From Demons To Angels: The Story of Mary Magdalene

Well, hello everybody. How you doing? Good, good. Yeah. So, thank you so much for being with us on the first Sunday here in this facility.

If you could cut me down a little bit, Hunter, it's a little loud. I'm loud enough, and y'all don't need to hear me any louder, okay? But I'm really excited that you came out here, especially on a Sunday where people are probably sleeping in, because you're losing an hour of sleep. And we are starting a new series called...okay, I think that was supposed to be our intro video, but our...

all right, yeah. Yeah, there we go. Our intro video. Again, technical difficulties this week. Hopefully we can polish those out in the next week and get things rolling.

So thank you for being so patient with us. If you're new with us, thank you so much for being patient with us. Our regulars, I know you're going to be patient with us, because you love us, and we love you. And if you are new with us, you fill out one of those connection cards. We'd love to connect with you, get to know you, send you something in the mail.

And you can connect with somebody over here in our welcome area as well. We would love to have you. So just to share a big, big, big, big, big important season is coming up pretty soon. Guess what that is? Easter, right.

Easter. So we are going to be doing Easter here at FFX Theater as well. So we're here for the foreseeable future until we get our, we're actually looking around for maybe some permanent spacing and things like that. And we're praying and believing God for that. Amen.

Amen. Because we've moved around way too much in the last few months. And we're, we're becoming like Where's Waldo? You know, we're salt this week, you know. I feel like we're the Where's Waldo church, you know.

People are trying to find out where we are and what's going on. But I want you to be praying about that. We'll be in the upcoming weeks. It's kind of, we're going to shoot past Easter first, but we're going to be talking about how we're going to begin raising money and, and doing some things to, to, to be able to get our own facility so that we don't have to continue to pop up and pop down and, and change church up. And, and Gas Guy, guys, yeah, we have been growing.

We have been growing. Wow. I mean, it's just cool to see that God's bringing in new families and new people and, and exciting people, people who have been changed and transformed by the saving grace of Christ. And they're excited. And then you're coming.

And then I hear these testimonies. We had lunch with Leon last week and I just didn't hardly even get to speak because I didn't need to, right? Because of the testimonies of some of you who've shared some of the things that God has done in your life over the past few months. And, and just, it's just amazing. It's amazing what God's doing.

So we want to continue to do that. And we want our church to continue to grow. And one of the ways you could do that is invite somebody to Easter at Salt. Invite somebody to Easter at Salt. In fact, we know, um, we're going to have, we're, we're wanting to double our number right now.

We're averaging about a hundred people in our church services and, and, uh, we're, we're aiming for double that for Easter. So you know how we can get there? You, you can be a part of that. Inviting someone to church. And we've made it a lot of, we've given you a lot of opportunities to do that.

We have cards available for you. We have yard signs available for you. If you want to pick up a yard sign or cards on the way out, we'll have them over in our next steps area. We'd love for you to, uh, uh, grab some of those. We'll have some more things coming up, uh, on our way to Easter, some ways you can get engaged into, uh, inviting people to church.

Another way is you can go to our event on Facebook. If you're a social media person, I'm telling you how important it is to, in fact, go on there right now, go to our Facebook page and find our event and like it and share it and let people know about Easter at salt. We're going to have an egg hunt on the beach. How cool is that? Right?

What church does egg hunts on the beach, right? Isn't that cool? Salt does egg hunts on the beach, and we're gonna have gifts for the kids, we're gonna have things for the whole family, so we're super excited about that. So I want you to be intentional about inviting somebody to Salt Church this Easter. How many of you are with me?

How many of you want to see this church grow and flow? How many of you love what God has done in your hearts and in your lives by being connected to this church and this family, amen? And we're gonna see God do some things, and we're gonna be used, we're gonna bring our gifts, because the dream happens with the team, right? Teamwork makes the dream work, and it's a beautiful thing when it's done in the scope of the body of Christ. So God is really doing something, and I believe we're on the cusp.

I was talking to Ricky yesterday as we were kind of working on these rooms back here for the kids, and we were talking about how we're on the cusp of that wave. We see the build coming. We're getting the small, small waves right before the big wave, and I really believe that the big wave is coming, that God's gonna do something amazing, because salt always makes a difference, right? And a little bit of salt goes a long way. Jesus said it, we believe it, we hold on to that.

