00:00: How many of you noticed the flowers in the church this morning when you came in today?
00:05: Anybody notice that?
00:07: Beautiful.
00:08: How many of you noticed the AED device in the lobby?
00:12: A couple of people, right?
00:14: Not too many.
00:15: We have in the lobby an AED.
00:17: It's an automated external defibrillator.
00:22: I'm going to call it an AED because defibrillator is hard to say.
00:26: Anyway, as far as I know, it's been here longer than 10 years.
00:30: I'm not even sure when we first got it.
00:32: I know that every so often we have to order new supplies for it to keep them in date and up to speed.
00:40: But we've never used it, at least not in the 10 years that I've been around.
00:44: It doesn't get used.
00:46: So why bother to have this available?
00:49: Why bother to invest money in keeping it up to date if we never use it?
00:53: Well, the obvious answer is we might need it, right?
00:59: Life matters.
01:01: Your life matters.
01:03: And if we can do something as simple as having that available so that if needed, someone's life can be protected, preserved, saved.
01:12: We want to do that.
01:14: Regular attender, member, first-time visitor, and everything in between.
01:18: Your life matters.
01:20: That said, medical life-saving is not our focus here at Faith Chapel.
01:26: That's not our specialty.
01:27: Our focus, our specialty is spiritual life-saving.
01:33: An AED is only one of many ways to address a stopped heart.
01:40: I'm no medical expert.
01:41: I'm not even close to a medical expert.
01:43: But as I understand it from some online reading, there exist such things as manual defibrillator systems, implantable and wearable defibrillator systems.
01:53: And then there's just good old-fashioned CPR.
01:56: But when it comes to spiritual life-saving, there's not a variety of options available.
02:02: When it comes to spiritual life-saving, there is one and only one remedy.
02:09: And everything else out there is spiritual snake oil.
02:14: The world is full of religious snake oil and religious snake oil salesmen.
02:21: Charlatans peddling religious cures that don't fix anything.
02:25: There is one and only one spiritual life-saving cure.
02:30: And it's the gospel or good news of Jesus Christ.
02:34: And it's that single effective spiritual life-giving cure that the Apostle Paul brought with him when he traveled to Greece and went to the Greek city of Corinth to plant a church.
02:46: He went to tell them the one solution to their spiritual need.
02:51: 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Paul reminds this church that he planted what it was like when he first arrived.
03:01: He says, And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
03:12: For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
03:18: And Paul there is making three significant claims.
03:23: Number one, that when he came to tell them a spiritual message, he was coming to proclaim what God wanted said.
03:30: Number two, that he refused to give them God's message the wrong way.
03:36: And three, he insisted on giving them God's message the right way.
03:42: Well, what was the wrong way of telling people God's message?
03:46: Well, it begins with a focus on the messenger.
03:49: He says, When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech.
03:59: Or if you kind of take out Paul's sidebar, he says, I did not come to you proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech.
04:08: I didn't come talking fancy.
04:09: See, I didn't put on some kind of public oration fancy show.
04:14: Because the wrong way of sharing the message of Jesus is to turn the attention away from the message of Jesus and toward the speaker.
04:23: Paul's saying, it wasn't about me.
04:25: It wasn't about how I talked or how fancy I could put it and what a great number of illustrations I could give and so on.
04:32: He said, it's all about the message of Jesus.
04:35: It's not about the eloquence of the speaker.
04:40: As a preacher, my job is not to impress you with me.
04:43: My job is to turn your attention and turn your hearts over and over and over to Jesus and to no one else.
04:51: To no other solution.
04:52: The spotlight, the focus, our attention belongs on the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified.
04:59: Period.
05:00: Now, the other way that Paul refused to be when he was sharing God's message and wisdom was to proclaim the message with wisdom.
05:12: He says, I did not come to you proclaiming the testimony of God with lofty speech and wisdom.
05:19: Well, that seems a little odd, doesn't it?
05:21: Wouldn't you expect somebody who comes giving God's message to bring a message that's wise?
05:26: Yes, especially when you consider the alternative is foolishness.
05:30: Why would the person bringing the life-saving message of God come bringing a foolish message?
05:39: Well, we've got to understand it in context.
