Jesus Changes Everything

Pastor Corey delivers his weekly message titled "Jesus Changes Everything"

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Would you take your Bibles while you're standing? I'm not going to have you sit down and stand up again. Uh, and turn to Luke chapter 23, as we honor the reading of God's word today, Luke chapter 23, beginning in verse 32. Thank you so much, brother. As we read God's word, two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. Now, a pause right there and emphasize that word executed because when we think of Good Friday and Easter weekend, we use the word crucifixion, and it's something we're not used to saying in our society other than when it comes to Jesus Christ. Because we don't fully understand the fullness of that of that saying, crucifixion, what all it meant, how horrific it was. And I like that in this translation of the Bible they use the term executed. We know what that is in this society. And we know that people are executed for crimes. And we know how chilling of a word that is. So both criminals, there were two other men who were also let out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, He saved others. Let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the chosen one. And they were saying that to mock him. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine, vinegar, and said, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was written, notice above him, which read, This is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insult at him. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God, he said, since you are under the same sentence. We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus answered him, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. Let's pray. Father, thank you. That Jesus changes everything. And as a song we just finished singing tells us that He can heal. He can do it all. And we've seen miracles. And don't tell me what He can't do because we've seen it, we've experienced it, we know it to be true. That He changes people's lives from the inside out. We're grateful for that. And help us today walk out of this building knowing that we met with the King and that He changed us today. And I prayed in His name. Amen. And you may be seated. Luke 23. I know today is Easter, and the focus is the resurrection, not the crucifixion. But at the 7 o'clock service, we read the account in Luke 24 of the resurrection. And we're going to get to that here today in just a moment. But I feel really led of the Spirit of God, and I've felt this for months now, on what to preach today and what to talk to you about here at the 1015 service. And I've titled the message on the title page here as they put it up. Jesus changes everything. He changes everything. Not just some things. He doesn't just dress up our life. He's not just an addition to our already busy, multifaceted lives. No, Jesus comes in and he heals what's broken, what's sick. He makes new what's old and what's messed up and broken. Jesus comes into us and he changes everything about us. I'll give you one example of what I'm talking about, and I mean this with all of my heart, and I mean this because I believe it's true, and it applies to every other situation in life. You get a man who was one way before he received Christ, and he gets saved. Jesus comes into his life, changes him from the inside out. He's no longer the man that he was. He's a new man in Jesus Christ. And a lot of the problems in our society today, we're trying to fix it from the other side. We're trying to get people who are filled with anger and hate to love each other, and it'll never happen. But you get Jesus in the middle of it and he fixes it just like that. Isn't that amazing? Just like that. Jesus changes everything. Why don't you see several things here? Excuse me. First of all, his forgiveness changes everything. His forgiveness changes everything. As you see, Jesus here was brought to a place called the skull. The suffering servant went there. It's the word literally Calvary. Listen to this. It comes from the Latin Calvaria, which means a skull. Believe that or not. So you got some churches call themselves Calvary Church. Your church is named Skull. Skull Church. That's what it means. The Greek is cranion, which gives us our English word cranium, and the Aramaic word is Golgotha. So all these words come together now. Now you see what they mean. So in the Greek it's the word Golgotha, and we get our English word cranium, and you have the word skull here, and in Aramaic. And so you see all the languages here, and how you get Calvary and you get all of these names of this place. As a matter of fact, those who've been to Israel can tell you that where most people believe to be that site, if you back off from the site a little bit, you can look and it looks like a skull part of the hill. The place called Golgotha. Our Lord was crucified there from about 9 a.m. and remained on the cross until 3 p.m. And from noon to 3 p.m. there was darkness over all the land in Mark 15, the Bible says. Father, forgive