Resurrection Life vs. Hedonism

What if the belief sitting at the center of your heart is steering every choice you make? We explore the gritty clash between resurrection life and hedonism and ask a simple, unsettling question: if Jesus truly rose and shares that life with us, how should we live today?

We start with Corinth’s crisis of belief and why Paul pushes beyond theology into daily practice. Hedonism makes perfect sense if the grave is final—eat, drink, and avoid pain. But if Christ is risen, purpose outranks comfort, relationships outlast convenience, and courage stops looking foolish. Paul’s “I die daily” isn’t a call to self-harm; it’s a freeing identity shift: my old self is crucified with Christ, and my life is already spent for love. We talk about risk, resilience, and how grace—not rules—actually changes what we want.

Along the way, we test ourselves with honest questions about suffering, decisions, and relationships. We reflect on “awake to righteousness,” the idea that sin can’t satisfy a renewed heart, and we revisit Jesus’ parable of the talents as a picture of faithful stewardship. Each morning becomes a quiet, powerful prayer: here are my hands, mind, and words—Jesus, live through me. When eternity anchors your hope, small acts of love gain weight, and even pain becomes a place where God’s life can move through you.

If you’re tired of self-focus and hungry for a stronger purpose, this conversation offers a clear path forward: believe the resurrection, surrender your day, and step into a life that actually matters. If this spoke to you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review telling us the one choice you’re changing this week.

