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Well, good morning, everyone.
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Welcome back to
Crossroads, especially if
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this is your first time
with us after Easter,
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maybe this is your
first normal weekend,
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although those of you
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who have been
around here for a while,
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do we ever have normal weekends?
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I don't know.
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If this is your first
weekend after Easter,
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I want to say a big
welcome back to you.
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My name is Alli Patterson,
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00:00:21
I'm one of the teaching
pastors here at Crossroads.
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00:00:23
And Easter was
amazing in our community.
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And today we're
going to talk about
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how do we hold on to the
high and the hope and the joy
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that was Easter and live
that out in our everyday life.
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And last week it
certainly was a high, right?
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Like, power and
miracles and empty tombs
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and all those baptisms,
all those baptisms.
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I was at East Side for
most of the weekend
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and it just -- I would
stand in the back and cry,
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especially when my
own teenage daughter
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decided to get
baptized last weekend.
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So we were -- it was extra
sweet for us as a family.
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And we were talking
that night and she said,
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"You know, Mom, I
know what baptism is,
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so I know what has
changed for me, but also
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it doesn't really feel like
anything has changed."
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I said, "Exactly what I'm going
to talk about next weekend,
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exactly what I'm going to
talk about next weekend,
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because He's alive,
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and then you wake up
and it's the day after."
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The day after, we
literally live in the day after,
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and the day after is
never the best day, right?
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I mean, the day
after your birthday,
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you just go back to work.
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The day after Christmas
is never the best day.
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The day after
vacation, if you're me,
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you do laundry for six people
that's piled up over a week.
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That's not a good day.
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The day after, that's
actually where we're living.
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And we have to
handle the disconnect
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of the day after
Easter that we live in,
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because if we don't,
we might be tempted,
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and maybe we have
been tempted in the past,
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to treat Easter
almost like a fairy tale,
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almost like this
story of something
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that you kind of
know should happen
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and it seems really great
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and there's definitely elements
of life in it that you want,
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but at the end of the day,
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it's just a little hollow
to your real experience.
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So we're going to take a page
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literally out of my
friends fairy tale book.
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This is her actual
Cinderella book.
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And she grew up
with a very wise mom
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who wrote some words
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at the end of every fairy
tale story that she had,
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in any book where it ended with
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"and they lived
happily ever after,"
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her mom would handwrite in
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"with a few problems
every now and then."
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That's what those
words say right there,
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"with a few problems
every now and then."
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So we treat Easter like
this happily ever after,
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and we wake up to the
day after and we're like,
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"with a few problems
every now and then."
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And if we're not careful,
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we might empty Easter
of its power because
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it's a disconnect
with what we're living.
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So to hold on to that hope,
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today we're going
to deal with that
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by getting a reality check
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on where we really
are in the story of God.
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And we are going
to finish the story.
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Let me pray for us.
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Lord, we thank You
that You have given us
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a clear picture of who You are
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and where this is all going.
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Help my words to be clear today.
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And I pray that you would
fill this place with Your hope,
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that all of us would
walk out more alive
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and more hopeful than
we were when we walked in.
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Do that work in us
today, Lord. Amen.
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So Jesus was resurrected,
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which is the story
of Easter, right?
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And He appears to his disciples
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and actually to hundreds
of other witnesses
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for about 40 days
after the resurrection.
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And then there actually
is a moment in time
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and we have a
record of it in the Bible,
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in the Book of Acts,
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where the last sets
of human eyeballs
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actually laid eyes on
Jesus for the final time
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of His era here on Earth.
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Here it is in the Book
of Acts chapter one.
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Then they gathered
around Him and asked Him,
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This was it.
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This was the last time
that anyone here on earth
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has physically seen
the resurrected Jesus
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during His lifetime
here on Earth.
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And He's alive, and all
of a sudden He's gone.
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Only nothing is actually fixed.
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And did you catch what He said?
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He said, like, there's a mission
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and you're going to get power
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and you're going to
be this and do that.
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And then He's out. You know?
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He leaves and you've got
to believe in that moment
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because nothing has
really changed for them yet.
