The Miracle of the Resurrection | Easter at Spirit | Brad Straarup

And hey, I want to take a moment and welcome you to our very first Easter.

Man, that's what you want.

We made it.

I can't believe it.

You know, my wife and I we moved here a year ago, just knowing that God called us to come and plant this church, and we had no idea what God will do.

And just to see what God has done in seven short months is nothing short of a miracle, and it's only something that He can get the glory for.

This look around, y'all.

This isn't people.

This isn't because we're good.

This is because we serve a really, really good God.

A really, really, really good God.

And we're so grateful that you're here.

If you're here for the very first time, on behalf of myself and my wife, I just want to give you a very warm welcome.

Welcome to Spirit Church.

Well, let me say it this way: Welcome home.

Welcome home, Spirit Church.

This is a place where it's okay to not be okay.

You know, I've talked to people that are like, man, I gotta get my life right before I come to God.

That's not true.

You come to God in your brokenness and He makes you pure.

You come to God in your brokenness and He makes you right.

And we know this, that Jesus didn't die, so that you can stay the way that you are.

Jesus died, so you can become something different.

The Bible says that He's gonna take us from glory to glory to glory.

And when you look at that wall, you'll see there's a there's a saying there that says there is more.

And we just believe that.

We just believe that there is more that God has for you.

Whatever it is that you're looking for, if you're looking for freedom, there is more.

If you're looking for love, there is more.

If you're looking for peace, there is more.

Whatever it is that you want is everything that He has.

Can I get a good amen?

So, y'all, I'm excited.

Our very first Easter, we're starting a brand new Easter tradition, okay?

I need everyone to go ahead and grab your phones.

Everyone, go ahead and grab your phones, and I'm gonna do something that we tell you to do so often.

I need everyone to go ahead and tap your chair.

There's a tap disc right in front of you, there's a circle disc.

And what I would love you to do is one of the things that we do every Easter is we're always gonna take part in a survey.

And the reason that we do this is because we want to know where our people are, but also this is the same weekend that all of y'all come to church.

So we're like, we need to know, and there's a couple things that you can do.

There's a connection card you can fill out, where you can give some of your details, there's a prayer request that you can fill out.

And let me just say that if you're believing God for something, please go ahead and write that down because our team would love to pray for you.

We'd love to pray for every single one of you individually.

But you'll see at the bottom that there's a section that says, I would like to hear messages on.

Okay, this is something that Jesus would do.

Jesus would often cater what he was saying, he would cater his sermons based on the questions people had and the problems that they had.

So as you fill that out, I want you to go ahead and select the things that would be most meaningful to you.

And we'll change our programming based on what our church needs.

And of course, if nothing is on there, you can just say other and then you can write down what it is that you would love to hear.

But we really want to be able to serve you this year, and this is a great opportunity for us just to take a moment and do that.

So if y'all can do that, that would be incredibly helpful.

Y'all ready for the word?

You're ready for the word?

Great.

We've been in a series called The Miracles of Jesus, and we've been looking at the seven miracles or signs, as John would call them, that tell us who Jesus is and what he is all about.

We've been studying the book of John, and we've looked at a number of miracles throughout the series.

We looked at Jesus turning water into wine, which let me just say it doesn't matter how messed up your life is, God can transform you in a second.

We looked at Jesus healing the nobleman's son from a distance, which means this his arm is never too short that he can't reach you.

He can speak a life-giving word, and in a second everything can be changed.

We look at the healing of at the pool of Bethesda, which shows us Jesus as healer.

We looked at Jesus feeding the 5,000, which shows us that Jesus is our provider.

That it doesn't matter if you do not have what it takes, you can bring the little that you have and give it to the God who can make little much.

We looked at Jesus healing a man born blind, which shows us that Jesus wants to give us spiritual sight even when we're blind.

And then last week we looked at one of the most important miracles in history, the raising of Lazarus.

We learned that Jesus was the resurrector, and because he's a resurrector, he can do what he did today, which is 2,000 years ago, he rose again from the dead.

Can I get a good amen?

So today we are looking at that sign, the most important sign in all of history.

