WEBVTT 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:11.939 Well, hi everyone. 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:13.109 Hey, and one more time. 00:00:13.109 --> 00:00:15.300 Welcome to Central and happy Easter. 00:00:15.304 --> 00:00:18.329 I am so glad that you have decided to celebrate this day with us. 00:00:18.329 --> 00:00:19.679 My name is Cal Journey Jernigan. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:24.870 I'm the lead pastor here and literally on behalf of all of us, we're just absolutely delighted to have you with you. 00:00:24.964 --> 00:00:28.864 You come a time or two a year, or you come every week, man, it's good to have you with us today. 00:00:29.134 --> 00:00:38.734 Well, this might be the oddest place that I have ever delivered a message, uh, regarding Easter, but this is a awesome setting where I am. 00:00:38.854 --> 00:00:42.935 It's called the Dorrance Planetarium at Arizona Science Center. 00:00:43.024 --> 00:00:45.424 This place is remarkable. 00:00:45.784 --> 00:00:50.045 Uh, it is one of the largest planetariums, uh, literally in the world. 00:00:50.045 --> 00:00:51.515 There's a dome over me, right? 00:00:52.244 --> 00:00:53.744 At 60 feet up. 00:00:53.774 --> 00:00:56.473 It's just the, a massive building. 00:00:56.503 --> 00:01:02.384 You, you can just experience the vastness of space and the greatness of what God's created. 00:01:02.384 --> 00:01:03.765 Now, let me explain something to you. 00:01:03.795 --> 00:01:08.144 You're gonna be blown away by how big it all is. 00:01:08.144 --> 00:01:09.644 How big space is. 00:01:09.674 --> 00:01:15.284 It will absolutely take your breath away and you're gonna be blown away by how small our galaxy. 00:01:15.853 --> 00:01:17.804 The Milky Way galaxy in the big picture. 00:01:17.804 --> 00:01:19.603 You go, wow, I thought it was huge. 00:01:19.609 --> 00:01:23.444 But you're gonna see it's just a small, small, small part of a much, much bigger story. 00:01:23.444 --> 00:01:24.554 Now, why are we here? 00:01:24.554 --> 00:01:25.844 What's the point of being here? 00:01:26.234 --> 00:01:28.724 I want to talk to you today about a thing called perspective. 00:01:29.204 --> 00:01:29.954 Perspective. 00:01:30.043 --> 00:01:33.134 It perspective is literally your view of something. 00:01:33.138 --> 00:01:34.454 It's how you look at something. 00:01:34.454 --> 00:01:36.853 Often you have gain a a perspective. 00:01:36.914 --> 00:01:38.414 You look at it from a distance. 00:01:38.713 --> 00:01:40.483 A perspective is a mental. 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:44.159 Outlook, a view, a way of perceiving something. 00:01:44.430 --> 00:01:51.870 And, uh, I want to talk to you today about the ways you might be perceiving something, and you'll understand here in just a few moments as I work my way through that. 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:56.280 Uh, I want to talk about the perspective you experienced when you use a camera. 00:01:56.519 --> 00:01:58.739 This was the camera that was used earlier in the service. 00:01:58.739 --> 00:02:03.180 And, and again, we showed you pictures, but you know what a camera tries to do is just simply freeze a. 00:02:04.259 --> 00:02:07.620 It is literally trying to stop time in a moment. 00:02:08.099 --> 00:02:18.479 It's, it's trying to capture, uh, when you look at a picture, what you're hoping it will do is that it will evoke the same emotion and the same response you felt when you were actually looking at something. 00:02:18.629 --> 00:02:24.210 And, and often you do it for the stick, not so that you would just remember it, but also that you could share it with other people. 00:02:24.210 --> 00:02:34.740 I want you to see, You know, it's also interesting though, so often what happens, you know, we say it's worth a picture's worth a thousand words, but so often what happens, you show somebody the picture, oh, it just doesn't do it justice. 00:02:36.150 --> 00:02:38.490 If you could be there, it would look so much better. 00:02:38.495 --> 00:02:39.750 This gives you an idea. 00:02:39.990 --> 00:02:45.269 It's trying to capture what is as best as it can, but it has to use the perspective of your eye. 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:47.639 Often when you take a picture too, you'll discover. 00:02:48.330 --> 00:02:50.490 When you look at the picture, you'll see things in the background. 