SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand together.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for being here.
SPEAKER_00: And we are celebrating on this resurrection celebration morning.
SPEAKER_00: Just clap your hands to the Lord and praise to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for this day.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your blessings, your grace, your glory, your power, your goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, that you have given us this time together.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, that you give us hope and peace and grace as you fill our lives with your love and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: We worship and praise and honor you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you're here this morning on this Easter morning.
SPEAKER_00: And uh everybody's, well, you know, it's raining in San Antonio.
SPEAKER_00: That's like a snowstorm somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so people will get here in a few moments, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but uh, well, we won't complain because we need the rain.
SPEAKER_00: So uh but I'm so glad you're here and here on time.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we're looking forward to a great day, of course.
SPEAKER_00: We will have our Bible uh Discovering God Bible class this morning and then uh our worship service and uh and and another message later today.
SPEAKER_00: So we'd love for you to stay for all of that today if you can.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but let's look together in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read one verse of scripture to begin with, and then we'll take a moment and just ask God to be with us as we look into his word today.
SPEAKER_00: Today we begin a new sort of focus for this month.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and you may have seen it other places, I believe.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so today I want to speak to you for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: I believe in a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 17 says, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, and you are yet in your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for your mercies and grace.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this time together, thank you for every person that has joined with us both here and online today.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray, God, that you would speak to our hearts through your word.
SPEAKER_00: We could receive your word, we could be strengthened by it, and we could draw close to you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for this moment, this time together.
SPEAKER_00: We ask you to anoint us to speak and to hear and receive.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I I think everyone understands the significance of the day.
SPEAKER_00: Probably many of you have read the story.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you have even taught at one time or another about the resurrection in a class or in a Bible study or some other way.
SPEAKER_00: And so I know you know the story, but the story never gets old because it's more than a story, of course.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's not just something that happened a long time ago, but it the resurrection itself is alive in our hearts and our lives today and grants us that hope.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Apostle Paul uh writes here in 1 Corinthians 15, but I want to look in the chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, because if you read the chapter, the entire chapter is really about the resurrection and why it was important, significant, and uh written to us, but written directly to the church in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: So these are uh Gentiles, there's Jews there too, but these are sort of a Gentile audience, and he uh expounds on it quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna read it all, just in case you were wondering.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're not gonna be here all day uh with going through 1 Corinthians 15, but I do want to just read some of it together with you so you can get the glimpse of what the Apostle Paul is teaching here for us to know today.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Moreover, brother, I declare unto you the gospel which I preach unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved.
SPEAKER_00: If you keep in memory that which I preach unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
SPEAKER_00: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he was seen as Cephas, then of the twelve, after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain into the present, but some have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_00: After that, he was seen of James, then all the apostles, and last of all, he was seen of me also as one born out of due time.
SPEAKER_00: For I am the least of the apostles, and I have not met, I am not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.
SPEAKER_00: So he's given us the background, he's showing us the evidence that all of these people saw Jesus, interacted with Jesus after the resurrection, and includes himself in that, in the revelation that he received from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And he continues, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and the grace which he has bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach and so you believe.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
SPEAKER_00: But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
SPEAKER_00: And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching in his vain, and your faith is also in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Yea, and we also found we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead not raised.
SPEAKER_00: For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
SPEAKER_00: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, and you are yet in your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
SPEAKER_00: If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
SPEAKER_00: But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleep.
SPEAKER_00: For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_00: For if as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all are made alive.
SPEAKER_00: And then he continues on the topic for some time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pick up in verse 51, 30 verses later.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Behold, I show you a mystery.
SPEAKER_00: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
SPEAKER_00: In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trump of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
SPEAKER_00: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
SPEAKER_00: So when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and a mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
SPEAKER_00: O death, where is thy sting?
SPEAKER_00: O grave, where is thy victory?
SPEAKER_00: The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
SPEAKER_00: But thanks be to God, which gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to read all of that to you today because, well, it's the word of God, first of all.
SPEAKER_00: It's not my words, it's not my my thoughts, it's the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it reminds us how pivotal the resurrection of Jesus Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: That it is sort of the founding place, the the pivot point of all of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: It is what is not just something that happened, but everything depends on that.
