Truth to Life
Truth to Life exists to help people take the truth of God's Word beyond Sunday and live it throughout the week.
Truth to Life
This Changes Everything | S2E11
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In this episode of Deeper at Life, we go deeper into 1 Corinthians 15:12–22 and why the resurrection of Jesus is not just a Christian doctrine, but the foundation of Christian hope. We unpack what Paul means when he says that if Christ has not been raised, everything collapses — our faith, our forgiveness, our hope, and even the message we preach. But because Christ has been raised, everything changes.
This conversation explores why the resurrection secures our salvation, stabilizes our hope, and demands a response from every person.
Welcome back to Deeper in Life. Man, Tuesday after Easter. What a Sunday.
SPEAKER_00Easter edition.
SPEAKER_02I mean, this is just I still feel like exhaustion sets in.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So we don't even know what how this is gonna go. This is gonna be a crazy one.
SPEAKER_02I took a nap on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00You can't love Jesus and not take naps on Sunday. So we have to question everything about Dom at this point. You drink coffee? Yeah, too much. Naps on Sunday are just like it's like the pillars of the faith. Yes. Like the uh the inerrancy of scripture, the exclusivity of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and naps on Sunday. Yeah. So I'm not sure what the heck, but okay. It's good. Good. Well I'm glad you took a nap. Yeah. I don't know where to start.
SPEAKER_02Let's just dive into Easter. We were talking about naps.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, it was great. Sunday was a good Sunday having all of our people there. We did three services, and man, it was packed. Yeah. Uh pulling out more chairs, making room for people. I think we just had a great, just a great Sunday having our people gathered together.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, it was it was fun. There's a lot of energy. It's a little bit weird for me. Um, I had something set in my my sinuses on Friday afternoon, and uh I literally had no ears to hear, so I couldn't hear anybody singing. And I literally at one point in the service looked around and was like, why is nobody singing? Because I couldn't hear anything. And I'm like, why is the volume so low? Let's go, let's ramp this thing up. And then um I couldn't speak by the third service. I was squealing and squeaking, and and so it's just kind of a weird day uh for me in that experience because I one of my favorite things about Easter is singing. And just I'll sing all three services and I could only sing one and I had to like fake sing the next two. So it's just uh yeah, weird day, but a lot of energy in the room. Didn't even get it to get outside and see. I mean, I got to the very end of the donut holes that you know the one thing we add to Sunday morning on Easter Sunday is donut holes. Like, let's go. That's pretty solid. That's great. And so I didn't even get out there and see. I guess they were gone. I don't know. I didn't even make it out. There was too many people to get out there, but uh yeah, it was it was a fun day, a fun celebration.
SPEAKER_03And you just reminded me um Good Friday services too. Like we can't forget about that. Like it was an amazing experience. And I know there are times where people are experiencing that for the first time. And um, I I love for those of you who did not attend Good Friday services, the way we ended is probably the most unique Good Friday service I've ever been a part of. And we've been doing this for a couple years. So I just want to know what was your thought process in having us in Good Friday services like that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, our thought process is um, you know, we put on the screen. So so if you're not there, you know how we ended was we basically just end with Christ in the grave. And then we put on the screen, literally the music kind of fades and dies. We kind of put some sort of graphic different each year, but some sort of graphic of like the the the tomb being sealed or the stone being rolled or just a you know, something like that. And then we put a something on the screen that says, you know, dismiss in silence. And in the dismissing of silence, we are kind of reading ourselves into the story, and we're kind of you uh relating to what the disciples of Jesus felt when he was put into the grave. Now we do this with a different level of like, okay, but we know what's coming. Yeah, yeah, but we're still gonna feel the weight of that. We still want to feel as if it was the first time this has ever been experienced that he died, that he died. Like they the savior died, the messiah died. What do you mean he died? He failed. Like he can't die, he's our savior, he can't be gone. Like, we want to feel all of that and then uh rise up on Sunday morning with the news. Wait, no, wait, he is alive. That changes everything. This is the biggest thing ever to happen. So Good Friday is kind of a it's uh, it's not meant to be necessarily depressing. It's meant to feel the weight, it's meant to feel the weight with a glimmer of hope, but feel the weight of the reality of what it would have been like to know that the one who claimed to be the savior and we thought was our savior is dead. And then to obviously come back and celebrate the resurrection. So we did it a little different. Each year we've done it a little different. I think that was year four or five for us, doing an actual like all-in Good Friday service. Um, we have we have a couple things that we just don't want to change. Like, we don't really want to do two services. We just kind of want to, if you want to come, come, we'll find a spot for you. Yeah, you might have to sit on the ground or you know, out in the lobby. Uh, but we want to pack out one service. And we may not be able to always do that, but as long as we can like without breaking any laws for fire code or anything, do that. We're just gonna, we're gonna squeeze into one because we don't want it to feel like, oh, we're doing uh an attractional service. It's not attractional. There's nothing about that service that attempts to try to allow you with with production or uh anything. We I literally, my speaking part mostly was just reading scripture. And then I made some application as we led into baptism or to uh communion and then some time of confession, like literally invite people to bow on their knees and pray. It is intentionally uncomfortable, it's intentionally packed, it's intentionally that way. And it is one of the most special services in the calendar year that we do and and loved, I think. I and even if no, even if nobody showed up, if it was me and the staff and my family, yeah, it would be moving and helpful because we don't we don't care who's there. We don't we we kind of look around and think how many people are here? There's probably about this many people here. Somebody may have counted, I don't know. We don't even care, it's it doesn't matter. We just wanted to feel the weight of the cross, yeah, so that we can then rise up on Sunday morning and feel the jubilation of the resurrection. Amen. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So man, I mean, even through the week, like we had talked last week, I'm pretty sure on the podcast, but just about the heaviness going into this week. Going into Friday. Like I've definitely felt that. And then um, the weather was crazy. I was talking to Jason about that. I was like, I feel like every year, the week of Easter is just some wild, windy overcast. And then, yeah, I mean, Sunday was like unbelievable weather. So just the weight of that, I think is really special and impactful for sure to bring up Good Friday. Yeah, and it was all super cool how you did the scriptures of just reading through the different gospels. Yeah, that was it, that was intense.
