This sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God and experiencing resurrection life through fully embracing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It challenges individuals to believe, repent, and die to self in order to truly live a transformed life. The focus is on being desperate for more of God and allowing Him to lead and transform every aspect of one's life.

Lord, we thank you so much for sending your Son. Lord, it's such a graphic picture, but it's a real picture of what our sin cost. Your Son, Lord, we thank you so much that we can rejoice today in the empty tomb. Lord, but I do pray that you just bring a new level of understanding of your Word today to these people, Lord. Change our hearts again, Lord, but we do pray for direction, Lord, for all of our lives. Lord, as we pray for the condition of our nation, Lord, we want revival here. We want the churches to be revived, Lord. We want marriages and families to be restored, Lord. We want to experience that resurrection life that your Son paid the price for. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Well, you can be seated. You know, at first I was thinking, you know, some people might say that's a pretty graphic picture, but, you know, although we rejoice in the empty tomb this weekend, we don't want to ever forget the cross, because the empty tomb just shows that Christ conquered sin, death, and the grave, but it's a cross is actually where the wrath of God was poured upon His Son for the sins of the world, and I don't believe that's fictitious. I believe that's fact, and that's why I'm up here today. Let me just begin this message, and I'm going to preach from my heart today, which I normally do, of course, but there's just so much with Easter, and if I had six weeks, I could probably get through it, you know, a six-week series on Easter because there's so much there. So my dilemma is, my challenge is, if I can be honest with you tonight, is where do I spend my time? Do we want to talk about the historical Jesus and the proof for the resurrection, or do we want to talk about the Gospels, the synoptic Gospels, do we want to turn to John, do we want to work through the whole story, and as I was beginning to prepare the message, it dawned on me that we have this life-changing message. How can we not hear this message and not be impacted? Think about that. More people are getting excited about the Lakers than this message of hope and redemption. So there's a disconnect there somewhere. The most glorious message that has ever came to us, why does it not impact us on a deeper level? I'll come to church, it's what people do on Easter. The greatest story ever told, and there's very little passion behind it, and so that's where I want to kind of put my focus, and you'll see that the message here is resurrection life, desperate for more, that resurrection life. What's this all about? So my greatest challenge is, I don't want you to leave educated and not edified, I don't want you to leave pondering and not passionate, and I don't want you to leave challenged, I want you to leave changed. So as I was praying over this message on where do you go, where do you talk about, the whole point, everything culminates on this resurrection life. Where is this abundant life that Christ spoke about? The verse in your bulletins there is when Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. And the story is, many of you know Lazarus, who was dead for four days, Jesus finally came four days later, and the ladies said, the sisters of Lazarus said, Jesus, if you would have been here earlier, my brother would have never died. And Jesus said, don't worry, don't worry, he will be resurrected, he will be risen from the dead. And they said, well, we know, yeah, later on during the resurrection, we know that. And Jesus said these powerful words, no, I am the resurrection and the life. I am he that brings life. I am the answer to your marriage, I am the answer to your problems, I am the answer to your addiction, everything you're going through. Jesus basically said, I am the resurrection and the life, it's me, everything ends here, I am the source of all life, of abundant life, of life, you can't even know the Father except through me, spiritual life, spiritual wholeness, spiritual passion, eternal life, everything stops with me. That's what he was saying, I am the resurrection and the life, look no further. And it reminds me of the woman at the well, when Jesus came and sat on this well, and he talked this whole discourse on living water. And he told the lady, I will give you living water of which you will never thirst again. And so he is the answer to everything, we forget that. I was just sharing with a lady yesterday, I came in contact with probably about a year ago and, you know, man, it was just devastating. She lost her son to suicide some years ago, her mom just died four months ago, and she's having to put her dad in a convalescent home, and she is just falling apart, and just made a statement that, you know, I hope God sees how good I am. And I had to remind her, it's not anything we do. He is the resurrection and the life, everything falls on that foundation. Everything stands or falls on our relationship with Christ. He is everything. He's not just a piece of something, he's not just supplemental, he is everything. And that's why I want to focus this message, he is the resurrection and the life. And I will tell you right now, my greatest challenge is, what am I going to choose from this? And luckily I already know, so my challenge is over. Your greatest challenge is, many in this room, and that's the hard part about preaching is, I have to talk to that person on the side back row, and this guy struggling with something else, this person struggling with doubt, skepticism, they don't believe, that person believes but is ready to walk away, this person feels with the Spirit of God but they're going through so much that