unknown: A hand.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: We are so excited that you are here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Just uh by show of hands, how many of y'all were gonna come in the rain last night?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there you go.
SPEAKER_00: Look at there.
SPEAKER_00: We you picked the great service.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all knew it.
SPEAKER_00: So uh we're just so glad uh that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: God's already doing some incredible things this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And uh here's my belief.
SPEAKER_00: My belief is that God can speak to you in your life today.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what season of life you're in or what you're going through or what you've been through.
SPEAKER_00: Uh our heart and our prayer for you today is that it's not just another holiday, uh, but it's a fresh time with the Lord for you.
SPEAKER_00: We've been in a series called The Jesus Life.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Jesus life, what we're talking about is this idea that Jesus came and he lived, he died and he rose again.
SPEAKER_00: But the life that he left behind is a life that is an example or a model for us.
SPEAKER_00: And the things that he said and the things that he taught on, we believe they're not just some old words in an old book, but there's something that can be new and fresh for you today as you live the way that Jesus lives.
SPEAKER_00: So I've titled today's message, The Abundant Life.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to your neighbor and say, It's gonna get good.
SPEAKER_00: You may have spoken a little soon.
SPEAKER_00: I I uh how many of you know knowing about something and experiencing it is two totally different things, right?
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all would like to have a good life?
SPEAKER_00: Five of you.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: I I mean, how many of y'all over here would like to have a good life?
SPEAKER_00: We'll leave them behind.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: So uh uh.
SPEAKER_00: But knowing about a good life and feeling like you have a good life aren't necessarily the same things.
SPEAKER_00: I uh when my toddler, my Emmy, when my daughter Emmy was a toddler, uh she was potty training.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when she was potty training one day, we went over to my wife's grandparents' house.
SPEAKER_00: They had recently passed away.
SPEAKER_00: We were moving furniture.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of y'all know an old house when you walk in an old house?
SPEAKER_00: The carpet is as white as white.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter that it's 40-year-old carpet, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: And uh when my daughter, uh, you know, and the antiques are like 5,000 pounds, and there's like only 5,000 of them, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And so we're moving some antiques across the floor, and my wife and I were trying to carry it and move it, and my my little toddler, she screamed, Daddy, I gotta go potty.
SPEAKER_00: Parents, you know that means you stop whatever you are doing to preserve grandma's white carpet, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So I ran her to the restroom and got her pulled up off and was getting her all situated.
SPEAKER_00: I got all kneeled down, and as I was getting her ready, she kept saying, Daddy, what's that button?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't know, don't touch it.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Daddy, what's that button?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Baby, don't touch the button.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Daddy, and I said, What?
SPEAKER_00: She said, I touched the button.
SPEAKER_00: And about two seconds later, that bidet started shooting right out of that toilet into my face.
SPEAKER_00: And for the life of me, I could not figure out how to close my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: When it was all said and done, rain was coming from the ceiling, and my daughter looked up and she goes, Daddy, it's raining in here.
SPEAKER_00: It was in one of those moments.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all know knowing about something and experiencing it are two totally different things?
SPEAKER_00: I'd heard about a bidet my whole life, but I had never seen one in action.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing about something and experiencing it.
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to talk to you about the reign of God.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, sometimes the reality is in my story is that it was unexpected and it was unwanted.
SPEAKER_00: It was uninvited.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't intended.
SPEAKER_00: This is not how I saw my day going.
SPEAKER_00: This is not in the cards for me.
SPEAKER_00: This is not what I had planned.
SPEAKER_00: This is not what I had mapped out, and it sure did create quite a big mess.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is wanting a good life, but experiencing it are two totally different things because oftentimes what you find is there is some unwanted rain in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever been there?
SPEAKER_00: You've been there.
SPEAKER_00: We all have a story, we all have a past, we all have things we've experienced in life, and the challenge is the unexpected and unwanted rains of life.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm here to propose to you today that there's another way.
