Gregory Dickow - The Face of Glory
Let’s just lift our hands to Jesus all over this place, right where you’re watching: City Campus, Global Online Campus, our other churches, and the family of churches. We just worship Jesus in this place. Jesus did it all 100%. He gave everything, and we join with the angels as we sing, «Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.» We worship You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Father, we thank You that You said in Your Word, «Does He who works miracles among you do it by the hearing of the law, or does He do it by hearing with faith?» And Lord, You said that You would do miracles among us simply because we believe. There are people here who need a miracle. Jesus, we invite You to move among us. We thank You that You are Emmanuel, God with us. You are our heavenly Father, God for us, and Holy Spirit, God in us. And we thank You, Holy Spirit, that You live inside each one of us who call on the name of Jesus. You said the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies. It’s these bodies that we’re in right now that You said the Holy Spirit would give life to and activate life-The Zoe life, the God kind of life, super abundant in quantity and superior in quality. The life of God that lives inside of us. Let it rise up now, Lord, and do miracles among us. Holy Spirit, work Your wonders, work Your miracles, work Your healings, work Your breakthroughs, work Your wonders and Your signs. Lord, You said You would do signs and wonders, and we thank You that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We give You all the glory, Lord. We thank You for miracles. Thank You that people are getting a breakthrough in their family today. People are having a miracle in their body today. People are having a miracle in their mind and their emotions, being delivered and set free from depression today, set free from anxiety today, set free from fear today. Today, anything is possible. All things are possible with God, and all things are possible for those who believe. And we’re believers today. We have come to believe in the love that You have for us-and that love never fails. That love never ends. That love never ceases. That is the miraculous of all-the love of God that can’t be killed, the love of God that can’t be stopped, the love of God that can’t be pressed down. Woo! We give You all the glory. Hallelujah! Woo! Say, «I receive it! I receive it! I receive my miracle today in Jesus' name! Hallelujah!»
Well, go ahead and be seated, and throughout this morning, and throughout this day, and for the rest of your life, you can expect God to move in your midst and do miracles among us. I love that verse; it’s in Galatians chapter 3, by the way. He says, He implies, and says very clearly, «The one who does miracles among us.» That means that Jesus is among us now, and He does miracles among us. And the way that He does it is by us simply hearing His promise and believing it. We have any believers here today? You believe in His promise? I love that it says He works miracles among us. There’s something about gathering together. There’s something about being the church. The church comes together, and then the church spreads the gospel. The church gathers, and then the church scatters to spread the seed of God’s love and the seed of God’s Word. We gather, and then we scatter. Then we gather again, and then we scatter. Then we gather again, and then we scatter into our jobs, into our neighborhoods, into our families. We gather, and then we scatter. You see, that’s God’s pattern. The Bible says they gathered together in the temples and from house to house. In people’s homes, they were having life groups, as we call them. They were having small gatherings in people’s homes, and they were gathering together in Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 5. Throughout Scripture, we are a called-out people. The Bible says the church is the word «eklisia.» It comes from the Greek word «eklesia.» It is the ones who have been called out by God. We’ve been called out by God to be His family and to be His church. He’s called you. You’ve simply answered the call. You’ve simply responded to the call. And you might say, «Yeah, but I haven’t been answering the call for the last 51 weeks.» Well, today is a day of new beginnings! Amen! If this is your first time here since last Easter, welcome home! If it’s your first time here since last month, last year, or last week, welcome home! First time here ever? Welcome home! God’s arms are open wide, and I’m grateful! How about you?
You know I’m going to share a word with you that connects to what we talked about on Friday-the face of redemption. We talked about on Friday the face of God, what Jesus' face looks like, what Jesus' face looked like before His crucifixion. Then we looked at what Jesus' face looked like during the crucifixion. But now, we’re going to look today at what His face looks like now- the face of glory. When we look at Him, we’re looking at the glory of God. The glory of God is the tangible manifest presence of God. You see, when Jesus came to the earth, He said, «When you see Me, you’ve seen the Father.» When you see Me, you’ve seen the Father. He said, «The works that I do, I do because these are the works the Father does, and these are the works that the Father sent Me to do.» And Jesus said that when you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father. I want you to think about that. When we’ve seen Him, we’ve seen the Father. Which means that the Father has always been like this. The Father has always been everything that Jesus is. He said, «He’s always been.» And Jesus came to reveal what the Father looks like. Jesus came to reveal what the Father loves like. Jesus came to reveal what the Father listens like. Jesus listened to people. Jesus loved people. Jesus led people, and Jesus revealed to people the face of God.