SPEAKER_00That's kind of a I just I I I was sitting in my office. I so I've done Good Friday now for 10 years or so. And you know, we always try to think about how can we actually organize a service that brings us there? Not just again, zero percent entertainment, one hundred percent grab our heart and mind and bring us to the weight of the cross. And I just was thinking, I mean, could do I preach another cross sermon? Do I, you know, how do I do that? And I just thought I've never really just read through chronologically the order of what happened, starting in the garden and ending in the grave. And so I just read it and I actually um tried to use some ways to uh bring all the scripture together through all of the gospels and put it in somewhat of an order. And I read it and I was like, man, I'm I was moved by that. I was like felt the weight of that. Like, this would be helpful. And so I was like, I don't everybody might leave here and think that was weird, but at least we read the scripture at the very end, the weight of scripture was gonna come to bear on our lives, and that and that was it. And it's like nobody can be like, hey, that was a great message. I'm like, cool, it wasn't mine. I Jesus wrote that. God, the spirit of God led men to write that and preserved it for us. So I don't know. I just felt like I I intentionally, there's a couple things about that. I I want to, I told my wife and my family, I was like, hey, dress. I I want you actually just to dress as bland as you can. I don't, there's I don't, I didn't tell the staff this, but my whole point is I just just dress normal. I don't want anything flashy. This is nothing about you. I even tried to stand out of in front of the cross to the side of the cross because it was like stage center. Want to stand to the side. I don't want anybody to be like, wow, look how nice he's dressed. I don't want that. I want I want people to be like, just normal dress. It wasn't a nice button-up collared shirt, it was just dress, you know. All of that wanted to say, I don't want anything to take away from what the focus of that time is. And that is Christ died. Yeah, he died. Wait, why did he die? Did he say he was gonna die? Is this part of the plan? And we want to feel the weight of all of that. And again, with the resounding yes, according to the scriptures, this is what's happened, and then read it knowing that that that was felt that way. So yeah, I don't know. I pray for the spirit to bless that continually. As long as he will, we'll continue to have it. And as long as we can fit in one room, uh, we'll do it that way. Um, maybe we'll do overflow rooms with live streamed into another room. So if you're late, you don't get a seat kind of thing. I don't know. Uh we're just gonna we're just gonna do it as the Lord leads every year till um till he comes again or he closes this thing down. Who knows?
SPEAKER_03You know, so and I thought it was just a perfect lead up to Sunday. Yeah. Because I mean, as everyone knows, we've been in First Corinthians. So to hear the story of what happened on Friday, hear the sound of the stone rolling away, being silent on Saturday, and then coming with Jubilee on Sunday morning, hearing about the resurrection and why it is so important, why that we continue to preach, because if not, like if the resurrection never happened, our faith would be in vain. And I love how God organized all of that to where that's the message that we're gonna preach on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think too, I think uh, you know, we we um we are unapologetic about our desire to be real, authentic, and bearers of truth. Um I don't ever, and again, I don't I don't know, I don't know the balance here. So I mean you grace is all over this place, but I don't ever want to conceal the message with gimmicks. I don't ever want to distract from the message with ploys to try to get you to convince you to come. I don't want that. I don't, I just don't want to do that. So when when when I again I'm not even gonna try to cast shade on people who did these things, but we just have made a choice that the the the value of Resurrection Sunday, the value of Easter is not a petting zoo or an Easter egg hunt. And nothing immoral about that. I'm not again, I'm not, don't hear me wrong. I'm not trying to say if your church does that, you got a problem. I'm not trying to be that guy. I'm just trying to say for us, for our church, we just have made a decision. They can get that. We live in Vegas, they can get that, they can go to those, you know, entertainment-driven type places. I just I want to make sure, and again, it's not saying that we don't want to do everything that's appealing and attractional. We want that, we want things to be attractive, but we want the message to be clear. And the message is this we're here because of Jesus, because he died and because he rose again. And the life he's calling us to is not a life of entertainment and petting zoos and Easter egg hunts. And and again, not saying that we'll never, I we may never, we may never do that. I hope, I don't think we will, but I'm not that's not the life he's called us to. He's called us to a life of take up your cross and let's go. Preach, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution and be maligned. And so just because we live in a time in our history where we can do this with relative ease in our country, uh, does not mean that we should then all of a sudden lose focus of what the real thing is. And that is mission. The message of our mission is he's alive. So let's say that, let's let's preach that and proclaim that in the streets of Las Vegas and let's proclaim that in the streets of the nations around the world because that's the thing that changes everything. And so we just want that to kind of be front and center, full display. The thing that we uh, yeah, I was listening to somebody today, they said you can tell the values of a culture by their tallest buildings. What's the tallest building of a culture of a city? Then you can kind of determine that's what they value. What's their biggest, shiniest building? What's the thing they're most impressed by? And I've just said when I was listening to that, I said, I want the tallest building in our church to be Jesus. I want the flag that flies the highest to be Jesus. I want the person who's celebrated