WEBVTT 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:15.839 Good morning, church. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:16.560 Good morning. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:17.760 Good morning. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:19.280 Wow. 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:24.880 I just think uh this is great to have everyone in church today together. 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:31.200 It's great to be able to celebrate together and to hear each one each each other worshiping and singing. 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:38.719 Um you know, next week we have baptisms, and some of the kids or some of the younger people are getting baptized. 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:40.560 They're like, How long do you go underwater for? 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:44.399 I say, till the bubbles stop, and then we bring you back. 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:46.240 Death to life. 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:47.359 That's right. 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:50.399 If you want to see something exciting, come next week. 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:52.159 It's gonna be a lot of fun. 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:57.039 Uh, we've got baptisms when we were talking about the babies being dedicated. 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:00.719 We've got families dedicating their children and bringing their children. 00:01:00.879 --> 00:01:03.920 Uh you know what the next generation is important. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:11.120 We value the children, we value kids, and so uh we've got a lot, a lot happening here. 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:15.679 Uh today, of course, is about the cross. 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:21.200 It's about the cross, but it's also about the the empty tomb. 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:24.959 And today I I just got caught in a moment. 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:26.879 I put my hands over my face. 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:31.120 I was just like thinking, I thought the darkness was there at one time. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:44.560 There was a place of darkness, but then you opened up, and in that dark place in that tomb where there was darkness, at one point in time the gravestone got rolled away and light came out for every individual. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:47.359 And today we can live in that light. 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:50.079 We don't need to live in darkness anymore. 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:58.400 Without the cross, we're just another self-help message, and this would just be another self-help group. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:04.319 But without the cross, this would be just good teaching and good morals and good values. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:09.200 But without the cross, without the cross, we wouldn't experience transformation. 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:18.719 And transformation is what's necessary to help us and to move us into that place where God's intended for us to be able to enjoy life. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:27.039 And so until you can finally recognize the finality of the cross, you can't really appreciate the resurrection. 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:37.120 And so today I'm glad to be in a company of people who can appreciate the resurrection, who know the power of the resurrection. 00:02:37.359 --> 00:02:43.680 Let me just share with you the story from John chapter 20 on the empty tomb. 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:55.840 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 00:02:56.159 --> 00:03:08.400 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and she said, They've taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:13.280 So Peter and the other disciples started running for the tomb. 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:16.319 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:22.719 I think that's so interesting that they're like, someone was keeping track that someone was a little slow on the run. 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:31.039 And uh John outran Peter, that'll go down in history, reminded every ear that Peter was the slow one. 00:03:31.359 --> 00:03:41.359 And they got to the tomb and Peter and reached the tomb first, and he bent over it and he looked in at the strips of linen that were lying was lying there, but did not go in. 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:46.000 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:47.759 Who actually made it first? 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:50.719 Across the finish finish line. 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:56.560 He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. 00:03:56.719 --> 00:04:01.039 The cloth was still lying in its place, separated from the linen. 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:06.240 And finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:10.719 And from that place he saw and he believed. 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:15.840 They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:22.800 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:34.080 As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:37.920 And they asked her, Woman, why are you crying? 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:42.960 They've taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they've put him. 00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:49.440 At this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there, but she didn't recognize that it was Jesus. 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:52.640 He asked her, Woman, why are you crying? 