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That his disciples and all
the people who saw Him alive
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were like, "What is going
on? Where did he go?
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I thought he was going to do
the thing He came to do now."
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They thought that
when He was alive.
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And then they thought that
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when He was
resurrected from the dead,
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and now He's out
and they're alone.
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And you've got to think
they've got to be anxious.
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They definitely didn't
know what was happening.
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Their lives hadn't changed.
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Very few people,
relatively speaking,
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even knew about
the resurrection.
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Rome was still oppressing
the Jewish people.
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Nothing that they thought
was going to happen
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had yet happened.
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Their daily life
was no different.
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And you've got to
believe they were anxious
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and alone thinking,
"Jesus, where did you go?"
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I want you to consider
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whether that's where
we are as a people.
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We are most definitely
anxious and alone.
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Every single stat you
can get your hands on
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says that these two things,
these are two core things
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that are growing and growing
rampant in our population.
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Did you know that 50%
of our country of adults
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would say that they
currently struggle
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with controlling anxiety? 50%.
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If you're in your 20's
that number is 60%.
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Struggle to control daily
anxiety and loneliness.
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Friends, loneliness is
a worldwide epidemic.
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80% of teenage girls would say
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they regularly have feelings
of being sad and alone.
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Do you know the
UK actually appointed
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into their government a
Minister of Loneliness in 2018?
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The UK has a
Minister of Loneliness
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in recognition of this
deep problem that causes
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real everyday things to
happen as a result of it.
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And here we are down here going,
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"Jesus, where did you go?
And what are you doing?"
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Actually, Peter gives us
a little bit more information
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about what's going
on where Jesus is.
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1 Peter 3 says this:
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So here we get a little glimpse.
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Jesus went up. He
ascends into heaven.
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He's with the Father,
and He has all power
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and all authority and
everything in heaven
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and on earth submits to Him.
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And yet we're here
in the day after.
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And today I want
you to consider that
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Jesus is actually
using all that power
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and all that authority
to give you three things
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to help you live
in the day after.
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And those three
things are really simple,
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but they're deeply and
desperately what we need.
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We need help, we need hope,
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and we need a
vision of our home.
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We need help, hope and home
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more than any other
time in human history.
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We are -- It is so obvious that
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we are living
without these things.
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And I just want you
to consider that Jesus,
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in all that power and authority
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that He has at His fingertips,
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is trying to give
them to you right now.
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Jesus wants to help you.
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I wonder, do you wake up
every day and think that?
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Do you wake up
every day and think,
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"Jesus is going
to help me today?"
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You know, maybe on
your best days you do.
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But we do have a version
of what help looks like, right?
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We go to Jesus, and
I admit I do this, too.
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Sometimes the way that
we want help is very specific,
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and we're happy to tell Him
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exactly the ways that we
need His help, aren't we?
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We go to Him and we're like,
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"If my kid could just
get into this college,
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that would be the best way that
You could help me right now."
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"If I could just get
rid of these sniffles
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or this relationship
could be repaired,
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or I could finally stop
dragging around this thing in me
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that I can't quite get rid
of, the habit, the whatever."
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We go to Him with our lists,
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and sometimes those
things do get helped,
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and sometimes they don't.
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So, again, we're left in this
disconnect of the day after.
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What if help looks a little
different than we thought
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or than we actually
want it to look?
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I was thinking about
this, because in college
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I had sort of a living,
breathing example of that,
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only I just didn't
know it at the time.
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But looking back on
it, I kind of wonder,
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was God trying to say
something to me with this?
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But I struggled with
some anxiety in college,
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but I don't even think
I really would have
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called it that at the time.
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I just knew I
couldn't fall asleep.
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And for any of you
who have a racing mind
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in the middle of the
night, you get that extra fun
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of once the clock hits
2:00 or so, you're like,
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"Now I'm extra stressed
because I can't fall asleep."
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And so you're just sitting there
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and all the things
are pressing on you.
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Do you know the
Hebrew word for anxiety
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in the Bible that gets
translated anxiety
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is actually something
that threatens your very life.
