JUL 5 2015 | John 20

Sea Change Church · "John 20" · Adam Stadtmiller · July 5, 2015
John 20
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Great. Yeah, if you do have your Bibles, open them there to John chapter 20. And you'll notice that last week, this is a bit of a, a little bit more information into the story that we saw last week. Now, remember, Mary came to the tomb last week, but then the story ends where she goes back and gets John and Peter and tells them, and they run to the tomb or to the dead place to see what had happened if Jesus is there.

And what is so interesting is that this scripture is put after that. And then Jesus tells her to go get the disciples. And so the story, they, they, in the first part of John 20, they tell the story, but then they leave out some details. And then they come back to say what happened before Peter and John got there. And so we see that this story has been a little bit. So if you're wondering about the chronology of what is happening in the story, it's actually a little bit more detail of what happened with Mary.

And thank God for the detail of the Bible. Thank God for the intimacy of the Bible that tells us the things that actually happen with people. And I say, one of the things that I love that, that about Jesus is Jesus hobby was people. I asked my mom this week, I told you last week, mom, what's your hobby? She said, people, that's so good. And I want to steal that. That is so good.

John's hobby was people. And I want to say we are in the people business. We're not in the Christian argument business. We're not in the, in the, in the Christian, you know, um, um, let's, you know, take the world by force business. We are in the people business. And as I mentioned earlier this week is, uh, we had a gal come and, and she was, we, we showed up to her in the new house.

We're moving into, and the cleaners were there. And I began to talk to the cleaners and wanted to, they began to ask me questions, began to ask, can I ask, Oh, you're a pastor. Let me ask you some questions. The first question she asked me is this, can we help who we're attracted to? I'm like, no, do we have to go there? Like, no, just do you like the Padres? You know what I mean? How the, who the chargers taken this year?

And we just began to talk and the Lord said, you know, Hey, just love people. And I noticed that she was, she was coughing and she used her inhaler. And right when she was using her inhaler, she's around chemicals all the time. And I said, um, the Lord said to me, right when she used her inhaler, I just felt it in my heart, pray for her. I want to heal her.

And I said, bingo, Lord. Okay. That's the door. And so I laid hands on her and I asked him, I could pray for her. She said, yes. Began to pray for her. She began to tear up. She says, I've been looking for a church. I haven't gone to church since I was, you know, for years, uh, because I just felt like they judge me now and yada, yada, yada.

And she goes, I want to come to your church. I want to come. And I was like, man, that is, that is, that's people. That's, I was so blessed by that opportunity to do that. And John and Jesus is about people. And so as you look at this story, we see a woman who was, had seven demons at one time. Now I said that she was a prostitute. My mom, oh, it was, I couldn't, I couldn't disagree even though I argued with her.

Um, I, you know, you ever do that? You know, you're wrong. She goes, there's no scriptural proof that Mary Magdalene was, it was a prostitute. And I was like, yeah, but no, but it's, you know, the traditions and there's thoughts. She goes, no, but it's not in the Bible. Ah, so I got to take it back. Okay. We're not sure she was a prostitute. Mom was right.

I give you one. You win one. Okay. Um, but she did have seven demons and she was, um, a person who Jesus had an intimate, beautiful and intimate. I mean, emotional relationship with, uh, and we, we hear her story here where she sees the hope of the risen Christ in this story. One of the things that stood out to me, because last week I really wanted to re-preach the message, the message about going to the dead place and being willing to do work in the dead place and finding hope in the dead place in your life.

Because after the removal of your stone, see, we seem to have stones in our lives, right? And, and I pointed out last week, there was a difference between the stone work of Jesus, removing stones, and the resurrect, the resurrection work, the work of resurrection in our lives. That oftentimes we want resurrection, but we don't want to remove the stone.

And in both instances, whether it was Lazarus being raised from the dead, where Jesus said, Hey, can you move the stone for me? And he asked the body of Christ to move stones. And sometimes we are helpful in removing stones in people's lives, right? We're called to be stone removers and to take the grave clothes off. It says as Lazarus, they took the grave clothes off.

So we have a part as people to help in the healing or to allow the resurrection process. You know, we don't raise people from the dead. Now you might pray for somebody and I believe you can pray for somebody, but if any, but if anybody is going to come back from the dead, it's going to be because God did the work, not us, but we can move stones.

