WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:04.559 This is the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast, brought 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:07.719 to you by Living on the Edge. In this podcast, 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:10.560 you'll hear Chip's teaching unedited and from 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:14.519 beginning to end. Here's Chip with today's message 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:17.920 titled, You Gotta Die. Well, as most of you know, 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.820 Easter is kind of the high day, the pinnacle 00:00:21.820 --> 00:00:26.140 of Christianity. It's a message that you've heard, 00:00:26.219 --> 00:00:28.859 you've sung. It's about life. It's about hope. 00:00:29.550 --> 00:00:32.070 And it's about peace. And if there's ever a time, 00:00:32.170 --> 00:00:33.789 I don't know about in your personal life, but 00:00:33.789 --> 00:00:36.049 in the world that we need life and hope and peace, 00:00:36.130 --> 00:00:39.350 I would say it's about now. I mean, it's easy 00:00:39.350 --> 00:00:41.770 to kind of get focused in on your world and my 00:00:41.770 --> 00:00:45.689 world and my email and my little kind of relationships, 00:00:45.909 --> 00:00:49.350 but the world is a messed up place right now. 00:00:49.789 --> 00:00:51.869 I mean, we're living in pretty historic days. 00:00:53.969 --> 00:00:56.310 I mean, did you ever, ever dream that there would 00:00:56.310 --> 00:00:59.039 be a group of people? A small group, a minority 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:01.700 who would think that, you know, they get an A 00:01:01.700 --> 00:01:04.280 from the God that they worship by killing people 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:08.620 they've never met. That's the world that we're 00:01:08.620 --> 00:01:11.540 currently living in. And we got to get our heads 00:01:11.540 --> 00:01:15.000 out of the sand to realize if there is a message 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.480 that's real about life and hope and peace, the 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:20.239 world needs it now. But it can't just be some 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:22.620 religious little experience. It's got to make 00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:27.920 sense. The flip side of that is sometimes you 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:31.319 don't even have to watch CNN or Fox or the network 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:33.239 news to see what's happening in the world. All 00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:34.819 you have to do is kind of look in your own home. 00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:39.799 I don't know a lot of you very well, but if you 00:01:39.799 --> 00:01:41.180 and I could go get a cup of coffee somewhere 00:01:41.180 --> 00:01:42.900 and say, hey, you know, tell me how you're really 00:01:42.900 --> 00:01:46.400 doing. And I promise not to tell anyone. Just 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:48.239 what's really, what are the biggest hurts in 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:50.500 your life in the last nine to 12 months? I will 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:52.560 guarantee you I would hear about the divorce 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:55.540 or separation you recently went through. The 00:01:55.540 --> 00:01:58.480 baby that you lost or someone who found out that 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.900 your wife or husband is having an affair. I wonder 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:03.980 how many people here you'd say, well, honestly, 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:06.400 I haven't told anybody, but I have an addiction. 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:09.300 And whether it's prescription drugs or whether 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:13.319 it's porn or cocaine, I mean, I can just tell 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:15.979 you, oh, no, that's not it. It's my aging parents. 00:02:16.139 --> 00:02:18.740 No, no, no, no, no. It's my, I lost my job. They 00:02:18.740 --> 00:02:20.960 foreclosed on my home. Our business went under. 00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:23.060 I mean, that's the world that we're living in. 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:25.879 And here's what I wanted to do in our time together 00:02:25.879 --> 00:02:29.780 because it's really important. I grew up in an 00:02:29.780 --> 00:02:31.800 experience where people had what I called God 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:34.099 talk and talked about hope and life and peace. 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:37.639 But it was like spiritual, religious mumbo jumbo 00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:39.659 over here. And then I would go back into the 00:02:39.659 --> 00:02:42.340 real world and I never saw the correlation and 00:02:42.340 --> 00:02:45.840 it didn't seem to make sense in their life. And 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:47.900 so I want to talk today about how do you really 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:51.639 find life and hope and peace in a world that's 00:02:51.639 --> 00:02:56.919 really messed up. There was a man many years 00:02:56.919 --> 00:03:01.379 ago named Frank. And Frank had everything that 00:03:01.379 --> 00:03:03.139 we would think would bring life and hope and 00:03:03.139 --> 00:03:07.759 peace. He lived a carefree life. He inherited 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:11.439 a great amount of wealth. His house would be 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:13.939 nestled up into the hills. He would have a couple 00:03:13.939 --> 00:03:17.180 luxury cars. His kids had high SAT scores. I 00:03:17.180 --> 00:03:20.460 mean, his life would just be amazingly wonderful 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:23.689 by all our standards. And he lived that high 00:03:23.689 --> 00:03:26.250 life, but he found there was an emptiness about 00:03:26.250 --> 00:03:28.949 what really brings life and what really gives 00:03:28.949 --> 00:03:33.490 purpose. And so he did something crazy. He heard 00:03:33.490 --> 00:03:36.349 the words and the teachings of an itinerant preacher 00:03:36.349 --> 00:03:39.030 that had lived roughly 1 ,200 years before he 00:03:39.030 --> 00:03:42.430 was born, a man named Jesus. And as he read the 00:03:42.430 --> 00:03:45.830 words, he thought, this is so radical. But I've 00:03:45.830 --> 00:03:48.150 got money, I've got wealth, I've got it all, 00:03:48.270 --> 00:03:51.389 and I'm empty inside, so I'm going to take this 00:03:51.389 --> 00:03:53.789 person, and he follows these words of Christ 00:03:53.789 --> 00:03:57.210 in a very literal way and left everything. And 00:03:57.210 --> 00:03:59.229 he found a small little band of people who would 00:03:59.229 --> 00:04:02.050 say, will you leave everything with me? Why don't 00:04:02.050 --> 00:04:04.889 we try this out as an experiment? Let's radically 00:04:04.889 --> 00:04:07.270 love people. Let's not worry about material stuff. 