Podcasts about who moved

Who Moved the Stone? (Matthew 27:62-65; 28:10-15) - Easter Service

No normal episode of Who Moved the Tortoise this week because we're changing our release day from Fridays to Tuesdays. New episode coming next Tuesday (21st May)! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trailer for Who Moved the Tortoise? Science and wildlife filmmakers talk about the films and TV shows that inspired them. Presented by science filmmakers Alex Hemingway and Kate Dooley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Sunday's Inspirational Message is: Who Moved? In today's sermon, we explore the enduring journey of love and faith, likening it to the heartfelt process of courtship and marriage, to highlight the importance of maintaining passion and commitment in our relationship with Christ. We delve into the vivid analogies of love letters, mementos, and the caution against allowing other loves to distract us from our first love, God. By revisiting the early fervor of our faith through the lens of scripture—God's love letter to us—we are reminded to continually nurture this divine relationship. The message culminates in a call to action: to settle deeply in our love for the Lord, allowing it to transform us and guide our interactions with the world, ensuring that our lives bear the fruits of a love that is both settled and active, mirroring Christ's unwavering love for us. * * * * * Once again, thanks for joining us in our time of worshiping the Lord through His Word! If you enjoyed this episode and want to help support this ministry, please share it with others and post about it on social media. “Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

Who Moved? - Jeremiah 2:1-13 (June 11, 2023) by Michael B. Linton

This week Angie and Stevens finish “The Resurrection of Jesus, Myth?” with the 3rd and final part of the series where they conclude, providing the evidence for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus from non-Christian, haters of Christianity, and the source list below so that anyone else can verify the information for themselves. References:1. Habermas, Gary. The Risen Jesus and Future Hope. (September 8, 2003)2. J, Warner Wallace. Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels. (January 1, 2003)3. Dunn, James DG., ed. The Cambridge Companion to St. Paul, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2003)4. F. F. Bruce, Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974)5. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, AD 93, chapter 36. A. J. Levine, D. C. Allison & J. D. Crossan, The historical Jesus in context, Volume 12, Princeton University Press, 2006. p 4057. British Museum, Syriac Manuscript, Additional 14,6588. Tacitus, Annals, AD 116, book 15, chapter 449. Lucian, The Death of Peregrine, 11-13.10. Tertullian, Apologeticus, Chapter 21, 1911. Origen, Against Celsus, Book 2.3312. Celsus, Contra Celsum 6.3413. The Babylonian Talmud, transl. by I. Epstein (London: Soncino, 1935), vol. III, Sanhedrin 43a, 28114. Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ. College Press Publishing Company, Inc.; 2011th edition (3 June 1996)15. Bart Ehrman, The Historical Jesus: Lecture Transcript and Course Guidebook, Part 2 of 2 (Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company. 2000), pg. 162.16. F, Morrison. Who Moved the Stone?: A Skeptic Looks at the Death and Resurrection of Christ. (27 July, 1987)17. Catherine M. Murphy, The Historical Jesus For Dummies, For Dummies Pub., 2007. p 1418. Josephus, Antiquities, 4.8.1552. Wright, NT. The New Unimproved Jesus, Christianity Today (September 13, 1993), p.2619. National Health Service of the United Kingdom, Hallucinations and Hearing Voices. NHS UK, accessed (1 October 2019) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hallucinations.20. Charles Mackey. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (London, Office of the National Illustrated Library, 1852).21. Lee Strobel. The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), p. 238.22. Ludemann, Gurd, What Really Happened to Jesus: A Historical Approach to the Resurrection, 1995, pg. 8023. Kastensmidt, S. Truth Unearthed: Archaeology & the Bible. Examining the evidence: part 5. Reliability of the New Testament Scriptures. Rio Vista Community Church, 201624. Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture. Kregel Publications (May 9, 2006)25. Bart. D. Ehrman. Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. 2006 pg. 5526. Bart. D. Ehrman. Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. 2006 Appendix pg. 252–25327. Craig, W. Reasonable Faith. (June 9, 2008)28. Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture. Kregel Publications (May 9, 2006)29. Habermas, G. R. (1996). The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ (pp. 142-170). Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing Company30. James D.G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003, p. 55, 85531. Dr. Edwin Yamauchi, Easter - Myth, Hallucination or History? Christianity Today (March 15; 1974; and March 24, 1974)32. Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids, Michael Kregel, forthcoming)SUPPORT THIS PODCAST/MINISTRY at www.christalonenetwork.com/giveFeatured Ad: www.renewedmindsets.comQuestions/Suggestions: www.christalonenetwork.com/contactPrayer Request: www.christalonenetwork.com/prayerImmediate Contact: call/text 407-796-2881

This week Angie and Stevens finish “The Resurrection of Jesus, Myth?” with the 3rd and final part of the series where they conclude, providing the evidence for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus from non-Christian, haters of Christianity, and the source list below so that anyone else can verify the information for themselves. Please call/text for any questions, suggestions or prayer requests at 407-796-2881 or find us at www.linktr.ee/ChristAlone References: 1. Habermas, Gary. The Risen Jesus and Future Hope. (September 8, 2003) 2. J, Warner Wallace. Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels. (January 1, 2003) 3. Dunn, James DG., ed. The Cambridge Companion to St. Paul, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2003) 4. F. F. Bruce, Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974) 5. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, AD 93, chapter 3 6. A. J. Levine, D. C. Allison & J. D. Crossan, The historical Jesus in context, Volume 12, Princeton University Press, 2006. p 405 7. British Museum, Syriac Manuscript, Additional 14,658 8. Tacitus, Annals, AD 116, book 15, chapter 44 9. Lucian, The Death of Peregrine, 11-13. 10. Tertullian, Apologeticus, Chapter 21, 19 11. Origen, Against Celsus, Book 2.33 12. Celsus, Contra Celsum 6.34 13. The Babylonian Talmud, transl. by I. Epstein (London: Soncino, 1935), vol. III, Sanhedrin 43a, 281 14. Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ. College Press Publishing Company, Inc.; 2011th edition (3 June 1996) 15. Bart Ehrman, The Historical Jesus: Lecture Transcript and Course Guidebook, Part 2 of 2 (Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company. 2000), pg. 162. 16. F, Morrison. Who Moved the Stone?: A Skeptic Looks at the Death and Resurrection of Christ. (27 July, 1987) 17. Catherine M. Murphy, The Historical Jesus For Dummies, For Dummies Pub., 2007. p 14 18. Josephus, Antiquities, 4.8.15 52. Wright, NT. The New Unimproved Jesus, Christianity Today (September 13, 1993), p.26 19. National Health Service of the United Kingdom, Hallucinations and Hearing Voices. NHS UK, accessed (1 October 2019) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hallucinations. 20. Charles Mackey. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (London, Office of the National Illustrated Library, 1852). 21. Lee Strobel. The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), p. 238. 22. Ludemann, Gurd, What Really Happened to Jesus: A Historical Approach to the Resurrection, 1995, pg. 80 23. Kastensmidt, S. Truth Unearthed: Archaeology & the Bible. Examining the evidence: part 5. Reliability of the New Testament Scriptures. Rio Vista Community Church, 2016 24. Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture. Kregel Publications (May 9, 2006) 25. Bart. D. Ehrman. Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. 2006 pg. 55 26. Bart. D. Ehrman. Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. 2006 Appendix pg. 252–253 27. Craig, W. Reasonable Faith. (June 9, 2008) 28. Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture. Kregel Publications (May 9, 2006) 29. Habermas, G. R. (1996). The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ (pp. 142-170). Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing Company 30. James D.G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003, p. 55, 855 31. Dr. Edwin Yamauchi, Easter - Myth, Hallucination or History? Christianity Today (March 15; 1974; and March 24, 1974) 32. Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids, Michael Kregel, forthcoming) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/christalone/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/christalone/support

What would you do if you weren't scared? Today I am reviewing the book, Who Moved my Cheese? by Spencer Johnson Buy the Book https://amzn.to/3CSb5N4 Get access to free books ONLINE with CLOUD LIBRARY! https://www.yourcloudlibrary.com Song: That's Life - Frank Sinatra Check out my Books: Visit arawelo.net Every Little Living Thing Paperback https://amzn.to/3hTibnG Kindle https://amzn.to/32LRHOT Jasper Kindle https://amzn.to/2GF1IGE Paperback https://amzn.to/36Z7qO7 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/markedrose/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/markedrose/support

In our 67th Episode of "The Failosophical Guy", we share with you lessons from the book "Who Moved my Cheese”. It is a short, light-hearted parable about the different ways we respond to life's changes and how doing so skill-fully can help us find more success and happiness in our lives.Tune in to know more! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

On this episode of Who Moved my Freedom I am joined by Braden of Langley Outdoors Academy on YouTube. We will go over all the current second amendment news including today's hot button issue of the Republican Candidate that set the internet on fire with Pro Gun Ad.

A new MP3 sermon from First Bible Church of New Jersey is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Who Moved? Subtitle: Family Camp 2022 Speaker: Matt Maietta Broadcaster: First Bible Church of New Jersey Event: Camp Meeting Date: 6/24/2022 Length: 36 min.

Tonight on Who Moved my Freedom Podcast what is Libertarian Voluntaryism? I am joined by Jack Lloyd and Pho of the YouTube channel The Pholosopher promoting philosophy, self knowledge, and voluntary human interactions.

Peter Vekselman Episode 098 What could you do with unlimited leads, coaching and capital? Featuring Peter Vekselman -The Lockbox Podcast with Jeffrey Brogger  Peter Vekselman is a recognized national authority in real estate investing. He has 30 years of investing experience and today, he leads a team of real estate professionals who close deals across the country.  His company, Partner Driven, offers services in coaching those entering the industry, and he mentors and supports people in every aspect of the deal. The company has a mobile app named Deal Driven that one could run their entire business through a turnkey system. In this episode, Peter explains the partnership format and says he is not a lender, but the company takes on the risk. Highlights of the conversation include: How one can succeed with unlimited capital, coaching and leads driven to you. How the company and app works. The failures while in the mobile home industry. Inbound and outbound lead generation. Real estate is number driven and not an emotion business. Lessons learned from the book, Who Moved my Cheese? Align yourself with the right people for success. Enjoy the show! Connect with Peter: Website: https://partnerdriven.com/ Connect with Jeff: https://steezy.digital/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.brogger  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-brogger/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffbrogger FREE DOWNLOAD: The Ultimate Real Estate Goal Setting Framework This SMART spreadsheet will automatically breakdown the number of phone calls, appointments, or open houses you need in order to achieve your income goal!!! Click below to download this SMART spreadsheet today! https://steezy.digital/ultimate-real-estate-goal-setting-framework Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we feel like God seems so far away, especially after times of closeness, we gotta ask the question, Who Moved?

Our top stories include: Consumer Prices Likely to Accelerate, Evergrande in Default and Who Moved the Cream Cheese Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In my slow conversion, the deadbolt that barred me from faith was always true belief in the resurrection, since the entirety of Christianity depends on it, as St. Paul himself wrote. Without it, the whole story falls apart, and none of the other miracles matter. The resurrection of a sinless human opens the door to the forgiveness of sins and new life for us all. If there is no resurrection, then Jesus is simply an insane charlatan that deserves no respect or worship. This situation of the resurrection puts everyone into a decision point about whether to believe or not, and this is exactly why Christianity is so challenging. The leap of faith all comes down to the resurrection.To me the proper response if you do not believe in the resurrection is rejection of all of the Christian faith. Literally, none of it is worth the paper it is written on if he is lying, even the teachings and parables, because to claim divinity without it being true really would be a mental disorder. There is no other response but rejection if the resurrection did not happen, as the teachings of Jesus become moot if the miracle is false. There are lots of teachers in history we can use that didn't claim something so outlandish. Especially today with all the meditation and self-help books, we can find maxims and aphorisms to live by that do not require belief in miracles.On the other hand, if the resurrection happened, then you have no choice but to fully embrace Jesus as the savior. This is why belief is hard, because if the resurrection is true, everything is true. All of it, and yes, that includes the hard parts. The resurrection truly is an either/or selection that we have to make, and if the default is choosing doubt and ignoring the claim, the much more difficult choice is to examine and review whether or not to believe in the resurrection.This dilemma presents a fork in the road on how to live your life, one that must be chosen. This is not like being asked to believe if Athena really sprung from Zeus's head or to believe in the tree worship of ancient tribes in The Golden Bough, this decision puts the miraculous directly in front of us. And we must choose, as even choosing not to make a choice is itself a choice. Making no choice at all is choosing to deny the miracle. That is the default position, but still it is a choice. I love mythology and trees. Really, who doesn't? Yes, I love Lord of the Rings and giant oak trees and Ovid's Metamorphosis and cottonwoods. In fact, I like science too and stand in awe of the everyday miracles of surgery and treatments that save lives. But this dilemma about Jesus and the resurrection cannot be avoided because the reality is that our heart knows there is something more than this world, beyond the confines of science and what is known and knowable, that God is so far beyond our ability and understanding that something supernatural, that is beyond nature, can exist and touch our world. The author of the universe cannot be understood, but you can see the wonder in the world everywhere in art and nature. We are characters in the author's book who cannot know what is outside of our story here, but we can feel the presence of something higher than just tall tales or the periodic table of elements.He declared multiple times that he is the way to eternal life. That is a hard pill to swallow for modern rationalists who seek data and a cause for all things. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live,” and “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I guess this is why Jesus says we have to enter through the narrow gate, because it is hard to find and perhaps harder to decide to walk through that gate. I think it is mainly hard to squeeze my mind and ego through it.I've gone on in a prior post about how the scenario at the tomb on Easter Sunday sowed doubt in me. The story sounded too fantastic to be true, and lacking answers I let my doubt win rather than pursue the subject, since I didn't get the impression that asking questions was encouraged. I've come to realize that Catholicism can handle any question thrown at it, especially ones surrounding the divinity of Jesus. Today I only wish I had sought a deeper understanding of faith sooner in life. I have come to realize that there is no stone left unturned in the writings of the church and the Catechism, as they have spent 2,000 years turning over stones.Specifically, for the resurrection, there are many points that tipped the scales from doubt to faith, but not without probably cause and good reason. As Frank Morison noted in his book Who Moved the Stone? about his own conversion to the truth of the resurrection:I have wrestled with that problem and found it tougher than ever I could have conceived possible. It is easy to say that you will believe nothing that will not fit into the mold of a rationalist conception of the universe. But suppose the facts won't fit into that mold? The utmost that an honest man can do is to undertake to examine the facts patiently and impartially, and to see where they lead him.The main reasons are below, but each could be a lengthy post of its own.-The fearful and defeated Apostles turns into fearless and unbreakable believers. No one dies for a lie. Not this way. People may be willing to die for a lie that gives them social standing or power or fame or honor, but the followers of Jesus got none of that. They received the opposite, becoming outcasts and rejects of society.-If the Romans or people of Jerusalem could have produced the body of Jesus, they would have done so. No one ever did.-No one disputes that the tomb was empty. This is a massive fact, even for those that accuse the Apostles of stealing the body. Clearly the tomb was empty. This is a problem for the Romans, Jews, and Apostles. Even Mary Magdalene first announces that the body has been taken. Had his body been moved to a different tomb or location, rumor and hearsay in the city would have created cause for a search, and even today pilgrimages to the “correct” tomb in Jerusalem would be occurring. This didn't happen. The powers at the time try to convince people that the Apostles moved the body, but these men were all cowering in fear, scattered across the city or returned home. Someone in the city of Jerusalem would have known where this second burial location was at, but no one appears to even be searching for a kidnapped body.-If the Apostles had moved the body or knew of someone moving the body, one of them would have cracked under the numerous beatings and torture and martyrdom that came to them over the next thirty years. They never waver in their story, not once. None of them. Human beings cannot keep a secret, so if they had a secret of such magnitude, it would have come out.-If it was all made up, the writers of the Gospels and Acts and James would not have mentioned a 7 week gap between the death of Jesus and the beginning of the preaching the Good News. This gap only causes doubt or gives detractors an entry point to suggest that the Apostles spent these 7 weeks crafting a story. This is one of the elements of the timeline that actually creates doubt. If the early believers wanted to sell a contrived fable, they would have claimed their preaching began the moment Jesus had risen. But they don't write that - they all agree that they were confused and fearful until 7 weeks after the death and Resurrection.-Once they do begin to tell the story of the Resurrection, after Pentecost, the Apostles manage to win over people in the same city where the trial, death, and burial happened. They convince people who were there in the city when it happened. The Apostles didn't sneak off elsewhere, far away, and start telling people who might be duped, they stood in the city where it happened, where everyone knew it had happened and had even witnessed Jesus' ministry. The original band of evangelists were uneducated people with no social standing who suddenly begin to convince people that the Resurrection occurred.-Over 500 people saw the risen Jesus. It's not just a handful of people. The “hallucination” theory might work for one or two, but not 11, and certainly not 500.-Women are recorded as the first witnesses at the tomb and this is important, as culturally they were not even allowed to be witnesses in court. This would not help make the case, so it's clear that the women were the first to witness, or the Gospel writers would have left it out. They would not have wanted to mention this since it worked against their case, but they did mention it, so why would they make it up?-Over and over in the Gospels and Acts details are included that allow for doubt, or questions about the miracles. The authors are clearly not crafting a tale because elements of the stories do not make sense unless they were true. If they were trying to build up the apostles, why tell about Peter's denial of Jesus? Why admit Jesus wanted to escape his fate in the Garden by “passing this cup”? Why have Jesus utter the words, “My God, My God, why you have forsaken me,” on the cross? Why not make the stone at the tomb crumble like magic? Why admit that the Apostles fell asleep in the Garden? Why characterize the Apostles as bumbling rubes so frequently? These books read like no other literature ever written and the writers were not literary types or trained storytellers. These aren't troubadours, they are fishermen and tax collectors. The reason for all of these curiosities in the Gospels is that the truth needs no rehearsal.-Crucifixion was a brutal spectacle meant to shame. The fact that the savior of the world would be shamefully executed in this way – no one would make up a story like this. It was demoralizing and devastating to the Apostles, until the Resurrection and Pentecost turned them into lions. To have your savior of the world, your messiah, rushed through an urgent kangaroo court trial and brutally executed with two murderers does not fit with any other story ever told. And no, the myth of Horus is not the same, not even close. Great effort among doubters is made to disable the message, but most amazing is that however many angles the attack takes to steer people away from the Gospels, it never works. The truth of these four books cannot be squashed, despite the Herculean efforts of writers and governments. The story taps into what is written in our hearts and for those who come to believe, the idea that we are both sinners and saved is shocking. That we are corrupt and don't deserve saving, coupled with Jesus' coming to serve us and die for us as if we were the heroes of the story, could not be invented by these writers and agreed upon so readily unless they were writing the truth. There is no myth of god of any other religion where the hero dies for the unworthy and then immediately turns around and forgives his killers. If anything, all other myths have the god turn around and wreak vengeance upon his tormentors. For anyone that reads these books without a cynical eye, with a historical context and critical study guides like those of the Navarre Bible or Word on Fire Bible, the reader will begin to feel the power of these words, as there is no myth or history or genre that can compare to this story.-The Gospels agree that Jesus had said multiple times that he would rise on the third day. This clearly stood out in the Apostles memory as it is recorded in multiple places. This “third day” repetition is hammered into them by Jesus as a reminder.-The “swoon theory” of Jesus not dying on the cross is beyond ridiculous, as the witnesses of the risen Christ do not see a staggering, bloody, nearly dead man in the Upper Room. They see a fully restored man, but with the wounds to prove it is Him. A “swooned” man who had been tortured and whipped and crucified and lanced wouldn't be restored in a mere 2 days after the event. He wouldn't be able to walk or move. Those type of injuries would have had a man on a gurney, not eating fish and walking to Emmaus. Moreover, the “swoon theory” didn't come about until modern times when some creative academics got together and invented it.-There is more written about Jesus than any other historical figure of his time. Clearly he existed, and clearly the Romans crucified him. Matt Nelson of Word on Fire recently wrote an article on this. -Ancient people, I have come to realize, were probably less gullible than people are today (see the internet and Facebook for ample evidence). The idea that the “ancients” were morons is just modern prejudice, also known as chronological snobbery. The idea of someone rising bodily and passing through walls and ascending to heaven would have been every bit as incredulous to an ancient audience as us today with all of our gains in modern science.-The message could not be stopped. In a short time, this idea spread like wildfire. Starting with Rome and ever since, empires have attempted to stop the message of the Resurrection and failed. There is something greater at work, something beyond this world, something stunning and world-changing. There have been plenty of false messiahs whose messages go nowhere. But this one cannot be stopped, and all of the witnesses agree and will die for it and did die for it.This quote from Frank Morison sums up the challenge that is put before us:If the sole evidence for this really extraordinary phenomenon lay in a single passage in the early chapters of Acts it would be possible to regard it as the rather exuberant record of a contemporary historian whose close connection with the movement had biased and colored his views. But this is precisely what no one can claim. There is a far earlier and more authoritative testimony in the letters of Paul, of Peter, and of James the Just, and in the admittedly historic network of Christian churches stretching from Jerusalem through Asia Minor to the catacombs at Rome. Only from an intensely heated center of burning zeal could this vast field of lava have been thrown out from a tiny country like Palestine to the limits of the Roman world…The phenomenon that here confronts us is one of the biggest dislodgments of events in the world's history, and it can be accounted for only by an initial impact of colossal drive and power.Yet the original material from which we have to derive this dynamic force consists of a habitual doubter like Thomas, a rather weak fisherman like Peter, a gentle dreamer like John, a practical tax gatherer like Matthew, a few seafaring men like Andrew and Nathanael, the inevitable women, and at most two or three others.I do not want to minimize the character of the historic nucleus from which Christianity sprang, but, seriously, does this rather heterogeneous body of simple folk, reeling under the shock of the Crucifixion, the utter degradation and death of their Leader, look like the driving force we require? Frankly it does not, and the more we think of it disintegrating under the crisis, the less can we imagine it rewelding into that molten focus that achieved those results. Yet the clear evidence of history is that it did. Something came into the lives of these very simple and ordinary people that transformed them……The sequence of coincidences is too strong. When we remember the swinging around of the disciples from panic fear to absolute certitude, the singular matter of the seven weeks' gap, the extraordinarily rapid adhesion of converts in Jerusalem, the strange absence of administrative vigor on the part of the authorities, the steady growing of the church, both in authority and power, until the whole situation blew up into the frenzied attempts at suppression under Saul, we realize The Historic Crux of the Problem that we are in the presence of something far more tangible than the psychological repercussion of a fisherman's dream.If the flip happens in your brain, from disbelief to belief, where resurrection becomes a capitalized “R” - Resurrection - you are in trouble, because there is no turning back. You will be stuck with the result of being happy and having a purpose in your life like you have never experienced before. You will no longer be sinking, you will have a hand reach out for you when you look away and start to fall. The fear of being adrift will disappear when you say, “God, help me,” and Jesus will reach out and grab your hand before it goes under. He will save you first, and then with a gentle rebuke he will say to you, “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?”Notes:Listen to Trent Horn on comparisons to other myths.Read Matt Nelson's article on the existence of Jesus and 4 reasons to believe in the crucifixion. Book: Who Moved the Stone? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