00:04:52.880 --> 00:04:55.040 Who is it you were looking for? 00:04:55.360 --> 00:05:03.680 And thinking that he was just the gardener, she said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him and I will get him. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:13.680 And Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned toward him and she cried out in Aramic, Rabbon I, which means teacher. 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:18.320 And Jesus said, Don't hold on to me, for I've not yet ascended to the Father. 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:25.280 Go instead to my brothers and tell them I'm ascending to my father and your father to my God and your God. 00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:28.880 And Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:36.560 She said this, I have seen the Lord, and she told them that He has said these things to her. 00:05:36.880 --> 00:05:37.520 Amen. 00:05:38.640 --> 00:05:39.920 He is alive. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:55.200 Father, we thank you for this time together to celebrate this momentous moment, together with millions around the world, to celebrate the fact that you are alive and that you are risen. 00:05:55.440 --> 00:06:11.680 And today, Father, may that revelation permeate past our cognitive sense, past our mind, and enter into our soul so we may celebrate, Lord, the life and the meaning of uh for life. 00:06:11.760 --> 00:06:14.000 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:06:14.320 --> 00:06:14.960 Amen. 00:06:15.200 --> 00:06:15.600 Amen. 00:06:15.760 --> 00:06:18.000 Thank you, team, for leading us today. 00:06:18.080 --> 00:06:18.960 What a great team. 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:20.720 Let's give them a hand as well. 00:06:21.280 --> 00:06:24.720 Thank you for leading us today. 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:57.200 Now, I've had the privilege of traveling in the recent year, and I realized the commonality from areas in Kelowna, from places that I would not have wanted to be in, in places like the Cancer Ward here in Kelowna, to places where our sister churches are around the world, one of them being in Oaxaca, where we visited Montalban and we watched as the Aztec we walk through the Aztec uh ruins at that point. 00:06:57.440 --> 00:07:01.680 There's a tremendous searching going on in the world. 00:07:02.400 --> 00:07:11.040 It's a searching for uh the what isn't quite particular, but the why is uh is clear. 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:28.880 The Guatemalan team that left from our school to go down to Guatemala visited a sinkhole where there was incredible uh sacrifices over time where the indigenous Guatemalans would go and and actually give service and give sacrifice to their gods. 00:07:28.960 --> 00:07:33.920 And there were 365 gods, one for every single day. 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:41.520 And they would sacrifice uh at that point, and they were doing it for what or for why? 00:07:42.640 --> 00:07:54.640 The why represents the void, the disconnection from the world around us, and the fact is that the world around us is looking for answers to the existence of me. 00:07:56.720 --> 00:07:57.040 Me. 00:07:58.240 --> 00:07:59.680 Why am I here? 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:01.680 Why do I exist? 00:08:02.640 --> 00:08:07.600 What is that purpose for me that I need to engage in? 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:25.920 And so this conversation is a global conversation, and we uh we want to understand it so that we understand ourselves, we understand the meaning of life, we understand what happens and where we're going when our physical body fails to start working anymore. 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:28.960 And there's wonder in this moment. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:32.879 We sang about it today, the wonder of Easter. 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:40.399 And when we read this portion of scripture about the Easter story, there's a lot of questions. 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:43.680 Jesus is asking, why are you crying? 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:56.560 All of the disciples are disoriented and they're wondering, you know, some are running, some are hesitant, some are going in, some are looking at what's on the table, where these are the clothes, but there is no body. 00:08:56.800 --> 00:08:58.080 Who moved the stone? 00:08:58.240 --> 00:08:59.519 Where did the stone go? 00:08:59.680 --> 00:09:01.040 Who are these angels? 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:03.200 Where did this gardener come from? 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:07.600 How many of you know that there's a lot of questions in this moment? 00:09:07.920 --> 00:09:13.600 And there is no descriptive or defined answer at that moment. 00:09:13.920 --> 00:09:16.480 The questions of Easter are important. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:19.920 How many of you have questions? 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:22.800 It's good to have questions. 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:27.360 Questions are important, sometimes they're more important than even the answer. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:30.720 This is the message of Easter. 00:09:31.040 --> 00:09:39.360 It calls us to question, it demands us to explore life, to explore those questions that we don't want to talk about. 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:49.519 The meaning of life, eternity, our our our frail structure, and our mortality. 00:09:50.399 --> 00:10:03.120 The search for, and in Canada, we separate a portion of our year, we create a holy week that actually is intended to draw us to uh to face those questions. 00:10:03.680 --> 00:10:11.519 Some places around the world take a whole month to face these questions because of the importance of the answer. 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:18.480 And yet our culture today is trying to mute this message, bury this message. 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:21.920 My kids are involved with basketball. 