Clear Thinking About Change III, Easter Changes Everything

Well, good morning, and happy Easter. I was thinking, many of us have come for one reason, that's to exalt the risen Christ. Some of us have come, we're not sure why. But I was thinking how different things are than a year ago. How uncertain our world has become, hasn't it? We had some tough economic bumps a year ago, but we didn't have the uncertainty that we're in now. Aren't you glad today that there is an unchangeableness about what we believe? Regardless of externals, regardless of world circumstance. That's another aspect of Christ's amazing love that I... I so value as a believer. You know, we've had an amazing few days. 7,000 people have come to our presentations. Hundreds have responded and... I just can't say... Would you just join me? The choir and orchestra have gone, but let's just thank God for their faithfulness, and all the other people, many others. Many of you asked how I'm feeling today. I wasn't well last Sunday, I made it through, but what I had was nothing compared to what Jesus had on Friday, in the play, the character of Jesus. He was... You know, it was one of those theological conundrums. I mean, can Jesus be healed? I don't know. Anyhow, we got through it, and it worked. It was amazing. But you know, all the pageants and all the numbers... That's not really what Easter is about. It's about individual changed lives. It's about God encountering people, personally. It's about you today, whether you have known the Lord for a long time, or maybe you haven't really ever made a decision about that. But I want you to hear a story today of a couple who... just about a year or so ago, realized there was something really missing in their lives, and just sort of a chance meeting. Actually, it was providence, but in their minds, it was chance. They encountered God. Give a warm welcome this morning to John and Crystal Davis. They're going to come and share a brief testimony with you. Give them a welcome. Good morning, once again. It's great to see you both. You're over here, guys, where the light's a little bit better. Hey, John, bless you. Okay. Good morning, everyone, and happy Easter. We're honored to have the opportunity to share our testimony with you this morning. After Crystal and I got married in October of 1997, we experienced a number of personal challenges, which at times we were not able to handle without much anger and frustration. Both of us have been raised Catholic, and it would be fair to say that both of us went through our lives just going through the motions when it came to church. The only time either of us would say a prayer is when we were having some type of struggle or challenge and asked God to bail us out. After not attending church for several years, we attended a church in Virginia for a short time after we were married. However, we gradually lost interest and stopped attending. At the same time, our married life was starting out with extreme stress and pressure. We had relocated twice in less than a year from my job and were forced to make housing payments on two homes for 10 months. During the same time, just three months after we were married, Crystal had some medical challenges, which forced her to quit her job and decreased our income by 40%. This caused more stress and pressure in addition to the physical pain Crystal was going through. With our families 300 miles away here in Pittsburgh, we were able to hide all of our problems from them. Things started turning around for us, though, in March of 99 when I was promoted and received a substantial bonus to bail us out of a jam. In June of 99, I was offered a promotion to management with another company and the opportunity to relocate here to Pittsburgh. Crystal's medical condition, unfortunately, worsened during the time we were moving. In August of 1999, she had surgery. The surgery was a complete success, and we have been blessed that Crystal has made a great recovery from our challenges. With all of our challenges, we never prayed or sought the Lord. We both felt like we controlled our own destiny and that we did not need anything or anybody to help us. Finally, in February 2001, we started realizing that something was missing in our lives and that we needed to find a place to worship. We just kind of left it at that and did nothing about it. And within the next couple of weeks, we were browsing a card section at the local store and bumped into a sweet 21-year-old girl named Sarah Beauchamp. Sarah had a program in her hand from North Way's Easter drama, and she told us how wonderful the drama was and how wonderful North Way was. We talked to Sarah for about 20 minutes and told her, not knowing where we belong spiritually. She invited us to meet her at North Way the following Saturday night. She then introduced us to her wonderful grandparents, Bill and Mary Ellen James. After hearing Pastor Jay's message and then having coffee with Sarah afterwards, we knew we had found a spiritual home. She has become a great friend of ours in the last year, and we look forward to a lifelong friendship with her. We have come to realize over the past year that we really never understood who God or Jesus Christ was. After attending North Way for several more weeks, we both took Pastor Jay's invitation to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. For the first time ever, we