Amen. So we're starting a new series this week called Easter People, and the idea of this is to really look at the different perspectives of the Easter story, and how that affects those people, how it affected those people, and how it affects us today, that we, by the nature of the risen Christ, can live today, and we're gonna look at these different perspectives. So over the next few weeks, we're gonna look at obscure people like God, Joseph of Emmaus, or Aramaus, excuse me, or the road to Emmaus, you know, the two people on the road to Emmaus, and we're gonna look at Thomas, and we're gonna look at different perspectives of the story. But today I want to focus on a character, and probably one of my favorite women in the Bible, it is my favorite woman in the Bible, in fact, and that's Mary Magdalene. And I want to start by saying the show must go on.

The show must go on is a popular term used in the circus, or even back in the day when the circus was just starting. Obviously a very dangerous job, you got acrobats and different people swinging from ceilings, and there's all kinds of things, and some people would often get hurt. But the team would come together and figure out a way to make the show go on. The show must go on. We must adapt or die.

We must, much like here, you know, us switching from MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, to a hotel to here. We have to adapt or die, right? The show must go on. Jesus is still working. It doesn't matter if somebody's out of place or someone's cruising to the side for a few minutes, you know, if we're off track a little bit, the show must go on.

And we use that in businesses, and the show has to go on. We have to put people in places in order to move forward. So we adapt, right? And we move on. And this is the very spirit of Mary Magdalene on the day Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

That show must go on. So if you'll follow along with me, and I do have my notes in the app this week. Last week we didn't have them in there, but you can go to YouVersion Bible app and pull open the scripture and take notes. And if you'll follow along with me, it says in Matthew 16, or Mark 16 rather, beginning with verse 1. And I'll just slide to the side here so you guys can see this TV.

We were going to have the side screens up today, but hopefully you can read that okay. Great. Oh yeah, I heard, oh yeah, back there. I see it. Perfect.

It says, when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, or some people pronounce it Salami. She's an Italian girl came along, Salami, you know. She was there with them. And they, they brought. and they brought.

And they brought. And they brought. And they brought. So I'm not going to be They bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. And very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. And as they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. And he said, Don't be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. Here's the deal.

He has risen. See, that's our hope right there, guys. That's our joy. That's what we hold on to. That's the very thing that the reason we gather, the reason we live, the reason we gather in places like this, the reason we do it because of that very thing.

He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him? But go, and tell the disciples and Peter, he is going ahead of you into Galilee. And there you will see him, just as he told you.

See, this is the greatest show. Apologies to the circus, but this is the greatest show. This is the greatest event in history. This is where our hope lies. This is the cornerstone of our faith.

This is the linchpin to everything, right? Here is the fact. Jesus could have lived, but if he didn't die and rise again, proving that he was God, that he could conquer death and the grave, because what he did is at that moment, he stripped the devil of everything. He stripped him from his weapons. He stripped him from his authority.

He stripped him from his clothing. He threw him out right in front of everyone. In fact, it says it right here in Colossians 2.15. This is what Paul said.

He took away the weapons of the powers and authorities, and he made a public show. I love how that version of Scripture says, He made a public show of them, and he won the battle over them by dying on the cross. So he stripped away the power of Satan, and he made a show, a show. It is the greatest show. And Mary had a front row seat to this show, because what Jesus did was at that very moment, he gave us hope.

He rescued us from death. He rescued us from, he nursed us back to hell through the resurrection of his name. And Mary got to witness that event that changed everything. So my goal here is the why and how. Why did Mary and how did Mary witness this event?

Why? It would be easy to say that it was just a fluke. You know, it was just coincidence that she came across the grave and that she just happened to be there. But my goal today is to tell you it absolutely wasn't. It was purposeful.

It was intentional. She had a front row seat. She sees the empty two, and she even has an angel encounter. Now, who has an angel encounter? You know, she went from demons to an angel encounter.

I mean, that's amazing. Who would even, it's this, how did this happen? How did this happen? But her origin was humble. And by the way, Mary was called, by most scholars, the example of pure devotion in the entire Bible.

