Synopsis of 10/6/24

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III 

• Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
• Luke 23:43, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
• Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
• John 19:26-27, “Woman, here is your son… Here is your mother.”
• John 19:28, “I am thirsty.”
• John 19:30, “It is finished.”
• Luke 23:46, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

I.               Introduction

1. On Calvary, we get a model of how we should act during harsh treatment. We also see the commitment we should have when experiencing pain, while trying to pursue our purpose.
2. Our words have power. They can carry the depth of our witness. It is true that the power of life and death is in the tongue. Despite this, many of us are guilty of speaking death, when we should be speaking life.
3. The words you speak show how you see your future. The integrity of who you are, is aligning your words with your
4. God is trying to reveal how we should handle mountain experiences. God gives us these words prophetically. God wants us to know that mountains and new blessings are in our future.
5. The more highs we have, the more lows we will have. The enemy will try to discourage you the higher God takes you.
6. All of us will have to deal with crosses. The words that Jesus spoke from the cross, was Him fulfilling his assignment. The words he spoke was was called cross-words.
7. Our crisis are not a personal attack on us. They are to cause onlookers to believe in God’s ability to deliver.
8. Can God trust you with trouble? If you want to know what I’m made of, then just listen to my
9. Crossword are words that God gives to us, that help us to navigate the most difficult seasons of our lives.
10. Jesus came to the earth to pay the price for our redemption. The price he had to pay was being crucified. He died for our sins.
    1. When Roman’s crucified a person, it was supposed was done in the most gruesome way possible. They deliberately tried to make it as painful as possible. It was their capital punishment and was meant for severe criminals.
    2. The Romans wanted to make their crucifixions so paint that it would scare others from doing the same thing you did.
11. Remember last week we talked about the Sanhedrin being intimidated by Christ? They brought Jesus to Pilot for saying he was the Son of God. Even though Jesus could have stopped it, he let it play out.
12. The same people that shouted “Hosanna” when Jesus come into town, shouted “crucify him”, when there was an opportunity to let him go.
    1. When people say they like you, take it with a grain of salt. People will claim to like your now, but they will hate you tomorrow.
13. They take Jesus to a hill called Calvary. It was a terrible place to die. Jesus was innocent, but He dies between two criminals. Jesus speaks up and shows the power of our crosswords.
14. To manage your mountain, you have to:

II.               PARDON THOSE WHO HURT YOU

• Jesus said forgive them, because they know not what to do. When people offend us, Jesus said forgive them.

A.    People Mishandle What They Don’t Fully Understand

1. Voice – When people don’t understand you, they don’t know your voice.
   1. When people don’t understand your voice, they don’t understand your vision.
2. Vision – This means they can’t see what you see, regarding your future. They can’t see beyond where they are right now.
3. Value – With no vision, they will not value you. People that hate on you or attack you, don’t appreciate the value you bring into their lives. You have value!I
   1. Jesus was the son of the living God and the people they had no idea who they were crucifying. People don’t know who you are, because they don’t appreciate valuable things.
      1. For example, you go into an antique shop and kids will touch stuff on the shelf, just because it is shiny. As an adult, you know not to touch some stuff, because you realize how valuable it is. Your maturity makes you appreciate the value.

B.    Release Them At The Foot Of The Cross

1. Real forgiveness is to be unburdened from a person’s feelings about you. Vengeance is the Lords!
2. Jesus is on the cross telling them to forgive them. You have to release them to the foot of the cross. Leave it at the cross. Let it go. Whatever they said about you, let it go!
3. You can ever get to crossword #2 (help), without crossword 1 (forgiveness).

III.               PROVIDE HELP

• From the cross, Jesus kept ministering through his misery. He stays on mission, and He stays on the course. He looks at his mother and says mother behold your son, son behold your mother. John wasn’t related to Mary. By saying this, He signified that a new bond of spiritual kinship was about to be born. We’re not going to allow what people did to us, change who we are.
• It’s saying:

A.    Your Heart Must Be Bigger Than Your Hurt

1. The size of your heart is based on your capacity to love. Whenever you’ve been offended, it will change your heart. It will have you afraid to enter relationships. We are not going to empower people that hurt us and allow them to stop us from being who we’re supposed to be. It’s bigger than you!
2. Some people get hurt and go home. You have to provide help even while you are hurting.

