Easter

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- Welcome to Crossroads. I'm Andy Reider

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and I'm so glad that you've joined us this year for Easter.

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This is the biggest celebration of the year

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for those of us who follow Jesus.

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We celebrate because we have personally witnessed

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how His resurrection on this day, 2000 years ago

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still changes our lives today.

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Through Jesus, we found freedom,

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we've conquered addictions,

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we've overcome sickness,

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we've not let our past mistakes define us,

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we've discovered a life of adventure and joy

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that we didn't know was possible.

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And for that, we celebrate today.

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Now, if you're here with us for the first time,

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we hope that you get a glimpse of how

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this true story could change your life too.

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We all have something in our lives that is dead.

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For some of us, it might be our faith

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or our marriage, our health, or even our dreams.

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And no matter what it is, we all have something

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that needs to be brought back to life.

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In other words, we need resurrection.

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The truth is that Jesus has been raised up,

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and it is His resurrection that changes us

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from dead in our sins to raised with Him in new life.

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Now we're about to step into the biblical story

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when, just before dawn, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.

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For some context, she had been suffering

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from demons for many years,

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and Jesus had met her and healed her,

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and she became one of his closest followers.

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Try to imagine what it would feel like to be her.

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If you'd been rescued from circumstances

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that were literally killing you.

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And now, for many of us, we don't need to imagine that,

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we are living or have lived it.

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But imagine you had watched your promised Savior,

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the one who you thought that you could put

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all of your hope into, who would save you,

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the one you believed would set you free

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be nailed to a cross three days ago.

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Wouldn't you come to His tomb to mourn?

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That is where we find ourselves today.

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The Bible has four accounts of Easter morning

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in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

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And to set the scene, I'm going to read

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a combination of the accounts found in Matthew

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and in John. First from Matthew.

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Today you might be truly believing that God loves you

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and brings dead things back to life,

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or you might be feeling more like Mary,

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your faith dead, not believing

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that resurrection is possible for you.

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Wherever you find yourself, it is our prayer that,

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just like Mary, you'll leave here today

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able to say, "I have seen the Lord."

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- Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

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Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

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Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble.

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Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

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- Man, it's great to see everybody today.

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Why don't you give an Easter greeting

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to somebody around you, shake your hand and have a seat.

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Well, it's just fantastic to have everybody

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with us today at all of our sites and online.

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Easter is a really, really big, big deal.

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It's the greatest thing I think it's ever happened

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in human history.

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A person literally, physically and historically

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came back from the dead.

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This isn't just something that's a bedrock

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of the Christian faith.

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This is something that can be a bedrock to your life,

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to understand that whatever is dead

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inside of you right now, whatever isn't well right now,

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there is a power that is available to you

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to bring you to life, to kill the things

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that need to be killed in your life

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and to bring to life the things

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that you think are dead in this life.

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To look at this Easter talk, we thought, you know,

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it'd be really great to go to a great place

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where something else massively rises every day.

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It's called the sun.

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And we thought, let's go to the beach

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and let's understand Easter sunrise

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and how the sun is related to Easter

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and the power that I'm hoping that we all get today.

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I hope you sense that.

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Happy Easter!

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But it always seems like such an odd greeting to me,

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Happy Easter!

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Christmas owns the word merry. Merry Christmas.

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Easter gets happy, like, what?

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Happy is me having a vanilla milkshake

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on a hot summer day,

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but Easter is way more than that.

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Easter is the greatest celebration in the world

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because it defines the greatest thing

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that ever happened in the history of the world.

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Jesus literally, physically, historically rose from the dead.

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It is the most life giving, joy affirming,

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cataclysmically powerful thing that's ever happened

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in the world and actually can transform your life

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and has transformed mine and millions of others

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over the last 2000 years.

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There may be no better place to celebrate Easter

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than here in Puerto Rico,

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where we get to be part of resurrecting lives,

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both spiritually and practically,

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through working with our local partner

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and to watch the sun rise, just like the women

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who went to the tomb did on the very first Easter morning.

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In 1732, the first sunrise service took place.

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We are in the perfect place here in Puerto Rico,

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on the beach, as the sun is rising,

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and we're doing what the Moravians did in Europe in 1732.

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In 1773, it was the first sunrise service

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recorded in American history in Winston-Salem.

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And the idea behind it is that all of us

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have dark nights of the soul.

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A lot of us right now may be stumbling in the dark,

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trying to find our way, bumping into things,

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not having a lot of clarity.