She was completely and fully devoted to Jesus Christ. She's a perfect example of that. And she was just flexing her superhero powers. That's all she was doing. And what happened when she flexed those powers, when she got those powers going?

She got to witness something that most people, nobody else got to witness. She was the very first one to witness Jesus. So, I want to circle. Back around to Luke 8, as he talks about, kind of gives you a little more background here, beginning with verse 1. It says, after this, Jesus traveled about from one town to village to another.

Some versions say every city. He was hitting every city, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. And then it says, the 12 were with them. Now, it's easy to stop right there, right? Because our minds immediately go to the 12.

Well, he had the 12, you know, a team makes the dream work. Teamwork makes the dream work. He's building, he's empowering these guys. And the hallmark of every leader is to empower others to do the work of ministry. And that's what Jesus was doing.

He was empowering the 12. It makes sense. And we immediately go, he's equipping these guys and sending them out. And he's getting them ready for ministry so that they can minister to all these different towns. Jesus cannot do it alone.

He's doing it with the 12. And we immediately think about, but the question is, how do the 12 go out and do ministry as well? By equipping and empowering, by empowering, by the boots on the ground, which gives us the next verse. And that is, and also some women, some verses say certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. And Mary called Magdalene from whom seven demons had come out.

And I don't care who you are. That's a lot of demons. Seven demons. I would think two or three would be enough, you know, but seven demons. Mary had seven demons.

And then it says, Joanna, the wife of Cusa was also there. And the manager of Herod's household, she was the steward. And then Susanna and many others. So these women were helping to support them out of their own means. In fact, which means that they were providing out of their own substance.

Some versions say they were providing out of their own substance. So they were actually supporting the ministry. They were financing the ministry. They were coming back behind the ministry of Jesus. See, Jesus needed this.

This was a part of it. And we like to think that about actual events that happened with Jesus, you know, like Jesus's healings and Jesus touching this person and touching that person. But we forget about the background. We forget about the boots on the ground. We forget about the women who were there providing, the women who were there serving, the women who were there walking along with Jesus.

And thank God for our women. Amen? I mean, right here in this church, we have many women who are the backbone of this ministry, working and providing and serving and offering financial means and whatever. I'm here. I'm here, Jesus, to serve you.

I'm here. I've got your back, Jesus. And Luke, who is often referred, uh, in the, in, as, as the gospel of womanhood, uh, explores this. He goes a little deeper. He said, don't you dare forget about those women.

You could, you could talk about Peter all day long, but Peter couldn't do what he done. And, uh, Paul couldn't have done what he did. Even in his ministries, he talked about women all around him that were helping and supporting his ministries. And he says, don't forget about, I mean, and he goes on, he talks about the, the mother of James. He talks about, um, the, the mother of Salon and, and, and just, there's many, many, many women in the Bible.

There were so many of them that were supporting and caring for the, uh, for the, uh, for the ministry. And so was Mary. And it wasn't just a, a fluke thing that she witnessed, that she was the woman of all the women. She was the woman who witnessed the resurrection. So now that we know that we, we circle back to the resurrection story now that we get that context in, let's circle back to the red resurrection story.

And I want to read you from Luke. So we had Mark, we began with Mark, you know, Mark is kind of interesting because he's, he's like the ADD writer, you know, he's probably, he's getting most of his information from Peter. So Peter, you know, they asked him, Hey Peter, can you write a count of the gospel? Peter's like, nah, Hey Mark, why don't you do it? You know?

And in between, uh, you reps at the gym, Peter's just tell him, you know, Hey, Hey, This happened, and that happened, and this happened, and then, and then, and then. There's a lot of and then statements in Mark, but John was a little bit different. John was a little bit more symbolic. John was a little bit more thorough. He liked to have control of what he was writing.

He liked the I am statement. He had the seven I am statements to kind of demonstrate Jesus. So looking at that story, we see a little more information here. We see it put together a little bit better, and so that's why we want to look at John. We can look at Mark, and then we look at John, and compare the two, and what we know is her first encounter with Jesus was the possession of demons.

It was, and she went from demons to angels. She went from demons to angels, and if you, it doesn't matter where you've come from in your life, this can be inspiring for anybody in this room today to know that she had seven demons, and then she witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. So just follow along with me here. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciples, the one Jesus loved, and said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb.

