Easter 2025 - New Life

[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hi, my name is Scott and I'm a member with Restored Church. If you are new, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to. So we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoretomecula.church and click on contact. We also have a mobile app with resources including our Sunday messages, information about upcoming events, and other ways to connect. You can download our app on the Apple or Android app stores. With all that said, we hope you enjoyed the message. I love you guys. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Okay, what I want to do really quickly is I want to. I want to change the spiritual temperature in the room before I get started. I'm not even going to start my clock yet. I don't know if you guys know this, but this morning we're celebrating something. We're celebrating Jesus Christ conquering sin, Satan and death by raising from the dead. This is outstanding news. This is not, like, cool. I'm here with my hands in my pockets, sitting down. This is. This changes everything. I'm gonna get into this in just a second. If you're a Christian, you're a follow of Jesus. You know this. But, like, I'm. I can feel like my spirit inside of me wanting to, like, just shout because I'm so excited to be with you. I'm so excited to celebrate. Like, Mark and the band were like, oh, we're gonna celebrate. Can we just for a moment connect our physical bodies with our spiritual selves too? And I just want to, for a moment, I just want to make some noise. Like, can we just genuinely. If your heart's not in it, don't do it. Like, seriously, don't fake this. This is not a place to be fake. If your heart is genuinely grateful for Jesus rising from the dead, can we just give him a shout of praise? Yes. Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. Yes. Awesome. Now listen, believe it or not, you actually need to celebrate. You were created to celebrate. And sometimes life becomes so busy. Listen, you guys all look amazing. I'm sure it was really easy getting out of the house, this and getting here. You didn't deal with any, like, any hiccups or anything like that. But genuinely, now that you're here, I want to invite you to give your heart over to actually experiencing gratitude and celebrating what God has done through Jesus. Can we do that together? Is that cool? Beautiful. Okay, awesome. I'm gonna get started now. Clock go okay, we haven't met yet. My name's Tom. I have the privilege of providing leadership to the church as the lead pastor on eldership with Harrik and Mike. And if we haven't met yet, I'd love to meet you. But if you're newer with us, I wanna just give you a rundown of what you can expect for the rest of the day. Okay? We're gonna be here for about seven or eight hours, so hopefully you brought some food. I'm lying. That's not true. Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna preach from the Bible here for just a bit. Then we're gonna have some time of kind of responding in prayer and in praising God for who he is and what he's done. And then we're gonna go celebrate baptisms. Yes. Okay. Youth in the room. The title of today's message is he is Risen. That's R I, Z, Z I N. Okay, I'm totally joking. The title of the message is New Life. Okay. I'm just trying to be really revelant with Gen Z and Gen Alpha. All right? For the sake of time, I'm gonna. I'm already losing time. Grab your Bibles. We're gonna be in Romans chapter five. Okay? Romans, chapter five. You can flip there. I'm gonna be in the new living translation this morning, okay? Yeah, I know, I know. Typically, I'll preach out of the csb. That's the Christian Standard Bible. But this morning we're gonna be in the nlt. It's my second favorite translation. It's gonna be good, I promise. Hopefully, we'll see. All right, What I want to do is I want to pray one more time before we read God's Word. And so I want to invite you to join me. Let's pray together. Holy Spirit, we invite your presence. We invite you to teach us. We invite you to encourage us. We invite you to challenge us. We invite you to, like, speak to us personally. I even give the sense that some of you, right now, you're a little bit uncomfortable being here. And I get it. I was, too. But I really feel like our Heavenly Father has a blessing, a personalized blessing for each one of us. He's trustworthy. And so, Father, we invite you to father us. Show us the beauty of Jesus. Set our hearts and souls and spirits free. We pray. We love you, Jesus. There's nobody like you. We pray these things in your name. Amen. Okay, so we're going to be in Romans chapter 5. We're going to start in verse 18, so you can put your finger there. If you don't have a Bible with you, no sweat. The crew will have the words on the screen for you. But before I read this, I just want to give you a little bit of context here. This was written by the Apostle Paul, okay? Pretty famous guy throughout history, really lived. This isn't myth. This isn't like, you know, a fable. This isn't fiction. This is like a historical document that we're gonna read. Okay? Again, written by the Apostle Paul. Now, here's what you gotta know about the Apostle Paul. Fascinating guy. Fascinating story. Okay? Before he became a disciple of Jesus, he used to organize the murder of Christians. Pretty massive transformation, right? So he would go around, like, really coordinating Christians being murdered for their faith, and then he became a follower of Jesus. Wild story, okay? So he has this radical encounter with Jesus, and that's what kind of catalyzed his transformation. But here's the thing. He didn't just have a regular encounter with Jesus. He had an encounter with the resurrected Jesus. This is, you know, Jesus. He goes and he lives the perfect life, and then