Because if Jesus didn't come out of the dead, our relationship, our religion, our relationship with him doesn't matter.

But it matters because he rose, the most important sign, and a sign that forces us to make a decision.

Because if Jesus got up out of that grave, which we know he did, it means that we all have a decision that we get to make.

So if you're stuck, if you feel lost, if you feel hopeless, you are in the right place.

If you have your Bibles, I wonder if you can turn to John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

And for all of you who are new, you're trying to figure out this whole Christianity thing, let me just kind of get you up to speed.

In Genesis, the Bible says that God created the earth and he created it perfect, but he put us on it and we messed it up.

Can I get a good amen?

Like that's what happens.

Like anytime that we come, we mess a whole bunch of things up.

And what happens in this moment is we are separated from God, but God sends his son, Jesus, to come onto this earth to live the life that we could not live.

We're separated from him.

God needs a sacrifice, and he sends his own son to sacrifice his life, and because of that, we don't die.

He died instead of us, and now we can spend forever with him.

Okay?

That is called the gospel, and it is good news.

It is good news.

And what has happened up until this point is Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead, which was a phenomenal sign.

John is all about signs.

What you need to know about signs is signs are never the point.

Amen.

Signs are never the point.

Like signs always point to something greater.

I remember a couple of months ago, my wife was like, hey, for your birthday, I'm gonna take you something special set somewhere special.

I was like, Great, where are we going?

She says, It's a surprise.

I'm like, amazing, where?

Surprise.

I'm like, okay, right there.

That's how it works.

Okay, great.

So we get in the car and we're just driving north, and I'm trying to guess all the things that are north.

And a couple of hours later, I see this sign.

Grand Canyon.

It was like a bucket list for me.

So I'm like, this is awesome.

Like I'm finally gonna be able to see the Grand Canyon.

Can you all imagine if I'm like, this is amazing.

I've been waiting for this moment.

Stop.

She's like, why?

I'm like, I want to be by the sign.

I just love the sign.

It says Grand Canyon, it's got a great font.

It's great color.

I come back, and people are like, Brad, how's the Grand Canyon?

I'm like, Oh, I didn't go.

It's like, what do you mean?

I was like, it was a sign.

This is a great old sign, is what it was.

And I camped out at that sign, and I had some coffee at that sign, and you know, I I watched the sunrise and the sunset on that sign.

It was beautiful.

I never saw the actual thing.

How many of you know that I missed the point?

All the miracles, all the signs that we see, the point was not the miracle, the point is that it pointed to something greater, which was Jesus Christ, our risen king, so that John says we may believe.

So Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and what happens in that moment is everyone thinks Jesus is gonna become a physical king.

They think he's gonna become president, he's gonna kick out Rome, and it's gonna be fantastic.

Everyone sees that he does this, and they're like, He is the Messiah.

We need to crown him king, he's gonna rule the country, he's gonna rule the world.

But there's some religious leaders who don't know the Bible, there's some religious leaders, and they're like, oh my gosh, he's gonna cause uh uh upheaval of all these things, and what we need to do is we need to kill them.

So they plan to kill Jesus because they're like, he cannot become king.

Jesus withdraws and then he enters into Jerusalem on Passover.

It was actually Palm Sunday, the week before.

And everyone, they have these palms and they're waving it, and they're saying, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, which means God save us.

Save us, we pray.

That happens on Sunday, and then we have Holy Week.

And then Jesus is with his disciples, and he's at the Lost Supper, and he predicts that he's gonna die.

And they have no idea what he's talking about because they think he's gonna become a physical king.

He goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, what happens is he gives over his life, and he is tried and tested that entire night, and then Friday comes, and he's before Pontius Pilate.

And where people were shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, save us, now they're shouting, crucify him.

Crucify him.

So Jesus goes through this trial, he gets beaten, he gets tortured, his back is completely bare as they take this cat of nine tails and they're they're whooping him.

Most people wouldn't survive that, but Jesus does.

They give him a hundred-pound cross, crossbar that he would have had to carry, and as he's going up this mountain to get crucified, the Bible says that he falls.

