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

Today's a special day, not only here in North Myrtle Beach or at Valorous Church, it's a special day around the world because we celebrate Easter weekend, the resurrection of Christ, and what that means for all of humanity.

And so there's churches all over the world today celebrating a risen king.

And I'm thankful that you came to be here with us in doing that here at Valorous Church.

But we don't only wanna talk about the historical story of Jesus dying, being nailed to a cross, and being raised three days later from a grave.

We wanna talk about how that can impact your life this Easter, 2026, right here where you sit today.

Because Jesus didn't just come to die on that cross and come back from death and be raised from a grave so that we could just kind of go through life and then one day, you know, leave this life and go to heaven, no, no.

He came so we could be reconnected to our great God and we could understand who God created us to be and begin to walk in the fullness of that each and every day.

And so here at Valorous Church, we don't only wanna talk about the resurrection, we wanna offer you an opportunity to respond to that and then begin to walk in the fullness of who God, who God says you are as a person.

And again, that is our aim today that it would speak to you in such a way.

I do believe God brought you here today.

The Bible says that God is drawing people to himself.

And one of the primary ways he draws humanity to himself is through the cross and the resurrection of Jesus.

But what he does is he uses people to give out invite cards, come on.

He uses people to show hospitality to people and he helps get them in the door so they can hear that message that will forever change their life.

And so again, God is drawing people to himself and maybe you had an happenstance this week and it's what brought you here.

Maybe you had a circumstance going on, maybe you got some things going on and it's what brought you here.

I need you to know today, the whole reason God has you here is because he wants to speak to you in a personal way.

He wants to speak to you as an individual, not just as a group of people.

And I do believe if you open your heart to that, that God can do that and he can forever change your life.

Now, I have this condition called OCD and oftentimes things bother me in the last year or so, a couple of years, I've kind of had some surgeries.

So I haven't been able to like get around like I wanna get around.

But you know, like when I would get up in the mornings in my yard, I'm the kind of guy that's out there picking up the leaves off of his lawn because I don't want no leaves messing up my grass.

Come on.

And any kind of piece of paper on the ground, I'm trying to gather that up.

But what I do is I usually take those little trinkets and things that I find and I stick them in my pocket.

Come on.

And then my wife gets really upset with me because when I stick those things in my pocket, oftentimes I forget to get them out and then they get in the washing machine.

Come on.

And all of that stuff that I've kind of OCD'd, picked up throughout the day, gets in the washing machine and makes a mess of things.

And, you know, then my wife and I, we end up in a fuss.

Why do you do this?

And I try to correct myself and, but it doesn't always work.

And it just makes a mess of things.

But really that got me thinking this week about a story of a man that I heard about that always carried a sharp nail in his pocket, a little sharp nail.

And he carried that nail in his pocket, but what that nail would do is poke holes in his pocket.

And he refused to stop carrying that nail and it poked holes in his pocket and then his keys would fall out.

He'd lose his keys and make him miserable.

Couldn't find his keys.

His chains would fall out. $100 bills would fall out.

Come on, somebody.

So he's being a blessing to people that didn't even know he was being a blessing.

But this man carried this little nail and somebody finally asked him and said, sir, why do you always carry that little sharp nail in your pocket?

He says, because it reminds me of the worst mistake I ever made when I feel that in my pocket.

So he was willing to walk through all of that misery of losing things and things falling out of his life because he was holding onto something he was never intended to hold onto.

He's like, this is the worst mistake I ever made and it reminds me of that often.

And I know that I've heard that God forgives me but I just can't forgive myself.

And so I hold on to this.

I hold on to this nail in my pocket, this thing that makes my life miserable.

Now, again, chances are you probably don't have a nail in your pocket today, but some of us may have walked in here today holding on to some nails of some things that have happened in our life and they are emotions that are being nailed to our hearts and nailed to our minds.

And we are carrying these things around and they're destroying our God's potential.

They're destroying who God created us to be.

They're weighing us down.

Our life is falling apart.

We're losing things in our life because we keep holding on to these things that the enemy of your soul intends to harm you.

