because of the food that I gave you. So in other words, he calls out their selfish motivation. Some people come to God based off of a selfish motivation, but I declare, and I believe that you're committed. Praise God for you. You're not just here for a crowd, but you're here with commitment.
But it was those 12 disciples. It was those disciples, that handful of people that stuck with Jesus beyond. He said, he looks at the crowd and he says, "Labor not for the meat that perishes." And you're not here to labor for the meat. You're not here for selfish gain, but you're here when all of the crowd is here for the meat that perishes.
Pastor Justin, Sister Madeline, and our two baby girls. Thank you, Brother Daly. I want to thank your parents for picking me up from the airport. Not sure if they're there. There they are.
First Thessalonians chapter four. Happy Resurrection Sunday, everyone. It's about Jesus. At least in Louisiana, where I'm from, bunnies don't lay eggs.
He talked. He didn't say dead. He said asleep. Because if you're sleeping, you're going to wake up again. But he was talking about those people that we might refer to that are dead in Christ. But he says asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. So he automatically and indirectly tells us that we as disciples of Jesus Christ have hope. And our hope is connected to the fact that when and if we die in Christ, we are simply asleep.
Somebody say the resurrection. Even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God—don't miss this—bring with him. I want to say that last phrase again. Even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Jesus when he comes back for this.
Say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. He really is saying that we're not going to proceed them in rising that are asleep. We'll come back to this later.
But the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.
I want to talk to you from a topic. This is fresh off of the press. The topic is simply the resounding resurrection. Say that with me. The resounding resurrection. You may be seated.
Echo is a sound heard again near its source after the resurrection. Echo is a sound heard again near its source after being reflected. Many of us, maybe all of us have been in a hallway before. And we know when we shout, when we scream, when we talk and we say something, it continues to reverberate. The echo.
Before I get any further, I don't want to take for granted that we all know this. And even if we do, it's important to revisit it for such a time as this. Is that Jesus Christ became the solution to the problem. The problem was sin.
First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 56. The apostle Paul says the sting of death, or the sharp point of death. That is, if you and I took a knife, the point of a knife and poked ourselves, it would hurt. It would prick us. If we took a toothpick and we sort of pricked, and we know that's the sharp point. And what Paul is saying is that the sharp point of death is sin. Death is ineffective without sin.
Sin is an offense. It's to offend God. And we know that Adam and Eve offended God with their disobedience in the garden. And of course, we're all born into that sin. And by nature, we offend God. We're all born into that sin. And by nature, we offend God. And by nature, we offend God with our carnal nature and our carnality.
So the sting, the sharp point of death is the sin. And the strength of sin is the law. A lot of people don't understand this because a lot of people just think the problem alone is sin. And sin is the problem, but it goes a little deeper than that because sin gets its strength from the law.
The power of sin, it's like anything in a ballgame. You got two teams playing against each other. Well, you're probably going to want to study that other team to see its strongest player. And you're probably going to want to go after the strength of that team if you're going to get a win. And it's no different in war. If you're two sides of war and against one another, then you're probably going to try and see what is your opponent's strongest point.
And when you can attack the strongest point of your opponent, then you will more than likely get the victory. And so for us to understand the power of this resounding resurrection, we must start with understanding that it's not just sin, but the strength of sin is the law.
And I believe that I'm not just going to maybe educate or re-educate us today, but I think that part of what I'm going to say today is going to help us live for God in the day-to-day.
Romans 8:3 says, "For what the law could not do," that is the law of God, "what it could not do," not that it was ineffective, but that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.
And here's what a lot of other people don't know. James 2:10 through 11 is that a perfect God requires complete perfection from us. For whosoever shall keep the whole law—it's not just talking about the 10 commandments, but it's talking about the law of God, the righteous law of God. James says, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he or she is guilty of all."
The faces that I see from people whenever I'm hosting a Bible study and they don't understand this, and don't worry, it's going to get better. It's the good news, but you got to know the bad news before you get to the good news. But the bad news is that God is so perfect and he requires perfection from us that we could never give him.
But James says if you keep the whole law and offend in one point, if we do this, we will not be perfect. He says, "For the same one that said do not commit adultery." You know, I don't know about you, but I don't want just religiosity, if I can say it that way. I really want to please and live for God.
