God's Service Through the Resurrection of Christ

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The essence of Christianity is that God does not want you to display your strength by working for him, but rather God wants to display his strength by working for you. God does not want you to demonstrate your power by serving him; he wants to demonstrate his power by serving you. [00:12:43]

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a health wanted sign; the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a help available sign for helpless people like you and me who are so sick with our sin and so frail with our sicknesses and so frightened of Eternity. I am here to work for you this morning, says the Lord. [00:16:55]

The resurrection is God's declaration and God's confirmation that he wants to be your servant through the Risen Jesus Christ. Now, to make this plain, I think I need to try to get a reading as to whether we're on the same wavelength as to what our needs really are. [00:17:29]

The biggest problem that you have this morning and that I have this morning is that you and I are sinners, that we sin. I don't care how you define it, but you do it, you know you do it, your conscience tells you you do it, the Bible tells you do it, your wife and husband tells you you do it, your kids tell you you do it, you read it in the mirror. [00:19:22]

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sin. But Christ has been raised, and therefore no one who believes in Christ needs to be still in the condemnation and threat of sin anymore. What the resurrection was, was God's declaration and Confirmation and validation that the death of Jesus Christ for Sinners was all that was needed. [00:21:08]

When you watch Jesus rise from the dead in scriptures, you know what you should hear? It was finished at Calvary; every debt has been paid, the penalty has been borne, the curse has been applied to him that belonged to me, and now he rises to say it is over, it's taken care of, sin is punished. [00:22:56]

The way to have forgiveness this morning is not to work for Jesus. Let him work for you. Relax, lay yourself down in the arms of the one who came not to be served but to serve. [00:23:56]

We were made to live. We weren't created to die. I want to live forever. I hate death. Death is an enemy. I am not Plato. I do not belong to the Hemlock Society. I want to live forever in this body so that you will know me and touch me, and I will sing with this loud voice. [00:24:29]

If the Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, the Spirit who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to this Mortal Body by the spirit who dwells in you. I listen because I want to live forever, and I want you to know me in the Kingdom with a recognizable John Piper body just like they recognize the Risen Christ and knew it was he when he ate fish and broke bread as a risen state. [00:25:29]

God cannot be served by you because he has no needs. God has no deficiencies that we could make up by serving him. We have the deficiencies, we have the needs, and God stands ready to display his all-sufficiency by becoming our servant and meeting our needs as he works for us. [00:14:55]

The resurrection is not just a historical event but a confirmation of God's commitment to serve us through Jesus Christ. This service is not about fulfilling God's needs, for He has none, but about meeting our deepest needs—our sinfulness and mortality. [00:13:22]

The resurrection promises eternal life, affirming that death is not the end. We were created to live, and through the resurrection, we have the hope of eternal life in a recognizable, glorified body. This hope is rooted in the reality that the same Spirit who raised Jesus will give life to our mortal bodies. [00:25:29]

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