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But every day the sun rises, every day the sun comes up.

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And every year we have another ability to look

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at the inspiring act of Jesus coming back from the dead

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and what that means to our life.

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Let's read about it,

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just like the early Christians did in John chapter 20.

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I love this passage because it tells us a lot.

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Notice the details that are in here.

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Details like the one disciple got to the tomb before Peter.

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The one disciple was faster than Peter.

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Who's that one disciple?

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That one disciple was John, who wrote the book of John.

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He just likes making it clear for the record

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that he runs faster than Peter.

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What does this have to do with the Easter story?

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Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.

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This is not poetry.

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This is not prose that just sounds nice.

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This is somebody recording history,

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what historically happened, which includes

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details that really aren't central to the story, like this.

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The other thing that's really interesting to see

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is when Mary Magdalene comes upon the tomb

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where Jesus is, it is dark,

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just like the dark night of many of our souls,

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just like the way many of us are stumbling right now.

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Jesus is dead.

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Easter starts with rigor mortis.

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We have to embrace that death is real.

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And right now, I'm not talking about physical death.

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I'm talking about spiritual death.

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The book of Romans 6:23, it says that

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the wages of sin is death.

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I've never known anybody who could deny that

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they don't make mistakes.

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We don't like to call them sins, but that's what they are.

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All of us do it.

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All of us do it very, very frequently,

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more frequently than we want to.

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And the payment for that is death.

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And the book of Ephesians 2:1 and following it says this:

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That says that we are dead right now.

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Not that we're -- not that we're struggling with sin,

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not that we're trying to work things out.

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No, we're dead. We are in rigor mortis.

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Just as Jesus was physically dead dead

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when He came off the Cross.

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So spiritually, we are dead dead.

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We are stiff in terms of being able to please God

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and connect with God from the newest born infant

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to all of us who may be senior citizens,

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we are spiritually hardened and we see signs of this,

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signs of our spiritual death.

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And I want us to see this because

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a lot of us are fixated on death.

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We're fixated on the type of death

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that happens when our hearts stops.

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That's understandable. I want to live a long life.

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No problem with that.

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The problem is, I'm not going to live forever.

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None of us are going to live forever.

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In fact, a lot of us are here today

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who aren't going to be with us next year.

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And you may only be 25, you may be 70.

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Whatever it is, death is real.

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The death rate hovers right around 100%,

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and we don't like talking about that, but it's real.

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And Easter has us focus in on the life affirming,

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hope inducing message that no matter

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whether we die or not, or if we are spiritually dead

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right now or not, Easter is coming.

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A new dawn is arising. Life is coming.

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One of the ways that my spiritual death

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has manifested itself is being really sensitive

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to criticism and rejection.

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I just take it harder than the average person does.

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You might be surprised that that's the way it is,

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because I come off as self-confident

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and full of bluster.

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I do that -- I have done that historically,

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actually, to compensate for that,

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because if I can put off a strong front,

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maybe you won't mess with me emotionally

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because I can get messed with pretty easily.

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It has been a massive, massive problem in my life.

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It's crippled me at times.

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And the good news is, because of Jesus's resurrection,

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Him coming to life, there's a power there that

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I've tapped into where that doesn't cripple me anymore.

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I'm actually a new person in that area,

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and when I do get criticized,

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I can feel the little pricks, the little jabs.

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But then I go back to, "Oh, wait a minute,

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this doesn't define me because I have a new life,

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just as Jesus has literally, physically, historically

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conquered His physical rigor mortis,

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my spiritual and emotional rigor mortis

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does not control me. I conquer that too.

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When you get this, when you understand it,

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it turns life 100% around.

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No matter who you are right now,

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no matter what you struggle with,

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a resurrection is available to you

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that brings the dawn of a new life.

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Well, Mary and the other women came up

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to the grave of Jesus.

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There's the presence of grave clothes that are there.

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Everybody who was buried in the ancient times had grave cloths.

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It was a way to be basically embalmed,

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wrap you in cloths, put spices on top of you.

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This is a physical representation

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for the way all of us are.

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We're all walking dead men and women.

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We have grave clothes on, whether we know it or not.

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We have the stench of spiritual death

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that courses on us as a right of birth.

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It just is who we are as humans

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and we all have it, or we all had it.

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But Easter isn't about fixating on that.

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That was what Good Friday was about.

