Welcome, welcome everybody. My name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors. Want to invite you to come back and take your seat. Hey, let's try this on for size. He is risen. Are you ready for this? Are we ready for the word of God? All right, let's bring it. Hey, I want to just talk to you today. And first of all, my name is Matt. We are so thankful to have you. If you're a guest with us today, we are so glad that you are here. Now, let me just say this at the very beginning. I realize that in this room we have all kinds of people. And you're coming from all walks of life. Some of you are saved and you're ready for this day. You have been excited about this day. You had your clothes laid out last night. You've been shadow boxing and ready to go this morning. Ready to sing, ready to hold bunnies with your kids over in children's ministry. I get it. Today is a big day. And we are excited that you are here. Others of you, this is your first time at Central Church. Can I just see a show of hands? This is your first time at Central Church. Could you just raise your hand real quick? Yep, yep, all right, great. Yep, all right. Over here. Welcome. We are glad that you are here. Others of you are coming, and you would just admit in your heart that you're skeptical. Or you would even say it like this: I'm lost. I don't know where I'm at. And some of you are wondering what God's plan is, why you're here. Let me just encourage you, as I routinely do our church, I spent many Easters lost. So one day you could be the pastor of this church. All right? So pray about it. That's something you could you could pray about. But God has a way of taking lost and making them found. Some of you have come here, and some of you have experienced hurt. You just said to yourself, you know what, I don't want nothing to do with what with what's going on there, but I'll go. I've been a part of a church movement. I've been hurt. I'll just do Easter eggs later today. No matter why you're here, I believe God has brought you here for a purpose, and I'm so thankful that you are here. All right? Now, I want to just just challenge you with this, though. Use today to honestly identify who you are and where you are. Our church knows that uh in my life, the bane of my existence right now is a job that I started back in December. I am basically restoring an old Jeep for my son. This is the saga of the Jeep. And today I hope it finds its completion. Uh we have done all kinds of things. We've done engine repair on this Jeep, and really a lot of it we're just trying to do ourselves as projects, and we'll get help from friends, but it's mostly done just with ourselves. Uh we have done uh yesterday. This was yesterday. This is a picture of yesterday. I was doing air conditioning repair, and it was just me and YouTube in my garage. All right? And so I've got these hoses connected to the car, and six hours later it's blowing cold. I mean, we have done all kinds of things on this vehicle. We've been restoring it, we've changed out seals, we've changed out engine lifters, we've we've even added a backup camera and a radio, and we even added the ducks on the Jeep. How many of you know about the ducts? Yeah? This is an important piece, but uh we've even added a few ducks. Now, we've got to the point on this project where it was time for the stickers. All right? You Caleb, you get to pick out some stickers for your car. And we picked out an American flag and we picked out the Rubicon sticker. All right, and this is what it looks like. And so we've added the American flag, we added the Rubicon sticker, it's looking good, we like it, we like what we're seeing, all right? Now, how many of you know that Rubicon is a very specific type of Jeep? Do you know that? Like it's a it's a brand. It's it's kind of its own thing, all right? Now here's the secret. This is not a Rubicon. But but Caleb looks at it and says, But dad, it looks cool. I said, I'll buy the sticker for you, but I'm gonna put a line under the last three letters, con, alright? And uh now why why do I bring that up? This is why, alright? Many today on Easter are sticker Christians. Many, and that's a reality for a lot of people in our culture. This is a cultural day, but a lot of people, it goes no deeper than a nominalism, a name only. It doesn't affect their life, it doesn't affect their daily living, it doesn't affect their commitments, their desires. And many people today, there will be a sticker Christianity. There's no change on the inside, there's no new reality, there's no love of Jesus, there's no attendance or care for the church, and for the rest of the year, for the rest of time, most people are sticker Christians and they're missing out on real life. That's the reality. You need to know where you're at. You need to know what journey you're on. Now, now let me just say this. Let's just acknowledge this. We're all on a journey seeking life. Every one of you are here today looking for life. And that's really what my sermon is about. All of us are seeking satisfaction. You are, I am, and we look for it in all of the all of the strangest places. We look for it in all of the places that will never bring us life. Some people seek life in actually some good things, like family or a career. Other