But the reason for the cross is God came to set you free.

Yeah, come on.

And again, I know many of you've heard the resurrection story, but maybe today, God is gonna speak to you in a personal way because you're holding on to some emotions that he wants you to release and give back to him the things that, you know what, he came to that cross to do so you can walk out of here free.

Now, you could attend the Easter service and you could walk out of here the same, but I believe God's word has the potential to change every person's life underneath the sound of my voice, whether you're in this room, in Overflow, or online, if you open your heart to the real meaning of Easter and what God wants to do in your life.

Jesus said something remarkable in John 10, 10.

He says the thief's purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy.

He says, but my purpose is to give people a rich and satisfying life.

Now, this is a remarkable statement because it lets us, as humans, in on something.

It lets us know something very important here, that God created human beings not to live underneath the weight of all of these negative emotions that we tend to live under and weigh us down.

God intended for us to be set free of that and to live a rich and satisfying life, a productive life, a life with potential, a life with progress.

The Bible says that Jesus came to not only forgive our sin, but Jesus came to set us free from that sin.

And again, what he did on that cross paid the penalty for sin.

But what a lot of people don't recognize is he don't only want to pay the penalty of sin for your life, he wants to give you power over it.

And that can change your life.

So how do we do that?

Because Jesus says, you know what?

That's what I came to do is give a person a rich and satisfying life, a life that is overflowing, a life that is abundant, some of our English translations say.

But if we're going to live and walk in that abundant life, we have to understand some things today.

So what I want to talk about a little bit is sin.

Now, a lot of people misinterpret what that word is.

They just think it's the bad things that I do in life.

And again, it is partly that.

But the reality of it is, is what sin is, is sin is a word that describes a bullseye.

It describes, it's a picture word that describes a bullseye, a missing something.

So the word sin literally means missing the bullseye, missing the target of something.

So that should make you ask another question.

What target does sin make me miss?

And the Bible goes on to tell us it makes us miss the target of God's glorious standard for our life.

And so that means that God created human beings with a standard and God created us with a purpose and to walk in the fullness of that purpose.

The Bible says God created the first man and the first woman and put them in a perfect place in the Garden of Eden.

But the Bible says the first man and the first woman did something and disobeyed God because God asked him not to take from a tree so they listened to another voice and they sinned and then that's where missing the mark, missing the bullseye entered the world.

In other words, that's where sin entered the world.

And now all humanity down through the ages have a tendency to miss the mark of God's glorious standard.

And sin is basically the arsenal the enemy uses to destroy your life.

In other words, the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy is what the Bible says.

But Jesus says I came to give people a rich and satisfying life.

So how does that all unfold?

Sin is the arsenal the enemy uses because if he can get you to miss the mark of God's glorious standard, then he can begin to create emotions in you.

And then those emotions will weigh you down and destroy your God potential.

And so again, today, I wanna kind of unpack that because the Bible says we've all a sin.

And I think we could agree to that today.

The Bible says it this way in Romans 3.23.

It says for everyone, everybody say everyone.

That means me, okay?

The preacher up here today, that means you.

That means your great-grandmama.

That means the priest, okay?

Whatever background, that means you, that means me, that means our family, it says everyone.

For everyone has sinned, everyone has missed the mark.

And we have all fallen short of God's glorious standard.

Now remember, sin is the arsenal the enemy uses to destroy your life.

In other words, what he wants to do is he wants to nail you missing the mark of God's glorious standard.

He wants to nail some emotions to your life so that you can't keep moving forward, so you can't reach your God potential, so you can't be everything that God designed you to be.

But it says everyone has sinned.

So look at your neighbor and say, you sinner.

Oh my goodness.

Now look at yourself and say, I'm a sinner too, okay?

So again, that's how it works.

But see, that don't feel good.

When somebody tells me I've sinned, it don't feel good.

And exactly, that's why the enemy wants you to miss the mark of God's glorious standard, because it don't feel good.

