May 19, 2025 • 23 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I'll be going to the University of Michigan.
It's going to be great.
This is my daughter.
Oh my gosh.
All right, so how can we bepraying for you?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I think just praying for community.
You know it's far away, sopraying that I find a good
community over there as well.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, and pray for her mother and I.
So we have a tradition herethat we started, just as
Madeline just read the scripture, for today, a young Mary
Magdalene is the first one thatgave the gospel, the good news
that Jesus was no longer buriedbut has resurrected to new life
(00:36):
and the impact that that makes.
And then she delivered thatnews to the other disciples, and
then that was delivered, andthat was delivered and that was
delivered, and ultimately you'veexperienced some of you, the
same thing and some of you maybetoday will experience it for
the first time.
And what we do is we then honorthat and celebrate that by
having the honor of listening toa woman give the gospel message
(00:58):
on Easter, just as it happenedback then.
And so if you came here and youwanted to listen to me, so
sorry.
Next week you can come back aswe wrap it up and celebrate, but
for today, we have the honor ofa woman.
So, madeline, you're not thatmuch younger than Mary Magdalene
.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Sweet.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
All right.
So the crazy thing is thattoday we're joining several
billion people on the planet andcelebrating this good news,
this great news that Jesus hasrisen.
It's the best news and it's thebest news because we have in
him the one thing that thisworld most desperately needs,
(01:40):
and that is hope.
We have in him true hope.
Jesus declared it this way inJohn 11, 25.
He said I'm the resurrectionand the life.
If anyone believes in me, theywill live even though they die.
That there is this eternal lifethat is promised in Christ and
(02:00):
a life that we can experience ina new way amongst the living.
I know some of you here probablyonly come every once in a while
and maybe this whole thing justfeels a little bit overdone to
you.
You come in and maybe youhaven't been here since last
Easter and you're just like Iget it.
I mean it's a big deal, thiswhole resurrection thing, but it
was a long time ago.
But what we know is that we'renot just celebrating some past
(02:24):
event that happened in history.
No, we're celebrating the powerthat it has over our lives
today.
It has changed who we are.
It's given us a joy that isn'tdependent upon circumstance.
It's given us a hope that nodarkness can take away from us.
It's given us a purpose thatgets us out of bed in the
(02:45):
mornings, and so we want tocelebrate that.
But look, I mean, I know I getit.
You know, if you've heard thisstory enough, it can just kind
of become too familiar.
Even me, as a young person, Ihave heard it a lot.
There's this thing called thelaw of familiarity.
Maybe you've heard it before.
It's familiarity breedscontempt, and maybe that's true
sometimes.
But I think perhaps a moreaccurate way to understand it is
(03:10):
familiarity breeds indifference.
The more familiar you are withsomething, the more common
something becomes, the more itloses its awe, it loses its
wonder, and so because of that,we can come in here and just be
kind of meh about it.
Instead of coming in here tocelebrate, we come in here kind
of sleepy.
Instead of coming in here beingexcited about all these people
(03:31):
who celebrate the resurrection,we come in here annoyed, trying
to find parking, waiting in linefor coffee, checking in the
kids.
Why are so many peoplecelebrating the Easter
resurrection?
Can't we just have the place toourselves, and we find
ourselves becoming a little bithard-hearted or a little bit
numb and different as to howgood this news really is.
(03:53):
You're just going through themotions.
So it's the weekend and for me,weekends are for sleeping in.
Actually, in all honesty, everyday is for sleeping in.
When I wake up, I need a lot ofhelp.
(04:16):
Sometimes you know a light, anoise, a person.
My hope today is to be a help toyou.
God's trying to get yourattention.
God's word is an alarm clockgoing off in your life.
You need to rise up, you needto wake up.
That is the hope, that's theprayer that, even as we gather
here together, that there wouldbe an alarm that would go off so
(04:40):
that those who have beenspiritually asleep would wake up
and those who have become numbto the good news of the gospel
would allow it to transform them.
That we wouldn't just becelebrating Easter as an event
that happened a long time ago,but that we would wake up to the
reality of it and the power ofit in our lives today.
(05:01):
So today's message is for thosewho have fallen asleep
spiritually, for those of youwho are sleeping through the
days and the years of your lifeand never really thinking about
your purpose.
You know you spend hoursscrolling through other people's
lives but you're not reallyliving your own with any real
purpose.
It's for those who becomeapathetic to the things of God
(05:24):
and you've quit praying and youdon't read the scriptures and
you don't really come here veryoften and you've just kind of
become cold to it.
You don't care and you don'tcare that you don't care.
And there needs to be anawakening, and that is my prayer
that the resurrection wouldwake you up to the reality.
