(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We're expecting God to speak to our hearts today in a powerful way and take us on this journey called faith and do amazing things in our life and through our life.

We have started a brand new teaching series that is going to lead us up to Easter weekend called Who is Jesus?

And we're gonna be doing teachings on who is Jesus over the next several weeks, preparing our hearts for resurrection weekend.

This will lead us all the way into Palm Sunday.

We'll have Palm Sunday and then we'll have a Good Friday service on resurrection weekend, have Saturday services and multiple Sunday services.

So we wanna encourage you to invite your friends out for Easter.

You can surely get them to come along with you maybe before Easter, that would be awesome too.

But we expect a big turnout for Easter weekend.

And again, expect God to do amazing things in people's life.

You know, one of the interesting things to know is Easter weekend, if you got some people who are kind of resistant to come into church, Easter weekend is probably the weekend that they will be open to come in the church.

If you will just personally ask them or invite them, look them in the eye and say, would you come to church with me?

So I'm gonna encourage you to consider that, maybe begin to pray for somebody you don't like, come on somebody.

And yeah, and then personally go to that person, invite them to come sit with you in church on resurrection weekend, that would be awesome.

And maybe God will change them, come on, yeah.

So if you have your Bibles with you today, as we continue with who is Jesus, I'm gonna ask you to turn it to Acts chapter two, and we're gonna begin with verse 22 in Acts chapter two today.

And if you have your Bible app on your phone, and you wanna look at it on your phone, or it will also be on the screens, feel free to look at it there.

We're gonna be walking through this Acts two passage today.

And I do believe that if we open our hearts, God will speak to our hearts.

To kind of set this scripture up today, this is 50 days after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

And it's at a festival they were having in Jerusalem where people from all over the place came to this festival.

And they spoke a lot of different languages, there were different people groups, and they came to this festival that we know today as a Pentecost.

Now I know a lot of you went to a festival yesterday, come on somebody.

But it wasn't Pentecost, yeah?

And it was the Irish festival.

And you went out and you celebrated some things yesterday and hopefully God is going to redirect your life today.

Come on.

And change some things.

But they were at this festival called Pentecost and some people who had believed in Jesus had been given the ability to share who Jesus is with great joy.

And they began to express with great joy who Jesus is and people began to understand it in their native languages.

And the Bible says they were really excited about sharing who Jesus is, but there were a group of people that were there and they began to rebuttal the people for having this amazing joy about who Jesus is.

They even said, hey, you know, these people are drunk, they're out of their mind.

And Peter, one of the followers of Jesus, he steps up and he says, it's only nine o'clock in the morning, come on guys.

They're not drunk, they're just excited about who Jesus is.

But he says here in Acts 22, he begins to clearly state who Jesus is.

So there would be no misunderstanding for anyone.

And that's where we're gonna pick up the scripture today is where Peter begins to declare plainly and clearly who Jesus is so that people could respond to that with their life.

And so today our hope is to explain from the scripture clearly and precisely who Jesus is.

And we wanna allow you to respond with your life.

Because I do believe when we respond by faith to who Jesus really is, God does amazing things in our life and through our life.

Acts chapter two, we'll begin reading with verse 22.

Peter declares this.

People of Israel, listen.

God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him.

And he says to the people, as you well know.

But God knew what would happen.

And his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed.

When he was betrayed and he was nailed to a cross.

With the help of lawless Gentiles, those who weren't Jewish in this day, you also Jewish people nailed him to a cross and you killed him.

But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life.

For death could not keep him in its grips.

He goes on to say in verse 25, King David, our ancestor, said this about Jesus.

He says that, I see the Lord is always with me.

I will not be shaken for he is right beside me.

No wonder David says my heart is glad and my tongue shouts his praises.

King David said, my body rest in hope.

Come on somebody.

King David said about this Jesus before Jesus ever comes on the scene that his body rest in this hope.

He says in verse 27, for you will not leave my soul among the dead or you will not allow your Holy one being Jesus to rot in the grave.

You have shown me the way of life, David says, and you will fill me with the joy of your presence.

David said this before Christ comes on the scene.

Now we live after Christ has come on the scene.

Jesus has come on the scene and we can say with the same spirit that David said that, you know what?