the loudest to be Jesus. And I want the reason people are drawn. Remember, he said, if I be lifted up, yeah, I will draw all men to myself. I will draw, I will save. So let's lift him up. Let's make him the hero and the champion. And we all just kind of fade into darkness, die and be forgotten while Christ is elevated and forever glorified. So, I mean, I don't know. That's kind of where our conviction is and our heart is. And I hope that that, you know, the Lord blesses that. And again, we don't do things because he blesses it. We do things because it's right. And if he chooses to bless it like he has, highest attended service ever in the life of our church, which that's not a pride thing. That's just we we really didn't do anything. We just said we're gonna preach Jesus. Amen. We're gonna put donut holes out and sing. Let's go. And God brought people and we're thankful for that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And and I think the things that we do that are for us go in line with our vision of knowing Christ and making him known. Because Sunday morning is where they found their hope. Yeah. Like Jesus rose from the dead. So why would we, you know, not make that the center? It needs to be the the thing that people can come to. And there was a lot of things that were going on this week. Like we had people that we had to go see in the hospital. We had, you know, just things chaotic going around within staff, and all of that is moving towards Sunday, saying, but yes, there's still hope. Like the reason why we're doing this is because Jesus rose from the grave and he offers eternal life and he gives us that hope that we can hold on to despite our circumstances.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's so good, man. And first of all, the donut holes were absolute fire. My kids were popping them. They they had started with a napkin and then just went, started just getting after it. So that was dangerous. Luckily, we went to the last service. Um, something interesting is I didn't grow up in the church, so I think I was just thinking about this a different way post post-Sunday, was like the people that come just on Easter and Christmas Eve, and the culture around Easter of just even like people that don't go to church celebrate Easter. And so it's just the interesting thing that you started with this. I mean, this event changes everything. This is the single biggest event in history, and that people don't know. I don't I don't know if they fully grasp it, that just show up on those days or something. And so I just talk about the cultural side of that. And like, um, I just had a conversation with my family at dinner, and and just there's no knowledge of of actually what it is. And I think I grew up that way too. Like, I just was like, yeah, cool, Jesus rose, and I don't not agree with it, but I don't actually know about it.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think the the danger that we run into that we're we're kind of reaping the the the harvest of is um is biblical illiteracy, theological illiteracy. You know, when we we want to hold on to the cultural ethics of Christianity, but unravel the the heavy theological implications of Christianity. But we like the ethics, you know, hey yeah, yeah, don't cheat on your taxes, treat your neighbor good, obey, you know, don't lie, don't steal. We like all of that. So we're gonna and what we've done is I think we've created cultural Christians and what that produces then is um ethical living with uh theological shallowness, and when there's theological, when when theological depth or just uh understanding the the point behind these things is lacking, then then the celebration just becomes a cultural thing we do. What are you doing Sunday? Oh, it's Easter Sunday. I'm going to I'm gonna go to church. Where are you gonna go? I don't know. Even the the the main line, main one of the main news stations here, articles, uh newspapers here in town, put out a here's the top five churches you could attend if you want to celebrate Easter. Now we weren't on there, and I want to know why, but we weren't on that list, but they had five or six churches on there. Celebrate these, celebrate Easter here. What were they doing? They were they were acknowledging the fact that there's thousands of people who are not connected to a church that are on Sunday, on Easter Sunday going to be looking for a church to go to. Right. And I'm I'm not mad about that, uh, in a sense of like we want to take advantage of the opportunity for a cultural holiday to bring people to face to face with the gospel. What I'm what I'm concerned about is number one, um, is why are we here in that situation? And second, did every church that people decided to show up to deliver the goods? Did they bring them face to face with the gospel? Did they stand up and say, here's the reality of what's going on here, and you need to be born again. You need to be saved. Because Easter isn't just a message of hope. In fact, the resurrection of Christ is a message of condemnation for those who aren't in Christ. Right. So it's not just Jesus rose, you have hope. Do they no? Jesus rose victorious, which means all who belong to him actually are going to be raised to life, but all who do not belong to him are going to be raised to judgment. So as much as it is a message of hope, it's a message of condemnation for those who aren't in Christ. So we can't just package this as Jesus is alive, have hope. No, Jesus is alive, connect yourself to him by being born again through faith, then you have hope. And so I just want to say, like, I just think that we've got to not miss that opportunity. We've got to do what Peter did in Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost happened, the cultural holiday was taking place, people were coming to the city, and he stood up and said, Hey, all y'all, you're the ones that crucified Jesus. Well, that wasn't a message of like make everybody feel good. That was a message of truth that led them to salvation, and then they received the word and were baptized and saved, you know. So I just think cultural Christianity and the cultural, I'm not mad at the cultural holidays, so don't hear me wrong. I'm not that grumpy guy that's like, you know, uh, cultural holidays, Easter Sunday, you know, bahum bug kind of thing. But I am saying that I I want to make sure that we as a church always deliver the goods, give them Jesus, and we try to push back on the reality of uh the the cultural Christians that just are we call them creasers affectionately around here. They're creasers because they're Christmas and Easter attenders, you know. And we're again, we're not mad at you. We just want you to know Jesus and have a real living growing relationship with him so that the pursuit of him becomes a lifelong journey, not a twice a year, you know, um event. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, this is another reason why 1 Corinthians 15 is was such a perfect text that we were in, because um, I had people come up to me after the service letting me know, hey, I am not an Adam. I I am in Christ. And the way that you expounded upon that in Sunday was super clear. Like there are two people. You are either in Adam or you're in Christ. If you're in Adam, that judgment remains on you. But when you are transferred from the domain of darkness into the light of his son, you are in Christ and you do have hope. You can rejoice with us on Sunday morning and not feel the dread that is continuing in because of what Friday had.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02And I think most people like the the misconception is that if you're good, like if you're a good person, you're gonna make it. And that's just like, man, that is the biggest lie from the enemy. Um, and so not scriptural.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, that, but that is what that's what a cultural, a culture of Christianity. Again, I love the fact that America has been, I believe, established on a lot of these principles, and there is that. I think there's a benefit to that. I think, you know, what it's the it's the Romans question that he asks in chapter three about the nation of Israel. Well, what benefit is there to be a Jew? Much and every way. Because you are the recipients of the law and the truth of Jesus Christ. You so what so if you say, well, being a Christian doesn't save you, what good is there to be an or being an American rather, being an American doesn't save you? Well, what good is there to be an American then? Well, there's a lot of good, but I'm just saying one of the things is that you're exposed to the gospel regularly. You can walk down the street and find a church that preaches the gospel, probably within two miles of your home. Those are those are benefits, but you cannot just rest on the fact that, well, I'm a and I'm I'm an American, therefore I am a Christian. I was, I grew up going to church, my parents are Christian, so I'm a Christian. Well, that's just a misdefinition of of being a Christian. And you almost want to not use that word as much anymore. You want to more so be like, are you are you born again? Are you in Christ? Have you placed your faith in Christ? If not, it doesn't matter what you, what label you put on yourself, it's not about works, it's not about birth, it's not about nationality, it's not about that. It's about have I been born again by faith in Jesus Christ and make that my new, my new lineage, my new representative is Jesus Christ. No longer Adams. So, anyways, I think that's ignorance. And I think people need to learn and hear the truth. That's why we living on mission is so important. Sin on mission is because your neighbor thinks they're okay because they go to church or they grew up in church or whatever. And you might be the person who God has providentially placed to live next door to them to bring them the message of the gospel so that they can come to realize maybe I'm not saved. I need to trust Christ as my savior.
SPEAKER_02And I think one of the most interesting things is that people have opinions about religion or Christianity that have never read the Bible. So that's just like something that's mind blowing. Um and your point there about Christians or not saying Christians and saying in Christ. Is that he says in Christ in in the New Testament, I don't even know how many times, a lot, over 50 probably. And he only says Christians twice. And one of them is contrary, is like a bad, this bad thing. So it's just interesting that we hear that. Like, oh yeah, I'm a Christian because I've gone to church my whole life or whatever. But are you in Christ? Do you even know what your identity means? Do you even know what identity means?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't think it's just a it's just to say, well, what does Christian mean to you? Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What does that mean to you? When you say that, I don't think we just take, you know, these claims and just be like, oh, okay, cool. We say, well, what does that mean to you? What does it mean for you to be a Christian? And if it's something other than I place my faith in Jesus Christ and identified with him as my representative, they don't have to say it like that, but that basically is that, then I would just say, like, let me tell you what being a Christian is. And that's why we having some sort of theological depth to our explanation of the gospel with with simplicity and clarity helped so much in the reaching of the lost. That's why Christ says, or uh Paul wrote, led by the Spirit in Romans 10, that how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach if they're not sent? We are the ones sent, we are ambassadors of the truth, we are messengers of the gospel. We need to bring that message to bear on uh the lost in our culture and uh show them that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. That's good. Have you guys ever been a part of like baptisms on Easter? Is that a thing? Yeah, I we've never really done it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, not here at all.
SPEAKER_00I'm not mad at it if I do. Um we so we just in our church, you know, you know, this we've set a culture where we don't do impromptu baptisms. Um, so um I like the idea and maybe in the future doing baptisms next week. So, like the week following Easter, we do baptisms because now we go from resurrection Sunday to now the picture of those who have been raised to life in the likeness of his resurrection. And I like that. Um, I've never really done some on Easter, but again, I like the picture. I like I think it's beautiful, I think it's great. We just haven't done it.