This week on Mel & Floyd: Mel gets boosted;  Rodgers' weasel word non-apology; A possible evolution-based rationale for mask resistance; Compassion for ugly-eye people; Vaccines versus exorcisms; Black Friday preview; GOP apparently OK with wife-strangling senate candidate; The latest from Estonia; SmartyPants' strict rules for Christmas trees; And other Random Topics; Subscribe to the Mel […] The post Who Moved the Poop? appeared first on WORT 89.9 FM.

On this episode of Who Moved my Freedom podcast we take a look at the completed DIY Glock bullpup build using parts from JSD Supply and files from CTRL + Pew. We talk with FlyinRich and Shooting Gallery NE about the project and other topics. You can get Parts for Your Next DIY Build at JSD Supply.

On this episode of Who Moved my Freedom podcast we take a look at the completed DIY Glock bullpup build using parts from JSD Supply and files from CTRL + Pew. We talk with FlyinRich and Shooting Gallery NE about the project and other topics. You can get Parts for Your Next DIY Build at JSD Supply.

Tailored for Success, Inc. is. nonprofit organization that empowers job seekers to become economically self-sufficient by providing resources, skills training and supportive reinforcement. Since 2000, we have been empowering job seekers to secure employment and advance within their careers. To learn more, I encourage you to visit our website at www.tailoredforsuccess.org, where you can sign up for our newsletter, receive services or volunteer to support our mission. You can also get daily updates by joining our Facebook or LinkedIn groups, and following us on Instagram and Twitter. Need advice on to improve your professional image? Check us out on Pintrest. This episode is an overview of Season 2 of Pivot Point, Success is a Journey. I'll be following the same format as Season 1 - which will be a series of interviews and insights from books and articles I've read. In this episode, I discuss briefly the book "Who Moved my Cheese" by Spencer Johnson. https://www.amazon.com/Moved-Cheese-Spencer-Johnson-M-D/dp/0743582853 If you want to support this podcast and the mission of Tailored for Success, please visit our website: www.tailoredforsuccess.org. Thank you for listening to Pivot Point, Success is a Journey. Follow us: Facebook: @TailoredForSTailored for Success is a nonprofit organization that empowers job seekers to become economically self-sufficient by providing resources, skills training and supportive reinforcement. Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/tailoredforsuccess LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/tailoredforsuccess Instagram: tailoredforsuccess Twitter: @_Tailored4 Pintrest: pintrest.com/tailored2

Paul, Who Stood before the Roman Emperor, Who Moved the World (2021.08.23)

Paul, Who Stood before the Roman Emperor, Who Moved the World (2021.08.23)

The most difficult part of faith to me, is the part where you have to actually have faith. Consider this definition, and think of the implications of it against the backdrop of our world today:By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. (CCC 143)Think about what is being requested here. If I completely give my intellect and will to anything, wouldn't that just make me an automaton or a robot? How gullible do you think I am? You know, blind faith is how cults get started! The definition above always seemed too extreme. I could not subscribe to without a very compelling reason to do so, with ample evidence and reason behind why I would ever submit wholly to anything.First, to even bring me to the table to consider this deal, the product or service needs to offer an amazing deal, a prize that cannot be gotten anywhere else through any other vendor.I have already written about the efforts I've given toward things of this world, such as alcohol, knowledge, work, and exercise, but in those pursuits I didn't give complete power over myself. You might say I divided up my intellect and will between a few pursuits at a time, but never fully to any single thing. While drinking I never reached anywhere near the point of alcoholic nihilism like that of Leaving Las Vegas. I certainly never won my age group in any marathons or foot races, proving that I could have trained harder. At work, I may throw myself into tasks but eventually I slack off or burnout. I don't know that I've ever given myself completely to anything.While I pursued those things, I imagined that I could still be good, or more specifically, virtuous. Obviously I was more virtuous with exercise as my highest priority rather than alcohol, but what I want and desire to be is to be vigilant in staying virtuous. From the self-help books of today, to Stoicism and Epicureanism, to Confucianism, to Buddhism, a code of ethics can be found in a thousand flavors. Each can be applied for living virtuously and righteously, to a high degree of success.For a time I was enamored with Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. In fact, I still am. He recorded an amazing list of thoughts on living righteously, as he simultaneously tried to halt the rise of a rival Christian ethics that was catching fire among citizens of the empire. Today, a modern Stoic movement's rise is gathering steam among the secular world, as its core teachings fit into a inward looking self-reliance, meditation, and “mindfulness” (which seems to be the secular term for prayer that we use today). To this day, I refer back to certain passages in my dog-eared copy of Marcus Aurelius's thoughts. For instance, this passage is powerful to me:Whatever anyone does or says, I must be a good man. It is as if an emerald, or gold or purple, were always saying: ‘Whatever anyone does or says, I must be an emerald and keep my colour.' (VII.15)The book contains an amazing set of ideas for living, many of which you can find strong parallels in the Gospels in the words of Jesus. Verses on forgiveness, kindness, strength, and the fleeting nature of life jump off the page. Marcus Aurelius's writing contains a remarkable worldview that works well, but, in my opinion, there is one crack in the Stoic concrete that the ice of life wedges apart: the Stoic looks for help from within, while the Christian looks for help outside, from God. The inward vs. outward gaze makes all the difference.I have already learned the hard way that my willpower alone does not work, or does not work for long whenever I have tried. Willpower and discipline come from the self, but without connecting the mind and body to the external God, we cannot overcome our own built-in flaws. I have character flaws that cannot be unwound from inside because they are written on my bones and brain. The power to overcome these flaws cannot start from within me, because the power doesn't live in me. The power is outside of me, and I need to let it in to be there. If I don't let it in, I can't find it. Once I let the Holy Spirit in, then I can create a “little chapel in the heart” where I can go for strength and trust, to remove anxiety and fear. In addition, the Stoic method works best for the strong, not the weak, ill, or elderly. It approaches life's problems from a position of strength. Emotionless love and shades of forgiveness exist in Marcus Aurelius, but nothing like the forgiveness that Jesus commands. The best example is when Peter asks Jesus how many times we should forgive someone, and he throws out a number, seven. Is seven times enough?I can hear the wheels turning in Peter's head: “Hey, Jesus, about the whole forgiveness thing, what's the actual maximum before we can hate or discard the person again without feeling bad?” I can almost hear him thinking about someone that he's irritated with as he's asking, probably his brother Andrew or one of the other apostles.Jesus delivers one of his greatest one-liners on forgiveness, shooting down Peter's question. “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.”* Probably not what Peter was looking for in the answer but the one he needed. Again, I can imagine him nodding and thinking, “Wow, I was almost to seven times forgiving Andrew. I mean, I was thinking that in basketball after seven fouls you get the bonus and free throws, but I'm not even close. He gets to commit seventy more fouls and I have to keep forgiving him.” I don't think anyone is as relatable as Peter, since his weaknesses and eye for shortcuts do not seem that far off from my own.If anything makes the Christian message stand out from all others, it's the approach. Rather than coming from a position of strength, the message of Jesus comes from a position of vulnerability and humbleness. Jesus comes to serve the weak, not the strong. This unexpected twist on power flips the script on all deities. We do not gain God's favor by our ability, but by our need for God. And God gives the grace if we only ask for it. We used to joke, “What is the best kind of beer?” The answer was “Free beer.” This grace from God is free and it really is much better than free beer, because there is no headache. I just have to ask for help and God fortifies me against anything. I need to be weak, and need help, to be strong. Admitting this is hard, asking for help goes against much of our worldly instincts. This message reverberates through the entire Christian era, even in a recent homily from Pope Francis.“Be reconciled: the journey is not based on our own strength. No one can be reconciled to God on his or her own…What enables us to return to him is not our own ability or merit, but his offer of grace…The beginning of the return to God is the recognition of our need for him and his mercy, our need for his grace. This is the right path, the path of humility. Do I feel in need, or do I feel self-sufficient?”*If a code of ethics is all we want or need, then Christianity would never have got off the ground. Even the ancient world had plenty of self-help philosophies. What sets Jesus apart from others is the claim that he is God, but he serves everyone, forgives everyone, and suffers. All of this from a position of weakness rather than strength. This is a wild claim to make and either puts him into one of two categories: he is either telling the truth, or he's insane. If he is insane, then he's lying about being the son of God. If he is lying, the resurrection is bogus. If the resurrection does not occur, then all of the New Testament can be thrown out. St. Paul said this very clearly, that all is in vain without the resurrection. Even the ethics and morals are moot because the ancient world already had plenty of moral teachers, ones that were not insane. If virtue is the sole goal, then options already existed.Thus, it all comes down to the resurrection. All of it: every miracle and parable, every clever comeback and turning of the cheek. If the resurrection does not occur, then the whole New Testament is a tale like any other mythology. As I mentioned earlier, one of the turning points in my loss of faith came from asking questions about the empty tomb and that it seemed easy to remove a body and claim resurrection. Not only that, but the different Gospel accounts of the empty tomb still conjure up those old doubts in me. Were there guards posted at the tomb or not? Who did the women see there? Was it one man, or two men? Or an angel? Exactly how many women came to the tomb and can we get the names please? Was the stone still in place or already rolled back? How heavy was the stone? How were the women going to roll back the stone for anointing if it was sealed? Were they at the wrong tomb? Did Mark add the resurrection paragraph after his first writing, and if so, did he think the empty tomb spoke for itself or did he add it to “fix” his story later on? Where is this tomb?This can go on and on. It has gone on among scholars, for a long time. I am not going to go any further into my former doubts on the tomb, because I stumbled across a used book in a Goodwill thrift store called Who Moved the Stone? which addresses all of these questions. I'm glad someone else already did the heavy lifting. I just needed to read this short book in a single sitting to soak up the answers I was longing for regarding the tomb.I'm also not going to go further on the tomb because of one other major reason that I cannot explain away: I cannot fathom the immense drive and spirit of the apostles, who tended to waffle, quibble, and argue. The flaws and frailties of these men make them clearly human, not fiction. And they went from cardboard to steel alloy in conviction, strength, and boldness. Their message never wavered in the aftermath. The only explanation to me is that they did indeed experience and confirm the resurrection of Jesus. All of the apostles were fearful and had fled to hiding places during and after the crucifixion, but then become recklessly fearless and willing to suffer any amount of pain to tell the world what happened.These first Christians didn't give their lives for a philosophical system…they died to uphold what they knew because they had seen it with their own eyes. Had it been a lie, then why die for it? … One after another these eyewitnesses gave up their lives defending the truth they had seen: Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. (The Search, p.119)Suddenly, somehow, Peter goes from being weak and furtive to a fortress of faith. He is crucified upside down thirty years later, having preached the message his entire life, with no education beyond that of a fisherman. The other apostles fare the same. That is, badly, as they are stoned, burned, stabbed, beaten, boiled, clubbed, and crucified. All the while they are relentless in spreading this message, alone, in different areas of the known world, telling the same story. If they were up to clever tricks about the tomb or Jesus' body, someone would have cracked and tattled. Moreover, if the authorities, Jewish or Roman, had stolen or hidden the body, they would have just produced it and ended this tall tale.Something happened, something profound, mysterious, impossible and life-changing for these people. Robert Barron says it best:“That this dejected band would spontaneously generate the faith that would send them careening around the world with the message of Resurrection strains credulity. What is undeniably clear is that something had happened to Jesus - something so strange that those who witnessed it had no category to describe it.” WOF Bible, p.280).With daily readings I have come to believe. My faith has come by effort and truly needs continual conversion to stay strong. I did not fall off a horse, like Paul did. The Church talks about continual conversion and the need to restore the belief, and this is true. In coaching there is a saying that you need to refill your “E-tank,” your “Emotional Tank,” from time to time. That is true of coaching, and it's true of faith. Belief can feel like a gas tank that needs a fill-up, which is why daily prayer is so beneficial to it. Faith is also like fitness, where as soon as you stop exercising the backsliding into sloth and muscle atrophy begins. Whenever we lose focus, we start to slide, and the world has many distractions to pull that focus away. In fact, modern technology is entirely based on pulling our focus away, which is why programmers and marketers have “focus” groups and A-B advertising tests to figure out how to pull your focus away from life so that instead we will focus on their products and services. All of this drains the E-Tank of faith.As an example of losing that focus, and how quickly and easily it can happen: this morning I had spent time reading and praying and felt ready for the day, both in spirit and body. I got into my car and started driving. At the first stoplight a driver didn't realize the light had turned green and I almost knee-jerkingly wanted to honk and call the man an idiot. I find this remarkable, as I had just spent time reading about humility, and the lack of it among the Pharisees. “For they preach but they do not practice.”* I'm such a Pharisee. How easy it is to be moral and righteous when alone, and how difficult in real interactions with people. So many of us today, particularly in our cars, leap to anger almost instantly, over minuscule events and perceived insults. I'll apply that same sentiment to social media, which is the greatest poison to our peace of mind of all modern invention. At least in my car, only I can hear whatever cruel whim flits between my ears. Not so on Facebook and YouTube comments, where we are all free to spew angsty discord to the entire world.The human heart and mind so quickly drift from intentions and hopes, and so I cannot imagine the remaining eleven apostles, who were ordinary men, sticking to their wits and resolve with such commitment unless they were utterly convinced of the rising of Jesus. This accomplishment was not completed behind closed doors, by reading and writing, but by interaction in the world in the face of monstrous opposition. They did not bring the message by the sword, but rather the sword was put to them. These ordinary people did not flinch or crumble, as if their sign of the cross made their spirit, if not their bodies, impervious to the slings and arrows of this world.Now, if they had solely come up with a great idea or story that satisfied our hearts, they might have convinced only gullible people to believe. If that were the case, then the powers of the world wouldn't have worried about them. But the apostles took this idea of the risen Jesus into the heart of the intellectual world of Jerusalem, and shockingly, won the argument. The eleven didn't flee to the hinterlands to start proclaiming, they returned to the very location of the trial and death of Jesus, where witnesses lived and where the events occurred.[There is]…the indisputable fact that Christianity was gaining adherents at a prodigious pace. The movement was spreading beyond all reasonable expectation...The terrific persecution of Saul, involving an inquisition to places as far distant as Damascus, shows that four years later it had grown to really alarming proportions.*Put this fact together with who first witnessed and started to tell of the risen Jesus. The women at the tomb were first, and Mary Magdalene explicitly is mentioned. The very first voice that recognizes and announces the missing body and resurrection is a woman who had “seven devils” driven out of her and was a “sinful” woman. If spinning a yarn, the Gospel writers would have posted someone of political or worldly significance. Perhaps someone like Caiaphas, the high priest, might have come to the tomb and said, “I was wrong. I can't believe it, but it's true,” and thrown himself into prayer. But no, the witness to the most important event in history is a “fallen” woman, who would not have clout, nor even enfranchisement among women. Yet she is the chosen witness, fitting with the “last will be first” of Jesus' teachings. The empty tomb, as seen by the women, is undisputed. There seems to be no one arguing that the body is gone and the burial clothes were left behind. The only argument seems to be about what happened to the body, but not about the empty state of the tomb and the women being the first to discover it.The second voice is Peter's, the fisherman, and his first proclamation starts with something funny, assuring that he and his cohort are not drunk. “These people are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.”* That he needed to say this suggests that he knew this message sounded radical and insane. Without any education or platform to deliver knowledge, he begins by telling people, “Really, people, I'm not on drugs.” But the message is not aimed at simpletons, rather he delivers it to “devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.”* This implies both uneducated people and intellectuals. If this were all a charade and tale, the leader would need to be someone steeped in rhetoric and debate, to handle the rebuttals and logical criticisms that surely came immediately. But it's a man who catches fish for a living, who somehow convinces thousands upon thousands that what he has seen is true, in the city where the event occurred. Peter is not a genius or shrewd salesman, but after Jesus' death his character is altered dramatically. I often think of the saying, “The truth requires no rehearsal.” This is why salespeople and lawyers need to rehearse arguments, demonstrations, and pitches: because there is a roundabout angle to getting to the “truth.” Peter is able to speak plainly, from the heart, and people believe him, unrehearsed, because he's telling the truth and wouldn't be able to convince anyone if he were telling a contrived fiction. He doesn't have the training and toolkit to do that. His transformation is unexplainable without the Holy Spirit filling him with grace. The same can be said for the others who became warriors of faith after having so recently been trembling and afraid at the crucifixion, hiding out, even returning to their old jobs after being devastated at the death of Jesus, thinking that he had not “redeemed Israel” after all.“It took an objective encounter with the risen Jesus to crystallize the disciples' faith in Him and cause them to proclaim His resurrection. Visions and subjective experiences would not have done it. Something had been seen. Something real.”*“Gethsemane's cowards became Pentecost's heroes. This is inexplicable without the Resurrection. Had prestige, wealth, and increased social status accrued to new believers when they professed Christ and His resurrection, their profession would be logically understandable. In fact, however, their "rewards" were of a different type, eventually involving lions, crucifixion, and every other conceivable method of stopping them from talking.”*I spent many years refuting and mocking the idea of the resurrection of Jesus. I have made many rude thoughts about it, siding with the doubters and logicians, writing off miracles as artifacts of an age where the world was haunted by demons. In reality, I guess my abandonment of Christianity was one response, because if you do not accept the resurrection, then the only answer is total abandonment of the faith. St. Paul has said the same, as have many others. Without the resurrection, what's the point of it all?I cannot explain how resurrection can occur, nor do I need to, because I believe now that events can happen beyond our comprehension, that science does not and will never explain everything. Even if life is discovered on other planets, or our physicists take us to the depths of the quantum world, and biology cures the last disease, and psychologists can explain away and prescribe solutions for all mental ailments, nothing can replace the need for God in my heart, as I have followed it all the way down to the end of the line, and I know that the answer to all questions is through faith, by surrendering my will and intellect to belief in the resurrection of Jesus. The flaw of humanity is real, and I find nothing more convincing than the resurrection of Jesus as the cure, for the forgiveness of me and my enemies, as the only way to live in the world and hold on to one another for the promise of the next. There is only one path to removing hate, and that is forgiveness and love, and that is why the power of the Christian message never dies. Right now the world may be called “post-Christian” but it's not, as nothing the secular world can offer will ultimately replace the message of love and forgiveness through God. The United States and Chinese empires of today will fall away like every other empire before it, like the USSR, the Third Reich, the Austro-Hungarians, the Ottomans, the Hapsburgs, the Holy Roman empire, the Romans, the Greeks, and a thousand other willed sand castles of mankind, yet the truth of faith will endure. People have in the past and will again in the future use, abuse, and twist the faith to make it a tool of worldly power, but the center will hold because love and forgiveness shine through any lies in the end. Straying from that cannot go forever because the believers are like yo-yos, who must come back to the starting point. Nothing could shake the power of the message that empowered the very first believers of Jesus, and time and again those who hold steadfast to the Golden Rule correct the errant ways of a drifting faith. To this day the power of the Word remains fully charged, and this is because of the resurrection. From a position of weakness, forgiveness, and love, we are saved from death, and the faith will carry that forward and never end. While we quibble over traffic, split our families over politics, moralize over sexuality and death, obsess with celebrities and materialism, entertain ourselves with movies and music, and distract ourselves with phones and computers, the righteousness of Jesus' message and resurrection remains unbothered. Even if Christians go back into hiding for a thousand years, and the followers are once again hunted down, as they are today in parts of the world, the faith will never die - because there is nothing better on offer, nothing like resurrection and the forgiveness of sins, nothing above it, nothing with more truth, and nothing more satisfying to the heart. We are the inheritors of the greatest mystery of all time. We are the same as those originals, lost and found, over and over again. We may start out like Saul, but end up like Paul, unable to explain how or why it happened, just as we can't fully explain the resurrection. Once you choose to believe it, you don't have to explain it. I just know that it is real and that I have changed.“The phenomenon that here confronts us is one of the biggest dislodgements of events in the world's history, and it can be accounted for only by an initial impact of colossal drive and power…a habitual doubter like Thomas, a rather weak fisherman like Peter, a gentle dreamer like John, a practical tax gatherer like Matthew, a few seafaring men like Andrew and Nathanael, the inevitable women, and at most two or three others…seriously, does this rather heterogeneous body of simple folk, reeling under the shock of the Crucifixion, the utter degradation and death of their Leader, look like the driving force we require? Frankly it does not…Something came into the lives of these very simple and ordinary people that transformed them.”* This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