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Easter is about recognizing that

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the clothes can come off, just as they came off Jesus,

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they can come off of us.

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This is the unbelievable story of Jesus

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and of Christianity.

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It's unlike every other spirituality

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and religion out there that tells you you can do it.

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You can work on it. You can.

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You can get a better version of you.

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You can get the brass ring.

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You can evolve, you can reincarnate

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and keep working your spiritual path until you do it.

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And the whole point is you, you, it's all about you,

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and you do it and your energy.

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But Easter is about Jesus.

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It's about Him doing it.

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It's about His energy.

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It's about His energy being replicated inside of you

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if you receive Him.

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C.S. Lewis didn't believe in God,

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a guy from England decades and decades ago.

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And over in Oxford he came to know Christ

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and he wrote some profound things about it

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that still affect us today.

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Here's what C.S. Lewis says:

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As he said, Jesus opened a door,

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a door that had never been opened before.

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Somebody came back from the dead,

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and this door that's opened is something that

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you and I can walk through to where right now,

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we can have life, we can replicate what He did.

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Holy Spirit power, the same Spirit that raised Him

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can give life to our mortal bodies.

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This is so unbelievable that resurrection power

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isn't something that I remember way back when,

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it's something I encounter and propels me forward right now.

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In the Bible, Jesus's resurrection

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is known as the first fruits.

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In the book of 1 Corinthians 15 it says this:

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Jesus is the first fruits.

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For farmers in ancient times, or today,

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the first fruits are the first fruit you pick,

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expecting there's going to be more fruit.

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The resurrection is about recognizing that

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Jesus was the first person to be brought back from the dead,

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but more are coming, that includes you.

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Americans or people around the world,

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they bury their dead, put them under the ground.

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The reason why Christians have done that

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for a long time is we believe that

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this mortal body of mine that's dead now,

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physically dead, just like I was spiritually dead,

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I got physically dead.

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It's going to get resurrected, too.

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It's going to be brought back to life.

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This is why some people don't want to have cremation.

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They want to have their body there

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so it can be resurrected.

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That's fine if that's your conviction.

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I don't think God will have any problem

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resurrecting ashes that are sprinkled all over the ocean.

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He can do that. He's no problem with that.

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People get blown up in car crashes and all that stuff.

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All I'm saying is it's coming, it's coming,

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it's coming, it's coming.

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And I don't mean it's just coming when you die

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at the end culmination of all things.

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I mean, right now it's coming.

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I mean, right now in your death,

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in your spiritual grave cloths, in my rejection,

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which is a grave cloth that I have that I've taken off,

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but somehow it keeps sticking back to me

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and I have to keep on, "Oh no, no, no, no, no,

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this doesn't define me."

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And by resurrection power, I'm able to take this off.

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This is the the truth and the reality

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of what the resurrection does for millions

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and millions and millions of people.

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It is the beginning of the end of all things.

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I've seen people take off their grave cloths.

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If it wasn't rejection, it might have been fear

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written on their grave cloths.

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Fear like a good friend of mine would vacation with him

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and we would sightsee and when we would sightsee,

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you know, oftentimes kind of at

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the top of tall buildings looking out

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or at the top of structures, seeing what's there.

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And he would never go to the top,

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or he would step way back.

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And I finally at the end of vacation,

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I said, "What's, what's going on here?"

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And he described to me how he has a fear of heights.

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It even affects his business

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as a real estate developer, because

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he couldn't go to the top of projects

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to cast a vision for potential investors

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or for leasers.

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And I said, "You know, this is a spiritual issue."

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He didn't know what I was talking about.

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I said, "Yeah, the Bible says the thief comes

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to steal, kill, and destroy.

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We are spiritually dead.

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But God has come to give us life.

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You can get over this.

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You can basically, you can take this grave cloth off."

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I walked him through a process.

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I prayed for him and boom, boom.

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He sends me pictures all the time

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when he's at high places saying, "Still working, still working."

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He's been resurrected.

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This isn't just pie in the sky when you die.

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This is right now in your real life, hope filled,

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awe inspiring change can come to people like you and I.

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I know people who have had addictions

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that have gone through 12 step programs

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and they got resurrected.

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They dropped off their addiction

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that was written on their clothes.

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Some of them I know have immediately had

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a healing after being prayed for.

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Either way, it's a resurrection.

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I know people who have been materialistic.

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They would, at best, they would split a check

00:35:11

if you went out for lunch, never pick it up,

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never offer any generosity.