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:28.480 And uh they they planned a basketball tournament on this weekend, and there was, and we just said no. 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:35.440 Because we have to face the grave, and one day we'll all face the grave. 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:40.720 Say two things are absolute: death and taxes. 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:44.960 So think of that when you're voting this next week, eh? 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:57.440 But we're meant to keep busy, occupied, preoccupied with other thoughts, so that we don't consider what's really important. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:03.759 Matthew 28, 6 says this other perspective from Matthew. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:15.600 He says this, the the angel saying, He is not here, for he is risen, as he said, and then he says, Come see the place where the Lord lay. 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:22.399 And I love that in this portion of scripture, there's an invitation for investigation. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:28.639 The angel is saying, You've got questions, come see where the Lord is laying. 00:11:28.800 --> 00:11:30.960 You notice there are no answers there. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:34.320 How many of you love answers? 00:11:35.040 --> 00:11:38.320 Where's the peanut butter in the kitchen? 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:43.360 No, where in the kitchen, on the cupboard, where on the cupboard, on the shelf. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:48.000 Like you gotta get, I want descriptions, I want definition. 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:57.120 And yet at this very critical junction of history, the first people going to the tomb, they're asking, where is Jesus? 00:11:57.279 --> 00:11:59.040 What have you done with his body? 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:01.440 Why is this all happening here? 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:13.040 It's totally out of out of the scope of what should be happening, and there's no response, just uh no direct response, just an invitation to investigate. 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:19.279 And the message of Easter is this go and investigate. 00:12:20.160 --> 00:12:26.879 Each and every one of you have the privilege and the permission to investigate. 00:12:27.920 --> 00:12:33.759 Take a moment, look for, and like that's why we do the Easter egg search. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.800 Because the whole message of Easter is about searching. 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:38.080 Where did Jesus go? 00:12:38.560 --> 00:12:40.320 What a great lesson. 00:12:40.800 --> 00:12:41.680 Where is he? 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:43.360 Where's that egg? 00:12:44.800 --> 00:12:52.560 You gotta search for it, you gotta look for it, you gotta ask questions, you gotta we we did it with our 17, 18. 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:57.759 I won't tell you who, but someone was very bewildered yesterday at finding their basket of eggs. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:04.320 It happens to be an oldest child in our family, and it was had to narrow it down. 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:08.960 Backyard corner in the corner, hot, hot, hot, hot, very hot. 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:10.879 Just look up. 00:13:11.040 --> 00:13:12.160 There it is. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:16.320 Yay! I found it! No, you didn't. 00:13:17.040 --> 00:13:18.879 Who really found it? 00:13:19.680 --> 00:13:21.920 There's the message of Easter. 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:25.120 We're searching and we don't know where it is. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:27.920 We are looking and he found us. 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:33.040 I love that there's an invitation for investigation. 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:49.279 There's a symptom related to uh people who have gone through uh incredible injuries, perhaps soldiers in the war who had lost their legs or a limb, leg, or an arm, or and they experience uh a pain called phantom pain. 00:13:49.920 --> 00:14:03.840 And the one of the challenges of phantom pain, one of the elements that must exist for there to be phantom pain, is that you need to have lost something that you once had or that once was yours. 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:16.800 And so Easter is this reminder, and there's this resonating effect in your soul that you had something and it's not there. 00:14:17.920 --> 00:14:19.920 So the search continues. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:29.759 And what's incredible is that for a lot of people they're searching for something that they've never even truly experienced themselves or they don't recall. 00:14:29.920 --> 00:14:31.200 The search for world peace. 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:32.960 Have we we ever had world peace? 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:40.560 No, but yet there's a hunger in us that people would live together, that there be peace and that there be unity. 00:14:40.800 --> 00:14:43.680 There's have we we want justice for all. 00:14:43.920 --> 00:14:46.160 Have we ever had justice for all? 00:14:46.560 --> 00:14:48.480 Not in my lifetime. 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:54.240 We find injustice all over the world, and yet there's a search for justice for all. 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:54.879 Why? 00:14:55.120 --> 00:15:01.440 Because there's a hunger in us for something that we lost that we didn't know we already had. 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:06.000 We're scratching at a limb that isn't there, but we used to have it. 00:15:06.160 --> 00:15:18.879 And this Eastern message is a reflection and a reminder to us that we have something in store for each one of us that we were created for more than what we're experiencing today. 