35
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,000
There are others who are struggling, going through some sicknesses and stuff.

36
00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:20,000
I heard somebody talking just in the room this morning about how our immune systems are down

37
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:25,000
because of last year and 2020 and that's the reality. That's what we're facing.

38
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:31,000
But the good news is, down doesn't mean out. We are still his.

39
00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,000
And we are still able. And we're going to praise him today.

40
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:39,000
So the order will be a little bit different for those of you who are very, very order focused.

41
00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,000
You'll notice that for the both of us, it's a little bit different.

42
00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,000
And so we're not going to have our regular inspirational moment time today.

43
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,000
So we'll bring that back next Sunday.

44
00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:52,000
That's the time where we can share from the Word and what we've discovered in our studies throughout the week and so on.

45
00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,000
And so we'll bring that back next Sunday.

46
00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:04,000
Just have a couple of readings and some worship and then we'll go to the Word.

47
00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,000
Give her a second and then we're going to pray.

48
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,000
Pray for little Zoe too. She fell down. That happens a lot when you're a toddler.

49
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,000
That's what toddler means. I go fast, but I fall down. That's what it means.

50
00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,000
That's a good definition.

51
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:20,000
That's kind of how I live actually. I think I'm still a toddler.

52
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:22,000
All right. So let's pray together and we'll praise God.

53
00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:26,000
This is the Sunday we celebrate his actual resurrection.

54
00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:30,000
Father in heaven, we are so grateful for this Sunday and all of Sunday.

55
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:34,000
We're so grateful for every Sunday, for 365 and sometimes for 166 days a year.

56
00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:39,000
And we're able to celebrate the awesome things that you've done, who you are, what you're doing in us.

57
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,000
Lord, you've created an amazing creation that testifies to your glory.

58
00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:50,000
At the same time, I must confess to you Lord, I feel like I wasted 25 years of my life not recognizing who you were,

59
00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:56,000
not living according to your word, not living according to who you were trying to make me into, lead me to be.

60
00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:00,000
But I'm grateful, God, that you carried law and were patient with me.

61
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:05,000
I look at the condition of the world and I realize, well, the world needs a resurrection.

62
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:16,000
The human system, the way things are done, it's actively suffering, actively falling apart, actively draining the life out of one another.

63
00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:23,000
We know you are able, more than able, through your gospel message, through the weapon that you've given us,

64
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:33,000
which is your word, Lord, that we are able to share, to encourage others, to stand up for what we believe in and know is true.

65
00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:39,000
This Sunday morning, this resurrection Sunday morning, the morning in which they went and found the tomb of Anthony,

66
00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:50,000
the morning in which the resurrected Jesus first appeared again, reminds us of your resurrection power,

67
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:55,000
of your ability to change, transform, to recreate.

68
00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:02,000
If you can make it all for nothing, you can make what it is into something good.

69
00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:08,000
God, we pray on a regular basis your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

70
00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:13,000
We pray your kingdom come. We know that your kingdom exists here on earth in this present day.

71
00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:24,000
Eventually, Lord, your new heaven and earth will be filled with your kingdom and it will only be there and elsewhere for those who would not be with you.

72
00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:30,000
We are grateful that we have been called in many cases for those who in this room have trusted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

73
00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:35,000
We know that means we are saved. We are born again, begun anew.

74
00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:40,000
And this Sunday as we celebrate your resurrection, even as we overcome tough odds,

75
00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:51,000
and we know for example Alicia is on the stage right now playing guitar but not able to sing the way she really wants to because she lost a lot of her voice.

76
00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:58,000
We're missing Brother Tim, Brother Ron. We're missing some others who are sick and hurting.

77
00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:02,000
Father, we pray for them. We ask you to lift them up from right where they are.

78
00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:11,000
To overcome that spirit of infirmity that strikes their body. To overcome the illnesses that have spread in the community.

79
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:17,000
But to make us stronger, Lord, that we might glorify you. I pray they're watching us online.

80
00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:22,000
I pray that Brother Ron is tapping out the beat.

81
00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:30,000
I pray that Brother Tim is running his fingers on imaginary keys.

82
00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:34,000
Lord, we just ask you to take over this service time and make it what you would want it to be.

83
00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:40,000
We've had our ideas. We've tried to consult you. Selected your music for what we thought you will be.

84
00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:46,000
Looked at the Bible, tried to understand what it would say. Come to explain that. The lessons have been prepared for the children.

85
00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,000
And fun activities.

86
00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:54,000
But we really only need one thing. We can do without all of that if we just have one thing.

87
00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,000
And that is you in charge of this place.

88
00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:02,000
So we submit ourselves to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

89
00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:11,000
Alright, so if you can't tell by the state of the voices happening this morning, the praise team is one for six for Healthy This Morning.

90
00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:15,000
But we are here, we are singing, and we are overcoming on Resurrection Sunday.

91
00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:21,000
So would you stand with us this morning? Could we have the young people towards the front? We've got some motions for you this morning.

92
00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:28,000
Get up, let's go. I see you back there.

93
00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:37,000
And if you can't dance, you can clap. Everybody can clap, right? We have no drummers, so I'm going to need a beat here.

94
00:09:37,000 --> 00:10:03,000
Celebrate Jesus, celebrate.

95
00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:18,000
He is risen, he is risen, and he is forevermore.

96
00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:34,000
He is risen, he is risen, and he is forevermore. Let's celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.

97
00:10:34,000 --> 00:11:01,000
Celebrate Jesus, celebrate.

98
00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:16,000
He is risen, he is risen, and he is forevermore.

99
00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:33,000
He is risen, he is risen, and he is forevermore. Let's celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.

100
00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:45,000
Alright, this next one you know, so stay on your feet. Here we go.

101
00:11:45,000 --> 00:12:05,000
Lord, I lift Your name on high. Lord, I close in Your praises. I'm so glad You're in my life. I'm so glad You came to save us, Jesus.

102
00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:21,000
You came from heaven to earth to show way, from the earth to the cross. I can't live from the cross to the grave, from the night to the sky.

103
00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:43,000
Lord, I lift Your name on high. Lord, I lift Your name on high. Lord, I love to sing Your praises. I'm so glad You're in my life.

104
00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:56,000
I'm so glad You came to save us, Jesus. You came from heaven to earth to show way, from the earth to the cross.

105
00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:11,000
I can't live from the cross to the grave, from the night to the sky. Lord, I lift Your name on high.

106
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:26,000
You came from heaven to earth to show way, from the earth to the cross. My exaltation, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky.

107
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:41,000
Lord, I lift Your name on high.

108
00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:13,000
Okay, I'm going to read Psalms 42, verse 1 through 18, if you want to follow along. I'm reading from the New American Standard Version.

109
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:27,000
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my droning. O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest. Yet You are holy.

110
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:38,000
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In You our fathers trusted. They trusted and You delivered them. To You they cried out and were delivered.

111
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:52,000
In You they trusted and were not disappointed, that I am a worm, not a man. Their approach of men is despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me. They separate with the lip. They wag the head.

112
00:14:52,000 --> 00:15:11,000
They say, Commit yourself to the Lord. Let Him deliver him. Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him. Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb. You made me trust when upon my mother's breast. Upon You I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother's womb.

113
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:24,000
You are not far from me, for trouble is near me. For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of passion have disturbed me. They open wide their mouth at me as a raving and roaring lion.

114
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:41,000
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is welded within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death.

115
00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:56,000
For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierce my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among them, and from my clothing they cast lots.

116
00:16:41,000 --> 00:17:00,000
You are Heaven's first, you see. For me is God, and I know I'll save all the hour we can see.

117
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:12,000
You are the new soul, and you are the new soul. Heaven's first, you see.

118
00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:40,000
Holy, holy, holy is our Lord God Almighty. The one who lives and lives through all. In all creation I sing praise to the King of Kings. You are my everything, and I will adore you.

119
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:51,000
You are the new soul, and you are the new soul.

120
00:17:51,000 --> 00:18:17,000
The love and the love of living color, flashing like the arrows of God. Let's sing in honor, strength and glory and power to you, the only one I see.

121
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:46,000
Holy, holy, holy is our Lord God Almighty. The one who lives and lives through all. In all creation I sing praise to the King of Kings. You are my everything, and I will adore you.

122
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:55,000
You are the new soul, and you are the new soul.

123
00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:20,000
The one who lives and lives through all. In all creation I sing praise to the King of Kings. You are my everything, and I will adore you.

124
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:47,000
Holy, holy, holy is our Lord God Almighty. The one who lives and lives through all. In all creation I sing praise to the King of Kings. You are my everything, and I will adore you.

125
00:19:47,000 --> 00:20:14,000
Holy, holy, holy is our Lord God Almighty. The one who lives and lives through all. In all creation I sing praise to the King of Kings. You are my everything, and I will adore you.

126
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:32,000
The one who lives and lives through all. In all creation I sing praise to the King of Kings. You are my everything, and I will adore you.

127
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:57,000
Psalm 22, 19-31. But be not far off, O Jehovah, O thou my succor, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth. Be from the horns of the wild oxen thou hast answered me.

128
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:12,000
I will declare thy name, O Jehovah, in the midst of the assembly will I praise thee. Ye that fear Jehovah, praise him. Ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him. And stand in awe of him, all ye the seed of Israel.

129
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:27,000
For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither hath he hid his face from him. But when he cried unto him, he heard, Of thee cometh my praise in the great assembly.

130
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:43,000
I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Jehovah that seek after him. Let your heart live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto Jehovah.

131
00:21:43,000 --> 00:22:03,000
And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is Jehovah, and he is the ruler over the nations. All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him. Even he that cannot keep his soul alive.

132
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:17,000
A seed shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation. He shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born. That he hath done.

133
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:35,000
Thank you.

134
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,000
Thank you.

135
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,000
Thank you.

136
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:21,000
We are all our mysteries, gadgets in your melody. Beautiful as we are, the honest eyes of breaking hearts.

137
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:37,000
Better than a holiday, better than a church bell ringing, better than a choir singing out, singing out.

138
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:53,000
We pour out our mysteries, gadgets in your melody. Beautiful as we are, the honest eyes of breaking hearts.

139
00:24:53,000 --> 00:25:10,000
Better than a holiday.

140
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:23,000
As I was studying the text for today, and the way I felt the Lord had led me to go, I found in myself a certain weakness that I was, I want to say surprised at.

141
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:30,000
There have been a number of times in my life where I've seen God do something that I felt was miraculous. Obviously the first of those was probably my salvation.

142
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:40,000
After I got saved I looked back at a few things that God had done before I was saved and I thought, well that was pretty miraculous now that I think about it. But I hadn't even noticed them.

143
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:49,000
Then when I got saved I felt like that was definitely a miracle. I felt very changed, very renewed, begun, starting over, fixing a lot of things.

144
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:54,000
I remember when I was first saved I made a short list of a few things that I felt like I would have to work on.

145
00:25:54,000 --> 00:26:02,000
I look back now and I think about how silly that was. That I would think I would have to work on those things since God had made me completely new.

146
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:12,000
But then since I've been saved there have been a number of other miraculous instances where God has done something that I went, that's definitely God. That's a miracle.

147
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:21,000
Called me to something, changed me in a certain way, changed a family member. There were a couple of times I would say almost like curses.

148
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:29,000
You know things as God struck somebody because something happened. But they were all miraculous incidents.

149
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:36,000
Now I look back at them and I see that in many of those cases, and I haven't made a thorough survey of them all. I don't know that that's even possible.

150
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:41,000
But I see that in many of those cases I frankly just did not believe they were happening.

