Shane Idleman emphasizes the profound truth that there is life in death, particularly through the lens of Good Friday, where Jesus' horrific death ultimately leads to eternal life. He illustrates that sometimes, in our lives, things must die—like broken relationships or dreams—before God can resurrect them into something new and vibrant. Idleman encourages full surrender to God, reminding us that even in our darkest moments, His promises remain unbroken and can transform bad news into good news. He draws parallels between the death of Jesus and the necessity of personal brokenness for spiritual revival, urging listeners to embrace their need for God and the hope found in Christ's sacrifice. Ultimately, he calls for a return to God, highlighting that true healing and redemption come from recognizing our brokenness and trusting in Jesus' finished work on the cross.

Normally, Good Friday, the reason they call it that is because the outcome was good, but the night itself was horrific. And so the title is, There is Life in Death. There is Life in Death. And it's a good reminder that when God is in something, there can always be life in death. So what things we're going through, and I don't want to overanalyze this text, but it's true. If something needs to die and God's in it, sometimes life can come from that. In many cases, a marriage might need to die in order for it to be revived. The couples get to a spot of brokenness and desperation. It looks like it's dying and then God can bring life. It's called full surrender. Emptying ourselves and raising kids. Sometimes they've got to get to the end of their rope, so to speak. And there seems to be nothing but death. And that's where God can bring life. And we see that in so many things from plants that something has to die. And from that death comes the life. And of course, that's what we celebrate is Jesus' death on the cross that ultimately brought life, eternal life. And it's difficult. I mean, I'll just shoot you straight. When an imperfect person preaches a perfect message, you know, the weight of what Jesus did and died for me, died for you. I shouldn't be up here. The failures and the fallings. But God takes that death and gives it life. How sweet the sound. Saved a wretch like me. I was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. Now, a verse I want to put up there. Luke 22.53. It's an incredible verse because Jesus is basically saying to those coming to get Him in the garden, He says, this is your hour when darkness reigns. It seems to be in life sometimes, it's almost as if you're saying, okay, this is your hour where this darkness and perversion and just the decadence in our society, it's your hour right now, but God will reign and rule and have the final say. And usually in the darkest moments of our lives, we can see the light as God begins to break us and humble us. And so this was an hour. Jesus said this is your hour. Darkness is reigning, but not for long. Mark 9.31. The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day. And this is one of those verses why I believe C.S. Lewis said that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or He's the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't make claims like this. Oh, He's a good teacher. Oh no, that's not a good teacher if He said something like this and wasn't going to be able to fulfill it. You're only left with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other option. He was not just a good teacher. A good teacher could not do what He did. After He is killed and basically saying, I will rise again, not only that, the third day, telling them what to look forward to. And it's a good reminder for us that a promise is only as good as the person who made it. I know it's kind of hard to see there in red, but a promise is only as good as the person who made it. We're becoming jaded on promises. Aren't we in our government promises? Social security to the banking system to just about everything. A man's word is nothing. And it's hard. We become doubters in contracts and disclosures. And even through those, people can manipulate their way around that with a good attorney. A promise is only as good as the person who made it. So just think before we go any further, has God ever failed you? Has any promise never came to pass? I mean, I know some of us are waiting on things, of course, but when God says something, He will not go back on His Word. He will not fail. He cannot fail. His name is success. His name is victory. And look at the promises of God. With God, bad news can become good news. Maybe some of you need to hear that this evening. With God, bad news can become good news. When we get that bad report. When things are not going our way. When we make a mistake. Or we sin and we don't want to go to church. Anybody been there? That's the challenge pastors have, and I know I have, is preaching because we want to preach God's righteousness and holiness, but we also want to encourage people to get back up and fight again. Yes, something, a dream may have died. You may have made a huge mistake, but God can redirect that and get you back on firm footing. And God often uses betrayal. The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. God often uses betrayal. Why? It clarifies what we're trusting in. Has anyone ever been betrayed? And is our first response like Jesus' response? I'm going to get you back. I'm going to get you back. And then the Bible breaks down. I didn't read, I mean, there would be dozens and dozens of verses, but