SPEAKER_02That's cool. Um I I want to get into different Easter texts, but before we do that, I kind of want to hear what what your guys' maybe favorite Easter memories are or why you love Easter so much or Easter Sunday, obviously the resurrection of Jesus, but yeah, obviously.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I I love Easter Sunday. I got saved on Easter Sunday when I was younger. Um, every Easter Sunday I look forward to it. Me and my family just have a good time of remembering what Christ has done for us and the eternal life that we have in him. So for me, it's just like, you know, the culture calls it like the Super Bowl of, you know, churches. But it for me is like the biggest reunion because not only do our family get together, hear the proclamation of the word, sing together, fellowship, but also there are others that are brought into what we're doing, and they get to see the picture of what Christ's family looks like. And and by God's grace, they get saved. I I've been praying for family members of mine, and I get so excited because I know on Easter Sunday, they're going to hear the message of the gospel. They're going to be invited, they're going to see a glimpse and partake of just the spiritual blessings that we partake partake of every single week. So I get really excited, and this Easter um was really, really special for me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I you know, so it's there trying to think about that question. Um, it's interesting for me. I grew up in church. So um I was thinking about this this week. I was like, I wonder, I can't remember. I know Easter was a big deal growing up, but it has like turned up several notches, even from growing up. Like it was a big deal. Hey, it's Easter Sunday, maybe grab a new shirt, let's take a picture out, you know, in front of church and let's go get uh Easter brunch after church with grandma and grandpa, all of that stuff. Let's do the you know Easter baskets. Grandma would buy us, you know, baskets and stuff. It was just kind of like a it was just I it was just what it was. It was just a thing. And then it wasn't until I think after I kind of graduated Bible college and got into ministry that I was like, wow, no wait, there this is a big deal. Like people come to church that don't normally come to church. And so then I think as a as a pastor, I've I've I've done this now 20 something years now of every Easter is I'm on, let's go. Um, and I've only missed a couple. I missed one because I got like food poisoning on Saturday night one year, and I was in the ER vomiting all night. And like at 3 a.m. I called my my assistant pastor and one of the pastors on the staff, and I was like, hey, uh, yeah, I'm in the ER. I'm throwing up. You're up. Get your best Easters. That's the only one I can remember missing. This Sunday was uh was this last one, last two days ago, was pretty rough because I got that sickness that kind of fell into my head. But I I just think about like what was what what what happened in the culture? And I I love it. I think it's great in that people come because I want people to come. I want I want people who don't normally come to church and know Christ to come to church every Sunday. They're gonna come on Easter. And I want I've I just love the opportunity to be able to open up the Bible to unbelievers and say, hey, y'all want to hear what this is about? This is what it's about. And I I don't, I'm not trying to, I don't, I really I want you to come back next week, but I'm not trying to get you back next week. I just want you to be transformed by God. I love that. Um, Easter for 20 some years now, uh, Easter afternoon is a go home and almost die out of exhaustion, just because we typically add a service or two. There's more that goes on in the week ahead. So there's all there's all these like Easter afternoon mixed emotions for me just because I enter into a comatose state for a couple hours. And I I that's pray for my kids. I've you know, I've they they are gonna remember dad died on Easter Sunday almost. But I I love all of it just because I love the opportunity. I think everybody looks pretty. That's great, dressed up. Uh, there's uh the fun things with the pictures. I love Easter Sunday afternoon or evening flipping through social media and just looking at all of the pictures from our church family and be like, oh, cool, they were there. I didn't see them. And oh, that they look good. That's a great picture. I love it. I love that. That's one of my favorite things to do. And then to hear people feedback, hey, my family was there, they heard the gospel, and we just will never know. We will never know the impact the gospel on Easter Sunday will have on eternity. And so I love that. I love all of that. And then I'm I'm always glad when it's like, all right, now back to normal.
SPEAKER_02One of the coolest things that you did, um, I think it was two weeks ago, I don't think it was this last week, but with the staff uh especially was you you really just encouraged us to be present. And I think just for anybody, right, going through anything, like you you could get so busy so fast and forget to be present.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_02That was pretty cool to sit in that on Sunday, had some unbelievable conversations and really just like remembered why I love this church so much and and just being able to love people um the way you know Christ loved us. Yeah. That was special. Yeah. All right, let's talk about um Easter texts. So different texts maybe that that you can preach that you've preached, um, exciting texts, and then we can we can talk a little bit about this text.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I there's a weird, there's a love-hate relationship pastors have with holiday uh services. Because, you know, there's a here's the cycle. Again, 20, what is this? Probably year 25. I don't know, man. 20, so go, you know, right around 20 years of rather not 25. I'm not that old.
SPEAKER_03A bit preaching that long ago. Oh, no, no.
SPEAKER_00How many years was I the one who was preaching at my church on Easter Sunday? Right. So we're probably at about right about year 20. And then I had a couple where I was on staff, so our our lead pastor did. So early on, you you know, you just it's so fun because you got all the Easter text, and you're like, oh, I'm gonna do this one. I've never done this one before. I could yeah, and then about year 15, you're like, well, now what do I do? I've done them all. And and again, that's not right. Uh, I that's that's man speaking, right? Because the power of the text is the power of God, the spirit of God does his work, he does every time. But there always is this. My brother and I message each other about it a little bit, like, well, what are we doing this year? Well, what do we do last year? You know, so uh God's grace was good in that it just lined up where 1 Corinthians 15 fell for us. But I mean, there's some good ones. I mean, I preached one year, I preached Job. Oh I know my redeemer lives. And Job like didn't know what that meant. But this side of the cross, this side of history, we look back on Job's words in the midst of his despair and says, I have hope because I know my redeemer lives. And I was like, I don't, I don't know that he even knew. And we're like, Yes, you don't even know how true that is, Job. And so we I preached that as one of the texts on Sunday. The the gospels obviously are great. He's not here, he is risen, like he said. I mean, how do you get past the power of that?