151
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:51,000
So the question that I'm asking us today then is what happens if God decides to do a miracle and we don't believe it?

152
00:26:51,000 --> 00:27:05,000
If the next miraculous thing that God is going to do in your life or in the life of your church or your community begins to unfold, begins to become evident, and we don't believe it, then what happens?

153
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:15,000
So if you would grab your Bibles if you would. We tend to get a little excited, hoot and holler. Some of us are sore throated so somebody else might have to chip in a little bit. Maybe say amen.

154
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:22,000
As we go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He is risen! Thank you, he is indeed risen. He is risen indeed.

155
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:38,000
So before you even get there you may know that 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the first part of it, is sort of a summary. I went to go get another translation so I would have a little different perspective when I read this here.

156
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:56,000
So 1 Corinthians chapter 15 beginning in verse 1 is Paul is talking about the teaching of the gospel, about what we know to be true and what people get saved by. And then he is going to give a little summary of the events and the history of what he gave.

157
00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:00,000
So we are going to start in 15.1. Here we go.

158
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:15,000
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. So Paul is saying, I am going to tell you again that which I preached to you, and you received it, and now you stand by it.

159
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:23,000
So this is what I am about to tell you. By which also ye are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.

160
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:34,000
So he says, this thing I am teaching you again, this is what you got saved by. This was the key or the step that you went through, the understanding that you came to that led you to a saving grace with God.

161
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:47,000
He says, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, in other words, let's not get confused about what that truth is that we understood or believed in order that God could save us, or what we placed our faith in.

162
00:28:47,000 --> 00:29:00,000
Let's not get confused about what that is. Then he says, unless you have believed in vain. When I read that phrase, unless you have believed in vain, I thought to myself, how can a person believe the gospel in vain?

163
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:13,000
If you believe the gospel, therein is the power of salvation, first the Jews, then the Gentiles. So we can be saved by believing the truth, and that opens the channel and God really delivers the grace.

164
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:29,000
Believing is not a work that a person does to be saved, no more than any other work. Believing is you saying to God, okay God, based on what I now know about you, and he's going to summarize it here eventually, based on what I now know about you, I believe you, I trust you.

165
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:49,000
God said, okay, that opens the way for me to do a work of saving grace in you. That's what Ephesians 2 says, right? For by grace are you saved, that is a free gift from God that you do not deserve, through faith. So it's like the trust or the belief in the gospel opens the channel so that God can by his grace save us.

166
00:29:49,000 --> 00:30:04,000
Which means you cannot believe in the gospel in vain. However, you certainly could misbelieve or believe in a missed gospel, and that would be in vain.

167
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:19,000
And that was Paul's concern. Paul's concern for them was not that they had believed in the real gospel and opened up the floodgates of God's grace, but that maybe they had believed in something that wasn't quite right. And that would be believing in vain.

168
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:35,000
In fact, I submit to you that if you believe in any gospel that is not 100% the gospel, that's a false gospel. What does it take to turn a truth into a lie? Very little. The minor, most slight alteration turns a truth into a lie.

169
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:52,000
So the gospel must be believed just the way the gospel is. And frankly, it's offensive. It's troubling. And therefore, people want to minorly adjust it. Well, I know it says, but I'm just going to tweak it a little bit and now I can accept it.

170
00:30:52,000 --> 00:31:08,000
That little bit of tweaking would cause a person to have believed in vain. That's Paul's saying. Alright, now verse 3. He says, For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

171
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:26,000
So this is where the gospel begins, essentially. This is the core of the message. It is the foundation. Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the one who was weighted upon by the Jewish people who would be the final sacrifice, died for sins according to the scriptures.

172
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:44,000
Now we'll see later in a text that we're going to read, and I'll try to point it out to you when we get there, that they didn't always get that. And that was part of the problem. They didn't always understand that it was prophecy in advance that Jesus the Messiah would die, be a suffering Messiah.

173
00:31:44,000 --> 00:32:00,000
You and I might look at Isaiah 53 and we see Jesus so clearly and we say, oh, that just makes sense. Of course they're talking about Jesus. Now we see crucifixion is laid out there. That was written a thousand years before Jesus was born, which was way before the crucifying people was ever invented.

174
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:15,000
And yet this is clearly explaining crucifixion, so we can see that. But in Jesus' day, there was a time in which they had not assimilated the Old Testament scripture explaining that Jesus would be a suffering Messiah.

175
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:31,000
A little further, he says, for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

176
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:50,000
Notice there, he was buried, he died, and he was buried. And then he rose again the third day. It does not say he rose again after three days. Now there are a couple places in the Bible where you can see that it says rose again after three days, but don't get messed up on that.

177
00:32:50,000 --> 00:33:13,000
Anytime something says it happens on the third day, that always means that at the very least the final day is not a full day. So if I tell you, today is Sunday, and I say three days from now, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, sometime on Wednesday, this is going to happen.

178
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:23,000
You're not expecting that all of Wednesday is going to pass before it happens. You're expecting maybe one o'clock on Wednesday or dinner time on Wednesday or something. That's only a partial day there.

179
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:37,000
And if I say it's going to take until the third day from now, then if you count today, it would be Tuesday, and you're expecting sometime on Tuesday, and you're not expecting today to be a full day, because we don't have the rest of it left.

180
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:48,000
So if I go in the tomb today, and I come out on Tuesday, that's the third day. So there's no difficulty in Scripture with that, although some people have tried to say so, and they got confused about it, whatever.

181
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:59,000
The bottom line is, Jesus went in the tomb and came out on the third day. Now we know he came out on a Sunday, Sunday morning, first thing, after their Sabbath, after their feast, etc.

182
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:08,000
But we know that he was buried. We have an account of that. We'll read it before we're through. It says, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

183
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:18,000
Again, they had not assimilated from Scripture that Jesus had to die and raise again yet at a certain point, but it was in the, it's there. We can read it now.

184
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:26,000
Now we get into the account of what happened. It says, and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the Twelve.

185
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:45,000
Alright, so now we're going to look at Mark, and we're going to look at chapter 16. So in your Bibles, flip pages and find Mark chapter 16.

186
00:34:45,000 --> 00:35:03,000
Alright, so here we go, Mark 16, verse 1. And when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, bought spices that they might come and anoint him, and the hymn is Jesus.

187
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:16,000
And very early on the first day of the week they came to the tomb when the sun was risen, and they were saying among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the tomb?

188
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:24,000
And looking up, they see that the stone is rolled back, for it was exceeding great.

189
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:37,000
And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, arrayed in a white robe, and they were amazed. And he saith unto them, Be not amazed, ye seek Jesus the Nazarene, which hath been crucified.

190
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:51,000
He is risen, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter, he goeth before you into Galilee, and there shall you see him, as he said unto you.

191
00:35:51,000 --> 00:36:05,000
And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

192
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:21,000
Now, when he was risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven devils. She went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.

193
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:32,000
They were mourning and weeping the death of Jesus. They, when they heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, disbelieved.

194
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,000
They didn't believe it.

195
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:49,000
Did you notice that Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 5, which we read, does not mention the women at all?

196
00:36:49,000 --> 00:37:00,000
He skipped right over it. Why? Well, the answer is, back in that day, a woman's testimony wasn't considered to be worth much.

197
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:10,000
Worse than that, it could possibly bring about doubt.

198
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:19,000
In fact, when they went to the men to explain to them that they had seen Jesus alive, when Mary Magdalene goes to the men to say that she had seen Jesus alive, what was their response?

199
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,000
They didn't believe her.

200
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,000
And that's a problem.

201
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:37,000
Paul is leaving out, in his explanation to the Corinthians, the fact that when the disciples first heard that Jesus was alive, they didn't believe it.

202
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:44,000
I submit to you, the reason he's leaving that out is because it's not part of the Gospel.

203
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:53,000
Our disbelief, our lack of being willing to believe what God is doing, is not part of the action of God.

204
00:37:53,000 --> 00:38:00,000
Remember I said, saved by grace through faith. The channel is open.

205
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:06,000
Those who would believe in Jesus are saved by the grace of God.

206
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:14,000
Those who will not believe in Jesus are not saved by the grace of God because the channel is blocked.

207
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:19,000
They are refusing to allow God to work.

208
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:27,000
So the question is, what if Jesus does a miracle and our response is disbelief?

209
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:33,000
And we've now seen that the disciples, at least, began in a position of disbelief.

210
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:48,000
Look at Luke 24 verse 11.

211
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:56,000
I have a parallel here so I'm tracking on this, trying to keep them straight.

212
00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:03,000
It says, and I'll back up a little second so you understand for sure what's going on. It says, and to all the rest, now there was Mary Magdalene and Joanna,

213
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:07,000
and Mary the mother of James and the other women, with them told these things unto the apostles.

214
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:15,000
And verse 11 says, and these words appeared in their sight, that's in the apostles' sight, as idle talk.

215
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:21,000
And they disbelieved them.

216
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:30,000
However, it says, but Peter arose and he ran into the tomb, and stooping and looking in, he seeth the linencloths by themselves.

217
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:35,000
And he departed to his home, wondering at that which was come to pass.

218
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:41,000
See, so he heard the tale from the women who couldn't be trusted.

219
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:48,000
And he thought, but what if? What if there is something? I mean, surely there is something.

220
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:57,000
There's got to be some truth to what they're saying. And he runs there, and he sees there is indeed some truth to what they're saying.

221
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:00,000
Now, John 20.

222
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:09,000
John 20 beginning in verse 4. If you'll flip along, I'll try to go a little slow, but I got a little excited when I was doing this, so it's kind of fast.

223
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:19,000
John 20 verse 4.

224
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:25,000
We're backing up kind of into the middle of 3, where it says, Peter therefore went forth and the other disciple, and they ran toward the tomb.

225
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:31,000
By the way, when you see that phrase, other disciple, in the book of John, you probably might guess that was John.

226
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:37,000
It was also a thing in the writings of their day not to give themselves credit or not to make themselves look big or be prideful.

227
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:43,000
So a lot of times when they were there and they would see something, they would refer to themselves in the third person and without a name.

228
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:46,000
And so probably that was John.

229
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:54,000
It says, Peter therefore went forth and the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb and they ran both together.

230
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:58,000
And the other disciple outran Peter and came first to the tomb.

231
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:02,000
And stooping and looking in, he seeth the linen cloth lying, yet entered he not in.

232
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:11,000
Simon Peter therefore also cometh following him and entered into the tomb.

233
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:19,000
And he behold the linen cloth lying and the napkin that was lying, that was upon his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself.

234
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:25,000
They entered in therefore the other disciple also, which came first to the tomb.

235
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:26,000
Listen.

236
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:36,000
And he saw and believed, for as yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.

237
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:40,000
So the disciples went away again unto their own home.

238
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:47,000
So if indeed the other disciple is John, here we have his first hand account and testimony that he ran in, they ran in together.

239
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:48,000
Peter went in first.

240
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:51,000
John got there first, but hesitated to go in.

241
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,000
Peter ran and went right down into the tomb to look.

242
00:41:53,000 --> 00:42:00,000
John follows him in and it says, essentially, I believed.

243
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:05,000
I realized what I saw meant something and I believed.

244
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:11,000
The fact that he believes there tells you that moments before he didn't, when the women said he didn't.

245
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:20,000
But he believed just enough to run to the tomb and see what it was that they were saying, just enough to check it out, just enough to grope a bit for the truth, the reality.

246
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:30,000
Notice here is that phrase where it says that they did not yet know, and to that point in time they had not run into the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.

247
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:40,000
Later they'll get it and then it will be included in Paul's 1 Corinthians 15 passage, which he got from the disciples.

248
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:42,000
So later they will get it.

