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What the Resurrection Means to Me · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: If we look at this issue of resurrection, that means there was an issue of death.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: In Matthew chapter 19, verse 16, we see where there was a man that came to Jesus.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, he was the rich young ruler.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he came to Jesus with a question.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this was a predominant question.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Something we want to take note of.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, behold, one came to Jesus and he said, Good teacher.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Amen, amen, amen.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Good teacher.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: What good thing shall I do?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I need about a hundred of you guys.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: What good things shall I do?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: What good things shall I do?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: What good things shall I do so I can have eternal life?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: That tells you something, doesn't it?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: It tells you that, now, now let me lay a little background here.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: There were people, the Jewish believers, there were many that believed in a resurrection.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he told Martha, your brother's going to live again, and she says, Well, I know someday there's going to be a resurrection, but he says, No, I am the resurrection.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he showed that resurrection right then.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: There was, uh there's this belief that this man has.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, There is a way to have eternal life or everlasting life, or there is a way to live forever.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's a way that we don't just die, and that's the end of it.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: See, they believed that there was something about that.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, not all of them believed that.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sadducees didn't believe in a resurrection at all.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: They said, when you're dead, you're dead.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing else.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is it.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: But some of them did.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them believed in it, but the problem was that they believed like this that if you do enough good, if you earn it, you might have everlasting life.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: You might be counted worthy of having a life after the body dies.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we know what Jesus teaches about that.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then in John chapter 3, 16, it's mentioned again, and this was when Nicodemus came, actually.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: This was that conversation, when Nicodemus came to Jesus in the nighttime, and he was wanting to know about these things, and Jesus said, I don't know if you've ever read this verse before, but in verse 16, there's a verse that says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life, would not die, but have everlasting life.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want to throw this out here to you.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: When you, if you will read the Bible, the New Testament, you can actually you can look at all of it.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: When you look, the big issue was death and life.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: We focus a lot about destination about about the location, heaven, hell.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament, you notice, doesn't say, doesn't talk about hell.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's a word King James used, but it's actually the word Sheol, which means the grave, where dead people go.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a burning, forever and ever torment thing.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Also in the New Testament, if you look it up, King James uses the word hell, but it's the word Hades, which is the same as Sheol.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's the grave where dead people go.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: When the young lady had died and Jesus was called to heal her, but she had already died by the time they uh got there and they told Jesus it's too late.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, What?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, She's not dead, she's only asleep.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: They called it being asleep.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: What about those who sleep?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: He called it being asleep because there was a resurrection that was that that that that that God had in his heart, in his plan, and had for people, and Jesus would be that resurrection.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is telling Nicodemus, he says, it won't be, he says, if you believe in me, those who believe in me, they won't perish.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Notice he wasn't saying, the issue in these conversations was not about, they didn't say, uh, Jesus, what can I do so I don't go to hell and burn forever?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: What they said was, how can I live forever?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: How can I live forever?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, if you believe in me, you will not perish, die, but you'll have everlasting life.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: It won't be the end for you.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: You won't just lose consciousness forever and never never know anything again.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and then over in Hebrews, talking about this issue.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is why resurrection is so important, because death has been an issue.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible said that death reigned from Adam to Moses, then Moses gave the law, and of course death continued to reign, and death reigned over man, and we see one way that it reigned.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14, it says, Inasmuch as the children, us, uh, have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself, Jesus, likewise shared in the same, so that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and watch this, and and would release those who through fear of death, and this is what the rich young ruler had, is what Nicodemus, it's what they all had.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: He said, those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where we get into this, because with the fear of death, or with the mindset of death, and with the awareness that death comes to man, that it makes the picture very, very small.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: It makes people feel like this is all there is.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny, even people that are Christians that say they believe in the afterlife, they believe in heaven, and they believe it's a better place, and they believe it's wonderful and no pain, nobody's in a hurry.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to go this this second.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Some will say they do, maybe, maybe, maybe some do, but but for the most part, what I've seen is people are like, I'll take my reservation.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad it's there, but you know, if they get sick, they say, pray for me that I don't go today.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um why is that?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there is a there is a fear of death that can be in people, and it and it and it brings and it and it holds people in a type of bondage, and it keeps their vision in a very small place when God has a whole eternity for us, past, present, and future.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: He has this big life.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's called eternal life.