Why Easter?

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Christ has died.

And the reason Jesus dies is for sinners like me.

People who knew better and did it anyway.

People who put it in the ditch royally at one point in my life and thought there was no hope.

That's why Jesus dies.

He didn't take off the wrong people.

He died for sinners like me so I could become everything the Bible says.

And so if there's anyone in this room that right now that just thinks, man, this building should have fallen down when I walked in here.

Lord, just remind them, I died for your sin.

I'm not mad at you.

Not only did you die, but you're risen.

The resurrection is the receipt that proves to the world that God has accepted the payment of Jesus for our sins.

So we don't have to live in fear being found out.

We've been found out.

We've been forgiven.

And then finally, that Christ will come again.

That's the reality that we we live in light of that.

That's a very hopeful reality.

We hope this world's not all there is, God.

We hope that heaven's real and we understand that hell is real.

Nobody has to go there because Christ died for them.

And so, Lord, we didn't come here today to be made to feel guilty.

We came here today to get set free.

And so, Holy Spirit, use the Bible, use the truth of God's word to set people free.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I want you to take it open up to 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it.

What I say will come up on the screen up here, okay?

Let me just lay all my cards on the table from the get-go, okay?

And tell you what I'm gonna do.

If you're visiting today, I'm gonna talk about this two-word question: why Easter?

Why Easter?

Because I don't know if you realize that there's people, Easter is the one Sunday out of the year where people that never go to church will show up at church.

And I think that's awesome.

I I would just give you this piece of advice.

Do not go to the mall on the Saturday before Easter.

Because you will hate people because they've lost their ever-loving mind.

Because people go get a dress and they do this, and that's wonderful.

But why Easter?

And I think it's because deep inside all of us, we either believe that there's something more, or look at me, we hope there's something more.

We're like, please, God, don't tell me this is it.

I'm gonna work 28 years at the plant, get a gold watch, retire, and just watch Fox News and get more angry every day.

But enough about your grandfather.

Anyway, so what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna read three verses out of the Bible, 71 words, if I counted them correctly.

I'm gonna make three statements in response to the question, why Easter?

And then here's what we do.

Okay, at the end of it, I'll pray and Clyde will come back.

The Billy Joel of worship will play.

He may sing something over you, uh, and some questions will come up on the screen.

Here's what I will not do: I will not beat you up today.

I will not try to make you feel guilty.

I will not emotionally manipulate you.

We're not gonna turn the lights down low and sing 14 verses of something, and I'm not gonna tell scary stories like they were riding down the road, smoking nerajawana, listening to deaf leopard.

Because that's what I grew up with.

When I went to church, it was some fat guy just screaming at you, making you feel bad.

That's not what Jesus was like, and it's not what Christianity is about, okay?

So I think you're smart people.

I'm gonna tell you the truth.

And look at me.

If I say something that makes you mad, I'll be right down here after the service.

You can just come up and say, hey, dude, I want to punch you in the throat.

And we might have to go out in the parking lot and get it on.

You can tell who's visiting right now because you're like, ooh, dude.

I don't think Joel Osteen would say that.

Joel Osteen did not grow up in a trailer like I did.

But anyway, stop laughing.

You're in church, look miserable.

All right, why Easter?

I'm gonna read right out of the Bible, and here's why.

Because I don't want you to think I made it up, and your faith does not need to depend on a man.

First Peter chapter 1, verse 3.

1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

That's it.

He says you're kept through faith.

The salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Why Easter?

Three responses to that question.

Number one, because Easter reminds us of God's mercy.

Easter reminds us of God's mercy.

You should ask yourself the question: what motivates God's actions towards me?

What motivates God's actions towards you?

I mean, if you answer this the wrong way, then you're gonna get stuck in karma the rest of your life.

Because this is what most people think about.

They think God looks at their behavior and then based on what you do or don't do, he responds accordingly.

This is what's commonly known as karma.

It's living life based on what you think you deserve because of your behavior.

Uh, and though this sounds good, it's really an unstable and emotionally dysregulating way to live your life.

Uh, allow me to demonstrate.

Uh, not only do I preach on Sundays, but we care about the people that come to our church.

And so we do a lot of what's called pastoral care.

Some people call it counseling.

Uh, we okay, that's great.

A lady came to see me a while back.

She walked in and she made an appointment and she said, Hey, I don't know you.

I don't go to church with anywhere.

Do you see people that don't go to your church?

I said, Sure.

As my schedule allows, so she made an appointment on Tuesday.

She comes walking in.

I walked out, I met her, I said, Come on, my office down here.

We sat down, closed the door.

I said, Hey, my name is Neil.