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They were enslaved to materialism

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and savings and having things.

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They were dead with a sign of their death wrapped in it.

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And Christ came into their life

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and they got resurrected and they become generous.

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See, this whole thing is about the roots,

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the roots of Christianity,

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the roots of the expectations of what you think

00:35:36

God's going to do in your life.

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That's the last thing I want to say today.

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Easter is radical.

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Radical does not mean extreme.

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The original Latin means roots. It's the roots.

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Easter is the root of your life.

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It can be the root of your life,

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the root of your power, the root of your love,

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the root of your strength,

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the root of your hope, the root of your joy.

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Because when you believe that

00:36:00

Jesus came back from the dead

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and that death is coming to life in you,

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that power as the Bible says,

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the same Spirit who raised Him from the dead

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gives life to your mortal bodies.

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When you see this, oh my goodness,

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it goes the roots of who you are

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and enables you to get out of the grave cloths.

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This is what John 20:5 says:

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That passage says the grave clothes were lying there.

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They were off Jesus because He was alive.

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I tell you, this is the first time it happens.

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It's not the last time, because it happens again.

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It happens today.

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The grave cloths can come off of you.

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You can actually be alive and free and have peace

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and have power that passes all understanding

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because the Bible says the same Spirit

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that gave life to His body gives life to ours.

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Oh my gosh, when you understand

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there's a new beginning, a new start

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that isn't dependent on your mind,

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on your power, on your will; it just is,

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it changes everything.

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That's why we celebrate Easter.

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We don't remember Easter like it happened a long time ago.

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We celebrate it because it means right now, today,

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today all encompassing power and hope can engulf you

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and take you to a new place.

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It's happened to me.

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It's happened to millions and millions of other people.

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And we're going to take a look at a couple people

00:38:02

right now and their story

00:38:03

of taking off the grave cloths.

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That is a happy Easter.

00:38:37

- So my buddy Alan, who used to share many meals with,

00:38:41

asked me to come out to dinner one night.

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And he said it's for a fundraiser

00:38:44

for this trip that I'm going on.

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And we get to this place.

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And he's introduced me to all these people

00:38:49

that he goes to church with.

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And like the sincerity and the niceness in them

00:38:53

was kind of crazy to me to begin with,

00:38:55

it kind of threw me off a little bit.

00:38:57

And they're telling me about this trip,

00:38:59

this experience they're about to have.

00:39:00

And right away I was on board.

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I was like, "Tell me more, tell me more."

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At that time, my relationship with God

00:39:06

was non-existent. I was too cool for God, you know?

00:39:10

I didn't pray.

00:39:11

I didn't think about it in any sort of way.

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My life was pretty much a party.

00:39:15

[speaking Spanish]

00:39:50

- So the first day we pulled up to the community,

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it's pretty devastating.

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You're going down what looks like roads.

00:39:58

You're passing what looked like houses,

00:40:00

but they're covered in trees.

00:40:01

There's debris everywhere.

00:40:02

When I first met Francisco and Margarita

00:40:06

you could tell that they were just broken.

00:40:08

They didn't seem like they had hope at all.

00:40:10

They seemed completely broken.

00:40:11

- [speaking Spanish]

00:40:46

- There's a lot of people from our group

00:40:47

that would sit and pray with them,

00:40:50

just help build them up a little bit.

00:40:52

Francisco, he would never come around

00:40:55

in the first part of the trip and you'd see him,

00:40:57

it'd just be out of the corner of your eye.

00:40:58

And like I said, he was, like, super timid.

00:41:00

But I think after he saw the progress

00:41:02

that was happening on his house,

00:41:05

he got a little bit more excited,

00:41:07

got a little bit more trusting and, you know,

00:41:09

started doing some of the work with us.

00:41:11

- [speaking Spanish]

00:42:04

- I came down with a mentality that

00:42:06

I was going to come help and I was going

00:42:08

to come make a change and make a difference.

00:42:10

And I was the one being changed

00:42:11

as the whole process was happening.

00:42:14

It was absolutely life changing,

00:42:16

but I still didn't have God in my life.

00:42:20

I was still hiding, you know, the biggest problem in my life.

00:42:27

I was still hiding my addiction.

00:42:28

The fact that I was probably sober one day

00:42:32

out of the last two years of my life,

00:42:35

I was just in a spot one day where I was

00:42:37

just doing the same thing that I always did.