00:02:50.490 --> 00:02:58.020 You never notice when you were looking because you were distracted, you were looking at the objects you were taking a picture of that all kinds of things could be going on behind the scene. 00:02:58.025 --> 00:03:00.150 And you look at the picture and you go, well, who knew? 00:03:00.569 --> 00:03:01.139 Well, who knew? 00:03:01.259 --> 00:03:04.080 Well, that's one, uh, instrument I want to talk about. 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:05.849 And then I wanna talk about this instrument. 00:03:05.849 --> 00:03:07.439 This is, uh, a telescope, obviously. 00:03:08.414 --> 00:03:16.814 A telescope is not trying to capture, you know, just what is, uh, it's literally, it's, it's trying to get a macro perspective on something. 00:03:17.145 --> 00:03:21.974 It, it's looking out, it's looking beyond, it's going as far out as it possibly can. 00:03:22.275 --> 00:03:28.014 Uh, we, we've all experienced, and again, just kind of look around here, we've all experienced going out. 00:03:28.618 --> 00:03:36.870 In the evening, uh, walking around and you do this as a little kid, you look up and you see all the dots in the sky and your parents explain those are stars. 00:03:36.875 --> 00:03:39.569 And they're literally sons way out there in planets. 00:03:39.569 --> 00:03:42.000 And as a kid, you're trying to get your brain around that. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:46.289 You're trying to like, make that make sense and, and you know, all the little dots. 00:03:46.294 --> 00:03:51.419 And then, and, and then they start to explain, you know, those are actually light ears away. 00:03:52.384 --> 00:03:53.924 And you're like, well, light years. 00:03:54.164 --> 00:03:55.084 I'm like, what are you talking about? 00:03:55.084 --> 00:03:55.965 What's a light year? 00:03:55.965 --> 00:03:56.954 It makes no sense. 00:03:57.104 --> 00:04:01.634 And you look at the, the moon and I just picture the moon coming up over the horizon. 00:04:01.814 --> 00:04:06.884 You know, when it's so big and bold and bright, they feel like you could reach out and just touch it. 00:04:07.245 --> 00:04:10.935 We, we have always been fascinated by what's out there. 00:04:10.965 --> 00:04:12.134 But here's the point. 00:04:12.614 --> 00:04:17.473 You know, if all you ever knew about stars was what you saw when you walked on the earth and. 00:04:18.644 --> 00:04:24.524 You're missing so much now, you know that because now we have telescopes and telescopes. 00:04:24.524 --> 00:04:29.985 What they do is they take what is way, way, way out there and bring it really, really close. 00:04:30.644 --> 00:04:34.665 And uh, a telescope is able to see so far beyond. 00:04:34.665 --> 00:04:42.194 And so like now what we're doing is we're actually launching, I know you know this, but we're launching telescopes into space so that we can farther and farther and farther in the transferring. 00:04:42.194 --> 00:04:44.985 So the James Webb telescope is sending back. 00:04:45.750 --> 00:04:49.620 Images of what's going on in space that are absolutely mind blowing. 00:04:50.009 --> 00:04:52.168 And we get to look and we go, wow, that is out there. 00:04:52.168 --> 00:04:54.839 But who would know if you didn't have a telescope? 00:04:55.050 --> 00:04:59.819 All you think it were, uh, that, uh, that was out there were just those little lights in the sky. 00:05:00.180 --> 00:05:01.918 And then I wanna talk about this instrument. 00:05:01.925 --> 00:05:03.060 This, of course, right here. 00:05:03.435 --> 00:05:04.663 Now this is a microscope. 00:05:04.663 --> 00:05:05.685 This is the exact opposite. 00:05:05.685 --> 00:05:08.564 It's used for magnification, but it's a different kind of magnification. 00:05:09.074 --> 00:05:12.105 This is trying to not see what's out there and beyond. 00:05:12.105 --> 00:05:14.204 It's trying to see what's little micro. 00:05:14.564 --> 00:05:19.064 It's literally trying to take the smallest things that make 'em big enough to see and to experience. 00:05:19.274 --> 00:05:24.375 And you probably remember being in school and playing around with the microscope and looking, you know, at a Petri dish or looking. 00:05:24.990 --> 00:05:30.449 You know, living organisms of, you know, amebas and peress and all this kind of stuff, and you're like, it's unbelievable. 00:05:30.569 --> 00:05:35.639 But it's also fascinating because you can also look within, because you can see things that are, I don't know, just have to do with your body. 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:37.649 You can see what a, a blood cell looks like. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:39.509 Okay, this, what, why am I telling you about this? 00:05:40.170 --> 00:05:42.600 If you look up at this sky, is that all there is? 00:05:42.605 --> 00:05:44.339 No, that is not all there is. 00:05:44.339 --> 00:05:51.089 You need something that can take and, and, and, and magnify and show you something way beyond. 00:05:51.269 --> 00:05:51.540 No. 00:05:52.245 --> 00:06:00.165 I'm gonna change objects here cuz there's one more thing I want to talk about and, uh, this is gonna seem like it's just kind of a weird thing, but you'll understand what I'm doing here in just a moment. 00:06:00.524 --> 00:06:01.425 I wanna hold this up. 00:06:01.425 --> 00:06:03.254 This, uh, of course is a clock. 00:06:04.064 --> 00:06:10.545 And, uh, from the time you were little, uh, your parents and your teachers tried to explain to you the idea behind a clock. 00:06:11.024 --> 00:06:14.954 Um, because a clock is, uh, uh, it records a thing we call time. 00:06:15.074 --> 00:06:19.904 And you have to know how to tell time and you have to know how to keep time, and you have to understand the concepts of time. 00:06:19.995 --> 00:06:24.283 And so what they do is they begin to explain to you that it all starts with the littlest thing. 00:06:24.985 --> 00:06:29.095 A second, and then there's so many seconds, and then that makes up a minute. 00:06:29.095 --> 00:06:35.274 And then there's so many minutes and that makes up an hour and there's so many hours and that makes up, you know, a day and so many days, make up a week. 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:36.685 And so many weeks make up a month. 00:06:36.685 --> 00:06:37.704 And so many months make up a year. 00:06:37.704 --> 00:06:42.805 And so many years and so many years makes up a lifetime. 00:06:44.214 --> 00:06:44.725 Uh uh. 00:06:45.774 --> 00:06:47.185 How long is your lifetime? 00:06:47.245 --> 00:06:53.725 Your lifetime is, well, it's from the time you were born to the time that you die, that's gonna be your life. 00:06:54.930 --> 00:06:57.298 You know, it, it's an interesting thing. 00:06:57.305 --> 00:07:03.180 We, we don't know how long our lifetime's gonna last, but we all understand we only get so many days. 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:11.129 So time is like the, the grains and an hourglass that are slipping through and we realize that they're more and more and more are getting behind us. 00:07:11.129 --> 00:07:12.629 And fewer and fewer are ahead of us. 00:07:12.634 --> 00:07:14.370 Wanna challenge you to think about something. 00:07:14.968 --> 00:07:17.490 You know, one day your lifetime's gonna come to an. 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:28.319 In, in the world that we're living in, um, they, they basically say all there is to life in a lifetime is from the day you were born to the day you die. 00:07:28.379 --> 00:07:29.579 That's all there is for you. 00:07:29.610 --> 00:07:31.350 The day you were born to the day you die. 00:07:31.949 --> 00:07:41.519 One day in the future, you're probably gonna have a tombstone over a grave in which you'll lie, and they're gonna have on that tombstone your name and they're gonna have a date and a. 00:07:42.584 --> 00:07:46.125 And a dash, a date when you were born, and a date when you died. 00:07:46.125 --> 00:07:51.644 And a dash and the dash will represent the days of your life, how you spent your time while you were alive. 00:07:51.973 --> 00:08:02.834 Here's the point I'm trying to make you and I live in a world that is telling us that all there is is from the beginning of your birth to the day of your death. 00:08:03.105 --> 00:08:04.064 That's all there is. 00:08:04.995 --> 00:08:06.795 What if there's more than that? 00:08:07.365 --> 00:08:09.524 What if that is not the whole story? 00:08:09.764 --> 00:08:11.764 What if that's as naive as. 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:13.589 Those little dots in the sky. 00:08:13.589 --> 00:08:16.529 That's all there is, that little thing that you can't see anything with. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:22.470 What if there was so much more to see, so much more to understand. 00:08:23.250 --> 00:08:24.810 You know, you only get so much time. 00:08:25.079 --> 00:08:26.610 It doesn't matter who you are. 00:08:26.615 --> 00:08:29.699 You can, you can be the literally the most important person on the planet. 00:08:29.704 --> 00:08:41.820 You only get 24 hours a day in 168 hours a week and only, and you, you can waste time, but you can't save time, but you can use your time for something incredible. 