SPEAKER_00: Without the resurrection, nothing else in what we, you know, what we call Christianity Day, nothing else really works.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't fall.
SPEAKER_00: But the resurrection is pivotal to all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's the center of everything that we believe as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: So Christianity is not based on a philosophy, a way of thinking, even though there is a way of thinking and a philosophy that underlies Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: It's not based on that.
SPEAKER_00: It rests on this historical and supernatural event of the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's so important.
SPEAKER_00: And I will say, you know, today is April the 5th.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't happen on April the 5th.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So I I know we talk about these holidays, you know, we have these holidays that we celebrate as Americans and much of the world celebrating one time or another, maybe not exactly the same day.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there's practices, and you know, there's no Easter bunnies in the Bible, you know, no egg hunts, none of that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we we know these practices and cultural experiences and things, many of them come from, well, varied backgrounds, often pagan backgrounds, and we understand all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And we understand that Jesus' uh birth wasn't on December the 25th, also.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we understand uh that there the dates may not be exactly right, but it is appropriate and it is important for us to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: It is important, it is significant.
SPEAKER_00: It is more important, I would say, than the cultural holidays or anything else that you might fit into it.
SPEAKER_00: It's more important that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, and we actually should celebrate it every day, and we do, because we are born again of the water and spirit, because Jesus rose from the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And so I there's no way of really explaining today, I should pull out the notes that you have, it's no way of really explaining today how important the resurrection is to Christianity as a whole, and our ability to draw close to God and God to touch our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But that I want to continue though, that but there's there's so many powerful things in the resurrection that I could uh sort of preach about that, teach about that.
SPEAKER_00: We could just go all day.
SPEAKER_00: I I grew up in a church that was um uh in the Houston area.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in church head of pastors uh that of that church was kind of a prophet, and uh no, he wasn't kind of, he was a prophet, but um and preacher, and uh and it was a different day.
SPEAKER_00: I know it was a different day.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but I do remember sometimes as a as a young person coming to church, and the pastor would start, we started at 9 45 back in those days.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, they just added on an extra 15 minutes, I think is what that was about.
SPEAKER_00: We started at 9.45, and I remember on numerous occasions our pastor would start teaching at 9.45, and we would finally have a worship service about noon because he didn't stop until he was finished.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna do that to you today, so don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: But that empty tomb is really has so many, and that uh resurrection has so many lessons for us today.
SPEAKER_00: In Mark chapter 16, verse number one, the Bible says, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome had brought sweet spices that they might anoint him.
SPEAKER_00: They were coming to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body.
SPEAKER_00: Now don't make don't you know make that something like we talk about anointing of the Holy Spirit in our lives or something.
SPEAKER_00: This this is what they did to prepare the body for burial.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so this was kind of the care they took, the kind of cultural background they had.
SPEAKER_00: They're coming to uh mourn, to uh prepare, and uh to take the time that they had not had because of the circumstances of his death and getting him buried before the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So they're coming in this kind of uh uh, you know, some days later, some hours have passed, and they're coming together to undertake this sober moment in honor of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure through their minds was all kinds of whirling questions, all kinds of thoughts in their minds, but they're there together to bestow in their minds some last act of love and kindness by caring for the corpse, not knowing how they would get to it, but they're coming for that purpose.
SPEAKER_00: So given that background, it's kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had already told them, and Jesus' body had already been anointed.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just a few days before, when the woman that we sing about, we remind ourselves about, broke the alabaster box of a precious ointment, poured it upon Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told them, This is the anointing for my body, for my burial.
SPEAKER_00: So he's already had that experience.
SPEAKER_00: They're just not really remembering that because they're not really putting it in that context.
SPEAKER_00: They're here for this sober, sad moment.
SPEAKER_00: It's very difficult for us to sort of project ourselves back into that moment because we are where we are, we know what we know, and to put ourselves back.
SPEAKER_00: So they're coming in this very sober moment, and with these expectations in mind, but that's not what they found at all.
SPEAKER_00: I I can imagine the uh pendulum swing of emotions, right?
SPEAKER_00: It was not all what they expected.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't know what's really what's going on, but they know now that he's not there, that his body is not there.
SPEAKER_00: This is completely different than the emotions, I'm sure, was quite extreme.