We can move physical things. And so I ask you what the stone is in your life, what needs to be moved. And at the end of the week, I was like, Lord, I want to preach that message again. I just, I've seen it done before. I just wanted to come and preach the exact same message because it was so important in my life. Well, when I came back to this scripture and began to go forward, I realized that John kind of retells many of the same themes here.

And so we see this and he circles back. And I wonder if John thought to himself as he wrote it, man, that was really good. What I was, what happened there. I'm actually going to give a little bit more context here. And I wonder how he wrote that. But in there we see, we're back now in verse 11 and look at verse 11. And there's this sentence in here about Mary when she comes to the tomb.

And this really struck me. It says, but Mary. And I love, I love when they use the word but in the scripture because it means that there was an option. You see, we have a lot of these moments where there's crossroads in our life. Okay. It doesn't really work to call it a but moment. Okay. So I'm not going to do that. But there's like these moments, it's not going to work anyway.

I try to do it. Okay. But there's these moments. That was funny, by the way. There's these moments in our life where there's like a but. That doesn't work either. Where there's a crossroads where you can make a decision. But I'm going to do this. But the disciples went home. But Jesus. You see that in the scripture. The one time where it says, but everyone went to their own homes after the festival.

But Jesus went to a solitary place to pray. And so we have these moments where there's these moments in your life. These crossroads in your life where there's a but. Where you have to make a decision. But I will do this. The world is doing this. And like Joshua says, but as. But as for me and my house. What? I will serve the Lord. I'll tell you what.

The world's doing a whole bunch of stuff right now. But I'll say, but when it comes down to it. But as for me and my house. We will serve the Lord. And so there's this moment where Mary could have said, well, you know, it's over. Jesus is gone. But it said she stood there and she lingered in the dead place. Look what it says here. But Mary stood outside facing the tomb crying.

They have to realize that grieving and mourning was an important part of Jewish culture. And still is. You've heard of where you will sit. They'll sit for seven days. And called Sitshiva. Where they'll sit with those that are mourning and sit. And they know how to mourn. Because there's an importance to mourning things that are dead. We're going to talk about that in our own lives.

As we need to oftentimes learn how to mourn things. So we can have them resurrected in our life. Mourning was a part of the culture. And God allowed and created. Or allowed mourning. So that there can be healing. Because there would be no mourning if there was no curse. If we had not walked away from God in the beginning. But he understands the importance of it.

And so she stood there willing to look at her tomb. I thought it was powerful. I put here in the notes. It says, Jesus does his best work in dead places. Do you get that? Jesus does his best work in broken. In hurting. In leprous villages. He does his best work in dead places. I want to say, oftentimes we begin to think in the enemy. The devil wants us to think that God doesn't want to have anything to do with your dead places.

You need to hide your dead places. Like Adam and Eve. They run into the bushes. Naked and ashamed. And then they try to make clothing for themselves. They try to make their own clothing. But then God, he covers them. And just like the, you know, with that analogy. When he covers Adam and Eve. He covers us now with the righteousness of Christ. We put on the clothes of the righteousness.

And the clothes of Christ. So that we can stand before God. As the scripture says. And so we see that already beginning to happen in the Old Testament. But she comes and she's willing to look into the dead place. And to linger there. I want to talk about being willing to linger in the dead place. And let God do his healing work. And then the difference between making a decision to live in the dead place.

Because I believe there are many people. Myself included. Where sometimes there's a brokenness in your life. And it becomes a way of life. You see, we're called to linger in the dead place. To do the work there. To meet Jesus in the dead place. And to experience healing and resurrection in that place. So that we can go out. Like he told her. From the dead place.

Say, let me ask you this. Have you made it a habit? Have you made it a lifestyle to live in the dead place? Not called to live in dead places. We're not called to live in tombs. We are called perhaps to go to those things. And to let God do the work of healing. And maybe the work of helping our friends and I. To push the stone out of your life. We also have the ability to remove the stones in our life with God's grace.

And so, because God can remove stones. So, let me just affirm to you. That if you have a dead place in your life. Linger there and invite Jesus into it. Do not hide from God. Your stuff. I don't care what it is. There's nothing he didn't die for. There's no thing that you have done. That he does not want to be a part of. That he does not want to touch.