Awakening, and that is myprayer.
(05:46):
That the resurrection wouldwake you up to the reality, the
reality of the power that isavailable to you within Jesus
Christ and hope, not just ofeternal life, but of a full,
purposeful life now, today andyears to come.
That was Paul's prayer in thechurch in Ephesus.
The people there had startedoff super excited about the good
news and the resurrection ofJesus, but over time they had
(06:08):
been lulled to sleep by thedistractions of the city, by the
distractions of the world theylived in, and what Paul wanted
to do was to reconnect them tothe power of the resurrection
that's available to them.
So here's what he writes inEphesians 1.
I pray that you wouldunderstand the incredible
(06:28):
greatness of God's power For uswho believe in him.
It is the same mighty powerthat raised Christ from the dead
.
So the resurrection story isn'tjust a story of what happened,
but it's a story of what needsto happen.
We're not just celebrating theresurrection story, but we're
here to tell a story ofresurrection in our own lives.
(06:49):
We have been an eyewitnesstoday for the people who have
experienced that power throughbaptism Over 80 today and over
290 in the last two years.
That is almost 300 peopleexperiencing that.
And it's clear from thispassage that what is possible is
to believe something and toeven know that thing but not to
fully experience it.
(07:10):
And I think we here today runthat risk.
We believe, we know, but havewe fully experienced the power
and been transformed by it?
Easter is for awakening.
Easter is for resurrection, notjust the resurrection of Jesus,
but our own resurrection story.
(07:32):
And the fourth century beforepeople could for the most part,
read or write, the early churchleaders got together and put up
together this list of sins, soat least people would know what
not to do.
By the way, the point isn'treally the list itself, but
you've heard it before.
It's called the seven deadlysins.
But there's one list on thislist of seven deadly sins.
That doesn't really seem thatdeadly.
(07:54):
It feels a little bit out ofplace from my perspective.
Sloth, not the animal, butslothfulness you know it doesn't
sound that bad.
I mean, we don't really usethat word very often, so I think
a synonym for us could belethargic, fatigued, maybe lazy,
sleepy.
(08:14):
Sloth it's the person who sitson the couch eating Cheetos all
day, or the person who justwastes time scrolling through
social media or lays in thebathtub until their fingers get
wrinkles.
That's slothful.
But if we're honest, thatsounds kind of great Like,
doesn't that sound like a niceway to spend the evening.
You know, it doesn't seem thatdeadly, but what the early
(08:37):
church fathers were identifyinghere was more of a spiritual
sleepiness, spiritualslothfulness, a spiritual apathy
, where we just let the days andthe weeks and the months and
the years go by and we don'tever really stop and think about
who we're becoming.
We don't really stop and payattention to our purpose here on
(08:57):
earth.
We're not living with eternityin mind, we're just kind of
apathetic.
We just don't care that much.
So they're wanting to identifythe spiritual condition that
sets in if we're not careful.
So today I want to ask a fewquestions to help you maybe
identify if there needs to be aspiritual awakening in your life
.
There's a lot of questions thatcould be asked, but for today
(09:20):
and time we'll just focus on two.
Number one do you want to behere?
Like, honestly, do you evenwant to be here?
I mean, I get it obviously thatyou're here, but that doesn't
mean you want to.
I think we all know that.
Do you want to be here?
Do, or is it more of anannoyance?
Is it more of your partner'sultimatum?
(09:42):
Is it more to keep your momhappy?
Is it more of just a routine?
Do you want to be here?
Because I know some of youdon't.
You know you're kind ofcounting down until we're
finished, wondering what's goingto be for the Easter lunch.
So I encourage you, if you'rethinking this way, to take a
look at the condition of yourheart, because there may be some
(10:05):
spiritual sleepiness.
Another question is have yougrown spiritually?
The natural state of a followerof Jesus is growth.
In Ephesians 4 and 5, itidentifies these things to be
true as we follow Jesus, that aswe grow in him, we should
change the way we talk, weshould change our desires.
Over time, we should change theway we live.
(10:26):
But are you in the same placenow that you were six months ago
or a year ago?
Last Easter, have you grown?
Last Easter, I got to see mybaby sister get baptized, and
not only have I watched her growhere's a cool example but she
(10:47):
was recently dealing with somestuff at school with people we
all do, you know, deal withpeople and it was really hard
for her and she could have gonehard with it.
You know, woe is me, but Iwatched how she prayed and
forgave and reconciled and I'mlike, dang, that's my baby
sister, that's it.
(11:08):
There should be this growth,and that is true for us as we
follow Jesus, that we should begrowing.
If you're stepping back and ifit's the same as it was six
months or a year ago, there maybe some sleepiness there Now.