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when we don't know or not convinced of the resurrection, and many people have a have a doctrine that there's a resurrection, but that but but to really believe, I've talked to Christians, and they're like, Rick, how can I know for sure that there is something after this?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: They believe it doctrinally, they they say, I believe the Bible.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, it says that, but how do I really know, no, no, in in my heart?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one thing that helps is what we're talking about today, the resurrection.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 2.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you know, in historically, traditionally, it is said that the early Christians had what we call now the paschal greeting, is and maybe you've heard this in in Christian circles, is someone will say, He is risen, and then the other one will answer, he is risen indeed, or yes, he is truly risen.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: He is risen, he's risen indeed.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've known Christians, and we would say that sometimes people I've worked with.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's risen, he's risen indeed.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: That was a common traditional greeting uh in the early church.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And now think about that, think about that being their greeting because this was a big deal to them.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Jesus who was dead, and and and they're greeting each other with this simple nothing else.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's risen.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's risen, he's risen.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the other one says, He truly is risen, he really is risen indeed.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Think of that.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody rose from the dead.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: That that death is not the biggest thing, that something is bigger.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: That physical death is not the biggest thing, something is bigger than that.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really like the worst thing that somebody can experience, either in themselves or or or or in a loved one.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that Jesus takes the sting of that away, but uh, and and he does it with this, with this resurrection.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: But but with the resurrection, he is risen means that death took him.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Death buried him.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And something, somebody, was bigger than that thing that looked that looked unbeatable.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing me?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: In Romans chapter 6, verse 4, we have a clue to something here.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also will walk in newness of life.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: It says that he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's dead.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's in the grave.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: The glory of the Father.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now that glory means the splendor, the honor, it's his greatness, his copiousness, his bigness.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, death had Jesus in the grave, but something so much more bigger, something so much more glorious.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Someone we're actually so much more, more, far superior.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: It makes death look like this compared to God.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: When you don't see that resurrection, is there really a resurrection?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're not seeing the glory, you're not seeing the bigness of God here.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: With the resurrection of Jesus, we celebrate every single year, we get to look at that again and again and again, that God is bigger than that little thing that we call death.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: That he, Jesus, gave himself over, submitted to the one thing that nobody had ever defeated.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus willfully went through all that torture and gave himself up, knowing, told the people, in three days I will rise again.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Three days I'm coming back from the dead.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Death will not hold me.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to kill me, they're going to do it, and I'm going to go where every other man has gone, and I will taste what all men before me have tasted, but I'm coming back.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, they heard him say that.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I really believe they were still shocked and surprised when it actually happened.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: But to think of that, put yourself there if you can for a minute, that here's Jesus.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know he's dead.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You saw him beaten, you saw him, him, him, him literally almost beaten to a pulp.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: He was more, he was unrecognizable.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: He was marred more than any other man.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Think of that.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Beaten that way, pierced in his side, hung on the cross, died, gave up the spirit, laid there lifeless.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: They took that lifeless body, lifeless body, laid it in that in that borrowed tomb.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And just like he said, three days later, when they go back, he's risen.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Think of that.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Try not to take that for granted.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Think of that happening.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's risen.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: He beat it.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: He beat it.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't the last thing.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't the biggest thing.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Death is not the ultimate thing.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Death is not the end of this thing.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: There is life.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's something bigger than that, and that thing is called life.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says he was raised by the bigness, the glory, the honor of the Father.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians chapter 1.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm boogieing through this because I've just had a lot of quote here.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 9.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: It says, having made, now this is talking about the intention.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, what we see in what we've looked at so far is the bigness of God.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: What does the resurrection mean to me?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: It means that God is big.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: It means that God is far superior, bigger.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's no match, there's no contest, that God is just big.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's bigger than death.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I do not fear it anymore.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I am alive forever.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the glory of the Father.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection tells me that.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection gives me that hope and that convincing that Jesus is alive today.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are no bones of Jesus anywhere that you'll find.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: He is alive.