And we, we, there was a group of them, because Mary always had her posse with her, and I mentioned that in a few minutes. She had a group of people around her, a group of women, and we don't know where they have put him. So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Now, I don't know why that is in there, but I have a suspicion that John and Peter were always racing each other for something.

So, so John's like, you know, just to say, just, I just want to put that in there, you know, uh, I got there first, you know, and we ran and fat boy Peter couldn't keep up. So I'm, I'm, I'm at the tomb first. And then he says, he bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. And Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. How dare Peter disrespecting a tomb like that?

I mean, look at John here. He's just calling out Peter all over the place. And he saw the strips of linen lying there, and as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus's head. So Jesus kind of gently placed him to the side. I mean, he took his time.

Who can argue that it was, it was, the body was stolen. I mean, come on, who would wrap, take their linens off and place them gently to the side and things like that. And as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus's head and the cloth was lying, was still lying in its place separate from the linen. And then finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside and he saw and he believed. They, they still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now, Mary stood outside the tomb crying. So Mary's there crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus's body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. And they asked her, woman, why are you crying?

Why have you, and she answers, they've taken my Lord away. And I don't know where they have put him. And at this, she turned and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize that it was Jesus. He asked her, woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?

And thinking he had, or he was the gardener, she said, sir, if you have carried him away, I can imagine, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him. Mary kind of feisty. And Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned towards him and cried in Aramaic, Rabbani, meaning teacher. And Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.

Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. So, we see here that it certainly wasn't a fluke. It certainly wasn't just a happen chance that she come across Jesus. This was intentional. Jesus was intentional.

She was the first to tell the good news of Christ. She was the first to witness the actual risen Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? She was, and nobody before. I mean, she was the Billy Graham.

She went to go tell the others. She went to go tell Peter. Mary Magdalene was given a special appointment, a special place. And what poised and prepared her for this miracle, I want to talk about today. I want to give you seven things.

And it's going to be quick. Don't worry. Okay. Some of you are like, Oh my goodness. Seven things because she had seven demons and seven attributes that replaced those seven demons.

And a lot of scholars would say this. Were there actually seven demons? Maybe. Yes, there probably was. But really, the number seven was completely given over.

So, Mary was completely given over to herself or to Satan. And now she's completely given over to Christ. So, we're going to discover this today. How can we be poised for a miracle that Jesus has for us? A witness that the witness that she had, we can have to today.

We can experience a miracle in Jesus Christ. So, let me give you seven things here. The first thing is she showed gratitude. She showed gratitude. And you would too if you were possessed by seven demons and you were healed and you were delivered.

You'd have gratitude too. And grateful people always pivot to be a blessing because they have received a blessing. Grateful people are the ones who show up to bless others. Those who are great. See, gratitude is not invisible.

A lot of people say, Well, I got gratitude in my heart, you know? No, if you don't have, if there's not visible gratitude there, then it's not really gratitude. The most gratitude, the most grateful people, the most inspired and changed people that want to do for their Lord are those who are showing up. Those who are speaking up. Those who are standing up.

Those who are there to be a part of it. And if you are grateful, you will speak up. You will stand up. You will show up. You will be there for Christ.

And she was there for Christ. She had gratitude. And she wanted to help to get the gospel out. When she was changed, when she was transformed, she was there for Jesus. She says, How can I help?

I'm here, Jesus. I've got financial means. I've got people. I've got influence. I've got it all, Jesus.

If you're there, I'm there. And she was a grateful person. She was willing to step up and help. She was willing to do it for Jesus. She was willing to be the backbone of Jesus's ministry because she was concerned about what others were going through because she had experienced that very thing.

And she says, I'm going to put in the time. I'm going to put in the money. I'm going to put in the servant's heart. I'm going to scrub toilets if I have to, Jesus. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get the gospel out of this thing that changed me because she was very grateful.

I think about Jesus and the ten lepers. Ten men came to him with leprosy. And Jesus is always looking for a grateful person. So he heals ten people, and they're high-fiving each other. Yeah, we're healed.

We're completely restored of leprosy. But only one came back. One came back, and he recognized that guy. He says, Why would just one come back and be grateful? Jesus is looking for grateful people, and she shows up to the tomb.