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:39.279 We were created for eternity and connection with the holy and connection with the divine, and we've got a purpose, and we've got a designer, we've got a creator that wants relationship with us, and there's something in us that's driving us into a direction that we are not even assured of. 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:45.519 Yet we're here, and we sense that direction, we sense that drive. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:54.480 We want to end homelessness, we want to end poverty, we want to end sickness and disease and death, we want to end it, we want to bring life. 00:15:54.800 --> 00:15:55.440 Why? 00:15:56.160 --> 00:15:59.200 It's in our humane nature to want it. 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:00.080 Why? 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:02.639 Who gave that to us? 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:14.800 It's because we were created for connection to someone who has it already, and that is the compelling driving force for each and every one of us. 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:26.240 Easter is that reminder where our soul longs, it's not a physical phantom pain, it's a soulish phantom pain that we were created for more. 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:31.120 Our soul longs for heaven, longs for connection to the divine. 00:16:32.800 --> 00:16:40.240 The reason we have this knowledge is that and we wrestle with this tension in life, and we're not alone. 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:50.639 The fact is that the question we can actually take comfort in not having answers, but take quite take comfort in the fact that you have questions. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:59.680 One of the greatest comforts in life is embracing your questions because your questions are gonna lead you somewhere. 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:07.920 In this world of high information, we live in a space where everyone has an answer. 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:14.079 You can go on YouTube, you can even ask a computer today, Chat GPT. 00:17:14.639 --> 00:17:15.920 Am I okay? 00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:18.640 I don't know, are you? 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:19.839 I think so. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:22.480 I woke up feeling kind of sad. 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:23.680 Oh no, you're not. 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:24.480 Oh, I don't know. 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:27.519 Like, ask somebody. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:30.799 You know what I'm talking about, right? 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:34.160 All trying to find the meaning in life. 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:38.799 Seven billion people are asking the same question, why? 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:48.480 You know why a baby comes into the world, a child comes into the world, and they walk around, why, why, why, why, why? 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:50.640 They don't go, what happened? 00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:52.480 How did that occur? 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:55.440 They're just like, why, why, why? 00:17:55.600 --> 00:18:10.960 Because all the other questions are very substantiative in terms of their uh their practicality, who, what, where, when, how, but they they the why is very essential for your identity. 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:16.480 It's that part of us that's reaching out to God. 00:18:17.120 --> 00:18:18.559 So ask that question why. 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:40.640 And this is where Easter collides with humanity 2,000 years ago, when we're confronted with Jesus, who many people may be resistant to this message, and may have heard this before, but in John 14, 6, he says, Jesus says, This, I'm gonna tell you who I am. 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:50.480 I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life, and no one can come to the Father except they come through me. 00:18:51.120 --> 00:18:54.720 I am the why, I am your answer. 00:18:54.880 --> 00:19:00.559 You want the truth, you have to come to me, and I will give you truth. 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:10.160 And so a lot of people are going, well, what about the the the fact that um you know you're saying he's the only one who has truth? 00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:16.000 And I would say he's the only one who could be trusted with communicating with you the truth. 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:30.160 That's why Mary, when she came to him, she says, Rabbi, the rabbi of all rabbis, you're the teacher of the teachers, you're the one I can trust who's going to go. 00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:34.000 I can go to you like a student goes to their teacher with a question. 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:40.480 Jesus is saying, I am the one you can come to with the answer for the answer. 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:45.680 Because I'm trustworthy, and you can put your trust in me. 00:19:46.720 --> 00:20:03.360 In my world, you you can walk down the street and you can walk into life, and you'll experience all different kinds of ways: Buddhist ways, Muslim ways, Hindu ways, atheistic ways, agnostic ways, different ways of people approaching God. 00:20:03.600 --> 00:20:09.600 But there's only one who actually is the way, the truth, and the life. 00:20:11.120 --> 00:20:12.000 The truth. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:13.839 We need the truth. 00:20:15.120 --> 00:20:16.880 We need the truth. 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:21.839 There's a lot of people who are saying this is how you can actually get to God. 