I don't want to, you know, sort of give you some type of false narrative about myself and have you to think that I am such a great person or even stand on some pedestal to think that, "Hey, I don't do this over here," and make it up to you. I don't want to do this over here and make it up to you. I don't want to make you think I'm great, but all the while I have something over here that I just hadn't perfected yet.
And I might please you, but I'm not pleasing God because James says that if we say, "Hey, I'm no adulterer. I don't commit adultery." He says, "But the same also said do not kill." So if we applaud ourselves and say, "Hey, I don't commit adultery," but we turn around and kill someone, he says, "Now if you commit no adultery, but yet if you kill, guess what? You are become a transgressor of the law."
In other words, he's saying you can applaud yourself all you want that you are not an adulterer, but you killed somebody, and because you killed somebody, you get taxed with the guilt of being an adulterer. That's pretty fascinating to me.
That's pretty fascinating to me, the fact that a holy God requires perfection from us, and even the things that we never dared to do before, we are guilty of those if we still... It's not like a test in school, you know? It's not like, you know, we've got a six-year-old and a nine-year-old, and late last night, you know, we were having a family talk at the dinner table.
And, you know, I was, you know, we homeschooled, so I was flipping through some of my nine-year-old's grades, and you know, I saw a 91, hallelujah! You know, I saw, you know, a couple of A's. I asked my wife, I said, "How's Judah doing in school?" He's got A's and B's, hallelujah! But you know, God doesn't work that way.
You know, God doesn't say, "Well, you got a 91, A, come on!" No, God doesn't... God doesn't just want a 99.999. God, a perfect, holy, righteous God requires 100% perfection because he's worthy of it. He doesn't know how to lie. He doesn't know how to sin. He is perfect, so a 99.9 will not do. God requires 100% perfection.
And Romans chapter 7, verses 7 through 17 declares this. He says, Paul says, "What shall we say then?" Because remember, the strength of sin is so... So what is this law? Paul says, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin?" He says, "God forbid!" No, he said, "I had not known sin but by the law."
To give you just a great example of what that is, something practical, it's like, you know, I know y'all don't speed around here. Y'all are just great people. But it's kind of like driving. I'm from Louisiana, as Brother Daylon said. I'm a country boy, so it's kind of like driving down a country road.
You know, when you got your foot pedal to the metal, you're going 70 miles per hour, and it's all good because you don't see a sign that says 55 miles per hour. So you can go as fast as you want. There is no guilt. Your conscience is free. But oh, as soon as you see that white and black sign that says 55, all of a sudden your conscience is pricked because now there is a law that says this is wrong.
And this is what Paul is saying. He's saying, "I had not known sin but by the law." In fact, in another place he says, "Sin was not counted where there was no law." But the fact that there is a law, Paul says, "I had not known that I sinned except the law of God showed me and told me that I sinned."
He says, "For I had not known lust except the law said, 'You shall not covet.'" You know, the law told me that thinking upon this is wrong. So the law, the strength of sin is the law. So how does this happen?
Verse 8: "But sin taking occasion," which means a starting point. You see, in order to understand this dynamic of sin, you've got to understand how it works because I believe God wants you to have the victory over the daily sins that try to haunt you and I in our lives. And I believe that part of what I'm saying today is going to help you overcome if you can understand the science of how sin works.
But sin taking a starting point by the commandment. You see, what happens is sin takes advantage of the law. In other words, to make it pretty simple today, you ever didn't really care about something until you were told you couldn't have it? You were told it was wrong because, you know, it didn't matter, you know? But as soon as it was told to you you couldn't do it, kind of like Adam and Eve, all of a sudden there's this longing, there's this desire for it.
That is an example or a practical example of sin taking advantage of the law of God. And Paul says this: "Sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of a longing." That's what that word means, a longing for what is forbidden.
"For without the law, sin was dead." Because the strength of sin is the law. "For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived in me and I died." And the commandment which was ordained to life, because the law is holy—in fact, Paul says in another place, the law is good—if a man... Am I boring you yet? The law is good if a man use it lawfully.
The commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, that which I accomplish, that which I want to accomplish, I allow not. The things—anybody know what I'm talking about? The things that you want to do, sometimes you just don't do. You have a desire to do them, but you don't do them.