we can't even understand what they're going through, and this person over there. So that's, luckily it's the Spirit's job. We prepare the message through the teaching and preaching of God's Word, and he goes and he ministers to those areas of life. But I will tell you tonight and tomorrow morning, the greatest challenge my audience is going to have is fourfold. It's either skepticism and doubt, you talk to people who aren't sure about this Christ thing, this Christianity thing, so I've got to speak to that group, I've got to speak to the group that's, there's half-heartedness there, there's lukewarm living, there's partial obedience, they haven't given really their life fully to Christ, and trying to mesh all that. So your greatest challenge today is going to be to fight against all that, the pull of the flesh, the pull of the enemy, the pull of the devil, everything that's pulling against God's Word, your greatest challenge is going to be to be able to say, you know what, I need to embrace this message today. And that's what I hope to do. And what I want to start with is this whole thing on, for the doubters and the skeptics, and I don't think we can talk about Easter without talking about a few of these key points. So I'm going to try to reach that group. So if what I'm saying is upsetting you, you know what I like to say, it's probably because you need to hear what I'm saying. So if this begins to rattle your cage and you begin to get upset, that's a good thing. God's saying, hello, wake up, knocking on the door of your house, wake up, listen to this. So I want to talk about the resurrection briefly, and I could be up here all night and into the morning with so much that we could discuss, and I'm going to get right to the heart of the issue and talk about the debt to the doubters and the skeptics and even the unbelievers, because this goes out the internet, it goes out the radio, and I want to touch that group. But also, I think you'll be encouraged by this as well. No matter where your faith is, as well, you will be benefited from what God's word has to say. So with that said, when we talk about the resurrection, Jesus being, I am the, saying I'm the way, the life, the truth, no man comes to the Father except through me. I am the resurrection life. I am everything. The point that comes back a lot to people who doubt is this phrase, and you've heard it, but he was just a good teacher, right? Yeah, Shane, he was a good teacher. Do we all agree with that? Was he a good teacher? Well, let's think this through. If I came into you, came here tonight and said, listen, I'm going to be killed pretty soon. I'm going to raise from the dead. As a matter of fact, my kingdom is not even of this world. If you want to know God, you need to go through me first. How many of you would be here next Saturday? Just my mom and my wife, that's all. Think about it, right? They'd be praying, oh, God, Lord, help this boy, please. Well, wait a minute. That's what Jesus said. And I'm going to make a statement here that's going to shock some people, but it needs to be said. Jesus, apart from divinity, was not a good teacher. He was a terrible teacher. You cannot use that phrase. If you remove the divinity of Christ, he was not a good teacher. As C.S. Lewis said, he's either a lunatic, he's a liar, or he's the Lord Jesus Christ. If you say he's not God, he's not divine, he was a good teacher, he's not a good teacher. He said he would die, he would be raised again, his kingdom isn't of this world. If you eat of my flesh, you will live. If you drink of my blood, you will live. My kingdom's not of this world. Whoever believes in me, he has everlasting life. I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. That's not a good teacher, if that's all he was. He scared people away, he taught in parables and analogies. That's a hard saying, who can understand these things? He was not a good teacher, apart from his divinity. Now when you take the divinity of his nature, what theologians call the hypostatic union of Christ, fully God and fully man, don't try to understand it all, because I get a headache when I try to. We just can't comprehend that, so that's one of the things we embrace. Fully God and fully man, when you marry those two, then yes, he was a very good teacher, the best that we have ever seen, his words were infused with wisdom, his knowledge was far above anybody else's. So in that regard, he was a very good teacher, the best ever, nobody even compares. But you remove that divinity, and then it becomes a lunatic. You see, you can't have this good teacher stuff. It's one or the other, he was not a good teacher. He was a lunatic if he was not God, so we can't juggle both. And I like what John MacArthur said in one of his books, he said when it comes to Christ, this is what we have, even skeptics have to ponder that. He's not a good teacher, he's a lunatic if he's not God, but his authority was apparent to the people. His wisdom was superhuman, his purity was undeniable, his power fascinated them, his provision astounded them, his healing took away their sickness, his dominance of demons shocked them, his judgment was awesome, and his love overwhelmed them. That's not a good teacher, that is something superior. The people were shocked, they were in awe. Who can speak with such authority? Who can heal these multitudes? He would say, it is written, you are wrong, scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of the law. Let me tell you what the word of God says, he spoke with boldness and authority. In the last part that I added, his resurrection transformed them. Him rising from the dead, if it did not happen, these men would have resorted back to their old job. This resurrection transformed them. So if you're a skeptic or you're doubting, not too sure, those are your three options, lunatic, liar, or the Lord Jesus Christ. He cannot be just a good teacher, it's not possible, because the words he said