunity to do good good deed for one of our members that needed help.

We spent a lot of time working, but you know what? She’ll never forget that. She’ll never forget that. And she’ll praise God, already has been, every time she sees what was done for her. We are so thankful that we can serve God in that way.

We should look for the opportunities. Instead of trying to figure out a way to go around them, we should look for those opportunities to be to do good deeds, to be like God in somebody’s eyes, to share love of God through what we do, which might lead to being able to share God through what we say. Understand, if a man’s hungry and you just tell him about how good God is or you don’t feed him, he’s not really listening. But if you feed him first and then tell him about God, he’s more apt to listen. If we do good deeds and we show God’s love to people first, then they’re more open to hearing about God because they’ve just witnessed his very love.

God loved you so much that he gave Jesus to pay your debt. I want you to think about that. God loved you so much that he gave Jesus to pay your debt. Not Jesus to pay his own debt, but to pay your debt. He didn’t swipe a credit card.

He didn’t come out of his pocket with some cash. He didn’t even go and spend a day in community service to take care of your your sin. He gave his only son to be covered in the sins of men and to be brutally beaten and punished and crucified to death so that you don’t have to pay that price for your sin. He loves you that much that he gave you that. He gave you that to pay your debt, which allows you to enter into eternal life.

He paid your debt. Now you get to go into eternal life if you accept it. That is incredible to fathom, to think about, that god loves you that much, but he did just exactly that. But there’s a catch. It’s no fine print.

It’s in big, bold, and probably in red, but only if you accept him. He gave his son, Jesus, to pay your debt, which allowed you to go into eternal life, but only if you accept him. You see, again, like I said, he will not force upon you salvation. He’s offered it for you. He gave Jesus to earn it for you, to pay the debt that you couldn’t pay.

He gave that to you, and then he said, here it is. Will you accept it? Will you accept it? So the question I have for you today is this. Number one, do you know Jesus as Lord and savior?

Do you know him? Only you can answer that question. I can’t answer it. There’s I can’t look out at you and see that you know Jesus as lord and savior. I’ve often said I wish that when someone got saved, God would stamp a big red s right on their forehead, and then I would know.

Those people are saved, and the ones without the s, they’re not. So I wanna concentrate on talking to the ones that don’t know. But I can’t tell that. I can’t see that. Only you know.

It’s between you and God. Do you know him? Have you given your life to him? The second question I have is, if you have not, what is preventing that for you? What is preventing that?

Think about it like this. You owe on your home and you can’t pay. The bank is there to foreclose and take your home and throw you out in the street. And a man drives up and says, how much do they owe? The bank says, this is how much, and they pull out the money and they go, I’m gonna pay that for them.

How many of us at that point would go, no thanks. No thanks. I don’t want that. We would say, really? You’re gonna pay that for me?

Yes. Please. I get to keep my house. I don’t get thrown out in the street. Please pay that for me.

But the same people have the hardest time saying, yes, god. I will accept the salvation that you have given me. I will accept that. Many people say, I I I don’t know if I can accept it or not because, you know, there’s so many strings attached. What strings?

There’s so many strings attached. You know, there’s all those rules. You must do this, and you can’t do that, and you must do whatever. I got news for you. Life is full of rules.

If you don’t believe it, get in your car, drive down the street up here, and when that light turns red, just keep going. Don’t worry about it. That don’t mean anything. Just go right on through that light. If you don’t get in an accident, there’ll probably be another light behind you.

Life is full of rules. Yes. There’s rules in scripture, but you know what those rules are? Those rules say that if you love me, you won’t do that. You’ll follow me.

Yes. If you love me, you will tell people about me. If you love me, you will do good deeds. These are the kind of things that you want to do, not things that you dread. The people that say that, I don’t know.

It’s so many rules attached. They’re looking for any reason to not stop doing whatever it is that they’re doing. If that’s you, I wanna share with you this. If you choose to continue following that road of sin and never accepting the salvation that god has given you, then the end is clear. The end is clear.

You will not see the kingdom of heaven. Today, you have an opportunity. Have you ever given your life to him? If the answer is no, what’s stopping you today? You can only answer that.

I can’t. What’s stopping you? Maybe there’s something in your life and you say, well, I’m I’m so I have this big problem, and I gotta get that resolved before I can I can come to him? No. He says, come just as you are.

Come just as you are, and I will cleanse you. Only he can cleanse you. You can’t do it. You can’t get yourself ready to be saved. He’s already done all the work.

You accept it. He’ll take care of the cleaning. He’ll take care of the washing. He’ll take care of making sure that you are what you need to be. Today, you can make that choice.

We’re gonna have a time of invitation. As we do, if you want to accept Jesus as lord and savior today, I wanna encourage you, please come. Please come. Come to the altar. Come talk to me.

Whatever you need to do. Maybe there’s someone in your life and you know them, and you know that they do not know Jesus, and you want them to accept him. Come pray for him, and then ask god, use me to reach him. If they’re that dear to you in your heart, then ask god to use you to reach them. Be willing to do what you need to do.

I’m on I’m gonna pray, and afterwards, we’ll have a time of invitation. I just want you to simply respond as the Holy Spirit moves you. Father, we come to