249
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:49,000
They'll find their scripture that says that he had to rise from the dead and then they will share that with Paul and Paul will recount it to the Corinthians.

250
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:51,000
A little bit more.

251
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,000
Luke 24, 18.

252
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:57,000
These are all in the Gospels.

253
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:05,000
So Luke 24, 18.

254
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:09,000
I'll back up to the beginning of the sentence.

255
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:14,000
What communications are these that you have with one another as you walk?

256
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:19,000
So this is coming from the story of the two men walking on the road to Emmaus. Perhaps you've heard it before.

257
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:22,000
Maybe not. It's okay.

258
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,000
And they stood still looking sad.

259
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:30,000
So the one who just spoke, what communications are these that you have as you walk, is actually Jesus, but they don't recognize him.

260
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,000
He's not revealed himself yet.

261
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:34,000
He asked them, what are you talking about as you're walking?

262
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:35,000
And they stood still looking sad.

263
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:45,000
And one of them named Cleopas answering, said unto him, dost thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem and not know the things which are come to pass there in these days?

264
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,000
Are you the only one that don't know what's going on?

265
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:49,000
And he said unto them, what things?

266
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:58,000
And they said unto him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people.

267
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:03,000
Now the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

268
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:08,000
But we hoped that it was he which would redeem Israel.

269
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:14,000
Yea, and beside all this, it is now the third day since these things came to pass.

270
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,000
So it was Sunday that they're walking.

271
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:22,000
Moreover, certain women of our company amazed us having been early at the tomb.

272
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:28,000
And when they found not his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.

273
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:39,000
And certain of them that were with us went to the tomb and found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not.

274
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:51,000
Now this is going to be Jesus speaking again and he says, and he said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.

275
00:44:51,000 --> 00:45:07,000
Behove it not the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? And then beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

276
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:18,000
So as Jesus was walking along, he goes back to the Bible and he explains through the Old Testament how it all makes sense, how it all lines up, how the Old Testament was pointing to this Savior.

277
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:23,000
This reference of these two men on the road, this is our reference from 1 Corinthians 15, 5.

278
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:31,000
This is where Paul essentially picks it up when he is explaining the truth of the Gospel back in 1 Corinthians 5, 15, 5.

279
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:35,000
And he says, and that he was seen of Cephas.

280
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:38,000
Then he says, and then the twelve.

281
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:41,000
So now it's going to continue.

282
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:44,000
And the others get to see him too.

283
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:47,000
And Jesus appears amongst them.

284
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:52,000
Okay, let's go to the same chapter as we were just in Luke 24.

285
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:55,000
Sorry for those of you who tried to flip back to 1 Corinthians 15.

286
00:45:55,000 --> 00:46:03,000
But 24, verse 37.

287
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:06,000
24, 38, 24, 37.

288
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:18,000
And as they spake these things, he himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted and supposed that they beheld a spirit.

289
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:22,000
So now Jesus appears to the twelve where they're hiding out in the upper room.

290
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:24,000
And they think he may be a spirit.

291
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:27,000
And he said unto them, Why are you troubled?

292
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:30,000
And wherefore do reasonings arise in your heart?

293
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:37,000
See, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye behold me having.

294
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,000
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

295
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:49,000
And while they still disbelieved for joy, so they're still struggling to believe, because they're so excited, this is so awesome, it's happening.

296
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:52,000
He said unto them, Have you hear anything to eat?

297
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:58,000
And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and did eat before them, thereby establishing his non being a ghostness.

298
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:01,000
Right? That he wasn't a ghost or a spirit.

299
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:06,000
And Paul writes, 1 Corinthians 15, 5, and that he was seen of Cephas and then of the twelve.

300
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:17,000
And verse 6 says, And after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

301
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:23,000
So now Paul is picking up from this moment on as the disciples have begun to believe.

302
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:33,000
They are accepting, having seen him, having the chance to touch his hand, to see where the spear ran in his side, to see him eat fish alive again.

303
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:36,000
So 6 again in 1 Corinthians 15, 6.

304
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:43,000
After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

305
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:49,000
And I ask myself, why does it say, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep?

306
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:51,000
This is what's called an apologetic.

307
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:55,000
There were five hundred people plus that were there that saw Jesus and he was speaking.

308
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,000
And many of them are still alive.

309
00:47:57,000 --> 00:47:59,000
So Paul was saying, don't just take my word for it.

310
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,000
Go see people, talk to people if you really want to.

311
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:05,000
There are people who will testify and say they saw Jesus alive after his death.

312
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:09,000
And there were many others, by the way, historians record it.

313
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:15,000
Verse 7, After that he was seen of James, then again of all the apostles.

314
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:21,000
And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

315
00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:29,000
He says, for I am the least of the apostles, that I am not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.

316
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:33,000
See, Paul is reminding them that he used to be someone who just didn't believe.

317
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:37,000
But through believing in God's grace, he's been transformed.

318
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:42,000
In fact, in 10 he says, but by the grace of God I am what I am.

319
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:46,000
That's the Popeye verse, if you don't remember who that was, you can look it up on YouTube.

320
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:48,000
But by the grace of God I am what I am.

321
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:53,000
And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain.

322
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:56,000
But I labored more abundantly than they all.

323
00:48:56,000 --> 00:49:00,000
Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

324
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:06,000
Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach and so you believe.

325
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:07,000
Now listen, that's it.

326
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:14,000
He summarized everything they needed to believe about the miracle that God had done.

327
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:21,000
12 says, now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

328
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:22,000
See, this is the problem.

329
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:28,000
There had become people amongst the Corinthians who had started to say that there's no coming back to life after death.

330
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:30,000
They were saying they believed in Jesus.

331
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:33,000
They were saying they believed what God had done.

332
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:38,000
But they were saying they didn't believe in life after death.

333
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:41,000
And Paul is pointing out to them that that's a contradiction.

334
00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:45,000
They had twisted the gospel that much.

335
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:50,000
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

336
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:56,000
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain and your faith is also vain.

337
00:49:56,000 --> 00:50:03,000
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up.

338
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:07,000
If so be that the dead rise not.

339
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:10,000
Four verses left.

340
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:14,000
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.

341
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:17,000
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain.

342
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:21,000
You are not yet, I'm sorry, you are yet in your sins.

343
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:26,000
Then they also which were fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

344
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:32,000
And if this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men more miserable.

345
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:38,000
So Paul was saying is this miracle of God that God has done, it is part of the gospel.

346
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:44,000
And now you are warping it just slightly to say not so much.

347
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:51,000
And the end effect of that he was saying no gospel, no salvation.

348
00:50:51,000 --> 00:51:01,000
So the question we began with is what if Jesus does a miracle and your response is disbelief.

349
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:06,000
And we would say no, I mean if God starts doing a miracle, I'm going to see it, I'm going to believe it.

350
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:13,000
In fact, we say this, in order for it to be a miracle, we have to know, and I read this in a book somewhere,

351
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:19,000
that number one we have to know that it brings glory to God, it has no other physical explanation,

352
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:26,000
it can't be found to have been done another way, and it breaks the natural rules, right?

353
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:30,000
Otherwise it's not a miracle.

354
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:36,000
I submit to you that the glory that miracles bring to God is in the belief of those who see them.

355
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:44,000
Remember it said that we will do our good work so that in the second coming of Jesus, God will be glorified, right?

356
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:51,000
They were told, they saw evidences, they were then told by trustworthy individuals.

357
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:59,000
And let's be really realistic, these ladies that told them were trustworthy individuals.

358
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:08,000
Mary Magdalene had had seven devils, or demons, devils in the old language, demons in the new, cast out of her by Jesus.

359
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:16,000
From the day that she had had seven demons cast out of her by Jesus and she had been declared as clean, she had been a Christian.

360
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:19,000
They had never once found fault with her.

361
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:24,000
She had never lied, she had always been respectful, she had always honored God,

362
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:30,000
they had no reason to suspect that she would ever fabricate anything.

363
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:39,000
Yet the day that she came and told them the truth about the miracle that God had actively done, they didn't believe her.

364
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:47,000
Maybe they believed that when Jesus died, the miracle that he had done to cast demons out of her would be no more.

365
00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:50,000
That's not how it works, but maybe that's what they believed.

366
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:56,000
Maybe they believed that Jesus now was not who they thought he was.

367
00:52:56,000 --> 00:53:02,000
Guys were on the road and said, well we thought he was the one who was going to redeem Israel, but now he's been slain.

368
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:11,000
For whatever reason, their faith lagged enough that when Mary Magdalene, who had no reason to distrust her, came

369
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:18,000
and told them not only that the tomb was empty, but that she had clung to the feet of Jesus himself risen,

370
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:22,000
they didn't believe her.

371
00:53:22,000 --> 00:53:27,000
She was a trustworthy witness, and yet they didn't believe her.

372
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:38,000
There was evidence, and yet they struggled to believe her, when Jesus stood in their midst and said, look here.

373
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:45,000
In their joy, they were disbelieving.

374
00:53:45,000 --> 00:54:01,000
I submit to you that it is the human condition to yet not believe when something amazing, miraculous, coming from God is happening.

375
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:05,000
That's our normal condition. That's the way we normally handle it.

376
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:14,000
I was living in Michigan with my family, and Alicia was little, Molly was little, Aaron was not born yet.

377
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:17,000
Sherry lost her job, and we were looking for jobs.

378
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:21,000
I was looking for a job. I was in Bible College. I was going to drop out of Bible College.

379
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:26,000
I was working part-time, but it wasn't going to be enough. I was going to get a full-time job.

380
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:32,000
I put out 128 resumes and applications looking for a job. I had a couple of interviews, and I went to the interviews.

381
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:37,000
I never got offered a job. I thought I interviewed well, and it just didn't happen.

382
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:44,000
Sherry put out 300, over 300, like 308 or 316 or something like that, resumes and applications.

383
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:50,000
She had some third interviews for jobs, and yet no job offers.

384
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:56,000
I'm driving home from school on the expressway across town. I think it was 496, across town in Lansing.

385
00:54:56,000 --> 00:55:01,000
I'm begging God. I'm like, God, I just don't understand. I don't get it.

386
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:07,000
We think we're doing what you want us to do. We've prayerfully considered everything.

387
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:11,000
You told us we're supposed to be in this house. You told us what house to be in.

388
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:14,000
I missed the fact that we weren't supposed to buy the house. That was my mistake.

389
00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:17,000
We were supposed to pursue renting it, even though it wasn't up for rent.

390
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:21,000
But the people who owned it, in order to sell it, they had to take a loss.

391
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:27,000
They would have gladly rented it, and their mortgage payment was a little over half of what our mortgage payment wound up being.

392
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:32,000
So we could have rented it for way less money and lived there for the two years that we were there and never had to pay for it.

393
00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:39,000
But just because we thought that's where we were supposed to live, and that's what we thought you do when you're supposed to live somewhere, is buy a house.

394
00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:41,000
We bought the house. But we weren't supposed to do that.

395
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:47,000
But I was telling God, I'm like, we know we're living where we're supposed to live. We're serving. We're pressing hard to serve. We're studying.

396
00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:54,000
I'm going to school to be whatever it is that you want me to be. I'm following my calling. I'm like, God, what is happening?

397
00:55:54,000 --> 00:56:03,000
And as if God were sitting in the passenger seat of my car, my little Datsun B210, stick shift on the floor.

398
00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:10,000
And fifth, fifth, you didn't have a fifth gear, fourth gear, and the expressway, it sounded like that's going down the road.

399
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:16,000
Like my dad used to joke about it being like one of those mighty mow toys. You rev up the engine because that's what it sounded like going down the road.

