WEBVTT 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:13.000 And uh, it's my privilege and honor to get to share a little bit from God's word, reminding us of the reason why we came looking for Jesus this morning. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:20.000 It's been several decades now, but I remember one of my first trips to Dallas as a teenager, 13 years old or so. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:26.000 I heard about a church group that was headed to Dallas to go ice skating. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.000 And I thought, wow, that must be amazing. 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:39.000 How do you ice skate? I had seen it on TV, but I caught up with the group. My parents let me go, and off we went to Big Town on the east side of Dallas. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:41.000 For a day of ice skating. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:49.000 I didn't think too much of it. My ankles hurt in about five minutes and I was ready to move on to something else, but I stuck it out for a few hours. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:54.000 And then I found out the even better part of the trip was where we were going to lunch. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:59.000 A place called TGIF. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:01.000 That stands for? 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:05.000 Thank God it's Friday. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:14.000 Do you know that that little phrase, TGIF, showed up about 100 years ago for the first time in a slang dictionary? 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:22.000 It got popularized in the 1960s by a guy named Alan Stillman who founded the restaurant, TGIF. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:30.000 It grew to about 600 restaurants, and now, at least in the United States, only about 100. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:39.000 They're having a lot of success overseas in other countries, but apparently we got bored with it being Friday. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.000 So this morning, I suggest we change it. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:50.000 From TGIF to something more like TGIS, Thank God it's Sunday. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:57.000 Or maybe even TGIE. Thank God it's Easter. 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:01.000 Because we have something to celebrate. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:05.000 Matter of fact, this is the greatest of all reasons to celebrate. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:15.000 I want to turn your attention this morning to just one verse out of the Bible, out of the inspired writing of one of Jesus's closest followers and friends. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:21.000 The guy that we often call the one guilty of foot in mouth disease. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:30.000 Because Peter, the apostle, so key in the story of what we know about Jesus and his arrival, his teaching, his miracles. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:37.000 Peter, the only one to walk on water. The Peter that got to sell serve more than 5,000 people on the side of a lake. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Peter who, who proclaimed for the first time with his own words, inspired by God, you are the Christ. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:57.000 You are the Messiah, only to turn around in maybe five minutes or five hours, we're not sure, to say something to Jesus that caused Jesus to say, get behind me, Satan. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:06.000 This Peter who denied Jesus three times before he was crucified, but then was the fourth person at the empty tomb. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:14.000 30 years after those first events, Peter still can't get over it. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:25.000 And so writing, little did he know just a couple of years before his own arrival in heaven, Peter said this to a group of people on an Easter celebration occasion. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:29.000 He said, "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:46.000 It is by his great mercy that we have been born again because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead." And everybody that agreed with that said, Amen. Absolutely. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:50.000 Obviously, Jesus is stuck in Peter's heart. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:04:04.000 He's recalling probably a story that just repeated itself over and over again, recorded for us in John 3, when Nicodemus, the religious leader, came to Jesus under the cover of night because he didn't want to be exposed. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:17.000 And he had a conversation with Jesus, and Jesus said, "Nicodemus, every one of you needs to be born again." Not of water, not a human birth. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:25.000 But a brand new resurrected birth into a right relationship with God by faith in me. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.000 That's obviously where this phrase born again came from. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:39.000 From the great mercy of God, you and everyone who will believe can have a brand new start, a brand new life. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:46.000 Through grace and mercy, through Jesus's sacrifice and resurrection. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:54.000 Now, 2,000 years later, we're being told that, well, we're on the brink of a brand new resurrection and revelation. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:00.000 We're on the brink of something that's going to change everything called artificial intelligence. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.000 Maybe it will, maybe it won't. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:14.000 But nothing, not AI or anything else, will ever change everything the way this Jesus and his cross and resurrection did. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:17.000 So let's spend a few minutes praising him for that this morning. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:21.000 We have the greatest reason to celebrate. Let me remind you of two or three of them. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:28.000 One of them is, as Peter lays it out in this chapter, you and I have a brand new identity. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:32.000 You saw all the babies coming in earlier, didn't you? 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.000 That one Eleanor with a beautiful green bow. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:46.000 We all know what a baby means. It means a brand new life, a brand new start, a brand new adventure, a brand new glorious person. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:53.000 Do you know that we are suffering, would you agree with me, an identity crisis in our culture. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:59.000 So many times that word is being used, so many people, especially younger generation, struggling. 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:02.000 And you see it throughout our culture. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:14.000 Judy and I went to a movie, haven't had a chance to go see very many movies the last four or five years, but we decided to go see the new Ryan Gosling movie on Thursday called Hail Mary. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:22.000 It's a a story of another astronaut lost in space, kind of like Matt Damon in The Martian. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:26.000 I won't spoil the movie for you, but let me give you a little hint of how it begins. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:37.000 Gosling wakes up in the middle of a spaceship somewhere out in outer space, unsure of where he is, how he got there. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:47.000 And as he begins to get oriented, he goes to the whiteboard and the very first thing he starts to do is to list the things that he thinks he knows. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:53.000 But at the very top, the very first thing he writes is, who am I? 00:06:53.000 --> 00:07:02.000 Because he's been in an induced coma for a period of years trying to get to deep space. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:09.000 And as he tries to gather himself, the first question is a question of identity. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:19.000 Peter started off this letter to his friends, far from Jerusalem, by helping them grasp their new life and identity with Christ. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:26.000 Let me read the greeting to you. It says in the first verse of this chapter, This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.000 I am writing, let me oh, let me do this. How about you close your eyes? 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:36.000 I want you to listen, I'll try to emphasize it. I want you to listen to six different words of identity. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:40.000 Would you mind? Close your eyes and just listen for the words. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:55.000 This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:08:04.000 God the Father knew you and chose you long ago and his Spirit has made you holy. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:10.000 As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:15.000 May God give you more and more grace and peace. 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:24.000 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:31.000 Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:41.000 An inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, and beyond the reach of change and decay. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:55.000 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:09:02.000 Did you hear the words of what it means to be a child of God, born by grace? 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:07.000 Through faith in Jesus Christ. Let me point them out to you and talk just a minute about them. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:10.000 He says, we're chosen in Christ. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:26.000 That we've been selected, that we were desired by God, that that we were wanted, that we are valued so much that Jesus would rather come to the earth, live on it like you and I, experience some of its challenges and sufferings and sacrifice himself. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:32.000 He would rather do that than live eternity without all of us. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:37.000 Now I don't know if heaven will be as crowded as it is right now in here. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:40.000 But it's going to be full. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:50.000 And Jesus loved you and me so much that he was willing to die to make it possible for us to be with him. He chose us. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.000 He says that we are foreigners. That is a word that literally means exiles for a period of time. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:56.000 We are not yet home. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:04.000 We are homeward bound people. We are pilgrims. You might even call us immigrants looking for our homeland. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:12.000 And we ought to always remember that no matter how good and comfortable we may get in this life, this is not our permanent residence. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:25.000 It's not our permanent place. He says we are known in the foreknowledge of God that before the foundations of the earth were laid, God knew that he would need to send his son to be our savior and he made a plan. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:37.000 Because he would know everything about every one of us, good, bad, and ugly, even down to the very hairs on our head, no matter how many we have or don't have. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:40.000 He says that we are holy. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.000 Not many of us are comfortable with that word. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:55.000 It means to be set apart, it means to be set aside. It means to be made special by a faith that drives us gratefully into obedience with Jesus. 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:57.000 And then he says we're cleansed. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:00.000 That's a word we like to hold on to even more. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:12.000 A word that means all of our sin has been forgiven, all of it has been washed, all of it has been canceled, all of it has been ransomed. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:18.000 But among all of these terms, perhaps the best one is the last one. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.000 He says that we are heirs. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:26.000 Heirs of the very kingdom of God. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:31.000 That we have something so far beyond our imagination. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:47.000 And that if you're going to have an inheritance, he says, you've got to have two things. You got to have somebody that can pass on wealth to you, and you got to have some people that are going to be safe and secure that can actually receive that inheritance. 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:52.000 And he says, you know what? That's what God is doing. He's working both sides of the equation. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:03.000 God has created in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, an amazing, undefiled, perfect, and pure inheritance. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:16.000 And he's going to make sure that every one of us that believes in him is safe and guarded and certain to ultimately receive that prize. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:34.000 Which is ultimately not about whatever other blessings there may be in heaven. It is ultimately about being able to know and walk with and celebrate and love and connect to Jesus as our brother and as our savior. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:43.000 On Friday, I was flipping through the headlines and I I caught the Wall Street headline that really grabbed my attention. 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:55.000 It said this, When are heirs, when heirs are right to say, thanks, but no thanks to an inheritance. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:06.000 Now I didn't have time to read the article, but I thought, who would do that? Who, who would say, thanks, but no thanks for the inheritance that is being offered to them. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:16.000 I'm sure it has something to do with tax implications and all other kinds of struggles and things that might come if you got that kind of a windfall. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.000 But you know what? It might be many of us. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:22.000 Reminded me of an earlier article I read at the first of the year. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:30.000 Do you know that over the next 25 years, we're going to witness as a culture the largest transfer of wealth. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:45.000 From baby boomers and perhaps a few of the greatest generation that are left, the baby boomers will be transferring their wealth to their millennial children and Gen Z grandchildren. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:48.000 Do I have any teenagers in here? Their ears might want to perk up right now. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:52.000 How much will this wealth transfer look like over the next 25 years? 00:13:52.000 --> 00:14:10.000 It will look like 124 trillion, trillion dollars transferred from the current generation holding those resources to their millennial and Gen Z children and grandchildren. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.000 You might be one of those people. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:20.000 If you are possibly one of those people, be really nice to your parents and your grandparents right now. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.000 Especially over Easter dinner, okay? 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:31.000 And you might even be more kind and careful with your mom or your grandma because guess what? 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:37.000 Most of that 124 trillion is going to move sideways before it moves down. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:46.000 It's going to move to your mom or your grandma because most of the moms and the grandmas outlive their husbands. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:55.000 That's why all those athletes always look into the camera and say, love you mom. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:15:01.000 I don't know if you or me, I don't know if we're going to be one of those people in that great wealth transfer. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:05.000 But what I can tell you is there's an even greater inheritance. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:10.000 And that's an inheritance you would never want to say no to. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:15.000 It is the very kingdom of God, the very presence of Jesus Christ. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:18.000 That's who we are. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:21.000 That's something to celebrate. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:25.000 The other thing that we have to celebrate is a brand new power. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:32.000 An ability to handle life until we step into heaven as heirs. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:43.000 You know, the most challenging thing for Christian faith, and really for any faith, is how do you handle and how do you understand the suffering that comes in life. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:50.000 Right now, we are living in the meantime, and it's pretty mean sometimes. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:59.000 Is it not? We are living in that season of what theologians call between Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning in some way, metaphorically. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:07.000 That we know that Jesus has sacrificed himself, but we're not fully into his presence or into his kingdom yet. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:17.000 We wonder, do we not, if God is good and God is real, then why is life so dang painful sometimes. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:25.000 It's not a particularly good statement I've decided, but I learned it way back when when I was in college just down the road from here. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:37.000 Be nice to everybody, because everybody is either on their way into trouble, in the middle of some trouble, or just coming out of some kind of trouble. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.000 That's a pretty dismal way to look at life, don't you think? 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.000 But it is accurate in so many ways. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:50.000 I don't know about you, but I kind of resonate with unbelievers, with atheists who say, you know what? 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:58.000 One single child with cancer is a reason enough, big enough to not believe in God. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:01.000 Sometimes I look at our world and I look at how people struggle. 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:03.000 I look at how they get sick. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:09.000 I look at how they suffer through war and through all other kind of matter and I wonder, why God, why? 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:17.000 Why is it going on this long and this hard for so many people. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:23.000 Well, Peter doesn't hide his thoughts about that either. God inspired him to keep writing to his friends. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:28.000 So in the sixth verse of this chapter of his last or second to last letter, he wrote this. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:32.000 So be truly glad because of who you are, because you're an heir. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:38.000 So be truly glad. This is wonder, there is wonderful joy ahead, even though, listen to this. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:43.000 Even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:50.000 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:55.000 Though your faith is far from is far more precious than mere gold. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:09.000 So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:15.000 He's not telling us to be happy about our struggles, our pain, our troubles. 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:22.000 He's telling us that we can be joyful in them because of God's power and promise to us in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:33.000 Christianity alone is the one that promises that God knows about your pain, your fear, your struggles so well that he became part of them. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:38.000 That he literally bore them with you on the cross. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:44.000 So we can be joyful even though we face a lot of different stuff. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:48.000 And people in this room have lost loved ones in the last few weeks or months. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:53.000 There are people in this room who are having their first Easter without somebody precious to them. 00:18:53.000 --> 00:19:00.000 There's somebody in here that's battling some kind of a diagnosis or some kind of a business challenge or some kind of a family challenge. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:09.000 And they're struggling today going, God, where did this come from and why is it come to me and how long is it going to last? 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:14.000 But you notice what Peter said through the spirit of God, he said, these trials are necessary. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:17.000 They're needful. 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:21.000 They come in all shapes and sizes in different seasons of our life. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:31.000 But he says it's necessary for what God is trying to accomplish in us as he produces the character of Christ in our soul. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:34.000 He gives us some good words. He says that they're temporary. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:41.000 It doesn't often feel like they're going to be temporary or short-lived, but compared to eternity, they always are. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:46.000 Our founding pastor here at the Chapel loves to remind us over and over again, Dr. Jim Dennison, God redeems. 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:51.000 He redeems all in this world that he allows or that he sends. 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:59.000 In his time and his perfect way, we're not capable right now of understanding it, but we can claim that promise. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:03.000 No matter what we're going through, he will redeem it. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:12.000 And we can understand that these challenges that we face are necessary to purify and cause our faith to bloom. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:18.000 Now notice the metaphor that he uses. He uses the metaphor of gold. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:28.000 He says in the same way that gold is refined from its original condition in the earth to something so beautiful that you can wear it on your hand or on your ears or around your neck. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:38.000 In that same way, God has to send trials and struggles to bloom and grow and polish and purify your faith. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:44.000 Now I've heard this metaphor almost from the very time I became a Christian at 17. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:51.000 That God is refining us through challenge. I never, ever really like the conversation very much. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:56.000 But I also went and did a little bit more study about how this process works. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:01.000 You might remember if you're old enough, a song called The Refiner's Fire. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:05.000 I can remember going and looking for precious metals when I was a kid. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:10.000 My parents took us to the Arkansas Diamond Mine looking for diamonds. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:13.000 We came up broke, by the way. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:23.000 But do you know how gold usually comes out of the ground? It usually comes when we're mining it deep into the earth, and it comes out encapsulated in rock. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:27.000 And you just see these little yellow lines running through the stone. 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:35.000 And so they they mine it out with huge machines now, and then they have to take it to a place where they can pulverize it. 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:47.000 They literally take all of that rock that contains those veins of gold in that rock and they pulverize it until it is literally like flour or like sand. 00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:57.000 Once it is in that condition, they take all of what they have pulverized and they put it into a furnace at about 2,000 degrees. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:02.000 And when they heat it up that much, guess what? The gold is an element weightier than everything around it. 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:17.000 So the gold will go to the bottom. All the other elements, including some precious metals like silver, copper, zinc, and other impurities, those will rise to the to the top and the gold will go to the bottom because of the 2,000 degree heated furnace. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:25.000 It's called smelting. And then they have a process in which they just scrape all of those other metals and impurities off the top. 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:33.000 And that's when the gold that you could see in the vein actually starts to show itself as a brilliant yellow. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:37.000 But even in that case, it's not pure yet. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:54.000 And so they then take that gold that has been crushed and put into the furnace and they put it through another chemical process that moves it from being 80% pure to now being 99.9% pure gold. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:58.000 We know how valuable it is, just like they did. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:10.000 One ounce of gold on Thursday before the stock market closed was at a valued at about 4,700 for one ounce. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:18.000 But then Peter says, your faith, your saving faith is what is is worth so much more. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:31.000 But God has to refine it, and he refines it through the experiences of challenges and pain and temporary suffering that he is in the process of redeeming. 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:40.000 One other thing that this new birth brings us, it brings us the best reason of all to celebrate. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:45.000 It is great that we have a day like this. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:54.000 And Peter wanted them to just relish the the reality of what Jesus has given. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:01.000 So at the beginning of this letter, he said that he was writing to believers that have been scattered across five different regions. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:08.000 Some of them as close as 800 miles from Jerusalem, some of them as far as 2,500 miles away. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:23.000 He wrote to these Christians that were scattered everywhere. It's kind of ironic that Peter is probably writing here mostly to a Gentile audience when he spent most of his life in the book of Acts reaching out to those who were Jewish in their orientation of faith. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:31.000 But here, probably writing from Rome, not knowing that his own death was coming, probably inside of 24 months. 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:38.000 He gives one of the most beautiful statements that you and I get to claim 2,000 years later. 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:42.000 Here's what it says in the eighth verse. You love him, that is Jesus. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:46.000 You love him even though you have never seen him. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:55.000 Though you do not see him now, you trust him, and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:01.000 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:12.000 Listen as he goes on with the party. This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:22.000 They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and his great glory. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:26.000 Then they were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.000 And that includes us. 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:35.000 And now this good news has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:43.000 It is so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen. 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:58.000 Do you really count yourself more blessed, more fortunate, and more encouraged than any prophet you've ever read about in the Old Testament or any angel that you ever thought might be watching over us? 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:07.000 He says, as you and I know Christ through the word of God, we are more blessed because we're included. 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:15.000 All of us. We didn't have to be there on that first Easter Sunday morning. 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:23.000 And while we can still go back and visit these places, if we have opportunity, we don't have to in order to know him. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:38.000 In order to love him, in order to trust him, no matter what our lives are in the present condition, we can overflow with a joyful faith because we believe that these are true. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:46.000 It's the biggest reason of all. More than what the prophets or the angels could ever imagine. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:54.000 The prophets strained to understand, and the angels are, well, the angels are rubbernecking even today. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:57.000 Do you know what a rubbernecker is? 00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:01.000 If you don't know what a rubbernecker is, well, you've been one. You just didn't know it. 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:14.000 If you were driving out here to be a part of this celebration this weekend, and there was an incident, an accident, or something going on on the side of the road, particularly on the other side that was coming towards you, then the traffic slowed. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:23.000 And the interesting that even when there is a a traffic problem on the other side of the road, you slow down for it. 00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:26.000 The reason, you want to rubberneck. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:32.000 What's going on, what's going on over there? What is that? Oh, did anybody get hurt? 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:34.000 That's rubbernecking. You know where that term comes from? 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:40.000 Little over 100 years ago, people started riding on tour buses. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.000 And the tour bus company wanted their riders to stay on the bus as long as possible. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:56.000 They wanted them to have a good experience. And so they would plant tour guides on the buses to point out significant things on the bus tour. 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:00.000 And they would explain to people, oh, this is what that means and this is what that building is for. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.000 That's why that tree is significant. This is what's special about this part of the river. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:17.000 And those original tour guides were called rubberneckers, because when they started talking, all the people on the bus started craning their neck trying to see what everybody was paying attention to. 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:22.000 Do you know what? That's what angels are doing today. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:43.000 Can you imagine the privilege it was to be the angel selected, as Judy read about a few minutes ago, the angel selected to come down on the first Easter morning and to either push the stone away or to watch it being pushed away, and then to be the first angel to get to announce, I know you're looking for Jesus. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:49.000 He's not here. He's alive, just like he said he would be. 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:56.000 And still today, in heaven, the angels are rubbernecking. 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:02.000 Waiting for God's next big move. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:06.000 And it might be Jesus coming for all of us. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:13.000 And it might be Jesus coming just for you today, if you've never believed in him. 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:31.000 That the reason that God has so ordered your life is so that you could be here at Possum Kingdom Lake and Possum Kingdom Chapel so that on this Easter Sunday, some 2,000 years after the first Easter Sunday, Jesus came to knock on the door of your heart. 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:36.000 And to invite you to believe if you never have. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:54.000 And on the authority of God's word, I can promise you that even today, if you will bow your heart and trust in him as the son of God and the savior of the world who sacrificed himself so that you and many more of us could be in heaven. 00:29:54.000 --> 00:30:10.000 If you will believe in him today, you can become his child, you can become his family, you can become his everlasting heir. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.000 Would you say that you party well? 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:21.000 Are you what we call in high school or college, a party animal? 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:28.000 That probably evokes all kinds of memories for you, many of which you can't share with your children or grandchildren. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:32.000 Many of which your grandchildren won't share with you. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:36.000 I wonder if you think of yourself as a good party animal. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:43.000 Well, not in that shallow and sometimes dangerous way that we talk about it when we're teenagers or young adults. 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:47.000 But do you really have a reason to celebrate? 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:51.000 Do you have a reason to buy a new Easter dress or a new Easter shirt? 00:30:51.000 --> 00:31:02.000 Do you have a reason to get some new Easter shoes? Do you have a reason to ask your family to come and to gather and to be a part of just being together, claiming the promises of God? 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:11.000 This is the greatest party that will ever happen. 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:16.000 Because of what Jesus did on that very first Easter. 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:18.000 So what is my prayer for you? 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:22.000 My prayer for you is that you would know that you are bound for glory. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:27.000 That because of God's great mercy, he has given you a brand new identity. 00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:38.000 He's given you power to handle the meantime, and that he has a promised inheritance that will blow your imagination forever. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:40.000 Would you pray with me? 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:42.000 Lord Jesus, thank you. 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:49.000 We can never say it enough. We can never grasp the fullness of what it meant. 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:58.000 We'll spend all of eternity celebrating the greatness of who you are, the wonder of your love, the incredible reality that you became one of us. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:06.000 You stepped into our pain and suffering, that you experienced it with us and still do even today. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:13.000 That you are the God who is a part of our moment. That you are the God who is gathering up all of our tears. 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:19.000 That you are the God who will redeem all that you have allowed or sent. 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:27.000 And that God, you are setting the table for the grandest party that we will ever, ever experience. 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:33.000 And it's already started. It's palpable even in this room today. 00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:41.000 As we sing, as we fellowship, as we eat together, as we are reminded of the great promises that you have given us in Christ. 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:50.000 Lord, we claim again that it is your great mercy that has changed everything. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:33:00.000 Because Jesus died for our sins and rose again to bring us everlasting life and freedom for sin. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:07.000 God, we are full of joy because nobody could have done it but you. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:14.000 It almost sounds too good to be true, and it would be too good to be true if it came from anybody else but you. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:35.000 God, help us to grasp your promises in love a little bit better so that today we overflow more and more with joy, inexpressible, with joy overflowing, with joy that is relentless until we see you face to face. 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:42.000 We pray all these things in the name of the resurrected Jesus who gives us life now and forevermore. 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:45.000 And everyone said together, Amen. 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:51.000 God bless you, and may you go and share what those first witnesses did on that Easter Sunday. 00:33:51.000 --> 00:34:01.000 You're dismissed.