That kind of damage would have done severe damage to his ribcage, to everything that is happening.

He falls, but he gets up and he keeps going, and he gets to the top of the mountain, and they crucify him.

And what they do is they put these nails into his wrists right between these bones, that nothing can rip, that you're just gonna be stuck there.

They nail his feet to the cross, and a lot of people misunderstand crucifixion.

It was a torture device.

It's funny that we wear it.

It's the most brutal torture device you've ever seen.

And you wouldn't die because of bleeding, you would die because you couldn't breathe.

Because what happens is you're in this place, your chest is out, your lungs are inflated, and what you would have to do is you would have to pull yourself up and exhale and inhale, and then you would fall again.

So every time they were just trying to breathe.

Jesus is on that cross, and Sabbath is approaching, which would have been Saturday, and they're like, we can't have a guy hanging on Sabbath, so we need to break their legs so that they can't lift themselves up, that they can suffocate.

And they break the legs of the people beside Jesus, but they do not break his legs because he is already dead.

Friday he is dead, he has been tortured, he has had so much blood loss that he gives up his life.

And it's funny because they never had to break his bones, which actually fulfills a prophecy.

The spotless lamb who was slain, no bone will be broken.

No bone was broken.

So now they're like, we can't have him hanging there, so we need to take him off the cross.

And what happens is Joseph of Arimathea, who's this rich, wealthy man, he has this tomb, and he takes Jesus off, and he says, I'm gonna put him in the tomb.

And Nicodemus, a famous religious leader, is like, okay, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna wrap him in linen, I'm gonna prepare him for burial, and they bring 75 pounds of spices and perfumes, and they wrap Jesus in this long linen cloth, and they put him into a grave.

And Friday night it happens, and the disciples are confused.

Because he was supposed to be gay.

They're so lost.

Saturday happens, and they have no idea what's going on, and then Sunday comes.

And then Sunday comes, and our great Lord rises from the dead.

Do you know how you know that he rises from the dead?

A lot of times people are like, did it really did it really happen?

Like, what does that actually look like?

It's crazy.

You know, anytime someone famous dies, we know where they're buried.

Like, do you know where Elvis is buried?

Yeah, Graceland.

Like, do you know where Princess Diana is buried?

Yeah, we know.

Like, do you know where Michael Jackson is buried?

Yeah, we know.

Even people from major world religions, we know where Muhammad is buried.

Madeira.

We know where Buddha is buried.

India.

We know where Abraham is buried.

For all Jewish people, Hebron.

Do you know who we don't know where they're buried?

Like we don't have if you go to Israel, it's gonna frustrate you.

No one knows where the tomb is.

The reason they don't know where the tomb was, is because it didn't matter.

We don't know the tomb because he's no longer there.

He's no longer there.

When you can tap for that, that's beautiful news.

When bin Laden was killed, they threw him into the ocean because they didn't want anyone to make pilgrimage there.

No one made pilgrimage to the tomb of Jesus because he's no longer there.

He's no longer there.

He is the only God who died and rose again from the grave.

So here's what it says in John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

Now that we're all caught up, it says, verse 1, early on Sunday morning, that is Easter morning, that would have been today, 2,000 years ago.

It says, while it is still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.

You need to know this that they used to go to church, they used to do their whole Sabbath thing on Saturday, and then all of a sudden the early church flips from Saturday to Sunday.

A religion that traditionally would have been so traditional, these are our rules, you never change, they completely change.

Why?

Something had to happen for them to switch everything, and it was that he rose again.

That's why it happened, that's why we worship God on a Sunday today.

It says that she comes to the tomb, and the reason for that is she was gonna finish the burial.

They were doing it so quick because Sabbath was coming, you know, they need to wrap them, they need to do all the things, and there's also an issue that if guys ever do something, they just don't do it right.

Especially when it comes to like clothing and wrapping and linens and ladies, we're y'all, y'all know.

Y'all know.

So it's like, no, a girl needs to come and she needs to do this.

So she's coming, she's gonna fulfill, she's gonna finish the entire process.

She comes to the tomb and she finds that the stone has been rolled away from the entrance.

And she ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved.

That's John.