400
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:22,000
I'm going down the road and the engine, I'm on the expressway, it's going, all of a sudden I hear God in the passenger seat.

401
00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:32,000
God says to me, I want you to move back to Toledo. And I said, I don't believe that's right. I don't think that's true.

402
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:38,000
Because I'm doing all the things I'm supposed to do and I don't think God would do that.

403
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:43,000
And so of course, when you hear a voice in your head and you're not sure it's God, you do what you always do. I pray back to God.

404
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:48,000
I said, God, is that you? I mean, how can this make sense? He said, I want you to move back to Toledo.

405
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:54,000
And he said, Stuart, which is Sherry's grandfather, and I knew him by his first name, Stuart is going to get sick.

406
00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:59,000
And I want him to know his grandchildren before he comes home.

407
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:03,000
Well, Stuart was not sick. In fact, Stuart was what you'd call crotchety.

408
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:09,000
Like he was never sick a day in his life. If he was sick, he denied it.

409
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:16,000
He used to work on cars in his garage all day long. He made out of hardwood, not out of balsa wood, but out of hardwood.

410
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:25,000
He carved an entire dollhouse and all the furniture, including little lamps and everything for the grandkids to play with when they came to his house out of hardwood.

411
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:37,000
Amazing woodworker. He built from scratch airplanes that you could fly by remote, built them out of metal from scratch, built the engines from scratch, molded the pieces himself.

412
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:43,000
We have a picture of the vehicle that he got from a junkyard. It looked like a pile of old rusty metal when he got it.

413
00:57:43,000 --> 00:57:47,000
And he totally renovated it. It was like a 57 Chevy or something.

414
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:53,000
And I'm like, man, he's this strong guy. He'd be out there cursing up a storm with his hammer banging on stuff.

415
00:57:53,000 --> 00:57:57,000
And everybody just leave him alone for 10, 12 hours at a time to work on whatever he's working on.

416
00:57:57,000 --> 00:58:03,000
And I'm like, I'm having a hard time believing that. And he says, Stuart's going to get sick. And I want him to see his grandkids.

417
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:08,000
And I thought, man, if that's true, this is really important conversation.

418
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:16,000
And I said, OK, God, what does this look like? And he says, don't worry about it. I'm going to take care of everything. Just do what I tell you.

419
00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:23,000
And when he said that, I heard my own words. How many times did I say to God, just God, just tell me what to do and I'll do it. Whatever you say, I'll do it.

420
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:32,000
And I said, OK, God, so I'm having a hard time believing. But whatever you are going to do, just do it and I'll follow your lead.

421
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:40,000
And of course, my face is all red. I'm bawling like a baby, probably dehydrating myself. My lap's all wet.

422
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:48,000
I go home and we have inside our house up there, there was a little office to the right inside there and it was like 4 feet by 12 feet.

423
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:56,000
And our computers were set up in there. And she comes walking out of that room and she's got some papers in her hand and she's like, I want to talk to you. I want to talk to you.

424
00:58:56,000 --> 00:59:04,000
And I said, OK, I want to talk to you too. I said, this is really important. And she said, OK, well, you go first.

425
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:09,000
And I said, are you sure? I said, you go first. She goes, no, you go first. I said, no, you go first.

426
00:59:09,000 --> 00:59:17,000
Because I didn't want to say what I was saying. I was still in my mind contemplating telling her about Stuart getting sick because I didn't want, you know, I knew how she felt about her grandfather.

427
00:59:17,000 --> 00:59:26,000
Her grandfather had rescued her from a bad parenting situation when she was very little, pulled her out and stopped her from being abused.

428
00:59:26,000 --> 00:59:31,000
And so her grandfather was a really big deal to her. And I knew that. And I was still debating in my mind what I was going to do.

429
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:39,000
And she said, well, I wanted to ask you. She said, would it be OK if I put in some resumes in the Toledo area?

430
00:59:39,000 --> 00:59:47,000
She said, I put in resumes in applications everywhere I can find up here. So could I put some in in the Toledo area because I found six or I think it was eight.

431
00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:54,000
Yeah, I found eight online and I'd like to put them in. Some are fax and some are email and I'd like to put a resume in.

432
00:59:54,000 --> 00:59:56,000
And I said, yeah, you can do that. She said, are you sure?

433
00:59:56,000 --> 01:00:05,000
Because just a couple of days ago, you told me that you knew for sure this is where God wanted us to live. And we were going to be staying here.

434
01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:10,000
And I thought so, too. But now I'm like, we've got to pay our bills. So I'm thinking maybe.

435
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:14,000
And I said, no, I said, let me tell you what God just told me. And I didn't tell her Stuart was going to get sick.

436
01:00:14,000 --> 01:00:18,000
I couldn't bring myself to do it at that time. But I told her, I said, God told me we're going to be moving back to Toledo.

437
01:00:18,000 --> 01:00:23,000
And she said, OK. And she ran right away and put the resumes in. She's like she was ready. She just didn't want to do it without talking to me first.

438
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:33,000
Eight resumes. We had a luncheon that afternoon at our church building because we had gotten involved with the children's ministry up there when we didn't have ministry to do.

439
01:00:33,000 --> 01:00:40,000
And we asked them if they let us do ministry. And we knew that was the church God wanted us in. And they didn't have anything for us to do, which is churches should never be like that, by the way.

440
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:46,000
If you want to work in a church, you come. There's always something to do in this church. We work our butts off around here.

441
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:53,000
But that's the way it was. The assistant pastor came up and said there's nothing for us to do. So we kind of went and we went our way into the children's program.

442
01:00:53,000 --> 01:01:01,000
And I began transporting kids to the point that I got to the point where on a Wednesday night for a one hour long Bible study, I was transporting 23 kids.

443
01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:10,000
We had this big blue conversion van that would seat like nine because it had extra row. And I was taking two and a half trips picking up kids and bringing them.

444
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:13,000
I made sure everybody had a seatbelt. I was taking two and a half trips and bringing them.

445
01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:21,000
And so the last group wouldn't get there until like 20 minutes after they had started. But they were there for 40 minutes. And the children's leaders loved it. The children loved it. It was going great.

446
01:01:21,000 --> 01:01:28,000
Anyway, they recognized us at this banquet. We didn't know they were going to do that. And they said, well, we love you. And we're so grateful for you.

447
01:01:28,000 --> 01:01:35,000
And we're looking forward to what see what God's going to do. And it called on me to say a word. And I had to say, well, we've been so glad that we're here.

448
01:01:35,000 --> 01:01:44,000
And God has really grown us while we're in this church and like that. But I got to tell you that just today, literally today, just two hours ago, God told me that we're going to be moving back to Toledo.

449
01:01:44,000 --> 01:01:52,000
That took a lot of faith for me to do that because they were giving us accolades. And I was a young Christian. They were telling us how awesome we were and how great it was going to be.

450
01:01:52,000 --> 01:01:59,000
Of course, we didn't have a job. So we didn't compare bills. And the church was aware of that problem. They were praying for us. But no one was offering us a job.

451
01:01:59,000 --> 01:02:06,000
And so I made the announcement and they committed to pray for us that God's will be done, whatever it was.

452
01:02:06,000 --> 01:02:12,000
We went back home and six of the eight had responded and asked for an interview. Four of those when come down to Toledo.

453
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:18,000
And she went to the interview of the four that she interviewed at three of them went to a second interview. Two of them offered her a job.

454
01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:30,000
And one of those jobs came with a free apartment. And five weeks to the day from the day that God told me we're going to be back in Toledo, we moved into our free apartment in Parishburg.

455
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:37,000
Our church members, some of whom are in this room, came and helped us move our stuff into that apartment.

456
01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:45,000
This is how miraculous our God is. Even though I was disbelieving, God did exactly what he said he was going to do.

457
01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:53,000
God was already doing it. It goes this far. They helped us assemble my daughter's bunk bed so they could have slept in their bunk beds because we did it that day.

458
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:59,000
But we slept on a water bed so we couldn't sleep on a water bed. You know what? When you fill up a water bed you have to wait a couple of days.

459
01:02:59,000 --> 01:03:06,000
Otherwise you'll wake up in the morning feeling like you have bad arthritis. Because if the water temperature is not right on a water bed it will cause all your joint stake.

460
01:03:06,000 --> 01:03:15,000
So we're filling up the water bed off the faucet in the hallway at Prairie Lake Village Apartments. And I'm an impatient individual by my nature even as a saved person.

461
01:03:15,000 --> 01:03:23,000
When I got saved I inherited some patience from the Holy Spirit. But other than that I lack impatience is the general reality of it.

462
01:03:23,000 --> 01:03:31,000
And so I'm like, well we've got to do something. There's nothing else to do in the apartment. So we go out to Frish's on 20 to go to Big Boy to go to dinner.

463
01:03:31,000 --> 01:03:36,000
And then we go back and I'm like, hey we better hurry up and get back now because the water bed is going to be full.

464
01:03:36,000 --> 01:03:42,000
We go back there and it's full. We got back just in time and it was full. And I had to push down a little bit to screw off the cap.

465
01:03:42,000 --> 01:03:51,000
And I thought, this water bed feels warm. It's warm. I think it's warm enough we can sleep on it. We checked the thermometer. Sure enough it was body temperature warm.

466
01:03:51,000 --> 01:03:59,000
What the heck? And so I screwed it off and I closed it up and I told Sharon. She says, no we already made arrangements. We have to stay.

467
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:06,000
My kids are staying at my mom's and we're staying at your friend's house because we can't sleep on that water bed. It will make us ache in the morning.

468
01:04:06,000 --> 01:04:12,000
Trust me. I had only slept on a water bed for about a year but she slept on one for about 10 years. So she says, trust me that's weighted.

469
01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:17,000
I said, no you need to look at this. You need to look at it. And she put her hand on it. She said, yeah that does feel warm.

470
01:04:17,000 --> 01:04:20,000
Look at the thermometer. It does feel warm. We laid on it. It was fine.

471
01:04:20,000 --> 01:04:29,000
And then we would find out that what had happened was that faucet that was in the hallway had been plumbed incorrectly. Instead of being on the cold water it was on the hot water.

472
01:04:29,000 --> 01:04:34,000
So what had happened was as we were filling up the hot water bed we ran all the hot water out of the hot water tank.

473
01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:41,000
And the hot water tank kept struggling to keep up the whole time as it was filling up. And it just worked out.

474
01:04:41,000 --> 01:04:48,000
I mean it just worked out that the water temperature was perfect.

475
01:04:48,000 --> 01:04:53,000
God said to me, I'm going to do this. Just follow my lead.

476
01:04:53,000 --> 01:05:00,000
I submit to you that every miracle that God has ever done, that's the two part action plan.

477
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:05,000
Let him do it and follow him.

478
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:10,000
Even Jesus Christ himself said while he was alive on the earth, I only do that which I see my father doing.

479
01:05:10,000 --> 01:05:17,000
You have a goal. I have a goal. We need to look at God and figure out what God's doing and do that.

480
01:05:17,000 --> 01:05:21,000
But they were told, they saw evidence. They had a trustworthy witness.

481
01:05:21,000 --> 01:05:25,000
And they were still struggling to believe. Even after they saw him physically they were struggling to believe.

482
01:05:25,000 --> 01:05:33,000
So if you're giving yourself some kind of credit thinking I'm always going to trust, I'm always going to believe if it's miraculous and there's obviously no other explanation I would get it.

483
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:39,000
I submit to you when it's miraculous and there's no other explanation you still would not get it.

484
01:05:39,000 --> 01:05:42,000
Because that's our normal condition.