people seek life in their hobbies, a sport or a video game, and and I don't think I don't think God's against any of those things. I think that God gives us all things to enjoy. But we're busy and we're burdened and we we say to ourselves, I'm not experiencing real life. There's something in me, and I'm at the end of my rope because I'm not satisfied. You see, when good things become God things, that's a bad thing. It's against our design. It's not how God designed us to be. Many of you are actually seeking life in places of addiction. You're addicted to entertainment, you're addicted to a drink, to a drug. Some of you are addicted to all sorts of things that at one point they became a pressure relief, and now they they're slavery. In fact, did you know that's how the Bible speaks about addiction? Addiction is basically slavery. Sin, the image of sin in the Old Testament, is slavery. And some of you would say, that's where I'm at. I'm seeking life, I'm looking for life, and all I'm finding is more slavery, and so something is wrong. Some of you are at the end of your rope right now. How many of you grew up with Popeye? Remember Popeye? Popeye the sailor man? Some of you are saying this in your heart right now. I've taken all I can take, and I can't take no more. I'm at the end of my rope. Why is it not working? Well, I gave this illustration a few weeks ago, but imagine the solar system. Imagine all the planets, imagine the sun, the very heart of our solar system, holding everything in balance, but imagine you remove the sun and you replace the sun with Pluto. The rest of the planets just go everywhere in every direction. Why? Because Pluto's power isn't strong enough. It doesn't have the gravitational pull, it doesn't have the power, it doesn't have the mass to hold things in their right place. And that's what we tend to do. We put all sorts of other things in the place of God. And so I think that that's really the heart of our problem that I'm addressing today. We are missing out on, we're missing out on real life. And if that's you today, what I want to say to you is Christianity is not a system, it's all about a person. It's about seeking Christ to be the sun in your solar system, to keep your life balanced, to keep your life in place, and only then, only then will you have satisfaction. So that's what I want to talk to you about today. We're continuing in a series I have entitled The Death of Death. We're working our way through the book of Luke. In fact, next week will be the final sermon in Luke. I want to invite all of you to come back, and that's history in the making. That's about four years of history in the making at Central Church. And so I want to encourage you to come back next week to finish the study. Today I want to talk to you about real life. I want to talk to you about the real life that Easter offers. Would you take your Bibles? Let's stand in honor of God's word, as we do every week. And really, the passage that we're seeing here today, Jesus is going to appear to his disciples, and this is Luke's version of the Great Commission. It's kind of overlaps with the book of Acts, all right? And so that's what we're going to see today, and we're going to see that he's offering them real life because he is really alive. It says this in verse 44. And he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I'm sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power on high. Today what we're going to see is that because Jesus is alive, he offers us real life. And I want to show you three very simple points based on really three verses in this passage. Notice with me, verse 45. He opened their minds. Some of you need this to happen to you today. It's a miracle. It's where God brings you to a place where you can spiritually hear. And what we're going to see in that is new priorities. That's our first point. Our second point's based on verse 47, that forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed. And we're going to talk about gospel precision. There is real life when we get the gospel right. How many of you know that many in this culture today, many in church world today, many people are missing the key elements of the gospel, and without precision, there's no power. Third, we're going to talk about power. We're going to see that you are witnesses. And out of this, we're going to see that God gives you the power to live up to that identity, that God gives you the power to do things because of the Holy Spirit. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead abides in you who believe. If you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not a Christian. But if you have the Holy Spirit, you can do unbelievable things and you can finally be satisfied. So that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about real life. May God bless the reading, the preaching of His Word. May God bless all of you. You may be seated. How do we embrace real life? How do we have real life? How does Easter offer us real life in Christ? Some of you are searching for life in all the wrong places, and the Bible shows us exactly how to have life. Number one, let's embrace life-giving priorities. Let's embrace some new life-giving priorities. If you want to have life, if you want to be satisfied, and all of us are on a search for satisfaction, we've got to find the origin, the place of real life. Notice with me, if you look back in Luke 24 and go all the way back to verse 5 with me, that first resurrection Sunday. Remember what the angel said? Why do you seek life among the dead? Why are you seeking the living among the dead? That's what we do. You and I tend to do this in all sorts of ways. You and I tend to seek life in all sorts of places that will never satisfy our soul. We do that. Some of you are nodding. Some of you feel that today. Name them. Where do we seek life? We seek life in money. I remember being told, Matt, as a pastor, you're going to have to talk about money. I don't want to talk about money. It's awkward for me and for them. You have to. Why? Because money is one place where people tend to put their hope. In fact, if you think about it, money has godlike qualities. Money lies to us. Money speaks to us and says, I will take care of you. I will provide for you. I will give you abundance. I will give you joy. And money is one of the places that we treat as God. And it's a helpful tool, but it's a terrible master. And so we've got to address this. That's one of the places we tend to hide. Another place we tend to hide is our hobbies. Maybe it's a video game. Maybe it's a sport. And it consumes you. And you're seeking life in that place, but it's absolutely dominating your life. Maybe it's a career. What's wrong with me? Why am I so obsessed with a career? Why am I so obsessed with with how Sunday goes on any Sunday? Maybe you're obsessed with seeking life in fitness and in health. This is where a lot of people look for life. In fitness. This is the avocado toast generation. This is the superfood quemoa generation. This is the kale generation. Some of you are gonna go home today, Easter Sunday, and have kale for lunch, and shame on you. Go eat a steak like a real American, amen. But we do that. Some of you obsess over your health. You're gonna get on your Peloton, you're gonna get in your dry sauna, you're gonna do the cold plunge like Joe Rogan tells you to do, and you're obsessed with it. But here's the truth: your body and your soul, they're moving in different directions. The soul is is getting stronger and moving into eternity. The body is is wasting away. Your tent, your outer garment is being is being decayed. I mean, this is just the reality. This is the truth. This is the first generation where fathers want to look like their sons rather than sons wanting to look like their fathers. I mean, that's that's mind-blowing. Let that see again. This is the first generation of that. Where fathers say, I want to look younger, I want to look like my son. Just the other day, I called my my chiropractic friend and I said, Tony, I need to know something. If I get one of those red light hats, will it help my hair loss? And he gave me some reports, and we're all fighting this battle. All of us are, and it's so embarrassing. But here's the truth: you are going to get uglier and wrinkler and you're gonna die. Happy Easter! Some of you are saying this is the worst Easter sermon ever. You're like writing it down. I'm getting uglier and I'm gonna get wrinkler and I'm gonna die. Pastor, you're embarrassing me. I brought my family. Um, never coming back to this church. Um truth is, we seek life in all sorts of places. We seek it in pleasure. I mean, honestly, that's what addiction is about. If you've ever wondered what addiction is about, whether it's a drug, a drink, uh it's all about pleasure. I'm seeking a momentary satisfaction, and then you get enslaved. In fact, I put this brain scan up on the screen pretty often. This is a good uh a good indicator. This is a normal brain that's being scanned, this is a brain that's on heroin, and parts of it stop working. This is a brain on pornography. It's Swiss cheese. In fact, the report comes back that it actually dehumanizes you. The sections that make you human, the emotional cognitive sections that actually make you human-like, it actually dehumanizes you. It's worse than heroin. What is this about? Why do people do this? G.K. Chesterton said these words. Look at this. This is a great line. Every time a man knocks on the door of a brothel, right, he's really knocking for God. He's looking for God. You see, we're all seeking satisfaction. We're all seeking those desires to be fulfilled, and we're searching for God. We're pleasure hounds, but we're searching in the wrong places. And this is so many of you. You're seeking life, but but you would say today, I am enslaved. And Pastor Matt, what do I do? Friend, if that's you, I want to just encourage you. Today, God has a message for you right out of the text. There's good news. God will offer you new priorities, new life, uh, real life. Some of you are living half-lives. I want to show you the path to real life. And so let's look at number one first. Let's look at some of these priorities. Look at verse 44. These are my words that I spoke to you. If you're gonna find life, you're gonna find it in the Word of God. It's in the words of Jesus. You're gonna have to go back to the Bible. You will always find God's will in God's word. Write that down. You will always find God's will in God's word. Dear