were absolute heretical. If he was not God, in order to back up the words he was saying. You see how that's married? You can't just divorce a good teacher from God. Number two is, when I'm talking to atheists or different people, this is the next point that usually comes up. Well, he didn't exist, he just didn't exist. Well, we know more about Jesus than any other person in all of ancient history, probably combined. We know more about him than anybody else in ancient history, bar none. You've got secular historians, you've got the Bible, you've got, many of you have heard of Josephus. He was a Jewish historian in the first century. He wasn't even a Christian, and he talked about, oh, yes, this Jesus who came, had a lot of followers, did many miracles, and was said to rose from the dead. He's a historical figure. To say he didn't exist is very incorrect. He absolutely did exist. So if you say, he can't just be a good teacher, he definitely did exist, then what's the third one that people say? Well, okay, okay, okay, you got me there. But he didn't rise from the dead. I mean, everything stands or falls on this point. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, well, I better, yeah. Whoops, I've been fooling everybody, right? Why am I up here? If he didn't rise from the dead, why am I up here? It has nothing, this point is, now, let's take this point a little further, and you guys can use this sometimes, because it's absolutely relevant, and it's very powerful. If he didn't rise from the dead, and all of it was a lie, his disciples would have never given their lives. All of the disciples, except John, who was boiled in oil, and then put on the island of Patmos, was killed for their faith. Nobody's gonna die by the sword, by hanging upside down for a lie. Now, we hid the body, we hid the body. Hold on, hold on, don't begin to pull me apart just yet. We'll tell you where that body's at. Nobody did. His disciples were beheaded, hung upside down, killed with the sword, thrown to the wild beasts, all these things for a lie, because they hid the body, and they didn't see the resurrection. If it was a lie, why didn't they just go back to their fishing and tax collecting? See, what you have to do is you have to think this stuff through. According to law, there's so much evidence here that they would say, yep, this is absolutely correct. The witnesses, the testimony here, the disciples read Fox's Book of Martyrs. You can hear a lot of what happened to the disciples. So they followed Jesus. They believe so passionately in the message that they were killed because of it. Well, Shane, don't terrorists do the same thing? Not at all. They believe, they believe in what they're doing. They kill because of their religion, where Jesus' disciples were killed because of that religion. Big difference there. So we have to say, okay, if he didn't rise from the dead, why did these people give up their lives for a lie? Nobody would do that. Would you? Would you? They're getting ready to pull your limbs apart. Oh, hold on, hold on. We're all joking. Here's the plan. Nothing happened like that. Well, number four, well, it's still not true. Usually when I get to this point, well, it's still not true. That is just pure, unadulterated excuse. That's all that is. Because we just challenged the core of their faith. I couldn't be wrong, could I? All these years of thinking there's no God, I could not be wrong, could I? Could I absolutely be, actually be wrong? No, no, I can't be wrong. So I'm just going to say it doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. And it's amazing to watch the greatest minds in our generation, people like, you've heard of Dockings or Hawkins and all these great, you know, these atheists that are writing books and they're speaking all these things. When they're pressed on the issue, where did life come from all this? Well, when they're pressed, what do they say? I think we came from crystals on the back of aliens and we were planted here. That's their excuse. That's what they say. Go look it up. Well, well, I guess we were planted here by aliens. Well, then it begs the question, who made the aliens? I mean, come on, where does this end? See, there can't be a God, can there? Many of you are challenged by this statement right now. There can't be a God. There's a moral God who has a moral order who calls me to obedience and surrender and repentance. I don't like that because I like to be God of my own life. I don't want to hear this stuff. That's why I don't come to church. If it wasn't Easter, I wouldn't even be here today. But isn't that what we say? Why? Because it irritates and it convicts and that's a good thing. All I'm saying is that God loved us so much that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And we can show through the proof of Scripture and the proof of science and whatever you want to use. And on that note, let's just talk about that right now. Dawkins, I think, is one of these major, these skeptics, these atheists came out and said, I think I just heard on the Janet Parshall show a few weeks ago, you might've heard it. He said, science is finally starting to prove the non-existence of God. Science, science. Do you know how untrustworthy science is? Just a few weeks ago, a lot of you know, we had a newborn baby. She's here tonight. Finally. She's sleeping, I hope. I'm going to keep my voice down. She said when I used to preach, a baby would move a lot in the stomach, so she probably recognized my voice. But it's so funny. As soon as the baby's born, and I can't watch because I'll just pass out. That's why I'm not a fireman or paramedic. There's no way. Wow, it's hard. But anyway, they took the baby, cleaned her hair, everything, and they give it right to Morgan. Oh, here you go. It's like, wait a minute, the last three kids, you just put them in that box and checked them out, the vitals, everything for 15 minutes. What's going on here? How do we know she's