Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / July5, 2020 | [re]START - Restart Hope (Alex Wolfe)

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July5, 2020 | [re]START - Restart Hope (Alex Wolfe) · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like that.
• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, my name is Alex Wolf.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you have had a chance to meet you yet, I'm the new uh pastor of young adults here.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: So today I have the opportunity of bringing you a message about hope.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so the title of my message today is called Restart Hope.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: But before we get into it, I'd like to just introduce myself to you.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my name is Alex.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I come from Iowa.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sounds like I come from I come in peace.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just kidding.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I come in Iowa.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's where I met my wife, Lindsay, who's sitting right back there.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: We've been married, I think, for almost eight years.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is that correct?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have a son together.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: His name is Lachlan, and he will be one tomorrow, actually, which is really exciting to us.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um we just graduated from Dallas Seminary.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we moved here May 1st.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So this was actually our first uh 4th of July in Kansas, and that was crazy.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: We I mean the fireworks were everywhere.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I woke up this morning, I looked out the window, I thought, is it foggy outside?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Lindsay said, No, I think that's fireworks smoke.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I immediately thought, respect, Kansas.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: That was good.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Very, very, very good.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, a little bit about me, um, I love soccer.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I love crafts.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I have a small leather craft business, shameless plug.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I also love watching movies, uh particularly superhero movies, and and I don't really think I'm alone in that.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I came across an article this week uh which a third-party company tracked the top 10 watched movies on Netflix during the COVID lockdown.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they found that four of the top 10, or I noticed that four of the top ten of these movies were superhero movies or movies in which the main characters portrayed some sort of supernatural abilities.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I thought to myself, what is it about these superhero stories and narratives that make us kind of turn to them in these difficult times?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I came up with three reasons that I'd like to discuss with you, and I promise this isn't just a tangent, there is a point to this.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: But coming from a psychological angle, I think there's three main reasons.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that humans are psychologically wired to love those who sacrifice for others.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so here's my superhero picture I forgot to show you.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but psychologist Robin Rosenberg, who wrote the Psychology of Superheroes book, she defines a superhero as someone who has superhuman powers and does heroic deeds by exhibiting brave and self-sacrificing behavior.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, this idea of courage and selflessness, which we associate with our favorite superheroes, is often translated on screen as superheroes use their net as uh their giftedness to help ordinary humans.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in fact, she did a study in which they looked at 10-month-old and six-month-old infants, and they exposed them to violent acts, controlled violent acts, and they had a third party standing by, and that third party was told either to intervene or not to intervene.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And almost across the board, these across the board, these infants looked favorably upon the third parties who intervened.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so the point is there's something about sacrifice for the good of others that we really seem to love, even if we don't like to be the ones to sacrifice.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the second reason that I thought is the superhero movies provide an escape from a depressing reality.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: See, we live in a reality where superpowers, at least the ones portrayed on TV, don't actually exist, right?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or so we're told, right?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So when things get hard, we escape into a world of Thor or Captain America, and we imagine a world in which there is power and strength and bravery to do something about it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is evidenced by the fact that by the way that Superman comics came into the world.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: A man known as Malcolm Wheeler Nicholson gave birth to the first superhero, his name is Superman, in 1938.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And within a year, he began selling 1.2 million copies per issue of this.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the interesting part about that is that it was at the tail end of the Great Depression, one of the worst economic crashes in US history.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, superhero movies have this way of helping us picture a different reality, or maybe a better reality, where we are braver and where we can face our life circumstances differently.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that all kind of boils down to my third reason is that superhero movies give us a hopeful confidence that we too can defeat our enemies.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest aspects of superhero movies is the antagonist, right?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's the great unconquerable villain.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the greater the villain, the greater the movie, because somehow this superhero you know is going to go into the fray and somehow overcome these villains.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so the greater the villain is, uh, for example, Thanos, he's inevitable, he says.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: This great villain that's seemingly unconquerable, they go in, they defeat him, right?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's this exciting thing.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we relate so much to these movies because we like to imagine situations in which, unlike the real world, even the greatest evils don't prevail.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the real world we're often beat down by our villains.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: We often are very unsure whether or not we will come out on top of the story.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: But in these movies, we have that knowledge, we have that uh hope that the hero will always prevail because of their supernatural abilities.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're here today and I've just described what you're feeling.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're feeling very unsure that you will come out on top.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe your villains are fear, anxiety, feelings of depression about your current life circumstances, or maybe this COVID crisis has shaken you up to the point of constant fear and paranoia.