This episode is about NY top seller book - Who Moved my cheese? Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life, published on September 8, 1998 Author : Spencer Johnson I have spoken about three main things, 1. Characters of the book 2. Story Line of the book 3. Lesson to be learned Post your feedbacks in thempspodcast@gmail.com Now we are available on all podcasting platforms including YouTube under the banner " The MP's Tamil Podcast" --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thempstamilpodcast/message

Back to the UK for Episode #35 and a really enjoyable chat with guitarist, Sid Stovold from Who Moved the Ground? This is a quintessential SFaPE epsiode in many ways, not lease because the song is from the first demo from Sid's first band. Loads to enjoy in Sid's story and that of Who Moved the Ground, much of which captures what is was to be an indie band in the early 90s in the UK. Thanks to Sid for being our guest and spending some time with us. Please help us spread the word about the show and post a review, if you've a spare couple of minutes. Love and thanks Steve and Ben xx Who Moved the Ground? on Bandcamp ( https://whomovedtheground.bandcamp.com/ ) Who Moved the Ground? on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2o8DTfnnZ8 ) Farnborough Groove ( https://farnboroughgroovemusic.bandcamp.com/album/farnborough-groove-volume-1 ) Bones Flexi Discs ( http://strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/x-ray-audio-book/ )

We've headed back to Pawnee with a WONDERFUL episode form Season Four. Audrey joins us as we find various antonyms for 'palpable' (dubious, inferential) and mourn our lack of anyone else to invite to our podcast. Plus, Susannah's got a very special deep-dive that's months in the making, but she can't share it until she remembers the basic plot of "Who Moved my Cheese?" And once she finally does, she reveals that her research might have taken her to some illegal corners of the internet, and we ponder the specifics of the no-fly list. Support this podcast

Easiest way to achieve any goal in life is to develop better habits. Habits Compound leading us to live the lives we live, if we are able to steer our habits into the direction we want to go we can be successful in any endeavor. These books helped me to see where I was messing up, what could be improved along with the changes I need to make to be successful. 1. Can't Hurt Me - By David Goggins 2. Who Moved my Cheese - By Spencer Johnson 3. Atomic Habits - James Clear 4. Mindset - Carol Dweck 5. Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg ********************************************************************************************** For any inquiries, questions or for more content discussed here hit up masculinehealthsolutions.com follow MHS on Instagram @masculine.health.solutions.pe How to Make Your Penis Bigger EBOOK Check out meCOACH for 1 on 1 penis enhancement training with a plan tailored to your needs designed by PE legend Aj "Big AL" Alfaro! Looking to get started in PE check out TotalManShop hanging rig or their complete starter pack as you have all the tools you'll need and more. Use the promo code MHS2020 to get 12% off! Another great sponsor of the show is the NaturalHealthStore with products ranging from Test boosters, to Semen Increasers to my favorite the Men's Daily Pack Looking for a device that's so comfortable you can sleep in it? Then check out the PhallosanForte it aint cheap for this state of the art device at $380 USD but its well worth and has the research to back it up!

In this solo episode Meagan shares her personal journey in 2020 and shifting from a woe is me mindset, pivoting and eventually embracing a new direction. Most of us claim the week between Christmas and New Years as a bit of a blur and yes there is PLENTY of wine and cheese in my life right now. But, this cheese isn't the cheese I'm typically enjoying. This cheese is change. This year I am forcing myself to be more intentional with my time even if it's during naps or early mornings and to intentionally take some breaks just for me! To close the laptop, to sit on the ground and play, to clean under the kitchen cabinets and to share openly with you all how this year has affected me. I feel pretty content at this point with how 2020 has wrapped up. That said, I am a realist and I know that 2021 is going to be a whole new ballgame and the challenges we faced this year are far from over. I have learned SO much about myself and how I embrace change over the last 9 months. Just like in the book I've been gifted twice now in my professional career, Who Moved my Cheese, we all get to decide how we handle changes in our lives. Do you wallow? Do you resist? Do you embrace change or run head first at a new challenge? Take a listen and decide what path you are on and if it is serving you for a successful 2021 or not. Connect with us more on Instagram @mindsetlikeamother - share your questions and fears with us and we'll address them in our podcast. We've been taught to know that if you're thinking it / feeling it, someone else is too! Your name will be held confidential - only the topics will be addressed. xxxx -Lauren & Meagan

In the final episode of our first three-part series, we discuss the second half of Bob Gresh's book Who Moved the Goalpost?

In this episode, we continue the purity themes from our previous show and discuss the book Who Moved The Goalpost? by Bob Gresh (available on Amazon). https://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-Goalpost-Strategies-Integrity/dp/0802483313/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Who+Moved+the+Goal+post&qid=1606619825&sr=8-1Are you ready to get sexy? We are.

Join my newsletter: https://www.thefruglife.com/p/join.html In this episode I talk about the Podcast “By the Book” and the Book, Who Moved my Cheese. The book offers an interesting story about 2 mice and two humans who explore a maze with cheese in it. One day the cheese has moved, and the character must take action. The book offers the following tips: Change Happens. They Keep Moving The Cheese. Anticipate Change. Get Ready For The Cheese To Move. Monitor Change. Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old. Adapt To Change Quickly. Change. Enjoy Change! Be Ready to Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again and Again. References https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/stitcher/by-the-book/e/67966209 https://psychcentral.com/blog/who-moved-my-cheese-keep-moving-the-cheese/ Music Credit, the Purple Planet Want more Frugal Content? Follow me on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/thefruglife Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFrugLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_frug_life_podcast Get a free stock when you sign up for WeBull and deposit $100. Use my link below: https://act.webull.com/i/TwIJ8klybvIo --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thefruglife/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thefruglife/support

So, we are between series and I anticipate giving you some Neil Copeland MD next week but in the meantime I thought it would be a good time to do a COVID-19 update. So we are going to talk about Flu Shots, Convalescent Plasma, Vitamin D, SARS CoV 2 Vaccine and then a little on suicide and Who Moved my Cheese? As always I am including links in these notes for you to pursue at your leisure… Hedgerow cutter in WW II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_G._Culin Red Cross Blood Donation https://www.redcrossblood.org/ Vitamin D. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/161618#sources-of-vitamin-d Vaccines and Operation Warp Speed. https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/explaining-operation-warp-speed/index.html Transverse myelitis https://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/patient-caregiver-education/fact-sheets/transverse-myelitis-fact-sheet Who Moved My Cheese? https://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-Amazing/dp/0399144463/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1YKA8R7U2VDY0&dchild=1&keywords=who+moved+my+cheese+by+spencer+johnson&qid=1601488751&s=books&sprefix=Who+Moved+my+Cheese%2Cstripbooks%2C162&sr=1-1 The Movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvYCLxqkfvY Second Law of Thermodynamics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics Shoot me any comments or questions @TR Fredricks on Facebook Look for more Rotations Content at mediainmedicine.com Rotations and on iTunes at Rotations Podcast. Intro and Outro Music: Kalahari Wind by SPEARFISHER Courtesy of Artlist.io Produced by: Todd Fredricks DO and Brian Plow MFA Edited by: Todd Fredricks DO Cohost: Disclaimers: Cut Clip Rotations is produced using (and we always accept donations from any gear folks): Rode Podcaster Pro Rode NT1-A mics Polsen Studio Headphones Kopul XLR cables SanDisk media iPhone 6 Final Cut Pro X iMac Tama mic stands Rotations is part of the Media in Medicine family of medical storytelling and is copyrighted. Rotations is made possible by the generous understanding and accommodation of our beloved institution, Ohio University and by the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and Scripps College of Communications. The comments and ideas expressed on Rotations are that of the content creators alone and may not reflect official policy or the opinion of any agency of the Ohio University.

Now is the absolute best time to get started in real estate because housing can’t go up forever, and eventually the prices are going to come down. So where are the new opportunities? Huddle up because we’re already seeing some of them show up. Looking for opportunities is a lot like the book Who Moved […]

At the very beginning of COVID-19, tons of athletes expressed to me that they were worried about the unknowns of the pandemic and were lacking motivation to keep chugging towards their goals….so here was my solution. I came up with 10 ways athletes can “work from home” and enhance their physical AND mental games inside of quarantine...and this week’s podcast is that VERY list! Even though the circumstances may not be in your favor, there's ALWAYS a way you can develop your game without even going to practice or playing! $7 Goal-Smasher Course - https://ashley-burkhardt-training.mykajabi.com/2-week-course-opt-in Find Hitting Drills and Motivation on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQQEV5CsE0jKP7PZn7Pr_uw?view_as=subscriber “Mind Gym” by Gary Mack- https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Gym-Athletes-Guide-Excellence/dp/0071395970 “Training Camp” by Jon Gordon - https://www.amazon.com/Training-Camp-What-Better-Everyone/dp/0470462086 “Heads Up Baseball” by Ken Ravizza and Tom Hanson - https://www.amazon.com/Heads-Up-Baseball-Playing-Game-Pitch/dp/1570280215 “The Energy Bus” by Jon Gordon- https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Bus-Rules-Fuel-Positive/dp/0470100281/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1LMSPGA70NU7K&dchild=1&keywords=the+energy+bus&qid=1598282303&s=books&sprefix=the+energy+%2Cstripbooks%2C196&sr=1-2 “Who Moved my Cheese” by Spencer Johnson M.D. - https://www.amazon.com/Moved-Cheese-Spencer-Johnson-M-D/dp/0743582853 Become a Member of #SMASHTRIBE- http://www.ashleybtraining.com/becomeamember.html View “10 Ways You Can Work From Home” on YouTube - https://youtu.be/wpsWG-NnGI8ABT Community Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/SMASHTRIBE

One of the hardest parts of being business is not knowing what to do, it is doing what you know needs to be done.Click here for “Who Moved my Cheese” By Spencer Johnson and Kenneth BlanchardFor Dave Ramsey’s Reading list click here. For my previous podcast click here. RebrandingGet your free 1/2 hour consultation by using our contact page.Join the O’Connor Bootstrap Podcast FB group by clicking HEREThanks for listening to the O’Connor Bootstrap podcast, an Atheoz business solutions podcast.You can reach out to me at Isaiah@ballongeventbyraa.com If you find value in my podcasts please subscribe and share. Or if you would like to support my work you can use Patreon Atheoz Isaiah O’Connor User 19166559 or Pay Pal paypal.me/IocPodOur sponsorsLearning made easy for the busy entrepreneur, Audible.com For travel guides and information check out Lonely Planet Travel in style with Tilley Or if you need to monetize your content check out AWINUntil next time, I have been,Your Friendly Neighborhood Entrepreneur, Isaiah O’Connor

U Fit Studio Lifestyle podcast with U Fit Head Coach Helen Gribble S2 Episode 6: Who Moved your cheese? From this Live you will learn:

How can you get employees to love coming to work? I have a very special guest on today's episode. Marilyn Randle, MS,OTR/L is a Director at the Arkansas Children's Hospital and has multiple years of experience serving in her leadership role. Listen to what she has to say regarding what it takes to be a great leader, and how to keep employees engaged. Resources mentioned: Who Moved my Cheese by Dr. Spencer Johnson Contact jonathan.randle@sagewaypt.com

This episode features me discussing with Dr Kevwe Pela. A PHD holder, Young professional and Economist at the World Bank. Kevwe shared her career journey and the story behind how she was able to get a sit inside one of the most prestigious organizations in the world. Kevwe's favorite quote: If an opportunity does not come knocking, create ONE! The book she spoke about is: Who Moved my Cheese by Spencer Johnson. You can connect with Kevwe on linkedin . I love to hear your comments, suggestions and feedback. Connect with me on Linkedin & Instagram @oyindamolaossi Till next time: Never stop believing & pursuing your dreams, you will realize “It takes you to take a bet on you” Oyin

Episode Eleven continues our series asking “what can we learn from our global friends about living with the social implications of the Corona Virus Malaysia - Anirudh Kejriwal The Book AK is reading – Who Moved my Cheese? https://www.amazon.com/Moved-Cheese-Spencer-Johnson-M-D/dp/0743582853 John Coltrane – You have to start and finish with the album - A Love Supreme #Resilience Download our 5 3 1 workbook https://www.sprinklecaldwell.com/workbook Learn more about my book Mine, Ours, and Yours: A Father's Journey through the Life and Death of a Child Found on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and Audionbook at https://www.amazon.com/Mine-Ours-Yours-Fathers-Journey-ebook/dp/B07SGYR81P - “Reading Watson Jordan's memoir brought to mind other powerful testaments to loss and grief such as A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis and A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken. Like these writers, Jordan pulls back the curtain to reveal an intimate account of tragedy as well as enduring love. Jordan's writing is a gift to all of us who have and will face the loss of loved ones.” James W Pharr In support of the book I launched The Resilience Initiative www.hashtagresilience.com We are currently promoting resilience around the world and I am known for my headstand to raise awareness. In addition to our Podcast we speak at and facilitate events for organizations. SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT #RESILIENCE H. Watson Jordan II, Ed. D Watson@sprinklecaldwell.com The Resilience Initiative I will stand on my head to Raise Resilience Awareness You can easily see my real-time availability and schedule time Schedule time with me today Shout out to Kenzai fitness www.kenzai.com

About 100 years ago, Frank Morison, an English journalist, set out to disprove the resurrection of Jesus by examining the facts. As a result Morison, the skeptic, came to believe that Jesus, the Son of God, crucified, dead, and buried, rose again to give eternal life. Morison's book, Who Moved the Stone? is still in print today. This being the Tuesday in the Octave of Easter, I thought of Morison's experience as I listened to this week's podcast—a conversation between Dr. Kent Lasnoski and Dr. Jeremy Holmes about faith and reason centering around Dei Filius, the dogmatic constitution of the First Vatican Council issued in 1870. This document from the 19th century, we'll discover, speaks eloquently to our situation today.

The Lee Company in Westbrook, CT has had incredible growth and success over the years. In this episode Marietta Lee, VP and Corporate Secretary, talks about her bumpy road to the family business and the value of starting from the bottom. Ari and Marietta discuss the importance of appreciating and investing in your employees to build a solid company culture. This episode has incredible advice on how to manage a family business in a way that enables growth and prosperity. They also talk about The Lee Company's ability to stay nimble over the years. With so many family owned manufacturers  in CT, there is tons to learn from Marietta Lee on how to manage transitions, how to factor in family dynamics, and how important it is for employees to believe the family has their best interests at heart. Ari and Marietta also touch on recruitment, retention, employee training, the role of risk in business growth, and the importance of giving back to your community. This is a great episode with a great manufacturing leader! Marietta Lee, Vice President and Corporate Secretary, The Lee Company Company Website: https://www.theleeco.com/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-lee-company/ Marietta Lee LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marietta-lee-17729410a/   Ari Santiago, President/CEO/Founder, IT Direct Company Website: https://www.gettingyouconnected.com/ Company Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itdtech/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/it-direct-llc Ari's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asantiago104/   Book discussed in this episode: Who Moved my Cheese, Spencer Johnson, M.D. Podcast produced by Miceli Productions: https://miceliproductions.com/ Follow the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MadeinAmericaPodcast/

There is a better question to ask when we, Christians – earth dwellers, cry out in lament or frustration about God’s apparent lack of attention on us. Too often we’re stuck yelling “Why Me?” or “Why God, Why?” What is unspoken in those questions is the concept that God is different NOW because of our … The post Who Moved? appeared first on Woodruff Road Christian Church.

Seeking Culture is back! Listen in as Sabrina discusses Who Moved my Cheese by Dr. Spencer John, Her illness and her recent trip to San Francisco.

Have you ever felt like the odds were stacked up against you? Did you wonder how you were going to make it through or if your dreams would ever materialize?If so, you'll love today's guest speaker, Raquel Guzman. What the world sees is a successful lawyer, author, mother and wife. But what goes unseen are many the struggles and challenges it took to get there.Raquel had always dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but there were many obstacles in her way: she was in a forgein land, she had to leave her 6 month old baby, her friends and family didn't understand, she began acquiring massive debt, she had to learn a totally new language AND she had to understand legal jargon to top it off! Through it all, she was focused on the prize and was determined to succeed.Raquel will walk us through principles she mastered in order to perservere:~ Understand success is not always easy.~ Stick to your goal no matter what.~ Keep your vision strong.Two books that were mentioned during the podcast were:1. Who Moved my Cheese by Spencer Johnson2. How to be Richer, Smarter, and Better-Looking than Your Parents by Zac Bissonnette.Raquel has yet to determine the name of her own book about finding your ultimate balance...but when it hits the shelf, you will want a copy! Stay in touch with her here: https://m.facebook.com/attorneyraquelsalasAnd if you're ready for yet another way to dig down deep and reach your goals...I encourage you to take advantage of an EXCLUSIVE OFFER I am doing right now! I am giving away access to my 90-Day Action Planner that will help you skyrocket your productivity and take control of your calendar....COMPLETELY FREE!! If you would like to gain control of your life and spend more time doing the things that matter most to you, head on over to www.DeniseWalsh.com/action to download your free training NOW! (Valued at over $300. My gift to you!)Support the show (http://paypal.me/bwalsh)

This week Laura and Anna talk the merging of women's hockey, Tom Wilson's cap hit is the gift that keeps on giving, Jamie Benn is obviously Bella to Seguins Edward, TSN's old time hairdo's are too realistic, NHL as Queer Eye, which player do you think we recommended the book “Who Moved my Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in your Work and Life”? AND player survival skills.