SPEAKER_02Um have you ever done what you did on Good Friday with with uh never nope? That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yep. Never done that. Um, just kind of chronologically put in order the resurrection story. Um, there would be power in that. And we, and you know, I after I did it on Good Friday, I thought that might be a cool, at least a cool element in an Easter service coming up where we just have some reading of the text and then uh stand up and let's let's let's preach this. That gets into the issue of Easter. We always try to keep our services a little shorter, even though this one wasn't, it was like an hour 15, I think. Um, we try to keep things a little tighter because we add a service and then donut holes have to be eaten, so we can't go too long into that, you know. And so there's just a lot of good ones. And again, I loved this text. I've actually preached this text, uh I'm not in the first Corinthians series, but preached it for an Easter Sunday before. But just how it added so much color to me studying it in its context of the entirety of First Corinthians, to then come to it and be like, that's where this fits in the grammatical context of First Corinthians, which is super powerful. And it's just yeah, it's just teaching and preaching the word is just it's a it's a life journey that it never it's like I liken it to if you were a cave diver, like you're a cave explorer, and you just you you run down and think about all of these like fingers of of caves that you're exploring, the caverns of Missouri or whatever, and you just are you think you got to the end of one and you turn a corner and you're like, oh wait, no, wait, there's it more. And then you're like, oh, we've already been down this one, but I didn't see that last time. And there's more down here, and there's more down there, and it's living and active, and every life that uh uh context of life that changes, you go down another cavern cave that you've already been down, but you see it in a different light because the light's different, life is different, context is different, and the spirit of God is doing a work and letting you see it first for the you know fresh for almost like it was the first time. Listen, I just think that the church, the church needs to never get tired of just diving into God's word and celebrating what it teaches us again and again and again and again. And I think that's I don't know, that's what Easter, this Easter showed me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And I mean, we're forgivful creatures. Yeah. So hearing it over and over and over again is good, even if it's the same text that we were to preach every single Sunday. I think it's so beneficial. Um, this year has been especially touching for me because um when you were teaching on the just the worthlessness of our faith for Christ has not been raised, but then you get to verse 20. It's like, but Christ has been raised. And the the phrase that stood out to me is him being the first fruit. Like that's an implication that more is to come afterwards. And then when we see just the many people that have given their life to Christ that come afterwards, it's like these are the these are the fruits, these are the other ones that are being talked about.
SPEAKER_00I love that too, because if I were to say, yeah, he's the only one or he's the one, or if I said he's the first, right? What's that mean? Well, that means two different things. He's the one who was raised. Okay, well, that might mean that nobody else is gonna get raised. But if he's the first of the resurrection, that implies there's going to be more to follow. And so I love that Paul did that. The first fruits, and then he put it into a farming context. First fruits is this is the first, which means there's more to follow. There's more to follow. And who's the ones to follow? Those that belong to him, those that are in him. So I love my favorite part of that is in fact. That two phrase, that two words, but in fact, but actually, he has been raised. So if he hasn't been raised, this is true, but that's not true. Actually, actually, as a matter of fact, almost like you know, nerdy kind of as a matter of fact, he has been raised, he is alive, and and he doesn't, he doesn't even be like, it's not a guess. He's not saying it's not hypothetical, hypothesizing. He's not like, if he's dead, this is true, but if he's alive, this is true. He doesn't do that. He's like, hypothetically, if he were dead, this would be true. But in fact, it's not an if, it's an actual thing. I'm Paul was so convinced that he did not hypothesize, he declared it as an absolute truth. And that's why I think it's moving, it's challenging to say Christianity does not present itself as an option to figure out if it's true or not. It puts itself as a truth, an absolute, and the weight is on you to prove it wrong, and it welcomes the scrutiny. It welcomes the scrutiny. Do your best, fight it, prove me wrong. And it can't. Prove the resurrection isn't real, prove it's not real. The weight is on you to prove it's not real. And he's like, okay, well, then the only other explanation is that Christ is alive and he continues to actively work in and through his people. And it is because of that, everything I just hypothetically reasoned would be true if he wasn't alive. The opposite is true. Faith is not in vain, it's actually full of life and substance. And preaching is not pointless, it's actually a worthy thing to give your life to. And the the apostles weren't liars, they died for something that was actually true. And those who are saved that belong to Christ who died, yeah, you will see them again. They're not perishing, they're gonna be raised to newness of life again. And you, so again, he just he he all of the implications that were negative are flipped on their head and everything changes. Why? Because in Christ we have uh undone what we had in Adam. Christ is now life where Adam was death, Christ is hope where Adam was despair. Christ is uh resurrection where resurrection to each everlasting life where Adam is a resurrection to eternal death. So yeah, I just in fact, it's a fact.
SPEAKER_02Love it. I mean, Jesus is either Lord and Savior or He's crazy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like there's no in between. No, that's the the sobering thing about, especially going through First Corinthians, man. I mean, the whole Bible, obviously, but man, like Paul is just letting them have it. And it's incredible. And it's like the to your point of the resurrection, like to be reminded, we need to remind ourselves of let's celebrate this. It's like when we talked about being aggressive, like Paul was aggressive preaching the gospel. And it's like, I hope to do that every day. Like that is a goal to do that.
SPEAKER_03But I mean, even to your point, like the liar, lunatic, and lord that C.S. Lewis did, Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Christ, the people that you talked about on Sunday. Every single person that intentionally looked at the resurrection, looked at the claims that the Bible makes, yeah, converts. They they they find out this is true and now they have to deal with it. Okay, either I am going to submit to the the the teachings of Christ and give my life to him, or I'm gonna walk away knowing that I am I'm yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's the thing, is that like I it's funny, there's a so give you a little glimpse under the hood for a second. Uh, when when you preach, especially when you do three and you're battling head and you're super sensitive to things you say. And uh there was one thing I said in the third service that I was like, that was the worst thing to say. I didn't mean that, I meant this, but I said it wrong, and now how do I explain myself out of that? So you start talking to yourself while you're teaching and preaching, and you're like, wait, that wasn't right. That's not what I meant to say. But what I meant to say was this, and this was the truth I want to say is if you deny that Jesus rose from the dead, then you are walking away from the evidence of his resurrection, which means that he was the savior, and you are trusting in something other than Jesus to deal with your biggest problem, which is your sin problem. And and what I meant to say was you better be right because eternity hangs in the balance. What I said on accident was I hope you're right, as if I was saying, man, I hope you're right, because you know, I don't maybe, maybe you're right. Yeah, almost like I doubted. But what I want to say is like if you're gonna believe in something other than Jesus, you better be right because your eternity stands in in jeopardy. And that's why I'm gonna anchor my faith to the realities of scripture and the truth of Jesus Christ, not just because I feel it, but because it's anchored in a reality, a truth that I'm not hypothesizing, thinking, well, I'll just hopefully when I die, uh my good will outweigh my bad. I hope so. Well, you better be right because eternity rests in the balance. I'm not willing to trust myself. I'm willing to trust in the savior who died for my sin, rose again for my justification, ascended, and is awaiting the coming again to bring me into eternal glory. I'm gonna bank on that because it's got a sure source. Anyways, that to me is what I think the message of this text is is be careful.