SPEAKER_00: That in fact, here's what I believe.
SPEAKER_00: I've been praying for you this week.
SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about you before you ever came because I've been praying for you that you would experience the reign of God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, rain when you're trying to get in church at four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon in a farm like setting is not so pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: But rain when you're on vacation and sitting on the back porch and listening to its sound and life has slowed down has an altogether different effect.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I believe.
SPEAKER_00: I believe there's a prophetic reign of God that wants to come to you in your life, and here's what that simply means.
SPEAKER_00: That means that God wants to do some things in your life that you've been waiting on.
SPEAKER_00: Some things that you've been expecting, some things that you've been longing for.
SPEAKER_00: And here's really what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about the abundant life, we're talking about the reign of God.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a life that God desires for you.
SPEAKER_00: Which means this: if you've been living in a life of pressure, anybody ever been under some pressure?
SPEAKER_00: It's like if you've been living in pressure and reign of God shows up, it means there can be peace in the places of your life that you've found the greatest pressure.
SPEAKER_00: It means that if you have a story in a past and you have some things that have come along the way, then if you're living and breathing and moving, it probably means you have some hurt in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Some people that said some things or did some things or acted certain ways or maybe some things of your own doing that you have found have brought hurt into your life.
SPEAKER_00: The reign of God counteracts that.
SPEAKER_00: Too much on your plate, feeling weak, feeling discouraged, feeling like you don't have the strength to carry on.
SPEAKER_00: The reign of God brings something different.
SPEAKER_00: The reign of God, when it comes, even if it was unexpected, when it comes, it can bring strength to the hard places of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here to preach an Easter message.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been to church a few times on Easter before, but my hope in my heart is that you would get a fresh rain today.
SPEAKER_00: That wouldn't just be a message you've heard before and think, oh, that's that's a great event.
SPEAKER_00: I'll celebrate it once a year, but actually that you would wake up every day and you would begin to experience the life that God always intended for you to live.
SPEAKER_00: That you begin to see some things that you couldn't see before.
SPEAKER_00: When I think about this, this idea isn't new.
SPEAKER_00: This is something that Jesus introduced in John chapter 10 when he talked about abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 10, Jesus is talking to a group of people and he's telling them, He's saying, I'm gonna be a good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I know there are people who are gonna come, robbers and thieves.
SPEAKER_00: He calls them people who have come and tried to do you harm, but Jesus says, I've come to bring you good.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, some of y'all have been feeling like God is coming after you, but I want to tell you that God comes to bring something good.
SPEAKER_00: And in this situation, in John chapter 10, Jesus is telling a group of people who are wondering, how are we gonna know when the Messiah is actually here?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a pretty good question.
SPEAKER_00: Will we even know him when we see him?
SPEAKER_00: And in John chapter 10, Jesus has this discourse about being a good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know many of you are not shepherds in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody, praise God for Amazon, you know?
SPEAKER_00: I know many of you have different kinds of jobs, but the idea is that the shepherd would sit inside the gate and keep the sheep in, and that night he would protect them and lay down his life for them.
SPEAKER_00: And we get this idea from John chapter 10, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: If you're ready, say I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 10, verse 7 says this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to them again, Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep do not listen to them.
SPEAKER_00: I am the door, and if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
SPEAKER_00: The thief comes only for one reason: to steal, kill, and destroy the life that you have.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says, I came to bring a different rain, I came to bring a rain that says that they may have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 17, he says, For this reason the Father loves me.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Because I lay down my life that I may take it up again, and no one will take it from me.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus died on the cross, it's not because they took it from him, it's because he laid it down for you of his own accord.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
SPEAKER_00: This charge, Jesus says, I got this from my Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew his mission.
SPEAKER_00: His mission came to be a good shepherd, it came to be a different way.
SPEAKER_00: It came to show the model, an example of what life should really look like.