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:25.600 This is the way you can attain God's love. 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:29.920 This is the way you can attain acceptance and find forgiveness. 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:33.200 This is the way you can elevate your consciousness. 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:45.920 But Jesus is the only one highlighted at this event at the cross and in the empty grave where people uh and where other uh religions are saying, this is what you need to do to get to God. 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:51.279 The cross and the grave demonstrate this is what Jesus did to get to you. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:21:00.079 You were searching for that basket, but it was Christ who found you. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:05.920 It's a simple process for me to validate and invalidate like religions. 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.319 It's very it's almost too simple. 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:31.600 Where I just say, if this religion wants something from me that I am incapable of doing that I'm incapable of doing in order for me to believe it's wrong. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:40.400 But the fact is, like when my kids, when my kids, and I'm so glad they're sitting on the front row. 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:45.600 It's probably the last time they're gonna sit there because I've already pointed them out once or twice. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:56.880 But when I love someone, when my kids were little, I I loved them, but my love for them wasn't contingent on what they did for me. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:10.559 I was the one who loved them unconditionally while they were little sinners running around the house doing things they weren't supposed to be. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:12.240 Supposed to be doing. 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:19.680 Your dad was gracious and cared and loved you, sacrificed for you. 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:25.680 It's not contingent on us as Christians. 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:30.160 It's all about what he did for us. 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:36.240 There's no way Brody could have made a way to heaven. 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:54.240 It's what Jesus did in denying his deity, coming to earth, giving up his life, sacrificing, taking on flesh and blood, making a way for me that gives me hope and opens up my opportunity for a new way. 00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:57.839 I believe we've all experienced love in our life. 00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:03.279 And our response, even in the best of times, is can sometimes be poor. 00:23:03.600 --> 00:23:08.799 Um, I know the greatest rejection you can experience is that of your family. 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:13.039 I remember being a kid and telling my parents, I'm running away. 00:23:13.360 --> 00:23:16.480 Life isn't good here, it's difficult. 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:24.640 I packed my Dukes of Hazard backpack with an apple, coloring books, and a bunch of coloring. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:27.519 I was gonna make a life for myself in the orchard. 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:42.720 And at about dinner time, I came running back home because there was food, but only for a short time until I was going back to my life as a hobo and uh lived in the orchard. 00:23:43.440 --> 00:24:03.440 In the Bible, there's a story about a son who did probably one of the most difficult things a family could have experienced is he he requested of his dad, he demanded of his dad, that his dad provide him with an inheritance before his dad's passing. 00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:09.120 He said, I want the money and I want it now, and I want to check out of the house and I want to go on my own. 00:24:09.360 --> 00:24:11.440 And his dad didn't argue with him. 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:13.120 The scripture doesn't say there was an argument. 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:16.640 In fact, the dad gave him his inheritance. 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:31.759 And the son went off to the big city, spent all the money, spent it on frivolous things, all kinds of things that left him at the end broke and devoid of any kind of connection to people or resource. 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:42.480 And he found himself at the very end of his life, uh, end of his life at that point, eating out of a bucket of that was meant for pigs. 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:47.120 And he said, I just need to get home and I need to be with my dad. 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:52.559 And even if I could just be with my dad, I would just work as a servant with my dad. 00:24:52.640 --> 00:25:00.400 But what we don't know in our culture is that there was this uh practice, the Jewish people practice called Kazazza. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:09.680 And Kazazza was quite a severe was quite severe in these circumstances when a child ran away from home and left his family in rebellion. 00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:12.880 And the community would gather empty clay pots. 00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:25.920 I was gonna grab one today, and I decided against it, but I was gonna grab this clay pot and they would keep it by the door, and they'd be watching for the sun to make his inevitable return. 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:45.200 And when the sun they could see the sun coming back, they would quickly run, grab their clay pot, and they'd run up to the sun, and they'd take the clay pot and they'd smash it on the ground and it'd blow into a million different pieces, and they would say, I hope this happens to you. 