Transcript

Setting The Stakes: Life’s Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Today at One Two Church, we are going to be talking about Resurrection Life versus Hedonism. Hedonism. You guys ever heard of hedonism before? Okay. It's basically the idea that life is about pleasure and whatever. It's about you. It's a very self-focused life. So we're gonna kind of contrast these two things. You can picture a UFC fight, but hopefully we don't have a fight in the front row with a crowd. That was a joke about current events because last night there was thank you. Yes! I love when I have to explain my jokes. There was a big fight at a UFC event, they had to kick a guy out. It was it was a whole thing. Okay. What is life all about? Who what's the point and the purpose and the reason for my life? And how will I decide how I'm gonna live my life? Maybe from this point forward. We call this the human condition. Everyone has to answer this question. Why am I here? What's going on? What am I gonna do with my life? Well, there's really only two possible ways to answer these questions. Either it's all about me, or it's all about God. That's really when it boils down to it, those are gonna be the only questions. I appreciate the thumbs up. You can give a verbal amen if you want to. There you go. That's cool. It's all good. Okay. And there's one thing that is gonna determine really what your answer is. Is it about me or is it about God? And that one thing is actually the resurrection that we've been learning about. We've been spent the chapter 15 is all about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians, where we've been studying. And this resurrection, what you believe about the resurrection of Jesus, is going to determine how you live your whole life, really. You know, Jesus died on the cross for your sin, but he also rose from the dead. So do you believe that he shares those two things with you? Do you believe that he shares his death with you and his life with you? And that's gonna make a huge difference. His death was for my sin, but his life is so that my life can be transformed. And boy, do I need a life transformation. Because when I got saved, I was still just a mess. I was a total mess when I got saved. And and yes, my spirit was forgiven and made new, but my brain, my mind was still just as carnal as you could be. And so there had to be a transformation, and he has given me his life to transform me. What happened to him happened to you. What happened to him happened to you. I say that all the time because that is truly the gospel in a very clear way. Because if you believe in this resurrection, then your life matters. Today, your life matters. What you do today is gonna matter. If you cheer for the Broncos like a good person, you're gonna be doing great. Wow. Okay. So to be forgiven of your sins, we have to. That's alright. Chiefs fans, you'll figure it out eventually. I have to talk a little bit of trash, right? I didn't do it for the cowboys out of respect for the state that I live in. I didn't talk trash about the cowboys, I didn't talk trash about the Texans, but now as the Broncos are the state champion of Texas, I can go after the owners that live in Texas too. So let's go, Chiefs. Let's go. All right, sorry. I'm a little pumped up. All right, your life does matter today. It does. The stakes are high. What you do with your life is gonna is gonna matter not only today, but what you do today is gonna have repercussions throughout eternity. It's hard to even imagine that that's true, but it is. This is what it means to live your life about God or with God as the focus of your life. But if you don't believe in the resurrection, then nothing is eternal about your life in your life. That's that's what how you're living. Like nothing really matters. This is the only life you have to enjoy. So you may as well live your life the best you can, getting as much pleasure and joy out of it because nothing really matters at all. And that's what it's what it means to live a life about me. So again, we're either living it about God or about me. So today we're gonna see Paul's argument of how vital it is to believe in the resurrection of Jesus and what a difference it's gonna make in your life today. Here's a secret. You want to know secrets? Your life will be much more shaped by what you believe than what you do. Your life is gonna be much more shaped by what you believe than what you do. So let's start right here in verse 29. Otherwise, he's speaking of the resurrection. He says, Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead if indeed they do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? There is a weird verse. That's a strange verse. Okay, context. Let me set up the context to teach you what's going on. Paul is explaining why believing in the resurrection is important. For some reason, the church here in Corinth had been tricked into not believing in the resurrection, thinking that life didn't really last for eternity. And so they had gotten off track. So this is what he's doing. Last week we learned that it was vital to see that all things are fixed and healed and set right by Jesus in the end. Through his resurrection, he brings us, you know, he makes everything whole in the world and in our lives. That's him being the all in all. So that's what we studied last week. But today he's getting a little bit more practical about how the daily belief in the resurrection has a daily impact. And he's teaching his friends about that here today. So, and they were, like I said, they were struggling to believe in the resurrection. They were like, we're not really sure if Jesus rose from the dead or if we're gonna rise from the dead. And and this belief was having major impact on their life. They were living their life as if all that matters in my life is me. That's how they were living their life. I'm the most important thing that matters. It's all about how I feel. It's all about what I think, it's all about what I need. It's a self-focused life. It's we call it the self-life or even the flesh life. So that's how the Corinthian church was advancing, was moving. So back in that day, I gotta teach you guys that there was this pagan tradition where people would do this thing where they would wake up early in the morning and remember people that were dead, and they would go do a religious ceremony where they would get baptized for those dead people to help them in purgatory or something. Because they believed in something weird like that. Okay. We don't know exactly what they believed, but here's the thing: it doesn't matter. Because that's not why Paul is bringing it up. And yes, the Mormon church took this weird verse and they built an entire practice on baptizing for the dead, which is why we literally have ancestry.com now. Yeah, they do a weird thing for baptizing for the dead, and they think they're accomplishing something by this religious tradition, but they're not, because that's not what the Bible is teaching here. Paul is literally bringing up something that pagan people do to rebuke his friends because his friends are like, our life doesn't matter. And Paul's like, listen, the weirdos even think their life matters. The weirdos even think their life matters, and you don't think your life matters? Come on, friends. Come on, church. Why does Paul bring this up if it doesn't even matter what they did? Well, his whole point is that these pagans believe their life matters for eternity, and they don't even know the truth or have a relationship with the God who made them and can save them. But they were doing this, and guess what? Paul also lives his life a certain way because he believes in the resurrection, and that's how his conversation goes. So he's like, weirdos believe their life matters. Now look at me. I believe my life matters. Look what he says. And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm by boasting in which I have in Christ our Lord. If in the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. So Paul goes on this little, kind of like he gets a little heated right here. He starts out, he says, Why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? So from an earthly perspective, Paul lived a dangerous life. His middle name was Danger. He he was, let me just give you a few examples. He was beaten with rods and received um 39 lashes with rods five times in his life. Five times he got flogged. He was stoned once, not the good kind. He got stoned once, so much so he got hit with so many rocks that they left him for dead because they're like, oh, he's definitely dead. Ooh, you gotta be really bad if people think that you're dead. He was thrown in prison more times than we could count. He was robbed, he was uh tricked by false brethren, he was hungry and thirsty and exposed to the heat with no comfort. And he was stressed out about the church growing and he wanted them to know the gospel. These are just a glimpse into Paul's life. He could have lived a self-focused life, a selfish life.

