No More Grave Clothes (2021-04-04)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] this [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] it's resurrection sunday [Music] as we open up our hearts today let's bless the lord amen saturday's silent surely it is through but since when has impossible ever stopped you [Applause] friday's disappointment sunday's empty tunes that's when has it possible to ever stop you [Music] this is the sound of the drive on track [Music] [Music] miracles cause i believe there's another miracle here in this room this [Music] i'm coming [Music] rattle [Applause] [Music] [Music] rattle hear the word of the lord to heal and live say that he wants to we ask another witness just passed the stone that was thrown down the tube in the garden when god decides to move cause i feel him doing [Music] tribal adrenaline this is the place to make a dead man walk again so open the break i'm coming out i'm gonna [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on and make some noise in this place do you hear the word of the lord then i hear the sound i hear the sound [Music] i said cause this is what it [Music] of the is [Applause] of the lord of the lord oh oh yeah this is the praise that make a dead man open the brain i'm coming out i'm gonna live oh yeah this is the sound of the tribe horns give the lord some glory in this place this morning hallelujah hallelujah because god said live turn to your neighbor right now and say god said liam come on put your hands together all over the building i was buried beneath my shame who could carry that kind of weight [Music] it was my room [Music] till i met you [Music] all my failures i [Music] then you called my name and i ran out of that grave yeah out of the darkness into your glorious day [Music] you call my name and i ran out of that break oh yeah out of the darkness into your glorious day of blessing [Music] now the mercy has saved [Music] my soul bless your name god and now your freedom is on i know that i know come on city stationery lift with your voices singing here's why jesus when i met you oh yeah then you called my name and i ran out of that grave [Music] out of the darkness into your glorious day [Music] you call [Applause] [Music] into your glorious day lord to god [Music] now somebody in this place just put your hands together i needed rescue my sin was heavy the chains break at the weight of your glory i needed shelter i was an orphan now you called me a citizen of heaven when i was broken you were my healing cause your love is [Music] [Applause] into your glorious day [Applause] turn to your neighbor right now we're going to give him a message just simply say get up get this get up get up out of that craze get up get up get up get up out of there i bless your name god thank you for your liberty thank you for your freedom we praise you in this place blessed be the name of the lord hey come on amen praise god hallelujah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it was on that easter morning that it talks about everybody was running mary was running back to tell them that the tomb was empty john and peter were running to see the empty tomb and obviously john was younger or in better shape than peter because he outran him peter got there [Music] but both of them when they looked in the tomb [Music] it was empty [Music] and then they ran back [Music] [Applause] they ran back i want to tell you to know that your sins are forgiven to know that your life is redeemed to know that you're not consigned to a devil's hell to know that you have life and have it more abundantly will make anybody want to run and tell somebody that i came out of that grave come on folks that's easter give the lord praise today come on praise him praise you lord praise god amen amen we'll high-five somebody or air-five him and have a seat wave to somebody tell him happy easter he's risen he's risen indeed praise god [Applause] praise god that was awesome happy easter everybody yay man it's a great day last year we were we were all at home because we were all locked down but today we are out thank god we're out and we're about amen [Applause] [Laughter] amen we are going to ask you to try to keep connected right now by pulling out your phones and well we can have a lot of fun on the phone right now i'm sure but if you can find the phone searches to the city sanctuary app and find our connect tab press that find the check-in tab press that give us your name and if you're a guest here today let us know you're visiting and if you are regular just tell us about your praise report and your prayer requests god is awesome we give him praise today hallelujah oh i tell you death reigned for since the time of adam and eve but when jesus came around you know death had been been resuscitated a few times there were nine resurrections in the bible before christ but including the time when he was here but when he came out of the grave he was the first one to come out to never die again and he was the first fruits and now all of us guess what we're going to live forever amen oh hallelujah so amen amen i'm excited i i really didn't even have my chocolate bunny yet did you i don't know but we also want to point you to a time of worship and giving before we have our choir come back and bless us with another song and uh that is if you put up the renovations for the generations we are trying to renovate i looked at our palm sunday online last week and the the first shot you know was was very dark in the back i said oh lord please give us some lights amen praise god please give us uh some lights that we can light the stage fully and identify people if you're standing right here you can definitely see who was standing right here it says if you further go back and so again we're trying to renovate or trying to reach the generations we know we have 25 nations that watch us online 25 nations india and egypt and across the world even our canadian brothers uh eh are watching us online so we welcome all of our online family in campus we just love you and we just are so glad that people can be online and enjoy the presence of god and his his word so this is what we're trying to do if you have this shot of the inside of the church not just the floor plan you have that if you do put that up on the