WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:11.599 So we're moving out of Genesis and jumping all the way into Acts, and we're going to be looking at probably the first half of the book of Acts for the next couple of months. 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:15.039 So I've cried in a few movies. 00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:18.320 And I can remember the ones I've cried in because I haven't cried in a lot. 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:20.000 I remember the first movie I cried in. 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:21.039 My mom was watching it. 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:24.079 I was a little boy, and I sat down and I watched the movie with her. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:27.199 It was Beaches with the Bette Midler, like the original. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:29.120 Anybody else cry in Beaches? 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:29.519 Okay. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:31.120 Anybody cry in the notebook? 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:32.640 I cried in the notebook. 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:36.960 Sappy, just a sappy cry, let it out. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:38.719 I cried in the rookie. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:44.640 When he walks out the first time in the major leagues, he walks out of the dugout to pitch. 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:46.960 I'll cry again if I watch it this afternoon. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:47.600 I'll cry again. 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:49.200 I cried in Castaway. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:50.960 Anybody cry in Castaway? 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:53.359 Partially I watched it by myself in a movie theater. 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:53.840 That'll do it. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:57.359 Anytime you're in a movie theater by yourself, I think you're probably close to crying. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.000 I watched it all by myself, and the movie was about being by yourself. 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:03.759 So do you remember, do you remember Castaway? 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:06.000 So it was the year 2000, Tom Hanks movie. 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:07.760 I will ruin the movie for you. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:09.120 I'm just gonna let you know. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:10.799 It's been 17 years. 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:12.480 I don't feel bad about this. 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:21.760 And so it was Tom Hanks, he's Chuck, and remember he's a FedEx employee, he's on a plane, the plane wrecks, he ends up on a deserted island, small island. 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:22.640 He has nothing. 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:31.200 He has a handful of FedEx boxes, he has very little, and he has to figure out how he's going to live on this island. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:38.799 So first, of course, he organizes those FedEx boxes, eventually he opens a few of them and he figures out what he can do with those things. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:42.000 And one of the things, if you remember, was that volleyball, right? 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:45.200 And then he makes the smiley face on it and it becomes his friend. 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:53.680 I mean, after like, I don't know, 10 or 15 minutes of silence in the movie, finally we get conversation in the movie, and for a long period of the movie, it's just him talking to Wilson. 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:59.680 So we have we have great, great uh feelings for Wilson for volleyball during all of this. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:04.400 And the entire time, whenever he's really, really struggling, right, he goes into that cave. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:05.200 Do you remember? 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:07.200 And he has that picture, right? 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:10.479 Of the love of his life, Kelly, right? 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:14.159 I mean, and the whole time he's just thinking, he's gotta get back to Kelly. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:15.199 He's gotta get back. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:20.159 Four years we watched him struggle on this island, and he survives on this island. 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:22.240 He turns into quite a stud, really. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:25.840 I mean, he is making it work, but he knows eventually he's gonna die on this island. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:30.960 So finally, a storm washes a sail, something he can use as a sail, up on the beach. 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:33.120 He builds a raft and he's going for it. 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:37.840 He ties down Wilson, he ties down one box that he did not open. 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:40.240 So he had opened all the boxes except this one box. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:42.639 This one box had angel wings painted on it. 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:45.759 Then he decided he was not going to open that one. 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:57.039 He ties this stuff down, he sets off, he makes it over the break, which he had not been able to do before without a sail, makes it over the break, he gets out into the ocean, and you remember what happens eventually, right? 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:01.520 Wilson falls off the raft, and it is heartbreaking. 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:06.960 You never knew you could be that emotionally tied to a volleyball in your life, right? 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:11.039 And he breaks off and Wilson floats away because he's gotta go back. 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:12.719 Chuck's gotta go back for the raft. 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:17.680 He's back on the raft, he's weeping on the raft because he's lost Wilson. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:19.680 So now it's just him on the raft. 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:22.000 He's got this box, he's drifting. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:24.560 Eventually, it just looks like he's gonna die. 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:32.080 It doesn't look good, but eventually he drifts into a shipping lane, a ship picks him up, and we think this is the point of the movie, right? 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:34.159 We think life again. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:35.919 We think life again for Chuck. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:54.000 He's gonna go home, they saved him, he's they're gonna clean him up, they're gonna cut his hair, he's gonna shave, he's gonna get all cleaned up, he's gonna go home, and Kelly's gonna be waiting for him because she's been waiting for him for four years, and they're gonna get married, and they're gonna have kids, and this is what you think is gonna happen, because this is what happens in most movies, and this is the reason why this movie sticks with us so much. 