he dies the death on the cross. You guys know the story, right? And then he raises from the dead. So what we're celebrating this morning, Paul has an encounter with the resurrected Jesus. And it changes his life, okay? Completely changes him. He goes from being a Christian persecutor to hear me, arguably the most influential Christian ever. How does something like that take place? We're gonna talk a little bit about this, okay? Now, the reason for Paul's transformation is the death and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Messiah, his death, his resurrection, it changed everything for Paul, okay? And it's changed people's lives since then, okay? And that's kind of what I want to get at this morning. Now, again, just a little more context for you. Paul, he's writing this letter. That's what this is. It's a historical document. He's writing this letter to people in the city of Rome, okay? Real city, right? Been there. It's a beautiful place. And what he wants to do is he wants these people to understand what the death and resurrection of Jesus meant, means for them. Because, guys, listen, you can believe that the resurrection happened, but do you know what the resurrection means? Two very different things. That's Paul's heart. That's why he's writing to these people in Rome, okay? He wants his readers to understand what the resurrection of Jesus means for them. That's where we pick up here Romans, chapter 5. Starting in verse 18, he says this. Yes, Adam. He's talking about the first human being ever, Adam and Eve, right? Yes. Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone. But Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God. And what does it say? Talk to me. New life. That's the title of this message. Okay, so it brings right relationship with God and new life for everyone. That means nobody's off limits. Verse 19. Because one person, Adam, disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person, Jesus, obeyed God, many will be made righteous. Verse 20. God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they are. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now we're going to get into chapter six. There really shouldn't be a break here. It just keeps flowing. Let's pick up verse one of chapter six. Well, then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not. Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live what? New lives. Well done. Final verse, verse 5. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. That's our passage. Yes. Hallelujah. Absolutely. That is the proper response, by the way. Okay, so summary. Paul says the follower of Jesus shares, hear me, shares in both the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. All right, that sounds. What does that mean? Okay, he references baptism. To illustrate this, let me read you a quote from a guy way smarter than me. His name is William Barclay, Bible theologian. He says this. He wants you to understand what's happening here. He says, quote, when those being baptized descended into the water and the water closed over their heads, it was like being buried. When they emerged from the water, it was like rising from the grave. Baptism was symbolically like dying and rising again. Listen to this. The new Christians died to one kind of life and rose to another. They died to the old life of sin and rose to the new life of grace. End quote. Okay. That's what we're celebrating with baptisms today, new life. Okay, so what Paul does here is he's making a comparison. He's comparing this new life, this resurrected life, if you will, with the prior way of living. And he says this applies just in the same way that Jesus died. And rose baptism is a symbol that a person, they have this old life that dies and they're raised to this brand new way of living. All right, so I want to refer. I'm going to break this down for just a bit. I want to refer to this as like the old life versus the new life. Okay? And in our passage, Paul says that the old life was characterized by what? Did anybody catch it? Yes, but specifically he says condemnation. They're connected. But he says this old life is characterized by condemnation and this new life is characterized by Jesus righteousness. Look back at verse 18. I want you to see it. Adam's one sin brought what condemnation for everyone? But Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. So let's just talk about this condemnation piece. The old life compared to the new life. The old life characterized by condemnation. The new life characterized by Jesus righteousness. What is Paul saying? It sounds fancy. It's hard to wrap my brain around it. Let's talk about it. Condemnation. Condemnation. What that means is it means to render a guilty verdict. Okay? So think in a courtroom to render a guilty verdict. Guilty of what? Guilty of sin. Guilty of sin, right? Yes, but hear me, it's deeper than that. Most people, when they think of sin, they think of just bad behavior, doing things you're not supposed to do. Right? Breaking the rules. And yeah, it's involved in that, but again, it's. Guys, I need you to understand something. It's deeper than that. In both the original Hebrew and the original Greek, those are the languages that the Old Testament and New Testament were written in. Like, originally, the word sin means. What it means literally is, it means to miss the mark. So think like Robin Hood with his bow and arrow, and he's aiming and he just misses the mark. That's what the word sin literally means. It's like missing a target. Okay, now for you Bible scholars in the room, you remember the story of Adam and Eve? Cause Paul references it here. But you remember the story, right? What do you remember what Adam and Eve did after they brought sin into the world? Yeah, they did. They put these fig leaves on, right? So