screen and if you don't then just leave that there looks really nice i like that it's great well evidently not well let's put up uh you have the christian foundation slide so the christian foundation is if you want to give there we go if you want to give a non-cash gift today this is our if you're a visitor god bless you this is just for the family it's a regular tenders we're doing a cash or first fruits easter offering this morning and it's time to prepare for that giving but if you have non-cash assets as you see up there which only 14 of our wealth is supposed to be in cash they tell me so if you have non-cash assets you want to give then you we have made a relationship with the christian uh foundation and you can uh again give and uh give to them and they will handle that and give the money to us after they take care of it and know how to do that so again but today we're looking at also delta nine brought our our first fruits offering and today if you were ready to give that first fruits offering let me just ask you to give it as a seed and uh this is resurrection day jesus was the first fruits he was the seed that that the first seed that was resurrected never to die again and so we believe as we sow our seed on easter sunday that god is going to raise up a tremendous blessing for every one of us it's going to be the first fruit of what he's going to do and he's going to give to you so today i want you to give in worship this is not a campaign as such we're making aware of the need but we can't make anybody give don't want to make anybody give this has been a low low pressure and it's only by as the lord touches your heart whatever he tells you to do do it and miracles will follow so you ready to give today are you ready to give today amen praise god you got to give by faith i'm going to give planted a seed and the power of that seed i believe will bring you a great harvest so let's by faith today let's plant a seed on easter sunday and believe god for a great harvest in our life and around the world father we give you praise thank you for jesus oh thank you for jesus the indescribable gift for giving us all that heaven could afford and lord now receive our first fruits offering it's a worship offering to you lord we're giving an offering to you because we love you bless your people as they do so and as we plant the seeds this morning [Music] may there be a voice from heaven in everyone's heart that says well done good and faithful servant and may there also be then a response from you by our faith that brings a breakthrough and brings a blessing and provision of many other fruits not just material but not excluding material but in every area of our life lord i believe that you are the provider you are the one who will jehovah jireh provide all of our need and give us an abundance that we may be able to rejoice in him so today we glorify you we give to you we worship you and lord today we're coming out of that grave in every way because you led the way it's in jesus name we pray amen amen i want to praise him again okay let's praise him one more time amen praise you lord for your incredible victory amen god bless you as you get hey good morning and thank you for joining us here on easter sunday at the city sanctuary whether you're online or in campus today we are excited to be able to worship with you if you're here on campus we want to let you know of our excellent nursery and exciting children's ministry that's made available for any of the children you may have with you you'll find our children's ministry which is kindergarten through fifth grade right off of our gymnasium in the student center we encourage you to take a look at that and then also right in our gymnasium we have free digital family easter photos made available on a first come first serve basis or you can use our easter selfie station thank you again for coming on out today we're excited to be able to worship with you our risen savior if you want to make some new friends and grow spiritually after easter we invite you to take a look at some of our growth groups you can find those on our website citysanctuary.church just go to the connect area you'll find all of our different groups that are made available there for in-person groups and we also have a zoom group that meets as well online and if you have children make sure you check out our wednesday nights awana kids clubs and if you have teens we have ignite student ministries for your middle and your high school students but make sure you get plugged in grow spiritually grow with new friends and see what god does in your life over this next season and if you're a regular here don't forget this is the first week of the month which means monday tuesday and wednesday is our special global bridegroom fasting and prayer with the enoch prayer wall and intercessory prayer meetings take a look at your staying connected to see all of the gatherings and what the special prayer emphasis is this week [Music] so in the dark and all alone growing comfortable are you too scared to move and walk out of this tomb buried underneath [Music] and it's time to leave come on and rise up and take a breath you're alive now can't you hear the voice of jesus calling us out from the grave can't you hear the voice of jesus calling us out from the grave [Music] cause when he says your name the thing that fills your veins it's more than blood the kind of love that washed us in a way now the door is open wide and these doors aside the oldest of the light has come so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] resurrected us [Music] he's calling us to walk out of the dark he's giving us new resurrected hearts oh come on and rise up take a breath you're alive can't you hear the voice of jesus can't you hear the voice of jesus [Music] you don't have to stay there [Applause] [Music] right praise god awesome thank you choir thank you pastor james in front line wow anybody ready to rise up [Applause] amen we're going to start with lazarus as we begin today even though we're going to read from john chapter 20 but we're going to start with when christ calls your name and you come out of the grave and then when he takes the grave clothes off amen that is symbolism of how that he sets us free we're going to look at john chapter 20 