Speaker 1: Hey, today is somebody's day.
Speaker 1: Slap your neighbor high five, say today is somebody's day.
Speaker 1: Today is somebody's day.
Speaker 1: I remember when it was my day I'm gonna tell you about that in a little bit, but let me tell you about a different day.
Speaker 1: So this was the first time and the only time ever I was in college I was doing my first all-nighter, and only all-nighter.
Speaker 1: I'd heard about pulling all-nighters, like, hey, man, you know, you can just kind of postpone, put off the study, you got a big thing coming and you just stay up all night and just study the night before and that'll be just fine and you'll feel like you're really getting the college experience.
Speaker 1: And so I asked exactly what it is.
Speaker 1: In fact, I had a speech that was due the next day.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh man, I'll up all night, I'm chugging Mountain Dew, all right, I'm eating probably cookies or something like that.
Speaker 1: And I get to the end of this thing.
Speaker 1: Now I thought, hey, people do this, people do this all the time, I can do this.
Speaker 1: And yet I walk into this speech and, guys, my head is so foggy I'm like half asleep, I can barely think straight.
Speaker 1: I can barely even mention half the content that I looked at the night before four.
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna lie, dude, I tanked, I bombed that thing.
Speaker 1: That was horrible and I learned that day don't ever do that again.
Speaker 1: Moron Like, are you psycho?
Speaker 1: Sleep would have helped here.
Speaker 1: That helps, as a preacher, to know that you need to sleep in order to communicate well, but what happened?
Speaker 1: I had a suspicion that, hey, man, my understanding of how all-nighters work is sufficient for what is about to happen.
Speaker 1: I thought I knew a lot about everything that I need to know, probably and you might have done that before.
Speaker 1: The problem is, god turns to warn us about this in Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6.
Speaker 1: It says trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Speaker 1: And it says something really curious Do not lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him and he'll make your path straight.
Speaker 1: And there's so many places I feel like I can lean on my understanding.
Speaker 1: But if I really, if I think it through, maybe you're like this.
Speaker 1: There's been places where you thought your understanding was just fine.
Speaker 1: You thought, dude, I can fix that.
Speaker 1: It was a do-it-yourself project, man.
Speaker 1: You looked it up, you saw Bob Vila or whoever was on the YouTube and you're like I can do this, man, and you ended up, you know, stripping the screws.
Speaker 1: You ended up bursting the pipe, like you thought you could do it, but you couldn't do it because your understanding was not really sufficient.
Speaker 1: Maybe you were like, hey, my kids don't need boundaries, I didn't have any boundaries, that'll be just fine.
Speaker 1: Problem is, as you rely on your own understanding, maybe there's a lot of things that were going on in your childhood that you didn't know about, that kept you on the straight and narrow, and there's a lot of things in your kid's life that aren't going right in the same way.
Speaker 1: So, no boundaries, even though you think you kind of got away with that, you're finding out with your kid.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that did not help the situation at all.
Speaker 1: Maybe you were like man, I got some symptoms and I know just where to go.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to Google.
Speaker 1: I need to know about what's wrong with me, and so you plug in some symptoms and you either freak out or you just realize, dude, this could be a thousand things.
Speaker 1: My understanding is not enough to really determine what is wrong with me and for some of us, maybe sometime in your life you're like I'll come back around to God later because I'll have time.
Speaker 1: Then right now I'm in a bunch of stuff and I got to get this done.
Speaker 1: God can come up later on.
Speaker 1: The problem is because we were leaning on our understanding, we didn't realize that over time my heart began to get cold and even wanting to get close to God got less and less and less, and now it's almost to the point where I'm callous and I don't even know that I remember what that means.
Speaker 1: To try to get close to God.
Speaker 1: We're going to look at the book of John today and John is writing to us and he's trying to help us understand.
Speaker 1: You don't always need to trust completely in your own understanding.
Speaker 1: What you really need to do is first put your faith in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Put your faith in Jesus Christ and a lot of other stuff will fall into place.
Speaker 1: And that's a pretty big statement.
Speaker 1: See, the apostle Paul says if Jesus Christ didn't rise from the dead, if he didn't rise from the dead, christians are the biggest fools of all Like if anyone ever found, if they ever dug up Jesus's body.