There are a lot of othersymptoms that we could talk
about, but here is what I'mconvinced of is that what God
(11:31):
wants to see happen on thisEaster Sunday is for there to be
some awakening, and so I wantto talk through some different
ways that God is trying to, Ibelieve, wake you up, wake me up
Some different alarms he uses.
If you will, I have here somewith me.
I'm a very visual learner, sothis is helpful.
But for most of us we probablyuse our phone as an alarm clock.
(11:53):
So raise your hand if you useda phone to wake up today yeah,
pretty much the entire room andraise your hand if you used,
like, more than one alarm to getyou up, like a backup.
All right, yeah, a lot of usstill.
So here's what I've learnedabout ringtones and alarms on
your phone is that you have tochoose one that will disrupt you
(12:15):
enough to get your attention.
You know it has to make youwant to get out of bed and turn
it off, because otherwise you'lljust listen to it.
So there are a lot of ringtonesthat you could choose from, and
some of them I don't reallyunderstand.
So here's an option.
This one's a doorbell.
Yeah, that's just a confusingway to wake up.
I mean you hear it.
(12:35):
You think it's a dream.
You go right back to sleepknocked out, doesn't do anything
.
Another ringtone as an alarmhere's this one.
And now maybe some of you guysuse this, but I mean it's a harp
like.
It's just like go back to sleep.
Your boss will understand.
You know it doesn't wake you up, you just want to go right back
to sleep.
Or this one I sometimes use ohmy gosh, and it sets me right up
(13:01):
and it's like because it'sdisruptive.
Now here's what I believe.
I believe for some of you,there are some alarms going off
in your life that God is tryingto use those to get your
attention and draw you to him.
There's some struggles thatyou're going through, some
(13:21):
suffering you're experiencing.
You didn't expect it, youdidn't anticipate it, but you're
in the middle of it and maybeone of the reasons you're here
today is because of it and yourway hasn't been working.
You know you need some help.
You know you've triedeverything, and so you're here
(13:42):
because something has been goingoff in your life and you can't
figure out how to turn it off.
Now, what I would tell you isthat God's not causing those
things necessarily, but I willtell you that God is wanting to
use those things, that he willuse that to draw your attention
towards what really matters, toopen your eyes to purpose, to
(14:06):
put your hope in him.
Another alarm up here.
I kind of like this one, thisone's clocky.
So basically, what this onedoes is that you set your alarm
and then when you put it on theground, and then whenever it
goes off, it starts rolling allaround and you have to actually
catch it in order for it to stop.
So if you don't get out of bed,it's not going to turn off.
(14:28):
So you don't just wake up, butyou have to rise up, and that's
what Paul says in Ephesians 5.
He says wake up, rise up, wakeup, o sleeper, rise up from the
dead.
He says wake up, rise up, wakeup, o sleeper, rise up from the
dead.
Let Christ's light shine on you.
(14:48):
Because here's the thing and Ithink a lot of us have
experienced this spiritually isthat you can wake up, but if you
don't get up, you're going togo right back to sleep.
You didn't mean to, you weregoing to wake up, but you
accidentally fell back asleep.
I have thought to myselfcountless times, five more
minutes, and then woken up 40minutes later in a panic, trying
to get somewhere.
When you wake up, you need torise up, because one of the
(15:13):
things the resurrection does forus is that it gives us a reason
to get up out of bed.
It gives us this purpose, itgives us this power in our lives
, so that we don't just wake upand lay in bed, but we get out
from under the covers and welive our life differently.
The resurrection did this forthe disciples.
When the disciples were waitingafter the death of Jesus, they
(15:36):
were hiding in this like upperroom, but then, when Jesus
appeared to them and theyexperienced the power of the
resurrection, they went on andlived their life on a mission us
.
They were hiding in this upperroom, but then, when Jesus
appeared to them and theyexperienced the power of the
resurrection, they went on andlived their life on a mission.
They had this purpose, they hadthis meaning and significance
that gets them up in themornings.
It doesn't just wake them up,but it helps them to rise up,
(15:58):
and that's one of the ways thatGod wants us to wake up, to give
us purpose in our lives andmeaning.
Another alarm clock here thisone's called the sonic boom.
So basically, how this oneworks is you put this right here
under your pillow and then,when the alarm goes off, let's
see if we can get it.
Yeah, not fun, very loud, verydisruptive.
(16:27):
I don't like that one.
It feels like an earthquake.
So nobody wants to be woken upthat way, even though it is
effective, like nobody wants tobe shaken awake.
But picture this you havesomeone you care about and
they're in a building and thebuilding's on fire and you need
them to wake up and get out.
(16:47):
Well, what do you do?
You don't pull out the harpalarm.