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe, on the other hand, you've enjoyed the COVID lockdown and you're having a hard time getting motivation to go back to work and to tackle the difficult, hard things in life with bravery and with courage.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So today I want to speak to that.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to give you the same confidence that you feel when you watch a superhero movie.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to be sure that in your story you're gonna come out on top.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: So today I want to talk about this very powerful thing that we call hope.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I my goal is to convince you today that if you are a believer in Jesus, and stick with me here, that you have a very real superpower.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that you can use it to restart hope in your life and to face your life circumstances with bravery and with confidence.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So today I'm gonna attempt that by looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and yes, technically the whole chapter, but we won't have time to look at every word, so I've chosen a select few verses that I think help summarize the logical or theological point of the chapter.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bibles, it would benefit you now to start flipping over to 1 Corinthians 15.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: But in this sermon, we're gonna look at three main points.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh first, we're gonna define what our superpower is.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And second, we're gonna look at what happens when we fail to recognize that superpower or fail to use it.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then third, we're gonna look at what is possible for us when we use our superpower to its full potential.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so my first point is that if you believe in Jesus, you have a very real superpower.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Does anybody know what it is?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'll just spoil it for you.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you are immortal.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: There it is, plain and simple.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you believe in Jesus, at Christ's return, you will be absolutely 100% immortal.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Christians have always believed for 2,000 plus years, that believers will be raised from the dead unto everlasting life, not in a spiritual, non-physical sense.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh that's nonsense.
• 8:32
  unknown: Right?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: But in a physical body, just as physical as you are now, so will you be in the resurrection of the saints.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: As Pastor Jim pointed out a few weeks ago, many Christians today have lost this doctrine of resurrection from the dead.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Many today believe that when we die, we kind of become these spiritual bodies that sort of float off into a spiritual heaven where we sit with God for eternity.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're like me, you were taught something like this: that this is what heaven looks like, right?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: That you'll kind of go and float on a cloud somewhere, maybe there'll be babies playing harps, and uh you're gonna stand and you're gonna sing for eternity, right?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I was told.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know who told me that, but somehow that's what I thought.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and I maybe I shouldn't say this next part, but I remember thinking to myself, that sounds really awful.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like standing that much.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe if I go sit on one of those clouds, it'd be better, but you know, I don't want to stand, I don't I don't like singing that much.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that sounds terrible.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But this is what most Christians today believe that our eternal destination is.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And somewhere along the line in our 2,000-plus year history, uh, we started to view the physical as bad and the spiritual as good.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: But from the beginning, from the early creeds of the Christian church, from which we pull our orthodoxy, included the resurrection of the saints.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Apostles' Creed, the very beginning and the very end of it.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end it says we believe in the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection of the body, and everlasting life.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they're not talking about the resurrection of Jesus' body, they already talked about that earlier.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: They're talking about the resurrection of saints.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we've always believed, but somehow we started viewing the flesh as sinful, and so therefore, we pictured a reality in which we die, we leave that sinful flesh behind, and we become a spiritual body.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's unfortunate.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because Christianity is not about us going to be with God, it's about God with us.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about earthly beings going to heaven, it's about heaven coming to earth.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: If not, Satan stole God's creation from him, which he created for his good purposes.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: God created a physical world in which his beings would rule and represent him, and if God intends to abandon that physical world, then Satan has won.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's no victory.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: But no, God is king over the spiritual and the physical, and he intends to be for eternity.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's unfortunate that this spiritual heaven view exists because as we're going to see in this text, uh, the hope of the resurrection of the saints in a physical body, that you will stand up out of your grave just as Jesus stood up and walked out of his tomb, that's the power of the Christian life.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite literally our superpower.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so looking at the text, we're gonna move on to our second point.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: The first point was that you have a superpower.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: The second point is that without the hope of resurrection from the dead, we are powerless and pointless.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know it sounds extreme, but stick with me here.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, look with me at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 12 through 19.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're unfamiliar with the book of 1 Corinthians, this is a church in which the uh they're very divided, right?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some say, I follow Paul.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Some say I follow Apollos, some say, I'm pretty and I speak eloquently.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is very ugly and he speaks poorly.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, we're going this direction, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they're tearing one another down, and they're divided, and they're taking the Lord's Supper in vain, with division among them and hatred among them, and they're getting drunk and they're doing all these crazy things.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the issues that's happening is that some of these people are claiming that there is no resurrection of the dead.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they're not necessarily saying that Jesus wasn't resurrected from the dead.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, what they're saying is nobody else will be raised from the dead.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus was a physical resurrection, our resurrection is going to be spiritual.