00:04:07.409 --> 00:04:11.169 Let's just go after it, and they did. That was 00:04:11.169 --> 00:04:16.180 almost 1 ,000 years ago. And his little group 00:04:16.180 --> 00:04:19.980 is still going on. And they live by a motto. 00:04:20.759 --> 00:04:24.120 It's a prayer that he wrote. I think his name 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:27.420 was Frank when he started off, but later when 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:30.019 he got to be more famous, people started calling 00:04:30.019 --> 00:04:34.519 him Francis. And his prayer and his motto of 00:04:34.519 --> 00:04:36.480 how to live for life and hope and peace was, 00:04:36.540 --> 00:04:39.959 Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. And 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:42.079 where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:44.220 there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:46.980 faith. Where there is despair, hope. And where 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:50.839 there is sadness, joy. O divine master, grant 00:04:50.839 --> 00:04:53.259 that I may not so much, listen to the counterintuitive, 00:04:53.459 --> 00:04:57.839 grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:00.899 as to console, to be understood as to understand, 00:05:01.180 --> 00:05:06.360 to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:10.079 we receive. That's counterintuitive. It is in 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:13.600 pardoning that we are pardoned. And it is in 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:19.000 dying that we are born to eternal life. The Franciscans, 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:23.019 almost 1 ,000 years later, are doing what? Helping 00:05:23.019 --> 00:05:26.199 the poor, living out his prayer. You may not 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:27.480 agree with all they're doing, but I will tell 00:05:27.480 --> 00:05:32.560 you what. They have experienced a life that's 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:35.019 impacted millions upon millions upon millions 00:05:35.019 --> 00:05:37.439 of people in the things that money can't buy. 00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:40.319 And as I read that, I thought to myself, where 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:42.259 did he get those crazy ideas? Now, I know he 00:05:42.259 --> 00:05:45.259 got them from Jesus, but how does it really work? 00:05:46.540 --> 00:05:49.540 Secular scholars say that the Apostle Paul was 00:05:49.540 --> 00:05:52.060 probably the greatest mind of the first century. 00:05:52.620 --> 00:05:56.319 He was from Tarsus. It was a nice town. He was 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:58.920 a Roman citizen, which was a big deal. He had 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:03.300 wealth. And his life wasn't making sense. And 00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:05.560 he tried so hard, so hard, so hard, so hard to 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:09.550 be good. And then he encountered the living Christ. 00:06:10.850 --> 00:06:14.129 And he realized that he had to die. He needed 00:06:14.129 --> 00:06:16.870 to stop trying, stop working, stop attempting, 00:06:17.110 --> 00:06:22.230 stop trying to prove, pose. And he met the living 00:06:22.230 --> 00:06:25.370 Christ. And in the midst of a world, and here's 00:06:25.370 --> 00:06:27.009 what you got to understand. Sometimes we think 00:06:27.009 --> 00:06:29.550 it's really, really bad now. You ought to study 00:06:29.550 --> 00:06:31.410 church history. I majored in history in college. 00:06:31.610 --> 00:06:34.589 You ought to study what Rome was like and what 00:06:34.589 --> 00:06:36.709 it was like to grow up there. You ought to study 00:06:36.709 --> 00:06:39.129 and look at the culture of what the Greeks taught. 00:06:39.370 --> 00:06:42.449 And there was gods on every corner. And there 00:06:42.449 --> 00:06:45.009 was an immorality that makes our triple X porn 00:06:45.009 --> 00:06:49.370 look mild. The poor had unbelievable injustice. 00:06:49.870 --> 00:06:54.680 Greed and power ruled. People got crushed. Women 00:06:54.680 --> 00:06:58.019 had nothing. And in the midst of all that, this 00:06:58.019 --> 00:07:02.279 brilliant intellect said, I am crucified with 00:07:02.279 --> 00:07:05.920 Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:09.160 Christ lives inside of me. And now this life 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:11.319 that I live day by day in this physical body, 00:07:11.420 --> 00:07:15.100 I live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself 00:07:15.100 --> 00:07:17.620 for me. And what he was saying was, listen to 00:07:17.620 --> 00:07:20.040 that word, I'm crucified with Christ. He said, 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:24.620 I had to die. I had to die to my agenda, my selfishness, 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:28.540 my greed, my demands. I had to die. And Francis 00:07:28.540 --> 00:07:30.540 picked that up and he put it in that prayer that 00:07:30.540 --> 00:07:34.720 he prayed and that prayer that he lived. The 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:38.819 gateway to the deepest relationships, peace that 00:07:38.819 --> 00:07:41.959 won't go away, and hope that you can have when 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:44.680 you find out someone you love has cancer or when 00:07:44.680 --> 00:07:46.839 you find out someone you love has hooked up with 00:07:46.839 --> 00:07:51.129 someone else. begins with a death. Because when 00:07:51.129 --> 00:07:53.129 there's no death, there can't be resurrection. 00:07:54.649 --> 00:07:57.810 In one sentence, the Apostle Paul, it's out of 00:07:57.810 --> 00:08:00.029 his letter to the Galatians, chapter 2, verse 00:08:00.029 --> 00:08:03.689 20, says this is how it works. Now here's what 00:08:03.689 --> 00:08:06.490 I want to do. I want to step back and ask, how 00:08:06.490 --> 00:08:09.350 does that really play out? And so we're going 00:08:09.350 --> 00:08:13.730 to ask four very basic questions. Question number 00:08:13.730 --> 00:08:16.990 one, how did we get here? How did the world get 00:08:16.990 --> 00:08:19.389 this messed up? There's chaos out there and there's 00:08:19.389 --> 00:08:21.870 chaos in here. And what I want to tell you is 00:08:21.870 --> 00:08:25.769 the world, this world that we live in now is 00:08:25.769 --> 00:08:28.430 not the world God created. The world that God 00:08:28.430 --> 00:08:31.310 created, the eternal creator of all that it is, 00:08:31.370 --> 00:08:34.029 who spoke the world into existence, created an 00:08:34.029 --> 00:08:37.970 absolutely perfect world. And he created human 00:08:37.970 --> 00:08:41.070 beings that he placed in a perfect world. The 00:08:41.070 --> 00:08:43.889 ecosystem was perfect. The weather was perfect. 