Tell me your name and tell me why you're here.

And she said, I love people, by the way.

And I love people that are honest even more so.

She said, Oh, I'm here because I drink too much, I'm depressed, and I don't want to live anymore.

And I said, Well, besides that, how's your Tuesday going?

She goes, That's not funny, sir.

I said, I'm not trying to be funny.

I just let me, you said you drink too much, you're depressed, and that you don't want to live anymore.

And I said, Those three realities exist.

What is their correlation to each other?

And she was folded her arms and she says, I have no idea what you just said.

And I said, That's okay.

I said, I have to use big words so you know I have degrees, okay?

And she's like, You are a strange little man.

And I said, Yes, if you stare right at me, you'll see that I am the love child of Pit Bull and Uncle Fester.

And then she's like, I think I'm gonna pay a therapist instead of you.

Uh I said, here's the thing: those things relate to, they correlate to each other, they bump up against each other.

You drink too much and you're depressed.

You know what?

A lot of people drink too much are depressed, and the reason is alcohol is not a stimulant, alcohol is a depressant.

And she's like, Shut up.

I'm like, No, you shut up.

I said, so you can be depressed because you drink.

That's the correlation of those two.

And you get so depressed, you just lose hope.

And you're like, it doesn't matter.

I'm gonna off myself and get out of here.

And we just kept talking.

And I said, tell me more about yourself.

And she said, Well, my entire life I've lived with the deep fear that I was gonna go to hell because all the bad stuff I've done in life.

And I was like, shut up.

Say that again.

And she said, Oh, my entire life I have lived with the fear.

She goes, I even have this scale that I write about in my journal.

She said, I used to fear that I was gonna go to hell, and then I just came to the realization I was about 25.

I just said, I'm going to hell, I don't care.

And now, I mean, she goes, I I I feared it, I I knew it, and now I just don't care.

And I said, Hey, when did this start for you?

And she said, Crystal clear.

She goes, I was 10 years old.

I went to religious school, we were at PE in the gym, and I kicked a volleyball and it went up and broke a light in the ceiling.

And one of the nuns grabbed me and said, Hey, young lady, that'll get you hell.

And she goes, terror shot through my body.

And I was like, Whoa, whoa, I am so sorry.

I said, Can I ask you a weird question?

She goes, Yeah.

I said, What do you what do you know or understand about God's mercy?

And she said, What?

I said, What do you know or understand about God's mercy?

You see, because the one of the things that makes Easter a big deal that I was realizing is it reminds us God's mercy.

She said, I don't, I don't, I don't, uh, you first.

I said, okay, I'll go first.

And I said, I'm gonna read from the Bible.

And she said, knock yourself out.

And I turned to the Old Testament, the book of Lamentations.

The book of Lamentations is just what it sounds like.

It's from the word lament.

Lament means you're so sad, you want to drink whiskey and go to bed.

You ever been that sad?

Say amen.

See, you're surrounded by sinners today.

Y'all thought y'all were coming to church of people who have it all figured out.

No, the people sitting around you wearing nice clothes are just as jacked up as you are.

They dressed up today because their mom said, You're coming to church on Easter, and we're taking a family picture.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, but enough about my friend sitting over here.

Anyway, Easter reminds us of God's mercy.

I turned to Lamentations chapter three.

I said, This is a book about people that are so just so absolutely stinking sad.

But he says this.

He says, uh, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.

They're new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, says my soul.

Therefore, I will hope in him.

And she said, Well, that sounds good for people that got it all figured out, but for me, my life just stinks and I don't want to be here anymore.

I said, I get that, but the do you understand the word context?

And she's like, What does that mean?

It means that, like, that's at the end of a chapter of chapter three of Lamentation.

At the beginning of the chapter, the guy says, Hey, basically, God, I don't want to be here.

I feel like you're crushing me.

My skin's being ripped off my body.

He says at one point, it's like someone's taking an arrow and jamming it in my kidneys, and I'm chewing gravel.

And she said, That's not in the Bible.

And I said, How much money do you got in your purse right now?

Because she had a purse in her lap, one of them big leather pouches.

And I said, How much money you got money in that purse?

And she goes, Yeah, but my friend said this was free.

Oh, the counseling's free.

But I'm gonna make you put your money where your mouth is.

Get your purse out, get your wallet, and count your money.

Well, she unzips it and she starts looking and she keeps kind of pushing something out of the way and looking up at me like, uh, and I said, What is in your purse you don't want me to see?

And she pulls out a flask.

And I said, What's in your flask?

If you know what a flask is, say amen.

If you've got one in your boot right now, say amen.

Like, my friend invited me, I know how this is gonna go.