• 13:02
  unknown: Right?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul responds to this horrific view by saying, But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses, the we here being the apostles who preached Christ's resurrection from the dead.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because we testified against God that he raised Christ from the dead, whom he did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, and you're still dead in your sins.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: So for Paul, Christ's resurrection in a physical body was so closely linked to our future resurrection in a physical body that if you aren't going to be raised in a physical body, the only explanation is that Jesus was not raised.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And they would not say that because, of course, that's heresy.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you say Jesus wasn't raised, then the whole thing's pointless.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul's going to even make the argument that if we aren't going to be raised, then our sacrifice is pointless.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: We'll look at that in a minute.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, those who also have fallen asleep, and by fallen asleep he means died here.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk more about that in a minute.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: But those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, those who have died are goners.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: They have no hope.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: They just they're just done.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: If there's no resurrection from the dead.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And also, if there's no resurrection of the dead, we have hoped in Christ in this life only.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: If that's the case, then we are of all men most to be pitied.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: If the dead aren't raised, in other words, Christians are pointless.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Any sacrifice and bravery for Christ's name is foolishness.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Essentially, Paul, to relate it to our superhero uh story, right, Paul is saying that without resurrection of the dead, the Christian is like a superman going into a battle holding kryptonite.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely foolish, idiotic, futile.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's a dead man walking.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: He would never do that.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I'm pretty sure he couldn't do that because I think he can't fly when he's holding it.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now you might be saying to me in your head, Alex, I believe in resurrection from the dead.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor Jim has done a great job of teaching it to us.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: How is this relevant to me?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, even superheroes sometimes get lazy or even forget their own strength.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is Thor in the most recent Avengers movie.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: This has become a reality for many of us during the COVID crisis, I think.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily that.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: That was unfortunate.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: But many churches are reporting their congregants are having high levels of fear, anxiety, depression, feelings of low self-esteem, lack of motivation to go back to work.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's you today.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you knew about resurrection, you knew about our superpower, but you didn't know, or you forgot how to use it to overcome these things.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you were just maybe this is the first time you're hearing of this, and you're like a young Spider-Man discovering your powers for the first time.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're gonna try, wherever you're at on that spectrum, to restart together in this thing we call hope.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we've identified our superpower, which is immortality through resurrection from the dead.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we've discussed the implications of not using our superpower, which it makes us pointless, powerless.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is we do have this superpower that we can use, and it's useful to us in ways, and so we're gonna look at that next.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: And with the hope of resurrection, we can be bold and courageous.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the first two points we're gonna look at are going to be more defensive, and then the final point is gonna be uh offensive, and that it's useful to us in multiple ways.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought to yourself how Superman can so bravely and confidently fly into the conflict?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I always used to kind of just think that he was brave, right?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he had really good character that which compelled him to sacrifice, but the reality is that it's probably because he knows he basically can't die.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's the man of steel, right?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: His his odds of dying are slim to none in whatever battle he faces.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that knowledge is useful to him.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Similarly, then, because we know that we have a superpower, that knowledge is useful to us.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna look at multiple ways in which it's useful.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, first, we're gonna look at it's useful in facing depression, and this is not an exhaustive list, it's just a list that I felt was relevant for us.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's useful in facing depression, useful in facing fear and anxiety, and third, it's useful to motivate us to action.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna look at these three things in order.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, first is that the promise of resurrection is useful to us in facing depression.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not just talking about clinical depression here.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, some of you might be tempted to dismiss this next point because of this word depression.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about any feelings of depression that any normal person would have on a day-to-day basis.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm watching this show called Alone on Netflix and uh Hulu right now, and in which 10 people are kind of taken out into the wilderness and just dropped, and they have to survive on their own with virtually nothing for as long as possible until they tap out or until they become so physically ill that they can no longer continue.