She shows up with spices in her hand. She's ready to do it. And here's what she's thinking. She says, you know what? Joseph may have given him a tomb.

Nicodemus might have wrapped him up, but I'm here. I'm going to wrap him up better. I'm going to do whatever I can do. I'm going to be there. I'm here to help.

I'm here. I'm going to visit my Lord and make sure he's taken care of. She was showing up because she was grateful. She was also resilient. Mary was resilient.

I mean, she was in one of the most darkest places that anybody could ever be. Seven demons? Completely given over? And now she's walking in light. And it's easy to be defined by our past.

Mary was not defined by her past. Mary was walking forward. Mary wasn't going. You meet these people, and they're like, oh, I've been healed, but I've been delivered. But they keep going back to their past, and they kind of relive that past over and over again.

If you only knew. If you only knew what I've been through. If you only knew my hurts. If you only knew my pain. And they just, it's like they had never been delivered or healed in the first place.

And they just kind of live in that bubble of hurt and pain. But Mary wasn't that. She was resilient. Replaying the loop over and over again. So many people sit where they are.

But not Mary. In fact, people probably ran into Mary and were like, wow, you're just so lovely. You're so caring. You love people. You're serving.

And you're like, I could never imagine you being where you were before. Mary had a testimony. She was grateful for that testimony, and she was resilient because she didn't let the past define her. I think about, you know, the three Hebrew children, and when they were in the burning furnace, and they come out, and they didn't even smell like smoke. See, Mary didn't have the smoke smell on her anymore.

You know, she was in the fire for a while, but she didn't have that smoke. Nobody could smell the smoke. I mean, think about Moses for a minute. Moses could have easily defined himself as one taken out of the river or put in the river. Think about it this way.

He was placed in a river, and it was the only choice that his parents had. One of the most dangerous choices that could ever be decided. He was placed in a river in a crocodile-infested Nile river, and then he would be, the one who was his mother would be called his nurse. And the daughter of the very man who wanted to kill him would raise him, and he would have to be in the same household with the man who wanted to kill him. I mean, easily, Moses could define himself by those things, but he wasn't put in.

He was, what does Moses mean? Drawn out. He was drawn out. That was his name. I have been drawn out, and I have been placed, and I have been defined, and I am being used by God.

How many of you feel like, I mean, just give some rejoicing to Jesus Christ because you have been drawn out of the darkness. He was drawn out of that river. He was drawn out of that situation. He was used by God. He was defined by God, and Mary was defined by God.

There was no going back. There was no going back to that place she was. She was drawn out. She wasn't called neglected. She wasn't called abused.

She wasn't called abandoned. She wasn't called divorced. She wasn't called any of these things. She was called Mary, that tender voice that Jesus gave her. She also showed up, or showed her work.

Excuse me. She showed her work. She showed her work. Remember when you were in class, and you would do, like, all the math and things like that, and you could probably figure it in your head? Well, if you're not a math person, maybe not, but you could do that, but you always had to show your work.

We had to show your work. You know, show your work. Pass your work to, oh, man, I got to show how I did it. You know, show your work. Well, she showed her work.

She showed that what she was capable of doing. Because her name was Magdalene. And let me just let me just explain that for a second. People had names. Now, it wasn't her last name.

Her name wasn't Mary Magdalene. Magdalene was like her last name. No, just like Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ, for instance. We don't say, well, Jesus, you know, is his first name and Christ is his last name, right? Christ is your last name.

No, it identified who they are or where they were from and usually who they were associated with. If they had a father like Joseph, Joseph was Jesus' father. He was a carpenter and they called Jesus' son the carpenter. And then they had Jesus of Nazareth because he spent some time in Nazareth. He was actually been in, he lived in several different places.

He was in Egypt for a while. And then he, you know, Capernaum was actually the hometown of Joseph and Mary. And then, and then they lived in Nazareth because, you know, they were there for a while. So he got identified and he says, who is this man from Nazareth? Jesus of Nazareth, right?

So Mary of Magdalene is what this is, Magdala. Magdala was a place of influence. Magdala was like the, the, the posh district. That was, that was the place where, where the styles and the, and the things. So you could say that Mary was an influencer in her day.