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.940 No hurricanes, no tsunamis. There was no death. 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:51.500 There was no pain. There was no sorrow. There 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:54.019 was no conflict. There was no wars. There was 00:08:54.019 --> 00:08:57.120 God and the human beings that he made in perfect 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:01.539 fellowship. But God, in this perfect world that 00:09:01.539 --> 00:09:05.419 he made, wanted to have a very real relationship 00:09:05.419 --> 00:09:10.059 with us. And there's a price for freedom. See, 00:09:10.179 --> 00:09:13.610 you can make robots and have them bow down to 00:09:13.610 --> 00:09:16.750 you or say words to you, but robots don't have 00:09:16.750 --> 00:09:18.870 the freedom to say yes or no. They're programmed. 00:09:19.789 --> 00:09:23.649 God wanted people that would have a real, authentic 00:09:23.649 --> 00:09:27.970 relationship with him because they had to be 00:09:27.970 --> 00:09:31.129 able to do what free moral agents can, say yes 00:09:31.129 --> 00:09:34.970 to him or say no to him. And so what we find 00:09:34.970 --> 00:09:38.129 is the great price of freedom was that we, mankind, 00:09:38.350 --> 00:09:40.950 said, God, I don't want you. I'm gonna do my 00:09:40.950 --> 00:09:43.029 own thing. I think I know what's best for me. 00:09:43.250 --> 00:09:47.049 The world that God created revolved around him 00:09:47.049 --> 00:09:51.070 and his son. Then there was this coup, this rebellion, 00:09:51.230 --> 00:09:53.450 and each one of us try and get the world to revolve 00:09:53.450 --> 00:09:55.929 around us. It's me, and it's mine, and more, 00:09:56.090 --> 00:09:59.450 and gotta have. And there was devastating consequences. 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:03.620 The theologians call it the fall or when sin 00:10:03.620 --> 00:10:05.980 entered the world. And the impact was it separated 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:08.320 us from God. It separates us from each other 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:12.039 and it separates us even from ourselves. You 00:10:12.039 --> 00:10:14.460 cannot imagine how many people deeply, deeply 00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:17.559 do not like themselves because they see who they 00:10:17.559 --> 00:10:21.620 are and who they pose and pretend to be. And 00:10:21.620 --> 00:10:24.620 the scripture says that even the globe, the actual 00:10:24.620 --> 00:10:29.679 earth, the fall impacted. It groans. It's like 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:31.679 the coup happened and then the entire planet 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:34.200 got this cancer, this deteriorating disease. 00:10:34.500 --> 00:10:36.659 And so there's earthquakes and there's tsunamis 00:10:36.659 --> 00:10:39.220 and nothing will be made right until the Savior 00:10:39.220 --> 00:10:41.440 who came once will come back as a judge and make 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:44.080 everything right. But that's how we got here. 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:48.720 And so there was a need. There's a tremendous 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.100 need. If God cares, what are you going to do 00:10:52.100 --> 00:10:56.620 about this? See, if God made the world the way 00:10:56.620 --> 00:10:58.759 as it is, he's not a very good God. He's not 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:00.600 a good God. He's not a kind God. He's a cruel 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:04.299 God. But the world that you live in is messed 00:11:04.299 --> 00:11:10.460 up. God didn't mess it up. We did. But he cares. 00:11:11.480 --> 00:11:14.460 And so the question number two is where is God 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:17.220 in the chaos? Not just in the suffering that's 00:11:17.220 --> 00:11:19.679 happening in places around the world, but where 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:22.929 is God in your chaos? In the relationship that 00:11:22.929 --> 00:11:25.470 isn't going well and the anger and the bitterness 00:11:25.470 --> 00:11:27.070 and the people that have talked about you and 00:11:27.070 --> 00:11:31.309 all the junk. Where is God in the chaos? Here's 00:11:31.309 --> 00:11:33.529 the message of Easter. Get this down. Easter 00:11:33.529 --> 00:11:37.809 is about a divine intervention. Anybody here 00:11:37.809 --> 00:11:40.809 know what an intervention is? Anybody had a friend 00:11:40.809 --> 00:11:43.889 or a relative? I have. It's either a crack addict, 00:11:44.110 --> 00:11:47.350 a sex addict, an alcoholic, a prescription drugger, 00:11:47.409 --> 00:11:50.929 cocaine addict. Well, I have I've been involved 00:11:50.929 --> 00:11:53.009 in intervention when my mother did it with my 00:11:53.009 --> 00:11:56.129 dad with us kids You know what interventions 00:11:56.129 --> 00:11:59.769 are? Interventions are people are living in destructive 00:11:59.769 --> 00:12:03.149 ways that are killing them and ruining everything 00:12:03.149 --> 00:12:07.759 and everyone around them And we watch the devastation, 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:10.000 we watch the pain. And then someone gets the 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:12.200 courage to say, I'm not playing in the system 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:14.700 any longer. And you get all the friends and you 00:12:14.700 --> 00:12:16.860 get all the family and usually find a pro who's 00:12:16.860 --> 00:12:18.259 done this before because you need to know what 00:12:18.259 --> 00:12:21.379 you're doing. And you all create this place and 00:12:21.379 --> 00:12:23.039 then usually have to trick them to get them there. 00:12:23.580 --> 00:12:26.700 And he walks in and he goes, oh, what's going 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:30.679 on? And they say, we love you and you have a 00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:34.250 big problem. And whether it's your alcoholism 00:12:34.250 --> 00:12:36.830 or whether it's your drug addiction or whether 00:12:36.830 --> 00:12:41.129 it's your logging on habit, we care so much. 00:12:41.129 --> 00:12:44.370 We refuse to play the game. We're intervening 00:12:44.370 --> 00:12:46.649 now. And we want you to know there's hope and 00:12:46.649 --> 00:12:49.049 there's a path that you can take. But we won't 00:12:49.049 --> 00:12:52.570 support this any longer. And I'll never forget 00:12:52.570 --> 00:12:55.549 the day my mom did that with our family after 00:12:55.549 --> 00:12:59.799 my dad was an alcoholic for about 25 years. And 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:01.980 she said, you can have this bottle or you can 00:13:01.980 --> 00:13:04.100 have me and the kids, but you can't have both. 00:13:04.740 --> 00:13:09.000 And you got 24 hours to figure it out. That was 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:11.220 before we had all the technical stuff that we 00:13:11.220 --> 00:13:15.059 have now and counseling. My dad is a Marine. 