And then Paul says, "For that what I would, I am determined that I do not, but what I hate, that do I." Has anybody ever been in that position where you're in a service and you want to live for God and you want to do the right things, and you want to do it, and all of a sudden Tuesday comes and Wednesday comes? Or is that just something we deal with in Louisiana?
But all of a sudden, you know, you got your plan, you got your five-year plan, you got your week plan, you got your month planning, and you're gonna do this. You made your mind up that you will do it. You got your five-year plan, and you got your week plan, you got your month planning.
But then somehow you find yourself crying in a dark room, wondering how you got here. Or somehow you find yourself in a place where you know you shouldn't be, and you hate it, and you're crying. And this is what it is. You don't really want to do it.
"If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good." Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. So anytime you find yourself in a situation, you find yourself in a place doing something that you know you don't want to do, it's not you.
I'm going to set you free. It's not you. It's sin in you. That is not who you are. Who you are is where you are today. You want to live for God, or else you wouldn't be here. You really want to serve God. Don't let sin discourage you and manipulate you and tell you that you're a hypocrite.
No, the devil is a liar. God understands. He understands that you want to be here, or else you wouldn't be here. But anytime you find yourself out of places, it's because it's not you, it's sin in you.
But here's the good news. Jesus took upon that sin. But before he did, the book of Matthew, I believe chapter 5 says, he fulfilled every law to the jot and to the tittle. And that is because the strength of sin is the law.
So God said, "I'm so sick and tired. I'm so tired of having my people separate from me. So here is what I'm going to do. I am going to come down and do what they could never do. I'm going to come down before I ever die. I'm going to live a perfect life because he became a man, and God requires perfection, something that we could never do.
And he became a man, and he lived the law to the teeth, and he did everything perfect. And when he fulfilled every single law, it was time to deal with sin. So he dealt with the strength of the law, the strength of sin, which was the law. He fulfilled the law.
Then he says, "I've got to deal with sin." And so he died on a cross. He put all of our sins, past, present, and future, and he put them upon his body. Have you ever wondered when you looked at a Resurrection Sunday play and you've seen them?
I still remember I was in the world and I wasn't living for God. This is way back when, when the Passion of the Christ came out. And I remember going to the movie theater with my friends, and we definitely were not living for the Lord. But for some reason, somehow, you know, because we had, we all kind of, most of us had a church background.
So this new movie was coming out called The Passion of the Christ. And here we were, and we're sitting in the movie theater, and my friends and my group that I kind of ran with, we were kind of loud and rambunctious. You know, just teenagers and, you know, in movie theaters.
But when I tell you, when we watched The Passion of the Christ that night, totally not living for God, it was silence. It was this humbling thought of, "My God, he did this for us." And I wish I could tell you that the next day I lived for God, but I didn't.
But it was just this moment. I still remember them beating Jesus to a pulp. And as I became a Christian disciple later on and studying the word of God, I realized that when Jesus was being beaten, do you realize that it was the punishment of God?
Every time they beat him and they whipped him, our sins were in his body. And it was literally the wrath. I didn't understand what I was seeing then, but now I understand that it was the wrath of God being poured out upon our sin because our sin was placed in his body. That's how much he loves you.
And whenever he took care of sin, he said, "Now the wages of sin is death." So because, you know, sitting in this room tomorrow, in the future, until he comes back, every single sin, it's paid for. It's paid for. On the cross already. He dealt with it on the cross.
He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, which was past, which is those people laughing at him, saying, "Come down from that cross and save yourself." He was dying for their sins and which is to come, which were us 2,000 plus years later. He died for all of it. Hallelujah!
And because our sin was placed in his body, that is why he had to die. And he died on that cross. And when he died on that cross and said, "It is finished."
See, the gospel is three parts. It's the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So he died, and then it was time to bury our sins. Micah 7:19. I love this. Aren't you thankful that the Bible starts off this way in terms of Micah 7:19?
He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. I'm so thankful that he didn't put our sins in a swimming pool where we can go and retrieve them.
I'm so thankful he didn't put our sins in some shallow lake, but I'm so thankful that he put our sins into the depths of the sea. The depths of the sea. You know, I did a little research on what that might mean. I'm sure most of you have heard of the Mariana Trench. It's a place, the deepest known part of the earth. It's about seven miles deep. No sustainable life can live down there.
