SPEAKER_00: Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan, and thanks for downloading the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message will talent and help you take the next step that you follow.
SPEAKER_01: How's everybody's Easter morning been so far?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_01: I like it, Will.
SPEAKER_01: I like the enthusiasm in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, some of y'all still like to be a little half asleep, and that's cool.
SPEAKER_01: We we gathered for worship about an hour and 15 minutes before, normally.
SPEAKER_01: Normally it's 10:15 on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but no doubt you've probably had a pretty good Easter morning.
SPEAKER_01: Uh many of you, when you woke up, you had an Easter basket that uh your mom or dad maybe had prepared for you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, then you had a special Easter breakfast, uh, and then you got on your special Easter outfit.
SPEAKER_01: And if mom and dad wanted you, you know, you you took a picture with brother and sister in those new Easter clothes.
SPEAKER_01: Uh everything was great about Easter morning, uh, maybe until the moment when everybody got into the car, right?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, everyone gets up at the right time.
SPEAKER_01: They all uh get dressed, they have breakfast, everybody even seems to be getting along, but your entire family uh piles into the car.
SPEAKER_01: The car starts just fine, but then this light uh appears on your dash.
SPEAKER_01: If we can go to the next slide, this light appears on right there, that low fuel indicator light.
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody drive to church this morning with the low fuel indicator light on?
SPEAKER_01: We got we got some guilty as charge people already in the room.
SPEAKER_01: I like it.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be honest this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Keep it 100 in this place, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh authentic.
SPEAKER_01: Um, or maybe you're that person who, yeah, not only did you drive to church led by that uh orange glow, but you've been letting that orange flame guide you for like three days in a row.
SPEAKER_01: Like you are pushing it to the bounds.
SPEAKER_01: Personally, the appearance of that light kind of leaves me a little unsettled in my car.
SPEAKER_01: My kids, the moment it comes on, they're like, Dad, you have to go to the gas station.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Yeah, I do.
SPEAKER_01: Like, how long can I actually go uh before I run out of gas?
SPEAKER_01: Because it reminds me of um this hot summer day when I was 16 years old.
SPEAKER_01: When I was 16 years old, I had a 1979 Chevrolet pickup truck.
SPEAKER_01: I know, pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_01: And just so you know, it did not have a low fuel indicator light, nor did it have a functional gas gauge, which meant that no matter how much gas was in the tank, it always said there was a third of a tank.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me tell you, that's what it didn't have.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't have the light or the gas gauge that worked, but it did have like an extended bed, had white wall tires, it had an eight-track player inside, um, it had a camper shell, and it had a gun rack.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and it also had the not-so-faint smell of cigarette smoke because it had been my granddad's truck and he would burn through a couple packs a day.
SPEAKER_01: So that was my uh first car that I drove from 16 through 18, and it makes sense why I really never had a date in high school.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so one Sunday afternoon, I'm going to go meet some friends actually at church, and my mom and dad's house is probably a mile and a half from the church that I grew up attending.
SPEAKER_01: I'm able to cross over I-30 and Benton and I'm about to take a left onto the service road.
SPEAKER_01: I've stopped.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take a left onto the service road, and I moved my foot from the brake to the gas, and my truck just completely died.
SPEAKER_01: On that day, my truck wasn't just low on fuel, it was out of fuel.
SPEAKER_01: The tank was empty.
SPEAKER_01: So, is anyone this morning willing to admit that you've run out of gas before and found yourself stranded on the side of the road?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone willing to admit that?
SPEAKER_01: There's a few honest folks in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Others of you are well, liars, because I know it's happened to more of you than the few that raised their hands.
SPEAKER_01: And anytime you have an empty tank and you're left stranded on the side of the road, you have this bitter taste in your mouth, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: This bitter taste.
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's kind of a mixture of embarrassment.
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe I did that.
SPEAKER_01: Frustration.
SPEAKER_01: Why didn't I just stop at the gas station that I just drove past?
