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Good Friday Live Service

1 hr 4 mins 38 sec
00:00:00
01:20:54

We know Easter is the day you put on your most uncomfortable outfit, throw some perfectly good eggs out into the yard, and also there’s a bunny there for some reason…right? But what if we told you that Easter isn’t just an excuse to get dressed up like a highlighter, but a celebration of a real, historical event that changed human history?

Dive in as Brian Tome breaks down six of the most important reasons we have to believe that the story isn’t just a fairy tale, but a real part of human history that can change how we live today.

  • 00:03:17
    - Well, hey, happy Easter and welcome to Crossroads.
  • 00:03:21
    Wherever you're watching from,
  • 00:03:22
    your kitchen table, the living room,
  • 00:03:24
    maybe on your phone hiding the bathroom from your kids,
  • 00:03:26
    we're so glad that you're here.
  • 00:03:27
    Hey, my name is Andy Reider and I get to be
  • 00:03:29
    the community pastor for what we call
  • 00:03:31
    our Crossroads Anywhere community.
  • 00:03:32
    That's the part of our community all over the globe
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    that meets in homes, dorms, bars, cafes, all over.
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    And this is the biggest weekend of the year for us.
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    Why? Because it all hinges on one moment
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    that Jesus died and then came back.
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    And I get it, that might sound crazy.
  • 00:03:50
    If you're not sure what you believe about God
  • 00:03:52
    or Jesus or the resurrection, hey, you're not alone.
  • 00:03:55
    But maybe, just maybe,
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    there's something in this story
  • 00:04:00
    that your heart needs to hear.
  • 00:04:02
    So before we get into our time together,
  • 00:04:04
    I want to invite you into a moment.
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    Not the clean, stained glass,
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    pastel shirt version of Easter, but the real one.
  • 00:04:12
    Try to imagine this.
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    You just watched your friend,
  • 00:04:15
    the one that you thought might actually change everything
  • 00:04:18
    be betrayed, beaten, and executed.
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    Where the light goes out and you just think
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    that's it, it's over.
  • 00:04:27
    Maybe you're even in one of those moments right now.
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    But that's not the end of the story.
  • 00:04:32
    Three days later, He's back,
  • 00:04:34
    alive, walking, talking, eating,
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    the same hands, the same scars, the same Jesus.
  • 00:04:41
    What was dead wasn't dead anymore.
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    And suddenly the thing that looked like the end
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    became a beginning.
  • 00:04:48
    That's why Easter matters.
  • 00:04:50
    Not because of religion,
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    not because of tradition,
  • 00:04:52
    but because the resurrection is real.
  • 00:04:56
    So let me ask you,
  • 00:04:58
    where's the dead space in your life right now?
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    The place that you've written off?
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    It might be a relationship, a dream,
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    your faith, your health.
  • 00:05:06
    Could it be that Jesus didn't just rise then,
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    but that He still raises things right now?
  • 00:05:12
    That's what today is all about.
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    If you're new here, our hope is simple
  • 00:05:16
    that you catch a glimpse of how
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    this ancient, wild and true story
  • 00:05:20
    could actually change your life today.
  • 00:05:23
    We've all got something that
  • 00:05:24
    needs to be brought back to life,
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    and the best thing about the Bible
  • 00:05:28
    is that it isn't just the stories
  • 00:05:29
    of what God has done in the past,
  • 00:05:31
    it's the stories of what He's still doing
  • 00:05:34
    in you and in me back then and right now.
  • 00:05:52
    - Mary Magdalene was walking in darkness,
  • 00:05:54
    until she met Jesus and His life-changing light..
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    Now here she was, in the dark again,
  • 00:05:59
    before sunrise at His tomb.
  • 00:06:01
    Her jaw dropped:
  • 00:06:02
    Somehow, the stone holding Him had been shoved aside.
  • 00:06:06
    Tears poured down her cheeks as she ran to tell
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    Peter and John that someone had taken His body.
  • 00:06:12
    ♪ I will overcome ♪
  • 00:06:16
    ♪ Even when you say the hurt isn't done ♪
  • 00:06:22
    ♪ I will overcome ♪
  • 00:06:27
    ♪ Even when you say the hurt isn't done ♪
  • 00:06:33
    ♪ And if these eyes can't see another day ♪
  • 00:06:37
    ♪ I'll take all the love that they can never take away ♪
  • 00:06:43
    ♪ And I will meet you in the light ♪
  • 00:06:48
    ♪ From the rise in the morning 'til the death of the night ♪
  • 00:06:55
    Mary barely got the words out before Peter and John raced off
  • 00:06:58
    to the tomb to see for themselves.
  • 00:07:00
    John pulled up short
  • 00:07:01
    and couldn’t bring himself to look inside,
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    but Peter barged right in.
  • 00:07:05
    What?! No body, just grave clothes folded neatly
  • 00:07:10
    so Death would get the message clearly:
  • 00:07:12
    it’s got NO hold on Him.
  • 00:07:15
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:07:19
    ♪ When you lose your faith in everyone ♪
  • 00:07:25
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:07:30
    ♪ Out of darkness when you see the sun ♪
  • 00:07:36
    ♪ I will overcome ♪
  • 00:07:41
    ♪ Even when I know the hurt isn't done ♪
  • 00:07:46
    ♪ And I will meet you in the light ♪
  • 00:07:51
    ♪ From the rise in the morning to the death of the night ♪
  • 00:07:56
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:08:01
    ♪ When the world feels like it's against us ♪
  • 00:08:07
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:08:12
    ♪ out of darkness when we see the sun ♪
  • 00:08:19
    Mary stood outside the tomb in the garden,
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    tears pouring down her cheeks.
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    The Gardener walked up and asked,
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    “Hey, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”
  • 00:08:29
    Mary broke and said, “Sir,
  • 00:08:31
    just tell me where you’ve taken His body—please!”
  • 00:08:35
    The Gardener looked at her with a wide smile
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    and called her by name: “MARY!”
  • 00:08:41
    Wait, it was Him! “Teacher!” she yelled
  • 00:08:44
    as she wrapped Jesus in a tight bear hug.
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    He said, “Go! Tell my brothers,
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    ‘I’m heading to MY Father and YOUR Father,
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    to MY God and YOUR God.”
  • 00:08:54
    Mary ran back to the disciples
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    and shouted, “I HAVE SEEN THE LORD!”
  • 00:09:02
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:09:07
    ♪ When the world feels like it's against us ♪
  • 00:09:13
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:09:17
    ♪ When we don't see hope around us ♪
  • 00:09:23
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:09:28
    ♪ When the one you love is on the run ♪
  • 00:09:34
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:09:39
    ♪ Out of darkness when we see the sun ♪
  • 00:09:46
    That same Sunday night,
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    the disciples had locked themselves in the Upper Room
  • 00:09:50
    because they were still frightened.
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    Jesus suddenly stood among them,
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    showed them His hands and His side,
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    spoke a blessing on them,
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    and breathed on them to believe and receive the Holy Spirit.
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    They finally got it: Jesus was RAISED FROM THE DEAD!
  • 00:10:06
    And NOW—exactly as scripture promises—
  • 00:10:09
    He’s seated at the right hand of the Father
  • 00:10:11
    in the heavenly places,
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    FAR ABOVE all rule and authority and power and dominion,
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    and above EVERY NAME THAT IS NAMED,
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    not only in THIS AGE, BUT ALSO IN THE ONE TO COME.
  • 00:10:21
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
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    Because of the resurrection, The Light beat the Darkness!
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    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
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    We celebrate right now