They called her Mary the Magdalene. Meaning she, when, when people saw her, they saw, they, they saw this place. They saw, they saw Gucci. They saw, you know, all, Armani. They saw, you know, they saw the, the, the nice claws.

It was, it was a center as industry of dyes and clothing and things like that. And she wasn't only just somebody from there. She was that. She was that person of influence. When people saw her, she was the one that was influencing people and bringing people together.

There was something about her, Mary the Magdalene. She was known for success and affluence in that city. And she made a living doing that. And this is probably not how you pictured a woman that was possessed by seven demons. We often think of somebody maybe who's down and out and cutting themselves in a corner behind rocks on drugs or whatever it is, or a foaming of the mouth.

You know, when you think about, but, but, but she was not that. She was actually a person of affluence. She looked really great on the outside, but inside she wasn't. And Jesus spotted that. And he healed her and he delivered her.

And, and in some, some theologians would even say that, you know, the seven deadly sins, they kind of connected to her. And one of those is vanity and, and, and pride and, and, and things like that. So we could just say, if we want to put it in a modern day context, she was an Instagram influencer. Okay. Now bringing people in, look at this, look at that.

Oh, you know, I got to get all the little spots off my face and I got to get this and I got to get, I got to take about 10 pictures and my butt sticking out a little bit, you know, here. I mean, that was Mary. That was Mary. How can I enlarge this? Put this.

And, you know, that was her and they, they saw her. She was a person, but she had incredible influence. And let me just tell you, you know, the down and outers need Jesus, but people like that need Jesus too. The influencers, the wealthy people, the people of this, of this city. And Jesus was after her.

So Jesus, when Jesus healed her, nothing was the same. All that power, all that influence, all that that she had, she was able to use. She was completely sold to Jesus. Her popularity. I'm with you, Jesus.

Now, this is what I'm giving you, Jesus. Now, you know, I made a lot of money doing that. Here's my money. Here's my finances. Here's, here's my influence.

I can pull people together. Let me show you that, which leads me to the, to the next point. She showed the way. She showed the way. She showed up, uh, they, they show her 14 times in scripture and eight of those times with other women.

She was with other women. You know why? Natural born leader. Influential. Magnetic personality.

She had that. Always had her posse around her. Always had her girls. She was pulling them together. How are we going to help Jesus?

She was showing them the way. Yeah, she had the trendy clothes and all that stuff, and they were like, whoa, who is this girl? But she was not interested. That was just a magnet that was drawing them to show that there's something else. Let me show you the way to do this.

You know, Mary, Mother of James, why don't you come over? You got this gift. You got that gift. Let's go together. Let's do this together.

Let's support Jesus. Jesus is healing people. Jesus is changing lives. We're going to back him up. Come on.

You got that gift. You got that gift. You got this gift. And some of you here are those people. Some people just have this personality, this attractive personality.

This magnetic personality just pulls people together and goes for it. This was Mary. She was showing them the way. And she not only did that, she helped other people see that they could make the devil pay. They could make the devil pay.

Because she was making the devil pay. Remember I told you that scripture a few weeks ago? I mentioned that scripture about, you know, the unrighteous store up wealth for the righteous. Well, Mary Magdalene knew this very well. She says, the devil used my funds and used my influence and used everything for so long.

It's not happening anymore. I'm with you, Jesus. I'm walking out with you, Jesus. I'm traveling with you, Jesus. I'm going to do this with you, Jesus.

But I'm going to show some other people how to do that, too. In fact, in scripture, you see the wife of Cusa, Joanna. And what we learn, and why does John give us these details? Because people could go and actually see those people in that day. They were still alive.

So he could connect them. People could literally go and connect with those people, the wife of Cusa. And this was Herod Stuart, Herod Antipas. So Herod the Great was the one who tried to kill Jesus, right? He put the decree out.

He wanted to kill Jesus, right? So this is the grandson, or the son, rather. Antipas was the son of Herod the Great. And he was the one that killed John the Baptist. So now you have Joanna here, who's found Jesus.

Joanna's the steward of Herod Antipas. So Herod Antipas is funding Joanna, and Joanna's funding Jesus' ministry. Right? So Herod, the very person that killed Jesus' cousin, is funding Jesus' ministry. So that's what God does.