No, you go in when they'resleeping and you grab them by
the shoulders and say wake up,wake up, you got to get up and
maybe that's what some of youneed.
Is it a kind of loving shake?
Somebody to grab you at theshoulder and say, wake up.
Your relationship is in trouble.
(17:08):
You're acting like everything'sokay.
It's not okay.
You're making destructivedecisions in your life and if
you don't do something, if youdon't humble yourself before the
Lord and cry out to help,you're not going to make it.
Your struggle has become anaddiction and you don't see it,
but the people around you see itand you keep saying that you
can stop when you want to, butyou haven't and you need a power
(17:30):
that is more than what you have.
You need to wake up to God'spower in your life.
You need somebody to grab youby the shoulders and say wake up
.
You are missing out on timewith your kids.
You don't have that much timeleft.
It's going by fast and theydesperately need you to get up
out of bed and follow Jesus sothey have an example that they
can chase after.
You're not going to get thistime back.
(17:51):
Or you need somebody to grabyou by the shoulders and say
wake up.
You're living this life likeit's all there is and it's not.
You're living like you're notgoing to go stand before God and
you will.
You're living like there's noheaven or no hell, and there is
heaven and there is hell and,frankly, you decide now which
one you're living in.
(18:12):
Now, I know you don't want to bewoken up that way.
Nobody wants to be shaken awake.
You don't want to be woken upthat way.
Nobody wants to be shaken awake.
But maybe that's what some ofyou need.
It's Easter and maybe thatneeds to be your resurrection
story.
Well, my favorite favoritealarm up here, this one's the
sunshine alarm, and it doespretty much exactly what it's
(18:33):
called.
So how it works is you turn iton and when the alarm goes off,
it just gets brighter andbrighter and brighter.
Now, maybe to some of you thatdoesn't sound like a great way
to wake up, but have you everhad a really good night's sleep,
and then this light just startsstreaming into your room and it
just gets brighter and brighterand brighter.
(18:55):
That is the way that God wantsyou to wake up.
He wants you to wake up to thelight of his love.
The best way for you to wake upis to the good news of the
gospel.
There are a lot of differentalarms that he can use, but what
he wants more than anything isfor you to wake up to his grace
and his hope.
(19:15):
That is part of what the Biblemeans when it says that it's his
kindness that leads us torepentance.
It's his kindness that gets ourattention and draws us in.
Let me tell you, my favoriteway to wake up is to good news
or something fun is going tohappen.
It's wonderful to wake up togood news, to the light of God's
love and his grace and his hope, and that's really what we have
(19:41):
an opportunity to do on Easteris to celebrate God's love, his
grace, his hope, and wake up tothat.
Let it change who we are.
Let us celebrate that, becauseJesus rose up so that we can
rise up and so that things don'thave to be the way they've been
.
And so I just wonder if thereare some alarms going off in
(20:02):
your life.
If it's time for a spiritualawakening, it's time for a
recommitment.
I know perhaps you've beenplanning it, you've been
thinking it, you've been sayingI'm going to do it Now.
This weekend would be a greattime to let God wake you up.
Easter shows us how, when Jesuswas asleep in death, god woke
(20:24):
him up After the Sabbath.
At dawn, on the first day ofthe week, mary Magdalene and the
other Mary went to look at thetomb.
There was a violent earthquake,for an angel of the Lord came
down from heaven and, going tothe tomb, rolled back the stone
and sat on it.
His appearance was likelightning and his clothes were
white as snow.
(20:45):
The guards were so afraid ofhim that they shook and became
like dead men.
The angel said to the woman donot be afraid, for I know you
are looking for Jesus who wascrucified.
He is not here.
He has risen, just as he said.
Come and see the place where helay.
Then go quickly and tell hisdisciples he has risen from the
dead and is going ahead of youinto Galilee.
(21:07):
There you will see him.
Now I have told you what youjust heard is the Easter story
of resurrection, and what youjust watched earlier is the
Easter story baptism.
From death to life, from darkto light, from hopeless to
hopeful.
(21:27):
That is how we celebrate Easter.
We don't just remember aresurrection story, but we tell
a story of resurrection.
If all you can do is look backand celebrate that something
happened, as long as it's justan event, as long as it's just a
resurrection story, it's not apersonal story, you're missing
(21:50):
the point and you're missing thepower of Easter.
It's not just a story of whathappened.
It's a story of what needs tohappen, what is happening, that
there is a resurrection that'staking place because Jesus rose
from the dead and for some ofyou, that light that he talked
about just needs to shine on you.
Just let it wake you up.
(22:12):
Jesus loves you, jesus valuesyou.
You're worth dying for, you'reworth sticking around for.
Wake up to that in your life,thank you.