But in the notes there, you'll see it. The second line. If you want to experience resurrection. You need to be willing to go to the dead place. And it says in verse 11. But Mary stood outside facing the tomb crying. And as she was crying. She stooped to look into the tomb. What I like about that scripture. Is often times we know about our dead places.

But sometimes we need to go and stoop and look into them. And what does that look like? Does it look like maybe some counseling? Does it look like, you know, maybe some soaking healing prayer? There's a million ways in this culture. Because there was less 50 years ago probably. But there's a million ways to find help for your addiction. There's a million ways to find help for your unforgiveness.

For your broken marriage. For what happened to you in healing. What happened to you when you were a child. There's a million different ways. Now ultimately, we want God to be the orchestrator of that. But I have found in my life that God has used books. He's used movies. He's used counselors. He's used friends. He's used prayer. He can use a myriad of things to touch you with his healing.

The thing is, are you willing to stoop and look into it for the purpose of resurrection? Not for the purpose of fixating and fascinating on it. Because so often times we do that because, I don't know if you've noticed, but human beings have a tendency to be fascinated with death. I don't know why that is. But if you notice, maybe this week I saw three different people that had skull skeleton tattoos all over their body.

Like, maybe you have one. But I'm thinking, why do I want to identify with death? You look at the Day of the Dead, okay? You know, in Mexico, different places. You know, the muerta. You know, you look at this. There's this death in culture. If you look at a lot of rock and roll, you know, the stuff that I used to listen to. You know, you go to even Disneyland.

You know, I go to Disneyland. There's a whole section of death. You know, like that whole, you know, Tim Burton, like creepy zombie thing. Like zombie. Like just, we're fascinated with death. Why are we so fascinated with death? I think that it is part of the curse. I think it is part of that when we stepped out of life, we got tainted, we got painted with sin.

And sin leads to what? Death. When I said we don't want to fixate on our sin, but we need to be willing to look into it. You see the balance there? There's a balance between looking into our sin, looking into our brain. And it might not even be sin. It might just be brokenness. You know, all of us are wounded. I have not met a person that isn't wounded.

That everyone has been wounded by someone, by something, by some event. Recently, when Carrie and I went to go to this thing called Restoring the Foundations, we began to look at the foundations that our lives were built upon. On the lies our lives were built upon. And one of the questions it asked, and it was interesting, they said, what curses were spoken over you on the playground?

I thought, what curses? There was no witches at my school, so I don't know, you know. They said, no, what I mean is, what did kids say to you? You're dumb. You're stupid. Was there ever a traumatic event that happened? Now, if you went to elementary school for any more than a week, there was probably a traumatic event that happened. But going back and looking, and okay, what have you believed about yourself because of maybe what your father said, because of what happened there, to go back and unpack that.

Now, what does God say about you? And begin to unpack that and be willing to look at it and to face it. It's interesting. When my wife, and I'll use her as an example, and still is, but we're past the two-year mark now of losing her brother to an overdose, suicidal on purpose, that season of mourning. And I'm a guy that just wants mourning to be done, okay?

I like, let's just move, like, let's move on. Like, mourning wasn't one of the things in my family we did, you know what I mean? Like, after the three days, like, we move on. One of the things that she was committed to was feeling every bit of it and then experiencing healing. Remember, I came into the room one day, and she was there, and she was in bed.

And I said, honey, why don't you get up? And what are you doing? She goes, you know what? I'm feeling a lot of pain right now, and I want to face it, and I just want to feel it. And I was like, you're awesome, because I want none of that, you know? I want none of that. And she spent two years, and it was very difficult, feeling the pain. And then recently, God began to bring the resurrection.

We had people help us with the stone, and I'm very proud of you, and you've taught me a lot because I still don't have that ability yet. But that's what it looks like, and it was not fun, and it was terrifying for me. If you've ever been the spouse of someone who's grieving, or you have a child who's grieving, or you've gone through something like that, it's absolutely terrifying because grief is not in my control.