00:08:42.644 --> 00:08:58.125 Now as we wrestle with this, I wanna just, I wanna challenge you to think that maybe God is trying to show you something, that maybe God is trying to communicate something to you that he wants you to understand that he's trying to get across to you. 00:08:58.484 --> 00:09:00.974 And maybe it's not just in words that he's trying to do it. 00:09:01.004 --> 00:09:02.625 Let me, let me read to you a passage. 00:09:02.625 --> 00:09:06.794 This comes from Psalm, uh, 39, verse four and five. 00:09:07.063 --> 00:09:11.684 And again, I, I think these scriptures are so powerful now the Psalmist said to show. 00:09:12.583 --> 00:09:17.203 Lord, my life's in and the number of my days let me know how fleeting my life is. 00:09:17.714 --> 00:09:19.813 You've made my days a mere hand breath. 00:09:19.813 --> 00:09:22.245 The span of my years is as nothing before you. 00:09:22.693 --> 00:09:23.774 Everyone is, but at breath. 00:09:23.804 --> 00:09:33.524 Even those who seem secure in Psalm 1 0 2, 3, the psalmist said, uh, they said, uh, in my days, vanish like smoke. 00:09:34.304 --> 00:09:36.583 Let me repeat what I've already said, cuz you've gotta get the point. 00:09:37.544 --> 00:09:41.054 We live in a world that's telling you that all there is to. 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:46.198 It's what's represented in the dash between the day you're born and the day you die. 00:09:46.500 --> 00:09:54.809 When I was a kid, there was a beer commercial that had a little motto, and we used to say this, you know, you only go around once in life, so you might as well grab for all the gusto you can. 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:05.279 You only go around once a night, so you take each day with all the gusto you can. 00:10:05.970 --> 00:10:07.980 It's kind of the parallel to eat, drink, and be merry. 00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:09.389 You know, for tomorrow you're gonna die. 00:10:09.659 --> 00:10:10.330 What if they're. 00:10:11.504 --> 00:10:12.524 What if that's not true? 00:10:13.304 --> 00:10:20.684 What if they just don't see what is beyond your death, beyond the grave? 00:10:20.684 --> 00:10:24.345 What if they don't see that there was more to life? 00:10:25.274 --> 00:10:26.715 Is that really all there is? 00:10:27.465 --> 00:10:31.274 I wanna just challenge you for the next few moments to think about your perspective on God. 00:10:31.274 --> 00:10:31.885 How do you see. 00:10:33.254 --> 00:10:33.943 How do you see God? 00:10:34.245 --> 00:10:37.154 If you were to describe God to me, how would you describe him? 00:10:37.154 --> 00:10:37.875 How do you see him? 00:10:38.085 --> 00:10:41.835 It's been said that the absolute most important thing about you is how you see God. 00:10:41.835 --> 00:10:46.365 Because how you see God is gonna determine so much about how you live your life. 00:10:46.965 --> 00:10:48.044 How do you see God? 00:10:48.044 --> 00:10:50.414 What's your perception of who he is? 00:10:51.585 --> 00:10:58.063 What if God was trying to tell you something, but you needed an instrument to understand it beyond your own? 00:10:58.154 --> 00:10:58.725 Just under. 00:11:00.345 --> 00:11:16.034 That you needed, I don't know, like a microscope or a telescope or a clock, or you needed something that would aid you in being able to pursue what if there was a dimension beyond what we can just go outdoors and experience as beautiful as nature is? 00:11:16.034 --> 00:11:16.845 And I love nature. 00:11:16.850 --> 00:11:17.534 I love the outdoors. 00:11:17.534 --> 00:11:19.335 But what if there's a whole lot more than that? 00:11:20.205 --> 00:11:24.254 But I'm just not naturally wired to be able to see all of that. 00:11:24.254 --> 00:11:27.105 There's there, what if God had so much more? 00:11:27.434 --> 00:11:36.735 Would you wanna live the life that missed out on all of that because you never were willing to think that possibly there could be more than the world you're living in is telling you. 00:11:37.245 --> 00:11:43.934 And we have an expression, uh, you know, you've heard this outta sight outta mind, outta sight outta mind to me. 00:11:43.934 --> 00:11:45.313 This is what people do to God. 00:11:46.095 --> 00:11:47.144 I don't see God. 00:11:47.144 --> 00:11:48.644 He's outta sight and therefore he's outta. 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:53.789 A A as if, because I don't look, he doesn't exist. 