and look at no more grave clothes this is a a sermon that is on the metaphors of the grave clothes of lazarus and of jesus christ it's going to give us some spiritual truths that easter is not just a day it's a lifestyle come on now you might eat one of the 90 million chocolate bunnies today but you shouldn't eat one every day right you might have one of the 16 million jelly beans today but you shouldn't have one every day or like some of the rest of us you might have one of the 700 million marshmallow peeps come on peep lovers out there you might have one today but you definitely shouldn't have one every day but what you should have every day is you should have a resurrection lifestyle come on somebody if you're alive out there you should have the resurrected life of christ now we're going to see this scene in john chapter 20. it's on the screen the scene is about peter and john running to the tomb and them finding the grave clothes of christ and they found them uninhabited and so peter also came following him and entered the tomb and he saw the linden wrappings lying there and the face cloth which had been on his head not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself so the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and he believed we've been studying john for the last month here or so and this is the culmination of john revealing things about christ that will cause us to believe what was it out of the grave clothes that caused john to believe in the resurrection let's ask the lord to open our eyes today lord we give you praise today and we are rising up in the power of your resurrection we thank you for dying for our sins being raised for our justification our acquittal that because you were raised god accepted your sacrifice and now we have been declared that we are righteous through christ jesus our lord and savior thank you that we're clothed with him that we don't stand in our own righteousness because we could not but we stand in christ complete with his righteousness in our life now today would you do the practical work of righteousness would you do the practical work of changing our lives today lord let this not just be a day that we come together dress up and eat lots of food but may it be a day god where we're truly changed and we begin to live in a greater dimension of the power of your resurrected life we ask you in jesus name and everybody said amen praise god grave circumstances is where we begin today since both lazarus and this text about jesus burial were in graves i thought we would make it practical today although sometimes you might wonder if preachers make things practical at all when looking at a grave year we just came through grave and that we started with all of the california wildfires last year that they were 60 percent more wildfires in california than the year before then we went to the south and we found the tornadoes that tore through the south especially remember nashville 25 people died 30 were injured 48 buildings were destroyed by the tornadoes we set a record in may of 2020 of mass shootings from the previous record was in 2013. so a lot of killing going on then we've had the worst economic setback since 2008 28 million point five people have lost their jobs in our country and again we know from mental health experts that that mental health illness for those that lost their jobs has gone up 53 from prior to covet we look at also the the fact that there was the george floyd murder and the injustice of racism that was riots in the streets and all kinds of things that tore up our country as we try to deal with the things of racism in our land and then there's covet covenant 19. as i said at the beginning how that we came last year we were in this auditorium pastor james and i and the brace team by ourselves looking at the camera nobody was here it was empty right it was a time where everything was shut down and there were people that were trying to stay safe from the virus again we know over 31 nearly 32 million cases of coronavirus in america alone nearly six hundred thousand deaths and we've had some very special people all people special people but people that are in our congregation that we know that have passed because of the coven 19 virus so when we come to this context today it's not plastic we aren't here today to sugarcoat everything and make everything okay because we're going to have a chocolate bunny when we leave here we've come to talk about real life in real life is when jesus went to that tomb of lazarus he went there to that tomb of lazarus and we talked about it some last week just going to mention it here this week about obstacles and odors because in order to have a resurrected lifestyle you have to overcome the obstacles all of us do and some of the odors that may be in our life with regards to the grave clothes that we still may be carrying ourselves what is an obstacle an obstacle something that stands in your way first thing that christ encountered who was the resurrection in life when he came to that tombstone tomb side where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth in our country we've had lots of weeping and and lots of sorrow he basically saw the stone take me to the place and and roll the stone away is what he asked because the stone was the obstacle to see a resurrected miracle come forth and so the first decision that had to be made by mary and martha was if they were going to remove the obstacle if they were indeed going to live in the past that this is something that is that happened that's dead it's over with that basically there is a a lot of regret and i'm stuck in the past and i can't get past what's happened here and i'm going to leave the stone over because he had to have their permission god's never going to he's not going to he can't make you get saved he can't make you believe he doesn't want to he gave you free will for you to decide so he's never going to run you over for a miracle he's going to ask you what do you want to do and so he was asking him to roll the obstacle away and some people want to basically stay in the past and yet there's no regret that god can't redeem and when they stood there contemplating that they were they were just at a moment of decision it's just like the um king of egypt in jeremiah chapter 