I can't dance a happy dance for her. I tried to take her. I took her to Paris on a trip. It didn't fix it. You know, I bought her stuff. It just doesn't fix it. The Adam little way of making people, of fixing their grief didn't work, and until God said, can you please just get out of the way? And when she asked you to move the stone, move the stone.

And so she said to me, I want to go to this thing up in Reading, and I want to do this restoring the foundations, and I don't believe in magic bullets. But they helped us move the stone, and God is doing the work of resurrection. And one of the prayers I prayed for her for the longest time is that she would laugh out of Proverbs 31. I wrote this in Praying for Your Elephant.

But I prayed that she would laugh. I've got to tell you, David was at our house yesterday, and there's my wife. She has the most amazing belly laugh. Like, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah, right. Sorry to scare you, Zach. She was laughing this belly laugh, and David and I have been praying for a year for this laughter. And we sat there in the living room, and we heard my wife laughing with friends over last night.

And I'm sorry, I know I'm embarrassing you. I'm over-speaking about you. But we both said, wow, there it is. And I hear it in my house. My wife laughs more than anybody. I laugh a lot. I like to laugh. But she laughs more than anybody in the house now, constantly. And David said, let's just thank the Lord. And we sat in my living room yesterday. He said, God, just thank you for doing that.

You see, that's what it looks like. I didn't do that. But that's what it looks like. Are you willing to go linger in the dead place, look at it with the intention of resurrection, not in the intention of martyrdom, not in the intention of staying there, woe is me. Because you can, I want to tell you what, lingering in the dead place has a lot of currency relationally to let people feel sorry for you.

It's not about having people feel sorry for you. A lot of people make it a life out of being that person who's, oh, woe is me. Remember Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh? Just, oh, I don't know, the sky is brown, gray. Have you ever met anybody? It's 20 years. Same thing, 20 years later. I'm not saying people don't have, like, you know, serious, there isn't people that have serious mental illness and depression.

I'm not talking about that. I'm saying people who have made a decision to live there because of the social currency they get from it. The joy is in the resurrection. The joy is in the resurrection to run out and say, look what God did. Look what God did. Look what God did. Look what God did. Look what God is doing. I'm experiencing that now with many of you.

There's many of you here that are beginning to smile for the first time in years. There's many people here that have said, I had anxiety. I no longer, I've seen people with anxiety, panic attacks. They've stopped in the year and a half we've been here. No more anxiety and panic. Depression. I've seen depression healed since we've been here. And that's fun.

It's like when you want to take someone's hand, you just want to do this dance. You ever done that? You're so happy. You just grab their hand. That's the deal. That's the deal. That's where we're going. And so I want to encourage you. Go to the dead place. Stand there. Stoop like Mary, this woman that had seven demons but we're not sure she was a prostitute.

Okay? Okay? Except for the non-canonical text. No, forget it. Stoop down. Look in. Maybe you'll see an angel. Maybe you'll see an angel. Because that's what we see happen to her. She hesitated in a dead place. She stood outside. Stooped to look in. Many of us would rather distract than do any real work in the dead place. That is so me. Oh my goodness. I can put that hat on right now.

I would much rather distract than do work in the dead place. I want to go on a vacation. I can't tell you during that season of mourning that she was going through for her brother, how many trips I looked up on the online. I don't know. Is anybody else a Travelocity person? You know, Orbitz. I am constantly looking at a cruise. I just want to run away.

That's why I was a fantastic alcoholic. I was so good at it, you know, because you just get to go be a way. You never mature. You just never mature. Dead places mature you if you're willing to look for resurrection in them. You see, what was she looking for in the dead place? Looking for Jesus. See the deal? When you look into your dead place, what are you looking into?

You're not looking, oh, I'm a mess. I'm horrible. That's right. You are. We all are. The Bible says that. But when she looks into the tomb, she's looking for something, and it's Jesus. And when you look into your dead place, make sure you know what you're looking for. You're looking for Jesus in the dead place to heal you. And so we see her, not willing to distract, but willing to grieve.

Many of us don't want to grieve. Next thing, it says, Only by looking into the dead place with the intention of seeing Jesus in it will you find proper perspective of that place. Let me read that again, because it's good. Only by looking into the dead place with an intention of seeing Jesus in it. So when you look into that really dark, ugly place in your life that we all have, that little dark place in the keep of our heart, that you're looking at, only when we look in with the intention to see Jesus in it will we have a proper perspective of that place.