SPEAKER_03No, absolutely. I think we need to be examining ourselves with that. That's one thing, another element that I loved about the Good Friday service, like walking through all of the story of what happened on Friday, uh, but then getting to Sunday morning and that proclamation that the angel had, we see this in uh Luke chapter 24, where he tells the women, he's like, he's not here. Yeah, he he rose just like he said he was. And it's that promise that we're holding on to that, okay, he said that he was going to die and he rose again. Yeah, he also said that he's going to come back, and now we can trust him in that as well.
SPEAKER_00My favorite line in that is why do you seek the living among the dead? Like that line right there, and I think it's it's a full it's a foretaste or a almost a bigger line than just he was saying, Why are you seeking somebody who is alive in a cemetery? Why are you seeking the living among the dead? But here's what I think is you can't find the living savior among dead saviors. He's not numbered with the dead saviors, he's not numbered with Buddha or with Muhammad or with Joseph Smith, he's not numbered with the dead. He's alive. So why would we seek life among dead things? Life can only be found among the living and with the one who is alive. And that living is Jesus Christ. So that ex our story is one of my favorite lines. Why seek the living among the dead? Why are you seeking the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_02So good. Um, one of the questions in small group last week was about like examining, and it was do you where where do you struggle most? Which I think is all of them. But it was like, Do you struggle with the cross? Do you struggle with the waiting period or the resurrection or the perseverance? You know, the perseverance of the faith. And it was like, well, well, all of them at different times. But that was it. I mean, it's interesting to think about that, right? Because like, do I think I bring something to the table? Do I think I bring anything other than my sin to the cross? Do I have a problem being patient and waiting on what God's gonna do because he's sovereign? Do I have a pro do I now have peace because he he resurrected and I'm in Christ? Or do I have a problem continuing the faith and believing that he's gonna, you know, got the better plan for me? So that was just, I think that's a constant thing, and it's so incredible.
SPEAKER_03It it's a it definitely is a constant struggle. But Peter talks about this. He says, you know, if you know the gospel, you know the implications of all this, and then you return back, you're like a dog returning to his vomit. It's like there's something better, you know about it, and yet you're returning back to the filth that God took you out of.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And this goes to the theology of the perseverance of the saints, that we believe that perseverance of the saints is this, and and maybe it's a fun thing for us to talk about it another time, but that those who are genuinely a saint, which means not that they've been sainted by the Catholic Church, but that they have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, have aligned themselves with Jesus as their representative savior, they have been born again, they become a saint. And those who are genuinely regenerated will persevere in the faith. Amen. Will they question? Like I had somebody ask me on Sunday, man, I I feel like I've got questions. Does that mean I'm not saved? And I'm like, no, that's not what that means. Questions are maybe more of the indicator that there is life in you because you're seeking truth and you're pursuing truth. The point is that genuine faith is enduring faith, it's persevering faith. And so, does that mean you're gonna have questions in the waiting? No, no, I'm not gonna, I'm not, I'm I'm going to have questions of like, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. Like those types of moments where, hey, I know you said this, I just need to revisit this and strengthen my faith in this. And those are real tension points for all of us. And we're in that. We're in this waiting period. Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ has ascended, and now we're in the age where the church is expanding, the people are being reached with the gospel, and it's going to culminate in his return. And that we wait for. That's why when we take communion, we do show the Lord's death until He comes because he's coming again. Amen. And just as we are confident what he did in the past and fulfilled, we are confident that what he said he'll do in the future, he will fulfill, like Chuck just said a few moments ago.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So persevere. But you persevere because of genuine faith in Christ and empowered by the Spirit of God.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02It's great. It's good stuff. Yeah, it's good. I don't really know. Easter, Easter is great.
SPEAKER_03So on Easter Sunday, this is something that I just truly appreciated within your message, Andrew. At the end, you talked about four different mindsets that people have.
SPEAKER_01That's good.