46 it says that he missed his moment he could have conquered the king of babylon but he missed his moment and then went down to defeat sometimes we are in indecision because we're just lack of faith we don't have the faith to believe we can do it and we we miss our moment that you know i should have made a decision to go forward i should have made a decision to accept christ so to make a decision to believe god for this or that and so they were in this situation the worst lie you can believe is that god's not good or that he's not for you and basically they were saying if you had been here my brother wouldn't have died basically saying that you're not forced if you would have been here if you really been for me you would have taken care of this and so the worst lie we can believe is that god is not for us but some people even believe because the devil persuades us to believe god's against us oh all these things are against me uh jacob said when really all those things were working for him so many times the enemy tries to accuse god before us that he's not good where was he and we are living in this kind of a grave-like lack of faith situation but yet jesus made a declaration a bold declaration you know it was john f kennedy in 1961 said that i we're going to put a man on the moon it was a bold declaration nobody knew how that was going to happen but he made that declaration and guess what we did put a man on the moon and jesus makes a bold declaration to them when they're trying to make a decision about the obstacle and he says your brother is going to rise again can i tell you that the word of god is full of bold predictions for your life the word of god is full of bold predictions and plans that god has for your life this is full of those things that waiting for you and i to believe the bold prediction and have insane courage to say roll the stone away i'm not going to live in my past any longer i'm going to believe god for a resurrection miracle in my life that he indeed can do something besides on easter sunday he can do something every day of my life come on somebody i thought i heard music did anybody hear music maybe that's the radio station next door the second thing besides obstacles is odors said lord we would like to see a resurrection here and a lifestyle resurrection but basically here's our problem that it's been four days and he stinks by now we really don't want to embarrass you and we really don't want to embarrass ourselves and we really don't want to bring this kind of of of uh stink to the to our city uh that you know we're we're trying to believe for this and nothing's going to happen and so realize that he stinks by now but you know there are things that stink worse than the physical odor you know we we do a lot to try to smell good thank god they say that we spend 75 billion dollars a year on deodorant and aren't you glad the person sitting next to you has done that right praise god hallelujah for that 12 billion dollars a year on deodorizers for a house and for our cars and you know we're always trying to get the stink out you know febreze life you know we're going to spray everything down and make it smell better but there are some some things that may smell to god he had to unwrap some some odors there and the first odor he tried to unwrap was unwrapping the odor of unbelief he could smell it he could smell that there was not an engagement here with this and there are some things in our life that guess what he can smell it in our life that you know you really don't believe him on that you really don't think he can do something about it you really are distrusting you really don't really think something's gonna happen and so he begins to challenge just like he'll challenge us and he basically talks about i am the resurrection life and and that your brother's gonna live again and and they give this doctrinal yes i know in the last day he's gonna live again so forth and so on and he basically tells them that i am the resurrection life and i can do this miracle now but you have to believe me see the problem was is that the jews did believe in the resurrection they believed it at the end of of when the grave you're in the grave until you know for years whatever at the end of the day when the last trump happened but they also believed that after four days that the spirit left that three days it kind of hovered around i guess looking at everybody seeing who comes to mourn i don't know but then after the fourth day that it left and it could never come back again so remember jesus waited a number of days so that he came on the fourth day so that they in their mind were preconditioned you ever hear pavlov's dog you know you ring the bell and salivates you know they were preconditioned to to believe that this was impossible they were preconditioned and how many times are we preconditioned to believe you know god just can't do that i've never seen him do that i never i don't think he can do that i never heard anybody tell me he could do that he hasn't done in my life yet so i'm kind of preconditioned that you know this cannot happen and all the time he's saying look if you just believe you will see the glory of god and and he's trying to unwrap the grave clothes because when when lazarus came out he said let him go and unwrap those grave clothes that were keeping him with the stink of death for we can't be a christian and yet carry around the stink of unbelief we have got to understand that the same god who saved us is the same god who wants to raise us and wants to continue to show us his glory every day in our life so unwrap the unbelief get rid of the preconditioning take the limits off of god and have a new set point that all things are possible with you it's not just on easter it's every day that i live [Applause] they had to unwrap under development under development means that yet they thought this thing was dead but yet god had more to do do you realize that in the 12th chapter of the chapter after this that the bible says when jesus came back to bethlehem to their house that the people from jerusalem came over in mass and guess what they didn't just come over to see jesus they came to see lazarus i mean wouldn't you want to see somebody been dead for four days been raised back when you want to see if