Because if you look into dark, dead places without the light and the hope of Jesus there with you, you are going to find the death you're looking for. We want to find Jesus. I've never gone to a dead place and not found Jesus there. He met me in my addiction. He met me all through the things I've needed to heal. He's been there every time. And in the darkness of walking these two years with my wife, when God was saying, you're not in control anymore.

And it terrifies me because I love control. Terrified me. God met me there too. Only by looking in that place. Look at what she says. She saw two angels in white sitting there. One at the head and one at the feet where Jesus' body had been lying. And they said to her, woman, why are you crying? This is the same thing that Jesus asked her in verse 15.

They asked her this question, why are you crying? Now there's two points here that I thought were important. One is, many people, because you've never looked into the dead place, don't know why you're crying. Don't know why you're crying. There's people that have this, they have a sadness, they have a depression, they have an anxiety, they have a hopelessness.

They just have a tension about them, but they don't know why. Because they haven't lingered to look. And so I want to say, one of the things that you can ask God in a prayer is, God, show me why. Give me the why behind my hurt. Show me why. You know, there's a lot of things that we end up feeling and expressing and being and not knowing why we feel that way.

But God knows. Ask God, God, show me why. Show me why I'm crying. Because when you see it, that's the thing that can be resurrected. And the next thing is when they say it, I wonder if they said it this way. Why are you crying? Like, why are you crying? Jesus has been raised from the dead. I mean, literally. I mean, that's the other way to say it. Like, why are you crying?

That's a great question. But at the same time, you can ask with a different intonation that says, why are you crying? Jesus has been raised from the dead. And keeping joy in the midst of our sorrow. Because Jesus, it says in the scripture, he will turn our sorrow into what? Laughter and joy. That's right. God is in the business of turning sorrow into unquenchable joy.

Look at John 16. Now, John 16, 22. John said this earlier in the story. He said, so you also have sorrow now. So there's a time for sorrow. He was speaking about when he was on earth with them. And that he was going to be crucified. And he was going to be put up for all to see. Naked before all. He says, you will have sorrow now. But I will see you again.

And your hearts will rejoice. And this is what I love. And no one will be able to rob you of your joy. That is a promise. That is a promise of God. No one can rob you of your joy. You can give your joy away. And you can trade it for clamshells if you want. You can give your joy away. But part of it is the perspective of spending time with Christ. And he says that if you will allow me to resurrect your sorrow.

If you will allow me to resurrect your dead place. That once I give you that joy. That no one will be able to take it from you. I want to say I am experiencing that in my life now. I would say my wife is experiencing that in her life now. David is experiencing that in his life now. My mom is experiencing that in their life now. Others of you in this congregation that I know are beginning to experience what it feels like to have a tap of joy that you can tap into.

That you can say my father loves me. And the thing that I say over and over again is I have a father who loves me. That this might happen. This might happen. And two nights ago I was laying in bed and the enemy is telling me this is going to happen. And what if this happens. And what if. He loves what if. Pretty soon I was so overwhelmed with all the things that could happen.

You know. Earthquake. Knock the church down. You know. I don't know. Whatever. You know. Come drag me. Put me in jail. Whatever it is. I don't know. Just over. You ever get overwhelmed. Like. He just sits there like with cards on the ground. You know what I mean. Like here's another one. What if. What if. You know. This happens. Or what if that happens. You just get overwhelmed with it.

And at the end I just had one answer. And I went to bed. I slept for like nine hours. I said. But I have a father who loves me. Out. I'm serious. That didn't come overnight by the way. That didn't come overnight. A year ago today. As I got ready to go on our vacation. A year ago today. I was in a very difficult place. Very difficult place. Did not understand the father's love for me.

God has given me a joy. Because I have a dad that loves me. And I look at all these issues in the world. And all these things going on. And what do people think about the church. And yada yada yada. And in the end. I just got to say. First of all. Ask for me in my house. We're going to serve the Lord. And second of all. I got a daddy that loves me. I couldn't.