then what followed was His betrayal and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. You can see the course there. And that's why we have something here, Journey to the Cross, and they go through a lot of these different things. And we see Peter then denies Jesus and weeps bitterly because of it. And Jesus was mocked and He was beaten. He was handed over to Pontius Pilate. He took the place of Barabbas, which is all these things are just amazing, mind-boggling to really comprehend. You have this murderer Barabbas, just this evil man in the crowd shouting, give us Barabbas! And aren't we seeing that today? Give us! Our perversion and our sexual sin. Guys, it's just alarming what is going on. The emboldenment of sexual perversion. They're just emboldened. They're inflamed. Inside, they want to kill opposing views. Attack. We don't want Jesus. Give us Barabbas. And it quite simply is because we, not as believers, of course, but as unbelievers, they love the darkness rather than the light. And when you shine the light of the Gospel into the... It's like, have you ever woken somebody up? English majors out there? Carry the E, awaken them. But you know, take the flashlight, especially teenagers. And what happens? Turn that off. Get it out of my face. And so that's what we're seeing. Why is there so much resentment against the church? It seems like everything coming out of Washington, D.C. is anti-biblical. Anti-God. Get this, we don't want to hear about God. We want you to embrace our lifestyle, and we're going to force it down your throat. Don't shine the light of the Gospel in my face. And then the final heading in the Bible, at least my Bible, is the King on a cross. The King on a cross. Luke 23. There are also two others. Criminals led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on His right hand and the other on His left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And this text doesn't go into it, but most of us are aware that one of those criminals had a change of heart. Maybe you've seen the viral video, I think Alistair Begg did, that's going around. You know, the guy in the middle told me I could come to heaven. And you see, there's a change of heart. Apparently, one of the criminals repented. You can only surmise. Repented and believed. Can I be with you today in your kingdom? His prayer wasn't eloquent. Actually, it wasn't a prayer. He was asking a question. And his heart had changed. And it's a wonderful verse for those who think you have to add something to Jesus' finished work on the cross. I remember just having a talk some time ago. It wasn't very productive. But I don't know how much I should tell you. You should see that. Yeah, I know you want me to say it, but just enough. But anyway, before we were going to plan our church, we were looking for a facility. And I approached this church and asked if we could rent it on Saturday nights. And the pastor quite bluntly said, no, because you'll preach to them on Saturday nights, and then I've got to convert them on Sunday mornings. Because they believe in baptismal regeneration. You're not saved until you're baptized. That's what they believe. There are churches out there. And I wrote an article in the paper. I released an article on why baptism doesn't save you. And you'd be amazed at the people who get upset at that. Many in the Lutheran denomination, because raised baptismal regeneration and infant baptism, like circumcision was in the old covenant, baptism is in the new. And there's ways they try to finesse that. But the bottom line is, it's not Jesus plus now go and do this. And so I had a conversation with somebody who went to that church, and I said, what about the thief on the cross? He goes, well, Jesus makes allotment for things like that. I'm like, well, that's easy to get out of. I wish I could just say that. Oh, I don't know. God makes allotment for things like that. No, it's either He's saved or He's not. Somebody wants to, I believe, Shane, I believe today my heart's been changed. We have baptisms afterwards. Okay, come on. And you have a heart attack. Oh, man. Is he still breathing? Let's get, come on. Come on. Abram, help me. Help me. Come on. That was a close call. And I'm honest. I mean, I'm not trying to make light. I'm not trying to poke fun. I'm just trying. But when anybody adds something, that gets, I get a little worked, fired up. Because Jesus did it. It is finished. It is done. I just believe. Just believe and repent. Now, do we put an importance on baptism? Yes, that's why it's full tonight. It's full tomorrow. It's full on Sunday. We've got baptism scheduled. But it's not a saving mechanism. It's not, plus, Jesus, then go dunk. Because as if, it's almost, okay, I'm not saved even though I believe and repent. It's not until I come up out of the water that now I'm saved. And so that's why this verse is so important. Talking about the one on one side believed. Jesus said, today, you will be with Me. Today. Then also the teaching about soul sleep. I don't know how many of you have heard of that. Where we really just kind of go to sleep. For, I guess, thousands of years back then until the resurrection. I'll teach a little bit on that when I start the book of Revelation. So I'm starting that here shortly. So make sure, as Pastor Abrams says, be in your place on Sundays because that's going to be interesting. There's a lot of things going on with cryptocurrency, one world banking system, the government, the collapse of the banks, the proxy war in Ukraine. A lot of