Hope and Redemption Through the Resurrection of Jesus

"However Jesus said 'My purpose is to give them all of us a rich and satisfying life.' Say 'That's good news.' And how's he going to do that? He's going to do that because he says 'I am the good shepherd.' And if some of y'all been with us for a while you knew we had to bring it up at least one more time before we move on. We've been in a long series talking about the good shepherd. And Jesus himself said 'I am the good shepherd.'" [00:27:49]

"Look at what he says. He says 'The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.' He says 'I am the good shepherd and I know my own sheep and they know me.' Then I love this. He says 'No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily.' We could just stop right there and talk about how nobody made Jesus die for you. He did it because he wanted to. He did it because he's in love with you." [00:28:55]

"And he said 'I am willing to do whatever is necessary so that they can be redeemed.' But look at what he says. He says 'Sir I have the authority to lay it down when I want to but also to take it back up again.' Somebody say 'That's the best news.' And that is that Jesus did die but he didn't stay dead. He got up again. And because he got up again we have the opportunity to live with freedom and with purpose and knowing that our sins can be washed away." [00:30:19]

"And I love that he said this: the thief comes to steal but I've come to give life. And one of the ways I want to show you I'm going to give life is by being that good shepherd. And that's kind of lost on us now because of just you know 2,000 years. And most of us in here are not sheep herders. But the idea is that he was going to care for all of them. And the reason why that would have been such a big deal for these people in the first century is if you ever took a history class learned about people during the first century." [00:31:52]

"Jesus says 'I've come on a mission. And my mission is that I'm going to die but I'm going to rise up again.' And when I rise again I'm going to be your good shepherd. Well that's amazing because 2,000 years have passed and the reality is all of our issues are the same. Like 2,000 years have passed and can we just still say we still haven't figured out this government thing? Just me? Okay. All right. Yeah. Then we got culture. Culture is crazy. Okay. Absolutely." [00:34:14]

"Jesus came on a rescue mission and he said 'I'm gonna lay my life down and then I'm gonna take it back up again.' And because our shepherd king lives we have hope for tomorrow. Now here's the thing. When they heard Jesus call himself the good shepherd they would have been like 'Wow that's amazing.' We hear that and go 'And because we don't know what that means.' But the reality is the people there would have known their Old Testament. It was mostly Jewish people." [00:38:20]

"As a matter of fact, it was one of the ways Jesus was saying 'I am the Messiah.' Because he's saying 'I'm going to fulfill what God said back in the Old Testament I was going to do as a good shepherd.' As a matter of fact, the place you can find it is in the book of Ezekiel. And we're reading through the Bible right now one chapter at a time. And if you'd like to read God's word with us you can text RLC Bible to 94,000. Or you can scan that QR code." [00:40:42]

"And the thing is, is that during the time of Ezekiel there was so many bad things happening. It would have been an anxious generation. So many bad things. But right in the middle of just destruction and dismay God kind of pauses all of that and it's like he parts the waters and he says 'But I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to be that good shepherd.' And these people would have remembered that and said that's what Jesus said he's going to do." [00:44:50]

"That's why the gospel is such good news is I'm going to die I'm going to rise again and then I'm gonna go to work and I'm gonna be that good shepherd. And I'm gonna tell you if you don't have any other reason to celebrate Easter if you're a Christ follower and that is that he gives us hope. That because Jesus is alive we have hope for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Look at your neighbor and testify to him and say 'He's my hope.'" [00:46:55]

"The first one is that Jesus is alive and he's able to guide us. He's my hope. He is able to guide us. Notice how the what he was talking about the first part of that scripture was he was saying that even though all this bad stuff is happening I'm going to step into everything that's going on. And the first thing is he said 'I myself will tend my sheep and will give them a place to lie down in peace says the King of Kings says the Lord of Lords.'" [00:51:51]

"And the thing is, is that spiritually we need a guide. We need the Lord to guide us. That's why at Real Life Church we love reading God's word and diving into God's word is because God's word is how he guides us. Among many things God's word is like a spiritual GPS telling us to go this way and to avoid that because not only did he come to this earth, die on a cross and rise again but then he said 'And I'm gonna guide you through life.'" [00:54:29]

"And one of the things I love about Jesus is he never gets tired of guiding us. He never gets upset when he's got to course correct us back again. And I was trying to think of a way to explain kind of how I have this in my head. And one of the best ways I can explain this is something I saw one time and that is several years ago I tried and epically failed to be an elementary school music teacher. It's okay. You can laugh. Okay. It did not go well." [00:56:35]

"Can I tell you that's what Jesus is to all of us? That's when he sees all the things. What does he do? He saves us and then he says 'Go play. Go be free.' And immediately we come back to him. God I got a runny nose. God I got an issue. God I need this. God I need that. You know what he doesn't do? Go play. Instead he says 'Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.' And the reason why we have hope in Jesus is because no matter what happens Jesus will guide us through it." [01:00:53]

"One of the reasons why we celebrate the risen savior is because Jesus rose from the dead and then he said 'I'm going to be your shepherd.' Which means that we celebrate Easter because our king walks with us. He doesn't just save us and then walk away. He saves us and then he takes us by the hand. That's why God's word says 'Though I walk through the valley of the very shadow of death I will not be afraid.' Why? Because he grabs me by the hand." [01:04:50]

"He's my hope because he guides me. But then he's also my hope because King Jesus is alive and he also finds us because we get lost like a lot. Like sheep need a shepherd because they need to be kind of you know corralled and kind of move in the right direction. But sheep also just wander off. Can I tell you what we do as Christians sometimes? We just wander off. We just kind of wander over here. Not none of y'all. Y'all don't do that." [01:09:39]

"Do you know what salvation is? It's coming home again. If you're in here and you're a Christ follower that's what God did for you. And you're in here and you're not a Christian. That's what God wants to do for you is that it's time to come home because he has hope for you. He wants to move in your life. But the challenge is so many times we go through seasons where we feel like God lost us. We're like that one sock that you can't find." [01:13:44]

"And if you ever felt like that can I tell you you're in good company. There's been people all over the place who just you love Jesus but you just feel lost. Let me give you an example of just someone who just felt lost. Had no idea what God was doing. It's a lady by the name of Naomi. You ever heard of Naomi? Most people haven't. She probably felt like a nobody from nowhere with nothing going on. Like most people don't know who she is." [01:15:00]

"And what was amazing is she thought she had lost everything. As a matter of fact when she got home people would say 'Hi Naomi.' And she said 'Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara.' Which means bitterness. Because she said 'God's forgot me. And if he does remember me he's just out to destroy me.' You ever felt that way? You ever felt like everything was supposed to be going the right way but things go so wrong you just want to change your name and just call yourself what you're feeling at the time." [01:20:50]

"And what was amazing is it wasn't just any grandson but they named him Oed who became the father of Jesse. And Oed was the grandfather of David which means Naomi got to be the great great grandmother of David. And if you don't know who that is was the second king of Israel and the great great great great great grandfather of Jesus. Which means Miss lost forgotten miss bitter miss weary was the great great many great grandmother of Jesus Christ." [01:27:48]

"Jesus died on a cross for your sins. Do you think he's going to turn his back on you now? He had his chance. He could remember said voluntarily he went all the way to the cross because of the joy set before him which was me and was you. And if he had the opportunity he he had the opportunity and he didn't take it. And if you think he didn't give up on you then do you think he's going to give up on you now? This is what it looks like." [01:30:18]