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:22.759 He's a smart Marine. 24 hours later, he said, 00:13:22.779 --> 00:13:25.639 I choose you all. Now I wish he would have got 00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:27.440 some counseling and got some help, but I'll tell 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:31.220 you what, radical change in his life. Came to 00:13:31.220 --> 00:13:35.059 Christ after that. But you know what Easter is? 00:13:36.279 --> 00:13:39.200 God looking down from heaven, the Father, the 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:42.320 Son, and the Holy Spirit, of seeing all people 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:45.460 of all times simultaneously in all of our needs 00:13:45.460 --> 00:13:48.179 and seeing the chaos and the destruction both 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:52.379 personally and globally. And the Son saying, 00:13:52.620 --> 00:13:56.879 I'll go. Let's do an intervention. Let's help 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:59.100 them see that they are messed up and they are 00:13:59.100 --> 00:14:01.940 selfish and they need to die and receive life 00:14:01.940 --> 00:14:04.879 so they can be resurrected. And so Jesus came 00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:07.659 and he did the intervention to rescue us. His 00:14:07.659 --> 00:14:10.759 life mission, he said, was I came to seek and 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:13.580 to save those which were lost. And so the first 00:14:13.580 --> 00:14:16.220 thing he offered was life because we're on death 00:14:16.220 --> 00:14:19.179 patterns. For God so loved the world that he 00:14:19.179 --> 00:14:22.159 gave his only begotten son that whoever, underline 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:25.200 the word, believe in him, Should not perish, 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:28.159 but have everlasting life. Circle the word have. 00:14:28.740 --> 00:14:30.899 Have, present tense, the moment you believe. 00:14:31.980 --> 00:14:35.779 And then the very next verse was probably as 00:14:35.779 --> 00:14:39.019 life -changing for me as the first one. For God 00:14:39.019 --> 00:14:41.559 did not send his son into the world to judge 00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:47.000 the world, but he sent a son to save us. God's 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:49.539 not down on you. God's not down on me. He's not 00:14:49.539 --> 00:14:51.639 this angry God whose arms are crossed with a 00:14:51.639 --> 00:14:53.840 big club who has a lot of rules and just waiting 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:55.679 for you to mess up, to bang over your head or 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:59.679 knock you on the knuckles. His invitation is 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:03.120 not get religious, get more moral, try harder, 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:06.490 pull up your bootstraps. That's not it. It's 00:15:06.490 --> 00:15:09.570 an intervention where you say, how you're living 00:15:09.570 --> 00:15:12.629 your life doesn't work. It's bringing death to 00:15:12.629 --> 00:15:15.350 you and death to others. I wanna give you life. 00:15:15.710 --> 00:15:18.830 There's a gift. And what we're gonna learn is 00:15:18.830 --> 00:15:22.049 he went to the cross and he died on the cross 00:15:22.049 --> 00:15:25.129 for you. He intervened and said, what you can't 00:15:25.129 --> 00:15:27.990 do for yourself, I'm gonna do. And he literally 00:15:27.990 --> 00:15:29.990 paid. That's what the word redemption means. 00:15:30.169 --> 00:15:32.970 He paid for your sin and paid for mine. And then 00:15:32.970 --> 00:15:36.299 he rose from the grave and says, look, Free gift. 00:15:37.419 --> 00:15:39.220 But he says, not just life, I'm going to give 00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:42.039 you hope. The very last night, he looked into 00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:44.100 his disciples' eyes, and he could see the fear 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:47.080 in their eyes. And they'd seen him feed the poor 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:48.879 and raise people from the dead, and they knew 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:51.080 he was the Messiah, but it was like, how is this 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:52.639 going to work? Because you keep talking about 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:56.399 you're checking out. And he said, do not let 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:59.899 your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:04.269 believe also in me. In my Father's house are 00:16:04.269 --> 00:16:06.230 many dwelling places, and if it were not so, 00:16:06.370 --> 00:16:08.909 I would not have told you. And then listen carefully, 00:16:09.070 --> 00:16:13.350 for I go and prepare a place for you. If I go 00:16:13.350 --> 00:16:15.809 and prepare a place for you, I will come again 00:16:15.809 --> 00:16:18.669 and I will receive you to myself, that where 00:16:18.669 --> 00:16:21.370 I am, you may be also. Do you get it? It's about 00:16:21.370 --> 00:16:25.230 relationship. It's not about morality. When the 00:16:25.230 --> 00:16:27.370 relationship is right, the morality always changes. 00:16:28.090 --> 00:16:32.240 But he says, you need hope. You need hope when 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:34.539 your marriage is falling apart. You need hope 00:16:34.539 --> 00:16:36.179 when you find out someone you love has cancer. 00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:38.960 You need hope when your parents are totally messed 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:41.919 up. You need hope when your biggest dreams were 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:43.679 to get into that school and you didn't get in. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:45.960 You need hope when you've based all your life 00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:48.179 on that athletic career and then boom, it's ACL 00:16:48.179 --> 00:16:51.120 and nobody wants you. You need hope when life 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:53.259 doesn't work, but guess what? There's gonna come 00:16:53.259 --> 00:16:59.019 a day, and the research is in, 100 % of the population 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:05.960 at some point in time, dies. It's true. So you 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:09.579 know when you need hope? You need hope that there's 00:17:09.579 --> 00:17:12.319 someone who's personal and real and who's the 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:15.119 God of the universe who made you, who is preparing 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:20.220 a place and wants you with him. Wants you with 00:17:20.220 --> 00:17:23.359 him because he loves you. And then knowing that 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:27.259 in a fallen world, you need peace. I mean, you 00:17:27.259 --> 00:17:28.880 get anxious when you don't have enough money. 