they have like you know decaying acid and fluid all over their face or if their ears chewed off or if they really look like they're really vibrantly alive they came to see lazarus it's it's is the the underdeveloped potential is the fact that that god was going to do something greater in lazarus life yes he could have come and healed him before he died but not only was he going to raise him but he was going to show everybody that there's nothing impossible with god and that's the same testimony that's happened with some of you some people came around and said did so and so get saved i can't believe that oh let me come see for myself i can't believe that they got saved i can't believe that they changed their life that is the underdeveloped power of god that he wants to develop in our life that sometimes we will limit him by missing our moment not believing him but when we believe him for greater things he can change your life the greatest testimony on easter is a changed life why don't we open up our hearts of god today and say god change me lord let me be the testimony that you're looking for on easter not just my outside clothes but my inside change of life let somebody see me and say wow jesus can do that he can do the same thing for me amen come on in praise every day then there's the unwrapped the unwillingness to change unwrapping the unwillingness to change is what we see in what this professor harvard in 1936 wrote about the unanticipated consequences of a decision sometimes you make a choice and it works out more positively than you thought sometimes you make a choice and it works out more negatively than you thought and sometimes you make a choice to go in a certain direction and the reverse takes place so what happened here is that with all that jesus did to try to create a resurrection mentality and mary martha and those that were there with them that hey you you've got to roll away the obstacle you've got to unwrap unbelief and you've got to really allow me to develop everything i want to develop let me have my way in you but then there were the others that were there that were very very not happy with jesus raising him from the dead the pharisees the scribes the sadducees and the sadducees were sad because they didn't believe in the resurrection they were sad you see hey how about third grade humor today isn't that great praise god i wonder where the music was coming from i forgot they were staying up there got a bunch of smart alecks in the band up there huh i love them they're great so what we find is that we're in this moment where the pharisees hate this and it was because jesus raised lazarus from the grave that they said in john 12 19 read it for yourself that they said look now the whole world is going after him we got a problem boys we got to do something about this jesus and they decided they wanted to kill lazarus as well yeah but this is the reverse of what the circum if somebody makes a decision to do something sometimes the reverse the unanticipated boomerang of a decision sometimes happens in the reverse because the very thing of jesus bringing out lazarus caused him to go into the tomb and cause him to defeat the devil and cause him to rise again it's kind of like parents who say you know i i want you know i want my babies not to eat anything bad and they crawl around the floor they get germs and i want to make sure i clean the floors and sweep the carpets and make sure everything's clean so they don't get sick and make sure they don't get these thread worms i don't know if any of your kids ever had thread worms but thread worms happen when they are crawling they eat something's bad or they get it from other areas and they get thread worn but you know that even thread worms for a baby helps build their immune system that the very things that many times in life we try to keep people away from actually may end up being good for them in the end is my mic on today and so here it is that they were saying we don't like what this guy is doing we want to kill him and because he raised lazarus we want to kill him but they didn't realize that god was able to work all things together for good and their evil action was going to cause a boomerang and their evil action was going to cause there to be a resurrection there is going to be a forgiveness for every person sin who confesses their sin there is going to be a resurrected life for everyone there's going to be life eternal and the very thing that the enemy is planned against you come on everybody the very thing that the enemies planned against you i hope you declare on this easter that in the name of jesus that romans 8 and 28 that my god and we know that my god and we know that my god shall work all things together for our good because he can work the resurrection the death and resurrection for the good he can work it good in your life come on somebody give him praise in the house hallelujah happy easter what you're about to see is a video of our people they go to city sanctuary and they're going to be telling you about how the enemy planned evil but how god resurrected their life for good let's watch the video i just want to thank god for healing me and blessing me because without him i would have i would have been dead by now only god could have intervened and saved me from this uh turbulence that i was in that my life was in i was running into my dead end but god came to the rescue and his perfect timing he knew exactly what to do and now he's given me the opportunity to serve him which i'm so honored i want to thank god for being with me every step of the way for helping me through all those painful nights i want to thank him for giving me peace giving me comfort giving me joy in the morning after a painful night but he brought me through and i'm so thankful because i could not have done it without him before i was depressed and had low self-esteem and now that the lord is in my life he has made these changes for me and now i'm full of joy and i am outgoing and this is a life that i will continue to have for him that everything came crashing down and i hit an all-time low i'd lost the relationship with my daughter my fiance and i split up i became depressed felt unloved even had thoughts of suicide at that point to find yourself at the low of all lows and