friends, you've got to go back to the Bible. He points them to his words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, this is the entire Old Testament, must be fulfilled. The Old Testament was promises given, a Savior is coming, the New Testament is promises kept, a Savior did come, he did die on the cross, he did rise on the third day, He He does now offer satisfaction and everlasting life for anyone who would receive that message, for anyone who wants to be more than a sticker Christian, for anyone who wants to have their insides completely changed. He offers that life to you. But you've got to get back to the gospel. You've got to believe the scriptures that Jesus is able to offer forgiveness of sins and a new purpose and freedom. The gospel offers new life. Notice the second life-giving priority in this first point that you can find life in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Notice in verse 44 the personality to this. He says, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. There's a relationship here, there's a proximity here. Jesus says, I have a relationship with you, and out of that I speak truth to you and give you life. Some of you are missing life because you are here today in church. You have a million pursuits. However, you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. No, you have a general knowledge. You have a knowledge of a Rubicon. But you don't have the insides of a Rubicon, the suspension, the engine, the reality. I was at my son's basketball game a couple weeks ago, and um, this was so funny. I started uh to prep to evangelize this guy sitting to my left who was out there to watch his grandson. My wife is sitting to the right, and uh I start just asking him, Are you a Christian? Are you are you born again? And I start asking him those kind of questions. He says, Yes, I'm a Christian. And then we start talking about church, and and where do you go to church? And and uh he tells me his church, and I tell him my church, and I say, Yeah, I go to Central. And uh and he says, Oh, Central, we tried that like seven seven years ago. Uh I think they were looking for a pastor. He turns his wife, was it seven years ago? And I said, Yeah, that sounds about right. Seven years ago sounds sounds vaguely suspicious. Um and my wife is dying over here, and so I finally, before he says anything about the pastor at Central, I um I just let it out. Hey, I'm the pastor over at Central, and we start having that conversation, and but I think that's how a lot of people live towards Jesus. I think a lot of people live towards Jesus that way. It's like they have a knowledge of him, but but not a personal knowledge. They know about Jesus, but they don't talk to him. They don't listen to him. They don't know him. And that's my fear for a lot of you in this room today. I just want to say this, we love you. I'm so thankful you are here. And I know you're coming here with all sorts of thoughts today. Some of you are hurting, some of you are lost for purpose, some of you life doesn't make sense. And I just want to say this to you life will only make sense when you come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. How do you do that? How does that happen? Notice the text moves to that next. And really, if you don't know the gospel, let me just say this before I get any further. The gospel is basically good news, bad news, good news. You might even write this down. Good news! You have a creator, God. You were made with a purpose. God so loved the world, he loves humanity. God made you. Bad news. God's angry with sinners every day. The wrath of God abides on sinners. Why? It's because we broke God's law. We have sinned, we've fallen short of the glory of God, the Bible says. The Bible says that you and I have broken the law of God. We have not been satisfied in Him. We've been trying, we've sought satisfaction in our addictions, we've sought satisfaction in our in our idols, and we've we've left God behind. That's the problem. So God is angry with sinners. That's bad news. Good news. God so loved the world that in order to solve the problem of his own wrath and anger. He sent Jesus. Jesus came. Truly God, truly man. God's son came into the world and he lived the perfect life that you could never live. And you know what he did? He not only lived in perfection so that he could be the spotless, perfect Lamb of God, he also died in your place, taking your place for your sin. Is there any Christian excited about that today? Amen? Like he died for you. He took the punishment that you deserved. And so what is the gospel call that comes to you? Believe that message, turn from your sin, and repent in Jesus Christ and believe in him. That's the gospel. Good news, bad news, good news. And you've got to respond in faith. You've got to respond to repentance. Now, this does presuppose a miracle. Some of you cannot respond. And for some of you, I went many Chris many Christmases, many Easters, not responding to the gospel message. What was missing? Well, for one thing, I couldn't really hear what the pastor was saying in my heart. Why? Because it's a miracle. Look at verse 45. Look what God does. In verse 45, he opened their minds. For some of you, that's happening right now. God does the work. God