Ken Mika earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and a masters in Engineering Management also from UW-Platteville and is currently an Operations Manager at O’Brien & Gere. Ken provides a great overview of Civil Engineering career options and also talks a bit about research areas. He really likes that there are no typical days, every day is different and there is a mix of being in the field and also in the office. During college you will take classes that you may never use after graduation but it teaches you how to just work through it and furthermore the text books tend to be black and white and you need to learn how to apply that knowledge to the real world. Some really great advice is: It does matter if if you make mistakes, you will make mistakes, it is how you rebound and learn form those mistakes that matters most. Ken also received the “Young Engineer of the Year” award from STEM Forward Favorite Book: “Who Moved my Cheese” by Spencer Johnson You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost. Free Audio Book from Audible.

Ebtesam (Eb) Hazbavi has an Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from Azad University and a Masters in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is currently working in Transportation for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Eb touches on the different career options for Civil and Architectural Engineering and indicates that team work is very important. She is fired up on how technology is going to change transportation, especially with autonomous vehicles. She talks about how every choice has an impact on your life so you need to think about those choices and that every day brings new opportunities. Her recommended book is “Who Moved my Cheese” by Spencer Johnson. You can get a free book like “Who Moved by Cheese” from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice. Free Audio Book from Audible.

Bufe talks about Jesus after the resurrection.  The disciples were gathered in a room with the doors locked 8 days after the resurrection.  Thomas was the only disciple who had not seen Jesus yet and refused to believe until he, himself, saw Jesus and touched him.  Bufe talks about Thomas' encounter with Jesus after the resurrection and what Jesus said to him.   Thomas believed because he saw Jesus.  Millions of us believe even though we didn't see Jesus.  Bufe says it would be good to reflect on why we believe that Jesus rose from the dead.  Bufe mentions the book by Frank Morrison, "Who Moved the Stone?"  We all have free will and many of us can choose not to believe even though there are compelling reasons to believe in the resurrection.  And even those who say they believe, don't live like they do believe.  Bufe talks about some of the reasons we do believe in the resurrection.  There are 2 ways to look at the world around you - you can look at all the pain and problems in the world - or you can look at the world with Easter as the starting place.   Luke 23, Matthew 27, 1 John 3, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 John 4

April 16, 2017 Luke 24:36-49 ESV PRIMARY SOURCES: Don Carson, Editor, The New Bible Commentary ESV Greek Tools ESV Study Bible IVP Bible Background Commentary Peter Jennings, quotes from brainyquote.com Timothy Keller, Logos Sermon Archive CS Lewis, Mere Christianity Jacob Lupfer in the Washington Post, ‘Why doubting the bible is good for Christians Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel Frank Morrison, Who Moved the Stone? Ray Ortlund, Jr., ‘The Emmanuel Mantra’ John Stott, Lessons in the Sermon on the Mount Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy Andrew Wilson, “The Strange Encouragement of the Church’s Appalling History” NT Wright, For Everyone Commentaries

April 16, 2017 Luke 24:36-49 ESV PRIMARY SOURCES: Don Carson, Editor, The New Bible Commentary ESV Greek Tools ESV Study Bible IVP Bible Background Commentary Peter Jennings, quotes from brainyquote.com Timothy Keller, Logos Sermon Archive CS Lewis, Mere Christianity Jacob Lupfer in the Washington Post, ‘Why doubting the bible is good for Christians Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel Frank Morrison, Who Moved the Stone? Ray Ortlund, Jr., ‘The Emmanuel Mantra’ John Stott, Lessons in the Sermon on the Mount Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy Andrew Wilson, “The Strange Encouragement of the Church’s Appalling History” NT Wright, For Everyone Commentaries

Today on the podcast we have Ilya Pukhalski. We talk about chat bots, their use cases, variations and challenges people face developing them. Guest: Ilya Pukhalski https://twitter.com/pukhalski https://github.com/pukhalski Links: Meekan, a bot for scheduling meetings: https://meekan.com/slack/ Slack Bot API https://api.slack.com/bot-users Kik Bot Dashboard https://dev.kik.com/#/home Skype Bot API https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/skype/bots/docs/api/chat An article by Seth Rosenberg "How To Build Bots for Messenger" https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2016/04/12/bots-for-messenger/ Books: Spencer Johnson, Kenneth H. Blanchard "Who Moved my Cheese" http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4894.Who_Moved_My_Cheese_ Steve Krug "Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18197267-don-t-make-me-think-revisited Books by Guy Kawasaki http://guykawasaki.com/books/ Host: Andrey Salomatin https://twitter.com/filipovskii

Tony Leonard, founder and president of nurseVersity—a company that uses next-generation tools, cutting-edge research, and adaptive, personalized learning structures to help nurses and physical therapists prepare for the respective industry exams with maximum efficiency. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Who Moved the Cheese What CEO do you follow? — Bill Gates Favorite online tool? — There are several Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—No If you could let your 20-year-old self know one thing, what would it be? — Sleep more; eat less. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:09 – Nathan’s introduction 01:25 – Tony’s company operates under a monthly subscription format 01:45 – He helps people pass their qualifying exams the first time 02:15 – 10,000 customers, with $152,000 in revenue last month 03:00 -- $35.50/month per customer 03:30 – Scholarship program 05:00 – One-time payments 05:40 – How they manage churn 07:30 – Cost to get a customer 08:40 – Company is based in Louisville, Kentucky 09:00 – Churn for their company 10:15 – Lifetime value is about $300 per customer 10:30 – They are looking to raise capital 11:00 – Capital to date is $4 million 11:15 – Connect with Tony Leonard on LinkedIn, or at Nurseversity on Facebook, or tony.leonard@nurseversity.com 13:40 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Show your customers you care. Think of ways you can increase capital and scale your business. Sleep more, and eat less. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Who Moved the Cheese – Tony’s favorite business book Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

On today's episode, we cover five areas where change often fails and discuss everything related to the new book, Who Moved my Pulpit? The post Five Reasons for Failure when Leading Change appeared first on Church Answers.

Kyle Daigle joins Sean Devine as cohost to kick off a new season of the Ruby on Rails Podcasts (woohoo!). Topics include Atom 1.0, RSpec 3.3, API documentation, OS contributions, and "Who Moved my Cheese?". You're gonna like-it-a-lot.

Kyle Daigle joins Sean Devine as cohost to kick off a new season of the Ruby on Rails Podcasts (woohoo!). Topics include Atom 1.0, RSpec 3.3, API documentation, OS contributions, and "Who Moved my Cheese?". You're gonna like-it-a-lot.

Winter 2015 Season Two Episode 2 Exploring the question, What is Movement?   1:55 Moving and growing towards love   5:44 The state of our being   7:58 Why could Love_being_Human provide what we are yearning for?   9:43  Could movement could be related to time?   14:40 Moving our thoughts upward and moving our thoughts so that they become more expansive. The first step is to ask yourself, "How do I know?" Picture of the leaf Joshua created-  Who Moved my Cheese by Spencer Johnson   Dr. Vivian Carrasco  Leadership Coach & Lifestyle Strategist 760-576-LOVE (5683)     Creator of the Love.Being.Human Health and Well-Being Model    Author of the forthcoming book,  The Art of Harmony Within: Integrating Your Intellect, Your Heart Wisdom and Gut Instinct    @viviancarrasco |   facebook.com/ViviHCarrasco      More? Join here, http://tinyurl.com/m5j3op8    www.viviancarrasco.com   Tags: Love,Being,Human,well-being,Heart,Reason,Intention,Movement,Powerful,Personal improvement,action,inspired,yearning,wisdom,journey,flexible,vitality,values,struggle,expansive,direction,mind set,fixed,stationary,

Change is great when you are in charge of it, but not so much when it is thrust upon us. In this episode I want to discuss how leaders manage a major change initiative, get others to see the vision, and recruit them to help you lead the change into fruition. “A Change imposed is a change opposed.”-Spencer Johnson from Who Moved my Cheese? Today we are talking about urgency for change and the human nature of making this happen. Change often seems difficult, but not changing can be even riskier. We need to change so we can improve. You have to watch out for the condition that I like to call “The hardening of the Categories” that prevents us from staying lean, flexible, pliable, and open to change.