I love him.

He's not like and John, he's like, and the one who Jesus loved.

I'll I'll have you guess who that is.

People mock him for that, but I actually think what he's trying to do is he's trying to detract from himself.

But I also am like, what a powerful understanding.

Can you imagine if we all got to the place like John where we're like, no, I'm the one that Jesus loved?

Like he loves you, but I'm the one that Jesus loved.

Like I love it.

He says, I am the one who Jesus loved.

And she said, they have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have put him.

They have no understanding that a resurrection is even possible.

They were like, we don't know what happened, like we don't know who moved him, like where he is.

And what it says is Peter and the other disciple, that's John, started out for the tomb.

They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

He's like, I'm quick.

I need you guys to know this.

He stooped and looked in and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside.

He noticed the linen wrapping there.

Okay, he they noticed the linen's there.

That is incredibly significant because some people will say, What happens is Jesus' body, we know Jesus was real, we know that he walked this earth, we know that he was put into a grave, and what happened is he didn't rise from the dead, his body was stolen.

That's what people will say.

Oh, it was grave robbers that did it.

If you're gonna rub grave, are you gonna leave all the jewelry and just take the body?

The most valuable thing was the linen cloth.

You're like, guys, quickly, we need to go rub this grave.

He's like, Okay, he it's a corpse, so you're like, okay, let's unwrap.

Why are you doing this?

I don't know.

We we just want the body.

It 75 pounds of spices, it was valuable.

The reason it was left there is because the grave wasn't rubbed, Jesus robbed the grave.

No one else did that.

That was Jesus who did that, and the Pharisees, it actually says in the Bible that they started spreading that rumor, and it says, and people still believe that today.

And even today, people still believe that.

We know that he went to the grave.

People say the disciples took him.

Well, number one, they had no idea that resurrection was even possible, but number two, they actually ordered a guard to guard the tomb.

There was no way that they could have taken Jesus' body.

So it says that they look and the linens are there.

And it says, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings.

Some theologians say that the moment of this, whenever you were eating in Jewish customs, if you were coming back to the dinner table, you would fold up that cloth.

And they say that it's Jesus saying, I'm coming back.

I'm coming back.

This was not a chaotic scene.

This was a very planned, peaceful scene.

Jesus gets up, takes off the cloth, folds it, and puts down the linen.

And it says this that when John saw that, he folded up cloth.

The disciple who had reached the tomb first, again, that's John.

I was there.

He says he saw and I want to say this word, he saw and believed.

For until then he hadn't understood the scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.

He had no concept that this was even possible.

The crazy thing is this is actually the sign that Jesus predicted in the beginning of John.

John chapter 2, after the wedding in Cana, water into wine.

John 2 · chapter mention

Jesus is clearing out the dis the temple, and the religious leaders are so mad at him, and they're like, they say this in 2.18.

The Jews responded to him, what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do this?

And Jesus says, Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.

And they're like, It took 46 years to build this temple.

This temple of God, it took 46 years.

How can you say that if we destroy it, you will rise it again, you'll raise it again in three days?

But the temple, verse 21, that he had spoken of was his body.

And after he raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said and they believed.

Say believed.

They believed, they had no concept.

Only after it, they're looking back in hindsight, and they're like, Oh, that's what he is saying.

The question that I have for you this Sunday is this what do you believe?

Who do you believe and what do you do with Jesus?

Let me just say that that is the most important question that you can answer in your life.

What do you do with Jesus?

Who is Jesus?

But not only who is Jesus, who is Jesus to you?

Because this entire book that we've been studying, John summarizes it.

John 20, verse 30.

John 20:30

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which aren't recorded in this book.

But these are written so that you might believe.

Believe what?

That Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life.

Some of you have been looking for life in all the wrong places.

Meanwhile, life is found in Jesus.

And you have these disciples who were so afraid, scared.

But Jesus starts appearing, he appears to Mary Magdalene, He appears to the disciples, except Thomas.

And Thomas is like, if I don't see him, I'm not gonna believe.

That's why we call him doubting Thomas.

Okay, we've talked about that.

He's like, unless I touch his scars, I will not believe.