does the heart drawing and the heart wooing, and he opens their minds to understand the scriptures. This is what the disciples need. You see, they were there at the foot of the cross. They saw the crucifixion, they saw the events, but but they missed the whole point of the Bible. They missed the whole point of the crucifixion. Jesus told them it was going to happen. And we're just like them. We need a miracle to happen in our hearts to believe. In fact, we see that all over Scripture in Acts 16, verse 14. Lydia, how did she believe the gospel? The Lord opened her heart. That's what happened for her. God gave her an ear to hear, and a mind to understand, and a heart with new desires. And for some of you, that's what needs to happen. And you need to pray for that right now. And maybe you sense it happening in you at this very moment. God can transform you. God can do a miracle in your life, no matter where you're at, no matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, no matter who you are, God can change you. You know, Pastor Greg touched on it last Sunday, but we have a mutual connection from our previous church. There's a young man who took social media by storm over the past couple of weeks. 36 million views. His post went mega viral. His name's Trevor Sheets. It got so viral that the Daily Wire guys, I don't know if you know those guys, Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, all those guys, they picked up the story. Ray Comfort did an interview with them, sort of explaining what was going on. And all they were doing was telling their testimony. We used to be this, we used to be that. And God saved us. And now we're committed followers of Jesus Christ. And the world doesn't understand scandalous grace. The world has shamed them and hurt them. This is a scandal. But that's what God offers you scandalous, transforming grace. Now the rest of the story that really hasn't been picked up is the part that I remember. And this was over 10 years ago. This was probably closer to 15 years ago. I was a youth pastor at Kindred Church. And Trevor, the guy whose post went mega viral on X. He was in my youth group. And I was his youth pastor, and I remember him coming for six months. And he would come to church and we would sing songs about the blood. And we would sing songs about Jesus' death on the cross, celebrating that. And he would come to us and he would say things like, You Christians are so weird. He says, You talk about blood, you take communion. I don't understand what that's about. You guys celebrate a death on a cross. I don't get any of this. And I just I just acknowledged it. Yeah, it's it's weird. I agree. And he said, I said, Are you coming back next week? He said, Yeah, I'll be there. I'll be there. And he came and he just kept coming, and we kept preaching the gospel to him. And he went from a young man who was coming to youth group on drugs to God transforming his life. Now he's in ministry. He worked for Living Waters, the evangelism company. And God transformed his life, his marriage, his friendships, his passions. That's what God does when he does the miracle. And here's what I'm praying over all of you this morning. That if there's anyone here who needs that miracle, that transform or that transformation miracle to go from the uttermost to the guttermost. You're in the gutter of life, and God needs to pull you out of that and give you new desires. God will save you. I'm praying that you would sense him doing that desire giving in your life even now. So hear me this morning. God offers you a new start, a new life. You can pray that this morning. You can right where you're at, ask God to save you, give you new desires. Point number two, and these next two will go fast. How do we have real life? We need to employ life-giving life, we need to embrace life-giving priorities. We need to employ life-giving precision. You see, life change involves gospel accuracy. We've got to get the gospel right. And so I want to have a teaching time just for a moment so that we truly understand what the gospel is. I want us to understand this. It's not enough to go and just say, God loves you, God has a wonderful plan for your life, just add Jesus to your life, get your ticket to heaven, and we'll see you again in a few months. That's not enough. No, we've got to get the gospel right. And notice with me in this passage, it offers three irreducible elements of the gospel. Number one, write these down. Number one, Christ suffered for sins. We've got to understand that. That the death on the cross was penal substitutionary atonement. It was a in-your place suffering. Jesus did that for you. He took the punishment you deserved. So you don't have to add anything to it. You don't have to build your case of acceptance before God. Your acceptance is in another. It's in his work, not yours. No one will get to heaven by their own goodness. If you are depending on good works for your ladder to heaven, you're going to end up standing in hell. Number two, write this one down. Christ rose on the third day. Why do we preach the resurrection? It's our assurance, it's our hope. And this is the best illustration I could come up with, guys. To understand the resurrection. Why does this matter? How many of you have our iPhone users? Just a show of hands around the room. iPhone users. God bless you. How many of you are willing to admit that you have an Android? Yep, a couple of you, at least two.