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:30.420 You get anxious when, you know what, you used 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:31.920 to have a house, you don't have a house. You 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:33.880 get anxious when you don't have a job. You get 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:35.920 anxious. And you know what he says? Don't let 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:39.440 your heart be troubled. And then he goes on to 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:42.700 say, look, I want to give you peace. In the world, 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:46.900 you will have tribulation, but be courageous. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:51.759 I want you to know I've overcome the world and 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:55.450 the peace that I have. I'm in control. Hey, it's 00:17:55.450 --> 00:17:58.690 awful at times. It's difficult at times. I'm 00:17:58.690 --> 00:18:01.150 in control of the big tsunamis and the little 00:18:01.150 --> 00:18:04.390 tsunamis. I'm sovereignly in control of all that 00:18:04.390 --> 00:18:06.829 there is and I will take even all the evil and 00:18:06.829 --> 00:18:09.410 all the people and all the bad stuff. And for 00:18:09.410 --> 00:18:11.730 those who would turn from their sin and say, 00:18:11.769 --> 00:18:14.230 I want a relationship with you, I will do an 00:18:14.230 --> 00:18:17.910 intervention and we'll do life together. And 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:21.490 I want to love you. That's the message of Easter. 00:18:22.730 --> 00:18:24.710 And the question you ought to be asking is if 00:18:24.710 --> 00:18:27.109 that's the message of Easter, what gives this 00:18:27.109 --> 00:18:30.170 Jesus the right to make that outlandish offer? 00:18:31.029 --> 00:18:33.670 Don't other religions have offers about peace 00:18:33.670 --> 00:18:36.630 and life and hope? I mean, what makes you think 00:18:36.630 --> 00:18:40.849 this one's real? Right? That was my question. 00:18:42.970 --> 00:18:45.349 Jesus makes this offer based on four things. 00:18:45.390 --> 00:18:49.990 First, his life. Sinless, revealing God's character. 00:18:50.470 --> 00:18:54.349 If we... could have found, if his enemies could 00:18:54.349 --> 00:18:57.589 have found one sin, the message of Jesus and 00:18:57.589 --> 00:19:00.349 all of his claims go out the window. But instead, 00:19:00.450 --> 00:19:02.430 Jesus said, look, here's the deal. I've come 00:19:02.430 --> 00:19:05.309 to do an intervention, and you have death. Life, 00:19:05.529 --> 00:19:07.769 you want to see what life looks like? See the 00:19:07.769 --> 00:19:10.309 poor? I feed them. See the hungry? I feed them. 00:19:11.009 --> 00:19:13.450 See the people that have lost close? I raise 00:19:13.450 --> 00:19:16.150 them from the dead. If you have seen me, you've 00:19:16.150 --> 00:19:17.750 seen the Father. You want to know what God is 00:19:17.750 --> 00:19:20.980 like? You see this prostitute? and the messed 00:19:20.980 --> 00:19:23.660 up life she's had, and the four partners, go 00:19:23.660 --> 00:19:27.039 and sin no more. You see this lady whose heart's 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:29.000 broken, and this guy that's just lost his daughter? 00:19:29.140 --> 00:19:31.920 I raise her from the dead. You see people don't 00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:34.200 have purpose, and these religious people and 00:19:34.200 --> 00:19:36.960 all their pious stuff? I shoot it straight with 00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:40.460 them and say, quit pretending. Quit posturing. 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:45.119 Quit being a hypocrite. His life. I mean, it 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:48.299 marks A .D., B .C. All of life is around the 00:19:48.299 --> 00:19:51.460 single solitary life that's changed the world. 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:54.839 And second, his death. Colossians chapter 2 makes 00:19:54.839 --> 00:19:58.339 it clear that when he died, he didn't just physically 00:19:58.339 --> 00:20:03.279 die because he was fully God and fully man. Being 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:06.559 man, he could die. Being God, it could be a perfect 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:11.740 sacrifice. And he... He covered sin. He broke 00:20:11.740 --> 00:20:16.119 the penalty of sin. He conquered death and destroyed 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:20.660 the works of the evil one. His life, his death, 00:20:20.740 --> 00:20:22.559 and finally he proved it all with his resurrection. 00:20:23.259 --> 00:20:25.799 Read the book of Acts, chapters one and two. 00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:30.079 This isn't some weird religious philosopher that 00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:32.619 had dreams and told people there's a new way 00:20:32.619 --> 00:20:35.460 to God. This was someone who was outrageous. 00:20:35.579 --> 00:20:38.839 He said, I'm the savior of the world. I'm truth 00:20:38.839 --> 00:20:42.259 incarnate. There's no other way but me. He's 00:20:42.259 --> 00:20:46.380 either right, wrong, or a lunatic. But you can't 00:20:46.380 --> 00:20:50.059 even admire Jesus as a teacher. What kind of 00:20:50.059 --> 00:20:54.880 teacher would lie to you? The resurrection proves 00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:59.579 that what he said was true. God visited the planet. 00:20:59.779 --> 00:21:02.079 You talk about an intervention, he visited the 00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:04.259 planet and suffered and lived the perfect life 00:21:04.259 --> 00:21:15.230 for you. For you personally, for me. 500 eyewitnesses 00:21:15.230 --> 00:21:18.369 for over 40 days that could touch his hands. 00:21:18.410 --> 00:21:23.769 They had meals with him. There's a reason we're 00:21:23.769 --> 00:21:26.450 sitting in this room. It's not because we're 00:21:26.450 --> 00:21:28.869 on the salad bar of the philosophical religious 00:21:28.869 --> 00:21:31.210 views of our day. We're sitting in this room 00:21:31.210 --> 00:21:34.269 because a real God visited a real planet and 00:21:34.269 --> 00:21:36.630 died on a real cross and came back to life and 00:21:36.630 --> 00:21:39.109 walked around for 40 days with eyewitnesses and 00:21:39.109 --> 00:21:40.769 their lives have been completely transformed. 00:21:41.190 --> 00:21:44.049 The tragedy is we've taken that and made it religion. 00:21:45.890 --> 00:21:49.869 Because the final point is it's our union with 00:21:49.869 --> 00:21:53.150 him. What God has always wanted. The reason he 00:21:53.150 --> 00:21:54.970 did the intervention. I mean, you don't do an 00:21:54.970 --> 00:21:56.950 intervention so that people end up in a treatment 00:21:56.950 --> 00:22:00.150 center and their message is, hey, I go to treatment 00:22:00.150 --> 00:22:02.730 centers. I go on Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays. 00:22:02.910 --> 00:22:05.369 I go through the 12 steps. It's a great treatment 00:22:05.369 --> 00:22:07.069 center. Have you ever been to a treatment center? 