05:41: We're at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 2.
05:43: If you go back to the second half of the previous chapter, Paul has just been unpacking what he means by wise and foolish in regards to the message of Jesus.
05:51: And he's saying that it's not what people expect.
05:56: It's not what people anticipate.
05:58: Verse 18 of chapter 1, Paul says, The word of the cross, that is the message about Jesus, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.
06:09: But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
06:14: He's saying to people that don't embrace God's message, this talk about Jesus dying and rising, it just sounds like nonsense.
06:21: It sounds like foolishness.
06:24: The message about the cross, the message about Jesus Christ and him crucified unto death on the cross, seems like foolishness to the folks who don't want to hear it and don't embrace it.
06:36: But to those in whom God is working to transform their hearts and to bring them to a repentant faith in Jesus Christ, this message becomes God's power in action to transform lives for eternity.
06:52: Paul goes on in chapter 1, verses 22 to 24 and says, He's saying the Jewish people, they want some fancy sign from God before they're going to believe the message of God.
07:20: And Greeks, which in their time and place was a way of referring to anybody who wasn't Jewish, they want something that sounds really wise and seems really smart.
07:32: He says, but we don't try to give either group the message that they want to hear.
07:37: Instead, we give them the message they need to hear, the message of Jesus Christ.
07:43: And as they embrace it, it becomes exactly what they need.
07:46: God wasn't interested in playing to either of those groups' preferences.
07:53: Instead of that, regardless of who he's talking to, the message that Paul and his companions declared was about Christ who was crucified.
08:04: That is not a popular idea.
08:09: I mean, we're familiar with it in Western society.
08:11: But when you watch action movies, what happens in the end?
08:16: The hero wins.
08:18: They face some sort of impossible task, impossible, overwhelming opposition, but they finagle their way through it, and somehow they come out victorious.
08:29: That's not the message of the cross.
08:31: The message of the cross is that the hero dies.
08:34: The hero is not only killed, but he is publicly, shamefully executed.
08:44: That's not the kind of story people expect.
08:48: But then again, God's ways have never been our ways.
08:51: Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, God says to his people, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
09:00: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
09:09: So when Paul writes to this church that he had previously planted in the city of Corinth, he says, remember, I didn't come with fancy talk.
09:18: I didn't come with a worldly wisdom that the average person would say, yeah, that's what I want to hear.
09:25: We might say today, he refused to bring a self-help message.
09:30: He refused to give a 13-point sermon on here's how to have a healthier marriage and a better family and to make everything just fulfill the American dream.
09:40: It wasn't a message about do better and be better, try harder.
09:45: It wasn't a message about religious ritual.
09:47: It was a message about God's chosen representative being killed.
09:55: Any other message is snake oil.
10:04: If you hear and believe any other message than Christ crucified and risen for the salvation of the world, you're being sold religious snake oil.
10:14: Verse 2 tells us that the one and only spiritual cure is what Paul focused on.
10:21: He said, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
10:26: I love the way he says that.
10:27: He doesn't just say, I stuck to that message.
10:29: It says, I decided to know nothing among you.
10:34: Goofy thoughts enter my head.
10:35: If you know me, you know this about me.
10:38: I picture him being in Corinth and somebody saying, hey, what's your message?
10:43: And him saying, Jesus Christ and him crucified.
10:46: Paul, you hungry?
10:48: Jesus Christ and him crucified.
10:50: Like no matter what question you ask, he's only going to know that one answer.
10:53: That's all he's going to focus on.
10:56: Now, obviously, he wouldn't be able to answer normal questions.
10:58: But he's saying, when it comes to my message that I bring you, that's it.
11:02: Period.
11:02: I have no backup message.
11:04: I have no third sermon I can give you if you want an encore.
11:07: It's Jesus.
11:07: That's all I've got to talk to you about is Jesus.
11:10: Christ and him crucified.
11:12: He said the same thing in chapter 1, verse 23.
11:15: We preach Christ crucified.
11:19: We preach Christ crucified.
11:21: Paul was bound and determined to stay on message.
11:24: In the best possible sense of this analogy, I think of it a little bit like a politician running for office.