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    because death has been stripped and left powerless.!
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    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:10:45
    And now Jesus is holding the keys
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    —shaking them loud for everyone to hear:
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    “I own Death! And I own Life!”
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    Give me yours and you'll never touch the grave.
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    One Day ALL THINGS will be made new through Me!
  • 00:10:57
    So Grab Joy and hold up Hope, for I have OVERCOME THE WORLD!
  • 00:11:02
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:11:06
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:11:11
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:11:17
    ♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪
  • 00:18:13
    - You got it. Sing it again.
  • 00:23:34
    - That's the way to start Easter off, right? Come on.
  • 00:23:39
    If we've never met, my name is Justin.
  • 00:23:41
    I just want to pray for you to come in together.
  • 00:23:45
    Jesus, I want us -- I want for every person
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    who can hear my voice, I want them to meet You today.
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    Because You changed my life
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    and I want the same for them,
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    for every single person in here
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    to know Your resurrection, life, and power,
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    joy and peace, all that You bring.
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    I pray all this because of You, Jesus. Amen. Amen.
  • 00:24:16
    Hey, why don't you turn to somebody next to you
  • 00:24:18
    and say, hey, Happy Easter, then you can have a seat.
  • 00:24:27
    - In my view, my life was fairly charmed.
  • 00:24:29
    I mean, I didn't feel like I was missing anything.
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    I had great family, great friends,
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    successful in anything I kind of put my mind to.
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    And so when I looked at Christianity,
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    I just saw it as a crutch.
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    And I said, look, I don't need God.
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    I don't need Christianity. My life is great.
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    It's not that I didn't think that God could be real,
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    it's that I would never ascribe myself
  • 00:24:50
    to a religion like that.
  • 00:24:52
    In terms of issues that I had with the Bible,
  • 00:24:54
    first was the numerous amounts of genocide
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    that occurred in the Old Testament.
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    I just didn't think it was fair.
  • 00:25:01
    This doesn't make sense.
  • 00:25:02
    Again, the inconsistencies I saw in light of evolution,
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    for example, all these arguments I've had,
  • 00:25:08
    and I would go after anybody who thought,
  • 00:25:10
    who professed to be Christian,
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    whether they be friends, acquaintances, pastors.
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    And I would always get them to,
  • 00:25:17
    "Well, it just comes down to faith."
  • 00:25:19
    And the minute they said those words,
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    that's when I thought that I'd won the argument.
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    One of my best friends from high school
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    and one of my best friends in college,
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    they were devout Christians; I talked them out of it.
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    And it is one of my greatest shames today.
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    My wife, she led a life so much different than mine.
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    Her father committed suicide when she was 3 years old.
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    The man that her mother remarried
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    was an alcoholic, physically abusive,
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    he was also a deacon of the church.
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    Her boyfriend in college was a worship leader
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    who was also a philanderer and just cheated on her
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    repeatedly with multiple people.
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    Yet despite all of these things,
  • 00:26:00
    she never wavered in her faith.
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    If half of the things that happened to my wife
  • 00:26:05
    happened to me, I would be a wreck.
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    I began to understand the weakness
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    that I thought Christians had
  • 00:26:13
    was actually God given strength.
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    All the things that I was reading the Bible
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    started to make more sense through my marriage to my wife.
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    The birth of my sons, that alone
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    was some type of epiphany where I began to see
  • 00:26:27
    the glimmer of God.
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    To me, the most prevalent theme in the Bible
  • 00:26:32
    is the relationship between father and son,
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    father and child.
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    - What did a relationship with God
  • 00:26:38
    actually look like in your life?
  • 00:26:41
    - As a lawyer, since I'm a lawyer,
  • 00:26:42
    we work a lot with analogy,
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    so I'm going to give you an analogy.
  • 00:26:45
    It's like when you were watching a 19 inch TV
  • 00:26:49
    and a VHS cassette tape.
  • 00:26:51
    You thought, this is great.
  • 00:26:53
    I can't imagine a movie that would look better.
  • 00:26:55
    But then you get an 80 inch flat screen,
  • 00:26:58
    high definition 4K, and you can never go back.
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    You can never go back to that VHS cassette.
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    I promised my wife I won't cry, but it's really hard.
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    I know that there is a God
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    and that he sent my wife to save me,
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    and I'm going to do what I can
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    so that other people can come to that same realization.
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    - Ed is in the band at our new Dayton facility,
  • 00:27:29
    which is opened this weekend.
  • 00:27:31
    Let's welcome all of Dayton to the Crossroads community.
  • 00:27:33
    [applause] Man.
  • 00:27:37
    So good to be with everybody in Dayton
  • 00:27:38
    and all of our sites all over the place.
  • 00:27:41
    I'm pretty geeked about today
  • 00:27:43
    because today is a pretty big holiday.
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    You know, it's called Easter.
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    And if you don't know what Easter is about,
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    I'm going to try to explain it to you.
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    Let's pray before I go any further.
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    God, I appreciate things that are beyond
  • 00:27:55
    the understandable and today is one of those things.
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    This holiday is not fully understandable.
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    There's mystery involved.
  • 00:28:02
    There's transcendency, there's love, t
  • 00:28:06
    here's power, all of these things.
  • 00:28:07
    And I just don't feel fully equipped
  • 00:28:10
    to be able to explain all these things fully.
  • 00:28:12
    And so we rest on You, and we know
  • 00:28:14
    that You've brought us here for a reason.
  • 00:28:15
    And so we ask you build into us in some way, shape or form.
  • 00:28:18
    I pray these things according to
  • 00:28:19
    the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:28:24
    Well, my understanding of and awareness of Easter
  • 00:28:28
    has morphed a lot over, over the many, many years
  • 00:28:32
    that I've been alive.
  • 00:28:33
    I grew up with my mom who played the organ.
  • 00:28:37
    My dad in church, my dad sang in the choir in church.
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    So I was always dragged to church.
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    It wasn't a good experience to me.
  • 00:28:45
    And Easter was the worst experience of all, actually,
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    because there was more stress to behave the right way