Your presence with me brings me great joy, fills me with great joy.

Dear brothers and sisters, think about this, Peter says.

You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn't referring to himself, where he died and was buried and his tomb is still here among us.

But he was a prophet and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David's own descendants would sit on his throne.

David was looking into the future and he was speaking of the Messiah's resurrection.

He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.

God raised Jesus from the dead and Peter says to that group of people, we are all witnesses of this.

Now he is exhausted into the place of highest honor in heaven at God's right hand.

And the father, as he has promised, gave him, gave Jesus the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us.

Just as you see here today, Peter tells them.

That's why all these people are filled with great joy.

For David himself never ascended into heaven, yet he said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.

Here's the verse that we're gonna dive into today.

Verse 36, Peter says to the people, so let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus.

Everybody say Jesus.

Jesus.

Whom you crucified to be Lord and Messiah.

Peter clearly declares to this group of people at this festival who Jesus is and why people were filled with great joy.

And my friend, if we truly understand Jesus as Lord and Messiah, or as Messiah and Lord, our lives can be changed.

So what I hope to do over the next few moments, because we live 2000 years beyond that particular day, is to define clearly here today, the good news of who Jesus is in spite of the bad news that is going on in your life.

And you can walk out of here today by faith full of great joy.

But to unpack Jesus as Messiah and Lord, or we may say as liberator and leader, we have to maybe go to another verse to begin to understand what he's liberating us from and who he's liberating us from and what kind of freedom is he leading us into.

So if you go to the book of 1 John chapter three, verse eight, this is what the Bible says.

It says, when people keep on sinning, that means keep on missing the mark of God's glorious standard for their life.

It shows they belong to the devil, the adversary, the ambusher.

The Bible says, who has been sinning since the beginning, but the son of God, Jesus, came to destroy the works of the devil.

This is significant in our life because if we truly understand Jesus as Messiah and Lord, as liberator and leader, we understand what Jesus came to do.

And the Bible says, that he came to destroy the works of the devil.

So what is the works of the devil?

The adversary, the ambusher, would be a better translation for the word devil if you really begin to dissect the devil of the Bible.

He's one that ambushes you and me.

And he's one that deceives us.

And he is the one that accuses us and begins to hold us hostage to the freedom God created you and me to live.

And the Bible says clearly that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

And the works of the devil are simply this, is what he does is he works at putting you and me in this thing called the sin pen.

Let that sit for just a minute.

Your adversary, the ambusher, the one that is against you from becoming all God's designed you to be, wants to put you and me in the sin pen.

And not only does he wanna put us in the sin pen, he wants to leave us in the sin pen.

So how does he work at doing it?

Number one is the Bible calls the devil the father of lies.

And so he begins to lie to you and tell you that your problem is the only problem in the world.

And because you have a trouble in your life, you're the only one going through it.

Nobody cares about you.

Nobody's going through what you are going through.

It's tough in life.

There's challenges in life.

And so what the enemy begins to do is he begins to speak to your pain.

He begins to speak to your problems.

He begins to speak to the things in life that makes you focus only inwardly and about your own self.

What the enemy is after is you and I to become selfish and he lies to us in every cunning way so that we begin to step towards the sin pin.

And then what he does is he opens the door and he lures us in.

He's basically saying, look, I want you to take a peek at what's in the sin pin.

You know, if I throw a treat in that sin pin, a dog treat, my dog would run straight into that pin.

And the enemy lures us in because that's really what he does.

He throws treats out, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

And what you begin to do is you begin to be like my dog.

And you just go in after the treat.

And as you look at the treat, what the enemy does is he closes the door and locks you in.

And then as you're down there lapping at the treat and.

This is awesome.

You don't even realize you've been ambushed.

And you've been trapped.

And then what he does is he leaves you all alone.

I'm the only one here.

This is lonely or else he begins to make you be complacent and discomfortable.

Well, this is all there is.

There's no purpose in life.

I might as well just lay down.

Take a nap.

Then life just continues to go by.

It becomes more difficult.

Hope begins to be vacuumed out of your heart and your life.

And it leads to a place of death where you never see beyond the sin pen.

