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Hey everyone, and welcome to the brand new Burnett Church podcast. My name is Tim, and I'm your host and the pastor of Burnett Church. Today's podcast is the audio from part one of our series called Reactions Speak Louder, in which we start to unpack how our reactions affect the world around us and also say something about our relationship to ourselves and to Jesus as well. We hope you enjoy the episode. Back to mothers for a second, and fathers. I'm gonna implicate both of mine here. Okay? When I was 11 years old, I started playing hockey. Ice hockey for the first time. It was a gift my grandma gave me from 11 to 18. She paid for my ice hockey registration every year. And the first year that I played hockey, I wasn't a very good skater. So they put me in a division down from what I should have been. Now, I've always been a kid who shopped in the Husky section. Does that make sense to any of you? So the first year I played hockey, I dominated. I was like Eric Lindras, you know, just like ramming kids all over the place, scored a hundred goals. It was amazing. And I had in my mind, I had in my mind, I'm gonna be an NHLer. This is what God has for me. He has gifted me to play in the NHL. And I told my mom and dad this one day when we were driving in our car. And my mom and dad are wonderful people, wonderfully practical people. And so in that moment, they let me know, in no uncertain terms, that I would not be playing in the NHL. Kids who thank you. Kids who shop in the Husky section don't get to play in the NHL very often. I was not genetically gifted. This is what I've come to realize that a huge part of the people that get to participate in pro sports in one way or another has to do with their genetics. Right? Like you can't be in the NBA if you weren't given the gift of height, right? You can't play offensive line in the NFL if you're not both enormous and fast. Right? Like some of the things that you need in order to be a professional athlete are just given to you genetically. And for whatever reason, um when the Lord was handing out genetics, you know, he he gave me the Husky genetic. I came out at 10 pounds and I have never fully recovered. Right? Like I've just, my fitness journey has been like this. No, I don't tell you all that for your sympathy or your workout plan. Please don't come up to me afterwards and tell me about the diet that you're on. That will be wonderful for me. Like, I know it's okay, great, you know. I already take fat people medicine, so it's it's, you know, I don't tell you all this to get your your pity or your advice. I tell you this because last month, uh I I have a coach that I meet with once a month. He tries to help me be better at my job and grow as a human being and all that kind of stuff. And he asked me, Tim, if there's one thing you could change about yourself, what would it be? And I thought about it for a long time. And the good news is I think my life is going pretty well. You know, because I didn't think about a relationship or I didn't think about, you know, um uh a sickness or a tragedy or anything like that. I I just thought about, man, it would be nice not to be the husky kid for a change. You know? And that leads me to wonder if there's one thing that you could change about your life, what would it be? Now, some of you are gonna do the very altruistic thing because you're very good people. And you're gonna think, man, if there if I got if I got one wish, I could change anything about the world that I live in. You would think of something like world peace or the eradication of global hunger. And those are amazing things. But I wonder if some of you didn't think of something much more personal, much less superficial than changing the fact that you didn't have to shop in the Husky section as a kid. You know, something like a relationship that's broken, a habit that you just can't seem to break. Some part of your life that just feels like, man, for years and years and years, I've been spinning my tires and getting nowhere. And then I wonder, how hopeful do we feel that change in that area of our life is actually possible? Because I have a hunch that many of us have actually stopped hoping. Right? Instead of hoping, we adjust, we cope. We set expectations so low that we could never be disappointed. Not because that's what we want, but because real substantive change feels out of reach, out of our control. I wonder if anyone else has ever felt that way. I think the point of Easter Sunday is to remind us each year that maybe there's a reason to hope that change is really possible. And to remind us that maybe we experience so little of it because we go looking for it in the wrong place. A lot of the places, you know, of all the places we go looking, it's undeniable, people do experience change in and through spiritual practice. Last year at this time, we were in the middle of a series called Flourish, and we were talking about these elements of life that Harvard and others who study how humans actually come to live a full life, did it. And the academic scientific evidence points us towards spiritual life, points us towards community as a major contributor to those who experience personal growth and change. But I have to admit that even in the world of spirituality, even in the world that I live in all the time, when it comes to God, even when we get close enough to go, maybe God has the answer for the change that I need to experience, I'm convinced that we're often looking in the wrong place. And it's something that we, humanity, have been wrestling with and discovering for a really long time. Even the people who knew Jesus personally, saw him do everything that he did, struggled with this reality. Right? Like the people who were there, they saw everything. The people we're gonna talk about this morning saw everything Jesus did. They heard everything that he taught. They even believed in him and still, at the end, seemed just as confused about what God is really about as I think