it is tied into what's going on. And we're going to get into that. But the criminal here, he believed, and today he was with Jesus. And Paul said to be absent, in this, to be absent here is to be present with Christ. So I don't teach. I've never believed a soul sleep to where you just, I guess, what are you doing? Just laying there? Sounds kind of nice though, but I don't think it's biblical. In 1 Peter 2, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he committed himself to Him who judges righteously. Basically, he committed himself to God. What a great example. And it is hard. It's challenging in these times. Like when do we push back? I believe there is a time to push back and to say not on my watch, and I'm so upset I'm going to pray in fast. And you push into the kingdom of darkness. But he didn't return. In other words, they were hitting him or mocking him. He didn't return that because God was going to judge him. I saw a social media post this week. I think some of you saw it because I posted it. A guy had a shirt on. I don't remember what he said. I'm going to let God fix this because if I do, I'm going to jail. But isn't that true? And it's okay for believers to feel like that because we are called to be watchmen. We're called to guard those things entrusted to us. We're called to be a voice to those who have no voice. We're called to make sure that the little ones are not sexually assaulted and groomed. That's what we're called to do. Now, of course, that can be in a spirit of humility and gentleness, but it has to be done. This passive Christianity, I really don't understand. You say, well, Jesus was passive. Actually, He wasn't. He was not passive. He was not a pacifist. He was not passive. He was very, very pointed. Very bold when it needed to be said. You whitewash tombs. When you tell the religious leaders you are whitewashed tombs, nice on the outside, but full of dead men's bones on the inside, you win one proselyte, you make Him twice as son of hell as you. You can't get more bold besides to just push over the money changers out in the foyer. There's some things. I would love to have seen those two events. I mean, maybe it's just me, but we have this idea that just mild and meek. I mean, some of the language, you can look up in the Greek language and see the emphasis on certain things. He emphasizes. There was a boldness. There was a cry. There was an urgency to His voice. Oh, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, I try to gather you. And He would call out those false teachers and the religious leaders. I think it was the scribes or the lawyers. They said, hey, settle down. And rebuking them, you rebuke us too. And He said, while you're at it, let Me go on and rebuke you some more. Because see, it's not just a passive doormat, let society walk all over you. There's a time to... Really, the Bible's talking about personal assaults, personal offenses. So if somebody says something to me, they slap me to return the other cheek, you know, personal things. And you let those things go when you have... But when it comes to protecting little ones and giving a voice to those who have no voice and exposing the unfruitful works of darkness, if we don't do those things, that's more in the category of a coward. Not a bold believer. He didn't respond with scornful or abusive language. That's a good lesson for many of us. He did not threaten in return. He committed Himself to God's sovereign plan. You've heard me say this many times before and I will continue to say it, that God's sovereignty is my sanity. Learn that. Absorb it in your life as well. God's sovereignty is my sanity. Because as things get crazier, you've got to have an anchor. That being God's sovereignty. I mean, this whole push now with grooming kids and transgenderism, it is deviant. It's sexual sin. It's in your face. And it needs to be called out. Evil to its core. And they're not very tolerant of opposing views. Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. 1 Peter says this is the reason behind the cross. He Himself, and why we're here celebrating, He bore our sin in His own body on the tree. And you remind yourself when you fall and you embrace sin and you repent and get back on track with God, you remember that you can see the face of Christ taking on that punishment for you and for me. And then He says that we having died to sin might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. Having died to sins. Wait a minute. If I've died to sin, why is it sometimes still alive in me? Well, the context is actually, you've been saved from the transgressions of your sin. The penalty of death is no longer hanging over your head. You're free of that. But the Adamic nature, that sin nature is still alive and well until the day we are buried. But it still says, you might live for righteousness sake by whose stripes you were healed. Now, this would take a whole other sermon, but I do believe if we had time, we could show you where by His stripes, you were healed spiritually speaking. Of course, but also, there's something in the healing aspect of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. And that's where we pray that people can be healed. We believe in God's healing power. We don't believe in name and claim and everyone's going to be healed. I've taught on that before. There's reasons why sometimes we're not. But because of those stripes, we were healed spiritually. He bore our sins. He was pierced. He was pierced. And the Bible says