Speaker 1: This whole thing is over dude.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work anymore, because it's not just teachings.
Speaker 1: Thing is over dude.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work anymore because it's not just teachings.
Speaker 1: The entire paradigm for Christianity is Jesus Christ not only died, he rose from the dead.
Speaker 1: His body is nowhere on earth anymore, it is now physically, tangibly in heaven.
Speaker 1: That's what the eyewitnesses who saw him said.
Speaker 1: No, we know he was dead, and now he is alive.
Speaker 1: And what he did when he did that was he crushed.
Speaker 1: The power of death, and his resurrection is demonstrating to all of us.
Speaker 1: Dude, it's not just like you're kind of like forgiven in your heart or like God has good thoughts about you.
Speaker 1: No, your body is going to rise from the dead.
Speaker 1: That is the resurrection power, because his promise about him was true.
Speaker 1: It is also true about you.
Speaker 1: That's the whole deal about Christianity.
Speaker 1: It's not just being a morally good life, it's a savior rose, and if that isn't true, then, oh boy, we are to be pitied.
Speaker 1: Most of all.
Speaker 1: Is it possible, though, that we've leaned too much on our own understanding about the resurrection?
Speaker 1: Is it possible that sin, like it does, clouds our judgment?
Speaker 1: John says a lot of this in his gospel.
Speaker 1: He says Jesus is the light of the world and humans are often in darkness, and he often uses kind of like double meaning language.
Speaker 1: He says Nicodemus came at night to talk to Jesus and he says night, and he means it was night, but also that Nicodemus was in darkness until he met Jesus.
Speaker 1: In John, chapter nine, he talks about the man born blind, who was blind until he saw the light of the world, and then his eyes were opened.
Speaker 1: He was spiritually healed, but he was also physically healed.
Speaker 1: There's darkness throughout the book of John, and Jesus is the light that breaks forth, and that's the person who's talking to us right now and what he's going to claim.
Speaker 1: What we're going to see is you can know a lot of stuff, you can be brilliant, as many of the people in the Bible were.
Speaker 1: You can be brilliant, but until you encounter Jesus Christ, there's still perspective that you don't have.
Speaker 1: There's still clarity that you don't have, the light even though, you see, has not been turned on entirely, just like Nicodemus.
Speaker 1: So John says we must start with Jesus and then we'll be able to see the rest of everything else.
Speaker 1: And so, since our understanding, apart from God, is not necessarily reliable, what we've got to do is we've got to look to Jesus to give us the rest of the clarity that we need.
Speaker 1: See, it's said it this way he says I believe in Christianity, as I believe in the sun, that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
Speaker 1: And the apostle John is going to say today it's by Jesus that you see everything else.
Speaker 1: And so he's going to tell us hey, jesus was physically, he physically rose from the dead, he fulfilled the scriptures and now, pretty awesomely, you can put your faith in him before you understand everything.
Speaker 1: So that's what I want to talk to you about today Understand everything.
Speaker 1: So that's what I want to talk to you about today Believing before you entirely understand.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's pick it up.
Speaker 1: John, chapter 20.
Speaker 1: Now, on the first day of the week, mary Magdalene came out early to the tomb while it was still dark.
Speaker 1: Remember, we said it was dark all the time.
Speaker 1: In John it's dark.
Speaker 1: It's not only that it's early, it's that she's still in darkness because she's not yet encountered the risen Lord and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.
Speaker 1: So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved.
Speaker 1: Other side of Jesus, that's John.
Speaker 1: That's the writer.
Speaker 1: He's so humble he doesn't want to even put his own name in the book, so he just calls it.
Speaker 1: Well, jesus loves me so that's my name now and said to them they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they've laid him Now.
Speaker 1: I want you to notice this.
Speaker 1: First, she's alarmed.
Speaker 1: She's like what?
Speaker 1: What is going on here?
Speaker 1: I don't understand.
Speaker 1: She hasn't yet encountered this angel.
Speaker 1: All she knows is this tomb is empty and I don't know why.
Speaker 1: Why is that?
Speaker 1: Because she, like everyone else, was not expecting a resurrection.