He uses the wealth of the unrighteous to fund. I just believe it. I believe it more than anything. We've had some generous donations in our church the last few years. And some people have come to me and says, Well, you know, that person's kind of questionable.

What's your thoughts on that? I said, Well, he uses. I don't know anything about those people. All I know is that God used them to fund us and do something in our church to reach more people. So I don't care.

You know, that's them. That's between them and God. But when we are, God uses the wealth stored up from others to fund his ministry and his kingdom so that his kingdom can grow. And we believe that as a church. So Antipas was payrolling Jesus' ministry.

So showing the way and making the devil pay. That's what she did. And she showed courage. Number five, she showed courage. She faced the cross.

She was at the cross. Again, where was Peter? Nowhere to be seen. Where was James? Where's Bartholomew?

Where was Matthew? Where was all the guys? Hiding. Scared. Worried that they were going to be arrested.

Where was Thomas? I doubt he was there. Right? A little inside joke. Yeah, joke.

Somebody picked up on it. Alec got it. Doubt it. Right? Yeah, dad jokes.

Dad pastor jokes. But Mary was there. And not only was Mary there. Her women were there too. They were serving.

They were serving. They married the mother of Jesus. They were there around the grave. John was the only. The disciple that showed up and who was beside him, Mary Magdalene.

Number six, she showed emotion. She showed emotion. Strong leaders always have that piece that connects them because you'll always be limited. You can be alpha female, you can be alpha male, you can be the best leader, but if that emotional piece isn't there, if the emotion isn't attached, you can only go so far. She was strong, she was vibrant, she was feisty, she was tough, but she cried.

And she cried publicly. She was there, she weeped. And seven, she showed her true colors. She showed her true colors. Crisis always reveals our true colors.

When we go through crisis, that's when the real us comes out. Because trouble doesn't change you, or change who you are, it exposes who you really are. Trouble doesn't change who you are, it exposes who you really are. And she was at the worst day of her life. She was before the cross.

She saw the very person that she had surrendered her life completely to, and he was brutally murdered on a cross. And there she was. But she was there. She was there at the grave. And she said, take my money, take my taxes, take my life, take the cross, I'm fine.

I'm going to be here for Jesus. I'm going to give it all. And where does that kind of power come from? Where does that really come from? This very statement.

And these two words have the capacity to change everything. My Lord. A lot of people call him the Lord. But she was like, where have you taken my Lord? My Lord.

My Lord. And I love how even she, you know, Jesus is talking to her, and she doesn't know. He's the gardener, and she thinks that, she doesn't know that it's Jesus, right? So she's there talking to him, and he's like, Mary, why are you crying? And I can just imagine her looking, where have you taken my Lord?

Where is he? Where, I mean, she was, he's like, oh, Mary, easy. Chill, girl. Come on. I love the mama bear that comes out in her, you know?

Like, where's my Lord? I'm going to wrap her myself. Listen, I mean, just imagine this. She had spices in her hands. She was going to go spice up and rewrap Jesus.

And I believe it took about, in Jewish tradition, about 50% of the body weight is wrapped in spices. So, say if Jesus was 150 pounds, that was probably a 225 pound corpse that she says, I'll go get him myself. That's how she was. That's how much she loved Jesus, and she was dedicated to Jesus. So, a 225 pound mummy she was willing to take.

But then he said this, he said, Mary. He said, Mary. And she instantly dropped to her knees. Why? Because she heard the voice of her Lord.

She didn't recognize him at first, but she heard the voice. She heard Mary. She heard the tender affection of Jesus Christ. And she immediately dropped to her knees. John 10, 27 says, my sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

They follow me. She had gratitude. She had resilience. She showed the work, the way. She showed courage.

She showed her true colors. But she showed up. She showed up. When the thick of things were on, she showed up. How many of you want to say that?

She showed up and I'm going to show up. We want to be people who show up. We're here. We're available, Jesus. We show up.

Why did she get the front row seat? Because she showed up. Why was she able to experience Jesus Christ rose again, be the first to share the God? Because she showed up. She was there.

Nobody else was there, but she was there, and she was ready to receive it. She was there. And in conclusion, we have these things called angel investors. You've heard of angel investors. And it's someone who gives, it was used as a theater, an old theater term, when somebody would do a show, and the show wasn't quite popular yet, and they were still working out the kinks, sort of like Salt Church today, you know, in a new facility here, and just working out the kinks and working out the show.