00:11:54.809 --> 00:11:56.818 And folks, I wanna challenge that perspective. 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:04.438 What if God is literally trying his hardest to communicate to you, to get you to see and to understand that there is so much more. 00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:06.539 I think about this Psalm 19. 00:12:06.539 --> 00:12:10.769 It says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaimed the work of his hands. 00:12:11.129 --> 00:12:13.708 Day after day, they pour forth speech. 00:12:13.889 --> 00:12:15.750 Night after night, they reveal knowledge. 00:12:16.230 --> 00:12:16.980 They have no speech. 00:12:16.980 --> 00:12:19.078 They use no words, no sound is heard from them. 00:12:19.083 --> 00:12:22.409 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:25.049 The words are what you can see. 00:12:26.129 --> 00:12:29.970 It says, God as if God's screaming at us going, look at this. 00:12:30.299 --> 00:12:32.970 Do you really believe out of nothing? 00:12:34.350 --> 00:12:36.688 Just mere consequence, mere chance. 00:12:37.049 --> 00:12:38.970 I think the heavens tell you a great deal about God. 00:12:38.970 --> 00:12:43.919 I think it tells you how big he is, how great he is, how creative he is, how organized he is, how generous he is. 00:12:44.730 --> 00:12:46.828 I think they declare the glory of God. 00:12:47.789 --> 00:12:48.870 And what about time? 00:12:48.875 --> 00:12:49.649 What if? 00:12:50.789 --> 00:12:54.000 What if you were made for so much more than that little short dash? 00:12:55.198 --> 00:12:58.529 What if you were actually made to not die? 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:02.789 What if you were made to live beyond the dash forever? 00:13:03.659 --> 00:13:05.460 Let me take you to the book of Ecclesiastes. 00:13:05.460 --> 00:13:09.269 Ecclesiastes three 11 says, God has made everything beautiful in its time. 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:13.230 He has also said eternity in the human heart. 00:13:13.235 --> 00:13:14.100 What does that mean? 00:13:15.509 --> 00:13:22.110 Have you ever found yourself yearning for something you can't describe? 00:13:22.110 --> 00:13:24.480 Yearning for more yearning like I don't wanna. 00:13:25.575 --> 00:13:29.774 Because the, the feel, it's like, this isn't fulfilled me yet. 00:13:29.835 --> 00:13:32.414 I, I'm looking for something more than this. 00:13:32.414 --> 00:13:33.825 This can't be all there is. 00:13:33.825 --> 00:13:40.065 What if that eternity, that's eternity, that God's placed in your heart and he's calling out to you? 00:13:40.664 --> 00:13:42.465 What if you could see beyond that date? 00:13:43.184 --> 00:13:46.184 You know, one of the fascinating things to me about time is we talk about it. 00:13:46.215 --> 00:13:50.325 You know, it flies and, and by the way, it flies when you're having fun. 00:13:50.325 --> 00:13:52.154 It's not necessarily flying when you're not. 00:13:52.154 --> 00:13:56.054 We'll, admit, But you know that time always flies to God. 00:13:57.193 --> 00:14:00.404 Let, let, let me share a scripture second Peter 39. 00:14:01.634 --> 00:14:08.294 Okay, let me say this and then I want to ask you, could there be a place, a dimension, something out there that's just is different enough? 00:14:08.835 --> 00:14:10.875 Second Peter three, nine says, do not forget this one thing. 00:14:10.875 --> 00:14:12.615 Dear friends with the Lord. 00:14:12.615 --> 00:14:16.904 A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. 00:14:17.715 --> 00:14:19.024 Could it be possible? 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:31.889 Time is just this artificial thing in which we're trying to get some grip to hold on to some sense of control, but there's a God that's out there that isn't bound by time. 00:14:32.549 --> 00:14:43.309 That somehow the rules that you and I that could there be not a natural world, but a supernatural world in which so much more exists than anything you can perceive. 00:14:43.315 --> 00:14:48.690 Here, I want to tell you why Easter's such a big deal. 00:14:49.698 --> 00:14:55.784 And you know, for those of us who literally, uh, staked everything on Jesus, this is the greatest day of the year. 00:14:56.414 --> 00:14:58.754 Why is Easter such a big deal? 00:14:58.844 --> 00:15:03.914 Well, let me, let me go on number one, because God became one of us in Jesus. 00:15:03.914 --> 00:15:05.594 Now of course, this is the message of Christmas. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:09.073 This is what we celebrate every year, that God became a man. 00:15:09.554 --> 00:15:14.833 And uh, first John one 14 says, the word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 00:15:14.833 --> 00:15:17.294 We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only. 00:15:18.195 --> 00:15:23.565 Who came from the father full of greats and truth, God became one of us. 00:15:23.774 --> 00:15:26.355 He literally took on flesh and bone. 00:15:26.654 --> 00:15:27.975 That is incredible. 00:15:28.095 --> 00:15:35.684 Well, the second reason why Easter is such a big deal, Jesus was the fullest expression of the nature of God. 00:15:36.465 --> 00:15:39.554 In our church right now, we're going through a series in the book of Hebrews. 00:15:40.304 --> 00:15:41.955 Hebrews is all about Jesus, okay? 00:15:41.955 --> 00:15:42.585 The book of Hebrews. 00:15:42.585 --> 00:15:44.174 But we're calling the series something better. 00:15:44.174 --> 00:15:52.934 And the reason we're talking about is because what God has for us in Jesus is better than anything in the old covenant, and we're just talking about that as a church. 00:15:53.414 --> 00:16:05.865 But one of the coolest things about the book of Hebrews is what begins with almost like a doxology in chapter one, verse one to four, we find this magnificent statement, but lemme just extract one verse out of that, that I think is so. 00:16:07.125 --> 00:16:08.774 It says this in Hebrews one, three. 00:16:09.075 --> 00:16:14.384 The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. 00:16:14.384 --> 00:16:15.315 You know what that means? 00:16:16.215 --> 00:16:19.605 That means Jesus is what God meant. 00:16:20.235 --> 00:16:34.695 If you know anything about the old covenant, you know that they made all kinds of rules and all kinds of laws and all kinds of regulations and rituals and all of this stuff, and they made religion so cumbersome to carry around and like people going, you're just overloading me with all these rules and. 00:16:35.490 --> 00:16:39.149 Jesus came because God was trying to say, that's not what I meant. 00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:40.500 This is what I meant. 00:16:40.889 --> 00:16:45.029 And people are so magnetically drawn to Jesus because he is so incredible. 00:16:45.029 --> 00:16:48.629 When you look at him and you start to understand who he really is. 00:16:49.049 --> 00:16:51.720 The third thing that makes you so so cool is in Jesus. 00:16:52.259 --> 00:16:53.159 In in, in. 00:16:53.220 --> 00:16:55.318 Literally in Jesus, God lived. 00:16:56.085 --> 00:16:58.965 Among us, he lowered himself to our level. 00:16:59.325 --> 00:17:07.605 What you've gotta understand is he literally was in that other dimension of the place we call heaven, and he was willing to venture to earth to save you and me. 00:17:07.930 --> 00:17:16.319 In Philippians two, six and seven, it says about Jesus, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage. 00:17:16.589 --> 00:17:18.299 Rather, he made himself nothing. 00:17:18.299 --> 00:17:29.640 By taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness, he emptied himself of all that he had so that he could come and walk among us and understand what it feels like to walk in our skin. 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:33.720 The fourth thing that makes Easter so incredible is that Jesus died for our sins. 00:17:33.720 --> 00:17:35.410 He died for our sin. 00:17:36.045 --> 00:17:42.944 Philippians two eight says, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. 00:17:44.174 --> 00:17:52.545 You might not understand this yet, but here's the great news I can tell you, is that the thing that you deserve to be punished for, he died for whatever you have coming to you. 00:17:52.549 --> 00:17:53.535 He took for you. 00:17:54.974 --> 00:18:01.244 He, he literally came to die to bear your sins, to bear the consequences to pay the penalty. 00:18:02.234 --> 00:18:06.555 And we celebrate that on this day because he did not have to do that. 00:18:07.305 --> 00:18:11.115 Then the fifth thing that makes Easter so incredible is that death wasn't the end of the story. 00:18:11.204 --> 00:18:12.724 He rose from the dead. 00:18:13.454 --> 00:18:15.523 First Corinthians 15, three and four for what I received. 00:18:15.523 --> 00:18:26.085 I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died according, died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried and that it was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. 