00:22:07.190 --> 00:22:08.829 I love treatment centers. Let's be treatment 00:22:08.829 --> 00:22:13.549 center people. What you want them to do is have 00:22:13.549 --> 00:22:16.690 an intervention and get whole and come back and 00:22:16.690 --> 00:22:20.900 love you and be connected to you. The tragedy 00:22:20.900 --> 00:22:22.940 of our day and the reason that I opted out of 00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:25.759 Christianity as a young person, all they wanted 00:22:25.759 --> 00:22:28.160 to do was talk about their religion and telling 00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:30.559 me that I wasn't moral enough. I knew I wasn't 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:36.299 moral enough, okay? Give me a break. God's not 00:22:36.299 --> 00:22:39.000 trying to improve your morality. God is not trying 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:41.460 to get you to be more religious. He wants you 00:22:41.460 --> 00:22:44.380 to be in union in relationship with him. And 00:22:44.380 --> 00:22:47.680 when that happens, life, I am crucified. So you 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:50.680 gotta die. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, 00:22:50.920 --> 00:22:54.299 Paul would say, I live. How? Christ lives inside 00:22:54.299 --> 00:22:57.000 of me. Well, how does that work? I put the verse 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:00.400 in it. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 14 and 15. The 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:04.000 apostle Paul, the same one who gave us the secret 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:09.700 counterintuitive means to life and hope and peace 00:23:09.700 --> 00:23:14.700 says this. The love of Christ controls us. Having 00:23:14.700 --> 00:23:19.599 concluded this, that one, for all, that one Jesus. 00:23:20.539 --> 00:23:25.720 Notice the result. Therefore, all died. Why? 00:23:25.940 --> 00:23:30.920 And he died for all so that those who live might 00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:34.700 live no longer for themselves. Do you feel the 00:23:34.700 --> 00:23:39.099 dying? It's not about you. Can you imagine living 00:23:39.099 --> 00:23:41.480 a life that it's not about you? It's not about 00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:43.099 your dreams and your goals and what you can get 00:23:43.099 --> 00:23:48.240 and who you can impress. One died, Jesus. Therefore, 00:23:48.380 --> 00:23:54.119 all died. And he died so that we can live no 00:23:54.119 --> 00:23:57.839 longer for ourselves, but for him who died and 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:01.779 rose from the dead. Therefore, if any man or 00:24:01.779 --> 00:24:04.420 any woman is in Christ, he's a new creation. 00:24:04.420 --> 00:24:06.519 The old things pass away. Behold, everything 00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:13.259 becomes new. He wants the old you to die. And 00:24:13.259 --> 00:24:16.339 he wants to allow his spirit to enter your life 00:24:16.339 --> 00:24:18.920 and take up residence in you and make a brand 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:23.519 new you. That little word in Christ or in him 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:27.880 happens 200 times in the New Testament. The message 00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:30.079 of the gospel, the message of Easter isn't, this 00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:32.500 is what I grew up hearing. If your good deeds 00:24:32.500 --> 00:24:34.240 are more than your bad deeds, I guess you get 00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:36.960 in. And since we're all in denial, no matter 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:39.420 what I did, I thought, well, it's getting kind 00:24:39.420 --> 00:24:40.799 of close, but I think I'm doing pretty good. 00:24:41.740 --> 00:24:45.890 Right? God says, let me give you, I am holy, 00:24:46.049 --> 00:24:50.490 I am pure, one single bad deed, one single thought 00:24:50.490 --> 00:24:53.009 because I'm absolute pure in my holiness. You 00:24:53.009 --> 00:24:55.849 can't have relationship with me. I don't want 00:24:55.849 --> 00:24:59.829 you trying to get better or to prove or to perform. 00:25:00.450 --> 00:25:03.710 I want you to be connected to me and I will do 00:25:03.710 --> 00:25:06.269 for you what you could never do for yourself. 00:25:06.450 --> 00:25:08.750 Let me give you a picture. This has just helped 00:25:08.750 --> 00:25:11.730 me so much. Imagine if you will, this is a bolt. 00:25:12.269 --> 00:25:16.670 Got that? Imagine this boat is you or me. And 00:25:16.670 --> 00:25:18.630 there's certain properties. There's a nature 00:25:18.630 --> 00:25:21.450 to a boat, correct? It's made out of metal. And 00:25:21.450 --> 00:25:24.410 let's imagine that this little fish tank, I think, 00:25:24.430 --> 00:25:27.250 is what we've got here. And this water is staying 00:25:27.250 --> 00:25:29.450 on top of the water is being a good person, a 00:25:29.450 --> 00:25:31.549 righteous person, a loving person, a person that 00:25:31.549 --> 00:25:33.089 cares about others, a person that's pleasing 00:25:33.089 --> 00:25:36.309 to God. Left to yourself and your power and your 00:25:36.309 --> 00:25:39.430 effort, when you try and do that, does anybody 00:25:39.430 --> 00:25:41.009 have any predictions about where this boat's 00:25:41.009 --> 00:25:44.269 going? Okay, let's check this out to make sure. 00:25:45.950 --> 00:25:49.950 Yep, it's down there. Well, hold it. Oh, no, 00:25:50.009 --> 00:25:52.289 no. Well, maybe we should paint it. Or maybe 00:25:52.289 --> 00:25:53.990 we could put a little cross on it. And maybe 00:25:53.990 --> 00:25:55.789 the boat could go to church now and then. Or 00:25:55.789 --> 00:25:57.329 it could really try and maybe give away a little 00:25:57.329 --> 00:26:00.390 money. You can do all kind of little things with 00:26:00.390 --> 00:26:02.009 the boat, but okay, let's pretend it's painted 00:26:02.009 --> 00:26:03.910 and it's really pretty and it's even religious. 