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And so you're laying there.
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You know, I would lay
there at night in my apartment
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and I would -- you feel
those things pressing on you
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and you feel like they are
threatening your very life.
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And yet I had come into
a relationship with Jesus
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that was very real
when I was 16 years old.
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And then I went to college.
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I'm sure none of you
have that type of story.
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So here I am several
years into college,
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and it's almost
like I had forgotten
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that there's a God
that I can reach.
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And sometimes in the wee
hours I would remember,
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"Oh, I can talk to Him.
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I could actually
reach out to Him
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and say something right now."
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And almost as soon
as I would do that,
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I would be asleep.
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And this happened repeatedly.
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And now I look back
on that and I think,
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"Why didn't I get a clue
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that maybe God was trying
to send me the message
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that I Am what's
vital for your life?
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All of those things that
your mind is racing about,
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I Am what you really need.
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But I didn't see that, right?
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But I look back
on that and I think
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that's kind of a living
example of the difference
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between how we want
help and how God offers it.
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See, we're very transactional
about how we want help.
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And God is very, very
relational with how He gives it.
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Hebrews 7 says this about
what Jesus is actually up to
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up there in heaven, in
His resurrected body.
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He's not a floating spirit.
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He's not a see through being.
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He has a resurrected
body and He's with God
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and He's doing something.
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Listen to this from
Hebrews 7:25, it says:
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This is what He's doing.
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He's living to
intercede for you.
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To intercede means, you
know, to step in the gap,
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to go advocate, to
connect two parties,
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to intercede into a situation
that needs reconnected.
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So the job of priests
in ancient Israel
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was to be that party
between people and God.
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And primarily their
job was to deal with
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the sin of the people that was
disconnecting them from God.
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And so a priest would go
through cleansing rituals,
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so he would be more pure
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and he could step
into that space
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and receive sacrifices
that people would bring
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primarily for their sins,
to connect them to a God
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who needed
somebody in the middle,
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somebody to intercede.
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And this is what Jesus
is actually doing for you
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and for me in heaven right now.
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He has a permanent priesthood.
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He is in the 24 hour a
day, 7 day a week job
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of dealing with
your sin and my sin.
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Let me tell you,
you're a handful.
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You know what I'm saying?
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Like, for real, I'm a handful.
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We need constant intercession,
constant connection.
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And this is what He's providing.
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And when I think
about, like, the fact that
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as soon as I would
connect to God,
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something would change,
that's the kind of help
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that He actually offers us.
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He keeps us connected
in relationship.
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He actually talked
about this in John 15
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to his disciples before
He left the Earth,
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and He called it abiding.
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If you've been around
a church for a while,
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you might have heard that word.
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And all it means is
a constant oneness,
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a constant connection to God.
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So that means when
you're in the dark at 2 a.m.
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and you reach out
to God, He is there.
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He is able to be reached because
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Jesus was not just the
priest that connects you,
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He was the once and
final and perfect sacrifice.
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00:14:04
So to be connected to God,
-
00:14:05
you don't need to
bring anything with you.
-
00:14:07
You just need to
come through Him
-
00:14:08
and there He is standing
as the priest to connect you
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because He was the once and
perfect sacrifice for your sin.
-
00:14:16
We want God to
do something for us
-
00:14:19
and He wants to be something.
-
00:14:21
What if our help actually
comes not from a transaction,
-
00:14:25
not from checking
off the list of the things
-
00:14:28
that we say we need, but rather
-
00:14:30
it comes in being changed
with Him, through Him,
-
00:14:32
by Him over time in
relationship, a connected,
-
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ongoing, constant
access relationship to God.
-
00:14:40
That's the help that Jesus
is offering to you right now.
-
00:14:43
But some days, I'm just
going to confess to you,
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00:14:46
I think I know best what I need.
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00:14:49
Like, I just want what I want
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00:14:51
and I'm pretty sure it's right.