00:18:26.325 --> 00:18:29.835 And, and what you gotta understand is we celebrate the risen Lord. 00:18:29.835 --> 00:18:31.875 We celebrate that he did not stay in the grave. 00:18:31.878 --> 00:18:35.295 And you go, that would take a miracle and that is exactly what you have. 00:18:35.295 --> 00:18:41.684 And that's exactly why it's such a big deal because let me ask you, friend, have you ever needed a miracle? 00:18:43.005 --> 00:18:53.805 Have you ever needed something that the natural world said is not possible, but you needed supernatural intervention to make a difference in your life? 00:18:55.005 --> 00:19:02.115 Do you understand that the power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead is the same power that dwells in you in me? 00:19:02.115 --> 00:19:08.565 When we open our hearts up and let Jesus live in them, literally let him come into our hearts, the spirit of God. 00:19:09.750 --> 00:19:11.609 Power of God in you. 00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:13.470 You need a miracle. 00:19:13.529 --> 00:19:14.789 I'll tell you where you find one. 00:19:14.789 --> 00:19:16.049 You find one in Jesus. 00:19:16.259 --> 00:19:25.259 And then the very last thing that I think is so cool is that all who believe in Jesus will live with him for eternity. 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:28.259 Jesus is absolutely positive. 00:19:28.259 --> 00:19:30.180 The dash is not all there is. 00:19:30.180 --> 00:19:33.869 And that second date on your tombstone, that's just the beginning of the good stuff. 00:19:34.710 --> 00:19:35.789 That's the beginning of the good. 00:19:36.974 --> 00:19:41.474 John 1125 records you Jesus saying these words, I am the resurrection and the life. 00:19:41.474 --> 00:19:44.085 The one who believes in me will live even though they die. 00:19:44.565 --> 00:19:48.464 And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. 00:19:49.964 --> 00:19:51.464 So let me, let me wrap this up. 00:19:51.734 --> 00:19:52.154 Okay. 00:19:52.154 --> 00:19:54.255 Let me, pastor, what have you been trying to tell me? 00:19:54.255 --> 00:19:56.744 What I've been trying to tell you is you can take a camera and all that. 00:19:56.744 --> 00:20:01.154 You can see, you can try to record and you're gonna miss a bunch, but you're gonna see which are ics. 00:20:01.154 --> 00:20:06.224 This is gonna capture, you can take a telescope and you can see so far beyond. 00:20:06.674 --> 00:20:17.144 And, and you can begin to realize that there's so much that is outside of your realm of understanding without an instrument to in introduce you to this, the greatness of this universe. 00:20:17.204 --> 00:20:23.055 You take a microscope and there's so much going on that you cannot see with your eye, but it's there. 00:20:23.474 --> 00:20:26.865 And if you have this instrument, then, then it will start to make sense. 00:20:26.865 --> 00:20:35.055 You can take a clock and begin to count days, and you can count time and you can begin to understand that something is incredibly ordered in this. 00:20:36.285 --> 00:20:43.694 Jesus is the portal that allows you to experience the presence of God. 00:20:43.934 --> 00:20:44.234 What? 00:20:44.234 --> 00:20:47.595 What The portal. 00:20:47.924 --> 00:20:58.994 Jesus is the portal that literally opens up a dimension that you'll never see without him, and God gave us Jesus. 00:21:00.089 --> 00:21:00.960 And he was there. 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:01.559 He's here. 00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:02.700 He's there, he's here. 00:21:02.700 --> 00:21:07.589 You understand, in Jesus, you can see what you could never see and understand what you could never know. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:11.640 So you would never know what God was like without Jesus. 00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:15.930 Without Jesus, you would never know how far God would go to reach you. 00:21:17.339 --> 00:21:21.779 Without Jesus, you would never know that there's far more to the spiritual dimension than meets the eye. 00:21:22.710 --> 00:21:25.700 Without Jesus, you would never know that death is not the final. 00:21:26.805 --> 00:21:31.904 Without Jesus, you would never know what eternity is enough, what you were actually created for. 00:21:32.503 --> 00:21:33.644 That's why you yearn for it. 00:21:33.734 --> 00:21:36.914 Without Jesus, you would never know how good God is. 00:21:37.513 --> 00:21:39.404 So here, here's the conclusion. 