And I believe the prophet Micah saw prophetically before all of our technology. And he said, "You know what? Whenever Jesus died on that cross, whenever he was in that grave, he took every one of our sins. And he put them in a deep place to say, 'You know what? There's no devil. There's no person that can go back and retrieve them and live.'"
Amen. "As far as the east is from the west, that's how far he removed your past from you. You are not who you are if you are in him." I'm so thankful. That's the burial.
And then finally, the resurrection. He rose again on the third day. And you know, the resurrection is not just an event, but the resurrection is a person. Because Jesus said in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection."
You know what that means in the Greek? It's the standing up again. You know, don't you ever let the devil beat you up. Here's the thing. Because once that sin thing, that sin thing, you know, that we talked about, it's got a way of trying to creep in on us every now and again, right?
And you know what that sin thing does? It says, "Well, you know you was playing the keys the whole service. Yeah, we smiling because we know how sin works. You know, how you think you're going to get back to church and go back on the platform again? How you think you're going to pray again? You know God is holy. And do you know what you just thought? Do you know what you just said? Did you see your attitude? God sees your attitude."
And all of a sudden, we start feeling condemned. And we start feeling like, "You remember what that preacher said, right? James said that you got to be perfect." And so we start feeling like, "I can't go back to church. I know what I thought. I know what I did. God knows what I did. I could never get this right. Why am I even here? Why am I even trying?"
But here is the other thing this preacher is going to tell you today. John 1 said the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Yeah, that perfect law, Moses gave us that law. But see, here's what we want: truth, but we skip grace.
You know what grace is? Grace is favor undeserved. So even if and when we do make the mistakes that we make, something greater than the law is called grace. And it's in a man called Jesus Christ that says, "You know what? Even though I didn't get a 100, I might have got a 91 this week. I might have got an 84. You know what? I might have got a zero on a test, but there's something called grace."
Grace that comes through Jesus. That even though God is perfect, he gave grace through Jesus. And this is where the resurrection comes in, because it's the standing up again.
See, before we get into the event, I want to talk to you just a little bit and encourage you about the standing up again. The Bible says a righteous man falls seven times. Seven is a number of perfection. So you could be a perfect failure. Who am I talking to?
You could be a perfect failure, but there's still resurrection power with a handout saying, "Yeah, you might be a perfect loser." Oh, but a righteous man falls seven times, but it gets back up again because there is resurrection power. There is the power to stand up.
And I don't know who I'm talking to. I don't know how many times you fail, but there is power to stand up again. You've got to ride through the cross, the death, the resurrection to stand up again. It doesn't matter how many times you fall.
Jesus looked at her. He said, "Your brother is going to live again." I am the resurrection. And you can do it because of him. It has nothing to do with you and me and our works, but because of him and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet he shall live. And Jesus Christ became the solution to the problem—the sin problem. He fulfilled the law as a man. He died for our sins. He defeated death. What else do we need?
See, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again... I hope I'm helping you today. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again. You see, Jesus wasn't only born. He wasn't just a good man. He wasn't just a prophet. He is God.
I guess I'll share this. Islam is a growing religion. A couple of months ago, I felt impressed by the Lord to start doing a little bit of research on Islam. I'm studying a lot about the end times. But I just... I don't know where. I just felt impressed to start studying the end times.
And this particular young man that used to come, I've been knowing him since he was younger. He used to come to church, and we lost contact. And all of a sudden, he reached out and, you know, he was hungry for God, and we got connected.
And, you know, I was pouring back into him. You know, he lived in another state, and, you know, we're just kind of catching each other like that. And then we got, we lost contact. It's just a few months ago. And we reconnected.
He sent word to send me his number through somebody he knew, and we reconnected. He says, "Pastor," he still calls me Pastor, he says, "Pastor, I got to tell you something." I said, "What is it?" He says, "I've converted. I've converted to Islam." I said, "Oh, that's disappointing." I said, "What's going on?"
And he started talking to me about, you know, there wasn't a Christian that he knew and that could answer some of the questions he had and all of this stuff. I said, "Man, I wish you would have called me." And, you know, we're still talking, and there were some things that I didn't know before I started studying.