them. Out of the very heart of Jesus, 100% man, suffering like he was suffering, his compassion and his forgiveness for all humanity just oozed out of him while he was being tortured. The second thing he said was, Today you will be with me in paradise, which we read earlier, and we will look at that in just a moment. A third thing he said was when he was talking to John the Apostle, and he said, uh and to Mary, he said, Woman, behold your son. Three hours of darkness, Jesus is silent. And then he said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In Matthew 27, 46. And then in John 19, he says, I thirst. And then the sixth thing that he said in John 19, 30, he said, It is finished. And then in number the seventh thing that he said was, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. So his forgiveness changes everything. Think about the people in the Bible that we know, just a few of them that we know of in the New Testament, whose lives were radically changed by Jesus Christ. The woman at the well, a Samaritan woman whom Jesus spoke to, who had five husbands, and the one she was living with was not even her husband. And how Jesus changed her life and gave her water that she would never thirst again. And as a result of that, she went and she talked to those men that she had illicit relationships with prior to encountering Christ. And she led them and many others to faith in Jesus Christ. And revival took place in that town in Samaria because of that one woman. Jesus changed that woman's life. He changed everything about her. What about the woman caught in adultery when they were ready to stone her to death? And Jesus got down in the sand and he wrote something there in the sand. Some theologians believe that he wrote a passage of scripture. Others believe, and I like this one better, but others believe that he wrote down the names of those men who had already had illicit sexual relations with her in the sand. And they were the men holding the stones in their hands to stone her to death because she was caught in adultery. And they dropped their stones. And remember what Jesus said to her. He said, Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And he said, Where are those that condemn you, woman? And he goes, Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more. Jesus changed everything about that woman. He forgave her. She had the sentence of death upon her in that culture. And he changed her life and gave her a new way to live. Folks, I'm telling you, Jesus changes everything about people's lives because of his forgiveness. What about the woman with the flow of blood who touched his garment? What about Lazarus who was raised from the dead? I thought about the fog we had this morning as we were having our 7 a.m. sunrise service. We couldn't see the sunrise, but I thought about this when Jesus said to Lazarus, he said, Lazarus, come forward. Remember, he was the man who had died. And I'm thinking about this. You know, they wrapped him in swaddling clothes like a mummy. And I could see Lazarus coming out of the fog, coming out of the tomb like the fog is morning, just coming out like, why are you calling me out from paradise to come back on this earth? Keep this in mind. Lazarus had to die twice. Poor guy. But Jesus changed everything about his life. Think about Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus. Jesus wept when he saw their pain. He changed their lives. What about Andrew, the brother of Peter? Andrew came and he found Peter and he says, he said, Hey Peter, we found the Messiah. He told me everything about my life. That'll get you going, won't it? I remember some one time somebody was mad at me and they got up in a business meeting and they were going to share something. They thought they had some dirt on me, and uh I thought to myself, dude, you're not gonna tell anybody about any dirt that he don't know already, and that I don't know. So it didn't scare me. But anyway, that's the thing about Andrew, that Jesus knew everything about Andrew's life, and then Peter. Peter was a fisherman and left everything that he had to follow Jesus. What about uh John, the apostle who was there? All the other disciples, the Bible says they witnessed the crucifixion and all that was going on from afar, but John was right there with the women. What about um Zacchaeus? Remember Zacchaeus? He's not just a children's Bible story. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He climbed up into a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. Y'all remember that song in church? And then it went on and said something. Jesus said, Zacchaeus, you come down from there because I'm going to your house today. Zacchaeus was a wee little man because he was a tax collector, too. But Jesus changed Zacchaeus' life. Paul, I mean, what can we say? A torturer and murderer of Christians and persecutor to an apostle and one who was martyred for his faith in Christ. What about Stephen, the first martyr? What about the thief on the cross that we're gonna see here today? You'll be with me in paradise. What about Joseph and Mary? Mary. Her heart was changed. What about Elizabeth and Zechariah? What about John the Baptist? I can go on. People whose lives were changed by Jesus. Jesus changes everything. Everything. I think about my life, about the forgiveness that's come into my life. Man, I was supposed to be a shrimper. Okay? All right. I was born in Louisiana. There's a reason I was born in Louisiana. I love that muddy water over there. There's no clear water. You know, we in our family we talk about fishing out here on the flats, and uh, you know, we love fishing the clear flats and the you know, seeing the grass underneath the water and going after those trout and redfish and things of that nature, and and and we love it. But in South Louisiana, man, you never see the bottom, everything just dark and murky, and that's that's where I was raised. And I I just I wanted to be a shrimp boat captain. I wanted you to leave me alone, I would leave you alone, I would go to work, work hard, get my living from the sea, drink a beer here or there, get married, have a family, and live at peace. That's what I wanted. But there was a major problem with that. See, deep within me, I was an enemy of God. Deep within me, I was selfish. Deep within me, I was full of myself. Deep within me, I was a sinful man without Jesus Christ. And one day some people moved in next door to me and they began to witness to me, and I it made me mad. It was offensive to me because I thought I was good enough the way I was. And they began to share God's word with me. My pride would not let them know that it was beginning to affect me, so I began to become meaner and more hateful to them and more resistant to what they were saying. But I couldn't resist the Holy Spirit who was working and moving in my life. And then he saved me. And he changed me from the inside out, and he called me to be a pastor, and he sent me to Newburgh, Florida. That's what I call it. Actually, it was Mayberry, I really thought the name was. I thought it was where Andy Griffith lived when I heard it for the first time. Newberry. What am I trying to tell you? When Jesus got a hold of my life, he changed everything about it. And now I don't have to drink to go find what I think I want or to make me feel good. I'm drinking from the fountain of life now, every day, right? And now I'm not fishing for fish, even though it's good to catch them, to eat and all of that, you know, it's wonderful, but I'm not doing it for a living. I'm fishing for men. That's what God's called me to do. He changed everything about my life and the trajectory of it. And that's what he does for everybody because of his forgiveness. The second thing is this Jesus changes everything. His sufferings change changes everything. All right? And I just want to mention that here, his sufferings. We showed our men Wednesday night a portion of the film, The Passion of the Christ. How many of you have seen that movie? Okay? How many of you have not seen the movie? Raise your hand. Be honest. It's okay. All right. Boy, if you could see it. I'm just saying, 35 years as a pastor, there's no other movie that shows the sufferings of Jesus, the scourging, the trial that he went through, and then the scourging, and then the Via Della Rosa, the way of suffering as he carried his cross, and then the crucifixion. I mean, it's it's as close as you could get with a movie to what it could have been like without, you know, uh, us throwing up. His suffering, everything. His suffering changes everything for us. Let me give you something else because all these go together. His love changes everything. Jesus here was hanging on the cross. He had people shouting at him, mocking him. He says, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do. Forgiveness comes from the very love of God. His forgiveness is synonymous with his love in that way. Forgiveness is birthed out of the attributes of the love of God. He loves us so much that he's willing to forgive us and to forgive those who are actually doing this to him. And then he had a criminal yelling at him, mocking him also. But he had one that rebuked the other criminal. Said, man, we're getting what we deserve. What we did, we broke the law and, you know, we deserve death. But he doesn't. And then he said, Lord, he said, Jesus, could you remember me when you get into your kingdom? And Jesus said to him, in the middle of suffering, with blood coming out of his mouth and his nose, today, today, you will be with me in paradise. That's his love. Look at what Matthew 5, 43 and 44 say. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Now Jesus is saying this. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Pray for those who persecute you. That's the spirit and the heart of Jesus, that his love changes everything. But I want you to notice a fourth thing. His sacrifice changes everything, also. Listen, this is the center centrality of the gospel. Here it is. His sacrifice. It's called the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? That means this. The Bible says he became sin for you on the cross, for me. He literally became sin. He became our substitute. So he took on the payment. He became the propitiation, the Bible says, like an umbrella, the propitiation of for of our sins. He he became, he paid the price, he became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in him. Because of his sacrifice. When Jesus, when God, when God looks at you, he doesn't see Your good works because your good works are as filthy rags. But when he looks at you when you've received Christ as your Savior, he sees the blood of Jesus and the righteous sacrifice and atonement of Jesus upon your life and my life. By what basis should you or me be allowed to go into heaven? There's only one answer. The man on the middle cross said I could go. His sacrifice. He paid it all. All to him I owe. And it changes everything. I can't be good enough to get there on my own. It's impossible. I can't be religious enough. It's not possible. It's impractical. The Bible says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. On the other hand, you can't be too wicked not to be accepted by Jesus if you come to him in faith. Because there was a man hanging on a cross next to him, deserving what he was getting. And Jesus said to him, when he saw the man's heart, today you will be with me in paradise. His sacrifice changes everything. The final thing is this in number five. His resurrection changes everything. We know what happened. The reason Jesus used the word paradise and not heaven, it's interesting. You may have thought of that question. Why did he say that? Because prior to Jesus' ascension, every person prior to that in time went to the abode of the dead. The Bible calls it Hades. Okay? Think of it as a big circle, Hades. On one side was a place called Gehenna, a place of torments. On the other side was a place called Paradise, Abraham's bosom. In the middle, the Bible says there was a great gulf fixed between the two. And the story is told about another man named Lazarus. Lazarus apparently was a name that was pretty common, like John is today. And he was a poor man and he died. And the Bible says that the angels of God escorted him to Abraham's bosom, to paradise. The rich man died, and he woke up, he opened his eyes, the Bible said, and he was in torment. He was in Gehenna. And he said to Father Abraham, Can you send Lazarus over there so that he can dip his finger in water and drop one drop of water on my tongue because I'm tormented in this flame? And Abraham said, It's impossible. There's a great config between the two. And then he said, Well, if he can't do it for me, can Lazarus go back and talk to my brothers and tell them not to come to this place? And he said, No, no. They've got exactly what you had. They've got the prophets and the word of God, just like you did. And the Bible says that when Jesus died, he descended into Hades. And he let captivity captive. He let them free. And the Bible says that people came up out of their graves and walked the face of the earth. Who might that be? The people in paradise. Had to be. And he said to that thief, today you will be with me in paradise. Could it be that that thief, that murdering thief who died on the cross, died and instantly went with Jesus to paradise and then came right back up and was walking freely in Jerusalem? Free because he had been forgiven. And you might say, well, Pastor, how can that be? How can that man, how could that happen to him? What about the other person who's lived for God all their lives? Because, see, folks, it's not about what you do on the outside, like Alastair was saying, it's not by works of righteousness that you do, but it's what happens in the heart. See, Christianity is an inside-out relationship. Jesus on the inside changes what happens on the outside. Because of his resurrection, because he defeated death, hell, and the grave, he changes everything. Everything. There are people in this building whose stories are amazing. Books could be written about their lives that would just be fascinating. Movies could be made of the change that took place and how everything changed. 180 degrees. I mean, we've got people in this building today who are in church leadership who were in jail 30 years ago. Being incorrigible. Meaning there was nothing that was going to help them. Society couldn't fix them. Incarceration couldn't do it. But some of those received Jesus Christ in their cell, and you say, oh, that's just jailhouse religion. No, you know, oh no, it wasn't jailhouse religion. Because they got changed from the inside out, and when they got out, they started living for Christ. And the evidence is there. Like grandma used to say, the proof is in the pudding. He changes everything. And let me just add one last thing to this. Not only does he change everything, but he continues to change everything. He doesn't leave you the same. He continues to change everything. What we have is a relationship with our Savior. We have his word, and his word is living, the Bible says, and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. The Bible says that when we look into the scripture, it's like