I have an iPhone.

Oh, amen. Amen. I don't know who that said that. That's great. Congratulations. Android users, we we accept you and we love you, alright? It takes all kinds of people. It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. Anyways, uh we love the we love the iPhone because it and I don't know if Android's fixed this. It may have fixed this, alright? But here's why I love the iPhone. All right? Whenever you send a text message, what color is it? It's blue. And I think Android's fixing this, or they have fixed this, but but I can actually see when people are typing, I can see when the message has been what? Delivered and read, right? If they haven't, like if they haven't turned that off, I can see if someone has read my message. I love that. It's a read receipt. The resurrection is a read receipt, it's an acceptance, it's a delivery receipt. The resurrection essentially says, yes, the sacrifice was good, the sacrifice was accepted. It's God's affirmation that that sacrifice that Jesus did has been accepted. That's why we preach the resurrection. It changed everything. Number three, write this one down. That repentance for the forgiveness of sin, that that should be proclaimed. See, repentance is not merely a sorrow for sin. It's not merely remorse. Repentance, faith and repentance are two ways of speaking of the same thing. It is to believe in the gospel, it is to turn away from your sin, your old life, your self-reliance. And the question that I want to pose to all of you today is have you repented? Have you turned from your old life? Have you made a clean break with your old life? You see, Christianity, I just want to expose this for just a second. Christianity is not simply adding Jesus to your life. It's not sticking the sticker. I'm pro-Jesus. It's not putting the Rubicon sticker on your life. Instead, it's getting a whole new insight. It's what I'm doing to this Jeep week by week. I'm just giving it a whole new inside, right? That's what this is. It's giving you a new life. Have you truly repented? Have you truly turned from your sin? And notice this, and believers, I want you to see this. Don't try to soften that message that repentance is part of that message, that you've got to understand the wrath of God, the place of hell, that if you haven't turned from your sin, you haven't turned towards Christ, the wrath of God abides on you. If you try to soft for that, it's cowardly, it's cruel. It's almost like a mailman. Like, like, how angry am I with my mailman if the mailman is sorting out all the messages that he thinks that I won't like? Oh, that's a bill. Matt's not going to like that. We'll just take that one out. Is he helping me? No. We need to realize that our proclamation power is connected to getting the whole of this message right. My friend Mike Ferbaras has a dummy grenade on his shelf when you go to his office. It's really funny. It's next to his Bibles, but it's not a real grenade. It looks like the real thing. That pineapple grenade. Looks like the real thing. But it's been drilled out. It's got no explosive material inside of it. And that's what a lot of gospel proclamations are like today that miss out on the key components. And the problem is that gospel proclamation has no power. It can't explode, it can't change lives. So you and I have to be sure we get the gospel right. We have to proclaim. The only gospel proclamation that will have power is one that proclaims the good news, the bad news, that we are sinners in the hands of an angry God. But the good news that Jesus came, he lived the perfect life, he resurrected from the dead for our acceptance, and you can have that promise. We've got to proclaim it all. We've got to proclaim it all. Verse 47, how do we do that? In his name and in all nations. His name reminds us that only the name of Jesus can save. Let me just say this to you. If you're a skeptic here today, if you're looking for where to be saved, how to be saved, there is salvation in no other name but the name of Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we do ministry, it's in his name that we live, it's in his name that we have life, it's in his name that we worship, it's in his name that we have acceptance before God. No other name given to man by which we may be saved. There's no other name. We've got to come to that conclusion. And we've got to realize that this is our gospel calling that brings that brings life. That brings life. I want to put a picture up this morning. This is A.W. Tozer's church in New York. Now I know it's blurry, it's black and white. This was a church that was just doing great ministry right in the heart of New York. I mean, this was the church you wanted to be at. They were planting churches. They were doing gospel ministry. There was a college there. People were getting trained there and being sent out for ministry. Like this church reminds me a lot of Central Church. We try to do a lot of those elements, but but that history is long past. A.W. Tozer. Today what does it look like? Today it's a John's Pizzeria. A.W. Tozer's church is a pizza