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: He never went back into the tomb.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: He that died dies no more.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: He is alive forevermore.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he's, and among the many things that says is that there is eternal life for real.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: The Sadducees were wrong.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees, who hoped there would be, now have reason to know.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing it?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we see the bigness of God.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: What's that mean to you in your day-to-day life?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're going to like this.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: It means that if God is bigger than all of that, what that does, it opens up a big picture, and the things that seem to trip us up in this life become very, very, very, very small because you're also big in him, living forever, and you not only will you outlive and outlast everything, but you're really bigger than all this stuff.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show you that in just a moment.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing that I see here is the intention of God.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: God is big enough, but he's also good enough.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection speaks to me that God is so big.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: How great is our God.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection speaks to me how good is our God.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: We see the plan here in Ephesians chapter 1.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole chapter says it, but I just want to read two verses.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: He says, having made known to us the mystery of his will, his will, God wanted this.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: The whole time, this was the heart of our Father, not to torture us, not to let us suffer.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: But his will was that we would be alive with him forever.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was that way in the beginning in the Garden of Eden.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: The mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, it made him happy.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is what what the heart of the Father is about.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's his will, it's his purpose.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to do good, he wanted goodness for you.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's big enough and he's good.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: According to his good pleasure that he purposed all in himself, just because he's good.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: He says, these people are not going to stay in the grave.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're not going to stay in the abode of the dead.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's no way that I'm going to leave them there.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to show you some stuff here.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, His good pleasure says, I'm going to bring them out.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: They will live with me forever.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: This good pleasure that he purposed in himself so that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, Galatians says that's when the Jesus came, the Son was born in the earth.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and in the earth.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: In him.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And in him we've obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works everything according to the counsel of his will.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: We see his goodness here.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted this.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: That word predestined means that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: This was going to happen.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: This was going to happen.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 2, we see the intention of it, even back in the Old Testament.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was being was surrendered by the purpose and foreknowledge of God.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just man.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: God wanted this done.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: By the foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, you had him crucified and put to death, whom God has raised up and he has loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by death.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is that?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: That shows that somebody was bigger.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Shows that death was not that big.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that word, that word possible, look it up.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: It says, it was not able.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was not strong enough.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not strong enough to hold you.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the old song, Ain't No Gray?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Gonna hold my body down.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because greater is he that's in me.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's too small to do it.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's too little.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: What's that do?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now it makes you big, it makes your life big.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now you start to have an eternal mindset here.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Something happens to you when you this eternal life inside you, and when you're aware of this and you're looking at truth here, you start to get a mindset of eternity.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're not boxed into just this physical time that you've spent here on earth, and you're not boxed into just today, and you're not boxed into just your little situation that really, really looks hard.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not making light of it because I know it can be painful, I know it can hurt, but there's an answer for that.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, look at the big picture here.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there's tribulation, but be happy.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've overcome everything.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, it was not possible that he could be held by that.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: That shows the matchup.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: It shows that it was not champion against champion, it shows that it was not blow for blow.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: It shows that it was not this big struggle.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was impossible.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because David said about this.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: David talked about it, King David.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I foresaw the Lord always before my face.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's at my right hand, that I will not be shaken.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: I saw something, he says.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: My heart got glad, and I started singing praises, and my flesh can now rest in hope.
• 18:17