breathing? No, no, no, we learn now that it's best to give it to the mother. Well, what happened to my last three kids? You put her in a box. You put the babies in a box, measured them, weighed them, cleaned them out, their nose, their breathing. No, mom, you can't see the baby for a while. Oh, but now we're learning. Oh, okay, well, I think that's biblical, right? Give the baby to the mom. So that connection there. I mean, I could just go on the umbilical cord, clean it with some alcohol. No, no, no, we don't do that anymore. We used to do that. We found it's not good to do that anymore. Well, what's changing here? What's going on? Smoking used to be good for you. Did you know that? You're gonna trust in science? You're gonna say that science is proving there's no God? Science that vacillates back and forth, that changes all the time? Well, we're just finding now this. We're just finding now that. Let's talk about science. The Bible said the earth is a spear. What did science say back then? The earth is a flat disk. The Bible says there are innumerable stars. Science said there are only 1,100 stars. The Bible said that the earth floats free in space. Science said, and this is probably my favorite one, that the earth sits on a large animal. The science of the day. Creation was made of invisible elements, the Bible says. Science says everything that we can see is all that is created. The Bible says each star is different. The science said all stars were the same. The Bible says that the blood is the source of life and health. Science said back then, do you remember? Leeches, and you have to drain the blood out of you? Get this blood out of you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The life of the flesh is in the blood. And that's why the blood is required for atonement for the sin. On that last slide, the blood has to be shed. And the Bible said ocean floors contain deep valleys and mountains. Science said the ocean floor was flat. And it just goes on and on. When dealing, this is what I like. I think it's Leviticus. When dealing with disease, you should wash your hands in running water. What did science say? You know what? Now, don't quote me on this, but I have to check. It just now came to me. I think what stopped the Black Plague in Europe was somebody read the Bible and realized that you can't keep doing all these operations on somebody here and then bring the same bloody hands and do it on this person. And that stopped a lot of that plague from washing under running water. Folks do not ever, ever, ever trust in science. They will never even comprehend one iota of what God is doing. They confirm it a lot of times. Look how it's confirming it. And people say, well, science is de-confirming the Bible. Give me one example. One example. Not now after the service, or I have to tell you to sit down. One example of how that is happening. There's so much power in the Word of God. That's why I get passionate about it. Because it's a power to change lives. So you cannot trust on science. Now, where I really wanted to get is the message centers on number five about this issue. The greatest witness about the resurrection is a transformed life. Okay, let me say that again. The greatest proof for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a transformed life. If your life is not transformed, I need you to question the sincerity of your commitment. Do you truly believe? Or did you just have intellectual knowledge of the gospel? Because a lot of people believe in Christ because of what they want. Heaven. But they don't truly believe because they don't want to give up sin. I mean, if you got me a group of unbelievers, a group of young adults, I could get most of them to raise their hand. You don't want to go to hell, do you? Where worm does not die and flame does not end. You're going to be quenching the fiery wrath of God. You don't want to go. No, no, no. Look at all these professions of faith. Mm hmm. How many of those genuinely repented of their sin, acknowledged Christ as Lord and asked him, Lord, I need you. I give my life to you. Very few. Because we like the idea of heaven, but I sure like to live like hell. Why? Because that sinful nature. We don't repent of that. That's why I love the word repentance. It's a beautiful word. That is really the hope for anything. Marriage, problems, addiction, anger, wrong relationship with God. Repentance. You repent and say, Lord, I'm wrong. You're right. And that's where it begins with this issue of a transformed life. Even Rousseau, the French skeptic, said, I must confess to you. And he's being honest here. He was a Frenchman hundreds of years ago. He was an atheist skeptic. I must confess to you that the majority of the scriptures astonish me. The holiness of the evangelists speak to my heart and have such striking characters of truth that if it had been the inventions of men, the inventors would be greater than the greatest heroes. But this man was not willing to replace preference with truth. See, people see there's a transformed life. There's a difference there. And I'm going to make another statement here that you're probably going to want to challenge me on. But I'm going to say it. Because it needs to be said. No other religion, if you want to call Christianity a religion, no other religion changes your heart. Let me say that again. No other religion changes your heart. You're probably thinking right now, that's not true. That's not true, Shane. A friend of mine became a Mormon. And they're really good people now. A friend of mine became a Jehovah's Witness. They're really good people now. My next door neighbor is Roman Catholic and they do a lot of good things. Or Buddhists. Or you fill in the blanks. That's not true, Shane. They've changed. Now let me read the question again. No other religion changes your heart. What they offer is, many have reformation, but they do not have transformation. See, when you tell somebody, be good so