So I'll be going to the University of Michigan.
It's going to be great.
This is my daughter.
Oh my gosh.
All right, so how can we bepraying for you?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I think just praying for community.
You know it's far away, sopraying that I find a good
community over there as well.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, and pray for her mother and I.
So we have a tradition herethat we started, just as
Madeline just read the scripture, for today, a young Mary
Magdalene is the first one thatgave the gospel, the good news
that Jesus was no longer buriedbut has resurrected to new life
(00:36):
and the impact that that makes.
And then she delivered thatnews to the other disciples, and
then that was delivered, andthat was delivered and that was
delivered, and ultimately you'veexperienced some of you, the
same thing and some of you maybetoday will experience it for
the first time.
And what we do is we then honorthat and celebrate that by
having the honor of listening toa woman give the gospel message
(00:58):
on Easter, just as it happenedback then.
And so if you came here and youwanted to listen to me, so
sorry.
Next week you can come back aswe wrap it up and celebrate, but
for today, we have the honor ofa woman.
So, madeline, you're not thatmuch younger than Mary Magdalene
.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Sweet.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
All right.
So the crazy thing is thattoday we're joining several
billion people on the planet andcelebrating this good news,
this great news that Jesus hasrisen.
It's the best news and it's thebest news because we have in
him the one thing that thisworld most desperately needs,
(01:40):
and that is hope.
We have in him true hope.
Jesus declared it this way inJohn 11, 25.
He said I'm the resurrectionand the life.
If anyone believes in me, theywill live even though they die.
That there is this eternal lifethat is promised in Christ and
(02:00):
a life that we can experience ina new way amongst the living.
I know some of you here probablyonly come every once in a while
and maybe this whole thing justfeels a little bit overdone to
you.
You come in and maybe youhaven't been here since last
Easter and you're just like Iget it.
I mean it's a big deal, thiswhole resurrection thing, but it
was a long time ago.
But what we know is that we'renot just celebrating some past
(02:24):
event that happened in history.
No, we're celebrating the powerthat it has over our lives
today.
It has changed who we are.
It's given us a joy that isn'tdependent upon circumstance.
It's given us a hope that nodarkness can take away from us.
It's given us a purpose thatgets us out of bed in the
(02:45):
mornings, and so we want tocelebrate that.
But look, I mean, I know I getit.
You know, if you've heard thisstory enough, it can just kind
of become too familiar.
Even me, as a young person, Ihave heard it a lot.
There's this thing called thelaw of familiarity.
Maybe you've heard it before.
It's familiarity breedscontempt, and maybe that's true
sometimes.
But I think perhaps a moreaccurate way to understand it is
(03:10):
familiarity breeds indifference.
The more familiar you are withsomething, the more common
something becomes, the more itloses its awe, it loses its
wonder, and so because of that,we can come in here and just be
kind of meh about it.
Instead of coming in here tocelebrate, we come in here kind
of sleepy.
Instead of coming in here beingexcited about all these people
(03:31):
who celebrate the resurrection,we come in here annoyed, trying
to find parking, waiting in linefor coffee, checking in the
kids.
Why are so many peoplecelebrating the Easter
resurrection?
Can't we just have the place toourselves, and we find
ourselves becoming a little bithard-hearted or a little bit
numb and different as to howgood this news really is.
(03:53):
You're just going through themotions.
So it's the weekend and for me,weekends are for sleeping in.
Actually, in all honesty, everyday is for sleeping in.
When I wake up, I need a lot ofhelp.
(04:16):
Sometimes you know a light, anoise, a person.
My hope today is to be a help toyou.
God's trying to get yourattention.
God's word is an alarm clockgoing off in your life.
You need to rise up, you needto wake up.
That is the hope, that's theprayer that, even as we gather
here together, that there wouldbe an alarm that would go off so
(04:40):
that those who have beenspiritually asleep would wake up
and those who have become numbto the good news of the gospel
would allow it to transform them.
That we wouldn't just becelebrating Easter as an event
that happened a long time ago,but that we would wake up to the
reality of it and the power ofit in our lives today.
(05:01):
So today's message is for thosewho have fallen asleep
spiritually, for those of youwho are sleeping through the
days and the years of your lifeand never really thinking about
your purpose.
You know you spend hoursscrolling through other people's
lives but you're not reallyliving your own with any real
purpose.
It's for those who becomeapathetic to the things of God
(05:24):
and you've quit praying and youdon't read the scriptures and
you don't really come here veryoften and you've just kind of
become cold to it.
You don't care and you don'tcare that you don't care.
And there needs to be anawakening, and that is my prayer
that the resurrection wouldwake you up to the reality.
Awakening, and that is myprayer.