  unknown: Why?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the resurrection.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: My flesh can rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: The grave, the place of the dead.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: You will not leave my soul there, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: David prophetically said, Jesus, his and his body did not decompose.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: He was only in there three days.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You will not allow him to seek corruption.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you have now made known to me the ways of life.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: You will make me full of joy in your presence.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: King David, wonderful, probably the best prophet of the Old Testament, if you really look at the things that he said, saw this, saw Jesus in it, and said, Because of Jesus, because of this resurrection, because of what we got dressed up to celebrate together today, David said, My soul can rest in hope, because you're not going to leave it in the grave.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: You'll make my heart glad.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you made my tongue sing now, because I don't have to fear this death thing.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to stay there.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in John chapter 16, 33 Knowing the goodness, the bigness, and the intention.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: We see the intention.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: If we could we could look at this so easily from the beginning, God had always intended this.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was gonna happen.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus told us, these things I've spoken to you, so that in me you'll have peace.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the world, there is trouble.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: We all know that.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: In the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've overcome the world.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's resurrection.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: I have trouble in this world, you deal with trouble in this world.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard it said, some I I heard it just recently.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard it said often times, and and and uh it's just people we like Rick.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know what I'm dealing with, you don't have any problems.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: You can't live in this world without having problems.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's often, most of the time, what happens is with some of us, is that because of how we are, because of what we see, because of who we know, because of what we're aware of, it just doesn't look like we have problems because our problems to us look very, very small compared to what we're looking at.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a growth in this because many of those same problems that you and I might think are small now can remember when those same problems looked very big.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what what what what happened?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Why why is that?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because our view has changed, our view has broadened, we see more than we see, we see the big picture.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, often what we do when we're looking at those things, we're looking at life through a keyhole.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why people can get oppressed and depressed over a problem that's going in life.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's like something's going on, and and it's and it and it's uh the word is myopic, it's tunnel vision, they call it.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you've got, you don't know what's going on except this one thing that you're looking at here.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And many people will go through all day of their life looking at this one thing that might be a negative thing, it might be a problem, it might be an issue going on that's real.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you're looking at this thing, and here, and what happens?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like it encompasses your whole life.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Something horrible, one thing can be horrible going on that day, and some people say, you know what, I just don't want to go on anymore.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't want to.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Live.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Take me, Lord, I'm done.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you're just looking at this one thing when all the time there's something else that's going on.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's something a lot bigger.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: People have told me, since, you know, when I when I tell them, you know, things like, look at the truth, look at the kingdom, look at Jesus, look at the reality, look at the look at your blessings, look at the goodness of life.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And people say, Oh, what?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm supposed to just deny this thing that's going on here?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, don't deny it.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the truth.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's there.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not the only thing there is.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole lot more going on.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, come and see.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of looking through the keyhole, Jesus says, There's a beautiful vista for you to look at.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's this whole thing called eternal life here.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're aware of what we're talking about, what the resurrection had done for me, it opened up the doors.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of that keyhole, looking through that keyhole, you know what it did?
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: It had me sleeping under bridges and trying to get just a little money to get me a pint of liquor and a sandwich for that day.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: That was my life.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: It had me angry, it had me bitter, it had me hurting, had me despairing of life, it had me living like that, doing criminal things to try to just survive because all I could see was a keyhole.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: When I met Jesus, I didn't know how to describe it like I'm doing now, but I remember saying to people, you know what?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: The sky is so much bigger and bluer than it ever was.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I can see, I remember saying that tip with my I just said, I can see farther in life than I've ever been able to see.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: My vision wasn't drawn down to a little thing that's going on today.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when we look at those things, it gets on our head, and it's just like, oh, and everything's about, oh God, take this from me, oh God, do something.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm fighting this thing and fighting this thing.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the resurrection tells me, son, there's something a whole lot bigger than here.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: That thing is so small compared to me.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not only is it small compared to me, but I'm good.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've got it.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: I've taken care of this whole thing.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the way he took care of it was not just so much that he just like, every little thing that goes wrong, it just gets fixed right then there all the time.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: He gave me something so much bigger so that those things are not issues as much as they as they once were.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: I remember people driving me crazy one time, and God said, Son, you're going to grow.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Toward the things that people do won't affect your soul that way.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: The things that seem so big.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: It'd keep me awake at night that people were doing, and just, ugh.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: We grow.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection gives us a sense of eternity.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection tells us we're living forever here.