we often are. I want you to listen to these words written by Luke. If you're not super familiar with the Bible, there's four books early in the second half of the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you're not familiar with reading the Bible on a regular basis and somebody gives you one and asks you to read it, start there. Start with one of those four: Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. They are the story of Jesus. Read about Jesus, figure him out, and then fill in some things after that. This morning I want us to take a look at the words that Luke penned about the first Easter morning. Luke, a man of science, a physician, and a careful historian, who, through his own experience and the interviews that he conducted, went about, in his own words, putting together an orderly account of everything that happened in the days of Jesus. This is what he says in chapter 24 of his book. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. Fill in the blanks. Which women? The women who had followed Jesus for most of his earthly life and ministry, right? In the group of people that followed Jesus around, there were men and women. Some of the women, they took spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. Why? Well, because they expected Jesus to be in the tomb. And they expected to have a rotting body. And so in those days, you would take spices and you would put them outside the tomb so that people could visit the tomb after the person died, right? Because the tomb in that in those days, you probably know this was like a cave hewn out of rock and it's got a stone across it, but it's not airtight and it's not under the ground. So when bodies decay, you could smell them. But if you left the spices outside, you could go for longer and tolerate being there and pay homage to your friend. Now, when they got there, it says, they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, which is an incredible feat. The stone would have weighed about as much as a mid-sized sedan. So unless you had the incredible hulk there, it was very difficult to move it, right? Because not only was the stone there, but but but uh but uh they had dug a bit of a ditch to make the stone stay where it was supposed to be. It was very, very difficult to move it. So this is an incredible thing. Oh my gosh, the stone was there. They saw it three days ago, it's not there anymore. And when they entered the tomb, because now the tomb is open, they didn't find Jesus' body at all. And that made them wonder. It's kind of a funny word to use. Not sure if wonder would be curious, confused, distraught. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. And they had the same reaction that you find everybody who actually encounters an angel in the Bible has. They were terrified. Because we have this cute idea about what angels look like, right? Like, you know, the Sistine Chapel, like cherubim, their little babies with wings, and you know, um, or it's the Marvel version of an angel, you know, Archangel, and he's a big Scandinavian guy with beautiful blonde hair and huge pecs and wings coming out of his back. Like, that's not how the Bible describes angels. Angels were terrifying beings, and so they are terrified. It says, in their fright, the women bowed down because what do you do in the presence of this angelic being bowed down with their faces to the ground? But the angel said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead? What a question. Because they didn't go to look for the living among the dead. They went to look for the dead, where you find the dead. Right? They went to the tomb with spices. Why? They expected there to be a decaying body in the tomb. And all that makes sense from their perspective unless you remember that Jesus told them he was going to come back to life on the third day. Jesus told them he would be killed, which they saw, and that he would come back to life three days later. That's why the question needs to be read as hitting so hard. What are you even doing here? Why are you looking for life where you were told? Why are you looking for death where you were told you wouldn't find it? I mean, Jesus told them. They clearly believed in Jesus, right? Because they placed all their earthly hope in him. They had left their families, they had left their homes, but they didn't get it. And before we judge them too harshly, we probably should do some self-reflection. Because I think we're still doing the same thing today. Looking for life in places where we're told it won't be found. Some of us are looking for life by controlling life. And trying to hold everything together, making every decision, thinking five steps ahead of everybody. And sometimes people even even cheer you on for that. But if if we get honest with ourselves, sometimes in our in our effort to control everything, we're exhausted. Because control promises peace. But it actually just transfers everybody else's pressure onto your life. Some of us go looking for life in a relationship, right? Looking for somebody else to give what only God can give you, a sense of your true identity. So we seek in others. And sometimes when you do that and things are good, you can feel good. But when that other person becomes shaky, we feel unsettled, unstable. And so we start to constantly read into things. We overthink our conversations with them. We wonder where we stand. And in relationships offering connection, that's beautiful. But they weren't meant to carry the weight of your life. For many of us, first world thing. We're looking for life in comfort. We spend an awful lot of time building a life that works, collecting the things, and now everything's manageable and predictable and safe. We're relying on those things, not people. And honestly, it doesn't feel like a bad life a lot of the time. But it often doesn't really feel like living either. Because comfort promises relief. But it quietly keeps you from the very things that actually make your life worth living. And I don't think this is the first