Because when I miss the mark or go against some things that God has designed me to be or do as a human being, whether I'm a man or a woman, come on, then what happens is I begin to feel some things.

And that's what begins to happen in many of our lives because of sin.

We feel guilty.

And so the enemy nails that guilt to us and it begins to weigh us down.

It begins to put holes in our life.

In other words, we were going to do something, but we didn't, come on.

We were going to stay sexually pure.

And again, I'm not here to identify every person's sin or my own sin today.

I'm just giving you some examples of how it all plays out and let the word of God impact your life.

But we were going to stay sexually pure, but then lust began to take over our life and we made a mistake in the backseat of a car when we were 16 years old.

And because of that mistake, and maybe we became pregnant, then what we began to do is take it to another level.

We wanted to hide that mistake.

And then we went in and we had an abortion.

And now from that point forward, we've been carrying guilt around with us for the next 30 years and it weighs us down.

And we think that God can't do what he said he's gonna do and give us a rich and satisfying life because we sin and miss the mark of God's glorious standard.

And that emotion of guilt overwhelms us.

I wonder how many of us are carrying guilt that the enemy has nailed to our soul.

And today, what God wants to do is he wants to help you understand the significance of the resurrection.

Because the Bible says, those who are in, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

But what does that mean?

Again, the enemy loves to nail emotions to us because of our sin.

Here's another one, let me show it to you today.

Shame.

Some of us are walking around with shame.

We got guilt, we got shame, it's weighing us down.

We're missing the mark of God's glorious standard for our life because we've been wearing shame for so long.

I remember as a kid, I stole something from a kindergarten class.

It's horrible.

And again, you're like, well, all kids take something.

No, no, I sin.

And I missed the mark of God's glorious standard.

And my daddy let me know I sinned because he wore my butt out.

Come on, somebody.

But the reality of this is what I, I carried that shame around all the time.

I, you know, it was affecting my life as a kid.

And again, I know it's something small, but see, that's how sin works.

It comes in, it's something small, but then the enemy begins to take over your mind with all of these emotions.

And you wear the shame, you wear the guilt all the days of your life, and you don't experience the rich and satisfying life.

That's how it works.

Sin, we've all sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard.

Others of us, it's this.

We're letting the enemy nail bitterness to our soul.

We're bitter, we're upset because somebody did something to us, come on, that we didn't deserve.

Our sin entered the world.

It affected you, it affected me, it affected the next person because they did something.

You know what?

Against me, I'm bitter and I'm carrying bitterness around because I truly don't understand the forgiveness of God.

I don't understand the significance of God's forgiveness in my life.

And so I let the enemy begin to make me a bitter person, a person that just, you know, I'm just as sour as lemon juice all the time because I'm bitter about something that happened to me when I was a kid.

That's an emotion.

It's the power of sin.

The sin is the arsenal that the enemy uses to destroy our lives.

Jesus said, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

It don't matter our age.

It don't matter our ethnicity.

It don't matter our background.

It don't matter our language.

The Bible says sin has the potential to destroy our life.

But the good news is Jesus came to give us life and give it to us satisfying.

Here's another one.

Resentment.

I'm resentful because, you know, they got the job and I didn't.

And I resent everything because I'm the one that worked hard.

I'm the one that got all the A's in the class, but he showed up and got the job in front of me.

And I just, I got all of this resentment and all this, you know, bitterness and all this stuff are building up my life because I'm the one that gave my life.

I made all A's in the first grade.

All the way through graduate school, I even got a doctorate degree, but he walked in.

He got the job.

And so now I got resentment building up in my heart.

It comes in a lot of different fashions.

Jealousy, you know.

Jealousy kills a lot of us, even in the family context.

I'm jealous, because my brother, he got the scholarship and I didn't.

Come on.

Otherwise, he got the sports scholarship, I didn't get it.

And I'm the better athlete and I'm jealous because he got it and I'm mad at him forever.

And I got this jealousy building up in my heart.

Has it ever occurred to you that when jealousy is building up in your heart because of something, maybe God didn't want to give you a scholarship.