Speaker 1: Everybody there's no parade there waiting.
Speaker 1: No one was like there with a keg and you know, and some hot dogs, like they weren't ready.
Speaker 1: Here he comes.
Speaker 1: He talked about it.
Speaker 1: He's going to be here any minute now.
Speaker 1: No one was there.
Speaker 1: Everyone was like once you're dead, you're dead.
Speaker 1: That's the way it goes.
Speaker 1: He is not coming.
Speaker 1: Why would anyone go wait at his grave?
Speaker 1: Because no one.
Speaker 1: Listen, my friends, no one thought Jesus was coming back.
Speaker 1: So that's why she's freaked out and that's why the apostle she tells they're freaked out.
Speaker 1: They start to, they break into a run, they're like we better go figure this out.
Speaker 1: And so Peter verse three and the other disciple went forth and they were going to the tomb and the two were running.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is.
Speaker 1: This is urgent.
Speaker 1: We got to get there, man.
Speaker 1: The two are running and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter I think they had a little bout that they were always going through Faster than Peter and came to the tomb first and, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there.
Speaker 1: He thinks Jesus was buried in without a Jesus and he saw the linen wrappings lying there but he did not go in.
Speaker 1: And Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth which had been on his head, now lying with the linen wrappings but folded up in place by itself.
Speaker 1: So the other disciple who had come first to the tomb, then also entered and saw and believed For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.
Speaker 1: So the disciples went away again to where they were staying.
Speaker 1: As yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.
Speaker 1: And what you might know is that Jesus was telling the disciples all the time I'm going to die and then I'm going to come back from the dead.
Speaker 1: But they didn't get it.
Speaker 1: They'd heard the scripture but they didn't get it quite yet.
Speaker 1: In fact, john 2, 22.
Speaker 1: So, and then I come back from the dead.
Speaker 1: But they didn't get it.
Speaker 1: They'd heard the scripture, but they didn't get it quite yet.
Speaker 1: In fact, john 2, 22.
Speaker 1: So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he'd said this, and then they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.
Speaker 1: There's certain things they didn't figure out until after it already happened.
Speaker 1: It was hidden from them.
Speaker 1: And sometimes, my friends, just like, just like Mary, just like the disciples, we're in the dark.
Speaker 1: We're in the dark about some of the things God is doing around us and in us.
Speaker 1: He's excited, he's doing it, but we don't know what he's doing because it hasn't occurred to us yet.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, god was doing this all the time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we're even despising God in our hearts a little bit.
Speaker 1: We're like well, I don't know why you haven't showed up.
Speaker 1: I it right now.
Speaker 1: You just can't see it yet.
Speaker 1: You're still in the dark.
Speaker 1: But, baby, the light's about to come on.
Speaker 1: Faith is sometimes sparked by evidence before we completely understand.
Speaker 1: They've got some evidence right in front of them, but they don't totally get it yet.
Speaker 1: What is actually happening, the meaning of the resurrection, what Jesus was talking about all this time.
Speaker 1: So I want to give you some evidences.
Speaker 1: They've got some evidence.
Speaker 1: I want to give us some evidences that Jesus Christ actually rose from the grave.
Speaker 1: But I want to give you a picture.
Speaker 1: First, there was a time in human history most of human history even though many, many, many suspected that the earth really was a ball, it really was round.
Speaker 1: They couldn't know for sure.
Speaker 1: In fact, there wasn't really.
Speaker 1: I mean, the final proof was when we got into space and we'd be like yep, ball, it is a ball, For sure it's a ball.
Speaker 1: But up until that time, many people suspected okay, the earth can't be flat because of the things that I see, even if you're not a mathematician.
Speaker 1: Okay, so some of the ways they used to do this is sailors would note okay, as a ship gets further away from me, the hull begins to go down.
Speaker 1: First you would think if it was all flat, the ship would just get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller.
Speaker 1: So you can't see it, but it's almost like it's going around something and sinking down.
Speaker 1: So I see the hull go down and then finally the mast and all the sails.
Speaker 1: But I know the ship didn't sink.
Speaker 1: So why is that happening?
Speaker 1: Because there's a curvature to the earth.