time you've heard this. I don't think it's the first time you've tried it on. Maybe it's not one of those three things, maybe it's something else. But it's something. Something we know better than to put the weight of our life on. But we keep coming back time after time to these same old answers. And we wonder why nothing really changes. So if you can relate to what I'm saying at all, I want you to know you're not alone. I'm not making this up. I feel it. I talk to other people who feel it. So many other people feel the challenge of real change. Change is difficult. It feels elusive to us sometimes. And if I if I can offer an explanation, one possibility, at least as it relates to our spiritual lives, because that's kind of where I spend most of my time. I think we've reduced what God wants from us to just belief. Or at the very least, we've over-emphasized the role of belief to the point that it overshadows every other critical part of your spiritual journey. We tell others, we teach others. If you just believe the right things, God will change everything. Belief is all you need, but what if it's not? Let me show you what I mean. Uh hang on. Doug, watch it. I might uh make some feedback. Can I take this? Is anybody using this? No? Okay, awesome. Good. Come on. All right, cool. Thanks. It's the chair. Right? Do you believe the chair can support me? I know what some of you are thinking, and that's rude. You don't have any reason to mistrust the chair, right? It was sitting over there with all the other chairs. We expected somebody to sit in it. You probably didn't even think that there's a possibility that this chair couldn't hold me up. But standing next to the chair is just believing the chair can do it. You won't know that I trust the chair. Until I sit on it. Thank you. Belief is agreeing that something is true. Trust is putting your weight on it. Real change. Real change, friends, comes when you actively participate in your life with God. And a lot of us, a lot of us believe things about Jesus, but still haven't put the weight of our lives on him. We're still, we want to mentally ascend to the idea that Jesus is who he says he is, while we trust all those other things to carry the weight of our life. And we remain unsettled. It's possible to believe, but not trust. The essence of trust is relying on it to carry you. Many of us are still standing beside the chair when it comes to our relationship with God. And I think that's exactly what we saw happening at the tomb. They clearly believed. They believed something about Jesus. They believed most of what he said. Otherwise, they wouldn't be there in the first place. It wasn't safe for them to be there. Jesus had just been murdered, right? Remember, his friends were scattering because if they were known to associate with Jesus, maybe they would be murdered too. So they believed something about him. But they didn't yet know what it meant to trust him. So we see them showing up, looking for life in a place where it just can't be found. So many of us are doing the same. We ask God for things like comfort and success and solutions. And don't get me wrong, those aren't bad, and it's not like you can't bring your cares, concerns, and desires to God. In fact, he wants you to do that. But when we reduce our life with God to spiritual transactions, treat him like a genie in a bottle. We aren't doing what God longs for most. We aren't actually following Jesus. We aren't trusting him. What God wants is for us to put our trust in him. And that trust leads to the kind of actions that create real change in us and around us. So God's goal is not just to get you to believe in him. God's goal is for you to experience the life that he dreams for you. Real life, full life. And what that requires is an ongoing relationship of trust and connection to the one who can offer you life. We know that we're starting to trust when we start to depend on Jesus. And that dependence, it breeds in us new priorities, right? We start to put others before ourselves, we start to practice generosity, we we sacrificially love others who we're not contractually or morally obligated to because we brought them into the world, our kids, right? Right? Trust. Trust looks like a strong, God-given sense of who we are that shapes our decisions and impacts the world around us. We know we're trusting because trusting changes how we live. And so you don't show up to tend a grave when we trust that Jesus would do what he promised that only he can do. Friends, you and I were made for so much more than tending graves. More than managing the symptoms of our life, more than trying to accumulate more of the things that will never ever satisfy our souls, more than coping our way through existence. You and I were made for life. And Easter, Easter is God's declaration that there is one source of life that conquers death in all of its forms: physical, spiritual, emotional, relational. When Jesus walked away from that grave, he proved that he has the power to invite you to do the same. What Jesus' followers discovered in the days following Easter was that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead because of the victory that he had in that moment was available to them. How? They trusted him. Listen to what our friend Luke wrote in his other book, the book of Acts, the first chapter, verses three to five. After his suffering, Jesus presented himself and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this it says command. We can say invitation as well. Don't leave Jerusalem. Don't be scared. Don't run away. Don't leave. But wait for the gift that my Father has promised you, which you've heard me speak about. For while John baptized with water, in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now, there might not be any more confusing theological topic than that of the Holy Spirit. But this morning, here's what I want you to think about. When Jesus promised that the same ability to find life that Jesus had on that Easter Sunday, that spirit that lived in him, he