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you'd think that it's the things like I watch these guys kill a wolverine with a knife.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just insane stuff.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're getting they're getting hurt, they're cutting themselves, all these things are happening, and you'd think any one of those things would take them out of the game, but that's not what takes them out most of the time.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's this little thought that starts, oh man, I'm really sad that I lost that fish.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I really miss my family.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you you kind of you hear them say it, and then it grows and builds into this great thing where they just can't control their mind anymore, and it they tap out because this little emotional sadness turned into this great depression, and they said, I can't handle it anymore.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: I make that point to say that even the smallest sadnesses in life have great power to sideline us if they aren't eventually checked and balanced with hope.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on the other hand, if you're somebody here today and uh you struggle with clinical depression, you're probably thinking to me, oh great, here's another oversimplified solution to depression.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I'm not here to minimize or reject the idea that some depression could be clinical or is the result of a chemical imbalance.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: That may very well be true, and if that's the case, I believe you should seek medical help if necessary.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not proposing a simple fix.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm proposing may not take away feelings of depression.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if you stick with me, I think I'm offering a piece of information that I believe will at the very least help you to endure it.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: It'll help you to face it with bravery.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: So look with me to 1 Corinthians 15, verses 20 through 26.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: For since by a man came physical death, by a man also came physical resurrection of the dead through Jesus.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive or resurrected, but each in his own order.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ at his coming.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the point I want to make.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's an end.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a glorious end.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has already secured it.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's an end that ends in a physical body, a resurrection from the dead.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: At the end, you will be in a physical body and there will be no more suffering.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: There will be no more depression.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I think this is helpful because studies have shown that many people who feel depressed, they're depressed.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Depression is magnifying and compounded by the idea that it's never gonna end.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always gonna feel this way.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's why hope is often so powerful in treating depression.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's this huge debate going on in the psychology world right now whether or not to treat depression with active antidepressants.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because more and more and more studies are showing that the idea of placebo effect, these fake pills that don't actually have active drugs in them, are becoming just as effective in treating depression as are the antidepressants.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason they cite for this is expectancy.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Expectancy.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: They say, uh, they, and don't think that these people are idiots for being fooled by a pill with water in it.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're told up front, no, this is a placebo pill.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to take it and be part of our study.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: But what they're also told is that statistically, people who have taken these in the past tend to feel better.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is the person who's taken this pill projects themselves into this statistic, right?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And they feel that, well, if other people got better, then so will I.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so they cite this idea of expectancy.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: When people expect to feel better, they feel better.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And now there's a more familiar word we use for expectancy.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's called hope.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: So what we have with the promise of resurrection from the dead is what I call a giant placebo pill on steroids.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's expectancy.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: We have the hopeful expectation that the end of our suffering is coming, that Jesus has secured our future.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: So focus on that.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Focus on Jesus and the future that He has already secured.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the point: you will not be depressed forever.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: You will get better.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: So preach this to yourself.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let our promise of resurrection motivate you to endure your suffering.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let it motivate you to experience joy in this life.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: So my next point is that the promise of resurrection is useful in facing fear and anxiety.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Look with me to 1 Corinthians 15, verses 30 through 32.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, if resurrection from the dead is not happening, then why are we, we being Paul and the apostles and the others who are preaching the gospel, why are we also in danger every hour?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you know anything about Paul's story, the guy was literally in danger every hour.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: He was stoned half to death, beat up just about everywhere he went, shipwrecked in prison all the time.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, legend has it, had his head cut off in Rome.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's literally in danger all the time.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ, I die daily.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me?