truly felt like we were a part of a church and at peace with ourselves. In the past, we have observed people close to us being hypocritical about religion which we felt kept us away from church. We now realize that was their problem and not ours. And we have had a lot of help from everyone here at North Way with our transition to a new faith. We feel truly blessed to have a strong leader like Pastor Jay leading the church we're a part of. During the past year, we have seen the way we handle our lives change drastically. It's been a difficult process at times. However, we slowly began to have faith in God's plan for us. We now understand the challenges we went through would have been much less difficult if we had been using the power of prayer and faith to get through difficult times. We have constantly seen the Lord at work in our lives throughout the last year. We were involved with selling our home back last summer which fell through and came back together because God gave us the faith that he would intervene for us, and he did. The main difference in our lives in the last year has been both of us developing the habit of praying, reading scripture, and doing a daily devotional each day. We now give thanks to God for our blessings each day, something we never did in the past because we never felt blessed or really even understood what being blessed actually meant. If we now truly understood that religion is not just something you do on Saturday night or Sunday, you must spend some time with God on a daily basis in prayer. We also own our own business in addition to each of us working full time. Our business has a strong Christian influence and purpose which has encouraged us even more on our spiritual journey. Our mentor in the business encouraged us to start reading a daily devotional, and many of the books he recommended were written by strong Christian leaders. We are fortunate to have a tremendous amount of support from our business partners and from within the North Way family. We have found that our faith has affected our business practices and given us a place to exercise our faith. In September, we had just completed the 101 course here at North Way, and we were looking to join a small group when the September 11 tragedy hit. And on that day, we came to North Way to pray for our country and for the victims of the terrorist attacks. We met a couple sitting behind us, Craig and Layla Zenil, who had just become small group leaders. They invited us to check out their small group, and we ended up joining their group. They have become great friends and mentors to us. We're now starting the process of purchasing a lot and building a new home in addition to both of us working full time and having our own business. We would also like to start a family in the next year. In the past, trying to juggle all these things would have stressed us out, and we have not been able to handle it. The difference now is that we pray every day, usually several times a day, and a lot of the time we pray together. We are finally learning to put our faith in God and let him lead us in the right direction. And while we have some things we are still trying to figure out in our spiritual journey, we are excited about taking our spiritual journey together for the rest of our lives. Thank you. Thank you. Two full-time jobs, a new business, a new house, and kids. That stresses me out. I don't know about you guys. Keep them in prayer. Well, I'm going to invite you to take your outline out of your notes this morning, and it would be helpful to you to follow along with that, I think, as we make some references. I'd like to read the text again, even though David read Matthew's account. I want to read the account in Mark. This is what we're going to be looking at here for the next little while. Mark 16, if you have your Bible. If not, it's going to be up here on the screen behind me, I believe. This is the resurrection account according to the Gospel of Mark. Each of the disciples saw it a little bit differently. That's one reason why the Bible can be believed, because if everything was exactly the same, you would have figured someone made it up. But there's always a little different perspective. Just like when three people see an accident, they all see something a little different. Here we go. When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene married the mother of James in Salami. I said that last night. It's not Salami. Maybe if you're from the south side or something. I don't know. Salami brought spices, so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Have you ever stumbled over a name in the Bible? Come on, huh? You want to go back to Chronicles? I'll give you a real test there. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb, and they asked each other, who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb? But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. And as they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. Don't be alarmed, he said. You're looking for Jesus, the Nazarene who was crucified. He has risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples, and Peter, he's going ahead of you into Galilee. And there you will see him, just as he told you. Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. What an amazing day Easter was, and is, and always will be. What hope we have because of this day. Do you realize what would be awaiting us at the end of life, if it wasn't for Easter? Would our candle go out? Would we slip into eternal darkness? Would we vanish from existence? Easter is all about change. God took the worst possible situation, the death of his Son, and turned it into something that changed the course of human history. You know, every time you think about it, every time you write a check, every time you put a date on a letter, what's the reference point of that date? This event. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We're 2,002 years from the life of Jesus. It's the most important event of history, because it's the one thing that addressed the terminal issue in our lives. And though Easter conquered death through the resurrection of Jesus, it also, the Bible says, is the same power that quickens the bodies that we have today. It's the same power that's at work in us. And that's what I want to focus on today. It's about the fact that Easter is the power of God to change the way we live today. As wonderful as it is that there's a day coming when we will cross over from death to life through the power of Easter, if we walk in Christ, I want to talk today about how Easter changes the way we live today and every day. And by the way, in the event that maybe you're not a person that regularly attends church, or you're not particularly religious in your own mind, I want you to see the scripture on the very top of your outline. Would you look at it? Here's what Jesus said about his mission. He said, I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders. An invitation to a changed life. Changed inside and out. So if you're not particularly religious, congratulations, this is your holiday. This is for you. Now what do I mean when I say Easter is God's invitation to have a changed life? It's a life that's changed from the propensity that we all have for worry, to slip into fear or disappointment, stress, confusion, anger, resentment, frustrated relationships, even addictions. But it's also the power to live a life, a changed life, that helps you to see your way through the more critical moments. Moments, unexpected moments, when you wonder about life itself. I want to call those things this morning, limit experiences. If you say that with me, limit experiences. Experiences that you have, and there are not very many in your life, but you have them when you despair about life itself, and whether or not you're going to make it. It's when something so overwhelming invades your life, that you seriously question whether you will survive. Now I had one of those some years ago, when I made my first trip to India. And we missed our bus transportation up to a city about 200 miles from Madras, which is in the southeast corner of India, and we were going up to a more remote village. It just so happened that the day of our trip, a typhoon hit along the eastern shore of India. And over there, when they have that kind of natural disaster, you know, things don't get cleaned up, folks. People stand in water up to here, just kind of waiting for weeks for things to happen, and go back to normal. But we had this trip, and the cab drivers assured us that we could make this trip. Well, this is so, I mean, it's so in my mind, I'll never forget it. We have a couple slides we're going to show you. Here's a slide of the cab. Now that looks pretty innocent, right? I mean, it looks like, yeah, that'll be a safe ride. Well, as soon as we get in, this guy starts talking in a language course I don't understand. And I found out later, he's talking about how hard this is going to be. And we took off, and these guys were on a mission. And the roads are covered. Like, there's cows, and there's, you know, this is like, I'm going past this. Lots of times, they're going vertically and perpendicular to the way I'm going. And then there's people jamming in, and we'd be going 30, 40 miles an hour through streets like this, honking horns and knocking rickshaws kind of out of the way. And then power, we got on more open roads, and power lines were down. And, you know, some of the roads out there, you know, they make our roads look like glass. I mean, you can see there. That's not exactly a thrilling little adventure in pothole living. But then, at the end of it, I mean, the worst part of it was, I'm thinking all along, this is going downhill, and I'm not going to make this thing. And the cab driver, he's going nuts. And this next slide will show you. This is the inside. You see these little, like, idols on his... He's this Hindu cab driver, and he's calling out to his Hindu gods to save us. And I'm saying, oh, that's really great, you know. This is good. I remember pulling my windbreaker over my head and just getting in the back seat and saying, you know, I can read the headlines now. Local pastor perishes at hands of mad Hindu cab driver. And, you know, it's just... And it's kind of funny looking back on it, but I have to tell you, there were moments in that 200-mile trip, I was sure we weren't going to make it. Now, I've had a couple other limited experiences that were perhaps even more intense than that one, but you know which experiences in your life have been that way. Life-threatening diseases? The loss of a long-term relationship with a spouse or perhaps a child? The collapse of a career or a dream that you've held close? And I