-
00:14:55
The worst days for
me of this day after era
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00:14:59
that we're living in,
the worst days lately
-
00:15:02
are the ones where I
wake up in the morning
-
00:15:04
and I hear the news there's
been another shooting.
-
00:15:08
And you all, I'm on
the edge with this.
-
00:15:12
These are just regular
people like you and me
-
00:15:14
going to the grocery
store, going to work,
-
00:15:17
sending their kids to school.
-
00:15:19
And I don't know if I
can take another day
-
00:15:24
of listening to the
horror that has become
-
00:15:27
almost a regular
thing in our culture.
-
00:15:31
And the school shootings
-
00:15:32
are the bottom of
the barrel for me.
-
00:15:34
I have four kids at
three different schools.
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00:15:38
And so these feel like
deeply, deeply close to home.
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00:15:43
My kids do these ALICE drills.
-
00:15:46
If you don't have
kids in school,
-
00:15:47
you might not know what that is.
-
00:15:48
It is the active shooter drill.
-
00:15:52
And so at their school, friends,
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00:15:54
we live in a time
where our children
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go to school and they
practice, what happens
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00:16:02
when an active shooter
comes into their school.
-
00:16:08
I don't even have
words for that.
-
00:16:12
And I had a real low
point with God on this
-
00:16:15
because there's a specific
kind of help that I want.
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00:16:18
Right? Stop those.
-
00:16:22
And I'm pretty sure I'm right.
-
00:16:24
But when my kids come home
-
00:16:25
and they talk about
these drills, I tell them,
-
00:16:28
"I want you to assume there's
a God who wants to help you.
-
00:16:32
If you're in this situation,
-
00:16:33
then He's going to help
you through this training
-
00:16:35
and He's going to help
you through the adults
-
00:16:37
and He's going to help
you through the covering
-
00:16:40
that you have over
the school authorities
-
00:16:42
that are going
to try to help you
-
00:16:43
and tell you what to do.
-
00:16:44
And also, I want you to pray.
-
00:16:47
I want you to pray.
-
00:16:48
I want you, please,
Lord, the presence of mind
-
00:16:51
to reach out and
say, 'God help me.'"
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00:16:54
And I can't tell you how
that help is going to come,
-
00:16:56
but I believe we have a God
-
00:16:58
who wants our children alive.
-
00:17:00
I believe we have a
God who is big enough
-
00:17:02
and is powerful enough to
intervene in any situation.
-
00:17:05
And so then I sit
there the day after
-
00:17:08
when the news comes on and
I'm like, "No. Where'd you go?"
-
00:17:15
And I dropped my
girls off at school
-
00:17:18
the day after one of
the recent shootings.
-
00:17:20
And you all, I watched
them walk into the building
-
00:17:23
and I couldn't even
drive the car away
-
00:17:25
because that morning
was the day after
-
00:17:28
for too many parents.
-
00:17:30
And I just sat and sobbed.
-
00:17:32
I got nothing. I just
sat there and cried.
-
00:17:35
I couldn't even
drive the car away.
-
00:17:37
An I'm not sure I would
ever drive the car away again
-
00:17:42
if I thought that
Jesus's only job
-
00:17:45
was to try to intervene
-
00:17:46
in all of our messes
here on Earth right now.
-
00:17:48
I don't think I could do it.
-
00:17:50
In order to make it through
this day after we're living in,
-
00:17:53
we cannot just view
Jesus as the checklist,
-
00:17:56
the timely help for
all the things we need.
-
00:17:58
We have to hold that desire
in tension with something else.
-
00:18:02
And that something
else is that He is a hope
-
00:18:05
that exists far, far beyond
our earthly reality right now.
-
00:18:10
That we actually
exist in a reality
-
00:18:12
that is His and that is eternal.
-
00:18:14
And He is not just a
help, He is also a hope.
-
00:18:18
Jesus is a hope.
-
00:18:19
Listen to this word about
this from 1 Thessalonians 4:
-
00:18:46
We've got to realize,
guys, the story of Easter,
-
00:18:49
the resurrection of Jesus,
-
00:18:51
it is everything that
that we hang our hat on.