Maybe God wanted you to be a walk-on, to do something in your life and show something significant in your life.

But you've been jealous all your life and you never walked on because jealousy destroyed what God wanted to do.

Comes in a lot of forms, a lot of fashions.

And again, we have numerous ones up here, but there's another one that destroys a lot of people, fear.

It's an emotion.

And again, fear comes because of a sin oftentimes.

I failed at something.

Come on.

I stumbled and I have fallen down.

I made a mistake.

I didn't do it the way God.

And so here's the deal.

It's because I was a failure once, I'm gonna be a failure again.

And I never ever experienced life like God wants me to experience because I'm fearful if I step out and maybe I get married again, it's gonna be the same thing it was last time.

And I'm fearful.

I'll never fall in love again with somebody because I'm fearful of what might happen.

And see, some people in here, they even hate males or they hate females because of something that has happened in their life.

And maybe, maybe because you're trying to, put what happened to you 20 years ago on everybody else.

You're fearful to step into that relationship.

Maybe God wants to speak to your heart because maybe that relationship is gonna be something that's gonna forever change your life.

Addictions, I mean, we name it.

All of these things cause emotions.

In other words, I got to get addicted because the thing, that's the only thing that covers the pain up in my life.

This is why we get addicted to substances and stuff.

I wanna cover the pain up.

And I can't outrun this because the reality is the pain keeps coming up in my life.

It keeps triggering all of these emotions in my life.

And again, that's exactly what the enemy wants to do is nail all these emotions to us when we sin because he wants us to carry this around so we will never become who God desires for us to be.

But I want you to listen to this.

The Bible also says this in Romans 6, verse 23.

It says, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift, everybody say free gift, of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.

Now don't miss this.

That doesn't mean, you know what?

Eternal life doesn't mean something you experience after you leave this earth.

It is something you experience after you leave this earth, but eternal means it can start right now.

That's the part that begins to change everything.

You can begin to live the life, receive the free gift and begin to live the life that God intends for you to live right now.

You don't have to wait until the afterlife.

You can begin to experience it now.

Because the Bible says that God gave a free gift on a cross and his name is Jesus.

And if you really believe what he did on that cross was the forgiveness of your sin, and you truly understand the empowering agent, the Holy Spirit of God, the grace of God that he puts inside of your soul, and you begin to walk underneath his leadership, your life will be forever changed.

Come on.

You see Jesus didn't just come to teach us a new way of life.

He didn't just come to make a bunch of suggestions about how to improve.

No, the Bible says he came to take sin for us and change our life.

He came to take the nails on the cross that the enemy keeps using to nail these emotions to you so that you could have a full life.

So why in the world would anybody walk out of here this Easter carrying those emotions and continue to let those emotions destroy their life and not give it to the one who took the nails in his hands and the nails in his feet and a crown of thorns on his head and a spear in his side and defeated death, sin, and the grave?

Why would you not let him do what he came to do?

Why would you keep carrying the weight of these emotions?

Because my Bible tells me that Jesus came to set you free.

And what happens is we begin to hold on to the nails just like the man and it puts holes in our life and it's destroying our life.

I got good news for you today.

This is the whole good news of who Jesus is.

And again, I wanna read it to you out of Colossians chapter two, verses 13 and 15.

It says it this way, you were dead because of your sins.

Couldn't respond.

You couldn't even think about God.

You were dead because of your sins.

And because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away.

He goes on to say, then God made you alive with Christ for he forgave all, everybody say all.

Our sins, every last one of them.

Your past, your present, and your future.

He forgave all of our sins.

The Bible goes on to say this.

He says, he canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Wow.

In this way, look what it says, he disarmed.

Everybody say disarmed.

He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities and he shamed them publicly by his victory over them on a cross.

Again, this is an historical event that happened throughout time.

Christ, Jesus nailed to a cross, but it's not just a historical event, it's very personal.

And again, you have to have personal faith that this Jesus came into this world to die on that cross for your sin.

And I have to put personal faith in it and believe Jesus came into the world to die for my sin.