And then Jesus appears.

They're in a locked room, they're all scared, and Jesus appears and he's like, Peace be with you, because they're freaking out.

Because if someone just puffed through a door, you'd freak out too.

He says, Thomas, come, feel, feel.

And he says, I believe.

He says, Lord.

And Jesus says, You have now seen, but blessed are those who have not seen, but believe.

Jesus starts appearing to all these people.

At one point, the Bible reports that he showed up and appeared before 500 people.

That's a lot of eyewitnesses.

Which is why Jesus is not a legend, he is a real guy.

There were too many people alive to disprove that it didn't happen because it happened.

And the question, if that is true, is what do you do with Jesus?

Most important question, because people will say a whole bunch of things about Jesus.

Some people will say he's a legend, it's a fairy tale.

It was fake.

He didn't actually walk the earth.

The only problem with that is I don't know a single reputable historian who will say that Jesus didn't exist.

We know he existed.

Christians believed he existed.

Non-Christian historians believed that he existed.

Even people who wrote in Jesus' day knew he existed.

We have more proof of Jesus being alive than almost anything else.

He wasn't legend, he was real.

So if he's real, who was he?

And what does that do to us?

People will say, okay, well, he's real, but he was just a good dude.

He was just a moral teacher.

Okay, if there was a dude in Phoenix who is a good moral teacher, healing people, saying a bunch of good stuff, you'd be like, oh my gosh, you know, he has this following.

You'd be like, that's amazing.

But then the dude says, Oh, by the way, I'm God.

You'd be like, man, he's crazy.

What?

He's like, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood.

What?

Like what?

Oh, you can only get to the Father but through me.

We are one.

What?

That makes no sense.

You can't say he's a good moral teacher.

Because what he said is so astounding that a good moral teacher would not say it.

So again, you're confronted with a choice.

What's so crazy is people are like, okay, so Jesus exists, that's awesome.

But you know, how do we know that Jesus is the only way?

There's a bunch of religions.

How do we know that?

Here's what's crazy: every major world religion affirms Jesus.

Did you know that?

Every major world religion affirms Jesus.

Judaism, it says that he was a great teacher.

Islam, they say he is a highly honored prophet.

Hinduism, he's a wise teacher, a holy man.

Buddhism, he's an enlightened teacher.

What happens is every single religion affirms Jesus, believes that he was real.

They affirm his teaching, but Jesus only affirms himself.

They affirm Jesus, but Jesus doesn't affirm them, he affirms himself.

That's what he says in John, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Great, all of these religions, if you're gonna affirm me, here's what I say: it's me and me alone.

So you're confronted with this and you have a couple of choices.

He can't just be a great moral teacher.

He's not a legend.

So we have one or three choices.

He's a liar, he's a lunatic, or he's Lord.

And we know he's not a liar.

People lie because they Want to get something.

Jesus had no gain of saying he was God.

He went to the cross, and at that point, it's like, guys, I was joking.

Funny.

April Fools.

He had nothing to gain.

And he doubled down.

I am who I said I am.

His disciples who followed him had nothing to gain.

Most of them were crucified like Jesus.

They were martyred like Jesus.

They had nothing to gain.

You do not lay down your life for a lie that you made up and you know to not be true.

He wasn't lying.

Or maybe he was just mad.

Maybe he was just a lunatic.

The only problem with that is if you go read the teachings of Jesus, he is the most astounding moral teacher that has ever existed.

The Sermon on the Mount is beautiful.

No insane person could have said that.

He was loving, he was kind, he was compassionate, he had EQ, he had everything.

And here's the biggest kicker.

Not even his enemies called him a lunatic, because everyone would have known that that's not true.

So he's not a liar, he's not a legend, he's not a lunatic.

Which the only other option you have is he must be Lord.

He must be Lord.

And if he is Lord, what he says matters.

If he's Lord, then every sentence that comes out of his mouth, we have to pay attention to.

You know, when you walk into our building, you'll see that we have some stuff on the wall or the wall that God has a plan for you and he wants you to know him, find freedom, discover purpose, and make a difference.