Speaker 1: That's why they also noticed that, as they would see mountains in the distance when they're on the sea, they see mountains.
Speaker 1: As they get closer to those mountains, it's like they begin to rise up out of the sea.
Speaker 1: They could see the tippy tops of the mountains first because there was a curvature to the earth, but as they got closer, those mountains started.
Speaker 1: They didn't really rise up, they were just rounding the planets and there they were.
Speaker 1: One more that people you know.
Speaker 1: They said this has got to be more than just a flat earth, because they would see a lunar eclipse and see, okay, when the sun casts the shadow of the earth onto the moon, it right, it's not like a plate, it's always from every angle.
Speaker 1: It's round.
Speaker 1: The shadow of the earth is round, so the earth must be round.
Speaker 1: So they didn't know for sure, but they had hints.
Speaker 1: They said something's got to account for all of these things.
Speaker 1: The best possible explanation is that the earth is just round, dude.
Speaker 1: That's why we're on a ball.
Speaker 1: That's what's happening here.
Speaker 1: So let me give you some hints.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's hint number one Jesus is dead.
Speaker 1: How do we know?
Speaker 1: The resurrection is true.
Speaker 1: Because, number one, jesus is dead.
Speaker 1: He's straight up dead.
Speaker 1: It's not even just the outwitness accounts, the apostles, the people of God that said he was dead.
Speaker 1: Secular authorities would say he was dead.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Tacitus, he's a Roman historian, but he's an enemy of Christians.
Speaker 1: He doesn't like Christians but he still admits.
Speaker 1: Hey, there's this Jesus guy.
Speaker 1: He was killed.
Speaker 1: He was killed under Pontius Pilate.
Speaker 1: He was given this death penalty.
Speaker 1: He's for sure dead.
Speaker 1: Josephus, he was a little bit more friendly toward Christians, but even so he's like.
Speaker 1: Jesus was real.
Speaker 1: He was murdered under Pontius Pilate.
Speaker 1: There's data, even from folks who agree and disagree Jesus Christ was real and he was for sure dead.
Speaker 1: Also, as we see this morning, the tomb was empty.
Speaker 1: It was open and it was empty.
Speaker 1: It was even so.
Speaker 1: I mean some of like, the face cloths was folded up on, you know, next to the cloths, it was folded up.
Speaker 1: Somebody did that right.
Speaker 1: Okay, specters don't do that.
Speaker 1: The wind doesn't do that.
Speaker 1: Somebody did that right.
Speaker 1: Okay, specters don't do that.
Speaker 1: The wind doesn't do that.
Speaker 1: Somebody did that right.
Speaker 1: If you're walking along the beach and you see written in the sand Taylor and Travis, somebody did that right.
Speaker 1: That didn't happen.
Speaker 1: And so somebody did, somebody folded this up up in the tomb, but there's also there's the fact that it's a it's women's testimony that is telling us this.
Speaker 1: Now it's sexist to us, but at that time, the last person you would want to consult about the truthfulness of something was to bring a woman in as an eyewitness.
Speaker 1: In fact, this was a saying better than the words, better than the words of the law be burned than delivered to a woman.
Speaker 1: That is how people understood it.
Speaker 1: And so if you're inventing a religion, if you're trying to trick everybody, make everybody think, yeah, these rules from the dead, the last person you would put in as your chief witness is a bunch of women, because people are like I don't take this seriously anyway.
Speaker 1: The only reason you would do that in every account is because it really was women, because that's who found it.
Speaker 1: It was women and they don't want to lie, because Jesus revealed himself to women first.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's a hint.
Speaker 1: Jesus was truly dead.
Speaker 1: The tomb was really open and empty.
Speaker 1: There's also another hint post-resurrection appearances.
Speaker 1: So this is not only the gospel writers, it's not only seen in the book of Acts, it's not only written about by Paul.
Speaker 1: There are post-resurrection experiences.
Speaker 1: Paul writes about one of them in 1 Corinthians 15.6.
Speaker 1: This is multiple disciples seeing the physical Jesus teaching them.
Speaker 1: Okay, verse 6.
Speaker 1: After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time.
Speaker 1: Most of them are still alive, though some have died.