And these angel investors would come in on the background, and they would invest in the show and get the show going to the point where it could roll on its own. So these angel investors would come in. And they would be the saving grace of these theaters. And we talk about investments in the business world, these angel investors. See, Mary's investment is what kept the story going, and what is making the gospel even possible today.

She was an angel investor from demons to angels. And if Easter is the greatest show, then that's Jesus' job. Our job is to show up. Our job is the show must go on. Our job is to communicate and tell people about the good news.

Jesus came. He lived. He died. He rose again. He left us with this thought.

Jesus is love. God is love. And he loved the world so much that he gave his son that whosoever believes will not die, will not perish, but have everlasting life. Maybe that's you today. Maybe today is today.

Maybe that time is now to make that decision for Jesus. Just let the Spirit work for a second. I know we're a little later today releasing you from service, but I just think this is the most important piece of the puzzle right here is there's people that's lives are being touched right now. There's lives that God's calling you and hooking you, bringing you to himself. Let the Spirit work for a second.

If there's one here today that wants to know Jesus, I invite you to come to him. Let's pray this together. Just pray this with me. Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin. Come into my life and come into my heart, Lord.

Believe that you are the Son of God. Change me forever. Make me new. Make me brand new. In your name.

Amen. Can y'all celebrate Jesus by just clapping? Just stand up with me. Stand up with me and just let's just celebrate Jesus as we close. Let's go.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Thank you, God. Amen.

So there's one more thing here before we leave today. I, I, I, I, if. Actually, I kind of forgot about this. Isn't that terrible? Alright, so I'm going to have Christina announce our PJ winners.

Look at all the PJs. PJs and pies. You're welcome for getting to wear PJs on Daylight Savings Day. So, we have three winners of pies. We had judges this morning that you didn't know about because I'm sneaky.

And they were looking at everybody as they walked in. And so, the three winners are the Blalocks, who brought their Superman and Batman. Amish Bakery, y'all. They are amazing. Let's see.

Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Ooh, what is it? That's a Blackberry.

Blackberry? You like Blackberry, Scott? You're like, yeah. Okay. Okay, here you go.

Here you go, brother. There you go. Yeah. All right. We have Jessica Eiffel, who wore her onesie.

Oh, wow. She wore a onesie. Yeah. There you go. There you go.

And Kathy and J. We got the Grinch. He says, I'm the Grinch all year long. You got your apple pie here. And these are really, really good pies.

We don't play around here. I'll let you close that so I won't drop it. Yeah. Yeah, I just wanted you to look at it. All right.

All right. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. Miranda's going to come and close us out with just a real quick, you know, just giving points and also just an announcement that we want to make. I'm not sure if they gave you that announcement, but May 28th, we're the Priceless Pregnancy Center. We're going to be doing a collection that day.

Excuse me, March. Yeah. Yeah. I'm having a tough day, guys. I got it.

I'm having a tough day, guys. All right. Yeah. So right before we get into the giving portion, March 28th, that's two weeks from today. Two weeks from today, we will be supporting the Crisis Pregnancy Center.

So we want to make sure they know that that we support them, that that's something that's very important to Salt Church, that we support life unreservedly, unashamedly. We are absolutely not afraid to say that. And we want to support the Crisis Pregnancy Center so that the mothers and the women know we support them. We love women. We we love women.

God clearly loves women. As we've seen today, he raises women up constantly in Scripture. So we need to raise these women up, support them, show them that we love them. And it's obviously we love babies and we love life, but we love the people who give them life and to bring that life into the world. So please come ready to support that cause.

Obviously, we're not taking up, you know, passing around a bucket right now, but you can still give to Salt Church. You can give in a few ways. You can text the amount you want to give to 84321. You can go and give securely online at saltchurch.org slash give.

Uh, securely that way. You can also mail in a physical check to our P.O. box, uh, here in Virginia Beach. Or I believe you can also drop something in the, in the connections area, the welcome area in buckets as you leave.

So thank you again for all you do. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for bearing with us today and just being here and worshiping together with us. Thank you to the band. Thank you to everybody here at Salt Church.

And we will see you next Sunday.