485
01:05:42,000 --> 01:05:51,000
In the faith with the testimony of the Holy Spirit inside us, having been blessed by him and reminded that we are saved, maybe it's different.

486
01:05:51,000 --> 01:05:57,000
But most of the time you're going to respond with disbelieving.

487
01:05:57,000 --> 01:06:03,000
The second thing I want you to see in these texts that we read, and I know there were quite a few of them,

488
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:14,000
was that in 1 Corinthians 15 text some had let perverted doctrine trick them into what Paul calls unbelief.

489
01:06:14,000 --> 01:06:20,000
But notice they said it was belief. They said they believed in what God was doing.

490
01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:25,000
They said they were Christians and they were trying to share the gospel.

491
01:06:25,000 --> 01:06:31,000
But they had begun to believe that there was no resurrection, no life after death.

492
01:06:31,000 --> 01:06:43,000
And didn't accept or didn't realize that that was a massive contrast between the truth of the gospel and what they were teaching.

493
01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:47,000
In my lifetime then after we came back to Toledo I saw this play out this way.

494
01:06:47,000 --> 01:06:51,000
We felt called to start this church.

495
01:06:51,000 --> 01:06:53,000
And it had a rough start.

496
01:06:53,000 --> 01:06:55,000
The church was persecuted in the early days.

497
01:06:55,000 --> 01:06:59,000
We were first meeting at Perrysburg Heights and the Catholic Church essentially persecuted on us.

498
01:06:59,000 --> 01:07:04,000
We went on a Saturday afternoon and we had even some people pray to accept Christ and some people pray to recommit their lives.

499
01:07:04,000 --> 01:07:10,000
And then we found out later that the nuns had gone around behind us and said all kinds of slanderous things about us

500
01:07:10,000 --> 01:07:13,000
and told them not to have anything to do with our church.

501
01:07:13,000 --> 01:07:16,000
So all the people that we made contact with said they were coming to church.

502
01:07:16,000 --> 01:07:20,000
I think one was going to get baptized and one was thinking about it.

503
01:07:20,000 --> 01:07:26,000
When we went back to them they were all like, no, no, no, no, we can't have anything to do with you.

504
01:07:26,000 --> 01:07:28,000
And we didn't know why. They didn't tell us why.

505
01:07:28,000 --> 01:07:36,000
What we found out later was that the nuns had gone around behind us teaching that our doctrine was not godly.

506
01:07:36,000 --> 01:07:40,000
And all we teach is the Bible, which is what the Bible says.

507
01:07:40,000 --> 01:07:42,000
And we didn't understand that.

508
01:07:42,000 --> 01:07:46,000
And then they got involved or someone got involved with the committee out there that was letting us rent the building

509
01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:48,000
and they said you can't rent the building anymore.

510
01:07:48,000 --> 01:07:53,000
That happened right after we said we wouldn't work at the beer tent at the festival.

511
01:07:53,000 --> 01:07:55,000
That could be a coincidence.

512
01:07:55,000 --> 01:07:59,000
But the bottom line is we were persecuted in the early days.

513
01:07:59,000 --> 01:08:01,000
We met in my house and we tried to air-condition my house.

514
01:08:01,000 --> 01:08:04,000
I never had air-conditioning. We tried to air-condition my house.

515
01:08:04,000 --> 01:08:09,000
We had 40 people sitting in my living room and the teenagers going up the steps and nobody was dry.

516
01:08:09,000 --> 01:08:14,000
Everybody was soaked in sweat trying to praise the Lord and preaching the word.

517
01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:17,000
And we were all soaked in sweat, all of us.

518
01:08:17,000 --> 01:08:19,000
We were persecuted in the early days.

519
01:08:19,000 --> 01:08:23,000
But we set out to, and this is going to hurt, and so for those of you who are from that day,

520
01:08:23,000 --> 01:08:26,000
I apologize, this is going to hurt a little bit.

521
01:08:26,000 --> 01:08:29,000
We set out to create a church.

522
01:08:29,000 --> 01:08:44,000
We set out to create a church that would be the church seven days a week.

523
01:08:44,000 --> 01:08:50,000
We had been part of a church that largely was the church Sunday morning,

524
01:08:50,000 --> 01:08:55,000
sometimes Sunday nights, and sometimes Wednesday nights.

525
01:08:55,000 --> 01:09:00,000
But when we read the New Testament, we realize that you're supposed to be the church seven days a week.

526
01:09:00,000 --> 01:09:04,000
All your waking moments should be about serving the Lord Jesus Christ,

527
01:09:04,000 --> 01:09:11,000
who is Master and Head of the church.

528
01:09:11,000 --> 01:09:15,000
And we did that, to a degree, or God did it through us.

529
01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:21,000
But I think there was some disbelief that it could ever really be done.

530
01:09:21,000 --> 01:09:30,000
However, now some of us, some of our folks, are not with us anymore who were there then.

531
01:09:30,000 --> 01:09:37,000
And some of our folks can't make it to Tuesday night Bible study.

532
01:09:37,000 --> 01:09:47,000
Some of our folks can't serve throughout the week for whatever reason.

533
01:09:47,000 --> 01:09:54,000
It's a perverted doctrine that says that you can be a Christian on Sunday mornings,

534
01:09:54,000 --> 01:09:58,000
and anything else the rest of the week.

535
01:09:58,000 --> 01:10:02,000
I know this is a heavy load to bear.

536
01:10:02,000 --> 01:10:08,000
Thankfully, if you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't have to bear it. You can give it to Jesus.

537
01:10:08,000 --> 01:10:10,000
We're in the midst of our study emphasis.

538
01:10:10,000 --> 01:10:15,000
So once every six months, we focus on a spiritual discipline.

539
01:10:15,000 --> 01:10:23,000
And this six months, for another roughly a month, is study.

540
01:10:23,000 --> 01:10:28,000
And I asked the church to make a plan for how you would use the study discipline,

541
01:10:28,000 --> 01:10:34,000
some way that you could plan to how many every days of the week the Lord led you to study your Bible on your own.

542
01:10:34,000 --> 01:10:39,000
And it's study when you read your Bible and write something down.

543
01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:43,000
We have a couple of teenagers who very faithfully come in here on Sunday morning and keep notes.

544
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:46,000
And then I'm scanning those notes and emailing to our gym and him and I are typing it up.

545
01:10:46,000 --> 01:10:48,000
We're going to make a book out of them here.

546
01:10:48,000 --> 01:10:51,000
But the bottom line is that's study.

547
01:10:51,000 --> 01:10:54,000
You've got the Bible, you're writing something down, now you're studying,

548
01:10:54,000 --> 01:11:01,000
as well as maybe Bible intake and preaching and so on. Those things are going on.

549
01:11:01,000 --> 01:11:06,000
Roughly half of the faithful or what I would call faithful, they call themselves,

550
01:11:06,000 --> 01:11:09,000
let's say that those who call themselves faithful members of the church,

551
01:11:09,000 --> 01:11:16,000
roughly half of them said that they had a plan for how they would study their Bibles.

552
01:11:16,000 --> 01:11:18,000
It is a perverted doctrine of Jesus.

553
01:11:18,000 --> 01:11:25,000
It is a perverted gospel that says that you can be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ without studying your Bible.

554
01:11:25,000 --> 01:11:28,000
That is a perverted doctrine.

555
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:33,000
How do I know? Because scripture commands it all over the place.

556
01:11:33,000 --> 01:11:37,000
And Jesus said, I only do that which I see my Father doing.

557
01:11:37,000 --> 01:11:43,000
And how are you going to figure out what your Father is doing if you don't read the Word, if you don't study?

558
01:11:43,000 --> 01:11:49,000
So not meant to bring specific conviction or guilt to anybody, but it's meant to be an illustration to us.

559
01:11:49,000 --> 01:11:55,000
In Paul's day, he said that some had perverted the doctrine and started to think that there was no life after death,

560
01:11:55,000 --> 01:11:57,000
but they thought they could still be Christians.

561
01:11:57,000 --> 01:12:02,000
I'm submitting to you now that there are those living in our day who are claiming to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ,

562
01:12:02,000 --> 01:12:07,000
but because there is an aspect of following Jesus that is too much work, it's too troublesome,

563
01:12:07,000 --> 01:12:14,000
they are partially invested believers, and hear me now, a partially invested believer is not a believer at all.

564
01:12:14,000 --> 01:12:24,000
You can say God must be first in it, but if God is not first in it, then when you say God must be first in it,

565
01:12:24,000 --> 01:12:26,000
you have said nothing at all.

566
01:12:26,000 --> 01:12:30,000
Because you're not even talking about the God of heaven.

567
01:12:30,000 --> 01:12:39,000
Because if you really believe that God must be first in it, then the God of heaven would be first in it if you're a believer.

568
01:12:39,000 --> 01:12:45,000
I own a Fitbit. It's been a huge blessing to me.

569
01:12:45,000 --> 01:12:50,000
I've used it to help with my weight, my sleeping patterns.

570
01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:55,000
There's some really good science that goes into these things, but I know other companies make them too.

571
01:12:55,000 --> 01:13:01,000
Just this last week, I saw a commercial. I started playing on TV. It's actually on the Roku channel.

572
01:13:01,000 --> 01:13:07,000
I'm watching this police series that's rated PG, no cussing in it. It's pretty cool. I like that.

573
01:13:07,000 --> 01:13:19,000
They started playing this promo that is quite obviously LGBTQ plus agenda. It's non-Christian agenda.

574
01:13:19,000 --> 01:13:28,000
Their slogan is, follow your body. Do what your body wants. That's what they're saying.

575
01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:38,000
I began to talk it over with Sharon. I said, you know, I'm using this for my health, but under these circumstances, I couldn't buy one.

576
01:13:38,000 --> 01:13:42,000
I could never buy one now knowing what agenda they're putting out there.

577
01:13:42,000 --> 01:13:51,000
I said, so I've begun. Last night, I was sick the last couple of days, but last night I began to research and find another fitness tracker.

578
01:13:51,000 --> 01:13:57,000
But no, no, no. You're going to say, now you're being legalistic. That's too much, right?

579
01:13:57,000 --> 01:14:04,000
It's too much to go, well, they're preaching a doctrine that is anti-Christ, that goes against Christ, and so I have to cut them out of my life.

580
01:14:04,000 --> 01:14:11,000
That's too much, right? It's too much to cut movies out of my life that show lifestyles that are ungodly.

581
01:14:11,000 --> 01:14:18,000
That's too much? Or does the word say focus on that which is pure?

582
01:14:18,000 --> 01:14:27,000
I submit to you that we are living in a day where a perverted doctrine has tricked some into thinking they believe the miracles of Jesus,

583
01:14:27,000 --> 01:14:36,000
believe in the resurrection of Christ, and they are partially invested believers.

584
01:14:36,000 --> 01:14:41,000
Solomon tried it. The book of Ecclesiastes said, here's what I suggest is wise to you.

585
01:14:41,000 --> 01:14:50,000
Keep one foot in both worlds, faithfully in the kingdom of God, faithfully in the kingdom of man, because that way you get the best of both.

586
01:14:50,000 --> 01:14:57,000
Here you can praise God, love God, worship God, stand for God. People will respect you in the temple, right?

587
01:14:57,000 --> 01:15:00,000
Over here, you can still taste, eat, do whatever you want.

588
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:07,000
And then a little while later he says, I was totally wrong about that. In doing that, the best you're going to do is rip yourself in two.

589
01:15:07,000 --> 01:15:16,000
So what you need to do instead is pull the foot out of the world and put both firmly in the kingdom of God and be all about God all the time.

590
01:15:16,000 --> 01:15:27,000
No exceptions. It is a perverted doctrine that says that anybody can be a partially invested believer.