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:56.800 Because he gets home, and what is going on? 00:03:56.960 --> 00:03:58.080 Do you remember? 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:00.479 Kelly married somebody else. 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:04.319 Kelly has a family, Kelly has kids, right? 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:06.479 They buried Chuck. 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:10.800 It's been four years, and so you have a whole nother death, right? 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:20.399 Like you got the death of Wilson, now you got the death of this idea of Kelly that you're trying to reconcile, and all that is left at this point, all that is left. 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:24.319 Because you have, with him, you have died to his old life. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:36.160 You have died to his friendship with Wilson, you have died to the life he hoped for with Kelly the entire time, and now all you have left is him in this box, right? 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:37.839 With angel wings on it. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:40.879 It's all that's left for him to deliver this. 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:43.519 And what's on the other side of it. 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:47.759 And he does deliver this, and this is the beauty of the whole movie, is that very last scene, right? 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:50.639 He delivers it, he leaves it on the porch, he comes back, he's at intersection. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:51.199 You remember it? 00:04:51.680 --> 00:05:03.839 A truck pulls by, good looking lady, good looking lady, she's by herself, and on the back of the truck are angel wings, and you don't quite know what he's gonna do, but what you know is there's new life for him. 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:07.360 So, why do we love movies like this? 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:10.399 Well, great acting, Tom Hanks, right? 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:16.160 I mean, like, of course, we got that, but there's something more like why do we love stories like this? 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:16.879 Right? 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:21.680 I could have picked a whole bunch of different movies or books to kind of analyze right there. 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:23.920 I could have plugged in just a ton of them. 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:34.319 Well, we need this because we need to know that death does not get the final word in our lives, and that new life is possible for us. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:38.560 Because we need resurrection in our lives. 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:41.120 That's what this text in Acts chapter 1 is about. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:47.040 It's about resurrection, that Jesus was resurrected, that he was dead and he came back to life. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:06:03.120 And we need to know in our lives, in the death we feel, and the death we will know eventually physically, but also in the death that we feel and we know now, in the shame and the guilt and the fear and the anxiety and the suffering. 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:06.399 We need to know that death does not get the final word. 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:14.240 That's why we look at Castaway and we leave and we go, what a great movie! Because we've experienced all this death, but then we get life. 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:18.079 So let's reread a few of these verses that Sam read for us. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:20.079 Acts chapter 1, verse 3. 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:21.279 We'll jump in at verse 3. 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:41.279 He, Jesus, presented himself alive to them after his suffering, so meaning after his death, by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God, and while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me. 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:48.160 For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:49.600 Now, a few things. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:52.319 First, this is a crazy story. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:54.879 If you're a Christian, you believe some crazy stuff. 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:57.759 Because if you're a Christian, you believe in the resurrection. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:00.240 You believe in the resurrection of Jesus. 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:01.360 And that's who we're talking about. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:02.959 We're talking about Jesus the Christ. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:04.720 But you don't believe he was just a man. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:06.639 You believe he was God in man. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:11.839 You believe it was God incarnating himself into skin and bone. 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:13.600 And you go, that's a crazy belief. 00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:15.839 I agree, that is a crazy belief. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:21.680 But if I believe in a creator God, I can believe that that creator God can come into his creation. 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:31.360 So here we have this Jesus of Christ who's incredibly upsetting to the systems, incredibly upsetting to the Roman Empire, upsetting to the Jewish leaders. 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:35.360 He had his followers, but he had many, many, many enemies. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:48.879 So eventually he is executed and he is put in an above-ground tomb, and a rock is rolled in front of it, and soldiers are guarding it because the Romans were very detailed, and they did not want anybody to come and steal this body. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:52.800 Because what they like to do is shut down uprisings. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:08:03.839 Now, at the time of Christ, and about a hundred years before that, and about a hundred years after that, there had been about, in those 200 years, there had been about ten messianic uprisings. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:12.560 Ten people who came along and said, I am the Messiah, and they build up all this following, and everybody's following them, and eventually this person dies. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:16.720 Every other time, one of two things occurred. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:18.959 Number one, they just all went away. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:20.959 All the followers just went away quietly. 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:23.680 Number two, they just began to follow another guy. 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:26.319 They stayed as a group, but they followed another guy. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:29.839 But these followers did neither of those things. 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:31.519 They did something very different. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:33.120 They said, no, no, no, no, no. 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:35.279 I saw him. 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:37.279 Like I saw him. 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:38.960 And not just me. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:41.039 This is just me, you think I was crazy. 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:44.320 But he he saw him, and she saw him, and that other person saw him. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:46.960 And if you need to know about it, you can go talk to them because they saw him also. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:47.519 You can go talk. 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:48.639 There's a whole group of people. 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:50.320 He was around for 40 days. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:51.919 Lots of people saw him. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:55.039 So you can go talk to them, and they just kept on with this story. 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:58.240 Not one person, not two people, a whole group of people. 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:02.399 And other people joined in because the tomb was empty. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:05.519 And Jesus was letting himself be seen. 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:06.720 So a few points here. 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:12.399 Point number one Jesus is our representative all at once on the issue of death. 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:15.600 Jesus is our representative all at once on an issue of death. 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:17.919 Now that doesn't sound very personal, right? 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:19.919 But you know about death. 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:25.039 These questions that we have all the time: what happens to me after I die? 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:29.200 Or let's just take it into this life. 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:31.360 Will it ever be enough? 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:40.080 The question we talked about a couple weeks ago very thoroughly, if people really saw me, could I really be loved? 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:43.919 Will I ever have enough or control enough or look good enough? 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:45.440 Will I ever be at peace? 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:47.759 Will this depression ever lift? 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:50.799 Will I ever have a sense of peace or a sense of purpose? 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:55.360 These are questions that have to do with the feeling of death inside of us. 00:09:57.200 --> 00:09:59.919 About nine years ago, I went to Israel. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.320 I stood in the garden of the resurrection. 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:08.080 So this is the place where traditionally it's believed Jesus was put in the tomb. 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:09.919 And there's a cave there, a big garden. 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:11.279 Garden's probably the size of this room. 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:18.559 And there's a cave that was over to the left over there, and you pay your entrance fee, and you get in there, and you kind of take your turn going in. 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:30.960 The garden was nice, and so I walk in, you take turns going into the cave, and I walked into the cave, and I saw something toward the back of the cave, sort of like kind of like a light or something. 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:36.559 I walked back there and I mean there's a vision of the risen Christ. 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:38.080 I saw a vision of the risen Christ. 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:43.360 He said, Go, beloved son, and plant a church in Marietta and invest in Netflix. 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:44.159 No, I'm kidding. 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:45.600 That did not happen, none of that. 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:52.000 I really wish the second part happened, because it was 10 years ago, and I'd be really sad. 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:53.360 Really, really sad at that point. 00:10:53.679 --> 00:10:54.320 None of that happened. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:56.320 I walked into a cave, it looked like an empty room. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:57.200 I walked back out. 00:10:57.360 --> 00:10:58.559 It was not very memorable. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:00.000 There's not much there. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:01.759 It was like, okay, empty cave. 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:02.240 I got it. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:03.919 And I walked back out into the garden. 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:05.039 Back out in the garden. 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:08.080 I'm sitting there, everybody's taking their turns coming in, right? 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:10.000 Nothing super spiritual here. 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:11.200 Just a place. 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:13.200 Just a place traditionally believed. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:14.320 Maybe it's the place. 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:15.519 Maybe it's not. 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:16.879 We don't even know. 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:19.279 Traditionally believed to be the place. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:23.600 And I'm sitting out there and I'm going, how could we not even know this? 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:28.960 How can we not even know the exact place where Jesus was buried? 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:34.559 How could we have lost his body if it was still buried? 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:36.000 It couldn't have been stolen. 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:38.159 The Romans would not have allowed that. 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:41.200 They would not have allowed his body to be stolen. 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:45.519 And no other spiritual movement lost their leader. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:47.120 And lost the grave. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:50.399 I mean, when you buried the leader, you marked the grave, right? 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:51.840 Like you respect the grave. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:54.559 It's the grave you go to for reflection. 00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:56.559 I mean, this would have been a holy place. 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:58.240 We don't even know if this is the right place. 00:11:58.320 --> 00:11:59.200 We don't have a body. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:01.200 We don't even really have a tomb. 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.320 This is a crazy story. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.039 And it's hard to believe unless you're at the end of yourself. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:24.720 And you need a God, a source from outside of yourself that can choose to incarnate himself into history as to show you and to show us that his love is true and forever. 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:39.200 And in the person of Jesus, that is the incarnate God for us to know, who on the cross takes our sin upon himself that he might give to us his righteousness so we are free and beloved in his sight, not by our work, but by his work. 