Baptism For The Dead Explained

SPEAKER_01 11:05

And that's only the natural way to live when that's your only life. Guess who you're thinking about the moment you're born? You I'm hungry. Why am I not in my warm womb anymore?

SPEAKER_00 11:23

But when you meet Jesus, that self-focused spirit that we are born with is crucified on the cross with him, and we're it's replaced with a resurrection life. We call it the Holy Spirit, and so now you know in your deepest spirit that your life is not about you, but you desire to live for God your Father, number one, and number two, for everybody else. That is what you truly desire. Now, everyone in here who has believed in Jesus, that is what you are. You want to love your father, you want to serve his family and love the people of this world. That is what you are and who you are. Well, but I don't feel like it. I mean, everyone I know I hate. You might think that, you might feel that, but that's not actually true about you. It's this the craziness of the gospel. So Paul says here, I affirm by the boasting in which I have in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. What is Paul talking about here? He's saying that he chooses to live a life like it's already spent. That's crazy. He chooses to live, he knows he's been bought with a price. And he's gonna serve others and he's gonna love others, especially this church that he's writing to, no matter what it costs him, he will spend his whole life. And eventually he's gonna get beheaded, and he knows that. But he is gonna live his entire life like it's already forfeit. And that's the secret. If we want to follow Christ and we want our lives to be all about Christ, you have to die daily. But it doesn't mean you have to die on the cross daily, it means you have to wake up each day and determine that you already died with Jesus, that everything you had hopes and dreams, it's all for fit, and your life is all about him. And all you're doing is believing that he's your father, and you're believing that he's put his heart in your heart so that you're actually following your new heart when you do that. It's not some mysterious, oh, I gotta, you know, masochism, I gotta hurt myself and live a terrible life for God to be happy with me. It's nothing to do with that. We're actually believing that he has transformed us. And that believing is how we grow in the Lord. And it makes us ready to suffer if needed, ready to love unlovable people and lift up everybody that we meet and be encouraging. And yes, it is dangerous. You very well may get hurt. But guess what? You were getting hurt anyway. This has this world been nice and gentle to anybody in here? Anyone had the perfect life? Just comfort, get out. You're in the wrong church. But you wouldn't be in this church if you were. Yes, it may not be wise to live this way. It is reckless abandon for Jesus. My life is already forfeit. I don't need to defend myself, I don't need to fight for what I want, I don't need to fight for what I need. I'm gonna trust God with all that, and I'm gonna instead focus on what He calls me to do and what He's put in my heart every single day. That's what what we we're talking about resurrection. That's what it means to have resurrection life pumping in your veins, pumping in your heart.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

It is there already. So when we have this resurrection life, we say, bring it on. Bring it on. You can't kill me because Jesus has already raised me.

Paul’s Peril And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_00 15:31

So no matter what you do to me, I'm not gonna experience death in that way. What can you break that Jesus can't heal in my life? Nothing. I win the end. That's what we get with resurrection life. We get to live with this crazy confidence that our life is really already victorious because of his win on the cross. He won on the cross. Paul says this if in the manner of men I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? So somehow Paul fought with wild beasts, whether they were real wild beasts, like he's out there with by the way. I saw New Things in Texas number four. I saw an ocelot this week. Ran right in front of my car. A real life ocelot. I did not know they were real, but looked it up. Very rare, very rare. I'm like probably the only one in here that's seen one. Just kidding. Uh, but yeah, it's really rare, but I saw it, it was really cool. I don't know if Paul fought an ocelot. They don't look very dangerous, but they probably used lions back then or bears. I don't know what he fought, but he could have been talking about men, he could have been talking about brute men that beat him up, but he describes it as a fight. He didn't have to fight them. You never have to, but he chose to. Why? For love. Because he loved God and he knew God's love was gonna flow through him, and so he chose to live a dangerous life for the sake of Jesus and his kingdom. And Paul says that way of living is stupid if you don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus. You shouldn't live dangerously if you don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus. If you don't know that you are forgiven of your sin and going to heaven and your life matters today, please be careful about your life.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