That is the results of the enemy and what he does and how he captivates and holds us hostage.

Now, there's many things that lead us in to temptation and lead us in to sin, but it's all of our own doing that gets us into the sin pen.

And the reality of it is you can't let yourself out of the sin pen.

Something has to come from the outside and this is the Messiah.

This is the Liberator.

And Jesus simply came to die on a cross and give his blood on a cross to forgive humanity of their sin and open the door for you and I to leave the sin pen.

But what's remarkable?

Is so many of us have become so incredibly saturated and become hostage to sin for so long.

We think this is life.

And Jesus says no if you would just by faith come through the door come through me step to the outside.

I would begin to show you that I've created you to live life and life abundantly, but many of us love the familiar of the pen and the sin more than we trust that Christ came to open the door for us to be liberated and come out of the sin pin and my encouragement to you today, if the enemy has you defeated and trapped in the sin pin is for you to take a small step of faith and at least stick your head out of the sin pin.

And if you stick your head out of the sin pin and you begin to walk by faith.

A little more.

And a little bit more.

And a little bit more.

You will eventually be set free from the sin pin.

That is a picture of what Jesus did on that cross.

If you would so trust him as the Messiah Deliberator, but notice Peter said to the crowd.

He is come to be your Messiah and your Lord and what a lot of us are doing is we're allowing him to let us come out of the sin pin, but we're really not living life.

And the reason we're not living life to the full in spite of the pain in spite of the trouble in spite of what we see out in front of us is we're simply not walking by faith and trusting the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says that if you put your trust your belief in Jesus as the Messiah the Liberator then God puts his spirit in you.

And a lot of us are at the sin pin not walking by the power of the Holy Spirit, but we're walking by what we see in our own flesh and blood in our body and it's keeping us attached to the sin pin.

But I'm going to share with you today that God wants to be the Lord of your life, the leader of your life so you can begin to take steps and the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit, the outflow of God leading your life is something called joy, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control because when Jesus liberates you from that pin, he has a long walk.

He wants to take you on and he wants to give you a greater hope than you ever had in all of your life.

But the simple fact is you're not submitted.

You're not submitted to his leadership.

Maybe you're still trying to operate in the flesh and you're not listening to the leading of the Spirit and you're trapped and the devil still has his claws in your back because you refuse to walk by faith in the Son of the Living God and who he says you can become and you feel like there is no hope beyond your current situation because you're attached to the sin pen.

And my friends, my Bible says that Jesus came to be both Lord and Messiah.

He came to be both liberator and a leader and I just want to dissect it for you.

And then I'm going to give you an opportunity to respond because Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus as liberator, the Messiah, he liberates us from the penalty of sin.

No person in here has to die in that sin pen because Christ came and gave his life's blood on a cross.

So by faith you and I could walk through the door of salvation and begin to truly know who God is not to just go to heaven, but you got full access to your Creator and you can fully know who he is today.

Listen to what Colossians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14 say about this Jesus for he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and he has transferred us into the kingdom of his dear son who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Jesus did that for you.

Are you trusting the sin pen?

Is he continually making you feel guilty for something you've done in the past?

Does he have a cloud of shame rolling in over your head?

Does fear plague you?

Does you continue to lose hope because this body is aging and falling apart?

My friend, the Bible says that God came to heal you, heal your broken heart, give you hope beyond the grave, give you hope beyond the body, give you hope beyond your past mistake, give you hope beyond where you currently are, and it comes by believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed one who was sent from God, gave his life's blood on Calvary so you and I could be set free.

That's the liberator.

But watch this.

He's inviting you to let him be Lord of your life too.

And the Bible says this in John chapter 16 about God leading us into all truth.

Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak on his own, but he will tell you what he has heard.

He will tell you about the future.

He will give you future.

He will tell you about the future.

He won't continue to tell you about your past.

Some of us are stuck on our past and I need you to know God comes to speak to your future.

The Holy Spirit speaks to who you're becoming not who you were.

The Holy Spirit leads you into all truth.

He don't continue to take you back to the sin pin remind you who you were 15 years ago.

You need to step away from that sin pin and follow the leading of the Spirit of truth.

The Bible says this he will bring Jesus says he will bring me Glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.