11:29: Where when they're doing public encounters or they're doing a town hall or meeting with people, it doesn't seem to matter what question gets asked.
11:40: They always come back to what they want to talk about.
11:43: And Paul said, what I want to talk to you about is Jesus.
11:45: Every other question that you might be interested in, every other topic out there, doesn't matter.
11:52: I need to tell you about the one thing that really does matter.
11:56: Christ who was crucified.
11:58: Now, he unpacked that, of course.
12:01: He explained the fuller story.
12:02: Who is this Jesus?
12:03: What happened?
12:04: How did this take place?
12:05: What's the significance of it?
12:07: Here's how the apostle Peter put it in Acts chapter 2.
12:09: Acts chapter 2 takes place shortly after the resurrection and the subsequent ascension of Jesus where he went back to heaven.
12:17: At this point, the Holy Spirit has been poured out into the world and believers have been granted the Holy Spirit.
12:22: And now, understanding what Jesus was all about, filled with the Holy Spirit, the apostle Peter is out publicly preaching the message of Christ crucified.
12:31: And he says as follows, men of Israel, hear these words.
12:35: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.
12:45: As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
12:54: You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
12:57: God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
13:06: He's in Israel talking to Jewish people in Israel and he says, you encountered him for years.
13:12: You saw what he did, miracle after miracle.
13:16: And then you asked the Romans to kill him and they did.
13:20: But God raised him from the dead.
13:22: He raised him from the dead because it was not possible for death to hold on to Jesus.
13:31: Jesus was so good, so perfect, so blameless that when he died, he didn't deserve it.
13:37: When he died as a substitute for others who did deserve it, it was so good, so perfect, so holy, so righteous that death was conquered.
13:47: There was no legitimacy to him staying dead.
13:51: And so God raised him from the dead.
13:55: Peter and Paul didn't know each other as brothers in Christ at the time that Peter shared that message.
14:02: But they had the same message in ministry because there's only one life-giving spiritual message.
14:10: It was true then and it's true today.
14:16: It's not a popular message.
14:19: In contemporary terms, talking about somebody being crucified would be something like saying that your hero was put to death in the electric chair or by lethal injection.
14:29: It was a brutal governmental form of execution meant to detour others from following in the example of the condemned.
14:40: Nobody was proud of that kind of fate.
14:44: It meant that the person to whom it was done must have been really bad or they wouldn't have done that to him.
14:49: But the Christian said, oh no.
14:51: He didn't have that done because he was bad.
14:54: He had that done because we are bad.
14:56: And he was substituting himself for us.
14:59: The death of Jesus was not a defeat of Jesus.
15:06: It was Jesus' defeat of death and sin and guilt and the grave.
15:12: The story of a crucified Savior is the testimony of God as chapter 2 verse 1 puts it.
15:19: And it is the power of God as chapter 1 verses 18 and 24 put it.
15:26: Later in this same letter, the same letter to the church in Corinth, Paul is going to remind them in more detail of that message of Christ and him crucified.
15:35: He says in chapter 15 verses 3 and 4, Paul says this is the main thing.
16:00: This is of first importance.
16:01: This is the can't miss it message.
16:04: Christ died for our sins.
16:06: What does he mean by that?
16:07: He means that Jesus traded places with us.
16:13: He took the punishment of God against people for people's sin.
16:18: He took it on himself even though he had no guilt of his own.
16:21: He died to accomplish that.
16:25: And of course, what do you do with somebody who dies?
16:27: You bury them.
16:27: And he was.
16:28: But then he was raised on the third day.
16:30: Again, in accordance with the scriptures.
16:32: Why is that so significant?
16:33: Well, not only because it proves that God's word is true, though that's a factor.
16:38: But it's saying this is how God planned it.
16:40: This is how God had announced for hundreds of years in advance that he was going to do it.
16:45: Thousands of years in advance in actuality.
16:48: So this is what to expect.
16:50: This is how God's going to do it.
16:51: And then God did it precisely that way.
16:59: One of the things that we need to understand is simply why we need it.
17:05: We have that AED out there.
17:07: We don't use it because it's only for a particular purpose.
17:11: When somebody's heart stops.
17:14: You don't use it if somebody's having an allergic reaction.