  • 00:28:51
    and be the right thing.
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    And back way, way back when that was
  • 00:28:54
    it was a cultural expectation,
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    you would not only wear your Sunday best,
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    you would wear something new.
  • 00:29:01
    You would like take your dress to the next level,
  • 00:29:04
    which looking in here,
  • 00:29:06
    that tradition does not exist anymore.
  • 00:29:10
    Maybe you, maybe you, maybe you.
  • 00:29:12
    That tradition is long gone.
  • 00:29:16
    I would get this brand new suit and it would be scratchy
  • 00:29:19
    and the collar would be too tight, and it would --
  • 00:29:21
    And it bothered me.
  • 00:29:22
    And I would go and and I would hear stories,
  • 00:29:25
    as I remember it, stories of daffodils
  • 00:29:29
    and tulips and springtime.
  • 00:29:31
    And I just didn't understand what Easter was.
  • 00:29:34
    And I would hear, like, Jesus is on the Cross
  • 00:29:36
    or Jesus is risen from the grave.
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    And I equated it and I think it was talked about
  • 00:29:42
    in the church I grew up in is it's just like
  • 00:29:45
    flowers coming to life and beautiful things happen.
  • 00:29:48
    And all that may be true to one degree or another,
  • 00:29:51
    but it just didn't appeal to me.
  • 00:29:53
    Like the Easter Bunny,
  • 00:29:54
    I never was really big on the Easter Bunny.
  • 00:29:57
    I just think it's just too uninspiring.
  • 00:29:59
    I mean, what's wrong with,
  • 00:30:00
    why don't we have the Easter grizzly?
  • 00:30:02
    If we had the Easter grizzly, you know,
  • 00:30:04
    a little kid might get excited then
  • 00:30:06
    about the Easter grizzly,
  • 00:30:08
    instead of the Easter Bunny.
  • 00:30:11
    And it was really crazy, as time went on,
  • 00:30:15
    I came to understand what Easter was.
  • 00:30:17
    It was about, and I didn't know this growing up
  • 00:30:20
    in the church I grew up in, it was about
  • 00:30:22
    the literal, physical, and historical,
  • 00:30:25
    not metaphorical, resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
  • 00:30:30
    That He came back from the dead.
  • 00:30:33
    This isn't a metaphor. This isn't an analogy.
  • 00:30:34
    This isn't a feel good story.
  • 00:30:36
    It's a literal historical truth.
  • 00:30:39
    And that's what I'm gonna spend
  • 00:30:40
    the rest of my time today doing,
  • 00:30:42
    helping convince you that this is
  • 00:30:45
    a literal historical truth that should impact your life.
  • 00:30:48
    Some of have never believed that before.
  • 00:30:50
    My hope is come to the end of the day, you might go,
  • 00:30:52
    "Huh? Wow. Never considered that before.
  • 00:30:56
    Uh, okay, I think I'm in."
  • 00:30:59
    And others of us who walked in here today,
  • 00:31:02
    will be bolstered, perhaps in the faith we have,
  • 00:31:04
    and be able to articulate it to somebody else.
  • 00:31:06
    But this is the biggest thing, the biggest deal
  • 00:31:08
    that ever happened in all of human history,
  • 00:31:11
    in my opinion.
  • 00:31:13
    A person who walked the earth came back from the dead.
  • 00:31:17
    In the book of 1 Corinthians 15:14,
  • 00:31:20
    it says this in talking about this belief.
  • 00:31:33
    If Christ is not raised,
  • 00:31:35
    then anybody who's a Christian is wasting their time.
  • 00:31:39
    This is according to Bible.
  • 00:31:40
    If He's not come back literally from the dead,
  • 00:31:42
    you're wasting your time in a faith that is meaningless.
  • 00:31:46
    In fact, it also tells me
  • 00:31:47
    I've made the wrong career choice.
  • 00:31:49
    Our preaching is in vain. I made the wrong --
  • 00:31:52
    I could be doing something else to making a lot more money.
  • 00:31:55
    I make good money, thank you very much.
  • 00:31:56
    You're very generous, Crossroads.
  • 00:31:58
    But I can put all my stuff
  • 00:31:59
    into something else somewhere else.
  • 00:32:00
    I've wasted my life. I've wasted my occupation.
  • 00:32:04
    That's what this is.
  • 00:32:16
    So he's saying, all of us have the hope
  • 00:32:19
    that we will be raised, all of us.
  • 00:32:21
    But Jesus is the first.
  • 00:32:34
    All of us have to figure out some way
  • 00:32:36
    to deal with our sins, deal with our bad choices,
  • 00:32:39
    if you like that phrase, it's a little less offensive,
  • 00:32:42
    deal with our pain points.
  • 00:32:44
    We all deal with them somehow.
  • 00:32:45
    Some of us deal with them by explaining them away.
  • 00:32:47
    "Well, you know, anybody would have done it
  • 00:32:49
    if they were me. It's no big deal."
  • 00:32:51
    Others of us deal with it by saying,
  • 00:32:52
    "Well, if God grades on the curve,
  • 00:32:54
    I'm sort of in the upper 50%, so I think I'm fine."
  • 00:32:57
    Others deal with it by just explaining it away,
  • 00:32:59
    "No, it wasn't me. It wasn't me."
  • 00:33:01
    Others of us deal with it by saying,
  • 00:33:02
    "Well, I'm going to come back reincarnated
  • 00:33:04
    this next life and I'm going to have another life form,
  • 00:33:07
    and I'm going to keep evolving myself
  • 00:33:09
    until I get to that place where I can get
  • 00:33:11
    the brass ring and I become authenticated."
  • 00:33:13
    Others of us -- they go on and on and on.
  • 00:33:15
    All of us have some system will work,
  • 00:33:17
    and even if the system is just deny, deny, deny.
  • 00:33:21
    There is no afterlife, deny, deny, deny.
  • 00:33:23
    There is no ramifications for my sin, deny, deny.
  • 00:33:26
    All of us have to have something because
  • 00:33:28
    there is an understanding of divine
  • 00:33:31
    planted inside of all this, all of us.
  • 00:33:34
    And the Bible says, Jesus says that He goes to a Cross
  • 00:33:40
    and He takes the hit for what I deserve.
  • 00:33:44
    So that therefore when I go before God,
  • 00:33:46
    I'm never concerned that He's going to spank me.
  • 00:33:49
    I'm not afraid of dying at all because I'm ready.
  • 00:33:53
    I'm ready because Jesus has made me ready,
  • 00:33:54
    because all of my stuff was transferred onto His back,
  • 00:33:57
    all of my sin, all of my problems, all of my hangups.
  • 00:34:02
    And not only this, here's what's really wild,
  • 00:34:04
    His potency from when He came back from the dead,
  • 00:34:09
    the Bible says the same Spirit that gave life
  • 00:34:12
    to His mortal body will also give life to yours.
  • 00:34:15
    That that same power that brought Him back from the dead
  • 00:34:19
    actually is for me and is in me
  • 00:34:23
    and in you if you receive Him.
  • 00:34:26
    I know I meet a lot of people who just don't believe this,
  • 00:34:29
    just don't believe it.
  • 00:34:30
    Like, a lot of us just believe that
  • 00:34:33
    the way you live life is the default mode
  • 00:34:36
    of anxiety, fear, and depression.
  • 00:34:38
    Especially I find this in younger generations.
  • 00:34:40
    It's like if you're younger
  • 00:34:42
    and you're not anxiety prone, fearful, or depressed,
  • 00:34:45
    you're looked at as weird.
  • 00:34:47
    There's a cultural expectation
  • 00:34:50
    that all of us should be this way.
  • 00:34:52
    And I'll just say there's a biblical expectation
  • 00:34:55
    that, no, you don't have to be that way.
  • 00:34:57
    That there is a power that comes to you,
  • 00:35:00
    a power that comes to you that transcends
  • 00:35:02
    what everybody else says you have to be
  • 00:35:04
    and what you have to do.
  • 00:35:05
    There's power to Him.
  • 00:35:07
    This isn't just a theological exercise,
  • 00:35:09
    though it is a theological exercise.
  • 00:35:11
    It's not only a theological exercise,
  • 00:35:14
    it's a practical exercise
  • 00:35:16
    for what is the potent force in your life.
  • 00:35:20
    So let me give you six reasons why I came to believe
  • 00:35:24
    that this is actual, real and literal.
  • 00:35:29
    Uh, the first is this. First is this.
  • 00:35:31
    The faith of Jesus's brothers. Faith of Jesus's brothers.
  • 00:35:37
    A lot of things have changed in our world
  • 00:35:39
    a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of things.
  • 00:35:41
    Like, I would have never thought that I would
  • 00:35:42
    be doing ChatGPT more than Google.
  • 00:35:46
    I never, never thought.
  • 00:35:48
    I would have never thought that I'd be living
  • 00:35:50
    in a time in America where I don't know
  • 00:35:52
    anybody who works in a factory factory.
  • 00:35:54
    Like, growing up where I grew up in Pittsburgh.
  • 00:35:56
    Like, factories go away, like they're gone.
  • 00:35:58
    Like, maybe a couple people, a few people
  • 00:36:00
    at Crossroads who are in factory.
  • 00:36:02
    Like, manufacturing is for the most part gone in America.
  • 00:36:06
    I would have never thought.
  • 00:36:07
    I would have never thought of the change,
  • 00:36:09
    never thought of the change that's come to us
  • 00:36:12
    politically over the last several years.
  • 00:36:14
    I'm talking just the last several months.
  • 00:36:16
    I mean, the last several years.
  • 00:36:17
    It's just crazy things have been happening all around.
  • 00:36:21
    And the one thing, one thing that I can say
  • 00:36:25
    never changes is that brothers annoy sisters
  • 00:36:28
    and sisters annoy brothers. You know?
  • 00:36:32
    That's just the way it is.
  • 00:36:35
    Jesus's brothers were annoyed by Jesus.
  • 00:36:38
    Now, some of us might come from a faith tradition