you can go to heaven, guess what they'll probably be? Good. So a lot of religions focus on good. And there's reformation. There's reformation. But there's no change of heart. The heart's not transformed and radically changed by the power of God. And that's my concern for the church today. We have a lot of good people. But they're not transformed, changed people. Think about that. Reformation's pretty easy. If a wife said, listen, tomorrow I'm packing, I'm gone, unless that drinking habit stops. There might be some reformation. Guys at work would say, he's changed. He joined this such and such church. He's changed. No, he's reformed. He reformed his ways. That's not necessarily transformation. Now, when we are transformed by the power of the gospel, of course we change and there's reformation. But see the difference there? There's no other religion on the planet that actually changes a person's heart. And they become what the Bible calls a new creation in Christ. I hate a certain group of people, now I love them. Things that I used to enjoy now repulse me. Where does that come from? Reformation only? No, that's transformation. So when you think about, if you're a skeptic and you think about this, you have to weigh all those things. Was he a good teacher? No way. He was not just a good teacher. He didn't exist. Oh, he absolutely existed. Well, then he didn't rise from the dead. Oh, absolutely he did. The witnesses, the confirmation, the martyrdom, all that. The transformed life. When people genuinely are changed by the power of the gospel, their lives are changed. The biggest threat to Christianity, I believe right now, is in this issue of many people have not truly been changed by the power of God. So people see that. Hypocrite. They're a hypocrite. They say one thing and do another. Christians are judgmental. They're angry all the time. There's no difference. Don't you hear that? So the transformed life is our biggest witness. So with that said, let me get to the heart of the message. Resurrection life. And we all know what happened on that fateful night, right? I mean, we could tell the story over and over again. Jesus was preaching and ministering and he went and he knew, okay, my time is coming. I'm going to be taken away. And they came, they grabbed him, they took him before Pontius Pilate, before the rulers. They accused him, wrongly accused him. The Bible says just like a lamb led to the slaughter. He said nothing. He said nothing. See, that's power right there. If you think about that. Who else is going to go before a judge, an executioner, and say nothing and try to get himself off? Nothing. He's wrongly accused. He says nothing. And it irritated Pilate so much he said, don't you know that I have the power to crucify you or to let you go? You know what Jesus said to him? You'd have no power over me at all unless it was given to you from above. Wow! That's power. That's Christ saying for this purpose I was sent. I was born to die. That day is here. I am now led away as a sheep to the slaughter. You'd have no power over me unless it was given to you from God. You're going to be God's instrument to execute me for the sins of the world. And that's what happened. That's the cross. That's why we celebrate a lot of times Easter. Of course the tomb but also the cross. And then I like what John says in John 20. Early on the first day of the week while it was still dark, which was Sunday. That's why people still worship on Sunday. It's okay to worship on Sunday. Not just Saturday. Sunday's fine. I get that question a lot. Are you guys, whatever it's called, seven day Adventist? Well I worship every day. I worship every single day. One day a week I have to come and speak for an hour. I guess if you want to call that worship. What's the deal here? We'll get to that in Matthew hopefully. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and they said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him. See here's another thing. How did they get him away from Roman soldiers? Executioners, paid assassins. They're just going to take the body of Jesus away from the most trained people on the planet at that time? It's almost parallels to if they would have caught Bin Laden alive and put him somewhere surrounded by Navy Seals, Marines. Whatever. And somehow the body just disappears. How'd that happen? I mean you have to understand that that wouldn't just happen. They put a garrison around that tomb for this very reason. And the rock wasn't rolled away for Jesus to come out. It was rolled away so the witnesses could look in. He's gone. He's not here. So that's where we catch up. And now Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the same thing as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. And the cloth was still lying in its place separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside and he saw and he believed. He saw it and he believed it. So let me make this point right now. That experience forever changed their life. Did it not? That experience forever changed their life. These men did not go back to fishing and tax collecting. It forever changed their life. So my question is why doesn't it change the life of many of you? Let's be real. Let's be honest here. It radically changed these men's life and women's life. Never to be the same. They went from fisherman, tax collector. They actually went from defeat and discouragement. And look what happened to our king? What was that all about? And now radically transformed with these people. God turned the world upside down. If it transformed the life of them, why doesn't it change and transform your life? Not everyone here but some of you. Why doesn't it? Why is there no resurrection life out there? And recall what I said earlier. Your greatest challenge tonight is going to be half-heartedness and partial obedience and the pull of the flesh in the world. Something in us is at war with God. That's your greatest challenge tonight. Something in us is at war with God. And you remember what I read last year? I want to read it again from Wilbur Reese. It's where he said, I'd like to buy just three pounds or actually I'd just like to buy three dollars worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love someone of the opposite color or to pick beets with a migrant worker. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy just three pounds of God, please. That's what many people say today. I don't want Him to radically change my life. I just want a little bit. I'll just keep Him right here and pull Him out in times of need. That's not the resurrection life. That's not people being desperate for more. And when I quote that scripture, I'm quoting from John 11, 25. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me though he may die, shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? See, that's what every person has to answer to themselves. Do you believe this? Not how you were raised, not if your parents were Christians, not if you work at a church. None of that. Do you personally believe this? And that's what the heart of what He was getting at there. And I want to talk real briefly about this word. I did some study on this word, life. When Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. What do we do? Oh, that sounds good. Yeah, that makes sense. Let's think about this. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. Life in the Bible means running water. Not dead, stagnant water. It's running water. Life is associated with light and gladness, fullness, order, and active being. Now contrast that with darkness and sorrow and emptiness and chaos and silence, which are characteristics of death and decay. So that's what He's saying. I will give you life. So if your life is out of order, if it's chaotic, if it's just crazy, it's dark, it's depressing, that's not the life that Christ is talking about. He's talking about resurrected life, genuine life. Life-giving source. Actually, if you think of water, everywhere it flows, it gives food and nourishment, it gives source to that, to plants, to grass, to wherever water goes, it's running water. It brings life. Are we bringing life? Or is there death in us? So we have to think about this word, resurrected life. Because most Christians have a dark, depressing, empty, chaotic life. And I don't say it to poke fun. Life is challenging, don't get me wrong. But Christ died for a lot more than that. And until something dies in us and says, Lord, I want that, I need that running, living water, Lord, I need it. I need it. It will not happen. And I know I bring this up often, I want to bring it up again, but it's so important. How many of us can say, how many of us can say that we know what Jesus was talking about when John the Baptist, when he said, Christ will baptize you with Holy Spirit and with fire? What's he talking about? Or out of your belly will flow rivers of living water? Jesus said, if you believe on me, not maybe, he said, if you believe on me, out of your belly, out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. So if I could interview each of you as you left that door, if I could stand back there and say, listen, do you truly have that living water that Christ, is it flowing out of you like an abundance? No, it's not, Shane. There's a kink in the hose somewhere. There's a kink in the hose. Resurrection life is vital. Could you say, if I asked you one by one, do you have this resurrection life? Think about that. Is it abundant, overflowing? Jesus said, if you believe on me, out of your belly is going to flow these rivers of living water. Then why is life stagnant and dead and depressing? And we have to ask, where is that kink in the hose? Where is that kink in the hose? Just last week, I had a guy from Colorado, I was on a conference call, and he asked me, Shane, what is the mission, the theme of your ministry? And you really had to make, you know, I said, well, you know the seven things that the church is built on, of course, and truth and the power and prayer. He goes, no, no, no, no, no. What is your ministry? What is God calling you to do? When people say, Shane Eidelman, what are you trying to convey? And I thought, desperate for more. Desperate for more. That's what I'm trying to get people to do, whether it's truth or power or prayer, the Holy Spirit, whatever it is, desperate for more. It's like the seeking after that living water. We want to be desperate for more. And you guys remember I told the story last year when I rode up on the aqueduct. I just went and I went and I went and I went and I went. I was way out there. And I looked down, I grabbed my water bottles empty. And I'm like, oh my Lord, this is not good. I'm not going to drink out of the aqueduct. I see fish floating in there. The other day, I saw a little snake coming up the side of it. So what am I going to do? So I start pedaling kind of fast. I'm like, oh, this isn't going to work either. I'm going to be really thirsty. I get a good pace. I'm like, have you ever been thirsty? I'm talking about thirsty. I mean, where it's parched. It's like, I don't even have my cell phone. What happens if I die? I mean, you start thinking, Morgan's going to, they're never going to find me out here. How am I going to, am I going to have to resort to the aqueduct water? And I'm just riding and riding and thirst. The scenery's gone. I don't care what it looks like. I'm not just, where's my truck? Good Lord, I didn't know I drove this. And I'm just going and it's just, you feel your throat, it's almost like chalk. It's like, and there's my truck and I just, I made it and I threw the door open, grabbed the gallon of water and just got drinking and drinking and drinking. But that's what Christ is telling us there. Drink of the living water. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. This isn't a little passing out consideration. This is a desperation. Lord, I'm desperate for more. If you don't move, I won't make it. If you don't rebuild my marriage, Lord, I won't make it. If you don't give me a desperation for you and your word, I cannot get up and seek you with all of my heart. Lord, I'm so desperate that I'm going to make radical changes in my life. I'm going to remove those people that are pulling me down and those things that are distracting me. I'm going to remove the kink and the hose because I am desperate for more. That should be the heart cry of every single believer. Desperate for more. And there's not that's not the heart cry of every believer. The heart cry of every believer now or the majority is all come to church as if I'm doing God a favor. I'll play Christianity by my terms. They know nothing of dying to self or the surrendered life or carrying a cross or brokenness or humility or death to self. They know nothing of those things. So you wonder why we have an arrogant, lukewarm Christianity who does nothing for the kingdom of God because they are prideful vessels full of themselves. And if you want to experience resurrection life, something needs to die. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies. Jesus said it will bring forth nothing because it's in the death that resurrection comes. It was in the death of Christ that resulted in the resurrection. It's in the death of self, the death of self, that you will be filled mightily with the spirit of God. That's how you fill the spirit of God. That's how you know the abundant life. If you're desperate for more, something has to die tonight at the foot of the cross. And I brought a few examples. I want to read this book. Many of you have heard of people like Oswald Chambers, Hudson Taylor, Adonai Judson, Spurgeon, D.O. Moody, William Booth of Salvation Army. But what you don't know is a lot of their stories. And this book is called They Found the Secret. I would highly recommend it because it wasn't until every single man or woman in here, same as here, it wasn't until they fully surrendered their lives that God began to use them. And I know I hit on this theme a lot, but I've got to, I'm desperate for more and I want you to be. That's resurrection life. Let me just read what this person wrote about this. This resurrected life. When I finally submitted and surrendered everything, it was heaven. It was a heaven of love that came into my heart. My soul melted like wax before fire. I sobbed and sobbed. I loathed myself that I had ever even sinned against Him or doubted Him or lived for myself and not for His glory. Every ambition for self was gone. The pure flame of love burned like a blazing fire would burn out a moth. That was one of the people of the Salvation Army. Let me just read, I'm going to read one more. I don't want to be too long with this, but I think it's important. This guy named Walter Wilson. And the funny thing is nobody even heard of these people until they fully surrendered their lives. And then God could mightily use them. God can't mightily use you when you're full of yourself. And when you have your own agenda, your own structure, what you're going to accomplish. God, here's what I'm doing. Will you bless my plan? He says, no. Let me tell you what my plan is. Not your plan. And here's what this gentleman said. My Lord, I have mistreated you all of my Christian life. And how many of you can say this? I sure could. I have mistreated you all of my Christian life. I have treated you like a servant. When I wanted you, I called for you. When I was about to engage in some work, I beckoned you to come and help me perform my task. I kept you in a place of a servant. I have sought to use you only as a willing servant to help me in my self-appointed task. I shall do it no more. Just now Jesus, I give you my body. From my head to my feet, I give you everything. I'm all. I'm everything I'm giving to you. I hand myself over. You may send this body to Africa or lay it on a bed with cancer. You may blind the eyes or send me with your message to Tibet. You may take this body to the Eskimos or send it to a hospital with pneumonia. It's your body now from this moment on. And this man was radically changed from this point on. And I could just keep going and going and going and going. It's amazing. There are people in this room that have been radically transformed. You know, you guys talk to Russell. Ask him about his testimony. Another one, Matt, I just met a few weeks ago. He was shot in the eye. And they had to remove his eye. Military training exercise. And I was reading his story. He talked about he was just so depressed, ready to kill himself. And then when he gave everything to God, God radically transformed that life. Even secular music now feels like nails on the chalkboard. And I can relate to that because that's exactly my story. Radically changed lives throughout this room. What's the one defining moment? Fully surrender. Surrendering your life and saying, Lord, I give you everything. Because how can you give God partially something? Lord, I guess you ought to do something with me, but I'm keeping my money. I'm keeping my finances. I'm going to keep my lust problem. I'm going to keep my anger problem. I'm going to do all these things, but I just want you in this one small little corner of my life. Will you bless me so I can rise to the top? He says, no, humble yourself, and then I'll paront you. You see how we have it all backwards? We don't understand this resurrection life. You cannot know abundant life until something dies. And that's the whole point of conviction. You know what conviction is? You know what I feel one of my primary callings is? Is this area of conviction. And that's what the Puritans used to say what conviction does is it goes in and it rips up the conscience. It rips up the conscience so that conviction and change takes place and ultimately comfort. What is so ironic about this topic is the most comfortable time in a person's life, the most time they felt more