Easter 2025

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- Well, hey, happy Easter and welcome to Crossroads.

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Wherever you're watching from,

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your kitchen table, the living room,

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maybe on your phone hiding the bathroom from your kids,

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we're so glad that you're here.

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Hey, my name is Andy Reider and I get to be

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the community pastor for what we call

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our Crossroads Anywhere community.

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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.

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If you're not sure what you believe about God

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or Jesus or the resurrection, hey, you're not alone.

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But maybe, just maybe,

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there's something in this story

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that your heart needs to hear.

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So before we get into our time together,

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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.

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Try to imagine this.

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You just watched your friend,

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the one that you thought might actually change everything

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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.

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Maybe you're even in one of those moments right now.

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But that's not the end of the story.

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Three days later, He's back,

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alive, walking, talking, eating,

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the same hands, the same scars, the same Jesus.

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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.

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That's why Easter matters.

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Not because of religion,

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not because of tradition,

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but because the resurrection is real.

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So let me ask you,

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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.

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Could it be that Jesus didn't just rise then,

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but that He still raises things right now?

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That's what today is all about.

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If you're new here, our hope is simple

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that you catch a glimpse of how

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this ancient, wild and true story

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could actually change your life today.

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We've all got something that

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needs to be brought back to life,

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and the best thing about the Bible

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is that it isn't just the stories

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of what God has done in the past,

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it's the stories of what He's still doing

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in you and in me back then and right now.

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- Mary Magdalene was walking in darkness,

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until she met Jesus and His life-changing light..

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Now here she was, in the dark again,

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before sunrise at His tomb.

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Her jaw dropped:

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Somehow, the stone holding Him had been shoved aside.

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Tears poured down her cheeks as she ran to tell

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Peter and John that someone had taken His body.

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♪ I will overcome ♪

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♪ Even when you say the hurt isn't done ♪

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♪ Even when you say the hurt isn't done ♪

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♪ And if these eyes can't see another day ♪

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♪ I'll take all the love that they can never take away ♪

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♪ And I will meet you in the light ♪

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♪ From the rise in the morning 'til the death of the night ♪

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Mary barely got the words out before Peter and John raced off

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to the tomb to see for themselves.

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John pulled up short

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and couldn’t bring himself to look inside,

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but Peter barged right in.

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What?! No body, just grave clothes folded neatly

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so Death would get the message clearly:

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it’s got NO hold on Him.

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♪ There's lightness out of darkness ♪

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♪ When you lose your faith in everyone ♪

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♪ Out of darkness when you see the sun ♪

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♪ Even when I know the hurt isn't done ♪

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♪ And I will meet you in the light ♪

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♪ From the rise in the morning to the death of the night ♪

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♪ When the world feels like it's against us ♪

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♪ out of darkness when we see the sun ♪

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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?”

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Mary broke and said, “Sir,

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just tell me where you’ve taken His body—please!”

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The Gardener looked at her with a wide smile

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and called her by name: “MARY!”

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Wait, it was Him! “Teacher!” she yelled

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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.”

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Mary ran back to the disciples

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and shouted, “I HAVE SEEN THE LORD!”

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♪ When the world feels like it's against us ♪

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♪ When we don't see hope around us ♪

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♪ When the one you love is on the run ♪

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♪ Out of darkness when we see the sun ♪

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That same Sunday night,

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the disciples had locked themselves in the Upper Room

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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!

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And NOW—exactly as scripture promises—

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He’s seated at the right hand of the Father

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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.

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Because of the resurrection, The Light beat the 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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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!

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So Grab Joy and hold up Hope, for I have OVERCOME THE WORLD!

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- You got it. Sing it again.

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- That's the way to start Easter off, right? Come on.

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If we've never met, my name is Justin.

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I just want to pray for you to come in together.

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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.

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Hey, why don't you turn to somebody next to you

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and say, hey, Happy Easter, then you can have a seat.

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- In my view, my life was fairly charmed.

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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

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to a religion like that.

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In terms of issues that I had with the Bible,

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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.

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This doesn't make sense.