And I got to allow what the enemy is trying to destroy me with, the accuser, the Bible calls him, of the brethren.

The liar is trying to nail to me, and I got to listen to the voice of truth of what God's word says and what God's word says about Jesus and let Jesus receive those nails instead of me continuing to receive those nails.

Come on, it's a personal decision.

Says it this way in Isaiah chapter 53 before Jesus ever came on the scene.

It says, he was pierced for our rebellion.

He was crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so that we could be whole.

He was whipped so we could be healed.

Why would you keep letting those emotions weigh you down?

He was whipped so you could be healed and made whole in Christ Jesus.

All of us, it says, like sheep have strayed away.

He has left, we have left God's path to follow our own.

Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

Why are you carrying the nail?

He came to take the nails in his hands and his feet and resurrect from a grave to show you that he has power over sin, over death, and the grave.

And in case you're a doubter, like some of Jesus's closest friends were, that he resurrected and defeated death and took those nails in his own hands and his own feet for you.

I wanna show you a passage of scripture because after he resurrected that first resurrection morning, the Bible says some women recognize that he had been lifted from the grave.

And that day, immediately Jesus goes into a room where his followers, his disciples, you know what, they were meeting secretly in a room because they were afraid, they were fearful.

And the Bible says Jesus comes into that room and he shows them the wounds in his hand to show them.

You know what?

Sin don't win.

I do.

Come on.

But then the Bible also says in John 20 that, you know, there was one of the disciples, his name was Thomas, one of Jesus's followers, he wasn't in the room.

And so they told him about it.

And Thomas said, you know what?

No, no, no, unless I see those wounds for myself, I don't think I can believe.

I mean, y'all talking about it.

And the Bible says what Jesus does is Jesus, eight days later after that first Sunday morning, shows back up again.

And he says something remarkable that could forever change your life if you would lay down those nails this Easter and pick up the cross and the meaning of it in your heart and begin to walk out of here in the fullness of who God says you are.

But look what it says, eight days later, the disciples, they were together again.

And at this time, Thomas was with them and the doors were locked.

But suddenly, as before Jesus was standing among them, peace be with you.

You got peace?

Or do you got shame?

You got joy or do you have guilt?

Do you have love in your heart or do you have bitterness?

Because here Jesus shows up and says, peace be with you.

And then he said to Thomas, put your fingers here and look at my hands.

Put your hand into the wound in my side.

Don't be faithless any longer.

Don't live under fear.

Don't be faithless.

Have faith that I am who I say I am.

Look what he says.

Believe.

My Lord, my God, Thomas exclaimed.

And then Jesus told him, you believe because you have seen me.

Blessed are those who are sit underneath this teaching in a Easter service in 2026.

Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.

Because they trust the voice of truth instead of the lie of the enemy.

My friend, you can walk out of here today blessed and forgiven fully.

You can walk out of here today renewing your mind with the things of up there, renewing your mind with the things of Christ.

Because the Bible clearly teaches that those who put their belief in the forgiveness of their sin on a cross and the resurrection of Jesus, that God comes and lives inside of them and empowers them to live a life underneath His allegiance.

It's called the power of the Holy Spirit.

But my friend, you have to submit yourself to the truth of God.

You might fall back down.

You might mess up again.

But what you know that you know that you know, I am fully forgiven.

And because I am forgiven, I'm gonna get back up.

I'm gonna keep walking.

I'm gonna keep believing.

I'm gonna keep trusting.

And I'm not gonna let the emotions weigh me down.

I don't know if you're thankful for the resurrection of Christ today and the story of Easter and what God wants to do in you.

But I'm gonna allow you to respond this Easter because this is what I know.

Is I remember when I responded to the good news of Christ.

I remember in a driveway receiving the forgiveness that Jesus offered me.

But once I received that forgiveness, I also remember still wearing the weight of the sins in my life instead of giving it to him.

And then I was sitting in a revival service.

And if you don't know what a revival service is, it's when they used to meet seven days a week and somebody would preach every night.

I remember sitting in a revival service just like you're sitting in a seat right here on Easter weekend.