17:17: You don't use it for game time at youth group.
17:20: As interesting as that might be.
17:23: It's got a single purpose.
17:27: Heart problem.
17:29: The spiritual cure is not for a physical heart problem.
17:34: It's for a sin problem.
17:36: Romans 3.23 tells us, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
17:40: Everyone has rebelled against God.
17:42: Everyone has failed to live the perfect life that they should live.
17:46: Fallen short of the glory of God.
17:47: It's this beautiful archery term.
17:50: It means that with your life, in a spiritual sense, when you pull back the bow and arrow and you launch, you bury it in the dirt.
17:58: It falls short of the target and just poof.
18:00: That's what happens when you put forward your best effort.
18:07: It still misses the mark of the glory of God.
18:11: That is of God's perfection.
18:13: God expects you to be perfect and you're not.
18:17: God expects me to be perfect and I'm not.
18:19: And so we miss the mark.
18:20: That's what sin is.
18:21: It's saying, I'm not going to do it the way you tell me to do it, God.
18:24: Even when I try, I don't hit that mark.
18:26: And the penalty, Romans 6.23 tells us, the wages of sin is death.
18:32: But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
18:36: We deserve eternal spiritual death.
18:39: Scripture calls it hell.
18:42: That's what we deserve, eternal separation from God.
18:45: That's what the second death is described as in Scripture.
18:47: That's what we deserve for sin.
18:50: But God offers a free gift.
18:53: You notice how I said earlier, it's not about try harder, do better.
18:56: Best effort, turn over a new leaf.
18:58: It's not those kinds of things.
18:59: It's a free gift.
19:01: What do you do with a free gift?
19:04: You put out your hands and you say, yes, please.
19:06: Thank you.
19:08: Spiritually, that's all you do as well.
19:09: You say, I trust you.
19:11: Thank you.
19:12: I'll take it.
19:14: You don't have to do anything to earn it.
19:17: It's God's love in action.
19:18: Romans 5.8 tells us, God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
19:26: Before you turned over in relief.
19:28: Before you got your act together.
19:32: There are some folks in here who very much do not have their act together.
19:38: I happen to be looking at those people, which is all of us, right?
19:41: None of us have our act fully together.
19:44: And before we got our act together is when Jesus Christ died for us.
19:49: It's about Jesus trading places.
19:54: My parents took report cards very seriously.
19:57: I was expected to get A's.
20:00: If I got a B, they accepted it, but they weren't happy about it.
20:04: In middle school, in eighth grade, I got a C in one class.
20:10: I don't remember which class it was.
20:12: I just remember the punishment.
20:14: I was grounded.
20:16: No TV, no video games, no sweets, meaning cake, candy, ice cream, gum, that kind of stuff, for the duration of the marking period, which was nine weeks.
20:27: Nine weeks of punishment for a C.
20:29: My parents expected a good report card.
20:35: When I came home with that report card that said, see, I knew I was in trouble.
20:40: And I would have given anything to be able to swap report cards with somebody who had a better one.
20:45: But there was no one available willing to swap.
20:49: Jesus says, I've got a perfect 4.0 spiritual report card.
20:55: And I'll happily trade with you.
20:56: The good news of Jesus is he says, I will take credit for your failures, and I will let you have credit for my successes.
21:05: That's what the cross is about.
21:07: God's saying, I'll let him trade with you.
21:09: Will you accept his gift?
21:12: Or put it this way.
21:13: Imagine you've got a backpack that you carry all the time, and you can't remove it.
21:17: And in that backpack is everything that you've ever said or thought or done.
21:22: How much in that backpack are you ashamed of?
21:28: How many times have you thought something that you wouldn't want publicly known?
21:32: How many times have you responded with something under your breath, muttering or complaining or whining or cussing or whatever?
21:40: How many times have you done something that, in hindsight, you're like, I can't believe I did that?
21:45: That's what goes into your backpack.
21:50: And one day we're going to stand before God for judgment.
21:52: He's going to look in our backpack and say, what do we have here?
21:55: Jesus says, I will trade backpacks with you.
21:59: I will give you my perfect life.
22:01: I'll let you get credit for that, and I'll take your backpack.