SPEAKER_00: And they're in this moment of doing this, and and and they come with this idea that they're gonna come and embrace the death of Jesus, but instead of death, they found the life that they didn't expect to find.
SPEAKER_00: They found the hope they didn't expect to find.
SPEAKER_00: They found the joy they didn't expect to.
SPEAKER_00: They came with spices, but they left with an uh a message from an angel to give instructions to Jesus followers, a message to say, He has risen.
SPEAKER_00: He is risen and he's gonna meet you just like he said he was gonna meet you.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, everything that was dead came alive.
SPEAKER_00: Not just Jesus, but the hope, the words, everything that Jesus had expressed to them.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's all alive again.
SPEAKER_00: In joy and happiness and strength of this moment.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens when we come into contact with the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever our expectations are, we come with our emptiness, with our sadness, with our sorrow, with the weight and burden of our sins.
SPEAKER_00: We come to Jesus, and what our expectations are is that Jesus is going to condemn us, that that we, you know, the pain, the anguish, the sorrow, the guilt, the shame that we may feel, we come with that in hand, expecting that he's going to uh expecting what we would expect in those situations, that at the minimum we're gonna be scolded.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus opens his arms and we meet the resurrection in life who gives us love and grace and mercy and kindness, not what we would expect, not how we now you read the Bible and you've already experienced it, so it's hard for you to go back to that moment and realize that Jesus gave you exactly what you didn't expect to get.
SPEAKER_00: It gave you exactly what you didn't expect would happen.
SPEAKER_00: You came with your spices in hand to ask for some kind of help, but God gives you love and life because he is the resurrected Savior and He is the living resurrection in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't just leave it at some generic sort of uh crowd acknowledgement.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 20, I'll read verse 11 through 18.
SPEAKER_00: Mary stood without the sepulcher, weeping, and she wept and she stooped down, she looked into the sepulchre.
SPEAKER_00: She's still not sure what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: She sees two angels that are sitting.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if she's just now recognized they're there, one at the head of the other at the feet of where Jesus' body was laid.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Because they've taken away my Lord and I know not where they've laid him.
SPEAKER_00: And when she had said this, she turned herself back and she saw Jesus standing, but did not know that it was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to her, Woman, why weepest thou?
SPEAKER_00: Whom seekest thou?
SPEAKER_00: And she, supposing him to be the gardener, said, Sir, if you've carried him hence, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to her, Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And she turned herself and said unto him, Rabonah, which is to say, Master.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to her, Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father and to my God and your God.
SPEAKER_00: And Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her.
SPEAKER_00: So it's great that we get these different perspectives and different parts of the stories from the different writers of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We see Mary here, and you know, she's she's I don't know, she's struggling with this whole what's going on and what's happening, and and uh she's not sure what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And and Jesus actually speaks to her personally.
SPEAKER_00: We see this happening a few times in the scripture where Jesus sort of skips the apostles and takes time with someone else that would not be considered a primary person to engage with.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the woman at the well, remember the woman at the well, Jesus revealed to her that he was in fact the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He revealed that to her when he didn't say that directly, at least at that point, he hadn't said that directly to hardly anyone, if anyone at all.
SPEAKER_00: And here he is, apparently in this sort of really uh uh uh interesting moment.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say it that way.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting moment.
SPEAKER_00: He's out of the tomb, but his the process is not yet complete.
SPEAKER_00: And he takes the time to acknowledge Mary, who is there with broken heart, not knowing what's happening, and engage in a conversation with her until she recognized who he was.
SPEAKER_00: Because the resurrection is not just some big thing that happened, but it's real in every one of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It's personal for every one of us, it's personal to every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just something that happened to all of us or as Christians or to the world, but it's personal with every one of us, it's real in every one of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And and Jesus doesn't just make it for everyone, he makes it for me.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection is for me, it is for you.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection is not just for the world.
SPEAKER_00: We read the verse, for God so loved the world, and we often just think of that in this cosmic large sense, but really it's much greater than that.
