Get God Out of the Box!

“And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.

And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.

Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.” (John 19:38- 40 KJV)

An eighty-five-year-old man was sitting on a park bench crying. A passerby who noticed the tears running down the man’s cheeks stopped to see if he could be of any help. “I don’t mean to intrude,” he said, “but is there anything I can do to relieve your distress? Are you sick? No, my doctor says I am as healthy as a 30 year old man. Do you need some money? No I have millions. Is it your wife, Is anything wrong at home?”

The eighty-five-year-old man replied, between sobs, “No, everything is fine there. I have a big beautiful house. I have two new cars and a swimming pool, and I have a thirty-five-year-old wife who is a superb cook, treats me like a king, and loves me madly.” “Then why in heaven’s name are you crying?” asked the passerby. To which the old man replied, “I can’t remember where I live.” Folks, this old gentleman was in sad shape!

I wonder how many here today are sitting in a quandary, a difficulty, simply because you have forgotten some things that you need to remember?

I wonder how many of us are contemplating our lives and wondering why things are the way they are?

Resurrection Sunday is the high holy day for the church. It’s the day that all of our hopes hinge upon. Everything about Christianity hangs upon the truth that Jesus Christ is alive!

Something that is easily forgotten.

God is not confined to the limitations of man.

Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not;

You can’t make an infinite God finite. You can’t make an eternal God temporal. You can’t make the creator of the earth subject to geographical areas on the globe.

You can’t tell god he can’t move in Nigeria at the same time he is moving in Arkansas. You see, he is God. He never has been, nor ever will be subject to this world!

Folks men, even religious men, have placed so many limitations on god that they don’t leave much of a god to believe in.

In other words, he worked miracles, but he doesn’t anymore. He healed in the bible, but that isn’t real today. He filled with his spirit on the day of Pentecost, but that was then and this is now.

Hey church, god is not god because we give him permission or room to be god! He is god. Period.

Too many people have forgotten this. They have been swindled into believing in an anti-god. An idea of a limited, partial, and inadequate God.

If you are trying to live your life for an inadequate god, may I reintroduce you to Jesus Christ?

When faced with obstacles that would have beaten any man, Jesus always proved to be a victor.

Making something out of nothing was not a struggle.

Wedding at Cana.

Ran out of wine.

Host is due to be greatly embarrassed.

Like a mother, Mary notices a humiliation about to happen and summons for Jesus.

Servants.

It’s not my time.

Do whatever he tells you to do.

To a lesser man this would have meant disaster.

But this is not a lesser man.

This is God in the flesh.

Gather and fill the water pots.

Draw out the water.

Somewhere between the well and the ladle the miracle occurred!

The God that had created the worlds with his voice.

The God that had formed man with his hands.

Moved by the water and the very touch of his presence changed water to wine!

Somebody needs to hear what I am preaching to you today!! You have been feeling the impending doom of being without, but I have come to tell you that if you will fill the water pots, somewhere between the well and the ladle there is a miracle waiting for you!

You feel like you have nothing to offer. Nothing of value for the God of glory, but I want you to know, all he wants from you is your nothingness! With that he can make your life the absolute best!

You will find that he will give you the best from the start and it only gets better with time!

Disease and sickness was no match for Jesus.

Man at pool.

Been in his condition for over 30 years.

Someone carried him to the pool in hopes of a miracle.

Looking for angel’s wing ripples.

Struggling for a miracle.

Sir would you be made whole?

You don’t understand….

I’ve been this way for years, been coming here for years.

My desire is there, just no help.

(May I tell you today god is not limited by your past failures at encountering him!)

Sir would you be made whole?

No, you don’t understand.

I am not merely a helper.

I am not merely a man.

I am the God that sends the angel for the miracle bath.

Today is your day to leave on your own power.

Rise, take up your bed and walk!

The healer is in the house today! He can heal you right now of what ever is wrong with your body!

You do not have to wait for an altar call; you can receive your healing right now.

In the name of Jesus be healed!

Demonic activity was not a challenge.

Running in and about the tombs.

Destroying himself.

Mind ravaged by sprits of every kind.

Torn and emaciated in his flesh.

Desperate for an encounter with God.

Saw Jesus afar off.

Ran and fell at his feet and worshiped him.

While others were looking for a hiding place from the madman, Jesus kept walking.

A normal man would have run.

Not a normal man.

This was the God of the universe.

This was the one that reigns on the throne of glory.