Today, we’re going to have an encounter with God. It’s not a religious event, but it is a miraculous worldwide event that billions of people celebrate-the resurrection of Jesus. And this is something that could have never been pulled off as a hoax. There are too many enemies of Jesus. There were too many people that hated Him to have allowed Him to get away with a hoax. We know how the world is. We know how the media is. We know how if you’ve said something or done something that isn’t true, but you broadcast it as true, somebody’s going to expose it, and somebody’s going to find a missing link. Somebody’s going to find evidence that you’re lying. But you know what? It’s been 2000 years, and nobody’s found a thing. You know the only thing they found? Oh, I’m getting ahead of myself, but the only thing they found was the cloth that wrapped Jesus' body around Him in the grave. And you know how they found it? Folded neatly and placed in the tomb. How thorough Jesus is! He didn’t just get up and throw the cloth away; He folded it because He knew that you and I would one day be able to look at it. Yes, we can look at the linen, the shroud, the material, the fabric, the robe that wrapped around Jesus' body. It exists today. I’ve been to the church where it exists. It’s at the St. John the Baptist Church in Turin, Italy, and it sits behind a glass case, well-protected, bulletproof. They actually have one above the one that is hidden, frankly, and they have a replica in the glass in case somebody was to get through; they would just be getting the replica, and they move the original around it. Well, I might as well just tell you about that because the resurrection of Jesus was not a hoax. The resurrection of Jesus is not a religious belief. The resurrection of Jesus is a fact. And what are the facts? Because I think we get confused sometimes and we think, «Well, the resurrection of Jesus is something we simply have to blindly believe.» We just have to take it by faith blindly. We don’t have to take anything by faith blindly. God doesn’t call faith something that is blind. God simply calls faith something that we believe-a conviction. We have a conviction. You know, I have way more of a conviction that Jesus rose from the dead because I understand the facts surrounding it. And when you understand the facts about something, then it makes it natural to believe. This isn’t an unnatural thing that God asks of us-to confess with our mouth, «Jesus is Lord,» and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead.
The reason He says to believe it in your heart is because He already knew you were going to believe it as a fact because He knew science would prove it. He knew that history would prove it. He knew that the disciples would prove it. He knew that changed lives would prove that Jesus truly did rise from the dead. You can’t hide this fact! He knew you were going to know it. He knew it was going to be known as a fact. But He said He wanted you to accept it in your heart, not just in your head. That’s right. But we do need to know in our head what it is so that our head and our heart can get into agreement and have a holy alliance. So let’s get the facts right before I share these verses with you. Our faith is not built on a blind belief that is loosely held together by something that comes and goes into the human heart. Our faith is built on the fact of Jesus' resurrection. How do we know it’s a fact? Well, how do we know anything’s a fact? It must be provable or there must be one shred of evidence to prove that it didn’t happen. Satan’s been unable to expose one shred of evidence. The most skeptical scientific people have never been able to find one shred of evidence that Jesus has not risen from the dead. You know, if I said to you, «There’s gold in Alaska,» and you said to me, «There’s no gold in Alaska,» you know what you’d have to do? You’d have to search all of Alaska to prove that there’s no gold in Alaska. You know what I would have to do? I would just have to find one piece. And once I found one piece, the argument is settled. If the devil could just find one piece to try to convince us that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, he’s had 2000 years to do it. And the devil has failed, and man has failed to find evidence against His resurrection.
But what is the evidence? What are the DNA trail of clues to validate His resurrection? Well, there was a stone that 20 men could not roll away in Mark chapter 16. Jesus was buried in a rich man’s tomb, and the stone was rolled down a hill by taking the wedge out from underneath the stone so that the stone would naturally, by its own weight, fall in front of the tomb, and no one would ever be able to move it. Twenty men would have not been able to move this stone! Science proves it. It’s a historical fact. And the reason it would have taken a Roman guard, 16, 20, 30 men to move this is because you have to move it against all gravity. You have to move thousands of pounds of this rock against gravity. You can study that; you can research that; you’ll find it’s true yourself. The stone was removed. We found an empty tomb. They found an empty tomb. Roman guards fled. Empty grave clothes, neatly folded. Five hundred eyewitnesses who saw Jesus after His resurrection-50 hours of eyewitness testimony. It would have been the most lopsided trial in all of human history because of the overwhelming evidence that Jesus has risen from the dead. Or else He was just pretending for three days. Try it sometime. Don’t try it, actually. And it changed these people’s lives. The hardest to convince? Family members are the hardest to convince! But the brothers of Jesus became disciples of Jesus. The cowardly disciples- all of them except John ran away and fled at the crucifixion. But all of them ran to the resurrection and saw. And then Jesus walked into the room with them. The fanatic Jewish persecutor of Christians, Paul, became an apostle. He hated Jesus. He hated the gospel. He hated the Christians. He supported the death and the murder of anybody that called on the name of Jesus. This man got saved! This man wrote up to half or more of the New Testament. Intelligent faith-it doesn’t mean a leap into the dark. It doesn’t mean believing against all other evidence or against reason. It means our faith is in what Jesus said would happen, and what He said would happen actually happened, but it was also confirmed with historical facts and evidence-500 witnesses!