00:26:05.690 --> 00:26:09.549 Oops, still got a problem. Because the nature 00:26:09.549 --> 00:26:14.089 of the bolt in and of itself is powerless. Here's 00:26:14.089 --> 00:26:17.190 the intervention. The intervention is the very 00:26:17.190 --> 00:26:20.130 life of Jesus, fully man, fully God, who died. 00:26:20.369 --> 00:26:23.450 And says when he died, when a person by faith 00:26:23.450 --> 00:26:26.410 trusts in him, you died with him, you're buried 00:26:26.410 --> 00:26:28.650 with him, so you can be resurrected with him. 00:26:29.029 --> 00:26:31.670 Now what's the nature of wood when I put it in 00:26:31.670 --> 00:26:34.970 the water? Predictions. It's the fundamental 00:26:34.970 --> 00:26:39.329 property of the wood. It will always float. Now, 00:26:39.390 --> 00:26:44.309 get this. This is the gospel. This is the good 00:26:44.309 --> 00:26:49.029 news. The good news is not that you can try hard, 00:26:49.069 --> 00:26:51.549 become religious, read the Bible, go on a missions 00:26:51.549 --> 00:26:53.849 trip, give some money, and try and earn your 00:26:53.849 --> 00:26:57.650 way to God. The gospel is none of that can ever 00:26:57.650 --> 00:27:01.049 work. But by faith, you can turn from your sin 00:27:01.049 --> 00:27:03.809 and you can be united with him. See this rubber 00:27:03.809 --> 00:27:07.940 band, this blue one here? It's faith. It's that 00:27:07.940 --> 00:27:11.920 moment in specific space -time history when you 00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:15.099 hear and understand that God in the person of 00:27:15.099 --> 00:27:18.440 Jesus Christ died for your sin, rose from the 00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:21.380 dead, and offers you new life free of charge 00:27:21.380 --> 00:27:24.039 that you could never do. And you turn from your 00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:27.180 sin and you say, I can't live this life, but 00:27:27.180 --> 00:27:30.220 I want to be connected to you. And you said whoever 00:27:30.220 --> 00:27:33.380 believes in you could be connected to you. I 00:27:33.380 --> 00:27:38.279 want to be in union with you. See, the scripture 00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:42.420 says very clearly, he that has the son has life. 00:27:43.160 --> 00:27:45.940 He that does not have the son of God does not 00:27:45.940 --> 00:27:49.559 have life. These things I've written to you, 00:27:49.619 --> 00:27:52.119 the apostle John would say, that you might know 00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:55.660 that you have eternal life. And so when you have 00:27:55.660 --> 00:27:59.880 relationship with him, all the properties now 00:27:59.880 --> 00:28:03.359 and what's true of Christ becomes true of you. 00:28:05.089 --> 00:28:07.450 When you turn from your sin, ask Christ to come 00:28:07.450 --> 00:28:10.309 into your life, you're atoned or forgiven. The 00:28:10.309 --> 00:28:13.690 Spirit of God enters your life. He begins to 00:28:13.690 --> 00:28:15.930 form the life of Christ in you. He seals you 00:28:15.930 --> 00:28:18.029 with the Spirit. He takes you from the kingdom 00:28:18.029 --> 00:28:21.089 of darkness to the kingdom of light. He breaks 00:28:21.089 --> 00:28:24.430 the power of sin. Death forever never can reign 00:28:24.430 --> 00:28:26.829 over you again. The moment you die, you will 00:28:26.829 --> 00:28:28.890 be ushered into the very presence of God forever 00:28:28.890 --> 00:28:31.710 and ever. But you are crucified with Christ. 00:28:32.009 --> 00:28:34.910 Nevertheless, look, you're living. But it's not 00:28:34.910 --> 00:28:39.609 you, it's Christ in you. That's the message and 00:28:39.609 --> 00:28:43.910 the offer. And so the question I have for you 00:28:43.910 --> 00:28:49.509 is do you have the son? Do you have the son of 00:28:49.509 --> 00:28:53.690 God living in you? If you do, you have eternal 00:28:53.690 --> 00:28:57.950 life. If you do not, you do not have life. Notice, 00:28:57.990 --> 00:29:00.230 I didn't say, do you go to church? I didn't say, 00:29:00.289 --> 00:29:02.210 are you moral? I didn't say, did you read the 00:29:02.210 --> 00:29:04.390 Bible? I didn't say, if you give to United Way. 00:29:04.569 --> 00:29:08.089 All those things may be very, very good. But 00:29:08.089 --> 00:29:09.829 none of them have the power to give you eternal 00:29:09.829 --> 00:29:15.009 life. And just like when you make a major union 00:29:15.009 --> 00:29:17.430 with another person, it's not just for a certain 00:29:17.430 --> 00:29:19.750 day or a point in time. It's for a new life. 00:29:19.869 --> 00:29:22.660 There's a new path. It's not about coming to 00:29:22.660 --> 00:29:25.400 some service and realizing, oh, I need to be 00:29:25.400 --> 00:29:28.000 united with Christ. Oh, Father, please forgive 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:29.700 me, and then go off and live the same way. No, 00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:35.180 no, no. I died to my old way of life, and I said 00:29:35.180 --> 00:29:37.660 to a cute little blonde -haired girl, I would 00:29:37.660 --> 00:29:40.640 like to be united with you all the rest of my 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:43.960 days and be on a new path with you. I did not 00:29:43.960 --> 00:29:46.880 say, honey, I want you to know for this day that 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:49.140 I'm giving up my old girlfriends and I want to 00:29:49.140 --> 00:29:51.539 be married to you and be united to you and thank 00:29:51.539 --> 00:29:53.019 you. I'm glad we're married and I think I'm going 00:29:53.019 --> 00:29:56.359 to go kind of do. She would have not been happy 00:29:56.359 --> 00:30:00.259 with that. Nor me, her doing that. What I committed 00:30:00.259 --> 00:30:03.940 to was a new life that gave me new power to be 00:30:03.940 --> 00:30:06.720 on a new path. And that's our final question. 00:30:06.859 --> 00:30:10.319 What's the path? What's the counterintuitive 00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:14.839 path? that brings life and hope and peace. And 00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:16.859 it's summarized in Romans chapter 12, the first 00:30:16.859 --> 00:30:20.059 two verses. The same author, he says, I urge 00:30:20.059 --> 00:30:23.160 you therefore, my brethren or brothers and sisters 00:30:23.160 --> 00:30:25.619 is the idea. In light of God's mercy, in other 00:30:25.619 --> 00:30:28.000 words, in light of what he's done for you, here's 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:30.700 the path that you're on so that you receive life 00:30:30.700 --> 00:30:32.559 and you're gonna get right back to St. Francis. 00:30:33.980 --> 00:30:37.279 Offer your body or present your body as a living 00:30:37.279 --> 00:30:41.279 sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, Then get 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:43.680 the last line. This is your spiritual service 00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:45.700 of worship. Translation, this is what God really 00:30:45.700 --> 00:30:48.759 wants. Once you turn from your sin and receive 00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:51.019 the gift on a certain day at a certain time, 00:30:51.160 --> 00:30:55.000 are you ready for this? You gotta die. The reason 00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:56.960 there's so many Christians who say I love God 00:30:56.960 --> 00:30:58.740 and they pray to prayer and done this and done 00:30:58.740 --> 00:31:01.059 that and they live their own life and their lives 00:31:01.059 --> 00:31:04.460 don't resemble Christ, they never died. You gotta 00:31:04.460 --> 00:31:07.809 die. You're going to say, God, not my will, but 00:31:07.809 --> 00:31:10.289 yours. Jesus died before he could be resurrected. 