SPEAKER_00: And the challenge is this knowing about that good life and experiencing it, again, are two totally different things.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is, Jesus is telling this to a group of people who, although Jesus was standing right in front of them, they didn't see him for who he really was.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they thought that what he was saying was crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Husbands don't try this at home when you don't understand what your wife is saying, but they looked at Jesus and said, Jesus, I think you got some demons inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is Jesus was saying what he was saying, but they didn't understand what it was that he was saying.
SPEAKER_00: It's this idea that you can know all the thoughts there are to know about God, but not know who God really is.
SPEAKER_00: As I was thinking about this this week, it's this idea that these group of people are standing in front of the Messiah asking a very ironic question.
SPEAKER_00: What's the Messiah going to be like?
SPEAKER_00: Having no idea that right before their very eyes, he is standing right in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: And with this full explanation of, I'm gonna lay down my life and I'm gonna take it up again for you, they could see him with their eyes, but they could not see him with their heart.
SPEAKER_00: Is that not the profound nature of the Easter message that when we come, we're not here to listen to a preacher tell a story.
SPEAKER_00: We're not here to recount what had happened of old, but we're here to open our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: To see the very thing that has been right in front of us the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: I went to lunch with a guy this week across the street at Akashi.
SPEAKER_00: We're sitting there having lunch, and uh the windows were the blinds were all up, and that big magnolia Texas sun was beaming through.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if it was the glare off my bald head, but I could not make out the identifying markers of his face.
SPEAKER_00: Was no angels in Akashi.
SPEAKER_00: It was just a man sitting across from me about two feet, but I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Although I knew that he was there, I could not see him clearly with my eyes.
SPEAKER_00: The entire meal I said, kept moving, keep moving, shoving.
SPEAKER_00: I can't see your face.
SPEAKER_00: And finally we gave up, and instead of asking for a new table, we just enjoyed our meal and I listened to him talk, but I could not see his face.
SPEAKER_00: As I went home and as I was driving, I was thinking about that reality within our own lives that sometimes maybe for you, you're wondering where the good life is, and you feel like Jesus is close, but you just can't see him.
SPEAKER_00: It's this idea that I know God has good things in store, but I just can't see his face clearly.
SPEAKER_00: J.I.
SPEAKER_00: Packer says it a little bit like this when he says, a little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, a little knowledge of God is worth a great deal more than a whole lot of knowledge just about him.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying it's one thing to know about God and it's another to know him.
SPEAKER_00: It's another thing to know about God up here and it's another to know him in here.
SPEAKER_00: So the question as we jump into this Easter message is this what do you see?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see Jesus for who he is?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're anything like me, sometimes I can read the Bible and I put myself in their shoes and I think, you know, if I had been there, I would have been a little different.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if I had been there, like, I mean, come on, wouldn't it have just been easier, Jesus, if you let us all be there the day you were resurrected?
SPEAKER_00: Do do whatever time traveling you need to help us do so that we could just witness the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Because our thought is if I could see the empty tomb, then I'd have all the proof I'd ever need.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to propose to you today that there were a lot of people who saw the empty tomb and never saw the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: They saw an empty tomb, but they never quite saw what it was that God was doing.
SPEAKER_00: I I uh, you know, anybody have a famous person they follow?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, 11 30.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have to rewrite this message because let's pretend you had a famous person that you knew a lot about and you really wanted to get to know them.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in today's day and age, you know, ChatGPT can tell you everything you want to know.
SPEAKER_00: So be careful about your algorithm, but just go ahead and type in there.
SPEAKER_00: If I were a stalker, tell me everything I would need to know about Taylor Swift, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And if you took that knowledge and that information and you digested it and you held on to it, and you went and knocked on the front door of Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift and said, Hi, I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: Their security guard would come out and say, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You say, Oh, well, listen, I know Taylor Swift and I know Travis Kelsey shout-out chiefs, right?
SPEAKER_00: I know them.