This is the God that angels worship day and night. (Holy Holy)

This is the God that beheld Satan as lightning fall!

This is the God that banished Satan to the eternal realm of dark.

Come out!

The man was delivered instantly!

Whatever it is that has been holding you back, be delivered right now in the name of Jesus!

I bind every spirit of darkness and destruction. I tear down every stronghold in the name of Jesus!

Death was not a match for Jesus!

Jairus daughter.

Dead before he could get there.

Satan loves to hurry up and make things too hard for men.

Again, this is not merely flesh!

Cast out the unbelievers.

Little girl, I say to thee arise!

Your situation is not too hard for Jesus! He is lord over every circumstance.

He is lord of all situations. There is nothing that he cannot do.

Friend, its time to get God out of the box in your life!

Its time to take the limitations off of him!

His Promises Always Come True!

He told his disciples  all about his impending death and resurrection. He informed them that he would be away for a little while and then he would be back.

They failed to understand. They forgot his teachings.

He was crucified. Gruesome scene. Thoughts of escape and denial had by all. They wandered away until only a mother and brother remained.

Dead. The king of kings. Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us. Dead.

They walked away in grief. The devil remembered his promise.

Matt 27:62-63  The next day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.  So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Borrowed a tomb.

“And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.

And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.

Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.” (John 19:38- 40 KJV)

Upon His death, Nicodemus came to Jesus’ tomb and he and Joseph of Arimathaea, wound the body of Jesus with linen clothes and100 pounds of myrrh and aloes. This amount of burial myrrh and aloes would have been an extreme even for a wealthy person. The usual custom was to use 20 pounds.

Think of this with me. If any of you have ever bailed hay on a farm, you know that a bail of hay weighs around 60-70 pounds. This bail being compacted and compressed into some sort of shape by a bailer.

In Jesus’ day, there were no such machine. They would have had to carry this in a sack of sorts. Imagine the scene of Joseph carrying the roughly 175 pound body of Jesus and Nicodemus carrying the huge sack with 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes for the burial.

Putting myself into this text, I find two men who loved Jesus. Enough, that they would risk their own life to see that the Lord would receive they very best burial they could give. So, Joseph donates his very expensive tomb and Nicodemus, not wanting anyone to smell the decomposing body of Jesus, brings 100 pounds of costly burial aloes. When people walked by the tomb, he wanted them to only notice the beautiful smell of the myrrh and not the rotting flesh of a dead God.

I’m not so sure they got what Jesus tried to get them all to understand. “(John 2:19 KJV) Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  They either forgot it, or they chose not to believe it.

You gotta love these guys. They really do mean well. They so want the body of Jesus to be preserved and any death odor to be abolished, that they wrap it in 5 times the amount of spices as was customary. Can you imagine how huge the totally wrapped body of Jesus must have been with 100 pounds of spices in the wrappings. It must have been a site.

But for all their preparations for their loss, Jesus wasn’t going to stay in that grave!

I am talking to someone today that has made plans to just live the rest of your life out and hope for the best.

It won’t work! Its time to realize that Jesus is going to come out!

Matt 28:1-8 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. 2 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. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.

5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word. NKJV

The best of the world, the best the devil could put in front of that borrowed tomb was not enough to keep Jesus locked inside!

Let me tell you today, the worst things in your life, the best the devil has done to keep God locked away from you, is not enough!

Jesus is alive!

Jesus is my resurrection! He is my hope! That first Resurrection morning, is repeated every time a person comes to an altar and allows the Holy Ghost to give them Life. Each sinner who speaks in tongues for the first time, experiences the Resurrection anew.

We celebrate the Resurrection once a year. But we should know that Heaven celebrates it every time a sinner comes to repentance. We get excited over the holiday that is Easter, but the angels get excited over every single sinner who is filled with “New” life. (2 Cor 5:17 KJV) “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

That’s what Jesus is about, Life. Abundant Life. He’s not about the dead stuff in our life. He is not about covering up a dead soul with false, but politically correct religion. He is the Resurrection and the Life. He is the newness of life that comes when a person experiences Acts 2:38 salvation. If you are wondering if you have a dead god or a live God, ask yourself this question. “Am I trying to cover stuff up in my life? Or am I allowing the Resurrection Power of Jesus Christ to bring Newness of Life to my soul.

I have to close today.

But I want to tell you that it’s time to let God out of the box in your life! It’s time to let him live in you!