591
01:15:27,000 --> 01:15:42,000
All your money, all your time, all your talents, all your breath, all your strength, all your hope, all your food, all your jobs, all your bills, all your friends, all your family,

592
01:15:42,000 --> 01:15:51,000
it's all invested in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

593
01:15:51,000 --> 01:16:02,000
The third thing there is that Paul made a statement that not believing the miracle essentially makes the miracle useless enough.

594
01:16:02,000 --> 01:16:06,000
You remember that phrase? He said, unless you believed in vain.

595
01:16:06,000 --> 01:16:16,000
And I mentioned how believing in vain, if you're believing, the only way you can be believing in vain is if you're believing in something that isn't quite right.

596
01:16:16,000 --> 01:16:24,000
It isn't the truth. It isn't the gospel. And if you do that, if you're actually believing, and if you do that,

597
01:16:24,000 --> 01:16:30,000
Paul was saying that makes the miracle essentially useless in us.

598
01:16:30,000 --> 01:16:37,000
Oh, pitied and worthless are we who believe that Jesus makes us better in this lifetime and there is nothing more than that.

599
01:16:37,000 --> 01:16:43,000
That you're all going to the graves and rot. That is not the truth.

600
01:16:43,000 --> 01:16:51,000
There is a life after this one and you will spend it in heaven for an eternity praising God, healed of all your maladies, comforted in every way.

601
01:16:51,000 --> 01:16:58,000
Or you will spend it in hell for an eternity burning away from God.

602
01:16:58,000 --> 01:17:03,000
Having been unsaved and having a good memory of what it was like when I was unsaved before I was born again,

603
01:17:03,000 --> 01:17:09,000
I realized that I got a tiny sample of that every day, yearning for my relationship with Jesus that I never had.

604
01:17:09,000 --> 01:17:14,000
I was always seeking, always hurting, always hoping, always vacant.

605
01:17:14,000 --> 01:17:23,000
And then when Jesus saved me, I was born again, filled, finally whole.

606
01:17:23,000 --> 01:17:28,000
There is plenty of evidence for hell and plenty of evidence for heaven.

607
01:17:28,000 --> 01:17:38,000
And if anybody convinces you otherwise, if you ever accept that maybe there is an alternative reality to that which God has portrayed in His Word,

608
01:17:38,000 --> 01:17:44,000
watch out because your believing may be in vain.

609
01:17:44,000 --> 01:17:53,000
Miracles are fast food apps or quick delivery. They are feasts and open source code and just in time delivery.

610
01:17:53,000 --> 01:17:59,000
Christianity is like this. Wait for it. Believe God is going to do.

611
01:17:59,000 --> 01:18:05,000
Believe and then request and then believe.

612
01:18:05,000 --> 01:18:14,000
We make it out to it's believe and then receive and then request and then believe and then receive and then request

613
01:18:14,000 --> 01:18:22,000
because we are used to shopping and internet and drive-thrus and being told as a small child that you have to say please

614
01:18:22,000 --> 01:18:27,000
before you can have something that your parents should love you enough to want to give you anyway.

615
01:18:27,000 --> 01:18:38,000
Right? That's not it. Christianity is believe, request, believe, request, believe, request until the belief and the request are one.

616
01:18:38,000 --> 01:18:46,000
And there is no difference anymore. And I am saying God, do whatever you want to do.

617
01:18:46,000 --> 01:18:54,000
And that's what I want. This is what I think you want.

618
01:18:54,000 --> 01:19:03,000
And you pray for someone's healing. I am insulted when I pray, Lord if it's your will, when someone prays, Lord if it's your will, heal them.

619
01:19:03,000 --> 01:19:08,000
Are you kidding me? The God of heaven? That He should ever not want to heal somebody who is sick.

620
01:19:08,000 --> 01:19:14,000
Of course He wants to heal. And ultimately if they believe in Him, they will be healed of all of their maladies.

621
01:19:14,000 --> 01:19:20,000
The paralyzed will dance in heaven. The blind will see. It's all going to be healed.

622
01:19:20,000 --> 01:19:26,000
He has already healed all our wounds by the stripes He has taken.

623
01:19:26,000 --> 01:19:30,000
What's going on right now that we are struggling through is temporal.

624
01:19:30,000 --> 01:19:35,000
So you request. You request their healing. You say God, please heal them.

625
01:19:35,000 --> 01:19:39,000
And then you believe that God will heal them. And the truth is He will.

626
01:19:39,000 --> 01:19:45,000
And if they get saved, if they are saved and they get to heaven, they will be fully, once and for all, permanently healed.

627
01:19:45,000 --> 01:19:53,000
If they are not saved, then maybe your prayer should be that they be saved.

628
01:19:53,000 --> 01:19:57,000
Oh, but we want their lives to be good even if they are not saved.

629
01:19:57,000 --> 01:20:04,000
Nobody whose life is lived outside the grace of God has a good life.

630
01:20:04,000 --> 01:20:07,000
Nobody. You say, but no, but I know rich people and they seem to be doing okay.

631
01:20:07,000 --> 01:20:11,000
Trust me, you don't see them in their darker hours. You don't see them alone with themselves.

632
01:20:11,000 --> 01:20:25,000
You don't know what they are going through. Why do you think that the suicide rate is higher in millionaires than it is in paupers?

633
01:20:25,000 --> 01:20:30,000
Miracles aren't fast food, apps, or quick delivery. They are feasts.

634
01:20:30,000 --> 01:20:34,000
They are open source code. They belong to everyone. And they are just in time to live.

635
01:20:34,000 --> 01:20:37,000
They will be there when you really need them. That's our God.

636
01:20:37,000 --> 01:20:43,000
He has the resurrection power to take a dead body and make it alive.

637
01:20:43,000 --> 01:20:47,000
It really isn't most of the time beneficial to do that.

638
01:20:47,000 --> 01:20:53,000
Because when someone dies and they have gone to heaven, and you pray for them to come back to life,

639
01:20:53,000 --> 01:20:58,000
you are literally asking them to leave heaven and that's not what they would want.

640
01:20:58,000 --> 01:21:04,000
So most of the time it's not beneficial, but it has happened.

641
01:21:04,000 --> 01:21:12,000
And if you believe it's what God would want and you pray, He may do it.

642
01:21:12,000 --> 01:21:15,000
Recap these three real quick and then the conclusion.

643
01:21:15,000 --> 01:21:21,000
Number one, they were told, saw evidence, and they were told by trustworthy sources, and yet they did not believe.

644
01:21:21,000 --> 01:21:28,000
They even saw Him physically in the room with them and struggled to believe for their joy.

645
01:21:28,000 --> 01:21:39,000
It has happened as early as the church has existed that some let perverted doctrines trick them into unbelief.

646
01:21:39,000 --> 01:21:48,000
And Paul made the statement that not believing the miracle essentially makes the miracle useless in us.

647
01:21:48,000 --> 01:21:51,000
Maybe the miracle that we are having trouble believing right now,

648
01:21:51,000 --> 01:22:00,000
the miracle that we are having trouble trusting right now, is the miracle of our own resurrection.

649
01:22:00,000 --> 01:22:07,000
There are still trappings of this life that concern us, things that we are worried about, point of view,

650
01:22:07,000 --> 01:22:18,000
the way people will think about us, money, if we will have enough, will we get enough stuff?

651
01:22:18,000 --> 01:22:30,000
We are so worried that our kids will grow up and be jerks that we tell them they have to say please before they can have their sandwich.

652
01:22:30,000 --> 01:22:38,000
Maybe the things of this life are affecting us so that we are forgetting that if you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ,

653
01:22:38,000 --> 01:22:46,000
if you have believed in Jesus as the Son of God, believed that He died and rose again,

654
01:22:46,000 --> 01:22:54,000
the channel between you and God has been opened and God will never fail to deliver His grace, He has done it.

655
01:22:54,000 --> 01:22:57,000
He has done it whether you believe or not.

656
01:22:57,000 --> 01:23:01,000
You say, whoa, now wait a minute, now that is a universalist doctrine.

657
01:23:01,000 --> 01:23:09,000
If everybody is saved with that, I didn't say that, remember, if you won't believe, the miracle that God has done becomes made useless.

658
01:23:09,000 --> 01:23:13,000
It doesn't mean He hasn't done the miracle.

659
01:23:13,000 --> 01:23:20,000
As part of the conclusion, we are going to read this text from John chapter 15 and one verse from Luke.

660
01:23:20,000 --> 01:23:26,000
Here we go, John 15, my apologies.

661
01:23:26,000 --> 01:23:30,000
It says, I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman.

662
01:23:30,000 --> 01:23:39,000
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring more fruit.

663
01:23:39,000 --> 01:23:44,000
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Did you hear that?

664
01:23:44,000 --> 01:23:50,000
You are clean because you believed, right? No, that's not what it said.

665
01:23:50,000 --> 01:23:54,000
It said, you are clean because you did stuff, because you heard what I said.

666
01:23:54,000 --> 01:23:56,000
No, that's not what it said.

667
01:23:56,000 --> 01:24:03,000
It said, you are clean, it said, you are now clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

668
01:24:03,000 --> 01:24:10,000
It happened. He said, now abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.

669
01:24:10,000 --> 01:24:14,000
No more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches.

670
01:24:14,000 --> 01:24:18,000
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.

671
01:24:18,000 --> 01:24:24,000
For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered.

672
01:24:24,000 --> 01:24:28,000
And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

673
01:24:28,000 --> 01:24:34,000
If ye abide in me, and my word abides in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

674
01:24:34,000 --> 01:24:39,000
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.

675
01:24:39,000 --> 01:24:46,000
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue you in my love.

676
01:24:46,000 --> 01:24:53,000
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

677
01:24:53,000 --> 01:25:02,000
For these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be made full.

678
01:25:02,000 --> 01:25:08,000
Jesus taught them every... you know what that means?

679
01:25:08,000 --> 01:25:14,000
That means that Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus, knew everything that he needed.

680
01:25:14,000 --> 01:25:20,000
It even means that Jesus, and you know this, died for Judas' sins.

681
01:25:20,000 --> 01:25:26,000
It's true. You already knew that. Because Jesus died for everyone's sins.

682
01:25:26,000 --> 01:25:32,000
So why didn't Judas Iscariot get saved the way John or Peter or one of the others did?

683
01:25:32,000 --> 01:25:42,000
Because he believed what he believed, which was not actually the Gospel, the teachings of Jesus Christ.

684
01:25:42,000 --> 01:25:49,000
In his case, it looks like up until a point, he was more concerned about the money.

685
01:25:49,000 --> 01:25:56,000
Or maybe the prestige. Because there were a lot of people getting kicked out because they were talking about Jesus.

686
01:25:56,000 --> 01:26:00,000
And now our other verse, Luke 7, 22. And it says,

687
01:26:00,000 --> 01:26:05,000
Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard.

688
01:26:05,000 --> 01:26:11,000
How that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised.

689
01:26:11,000 --> 01:26:15,000
To the poor the Gospel is preached.

690
01:26:15,000 --> 01:26:22,000
And then he says, And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.

691
01:26:22,000 --> 01:26:29,000
Here's the reality. John was in prison and began to doubt, began to wonder if Jesus was the Messiah.

692
01:26:29,000 --> 01:26:33,000
Was he really the one? And so he sent some messages to Jesus and Jesus sent back that message.

693
01:26:33,000 --> 01:26:38,000
And what was the message? Don't doubt. Don't disbelieve.

694
01:26:38,000 --> 01:26:43,000
Look at the facts. Look at the power. Look at the outpouring of God's love.