SPEAKER_00: And that security guard would be like, get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You say something, well, I know every fact there is to know about them.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you?
SPEAKER_00: That's not gonna give you access to their mansion.
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna get you arrested.
SPEAKER_00: Don't try it.
SPEAKER_00: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying that information about a person is not the same thing as having access to that person.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus came to say in John chapter 10 is I'm not just here to give you information about him.
SPEAKER_00: I am him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to show you who he really is, and you're gonna gain an access when you can see something you've never been able to see before.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a person in the Bible that exhibits this more than anybody I I've read in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it because she's the first eyewitness account of the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Comes from a woman in the Bible named Mary Magdalene.
SPEAKER_00: Mary Magdalene was living a life, and how many of you know, if you've been living for a few minutes, you have a story to tell, and Mary Magdalene had a story to tell.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus found her, not when things were up and to the right and going good.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus found her when things had left her in a pit.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was the one who stopped in that pit and pulled her out.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible says she had found a company.
SPEAKER_00: You know how misery loves company.
SPEAKER_00: She had found a company of misery, a company of people who were sick and needed healing, a company of people, the Bible says, who are oppressed by demons, and a company of people who needed freed from their bondage, and Jesus walking along the road stops for Mary Magdalene.
SPEAKER_00: And in stopping for her, he rescues her out and begins the story of her abundant life that he would talk about in John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you that Mary was so grateful for what Jesus did that her life looked forever different.
SPEAKER_00: And for the next three years of Jesus' life, Mary would follow Jesus everywhere that he went.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, she got a front row seat to watching the God of the universe step into our world.
SPEAKER_00: She got a front row seat to seeing what God would do in their day and age.
SPEAKER_00: And she followed Jesus around.
SPEAKER_00: She followed him to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And when everybody else left, she stayed.
SPEAKER_00: She watched her Jesus be crucified and buried.
SPEAKER_00: She went to the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: She saw a lot somebody.
SPEAKER_00: And here's her story in John chapter 20, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says this that now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark.
SPEAKER_00: And she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb, so she ran and went to Simon, Peter, and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody any of y'all have kids that are like, I am my mom and dad's favorite.
SPEAKER_00: This is John.
SPEAKER_00: He's writing the account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he finds it important to tell everybody, just by the way, of the twelve, I'm the favorite.
SPEAKER_00: The one that Jesus loved.
SPEAKER_00: I got there first.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, John, this story ain't about you.
SPEAKER_00: It's about Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what it says she ran to the tomb, and they had taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have laid him.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 11, Mary stood weeping outside of the tomb, and as she wept, she stopped to look into the tomb, and she saw the two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been laid, one at the head and one at the feet.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_00: And she said to the angels, Listen to this, they have taken away my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where they've laid him.
SPEAKER_00: And having said this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: She saw him with her eyes, but she did not see him in her heart.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to her, Woman, Why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_00: Whom are you seeking?
SPEAKER_00: And supposing Jesus to be a gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have taken him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to her, Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And at the mention of her name, at the sound of her name, she turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabbinai, which means teacher.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have yet to ascend to the right hand of my Father in heaven, but go to the brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.
SPEAKER_00: And Mary Magdalene went and she announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I love Mary's story because oftentimes we can think back to John chapter 10 and say, those crowds, they just didn't get it.
SPEAKER_00: If only they would have known, if only they would have been paying attention in class, if only I had been there, then I could have told them the Messiah's standing right in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus was right in front of them, they could not see him.
SPEAKER_00: And Mary, a woman who had come from so little, a woman who had been redeemed from so much and followed Jesus, she knew what he looked like.
SPEAKER_00: She walked with him day after day.
SPEAKER_00: She supported him, she encouraged him, she witnessed his miraculous power working and moving in her day and age.
SPEAKER_00: And she's standing at the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And she sees the tomb, rolled, the stone rolled away.