peace and joy with God is when they break and fully submit their lives and experiences fully surrendered resurrected life desperate for more. That's when this happens. And that was my dilemma at Easter. Is what do I, can I talk about that? We must talk about the resurrection life. You remember how I've said that before that the oil cannot flow from olives until they're crushed, right? The olives have to be crushed. Flowers have to be crushed for the perfume to come out. In order for you to fulfill what God's called you to do. In order for you to be in right relationship with Him or fight and kill depression all those things. They've got to die at the foot of the cross. That brokenness has got to take place. For some of you that means finally just saying Lord I'm yours tonight. For others you've never ever given God your life and saying Lord I need you. I need this this way of salvation. Christ died for me. I want to embrace that. That's the Easter message. I don't want to get up here and impress you with ten historical facts to this. I want you to follow hard after God and be desperate for more. That's the whole point of this message. It's to pull that out. And before I leave I want to give you just three points which will help. This is the biblical order. We must believe, we must repent and we must die to self. It doesn't have to be in that order. Because believing and repenting are interwoven. You can't have one without the other. Opinions must die. Some of you, this is a word for some of you, your opinions of God must die tonight. Well I think God's this and I think He's that. When I get to heaven I'll say that no, no. Jesus said in John 17, sanctify them which is change them by the truth. Your word is truth. God says your word is truth. So your opinions, whatever your opinion is about God must die and must come under submission to this. I don't like what you're saying Shane, that's okay. It doesn't matter if you like what I'm saying. This is vitally important. The next thing that the Bible talks about is plans must die. Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life will preserve it. And that's one thing that everybody in this book had in common, every transformed life that I see that we all have in common is our plans died. We can't say God I'm going to be a successful businessman and do this and this and this and just bless me. Now He might call you to do that but the difference is we basically say Lord here's the keys. You drive from now on. I'm tired of crashing into everybody. I'm tired of head on collisions. Lord you drive, I'll sit in the back seat. That's what dying to self is. That's what putting our plans on the back burner. Because a lot of times our plans have ulterior motives, don't they? Because we want the safest, comfortable, easiest route. It doesn't matter. The next thing and I'll be out of your hair pleasures must die. And you guys know I taught on this. If you weren't here, go listen to this message. The pleasure, I believe it was, I should have wrote it down. The price of pleasure. The price of pleasure and how that draws you away. And what I'm going to do I'm going to, I'm going to, I got a few another point to end with but I want to just, I want to close in prayer and I think Chelsea and the band is going to come up and I want to pray for the three different people that are in this room before I talk about this last point and see if it begins to open up some hearts. Lord I pray right now for those who need to be encouraged. Lord encourage those people tonight that just, they know you they know you intimately. They just want more of you Lord. Begin to rebuild their lives, their marriages, their brokenness Lord. But I also want to pray for those Lord right now who are, who do not know you. Lord they don't know, they don't know what's out there. They don't know if you're real. They don't know if you're true. I pray that you would not let them go until that truth sinks in. And then I want to pray for those who are on the fence Lord. They don't want to give up all to gain and all. They want to hold on to this life Lord. Begin to convict them right now. Challenge their hearts. Lord so that we all leave here knowing you in a deeper way. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. And the closing point is this. Do you want to experience this abundant life? And again Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die he shall live. But at the end he said do you believe this? Jesus said do you believe this? And I talk to people a lot of times. Young adults they think they can ride their parents coattails. They're born in a Christian home. You have to believe it for yourself. On judgment day nobody is going to be next to me or you. It's like come on spouse talk for me. Nobody's there. It's just you and God. Nobody's going to be there. You have to do this for yourself. And in the bulletin I put the famous quote from Dio Moody. There is no peace until you see the finished work of Jesus Christ until you can look back and see the cross of Christ between your sins. This offer of peace and hope to a dying world is truly cause for celebration. And what I think I don't know I didn't ask Chelsea on this but I think they're going to do a song Everlasting. Is that right? Okay good. Because I like the lyrics and you guys think about this. It says a thousand times I felled still your mercy remains and should I stumble again I'm caught in your grace everlasting your light will shine when all else fades everlasting everlasting and that's what this resurrected life is. It's his life that Christ died for that you can embrace this. We're not getting emotional. I'm trying to work you up in a frenzy. I'm just being honest with you. There's no other way than the cross. There's no other way than through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and to experience that resurrected life. You need to die to self repent and turn to him. That's the message of the gospel.