SPEAKER_01: Disappointment.
SPEAKER_01: There's even some anxiety in your mouth that you taste in that moment, and there's some loneliness too.
SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, some of you, you've never run out of gas, and good for you.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but you've still tasted the pain of what it means for something in your life to be empty.
SPEAKER_01: Now, it could have been the empty was just kind of more of an annoyance.
SPEAKER_01: More of an annoyance.
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, so like on Saturday morning, you woke up and you were really looking forward to that cold piece of pizza for breakfast, but um, you open the uh refrigerator door and the pizza box is like still in the refrigerator, and you open the box and it's empty.
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody ever had that happen before to you?
SPEAKER_01: It's because the pizza goblins got out in your home in the middle of the night and had the last piece.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe your annoyance was you're just trying to get out the door to work or to school, and um you need to brush your teeth, and you go and grab your tuba toothpaste, and there is nothing in it, um, and you can't find another full tube of toothpaste in the entire house, so you just have to have stinky breath the rest of the day.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but there are other times in life when empty, this sense of something not being full, is actually more of a stinging pain, and it really does kind of hurt.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you may think of it like the empty room that no one showed up, no one showed up that was invited, or or you think of it uh it just communicates no one cares about you, or it's that trusted person in your life who made a promise and didn't keep it, and you felt the heartache of empty words.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in the English language we spell empty E M P T Y.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the funny thing about this word empty, E-M P T Y.
SPEAKER_01: If you erase the E and then you phonetically sound out the remaining four letters, the sound that they make is still empty.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you erase the P and you phonetically sound out the remaining three letters, the M, the T, and the Y, the sound they still make is empty.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you erase the Y, you're just left with the M and the T, and phonetically their sound is still what?
SPEAKER_01: Empty.
SPEAKER_01: And then you erase those final two letters, and now the slide, it's empty.
SPEAKER_01: It's as if we can't outrun or escape empty in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We we experience its sting in in so many spheres, but the most painful sting of that word empty is when we experience it in the depths of our soul.
SPEAKER_01: You know, all of us at one time or another in our life have felt that pain.
SPEAKER_01: In that moment when we feel our soul is empty, we wonder if our life has meaning.
SPEAKER_01: We wonder if our life has value, if our life has a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: The author of the Old Testament book, Ecclesiastes, he puts it this way.
SPEAKER_01: He says this he says, everything is meaningless, completely meaningless.
SPEAKER_01: If you exchange the word meaningless with the word empty, you wouldn't change his message one bit.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us, when we feel that emptiness in our soul, we we try to numb the ache.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we just try to entertain ourselves to keep our mind off of it.
SPEAKER_01: We binge another show on Netflix, we scroll through Facebook or Instagram, um, we drown in cable news coverage.
SPEAKER_01: Other times to numb the ache, we shop online, we try to buy more things.
SPEAKER_01: Still other times uh we eat more and we drink more.
SPEAKER_01: Other times we just try to ignore the ache or the pain altogether.
SPEAKER_01: Other times we just decide we're gonna work harder at our job because we want to earn that credibility, that meaning, that respect that we're missing inside of us.
SPEAKER_01: But did you know this that no matter how much entertainment you consume, um, how many purchases you make, no matter how much you eat or drink, how much you earn, none of those things will make you feel any less empty.
SPEAKER_01: You may fill up your time, you may fill up your house, you may fill up your stomach, you may fill up your bank account, but they will never fill up your soul.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know this that over the last 80 years, uh researchers have determined this that life in America over the last 80 years has steadily become easier and more prosperous.
SPEAKER_01: It's a more comfortable life that we live than we did 80 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: Yet, at that same time, people's experience, especially among young adults, people's experience has been more filled with dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, no matter how hard we try to fill our lives, to fill our soul, they are it's still empty.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing about that word empty.
SPEAKER_01: We not only experience it within us, we see it all around us.