  • 00:36:40
    that says that Mary was a virgin and never had sex,
  • 00:36:43
    and never had any other kids other than Jesus.
  • 00:36:46
    I'm sorry, that's not true.
  • 00:36:48
    She was a virgin before she had Jesus.
  • 00:36:51
    Virgin birth.
  • 00:36:53
    I don't want to get into Christmas here right now.
  • 00:36:55
    But there's nothing in the Bible that says
  • 00:36:57
    that she never had sex and never had kids later on.
  • 00:37:00
    She very clearly did in the Bible have kids.
  • 00:37:04
    And this is what their response to Jesus was.
  • 00:37:07
    Jesus's younger brothers, what their response was.
  • 00:37:10
    John 7:3-5.
  • 00:37:20
    Your disciples, like, we're not your disciples.
  • 00:37:22
    You're -- we're not. We don't believe in You, but they do.
  • 00:37:26
    So they're kind of needling Him in a sarcastic way.
  • 00:37:33
    "If you do these things, if you --
  • 00:37:35
    If you do these things, show yourself to the world.
  • 00:37:37
    Are you really? Huh? Really, really?"
  • 00:37:39
    Show yourself to the world.
  • 00:37:44
    They didn't believe in Him.
  • 00:37:47
    I have a younger brother, younger sister.
  • 00:37:49
    True confession, I was a horrible big brother.
  • 00:37:51
    You would have hated me as a big brother,
  • 00:37:55
    unless you like being teased, i.e. bullied,
  • 00:37:57
    unless you like that you would have hated it.
  • 00:37:59
    My brother and sister are five years younger than me.
  • 00:38:02
    I was horrible. I picked on them.
  • 00:38:04
    I, you know, I just, I was just annoying. Right?
  • 00:38:06
    And then I got old enough for my parents
  • 00:38:09
    would hire me to babysit them.
  • 00:38:11
    Oh, that's so -- it was so good.
  • 00:38:12
    It was so wonderful making them do
  • 00:38:14
    whatever I said they had to do as their babysitter.
  • 00:38:16
    And of course, they annoyed me, and I would, uh,
  • 00:38:19
    first thing I would do, my parents leave the house.
  • 00:38:21
    I would go to all the clocks in the house
  • 00:38:25
    because they were -- This was back in the days
  • 00:38:27
    when you had an hour hand, which is the little one,
  • 00:38:29
    in case you don't know, and a minute hand,
  • 00:38:31
    which is the bigger one.
  • 00:38:32
    And I went to all in the houses,
  • 00:38:34
    I set all the clocks two hours forward,
  • 00:38:37
    so they would have to go to bed
  • 00:38:38
    two hours earlier than normal. Right?
  • 00:38:42
    So I put them into bed.
  • 00:38:43
    They'd be like, "Hey, wait. The sun's still shining."
  • 00:38:46
    "I know, I know, it happens sometimes.
  • 00:38:48
    Just go to bed. I'm the babysitter, I said go to bed."
  • 00:38:53
    I don't think that Jesus did any of that stuff
  • 00:38:56
    with His brothers, but here's what we know.
  • 00:39:03
    After He dies, these guys who were not believers,
  • 00:39:09
    they become believers after He dies. Why?
  • 00:39:15
    Because they saw Him alive, that's why.
  • 00:39:18
    Because something blew their mind.
  • 00:39:20
    The book of Acts 1:14, which was written
  • 00:39:23
    after Jesus came back to life. It says:
  • 00:39:34
    His brothers came to see Him, His brothers James and Judas.
  • 00:39:38
    Different Judas that betrayed Him with a kiss.
  • 00:39:39
    James, known as James the Just.
  • 00:39:43
    In fact, in early work of history from around 300,
  • 00:39:45
    Eusebius, he details what happened with James the Just.
  • 00:39:51
    Here's what he says.
  • 00:40:09
    He must have heard His brother say that
  • 00:40:11
    at the crucifixion, as Jesus said, "Forgive them.
  • 00:40:14
    They know not what they do," as He was being abused.
  • 00:40:17
    And His brother says the same thing,
  • 00:40:19
    and He dies for His brother,
  • 00:40:23
    who He had just previously read before,
  • 00:40:25
    as we previously read before, said,
  • 00:40:27
    "Oh yeah, go show Yourself."
  • 00:40:29
    What would take him from being a nonbeliever to a believer?
  • 00:40:32
    Seeing your brother back from the dead,
  • 00:40:34
    that would do it, right?
  • 00:40:36
    That would make you realize He was a bit different.
  • 00:40:40
    Second reason why I believe,
  • 00:40:43
    and these are well categorized, cataloged by others,
  • 00:40:47
    is what about and why were the women eyewitnesses?
  • 00:40:53
    The women, as the initial eyewitnesses.
  • 00:40:55
    Earlier on in the service we had people
  • 00:40:59
    who were quoting from a different part of the Bible
  • 00:41:03
    the narrative of the resurrection story.
  • 00:41:05
    There's different accounts that are highlighting
  • 00:41:08
    different important elements to it.
  • 00:41:10
    In the book of Mark 16, here's what it says.
  • 00:41:13
    Pay attention to who sees Jesus first.
  • 00:41:17
    Here's what it says:
  • 00:41:28
    So this is in the morning after Jesus has died.
  • 00:41:31
    They want to take care of the body.
  • 00:41:32
    They want to kind of do good stuff here.
  • 00:41:46
    They're going as women, and where are all the men?
  • 00:41:50
    They're hidden and scaredy weenie boys is where they are.
  • 00:41:54
    They are freaked out.
  • 00:41:58
    They are not happy.
  • 00:41:59
    They don't know what to do.
  • 00:42:00
    They've left their businesses.
  • 00:42:01
    They've started a new thing.
  • 00:42:03
    And all of a sudden, boom!
  • 00:42:04
    Their life is in freefall, turmoil.
  • 00:42:05
    They don't know what to do.
  • 00:42:07
    And these women decide to go and see how Jesus is doing.
  • 00:42:11
    As they're going there, these are women
  • 00:42:13
    who are not CrossFit women, apparently.
  • 00:42:15
    So they're not hyper hyper strong physically.
  • 00:42:17
    They're trying to figure out how to get rid of
  • 00:42:19
    the stone that's going to be rolled over the cave,
  • 00:42:21
    which is his tomb.
  • 00:42:33
    Yeah, I would be alarmed, too.
  • 00:42:35
    If you saw an actual angel, you'd be alarmed.
  • 00:42:56
    See, Jesus had predicted this would happen,
  • 00:42:59
    but the disciples, they were too thick,
  • 00:43:02
    they didn't understand.
  • 00:43:03
    Jesus said to them, He said,
  • 00:43:05
    "Just as Jonah goes into the belly of the whale
  • 00:43:08
    and comes out three days later."
  • 00:43:10
    That was an Old Testament prophet.
  • 00:43:12
    "So also the Son of Man,"
  • 00:43:14
    how He referred to Himself most oftenly.
  • 00:43:16
    "The Son of Man will be put into the belly of the earth
  • 00:43:19
    and will come back three days later."
  • 00:43:21
    He predicted this, and the angel is telling them,
  • 00:43:24
    "You didn't understand. You didn't believe.
  • 00:43:26
    It's actually happened. Go over here, this next place,
  • 00:43:28
    and He's going to meet you there."
  • 00:43:30
    And they went out and fled from the tomb,
  • 00:43:33
    for trembling and astonishment had seized them.
  • 00:43:37
    And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
  • 00:43:40
    Let me tell you what, let me tell you what.
  • 00:43:42
    When there's a person who comes back to life
  • 00:43:45
    and you have a spiritual experience, you don't go,
  • 00:43:47
    "Oh, this is a nice spiritual experience. I loved it."
  • 00:43:50
    Terrified. Freaking terrified.
  • 00:43:53
    "What have we just -- We just experienced angels?
  • 00:43:56
    This person came back to life?"
  • 00:43:57
    They are beside themselves.
  • 00:43:59
    Now they go and they tell the disciples,
  • 00:44:02
    the male disciples.
  • 00:44:03
    And what do you think the male disciples do?
  • 00:44:06
    They don't believe them, of course.
  • 00:44:07
    You know, why would you believe a woman?
  • 00:44:09
    No, never believe the woman. Never believe her.
  • 00:44:11
    Like whenever, we all know this as men, you know,
  • 00:44:13
    if you're driving and you're not sure
  • 00:44:14
    exactly where you're going.
  • 00:44:17
    And your special someone says turn here.
  • 00:44:19
    What do you do? "No, I'm not turning there.
  • 00:44:20
    No, no, I have this figured out."
  • 00:44:22
    Men historically don't listen to women.
  • 00:44:23
    It's not a good thing.
  • 00:44:24
    It's just in our DNA. For many of us.
  • 00:44:28
    And this is what happens here.
  • 00:44:31
    The women go back and tell the men and they say, nope.
  • 00:44:34
    Luke 24:11.
  • 00:44:40
    Now you're sitting here right now, you're probably going,
  • 00:44:42
    you're putting two and two together, going,
  • 00:44:44
    "Brian, what is the what diatribe
  • 00:44:48
    on male female relationships in the Easter story?
  • 00:44:50
    This has nothing to do with anything."
  • 00:44:52
    Oh yes, it does. Here's what has to do with it.
  • 00:44:54
    As you're going to see in a little bit,
  • 00:44:58
    you're going to come to understand, I hope,
  • 00:45:00
    that if you do not believe in the literal, physical,
  • 00:45:03
    historical, non-metaphorical resurrection of Jesus,
  • 00:45:07
    the burden of proof is on you to prove it.
  • 00:45:10
    Because something happened.
  • 00:45:12
    2000 -- some of us go, "I don't even know if Jesus exists."
  • 00:45:14
    "Oh my gosh,
  • 00:45:15
    do you pull your head out of whatever hole it's in?"
  • 00:45:18
    "We're still having, we're debating
  • 00:45:21
    like Jesus actually existed?"
  • 00:45:23
    "Like, everybody all over the world dates time after Him."
  • 00:45:26
    "No, it doesn't."
  • 00:45:27
    Thousands and thousands and thousands of documents
  • 00:45:30
    that speak to Him actually alive.
  • 00:45:32
    Like, people who don't even believe in Him,
  • 00:45:34
    who are Jewish in the Middle East.
  • 00:45:37
    And we're still debating, like, "Doesn't exist."