I shouldn't do anything that costs me if my life doesn't matter. I shouldn't be brave. I should only take the safe paths in life.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

He says, if the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. He's quoting there a pagan philosophy. And he's saying, the pagans are right if the resurrection didn't happen. If Jesus' resurrection didn't happen, and Jesus' resurrection wasn't transferable into your hearts and lives, then their philosophy is right. We call this philosophy hedonism or fatalistic worldview, and it prioritizes immediate pleasure and consumption because life is short and there's no hope for the afterlife. Your life doesn't really matter. So eat, drink, and party for tomorrow. You die. Okay, so what we're gonna do, we're gonna play a little game called Are You a Hedonist? Are you ready? 50 Jesus points up for a grab here. Do you share, do you think you share this hedonistic philosophy sometimes? No, not me. Well, let's see. I'm just gonna ask some questions and then we'll determine how a hedonist would answer. What are your thoughts on suffering for the greater good? What are your thoughts on suffering for the greater good? A hedonist would be very likely to accept suffering as a necessary part of a worthwhile life. Prioritizing the avoidance of pain. A non-hedonist may see the value in temporary hardship or sacrifice for long-term benefit. I said that backwards, but you know what I mean. Alright, so wow, my life, is it is it important to suffer? A hedonist says, nah. When making a big decision, what is the most important factor for you? Who you're gonna marry, what job you're gonna have, where you're gonna live, when you're making a big decision, what's the most important factor?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Your response would indicate if you make decisions based on pleasure or purpose. What is my purpose? Or what makes me happy?

Die Daily: Living Already Spent

SPEAKER_00 20:18

One of those is hedonistic, one of them is resurrection life. Imagine you could plug into a time machine or a machine, sorry, not time machine, a machine, that would give you the most pleasurable and happy experiences for the rest of your life. You'd just be happy, happy, happy, happy. Would you do it?

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Would you do it?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

That question is a variation from the philosopher Robert Nozick's experience machine thought experiment. A pure heed hedonist would logically say, Yes, I would absolutely do the pleasure machine. But many people would not, suggesting that they value genuine experience and authenticity over artificial pleasure. What's your idea of a perfect day?

SPEAKER_01 21:07

Is your perfect day just happiness, and pleasure? Or do you have a purpose for that day?

SPEAKER_00 21:18

How important are long-term relationships compared to spontaneous, exciting, new experiences? A hedonist is choosy about their friends and they leave relationships when they're no longer a source of pleasure. But someone filled with resurrection life endures through the boring parts of relationships. Because they know that people matter and their life matters.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

What do you want to be remembered for? What is your purpose?