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:48.079 You deserve this, you deserve brokenness. 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:55.120 I hope your life is shattered and broken into millions of little pieces, and you're irreparable from this point on. 00:25:55.279 --> 00:26:00.480 You are worth nothing, you're not valuable, you just need to stay away. 00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:08.559 And so at that point, the child is rejected and excommunicated from his family. 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:20.319 So, for those of you who know the story, the father is sitting in front of his house and he sees his son coming from a long ways off. 00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:24.880 He knows he has to get to his son before the villagers get to the sun. 00:26:25.360 --> 00:26:40.640 And while he hears people learning about the sun's appearance over the hill, the man gets out of his seat and he starts running to the sun first, because he needs to be the first one who reaches the sun. 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:54.640 And when he gets to the sun, he quickly drapes the sun with a cloak, puts a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, hugs him, protects him, and says, We're gonna have a party, everyone. 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:57.440 My son who is lost has now been found. 00:26:57.600 --> 00:26:59.039 Kill the fat cow. 00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:07.759 We're having steak and brisket, we're gonna do, have up a party, and we're going to celebrate that my son has made his way home. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:12.319 And he got there, the grace got there before the judgment. 00:27:13.120 --> 00:27:16.480 Because grace always outruns judgment. 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:33.120 And what happened is that Jesus caught us, he caught up to us, he overtook every other, every other uh obstacle that was gonna come to keep us from him, and he got to us before we could even get to him. 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:35.440 Now, the son didn't even know love. 00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:41.360 The father wasn't even, he didn't even allow the son to reply. 00:27:41.519 --> 00:27:46.160 In fact, the son's only response was dad, I want to work for you. 00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:54.000 Like he didn't even come with the right heart, but yet the father was response was a response of love. 00:27:54.400 --> 00:28:00.000 He didn't challenge him, he didn't condemn him, he came and he welcomed him home. 00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:20.400 And Jesus, when he shared this, he re was telling the people, and one of the things that I realized as a recipient of that story is that the relief the relationship with with God was dependent on how much I love God, I'm in trouble. 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:27.440 But the good news is that my relationship with God is dependent on how much God loves me. 00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:46.640 And the fact is, Jesus, his singular narrative of the divine is this that Jesus will come to find you, and that God will do anything that is necessary to come to find you. 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:51.440 We read about this where he left the 99 sheep to find the one. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:29:04.799 And this wasn't God waiting on us to get to him, it's God getting us at any cost, and I want you to understand how valuable you are because that's what this moment is all about. 00:29:05.120 --> 00:29:11.120 The cross demonstrates your value, the cross showcases your worth. 00:29:11.600 --> 00:29:18.079 That despite the fact that we were still sinners, Christ came and he died for each one of us. 00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:23.519 None of us came to God perfect, none of us even came to God good. 00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:38.319 We came broken, we came confused, we came in the dark, and he became the light, and he became the order, and he became our hope in our life. 00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:47.839 If you believe that the central force in the universe is love, then of course the ultimate act of love is gonna be sacrifice. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:30:09.200 So it makes perfect sense to me that if God is love, the ultimate expression of God's love is going to be Jesus on the cross, and the ultimate display of God's victory is gonna be the grave stone rolled away, and Christ is risen from the grave and defeating death. 00:30:09.360 --> 00:30:11.200 Who can defeat death? 00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:19.519 This in its truest form is the message of the gospel of the cross and the empty grave. 00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:27.519 It's not how we can get to God, it's what God has done to get to you, and we can hold on to that. 00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:33.360 We all want to be loved, we all want to be validated by love. 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:47.680 And everyone in this room is on a search to understand yourself, and the more you understand the fact uh who you are and what you are, that you are God's child. 00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:52.400 You may be like the prodigal, that son that ran away. 00:30:52.559 --> 00:31:02.240 You may be the daughter that's kept God at bay, but God's love for you is greater than your law, than your capacity to even love him. 00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:04.160 He will outdo you. 00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:08.160 I don't think I could love someone more than I love my family. 