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:43.120 And it's known and it's seen and it's finished. 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:46.879 We need a God to intervene in our lives. 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:48.639 That's what the incarnation is. 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:58.720 God's intervening into history, into our lives to rescue and remind us what we need to know all the time that from the very beginning he's loved us. 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:01.919 From Genesis 1, he has loved us. 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:06.879 And in Christ, he creates this new life for us. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:08.960 I need it. 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:11.679 I need a God that creates new life. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:18.000 And he is the stand-in for all of humanity at once on the issue of death. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:19.279 So let me explain that further. 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:20.080 Point number two. 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:27.600 Death holds no lasting power, but actually becomes our path to life. 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:34.879 Death holds no actual power over you, but actually becomes your path to life. 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:42.000 This week, several times, I think three or four times, I have conversations with people dealing with horrible things in their lives. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:43.440 Like death stuff. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:45.039 No death this week. 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:46.799 We didn't have a death in our church this week. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:50.080 No death this week, but death stuff. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:56.399 Like shame and depression, anxiety, and marital conflict, really nasty family issues. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:03.279 And what I've learned over the years, not many things, what I have learned, one thing is I just need to keep my mouth shut most of the time. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:13.360 The best thing in those conversations is for me to say very little and to listen and then to tell them that God loves them and I love them. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.320 And let's see how this plays out. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:20.559 And there's good news. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:24.320 The good news is not that everything gets better tomorrow, right? 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:27.039 If anybody's telling you that, just go to a different place. 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:28.799 That's not true. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:30.799 A lot of times that's not true. 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:41.600 But the good news is, and what we need to hear, is that all that death stuff, all of that that's in us and it's around us, it doesn't have lasting power over you. 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:44.559 Meaning it's not the final word in your life. 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:52.320 It's not the end of the story for your life, and it's not, it's not the end of your story in this life. 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:54.799 Listen, it may affect you. 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:02.320 Sin and shame and guilt and family issues and marital issues and depression and anxiety and fear, all this. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:06.399 It may affect you, but it does not define you. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:20.559 Your salvation and your justification is known through Christ's work outside of you and given to you, and the suffering of this life and the difficulty of this life, it will end one day. 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:24.879 And maybe that'll be in this life, or maybe it'll be in the next life. 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:30.399 So as death holds no lasting power over us, it then becomes our path to life. 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:32.320 Okay, so it has no lasting power over us. 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:34.080 Okay, we could not along, okay, I get that. 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:35.840 But how does it become our path to life? 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:37.440 Well, this is true in two ways, right? 00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:38.559 Like I just hinted toward it. 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:40.240 First is then, right? 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:46.879 You ever had a family member who has cancer and they're just getting eaten up by cancer. 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:49.759 And then they pass away. 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:53.120 And you're grieving, but also you're so joyful. 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:57.360 They have been relieved of the pain and the suffering. 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:02.720 See, the afterlife, the afterlife even gives us healing. 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:04.000 It's our path to life. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:06.480 But then the now for this life. 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:13.919 There's all this talk in the New Testament about crucifying the flesh or the false self, right? 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:23.519 This is this manufactured self, the one that's constantly using unstable things to try to get a sense of identity, a sense of salvation, a sense of justification. 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:33.679 And so we're on that treadmill of your salvation drug of choice, whatever your salvation drug of choice is, whether it be religion or moralism or escapism or status or image. 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:41.600 I mean, you can take your pick, but apart from God's grace, it's you that's working. 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:44.240 It's you on a treadmill of salvation. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:50.799 And it never ends, and it only creates exhaustion, it only creates more shame, it only creates more death. 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:59.039 See, that's the path of the fleshly, false, manufactured self that will wear you out and cause destruction. 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:04.880 That's the part that has to die, that has to be crucified into Christ. 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:13.200 And I need my life, you need your life, hidden with Christ in his death, as to be risen with Christ in his new life in the resurrection. 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:16.160 So back to Acts chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:20.640 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up. 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:23.039 So this is the ascension. 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:25.759 He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:33.759 And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:39.920 This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:44.400 Now there's a lot there, and I won't pretend to even understand all of that, because I wasn't there. 