SPEAKER_00: God so loved each and every one of us, every one of us individually.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know it's sunny morning, it's raining, you know, maybe you didn't get enough coffee when you came in or something.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're you're not quite there thinking about it, but to think about that the God of all this, I was, I was uh, I was actually I was praying the other day, and it just sort of occurred to me in the moment of praying, you know, that I was uh praying and I was I uh you know we're we're uh sending the Artemis to the moon stuff and all that's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just thinking, God, you you created you know all the universe, everything that's out there we can see we can see or can't see is you created it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just thinking, you know, here's these, and I and I actually said, God, you you you know, you flung the stars into space, and I said, you know what, that's not true.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't fling anything into space, God placed it exactly where it was supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: Doing exactly what it was supposed to do, comprised of exactly the same elements that he wanted it to be comprised of, exactly functioning the way he designed it to be functioned.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't some haphazard thing, it wasn't just some, you know, a child's toy on a playground somewhere, but God had a design for every one of those things I don't see or know and will never know.
SPEAKER_00: He had a design for every star, every planet, everything that's far beyond the scope of what I can see, every galaxy.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what those designs are.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what God had in mind, and I don't know if there's people on any of those either.
SPEAKER_00: So just for your sake.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know any of that, but God had a plan for every one of those.
SPEAKER_00: It is astonishing to me that God has a plan for it all, but God has a plan for every detail.
SPEAKER_00: That every detail functions in accordance with his plan.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you take it to the largest, most macro sense God created it, or whether you take it to the narrowest, most micro sense, God made it the way he intended it to be.
SPEAKER_00: Because every part Is important and every part is significant that He created.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we think of ourselves, the resurrection is not just about the sins of the world or the hope of the world, but it is about my hope, my sin, and what God does in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And He's designed it.
SPEAKER_00: So whether you think of it in the largest sense or you think of it in the most narrow of just me as an individual, God makes the resurrection real to me.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, it changes our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It changes the way we live.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians 5, 17, the word of the Lord says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
SPEAKER_00: Old things are passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, all things are become new.
SPEAKER_00: Can you hear the resurrection in the verse?
SPEAKER_00: Can you hear the words, the expressions of the resurrection?
SPEAKER_00: You hear what's happening as the resurrection is being sort of referred to in the verse without saying it directly?
SPEAKER_00: That we are a new creature, new creature, that when we're in Christ, we are new.
SPEAKER_00: We are born again.
SPEAKER_00: The old things are passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, all things have become new.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is alive, and because Jesus has allowed us to share in the resurrection, then our hope and joy is alive.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives are filled with peace.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives are filled with his touch, with his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness and his grace in our life is real in every one of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It's real in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Death is defeated, our purpose is restored.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us power and strength.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives are different because of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives have changed, they're transformed, they're new.
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I have traveled a little bit, and we often, when we travel, we we we go to see, you know, churches that are there.
SPEAKER_00: It's always the architecture and how the decorations are and things is always kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_00: And we often, you know, go into churches and look at them, you know, uh just to kind of see what they are.
SPEAKER_00: And many of those places, and many of those experiences that we've had traveling, people will say, well, this is a Christian community, or this is a Christian area, or this is a Christian whatever, you know, and they're referring to this and and they're they're saying it's Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But what they what they are expressing to us is that it's Christian by culture and tradition.
SPEAKER_00: It's Christian by history.
SPEAKER_00: But even in many of those places that we go, the the the church is a beautiful edifice, it it's very nice, and it's beautiful architecture and sometimes beautifully decorated, but empty.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we go when it is empty on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we even go when there's a worship service and there's a tiny group of people there, and great that there's people there.
SPEAKER_00: God did not die on a cross, be placed in a tomb and resurrect again so that you could be culturally Christian, so that you could be heritage Christian.
SPEAKER_00: So that you could be legacy Christian.
SPEAKER_00: So you could have just a general Christian-like background.
SPEAKER_00: He did that so you could actually be a Christian, so you could actually experience the transformation of His power in your life.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God in your life.
SPEAKER_00: God gave us the resurrection so we could live in the power and the strength of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just about us calling ourselves Christians, having Christians on the sign or in our names, or in some other part of our lives, or saying, but it's really the way we should live every day.
SPEAKER_00: To live in the power of the Spirit in our lives, to live in the life that Jesus has granted us.
SPEAKER_00: The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us.
SPEAKER_00: Lives in us.
SPEAKER_00: That changes our lives.
SPEAKER_00: That changes our thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: That changes our direction.