Speaker 1: 500 people all seeing the same guy doing the same thing at the same time.
Speaker 1: Some would say well, carter, what that is?
Speaker 1: Everybody's tripping on acid and that's a hallucination.
Speaker 1: It's a group hallucination.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that doesn't happen, and I even checked.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is from the clinical handbook of psychological disorders.
Speaker 1: Hallucinations are, by their very nature, individual, private phenomena.
Speaker 1: The idea that they could occur to a crowd is unsupported by clinical evidence.
Speaker 1: People don't have group hallucinations.
Speaker 1: You might even have similar hallucinations.
Speaker 1: Somebody sees a tree stump and thinks it's a bear.
Speaker 1: Another person sees it and it is a bear, but then it turns into a porcupine.
Speaker 1: Even when they see the same thing and they're tripping, it quickly changes.
Speaker 1: They don't sit there and this person teaches 500 people.
Speaker 1: That just doesn't happen, dude.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's an evidence.
Speaker 1: Here's another couple of compelling ones.
Speaker 1: An enemy of the church of Jesus Christ, paul, who, like brags about how much he's destroying the church, turns into a Christ follower because Jesus appears to him and he's put all of his powers into opposing this Jesus.
Speaker 1: And now, as many of you know, paul is one of the top five most influential humans who have ever lived, and he was influential for the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: That's how convinced he was.
Speaker 1: But then this one is my favorite.
Speaker 1: Now, if you don't know what it's like to have a brother, you might not totally get this one is my favorites.
Speaker 1: Now, if you don't know what it's like to have a brother, you might not totally get this one.
Speaker 1: Okay, jesus's brother James, who did not believe in him when Jesus was before his crucifixion, becomes a believer and a leader in the church.
Speaker 1: He believes that his brother is the Messiah, is God himself.
Speaker 1: You can just ask the question People with brothers what would your brother have to do to convince you they're God?
Speaker 1: They'd have to be God, like they'd have to actually be God for that to work.
Speaker 1: I would never believe it, unless they actually were, and James believes it.
Speaker 1: So you have all this eyewitness testimony.
Speaker 1: You have an empty tomb, you have the fact that he's really, really, really, really, really, really dead.
Speaker 1: My friends, those are hints that the earth is round, that the dude really did rise from the dead.
Speaker 1: Now there's a clog in this pipe.
Speaker 1: Though it may be that you're saying, I still can't believe it, carter and I get that that might be a worldview problem, not really, honestly, an evidence problem.
Speaker 1: Okay, so many of you know that sequoias are the largest tree.
Speaker 1: They're not the tallest, but they're the largest.
Speaker 1: They're the most by volume, big trees.
Speaker 1: Okay, I want to show you a picture of the General Noble tree.
Speaker 1: That's what it was called.
Speaker 1: It's now called the Chicago Stump, but this is back in right before it was cut down in 1898.
Speaker 1: Let's, let's stay on that for a minute.
Speaker 1: It needed 18 men to surround that arm and arm to get around the tree.
Speaker 1: Okay, so they get the brilliant idea let's cut this down and let's take it to the world fair and we want to show everybody just how big things are.
Speaker 1: And they brought it to the World Fair.
Speaker 1: Let's see this stump.
Speaker 1: I just want to see what it is now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's thanks.
Speaker 1: That's what it is now.
Speaker 1: So they cut this down, they bring it to the World Fair and people are looking at it, they're touching it, they're smelling it.
Speaker 1: It smells like a tree and yet there's still people say that's not a tree.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because trees can't get that big.
Speaker 1: It's right here, there's the tree and they're like nope, trees don't get that big.
Speaker 1: What's the problem here?
Speaker 1: The problem is you've got a worldview that says this can't be true.
Speaker 1: And, my friends, that's how it is for some of us.
Speaker 1: With the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: It can't be true because dead people don't get back up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, duh, we've always known that.
Speaker 1: That's not new.
Speaker 1: No one's like coming out with this new news.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people always die.
Speaker 1: That's what makes it special.
Speaker 1: What is they say?
Speaker 1: Science has proven people don't get back up from the dead.
Speaker 1: My friends, science is principles that have resulted from observation of the way things go.
Speaker 1: What is a miracle?