(05:46):
That the resurrection wouldwake you up to the reality, the
reality of the power that isavailable to you within Jesus
Christ and hope, not just ofeternal life, but of a full,
purposeful life now, today andyears to come.
That was Paul's prayer in thechurch in Ephesus.
The people there had startedoff super excited about the good
news and the resurrection ofJesus, but over time they had
(06:08):
been lulled to sleep by thedistractions of the city, by the
distractions of the world theylived in, and what Paul wanted
to do was to reconnect them tothe power of the resurrection
that's available to them.
So here's what he writes inEphesians 1.
I pray that you wouldunderstand the incredible
(06:28):
greatness of God's power For uswho believe in him.
It is the same mighty powerthat raised Christ from the dead
.
So the resurrection story isn'tjust a story of what happened,
but it's a story of what needsto happen.
We're not just celebrating theresurrection story, but we're
here to tell a story ofresurrection in our own lives.
(06:49):
We have been an eyewitnesstoday for the people who have
experienced that power throughbaptism Over 80 today and over
290 in the last two years.
That is almost 300 peopleexperiencing that.
And it's clear from thispassage that what is possible is
to believe something and toeven know that thing but not to
fully experience it.
(07:10):
And I think we here today runthat risk.
We believe, we know, but havewe fully experienced the power
and been transformed by it?
Easter is for awakening.
Easter is for resurrection, notjust the resurrection of Jesus,
but our own resurrection story.
(07:32):
And the fourth century beforepeople could for the most part,
read or write, the early churchleaders got together and put up
together this list of sins, soat least people would know what
not to do.
By the way, the point isn'treally the list itself, but
you've heard it before.
It's called the seven deadlysins.
But there's one list on thislist of seven deadly sins.
That doesn't really seem thatdeadly.
(07:54):
It feels a little bit out ofplace from my perspective.
Sloth, not the animal, butslothfulness you know it doesn't
sound that bad.
I mean, we don't really usethat word very often, so I think
a synonym for us could belethargic, fatigued, maybe lazy,
sleepy.
(08:14):
Sloth it's the person who sitson the couch eating Cheetos all
day, or the person who justwastes time scrolling through
social media or lays in thebathtub until their fingers get
wrinkles.
That's slothful.
But if we're honest, thatsounds kind of great Like,
doesn't that sound like a niceway to spend the evening.
You know, it doesn't seem thatdeadly, but what the early
(08:37):
church fathers were identifyinghere was more of a spiritual
sleepiness, spiritualslothfulness, a spiritual apathy
, where we just let the days andthe weeks and the months and
the years go by and we don'tever really stop and think about
who we're becoming.
We don't really stop and payattention to our purpose here on
(08:57):
earth.
We're not living with eternityin mind, we're just kind of
apathetic.
We just don't care that much.
So they're wanting to identifythe spiritual condition that
sets in if we're not careful.
So today I want to ask a fewquestions to help you maybe
identify if there needs to be aspiritual awakening in your life
.
There's a lot of questions thatcould be asked, but for today
(09:20):
and time we'll just focus on two.
Number one do you want to behere?
Like, honestly, do you evenwant to be here?
I mean, I get it obviously thatyou're here, but that doesn't
mean you want to.
I think we all know that.
Do you want to be here?
Do, or is it more of anannoyance?
Is it more of your partner'sultimatum?
(09:42):
Is it more to keep your momhappy?
Is it more of just a routine?
Do you want to be here?
Because I know some of youdon't.
You know you're kind ofcounting down until we're
finished, wondering what's goingto be for the Easter lunch.
So I encourage you, if you'rethinking this way, to take a
look at the condition of yourheart, because there may be some
(10:05):
spiritual sleepiness.
Another question is have yougrown spiritually?
The natural state of a followerof Jesus is growth.
In Ephesians 4 and 5, itidentifies these things to be
true as we follow Jesus, that aswe grow in him, we should
change the way we talk, weshould change our desires.
Over time, we should change theway we live.
(10:26):
But are you in the same placenow that you were six months ago
or a year ago?
Last Easter, have you grown?
Last Easter, I got to see mybaby sister get baptized, and
not only have I watched her growhere's a cool example but she
(10:47):
was recently dealing with somestuff at school with people we
all do, you know, deal withpeople and it was really hard
for her and she could have gonehard with it.
You know, woe is me, but Iwatched how she prayed and
forgave and reconciled and I'mlike, dang, that's my baby
sister, that's it.
(11:08):
There should be this growth,and that is true for us as we
follow Jesus, that we should begrowing.
If you're stepping back and ifit's the same as it was six
months or a year ago, there maybe some sleepiness there Now.