they missed the mark, Right? They resist God and his ways. They reject him. Hey, I Think I know better. I want to do this. And then it says, if you remember, it says, before sin, it says they were naked and unashamed. Do you remember this? So they're cruising around, they're totally naked. No shame, no perversion. Naked and unashamed. And then they bring sin into the world, right? And then it says they realized they were naked and so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. What are they doing? They're trying to cover up their deep sense inadequacy. Shame. They're trying to cover up their deep sense of inadequacy. Guys, that's condemnation. It's when a person lives with this deep sense of inadequacy, they're putting on condemnation. Now, the unique thing with Adam and Eve is they got to experience reality before that condemnation entered creation, right? So they never felt inadequate before, but now they are. Their fig leaves were meant to cover their inadequacies. Tim Keller, brilliant pastor, has since passed away. A couple years ago, he says, I want you. I want to read you a quote from him really quickly on this concept that has wrecked me all week. You're welcome. Happy Easter. It says this quote, Buckle up. Why do you overwork? Why is it some of you cannot say no to anybody? Why is it some of you can't even bear the look of disappointment on someone's face? You do anything. You knock yourself out, you abuse yourself just to make sure nobody is unhappy. Why is it some of you need so desperately to be attractive? Why do some of you so desperately need to be attractive that if you can't be attractive, you have to imagine yourself being attractive to beautiful people? So you get into pornography? Why is it that some of you desperately fear ever opening up and making a commitment even though you're lonely? Why is it that some of you need to blame somebody for your life? There's a person or a couple of people and you say they're the reason you cannot forgive them. You can't stop blaming them. They're the reason. Why are some people so incredibly religious needing to condemn everybody? Why? Listen to what Keller says. These are fig leaves. Your perfectionism is a fig leaf. Your work is a fig leaf. Your makeup is a fig leaf. You're holding onto your youth as a fig leaf. Your need for approval is a fig leaf. What are you doing? You're trying to cover. You're trying to patch up a righteousness of your own. You're trying to cover over that sense of inadequacy. Listen to what he says. Every single person has this Deep sense of inadequacy. Every single person is born with a deep sense of condemnation, a deep sense that I'm not what I ought to be. And as a result, we are doing everything we can. End quote. That hit me right between the eyes. And I don't think I'm the only one, by the look of some of your faces. I think that hit you too. Keller says that much of what we do listen at a heart level is an attempt to cover up our inadequacies. There's a movie. There's a movie that makes me laugh every single time I watch it. Maybe you've seen it. It's called Liar, Liar by the Chuckles. Some of you have seen it. Has anybody not seen this movie? Okay, a handful of folks. Okay, Lucky for you, I have a clip that we're gonna show from this movie. Okay, now, here's what you gotta know about. Here's what you gotta know about this movie. I'm not gonna ruin it for you, but basically, Jim Carrey's in this movie. He's a lawyer. His character's a lawyer in this movie. And his son recognizes that his dad has a really difficult time following through on his word. He lies a lot and says things and then doesn't follow through. And so he. He makes this wish, essentially, that his dad wouldn't be able to tell a lie. And the wish comes true and just chaos ensues because he. He can't tell a lie. He. Everything that he says must be true or must be truth. Okay? And so I want you to watch this short clip with this, because I'm going somewhere with it. Will you guys play this? You know why I pulled you over? Depends on how long you were following me. Why don't we just take it from the top? Here goes. I sped, I followed too closely. I ran a stop sign. [00:20:45] Speaker A: I almost hit a Chevy. [00:20:46] Speaker B: I sped some more. I failed to yield at a crosswalk. I changed lanes in the intersection. I changed lanes without signaling while running a red light at speeding. Is that all? No, I have unpaid parking tickets. Be gentle. Guy asks him, do you know why I pulled you over? His response is, how long were you following me? And then he gives this list of all the things that he did that were breaking the law. And then he goes, gosh, is that it? And he pops open the glove box. All the parking tickets that he hasn't paid exposed. Right? Imagine if like, that was real life for a second. Imagine if that happens to you, and you, like, you have to tell the truth. There's no other option. You have to tell the truth. And someone just comes up to you and just simply asks you, hey, man, how's it going? You want to know what I think the honest answer for most of us in the room would be? Bro, I'm just busy. I'm just trying to cover up all my inadequacies. Some of you in the room, you actually are. You have more like awareness than other people and you actually know what you're doing. You know, it's like, I just need some relief. I just want to cover, like, I don't want to go there. I don't want to deal with that. Some of you know exactly what you're doing. Others of you, I would kind of fall into this category. You don't. You don't even know that you're doing it. And the reason for that is because so often, guys, we like, we're disconnected with what's happening in us at a soul level. And it becomes such a habit that it's just like the normal life. I'm here to tell you that's not the