Speaker 1: A miracle is a bending or breaking of the rules of how things go to get people's attention that God is God.
Speaker 1: That's how miracles work and that's what the resurrection was.
Speaker 1: So is it possible that we can all check ourselves sometimes and say am I not believing this?
Speaker 1: Just because this is the kind of thing I won't believe, or really because there's actually no evidence for it?
Speaker 1: So if we trust Jesus, if we trust Jesus, we can believe before we fully understand, before we fully understand the resurrection, before we fully understand the scriptures If we start with Jesus, which is where they started.
Speaker 1: Remember verse eight.
Speaker 1: So the other disciple, who had first come to the tomb and also entered, saw and believed.
Speaker 1: John enters and he sees oh my gosh, this stuff is all gone.
Speaker 1: I believe and trust that Jesus Christ was just who he said he was.
Speaker 1: He's going to get way more information, he's going to get way more clarity, but he starts with first.
Speaker 1: I believe and trust that God is who he says he is, for as of yet he did not understand the scriptures.
Speaker 1: There are things right now that maybe the answer for you this Easter is you're not going to see it yet, but trust now.
Speaker 1: You don't know what's going to happen with the job.
Speaker 1: You don't know what's going to happen with this new direction that you're going.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but you can believe before you fully understand what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: You can believe before you fully understand how that's gonna work.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've got some really heavy responsibilities and you don't know how to get out of them and it seems like God just laid this on you and I don't understand how this is gonna work.
Speaker 1: And the answer is believe first.
Speaker 1: You can believe God, you can believe that he's your friend.
Speaker 1: You can believe that he's got your back.
Speaker 1: You can believe that he'll work with you and be with you.
Speaker 1: Before you completely understand, their faith grew, however, after reflection upon the word.
Speaker 1: That's what verse nine said.
Speaker 1: They came to understand more deeply what was happening because it was revealed to them through God's word.
Speaker 1: And God's word is really important, man.
Speaker 1: This is why it's important.
Speaker 1: I love when we have so many guests on Easter.
Speaker 1: This is why it's important in your everyday life to get God's word into the bloodstream of your life, because it's God's word that produces faith.
Speaker 1: You want that faith that believes before it completely understands.
Speaker 1: It comes from God's word.
Speaker 1: I went to the doctor recently.
Speaker 1: Let's just go there, tmi.
Speaker 1: I had a colonoscopy and, yeah, survived.
Speaker 1: It came out okay.
Speaker 1: And one of the things the doc said to me I was like how do I keep my colon healthier, doctor?
Speaker 1: And he said more fiber.
Speaker 1: And I didn't say, well, that's a dumb idea, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 1: I said I guess that's what leads to health for colons.
Speaker 1: You got to have more fiber.
Speaker 1: Great, that's what I'll do.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you as like a spiritual doctor of sorts, for your life in the Lord to be healthy.
Speaker 1: You need lots of God's word in your bloodstream, the same way I need fiber in my real bloodstream.
Speaker 1: You need lots of God's word.
Speaker 1: That's what leads to more and more faith.
Speaker 1: Faith can grow in the midst of confusion and understanding if we're regularly taking shots of God's word into our spirit.
Speaker 1: Now you can do that by attending church, like coming to Fierce, watching online and check out our YouTube page and check out TikTok and Instagram.
Speaker 1: Get all those things in the bloodstream of your everyday world, the word of God flowing in, and your faith levels will begin to raise again and again and again.
Speaker 1: But we have to start with the same place stated.
Speaker 1: We have to start with Jesus.
Speaker 1: Trust Jesus with what you don't understand, by trusting him entirely with your life.
Speaker 1: Today, you know what's really cool about Jesus.
Speaker 1: Here's why you can trust him.
Speaker 1: He's more concerned about you than you are concerned about you.
Speaker 1: You've got worries, you've got stresses.
Speaker 1: Jesus is more concerned about you than you are concerned about you.
Speaker 1: He was concerned about you before you even could think to be concerned about yourself.
Speaker 1: He was concerned about you being with him forever.
Speaker 1: That's why when the father said, go to earth and suffer for their sins and die on a cross.
Speaker 1: It's going to be horribly painful and I'm going to use your blood to cover all of their sins.