The greatest scholars of all time-Professor Thomas Arnold, author of a three-volume history of Rome and holder of the chair of modern history at Oxford University-said, «I know of no other fact in the history of mankind which has been proven by better and fuller evidence than the great sign that God gives that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead.» English scholar Brooke Foss Wescott said, «Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historical incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.» Dr. Simon Greenleaf, royal professor of Harvard Law, previous past professor of Harvard Law, examined the entire value of historic evidence of the resurrection of Jesus and came to this conclusion. He said, «According to the laws of legal evidence used in a court of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus than any other event in human history.» You know there is going to be one other event in human history that is going to have more evidence of His resurrection, and that is His second coming. Everyone will see Him when He comes through the sky. Everyone will see Him when He descends from on high. Everyone will see Him and say, «Oh my!» Everyone will see Him, and then we’ll go bye-bye. Well, I’m just writing songs for you today.
And we have the Shroud of Turin. Now let me tell you the evidence surrounding the Shroud of Turin that Jesus folded and laid there in His tomb when He got up and left. It’s a linen cloth with the image of a man who appears to have been crucified. While there is no definitive evidence to prove or disprove its authenticity as the shroud of Jesus, several lines of evidence have been presented by different researchers that draw this conclusion. There is a pollen analysis. Pollen was found on the shroud consistent with that which was found in Jerusalem, suggesting the shroud was in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus. Blood evidence: the analysis of the stain suggests the presence of three types of blood. Sorry to get so scientific here, but I don’t want you to walk out of here and ever have to be confronted by an atheist who would say, «Oh, that’s just fairy tales! That’s just fantasy! That’s just your religious crutch.» Really? Because the blood evidence speaks otherwise! The analysis of stains shows the presence of three types of blood, and hypotheses have been formulated to distinguish between premortem and postmortem blood. There’s a microscopic analysis. I know this is wild. Microscopic examination reveals features such as fibrin, earthly material, and creatinine, which are indicative of a person who has been tortured. Then there’s the DNA analysis. DNA extracted from the dust particles of the shroud has revealed a plant species in human mtDNA HLO groups. Then there’s the image formulation. The image on the cloth appears to have been formed by a non- contact process, with the image intensity varying with the depths of the fabric, suggesting a unique form of radiation that did not exist at the time. Radiation is what left the imprint in the shroud. Let’s take a look at it. Radiation is what left this imprint of Jesus!
Do we have that? If we do, I’ll wait for it, and if we don’t, I’ll describe it a little better. There it is! That is the face of the man that was wrapped in the Shroud of Turin. That is His face! This is the exact image from the cloth -not obviously a photograph. Let’s see His whole body. This is His body! You can see Him on the left side with His hands here. You can see the whole nail prints in His left hand right there. You can see that it’s evidence of a crucified man. Now we know that men were crucified in that day, but this man left a carbon historical evidence that only radiation could have created or a sudden burst of light. Scientists say, «This is your Savior! This is your King! This is the Man!» His picture has been drawn in there. I know there are a lot of AI things out there, but I think we might have a picture of what His face would have looked like based on the Shroud of Turin. Now, I want you to see this face on the left, which is from the actual linen garment, and then I want you to see what showed up at Life Changers International Church on this column in 2009 and was there every Sunday for about a year after that. Can you see how old that is? Do you see my sideburns? Can you see the eye of Jesus? Can you see His face there? It looks amazingly similar to the shroud. We didn’t make this up. We didn’t draw this. I didn’t get some artists in here that year. I think it was 2009, and somebody took a picture of it and sent it to us and said God spoke to them that Jesus is watching over our church. It’s such a beautiful, such a be… and then we saw it every Sunday. You could see it. It was there every week. We have TV shows from that time, and maybe you’d see it on there. They’d be old. They’d be old shows when I was about 20. But I’ve never forgotten that. And then we hired a guy that said, «Let’s remodel everything.» No «No» one here today, but I don’t know. We didn’t see him after that. But Jesus told me He’s still here, so I think we’re going to be all right. Amen?
These are the facts. These are the facts, gang! And the greatest fact of all of Jesus' resurrection is a changed life. Your life has been changed. My life has been changed, and we’re changing. God’s changing us day by day, more and more into His glory, more and more into His image. You know when the thief on the cross got to heaven, he looked around, and he didn’t recognize anyone, and no one recognized him either. So they asked him, «What are you doing here?» He said, «I don’t know.» They said, «What do you mean you don’t know?» He said, «I don’t know.» They said, «Well, do you know the four spiritual laws?» He said, «No, never heard of them!» Do you know the seven dispensations? «No,» he said. They said, «Do you know the doctrine of justification?» He said, «No, I’ve never heard of that either. How about the rapture and the second coming?» «Never heard of it.» Then how did you get here? The thief looked up at them and said, «I have no idea except the Man on the middle cross told me I could come!» The Man on the cross in the middle told me I could come! And that is the only answer for all of us! It is because the Man on the middle cross told us we can come. What an invitation! What a Savior!