00:31:10.509 --> 00:31:12.690 In nature, if it doesn't die, it doesn't produce 00:31:12.690 --> 00:31:14.650 fruit. Unless a grain of wheat fall into the 00:31:14.650 --> 00:31:17.009 earth and die, it remains by itself alone. If 00:31:17.009 --> 00:31:22.450 it dies, it brings forth much fruit. Are you 00:31:22.450 --> 00:31:26.150 ready to die? You know what? God may be very 00:31:26.150 --> 00:31:28.029 gracious, but are you ready to die to some things 00:31:28.029 --> 00:31:32.329 that you think will make your life work? See, 00:31:32.390 --> 00:31:35.119 any person, or anything that your life revolves 00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:39.599 around, you know what that's called? That you 00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:43.099 orbit around? That holds you up? That's what 00:31:43.099 --> 00:31:46.500 you worship. Some people, they worship their 00:31:46.500 --> 00:31:49.740 job. Some people worship their mate. Some people 00:31:49.740 --> 00:31:52.500 worship the fantasy of the success, the win -win 00:31:52.500 --> 00:31:54.599 syndrome, when I get the big job, when I get 00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:55.980 the house on the hill, when we get the kitchen 00:31:55.980 --> 00:31:57.519 remodeled, when we finally have children, when 00:31:57.519 --> 00:31:59.940 I finally get married. When I finally make a 00:31:59.940 --> 00:32:01.779 lot of money, you know, if I keep working out, 00:32:01.799 --> 00:32:05.900 if I can look like this, then. And we spend our 00:32:05.900 --> 00:32:08.099 whole days answering emails and responding to 00:32:08.099 --> 00:32:09.900 voicemails. Oh, it's busy, busy, busy, busy. 00:32:09.940 --> 00:32:11.980 Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. For what? So 00:32:11.980 --> 00:32:18.160 I can own, control, pose, pretend, and try and 00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:21.160 in my own energy be good enough to get people 00:32:21.160 --> 00:32:26.420 to love me. And all the while. The one who came 00:32:26.420 --> 00:32:29.259 to do the intervention is standing back, Jesus 00:32:29.259 --> 00:32:33.019 saying, I've watched this movie a lot of times. 00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:37.200 There's not a happy ending coming. There's not 00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:40.160 a happy ending in this life and there's a tragic 00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:47.640 ending in the next. Will you allow me to forgive 00:32:47.640 --> 00:32:51.240 you and do for you what you can never do for 00:32:51.240 --> 00:32:55.509 yourself? And will you allow me to come into 00:32:55.509 --> 00:33:00.230 your life? And after I do, would you slide over 00:33:00.230 --> 00:33:04.890 and let me drive? And I will tell you this, if 00:33:04.890 --> 00:33:08.309 I loved you enough to die for you, where I'm 00:33:08.309 --> 00:33:11.069 going to drive this car is better than you could 00:33:11.069 --> 00:33:13.990 ever dream. The roads will not always be smooth 00:33:13.990 --> 00:33:16.730 and they will not take the turns that you always 00:33:16.730 --> 00:33:19.470 like. But if you'll listen to what I have to 00:33:19.470 --> 00:33:23.609 say, you'll do some counterintuitive things like, 00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:28.240 give and you'll receive. You'll love in your 00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:30.319 marriage and forgive even when it doesn't come 00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:33.160 back and this bizarre thing happens. You get 00:33:33.160 --> 00:33:35.920 love back. You'll live the kind of life that 00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:39.519 your kids will say, wow, that's the kind of person, 00:33:39.619 --> 00:33:41.380 that's the kind of dad, that's the kind of mom 00:33:41.380 --> 00:33:43.880 I want to be. Guess what? You can't do this. 00:33:46.299 --> 00:33:52.200 Christ in you is the hope of glory. Would you 00:33:52.200 --> 00:33:55.859 like to have eternal life beginning today? If 00:33:55.859 --> 00:33:58.880 so, I'd like to lead you in a prayer. And for 00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:01.900 some, let me tell you, I know, you know, today 00:34:01.900 --> 00:34:04.039 is the day, the Bible says, of salvation. You 00:34:04.039 --> 00:34:06.839 may not be ready. You know what? But I don't 00:34:06.839 --> 00:34:11.539 know when your next window's coming. An intervention 00:34:11.539 --> 00:34:16.460 occurred. Option A, I will remain in denial. 00:34:16.539 --> 00:34:18.800 I'm doing okay. Everything's okay. I don't have 00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:23.090 a problem. Option B, I'm sick and tired of living 00:34:23.090 --> 00:34:26.510 the way I am. And I need life and I need hope 00:34:26.510 --> 00:34:28.809 and I need peace that I can't get for myself. 00:34:29.449 --> 00:34:31.949 And I'm going to die to my way. And I'm going 00:34:31.949 --> 00:34:34.469 to ask God to come into my life so I can follow 00:34:34.469 --> 00:34:40.349 him. Those are your options. This is Living on 00:34:40.349 --> 00:34:43.449 the Edge with Chip Ingram. Friend, for over 30 00:34:43.449 --> 00:34:45.630 years, Living on the Edge has been committed 00:34:45.630 --> 00:34:48.130 to one mission. Helping believers understand 00:34:48.130 --> 00:34:51.769 what it truly means to follow Jesus. Not religious 00:34:51.769 --> 00:34:54.670 activity, not trying harder, but relational, 00:34:54.929 --> 00:34:58.429 practical, measurable Christianity that transforms 00:34:58.429 --> 00:35:02.630 every area of life. Messages like today's exist 00:35:02.630 --> 00:35:04.909 because partners believe this mission matters. 00:35:05.170 --> 00:35:08.030 When you give to Living on the Edge, you're helping 00:35:08.030 --> 00:35:11.090 Christians discover God's power, peace, purpose, 00:35:11.369 --> 00:35:14.440 presence, and perspective. You're investing in 00:35:14.440 --> 00:35:16.920 clear biblical teaching that moves people from 00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:20.699 confusion to clarity, from exhaustion to experiencing 00:35:20.699 --> 00:35:23.800 God's best. Would you join this mission today? 00:35:24.320 --> 00:35:28.380 Give online at livingontheedge .org or call us 00:35:28.380 --> 00:35:33.639 at 888 -333 -6003. You can also mail your gift 00:35:33.639 --> 00:35:37.719 to Living on the Edge, P .O. Box 3007, Atlanta, 00:35:37.980 --> 00:35:42.639 Georgia 30024. Want more content throughout the 00:35:42.639 --> 00:35:45.900 week? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 00:35:46.500 --> 00:35:49.619 Just search for Living on the Edge on Facebook 00:35:49.619 --> 00:35:52.599 and Instagram. And then for all of our video 00:35:52.599 --> 00:35:55.500 content, subscribe to Chip Ingram's YouTube channel 00:35:55.500 --> 00:35:58.360 when you're there. Well, that wraps up today's 00:35:58.360 --> 00:36:01.019 episode. Don't miss the next Bible teaching message 00:36:01.019 --> 00:36:03.820 coming up here on the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast. 00:36:07.820 --> 00:36:10.280 Today's program is produced and sponsored by 00:36:10.280 --> 00:36:11.400 Living on the Edge.