SPEAKER_00: And she sees an empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And she sees angels in the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody, y'all say, just like, let's just be honest.
SPEAKER_00: If I was there and the angels showed up, it would have stopped right there for me.
SPEAKER_00: Angels.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice?
SPEAKER_00: Mary did not get distracted by the angels.
SPEAKER_00: You know what she looked at?
SPEAKER_00: She said, excuse me, you're interrupting me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm busy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Where did they take him?
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, Mary saw a lot with her eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus had been resurrected and was standing in front of her, can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_00: Even Mary did not see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: She saw a gardener.
SPEAKER_00: Even Mary in the moment did not recognize who her Lord was.
SPEAKER_00: The one person she went to that tomb to see, and she couldn't even see him herself.
SPEAKER_00: What am I saying to you today?
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you, what do you see?
SPEAKER_00: Because the power of this moment is this that in the midst of not recognizing Jesus, Jesus didn't give his best sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Let me try the Sermon on the Mount all over again, Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't correct her, He didn't, He didn't discourage.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Jesus did in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: He didn't give her more scripture that he had memorized, He didn't tell her something he had never told anybody else that would help her understand what was happening in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: You know what he did?
SPEAKER_00: He called her by name.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that at the mention of her name, she could see something she couldn't see before.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 10, what did it say?
SPEAKER_00: My sheep, Jesus says, will know my voice.
SPEAKER_00: I will call them by name, and I will take them in the pasture and out of the pasture.
SPEAKER_00: I will protect them and I'll watch over them.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you that at the calling of her name, she could see something she could never see before.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't her information, it wasn't her intellect, it wasn't that she was the first one there.
SPEAKER_00: It was because her eyes were being opened to abundant life by the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, I want to present to you today that Jesus presented abundant life to the first person at the tomb as he looked at Mary and said, Mary, you're seeing something that no one in all of history has ever seen.
SPEAKER_00: And we can look at that and say, Well, it'd be great to be Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Why couldn't I have been Mary?
SPEAKER_00: Why couldn't I have been there?
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you today the same truth for her is the same truth for you.
SPEAKER_00: That you don't actually need another cross episode to happen for you to understand and accept the reality of what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to this Easter stand at an empty tomb and wonder what it must have been like.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus can call your name the same way he called her name.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, it can cause you to see the life you could never see before.
SPEAKER_00: You see, I get so hung up because I'm always looking for things to get better.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be great if I got that house and got me a slice of acre magnolia heaven somebody?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Then maybe I'd have abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be great if my wife and I never had an argument?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, we have arguments just like you.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be great if my kids always did the right thing every time?
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have messes and have challenges?
SPEAKER_00: Challenges and we're looking to see the abundant life in all these places, but knowing about it and experiencing it are two totally different things.
SPEAKER_00: It's not in seeing it around me, it's in seeing Jesus for who he really is that the abundant life starts.
SPEAKER_00: Mary's abundant life started the moment she saw Jesus for who he really was.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you and ask you the question today is are you seeing Jesus for who he really is?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, don't count yourself out.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't about being smart enough.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't about being religious enough.
SPEAKER_00: This has nothing to do with how many times you've gone to church.
SPEAKER_00: This has nothing to do with how cleaned up your life looks.
SPEAKER_00: This has nothing to do with your past or your behavior or your actions.
SPEAKER_00: And this has everything to do with your Lord calling your name.
SPEAKER_00: And you recognizing that Jesus is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you with this.
SPEAKER_00: There are some things that Mary saw that I believe this Easter we can see the way she saw.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing I think she saw was this that Jesus wasn't like anyone else.
SPEAKER_00: She had a front row seat to watching Jesus do things that no one else did.
SPEAKER_00: And there are times in your life probably where you felt much like her, where you felt like the things in your life meant that God wasn't watching after you.
SPEAKER_00: The things in your life, how did I get here?
SPEAKER_00: How did this happen to me?
SPEAKER_00: Why is it going this way?