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, Paul's like, if if resurrection isn't happening, then everything I'm doing right now is foolish.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's dumb.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in danger every hour.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm putting myself in fearful situations.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but hey, if if resurrection from the dead isn't happening, I'm I'm being dumb.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because if resurrection from the dead isn't happening, let us eat and drink.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you only live once, YOLO.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Go make yourself happy.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: You do you.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about your happiness, it's all about what you want out of life, because you know, if resurrection from the dead isn't happening, you only get one of them.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: But for Paul, he's in danger every hour.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's in fearful situations all the time.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul's saying you don't have to fear these things, because here's the point: you can't die in Paul's mind.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you might be saying, well, you know, you actually do die, Alex.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we aren't technically immortal, we just will be when we're raised from the dead.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I, yeah, that's true.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Fair point.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: But in Paul's mind, we read earlier, what will those do who have fallen asleep, who have perished?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: See, for Paul, this idea of death is not miserable.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's this idea of falling asleep.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think his point is that you should be as afraid of dying as you are of going to sleep at night.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're sitting here or if you're watching this this morning, chances are you've woken up 100% of the time you've fallen asleep.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Fair point.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so you you don't, you're not afraid when you go to bed at night, most of us, that we're gonna wake up.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: You've always woken up in the past, so hey, Paul says you're gonna die, yes, but you're gonna wake back up.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said something similar in Matthew 10.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid of those who kill the body.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, they can't do anything more to you.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best they got.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna kill you dead, and then guess what?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: God's just gonna wake you back up.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: But for many, the response to this COVID crisis was fear, or is fear, right?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when it all started, many people were hoarding essentials out of fear.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Many people today, even in the church, are responding to each other with anger.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Over masks, over social distancing, I mean, you name it.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's anger everywhere we look.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And psychologists mostly agree that anger is not a primary response.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a primary emotional response.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's usually the emotional outworkings of something deeper.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Something we call fear.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: See, the idea is that we're afraid and we don't know how to get a handle on our situation, and so we attempt to manipulate people through using anger.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: But imagine if you weren't afraid.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of anger, you could respond to people with respect, with dignity.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: You could respond with love.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just a thought.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Use language which builds up rather than tears down.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: So be clear about this: that fear is not from God.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Fear is the opposite of faith.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: So our faith that God will make us live even after we die ought to spur us to be brave and courageous rather than fearful.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so, for my final point today, is that the promise of resurrection is useful in motivating us to action in our Christian lives.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: So the first two points, it's useful in facing depression.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's useful in facing fear and anxiety, but it's also useful in spurring us to action.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 58 with me.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, therefore, and that word, therefore, is kidding, this is the last verse in the chapter.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he's that therefore you should import into this verse the entirety of his point in chapter 15, which is basically, you will be raised from the dead.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, since you will be raised from the dead, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Remember at the beginning when he said, if there's no resurrection from the dead, then everything you're doing is vanity?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's vain.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: But if resurrection of the dead is happening, then it's not in vain.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you can go and put yourself in danger every hour.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can fight wild beasts at Ephesus, because resurrection from the dead is happening.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to buy into this, you only live once stuff.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because you don't, that's false.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, be steadfast, be immovable, abound in the work of the Lord.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: It won't be in vain.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Vindication is coming.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what are some ways in which we can use our superpower?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: What are some ways in which we could put that knowledge to use in our lives?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I have three ideas.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that we can sacrifice our time and resources, and again, this are not a this is not an exhaustive list.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just some ideas to get us thinking.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sacrifice time and resources, people in my generation, I'm a millennial, I know, I know.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: We have this weird fear of overcommitting.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like to overcommit our time, we don't like to overcommit our resources, and I think it's based on this skewed view of the future that we must somehow make the most of our time and money, and I agree with that, but what you think is made making the most of your time and money is going to be dependent on what you think is going to happen.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if the future is dying and just going to the grave and that's it, then I say, absolutely, your time and your money is yours.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Use it only for your gratification.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the end of it.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: You only live once, right?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take it even a step further.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: If there is a spiritual heaven and that's the eternal destination for us, then I would say fulfill the lust of your flesh, because it's going away soon.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're just going to be spiritual, you're going to float.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: But your flesh is going to die.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: However, if the future is resurrection from the dead in a physical body, and if in the future the sacrifice you are making gets you reward in the form of a resurrected body, then sacrificing time and resources is making the most of your time.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to be resurrected for a whole lot longer than you're going to be alive this time.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: So my encouragement is to invest in that one, not so much in this one.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Second is that we can sacrifice in relationships.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: I hear this all the time.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you have ever watched the show The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: I do not recommend it.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I watched it a few times, wink wink.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this interesting concept that I deserve this.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here to make myself happy, to fulfill everything that I deserve in life through finding a partner.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: But then what happens?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they get together, realize, oh, this person doesn't make me happy any longer, but we had a good go at it, so I'm just done.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I say to you, spouses, if resurrection from the dead isn't happening, if this is not true, then the moment your spouse stops making you happy, run.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Get out of there.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know what?