695
01:26:43,000 --> 01:26:49,000
Look at the grace delivered to people. Look at what I'm doing. Don't disbelieve. Don't doubt.

696
01:26:49,000 --> 01:26:54,000
Then he goes on to say, But blessed are all those who are not offended of me.

697
01:26:54,000 --> 01:26:57,000
Remember we said the Gospel is offensive.

698
01:26:57,000 --> 01:27:07,000
In this room are people who have done all sorts of things that if you knew what they had done, you would not consort with them.

699
01:27:07,000 --> 01:27:14,000
In our church are people who have done all sorts of things that if you knew what they had done, you would not consort with them.

700
01:27:14,000 --> 01:27:20,000
If you had been there in my dark moments before I got saved, you would say, I don't want anything to do with that person.

701
01:27:20,000 --> 01:27:27,000
I can't have them be around me because they're caustic, negative, they're a bad influence, etc.

702
01:27:27,000 --> 01:27:35,000
Does it make any sense at all that Jesus wants to take the old broken down husk of a human being

703
01:27:35,000 --> 01:27:40,000
and bring him to life and make something incredible out of him or her?

704
01:27:40,000 --> 01:27:48,000
That no matter what you've done, that this week when you were in your secret sin, you were doing the thing that nobody knows about,

705
01:27:48,000 --> 01:27:55,000
that you don't tell anybody about, that in that moment Jesus was pleading with you, that he loves you,

706
01:27:55,000 --> 01:28:02,000
that he desires you to come away from that thing and truly be resurrected, to really be reborn and be a new person away from that?

707
01:28:02,000 --> 01:28:08,000
Does that make any sense at all? That the God of heaven would love us so much that he would do that?

708
01:28:08,000 --> 01:28:18,000
No, it's offensive. The fact that we're messed up other than Jesus, pretty worthless people, is the problem that the world has.

709
01:28:18,000 --> 01:28:24,000
They're like, well I'm a better person than so and so. If anybody should go to heaven, I should.

710
01:28:24,000 --> 01:28:29,000
I give more money, I'm nicer, I'm more honorable, I'm a better businessman, I treat a lot of people with respect.

711
01:28:29,000 --> 01:28:34,000
I gave money to build a new hospital wing or to put food on table. I did all of this.

712
01:28:34,000 --> 01:28:41,000
Why should Pastor Dan, knowing what he's done and what he's been through, why should he get to go to heaven and I don't get to go?

713
01:28:41,000 --> 01:28:49,000
And there is only one reason. Because I have believed in the miracle that God has done.

714
01:28:49,000 --> 01:28:56,000
And the one that he's doing. And the one that I am.

715
01:28:56,000 --> 01:29:03,000
Will you, will we be found believing and trusting in what Jesus has done?

716
01:29:03,000 --> 01:29:08,000
Or will we be trying to do it in our own strength? The passage that we just read.

717
01:29:08,000 --> 01:29:15,000
If you try to go outside what Jesus has given you and do it in your own strength, you can do nothing.

718
01:29:15,000 --> 01:29:22,000
If you do not abide in him, follow his commands and love him back the way he loves you, you will be cast aside like a branch.

719
01:29:22,000 --> 01:29:27,000
I didn't say it, Jesus said it. And men will come and burn all those branches.

720
01:29:27,000 --> 01:29:32,000
You have to believe in the gospel the way it's written. And it's not that complicated because people will go,

721
01:29:32,000 --> 01:29:36,000
we have to believe how you should dress. No, that wasn't in there.

722
01:29:36,000 --> 01:29:40,000
You should have to believe how you were taught. No, that wasn't in there.

723
01:29:40,000 --> 01:29:47,000
It was about the fact that Jesus Christ was the son of God, died on the cross for our sins, buried, rose again on the third day,

724
01:29:47,000 --> 01:29:52,000
was seen alive by so many, eventually ascended into heaven with the Father, makes intercession for us.

725
01:29:52,000 --> 01:30:01,000
Now, that's the gospel. Now having believed that, you should develop, as Paul said, I developed good works out of that.

726
01:30:01,000 --> 01:30:05,000
I did things out of that. I proclaimed the truth. I lived accordingly for God.

727
01:30:05,000 --> 01:30:14,000
You live according to what you know. And someone will go like, well Tommy, you need to live a certain way according to what you know of the gospel.

728
01:30:14,000 --> 01:30:19,000
I know you need to change that. Tony, I know you need to change that. I see that in you and it needs to change.

729
01:30:19,000 --> 01:30:27,000
But that's not in the gospel. If God tells you to change, you change. God leads you to do, you do.

730
01:30:27,000 --> 01:30:35,000
And all the while, believe. And make your request known to God.

731
01:30:35,000 --> 01:30:42,000
And believe, and make your request known to God. And believe, and make your request known to God. Again, and again, and again.

732
01:30:42,000 --> 01:30:45,000
That's what it means to follow Jesus.

733
01:30:48,000 --> 01:30:51,000
Come to a time where we normally have a hymn of invitation.

734
01:30:52,000 --> 01:30:59,000
So I'm going to ask those who are here to lead us in a worshipful response to do that.

735
01:30:59,000 --> 01:31:14,000
I'm asking you today to go back to the original gospel.

736
01:31:14,000 --> 01:31:20,000
To believe what Jesus commanded us to do.

737
01:31:20,000 --> 01:31:23,000
You're going to be lured.

738
01:31:23,000 --> 01:31:26,000
You're going to be distracted.

739
01:31:26,000 --> 01:31:30,000
Your brain might get programmed when you're not looking.

740
01:31:30,000 --> 01:31:34,000
It can happen by what you're watching or listening to or whatever.

741
01:31:34,000 --> 01:31:38,000
But this you can always do.

742
01:31:38,000 --> 01:31:42,000
You can always go back to God through His Son Jesus Christ and say, God I screwed up.

743
01:31:42,000 --> 01:31:45,000
I didn't know how I got here. Maybe it wasn't me. Maybe it was something I went through.

744
01:31:45,000 --> 01:31:48,000
I always tell people, you don't only repent of what you've done.

745
01:31:48,000 --> 01:31:51,000
You also repent of what's been done to you.

746
01:31:51,000 --> 01:31:53,000
Why should I have to repent of what's been done to you?

747
01:31:53,000 --> 01:31:57,000
Because to repent is to turn back to God. Somebody does something to you and it hurts.

748
01:31:57,000 --> 01:32:00,000
You've experienced pain, you're suffering, you're still going through stuff.

749
01:32:00,000 --> 01:32:02,000
You have to repent of that and turn to God.

750
01:32:02,000 --> 01:32:05,000
Say, that thing, my pain is not going to rule me anymore.

751
01:32:05,000 --> 01:32:09,000
My pain is not in charge of me. My situation is not going to be in control of me.

752
01:32:09,000 --> 01:32:12,000
My God is going to be in control of me. You repent and you turn to God.

753
01:32:12,000 --> 01:32:14,000
That's not just returning from sin.

754
01:32:14,000 --> 01:32:18,000
You're turning to God by the way you can't turn to God without also turning from sin.

755
01:32:18,000 --> 01:32:20,000
There's so many people who have been trying to turn from sin.

756
01:32:20,000 --> 01:32:22,000
All they do is turn from a bunch of sin and turn to some other sin.

757
01:32:22,000 --> 01:32:26,000
You don't turn from sin, you turn to God.

758
01:32:26,000 --> 01:32:30,000
I'm asking you to turn to God today.

759
01:32:30,000 --> 01:32:38,000
Those of you who are here, who are in the church, I'm asking you to turn to God today and be the church undistracted.

760
01:32:38,000 --> 01:32:40,000
The church focused on Jesus.

761
01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:43,000
The church reaching in Christ in Jesus every day.

762
01:32:43,000 --> 01:32:49,000
The church serving as a first and foremost power in your risen Savior.

763
01:32:49,000 --> 01:32:55,000
For those of you who are here today who are not in the church, I'm asking you today to put Jesus above everything.

764
01:32:55,000 --> 01:33:00,000
Literally say, Jesus is my Lord. He's going to tell me what to do and I'm going to do it.

765
01:33:00,000 --> 01:33:06,000
Jesus is my Savior. I recognize He died and across my sins and my spirit rose again.

766
01:33:06,000 --> 01:33:14,000
If you need help, if you need evidence, there's been a lot here today, but I can give a lot more.

767
01:33:14,000 --> 01:33:21,000
Our stories, the combined stories of this church, that's incredible evidence.

768
01:33:21,000 --> 01:33:24,000
Incredible evidence.

769
01:33:24,000 --> 01:33:27,000
God has been at work.

770
01:33:27,000 --> 01:33:29,000
God is at work.

771
01:33:29,000 --> 01:33:31,000
And He will be at work.

772
01:33:31,000 --> 01:33:34,000
Until Jesus comes again.

773
01:33:34,000 --> 01:33:37,000
What remains to be seen is will we join Him in the work.

774
01:33:37,000 --> 01:33:41,000
We haven't given the ministry of reconciliation. We must spread this truth.

775
01:33:41,000 --> 01:33:46,000
Stop telling people, I mean, that's not major anyway in telling people how they might live better.

776
01:33:46,000 --> 01:33:49,000
Or what they need to be for their health.

777
01:33:49,000 --> 01:33:52,000
Advice is...Advice is...

778
01:33:52,000 --> 01:33:55,000
It might help somebody along a moment in time.

779
01:33:55,000 --> 01:34:00,000
But the gospel is the gospel. It saves and resurrects a soul.

780
01:34:00,000 --> 01:34:02,000
Let's share that everywhere we go.

781
01:34:02,000 --> 01:34:07,000
Let nothing hold us back.

782
01:34:07,000 --> 01:34:17,000
So we're going to pray together. We ask you to pray with me and then in a moment I'll give you an opportunity to respond.

783
01:34:17,000 --> 01:34:20,000
Father, we see...

784
01:34:20,000 --> 01:34:28,000
Looking at the examples of people gone before us...

785
01:34:28,000 --> 01:34:31,000
It's been alleged that Mary Magdalene wasn't a very good woman.

786
01:34:31,000 --> 01:34:37,000
That she got seven demons inside her somehow.

787
01:34:37,000 --> 01:34:40,000
But healed of Christ.

788
01:34:40,000 --> 01:34:42,000
Whole.

789
01:34:42,000 --> 01:34:45,000
Saved.

790
01:34:45,000 --> 01:34:49,000
No longer a slave to her sin.

791
01:34:49,000 --> 01:34:54,000
She came and told them.

792
01:34:54,000 --> 01:34:58,000
We see that they didn't believe.

793
01:34:58,000 --> 01:35:03,000
We see the Peter and maybe it was John.

794
01:35:03,000 --> 01:35:06,000
They needed just enough to grow. They wondered what it could be.

795
01:35:06,000 --> 01:35:09,000
They knew how to go and check at the tomb.

796
01:35:09,000 --> 01:35:13,000
There might be somebody in this room who's like that.

797
01:35:13,000 --> 01:35:16,000
They know how to go back to you.

798
01:35:16,000 --> 01:35:21,000
And say, okay, God, is this what I need to do?

799
01:35:21,000 --> 01:35:24,000
Are you calling on me? Are you speaking to me?

800
01:35:24,000 --> 01:35:27,000
Are you pulling me back close to you?

801
01:35:27,000 --> 01:35:31,000
Saved or unsaved, they might know that. They might know that's all it takes.

802
01:35:31,000 --> 01:35:40,000
Just to go around for you and that you're always there and never far from us.

803
01:35:40,000 --> 01:35:46,000
Lord, I'm asking you if there is somebody here like that today.