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to remind you this morning that just like Mary, Jesus will stop for you.
SPEAKER_00: Her story started of following Jesus, not because of what she did, but because of what Jesus did for her.
SPEAKER_00: And when she found herself in the darkest place of her life, Jesus stopped and did something impossible for her.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't just a memory verse in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This was a reality for her.
SPEAKER_00: That with man it's impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus delivered her and set her free, she got to experience abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus wasn't like anyone else she had ever met.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality and the challenge is this.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes we view our abundant life in relationship to how the people around us treat us.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes what we find is people did us wrong, they didn't treat us right, it didn't go the way we had hoped.
SPEAKER_00: The relationship soured or fell south.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to remind you today that Jesus isn't like any person you've ever met.
SPEAKER_00: He's not like the Christians who hurt you, he's not like the people who betrayed you.
SPEAKER_00: He's different.
SPEAKER_00: And the power of his voice calling her name was because there was something different about him.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing that I think Mary experienced that we can experience today is this that Jesus did what he said he would do.
SPEAKER_00: What did Mary see?
SPEAKER_00: She saw that he was different, but not just that he was different, she saw and witnessed that Jesus would do everything that he said he would do.
SPEAKER_00: I want to present to you that you don't need another theological proof to prove the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in John chapter 10, you have all the proof that you need.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus said this, he said, I'm gonna lay down my life, nobody's gonna take it from me, and I'm gonna take my life up again.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I alone have the authority to lay it down and take it back up.
SPEAKER_00: You can try that this afternoon if you want, but guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow, there's not gonna be any taking up of your own life.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Jesus said those words, he's all chips are in.
SPEAKER_00: All chips are in.
SPEAKER_00: And in this moment, the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is this that God was putting his stamp of approval on Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_00: In raising him from the dead, God is saying, Jesus is who he says that he is.
SPEAKER_00: He can do the things that he says that he can do.
SPEAKER_00: And I, the God of heaven, approve of this message, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, Houston airports have uh made nationally ranked news lately, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: But not for the right reasons, right?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody wait, wait in those uh mile-long lines, you know?
SPEAKER_00: One time I got dropped off uh late at night at the airport and uh had no idea all the shuttles were closed, and I had no idea there's underground tunnels at Houston Bush Hobby.
SPEAKER_00: You ever been there?
SPEAKER_00: Don't go there.
SPEAKER_00: Lines wrapped all the way through the tunnels.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, how many of you know that's not very much fun?
SPEAKER_00: But you know, I love my wife and I trust my wife, and she's a really smart individual.
SPEAKER_00: But every time we get in the car on the way to the airport, I ask for one thing.
SPEAKER_00: Baby, I don't care what you packed, I don't care how many bags I have to carry, I just want to know one thing.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have your ID?
SPEAKER_00: Show it to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'll ask her three times.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, babe, this is kind of insulting.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I just want to see it with my own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I just, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't want to be the guy that waits four hours in line and gets to the front and says, Let me on this plane.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Clayton Small.
SPEAKER_00: I know who I am, you should let me in.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, they would not trust my word for me being me.
SPEAKER_00: In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, here's what it's saying.
SPEAKER_00: Heaven is saying that Jesus was who he said that he was.
SPEAKER_00: It's better than a driver's license, it's more valid.
SPEAKER_00: And in raising Jesus from the dead, God is saying, Jesus did everything he said he would do, and he will be everything for you that he said he would be, which means this.
SPEAKER_00: In John 10, Jesus says, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, and I am bringing you abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what you can know and hang your hat on that if he said it, he meant it.
SPEAKER_00: If he meant it, he's gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what that means for you in your life is you can know that every promise that God ever gave you through the voice of Jesus Christ, it can be true for you.
SPEAKER_00: That you can hold on to it until you see it, that you can trust and have hope in the things that are dead coming to life again for you.