sermon transcript The History of the Resurrection Essential to Our Faith Counterfactual History Amen. Amen. When John Calvin, the 16th century reformer, was making a defense for why yet another commentary in Romans was needed, he talked about the ones that were out there and he wanted to write, he always had a desire to write, a commentary that was characterized by lucid brevity. Lucid brevity. That means being really, really clear and being short. Well, I'm hoping you're gonna get clarity, I don't know about brevity today, dear friends. I have no idea. We'll see. But this text brings, at least has brought me into the consideration of the issue of apologetics and the defense of our faith against the lies that Satan spreads concerning the resurrection, and this is a huge topic. And so my desire as I've labored all week and gotten into conversations with staff guys and called them on the phone and bugged them, and we've just been talking and talking about the role of apologetics, what it is, how we can defend our faith. My thinking is still in process and probably will be even after I'm done preaching the sermon, but I'm hoping for at least some clarity because I've been told by those that are experts on preaching that a mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew. So my desire is to be as clear as I can so I can help you as well. And now I begin by asking this question: What if...? What if…? It's actually the name of a book, an edited collection of essays by prominent historians on counterfactual history. The idea is that you choose some moment in history in which some significant thing happened, and they asked, “What if that thing hadn't happened? What if it had gone a different direction?” For example, in the first battle that Alexander the Great ever fought against the Persians, he was struck from his horse and was on the ground, and a big, huge Persian was about to put an ax through his head, and one of Alexander's body guards killed this guy right before the stroke fell. What if he had died at that point? How would history be different? Now, those of you that are in Seminary studying Greek, you may have wished that Alexander had been killed at that moment 'cause you wouldn't be studying Greek right now, but it was the Lord's will for him to live. What if? What if George Washington's army, his continental army, had been trapped in New York City in the summer of 1776, as it almost was? It was very, very close, and only a fog allowed him to escape. What if Hitler had never invaded the Soviet Union and just been content to protect what he had already conquered by that point in 1941? Various questions of counterfactual history, very popular with history buffs. It makes it interesting to kind of wonder, historical speculations. History is a tapestry, different fabrics weaving together to make an incredible picture, and what if that moment had gone a whole different direction, what different colors would have been woven? Paul’s Assertion But the most important counterfactual ever asked is actually asked in Scripture, in 1 Corinthians 15. What if Jesus Christ had never been raised from the dead? What if? What if the resurrection didn't happen? Paul makes some very strong assertions about this issue in 1 Corinthians 15, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised,” listen to this, “our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. More than that, we are found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; and you are still in your sins.” The Historicity of the Resurrection is Central to the Christian Religion We believe that the resurrection is essential to all of human history, it's essential to our faith, to Christianity. There would be, should be, no Christianity without a bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We proclaim a God who rules over all of history, and we believe that before the foundation of the world, God had woven out in his own mind the complexities of redemptive history before he said, “Let there be light,” all of it worked out in his own mind, with the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the culmination of that redemptive history, the high point of all that God was doing. So therefore, all evangelists and all missionaries begin their work as they go to a lost people, and they preach a biography, really a history of Jesus, of his birth and of his life and his miracles, his teachings, of his substitutionary death on the cross, and his bodily resurrection from the dead. Their hearers will be saved if they believe these things are true. Saving faith always moves in two stages. First, stage one: belief that, and second stage: belief in. So we move from belief that, that the facts are this way, this is how it is, it's an actual historical record, that it's true, into a personal saving faith in Jesus Christ, who's at the center of this story. And faith in the resurrection is essential to salvation. Without that, you cannot be saved. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So you must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be saved from your sins. Alternate Explanations Now, because of the importance of this, Satan has been active from the very first day, from that day, active in sowing seeds of doubt and lying about the resurrection. And that's what we see in the text that you heard Nathan read for us just a few moments ago. From the very beginning, Satan has been spreading lies and alternate explanations so that people will not have certainty about the resurrection and then they will not be saved. Skeptics have mocked the preaching of the resurrection from the early stages of the spread of the gospel. Just read, for example, in Acts 17, when the apostle Paul was in Athens, the intellectual center of the world, some of the most brilliant people who ever lived lived around that time and there are philosophers and thinkers there in Athens, and Paul presented the gospel to them on Mars Hill, and he culminated with a clear proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And it says in Acts 17:32, “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered.” That's just mockery. That's pure mockery. They sneered. “But others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.’” So there were some people that were intrigued and interested, but others just mocking. Since that time, many intellectuals throughout history have sought to come up with plausible theories for the resurrection and for the elements of our faith other than a bodily resurrection. And it's really almost humorous if it weren't so deadly serious, it's humorous to try to find out what some of these theories have been. In no particular order, because they're all junk, but I'll go ahead and share with you some of them. For example, this one: the fake death theory. I hadn't heard this one until just a few days ago. The theory goes: This was a German skeptic, Carl Fredrik Bahrdt, in 1780 he lived. According to this theory, Jesus was fed certain drugs by the physician Luke and went unconscious on the cross. The soldiers were convinced he died, and they took him off of the cross, and he was later revived by Joseph of Arimathea who got him out, and he resumed his life in ministry. That's closely related to 20 years later, by Karl Venturini, the swoon theory that some of you have heard before. I have a hard time believing anyone ever thought this could even be possible, but many did, they're looking for something. Again, similar to this, that Jesus became unconscious, but not dead on the cross, and the soldiers just thought he was dead. I don't know how much of the biblical story we'll take here, but he had a lance shoved up into his side and all that, survived that. Was put in the tomb, was wrapped up with all the sticky linens, and inside the tomb, the cool air and the spices revived him, he came to, swung his legs around, took off the wrapping, pushed the boulder out of the way, walked through the guards and then convinced his disciples that he was alive and had been raised from the dead and Christianity started that way. What do you think of that theory? Again, I have a hard time believing that intelligent people would ever think this, but this was actually presented as a possibility. Or that the authorities maybe moved the body, like Pilate did or the Sanhedrin moved the body. The problem with that is, why in the world would they do that? What motive would they have for doing that? And once the preaching of the resurrection started, why wouldn't they just produce the corpse? Or that the tomb was never visited or they went to the wrong tomb. The women went to the wrong tomb, or they just didn't know where it was. The most common now, as I've been trolling around in atheistic websites, and I'll be glad to stop doing that now that this sermon time has come, but just reading what they're saying out there. The most common now is just general skepticism about almost whether Jesus ever lived. And if he did, I guess we'll take some of the story and he was crucified and thrown in some common burial ground, which is what the Romans would have done, and so any argument from the empty tomb makes no sense. There wasn't an empty tomb, they wouldn't have really even been able to find the body. And then stories about the resurrection came up as legends or myths do much later, decades later, etcetera, and none of it ever happened. Or perhaps the post-resurrection appearances were mass hallucinations caused by people intensely desiring something and then somewhat producing them. Or, I like this one, the case of mistaken identity. They thought it was Jesus, but it really wasn't. Because of this some liberal theologians claiming to be in the Christian camp have tried to so-called “demythologize” Christianity, tried to strip it of its myths, the gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And frankly, in the end, everything is gonna come down to those. Friends, we don't know anything about Jesus apart from the written word of God. Every true statement, everything we really do know about Jesus has come to us by Scripture. God intended it that way, and I'm gonna end up kind of ending up there. But they try to strip it of myth. In 1950, psychologist Carl Jung linked Christianity with the Egyptian myth of Osiris, the dying and rising God myth, you're gonna hear a lot of that. And so they attempt to strip down the myths, get away from it and find the historical Jesus. The problem with that is that it just doesn't line up with how the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John present themselves to us. They don't read like myth. Do you remember during Jesus' life, at one point, they thought Jesus was insane, he was possessed by a demon? Do you remember how some of the people at that time said, “You know, these are not the sayings of a demon-possessed man. He's not acting like, he doesn't sound like, someone who's insane.” And Matthew, Mark, Luke and John don't read like myth, friends. There are supernatural elements, but what ends up happening is that the skeptics are just exposing their own predisposition. It's interesting how they say, “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all wanted you to believe, so therefore their accounts are not valid.” But they want us not to believe; why should their writings be valid? Do you see what I'm saying? They're coming to it not believing, and in the end, they expose their own hearts. They cannot believe in any supernatural things in these histories, and so therefore there can't be any explanation for it other than these that I've given. And it neglects the way that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John present themselves to us, as carefully written out history. Like Luke 1:1-4, it says, “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who were from the first eye witnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,” listen to this, “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” Primarily, my ministry to you who are believers here today could be summed up in those words. I want you to know the certainty of the things you've been taught. I want you to have an absolute certainty of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I want you to take that with you to the hospital, if you go to the hospital this week. Or to a Christian funeral. I want you to take that certainty with you. As you minister in this hurting, sin-cursed, suffering world, I want you to know the absolute certainty of the things you have been taught. And so Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John do not read like myth. They do record supernatural things, but they don't read like myth. And frankly, if you can accept Genesis 1:1, you can accept miracles, can't you? If you can believe that an intelligent being, God, created heaven and earth, then I don't think a resurrection is too difficult to imagine. So if God can create all things, he can make someone walk on water and he can certainly raise the dead. Skeptics Who Have Been Converted Other skeptics have investigated carefully Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Acts, other things, early documents, 1 Corinthians 15. They've looked at it trying to debunk Christianity and they've been caught by it. Jesus said, “I'll make you fishers of men,” and they end up getting caught and becoming one of Jesus' fish. I love it when that happens, like Frank Morrison who wrote Who Moved the Stone? It's just a pen name for Albert Henry Ross, and he was trying to debunk it and trying to get to the historical Jesus, he ends up converted and becoming a genuine believer in the resurrection. Malcolm Muggeridge was the same. Josh McDowell did the same thing. He eventually wrote Evidence That Demands a Verdict trying to debunk it. Lee Strobel, who wrote this book that I carried up here with me, The Case for Easter. He was a reporter, hardboiled, skeptical, of a Jewish background. His wife converted to Christianity, he wanted to investigate it so he could show her the truth of it. He ends up getting drawn in and believing in Christ. And The Case for Easter, and there's a bunch of them out there that Kyle Mercer put out there, they're free, take them. So take them and read them or give them out to people, there shouldn't be any left. As a matter of fact, if it's like 12:45, 12:50 and you're there and there's like 15 of them left, take all 15. Give them out to people. We mean to give these things out. But Lee Strobel was just drawn in by the evidence, the evidence. Satan’s Strategies: Lies, Money, and Murder Now, in our account today, we have the account of the bribing of the guards, Satan's strategies, lies and money and murder. That's what Satan is going to try to do. He's gonna entice people and try to bribe them away from the truth, try to get them to lie. If they don't go his way, then he'll start to beat them up, incarcerate them, take their freedoms away, eventually kill them. That's what he's tried to do to stop the spread of this story of the resurrection. These are Satan's strategies. And so plausible theories, explaining away the resurrection, this is just the first of many, many attempts there have been. “The disciples came during the night while we were sleeping and stole them away.” Part of the Gospel Ministry: Apologetics… Reasonable Answers to Satan’s Lies And so this brings us to the topic of, how do we answer that? How do we understand apologetics? That's just from the Greek word “to make a defense for.” How do we make a defense for our faith and what role does it play? And I've asked a lot this week, what are the limitations of it? There are certain limitations to apologetics, so I've been just wrestling with that. First, I wanna tell you as a Christian, from one Christian to another, God commands us to do this kind of work. He commands us to do apologetic work. 1 Peter 3:15, he says there, “But in your hearts set apart” or sanctify “Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you, give a reason for the hope that you have.” Now, I don't think there's anything wrong in the context of today's sermon to take the word hope and just link it to resurrection. I have hope in a resurrection. I know that this world is not all that we're gonna experience. I will live forever. And even though worms devour this body, yet in my flesh, I will see God. And I believe in that. That's my hope. If someone wants to say, “Well, give me a reason for that,” you should be ready for that. It is a reasonable thing that I have this hope, it's reasonable, it's not insane, it's not irrational, it's reasonable for me to believe in the resurrection, and I wanna give you a reason, so part of it is to help you folks be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have. In 2 Corinthians 10, it says the weapons we fight with are powerful to the demolishing of strongholds and we demolish arguments, we are in the word business. Unlike other world faiths, Christianity hasn't advanced on the edge of the sword, true Christianity hasn't. We advance by the truth, by proclaiming the truth, and by being willing to die for it. That's the way that martyrs advanced and conquered, really, the Roman Empire. How powerful is that? And so we have arguments and we're destroying arguments, and we're making a case, we are making a case. It says in Philippians 1:7, Paul's in chains, he says, “For the defense and confirmation of the gospel.” He's defending the Gospel there. Jude 3, the author Jude writes, “I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” One of the central ministries of an elder or a pastor is a defense of the faith, and we do it according to Jude 22, to be merciful to those who doubt. We wanna lift up those who are flagging and failing and struggling in their faith. I'm trying to do that for you today. If you're a Christian and you struggle with the idea of the resurrection, I wanna bolster your faith. So therefore, one of the requirements in Titus 1:9 for an elder candidate, for somebody who's gonna be an elder, is this: “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” So that's just part of being an elder, you need to be able to give a refutation just to give a defense. So there is a purpose, ours is a historical and reasonable faith. It's historical, it's rooted on actual events in history. It's not a myth, it's not a legend. It's historical and reasonable. So I was working on this sermon last night, I usually don't work on sermons on Saturday nights, but I was just - I said to my wife, “It's like I'm baking a cake, and all the ingredients are out and the cake isn't baked yet.” And so I was working on it last night. And this was in my mind, I woke up this morning, my alarm went off, and the first words in my mind were straight from scripture. I didn't know the reference, I looked it up. It was from Acts 26:25, and there the apostle Paul on trial before Agrippa and before the Roman Festus, says these words in Acts 26:25. Festus, after he proclaimed the resurrection. Festus said, “You're out of your mind, Paul, your great learning is driving you insane.” He said, “I'm not out of my mind, what I am saying is true and reasonable.” Those were the first words in my mind this morning. So I figured the Holy Spirit was saying, put that in the sermon. So here it is. I wrote it out along the side, it wasn't in the printed thing, but... “What I am saying is true.” What does that mean? It actually happened, it's historically accurate, really happened, and it is reasonable, it's not insane to believe in these things. And then he says, “These things were not done in a corner.” These things were done in a very famous place in front of lots of people, lots of eye witnesses to this, And then he appeals directly to the Jewish King Agrippa. He says, “Do you believe in the prophets? I know that you do.” And so what's he doing there? He's saying look at the scriptures, ultimately that's what's gonna cinch the deal. Only by believing in the Word of God will you come to a genuine faith in the resurrection. So that brings me to the limitations of apologetics. Our text, which talks about what John MacArthur called “the lie that proves the resurrection.” We'll get to that in a minute. But it's also a lie that proves the limits to apologetics, there's a limit to it. It will only bring you so far. What do I mean? Well, none of us here that are alive today will ever have the kind of access to the physical evidence of the resurrection that the Sanhedrin and the Roman guards did, and they didn't believe. But concocted a lie. So how do you put all this together? I remember I was just reading a lot of Evidence That Demands a Verdict and all that. I was a relatively new Christian, graduated from college, I was trying to be a workplace witness, trying to evangelize, and there was this guy there named Larry, and so I was like, I gotta share with Larry, I'm gonna get Larry, I'm gonna... I'm gonna bring him in. Apologetics, we're gonna do it. And so we sat down and I wanted to talk to him about evidence for the resurrection. He probably thought we're gonna talk about the Red Sox, but we talked about evidence for the resurrection, the empty tomb. And so I was gonna zero in on this one thing. What explanation could there be for the empty tomb? And so I went step by step by step by step. I feel sorry for the guy now, I don't know what happened, he was probably just eating a sandwich saying, “What is this?” It was an interesting moment, but we got done and I said, “What do you think happened to the body?” And he shrugged and said, “I don't know, I guess Jesus rose from the dead.” Is that it? End of the line, Jesus rose from the dead. But there was no faith, no love, no regeneration, nothing. You can't checkmate people into the kingdom of heaven, friends. I liken it to basically Elijah on Mount Carmel, and you can build the altar and you can get the wood and you can put the animal and you can pour water on it, but then you need to wait for fire from heaven. And so what this does is it assembles everything needed for faith, and then the fire has to come from heaven and that person will be saved, because faith is a gift from God, it says in Ephesians 2:8, but it's based on that which is historical and rational, and it's our job to get that history out and that reason out, and that's what we're doing. Physical Evidence of the Resurrection Three Key Facts About Saving Faith So we have physical evidence for the resurrection, we talked about it, and I'm harkening back at this point to the first part of the chapter. If you look at Matthew 28, we have the account, which I preached on last week from, of the empty tomb. You have the empty tomb, you have the angel coming down, we'll get to all of that in a minute, but then you have the statement by the angel to the women: “Come and see the place where he lay.” You see that he's inviting them to investigate the evidence. So in effect, that's what I'm doing. Now, I'm saying this to believers. Notice he doesn't say it to the Roman soldiers, first of all, they were unconscious, I think at that moment, they shook with fear and became like dead men. It says in verse 4, but he didn't come for them. He's saying to the believers: “Come and look at the evidence.” It's for you. The evidence is for you. The unbelievers are just gonna explain it away. But the evidence is for you, so come and see the place where he lay. Physical Evidence of the Resurrection Well, it's better described for us in John's gospel, in John 20, you have the stone moved away from the entrance entirely lifted up and moved away. You have the grave clothes there, undisturbed in their original position. I don't know if that's like a chrysalis or something like that, or if he was unwrapped. Commentators go different directions on that, we don't know. Greek just says, “keimai,” just “set there.” And then you've got the head covering folded up separate by itself, it does not speak of a grave robber, does not speak of haste at all. It just speaks of a logical, rational process where somebody folded it up and set it aside. And best of all, of course, no body, there's no corpse. There was one before and now it's gone. So it leaves that question of the empty tomb, where is the missing body, what happened to Jesus? Personal Evidence of the Resurrection: Eyewitness Testimonies Then, even better, in the account last week as you remember we have personal encounters with the resurrected Christ. Post-resurrection appearances, and there are many of them. Eleven separate accounts in the four gospels, probably also including Acts as well, of post-resurrection encounters with Jesus, one after the other, I'm not gonna list them for you, but they're one after the other. Paul lists who receives such post-resurrection encounters. In 1 Corinthians 15, “What I received, he said, I also passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,” and now come the appearances, “and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve, and after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all of the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born.” Lots and lots of post-resurrection appearances, 500 of them, God spread them out throughout Palestine, and they became the original witnesses to the Jews in that region of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Christianity was built on their testimony, and the eyewitness testimony it sprang up out of those witnesses, out of those eye witnesses, read about it in Hebrews chapter two, it talks about eyewitnesses of the word, and they talked about that. Paul mentions it in Acts 13, these were now, these eyewitnesses, were now giving the witness to our people, the Jews. So this is overwhelming, the eyewitness accounts. The Lie that Proves the Resurrection Now we come to the text, the lie that proves the Resurrection as John MacArthur calls it, I like that statement. Look what it says, “While the women were on their way,” they have this encounter with Jesus and they're on their way, “some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened, when the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, ‘You are to say “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” The Enemies of Jesus Sealed Their Fate by Posting the Guard So there we have the account. First of all, isn't it marvelous how the enemies of the resurrection sealed their fate by posting the guard? It would have been better for them if they had not done it. Do you understand why? Because it's just a lot easier to say, the disciples stole him with the guard not there. The guards make it difficult for them. And so I think that's beautiful. Remember in chapter 27 verses62 and following, this is what it says, “The next day, the one after preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘We remember that while he was still alive, that deceiver said, “On the third day, I will rise again.” So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day.’ Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’ So Pilate answered, ‘Take a guard, go make the tomb as secure as you know how.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.” Now, the whole thing is blowing up in their face. They just ended up being hostile witnesses indirectly to the actual resurrection. It's not what they wanted. And isn't it beautiful, how God turns Satan's weapons against himself. The clearest example of that, is the crucifixion of Christ itself, he meant to kill Jesus because it was Satan that entered into Judas, and in killing Jesus, he destroys his own dark kingdom, and it's been a 2,000-year destruction. Slow-mo destruction, I love that. Step by step, Satan's kingdom being destroyed by the preaching of the gospel, isn't that marvelous? But he did it to himself by crucifying Jesus. And now by the posting of the guard, they actually ended up being hostile witnesses to the fact. The Guards Could Not Stop the Resurrection Now, first of all, the guards couldn't stop the resurrection, how could they? This is the second person of the Trinity. This is Almighty God taking on a resurrection body, this is the centerpiece of all that God's doing in the world. There's no way the Roman guards could have stopped that. And you know the account of what happened. “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week,” this is Matthew 28:1-4, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb, and there was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow, the guards were so afraid of him that they shook with fear and became like dead men.” So the guards were there to keep some tricky, conniving disciples from stealing the body, but instead God sends an almighty powerful angel, radiant, glowing like lightning, and he moves the stone and sits on it and they're out, they're done, and they could not stop the resurrection. The Guards’ Problem: They Failed in Their Mission So fundamentally, the guards failed in their mission, they couldn't stop the preaching, the ultimate mission is, let's stop the preaching of the resurrection, there's no way they could stop that. They failed to do it. And isn't it beautiful that some day Jesus will return from heaven, come to earth, and no earthly power will be able to stop that either? Nothing can stop that. Well, at that moment, what happens is really a spiritual tragedy, that the guards, some of the guards, not the whole group, but some of the guards went back to the Sanhedrin to the chief priest and reported what had happened. They told the story, they told what I just read Matthew 28:1-4, they told about the angel, the appearance of the angel, his clothes like lightning, the rolling back of the stone, the fact that - I don't know if they said, “Then we went unconscious,” I don't know if they included that. But when they came to, they looked in and the body was gone, and then they went and reported all of this. Jesus’ Hard-Hearted Enemies What Should Have Happened: Faith and Repentance Now, let me ask you a question, what should the Jewish leaders have done at that moment? Well, I'll tell you what they should have done, they should have fallen on their faces and worshipped Jesus as the Son of God, the resurrected savior of the world. That's what they should have done. That was the right thing to do. It was predicted by the Old Testament prophets, it's the very thing he said he would do. It was the sign that he gave to that generation, you remember they asked him for a miraculous sign? “A wicked and an adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign,” Jesus said Matthew 12, “but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a large fish. So the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” That was the sign to the Jews, but they did not believe. They would not believe; it was their regular pattern. This is the limitation to apologetics. It's not seeing is believing, it's believing is seeing to some degree. Now we have the history first, but then there's the evidence, and you will only see it if God gives you faith. They didn't have faith. We saw it with the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, you remember that? And then Lazarus was going around testifying to the resurrecting power of Jesus, and so the Jewish authority said, Now we have to kill him too. I would have suggested repent and believe in Jesus. But nothing was going to convince them. and Jesus knew it. He wasn't under any illusions about this. You remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus? Remember that? And the rich man gets sent to hell in the parable, in Jesus's parable. And he's suffering there, and he wants to warn his brothers who are still alive, so that they don't end up in this place. He wants to leave and go warn them. But Abraham, Father Abraham, says, “You can't leave, there's a great gulf, you're there, and nobody can come over to you.” “Well, then send Lazarus to go warn my brothers.” Abraham says, “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.” Then comes the answer, from hell, “No.” See, that's the whole thing. It's gonna come to Scripture, if you believe the scripture, you'll have eternal life. If you're gonna say “no” to Moses and the prophets, there's nothing that can be done for you. “No, father Abraham. But if someone rises from the dead, they will listen.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead.” Jesus said those words before he was crucified. He knew they wouldn't believe. What Did Happen: Hardness of Heart and Rebellion And so we see their hardness of heart and their rebellion, they confer together, it's an official meeting of the Sanhedrin, it's a Greek word that implies they had an official meeting. They all came together and they came to a three-fold conclusion. First, bribe the soldiers, “a large sum of money,” the text says, I don't know how much that would have been, but it would have been a tidy sum. They bought off Judas for 30 pieces of silver, but the Romans, I'm sure each one of them would have cost a lot more than that. And we don't know how many guards there were, only some of them went, so my guess is lots and lots of silver went. Large amounts of money to bribe them. Secondly, they fed them the lie, this is what you are to say. The disciples came and stole his body while we were asleep. Thirdly, they reassured the guards that if this report got back to their governor - because they were Romans, their governor - they would satisfy him and keep them out of trouble. Well what trouble? Well, how about execution for falling asleep on guard duty? How are they gonna do that? How are they gonna satisfy him? They're gonna tell him what really happened. They're gonna say, an angel came down. What could they do? Alright, fine then we won't kill them. Here We See the Limit to the Converting Power of Evidence That's the three-fold decision of the Sanhedrin, and Matthew tells us the story has been circulated to this very day. We see therefore, as I've pointed out, the limited impact of evidence. Do not put all your eggs in that basket. Tell the truth. Give the evidence. And let the Lord work. Apart from that, there is no conversion, there's no salvation, and so these folks had all the evidence, they still didn't believe. Matthew: A Story Circulated “To This Day” (and Beyond) And the story has been circulated to this very day, so that it implies maybe a number of decades has passed, Matthew writes his account, and he says, it's still going on. Well, according to Patristic study of church fathers, there was a church father named Justin Martyr, and the story was still circulating a century and a half later. The Jews were still using it, because it's actually... It's at least a plausible explanation for a big problem, and that's what happened to the body, all the other things don't answer what happened to the body, and so at least we have some explanation for what happened to the body. But Justin Martyr said, “You Jews selected men and sent them into all the world proclaiming that a certain atheistic and lawless sect had arisen from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb and deceived men by saying that he is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven.” So the story was still going on. But There Are Immense Problems with this Lie But there are all kinds of problems with this lie, aren't there? There's problems with the Jewish leaders. If this is really what happened, why didn't they make a search for the corpse? If he was under Peter's mother-in-law's bed or something, I don't know what they would have done with it. What do you do with the corpse of Jesus? But don't you think the authorities could have found it, wasn't it in their best interest to produce the corpse? But they made no effort, there's no record of them making any effort to search for the body. There's problems with the Roman guards. How could those Roman guards be such heavy sleepers that none of them woke up, especially during the moving of the boulder? I mean, I've had some people, there were some guys in college, you couldn't wake them up if you lit their feet on fire, it was unbelievable. So I know there's some heavy sleepers, but my goodness, the moving of a huge boulder, somebody would have woken up. And they were trained soldiers. You don't fall asleep on guard duty, you understand that the life, the survival of the entire army depends on some people staying awake through the night. So that's why they executed people for falling asleep on guard duty. So if you happened to meet one of these Roman guards and they say this to you, just say, then why aren't you dead - actually, they would be dead by now, wouldn't they? But if you had been alive back then, say, why didn't they kill you, why are you still alive? Because you fell asleep on guard duty. Can you explain that to me? And then there's the lie itself. There's the lie itself. Can you sniff this one out? “The disciples came while we were asleep.” Look, Don't say that. Can I give you a coaching on lying here? What you should have said is, “We fell asleep, when we awoke, the tomb was empty. We have no idea what happened to the body.” That's a better lie. Would you guys all agree that's a better lie? If you're gonna do the lie, say that. Say “the disciples,” what, did you have one eye shut and the other eye... “Oh it was the disciples who did it.” Could have been the Jewish leaders, could have been Pilate, who knows? It could have been the Swoon Theory, I mean, a lot of other explanations, they knew it was the disciples. The whole thing just doesn't work, and worst of all, the disciples themselves. Why would they do it? What did they get for it? There's gotta be motive. There's motive and opportunity. What do they get for it? Could they have done this? Would they have done it? They were running for their lives. Peter denied Jesus three times that night. You don't have a bunch of courageous, conniving, scheming powerful guys trying to take over the world. You have people that just probably wanna go back to the tax collector's booth and the fishing net at this point; they are not believing in a resurrection. They didn't think it would happen, and they're terrified. And they don't wanna die. So why would they do it? And what did they get for their troubles? They got persecution - every one of them but John, martyred, and he exiled. That's what they got for their trouble. It just doesn't make any sense. There is no motive. Three Powerful Questions So this brings me to three powerful questions. Anyone following the outline in the bulletin? Good thing this sermon wasn't in two weeks, there would have been like six powerful questions or something like that, but I'll just give you three, and this is what I want you to hang your hat on. These are the apologetic issues that the skeptics have to deal with, they are three. These are the three strongest issues. Number one, how do you account for the empty tomb? What happened to the body? Number two, how do you account for the eyewitness accounts of personal encounters with the resurrected Christ, of which there are many, many, many? And number three, how do you account for the beginning and spread of Christianity? A version of the third is, how did these folks get so courageous as to preach a resurrection in downtown Jerusalem when their lives were in danger if they should continue preaching, and they kept preaching every one of them even when they were being killed for doing so? How do you account for that? The incredible courage and boldness. Question Number 1: What Happened to the Body? So how do you account for the empty tomb and the tomb was empty. We have these accounts, we have the Acts sermon in which Peter's preaching Psalm 16, “you will not let your holy one see decay.” And then he says, “David's tomb is here to this day, but he was a prophet, and he predicted that Jesus would rise and he has risen, we are witness to the fact.” Now, they say there's no reference to the empty tomb there. I find a reference there, David's tomb is full, Jesus rose again. Go check the tomb. It's empty. Now, as I was swimming, unfortunately in a sea of skepticism this week, not my own skepticism, but that of other people. They said, “You can't use part of a story to prove the rest of the story.” It's a valid observation. For example, can you use the yellow brick road to prove that there is a Wizard of Oz? Or as one guy said, he comes up with a story, this is just like a parable or something like that. I live in China, my friend Joe shows up from Southern California. He tells me it's unbelievable, but a dragon burned the city library to the ground last week. I'm skeptical as I hear it and say, What proof do you have? And he says to me, What other answer is there for the burned library? And you're like, I didn't even know the library was burned, you're the one telling me the story. How much of the story are we gonna accept, how much are we gonna disbelieve? That's the whole thing that's difficult. I think you accept it all or you really accept nothing. Accepting part of it is really the mark of liberalism, that's where you start picking and choosing what you're gonna believe, what you don't. I understand some apologists have to kinda say, “Well, these things we can work with,” and they'll argue from that to prove the resurrection, but the fact is the whole account not only testifies to a tomb and a burial, but it also testifies to a resurrection. You get the whole thing. So I think it's valid, but still we have this issue: what about the empty tomb? How do we deal with it? How do we deal with the account in Matthew and in John of the empty tomb, and the fact that the resurrection was preached in the place where Jesus was killed, why didn't they produce the corpse? Question Number 2: How Do You Account for the Eyewitness Accounts? Secondly, the eyewitness accounts, how do you account for them, one after the other? What do we say about them? These are valid accounts of not hallucinations, etcetera, but over many times, Thomas putting his finger in the wound, all of these things, these are not hallucinations. Question Number 3: Why Did the Apostles Lose their Fear of Death? And then very powerfully, where did Christianity come from? How did it spread? How is it that they're preaching so boldly and they're completely unafraid? I love Peter and John in Acts four when they're arrested for doing a miracle, remember that? And they say, “If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel. It is by Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead that this man stands before you healed?” How were they so courageous? It's because they'd seen the resurrected Christ. Challenge to the Skeptics: Handle the Historical Evidence the Same Way You Treat Any Historical Event So fundamentally, I wanna say to the skeptics this: treat our historical records the same way you treat everybody else's historical records, and don't discount them because they have miracles in them. If you do, you're showing your predisposition and your bias. If you say it’s at least possible that there is a God who can do miracles, let's look at the history as it is. Simon Greenleaf, Harvard professor of law, said this, “All that Christianity asked of men is that they would be consistent with themselves, that they would treat its evidences as they treat the evidence of other things, and that they would try to judge its actors and witnesses as they deal with their fellow men when testifying to human affairs and actions and in human tribunals. The result would be an undoubting conviction of their integrity, ability and truth.” That's the way they read. They read like history. Applications Come to Christ So applications: first and foremost, I don't know all of your spiritual situation, you may be here visiting today, I thank God that you are. I prayed for you today, I don't know your names, but I prayed if there would be any people here that had not yet made a commitment to Christ, that the Lord would bring them. And that they would repent and believe in him. Look again at Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” You may be asking, saved from what? Saved from your sins, saved from eternal death in hell, saved from judgment and condemnation by Almighty God. Saved by confessing Jesus is Lord and believing in the resurrection. Christians: Know the Certainty of What You Have Been Taught If you're a Christian already, I want you, as I said from Luke, know the certainty of the things you've been told - ours is a historical and rational faith - and let it feed your faith. It says in Acts 1:3 Jesus over 40 days gave his apostles many infallible proofs of his resurrection. We're not eyewitnesses. We get their record as we read it. Feed your faith on it. Understand the Indissoluble Link Between the Scriptures and Faith in the Resurrection Understand thirdly, the indissoluble link between scriptures and faith in the resurrection. If your faith in the resurrection is waning, I wouldn't urge that you read Case for Easter, I'd urge that you read John 20 or Matthew 28. Rekindle your faith by reading scripture, strengthen your faith. The scriptures are written to give us faith. Faith comes by hearing. Get Ready to Make a Defense for What You Believe Fourthly, Christians get ready to make a defense for what you believe. Three things, alright? Empty tomb. Eyewitness accounts. Where did Christianity come from? How did it spread so fast? How did the Emperor Constantine declare himself to be a Christian, three centuries after Christ rose from the dead? How did that happen? How did Christianity win? It's by the proclamation of the resurrection. So get ready to make a defense. Get this book, don't let any of them be left there. I'm gonna say it to my family, if I haven't gone out there yet, and there's still some left, pick them up, please, because I'll feel terrible if there's still some books there, I think people aren't listening to me. Pick up these books. They're free, you can't beat the price. They're right out here in the north tower, you walk through that door. They're on the table, get them. But now that I've been so strong on it, if you're the first one there, just take one or two, alright? Rejoice in the Resurrection of Jesus And finally understand and let's get at the true significance here. What's the significance of the resurrection? If you're a believer in Jesus, you will live forever. Do not fear death. Do not fear death. Not from a heart attack. Not from cancer, not from a car wreck. Don't fear death at all. Live fearless. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said, “he who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Rejoice, you're going to live forever. Secondly, the resurrection of Christ is a picture of the spiritual life of triumph you should live. Because we're united with him in his death we're united in his resurrection, and by the Spirit, we can live a holy life. We're not slaves to sin and death anymore, and we can live a holy life. And let's encourage one another with these words, let's build each other up. We have suffering people in our congregation, let's build each other up with the resurrection. Close in prayer, please. Father, thank you for the time we've had. I hope that I've been clear. I pray, oh Lord, that you take all of this and press it to our hearts that we would know the certainty of the things we've been taught and be filled with joy and power for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.