So she pulls, here's my favorite part the flask has the sterling silver cross on it.

I said, I love that.

I said, Hey, I said, What's in the flask?

She said, vodka.

I said, put it right here on my desk because if you don't start believing what I'm saying, I'm gonna drink that.

And she goes, Oh, you're not gonna, no, I'm not gonna do it, put it right there.

And so she counts and she goes, I've got$53.

I said, I bet you$53.

What I just told you is in the Bible.

Well, I can't lose my$53, and why would you doubt something so certain as the Bible?

You kind of talk fast.

Yes, yes, I do.

Yes, yes, it's like kissing a machine gun.

I said, but here's the thing, because if this is really true, lament this.

There's people in the Bible that were so sad, they were just like, ah, oh God, I just feel like I'm chewing rocks down here.

Give me a break, but he gets to the end.

And this person says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.

They're new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness, God.

If that guy can have these same feelings as you and yet come to this conclusion, what does he know that you don't know?

And she goes, I don't know, you tell me.

And on a Tuesday morning at about 10:30, I got to explain the beauty of the gospel to this woman who walked in saying, I drink too much, I'm depressed, and I don't want to be here anymore.

I said, The Bible talks about a God that wants you to be here because he has a plan for your life.

She goes, This is God's plan for my life.

I said, No, get ready to get mad at me.

This is your plan for your life.

God's plan for your life is better.

And she's like, Keep talking, keep talking.

She started breathing heavy.

I said, You need to take the lid off and get a little nip.

She said, Maybe.

Uh, what happens if I do?

A trap door opens underneath you and you fall through.

And I take all your money and go home.

And she's like, Don't kid.

I said, I'm not kidding.

I said, Of course I'm kidding.

About an hour and 20 minutes later, we walked out, and I stuck my hand out and I said, Hey, I don't know if you have a pastor, but I'd love to be your pastor.

And if you go to church anywhere, she goes, Nah, I didn't go to church because every time I go to church, they tell me I'm bad and I'm going to hell.

And I said, Well, if you come here, I'm going to tell you that God's great and He's done everything necessary for you to go to heaven.

And so don't miss the fact that I'm not just saying that about her, I'm saying that to you today.

So if you're sitting in this room and you're kind of thinking, dude, I relate to that woman more than I would ever relate to you, that reality applies to you because oftentimes we think that God does what God does because God's mad at the world.

We had an ice storm because God's mad at the world, and we had COVID, and God's going to punish the world.

But here, the Bible says the exact opposite.

Hear it again.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why bless God?

Because he says, because according to his great mercy.

According to his great mercy.

Let me just unpack that for you.

Three little words.

He says, first, according to.

Here's what I want you to understand.

I want you to, the Bible shows us that not only that God is merciful, but it tells us three things about his mercy.

Number one, according to, and this is this teaches us that God is motivated by his mercy for us.

In other words, look at me.

He doesn't look at your behavior and kind of go, all right, Jack, you've jerked with karma.

And you know what they say about karma?

No, God sees your behavior.

He sees my behavior, but he sees your behavior through the lens of mercy.

Do you hear the difference?

Because just you and your behavior and you're hiding from God, that's math.

I did this, I deserve this.

To do this and get mercy, that's music.

That's like being at Green Hall and Pat Green being in concert.

You're just like, oh, I'm glad I'm alive and live in Texas.

This is mercy.

This is, oh my gosh, this is an enjoyable experience.

Secondly, the Bible says it's great.

According to his great mercy, not just his mercy.

The Bible rarely talks about God's mercy without an adjective jammed in front of it.

Because it's so consequential.

Matter of fact, in another book in the Bible, Ephesians chapter 2, it says that God is rich in mercy.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

So God's mercy is great.

And not only is it great mercy, but God has a lot of it.

Here's the third thing the Bible tells us about mercy.

It defines it.

It defines it.

The Bible was originally written in Greek, and so the Greek word for mercy means this kindness or goodwill towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them.

See, here's the great thing about God.

He's not only kind or has a good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, people like me, but he's joined that with a desire to help them.

He doesn't just say, I'm great and your life stinks.

He's like, I'm great and I want to do something about your life.

This is what the Bible teaches mercy is.

And this is why Easter reminds us of God's mercy.

Ask yourself this question.

If God were to ask you today, how can I help you?

Because he's not just great and kind, he wants to use his kindness to change your life.

That's why the Bible says, You're like, you're just saying that.

No, I'm not.

The Bible says it, check me on this.

Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Romans is the book of the Bible.

Right in some people live in a city called Rome.