looking into a mirror. We can see ourselves, we can see the reflection back at us. We're not looking at the scripture and pointing at other people as much as we are saying, God help me to grow in this area. Help me to be what you want me to be now, that I'm a Christian. And we're changing day by day. Like the old saying, I may not be what I ought to be today, but thank God I'm not what I used to be. I'm a changed man in Jesus. I'm a changed woman. I belong to him. Jesus changes everything. And it's all because the man on the middle cross said I could come. You say, has he said that about me, Pastor? Oh, yes, he said. Yes, he has said that whosoever, the Bible says, shall believe in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Listen, whoever confesses Jesus with their mouth and believes in their heart that God has raised him from the dead will be saved. I have never met one person in my entire life who truly gave their lives to Jesus that ever regretted it. You'll never regret it. Oh, if I give my life to Jesus, Pastor, does that mean that I gotta quit doing all this fun stuff? No, it means you get to do more fun stuff than you've ever done before. And you'll remember it now. Because you'll be high on the Holy Spirit. He changes everything, y'all. Spiritually. You know, Eric was singing that song about cancer. You know, my father-in-law Penny's daddy died with pancreatic cancer. One year. He's gone from us on this earth. God didn't choose to heal him. But God saved him years earlier. And that was a great comfort to all of us that he was having the ultimate healing. But then in our family, you know, we've experienced other tragedies, but then we've also experienced other amazing things. I was just thinking the other day about my firstborn. Ten and a half weeks early, two pounds 12 ounces in 1989. In 1989. I don't know what that's akin to today, and the neonatal units were just coming into being. There was a new hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana. We call it Lafayette over there, not Lafayette, but Lafayette. And uh brand new women's and children's hospital. They had a neonatal intensive care unit. Never heard of it before until my baby was born. And that doctor looked at me and he said, sir, I'm gonna shoot straight with you. She's got a 5% chance to make it. 95% chance to die. I said, Come again. 95% chance. Look, I'm telling you, they don't make it with the issues she's got. Hole in her lung, valve not closed in her heart, her lungs are so undeveloped. And he said, if you're a praying man, I said, I am. He said, if you're a praying man, that's all I can tell you. Because I don't have the answers beyond what I'm telling you right now. Andrea, that's what he said. And I made a decision that day, whether he took her or not. She belonged to him, not me. And I was gonna trust him. And I was gonna serve him no matter what. Because Jesus had come into my life and he changed everything. And I don't have to encounter this like others who have no hope. I have hope. And after that very conversation I had with that doctor, listen to me, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not making, I could show you the medical records. She never had one negative thing ever happen again in that in her prenatal. I mean, uh, you know, in that in that period, she stayed seven weeks in the hospital. The first two nights, neither her nor her mom slept. Neither me nor her mom slept, because they did not send her home with a monitor saying that she didn't a heart monitor because she yes, she would stop, her heart would stop beating, but not enough to send her home with a monitor. And I said, say what? And they told us what to do if we thought she wasn't breathing. So we watched her for two days, take every breath. Poking her. She's not moving. Well, maybe she's sleeping. Maybe she's not breathing. Well we'll we'll touch her. And I tell you that story because in the middle of all of that, we experienced the walk of our faith. And Jesus changes everything. Now, not every situation that we've encountered has gone that way. Now she has a wonderful family. Given us four grandchildren. And Jesus is in the business of constantly changing us. I don't know if that story makes sense to you. But it makes sense to me. Because that taught me so much about everyday life. And no matter what, I've got him. I don't have to worry and sorrow like anybody else. You want him? These people who got baptized today, they gave their lives to Jesus. And I told him, he's changed everything in you. Nothing will ever be the same. For good. Would you stand with me, everybody? Jesus changes everything. Let's bow in an attitude of prayer. This altar will be open if you want to come and pray. If you want to come and seek the Lord, if you want to make a decision to receive Christ as your Savior, you want to come and pray with your family, however, God is leading you, you obey Him and you do what He says. And never forget that because of the resurrection of Jesus, He changes everything. Father, thank you. We prayed in His name. Amen. As our worship team leads us.