Speaker 1: So it's completely not just covered, it's taken away.
Speaker 1: And Jesus says yes, I have their best interest in mind, and so I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1: I want to give you a picture that might help you understand this a little bit better, and, of course, I'm going to go to some Avengers movies.
Speaker 1: I'm going to start with an almost throwaway line.
Speaker 1: Okay, in Avengers, infinity War, captain America says to Vision we don't trade lives, we don't trade lives.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like hey, yeah, that sounds like a smart thing for Captain America to say.
Speaker 1: That sounds noble and good, we don't trade lives.
Speaker 1: And not too long after we see a trade.
Speaker 1: But it's as Thanos trades Gamora for the soul stone.
Speaker 1: See, the deal is he's got to bring the thing that he loves most in order to get this stone and he's going to throw her off a cliff to get the stone.
Speaker 1: And Gamora tells him this is not love.
Speaker 1: You're saying you love me, but this is not love.
Speaker 1: And then we fast forward a little bit into the story and more Avengers-y things happen and we get all the way, almost to the end, and Dr Strange looks at Tony and says and he reminds him, tony, I'm not telling you how it's going to happen, but I'm reminding you.
Speaker 1: There's only one way.
Speaker 1: There's only one way to save everybody.
Speaker 1: There's only one way to save everything.
Speaker 1: And then Tony understands well, I am going to trade my life.
Speaker 1: I'm going to trade my life for the chance that we get everybody back.
Speaker 1: And so, tony, knowing that the infinity gauntlet will kill him Sorry for spoilers, dude, you shouldn't have missed it.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, you shouldn't have missed it.
Speaker 1: It's big Like.
Speaker 1: This is a big part of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, but Tony's like I'm willing to die so that everybody can come back.
Speaker 1: And I'm watching this and I'm like this is the gospel.
Speaker 1: Has anyone not seen this?
Speaker 1: This is exactly the gospel.
Speaker 1: It's a life for all the lives.
Speaker 1: But it demonstrates Jesus's heart for you, that he was concerned about you before you were ever concerned about anything.
Speaker 1: He said yes, it'll cost me everything, but it'll get them all back.
Speaker 1: And that's what he wanted.
Speaker 1: He said it this way in John, chapter 10, verse 18.
Speaker 1: No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.
Speaker 1: I have the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again.
Speaker 1: This command I received from my father.
Speaker 1: That's who your God is.
Speaker 1: That's who he is.
Speaker 1: That's why you can trust him.
Speaker 1: That's why you can trust him before you understand everything.
Speaker 1: So today is someone's day, and I remember when my day was, my day was in 1996.
Speaker 1: And I'd been hearing of the things we're talking about today and I'd had you know I was kind of a good kid and I was been hearing of the things we're talking about today and I'd had you know I was kind of a good kid and I was all right, I had a religious ethic of sorts, but I understood for the first time Jesus was saying this to me that, carter, I want you all the way I want you to trust that I've got your best interests in mind, even when you don't even understand what that means.
Speaker 1: And the way it worked for me was I just came to it to a moment.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to just say it in my head, I didn't want to be like, okay, I'll trust you, cause I'd said probably a hundred times, I'm never swearing again and that didn't do anything.
Speaker 1: And so when the young woman said, guys, if you're ready to trust him like this, get on your knees and ask him to come into your heart.
Speaker 1: And I was so glad that she put it like that because it made it memorable, it made it like no, this wasn't like a whim that went through my head.
Speaker 1: This is.
Speaker 1: I remember doing this.
Speaker 1: This was a physical expression of yes, lord, yes, I want all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Yes, let's do it.
Speaker 1: I don't understand everything, but I believe that you have my best interest in mind.
Speaker 1: So, whatever it is, it's good.
Speaker 1: I want to invite you on Easter Sunday to make that same decision, and you don't have to get down on your knees If you don't want to.
Speaker 1: You're certainly welcome to.
Speaker 1: What I want you to do is I want you to?
Speaker 1: In an expression of faith and gratitude to Jesus, we're going to bow our heads.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to do is I want you to?
