Resurrection: From the End of Self to New Life

And so you wouldn't have to go through life on your own, so that you wouldn't have to fake it till you make it, so that you wouldn't have just a taste of mere religion. No. So that you could know that God lives in you, that he is with you, that he is God, and you are not alone. And as the band already sang over us today, that you could run to Jesus. You've been out on your own. Now it's time come home. Just just run to Jesus. He chose you today so he could forgive you. [00:53:31] (26 seconds)  #RunToJesus

Talking to the Christians, but there's another group of people I wanna talk to for a moment, and it's anyone in the room today, and and you'd say, I don't really know where I'm at with God. You know, pastor, you've kinda got me close to this place of believing, but but you know, you need God. You need more than an Easter service. You need more than a message from me. You need the God who came to rescue you, redeem you, restore you, rebuild you from the end of you into the beginning of something new. So I wanna pray for us all across this room. God, would you draw us by your holy spirit? Like sons and daughters running back to the arms of the father. [00:55:53] (54 seconds)  #MoreThanEaster

He was gonna die, He was gonna rise again. And if it's true, it means he is who he said he is. And if he is who he said he is, then he's the son of God. And oh, no. I messed it all up. Maybe you need that message because you feel distant from God today. You feel like I've messed it all up. The gospel is good news for somebody else, but I'm not sure it's good news for me. Maybe you'd say, I kinda feel like I just fit in more with the world than I fit in with a crew of church people. [00:47:19] (29 seconds)  #GraceForYou

and he said to them, well, why don't you just toss your nets on the other side of the boat? And they're like, we've been fishing all night. Like, you don't think we know what we're doing? You think there's some fish magically over you think we were on the left side all night and we never tried the right side? Three years before this exact scene had played out where they threw the nets on the other side and had so many fish, they couldn't even get them to land. [00:51:17] (22 seconds)  #UnexpectedAbundance

And the bible says that in that very moment, as Peter has let down his friend, broken his promise, and denied even knowing Jesus, begun to speak curses over himself as the curses are coming out of his mouth, the bible says that Jesus turned and looked straight at Peter. What do you do? When you're standing in that moment and the person that's closest to you, the one that you loved and said you would die for, stares and looks into your eyes and says, yeah, but you broke every promise. [00:42:50] (30 seconds)  #JesusLookedAtPeter

In fact, I've been I've been in my office every morning this week reading this story on loop and on repeat, every single time I've broken down in tears because it's so beyond belief. To get to the miracle of the resurrection, number two, God has to bring us to this place, the realization that he chose you. Let's go back to Peter. One chapter further, John 21 verse one says this. This is now after the resurrection. Said, afterward, Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the Sea Of Galilee. Verse three, I'm going out to fish, Peter told them. [00:48:53] (38 seconds)  #JesusReappears

Lord, may we hold nothing back from you today, but may we run to you with everything to receive the miracle of an empty tomb, to receive the miracle of forgiveness, to receive the miracle of life, to receive you dwelling inside of us. What would it do for you, church, to actually begin to believe that promise on another level? In Jesus' name, we pray this. Amen. [00:56:46] (28 seconds)  #ReceiveTheMiracle

Have you ever let someone down to the point where you said, I don't have the ability to repay this thing? I remember when I was 20 years old. This was true in in in my life in the story. When I was 20, a group of us went to Florida to vacation at at a really good friend's parents' house. His friends had done super well in business, and so they were able to move from, like, our rinky dink hometown in Cambridge, Ontario, [00:43:19] (24 seconds)  #MistakesDontDefine