In other words, Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit gives a download into the Spirit.

So the Spirit will begin to guide and direct our life and help us step away from that sin pin.

Love joy.

Peace patience kindness goodness and self-control the Bible says that's the fruit of the Spirit.

That's the fruit of God's leading the Bible says this in Romans chapter 8 verse 14 for all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God says in Galatians chapter 5 verse 16, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives.

Come on, then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.

So the secret is not only believing on the name of the Lord Jesus as Messiah, but believing on the name of the Lord Jesus as the Lord or the leader of your life.

And when you do you can escape the sin pin and begin to walk away from the sin pin and truly have love in your heart.

Joy in your step.

Peace in your mind.

Come on.

Love, joy, peace, patience.

When trouble comes your way, you don't freak out.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness.

When somebody ain't kind to you.

Goodness, in spite of all the bad things that are going on in the world, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

You keep on walking in spite of what's happening.

Gentleness.

Come on.

You have a gentle heart towards the things of God and towards people around you and you're trying to get them to download the greatness of God in their life and you have self-control.

You're not out of control.

Come on.

This is Jesus, the one who wants to rescue you from the sin pen.

So maybe you're in here today and you're stuck in the sin pen.

Maybe you've been captivated by the sin pen.

I believe God wants you to respond to the good news of who Jesus is and in just a moment.

I'm going to allow you that opportunity to do just that because many people in Jesus's day as Peter declared Jesus as both Lord and Messiah.

The Bible says that it pierce their hearts.

In Acts chapter 2 verse 37 and maybe this message of the gospel was it the same exact wording that Peter used but maybe the true message of the gospel of Jesus Christ came through in your life today and pierced your heart right where you sit.

And if it did guess what God's talking to you and he's asking you to have the courage to step out by faith and trust in who he is.

Jesus is both Lord and Messiah.

Jesus can be the leader of your life.

He can be the liberator of the sin pen.

But my friend you got to put your faith in this Jesus and the Bible says in Acts chapter 2 verse 37 that when Peter shared this message.

They said to him and the other Apostles brothers.

What should we do?

My friends.

The Bible says they asked Peter.

What should we do and Peter declares what they should do.

And it's as easy as 1 2 3.

And I want to show it to you today.

Peter says each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God in other words.

He says you got to make a faith decision to leave the sin pen.

You want God to do something amazing in your life today?

Are you just going to listen to the word?

Are you going to let Jesus rescue you from the sin pen?

You got to make the decision to leave by faith.

Secondly to the Bible says this Peter says turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

In other words make it public.

That's what baptism is.

We get all religious about water baptism.

But all water baptism is my friend is publicly you're declaring as you go under that water.

I've died to my old life of sin and I've been raised to new life in Christ Jesus and I'm making a public statement broadcast about it through the waters of baptism.

We don't have the baptisms water ready for you today, but we do have a way for you to make it public in just a moment.

It's as easy as 1 2 3 1 you make a conscious decision to leave that sin pin by the grace of God the love of Christ the one who opened the door to you began to you go and you make that public and then three you follow the leader.

Let me show it to you.

Peter number one says repent of your sins and turn to God.

Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

Then you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit?

The Bible says he's a gift to you and me to lead us into all truth.

He's the gift to you and me for us to experience love joy.

Peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control and so it's as easy as 1 2 3 step out of the pen make it public and follow the leader.

He is the Holy Spirit.

This is Jesus.

They said Peter.

What should we do and then Peter declared this promise is to you to your children and to all those far away all of you who have been called by the Lord our God.

I do believe the Lord our God is calling out from people from the top to the bottom today.

The Bible says and then Peter continue preaching for a long time.

Come on somebody.

In other words, that was a big altar call strongly urging his listeners save yourselves from this crooked generation.

So my friend, I don't know how old you are or how young you are, but I do know that we live in a world full of deception.

And by the words of Peter, why don't you save yourself from this crooked generation today by trusting the one who opened the door swung it wide open and gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit and you to walk fully in it.

So if you need to do that today, we're going to pray a prayer together all over this room.