Romans chapter 2, verse 5, it says this of God, it is your kindness that leads us to repentance.

Romans 2:5

It's not that God's harsh and you I don't want to go to hell, so I better listen, fearing hell is a reality, but it's not a lasting motivation.

About three days, you'll be past that.

But the kindness of God is this eternal reality that's never going to go away.

See, here's the great thing about Easter.

First of all, it reminds us of God's mercy.

Secondly, Easter reminds us that anybody can change.

Anybody can change.

This verse three, according to his great mercy.

Hear these words.

He has caused us to be born again.

He has caused us to be born again.

Now listen very carefully because I don't want you to misquote me because I don't have the energy to fight all of you after church today.

He has caused us to be born again.

What the Bible is saying is that you can't be born again by yourself.

Because a lot of people, what they try to do is get to God apart from Jesus.

That's a religion.

You cannot get to God apart from Jesus.

And I'll show you that in the Bible in just a minute.

So when I say Easter reminds us that anybody can change, he has caused us to be born again.

Now, by the way, this language is unique to Jesus in the Bible and Christianity because all the other world religions tell you what you have to do in order to make it to heaven or get forgiven or whatever.

But Christianity tells you what God has done to you.

He has caused us to be born again.

This was so different that Jesus is talking to a very religious man in the Gospel of John, chapter three.

The guy's name is Nicodemus, and he comes to Jesus at night.

Years later, they started a TV program called Nick at Night.

It was written about this.

I was just seeing if you were paying attention.

But Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, he's a member of the ruling council.

What does that mean?

But he's very religious, okay?

Again, you can be religious and not have a relationship with God, okay?

I tell my mom, Mom, I'm not religious.

I have a relationship with God.

And my mom grew up in Minnesota, and my mom's like, oh, oh, oh, don't say you're not religious, son.

I went, God knows I'm not religious because I have a relationship with Him.

I'm real, but I'm not religious.

Oh, what does that mean?

You're too old, Mom, you wouldn't get it.

My mom laughed, now you probably think I'm making fun of my mom.

Ask my wife.

My mom smokes like wet wood, and that's how she laughs.

Yeah.

And my mom's going to heaven because she's a believer.

Some of y'all are like, and she smokes?

She quit because it almost killed her.

But that's a whole nother sermon.

Back to the Bible.

Easter reminds us that anybody can change.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

Nicodemus, member of the Jewish ruling council.

That means he, as a Pharisee, he memorized the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

Have you read the book of Leviticus lately?

Whoa! That's a brutal slog right there.

This cat did not read it, he memorized it.

Yet he comes to Jesus at nighttime because he doesn't want to be found out.

It's kind of like a late night drunk dial.

He you up.

And he comes over to talk to him.

Uh, did I lose you right there?

Some of you are like, late night drunk now.

If you know what that is, say amen.

Wicked sinners.

Is that great?

Theologian Maverick would say this is our target-rich environment here today.

Yeah.

He comes to Jesus at night and he starts talking, and Jesus says, Hey, dude, don't get it twisted, sister.

You've got to be born again.

And Nicodemus was thinking horizontally, and Jesus was talking vertically.

And Nicodemus is like, dude, you want me to crawl into my mother's womb again?

Jesus, like, no, dude, that's creepy, okay?

No, don't be so jacked up.

Now, what Jesus was saying was, hey, it that you knowing me is so life-altering.

It's like starting all over again.

Uh, you ever see somebody like I'm 56, okay?

You ever see somebody that's like 17 and think, I wish I could go back to when I was 17 and do some things differently?

If you have, say amen.

That's a desire to be born again.

I did like to have a do-over.

I did a wedding last night in Belleville, Clyde and I did, and during uh the wedding or after the wedding reception, I go to the bathroom and it's just a two-staller, and so there's a little line there, and the guy's in front of me like, Oh, hey, uh, hey, uh, Reverend uh Pastor Bishop.

I said, Neil.

It's Neil.

Yeah, that was that was like awesome, man.

That was like freaking awesome.

And I said, he goes, Oh, I'm sorry.

I said, that's not a cuss word.

Relax, dude.

Okay.

He goes, Well, I've had a few drinks, okay?

And I said, This will be good.

Keep talking.

And he said, I mean, I I mean, I I mean, I was like, I wouldn't expect him.

You start talking, and I was kind of like, oh man, that's kind of me.

You know, I've been married twice, I'm divorced, and I got bad habits, you know.

I do some stuff, you know, maybe smoke a little weed on the weekend.

And I'm like, dude, I'm just trying to go to the bathroom.

Why you gotta tell me all this?