As we unfold the face of His glory, we go from the most tragic story of death to the most beautiful glory and life. And this resurrection was like an earthquake, and it shook the earth, and it’s shaking things today. Jesus went from disfigurement to delight. On Friday, we saw a face so marred it barely looked human, but today we see the face of glory, not just shining on us but delighting in us. And here’s the scandal-Moses asked to see His face, and Moses served God for decades. And Moses heard from God, and Moses saw God in the form of a burning bush. And then Moses said, «Lord, show me Your glory.» In Exodus 33:18, Moses said, «Now show me Your glory.» In verse 19, the Lord said, «I will cause My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim My name, the Lord, in your presence, and I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.» But He said-God said to Moses, «But you cannot see My face, for no one may see My face and live.» He said, «Then the Lord said, 'There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.'» So great! Verse 21, verse 22: «When My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove My hand, and you’ll see My back; but My face must not be seen.» Why? Because if you saw His face with sin in your life, you would die. If you saw His face with such glory, you could… Moses saw His backside and came down, and they had to put a bag over his head because of the shine that was on him, because he saw the backside of Jesus. They had to put a sack over his head because there was radiant light all over him, and he glowed completely over. That’s from the backside of God. Angels veil themselves and cry, «Holy!» But now, because of the blood of Jesus, because of the resurrection, we’re honored to be able to now behold the face of God. We can behold the face of God. You said, «I thought that if we had sin in our life, we couldn’t see His face.» It would mean we would die. Well, Jesus took our sin, and Jesus became sin on the cross.
And the most pivotal scripture in all of the Bible and the most pivotal truth in all of Scripture, and in all of the universe, is the fact of 2 Corinthians 5:21, where it says, «For God made Him-He, the Father, made Him, Jesus-who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we would become the righteousness of God in Him.» He who knew no sin-Jesus did not sin ever; He was without sin-but He became sin. That’s why His face was so disfigured; that’s why His body was so disfigured. He became sin. And that meant every sinful thing that any of us have ever done and any human in all of history has done-past, present, and future-Jesus became it. And that’s why He could not be recognized as a man, because He wasn’t anymore. He was sin. He was sin on the cross. And when He was buried, that sin died. It was paid for. It remained in the ground. And Jesus came up out of the ground in glory! Amen! Hallelujah! Now the veil has been torn, and there was a shaking that changed everything.
It’s in Matthew chapter 28, verse 1. «Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.» By the way, another thing that the culture of that day would have never made as a hoax, because the culture did not elevate women. In fact, the culture at that time treated women as secondary and unfairly as inferior. Jesus didn’t treat women like that; Jesus elevated women to the true status of who they are-co-equal with men! Amen! Jesus elevated women! He never put women down! But Jesus showed His glory to two women before He showed it to any men, any of the disciples. So Mary and the other Mary-and behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. One angel, folks! One angel! Twenty men could not do it. One angel did! Descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. And it was just like how God would do something, right? He rolls it and then He sits on top. He’s probably got His legs crossed, just waiting for somebody to come by. «Hey, welcome!» and His countenance was like lightning, and His clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of Him and became like dead men.
Understand this: They saw just an angel and they were as if they were dead. They saw just an angel, and His countenance was like lightning, and His clothing as white as snow. But the angel answered and said to the women-notice he didn’t talk to the guards-he wanted to talk to the women first: «Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen! Hallelujah! Come and see!» And then that angel said, «Come see the place where the Lord lay.» Wow! And that’s when they found the shroud folded neatly. Notice again in verse 2, «And behold, there was a great earthquake.» A great earthquake at Jesus' resurrection! This wasn’t just a geological tremor. It was a divine disruption sent to shake every system that stood in the way of closeness and intimacy with God. I don’t know if you heard me, but I want you to hear this again: That this earthquake was not just a geological tremor, although it was. It was a divine disruption-a shaking of every system that was designed to stand in the way of closeness and intimacy with God. Woo! Somebody’s got to say Amen!
This earthquake shook every system! The first system that it shook, you might want to know what it was. For the first-well, let me read the scripture to you. Too excited! Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews 12:2-I’m not making this up. Verse 25. Hebrews 12, He says, «See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks.» The Lord speaks! Come back to church next Sunday! «See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks; we’ll see you then!» Hallelujah! «For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth.» Yeah! And now He has promised, saying, «Yet once again, I will shake not only the earth but I will shake heaven too.» And He says, «Now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.» Your old self could not remain, but your new self cannot be shaken. Your old identity-your old identity cannot remain. Keep that verse up, please! Your old identity cannot remain, but your new identity cannot be shaken. The love you used to understand could not remain, but the love that will take us eternity to understand cannot be shaken. The love that we thought we knew could not remain, but the love of God in you cannot be shaken. The questions you have can’t remain!