  • 00:45:40
    Some of us, we get to a place
  • 00:45:42
    we're just not going to believe no matter what.
  • 00:45:45
    For the rest of us who are open and seekers
  • 00:45:47
    and are trying to bolster reality, let me ask you this.
  • 00:45:51
    Maybe here, maybe, just, just maybe, maybe
  • 00:45:56
    the Bible here is communicating what happened
  • 00:46:00
    instead of making it easy for you to believe.
  • 00:46:04
    If the Bible is trying to make itself
  • 00:46:07
    easy to be believed and concocting a fantasy
  • 00:46:10
    that everyone will believe,
  • 00:46:11
    especially in the first century,
  • 00:46:13
    they would have never had women be the first eyewitnesses.
  • 00:46:16
    In the first century, women weren't permitted
  • 00:46:18
    to give testimony in a court of law.
  • 00:46:20
    No one believed women.
  • 00:46:22
    They were second class citizens.
  • 00:46:23
    And we've come a long way. Thank you.
  • 00:46:25
    Can I have an amen from that? Right? Right?
  • 00:46:29
    If you wanted to create a fable, a spiritual lie,
  • 00:46:35
    you would make it believable.
  • 00:46:36
    You would have Joseph of Arimathea
  • 00:46:38
    as the first person at the tomb.
  • 00:46:40
    He's the rich guy who had an extra tomb
  • 00:46:43
    and he donated his tomb to Jesus.
  • 00:46:45
    You'd have had some of the people in the High Court
  • 00:46:48
    who were respectful of Jesus,
  • 00:46:49
    you would have had someone like a Nicodemus,
  • 00:46:51
    who was a high, holy Jewish religious person
  • 00:46:53
    who seems to be adhering to Him,
  • 00:46:55
    and him falling, falling, and finding an empty tomb.
  • 00:47:00
    No, no. It's women. Why?
  • 00:47:01
    Because the Bible isn't trying to give an ironclad case.
  • 00:47:06
    It's not giving that.
  • 00:47:07
    It's just saying, "Here's what happened.
  • 00:47:09
    Women were the first ones.
  • 00:47:10
    They were the first faithful ones.
  • 00:47:12
    They were the first ones who cared.
  • 00:47:13
    They were the first bold ones.
  • 00:47:15
    All the men were scaredy cats."
  • 00:47:16
    They were the first ones
  • 00:47:17
    and they were the first person to proclaim the truth.
  • 00:47:19
    That's just what it is.
  • 00:47:21
    In fact, even today, even today,
  • 00:47:23
    in parts of the world, this is a sticking point.
  • 00:47:27
    If you go to other religions, Islam,
  • 00:47:29
    you can't have women giving truth.
  • 00:47:30
    You can't have women who are evangelists.
  • 00:47:32
    You can't have women who are preaching.
  • 00:47:33
    They're preaching here, they're preaching.
  • 00:47:36
    It's just what happened.
  • 00:47:38
    The third thing, third thing is
  • 00:47:41
    how do we account for the large, large crowds
  • 00:47:46
    of witnesses that have seen Him.
  • 00:47:48
    I understand that much of what I'm going to be --
  • 00:47:50
    I am sharing today is in the Bible
  • 00:47:53
    and could be looked at as circular reasoning, right?
  • 00:47:55
    You're using the Bible to prove the Bible.
  • 00:47:57
    I'm not using the Bible to prove the Bible.
  • 00:47:59
    I am referring to the Bible to shed light
  • 00:48:04
    on the most powerful thing that's ever
  • 00:48:07
    taken place in human history,
  • 00:48:09
    a person coming back from the dead.
  • 00:48:12
    The Bible is an ancient book,
  • 00:48:14
    and in the first century there isn't documentation of anybody.
  • 00:48:19
    You can have documentation of the Roman emperor Tacitus,
  • 00:48:23
    and you can have documentation of Jesus.
  • 00:48:25
    Like, that's it.
  • 00:48:27
    You don't get documentation of the false messiahs.
  • 00:48:29
    There's a bunch of false messiahs.
  • 00:48:32
    You don't know who they are because
  • 00:48:33
    people didn't write about them because they died.
  • 00:48:35
    They said, "Ah, you're just a loser.
  • 00:48:37
    No need, no need to follow that person anymore."
  • 00:48:40
    There just wasn't documentary evidence.
  • 00:48:41
    Like today there will be digital evidence for you
  • 00:48:44
    for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.
  • 00:48:46
    That's kind of depressing, right?
  • 00:48:48
    Thousands and thousands of years,
  • 00:48:49
    every single one of us will have a digital footprint
  • 00:48:51
    and someone will be able to refer back to you.
  • 00:48:53
    But that wasn't the way it was in the ancient world.
  • 00:48:55
    You were either a lord or a king,
  • 00:48:57
    and therefore you had scribes, people to write about you,
  • 00:48:59
    or you were nobody and no one had anything.
  • 00:49:01
    So the fact that we have hundreds and hundreds
  • 00:49:04
    and hundreds, thousands,
  • 00:49:06
    actually 4500 portions of manuscripts
  • 00:49:09
    in the New Testament that are corroborating each other
  • 00:49:13
    and are consistent and say these things is quite stunning.
  • 00:49:16
    There's nothing like it in the ancient world.
  • 00:49:17
    In the book of 1 Corinthians 15:6, it says that
  • 00:49:20
    He appeared to more than 500 brothers all at once,
  • 00:49:24
    all at the same time, most of whom are still alive,
  • 00:49:27
    though some have fallen asleep.
  • 00:49:29
    Paul says 500 people, brothers,
  • 00:49:31
    because that was their census counting system, men.
  • 00:49:34
    So there was women there and children there too.
  • 00:49:36
    But they would just highlight the men.
  • 00:49:38
    They said you could talk to these people right now,
  • 00:49:40
    they're still around.
  • 00:49:41
    Some of them died, some of them fallen asleep.
  • 00:49:43
    They're still around.
  • 00:49:45
    We just got done last week, this week,
  • 00:49:48
    whatever, with a Digital Fast.
  • 00:49:51
    And it was really, really meaningful for me.
  • 00:49:54
    The hardest part, the hardest part for me
  • 00:49:57
    was giving up YouTube, that was really, really hard.
  • 00:50:00
    I just wasn't sure that my rectum would still work
  • 00:50:02
    if I didn't have -- if I wasn't watching YouTube.
  • 00:50:05
    Like, that's all I've done for ten years, right?
  • 00:50:07
    Go number two and you got YouTube.
  • 00:50:11
    Like I'm the only one.
  • 00:50:12
    You guys are like, "Oh, you're so disgusting.
  • 00:50:15
    You're so disgusting."
  • 00:50:17
    Come on, true confessions. Who else? Who else?
  • 00:50:19
    Come on. All right. Anyway.
  • 00:50:21
    That actually wasn't the hardest part.
  • 00:50:23
    The hardest part was the news.
  • 00:50:25
    Actually, that was the hardest part.
  • 00:50:26
    Excuse me. That was the hardest part, the YouTube.
  • 00:50:28
    I was shocked and I thought the hardest thing
  • 00:50:30
    was going to be the news. I gave up all news.
  • 00:50:32
    Didn't read any news. That was easy.
  • 00:50:34
    That was actually glorious, wonderful. Amen.
  • 00:50:36
    Hallelujah! I need to do it all --
  • 00:50:37
    In fact, I've still not gone back to it.
  • 00:50:39
    But was fascinating to me is I would ask people,
  • 00:50:42
    "What's going on in the news, what's going on on the news?"
  • 00:50:44
    And people would give different takes of the same thing.
  • 00:50:48
    But I found out pretty quick there was
  • 00:50:50
    this thing called tariffs that happened.
  • 00:50:52
    You know, they happened.
  • 00:50:54
    And people could disagree over the interpretation
  • 00:50:58
    of whether or not the tariff was right or wrong,
  • 00:51:01
    what it was going to mean.
  • 00:51:02
    But everybody was in alignment that,
  • 00:51:05
    no, tariffs have happened.
  • 00:51:07
    This is what's like with Jesus coming back from the dead.
  • 00:51:10
    People are like, "Well, could have meant this.
  • 00:51:12
    It could have meant that."
  • 00:51:15
    Everybody that was close to this story was aligned. It happened.
  • 00:51:19
    I saw the guy or my mom saw the guy,
  • 00:51:21
    and I trust my mom because of what she said.
  • 00:51:23
    My brother saw the guy.
  • 00:51:25
    Like, 30 days after He was risen from the dead,
  • 00:51:27
    I saw it, he walked around for 40 days.
  • 00:51:29
    I saw this. And they were stunned.
  • 00:51:32
    I've had a very strange prayer,
  • 00:51:34
    hang in with me on this one.
  • 00:51:36
    It's a very strange prayer for a while.
  • 00:51:37
    About every three weeks I binge and waste three hours
  • 00:51:41
    and I listen to a Joe Rogan episode.
  • 00:51:43
    I don't -- Um, yeah, he's an impressive guy.
  • 00:51:46
    If you haven't, if you haven't ever --
  • 00:51:47
    I'm sure you're probably aware of him.
  • 00:51:49
    Just a little, little factoid for you.
  • 00:51:51
    Every day CNN has 700,000 viewers.
  • 00:51:56
    Joe Rogan every day has 11 million.
  • 00:52:00
    Joe Rogan has more people listening to him
  • 00:52:02
    than CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS,
  • 00:52:05
    Fox News and MSNBC all combined every day.
  • 00:52:09
    Pretty, pretty, pretty crazy.
  • 00:52:10
    And when I've listened to him, like,
  • 00:52:12
    I have zero interest in him
  • 00:52:13
    getting high with his buddies,
  • 00:52:15
    and I'm really zero interest
  • 00:52:16
    in hearing about UFOs and whatever.
  • 00:52:18
    A lot of it's -- but when I see a guest,
  • 00:52:20
    like, "Oh, interesting, I want to listen to this one."
  • 00:52:22
    And I've prayed regularly, God, would you please
  • 00:52:24
    bring somebody on this platform who has
  • 00:52:28
    a faith to articulate and a winsome personality?
  • 00:52:32
    Like, there's people on there
  • 00:52:33
    who have winsome personalities
  • 00:52:34
    and just can't articulate their faith.
  • 00:52:36
    They can't talk about the documentary record.