That's why when I get on an airplane, I don't say I don't tell people, I'm a pastor, because then they're gonna be like, ah! They start unrolling their sleeves because they got full sleeve tattoos, and I'm like, whoa, that's beautiful artwork.

What is it?

You got anything on your back?

I know, I know I'm good, man.

So the guy is talking, and he just said, You know, I just uh I just wish I could do things over again.

And I said, You can't.

About that time the door opened in the stall, he's like, Okay, man, I gotta go.

I said, That's great.

I didn't chase, I didn't wait outside the stall with some religious literature.

Hey, brother, I want to show you some things in the Bible because I'm concerned about you.

You're on the broad path that leads to destruction.

No, hey, look at me.

God fishes with a net, not a spear.

And so I just thought, hey, it's enough.

The guy's told me, He's confessed all his big sins to me.

I was kind of like, reminds me of my wife.

But anyway, Easter reminds us that anybody can change.

If you're thinking, ah, I don't I don't know what you mean about this whole being born again.

Let me just say it like this.

It says, He has caused us to be born again.

Being born again is not something we can do so, and God doesn't just leave us hanging in that.

So, what God does is God causes us to be born again.

It's not from the outside in.

That's behavior modification.

Being born again is from the inside out.

What is that like?

Don't turn there, but if you're one of the 10 people taking notes, write this down.

2 Peter chapter 1, verse 19.

2 Peter 1:19

It's the next book of the Bible.

There's 1 Peter, and then this next book is 2 Peter.

And in that book of the Bible, He writes in chapter, uh, excuse me, chapter one, uh yeah, chapter one, verse 19.

He says this to these people.

He he tells about this great experience.

He basically says, Hey, I was with Jesus uh in person, eyewitnesses to his majesty, and some freaky God stuff happened, and people peed their pants.

It was awesome.

And then he says this, but we have the word of the prophets, the Bible.

We have the word of the prophets made more certain.

And then he says this, and you would do well to pay attention to it as a light shining in a dark place until the morning star uh dawns in your heart, rises in your heart.

And so, what does it mean to be born again?

Here's what would help you be born again.

Find a church that has the courage to teach you the Bible in a language you understand, the word of the prophets, and pay attention to it.

Don't listen for what you disagree, what you disagree with.

Listen for what is the truth and pay attention to it.

Why?

Because the Bible says that the morning star, that's Jesus.

He'll just kind of dawn in your heart.

And it starts on the inside and moves out.

It doesn't start on the outside and move in.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

And so that's why we don't do pressure and manipulation and guilt and and out.

No, no, you're adults.

We're gonna tell you the truth and say, hey, let's think about this.

Now, by the way, when I say Easter reminds us that anybody can change, a very simple and yet tangible reminder of this reality is the book of the Bible that we're reading.

It is first Peter, written by a guy named Peter, who was not the most stellar of Jesus' followers, okay?

Let me just put it that way.

I mean, Peter was kind of like house caught right on bonanza, probably had no front teeth, but he was a likes to fight guy.

You get two shiners in Peter in a bar and he's ready to fight somebody.

Hey man, watch what you're doing.

You want to take it outside?

Easy, bro.

Like they came to arrest Jesus in the garden, uh guessing where he's praying.

And Peter like whipped out a sword and cut a guy's ear off.

That's in the Bible.

Jesus picks it up and brushes the grass.

Three-second roll, puts it back on.

He's like, hey, dude, put your sword back in the sheath.

I don't need this.

But here's the thing Peter, trust, look at me.

Peter trusted in his might more than he trusted in God.

And Jesus says, I don't need you to defend me.

I mean, I'm God concarni, bro.

I'm God with skin and flesh.

You don't think I could open a can on these people?

I don't need you to get out your 40 cow and shoot holes in the ceiling.

Put it back under the seat of your truck where everyone keeps it.

Not only that, but Peter was like kind of boisterous, kind of like always distinguish himself.

Like, no, one occasion he stands up to Jesus and the other 11 disciples.

He says, You know, Jesus, all these people, they'll probably freak out and leave you, but not me, man.

I'm your guy.

I'll die with you.

And Jesus is eating a chicken wing.

He's like, Really?

Really?

I tell you what, but his hat's gonna shake down, okay?

You are gonna deny me three times before the rooster crows.

What do you mean the rooster crow?

When does the rooster crow?

In the morning.

So basically, Jesus says to Peter, hey man, I appreciate all the promises, but it's gonna just be not very long, and you're gonna just deny.

Matter of fact, and that's exactly what he did.

And one time a little servant girl came to him and said, Hey, you look like that Galilean, and he swore that I'm not.

And the Bible says when the rooster crowed, and people, Peter heard it, and he was like, uh, because Peter, his his track record was he overpromised and underdelivered.