not have an answer or not know how to get yourself back on your feet but since i've met the lord i've found peace and happiness i've been able to rekindle the relationship that i thought was lost forever the gratefulness is indescribable before i felt completely broken and unloved before i turned everything over to jesus and then i got to a point where i just completely put my trust in him made him number one in my life and ever since then i feel complete and i feel cherished i no longer have those feelings of feeling broken and unloved they are completely gone before i was lost and hurt and i was in a really dark place with the lord's help i am free i'm joyful and at peace i feel like i can breathe again i feel like i have a purpose and there's hope for me on january the 5th i had a low point even though i had people praying for me i asked god i said god you could just take me home because i can't take any more just take me home i would have to say god shielded me from death he did not have to my lung capacity was down to 10 it's over 50 percent now and it's getting higher every day and i'm here today because the lord spared my life and god brought me back jesus came so that we could have life more abundantly and he's given me life more abundantly he he rose from the grave and he rose me from the grave because that that's almost where i was and and he saw me where i was and he met me there and he brought me up and here i am to thank him and i'm so grateful anybody got any resurrections you want to thank god for today come on put your hands together any resurrections in your life amen well this was the close last year because everybody was at home watching church in their pajamas right this is about clothes there's a little girl in finland dressed up in spain they they had pre-stress up with the red for the sacrifice of christ the white for the for the sinless life and this is the one place you don't want to go for easter that's poland and they'd like to throw water the guys throw water on the girls for easter in poland i don't know why you'd want to do that but i don't plan to visit poland at easter for any reason and then this is the this is a typical american family who in our country dresses up with light pastel colors clothes have always meant something in easter and most of the time people have wore white clothes to symbolize a change in their life so turn to somebody say you look nice today if you can say that truthfully praise the lord you look nice today but what kind of clothes do you have on the inside what are you wearing in your attitude what are you wearing in your spirit well if we were to see that would it look as good as the outward close you got on you see that's what god sees man looks on the outward appearance but god looks on the heart we look at the power of no grave clothes here it is before our next choir song the power of no grave clothes is that this is a sketch of how it would have looked to the disciples when they came into that tomb and saw the grave clothes you notice that they are not all in a wad like they were just thrown down like jews got up and just took them off and threw them in a wad but strategically they are that way for a purpose so first of all let's look at the clothes are proof of his resurrection all right then we're going to talk about they are a power of his resurrection number one proof they're proof of his resurrection in that remember when mary came to tomb and found it empty she ran back that was our first song i ran out of that grave right she ran back and said someone has stolen the body someone has stolen the body someone's taken the lord she still didn't get it that he had raised from the dead so she said someone said in fact you read matthew 28 the high priest paid off the soldiers and said tell people that you were sleeping and when you were sleeping the disciples came and stole the body which doesn't make any sense because if you're sleeping how do you know who stole the body right so here's this thing they're running they think someone stole the body they run and they find the clothes in this manner now here's what is the proof of the resurrection one of the proofs first of all when jesus died uh you find that nicodemus and joseph ramithia brought a hundred pounds of of spices what you may not know is that the myrrh that they used was in liquid form and the myrrh would in those linen claws would begin to harden and encrust after even just hours in a dry tube and so what would happen is that the the wrappings would become like a cast or a cocoon and so it would be impossible for someone to come and to unwrap those uh grave clothes take the body and then wrap them back the way that they were because they would have to literally cut them in order to open them up because they were like a cast after they had dried so first of all if someone's going to steal the body you'd want to steal it you know with the linen which was worth money and with the spices and all that stuff it'd be easier to carry uh you know so you wouldn't want to try to take the grave clothes off anyway if you were trying to steal the body unless you were trying to prove that again he raised from the dead so it doesn't make any sense the rumor that this disciples came and stole the body but what it does make sense to john is that it it gave john the assurance that his resurrected body changed in its substance and it was able to pass right through the grave clothes like it was able to pass through the walls in the locked door that they had on that first easter sunday night and appear to them right and so he knew when he saw that the grave clothes hadn't been cut and they were laying just like they had laid him there that that basically that he had just come right out of them and when he saw that he believed i want to tell you that what that symbolizes to all of us is that the resurrection is more than just a day hallelujah for the day got to start somewhere right but the resurrection is about a changed life remember lazarus came out of the grave but he had the grave clothes on the metaphor there is that we have bondages that need to be broken right but when jesus was resurrected he left his bondages his grave clothes in the grave came out with no bondages and because he came out with no bondages guess what hey