There are a lot of othersymptoms that we could talk
about, but here is what I'mconvinced of is that what God
(11:31):
wants to see happen on thisEaster Sunday is for there to be
some awakening, and so I wantto talk through some different
ways that God is trying to, Ibelieve, wake you up, wake me up
Some different alarms he uses.
If you will, I have here somewith me.
I'm a very visual learner, sothis is helpful.
But for most of us we probablyuse our phone as an alarm clock.
(11:53):
So raise your hand if you useda phone to wake up today yeah,
pretty much the entire room andraise your hand if you used,
like, more than one alarm to getyou up, like a backup.
All right, yeah, a lot of usstill.
So here's what I've learnedabout ringtones and alarms on
your phone is that you have tochoose one that will disrupt you
(12:15):
enough to get your attention.
You know it has to make youwant to get out of bed and turn
it off, because otherwise you'lljust listen to it.
So there are a lot of ringtonesthat you could choose from, and
some of them I don't reallyunderstand.
So here's an option.
This one's a doorbell.
Yeah, that's just a confusingway to wake up.
I mean you hear it.
(12:35):
You think it's a dream.
You go right back to sleepknocked out, doesn't do anything
.
Another ringtone as an alarmhere's this one.
And now maybe some of you guysuse this, but I mean it's a harp
like.
It's just like go back to sleep.
Your boss will understand.
You know it doesn't wake you up, you just want to go right back
to sleep.
Or this one I sometimes use ohmy gosh, and it sets me right up
(13:01):
and it's like because it'sdisruptive.
Now here's what I believe.
I believe for some of you,there are some alarms going off
in your life that God is tryingto use those to get your
attention and draw you to him.
There's some struggles thatyou're going through, some
(13:21):
suffering you're experiencing.
You didn't expect it, youdidn't anticipate it, but you're
in the middle of it and maybeone of the reasons you're here
today is because of it and yourway hasn't been working.
You know you need some help.
You know you've triedeverything, and so you're here
(13:42):
because something has been goingoff in your life and you can't
figure out how to turn it off.
Now, what I would tell you isthat God's not causing those
things necessarily, but I willtell you that God is wanting to
use those things, that he willuse that to draw your attention
towards what really matters, toopen your eyes to purpose, to
(14:06):
put your hope in him.
Another alarm up here.
I kind of like this one, thisone's clocky.
So basically, what this onedoes is that you set your alarm
and then when you put it on theground, and then whenever it
goes off, it starts rolling allaround and you have to actually
catch it in order for it to stop.
So if you don't get out of bed,it's not going to turn off.
(14:28):
So you don't just wake up, butyou have to rise up, and that's
what Paul says in Ephesians 5.
He says wake up, rise up, wakeup, o sleeper, rise up from the
dead.
He says wake up, rise up, wakeup, o sleeper, rise up from the
dead.
Let Christ's light shine on you.
(14:48):
Because here's the thing and Ithink a lot of us have
experienced this spiritually isthat you can wake up, but if you
don't get up, you're going togo right back to sleep.
You didn't mean to, you weregoing to wake up, but you
accidentally fell back asleep.
I have thought to myselfcountless times, five more
minutes, and then woken up 40minutes later in a panic, trying
to get somewhere.
When you wake up, you need torise up, because one of the
(15:13):
things the resurrection does forus is that it gives us a reason
to get up out of bed.
It gives us this purpose, itgives us this power in our lives
, so that we don't just wake upand lay in bed, but we get out
from under the covers and welive our life differently.
The resurrection did this forthe disciples.
When the disciples were waitingafter the death of Jesus, they
(15:36):
were hiding in this like upperroom, but then, when Jesus
appeared to them and theyexperienced the power of the
resurrection, they went on andlived their life on a mission us
.
They were hiding in this upperroom, but then, when Jesus
appeared to them and theyexperienced the power of the
resurrection, they went on andlived their life on a mission.
They had this purpose, they hadthis meaning and significance
that gets them up in themornings.
It doesn't just wake them up,but it helps them to rise up,
(15:58):
and that's one of the ways thatGod wants us to wake up, to give
us purpose in our lives andmeaning.
Another alarm clock here thisone's called the sonic boom.
So basically, how this oneworks is you put this right here
under your pillow and then,when the alarm goes off, let's
see if we can get it.
Yeah, not fun, very loud, verydisruptive.
(16:27):
I don't like that one.
It feels like an earthquake.
So nobody wants to be woken upthat way, even though it is
effective, like nobody wants tobe shaken awake.
But picture this you havesomeone you care about and
they're in a building and thebuilding's on fire and you need
them to wake up and get out.
(16:47):
Well, what do you do?
You don't pull out the harpalarm.