Matter of fact, after Jesus was crucified, because after this, I mean the rooster crows, and the Bible says he wept bitterly.

He ran out, like, oh my god, what am I doing?

But the next day he said, Well, I'm going fishing.

He said, What's the big deal about that?

What did Peter do before Jesus called him to be a disciple?

He was a fisherman.

So basically, what he says was, This was 42 months of my life.

I'll never get back.

I've got to get a real job and pay my mortgage.

And he acts like it never happened because he thinks Jesus is just dead and in the tomb.

Look at me.

Why do I say all that?

Because that Peter, God used to record two books of the New Testament, first and second Peter.

Why?

Because Easter reminds us that anybody can change.

Matter of fact, not only do we know that, does the Bible teach that?

Not only do I believe that, but God believes that anybody can change.

You say, why?

Because when the women went to the tomb to check on Jesus, they met an angel.

The Bible says it like this in Mark 16.

The angel speaks to them and says, Do not be alarmed.

You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.

He is risen, he is not here.

See the place where they laid him, but go tell his disciples and Peter.

See what God does there?

Now, I say this all the time because I want you to never forget it.

Sometimes the Bible will get up in your business.

And it just gets down to the get down.

But sometimes the Bible just kind of goes, wink, wink.

This is one of those wink, wink, mom.

Go tell his disciples and Peter, who screwed it up royally.

So if you slank into church today, or if you're here because your mom, you're like, I'm 23, I'm 31, and my mom said, Hey, for Easter, I want you to come to my church, and you were just like, ah, I just want you to put your name in there.

Go tell my disciples and Thomas and Becca and Julie and Stephen.

If you're the person that's kind of like, hey, you know what?

I gotta hold all this at arm's length because you know God's message to you today is it's your name.

Go tell my disciples and blank and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee, and there you will see him just as he told you.

By the way, don't miss this.

This is free.

Uh, not only did Jesus know what Peter had done, but the angel knew, all heaven knew.

Yeah.

It's like the more people that know, the less chance you have of ever really changing.

That's why some of you, if you said to your family, I'm gonna get I want to find me in church, start going to church, they'd be like, What are you going to church for?

But God's not that way.

God says to people who've blown it, hey, go tell my disciples and Peter.

Thirdly and finally, the Bible, why why Easter?

Because Easter reminds us that real hope never dies.

Real hope never dies.

Look at verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy.

He's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And I say that reminds us that Easter reminds us that real hope never dies.

Uh, I referenced this a couple, three, four weeks ago in a sermon, but a guy named Andrew Del Bonco wrote a book back in like 1986, something called The Real American Dream.

And in the book, basically, it's a little book, it's on my desk, but you can't have it.

Um, he says in the book, he says basically he traces the origin or the source of hope for people in America, for the American people.

He says, in the 1800s, our hope was in God.

That's why you saw these first and second great awakenings, you had all these great revivals, our hope was in God.

He said, In the 1900s, our hope was in our nation.

We're oh freaking America, baby.

It's America, okay?

And by the way, that's why the media you've heard a lot of talk related about Christian nationalism, because we're misplacing our hope back in the United States of America, which by the way, I love.

Don't send me emails, okay?

I'm the guy that says if you don't love America, leave.

Don't stay here and complain, leave.

Flights are leaving daily for Iraq.

Get yourself over there.

So don't send me emails and go, Pastor, you disrespect America.

No, I'm not that guy.

I am saying that America is a false source of hope.

See, De Blanco says it was in the 1800s, it was God, and in the 1900s it was America, and then it gets worse.

He says, currently, it's self.

Our hope is in our self, our technology, our medical advances.

So much so uh that De Blanco writes that, but four years ago, a guy wrote a book called Homo Deus, Homo for Homo sapien, which is human being, Deus, God.

Basically, he's saying, Man is God.

We don't need anything else.

The book was called Homo Deus, a brief history of tomorrow.

And in the book, the author basically argues that in ancient times people turned to God because they didn't have control over the world, but now we have control, so we don't need God.

Here's a quote right out of the book.

I'm not making this up.

I'll put it on the screen.

He says, This at the dawn of the third millennium, humanity wakes up to an amazing realization.

Most people rarely think about it, but in the last few decades, we have managed to reign in famine.

This is written in 2017.

We've managed to reign in famine, plague, and war.

Of course, these problems have not been completely solved, but they've been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges.

We don't need to pray to any God or saint to rescue us from them.

We know quite well what needs to be done in order to prevent famine, plague, and war.

And we usually succeed in doing it.

So you've lived through the past 14 months.