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:45.359 But I know this. 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:49.039 So he was he was there, and now he's not. 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:51.440 Okay, that's about as far as I can go into it. 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:52.880 I don't know more than that. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:56.319 Some experience of he was there and then he was not. 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:03.759 Point number three is this the Christ incarnate is no longer there, but Christ is now here. 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:10.559 So Monday I had this incredibly random, really random day. 00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:12.400 I mean, you've had these that are just random days. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:14.480 You're in a bunch of different places in one day. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:16.240 Um, just a variety of settings. 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:18.720 I woke up and I walked to the gym and I worked out. 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:42.960 I came back home and I got cleaned up, and then I came over here to the church building, and we had our staff meetings, and then I go back home and I eat lunch, and then I ran by a friend's house and I borrowed something, and I came back home, and then I worked from home for a little bit, and then another friend came over and I got in his car in the afternoon, and then we drove in some traffic, and we drove up to North Carolina, and by like early evening, I'm standing in a river fishing, and it was beautiful. 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:48.880 And then it gets dark, and we're hungry, and so we go to look for somewhere to eat, but there's nowhere open. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:53.200 We're in the middle of nowhere, North Carolina, middle of nowhere, nothing. 00:18:53.279 --> 00:19:01.599 And we're driving along, we're just waiting for somewhere, somewhere where we can eat, and there is like a beacon of light, a beacon of light in the middle of nowhere. 00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:10.000 All these billboards, this huge hotel, the Harris hotel and casino in Murphy, North Carolina. 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:16.319 And I don't know if you've been to the Harris Casino in Murphy, North Carolina on a Monday night. 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:20.640 On a Monday night, not a Friday night, on a Monday night. 00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:23.759 But I can assure you, it's interesting. 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:30.640 And it's real sad, and it's hilarious, and it's a whole bunch of it at the same time. 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:36.400 Because we're in there eating and we're walking around, and it's it's it's comical. 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:37.359 Monday night. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:43.119 If you just need some interesting, just go to the Harris Casino, go on a weeknight specifically. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:45.599 I think the weekend might be a little more normalized. 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:48.079 The weeknight, real interesting. 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:50.000 Here's what's amazing. 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:51.519 I lost no money. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:52.480 Thank you. 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:54.240 That was my friend, he lost money. 00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:55.680 I didn't lose any money, so that was good. 00:19:55.839 --> 00:19:58.079 Amazing to go in and out, lost no money. 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:00.319 Then lying in bed that night. 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:01.599 Here's my point. 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:04.559 Lying in bed that night, a glorious thought. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:25.039 The Spirit of God was with me just as much in the gym that morning, this church building for meetings, when I'm driving around my car at my house, in that mountain river, and in that really bizarre casino. 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:29.440 Because, see, there are no boundaries to the spirit. 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:41.359 The Holy Spirit has no geographic boundaries in this world and it has no geographic boundaries in your heart. 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:44.400 The Holy Spirit's always with us. 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:47.359 This is a worry we never have to have. 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:48.880 Is God still with me? 00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:51.759 This is a worry we never have to have. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:56.319 Now, you may not feel like God is with you, but that's a different thing. 00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:01.039 But you never have to worry as his beloved if he's with you. 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:04.240 See, God is no longer in the skin. 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:06.000 This is the great thing of this text. 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:12.240 God is no longer in the skin because he is always with us in the spirit. 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:25.599 So, my brothers and sisters, Jesus the Christ, He lived and He died, and He resurrected, and He ascended, that you might walk in the Spirit, as the Spirit is always with you. 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:27.119 Let's pray together. 00:21:28.160 --> 00:21:30.319 God, thank you for your great promise. 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:33.920 That you make things right. 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:38.960 Not us, but you make things right through the death of your son. 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:53.680 As we all experience death in this life, and finally a physical death, but none of that death has the final word over us as those who place belief in Jesus. 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:57.200 Because you have conquered death. 00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:10.640 And our new life is not even reliant upon our work, but upon your work for us, and that we find it as we rest more and more in your sufficiency for us, that you are enough and you never leave us, and we are never alone. 00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:22.079 For those of us in this room that feel alone, God, would we would we be brutally honest with you in all moments of how we feel? 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:28.880 Would you be a comforter in the midst of anxiety and fear and depression and shame? 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:36.400 Would we believe more and more that there's nothing that can surprise you and there's nothing that nothing that runs you off? 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:43.200 For you have handled all of our sin and all of our shame, and that your spirit might live with us always, always. 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:48.960 We thank you for this great gift that we walk in. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:53.599 Help us to trust greater in the gift of Jesus and walk in the Spirit. 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:54.640 In Jesus' name. 00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:55.440 Amen.