shop. What happened? At some point they lost the idea that it was their job to find satisfaction in gospel ministry, in proclamation ministry. They stopped proclaiming, and week by week they shrunk and they shrunk and they shrunk until they closed the doors of the church. And now there's pizza being made there. We need to realize the vital nature of the ministry we've been given. It is for your satisfaction. But also you've been given a task to do by God. And if God doesn't see us doing that task, he takes the lampstand away. Final point, we're done. Final point, we're done. How do we have real life? Well, we've got to embrace life-giving priorities. God is able to do this for you. Some of you have all kinds of priorities. God's able to give you biblical priorities to finally be satisfied. We've got to employ life-giving precision. We've got to get the gospel right. You can't shave off the rough edges of the gospel. You're not doing anyone any favors when you do that. In fact, without precision, there's no power. You write that down. Without precision, there's no power. It can't explode. And we need to even be encouraged that it doesn't matter whose hand holds that gospel. It can be a six-year-old child who knows the gospel. Or it can be an 85-year-old adult. But if you get the gospel right, it has power. Lastly, we need to experience life-giving power, and let's talk about that power. Notice with me two thoughts about our power that we have to walk in. First of all, our identity. Notice it says you are witnesses. It doesn't say that there's a select group of people in the church who have the gift of evangelism that should be evangelizing. No, friends, all of us are witnesses. All of us have been given the gift of evangelism who are in Christ, who are saved. You need to be doing this work. You need to even preach that identity to yourself every day. This is my job. This is my, say this word, design. Even write that word down, design. When I talk to people about like life decisions, some of you are going through a season in your life, maybe you're talking about changing a job, maybe it's a new family or life decision. I use this, I use these words, right? Let's put them up on the screen. Design. I use design, desire, and door. Am I designed for this? Do I desire to do this? Is there an open door to walk through? And if you get these right, if you do a good job with these, it's desert. If you do a bad job with these, it's desert. But it all starts with the design. When it comes to evangelism, all of us can check this one off. You are designed to be the witness of Jesus Christ. That is his desire for you. The question is, are you a good witness or a bad witness? God is a seeking God. This is in line with God's, not only the design he made us with, but it's in line with his nature. God's a seeking God. In Genesis chapter 3, what's one of the first things he does after man falls into darkness? He comes seeking them. In Revelation, what's one of the last things said? It's an invitation to the thirsty. Anybody thirsty here today? Anybody desiring real life? Anybody want that? I will give the spring of the water of life. If you're thirsty, I'll give you life. God is a seeking God throughout the Bible. He wants us to follow in the family DNA. And I want to challenge you with this thought. It's a joy to be that way. It will bring life to your soul. Over spring break, my family and I went to the beach and we went down to Destin and we ended up driving an hour from Destin to go to Pensacola. They were dredging out the sand. I don't know if you've ever seen this, and it shakes up a lot of shells. And so we got bags and bags. First full sand dollars we've ever collected. It was really amazing, actually. We got all these shells together. We had so many shells, bags of shells, that we're like, we're not taking all this back, all right? And so we took a few bags back to Destin where we were, and we sat on the beach. And this is so funny. We would, Destin is like desolate. There's no shells on the beach at all, all right? And so we would just sit in our lawn chairs and we would run up there and set out the most beautiful looking sand dollar or shell and just set it right there, right in someone's path as they come along. And they would pick it up and they would lose their mind. They would be so, look what I found! And they would take it to their family. Look at this! Look at this treasure trove. They were all just sitting there. And they would be so excited in finding that treasure on that beach. And we did that, you know, until the bag was empty. And that was so much fun. But that's what evangelism is like. Like this is if you want satisfaction, give the gospel away. You will rejoice not only in your obedience, but you'll rejoice in seeing others come to Christ. And they're gonna like like a far more than a shell on a beach, they're going to treasure that that gift that has come to them, and your joy will be found and wrapped up in their joy. Last, the promise of the Holy Spirit, and we're done. Look at verse 49. Stay in the city till you're clothed with power from on high. It doesn't say muscle your way through this, it says that the Holy Spirit will empower this kind of life. Paul certainly had this kind of experience. 