And if you don't go to this church, you think, oh, you church people got it all figured out.

You know, we've had COVID, we had the ice storm during the Ice Ageddon, our children's building right there, one of the sprinklers in the ceiling uh snapped and ran for eight and a half hours.

I got a phone call from our executive pastor the next morning.

Hey, there's water everywhere down here.

Oh my God.

There was whoop, whoop, alarms in the background.

He's like, the moat, the pump motor is gonna overheat.

And I'm just like, hey, our confidence is in ourselves.

We've got this.

Dude, I peed my pants before I ever got off the phone.

I was like, ah, how bad is it?

He said, It's everywhere.

My wife hurries down here and she goes, You need to get here.

Got down here, the the the ceiling in the in the kitchen over there had collapsed.

There was sheetrock all everywhere, pink insulation hanging everywhere.

Word went out.

This is one of the things I love about this church.

Word went out, and within 30 minutes, what happened?

Within 30 minutes, 25 people over there pulling sheetrock down and insulation and shot back in the carpet.

And I just looked around and said, This is the church, this is what we do.

And somebody pulled me aside and said, Hey, Pastor, what do you think?

And I said, The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Bad things happen to church people.

We're not exempt.

Suck it up, buttercup, we're gonna be fine.

He's like, Oh man, I said, our hope is not in ourselves.

Well, what's your hope in?

I said, Two things God and insurance.

He said, Well, how bad is it?

I said, I don't want to put a pencil to it.

In case you're wondering, it was$248,000 of damage.

Whoa! Insurance.

Yes.

I don't feel bad about paying my premiums anymore.

I send them thank you notes.

I put little smiley faces on there.

Now, by the way, look at me.

When I read something as cocky and arrogant and self-centered as that, it reminds me of the words of the writer Tim Keller who said this.

He said, There's a growing tribalism that reflects a culture in which there is a vacated center, a loss of any shared idea of common public good.

There's a profound loss of social trust that appears to be undermining all the institutions that have held our society together.

This growing sense of tribalism.

There's tribes on the right, there's tribes on the left, there's tribes in the center.

But here's the problem.

Listen to me, I'm almost done.

The problem is that we have nothing in common.

Everybody's fractured and alienated, and you believe that, and I'm on this, and that's your party, and this is my party, this is my political affiliation.

And there's nothing in common that we can believe in.

Here's what happens when you raise your kids in this kind of environment.

You raise kids who question everything.

There's no institutions, there's not anybody or anything left to trust.

And when your kids grow up in that, you've loosed on the world these hopeless animals that live recklessly, suffer from crushing anxiety, and they take it out on everybody else.

And TikTok cannot solve the problem.

A mom came to me recently and said, My son, I think my son's smoking pot.

And all he does is look at TikTok videos.

And I said, if you were 16 and lived in his world, you would watch TikTok every day and smoke weed too.

That's not very comforting, Pastor.

I'm not endorsing smoking weed.

I'm just saying that he's been taught by the secular school system, hey, listen, listen, yourself is the is God.

You do whatever you want.

In the second grade, it sounds like this.

You have your own little truth, Johnny.

So you live in light of your truth.

Don't let anybody tell you what the truth is.

When little Johnny goes from second grade to third grade to 11th grade.

Little Johnny looks around and says, I don't feel very good on the inside.

And so what does little Johnny do?

Johnny's little Johnny smokes weed to calm that anxiety.

Now don't walk out of here and go, that pastor said smoking weed was okay.

I didn't.

I just said we're leasing on the culture people that are tormented by how they feel.

This hope that the Bible's talking about, though, it never dies.

This hope is never in anything temporary or transient, not a vaccine, not a job, not a relationship, not a presidential candidate.

This hope is in God.

Look at verse 20, and I'm done.

You still with me say yes.

Verse 20, just skip on down there.

He says, He was foreknown.

He Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.

Who through him are believers in God?

You see that right there?

The Bible just ran the okie doke on you.

He says, Hey, for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God who raised him, Jesus, from the dead and gave him glory.

Why?

So that your faith and your hope are in God.

You got to ask yourself today, in what or who do you put your faith in?

What kind of hope does that give you?

Three things I want to just point out right out of the Bible, and I'm done.

The first one is this we cannot get to God except through Jesus.

That's what the Bible says.

He, Jesus, was foreknown before the very foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these times for the sake of you, who through him.

That's why I get this.

Who through him, for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God.

You can't get to God.

Look at me.

A lot of people try to get to God by going around Jesus.

That's religion.

Christianity is I realize the only way I can get to God is through relationship with Jesus.

Why?

Because Jesus dies on the cross.