Now listen to me. I understand that we have questions when we preach a goal, when we preach the bold gospel, which is the gospel of grace-that Jesus plus nothing equals everything. That is Jesus plus nothing! We simply believe! But even our ability to believe was a gift from God! It’s a gift of faith! It’s the gift of God’s grace! By grace are we saved through faith, that not of ourselves-it is the free gift of God, not a result of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8 says, but I want you to see here He says-now-yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken. Your difficult trial is being shaken, and it will not be able to remain, but your joy is going to not be able to be shaken! The sickness in your body is going to be shaken right now, and it’s not going to remain, but your healing will not be shaken!
Your own attempt and effort to work to be-to get saved-cannot remain! But you being now made the righteousness of God cannot be shaken! The table you tried to get yourself invited to will not remain, but the table that Jesus invites you to cannot be shaken! I don’t know if you’re hearing this today, but I’m telling you-put that verse back up, please! Yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken. The things that can be shaken are going to be shaken! Some of you had habits that you thought could never be shaken. Those habits that can be shaken are not going to remain, and your victory cannot be shaken! And it will remain. The addiction you have-and remember, every addiction that anybody has-and we’ve all been addicted to something or we currently are addicted to something now. We’re all wired by humanity to be dependent on something, and we have to learn that we-that Jesus is the vine and we’re the branches. And when we depend on Him, that’s when we find our true source of life, love, freedom, peace, joy, and fulfillment. Amen?
But in the meantime, we suffer through addictions! Even Christians suffer through addictions! But that addiction is simply the search of your heart -it’s your heart searching for the Garden of Eden. Every addiction is an attempt to get back to Eden! It’s to get back to where man walked with God in the cool of the day. Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day. Adam and Eve walked with God! Everything we seek, everything we do, everything we’re trying to add to our lives is an effort to get back to that place of Eden. Everybody knows being healthy is better than being sick. Everybody knows having more money than you need is better than not having enough at all. Everybody knows that having loved ones that care about you is better than not having loved ones who don’t care about you. We all know that! Everyone knows we should be kind, and kindness is better than a lack of kindness or anger or cruelty! We all know that! But everything we do is to try to get that right. Everything we do is to try to make it right. But we don’t have to make it right! Even people that do things that are just unspeakable, they’re trying to set justice in order. I’m not saying that justifies anything that anybody has ever done, but I’m telling you the motive behind everything is that somebody is trying to make something right that in their view and in their estimation isn’t right. But nothing can be done by man to make things right. That’s why God says, «I don’t ask you to make things right. I’m making things right, and I’m making you right! In fact, I’m making you the righteousness of God, and now you’re right! Now you can feel Eden! Now you can feel pleasure!»
By the way, the Bible says that the word «Eden» actually comes from a word which means «pleasure.» It’s the garden of pleasure! And what is the source of true pleasure? The Bible says: «In His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.» So don’t villainize pleasure! Just understand when you get attached to the right pleasure, you’ll get detached from all the wrong ones! They’ll just start falling off of you. There’s a divine disruption happening, and it started at the resurrection of Jesus. It’s a divine disruption shaking every system that stands in the way of closeness and intimacy with God. And then it goes on to say in that verse 26 or verse 28 of Hebrews 12, «Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken.» Look at that again! Now verse 28: «Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire!»
What is He consuming? Well, He’s consumed your past already! He’s consumed your pain! He’s an all-consuming fire! He’ll consume everything that gets in the way of closeness with Him and you! He’s consuming everything that stands in the way! The fire of God-God’s fire! God, as a consuming fire, is burning away everything that stands in the way! Burning away everything that stands in your way, burning away everything that is in between you and God, in between you and closeness, in between you and the bosom of the Father- where Jesus was, from John 1:18. That Jesus was in the bosom of the Father! But then we know that Jesus extended that same bosom to John, who was the disciple that leaned on Jesus' bosom in John chapter 13. And He is the same Jesus that the Bible says in the Song of Solomon chapter 8, «Who is she that comes up out of the wilderness?» It’s the one who is leaning on the bosom of the Bridegroom! Glory to God!