1 Thessalonians 1.4. Brothers, we know God's chosen you. How? Verse 5. Our gospel came to you, not only in word, but in power and in spirit with full conviction. 1 Thessalonians 2.13. You accepted it not as the words of men, but what? As it really is the word of God. See, the indispensable thing that we need if we're going to have satisfaction is the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. And so we share the gospel not because we have the perfect argument, but because we have a live and powerful grenade that can change lives in the best of ways. What's the point of this sermon? Because Jesus is alive, he comes to you today with an offer of real life. And the question is, what will you do with that offer? Heads bowed, eyes closed, as the team comes out. I want to lead you in a time of response. Anytime the gospel goes out, there's a response that's called for. A response of obedience, a response of repentance, a response of life change. I want to lead you in that right now as the team comes out. We're going to sing again in just a minute, but I want to prepare you personally. What response do you need to have towards the Lord Jesus Christ? What? Let's ask it this way. What changes after this sermon? Every time I come to church, I want the Lord to do something new in me. Heads bowed, eyes closed, all across this room. I want just you to do business with the Lord right now. For some of you, I think if you're honest, you need to admit that the pursuits of your life are quite trivial. And that the reason you don't feel meaning in your life is because you don't have the right priorities in your life. Do you need to change? Do you need God to do this work in you? Do you need God to change this? Would you just say the words right now? Would you just say this to the Lord? Father, I repent. I turn from my trivial pursuits and all the little things that don't matter. And today I'm making a change. I'm going to pursue you with all my heart. Would you just say that to the Lord? I can't say it for you. I don't want to. For some of you, you come here and your Christianity is only sticker deep. It's just Christmas and Easter. That's it. No real change next week. No real commitments next week. No mission. No new desires. It's just sticker deep. You'll be back to your addictions. You'll be back to your way of life. You'll be back to your old life soon enough. Unless, unless today you encounter Jesus. And Jesus says, I'll change everything on your inside right now. I will change you. I will give you life. I will do this work in you. You don't have to clean yourself up to come to me. I'll take care of that. All you've got to do is take the first step of obedience. All you got to do is believe the gospel. All you've got to do is repent in your heart and turn from your sin and turn toward the living and the true God. And you can do that right here. You don't need a priest, you don't need somebody to anoint you. You don't need someone to do some ritual over you. All you've got to do. Just turn towards God in faith and believe the gospel and say, God have mercy on me as sinner. In fact, this is the invitation that God gives. First, it's an invitation to admit. You would admit that you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You'd admit that you have sought pleasure in other places. You would admit that you have found emptiness in those places. You would admit it to yourself that the way you're doing life is not working. You would admit that you've sinned before holy God. And then you'd repent. You'd trust that Christ has done the work for you. He's died on the cross. He has rose from the dead. And you would repent. You would turn from your sin. And finally you'd confess. You see, the Bible tells us that our faith is personal, but our faith is never private. And if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you'll be saved. You've got to believe in your heart. You've got to confess in your mouth. And for some of you, you need to do that today. You need to come out of hiding. After this song, we're going to have pastors and elders standing by, and you need to respond. You need to do that in your heart first, right where you're at. You can pray, God, I know I'm a sinner. I know that what I have done has dishonored you. I know that I've fallen short of your glory. I know that I don't have a real relationship with you. But today I feel the miracle happening in me. I feel something happening in my soul, and I want to pray that. Pray, God, I want you to come and I want you to change me, and I want to believe in you, and I want a new life. Pray that right now. And I'm going to pray over you. Father, would you do these things? Father, for the saved, may they be commissioned to their joy. May they be sent out in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, to the to the lost. May today be the day of their salvation. May today they be found. And may they treasure you above every treasure. May they believe in the death and the burial and resurrection of Jesus, and may life change come because of it. Father, we love you. We thank you for this Sunday. I pray for the life in this room. May we see many signs of life. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. And all God's people say it together. Amen.