Daddy. I hated that word. Hated it. I remember Brennan Manning. He used to preach. And he'd say. Papa. Papa. And I'd be. Papa. Don't say that. It's weird. It's too intimate. It was just too much for me. Now I find myself saying that in prayer. I just. I just have a dad. I have a daddy who loves me. Full of joy. It just makes everything else soothe and go away.

That even if all those bad things. All those cards that the enemy threw at my feet. That could possibly happen. And this could happen. And that could happen. That could happen. In the end. I said. In the midst of it all. My father loves me. And I know it. I know. And nothing can. You just can't take that from me. I love it. I love it. And I want to do a happy dance.

I don't know if anybody else wants to get in the circle with me. And go. It's easy to miss Jesus in the dead place. Verse 14. Having said this. She turned around and saw Jesus standing there. Though she did not know it was Jesus. You know who she thought it was? Gardener. Thought it was the gardener. I like gardeners. There's some great gardeners. I do some gardening myself.

Okay. Sometimes Jesus has been resurrected from the dead. He's standing in the midst of you. Doing the work of the kingdom. Ready to embrace you. And you just don't know he's there. You just have no clue. I want to say maybe Jesus is there right now with you. Maybe in that place. The thing that you're dealing with. Maybe he's right there. One of the most kitschy things from the 1970s.

Which it wasn't kitschy when it started. But it was so overused through the 80s and the 90s. Was you know the footprints in the sand. Okay. Everyone knows. Raise your hand if you've never heard footprints in the sand. Really? Everyone in the. Okay. So every single person has heard about footprints in the sand. So you know that thing. It's like you know there's two steps.

But then Lord there was only one set of things. It's beautiful though. It really is. He says you know I was carrying you. You know it's really true. Maybe Jesus is just carrying you. Maybe he's just carrying you right now. Just unaware of it. You know another great prayer. You can write this down to pray. Jesus make yourself known to me. I don't want to think you're the gardener.

Make yourself known to me. We have you know. I opened my fridge yesterday. There's food in the fridge. I said thank you Lord. You're so good. I went to Trader Joe's and I thought wow. What a blessed nation. I can have anything I want. If I wanted Indian yesterday. If I wanted hot dogs. If I wanted to do Mexican food. Anything I want. Anytime I want. What a blessing.

Thank you God. Thank you. You're so good. Let's not miss Jesus. Let's not miss Jesus. As a church. And also I want to speak to the staff. To the elders and the staff that are here. And you that are in leadership. Let's not. And you that are in the congregation. Let's not miss what Jesus is doing here. It's so easy to think. Well there's this one thing at church.

And I don't like it. Nah. Let's not miss Jesus. He's not a gardener. But he says he'll tend this vine. He's good. Let's not miss. This is a beautiful, beautiful thing that God's doing here. I love to stand back and watch it. And coming for a landing. Our mission is not to cling to the resurrection. But to tell others about it. It's the same thing I said earlier about you know.

Where our job is not to worship America. Our job is to pray for America. And worship Jesus. America is an experiment. It might succeed. It might fail. But I'm not tying the hope. My hope to it. Just like Jesus and Paul didn't tie it to the Roman government. Or to a reestablishment of a theocracy in Israel. They tied it to the hope of a father's love.

And it says our mission is not to cling to the resurrection. Because she says in verse 17. Jesus says to her don't cling to me. Jesus told her. For I have not yet ascended to the father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my father. Father. And your father. You get that? Jesus' dad is your dad. Do you get that? Jesus' dad is your dad.

You walk up to a party with Jesus. And Jesus says hey I want to introduce you to my dad. He's with us here. And then you get to say let me introduce you to my dad. Excuse me Jesus. It's him. Jesus' dad is your dad. How much does the father care for Jesus? Get that in there. Your dad is Jesus' dad. He's so good. Cares for you so much. And that's the message.

That we run out of here. And in the streets. When you're at Trader Joe's. Wherever you are. You're there. And you're going I have a dad. And you can know him too. And it's God. It's Jesus' dad. It's God the father. He's so good. He's so good. Let me tell you more and more about him. I told you this yesterday. We have prayed. I told this last week. But if you weren't here.

We have made it a mission. In our neighborhood. It was really hard to leave Carlsbad. We've made it a mission to make Jesus known in our neighborhood. And we didn't tell many people about Jesus. We just tried to live a certain way. And we went into Trader Joe's. And it was hard. I went to my new Trader Joe's yesterday up here in UTC. I didn't know anybody.