Do you understand? The earthquake, the resurrection, the shaking was to dismantle and destruct everything in the way of you and the bosom of Jesus! Everything in the way between you and our Heavenly Father! He shook the grave system! The grave said, «Stay down! I buried you!» The resurrection said, «You didn’t bury Me! I planted Myself as a seed, and now I say, 'Come forth! '» In Matthew chapter 27, after Jesus' resurrection, verse 50, or on with His death on the cross in verse 50, it says, «And Jesus cried out on the cross with a loud voice» — Matthew 27:50–and it said, «He cried again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit.» Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
We’re in Matthew chapter 27. I want you to see this-how powerful this verse is. The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. By the way, this veil is 60 feet high! This is six stories high, and the veil is that — it’s that high! And it was ripped from the top to the bottom. If they tried to cut it, they would only have to — they would only be-they would have to start at the- they would have to start at the bottom. But it wasn’t cut; it was ripped! It was torn in two! What was torn in two? The veil that was between us and God! The veil that separated us from the Holy of Holies! The very presence of God Almighty! That Jesus' blood tore that down, ripped it apart, tore it in half! And now we can come boldly to the throne of His grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need! Woo!
Oh, He shook the grave system! The grave system taught us death was final. Resurrection broke time! Graves opened, and saints walked! It says, «Behold, when the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split!» Verse 52: «And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming up out of the graves after His resurrection.» They went into the holy city and appeared to many! Death is no longer a wall! It’s a hall! It’s a hallway! It’s a hallway now! It’s not separating us from God! To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord! Philippians chapter 1 tells us. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 tells us! I love 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 50. He says, «Now I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.»
But listen, verse 51, he says, «I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must put on-must be clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. And when the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: Death has been swallowed up in victory! Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? For the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God,» verse 57 says, «who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!» Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Hallelujah! Forever and amen! Forever and ever! We are now more than conquerors! Why are we more than conquerors? Because Jesus was the conqueror! But we’re more than conquerors! Why are we more than conquerors? Because the conqueror did all of the conquering! And we don’t have to do the conquering!
We just have to be those who He calls now more than conquerors because we don’t have to do the work! Jesus did all the work Himself! Jesus did the conquering, and He hands us the victory! And that victory is not one day in the sweet by-and-by; that victory is here! That victory is now! Jesus has delivered the death sentence to death; He’s delivered the death sentence to religion! He’s ripped apart every system! He shook the religious system! The veil said, «You can’t come in! Only the priests can come in! You don’t belong!» But Jesus' torn flesh said, «Come close!» The Bible says in Hebrews His flesh was the veil. The veil that stood between the people and the holy ark of the covenant! That veil? Jesus became that veil! His flesh was that veil! That’s why His flesh had to be destroyed by becoming sin on the cross. And it says, «Through the veil that is His flesh,» in Hebrews chapter 10:20. Jesus' body was the veil, and now the veil has been removed, and the separation has been pulled apart, and everything that stood in the way of closeness to God has been removed. All of your sins have been removed! We only now just realize it, but they were all removed on the cross because they all came upon Jesus, and He became it! It will never dominate you ever again!
Sure, you’ll make mistakes! Sure, you’ll sin! Sure, you’ll do things that you wish you wouldn’t! But that sin will not condemn you! That sin will not judge you because it’s already been judged! It’s been judged through the body of Jesus! When He became sin, and God turned His face away, the veil didn’t just tear! It shook the whole system of separation! Now we stand in victory! We sit at the table! We’re seated with Christ in heavenly places! And now we can say, «No longer am I separated from God ever again-for the system of separation has been shaken to the ground!» He shook the grave system! He shook the system of separation! And He shook the system of condemnation. The law said you’re guilty. The cross said, «Tetelestai! Debt fully paid! Sentence fully served! Victory fully won! The trial is over! The verdict is in! You’ve been found not guilty! You’ve been found innocent! You’ve been found washed! You’ve been found as the righteousness of God!» But most of all, you’ve been found! He found you! He saw you! He came after you! He came running to you, and He found you! And now you’re His child! And now we get to call Him our Father! Now we get to love Him! Now we get to serve Him! Now is your moment! Now is your time! The walls have been taken down! The systems have been destroyed! The systems have been dismantled! Jesus dismantled the devil! He dismantled the kingdom of darkness! He dismantled the system of religion, the system of separation! He dismantled the distance between us and the Father! You’ve been sentenced for life! As victims of God’s grace, you’ve been sentenced for life as sons and daughters of God! You have been given a lifelong sentence for eternity! Hallelujah! He didn’t rise so we would be better; He rose so we could be closer! Did you hear that? He didn’t rise so that we would become better; He rose so that we could come closer! Hallelujah!