dare say we all had a limited experience on 9-11, didn't we? Something that just seemed outside the boundaries of normal life. Watching huge skyscrapers crumble down with people inside of them, friends, isn't normal life. And knowing that generals and admirals were unsafe within their greatest fortress. Well, that's a limited experience. Wondering if your mail that you're going to open is going to contain a deadly substance. That's why people began to look for answers. They began to search for the power to see them through those circumstances. I want to talk about that for just a few moments. Because you know what? I promise you, when you leave here today, you might have a very smooth sail for the next year or two or five. I don't know. On the other hand, this could be the day when something happens in your life and you say, how am I going to get through this? Where am I going to find the power? Let me share with you, first of all, why things don't change. You need to understand why things don't change. We apply willpower. We are wired to think that if we just try a little bit harder and apply ourselves a little more diligently, things will work out for us. You know how long the average New Year's resolution applies? How long we keep it in force? Two weeks. That's the average. If I were to ask you what your New Year's resolution was for this year, most of you couldn't even remember what it was. Too often when it comes to change, we just tend to focus on the externals. And we not only focus there, we think if we can change the externals, then everything else will sort of line up. And so we change the way we look, the way we do our hair, the way we buy body solutions. We get a different car. We get a different job. We change cities. And we think that somehow affecting the external things will affect what's really happening on the inside of us. And it never does. What's inside? Your emotions? Your sense of esteem and purpose? Your idea of what really matters are not affected by what happens on the outside. You see, Mary's only real dilemma when she went to the tomb, we just read it, she headed over and she said, who's going to move that stone? And by the way, this stone we have over here, this is about half the size of the real thing. And there was just no way, humanly speaking, that two or three women or two or three men on their own could move that stone. It was huge. It said in the scripture, very large. I've been to the Holy Land twice before all the turmoil. And I've seen those kinds of tombs and those kinds of stones. And so what she was doing was pushing on that, in her mind, somehow I have to get this thing out of the way. Let me ask you a question. Have you been pushing on some stones that you think are keeping you from something that's important in your life? Have you been pushing on stones that are in the way because you think that somehow there's fulfillment on the other side? A boss that just doesn't get along with you. A job that you can't stand. A family dysfunction that just won't get better. A disease that just doesn't seem to have a solution. Depression. Loneliness. A habit that just keeps stalking you. An obstacle to your personal dream. You think, if I can just move that stone out of the way, I can get in there and at least be reminded that there might be some hope for me on the inside. See, that's what Mary thought. At least I can anoint his body. But that's the irony. See, here's the jolt. Even if you're able to somehow move the stone and get on the other side, the best that Mary was hoping for was to anoint the dead. And what I've discovered over the years is that people that strive and struggle to somehow make it and move the stones and obstacles out of the way on their own, what they really end up with is something dead on the other side. One of the great ironies of life is that the times that we work the hardest to achieve the most and amazingly are able to somehow get through the change, when the stone moves on the other side, it's still unfulfilling, still unsatisfying, and still lacking purpose. That's why Jesus said, look at the second verse in this section, you can clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside, they're full of greed and indulgence. First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will be clean also. So it's not the outside that matters. It's not moving the stone. It's what's happening on the inside that really counts. And we need to have God transform us, look at the next verse, into a new person by changing the way you think. I want to talk second about unwrapping the mystery of Easter. How do we do this? If our own efforts don't get it done, if changing externals don't work, and they don't, to help us navigate the difficulties of life, how do we unwrap the mystery of Easter? Well, is there a possibility there's a whole new way of thinking about this? Something that maybe even bright people have struggled with. I found that God's ways are not my ways. His ways of thinking are not my ways. And you know what? In my human pride, I always go back to my ways first, and then God helps me to see, no, that's not the way it's going to happen. You see, when Mary arrived at the tomb, she found the stone was what? Already rolled away. I mean, her greatest problem that was already solved. Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and you realized your greatest problem, your perceived problem, was already solved. And then she walked inside and saw an angel dressed in brilliant white, and the angel said, don't be alarmed. And I have to think, yeah, right. You know, angels always say that. I mean, imagine looking at a being that doesn't belong to this planet, and he's talking to you, and there's a place where a dead person was, and he's not there, and the angel said, don't, you know, take it easy, be cool. I love that in the translation that David read, it said these guards, these Roman guards who were, these were trained, like these were nasty guys, were trembling almost to death in fear. So Mary and the women, they obviously were overwhelmed with this whole thing. But you see, here's the amazing part. The way of change that God has opened is the revelation that when God has already done the impossible, anything else is possible. Do you see that? When God did the thing that no one else could figure out how to do, when God raised Jesus from the dead, then anything else could happen. So instead of approaching change in the normal way, how will I get this done? What resources inside of me can I bring to bear on this? How am I going to make it through this trial? You say, wait a second. The power to overcome this, this limited experience in my life, if that's what's happening, or the power to overcome the daily challenges that I face, that power has already been released. Look at the next verse. I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great His power is to help those who believe Him. It is the same mighty power. You might want to circle it. I underline it. It's the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. But how do I make that power mine? That's the question. And this is the paradox of the Christian faith. You see, the Bible says, Jesus says, to save your life, you've got to lose it. To gain in this life, you have to give away. It's counterintuitive to everything that we think. And likewise in this, to find the power to change, it's not through striving. Listen to me. It's not through striving. It's through surrender. At the very point where you're striving, you need to come to understand that God says, let go. Trust me. The way we access that power, unwrap the mystery of Easter, is the simple act, in specific ways of saying, Lord, I surrender this to you. Fully yielding your fears and doubts and questions into the hands of a God who allowed himself, through his son Jesus, to demonstrate how trustworthy he was by taking his place on that cross. The reason why so many people don't get to this power, they don't find the power to change or to cope, is because they try to do it on their own and they're afraid that if they trust God, He'll somehow fail them. He'll somehow crush them. He'll somehow destroy their dreams. You know, about a month and a half ago, I went home for a little break at lunchtime. I left some things I needed to work on in the afternoon at home. I went home and walked into the house and Carol's cat was on the sofa. Well, it's our cat, but it's really Carol's cat. Let me just say it this way. It wouldn't be there if it wasn't for Carol. No, I'm just... It's on the sofa where it hardly ever hangs out. Its tail was moving. It had a bead on the fireplace. I looked over at the fireplace and I could hear this fluttering going on. Of course, our dog, we have a child, he was roaming around trying to get a hint of something going on in there. I realized, all right, I've got to remove the two animals from the living room, put them down in the basement, and open the glass doors on the fireplace and this bird just comes shooting out of there. It's flying around in the family room and just back and forth. Then it sees that we have a triple-pane glass door and it's heading over to that thing full speed. Boom, bam! I go over and say, all right, let's see if I can help. As soon as I got near it, it went up again and just fluttered around the house. It did that about four or five times, just full speed into the glass and went, bam! Finally, the fifth time, I walked over and knelt down and just went like this. It was a good-sized bird. It wasn't a sparrow. It was a good-sized bird. Down like this. Put my hands around its body. I mean, it was shaking. It was stunned. I couldn't tell if it was broken or not. It was still moving its head around. Then, kind of with my elbow, jarred the sliding glass door open. Held the bird for another minute. Moment of truth came, lifted it like this, and off it went. To tell the story with the rest of his buddies. Man, what a day I had in that house. When I opened my hand like that, the Spirit of God just stirred in me. He said, that's how you see me sometimes. You think that if you just yield to my hands, that I'm going to crush you. That's what that bird thought. But the truth of the matter is, when he yielded to my hands, that was his only way to freedom. Friend, I don't know where you are, but whatever you need to change in your life, the way to access the power of God is to yield to the hands of God. The hands that were pierced. Because in that, you're going to find the power to make it through your limit experiences, and to make it through those daily challenges that want to crush you. The Lord is not here to take away life. He's here that you might have life. Look at the last verse, and have it to the full. That's why