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection tells us there's a whole lot more to this life than to this little thing that I'm dealing with today.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say little, I'm not making light of your pain.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm talking about in comparison to God.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in horrible pain.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: You lose someone very close to you that you love very, very, very much.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's pain.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I can honestly tell you, compared to what I'm looking at today, compared to this, it is small compared to that.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the joy of life, eternal life, outshines and fills a heart with joy.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: When if I didn't couldn't see what I would see, you know what I'd be doing today?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Eight years later?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be looking at that pain through a keyhole.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd be saying, Why did God do this?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't trust him.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can't trust him.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe life's no good anymore.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: It used to be good, it's not now.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be looking through that keyhole.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is that keyhole what I'm seeing?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is it there?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's there.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's a reality.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it happened.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if I look at the truth, I see there's so much more than what I'm seeing through that keyhole of pain.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's eternal life here.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all seeing this?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's tribulation in the world.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Be of good cheer.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how I overcame it.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Resurrection.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Come.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I welcome you into eternal life.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, we know this verse from Jeremiah 29, 11.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: This talks about his intention.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is his is not only was it his intention to bring resurrection for us, for mankind, but it's intention for you.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're plans for good, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: This would apply to the resurrection that he had to give to mankind, that he had provided for mankind, actually.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: But in him doing that, in his heart, in his goodness, his bigness, his intention of being that way, that he planned it.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: You look at the scriptures, Isaiah prophesied about Jesus being wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know when he did that?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Seven hundred years before Jesus came.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: God had that intention a whole time.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was still gonna be done.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And those who sleep would arise out of those graves.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And those who are alive would live forever with him.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know the plans that I have.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're going through trouble?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Life getting to be too much?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is it in your face?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is it hurting?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Does it seem like you're overwhelmed?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Feel like you're going down the tube sometimes, and it's like, oh God, if I get hit by life one more time, I'm getting knocked out.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the big picture.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Look at life.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Greater is he that's in you, you're bigger than all of this because you're in you're in him and he's in you, and God's got eternity for us.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know the plans that I have, and they're plans of good and not for disaster, not for evil, but to give you a future and a hope.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Would y'all stand up?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Easter, guys.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: What does the resurrection mean to me?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: It means that when I was in all of my darkness, there was a light.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I love how God is because He's just bigger.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a listen, there is not a cosmic battle going on between dark and light right now.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: That battle's in people's minds in their keyhole vision.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, is darkness on e-oh, yeah, there is darkness on the earth.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's gross darkness on the people.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: But rise and shine, our lights come.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Our light has come.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the glory of the Father, same thing that raised Jesus from the dead, has risen.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's risen on us.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that your life is not a moment.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Your life is not a situation.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like you've been dealt a bad, bad hand of cards.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of us have.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Some were born into families that were not very good.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Others were born better.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Some were born in poverty, some were not.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some were born into people that loved them, others were not.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Some were born healthy, others were not.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: And rejoice today because the resurrection says you are living forever.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going into a grave and sleeping for a long time.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: For to be absent from the body in Christ is to be present with the Lord.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Whether this body is laid down into a grave or whether you're changed in a moment, as the Bible speaks of, either way, it'll be like the same experience because in a moment, you will continue.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Continue to live.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: If my body did drop dead right here, I would continue to live forever.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: No fear of death.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because the one who loved us, who was totally committed the whole time that he was going to give you eternal life, is outshining all those things.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for your goodness.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for Easter.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection gives us hope that we can lay down tonight and rest.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for eternal life.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: We give you all the thanks.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're just good.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: You are just good.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we celebrate your goodness today.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who's alive today and lives forevermore.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.