-
00:18:55
So we do not grieve
like the rest of mankind
-
00:18:58
who has no hope.
-
00:18:59
If you are in Christ, what is
the reason that they gave?
-
00:19:03
That Jesus died and rose again.
-
00:19:06
This is it. This is the core.
-
00:19:09
If we don't get that
the message of Easter
-
00:19:11
is absolutely everything
about our future hope,
-
00:19:14
than we've totally missed
the core of Christianity itself.
-
00:19:18
His death and resurrection
means that you and I
-
00:19:22
get the chance to live
inside of a bigger reality,
-
00:19:25
an eternal reality that
goes so far beyond
-
00:19:28
what's happening here on
Earth right this very moment.
-
00:19:31
And we get there, the
sign of it, the promise of it,
-
00:19:34
is the resurrection of
Jesus from the dead.
-
00:19:39
This truth will change
your life if you let it,
-
00:19:42
because it means that we're
not at the end of the story.
-
00:19:46
There is an end to the
story, and Easter, wasn't it.
-
00:19:49
Easter reads like
a happily ever after.
-
00:19:51
It really does. Right?
-
00:19:53
And in many ways
it should be, it is.
-
00:19:57
We're just not living
the full reality of that yet.
-
00:19:59
We are living instead
in the day after.
-
00:20:02
So what is the end?
What is the end?
-
00:20:06
We don't talk about this enough.
-
00:20:09
We actually have
a picture in the Bible
-
00:20:12
of the next time human
eyes that are alive
-
00:20:15
here on Earth will see
Jesus coming back here.
-
00:20:19
And it's from the
Book of Revelation.
-
00:20:21
It's in chapter 19,
and it's given to us
-
00:20:24
inside of an angelic vision.
-
00:20:27
So Revelation
is a difficult book.
-
00:20:29
If you've ever opened
the Bible, you know that.
-
00:20:31
It's a book written by John,
-
00:20:34
one of Jesus's closest friends,
-
00:20:36
one of the original apostles,
-
00:20:39
and he penned this as he
gets, like, an angelic visit.
-
00:20:44
And he writes down what
he sees in these visions.
-
00:20:47
And so what we're
reading, it is a mix of fantasy
-
00:20:50
and reality that
communicates the truth of God.
-
00:20:53
And so we're not going
to go too deeply into that,
-
00:20:56
but we can absolutely take away
-
00:20:59
some very high level
understanding of what is
-
00:21:02
being portrayed
here in this vision.
-
00:21:04
So let me read it to
you from Revelation 19.
-
00:21:58
I wish I had the time.
-
00:22:00
You'd probably get
tired of me if we did this,
-
00:22:02
but I wish I had the time
-
00:22:03
to take you through
every single line.
-
00:22:05
Because, friends,
every single inch of that
-
00:22:08
is packed with layer after layer
-
00:22:12
of messianic description
of the returning
-
00:22:15
living Jesus Christ the Messiah.
-
00:22:18
It references scriptures
from hundreds of years before
-
00:22:21
that Jesus lived
and spoke about.
-
00:22:23
It is filled with meaning
that means very simply,
-
00:22:28
at the very least, we can
say there is a Messiah
-
00:22:31
who is alive and well and
He is coming back here.
-
00:22:38
And artists and musicians
and people who are
-
00:22:42
really good at tapping
into those spiritual eyes
-
00:22:45
and try to depict this
through music and art
-
00:22:47
for generation after generation
-
00:22:49
in every nation
and every tongue.
-
00:22:52
We even sing one of these
songs at Christmas time.
-
00:22:54
We think it's about Christmas.
-
00:22:55
Psst, it's not about Christmas.
-
00:22:59
We sing Joy to the
World the Lord is Come.
-
00:23:03
That's a song
about this passage.
-
00:23:05
That's a song about
The Second Coming,
-
00:23:08
The Return of Jesus.
-
00:23:09
There's another one,
if you were in a choir
-
00:23:12
or a really good chorus,
maybe you sang this one.