22:05: So when God looks at you, he'll see my perfectness.
22:07: And when God looked at Jesus at the cross, he saw in Jesus' backpack on the cross, my failures, my sins, and yours, if your faith is in Jesus Christ.
22:20: The thing is, Jesus has not traded report cards or swapped backpacks with everyone, but only with those who turn from their sin toward Jesus in faith.
22:31: You've got to say, I'm done with doing my own thing.
22:34: And you've got to say yes to trusting in Jesus Christ.
22:40: It doesn't mean that you go to church so you're good.
22:43: It doesn't mean you think of yourself as a Christian so you're good.
22:46: It means you trust in Jesus with repentant faith.
22:50: Nothing short of that.
22:52: Romans 10, 9 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
23:00: You have to believe that God really raised him from the dead victorious over the grave.
23:05: You have to confess that, hey, this is who I am.
23:08: I am now somebody who treats Jesus as my Lord.
23:11: He's the master of my life.
23:14: That's what we need to be saved.
23:17: And that very same passage, verse 13, tells us, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
23:22: If you call on Jesus to be your Savior in this sort of way, you will be saved.
23:27: God's not going to look at any one of us when we stand before him and say, well, you believed in Jesus.
23:32: You turned from your sin.
23:33: You trusted in my son.
23:35: Ah, but you've got brown hair and I don't like brunettes.
23:38: It won't happen.
23:40: God won't look at you and say, well, but I've got too many of your demographic in here and I got quotas and that's it.
23:47: No.
23:48: Everyone who turns to Jesus in this way will be saved.
23:51: No exceptions.
23:51: And the result, Romans 5, 1 tells us, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
24:03: We don't use the word justified that way typically now.
24:06: We usually say so-and-so justified their behavior, meaning they tried to defend that it was okay.
24:12: Well, if they succeeded in it, right, then it's legit.
24:16: If I come home late and Carrie's like, where were you?
24:20: I was waiting for you and we were going to have dinner at 2 o'clock.
24:23: No, she wouldn't do that.
24:25: I'm going to be very clear.
24:25: She wouldn't do that.
24:26: But suppose she did.
24:28: And I'd be like, no, but Carrie, I went to the florist to buy you flowers that I had been planning on for months and then there was a car accident and that's why I'm late.
24:38: And that's why I'm limping as I walk in and here's your flowers.
24:41: I'm okay, right?
24:42: I'm not in trouble anymore because I've justified my lateness.
24:47: I'm legitimate at that point.
24:50: We are justified with God.
24:52: We are no longer seen as in trouble but seen as accepted if we have faith in Jesus Christ.
25:02: And then therefore, Romans 8, 1 tells us there is no condemnation.
25:06: We have peace with God.
25:07: The relationship is fixed and there's no condemnation.
25:10: God does not look on me with any anger whatsoever, not because he's unaware of my mess-ups, but because I'm forgiven.
25:18: How many parents have kids that mess up?
25:22: Right?
25:22: Everyone that has kids.
25:24: How many grandparents have kids that mess up?
25:26: Every grandparent.
25:28: Right?
25:28: How many kids have parents that mess up?
25:31: Oh, that was a little too energetic in the back.
25:35: We won't name that name.
25:36: Okay.
25:40: But you love your parent.
25:42: You love your mother or your father or your son or your daughter or your grandchildren.
25:47: And you forgive them.
25:50: God forgives those who trust in Jesus Christ.
25:54: Notice in Romans 10, 9 where I quoted it said, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.
26:01: You will be saved.
26:01: You can't have the message of Christ crucified without explaining that that's not the end of the story.
26:10: He rose again.
26:12: If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, if the tomb was not really empty, don't bother with church.
26:18: Don't bother with Christianity.
26:19: You're wasting your time.
26:21: And if I may be so bold, you're pathetic.
26:24: That's not my sentiment.
26:25: That's biblical sentiment.
26:26: 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the same letter says, if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
26:37: Christianity has nothing to offer if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead.
26:42: It's only because God raised Jesus from the dead that we can be confident of any spiritual gain as a result or our own resurrection.
26:49: Verse 17, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
26:55: Paul goes on elsewhere in the past to say, we are to be most pitied among all men if this message isn't true.