  • 00:52:38
    They can't at all.
  • 00:52:39
    And then there's people who have the ability
  • 00:52:41
    to articulate, are really good communicators,
  • 00:52:43
    but all they can say is, "Well, because I have faith."
  • 00:52:46
    They can't point to anything.
  • 00:52:47
    I'm like, God, would you please bring someone?
  • 00:52:49
    And what do you know? God heard somebody's prayer,
  • 00:52:51
    maybe it was mine, said yes.
  • 00:52:52
    And there was this guy who came on in the last year.
  • 00:52:55
    In my opinion, the most important conversation
  • 00:52:58
    that's happened the last year in America.
  • 00:53:00
    Three hours of a legitimate archeologist historian
  • 00:53:06
    who deals with ancient documents,
  • 00:53:08
    like, holds the ancient documents,
  • 00:53:10
    the Dead Sea Scrolls
  • 00:53:12
    went on Joe Rogan and just was amazing.
  • 00:53:14
    You can go and find that.
  • 00:53:16
    I highly recommend it, because what you find is
  • 00:53:19
    the people who study these things,
  • 00:53:21
    they know what they're talking about,
  • 00:53:26
    and there's no answer to them other than, wow.
  • 00:53:29
    All we can answer, all we can answer,
  • 00:53:30
    this is what normally happens is, "Well,
  • 00:53:33
    well, okay, 500 people.
  • 00:53:35
    But maybe it was a mass hallucination."
  • 00:53:39
    Psychologists say that 500 people
  • 00:53:41
    having the same hallucination at the same time
  • 00:53:44
    is more unrealistic
  • 00:53:45
    than somebody coming back from the dead.
  • 00:53:48
    Or they'll say, "Well, yes, yes, yes, He came back.
  • 00:53:53
    He came back from the grave, but He wasn't dead."
  • 00:53:56
    It's called the swoon theory.
  • 00:53:59
    They took Him off the Cross.
  • 00:54:00
    They put Him into a cave, rolled the rock over it.
  • 00:54:04
    He kind of had a nap. He slept.
  • 00:54:06
    The cold, damp air revived Him.
  • 00:54:08
    He came back to life and He was walking around a bit.
  • 00:54:11
    Oh, my goodness.
  • 00:54:12
    Have you never researched the worst form of execution.
  • 00:54:16
    And they were really, really good at it,
  • 00:54:18
    was Roman crucifixion.
  • 00:54:22
    They didn't screw that up.
  • 00:54:23
    Nobody, nobody could have done what was done to Him
  • 00:54:27
    and Him not live.
  • 00:54:28
    Because we have to account for the empty tomb.
  • 00:54:31
    That's the fourth piece of evidence, the empty tomb.
  • 00:54:33
    We have to account for it somehow.
  • 00:54:36
    So it was a swoon theory,
  • 00:54:38
    or maybe the disciples stole the body.
  • 00:54:41
    Here's what the scriptures say about that, Matthew 28:11:
  • 00:55:17
    Because they were embarrassed that the body is gone.
  • 00:55:21
    How do we account for the empty tomb?
  • 00:55:23
    And so this is one of the ways you account for it.
  • 00:55:25
    There was an empty tomb.
  • 00:55:26
    To be clear, all the power brokers
  • 00:55:29
    in the Middle East at that time
  • 00:55:30
    all wanted to find Jesus's body.
  • 00:55:33
    They had a vested interest in that.
  • 00:55:36
    The Romans didn't need some martyr figure,
  • 00:55:39
    savior figure wandering around.
  • 00:55:41
    The Jewish elite who felt threatened
  • 00:55:43
    in their religiosity and had Him put to death,
  • 00:55:45
    they didn't need Him.
  • 00:55:47
    They wanted to produce that body.
  • 00:55:49
    Some theories have been,
  • 00:55:50
    well, maybe they went the wrong tomb.
  • 00:55:52
    If they went the wrong tomb, all those people
  • 00:55:54
    just say, "No, no, no. Here's the right tomb,"
  • 00:55:56
    because they need Him to stay dead.
  • 00:55:58
    It's very embarrassing. It's intimidating for him.
  • 00:56:02
    But you have to account somehow for the empty tomb.
  • 00:56:07
    These things, as you start to look at this,
  • 00:56:09
    this is why amazing, smart, thoughtful PhDs
  • 00:56:14
    over the millennia and over the last few years
  • 00:56:16
    and decades go, "This is the most rational conclusion
  • 00:56:19
    in a court of law,
  • 00:56:21
    if I were to receive evidence as a judge, it's just this.
  • 00:56:24
    And then you add into that, number five,
  • 00:56:26
    the courage of the apostles.
  • 00:56:30
    These guys in the last week of Jesus's life,
  • 00:56:32
    they're not painted positively.
  • 00:56:34
    It's again one of
  • 00:56:35
    the fascinating things about Christianity.
  • 00:56:37
    In any other religion, the founders are always heroes.
  • 00:56:40
    They're always heroic. They're always strong.
  • 00:56:42
    They're always faithful. They're always admirable.
  • 00:56:44
    They're always doing the right thing.
  • 00:56:46
    Not the founders of Christianity,
  • 00:56:48
    not the founders of Jesus.
  • 00:56:50
    These are guys who are bickering the last week of His life.
  • 00:56:53
    Overbearing Jewish mom comes in
  • 00:56:55
    and tries to speak to Jesus about having her sons,
  • 00:56:58
    James and John have the premier spots in heaven.
  • 00:57:00
    The rest of the disciples are getting ticked off about it.
  • 00:57:02
    There's petty bickering, bickering between James and --
  • 00:57:05
    Or excuse me, between John and Peter,
  • 00:57:07
    which one's more liked?
  • 00:57:09
    Which one has a better future?
  • 00:57:11
    Then they go to pray with Jesus
  • 00:57:14
    the night before He's arrested.
  • 00:57:15
    And Jesus says, "Can you give Me an hour?
  • 00:57:17
    Just hang with Me for an hour and pray for an hour."
  • 00:57:19
    They can't pray with Him for an hour.
  • 00:57:21
    Jesus gets upset. He's like, "Dudes, you're my friends.
  • 00:57:24
    One hour. I asked one hour.
  • 00:57:26
    You can't hang with Me one hour?"
  • 00:57:29
    Then Jesus gets arrested because one guy,
  • 00:57:32
    Judas, betrays him with a kiss.
  • 00:57:33
    He later on goes off and and commits suicide
  • 00:57:35
    because he has so much shame over it.
  • 00:57:38
    And then as Jesus is being taken away,
  • 00:57:40
    two guys, John and Peter, follow after Him.
  • 00:57:43
    And there's Peter, there's Peter
  • 00:57:44
    who's been told by Jesus,
  • 00:57:46
    "You're going to deny Me three times,
  • 00:57:47
    and then the cock is going to crow."
  • 00:57:49
    And Peter thinks that's ridiculous.
  • 00:57:50
    He's all braggadocious, like, "No way.
  • 00:57:52
    No way I'll ever deny You,"
  • 00:57:53
    doing this macho fisherman thing.
  • 00:57:55
    Sure enough, sure enough, within earshot of Jesus,
  • 00:57:59
    he's asked, "Hey, you, didn't --
  • 00:58:00
    Weren't you one of His followers? Didn't you know Him?"
  • 00:58:03
    "Me? No, no. Never saw the guy."
  • 00:58:05
    Rooster crows. Horrible. Embarrassing.
  • 00:58:09
    And then these people are hunkered down,
  • 00:58:12
    hunkered down in hiding
  • 00:58:14
    while the women are doing the courageous,
  • 00:58:17
    loving thing of going to the tomb.
  • 00:58:19
    This is not the way you paint the founders of a religion.
  • 00:58:24
    And yet, and yet, and yet they become heroes, utter heroes.
  • 00:58:33
    How? Why?
  • 00:58:35
    They become heroes because they all
  • 00:58:38
    end up giving their life to Christ.
  • 00:58:42
    And I mean dying for Christ, every last one of them.
  • 00:58:46
    Other than John, who dies of natural causes,
  • 00:58:48
    the apostle John, who wrote
  • 00:58:49
    the last book of the Bible, Revelation.
  • 00:58:51
    He's the only one of the original disciples
  • 00:58:53
    that dies of natural causes of old age.
  • 00:58:55
    Everybody else, Peter hung upside down on a cross,
  • 00:58:58
    others stoned and beaten,
  • 00:59:00
    others putting in skins and rolled up,
  • 00:59:02
    stuck out into the into the sun
  • 00:59:04
    and shrunk to death and suffocated death.
  • 00:59:06
    And all they had to do, all they had to do
  • 00:59:08
    at any moment, any moment, say, oh,
  • 00:59:10
    all they do is say, 'Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait.
  • 00:59:12
    I'm sorry. You must have misunderstood.
  • 00:59:14
    Did I say I saw Jesus alive?
  • 00:59:16
    Oh, no, no, I didn't. I didn't see that.
  • 00:59:19
    No, no, it was somebody else. Hold on.
  • 00:59:21
    You actually think that I'm saying
  • 00:59:22
    that Jesus came back from the dead?
  • 00:59:24
    No, no, no, I think I had a hallucination that day.
  • 00:59:27
    No, no, He swooned. He was. He came back. No, no."
  • 00:59:31
    These guys who exhibited no courage at all
  • 00:59:35
    while Jesus was alive, like none,
  • 00:59:37
    None. These guys all of a sudden,
  • 00:59:39
    all of a sudden go, "My goodness, it's real."
  • 00:59:43
    And they lay down their life.
  • 00:59:44
    What would cause you to have a sudden surge of courage?
  • 00:59:47
    You know what it is? You see God again.
  • 00:59:50
    You see Jesus again.
  • 00:59:52
    This is the historical record.
  • 00:59:57
    American politics has started to go downhill
  • 00:59:59
    ever since Watergate happened,
  • 01:00:01
    that scandal with Richard Nixon.
  • 01:00:02
    And one of the people who was the center of it,
  • 01:00:04
    his name was Charles Colson,
  • 01:00:07
    was Richard Nixon's hatchet man.
  • 01:00:10
    He was a former hard nosed marine
  • 01:00:11
    and also a very intelligent guy, a Rhodes Scholar.
  • 01:00:14
    And he ended up going to prison.
  • 01:00:16
    And when he went to prison he ended up
  • 01:00:18
    understanding who Jesus was,
  • 01:00:19
    and he gave his life to Jesus
  • 01:00:21
    and things changed for him.
  • 01:00:22
    He would have senators and congressmen
  • 01:00:24
    went to him and shared their faith with him.
  • 01:00:26