God offered up his son as payment for your sin.

To go around Jesus to get to God is to say you don't have sin.

You really want to say that?

Of course not.

So we can't get to God except through Jesus.

Secondly, there's purpose for the resurrection.

And here's the purpose of the resurrection.

He says, Who in our he says, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that Jesus was raised from the dead.

There's a purpose to the resurrection.

And thirdly, and finally, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have a place to put our hope.

He says, right there, he says, uh, so that your faith and your hope are in God.

Look at me.

Don't ever put your faith or your hope in a preacher.

Don't put it in a person.

The wedding I did last night, they said, we want to make this very clear.

We're not here trusting each other.

We're here trusting God.

So I stood up, and this is why the dude in the bathroom is kind of weepy out, like, hey, Holmes.

I'm like, Holmes?

My name's Neil, bro.

He's like, Holmes, I was tripping, man.

Holmes, homes.

I'm like, maybe you should not bump the blunt before you come to the wedding.

I'm just saying.

But I stood up and I said, Hey, this is not about this man and this woman.

Look at us.

You know, we got a Pinterest wedding going on up in here.

This is about how good God is.

The Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father above.

So this man and this woman have come to receive each other as gifts from God, and the crowd went, ooh.

Kind of like, oh, what?

Woo-woo.

Yeah, because God's that good.

So you have to ask yourself today, and I'm done.

You got to ask yourself this question.

Because of the resurrection, we have a place to put our hope.

So here's the question What is your hope in?

Who is your hope in?

Is your hope in God?

Or is your hope in our nation?

Or is your hope in yourself?

Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you have a certain reality that you and I can build and bank our life on.

And I just ask you, why wouldn't you want to do that?

Let's pray together.

I told you in the beginning that we're going to teach the Bible, then I'm going to give you some space to think about it.

And now's that time.

I'll say a brief prayer.

Clyde will just play for just one minute.

Some questions come up on the screen.

Don't try to write them down.

You can take your camera out and take a picture.

We just think the Bible's very thought-provoking, so we want to think about it.

God thinks that the Bible's thought provoking.

Now the preacher's gonna hush and we're just gonna think.

Remind us why we came today.

God, thank you that Jesus was real.

He died, was buried, and he rose again.

It matters supremely today.

Not just today, but every day.

It'll matter on Thursday, next month, and then next year.

There's never a day or a moment where the resurrection of Jesus Christ will not matter.

Why?

Because it gives us a living hope.

A hope that can never die, a hope that's not challenged by circumstance or situation, or whoever's in the White House, or whoever's our congressman.

None of that stuff challenges this hope.

It is the deathless hope of the resurrection.

And I pray for anyone whose faith is not in the God of the Bible, because they'll never know this hope apart from that.

God, we repent of trying to get to you by going around Jesus.

By offering up Jesus, you made him central to our life.

We're humbled by that and we're thankful.

So we say thanks in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Again, let me just say this: look at me.

If you're our guest, you're always welcome here.

Hopefully you had a chance to pull those guest cards in your seatback pocket in your row.

If you haven't, would you pull one right now and just fill it out?

Uh I'm fixing to show you an announcement video and you have some time to fill it out.

Then you can just drop it in the wooden box by the doors on your way out.

For the rest of our people, this is not for our guests, but for the rest of us that call this church your home, if today's the day you worship God through giving and stewardship, that's where you take care of that as well, okay?

Look at me.

We believe that God has a plan for your life.

We also believe that God has a plan for your teenager's life, for your wife's life, for your small children's life.

And so we have strategic events all through the year that are enjoyable and thought-provoking for everybody across all ages.

And so I want to make you aware of some of those opportunities coming up through this video.

Thank you for joining us today.

Here's a few things we want you to know.

Our women's weekend is happening April 23rd and 24th here on our campus.

Elizabeth Whitman will be teaching the word, and Lindsay Fraley will be leading worship.

Registration is available in the lobby and at grandparkway.org slash events.

This summer we have something happening for students every age.

Student Camp, Bridge Camp, Pine Cove, and Camp Arc are great opportunities for your kids to be loved, know God, and have fun.

For more information, head to grandparkway.org slash events.

For parents with kids kindergarten through fourth grade, sign up today as Pine Cove is filling up fast.

If you're new or have any questions about what you've heard today, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

What that looks like is everybody stands up.

So if you would stand up, and if you're willing, hold your hands out.

Come on, even the man's men, hold your hands out.

Your God is not a God who's mad, your God is a God of mercy.

Let this mercy find you and unwind you.

It's what you were created for.

That's what he wants you to have.

Depart now into this reality.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

Dismiss.