I got my shopping done in about 15 minutes. Which was great. Because it usually takes about 45 now. We just know everybody at Trader Joe's up there. We just know them. I love them. Love them. And I told you guys this last week. But as we walked out. One of the guys. The manager. Met us at the door. And gave my wife flowers. And he said. Thank you. Thank you for being here.

The way that you guys have lived your life. You're going to be deeply missed at our store. And we walked out. My wife had tears in her eyes. And I don't take any pride in that. Like it's not like. Yeah. I'm a good Christian. I just. You know me. Trust me. But I walked out with Carrie. And I was a little proclamated. I said. We did it. We did it. Eight years.

Of praying before we go in there. Of asking people. People. They would come and ask us for prayer. What was your sermon about? By the end. Every Sunday night. I'd go in. I'd go in on purpose. Just to get water. Because three to four people. Every week. Would say. What did you preach about? They didn't even go to church. They told me. We didn't even go to church.

What did you preach about? You know what? It's gotten easier. This year has been the most productive year of my life. Why? Because I found out who my dad was. Yeah. I'm happy. Joy. God is so good. So. I would ask this. What are you clinging to? And sometimes we can cling so much to Jesus. We never go out and tell anybody. It's. It's a personal face. But it's not.

It's. It's more communal. Than it is personal. But it's more personal than it is communal. Make sense? There's an ebb and a flow back and forth. You have to know him intimately. That you can share the goodness of God the Father. But it's going out and delighting. And knowing that God delights in you. I want to say. You cannot delight in the Lord. Until you know the Lord delights in you.

It is impossible to. It says delight in the Lord. And he will do what? Give you what? Desires of your heart. I want to say that verse. I think it should have said this. Know how much God delights in you. Then you can delight in the Lord. Because you can't delight in the Lord. Until you know he delights in you. While we were yet sinners. Christ died for us.

It's always him first. But then. Once you know that God delights in you. That he cares for you. That you are special. That he just. He made you just the way that you are for a reason. He's so happy. And when he sits there with the Trinity. They sit there thinking about you. Going. Yes. Yes. Yes. He thinks about Chris Peterson. Yes. She's amazing. Have you heard.

Oh. She's amazing. Look at the creation we made. We love her so much. David Robinson. Love him so much. On and on. Jeff. All the way through. We love you. Elliot. I love him so much. They just sit there. And they're fascinated by you in the Trinity. They love you. And when we know that. When you know. If you had a father. Can you imagine when you got home. If you had a father or a mother.

That would meet you at the front door. We're so glad you're here. We care for you so much. I'm so proud of you. I just applaud for you. We're constantly. You're the apple of our eye. We don't worship you. But we love you so much. That when you walk out of the house. Imagine how you would live your life. See that's what we're beginning to experience. That's the difference of Christian evangelism.

That's the difference. That is the difference. Christians in the first century were known. And they made an impact. Because people were throwing babies into the streets. And Christians were taking the children. And raising them as their own. In the first century. And the Romans said to them. And non-Christians and pagans said to them. What kind of people are these?

That they would take babies off the street. And raise them. No one cares about these children. That is Christians. And so we went. And we tried to do that at Trader Joe's. And wherever you live. You can do it too. But it's going to have to start. With the primary building block. That God loves you. And you're going to have to believe it. And it might take you a while to get there.

It might take you a while to get there. Resurrection is a gift for more people than just you. I'm going to ask Jim to come forward. He's going to be leading the communion today. We get a chance to come to this table. And take of the Lord's Supper. It is a privilege. And if you have sin in your life. Guess what? Come to the dead place. This is the spot.

God is going to restore and renew that. So Jim. Have you come forward. I just want to break any curses that have been spoken over you. Tongue has power of life and death. The scripture says. I was sitting there. I felt like there's been somebody. Maybe somebody in your family. When you were a kid. They called you fat all the time. It just came up to me.

I want to break that curse over you. I want to break it. In the name of Jesus. If that is you. I break that. And say that the truth is this. That God says you're beautiful. You are beautiful. If anybody speak words. Ugliness. Over.