Speaker 1: In an expression of faith and gratitude to Jesus, we're going to bow our heads.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to raise your hand so that he can see it and so that your brain records.
Speaker 1: I didn't just think it.
Speaker 1: I remember doing this.
Speaker 1: It was a thing between me and God.
Speaker 1: Or if you want to get on your knees, you're certainly welcome to.
Speaker 1: Or if you want to come down here and kneel at the altar.
Speaker 1: My friends, jesus is worthy of being trusted before you understand, and understanding will come.
Speaker 1: But let's trust him first.
Speaker 1: So let's have everybody bow their heads, everybody close their eyes.
Speaker 1: Today is somebody's day, it's your day, just to give up, just to say yes, it's not weakness, it's great strength, it's great wisdom.
Speaker 1: So, father, in Jesus' name, we just want to come before you and we want to say thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, lord, that it was you that said I'll do it.
Speaker 1: I'll die in their place, my life, for all their lives.
Speaker 1: I'll do it because I have their best interest in mind.
Speaker 1: God, thank you that that's for me.
Speaker 1: I receive that in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: I'll do it because I have their best interest in mind.
Speaker 1: God, thank you, that that's for me.
Speaker 1: I receive that in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: I receive your forgiveness.
Speaker 1: I believe I am forgiven because you say I'm forgiven, god.
Speaker 1: I confess my ways of wandering from you, I confess my rebellion, and I believe that because you say I'm clean, I am clean and I'm asking you I want a personal relationship with you, not just a religion.
Speaker 1: I want to walk with you and talk with you.
Speaker 1: I want us to be tight and I'm asking you to come fill me as your vessel.
Speaker 1: I was made for you.
Speaker 1: Come fill me, jesus.
Speaker 1: Thank you that.
Speaker 1: This is what you wanted from the very beginning, though it cost you everything.
Speaker 1: Now, as every head is bowed and every eye is closed, I'm going to count to three and I want to encourage you to raise your hand high.
Speaker 1: If you've trusted Jesus today, I want you to show him the same way.
Speaker 1: Tony raised his hand.
Speaker 1: You raise your hand and say Jesus, I'm in for you on the count of three, every head bowed, every eye closed.
Speaker 1: But put your hands up.
Speaker 1: One, two, three.
Speaker 1: I'm in Jesus, I'm in, I receive you.
Speaker 1: I trust you.
Speaker 1: You forgive me, I in, I receive you.
Speaker 1: I trust you, you forgive me, I receive it.
Speaker 1: I thank you, god.
Speaker 1: I thank you that you're my Savior, you're my God.
Speaker 1: I have a relationship with you.
Speaker 1: Fill me with your Spirit All the rest of my days.
Speaker 1: I trust that you are going to take me and resurrect me, to be with you in heaven forever.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, you can put your hands down.
Speaker 1: Thank you In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: Guys, way to go.
Speaker 1: You're really bold there, good job.
Speaker 1: I want to give you another opportunity.
Speaker 1: In case you didn't do that, or if you did do that, there's a way that we can help you out here.
Speaker 1: I'm going to put up an image on the screen that just says I trust Jesus today.
Speaker 1: What you can do is you can snap a picture of that QR code or you can just type in the URL there.
Speaker 1: We're going to keep that up for a little while, and what that's going to do is it's going to take you to a little online form and you're going to tell me hey, I trusted Jesus today, or I recommitted my heart today, or hey, I didn't but pray for me, because I want somebody praying for me.
Speaker 1: If you go ahead and fill that out, I promise we're not going to share it with anybody.
Speaker 1: We're not going to sell it to anybody.
Speaker 1: Pastors will know about it, but that's all and that is so you and I can stay in touch.
Speaker 1: In case you get in some trouble, you have a way to reach me at any point over the coming years to reach our church.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you to take that step of faith.
Speaker 1: If you raised your hand, or even if you didn't, but kind of wish that you would have, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for tuning in today.
Speaker 1: If God has used the ministry of Fierce in your life, please consider paying it forward with a financial gift at fiercechurchgiv.
Speaker 1: If you want more resources like this, check out all of our channels at YouTube, tiktok and Instagram.
Speaker 1: Check out our podcasts and check out our blog at fiercechurchblog, if you haven't already.