SPEAKER_00: That if he says there can be peace back in your marriage again, there can be peace back in your marriage simply because he said it.
SPEAKER_00: That if he said you can have restoration and life, then it doesn't matter the circumstances and the things that are swirling around you.
SPEAKER_00: If he said it, it's possible.
SPEAKER_00: That should give you so much hope this Easter to know that you can see something you've never been able to see before.
SPEAKER_00: I love Mary's response at the end.
SPEAKER_00: She says, I've seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The question today is, have you seen the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean, have you heard about him?
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean do you know about him?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, have you seen them in a way that forever marked your life?
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple that is coming to the church, a really sweet family.
SPEAKER_00: We've gotten to know.
SPEAKER_00: They've been coming to the church for about six months, and I called him this week and I said, Hey man, I would love to tell your story at Easter.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he got real real nervous and like, oh no, pastors call me.
SPEAKER_00: What am I gonna do now?
SPEAKER_00: And uh he said, Well, well, tell me what you want to share about my story.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't really know.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I just watched you get baptized.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I watched you in February get baptized at the church, and all I can see in my face, in my mind, is your face the moment you came out of the water.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What happened to you?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I I don't know your life and story.
SPEAKER_00: I said, but I just I want to know why your face looks so different now than it did the day you walked in the doors of our church.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I want you to tell me about it.
SPEAKER_00: So I sat on my back porch on Friday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: What I thought was gonna be a 10-minute phone call turned into like an hour-long phone call of him sharing his story because how many of you know every path to abundant life has a story behind it, and he had a story.
SPEAKER_00: And his story started when he went into the service and he was in the Marines.
SPEAKER_00: And he was in the Marines, and there was a culture there as he traveled and it was away from home, and he said there was a culture there that caused him to grow numb to the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever been there, you know what it's like.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I was just surrounded by some of this stuff day in and day out, and I didn't mean to, but I picked up some habits in my life that became patterns and and and uh they turned into addictions, and I don't know how I got here, but I did, and it just became a part of my story in my life, and he said, I just grew numb to the things of God, I became my own God in my own life.
SPEAKER_00: And I figured if I worked hard as a Marine and I worked hard in my life, then maybe everything will turn out okay.
SPEAKER_00: He said, but it wasn't okay on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: He said, when I got out of the service, he said, I thought things would change in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I thought the things that I had held on to and the addictions that I had, I thought they would just go away.
SPEAKER_00: But what I found is the more I lived my life, the stronger they got in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, uh, I I worked um, you know, and I I got out of the Marines, and he said, one night I was laying in my bed and I woke up in the middle of the night with excruciating pain in my leg.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I freaked out and I sat up in bed and I told my wife, I have a blood clot in my leg.
SPEAKER_00: He said, She looked at me and she laughed.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Okay, you tough Marine, go back to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: He said, For the next couple weeks I just pushed it off and thought, man, I was just not being a tough Marine.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, He said, one day I decided to go to the doctor.
SPEAKER_00: I went to the doctor and they rushed me right to the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, the doctor looked at me and said, If you didn't come in today, you'd be dead tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I spent the next 30 days in the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: He said, and I remember sitting in the hospital thinking, this can't be my life.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't what I signed up for, this isn't the direction I wanted to go.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I remember a pastor walking in.
SPEAKER_00: He said, No offense, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: He said, but I remember a pastor walking in and I was like, Oh, great.
SPEAKER_00: He said he was a nice guy and he said a nice prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He asked if he could pray for me, and he said, I was sitting in my hospital bed, and I remember him praying for me, and he said, I didn't mean any disrespect.
SPEAKER_00: He said, but I didn't close my eyes.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I know your eyes don't have to be closed for prayers to work.
SPEAKER_00: He said, but I didn't close my eyes because on the inside, I did I resented God and I resented everything that he was saying.
SPEAKER_00: He said, He's praying for me, and I'm sitting there thinking, if this prayer is even real, I just want to know why God doesn't even see me in the place that I'm at in my life.