life that God has intended for any human being to live. This covering up of our inadequacies is what the Bible calls self righteousness, literally a rightness, an acceptableness that is produced by the self. Right? Makes sense. It's when the self is responsible for the rightness, for the acceptableness. Do you guys know what that is? That's religion. That's what religion is. It's the attempt to make oneself righteous, the attempt to make oneself adequate. The attempt to make one's self acceptable, if you will. It's the goal of every single religion on the planet. Okay? Now I would go, this is my opinion, and I think I could verify it. I think it's plausible. Every single person is religious. Everyone is religious. The atheist is religious. The most secular person, the most anti God person you've ever met in your life. They're very religious. Every celebrity, every influencer, every professional athlete, all the quote, important folks. They're really religious people. How do I know? Because they're all just like you and I, trying to cover up their inadequacies. They're pursuing a righteousness that is produced by the self. Right, guys? That's what religion is. But hear me, Christianity is something entirely different than that. It's a whole new way of living. It's a new life. It's a new life where righteousness is not obtained via the self. It's obtained via a savior. What's his name? Jesus. Yeah, baby. Come on. Jesus. It was fun for me this morning to see so many of the little kids dressed all super cute. Am I the only one that saw this? I'm like, that kid looks awesome. He definitely didn't dress himself this morning. No, but it's cool. It's like Easter. Like, I think for us kind of, I don't know, suburban American Christians, it's like Easter. I put on a white collared shirt for you guys this morning. Like, you know, I don't normally wear a white collar shirt, but like, we kind of like a little bit of reverence, a little bit of like, you know, let's dress up is cool. Like, I see some of you guys look, a tie. Come on, let's go. Tim, you look great. I was hoping someone would show up in a suit so I could show up in a suit next year and no one would be weird about it. But. No, but like, it's true. Like, we dressed up a little bit for Easter and I saw some of these little toddler kids just look, the girls, the boys just looked so cute, man. And like I said, I would be willing to bet you a sizable amount of money, okay. That the parents helped with those outfits. Okay? They at least helped with those outfits. How do I know? Because when a toddler dresses themselves, it's different, right? It's different. It's like the shirt's on backwards or the, you know, the pants are inside out or here's what used to happen with my kids all the time. One sock would just be gone. And I don't know, you laugh because it's true, it would be gone. I wouldn't know where it is. But like again, when toddlers, when they dress themselves, it just looks a little different. But when parents dress the toddler look cute, ready for Easter Sunday, right? Listen. Religion is when you dress yourself. Religion is when you dress yourself, it's when you cover yourself. All of those things, those inequities, that deep sense of like, something's not right with me. Religion is when you dress yourself, it's when you cover yourself. Hear me, Christianity is when you stop covering yourself and you allow God to dress you. That's what it is. Now, ironically, this idea, this covering up of our inadequacies, ironically, it reveals something. It reveals when a person is living this old life, if you will, the condemned life, the self righteous life. Guys, did you know the resurrection of Jesus means you don't have to live a condemned life. You don't have to live a self righteous life. And hear me, everybody's doing it. Regardless of their worldview, everybody's doing it. Most of you guys in the room are followers of Jesus. Dirty little secret. Even the Christians do it. Listen to me. The resurrection of Jesus is awesome news. The resurrection of Jesus. It means you don't have to live a condemned life. You don't have to live a self righteous life. You can live a new life, a resurrected life, where you don't have to work for rightness, for righteousness to be acceptable. You can simply receive righteousness. Hear me. From the highest authority that there is. If you're taking notes, it's a long way from me getting my first point. But my first point is this. The resurrection of Jesus means you can live a new life. I only have two points for you, okay? Don't worry. That is so elementary, Tom. I know that. I've been in church my whole life. I know that. We have head knowledge. The resurrection of Jesus means you can have a new life. Look back at verse 19. Well done, guys. Because everybody say because. It's a big word. Because one person, Adam, disobeyed God, many became sinners. All of us missed the mark. We could throw stones at Adam and Eve all day long. God, if they just wouldn't have blown it, the world wouldn't be so jacked up. Anybody lied in the room ever? Anybody ever cheated at a board game? Confession. I used to cheat at Scrabble all the time. Like hard. You guys want to cheat at Scrabble? I'll let you know how to do it. You guys want to know or you want me to just keep going? Okay, now everyone will know if you're cheating. You take that towel, you flip it upside down and now it's like a wild tile, you know, like it's blank, you're good to go. I used to do that all the time. My wife would call me out on it. Listen. Yeah, hear me though. We could throw stones in Adam and Eve all day long. But if they hadn't blown it, I would have. And you probably would have too. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. Many people missed the mark. Many people started living the condemned life where they covered up their inadequacy. They do all this stuff to cover up their inadequacies. But because. Say it again. Because. Because. Yes, because one other person. Say his name. Yes. Because he obeyed God. Not partially. Not in some things. In all of the things, baby. All of them. Because he obeyed God, many will be made. What does it say? Righteous. That's what we're talking about. You see what Paul's getting at here? Do you see it? Can you see it? Do you have eyes to see what's happening? Hear me. The resurrection of Jesus Christ means Jesus has the authority to grant you his perfect righteousness. It means that you can exchange your inadequacies and your attempts to cover them up all the time for his righteousness. When I was a kid, when I was a young boy, I was elementary school for sure, you millennials will know exactly what I'm about to say. Pogs. Yep. Give me that nod. I see you. I see you. I see that nod. I see that nod. I see that nod. Okay. Pogs, for those of you who don't know what pogs are, they're like these bottle cap, silly game things that just became a massive fad. Take the slammer, you hit the pogs, the ones that flip over, you kind of win those. Right? It's kind of like the card game war in some respects, where you gather. Never mind. With the kids on my street, the neighborhood kids, we would all play Pogs and we would all, like, collect sports cards, like baseball cards and basketball cards and those kinds of things. And inevitably, when we get together, can anybody guess what we would do with our Pogs and do with our cards? Trade. You guys grew up with the same generation I did. Yes. We would trade all the time. Okay. And it would be like, okay, I'll give you this card if you give me that card and trade. Cool. That's even. That's fair. That's good. I'll give you these 30 pogs for that one slammer. Nah, I'm not trading away my slammers. Right. But there was one kid on my street. I suspect that he really wanted people to like him, so he notorious. Yeah. You know where I'm going with this? He would notoriously give up way more than he should in the trade. And every other dude on my block would be like, I will take advantage of that today. I'll take both of your slammers, thank you very much. Happened all the time. Now, whenever it wasn't, it wasn't all the time. It wasn't every time. But it happened enough to where whenever the lopsided trade would happen, it would go through. Mom would get involved. Mom would step in and go, hey, guys, we're not gonna take advantage of each other. We're not gonna do that. I'm rescinding and overthrowing and overturning this trade. And the trade would be over. It would be. It would go back. Right? Listen to me, Laker Fans in the room, Luka Doncic, anybody. That was a lopsided trade, man. I'm stoked about it. Lopsided trade. Whether it was the pogs when I was growing up or the baseball cards or the basketball cards or Luka Doncic. Lopsided trade, right? Hear me, Christianity. The most lopsided trade of all time. The most lopsided trade of all time. Sinners, people who miss the mark, people who exhaust themselves trying to cover up their inadequacies with good and acceptable things. Sinners like me trade my guilt, my shame, condemnation for the perfect righteousness of Jesus. The analogy that has been stuck in my mind since I started following Jesus as a late teenager is the whole report card swap. You guys have heard this, right? The report card swap? But it's good. It's like if you examine my life like real talk, even the things that on the outside look like it's a passing grade, maybe even an A or a B on the inside, there's some inadequacies I'm trying to cover up. So, long story short, you examine every subject of my life, and I've blown it. I have failed. Not every time, but enough times to where the grade on my report card in every area of my life is F or F minus. Guys, you know what the Gospel says? The gospel says that God himself looks down on people like me with a failing report card, puts on flesh in the person of Jesus, comes and lives the perfect life that you and I never could. The. The completely adequate life that you and I never could. And he did it in our place. And not only did he do that, but he died the death that you and I deserve. For the ways that we resist and reject and rebel against our Maker for all of our inadequacies, he took the punishment of that on the cross. And then he rose from the dead, demonstrating his power and his authority. Listen, I believe the resurrection is true. I believe the resurrection of Jesus is true with every fiber of my being. But hear me. If the resurrection of Jesus is true, we have to yield to anything that that guy says. Do you know anybody else who can actually reverse death? Neither do I. Only Jesus. The Gospel says that Jesus goes, give me your report card and I'll give you mine. Undeserved. You know what that does to a person? It humbles a person. Like, I have this approval and I didn't earn it. So what it does is it creates this humility in a person of, like, undeserved. But it doesn't just create. It doesn't just give you humility. It actually creates this confidence, like, oh, my God, but I'm so loved that he would do that for me. Guys, Christianity is the most lopsided trait of all time. Here's my question. Why on earth would anybody reject that trade? When my neighbors were on my porch playing pogs, and some kid goes, hey, I'll give you all my slammers for one of your pogs. You don't reject the lopsided trade. Why would anybody reject the most lopsided trade in the history of the world? Hear me. Why would anyone choose the old life, the condemned life, the exhausting, covering up all my inadequacies life? Why would they choose that over a new, resurrected life in Christ? My final point for you this morning. Because resurrection requires