00:21:40.605 --> 00:21:46.273 You had enough of just all there is is life here, have you had enough of just like, you know, this is it. 00:21:47.595 --> 00:21:48.375 This is it. 00:21:50.714 --> 00:21:51.884 There's so much more. 00:21:52.964 --> 00:21:54.013 There's so much more. 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:57.375 Jesus is the portal to a whole new life. 00:21:57.434 --> 00:21:58.394 Just a doorway. 00:21:58.484 --> 00:21:59.684 You just gotta be willing to go. 00:21:59.984 --> 00:22:00.525 You know what? 00:22:01.484 --> 00:22:13.365 I'm so glad I'm willing to look through a telescope and see what my eyes can't see and look through a microscope and see what I'm so glad I've been able to enter into a dimension that is not natural, it's supernatural. 00:22:13.644 --> 00:22:17.234 And the greatest thing I can tell you about all those wonderful things about Easter. 00:22:17.234 --> 00:22:20.325 The greatest thing I can tell you is the door is open for you right now. 00:22:20.775 --> 00:22:22.664 Right now the door is. 00:22:23.894 --> 00:22:33.375 Jesus is literally saying, come all you who are done with religion, all you are done with a, like a, a life without direction. 00:22:34.814 --> 00:22:38.684 All of you who are f are just full of futility, and I'm just fed up with it. 00:22:38.684 --> 00:22:40.784 I don't, it seems to be no meaning. 00:22:41.924 --> 00:22:47.204 You want to experience a dimension that'll change you forever, not just till the day you die. 00:22:47.804 --> 00:22:48.794 It begins today. 00:22:50.174 --> 00:22:51.105 And it just goes on. 00:22:51.914 --> 00:22:52.904 You know what's so cool? 00:22:53.204 --> 00:22:59.775 Today is a very, very special day because today can be the day for you where you said, Jesus. 00:22:59.835 --> 00:23:00.704 I say, yes. 00:23:01.095 --> 00:23:08.234 And when you say yes, you're gonna begin to see things that God has for you that'll absolutely blow your mind. 00:23:08.654 --> 00:23:09.765 So here's what I'm gonna do. 00:23:10.335 --> 00:23:17.744 I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna ask you right now, which on all of our campuses would you just for this moment, just stand up and let me just pray for you. 00:23:17.744 --> 00:23:21.855 And then as soon as I get done praying, there's gonna be prayer partners who are gonna come forward. 00:23:21.855 --> 00:23:26.025 I invite you to come forward and say, yes, I. 00:23:27.013 --> 00:23:29.234 I want to experience what God has for me. 00:23:29.595 --> 00:23:31.273 I want to live in a life of miracles. 00:23:31.273 --> 00:23:32.625 I wanna live a supernatural. 00:23:32.625 --> 00:23:37.964 I wanna live a life that you can't explain outside of Jesus and the power of his Father God. 00:23:39.194 --> 00:23:39.855 And you say Yes. 00:23:39.855 --> 00:23:47.174 So I'm gonna pray worship leaders are gonna take over on all of our campuses, but this is your moment to say, yes, you come forward. 00:23:47.174 --> 00:23:49.034 We'll have some prayer partners down front and they'll. 00:23:50.115 --> 00:23:50.625 Let's pray. 00:23:50.894 --> 00:23:52.664 So, God, thank you for opening our eyes. 00:23:52.664 --> 00:23:55.365 Thank you for creating this incredible world that we live in. 00:23:55.605 --> 00:23:57.284 But God, this is not all there is. 00:23:57.284 --> 00:24:00.494 This is a great teaser for the real thing. 00:24:00.704 --> 00:24:04.365 God, this is about a mere shadow of the greatness of what you've created in heaven. 00:24:04.454 --> 00:24:08.654 There's so much that we love about your creation, but God, this is a broken place. 00:24:08.659 --> 00:24:10.304 It's a broken planet, and we're broken. 00:24:11.084 --> 00:24:17.263 And God thank you that we don't have to just live the rest of our taste and brokenness and then it all just ends in futility. 00:24:17.503 --> 00:24:19.694 Thank you for giving us a hope and a life. 00:24:19.724 --> 00:24:24.434 Thank you for raising Jesus from the dead, basically telling us that what you did for him, you'll do for us. 00:24:24.494 --> 00:24:27.224 If we'll just believe in Him. 00:24:27.434 --> 00:24:28.513 The door is open. 00:24:28.964 --> 00:24:30.224 All we gotta do is say yes. 00:24:30.224 --> 00:24:39.674 And so, Lord, I pray for every person here who has never said yes, that today would be the day they begin to experience what a supernatural, miraculous life feels like. 00:24:39.944 --> 00:24:40.634 I pray for them. 00:24:40.634 --> 00:24:42.525 In Jesus' name, amen.