I’m only on page six of 15, by the way. But remain standing because I don’t think I’m going to get to the rest of it. Can you hear this? Can you see this? Can you understand this now? Jesus did not come to start a religion! Jesus came to destroy a system of separation from God! He came to dismantle every argument, every principality, every lie, every fear, every sickness, every disease-everything that sentences you to something negative! The curse? He became a curse! He took it all upon Himself! And now Hebrews 7:25 says, «He ever liveth to make intercession for us.» That doesn’t mean that He’s in heaven praying; all His praying is done! All His praying has already happened! All His praying is already settled! All His prayers have been answered! And you are the answer to His prayers. But now He liveth to make intercession for us not by praying, but by preserving the connection forever! Intercession means standing in the gap! Jesus will forever be the preserver of our connection with God! Our Father, who art in heaven, whom we will be with one day!
But maybe you’re here today and you’ve never received this Savior. You’ve never accepted Him and made a confession of faith. What does that mean? It simply means this: It means to recognize Jesus is the Man that died on the cross, and Jesus is the Lord that rose from the dead, and Jesus is the God who is seated at the throne of His Father. And He did all of that for you so that you could become a part of the family of God. Before we leave today, please, if you could refrain from walking around, if possible, I’m not trying to keep anybody from their ham or whatever you have waiting for you. And we say that’s washed too in Jesus' name, but if you’ve never made that confession, if you’ve never made that declaration, I want to pray with you right now. And I want everybody to pray this: City Campus, Global Community, online, all of our churches connected with us, where we’ve expanded the Life Changers footprint, reaching nations, as we heard prophetically, cities this morning. I' ve got to get busy; I’ve got a lot of work to do based on the prophetic utterances that came forth today. Good thing I’ve got loyalty points on American! Pray together with us all. Pray together! Heavenly Father, I invite Jesus Christ into my life. I believe Jesus died for my sin and rose from the dead. From this moment forward, I’m a child of God! I’m a child of God! I believe Jesus' blood washed me, affirmed me and made me a king and a priest in Christ by the precious blood of the Lamb! And now there is no longer separation between me and God! God, between me and You, Lord! No separation ever again!
If you prayed that prayer for the first time, on the count of three, I’m going to ask you to just raise your hand. On the count of three, if you pray that for the first time-I realize there are a lot of people visiting today, and maybe you’ve never received Jesus, but you prayed that today to receive Him as your Savior! On the count of three, I want you to be bold and lift your hand. On the count of three! One! Two! Three! Quickly, right where you’re standing! God bless you! Who else? God bless you! Who else? God bless you! Come on, put your hand up right here. Right here! Right here! Right here! Right here! Right here! Come on, put your hand up right here! Right here! Right here! Come on, put your hand up! Come on, put it up! Put it up! You prayed that prayer! You meant it! Hallelujah! Come on! Come on! Way in the back, I see you! Come on! Way in the back, I see you! Put your hand-God sees you! God sees you! He sees you! We see you, but He sees you! The Bible says, «If you confess Me before men, I will confess you before all the angels in heaven!» If you confess Him before men, who can say now Jesus is risen? Who can say now and believe Jesus is risen? Say it! «Jesus is Lord!» «Jesus is Lord!» And boy, whoever had your hand up, if you could just keep it up, because some of our team members are trying to find you so they can put this book in your hand. It’s called The Power of a New Life; it’s the next steps on this journey. And before we dismiss, I really just want to make mention of a couple of other things. If you prayed that prayer, get this book! If you’re watching online, you can download it anywhere in the world absolutely free -lifechangersurch.com /salvation-and you will get a downloaded copy of this book absolutely free! Takes you through the next steps, tells you what happened just now, tells you what happens next, tells you what you can do and experience now and what you can expect! It’s really the power of a new life! It’s the next steps in this journey with God! And the next step for all of us is to come back next week! And the next step for all of us is to thank God! Be like the one! Be like the one leper that was cleansed! Ten of them were cleansed. Nine of them kept going. But one of them turned back to give thanks! Next Sunday is Giving Thanks Sunday, and we’re going to give thanks together for what God has done in our life!