27:02: Most pitiable.
27:04: Verses 20 to 23, he says, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
27:10: The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
27:13: First fruits means it's the first delivery.
27:16: It's the first installment of many.
27:19: Jesus is the first but not the last.
27:21: I will be physically resurrected someday because my faith is in Jesus Christ.
27:26: My wife, my daughter will be physically resurrected someday.
27:29: My son will be physically resurrected someday because their faith is in Jesus Christ.
27:34: And that applies to everyone here.
27:36: If you've stopped trying to be the boss of your own life and said, I surrender to Jesus.
27:41: The passage goes on.
27:45: For as by a man came death, referring to Adam, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
27:55: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
27:58: But each in its own order.
28:00: Christ the first fruits.
28:01: Then at his coming those who belong to Jesus.
28:03: One of the things I do as a pastor is officiate funerals.
28:09: I have a love-hate relationship with that aspect of my job.
28:14: It's hard to be there and mourn person after person as they pass away.
28:20: And at the same time, when I know them to have been a believer in Jesus Christ, there's joy in that.
28:25: I did a funeral in this last year for a brother in Christ that just broke my heart.
28:35: And yet, I could not help but celebrate.
28:39: Because I had talked with him and I knew that he knew Jesus.
28:42: I knew that he understood the gospel and had turned to God.
28:45: And so I knew that while we were burying him, that God was going to undo that burial.
28:50: And one of these days, when Jesus comes back, that casket's opening up.
28:57: And he's coming out.
29:01: My death is coming.
29:03: And so is yours.
29:05: But my resurrection is coming.
29:09: How about you?
29:10: Do you have a resurrection coming?
29:11: It is less reasonable to reject the message of Jesus than to be having a heart attack and refuse the AED.
29:27: If your heart has stopped beating and somebody comes to you with those paddles and you have the ability to wave them off, that's just dumb.
29:37: Let them zap you, right?
29:39: You need it.
29:39: We need Jesus more than we need the AED in the middle of a heart attack.
29:46: We need the salvation that only Jesus Christ provides.
29:52: Everything else is snake oil.
29:55: And so I ask you this morning, have you said enough to being in charge of your own life?
30:02: Have you said yes to Jesus Christ?
30:04: If not, don't leave here today without doing so.
30:10: Come talk to me.
30:12: Come talk to me after service.
30:14: And I will help you get right with God.
30:17: If you don't want to talk to me, you want to talk to a gal or somebody else, let me know and I'll connect you with somebody else.
30:23: I won't be offended.
30:24: Does your life demonstrate day to day the truth that you have trusted in Jesus?
30:33: We say here at Faith Chapel that our mission is for every believer in Jesus to become, make, mature, and multiply, fully surrendered disciples of Jesus Christ.
30:46: Have you surrendered your life to Jesus?
30:50: Trusting that he's done for you what you can never do for yourself.
30:53: His resurrection proves that he can be trusted.
30:57: He proves that his message of salvation was legitimate.
31:01: It proves that his death on the cross actually succeeded in God's sight.
31:07: And therefore, the pangs of death could not hold him.
31:10: The good news that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead isn't just some celebration of a historical happening.
31:19: It's the celebration of the greatest news in the history of the entire world that has implications for you right here, right now, today.
31:30: Let's pray.
31:33: God, we want to trust Jesus.
31:38: We want to trust Jesus.
31:39: We want to be done with small living, self-centered lives.
31:45: We want to be done making a mess of things, which is always what happens when we try to call the shots in our own lives.
31:53: So we ask for you to persuade our hearts afresh this morning.
31:57: That the only cure, the only spiritual life-giving cure that is effective is the message of Christ and him crucified.
32:08: That he died in our place and conquered the grave and rose to life again.
32:13: For those that have embraced that message, I pray that you would reassure us that we have made the right choice.
32:18: That we might celebrate with joy the resurrection today.
32:21: But for those who have not made that choice, I pray that you convict them this morning.
32:28: So that they finally receive that good, great, free gift.
32:35: And that it will make all the difference for eternity.
32:38: In Jesus' name we pray.
32:40: Amen.