SPEAKER_01: We see it in the headlines about a war being waged.
SPEAKER_01: We see it in headlines that tell us that addictions are growing.
SPEAKER_01: We see it in headlines and reports that polarization is increasing.
SPEAKER_01: You see the way we treat one another, when we decide we can cut one another down, when we decide we will not give anyone the benefit of the doubt, and we're just gonna make them feel worse about themselves, that says that the life of that other person is empty, that it is meaningless, it doesn't have value, it lacks purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And when a life and when a world kind of lives out this emptiness that we're experiencing on a level of our soul, when we when we live that out, we get caught up in this endless cycle of frustration, anxiety, disappointment, and even despair.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think those four words describe our world right now?
SPEAKER_01: Frustration, anxiety, disappointment, and despair.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, when it comes to the human condition, here's the fact of the matter.
SPEAKER_01: We're empty and we need an answer.
SPEAKER_01: And there is only one answer for a soul and for a world that is racked with frustration, anxiety, disappointment, and despair.
SPEAKER_01: And the answer is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ is the risen Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: He is alive, and what our soul craves and what our world needs to fill it is the powerful name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Our world that is racked with frustration and anxiety and disappointment and despair needs the message of hope that ushers out of the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: The answer is Jesus for your life and for the world.
SPEAKER_01: Because listen, here's today's main idea.
SPEAKER_01: Think about this an empty life needs the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: An empty life needs the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: What your empty life needs, and what this empty world needs is to have a relationship with the Lord of the empty tomb, the one who walked out of it and conquered death.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who can fill us with hope.
SPEAKER_01: So listen carefully this morning to the story that John tells in chapter 20 of his gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Listen carefully to this story, and I want you to see if you can find yourself in these verses.
SPEAKER_01: Place yourself in the middle of this story.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading with verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: John 20, verse 19 says this.
SPEAKER_01: That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly Jesus was standing there among them.
SPEAKER_01: They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Again he said, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
SPEAKER_01: Then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: John's gospel tells us that on the first Easter evening, the disciples of Jesus rendezvous with one another at a safe house.
SPEAKER_01: The lights are dim, the curtains are drawn, the doors are locked, entrance is only granted if you know the password when you knock.
SPEAKER_01: They couldn't take any chances.
SPEAKER_01: Because on that first Easter evening, the disciples, they're going to take every precaution because they are afraid.
SPEAKER_01: That's what John says.
SPEAKER_01: They are afraid.
SPEAKER_01: They are motivated by fear.
SPEAKER_01: They fear that if they are found by the Jewish leaders, they will suffer the same fate as Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Arrest, trial, conviction, crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what you should notice.
SPEAKER_01: In the span of just a week, the primary motivating factor in the lives of the disciples had completely shifted.
SPEAKER_01: On the Sunday prior, Palm Sunday, the disciples are motivated by faith.
SPEAKER_01: They are motivated by the belief that Jesus is God's Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Motivated by the belief that through Jesus, God will liberate Israel from the oppression of Rome.
SPEAKER_01: So they are motivated by faith, which means their lives are brimming with value and purpose and meaning.
SPEAKER_01: And then the cries of the crowd on that Palm Sunday, as they say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, they only reinforce the faith that they are experiencing in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: And then one week later, the entire script has flipped.
SPEAKER_01: Once motivated by faith, now the disciples are motivated by fear.
SPEAKER_01: Motivated by fear.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I know about fear.
SPEAKER_01: In small doses, fear is healthy.
SPEAKER_01: Fear is healthy in small doses.
SPEAKER_01: It's what motivates a child not to touch a stovetop.
SPEAKER_01: Motivates a child not to stick a fork, a metal fork, into an electrical outlet.
SPEAKER_01: Fear in small doses is completely healthy.
SPEAKER_01: But I think sometimes we forget that fear is a controlled substance.
SPEAKER_01: In larger doses, fear, it paralyzes us.