And here's why I'm saying all of this, because I was able to let him know because he says we can do both. He says we can, you know, read the Koran and read the Bible. We can, we can live from, you know, we can. I said, "Well, no, it doesn't work that way. I said, you know, we believe in Jesus."
But see, my study in Islam allowed me to see that they believe that Jesus was born. They believe that Jesus lived, but they do not believe that Jesus died. And therein lies the power. It's not that he was born, it's not that he just lived, but the power, y'all, is the fact that he died for our sins.
The power is the fact that he rose again. And Paul says if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, that's the power. That's the power. He says those... I love this because, you know, growing up, hearing about the second coming of Jesus, it wasn't until I started studying this in great detail to where I'm going to mention what I'm about to mention.
It's pretty fascinating to me. Second Corinthians 5:17, I think many of us know this. Somebody say it's important to be in Christ. Because, you know, we can be in the flesh. See, I don't know about you, but I don't believe in once saved, always saved. I believe every single day I've got to die daily to myself.
You know, how many people know it's... I can be in this altar, but man, if the wrong person cuts me off, I can be in the flesh. So I've got to really watch myself. You know, I can be in the flesh. I can be in my feelings. I can be in the world. I want to be in Christ.
See, that's what God's been dealing with me about personally lately. I want to be in Christ. And Second Corinthians 5:17, I've been looking at this differently than ever before, you know, because before I used to think, "Hey, you know what? I've been baptized. I've been to church, and I'm in Christ."
Well, guess what? We've got to do this every single day over and over again. Paul said, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new." Galatians 3:27 says, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ."
Acts 2:38, of course. "Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
Paul did not want the Thessalonians to be ignorant concerning those who slept in Jesus. We have a hope, and we don't need to be sorry. You see, Paul says, here's what I'm getting at. When Jesus comes back, if you would leave that, if you would put that verse up there, if you don't mind.
Chapter 4, verse 14. When Jesus comes back, because the first time he came, he came as a baby in a manger, humble. But the next time he comes back, he's coming with great power. He's coming in the clouds. Every eye shall see him. He's coming with great glory. He's coming with great brightness.
He's coming with an innumerable amount of angels. The next time we will see him, he's coming with that great trumpet. But he is also coming with every dead saint that's ever lived, that's in him. This verse says, "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him."
With who? With Jesus, those who sleep in Jesus. Do you know that your past brothers and sisters, people you've never met before, when Jesus Christ splits the sky and he comes with the clouds, the souls of those that have died in Christ will then, like a magnet, attract every physical location and every grave.
And there's no marble. There's no cement. There's no concrete. There's no dirt. There's nothing that's going to be able to allow them to stop to break the ground, because their bodies will resurrect from the ground, and they will meet in the sky with the Lord.
That's the resurrection. That's what's going to happen. That's what's going to happen. So what am I talking about when I say a resounding resurrection? Though it's obviously important to credit the Lord who rose, I believe we would do ourselves an injustice because God does not just want us to celebrate his resurrection, but his resurrection, when we are in him, becomes our resurrection.
I want to tell you about, yes, the resurrection is a person, but it is also a soon coming event that we all can look forward to. It's a resounding resurrection. I want to tell you about this event for a moment that we don't just celebrate Jesus Christ breaking the grave, but we celebrate the fact that it echoes unto us.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. Paul says in verse 16, "For the Lord himself now just stop and think about this with me for a moment. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout."
Now we do a lot of shouting around here, but have you ever stopped to imagine the sound of what his shout? You know, I was curious about that word. The Lord's gonna shout. You know, the shout of a king is among us. God lives here in our praises.
The word shout in the Greek literally means to incite a cry. Now let me just go ahead and give myself away for a moment because I'm from the south, and I grew up on, you know, don't judge me, but I grew up on gangster rap music, and I used to go to the clubs.
And, you know, I used to, you know, it was so ignorant. You would almost be willing to die where you were from, you know, because wherever you were from, you had to represent, you know? And it could get crazy in the club, and if the wrong song came on, it urged something in you, and there was this aggression and this anger that you had towards people that weren't in your crew.
And, you know, everybody would just flock to the middle of the club, and everybody would just, you know, throw up some type of sign where they were from. It was inciting something. Well, you know, that's... excuse me for my low moral example biblically, but that's the best way I can relate to it because the shout of not some club, some song in a club, but the shout of God that will incite his people to get from where they are to say, "You know what? I don't want this world. I'm ready to be with you."