00:42:38

I was hanging out with friends, we were drinking,

00:42:40

we were having a great time.

00:42:42

So I get out of the car

00:42:43

and instead of getting out onto the sidewalk

00:42:45

and walking into the bar,

00:42:46

I got out on the passenger side into traffic

00:42:49

and just fell on my knees in the middle of a --

00:42:52

The middle of traffic.

00:42:53

Luckily, I was able to bring myself to my feet

00:42:57

and jump back in the car.

00:42:58

I had enough wits about me to at least do that.

00:43:01

That's when it just hit me.

00:43:03

I literally just my face in my hands

00:43:06

and just started crying.

00:43:08

And in that moment I reached out to God

00:43:11

and I just said, "I don't want this life anymore.

00:43:14

I don't want this for myself."

00:43:15

And I had this weird sense of comfort just come over me.

00:43:20

I knew in that moment God was with me.

00:43:22

My prayer was answered instantly

00:43:24

when I asked for my life to change,

00:43:27

when I asked to take away the want to drink

00:43:32

and it just happened instantaneously.

00:43:35

Literally from that point, I've never wanted to drink since.

00:43:38

I've been sober for about a little over four years now,

00:43:43

going to church, participating in mission trips,

00:43:46

and Kids' Club, and, you know,

00:43:49

anything I can get my hands on.

00:43:51

Like I said, I'm all in now.

00:43:54

- Jesus left us a representation of resurrection

00:43:58

that every follower and receiver of His was to do,

00:44:03

it's called baptism.

00:44:06

Baptism is when somebody who's come to know Christ,

00:44:09

they go into the watery grave,

00:44:12

drowning their dead self, drowning their baggage,

00:44:15

burying all that they were.

00:44:18

And as they come back to life,

00:44:19

they come out of the watery grave,

00:44:22

signifying a new resurrected life of power.

00:44:26

Every time somebody gets baptized,

00:44:28

it's a sign of the resurrected life

00:44:31

that's giving hope, joy, peace and strength.

00:44:34

And so today, our friend Shawn

00:44:36

is taking a step of obedience,

00:44:38

and he's mirroring that resurrection

00:44:41

by getting baptized today, a thing that

00:44:44

every follower of Christ does because

00:44:46

we want that power in us

00:44:48

and we want to honor the words of Jesus.

00:44:51

- Shawn, who's your Lord and Savior?

00:44:54

- Jesus Christ.

00:44:55

- Shawn, we baptize you now

00:44:58

in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

00:45:05

Come on, come on. Yes, yes. [applause]

00:45:16

- If you're with us on our online community,

00:45:18

I want to tell you, you're with us.

00:45:21

We don't believe that you've watched

00:45:23

or you've been outside it.

00:45:24

You're one of us, you're with us,

00:45:27

and we want to have a moment with you and for you.

00:45:32

Inside of our buildings, people have these grave cloths

00:45:35

and they're going to have an experience.

00:45:37

And you're going to have the experience, too.

00:45:39

We've got something special for you.

00:45:41

All you have to do is text Easter to 301301,

00:45:46

Easter to 301301.

00:45:49

Thanks for being a part of this today.

00:45:53

- Easter is about recognizing that

00:45:55

we can leave our grave cloths in the tomb.

00:45:58

Like Brian said, we want you to have a moment

00:46:00

where you can symbolically leave these old identities

00:46:03

and mistakes behind

00:46:04

and step into resurrection power today.

00:46:07

So here's what I want you to do.

00:46:09

Think about that part of your life

00:46:11

that you want to leave in the tomb.

00:46:14

It might be a painful part of your history

00:46:16

or your experience, it might be a lie

00:46:19

that you're tempted to believe about yourself.

00:46:21

It could be something that you think

00:46:23

disqualifies you from God's love.

00:46:25

Whatever it is, we want you to know

00:46:28

that Jesus died so that you can experience new life,

00:46:32

including that thing that you're thinking of right now.

00:46:36

So what word embodies or represents that moment?

00:46:40

Maybe it's shame.

00:46:45

Maybe it's fear.

00:46:50

Concern about the future?

00:46:52

Maybe it's addiction.

00:46:58

Maybe it's that habit

00:46:59

you haven't been able to break for yourself.

00:47:01

Maybe its rejection.

00:47:07

Once you have that word, whatever it is for you,

00:47:10

I want you to pull out your phone

00:47:11

and just text Easter to 301301.