SPEAKER_00: He finally got out of the hospital and life begins to kind of pick up again, and he goes and he gets a career that he've always wanted.
SPEAKER_00: He trained for it and he got his certifications and did all of the things, and two weeks into his job, everybody got furloughed.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, The bitterness that started when I was young started to grow and take root in my life in a big way.
SPEAKER_00: I began to wonder, God, where are you in the midst of all this?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just not satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: When work finally picked back up, he said he began traveling again for work and traveling all over the place, and he said, and I did something I should have never done.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I made a decision to make a morally compromising decision with a relationship outside of the parameters of my marriage, and he said, and I was okay with it.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, It's like, it's like everybody on the outside was looking at me, thinking like everything was okay with me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, But on the inside, I felt like everything was hollow.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I was so numb to the things of God that I was so okay with the life that I was living that I didn't even care anymore.
SPEAKER_00: He said, One day my wife found out.
SPEAKER_00: He said, When my wife found out, it's like everything that was on the inside of me all of a sudden leaked out on the outside of me.
SPEAKER_00: And now my life was on full display.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, One day I was sitting there as my wife and I were talking and processing the mess of life that I had made.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I looked up at the wall where she had hung a picture of Jesus leaving the 99 going for the one.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, He looked at that picture on the wall and he said, I remember telling Jesus in that moment, I don't have anything left.
SPEAKER_00: If you want me, you're gonna have to come get me because there's no way I'm going to you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when life runs its course.
SPEAKER_00: And he finds himself in this moment, telling God, God, if you don't see me and you don't come and get me, then there's nothing left.
SPEAKER_00: He started coming to the art church over the summer, and him and his wife started getting plugged in, and they came, they put their kids in church, and they're just trying to rebuild their life together, trying to figure something out.
SPEAKER_00: Which way is left, which way is right, how do we go up from here?
SPEAKER_00: And he said he was sitting out in the chairs and we invited people to come forward for prayer, and he did what many of us do at times when you know God is tugging on your heart to go get prayer, and you think there ain't no way I'm going.
SPEAKER_00: He said, So I looked at my wife and I said, Let's go for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We need to go for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, I don't need prayer, you need it.
SPEAKER_00: And he said he felt a rock in his stomach.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I felt like if I didn't go up and if I didn't get prayer, that I was just gonna throw up right there on the spot.
SPEAKER_00: He said, So I just went for it.
SPEAKER_00: He walked up to a guy right here on this side, a prayer partner right here, and he came up right to him, a guy he had never met before in his life, and he told him a story.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I had an fair on my wife, I've totally thrown my life and my family away, and I have nothing left.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, In that moment, the prayer partner looked at him and said, I know you because I was you.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Years ago, I made some really poor choices and I lost my first marriage because of the decisions that I made in my life.
SPEAKER_00: He said, But here's what I've learned over the last 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I've learned that Jesus loves me and he paid for my sins.
SPEAKER_00: And if he did it for me, he can do it for you.
SPEAKER_00: If he can put my life back together, he can put your life together.
SPEAKER_00: And right here at this altar in this space, right here where I'm standing, he made the decision to see Jesus as his Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you, from a prayer of resentment that God does not see me, he found right here in this place, right here, a place where God saw him.
SPEAKER_00: And he made the decision to say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Because just because you know about God doesn't mean you can see him.
SPEAKER_00: He made the decision to surrender his life over to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And because he did, can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_00: They're not perfect, their healing journey is still a work in progress.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: A wife has her husband, and two little boys have their dad who fiercely love him.
SPEAKER_00: And he is walking for the first time ever and knowing what it's like to see Jesus for who he really is.
SPEAKER_00: The question today is what do you see?
SPEAKER_00: Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?
SPEAKER_00: I believe there are people in the room today, and you're saying this life that I'm living is not the life that I thought I would have.