-
00:23:16
[music: Handel, Messiah]
-
00:23:21
I sang that when I was
a senior in high school,
-
00:23:24
Handel's Messiah,
The Hallelujah Chorus,
-
00:23:27
maybe one of the greatest
musical compositions ever.
-
00:23:31
And what are they saying?
-
00:23:34
He shall reign forever and ever,
-
00:23:36
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
-
00:23:39
Later, if you know the
words of all the verses,
-
00:23:41
it says, "The kingdom of our God
-
00:23:43
has become the
kingdom of this earth."
-
00:23:45
It's about the day that
Jesus returns to this earth.
-
00:23:50
And I mean, we really
couldn't talk about music
-
00:23:53
around this passage
without mentioning,
-
00:23:56
oh, the great Johnny Cash
-
00:23:57
and his truly
bizarre song about it.
-
00:23:59
[music: Johnny Cash,
The Man Comes Around]
-
00:24:04
Who knows the song?
-
00:24:05
It's called The Man
Comes Around.
-
00:24:07
If you don't know it,
you should go listen to it.
-
00:24:09
Truly bizarre,
but so fascinating.
-
00:24:12
And it's rich, rich with this
imagery from this passage.
-
00:24:18
There's something
about it that has captured
-
00:24:21
the minds and hearts of our
artists and musicians forever.
-
00:24:24
And I think we shy
away from talking about it
-
00:24:27
maybe a little too much
in the church because
-
00:24:30
we have a vision of it, right?
-
00:24:34
And because we
only have a vision of it
-
00:24:36
and it's trying to
depict something
-
00:24:38
that our human eyes have
never really been able to see
-
00:24:42
and that we can't
fully comprehend.
-
00:24:43
That one day every
single pair of eyes on earth
-
00:24:46
is going to see Him return.
-
00:24:48
And that, like, blows our mind.
-
00:24:52
And so again, we're
tempted to treat this
-
00:24:54
as though it's some maybe story.
-
00:24:58
Boy, wouldn't that be nice?
-
00:25:00
No, listen, if you give this up,
-
00:25:02
if you give this up, you
will never live a life of hope,
-
00:25:06
because that is your hope.
-
00:25:09
The fact that you're
your Savior is alive
-
00:25:12
and that one day
He's coming back here
-
00:25:14
to claim what's His,
this is the entire deal.
-
00:25:17
The entire deal.
-
00:25:18
This passage,
my favorite detail,
-
00:25:20
such a geeky little
detail, but I just love it.
-
00:25:22
So I'm going to tell you, it
says He was wearing many crowns.
-
00:25:25
In one translation it says he's
wearing many diadem crowns.
-
00:25:29
Well, a diadem crown
-
00:25:31
was a crown associated
with a certain geography.
-
00:25:33
Like, if you were
the king of Judah,
-
00:25:35
you might wear a crown.
-
00:25:36
If you were the king of Moab,
you would wear a crown.
-
00:25:38
If you were the
king of the Midwest,
-
00:25:40
you might have a crown.
-
00:25:41
If you were the king of
China, you might have a crown,
-
00:25:44
You know, whatever.
-
00:25:45
All the geographies at that time
-
00:25:47
had crowns associated with them.
-
00:25:49
So here we get this
picture of a returning Savior,
-
00:25:53
the returning Messiah,
-
00:25:54
and He's wearing
every single one of them.
-
00:25:57
Because guess what?
-
00:25:58
This place is His and it
was created through Him.
-
00:26:02
And when He comes back,
He's going to be wearing
-
00:26:04
the crown over every
single geography
-
00:26:06
because they're all His.
-
00:26:11
And when He comes, He's
coming to take you home.
-
00:26:15
This is the vision of home.
-
00:26:16
This is the one that
we've got, friends.
-
00:26:18
I know it's tough.
-
00:26:19
I know it's in the
Book of Revelation.
-
00:26:21
I know that we
don't understand it,
-
00:26:22
and our minds have a
hard time conceiving of it.
-
00:26:25
But you cannot
let loose of the truth
-
00:26:27
that Jesus will return,
not this time as a baby.