SPEAKER_00: That changes everything in us because of what he's done and how he's worked in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And that resurrection sort of calls for.
SPEAKER_00: It demands, it calls for us to respond.
SPEAKER_00: To respond to what he has done.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 5, verse number 4 says, For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Our faith, our trust, our following God is what helps us overcome the world.
SPEAKER_00: Overcome the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's not talking about getting somewhere and having a boxing match, you know, or having a physical fight somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: But it's talking about not becoming subject to the secular culture or the world system, but being victorious over that.
SPEAKER_00: The early church did not just believe in the resurrection, they lived the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: They lived the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Now I am grateful, and I'm sure you are too.
SPEAKER_00: I am grateful, I'm thankful today that we live in a country where we can freely exercise our relationship with God, worship together, and the aspects, all the aspects of our of our living for God, we can freely do that.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're in this constant struggle in America to, you know, to defend the faith in some ways, to defend our freedoms, but that's always the case with freedoms.
SPEAKER_00: Freedoms have to be fought for and gained, and freedoms have to be maintained.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's always a cost of maintaining freedoms.
SPEAKER_00: So don't get so distraught with the struggle of maintaining those freedoms in our culture that you forget how blessed we are to have these opportunities and to stand as Christians even on the street corner and live out our lives for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And even preach the gospel and even have our Bible in hand without.
SPEAKER_00: Now, someone may not like us, but welcome to humanity.
SPEAKER_00: They may not like you anyway, whether you have a Bible or not.
SPEAKER_00: But we read in the scriptures of those in the New Testament, many of whom were persecuted as time went on, especially, were persecuted, were cast aside, and we see how that ebbed and flowed.
SPEAKER_00: We see the letters to the churches that were more Gentile dominant and in Gentile areas.
SPEAKER_00: We see letters to churches that were more Jewish and groups of people, and and we see the various, and it doesn't, it doesn't matter where you are.
SPEAKER_00: There's still a struggle sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it was the Jews persecuting the Christians, sometimes it was the Romans persecuting the Christians, sometimes it was the Christians fighting amongst each other.
SPEAKER_00: We live out the resurrection in our life no matter where we are.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I think we have it, we don't have enough resistance to build the strength we need, and sometimes we're a little bit passive about it.
SPEAKER_00: But the resurrection calls for us to stand in the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection calls for us to commit ourselves, to stand in the power of the resurrection and the hope that the resurrection gives to us, to proclaim the word of God, to preach the word of God, to say the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: I know when we think of preaching, we think of standing up here doing this, but that's not really that that's just part.
SPEAKER_00: That's just some part of the preaching.
SPEAKER_00: It's not really just the preaching, standing somewhere and proclaiming to a crowd, but just proclaiming that to those around us, speaking the word of God to those around us.
SPEAKER_00: Let the power of the resurrection work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Let the power of the resurrection transform your life.
SPEAKER_00: Because the resurrection is more than an event.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I am the resurrection and life.
SPEAKER_00: He personifies that.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we're proclaiming Jesus, we are proclaiming the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: There is a resurrection for every person to have, out of an old life to a new, that God makes new, that God transforms, that God shapes us and keeps us by his power.
SPEAKER_00: And when we stand on the resurrection, we stand in the resurrection, then we have the power of God within us to overcome the world, to overcome not just in a fight of someone else or but to overcome in the spiritual battle.
SPEAKER_00: Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
SPEAKER_00: You have the power of the resurrection working in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You can stand in the power of God, in the strength of God.
SPEAKER_00: You can stand transformed by the resurrection of God in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You can stand in the strength of God.
SPEAKER_00: So stop saying you can't and embrace the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Stop fearing that you can't and embrace the power of the resurrection in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Every born-again Christian has experienced the resurrection in their life.
SPEAKER_00: What would happen if we all really believed in the risen Savior?
SPEAKER_00: We all stood in the power of the resurrection and the strength that God provides.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans chapter 8, verse number 11, it says this but if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, then he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwells in you.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where kind of I'd like to land today in this sort of Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to land right here by saying, it's the resurrection in you.
SPEAKER_00: It's the power of the resurrection that also will transform you so that you can be translated from this earth to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It's the power of the resurrection that changes you from mortal to immortal.