SPEAKER_01: In larger doses, fear injects into our veins that frustration, that anxiety and disappointment.
SPEAKER_01: And then when we overdose on fear, what happens is we are filled with despair.
SPEAKER_01: That's why too much fear quickly makes the soul feel as if it is empty.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see what happens?
SPEAKER_01: Too much fear.
SPEAKER_01: Too much fear makes us feel empty on the inside because we're experiencing all these intense negative emotions.
SPEAKER_01: And fear, it blinds us to the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: In that very moment, the disciples had forgotten the promise of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Often he had taught them something like this in Mark 8:31 that he, Jesus, would suffer many terrible things.
SPEAKER_01: He would be killed.
SPEAKER_01: But three days later, he would rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had promised the events of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: He said they would occur, but the disciples had forgotten the promise because fear was the motivating factor in their life.
SPEAKER_01: They were trying to save their skin.
SPEAKER_01: So in that moment, that first Easter evening, it's my guess that those disciples huddled in that room with behind a locked door, with curtains drawn to dim lights, they feel an emptiness that you and I are all too familiar with.
SPEAKER_01: All because of fear.
SPEAKER_01: All because they're blinded to the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: And it was caused, get this again, it was caused by nothing more than a change, albeit a dramatic change in circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: So, child of God, here's the question right now I want to press into for just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: What's the change in circumstance that has blinded you to the promises of God?
SPEAKER_01: What's the change?
SPEAKER_01: It could be a dramatic change that now leaves you motivated by fear, and your life feels empty, without meaning, without value, without purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Dramatic change of circumstance, like the loss of a job, the loss of a spouse, the loss of a friend, or a doctor's report that was not what you were hoping for.
SPEAKER_01: A challenging season with a child that pushes you to the brink.
SPEAKER_01: Or just the pain of growing older.
SPEAKER_01: Each of those change in circumstances, listen, they are dramatic and they are difficult.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not suggesting in any way the pain you feel isn't real, that it isn't warranted, and that a twinge of fear isn't natural.
SPEAKER_01: But if you find yourself paralyzed, paralyzed with frustration, disappointment, and despair.
SPEAKER_01: If because of this change in circumstance you just feel empty in your soul, you need to be reminded of the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: A promise like Psalm 34, verse 18, that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
SPEAKER_01: A promise like 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 7, that says, Give all your worries, all your worries.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hold any worries to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Don't try to handle it on your own.
SPEAKER_01: Give all your worries and your cares to God, for He cares about you.
SPEAKER_01: Promises like these, here's what they remind us.
SPEAKER_01: Promises like these remind us that God's eye is always on his child.
SPEAKER_01: And the person who God sees, that person has value and meaning and ultimately purpose in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Your life is not empty because God's eye is on you.
SPEAKER_01: Remember those promises, but most importantly, listen, remember the promise of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the promise of the empty tomb, because it's the promise of the empty tomb that injects peace and joy into our veins.
SPEAKER_01: An empty life needs the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: So just imagine that you're in the room with those disciples, feeling that gnawing emptiness on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: And then out of nowhere, Jesus appears.
SPEAKER_01: Mary Magdalene had told you that he's alive.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't know if you believed her.
SPEAKER_01: But now you see Jesus with your two eyes.
SPEAKER_01: You see him for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You see his wounds, his scars, and then he speaks.
SPEAKER_01: The first word out of his mouth is peace.
SPEAKER_01: He says, peace be with you.
SPEAKER_01: The peace that Jesus speaks in that room is a peace that reconciles, that starts a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: It's a peace that is a word of welcome, saying, because of my cross, because of my resurrection, your place in the family of God is now secure.
SPEAKER_01: Ultimately, when Jesus says, peace be with you, he is telling his disciples this very important message.
SPEAKER_01: You now can have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: You can experience that life-giving, soul-filling relationship with your Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, friends, nothing counters the bitter taste of emptiness, like a relationship with the Creator.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing gives meaning and value to our lives like knowing the God personally and intimately who created you.