00:47:16

In response, you'll be given a prompt

00:47:18

with your chance to enter that one word.

00:47:22

And then myself and one of our team members

00:47:24

will specifically receive that word

00:47:25

and pray for you specifically and individually,

00:47:28

and then write that down on a piece of cloth

00:47:30

and lay it down for you.

00:47:34

Resurrection power is available to all of us

00:47:36

here and now, no matter where we are,

00:47:38

and a great next step to lean into

00:47:41

that resurrection power is baptism.

00:47:44

Now, I don't know what you think about baptism.

00:47:46

Maybe it feels a little odd,

00:47:47

or maybe it's something you've always wanted to do.

00:47:50

Baptism is when someone who comes to know Christ

00:47:52

goes into that watery grave,

00:47:54

drowning to their dead self, drowning their baggage,

00:47:57

bearing all that they were.

00:47:58

And as they come back up to life,

00:48:00

they come out of that watery grave,

00:48:02

signifying a new resurrected life of power.

00:48:05

Every time somebody gets baptized,

00:48:07

it's a sign of the resurrected life

00:48:09

that's giving hope, joy, peace, and strength.

00:48:13

Now, if something today resonated with you

00:48:15

and you're interested in baptism, I would love

00:48:17

to help you take that next step on your journey.

00:48:21

God's redemption story is for you anywhere you live.

00:48:25

Seriously, we will come to you

00:48:26

to help make this happen anywhere.

00:48:28

If you're interested in getting baptized for yourself,

00:48:31

you can head to crossroads.net/baptism

00:48:33

or email me directly at Andy.Reider@crossroads.net.

00:48:36

That is my real email address, not a bot.

00:48:38

This is one of my absolute favorite things to do ever.

00:48:41

And man, as you'll see during the service

00:48:44

and as we worship, you're going to see people

00:48:46

making this decision to be baptized

00:48:48

and declaring their commitment to Jesus.

00:48:50

This is a time of celebration,

00:48:52

and it's not just a time for you to watch.

00:48:54

It's a time for you to enter into, to participate,

00:48:57

to celebrate the good things that God has done

00:48:59

in your life and maybe make the decision

00:49:01

to be baptized yourself.

00:49:03

Regardless, we're going to see people celebrating

00:49:05

the hope that they have in Jesus.

00:49:07

Now let's use these songs and this time

00:49:09

to celebrate, praise, and thank God

00:49:11

for the good news of Easter

00:49:12

and how it's still changing lives today.

01:03:27

- Hey, once again, I want to wish you

01:03:28

a very, very Happy Easter

01:03:30

and I hope it came through loud and clear today

01:03:33

that God's love for you allows you

01:03:35

to leave things in the tomb,

01:03:37

to walk forward in new life.

01:03:39

And if you haven't yet,

01:03:41

make sure that you text Easter to 301301

01:03:44

so that you can leave something in the tomb

01:03:47

and walk forward refreshed and clean,

01:03:50

and without that baggage and identity.

01:03:54

And if you haven't been baptized yet

01:03:56

and understand that Jesus came to bring you new life

01:03:58

and is your hope and your one Savior,

01:04:01

man, we'd love to help you get baptized.

01:04:04

We will actually come to you to make it happen.

01:04:06

We go all over the place because we know

01:04:09

that this is such an important moment

01:04:10

we want to celebrate with you.

01:04:12

If you go to Crossroads.net/anywhere,

01:04:14

you can participate in both of those things.

01:04:16

Now, Crossroads is a movement of people

01:04:18

meeting physically and digitally all over the globe.

01:04:21

And you're welcome here

01:04:22

no matter what you believe about God.

01:04:24

One thing that I want to share with you

01:04:26

that I'm really excited about,

01:04:27

we simply call Horse Weekend.

01:04:29

It is where we're bringing back our friend Todd Pierce,

01:04:32

who's going to train a wild horse on stage

01:04:35

in our building in under an hour.

01:04:37

And I promise you, it will be one of

01:04:38

the most memorable church experiences of your life

01:04:41

and one of the most beautiful and compelling

01:04:44

tellings of God's love for you that you'll ever see.

01:04:48

We're going to stream every service online because

01:04:50

each one is unique and beautiful in its own right,

01:04:53

and you do not want to miss it.

01:04:54

And we'd love to see you back here next week

01:04:57

as Chuck Mingo starts off our series

01:04:59

in the book of Acts, talking about

01:05:00

how you and I can live a life of power.

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