Confidence Of Resurrection Life

SPEAKER_00 22:00

I think many days we struggle with this philosophy, and it it's not about I've chosen to be a hedonist and I have hedonism tattooed on my arm. No. It's it's just easy to just worry about myself. Because it's painful to live life for others because what do others do? They let you down, they hurt you, and yet Jesus says, love them anyway. Care about them anyway. Live your life for them anyway. And this is the difference between resurrection life of Jesus living through you and a self-focused, fatalistic life. And Paul asks the question, why do we do this? Why, why does this matter? He says, Why do we stand in jeopardy every day? Resurrection life is why. Because our life isn't about us. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. We died and he lives through us. That's called resurrection life. And then Paul says, do not be deserved. I said that completely wrong. Do not be deceived. Disserved? Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Did your mom tell you that when you were a kid? Yes, she did. But he says here, evil company corrupts good habits. Awake to righteousness and do not sin. For you, for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Why did the Corinthians become hedonists? Because their friends and mentors believed it. Their friends tricked them into this philosophy. Their friends were like, come on, live your life a little, have some fun. Life is all about fun. This is how I live life, and I'm happy. But he says here, it's evil to live life only for yourself. It's literally the spirit of Satan, this self-focused spirit that we were born with. It's self-centered, it's self-living, it's taking care of myself. Paul says, tells his friends, he says, awake. That's the word he uses, awake, wake up, Paul's saying. Awake to what? To righteousness. He doesn't say, wake up to following all the rules. Do you notice he didn't say that? He says, wake up to righteousness. Why? Because you are already righteous. You already have God's righteous heart, righteous spirit inside you. It's not the rules that transform you and make you a righteous person. And he's definitely not telling them, guys, you're breaking all the rules, so you should know. He's saying you're just being evil, and that's not who you are. It's not who you are. You're not impatient, you're not unkind, you're not self-serving, you're not this. This is not who you are. You are Jesus living through you, is who you are. Now let's start believing it. They were sleepwalking through life. They were sleepwalking. The truth is they were righteous, but they were asleep to that, sleepwalking, just doing whatever they thought, whatever they felt, sleepwalking, and Paul's like, wake up! Right, do it. Wake up. Don't you love when someone wakes you up like that? Clapping in your face? Six teenage boys. It's not the worst thing I've done. There were some definite spilled water on sleepy boys when we're 10 minutes late for school. Okay. He's telling his friends, wake up. You're already righteous, but you're sleepwalking through life. They knew about God's grace, but they were, they thought they'd be happy just to continue in sin that grace may abound. But that doesn't work. We cannot ever, let me slow it down. We cannot ever be happy sinning as Christians. Why? Because it's against the rules. No, because God has changed who you are. You cannot participate in sin and be happy. It is an impossibility. Because Romans 6, 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Right? You died with Jesus. How what does that mean? You died to sin. You raised with Jesus? What does that mean? His righteous life is now yours. So you are righteous. Everything you want is in your spirit is righteous. That's who we really are. We were raised to life with him. What happened to him happened to you. So we can't keep sleepwalking through life doing the things that we think make us happy, but they're actually selfish, sinful. That's not who we are anymore. Why would we why would you do what you're not? It's like if I were to put on some foreign football team's hat. Right? I can't. That's not who I am. It's definitely not who I am. It's never the law that changes us, it's never rules that change us. It's his grace and his love. And all he's asking us to do is wake up. You are alive. Be awake and alive. Wake up to the gospel. Your identity is new. You are forgiven. You are holy. You are perfect. You are complete. You are free. You don't have to sin anymore. Now, will we practice perfect perfection? No, we're not gonna get there. But God has delivered us and set us free. We don't have to. So he says, awake to righteousness and do not sin. See, he says, For some of you do not have the knowledge of God, and I speak this to your shame. It is the greatest shame when we waste our holy life living for unholy things. You don't have to try to gain holiness, you don't have to say, my life matters. Guess what? Your life already matters. Your life already has been purified by Jesus. You're his spotless bride. You have nothing that he says is a mark or a stain. It's all been washed away by the blood of Jesus. So he says, it's a waste to take that life and then just go participate in things that is not holy. Why would you do that?

SPEAKER_01 29:15

He says it's a shame. We have one life to spend. And we choose to waste it on ourselves.