Jesus came. Let me just lead you then, finally, to how you unlock your potential for change. How do you do this? There's some specific steps. I want to walk you through them. The first thing you've got to do is to open your mind to God's power. Now this may sound just obvious, but let me tell you, there are not a few of you sitting here today who when it comes to the reality of God being involved in the daily details of life, you're not so sure that's true. I have enough experience in counseling over the years to sit down with people. I had a conversation not too long ago with somebody, and we were just talking about their relationship they had with an individual, and it was going very, very poorly. And I said, have you started praying about it really pointedly and specifically? And they said, praying about it? What's God have to do with it? And I'll just submit to you, a lot of people smile when you hear the word God, or you think, well, yeah, I believe something about Him. But when it comes to Him being specifically involved, it's something you really just don't believe at all. Thousands of people watched our presentation over the last few days, and hundreds of them were changed. They responded. But I'll tell you what, probably hundreds and hundreds more just walked out and said, well, that was sure nice. And they have no clue. Because why? Because they have closed the door of their mind to the possibility that there might be another way that God wants to get through to them. Three things close our mind to God's power. See if any of them are familiar to you. First one is pride. I mean, John said it. I don't think I need anyone else. I want to make this on my own. It's the American way. Second one is fear. That someone's going to mislead me, or I'm going to become a religious weirdo, or someone's going to just kind of make my life messed up, and so they're afraid. And the third one is hurt. Someone along the way has hurt you in relationship to your experience with God. We've read a lot about that in the media lately, haven't we? A lot of people have had broken trust, and there's a lot of healing that needs to be taken. But as Crystal said, you know what, folks? When people say, well, yeah, the church is just full of hypocrites. Well, you have to decide something. Are you going to let a hypocrite, a human being, a fallen person, keep you from a God who is nothing but fully devoted to you and has never once had a shadow of turning, of consistency in His love? Don't let that happen. Don't hide under the hypocrisy challenge. So open your mind. It's vitally important. Second, open your heart to God's grace. What is grace? What is grace? I wish I could talk about that for an hour and a half. I can't begin to tell you how grace has changed my life. But let me just give you a couple definitions. Grace is God giving you what you need rather than what you deserve. Grace is when God gives you a second, third, fourth, tenth, one hundredth one thousandth chance to change. Grace is the power to make the change in your life that you can't make, and on and on. And, loved one, we all need it, don't we? We all need grace, and we rarely find it from other people. David Hagler is a referee and an umpire, and he also writes a column for the LA Times. He wrote this last year in his column. He said, I was driving too fast in the snow one day in Boulder, Colorado, when a policeman pulled me over and gave me a speeding ticket. I tried to talk him out of it by telling him how worried I was about my insurance going up and what a careful driver I normally was. I begged him for grace. I begged him. But he said, if I didn't like it, I could go to court. Well, the first game of the next baseball season, I was umpiring behind home plate, and the first batter up was that same policeman. I recognized him, and he recognized me. He nervously asked me, Hey, how'd things go with your ticket? I just stared at him, and then I told him, Swing at everything. No grace. See, the essence of grace is that you get something you didn't earn. And everything in us wants to earn God's favor. Everything in us wants to make our own way. That's the nature of our human pride. And God says, No, it comes because you receive a gift. It comes because I love you. And you know, that is a stumbling block. I want to pause for a number of us. We've been wired to think we can earn God's favor. We've been wired to think that somehow, if we just clean up our act, or do a little bit better, or try a little harder, that we'll be in God's good standing. I want you to hear today on Easter Sunday. It's not by works that you're saved, nor is it by works that you're made more like Jesus. It's a gift of God that's received by faith, lest any man should boast. And Paul wrote through the Galatians, he said, Hey, once having started by faith, how did you get off the track? So this change that I'm talking about, it's also a gift that God gives us if we'll surrender, yield to Him. God has ways of doing things that He loves to surprise us with. Just a couple of weeks, or a week or so ago, someone in the church, you know, responded to a little plea for help that I had. I don't like to do landscaping, I'll be honest. I mean, I like the result. I mean, I was digging it out, and with my back and everything, it's just not for me. I even have my wife cut the grass. She rides the tractor. She has a good time.