No, you go in when they'resleeping and you grab them by
the shoulders and say wake up,wake up, you got to get up and
maybe that's what some of youneed.
Is it a kind of loving shake?
Somebody to grab you at theshoulder and say, wake up.
Your relationship is in trouble.
(17:08):
You're acting like everything'sokay.
It's not okay.
You're making destructivedecisions in your life and if
you don't do something, if youdon't humble yourself before the
Lord and cry out to help,you're not going to make it.
Your struggle has become anaddiction and you don't see it,
but the people around you see itand you keep saying that you
can stop when you want to, butyou haven't and you need a power
(17:30):
that is more than what you have.
You need to wake up to God'spower in your life.
You need somebody to grab youby the shoulders and say wake up
.
You are missing out on timewith your kids.
You don't have that much timeleft.
It's going by fast and theydesperately need you to get up
out of bed and follow Jesus sothey have an example that they
can chase after.
You're not going to get thistime back.
(17:51):
Or you need somebody to grabyou by the shoulders and say
wake up.
You're living this life likeit's all there is and it's not.
You're living like you're notgoing to go stand before God and
you will.
You're living like there's noheaven or no hell, and there is
heaven and there is hell and,frankly, you decide now which
one you're living in.
(18:12):
Now, I know you don't want to bewoken up that way.
Nobody wants to be shaken awake.
You don't want to be woken upthat way.
Nobody wants to be shaken awake.
But maybe that's what some ofyou need.
It's Easter and maybe thatneeds to be your resurrection
story.
Well, my favorite favoritealarm up here, this one's the
sunshine alarm, and it doespretty much exactly what it's
(18:33):
called.
So how it works is you turn iton and when the alarm goes off,
it just gets brighter andbrighter and brighter.
Now, maybe to some of you thatdoesn't sound like a great way
to wake up, but have you everhad a really good night's sleep,
and then this light just startsstreaming into your room and it
just gets brighter and brighterand brighter.
(18:55):
That is the way that God wantsyou to wake up.
He wants you to wake up to thelight of his love.
The best way for you to wake upis to the good news of the
gospel.
There are a lot of differentalarms that he can use, but what
he wants more than anything isfor you to wake up to his grace
and his hope.
(19:15):
That is part of what the Biblemeans when it says that it's his
kindness that leads us torepentance.
It's his kindness that gets ourattention and draws us in.
Let me tell you, my favoriteway to wake up is to good news
or something fun is going tohappen.
It's wonderful to wake up togood news, to the light of God's
love and his grace and his hope, and that's really what we have
(19:41):
an opportunity to do on Easteris to celebrate God's love, his
grace, his hope, and wake up tothat.
Let it change who we are.
Let us celebrate that, becauseJesus rose up so that we can
rise up and so that things don'thave to be the way they've been
.
And so I just wonder if thereare some alarms going off in
(20:02):
your life.
If it's time for a spiritualawakening, it's time for a
recommitment.
I know perhaps you've beenplanning it, you've been
thinking it, you've been sayingI'm going to do it Now.
This weekend would be a greattime to let God wake you up.
Easter shows us how, when Jesuswas asleep in death, god woke
(20:24):
him up After the Sabbath.
At dawn, on the first day ofthe week, mary Magdalene and the
other Mary went to look at thetomb.
There was a violent earthquake,for an angel of the Lord came
down from heaven and, going tothe tomb, rolled back the stone
and sat on it.
His appearance was likelightning and his clothes were
white as snow.
(20:45):
The guards were so afraid ofhim that they shook and became
like dead men.
The angel said to the woman donot be afraid, for I know you
are looking for Jesus who wascrucified.
He is not here.
He has risen, just as he said.
Come and see the place where helay.
Then go quickly and tell hisdisciples he has risen from the
dead and is going ahead of youinto Galilee.
(21:07):
There you will see him.
Now I have told you what youjust heard is the Easter story
of resurrection, and what youjust watched earlier is the
Easter story baptism.
From death to life, from darkto light, from hopeless to
hopeful.
(21:27):
That is how we celebrate Easter.
We don't just remember aresurrection story, but we tell
a story of resurrection.
If all you can do is look backand celebrate that something
happened, as long as it's justan event, as long as it's just a
resurrection story, it's not apersonal story, you're missing
(21:50):
the point and you're missing thepower of Easter.
It's not just a story of whathappened.
It's a story of what needs tohappen, what is happening, that
there is a resurrection that'staking place because Jesus rose
from the dead and for some ofyou, that light that he talked
about just needs to shine on you.
Just let it wake you up.
(22:12):
Jesus loves you, jesus valuesyou.
You're worth dying for, you'reworth sticking around for.
Wake up to that in your life,thank you.
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