    And he started reading the Bible.
  • 01:00:28
    And he came to believe that the resurrection was 100% true
  • 01:00:32
    and he gave his life to Christ.
  • 01:00:34
    And here's why he says he saw it as true.
  • 01:00:37
    I'll just quote him.
  • 01:01:15
    We have to deal with that piece of data.
  • 01:01:19
    As we look at this, again, I believe the burden of truth,
  • 01:01:24
    the burden of proof is on those of us
  • 01:01:28
    who say this couldn't have happened.
  • 01:01:29
    How else do we explain the change of the world?
  • 01:01:33
    How else do we explain the dating of time?
  • 01:01:36
    How else do we explain that Jesus is
  • 01:01:38
    the most sought after and co-opted religious figure
  • 01:01:41
    for all spiritualities and all over, everyone wants it.
  • 01:01:44
    Everyone wants a piece of Him.
  • 01:01:46
    How do we explain this?
  • 01:01:47
    Well, one way to explain it
  • 01:01:49
    is to see that this guy beat death.
  • 01:01:54
    John Updike had a poem that I thought he put it so well.
  • 01:01:57
    I'll just read a section of it for you. It says this:
  • 01:02:23
    For all her problems and her issues,
  • 01:02:25
    the church has been growing and advancing,
  • 01:02:27
    gaining steam ever since Jesus left.
  • 01:02:31
    How do we explain this band of losers
  • 01:02:33
    overtaking the entire Roman Empire?
  • 01:02:36
    And not only that, last piece of evidence I have
  • 01:02:38
    to consider is what about you? What about you?
  • 01:02:45
    If you happen to be a believer,
  • 01:02:46
    are there things you look at in your life
  • 01:02:48
    you can't explain away?
  • 01:02:50
    It's because of the same Spirit
  • 01:02:52
    that brought Him back from the dead
  • 01:02:53
    gives life to your mortal body.
  • 01:02:56
    I've been around this church a while
  • 01:02:58
    to see God do miraculous things in people,
  • 01:03:01
    and it wasn't because they were a part of
  • 01:03:03
    this 501c3 Corporation, non, you know,
  • 01:03:07
    religious tax exempt organization called Crossroads.
  • 01:03:10
    It wasn't that.
  • 01:03:11
    It was just that enabled me to see what people have done
  • 01:03:15
    who have had true resurrection power.
  • 01:03:17
    I'll give you some.
  • 01:03:18
    People I've seen who came to Couples Camp,
  • 01:03:21
    a camp we do, it's running next weekend,
  • 01:03:23
    with divorce papers signed.
  • 01:03:25
    They said, "Well, we'll just go anyway."
  • 01:03:27
    Having their marriage restored
  • 01:03:29
    and still running strong today.
  • 01:03:32
    Healings, people I know, legitimate real healings.
  • 01:03:37
    Dave Stansbury can't swallow. Has cancer.
  • 01:03:40
    No saliva for years.
  • 01:03:42
    Pray for him. Saliva.
  • 01:03:44
    Saliva comes back and medical people run up and down
  • 01:03:46
    and go, "Yeah, there's saliva here.
  • 01:03:48
    Well, if that's what you said happened
  • 01:03:49
    then that's what happened."
  • 01:03:50
    Legitimate miracles, people who've been prayed for
  • 01:03:53
    and couldn't see a TV and then could see a TV.
  • 01:03:57
    People who who said, "Man, I thought I had infertility.
  • 01:04:00
    Then I had people pray for me
  • 01:04:01
    and now I have a kid nine months after
  • 01:04:04
    you actually prayed for me."
  • 01:04:07
    Crusty lawyers, good friends of mine,
  • 01:04:09
    like Art Schlemmer, crusty lawyer, cynic.
  • 01:04:11
    God gets a hold of his life and just resurrects the guy.
  • 01:04:15
    He has a personality makeover and is a person of power.
  • 01:04:19
    Suicidal people. I won't tell you names,
  • 01:04:21
    but suicidal people who the resurrection power
  • 01:04:24
    of Jesus comes in like, "No, no, I'm not -- What? What?"
  • 01:04:27
    Who have total emotional makeovers, entire emotional.
  • 01:04:32
    People addicted, addicted to crack.
  • 01:04:35
    Which anyone will tell you that addictive substances,
  • 01:04:38
    crack is the worst.
  • 01:04:39
    People like Kurt. Kurt who was addicted to crack.
  • 01:04:45
    No hope. Probably you know Kurt, right?
  • 01:04:47
    You're like no.
  • 01:04:48
    And now he not only has not struggled
  • 01:04:50
    with crack for now decades, decades.
  • 01:04:52
    I think about 20 years he's delivered.
  • 01:04:54
    He's a guru in the addiction community.
  • 01:04:56
    God is using him to bless other people.
  • 01:04:59
    Professors, professors at universities.
  • 01:05:01
    I've sat in, like, new members classes with,
  • 01:05:03
    and they just have all these questions
  • 01:05:05
    and cynical and their arms crossed
  • 01:05:07
    and tapping their toes come to know Christ
  • 01:05:09
    and they're transformed.
  • 01:05:11
    They go on to be like the the Dean of law
  • 01:05:13
    at Pepperdine University, Paul Caron. Amazing story.
  • 01:05:17
    All this is resurrection power.
  • 01:05:19
    That's the power of Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus.
  • 01:05:23
    That still works today and can still work to you.
  • 01:05:27
    You don't have to be depressed.
  • 01:05:29
    You don't have to have anxiety. You don't have to.
  • 01:05:33
    There is a way, and a way to start is
  • 01:05:36
    by the same Spirit that gave life to His body
  • 01:05:38
    maybe giving life to yours.
  • 01:05:41
    And this man has a story that he wants to tell.
  • 01:05:46
    - Growing up, I was raised in a Baptist church.
  • 01:05:49
    I understood God.
  • 01:05:50
    I understood what He meant, but I never felt it.
  • 01:05:53
    I was spoken out about not believing in God.
  • 01:05:56
    I had a speech impediment.
  • 01:05:57
    Most people couldn't understand me
  • 01:05:59
    until I was about 7 or 8 years old.
  • 01:06:02
    I always felt behind.
  • 01:06:03
    I always felt different.
  • 01:06:05
    That little boy just wanted to fit in,
  • 01:06:07
    wanted to be a part of something
  • 01:06:09
    that I never felt I was a part of.
  • 01:06:12
    You know, I was a big frat type partier drinker
  • 01:06:16
    and fell into the wrong crowd.
  • 01:06:18
    Cocaine was introduced in my life.
  • 01:06:20
    Started as fun, started as a scene,
  • 01:06:23
    and then as time went on, it consumed me
  • 01:06:26
    and took everything away from me.
  • 01:06:28
    I've had five roommates, two of them are dead,
  • 01:06:33
    one's in jail.
  • 01:06:34
    You do unimaginable things that you never thought
  • 01:06:38
    you were possible doing in addiction.
  • 01:06:40
    I was morally defeated.
  • 01:06:42
    I was broken.
  • 01:06:44
    I failed as a son.
  • 01:06:49
    Failed as a father.
  • 01:06:50
    Failed as a husband.
  • 01:06:52
    Lost my job.
  • 01:06:54
    I couldn't decide if my kids were better off
  • 01:06:59
    with an addict as a father or no father at all.
  • 01:07:03
    I had called my dealer.
  • 01:07:05
    I'm sure I lied to my wife to get out of the house.
  • 01:07:09
    As I was coming up to Crossroads Oakley to meet my dealer
  • 01:07:13
    and the sign read: Thursday Night baptisms,
  • 01:07:15
    you have a seat there.
  • 01:07:18
    I walked into Crossroads, had never been there.
  • 01:07:20
    You know, I watched people get baptized,
  • 01:07:22
    come out of that water and have grace and forgiveness,
  • 01:07:28
    but I just didn't have for myself anymore.
  • 01:07:31
    I started a recovery program.
  • 01:07:33
    My sponsor had told me, he said,
  • 01:07:35
    "When you get in the car, you turn the car on
  • 01:07:37
    and you start talking to God.
  • 01:07:39
    And you don't stop talking to God
  • 01:07:40
    until you get to wherever you need to be.
  • 01:07:43
    Because you'll never turn to call your dealer
  • 01:07:48
    when you're in the middle of a conversation with God."
  • 01:07:50
    And it was what I needed at that time.
  • 01:07:53
    After I got clean, I hadn't been myself
  • 01:07:56
    in so long I didn't even know who I was.
  • 01:07:58
    You start filling voids in your heart
  • 01:08:02
    with other things external from you,
  • 01:08:04
    relationships and working out, becoming a workaholic,
  • 01:08:07
    anything to prove that you're better than what you were.
  • 01:08:10
    It took time for that relationship to grow with God.
  • 01:08:12
    I didn't even get baptized for a few years.
  • 01:08:15
    I had gone on a mission trip to New Orleans.
  • 01:08:18
    And I remember at the end of it,
  • 01:08:19
    everybody was getting baptized
  • 01:08:20
    and didn't think I was good enough for it yet.
  • 01:08:24
    It wasn't until a couple of years later
  • 01:08:26
    Chuck was speaking, and by the end of it he had said,
  • 01:08:29
    "If this doesn't give you a reason,
  • 01:08:31
    there is no other reason."
  • 01:08:33
    And I got baptized that day without a plan.
  • 01:08:35
    When I stepped out of the water,
  • 01:08:37
    I felt like I had hoped for the first time,
  • 01:08:39
    like I wasn't necessarily the person
  • 01:08:41
    that I had left behind.
  • 01:08:43
    God's given me everything, gave my life back,
  • 01:08:45
    gave my children their father back.
  • 01:08:48
    I have respect for myself.
  • 01:08:49
    I have custody of my two kids and my stepson.
  • 01:08:53
    I'm a business partner with my father.
  • 01:08:56
    And my son gets to work with me now, he's 20.
  • 01:08:59
    I have everything I need.
  • 01:09:01
    - What does God call you?
  • 01:09:02
    - God says I'm worthy.
  • 01:09:04
    God says stand up.
  • 01:09:06
    He calls me son.
  • 01:09:16
    - The foundation of the Christian faith
  • 01:09:19
    is the resurrection of Christ. That doesn't change.
  • 01:09:21
    No matter what's changing in culture right now,
  • 01:09:24
    that doesn't change.
  • 01:09:25