SPEAKER_01: An empty life needs the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: And it's Jesus' empty tomb, the fact that he's the Lord of the empty tomb that allows us to enter into this life-giving relationship.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the immediate reaction of the disciples in that moment, Jesus says, peace be with you, and then joy is coursing through their veins.
SPEAKER_01: Joy, the opposite of that intense frustration, the opposite of that intense despair that they had just felt.
SPEAKER_01: Now, joy is pumping through their veins.
SPEAKER_01: Joy, it's the automatic response of the peace that Jesus offered.
SPEAKER_01: Because joy is produced when we experience that personal, thriving, intimate relationship with the God who created us when we realize that the message of the empty tomb is real, that Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_01: Real joy recognizes that you are a member of God's family and you share in the victory of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Child of God, here's the invitation today to let that message, that reality of the empty tomb, echo deep within your soul.
SPEAKER_01: And whenever you are tempted to overdose on fear due to the circumstances of life, the headlines we read, remember that the tomb is empty.
SPEAKER_01: And let the peace of Christ and the joy of Christ course through your veins.
SPEAKER_01: But don't just remember and recall the message.
SPEAKER_01: You got to share the message.
SPEAKER_01: Because remember what?
SPEAKER_01: An empty life and an empty world needs the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the story, Jesus simply does this.
SPEAKER_01: He commands his disciples to go.
SPEAKER_01: He sends them and then he empowers them with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He sends them out into an empty world to proclaim the good news of the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: So that more and more people can experience that very same peace and that very same joy in their life that only comes through a relationship with the God who created them.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I think we forget that the message of Easter is not just for us, it's for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: An empty world needs the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: They need the message of hope.
SPEAKER_01: Don't keep the message of hope confined within these walls.
SPEAKER_01: Tell everyone that you can that Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_01: Back to what we said at the very beginning.
SPEAKER_01: The condition of our world outside of Jesus, the condition of a life outside of Jesus is emptiness.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus is the answer to the emptiness we experience.
SPEAKER_01: So the question this morning is just simply this Have you trusted Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Have you trusted Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Have you called upon the name of the Lord and trusted that Jesus is the only Son of God and by His sins, by His death, the sins of the world are forgiven?
SPEAKER_01: Have you trusted in Jesus that by the power of his resurrection you can be welcomed into the family of God?
SPEAKER_01: Have you trusted in Jesus, the one who has been forever and now reigns and will one day come again to rescue his church and to redeem all of creation?
SPEAKER_01: Have you trusted in that Jesus, the one who's the Lord of the empty tomb?
SPEAKER_01: And if you trust in that Jesus today, here's what I know that the emptiness you feel, you feel in this moment will be filled by Him.
SPEAKER_01: And that, the disappointment and the frustration and even the despair that you know you don't want to talk about it, you want to ignore it and act like it's not there, but that all those feelings that are very, very real, Jesus comes into our life and he gives us peace.
SPEAKER_01: And he gives us joy.
SPEAKER_01: Peace and joy that come only through a relationship with our Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_01: Will you trust Jesus today?
SPEAKER_01: Let's stand together.
SPEAKER_01: Almighty God, we celebrate the message and the hope of the empty tomb this morning.
SPEAKER_01: What tremendous power you displayed through that act.
SPEAKER_01: No greater miracle have you ever performed.
SPEAKER_01: And we thank you that we can share in that hope by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so I pray specifically at this hour for the person who has yet to trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That today they would say, I want to make a decision for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I want to experience that peace and joy that only He can offer.
SPEAKER_01: I want to experience and now live in an eternal relationship with my Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, I want to be filled with the hope of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I know there is that person in this room or many in this room who need to make that decision.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, give them the courage to step out and say, I want to trust in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, give them the courage to put their hope and their trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Lord of the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in His name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: As we prepare to sing now, now is the time when you can respond if you are ready to put your faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Let's sing.