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Again, the inconsistencies I saw in light of evolution,

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for example, all these arguments I've had,

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and I would go after anybody who thought,

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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,

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"Well, it just comes down to faith."

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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,

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she never wavered in her faith.

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If half of the things that happened to my wife

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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

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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

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the glimmer of God.

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To me, the most prevalent theme in the Bible

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is the relationship between father and son,

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father and child.

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- What did a relationship with God

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actually look like in your life?

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- As a lawyer, since I'm a lawyer,

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we work a lot with analogy,

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so I'm going to give you an analogy.

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It's like when you were watching a 19 inch TV

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and a VHS cassette tape.

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You thought, this is great.

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I can't imagine a movie that would look better.

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But then you get an 80 inch flat screen,

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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,

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which is opened this weekend.

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Let's welcome all of Dayton to the Crossroads community.

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[applause] Man.

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So good to be with everybody in Dayton

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and all of our sites all over the place.

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I'm pretty geeked about today

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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

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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.

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There's transcendency, there's love, t

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here's power, all of these things.

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And I just don't feel fully equipped

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to be able to explain all these things fully.

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And so we rest on You, and we know

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that You've brought us here for a reason.

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And so we ask you build into us in some way, shape or form.

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I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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Well, my understanding of and awareness of Easter

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has morphed a lot over, over the many, many years

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that I've been alive.

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I grew up with my mom who played the organ.

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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.

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And Easter was the worst experience of all, actually,

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because there was more stress to behave the right way

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and be the right thing.

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And back way, way back when that was

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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.

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You would like take your dress to the next level,

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which looking in here,

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that tradition does not exist anymore.

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Maybe you, maybe you, maybe you.

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That tradition is long gone.

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I would get this brand new suit and it would be scratchy

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and the collar would be too tight, and it would --

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And it bothered me.

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And I would go and and I would hear stories,

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as I remember it, stories of daffodils

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and tulips and springtime.

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And I just didn't understand what Easter was.

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And I would hear, like, Jesus is on the Cross

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or Jesus is risen from the grave.

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And I equated it and I think it was talked about

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in the church I grew up in is it's just like

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flowers coming to life and beautiful things happen.

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And all that may be true to one degree or another,

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but it just didn't appeal to me.

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Like the Easter Bunny,

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I never was really big on the Easter Bunny.

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I just think it's just too uninspiring.

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I mean, what's wrong with,

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why don't we have the Easter grizzly?

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If we had the Easter grizzly, you know,

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a little kid might get excited then

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about the Easter grizzly,

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instead of the Easter Bunny.

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And it was really crazy, as time went on,

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I came to understand what Easter was.

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It was about, and I didn't know this growing up

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in the church I grew up in, it was about

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the literal, physical, and historical,

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not metaphorical, resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

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That He came back from the dead.

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This isn't a metaphor. This isn't an analogy.

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This isn't a feel good story.

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It's a literal historical truth.

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And that's what I'm gonna spend

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the rest of my time today doing,

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helping convince you that this is

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a literal historical truth that should impact your life.

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Some of have never believed that before.

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My hope is come to the end of the day, you might go,

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"Huh? Wow. Never considered that before.

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Uh, okay, I think I'm in."

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And others of us who walked in here today,

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will be bolstered, perhaps in the faith we have,

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and be able to articulate it to somebody else.

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But this is the biggest thing, the biggest deal

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that ever happened in all of human history,

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in my opinion.

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A person who walked the earth came back from the dead.

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In the book of 1 Corinthians 15:14,

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it says this in talking about this belief.

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If Christ is not raised,

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then anybody who's a Christian is wasting their time.

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This is according to Bible.

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If He's not come back literally from the dead,

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you're wasting your time in a faith that is meaningless.

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In fact, it also tells me

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I've made the wrong career choice.

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Our preaching is in vain. I made the wrong --

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I could be doing something else to making a lot more money.

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I make good money, thank you very much.

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You're very generous, Crossroads.

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But I can put all my stuff

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into something else somewhere else.

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I've wasted my life. I've wasted my occupation.

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That's what this is.

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So he's saying, all of us have the hope

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that we will be raised, all of us.