Hedonism Versus Purpose Check

SPEAKER_00 29:29

The ancient Egyptians, at the end of a big banquet, at the end of their parties, they would bring out a wooden coffin with the image of the master of the party on it. So they bring his coffin out. And they would parade it around the tables and uh telling people to have a good time now, because you'll be dead sooner than you think.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

And if there's no resurrection, no future judgment, then we may as well have the best time we can right now.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

And Paul was a fool for putting himself in such discomfort and danger for the sake of the gospel. We're gonna close with a quick story that Jesus told. So, your homework this week. Yes, I'm giving you homework. Don't you love it? Yay, is to read Matthew 25, verse 14 through 30. But I'm just gonna we're gonna talk about it a little bit and then you can kind of digest it this week. And in a story, Jesus told uh uh a story to illustrate the importance of faithfulness in your life that you've been given to God. Like your life, you've been given this life, and how important it is, how valuable your life is. In this parable, the master uh he gives his servants different amounts of money, and we he calls them talents. Before, and it's not the same word as like, oh, you're so talented. It's not like that. It's a word that means a denomination of money. Okay. And uh he goes on a journey, and then each servant receives a different amount according to their ability. One receives five, another two, another one. And then the master comes back from his journey and he asks them to account for how they used their talents. The first two uh who had received five and two, uh, they invested their talents and and they doubled what they were given. So five earned five more, and the two go two more. And the master commends them for their faithfulness and rewards them with even greater responsibilities. Why? Because their life matters, and they believe their life mattered, and they loved their father, and they did their father's will. However, the third servant, who had only one, buried it out of fear and returned only what he was given. So he's like, Here's your talent back, here's that life you gave me, take it back. I don't even want it. I don't care what you what you cared about. I only care about me. I didn't want to do anything with your money. I live my own life, I do my own thing. Nobody's gonna tell me what to do, especially not you.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Ooh, it's not a good attitude to have, right?

Wake Up To Righteousness

SPEAKER_00 32:29

So the master rebukes this guy for his lack of faithfulness, that he just didn't care. And what we learn in the new covenant that we learn about called grace is that this teaches us the importance of trusting in God's grace and using his opportunities, the life that he's given you, make it about his kingdom. That's what it's about. It's not about earning blessings, it's not about earning God's favor or earning forgiveness, it's about living out what God has given you. God has put something in you of incredible value, and it's called His own Son, Jesus, lives inside you. The spirit of his son lives inside you. And that is a free gift that you didn't have to work for at all. All you did was flip in belief. I believe Jesus and I ask him because I believe to live inside me, and he does. He forgives you, he lives inside you, he has given that to you. And then God says, now your life matters. Your life matters. Our life is now about letting Jesus live through us. And in Romans chapter 6, Paul says, This is how it works. You get filled with Jesus, and then you let him live through you. That means every morning, your whole job is not to say, What rules do I have to follow? It's Jesus, you live in me. I don't deserve that. So, Jesus, here is my body, here is my mind, here's my words, here's my lips, here's my everything, my hands and my thoughts. I give them to you and I ask you to live through me. Watch what happens. It is unmistakable. Every time someone does that, Jesus says, Okay. And guess what? If you don't do that, Jesus will not take you over. Jesus will not force you to live for him. Jesus will not just make you. Would you please live my life for me? And if you just say that in your heart, with your mouth, whatever, it will be done because he's already said, It's my promise, I'll do it, and you don't have to earn it. I promise I'll do it. And that's what we stand on when we come to church and when we offer ourselves for Jesus to live through us. We are fully empowered and equipped by God's grace to live out what you're called to be. You don't have to try to do it, you don't need anything else from God. You have everything you need. We can trust in his sufficiency that we will be able to do what he's called us to do. And as the as the team comes back up here and leads us in a song, what we what we learn today is that resurrection life matters. Even weirdos think their life matters. Your life may be fraught with all kinds of pain and difficult things, but your life matters. And God says, I am all in it, I live inside you. So he feels your pain, he feels your abandonment, he feels your your uh confusion, he feels it all because he lives inside you, and he says, Hold my hand, we will get through this. I will live your life for you. It's not your job to fix your life, it's not your job to change it, it's not your job to be something special. Just look to me and I'll do it all for you, through you, and in you. Would you guys all stand with me?