SPEAKER_03You talked about those that say, you know what, yes, I'm a Christian. I believe this. You talked about those people that say, you know what, I'm not there yet. Some people that say, you know what, I need to investigate this more. And like, can you just unpack that a little more? Because I appreciate that. Because even in biblical counseling, there's a lot of people that come to me with doubts, come to me with false assurance, come to me with, you know, just a different mindset. And for you to explain this as this is a mindset that for me and my thinking is like this can be changed. If you're doubting this, if you're saying, you know what, I don't believe this, or I need to investigate this, then there's there's things that we can look into to help shift that mindset to get you on the right track so that you can be in Christ. Sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I yeah, I heard I mean I unashamedly sold out from somebody. Some I tweaked it, but I I heard somebody a couple years ago in a service kind of like, hey, there's these mindsets. So I was like, oh, I like that. I'm gonna I'm gonna adjust that a little bit and and feel the same way. And what it is is for me is a call to respond. And in a call to respond, I need to, I need to get you clearly thinking about where you are. Where are you? So that we can get you to where we want you to be. Excuse me. So that we can get you to where we want you to be or where the spirit is leading you to be. So I just I want to clarify like who are you? And and and you're gonna look at that. And you may you may this whole service and this whole day and this whole year and your whole life not identified with one of those four. But today the spirit said, That's you. You're letter C, you're the third one or whatever. So, so again, I think it's just to say, all right, if you know where you are, now you need to know what's your response to the sermon or to this text. If I'm a Christian and I believe that I've trusted Christ as my savior, then what do I do with this text? Is I celebrate it and I say, yes, amen. Let's go. If I'm saying I'm not a Christian, but I want to become a Christian, that's the right response to this. Is I don't, I think I'm in Adam, but I want to be in Christ. How do I do that? And I'm ready to make that step. I've never thought of it that way before. I want to make that step. I want to claim faith in Christ. I want to put my faith in Christ. But then I also want to leave room for the people in the room that aren't there, that are like, I don't know if I believe this yet. I'm wrestling. And I'm confident that the Spirit of God can do the work in them to bring them to truth. That's his job. I'm gonna deliver the truth and trust him to bring it to truth. But I'm gonna let you know I'm okay with you in here saying, I don't I don't know if I believe this yet, but I'm wrestling. And then I also want to acknowledge the fact that it is Easter. I mean, there's probably a handful of people in that service right there that are like, I don't really care. I have no intentions of doing anything with this. And that's where I want to say, be careful. Be careful. I challenge you to to at least grow interest in this enough to explore it. Yeah. Don't just leave here thinking, I'm good. I I've got my own way of living. That's a dangerous place to be. And so I just I just want to acknowledge because I want to categorize you and then I want to call you to a response based upon where you identify where you are. And I think that goes back to just counseling too. Like you said, is like I want to know what's your mindset right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So, like if we're doing marriage counseling, I'll often ask somebody, are it are you guys actually thinking that this marriage is over? Are you guys, you know, if you're thinking, yeah, we're probably not gonna make it, like I want to know that before I waste eight hours with you trying to wrestle with you to make it. Right. Now, I may, I may still wrestle with it for eight hours with you, but it's gonna be a different approach than to say, you know, we're in this, we're gonna make this marriage work. We're just going through a tough time. Okay, cool. That's gonna be a different approach I'm gonna take with you. And I think that is with everybody. And I just wanted people to have that so that the because I can't convince you to get saved, the spirit of God does that. I just wanted you to know where you are so that the spirit of God could then say, okay, cool, here's your next step. Here's what you need to do. So I don't know if that answers your question.
SPEAKER_03No, it does. And I appreciate that again, because coming from a counseling perspective, there's a times where people get wrapped up in their feelings. Yeah. And their feelings tend to lead them in this area. And it's like, what we want to do is we want to say, okay, listen, your feelings are valid, but sometimes they're wrong. So we want to reorient those and put them at the back of the train to where they're following and you thinking properly. So again, this is why I say I appreciate the simple fact that this is a mindset for a lot of people. And what we need to do is just shift that and have the Bible come to bear on it.
SPEAKER_02That's right. That's right. It's good. It's great. I don't have anything else. I think this unless you unless you do. Yeah, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00I'll just say this. I guess this is the we've already alluded to this, we've already said it, but and I just want to say it as clear as I can for those listening. The resurrection demands a response. You can't ignore it. You have to do something with it. Now you can reject it. You can. Or you can ignore it, which in essence is a rejecting of it, but you can't just remain neutral. It's not, it's not something that you can say, I don't really have an opinion on. Because that right there is the declaration of an opinion on it, that you're indifferent towards it, which in essence is a rejection of it. So the only two valid responses that I would argue for the resurrection or towards the resurrection are you're either gonna reject it as legend or fairy tale or unimportant, or you're gonna receive it as real and authentic and the source of the power of salvation. And whether you reject it or receive it determines what you do with it next. If you receive it as true and authentic and legitimate, then Jesus demands your faith. He deserves it. Give him your faith, trust him as your savior, align with him as your representative, because that means that he succeeded where Adam failed. And if you're gonna reject it, then then you better have um, again, I don't know how to say that without being like too weird on that, but uh you you are banking your eternal life on something else. Make sure it's true. And I'm gonna say, because I know there's nothing else true, right? But you better explore that. And here's why I'm gonna challenge you to explore that, because as you explore anything other than Jesus for your eternal hope, you're gonna find that it is wanting, it is lacking. And then it hopefully will draw you back to Jesus, who's the only source of true, lasting, eternal hope. And that's kind of the challenge I would give is just you gotta do something with it, do something with it. And then we're gonna see in the text coming in the next several weeks that because of the resurrection, we who belong to Christ have this unbelievable hope of future resurrection. So buckle up, it's gonna be good over the next several weeks. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So let's go. Pray us out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Thank you, Father. We come to you in the name of the risen living Savior. It's the name of Jesus. And we come to you confident you hear us because he is alive and ever interceding on our behalf. That is so crazy and sobering to think that you you hear us and he is there. Christ, you're there on behalf of your children. And so thank you for that. Thank you for the hope that the resurrection brings. That it's more than just a cool story that uh he did it, so can you. It's more than that. It's a it's a resurrection power declaring victory over sin and death, which means that those who don't belong to Christ are still under sin and death. And so this is a the the line in the saying moment where those who are in Christ have hope. Those who are not don't. So I pray that that truth would ring through these airwaves and people would listen and receive and repent and trust Christ as their savior, and that you would save people as a result. We love you, and we want to be right and true to your word, and so help us continue to be that as we continue to study it. And we love you so much in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for listening to the podcast. You can check out our latest sermon at lifebaptistchurch.com. We can't wait to see you this Sunday.