804
01:35:46,000 --> 01:35:49,000
Would you help them just now?

805
01:35:49,000 --> 01:35:53,000
Help them do just that?

806
01:35:53,000 --> 01:35:57,000
I wouldn't say okay, God.

807
01:35:57,000 --> 01:36:00,000
I believe.

808
01:36:00,000 --> 01:36:04,000
I want what you want.

809
01:36:04,000 --> 01:36:08,000
I want to walk out the rest of my days the way you would have me do.

810
01:36:08,000 --> 01:36:12,000
The way you would have me do.

811
01:36:12,000 --> 01:36:20,000
You just do the work and I'll follow.

812
01:36:20,000 --> 01:36:27,000
Lord, we know there might be somebody in this room

813
01:36:27,000 --> 01:36:34,000
who hasn't ever seen it as clearly as they see it right now.

814
01:36:34,000 --> 01:36:38,000
Maybe it's not been that simply put or just because you're working on their heart thing

815
01:36:38,000 --> 01:36:44,000
that they can interpret and understand.

816
01:36:44,000 --> 01:36:47,000
To be saved.

817
01:36:47,000 --> 01:36:50,000
It's just to trust in you.

818
01:36:50,000 --> 01:36:59,000
Let your grace do the work.

819
01:36:59,000 --> 01:37:01,000
Lord, I'm asking you if there is someone like that here right now.

820
01:37:01,000 --> 01:37:08,000
Just help them just say okay Lord, I'm trusting you.

821
01:37:08,000 --> 01:37:11,000
And I think while I've done a lot of work, I've changed my assault a lot.

822
01:37:11,000 --> 01:37:18,000
I'm not going to be more like a Christian.

823
01:37:18,000 --> 01:37:24,000
Lord, help them just say just now in their heart, you're trusting in you Lord.

824
01:37:24,000 --> 01:37:30,000
Let your grace.

825
01:37:30,000 --> 01:37:32,000
Father, we've seen just one example.

826
01:37:32,000 --> 01:37:38,000
We know there are a dozen even in scripture and a thousand or a million in our lives.

827
01:37:38,000 --> 01:37:47,000
How the gospel gets belittled, doctrine gets perverted.

828
01:37:47,000 --> 01:37:55,000
And people will accept it and think they're still following you through Jesus.

829
01:37:55,000 --> 01:38:00,000
I pray to Lord if there's one of us here today or more than one.

830
01:38:00,000 --> 01:38:02,000
I realize this is the enemy has been afoot.

831
01:38:02,000 --> 01:38:11,000
He's been about that, trying to make us think or see something different from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

832
01:38:11,000 --> 01:38:23,000
We've assimilated some belief, decayed some excuse.

833
01:38:23,000 --> 01:38:26,000
I want to really repent.

834
01:38:26,000 --> 01:38:29,000
Turn to you again.

835
01:38:29,000 --> 01:38:35,000
Let you hit the reset button.

836
01:38:35,000 --> 01:38:40,000
Let you revert us again.

837
01:38:40,000 --> 01:38:42,000
Do what we're supposed to do.

838
01:38:42,000 --> 01:38:49,000
Jesus did what he ought.

839
01:38:49,000 --> 01:38:51,000
Be who we're supposed to be.

840
01:38:51,000 --> 01:38:58,000
Resurrected in you.

841
01:38:58,000 --> 01:39:02,000
Father, if there's someone who needs that today, if someone is in that place today, ask them to repent.

842
01:39:02,000 --> 01:39:07,000
Or if there would be anybody in this room today who can earnestly say that they love you,

843
01:39:07,000 --> 01:39:14,000
that they've received your grace, that this sermon was more a confirmation of what they already know to be true

844
01:39:14,000 --> 01:39:18,000
and they're already at work serving you, already loving you, already not distracted,

845
01:39:18,000 --> 01:39:24,000
not having consumed a perverted version of the gospel, not having added things to it, subtracted things from it,

846
01:39:24,000 --> 01:39:31,000
inferred things by it, they are nonetheless abiding you.

847
01:39:31,000 --> 01:39:35,000
How do we give you all praise?

848
01:39:35,000 --> 01:39:40,000
We give you all praise and all glory for that resurrected soul.

849
01:39:40,000 --> 01:39:46,000
Just thank you for the amazing work that you're doing.

850
01:39:46,000 --> 01:39:51,000
Lord, help us be.

851
01:39:51,000 --> 01:39:56,000
Let's pray all this in Jesus' name.

852
01:39:56,000 --> 01:39:58,000
Amen.

853
01:39:58,000 --> 01:40:00,000
We are near to concluding our services.

854
01:40:00,000 --> 01:40:02,000
We'll have a closing prayer in a moment.

855
01:40:02,000 --> 01:40:08,000
But if you are here today and you made some kind of a decision, I'd like you to acknowledge that decision.

856
01:40:08,000 --> 01:40:12,000
We're not going to have anybody come walking forward because you can see I'm still suffering cold symptoms

857
01:40:12,000 --> 01:40:14,000
that I'm not sharing today.

858
01:40:14,000 --> 01:40:18,000
But right where you are, are we going to sing?

859
01:40:18,000 --> 01:40:22,000
We're going to make the song our closing prayer.

860
01:40:22,000 --> 01:40:24,000
The song is our closing prayer.

861
01:40:24,000 --> 01:40:32,000
But right where you are, as you're singing this song, if your response is either A, I repented of some perversion of the gospel

862
01:40:32,000 --> 01:40:38,000
that I know I'm aware of, or B, I am turning to the Lord again a fresh today, going aside,

863
01:40:38,000 --> 01:40:43,000
but I'm distracting, I'm following Jesus and Jesus alone, or C, I would never say it before,

864
01:40:43,000 --> 01:40:49,000
but I'm being saved for the first time now, that as we're singing, you're going to stand and raise your hand where you are.

865
01:40:49,000 --> 01:40:52,000
And then I'll be praying for you during that time.

866
01:40:52,000 --> 01:40:55,000
And then we close out this song as we close out our service.

867
01:40:55,000 --> 01:40:58,000
Would you stand where you are, sing with us, we've got to celebrate.

868
01:40:58,000 --> 01:41:00,000
The resurrection is real.

869
01:41:00,000 --> 01:41:01,000
The power of resurrection is real.

870
01:41:01,000 --> 01:41:03,000
He is a miracle worker.

871
01:41:03,000 --> 01:41:05,000
He works in miracle and you.

872
01:41:05,000 --> 01:41:13,000
This is the air I breathe.

873
01:41:13,000 --> 01:41:18,000
This is the air I breathe.

874
01:41:18,000 --> 01:41:24,000
Your holy presence

875
01:41:24,000 --> 01:41:32,000
living in me.

876
01:41:32,000 --> 01:41:39,000
This is my daily bread.

877
01:41:39,000 --> 01:41:45,000
This is my daily bread.

878
01:41:45,000 --> 01:41:56,000
Your very word spoken is your will.

879
01:41:56,000 --> 01:42:10,000
And I'm just going to pray for you.

880
01:42:10,000 --> 01:42:23,000
And I'm lost without you.

881
01:42:23,000 --> 01:42:33,000
This is the air I breathe.

882
01:42:33,000 --> 01:42:37,000
This is the air I breathe.

883
01:42:37,000 --> 01:42:43,000
Your holy presence

884
01:42:43,000 --> 01:42:51,000
living in me.

885
01:42:51,000 --> 01:42:56,000
This is my daily bread.

886
01:42:56,000 --> 01:43:03,000
This is my daily bread.

887
01:43:03,000 --> 01:43:08,000
Your very word spoken is your will.

888
01:43:08,000 --> 01:43:15,000
And I'm just going to pray for you.

889
01:43:15,000 --> 01:43:27,000
And I'm next before you.

890
01:43:27,000 --> 01:43:40,000
And I'm lost without you.

891
01:43:40,000 --> 01:43:53,000
And I'm next before you.

892
01:43:53,000 --> 01:44:07,000
And I'm lost without you.

893
01:44:07,000 --> 01:44:12,000
The verse goes a bit, the song goes really well with John 15, doesn't it?

894
01:44:12,000 --> 01:44:13,000
We abide in Christ.

895
01:44:13,000 --> 01:44:15,000
We are lost without him.

896
01:44:15,000 --> 01:44:19,000
Just think for a moment, Jesus is in the tomb.

897
01:44:19,000 --> 01:44:21,000
You know when that stone fell in the way?

898
01:44:21,000 --> 01:44:24,000
It got very dark.

899
01:44:24,000 --> 01:44:29,000
And very quiet inside that tomb.

900
01:44:29,000 --> 01:44:32,000
Sound and light, deprivation.

901
01:44:32,000 --> 01:44:36,000
Of course Jesus was dead, so it didn't matter much to him.

902
01:44:36,000 --> 01:44:49,000
But at the moment that Jesus began to come alive, do you think he doubted the miracle?

903
01:44:49,000 --> 01:44:53,000
He did not.

904
01:44:53,000 --> 01:44:58,000
He so didn't doubt it that he believed in it before the crucifixion.

905
01:44:58,000 --> 01:45:06,000
And you say, man, it would be hard for a human being to ever be that way.

906
01:45:06,000 --> 01:45:12,000
Jesus, you know, he was God in the flesh, so he had kind of an upper hand.

907
01:45:12,000 --> 01:45:24,000
But I ask you, when God called Abraham to sacrifice his son, do you think Abraham believed God could do a miracle?

908
01:45:24,000 --> 01:45:26,000
Yeah.

909
01:45:26,000 --> 01:45:30,000
And that's what God attributed to him for righteousness.

910
01:45:30,000 --> 01:45:34,000
He saw his faith and called it righteousness.

911
01:45:34,000 --> 01:45:41,000
And he didn't kill his son, and God would never want that.

912
01:45:41,000 --> 01:45:49,000
But Abraham believed that if he had had to kill his son, God could have resurrected him.

913
01:45:49,000 --> 01:45:57,000
Please, I implore you, believe in the miracles of our God.

914
01:45:57,000 --> 01:46:05,000
Without them, without the miracles of our God, it ain't the gospel.

915
01:46:05,000 --> 01:46:15,000
Okay, so let's pray, and then we'll go off and celebrate this miracle that God has done through Jesus, in Jesus, in us,

916
01:46:15,000 --> 01:46:19,000
and let's say through us to the world, I hope.

917
01:46:19,000 --> 01:46:22,000
Arjun, would you pray for us a little bit?

918
01:46:22,000 --> 01:46:24,000
Dear Father, I want to thank you for this time together.

919
01:46:24,000 --> 01:46:27,000
Thank you for everyone here.

920
01:46:27,000 --> 01:46:36,000
God, I just pray that you're here with us always, and pray that we realize that you're always here with us, you're always keeping us safe.

921
01:46:36,000 --> 01:46:41,000
Even in trials, God, that you're still here with us, and you still love us.

922
01:46:41,000 --> 01:46:50,000
No matter what kind of stuff we go through in our life, God, we have to realize that with your power, we can overcome anything.

923
01:46:50,000 --> 01:46:55,000
Any sickness that anyone's facing, we can overcome it with your strength.

924
01:46:55,000 --> 01:47:01,000
God, I just pray for everyone here that is under the weather, because there's a lot of that going around.

925
01:47:01,000 --> 01:47:07,000
I also pray for safety that others may not get sick.

926
01:47:07,000 --> 01:47:17,000
I just pray for everyone to stay safe and just remember you and everything we do in Jesus' name, Amen.

927
01:47:17,000 --> 01:47:39,000
Thank you very much. This concludes our services today. Go be there for and be the church.