SPEAKER_00: It's the power of the resurrection that's going to allow you to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Can I say it that way just bluntly?
SPEAKER_00: It's the power of the work of the resurrection in you that's transformed your life.
SPEAKER_00: It is the same spirit, it's the same spirit that caused Jesus to rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same spirit that raised him from the dead that will quicken your mortal bodies, that will make your mortal bodies come alive.
SPEAKER_00: That spirit that dwells in you.
SPEAKER_00: It is the hope for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: It is the hope of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: When the resurrection is alive in your life, when you have been born again of the water and spirit, you are prepared.
SPEAKER_00: You have the Spirit of God in you, and you are prepared for the resurrection, not just that Jesus provides, but the resurrection from this life to the next.
SPEAKER_00: It is the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00: It is the hope of God's work in our lives and his transforming power.
SPEAKER_00: That whether we lay on a sick bed about to pass away, and we can say, we can say, we're not trying to die early, but we can say that the death of the saints is a blessed.
SPEAKER_00: It's a blessed transition because there's the hope of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And it's that same power.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're in that moment or whether you're in the moment where Jesus catches away his bride, it's the power of God, it's the resurrection power in you that will transform you, that will make you new so that you can receive what God has.
SPEAKER_00: What would happen if we really believed in a risen Savior?
SPEAKER_00: What would happen if we really believed that Jesus is alive in our lives every day?
SPEAKER_00: He said, after he resurrected, he said to the disciples, as they were gathered on that hilltop hillside somewhere, nearly 500 of them there, according to the best we can tell in the scriptures, before Jesus ascended into heaven, he said, I will be with you always, even to the end of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And then he ascended into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And I I love that because it's such an uh, you know, it's such an ironic statement that he said that right before he ascended into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But he wanted them to be assured and wanted us to be assured that while we may not see him with our eyes, we may not touch him with our fingertips, he is there nonetheless.
SPEAKER_00: He is with us nonetheless because of the power of his resurrection in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't abandoned you, hasn't left you, he isn't leaving you anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: It's the power of the resurrection in our lives, it's the power of what he's done that's transformed us.
SPEAKER_00: We can believe that there is a risen Savior today.
SPEAKER_00: We can embrace that there is a risen Savior today.
SPEAKER_00: We can embrace today that He is real in our lives, that He is real in our experiences, He is real in every day that we live, that Jesus is really alive and well in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We're not alone, but we've been born again of the water and the Spirit, and we should be able to sense that Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_00: We should be able to see that well in the scriptures, that He has not departed from us, but He is alive in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand together with me?
SPEAKER_00: Somehow today, I hope you can just embrace this.
SPEAKER_00: And I I realize, I understand, that we are most of you are Christians, you believe this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, most of you are thoroughly versed in it.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you could teach the lesson, probably some of you teach it a lot better than I can.
SPEAKER_00: But you all believe.
SPEAKER_00: You believe.
SPEAKER_00: But somehow today I wish you would just kind of I wish you would just kind of assert that again.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I believe that you are the risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: I believe it 100%.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just some historical event that happened in a faraway place, in a culture that I can't relate to, but I believe in the risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that you are alive and well and you are ever present with me.
SPEAKER_00: I believe in you.
SPEAKER_00: Would somebody just say, I believe in a risen Savior?
unknown: I believe in a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: I believe in a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not alone today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not left out in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not powerless today.
SPEAKER_00: I have the power of the risen Savior in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I have the love and the grace of the risen Savior in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And I can stand in his power and his glory and his wonder and his majesty.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't left me.
SPEAKER_00: He's not gone somewhere, but he's here.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe in a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Would you mind just lift your hands to the Lord and thank him?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's thank him together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you that you rose again and that you have revealed yourself to us and that you make yourself known to us and that you're alive in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So we open our hearts to you and say, we believe in you.
SPEAKER_00: We trust in you.
SPEAKER_00: We put our hope and confidence in you.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that it's that resurrection power that will transform us and take us to heaven at whatever time you have called us there.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Let your hands of grace rest upon everyone that's in this room today.
SPEAKER_00: Let your mercies rest upon them.
SPEAKER_00: Let them be strengthened, encouraged, and blessed.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone that's here and everyone joins us online.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for this opportunity and this moment.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.