we can come out with no bondages that jesus can deliver us from the bondages you say well you know pastor i don't know about that i mean teddy roosevelt was a guy we you know he was a rough and ready rider he charged the hill won the battle of sin one and he was a guy that was on african safaris for months he was a guy who put a boxing ring in the white house to spar anybody that dared to spar with him in fact lost the sight in his left eye inspiring match he never told anybody he was a guy that went to give a speech in 1912 and when he was there to give a speech someone came up and shot him in the chest point blank and he still went on to give a 53-minute speech after he was shot standing in the pool of his own blood this was a tough guy but he didn't start out that tough no he started out weak and he had a terrible severe asthma condition and with that he was very sickly and was a mama's boy and stayed along around the house all the time because he was too fragile to get out but you would think by looking at him he's just going to be weak all of his life but no he decided he was going to work out he was going to exercise he was not going to just stay in that weak condition he was going to do something to make his life a strong life instead and so he did became one of the strongest men that we probably know in american history what is that basically saying to us it's basically saying to us about something much greater than teddy roosevelt it's saying that no matter what our predisposition is no matter how much we feel like we're too weak to serve god or we are too done too much wrong to be forgiven that we have not enough that we can really make it over this obstacle that's ahead of us and we can't make it through this valley that we're going through no matter how much the enemy tries to tell you you can't do it i hear the lord saying that i can do all things through christ who gives me strength and it doesn't matter what your disposition is before you come to know him it just matters that when you come to know him you need to expect a resurrection you need to expect resurrection power that the same spirit that raised jesus from the dead will also quicken your mortal body and give you the power to live above sin yourself and satan it's what we celebrate today it's not just the resurrection of a one-time thing from the grave it is the resurrection of an entire lifestyle that we can now have because jesus christ has been transformed for us would you give god a praise right now amen hallelujah hallelujah put up the next slide please we find is that that there was narrow framing trying to look because my ipad went out here i guess all of you are using the broadband here i guess the broadband went down we look at the narrow framing is this the narrow framing says this that we basically don't think there can be anything happen outside of where we are we don't think we can break out but as pastor james and the choir comes and gets ready to sing the second song what narrow framing means is that we have too small a vision of what god can do what narrow framing means is that god could transform an apostle simon into apostle peter right he could turn a simon into a peter a son of thunder named john into an apostle of love he could change pessimists like nathanael and philip in the people of faith and power he could take a terrorist name simon the zealot and turn him into a missionary to persia he is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can think about he can do and he can do it if you believe if we believe and don't limit god praise god i'm believing for greater things in 2021 than you have experienced so far i know they're up here but if you can believe god right now and say i believe god for great things in 2021 give god a praise right now in the house i believe god for greater things i'm not going to narrowly frame him i'm coming out of the grave coming into the garden amen i've searched the world but it couldn't fill me [Music] cause man's empty praise the treasures that fade are never enough [Music] but you came along and put me back together and every desire is now satisfied here in your love oh there's nothing better than you there's nothing [Music] better [Applause] [Music] is i'm not afraid to show you my [Music] seen weakness all can you still call me friends here's the good news because the god of the mountain [Music] is [Music] your mercy and grace it won't find me again [Applause] there's nothing [Music] is [Music] [Music] we bless the lord in this place for you turn my morning into dancing [Music] you're the only one how many people have that testimony you turn your graves [Music] [Music] you're the only [Applause] [Music] oh there's nothing better than you [Music] [Music] is oh there's nothing better than you better than you know [Music] can i get a witness to testify on the faithfulness of god you turn them great you turn praise into [Music] you're the only [Music] you turn you're the only one you're the only one [Music] here [Music] [Applause] amen amen praise god hey man just stay up here hey hey just stay here if you wouldn't we're gonna sing that in just a minute wow that was good that was really good [Music] [Laughter] there's nothing i'd like to in just a minute here this whole crowd saying there's nothing better than you amen praise god amen [Music] last point here and it won't take long that's why i'm having them stand up here and that is the last point of the significance of the grave clothes and why john believed was because the head cloth that was to be around to keep the jaw in place and all that stuff the head cloth was was folded up says the napkin was folded up there was a tradition a cultural understanding that the father the house when they were done with a meal they would take their napkin and just wad it up and just throw it down on the table and then they knew that the meal was over and it was time to clear the table and move on but if the head of the house decided that he was going to just get up from the table but he was going to come back he would carefully fold the napkin and place it so that they would know that he's coming back he wasn't finished yet [Applause] you see the narrow framing was that it says in verse 9 that they still didn't understand about the resurrection their