And then I'm going to ask you to respond publicly by lifting your hand in the air that you prayed that prayer and you trusted Jesus today as your Lord and Messiah as your leader and your liberator and then I'm going to have some prayer partners right down here in the front on each side and right after the service and after I pray hopefully the band is going to sing a song and as they do if you want to make that public.

I'm going to invite you to come down here and let these prayer partners know about your decision today.

And then after you speak with them, you're you're free to go.

But again, I do believe that God wants to do something supernatural in your life.

Why do we make it public?

It's a declaration.

You know what Jesus is who he says he is.

I'm publicly declaring who he says he is and I'm choosing to come underneath his leadership and I'm submitting my life to him.

I'm going to follow him all the days of my life from this point forward.

These people are going to be here to help you with that journey.

That's what these prayer partners are going to do.

They're going to tell you a little bit about how you can get involved in the church.

They're going to tell you a little bit about the church and then they're going to tell you about some some room that is created for you to become all God's design you to be and so all over this room.

I'm going to ask that every head bow and every eye closed and I'm going to ask during this particular moment.

Nobody move and come out of their seat.

Nobody leave this room.

And the reason for that unless you have an emergency, there's no need in you leaving right now because God has something he wants to do in people's life.

And if you get up and you start moving around the chances are is you're going to be a distraction to somebody around you that God is speaking to and that would truly be rude and I don't really believe nobody in this room wants to be rude today.

So as God begins to speak to hearts and people begin to surrender to him by prayer, I want you to know this is the most significant moment in all of this service.

Come Holy Spirit come and speak to people right where they are today.

And if you need to make Jesus the Lord and Savior the Messiah the Liberator and the leader of your life today right where you sit.

Maybe you want to say something like this God today.

I'm tired of living in the sin pin.

And I admit God.

I have been living in this pin and I need Jesus to open the door so I can come out tell God.

Thank you for the gift of salvation that he offered on that cross when he gave his blood.

He did something that none of us can do.

He opened the door so we could come out of the sin pin tell God.

Thank you for that gift of the cross and the gift of him shedding his blood.

Till God.

Thank you for the resurrection.

Until God today, you know what?

I want to trust Christ for the forgiveness of my sin.

I need him to be the Messiah the Liberator of my life.

But also say God, I need you to lead my life.

Holy Spirit.

I need you to come in and feel my life.

I need you to guide me into all truth.

I need the gift of the spirit of the living God that Christ Jesus poured out on us.

Till God you submit to the spirit.

And today you want to follow him all the days of your life.

You want to move away from the fleshly desires of the sin pen and you want to listen to the one that's going to bring love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness and self-control into your life till God today.

I need you to establish him in my life the Holy Spirit till God.

Thank you for all this gifting and you receive it by faith today and tell God that today you want to make it public.

If you said that prayer.

In just a moment, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand that today is a day of your salvation and today is the day that you trusted Christ.

And then after you raise your hand, I'm going to pray a prayer over you.

And then I'm going to say amen.

I'm going to allow you to publicly come forward to these prayer partners and say I raised my hand today and I'm declaring Jesus as my Savior today.

And if that is the decision that God is piercing your heart with today, don't worry about what's around you.

What's happening now?

This is your moment.

This is the moment that the Spirit of the Living God is speaking to your heart.

Don't miss what God wants to do because of the distraction of the enemy.

So today, if you said that prayer and he is the Lord and Messiah of your life and you wanna make it public, I'm gonna ask you right now where you sit from the top to the bottom just to stick your hand up in the air.

Praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God.

Praise God, praise God.

Come on, don't be ashamed.

All over this room, praise God, praise God.

Anybody else?

God, I thank you so much for these people raising their hand and publicly declaring Jesus as the Lord and Savior.

And God, as we prepare today to leave this place, God, I pray that they wouldn't just leave this place with a message, but God, they would leave this place with the Messiah and the Lord in their heart.

And God, they would be a part of what you're doing in the world today through your kingdom.

So God, I thank you for every one of these hands that went up today declaring Jesus as the Lord and Savior of their life.

God, you see every one of them.

They're publicly saying that today is the day of their salvation, and they wanna follow the leader, Jesus, all the days of their life, the leading of the Holy Spirit.

God, we thank you for every one of them.

It's in your holy name we pray today, in Jesus' name, amen.