-
00:26:31
Not this time to
live as a humble life
-
00:26:34
and die a death on a cross.
-
00:26:35
This time He's coming
back as a warrior.
-
00:26:39
He's coming back to
claim what was His.
-
00:26:41
And He's bringing
some armies with Him
-
00:26:43
and He's going to
defeat His enemies.
-
00:26:45
And this is the picture
of Jesus that we get
-
00:26:49
when He comes back here to
create your everlasting home.
-
00:26:53
And when we don't
teach this enough
-
00:26:55
we let it be some fairy tale.
-
00:26:58
But if we let loose of Easter
-
00:27:00
and then this being
the end of the story,
-
00:27:02
then we give up the
very source of our hope.
-
00:27:05
Guys, He is alive.
-
00:27:07
And this is what happens
when He comes back.
-
00:27:11
Modern psychology
and the Bible, by the way,
-
00:27:13
are in lockstep agreement that
-
00:27:15
when you fix your
eyes on a living hope,
-
00:27:18
something you know is
going to happen in the future,
-
00:27:20
but it's not quite here yet,
-
00:27:23
your everyday life right
now today changes.
-
00:27:27
Everything about you changes.
-
00:27:29
Listen to some of these things.
-
00:27:31
When you fix your eyes
on something tangible
-
00:27:34
that you believe
is coming to you,
-
00:27:36
that you know is coming
to you out in the future,
-
00:27:39
here's how your today changes
-
00:27:41
from all kinds of academic
psychological research.
-
00:27:44
Physically, you
have better immunity.
-
00:27:48
You have a higher
pain tolerance.
-
00:27:50
You are better at
delaying gratification.
-
00:27:53
These are the trends of
people with a living hope.
-
00:27:56
Intellectually, it's
a better predictor
-
00:27:59
of academic or work performance
-
00:28:01
than intelligence or
any personality trait.
-
00:28:04
Hope changes the way
you work. That's crazy.
-
00:28:09
Emotionally, very
unsurprisingly,
-
00:28:11
I know you'll be
with me on this one,
-
00:28:13
lower levels of anxiety,
-
00:28:15
lower levels of
depressive symptoms,
-
00:28:17
higher resilience,
higher self control.
-
00:28:21
These are general trends
that have been proven
-
00:28:23
over and over and over
again that when we live
-
00:28:27
with something we know
is coming to us in the future,
-
00:28:30
it actually changes
who we are today.
-
00:28:33
It changes our body, our
mind, our heart, our spirit,
-
00:28:36
the very way in which
we go about our life.
-
00:28:39
This is ours to live in
right now, right here today.
-
00:28:45
Here's what one
researcher said about hope.
-
00:28:55
Hope is an equal
opportunity resource.
-
00:28:58
That is so amazing.
-
00:29:00
If we got that, then
we would join Peter
-
00:29:03
in his words, in 1
Peter 1, when he says:
-
00:29:21
In His great mercy.
-
00:29:24
God has mercy on us.
-
00:29:25
He knows what
we're living through.
-
00:29:27
He knows we're living
through the day after.
-
00:29:29
He knows He doesn't
check all your boxes
-
00:29:31
for the help that
you want right now
-
00:29:34
in the way that you want it.
-
00:29:35
And in His great mercy,
He's given you a sign
-
00:29:38
and a promise and a
certainty of a living hope.
-
00:29:44
And how he gave it to you,
-
00:29:46
the reason you can hang
your hat on it is Easter.
-
00:29:50
The hope that one day
-
00:29:51
that Jesus is coming
to take you home.
-
00:29:53
If you don't believe that,
-
00:29:56
you will not walk out of here
with a smile on your face.
-
00:29:59
If you do, it's going to
start to ooze out of your life.
-
00:30:02
Maybe it's only a
tiny trickle at first.
-
00:30:04
Maybe you're just going
to consider this thought.
-
00:30:06
And maybe someday in
the future somebody will go,
-
00:30:08
"Why are you okay right now?"