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But Jesus is the first.

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All of us have to figure out some way

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to deal with our sins, deal with our bad choices,

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if you like that phrase, it's a little less offensive,

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deal with our pain points.

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We all deal with them somehow.

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Some of us deal with them by explaining them away.

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"Well, you know, anybody would have done it

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if they were me. It's no big deal."

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Others of us deal with it by saying,

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"Well, if God grades on the curve,

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I'm sort of in the upper 50%, so I think I'm fine."

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Others deal with it by just explaining it away,

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"No, it wasn't me. It wasn't me."

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Others of us deal with it by saying,

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"Well, I'm going to come back reincarnated

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this next life and I'm going to have another life form,

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and I'm going to keep evolving myself

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until I get to that place where I can get

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the brass ring and I become authenticated."

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Others of us -- they go on and on and on.

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All of us have some system will work,

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and even if the system is just deny, deny, deny.

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There is no afterlife, deny, deny, deny.

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There is no ramifications for my sin, deny, deny.

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All of us have to have something because

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there is an understanding of divine

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planted inside of all this, all of us.

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And the Bible says, Jesus says that He goes to a Cross

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and He takes the hit for what I deserve.

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So that therefore when I go before God,

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I'm never concerned that He's going to spank me.

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I'm not afraid of dying at all because I'm ready.

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I'm ready because Jesus has made me ready,

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because all of my stuff was transferred onto His back,

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all of my sin, all of my problems, all of my hangups.

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And not only this, here's what's really wild,

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His potency from when He came back from the dead,

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the Bible says the same Spirit that gave life

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to His mortal body will also give life to yours.

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That that same power that brought Him back from the dead

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actually is for me and is in me

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and in you if you receive Him.

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I know I meet a lot of people who just don't believe this,

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just don't believe it.

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Like, a lot of us just believe that

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the way you live life is the default mode

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of anxiety, fear, and depression.

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Especially I find this in younger generations.

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It's like if you're younger

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and you're not anxiety prone, fearful, or depressed,

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you're looked at as weird.

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There's a cultural expectation

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that all of us should be this way.

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And I'll just say there's a biblical expectation

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that, no, you don't have to be that way.

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That there is a power that comes to you,

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a power that comes to you that transcends

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what everybody else says you have to be

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and what you have to do.

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There's power to Him.

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This isn't just a theological exercise,

00:35:09

though it is a theological exercise.

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It's not only a theological exercise,

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it's a practical exercise

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for what is the potent force in your life.

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So let me give you six reasons why I came to believe

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that this is actual, real and literal.

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Uh, the first is this. First is this.

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The faith of Jesus's brothers. Faith of Jesus's brothers.

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A lot of things have changed in our world

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a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of things.

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Like, I would have never thought that I would

00:35:42

be doing ChatGPT more than Google.

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I never, never thought.

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I would have never thought that I'd be living

00:35:50

in a time in America where I don't know

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anybody who works in a factory factory.

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Like, growing up where I grew up in Pittsburgh.

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Like, factories go away, like they're gone.

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Like, maybe a couple people, a few people

00:36:00

at Crossroads who are in factory.

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Like, manufacturing is for the most part gone in America.

00:36:06

I would have never thought.

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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.

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I'm talking just the last several months.

00:36:16

I mean, the last several years.

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It's just crazy things have been happening all around.

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And the one thing, one thing that I can say

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never changes is that brothers annoy sisters

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and sisters annoy brothers. You know?

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That's just the way it is.

00:36:35

Jesus's brothers were annoyed by Jesus.

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Now, some of us might come from a faith tradition

00:36:40

that says that Mary was a virgin and never had sex,

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and never had any other kids other than Jesus.

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I'm sorry, that's not true.

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She was a virgin before she had Jesus.

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Virgin birth.

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I don't want to get into Christmas here right now.

00:36:55

But there's nothing in the Bible that says

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that she never had sex and never had kids later on.

00:37:00

She very clearly did in the Bible have kids.

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And this is what their response to Jesus was.

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Jesus's younger brothers, what their response was.

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John 7:3-5.

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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.

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