sermon transcript Introduction Christ has risen. Now, it's not Easter, I know, but Christ has risen. Amen. Amen. I was thinking about that. I get to preach today on the happiest day in history, the happiest thing that's ever happened, the most joy-producing, the most joyful event that's ever happened in history. This is the great answer to the problem of sin and death, and law and condemnation. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the consummation of everything. Now, as I was driving in, I had this thought. I'd never had this thought before. And I haven't worked it all out, so I'm a little nervous, but I'm gonna run with it here. This is the closest I'll ever get to base jumping right here, right now. I'm gonna run and jump. And we'll see what happens, but it has to do with this one concept and I'm working it through, and it's very, actually, very powerful and very pastoral, if you think about it. It has to do with something that you hear frequently connected with a joke, and it goes like this: stop me if you've heard this one. Stop me if you've heard this one. Alright, stop me If you've heard this one: Christ has risen from the dead. And I thought, that's not right. No, encourage me if you've heard this one so I can preach the resurrection. The issue here is why is it that grand glorious news like the empty tomb loses its impact on us, so that we're not as joyful now as we were earlier in the resurrection of Christ? What happens to us because we've heard this one already, what new things can I say to you about the empty tomb that you haven't heard before? And if they're really new, they're almost certainly heretical, so I'll try not to say them. I'm not trying to say anything radically new here. What happens to us? It's a deep question actually. It's a deep question. Ecclesiastes 1:8 may have an answer. I looked that up right before I came in here. “All things are wearisome, more than one can say.” That's life under the sun in the book of Ecclesiastes, it's that vanity of vanities. All things are vanity, vain, in this world, we feel that acutely. But It was this past week putting this thing together like a puzzle. It was like, wait a minute. Isn't that the last word in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter? “Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not,” what? “In vain.” The resurrection is the answer to the book of Ecclesiastes. And the emptiness and weariness that this life pushes on us. And I don't minimize it, I know you're going through trials, I know, I've looked in your faces over the last couple of weeks, I've sat with you, I know what you're going through, I'm not minimizing it. Death and sickness and cancer and treatments, and broken relationships and hurt and pain, and I know therefore that “Christ has risen” doesn't have the same impact every day that it does at other times, but it ought to. For I consider that our present sufferings aren't even worth comparing with the glory that Christ is gonna give us through His resurrection, it's not even worth comparing with it. It does not matter what you're going through. The resurrection trumps every card in a million decks. So, it's my privilege through the Holy Spirit to try to re-kindle in your hearts again whatever greatest joy you ever had in the resurrection, and then go beyond it. I don't think I've ever heard of any joy in the resurrection, perhaps in history that I've heard in the history of missions, as in that video EE-Taow, which talks about the Zooks as they ministered in Irian Jaya, and they've been patiently unfolding redemptive history, they got to the life of Christ patiently unfolding, they did solid work for months with these folks, then Jesus was crucified and the people were shocked, this stone-age tribe, they couldn't believe that he would die. And then they preached the resurrection and they just went nuts. At last, they could see everything, their redemption, their own forgiveness, their own eternity in heaven, and they celebrated, they cut loose for three hours. They were throwing the Zooks up in the air, up and down and up and down. Finally like, “Okay, put us down over here.” And they went on and the celebration went on. I wonder if that tribe is still celebrating at that same level. Probably not, but they ought to be. They ought to be. They could through the Spirit. Amen. I'm not minimizing the trials we go through, but didn't the Apostle Paul say sorrowful. Perhaps maybe we could say, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” Like a compass needle returns to its true north, we return to joy in the resurrection, that's what you have. And so Daniel just sang, “There is a fountain filled with blood.” I would say, and I know he'd agree, there is a fountain filled with joy there too. And every time we go to the cross and the empty tomb, we can realize our sins are forgiven, God has adopted us, we have eternal life, we're going to heaven when we die, and God is gonna see us through all of our trials, it doesn't matter what we're facing, he who gave his only begotten Son and raised him up from the dead, he will get you through this life and he will bring you on into eternity. So that's the stuff I hadn't prepared. Alright, but as I was thinking about it, I just said, that's the burden. But the joy of preaching the resurrection, there's nothing new to say. But there's so much to say. The Resurrection: The Climax of Redemptive History The History of Death So today, I get to preach on the historical, one of the historical accounts of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. I get to preach on the answer to the problem of death. This is the problem that entered into the world, and it causes grief all over the world, there's not a nation exempt, there's not a community exempt, there's not a family or individual exempt from this curse of death. The wicked tyrant Joseph Stalin said this, “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” Well, that's the way he thought. No, a million deaths is a million tragedies. Death itself is a tragedy. Death itself is a curse from God on the human race because of Adam's sin, and that's the theology. It may be something we struggle with, we try to understand, but how it is that we are held accountable. But in the wisdom of God, Adam was our representative. And it says in Romans 5:12, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.” And in this way, death came to all men because all sinned. We all sinned in Adam. We all die in Adam. He represented us. And since that time, there's been an indissoluble link between sin and death. The wages of sin is death. Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul who sins will die.” And we also sinned not only in Adam positionally as being human beings, but we also sinned actually as soon as we understood the law. As soon as the law came, sin sprang to life. And we died, we sinned and died. But in Jesus Christ, the death penalty has been paid, and we are clear of it forever. Now, we will die physically if the Lord doesn't return in our lifetime, but we will not die eternally, the second death, the death penalty has been paid. And that's the significance of the resurrection, by Christ's resurrection, it says in Romans 4, we have been justified. Satan: The One Who Held the Power of Death… Now Defeated We've been vindicated, we will live forever, and Satan, the one who held the power of death has been destroyed. He has been defeated at the cross and by his resurrection. He could not stop the resurrection of Christ, and therefore we have freedom from fear of death, it says in Hebrews chapter 2. Ancient History Looked Forward to This: The Defeat of Death Predicted Again and Again in the Old Testament Now, this was predicted, this was prophesied, that there would come a death-conqueror. In the garden, the serpent was told, “I'll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and hers. He will crush your head. You will bruise his heel.” So by his death, by Jesus' death he crushed Satan and sin and death. And God promised it again and again in his scriptures, I love Isaiah 25:7-8, there it says, “On this mountain, he the Lord, will destroy the shroud that unfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.” Jesus Christ is the One Born of Woman, Who Came to Save Us from Sin and Death How powerful is that? He's going to destroy death. Well, now for us, he has destroyed it. Christ Jesus, the one born of woman, the seed of woman, has been born at the right time in the fullness of time, he lived a sinless life under the law of God, fulfilling all of its precepts and its commands on our behalf. He was obedient for us, so that he could win for us a perfect righteousness, a perfect obedience to the law of God, and transfer it to us through our union with him by faith; and our guilt transferred to him, our substitute. He dies in our place, and we stand righteous and uncondemned by that union we have with Christ. All Church History Looks Back to This Event: The Centerpiece of the Gospel is the Resurrection Now, all of church history looks back at this event. It's been 2000 years. 2000 years, the good news of the empty tomb has been proclaimed in nations around the world, almost every tribe and language and people and nation has been told. The message of 1 Corinthians 15, “What I received, I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and after that, he appeared to many eyewitnesses.” And this is our hope. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Praise God. A Loving Errand and a Supernatural Interruption (vs. 1-3) So that's just the intro. Let's look at the text and look at what it says in these marvelous 10 verses, we begin in verse 1-3 with a loving errand and a supernatural interruption. Now, just as we do this, this points again to the historicity of our faith, the historical roots of our faith. This is a historical account of some women who went to the tomb and the things that happened to them. We believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical event. It really happened. We do not look at the resurrection as a myth or a fable, or an inspirational story, or certainly not a lie; it is history. It actually happened in space and time, and this account, these 10 verses is part of the historical record. Look at verse 1, “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.” In Mark 16, we have this parallel account, it says, “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome brought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb.” Luke 23 and 24 gives us this, “The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee, followed Joseph of Arimathea, saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and then prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” Then in Luke 24:1, it says, “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.” A Loving Errand… But Some Measure of Unbelief So that's a fuller picture of what is going on with these women, what's happening. It's a loving errand that they have, but there is mingled with it a measure of unbelief. It's a loving errand, they love Jesus, but there is mingled here a measure of unbelief. The Sabbath is over now, they're free now to resume work, they were interrupted by the Sabbath, and the women wanted to finish what they started doing, which is burying Jesus, they wanted to finish with the spices, they wanted to finish wrapping up his body. Now, there's no doubt about the love and the loyalty these women have for Jesus, and that's based on faith, they believed in the things he said, they believed in what he did, I'm sure they were confused by his death, deeply grieved by it, but they just wanted to finish the work they had started, and the Sabbath had interrupted it, so they're hurrying there early. Now, as they come, they're bringing these spices, and the spices are there to mask the stench of corruption, to mask the stench of decay, that's why they're done. They're not going to have an encounter with the living God, they're not going there to have an encounter with Jesus, resurrected from the dead. They're going to care for a corpse. They're not expecting a resurrection. None of them were. And all of this, despite the fact that Jesus had repeatedly told them that he was going to be raised on the third day. Again and again, they don't have to go to Isaiah 25. Jesus himself told them what was going to happen to him. So he said in Matthew 12:40, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” And then Matthew 16:21, “From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day, be raised to life.” And then again, Matthew 20:17 -19. “Now, as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is going to be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death, and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life.’” He has been very clear about this, and frankly, the text gives us indication from that time on, he began saying to them, so he's saying it again and again. Key Issue: They Did Not Understand the Scripture Clearly, they did not understand from the Scriptures that Jesus had to rise from the dead. This is the very point that John makes in John 20:9, is the very point that Jesus makes with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. “How foolish you are,” he said, “And how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory? And then beginning with Moses and the prophets in the Psalms, he explained all things that were written about himself.” It was there, they didn't understand these things from scripture, and they didn't understand these things from Jesus' plain statements about himself. Christ Does Not Despise The Women’s Mixture of Faith/Love with a Measure of Unbelief And so they come with their mixture of love and loyalty and unbelief. Some faith. Some unbelief. Isn't that us? Isn't it? Aren't we able to say like the father of that demon-possessed boy, “I do believe. Lord, Help my unbelief!” We're all like that. We have a mingling, that's why the resurrection is not as exciting today as whatever is the number one most exciting time you've ever had with the resurrection. It's because we're mingled, we don't have a pure faith, it's a mingled experience. And yet, isn't it marvelous how Jesus loves us anyway? And he cares for us and protects us and he's loyal to us Anyway? “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” He's gonna take the smoldering wick of your faith and he's gonna kindle it into a flame, and that's his love for us. Who Moved the Stone? God Did! Through An Angel And so there they are, they walk to the tomb, it seems in the darkness, and as they approach the tomb, one thought dominates their mind: who's gonna move the stone? There's this huge, just huge boulder that had been rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb weighing thousands of pounds, I'm sure. And these women have, they just have no idea: how are they gonna move the stone? And so that's a big problem, they wanna go there, but they don't know how they're gonna get to the corpse, so they have a problem. Well, God took care of the problem at every level. No need to move the stone, no need for the spices and no corpse. Amen. Hallelujah. The whole mission's changed. Everything is changed, radically changed. So who moved the stone? In the famous words of Frank Morison, the apologetic writer, “Who moved the stone?” Well, God did through an angel. God moved that stone. We're gonna talk more about Morison and other apologetic writers next week. I wanna do a lot on apologetics next week, not this week, about how to take these truths and speak them to an unbelieving world that needs to hear about these things. But this one I just wanna work through just the historicity of the text, and Morison was a guy who set out to debunk the accounts of the resurrection and ends up being converted. How many times has that happened? Again and again, people read these accounts and say, “This is the truth. There's no way I can wrestle with this, I can't turn my back on it, Christ has risen.” But it's very clear, the answer to the question, who moved the stone? Look at verse 2 and 3, “Behold, there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow.” Now, the gospel accounts are powerful and clear, especially John about what happened to the stone. John is very clear in the Greek that the stone was lifted up and removed from the entrance. It was just entirely removed, not just rolled up in its little trough and propped up. It was just lifted and moved, you don't wanna mess with an angel. Let me tell you something. They can do awesome things. And so this angel just picks it up and tosses it aside and then sits on it, it's this awesome picture here, so he lifts it up and moves it. What is the significance of the moving of the stone? Well, let me say plainly it wasn't to let Jesus out. Amen. I mean, picture that, how terrible would that be. I'm waiting, waiting. Or he's knocking from the inside. Jesus is gone! He's been raised from the dead. Jesus could have moved the stone himself, he didn't need any angelic help in that assistance, but he didn’t need the stone moved. He didn't need it moved. He came up out of those sticky linen grave clothes anyway, moves out of that, moves right through the stone wall. And he's gone. How can that be? How do we understand that, it's not easy to understand. What is a resurrection body? What is it? What is involved in that? The best chapter on that, as I've said, is 1 Corinthians 15, and there the Apostle Paul, verse 42 and following, says, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it's raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” And this is the key phrase, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Which is somewhat of a contradiction in terms, but it just shows the mysteries around the resurrection itself, it is a spiritual body, continuing. “So it is written, ‘the first man, Adam, became a living being’; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural after that, the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man was from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. and just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” So there's enough information in there to say, we're talking about a glorious, powerful, spiritual body that is not flesh and blood in that sense, but still it's not a ghost or a spirit. So he can say in Luke, “Touch me and see; a ghost or a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones as you see I have.” And he's able to eat boiled fish, so he says, Jesus says, “I am not a spirit,” but Paul calls him “a life-giving spirit.” Spiritual body, that's the best I can make of it. And you're saying, “Pastor, you're just confusing us.” Well, that's as far as I can go. This resurrection body could do some astonishing things. It could just go through walls, it seems. Jesus frequently didn't look like his normal self, he had to reveal himself to people who knew him well. He's sitting there with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he's sitting there breaking bread with them. Their eyes are open, they realize who he is, and he disappears. Bodies don't do that, normal bodies, but Jesus has this resurrection body. And Jesus in John 20, though the doors are locked for fear of the Jews that day and a week later, he comes and stands among them and says, “Peace be with you.” Now, Wayne Grudem in his excellent systematic theology is at pains to be sure, we're not dualists, thinking, spirit, good, body, bad, Jesus had a real physical body, so he says there's no evidence that Jesus passed through walls. I just wanna know how he got out of the tomb? Not the upper room, I'm saying the tomb. Was he waiting for the angel to let him out? How'd he get out of the sticky grave clothes? So I appreciate what brother Grudem is saying about the dualism. He had a real body, it's just a mysterious body and can do amazing things. And so there it is. So why then was the stone moved? Not to let Jesus out, but to let us in, come and see the place where he lay, that's why it was moved. Come and see the evidence, come and see the place where he lay. And based on that evidence, the first generation, the apostles believed. John 20:8, John says, “He saw and believed.” So his faith in the resurrection was based on the grave clothes, the head covering folded off by itself the stone removed the missing body, no corpse. He saw the physical evidence and believed, but the next statement is more important. “They still did not understand from scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” That's what we get. We don't get to touch the grave clothes, we don't get to see the moving stone, we get scripture. And that's all you'll ever get, but that's enough, isn't it? It's enough. We read the scripture and we believe in the resurrection, amen. But the physical evidence was there for the eyewitnesses, for those that saw his glory and preached. 1 John, what they saw with their eyes, what they touched with their hands, what they experienced. Thomas could have, I don't know that he did, put his finger in the nail holes, it was physical and there were eyewitnesses to the resurrection. Christ is risen. Now, we go into all this history because it's very plain that if Christ has not been raised, our faith is worthless, there is no Christianity. So history matters, and so we go into these details. The Earthquake and the Angel So what happened? Well, there was an earthquake and there was an angel. A violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. Behold, I like the “behold,” NIV tends to leave “beholds” out, I put them back in. Sometimes I even write them in. Behold, the angel suddenly comes and the earth shakes. And isn't that awesome? That's the second earthquake, great earthquake, in connection with Jesus' death and resurrection, the first happened after he died. The earth shook and rocks split, it says, and now we have this other earthquake. This is an earth-shattering experience. The earth is moving under our feet here with the crucifixion and the resurrection. And it's pointing to, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, to the new heavens and the new earth, when everything will be transformed. I like to use the word resurrected, when the earth will be resurrected, similar to Jesus, and we will be given a new heaven and a new earth. The removal of all the things that can be shaken, they'll be removed, all of them removed, and eternal things will be set up that will never be shaken. And we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. So let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably. And so there's such a joy in this, and so the angel does it, and this angel is mighty. He caused the earthquake. The text implies that, “there was an earthquake, for an angel came down from heaven.” So the angel is shaking the earth, these are mighty beings. What was the touch-down? I always think they're like Apollo 11, the eagle has landed. So the angel comes down and touches down somewhere away from the tomb and moves over to it, so he lands, earthquake, and he moves over, picks up the stone mightily and moves it aside, and then, this my favorite part: sits on it. Like with angelic legs dangling. I just get that picture of complete ease. He's in the presence of Roman warriors, not intimidated at all by them, they're very intimidated by him. He's just sitting there comfortable, joyful and saying, “This is a happy day, this is the happy day.” And he's just waiting to talk to the women, don't need to worry about the stone, don't need to worry about the corpse, he is risen. And so there he is, and look at his appearance, blinding light, this radiant glory from heaven, God the Father, giving some of his glory to the angel, and the angel radiating this blinding light from heaven. Just as Jesus' birth when he was born, and the shepherd saw the angel and he descended in the glory of the Lord, shone around and they were terrified. And so also these Roman soldiers, terrified at his glory. Angels are there ministering, angels are there at his birth, angels are there in his temptation, when he was in the desert and angels came and strengthened him. Angels were there in Gethsemane when he was sweating great drops of blood, and an angel was sent to strengthen him, and angels are there now at his resurrection, and they'll be there at his second coming, Amen. When the son of man comes in his Father's glory and all the angels with him, they'll all come for the second coming glory. And so he is glorious, he is powerful. Here in this account, there's just one angel, but putting all the accounts together, there's definitely more than one angel, there's a good number of angels that are involved here. In Luke, it says, “Suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them, and in their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’” In John's Gospel, they're inside the tomb, sitting one at the head, one at the foot. And Mary looked in and saw them sitting there where Jesus' body had been, one at the head, one at the foot. Terror and Assurance (vs. 4-6) Now, in verse 4-6, we have terror and assurance. First the terror, In verse four, “The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, he has risen, just as he said, come and see the place where he lay.’” So we have terror first, and then the assurance that the angel gives. The Reaction of the Guards Look at the reaction of the guards, these are Roman soldiers who had conquered the world in the name of Caesar, fearless warriors, and they are utterly paralyzed at one angel, utterly paralyzed. And frankly, they had every reason to be, every reason to be. They are terrified of him, and they're trembling, the Greek word for “shook” is the same as what happened to the earth, the angel made the earth shake and he made these men shake, and they're terrified and they end up paralyzed. They can't move. The Reassurance of the Women The glory of this angel, and they can do nothing, and the angel just disregards them, doesn't say anything to them at all, his mission is for the women and for the believers. And so he speaks a word of reassurance to the women, calming their hearts, and he said, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you're looking for Jesus who was crucified.” In other words, “You have nothing to fear from me because you're in a right relationship with him.” Right? You have nothing to fear. If you are in a right relationship with Jesus, you have nothing to fear from Jesus. But if you're not, you have every reason to be terrified. He is an incredible friend. What a friend we have in Jesus, but he's a terrifying enemy. And he's the Lord of host, he's the Lord of armies, and so this is one of the soldiers in his army, this heavenly warrior. So he just ignores the Roman soldiers and he says to the women, he says, “Do not be afraid. Fear not, for I know that you're looking for Jesus and why you're here, and I understand your relationship with him. I'm here for you. So don't be afraid.” And then he says, “He is not here, he has risen, just as he said.” Now, in Luke's gospel, I think it's clear that there's a little bit of a stronger rebuke for them, actually. You get a little bit of it here, “He has risen just as he said.” But it's clear, in Luke, listen to this, “In their fright,” it said, “The women bowed down with their face to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’” Why are you acting like he's a corpse? He's not a corpse, he is not here, he has risen. And then he's even clear, “Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered in the hands of sinful man, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered Jesus' words.” So it's a bit of a mild rebuke, read the scriptures, believe the scriptures, it’s all laid out. Feed on God's word. Strengthen your faith in God's word. And I think that's a link to the very beginning of this sermon, if your joy isn't what it should be, get back in the word and strengthen your faith, and your faith will lead quickly to your emotions and to your joy. Remember what he said. They should have known. The angels say the same thing in John toward Mary Magdalene. Remember, she's weeping, weeping, weeping. I just love it, weeping on the happiest day in history. It's the same thing with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. I preached an Easter sermon entitled, “Downcast Walking with the Risen Lord.” Depressed and with the resurrected Jesus, how can that be? And he rebuked them for it. Why are you so downcast and discouraged? Read the scriptures. And so the angel says in John 20:13, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away and I don't know where they have put him.” He's not being put anywhere, he's going where he wants. Alright, just so you know. He's not put anywhere. And so he's risen. So why are you weeping? Same thing Jesus said to her when he began talking to her, “Why are you weeping?” The Basis of their Joy: The Empty Tomb And what should be the basis of their joy? The empty tomb. Look what the angel says, “He is not here, he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” Now, you can only do that by faith, in your mind's eye, but go ahead and do it. Come now by faith and see the empty tomb. Come and see the place where he lay, and let your faith be strengthened by that, come by faith in the word and see. He is not here, he has risen. And so that's it. Just the body is gone. Now, as I said in John's gospel, there are angels where the body was, and you have the grave clothes described, and you have the angel at the head and at the foot, I love that. As one commentator put it so beautifully, it represents the cherubim who were on the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament. That's where the Lord said he would meet with Israel and in a glory cloud above the Ark. In the mercy seat between the cherubim, there in the glory cloud, he spoke to Israel. And that's where the atoning blood was poured on the day of atonement, there on the mercy seat between the wings of the cherubim, and so I think the position of the angels, one at the head, one at the foot and John's gospel tells us, this is the new mercy seat. This is where God will speak to you. The empty tomb, the crucifixion and resurrection, is where God will speak his final word to the human race. That's where the blood was poured for the atonement of our sins. It's all been fulfilled. The Joyful Mission Begins (vs. 7-8) This is the Beginning of the Spread of the News! Christ is Risen! Well, then their joyful ministry begins, verses 7 and 8, “Go quickly and tell his disciples, he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.” And I like this part. “Now, I have told you,” meaning, I have nothing more to say, get going. It's like that Jewish way of expression, it's in the Old Testament a lot. “Have I not told you?” In other words, there's nothing more to say, you have your orders. And so they're given a very, very clear ministry, a mission to go and tell the disciples, he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee and there you will see him. And so they began running away, they're running, they're hurrying, they're afraid still, but filled with joy. Again, that mingling. That's just who we are. Afraid, what are they afraid of? Just look at it, is there anything to be afraid of at this moment? I tell you, no, there's nothing to be afraid of. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who cares? But they're still that mingling in our hearts, but still they are filled with joy, and so they go to tell the disciples that Christ has risen. The Fact That It Was Entrusted to these Women Shows the Honor The Lord Held Them In And isn't it marvelous how God chose to do it? Back then in the culture that they had back then, a woman's testimony wouldn't be accepted in the court of law. This is part of the evidence of why scholars in the 21st century, 20th century think this rings true. Because if you're gonna concoct or craft a fable, you wouldn't do it this way. So many elements of the Bible are that way, you just wouldn't show the sins of David and Peter. You wouldn't be so open, you'd try to cover that up. The Bible doesn't cover anything up and here the Lord willed that these women should go and tell the apostles concerning the resurrection, and it's a marvelous thing. And so they hurry away from the tomb, afraid and yet filled with joy. Now, we know from John's Gospel, Peter and John went and saw for themselves as well, based on what they had heard from the women. I never found out, we'll never know, I guess, until we get to heaven what happened with the spices? I think they were probably left in there, like the Samaritan woman left her water pitcher. Doesn't matter, I don't need the spices anymore, we don't need a water pitcher, and they're running filled with joy to go like the Samaritan woman to tell the whole village, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did, could this be the Christ?” The Highest Evidence: A Personal Encounter with the Risen Lord (vs. 9-10) The Highest Evidence: Personal Encounter with the Risen Lord And these women running to tell the disciples that Christ is risen, but they have one more beautiful perfect surprise that morning, one more. Better evidence than an angel, better evidence than the empty tomb, better evidence than the grave clothes. How about a personal encounter with the resurrected Christ? And that's where our account ends, the highest evidence, verse 9 and 10, “Suddenly Jesus met them.” That's what you can do in a resurrection body. Suddenly there he is, and he just appears and he's there. And he says, and I love this, “Greetings.” That's a kin to, “Morning.” It's so understated. It's so ordinary. “Hi. Here I am.” And again, there's, behold out of nowhere, he comes and their reaction is beautiful, it's priceless, frankly, it's the point of everything. It really is. It's the point of the crucifixion, and it's the point of the resurrection. Their Reaction: Pure Worship… Falling at His Feet!! They fall down at his feet and they worship him. As John Piper put it very plainly, in Let the Nations Be Glad, “Missions exist because worship doesn't.” That's the purpose of all of this, so that we would fall on our faces and worship the Lord, that we would worship the resurrected Christ. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Just Like in John’s Gospel… Jesus’ Message is Exactly the Same as that of the Angels I think there's a little more to it though, because they're holding on tightly, and Jesus has to say, “Stop holding on to me.” Alright, in another account. “Stop holding,” so I think they're saying, “Look, we let you go before and look what happened, we're not doing that again. We're gonna hold on.” And Jesus says, “You can't hold on to me. I'm here for just a short time, 40 days, I'm gonna get the apostles ready to do their ministry and then I'm going to ascend to heaven. So don't hold on to me because I have to ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.” But it's so beautiful, how Jesus calls them brothers, “Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me.” And so that's that beautiful, beautiful thing. It's the most surprising, the most spectacular aspect of the whole Gospel, J.I. Packer summed up the gospel in three words, “Adoption through propitiation.” Let me say it very plainly, we are adopted as the sons and daughters of living God, because Jesus shed his blood in our place for our sins. That sums it all up. Adoption through propitiation. We are brothers and sisters of the resurrected Jesus Christ, and he's not ashamed to call us that, he's not ashamed. We're sometimes ashamed of him, though we should never be, but he's never ashamed of us. And he is not ashamed to call us brothers. And so he says, “Go tell my brothers that they will see me.” Applications Christians: Know the Certainty of What You Believe So what applications can we take from that? Oh my. How long do we have? Not long, 'cause we have the Lord's supper, we have the Lord's supper. But be certain of your faith, be rock solid, certain that Christ has risen from the dead. Be certain about the scriptures, testimony, Old testament and New to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Be certain about these things. The word of God is perfectly true and reliable, and Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. He is completely vindicated, and his blood shed on the cross is sufficient for your sins and for mine. And if we repent and believe in him, we will have eternal life. So repent and believe in him and trust in him. And if you have already done that years ago, continue to repent and believe and to trust and to stay close to him, because he is the vine and you are the branches. Be Encouraged Even in the Face of Death And if I can just say, allow your joy to be rekindled, rejoice and be happy, in the Lord, rejoice even in the midst of your suffering. In Acts 9:39, some women were standing around Peter weeping and showing him some articles of clothing that a woman named Dorcas, Tabitha, had made for them, and they're weeping, they're crying, why? 'Cause she's dead. And Peter sent them all out of the room, knelt down and prayed, and then raised her from the dead. Was it inappropriate for them to be weeping? No, no, you know why? Because she was gone now, there was no certainty she would be immediately raised from the dead, and life's hard and Dorcas made life easier and better, and so it's right for us to grieve. But not as those who have no hope. And so that's why I say sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Sometimes we have to be sorrowful, but this message, the truth behind this message is an eternal fountain of joy for all of us. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had in the word, and as we prepare our hearts now, O Lord, to receive the Lord's Supper, I pray that you would send forth again in fresh affusions, the Holy Spirit, to take these bear emblems, to take this experience here of the Lord's Supper, and to make it very powerful. Thank you for what we've just heard in the word, and we ask, O Lord, that you would use it and multiply it. I pray for any that are here that walked in in an unregenerate state, that they are lost, they're apart from Christ, that they would even now, repent and trust in Jesus. I pray these things in your name. Amen.