It's going to be the song of heaven and the voice of the Lord. The shout he will descend from heaven with a shout that will incite every believer to want to soldier up. This is what we've got to look forward to.
The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God—a trumpet so loud that it will reverberate to the ends of the earth. Every eye shall see him, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Imagine all of the activity going on when at the end of those three and a half years, those prophetic years, and the world is in chaos, and yet there's revival happening and all the things happening. All of a sudden, not for God's people, for the world, it will be like a thief in the night, but we will be expecting him.
And all of a sudden, you're going to hear a sound reverberate from a trumpet, and we're going to see a host of angels that fills the entire sky. You know, just being on the airplane on my way over here, I got to thinking about that. I woke up from my nap, and I looked out of the window, and I saw the clouds.
And I thought to myself, "God, you know what? I'm about to preach, but all of these clouds in the sky will be filled with angels coming back as a harvest of God's people." All the activity happening, and Jesus Christ himself, we will see him, and we're going to see and we're going to hear this loud sound reverberating throughout all of the earth.
And we're going to see people—maybe your grandparents or your parents or your friends that lived for God and died in him. You're going to see them come from the body of God, and they're going to be going all types of directions, and they're going to be being attracted to the graves and all of this activity happening.
And those of us who are still alive might be thinking, "Man, this is pretty cool." Imagine at the same time sinners will beat their chest and hang their head, and the Bible says they're going to actually hide and ask for the mountains to fall upon them because the wrath of the Lamb is upon them.
But that great day of the Lord will not be something that we are ashamed of. It will be something that we look forward to. And as we see the dirt flying from the earth and bodies busting out of the graves, but this time they're new bodies because cancer took those bodies.
But cancer cannot take this renewed body. Amen. And this time it was diabetes. And over here it was some other disease. But it's a renewed body, and there's a glow on these people. And you're seeing these people rise, and these people you've never met before because it's brothers and sisters all across the earth from multi-generations and millenniums.
And all of a sudden, even the Old Testament prophets and the Old Testament saints, people that have been dead for thousands and thousands of years coming. And those who have died even the day before Christ came, coming.
And then the Bible says, "Those of us that are dead, alive," verse 17, "then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together." That means snatched away. Gravity won't have a hold on us.
"Shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever." It's a resounding resurrection. He said, "It's not just me 2,000 years ago breaking the grave." He says, "But anybody who died in me, they will rise."
Because this resurrection resounded for thousands of years. And it went back thousands of years. And it's a resurrection that we all can look forward to. And I love this. "So shall we ever be with the Lord." Just that part right there.
Understand that no more temptation. No more sin. No more fighting. No more crying. No more bearing heavy burdens. "So shall we ever be with the Lord." "So shall we ever be with the Lord."
No more do-overs. No more falling. No more tripping. No more dealing with sin. No more dealing with condemnation. This is the day, brothers and sisters, that we all look forward to. "So shall we ever be with the Lord."
And the day is coming sooner than later. And finally, the last verse. And I'm out of your way today. And I don't think we do this enough as a body of Christ. You know, Satan has a way of inserting depression.
The early church did something I think we all need to get back to as the church of God in the world. He says, "Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." There's nothing more comforting that you can tell me will lift my spirit than the fact that I'm getting out of here one day.
I don't need some cute quote from Instagram. I don't need some cute little TikTok inspirational YouTube video that's going to just make me feel better. No, no, no. I want comfort. And you know what that means? That means encourage each other.
You know what? You can do this. You can't give up. Amen. Because we got somewhere to go. We're going to be with him forever. And we got to start comforting one another with these words. With these words.
That it's important to be in him. Have a resounding resurrection. We don't sorrow. We don't sorrow because we're not just coming to church to have a better life, y'all. This is not what this is about. This is about being with him forever.
It's about a resounding resurrection. It's about the fact that our eternity is sealed. So today, as I invite believers, disciples to come with a renewed faith today, as to say, "God, I acknowledge your resurrection."
But I want to make sure that I'm in you. Because this world has nothing for me. It's not about going from church to church. It's not about just coming to church. But God, because I realize this, that I can be in a church building and not be in Christ.