That's the plan that God has for your life.

But the most important place to start is that he wants you to know him.

I want you to watch what Jesus says.

If he is Lord, we need to pay attention to what he is saying.

Here's what Jesus says Matthew 7, 21.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Some of y'all are like, that's a problem.

Because that was my plan.

That's kind of what I was just planning on, you know, doing just like Lord, Lord, okay, great.

I'm in.

Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

We are saved by grace through faith, not by works.

Works do not save us, but works do show that we are saved.

James would say, works shows that we are saved.

There's so many people that pray the sinner's prayer.

I came to church, I said the thing, nothing actually changed.

You just said the word, there was no inner heart transformation.

When there's transformation, there's fruit.

It's not good enough just to say the words, God, no, I'm actually following you, which means that I follow you, which means I do the things you tell me to do.

Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Many, verse 22, say many.

This is terrifying.

Many will say on that day, judgment day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

Do we not drive out demons in your name?

Did we not perform many miracles?

Then I will tell them plainly, you didn't do enough.

You didn't read your Bible enough.

No.

I never knew you.

I never knew you.

Away from me, you evildoers.

That word for new is gnosco.

And what it is, it is an intimate, close relationship.

They would use it to describe a husband and a wife knowing each other.

Jesus is saying, That's what I'm looking for.

I'm not looking for religion, I'm looking for a relationship.

I want you to know me, and I want to know you.

I want you to follow me.

I want you to have a love relationship with me.

And so often, man, we're doing the religious stuff, we're checking all the boxes.

But if we're honest with ourselves, our love for Jesus is cold.

We're not actually following him the way that he wanted us to follow him.

And one day every single one of us are gonna stand before him.

And people are like, I don't believe in Jesus.

That's great, that doesn't stop him from believing in you.

And one day you'll stand before him.

And you're not gonna get to make your case.

What we believe on this earth, how we live on this earth matters for eternity.

So my biggest question today, I was like, what am I gonna do during Easter?

God show me my biggest thing that I can do is ask you this.

Where are you with Jesus?

Because he was real, he was alive, he's not a liar, he's not a lunatic, he's Lord.

He's Lord.

There's a couple things I want you to know as we close and we'll pray.

First thing is this I want you to know how much God loves you.

I need you to know that today, that Jesus loves you.

You know it's crazy because what happens in this moment is Jesus is crucified on the cross.

If you've ever studied the Old Testament, there was a there's a story in Exodus of God's people being enslaved to Pharaoh.

And God is saying, Let them go, let them go, but he won't do it.

So what happens is God says, I'm sending a plague.

An angel of death is gonna come over the city and it's gonna kill every firstborn.

And he says to his people, the Israelites, he says, but here's what I need you guys to do: kill a spotless lamb and put the blood on your doorposts, and they put it on top, they put it on the sides, and it would drip down and it formed a cross.

And he says, If that blood is on your doorpost, the angel of death will pass by.

And that happened.

He passed over, that's why they celebrated Passover.

What they would do during Passover is they would slaughter a lamb, they would kill the lamb that the blood can be the payment for their sins.

And 1500 years later, Jesus comes on Passover weekend.

The religious leaders have no idea what's even going on, but they crucify him.

And on Friday night, the day all the religious people are slaughtering their lambs for Passover, Jesus is being slaughtered on the cross.

At the same time, he is our Passover lamb.

He was the sacrifice that finally came once and for all.

And you need to know this he loved you, that he did that for you, even if you wouldn't choose him.

Suffered.

God loves you so much that he did that for the chance that you would say yes to him.

Just for the chance.

Just for the chance that you would say yes.

The Bible says that 1 Corinthians 5 7 that Christ is our Passover lamb who has been sacrificed.

Romans 5.8, but God just demonstrate his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were still sinning, not you come once I'm right.

No, no, no.

While you were still doing those things, he died.

That's the God who loves you.

I need you to know that he loves you.

The second thing I need you to know is this that you need to confess our sins.

We confess our sins and God will forgive us.

Some of you have walked into this place today, and maybe it's your first time in church in a while, and you have felt so heavy.

Wouldn't you like to leave here clean?