If youre wondering what Im doing here, Pastor Jeff sends his regards. He was very sad not to be able to be here today. Hes not feeling so well. He spent a lot of time helping a couple of people during the snow storm get out of the ditch. By the weekend, he wasnt feeling too well. I planned on being in Iowa this weekend with my daughter. We were there on Friday looking for apartments. She got a call on her cell phone, and I hear this voice say (in a gruff voice), Jerry. Can you help me? Pastor Jeff was hoarse, couldnt speak very well, and was not feeling too great; so you get me instead today. Im glad to be here with you. Well put the Scriptures up there. As we think about this series Coming Before Winter and winter things-dealing with denial, depression, despair, and then this Sunday with death-death is a very difficult subject. Its the ultimate subject in terms of our lives, and if you dont deal with that, you really deal with nothing at all. Youre not being honest. All of us here today have probably suffered loss of people we care about. I know for myself, death is the very first memory I have in life. When I was two and a half years old, my aunt in Texas, who my parents said was my favorite, was electrocuted and died in her early 30s. I can tell you everything about it. I remember the trip and driving from Illinois to Texas. I can remember pulling up in the parking lot at the funeral home, the service, the color of the room, the color of the casket, and all of those things because it was an incredibly traumatic event. Yet, Im incredibly thankful for that. I saw death in my family. My dad had a large family, eight sisters, and they were all older than he was. I saw a lot of death with grandparents, aunts, and uncles. What that did was something that Solomon says in Ecclesiastes all of us should do. Ecclesiastes 7:1 (page 662 of pew Bibles) is a verse Ive shared hundreds of times at funerals. It says (paraphrasing) its better to go to a funeral than it is to a party because death is what happens to everyone, and wise people think about that. We live in such a party culture-such a here-and-now culture, such a grab-the-moment culture-that we dont like to think about way down the road. We dont like to think about the end. We dont like to think about death and dying, but God says wise people do. They think ahead. They plan ahead. This morning, I want to leave six pictures with you from Gods point of view about what death is and six different skills that you can use to develop your capacity to face that with courage, with hope, and with peace. Were going to look at two different passages of Scripture this morning-one in John 11 and later on the Passage that this series sprang from in 2 Timothy. If you turn to John 11 (page 1063 of pew Bibles), the first thing I want to say is this: From Gods point of view, death is sleep. Listen to what Jesus says. One of His dear friends, Lazarus, had passed away. Friends, Jesus allowed him to die. He heard about Lazarus being sick, and He allowed him to die. All of him of us have probably faced that-friends or loved ones that we pray and ask God to heal them, and God doesnt seem to hear. We say, God, why? Where are You? Why did You let this happen to me? What we need to know and remember is that God has a plan, and God views death differently than we do. We see Jesus perspective in this verse when He said this things in Verse 11, After He had said this, He went on to tell them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up. The Disciples, of course, say, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better. Jesus very plainly then says, No, Lazarus has died, and Im going to raise him from the dead. Thats pretty remarkable, but the first thing I want you to notice from Gods perspective is that death is sleep. I always like bringing props along (Pastor Jerry brought in a pillow with him today). Somebody asked me when I brought this in, Are you going to sleep in church? I said, Yes, its going to be incredibly boring. What does the pillow remind us of? From Gods point of view, how does He view death? He says its simply sleep. Its naptime. We lie down for a minute, but that isnt the end. One day we will rise. Remember as a little kid how you used to hate to take naps? I dont know-is anybody in that ball park along with me? Its like, An afternoon nap? You have to be kidding me! We face death the same way. We dont want to take that nap. We dont want to lie down. But from Gods point of view, Hes a little wiser than we are. He says, You need this. This is part of the plan. But what do we look forward to? We look forward to that day, interestingly, its the stuff of fairy tales when out of a deep sleep the handsome prince comes and with a kiss does what? Awakens the sleeping princess. Its the stuff of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Its the stuff of Sleeping Beauty. Tragedy is befallen. That's true in our world. Sin has entered; death comes. We lie down and sleep, but we look forward to the day when the prince is coming to awaken His bride with a kiss. The people who are not followers of Jesus Christ, the people who dont believe in God, they dont believe in His power of resurrection, they say, Like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, its myth. Its fantasy. Thats not reality. That's not fact. That's fiction. Thats not hope. Thats just hype. Friends, I ask you this question: why does that story resonate with us? Why do the Snow White and Sleeping Beauty stories get passed down from generations? Why are there legends like that in so many different cultures? The reason for that, and the reason that resonates in the heart of little girls so much, is because were made in the image of God. Thats really the story of eternity. Its the story of the prince who leaves his home, leaves his castle, and leaves the safety to go and rescue his bride Thats what Jesus does for us. Interestingly, in terms of sleeping and waking, God challenges us in this regard to wake up. How are you going to handle that moment when you lie down and sleep the sleep of death? Youre only going to handle that if youve practiced waking up in this life. In the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments, God says, Wake up often. What does He mean when He says that? He means, Think. Hes saying, Wake up. Study. Change your mind. Isaiah says, Come now and let us reason together says the Lord. God wants you to wake up. There are people when facing death who would rather not think about it and put it off. Dont entertain the idea that I might someday die. You see that with young people all the time, right? They think theyre invincible. Nobody can hurt me. Im young. Its going to last forever. No, its not. Wise people think about that. Friends, as you come to this question about death and eternity, that is the ultimate question. We get asked all the time, and as I challenge you to think, reason, study, and find out for yourselves, how does your religion or your philosophy with the world deal with that question of death? I tell you this morning your religion may raise you to higher levels of morality. That all may be well and good. Many of the great religions in the world say the same thing, Dont kill people. Dont commit adultery. Dont rob. But if they dont handle the ultimate question of death, they are absolutely, completely, and unequivocally worthless because were all going to die. One of my favorite movies that makes me laugh and laugh is a movie with Bill Murray in it called, What About Bob? Have any of you ever watched that? I love the fact that Bob can drive his psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin, nuts! Dr. Leo Marvin has a son, Siggy, who dresses all in black. Why? Because as Siggy says, Were all going to die. No matter how much money you accumulate or how famous you are, Were all going to die, and theres nothing you can do about it. We kind of poo poo and pat that off, but you know what? Siggy is right. We are all going to die. Have you planned for that? Any religion that doesnt plan for that or doesnt deal with it is absolutely worthless. People say, Oh, there are many ways to God. Really? I want a way that deals with death. I want a way that shows me that there is hope in the face of the worst enemy that we will ever face. Thats where Jesus and Christianity stand out from every other religion that exists. The founder of Confucianism, the founder of Buddhism, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, Judge Rutherford, and Muhammad-you name them-they are all dead, buried, and in their graves. One religion has the audacity, the courage, the backbone to say, No, our founder rose from the dead. Are you kidding me? That alone makes it worth testing out, doesnt it? That alone makes it intriguing because Christianity alone has the audacity to say, Our Founder rose from the dead. When I face death, I want to walk through that porthole with somebody who has been there, done that. Amen? Thats why Im a Christian. Friends, God challenges us in the same way to think, to examine the facts. One of the biggest reasons Im a Christian is I just love to think. As a little kid, I asked questions of every single pastor I had. I remember being about nine years old and asking one of my pastors a whole bunch of questions. He looked at me and said, Jerry, you think too much. I was like, Really? You have to be kidding me. I thought that was what we were supposed to do! I love the fact that so many people, if they are honest with the facts throughout history-scientists, doctors, lawyers, generals, national heroes, and authors-if they examine the facts, they come down on the side of…its inescapable; the evidence is overwhelming: Jesus rose from the dead. If you look up Lee Strobel, who is the editor of the Chicago Tribunes law section, you will find out his wife became a Christian. He saw such dramatic changes in her that he spent two years examining the facts. Finally he gave in from his atheism and embraced Jesus Christ and is a preacher of the Gospel today. One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, is one of the most celebrated authors of the twentieth century. I love what it says about him: he said, God dragged me kicking and screaming into the Kingdom of God. Isnt that hilarious? He didnt want to become a Christian. He didnt want to believe there was a God, but he couldnt help it. The evidence was way too overwhelming. Frank Morrison, a British lawyer, set out to prove that Jesus never rose from the dead; but after examining the facts, he gave in. He gave his life to Christ and ended up writing a famous book called, Who Moved the Stone? One of my personal favorites, Lew Wallace, a Civil War general, was a hero who saved Washington from confederate attack. He later became the governor of New Mexico when Billy the Kid was running around out there. He was challenged on a train ride by Robert Ingersoll, the leading atheist in America at the time, to examine his faith and to reject Christianity. Wallace set out to find the facts. He ended up writing a book that became the biggest seller at the time outside of the Bible. In that culture, it was the only other book besides the Bible that many people had ever read in their lives. It went on to win numerous Broadway awards and was made into a Broadway play at least six different times. It was a runaway hit and then became a worldwide movie that won an Oscar. He wrote a story of the Christ entitled Ben Hur. Why? Because he was overwhelmed by the evidence. I could go on and on. Just a few years ago, one of the leading scientific atheists in the world in the twentieth century just became a Christian, Dr. Anthony Flew. He was a professor at Cambridge. He came out in November of 2007 with his book. He embraced Christianity and wrote these words: There is a God. How the Worlds Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. Dont you love that title? Why? Because people are honest with the facts. The evidence is overwhelming. Jesus challenges us today as we approach the subject of death to think, reason, study, and examine the facts. Did Jesus or did He not rise from the dead? Like Paul said long ago, If Jesus didnt rise from the dead, then our faith is in vain and we ought to be pitied. Friends, He did rise from the dead. The amazing thing is how do you get ready for death? David wrote in the Psalms [2:12] several thousand years ago these interesting words: Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Thats an interesting phrase-kiss the Son. How do you prepare for the coming kiss of your Prince? Begin to get up every day, awaken every day, ready to kiss the Son. Get ready to embrace Him, spend time alone with Him every morning. Get used to His touch; get used to His voice; get used to hearing Him; get alone with Him, and you will long for that day when the Prince of glory comes and plants His kiss on you, awakens you out of sleep, and takes you home to live with Him forever. Amen? The second picture Id like to leave with you as you look at death is also found in John 11:33 (page 1064 of pew Bibles). Jesus is at Lazarus funeral, and He sees Mary weeping and the people around her weeping. It says these words: When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people whaling with her, a deep anger welled up within Him, and He was deeply troubled. The New Living Translation says it very well. That really is the interpretation of that Greek word. Other translations say He groaned, but the idea of anger captures it very well. Friends, death is a time for anger. One of my favorite comic book symbols is The Incredible Hulk. You know the old story: Please dont make me angry. You wouldnt like me when Im angry. Its interesting to know that there is an appropriate response, and death is not out of question or anger is not out of question when facing death. If were honest, we go through those things, dont we? People who chart that, psychiatrists or psychologists who chart that, know that oftentimes anger is one of the steps of grief. You hear that news that maybe the disease you have is terminal. Youre not going to make it. You hear the C word, the cancer word for the first time, or youre facing bypass surgery. Maybe theres a lump, theres a tumor, and your mortality comes into question. You come face to face with the end of your life. Yes, theres fear and maybe despair. You go through those things and theres also oftentimes anger. Maybe youre angry at yourself, I should have taken better care of myself. If its a loved one, Why didnt they take care of themselves better? Maybe youre angry at the doctors, They got it wrong. Im going to get a second opinion, then a third opinion, and then a fourth opinion. Nobodys ever done that, right? Interestingly, one of the people that were most angry at is God. God, if You loved me, if You cared, how could You let this happen? Even as Christians, were tempted to go there. Thats a natural response. Its a very human response. Jesus, in the face of death, is angry. Friends, I want to encourage you. Im glad we have a God that gets angry at that. That says something about Him. Its interesting: Moms, if you spend all day cleaning your house, have you ever become a little irked or annoyed when the kids or the grandkids come home and trashed it all in two minutes? None of you have ever done that, have you (sarcastically asking)? Guys, youre fixing something or youre working on a project, and you just get this thing done when somebody comes along and wrecks it! Were tempted to become angry. Thats an emotion that God carries. Back in Genesis 1, Jesus, who created the world, looked at everything He made and said, Its good. Now He stands at the gravesite of His friend, and hes ticked. Why? Because this isnt the world He made. It wasnt how He imagined it. It wasnt what He had envisioned. His creation had been trashed. He made it wonderful, and somebody messed it up royally. Friends, in a way, that can be an incredibly comforting thing. My wife and I have a very dear friend, a really Godly woman, who was molested as a young girl by someone in her family, someone who was a member of the police department. When she told people about it-what the person had done to her-guess what? Nobody believed her. It separated her from her mother. It separated her from family and friends. She felt ostracized; she felt cast out; she felt like nobody cared. It destroyed her. She went over the edge and delved into all kinds of things-drinking, drugs, and an immoral lifestyle. God, in His mercy and grace, rescued her from that. We dont know what people go through. We dont know how things comfort them. She said after she had started walking with God, one of the things that meant the most and touched her heart most deeply-one of the things that assured her that God loved her more than anything else-was the verse that said God is angry with the wicked every day. You might be sitting here thinking, Why in the world would that assure somebody that God loved him or her? but this dear lady said, My whole life, I tried to tell people who I thought cared about what happened to me, and nobody cared. Nobody was angry. Nobody was mad, but then I realized the God of the universe looked at what happened to me, and He was ticked off; and I felt loved. Somebody cared. Somebody was moved by my pain. Jesus stands at the gravesite of Lazarus, and Hes angry because it wasnt the world He had made. Friends, I would challenge you: what do you put into place at those moments of despair or anger, when your world is caving in? I would challenge you to do what Jesus did at the gravesite of His friend. What did Jesus do? He prayed. He said (John 11:42, page 1064), Father, I thank You that Youve heard Me, and I thank You that You always hear Me; but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me. Then He prayed. Friends, let me ask you: How do you get ready for that moment when youre going to face death? Those words that will make your blood boil or make you angry that life is mortal, how do you get ready for that? Begin a life of prayer now. Pray over the little things that annoy you now. Pray over the things that irk you now. Pray about evil in the world. You know today is Super Bowl Sunday. One of the other biggest sports that will occur today at the Super Bowl in Dallas, Texas, and theyre gearing up for it already, is one of the things that absolutely makes my blood boil with having two daughters that I just love and am crazy about: human trafficking. There are hundreds of young ladies and some young men who are going to be sold today so that men can have their way with them. That ticks me off, and it ticks off the God of Heaven! If you have five seconds or ten seconds when youre watching the Super Bowl today, say a prayer for some of those children. Say a prayer for some of those young people who are being sold. Remember that those things make God angry. If you pray over the things that make you angry now, you will be ready for that day when you come face to face with death. Thats what Jesus did, and thats how He handled it. The third picture I want to leave with you is from our original Passage in 2 Timothy 4:6 (page 1180). Paul says these words: …Im being poured out like a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. Notice that phrase, Im already being poured out as a drink offering. A drink offering-its a gift. We dont so much present offerings today except in monetary terms, but we view our offerings as gifts to God. Drink offerings are gifts. Thats really what God has in mind. Its interesting that Jesus died well and left a legacy and a gift for all of us about how to die, didnt He? Two thousand years later, we still celebrate the Lords Supper. What do we remember? He passed on an incredible inheritance to all of us about how to die. How does He die? He died forgiving people who hurt Him. He died blessing people and offering encouragement to people who were dying with Him, the thief on the cross next to Him. What a way to go! He died trusting God, Father, into Your hands, I commend My Spirit. Friends, I would challenge you in this third picture here, to leave the way you die as a legacy to the people who will come after you. Prepare for it now. Steven Covey even says in The 7 Habits of the Highly Effective People, If you want to have a successful life, begin with the end in mind. Think about what you want on your Tombstone. Id go beyond that and say, Think about how you want to go. Friends, Im here to tell you why Im a Christian. Ive seen the death of hundreds and hundreds of people, and there is incredible difference. There is a gulf; there is a chasm difference between the death of people who have died having hope and faith in Jesus Christ and those who do not. One of the greatest blessings my grandmother ever left with me was not just the ability to play the piano, which I dearly love her for, but I will never forget this big German woman who was 510 and weighed 175 or 180 pounds when she was alive. She got ovarian cancer, went downhill very quickly, and died at about 90 pounds with family gathered around her. This woman who loved music, how did she go out? We were all singing; we were all praying; we were reading Scripture, and she died in peace. She died with a smile; she died with hope; and she died with joy. I remember sitting there thinking, Now, thats the way to go. Thats how you do it. My wife and I had a very dear friend who was the former pastors wife of the church where I first went. At one time, this church was the largest church in the city of Janesville. This woman was a rather large woman, and her husband had had multiple affairs while he was a pastor and eventually left her for the church secretary. She could have been broken by that, but she wasnt. She learned how to pray and have hope. I walked with her through all of those difficulties and one of the greatest trials in her life as she faced heartache, loss, desertion, and loneliness. She prayed, and her light continued to shine. Her personality and warmth sprang out. Then a few short years later, she contracted ovarian cancer as well; but what an unbelievable attitude. I remember standing beside her bed. This dear lady who had spent her lifetime trying to lose weight looked at me and with a smile on her face said, Guess what, Jerry? Im losing weight. Isnt that cool? Can you believe it? What an attitude! Thats the attitude of Christ. Thats the attitude of Romans 8:37, In all these things, you are more than conquerors… I will never forget the warm sunny spring day when we laid her to rest in Oakhill Cemetery. There were about 200 people standing around her gravesite. There was such joy, such happiness, and such warmth that nobody wanted to go. We stood beside the grave and spontaneously sang song after song after song after song. What a contrast to the funerals Ive had of unsaved people who have no hope. I always think of Oakhill Cemetery because theres a bar right at the end of the driveway. Time and time again as soon as the last Amen is spoken, the last word is said, Ive watched people who have no faith, no hope in Christ, boom, go right down the driveway, right across the road, and right into the bar. Why? Because they dont want to face it. They want to forget about it, and they dont want to deal with it. Ive seen time after time the gift and the power of faith and hope in Jesus Christ. It allows you to be a champion and an overcomer in the worst times of life. Leave that gift to the people who come after you. Begin to ask God to use you to enrich the lives of others where you are now. Dont wait until youre on your deathbed to try to touch somebodys life for good. You have a chance to share blessings, to share joy, with everybody around you starting today. What are you really preparing for? Youre really preparing for that moment when youre going to leave your greatest blessing and inheritance behind. Do it today. Start now. The next picture I want to show you of death is that it is the ultimate journey for those who love adventure. I love this phrase, this little short, obscure phase in 2 Timothy 4. Paul says these words, The time of my departure is at hand. What does that sound like? It sounds like somebody is standing in the lobby in the airport waiting for his or her flight time. No, Im not going to say, My flights coming at 3:15. Then Im going to go. Im going to be gone for a while, but Ill see you again. Well, my departure is here. Of if youre standing on the train platform, Well, the 8:15 is coming. Im ready to go. My time is up. What an attitude, right? Friends, thats how God views death. He views it as the ultimate adventure, the ultimate trip. The unbelievable thing is…who is the ultimate tour guide? Jesus Christ. You see, if you go visit someplace really cool, you want to go with a tour guide who knows it inside and out, upside and down, every which way under the sun. I get to let you in on my home pictures. These are vacation pictures. My wife had always wanted visit Savannah, Georgia, so last fall we went. On the way back passing through the Carolinas, we stopped at what was and is the largest private home in America, the Biltmore Mansion. You sit there looking at that, and we paid a really steep price to get in there. Its expensive to go in there, but you know what? We kept saying, Man, this is awesome. The grounds, the gardens, it was incredible. Every corner we turned, wed say, Isnt this cool? Oh, man, look at that! Thats unbelievable. Wed stop with the guides. We hit it off with one dear sweet lady. The guides kept moving, and we kept running into her in different places in the house. It was just a blast talking with her and hearing the stories. Friends, Jesus Christ is the ultimate tour guide. He has faced death; He has been through death and hell, and Hes come out the other side. He knows every nuance, every nook and cranny. He was in all points tempted like we are yet without sin. He says, When you come to that point, take My hand. Walk with Me. Ill lead you through. Ill guide you through. The places I can take you, you would never guess-rivers that flow like crystal, streets that are gold but look like glass, gates made out of pearl. For all you Packer fans, guess what the color of the rainbow around Gods throne is? Its green. Im here to tell you. Green is my favorite color. Even though Im not a Packer fan, green is my favorite color. How about that? Guess what? I cant wait to see that! Angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, with four different heads [we will see]. There will be a head with a lion on this side, and ox on this side, an eagle [on one side and a man on this side]. Im like, Thats going to be bazaar! I cant wait to see that. Creatures flying around with six wings-everywhere you go in Heaven, it will be like, Look at that! Look at that! Thats incredible! Thats awesome! Jesus says, Your eye hasnt seen. Your ear hasnt heard. You cannot comprehend the things He has prepared for those who love Him. I think of our dear friend, Judy. Dennis is here this morning and got up and shared her journey and the things she went through. Judy faced her fears, she faced her difficulties, and faced her pain. Dennis and Judy liked to travel, and I know one of her favorite pictures as she talked about death, facing that, and going through that portal was this one right here, Im going on a trip. Im going on a vacation. Im going to be gone for awhile, but Ill be back. I have the greatest guide in the world. Judy died with peace; she died with hope; she died with joy. I will tell you being in that home and with that family, you could see it. You could feel it. The joy, the peace, and the hope were so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Thats not normal. Well, it is among people who know Christ; but among people in the world, its not. God says there is hope even in the face of death. Why? Because its a journey; its an adventure. God says, You cant imagine the things that I have prepared for you. Take My hand. Ill guide you through it with hope and with joy. The fifth picture I would like to leave with you is found in the next phrase when Paul says in Verse 7 (still page 1180), I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. He says, Death is the biggest fight, the most terrifying opponent, the greatest difficulty that you must face. God calls every one of us-guys in particular, you can resonate this stuff. We talked about princesses and handsome princes for the ladies. Guys, this is the stuff that resonates in our hearts. God calls every single guy to be a warrior. I dont care whether youre a guy who has never been athletic in your life, never been in a fight in your life, or never done anything particular physical. God doesnt care. He calls every single guy to face at one point in his life the greatest opponent you will ever face, and that's death. You will stare it in the face, and you will feel fear. I can tell you outside of baseball, boxing was my favorite sport. Before mixed martial arts, I just loved boxing. I loved everything about it. I started fighting in fifth grade and boxed all the way through college. I played football all the way from fifth grade through college as well. Friends, Ill tell you that Im not ashamed to admit that there was not a single fight I ever fought, there was not a single football game I was ever involved in, that I was not afraid before it happened. Whats the battle? The battle is overcoming your fear. If you read the inside stories-today is the Super Bowl-probably somewhere between 30 and 35 percent of the guys playing in the Super Bowl today will throw up before the game. Do you know why? Because theyre afraid. Heres the amazing thing: you do all that training and practice; you do all those repetitions; you go through all the struggles; and you get into the game, you face your fears, and you begin to fight. You take that first hit, and guess what? All the fear goes away, and friends, Im here to tell you: the training takes over. Ill never forget my first fight in college. I fought a guy who was the state runner up in Michigan. By all accounts, he was the biggest, baddest, and toughest guy in the entire school. He was a junior; I was a freshman. I walked out of my corner, and I walked into a straight right [fist]. Everything went black; I saw sparks; and if he would have followed up with a combination, I would have been toast. When the lights came back on and the fog cleared, guess what? All that training kicked in. I still enjoy that so much that to this day, down in my basement gym, I still hit the heavy bag on a regular basis. Im going to need some new bag gloves after a while. Its interesting that after the lights went out and then came back on, guess what happened? I never thought about being afraid; all that training kicked in. Its really fun to say I spent the next three rounds just chasing him all over the ring. That was a blast. Why? The training kicked in. Friends, heres the wonderful thing about your walk with God. Jesus has been there. He has faced the ultimate opponent. He faced not just death, but He faced hell. He went through hell for you. He faced the wrath and the curse of God in a way that you and I will never will, and He came out the other side. Theres an obscure Passage in the Book of Hebrews that says in the days of His flesh, He offered up strong crying and tears. Do you think Jesus was afraid? Let me ask you that question: do you think Jesus was afraid? The answer is yes. Hebrews says He was in all points tempted as we are. Friends, He was afraid. He didnt want to go through that, but then it says something amazing. All that training kicked in. All that time alone with God, all the prayers, all the walks with Him, all the hours spent with God in secret and the training kicked in. In the face of His deepest, darkest moments, the author of Hebrews says something incredible. He says that Jesus offered up those prayers, and He was heard. He offered the prayers up to the One who was able to save him from death. Dont overlook that phrase. It says from death. Thats the Greek word ek from which we get our word exit or out of (as in Jesus wasn't just praying that God would "prevent" Him from dying. He was praying that God would raise Him up "out of" death and the grave once He was in it.) What was Jesus praying for in the face of death? He literally prayed for His own resurrection. Thats literally what that Passage was saying. Can you believe that? Jesus is saying, God, Father, I know Im going to die, so raise Me up again. You say, But He had Gods promise. He prayed for it anyway. Father, save Me. Raise Me up again. Friends, when you spend that time alone with God in your deepest, darkest, scariest moments, what begins to happen? The power of God resonates in your lives. As you become so acquainted with the God of the universe who rolls up His sleeves and bares His arm in the face of all adversity, you begin to know courage. So, like Solomon in Proverbs, you begin to say, The good man may fall or the good woman may fall seven times, but whats going to happen? They rise again. I love the Passage in Micah, Rejoice not over me, O my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. Friends, sin, evil, destruction, and the wrath of God put Jesus down on the canvas, didnt it? He died; He was buried, but you couldnt keep a good Man down, could you? Three days later, the Champion comes up. He gets off the canvas; He comes off the floor; He comes out fighting, and He wins. Friends, the God of the universe says, When you trust in Him, He put that same Spirit in your heart. If youre here this morning, I dont care how weak you are. I dont care if youve ever played a sport, lifted a weight, fought a fight-God doesnt care. Inside of you beats the heart of a champion; inside of you beats the heart of the living God. God says to you, We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and you have the mind of Christ. Believe it. Start practicing those truths today. Start your training today. Get alone with God on a regular basis. Open up His Word; talk to Him about it; sing His praises when youre afraid. The training will pay off in your deepest, darkest moments. Youll make one of the greatest comebacks of all time. Amen? The last picture I want to leave with you is this: Paul says, Because of that, there is laid up for Me a crown of rejoicing, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to Me on that day. Notice what He says, …theres laid up for me a crown of righteousness… One of my favorite things about sports is I like trophies. I like awards banquets; I like medals; I like all of that stuff. Ive been very blessed. Ive coached some great teams and played on a lot of cool things. One of the coolest trophies Ive ever received came about two years ago. I won nationals in power lifting, and they gave out really cool trophies. The sculptor that made it was unbelievable. I got really excited when I first saw it. I thought it was Jesus because if you look really close, he has a beard. I thought, Well, thats cool. Jesus is holding up the world. I was truly disappointed when I found out it wasnt Jesus; it was Atlas, but oh well. You cant have everything, right? It was still really cool. I say that to say there is something wonderful about getting awards. As you think about that, is Paul really confident? Is he? He knows its going to happen. He knows hes going to stand before his Lord and hear the words, Well done, good and faithful servant. God had seen him through. He was at the end, and the awards banquet was waiting. The thank yous were coming. The trophies were going to be there. In fact, thats the last thing Jesus promises in the Book of Revelation, Behold, I come quickly, and Im bringing what with Me? …My reward. Its trophy day, boys and girls. Gods going to be handing out medals. So how should you approach that? Well, when does Paul start thanking and blessing God? Before he has received the medals or afterwards? Before. Its interesting with Jesus as well, if we look back at the chapter in John, He is standing at Lazarus gravesite. He hasnt yet raised Lazarus from the dead, but what does He do? He says, Father, I thank You that You hear Me. Theyd be lying to tell you otherwise, but all the actors and actresses that are going to win awards here in the shows coming up, if theyre even nominated and in the running, what do they practice before they ever receive the awards? They practice their acceptance speech, right? Some of them go on and on and on and on because they have all these people they want to say what to? Thank you. Oh, and I want to thank this person. I want to thank that person. I want to thank this person. Friends, how do you get ready for death? You begin thanking people a long way off. Thats what Jesus did. He hadnt raised Lazarus from the dead yet, but He was already saying, Father, thank You that Youre listening to Me. Even in the face of death, I know Youre listening. I know Youre going to hear My prayer. I know Youre going to raise him from the dead. Friends, start practicing your acceptance speech now. Get up every day telling God thank you for as many possible things as you can thank Him for. Get up every day and start telling everybody around you in your life thank you for as many possible things as you can thank them for because when you stand before God and hear Him say, Well done, good and faithful servant, trust me, there will be many more people that you wished you would have thanked in this life. Man, I should have told them thank you. I should have told them thank you. Friends, be looking for-be living for-that moment. Be thinking about that moment. Think about it now. Picture yourself standing before God, and He hands out trophies and says, Well done, good and faithful servant. Its so cool. What do Gods children who receive those trophies and awards do? They take those crowns, and they throw them back at His feet and say, Thank You. No, it was all You. It was all You. It was all You. Thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You. I wouldnt be here if it werent for You. Friends, we can face death with hope, with joy, with peace. Why? Because Jesus lives, and there is hope. If you need prayer, feel free to come up. Shall we stand and close in prayer. If you need someone to pray with, feel free to come forward, and our prayer team will meet with you. I pray that youll be encouraged and blessed. Father, I thank You so much for Your love. I thank You for Your kindness. I ask Your richest blessing on Your people, especially those who may be hurting with bad news or the loss of a loved one or friend. I pray that Youd give us Your hope and courage. Thank You for the example of Jesus Christ and that we can pray in His name. Amen. God bless you all. Thank you so much.

Hints and tips for media appearances and public speaking. This week; Social Phobia; Rod Sloane; Amy Winehouse; A Cockroach in Turkmenistan; Adapt and Survive; Press Conferences; Who Moved my Website?; An Interview with Paul ter Wal about speaking in The Netherlands and Belgium.