death. Because resurrection requires death. Listen to me. New life implies the old life has died. Am I wrong? New life implies that the old life has died. I was driving down the street the other day, and I saw on this building, there was this big sign. And the sign read, under new management. Have you ever seen one of these before? Maybe at a restaurant or, you know, some small business or whatever, under new management. And I thought about that, and I was like, it's kind of like throwing shade at the old management, isn't it? It's kind of like publicly broadcasting. Like, hey, the prior leadership of this place was kind of rough. We've implemented some new leadership. They're not. We're better than them. Like, you kind of like, whoa, like, under new management. That's kind of intense, right? The old leadership wasn't doing so great, so we got some new leadership. The old ways of operating, those are gone now. They died. We just want to make you aware of it. So maybe you'll come back and give us our business because our employees were mean before, but they're not mean anymore, or whatever. You want to know the most common reason people opt out of the most lopsided trade of all time? Because new life requires being under new management. That means I don't call the shots anymore. Jesus does. Gosh, man, if there's one thing in life that we hate to hand over, its control, isn't it, I don't want to hand over control of my life to anybody. I don't want to hand over control of the TV like nobody wants to hand over control. I call the shots in my life. Can I just share a little bit of a pastoral confession to you guys? Yeah. Okay. So I highly recommend that you travel the world as much as you can. Responsibly obviously don't go into crazy debt to do it. But the reason I highly recommend that you travel the world is because I think comparison is the thief of joy. But man, oh man, it also sobers you up to reality too. It helps give you. What's the word? Perspective. Thank you so much. It does. It helps give you perspective. I'll be in Africa in September, and to be honest, I'm not saying this to sound cool. I've just lost how many, I've lost count of how many times I've been there. And one of the things that I've that is so stark and obvious, when you go to places where poverty is more widespread, like third world countries and things, is one of the things that you'll see even like with the church, is how they view Jesus. The Christians in some of these places, more poverty, how they see Jesus is very different than how we see Jesus in the west, especially in America. I don't really know why, I just know it's obvious. Many of you, you've traveled, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Like there's this stark difference in places like Africa, where I'll go, their view of Jesus, I mean, it's like, Jesus is king. Jesus is the king. He's the worthy king. Like they say it all the time. It's like, oh man, their view of Jesus is different. What I've kind of noticed in the west is Jesus is less of a king and he's more of like a consultant, right? Hey, you know, you have some wisdom. Share your opinions with me. I'll filter them through my preference and then I'll implement the ones that I like. Jesus will share his opinions about, you know, life and how to live, how to spend my time, how to spend my money, my sexuality, how to deal with conflict. These kinds of things. I then will pick and I'll implement the opinions that I agree with. This Easter Sunday, can I ask you a question? Is Jesus your consultant or is Jesus your king? New life requires being under new management. I think that's why most people, if the people that choose to opt out of the greatest, most lopsided trade ever, it's because they know that they're not foolish. They're actually very intelligent people. Very intelligent people. Probably more intelligent than most of us in some respects. But the Bible would call that worldly wisdom, short sighted wisdom. I want you to do something with me and I promise this will be good. I'm not bait and switching you right now. I want you to give your mind over to thinking of someone in your life, a person, a real person, who has cared for you in wonderful ways. Like I want you to right now, Picture them in your mind. Somebody who's loved you and cared for you and blessed you and treated you with kindness. Maybe it's a parent or a family member or a friend. Does everybody have a person in their head? I think it's really important that you honor those folks, that you express appreciation, that you receive that from them. And you see it as the gift that it is, the blessing that it is. It's amazing. Anybody in the room not, like, feeling loved. It feels great. As much as it's important for you to honor those folks, I need you to hear me say something, please. No one loves you better than Jesus. Nobody loves you better than Jesus. Like, hear me. Not only did he make you, not only did he create you, he came for you. He came for you. He lived perfectly for you. He died brutally for you, and he rose from the dead for you. Listen to me. Not just for the people sitting around you, for you. No one loves you better than Jesus. I don't care what you say. Nobody loves you better than Jesus. Even if you've resisted him your whole life, Even if you've helped other people resist him, like Paul the apostle. Gnarly story, man. His resume is worse than yours. Nobody loves you better than Jesus. Listen, that means no one is more trustworthy to be the leader and the Lord of your life. Get this. Jesus loves you better than you love you. That makes him a better leader and Lord of your life. Listen, if Jesus is just a consultant, friend, you're missing out on the new life, which just so happens to be the old, old life. Life the way that God intended for it to be before it got corrupted