without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Maybe if you're a young adult and you're having a hard time understanding the cross, you're not alone. You're not alone. Sometimes I wonder, a perfect God, King on the cross, why would You do that for me and for you? It's hard to really conceive what He did, what Jesus did. But we understand that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, there is no forgiveness of sin. And this is why the blood of bulls and goats could not cover sin. It covered temporarily. They were all pointing Him to Jesus. They were pointing to the Passover lamb. We can go back to Exodus actually. And it was pointing to the final work of redemption on the cross. The final act of the shedding of innocent blood for our sins completely. They were just a temporary covering. So die to sin. It no longer controls, dominates, or sentence us to death. And 1 Peter continues, for you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your soul. Have now returned. You know, and I often think if I could preach one message to our nation, it would be something along these lines of returning to God. Returning to God. The power of returning. Knowing how far you've drifted and then calling you to come back to God, or maybe for the first time. And realizing how far we've drifted. And that's what the prophetic voices would do throughout the Old Testament. Turn back to God. Oh, backsliding Israel. Look how far you've drifted and come back. And you would never, ever, ever, ever see this. You'll never see this again in our nation. Well, I should never say that. The chances are highly, highly, highly unlikely. I'm going to show you a picture from New York. 1956. 1956. On Good Friday. Let that sink in. We haven't drifted. We have completely made a U-turn. Now they'll drape them in rainbow colors or put some other godless Nas X having sex with Satan. In Times Square. Guys, we have lost our mind. Where is the desperation? Where is the desperation of the church to get back to God and return to God? Return. Return to the Shepherd, the Overseer of your soul. In Isaiah 53, 3-6, He is despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. It's one thing we try to instill in the youth here at this church is you will be despised and rejected by men. See, we want to prepare them for the battle. We don't want to say, hey, just follow Jesus, man. Everybody's going to love you. You can be a famous YouTuber. He understands your sorrow. And then it goes on to say, and we hid. We hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not know. We did not esteem Him. And that's what they did. It's almost embarrassing. Jesus is embarrassing. Have you ever been there? Especially as you get older, be encouraged. Your faith will be challenged. And you'll have to eventually stand your ground and say I believe in Jesus Christ. Don't expect the truth to be popular. If it's popular, it's probably not God. The message of redemption, the message of sin, the message of hope and peace and forgiveness, has never been popular. Don't expect the truth to be popular. Two weeks ago, I think, or so, it just kind of broke my heart. Do you guys know who the most famous YouTuber out there is? He's got the biggest YouTube channel. Mr. Beast. That's his name, Mr. Beast. I mean, that's his channel's name. He's got a lot of different channels. I was watching an interview with him. And do you know how he started? With crosses and John 3.16 and his old YouTube videos. He was witnessing. Witnessing. And now I just heard him on a large podcast when they kind of like, well, you don't believe in Jesus anymore, do you? No, no, I don't know. I mean, I'm not atheist. I'm agnostic and just caught off guard and caught in that spot. And he denied the very thing he believed in and promoted earlier on. Can you imagine if you come out and say, Jesus is Lord and Savior? And I believe in many of these cases, people have religion and rules rather than relationship and intimacy. If you have a relationship with God and intimacy with Him, the chips are going to fall where they may. But if you have religion, I was raised in a Christian home. I was raised to believe this. And that's why this big term now, deconstructionism, have you heard of that? Deconstructing their faith. You have all these Christians writing books like, oh, how I walked away from faith. How silly was I? The reason is if you listen to them, you'll understand they didn't have a relationship, an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. They had rules and they wanted to rebel against those rules. It wasn't about relationship. It was religion. How can you walk away from a genuine love for God? A genuine fullness of His Spirit? You can drift, the prodigal son, but you're miserable. That's the difference. You're miserable in that state. Ben Greenfield, he's one of the top trainers in the United States. Very popular YouTube and all those different things. But he asked me and I think I shared with him that the reason I knew, I think at 12 years old by Wrightwood, I believe, and I believed in the Lord and I had the wrong influences. Even my dad at that time was not a believer. So, what did you do last night? Did the parents get you a keg? And did you meet people? You know, it was like that party scene. It wasn't a father. And so I was led astray by that and the wrong friendships, wrong people, and just began to drift completely from God. I would say I was a Christian. I'd pray when it got in tough spots. Rolled my vehicle, I sure prayed. But I said on there, I think every