wants that same spirit living in you. The essence of his life in the essence of your life. This is what his friends came to understand. This is how they talked about their experience. After they waited, after they put their trust in him, after that day, everything changed. And they realized Jesus really did come to give us life. We're living it, we're experiencing it. So let me ask you this morning, where are you still looking for life in places it cannot be found? What grave are you still tending? And I don't have to list them off because I think that you probably already know. There's something in all of our lives right now, regardless of how long you've been on the Jesus journey or not at all, where you keep going back and hoping that it will give you, and you have to keep disciplining yourself to go back to Jesus for the life that you're looking for. Friends, if you haven't been looking to Him, maybe it's time to start. And for those of you who are here this morning, because one of your family members invited you, you don't come to church very often, you know, this is like a once-a-year thing. You're probably used to the pitch that the guy who speaks is going to make. To ask you to believe something that you don't already believe. I'm not asking you to do that today. I'm asking you to consider this. What would it look like to take a step of trust in his direction this morning? Jesus said, I came to give you life and life to the full. That's the promise he made. Maybe it's time to take one step towards putting that promise to the test. The good news is that you don't have to change what you believe to take a step of trust. If that's not where you are this morning, that's okay. I can't click my fingers and make that happen. Neither can you. But what you can do is take some action. What you can do is take a step. Now, don't get me wrong. If this is the first time that Jesus is making sense to you, if you are sitting there going, I think I believed something I didn't believe five minutes ago, praise God, I'm so glad for that. There's probably not any better day for that to happen, right? But if that isn't happening for you in this moment, it doesn't have to mean the end of your journey. There's an opportunity to take a step. Do you know that we are here at 10 a.m. every week? Not just on Easter Sunday. Every single week, several hundred people who are trying to figure life out are here. And here's what I know you'll probably never figure it out on your own. So the invitation this morning is to consider a come back. Take a step. Do some exploration. Participate and wait to see what gift God wants to give. I regularly remind my children and the people who come here on a regular basis that the quality and direction of your life will be determined by the people you surround yourself with. Who are you surrounding yourself with right now? If you have an aspiration to change, if you're looking for greater life, if things need to move in a positive direction, have you made any steps to allowing God to do what he promised he would do? Surround yourself with people looking for life. See what begins to change. It's an easy, it's an easy offer to take me up on. It doesn't require much of you. Friends, don't settle pretending a grave. When Jesus walked out of his, he invited you to do the same. And this morning, as we wrap up, I'm gonna ask our music friends to come back. We have an opportunity to sing one more song. And I can imagine that there are at least three responses to this song, to this moment in the room right now. One of them is that you have been on this journey for a long time, taking steps of trust and belief towards Jesus for decades. And what you came here to do this morning was celebrate with some other people who are celebrating. That's beautiful. Do that now. Okay? Right? Engage with it. Sing at the top of your lungs, put your hands in the air, give Jesus the credit and glory that you came here to give him this morning. You might be here this morning, and church was a part of your life for a while, but for some reason, hasn't been a part of your life recently. Maybe this is a moment to just say, you know what, I really do need to try and take some steps. Maybe if I get back to where I was, I'd find that Jesus is exactly where I left him. Ready for me, ready to help me stop tending graves. And maybe this morning you're still not sure what to do. You know, you're here because your mom asked you to, and you came with her. That's beautiful. Your mom is so happy that you're here with her. Maybe this is just a moment to reflect. To consider. Hey, I wonder what it would be like if this was a significant part of my life. If I just tried to change one habit. One thing, one thing I do on Sundays at 10 a.m. I wonder what would happen. Wherever you are, I just I want you to know how how thrilled we are that you decided to come and spend some time with us. That you trusted us to walk this hour of the journey with you. And I want you to know that you can come just as you are anytime you're ready. Let me pray, and then we're gonna sing. Jesus, I am so so grateful. So grateful for the life that you lived, for the change that you've enabled in my family, in my life, for the changes that I see in the lives of people who take small steps of trust towards you. I'm so thankful that people are still trying to figure out if they can take that step. God, somehow, by the power of your spirit, would you move in our hearts? Convince us that there is an opportunity, that there is a God who came and lived and died and has the power of life over death. And that doesn't just mean that we wait to experience heaven with him later, but you desire for us to experience this life to its fullest. Thank you for this time and these moments to be present with you, present with others who are on the journey. Help us to become everything you dream for us to be. Help us to trust you. And help us to believe. We ask in Jesus' good and precious name.

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Amen.