    Foundation is not how the world is created.
  • 01:09:27
    That's not the foundation of my faith.
  • 01:09:28
    That's not even central to my faith.
  • 01:09:31
    Even not only that, the Bible
  • 01:09:32
    isn't even central to my faith,
  • 01:09:34
    because the Bible came around 1500 years
  • 01:09:37
    after Jesus rose to the dead.
  • 01:09:39
    Nothing can happen politically in the country
  • 01:09:41
    that shakes my faith at all,
  • 01:09:42
    because my faith isn't associated
  • 01:09:43
    with anything at all that happens in this country.
  • 01:09:46
    My faith is rooted in one thing, it's a thing
  • 01:09:48
    that New Testament writers talk about again and again,
  • 01:09:50
    it's the resurrection of Jesus,
  • 01:09:52
    the literal, physical, historical,
  • 01:09:54
    non-metaphorical resurrection of Jesus.
  • 01:09:58
    And that same power is available for you today.
  • 01:10:02
    I don't understand.
  • 01:10:04
    I don't understand how some of us
  • 01:10:05
    are so enamored with UFOs or UAPs
  • 01:10:09
    or whatever experience with lights in the sky
  • 01:10:13
    and drug experiences.
  • 01:10:15
    And what about this? And what about that?
  • 01:10:17
    All these, like, ethereal things.
  • 01:10:18
    I'm like, man, man, man, there's a guy
  • 01:10:22
    who came back from the grave, really,
  • 01:10:24
    really came back from the grave.
  • 01:10:26
    And He still gives power today.
  • 01:10:30
    That's the starting point. That's the ending point.
  • 01:10:32
    That is the everything.
  • 01:10:34
    In fact, that God may have
  • 01:10:35
    something for you in here right now.
  • 01:10:38
    At all of our sites, we have people
  • 01:10:39
    go through and pray over seats.
  • 01:10:41
    And we have 20 different messages,
  • 01:10:43
    and we put those messages under a seat.
  • 01:10:47
    And I think God had the exact message
  • 01:10:49
    right for you under that seat.
  • 01:10:51
    It's in a pouch. Don't rip it off.
  • 01:10:53
    It's in a sleeve. Do not rip it off.
  • 01:10:55
    Just reach in very carefully
  • 01:10:57
    and pull out that message
  • 01:10:59
    that may actually be from God to you,
  • 01:11:02
    it'll be the thing that God wanted you to have.
  • 01:11:05
    And go ahead and pull that out and open it up
  • 01:11:08
    and see if the Spirit of God
  • 01:11:11
    is not still working and moving to this day right now.
  • 01:11:17
    - This moment is for you, no matter where you are.
  • 01:11:20
    Don't miss out on it.
  • 01:11:21
    God wants to speak to you.
  • 01:11:24
    Now, the resurrection means that
  • 01:11:25
    we can have a personal relationship with God.
  • 01:11:28
    When we receive Him, we also get access to Him.
  • 01:11:31
    And we've been praying that
  • 01:11:32
    God would speak to you specifically,
  • 01:11:35
    and we believe He wants to do that right now.
  • 01:11:37
    So here's what I'd love for you to do.
  • 01:11:39
    Think of that place in your life that feels dead
  • 01:11:42
    or feels dark, that needs light, hope,
  • 01:11:44
    and new life breathed into it.
  • 01:11:46
    Do you feel tired? Do you feel lost?
  • 01:11:48
    Do you feel overwhelmed?
  • 01:11:50
    Jesus wants to show you who He is
  • 01:11:52
    and that He actually died so that
  • 01:11:54
    He could breathe new life and light into your life.
  • 01:11:58
    So, once you've identified that thing
  • 01:11:59
    that you want to see God breathe new life into,
  • 01:12:03
    just do something simple: text the word "Easter" to 301301.
  • 01:12:07
    This is not a chat bot.
  • 01:12:08
    This is literally me and my team who are ready
  • 01:12:11
    to help you receive words from Jesus right now.
  • 01:12:15
    We're going to pray for you specifically
  • 01:12:18
    and pass on to you some of the truth
  • 01:12:20
    through Scripture that we believe God wants
  • 01:12:22
    you to specifically hear right now.
  • 01:12:26
    We believe that God wants to personally
  • 01:12:27
    and faithfully show up in your life
  • 01:12:29
    and bring breakthrough.
  • 01:12:31
    Resurrection power is available to all of us
  • 01:12:34
    here and now, no matter where we are.
  • 01:12:36
    So text in "Easter" to 301301
  • 01:12:39
    and hear something of what God wants
  • 01:12:40
    to speak into your life right now.
  • 01:12:48
    - That's right. Across all of our sites, one church.
  • 01:12:52
    We're going to sing this song of response to our King Jesus.
  • 01:14:00
    - It's all gratitude
  • 01:14:02
    for this king who brings us life still today.
  • 01:15:14
    Same one who rose from the grave
  • 01:15:15
    speaks to you today.
  • 01:15:18
    I wanted to speak and move you today.
  • 01:15:23
    So in response, this is what it looks like.
  • 01:15:44
    - Come on across all sites. Lift them up.
  • 01:16:29
    - Hey, let me just connect the dots here real quick.
  • 01:16:31
    You know, sometimes we can go into church mode.
  • 01:16:33
    And oh, the song says lift my hands up.
  • 01:16:35
    So I lift my hands up and I sing that.
  • 01:16:37
    But sometimes we're not understanding
  • 01:16:40
    what the song says.
  • 01:16:43
    It says: I'm coming under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
  • 01:16:47
    He's the Lord.
  • 01:16:48
    Only the Lord can come back from the dead, and He did it.
  • 01:16:52
    He did it, and that means I don't have
  • 01:16:55
    a nice springy Easter story.
  • 01:16:57
    That means I lay my life down.
  • 01:16:59
    It means I stopped dicking around with saying
  • 01:17:01
    I'm in for Him and I'm actually in.
  • 01:17:03
    I actually lay my life down.
  • 01:17:05
    I actually live differently.
  • 01:17:06
    I actually live under His auspices,
  • 01:17:09
    and I have the power that passes through me
  • 01:17:11
    as a result of it and I feel the joy that comes,
  • 01:17:14
    the joy unescapable and the X factor
  • 01:17:17
    of what can happen in life,
  • 01:17:19
    who a real God actually gets a hold of.
  • 01:17:22
    Not who we align to
  • 01:17:23
    and say, check, I'm part of that religion.
  • 01:17:25
    But no, the person who has us, that's what we sing.
  • 01:17:29
    I lay my life down just like He did.
  • 01:17:33
    - Come on all together.
  • 01:19:22
    - King Jesus, we praise You.
  • 01:19:25
    We want to completely orient our lives around You
  • 01:19:28
    because you bring joy, courage, strength, peace.
  • 01:19:33
    You bring life.
  • 01:19:35
    You brought it then and You bring it today.
  • 01:19:38
    So I praise You, we praise You all because You're worthy.
  • 01:19:41
    We pray all this in You, Jesus. Amen.
  • 01:19:46
    - Hey, once again, I want to wish you
  • 01:19:47
    a very, very Happy Easter.
  • 01:19:49
    And I hope that it came through loud and clear today
  • 01:19:51
    that in Jesus there is lightness out of darkness,
  • 01:19:54
    and that resurrection power
  • 01:19:55
    is actually available to all of us.
  • 01:19:58
    The resurrection means that we can
  • 01:19:59
    leave the dead parts of our life behind
  • 01:20:01
    and walk forward in new life.
  • 01:20:04
    Now, if you haven't yet, hey, make sure that
  • 01:20:06
    you text Easter to 301301.
  • 01:20:08
    It's a chance for you to receive specific words
  • 01:20:10
    that we believe God has and wants to say to you.
  • 01:20:13
    And if you're joining us for the first time today,
  • 01:20:15
    hey, we're just really glad that you're here.
  • 01:20:17
    And you're welcome, no matter what you believe
  • 01:20:19
    about God or what your past church experiences is.
  • 01:20:21
    Crossroads is a movement of people meeting
  • 01:20:24
    physically and digitally all over the globe,
  • 01:20:26
    and we'd love to get you connected
  • 01:20:27
    and into community, no matter where you are.
  • 01:20:29
    And you might even come to find out that
  • 01:20:31
    there are other people in your city or hometown
  • 01:20:34
    who call Crossroads their church.
  • 01:20:35
    You can check in with us by texting "Anywhere" to 301301,
  • 01:20:39
    and somebody from my team or myself will reach out
  • 01:20:42
    and connect with you personally.
  • 01:20:43
    Hey, and also, we'd love to see you back here next week
  • 01:20:45
    as we kick off our new teaching series
  • 01:20:47
    all about strengthening our faith. See you next time.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up! This is content that reflects on the Weekend message and how it can apply to your life. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What is your favorite Easter candy?

  2. What stood out to you most from the Holy Week experiences you attended?

    (ie. Palm Sunday, The Last Supper Experience, Good Friday, Easter)?

  3. Why do you think that stood out to you? What do you think God might be trying to say?

    (It’s ok if you’re just guessing. This will give you some space to process what it might be.)

  4. What have you learned about God’s character over the course of Holy Week?

  5. What details or aspects of the resurrection story make it compelling for you?

  6. How will your Holy Week experiences change your relationship with God?

    How will it change your relationships with other people?

  7. What is one way you can respond to what God might have been telling you over the course of Holy Week?

  8. Now share a prayer request for the week. Whoever loves taking notes can jot them down (and maybe put them in a group chat, if you have one). Make sure to go around the circle and pray for each other at the end of your meeting, and throughout the week.

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(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)


Apr 20, 2025 1 hr 20 mins 50 sec

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