time I woke up depressed and wanted to come home, saying, Lord, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But if any of you have been in that bondage, it's deep. It's hard to get out of. And it took some time. And that's why we don't want to beat people up who are caught in sin. You've heard me give this analogy before. But if you're new, this will be helpful. The difference is between someone practicing sin and who's unconverted, and a sinner who is struggling is this. Both the pig and a lamb find their way to the mud. But the pig enjoys the mud and even leads other people in. The lamb cries out and it hates its miserable condition. They're both caught in the sin. That's the difference. The heart of the prodigal wants to go running back to the Father. The heart of the sinner is like, I love this. I don't care. Yep, I'm a drunkard. I'm an adulterer. I'm a fornicator. I'm a thief. This is who I am. I practice such things. And that's why this church also gives a lot of hope to every type of sinner out there. Even same-sex attraction. There's that way up there, sin, and all the other ones are down here. Sin is sin in God's eyes. But when we practice it and we shake our fists in God's face and say, I don't care. This is who I am. That's a bad spot to be. Versus Father, I'm struggling. Help me. God, pull me out of the mire. God, please. See the difference in the heart? It's a big difference between night and day. Light and darkness. Right and wrong. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Exodus 12, God told them to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the house, and when you see the blood, I will pass over you. I'm going to tell you a brief story about this. This is where we would see Jesus, even in the Old Testament, a foreshadowing of the Passover Lamb. He's called the Passover Lamb. So many years, I don't even know, 1,500 years before Jesus, probably don't quote me on that please, but the Passover Lamb, the blood was shed and God was getting ready to deliver Israel out of Egypt. He's getting ready to deliver them, but He was going to go through and He was going to kill all the firstborn males that night. But He said, whoever puts the blood of the Lamb on their door, the death angel will pass over. And they still use that word Passover. The Passover. And when we apply the blood of Jesus Christ on our lives, the death sentence of God, He passes over us because of that blood. And I came across an image I want to show you. And so what they would do is they would put the blood on the doorposts and like our homes, they would sort of resemble one of the houses there in Israel, and they would put blood on one side of the doorpost. Then they would cover it on the lentil, which is the top part. And then they would bring the blood down the other side of the doorpost. And so what would happen is you'd have almost this reflection of the cross on the doorpost of these homes in Israel right before they were led out of Egypt. The blood would fall on each side of the doorpost, on the lentil, and then they would drip from the top down to the bottom of the floor. And you can almost see a picture of the cross there. And Jesus, what He did, even foreshadowing back in the Old Testament time. And it's exactly what they did. Whoever put the blood on it. Guys, this is a serious discussion. There's nothing more important than believing in Jesus Christ and what He did. There's a song we sing sometimes. It's called, The King is in the Room. Come see the scars of love upon His hands. Watch the darkness flee at His command. Who is this King? His name is Jesus, awesome in power, reigning forever. The healer's in the room. Let miracles break out across this place. Let no soul is beyond the boundaries of His grace. There is resurrection power in His name. And it goes on to say, name another king like this. He has no boundaries. His power is limitless. His riches unsearchable. His reign never ends. His authority is final. He cannot be overruled. His majesty can never be matched. He is the Savior for the sinnered and the Shepherd for the shattered. He is the repairer of the breached for the broken. He is the rock of our salvation. Name another king like this. There's another song I love. It says, I come broken to be mended. I come wounded to be healed. I come desperate to be rescued. I come empty to be filled. I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb. There is life and death. There is life and death, but you have to come broken. The greatest threat to all of us is pride. Pride, pride, pride must be crushed. God, I come broken. I want to be mended. If you want to be fixed, you've got to come broken. You've got to come broken. And I'll close with this, and we saw Jesus when He was on the cross, and there was two choices on either side of Him, correct? And so many people, when they hear about Jesus, or they'll ask Him on the street, they'll say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, He was crucified. I know that story. But here's the difference. He was crucified for me. You've got to make sure you get that right. You can't just say He was crucified. He was crucified for me. And you repent and you believe in that. There has to be death before there is life. There's a lot of people that just come to church going through the motions. We see them on Christmas and Easter. Because that's what good people do. Well, there's no one that's good. No, not one. When we stand before God someday, we're only going to be measured by what Jesus did on the cross.