Now, before we leave, I know there was prophetic utterance, and Pastor Grace really didn’t know the extent to which what she was saying was so fitting and prophetic, but I want you to just see quickly on the map where Life Changers- where you are in the world, how we’re expanding. Because look! We gather so we can scatter! And if you can see now wherever there’s a star, that’s where we have a Life Changers Church, a Life Changers ministry or partners who are family-a part of our family of churches. From India, we have this church-a Life Changers Church in India! We have Bangladesh in South Asia, part of our global church network! I don’t-thank you, I for this list! We have Mexico-Zacus the Manny, one of our team members here -he’s his former youth pastor in Mexico is now the pastor of the church in Mexico that Manny went to! And now this pastor is a part of our church, our family of churches! Romania, our global church network, wow! We have one of our team members, Alex, who goes and does our conference there every year. And we have Pakistan, global church network there, food and clothing distribution! Ukraine! Turkey! Portugal! We had a church just start just this past month! They opened up their church as a part of a Life Changers family in Portugal! It’s really amazing what God is doing! And of course, Life Changers Haiti, where we have a church in a place called the Miracle Village! This is the Life Changers Church! We started 10 years ago, and we feed the prisoners that are in there for $20 for stealing bread for food! People that are in prison for just not doing any crime at all, other than the fact that they couldn’t-they had no food, and they stole! But we’re feeding them now in the prison. We’re feeding them now! Five days ago-five days ago, our missionaries there said, «Today we flew by helicopter to South Haiti.» This is the only way to get there because of the gangs in Haiti. We are so thankful for a beautiful piece of donated land where we will build the new-can we see that land? -where we will build the new Life Changers food distribution center and the new Life Changers Church in Haiti! I’m sharing this because I’m sharing- these are things we’ve already been doing! We were already doing these things, but so many of us don’t know what you’re a part of! You’re a part of something much bigger! You’re part of something that’s making an impact around the world! Jesus said, «Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations!» Amen! Just give me another couple of moments here because I want you to see this! These people are so blessed, and so thankful for your support! Can you show that little-it’s just a few second video from India, you guys have that? If you can show that. Listen to this!
That’s your Mommy Grace! I’m just a pastor, but she’s the Mommy! Awesome! She said-they said, «We didn’t expect to see anyone there!» Can you go back to the land now? We didn’t expect to see anybody there, but when we went to take pictures and video of the land -wow! This center will feed hundreds and thousands of people! We know over time Life Changers-thank you, Life Changers International Church! Thank you, Pastors Gregory and Grace Stout for sponsoring this building project! What a huge blessing for the people! Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support! These are our missionaries in Haiti; they’re missionaries that God brought before we knew, but we connected and partnered together. And now we have a Life Changers Church there and a food distribution center! And that’s because of your giving! That’s because of your love! That’s because of your generosity! And I want you to see we are going to spend the next several months and the next couple of years to train hundreds and thousands of people to go into the world and preach the gospel! If you’ve ever sensed a call from God, we’re going to show you how to do it! You gotta be mentored! You gotta be discipled! If you can’t show up for church, you’re not going to show up for God’s purpose for your life. You gotta start by showing up at church! Just because you watched a service of some of your favorite Instagram preacher, that’s not church! That might be encouragement for you; that might be a blessing! But listen! We have to recognize that God puts every person in a church family! And the Bible says every joint supplies! And He places us in the church body just as He desires! 1 Corinthians 12 says he puts us in the church just as He desires! If you’ve never become a member here, make this Easter, Resurrection Sunday the day that you say, «Yeah! I’m joining! I’m in this thing! I’m going! I’m going all the way!» Now, we’re not leaving here; we’re not leaving here, but we’re sending from here to other places! And we’re giving to other places! And we’re starting churches in other places! And now we have some other cities, and we’re doing all this! And God’s going to use each and every one of us whether you stay or whether you come to be trained! You can’t just go out! Be trained and be taught, be discipled, be mentored! This is the process of what it means to be a part of a church! The children — our children are now the leaders of this church! They’re not leaders because they’re our children; they’re leaders because they chose to become disciples of Jesus! And they chose to put God first in their lives!
But you know what they did? Yes! Absolutely! All the leaders here, young and older-we’re all leaders because we’re being mentored! We’re being discipled! And we’re being connected! We’re staying connected! Amen! And I want you to understand that the reason why our kids grew up-not because of the parents having it all together because most of the time we didn’t -all of the time, nobody has it all together! But it’s because at least we did one thing-we had dinner every night together, most nights, and we went around the table, and we talked about what God was speaking! We talked about what we’re proud of! We talked about what we wish we had another chance to do over! And I want you to know that that’s what church is supposed to be like! It’s a place where we come together and talk about what God’s done and talk about what God’s saying, and be a part of a life group and be a part of a-be trained to be a leader! Because that’s who God made you to be! And come and let’s talk about what we’re thankful for and proud of! And come let’s talk about what we can do better! That’s what a family does! Amen! And that’s who we are together!
By the way, there’s a link on the screen if you want to give to our global outreach! You can scan the QR code! I don’t want you to-I' m not asking everybody to sit or anything! I’m just saying if you want to do it, it’s available to you! We would love for you to partner with what we’re doing around the world globally! All this will go towards one of our global outreaches online or text 77977 or through the app, Life Changers! Who’s ready to walk out with the blessing of the Lord in your life? Say this: «In the name of Jesus, the Lord has blessed me! The Lord has visited me! The Lord has visited me! His face shines upon me! And now I will walk — in the light of His love-seeing the face of His glory! The face of His glory! And walking intimately and closely with Jesus! From this day forward, I walk with closeness to God! In Jesus' name! The system of separation has been dismantled and destroyed! Now I walk with Him, walk in the cool of the day, all the days of my life! All the days of my life! In Jesus' name!»