Fear Not Death: Resurrection Gives New Life

I wanna talk about what is your greatest fear. Your greatest issue, the one thing we all struggle with more than anything else, and it is this, death. We're scared of death. We don't wanna face our death. We don't wanna talk about our death. We don't wanna deal with our death. We don't wanna think that there is death. We do everything we can to cram our life full of stuff, to to try to disguise it or hide it or delay it or or ignore it. We live in a culture that lives by the mantra to eat, drink, and be merry. Because tomorrow, we might die. [00:53:19] (43 seconds)  #FearOfDeath

Do you know what Paul's asking you and I to do? To embrace our death, but to do it in a way where it is spiritual. You see, what you and I fear is our physical death. But if you and I face a spiritual death, it is a complete different thing. You you know, Jesus said if anyone wants to follow me, he must take up his cross daily, deny himself, and follow me. He called us to die to ourselves. [01:03:32] (29 seconds)  #DieToSelf

When Jesus died for our sins, he paid the price that sin demands and endured the wrath of God so we could be forgiven that the power of sin to bring us to the grave could be broken. And that's the proclamation. That's what the gospel is all about. That the death of Jesus is a propitiation over our sins that brings us hope, that brings us a promise, that reminds us that death is not the end, that the one who is greater than the grave holds us. [00:58:24] (40 seconds)  #JesusPaidThePrice

As we leave this week, we enter into this holy week. We are approaching an empty tomb. There is no resurrection unless there's first to death. We're about to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, but the resurrection is also about how we died ourselves, that a new life begins in us. And so this week, walk through this week thinking, death death is not the end. This story does not end on Good Friday. In fact, it just begins. [01:14:09] (38 seconds)  #ResurrectionFollowsDeath

I wanna know a power of a resurrection. I wanna know that I could live again. Well well, Paul says we can. And and how do we do that? Well, look at what he says. This is the power of the resurrection and may share in his sufferings. Well, we start to hit the brakes there. Wait a minute. Wait. I'm not so keen on the suffering. Can I just have the resurrection? I I don't want the suffering. I just want the resurrection. [01:02:31] (25 seconds)  #NoResurrectionWithoutSuffering

There is nothing in this world that ever brings you life. It only brings death. But if you die to yourself, that new life in Christ doesn't start when you physically die. It starts when you spiritually die. I'm gonna live for him, and he is going to live through me, and your whole life changes. [01:06:53] (27 seconds)  #SpiritualRebirth

Every every time someone accepts Christ, we baptize them. We put them in the water, and we we baptize them. It is a picture of exactly what Paul's describing here in first Corinthians. When they're standing in the water, that is like Jesus on the cross to go under the water is a burial, to come up out of the water is a resurrection. Every time we baptize somebody, we're saying, well, they that that individual believes, wants to be identified with the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus. [00:59:04] (29 seconds)  #BaptizedIntoChrist

When Nicodemus comes to him at night and says, how how is this possible? And Jesus says, you must be born again. Nicodemus is thinking physical. There's no way I can be born again. And Jesus is talking spiritual. You must spiritually be born again. The the math of heaven is this. You can be born once and die twice, or you can be born twice and die once. [01:04:00] (22 seconds)  #BornAgainSpiritually