B.    Mature People Can Cover Others While In Their Own Crisis

1. You will learn how to cover others, because you recognize that it is bigger than you. Even if you are being crucified, you know that you are supposed to help others. Some people are going through hell, but they still are praying for you. Some people still show up, even though things are falling apart at home.
2. Paul said he died, that we may live. It’s about our stewardship. Think about the healthcare workers that had to put on clothes and help others through the pandemic while the rest of us were in quarantine. They had to deal with mental health crisis, but they kept going in and helping those that did nothing to help themselves.
   1. Think about the social worker that had to deal with dysfunctions in families, placing kids in foster homes, and trying to figure out if kids were being treated right.
   2. How about Pastors that deal with home issues and still have to stand in the pulpit and encourage us.
3. In your life, you’ve got to find out who needs you and who feeds you.
4. Mature people can minister to others, without complaining, even while on their cross.
5. When you help people while you’re hurting you will:

IV.          PRAY WITH HONESTY

• Jesus said, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1 begins with the words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”.
• Have you you ever asked why God has forsaken you?

A.    There Is Nothing Wrong With Asking Why

1. Job asked why? David wrote many Psalms asking God why? Jeremiah asked God why he suffered? Mary and Martha asked why Jesus wasn’t there when their brother died.
2. All of us have to ask why at one time or another.

B.  Remember His Will Is Greater Than Your Why

1. The will of God is larger than your whole life. Jesus even said, “Let thou will be done”. We know his thoughts are not our thoughts. We’ve made up in our minds to trust Him, even when we can’t trace Him.
2. You’ve come to realize that it was good that you were afflicted. You learn that all things work together for the good. You have to let His will be done. If you let His will be done, you will look back and realize that if He brought you through before, He can do it again!

V.          PUT IT ALL IN HIS HANDS

• You understand the power of putting it in his hands. It’s a statement of confidence.
• It is complete submission to the Father that you trust His wisdom.

A.  Whatever It Is, He Can Handle It

1. It’s all about whose hands it’s in. Put a basketball in some of our hands, then it results in someone shooting bricks. Put it in the hands of LeBron James, it means Put sickness in God’s hands and you get healing. He makes ways out of no way!

B.  His Hands Can Hold You, Heal You, And Help You

1. This is a statement of security. The old folk used to say, “oh to be kept by Him”.
2. Hold – The son Jesus Christ is on the mountain. He’s calling out to God the father. This is similar to a child calling out to his parents. It’s like a child saying, “I need you to pick me up”, so he lifts his hands up to be picked up. At this level the child feel pain and can’t articulate it, so they need their father to pick them up.
   1. When you lift your hands, you’re saying, “God, pick me up and hold me”. Times you thought you weren’t going to make it, but God was holding you.
3. Heal – His hands also healed me. His hands are healing hands. Everything Jesus touched; he healed. Jesus laid his hands on the blind and they could see. He laid his hands on the paralyzed and they could walk. Jesus puts his hand on a boy’s coffin and he got up.
   1. When you got the diagnosis and God healed you, you can testify that God has healing hands!
4. Help – Those hands are also helping hands. Helping hands show up at the very moment you need help. He is a very present help in the time of trouble!
   1. Peter was walking on the water and beginning to sink and then he says, “Master, help me”. Jesus reached out and caught him by the hand, right before he went under. These are the hands that kept you from going under! Now unto him that able to keep your room from falling.
5. Story: A father wants to buy his son a special gift before his performance. He is going to be in the New York Orchestra. He decides to go into the local pawn shop. He asks the Owner for something unique and different. He sees a violin in the corner, broken but unique. The Owner said he could give anything for it, because it wasn’t any count.
   1. The Father gave the Owner a few dollars for it. The owner didn’t know that the father restored things. The father spent all night working on it, tuning, and revarnishing it. He bought a new case and put the violin in it.
   2. Afterwards, he presented it to his son. The son began to play the old violin. It played good, but it had a different sound. He liked the new sound.
   3. The son’s final performance came. The son played the solo on this old violin that his father gave him, because of the unique sound it had. People began to applaud him as he played. What a beautiful sound it was! After the performance, they asked the son where he got that violin. He told them that his father gave it to him. They asked his father where he purchased this violin. The father said he restored it after purchasing it in a pawn shop the night before.
   4. The father took time with the violin, because he knew its potential. He knew if he could get it in the hands of his son, it would sound like never before. In like manner, God saw something in you. He cleaned you up and put you in the hands of His son. Some people wonder why you sound like you do. The truth is, it’s because of the hands you were placed in! Can you give God glory for whose hands you are in?