00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:26.319 And to think that God loves me even more than that, it provides me with like without even conditions, unconditional love, that I'm just valuable to him because of who I am is uh is beautiful to know. 00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:43.039 I I feel like you don't need to be people avoid church and they avoid this whole church Christian uh you know uh education because they feel that they need to be a theologian to be able to understand and know God. 00:31:43.279 --> 00:31:45.279 But I don't think you can know God. 00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:50.079 I I think God wants to be known, but I don't think you can study God. 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:56.400 It's not like I um when I got married, I was like, you know, I I study my wife. 00:31:56.640 --> 00:32:00.559 Uh I'm gonna like I study my wife, and that's how I'm going to get to know her. 00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:01.759 I'm just gonna study her. 00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:06.000 No, the fact is, if I want to get to, I need to get to know her. 00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:11.120 I need to get to know her, and and there's gonna be complexities to that. 00:32:11.600 --> 00:32:17.360 The reality is sometimes it's challenging to be known. 00:32:17.600 --> 00:32:19.200 Sometimes there are frustrations. 00:32:19.360 --> 00:32:22.400 How many of you have ever felt frustrated in your relationships? 00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:24.720 I don't know if they really know me. 00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:26.079 I don't get it. 00:32:26.400 --> 00:32:27.680 I have questions. 00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:31.279 Sometimes, how many of you are married and still confused? 00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:34.000 Like, like, what's going on? 00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:36.799 Is there a book on this? 00:32:37.039 --> 00:32:38.799 You can't get a book. 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:43.440 You just gotta get in there and just get to know the person. 00:32:43.839 --> 00:32:47.200 It's like learning to swim on correspondence. 00:32:47.839 --> 00:32:51.920 Just get in the deep end, figure it out. 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:55.519 Don't wait on it, don't become a theologian. 00:32:56.240 --> 00:33:01.120 It's a waste of time to try and study God, to know God. 00:33:01.839 --> 00:33:07.839 Instead, open your heart to experience Him, to know Him. 00:33:09.680 --> 00:33:18.079 After the resurrection, which is the powerful piece in knowledge, because you it's hard to know someone who's dead. 00:33:18.960 --> 00:33:30.000 But the fact that the gravestone is rolled away and that Jesus is alive allows you the opportunity to actually get to know God because He is alive. 00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:37.759 And every day, in every moment, I can reach out to Him and ask Him, Lord, I got a question. 00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:39.440 God, I've got questions. 00:33:39.600 --> 00:33:41.279 God, I hope you're not tired yet. 00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:43.039 I've got more questions. 00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:44.559 Go to God. 00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:46.720 Sometimes I tell that to my wife, too. 00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:48.720 Go to God with this. 00:33:49.120 --> 00:33:49.920 Come to me. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:51.440 I don't know it all. 00:33:51.839 --> 00:33:54.079 But it's true, we can go to God. 00:33:54.640 --> 00:33:57.039 Go to God with any question you have. 00:33:57.360 --> 00:33:59.360 Jesus valued the relationship. 00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:03.120 As soon as he came from the grave, he's like, I gotta find Mary. 00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:05.120 I'm gonna be a gardener. 00:34:05.600 --> 00:34:06.720 He found Mary. 00:34:06.880 --> 00:34:09.839 After that, he walked through a wall into a party. 00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:11.039 This is God. 00:34:11.279 --> 00:34:12.079 Jesus is here. 00:34:12.239 --> 00:34:17.920 He went and found his buddy Thomas, who's forever gonna be the doubting Thomas, but I get it. 00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:24.719 He went and found others who were fishing in their and he went and went on the beach, he made them breakfast. 00:34:24.879 --> 00:34:29.679 I he wanted to find people to build relationships with those people. 00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:33.679 God wants to know you through Jesus. 00:34:34.319 --> 00:34:45.839 Ephesians 3 12 says this in him and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:52.000 Each one of us can approach God with freedom and confidence. 00:34:52.159 --> 00:34:57.519 That word confidence is a conjunctive word, means confida, means with faith. 00:34:57.759 --> 00:35:06.079 We can approach him with belief, with faith, with trust that he'll bring us to the way, the truth, and the life. 00:35:06.319 --> 00:35:08.079 Have confidence in God. 00:35:08.239 --> 00:35:14.159 Approach God, not with fear, feeling that it's gonna be like the worst case scenario. 00:35:14.319 --> 00:35:23.599 Approach approach him with faith, believing that he has the life and the and the uh the best expectation of hope for you. 00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:31.199 I look back at the cross and the grave, and the cross and the grave give proof to me that God loves me. 00:35:31.439 --> 00:35:35.359 And that's the faith I have, and that's the love I have. 00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:38.000 So we can't live without that. 00:35:38.319 --> 00:35:41.759 Easter showcased us God's passion towards us. 00:35:42.399 --> 00:35:47.199 One of the lessons of Easter is that we can see Jesus' passion. 00:35:47.359 --> 00:35:56.559 In fact, the last week leading up to the crucifixion was called the passion, is called the Passion of the Christ. 00:35:57.119 --> 00:36:02.639 And if you want to know what someone is passionate about, look at what they're willing to sacrifice for. 00:36:03.039 --> 00:36:08.159 There are a lot of things I like, but am I willing to sacrifice for those things? 