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: You only have one life.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all about your happiness, if that's true.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's all about your happiness, then don't sacrifice for their sake.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's foolish.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's dumb.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: But if resurrection of the dead is true, then stay.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: We can recognize what marriage was for.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about your happiness, it's not about your fulfillment in life, it's about fulfilling the work of God.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Marriage is about reflecting the covenant relationship between Christ and the church, between God and his covenant people.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Think back to Hosea.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard the story of Hosea?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: God asked Hosea to marry a prostitute.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: And she remains being a prostitute even after they're married, and he's raising her kids and he's doing all these things for her.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: And God tells him, I divorce her.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: You only live once.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what he says.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: He says, stay, go buy her back, sacrifice for her.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: He said, but there's no merit to that.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's ridiculous.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, it's not about you and Gomer, Hosea, it's about how I relate to my people.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Israel has been idolatrous the whole time.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: They've been an apostasy, they've been going after other gods, and yet I'm going to remain faithful to my covenant.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: See, if you're not be raised from the dead, that's dumb.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are, there's vindication to stay.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to close with this story.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: We can sacrifice at work.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: I went to London last fall in October, and I met this guy named Carl.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: And Carl was an atheist who went on a long journey to find Jesus.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he eventually found Jesus on his own research and he became a Christian.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, maybe I should be a pastor because I really want to help people do what I just did.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he looked at pastors and he said, Well, they only have, I don't know, two hours a week to disciple somebody.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I work in the, I work, he worked in the finance district, the business district of London, the big towers.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Well, I sit next to people eight hours a day, five days a week, 40 plus hours a week.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: I can just disciple people there.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he did that.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: He went into his workplace, he started sharing the gospel, and his goal became to plant a parish of people discipling people in every tall tower in London.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he told me the story.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: We were just walking through downtown or through the business district of London, and he tells me the story of two men he discipled, just kind of casually, he told me this.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, these two men started doing what I did.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: They became believers.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: They went back into their workplace and started just building relational capital with people.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: To the point that their bosses noticed and said, Hey, y'all are seem y'all seem very in influential.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you take these high-level promotions, right?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so these two men were offered these high-level promotions.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, No.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: They said, We really feel like we're making progress with the gospel and our floor.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if they got promoted, they would have had to go up a handful of floors.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they wanted to remain with the people that they felt God had put in their lives.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at that and I'm saying, wow, if resurrection from the dead isn't happening, that is the dumbest thing you could ever do.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Easy status, easy money, easy power.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was just offered to you.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: You could have just said yes, but they knew something different.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: They knew they had a superpower.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: They knew they were going to be raised from the dead.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so that motivated them to not think just about this life, but to think about the next.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: To sacrifice, to stay, to love others who they had in their lives.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because vindication is coming.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's coming, and this is not your only life.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is what a superpower looks like.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing that you could do something so foolish in the world's eyes, even if it leads you to die for the sake of God's work, and that you will somehow come out on the other end totally unharmed.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or better off even.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: So will you use your superpower like Paul did?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like Hosea or maybe Carl and his friends?
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or will you squander it?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question I want to leave you with this morning.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: But this morning, we also have the opportunity to, unlike the Corinthians who are taking the Lord's table unworthily, we have the opportunity to partake of the Lord's table together in unity.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going to pray for us in a minute, and then after we're going to have just a short pause.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're in the College Avenue building, Pastor Doug is going to lead you this morning.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're joining us online, stick with us through the pause as we want you to join us in this time of fellowship.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: So let us pray.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for who you are.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your character and the promise that you give us of a hopeful future in which we will be raised and that we will live on this earth where the heaven has joined the earth for eternity.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: We ask that we would not squander this information, but you would help us to reflect on it, to preach it to ourselves, that it would spur us on to bravery and courage in our lives.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: We praise you.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.