-
00:30:11
Because something's
happening to you or around you
-
00:30:14
or with you or someone you love.
-
00:30:16
And the answer is, "If
Jesus died and rose again,
-
00:30:21
I know I will
live that life too."
-
00:30:26
And I also know you're
not going to get there
-
00:30:29
by me standing up here
going be more hopeful.
-
00:30:33
And you be more hopeful
and you be more hopeful.
-
00:30:36
You're going to be more hopeful
-
00:30:38
when you catch a glimpse of it.
-
00:30:40
And here's the thing,
when we start to understand
-
00:30:42
what is written in the
Bible and that this has been
-
00:30:45
the core of our faith from
the very first Christian
-
00:30:47
to anybody in here
who's in Christ,
-
00:30:51
we begin to have this exchange
-
00:30:54
with the Spirit
that lives in us.
-
00:30:56
Because when we fix
our eyes on this and we go,
-
00:30:58
"Okay, I believe
You, You're coming
-
00:31:00
and we're in the
middle of a mess,
-
00:31:02
but You're coming,
You're coming.
-
00:31:03
You're going to give me help
and hope, in the meantime,
-
00:31:05
and You're going to
come and take me home.
-
00:31:07
And I believe it."
-
00:31:08
And you start to live that.
-
00:31:09
Then you start to actually
see the evidence around you.
-
00:31:12
You start to actually
hear the words of hope
-
00:31:15
from other people.
-
00:31:17
And friends, hope is contagious.
-
00:31:18
I have a podcast
that I started doing
-
00:31:20
a handful of months ago,
-
00:31:22
and if you listen to
one of the episodes,
-
00:31:24
you will hear a story of hope,
-
00:31:26
because the first words
out of my mouth are,
-
00:31:28
"This is a podcast of
hope where we tell stories
-
00:31:30
about a real God who's
coming into our real life
-
00:31:34
with help and hope
and redemption."
-
00:31:36
And we start to
catch little glimpses.
-
00:31:39
And the Spirit that
lives in you tells you,
-
00:31:41
"Yep, that's true."
-
00:31:42
That's a little foretaste.
It's a little glimpse.
-
00:31:46
So I would encourage
you to anchor yourself,
-
00:31:48
root yourself in the
truth that is in scripture
-
00:31:51
about this return, because it
is everything to a life of hope.
-
00:31:59
I want you to catch
one more glimpse.
-
00:32:02
The words of Revelation 19 are
going to be read one more time.
-
00:32:05
And I want you to just consider
-
00:32:06
what is it in your
life right now
-
00:32:09
that you need this
God to help you with.
-
00:33:24
- The King of Kings,
The Lord of Lords,
-
00:33:27
He's coming back
here to take you home,
-
00:33:32
to take you all the way home.
-
00:33:34
And when He does,
-
00:33:35
He's going to be
wearing all the crowns.
-
00:33:38
All the crowns.
-
00:33:39
And the coolest thing is,
-
00:33:41
if you keep reading in
the book of Revelation,
-
00:33:43
even though this
battle scene is set up,
-
00:33:45
there is no battle
that ever takes place.
-
00:33:48
Jesus speaks a word
and His enemies are gone.
-
00:33:51
And you know why? Easter.
-
00:33:54
Because He died
and He rose again.
-
00:33:56
And the victory was won
-
00:33:58
the moment He
started to breathe again,
-
00:34:00
the moment that he
stepped out of that grave,
-
00:34:02
it was all said and done.
-
00:34:05
And that's the reality
that you and I get to live in
-
00:34:08
right now today.
-
00:34:10
And in that day,
every knee will bow,
-
00:34:13
every tongue will confess
-
00:34:14
that Easter is no
hollow fairytale.
-
00:34:17
It's just the first glimpse
-
00:34:19
that your hope was
always alive and well.
-
00:34:22
I want to invite you
wherever you are
-
00:34:24
to stand up with me right now.
-
00:34:26
And I want you to
just worship Him,
-
00:34:29
The King of Kings,
the Lord of Lords,
-
00:34:31
the one that is
coming back for you.