by sin and selfishness and brokenness. You with me? The new life implies that the old life has died. So my question for each and every one of you this morning. Have you died to the old life? Have you died to the condemned life? Or are you still opting into that one? And maybe you're like, I don't know. Like, I'm not sure. Here's how you know. Listen to me. Here's how you know, okay? The old life. Listen to me. The old life will wear you out. Out the old life. It's exhausting, man. Covering up your inadequacies through all. You get exhausted fast. You get worn out fast. Are you worn out? Hear me. Are you weary? You're going too hard. You're doing too much. Are you worn out? Are you exhausted? Are you weary? Are you numb? Let me just read you the words of Jesus in Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28:30. This is the CSB. This is what our Lord says. Come to me, all of you. Can we all say all? That means everybody's included and everybody's desired and everybody's invited. Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. You know what a yolk is? It's not just the thing in the center of an egg, right? Yolk's what they used to attach livestock together with. They'd be literally yoked together to plow the field or whatever. So Jesus is basically saying, hey, come to me. You're weary, you're burdened, you're living the condemned life. You're exhausted. Trying to cover up all of your inadequacies, trying to convince everybody else. I'm actually pretty great. I'm not as bad as that person. Jesus says, if that's you, come to me. Come to me. Take up my yoke. That means come join me in what I'm up to. Instead of asking me when you're desperate and things are hard, to join you in what you want to do, just come join me. Take up my yoke and learn from me. Because I'm lowly and humble in heart. He's the kind of God who leaves heaven. Amen. He's the kind of God who leaves heaven, puts on flesh, humbles himself, lives the perfect life. You and I can't dies the death that we deserve in our place. Raises from the dead, displaying his power, displaying his authority. He's lowly and humble in heart. Display. And when he says, if you come to me, you will find rest for your what? For your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Listen, you know you're living the old life, the condemned life, the covering up life. When you're worn out and you're weary, you know you're living the new life. On the other hand, when your soul feels at rest, rest. Hear me. Regardless of the circumstances, do you know what that feels like? Do you know what it feels like for your soul to feel rest regardless of the circumstances? Hear me. The resurrection of Jesus. It means you can know what that feels like every day. All right. Ben, would you come up? I'm going to close. We're doing good on time. You guys with me? So Paul here, the Apostle Paul, we read about it in Romans, right? He's describing this transformation from the old life to the new life. That in the same way baptism, right. A death occurs and a new life occurs too. Right? That shift that Paul's referencing, the shift from the old life. Stay with me. The shift from the old life to the new life is what it means to be a Christian. It's not following all the rules. Although you want to honor God with your life, for sure, you want to worship him and obey him. That's part of it. But what it means to be a Christian is a shift. That's a transformation, a shift from an old life to a new life. Listen, you Christians in the room, that's your story. That's my story. That's the Apostle Paul's story. I want to read you one more passage of scripture before I get out of here. I want to read you one more passage of Scripture from the Apostle Paul and I want you to see his perspective again. Keep in mind who this guy was. I would be willing to bet that he's a more scandalous, worse sinner than anybody in the room. I want you to see what he says in Philippians, chapter three, starting in verse seven. I'm in the NLT again. Will you just listen to what he says for me? He says, I once thought that these things, the things that he's talking about is the coverings, the fig leaves, the attempts of making yourself righteous through yourself. Like all of the coverings, all of the things we do to cover up our inadequacies, the fig leaves, the self righteousness. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless. Why? Because of what Christ has done? Yes. Everything else is worth worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Notice he didn't say knowing things about him. Oh no. He's talking about an intimate relationship with his Maker, with his Savior, with his Redeemer, with his rescuer, with the one who's responsible for his transformation. God wants to know you, friend. He doesn't want you to know things about him. That's cool, that's great. He wants to know you and be known by you. For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. That's intimacy, language. I no longer count on my own righteousness, my fig leaves through obeying the law. Rather, listen to what he says. I become righteous through faith in Christ. In other words, Christ is my covering. My righteousness, my acceptableness doesn't come from what I do or what other people do, or what I think or say or what other people think or say. No, my covering comes from him. He's the. He's the VIP man. For God's way of making us right with himself. Depends on what faith. That's trust. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. That's Easter. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death. Paul goes. I want to keep dying. I want the old life to keep dying every day. Old life dead. Old life dead. Old life dead. Old life dead. Why? So I can be raised to new life in Christ, the way I'm supposed to live. Listen to me. The way that God created you and designed for you to live, it's available to you so that one way or another, I will experience the resurrection from the dead. Let's go, man. Paul. Friends, the resurrection of Jesus means you can live a new life, but it also means that the old life has to die. Do you see what God has done? Like, can you see it? If you're having trouble understanding, it's okay. It's all right. We'd love to help you. Can you see what God has done? He's made a way to transform you, dude. Like full on caterpillar to butterfly. A complete transformation. Can I just share the gospel with you, please? Can I just share the gospel with you? The gospel says that God loves you in spite of your inadequacies. He's not waiting for you to come up with the best equation of fig leaves to cover yourself. He actually sees what's underneath, man. He loves you in spite of your inadequacies. And he loves you enough to transform you, to call you into who you really are, man. Hear me, please. To call you into who you really are. That's what sharing in the death of resurrection of Jesus means. It means the transformation of a human being. It's a miracle, man. It's awesome. It's incredible. And you meet anybody who's experienced that transformation, you're like, they're new, they're different. It's spectacular. From old life to new life. Now listen, I'm going to get out of the way. I believe that God wants to do something this Easter. I believe that this Easter, God wants to deliver some of you from the condemned life to a new life. I think he wants to deliver some of you from like, guilt and shame, like some of you Christians even. He wants to deliver you from guilt and shame. He wants to deliver you from striving to cover up your inadequacies. It's exhausting. You weren't made to live that way. He wants to deliver you from self righteousness. He wants to deliver you from apathy. He wants to deliver you from pride. Yeah, I'm not as bad as them, though. That's not a passing grade. Like, what are you gonna do with that one man? He wants to deliver you from anxiety. Hear me. I really believe that this morning, God wants to deliver some of you from condemnation. It's the most lopsided trade ever. Most of you in the room, I'll see you again. But some of you, I won't. You can go on your phone right now. You can log into your bank account, and you can see real, like, real time, updated data. How much money you have left in your account. Did you know that money is not even close to the most valuable resource that you possess? By far the most valuable resource that you possess is time. And listen to me. You have no idea what your balance is. You have no idea how much time is left in your account. So at the chance that I never see you again, in love and in respect, I have to tell you the most incredible, most lopsided trade ever. It has an expiration date. It expires when you do. I don't want you to miss it. I don't want you to miss it. Listen to me. The incredible truth of Easter is that Jesus is alive. And you can be, too. Will you stand with me? If you're able. I want to pray for us, Father. I pray for every single person in this room, myself included. I pray for the faith, the trust expressed through obedience. But I pray for the faith, for the. For the inspiration and the empowerment to live resurrected lives every single day. I pray that we would not be people who drift back into the old life, the condemned life, or where we're exhausted trying to cover up our inadequacies with seemingly good things. We would be people that are free. We would be people that share in your death and share in your resurrection and experience new life, kingdom, life where we're no longer the king, but you are, because you're a more trustworthy King, Jesus. So I pray for every heart and mind in the room. I pray that you'd give us all eyes to see you more clearly, ears to hear you. I pray for humility in the room. I just want to pray against the spirit of pride right now. I pray against the spirit of pride, of, like, elevating yourself above anybody else. Humble us, Father. It says that you exalt the humble. You give grace to the humble. We are people that need grace. But I thank you. I thank you so much, Jesus. Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday means we can share in your death and in your life and experience life the way it's supposed to be. Help us do that, we pray. We love you dearly, Jesus. There's nobody like you. We honor you. We bless you. We praise you. It's in your holy name that we pray. Amen. All right, friends, what we're going to do for the remainder 10ish minutes before we go and release to baptisms is I want to encourage you in your inner man, in your inner woman, to express gratitude to God for the sacrifice of Jesus and his unwavering, faithful love for you. No matter how many times you've blown it, no matter how much you're. How many inadequacies are on your report card. Bless him. Let's fill this room with praise and thanksgiving and goodness. If you're in the prayer team this morning, if you wouldn't mind coming up, you can come up at any time if you need prayer for any reason. If you're like, hey, I want to follow Jesus, I've been fading, I've been drifting. These people would love to pray for you. If you're like, hey, I'm struggling with this area of my life. Any reason that you need prayer? Maybe a loved one's sick and you want God to touch them. Maybe you're sick and you want God to touch you. Any reason that you'd like prayer? These trusted men and women are up here. They'd love to pray for you. Okay, band's gonna lead us. Prayer is available. We're gonna do this for about 10 minutes, and then we're gonna go celebrate baptisms. What do you say? Okay. Fill this room with praise. Enjoy him. I love you guys very much. He is risen. We did it. Well done. Love you guys.