I don't want to be guilty of being in church. I want to be in Christ. I want to be in Christ. Is there anybody that would come with me to this altar today? Beyond just vain tradition.
But I pray something that I said in the Holy Ghost today can cause us to understand that today we do celebrate Christ. I don't want to sound sacrilegious here. We celebrate Christ. But Christ even wants us to realize that this thing reverberates.
It resounds with us. It touches where we are. It touches where we are. And we just lift our hands and our voices to him this afternoon. There's no singing right now. Let's just stay where we are. But lift voices to this evening.
We need a reminder of what this is really all about. We all experience hurts and disappointments and things that happen to us. But I'm encouraging you. I'm comforting you with these words today.
That one day we're going to see him, and we're going to hear his shout. You thought you heard his voice in prayer, and you have. Oh, but I'm wondering what that shout that all the world will hear is going to sound like.
I wonder what that trumpet is going to sound like. Oh, when gravity is going to lose its hold. When we're going to die. When we're going to see the miraculous take place. Victory will be in the sky.
Can you lift your voice to him and worship him? I want to make sure I'm in Christ. That, "Lord, if we ever die before you come, oh, let my soul be resting in you. Let my soul come with you when you return."
You might be wondering, "Where's my grandfather who died in Christ? Where's my friend? Where's my friend who passed away? I know they lived for God." Let me tell you, they are resting in Jesus.
I believe they can hear this preaching. I believe they can hear your prayers right now. You might not be able to hear them, but they are sleeping in Jesus. And when Jesus comes back, he's coming back with power, glory, angels, a trumpet, dead saints that are now going to be—or saints that were asleep that are now going to be alive.
And we will meet them in the air. It's the greatest of visions. We live for... We don't just look back and celebrate 2,000 years ago, but we look to our future because it is a resounding resurrection that you and I will take part in today.
And if you're here today and you are not in Christ, you've never been baptized into Christ, you have an opportunity today, not because a religion told you, but because, as I've articulated today, it's important to be in Christ, to be baptized in Christ, both spiritually and by water, and continuing for those of us who have that experience, continuing to walk every single day, every single day.
Let's never forget why we're doing what we're doing. We're not doing this. We're not standing up to simply fill seats and so we can say we're a part of a mega church or a big church.
We're living in a world where so many, even people who stand behind a pulpit today, have lost their way. They've lost the vision. The vision is to prepare us all for that resounding resurrection. That's what this is all about.
It's that's what it's all about. One more time. Can we worship? We worship Jesus? Whoa. Come on, that's it, that's it, that's it. Oh Lord, I pray a refocus upon us today. Hallelujah, Lord.
I pray comfort upon us today. I exhort you, church, today. This is what we look forward to. I exhort you, I comfort you. Let us become and get in the habit. Come on, that's it, that's it. We got some time.
Come on, this is not a speech and I go sit down. This is a move of the Holy Ghost. This is God's word broken before us. Let's respond to it. Oh God, take my heart, oh Lord.
Let me receive grace. Let me thank you for helping me understand what the cross did, what the resurrection did for me. Oh Lord, even though I cannot complete the law, oh, you've got grace and mercy. I can live for you.
I can teach Bible studies. I can tell other people about this event, this event, this event, this resounding resurrection. That's it. Let's lift our voice to him. Let's lift our soul to him. You saved our soul.
Let my soul rest in you. Let my soul rest in you. Let my soul be revived in you, Lord. Oh Jesus, oh let it reverberate and echo. Oh yes, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, we will follow you.
We will follow your word. We will serve you with grace and truth, Lord. We've got to tell the world. We've got to tell the world. Receive us. Open up doors, I pray, God, of opportunity that will help us to share that there is a place—streets of gold, walls of jasper, pearly gates—where no dogs, no sorcerers, no sin can enter, in a place of life and peace.
A place where there'll be no need for us to share with sinners that there will be no need for the sun, no need for the moon, for your glory and your light. Y'all, there's a lost world that doesn't know this, and we have prayed that God right now would place us into action.
Because if we just look back and clap our hands and say, "Good job, Jesus. Thank you for what you did," we're no different than any other religion. But the difference is that we are moved.
on Apr 01, 2024