Wouldn't you like to leave here whole?

Because all you need to say is, God, forgive me.

Jesus, forgive me.

I'm following you, and he would love to take all that shame away.

You don't have to feel bad for anything that you've done in your life.

Not a single person here is perfect.

We just serve a perfect God.

We serve a perfect Savior.

I need you to say, God, forgive me.

Confess your sins and ask for his forgiveness in.

The Bible says this, 1 John 1 verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

The final thing that I need you to do is this.

I need you to go all in with God.

Go all in with him.

If you feel far from him and you're like, what do I need to do next?

Brad, my my relationship with Jesus doesn't look, I'm not following him.

Some of you, you've been following him in some areas, and he's Lord in some areas, but he's not in Lord, he's not Lord in all areas.

You're saying I'm gonna give that over to you.

Bible says this, Jeremiah 29, 13.

You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Our challenge to every single person is this, and we make this challenge every single Easter.

Go all in with God, give it a year.

Call it the one-year challenge.

Give God a year of your life.

Do everything.

Do everything, fall in love with Him.

The beautiful thing is when you fall in love with God, following the Bible becomes easy.

You know?

Like, I don't need to just be like, don't have an affair with Paige, don't have an affair, don't have an affair, don't have an affair, don't have an affair.

If I want to not have an affair, all I have to do is fall in love with Paige.

And if I'm in love with her, it becomes easy.

If you love God, following everything else, you don't have to hit ah, it becomes easy because you're in love.

Faithfulness becomes easy when you're in love.

Go all in with him.

We call it the one-year challenge.

Go to church, join a group, join the team.

When we do 21 days of prayer, go in with us.

And here's my guarantee: if your life is not significantly changed at the end of that year, I'll quit my job and we'll go find a church together.

How about that?

And we've never had to do that because I just know it works.

God says when you are planted in the house of God, you will flourish.

I wish I could tell you all the stories.

So here's what I want you to do.

This is normally the time where we'll say with every head bowed and eyes closed, there's some of you here, you need to know that a perfect Savior came to this earth, that he can take your sin and your shame.

And all you have to do, the Bible says this, if you confess with your mouth that it's Jesus as Lord and you believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead, that you will be saved.

All you have to do today is say, Jesus, I'm following you.

So in this attitude of worship, what we're gonna do instead is I want everyone to pull out their phones again.

And I want you to go ahead and tap the disc in front of you.

And we'll take you to the second question that we want you to answer.

Which that question is simply this what are you gonna do with Jesus?

What are you gonna do with Jesus?

There's a couple of options that you can choose.

The first option it says option A, it's I already know God personally.

What that means is you're already relation in a relationship with Him.

If that's you, go ahead and check that.

B, is you want to begin a relationship with God.

You're saying today's the day I'm gonna follow Him.

Maybe you're recommitting to Him.

You're like, I've been far, but today's the day that I'm coming back to God.

If that's you, I want you to go ahead and collect.

Check B.

And let me just say that that is the best decision you can make.

If you're still trying to figure it out, you're like, man, I'm considering my next steps.

It's C.

And if you are D, which is I don't ever intend to make this decision, I pray that you'll be so bold that you would actually select that.

And know this that our church loves you, and we're gonna be praying for you.

And one day I'm believing for so many people who mark D to become A.

So if you would, I wonder if everyone can just take your phone, tap that disc, full that out.

When you're done, you can just bow your head.

That's how I know you're done.

And then we'll pray together.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Lord Jesus, we love you.

Lord, I thank you for who you are.

I thank you, Lord Jesus, for everything that you were doing.

If you're here and you marked B, I want to lead you in a moment of salvation.

The prayer doesn't save you, but your heart change does.

If you're here, I just want you to repeat after me, just say, Dear Jesus, I believe that you're the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

I believe you came to this earth, you died on a cross, and you were raised that I can have life.

And right now, I make you my Lord.

I make you my savior.

In Jesus' name.

In Jesus' name.

Hey, here's what I want you to do.

Can you all do me a favor?

For everyone who just made that decision, can you put your hands together for them?

We're so proud of you.