00:36:10.799 --> 00:36:18.480 Every day we can feel fully alive because we know that God was passionate for us. 00:36:19.199 --> 00:36:25.839 And that same passion for us is now by his spirit in me when I accept him. 00:36:26.480 --> 00:36:34.639 And every day when I wake up, I can experience the passion for life the way he has the passion for life. 00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:40.399 Because of his passion for us, I can experience that same passion myself. 00:36:40.799 --> 00:36:51.359 There are a lot of things that uh that that need to be changed in the world, and the world can be changed, but the two things that you need are love and passion. 00:36:51.519 --> 00:37:05.519 And the cross and the grave for me demonstrate both of those things: love for me, a love that was willing to sacrifice, and a passion for me to do it at any cost to come my direction. 00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:10.559 God came for me, and God came for you. 00:37:10.879 --> 00:37:11.519 Amen. 00:37:12.480 --> 00:37:14.719 Would the team come up, please? 00:37:15.279 --> 00:37:24.879 So the question leaves me then, or I want to leave you with then, is what does God want for my life? 00:37:26.559 --> 00:37:30.000 Many of you may have been feeling this phantom pain. 00:37:31.279 --> 00:37:35.039 This phantom pain is awoken in you when you come into the church. 00:37:35.199 --> 00:37:52.239 And some people just avoid church because they avoid a worship service, they avoid this type of singing because as soon as they get in the moment of it and they sense God, they're like, it's like that phantom pain comes, it's like it gets connected and the reality of it connects. 00:37:52.399 --> 00:37:59.359 And they're like, oh, I know I this is what I've been missing, and this is what I do, I I am supposed to have. 00:37:59.599 --> 00:38:02.559 This is what uh God intended for me. 00:38:02.959 --> 00:38:09.839 And when you come into a place like that, our response ought to be, what does God need from me? 00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:22.719 Our response ought to be, what why would I would I want to live in an environment that's free of fear, free of condemnation, free of shame, free of guilt? 00:38:22.959 --> 00:38:27.519 Would I want to be connected to a father in heaven? 00:38:27.839 --> 00:38:37.439 A God who wants the best for me and would be willing to go to the cross for me and willing to go to the grave for me. 00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:40.799 Would I want to know that love? 00:38:41.439 --> 00:38:43.839 Would I want to know that sacrifice? 00:38:44.159 --> 00:38:48.399 Would I want to know a God who's got my best interest in mind? 00:38:49.279 --> 00:38:56.480 Who doesn't want me just to live day to day, but wants me to live with that passion full and alive within me. 00:38:56.639 --> 00:39:12.639 And if you're searching, and if I was looking for this experience, I it was me looking for God when really it was God looking for me, I would say yes to God. 00:39:13.039 --> 00:39:20.159 I would open up my heart, and I would start with the point where I would say, Father, I believe. 00:39:20.480 --> 00:39:37.919 I trust you, I'm gonna put my trust in you, I'm gonna take that step, I'm gonna lean in, I'm gonna cross that line and actually make a decision to follow you and to serve your idea and actually follow you. 00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:44.159 So similar to the son who was lost, he was simply running. 00:39:44.480 --> 00:39:58.559 He didn't know he was running for security and hope, but he was actually running to God, he was running to the father, and in the same way, if you're running from the father, you're running from love. 00:39:59.359 --> 00:40:09.279 But if you're running to the father, and if you're running to love, you run to the father, you run to God who will give you that love. 00:40:09.519 --> 00:40:22.799 So Easter is this collage of great words: hope, life, love, sacrifice, destiny, purpose. 00:40:23.839 --> 00:40:41.679 And it's all there for us, and it's all there for us because of the cross, and it's all there for us because of the grave, and it's all there for us, and not based on what I did or any of us did, but it's there because of what he did for us, and I think that's worth celebrating today, amen. 00:40:43.039 --> 00:40:47.679 And that's why we're here, like that's why we're here. 00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:59.599 You know, forgiveness is important, yes, but forgiveness is not as much important to God as it is for us to be free from the past and free from guilt and condemnation and shame. 00:40:59.839 --> 00:41:03.359 Forgiveness is for our benefit, it sets us free. 00:41:03.599 --> 00:41:16.319 Some of us may have trouble forgiving ourselves, and I want you to know God's willing and able to forgive you from all unrighteousness, all the things that you've done. 00:41:16.639 --> 00:41:19.199 He's willing to be there for you. 00:41:19.759 --> 00:41:24.079 He's faithful and just and able to forgive. 00:41:24.399 --> 00:41:26.079 Would you stand with me? 00:41:29.519 --> 00:41:32.879 There's a solemnness to Easter. 00:41:33.599 --> 00:41:38.399 It's a time where we experience God in a fresh and a different way. 00:41:39.519 --> 00:41:49.279 But Easter is a reminder that Jesus stepped into our history, became flesh and blood, and demonstrated it. 00:41:49.759 --> 00:41:54.239 His love for us by dying for us while we were still sinners. 00:41:54.319 --> 00:41:55.359 He became visible. 00:41:55.599 --> 00:42:03.279 God became visible in Jesus, and God showed us that he would come for us and we can see him face to face. 00:42:03.679 --> 00:42:13.199 A lot of gods that would stay far away, ideas of gods that would be far and never connect with humanity. 00:42:13.519 --> 00:42:21.839 Jesus walked into our humanity so that we may know him and so that he would be known. 00:42:22.079 --> 00:42:23.759 Isn't that awesome? 00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:27.199 Sometimes I I just surprise myself sometimes. 00:42:27.279 --> 00:42:30.639 I'm like, I can't believe how good this is. 00:42:31.439 --> 00:42:34.079