And I remember the Holy Spirit of God tapping me on the shoulder just like he's tapping some of you on the shoulder right now.

And again, I was sitting far away.

I was in the back.

I was actually sitting in the sound booth at that particular church because I didn't want nobody to see me.

And the Holy Spirit of God met me on the top row and he began to tell me what the calling on my life was.

And I began to believe his voice and I stand on the goodness of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus.

And I am, you know what, again, every day is not perfect but I am walking in the fullness of God and I got joy in my soul because I don't wear shame.

I don't wear guilt.

I don't talk about, you know, and I began to live out who I used to be.

I live out who God says I am.

My friend, and I believe this with all my heart today, God's saying some of you need to surrender to the Lordship and the leadership of Jesus today and receive the forgiveness he's offering you.

So here's how we're gonna do it.

In a moment, we're gonna sing a song about the cross of Christ.

And what you're gonna do, we're all gonna stand and sing together.

And if you're in the top, there's gonna be people at the bottom of the aisles and they're gonna be holding little buckets and that nail you got when you came in today, you're gonna lay that nail down.

If you're at the bottom, you're gonna come right here to the front, you're gonna come down the center aisles, you're gonna lay that nail down and then there's gonna be people standing over there where you're gonna come back up the outside aisles and they're gonna give you a little wooden cross.

Now that wooden cross and that nail and that act, that's not gonna save you.

It's what Jesus did on that cross.

But instead of carrying around a nail in your pocket all the days of your life, why don't you start carrying the cross of Christ around in your pocket all the days of your life.

And remember God's goodness on Easter of 2026.

So however you need to respond today, it's God speaks to your heart.

We're gonna allow you to do that.

And again, it's gonna take a moment.

They're gonna sing some songs.

We're not in a hurry.

Our next service is a little ways away.

But I want you to join us in prayer and praise and let's sing to a resurrected King again.

And you move as God moves.

And if he's tapping you on the shoulder and saying, look, tell them people beside me to get out of the way.

I got to get to the front and put my nail down and pick up my cross.

Don't wait for them to move.

You move them and you come.

So I'm gonna pray for us.

And then it's God moves.

And he's tapping many of us on the shoulder.

Don't be afraid.

You move too.

Let me pray for us today.

God, there's men, women, boys, and girls in this room today.

And the historical story of the resurrection of Christ just impacted them in a new way.

It just became personal.

Jesus, for today, they're gonna receive the forgiveness you offered on that cross as you took those nails in your hands and your feet.

And they're gonna stop letting the enemy nail those feelings and those emotions to them because of their sin.

And they're gonna understand that today they receive personally the forgiveness that you offered.

But God, they're not only gonna receive the forgiveness.

God, they're gonna begin to walk in a new way.

Underneath the new leadership of the Holy Spirit as they begin to interact with you.

And God, you're gonna lift them up.

You're gonna help them rise.

You're gonna help them move past the emotions and become everything you've designed them to be.

So God, if there's anybody here today that needs to receive that forgiveness, the Bible says, repent of your sin and receive the blood that Jesus offered on that cross for the forgiveness and be empowered by the resurrection that happened three days later.

So maybe where you sit right now, just say, God, today I repent.

I turn from my sin.

That's what repent means.

And I turn my heart towards your forgiveness.

Tell God, thank you for the free gift, the salvation that Jesus offered right where you sit today in your own way.

Tell God, thank you for him rising from a grave so that you could have the Holy Spirit alive and well in you to help empower you to walk out this new life.

Tell God, thank you for that gift.

My friend, it's nothing that we do.

It's all the work that he did.

So I invite you to receive it today.

Stop letting the enemy tell you that you gotta keep trying, you gotta keep striving, you gotta keep grinding, and receive the forgiveness today.

Stop carrying the nails around in your heart.

In your mind, give them to Jesus and let Jesus work in you.

Tell God, thank you for the gift.

We're all gonna stand to our feet and you tell somebody to get out of the way.

I'm coming to lay my nail down and pick up my cross.

Come on.