framing was we're looking for a messiah that's going to deliver us from the here and now and what they got was someone who was gonna have a bigger picture they were gonna they were getting someone who was going to not only provide for the forgiveness of their sin forever but break the power of sin not only resurrect somebody from death to die again but to provide for the resurrection that we will never die again [Music] and so many times our narrow framing is lord if you can just do this one thing you just do this one thing and it's it's like lord you didn't do it the way i wanted you to do that come on somebody anybody out here that's super holy or anybody real out there today right and all the time the lord is like dropping a napkin back i'm not finished yet see that i'm not finished mary i'm not finished yet you may have lost your husband but i'm not finished yet mary i got i got more good things for you right gary gary you're in the hospital hey see my napkin i'm not finished yet gary i'm not finished i'm not finished it may look like it may look like it may look like it may look like but no he's not finished yet come on somebody oh there's nothing come on let's stand again and see it let's see it there's nothing [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're the only one [Music] you turned into [Applause] you're the only one [Applause] [Applause] okay there's nothing better than you're [Music] better [Music] oh there's nothing oh there's nothing better well there's nothing everybody's saying [Music] [Applause] come on it's easter praise [Music] [Applause] come him everybody nothing nothing is better than you sing it again [Applause] [Music] [Applause] come on now worship him [Applause] [Music] [Applause] without the music one time [Applause] [Music] let him hear than you there's nothing nothing is better than you oh yeah come on now [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i'll be is today giving praise in the house all this stuff is better there's nothing better god praise god let me just take a moment to ask if there's anybody in the house that doesn't know that there's nothing better than him yes maybe you're thinking we're a bunch of crazy fanatics and i guess we are in some regard [Music] paul said i appear to be crazy because i am in passionate love with jesus and that can't be hidden but maybe you're here today you say what is all the fuss about it's about the resurrected change life you see the resurrection day is not just about one day [Music] the point is that he wants you to walk without grave clothes all of your life [Music] that's why there's nothing better than him i can't wait to sing that again that's just awesome awesome but i am compelled because i know that there are at least at least one person here maybe there's more than one maybe there's someone lying today that you know that you haven't let him in you know that he's drawing you you know that he loves you you know that let me tell you he's dropping the napkin fold it up on your right in front of you today that he's not finished maybe you've given up he thought you know life hasn't been good and i'm blaming him for it he's not finished he's not finished yet he's not finished yet roll away the stone roll away the odors decide that you're gonna allow god to come in your life and do something amazing that's about say pastor mark i that's me that's me you know i've had to deal with so much death it's been just horrible so many so many people so many losses so many graves if it hadn't been for the resurrection power of christ it would have caused all of us to faint i'm gonna tell you there's nothing better than him and with every disappointment comes a napkin at my plate a napkin at my bible study when i'm in devotions a napkin in my prayer time i'm not finished yet i'm working i'm not finished i'm working would you allow him to in your life in a greater way than ever by opening your heart to him if you're here today you say pastor yeah i want to do that i want to let the person who's been in life in my life right i won't accept him if that's you i want you just to raise your hand out there please raise your hand let's hold it up so i can see it let's raise your hand today and just say pastor pray for me i want to accept the lord as my savior when i let christ in my life i want to accept him i can't see too well in this dark but i think i see a hand or two that have gone up i see your hand back over here my brother and two hands over here god bless you let both of you god bless you i see those hands amen god sees your hands oh jesus jesus oh jesus we need you as the altar workers come if you raise your hand and you want to have special prayer please come and pray with one of them or pray in your seat where you are right now and say this let's all say it together say jesus i come to you today [Music] please forgive me of all my sins come into my heart change my life write my name in your book of life [Music] and give me abundant life every day of my life i receive you now and i thank you for changing my life in your name i pray amen now for those that pray to give them a god bless [Applause] you hallelujah be here beloved and want to pray or you may want to be here and want to praise it is easter you may have your dance on your you may have your praise on you may have something that you want to just come up and pray praise the lord altars are open for you as we sing this song stay with us just a couple more frames as we as we worship him and saying that there's nothing better than him can we give him praise let's just stand and sing it a couple more times [Music] [Applause] [Music] is better than you check it let it ring out one more time one more time [Applause] nothing is better than you [Music] may the love of god and the grace of the lord jesus christ and the sweet communion of the holy spirit and his resurrection power go with you now and forever in jesus name the risen one amen and amen give him your praise clap once again amen and you are dismissed happy resurrection day have a great day you

Channel: City Sanctuary Deland

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Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: y0ObOCWtlXM

Length: 113min 53sec (6833 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 04 2021